January 16, 2001
6:34 PM
Bruce Wayne
I needed to get away. After Jason's short memorial service, I separated myself from Dick, Alfred and Andrea and wandered around the far corners of Wayne Manor.
As I took a seat in the sitting room furthest from the front of the house, I let my mind go blank, doing everything I could to not focus on what had just happened. I tried to ignore the fact that I had just buried one of my adopted sons and that it had been my fault that he was dead. I hadn't thought that Joker would set me up. That wasn't his style. He had always sought confrontation in the past. To set up a challenge that he knew I would fail at was totally unlike him.
That's when I realized that it wasn't impossible. If I had simply gone in my day attire, rather than suiting up in the cowl, I would have made it in plenty of time to race back across town and get to St. Cloud Tower.
It wasn't impossible and it was my fault.
"There's no use blaming yourself."
I turned in my chair to see Dick standing behind me.
"How long have you been there?" I asked him.
"Long enough." he replied as he walked into the room and sat himself across from me. "You can't change it, Bruce."
"We should have moved faster." I answered softly. "If we had been able to move faster throughout the day, we would have gotten to him fine. We would have gotten him out and we would be getting ready to go on patrols right now."
Dick took a deep breath as he rubbed his temples before looking back up at me.
"I've been meaning to talk to you about that." Dick said quickly as if he was talking quicker, hoping to escape the pain of whatever he was going to say. "You haven't been on patrols since then."
"No, I haven't." I replied grimly, acknowledging the longest healthy break I had taken since I started a little over eleven years ago.
"Why?"
"Excuse me?" I snapped back.
"Why haven't you been on patrols? You've been injured, other people have been killed. That never stopped you before. Why has this?"
Suddenly, a fire, one that had probably been burning since Jason's death, exploded out of me.
"What can we do out there? Not only has crime not dropped in the decade I've been doing this, I've started getting the few people I do give more than two shits about hurt or killed!"
"Bruce, we never did this for you!" Dick replied harshly. "We did this because we believed in what you had started and we wanted to join you. You are not responsible for keeping us from doing dumb things."
"Dumb things? What the hell did he do wrong?" I shot back.
"Did you not forget Jason directly disobeying an order and choosing to jump into the window where Joker was situated, along with three incredibly large bodyguards who were armed to the teeth?"
"I should have trained him better." I replied sadly. "I could have suspended him when he started to get more reckless over the past few months."
"Yes, you could have." Dick replied as he sat down next to me. "You could. But, he probably would have kept going out anyway. He was a fireball if we had ever seen a fireball."
This had been the overwhelming voice of my thoughts for the past few days. Had I chosen wrongly? Had Jason been a poor choice for Robin? Should I have simply had him thrown in jail or somewhere where he couldn't get himself hurt?
"He worked so hard to be great. I think life had already destroyed a large part of his moral compass."
"I imagine that it did. Living and working on the streets for as long as he had couldn't have been good for his sanity either. Then, when he heard Joker's men casually discussing the murder of the one man that could have brought him back to normalcy, he snapped."
"He died in a horrible way."
"Any way other than the natural way is horrible, Bruce. I watched as my parents killed themselves so that you would have the opportunity to save me. You watch your dad step in front of your mom to save her. How many times have you given yourself to the possibility of death to step in front of a bullet to help someone?"
"Too many times to count." I said as I began to flash back through as many of those times as I could remember.
"Death sucks, Bruce. Just know that there's nothing that you can do about it. Not all the time."
January 17, 2001
10:22 AM
Bruce Wayne
Wayne Enterprises
After another patrol-less night, I made my way into Gotham City to meet with Lucius Fox, CEO of Wayne Enterprises. As I entered his office, I noticed that he had been working on something.
"What was that?" I asked calmly as I sat down in the chair across from his desk.
"It's not important." he replied softly. "I heard about Jason. I'm so sorry, Bruce."
"Thank you, Lucius. I appreciate it."
"Have you already had a memorial?" he asked nervously.
"Yesterday." I confirmed. "He was laid next to my parents."
"Very appropriate. I hope you aren't taking it too hard."
"I am. I know that I am. But I can't help but blame myself for what happened. If I had only moved faster, I may have gotten to him."
"You mean that you could have also been in the building when it blew skyhigh? Is that what you mean, Bruce?"
"I think I could have gotten to him before the building blew up. In fact, I know that I could have." I replied sharply.
"Think about it, Bruce? Was Dick with you?" he asked as I nodded in confirmation. "Alright. So, if you're right, you go in and get him out. If you're wrong, not only is Jason dead but Batman and Nightwing. This city has survived too long with a Caped Crusader to protect us while we're sleeping. We need you."
