Bruce came running up into the manor, still wearing the Batsuit, yelling Alfred's name. He searched the study, living room and kitchen frantically. Finally, he reached the front door, where there was a note, small specs of blood on it.

Bruce,

First, release Tommy. This is between you and me. You can always deal with his little games later.

Second, come to the second apartment on the second floor of apartment building two B on second avenue.

Come alone or Alfred dies.

Your friend,

Harvey Dent.

Bruce crumpled the note in his hand. As he did, Barbara entered in her costume, Bruce pushing past her as she did.

"Bruce?" She asked "Did you get here? Is Alfred okay?"

"We've got a meeting, and I have a couple of calls to make." Bruce said, pressing two fingers to his ear "Dick, bring Elliot to the roof. I want answers."

...

Dick threw Elliot through the access door on the roof of the building. He'd left Victor downstairs to deal with Elliot's goons and the clean up. Apparently, the goons were the results of Pyg's experiments, something the retrieved notes had called 'dollotrons'. They were strong, they were resilient to pain, but they weren't bright.

"Wow. I'd heard you were the good cop, as it were." Elliot said, before Dick hit him in the face "I bet Bruce is so proud of you."

"He's your friend!" Dick spat "Why did you try to kill him?!"

"His father took everything from me." Elliot said "Ever heard the expression 'sins of the father'? What am I saying, of course you have. That suit you're wearing says it all. You're atoning for your father's sins."

"My father was a good man!" Dick yelled, punching Elliot again "Don't you ever mention him to me, or I'll-"

"Whoever said I meant John Grayson?" Elliot said, laughing "I'm talking about Bruce! He's given you something to aspire to, but you'll never be more than his side kick!"

"Shut up!" Dick yelled, swinging again, having his fist caught inches away from Elliot's face by a black gloved hand, looking up to see Bruce "About time you got here."

"Leave, Robin." Bruce said "That's an order."

"See what I mean?" Elliot said "You're not his partner. You're the pre-match show, before he comes in to play the match."

Dick clenched his fists, before Barbara put a hand on his shoulder, turning him around. He scowled at Bruce and Elliot before storming off.

"Go after him." Bruce said to Barbara, getting a nod in response, before turning back to Elliot "What did you do to Harvey?"

"I showed him the truth. About you, about me, about him." Elliot said "In school, we were called 'the Trinity', because we were the best at everything. I had the best medical mind, he had the best legal mind, and you, you were the single most analytical man I'd ever met. That was what gave you away, you know? I had hunches when I first heard of you, and I watched you, for months. Your work in Metropolis with Superman, by the way, was superb. I thoroughly enjoyed that. It was the final nail in your coffin though. You took a hit, and the next day, Bruce Wayne had an injury to match. I thought he deserved to know, and he agreed you deserve to be punished for your deception."

"Why, though?" Bruce asked "I heard what you said to Dick. My father wasn't able to save yours after the crash, but he saved your mother."

"Exactly!" Elliot yelled "I cut the break line. I tried to kill them. I wanted everything. But your father put a stop to that."

"You killed your father..." Bruce said, before his expression became stoic under the cowl "Tommy, I'm sorry. But you're coming with me."

"You can't do that, Bruce." Elliot said "It'd make things awkward. I didn't need the boy, he's been left a few miles out of town at a truck stop. My work was complete, but I couldn't have you or Harvey knowing that before the grand finale."

"What do you mean?" Bruce said, watching as Elliot removed his bandages, revealing a stitched together replica of Bruce Wayne's face "What did you do?"

"If you take me in, it'll look like the arrest of Bruce Wayne. Your family's legacy will be destroyed." Elliot said, pointing at the emblem on Bruce's chest "That tells me you won't allow me to cause that destruction."

"But if I let you go, my identity, and Dick's, is compromised." Bruce said, pressing two fingers to his left ear "Now."

A red and blue blur streaked across the sky to Bruce's location, descending rapidly to his and Elliot's level, before impacting the roof hard, causing hairline cracks to appear in it. As the dust cleared, Kent stepped forward, the red cape of his Superman costume billowing in the breeze.

"Thanks for coming." Bruce said as Kent restrained Elliot, tapping the man on the side of the head with a single finger, knocking him out "I appreciate it."

"I owed you one." Kent said, smirking "Where am I taking him?"

"Watchtower." Bruce replied "He knows who Robin and I are. He can't be taken to the police. Not immediately."

"I don't like where this is going..." Kent said, his expression stern "Bruce, what are you planning."

"I spoke to J'onn. He's agreed to put a mental block on Elliot, remove his knowledge of my identity, and Robin's." Bruce said "Then, he'll need reconstructive surgery, return his face to being his face."

"Yeah, I wasn't going to mention that bit." Kent said "See you around, Bruce."

"Yeah." Bruce said simply "Thank you, Clark."

Kent nodded before taking off and flying into the distance. As he did, Bruce pressed a control on his wrist, calling the Batmobile to his location. He had to confront Harvey.

...

"Dick, wait!" Barbara called after Dick, having followed him across the last few roof tops, calling after him the whole way, finally getting him to stop here "What he said... It's not true."

"No, he's right." Dick said "That's all I am... All we are, to Bruce. We're not his partners. We're his side kicks."

"Why would you think that?" Barbara said, putting a hand on Dick's arm "Elliot was just trying to get in your head."

Dick just turned, moving her hand off of him as he moved to face the edge of the building. Barbara walked over to him, grabbing him and spinning him around, before kissing him passionately.

"I'm getting mixed signals." Dick said as the kiss was broken, getting punched in the arm "Now I'm sensing more of them."

