To say that I appreciate your continued support and that it is not being taken for granted is a huge understatement. Each new interaction reminds me that I am not done and that there is so much to be done with this small interconnected series of mine. If you have read my other works then you should know that this story is an Alternative beginning to the connected series in place of "A Perfect Family."
This series is meant to follow the love story of Zatanna Zatara and Dick Grayson into the lives of their children, Wyette & John. Both stories were so compelling in my mind and had so much potential I wrote both. The goal is tell the rest of the story through "Legacy" & "Partners". Trust me, if you think you know what's coming you don't. So please continue to support.
Moreover, I ask that you all support my podcasts, "Body of an ExtrAvert" & "The Girl, Sis, Ma'am Podcast", which is my latest venture. I won't bribe you all with new chapters because my writing schedule is anything but organized these days, but the support would be greatly appreciated. The podcasts are on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, basically anywhere you listen & its FREE. Be sure to subscribe and comment to show your support. I love when people tell me that they have crossed over from fan fiction to podcasting to support! We are also on instagram TheGSMPodcast, so please follow!
Without further ado.
Dick watched as Zatanna paced before the stove of her kitchen. He took a sip from the tea she had brewed and focused on remaining calm. Try as he might, he couldn't unclench his set jaw or pry his eyes away from her.
The kitchen light was dimmed but he studied her every movement, every blink, every glance in his direction, every deep breath and shoulder roll. His eyes roamed over her lithe form, which was only moderately covered by her white camisole and shorts, before stopping short at the small scar on her right thigh.
"Is that from the witch hunters?" He asked, pointing to her creamy thigh.
She stopped her pacing and glanced down, as if it were new information. She looked back up at him and nodded.
"Yeah." She breathed, "it is."
He felt his hand clench into a fist again, he had nearly forgotten how endangered Zatanna was. How homo magis, witches, and many magical beings were hunted, exterminated and even trafficked between galaxies.
"Are John and Wyette….are they safe from them?" he asked.
Zatanna cocked her head at him, "Of course, they're protected by some pretty strong magic. They're also surrounded by the bats, which helps." she joked.
"But they'll always be hunted won't they, just like you." he asked rhetorically.
Zatanna didn't answer him then, knowing that he had more to say. He sighed and put his hands into his face.
"I didn't even think that they would be hunted, that they would be in danger." He said begrudgingly. "And I'm their father."
"You're not to blame, you're still new to this but you deserve to know. You deserve to know all of it." she breathed.
She watched as he prepared to say something and cut him off before she could become distracted.
"Five years ago, you went off world to help Huntress. Do you remember?" she asked him point blank.
Dick nodded, his face stern. "Of course, I do. She needed help on her earth."
Zatanna nodded in confirmation, "You didn't know how long you'd be gone, time moves differently there than it does for us here. It was …. a pretty big deal."
Dick frowned, "I didn't have much of a choice, she's family and she needed help. I…. I also needed to get away, a lot was going on."
"Including us…." Zatanna tacked on slowly.
Dick nodded, "Including us." he agreed reluctantly.
Zatanna hung her head, tears pooling in her eyes even though she willed them away with everything in her being. "We weren't together, we kept telling ourselves we couldn't be. So we were just friends." She laughed bitterly then. "It seems so ironic now."
Dick watched her cautiously, his heart aching for both of them for reasons unknown.
Zatanna smiled softly.
Dick froze, her smile catching him off guard as it always did, not because it was unbecoming of her but because he knew better than most that her smiles were most beautiful when she was at her lowest. It was as if her smile was a defense.
"You smile beautifully when you're sad." He told her quietly, "I hate that smile."
Zatanna laughed and she reluctantly looked up at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, tears she wouldn't let fall in front of him.
As if on cue, she smiled brightly,
"There's the magic." he said softly.
"You used to say the magic was in my eyes," she replied coyly.
He smirked and shook his head, "No, it's always been in your smile. you could fool the whole world with that smile, you already have. Your eyes, they're honest, they tell the secrets your lips won't."
Zatanna's smile faltered and she sucked in a ragged breath, "A few days before you went off world, we spent the night together. I didn't know then, I couldn't have, but that was the night Wyette and John were conceived. I didn't know until weeks later but you were already gone and I couldn't tell you.
"I shouldn't have left Dick, I should've found you, told you, waited…...but I didn't think," she took a steadying breath and shook her head. "There's so much I didn't know, so much I couldn't tell you, but none of that mattered when I realized you'd left. That you'd finally gone off to become the man you were supposed to be, without me."
Dick opened his mouth to protest before she smiled at him, freezing him with her smile. The magic smile. She bit her lip as the crushing emotions and memories flooded through her after years of repression.
"You didn't even look for me, you didn't even think to tell me you were leaving, I never even crossed your mind and so when I found out…..I thought the last thing I wanted to do was become some obligated burden to you, not if I meant so little to begin with. I figured, you would find out eventually when you returned. I never planned to go into hiding, not at first, I was just going to retire and the JLA would have been in the loop. Maybe not for the paternity reveal just yet, but you know, eventually."
Dick swallowed hard, his Adam's apple throbbing in anticipation. "What changed?" he asked, though it sounded like he was pleading.
Zatanna's smile fell off her face, "A few months went by and I found out I was having twins." she said as if it explained everything.
Dick opened his mouth to urge her own but after a quick moment she resumed.
