Isobel looked at her face in the mirror. She was a true mixture of her parents. Her mother's dark eyes , her father's strong features and she'd inherited both their height and athletic figures . The only uninherited feature was her flaming auburn apparently due to Irish roots on her mother's side. Isobel was deciding what to wear to her father's newest fundraiser. He had always been passionate about investing money into ways to improve the city and the reconstruction of a monorail system that had been destroyed twenty years ago was something he'd wanted to do ever since Isobel could remember.

"He hadn't always been such a philanthropist" her mum had once told her jokingly. "He'd been quite the ladies man before we got married , brought fancy hotels that I couldn't afford to be seen in".

"Come on Rachel , I saw you for first time in ten years in one of my hotels" her father had laughed across the dinner table.

"Yes and you were wet and with European supermodels just climbed out of a decorative pool" Rachel shot back sarcastically then met Bruce's eyes and smiled , he returned her smile.

Isobel had always loved that about her parents , their silent attraction , the way they seemed to have their thoughts intertwined and the love they shared for each other made her feel grateful she came from such a loving family and with a privileged upbringing. Well , privileged would be an understatement. She was Bruce Wayne's daughter , the now "King of Gotham" , she had the world at her feet. Not only was she blessed with attractive features , intelligence and a fierce drive, she had also been an only child with no competition for her parent's time and lucky to go to Gotham's most prestigious and exclusive private school. Plus there was the fact she had a butler. Though getting on in his years Alfred had not lost his wit or charm and was like a Grandfather to Isobel.

A knock on the bathroom door. "Come in" Isobel called.

Her mother walked in with a black skirt and vest over a white shirt on. Over her elbows were neatly folded an electric blue blouse like shirt and a black high waisted skirt.

"Your father though these would go with your hair"

"Yet , he won't give them to me" Isobel teased

"You know how he feels about interrupting in the bathroom"

Isobel smiled at her mother , her mother handed over the clothes.

"Need any help with your hair?"

"No Mum , I'm 18 I think I've at least learnt how to use a brush"

"But for old times sake , it's so hard to believe you'll be going to college next year"

"Yeah but Mum , I'll be across the bridge you know that , I'll try to come home every weekend plus do you think Dad's going to let me out of his sights too?"

"I know you won't be that far but your father and I will …. Miss you. Don't worry he won't let you out of his sights if you're planning on going with Robbie , he might even send Alfred with you"

"If she's planning on going with Robbie , Alfred will be going with her and I'll have Mr Fox install some cameras in your room so I can watch over my daughter" came the deep voice of her father. Isobel turned around and saw her father standing in the doorway dressed in a suit.

"Dad you know that won't be needed. The clown doesn't come in my dreams anymore anyway , I don't need to be looked after and you know Robbie's just a friend"

"A friend whose been in love with you for the past five years" her father muttered.

"What was that?" said Isobel's in a tone mimicking her mothers.

"Nothing at all sweetheart" he said. She gave a glare.

"I think it's time we left her alone Bruce" sighed Rachel rolling her eyes and grabbing his arm. As they walked out of the fancily furnished bathroom , Rachel whispered

"I hope that boy doesn't get his hopes up"

"If she's anything like you , she'll have him by the balls and scare him in way in five minutes" Bruce answered with a sly smirk on his face. Rachel rolled her eyes and reached for his hand entwining their fingers.

Life hadn't always been so pleasant for Bruce and Rachel , come to think of it life hadn't always been so pleasant for anyone in Gotham. Since the "Depression" which happened approximately thirty five years ago , Gotham had been through many trials and tribulations. Mob families prying on the desperate using them as pawns in their drug dealing and shipping schemes , robbery , rape , murder and violent assaults were on the news at least three times a week and not to mention the corruption that oozed through the city's police department and legal system.

People like Bruce's parents Thomas and Martha Wayne , put a lot of money and time into setting up charities and fundraisers to help the poor and down trodden people of Gotham. They stood with constant vigilance against corruption in the legal system , would offer any assistance they could to the police and were on an endeavour to close , or at least narrow the gap that separated the wealthy from the poor. The day they died sent a shock of a million vaults to the entire city and the good that stood by them were buried with them on the day of their funeral. The city seemed on that further spiralling descent of corruption and crime.

