Young Justice: Gotham
October 1st, 2010
It was evening by the time I finally made it home. Zatanna should have long since headed down to Poseidonis for her weekly lessons, but instead I found her in the library, curled up in one of the armchairs with her face buried in her phone. As I stepped into the room, I could hear the end of the newscaster’s words cut off as Zatanna turned off the phone.
“––despite the intervention of the Justice League and a number of other heroes, the death toll has continued to––”
Zatanna’s phone dropped onto the couch, leaving her staring down at her empty hands. I gave Blake––who was sitting in the corner pretending to read one of her books––a pointed look and she nodded, swiftly exiting the room and closing the door behind her, leaving Zatanna and I alone.
She was upset. I could have seen that much even without the years of social training my family had pounded into my head. She wore her feelings on her face, and there were signs that she’d been crying previously, though her eyes were dry by now.
I stood silently for several long moments, then sighed heavily. “Raven,” I said into the empty air, “give Zatanna and I some time, please.”
The recently ever present tickle in the back of my mind vanished. I couldn’t see or sense the miniscule portals through which Raven normally watched and listened, but her constant monitoring and some tips from her, Glynda, and even Blake had taught me how to use my aura to tell if I was being watched. It was reassuring to know that the woman always had my back, but it did mean I really needed to figure out how to distinguish between when it was just her observing me, or her and someone else with far less benign intentions.
Zatanna looked up at me and I sighed again, rubbing my face with my hands. I was suddenly feeling very tired. I’d used a lot of magic in a short period of time, much of it extremely powerful and hard to control. Then I’d spent the better part of an hour networking with members of the league as they swept the control center and surrounding bayou, secured our prisoners, and confirmed that the situation globally had been dealt with. That sort of thing was something I was good at, something I’d spent a lot of time and effort getting good at, but unlike for some of my family members, for me it was an utterly exhausting task.
There was a better way to do this, there had to be, but waiting for another time would just let wounds fester. “I’m sorry, Zatanna,” I said softly. “I really am. I wish you could have stayed with me, I would have felt safer knowing a witch of your caliber was there beside me. But not now. Not like this. I wouldn’t have been able to focus on fighting with you there in harm's way. Not with our baby on the way.”
Zatanna raised her head. Our eyes met and I could see a hint of red on her sclera. Something in my chest twinged unpleasantly.
“I could have helped,” Zatanna said softly.
I nodded. “You probably could have.”
Zatanna squeezed her eyes shut. “A lot of people died.”
I didn’t know the full numbers––Zatanna probably had a better overall picture of what had happened seeing as she’d been watching the news––but she was almost certainly right. The vines had not been allowed to grow out of control, but they’d done a lot of damage in several highly populated and trafficked areas before we’d managed to fully deal with them.
Even the first vine I’d fought, one of the first that had been fully destroyed as far as I was aware, had claimed a number of muggle lives in the seconds after it had first emerged from the earth, and more muggles had died or been seriously injured in the surrounding buildings. I’d seen the rubble as Lantern Stewart carried me from vine to vine––there was no way that all of those buildings had been evacuated in time.
“Yeah.” The room was silent for several long seconds. I sighed again. “What do you want me to say, Zatanna? I don’t regret what I did. You and our child are the most important things in my life. Maybe you could have helped evacuate some of the buildings. Maybe you could have siphoned off some of the Joker-Venom before it blew through the windows.” I leaned forward, my voice hard. “Or maybe you could have been crushed by a rock or smashed by a vine or breathed in some of that stuff yourself. I…I couldn’t take that risk. Not yet.” I swallowed heavily and amplified the small natural tremor in my throat. “Not so soon after I lost everyone else. You’re the only family I have here. I just couldn’t.”
There was a fine balancing act I needed to focus on here. On one hand, I didn’t want to be too overbearing. That was what her father had done and Zatanna had rebelled against it, ignoring his commands and going behind his back. I didn’t want anything like that happening here.
