Chapter Three – Despair

Chloe Sullivan peeked her head in through the door of The Talon to see if Clark was there. The last thing she needed after working all through the night on the most important story of her life was Clark going on and on about the wonders of Zatanna, or Zee as Chloe knew her. After all, who wanted to hear him state the obvious all day? But suddenly that didn't matter because Zee, her best friend, was sat with Clark in a table in a corner, so she rushed over as quickly as she could, eager to show her new friend the latest issue of The Torch with its "Smallville Loves Zatanna" headline.

Lana Lang watched from behind the counter and rolled her eyes. What was so special about this Zatanna girl? She was pretty, admittedly, with her raven hair and big blue eyes, but not in the same league as Lana. And then there was her outfit: a white T-shirt with her initials on it, a pair of blue denims, some scuffed running shoes, all topped with a battered trenchcoat – needless to say it really needed some pink. She looked on in confusion as Chloe fawned over Zatanna.

And then Pete Ross entered and, in a re-enactment of Chloe's entrance, made his way straight over to where Clark, Chloe and Zatanna where sitting. As Pete started laughing uproariously at whatever stray comments Zatanna made, Lana made her way over to their table. After taking their orders, and being resolutely ignored once more by Clark, she attempted some pleasant chit-chat.

"So, Zatanna. What brings you to Smallville?"

Zatanna looked down at the copy of The Torch that Chloe had given her. "Well according to this article my Dad's come here looking for new magicians. This place seems to be a breeding ground for them. He's getting letters every week from teenagers here claiming that they can do all kinds of weird magic acts so he decided we should hold an audition."

Lana got a queasy feeling in her stomach. The teenagers were probably local mutants hoping to cash in on their strange powers. And then she remembered what Zatanna had said when she first entered The Talon.

"You want to hold the audition here?" Lana shrieked.

"Yeah, if that's okay. Think of the extra coffee you'll sell."

But Lana's mind was thinking of the dangers. Gathering lots of meteor freaks in one place couldn't be a good idea. "You're sure they'll turn up? How will they know the auditions have moved here?"

"Don't worry, it's all taken care of," answered Zatanna reassuringly.

"Are you sure this audition's a good idea?" asked Lana, wondering what Zatara had been thinking of when he came up with the idea. What audience would pay good money to see a group of teenage mutants? "Oh, wait, today's a bad day. I've got someone coming around later to decorate the upstairs apartment."

"eerga," mumbled Zatanna, growing weary of the conversation.

"Okay, somehow you've won me over," Lana conceded. "The freak show can go ahead."

"Thanks, Lana, although personally I don't think the audition's the real reason Dad came to Smallville. After all, he's not even bothering to turn up to it."

Chloe let out a gasp of disbelief. The thought that the greatest story she'd ever written would turn out to be factually inaccurate chilled her to the bone. On the plus side it now looked like there might be some material for a follow-up story.

"So why's he really here?" asked Chloe, getting out her notebook. "Don't spare any details."

"Well, we were due to start a tour of England this week, but he didn't want me running into my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" everybody around the table echoed.

"Well, JC was my boyfriend but I'm going to dump him now that I've met Clark." As Clark's smile got wider than the dimensions of his face would appear to allow, Zatanna continued. "JC was kind of complicated, whereas with Clark you get what you see."

Lana laughed. "You obviously don't know Clark too well."

"She's right, Zee, you can't always judge by appearances. Take Lana for instance," Chloe said, gesturing towards a smiling Lana. "She's full of hidden shallows."

Zee turned to Pete, and it broke his heart that he had to lie to his new best friend, but he owed it to Clark. "Nothing special about Clark. Not in the least."

"Well, there's one way to find out," announced Zee. "If you'll leave me and Clark alone for a moment, please."

While Lana, Chloe and Pete waited on the other side of the room, Zee dug out a pocket watch from her trenchcoat.

"Zee, what are you going to do?" asked a worried Clark.

"Don't worry, Clark. Just getting to know you. You wouldn't want to keep any secrets from me would you?"

As Clark began his answer, Zatanna began saying something that was unintelligible to Clark and then Clark went silent.

Zee turned back to the others. "You can come back over here now. If there's anything you ever wanted to know about Clark Kent, now's the time to find out."

Lex had told Zatara all about the accident on the bridge that October day, and Zatara had been able to come up with a rational explanation for what had transpired. Unfortunately, Zatara had been able to come up with hundreds of rational explanations. In some of these explanations the accident wasn't an accident, in others the car fished out of the river was a replica of the car that went in, and in others the Lex that came out of the river was a replica of the Lex that went in. Some explanations for the torn roof involved Clark being a mutant, some involved him being an Atlantean, and others involved a mutant Lex himself being responsible. This was all assuming, of course, that Lex was a reliable witness in the first place.

