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Tim Burton's Batman Triumphant (1995)

Dramatis Personae

Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton)
Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough)
Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer)
Harvey Dent (Billy Dee Williams)
Rupert Thorne (Jon Polito)
Jonathan Crane (Jeff Goldblum)
Helena Thorne (Jennifer Jason Leigh)

Park Row

Bruce Wayne arrived at the place where his parents died in full Batman regalia. It had two names. Park Row and Crime Alley. He visited this place many times but never as Batman. He felt ashamed to show his parents what their son had turned into. "Please, Mom, Dad, I want you to look at me. I want you to know something very important." He placed a couple roses on the exact spot where they died. "I wanted you to know that your deaths meant something. Everything I did, everything I strived to accomplish, I did for you two."

A beer bottle smashed into the side of his head. "You did it for yourself, Bruce Wayne." Eyes wide open, he turned to face Rupert Thorne and the Scarecrow. "Don't look so surprised. Anyone could have figured it out. You turned my own daughter against me, you self-righteous prick." The Scarecrow rolled something at Bruce. "How about a taste of your own medicine?" A smoke pellet exploded at Bruce's feet. "Enjoy the ride, freak."

Rupert stood over Batman. In the shadows, he transformed into his worst fear, a humanoid bat, a symbol of an unspoken guilt that dominated his life. "You want to know the truth, Bruce." The Man-Bat smashed him into the wall. "I killed your parents. Your mother nearly ran me out of business for my connections. You come from a whole family of self-righteous pricks." The Man-Bat shoved Batman onto the sidewalk. "I sent Jack Napier and Joe Chill to do the job. I told Joe we'd mug them just to scare them. I told Jack the real plan."

As he continued his brutal assault, Bruce struggled to pull himself together. But he had fears capable of crushing a lesser man. They paralyzed his muscles and left him weak. "I wish you guys had stayed home that night. Jack had this idea of disguising the murders as a home invasion. If we had done that, we would have killed you and your butler too." Rupert smiled. "As a man of vision though, I prefer to focus on the positive. I did manage to ruin your life."

Rupert Thorne propped Batman up against the wall. The fear toxin crippled Batman's reflexes as he could not bring himself to fight back. "Do you know what I hated most about your parents? People like them created the myth of Gotham. 'The shame of Western civilization,' they called it. I see nothing wrong with Gotham." Rupert put his foot in Bruce's face. "Where you see corruption, I see opportunity. Where you see crime, I see business. What do you say to that?"

Batman's eyes glazed over a bit. "I remember something my mother used to tell me. She must have been thinking of you when she said it. 'Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world.' You know why, Mr. Thorne?" Batman punched the needle into his thigh. "She said, 'Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.' Don't believe me?" Batman bit back a grin. "See for yourself."

A whip shot out and tripped the Scarecrow. In moments, Selina Kyle had Jonathan Crane hog-tied with her own whip. Rupert watched the supervillain humiliated in a matter of seconds. Two-Face, having tracked him down, emerged from the shadows pointing a gun at Rupert's head. "See you in Hell, Rupert."

An arrow shot out from the corner of Bruce's eye. A moment of bated breath permeated the battle scene. Then, everyone stared at what happened. Helena Thorne had fired an arrow down the barrel of Two-Face's gun. Two-Face reached for a second gun, this time aiming at Helena. Batman took it out with a Batarang. Helena spoke clearly as she pointed her crossbow at Rupert Thorne. "I'd rather see him in jail."

Selina Kyle nodded in agreement. Bruce realized the truth. Selina had come back for Rupert Thorne. He might never learn the story behind that but he knew this for certain. As much as she wanted him dead, the thought of him making friends with the boys at Blackgate put the whole "letting him live" thing in perspective.

In moments, the police arrived at this spot as they did many years ago but this time they arrested the guilty party and put them away. "Excellent work, Batman," Jim Gordon said. "We'll take it from here." Jonathan Crane and Rupert Thorne could have told the police what they knew about Batman. But they knew that without Bruce Wayne in his life, Batman would vanish into the night without a trace. They only stood a chance at capturing him as long as his dual identity remained a secret one.

Batman had beaten his fears. And so had Gotham. The city celebrated Rupert Thorne's arrest like the end of some great war. The Commissioner even offered to deputize Batman, a dubious honor he graciously declined. Needless to say, Gothamites breathed a collective sigh of relief with Rupert Thorne behind bars.

Helena Thorne's private investigation completed chains of evidence begun by Harvey Dent, Batman and Martha Wayne. It confirmed what everyone had already known. Rupert Thorne was half the city bought and paid for. Thanks to Helena, they had the receipt. His own daughter had dismantled his criminal empire.

Pretty much anyone who had ever shaken hands with him would have to answer to criminal charges. The public defeat of a man once thought untouchable shook the underworld. Powerful people now understood that sense of powerlessness that gripped Bruce Wayne the night his parents died.

Rupert's gloating had robbed Bruce of his guilt. All of his life, he had believed deep down that he had led his parents to Crime Alley like lambs to a slaughter. An innocent child believed that he could have saved them, his sense of responsibility twisted into a sense of guilt so overpowering his conscious mind blocked it out. He knew now. His parents would have died no matter where they went that night.

Catwoman left that night on a red-eye flight back to Rome. No maudlin partings. No bittersweet goodbyes. Her heart probably could not take one of those. As for Helena Thorne, she vanished into the night without a trace. She obviously had more work to do elsewhere. Gotham was just a city after all. The world had many cities, some almost as bad.

Though possibly a side-effect of the antidote, Bruce could swear he saw his parents, smiling at their only son. Something unspoken passed between them. Pride. He avenged his parents' deaths by delivering their killer to justice. Tears flown from his eyes as he stood there on Christmas Eve in his Batsuit. He had begun a mission to rid Gotham of evil. He had every intention of finishing it. The Bat Symbol graced the skies. Let's get to work.

The End