The Archivist of Gotham (The Magnus Archive × Batman Fanfic)

Chapter 41

Chapter 41: The Iceberg Lounge Incident (Part 2)

     The new vigilante Archivist appeared out of nowhere. Possessing abilities that no normal human should have. A meta or an alien– it doesn't matter for Damian. The only thing that should matter was why the self-proclaimed new vigilante was giving the same feeling as his classmate Jonas Cane.

Surely, Grayson was aware of this.

But if he wasn't, he needed to remove the wool of his eyes. Damian is ignoring the fact that Grayson has only encountered Cane a total of 4 times. And the 1st 2 times were very brief. The first was with Damian and the others being called to the Principal's office in Gotham Elementary. The 2nd was Damian proposing Wayne Manor as the location to create their science group project.

The 3rd time was when Damian decided to bring back his classmate's corpse to the Batcave despite the protest Drake and concern from Grayson.

Drake thought that they should leave his classmate's corpse at the Gotham City Police Department and have Cane's corpse be left to the forensic investigators and pathologists.

Grayson on the other hand at that time was concerned that he wasn't dealing well with his 'friend's death'. Grayson assumed that he was grieving. How laughable.

For Damian, the fool was an annoyance. A weakling pretending to be a wolf in the pathetic children's educational environment.

Then the fool got himself kidnapped and Damian was also a fool for being grounded by Grayson and Pennyworth for attempting to maim Drake again.

At that time, it was Drake's fault for insulting him. He only retaliated with what he thought best. (He would never admit that he lost his temper and his pride was wounded).

Damian was absent during the time that Cane wasn't at school and was kidnapped. He was also grounded for going at night so there was no parading around in a vigilante costume for him. ( There was no real vigilante costume for him since he was forbidden from stealing Todd's Robin costume to modify it to his own. Grayson's taste for fashion is disgusting. It was ridiculous why Todd decided to follow on his path to wear that Robin costume.

Even if Damian and Drake didn't get along. He can appreciate the fact that Drake decided to not follow in their footsteps and modify his own Robin costume.

By the time Damian returned to Gotham Elementary, it was also the time that the fool has returned. The fool became Cane. The change was so massive that it was almost like he was a different person.

He was intrigued by the mystery and set out to observe and find out the truth.

Cane was an interesting subject of investigation. He wasn't a friend but he was useful. Since he has reluctantly pulled into the group that Cane has unconsciously formed, Pennyworth and Grayson's impression of him has improved.

Grayson was happy for him on having his 1st group of friends. If that was what Grayson decided to label Damian's classmates, he would let him if it means he can always patrol at night in Gotham.

When Cane died so suddenly, Damian decided to bring his corpse not because he cared about Cane or grieving the loss of his friend.

He was suspicious. To suddenly drop dead with no clear reason behind it— It was so unreal and illogical. Damian wanted to find the mystery behind it.

After that, Cane wasn't dead at all. And it was proven further that the fool and Cane were different at all. Cane admitted it himself. Cane is a fool for slipping up or is it intentional?

Cane who wasn't human blurted out feeding in fears of the children of the Gotham Academy. His strange actions, behaviors – everything suddenly became clear to Damian.

This Cane was someone who became something else. Learning things around. Cane may have a mind of its own but it was acting for satiating his needs.

Grayson then arranged for Cane to meet John Constantine. A fool of a magician according to his grandfather and mother.

John then confirmed to them that Cane wasn't a demon or a ghost.

After that things went back to 'normal'. And Grayson who confirmed that Cane wasn't a demon or a ghost went to the Alien route. He was soon planning to Cane to meet one of the Green Lanterns to confirm what kind of Alien is Cane.

Knowing that the fool is dead and became Cane, Damian much prefers the latter to the former.

He knows it was cruel of him to prefer the creature that Cane was to the innocent child who experienced the cruelty of Gotham City and died. But Damian has no patience to interact with most of the normal kids who mostly belong either to the kids who fawn over him because he was a Wayne or Bully him because of his heritage. The only exception to those normal children was Avery and Hampton. The former got better and the latter doesn't belong to those either category. Almatore on the other hand was the cousin of Huntress and was involved with the Mafia.

So far other than scaring children to eat which Cane has also stopped recently before the online classes were once declared again, Cane hasn't done anything much harmful. With his interactions with Cane and the recent things shedding light on the creature that Cane is, Damian has discovered interesting things.

Cane was trying to act and pretend to be a human even though his inhuman instincts won over and the people around him notice that there was something wrong with him.

" I think... I become fond of all of you. "

That time that he said those words, he doesn't think that Cane was lying at all.

The creature that Cane was capable of expressing concern even if it was very different from the way that a normal human should express his concern. Cane was acting human not just to blend into society and try to appear normal. But it was for someone else. If he would assume, it was for the fool's parents.

The parents were ignorant that their fool was already dead.

The fool became Cane and Cane was seeking to find out the truth behind the fool's death. But despite how inhuman Cane was, the answer behind it was simple. Cane was seeking revenge for the fool.

Once upon a time, Batman didn't give up on the criminals. He saw that there was a chance for those criminals to redeem themselves. But as time passed, Batman have grown more jaded with the hopeless Gotham City. But he was still fighting for the sake of the remaining good citizens.

That was what Damian's mother told him during his spar before he even met his father and learned that he was Batman.

Since he was the one who was most familiar with Cane and not Grayson, it was his responsibility to watch over Cane. Make sure that Cane would anchor himself to Damian and Cane's gaggle of friends and does not let go of the stage and act his role as a human.

The New Vigilante Archivist. Damian's intuition told him that the vigilante? was connected to Cane. With his familiarity with Cane, he could see those uncanny characteristics. Archivists also possess them.

Is he the one responsible for making the fool became Cane or was it something else?

Later, Nightwing and Damian were ordered by Oracle to intercept two faces and the gang that he gathered on stopping to approach the Iceberg Lounge while Oracle requested Squire and Knight to help Archivist in Iceberg Lounge when a gun trotting Batman suddenly appeared out of nowhere attempting to kill the rogues and criminals of Gotham City.

Cane reminded Damian of someone else.

A person who stayed dead but someone alive. A person who was struggling with anger.

A person who Damian forgot to mention to his father when he was still alive or even told Grayson, Drake, and Pennyworth.