[Flashback again. YOUNGER WOMAN is now a bit older. She and OLDER WOMAN are in an elegant-looking lounge-type room.]

OLDER WOMAN: I swear, Carol, you're a machine. That councilman asks for you every time.

YOUNGER WOMAN: Suzy, I wanted to talk.

OLDER WOMAN: You're thinking about leaving again.

You're going back to school? You've got quite a head on those shoulders.

YOUNGER WOMAN: No. It's just-I appreciate everything you've done for me. And I enjoy this. I just never meant for it to be a long-term thing, I think maybe it's time for me to move on.

OLDER WOMAN: I said I'd never pressure you, and I'm keeping that promise. It's just-I'm concerned. Three years ago, your life was really a mess.

When you have it good, sometimes it's easy to forget you have it good.

YOUNGER WOMAN: That's the thing, I just don't know. I feel like I haven't lived enough life yet to be sure.

OLDER WOMAN: But what if you find out that you were always meant to be here? And you know the rules, once you're out-

YOUNGER WOMAN: I know.

OLDER WOMAN: There's this whole world out there, that's out of control. That can hurt people. But this here, this room, is my domain. I have control here. Some control.

Just promise me you'll think it over. And we can discuss you getting a bigger cut, you've definitely earned it.


[BRUCE is at a campaign rally somewhere downtown.]

BRUCE: Is anyone surprised that this happened?

Is anyone surprised that the Firefly perpetrators may never be identified or brought to justice?

The only thing more disgusting than what happened last night is how utterly predictable it was.

My opponent says I'm inexperienced, that I won't know how to run the city government. Well, let me ask her this-what good is experience in a government this dysfunctional? I'm proud that I don't have experience in a bureaucracy that fails to deliver even a illusion of justice to its citizens, that fails-time and again-to protect them from Gotham's worst.

People don't just want change. Change is necessary.


[BRUCE is back at his mansion.]

DAMIAN: That was a hell of a speech.

BRUCE: Thanks.

DAMIAN: It's almost like you wanted county records to get destroyed.

BRUCE: [silence]

DAMIAN: I'm just trying to get some clarification on our roles. You've got us scouring the city for info on Firefly, are we doing crime-fighting or campaign oppo?

BRUCE: I know my mission. If you don't, maybe it's time we reconsider your job.

DAMIAN: How can you be sure? You had Batgirl chasing a puppet while you let Scarface destroy evidence for maybe the most important public corruption case in Gotham history.

You used to tell me that being Robin was about remembering my purpose, that would give me the edge I need. Are you sure you remember yours?

BRUCE: I don't need to answer to you. I know what I'm doing.


[BRUCE is meeting with GORDON in his office. There's clearly some tension and irony in this.]

GORDON: Wayne - I've known you for a long time. But I didn't realize you had this in you.

BRUCE: I thought my ego was legendary.

GORDON: Only to those who don't really know you.

Per department policy, I can't make any endorsements. But I'm happy to provide any information I can, to any candidate.

[Walking down GCPD corridor]

BRUCE: Of course. Your life's been busy lately, I expect.

GORDON: I haven't slept in 62 hours.

BRUCE: Jesus, Jim, how did this happen? I don't just mean county records. A $200 million insurance scam under your nose?

GORDON: Off the record, Wayne?

BRUCE: Sure, whatever.

GORDON: I can deal with corrupt. But there's no fixing stupid.

I got a boatload of incompetents I can't fire, and insurance fraud is where a lot of them end up. You wanna help me? Let me hire at-will.

BRUCE: Doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'm meeting with Jim Roaner at the Benevolent Association after you, I'll bring it up.

GORDON: Yeah, good luck with that. Anyways, this is our vigilante unit...


[BRUCE is now meeting with ROANER, a young black man in a disorganized police office.]

ROANER: Your buddy, the councilman, has been awful tough on us. I've noticed that you've held back, though.

BRUCE: Well don't start a fight you can't finish, that's what my father taught me.

ROANER: And you've touched, but not exactly hit, the docks project.

BRUCE: That hardly seems like a police matter.

ROANER: No, it's not. But as chairman of the Gotham Policemen's Benevolent Association, it's my fiduciary duty to oversee the investments of our various pension funds.

BRUCE: And those funds...

ROANER: Among our many investments are certain real estate trusts which, yes, are involved in the project. I believe it is in the best interest of our association, and for the city, that the Gotham County Parks Department Docks Development go through.

BRUCE: Those docks used to be the heartbeat of America. The first exported American car-a Ford-left that harbor. It can still be so much more than some mixed-use housing for bureaucrats.

ROANER: Nobody in their right mind wants to ship their stuff through Gotham!

Half of the current traffic there is betting on insurance payouts, and now Firefly's killed that.

BRUCE: So what, we just give up? Admit the city is lost?

ROANER: No, I don't know-we recognize reality and try to make the best of it. That's what leaders do.

BRUCE: That's not what I do.

ROANER: So a project that could actually do some good gets mothballed so you can sell some fantasy about shipyards to voters?

BRUCE: Good for Gotham or good for your fund?

ROANER: I don't know how to say it more directly-I view the docks project as highly important to both the future of Gotham and the health of the Benevolent Association, and I will consider this issue when deciding who our organization will endorse.

BRUCE: Well, I do appreciate the direct approach.


BRUCE is outside GCPD headquarters, discussing with SHRECK.

BRUCE: I don't like threats, Max.

SHRECK: That wasn't a threat. That was a gift. The Benevolent endorsement is there for you to take it.

Don't you see it? Rank and file policemen standing behind the billionaire fighting corruption? You'd be unstoppable.

BRUCE: I didn't think that was the kind of campaign we were trying to do.

SHRECK: I thought a winning campaign was what we were trying to do. And you can do it without changing your message. You just need to broaden it a bit.


[TANNER is leaving the city council building, with a five-member police entourage.

But as he heads towards his car, each member is suddenly picked off by whips.]


[GORDON is at his desk at GCPD, looking utterly exhausted. He picks up his phone.]

GORDON: For Chrissakes.


[TANNER is strung up, dead, spread eagled, on one side of a Gotham alleyway. Someone has dressed him in a highly sexualized red/white/blue Wonder Woman costume. Above him, in red paint, is written "PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO MADAM FURY."

GORDON, BATMAN and BATGIRL are watching.]

BATGIRL: So...

BATMAN: I've gotta go.


[It's a dark parking garage somewhere, KATE, a young, professional-looking woman appears to be by herself.]

OFFSCREEN VOICE: Here are the scripts for three Wayne campaign commercials blasting the docks project. They were all cancelled, you'll never see them on TV. All written before the Benevolent Association announced its intention to endorse Wayne.

KATE: My Northwestern ethics class did not cover this situation.

[reveals OFFSCREEN VOICE to be BATMAN]

BATMAN: What, protecting sources?

KATE: When they're whistleblowers, now when they're criminal...bats.

BATMAN: Fine. You can write a story about meeting the Batman in a garage or you can write a story about how the most powerful man in Gotham got bought off by a $130 million county parks project.

KATE: I see your point.

BATMAN: The Benevolent Association interests-

KATE: All public record, we have them. I did go to Northwestern.

BATMAN: OK.

[Awkward silence]

KATE: Oh sorry-am I supposed to turn my head and then you-

BATMAN: Yeah.

[as he flies away]

BATMAN: You'll get the drill.