It was time for Zatara to admit defeat, time for the final resort.

"Lex, do you mind if we revisit the scene of the accident? I realize you might find it traumatic but …"

"That's no problem. We can be there in ten minutes."

"We can be there sooner than that," Zatara explained. In fact it took as long as it takes to say some words backwards.

Lex suddenly found himself sat in his old Porsche, superimposed over his past self, and heard his old mobile phone ringing, he turned in panic towards the passenger seat to see Zatara there smiling.

"Deja vu, Lex?"

"How are you doing this?" asked Lex, gritting his teeth, trying to remain calm, as his other self picked up the phone.

"Magic," replied Zatara. "Don't worry, we're only observing. We cannot interfere with the past."

Zatara looked across at the still-perturbed Lex, murmured a few words and Lex suddenly felt a wave of calm passing over him. Lex watched with detachment as the car swerved, slammed into Clark and plummeted into the river. And then came the events that he'd missed the first time around. Finally, he saw just how the trick had been done. He smiled. He'd guessed how it had been done all those years ago, but was just too scared to shout out the secret in case he was wrong – now he knew that he'd been right all along.

"Time to visit the magician?" asked Zatara, oblivious to the water around him.

"Of course," replied Lex. "Maybe he knows some more tricks."

"Clark, do you remember me?" asked Lana.

Clark looked at Lana and was forced to tell the truth. "Yes, you were taking our order five minutes ago."

"Okay, Lana, that's your turn wasted," explained Zatanna. "Your turn, Chloe?"

"What turns you on, Clark?" asked Chloe with a wicked gleam in her eye.

"Fishnet stockings," replied Clark without the slightest hint of a blush.

"Interesting," observed Zatanna. "Your turn, Pete."

Pete thought for a while, trying to think of a question that couldn't possibly jeopardize his friend's secret. He thought and thought and thought and ...

Lana watched Pete impatiently. She'd always suspected Clark of being affected by the meteorites and now was the time to find out the truth. "Pete, ask Clark if he's got any special powers."

Pete was about to refuse when Chloe added "Yeah, ask him. I've always been curious about that."

Turning his gaze towards his new best friend, he saw Zee smiling and nodding her head. Pete turned towards his old best friend, took a deep breath, and then asked "Clark, is there anything special about you?"

"Yes, there is," began Clark, before pausing for dramatic effect. While the others waited in deep anticipation for Clark to continue, Pete Ross knew what Clark was going to say. He knew that Clark didn't consider his powers special, but rather something that made him different from everybody else, preventing him from ever leading a normal life. There was only one thing that Clark considered special about himself, and Pete wasn't the least bit surprised by Clark's next words: "I've got great hair."

"Wow, what a revelation," observed Zatanna with all the sarcasm she could muster. "I'm just popping away for a little while. Unfinished business."

Lana turned her attention away from Clark, and whatever he was saying, as her eyes followed Zatanna.

"I've got unfinished business too," Lana said coolly, as she left Pete and Chloe listening to Clark going through a list of some sort:

"There's Joe and Jerry, Mort, Wayne, Julius, Curt, Murphy …"

Lana burst into the ladies' restroom that she'd just seen Zatanna enter. It was time for a confrontation. Zatanna was standing there, surrounded in a haze of smoke, seemingly spouting gobbledygook into a mirror. If she'd noticed Lana's big entrance she was completely ignoring it.

Lana saw the cigarette in Zatanna's hand. "You can't smoke here!" she exclaimed.

Zatanna suddenly stopped her gobbledygook mid-flow, turned her head towards Lana and smiled. "S'okay, I've disabled the alarm system."

"That's not the point," argued Lana.

Zatanna put her other hand into her trenchcoat pocket and took out a pack of cards. "Pick a card. Any card."

"Sorry?"

"Pick a card," repeated Zatanna.

"Okay," Lana replied, then took a card from the deck and looked at it. The card contained two words: GO AWAY!

"I haven't got time for this," fumed Lana, and then she walked over to Zatanna, took the cigarette from her hands, threw it to the floor and squished it beneath her heel.

"Okay, Lana. What do you want?" Zatanna asked, snatching another lit cigarette out of thin air. "Surely you're not just here to annoy me."

Lana shoved her face right up against Zatanna's. "I know what you've done to Clark, Chloe and Pete."

"And what's that?" asked Zatanna with mock innocence.

