Batman hesitated for a moment before climbing back into the Batmobile and returning to Wayne Manor. Sitting in front of the powerful computers, he pulled up the profiles of Jason Todd, Martha Wayne, and Vesper Fairchild. He re-read the information on each one, pausing to gaze upon their visage for a few minutes before moving on to the next.

He closed the screen and was about to leave the computer when the darkness of the cave was briefly illuminated by yet another flash of light. A vaguely familiar man's voice said, "Impressive, son. I imagine you have my profile recorded as well."

Batman spun around in the chair. "Father?"

Thomas Wayne stepped out of the shadows and stood next to his son. "Jason did tell you there would be three visitors," he said.

Pulling the cowl back from his head, Bruce gave a slight nod and said, "I've already been told that I need to let people close."

"And how do you plan to do that, Bruce?"

Bruce sighed. "They don't understand my mission. Whatever it costs me is something I'm willing to pay."

"What about the ones around you?" Thomas asked. "The ones Vesper showed you?"

Bruce paused, eyebrows furrowed as he thought about that for a moment. Finally, he said, "I'll have to find a way to meet those needs, but without jeopardizing the mission. Maybe the Wayne Foundation -"

"- is a poor substitute," interrupted Thomas. "You can do a lot of good with money, and you have. But money can't fill the empty place in a person's heart and soul." He stopped for a moment before adding, "And as things stand, your 'mission' is gong to take even that away."

Bruce digested that briefly, sitting with his elbows on the arms of his chair and his fingertips touching in front of his face. He then reached back to pull his cowl back on and said simply, "Show me."

Suddenly, the cave dissolved into a downtown sidewalk. The alley ahead of them had three police cars and an ambulance parked at the entrance.

Renee Montoya was talking to an obviously rattled young patrolman. "The shoot-to-kill order was still in place, Richards," she said. "If there's any heat, it'll come down on the Commissioner, not you."

"But I never thought ...," began Richards.

"You can't second-guess yourself, son," Commissioner Akins said. "He was warned, but he put himself in harm's way."

He turned to Montoya and said, "Any more information since you called me?"

"Still waiting on the final word from the paramedics, but I couldn't find a pulse."

With that, the crowd parted, and a gurney carrying a very still caped figure was moved toward a waiting ambulance.

Akins turned his attention to the paramedic, who answered the unspoken question with, "DOA. Bullet entered the left cheek about an inch below the edge of the cowl. There's no exit wound, so it's likely lodged in the brain."

Akins nodded and, looked down at the body on the gurney. The cowl had been removed by the paramedics, but the right side of his face was clearly recognizable.

"I'll be damned," muttered Akins. "All this time, it was Wayne? Helluva way to celebrate Christmas, playboy." He then turned back to Montoya.

"I want you to get out to Wayne Manor," Akins said. "Take some uniforms with you. Get that place locked down, though. And keep off the radio with this. If there's somebody out there listening, we don't want to tip them off. I'll be out there myself shortly to see what kind of secrets he had hidden."

"So that's how it will end?" Batman asked.

Thomas answered, "If your path remains unchanged, yes."

"I always thought it would be the Joker, or Two-Face," Batman said. "I still don't understand, though, how this has anything to do with my letting people close to me."

"A couple things, Bruce," replied his father. "First, if you had cultivated the closeness and trust with Commissioner Akins that you had years to develop with Jim Gordon, there never would've been a shoot-to-kill order given. But secondly, you would've had somebody here to back you up. A second person to split the burden of the city, and a second set of eyes when yours were too fatigued to see the officer who shot you."

Batman took a long breath, and then shook his head. "It's my responsibility. If I die in the process, so be it. But I can't ask somebody else to place themselves in the path of a bullet just because I might get tired."

There was the pop of a flashbulb, and Akins looked up to see the photographer that was about to take another picture of Batman's body. "Hey, get the hell out of here," Akins snapped, then turning to one of the uniformed officers, he added, "Would you mind escorting the press away from the crime scene until we're finished up here?"

"He should've taken the camera," Batman said.

Thomas nodded, and as he reached into the deep pockets of his coat, he said, "But he didn't. Look at tomorrow's front page."

Batman took the paper and unfolded it to see the headline screaming, "BATMAN SLAIN BY GCPD! IDENTITY REVEALED!" The picture of Batman's body was next to a file photo of Bruce Wayne at a charity ball, surrounded by a group of lovely debutantes. Bruce shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Father. I'm sure that's not the legacy you would've preferred for the family name."

