The word is already spreading by the time Helena is parking her Lamborghini at the Gotham Heights High School parking lot and even the students are talking about today's Gotham Times front page. It is laid down that a local vigilante is now a killer. Helena does her best to suppress the outrage building in her until picking up a copy of the Times left lying on her teacher's desk. Her class room however is vacant besides her so she had to wonder who left this 'gift' for her.

The Huntress' monochromatic photograph shown beside the article is not a recent one. It actually belongs to a time when she still had a much stronger costume resemblance to the Batclan. The predecessor was more a meshing of spirituality and vigilantism yet its successor is meant by design to distance her from those who work with Batman. She knows now his sponsorship of her into the Justice League had many layers to it.

Foremost among them was a way to keep an eye on her when his time was preoccupied with League missions He did not trust others to keep watch on her and like Question he had known her hunt for Mandragora made minding her more of a challenge. Batman however let Question confront her over her intentions towards Steven Mandragora. Helena can't and won't imagine being in that situation with Batman breathing down her neck. It is not the similarities between Batman and Question. Rather the differences between them that continue to matter because that is the foundation of their partnership.

As for the journalist who wrote the article Huntress: Murderess, Huntress would have to have a woman to woman 'chat' with the one condemns her in print. It shouldn't be hard to track down one journalist. A phone call or internet search would yield an address. Still is not finding the woman that is grating. It is the waiting due her work here at Gotham Heights High. Waiting goes against her instincts in the moment yet it would be more convincing to continue as usual.

Question might actually find the necessary information she seeks at the present time. He always did his homework. He always went into situations with information that usually made the unexpected happen and occasionally that could be a gift in disguise. What made her kiss him that first time had more to do with him helping her despite everything he did know beforehand plus the way he told he likes her. The deep unexpected turn from there was how quickly she fell in love with him while having to wait until after breaking him out of Cadmus to see his face, to really see it in spite of the bruises from the interrogation and torture.

It was the first time she could recall wanting to hurt someone because of what they did to someone she loves as she had not found herself loving someone still alive in a long, long time so her reaction felt natural. It felt right to punch him across the room and aim her crossbow at him until Superman indirectly reminds her about why she had come to the depths of Cadmus in the first place. She would spare Moon because her only impulse is to get Question, get Vic, as far away as possible.

It would be best to throw her mind into teaching because six hours would not pass quickly. She opens the door and steps inside to find waiting students eager to learn, which were her favorite kind. These were kind of students that made teaching worthwhile. It made for one of few things that made worth getting out of bed before. Mentally she pushes back flashes of what she and Vic did last night. When they were together like that all she could say in words at least to herself is rarely did she ever feel so alive as when their bodies made contact of any kind.

Now two things hook into her restlessness. She wouldn't wonder how Vic manages to juggle so much inside his own mind. It always looks decidedly natural for him. Trait wise it is enviable and unenviable.


Elsewhere, Helena is not the only one reading the expose condemning the Huntress for murder. Question begins to realize the gravity of that which threatens Huntress and by extension Helena Bertinelli. In some ways, it would seem more dangerous for a costume to be accused of murder because it means the true face will no longer be able to hide behind the mask. For Question has the experience of fearing his own unmasking at the hands of Cadmus except they had other things in mind for him then. Even when under the mercies of Doctor Moon, Question always thought if anyone would come for him, it would be Huntress, and he thought she should not risk her life for his, but it would in retrospect prove pointless to argue with the woman who loves him.

"You shouldn't have come after me!" berates Question.

"You shouldn't have snuck off without me!" hisses Huntress.

Much of his Cadmus captivity remains a blur to him. He relives slivers of it in what passes for sleep. He did rail against her rescue attempt with words yet her tongue proves to be as sharp as her martial arts expertise so she got him away from Cadmus. Hers was not the first or the last inspiring action taken by a costume at the height of the war between Cadmus and the League. It is her coming after him that he starts to believe her better than him because she went to greater lengths to help him or at least what she did for him seem to eclipse what he had done for her.