Bruce had thought he'd lost everything he had the day his parents died and believed if it weren't for Alfred and Rachel , he would be buried in a closed casket with them. Bruce could not contain his anger, mixing his senses of justice and revenge. It took him seven years after the murderer of his parents was shot at his trial , after Rachel told him to look beyond his own pain , after he travelled throughout the coldest ,darkest corners of the world.

When he was accepted into the secret society "The League of Shadows" he'd faced gruelling physical training , his view on justice , right and wrong and crime completely changed. He vowed to use his compassion , moral strength and thirst to rid crime from Gotham as his greatest assets . He would not kill anyone and had faith that society could regain it's morals and trial these criminals according to their crime. On his return to Gotham he created a symbol. A masked vigilante. A creature who criminals would fear. Who citizens would look to as a knight. He claimed he was not a hero , but he was the greatest hope Gotham had , that justice would prevail. He stopped the League of Shadows from destroying Gotham , locked up three of Gotham's most notorious criminals of the past twenty years. The insane criminal psychiatrist Jonathon Crane , he used a hallucinogen drug that sent people insane whilst he aided the League of Shadows on their quest to see Gotham burn. The heinous robber , murderer a man horribly scarred , wore make up like a clown and was crazy. The man they knew as the Joker showed Gotham how one man could bring a city into living in fear. The Batman showed Gotham what one man could do to overcome The Joker.

Unfortunately the Joker left a greater impact on Gotham , then Batman ever could. Harvey Dent , the District Attorney who at the time was going out with Rachel , was kidnapped by the Joker , along with Rachel. On opposite end of the city they sat tied in ropes to a chair surrounded by drums of gasoline. Batman was given the choice , save the woman he loved or the man who was the great white hope of Gotham City. Batman had originally intended on going for Rachel but the Joker had swapped the addresses around , he tore down the door to find Harvey with half his face smeared in gasoline. The Police Commissioner Jim Gordon had arrived in time to save Rachel expecting to see Harvey. Moments later both buildings exploded in fiery rampage , Rachel though a little shaken , with bruises and a minor case of smoke inhalation was fine. Harvey on the other hand received horrendous burns down the right side of his face.

Rachel and Bruce had visited him in hospital , they tried to tell him everything would be alright . Plastic surgeons work miracles , it was not your fault but unfortunately as the fire went up an inner anarchist of fury , contempt and revenge filled Harvey. Gone was the man who hoped to rid Gotham of it's criminals and out of the dark clouds of smoke stepped a man who would punish on chance. The flip of a doubled headed coin , with one end charred in the fire. Land on the charred end and he'd kill you.

He broke up with Rachel angrily , accusing her and Bruce of having an affair. As Bruce tried reasoning he flipped his coin and told Bruce he was a marked man.

Days later , Gordon flashed the mighty sign in the air and Batman appeared no less then ten minutes later. Bruce remembered that conversation with such clarity and alarm , it still sent shivers down his spine. He could still feel the rain on his face.

"Listen , I've had a call from the Hospital , Dents gone"

"What? Ho-.. , How? He wouldn't have been allowed to sign out , I thought he was being monitored"

"That's the least of our problems……How much do you actually know about Harvey Dent?"

"He was……and could still be a man who believed in justice prevailing. He loved this city. He loved Rachel" Bruce strained his brain , trying to think of how much he actually knew about Harvey Dent.

"Listen , I dealt with him when he was an intern. A kid with a big dream , but he had a past. Borderline Personality Disorder ran in his family. His father and Grandfather were diagnosed with it. They used to call him Two Face back in the day. I've seen him switch from white to black and when he's black , it's ……it's I dunno , excuse the use of cliché but its like you see the devil , its so dark"

Two Face became infamous for shooting a lot of mob bosses , their lives hanging in the toss of a coin. He then went further then criminals and civilians were also at his coin's mercy. After the Joker was finally arrested and Two Face caught , civilians began to hate Batman believing these crazy men with a taste for theatrics would not stop while there was a masked vigilante.

Bruce put away the Batman suit , and crime virtually began to die out in Gotham. The rest as they say is history. Rachel married Bruce now that Gotham no longer needed Batman. Though on the occasional night Batman would appear to stop a robbery or an assault then flee for two years , but eighteen years ago , the Batman disappeared completely. Not since the Eighteenth of April 1990 , had Batman been seen. The day Isobel Rachel Wayne was born.