Chapter 2.

This chapter is very Klarion heavy :P Klarion lovers, enjoy!

The banging on the door made Zatanna practically jump off the sofa. She moved the blanket off her, baffled as to how it got there. She narrowed her eyes. The only person who could sneak around without disturbing her was Dick. He must have broken through her enchantments and got into the apartment. She walked over to the front door, her enchantments were still in place, so he didn't come through here.

"Who is it?" She called out. The banging stopped.

"Tanny? Oh thank god, open up it's me, Artemis!" Zatanna sat with her back against the door and sighed. Her friend's urgency was clearly a sign that people had started to hear about Dick cheating on her. Even though she loved Artemis, Zatanna didn't want to see her. She didn't want to see anyone. All her friends were Dick's friends too, and would just remind her of him.

"I'm sorry Arty... I can't. Not yet." She wrapped her arms around her legs, pulling them to her chest and resting her chin on her kneecaps. She could hear her best friend sitting on the other side of the door. Her voice was quieter and less frantic.

"Tanny, I know you're hurting, but please, I'm worried about you," Artemis sat cross legged, her head tilted back, resting on the door. "Do you need anything? I could beat Barbara senseless if you want?" She smiled a little, knowing Zatanna would never let her beat anyone up for her own sake. "Or Dick... I'd happily give him a black eye... or two." Zatanna's little chuckle fought against her sobs.

"No...no hurting people..," She stood up and opened the door, her blond friend toppled back, looked up at Zatanna from the ground and smiled. She had a case with her, one that Zatanna knew well. "You brought your bow and arrows?" Artemis stood up, picked up the case and walked into the apartment.

"I'd hoped that just this once you might let me actually hurt someone." She dropped the case as Zatanna locked the door again, recasting her enchantments to stop anyone coming in. Artemis hugged Zatanna the minute she turned around, wrapping her arms around her tightly. They sank to their knees together, Artemis holding Zatanna tightly, smoothing her hair down and making soothing noises as the magician sobbed uncontrollably into her shoulder.

Klarion closed his portal and gritted his teeth. The blond archer had shown up and was in the apartment. He yelled in anger, causing Teekl to jump. It was only a small hitch in his plans. He could easily cast a spell on Zatanna and get her to make the girl leave, but he swore to himself that he wouldn't try and control her any more. A smile played across his lips. He may not try to control Zatanna anymore, but that didn't mean he wouldn't control those around her. It was easy to sneak up on Nightwing and Batgirl, the two had been badly injured, their awareness of their surroundings very low. It was child's play casting spells on non-magic users. They couldn't even sense him coming.

Blocking the league's communications and two magical locator spells had been a little more difficult. The satellites proved trickier to block than he first thought. He had left the book on astral projection open on the etheric travel page two nights ago in Zatanna's apartment while she was out. Everything had worked just as he planned it, until now.

Artemis left late that night. She helped Zatanna clean up the apartment, cooked a big meal to make sure Zatanna ate, and put some in a container in her fridge for her to eat the next day.

"I'll be back tomorrow with some more food." She hugged her best friend tightly. Zatanna was feeling tired, admitting that she may have over used her magic the last few days trying to distract herself. She hadn't been able to eat much, saying she felt ill due to everything that had been happening. She spent a few hours watching old films, drifting in and out of sleep on the sofa. She couldn't bring herself to go to sleep in their bed.

She had just started drifting to sleep again when she sensed it behind her. She jumped up suddenly, posed, ready to attack, just as Klarion fell through a portal. His clothes were ripped, blood seeping from many wounds on his body. Teekl was in his arms, the familiar was also in a bad way. Zatanna hesitated as Klarion looked up at her, he stumbled and coughed, blood spraying from his mouth.

