Characters and locales belong to DC. I'm just playing with them.
Timeline: No Man's Land
Thanks to Debbie for research help and beta work!
Homecoming
There was no point in returning to the manor. There was nothing for him there but memories. They'd already cleaned out the cave weeks ago—and whatever part of the house hadn't sunk underground was hardly livable. No, he had other, better arrangements. There'd be time to check them out soon enough. For now, though, he needed to re-establish his bearings.
Batman sighed inwardly. So much had changed since the Cataclysm. Most of his 'roof routes' were unusable—too many buildings had either collapsed or been structurally compromised. The few people he'd encountered had barely spared him a first glance, let alone a second. His city had stopped screaming, but it was still whimpering.
He hadn't had to come back, of course. He could have stayed in Monaco, playing the fop while working behind the scenes to get Congress to revoke the No Man's Land Act. Lucius was working on that, right now.
He could have gone the media route—tried to drum up grassroots support for Gotham. He imagined Oprah would be thrilled to get him on her show. But that wasn't him. It could be, he supposed, if it was necessary—but his time in Washington had driven home the message that the Bruce Wayne persona wasn't one to take seriously. How many people could 'affable Brucie' really convince?
Ultimately, he'd decided to return to the city he knew, to do the work he did best, in the clothing in which he felt most comfortable. Unfortunately, Gotham was no longer the city he knew. It was more than the obliterated landmarks, the missing people, or the refuse in the streets. The city had lost its soul. He'd thought that nothing could be more devastating than the quake itself. He'd been wrong. Gotham was dying. It just didn't seem to know it yet.
His feet grew heavier with each step. He was on North Island, now entering into one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. At least it had been before. Cataclysm had proven to be the great equalizer. He wasn't paying attention to the route he was taking, but his boots knew the path.
Batman blinked when he realized where he was standing. Over the years, he had come to know every crack in the pavement, every brick in the surrounding walls, every nick on the two dumpsters. Crime Alley hadn't changed. Outside it, the city was rubble, but the alley was the same.
For once, oddly, being here gave him a feeling of peace. He sank to his knees on the pavement. The manor might be gone, but Batman had been born here in Crime Alley. For the first time since he'd returned to the city, he had the sense that he'd come home. And home was badly in need of a cleaning. He straightened. There was work to be done to bring Gotham back from the brink—acres of it. But it could be done. He just needed to make a start and the rest was bound to follow. "I will," he said aloud, knowing that he was making another vow. "Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes." Alley by alley and block by block, Gotham would return, and he would be there to make it happen.