THE CLOCKTOWER, LATER

"Barbara...Barbara, I'm so sorry…" Dinah said, tears streaming slowly down her face. It was the first time Helena had ever seen Dinah Lance shed tears. She had always been the snarky, tough as nails type, but...well things had just changed, quicker than any of them could track.

Barbara said nothing.

"What do you need us to do now, Barbara?" Helena ventured.

"There's nothing to do, Helena...My dad is dead, and Batman killed him. Things are going to be very...very different in this city, now that Batman is a killer...if that was what I think it was, the Birds of Prey are all Gotham has left now. Go home, and rest for tonight. Starting tomorrow, this is a new Gotham." Barbara didn't look away from her computer screen.

"I knew a day like this would come. That's why we need to talk." A voice said.

The Birds of Prey all looked to it.

Out of the corner stepped a man in a suit, face wrinkled with stress, a gun on his hip, and short brown hair on his head.

Huntress readied her crossbow, Canary raised her fists, and Barbara shook her head.

"I was really hoping we'd never meet, Commander."

The man laughed. "I figured the great Oracle would look into my operations sooner or later."

"Helena Bertinelli, Dinah Lance...meet Commander Jacob Kane." Barbara sighed.

"Pleasure to finally meet you...I'm here to talk you all into joining up with my organization, as special agents." Kane greeted.

"Organization?" Helena asked.

"Crows Security. A special ops task force I've been assembling in the event of a certain bat gone rogue. Join with me, and we can keep Gotham safe. Safer than it was with Batman flapping around at night. The Crows operate 24/7, and unlike Batman, we can be everywhere at once. We can go where the GCPD can't go, we can take down targets that the GCPD can't take down...and we need you, Ms. Bertinelli, Ms. Lance, to help us lead the charges. As for Ms. Gordon, she'd be extra eyes and ears from HQ." Jacob eyed the tattered jacket that Black Canary wore into battle.

"And we can give you some...cosmetic upgrades…."

"Commander Kane...you'll need to give us a little bit to discuss your offer." Dinah eyed him suspiciously.

"One week." Jacob said. "The Crows deploy in one week, with or without you. If you join with us, excellent. If you decide to keep this little vigilante op up and running...stay out of the way." Jacob's voice was cold as he headed toward the elevator. "Think quickly, Birds of Prey...after all, tomorrow is a New Gotham." He smiled as the elevator descended.

"I don't trust them, Dad. They worked way too close to Batman to be 100 percent on the up and up." The woman's voice on the other end of the line said.

"We'll see, Kate. Just be patient."

"What do we think? Do we trust some shady dude that literally emerged from a shadowy corner of our own base, which, by the way, he got into, how exactly?" Dinah's voice was annoyed, surprised, but not all the way hostile about Jacob Kane.

"He hacked AI-fred's proximity detection. That's impressive." Barbara said.

"Barbara, you were acting like you know this guy. What's going on?" Helena asked.

"I do know him. He was friends with my father. Retired from the army. They drank together sometimes. His family has been in Gotham as long as the Waynes...when Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane met, the Kane and the Wayne families became close. When they married, they merged." Barbara pulled up everything she could find about Jacob Kane...including a newspaper article she'd seen far too many times by this point…

THE GOTHAM GAZETTE-BILLIONAIRE FAMILY MURDERED IN PARK ROW-LEAVES SON AN ORPHAN-

Dinah's eyes wandered along the article for the name of Jacob Kane, and they finally settled on it.

"Martha Kane-Wayne is survived by her brother Jacob Kane, sister in law, Gabrielle Kane, nieces Kate and Elizabeth Kane, and son Bruce Wayne…" Dinah read off.

"So, Commander Kane is Bruce's uncle?" Dinah continued.

"That's right...and as far as I know, he doesn't know who Batman was, not that it matters much now." Barbara's gaze was...empty, and yet, there was a hatred bubbling within.

"I don't trust him. At all." Helena declared.

"I'm not saying that we should trust him. I'm saying that he's not an immediate threat to any of us." Barbara looked back and forth between Dinah and Helena.

"Look, here's what I can stand...we partner up with Kane, help him clean up the city for a while...but if we see something we don't like, we bring it down." Dinah said finally.

"Dinah's right, Helena. With Batman and the Joker both gone, the floodgates are about to open. Penguin, Two Face, Riddler, Scarecrow...not to mention they still haven't found Harley Quinn yet...I don't know that we can handle this just the three of us, as much as I hate to admit it." Barbara took off her glasses and set them down on her desk.

"Best case scenario," AI-Fred chimed, "The Crows and the Birds of Prey teaming up reduces the crime by super criminals in Gotham City."

"And worst case scenario is?" Helena asked.

"Worst case scenario is, the Crows are ordered to bring down the Birds of Prey, and crime increases, and the effectiveness of the Crows falls, and the Birds of Prey die."

"I'm not a fan of how that sounded." Helena groaned.

"How about this. We all sleep on it, we discuss this again in a few days. Until then, it's business as usual. Prepare ourselves for the times to come. When you're on the streets, try to let cameras see you. I'll call in some anonymous tips to Vicki Vale, get her to talk about us on the news. More coverage means maybe we can deter street thugs from trying to get more high profile." Barbara shut down the systems in the Clock Tower.

"Good night." Dinah and Helena exchanged the words with Barbara.