"Batgirl, are you okay?" Robin asked as he ran over to his comrade. Batgirl's bleeding had slowed and she had managed to pull herself into a chair. Bruce and Dick had woken up not even a minute after the Rogues had gotten away. They had quickly excused themselves and changed into the costumes they kept inside Bruce's car. While Batman had gone after the costumed criminal Robin had been told to check on Batgirl.

"I'm fine, just a little scratch." Not believing her Robin bent over Batgirl's leg and swore.

"Christ Batgirl!" He quickly pulled the bandages from his utility belt and despite Batgirl's protests began wrapping her leg. "We'll need to attend to it properly later. What the happened? Did the Riddler do this?"

"No," Batgirl's said standing and gingerly testing out her leg, "it was the girl, Wolf, or whatever her name was."

"Elizabeth Howard." A deep voice said from behind them.

"Boss!" The two cried in surprise.

"What happened to Riddler?"

"Got away."

"Oh." There was a few seconds awkward silence until Commissioner Gordon came over and broke it.

"Well I guess we know now what Miss Howard has been up too. And here I thought she was innocent for the whole Wayne incident."

"She was," Batman said darkly, "just not anymore." A call for the commissioner from Bullock prevented him from responding. "Robin, get Batgirl to the cave and have Alfred tend to her. Then I want to go over the Howard file again, input the new data and see if there is anything we can use now."

"Sure thing boss." Lopping an arm around Batgirl Robin helped her to the Batmobile that had automatically parked behind the police tape when Batman had called for it. Once the pair pulled away in the car Robin called Alfred on the intercom.

"Hey Al."

"Greetings Master Dick."

"Listen we're coming in, Barbara's hurt could you there with the medical kit?"

"Of course, were you able to apprehend the criminals?"

"No, they got away," Batgirl said through gritted teeth, the movement of the car was aggravating her wound causing her wince in pain with every bump.

"Shame I feel rather guilty now that it was my help on the Riddle that led you to this Miss Gordon."

"Don't Alfred, it's my fault I couldn't figure out that a German 'v' is pronounce like an 'f' so that Freeland would be Vreeland soon enough."

"And what of the story part did you figure out what that means?"

"Yeah, Elizabeth Howard."

"You don't mean the one Master Bruce has been pursuing the past week? Is she alright? I hope that nasty Riddler hasn't harmed her."

"Harmed her!?" Batgirl cried in outrage, "She's working with him."

"Oh dear, how is Master Bruce taking it? He did have hope for the girl."

"Same as always," Robin said, "we're almost there Al."

"Very well, I am ready and waiting." Robin flicked off the intercom. As far as he could tell Bruce was taking the news as well as he took anything, with complete indifference. As they pulled into the Batcave Dick looked over at Barbara's leg, there wasn't any blood poking through the bandages that he could see meaning Batgirl wasn't as badly hurt as he had thought. She was still hurt though and Robin felt a slight twinge of pity for Miss Howard as he thought about what Batman would do to her for hurting one of their own.

Across Gotham deep within an abandoned warehouse Elizabeth was watching the thugs celebrate with beer and testosterone filled laughter. She sat on a crate apart from them near to where Edward was dividing their haul into individual payments. He was muttering to himself trying to judge how much each piece of jewelry would fetch when he sold it to Cobblepot. Elizabeth sighed there was nothing for her to do except think and thinking was the last thing she wanted to do right now. For the past two weeks she hadn't much time to think and she could feel the guilt building up inside her mind.

She had purposefully killed six men. Sure they were mobster, sure they were criminals, but they probably had families, people that depended on their illicit gains to live. And now she had hurt Batgirl, someone who was just trying to do the right thing. An innocent. She had promised she'd never hurt another innocent. What was she thinking?

What did this have to do with catching Cuvier and making him pay for his wrongs? Stealing money and jewels, how was that going to help? It seemed so long ago that Batman had been in her apartment and had warned her about this. "Don't forget yourself," he had told her. 'Don't forget yourself.' The words rang in her mind. Has she lost herself?

