He was up there, somewhere.

Zatanna looked up at the ceiling, her eyes darting back and forth. Jyzyl was somewhere on the ceiling, at least that was the last place she had seen it. It—

Suddenly, Johnathan's possessed body went crawling across the ceiling like some insect, moving across it rapidly.

Immediately, the magician thrust a hand up, "Sllaberif!" she shouted, a ball of purple flames firing from her palm. It shot up towards the demon, which kept scuttling across it. The fireball hit the ceiling behind it, a small fire spreading out across the surface before burning up into a cloud of smoke.

Over and over, she fired her purple fireballs, seeing her attacks washing all over the ceiling, but not once hitting her target. That was getting annoying, especially when Jyzyl vanished out of sight. She held her arm up, but she was no longer launching her attack, instead trying to find that annoying demon.

And then something rammed into her from behind, throwing her off of her feet. Zatanna didn't cry out, instead grunting as she went into a roll, ending up back on her feet. There was Jyzyl, darting away instead of following up his surprise attack.

Like hell was it going to get away again. Ever since she had thrown it through a wall, Jyzyl had been ducking in and out of sight. It was getting annoying to be honest. One moment, it would be doing some stupid demon stunt, like crawling around the ceiling, or popping out from behind a pew, and then it would just vanish underneath a table, or behind a door. It was pissing her off.

Reaching a hand up, she slipped a couple fingers into the sleeve of her jacket. When she pulled them out, out came a red rag clutched between her fingers. She pulled it out revealing one corner of the rag was tied into a knot with a yellow rag. The yellow one followed the red one out of the sleeve, where it was revealed its opposite corner was tied to a blue one.

Zatanna kept pulling out until she had a multi-colored length of handkerchiefs, making up a makeshift rope. She then whipped it out towards the fleeing demon, satisfied when she saw it managed to wrap around an ankle. The moment she saw that, she yanked back hard on her clothesline of handkerchiefs.

This pulled Jyzyl's leg back, which caused it to clumsily lurch forward and then fall face first to the floor. "Pu uoy og," Zatanna commanded as she began to spin around on her heels, pulling her line of rags with her. This eventually pulled on Jyzyl's leg and then lifted him up into the air, swinging him around until he smashed into a wall. His body was dragged across the wall's surface until Zatanna released her hold on the demon's foot, allowing him to eventually fall to the floor, but not before bouncing across the wall.

It landed in a heap on the floor. Even from the distance between them, Zatanna could see that a shoulder had become dislocated if the odd lump where the shoulder should have been was any indication. Something had broken, she was certain of that.

Then the body began to move. Jyzyl maneuvered himself onto his back before reaching up both arms, even the broken one, and pressed both hands onto the floor. The legs moved until the feet were also pressed onto the floor. Then it raised its body up so that it was standing on its hands and knees, the infamous crabwalk pose. It looked awkward, especially since it had an injured arm, but that only made it look odd and strange, the arm bent where it shouldn't have been.

Then it moved its head. It actually twisted its neck until its head wasn't looking at her upside down, but right side up. "Tell me if you've heard this one before, bitch," Jyzyl said joyfully. "I'll swallow your soul!"

"Yes, and now, kaerb nwod," Zatanna responded.

The elbow and knee joints suddenly splintered and broke, causing Jyzyl's both to drop to the floor. "Gyyyyyah!" he yelped, but then began trying to roll onto its side, finding that hard to do. "What did I ever do to you?!" it shouted at her.

"You're annoying me," she deadpanned. "And if you're gonna make that swallowing souls bit work, you gotta at least look the part. I won't stand for less."

Jyzyl quit rolling around. "Oh, like this?"

Its cheeks then bulged out, its lips squeezed tightly. Then it opened its mouth wide and spat out a large wad of acid towards her. "Emoceb retaw," the dark-haired woman casually waved off, the flying acid changing to clear water in midair. It splashed onto the floor, and did little more than got it wet.

"Want to try…again…" Zatanna began, only to trail off. Jyzyl was no longer lying on the floor, having vanished as if it had never been there. "Oh, come on! Quit being a pain in my ass!"

