It's a pretty long chapter, hope you like it, please review!
The group was in the watchtower in a minute, Constantine tagging along willingly, but the orbiting headquarters proved to be vacant of any of the familiar heroes that were usually there for one reason or another.
"Where's Batman?" Raquel asked after they'd searched the whole base.
"I don't know, he must not have sent the footage from here," Mallory reasoned.
"But he's on monitor duty. He wouldn't leave without getting someone else to fill in for him," Zatanna argued.
Mallory shrugged. "I don't know," she said.
They pulled up local news stations from around the country, and they were all frozen. "That's weird," Zatanna said, looking closer.
"Wait, look," Mallory said, pointing to the corner of a feed in Central city. A bird moved in the corner of the otherwise still street.
"That's worse," Zatanna said, her hand moving to her ear. She clicked her comm onto the line that included all Leaguers. "Zatanna to League, does anyone copy?" she asked. There was no reply. Mallory and Raquel put their hands to their ears.
"Inferno to Batman, come in," she said, but there was no reply.
"Rocket to Icon, Dad, come in," Raquel said, her voice taking on an urgency that Mallory hadn't heard since Vandal Savage infiltrated the Watchtower. The girl shook her head.
"Where are they?" Zatanna asked.
Mallory looked at the feeds, the Metropolis one drawing her attention. "He must have gone to get Superman," she reasoned.
Zatanna and Rocket narrowed their eyes. "Let's go," Zatanna said. Mallory led the way to the zeta tube.
"Hang on a moment," Constantine said, not moving from where he'd stopped by the screen.
"What?" Rocket snapped.
"Well, there's clearly something fishy going on down there. If you just run into the fray, you could end up comatose, too."
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Mallory asked.
Zatanna looked at Constantine, her face holding understanding. "A protection spell," she said, turning to her friends. "Something to block any outside suggestions."
Mallory and Raquel nodded. "Fine, but hurry up," Rocket said, looking between the mystics.
Zatanna looked at Constantine. "I know one, but we'll need an object to transport the shield to," she said.
Constantine smiled and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. "Good for more than just giving yourself a slow, painful death," he said, lining four of them up on the floor.
Zatanna narrowed her eyes, not responding to the intended joke. "All right, stand back," she warned her friends. Mallory and Raquel took a step back, and the magician began her incantation. She levitated off the ground a moment, a blue light surrounding her, then she pushed her hands forward, and the light moved from her aura to the four objects in front of her. A moment later, she opened her eyes and nodded, and they each picked one up. Mallory examined hers a moment before stuffing it in the pocket of her jacket. "All right, let's go," she said, leading the way to the zeta tube. She authorized Constantine's passage yet again and set the coordinates to a tube not far from the Daily Planet.
"Well, I think I'm starting to get used to this thing," John said as the light sucked him back towards earth. The Leaguers stood side by side, letting the computer scan them together to save time, and they were in Metropolis in another second.
"Ok, where do we start looking? They could be anywhere," Rocket said.
Mallory shook her head. "I know where Superman is. I recognized the buildings in the footage. Batman shouldn't be too far away, assuming he managed to get started before something happened to him." Mallory led the group through her city until they reached her former mentor lying in a crater in the middle of the street. It was unnerving, seeing the Man of Steel so still.
"There's Batman," Zatanna said, nodding to an alley. They hurried over and checked his pulse. It was strong. He was fine, just unresponsive.
"He must have been able to fight it for a few minutes. He managed to get to the alley before he passed out," Mallory observed.
"A strong will can fight many a curse," John said, eying the caped crusader curiously. "It looks like your heroes weren't the only targets of this particular curse, though."
"What do you mean?" Rocket asked.
"What, you didn't notice that there's other people knocked out too?" he asked.
The girls looked around to see that, sure enough, there were dozens of people on the street, all unconscious.
"Wait, if none of the League is responding to our calls, then, well, this isn't just happening in Metropolis," Rocket said slowly. The girls exchanged worried looks, and Mallory immediately took a few steps away from the others, one hand on her comm.
"Nightwing, are you there? Superboy? League to team, is anyone there? Peter, please, anyone, answer!" she begged. There was no response.
"Miss Martian isn't answering the link, either," Zatanna informed her. The girls' faces turned grim, and they quickly went to work propping the older heroes up and dragging them to the zeta tube.
"Now where are you going?" Constantine asked, his hands in his pockets as he watched the girls struggle with the unconscious men.
"We have to get to the cave," Zatanna said, "now are you going to help us or not?"
