EXT. TUNNEL ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUS

Gordon jumps out of the truck, opening the rear doors to expose the glowing core. Catwoman pulls up on the Bat-Pod.

GORDON: Give me a hand! We can get a cable on it.

The Bat lands at the tunnel mouth. Laughter. Gordon turns. Talia, lying half out the truck. Dying.

TALIA: Fox showed me how to operate the reactor core. Including the emergency flood...

INT. REACTOR PLANT - CONTINUOUS

FOX: Oh dear.

Fox pulls himself above the rising whitewater

EXT. TUNNEL ENTRANCE - CONTINUOUS

Gordon looks down at Talia. Batman is at his side.

TALIA: There is no way to stop this bomb. Prepare yourselves... (Looks up at Batman.) My father's work is done.

Talia smiles as her eyes flutter closed. Gordon turns - Batman is at the core, plunging his hands into the heat to attach a hoist from the Bat.

GORDON: What're you doing?
BATMAN: I can fly it out over the bay...

Catwoman is at his side as he works.

CATWOMAN: Set it out to fly over the water, then eject?

BATMAN: No autopilot.

She takes this in. He stands to face her.

CATWOMAN: You could've gone anywhere. Been anything. But you came back here.

BATMAN: So did you.

CATWOMAN: I guess we're both suckers.

She puts her arms around his neck. Kisses him. Batman moves to the Bat, Gordon alongside.

Batman opens the canopy.

GORDON: I never cared who you were --

BATMAN: And you were right.

GORDON: But shouldn’t people know the hero who saved them?
BATMAN: A hero can be anyone. Even someone doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hadn’t ended.

The canopy closes - and as the Bat fires up Gordon remembers

INSERT CUT: Gordon, in his uniform, wraps the overcoat around the Young Bruce's shoulders, his eyes reassuring, loving.

Gordon looks up to the cockpit --

GORDON: Bruce Wayne?

--but is dusted by downdraft as the Bat RISES. Gordon leaps out of the way as the core is dragged along and out of the tunnel mouth.

EXT. GOTHAM BRIDGE

Blake grabs at the smallest boys, shoving them onto the bus.

BLAKE (to Father Reilly): You too.

INT/EXT. THE BAT

The Bat struggles with the weight of the core... A building is in the way - Batman fights the controls but there's no power to get over it. Batman clears out a building with a blast from the Bat when it becomes clear he can’t fly over it

EXT. GOTHAM BRIDGE

BLAKE (hearing/seeing blast): Hey heads down! This is it!
LITTLE BOY: No! It’s Batman!

Blake turns to see the Bat thundering out of the heart of Gotham, the core hanging from it. It curves dangerously close to the bridge before heading for the mouth of the river...the bay...the ocean…

INT. THE BAT

Close-up on Bruce

CUT TO: A shot of the ocean with the Bat on the distant horizon.

CUT TO: INSIDE THE BAT, as the timer counts down 5, 4, 3…

CUT TO: Close-up on Blake as we hear the timer counting down in the background.

A point of light fires into an enormous blast

EXT. GOTHAM BRIDGE

Everyone ducks down

INT. FBI HQ

FBI AGENT: That’s detonation!

EXT. GOTHAM BAY

Wind and light and dust blowing VIOLENTLY but harmlessly over the bridge, the tunnel mouth, all of Gotham…

FBI AGENT (V.O.): It’s out over the bay, it’s clear of the city!

EXT. GOTHAM STREETS

The GDP cheer as they watch over the escaped prisoners they have gotten back under control

INT. SCHOOL BUS

The kids on the school bus cheer just like the cops

As the nuclear dawn fades over Gotham, and we see its inhabitants start to raise their heads, we hear a voice. Jim Gordon.

GORDON (V.O.): “I see a beautiful city...

Camera pans to an overhead shot of Gotham

GORDON (V.O.): ...and a brilliant people rising from this abyss”

Gotham citizens begin leaving their houses for the first time in weeks

GORDON (V.O.): “I see the lives for which I lay down my life...

Cut to a shot of the GPD officers

GORDON (V.O.): ...peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their...

Blake pulls out his badge. Throws it in the river

GORDON (V.O.): ...descendants, generations hence”

Cut to a shot of the children inside of the bus

EXT. GARDENS, WAYNE MANOR - DAY

Gordon is reading from A Tale of Two Cities. Opposite is Fox, arm in a sling, and Blake, grim. Another figure is there, whose face we do not yet see...

GORDON: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done…

Gordon closes the book, looking down at Bruce Wayne’s grave

GORDON (cont’d): ...It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known”

Fox places a gentle hand on Alfred's shoulder, then leaves. Gordon and Blake follow. Alfred, alone with the Wayne family, turns to the grave beside Bruce's - the grave of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

ALFRED: I'm so sorry. I failed you. You trusted me, and I failed you.

And the old man's shoulders begin to shake with sobs.

EXT. FRONT ENTRANCE, WAYNE MANOR - CONTINUOUS

GORDON: Can I change your mind about quitting the force?