Absent mindedly Elizabeth ran a hand along her gauntlet carefully fingering the blades within. She stopped her hand when she felt the fur that was matted with Batgirl's blood. Standing abruptly Elizabeth left the building with no one noticing her absence. It took less than a minute for her to find a telephone-box and minute more to break into the change box so she could make a call. The number she dialed had been memorized for years but the other end did not pick up.

"Hey! You've reached Alyssa McKenna! Leave a message!" BEEP!

"Alyssa," Elizabeth moaned into the phone, she needed to talk to her friend to know everything was going to be alright, to tell her what was going on, to get comfort. "Alyssa. Don't believe them. Whatever you're going to hear don't believe them. Please. I think I forgot. Forgot who I am and I've done some stupid things. I made a deal with a mob boss, I killed six men, and I robbed Veronica Vreeland's party. I know what they're going to say about me, I know how it is going to appear but you are the one that knows me the best so you can't believe them. Just—just trust what you know. I don't think I can afford to remember who I was though. I've done too many things; I can't go back so I need to go forward.'

'You've probably guessed but I'm hunting down the one that caused my accident. He's trying to replicate what happened to me and he's killing innocent people along the way. I can't let him continue even if it means my life will never be normal and I'll never be truly free again. W-we—we won't be able to talk until this is over and I'm going into hiding. I shouldn't even be calling you now but I need you to know the truth before the media distorts it before you're turned against me. I'm a criminal now there's no going back and I want you to know…I'm sorry."

Tears were sliding down Elizabeth's face now and a tremor had entered her voice. "I'm so, so sorry. I—I'm…GODDAMN IT PICK UP! Please, please. Pick up. Alyssa…" Emotion had won and speech was now impossible. Elizabeth leaned her head against the sex-line pamphlet covered glass as she tried to gain control of herself. From the earpiece of the phone Elizabeth heard a recorded female voice asking for more money to continue the call. With heaving breaths Elizabeth stopped the stream of tears and hung the phone up.

"FUCK!" Elizabeth yelled slamming her fists into the side of the box. "GODFUCKINGDAMN IT!" She smashed her fists into box again and again until the glass cracked and shattered. Elizabeth looked down at her bloody hands. How poetic: blood on her hands. Her hands were shaking as she tried to pulled the shards of glass from her skin but she only made the cut hurt worse.

"War hurts, even if you are the winner you always end up losing something." Her father had told her that once when she had come across him late one night half way through a bottle of brandy and looking at a photo of his old unit. "Sometimes that loss is from something that the enemy does and sometimes it something that we do to ourselves along the way." Her eight year-old brain could not comprehend what her father was talking about back then but now, now Elizabeth understood. She knew what her father meant by loss. Elizabeth had chosen to go to war against Cuvier and now she had to accept her losses.

Elizabeth's hands were no longer shaking and she easily pulled the glass from her hands. In the small reflection provided by the metal on her phone she wiped the streaks of makeup from her face restoring it to a single black line. With a satisfied smile Elizabeth left the telephone-box her assuredness radiating from her. Elizabeth's eyes fell upon a homeless man who was staring at her from out of the alley way.

"The change box is open, you might want to take the change, there's about ten bucks in there." He stammered his thanks but Elizabeth wasn't paying attention she was already halfway back to the warehouse. When she entered Elizabeth saw Edward still counting the haul but the thugs had moved on to play fighting. Most of the men were sitting on the sidelines watching the fight. As Elizabeth approached the men cheered peering between the heavy bodies she saw that the man that had complained about her being a "chick" the most pinning down another man beating him across the face.

"Winner!" A man who seemed to be the referee yelled. However, the man didn't stop his beating. "Oi! Bones stop!" Bones finally stopped his breath rapid and his eyes wild.

