It had been 3 weeks after they had a service for Kate. Crime didn't stop, the world kept on turning, and the pain hadn't stopped. The team continued taking down criminals because if criminals don't stop, they won't stop...Kate wouldn't have.
"Did you see the news?" Mary asked as she walked off the elevator towards Luke.
"I've been a bit busy with this black mask guy.." he says while still looking down at his tablet.
"The GCPD found another body of a mob member" she said as she placed his coffee next to him and then took a sip of her own.
Luke looked up from his tablet with a hint of confusion and shock on his face: "Another one? Isn't that the third one in the last week?."
"Ya, and the interesting thing is that they have all died in the same way. Do you think we have a serial killer vigilante on our hands?"
"I don't know and unfortunately we don't have time to look into it. Julie found a new lead on the black mask and our focus needs to stay on him if we are going to put him away." Luke sighed in exhaustion, "as long as this guy focuses on criminals, our focus is on the black mask."
"That's kind of cold of you to say Luke," she said with a concern in her voice
Luke rubbed his eyebrow in distress: "You're right, I shouldn't have said it like that. Why don't you call up Sophie and see if they have any leads. I can see if Ryan can look at the black mask lead tonight and any lead that comes up on this assassin vigilante tomorrow."
"You sure are putting that woman to work," Mary said in a hesitant sarcastic tone.
"Comes with the uniform," replied Luke looking back down at his tablet.
— later that evening —
Mary had trouble calling Sophie even after weeks passed. Sophie was a mess after the funeral. Externally she was stoic and determined but inside, she was still hurting and barely hanging on. Mary took a deep breathe and pressed the call button.
"Hey Mary," Sophie said with a smile
"Hey Sophie, have the Crows caught wind of the assassin vigilante yet?"
Sophie sighed; she was slightly better than she was before, but she wished that Mary and she could talk about anything but work: "Yep, my guys have been working on it. Don't have much to work off of. This person is skilled in their work. Why are you asking? Is everything okay?"
"Yes, yes, yes. Everything is fine...or as fine as they can be. I was just making sure someone was working on it because our girl in black has been a bit busy with black mask, so she asked me if the Crows had anything."
"She is asking for Crow help. Wow, she must be desperate," smirked Sophie.
"Don't get me wrong, she still hates you all but putting criminals away is the only common ground she is willing to work with the Crows on," Mary said bluntly.
Sophie lowered her voice: "I haven't looked at the security footage yet, but if something comes up, I'll let you know. Fair?"
"Great, thanks," Mary said in a content voice and hung up.
What was Sophie thinking. This is how she got on Commander Kane's distrust list in the first place. A small part of her thought she should call her back and say she would be breaking protocol and withdraw her past comment, but the majority of her didn't care. If she learned anything in the mast month, it's that the criminals need to be captured and Batwoman did just that. Sophie now saw Batwoman as Kate's legacy and she would do anything to keep a part of Kate alive.
Sophie felt a sting in her eyes and quickly blinked and rubbed her eyes. She quickly picked up her phone and called the GCPD and asked to see any camera footage they had. About 30 minutes later, the grainy video was on her laptop ready to be inspected
Minutes turned to hours and all Sophie could come up with was that these were guys from different gang affiliation which made finding a connection incredible hard.
"I can hear your gears turning all the way from my desk, love," Julie said offering a small smile.
Startled by the sudden voice behind her, Sophie closed her laptop quickly and looked up to the blond woman standing in front of her desk.
"Relax. I'm not going to tell Commander Kane anything. But you do have to let me in on what you are so intently looking at."
"This assassin who seems to be targeting mid to high level mob guys."
Julie moved to view the now opened laptop on Sophie's desk. "You're in luck; you've got an ex-assassin as an ex-girlfriend and friend."
Sophie handed Julie a cup of coffee after getting up from sitting for hours. "No luck?"
Julie looked up from the files she had been reading on the victims in the footage and gratefully took the cup of coffee. "I don't know, can you hand me the file that says 'Black Mask' on it? It is on the left side of my desk." Sophie went to her desk and found the folder
"You think the cases are related?"
"Maybe. I just saw these gang names come up in some of the new intel we got on the Black Mask case."
Sophie grabbed a chair and sat next to Julie with great interest in the new lead that is developing.
Julie scanned the documents that were on her desk with a great deal of focus. "Here it is, the names of the gangs are the same ones that tried to revolted against the False Face Society."
Who is "him?"
"Black Mask."
Sophie's eyes widened in disbelief. She moves quickly to Julie and looked at the file in Julie's hand. "So we may have an assassin doing Black Mask's dirty work for him and taking out everyone who has ever crossed him. Apparently that includes Batwoman."
"Batwoman?"
Sophie hesitated to tell Julie because of everything that has happened but she figured it would be a civil jester since they both work closely with Batwoman and she did help Sophie after all. "Yeah they had a run in and he almost killed her a while back. He seems to have a vendetta against her too. Anyway, it looks like there are a couple of more gangs that crossed Black Mask. I'm going to run these and see if anyone in particular comes back as a possible target." She rushed to leave but slowed down and turned back, "thanks for your help tonight Julie."
