Batwoman #5

Issue Details

Synopsis

HYDROLOGY PART 5 - EVAPOTRANSPIRATION Kate Kane meditates, using free association to come to the conclusion that in order to fight the Weeping Woman, she will have to use fire.   Later, as Batwoman, she carries a canister of gasoline to the old boathouse on the harbor. This is where Maria Salvaje's children were drowned, and where she drowned herself as well. Batwoman calls out, demanding to know where the kidnapped children are, but the Weeping Woman appears, and in her anger, forces Kate to see a vision of Maria's past. Then, she gives Kate hallucinations of her regrets and heartache; namely, her sister Elizabeth Kane. Kate is forced to watch her sister drown before her eyes. However, despite her pain at having to see her sister in that position, Kate feels no responsibility for what happened.   Batwoman breaks free of the illusion and condemns Maria for having allowed herself to become a drunken, careless mother - and for choosing to kill herself. Likewise, it was Elizabeth who allowed herself to become a maniac, and Kate chooses not to feel guilty about that. Finally, Batwoman ignites the gasoline, and sets the boathouse aflame.   The fire causes the Weeping Woman to begin to evaporate. Batwoman offers one last chance to make things right by telling her where the missing children have been taken. Maria cryptically suggests that she was made into a vengeful spirit by a third party. Before disappearing completely, she states that the children were abducted by someone or something called Medusa.   Back in her apartment, Kate cuts her father out of a family photo, leaving only she and Beth behind. Taping the photo to her window, she treats it as a good luck charm in her research on Medusa. However, before she can make an attempt to hack into the GCPD's files, she catches a whiff of cigar smoke.   In her kitchen, she is surprised to find Director Bones and Agent Cameron Chase waiting for her there. Kate attempts to attack Agent Chase, but the Director jumps between them as Chase reveals that they already know that she is Batwoman. They inform her that her cousin Bette gave up the information while she was near death. Director Bones explains that due to Chase's actions, Bette's life was saved, and they will take her to her if she agrees to make a deal.   They offer her a job with the DEO. Coincidentally, they want her to dismantle the organization known as Medusa. As an additional bonus, Director Bones informs her that unless she takes the offer, her father will be put in prison for stealing military hardware, funding a vigilante, and covering up a terrorist act in order to hide his own illegal activities. If she agrees to take the job, Jacob Kane will be left alone.   Resigned, Kate accepts the offer. She visits Bette in the hospital, and tells her unconscious cousin that she has turned down Batman's offer to join Batman Incorporated. Batman had, until that point, been stealthily hiding in the room already. He steps out of the shadows and warns that working with the DEO will be a mistake that will eventually put her at odds with him. Kate responds that she is just using them to get the children back, and that she knows which lines must not be crossed. Before leaving, Batman warns that Director Bones will challenge that knowledge at every opportunity, and eventually, she will be forced to make an impossible decision.   Later, Batwoman visits the parents of one of the missing children and promises that while the Weeping Woman is gone, she will find the missing children at any cost.