Chapter 38

The Watchtower...

Superman watches on as Dr Light assisted by Dr Hamilton, under the scrutiny of himself and J'onn, work on trying to stabilise Donna's condition. When told of her condition Clark could see genuine care in Dr Hamilton's expression.

Doesn't excuse the fact that he is at least partially responsible for Donna's creation in violation of who knows how many laws. Clark had been counting them up in his head and was quickly into double figures.

Kimiyo emerges from the room.

"How is she?" J'onn inquires.

"We've stabilised her for the moment but to be truthful I have little idea what the substance is doing to her. What is it precisely you injected her with?" Kimiyo asks, looking at both Superman and J'onn for an answer.

"I call it kryptonite," Clark answers.

Kimiyo looks at him with some curiosity. She had read up on his claims to be an alien. His strangely human appearance made her scientifically curious about him. "Which is?" she asks for an explanation about kryptonite.

"A little piece of home," Clark replies.

"I'm going to need more than that," Kimiyo insists upon.

Clark takes a breath before he explains. "My homeworld, Krypton, exploded and I was sent in a ship to Earth. My educated guess is that pieces of the planet were caught in the wake of whatever propulsion system my ship used and were dragged along with me crashing down to earth the same day I did. For some reason I can't explain they are the deadliest poison to me. As for how they were turned into a liquid you would have to speak to Batman. He did that."

Kimiyo groans. "Of course he did." Speaking to Batman. That'll be fun...not. "So you decided to inject this poison into her?" Kimiyo asks, her face sternly unhappy that they, apparently, try to kill people now.

"There was little choice," J'onn says in their defence. "She was far too powerful to be stopped otherwise and we only believed it would weaken her due to the fact Superman's DNA must be only a small fraction of her genetic make-up."

"I assume Batman did some research on this kryptonite," Kimiyo supposes.

"I'll contact him about having his data sent to you," J'onn promises.

Kimiyo snorts. "I won't be holding my breath," she says snidely at Batman's nature not to share anything with anyone about anything.

"Will she live?" Clark asks in regards to Donna.

"Honestly can't say yet. Her whole cell structure seems to be undergoing a transformation in reaction to this kryptonite. We'll have to run some DNA analysis. At least we have the guy who created her here...although between you and me I seriously think he isn't right in the head," Kimiyo gives her analysis of Dr Hamilton as she glances at him stroking Donna's head and whispering to her like she is a child who is sick.

"If there is anyone else you need Kimiyo I'll have them brought here," J'onn offers.

"Thanks but I have everything I need and the expert here. Anyone else is just getting in the way. If I need to consult I can do it over a video link," she politely turns J'onn's offer down before returning to her patient.

"Did we do the right thing?" Clark asks, worrying that perhaps they went too far.

"If we had not done what we did how much more destruction would the battle with her have caused?" J'onn asks back, making the case that the mitigating circumstance forced their hand. "It was not an easy choice but it was the only one we could make at the time Superman."

"Did you apply that logic to lying about the Justice Lords," Clark accuses.

J'onn expression turns pensive...burdened. "It was not an easy choice either. Perhaps not even the correct one. However the truth will be told now."

"Only because you have no choice. If they had never returned you would have carried on lying and what we saw today would only have been a taster of the destruction you would have wrought."

"You are mistaken Superman," J'onn objects to the accusation.

"Am I? Have I missed how your attitude lately has been unnecessarily authoritarian just like the description I got of the Justice Lords? I think not."

"I admit things have been...strained recently within the organisation."

"Strained? How many have quit? A dozen? More? It's falling apart and you don't seem to see it," Clark argues.

J'onn takes some time to contemplate Superman's words while Clark returns his attention to Donna still worrying that he allowed it to go too far and he made a mistake. Heck it's not his only mistake recently. His fight with Dinah proves that and the odd thing is that during all this is when he figured it out what he did wrong. He owes Dinah a big apology.


Tala's Domain...

"Is this really the best you can do?" Lord Zatanna mocks Tala as she easily deflects an attack.

"You should not have interfered!" Tala spits furiously.

"Oh? And why is that pray tell?" Zatanna asks as she attacks Tala with a mystical spell ball that smashes through the purple haired witch's defences sending her careening backwards.

Tala ends up leaning against a wall for support. "I and your double struck a magical bargain."

