The Butler's Apprentice, Part 3

Zatara lived in a nice neighbourhood, J'onn thought, as he walked from the closest Zeta tube towards the magician's house. For a moment, he felt tempted to assume a human form, to stroll through the street like he was just going on an evening walk, to smell the early spring flowers and greet the neighbours.

A small dog barked at his invisible form, smelling or sensing his alien nature.

J'onn hurried by.

'I'm here', he telepathically alerted Dinah when he reached Zatara's address.

She opened the front door for him.

A black-haired teenage girl stood behind Black Canary in the hallway, peering at his general direction. He immediately recognized her as Zatanna, Zatara's beloved daughter. The girl tried to look composed, but inside she was bubbling with emotions: Excitement, awe, a hint of nervousness.

Dinah closed the door behind his still invisible form.

"Did he get in?", the girl asked.

"You tell me", Dinah answered with a wink.

The magician's daughter smiled at the challenge.

"Sekalfwons!"

A dust of snowflakes danced through the air of the hallway, briefly settling on J'onn's head and shoulders.

With a light chuckle, he faded entirely out of his material existence. The snow dropped at the ground through him.

Zatanna just grinned, already planning her next spell.

"Tanna, stop making it snow in the hallway!", her father called out from behind her.

"I fear we have to cut this short", J'onn stated, readjusting his body's density as he turned visible. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Zatanna."

"Same to you", she replied, still smiling. Then her expression turned sober.

"Mary needs your help."

Mary Jane Baker was a statue when J'onn entered the living room. Once again he could sense her dormant mind, encased by a protective layer of magic.

"You provided her with a memory that can turn her into stone", J'onn summarized the magician's explanation.

"Unfortunately, yes." Zatara wrung his hands guiltily.

"We've had to turn her back every four or five minutes", his daughter added. "It's impossible not to think of something specific, especially when you try it very hard."

"Alivio", Zatara said.

J'onn turned to face the young British woman as she slowly recovered.

He was standing right in front of her. A green-skinned alien with glowing red eyes. He braced himself for the well-known onslaught of emotions.

She looked at him, blinking twice.

A second of confusion, then curiosity.

"Mr Martian Manhunter, I presume?"

No fear, anxiety or disgust. Only curiosity and – was that gratefulness?

He nodded, perplexed.

"I always wanted to thank you for finding me", she said. "I was told that without you, I would still be a lifeless exhibition piece."

"You're welcome", he replied automatically.

She smiled.

Mary looked different than she had two months ago. Less gaunt and exhausted, much healthier. Happier, too.

"How much do you know about J'onn's powers?", Dinah asked.

"I read some newspaper articles", she answered. "Do people on Mars really talk to each other telepathically?"

People on Mars. Not aliens. Not Martians. Not 'your kind'. Just people.

"They do", he replied.

"Fascinating", she commented.

Dinah gently placed a hand on the young woman's shoulder. "We asked J'onn to come here to help you with suppressing that bothersome memory. Mary, would you allow him to enter your mind?"

Mary considered this for a moment. Then she shook her head.

"There are secrets in my mind that are not mine to share", she explained.

Dinah looked surprised. She had not expected this when she called him.

J'onn met Mary's eyes.

"I can talk to you mentally without reading your thoughts in turn. Would you allow me to do so?"

Uncertainty, concern. Resolve.

"Very well", she replied.

'Thank you.'

Her eyes grew wide.

'I am sorry for startling you. I just established a one-sided mental link that allows me to share my thoughts with you. You can just nod or shake your head to answer me.'

She nodded.

'Are you concerned about accidentally revealing someone's secret identity to me?'

Mary nodded again.

'Batman and Robin.'

Another nod. She had a lot of feelings for these two.

'Anyone else?'

She nodded once more.

'Oh, Alfred, of course. Agent A.'

Suspicion. Confusion. Protectiveness. Concern.

'I know who they are', he explained quickly. 'Bruce Wayne. Dick Grayson. Alfred Pennyworth.'

He sent her a memory of each of their unmasked faces, from a public dinner several years ago, so she would know he had not just plucked the names out of her mind.

