"What is your name?"
"Go to hell," spat the chained woman
Sophie shrugged and hit Kate again with the bat taser she so happened to find in the cave. "Let's try this aga.."
"I am Circe Sionis, daughter of the Black Mask." hissed Circe
"No, but now we are getting somewhere." Sophie put the taser down. "See, Kate it only took you 5 hours," she said as she checked her watch
"My name is not Kate. Your Kate is dead and you will be soon enough!" raged the woman
Now chained to the cell and the floor, Sophie was more confident in getting up close in personal. She walked into the cell with such a dead stare (even Kate looked slightly intimidated) and grabbed the woman's face as she spoke inches away from her face. "I don't give a shit about who you think you are. You ARE Kate Kane, daughter of Jacob Kane. You and I went to West Point, you got us kicked out, and you went on some soul searching trip to get your father's approval. You became batwoman, lied to my face, and told me you loved me after all of that. So here is what is going to happen: I am going to drill this into your head for as long as it takes to get the old Kate back." Sophie squeezed Kate's face a little harder: "However long that takes."
All Circe could do was stare. When Sophie walked back all she could say was "my people will find me."
"I'm sure they will, but until they do, we are gonna work on this little identity crisis of yours," Sophie said pointing to both of them.
And that they did. Mary and Sophie build a schedule for the next couple of days. Sophie would work during the day and be blind folded and have noise cancelling headphones on when she was brought to the bat cave (Luke made sure to drive in random patterns before going back to Wayne Tower. Sophie would then drill the history of Kate Kane into the cuffed woman for hours at a time without Amy real progress. "I think Black Mask is getting a bit antsy. There is a lot more of his guys out as of late," communicated Ryan to Luke over the coms link.
"It's only been 2 days," Luke said
"Yeah but he might have caught on that we have Kate or Circe, whatever we are calling her."
"Kate and that's true. We may have to run with plan B."
"What is plan B?"
"The plan I have yet to develop because I thought plan A would have worked by now."
"So much for contingency plans," Batwoman said with an eye roll.
—that same night—
Sophie met at the same time and was given the update on the plans for Kate. Sophie now knew it was likely now or never with getting Kate to remember.
"I almost want to applaud you for your determination to get your dead ex back. Almost."
Sophie ignored this little gibe and went for a new tactic. She walked into the cell locked the door and took out the keys to Circe's cuffs.
"This is new," she said rubbing her wrists hesitantly
Again, ignoring what the woman said, Sophie had a stoic look on her face: "this may be the last times I see you, so this is what is going to happen, we are either going to walk out of here together and take down Black Mask, or you're going to take the cell keys off of my dead body. Either we both come out together or one body gets left in the cell and I have no intention of it being me."
"Why the death wish all of a sudden?" the now unbound woman asked with sincere curiosity.
"Because I am going to get Kate back or die trying," Sophie said somberly.
"See it yourself," shrugged Circe as she lunged towards Sophie
Sophie counter attacked and got lose of the other woman. "I didn't say I wasn't going to fight you back however."
The match was a lot more even now that Sophie was prepared, but even then, the fight was more defensive for Sophie and a lot more offensive for Circe. "Why can't you let it go!" huffed the woman throwing a mean left hook.
"Kate wasn't someone you let go of and I made that mistake once. I'm not doing it again as long as I can help it," exhaled Sophie blocking the punch then wrestling Circe to the floor. Sophie put the woman in a leg lock which Circe easily got out of. "God, you even fight like Kate yet you can't remember where you learned to fight."
Circe got the upper hand and wound up on top of Sophie and began attempting to punch her and unfortunately succeeding a couple of times.
Sophie got control of the woman's hands and swung her legs up to the other woman's torso to pry her off the top of her and create some distance while also putting her in an arm lock. Putting some tension on the arm lock tears started swelling in Sophie's eyes: "Kate, please! I don't want to hurt you," pleaded Sophie.
"Only one of us is making it out of here. You said it yourself," Circe said trying to get out of the lock. Before she was able to get out of it all she heard was an "I'm sorry" before an excruciating amount of pain shot up her arm and a loud crack sound filled the room. The pain was so sharp that she could feel her heart bet and her ears ring.