Lord Zatanna's lips curl up into a sort of strange amused smile. "Really? Newsflash honey, those things aren't written in stone."

"Yes they are!"

"For an immortal you're an idiot!" Lord Zatanna insults her. "You did a deal with Zatanna Zatara and who I am? Oh yes that's right. I'm Zatanna Zatara. Your deal is just as valid with me and it is her. Only difference is I know I can kick your scrawny ass!"

Tala's face screws up in anger and casts her next spell. Chains of fire wrap around Lord Zatanna who merely arches an eyebrow and the chains freeze solid and shatter into pieces. Tala is shocked at how easily her spell was countered by a mere facial gesture. She launches another attack which sort of fizzles uselessly off a shield around Lord Zatanna who, stride by stride, is getting closer and closer.

Tala goes through her whole dark repertoire of spells but all to no avail until Lord Zatanna in within arms reach of her at which point she connects with a solid right to Tala's face.

Tala grasps at her cheek. "Enough!" she declares. "You forget who restored your powers and who can remove them!" Tala then snaps her fingers to undo her spell and remove Lord Zatanna's powers.

In response Zatanna slams a black spell bolt into Tala's chest, scorching the purple haired woman's chest.

"It's not possible!" Tala declares in disbelief as she looks down at her injury.

"Oh you mean your little spell to rob us of our powers," Lord Zatanna says as if she is only just remembering that. "I undid that in about a minute. It was rather easy if you want the truth," she mocks Tala's spell casting abilities.

"You can't have!" Tala protests. "You can't do this. I can't be beaten!"

"Please," Lord Zatanna pours scorn on Tala. "It was inevitable that I would defeat you because you aren't thinking it through. In my world you're dead. Tell me Tala what happens next to your domain?"

"It...someone must take my place."

"Bingo!" Lord Zatanna mock congratulates her.

"You!" Tala screeches in shock.

Lord Zatanna smirks. "How do you think I got here? I know all the back doors. I also know how to cut you off from your domain's power and have it feed me instead. You just never realised I was doing it until I had already won." Which means Tala has only been getting weaker and weaker and Zatanna has been getting stronger and stronger the longer this fight went on.

"You haven't won!" Tala fires back.

"Boy you are the worse loser ever!"

Tala screams in frustration and charges at Lord Zatanna, actually aiming to throw a punch. Zee skilfully blocks the punch and then retaliates with some of her own. Zatanna watches her double drive Tala back with a series of incredibly skilled moves right to the edge of the ledge before she delivers a spinning kick to Tala's stomach sending the immortal sorceress crashing down to the cavern below.

This causes all of Tala's minions to halt their attack on the BoPs, the Justice Lords, Lex and his men.

"Your mistress is beaten!" Lord Zatanna declares as she looks down upon the site below. "Cease your attack or know my wrath!" she threatens them and then to demonstrate her point she points a finger at a demon and essentially vaporises it with a blast of dark magic. "Get my point!" she quips darkly.

The demons and undead hoards back down.

Satisfied Lord Zatanna turns back to her double who is looking at her with...fear. "Oh don't worry about little ol' me. I'm not here to hurt you...unless you ask me to," she says with a sultry grin.

Zatanna's face screws up in disgust at what her double is suggesting. "EW!" she declares.

Lord Zatanna laughs. "Oh come on. Think about it. Who knows you better than yourself?"

"I'm going to stick with EW!"

Lord Zatanna shrugs. "Suit yourself."

"W-where did you learn to fight like that?" Zatanna just has to ask because it was incredibly skill she had only seen in a few others.

"Oh I had a good teacher," Lord Zatanna says with a little smirk. "And as a bonus he is fantastic in the sack!" she praises her teacher's lovemaking skills. "But then again so I am," she just has to boast. "Now then," she says changing subjects. "Time to clean up this little mess."

Lord Zatanna snaps her fingers and she and her double are transported down to the cavern. "Lexy poo!" she greets him in a childish tone. "Time to make a deal!"

"We have a deal!" he reminds her.

