DISCLAIMER: Still don't own anything. :(
So this is part 2 of the Prelude. Enjoy~!
An empty coffin
Never bodes well
They spent several more days searching for Klarion, but to no avail. Nightwing and Aqualad were still debating on whether or not they should inform the League of what had transpired while Constantine was working on spells to track down the witch boy, and Zatanna usually somewhere nearby to pester the Brit into teaching her more magic. The team was staying in the House of Mystery in the meantime so that they would teleport to wherever Klarion popped up at a moment's notice.
Constantine had explained more about himself over dinner that very night: he was born with divine magic, with the ability to see through the glamour that separated the mundane world and the divine. He had witnessed angels and demons fighting for souls, magic that could make and break worlds, monsters that even superheroes would shudder at. He was no hero, preferring casinos and bars to fame and glory. Constantine didn't tell them why he bothered to play hero, even if he found it an annoyance at best.
Batman had cashed in a favor when he asked Constantine to assist them with their case, and if he was being honest, they certainly needed it. Zatanna did not have any experience with the arcane world except for what her father had taught her before Dr. Fate had taken his body, and Klairon's magic was powerful and dangerous, especially for a bunch of teenagers with no experience fighting occult beings.
The members of the Young Justice team were milling about the House, discovering its many secrets, when the alarm sounded – a bright, ringing sound, like a high-pitched bell.
Constantine was already in the library when they all came in running, the Brit leaning over the map with his crystal in hand, circling around the map once, twice, and then stabbing into northern California, before floating up again and landing in Colombia.
"Looks like Klarion's making two stops." Kal said as Constantine began to write down the coordinates.
"We should split up the team for this one." Nightwing suggested as Kal nodded in agreement. "One group should go see what he was doing in California, while the others try to catch him in Colombia."
"I'll lead the group to Colombia." Aqualad stated. "Constantine, Wally, Connor, you're with me. Nightwing will lead Zatanna, Artemis, and M'gann."
"Right then." Constantine muttered, looking a little peeved at being ordered around by a bunch of teenagers. "I'll have the house drop you kids at Colombia first. Hopefully you can catch the little fucker."
Zatanna and M'gann gasped at his language, Kal frowned, and Artemis actually laughed out loud in agreement. The team members dispersed to grab their gear for their rooms while Constantine ordered the House to drop them off.
Nightwing and his crew touched down in San Francisco just outside the city limits. From there they had taken a cab into town, following the coordinates that Constantine had given them. It led them to a high-rise in the downtown area, overlooking the bay, a sleek, modern building that no doubt cost a small fortune to live in. They stood in front of the building, staring up at the shiny windows and well-kept balconies, ignoring the surprised looks and cellphone pictures taken by the civilians walking by (although one or two of them stopped to ask for autographs).
"So, what now?" Artemis drawled as they stared up at the complex. "Do we interrogate every person living here?"
"If we have to." Nightwing muttered.
Her mouth dropped open. "You can't be serious!"
"I could always scan the minds of everyone in the building and see if anyone has seen Klarion recently." M'gann offered.
"What about your privacy rule?" Nightwing asked her.
The Martian looked a little sheepish. "I mean, I wouldn't be diving into their deepest darkest secrets or anything. Just glancing at the surface, is all."
"Maybe we should save that for a last resort." Artemis told her, frowning at M'gann's suggestion.
Zatanna remained quiet, silently walking up to the building and slowly pacing in front of it. "I'm feeling magic here too…" She murmured, only Nightwing catching her words.
"In this building?" He asked her.
The magician nodded.
"Well, let's go in and let Zatanna lead the way." Nightwing said as he plugged one of his gadgets into the security scanner on the front door and quickly disabling the electronic security system.
They walked in and followed Zatanna up the stairs, up and up until they were at the top level. She stopped into front of the last door in the hallway, the apartment which faced the bay. Glancing at Nightwing, Zatanna lifted her hand to knock on the door, Artemis and M'gann tensing for a fight behind them. Oddly enough, the door opened before her hand touched the wood.