"Please. Zatanna... help me," He collapsed on the floor, face first, his breathing looking laboured. Zatanna couldn't help but run to him, rolling him onto his back, placing his head on her lap. She hadn't seen Klarion since the night he tried to force her to kill Dick, ten years ago. The Lord of Chaos even abandoned battles when the magician showed herself. Despite the hatred she felt towards him, there was still a part of Zatanna that cared about Klarion. He did love her, in his weird twisted way. She checked his wounds, they were rather severe.

"Klarion... I can't heal this much on my own..." She whispered softly, knowing he couldn't hear. He was unconscious. An idea popped into her head as she looked at Teekl. She focused her energy, closed her eyes and placed one hand on Klarion, the other on Teekl.

"laeH eht tsrow fo eht sdnuow," She could feel her body sway from exhaustion but focused on her magic. It was a little more difficult healing Klarion's wounds. He wasn't exactly human after all. Everything started spinning and Zatanna fainted, falling down on Klarion.

A stray beam of light fell across Zatanna's face causing her to groan and turn her head against the light.

"Ow... Zatanna, that kind of hurts..." Klarion mumbled. Zatanna shot up, remembering she had been trying to heal Klarion last night. She looked around the room, Teekl was playing with the curtains. Klarion was still lying on the ground looking beat up. The worst of his wounds were healed, his minor ones healing.

"Thank you, you probably saved my life last night...ow!" Zatanna pushed him as she backed away. "Look I know I don't deserve your help, but I didn't know who else to turn to," He winced as he sat up, ruffling his hair.

He had changed a lot in the last ten years. Even though he was technically ageless he looked older than before. He was taller, not as skinny as before, a bit more filled out, but still had that 'lanky' look about him. His hair was long, falling in a mess down to his chin. He had ditched the tailored suit look, sporting more casual clothes, or at least they were before whatever attacked him destroyed them.

He stood up and stumbled, "in my home, the dimension I'm from, there is all out war... I should be able to heal myself in a few hours, then I'll leave you be." Zatanna didn't know why, but when he stumbled again, she jumped up, putting a supportive arm around him and helped him to her sofa.

"I'll get you some new clothes..." She ran into the bedroom, pulling out a random pair of jeans and a t-shirt from Dick's side of the wardrobe. She stared at them for a moment before walking out, handing them to Klarion. "You might have to shrink them to fit. If you don't have enough magic, I can do it for you... I'm going to shower..." She looked at Teekl who was still playing with the curtains. "And make the cat stop that... I don't need people looking in and seeing you here."

When Klarion heard the shower running he changed into the new clothes. She was right that he needed to shrink them. He moved and sat on the other sofa and grinned at Teekl who ran and jumped onto his lap. It wasn't part of his plan to appear to her like this and lie, but it worked. She still had a soft spot for him, even though it was from fabricated memories. He stroked Teekl, apologising for hurting the familiar. It was at times like this, when speaking out loud wasn't safe, that he was glad of the psychic link he shared with Teekl.

'I know it hurts, I didn't exactly go easy on myself either... Did some serious damage.' He stretched out his limbs. He attacked himself so severely that he barely managed to open the portal before passing out. He closed his eyes and relaxed. He heard the shower stop so pretended he was asleep again. He used the psychic link with Teekl to start seeing through his familiar's eyes, sending instructions to him.

Zatanna glanced briefly at Klarion. He had moved over onto Dick's sofa and was asleep. It bothered her that from her view, it looked like Dick was home. She walked into her room, and dried herself off. She decided it was best to save as much energy as she could with a lord of chaos sleeping in her living room and get dressed the 'normal' way. She didn't notice Teekl slink into the room and stare at her. She was in her underwear staring into her wardrobe. A smile spread across Klarion's lips as he watched her through Teekl's eyes. She picked a long sleeve black knit dress and slipped it on. Something seemed to catch her attention as she sat on the edge of her bed. It was her wedding ring. Klarion's smile faded when he saw the tears forming in her eyes. Yet again it was his fault she was crying.

