Disclaimer: I do not own the Batman trilogy. Just writing for fun.

A/n: Hey all. Here's another update. Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. They mean a lot. Enjoy!

Chapter 46: Fallen Idols

John handed me a cup of coffee, while we watched Bane's haunting speech on the TV of his apartment. It was nice and spacious. I was grateful for the hospitality and his kindness.

"Behind you stands a symbol of oppression. Blackgate prison…where a thousand men had languished for years. Under the Dent Act, under the name of this man. Harvey Dent," he held up a photo of him. I sipped my coffee and put it down on the counter top, leaning against it with my arms crossed over my chest. "Held up to you and over you, a shining example of justice and good…"

"We're gonna keep moving you, till we get you in front of a camera," he said, as he gathered up supplies.

My eyes cast over to him curiously. "You really think that's a wise decision?"

He shrugged. "No. But we got no choice."

Bane set a fire to the picture as John motioned a chin nod to the TV. I continued to watch in utter horror stinging in my eyes.

"But they supplied you a false idol…."

I wanted to scream at the TV.

"A straw man. To placate. To stop you tearing this corrupt city and rebuilding it the way it should have been built generations ago…"

He dropped the picture on the ground. "Let me tell you the truth about Harvey Dent. In the words of Gotham's Police Commissioner, James Gordon."

John stopped rushing around, eyes glued to the TV set, and I froze.

"'The truth about Harvey Dent is simple in only one regard - it has been hidden for too long. After his devastating injuries, Harvey's mind has recovered no better than his mutilated face. He was a broken, dangerous man, not the crusader for justice that I, James Gordon, have portrayed him to be for the last eight years. Harvey's rage was indiscriminate. Psychopathic. He held my family at gunpoint, then fell to his death in the struggle over my son's life. The Batman did not murder Harvey Dent - he saved my boy. Then took the blame for Harvey's appalling crimes, so that I could, to my shame, build a lie around this fallen idol.'"

Gordon's face fell into his hands and my chest tightened. I wasn't there that night, but Bruce told me the length of what happened to Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon. It was a secret only we knew to keep Dent in the light of Gotham's White Knight.

"I praised the madman who tried to murder my own child.' 'The things we did in Harvey's name brought desperately needed security to our streets... But I can no longer live with my lie. It is time to trust the people of Gotham with the truth, and it is time for me to resign.' Do you accept the resignation of all the liars?! All the corrupt?!

I could just picture the prisoners inside that prison cheering and roaring for the release of Gordon from duty.

"These men, locked up in Blackgate for eight years," John began. "Denied parole under the Dent Act? Based on a lie."

I bit my lower lip.

"A lie to keep the city from burning to the ground! Gottham needed a hero, someone to believe in!" Gordon cried.

"Not as much as it does now," John said.

"John!" I scolded.

"No. He betrayed everything he stood for, even you!"

"John….you don't understand what I went through eight years ago, what we ALL went through. We-"

"Melanie," Gordon said and shook his head. "There's a point. Far out there. When the structures fail you. When the rules aren't weapons anymore, they're shackles, letting the bad get ahead. Maybe one day you'll have such a moment of crisis. And in that moment, I hope you have a friend like I did. To plunge their hands into the filth so you can keep yours clean."

"You're hands look pretty filthy to me Commissioner," he said and continued packing. I glared at him with a shake of my head.

"We take Gotham from the corrupt. The rich. The oppressors of generations who've kept you down with the myth of opportunity. And we give it to you, the people. Gotham is yours - none shall interfere. Do as you please... But start by storming Blackgate and freeing the oppressed... Step forward, those who would serve... For an army will be raised... The powerful will be ripped from their decadent nests... ...and cast into the cold world the rest of us have known and endured... Courts will be convened... The spoils will be enjoyed... Blood will be shed... But the police will live, until they are ready to serve true justice... This great city will endure... Gotham will survive."