John heaved a sigh, but he grudgingly grabbed Batman's other arm, helping Zatanna with the Dark Knight while Rocket and Inferno managed to drag Superman along between them. They got to the zeta tube and set their coordinates for the cave, panic starting to claw its way into their minds as they considered what they might find.
They arrived in the living room of the cave and dumped their burdens on the floor quickly, running to the training room as soon as they dropped the heroes. Just as they'd feared, the team was there, on the floor of the training room, along with Black Canary and Red Tornado. Nightwing and Canary were in costume, but the others were in civies, and they'd clearly been in the middle of a training session. Mallory hurried over to where Peter had collapsed on the side of the arena, not far from the trainer. Rocket stood over the team, and Zatanna was at Dick's side, then Megan's, checking their pulses and trying to wake them up.
"This is insane," Rocket murmured, walking over to Red Tornado. "How is this even possible?"
Zatanna and Constantine looked at her grimly. "The dreamstone," the magician said quietly.
"Who could use it like this, though?" Mallory asked.
Constantine was looking around at the team, and he suddenly said, "right then. Who here has the weakest willpower?"
The girls looked at him. "Why?" Rocket asked.
"If I can go into their head, I can trace where the signal was coming from. All magic leaves a trail," he explained.
"You can't go into their heads without them even knowing about it," Mallory said firmly, laying Peter's head back on the floor gently so she could stand up. Zatanna and Rocket didn't say anything, but their body language backed Mallory up.
Constantine glared at the girls and growled. "Oh, we don't have time for all your morality rubbish! Every second we wait, the hold on these people gets stronger. Now, who's it going to be?!"
The girls exchanged a look, and their eyes all settled on Gar's limp form. Constantine nodded and stepped over Dick to get to the boy, propping him up with one arm and firmly placing his other palm on Gar's forehead. He muttered the spell, and the girls saw his last memory projected on the floor behind him. Constantine continued to chant his spell, and the memory whirled around for a moment, then a face started to come into view. When it cleared, Rocket gasped in surprise.
"Doctor Destiny!" she said, voicing the group's shock.
"But he's supposed to be locked up with ARGUS," Mallory said.
Constantine let the spell fade and leaned back on his heels after returning Gar's head to the floor as gently as Mallory had her brother's. "To hell with jails, they never hold," he muttered.
"But he can only take control of people when they're asleep. How could he have managed this?" Mallory asked, still trying to wrap her head around the magnitude of the feat.
"That's how he managed to get the dreamstone in the first place," Zatanna said slowly, starting to fit all the pieces together. "I went to bed early last night, and I was exhausted. He must have taken control of me and made me go get the stone, and once he got it, it amplified his powers to this level."
Rocket's eyes narrowed with determination. "We have to stop him," she said.
Zatanna nodded and pulled the Blood Stone out of her pocket. "All right, let's go," she said, holding the stone at arm's length. The group stood in a circle around the little red stone, and Mallory gave the team one last glance before streams of smoke enveloped them, blocking out the view and leaving them in pitch darkness.
The next thing they saw was a reddish light glowing in the distance, and the wood floor below their feet seemed to be on an angle. Zatanna pocketed the stone and took in her surroundings for a moment. Constantine, sighed and turned to the magician.
"All right, luv, where exactly is the good doctor?" he asked.
Zatanna said a spell, and a map of the pocket dimension came up. She pointed to a dot not far from where the group was. "The dreamstone's here," she said.
Constantine surveyed the map, then nodded and it disappeared. "All right, remember the terms of our agreement. You listen to me, and you don't question anything I say or do."
The girls nodded and followed him through the crooked hallway, staying alert as they went. They ended up in a large room, completely empty save a table and chair at the center. The supervillian was there, sitting in the chair, staring at a screen that showed Wonder Woman collapsed on the street. The group inched into the room, their footsteps not making a sound on the polished floor.
"Well, well, well, it certainly took you long enough," Destiny said, his voice slow and deliberate.
"Oh, now don't tell me you were expecting us, Dee," John said.
Destiny tilted his head slightly. "Well, Miss Zatara, yes. But I must say, I didn't expect to get the pleasure of finishing you off in person, Constantine. What are you doing playing hero with the Justice League?"
John laughed. "Oh, don't worry, Doctor, I'm not changing my colors or anything. I still go to the highest bidder, and right now it's these girls." He clapped his hands once and pulled them apart, and some kind of light shield came in each hand. "Now, let's just get this over with, shall we? After all, I've a debt to collect, and you have a world to conquer and destroy. We're busy men."
