Because of You

Chapter 18 - Because of You

"Hope?" Damian asked, "What do you mean 'Hope'?"
But, just as he spoke, a notification BEEP rang from Cassandra's phone.

"Go ask Stephanie," she said, pushing him out and handing him a pendrive.

"Explain to them what it is about," Cassandra instructed.

Damian wordlessly nodded and went to meet the rest of the family in the Cave.

Only after he left did she look into the message.
Somehow that one BEEP explained the whole situation remarkably well.

____________________________________

Damian was nervous about explaining Marinette to his family.

He knew that undergoing trauma is not a good enough excuse to commit a murder, but he really hoped that they would understand, considering how they each had a run-in with trauma.

As he stepped into the room, all eyes fell on him. He walked towards the projector, trying to connect the pendrive to the system.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Tim frantically typing away on his tablet.

He raised an eye at Barbara, who was sitting beside him.

"Cass send him some clip to sharpen," she answered his silent question.

He nodded then proceeded to set up the presentation.

Taking a deep breath, he started, "OK, Cassandra was able to retrieve a lot of her memories. Most of them was about her *cough* love story *cough* but we also managed to get a clip of what actually happened on the Day of the Fallen."

He opened the graph and the memories, displaying each to the family, who sat in deadly silence, analyzing every tiny detail.

It took at least an hour to show them everything.

They all had several questions to ask. It was visible on their faces, as the video progressed.

Though he had already seen it, rewatching the whole thing again, somehow irked Damian on a different level.

The room was taking their time to process everything.

"Why does he say 'take care of her for me?'" Dick asked, "It sounds strange."

"I agree," Barbara voiced.

There was a short pause.

"Oh! Stephanie," Damian recalled, "What is 'Hope' by the way?"

Stephanie looked utterly confused as she defined it, "Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. Why do you ask?"

Damian looked annoyed, although it was his fault, considering how he forgot to specify, "What I mean, Brown, is at the end of the video, Cain said something similar to 'I think she is 'Hope', which sounds extremely vague," Damian declared.

Stephanie seemed deep in thought. She was very familiar with it, she couldn't recall from where though.

In the mean time, Tim had decrypted the clip, he was sent.

"OK," Tim stood up, "Cass sent me this to watch."

He connected the device and played the video.

The clip started with an over-the-top Marinette- like some puppy on sugar high?
Somehow her level of happiness leaked into her perspective as everything she looked at appeared rosy and full of life.