"You've hypnotized them!" replied Lana.

"No, I used magic," admitted Zatanna.

Lana laughed in disbelief. "There's no such thing as magic. What did you do? Blink your eyes? Twitch your nose? Or did you just speak backwards like your Dad does during his magic act."

"Yeah, I spoke backwards - it's as simple as that. I made Clark love me and forget all his former loves. Chloe and Pete were suspicious of me so I got round that by making them my best friends. I was thinking of making you my best friend too but, hey, who wants you as a best friend? Besides I needed someone to confide in. You can't imagine what it's like having everyone adore you 24/7 when you haven't done anything to deserve it."

Lana was still skeptical. "Still don't believe you."

"Okay, ask me to do something magical. Anything at all."

Lana spoke softly, nervously, and, as the words came out, she could hear her heart pounding in her chest. "Bring my parents back to life."

Zatanna's confident air left her as she turned away from Lana. She might have been able to bring them back, but she wasn't willing to try. Not after the last time.

Her mind went back several years, what now seemed like an eternity, to when she'd met that mysterious kid who could bring people back from the dead (just had to say one word, didn't even need to say it backwards). She asked him how he did it but he just gave her a tortured look and told her it wasn't worth it. She'd then asked her father who warned her against such things, but, of course, that was the last thing he should have done.

She was learning magic, learning it faster and faster, and even the impossible had started to seem trivial, and so, that night, she tried to summon people from the spirit realm. Nothing happened, not the first time, but she persevered, trying different word combinations for spirit realm . First ghost world which didn't work as she planned (although, on the plus side, she got to meet Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson) and then phantom zone which led to two men and a lady, dressed in black, appearing.

They'd seemed nice enough at first, once a spell had sorted out the language problem, interested in her and the world they'd been brought to, but then they turned nasty, fire leaping from their eyes, leaping towards her. If her father hadn't returned at that moment, sending them back to where they came from, she wouldn't be alive now.

Zatanna wiped the tears from her cheek, the cheek from which her father had magically removed the scars (although inside the scars had never healed), and then turned back to Lana.

"Sorry, Lana. I won't do that."

"Should have known," Lana said sadly, her hope taken away. "There's no such thing as real magic, just the cheap substitute that you and your father trade in."

"Don't underestimate me, Lana," responded Zatanna, beginning to regain her composure.

"And don't underestimate me," replied Lana. It was time to show this charlatan who she was dealing with.

"I'm a magician, not a miracle wor-" started Zatanna, and then noticed that Lana had disappeared.

Zatanna looked around, confused. Surely Lana wasn't a witch, or maybe she'd misheard Chloe. Suddenly, she felt someone tapping her on the back and turned around to see the strangest sight she'd seen all day - Lana Lang standing there in a strange yellow costume with a mask and a pair of fake translucent wings.

Lana placed her hands on her hips, and announced her true nature to the stunned Zatanna. "You may think that I'm just the exquisite Lana Lang, but I'm also Insect Queen, Empress of the Entymological, friend of the cute ant, enemy of the mutant, saving Smallvillians from the big villains ..."

Zatanna mumbled something, hoping that Lana hadn't wasted too much time coming up with her cringe-worthy spiel. Suddenly Lana felt herself shrinking - a not-unfamiliar sensation - but she didn't end up as small as usual. She looked up at Zatanna and wanted to ask what had happened. She wanted to ask so many things, but the same question kept coming out: "Ribbit?"

"So, Lana, have I convinced you?" asked Zatanna, kneeling down to talk to the new-look Lana. "From Insect Queen to Frog Princess, what a transformation! Don't worry - it'll only last an hour, not for as long as I live like my spell on Clark."

"Ribbit!" protested an angry Lana.

"There, there, don't get upset. For what it's worth you're the best-looking frog I've ever seen, and hey, if you get hungry, I'm sure there are lots of your tasty insect friends hanging around. Got to go now. Toodles."

Just before Zatanna reached the door, Chloe barged in.

"Hey Zee, there's some people outside looking for you. Two guys and a girl, all dressed in black."

Zatanna's heart skipped a beat, as her memories of several years ago returned. "Is there a glint of red in their eyes?"

"Couldn't tell. They're wearing sunglasses."

JC had a magic mirror (although, strictly speaking, all mirrors are magic if you know the right words and aren't a vampire). This mirror normally showed him the most beautiful girl in his world, but for some reason she'd not called at her usual time. He hated their being apart and hated her father even more. Zatara had permanently grounded her with a containment spell, otherwise she could have teleported to him at will. While he stood there, smoking, looking at the mirror he decided to summon a demon. Anything to pass the time.

