Chapter 40
Thermyscria, the other Earth...
A tall beautiful woman with long raven hair dressed in simple robes, wearing a crown in her hair is sitting at a table eating a late meal. With her is a younger woman, again with raven hair, who bears a resemblance to the older.
"Mother?" the younger woman queries.
"Yes Donna," the older woman replies.
"Did you think on what we talked about? About rescinding your order of our isolation from the world?"
Queen Hippolyta stops and looks at her youngest daughter. After Diana's...betrayal of principles, she refers to it as, Hippolyta had not only disowned her daughter, even if that broke her heart, she decided Thermyscria would have nothing to do with Diana's lunacy and decent into tyranny. She couldn't force her daughter home or to stop, Diana was too powerful for that, so she did what she could to protect her kingdom.
The last time she saw Diana was when her daughter had been imprisoned and she had gone to collect Diana's sacred armour, bracelets and lasso. Hippolyta had not spoken to Diana. They had already spoken every harsh word to each other they both knew. There was nothing more to say.
At least Hippolyta can take some small comfort she protected Donna from being corrupted by Diana's dark path. If she had lost both of them it would have been unbearable.
"I thought about it," Hippolyta confirms to her daughter. Donna had obviously worked hard on her arguments for it so the least Hippolyta could do was think carefully upon it.
"And?" Donna asks expectantly.
"Your arguments were well thought out and passionately spoken," Hippolyta says, almost surprised that they had been. Donna was never the most academic inclined person.
Donna rolls her eyes. "No wonder your speeches are so dull and pedantic," she complains at this long winded intro.
"Donna!" Hippolyta chides her daughter.
"I'm just offering an opinion," Donna says with a shrug.
"Honestly I thought all these years back home would have rid you of these bad habits you picked up in Man's World."
"You would have thought but no," Donna says with an infuriating little cheeky grin.
"And my speeches are most certainly not dull."
"Would you prefer I lie?"
Oh. Clever. Donna is expecting her to say no Hippolyta knows. "I would expect you to wish to know the answer to your proposal but if you desire so to discuss how I present my speeches then I can postpone my decision," Hippolyta says.
"No!...I mean perhaps another time," Donna modifies herself quickly.
"Very well. Then as I was saying I thought long and hard on your..."
"My Queen!" a guard bursts into her chambers, coming up to the table and bowing, obviously in a state. "Forgive the intrusion."
Hippolyta can see this must be urgent. "What is it?"
"Some kind of portal has opened in the courtyard!" the guard says pointing in that direction.
Hippolyta is instantly to her feet as is Donna. "Come Donna," she says urgently and both she and her daughter swiftly make haste to the courtyard. By the time they are there the portal is surrounded by many guards, their weapons drawn and ready.
Hippolyta's brow drops. What could this be?
The portal fluctuates and a blond woman in fishnets steps through.
"Dinah?" Donna queries puzzled. She hadn't seen Dinah in years. In fact wasn't she in prison. The next person to emerge causes gasps and sharp intakes of breaths, including Donna herself. "Superman!" she exclaims.
"How?" Hippolyta asks at seeing her supposedly dead son-in-law.
Donna figures it out. "The other world. Remember. Where Diana was defeated and lost her powers."
Hippolyta does remember.
Both Dinah and Clark look equally surprised to see the person they were fighting right in front of them dressed in a classic white Grecian dress and sandals and not looking like a weapon of mass destruction but like a real person.
"What brings you here?" Hippolyta demands to know with all her regal authority.
Dinah takes hold of an edge of the red sheet that wraps the body in Clark's hands and folds it back to reveal the face.
Donna's hands cover her mouth. "Diana," she gasps as the gravity of it begins to sink in.
Hippolyta's eyes close only briefly. Her Queenly exterior holds firm while inside her heart breaks for the second time in relation to Diana. "Stand down," she orders the guards, her voice one of tight emotional control.
Donna, meanwhile, has walked over and gently touches her sister's face. Her eyes are full of tears which slowly begin to roll down her cheeks. "Oh Diana," she mourns for her sister.
"Did she die in battle?" Hippolyta asks.
"Yes," Dinah answers.
"Captain!" Hippolyta barks at the Captain of her guard, Phillipus.
Phillipus steps forward. "Yes, my Queen."
"Take my daughter's body and prepare it. She will be treated as a fallen Amazon warrior."
