"What happened to you?" Luke asked as Kate entered the Batcave looking a little beat up.

"My lunatic of a sister, that's what happened." Kate said.

"Alice did that to you?" Luke asked.

"She had me kidnapped, she had questions about what really happened to me while I was gone and somehow she knew about Coryana and by that, I mean that Safiyah has some explaining to do." Kate said.

"You think that Alice was Coryana before you were." Luke said.

"I do. Now I need to figure out why Safiyah never bothered to tell me that she knew where my sister was. Who knows, maybe she could've given me some way to stop Beth from going full Alice." Kate said.

"Yeah, you can focus on that after we let all of Gotham know that the Bat is back. Both your suit and the batmobile are ready." Luke said.

"Right. Time to go show my dad how wrong he is. Again." Kate said as she moved to suit up.

"Could you at least pretend that you're happy about being here?" Catherine asked her daughter as they got out of the car for the ceremony and Mary did not look happy to be forced to be at this ceremony.

"I'm sorry if there's a thousand places I'd rather be than right now." Mary said.

And I'd rather be at any of them with Ryan instead of you. Mary added in her mind, but didn't say, because while coming out to Kate had been relatively easy, likely because she and Kate played for the same team, coming out to her parents was another can of worms. One that she was in no rush to do, but knew that she had to. She was honestly thinking about coming out to her parents one at a time, starting with her father, since at least he'd gone through this once before with Kate, so he'd probably take it better and she'd like to have his support, since honestly, her mom was the one who she was really worried about telling.

"Where'd you go there?" Jacob asked her as he approached his wife and stepdaughter.

"Just got lost in thinking about all the places I'd rather be." Mary said.

"Well, you can go there as soon as we're finished." Jacob said.

"Remind me again why I had to come here and Kate didn't?" Mary asked.

"Because your sister has earned a little leeway after being stuck on an uncharted island for five years." Jacob said.

"Fine." Mary said as she followed them inside, not missing all the chants of protest about keeping the light on like her parents were.

"How do you feel about that? All those chants to keep on the light?" Luke asked.

"I'll like it better when we modify it." Kate said.

"But still." Luke asked her.

"It's nice. Especially since now I understand why they want to keep the light on. I remember why this symbol is so revered in Gotham. I spent so long being angry for something that wasn't his fault that I forgot why the Bat is a hero of Gotham. It's not just because he stops the bad guy." Kate said.

"No. Batman was a symbol of hope to a city that desperately needs it. He gave people hope and something to believe in." Luke said.

"Yeah, but that's not the only reason Batman was so revered. He didn't just inspire hope in the citizens of Gotham, he put fear into the lowlifes of this city. He may not have been a hero like Superman, but Gotham didn't need him to be." Kate said.

"No we do not. Unlike Metropolis or National City, Gotham doesn't need a hero who simply inspires hope like Superman or Supergirl. We need a hero who also puts the fear of God into the hearts of criminals. That's why Gotham went to hell when Bruce left. When Batman left, the criminals had no reason to be afraid." Luke said and Kate grinned.

"Then let's give them something new to fear." Kate said.

"You've been waiting to use that line haven't you?" Luke asked.

"Just came up with it." Kate said.

"Still. Anyways, eyes on the prize Batwoman." Luke said.

"Right. Anyways, any sign of Alice?" Kate asked, switching back into Batwoman mode.

"Not yet. But then again, for a crazy woman, she's sneaky as hell." Luke said.

"Very true." Batwoman said.

"But are we even sure that she's going to show up tonight? After all, she already kind of made her debut when she kidnapped you." Luke pointed out.

"That was just her debut to me. She still wants to make her debut to the whole city and honestly, she's likely going to be doing it this way for the same reason I'm making my debut as Batwoman tonight, regardless of if she shows up tonight." Batwoman said.

"And what might that be?" Luke asked, though he was pretty sure he had an idea.

"We both want to make dad and Catherine look stupid." Batwoman said.

"And it's not because going outside the law to achieve your means isn't the only thing you have in common, though different purposes, since you want to protect Gotham and she wants to destroy it." Luke said.

"And what might that be?" Batwoman asked.

"You both have a flair for the dramatics." Luke said.

"And who do you think we learned that from?" Batwoman asked him.

"Never said Bruce didn't have one. If anything, I still think he had more of one than you do." Luke said.

