WRITER: Greg Rucka
PENCILER(s): JH Williams III
INKER(s): JH Williams III
COLORS: Dave Stewart
LETTERS: Todd Klein

CHARACTERS: Batwoman (Kate Kane); Alice; Colonel Kane

PLOT:
The small glass pellet breaks upon impact and the noxious pepper gas begins spilling out, constricting Alice's airways. Kate seizes the opportunity to escape from the coven, Alice in tow, and take her away to a nearby castle, hidden up in one of the tallest spires for interrogation. If someone is going to know why the Religion of Crime is so obsessed with her, it has to be its newest leader. But shortly after neutralizing the pepper gas spray so that Alice can speak, the words that come tumbling out of her mouth quickly give Kate little doubt that she may in fact be loonier than the rest of them. Bedecked in a form fitting knit blue and white dress, the ghostly white woman named Alice appears to truly believe herself to be none other than Alice Pleasance Liddell from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Loony though she may be, Alice is still a very cunning adversary. She knows that despite Kate's threats otherwise, she won't drop her off the rooftop. She won't kill. She's one of them. And despite a very thorough disarming immediately after the two landed on the spire, Alice had one final trick up her sleeve - a razor blade which she has hidden inside her mouth. Spitting up the blade, Alice uses it to slash Kate's face and it's only a short time later that Kate comes to the realization that the blade was poisoned. As the poison takes hold she struggles for purchase on the ground that is now shifting beneath her feet, trying desperately to get to the edge so that she can escape. The only thing that saves Kate from a be-heading is the fact that her long auburn mane is actually part of her disguise to cover the shorter red hair beneath. The wig detaches and Kate is able to dive off the ledge looking for safety.

As she glides from the rooftop into the nighttime air she plunges further into the darkness of her own soul. Crash landing into a nearby park, a virtual menagerie of nightmares swirls around her. She's thrust back into the dark and violent world of the battle zone from time long since past. The centerpiece of which is of course her mother. The kidnapping. A burlap sack concealing a face with a single bullet hole at the top. Blood oozing out, down past the dog tags still around her neck. And in her fevered delusional state she looks up and sees the faceless image of her salvation - Renée Montoya.

But it isn't Renée. It's the Colonel, who just so happened to be monitoring Kate's vitals at the time of the attack. Like dogs hunting prey by the scent of it's blood, the Order arrives at Kate at nearly the same time as the Colonel precipitating a massive firefight between the two parties. When the bullets finish flying, Kate lay in the middle of the two - poisoned and now shot twice during the exchange. As the Order closes in to claim their quarry an ominous growling begins to emanate out of the surrounding darkness. Giant razor toothed beast men begin to pour out from the shadows.

WRITER: Greg Rucka
PENCILER(s): Cully Hamner
INKER(s): Cully Hamner
COLORS: Laura Martin
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher

CHARACTERS: Question (Renée Montoya); Varga

PLOT:
If Varga and his boys are looking for a fight, Renée is not afraid to give them one. Sure enough, one by one, Varga's men scatter off like scared dogs and Varga is left alone to answer the Question. He sends Renée to a Mr. Chandless at a company called GHC Exports. Unfortunately Varga tips off Chandless about Renée and soon after arriving she's caught by a giant broad shouldered guard who tazers her unconscious.