January 1, 2059
"Good morning Gotham, and Happy New Year! This is Bianca Michealides with KGTM news.
"The top story today is the near-tragedy averted at last night's Annual New Year's Eve Charity Ball for the Homeless, where the newly regrouped Royal Flush Gang attempted to steal a diamond worth over 300,000 credits that was donated to be used towards building shelters. Gotham's resident mask vigilante, the Batman, interrupted the heist, leaving all but one member of the gang bound and ready as a belated Christmas present for the police.
"In society news, a spokesperson for Wayne Enterprises heiress, Grace Wayne, who just celebrated her 18th birthday on Christmas, announced her engagement to her bodyguard, former GPD detective Benjamin Hudson. The couple met this summer when Hudson was assigned to investigate the tragic explosion that claimed the life of Grace's father, Gotham icon Bruce Wayne as well as his wife of thirty years, Mardi, their elder daughter Isabella and her husband Terrence McGinnis.
"It was just a month ago that Maddox Textiles' CEO, Jackson Maddox, was convicted on all counts of conspiracy to commit murder, a move that was designed to cripple the Wayne Enterprises conglomerate and assure Maddox the purchase of what NASA calls 'the key to permanent space habitation'. The actual assassin, believed to be the deadly and mysterious figure known only as 'Inque', is still at large.
"On a happier note, it is reported that Wayne and Hudson will petition the court to formally adopt her two-year-old nephew Bruce Warren McGinnis, also orphaned in the explosion. All of us here at KGTM wish the new family the best of luck.
"Now we'll go to Herb for sports…"
Ben was tired when he entered the cave, but his spirit was struck a blow when he discovered it empty. He changed clothes, taking an extra moment in the hot shower to ease his battered body. He supposed he'd eventually get used to the physical damage dished out on an almost daily basis, but for right now he felt like a giant, walking bruise.
Upstairs he found her sitting in the window seat of the large front parlor, baby Bruce curled up asleep in her lap. The morning sun was brilliant in the large room, and glittered off the tears streaming down her cheeks. She stared forlornly out the glass and he stood in the doorway, simply watching her. It didn't matter how confident she appeared to be to the rest of the world, he would always see her as the fragile china doll he'd first met in his office, and no matter how many times she threw him to the mat during practice, it didn't quell the urge to wrap his arms around her to protect her from harm, yet whenever he witnessed her in the midst of her darkest pain he was keenly aware that while he would be overjoyed to spend the rest of his life with her, he remained a poor substitute to those she had lost.
"I suppose offering a penny for your thoughts would be an insult to Gotham's richest woman," he said quietly as he walked up to her.
She glanced up at him with despair written so obviously on her face it physically hurt him to look at it. "I'm sure they're not even worth that much."
"Why don't you talk about it, it'll help you feel better," he urged.
Her hand absently stroked the small boy's head and she took one deep, shuddering breath. "This is the first day of a brand new year. A whole year ahead without them. Before it was just days or months, but now it's years stacked upon years that I'll have to be alone." She bit her lip, though she may not have even been aware of what she had insinuated.
"It will get better – easier – over time. You have to believe that."
"But I don't want it to get easier!" she hissed and a new batch of tears overflowed onto her cheeks. "I don't want to wake up one day and say, 'Oh they're dead, that's okay'!"
"But that's the way grief works, baby. What about him?" he asked indicating the child. "Should he be forever torn up inside, or subjected to your misery? Life goes on." She sighed but didn't answer. "You need to get out more. When was the last time you even left the manor? The entire holiday season has gone by without you even making one public appearance."
"What do you know about social etiquette?" she said sharply. "I'm still in mourning, it's perfectly acceptable for me to remain in seclusion."
"Indefinitely? You have responsibilities now. Remember the rather large company you own? Or the charitable foundation your father started in the name of his parents, the one your mother single-handedly ran for almost twenty years, just about wiping out global hunger by setting up the Wayne-Purcell Famine Relief Fund? These are your legacies, you can't ignore them forever."
"I don't want legacies, I want my family!" she cried out. In her lap the child murmured and shifted position, but fell back to sleep.