On the other hand, this was not something I was willing to compromise on. Training and school were fine, but Zatanna was not doing anything even remotely dangerous at least until our child was born. That was simply out of the question. If I never managed to find my way home, Zatanna and the tiny soul growing in her belly were the future of the House of Black. Nothing, not even Zatanna herself, was allowed to endanger that.
I was worried how she was going to react, but Zatanna’s expression softened and I jumped on that opening. “It's just for now, just for a few months. I know how much you care about being a hero and I’m obviously not going to stand in the way of that. You’re going to be an amazing hero, Zee. Just think of this time as a learning opportunity. Your dad never let you learn the ropes, but I want you to be the best heroine you can possibly be. You’re already studying with Mera, but I think we can go beyond that. Some of the League’s sidekicks have been training together, maybe we can get you involved with that, or perhaps Kent can help us organize some lessons with his old friend Wonder Woman.”
Zatanna’s lips turned up into a small smile. “That would be pretty cool,” she whispered.
I walked over to the armchair and Zatanna scooted over, allowing me to sit down beside her and wrap an arm around her shoulders. It was a little bit of a tight fit, but that just meant that our bodies were pressed tightly against one another shoulder-to-shoulder. Zatanna lay her head down on my shoulder and I rested my own head against hers, her hair tickling my cheek.
Stolen novel; please report.
“I was worried about you,” Zatanna whispered. “At least when you’re off on another plane, I know there’s nothing I can do to help, but what if you’d sent me away and then something happened to you? I never would have been able to forgive myself.”
“I’m sorry for worrying you.”
Zatanna slapped my leg lightly,
“Hey,” I grumbled.
Zatanna rolled her eyes. After nearly a minute of silence, she spoke up again. “You promise?”
“Promise what?”
“That you won’t try to stop me after our baby is born.”
I turned my head and kissed her on the forehead. “Of course. And I’ll support you every step of the way.” With any luck, she’d change her mind about heroism by the time that actually happened. If not, I’d make sure to cover her in enough enchanted clothing and equipment to make sure that nothing ever happened to her. “Well,” I quickly amended, “at least until we decide to go for number two.”
Zatanna giggled. “You know, I did always kind of wish I had a little brother or sister.”
“Three is the traditional number in my family. Or seven, though that was rarely possible.”
“Seven!” Zatanna exclaimed, rubbing her belly. “I’ve been doing a lot of reading about pregnancy. I don’t think I’ll be up for doing this seven times.”
I kissed her again. “Three is plenty.” Though seven consecutive pregnancies would probably keep Zatanna far too busy for any dangerous hero work. I’d have to keep an eye out for skilled healers and fertility magic, though I was probably going to do that anyway. The seventh child of a wizarding family tended to be far more powerful and talented on average than any other witch or wizard. It was very rare for a witch to manage that many kids, but it did happen. There was a reason the Weasleys, an otherwise unremarkable family of purebloods, had managed to survive and thrive for so long. The fertility of that line was legendary.
Zatanna considered my words, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I think three sounds like a good number. And I guess it would be pretty hard to run around being a hero while I’m pregnant. Mera is planning to temporarily step down as headmistress in a few months until her baby is born, and being a hero involves a lot more running around than managing a school does.”
Thank Merlin. I’d been expecting a lot more resistance, but Zatanna was being very reasonable. “Then it's a promise.” Zatanna tilted her head to the side and this time, my kiss found her lips instead of her cheek or forehead.
We cuddled for some time, enjoying the warmth of each other’s bodies. I let my mind drift, slowly relaxing after a very stressful afternoon. Eventually however, Zatanna once again broke the silence.
“You’re going to leave soon, aren’t you.” Though she phrased it as a question, it clearly wasn’t one.
