“you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain”

the shadow lingers long,
the legend lives on.
thrown to unforgiving history,
silence overshadows-
the sound of his cowl.

” No, *this* is your mask. Your real face is the one that criminals now fear. The man I loved – the man who vanished – he never came back at all. But maybe he’s still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I’ll see him again. “

finding what he lost,
losing what he finally found.
the hero was broken,
the madman took it all.

” When I told you that if Gotham no longer needed Batman we could be together, I meant it. But now I’m sure the day won’t come when *you* no longer need Batman.”

survived the battle,
took a million scars.
became a shadow of,
the shadow he was.

“You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it.”

angry, hurt,
distrusting, unearthed.
took on his end with his bare hands.
left to rot,
left to die,
while his city burnt in ashes.

“How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death ? ”

realization dawns, he isn’t the same he was.
curtains fall, who can carry the symbol forward.
the world might never know who he really was,
but the world will always understand what he stood for.

“because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight. “