BLAKE: You know what you said about structures becoming shackles? You were right, and I can’t take it. I mean...no one’s ever going to know who saved an entire city.

GORDON: They know. (Off look.) It was the Batman.

EXT. PLAZA, DOWNTOWN GOTHAM - DAY

Gordon, on a platform with dignitaries, watches a statue being unveiled. The curtain parts: Batman, immortalized in granite. We move in on the stone face...

VOICE (V.O.): Mr. Wayne's will was not amended to reflect his more modest estate...

INT. LAWYER'S OFFICE - DAY

The voice belongs to Wayne's lawyer, addressing a small group.

LAWYER: Nonetheless, there are considerable assets to dispose of... The contents of the house are to be sold --

He glances up to see someone slip into the room - Blake.

EXT. WAYNE MANOR - DAY

Movers carefully bring artworks and furniture out of the house, watched by a solitary figure. Alfred.

LAWYER (V.O.): - to settle the estate's accounts. The remainder is left in its entirety to Alfred J. Pennyworth...

INT. LAWYER'S OFFICE - DAY

Blake shifts. Out of place. The Lawyer continues.

LAWYER: The house and grounds are left to the city of Gotham, on condition that they never be demolished, altered, or otherwise interfered with --

EXT. WAYNE MANOR - DAY

Different movers carry bunk beds into the huge house.

LAWYER (V.O.): And that they shall be used for one purpose, and one purpose only...

A schoolbus pulls up. Father Reilly shepherds children towards the house. The children look up at the house, wide-eyed.

LAWYER (V.O.): The housing and care of the city's at-risk and orphaned children.

A sign reads: THE MARTHA AND THOMAS WAYNE HOME FOR CHILDREN

INT. LAWYER'S OFFICE - DAY

People file out as the Lawyer stands.

LAWYER: My clerk will help anyone with the smaller correspondences and instructions...

Blake approaches the Clerk. She smiles.

BLAKE: Blake, John.

CLERK (checks list): Nothing here.

Blake realizes, offers her his driving license.

BLAKE: Try my legal name.

The Clerk glances at the license. Checks.

CLERK: Yup, here it is.

She reaches down behind the desk, sorting through various items, and hands him a sports bag. Blake takes it, curious.

CLERK: You should use your full name. I like that name... Robin.

Blake smiles, embarrassed. Leaves.

LAWYER: Any word on the missing item?

CLERK: No, not yet.

LAWYER: Well, they'd better leave no stone unturned... We can't just put a string of pearls on the manifest as 'lost'.

INT. APPLIED SCIENCES - DAY

Fox stands in front of the second camouflage rotor. Two Techs are examining the controls in the cockpit.

TECH 1: Why worry about the stabilization software? This whole autopilot system's obsolete -

FOX: Please, I just need to know what I could've done to fix it.

TECH 2: But Mr. Fox, it's already been fixed. (Typed on panel.) Software patch...six months ago.

FOX (confused): Check the user ident on the patch…

Tech 2 types some more keys. Looks surprised.

TECH 2: Huh. Bruce Wayne.

Fox turns away from the rotor, an idea starting to form…

EXT. WOODS - DAY

Blake sits in his car looking at a GPS device, puzzled. Beside him, the sports bag, open. In it is a piece of paper with coordinates, on top of some climbing rope and shackles. Blake gets out of the car with the bag. Follows the GPS into the trees.

EXT. CAFÉ, FLORENCE - DAY

Alfred, paper under his arm, heads to his usual table. Sits.

WAITER: Lei e solo?

ALFRED: Si, Fernet Branca, per cortesia.

EXT. WOODS - DAY

Blake finds a large waterfall... He checks his GPS, confused. Stares at the waterfall. Reaches for the climbing gear...

EXT. MCU - NIGHT

Gordon steps onto the roof with his pile of arrest reports…

EXT. CAFÉ, FLORENCE - DAY

As Alfred sips his drink, he glances up at a couple at the next table. Strangers. Alfred looks back down…

INT. CAVE - DAY

Moving in on the waterfall from inside... Blake bursts through, landing painfully on the shale inside. He gets to his feet, moving cautiously into the cave…

EXT. MCU - NIGHT

Gordon bangs his files against the air duct, straightening them. He stops. Sees something. The searchlight...fixed. Gordon runs his fingers across a brand new, steel Bat symbol... He looks up into the night…

INT. CAVE - DAY

Blake lights his torch...then ducks, crouching, as thousands of screeching creatures descend. BATS...

EXT. CAFÉ, FLORENCE - DAY

Alfred folds his paper. Pulls out his money, then stops, seeing...across the tables, a familiar couple... Bruce smiles at Alfred, who nods. Bruce turns back to the pretty brunette in pearls. Selina. Alfred pays his bill, content.

INT. CAVE - DAY

Blake lifts his head, feeling the bats all around him… Blake RISES, and is swallowed by the darkness of their wings and we -

FADE OUT.

CREDITS.

THE END.