AN: I do not own Batman, Justice League, etc. You'd know I wouldn't be writing FanFics if I did

Nightwing remembered reading the case file entitled 'Hereafter'. The world had thought Superman was dead. The world had mourned. It had been a public affair, both his death and his funeral. Everyone from Lois Lane to Lex Luthor had shown up to honor the man of steel.

This was not that funeral.

Oh, the world knew all right. It just didn't care. Perhaps it was better that way. Superman was larger than life, at the front of the charge. He may not have wanted the glory, but he certainly got it. Batman was different. He was created out of need, born in darkness; Bruce probably wouldn't have wanted such a public end, anyway. He hadn't even shown up for Superman's funeral. It looked like Clark was returning the favor.

Dick Grayson stood in the shadows of Wayne manor. It was raining, like it always was in Gotham. But this time, it felt like more.

Barbara wheeled up to him and grabbed his hand to get his attention.

Her glasses were streaked with the rain, but it could not hide her tears. "I don't think anyone else is coming, Dick."

Dick looked at everyone who had gathered here. The crowd was quite small for an event at Wayne manor. Dick, of course, and Barbara. Damien had come, appearing right before from the shadows. Everyone knew he would disappear just as quickly when this was over.

Stephanie and Tim had come, hand in hand. Bruce and the others had been at their wedding a few months back.

Cassandra was standing a ways off from the others. Even though she knew how to speak now, she still preferred to remain silent, watching and observing everyone else.

Jason had been there for a while, and he had been drunk for most of it. His friends, the outlaws, Starfire and Arsenal, stood respectfully behind him. They weren't really here for Bruce; they just wanted to support their friend.

And Alfred. Always Alfred, waiting to help the rest of them, making sure everyone else was okay before even considering himself. Even now, he stood, diligently passing out umbrellas when he should have been grieving with the rest of them.

Selena had come. Out of everyone they had expected, she was the most surprising. She and Bruce had had a falling out a few years back. They had come so close to being happy together, but Bruce had pushed her away. Like he always did. But this time, she didn't come back.

Now she was here, with her hands resting on Barbara's chair, tears streaming down her face, as she looked at the most recent grave in the Wayne family cemetery.

Alfred came foreword and rested a hand on Dick's shoulder. "Master Dick, if you do not want to lead the ceremony…"

Dick shook his head. "No. I do. It's just…"

Alfred's face showed he understood. His hand lingered on his shoulder a moment longer.

Dick closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He hadn't prepared anything for this; he thought that, deep down, if he just ignored the fact that he was gone, he would go down into the cave one day and find that Bruce was there, going over the case file for yet another atrocious crime committed by one of Gotham's finest. But he wasn't.

He thought it was ironic how the man had survived the Joker, Bane breaking his back, the death of his parents, Darkseid, even going back in time through all his different reincarnations, but the thing that had gotten him in the end was a stray bullet from one of the police officers at the scene.

Jim Gordon was devastated, and furious. When he found out who was responsible, the man was stripped of his badge. Barbara had only just managed to stop him from pressing charges. It wasn't the man's fault; the police unfortunately weren't trained well enough to do well in situations like that.

Dick walked up to the grave, then turned around to face the others.

"I only ever called Bruce 'Dad' once. I think it was the second time I was kidnapped, or maybe the third. I wasn't wearing the mask at the time, which made it all the more real to me.

"I had been there for hours, and of course the men had asked for money. But Bruce didn't pay right away, so they decided that he needed some more incentive. So, of course Batman chose that moment to burst through the skylight. They flinched away from the broke glass, and back right into him." Dick chuckled. "I remember laughing at how scared the looked."

Everyone else smiled at the memory. No one ever quite figured out how the Batman could instill such fear into men who worked with people like the Joker, especially since he wasn't going to kill him, and everyone knew it.

"The men were down in minutes, and Bruce had cut me out of the ropes after a few more seconds. He held me in his arms, and told me how scared he'd been when he heard what had happened to me. I never understood what was different that time; people who were much worse had kidnapped me before,, but I never saw him as scared for me as he was then. I hugged him back, and said, "It's okay, Dad; I knew you were coming to save me." We both jerked back a little in shock; I had never called him that before. And I never did again, because it felt like I was betraying my real parents. I knew it probably hurt him, but I just couldn't do it. And now he's gone."

Harley stood on the hill with a few others, watching the ceremony. They didn't have umbrellas, but they weren't really the umbrella type.

Two-Face, Killer Croc, Penguin, and the Riddler stood with her. The Joker had told her who Batman was a long time ago, before they had gone their separate ways. She had never cared, just like he had never cared. But when it came on the news, she told the others, and asked if they would come with her.

