Silent Knight
"Farewell Old Friend"
CHAPTER 1
"Get up..."
Bruce Wayne mumbled from under his mask. The iconic black, pointed-edge mask of the Batman.
"I said get up..."
Bruce's voice got stronger and louder. The agression in his words becoming more and more evident as he knelt over a motionless shell of a being.
"Listen to me! You get up now! I can't... I need you..."
Bruce's voice turned to an agressive shout before breaking into an emotional cry for help. The distress in his voice had never been more obvious as he collapsed over the top of the lifeless body that lay in front of him. The body is that of Alfred Pennyworth. He lay on his side, a little pool of red oozing from underneath him as Batman removed his mask from his head and carefully rolled Alfred onto his back. Bruce gasped as he caught sight of the gunshot wound on Alfred's left shoulder, close to where the once beating heart of his trusted butler was located. He tried to apply pressure but it was pointless. Alfred was very much dead. Not even the Batman could save him.
"I'm so sorry..." Bruce wailed. "I should never have left..."
Bruce trembled from a mixture of hysteria, fear and grief. He hadn't experienced those feelings to this degree since he lost his parents many years ago. He unclipped the long, black cape from the back of his armour and gently placed it over his fallen ally, his most loyal friend. Tears streamed down his face, and although he stood there, all six feet of him, an absolute brute of a man who had fought against the World's most dangerous, psychopathic villains and criminals, a man who had experienced pain on both a physical and mental level that no other human being could cope with, he stood there, glaring down at the silhouette of Alfred's corpse beneath his cape and had never felt like more of a child. A lost, lonely child. After all these years of having Alfred's support, care and love, it was now gone and Bruce Wayne was most definitely alone.
Bruce took a few moments to gather himself together. He picked up his mask and carried it under his arm as he surveyed the scene around him. A mass wreckage of steel and rubble surrounded, encasing Bruce on a platform within the Batcave. Bridges broken, computers crashed and equipment destroyed. Years of work undone by an unforeseen attack. An attack that confused Bruce. He asked himself who would betray him and give up his identity. Not many people know and of the people that do, Bruce could not comprehend any of them turning against him or submitting his secrets. He had been very careful about who knew, keeping the loop to the absolute minimum. Vicki Vale knows but is the only person left in Bruce's life that he can truly say he loves, he didn't want to ponder, even for a split second, that Vicki would disclose his identity to anyone. Bruce is also of the opinion that Jim Gordon knows who he is but has never actually said it directly to him, surely the Commissioner wouldn't rat him out if he didn't have confirmation himself.
The only other person who truly knows, is Nightwing AKA Dwaine Ward. Dwaine had trained and resided in the Batcave under the watchful eye of Batman. Bruce took him in when his abusive, negligent father cast him into the streets of Gotham to fend for himself at the age of thirteen. With only a couple of bucks in his pocket, he came close to giving up his soul and joining the Falcone crime family after his reputation spread as a skilled thief. Batman quickly became aware of Carmine Falcone's interest in the boy and began tracking Ward. He caught him stealing food from a small corner shop and decided to apprehend him without the armour; instead, he approached him as Bruce Wayne and took him to Wayne Manor at the suggestion of Alfred who then convinced Dwaine that there were better ways to generate money and create a life worth living than joining a mob. Dwaine then begged Bruce to teach him the code of justice so that he could carry out the same duty as the Batman and protect Gotham from the evils that dwell within the city. Bruce trusted Dwaine, now nineteen years old and carrying out solo missions. He had proven his loyalty to Bruce on numerous occasions.
Bruce was more worried about wether or not any of them were in trouble. His mind was pulsating with the notion that any of his other close friends had suffered the same fate as Alfred. In this moment of panic, he grasped an iron bar that blocked his path and forcefully pushed it away, creating a small gap in the rubble for him to squeeze through. He felt guilty about having to leave Alfred's body in the midst of all the destruction but if Vicki, Gordon or Dwaine were at risk, then he had to get himself out of the Batcave, no time to carry a body out either. There was nothing more he could do for Alfred. In his desperation to escape the wreckage, Bruce literally clawed his way to an exit.