| Synopsis
| - With little other option, Red Hood and his companions drop Crux off at Arkham Asylum, knowing that it is the only place he will be kept out of society and away from Starfire. In the meantime, they have stolen his spaceship, and hope to use it to backtrack to Crux's hideout and steal his alien technology for themselves too.
Suddenly, Jason is surprised by the appearance of Essence, a woman with whom he once had a relationship while training with the All-Caste. She has come because she sensed the death of one of the nine Untitled. Jason, however, no longer trusts her. He believes that she betrayed the All-Caste by bringing the Untitled through their defences. He also notes that it was she who told him of his teachers' slaughter - only after it happened. And she had wanted him to break into the Chamber of All and track down and kill one of the Untitled. Not to mention that the All-Blade he has drawn can only be drawn in the face of absolute evil - her.
As Jason holds Essence at the point of his sword, Starfire and Arsenal suddenly become able to see her. Essence uses her powers to destroy the All-Blade, which is meant to be indestructible. Essence has become angry, and she explains that after she was cast out of the All-Caste, her battle with the Untitled did not end. She has been fighting the Untitled since just a short while after the sun first shone on the earth.
Before they were the Untitled, the nine were merely a clan of prehistoric men. They had not yet even developed speech. The oldest among them had discovered a well full of absolute evil, and enticed his companions to drink deep of the waters. Then, the darkest energy in the world rose up and entered all of those who were present, starting with the weakest. The most defiant of the assembled was Ducra herself. The darkness took her too, though. Essence knows all of this, because she was there too. She was a mere child, and she was Ducra's daughter.
Meanwhile, Starfire and Roy try to take on Essence without fully realizing how powerful their quarry is. She claims that no weapon made by man can harm her, which gives Jason an idea. While his friends distract Essence, he rushes off to find some of Crux's alien weaponry. Finally, he finds a gun whose function he can't identify, but in any case, it makes Essence disappear.
Afterward, Roy comments that it seems like he and Kori are the only normal people Jason knows, which prompts Jason to wonder if he ought to make some more friends. He remembers that a stewardess on the plane recently slipped him her number, and so he decides to give her a call. However, once she picks up, he hangs up on her, realizing that who he is makes it too hard to have a normal relationship.
Elsewhere, Suzie Su wakes in a Gotham hospital from a coma. She vows to take her anger out on the city until it gives up the Red Hood.
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