"This is getting so annoying!" Zatanna exclaimed as she shut another book and threw it onto a nearby pile. Her frustration was getting higher and higher, and there was nothing she could do to calm it down.

Fact was, Zatanna had been feeling a little on edge ever since she, Clark, and Bart had left Egypt and come back to Smallville. Getting the scarab had been much too easy, she knew. No evil undead rising to attack them, no swarms of scarabs or locusts trying to eat away at their skin, no lightening storms or anything. It was too weird, she'd realized, as they had passed halfway over the Atlantic Ocean. Getting something that was this important had to mean more.

Zatanna placed her hand on the scarab, which sat on the dirt ground right across from her, and felt another surge of power. This thing, this scarab, it was so ancient and so full of old and powerful magicks. The scarab slightly scared Zatanna. She'd never possessed anything quite this powerful before, and she wasn't sure what to make of it. All she knew was that it was key in bringing Lana back to life.

The sorceress shifted through the pile of books that sat on her left side, which was the unread pile, and chose from them another book on the history of Egyptian magick. She'd just opened it when Bart whizzed into the living room of Shadowcrest, which was where she'd had Bart bring her after they'd done a quick pit stop in Smallville to leave Clark at home.

"Find anything yet?" Bart asked as he plopped down next to Zatanna and picked a book from the top of the pile.

"Nothing," Zatanna answered. "Gallons of nothing." She rubbed her temples exasperatedly.

"Do you maybe…I dunno…want to get something to eat?" Bart asked a little shyly as he zipped through the book in his lap. Nothing. He picked up the next one and started going through it.

"Do I want to – Bart, are you asking me out?"

"No?" Bart said, flustered. "Maybe?"

"Aw, that's so sweet," Zatanna cooed at Bart. Bart blushed a little more, turning redder than usual. "But not now…not until we find out what this thing does and how it's gonna bring Lana back."

Bart nodded. "I get that. So…nothing in any of the books here?" Bart asked as he set down the fifth book he'd been through since he'd come back.

"Nothing. I mean, I get my dad wasn't too big on Egyptian mythology or anything, but this is crazy. We're magical people…we should have tomes on all things magickal," Zatanna set her book down. "Hey, Bart, what time is it?"

"Six-forty-seven a.m., why?"

"I'm wondering if the Gotham City museum will be open right now."

"Gimme one sec," Bart said, zipping out of Zatanna's living room.

Zatanna leaned back for a moment, and smiled to herself slightly. Bart was definitely cute, and he seemed oh-so-ready to help her with everything. She'd bet her life that if she'd been a guy, he wouldn't be with her in Shadowcrest right now, helping her with all this research.

It was sweet of him though, in any case.

"Z'anna," Bart said moments later, zipping back into her living room. "They won't be open until eight."

"Which gives us a little over an hour," Zatanna said. She thought silently for a moment. They had time to kill and none of the books she had were of any help to her right now. And Bart was there too. Granted, she had only known Bart for less than a day, but he was a nice guy, and he was there for her. The least she could do was have breakfast with the guy for all the help he had been giving her. And even though he might not be as classically handsome as Clark, there was something about Bart. Something that touched her in a way that neither Clark or John ever had. And besides, her Dear John letter to John had probably reached him by now, and Clark still had a major hard on for Lana…so maybe all of this was for the best.

"So…you wanna have breakfast?" she asked Bart timidly.

Bart's face broke out into a huge grin as he nodded.

Three hours later found the two young comrades walking through the St. Roch Museum of History. They had come here after their trip to the museum in Gotham City had been a total failure. The curator in Gotham, a kindly woman who herself claimed to not know much of the scarab or it's surrounding myths, had proposed that they write to the curator at this particular museum. It seemed that he was an expert on all things Egyptian and would be the perfect person to ask about the scarab.

So, Bart and Zatanna had done the curator one better and had sped over to St. Roch as soon as possible.

The name that Zatanna and Bart had been given had been of one Carter Hall, a former college professor who knew much about Egypt and Egyptian myth. As soon as they had reached the museum, they had inquired after him and had been immediately given directions to his office, which was the exact place to where they were headed at that moment.

"Think he'll be able to help us?" Bart asked quietly.

"He better be," Zatanna replied. "I don't know what we'll do if he isn't. Xan won't be any help here. I swear, everyday she grows vaguer and vaguer."

"Any other people you know who have powers like yours? They might be able to help you out."

Zatanna shook her head as she halted in front of a door with Carter Hall's name on it. "No one. Like I said, we could always go to Xan, but she'd be about as helpful as a flashlight would be if you were trying to heat up eighty gallons of water. Well, here's goes nothing," Zatanna said as she knocked on the door.

"Come in!" came a slightly gruff, yet kind, voice from inside the room. Zatanna turned the knob and walked in, followed by Bart.

