For the first time in five months, Lucius Fox woke up in his own bed.

Not exactly his own bed - his old house was in the no-man's-land zone, back in the area of the city that was one of the first to be captured by Bane, followed swiftly by the citizens of Gotham. But he always kept a bed in Wayne Enterprises for those long nights, and that was where he slept that night and where he woke up that morning.

He hesitated a moment, then looked out of the window. Wayne Tower was the best observation point in the entire city, and its central location and height allowed Fox a clear view of Gotham City - or, at least, of what was left of Gotham City.

The east side looked completely deserted. To the west Old Town, all the way up to Grand, and it was still burning, although the fires that burned red and yellow yesterday were only smoke now. The financial district and city hall looked like a military camp - they probably were, he thought. Further west, the bridges to the mainland already had crews on them, working tirelessly to open up the routes - at least in one direction, Lucius thought as he saw the tanks and trucks waiting in front of the broken bridge. And over there, over the bay...

He averted his gaze from the window and walked instead to his computer. To his surprise, the damn thing still worked. Five months, camps and refugees and hell on earth, and his office in Wayne Tower was left untouched. The generators stayed operational, his desk remained undisturbed, and finding a way to access the internet was much easier than he thought it would be.

Gotham, of course, was at the centre of all the news, but Lucius was more interested in information about the outside world. He read the news, and as he read more and more of what was going on outside, his brow furrowed and his excitement was replaced with doubt. They couldn't possibly be serious...

"I see you heard, then."

Lucius paused, froze just a moment before he raised his eyes.

Alfred Pennyworth had obviously not spent the past few months in Gotham. He looked too tidy, too... clean, Lucius decided as he caught a glimpse of his own jacket, in dire need of washing. Or maybe, now that he had access to new clothes, he should simply throw it away...

Lucius stopped that train of thought. His mind was wandering. He knew why, of course, but Lucius Fox was never a man to shy away from responsibility.

"What are we going to do about it?"

For a moment Alfred looked angry, and Lucius knew exactly what was going through the man's head. We? But then he nodded. "I figure we'd go to the governor and try to explain Jim's situation," he said. "I could do it, but I figured, since you were here all this time..."

"I'll come with you," Lucius said immediately, then looked again at his jacket. "Perhaps I should change clothes first, though."

"No." Lucius raised an eyebrow. Alfred's voice was harsher than Lucius could ever recall. "Better remind them you've been here all that time, that you know what you're talking about."

"And that we weren't sitting on our asses waiting for the army to save us. You have a point."

Alfred held his gaze for just a moment too long, and then Lucius grabbed his jacket and they went out to the street.

Outside Wayne Tower, the city felt almost abandoned. Lucius had lived in Gotham City his entire life, but he could never remember it being this quiet, this eerily silent. The sun's rays sparkled on the fresh layer of snow, and Lucius felt as if he was walking inside a fairytale street rather than downtown Gotham.

The fairytale, of course, didn't last long. Three blocks from Wayne tower and already the snow had become a filthy mess, more brown than white and in various stages of melting. The smoke from the night's riots encroached on them, together with piles of rubbish and the sound of shouting. Another two blocks, and they ran into their first military checkpoint.

Lucius started patting his pockets in vain, hoping to find some sort of identification. The rows of people who were forced at gunpoint to kneel on the ground alarmed him - they couldn't possibly have all belonged to the rioters of the night before. And he didn't at all fancy joining them. It would be some feat, to have stayed out of harm's way until now only to be arrested by the military, he thought as he realised he had no official document on him, nothing to prove he was the CEO of the most important company in the city.

Alfred saved the day. Of course he did, Lucius thought and shook his head in amazement as the old butler took out an official looking document and showed it to the soldier. A quick radio chat with an unknown person on the other side - the officer who issued the document, most likely - and the soldier let them pass without further comment.

"I entered the city with the National Guard," Alfred explained, undoubtedly prompted by Lucius stunned face. "Had to make sure I wasn't going to be arrested by the rest of the forces."

"No wonder he was always so prepared, with you at his side," Lucius said without thinking. Only when he met Alfred's harsh expression did he realise what he had said. He didn't get the chance to say anything more, though - they immediately ran into a second military checkpoint.

After the second came the third, then the fourth and the fifth - every two or three blocks there was another road block, another checkpoint, more soldiers or police or special agents, who knew from which agency. At each point they could see them, Bane's men or citizens of Gotham - or both - sitting on the road, their arms above their heads, some blindfolded, some tied up, some just sitting there in boredom, all at the mercy of the soldiers' boredom or anger or apathy.

It wasn't just the numbers - the closer they got to the makeshift military camp and to their goal, the harder it became to go on. They had to wait longer at each checkpoint; the soldiers were more and more rude, and by the seventh or eighth checkpoint, Alfred had to demand to speak with their commanding officer before someone checked the authenticity of their papers.

Two blocks from the main camp, their journey ended. That makeshift road block was made of burnt cars and pieces of concrete; the walls in the buildings around them were full of bullet holes; and on the road, even the children were bound and blindfolded. Lucius shot Alfred a look, and prepared himself for another tough crossing, but that never came. After thirty minutes of idle waiting, he lost his patience and started shouting on the ill tempered, rude young soldier. Before Alfred could say a word, the man - boy, really, Lucius had to admit afterwards - ripped their precious document in two, and ordered them to 'go back where they came from'. Lucius's attempt to argue that 'where they came from' would last all of two blocks before they got stuck in another checkpoint did not impress the soldier.

"Was that really necessary?" Alfred asked when they were both sitting on the road, two feet from the checkpoint, their throats sore from shouting and the air of defeat falling all around them.

It was perhaps that feeling of defeat that caused Lucius to snap. "Don't start," he said.

