Young Justice: Slaughter Swamp

September 10th, 2010

I stepped smoothly out onto textured, dry stone and felt the familiar tingle of wards wash over me. I took a deep breath and wrinkled my nose in distaste as the damp, putrid scent of stagnant water and decay assaulted my lungs. It was almost dark, with only a tiny sliver of the sun still illuminating the horizon and painting the dark clouds with streaks of crimson.

I briefly cast my gaze around, not seeing anything out of place. I could feel the inferi lying undisturbed just beneath the surface and could detect no tampering to the simple ward scheme I’d erected over the portion of the Swamp where my planeswalking always deposited me.

At some point, I’d really need to figure out a way to Planeswalk into my house, or perhaps simply erect a more permanent, powerful ward scheme over this spot. And an air-purifying ward. Currently my only real points of arrival in this plane were here, the Tower of Fate, and Shadowcrest, and I didn’t particularly like that two of those three locations were covered in powerful wards that I had no control over.

For now however, this would do. I twisted on my heel, not even bothering to step away from where I’d arrived, and vanished with a sharp crack. A moment later I reappeared a few miles away in a welcomingly familiar bedroom. The bedsheets were a bright emerald green, the walls painted a soft blue like light shining through deep water, and there was a thick, soft aquamarine––Zatanna’s favorite color––carpet covering most of the floor except for the small, slightly-raised circular platform I was standing on.

I sighed heavily, my shoulders slumping. I dropped my bag against the wall, kicked off my shoes, and stepped down onto the carpet, my feet sinking nearly a full inch into the wonderfully soft surface. The handful of steps between the apparition platform and bed felt like a thousand mile but vanished in an instant as I finally collapsed face down onto the sheets.

I groaned into the mattress, tense muscles loosening in a way they hadn’t in over a week. The wards thrummed and my magic sang back, a few sparks bursting from the tip of my wand. Though I hadn’t truly lived here for long, this place already was starting to feel like home. Somewhere I could let down my guard and know I was safe. So long as the wards stood and Black blood flowed through my veins, this place would protect me with all its might.

I lay there for several minutes, just relaxing and letting the silence and the comforting cool pressure of dark magic roll over me in gentle waves. It had only been a month and a half, but already the wardstone beneath me had drawn in a colossal amount of magic from the surrounding area. The property, which had once felt as cold and lifeless as a tomb, now felt like a real home. The magical saturation was nothing compared to Hogwarts, the Conservatory, or even just some of our older manors, but it was more than just any old patch of city.

Eventually I sighed, rolled onto my back, and sat up. I was tired––the last few days had been busy, hectic, and had left little time for sleep––but it wasn’t really all that late and there were still a few things I wanted to do before I could rest.

First things first, I quickly changed out of the clothing I’d been wearing and into something a bit more comfortable. The house robe I’d enchanted wasn’t as nice as what I’d once had, but it was much more comfortable than the relatively rugged clothing I’d worn to fit in around Beacon.

Then I spent several minutes searching my desk, drawers, and eventually several other rooms until I finally found my cell phone. Summoning it would have been easier, but the little silver and black box was fragile and I didn’t want to risk accidentally shattering it against a wall.

It took another two minutes to realize that thing wasn’t broken, merely out of batteries, at which point I was once again left running around searching for the bulky black battery that Zatanna had bought for me when she’d realized my home didn’t have electricity.

Nearly fifteen minutes after I’d stood up I finally plugged my phone into the battery and set it down on my table to charge. That would take some time, but that was okay. Letting Zatanna and, to a lesser extent, Kent know that I was back was important, but not the only thing I wanted to take care of right now.

I glanced at my bag, then left it where it lay for the time being. That was one of the things I needed to take care of, but nothing in there would be harmed by waiting a few extra hours. It was probably best to take the plants out and put them somewhere with natural light soon, and I was itching to finally examine the Relic that Ozpin had given me, but there was something else I wanted to do first. Business before pleasure and all that.

After a moment of consideration, I headed down the hall to one of the first rooms I’d enchanted on the second floor of my home. The once tiny, featureless box had been expanded immensely, straining the limits of my skills with spatial magic to transform a room barely fit to house a house-elf into a modestly sized training room. It was considerably smaller than the ones they had at Beacon––something I’d probably need to correct if I planned to continue my studies of aura––but it was big enough to suit my current purposes.

I took a deep breath and drew on my lands. Red mana from Beacon and Black mana from Slaughter Swamp formed an outline and I filled it with three more motes. A moment later, a person I’d been speaking with less than half an hour ago appeared in front of me.