By circumstances it is an uneven comparison to place Cadmus and Mandragora side-by-side. Cadmus being a highly secretive agency, which was sanctioned to develop whatever means necessary to counteract the costumes. It was never the roster expansion or the Thanagarian Occupation, but at first glance one might think so. To a certain degree the two did impact their activities, but deep down it was first Superman going rogue whilst brainwashed by Darkseid that brought them together. The Justice Lords' incursion only serves to worsen their paranoia.

For the logic follows, if it did happen there, it can happen here. However foreknowledge of such possibilities only invites probabilities of repeat variations. So Question had made a decision to act alone only for it to backfire painfully and be left to watch as events went forward unabated. Flash's apparent death following his one sided take down of Brainthor implies that vibrating all of Brainiac's hardware off Luthor's skin had taken too much from the speedster. He literally appeared to have run towards his death knowingly. The act is unequally selfless and selfish yet underneath it all he did it without regrets.

Superman stood eyes glowing ready to repeat what Lorder Superman did to President Luthor except he did not and mere moments later Flash is brought back from the Speed Force by the other six there. Flash did what he thought right, was willing to die for that, but the others were not ready to let him die even if what was done to save their lives in his mind. The other six like Huntress refuse to let someone important to their world die on their watch. They all thought back to the Justice Lords and how without even just one of their numbers did they 'change'.

So why should one death matter against billions?

Question could never answer that for certainly. He could say it is not about numbers, it is about people. He could think the costumes are closer than they admit to themselves and to others. Assuredly they tend to try to lead lives outside the costumes. Each encounters different outcomes and likewise faces criminals aplenty who are deep down are not that different from the vigilantes who fight them.

Some fall into amorous relationships with their purported enemies such as Batman and Catwoman. The tension there is no matter how close they become, she's still a thief and he until the end a vigilante. Still what is there is undeniable for both yet both won't change in order to fit 'better' into the other's life. It would likely snuff out their chemistry eventually. So they continue their bat and cat 'games'.

Some have pasts with their rogues such as Shayera had with Solomon Grundy prior to the Icthultu mission, which was a success aside from the fact that Grundy died from his wounds. The only further emotional twister from that was when a trio of foolish college students resurrected him so the silent resurrected dead man killed them for their troubles. She in turn finds that only her mace can give him the peace that the resurrection stole from him just as dying to kill the soul stealing Icthultu did before.

Some continuously listen and talk to them no matter how many times the vigilante foils the criminals' plans, which could likely baffle them for starters such as Flash with his Central City 'regulars' who are frequent goers to a bar on 4th Street in Central. He even casually shook off the fact that they tried to kill him before and after the museum to Flash is opened to the public. Along the way he obviously witnesses Linda Park's attraction to him yet Flash isn't quite a one woman man.

Others have criminals who try to outclass the vigilante in anyway possible, which amounts to anything you can do, I can do better. Such things are possible, but consistently probable as few things can stop either Superman or J'onn aside from established weaknesses to Kryptonite and fire. Both have relationships with an Earth born woman. Both have enemies who have sought to dominate them. They however refuse to give up so it is this resilience of a kind that links them to their enemies who refuse to stop trying to outmatch or outwit them in some way.

Further still there are those vigilantes who act as if they are agents of something far more powerful than they are such as Green Lantern on behalf of the Guardians of Oa and Princess Diana of Themyscira as Champion of the Amazons who serves the Olympian Gods. Criminals that they have fought tend to people that they have a past with, who 'knew' parents, or have taken action someone that the vigilante deeply cares about. Whatever the link, there is always connections despite claims apophenia. He thinks back to when Huntress made her move to 'recruit' him in her hunt for Mandragora.

She made many passive insinuations that night. Most she had withdrawn on the same night.

"I have a question for you then. Do you know what apophenia is?" Huntress asks.

"Apophenia: noun. Tendency to see connections where none exist," Question replies.

He had given an answer with a follow up question of his own. He presses her about the true nature of her presence here. He knows time is not on their side. The situation involving her quarry that night took rather drastic turns in a very short span so he was all for expediting movements quickly. Events took on a momentum of their own once Mandragora fled Federal custody. His lackeys took down Faraday's men while Mandragora himself hit Faraday over the head. Question and Huntress were busy brawling with Green Arrow and Black Canary.

