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There's something wrong with Damian’s new classmate. Tim knows that there's something wrong. Nico di Angelo is weird. He's too pale, from a very wealthy family no one has ever heard of, moves like a trained fighter, and has a thousand-yard stare that makes Tim feel like Nico is looking into his soul.
A week ago, a new student transferred into Damian’s class at Gotham U, the private school Bruce sends all his kids to. The new student, whom Damian told him was introduced as Nico di Angelo, dismissed them without a second thought—dismissed the Wayne name, their connections, and every classmate who attempted to approach him.
Every student in that school is desperate to make connections with the Wayne kids, even though only Duke and Damian are currently attending; every student except for Nico di Angelo. Nico apparently doesn't care about the Wayne name or the money, power, and connections that come with it.
Ok, so Tim might be offended, but in his defense, no one has ever so utterly dismissed him or his pseudo-siblings before. Even when he was just Tim Drake, the Drake heir, kids his age attempted to build connections with him at least. Now that he's Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, adopted son and CEO of Wayne Industries, everyone is desperate to make a good impression.
Even the supervillains want Tim, so when Damian attempted to introduce Tim to his new classmate during one of the rare occasions when Alfred made him pick up the demon brat after school, Tim was shocked to be so comprehensively dismissed. Nico dismissed them both as if they weren’t worth his time. Tim was offended.
So Tim has been researching Damian’s new classmate, who the demon brat says moves like he's familiar with battle and speaks as if he's used to being obeyed.
Tim Drake, Red Robin, and CEO of Wayne Industries does what he always does when he finds something that doesn't make sense: he investigates.
Nico di Angelo, younger brother of Bianca di Angelo and son of Maria di Angelo, father unknown. Yes, father unknown, yet despite this, he is living in a fully staffed private manor in Bristol with a goddamned three-meter stone wall around the property, with actual guards standing sentry.
The guards all have bows in hand with arrow-filled quivers on their backs, meaning that they do not need firearm licenses. There are signs clearly visible around the property declaring that trespassers will be shot.
No one who is a Justice League affiliate would look down upon bows and arrows as a respectable weapon; Green Arrow and his many apprentices and rogues have thoroughly engraved a practical respect for archers.
What's worse is that Tim can find no record of the guards or the staff working in the newly built Manor. A Manor that was constructed in record time with all possible building permits going through without pause, question, or bribe.
Tim's current theory is that Nico di Angelo is the bastard son of a supervillain, and with Gotham luck and judging by the many archers guarding his home, one of Green Arrow's villains.
Jason Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s adopted son who does community outreach in Crime Alley, stares at the Goth kid who was walking down the street.
Jason Todd, who was presumed dead for years and someone the community suspects works for, if not then has an agreement with the local crime lord, takes note of the Goth kid's confident stride as he moves down the street.
The Red Hood, who was currently in his civilian guise, takes careful note of the Goth kid’s weight distribution and footing that suggests the kid is a trained fighter as the kid approaches him with a disgusted look on his face.
“Your soul is fucked.”
The kid tells him in English with a slight Italian accent, making Jason feel awkward. It's not every day a random goth kid approaches you to tell you that your soul is fucked.
It's not like this is something he doesn't already know after all the Lazarus pits messed him up, and he still falls into murderous rages when he's not careful.
So Jason responds in typical Jason fashion.
“Yeah, what's it to you?”
He demands after a moment to process what the kid just said.
“In terms you can contextualize according to your worldview, I would be a necromancer.” The kid tells him as if Jason's an idiot before continuing, “Would you let me fix it?”
The kid asks as if he is used to dealing with situations like this.
“The fuck.”
Jason says more than asks.
“Dad's doing a favor for Lady G, getting this city cleaned up, so of course he sent me.”
The kid tells him, rolling his eyes, attitude all put upon like a teenager.
“Apparently it's good training or something, and there are a lot of undead in this city.”
The kid says, shooting him a pointed look.
“Who's Lady G?”
Jason asks on reflex, ignoring his feelings and attempting to gather more information like he's been trained to do.
“Irrelevant. Do you want me to fix your soul or not? It's your undeath, dude; I’m not gonna live it for you.”
The kid asks again, looking impatient.
At this point, Jason’s mind is racing with a combination of ‘What the fuck?’ ‘Who is this kid?’ ‘What do I have to lose?’ and ‘What's the worst that can happen?’
It was at this point that Jason made what might have been one of the biggest decisions of his life without consulting any of his friends or any family members. He was just so tired of being angry all the time, and if this was a trap, it was at least coming from a new and exciting direction.
It was a few days later, over an awkward family dinner with Bruce, Dick, Tim, Damian, Steph, and Duke present, that Jason decided to break the news.
“The Pit rage is gone.”
Jason said casually in a lull in the conversation.
Absolute chaos. Exclamations, demands for explanations, surprised reactions, Bruce demanding answers, Alfred raising an eyebrow, the whole circus.
It was once everyone had calmed down, and he had a few more bites of Alfred’s wonderful cooking, that Jason decided to explain.
“I met a young male teenage Necromancer, said my soul was fucked, asked if he could fix it, told me he was handling the undead in the city as a job from his father who sent him as a favor for someone called ‘Lady G’.”