"That's it?" Donna questions.
"Donna," Hippolyta warns her daughter off having this debate.
"I don't care. She's your daughter!"
"She is a disgraced member of the royal house who was stripped of all privileges. It is a courtesy I honour her as I am," Hippolyta essentially lectures Donna.
Donna opens her mouth to protests further but her mother cuts her off.
"This is not a debate. This my decree as Queen, Princess Donna," Hippolyta commands as Queen.
Fury flashes inside Donna's blue eyes and she marches right up into her mother's face. "This isn't the end of this!" she promises that they will talk more.
"I have no doubt. Now do as I command," Hippolyta tells Donna. She turns to Phillipus. "Captain. Carry out my orders."
Phillipus bows. "Yes, my Queen." She then snaps her fingers and points at Diana's body. Two guards moves and take the body from Superman. It is then carried away. Donna leaves with it, glaring daggers into her mother as she does so.
"Forgive Donna. She is often overly emotional," Hippolyta apologises for her daughter for a display she feels is unbecoming for the heir to the throne. That kind of emotional display is not to be in public. She is distraught as well but retains her dignified outward appearance.
"That is not necessary," Clark assures her.
"I was not aware Diana had escaped."
"It was Luthor...our Luthor," Dinah explains.
"I see," Hippolyta says, now having an idea what happened. "How did she die?"
"Luthor wanted her and the other Justice Lords to destroy a...living weapon for him that an organisation called Cadmus had created," Dinah carefully chooses her words not planning to reveal what or more precisely who this weapon was.
"The...weapon was extremely powerful," Clark continues the story picking up on Dinah's careful turn of phrase. "It killed your daughter as she fought it."
"She made a deal with Lex Luthor?" Hippolyta questions that. She knew too well her daughter's hatred for that repugnant man.
Both Dinah and Clark can't explain that further. "We only know the facts. Not the reasons behind them," Dinah says.
"I understand. Thank you for returning her home."
"It was the least we could do," Clark says.
Hippolyta takes a moment to assess Superman in his, what she would describe as, patchwork costume. Not the formal Kryptonian one worn by her deceased son-in-law. "You stopped this weapon?"
"Um...I helped. It was a team effort," Clark says modestly.
"It has been neutralised," Dinah ascribes a state to Donna in an as ambiguous manner as possible.
"We should go," Clark decides. "My condolences for your loss," he expresses his feelings.
"I lost her a very long time ago," Hippolyta says with overwhelming sadness.
Dinah activates the remote to reopen the portal and she and Clark turn to leave. Clark's head looks around for one brief moment as he debates whether to look for...no. Not his daughter. She's the daughter of another man. This is not his world and he has no intention of ever returning. There is no way he could replace her actual father nor will he consider it. That would dishonour the man and he won't do that.
As the two leap into the portal Hippolyta notices that they hold hands. It could be construed as an innocent act of making sure they don't lose contact with each other but she just feels there is something more by the way she sees their hands flex slightly in a reassuring squeeze.
'Must be a very different world,' Hippolyta muses before she turns to deal with the very painful act that must follow. Her beloved daughter's funeral.
Elsewhere on this world the 2 Zatannas and Lord Dinah stand within a deep cave on some nameless island.
"Well now here we are," Lord Zatanna declares.
Zatanna studies the wall covered in arcane writing. It is a mystical doorway to her double's domain. Zatanna was just making sure her double was telling the truth about this palce. The other members of the BoPs were making sure the other bodies of the fallen Justice Lords were left with the appropriate people and that left Zee this one task to make sure Lord Zatanna and Lord Dinah go where they are suppose to.
Zatanna looks at her double feeling a bit for her. It can't be easy to be a Hell ruler. She may not like her double very much but she can't help but sympathise just a tiny bit. "You wanted Clark to escape didn't you," Zee raises something that had been bugging her.
"What do you mean?"
Dinah scoffs. "You know what she means," she says with a glare because she has figured out the same thing as Zatanna. By the way she isn't happy about any of this but she isn't getting a choice either.
"I saw how powerful you are. I couldn't have undid those chains you left Clark in unless you made it so it was possible," Zee has come to realise.
Lord Zatanna chuckles. "We really are a lot smarter than we're given credit for aren't we," she says essentially confirming it.
"All part of the plan?" Zee asks in reference to what her double and Donna cooked up.
"More or less. You want to know another truth?"
