Disclaimer: I do not own Batman...unfortunately. All characters belong to the great genius who created them. Apart from my own ;) Enjoy!

Heavy rain spat against the ever crowding buildings in Gotham City, street lights attempting to liven a city that was deeply filled with despair from the inside, criminal activity occurring everywhere you turned. Street corners now consisted of many dealers with handshakes here and there of done deals, rogue cops, judges being wealthily paid for illegal activities from mob dealers and worst of all the true monsters of the night that hunted down and preyed upon their victims. The numbers just kept on rising and rising, now more than never.

This is what Commissioner James Gordon saw each night as he patrolled from the Narrows of the city to even the 'safer' areas. This is what Gotham had to put up with since the recent death of Harvey Dent, the 'White Knight' A true hero of Gotham who unfortunately was murdered by the vigilante know as Batman, or so the public believed. This was to be the supposed cover story that Batman had enforced since the Joker's reign and torture over Gotham and its residents. There were only the selected few, those involved that night that knew the real truth of what occurred. Batman didn't kill anyone. Batman, the masked crusader…..WAS a hero.

FLASH BACK (1 MONTH AGO)

Dent, holding Gordon's son close to him had one arm secured around the boy. In the other Dent held a gun.

"I've done plenty wrong, Gordon. Just not quite enough. Yet." He states, squeezing the gun in his hand tighter against his son's neck causing him to whimper. Gordon doesn't move, he can't, his family's life depending on it.

"You don't want to harm the boy, Dent" a voice growled from the side causing Dent to turn. A shadowed figure steps from the shadows. Batman.

With one last try to save the boy Batman desperately tried a new approach.

"You're the one pointing the gun, Harvey. So point it at the people who were responsible. We all acted as one. Gordon. Me. And you."

With his deranged mind, Dent agrees "Fair enough." And with success, Dent eases his grip on James. Gordon sighs in relief inside but the worst is far from over. .

"You first." Waving the gun at Batman

Dent raises the two-faced with his left hand, he flips it and lands in his palm. Tails.

BANG!

Everyone jumps in shock, Batman collapses to the ground clutching his side full of agony and pain.

"My turn."

He flips the coin again, it lands. HEADS. Dent looks down, seemingly disappointed. He moves on again clutching the gun and points it at James's head.

"Your turn, Gordon"

Dent flips the coin high, raising his head to follow it…..

…..Suddenly a large shadow crashes into Dent, tipping them all over the edge. A scream is heard a thud then silence. Horrified Gordon runs to the edge of the building and peers down. Harvey Dent lies at the bottom, his neck broken, dead. His heart in his throat, Gordon waits for a second when suddenly his son swings into view having been saved by Batman, he reaches down as he's hurled up. Safely in his arms, he holds his son close and closes his eyes in thanks.

A crash of pipes, wooden floorboards and collapsing framework echoes up through the floors shocking Gordon into action another hard thud is heard like moments a go. No…..

With the entire Gotham Police force preparing to storm in, Gordon rushes down the stairs, with no movement coming from Batman. With his radio at hand he prepares to call for back up and aid, his arm is caught by a gloved hand. The masked man moves slowly, staggering to his feet in obvious pain, a grave look upon his face as he looks at Dent.

"The Joker won." Gordon stares at Harvey. "Harvey's prosecution, everything he fought for, everything Rachel died for. Undone. Whatever chance Gotham had of fixing itself... whatever chance you gave us of fixing our city... dies with Harvey's reputation. We bet it all on him. The Joker took the best of us and tore him down. People will lose all hope."

"No they won't" Batman faces Gordon, his dark eyes meeting his own "They can never know what he did."

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I can do those things because I'm not a hero, like Dent. I killed those people. That's what I can be."

Gordon shakes his head in disbelief, angry. "No, you can't! You're not!"

"I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be." He gives Gordon the radio, hoping he understands why this needs to be done. This will be the last time they would work together, share their morals and trust. Now, Batman trusted Gordon to do the right thing.

"Call it in." he whispered.