'Batman revealed his identity to me and several other founding member's of the League during one of our earlier missions. He will be pleased to hear that you wished to protect his secret from me. Yet there is no need.'

She glanced at Dinah.

'Neither Black Canary nor Zatara know. Although Dinah might have some suspicions.

Mary nodded once more.

'Anybody else?'

She shook her head, then took a deep breath.

Resolve.

"Thank you for clarifying this", she said aloud. "I would be very grateful for your help to control..."

She turned to stone.

"OIVILA!"

Zatanna had been the one to wake her up once more. Saying the magic word backwards would protect her for a few minutes.

The Martian Manhunter was still standing in front of her.

A man from another world.

Amazons, Atlanteans and extraterrestrial beings – this new time was truly fascinating.

"Are you ready?", the man from Mars asked in his deep, resonant voice.

"Yes", she declared.

'Very good.'

It did feel strange to hear him in her head like this.

'I'm sorry about that. Most people find it rather peculiar at first.'

Are you reading my thoughts now?

'Yes.'

Oh dear, this could get very embarrassing easily...

'Who is Henry? No, never mind that. Here.'

Suddenly, she was standing in a blank space.

The Martian appeared next to her.

'This is a visual representation of your mind', he explained. The green figure's mouth had moved, yet she still felt his words rather than hearing them.

'Is it really this empty?', she joked.

Ah. She could choose which thoughts to voice now.

His image smiled, then waved his hand.

The scenery changed. Instead of a blank space, they were standing in a library now.

Her library.

She had loved to spend time here, before the Dr'uk invasion. It had always been a peaceful place.

They were standing on the ground floor, in the cosy little side corridor of the poetry section.

'This is my favourite reading spot', she said, pointing at the cushioned chair placed neatly in front of a window.

She noted that instead of window glass, the frame was filled with mirrors. Or something similar. The small glass panels did not show the outside world, but did not quite seem to reflect the library's interior either.

There were also more doors than before, right between the book shelves.

'Each door lead to different part of your mind and memory', he explained. 'Figuratively, of course.'

She looked at the nearest one, intrigued. She recognized it as the sturdy portal of Wayne Manor. What would happen if she stepped through? Would it be safe to explore her recent memories while she was still in danger of...

It appeared right in front of her, in the window. The image of Zatara, casting the petrification spell.

J'onn grabbed hold of it, pulling the scene from the glass in one short, swift motion.

'Wait. J'onn? That's your name, right?'

'What? Yes. J'onn J'onnz, to be exact. Why?'

'Dinah called you J'onn earlier. But I always thought of you as Martian Manhunter instead. Why am I suddenly thinking of you as J'onn?'

She was quite conscious of the names she gave people in her mind. For instance, she always thought of Richard Greyson as Robin, even after learning his true name. The boy was an inquisitive, enthusiastic adventurer to the core, who only donned the role of the unmasked rich school boy Dick out of necessity. Batman, however, was always Master Wayne to her – she could not think of him as someone dressing up as a flying mammal with pointy ears and still take his orders with a straight face.

J'onn blinked his large red eyes, perplexed.

'Well, this is a representation of my mind inside of yours, and I think of myself as J'onn… I'm not sure, actually.'

'Sorry, I suppose it does not matter. Did you just catch that memory?'

He was holding something that looked like yet another looking glass, a mirror image of a moving scene.

'I did. It would have petrified you again, if it had fully reached your consciousness.'

'Could you just break it?', she asked.

He nodded gravely.

'Yes. It lies within my capability to destroy memories completely. It would take some time, but I could grind this mirror into dust so fine that it could never be recovered. That is classified information, by the way.'

'Do you have to do that often? To protect someone's secret identity?'

His expression darkened further.

'No', he replied.

She remained silent, waiting to see whether he would continue.

'Memories are always connected', J'onn elaborated. 'They are all interwoven. You can remember thinking about something you remembered. A person's mind is a delicate construct, and largely formed by past experiences.'

Another image appeared in the window. Alfred Pennyworth standing in the manor's kitchen. 'Baking is a delicate art', he said.

'You spent the past hour or so transforming back and forth due to this memory.' J'onn pointed at the scene he was still holding. 'If I wanted to free you of this, I would have to remove all of that time from your mind.'