Lucius had never spoken about my alter ego other than to scold me for stealing something else out of R&D that he had been working on. To hear him talk so positively about the Batman was a little disarming. However, what he said did ring true in my mind and I knew on some level that he was right. If I had been wrong, there would have been no one other than Barbara left to defend Gotham. While I did trust her, I knew what it was like to try and defend Gotham alone and it was no easy task.
"I appreciate that, Lucius. No, what was that you were working on?"
"A job offer, Mr. Wayne." Lucius replied, reverting back to his normal polite ways.
"What?" I asked in shock.
"I know. It surprised me too. As I'm sure you've seen in the news, the Secretary of Energy that our recently elected President selected recently declined the position so that she could run for Governor of her state. The President has requested that I step in."
"There's a 'but' coming, I can feel it."
"There is. But, in order to take the position, I must disassociate myself with any and all business interests I have."
"You have to resign as CEO." I filled in for him.
"Yes, Mr. Wayne." he replied softly. "While politics have never really been my thing, I do feel that there is some part of me that is interested in this position."
"Is there anything we can do to ensure that you say?" I asked nervously.
I had every right to be nervous. While the name on the front of the company may carry my name, Lucius ran this place. Due to my nightly activities, I usually only made appearances at Wayne Enterprises once or twice a week and sometimes even less than that. Case in point, it had been nine days since I had last been to Wayne Enterprises when I had walked in the door today.
"Possibly." Lucius mused quietly. "There is one project I've been looking to push that the board has been reluctant to agree with."
"What is it?"
"The United States Military is looking for a contractor to research and design prototypes of sonic and laser weapons. While the laser weapons are still a little far out for us, sonic weaponry isn't impossible. Using the right frequencies, we could make what would be akin to a sonic drill that would penetrate the body. Plus, if we create anti-sonic shielding for our own troops, we could make our troops immune to the effects of the weapons."
"What's the catch?" I asked, fairly certain I knew what it was.
"It's going to cost the company 6 billion dollars." Lucius replied sheepishly.
"6 Billion? That's a high price tag. How much would we get paid?"
"1 Billion per shipment. They'll take the first prototype shipment. If they like them, they will immediately purchase the equivalent of 10 Billion dollars worth of weapons and sign a contract labeling Wayne Enterprises as the first contact for any prototypes technologies that they wish to develop for the next 25 years."
"That sounds good." I replied truthfully. "What kind of timeline are we looking at?"
"Seven years for R&D, another 3 years for field testing. We could be looking at the weapons being purchased in 2012 or 2013."
"6 Billion over that time frame? I'm fine with that. Do it. I'll convince the board of it later."
"Are you sure?" Lucius asked, almost speechless. "It's going to be a very bad situation if they don't like what we come up with."
"I know someone who will." I replied cryptically. "Speaking of which, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."
"What's the matter?"
"Other than the obvious, nothing is the matter. However, with Jason's death, I've been thinking a lot and I know that I don't have a will of any kind. Now, I know that you were a lawyer before you joined Wayne Tech. I want you to write up my will."
"Bruce, you aren't even forty."
"Lucius, you know what I do at night. It's not going to be complicated. If I die, Alfred gets the house and any assets that had been given to me by my parents with the exception of Wayne Enterprises. Just enough of my shares will be given to Dick in order to ensure that he is the majority shareholder, the rest will be sold at the next public trading day."
"I guess I can write that up." Lucius replied sullenly.
"You write that up, I'll get you your government project and add 50% to your yearly salary and bonus. Does that keep you here?"
All Lucius did was nod his head, confirming that he would, in fact, remain in Gotham and at Wayne Enterprises.
"Perfect." I said as I stood up. "I'll have my lawyers write you a new contract and send it to you."
"Very well, Mr. Wayne. Oh, and by the way, I noticed that you don't have a single bruise on you for the first time in a long time."
"What's your point?" I said, instantly getting defensive.
"We need the Batman. This whole city does. I understand you may be hesitant to go back out after what happened with Jason. But, I firmly believe that more than any police officer, mayor or corporation, this city needs to Batman."
"I appreciate that." I replied. "Really, I do."
11:33 PM
Bruce Wayne
Batcave
I had been seated in front of my super-computer, dressed entirely in the BatSuit save the cowl, when I heard his shoes snapping across the floor. I knew that moments later, I was going to hear his voice. Sure enough, the voice of my oldest friend echoed around the cavernous area moment later.