"Yeah. I'm changing it and seriously I'm a Mistress of Hell. You don't really expect me to be all that trustworthy do you and keep to deals?" Lord Zatanna snaps her fingers once more and a gaggle of demons leap upon Lex and pin him to the ground. She kneels down. "So here's my offer. You send us home and I don't have my friends here rip you apart. Refuse and then after they're done I'll spend the next 1000years or so torturing your pathetic little soul," Lord Zatanna promises him, her voice taking on that disturbing echoing bass.

"You just said yourself you're not trustworthy," Lex argues back, as he struggles uselessly against the pack of demons pinning him down. Therefore why should he make any deal that he can't be certain she would honour.

"You have no choice Lex. You are simply not in a position to bargain. I'm offering you the only way out that lets you live. Batgirl will work out how the gateway works even if that will take some time. I'd rather not waste that much time but I will if that is the only option you give me," Lord Zatanna lays down her point as she sees it.

"All it needs is to be switched on," Batgirl points out what she discovered earlier.

Lord Zatanna snorts in contempt at that. "He's Lex Luthor. You really think he would make it that easy. It only looks it. You should know better," she chastises Batgirl.

Batgirl frowns under her mask but has to concede that Lord Zatanna may have a point.

"I'm waiting Lex!" Lord Zatanna sings songs.

Lex fumes. He's in an untenable position. He'll make Tala pay for this since she is responsible for bringing them down here in the 1st place. He'll have to be more careful next time he does a deal with anyone magical. "I agree," he very reluctantly accepts Lord Zatanna's terms.

"I knew you would," Lord Zatanna says with a smile to rub it in. She then takes a moment to stride over and stand over Tala who is still alive but obviously badly injured. "I'll let you live only because of what happens if you die. I will not condemn anyone else to my fate," she tells Tala. "While you're recovering may I suggest you rethink your life. Just because you rule in Hell doesn't mean you have to be a complete douche," she offers some advice.

Lord Zatanna then looks around at everyone. "Well now I think I've had my fun. Time to go home right Richard?" she asks the Justice Lord double to agree with her.

"Right," he responds only because the alternative would be to get on her bad side. Trust him you don't want to get on her bad side. His fingers rise up and trace the scar on the left side of his face which is proof you don't get on Zatanna's bad side. After all who do you think gave him this scar.

Lord Zatanna raises her hands above her head and casts the spell that teleports all of them out of this forsaken place.


Luthor Mansion...

What Batman had discovered so far was a practically abandoned mansion. There were a few guards around which he easily disabled but everyone else had seemed to have vanished. It could be considered eerie to some people.

Batman is about to make his way upstairs when he spots someone running down, carrying a bag, obviously in a hurry. He knows this person from a description Barbara gave him. "Roulette," he says in his deep, gruff, intimidating tones.

Roulette freezes, her eyes wide with fright. "Y-you! What are you doing here?"

"Where is everyone?"

"Don't know. Don't care. This is my chance to get out of here so get out of my way!" When they all vanished Roulette saw this as her way out.

Batman deliberately steps in her way.

"Move!" she demands.

Batman's eyes narrow into the infamous Bat-glare.

"You really think I'm scared of you!" she yells defiantly. "I've been Lex Luthor's prisoner for months and now I'm leaving while I can!"

Batman doesn't move an inch.

"Argh!" she rages as she moves to strike him. Batman easily catches the hand in an iron grip. "Let go of me!" she demands.

"No," Batman says simply. "Not until you explain."

"Hell will freeze over first you overgrown rodent!"

"It's not really as hot as you think it is," a voice echoes into the space and in a flash of light the 2 Zatannas, the BoPs, the Justice Lords, Lex and company reappear at the bottom of the steps.

"Batsy!" Lord Zatanna greets him cheerfully. "I knew you'd miss me!" she proclaims with a cheeky wink.

Batman's eyes narrow further as he takes in this scene.

"Now don't you go frettin' none I've sorted everything out!" Lord Zatanna informs him with a happy go lucky grin on her face.

Batman has a very bad feeling about what she means by that.


It is a short time later Lex has deactivated all his security measures and gets the gateway device up and running and that was as far as anyone allowed him to touch the device. Batgirl takes over after that despite the argument she and Batman had had over the deal she made about returning the Justice Lords to their world.

Batgirl had had an inspiration about where to send the Justice Lords to. An uninhabited island that could support them. It's almost as good as prison. It takes her awhile to get the device to open the doorway to where she wants.

