Chapter 10

Nabu stood in the middle of his library but even his books could not soothe him. Falling into a chair he stared down at the pendant in his gloved hands. He did not know how long he sat there staring at the golden pendant and replaying everything that lead up to this point. Destiny's words echoed in his head to the point he could no longer stand to look at the pendant anymore. Closing his fingers around the object he sighed as he tried to ease this pain within his chest with little success.

"How could she fail to understand?" Nabu questioned out loud.

"I think she understands better than anyone. You are the one that is failing to understand" Zatara said gently.

Nabu did not answer as he continued to search through his thoughts.

"I hurt her. I never meant to hurt her" Nabu sighed in defeat.

"I know"

"You are secretly reveling in this moment. Are you not going to say you told me so?" Nabu spat.

"No" Zatara answered simply.

Nabu's features softened at the honesty behind the words.

"You were right. I should have told her"

Zatara did not respond.

"She was right. I refused to admit that I was lonely and hurt from what The Lords of Order did to me. I refused to see how my own actions lead to my fate"

"What you did was wrong but on the bright side you did it to protect others. It does get tiring fighting the same evils and watching them harm others. Sometimes you do want to end them completely" Zatara said sympathetically.

"I see now that it was only my place to balance evil not end it. For there can be no good without evil that in itself is balance. My actions would have only brought more pain no matter how noble they may have seemed to me. I was wrong and it may have cost me the one thing that I cherish most"

"Your magic?" Zatara asked.

Nabu shook his head no.

"Her love" Nabu answered pain evident in his voice.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Zatara asked with a smile.

Nabu did not have an answer to his question at first until a thought came to him.

"There may be a chance that is if you agree Zatara"

Zatara smiled and nodded his head in agreement. Nabu stood and gathered the supplies he would need. Using his magic he carved a symbol on the floor pouring some kind of potion over the symbol as he chanted. Once he was done he stood in the center of the symbol and chanted the remaining words. A gust of wind rushed through the library before whipping around him. Nabu made a silent plea to the gods that his plan would work before he was no longer standing in his library. Instead he was standing in a room made of marble and gold. The room did not appear to have walls while various corners of the cosmos surrounded them instead. Further into the room was a marble podium with three males sitting with stoic expressions looking down on Doctor Fate.

"Brothers" Fate said humbly.

"Nabu. Have you come once again to demand your sentence be removed?" One questioned. The man that spoke turned his eyes that appeared like black bottomless pits in Nabu's direction.

"No. I have come to humbly plea my release from the Helmet of Fate"

"Oh have you?" Another brother asked with stark white hair.

"Yes"

"And what has caused this change of heart might I ask?" The third brother asked. His most noticeable feature being the jagged scar over his right eye in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Nabu smirked although it was not visible behind the helmet.

"Destiny" He answered simply.

Meanwhile back on Earth

Destiny was curled up on her bed with a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chunky monkey ice cream. She shoveled another spoonful into her mouth as she watched the movie playing on her computer screen with tear tracks down her cheeks. Grabbing her tissues she wiped at her nose. Although the movie was a comedy she could not stop crying and her sadness deepened when she realized she ate her last scoop of ice cream. Destiny sighed and placed the empty container on her night stand along with the spoon. Wrapping herself in the covers she stared at the screen but she was not paying much attention. She thought about calling in sick but knew she couldn't the Lex Corp case was scheduled to proceed in two days and there was still work to be done. However for tonight Destiny turned off her phone not wanting to speak with anyone or even see the bright flash of the screen.

A part of her wished she would see Fate appear in the middle of her bedroom but as the night became later she gave up hope. It was for the best anyway I mean she did tell him she never wanted to see him again and that was the right thing to do. She felt bad for Zatara and his family. How could Fate be so cruel? That was not the man she knew although to be honest the man she knew was a lie so that didn't hold much weight. Destiny gave a deep sigh as she felt like her heart was breaking all over again. She began to question if this pain would ever end. Destiny continued crying until she could not keep her eyes open anymore.

The next morning she could barely open her swollen eyes as she took a nice hot shower. She did not spend much time on her hair and clothes plus she didn't even bother wearing makeup. She could have looked better but then again she could have looked worse but she did not care either way. Silently she sat on the Subway lost in thought until the subway car came to a stop. She exited and traveled with the sea of people to the city above. Continuing on a route she was all too familiar with she finally came to the office. Opening the door she expected to be greeted by Maria but no one was sitting at the desk. Closing the door behind her she listened for any movement from the rest of the office but everything was quiet.

"Hello? Maria?" I called. I went behind the desk to see if there was a note or something when I noticed a few drops of blood.

"Oh my God. Maria!" I cried following the small trail of blood. Quickly I followed it towards the back and into the laundry room we used for extra storage.

Swallowing a lump in my throat I turned the handle praying that I would not find anyone dead.

"OH MY GOD!" I screamed when I found Maria and the new guy tied up. They both seemed to have head wounds although the new guy looked worse off than Maria.

Maria seemed to be the only one out of the two still conscious somewhat. I ran over to them trying to untie them but whoever tied them up was a pro. I searched around for something to cut the ropes and tape from their mouths. Maria made a noise making me turn back to her.

"It's going to be ok. I need to find something to cut the rope. Stay with me ok" I rushed as I squatted in front of her.

Her eyes could barely keep focus but she kept trying to say something behind her taped mouth. I reached up to pull the tape off when her eyes widened in horror. There was a pounding pain in the back of my head and then everything went black.

Batman sat at his command center in the bat cave as Alfred placed a tray with a sandwich and drink beside him. Batman thanked Alfred but didn't touch the food as his fingers tapped away at the keys.

"What a beautiful young woman. Has something happened to her?" Alfred asked staring at the screen.

"Her name is Destiny Summers. She recently discovered the truth about Doctor Fate who she was romantically involved with"

"Good heavens. Why is Doctor Fate not searching for her?" Alfred asked appalled.

"Because sometime after my dinner party he went missing. No one has been able to make contact with him. I went to see if Destiny may know something only to find her gone as well"

"I can swear I have seen her someplace before" Alfred said in thought.

"She's a Paralegal at a small firm who is prosecuting Lex Corp right now"

"Do you think they did something with the young woman and perhaps Doctor Fate?" Alfred questioned aloud.

"Possibly, someone has tried to kill her before. There's no proof but I have a feeling it had to do with this case" Batman said narrowing his eyes at the information on the screen that did not seem to get him any closer to answers.

"Well I hope she is alright. Do you need anything else master Bruce?" Alfred asked but Batman only shook his head no.

Batman switched screens only to see none of the motion sensors he placed in her home had been activated. Some of the team had doubts that Lex Luther had anything to do with the disappearance and instead blamed Doctor Fate. Batman doubted Fate would harm the woman it was easy to see he cared for her but Fate did have a tendency to let his pride and anger get the best of him. Could he have harmed her or locked her away? Batman rubbed the headache that was coming on. He assigned Earth's Green Lantern and Wonder Woman to sit in on the court case tomorrow on the off chance Destiny showed, and if not then to get clues as to where Lex Luther was stashing her. Batman had a gut feeling that Fate was not responsible for this but he needed to find him soon because he may be her only hope.