Raven stumbled slightly––all the creatures I’d summoned seemed to do that, a moment of disorientation as they went from nothing but energy into a living, breathing being––but swiftly regained her footing and turned to stare at me.

I regarded her with interest as well. For the first time since we’d met, Raven wasn’t wearing a blank white mask. I’d already had a sense of what she looked like from the Blueprint, but there was a difference between a mental image and the real deal. She was quite pretty, beautiful even. She also bore a striking resemblance to Yang, though I wasn’t sure if that was because they were related or just because their huntsmen lifestyles shaped their bodies in similar ways.

Raven broke the silence first. “I am…” she paused, her hand dropping to rest on the hilt of her sword. “I can not feel them. Any of them. Where am I? What…what am I?” She blinked rapidly, looking around in confusion. Then suddenly her eyes cleared. “Ah. I understand. You have brought me to a new world, as Ozpin had claimed.”

I watched the process with interest. Raven’s reaction to being summoned was slightly different than any of the one’s I’d seen before.

Raven suddenly stiffened. “The relic?” she asked, her voice filled with urgency.

“Safely gone from Remnant. Salem will never get them all.”

Raven instantly relaxed. “Then he was right. It was all worth it. I had worried when he reached out to me. I did not believe Ozpin at first, but it seems I was wrong to doubt him.” Raven dropped down to one knee, her head bowed, one hand on her blade and the other on her knee. “You have saved my tribe, my family, and my world. How can I serve?”

I wasn’t fully sure I knew what was going through her head, but she felt honest. Had she been someone else, I doubted I would have taken her at her word, but as one of my summons, she was linked to me in a very literal way. She would not exist without me. I was pretty sure I could trust her honesty “Are all of your abilities intact?” I asked.

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Raven considered the question. “I feel diminished, but not to any significant extent,” she answered after several long moments.

“You still have your aura?”

Raven extended a hand and a shield of visible aura appeared in front of her fingers. Then she briefly drew several inches of her sword and a trio of small portals appeared from thin air. Finally, her eyes lit up with flames and lightning sparked around her.

She nodded sharply. “All seems to be in order.”

Excellent. “In that case, I have a job for you. A long-term assignment. This,” I gestured around, “is my home. I’ll prepare a guest room for you. What I want you to do is monitor me whenever I’m outside of the building and step in if I’m ever in danger. I’m also going to introduce you to another person––the real Zatanna––and I’d like you to do the same for them. You’re free to spend the rest of your time as you’d like.”

Raven nodded again. “Understood. I have extensive experience with such things. None shall harm you for as long as I stand.”

I extended a hand and helped Raven to her feet. “Then let me show you around. I’m waiting for my uh, local scroll to charge. This world is pretty different from Remnant, I’m honestly still getting used to it myself, but I’ll do my best to fill you in.”

By the time I got back to my room having dropped Raven off in the half-furnished guest room I’d started preparing weeks ago but never finished, my phone was on and blinking with several-dozen missed messages. Most of them were from Zatanna and I briefly swiped through the most recent few. A question asking if I had returned yet. A comment about how much she missed me. A picture of her standing in front of a mirror naked except for two fingers extended in a V shape that covered her breasts and genitals. Another question about when I was coming back, this time with several more question marks than before.

I stared at the picture for several seconds, the grainy screen of my cheap phone leaving the image somewhat blurry, but the sly smile on her lips and the sparkle in her eyes was impossible to miss. I ignored the rest of the messages and roughly jabbed the ‘call’ button at the top of the screen.

The phone rang once. Twice. Three times. I tapped the screen several times with my finger, nearly ending the call by mistake when the screen changed. There was a soft crackle and suddenly Zatanna’s voice came from the little box. “Hydrys!” she exclaimed. “You’re back!”

“I’m back,” I confirmed, and I heard a distant-sounding squeal of excitement.

“Oh my god I’ve missed you so much! Some crazy stuff happened while you were gone, I can’t wait to tell you all about it! Mera got kidnapped! She’s okay now, but it was a whole thing and I had my first real lessons with her today and it was absolutely amazing! How was your trip? Did you find anything cool? Did you learn any new magic? Dad’s in Europe doing hero stuff, I’ll be there in five minutes!”

She spoke so quickly that I couldn’t even get a word in edgewise. I tried to say something, but the call ended before I could, leaving me staring quizzically at the little box on the table. It sounded as though Zatanna had missed me even more than I’d missed her.