"You mean like this?!"

The magician jerked her head up, and found Jyzyl back on the ceiling—again. When the hell was this thing gonna stop climbing up there? It was beyond being an annoyance now.

However, this time it had its body looking, well, less broken looking. All of its arms, legs, and even head looked put together, as if the joints hadn't been blown out and its head twisted around into such a neck-breaking position. It had its back, hands, and head pressed against the ceiling, its feet as well as the legs were bent at the knee.

However, cracks began forming around its hands and feet. Small clouds of dust fell from the ceiling before the cracks grew further and wider, and then ultimately the entire roof began falling.

Okay, that might be a problem.

Zatanna summoned more of her power. For a brief moment, she felt a little winded, but shoved that feeling aside. No way in hell should she feel this way after using so many rudimentary spells. She had plenty in her tank.

That might change once she cast this spell, though.

Holding both of her hands above her head, she unleashed her magic, "Pots gnillaf!"

Instantly, the large chunks of roof stopped in midair, a violet aura glowing from each individual piece. Zatanna just stared at the results of her spell, definitely feeling winded now. It would have been one thing if she were only stopping a few pieces, but a large pile of falling rubble was something altogether different.

Oh, and she had to keep track of that despicable demon…who was…sneaking up behind her…

"Tih eht nomed!" she shouted, the aura around the debris glowing brighter for a second. Then each and every piece began moving, flying over her head and to a place behind her. She heard a cry of surprise before it was muffled by the sound of the crumbling ceiling hitting the floor, wall, and a fleshy body. Soon, it was just stone-on-stone she was hearing.

Waiting for a moment, the dark-haired woman caught her breath before turning around. She saw a large pile of rubble right about where she expected it to be. Placing her hands on her hips, she stared at her handiwork.

A few pieces shifted then. It was slight at first, but grew more noticeable with each passing second. A fist then burst out from beneath the debris, then clamped down on a rather large piece of cement. Emerging out head first was Jyzyl, who didn't look all that happy at seeing her.

"You…you bitch," it snarled, glaring daggers at her.

"You've said that before," she replied dully. "Got another insult, or is Johnathan's vocabulary that stunted?"

"I'll…I'll kill you…"

"I thought you were going to swallow my soul? Did you give up on that already?"

Jyzyl snarled and tried to lunge at her, but part of his body was still buried beneath the rubble. All it did was pull more of itself out, which caused pieces higher in the pile to slide downward. Raising a hand up, Zatanna just wiggled a finger and one of the smaller pieces of rubble suddenly shot towards Jyzyl's head like a baseball. It smacked it against the side of its head, causing it to yelp and slump down onto the rubble.

Well, this was certainly disappointing. This wasn't nearly as terrifying as the last time she faced a demon.

Suddenly, her back stiffened. There! She sensed a hell of a lot of malevolent magic. It was dark and foreboding, as if it were warning anything and everything that it meant business.

Her eyes darted to one side and she saw it. A swirling black portal had appeared in…where the hell were they exactly? It looked as if they were in the main foray of the courthouse. Since when had they gotten there?

The dark portal began to bulge outward then, which already raised the hairs on the back of the magician's neck. Then, a large, clawed, shadowy hand erupted out of the portal. It stretched out through the room, reaching out until it came to a stop between Zatanna and Jyzyl.

And with the clawed fingers pointed right at her, Zatanna had a feeling she knew what was coming up next.

"Dleihs!" she commanded just before the hand lunged at her. A purple bubble appeared around her, the hand striking it an instant later. The force of the two magics damn near exploded, or at least had the force of an explosion behind it. Regardless, Zatanna found herself being hurled backwards through the air until she crashed into a wall. Air was forced out of her lungs, leaving her legitimately breathless.

Slumping down to the floor, her shield spell fading away, Zatanna found herself sitting on her ass, legs sprawled out in front of her. She felt a little woozy, but was otherwise already. Looking back to the hand, she saw it was holding Jyzyl in its grasp, sinking back towards the dark portal from whence it came.