"That's because he was too serious. After all, he also never saw the value of letting people take selfies with Batman, since it turns out, people are willing to do a lot for a selfie with their hero." Batwoman said, right as their attention was drawn to the ceremony beginning.

"Commander, everything checks out." Sophie said as she joined him on the ground.

"Remind me why you wanted to be down here instead of in the stands?" Jacob asked his second in command.

"Personal favor to Kate. She asked me to keep an eye on Mary, since while everything looks fine right now, she didn't want to take any chances and I am still sucking up to her to get her to forgive me." Sophie said and Jacob smiled.

"If it means that there's a chance I might be able to call you my daughter-in-law someday after all, then I'm all for it. I'll even give you a raise so you can buy Kate more expensive gifts. Does she know that you came out to your mom?" Jacob asked.

"Haven't had the chance to speak with her one on one yet to tell her." Sophie said.

"Don't worry, I think the fact that she wanted you on that tarmac when she came home yesterday proves that she's coming around. She'll take you back soon, she probably just wants to see how many hoops you're willing to jump through to earn her forgiveness." Jacob said.

"And I'll jump through as many as it takes. Losing her was harder than anything I've ever gone through and honestly, I wish I'd been with her, since at least then she wouldn't have been alone." Sophie said.

"What's important is that she's back and she'll give you another chance when she's ready. But for now, let's focus on why we're here." Jacob said and Sophie nodded.

"And Kate never finds out about this talk right." Sophie said.

"Of course not. You're lucky I let her skip this due to her still recovering from her ordeal." Jacob said and Sophie nodded as they watched Catherine walk up to the podium.

"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we face an unfortunate reality. Batman is not coming back. Our Dark Knight gave up on us years ago and it is time that we face the truth, he is not coming back." Catherine said, however, before she could continue, all the screens started pixelating and scribbling.

"What is going on?" Jacob Kane demanded, right as an image no one ever thought they'd see, let alone at this event, appeared on the monitors. It was the bat symbol, though this one was red.

"You're on Batwoman." Luke said into Batwoman's earpiece as he hacked into the media feed and streamed the footage from her camera onto the monitors.

"You're right Catherine Hamilton. Batman is gone and he's not coming back. But that is why I am here. To stand for what he stood for and pick up where he left off. To protect all the citizens of Gotham, not just the ones who can afford to give the Crows their fancy paycheck. I am not Batman, but I intend to carry out his mission. I am Batwoman." Batwoman said.

"Do we know where this illegal broadcast is coming from?" Jacob Kane asked.

"No sir, whoever it is that's doing this knew that they were doing since they've scrambled and pinged their signal in ways we've never seen before. We can't trace it and before you ask, there are no clues in the video that could reveal their location." the crow back at HQ said.

"Find whoever this is and stop them before they whip Gotham up into a frenzy." Jacob said, since he wanted to get this criminal, whoever she was, off the streets before she got people believing in the same exact false hope and truths that Batman had. That the city needed a vigilante to protect it, which was not true.

"Actually commander, I think you have more pressing concerns." a new voice said as the feed was overridden yet again as Batwoman was replaced by another image, though this one was far more unsettling visage appeared on it.

"Hello Gotham. I see I'm not the only one who thought that tonight was the best time to make my grand entrance, though sadly, I do not have the same goals as this Batwoman, though I look forward to meeting her. However, she won't be able to save you. Just like Batman wouldn't be able to save you if he were here. And the Crows. Well, they're a joke and anyone who thinks they can protect you are kidding themselves. Especially their leader, the ridiculously incompetent, Commander Jacob Kane. The Head Crow who can't even protect his own nest. I'm Alice and welcome to the new disorder. It's time for Anarchy." Alice said.

"Luke, are you tracing this?" Batwoman asked.

"Yeah, but she must have someone who knows their way around with tech because I can't track it back to her and since Sophie's down with the crowd, I doubt that she'll try and get her that way." Luke said.

"Let the crows worry about that, we need to find her before she does whatever she has planned." Batwoman said.

"I'm working on it." Luke said.

"Work faster. I'm gonna see if I can find a cat or rabbit who's willing to talk." Batwoman said as she fired her grappling hook towards the towers surrounding the venues to save the Crows that were no doubt unaware of how unprepared they were to fight Alice's gang.