END FLASH BACK

Gordon sighed; standing upon the MCU tower besides the destroyed 'Bat-light' a glimmer of hope still stood that Batman would turn up at least one of these nights. Yet, there had been no signs, no sighting, nothing. It was if the Batman had completely disappeared off the face of the Earth. He couldn't blame him, he supposed. Orders now where to shoot the Batman on sight or chase him down at full force if spotted. An idiotic rule in his opinion. Yet, Jim Gordon knew, that somewhere, out there, his partner was applying justice to the criminal underworld and he would soon return to the city that needed him. It was his home. And Gotham needed him, soon.

Lucius Fox looked down at the lifeless body before him. Dark hair slicked back roughly to one side held by a sharp angular face of a very wealthy man. Yet if you looked for more than just a few seconds and past the portrayed mask of a dizzy billionaire playboy you would see beyond the façade. Indeed, many would notice the deep lines of worry and stress on his face matching the bruising purple shadows below his eyes. If Lucius could sum up Bruce Wayne at this moment in time, it would be: exhausted.

Maybe I should call Alfred, what is happening to you Bruce? He thought.

Yes, Fox was aware that Bruce was the masked vigilante Batman and was used to him sleeping through meetings half way through but this was unethical, for Bruce's own health. The man was pushing himself too hard, running around all night staying hidden from both law breakers and enforcers. Travelling out of Gotham City only to arrive back in the perimeter at dawn. The man's going to collapse, well, I suppose he already has. He shook his head and headed towards the desk a few feet away and pressed speed dial.

"Good Afternoon, Wayne Residence." came a polite voice through the phone.

"So formal Alfred, as always." Lucius grinned.

"Ah, Lucius….of course, in this household someone has too." Alfred replied in a pleasant tone. "Wait, Master Bruce, has something happened?" his tone leaning towards concern.

Lucius sighed. "I wouldn't say something has happened exactly-"

"He's knocked out isn't he?" Alfred sighed down the phone. Know you're limits, Master Bruce he remembered saying. "He hasn't slept for days Lucius, always working, researching, and going outside of Gotham every night. I….even I'm not sure what to do anymore. It's been a month, even more since Rachel….but nothings getting through. The boy's stubborn, just like his father, as you very well know."

Lucius smiled at the thought and looked at Bruce Wayne, very much like his father, he thought.

"Should I come to collect him?" Alfred asked.

"No. There are no other meetings to attend to today. I'll watch him for now; I may actually give him something to keep him down longer. Get his energy back; he's sure to need it."

"Thank you. Erm….has he seen the headlines yet? He left straight away this morning from his nightly…patrols. I tried to keep him inside but-" he halted, he didn't need to explain, and everyone knew what Bruce was like when he got his mind set. That and along with the fact that Mr Wayne wasn't a morning person didn't tend to help matter.

"No, no he hasn't. Would you prefer it until he got back home? I can drop him off or something in order to avoid reporters; I'm surprised they're not swooping round as we speak." Lucius flipped on the security screening as he spoke, his intellectual eyes monitoring each movement. They're all vultures.

"Much obliged Lucius; I'll send a car to make things easier." Replied Alfred, after saying their goodbye's and ensuring that Bruce was safe, Alfred turned around and stared across the room of the pent house. It felt so empty, even though Wayne Manor was practically bigger, he couldn't wait to get back to his proper home, to walk along the halls again and relive memories. Hopefully, we'll be home by the end of next week, he thought.

His eyes then swept towards the newspaper he had collected in order to give to Master Bruce this morning. Reading the front page, his eyes grew full of sorrow and even a hint of anger. How could they do this after so long? After all the pain and time that it took to get things right again? He picked up and folded the paper under his arm, closing his eyes trying to imagine Bruce's reaction.

The four words stayed imprinted on his mind and he knew that deep down that this was only the beginning of events that were about to occur.

WAYNE MURDER CASE REOPENED?

A/N - So what did you guys think? Am I heading in the right direction here and would you want more? Please feel free to comment if you think anything could be improved, etc. This is my first fic after all :)

I aim to upload the next chapter by tomo night at the latest! Enjoy! ;) x