"You know what that is any longer?" Dinah says scornfully.
"Do you?" Lord Zatanna asks back.
"Depends," Zatanna conditions that, ignoring Dinah..
"Diana was right. I am a liar."
"Big surprise," Dinah mutters sarcastically.
"About what specifically?" Zee asks, again ignoring Dinah's bitterness.
Lord Zatanna smiles strangely. "Oh lots of things. Do you want to know what I wouldn't tell Batman about why I did not get my revenge upon Diana earlier?"
Zatanna was curious.
"Out of respect for Clark."
Zatanna cocks her head. Her double's voice is so full of deep longing.
Dinah looks at Lord Zatanna confused by hearing that same longing.
"If I did it by my own hands he would never forgive me. Being in the other world allowed me to do it without him noticing and now all I have to do is lie to him about it. See I am a liar."
"Wait, wait, wait," Zatanna says, waving her hands in front of her. "I thought Clark was dead?" she asks because her double is speaking about him like he is still alive.
"Oh he is. Where do you think his soul ended up? He's been keeping me company."
"What!" Dinah exclaims in complete shock. She never knew that!
"But didn't he die before you all went...nuts?" Zatanna asks.
Lord Zatanna smiles at the 'nuts' crack. She has long grown past taking insult at it. "He did," she confirms.
"So shouldn't his soul have gone to the Light?"
That's what Dinah was thinking too.
Lord Zatanna looks...melancholic. "Let me tell you a story..."
Flashback...
Clark blinks as he stands in this white void...this endless looking expanse. Where is he? The last thing he remembers...the last thing...
Clark thinks hard and searing pain comes to mind.
Luthor.
Lex lured him into a trap.
Last thing Clark remembers is a shard of kryptonite going into his chest through his heart...but if that is the case then...
Clark's chain of thought is interrupted by a flash as a tunnel of purest white light opens before him. The light bathes him and he feels so...soothed...at peace...he feels like that is the way home.
Clark, without any control or thought, takes one step forward towards the light.
"Hello Clark."
Clark stops, spins round 180 and sees Zatanna standing in front of a blood red tunnel leading downward. "Zee?" he queries, a smile pulling at his lips.
Zatanna smiles.
Clark rushes toward her, throws his arms around her, picks her up and spins her round a few times.
"Oh stop! I'm going to throw up!" Zatanna protests.
Clark places her down. "Where am I?" he asks her.
"Welcome to Limbo. This is where souls stop for one moment to be judged."
"Judged by whom?"
Zatanna looks confused before she snaps her fingers. "Oh right. You can't see them," she suddenly remembers. "But they are there. Those who sit in judgement and are giving me a few dirty looks right now." She turns her head slightly to the left and sticks out her tongue. "Bite me!" she says to them. "I'm perfectly within my rights to be here," she states arguing against something they are saying to her and only she can hear.
Zatanna rolls her eyes. "I'm not corrupting anyone. I do my job damn well. Better than Tala...about whom you did nothing while she broke the rules to her heart's content I may add," she complains bitterly about double standards as she sees it as she argues with the unseen presences.
"Hypocrites," Zatanna mutters under her breath.
Clark just looks lost at what he sees is Zatanna arguing with nothing.
Zatanna waves them off. "Anyway," she says to Clark. "I have an offer for you."
"Offer?"
"There are rules governing heaven and hell. They allow you to choose. Free will remains even here. You don't have to go into the Light. You can come with me," Zatanna asks, hope...desperate hope in her blue eyes.
"Zee. I..."
Zatanna places her fingers against his lips silencing him. "You must understand Clark that if you agree you're stuck with me for eternity down in my domain. You can't go back."
Clark cups Zatanna's cheek, drops his head and kisses her full on the lips. Zatanna melts instantly into him, her hands wrapping around his neck as his wrap around her pulling her close.
"God I've missed you," Zatanna moans through the passionate kisses.
"I've missed you too," Clark returns.
Eventually the kisses ease off and Clark's hand moves to Zatanna's face, gently wiping away tears that have escaped from her eyes.
"I love you," Zatanna says, in the truest expression of her feelings.
"I love you too," Clark says, his eyes beaming with happiness.
"So will you? Come with me?"
"Yes," Clark decides, choosing his love for her over entering, what he assumes is, heaven.
Zatanna breaks into a face splitting smile and kisses him again. "By the way I have something to tell you."
