A brief history

Kate and her twin sister Beth (Elizabeth) were born to a career military family. On their twelfth birthday terrorists kidnapped the twins and their mother (Gabi). The rescue attempt led by their father, Colonel Jacob Kane, was something of a disaster, resulting in Gabi’s execution and Beth apparently killed in the crossfire. Impressed by these events Kate decided she would never be a victim and dedicated her life to serving and protecting others so that they may not know the pain she does. Following in her father’s footsteps, she focused her life with the goal of becoming an Army officer, ultimately attending West Point. While there, she received excellent grades and ranked at the top of her class. Unfortunately, the day before graduation, her commanding officer confronted with allegations of rumors of lesbian relationship with another class member and asked her to disavow the allegation. Kate refused to lie and violate the code of the Academy resulting in her expulsion.

Returning to Gotham, Kate was adrift and threw herself into the cities social scene until a fateful day when someone tried to mug her. Using her military training, she easily defeated the mugger just as Batman arrived. As the mugger fled with Batman on his heels, Kate realized how she could continue in her life’s goal of serving.

Since then she has been stabbed in the heart, received full sanction from Batman (as if that matters to her), had her twin sister return seemingly from the dead as the psychopathic villain Alice, discovered her father knew her sister might have survived (she hasn't spoken to him since) and taken her cousin Bette Kane on as a partner though she is trying to teach her a more military approach to vigilantism than Bette learned in her time on the Teen Titans.