"Master Wayne, if you do not plan on going out this evening, you really should check in for the evening." he said eloquently.
"I can't, Alfred. Dick and Barbara are out on patrols. I can't leave them out there alone." I replied as he approached me with a fresh pot of coffee and a few freshly baked pastries. Normally, I would have scolded him for bringing something so bad for you down to the Cave. Tonight, I wasn't in the mood to scold anyone.
"Master Wayne, if I may be so bold, we both know that unless one of them is in extreme danger, that you will not be going anywhere this evening. Otherwise, you would already be out there."
"What if I go out there and fail them like I did Jason?" I asked, finally truly speaking the terrible thought that had been on my mind for the last week.
"Master Wayne, there is no one here, other than yourself, that believes that you failed Master Todd. He made a horrible and rash decision and unfortunately, there are consequences for our decisions. You did everything that you could to help him avoid those consequences. It was unfortunate that his poor decision-making left him in the hands of the Joker."
"I've never failed like that before."
Suddenly, Alfred pulled a chair next to me and sat down.
"Master Wayne, we all must learn from our failures. I'm positive the thought has crossed your mind that all of the suits need to have tracers in them now."
"It has." I said, glad that someone else had echoed the first thing that had crossed my mind once Jason had been taken.
"You are human, just like anyone else. Certainly, you have trained yourself to avoid mistakes and to be better than the average human. However, that typically means that when you do make a mistake, the results are going to be far more catastrophic than the average person's mistakes. If you cannot live with that, then Batman cannot exist."
Everything my old friend had said made almost too much sense. If you were able to avoid common mistakes, then the only ones left were the big ones. The mistakes I was going to make as Batman were going to be large and they were going to have consequences, just like Jason's had.
"How did you deal with my parents dying, Alfred?" I asked him slowly. "We've always talked about how I dealt with it, how I withdrew from the world and drove myself into my work. But, how did you do it?"
Alfred took a seat at the other chair at the work station. Rubbing circles around his eyes, I finally saw how much he had aged over the years. When I had left Gotham, he had been blessed with a full head of red hair. Now, his hair was thinning and white and his eyes had a permanent aged look that they hadn't had years earlier.
He breathed deeply before he replied.
"I knew that despite losing the greatest friend I had known, I had a responsibility. When you were born, your parents named me your legal guardian in case something happened to them. They made me promise to protect you and to keep you from harm. So, when they were killed, I was heartbroken. But, I couldn't let that stop me from protecting you and taking care of you. I know that I'm not your father, Bruce. But I did everything I could to be one."
Suddenly, I realized what this man had done for me. It wasn't that I had never thought of this before. It was just that the dawning realization of everything that had happened to me so far and everything that I had done and he had been there through all of it.
"You know what's funny?"
"With you, Master Wayne, I can only guess." he said with a dry smile.
"I idolized my father and mother. Everything I do as Batman, I do because they were taken from me. But what's funny is that I was eight when they died. I have a few strong memories of them but other than that, it's mostly a feeling. In fact, the only real vivid memory I have of the two of them is the night they were killed."
"That is terrible." Alfred whispered lowly.
"It's not." I replied. "It's not because I know who they were and I remember how wonderful they were to me. But, I also know that they left me with the most caring man they could, a man who became the closest thing to a father that I ever knew."
"Master Wayne..."
"Alfred, you were there for everything. For the beginning of all this. You were there when I left and you were still here when I got back. You've cared for me when every other person left me after my parent's death."
"I was only doing my job." he replied.
"No, if you were only doing a job, you went above and beyond the call of duty. You are my family, Alfred."
Suddenly, I stood up and drew the cowl over my face. As I walked towards the BatMobile, I turned back to Alfred.
"Thank you."
"No thanks are necessary, Master Bruce."
Slowly, I nodded. I knew that our conversation hadn't fixed everything. I was still angry at myself for my mistake. I still burned inside knowing that my arch enemy had taken one of my sons. However, the anger wasn't fixed at myself anymore.
Instead, it was fixed at the Clown Prince of Crime. The Joker would pay for what he had done to Jason.
1:02 AM
Gotham City
Nightwing
The driving snow had forced me to keep moving all night. Temperatures had been consistently under ten degrees all night and there was the possibility that it was going to get even colder. Fortunately, I had other things on my mind. Since Jason's funeral, Batgirl and I had spent almost half of our nightly patrols seeking information on the Joker. In my mind, not only did the Joker kill my parents but he had killed a friend, someone who I cared about, a brother in arms.
