Chapter Summaries

After Fanny was found murdered in Jena’s dorm room, Jena and Schiller reconstructed how the killer may have mistaken Fanny for his intended target. Jena identified Milos as the likely killer, and Gordon concluded that Fanny had died in her place.

• Gordon, Victor, Schiller, and Barry arrived at Gotham University, where Jena recognized the dead girl as her roommate Fanny.
• Barry and Victor questioned Jena about why Fanny was in Jena’s bed, while Jonathan Crane arrived at the murder scene and exchanged accusations with Schiller.
• Jena explained that her conspicuous red dress might have made Milos believe she had seen him after he killed Chick.
• Jena said Milos may have gone to her dorm to silence her, but Fanny had taken her bed while Jena was away.
• Gordon concluded that Milos may have intended to kill Jena, but killed Fanny by mistake.

Schiller explained how Pelota’s jealousy and competition with Fanny could have led her to manipulate events around Jena and kill Fanny to create an opening in the Chemistry Department. The group left the murder framed as a struggle for immediate personal gain rather than a romantic or ritual motive.

• Schiller told Jena that Fanny’s habit of encroaching on her territory reflected jealousy and a desire to dominate her.
• Jena and the others concluded that Pelota had likely stimulated Fanny by telling her about Jena, then directed Milos toward Jena as a potential witness.
• Schiller reasoned that Pelota and Fanny were each other’s closest rivals, while Jena’s plan to leave the group made her less of a threat to Pelota.
• After learning that Pelota wanted to change majors, Schiller proposed that she killed Fanny to free a place in Chemistry.
• Victor and Gordon speculated about other possible motives, and Schiller argued that ordinary personal gain was the likeliest explanation.

Schiller and Victor examined the timing and circumstances of Chick’s death, concluding that Milos may have manipulated Chick into suicide rather than killing him himself. They set out for the Gotham Police Department to find evidence that Milos and Chick met before Chick died.

• Gordon said he would question Milos and Pelota, while Jonathan suggested removing surveillance cameras from the ventilation system Maintenance Room and Schiller ordered Brainiac to keep him in the Nature Reserve.
• Victor reasoned that Chick likely died after one, but Milos had an apparent alibi, and proposed that a delayed hanging mechanism could explain the timing.
• Schiller pointed out that an ordinary person could not easily evade Brainiac, enter Chick’s crowded home, and kill him without alerting Chick’s mother.
• Schiller concluded that Milos may have verbally encouraged Chick to commit suicide and said they needed to prove the two had met after Chick left them.
• Victor and Schiller prepared to go to the Gotham Police Department to investigate, and Schiller frowned after checking his watch and the sky.

Schiller pressured Milos by claiming Pelota had framed him for Fanny’s murder, and both Milos and Pelota confessed. He explained that Chick had staged his hanging to pressure Victor, but a blocked window caused the plan to go wrong.

• Schiller told Milos that Pelota had killed Fanny and planned to blame him, pushing him to consider whether she would betray him.
• Schiller explained to Victor that Chick had not intended to die and had staged a public hanging to make people blame Chick’s mother and pressure Victor.
• Gordon reported that Milos and Pelota had confessed, while investigators suspected Chick’s death was an induced suicide complicated by an accident.
• Schiller examined a photograph of Chick’s window and identified the clutter around it as the reason his plan failed.

Schiller and Victor uncovered how Chick accidentally fell to his death and how Pelota murdered Fanny to frame Milos, but Brainiac reported that Pelota had died during a prison transfer under unexplained circumstances. As Schiller and Victor set out to investigate, they noticed Gotham’s sky remained unnaturally dark well after sunrise.

• Schiller explained that Chick likely slipped while clearing clutter from the window and fell, and Gordon agreed that poor visibility and blocked windows kept anyone from noticing.
• Gordon confirmed that Pelota had stabbed Fanny in Jena’s bed and framed Milos to remove an obstacle to joining the Chemistry Department.
• Schiller reflected on his failure to warn the young people firmly, while Victor agreed that kindness and tolerance could not solve every problem.
• Brainiac reported that Pelota died during a transfer after a car accident, though the surviving footage did not show how she was killed.
• Schiller and Victor realized it was 7:30, yet the sky remained completely dark despite sunrise having passed.