Hey, hey now, where the hell was it going with her demon?!

She wanted to voice that question, but found she couldn't say anything, even as the hand slipped back into the portal, carrying Jyzyl into it. However, once the hand was gone, it then revealed a new figure. This one was wearing a suit and fedora hat, an aged face partially hidden by the hat.

Sucking in air, the woman demanded, "Who the hell are you? And what did you do with Jyzyl?"

The old man glanced at her. "It's much too early to let a good demon get beaten down so soon, wouldn't you say? On behalf of Brother Night, I extend his regards to you." He even raised a hand to the brim of his fedora and tipped it at her.

"Like hell am I letting you take that thing away," Zatanna snarled as she began to shove herself back onto her feet. "It must be destroyed."

"I commend you on handling a demon of Jyzyl's rank," the old man responded. "But you cannot handle someone of my caliber. Catch your breath and then seek us out. I'll want to show you just what I'm capable of when you're at full power."

Then the man stepped into the portal, vanishing from sight. The portal faded away as well until it was as if it weren't ever there.

There weren't nearly enough words in any language to describe how pissed off this made Zatanna.

Alright, Rajir had some moves.

There were various cuts in Constantine's clothes, where that damnable black sword had nearly nicked him. In some cases, it had, and there were small red stains around the tears.

And it didn't matter where the Brit managed to teleport himself to, Rajir always seemed to just vanish into thin air, then reappear just as abruptly. That's what had led to the multiple tears in his clothes.

The guy didn't have any magic, so tracking him that way was useless and pointless. Mordred's sword, while enchanted, didn't give off any magic for him to track either. This ninja guy seemed to know how to use the sword, so that was a big pain in the ass.

That sword canceled out magic when it touched it. Attacking with spell after spell wasn't an option anymore.

However, if the sword was off-limits…

Rajir was out in the open for once, lazily swinging the black sword from one side to the other. He was walking towards the blond man, anticipating another attack.

"So I was thinkin'," Constantine said. "What are the chances of ya putin' that sword down, and the two o' us goin' out for a pint, yeah?"

"I don't drink," Rajir responded, the sword passing in front of him in another swing.

"I can drink fer the both of us."

"Tempting, but I'll pass."

"Pity." There was a warm sensation on his palm. His spell was just coming together. "I do hate seein' blood, particularly my own."

Constantine took a knee. He staggered while he did so, which made it look like he was weakening. Appearances were deceiving.

Placing his tingling hand on the floor, a seal immediately appeared, glowing brightly. As Rajir took another step, the floor cracked around both of his feet. Suddenly, vines began rushing out of the floor, wrapping themselves around the ninja's legs. Rajir only noticed them when he tried to take another step and couldn't. His mask made it hard to tell if he was surprised, but he did look down to see what was going on.

He stared at the vines, but made no move to hack at them. That was a shame since Constantine was hoping he'd cut his own leg off. Oh well, he had him trapped. If his magic couldn't harm the sword, it was best to use it against the sword wielder.

Rajir looked back up, just stood there for a second, then took another step. Much to the blond man's surprise, the vines turned black and broke apart, allowing the ninja to move effortlessly. The same thing happened with his other leg as well.

"I imagine you're surprised," Rajir remarked, no longer casually swinging his sword around, instead holding it at his side as he continued to walk. "Though it shouldn't be too surprising. This legendary sword, immune to magic as it is, grants its wielder the same protection."

Constantine grimaced. Well, bollocks. He hadn't been expecting that. So what did he do now? The sword cut through magic, and now it apparently protected its user as well. Where did that leave him?

"Can't blame a guy for tryin', eh?" he couldn't help but say.

"I cannot, but regardless, you'll pay for your folly with your life."

"I was afraid you'd say something like that."

Immediately, Constantine cast several shield spells, each one appearing in the space between him and Rajir. They looked like orange-glowing walls, one right after the other. Rajir didn't look the least bit amused as he lashed out with his black, pointy toy. As expected, he cut down one shield after the other, just hacking his way through.