"It's not about legacy, Bruce," chided Thomas. "I couldn't care less what historians who don't know any better write about us. No, it's about lives. Namely, the ones that are going to try to keep going on going after your death." He waved his hand, and the nighttime street was transformed into the steps of police headquarters, where a podium was set up and members of the press were gathered and waiting.

Akins stepped up to the mike and said, "The investigation into the activities of the vigilante Batman, better known as Bruce Wayne, has continued in these months since his death. I'd like to announce that we have today taken into custody an Alfred Pennyworth, Mr. Wayne's butler and, we believe, co-conspirator in his illegal and unauthorized activities. Although we were unable to bring Mr. Wayne to trial, we will continue in our efforts to track down all those who aided and abetted him."

As reporters began to pepper the Commissioner with questions, Batman said, "They can't possibly make a case for that. All they can do is make assumptions, but they can't prove anything."

Thomas asked, "Tell me, Bruce, is that the Gotham legal system you know?"

"With Alfred gone, is Dick in the Manor?"

Thomas shook his head. Another motion and they were standing where there should have been an elegant pewter arch over the path leading to the mansion. The arch was gone, though, replaced with a pair of marble columns which were carved in the shape of voluptuous nymphs.

Batman began walking up the path toward what had been Wayne Manor, followed by his father. They could see from a distance that the building was ablaze with lights, and music was pouring across the lawn. He stopped short when he saw the familiar stout form standing at the door to welcome the mayor and his secretary. He turned to his father and asked, "How?!"

Thomas sighed and said, "There was a class action civil right lawsuit filed against your estate by a large number of those you fought over the years. They won, and your personal assets were auctioned off to pay the settlement. The manor was bought by Mr. Cobblepot."

"Penguin owns the manor now?" Batman said with clenched teeth.

Thomas nodded, and suddenly they were in the center of the Batcave. At least, what had been the Batcave. The trophy room was filled with boxes of smuggled contraband. There was a steady stream of traffic in and out of the room as some boxes were taken to the dock where the Batboat had once been moored, and other boxes were being unloaded from a couple of trucks sitting where the Batmobile had once been parked. The mighty Cray computers had been replaced with surveillance monitors, picking up signals from hidden cameras on a number of street corners and alleyways, not to mention offices and bedrooms.

One of the images on the monitor caught Batman's eye. "That's my office at WayneCorp. What's a LexCorp logo doing on the wall?"

"It might be easier to show you," Thomas said, and they found themselves at the entrance to a large office building at noon. A group of workmen had just removed the sign reading "WayneCorp" and were breaking it up to fit better in the nearby dumpster. There was a large tarp-covered object on a flatbed truck, and after finishing with the old sign, they pulled off the tarp to reveal a sparkling new sign: "LexGotham: A Subsidiary of LexCorp Industries".

"That can't be true," Batman exclaimed. "Lucius would never…"

"Lucius Fox is no longer here, Bruce," Thomas said. "Auditors put together a list of large items thought to be missing and assumed lost from WayneCorp warehouses. They put it together with anecdotal reports of the tech you used as Batman, and while there wasn't enough there to press charges of embezzlement, it was more than enough for the board to remove Lucius from his position."

"But Lucius didn't know anything about it," Batman answered.

Thomas nodded sadly and said, "That's what he told the board, but nobody believed him. They said it 'strained the bounds of credibility' to think that your handpicked choice to run the company would have been kept in the dark about what you were doing."

"What's he doing now?"

"He's out in Seattle," Thomas answered. "Oliver Queen is on the board of a small private high school there, and he made sure they hired Lucius to teach sophomore business classes."

Batman paused for a moment, then turned to Thomas and asked, "But LexCorp? When Superman and I forced Luthor to admit his Darkseid connection and he left the Presidency, he didn't have anything left. Wayne Industries had bought LexCorp."

"True," Thomas said, "But in the process, some LexCorp shareholders wound up on the Wayne Board. Lucius had kept them under control, but after your identity was revealed, he lost a lot of his backing. The Luthor people were a solid block, and Lex knew about the skeletons in enough closets to control them, behind the scenes, of course."

Batman shook his head sadly, saying, "At least Lucius had something to go to."

"True," Thomas said. "Which is more than some of the others could say."

"Where are the others?"