Dick, Wally and Conner were only slightly surprised to see Batman when they landed. He had the same suspicion as them and was doing his own investigation. Dick was still unable to look him in the eye. After searching the area and turning up nothing, Dick was beginning to regret being hopeful that something else might explain his actions. Batman signalled them to fall in.

"Radio and satellite are functioning fine. Doctor Fate's location spell was also successful." He looked at Dick, "he is also analysing the recordings of the time of the incident. If anything is evident, it's that something was preventing us from finding you, as to your actions though..."

"I know... Even if we can prove something was happening here, there is no way to say if it was the cause of..yeah.." Dick sighed, turning his wedding ring around his finger again. He looked over to Wally, "Any news from Artemis?"

Their communicators suddenly buzzed. Batman activated a loudspeaker for Wally's sake, who no longer had a league communicator.

"The signs were faint, I believe in our desperation to find Nightwing and Batgirl, that myself and Zatanna overlooked the trace of mystic interference with our systems." Wally couldn't contain himself, bro-fisting Dick at this information. They had been right after all!

"Doctor Fate, would there be any way of telling if that mystic interference would of um..." Dick tried to think of a way to ask if it could be the cause of him and Barbara sleeping together, but remembered Zatanna's father was still in there, and he would probably turn him into a slug for hurting his daughter.

"I think what Nightwing wants to know is if there is a way of telling if he and Batgirl were affected by whatever magic was being used there..." Dick literally wanted to hug Conner.

"It may be possible, it would require returning to the time frame within their minds. However, the same interference is happening at one other location right now. Nightwing, it's at your home."

Zatanna looked down as Teekl purred, rubbing against her leg. She picked the cat up and stared at it.

"Sometimes I think Klarion is lucky to have such a loyal little companion," She wiped a tear from her eye and carried Teekl out to the living room, scratching the cat behind the ear. She sat on her sofa and looked at Klarion. He opened his eyes and smiled at her.

"Teekl likes you," He pulled himself off the sofa, and walked over to sit beside her. "It's none of my business Zatanna... but it's obvious something is wrong." She recoiled a little from his light touch on her arm, her memories of the pain he inflicted on her still fresh in her mind.

"You're right... it is none of your business. What made you think I wouldn't just kill you if you showed up here?" She hugged Teekl closer, the familiar meowing in delight as Zatanna petted it. Klarion's smile dropped.

"Zatanna, I owe you a lot of explanations, I know that," He looked away from her, wringing his hands, trying to find the best way to word his feelings. "I'm a lord of chaos. I live off chaos. All I ever knew in my life was chaos. And then there was you. That night you summoned me. I saw something in your eyes that made me stop myself from hurting you." He turned his head slightly, glancing at her. "I started to fall in love with you and it scared me." Zatanna couldn't even respond. She just stared at him as he poured his soul out to her. In the last ten years he had matured, his childish streak seemed to be gone.

"I didn't know how to act, I'd never felt love before. I was selfish and greedy. I wanted you all to myself, just expecting you to love me back without earning your love. After you banished me..." He sighed and shook his head, "I watched you for a while... I saw how you and...him. I saw what love was really like. I hated myself for what I did to you. Not only did I beat you but I tried to control you," He turned, gently taking her hand. Teekl jumped out of her arms and ran into another room. Zatanna stared into his eyes. He was sincere. Everything he was saying was true.

"I swore to myself that I would never do that to you again. Whenever you were sent against me, I was afraid to even look at you... I knew you hated me and I didn't want to hurt you, so I ran from the fight." His voice caught in his throat. This was the most he had ever spoken about his own feelings to anyone except Teekl. "My whole life... I've only known Chaos..." He tightened his hold on her hand and she didn't stop him, "Chaos... and you."

He went to stand, loosening his hold on her hand, but to his surprise she pulled him back onto the sofa and hugged him. He cautiously put an arm around her. He could feel her trembling and knew she was crying again.

'I hate doing this to her again...'

"I am sorry, I really am..." He whispered gently to Zatanna, "I know I can't make you love me but I can be here for you. I love you."