A/N: I am taking a break from The Devil's Sister to bring you this unique telling of an annual classic.

AU story:

Bruce Wayne is a bitter man, hating the world for the death of his wife and parents. Can his old friend Lucius Fox change his heart?

A Bat Christmas Carol

With Great Respect for Charles Dickens

By

Part 3: Sly Fox

After Mr. Wayne locked up the office and bought some soup in the Christmas Market, he headed for home. He passed what remained of the old Wayne Enterprise building. With the economy and the earthquake that hit the city, there was no need for so many workers. No one wanted to rebuild, and then the aftershocks came destroying more neighborhoods, leaving pockets of isolated areas. Gotham became a no man's land. Not only that, the Wayne ancestral home became a ruin, and there was no home to go back to. So, Mr. Wayne moved back to the city, living with his business partner, Mr. Fox, until his death.

Mr. Wayne walked the streets of the city, heading to his only place of refuge. No one got in his way. There was a deep dark air about him that sent everyone scurrying back into the shadows. And when he passed, everyone breathed a little easier. Even so, that did not stop those who were all too willing to take advantage of the rest.

Mr. Wayne approached the old Wayne Foundation offices. It had been a jewel in the city once. Now it was shabby and run down. As he approached the glass doors, his reflection appeared, but then a queer thing happened. The reflection changed before his eyes. A shudder came over Bruce when he thought he saw two piercing eyes in the dark, and he thought he heard the sound of flapping, leathery wings. It was something from his childhood, a nightmare or memory he could not escape. Then a familiar voice moaned his name.

"Bruuuuce."

Mr. Wayne stared at the reflection in the glass as it morphed and changed, and he saw his old partner's face. Behind him appeared two figures he had not seen since his childhood. To say that Mr. Wayne was startled would be an understatement. His face was as pale as the new fallen snow. Mr. Wayne reached out to touch the face and reach for the other two, but they vanished as if they had never been. He was once again facing his own reflection.

"Bah . . . Humbug," Bruce said, out loud, then regretted it. Someone passing by might think he was crazy. He slipped inside the building just for a moment to get warm, but even in here it felt like an icy tomb. Bruce Wayne recalled the last time he stepped into this building and he quickly stepped out, again. It was the last time he saw his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, whom he had dismissed years before.

It turned out his butler led a secret life, trained by MI6, as well as having been trained as a battle surgeon, but what use did Bruce had for those skills. The old butler tried to be a father to Bruce, but all Bruce was interested in was guarding his heart from knowing love ever, again, until Bruce met the woman who would be his wife. Even then, Bruce's heart remained guarded, even after their son was born. Alfred left soon after his wife died, and Bruce sent his son away. Bruce never knew what happened to Alfred, and he no longer cared.

Bruce walked a few more streets, entered a gated yard that was unkept and overgrown with weeds. He walked up to the house that belonged to his long-dead partner, Lucius Fox, now his. The house was large enough to serve a family of six. Bruce unlocked the door and entered. He put his meager dinner down, removed his coat, and hung it on a crack beside the door. Picking up his soup container, Bruce went to the kitchen and heated the soup on the kitchen stove. Once done, he sat down in front of the fire he had kindled in the living room to eat his meager meal. Once again, the sound of leathery wings and squeaking came to his ears. The sound grew louder, and hundreds of bats flew from the fireplace, surrounding Bruce.

"No! Get away! Get away!"

Bruce flailed frantically, trying to shew the blizzard of bats away. It brought up memories of him as a child, falling into a cave, surrounded by bats. He covered his ears and shut his eyes as tightly as he could. Then the sound suddenly stopped as quickly as it had come. When he opened his eyes again, the man he saw reflected in the glass was standing before him, but what was stranger still was that Bruce could see right through him.

"Who are you?" How did you get in here?"

"Before I died, I was your partner, Lucius Fox."

"Impossible, you can't be," Bruce said, wary of the strange apparition in front of him.

"You doubt your senses?"

"Yes, I do. You could be caused by some hallucination from something that had been placed in my soup, the wrong kind of mushroom for instance."

"Ahhhh!" The figure rose in the air among a small tornado of bats. He rattled his chains and banged two cash boxes together, creating a hollow noise that echoed throughout Mr. Wayne's living area.

"Ah, no, please stop!" Bruce's senses were overwhelmed with fear. How could this being be real and yet the figure floated in the air in front of his very eyes.

"Do you believe in me or not!"

"I do, I do," Bruce found himself answering, just to appease the apparition. The voice was becoming more familiar to him every second he heard it. "Why have you come to me? Why now? What is that chain you are wearing, and why do bats follow you around?"

"The bats are a reminder of what I did not do."

"I do not understand, what did you not do?"

"I did not help those who needed it the most. I suffer because of the injustices that I did not right."

"You were a businessman," Bruce pointed out. "There's nothing wrong in that."

"True, but it becomes wrong when you ignore all else," Lucius Fox said with a deep sadness that he could not change.

"Why are you here?" Bruce asked.

"I've come to warn you, and to help prevent the fate that awaits you."

"Warn me? What fate?"

Lucius answered with a cryptic message. "All those who ignored the plight of their fellow man, are now doomed to walk the earth, lamenting their loss, no longer to help. If you do not help in life, you cannot help in death."

"Please Lucius, what does that have to do with me?" Bruce argued,

"You shall soon learn," Lucius Fox stated as his chains rattled.

Bruce's eyes narrowed as his eyes focused on the long chain the familiar apparition wore. "Lucius, what is that chain you are wearing?"

"It is the chain I forged in life."

"I have never seen you wearing such a chain," Bruce stated. It seemed inconceivable that such a thing could exist.

"That is because the chain cannot be seen by the living. Only in death does the chain appear weighed down by my acts of greed and indifference."

"What do you mean?"

"I paid attention to only what was in front of me, not what was beyond our board room doors."

"You were a good man of business."

"Our business should have been about our fellow man's needs, not about how we could take advantage of the situation," Lucius Fox lectured. "You have a small chance to correct that before it is too late."

"TT," Bruce made a noise with is tongue.

"Do not scoff," Lucius growled. "The chain you bear is longer and heavier than the one I carry. Be warned Bruce. For it you do not heed my warning, a light will go out that should not have been dimmed. Listen well. You will be visited by three spirits."

"I would rather not."

"This is your only chance. The first spirit will appear at one, before this night is over. The second on the next night at two, and the third . . . "

" . . . Can't I have them all at once?"

". . . And the third on the night after at three. Beware, Bruce, beware."

Lucius wrapped Bruce with his chains pulling him toward the window. The window flew open and hundreds of bats and the spirits of the dead surrounded Bruce, causing him a great fright. He covered his eyes and cringed on the floor. Just as quickly as the apparition and the bats had been there, they were suddenly gone. Bruce got off the floor and looked around. The window was shut tight. He got up and checked the door and the fireplace.

"Bah! HUMBUG!"

Continues with Part 4