Rachel Dawes (New DC)

Rachel Dawes was the former Assistant District Attorney in Gotham City and also the childhod friend and lover of billionaire Bruce Wayne and fiance of former D.A Harvey Dent. She was killed when she was kidnapped by the Joker along with Harvey Dent and killed during an explosion when Gotham PD failed to reach her in time.

Early Life
Rachel is a childhood friend to Bruce Wayne. Rachel's mother worked for Bruce's parents, and the two would often play together on the grounds of Wayne Manor. After Bruce's parents are murdered by Joe Chill, Rachel's mother seeks other employment and leaves Wayne Manor with Rachel. She and Bruce remain close even after he fell in the batcave, but their friendship is never the same.

Rachel enrolls in law school and gets an internship at the Gotham City District Attorney's office during her first year. After Chill is murdered for testifying against Mafia boss Carmine Falcone, Bruce reveals to Rachel that he intended to kill Chill himself. Rachel is horrified, and tells Bruce that his late parents would have been ashamed of him. Soon afterward, Bruce leaves the United States and Rachel continues her studies in law school. Years later, she becomes an Assistant District Attorney. She also has a brief relationship with her boss, District Attorney Carl Finch.

Return of Bruce Wayne
Rachel dedicates her career to eliminating crime in Gotham City, which makes enemies of Falcone and Dr. Jonathan Crane, Arkhum Asylum's chief psychiatrist, who is in Falcone's pocket. Falcone eventually sends two thugs to kill her. She is rescued by Gotham's mysterious vigilante, Batman. Around the same time, Bruce returns to Gotham. Rachel is surprised that he didn't call her, and is later disappointed that he has apparently become a selfish playboy.

Later, Crane drugs her with his fear toxin at Arkham while she is evaluating Falcone, who has suffered a psychotic breakdown. Batman rescues her again, administers an antidote and tells her that Crane is working with a terrorist organization called the League of Shadows. He then gives her instructions for a plan to save the city from the League's attack. Rachel delivers samples of an anti-toxin to Batman's ally, Gotham City Police Department detective James Gordon. The League starts a riot in one of Gotham's slums, and Rachel is trapped. Crane, who has now assumed the criminal alter ego of "The Scarecrow", attacks her again. She defends herself and a boy caught in the riot by firing a taser at the insane doctor. Soon, the city is overrun by Arkham's inmates, whom the League has released, and Rachel and the boy are surrounded by lunatics led by Falcone's henchman, Victor Zsasz. Batman saves them at the last minute, however, and gives Rachel a hint as to his secret identity. As Rachel realizes that her masked savior is Bruce, he leaves to save the remaining innocent bystanders.

One morning after the riot was over, Rachel goes to the ruins of Wayne Manor, which had been burned down by the League, and reconciles with Bruce. Despite their mutual attraction, Rachel decides they can't be together if he is determined to lead a double life. She kisses him goodbye and leaves him to fulfill his destiny, hoping he will come back to her when Batman is no longer needed in Gotham.

Meeting Harvey and death
Rachel, by this time, is the assistant DA to Harvey Dent, a man who is challenging the mob in Gotham in a legal way. She has also started dating him, creating a love triangle between herself, Dent, and Bruce.

When the mob hires the Joker to kill Batman out of desperation, the Joker says he will kill people until Batman reveals his identity. Harvey, realizing how important Batman is, says he is the Batman. When Joker tries to kill him, the real Batman and Jim Gordon capture him.

But during this time, Joker manipulates two cops into bringing Dent and Dawes to different buildings in the city. There, both of them are tied up with bombs and barrels of gasoline surrounding them. Joker reveals the locations to Batman and the police during his interrogation, but deliberately switches the locations. Batman sets out to save Dawes, while Gordon goes to rescue Dent, unaware of the falsehood in Joker's words until Batman arrives at the storage to find Dent, not Dawes as he believes, inside. Still, Batman manages to get Dent out, although half of his face is caught on fire and hideously burnt in the explosion that occurs seconds after their escape from the building. However, Gordon arrives too late to save Rachel, and she dies when the bombs surrounding her are detonated.

Earlier before her abduction and death, Rachel has left Alfred a note for Bruce, leaving it unsealed so Alfred could also read it and know the right time for Bruce to read it. She explains in the letter that because she truly loves Harvey and thinks that Bruce will not be able to give up his life as Batman, she is going to marry Harvey. Alfred goes to give it to Bruce after her death, but instead takes it back moments later when he decides it's not yet time, and then later burns it when he hears that Bruce is sure that she would have waited for him, knowing that it would never be the right time.