"This is not what we agreed," Richard complains, having taken up the mantle of leader.

"Actually it is precisely what we agreed. Now take it or leave it," Batgirl challenges him, going as far as to staring him eye to eye and it shocks her how little of her boyfriend she sees in his counterpart's eyes.

"Oh it's not so bad. Remember uber-powerful sorceress here!" Lord Zatanna points out as in she can teleport them anywhere once they return.

That would be one reason why Batman wasn't happy about this arrangement Barbara had made but she had been pretty blunt in telling him to butt out of it. He figured out that meant she had a plan. He still wasn't happy because he didn't know what it was and therefore whether he would approve of it or not. If not Barbara can expect him and her to have a long talk.

Richard looks at Zatanna and relents once more in the face of risking her wrath. "Ok fine. Everyone! We're going home!"

One by one the Justice Lords leap into the portal. Richard is the 3rd last leaving only Dinah and Zatanna still in the other world. He leaps through and emerges on the other side to face dozens of heavily armed guards pointing guns. It's Alcatraz. It's their prison! Barbara tricked him! His lips curl up in an angry snarl. That bitch!

Back on the other side of the portal Zatanna and Dinah share a look. "Neat trick," Zatanna comments before she waves her hand and the illusion of the island paradise fades to show the real image which shows the Justice Lords being marched back to their prison cells.

"You knew," Huntress assumes.

Dinah snorts. "Please. As if I don't know how Batgirl thinks. Let me guess Gypsy right?" she asks after who did it.

Batgirl nods. Gypsy's power of illusion had grown quite significantly as of late. Enough to pull off this deception. While it may have seemed she was 'searching' for a place to dump the Justice Lords she was in fact sending a communication through the portal so the people on the other side were ready and was really only buying time for them to be so.

"Besides I'm not leaving until I finish my business with my oh so attractive double," Dinah states quite clearly.

"And neither am I quite done here," Lord Zatanna says. "I will not return without their bodies."

"Whose bodies?" Dinah asks.

"Oh they're all dead," Lord Zatanna tells her.

Dinah is shocked. "All of them? Diana? J'onn? Hal? Flash? Aquaman?"

Lord Zatanna nods affirmative to each and every one.

"And you stood by and let it happen," Batman points out.

Lord Zatanna shrugs. "I do not care. What I do care is that their souls...most of their souls," she corrects herself, "belong to me. They will not pass beyond the veil until their bodies return home. I have made sure of it."

Dinah looks at the person she thought she knew and doesn't see her friend any more. "Who are you?"

"I am who Diana made me when she killed Tala," Lord Zatanna replies looking into Dinah's eyes and looking into her very soul. "You really don't have very long left do you. I'll be seeing you soon as well," she promises.

"You expect us to just let you go?" Nightwing queries. Obviously they can't pull off this trick again if Dinah and Zatanna saw through it the first time so that means literally letting them go free.

"There must be balance and order even in Hell. Without me there will be chaos that will leech into other realities...including this one. Unlike Tala I take my duties seriously. Besides is being condemned to rule over a purgatory forever not punishment enough?" Lord Zatanna asks back with this deeply haunted sunken expression in her eyes.

Nightwing has to admit he never thought of it like that and a stab of sympathy hits him for her.

"We'll discuss it later," Batgirl decides seeing that this is not the place nor time to have this debate all over again. They'll figure something out and in the meantime she and the BoPs can keep an eye on the doubles of Dinah and Zatanna.

"Oh this is all so very touching," Lex says with a sneering insincerity. "But I've lived up to what I agreed. Now leave my property," he commands. Lex can be a patient man but as far as he is concerned this 'alliance' is over and he wants his 'guests' gone.

Lord Zatanna looks him over. "You know I can see your sins Lex. Your soul is stained with the blood of the innocents you have crushed on your way to where you are now."

"I have only done what must be done to make a better world," Lex retaliates with.

"Your double thinks the same no matter how much torture I inflict upon him," Lord Zatanna says with a malicious grin. "You will be going where he is Alexander Luthor but fear not for your father is awaiting there to keep you company."

Lex's expression hardens at the mention of his father as he glares back at her. Lord Zatanna just smiles at him.

"This is over," Batgirl declares taking charge. "But rest assured Lex we won't rest until we pin something on you."