"Why hello." A soft voice greeted them, a beautiful woman standing with her hand on the doorknob staring at them with calm grey eyes. "I thought I sensed someone out here." Her eyes focused on Zatanna and stared at the girl long and hard.
Nightwing cleared his throat. "Ahem, excuse us, ma'am. But would you be willing to talk to us in private?"
The owner of the apartment finally seemed to notice the other superheroes, her eyes flickering over them dismissively before she dipped her head and opened the door wider for them to enter.
"You may come in." She hummed, leading them into the living room of her apartment. The place smelled like a greenhouse, planters were scattered throughout the apartment with a small forest growing on the woman's balcony. Bright and colorful flowers bloomed in the room, giving off a heady floral scent that smelled positively wonderful.
The furniture was rather modern, despite the hippy-aura of the woman. A small artist's workshop was set up in the corner of the living room across the sofa, where an easel stood empty of a painting, but the paints and brushed were lined up on the small table beside it. The walls were decorated with a mix of paintings and drawings, all of which depicted scenes of fantasy – dragons, magicians, fairies.
"Would you like something to drink?" The woman's voice interrupted their study of the room.
"No, we would not want to impose!" M'gann shook her head.
Instead of insisting that she get them something, the owner of the apartment merely shrugged and sat down in a chair across from the sofa, indicating for them to take a seat there.
"My name is Elyon." She told them, her voice soft and songlike, eyes half-lidded and her lips seemed on the cusp of a smile. "How may I help you?"
Artemis and Nightwing exchanged a look, wondering what drugs this lady was on. Nightwing spoke first, saying, "We are investigating a murder –"
"Oh how exciting!" Elyon smiled wistfully. Artemis mouthed the word 'crazy', earning a quick elbow jab from M'gann.
" -and we believe that the culprit might have stopped in your building for some reason." Nightwing continued.
Elyon raised her eyebrows at them. "And have you spoken with our security director?"
"Er, no…"
"I see." She hummed before all joviality drained from her face. "So you're just talking to me, huh?" Elyon turned to look into Zatanna's eyes. "You could sense me."
The magician startled. "I, uh…"
"You have the gift," Elyon told her, suddenly seeming much older than she looked, her eyes staring at the girl with age and wisdom. "Not many can claim to have real magic in this day and age."
"You… you have it too, don't you?" Zatanna asked her in shock.
Elyon hummed and nodded, and then suddenly snapped her fingers. They all tense at the sound of clinking coming from the kitchen, only for a tea tray to float over to them and settle itself on the coffee table.
"Great, more floating tea…" Artemis grumbled, looking very unsettled.
Elyon chuckled as she poured herself a cup. "Seen this parlor trick before, eh?"
"We're getting off topic." Nightwing interrupted as Elyon began sipping her tea. "Do you know a young man by the name of Klarion? He has pale, nearly blue skin, black eyes, and black hair. He –"
"Yes, yes, I know the boy." Elyon sighed as she put her cup down on the tray. A sad expression crossed her face, briefly, before it was concealed. "He is… lost. Full of anger."
"Well, he's wanted for murder." Artemis growled, having no pity for the boy.
Elyon shrugged. "I can't say I'm surprised. Klarion never cared much for humans."
"How do you know him? Why did he come here?" Artemis pressed, attempting to ease her frustration.
"Klarion is quite young, at least for our kind." Elyon told them, though she omitted telling them what her 'kind' was exactly. "He is full of anger and rage at the world. He wants revenge on the ones who hunted us, imprisoned us, tortured us... and worse."
Sadness returned to her eyes, her lips tilting down in a frown. "And our hunters… They are still out there. They still walk among your kind, just like any other human, except for the blood that stains their swords."
"Many fell in the war between our factions, but some never truly died. We can stave off death, you see. A simple preservation spell that imitates death... and so many were buried in that fashion." She took another sip of her tea. "So Klarion seeks to awaken them; these Dreamers of ours. And then he will seek out the hunters in revenge for all they had wrought. Klarion came to me to ask for help in this endeavor, but I refused him."
Elyon shook her head. "The war has long since ended and I am tired of fighting. That boy is chasing ghosts; our clan will never achieve its former glory."