Doctor Destiny pushed back from his chair, the robot mask reflecting Constantine's shield. "As you wish, Johnny," he said, and he raised one clawed hand to his head.
Constantine glanced back at the girls. "Careful, dearies. The closer you are to him, the stronger he becomes."
Mallory looked at Zatanna. "Will the shields hold?" she asked, referring to the enchanted cigarettes. Zatanna shrugged. "I don't know for sure, they should as long as you don't let him touch you," she replied.
Mallory nodded. "Good enough for me," she said, and she flamed up and charged, jumping over Constantine and landing a punch on the villain's mask.
"Bloody hell, is she mad?" she heard John complaining behind her, but she didn't slow down. They couldn't afford to hesitate.
"Well, Inferno, it's nice to meet you. I wonder, what keeps you up at night? What fuels your nightmares?"
Mallory narrowed her eyes in concentration, blocking out the senseless chatter from the villain as he easily blocked her attacks. She heard chanting behind her, and then Zatanna and Constantine were beside her, throwing their magic at the villain. Rocket flew around the back, trying to block attacks and trap the man, but Destiny waved a hand towards her and she went flying across the room.
"Rocket!" Mallory exclaimed, and she rolled in the air and flew to her friend, leaving the magicians to continue to battle the threat.
"I'm fine," Raquel assured her, getting to her feet, "but how are we going to stop him?"
Mallory looked back at the battle and noticed a clear shift in the dynamic of it. Zatanna and Constantine were winning. "We need to keep his attention split. You take the left, I'll take the right, and we'll let Z and John finish him off from the front," she decided. Rocket nodded, and they moved to take their positions. Mallory went back into the fray, slamming her fists into the man's gut, going for his legs. Rocket was doing the same from the other side. Mallory retreated when his attention came fully to her, and Rocket did the same on the other side. Then, suddenly, Mallory felt someone grab her from behind. She struggled, but it was like she was being held by a brick wall. She craned her neck around, trying to get a glimpse at who was holding her, but she couldn't see anything, except that a creature had grabbed Rocket at the same moment. The thing holding her friend was big, black, and nearly faceless, with just a mouth full of huge fangs set in the middle of where a face might have gone.
Doctor Destiny laughed, the sound sending a chill down Mallory's spine. "You didn't think I'd be here without reinforcements, now, did you?" he asked. He walked over to Mallory, tilting his head. Zatanna started to run towards her, but John grabbed her arm, physically holding her back. "Now, let's see what terrors threaten to destroy you, shall we?" he said, and he thrust his palm onto her forehead.
Mallory froze, her eyes widening at the intrusion, and she felt her consciousness turning inward, into her memories and her fantasies.
She looked around, confused to find herself back in the cave, the team moving around her as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Hey, Inferno, where've you been? We've been waiting for you for ages!"
Mallory scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, turning to see Kid Flash standing there, a wide grin on his face. "Kid?" she said slowly.
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's me, now hurry up! The League'll be here soon."
She looked around, and suddenly the whole team, the original team, were there, their appearances aged down. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and saw that she was in her orange bodysuit, her hair still to her hips. "What is this?" she murmured to herself.
"Come on, Inferno, let's go," Robin said, looking down from the rafters. "Hey, toss me that bunting, would ya?"
Mallory looked on the coffee table and saw the roll he was talking about. "Yeah, sure," she said, grabbing it. She threw it up, her aim perfect, but the roll of white bunting wasn't the only thing she ended up throwing. A fireball escaped her fist, too late for her to stop it. "No!" she screamed, but all she could do was watch in terror as the fire, her fire, soared through the air, crashing into the youngest member of the team. He was thrown from the rafters, and she rushed over. His face and costume were scorched, and he was gasping for breath, but he was alive. She allowed herself a small sigh of relief.
"Robin, I'm-" she started, going to touch his shoulder, but as soon as her fingers made contact, flames leapt from her hands, and she watched her friend burn right in front of her eyes, until he was nothing more than a pile of ash. Her eyes widened in terror and she backed away from it on her hands and knees, panting, panicking.
"Hey, what was that?" Megan came around the counter, and her eyes widened in terror when she saw what had happened.
"I didn't mean to!" Mallory managed to get out, tears streaming down her face, her chest burning with guilt and grief.
"Inferno, what have you done?" the Martian asked, her face showing fear and horror.
Mallory pushed herself up and started walking towards Megan, all the while murmuring, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." She'd only made it a few steps, though, before Megan started breathing heavily, slowing down. Sweat was pouring from her brow. "Stay away," she said quietly. Kalder came over next, running to Megan's side.