And here they were. They knew how much damage they could do if they told the world who these Bat-Freaks were, but they just couldn't bring themselves to do it.

Penguin crossed his arms and huffed. "I still don't see why we won't drag these brats through the mud with the rest of us."

Two-Face grunted. "I flipped for it; we all agreed."

Killer Croc spoke up. "It's a good idea, but I just… can't"

Riddler smiled, like he knew something they didn't. "We all respected the old man too much to do it now."

Everyone looked at him, and he blushed for a moment. "What? It's true! He was as smart as I was, he kept the Joker relatively in line for years, he used to be Two-Face's friend, helped Harley start a new life, and could knock out sewer breath over there in three seconds flat."

Killer Croc growled at the insult, but nodded grudgingly. "He's right. If even the Joker wouldn't stoop that low, then neither will we."

Harley laughed. "Yeah, I never did get that one." She paused for a moment. "It won't be the same without him. I don't know what Mr. J is going to do."

Everyone fell quiet at this. They turned back to the funeral below. It looked like the one who had been speaking had dropped to his knees. The one in the wheelchair came up next to him.

Penguin spoke up again. "What happens now?"

Riddler stared down at the people below him as he answered. "For once, I have no idea. This is all we've been after for years and years. But now that we've finally won…"

Harley felt a tear go down her face. "Why does it feel like we lost?"

Talia stood next to her father in the tree line. Their assassins had seen the Gotham scum on the hill and alerted them, but it looked like they were here for the same reason the League was. To watch. Because somehow, even though she might even be welcomed just this once, she couldn't bring herself to go down there, with her love's heartbroken children.

Ra's looked down with something akin to sympathy on his face. "He was a great man. It is not just for his end to come like this."

Talia nodded in agreement. "But not everyone agreed with his methods, or understood his reasons. He has angered many people in his life.

"Myself included. And yet, I am here. Even his rouges gallery has shown up to see his passing, with one notable exception. But his so-called friends cower in their Watchtower. It astounds me, how these heroes act in the face of death."

The leader of the League of Assassins looked down at the funeral below. "So ends the life of the great Detective. Sit autem omnis homo velox ascension mea. Ave atque vale." May your ascension be quick, my friend. Hail and farewell.

Then he swept his cape over his shoulder and disappeared into the shadows, along with the rest of the assassins. Talia was the only one that remained.

She slumped against the tree next to her for a moment, allowing tears to stream down her face now that her father was gone. He did not like to see weakness in his soldiers, and despite their familial ties, she was still just that. His soldier.

As Bruce's oldest dropped to his knees, and the other's converged around him, Talia too was overcome with grief. He had not cared for her in years, and she had pretended the same. She drove her own child away in an effort to forget him. Now he was gone, and she could never tell him, tell either of them, how she really felt.

"We could have lived forever. You could have chosen happiness instead of your righteous fury, and your broken family. But your mission always came first, didn't it, Bruce." Talia spoke to him as if he could hear her. She wished he could, so that he would know.

"Good-bye, my beloved. May you finally find the happiness you deserve."

Then she stood, wiping the tears from her cheeks. He was gone, and there was nothing she could do that her beloved could accept. So she would move on. Perhaps not in the sense that there was someone else, but in the sense that there was nothing left to cling to now.

So, the daughter of one of the oldest and most powerful men on earth turned away from the sadness below her, and disappeared into the shadows after her father.

Talia never looked back.

Diana and Clark stood side by side, staring down at the earth from their view on the Watchtower.

Diana's eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "We should have gone today."

Clark set his mouth in a grim line. "We haven't even spoken with him in years, not since he left the league. His actions that day were despicable, no better than those that we fight."

Diana turned to him, angry. "So that erases years of good deeds, of fighting beside us? All the good he did for his city, for the world?"

Clark opened his mouth to argue, but Diana turned away from him. "We should have gone today. We fought alongside that man for years, through countless battles. He saved our lives so many times that we could never repay him even if the gods willed it. And now he's gone, Clark!" Diana stopped fighting the tears and turned back to Clark.

"We never even got to say good-bye."

Clark held her close as she cried. And cried. And cried. Looking down at the world below, he used his vision to zero in on where he knew they would hold the funeral. Even he had his limits, so he could only see as if he hovered almost a mile in the air above them, but it was close enough.

He saw Bruce's family standing over his grave, crying. He saw the villains on the hill, and worried for a moment, but it looked like they weren't there to cause trouble. Even if they did, Clark thought wryly, they would have to get past the entire emotionally unbalanced Bat-Family. And, possibly, the assassins hiding in the forest. It was quite the odd group of people that had gathered to mourn Batman. But then, he was never known for being normal.

Diana pulled away from him, and turned back to looking at the ground below.