"What… what are you, exactly?" M'gann asked, having scanned the woman with her mind and found her to be not entirely human, but her mental walls were too strong for the Martian to penetrate without doing harm.
"A little more and a little less than human." Elyon chuckled. "We may have been human once, but long ago, magic caused us to evolve into something else. We were stronger, faster, and lived longer. The humans grew to fear us and sought to eliminate us long ago. I am, along with Klarion, one of the very few which survive to this day."
"You're a witch, aren't you?" Zatanna suddenly exclaimed in awe, staring at Elyon in wonder. "Like the witches of old? A true witch!"
Elyon merely sent her an amused look.
"Do you know where Klarion is headed next?" Nightwing asked.
"He will go to wherever he can find them. The Dreamers, I mean." Elyon's expression became tranquil once more as she poured herself another cup of tea.
The Young Justice members glanced at each other with equally bewildered expressions, while Zatanna seemed completely enthralled by Elyon's words. A moment of silence passed, with Elyon calmly sipping her tea as the heroes mulled over the information they had obtained.
"Well, thanks for your help." Nightwing sighed as he stood to leave, the others standing as well. "But we still need to stop Klarion. Unless, you can help us, somehow?"
Elyon looked up into his face and, despite her youthful appearance, seemed to age a hundred years in those few seconds. "I am tired of fighting, my dear. But, I can give you some advice: look to the Dreamers."
"In many ways, they were still children when they died." Elyon sighed as she closed her eyes, shoulders slumping. "Not all of them are evil, but many of them have learned the hard way just what horrors humanity is capable of. They may choose vengeance, or they may not. But I urge you to give them all a chance at life. A real life."
The rainforest was honestly an awful place. At least, in the opinion of the Young Justice members (plus Constantine) that were currently trudging knee-deep in mud as rain poured incessantly down on them. Even Aqualad looked unhappy with their current environment, and the boy was literally born in water.
The House had teleported the team to the outskirts of the Amazon rainforest, then disappeared without warning to drop off the other half of their team. Constantine had muttered a rather rude word describing the sentient building before he pulled out his crystal on a chain and they set off. Once again it was glowing red and tugging at the end of its leash as they follow in the direction it was pointing.
Constantine wasn't too surprised when they found themselves in an abandoned village that looked to have been long forgotten by the outside world. He would guess that the place had been abandoned for at least a century at this point, most of the buildings collapsed and decayed, only the stone foundations remaining. The only walls that remained were those of the small church that sat at the end of what was once the main street, green moss and vines crawling up the sides as if the forest was seeking to devour the last evidence of humanity in this place.
"He's in the church." Constantine told them.
"Why is it always a church?" Kid Flash grumbled. "And creepy ones at that!"
"Cause that's where people put their dead when they want to hide the bodies." Constantine stated dryly, Wally shivering at his words.
"Still creepy." The speedster muttered.
Constantine gave a bitter smirk. "Necromancy usually is."
"Both of you, hush." Aqualad ordered them. "We can't let Klarion get away this time."
The group fell silent as they spread out and approached the building from all sides. Superboy and Kid Flash were going to remain outside incase Klarion tried to flee, while Aqualad and Constantine would be the first inside.
Constantine hid the crystal under his shirt and pulled on his gloves as they approached the dilapidated church, Aqualad reaching for his weapons as they crept into the open entrance, the door long since rotted away. Everything inside was dark, especially with the rainclouds above them blocking any hope for the sun. Water dripped steadily from the disintegrating rafters, and in one section of the church, the roof had totally collapsed.
They could see Klarion at the end of the church, once again in the altar area, using an energy beam to blast apart the stone floor. He was nearly done, from what they could see. Aqualad and Constantine exchanged glances before they began to sneak up on the boy.
"Mmmmrow!" The shrill cry of a cat alerted Klarion to their presence, Aqualad glancing in shock at the animal that had been hiding in the shadows where he had been walking. Constantine cursed as Klarion's head shot up and made eye contact with them.
"You again?!" Klarion exclaimed in a tone of both annoyance and anger.
His familiar scampered away from Aqualad and towards Klarion as he began to shoot magical bolts at them. The two heroes dodged and attempted to rush the boy, only to be sent flying back with a magical forcefield of some kind.