Mandragora or his men inadvertently drop a shipping schedule. A specific freighter would be making port that night and a certain individual would be arriving on it. Someone that Mandragora had his associates finally manage to recover after teaching the boy's abductors the error of their ways. It is perhaps witnessing the reunion of Steven and Edgar that finally made Huntress turn away from killing her parents' killer, but Huntress that night is not a killer.

Question is not without doubts at this moment. It felt like weakness to suspect the woman he loves could be a killer so emotions are affecting him. How could they not affect him?

It does not take long to find out where the journalist who wrote Huntress: Murderess resides within Gotham City and where her desk is within the building that houses the Gotham Times 'home' office. It would be a place to search though not this early in the day. Huntress would likely expect him to have details once Helena Bertinelli's work day is over so he would wait for her. Question decides she deserves that much, to be kept in the loop, because the only time he left her out of it is the time the first time she had to come after him to save him.

All the evidence thus far is too convenient for him and too convincing for others including Batman.

He dials the Gotham Times' Main Desk. He asks to be forwarded to Karen Frazier. Karen isn't the one to answer the phone.

"Karen is that you?"

"No I was trying to reach her."

"She hasn't been in yet."

"Odd for her I take it."

"Right… I mean this Huntress story is big news."

"So nobody has heard from her since the article submission?"

"Not a word… which worries many including me."

"Likewise… "

"Who are you?"

"I can't talk any longer. Busy now."

He hangs up and ditches the cell phone. It is one of his many untraceable cell phones so losing one is not a substantial setback, but the absence of Karen Frazier is one. Nobody at the Times had heard from her since last night, which means she's been incommunicado for several hours already.

Next he dials Karen Frazier's land line except it doesn't ring, not even once, which meant someone possibly unplugged her phones so the only remaining options were to search her desk at the Times and to drop by her apartment at some point as well. The only way to effectively search both locations is if he went to one and Huntress to the other. Something told him she would insist that she search Frazier's apartment and he check out her space at the Gotham Times. How accurate that assessment is would depend on just how well he reads his inamorata.

Long ago did he grasp why she especially as the Huntress did not relish the prospects of waiting act yet in her current public life she could not afford to be amiss. He is not bound by such elements. The hours creep by eventually and he watches climb into her car. Either she would call him or recognize his car in the distance once she begins driving away from the school. The former takes the lead when she dials him using one of the phones he lent her for emergency calls.

"I'm betting you are nearby. Had this feeling you would shadow me after last night. So I bet you have seen the headlines already?"
"Yes to all… the journalist never made it to work today."

"Oddly suspicious… so where do we search?"

"Her desk at the Times and her apartment are two locations."

"You take the desk. I take the apartment."

"Thought you say that… sure it wise is for you to go alone?"

"Leave it to you to remind me of that blurry moment."

"Felt it should be equal."

"I know… I just think we'll cover more ground."

"As you wish, so let's hop to it then."


A 1969 Pontiac GTO leaves a street spot and heads towards the Gotham Times 'home' office building. A more recent Lamborghini Gallardo takes a more indirect route to towards a hidden garage several blocks away. Question is already set for the search. Helena Bertinelli however needs a stop over to change into something more suitable to the task at hand. Question could have made the insistence that they stick together throughout this search, but somehow letting her have it her way might resolve this faster. Batman looms over both of them when it comes to tactics. The Caped Crusader prefers to work alone yet when working with others he prefers to keep them close enough to 'manipulate' them.

Dick Grayson, on his last night as Robin, made that accusation to Batgirl yet mostly the statement is meant for Batman who Bruce Wayne fails to see has become in his mind as cold or calculating as his Rogues. The final nail in this evaluation was when Batman interrogated a suspect in front of the suspect's family. Robin left the scene in disgust most likely and in the process probably surprised Batman at the sudden departure. Perhaps Dick leaving as Robin did as much harm as did it help. Harm because it tore down his connections to Bruce and Barbara. Help because maybe Batman wouldn't be such a manipulator, but some habits just can't be broken.

Habits are humans. They in a way define us. Signs of what can be 'good' and 'bad'. Labels define when little else will do, but doesn't make all true. Merely shows what can be said or done even when so little has been spoken or taken. Puts everything and everyone into roles they play even when they don't believe it or it doesn't believe in them. So can such actions make all liars?