"What?" Clark asks, interested, as always, in anything she has to say.
"First off. Thanks."
"Thanks?"
"For not mentioning my weight gain."
Clark looks down at her stomach. Now she mentions it he guesses she is a little heavier looking.
Zatanna takes his hand and places it on her stomach. "Newsflash. This isn't fat. This...this is our baby," she tells him and she didn't say it first off because that alone couldn't be the reason he agreed to come with her.
Clark's jaw drops and he looks at her wide-eyed. "Ours..." he stops as he suddenly remembers. "Lara?" he asks after his young daughter with Diana.
Zatanna's eyes sadden. "You're dead Clark. Her fate is no longer in your hands...but I can watch out for her. I was going to anyway since I can still walk on Earth. You...all you can ever be on Earth any more is a ghost...like Deadman if you want an analogy to work off. You will only have a physical form in my domain."
Sadness fills Clark. Lara...oh god his precious Lara. He can only imagine what her life will be now and he can't be part of it.
Zatanna's hands go to his face and she strokes his cheeks. "I'm sorry Clark. Truly I am...but unlike Tala I won't break the rules."
"I would never ask you to," Clark assures her however much he might want to and however much his heart might break. His hand slowly rubs over Zatanna's stomach, now carrying a precious life within. "What kind of life can we give our child Zee?" he asks considering he's dead and Zatanna rules over a Hell.
"As good an one as possible. I have this idea about reshaping part of my domain into something more idyllic to raise our child in and separating it from the horror."
"You can do that?"
"You asked me that the day we probably conceived junior here and I managed to do that didn't I Clark?" she teases.
Clark goes red to the tip of his ears. "Zee!" he protests.
Zatanna laughs huskily. She stands on her tiptoes and kisses him gently. "Yes. I can do that," she says seriously this time. "I can do whatever I wish with my domain as long as I make sure the damned are punished as they should be. It's in the rule book."
"There's a book?"
"Oh sure. I'll show you when we get home."
"Home," Clark says with a bitter-sweet feeling about it all. "I failed my home haven't I?" he ask in reference to Earth. He let Luthor kill him and now...now what?
"No Clark. You didn't fail. You were a beacon of light but that journey is over. It's always the most difficult part of this transition. It's hard, I know, but you have to let go of your old life."
Clark looks at her and Zatanna can see the struggle in his eyes. "I didn't say it had to be today or right now but a day will come when you have to completely let go," she tells him.
Clark's lips quirk at the corners. "I think I did that when we conceived our baby."
Zatanna's smiles in pure delight at the fact he managed a joke. That was also true as well as funny and...she shivers pleasantly at the memory of it. She holds her hand up. "So home?"
Clark takes her hand. "Home," he agrees although he still has regrets...and somehow he will look out for Lara. He doesn't know how yet but he will find a way to watch over her.
Clark and Zatanna then step into the red tunnel and vanish from this Limbo.
Present day...
"Whoa! Whoa! Just...whoa!" Zatanna says stopping her double's story telling. "Just...what the hell?"
"You took the words from my mouth," Dinah says in total shock at what she has just heard. She didn't know about Lara either. Just how many lies and secrets were there going on around her that she knew nothing about?
Lord Zatanna looks as if she doesn't know what is troubling her double or Dinah. "What?"
"Baby!" Zatanna all but screams in disbelief.
Lord Zatanna's lips curl up. "There was a reason Mother Nature gave us these child bearing hips honey!" she proclaims as she slaps said hip with her right hand.
"But-but how?"
"You remember my mentioning of that morphological ability of Diana's cells that allowed her and Clark to have a baby?"
"Uh huh," Zatanna says with a nod.
"It's not unique to Diana. It is also a property of the cellular structure of the Homo Magi. It is what allows the species to channel magic and what species are we again?" Lord Zatanna asks her double
"Homo Magi," Zatanna answers.
"Well there you go then."
"Slut," Dinah insults her.
"I know you are but what am I?" Lord Zatanna retorts childishly.
"But...just wait," Zatanna says, stepping in between her double and Dinah before they the slug fest can start because she knows that look on Dinah's face. "Clark cheated on Diana?" Zatanna seeks to clarify.
"Sort of."
"What do you mean sort of?"
"Ok. I end up ruling over hell. Lets start there. Clark wasn't there that day. I think he was babysitting Lara actually. Anyway Clark likes to take blame for things that aren't his fault so he felt guilty about what happened to me."
