An: Zantana= Friday. Yep. I'm ready for this. Explanations later. Enjoy.
"Hm." He doesn't bother to turn around, but continues to look out of the tall floor to ceiling windows that dominated the room. "Why are you here? As a matter of fact, how did you get by my guards?"
"Easy enough." The other replies, "You need better men. Now, you're going to do this. You owe me one."
Finally, Ra's al Ghul turns to look at the intruder, "I see. You are fortunate that I am a man of some honor. Family I presume?"
"Yes."
"Very well then."
This...this could not be happening. A body doesn't just go missing without notice. Yet they were telling him that it was missing.
Gone, without a trace.
The phone cracks in his hand when he slams it down on the receiver wanting to do something with his impotent rage. Instead thought, Bruce breathes out and tries to think.
Except-
"What do we tell the others?" Dick looks from him to the doors. Others were waiting just beyond those doors. A black ribbon was pinned to the front of Dick's robin suit.
Since he had been a hero, others from that community would come. A normal funeral wouldn't do. Not for one of them.
Yet they had no body to fill the plot.
"Aquaman and his family will be here soon too." Dick mutters not helping things. The grave yard they were in was occupied by dead heroes and their families.
It had seem the best alternative, though Aquaman had wanted to give Kaldur a more Atlantean burial but Robin had suggested that this should be a better place for him.
He closes his eyes for a moment before he simply gets up, "Lets go."
Dick-well Robin- frowns a little watching him. Still, he trails after him when they went to meet with the rest of the hero community that decided to show up.
It wouldn't be the first time they had all gathered in this cemetery. Nostalgia was high and overflowed for most of them as they recognized the statues and plaques of those that had died before them.
Some even made it a point to see a few.
"Well." Superman said looking at him, "I am sorry for this."
Batman only looks away from him as Robin went to meet up with the team. They actually didn't bother with their disguises but came as themselves in black. Conner looked distinctly uncomfortable in his suit next to M'gann and Artemis who were wearing simple black dresses. Wally was the first to greet Robin, but kept the significant touches to a minimum even though they had been together the day before.
"I mean it. If there's-"
"There is no body." Batman says walking away slowly.
"What?" Superman can't exactly believe his ears though he glances back- particularly at Superboy and Aquaman who had just showed up with his own family. He moves to catch up with him. "What do you mean there's no body?"
"Exactly as I've said." Batman glances around, "Last night someone broke into the mortuary where he was being kept and left with the body."
"That's..." Superman didn't have any words for this. Instead he looks from him to the crowd, "What are you going to tell them?"
"Nothing." He answers. "It's closed casket. Let them think he's in there. Only Robin knows the truth."
Shaking his head slowly, the man of steel couldn't even comprehend this. "What do you think they would want with it?"
"I don't know but I'm going to find out."
"I must warn you." Ra's al Ghul said to him while the body was being lowered into the glowing green liquid, "He may not come out of it sane."
"I don't care."
"Very well then."
What happens next was something that none of them could've predicted.
Once submerged, the glowing green liquid began to bubble almost violently with sparks shooting out of it.
"What in the-?" Black Manta turns to Ra's al Ghul, "Is this suppose to happen?"
"Obviously not." The man snaps, "What haven't you told me about him?"
For a moment, Black Manta's mind went blank before he remembers something- something that may very well unravel everything he was trying to do.
"He was a practitioner of magic."
"Imbecile." Ra's al Ghul makes a motion for them to raise the platform. "We won't know if it's interfered with the natural properties of the Lazarus pit or not!"
Before Black Manta could retort, light caught both their eyes as a vortex moves towards the edge of the pit where they were. "What is this?" The elder man mutters, his eyes widen a touch more.
The vortex became smaller and more human shaped until it was the form of a ghostly woman standing before them.
"Hila." Black Manta hissed, "You? What are you doing here?"
"You have disrupted the order of things." She answers, "However, if you truly want Kaldur'ahm to return to the land of the living- you must trade for it."
"That is not how this works." Ra's al Ghul said, "The pit can bring back any within reasonable time. A bargain shouldn't be-"
"That is the nature of the pit." She glances at him amused, "But not of my spell. For now, he is alive but soulless. When you have marked him with the blood of the one that will take his place, then shall he be whole."
She turns, "Until then, David."
"Bitch." Again. Again and again, these people have strung him along and picked his family apart.
Well, no matter. He knew exactly who will pay for this price.
AN: Yeah, I went there. I figured since we've seen Black Manta working for the Light and all, I'm pretty sure he at least knows one or two of their real identities.