Julie looked with a little smile, "Anytime, Sophie."
Sophie ran those names into the Crow's database and only one name came back that was not in prison. The next night, she picked up an address and called Mary to tell her to tell Batwoman where she was going.
Armed with her pistol, extra clips, and a coms link with Batwoman, Sophie cautiously got out of her car and surveyed the outside of the apartment. "Why don't you use some of that fancy tech of yours to do to a perimeter search and check back in 10 minutes."
"Sure, leave it to me to do all the hard work. Want to add a please to the end of that?"
"I didn't ask you to be here and not really, but can you please go do reconnaissance around the perimeter while I knock on the door?"
Batwoman rolled her eyes and grappled to a nearby roof, "close enough I guess."
The dynamic between her and Sophie was still something to be improved but they have gotten better. Sophie took a deep breath and walked up the stairs to the apartment. Before she could knocked on the door, she heard footsteps on the rooftop.
"Batwoman, are you in the roof," she asked in a whisper.
"Girl, I ain't the Flash. You told me to be on the perimeter."
"Okay, well you better get here fast because someone is." Sophie listened closely and heard the footsteps get closer to the side of the roof she was on. She pulled out her gun: "Who's there!" No response. Shocker. As Sophie was about to go up the fire escape a masked figure came out of nowhere and kicks her gun out of her hand and attempts to swipe a knife at her. Sophie quickly dodged and backed up. The attacker tried to undercut her with the knife but Sophie was able to shift left and land a punch to the face. Sophie took that split second the attacker was shaken and lunged towards her target. As she reached for her cuffs, the masked figure slams the back of their head against the front of Sophie's face causing Sophie to be stunned. The masked figure got up and found the gun and pointed it at her.
Batwoman swings in just in time and disarms the attacker and lands a couple of blows to him or her. At this point Sophie is up and ready to join the fight and it was at this time the masked figure decided it was time to depart from this event. He or she jumped over the railing and before Batwoman even landed on the ground, the figure was gone.
"Dammit! he got away," exclaimed Batwoman
"SHE did get away but she left behind some DNA for us," Sophie said as she picked a piece of hair off of her jacket and carefully showed a streak of blood on her hand that wasn't her own. "We can have the Crows forensics team run it through the system."
"Fine, let me know what comes up. I'm heading out now," Batwoman said as she pulled her grappling hook out.
"Will do, thanks again for your help and backup."
Batwoman nodded and then she was gone.
—-
The next day, Sophie submitted the hair sample to the lab and decided to work on the Black Mask case while she waited.
"Any news on your assas...what happened to your lip?" Julie asked in concern
"I had a little run in with said assassin last night and she hit me with the back of her head," Sophie said with a grimace as she remembered the night previous.
"Ou, well it seems like you made some headway if you found out she is a girl."
"More than that, I got a hair sample that is currently being run through and analyzed."
"That's great to hear." After Julie's comment, a silence fell between them. "Hey, I know that I messed up bad, but I hope you know I'll always be there for you."
Sophie hesitated at the sudden change in subject but tried to brush it off. She wasn't ready to be deep with anyone yet and risking a deep conversation may cause her feelings to just rush out which is something she wanted to avoid at all costs. "Thank you, Julie. I hope you know I got your back too. I'm going to go check on that lab report, but I'll see you later. Sophie said goodbye to Julie and went to the Crow's lab. Sophie went just in time because her file had just been completed and finished. At this point, Sophie decided to wait on reading the results until she got home since she was technically suppose to be working the Black Mask case and she wanted to at least pretend she was not reverting to working for Batwoman and the Crows at the same time. Sophie finished up her day with little to no progress on the case but was excited to see if the DNA helped at all in this assassin case.
Sophie decided to meet Mary at her suite and talk about what happened and her findings over a glass or two of wine.
"So you're telling me that you got there at the same time the assassin was about to kill the guy!" Mary said in astonishment. "You have to get me in on that coms link next time. If you want, I can get you some stronger medicine for that lip of yours."
"No, no, no, your days of illegally taking care of me are over. Get your license and then we can talk," Sophie lightly joked. Sophie decided to get herself another glass of wine before she opened the envelope. She tore open the envelope and read over the report as she grabbed her glass of wine.
*CRASH* Mary turned to Sophie in shock and saw Sophie's twisted, horrified, shocked face and a shattered wine glass on the floor. "Sophie what's wrong?" Nothing came out of Sophie's mouth, but tears began to flow from her eyes and she started to sob. Mary took the paper out of Sophie's hands and led her to the couch. Mary was so confused as to what made Sophie react so dramatically until she saw name on the report herself. Mary's mouth was covered by her trembling hand and tears started flowing down Mary's eyes and onto the paper:
Katherine Rebecca Kane