'So if someone found out one of the League members' civilian identities, but did not confront them directly, there might be days or weeks or months of interwoven memories connected to the fact. You would have to remove all of them together?'

He nodded. 'And within that time, that person might have met his friends or family. It would take hours for me to extract the memory of one such meeting from all the other thoughts and memories about said friends or family members that might make up a core pillar of a person's personality. If I did not separate them thoroughly, I might shatter the whole construct, basically tearing a hole into the person's mind.

I oppose of even reading someone's mind without their explicit permission. Manipulating it in this way, potentially damaging it permanently, is nothing I would ever do lightly.'

Mary looked at J'onn's mental form for a long moment. She wondered what would happen if she tried placing a hand on his shoulder. Would her hand pass through?

'What other options are there? For my own memory problem, I mean.'

'You can use the doors', he replied.

She glanced at the familiar doors that had manifested in between the book shelves. An unassuming white wooden door had appeared next to the Manor's impressive portals. This one had once led to her little maid's quarter at her London home. Back when she had been looking for a job in the city, this door had opened for her.

'This one is not made to lock something away.'

J'onn nodded.

She looked further down the shelved hallway. A trapdoor had appeared right in front of her reading chair. Her grandparents' house had had such a trapdoor, leading down into a damp, spooky storage room. She could trap the memory down there, leave it lurking in the dark forever.

A new scene appeared at the window.

'...the ultimate self defence mechanism...', Robin reminded her.

'He might be right', J'onn mused. 'If you make the scene completely inaccessible, you cannot use it to protect yourself in times of danger.'

Mary suddenly knew just what kind of door she needed.

She turned around. There it was, at the end of the corridor. A sturdy portal, made of rusty steel.

'This one leads to one of the air raid shelters', she explained. 'They have always kept me safe.'

'This will do nicely', J'onn agreed.

"J'onn taught me how to access the metal door without his telepathic help. I can now initiate the petrification at will, without voicing the trigger word", Mary finished her report.

Bruce Wayne acknowledged her recount with a short nod. They were alone in his study, back at the Manor. Alfred was busy with dinner preparations, Robin was at Star City for a training session with one of the other hero's sidekicks, an archer named Speedy.

"Did Zatara mention that your fertility would be restored if you were ever freed of the curse?", her employer asked.

"That point is mute, sir", she responded. "Isn't it?"

His face was expressionless.

It still hurt to think about it. She had always expected, always known she would be a mother one day.

"It is called the Gorgon's Staff", Bruce Wayne finally said.

"The artefact Doctor Fate used to curse me? Zatara said it was destroyed."

Her employer shook his head. "That is widely believed, but false. It was merely disabled. No new spells can be cast with it any more – but from what I learned in the past weeks, there is a high chance that it could still be used to free you."

Hope was flaring up inside her. She stared at him wordlessly.

"It is, however, inaccessible to us."

Of course there had to be a catch.

"The Gorgon's Staff, as well as several other ancient magical artefacts, are currently in the possession of Lex Luthor, an old adversary of the Justice League. Their exact location is unknown to us. None of the items are for sale, and Luthor has declined any proposed research collaborations that would allow us to access them. We have no choice but to wait until he reveals what he plans to do with them. I will let you know once this happens."

"Thank you, sir", Mary stuttered.

"Don't tell Robin", he ordered.

"Yes, sir."

"Richard?"

"What's up, Mary?"

"Would you tell me more about the people the Justice League fights? Their adversaries?"

"Oh, wow, that's a tall order. Might take a week just to list all of them in Gotham."

"Well, I have time..."

Author's note:

These first months passed quickly, I hope you enjoyed the collage and introductions! We've got two more Gotham-centered chapters ahead of us before Mary is introduced to the next young hero, and we're finally catching up with the beginning of Young Justice right afterwards... Time stamps (well, date stamps) will resume once we've reached the fourth of July.

Please review: How do you like the set up so far? Any ideas / scenes / lines you were particularly fond of?

(By the way, the 'overwhelmed by a shopping mall' idea two chapters ago was blatantly stolen from Shawn Lenore's wonderful webcomic "How to be a werewolf". It's a rare gem, check it out!)