"Inferno, you must cool yourself down," he said, his body reacting to the extreme heat she was putting off as well.
Mallory looked at her hands. "I- I don't know how," she said. "Aqualad, please, help me." She took another half step towards them, and they collapsed on the floor. She backed up, now trapped between Robin's ashes and her friends' weakening bodies. She curled up on the floor, sobbing, unable to do anything with the power within her, forcing its way to the surface. Conner, Artemis, Zatanna, Raquel, and Wally ran towards her.
"Inferno!" Zatanna yelled. Conner ran over to Miss Martian and Aqualad, intending to drag them away from the heat, but it was too late. He stared at them, then looked at Mallory. "They're gone," he said. Mallory covered her face with her hands, sobbing. Wally took a step towards her.
"Inferno, it's going to be ok," he said.
"No! No, stay away from me!" Mallory yelled desperately, backing away from her friend.
He kept coming. "It's all right, Inferno. I'm fast, I can outrun anything you can throw at me," he said, his grin still on his face.
Mallory shook her head, raking her hands through her hair, muttering unintelligible. Wally kept coming, and she pushed herself to her feet. "Stop, Kid, please! I don't want to hurt you, please," she said.
He didn't stop. "Don't worry, you won't," he said.
"I said STOP!" she said, anger rising at his insistence. A pulse came out of her, like it had the first time she'd sparred with Conner, but this time, Kalder wasn't around to put up a shield. When she opened her eyes, Conner was in front of her, blocking her view of the others, his clothes burning and in tatters. Her eyes widened fearfully. "What did I do?" she asked quietly. Conner didn't answer, and didn't let her look around him. "WHAT DID I DO?!" she screamed, shoving him to the side. She froze when she saw the charred bodies of her friends, the familiar costumes the only thing that was recognizable about them. She whirled around, looking at Conner, and he pulled her into a tight hug, petting her hair, trying to calm her down.
"It's ok, it's going to be ok," he said.
Mallory sobbed into his shoulder, and she returned her hug, squeezing as hard as she could, trying to block the horrors in front of her. Suddenly, though, Conner's body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground. Mallory stared at him, then her hands as she realized she'd used her super strength. "No, no, no, no, NO!" she said, repeating the word over and over and over again, squeezing her eyes tight, pressing her hands to the head. She had to get out of here.
"Well, that is quite the nightmare, isn't it?"
Mallory's eyes snapped open, flames leaping out of them, her cheeks still wet with tears as she turned to face Doctor Destiny. "What did you do?!" she yelled, honing her attention on him, the threat, the one she needed to destroy.
He chuckled. "You know, that's the beauty of it. I didn't do this, you did. All I did was tell you to show me your greatest fear. But this isn't the end of it, is it?"
Mallory watched with dread as he changed the setting, as she found herself in her parents' house, in the living room, her parents and brother sitting on the sofa. "No, please, no," she moaned. She couldn't do this, not again. But Doctor Destiny showed no mercy, and he vanished from the nightmare in a puff of smoke, leaving her to face the unthinkable alone.
"Oh, hello, dear, come sit with us," Elaine said.
Mallory shook her head, backing away from them.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost," Darrin said.
Mallory squeezed her eyes shut. No, she could do this. All she had to do was control her fire, keep it contained, keep her family safe. She could do this, she did it every day of her life. Peter ran over, and she jumped, backing up until her back hit the wall.
"What's with you? Come on." He reached for her hand to lead her to the sofa. She jerked it away before he could grab it, fire leaking from it at the sudden move. Peter jumped back, a burn showing on his leg. Her parents jumped up and ran to him, pulling him back.
"What…What have you done?" Elaine said slowly, fear showing in her eyes, and suddenly Mallory felt herself shrink into her five-year-old self, back when she first discovered her powers.
"Please, mom, help me," she begged, ripping her mask off. The motion freed her eyes, and flames flew from them, engulfing the three people in front of her. "Peter!" Mallory screamed, but it was no use. The house caught fire, burning around her.
Suddenly, the League was there, Superman at the front, looking at her gravely. "Inferno, the team-" he said.
She stared up at him, terrified, sick with guilt, grieving. "I can't control it," she said, choking on her sobs.
"Then you can't be out in the world. You're a danger to everyone you come across," Clark said, and he slapped an inhibitor collar around her neck.
The scene changed to a small cell, no bigger than a coat closet, and she sat there, chained up, the collar around her neck blocking her powers. Destiny came back, floating in the air above her.
