Five Lessons in Blood: Lesson Three
Sinclair attends the auction with a Batwoman escort, and the Question waits on the roof for her to return. Renee is dying to know what's happening inside, but Kate has Sinclair's fear and respect after breaking his arms and it is, after all, her town. She gets it done fast, after all, and Renee isn't waiting long.
But Kate doesn't hand the book over when asked.
"Whatever's in this book, it's evil. You said so yourself!"
"Someone has to understand them! I need that book! I need its knowledge!"
"It's not need! It's greed!" Kate must know how deep a cut that leaves. "You're so desperate for the knowledge you don't care what it's doing to you! I'm asking you, please, let it go."
To hear Kate sound so plaintive is a new one on Renee, but she can't let it sway her. It's not about greed. It's about knowledge, and understanding and finishing what she and Charlie started, what almost killed Kate. It's about finishing a job, and Kate doesn't seem to understand that.
And that is why she kicks Batwoman's legs from under her.
The fight is intense and vicious, and nothnig like any fight Renee's seriously had. Richard, Vic and Huntress are good, but that was in most cases, training. Flay and the other cult members have training and strength and ability, but Kate is relentless and hard and uses every weapon in her arsenal, including throwing honest-to-God batarangs at Renee. There's anger in her that Renee's opponents rarely have; directed full force towards Renee herself. Renee, and their relationship, which they both know, can never be friendship, and seems doomed, even after all these years to be stuck in the heat and the anger of the recently heartbroken.
Maybe they should stop sleeping together, but Renee can't stop that. It's all she can do to remember that this is a fight, not foreplay, she wants so hard to get at the woman under that suit. But Kate has the book, and Renee needs the book more than she needs to kiss Kate, right now. Meanwhile Kate - she doesn't care about the book. She's just fighting to fight, and to get to Renee. That anger gives her the edge, and after fifteen minutes intense fighting, Renee is down, at the mercy of Kate's boot.
"Why? What's so damn important you're willing to fight me over this?! Why are you doing this?"
Renee chokes against the boot at her throat. "I have to fight them! I'm trying to save you!"
Kate removes her foot, and Renee can't tell if it's out of compassion or disgust. All she can choke out is "I'm doing it for you."
The book lands at Renee's feet, bouncing under the force of being thrown.
"Maybe you should have asked what I want? But that's never been a question, has it? Goodbye, Renee."
-------------------------
Renee can't get the train out of Gotham fast enough. As she leaves behind the city she grew up in, she opens the book.
The pages are all blank, except for seven words in the middle.
The word is not for you.
Yet.
Lesson Three: Greed
But Kate doesn't hand the book over when asked.
"Whatever's in this book, it's evil. You said so yourself!"
"Someone has to understand them! I need that book! I need its knowledge!"
"It's not need! It's greed!" Kate must know how deep a cut that leaves. "You're so desperate for the knowledge you don't care what it's doing to you! I'm asking you, please, let it go."
To hear Kate sound so plaintive is a new one on Renee, but she can't let it sway her. It's not about greed. It's about knowledge, and understanding and finishing what she and Charlie started, what almost killed Kate. It's about finishing a job, and Kate doesn't seem to understand that.
And that is why she kicks Batwoman's legs from under her.
The fight is intense and vicious, and nothnig like any fight Renee's seriously had. Richard, Vic and Huntress are good, but that was in most cases, training. Flay and the other cult members have training and strength and ability, but Kate is relentless and hard and uses every weapon in her arsenal, including throwing honest-to-God batarangs at Renee. There's anger in her that Renee's opponents rarely have; directed full force towards Renee herself. Renee, and their relationship, which they both know, can never be friendship, and seems doomed, even after all these years to be stuck in the heat and the anger of the recently heartbroken.
Maybe they should stop sleeping together, but Renee can't stop that. It's all she can do to remember that this is a fight, not foreplay, she wants so hard to get at the woman under that suit. But Kate has the book, and Renee needs the book more than she needs to kiss Kate, right now. Meanwhile Kate - she doesn't care about the book. She's just fighting to fight, and to get to Renee. That anger gives her the edge, and after fifteen minutes intense fighting, Renee is down, at the mercy of Kate's boot.
"Why? What's so damn important you're willing to fight me over this?! Why are you doing this?"
Renee chokes against the boot at her throat. "I have to fight them! I'm trying to save you!"
Kate removes her foot, and Renee can't tell if it's out of compassion or disgust. All she can choke out is "I'm doing it for you."
The book lands at Renee's feet, bouncing under the force of being thrown.
"Maybe you should have asked what I want? But that's never been a question, has it? Goodbye, Renee."
-------------------------
Renee can't get the train out of Gotham fast enough. As she leaves behind the city she grew up in, she opens the book.
The pages are all blank, except for seven words in the middle.
The word is not for you.
Yet.
Lesson Three: Greed