Instead of answering, Thomas gave a quick wave, and they found themselves in a small dojo. They watched for a moment as two women sparred back and forth. They seemed evenly matched until the taller of the two slipped through her opponents defenses, and after a couple of quick strikes, the smaller woman was on her back. The taller woman stepped back from her sparring partner and tossed her a a towel, She said, "Better, Cassandra, but not good enough. We'll do more after lunch."

Batman muttered, "Shiva." Turning to Thomas, he said, "Why? Why would Cassandra go to Shiva?"

"After her experiences with Cain and then your death, she closed herself off to anybody who might possibly be a father figure. She was on her way back to Gotham to find Barbara or Dinah, but her path crossed Shiva's."

"So she's given up as Batgirl to be an assassin? I can't believe that."

Thomas shook his head. "She may not be wearing the Batgirl costumed, but she still believes in saving lives, not taking them. She thinks she can learn skills from Shiva without going all the way to the taking of a life. Shiva, of course, has other ideas. She also thinks Shiva can be changed, but the jury is out on that as well."

"So she left Robin alone to handle Bludhaven in Nightwing's absence?"

Thomas shook his head. "Tim's not in Bludhaven, either." Another wave, and they were in the dining room of Titans Tower. It was empty except for Starfire and Cyborg, who were staring out the window.

"So what do we do with him?" Cyborg asked.

"I don't know," Starfire replied. "There's no question that he learned a lot from Oracle, and he's got our information systems running better and smoother than they ever have. But still…. "

"I know," Cyborg agreed. "He's a fighter but he's stopped fighting. I don't know if we're helping him or hurting him by letting him set his own time table for getting back onto the streets."

At that point, the door opened, and a haggard looking Tim Drake passed silently through with a sandwich. "Hey, Robin," Cyborg said, "How're you doing today?" Without looking at him, Tim shrugged and disappeared through the door leading to the computer center.

"The Titans are the only ones he could turn to?" Batman asked. "What about Barbara, or Dick, or even Selina? Where is Dick, anyway?"

Thomas placed a hand on his son's shoulder, and said simply, "This isn't going to be easy, Bruce." Then the now familiar wave of light brought them to the hallway of Gotham Heights Nursing Home. The hallway was festooned with tinsel and colored lights. A seemingly out-of-place policeman stood on guard outside one of the rooms. As they entered the room, they saw Dick lying motionless on a bed. Various tubes and wires hooked him up to a respirator, an IV bottle, and an assortment of monitors. Barbara Gordon was sitting next to his bed, his hand limply resting in hers. Against the far wall, Selina Kyle was sleeping in one of the chairs.

Batman pulled off his cowl and softly asked, "How?"

Thomas took a deep breath before answering. "He came to Gotham after your death, and he became something of a madman. Barbara tried to talk him into slowing down, but he just worked harder. Finally, the lack of sleep and proper food caught up with him, and when he tried to take down Two-Face, he was badly beaten and left for dead on the docks. The doctors don't believe he's likely to ever emerge from the coma, but Barbara and Selina refuse to let them even discuss turning off the respirator."

Bruce swallowed hard before speaking. "I know Barbara and Dick have always had a special relationship, but why is Selina staying? They were never particularly friendly."

"He is your son," Thomas said simply. "It's like he's the last part of you left for her to hold on to."

He paused for a moment before going on. "The city has gone to court to have a guardian appointed who would have the authorization to sign the order to remove life support. Barbara is trying to fight it, but since she's not a relative, the city stands likely to win their case."

Bruce stared in silence at the scene in front of him for a short while before saying, "Enough. I've seen enough." Thomas nodded, and suddenly, they were back in the Batcave.

Bruce sat slumped in his chair for several moments before asking, "What am I supposed to do? Even if I did everything that Mother and Vesper said I should, in terms of letting people get close, even if I somehow got Akins to see things differently, I'm not immortal. Is everything and everybody so fragile that it will all come apart when that day comes?"

"No," said Thomas. "There are many ways to live and to die, and the reactions of those around us will be different with each one of them." At this point, he walked over to Bruce and crouched in front of him, looking him in the eye like he had when Bruce was a boy and they had to talk about "serious things".

"There are people who care about you, and you keep pushing them away," he said. "Let them close enough to draw strength from you, close enough for you to draw strength from them. That strength can carry you to a life that may not end in that alley, but, more importantly, it will also give them the strength to carry on when the day comes that you are gone." He placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. Then he was gone, and Bruce was alone.