Ben knelt down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "God Grace, I would give anything to bring them back for you, even my own life, but I can't. It hurts to see you like this when I know you're so much stronger." And she was. In the months they pursued the case against Maddox, she was fierce and indomitable, but once he had been indicted and it appeared that Inque had quiet literally slipped through the cracks, the despondency had engulfed her. She didn't even go down to the cave anymore and he was having to make due on his own. "That robot was tougher than I imagined," he mentioned, trying to draw her away from her morbid thoughts. "And smarter too."
"They've probably gotten a hold of some advanced AI," she said in a monotone. "No doubt it will try to break them out of jail too."
Ben smiled slightly. "It would have been a lot easier with you on back-up."
Seemingly ignoring his comment, she said, "I don't know how my father did it. His pain was fuel, mine is more like quicksand."
"Then we'll just have to pull you out." He nudged her with a grin. Moving her hair aside, he kissed her neck. "Happy New Year," he said as he nuzzled it. She squirmed and tried not to smile.
"Ben," she pleaded softly, one hand pushing against his shoulder. "You know we're not married yet."
"You're driving me crazy, babe," he whispered, one hand sliding up her leg.
"Don't call me babe," she warned, but he felt her relax as he gently sucked on her earlobe. "Ben," she sighed, but her fingers had moved up to comb through his hair.
"What doin'?" a small voice asked. Ben looked down to see a pair of big blue eyes staring back at him.
"Trying to seduce your aunt," he said wryly. "Ow!" he exclaimed after she slapped him on the skull. The small boy looked at them both in confusion.
"Don't listen to him. Ready for breakfast?" He nodded eagerly.
"What about me?" Ben asked after her as she carried Bruce out of the room.
"Try a cold shower," she called back. Ben groaned and dropped to the floor, staring at the ceiling.
"What have I gotten myself into?" he queried the empty room.
Two nights later Ben was out on regular patrol. Officially being Grace Wayne's personal bodyguard, and more recently her fiancé, he had no need to worry about covering for his whereabouts or being somewhere early in the morning like his predecessor. Dawn was only a few hours away, and he was about to call it a night when a minor ruckus between rival gangs began heating up to include some major fireworks in the middle of a park. He dropped down and dispatched the leaders quickly, leaving their soldiers to flee and regroup for a later battle.
The two generals secured and hung up for the police to handle, he started to walk out of the park in the direction of the 'mobile ready to call it a night. "Hey! New guy!" a voice called out from behind.
Ben was immediately on alert, crouching down and scanning the area. Nothing appeared to be in the darkness. "Who are you? What do you want?" he called out.
There was a rustle of leaves and then a figure stepped out from behind a bush to his left. Dressed completely in black, it was easy to see how it stayed hidden so well. A lethal looking crossbow was slung over its shoulder. "Looks like you've still got a lot to learn," it said to him. Ben was certain it was a female voice, though there was no distinct characteristic of the figure's dress or mannerisms to support it. There was a hint of a smile beneath the full mask. "I knew she couldn't stay out of it for too long," she said smugly.
"Who?" Ben asked cautiously.
"I hear you're looking for Inque," she said instead of answering his question.
"She's wanted for murder."
"And I may be able to help you catch her."
"Why? Who are you?" he said
"She'll know. Tell her to meet me at the same place, at noon today."
"Who?" he cried out in frustration.
"My sister." Then there was a puff of smoke and the figure was gone. Ben had no idea where she could have disappeared to so fast, and he wasn't entirely certain he would have pursued if he did. His head already hurt from the brief exchange, added to the exhaustion he was enduring. He found his ride and returned home to the cave.
He was sitting at the computer and logging what he had accomplished during the night, when Grace came down, dressed in her nightgown and a loose robe, holding a steaming cup of coffee. Silently she handed it to him. He took it and sat back in the large chair, sipping the hot liquid. "Oddest thing happened this morning," he commented.
"Oh?" she said.
"This woman approached me. Said she could help me find Inque."
"Who was she?" Grace asked, eyes suddenly wide and focused like he hadn't seen them in a long time.