A brother really.
"Nothing on my end." Batgirl said over the intercom into my ear.
"I haven't done much either." I replied. "Broke up a couple fights and a mugging but other than that, there hasn't been much."
"What do you think? Take it in for the night."
"Sounds like a good idea to me."
"Me too." she replied. However, this time the voice didn't come from the intercom. Instead, it came from directly behind me. Jumping a few inches into the air, I turned around and saw Batgirl standing on the rooftop behind me.
"How did you find me?"
"You kept giving descriptions of what you've been doing all night. I could figure out the pattern you were making. You forget that I've been living in Gotham my entire life."
"Like you would let me forget." I replied with a smile.
My relationship with Barbara had really changed over the years. During high school, the two of us had shamelessly flirted with each other but neither of us had chose to make any move. Her excuse was probably that her father was a paranoid police commissioner. My excuse was that my parent was an angry masked vigilante. When we went to college, she and I had moved in together, thinking that we could save some money, despite the fact that I was a millionaire and didn't really need to save money. Privately, I think that both of us hoped that it would push us together.
Unfortunately, the moment I chose to become Nightwing in order to protect Bludhaven, I swore off any kind of relationship. I spent months forcing her away and keeping her an arm's length away until one night, about five months before her debut as Batgirl and six months after her attempted rape, she accidentally walked into my room after one of my bloodier nights. In fact, that night I had gotten stabbed four times. All of the wounds were superficial but they produced enough blood to scare her into running out of the apartment.
When she had finally come back, I had been forced to explain my childhood from my parent's death to my exit from the role of Robin. Rather than being frightened or upset, she told me that she had known for a long time that I had been Robin. However, she had been unaware of my new alter ego, hence her frightened reaction to her walking in on me.
But, it was her next question that had both encouraged me and scared me. She expressed interest in joining me and Batman. I knew that just like Bruce had done with me, it was better to observe and to train than to let her do it on her own and end up getting herself hurt or worse. So, I started training her, going on long runs on the off nights I had given myself during patrols. She had a limited knowledge of combat training but I had taken to creating a more acrobatic style of fighting that would suit her strengths.
Soon enough, I deemed her ready to be tested by Bruce, hence her random appearance in Gotham. While I knew that she wasn't as prepared as I had been when I took my test to become Robin, I also knew that she would be better supervised after her approval than I had been. Bruce had known it as well hence the reason that he had assigned the first several months of her patrols to me.
"You need to do more patrols in Gotham." she said as she sat down next to me.
"I do too many as it is. Gotham has you and Batman to take care of it. Who does Bludhaven have? Tarantula?"
"She seems like she knew what she was doing." Batgirl replied.
"You haven't worked with her." I grumbled as my earpiece suddenly crackled to life.
"Head to 45th and Nolan."
No way. It couldn't be that voice. I had been fairly certain that he would be out of commission for quite some time. Not because he wasn't healthy, he was fine, at least on the outside. It was the inside of him that needed working out. I was positive that my conversation with him yesterday had not yielded these results.
"Come again?" I asked in order to confirm that it was him.
"I have a lead into the Joker's whereabouts. On the corner of 45th and Nolan is The Laughing Matter, a nightclub whose owner mysteriously disappeared last month. No one has seen or heard from him. I've suspected Joker for awhile now but I've had more pressing matters."
"And now?"
"He's top priority until I say otherwise." he replied, his voice almost roaring into my earpiece.
"Understood." I replied before standing up from my perch overlooking 12th Avenue.
We had a long way to go before we got to 45th and Nolan and I knew that he was not going to be in a patient mood tonight. That meant we needed to get moving and now.
Because Batman was back in town.
"Move!" I yelled before leaping off the building and on the rooftop next to me on my way to Batman.
January 20
12:21 PM
The Residence of Andrea Beaumont
Bruce Wayne
She didn't notice me as she closed the door to her apartment and walked into the kitchen, preparing to put away a few of the things she had purchased at her favorite farmer's market down the street. Slowly, I followed her until I silently stood in the doorway, watching her put her vegetables in the refrigerator. Finally, I couldn't stand the wait any longer and broke the silence.
"Andrea."
I had the effect I had on everyone I was able to sneak up on. Instantly, she jumped in place and turned, clutching at her chest in fear. Once she recognized me, she smiled frightfully and walked across her small kitchen before smacking me in the chest and hugging me.
"Bruce, you scared me half to death!" she nearly yelled in my ear.
"I know." I said with a smile.
"How did you get in?" she asked she broke away from me.
