Bruce
Wayne Manor

Zatanna was holding Thomas and pacing furiously in front of the fireplace when Bruce got home.

"I hear you. Come on, just try again. I hear you."

"Zee?" When he stepped into the room, she walked over and handed Thomas to him. "What are you doing?"

"They were trying to reach me. I heard his voice. I tried earlier and I wasn't sure they heard me, but they did, so they're trying." She was talking a blue streak and resumed her pacing.

"Callum?"

"Yes. I'll need their help if I'm going to reach them. I think maybe that's why she took something from me, but I don't know because we're not timing it up right."

He stepped forward and took her arm to stop her. "Settle down. You need to focus if you're going to talk to them."

She blinked a few times and then nodded. "Right. You're right. I need to focus."

He sat down and patted the spot next to him on the couch. She walked over and sat, so he handed Thomas back. "Use your little calmness conduit and make the magic happen."

Chuckling lightly, she kissed Thomas's head. "Okay. Sorry, I just want to get this right."

"Me too. Need me to make myself scarce?"

"No," she said, taking his hand. "You keep me calm, too."

He squeezed her fingers and leaned back, trying to relax. Aside from flying, the only magic he'd ever taken part in with her was tantra, but he assumed the same principles held true. Focus thoughts, be still, breathe deep. Different kind of payoff at the end, though. They'd used it so much on the honeymoon that she said he was starting to drive the direction of their interactions. He didn't really buy that, but it made for a very enjoyable time in Italy.

We really need to do that again soon…

"What exactly are you thinking about over there?" Zatanna asked, studying him.

"Oh, nothing. Clearing my mind. In and out...breathing, I mean."

She raised an eyebrow and closed her eyes, her breath matching his. Thomas was still and quiet in her lap...maybe asleep, which was one of his few calm states. Bruce could feel a warmth building around them when Zatanna started to whisper in her own unique tongue. Her hand was tingling in his.

"I'm here. I heard you. I'm ready to talk when you are."

I'll just assume something's happening over there on her side.

"I can feel you thinking."

"Sorry. Relaxing."

She mumbled something else. The power in the room seemed to increase, making her hand tingle even more.

"Yes. I'm here," she said, excitement in her voice. Whoever she was talking to, he couldn't hear them. "I hear you. Can you tell me what she's doing?"

This is torture. I wanna talk to them, too.

She squeezed his hand.

Relaxing...focusing...definitely not being a distraction.

"I agree. You're still talking to her? Good. If you can try to delay her so she doesn't come back here, that would help. Thank you. Yes, tomorrow at 12:30, right after you're finished with her. Make sure I'm there. Uh...she's there. Your Zatanna...make sure she's there."

She opened her eyes and looked over at him. "I guess I have a date with Callum Elhart...and myself."

"What did they say?"

"I only talked to him. We need a stronger connection, so we're going meet tomorrow night. That way, we won't just be shouting into the void trying to make something happen. Twice the power."

"That sounds like a good idea. He didn't give you any other clue of what's happening?"

"He said this is about more than Tsaritsa and that we needed to be ready for a fight...just not from him."

He nodded and looked down at her sleeping assistant. "He wasn't much help."

"Better than you," she said, leaning over and kissing him. "You should learn to meditate like I do. It really helps quiet the mind."

"I meditate...sort of. And we do that whole tantra thing..."

"Oh, I knew it! I knew that's what you were thinking about."

He laughed. "Sorry. It's the only magical frame of reference I had for what was going on. It's your fault, really."

With a roll of her eyes, she laid her head on his shoulder. "No evil Superman will be coming here, but I'm afraid we have quite a mystery on our hands, detective."

"I like a mystery. Mysteries are meant to be solved."

"And they're good for someone who likes to think too much," she teased. "So, let's team up, Batman."

"Okay, then. Tomorrow night we learn more. From there, we start to plan."

"Oh, and Monday's meeting. Shazam is bringing us some suggestions."

"Good. You know, all this reminds me, you need a code name. An alias."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do. Those punks the other night didn't even know who to say beat them up."

"How about 'that crazy lady in the rubber outfit'?"