Jason summarizes the meeting, letting his family absorb the sheer nonsense that he experienced.
“He then told me to lead him to a place I would be comfortable crashing in for a few hours, told me to lie down while I attempted to interrogate him; the next thing I know, I’m waking up twelve hours later, and the Pit rage is gone.”
“Jason, we need to run tests.”
Batman tells him.
“Calm down. I already had Zatara check me over. No psychic implants, no memory alteration, no replacements, no curse or compulsions, none of my blood was taken, and I never revealed my cape ID, which I doubt matters as I got the impression the kid could see my soul.”
Jason explains, attempting to reassure the paranoid wreck that he sometimes called his father.
“Tests.”
Bruce repeats, completely belligerent.
Several hours later, Jason shows Dick, Tim, and Bruce the recordings of the kid he pulled from the safe house's security system. Duke and Damian had long gone to bed while Steph had gone home for the evening.
“That's Nico. Nico di Angelo, age 14, currently living in a newly built heavily fortified manor in Bristol, and Damian's suspicious classmate.”
Tim declares, staring at the image.
“Suspicious how? Outside of being able to cure Pit Rage, I mean?”
Jason asks, curious.
“His whole background is a high-quality forgery, as no one remembers him, yet all of his papers are completely legitimate. He lives in a well-guarded fortress created in secret, guarded by archers who don’t exist on paper. And he doesn't care about the Wayne name.”
Tim reports, voice carefully neutral, falling into the cadence Batman taught them all to ensure clarity.
“Current theory is that he's either a rich man's bastard being privately provided for or the kid of one of Green Arrow's supervillains. Unfortunately, even if his father is a magic user and Nico’s here training, that doesn't necessarily point one way or the other. The magical community has a lot of old families and dynasties.”
Tim tells the room.
“What necromancers do we even know?”
Jason asks, unfamiliar with the subject.
“The biggest and most powerful Necromancer clan is the Arcane family, whose current matriarch is Anais Arcane. Notable members of the family are Anton Arcane, a major supervillain; Abigail Arcane is the avatar of the Rot and Swamp Thing's alleged lover, and Gregori Arcane, a victim of Anton, currently going by Patchwork Man.
For Heroic necromancers we know of, there's just Bloodwynd, a necromancer with heroic tendencies currently MIA, suspected of being trapped in the source of his power, an artifact known as The Blood Gem.
For true villainous necromancers, there are two known. First is Mordru, an immortal Lord of chaos on the same level as Doctor Fate. The second is Nick Necro, a former friend of Constantine and Zatanna who went power mad and is now convinced that his magical pursuits are above anything else, like ethics, for example.
As for people who are technically necromancers, we have Felix Faust, a magical villain known to raise the undead, Klarion, who sometimes raises undead servants, and Ra’s, who technically qualifies due to his use of the Lazarus pits.”
Tim reports dutifully after pulling up a few files on the Bat computer.
“You are uninterested in my family's wealth and status, unlike most of the… students here.”
Damian tells the child necromancer during lunch after finding the boy sitting alone. It has been two weeks since Di Angelo transferred to his school and set off mental alarms with signs that Damian is trained to look for.
Di Angelo moves like a soldier trained to fight, looks for escape routes, and analyzes every person and animal in his vicinity for danger. To say nothing of his complete dismissal of all the many wealthy and connected children attending Gotham's premiere institution.
“Yeah, you can’t take your wealth with you, and Dad is the Wealthy One in any interaction.”
Di Angelo replies easily.
Deciding to be blunt, Damian decides just to ask, “Why are you here?”
“I go to school here?”
Di Angelo asks back, confused.
“No, why are you in Gotham?”
Damian demands impatiently.
“There's a lot of undead and ghosts everywhere around here, and I’m supposed to clean up the city. It's a quest that's supposed to be good training.”
At the look on Damian's face, Di Angelo continues.
“Those who need to know details know, and those who don’t don’t matter.”
Di Angelo dismissed Damian's line of inquiry before starting a new line of conversation.
“You have Chthonic Potomoi taint in your essence.”
The child necromancer tells him.
“What is a Potomoi?”
Damian asks wearily.
“A Potamoi is a god who embodies their river. The underworld has several Potamoi, and some of their runoff intersects and mixes in places, sometimes leaking to the surface. As all Chthonic Potamoi have magical effects, sometimes the runoff can produce interesting results.”
Di Angelo explains casually, making Damian's thoughts spin as the bell rings and Di Angelo leaves, heading to class.
Dick Grayson, currently dressed in his Nightwing costume, stares at the scene before him.
Nico di Angelo, Damian’s classmate and self-proclaimed necromancer, was standing before a confused Solomon Grundy in Slaughter Swamp, giving a speech as the undead stared at the kid.
“Cyrus Gold, known as Solomon Grundy, you have lived as a fine merchant and died, then came back as a strong warrior.
You were a respected member of Gotham's community and have left your mark on the city.
Father of two, your legacy will live on. Go on to the underworld without regrets or bindings preventing your passing.”