"Wouldn't say. Said she would only talk to her sister, whoever that is. She was in costume though. Completely black, with a crossbow. I didn't even think they made those anymore."
"They don't," she replied absently. "It's retrofitted to take energy bolts, but it looks authentic."
"How would you know?" he asked warily.
"It's the weapon of choice for an assassin who goes by the name Huntress."
"And why would this assassin come to me and offer help?" he asked skeptically.
"She's not offering you help, she's offering it to me," she said quietly, refusing to meet his eyes.
"Why?"
"Because she's my sister."
The mug fell out of his hand and clattered to the floor, spilling the remaining coffee in a brown puddle. "Come again?"
"What else did she say?"
"Grace…"
"What else did she say!"
"She said to meet her at the same place, today at noon. Why didn't you tell me you had another sister?"
"It wasn't any of your business," she said coldly and turned, walking away without another word.
Grace stood before their gravestones, holding four red roses. It was a cold January day despite the high noon sun, and the newly dawned winter season had already laid down a generous blanket of snow. She wiped the drifts away from the markers and gently laid the flowers in a row. "I've missed you guys," she said, still crouching down, plumes of steam escaping her lips with each word. "Dad, Terry, I hope you don't mind too much that I've let Ben take over. He's really not bad. Sometimes I think he's too nice, he actually apologized to a burglar for hitting him too hard the other night, but really he's getting pretty good at it. Bella, you should see little Bruce. He's running around and talking up a storm. And smart! You'd be so proud. I show him your picture every day just to remind him who his momma is. And Mom, I miss talking to you so much. There're so many questions I keep thinking I'd like to ask you. And when you're not always on my case, I'm just too much of a slacker." She sighed and shook her head. The tears won't come, she told herself. Not this time. This time it would be okay. But it wasn't okay and the tears did come, overflowing first in trickles and then in great gushing waves that at first warmed, then cooled her already frost-nipped cheeks.
Someone cleared their throat behind her. Grace jumped up and spun around. Helena stood, arms crossed, waiting, dressed in a leather biker jacket and sunglasses. "I see you got my message," she said.
"Yeah. What do you want?" Grace responded while trying to wipe the tears away nonchalantly.
"Same thing you do, to catch Inque."
"Why?"
"What does it matter? Do you want her or not?" Helena asked sternly. "I can lure her to Gotham, but I'll need your help to catch her. Are you up to it, or would you prefer moping around?"
Grace didn't trust herself to speak, only bit her lower lip and nodded, feeling as if she were selling her soul to the devil.
Helena smiled. "Good. Then follow my instructions to the letter and you'll have her." She spent the next few minutes outlining her plan. "Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"If all goes as planned, you won't have to see me again."
She started to exit the cemetery when Grace called out bitterly, "What did she do, double-cross you?"
"I was hired to do a job and she interfered. Cost me a lot of money," the Huntress replied without turning back.
Clenching her eyes closed, Grace said, "So it's only business then?"
"If I said no, would you believe me?" Silence was her only answer. "Exactly. Remember to tell your boy to follow my instructions no matter what."
Ben hesitantly stepped into the abandoned warehouse. "Nothing good ever happens in an abandoned warehouse," he muttered to himself, but he had promised Grace he would follow through on this plan, no matter how harebrained it seemed.
The darkness seemed to be completely alive around him and he jumped at the smallest creak or groan of the old building. A mouse scurrying to safety along the wall was almost impaled by a Batarang until he got himself under control. "I have a bad feeling about this," he said out loud.
"Don't worry, it won't take long," a smug voice he recognized called to him from above.
Looking up he saw that dark-clad figure he'd encountered at the park standing on an upper level staring back down at him. "You have some information for me?" he hollered up to her.
"Yes. The information is that your crime fighting days are over. Get him!" she shouted.
Suddenly the deepest of the shadows swirled and rose around him. Dark tentacles formed in the blackness and surrounded him like a net. Ben didn't have time to react as he was constricted from all sides by the liquid being. "Argh!" he groaned, the suit's exoskeleton only barely managing to keep his actual skeleton from being crushed to dust.
"We meet again, Batman," the fluid voice spoke directly into his ear. "And it will be the last time," she promised him.