"Well, well, you really did lose everything, didn't you. And it can get worse, can't it? Well, you've killed all the people that you loved the most, so what would stop you from, say, becoming an assassin for hire? What are a few more deaths on your conscience, eh?" He snapped, and she was out of the chains, out of the cell, and on a roof, looking down at a building that she somehow knew the Light was in. "Go ahead, take them out. They deserve it," he coaxed.
Mallory looked down at the building, saw villains that she and her friends had fought over and over again, to no avail. Lex Luthor, the Joker, Kobra, Cas, Klarion, Savage, Black Manta. Her eyes burned red. "You may be right. They might not deserve to live," she said slowly, looking at Destiny. "But that's not for me to judge. I'm not a murderer, and I'm not a mistake." She flew at him, grabbing his cape and throwing him down to the ground. "But you, you I don't have to hold back with, because this isn't real. The real fight's on the outside. All I have to do is keep your attention here, out of the physical world, and you'll lose." She ripped his mask off, showing the plain, terrified face of John Dee.
"Wait, wait, now, how do you know you can't kill me in here?" he stammered.
Mallory narrowed her eyes. "I'll take my chances," she said, and slammed her fists on his shoulders, shooting fire at him. He screamed in pain, and eventually, his presence disappeared.
Mallory staggered to her feet, weary, exhausted both physically and emotionally. She felt her vision going black, and collapsed on the street, then she blacked out completely.
"Inferno, you ok?" Mallory heard Zatanna's voice before her eyes opened. She blinked, and the magician heaved a sigh of relief and looked over her shoulder. "She's all right," she said.
"So's this one, luv," Constantine said from across the room.
Mallory pushed herself up on one arm and looked over to where Raquel was recovering. "What happened?" she asked, putting one hand to her head.
"We won. Whatever you and Raquel were doing on the other plain, it kept his attention split enough that John and I were able to overpower him. I got the dreamstone back, and his hold on the people in the world ended when he was knocked out."
Mallory nodded and pushed herself to her feet. "The team!" she exclaimed suddenly.
Zatanna nodded. "They're fine, we're going to go to the cave as soon as we get Destiny back to ARGUS," she said.
Mallory nodded and hurried to grab one of the villain's arms, ready to get the work done and get back to familiar surroundings. Not to mention that after the horrors she'd witnessed in her head, she needed to see her friends alive and well. Constantine helped her with the supervillian, and Zatanna held out the Blood Stone, transporting the group to the ARGUS blacksite where Doctor Destiny had escaped from. They handed him over to the agents, and Zatanna held the stone out one more time, and they were transported to the living room of the cave.
Mallory ran through the short hallway to the training room and skidded to a stop when she saw the team and Canary and Red Tornado doing their usual training exercises in the arena. Her face broke into a relieved grin and she jogged over and pulled Dick into a hug, then moved on to Peter. "Oh, thank God," she murmured.
The boys gave her strange looks. "What's that for?" Dick asked, looking between her and Zatanna and Rocket. Zatanna leaned closer to Mallory and whispered, "they don't remember what happened."
Mallory nodded and smiled at the boys, giving Peter's hair one last ruffle. "Nothing, I just missed you this week," she said easily.
"Aww, and you didn't miss me?" Lagaan asked.
Mallory rolled her eyes and smiled, even glad to see the newer members, even though Robin was smirking at her and Wren had an eyebrow raised in judgment.
Dicks gaze went past her. "Who's that?" he asked, nodding to someone behind her. Mallory turned to see that he was referring to Constantine, who was lighting a cigarette at the time.
"Oh, this is John Constantine. He stopped by to ask me for a favor," Zatanna said, elbowing the man, who flicked the cigarette down and put it out with the toe of his shoe. "Oh, right, then, nice to meet the lot of you."
Dick nodded slowly, looking between the magicians. "So, are you going to be staying long?" he asked slowly.
Constantine shrugged and glanced at Zatanna. "I think you'll be seeing more of me in the future." He turned to Zatanna. "If you don't mind, luv, I'll be needing you to get me those items now."
Zatanna nodded. "Right, of course," she said.
"Do you want us to come with you?" Rocket asked.
The magician shook her head. "No, thanks, I've got it. I need to thank Jason for lending us the stone anyway, and stop back at my house to put the dreamstone back."
Mallory and Raquel nodded, and Zatannna and Constantine went to the zeta tube together. Mallory tilted her head, wondering if they really would be seeing the newfound alley more often.