their beautiful home in the suburbs the night they opened the letter in their kitchen.
But all the money in the world, all that stolen cash and jewels and art, hadn’t been enough to stop the disease from ravaging her sister’s lungs and stealing away her life. Stealing away that beautiful, lovely soul.
She’d known that, long before coming back. Before she’d given them the money.
She’d been keeping tabs on Maggie with the League’s computers, hacking into Gotham City’s social workers’ reports on the status of her sister’s new home, accessing her medical records to check up on the doctor’s latest assessment and treatments.
It had been her secret rebellion, kept hidden from Nyssa and Talia’s watchful eyes. Outside contact was forbidden, as were any tethers to their past lives. But if they’d caught on to the backdoor hacking she’d used to hide any trace of her history on the computer, they’d never called her out. So she’d waited until the dead hours of the night, when even assassins were asleep, and fired up the computer in the compound’s subterranean workshop.
And then one night, six months ago, she’d sat down to do her regular check-in on Maggie.
She read the doctor’s latest report as if through a long tunnel.
Life expectancy: a few months at best.
It was the doctor’s note at the end—It is now about making Maggie as comfortable as possible—that broke her.
Selina had joined the League, their palace of assassins. She’d given everything, lost everything, to honor her bargain with Talia. Her life, her soul, in exchange for Maggie’s safety and happiness.
But it was not enough. And no matter how much blood she spilled for the League, it could not save her sister.
But something else could.
She’d remembered what the scientist had spoken of: the Lazarus Pit.
Not caring about the consequences, or what might be demanded as payment, Selina had gone right to Nyssa the next morning. Had explained that Maggie was dying.
Selina had spent a year and a half training to bring down empires. She had dug her own grave, recited her final rite, and arose from the dead. She had done everything Nyssa and Talia had asked her to do. And yet when she had asked Nyssa to use the Pit on her sister, to save Maggie, Nyssa had laughed.
This is modern-day natural selection at work. The Pit cannot be used for such selfish purposes. Or on someone with so little value to offer. Even once the Pit is fully operational, I would not use it for such weaknesses as familial bonds.
Natural selection.
The words had sunk into Selina’s brain. Burned there.
Perhaps you should go back into training, if such sentiments are still a concern to you, Nyssa had mused.
Selina let her face become cold, heard herself speak the distant, formal words that convinced Nyssa such a thing was unnecessary, that she accepted Nyssa’s decision.
Then she had planned. With every hateful word out of Nyssa’s mouth, she’d planned.
She remembered that scientist’s password, his directions.
How to access the formula. How to steal it.
She had killed him. For this woman—this League.
And she would make up for it. To save Maggie and to honor the dying man’s wishes.
No, it would not fall into the wrong hands.
Selina slid back into the obedient, quiet role they expected of her. Went on enough successful missions that Nyssa seemed to forget about her request. And the night before she was to leave on another mission…
She slipped into that lab. And she stole every file and note. All of it, everything the scientist and his partners had discovered, downloaded onto her flash drive, then deleted from Nyssa’s own. Deleted from Talia’s files, the League backups.
A few more commands had her gaining entry to Nyssa’s bank accounts. Moving huge amounts of cash into a new Swiss account that she’d established on her last mission.
Money to start with. To get access to what she needed.
She left at dawn, right out the front door.
But not before she trashed the Pit. The scientist’s files had shown her how to do that, too.
Part of her wished she could see the look on Nyssa’s face when she entered that underground lab and found the pool to be dead. Forever.
Selina was long gone by the time Nyssa did. She knew, though, that they’d find her sooner or later. That Nyssa and Talia would use their usual methods to hunt her down.
So she’d come to Gotham City. Not because it had once been her home, but because it was the one place where a young, brilliant