Constantine waited, keeping his hand on the floor. The seal that glowed on the floor beneath his palm changed its design somewhat, forming a series of different shapes and symbols within it. He knew the magical shields would do nothing, but they did buy him enough time.

And as the man hacked his way through the last shield, he went into action.

The wood paneling in front of the blond man ripped itself off of the floor, swinging upward as more and more panels joined in. Rajir was blocked from his sight, perhaps not the greatest idea, but if he were lucky, the floor would curve over and collapse on top of him.

Which is what it did, though Rajir dodge it by diving out to one side. Seeing that, Constantine realized he had a third option. If he couldn't use magic on that bloody sword and he couldn't use it on the man himself, well, what about the objects around them?

Standing up, Constantine held both of his hands out, raising them to shoulder height. In response, there were a number of benches that ripped themselves off of the floor and began floating in the air.

Rajir noticed this instantly, holding his sword up so that he could grip the hilt with both hands. His head moved from one bench to the next, trying to figure out which one would come first.

One side of Constantine's mouth twitched up. Why send one when all of them would do?

One of the benches suddenly shot towards the man. Rajir noticed this and took action, attacking with his black blade and slicing the piece of wooden furniture in two. It was a pretty clean cut by all accounts. A second bench came flying in then, and the ninja used his momentum from his first attack to make a complete spin, slashing the pew into two pieces as well.

And then a third one flew by and clipped him. It wasn't a solid blow, but it did connect with the man's shoulder. This caused him to flinch from the blow, staggering him a bit.

A fourth and fifth came in and this time they hit hard. The fourth one crashed into Rajir's side, knocking him sideways as he went stumbling. The fifth hit the floor behind him, but bounced off of the floor and rammed into the back of his legs, knocking them out from underneath him. Finally, a sixth one timed itself perfectly and rushed it, slamming into the man in midair.

Rajir cried out as he lost his grip on his sword, dropping it to the floor where it clattered. In the meantime, he was carried through the air by the bench until it smashed him against a wall. There was a gasp as the air in the man's lungs was forced out. Both man and bench hung in midair for several moments before Rajir slid down against the wall until he landed on his arse, the bench keeping him pinned there.

Then the other ones came back in, piling in on the man. Some merely landed on top of him and the bench keeping him pressed against the wall; others just crashed into the pile. From where he stood, Constantine had a hard time figuring out which was doing a better job.

But more importantly, ninja guy didn't have the Black Sword of Mordred. Seeing it lying on the floor, Constantine instinctively wanted to put a seal on it to make certain it couldn't be picked up again; however, he stopped himself. No spell would be able to seal it away, not if protected by magic alone. It would simply cancel it out.

Hmm, perhaps there had been a reason why it had been kept in Cain's safe, a physical space surrounded by the essence of spooky magic.

Oh well, he just had to make certain Rajir didn't get his hands back on it. Now, there had to be plenty of things around here he could use to tie the man up. Even with a pile of wooden benches on top of him, it was best not to assume those would keep him down. For all the blond man knew, the guy was worming his way out.

And you know what they say about assuming.

Considering how much ass she had been kicking lately, it was annoying that a little fish managed to get away. The little fish may have been a punk teenager possessed by a demon, but she had been handling it without much concern.

So that was why Zatanna was irritable when she re-entered the courtroom she had last seen Constantine in. There wasn't time to dwell on an escaped demon because they had to go find it—it and that old dude that took it away.

That guy had mentioned Brother Night, so it was safe to assume he worked for him. It also meant Brother Night had some plan for Jyzyl and didn't want it defeated just yet. That was definitely a cause for concern, and completely expected since he had gone through all this trouble to summon the damned thing.

Hopefully, Constantine had better luck than she had.

Coming to a stop at the threshold, the dark-haired woman noticed an odd combination of damage and not-enough-damage to the courtroom. It was a weird dichotomy to be sure. She had imagined Constantine taking a fight seriously would cause quite a bit of damage, but at the same time he would ignore the back-and-forth of a fight and just knock out his opponent with a single spell.

See what she meant about the odd dichotomy?

