WRITER: Greg Rucka
PENCILER(s): JH Williams III
INKER(s): JH Williams III
COLORS: Dave Stewart
LETTERS: Todd Klein

CHARACTERS: Batwoman (Kate Kane); Beth Kane; Colonel Kane; Gabi Kane; Commissioner James Gordon; Captain Maggie Sawyer; Major General Frances Lombardo

PLOT:
It's been two hours and still the pitch-black depths of the Gotham waters refuse to give up anything in the search for Alice. Batwoman sits perched above, watching as teams of police and military personnel scurry below trying to coordinate an effort to find the body of the madwoman who nearly wiped out Gotham. But underneath the armored exterior of her costume, Kate Kane's body is bruised, battered and bleeding. And blood, she realizes, is the only way she'll know for sure. The only way in which she'll ever know if the maniac was telling the truth - if the pale faced monster who just plunged herself into the murky waters is in fact Beth Kane, the sister she believed dead for over a decade.

Returning home she seals herself into her bunker and collapses into her chair. A thin trail of bright red blood runs from her elbow to her fingertips from the stab wound she suffered in her battle with Alice. She carefully collects samples of the blood pumping from her own veins and the smattering of Alice's blood collected on her gauntlets during the fight. She pretends not to notice her father trying repeatedly to gain access to the bunker. His access code is denied for the time being.

Having reverted to his own civilian identity after using his position in the military to force Gordon and Sawyer's police off the base, he checks in with Bette and Catherine, covering for both of their rather sudden exits from the party. But now is not the time for a de-briefing. If what Alice said is true and Beth Kane is (or at least was) alive and well, the implications it would have on his and Kate's relationship are untold.

They've traveled a far ways away from the simpler times when their father was a hero and the two girls were inseparable. "Thick as thieves" as their mother would put it, the girls were so close they could (and sometimes would) complete each other's sentences. Their bond and shared traits made them indistinguishable to even their teachers and fellow classmates - something that the girls used to their distinct advantage on more than one occasion. Their mother Gabi, an army vet herself, inarguably spent the most time with the girls, raising them while their father was away fighting battles on behalf of the US of A. She worked hard to instill in them a sense of honor and integrity that both herself and her husband believed in.

Yet as much as the girls loved and adored their father, they were devastated each time his career would force them to uproot themselves and move wherever it demanded. As many military families do however, they would eventually learn to cope with the constant changes, focusing inward on their own personal relationships with one another. Never knowing how each move would bring them that much closer to the unspeakably dark events that would ultimately take everything they had from them and change Kate's life forever.

It was the girls' twelfth birthday and once again their father the hero was away on business while the girls sat moping in their room at the embassy in Brussels. In an attempt to coax the girls out of their sadness, Gabi Kane offered them their heart's delight - chocolate and waffles at the Grand-Place - an offer the girls simply could not refuse. Packing into a small four-door sedan the family (along with a military bodyguard) was en route to their destination when their car was ambushed. Knocked off the road by a large truck, the car was pinned to a wall while men in all black got out of a vehicle behind them. Fearful tears welled up in her eyes as Kate watched her mother and the bodyguard struggle to get out of the car. The men shot the bodyguard twice in the chest before cracking Gabi Kane upside her head with the stock of an automatic assault rifle. Seconds later both Kate and Beth would be pulled out of car as well, kicking and screaming for help as thick burlap sacks were placed over their heads.

It would be the last time Kate would see her family alive.

The shadowy black world inside the burlap sack that became Kate's field of vision for the immediate future was filled with nothing but the sounds of her own sobbing and her mother's pleading to leave her sister be. It would be quite some time later before the world would erupt in a series of crashes and bangs. Loud pops and screams were all she could hear before everything suddenly got quiet once more. The next image she'd see would be her own father peeling back the bag from her eyes. Carrying her over his shoulders he looked her square in the eyes, his cold green eyes meeting hers and said, "Keep your eyes on me, honey ... Just look at me."

But she didn't. And there, looking over her father's shoulder she saw the images that would be burned into her retinas forever. Her sister's tiny pale arm being engulfed by the gray sheet being placed over her limp carcass. And her mother, sitting tied to a chair with a burlap sack over her head - one single singed bullet hole in the fabric, oozing with blood coming out of her head.

Perhaps nothing will ever wash those images from that child's eyes.

WRITER: Greg Rucka
PENCILER(s): Cully Hamner
INKER(s): Cully Hamner
COLORS: Dave McCaig
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher

CHARACTERS: Question (Renée Montoya); Hector Soliz; Louisa Soliz

PLOT:
Gordon Chandless is dead, and if Renée doesn't hurry - she will be too!

Bullets whiz by her as she runs towards the closed gate at the end of the property. Vaulting over the gate she makes it back to her motorcycle she had stashed outside in the bushes earlier. With the gunmen closing in behind, she guns it down the road narrowly escaping certain doom.

A short time later she arrives at the Port of Long Beach where she finds the Indigo Star - a 4500 TEU Container ship owned by Lavaand Industries and registered out of Trieste. If her hunch is right, this ship is about to embark on a journey back to Trieste with an untold number of kidnapped women hidden inside - amongst them Louisa Soliz. Renee knows that she must act quickly if Louisa and the others are to survive.

With Tot as her point man directing her through her earpiece, Renée boards the ship and heads inside, dispatching any roaming guards who might get in her way. She successfully locates the women but before she can get them to safety she once again finds herself staring down the barrel of a gun. The Captain of the ship, a scarred and haggard looking man, places the gun to Renée's temple and is about to blow her away when suddenly a loud voice booms from the outside. Thanks no doubt to a tip from the Question, the FBI have the entire ship surrounded. The jig is up and thanks to the distraction, Renée is able to disarm and incapacitate the Captain with little trouble.

As she exits the ship, Renée catches sight of Hector Soliz as he pulls up at the dock. He runs from his car into the waiting embrace of his sister Louisa. Reunited once more, he explains to her that it's all thanks to the mysterious woman in the hat.

"You mean the woman with no face?" Louisa asks.

"No," Hector replies, "the one with the hat. She's right there..."

But by the time they turn around, Renée Montoya has disappeared into the night. She leaves behind only her calling card - the stenciled in graffiti of her image. A reminder to all those out there. If ever you're lost, Ask the Question.