A simple look gave her the answer she was looking for.
"Which window?" she asked pointedly.
"The small one in the bathroom." I said as I turned and took a seat in the living room.
"I didn't think it was big enough for you." she replied.
"You'd be surprised what a master of escape can get themselves in, and out, of."
Once she finished putting her groceries away, she took a seat across from me.
"I haven't seen you since the memorial. How are you doing?" she asked with concern.
"Fine." I answered shortly. "I went on patrols last night."
"I heard. You were spotted by a news chopper."
"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.
"Well, your absence has been noticed." she said plainly. "When no criminals get strung up for six days, people notice."
"Nightwing and Batgirl were still out there."
"Well, apparently they choose to tie them up on the ground rather than in the air and someone noticed the pattern."
To think that there were people out there who made it their business to tell whether the criminals that we caught were tied up in the air or on the ground. I'm sure that those people had better and more constructive things to do with their business.
"I don't mean to be blunt, Bruce, but what are you doing here? It's not like you to stop by unannounced."
"Before I tell you, I have a story to tell you. It will give you a better idea." I replied as I turned to face her. "Last night, I had a conversation with Alfred. He said something to me that really made me think. He told me that since I had trained myself to be better than most people, my mistakes were larger than most people. We talked about a lot of things including Jason. In the end, he made me realize that while I may be an orphan, I still had a family."
I couldn't believe I was actually saying this. I had been terrible with expressing myself over the years, choosing to accept it as a penalty of my alter ego and a sign of weakness. The fact that I was opening up to someone who had never lived with me was shocking to me.
"Dick is my family, legally even, although I'm not entirely sure that he knows it. Jason was my family, I adopted him. Alfred is my family. He is. I came to the realization that Alfred is the only father I've ever known. I've never let anyone in and I've never allowed anyone to truly be close to me."
"It doesn't have to be like that." Andrea replied as she took my hand in hers. "We are all here for you."
"I know. That's why I'm here, Andy. I'm here because I'm done allowing myself to push everyone away. For those of you who know my alter ego, you know that I can never let that go. But, I also can't forget that I can't allow Batman to crush Bruce Wayne. Like I told you before, Bruce Wayne doesn't exist without Batman."
"I'm happy that you've realized that." Andy said honestly. "I'm still confused as to why you needed to break into my apartment to tell me this."
"I told you that I realized that my mistakes are often larger than most. I made a mistake with you."
"What?" she replied in shock.
"I've kept you at arm's length for years, keeping you in my life but without letting you in. You've never even seen the Cave. That all needs to change. You need to see it because you are my family." I said, suddenly realizing that my hands were shaking.
"What are you saying, Bruce?" she asked nervously.
"I'm asking you to be with me, Andy." I answered her as I sank from the couch to one knee on the floor. Once there, I withdrew the ring that had belonged to my mother from my pocket and placed it in front of her.
"I'm asking you to marry me. Will you, Andrea, marry me?"
Silence overtook the room for a moment before Andrea broke into a huge smile.
"YES!"
Suddenly, Andrea tackled me to the ground and embraced me on the floor. I relished the smell of her fiery red hair as it flowed in my face before she pulled away and looked me in the eye.
"Of course I will marry you." she said before she leaned down and kissed me.
In that moment, I was the happiest man in the world.
?
?
?
?
I had been summoned. Finally, the time for me to prove myself had come. As I entered his chambers, I let my massive frame fall to the floor as I knelt before his wonder. While I was much larger and stronger than he, I had come to understand that he was the most powerful man I had ever met and that it would be he would lead me to my great adversary.
"My lord, I serve only you."
"Good." came the silky voice of the elderly man on the throne in front of me. "As you no doubt have guessed, the time is now."
"Tell me what to do, my lord."
"I shall go to his home. My daughter has been in Gotham for months and she tells me that his home will be easy to enter, assuming he does expect us, which he will not. When we are there, I will ask him to join me. While you are a worthy student, he was intended to be my successor. However, The Detective has been stubborn. I am sure that he will decline. When he does, you are to engage him and kill him."
"I will, my lord. The Batman will fall by my hands and I will succeed you when the world is yours."
"I have kept the identity of The Detective a secret from you. Before you kill him, you must discover his identity and attack him in his home. Only then will you be able to beat him."
"I will doe exactly as you ask."
"Good. Now, go to your quarters and rest. Prepare yourself to become the Dark Knight's bane."
"And his bane I shall be, my lord Ra's Al Ghul."
TO BE CONTINUED IN "THE LEGACY: KNIGHTFALL"