He leaned down and kissed her again. "More like 'that hot crazy lady in the sexy advanced tactical armor'."

She laughed and kissed him back. "That'll look great in a headline. And it's not sexy."

"It is sexy. I'll think of some names."

"No."

"Already thinking."

"Shocking."

Scarecrow

"Tell me how you feel," he asked the man.

"Calm. I see now. You were right, Doctor. I see it."

He smiled and leaned forward.

"What is it you see?"

He shook his head slightly. "That uh...that I was a prisoner. A prisoner of fear. Afraid to be who I'm supposed to be."

"And what is it you were supposed to be?"

"Whatever you want me to be, Doctor. You set me free."

"I'm very glad to hear you say that, my friend."

Zatanna
Shadowcrest

She left her calmness conduit at home. She left Bruce to his patrols, though he protested. He wanted to be in on the session badly, but there was no way she would be able to maintain the connection long enough to have a real conversation if she tried to loop his mind in, too. His was a particularly noisy mind. After lighting the candles, she sat down and got comfy. This was a much better setup than Tsaritsa's tacky-ass dining room.

"Okay, house of mine, help me out and boost our signal. Just like old times, but I won't wind up in Hell today."

*Creak?*

"Yes, I promise."

The clock struck midnight, so she started out with simple meditation, getting her mind as clear as possible. At 12:30, she felt a buildup of energy.

"Ekat em ot meht."

She closed her eyes and focused on the energy...familiar, yet unfamiliar. An image came into focus...familiar, yet unfamiliar.

"Zatanna." Kal smiled at her.

"Kal. Or Callum, I guess."

"Kal's fine. I go by Kal there?"

"Not all the time. Where is my other self?"

He looked to the side. "In the next room managing the spell. She thought this might be easier. She was a bit woozy after seeing you the last time."

"Same for me. I guess we should get down to it. I don't know how long I can hold up. Can you tell me what you know and we'll go from there?"

"It all started about a year ago. I was getting ready for bed and I could see this image in the mirror that very obviously wasn't me."

"Tsaritsa?"

He nodded. "I couldn't hear her, just see her. I had no idea who she was. I thought I was hallucinating or something, but I hadn't been exposed to anything. It happened again about a week later...same thing, no sound. When it started happening more frequently, I decided to tell you and see what you thought."

"You had a feeling it was something magical?"

"Not really, I just knew you'd tell me if you thought I was going crazy."

She laughed and shook her head. "Fair enough, though I think anyone could have told you that. I suspected it was something more?"

"Well, that is how your mind comes at things."

He was right. An image in a mirror could mean a lot of things in the magical realm.

"From there?"

"Tanna hid herself and watched with me. It took a few tries, but you...er...she finally saw it, too. And she could feel the energy, so she knew it was someone trying to contact me magically."

"Did you try to communicate with her?"

"Yes, but it took Tsaritsa figuring things out to make that happen; Tanna didn't want to do anything that might give her presence away. When she finally started speaking, I realized I wasn't the crazy one in this setup."

"She's batshit. Go on."

"I played it neutral to try to get any information I could. She wants me to come there and help her, but she's not the one in charge. I sort of played it like she wanted me to, pretending to be on board with what she was planning to do and pretending to be...falling for her. She kept talking about a powerful ally who wanted to enact a plan to take over the world...your world. When I saw you in the mirror, I thought you were that powerful ally."

"Well, I have my own share of power, but I don't have a lot of world domination aspirations. Call me short-sighted."

"I'll call you what I know you to be...kind-hearted," he said, giving her another warm smile.

"Just like our Kal," she said, returning the compliment. "And I must say, that's not what I was expecting when I thought you wanted to come here. I was terrified."

"No offense to your dimension, but I'm pretty happy in ours. Which brings me to the next topic: who is she actually allied with and why would they need me?"

"I don't know who she's working with, but taking over our world would take a lot of power. We have a team of heroes that safeguard everything. It's called the Justice League."

He raised his eyebrows. "Well, I know a few powerful people, but we don't have anything like that here. It's a good idea. You're part of it?"