Ben's hand slipped slowly down towards the control belt as Inque continued her slow, lethal embrace. It seemed to take hours to move it mere inches, but he finally managed to reach the button and pressed it, releasing several thousand volts of electricity. It would be a one-time only shot, reducing the suit to its barest functions as all the juice it had was fed into his attacker.
With a scream of agony, she sprung from the source of her pain. Huntress leapt from her position above, falling two stories with a single somersault and landing with cat-like grace. As she rose to her feet, the crossbow was unslung from her shoulder.
"Don't just stand there! He's defenseless. Shoot him!" Inque shouted, still malformed with electricity shooting through her various appendages.
Slowly cocking back the bow and inserting a pellet removed from a pouch at her waist, the Huntress said calmly, "You shouldn't have taken the Maddox hit."
"What are you talking about?" Inque hissed. "Stick to the plan." She shifted in and out of human form randomly.
Ben stepped back as the Huntress moved closer and fired the pellet into Inque's lower torso. The chemical reaction was immediate and ice crystals started radiating from the point of impact, causing the mutant assassin to scream even louder. She tried to move away, groaning in pain, but was slowed down considerably as her lower half was solidifying quickly. Unhurriedly, Huntress prepared another shot. "You really think I would help the likes of you? I brought you here for a reason, and it wasn't to take care of the Bat." She raised the bow. "You killed my father. That was a mistake." Another pellet was shot into what would be Inque's head. The ice traveled fast, and in a matter of seconds she was completely frozen.
With the weapon dropped to her side, Huntress turned to face Batman. "You'd better take care of her, she'll thaw soon enough."
"So…you're Wayne's daughter?" he asked uncomfortably.
"Didn't Grace tell you about me?"
Ben paused for a second, first instinct being to avoid admitting he knew Grace, but that seemed irrelevant by this point. "She hasn't told me much of anything since you came along," he admitted.
Reaching up, Huntress removed her mask. Ben was stunned, thinking he was looking into the face of a ghost. "Funny, our mothers looked nothing alike, yet they produced almost identical daughters. I guess that's a testament to the Wayne gene pool." Quickly she replaced the mask. "Don't get the wrong idea. I didn't do this out of a misguided sense of sentimentality. I've been trying to get rid of her for a long time."
"Sure. I guess the deal is that I'm supposed to just let you go," he told her.
"That's right," she answered knowingly.
"I can't promise the same thing will happen if we ever meet again."
"If we meet again it's because someone's put a contract out on your life and you'll be dead soon anyway. Nothing personal," she added quickly.
"Right."
"Don't worry, I won't advertise that I know who you are. Consider it a wedding gift."
"Thanks, I guess."
"And here's a little free advice: you two should go someplace, away from this city, to get her mind off things. She's really taking brooding to new levels." There was the puff of smoke and when it cleared he saw he was alone again.
He sighed. "Thanks."
Grace was in the nursery watching baby Bruce sleeping, lost in her thoughts as she leaned against the crib so she didn't even hear him walking up behind her. Or so he thought.
He snuck up and quickly grabbed her around the waist, expecting a howl of surprise, but was only met with a bored, "What took you so long? I heard you come in fifteen minutes ago."
Hugging her even closer he chuckled and kissed her ear. "We should get married."
Turning around in his embrace, she replied, "You've already proposed, remember? There were candles and a ring…" She waved her left hand in front of him, showing off the beautiful pink diamond he'd given her.
"Yeah, yeah," he said quickly showing he understood her joke, but continued seriously, "I mean we should get married now."
"These things take a lot of planning, Ben. Maybe by next summer…"
She shook his head. "Didn't you tell me your parents eloped to Metropolis?"
"Yes," she said warily.
"Well, I hear it's really beautiful this time of year. We could drop Bruce off with Mary and be up there by supper."
She pondered his suggestion for a moment. "Really?"
"Really. Inque's locked up tight. I think we deserve to put it all behind us. Just get out of here and have some time to ourselves." He kissed her deeply. "It's a new start, babe. Marry me?"
With that small smile that always sent shivers down his spine, she replied, "Sounds like fun."
Fin.
This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning.