Batman stood straight out of his fighting stance and dropped the batarang that was in his hand. Robin begrudgingly did the same. Zatanna knew better than Klarion. She knew this was just an act. With as much force as she could, she rammed her head backwards into his face, breaking Dick's nose. He let go in shock and Zatanna stumbled forward, batarangs flying either side of her. Klarion deflected the attack, sending the weapons flying back across the room. Robin caught Zatanna just as she cried out in pain. Batman leapt at Klarion, battling through his magical attacks as Robin carried Zatanna into the kitchen. He ripped her gag off, cut the rope from her wrists and lifted her top up to where she was bleeding, quickly assessing her wound. One of the batarangs had caught her left side as she tried to get away. Blood was starting to pump out heavily, Zatanna gritting her teeth against the pain.
"Hold on Tanny, don't worry," Tim pressed a towel against the wound, pushing as much pressure on it as he dared. Zatanna felt her legs go weak and Tim helped her stay upright, pulling the towel back to look again. His eyes shot wide as he watched the wound heal. The blood clotted rapidly, the internal tissue healing itself, and finally her cut skin re-joined itself. If it wasn't for the blood stains on her clothes and skin, you would think she had never been hurt.
"That… That wasn't me," Zatanna whispered, a protective hand over her bump. "It was them."
"Magic babies. Awesome!" Tim turned quickly at a loud crash from the living room, "Stay here, when you hear me yell, run for the front door and get out of here!" He sprang out of the room, as Zatanna slid down the wall, covering her bump protectively. It sounded like her living room was pretty much trashed right now.
Batman wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. With Dick's physical strength and agility with Klarion's magic in such a confined fighting space, he was struggling. Klarion had managed to prevent him from drawing the fight outside.
"Do you see what you've done? I was happily living here, causing no trouble!" Klarion yelled, "Yet you BATS just had to interfere again didn't you?" He hit Robin in the chest with a fireball as he sprang into the room, launching him backwards into the wall. Batman threw smoke pellets around the room, cloaking his movement.
"It's not your life to live!" Batman yelled from somewhere in the smoke. He launched himself towards Klarion, only to be caught by the strength of Dick's body, tackling him to the ground, magic sweeping the smoke out of the room. Klarion punched him in the face repeatedly until a loud smash distracted him. He looked up, giving Batman the chance to fling him backwards and spring to his feet.
Zatanna was standing in front of Robin, a broken glass jar at her feet and a necklace in her hands. She held it forward and smirked.
"Klarion," Klarion's eyes widened, he knew what she was going to do. "Bleak." He roared in anger as his soul got ripped from Dick's body, which crashed to the ground, Klarion's true body materialising beside it. Zatanna moved before Batman could, snatching a batarang that had hit a sofa and flinging Klarion against a wall, sharp edge of the batarang to his throat.
"GIVE ME BACK MY HUSBAND!" She pushed the blade against his neck, drawing a little blood. Batman stood behind her, posed and ready to attack. Klarion stared at her, tears in his eyes.
"He doesn't deserve you," The words came out little more than a hiss, the anger in her eyes flaring. "He has never deserved you Zatanna!"
"No Klarion, YOU don't deserve me!" Her free hand shot to his head, "Now give him back or I swear you won't even know what your own name is by the time I'm finished here!"
"Yeah right," He laughed, the cruel glint in his eyes returned, "Like you'd do anything to hurt your precious babies." Zatanna removed her hand from his head, fished the necklace from her pocket and forced it into his mouth, covering it with her hand.
"Shut up! Just shut up and take your stupid necklace! Without Dick, I don't care what happens to me or the babies!" She spoke through gritted teeth, "I will fry your brain Klarion Bleak, I mean it!" He stared into her eyes. He couldn't deny that seeing her this angry and dominant turned him on. He raised his hands cautiously, and snapped his fingers.
Dick shot upright, inhaling deeply, and stumbled to his feet. His body ached from the fight with Batman.
"Zee, don't," his voice was hoarse from yelling from his mirror prison. He walked over and pulled her back from Klarion. "He doesn't deserve to forget either. He should remember what you're willing to do to him." He glared at Klarion, who smirked and spat the necklace out of his mouth into his hand.
"Dickie-bird, how considerate of you," Klarion was about to laugh, but Bruce's fist impacted his face, and then the wall, as Klarion phased through it. "Chaos looks good on you Zatanna," His voice echoed around the room before he disappeared through a portal on the other side of the wall.
"Pack up, you're both coming home," Bruce walked over and helped Tim to his feet. Dick took hold of Zatanna's wrist lightly, prying the batarang from her hand. She was standing still with her fists clenched, her head bowed with angry tears rolling down her face.
"Zee..c'mon let's get some stuff together, we should get out of here," He jumped back as she turned and stormed past him to the bedroom. She was flinging clothes onto the bed when he walked in so he pulled out a bag and carefully folded the clothes before he put them in. He could see the marks on her shoulder and neck, and the blood stained patch on her clothes.
"I saw, I could see everything Zee," He spoke gently, she was not in a good place right now. "You didn't know it was him in there..."
"I SHOULD HAVE!" She screamed, flinging a pair of trainers at him, "I should have known it wasn't you. I should have known straight away..."
"Guy's, can this wait until later? We need to go," Tim was hanging against the doorway, clutching his chest. The fireball had burned him badly.
"Alfred is in a car out front. Leave now, who knows if or when Klarion will come back." Bruce grabbed Tim, ushering him out the balcony door and into the batwing. Dick shoved the last of the clothes into a bag, grabbing one of his prepared packs with his Nightwing gear. He took Zatanna's hand and dragged her out the door, she was still distraught but they had to leave.
