Five months later…

The sun shone on downtown Gotham like a smile from heaven. The streets were warm and so were the people. It had taken a long time to get this way; but, Gotham was here. It wasn't perfect; but, it wasn't what it was months ago. The government had rolled back into its usual state, minus some of the corrupted people; such as Commissioner Charleston. Immediately following the investigation of the carnage that had occurred in the abandoned building that Brummer was fixing, Charleston stepped down from office without so much as an explanation; however, with all that was happening very few people noticed or, cared that Charleston stepped down. He did have a reason though and that reason was James Gordon. Realizing that it was in fact Batman who had killed the men in the building, Charleston insisted on bringing charges against the 'vigilante serial killer'; but, there was something in Gordon that did not support that idea. First of all there was no hard evidence that Batman was the person who committed the crimes, aside from some of the people who survived claiming it was him; but, they were criminals in their own right so their testimonies wouldn't hold up in court. There was no sense in tarnishing the reputation of a man who had done so much for the city; so, Gordon presented the photos Batman had given him and an ultimatum to Commissioner Charleston. The choices were: either Charleston could continue to try to bring charges against Batman and risk the photos being leaked to the media or, he could step down and drop all the charges and save himself the embarrassment. Charleston, of course, chose the latter and Gordon didn't have to think anymore of it. Brummer survived the fall; but, only barely he was still alive; but, faced a larger problem. All his corruption and pay offs were revealed due to a cleverly written report in the Metropolis newspaper "The Daily Planet". The report detailed many things, from illegal pay offs to the kidnapping of Bruce Wayne (who had since been found with some painful injuries) and was the driving force to prosecute Brummer who had only come out of a coma one month ago. A separate piece in the Daily Planet written by, veteran writer, Lois Lane criticized the G.C.P.D. and brought shame to the organization; but, praised one man: James Worthington Gordon. Because of the article Gordon was promoted to Chief Lieutenant and the G.C.P.D. was thoroughly cleaned out and, a lot, of the corrupted cops were removed from their places and replaced with new ones from Police Departments all around the country. As mentioned before; Bruce Wayne was found with considerable injuries to his body; but, thankfully found alive and recovered from most of his injuries within a few months. Harvey Dent had a similar fate, though his injuries were permanent. The left side of his face was completely loss; the skin wouldn't grow back; but, the burns from the explosion managed to sear his blood ducts and keep him from dying of blood loss. However; his injuries were gruesome, the left side of his face was just a mess of discolored muscles, the skin had been cut off from his chin to the top of his forehead, he had no more eyelid and that caused partial blindness in that eye, as well as his ears being badly burned and left hand. Dent was physical able; however, and continued to serve as D.A. after a psychological evaluation that found nothing wrong with his mental capacity aside from some high levels of 'stress'.

Bruce Wayne rarely visited hospitals after being in the one his parents were pronounced dead in; but, today he decided to visit one person in particular. The scarring on his face had healed quickly and his bruised lip had gone down in swelling. Wayne looked almost completely back to normal when he entered the hospital room. Brummer sat laid there in the bed hooked up to a breathing machine, making feeble sounds as his body moved up and down. The sunlight from the outside filled the room with a warm hug; Bruce Wayne sat on the chair next to the bed. For a moment he didn't say anything, and then he smiled.

"I came to you to ask for forgiveness…" Bruce said; Brummer couldn't move; but, his eyes fell onto Bruce. "…Sometimes when a man is threatened he reverts to being a Neanderthal; and when I lost my mind that day I couldn't control what I was doing…" Bruce continued. "...but forgiveness is not up to the judge; but rather to the criminal and I'm trying to forgive myself." Bruce didn't say anymore, he didn't wait for a response; he just left the room and walked down the hall to the exit.

What he didn't see was Harvey Dent coming from the other end of the hall walking into the same room he had just come out of. Harvey was business as usual and as he entered the room he began to speak.

"Mr. Chaderline Brummer you are being formally charged with embezzlement and corruption this is a formality and it would be much easier if you just agreed to understand the charges set against you…" Dent said; it was then that he realized that Brummer's heart rate was excelled. The beeping of the monitor was frantic and Brummer was reaching up to Harvey trying to speak. "…what are you saying?" Harvey asked; he leaned closer to Brummer and put his ear next to Brummer's mouth.

The whisper was nothing more than a light echo on the wind; but, it spoke louder than anything Harvey Dent had ever heard before. Within moments of the whisper Brummer died. Harvey seemed not to notice; he stood there stunned for five minutes and then left without saying a word to anyone. He was silent as he left the hospital, he was silent on the street, and he was silent on the drive home.

It wasn't until Dent went into the bathroom did Harvey open his mouth to speak. He looked at his own reflection in the mirror. Perfectly smooth face, two good eyes, and undamaged ears. He stared at the reflection that was him not so long ago and then decided to take off the face mask designed to look like his former self. Dent then stared at his real reflection. A chaotic mess of twisted muscle and nerves, discolored by surgeries and medicines and infections. Harvey Dent stared at his own reflection and then repeated what Chaderline Brummer had whispered in his eat. The right side of his face moved and the left horridly damaged side remained perfectly still.

"Bruce Wayne is Batman"

The End