“Yeah,” I admitted easily. “In a few days, probably. There are a few more things I need to take care of around the house, but after that…” I sighed, “I’m not strong enough right now. I need to be better. Something like what happened today could happen at any moment, and I’m just not good enough to make a real difference on my own.” I closed my eyes. “I need to be better,” I repeated. “Otherwise, I won’t be able to protect you or our children.
“I won’t be gone for too long, and I’ll leave Blake and Raven behind to keep you company.” And to keep an eye on her. As much as I would like to have Raven available in whatever Plane I traveled to next, her ability to create portals was simply too valuable as a way of keeping Zatanna safe. My intuition told me she’d be able to last at least a week without my presence here on this plane, perhaps a bit longer. I’d just need to make sure to return before she dispelled, because I wasn’t sure what would happen to her Blueprint if I wasn’t around when that happened.
Now it was Zatanna’s turn to sigh. “I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand. Even if I had stayed, I…I don’t know if I could have really made a difference. I saw what you did on the news. I can’t do anything like that fire spell you used. None of my magic is strong enough to burn something so big.”
“Then I guess we’ll both just have to get better, won’t we,” I said simply.
“We will,” Zatanna said confidently.
“Of course we will. I’ll make sure to talk to Kent and maybe a few of the other heroes before I leave. But that’s not going to happen if we just sit here.” I stood up, scooping Zatanna up into my arms as I did. “Let’s head down to the Conservatory. Mera is probably busy, but there’s probably still an evening class we can sit in on, or spend a few hours at the library at the very least.” There was nothing like learning magic to get Zatanna’s mind off of things, and after that I was confident I’d be able to tire both of us out before bed.
Zatanna wrinkled her nose up at me. “Are we going to apparate again?” she complained.
I shook my head. “No, no, I’ve thought of a way better method. I’m going to portkey to the Conservatory, and then Raven can open a portal to me for you.”
“Oh thank god, no more apparating,” she mumbled.
I set her down on the ground and then poked her on the nose. “If you hate apparating so much, hurry up and figure out your own teleportation spell.”
“Blugh, like it's that easy.”
“How about, uh,” it took me a moment to twist the words around, “Tropelet em ot sinodiesop,” I suggested teasingly.
“It's not that simple and you know it!”
It wasn’t, and I did, but it was still funny. I winked.
Zatanna stuck her tongue out at me. “Jerk.”
I put a hand over my heart. “Oh, how could you say such a terrible thing about me. How will I ever survive this awful insult from the woman I love! I should––”
Zatanna took a step towards me, sandwiching my arm between her breasts. “If you’re just going to flap your tongue around, I know a much better place you could be doing that,” she said, licking her lips suggestively.
Two months ago, I would have been rather flustered and not sure of what to say. A month ago, I probably would have just kissed her. However, since then, I’d learned a lot about Zatanna’s preferences…and my own. I confidently reached under Zatanna’s skirt and pinched her prominent outer lips together through her panties.
Zatanna’s thighs clamped down around my hand and I smiled toothily down at her. “Maybe if you’re very, very good…I’ll consider it. Understood, dear?”
Zatanna nodded her head rapidly, her ears and cheeks dyed a bright red that extended down to her chest. “Yes, Hydrys,” she squeaked, her voice an entire octave higher than before.
“Good girl,” I praised, and carefully extricated my hand from between her pillowy thighs. “Now, go get changed.” She was still wearing her school uniform and, as much as it looked good on her, it was an unnecessary reminder of the muggle indignities she chose to endure each day. “I’ll go update Raven. I expect you to be ready to go soon.”
“Okay! I’ll be fast!”
And then she rushed out of the room. I silently watched her go, glad that she looked much less miserable than she had when I’d first arrived. I would need to keep an eye on her––and make sure my summons knew to do so as well––but I was pretty sure she’d keep her word to me as long as I did the same for her.
At this point I was actually somewhat hoping that she would succeed at bringing some of my summons to bed with us. They’d be able to keep her busy and satisfied while I was gone. Much better than having her run off and do something foolish.