"That's stupid."
"That's Clark."
"She's right. That is Clark," Dinah has to reluctantly agree.
"Anyway I could still come to Earth. I was still part of the Justice League, as it was still then, and Clark did his best to help me cope with my new role as his way of assuaging his guilt and we became closer friends...and only friends at this point but like I said he and Diana weren't exactly the happy perfect couple. Diana and Bruce conspired behind his back. Clark knew but wouldn't confront him no matter that I told him to like a thousand times," Lord Zatanna complains with a roll of her eyes at Clark's refusal to cause conflict in his marriage despite what was going on.
"You knew?"
"Very close friends," Lord Zatanna clarifies it further at what was happening between her and Clark. "It doesn't take a genius to see how their marriage could only deteriorate from there."
"Did Diana have an affair with Bruce?" Zatanna wonders. She had heard from Dinah about her double's implied allegation.
"Probably. I don't know 100% for sure," Lord Zatanna admits, "but she had already gotten what she wanted from Clark. In fact I suspect the marriage for her was all about getting a daughter from him even if she fooled herself into thinking she truly loved him."
"But it could have been a boy?" Zatanna argues.
"True but it wasn't. I'm sure Diana just thought the Gods had answered her prayers."
"Why though? I don't understand all this conspiring and secrecy Diana was doing."
"You'd have to ask Diana."
"Bit hard now."
"Little bit. Her soul goes to Hades but I could always ask him to lend her to me for awhile and we could ask. He owes me a favour."
"You know what I think I don't really want to know," Zatanna decides. "But I kinda do want to know how you and Clark ended up..."
"Doing the dirty deed?"
"Yeah."
Lord Zatanna grins. Curiosity and need for gossip. It was her weakness
"Oh god 2 sluts," Dinah complains.
Zatanna slaps her across the back of her head. "Shut up," she tells Dinah off.
Dinah rubs her head and grumbles curse words under her breath.
"You're not really one to talk Dinah. I can see your sins remember," Lord Zatanna reminds her she is not in a position to be judgemental. "Do you want me to list all the men you've slept with? Do you want me to mention your copying that opening scene from Basic Instinct? You know when she kills the guy while riding him?"
"You did that!" Zatanna shouts at Dinah in disbelief. She means she knows this Dinah is a killer but that is really taking it to another level.
Dinah folds her arms across her chest. "I've killed a lot of people and every one of them deserved it," she says unapologetically.
"Killed in many varied and imaginative ways," Lord Zatanna adds.
Dinah glares at her now former friend she is thinking.
"Get over it Dinah. You know what's coming for you," Lord Zatanna responds to the glare, trying to get Dinah to accept the truth of what she is. It is the only way, however remote the possibility, for Dinah to start her path to redemption...and there is still a chance at that. Zee could help if Dinah would only let her. See Zee is still a good friend after all.
"We did what we had to," Dinah says in a stubborn defence of herself.
Lord Zatanna sighs. "My last piece of advice Dinah. Spend what time you have left, look at yourself in the mirror...really look and decide if you truly like what you see."
Dinah frowns.
Lord Zatanna returns to her double's question. "Back to what you were asking Zee about myself and Clark. He and I became very close friends and, as his marriage got worse, he leaned on me more and more for support and comfort and one day we just crossed over the line and never stopped. His marriage was all but over by the time we did the deed. Now you can criticise him for that if you want. You can criticise me but I think it was a symptom of what I said about us embracing our weaknesses. It was a symptom of everything that would eventually go wrong in this world. This world...well this world is a place where even Superman breaks his word, in this case his marriage vows. I think that says it all really...but I do love him," Lord Zatanna assures her double of her genuine feelings. "He...us together...it probably is all that has helped keep me even semi-sane," she says sadly and that haunted look that crosses her feature from time to time returns.
Lord Zatanna looks at her double, her face open and vulnerable and Zee can see the stark pain written so clearly on her double's face. Lord Zatanna places her hands on her double's shoulders. "Learn from my mistakes Zee. Don't repeat them," she advises with heartfelt genuine truth.
"Oh the slut ruler of hell is offering advice," Dinah rudely mutters.
"Yes and perhaps if you had listened to me Dinah you wouldn't be where you are now. I tried to warn you all in my way. None of you listened. Time to pay the price," Lord Zatanna says, her voice now firm and commanding as the ruler she now is.