Not even Question would seek to answer that because not all is a lie yet it is never by any means 'easy' to find trueness amidst all which he does with his time. The only lasting true to his days belongs to a woman whose alter-ego is a prime suspect in one murder and possibly soon a suspect for two if his prediction about the fate of Karen Frazier is proven correct.

The man he spoke to on the phone was right about many things including Frazier's absence from the home office, which is decreasing the likelihood of finding her alive. Her body would be found, but the question is by whom and under what circumstances.

Question stealthily makes his way to Frazier's desk by way of the most indirect route to her floor. People had seen this red headed fellow in here before. He's no stranger to them because he's only seen at the oddest hours of the days. Odd to whoever is watching the red head's passage through the sea of desks. If he felt paranoid enough, someone working for whoever is trying to frame Huntress is also here and would probably be looking for someone who is looking for Frazier. Someone is not known for associating with the journalist.

He only occasionally taps into these false identities, but then Batman frequently makes use of such pretends so that he can slide into other roles that can access what is off-limits to Batman and Bruce.

Frazier's office and desk reveal little as to who put her on course what would be her probable demise. Frazier didn't suspect herself to be a means to an end, a link in the chain, but few ever caught up in the conspiracy ever want to believe they are a pawn in someone else's game. There was nothing more to find here so now is the moment to get back to Huntress before she walks into what is likely a trap set specifically for her.

Question vividly recollects the one left for him during the game between him and Maxwell Lord. Lord's plans left many in the dark until literally the ultimate moment. All the pieces fell together after finding David Clinton's journal, the one that shouldn't exist, but then time travel doesn't follow the 'rules'. Science fiction is more fiction than science, no surprise there, but there is a science to time travel, alternate realities, divergent time lines, and reciprocal paradoxes.

The science is as fluid as time itself.

Fiction is not supposed to make sense, but then again neither does reality.

Once back in his car, he puts his mask back on with the reassurance that it is too dark now for anyone to see him doing this, at least not seeing it too well. After that he starts up the Pontiac and starts to make his way across Gotham City to Karen Frazier's high rise apartment. He could only drive on while trying not to think about whether it is too late or it already is too late. The city grows louder around him as it should with the rush of people going home from work, but Karen Frazier is not among them.


High above Gotham City street level, Huntress is already inside Karen Frazier's apartment. The lights are on, no one appears to be home, and that is already off putting for Huntress as she scans the room. If anything happen here, there are no signs of struggle, but given what she could guess about how Claudio died, it made sense that the real killer would do whatever it takes to strengthen the framing of Huntress. Huntress considers that her being here could actually work against her even though Frazier is in her mind the only living connection between her and whoever is after her.

"I stand wrong. Just another dead end," Huntress sighs.

Karen Frazier's corpse rests face up on the sofa in the sitting room. Protruding from the reporter's chest is an arrow bolt just like the ones in Huntress' crossbow, just like the one found in Claudio Panessa's body after it was pulled from the river, and with her gloved hand she touches the body. It is still warm yet given the fact that the heat is on that would throw off an approximation time of death. She has already been here too long so Huntress heads back for the balcony. There is knocking from outside the door leading to the apartment someone is looking for Karen.

"Miss Frazier? Are you alright in there?"

Karen wouldn't be answering obviously.

"We got word of a prowler so we were checking on everyone."

Someone is unlocking the door from the outside. It is probably the apartments' manager. Huntress is already gone by the time the manager and the cops get inside though they do find Karen's body quickly. One of the cops calls it in, but the dispatcher isn't the only to pick up on the call-in message.

Huntress lands on a roof opposite to the high rise apartments.

"Huntress," Batman intones.

Huntress felt caught off guard and raises her crossbow for the second time in a week.

"I didn't…" Huntress rebukes.

"Save it…" Batman counters.

Batman steps closer to Huntress and she already senses where this is going. Nobody except for a certain him believes her and as for the others they should get out of her way, but they won't, she knows that.

"You're coming with me," implores Batman.

"Like hell I am!" hisses Huntress.

"Your situation has changed," states Batman flatly.

There is no way to talk her way out of what he has in mind.

"Innocent or not, I won't let you roam this city, fighting the police," continues Batman.