"The girl never kisses the side kick." She said, smirking at him "So, chin up, okay, bird boy?"

"Yes ma'am." Dick said, smirking back, waiting for her to turn before murmuring "Still got some things to think about..."

...

Bruce stepped inside the apartment building. He knew, with what Elliot had told him, that Harvey would probably have some kind of trap waiting. However, he had to go in. Alfred needed him, and after all the times Alfred had been there for him over the years, he owed the old man.

He reached the door to the apartment specified in the note, reaching into his belt and pulling a small, circular device with a tiny rectangle cut out of the top from one of the compartments, pressing it to the lock on the door, the sides of the device extending outwards as it was attached, giving it the appearance of a bat, a small, red circle flashing in the centre.

He covered his face with his cape, pressing a control on his belt, causing the device to detonate, destroying the lock. He darted inside, spotting Alfred tied to a chair in the corner, with Bruce finding himself facing down the barrel of a gun being held by Harvey in his right hand, a coin in his left, showing a scratched heads.

"Tails," Harvey said "you lose, Bruce."

Harvey pulled the trigger, firing the gun at Bruce before things went dark.

...

Bruce was in a brightly lit space, so bright he couldn't make anything out, with his cowl removed and in his hands. In front of him was a large, black mass. He began to move away from it, before finding himself facing a bat-signal.

"You're not going to let it end this way, are you, Bruce?" Came a voice from behind Bruce, who turned to see the figure of Clark Kent, wearing a white suit without the glasses "What happened to the man, the mortal man, who defeated a god?"

"I had help." Bruce said, removing his cowl "I wasn't alone."

"You've never been alone." Said another figure emerging from the brightness, revealing the visage of Alfred "You have always had us all."

"You need to survive, Bruce." Said Barbara as she appeared "Unless you're afraid."

"Remember what you told Scarecrow, all those years ago." Dick said as he came into view "You do remember, don't you?"

"I am vengeance." Bruce said, the entire environment becoming black as he pulled the cowl on "I am the night."

...

Bruce's eyes snapped open, Harvey barely having time to turn around as he rose up, punching Harvey in the bloody side of his face.

"I'm Batman." Bruce growled "Let me get you help, Harvey. Please, I'm you're friend."

"My friend?!" Harvey spat "You lied to me! You faced me and pretended we'd never met, and then you made me into this, this Two-Faced man!"

"Harvey, I'm sorry." Bruce said, before charging Harvey, tackling him to the ground, punching him hard enough to knock him out before turning to Alfred "Are you okay?"

"No Alfred, I'm not." Bruce said coldly as he untied the man before slumping down to the floor, removing the cowl and looking at it "Is it really worth it, Alfred? If it causes all this misery?"

"Maybe not, Master Bruce." Alfred said, sitting down beside Bruce and placing a hand on his shoulder "However, I know one thing. Your father would be proud of you, of the man you've become."

"You mean the man who spends his nights running around in a mask, yeah, that makes sense." Bruce said, continuing to look in the eyes of the cowl "No offence, Alfred, but your pep talks are only a bit better than mine."

"That's not what I meant, sir." Alfred said, taking the cowl from Bruce "This is what he would be proud of. You go out every night, you put your life on the line for others, and you do it knowing you'll never be rewarded for it. Your father was a good man, just as you are a good man. Yes, you've fallen. But if something falls, it can rise again."

Bruce didn't say anything as he looked at the old man, before finally smiling.

"Always picking me up, huh, old man?" Bruce said "What would I do without you?"

"For your sake, Master Bruce," Alfred said with a wry grin "I hope you never have to find out."

...

Bruce pulled back into the cave in the Batmobile with Alfred, the two men exiting the car. Dick and Barbara were already there waiting. Bruce nodded to Barbara's collar as he walked towards them.

"Shirt's inside out." He said simply "We'll pretend that's due to getting out of uniform."

"Shut up." Barbara said, blushing slightly "Did you get Harvey?"

"Your father's just taken him to Arkham." Bruce said "He mentioned having not seen much of you recently, you might want to go visit."

"I'll give you a lift, Miss Gordon." Alfred said, gesturing to the exit "Lead on."

Barbara and Alfred exited, Barbara taking a moment to look back before leaving the cave. Bruce and Dick stood there, looking at each other in silence. Finally, Bruce spoke.

"Dick, what Tommy said..." He began "I don't just see you as a side kick. You're my partner, and that's how it is."

"I know that. Barbara knows that. You know that. Alfred knows that." Dick said, pausing before sighing as he added "Which is what makes the next part so difficult."

Dick moved to the glass case by the armoury, containing his new suit, similar in design to Bruce's. It was black, with a red bird emblem across the chest, the wings joining onto an identical emblem on the back, with the wings extending down the arms down to the two middle fingers. There were mechanical blades akin to the ones on Bruce's suit on the wrists, and a black utility belt on the waist.

"I've loved this, being Robin." He said, looking at the suit "But I've filled out the forms, with Babs' help. I enrol at Bludhaven University on Monday. It's time I prove I can do this my way, on my own."

"If that's what you want." Bruce said, half cracking a smile as he said "It's been good working with you, Robin."

"I've been thinking about that too. People associate Robin with Batman, I'll struggle to stand on my own with it." Dick said, looking at the case as he said with a smirk "Call me Nightwing."

...

Voila. Part one of this fic's come to an end, and Dick Grayson is Robin no more. Nightwing's story will continue in Titans, and Batman and Batgirl's will continue here. R&R, please, no flames. B.