"I'm just saying - "

"You weren't here for five months. I've had enough of kids with guns."

"Well, this is so much better, isn't it?"

"They weren't going to let us through anyway."

"You don't know that. You're just being irresponsible, you've always been irresponsible, just like when - " Alfred stopped abruptly. He didn't have to finish that sentence - Lucius knew what was on his mind. Automatically, he looked around, checking that no one was listening, that no one had realised what - who - they were talking about, then caught himself. Did it really matter anymore if people knew the identity of the Batman?

Yes, he thought. There could still be repercussions. For Alfred - and for Lucius himself. They all liked the Batman now, but once the dust settled - well. Just look at Jim Gordon. And they failed to help him, too.

No, Lucius realised all of a sudden. He wasn't going to let Jim pay the price. He got up, dusted his jacket - lost cause, but it made him feel better - and marched back to the soldier.

Fifteen minutes of arguing later, and he got an interview with the boy's commanding officer. Lucius recognised her - "Ramirez, isn't it?" he asked. She didn't answer, just listened to their pleas stone-faced. But maybe there was some sympathy for them hidden inside that stoney expression after all, or guilt, because fifteen minutes after that they were in a military jeep, escorted to see the temporary new head of the Gotham Police. Even Alfred looked mildly impressed.

But even all of Lucius' determination couldn't help them once they made it face to face with the police.

"Out of the question." The temporary Commissioner was a big man, well nourished, a man who looked grumpy at being forced to sleep outside of his bed for one night. He was nothing like the rest of them - those who spent five months running for their lives, or locked underground, or hiding from Bane's goons.

Still, Lucius breathed deep, counted to ten, then tried again. "If you would just let me explain the role Jim Gordon played in defeating Bane, I would - "

"Doesn't matter what he did." The man took another sip from his coffee. "That's not what this is about."

"Then what is this about?" Alfred asked. Had the man known Alfred half as well as Lucius did, he would have been on edge at his tone. But he didn't, so he just looked at the man dismissively.

"It's about responsibility, Mr Pennyworth. Commissioner Gordon was the symbol of authority in Gotham - and he stood by and let a madman take over."

"He didn't let him do anything," Lucius snapped again, this time at a more appropriate target. "Bane had the whole city hostage. Jim Gordon had to run for his life - "

"Ah, and that's exactly it. He ran, Gentlemen."

"He tried to find a way to defeat Bane."

"That wasn't his mandate. That was up to the army, to the President. No. Jim Gordon was supposed to show the citizens of Gotham that law and order were still important in the city. He didn't. He betrayed his position and he betrayed his rank and he betrayed the people of Gotham - and by doing that, he betrayed his country."

"Standing up to them in broad daylight would have only gotten him killed! What good would that do? He served Gotham by trying to fight Bane! And he did a damn better job of it than you!"

"That's enough, Mr Fox. Now if you'll excuse me, I have more urgent things to do. I will have someone take you back to Wayne Enterprises. Good day, gentlemen," he said and left them. Through the open door, Lucius could see he had a new visitor - Foley's wife. There would be no begging on behalf of Jim Gordon from her, Lucius thought darkly.

He remained quiet all through the ride back to the Wayne Enterprises, and next to him, Alfred looked deep in thought.

The building was still undisturbed. Lucius didn't even have the energy to wonder why - how, in this city full of destruction and war, they were allowed to remain in the one island of tranquility. He just enjoyed the quiet. They walked inside, and all of a sudden Gotham City disappeared and all that was left was serenity. Serenity and exhaustion. Lucius wanted a warm meal, he wanted a hot shower, he wanted to crawl back into bed and wake up once the city started functioning again, once the men with the guns - whichever faction they belonged to - were gone, and he could go back to normal.

But crawling into bed was the last thing on Alfred's mind. Lucius sighed and followed the man to the top floor, to Lucius' office. He wasn't surprised when Alfred reached for the secret button, the one that opened the bookcase to reveal a lift, a lift that would take them down to Applied Sciences.

"If they're not going to release Jim Gordon," Alfred pointed out, "we're going to have to do it ourselves. If... the Batman," he hesitated, then continued, "is gone, then it's up to us to do what's right. I hope you have some toys there we can use, Lucius."

It took them a while to dig up those 'toys', as Alfred called them, out of Applied Science. The entire place was a mess - Bane's people had left no stone unturned. But Lucius was relieved to discover that Bane's men had shown very little interest in most of the department - only the Tumblers and the weapons had interested them, it seemed. Grapple hooks, EMP generators, a whole roll of memory cloths... Lucius and Alfred started picking up those things they might need.

And then Alfred paused. "What is it?" Lucius started asking, but Alfred hissed at him. And now Lucius could see it. Something was moving, right at the corner of his eye... One of Bane's men, who had found refuge in Applied Sciences? Cops who found their way into the department through the tunnels? Alfred picked up a grapple gun and advanced forward. Lucius, for lack of a better weapon, grabbed a long, light metal rod. He doubted it would do much good if he had to beat someone up with it, but perhaps he could use it as a spear.

But no need - it was just a cat. They came prepared for a fight, but the damned thing meowed at them and tried to rub its head on Lucius' leg.

"Shoo," he told the cat off, while Alfred laughed. The cat glared at him, and jumped on one of the tables. "I wonder how it got in," Lucius told Alfred, but Alfred was no longer listening. He was examining a stain, thick red liquid on the floor where the cat had been - blood. It was moist, almost dry. A day old, perhaps two.

"Maybe it's the cat," Lucius suggested.

"Maybe. Or whoever let the cat in," Alfred said, but there was no sign of another living soul in the building, just Lucius and Alfred and the cat, so they went back to work.