Schiller and Victor investigated Pelota’s gruesome death in an overturned prison transport van and deduced that at least two Superpower Users had staged the attack. As they left the scene, they realized the sky was still pitch-black at 8:20, with no sign of daylight.

• Victor and Schiller found Pelota torn apart in the transport van, with enormous claw marks, bite marks, and a huge footprint nearby.
• Schiller concluded that the killer could transform into different beasts and had targeted Pelota, while another Superpower User had likely caused the van to crash by freezing the road.
• Schiller suggested the scene might be a staged ritual, and Victor reported the deduction to Gordon before worrying that he might be suspected because he could freeze water.
• Victor asked Brainiac to investigate Superpower Users, but Brainiac said it was checking whether Pelota had abused dogs and mentioned following Superman.
• Schiller pointed out that the sky remained dark at 8:20, despite the expected return of daylight.

Jena discovered that Pelota had marked Barry with a deadly force in the Speed Force, and Barry sent her to uncover Pelota’s secret. Jena and Zan intercepted Pelota’s transport, but Pelota revived and attacked Jena in a monstrous form.

• Jena told Schiller and Victor that she might be in Big Trouble after sensing danger connected to Pelota.
• Jena shoved Barry away from Pelota’s unseen attack, and Barry found that Death had marked him in the Speed Force and asked Jena to investigate Pelota.
• Jena contacted Zan, and they planned to make Pelota’s transport crash so Jena could question her.
• Jena transformed into an insect, entered the transport, and waited as Zan caused it to roll over.
• Jena found Pelota apparently dead, but Pelota seized her wrist, sprang back to life, and attacked as a gigantic creature.

Schiller and Victor learned that Jena had mutilated Pelota’s body after believing Pelota died in a car accident and fearing the truth would endanger Jena’s brother. An earlier accident suggested Pelota had died and mysteriously revived, and Schiller headed to Arkham Asylum as the investigation turned toward Gotham’s dark past.

• Jena admitted she staged Pelota’s gruesome death scene to conceal what happened and protect her brother, while Schiller explained that she had imitated a Sherlock Holmes case.
• Schiller proposed that Pelota had already died before Jena encountered her, and Brainiac showed footage of Pelota being struck by a cargo tricycle three days earlier.
• Schiller reasoned that the tricycle driver had found Pelota without vital signs and fled, while Pelota later revived and went home without reporting the accident.
• Brainiac identified the driver as a former freelance Assassin and confirmed that he had confessed to finding Pelota apparently dead.
• Schiller reflected on Gotham’s return to the light after its dark age and told Victor they were going to Arkham Asylum.

Schiller learned that the Black Death Emperor had extinguished the sun by forcing it into the black dwarf stage, bringing extreme cold and a threat to Gotham. He sent Edward to Krypton for safety and worked with Victor to freeze Gotham, which was ultimately sealed in ice.

• Schiller found Edward improving but moved him out of the endangered hospital and arranged for Brainiac to send him to Cobblepot on Krypton.
• Schiller and Brand concluded that the Black Death Emperor had targeted the sun, rapidly turning it into a black dwarf and triggering extreme cold.
• Schiller told Victor that the sun had gone out and asked him to freeze Gotham before the cold worsened.
• Victor organized a precise citywide freezing project at Gotham University's cryogenic laboratory, with Schiller assisting.
• Victor and Schiller froze Gotham.

Jena investigated the links between three Gotham University deaths and concluded that their hidden connection lay in the South Side. She left the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Department believing she had found the source of the chaos, while Barry remained caught up in an unexplained problem involving his superpower.

• Schiller and Victor bickered in the lab, and Victor welcomed Nora before Schiller’s mind-reading narration exposed his feelings and embarrassed him in front of everyone.
• Amanda questioned Jena about the deaths of Chick, Fanny, and Pelota, and Jena described a careful, seasoned killer with a concrete motive who had been influenced by something.
• Amanda argued with Jena about Barry, and Jena left the FBI office to seek help from the Behavior Analysis Department.
• The department told Jena that Chick’s window frame might have been tampered with, though investigators had not confirmed the theory.
• Jena realized that the South Side connected the cases and identified it as the source of the chaos.

Jena connected the student deaths to a plot using Victor’s pressure to drive a wedge between him and Schiller. The group headed to Gotham’s central roundabout while Schiller became Victor’s assistant.