Lord Zatanna raises her hands and begins to chant and a portal opens in the rock wall. "Well time I was going home. I do have a family to get back to. God I wonder how big he is now."
"He?" Zatanna queries
"Oh I didn't say did I. It is a son Clark and I have and I've missed far too many years of him growing up," Lord Zatanna says with sadness and longing for what she has missed.
"Then you should go to him."
A expectant happy smile comes to Lord Zatanna at that thought. "I will...but before I do just one more thing."
"What?"
Lord Zatanna moves her mouth to Zatanna's ear and whispers her a story. Zatanna's eyes go wide and glaze over for several moments. Her cheeks flush.
Lord Zatanna pulls back with a naughty smirk playing on her lips. "And that was how my son was conceived," she finishes off her story.
Dinah rolls her eyes. "Cough...slut...cough."
Lord Zatanna glares at her for a second before waggling her finger and, with a smirk, she levitates Dinah off the ground and flings her into the portal. There. That'll teach her.
Zatanna takes...several moments to pull her thoughts back to order. "Why did you...?"
"Tell you it?"
Zatanna nods.
"Because now you won't be able to get it out of your head. It's going to plague you, making you think 'what if?'."
"But why?"
"Because I'm a Mistress of Hell and therefore a bad, bad girl. Perhaps I need a spanking. I'll be sure to ask Clark for one when I get home," she says with a salacious grin. "Also remember what I said about my fighting teacher who was fantastic in bed?"
Zee nods.
"Clark was my teacher...and well fantastic may have been underplaying it. I know he comes across as this boyscout but trust me as soon as you get him to loosen up...phew!" Lord Zatanna says, fanning herself. "Mind-blowing doesn't come close to covering it...and now you won't stop fantasising about it. I'm not telling you to ruin his and Dinah's relationship so you can pick up the pieces...but my words will add some spice to the dynamic and my evil deed for the day is done! I am a Mistress of Hell after all. Toodles Zee!" she says with a cheeky wink and she steps into the portal and vanishes.
Zatanna shifts on the spot. Suddenly these clothes feel too oppressive and she has a desperate need to have a shower...a cold, cold, shower because her double is right. Now she can't get it out of her head. This would be a reminder of why she hates her skanky double.
Thermyscria...
Diana's body was now resting in a temple while the priestesses prepared it according to tradition. She would get a warrior's funeral. Donna was still upset with her mother. Hippolyta...she was Queen and Diana had been banished and stripped of all her heritage. She can't go back on that no matter how much she personally wishes she could.
Hippolyta was currently looking for Donna to try and speak to her. The Palace guards point her in the direction of her granddaughter's room. Hippolyta makes her way there and upon opening the door finds Donna sitting on the edge of the bed watching over her niece.
"Donna," Hippolyta says in a low voice so as not to wake Lara.
Donna turns her head, grief written plainly on her face.
Hippolyta's heart weighs heavy. She moves to sit on the bed next to Donna.
"What do we say?" Donna asks. "Do we wake her now?"
"No. Let her sleep and in the morning we tell her her mother is dead," Hippolyta says, the burden of that terrible task feeling like an overpowering load upon her already.
"This means she has no-one now."
"No. She has us. She will always have us."
Donna reaches over and brushes some of Lara's long raven hair off the sleeping face that reminds her so much of her sister. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," Donna apologises. She has thought on it and realised she went a little over the top. Not that she was wrong but yelling at her mother wasn't the correct response
"It's already forgotten," Hippolyta assures her...only daughter. She sniffles and a lump forms in her throat as the realisation of that sink in a little but apart from that the Queenly façade holds firm.
Donna turns round, tears in her eyes and throws her arms around her mother's neck. Hippolyta wraps her arms around her daughter and together they hold each other.
Hippolyta looks over Donna's shoulder at her sleeping granddaughter. She has a hope...she has tried not to place too much credence to it or expectation upon Lara...but she has a hope that one day Lara can be her mother's redemption. That one day the title of Wonder Woman can mean something positive again in the world.
It's a hope and what are children but a hope for a better tomorrow.
Zatanna's domain...
"Home sweet home," Lord Zatanna says bitter-sweetly as she reappears in her domain. It looks not too bad...in the sense it hasn't fallen apart. Not that it looks nice. It's hell. There's fire and torment as one would expect.