"Not anymore. I retired, but I still work closely with them when I need to."

"Like now."

"Like now."

"You said you would use your powers against me, if it came to it."

"Yes. And still will, if you're lying." She was 99% convinced that he was legitimate, but she wouldn't be taking any chances.

"Does that mean you've used them against me there?"

"No. Only to help him, but I know his weaknesses. He's part of the League."

He grinned. "I don't think I'll be testing your abilities, if that's okay, but I'm willing to help in any way I can. So is Tanna."

"Tanna, huh? Haven't heard that one yet. I appreciate the offer, but you need to know that I'm working to try to fix the problem that led to all of this mess."

"Which is?"

"Without getting into details, I accidentally created a rip between different dimensions. We're going to close it." Hopefully.

"That explains how she was able to reach us in the first place. How are you going to close it?"

Really damn good question.

"We're figuring that out now."

Her body was starting to strain against the effort of maintaining the link, so she tried to measure her breathing.

"Is there any way we can help?"

"I don't know that yet. We have a meeting coming up, so I should get some information. The League is working on it."

He smiled again. "Sounds pretty handy to have all of that power to help out." His head turned and he nodded off to the side. "Tanna's getting tired. Can we pick this up after your League meeting? I'll discuss things with her, though she has been listening in."

"Good. That means I can thank her directly for her help. Our meeting is Monday night. Let's meet at 12:30 again."

"Got it. I'll keep trying to get info out of our mutual 'friend', in the meantime."

"I don't know how you can stand to talk to her every night."

"I don't. Not every night. Maybe twice a week."

She paused and thought. "That's interesting."

"Why?"

"It's more than I can get into right now, but we'll discuss it when we talk again."

He nodded and she could feel the connection start to fade. "Talk to you soon."

Batman
Arkham

"How many did you say?"

"Six so far, including the man you brought in," the doctor said, handing over a stack of paperwork. "All displaying the same symptoms of drug-induced psychosis."

"And you think they're being exposed against their will."

"I don't know how you get to that point on your own. High dose, nearly fatal exposure..."

"...to a toxin," Batman said. Scarecrow was up to something. "Why would someone do this?"

"That's my question for you. We saw what happened to Dent. If Crane is exposing others, he's even more sadistic than I thought."

Not sadistic.

"Can I take these files?"

The doctor nodded. "They're copies, so keep them. I appreciate the help, Batman. This is a little outside my realm of expertise."

"Can I talk to the patients?"

"Now, that's a little above my pay grade. And I don't think any of them are much use to you...at least, not yet."

He nodded and walked toward the exit.

What's the point of small-scale exposures. Why did he inject Zatanna?

He had said he wanted to free Gotham from fear and purify the mind of the citizens, but doing it one person at a time was the least efficient approach possible.

Is the gas not enough?

His watch was ending, so he put in a request with the warden to speak to the patients when they were ready and headed home. He was itching to know what Zatanna had learned in her most recent communication with the other Superman.

She was at the breakfast table with Alfred and Thomas when he made it upstairs. Thomas had his head down on his booster seat tray, facing away from her, sniffling and hugging his blanket. Zatanna was eating yogurt and smiled at him when he walked in.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, we've just had a little disagreement."

"In tuble. *sniffle*."

"What for?"

"Thomas, do you want to tell your daddy what you did?"

He kept his head down and shook it slightly, sniffling again. "No."

"I guess I get the honor. We wanted some yogurt for breakfast, so Alfred made us some with fruit and honey...it's very lovely, Alfred, thank you...Thomas turned his into ice cream." He bit his lip. "Don't you dare laugh," Zee mouthed with an amused look.

Clearing his throat, he tried to keep a straight face. "Is that true, son?" He finally raised his head and nodded, looking like the guilty little magician he was. "Why did you do that?"

His eyes darted between them a few times while his mind tried to think of a way out of his predicament. He finally held a hand out toward the bowl. "I like it."

The newspaper Alfred was hiding behind began to shake. He was enjoying their parental struggles entirely too much.

Bruce knelt down next to Thomas. "I like ice cream, too. A lot, actually, but we can't have it all the time or we'll get sick."