It's at this point that Nico flips a golden coin towards the revenant who once overpowered Superman, and upon impact, the undead brute goes up in a pillar of fire.
Dick can only watch on, speechless as one of the most powerful rogues in the world disappears, turning into ashes on the wind, before Nico nods at a job well done and strolls off.
‘This isn't murder, right?’ Dick asks himself. And after a moment comes to an answer: Solomon Grundy is already dead; this is just helping the deceased move on. Batman won’t care about such spiritual practices, as he doesn't want to get involved with the mystical.
Dick nods at his conclusion, dismisses the matter from his mind, and moves on with his patrol.
“Bruce, the known members of the Court of Owls are acting strange.”
Tim reports during their nightly debrief in the cave.
“Strange how?”
Dick asks curiously.
“Fearful, jumpy, and stressed.” Tim reports before continuing, “Do you have any ideas on why that might be?”
Tim asks with a pointed look at Dick.
“Umm, well, a few days ago I saw Nico giving Grundy what I later learned was a funeral and sending him onto the afterlife. Could he have done the same for the Talons? They are undead, right?”
Dick asks nervously, shooting Bruce a look, having failed to mention the event.
Tim watches the Joker and his goons approach the walls of Nico di Angelo’s Manor, waiting to see what will happen. The Manor itself is too well fortified for a stealthy approach and infiltration, so Tim hatched a plot: if he can't sneak in quietly, he will sneak in under a distraction, and what better distraction than the Joker?
All Tim had to do was imply that Batman was more focused on a villain hiding in Nico di Angelo’s Manor when Red Robin was alone attempting to take down the Joker one particular night; the clown's obsession with the Batman would do the rest.
Of course, Tim knew that he wouldn't catch the clown that night; he had hostages to use for his escape after all, so Tim figured it was best to give the clown a target to better keep track of the lunatic.
Tim watches the clown and his goons march up to the Manor, pulling out what looks like explosives to get past the wall, when an arrow pierces cleanly through the Joker's eye.
Tim watches still and silent as the rest of the Joker's goons freeze and stare at the body of their boss before fleeing in all directions. Tim watches the clown's body sink into the earth below before disappearing.
This is not what he planned for. He planned for the Joker to break in, then he would sneak into the Manor behind the clown to gather information and capture the mad clown during the chaos, not for the madman to die from an arrow to the brain.
Oh god, what is he going to tell Bruce? This is a Captain Boomerang situation all over again.
Bruce doesn't have to know. Tim has always been the Robin who could lie to Batman. What's one more lie? Tim quickly decides that he has no idea what happened to the Joker or where he is.
Tim silently sneaks away from Nico di Angelo’s Manor. He very carefully doesn't think about the distance that shot was taken from and his suspicion that the archers are magically enhanced undead of some kind.
No, Tim needs to think of what he was actually doing tonight, certainly not spying on the Joker and Kid Necromancer. He also needs to think of how he's going to cover up his recent activities.
“Gotham’s Ghost population is at an all-time low.” Zatara tells The Bats as she gives her report in the batcave before continuing, “The necromantic energies of the city have been declining drastically for over a month.”
“We suspect that all of the city's undead have disappeared as well.”
Dick offers weakly, ignoring Batman’s glare.
“I made a few scrying attempts on the necromancer’s manor, and a magical mist veiled everything. My attempts to analyze the guards from the street while staying off the property told me that they are, in fact, undead, and powerful undead at that.
I suspect they were either magical warriors of some kind in life or were enhanced post-necromantic animation.
The illusions on them that make them look like living people are good. Still, it's only designed to work on the civilian population, not anyone with a speck of power or magical knowledge.
As for Nico di Angelo himself, whenever I get near, he steps into a shadow and disappears in some kind of umbral teleportation. It's as if he knows I'm there regardless of what kind of cloaking spell I've cast.”
Zatara finishes before Batman oh-so-kindly kicks her out of his city and tells her not to come back without an invitation, ignoring the fact that he was the one who asked for her analysis.
“Duke, you have had the chance to get a look at di Angelo; what did you see?”
Batman demands.
“Ugh, it's odd; he's got the same gold stuff in his blood that Wonder Woman does, and his aura is powerful like hers; however, it's a different color, like darker. There's no real color comparison that the human eye can see, so just imagine darker, I guess.”
Duke offers weakly, causing Batman to grunt.
“I can see through the illusions like Zatara can and can confirm that the guards are, in fact, skeletons, as is the driver that picks him up and drops him off from school.”
Duke continues gaining more confidence.
“So we have a 14-year-old Goth Necromancer child in class with Damian who is in the city clearing out ghosts, the undead, and helping those with necromantic magical issues like Jason. What are we going to do about it?”
Dick asks the cave.
“Kill, subjugate, drive off, or tolerate. Sorry, let me make that more Bat-friendly. Imprison, adopt, kick out of town, or observe indefinitely?”
Jason replies, narrowing down their options.
“New little brother?”
Dick asks with an eager smile as Jason gives his best shit-eating grin; Damian looks on contemplatively, Tim keeps his face carefully blank, Duke looks confused, and Bruce starts to rub his temples.