"I can't believe he's gone. I'm immortal and you quite possibly are as well, but for some reason, I always imagined him outliving all of us."

Clark smiled sadly. "He was too stubborn to die."

Diana laughed through her tears. "Yes, the man would never back down from a fight, no matter what it was about."

So, the two super heroes watched the Earth turn, as it always did, astounded that the world was not affected by the death of the greatest man either of them had ever known.

And sad, because they had never told him how they missed him, all these years.

Sad, because they never said good-bye.

The Joker tore though his workshop, throwing everything he could get his hands on, tearing up blueprints, setting fire to things. His henchmen cowered in fear, for they had never seen the boss this angry. Even that one time Harley betrayed him to the Batman.

One of the poor souls stepped foreword, hand shaking. "Uh, boss? What… what's wrong? I mean, Batman's finally g-gone. T-there's no one left t-to stop you n-now."

Joker turned his mad eyes onto the man. He cowered in fear, pushed back by the force of the man's glare.

"WHAT'S WRONG!? What WRONG, you blithering idiots, is that it was SUPPOSED TO BE ME! Not those morons down at the police station! What's the point of him being dead if I'M NOT THE ONE WHO KILLED HIM!?"

The men all yelped and ran out of the building. Joker turned and swiped all of the junk off of his desk, slumping in his chair and putting his head in his hands.

Serious for once in his life, his shoulders shook as he cried out in a bleak despair that was not associated with the Joker.

"What's the point?"

Everyone stayed at the Manor for a few days, which surprised Barbara. Her family wasn't the type to stick around in one place for very long, especially with each other. But somehow, just this once, they managed.

Barbara sat in her chair, watching as everyone got into their gear. Everyone was here, and they had left Gotham to it's own devices long enough. And, Barbara suspected, they couldn't stand to sit here any longer. They were a restless bunch, her family.

Dick was the only one not suiting up. His black Kevlar suit with it's blue bird across the chest laid in a heap where he had left it.

"What's wrong, Dick?"

Dick looked like he was in pain. And scared. But a sort of resolve came over his face, and he turned to Barbara. "Batman can't die, Barbara."

Barbara understood what he meant immediately, as did Alfred. The rest of them watched in confusion.

Barbara protested. "Dick, no. You can't. You don't want this, you never wanted this-"

"It doesn't matter what I want, Barbara. It never did. We all knew that this would be what happened, in the end."

Everyone was silent. Surprisingly, Jason was the one to come over and place his hand on Dick's shoulder.

"You don't have to do it, Dick. You shouldn't have to. Gotham can survive without Batman, despite what Bruce might have thought."

Dick chuckled darkly. "No. It can't" And then he turned and got the cowl from Bruce's case.

Everyone waited as he went and changed. It made Barbara want to cry when he came back into the room in the thing that had cost he mentor his life. And it made her sad beyond comprehension that even she couldn't tell the difference between them.

Dick spoke in an achingly familiar voice. "Let's go."

Barbara and Alfred watched as their little soldier walked out of the Bat-Cave and into the night.

Barbara knew where Dick would go first, and wheeled over to the computer.

Hacking into the private server that Bruce had used to contact her father, as well as the GCPD precinct's security cameras. When she couldn't find him anywhere, she knew he was where he needed to be.

She sent out the message, and then waited.

Jim Gordon didn't know what to do with the Bat-signal, now that Batman was gone. He wouldn't be fooling anybody if he lit it up in the hopes of scaring the criminal underworld.

But it felt wrong to just destroy it, after having it sit here for so many years. Maybe he could leave it here, as a kind of memorial for the hero. God knows he won't be getting any other kind.

Just as he was about to leave, his phone went off. Looking at the message, he thought it must have been some kind of trick. He had been there, he had watched Batman die. And yet, there it was, right on the screen of his phone.

Light it up. –B

Shaking his head even as he did it, he flipped the switch.

Everyone in the city looked up, or out their windows, in shock. How could this be? Even the Batman couldn't come back from the dead… Could he?

Jim watched the skyline in front of him for any sign of the man he had come to call his friend. Just as he was about to give up, a voice spoke from behind him.

"Evening, Commissioner."

Jim turned around and started at the sight before him. It really was Batman. Except…

"So, Nightwing, do you think you're up to the task? Those are some pretty big shoes to fill."

The former sidekick to the dark knight did him the courtesy of not questioning how he knew. "Well, even if I'm not…"

Suddenly five figures appeared behind the new Batman. The Commissioner recognized Black Bat, Spoiler, Red Robin, Red Hood, and Robin. The last of which stepped foreword to take his place beside Gotham's hero.

Batman smiled, sealing the theory that this wasn't the original.

"This time, I have help."

The end… of the beginning.

AN: Questions, comments, concerns? Review!