Zatanna had said five minutes, but I barely had time to make it down to the still in-progress first floor when the girl charged in through the back door, her eyes bright and her flip-flops slapping against the hardwood floor. She was dressed casually in a gray halter-neck crop top that left her shoulders and belly bare and tiny jean shorts that barely went down to the top of her thighs. I’d never seen her wear them before and they had the top button left undone, the pale blue flap of cloth flapping with every step.

Our eyes met and Zatanna’s smile instantly lit up the whole room. She changed direction slightly but didn’t slow down in the slightest. I opened my arms wide and, in a moment of brilliance, focused on my aura the way that Glynda had taught me.

Zatanna crashed into me like a blasting charm and I rocked back on my heels but managed to otherwise keep my footing. Her arms wrapped around my chest and she tilted her head to look up at me. I hugged her back with one arm and held her head with the other. Then I leaned down and our lips met. It was as though fire had been poured into my veins, my entire body heating up as our tongues tangled together.

It felt so right. Zatanna’s body was like a bonfire against mine, leaving me warm and tingling. It was nothing like kissing her copy. This Zatanna was real. Not some lifeless copy made from magic, but the real article.

We broke apart, Zatanna lightly nipping my lower lip as I pulled away. We were both breathing heavily and Zatanna had a slightly dopey smile on her face, her lips parted and her cheeks flushed red.

“You did finish furnishing your bedroom, right?” she asked between deep breaths.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

It took us three tries to make it all the way up the stairs. By the time we finally burst through the doorway to my room, Zatanna’s top was looped around her neck like a scarf and her tiny shorts were unzipped and barely hanging on, revealing the tiny black garment already soaked in her arousal that she was wearing beneath them. I was little better. My robe was gone, left hanging somewhere over a railing, and my erection was leaving a prominent tent in the thin fabric of my silk pants.

Zatanna didn’t spare my room a second glance, beelining directly towards the bed and dragging me behind her by the wrist. She pushed me down onto the mattress and then all but leapt after me, her top flying one way as she swiftly shimmied out of her shorts and kicked them off somewhere into a corner.

We kissed again, Zatanna’s nearly naked body lying on top of mine and her bare breasts squeezed against my equally bare chest. My hands roamed up and down her body, caressing the familiar curves, stroking the arch of her back, and massaging the plump cushion of her ass. Zatanna moaned into my mouth and I used her momentary distraction to roll us over, leaving her lying beneath me as I hungrily explored her mouth with my tongue.

Zatanna finally managed to hook two fingers under the waistband of my pants and pushed them down, allowing my rock hard shaft to sprint free and slap against her bare thigh. I kicked them away and then it was her turn, her hands running up and down my back, stroking my shoulders, and pulling her even tighter against me.

I came up for air and Zatanna stared up at me with her big, shining eyes. “Tell me honestly,” she breathed, “did you miss me while you were gone?”

“Every day.” I kissed my way down her body, starting with her lips and moving down her neck towards her chest. Occasionally a kiss turned into a light nibble, my teeth just barely brushing her skin and each time she gasped and moaned.

“Did you meet any other pretty girls?” she asked.

It felt like a trap, but I didn’t want to lie. Not now, not like this. I thought of some of the students I’d met, of Team RWBY and sparring with Pyrrha. I thought of Glynda and Peach and Raven. “A few. I got a couple of Blueprints––I can introduce you––but none like you.” My lips moved up one breast and then around her areola before I finally flicked her nipple with my tongue and took the hard, sensitive nub in my mouth.

“And, ahhhhhh,” she moaned as I sucked hard on her nipple, my hands hard at work mauling her sensitive butt. “Did you,” she gasped sharply, “did you fuck any of them? Like you fucked me?”

I stopped and pulled away from her breast, shifting until I could look directly into her eyes. “Of course not. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

We stared into each other’s eyes for several seconds and then Zatanna smiled. “I knew you wouldn’t. You must be so pent up. A whole week and a half surrounded by pretty girls without me there to distract you.”

I could control myself, but I understood what Zatanna wanted. I growled softly and my grip on her butt tightened until I was worried it was actually going to hurt her, but Zatanna’s breathless moans convinced me that I was doing the right thing. “It sounds like someone’s just begging for a pounding.”

Zatanna arched her back, thrusting her chest up towards my face. “Oh please, fuck me Hydrys! I’ve missed you so much!”

I leaned down and captured her lips for a moment. “Gladly.” I ultimately hadn’t ended up trying anything interesting out with Zatanna’s copy, but that wasn't an issue. The real deal was right here in front of me and, looking down at her, I could barely remember why I’d been reluctant to do those things in the first place.

I hoped Giovanni was going to be in Europe for a good long while yet, because Zatanna wasn’t going anywhere tonight.