"That is quite astounding Miss Zatanna," Alfred mused as he checked the area she had been wounded. "You are certain you didn't heal yourself?" He held a stethoscope to her bump, searching for the babies' heart beats.
"I felt them Alfred," She saw a smile spread across his face.
"All is well," He stood up, and turned back to look at Bruce, Tim and Dick and sighed, "For some anyway.."
They were all holding ice packs against their faces, with various bruises already showing. Each of them were covered with many bandages and band-aids. It seemed like Zatanna was the only one to make it out of the apartment in one piece.
"I'm..," She started, all heads in the room turning towards her, "I should have just... if I hadn't helped him a month ago, none of this would have happened." Dick walked over to his wife and sat beside her, putting an arm around her.
"I hate to say it, but if you hadn't helped him, we may never have found out the truth," He kissed her on the forehead. "Also, I can't believe you broke my nose..." he pouted, adjusting the ice pack slightly. She looked at Bruce and Tim, both also holding ice packs to their noses.
"Am I the only one who didn't break my nose?" The three of them glanced at each other and couldn't help but laugh. Zatanna rolled her eyes and chuckled, Dick's arm giving her a little reassuring squeeze. Three broken noses could only be a laughing matter in this family.
Sometime in the early hours of the morning, after everyone was stitched up and had eaten, Alfred informed them that Dick's old bedroom had been prepared for them. Once in the bedroom, Dick couldn't help but move Zatanna's hair from her neck and stare at the bite marks and numerous purple and red bruises on her neck. He had spent 3 days watching Klarion use his body to be with Zatanna.
"Can't the babies heal those too?" She pushed his hand away, pulling her hair over her neck.
"I guess not. Maybe they didn't think they had to heal them, because you weren't…aren't a threat to them..." She lay down on the bed and Dick lay down next to her. A part of him was scared to roll over and hold her. She had stopped him from kissing her twice today.
"He really did a number on your head this time didn't he..." Dick sighed, and almost instantly regretted saying the words. He waited for the backlash, but only saw her move her hand to her neck again. He had seen a few small yellow fingertip shaped bruises on her back when Alfred was examining her healed cut. He got out of the bed, walked around beside her and sat her up. She was wearing a baggy t-shirt and sweatpants. She never wore sweatpants to bed.
"Stand up Zee. I need to…see," A part of him didn't want to see the damage his own hands had caused his wife. "If I don't know what he's done, I can't help you. Do you understand? I need to know..."
"Tell me something no one else knows about me but you." Her hands had recoiled slightly from his touch. "I… He took your body once Dick… "
Dick crouched down, balancing on his toes and took her hands in his, looking up into her eyes and smiled.
"You're a spellaholic. It took you 3 years to cook a full dinner, without magic, and without burning anything, and that was with Alfred teaching you." Dick grinned at the memory, let go of her hands and tapped her toes with his fingers, "You would go barefoot forever if you could, because you hate not being able to wiggle your toes in shoes." She giggled as she found herself wiggling her toes as he said it.
"You hated wearing dresses, until Alfred bought you some when we were teenagers," Dick's face got more serious and he held one of her hands again, pulling her to her feet.
"White Roses remind you of your dad and make you cry, and whenever you were scared or sad, he used to sing to you." He gently stroked her cheek, knowing the next part would be hard to hear, "And every night, he used to kiss you on your forehead and say 'My little Zanny, I love you most'"
Zatanna wrapped her arms around Dick and sobbed a little. She couldn't help but ask him, she had to be sure. She gently pushed him a step back, lifted her shirt over her head and pulled off her sweatpants.
"Zee..." He stared down at his wife's body in horror. The bite makes and bruises trailed from her neck down to her breasts, some of the bite marks even had small scabs where his teeth had broken her skin. Her thighs, hips and back were covered in small finger like bruises. He stared at the small scratch marks on her lower back and couldn't take any more. He had seen her more beaten up than this in their line of work, but all this damage was done by his own hands, the teeth marks by his teeth. He helped her dress again and sat down on the bed. He couldn't look at her. "And... and you thought it was me who did that to you?"
"No, never," She grabbed his head , turning it so he was looking into her eyes, "It was after this happened that I called Tim.." She gently wiped away the tears which threatened to flow down his cheeks. "I didn't know it was Klarion... but I figured something was wrong. I know you wouldn't hurt me Dick." She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. Zatanna couldn't help but feel that Klarion really was getting what he wanted. Their marriage was really being put to the test.
They lay down and Dick wrapped his arms around her legs, resting his head beside her bump.
"You know kids, I wouldn't mind if you'd heal your mum up now..." Zatanna rested one hand on her bump, running her other hand through his hair.
"Only about 25 weeks and I can heal myself." She smiled when he snuggled in closer to her, kissing the bump again. She had known the first instant the biting had turned rough that it couldn't have been Dick. He would never hurt her like that, he would never be that rough. She frowned, glad that he couldn't see her face. While she knew it wasn't Dick, a part of her had liked it, enjoyed it even. She could feel the taint of chaos left from Klarion's touch in every single bite, knowing the real reason her babies couldn't heal her. When she was a teenager, it had taken nearly every drop of magic she had to heal the damage inflicted by chaos. She was much stronger now, but while she was pregnant she couldn't risk healing herself.
'Chaos looks good on you Zatanna,' what had Klarion meant by that. She twirled Dick's hair around her fingers and sighed. The sun was creeping through the curtains, and Dick's breathing had changed. He was fast asleep holding her. Zatanna closed her eyes, letting the exhaustion sweep over her.