"Alright then…" Constantine growled as he and Aqualad got to their feet. "Time to fight magic with magic!"
When the witch boy sent another spell at them Constantine held up his hand and a diagram appeared in the air, glowing dark blue. The spell collided with the diagram and then disappeared. Klarion paused for a moment at the sight, before he tilted his head back and let out a bark of laughter.
"Well, look at that!" He snickered. "Didn't know there was any magic left in the human race!"
Seemingly excited by this new turn of events, Klarion attacked Constantine with renewed vigor, the two exchanging colorful blasts of magic and chanting spells to counter each other. Constantine began to lead Klarion away from the altar area, eventually knocking the boy out of the church with a powerful stunning spell.
As Klarion went flying through the crumbling wall of the church, Constantine quickly turned to Aqualad yelling, "Get to the altar!"
Then the Brit jump out of the building and after Klarion, who was recovering from his attack and currently fighting off Connor and Wally, who had been waiting for him outside. Away from his familiar, Klarion was vulnerable to Constantine's counter curses, which the Brit took full advantage of, slowly wearing down the boy's protective wards while Superboy and Kid Flash kept him occupied.
Aqualad turned his attention away from the fight and began to climb over the rubble to where Klarion had carved a hole in the ground. There was a sarcophagus buried here as well, made of dirty white marble inscribed with letters and shapes he did not understand. The lid was nearly split in half, another foot or so and Klarion would have opened the coffin completely.
At first, Aqualad wasn't sure what to do. Bury it again? Destroy the body so that Klarion couldn't use it anymore? Kal approached the sarcophagus and hesitantly looked inside of it, only to freeze at the sight that greeted him.
Black hair.
Tan skin.
And her face… was young. The occupant of the sarcophagus looked completely untouched by time, her skin still youthful, and aside from the smudges of dirt on her face and hands, there was no sign of decay at all. If he didn't know any better, the girl was merely sleeping.
"Impossible…" Kal murmured as he gripped the inside edges of the coffin's lid and pulled them apart, tossing both slabs on the ground. He was about to reach in and touch the girl when –
"Hisss!" Klarion's familiar leapt down from the rubble and attacked Aqualad, sinking his claws into the boy's arms and hissing loudly.
The cat's eyes were glowing red and glared at him with uncanny intelligence. Aqualad managed to rip the animal off of him and toss him away, only for the demonic cat to land on the rim of the sarcophagus and bristle at him, coiled and ready to attack again.
"Hey Kal, we got him!" Wally's voice interrupted Kaldur's concentration as the other boys came in with an unconscious Klarion slung over Superboy's shoulder.
The familiar let out a snarl at the sight of his master defeated.
"Dang, you getting beaten by a cat?" Kid Flash chuckled.
"That is no ordinary cat, Kid Flash." Constantine said as he came to stand beside Kal. "It's a demonic entity in the form of a cat."
The speedster rolled his eyes while Superboy eyed the creature warily.
"Foolish humans."
They all jumped when the cat began to speak, Wally's mouth falling open while Constantine narrowed his eyes in calculation.
"You cannot stop this. The Dreamers shall be awakened!"
And with that, the cat disappeared into the coffin, only for a bright light to suddenly flash from within. Then the familiar leapt out, turning to give them a smug look as the earth began to shake.
"Wha –"
"No!" Constantine leapt forward towards the sarcophagus, but then it seemed to explode from the inside, sending them all flying out of the hole and into the piles of rock and rubbish that was all that remained of the church.
The heroes scrambled to their feet, staring as the girl's body began to float up into the air, glowing with purple magic, the fraying remnants of a white dress flaring around her. Superboy had dropped Klarion during his fall, and the demonic cat quickly weaved through their feet, darting towards his master and teleporting away with him the moment they touched.
"Dammit! We lost him!" Connor growled.
"Uh, I think we should be more concerned with glowy, floating girl over here." Kid Flash joked nervously.
Her eyes snapped open, glowing with purple light, staring down at them for a brief moment -
There was a scream.
A blast of magic.
They were under attack.
