Not to be rude but Bountyhunter1977 and bloody sleeping dragon yes I could do that but a story needs sadness conflict this isn't a make everything better fic it's throwing shazam aka Harry potter and seeing what kind of chaos is caused by him being there. Somethings will be worse some will be better. This is one of those thing that became worse Zatara instead of giving up his freedom so his daughter could live her life, gave up his life forcing one of his daughter's best friends to kill him so that she could live. Destroying any hope that she might have otherwise had of seeing her father alive again.
Zatanna laid down on a stone tablet where she had been placed by the amazons it was a hall meant to amplify magical rituals and as Shazam had said he might not even have enough power to successfully pull of the ritual, thus why this hall was being used to maximize potential success.
"Are you sure?" Shazam asked Zatara as he laid next to his daughter on another stone tablet, in his hand was the golden staff of his predecessor tipped with a live lightning bolt.
Zatara didn't hesitate. "Absolutely if it means my daughter will live."
Shazam looked down. "You know it might not work I have never done this before."
Giovanni sat up and looked at him. "I know it will work, Zatanna trusted you and so shall I." that was he said to Shazam before laying back down.
"Giovanni…" Batman began looking at his old friend, he didn't know what to say.
"Don't say anything just promise me you will take care of Zatanna."
Batman nodded. "I will."
"Thank you." Zatara said simply closing his eyes.
"Time to begin." Shazam said with a forlorn sigh. "Step back everyone." Everyone in the hall moved to a separate area to make sure they didn't interfere with the ritual.
Shazam took a deep breath and began.
"Life turns to death and from death new life springs forth, a scale, a balancing act tittering back and forth between one and the other. I reject the life being taken this day for I declare not today," Zatanna injuries and pale skin began to fade but as she healed her father began to worsen. "but life begets death and death to life, so in turn Death I offer you this a father's life for the daughter's soul. For only gods can change fate and by my divine power I say not today! SHAZAM!" Shazam slammed the staff into the ground a stream of lightning burst through the roof with little resistance despite the magic protecting it and struck down filling the room with a blinding white light. When it cleared Zatanna was healed but Zatara was a deathly pale.
Slowly Zatanna sat up. "What happened my head is killing me." she turned to the side and saw her father a sickly pale color lying on a stone tablet. "DADDY!" she cried rushing over to him.
"Z-za-Zatan-na" he mutter sitting up slowly and very painfully.
"I'm right here daddy." she said grabbing his hand.
"Are you alright?" Giovanna rasped.
Zatanna nodded tears in her eyes. "I'm fine daddy."
"Good." he surprised her by pulling her into a weak yet somehow firm hug. He placed a kiss upon her brow. "I love you Zatanna, never forget that." with that said he fell backwards onto the tablet.
"Daddy." Zatanna muttered looking so lost. "Daddy!" she called again a bit louder this time before finally she burst. "DADDY!" she cried tears streaming from her eyes as she sobbed and so it was Giovanni Zatara died at the age 40 with a smile on his face having given his life to save his daughter.
"How is she?" Wonder Woman asked half an hour later as Zatanna rested it took a spell or two to get her to sleep but no one said anything, losing a parent wasn't easy.
"She was in shock and denial, losing a parent is never easy." he said knowingly, Batman turn and looked at her. "She wanted to know what happened."
"She will hate him." Diana said with a sigh. "She was saved by him and she will hate him."
"He hates himself I can see that already." Batman said looking out the window it was a terrible storm outside. Paradise island never saw more than light drizzles to help their crops but this was a full blown thunderstorm.
"I could go talk to him?" Wonder Woman offered but Batman shook his head.
"No he doesn't know you, he needs Black Canary."
Wonder Woman frown everyone in the league know about the strange mother/son relationship the two had. It was strange because typically that kind of relationship developed between the mentor and sidekick, but Captain Marvel was really a child who looked up to Shazam so she supposed it did make sense. "She won't be able to get close enough to talk to him." she pointed out. He was in the middle of that storm she could barely make out his form which spoke volumes of the severity of it.
Shazam hovered above within the clouds the storm dancing around him in his hand was the golden Staff of Shazam the lightning that made up the tip writhing as it sensed the irritation of it's master. He had killed a man, you could argue all you wanted about the semantics of it but it didn't change the fact that he used his magic to kill another man. He let out a cry of anger at his weakness and the storm responded, roaring as lightning crashed in the background.
"Shazam!" he turned and saw Superboy hovering in the storm, his flight device still working.
"What are you doing here Conner." Shazam asked turning back to watching the storm.
"Batman called me." he told the young god flying closer with some difficulty as the storm tried to push him back. "I know what happened."
"Than you know I killed a man."
"You save Zatanna." he countered but Shazam scoffed.
"I still tore out another man's life force to do so."
"There was nothing else you could have done." Conner tried but Shazam wouldn't listen.
"Only because I was too arrogant, the Rock of Eternity is filled with hundreds of divine spells I'm sure one of them could have healed her." he looked to the side with shame. "But no I'm a god what use to I have such spells my own powers will be enough." he spat out glared at nothing.
"We have all done thing we regret or things we regret not doing. Superboy told him but Shazam was done talking.
"Leave I want to be alone."
"Not until you listen to reason."
I said LEAVE!" he boomed and the storm suddenly increased in power right in front of him sending him hurtling back down to earth.
"How did it go?" Wally asked as Superboy stepped through the zeta tube drenched to the bone.