She gave Clark the power to make sure he could run it without her just in case and he has seemed not to do a bad job which is quite something when you realise Clark believes in people getting second chances. It took him a long time to accept that the people sent down here deserved it.
It was all part of him letting go of his past life.
Upon seeing her, several nearby demons instantly drop to their knees and bow in front of her. Zatanna rolls her eyes. As if demons know anything about loyalty. They're just afraid of her...as they should be.
Dinah had been trying to fight them off and now stands up. "You bitch!" she accuses Zatanna after throwing her in here.
"Takes one to know one Dinah. Now you may want to start being nice to me or I can leave you in their hands," Zatanna warns, pointing at the demons.
Dinah huffs. Why did she agree to this?
Oh yeah. It was this or prison and Zatanna had said she had a nice place for Dinah to live out her final weeks.
Zatanna can catch up with the ins and outs of who is here later as well as deal with the souls of the fallen Justice Lords. Their souls are hers...but first she has to see her family. After all it isn't like her now deceased friends' souls are going anywhere but here. She made sure of it. She snaps her fingers and she and Dinah vanish.
They reappear in a place that is the opposite of hell. An idyllic place she created for her son. She takes a moment to close her eyes and smell the fresh air. God it's good to be back.
Zatanna opens her eyes and smiles at the simple rustic appearance that Clark chose.
"Oh dear god. Not the farm," Dinah complains.
Yep. It's the farm he grew up on. It makes him happy and that makes Zee happy. She grins at Dinah's complaint. "You don't have to stay here you know. There are several thousand demons who would love a nice juicy mortal female to ravage."
"Can I say I hate you?" Dinah says with a hateful glare.
"You can. It might make here living less fun and you should enjoy it while you can Dinah. What follows is infinitely worse."
Dinah's eyes seems to drop and she kicks the ground beneath her feet. "You lied when you said getting a man was on your 'To Do' list," she points out something Zee said back in the other world. Seems odd to raise it now but she is just trying to change topics off of her fate.
"Not exactly. Clark is on my To Do list," Zee says, her suggestive meaning all too clear and come on can you blame her? It's been 3 years. 3 long, long, long years without Clark. You can't imagine the size of the itch she has that needs so badly to be scratched. Why do you think she kissed the other Clark? It was her way of taking the edge off.
Dinah rolls her eyes and sighs as she takes in what is her home for what time she has left.
"Take in the ambiance if you want. There is no where for you to go but remember what I said. Look at yourself Dinah. Are you the person your mother would have been proud of to call her daughter?"
Dinah's eyes flash with pain, hurt and anger at the mention of her mother.
Zee raises a finger. "Think," she advises. "Now I have my family to be reunited with," Zatanna says and with that she strides towards the farmhouse in wide steps leaving Dinah to think over things. Zee will deal with where to put Dinah shortly. This is more important to her.
And in case someone asks is Zee worried about Dinah revealing she plotted to kill Diana to Clark? The answer is no because Dinah will have a hard time remembering that. This is Zatanna's domain. She makes the rules...and that is her unscrupulous selfish act for the day to protect what she has. She is a Mistress of Hell after all.
As she nears the house Zee's heart is pounding in her chest at the thought of seeing her family. She reaches the door and steps inside where she spots them sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast.
Zee's heart swells to bursting at seeing the little scene...especially the little 4 year old curly haired boy...only not so little. Gee he was huge. What had Clark been feeding him? "So when did we start having breakfast without mommy?" she asks, announcing her arrival.
"Mommy!" the boy shouts joyously as he leaps from his chair...literally leaps into her arms.
Zee catches him easier than one might expect for her petite size and hugs him close. "Oh John. Oh my little boy," she says, choked with overwhelming emotion. Tears flow feely down her cheeks. She hadn't held her son in her arms for over 3 years. He was her hope...her hope for the future. She may be damned to rule down here but John wasn't. One day she just knows he will be magnificent and carry on his father's legacy.
Speaking of his father another set of arms hug both of them. Zee looks up to see Clark, tears of happiness in his eyes too at seeing her again. It had been a long time since she had been captured and imprisoned...and to him it seemed like an eternity.
Zee lets out a happy sigh of contentment. She's back in the one place and with the people who make her feel remotely like the good person she use to be.
She's home.
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Tying up the loose ends, Donna's final fate and Clark and Dinah finally sit down and talk.