• Jena entered Victor’s laboratory, saw Schiller and the students frozen in Dense Ice, and told Victor the South Side connected the cases.
• Jena reasoned that the killer was trying to pressure Victor through Milos and turn Victor against Schiller, who would defend his students.
• Jena concluded the killer likely had a personal grudge against Schiller and might be a colleague; Victor realized Schiller had suspected this already.
• Schiller taunted Victor by describing his anxiety, and Victor froze him before freeing the students and leading them toward Gotham’s central roundabout.
• Victor returned, shattered Schiller’s ice, and ordered him to come along as his assistant.

As the sun decayed and Earth’s temperature plunged, Victor used Dense Ice to stabilize Gotham while Schiller relied on the city’s allies and resources to prepare for a global freeze. With the immediate crisis being handled, Schiller focused on finding Hugo Strange, then returned to the laboratory and exposed Victor’s private thoughts.

• Victor deployed the Stasis Atomic Energy Barrier over Gotham, stopping its temperature from falling and stabilizing it near minus ten degrees Celsius.
• Victor began researching how to freeze Earth, while Brainiac arranged the necessary materials and the group considered gravity, plant life, and Superman’s lost solar energy.
• Schiller concluded that Hugo Strange would likely target him next and that Arkham Asylum was already prepared against an attack.
• Schiller asked Killer Croc to install a large felt board in his office, then pinned clues and evidence to organize his investigation.
• Schiller visited Victor’s laboratory and revealed Victor’s sentimental thoughts about their past, prompting Victor to protest that Schiller had read his mind.

Schiller trapped a student sent by Hugo Strange and warned Gordon that Strange may have returned, while Brainiac’s strict evidence rules made it difficult to pursue either man. Schiller left to seek another way to expose Strange as Gotham’s night stirred forces that isolation could not contain.

• Schiller lured an intruder to his office with police evidence photos and froze him using Victor’s cryogenic trap.
• Gordon questioned Schiller’s plan, and Principal Shivan asked them to keep the incident quiet to protect Gotham University’s reputation.
• Schiller persuaded Shivan to send capable graduates to watch the South Side villas and told Gordon that Hugo Strange may have returned.
• Gordon and Brainiac explained that Schiller could not join the police because of his record and Brainiac’s strict screening rules.
• Schiller considered how Brainiac’s evidence standards and limited understanding of mental control could help Hugo evade capture, and concluded that proving Hugo’s death and resurrection might expose him.
• Schiller put on his coat, took his umbrella, and walked into Gotham’s night as the Nature Reserve’s isolated beasts stirred.

Jena and Tim investigated a ritualistic murder in Morson Street, where Jena’s empathy revealed that the killer was mocking someone who sought to use eternal night to bring death. They concluded Jerryta’s corpse was only one part of a larger offering, but they had no clear lead on the next victim.

• Amanda summoned Jena to Building C on Morson Street, where she joined Tim Drake at the crime scene.
• Jena entered the house and experienced the killer’s thoughts while examining Jerryta’s mutilated corpse and the blood-clot constellation.
• Tim identified the constellation as Scorpio, and police confirmed that Jerryta was a corpse abuser with sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS.
• Jena concluded that the killer had staged Jerryta’s death as a ritual and a mockery of death, rather than as punishment for his crimes.
• Amanda ordered Tim to investigate the twelve constellations, though he noted that Scorpio offered no way to identify the next victim.

Jena and Tim investigated a string of murders during Gotham’s eternal night while Schiller left with Victor to help save Earth. Jena identified Jonathan Crane as the next killer, and the chapter ended with the investigators finding a convincing copycat crime scene after confirming Professor Rodriguez had left.

• Jena told Tim that she suspected someone in Pelota’s resurrection case but could not trust her own conclusions, and Brainiac reported two more bodies.
• Schiller refused to investigate the murders, then joined Victor at Gotham Docks to travel into the Atlantic for Icebound Earth.
• After Schiller departed, Brainiac received reports of more killings, and Jena identified Jonathan Crane as the next murderer by the unnatural smell of fear.
• Tim identified the third killing as a neighbor’s revenge murder, then recognized a supposed murder as Jack’s insurance scam.
• At the fifth crime scene, Jena and Tim recognized an exceptionally convincing copycat and concluded that Professor Rodriguez could not be responsible because he had left.

