Zatanna sunk to her knees. She was shaking uncontrollably. She'd never known what it felt like to be so trapped. Did I kill her? As soon as we made contact she, well...
Zatanna's eyes stung, and a tear glossed over her vision. "Stop crying," she ordered herself, a sob wracking her body. After taking a minute to compose herself, she stood. She had to be strong. Her father had given up control of his body to save her from Doctor Fate. Her friends had risked their lives countless times. For her sake and others'. Now it was her time to be the hero.
The area with the purple glow was logically the only place to go, so Zatanna summoned her courage and followed in the direction the old woman had pointed to. She climbed up the sloping hill and stopped in front of a swirling well.
Scintillating swirls of purple churned. Without ever witnessing it before, Zatanna instantly knew it for what it was. "A soul well," she breathed.
Only capable of being created by immense demonic energy, soulwells were capable of trapping and harvesting any souls detached from their physical body. When there was a high enough energy concentration from the trapped souls, the creator of the well could feed, increasing his or her power tenfold. But the soulwell required energy in return to keep the spirits eternally bound.
Zatanna leaned over the well. This must be what it's like for M'gann to read minds. She could hear the whispers of the lost souls trapped in eternal damnation.
Her hypersensitivity to supernatural forces of any kind gave her a rough idea of how many souls were trapped. Hundreds at least. Hundreds of desperate thoughts, emotions, and memories that resonated as one voice. One single voice to carry their hopeless tale. A warning to others of what could just as easily become their fate.
But the real question was, who had trapped these souls here in the first place? And who or what was keeping them bound to the soulwell?
"Welcome to the party," said a high, almost childlike voice.
Zatanna whirled around only to be face-to-face with Klarion the Witch boy. Another silhouette stepped out of the shadows. It was the cat she'd seen earlier. But it wasn't a cat; it was Klarion's familiar.
When Zatanna did not voice a response, Klarion continued, "Though I don't remember putting any of the super brats on my guest list."
"And here I thought my invite just got lost in the mail."
Klarion cackled. "Look at that Teekl. A crasher already. And we haven't even had cake yet."
"You know I've never been one for playful banter," Zatanna snapped. There was something about the Lord of Chaos that set her off. His whole aura was dark and spiteful.
Klarion scratched his chin with one of his pointed nails. "Then why don't you just cut straight to one of your baby spells?"
Zatanna balled her hands into fists and jutted her chin defiantly. He would know her anger. He would know how strong she had become.
"Ezylara—" Zatanna's voice faltered as she remembered. Her spells didn't work here. Which meant that one of the Light's most vindictive members had power at his disposal, while she had no means of defending herself.
Teekl hissed almost mockingly at her. Klarion grinned. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" He cackled again.
"Why don't you cast one of your spells if you're so strong?" Zatanna challenged.
"Like I'd waste my magic on the little league," he sneered.
A smile fought its way to Zatanna's lips. "You don't have any magic either, do you?"
Klarion curled his lower lip and stared at her. It almost reminded her of the way Dick would sometimes look at her; like she was some sort of puzzle that he had to carefully analyze, yet for some reason couldn't quite figure out.
But maybe Klarion understood her better than her teammate, because in a moment he was smiling again.
"Do you know where we are?"
Zatanna didn't respond. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
Regardless of this, his grin grew even wider. He inched closer to her.
"We're in my subconscious. And I don't need magic to hurt you." He moved at breakneck speed and dug his nails into Zatanna's arm. His other hand twisted her around. Only after a painful yelp tumbled from her lips did he release her.
A bloom of blood pearled on her arm from where his razor nails had impaled her flesh.
"If this is your subconscious," she gasped through gritted teeth, "then why am I here?"
Doctor Fate floated above the chamber's floor. "I can sense that Zatanna Zatara's disappearance was not of her own accord. She was ripped out of this existence by a force opposed to order," his words echoed with the force of two synchronized voices.
Robin stopped pacing. He and Aqualad were the only Team members still at the Chamber. The rest had returned to Mount Justice to get some rest, after forty-eight hours of useless waiting. "Opposed to order? You mean like chaos?" Dick's mind jumped to their last confrontation with the witch boy. But what could Klarion possibly want with Zatanna?
Fate's eyes flashed a blinding golden color. "A higher power maybe. But that does not mean it is inherently good or evil."
"Is there not any way of returning Zatanna here?" Aqualad asked.
"No. She will have to find her own way out before it is too late."
"What do you mean too late?" Robin's jaw was clenching and unclenching.
"If she spends too much time in another reality, her natural ties here will be severed. That is the reason why the Lord of Chaos requires an anchor to remain in this world. If time runs out, any chance of her return may be implausible."
"Can't you send one of us to help her?" Desperation was creeping into Robin's voice.
Fate bowed his head. When he spoke, he almost sounded more like Zatara. "I'm afraid that is outside of even my limits."
Klarion didn't answer right away. The baby magician seemed genuinely ignorant on the matter. The problem was that he wasn't sure why they'd both ended up here either.
The key must have been what had sent them here. If two spells had indeed been cast on it at the exact same time, and if the two spells were of equal power, then the magic would have been diverted into two separate directions. He was pure chaos, while Zatanna was sided with order. It made sense. But surely the magician's power didn't rival his own!
"Why am I here?" Zatanna repeated, as small droplets of blood trickled down her arm.
Klarion raised an eyebrow. "I was supposed to get my key. But you can be my play thing instead." Her ran one of his nails down her jawline, and slowly traced her lips. He could feel her shiver against his touch.
Zatanna shut her eyes. 'This is wrong. This is wrong.'
Klarion did a doubletake. He could hear her thoughts. And despite his mystical prowess, telepathy had never been one of his abilities.
'And he doesn't know anything more than I do! He's just trying to put everything on his terms.' Zatanna's voice echoed in Klarion's own mind.
'But now why would I do a thing like that?'
Zatanna gasped and clamped her hands over her ears. "You're in my... g-get out of my head Klarion!" For good measure she added silently 'Get out!'
'Hmm... and now you're in mine.'
Klarion watched the little magician squirm, relishing in her obvious discomfort. It was so much more fun when they squirmed. He reached his hand forward to touch her cheek.
"Klarion," there was a slight tremor to her voice, "I want answers now. I want out of this realm."
Distorted images began flashing sporadically through both Zatanna's and Klarion's mind. Zatanna saw a woman being tortured senseless. A face, Klarion's face, being contorted into a demonic appearance. She watched, unable to block out, a bloody victory dripping down Klarion's lips as he stood over a lifeless, mangled body.
Yet somehow she could also sense which of her memories were being witnessed by Klarion.
The first magic trick Zatanna's father had ever performed for her. The night she and Artemis had fought a psychotic murderer named "Harm". The first kiss she'd shared with Dick...
Zatanna was about to lash out at Klarion—whether he had meant to see her memories or not—when a single last image flashed across her vision. All other thoughts were pushed to the periphery of her mind as the scene played out.
That last memory... Klarion's memory... left her numb to the core.