Zatara breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the three teenagers awaiting her.

"We're here for an audition," one of them, a blonde-haired girl, explained.

At that moment, Lana, who'd followed Chloe and Zatanna out of the restroom, made a leap at Zatanna.

"emoc kcab retal," said Zatanna, just as Lana's froggy form was over her head, causing Lana to vanish.

"Sorry?" asked Chloe.

"Nothing," replied Zatanna. "To tell you the truth I'm just glad these three auditionees are just normal kids and not aliens with super powers."

"Yeah," nodded Chloe, humoring her best friend. "We don't get a lot of those in Smallville."

As the three arrivals performed their magic acts, Zatanna set about writing a letter to dump her boyfriend (who'd she'd been going to dump via the ages-old method of magic mirror when Lana had interrupted her).

Pete gazed at the first act, Mari the Mind-Reader. "Can you read my mind?" he thought, as he started to mentally undress her. The next thing he knew, in his mind, she was mentally dressing herself again and telling him to keep his dirty thoughts to himself.

Zatanna finished her letter, sent it off to JC with a few well-chosen words, and turned her attention back to the acts. Nothing that original (in fact they seemed to be driving all The Talon's customers away) - first the mind-reader, then a boy who could light up light bulbs, and finally some kid who could bend spoons and make watches stop and start. Zatanna was disappointed. Disappointed that only three kids had turned up for the auditions, and disappointed that this was the best they had to offer. She looked at Clark, who was still talking, as he had been all during the acts:

"And then there's Jeph and Tim, Brian and Jim."

"What question did you ask him?" she asked Pete, who was trying to avoid the gaze of the female mind-reader.

"Oh, Clark's still talking about his hair."

"What, has he given them all individual names?" joked Zatanna.

Pete nodded.

JC often got "Dear John" letters, for John was his name, but he'd never received one from her before. She'd always called him JC (like that guy JD in Heathers, her favorite film), and he'd always called her Zed (all her other friends called her Zee but they were American and didn't know how to pronounce the alphabet properly).

He'd been looking in the mirror, still waiting for Zed to contact him, when the letter had suddenly appeared right in front of him. It took him only a moment to read it, and, due to his being a trifle upset, only a moment to smash his fist into the mirror.

"Haven't you forgotten something, JC?" asked KannNn as he waved his trident at JC.

"Call me John. Only Zed called me JC," he snarled as he turned, cradling his injured hand, towards the demon he'd summoned earlier. To tell the truth, demons aren't that hard to summon - it's getting them to leave that's the problem, especially if you've just smashed the mirror that they'd use to get home.

"I need something to drink," moaned John as he entered the kitchen but the only drink he could find there was a half-empty bottle of Vimto.

"Here, John. I've conjured up some spirits," shouted KannNn, as he pointed to a whiskey bottle that had magically appeared on a table.

And so John started to drink and drink and drink some more and as he drank he thought of Zed. She'd bewitched, bothered and bewildered him, taught him magic, started him smoking. Still their love was all an illusion, just smoke and mirrors. Nah, who was he kidding? It was magic.

And KannNn watched John go deeper and deeper into despair. And the deeper into despair you go, the stronger your demon's become. "Want to share your thoughts, John?"

John looked across at the demon. "She didn't even have the guts to tell me to my face. Just sent a letter - listen John, I love you, but there's this bloke I fancy - or words to that effect. It hurts inside, you know. Can't stand losing her. Every little thing she did was magic."

"Who's the guy?"

"His name's Clark."

"So, Clark's got Zed. Surely you're not going to stand for that, John. Look into my eyes. You'll see there's only one answer."

And John stared into the demon's eyes and everything made sense again.

"I'm going to Smallville," announced John.

"What are you going to do to Clark, John?"

"I'm gonna smash his face in."

"And Zed?"

"Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

The three of them sat around the table, as Zatanna pondered which cutting remarks to unleash on them.

"Where's Lana?" asked the red-haired boy who'd made light bulbs light up.

"I don't know," replied the girl calling herself Mari."I sensed her when we came in, but she seems to have disappeared for a while."

"What was she thinking? Maybe it'll give us a clue," asked the black-haired boy with the spoon-bending act.

"It's not easy being green," replied a bewildered Mari. "Anyway, we don't need Lana anymore. The only person Clark's been thinking of recently has been Zee. Now, I've sent everybody not connected to Clark home, our escape vehicle's parked out back, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!"

And with that the three of them rushed from their table towards Zee, Clark, Pete and Chloe, shouting in unison "Everybody's going to die!!!"