"And you can't grow up big and strong if you don't eat the healthy stuff," Zee added. "Don't you want to be big and strong like Daddy?"

He rubbed his eyes and nodded. "Like Dada."

"Then you've got to eat the healthy stuff," he said, wiping a tear from his cheek. "In fact, I'm hoping there's more left, because I'm hungry. Alfred?"

"Of course, sir. There's probably even enough for two more bowls."

"Want to give it another try with me?" He asked Thomas, who nodded again.

"Like Dada."

"Ah, wonderful." Alfred stood. "Come, Master Thomas. I will let you make your own bowl this time."

He picked him up and took him to the kitchen. Bruce shook his head and laughed before looking over at Zatanna.

"That's your son."

"No, my son would have turned the whole house into ice cream and added a hot chocolate waterfall in the parlor. Be glad he has your self control."

"If I had any self control, he never would have been born," he said with a smirk.

"Well, then I'm glad neither of us does." She smiled and grabbed the ice cream bowl to take a bite. "Wow, this is really good."

He grabbed the spoon from her and tried it. It was really good. "Hmm. If he doesn't want the magician/CEO/vigilante life, he could open an ice cream parlor and make his own fortune."

"I'll have to have him teach me the recipe." She took another bite and kissed his cheek. "How was your night?"

"Less fun without you there," he said, making her laugh. "How did things go for you?"

She gave him a summary of her conversation with Kal while they finished off the ice cream. There were more layers to what was going on than they thought.

"What do you think?" She asked, helping Thomas eat his new bowl of yogurt (that stayed yogurt) once he returned to the table.

"I think we need to find out who she's working with," he said. "Run into anyone who wants to take over the world recently?"

"No one that we haven't rendered powerless," she said. "Tsartisa's nuts, but I wouldn't have guessed her for the type to seek out this kind of power. It made more sense when she was trying to find her Prince Charming...if that can make sense at all."

"Someone else is pulling her strings, then. Maybe they're offering her what she wants if she recruits the muscle."

"That reminds me of something. Kal said he wasn't talking to her every night."

"But the glow..."

"Happens every single night."

"You think she's talking to others?"

"I don't know, but she's not just talking to him every night. I guess I happened to be there on the right one. Or, my mind led me to him. I just...I don't know."

"You were right about us having a mystery on our hands. I'm worried there's only one way we're going to get answers."

She grimaced. "Talk to her."

"You might need to cooperate for a while. Make her think you're helping."

"But, Bruce...she's so creepy," she whined and shuddered.

"Hey, at least you aren't the object of her affection."

"Can I just blame this all on Diana?"

"Depends on what your reasoning is."

"She was too nice to kill her?"

"Sure, that works," he said, standing. "I'm going to sleep for a while. Are you going to be safe down here with the ice cream bandit?"

"Probably not, but I'll keep my head on a swivel," she said, grabbing Thomas. She kissed him and headed toward the library. "So is it the kind of chocolate or the amount of sugar you conjured? The type of cream?" She quizzed the bandit while they walked.

Bruce made his way upstairs, mind bouncing through the possibilities. Tsaritsa. Kal. Scarecrow. Who else wants to take over the world today?

Zatanna
Watchtower

She sat and listened to the others argue. Glad we didn't bring Thomas to this one. Shazam was trying to justify his reasoning for the plan he had concocted. It did, indeed, blow.

"I can't generate that kind of power alone. I just can't!"

"So you want to set a madman loose again?" Clark asked.

"It took all of us to take him down the last time!" Diana added.

"I didn't say I want to! You guys asked me to come up with a plan. This is it."

Bruce was standing in the corner, watching her face. "Could you do it?"

"If I could take his power, I'm assuming I could return it," Zatanna responded.

"You asked what it would take," Shazam said. "It would take Black Adam."

The room fell silent as everyone processed the plan.

"Why do you think he would help us? Why would he not just try to kill us all again?" Diana asked.

"He wants his power back. He knows now that we can defeat him if he doesn't toe the line."

"It took all we had last time..."

"I know. I'll say it again: this plan blows."