The ultimatum is at hand such is clear from his jaw line.

"You come now, and you keep your secret identity."

Nightwing comes up behind her. They were boxing her in.

"For how long?" quips Huntress.

His city, his rules, but again it is all about belief in the moment. They say we want to help you, but do they really mean it?

She doesn't feel so.

"Until you're tired of keeping me in one of your caves?" retorts Huntress.

She starts to move away from them. They follow her, adapting movements, and they mean to take her down in her mind. She can't let that happen so have to find a way to escape the trap.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Huntress snaps.

"You misunderstand… this isn't a choice," reminds Batman.

She knows she's no match for Batman or even a match for Nightwing. She needs only off-balance them long enough to flee the rooftop and then find somewhere to hide without having them find her out.

Huntress moves towards the ledge and in a flurry of movement three batarangs are flying at her. It is only by the skin of her teeth that she evades the painful slash that tends to follow having a batarang 'shave'. The only snafu is she lands on the arm that is holding her crossbow, which causes her index finger to hit the trigger just as Nightwing closes in on her. He narrowly avoids the arrow bolt, but the same cannot be said for Batman as it rips into his upper chest.

"Stop!" shouts Nightwing.

"No," groans Huntress.

Both look to see Batman working on removing the bolt from his chest.

"Batman?" whispers Nightwing.

"Just stop her," responds Batman.

Nightwing's face contorts to one of anger and resolve as he starts to pummel away her. Each blow leaves a mark or opens her face to bleeding. Both hurt beyond measure. He didn't hold back and she didn't hit back. It would only make things worse than they already were so she inevitably back flips away from him even as her blood splatters on the blackness of the rooftop. It is hard to block the pain as she dives off the ledge or rather it might sound more accurate to say she didn't quite count on such a steep drop to the river.

Her body hitting the river hurt as much and maybe more than Nightwing's punches. It is the same river that mafia often left bodies in after they were done with them. It is also the same river that the GCPD found Claudio's corpse floating in less than two days ago. The irony, if there is one, is not lost on Huntress. There is at least only one man left to her that still believes, but he is not here right now. She made him search Frazier's desk despite how pointless that seem to her as well, but then such is a bent on omerta. She thought she had to do this thing alone even though she let him help her indirectly yet now she remembers how furious she felt about being left out of the loop on his solo 'missions'.

Those were also the times where she could have lost him. Had she been a hypocrite to do the same to him now? Had she done it before?

She felt guilty about what she had done to him just as he probably felt guilty for what he did to her.


Someone pulls her from the river and wraps a long dark blue trench coat around her damp costume. He carries her to his car without a word. She didn't mind the silence. They could talk later hopefully. She didn't know where he was driving them except he was going outside of Gotham City. Between the early stages of hypothermia and blood loss, she could barely stay awake for long during the ride. He does something and soon she falls asleep on the passenger side still wearing his coat. He had cranked up the heat in the car enough to induce sleep at least for her sake.

He could deal with Batman and the others, but helping Huntress would as the first time prove to be a challenge though he didn't mind challenges. It kept life interesting and for the woman he loves he could do no less for he must believe in her. He accepts the possibilities that she is innocent, that someone is framing her, and that few if any believe in her. As much as she wants to solve these crimes alone, Huntress can't afford to hunt by herself. Question would again have to put himself in the line of fire with allies and enemies for his life's deepest meaning rests with the sleeping Italian beauty.


A/N 1: Huntress and Question separately investigate Karen Frazier following her story implicating Huntress for murder only to find that this goes deeper than they thought it did.

A/N 2: Her encounter with Batman and Nightwing is a lift from the end of second part of Cry For Blood. However I made some subtle changes especially with her watery retrieval by Question. Instead of him giving her the boot, he carries her off without asking and she doesn't resist.

A/N 3: Her resisting Batman and Nightwing to me is that her railing against their disbelief and lack of accepting her following past landmark events in the comics. In my story, it belongs more to what she did during the League-Cadmus showdown and during the Illuminati Arc.

A/N 4: Illuminati Arc refers to my story Tangents, which was half JLU's Cadmus Arc and half Question going up against Maxwell Lord.

A/N 5: To those eager for an update I hope this delivers...