This takes place approximately in 1996, four years after the events of "Batman Returns". For more details, check out "Batman Restored" by Michael Bauch. All characters belong to DC Comics and this is merely a fan fiction story. Enjoy.
1st Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see only a
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
Batman: A Mirror Darkly
Pt 1
Police Commissioner
James Gordon sat in Mayor Thayton’s office rubbing his eyes and nursing a Styrofoam
cup of coffee. It had been another late
night for Gotham’s finest. “Gentlemen…”
Thayton addressed Gordon. Gordon perked
up a bit, and noticed that District Attorney Harvey Dent had entered the
room. How long had he been there, Gordon
wondered. If he had to be honest with
himself the days were starting to blur together. After the Penguin was brought down by Batman,
and Catwoman was in the wind, new costumed psychopaths were cropping up in
spades, each crazier than the last. “None
crazier than the Joker, thank God.” Gordon mumbled unconsciously lost in his
own thoughts. Mayor Thayton turned,
apparently the overly theatric politician had been speaking, something about
the rise in “Super villains” as he was calling them. “No, thankfully not, but dangerous none the
less.”
Dent nodded “Your honor, frankly I don’t see how re-opening
Arkham is going to be an effective solution, sir.” Jesus Christ, Gordon thought, thankfully to
himself, re-opening Arkahm was a terrible idea.
“Sir, begging your pardon, but Arkham Asylum was a nightmare. I remember when they closed it down, wheeling
out horrors left and right. There is a
reason we don’t have anything like that anymore.”
“Be that as it may, it turns out that the new president can’t
stand to see the mentally ill imprisoned with the ‘normal’ criminal element.”
“Even if they’ve committed crimes?” Dent asked
incredulously. The mayor shot him a
warning glare. “Dent, the fact is that
this city needs help. Blackgate can’t
handle these lunatics, not at the rate they are spewing out. And we can use this to our advantage. I’ve had the marketing team drawing up plans
to revitalize Gotham for tourism. People
come from all over the world to see Chicago and New York to see where the most
infamous criminals did their dirty deeds.
We can use that. Look at the
pictures! The Asylum is sitting there,
like a goddamn post card.”
“A post card from a horror movie.” Dent growled. “A post card none less!” Thayton
exclaimed. “Look, you two don’t have to
like it. I’m just telling you what we
are doing. We’ve had Wayne Industries
remodeling the old hospital, expanding it, meeting federal standards and all
that.”
Gordon shook his head.
“I cannot believe that Bruce Wayne is putting a single penny into this
project.”
“Honestly I wasn’t going to…” Bruce said from the
doorway. Gordon turned with a
disapproving frown. It was a look very reminiscent
of his father, when he’d gone astray as a child. Bruce felt the sting of Gordon’s
disapproval. “The fact remains, if it hadn’t
been Wayne Industries, it would have been Thorne Incorporated.”
Dent wheeled on the mayor “Thorne!? Are you insane, sir? My office has been investigating him for drug
and firearms trafficking! He’s a career
criminal!”
“Then prove it and put him behind bars, Dent. Until then he’s still a wealthy investor in
the city. Like I said, it’s
happening. Wayne underbid him for the
project.”
“Once I found out what was going on, I couldn’t in good consciousness
let Thorne handle this project…” Bruce explained. “The board members just about lost their
minds when I announced the amount we were charging the city. They said I went too low, that we’d hemorage…”
He said glancing out the office door. “Anyway,
gentlemen, I wanted to meet with you because I wanted to make sure our city’s
law enforcement had a guiding hand in this project.”
“We guide you to stop.” Dent said.
“What do you need, Mr. Wayne?” Gordon said calmly.
“Federal standards are bare minimum at best. I want to plug the holes those standards
leave open. To do that, I need input
from the folks who are experienced at keeping criminals behind bars.”
The mayor glanced at the project “Dr. Hugo Strange will be
overseeing the operations of the Asylum.”
Wayne glanced back at the mayor “That’s fine, but it’s still
my building. When we won the contract,
Wayne Enterprises took custody of the land.”
“So it’s a corporately owned insane asylum.” Dent shook his
head “Your parents must be so proud.”
Gordon, hearing that, turned to Dent, with shock and anger
on his face. “Harvey, go home.” Thayton
said softly. Harvey glanced at the
room. Bruce’s eyes burned into him. “I’m…I’m sorry, Mr. Wayne. Yes, I think I’ll go home now.”