"Jefferson?" Ollie asked, more on board than he was at the previous meeting.

"No, his powers work differently. I need someone like me."

"If we give him his power back, he'll eventually try to take us on again. Its inevitable," Bruce said. "I don't know if that's a risk we can take."

"You're quiet, Zee."

"I can try. I'm just not sure if trading one bad thing for another is the right thing to do."

"What else can we do?"

The room was quiet again. Options were clearly limited. Bruce walked over and sat down next to her.

"Shazam, will you talk to him first? Gauge his interest...and sincerity?" He asked.

Shazam nodded. "I didn't get far last time, but I'm guessing this will get his attention a little better. I'll let you know what he says."

"So, we're sure this Kal you spoke to wants to stay where he belongs?" Clark asked.

"Unless he's a fantastic liar, yes," Zatanna said. "As long as there isn't yet another Kal in yet another dimension involved, we should be okay there."

"Good, because if we really do give Adam his powers back, that will be more than enough to deal with."

"I talk with Kal again tonight," Zatanna said as everyone stood. "He's trying to get more out of Tsaritsa. I'll write a report and upload it to the database."

She checked her watch. It was a little after 8:00, so she headed home while Bruce stayed and worked on some projects. She wanted a chance to spend time with Thomas before he needed to go to bed. Sleep was lacking for her recently, but she had to make sure she wasn't sacrificing time with her son. He needed normalcy...whatever that meant in their family.

Callum
Another Dimension

"You think she believes you?"

"I feel like I should be asking you that," Callum said, sitting down and getting ready for another conversation with Zatanna.

"As far as I can tell, but she's very guarded," Tanna said, heading to the door.

"Rightfully so. Let's just see what she has to say this time and go from there." She nodded and turned to leave. "She has your eyes," he said.

"It would be a bit weird if she didn't," she said, smiling and pulling the door closed behind her.

Leaning back in the chair, he waited for the spell to build. It wasn't often he felt powerless, but when it came to magic, he was merely a bystander. After several minutes, the image of Zatanna appeared before him.

"Hello again," he said, smiling at her.

"Hey. Sorry I'm a few minutes late. I had to see to my son."

"Tommy?"

She nodded and smiled widely. "He didn't want to go to bed. Had me chasing him for three hours before he finally collapsed."

"He's a bundle of energy here, too."

"So, since we know we can't keep this up for long, tell me how things are going there."

"Tsaritsa's waiting on something. I said I wanted to speak to her 'powerful friend' before I committed to anything, but she said that wasn't possible yet. I tried to push, but she got agitated, so I let it drop."

"Which brings me to the reason I thought you were talking to her every night. We were monitoring her and picked up on her activity."

"You think she's talking to someone else in this dimension?"

"Or in another."

He nodded. "I can reach out to a few people and ask if there's been anything weird. If it isn't here..."

"It could be anywhere. That's why I need to close the rip that caused all of this."

"You have a plan for that?"

"Yes, but it blows."

He laughed. "Sounds like a winner. Anything we can do to help?"

"No, that's all on us. We're recruiting the extra help and will go from there. I'm still worried what will happen if Tsaritsa tries to meddle."

"So we need to deal with her."

"Yes. It's been decided that I need to play along a bit," she grumbled, clearly not a fan of the idea. He couldn't blame her.

"I'll do whatever I can to keep her distracted from my end...short of a strip tease, which she would enjoy far too much."

Zatanna laughed. "Let's hope it doesn't take something so drastic. I think we should plan on talking again in a week. I'll know more then."

"Okay. If you need anything before then...uh...well..."

"I'll yell across the cosmos and hope you hear me? We'll figure it out."

He waved goodbye when the connection started to fade. Tanna returned and leaned against the table.

"You were flirting with her."

"I was not!"

She laughed and shook her head. "Last time, too."

"Was not," he said, smirking at her.

Her face turned serious. "You think he's there?"

"Yeah. She seems happy."

She forced a smile, though he could see the sadness in her eyes. "I know." Her hand went to his shoulder briefly before she sighed and walked away. "I'm glad."

Feeling a little powerless again.