"Dr. Carter Hall?" she asked.

A man who looked to be about thirty-five years old looked up at Bart and Zatanna. He was a handsome man, with dark hair and dark eyes that peered out from behind horn-rimmed glasses. His brown hair looked to be freshly cut and was combed neatly. A seemed like a kind, intelligent person over all. "Yes? Hello."

Zatanna smiled sweetly at the man, who slowly stood up from his seat behind an expansive wood-and-metal chair. "Hi…I'm Zatanna. Zatanna Zatara. This is my friend Bart Allen. We were wondering if you could help us with an assignment for our history papers?"

Hall looked at the clock on his desk and then back at the ebony-haired sorceress. "Sure, I don't see why not. Our staff meeting isn't for another two hours. What exactly is it that I can help you with?" he asked as he motioned for Bart and Zatanna to take a seat. Both friends slid into plush leather arm chairs across from Hall. As Zatanna lowered herself into her seat, she pulled out the scarab from her Marc Jacobs tote. As she did so, she noticed that his entire office looked like a horrible homage to the natural history museum of hawks. She shuddered. After the freaky falcon in Egypt, she wasn't too fond of birds.

"This," she said, presenting it to Carter Hall. She placed it on his desk and he reached for it, but Zatanna quickly stopped him. "Wait! Sorry. Please, if you don't mind, don't touch it. It's an old, old family heirloom and…I don't think my grandmother would appreciate anyone who wasn't of the Zatara bloodline touching it," Zatanna fibbed.

Hall gave Zatanna a quizzical look but nodded anyway. "Not a problem. What help did you need with it, exactly?"

"Well, see, there's these symbols on the scarab," Zatanna replied, picking the scarab up and showing it to Hall. Hall picked up a magnifying glass and came close to the scarab studying it intently as Zatanna continued. "No one in our family knows what it means, and we heard that the best person to ask would be you."

Hall nodded as he studied the scarab as closely as he could without touching it. "It seems to pre-date any known Egyptian hieroglyphic," he said in awe. "Either that, or it's a completely different set of Egyptian writing that no one has ever seen before."

"Any idea on what it means," Bart asked.

"It could mean any number of things," Hall replied, "but the fact that the heirloom that you are holding is a scarab probably means it has something to do with rebirth. It certainly isn't the name of a pharaoh or anything, because there is too much inscription for it to be anything of the sort."

"Something to do with rebirth," Zatanna repeated.

"Yes. The Egyptians believed that the dung beetle, whose image the scarab is made in, was a sign of rebirth. Funny, because to the farthest of my knowledge, the Egyptians didn't believe in reincarnation."

Zatanna looked at Bart quizzically, and gave him this look that he understood immediately. What they had seen in the corridor in the temple had also depicted some sort of rebirth. Could the images there have been connected to this scarab?

"Dr. Hall," Zatanna said suddenly, "thank you. You've been a huge help." She pulled the scarab away and tucked it back into her tote. "We really do need to be going right now since our free period is almost over." She stood up and shook Hall's hand, as did Bart.

"It was no problem, Miss Zatara. If you have any further questions, here is my card," Hall passed Zatanna and Bart a card each. "Call me at anytime."

"Thank you, sir," Bart said.

As soon as they were outside the office, Bart looked at Zatanna and asked, "So now what?"

"Well, we need to see what's written in those caves, see if there's any hint on how to use this scarab." Zatanna said in hushed tones as they walked away from the office. "I need to go to Smallville though, check up on Lana and make sure there's no other weird things going on there. Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, anything," Bart nodded.

"Okay, I need you to go back to the temple and get some pictures of what's on the walls and then bring them back to me so I can study them. Take Clark with you if you need to, though I don't know how he's gonna get out of class. Meanwhile, I'll also drop by Xan and see what she knows. Hopefully she'll actually help this time."

"No problem," Bart answered. "So…Smallville first?" Bart asked as he reached for Zatanna, who jumped into his arms. She put her arms around his neck and smiled. He inhaled her scent of ginger and jasmine and nearly swooned. Maybe he'd go a little slower than usual this time…

"Yes, please."

Writer's Note: Yeah, I agree, the getting of the scarab was a tad easy for them. But it was supposed to be, because the after-effect of getting the scarab and using it on Lana is what's going to make things ugly. I don't think I made it clear at the end that Zatanna was supposed to be able to retrieve the scarab easily, because…well…you'll find out. :-D

Yeah, and on the topic of Xan again…I think when I said college-aged, I meant more near the end of her post-graduate degree. Sorry about that little mix-up. I love Sherilyn Fenn though, I really do. Would've loved it if she had played Harley in the BoP t.v. show. Too sad this thing will never actually be made into anything for the screen.

Anyway, keep on R-and-R-ing guys, I really appreciate the input and the ideas!

Me.