"How do you think." he said pointing at the news feed which spoke of one the largest storms in the two years that had spontaneously appeared over the bermuda triangle.
"He blames himself." Robin stated before trying to change the subject. "How is Zatanna?"
"She fine recovering from the… incident."
Zatanna had been moved to the cave as there was no more reason for her to on paradise island. It had been a day since then and she had fully recovered so they were going to lift the spell keeping her asleep, but that also meant they had to tell her what happened to her father and while they hoped she took it well they weren't going to hold their breath.
"DADDY!" Zatanna cried shooting up only to look around in confusion as she saw she was in the infirmary of the Cave. Was it all a dream some hallucination brought on by an injury in battle. She lost all hope of such things when she saw the grim face on the teams face and realized it wasn't a dream.
"No. nononononono." she began to shake her head and curl up in a ball.
Starfire and M'gann both moved to opposites side of her and tried to comfort her. After a few minutes of attempting to help her relaxed she looked up at them and sniffed. "What happened?" she asked eyes red.
They all exchanged looks before Megan asked. "What do you remember?"
"I remember beating klarion." she said thinking back as her brow furrowed. "I think he threw an attack at me and Shazam got in the way taking some of the hit but a little of it hit." she looked at the confused. "What does this have to do with my father!" she demanded.
"Zatanna you were hurt and nothing was helping you." her eyes widened as she realized how he died.
"How?!" she demanded. "Daddy was powerful but not that powerful." it was only than she noticed the only person not in the infirmary. "Shazam." she muttered in disbelief. "Why?" she asked tears once more welling up in her eyes.
"You father asked him too." Wally said.
"He was the only one among us with means and power to do so." Dreamer said but Zatanna didn't care she stormed out of the infirmary with red eyes and a determined walk.
"Zatanna!" Harry exclaimed as he saw but the smile that had begun to form vanished as he saw the look on her face. "I'm sorry." he muttered not looking her in the eye.
"WHY?!"
"He asked me too." Shazam said not looking up.
"I-I-I I hate YOU!" she cried before bringing her hands up and shouting. "Llaberif!" she cried and a fireball shot out and slammed into Harry but he didn't even move the attack splashed harmlessly against his skin. "Llaberif!llaberif!" she called again but the spells still did nothing. Slowly she sank to her knees and M'gann pulled her into a hug.
"Zata-" Shazam began before Zatanna glared at him through her tears. "I'm sorry." He said quietly before disappearing a burst of speed.
"Wally!" Artemis said shooting him a look.
"On it." He nodded before rushing off after his teammate but he was too slow he grinded to a halt just outside the door Shazam created leading to the Rock of Eternity. He tentatively reached out to the doors handle only to pull back once it shocked him. "Damn it!" he swore the last thing Shazam needed was to be alone.
Wally walked back into the room and shook his head making Superboy curse. "Damn it! If it's not one thing it's another!" he growled punching the wall.
"It's that the truth." Artemis agreed M'gann had taken Zatanna to her room to rest even if she just woke up it was still an emotionally exhausting day for her. "The Injustice League, Klarion and the world splitting I am starting to think that Kori is right and the Injustice League was a just a sham to throw us off the scent of the real masterminds."
"Yeah well I hope they show themselves soon because I want to lodge a complaint." Superboy growled clenching his fist.
"But that could mean it wasn't Red Tornado that was the spy, remember we went through T.O Morrow's lab there was nothing there that hinted at the fact that he was the leak." Wally pointed out with a frown.
"So it could be anyone in the league?" Artemis asked before scoffing. "We don't even know how they are the spy remember that have that one guy who wiped our minds any of us could the mole and not know it."
"It could even be me." Superboy said making them turn to him. "What?" he asked looking at them challengingly. "I'm not an idiot the genomorphs were telepathic they easily could have programmed me to the spy without knowing."
"M'gann." Wally said noticing the girl rejoining them. "How is she."
"Terrible I used my powers to put her to sleep and give her some pleasant dreams but I-I just wish I could do more." She said sadly.
"Don't worry about it you did you best." Aqualad said. "That's all anyone can ask of you." he then turned back to their previous topic. "What about Superboy? Is it possible he has hidden programming?"
She hesitate for a second. "M'gann I need to know." Conner said looking her in the eyes.
"It is possible but with all the knowledge they put into you as well they wouldn't have been able to put in more than a few basic handfuls things like this take time." she admitted.
"Could you find out and remove them?" Robin asked.
"If I knew what one of the triggers were then I could remove them all things like this are all connected like a web all I would have to do is follow it back to it's core."
"So then you might not be able to trust m-"
"Enough!" Aqualad said interrupting Superboy. "You are a member of this team and until prove otherwise we shall trust you." he said giving Superboy a hard look daring him to contradict him. Superboy gave a grateful nod glad that he was still trust by at least one member of the team. M'gann slipped her hand into his and smiled make that two.
"We must give Shazam some time till then we will wait for him to come to us and help him when we can." Aqualad said before leaving the rest of the team going their own separate ways for now.
Snow-fox failsafe did happen I just skipped the specifics and went straight to the aftermath. Also yes Zatara's death was necessary especial the way it happened. Up until this point Zatanna while acting more normal still slightly idolized shazam and put him on a pedestal this allows her to tear that mental image down and rebuild it getting to know the real shazam and allow a real honest relationship to form rather than that of a fangirl with her idol. not saying she is a fangirl but rather he is god naturally she is going to be in awe of him.