"It won't be this though. Trust me when I say you can't link me to anything," Lex says with utmost confidence.

"Zatanna...both Zatannas can you teleport the gateway device out of here," Batgirl directs them.

"Of course BG. All you had to do was ask," Lord Zatanna says in a flippant tone.

"BG?" Batgirl mutters unimpressed.

The two Zatannas have a magical telepathic confab and agree on how to do it relatively quickly. They together soon have the device whisked away in a stream of multicoloured lights.

"Now. Get out!" Lex orders, his patience at an end. He has a lot to do to clear up this mess and make sure he comes out smelling like roses as always.

"We'll be back Luthor," Batman promises him as he marches past as in one day they'll be back to arrest Lex.

"And we're keeping Roulette," Batgirl adds as she marches past the bald man as well. Roulette was...tied up some place safe at the moment.

"I have no more use for her," Lex washes his hands of her and it is basically true. It isn't like with her reputation she can testify against him. His lawyers would have her discredited in seconds.

"And we're taking the power disrupter," Misfit adds, holding the device up in her hand. She had found it while snooping around as Lex was distracted. She grins cheekily which makes Barbara smile. God she really loves that girl like a daughter.

Lex's face darkens.

"Do you really want to fight over that?" Huntress asks him, warningly because in her view he wasn't in a position to fight. Besides there was no way on Earth they were going to allow him to keep it.

"Leave!" Lex orders, reluctantly conceding that he isn't in a position to fight back right now.

The rest of the BoPs march past Lex, giving him dirty looks. Misfit blows a raspberry at him as she departs. Lex stands alone in the now mostly empty room. This had been a bad day but it was not beyond salvaging. He had learned that the Justice League had taken Cadmus' weapon down so that is one less issue for him. Cadmus is weakened as he wanted. The League's reputation will soon be in ruins, as he wanted, and he still has his Injustice League mostly intact. He also learned quite a bit about the identities of the League which will be of immense help in the future.

By his reckoning, in the balance, he was still ahead. If Lex is one thing it is that he is a survivor. He'll survive this and be stronger. His New Order will still come to pass. It is only a matter of time.

Lex turns to salvage what he can from this for his own benefit only to find Lord Zatanna standing right there, her eyes cold and dark. Her whole demeanour is dark and she looks like the Mistress of Hell she is when usually she wears a mask to hide it.

"One more thing Lex, darling," she says coldly before her hand grips the top of his bald head. Black magic crackles across and through Lex's head and he cries out in pain for several moments until Zatanna stops.

Lex falls to the ground twitching, nerves misfiring, muscles going into spasm. Zatanna bends down at her knees, a cold smile of satisfaction upon her lips.

"W-what-what h-have you done?" Lex stutters out.

"Not as much as I could have," Zatanna tells him as she draws a finger across his cheek. "But you will find any memory of what has happened since just before you came and freed us will soon no longer exist in that twisted little head of yours."

"You bitch!" Lex snarls.

Zatanna's lips curl up into a delighted smile of cruelty. She takes her nails and digs them right into Lex's groin, almost turning him into an eunuch. "I'm a Mistress of Hell Lex deary. Being a bitch is the number one requirement for the job."

She brings her face close to his. "I would tell you not to forget what I say next but that's pretty redundant at this point. You are damned Alexander Luthor and the joy I will get is to know that no matter how hard you scheme and plot in the end you will always lose because that's what Lex Luthor in any world is. A loser. A pathetic, narcissistic, loser with daddy issues," she says being as cruel and nasty sounding as she can be.

Zatanna releases her grip and stands up. She then takes her right heel and digs it in to where her hand was and twists her foot a few times making Lex cry out and bringing tears to his eyes. Her fun now had she turns and leaves as her spell starts to take effect. In an hour Lex won't remember a thing before he came to her world. It's too good for him really but there are rules and Zatanna has to obey them.

At least she has proven that despite what she is now there is still a sliver of goodness inside her as she did this to protect the identities of the Justice League. In some way she likes to believe, even if it only in denial of the truth, that deep down, somewhere inside her, she is still the hero she use to be.


Author's Note: Lex's memory had to go. Otherwise he has seen what the Justice League look like and that is basically game over for them. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Decisions have to start being made about what to do with Donna and the time has come to say bye bye to the last 2 Justice Lords.