"Next," he yelled looking around at the crowd all of whom looked a touch apprehensive. "You." Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as Bones' finger landed on her.

"Me?"

"Yeah, Wolfy, you. Show me what the big bad Wolf can do or did you just suck the Riddler's dick to get this job?"

"Oh, resorting to insults. Okay let's do this but just remember that wolves chew on bones." Elizabeth's insult was lost on Bones and his face was still bewildered as Elizabeth stepped into the ring of men. The referee began counting down and the two fighters raised their fists.

"Two…ONE!" Bones ran at Elizabeth pulling his arm back for a punch. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and took two steps forward. As his fist came down she grabbed his arm and lifted him off the ground and over her shoulder. His head cracked against the concrete floor. When Elizabeth released his arm it lumped as it hit the floor.

"Yep, still my favorite move." The men looked at her shocked. From the floor Bones moaned and lifted himself up slowly.

"Wha' happened?" The other men began to laugh.

"She whopped ya' Bones." One of the men said extending a hand to help him up.

"Wha'?"

"You lost Bones, come on let's have another beer." Still dazed Bone's allowed himself to be led away. Now that the fighting was over the ring of men disbanded and they went back to drinking and planning on what they were going to do with their earnings. From across the warehouse Elizabeth saw Edward smirking. She replied with a smile and he gestured for her to come closer.

"Yes," she asked sliding her hands along his shoulders.

"Where did you disappear to?"

"Huh? Oh, I just needed a bit of fresh air."

"And that fresh air just happened to scrap up your hands?" Elizabeth quickly removed her hands from his shoulders and hid them behind her back.

"No, the telephone-box up the street attacked me. I gave it a good beating though."

"Well as long as it is worse off." Of course, Edward knew she had called someone and his brilliant mind rightly deduced that it was her friend Alyssa. "I'm done here, if you want to go start the car. We can go to Cobblepot tomorrow night and cash in."

"Sounds like a plan, Riddler; I'll see you in a few then." Elizabeth turned on her heels and left. The car was parked a few alleys away and it took her about a minute to reach the car. According to Edward it was his own personal car, apparently he didn't always steal them off the street; however, it didn't look like a person would imagine the "Riddler-mobile", it was all black with the only identifiable Riddler markings being the question-mark license plate. As Elizabeth approached the vehicle she noticed that it was leaning oddly and that there was a grunting noise coming from the backside of the car. Poking her head cautiously around the corner she saw a young boy messing around with the tire.

"Damn it," he hissed as he tried to loosen the bolts.

"Need help?" The boy yelped in surprise and went to run but Elizabeth caught his collar and pulled him back. "Hang on there a minute buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Yeah right! Lemme go!"

"Calm down sweety, I just want to know, if you know whose car this is?"

"No! Why should I care, it's the dumb-fuck's fault for leaving it out, they deserve to be ripped off!"

"Well there is a reason his car is safe. This is the Riddler's car."

"What!? Shit, shit! Let me go!"

"I will kid, I will. Just a warning: be careful of whose car it is you're trying to rip off. Okay now you can go." Elizabeth let go of the boy's shirt and he shot off. Chuckling Elizabeth removed the jack the boy and used and set it and the tire-iron off to the side of the alley. There was the sound of footsteps and Elizabeth looked up ready to explain to Edward why the car wasn't running yet but it wasn't Edward the boy had returned.

"Umm…thank you."

"Sure thing, here take your tools." Elizabeth tossed him the tire-iron and the jack. "What's your name kid?"

"Jason Todd."

"You seem like an okay kid, Jason, be careful."

"Thanks, lady." Jason picked up the tools and ran off. Elizabeth smiled to herself she'd helped a homeless man and a young thief tonight. Opening the car door she slipped inside and started the car. Half a minute later Edward rounded the corner and got in as well.

"Any trouble?"

"Nope, ready Eddy?"

"Don't call me that."