WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for DC's Very Merry Multiverse short story "Holidays Beyond" by Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen, John Kalisz, and Travis Lanham, on sale now.
Even Batman celebrates the holidays -- or more precisely, even Batman Beyond celebrates the holidays. Terry McGinnis always considered the elderly Bruce Wayne to be a surrogate father, so it comes as no surprise that he'd want to get the curmudgeonly old man a gift for Christmas in DC's Very Merry Multiverse.
However, the lengths (and depths) that Terry went to for the perfect gift for the man who has everything brought some unexpected revelations about the past, present, and future of Gotham City. Even if it wasn't real, Terry got a vision of what his future and his child could look like subconsciously.
Having spent weeks secretly going through the Batcomputer, Terry discovered that Bruce had lost a submarine in Gotham Bay many years ago. Seeking to return it as a gift to his mentor, Terry deep-dived into the frigid waters to recover the ancient vehicle. Before he could get it to the surface though, he was attacked by Blight, who damaged the suit so badly it knocked Terry out and triggered his suit's emergency evacuation protocols. The suit returned Terry to Batcave even though he was unconscious.
Unfortunately for Terry, the sudden ascent from the seafloor to the surface gave him decompression sickness. The resulting illness triggered a series of visions of the past, present, and future of Gotham City -- a sort of A Christmas Carol for Batman. In the final vision, he saw a Gotham that had evolved. It stood pristine and bright, making even Terry suspect that he was actually in Metropolis instead of his hometown. But his guide for this particular vision, a cloaked Dana,, his girlfriend, revealed that it was indeed Gotham City, many years from Terry's present.
Terry was still a part of this future, but older and perhaps a little wiser. He was about to be mugged by robots when a new Batwoman swooped in to rescue him. She took them out quickly and silently, ensuring that the robots -- who had voice recognition software -- could not trace her voice back to her civilian identity. Terry, while disappointed he was no longer Batman in this future, was still curious to see who this new Batwoman was. As Dana and the vision disappeared, she revealed that the new Batwoman was their daughter.
While she remained unnamed and unmasked, several things can be gleaned from her brief appearance. For starters, she is much more focused and efficient than Terry. Her silence, while voluntary, is largely to protect herself, though she does debate Terry about it, since he was much more talkative during his time as Batman. This suggests that she has been at this for a while now and with Terry's full support.
In fact, Terry's daughter's style of handling being Batwoman is remarkably similar to Elainna Grayson, the Batwoman who Terry currently works alongside. Both are more serious-minded about their duty to protect Gotham City, and she could even take that after Elainna or even Dana in that regard. since it's hard to imagine Bruce living to the point where Terry has grey hair.
But one thing is reassuring in all of this. Even though it isn't really a true vision of the future, it is what Terry hopes for both Gotham City and himself: A better, more peaceful city, with a new protector ready to take up the mantle of the Bat when Gotham needs a hero.