Brainiac apprehended Jonathan Crane, who explained that he had stolen a corpse to investigate the Living Corpses and warned that Gotham was the likely entry point for their enemy. The chapter left Brainiac weighing Jonathan’s deductions as murders continued to threaten the city.

• Tim advised Brainiac and Jena to detain Jonathan Crane first so they could focus on the copycat murders.
• Brainiac found Jonathan working beside the corpse he had poisoned and learned that Jonathan had stolen it from the coroner.
• Jonathan said he had killed Pelota, a rebel connected to the Child Kidnapping Case, to study how the dead might return to life.
• Jonathan warned Brainiac that an enemy seeking mass death could use Living Corpses to spread infection, especially if someone like Jonathan were controlled.
• Jonathan argued that the enemy would target Gotham because its death rate was higher and Brainiac’s control there was weaker.

After Gotham’s murder wave began, Brainiac warned citizens and opened the Citizen Protection Centers, but many residents treated the killings as an invitation to revive old criminal pursuits. As the murders reached eight, Jena and Tim concluded that one killer was using the crimes to display personal strengths, though they did not know who the intended audience was.

• Jonathan told Brainiac that no one could truly control Gotham, and Brainiac recognized that the city’s murderers were trying to draw the mastermind’s attention.
• After five more murders occurred, Brainiac publicized the cases and activated the Citizen Protection Centers to protect Gotham’s residents.
• Gothamites responded to the murder reports by preparing weapons and defenses at home, while a secretive society revived its communications.
• Jena and Tim examined another murder scene and reasoned that the killer was displaying traits such as theology and an unusual perspective, almost like a résumé.
• Tim asked who the killer was trying to impress, and Jena asked Ms. Waller whether investigators had learned anything new about the victims.

Jena and Tim investigated why Jerryta, a corpse collector who had desecrated bodies, survived despite the Mafia’s reason to kill him. They suspected Hugo Strange had protected him, and Jena questioned whether Hugo was truly dead.

• Amanda gave Jena the new victim’s background, and Jena and Tim concluded the killer had chosen him to point them back toward Jerryta.
• Tim proposed that Jerryta’s former work connected him to the old Mafia families near the docks, so he and Jena went to ask Alberto Falcone about him.
• Alberto explained that the Mafia would have killed Jerryta for desecrating a corpse unless someone powerful had protected him.
• Jena and Tim reasoned that Hugo Strange may have protected Jerryta to study his disturbing fetish.
• Jena asked whether Hugo Strange was still dead.

Tim, Jena, and Alberto investigated why the mastermind revived Hugo Strange and how Jerryta’s death might connect to him. They realized Jerryta’s surviving wife could provide evidence about Hugo’s death, and set out to find her.

• Jena argued that the mastermind may have turned to secret tactics after direct attacks and emotional manipulation failed, possibly against Batman.
• Tim asked Alberto to investigate how Hugo Strange died, while he and Jena examined the Resume Assassin’s clues about Jerryta.
• Jena and Tim suspected Hugo had been revived and killed Jerryta, who may then have been revived and killed again by the Resume Assassin.
• Alberto revealed that Jerryta’s wife had worked with him as a corpse collector and was still alive, so the group went to find her.

As a global cold snap drove people into shelters, Victor and Schiller’s delayed Dense Ice Shield helped limit the Living Corpses’ chances to spread, while Gotham’s murders multiplied. Brainiac contained the shelter attacks but remained baffled by the Living Corpses, and Schiller reminded him that Gotham’s killings still awaited his attention.

• The Dense Ice Shield was completed after Victor delayed its activation at Schiller’s suggestion, and the severe cold drove people worldwide into shelters.
• Brainiac focused on searching shelters for Living Corpses after deciding Gotham’s murder victims were not innocent and its cases were beyond his useful analysis.
• Living Corpses attacked people in shelters, but Brainiac contained the disturbances before they caused widespread panic.
• Victor and Schiller returned to Gotham as its murder count reached twenty-two, and Victor planned to send Billy and another person to Krypton for safety.
• Brainiac told Schiller that his technology could not distinguish Living Corpses from the living, while Schiller urged him to seek outside help and warned that he would eventually have to return to Gotham.