Bruce walked with Gordon out of the Mayor’s Office, letting
Harvey get a good lead on them to avoid awkward encounters at the elevators. “What exactly do you need from us, Bruce?”
Jim asked. Bruce noticed that Jim seemed
older, tired, and frailer than he had in years.
“Well, I need your best people to go over the remodeling plans with a
fine tooth comb, go over the building with a fine tooth come, and know that not
a single inmate will be placed in that building until it’s got your seal of
approval. And Jim…” they stopped short
of the elevators. Bruce looked at him “I
need you to trust me, Jim. You don’t
have faith in the board, fine, to hell with them. You don’t have faith in the mayor, to hell
with him. But trust me, Jim. I may not have been able to stop this from
happening, but I can make damn sure if it does happen it happens the right way.”
“Thank you, Bruce.”
They continued down the elevator “I don’t know how you do it, son.”
“What do you mean?”
“It seems like, since the night of that gala at your place,
that right when things look like it’s all going to go to hell in a handbasket
you show up and set everything right.”
He gave him a meaningful, fatherly look. “Well, as right as they get in Gotham.”
“I appreciate that, Jim.”
“Don’t mention it.
For what it is worth, though, I remember your father. He would be proud of the man you turned out
to be.” Bruce looked at the floor of the
elevator. “Thank you for that.”
The doors opened up to the lobby of City Hall. Behind the a bank of glass windows, Harvey
stood just outside the building, looking up and down the street, seemingly
lost. He then glanced back in Wayne and
Gordon’s direction and left. “That was…weird…right?”
Bruce asked. “Yes, that was very weird.”
Across
town Rupert Thorne sat in the back seat of his luxury car. He was not a small man, either by means or
statures, easily towering a head taller than most men, with a heavy build. His private vehicle was an older sedan, with
heavy armor and reinforced windows. It
now sat in a dark alleyway, carefully hidden by shadow. A knock came to the driver’s side rear
door. “Come in.” Throne grumbled. The door opened and a thin man in a blue suit
with a dark overcoat sat down. He was
not as powerfully built as Thorne, but he carried with him an aura of
authority. His thin, white-blonde hair
was carefully combed back, a thin mustache sitting on his lips. “Sal.” Thorne said by way of greeting. Sal Maroni nodded “Rupert…you lost the Arkham
bid. To…Wayne.” He said the name as if
tasting bitter fruit.
“The little shit swooped in at the last minute and under bid
me.” Thorne said, glaring out the window.
“I want him dead.” Thorne slammed his fist into the console between
them. Maroni shook his head “That DA and
Gordon would be on you in a heartbeat.
And if they couldn’t get you…”
“The goddamn Batman…” Thorne growled. “What the hell am I paying you for? You’re supposed to be protecting my ass from
this kind of thing.”
Maroni shook his head “Nobody owns Wayne, Rupe. He’s literally his own man, too much like his
father. Pain in the ass. I’ve tried working on him before, suddenly I’ve
got more trouble than its worth.”
“Bat trouble?”
“Bad bat trouble.”
Took us a year to recover out losses.
No, I don’t fuck with Wayne. But
I might know a few folks that do.”
“Crazies?” Thorne said tentatively.
“Yeah. I don’t like
dealing with them either, but they serve a purpose. For the most part you just pay them and aim
them and they don’t trace back to ya.
There’s a couple I could reach out to, see what they are doing.”
“Whatever you have to do, do it.”
Maroni nodded and exited the vehicle. He watched as Thorne’s car pulled out of the
alley and into the night.
Harvey
stood in his penthouse apartment, staring out the window as rain poured down on
the city. “I like the rain.” He muttered
to himself. “It washes everything clean. City is so dirty.”
He struggled to remember the conversation with the mayor
earlier in the day. It had been so
weird, like there were parts missing, responses given to statements not made. Dent,
the fact is that this city needs help… Why had the mayor said that? What did Harvey say to prompt that
response? Then there was the look on
Gordon and Bruce’s face. What had he
said? Why did the mayor dismiss him from
the meeting? Whatever he’d said had
struck a major nerve, hurt Bruce and Jim to their cores. He started to worry this was Gilda all over
again. The arguments he never
remembered, the bruises on her face and arms until one day he woke up and she
was gone. What was happening? He stared at his reflection in the window,
how the rain came down hard, blotting out half his face.