"Homo magi's dont have twins Dick. Twins are a death sentence." she said resolutely.
Confusion and concern touched his face and although she wanted to stop to let the news sink in, Zatanna pressed on knowing that there was so much more to the story than just its meager beginning.
"When a homo magi is pregnant, her baby feeds off of her magic in the same way a baby is fed from his human mother's diet. So the homo magi's magic is split between two beings, but the thing about magic is, you can't just consume more or get more. You have a certain amount, sure you can work to strengthen it but it's like a muscle in that way - at any rate for a homo magi, the magic running through our veins is just as vital as the blood, without a certain amount we can't survive. So when a homo magi is pregnant she's unable to use her magic, not without endangering her life and the baby's because her reserve of magic is now split between two people, just enough to keep them both alive. Which is why twins are rare if not non-existent, there isn't a reserve of magic large enough within one being to successfully sustain the life of two other magic beings, it's unheard of."
"Then how?" Dick asked in a whisper of a voice.
Zatanna released a shaky breath, "I found out I was carrying twins and I was terrified, I hadn't even saved my dad yet and I was going to die. No homo magi had ever carried twins to full term and if they ever did, none of them survived the birth. My doctor told me there were ways to terminate the pregnancy but they were drastic measures and they weren't guaranteed to work, besides…...I'd already fallen in love with them." she sniffed.
"How could I abort the only family I had left? So I decided to carry them in secret, if anyone in the JLA knew they might've tried to persuade me to do something different or would have insisted on being with me, but I knew the odds of success were slim to none and I didnt want an audience for my death. So I left, odds were I would be dead before you came back anyway and if you'd heard that…"
"If I'd heard, you'd been pregnant and that you'd died," he choked through stiff lips, while automatically pulling her hands into his as if to assure himself that she was still there, as if she were anchoring him. "I...I...I"
Zatanna smiled weakly at him, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I couldn't begin to bear, I couldn't even think about hurting you that way. So I disappeared. I knew the JLA would start searching for me, so I called Zach and we went off world. Zach….Zach kept me alive."
"Zach?" Dick echoed incredulously.
Zatanna nodded, "Zach." she confirmed. "My crazy, reckless, airhead cousin Zach. The same Zach, who I had to bail out from jail at least once a week, while he was in school." she laughed through her tears. "He spoon fed me when I couldn't muster the strength to pick up a spoon, was a self taught dula, and when the twins were being born, when my heart stopped, when there was no magic left, gave me enough of his own magic to keep me alive. I was comatose for 6 weeks after their birth, he looked after the twins alone for all that time, he looked after me for all that time. When I finally woke up, when I was finally conscious, he stayed. I could barely sit up, I couldn't stand, I could barely hold a twin let alone both, and I didnt know how to take care of them. Magic was still out of the question and so when he wasn't working on getting me rehabilitated, Zach taught me how to take care of them. He was the first parent they ever knew. It took three months before I could get on my feet and I was considerably weaker, but better nonetheless. Zach stayed, he stayed long after I recovered, he moved out after the twins were two. If it weren't for him, I-"
She stopped short as Dick coughed and tried to clear his throat almost violently, pulling his hand away from her. He looked back at her almost shamefully, unshed tears in his eyes.
"Zee, I'm sorry, I'm so-"
"Hey," Zatanna whispered softly, stroking his face, "it's okay, it happened."
"I should have been there, I would have-"
"No," she said firmly, "things happened this way for a reason, who's to say I would still be here otherwise? Or Wyette? Or John?"
Dick hung his head.
"You also didn't know." She reminded him, "I didn't tell you."
The silence between them ached and Zatanna let out another breath.
"Against all odds I gave birth to Wyette and John and through their birth, they became the reincarnates of Yin and Yang, the most powerful practitioners of magic to have ever existed and the most hunted in all of the multiverse. As if being born to Zatanna Zatara and Dick Grayson wouldn't have been complex enough."
Dick's head snapped up and he stared at her mutely now, his storm blue eyes ablaze.
"What?" He choked.
Zatanna nodded.
Dick stammered out. "How's that even possible? They're just kids, yin and yang, that's ancient magic, even I know that."
Zatanna sighed, "Well they aren't quite active reincarnates right now. Yin and Yang as we know them still exist and their forces are still at work, Wyette and John would only become Yin and Yang after the currents have retired and if the research Zach and I have been conducting holds any truth to it, that won't be for long while. Time passes differently for them besides, so much can happen between then and now, that although Wyette John are the first incarnates, it doesn't mean they will actually take their place.
Dick gave her a puzzled glance and she sighed before explaining, "Apparently being the only living twin homo magis in existence, doesn't automatically guarantee you the position. Wyette and John aren't invincible or immortal. Zach and I have been looking into this since before they were born, but it boils down to living long enough to inherit the title and most importantly the balance of light and dark magic. If everything goes according to plan when the current yin and yang retire, those two will take their place but if not they live normal lives….well for homo magis anyway."
"But once the word gets out, once people know who they are, they become the most hunted in all of the multiverse?" he clarified.
Zatanna nodded, "I didn't just keep them from you, from my heartbreak or yours, I've been keeping them from the universe and anyone who would want to come after them. Now that you know everything, the choice is yours Dick. When they wake up tomorrow, we can sit them down and tell them who you really are. You can tell them, but only if you're prepared for what's to come. It's more than bedtime stories, tantrums, sleep overs and growing pains. Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.