Sophie didn't know what else to do. She didn't want to kill her but the woman she was fighting did not seem to have any intention of yielding. Circe grimaced and cursed while her arm lay limb to her side. Sophie used this moment to get the upper and and straddled her opponent while pinning her forearm against the other's neck just enough to let some air get through. All Sophie could do was look her ex in the eyes and beg "Please Kate. Don't make me do this. Remember the cave, batwoman, everything it stands for, everything YOU stand for. If anything, for god's sake remember me if you are gonna kill me. Remember what we were, our history, our code, our accomplishments, our mistakes, all of it. If you kill me after all of that then Enigma killed the Kate Kane in you and I don't want to be in a world where you become the bad guy." Sophie removed her arm from Circe's throat to see if anything she said went through to her...it didn't. Circe's good arm came flying to Sophie's face knocking her to the floor
"Shut up!" Circe said angrily as she began to choke Sophie from the top.
"I'm sorry I failed you," gasped Sophie beginning to feel light headed. "I love you and I will always love you Kate Kane." she said in what she believed to be her last words.
The words. Those words. Something with those words hit Circe harder than any punch could have hit her. She released the choke and just stared at the limb Sophie. All of a sudden she felt a pain much worse than the pain she felt in her arm, the feeling of remembering all that she was and all that she became. She was lost in a pool of confusion until the woman below her gasped for air. "Soph?" Kate asked in the softest voice both out of confusion and hesitation.
Did Sophie just hear what she think she just heard. Still light headed and coming back with her new found breathing, Sophie opened her eyes to see a very lost and confused Kate on top of her. Sophie looked into the woman's eyes and saw her. Saw Kate Kane's eyes. The gazes held between them lasted minutes before Kate blinked away to look around. Scared that Kate would not be able to fight off Enigma's brainwashing for much longer, Sophie quickly squeezed her arm out from under Kate and placed her hand on the woman's cheek before pulling her in for the most tender and loving kiss that Sophie could find within herself. At first, hesitation came from Kate but moments later, she reciprocated the kiss. Almost fearful that Kate would be lost if she pulled away, Sophie moved back to look at her. "Are you there Kate?"
Tears begin to flow out of Kates eyes as she looked at the beautiful woman below her: "Yeah, I'm here," she said as she touched her forehead to Sophie's. "You could have said you loved me earlier without breaking my arm you know?" Kate said partly laughing partly tearing up trying to hold back a sob.
"Says the girl who threatened to kill me more times than I can count on my fingers, retorted Sophie as she leaned back in to kiss her
They stayed like this for almost 10 minutes going back between kissing and just enjoying the contact of their heads together. "We need to get up and fix your arm," Sophie said finally.
Kate struggled to get up as she was both physically weak and mentally weak. As Sophie helped her to a chair outside of the cell she glanced at the bat suit and felt a sharp headache hit her along with the memories and commands instilled in her by Enigma. A small feeling of violence and anger coursed through Kate as she felt like she needed to attack. All of these urges were halted when she felt Sophie's lips against hers.
"Hey, hey, I got you, ok? You are Kate Kane and you are safe here," Sophie said soothingly and reassuringly as if she was reading Kate's mind. "Let's get that arm bandaged and then we can go from there.
"I'm beginning to think you enjoy hurting me," grimaced Kate as Sophie set her arm back into place.
"You kicked the shit out of my ribs not more than 3 days ago," Sophie said offering a small smile. Looking at Kate, all she saw guilt and regret in the woman's eyes. "I was joking Kate."
"I know. I knew what I was doing but I couldn't stop it, Sophie," Kate said staring at nothing. "I killed a lot of people. I could have killed you."
"You could have but you didn't and that wasn't you Kate. That was Enigma. Look at me. We are gonna get through this, together," Sophie said confidently.
All Kate could do was rest her head on Sophie's head: "I love you Sophie Moore," whispered Kate.
"I love you too Kate Kane. We are gonna make it through this."
Sophie made a makeshift bed for the both of them and carefully helped Kate get under the blanket. There was little sleep that occurred as the hours passed. Both were just enjoying each other's presence and hoping it would never end. At some point, both dozed off because Sophie and Kate woke up in a startle as they heard the elevator door open to the cave.
Luke was shocked at what he saw when he first walked in but settled as soon as Sophie gave him a reassuring nod. "Well it looks like we have two bats on our team now. Welcome back Kate."
"Not too fast," Kate said hesitantly as she slowly raised the wrapped arm. "Sophie broke my arm."
Luke looked at her puzzled: "Sophie, please tell me you broke her arm out of defense and not some rough hookup gone wrong...you know what, I don't actually want to know. Get Mary to look at it and leave it at that," he said grossed out with the unintentional images that popped in his head
Sophie rolled her eyes: "That's not what happened, but I will get Mary to check her out ASAP."