So when she saw a whole bunch of benches piled against a wall, though there was a noticeable gap in the pile, she felt like this was a perfect summation of what she had expected. Constantine was sitting on one of the benches not ripped from the floor, his arms on the back as he puffed away at a cigarette. Sitting on the floor was Rajir, his legs coiled beneath him. Rope was securely tired around the man's appendages.

Yet, Zatanna found herself staring at Rajir. That outfit—the bodysuit, and specifically that mask—she had seen it before…

No, she was certain she had. What the actually fucking hell?!

Both men looked towards her, Constantine turning his head and Rajir lifting his up, the moment they realized she was there. "How'd things go, Zee?" the blond man asked her, keeping his cigarette in place with his lips, which made for an awkward way of speaking.

Zatanna walked down the clear path towards them. "The demon got away," she groused. "Some old guy butted in and dragged it into a teleportation portal. Of course, he did that after throwing me into a wall."

Her boy toy grimaced. "At least we didn't come away empty-handed." At this he nodded his head towards Rajir. "Perhaps this bloke can tell us what we need to know."

It was half-expected that their captive would vocalize his refusal, but he didn't. He just remained silent. Zatanna just stared back at him, feeling her ire growing. "He doesn't have to tell us much," she said in an eerily low voice, even for her. She then reached out and grabbed the top of the mask, pulling it off to reveal Rajir's bald head. "Though, I do want to know what a member of the Demon's Fang is doing here."

The bald man actually looked taken aback by this. Constantine just stared at her. "Demon's Fang," he repeated. "Can't say I know that one."

"Secret organization of assassins. Their leader was a bit of a crackpot—thought he could wipe out humanity in order to save the planet."

"Still thy tongue, woman," Rajir spat back. "I will not allow such blasphemy to be spoken about the Demon's Head."

"Demon's Head," Constantine repeated. "They really went all-in on the demon thing."

"The thing is," the dark-haired woman continued, blatantly ignoring both men, "the members of the Demon's Fang are completely devoted to their leader. So why is this one not fawning at his grave?"

Rajir just glowered at her. If he had the ability to kill her, he would have, she was certain. So she decided to ask him bluntly, "Why aren't you with your Demon's Fang buddies? Huh? Why did you decide to join up with Brother Night?"

The man didn't answer, just continued to glare at her. That was rude, but the magician already had an idea as to what the answer was. "Mind if I guess?" she asked, then didn't even wait for an answer. "You were doing one of your missions, you failed, so you tucked tail and ran away. You kept running until you found someone you knew could protect you from your friends."

Again, no answer. "I'll take that as a yes."

She really didn't need the response; that's how it had to be. Rajir's glowering was all the confirmation she needed. If she were wrong, he'd be passive about everything she had voiced, not showing a hint of emotion.

But she was poking a stick at his pride. He had failed that madman, Ra's al Ghul. Failure was always rewarded with death by that man. So Rajir ran away to stay alive, somehow found Brother Night, who probably promised him all the protections he needed. It was how he ended up in an antique shop in Salem, with no identification needed to run that storefront.

"As thrillin' as this is, it doesn't help us with the more important things," Constantine butted in. "Like where Brother Night is and where he had his lackey take the demon."

Well, he had a point, and again, Zatanna felt like Rajir here wasn't going to be willingly talking. She knew his background and just how loyal he was to his new master. Well, if he wouldn't cooperate, there were other ways to get what they wanted.

Clapping her hands together, Zatanna rubbed them back and forth before she moved to stand in front of their captive. She then held either hand on either side of his head. "Well, I'm certain he isn't going to talk, so I'm just going to poke around in this head of his. He'll know something we can use."

The blond man nodded. "Have at it."

Zatanna stared down at the defiant Rajir. He glared at her, almost daring her to try. She couldn't help but take in that ninja suit of his, couldn't help the emotions it made her feel, none of them good ones. It made her think of that twisted version of Bruce she had seen, once in Etemannaki, then in Gotham, and lastly at Nanda Parbat. "Wohs em tahw I tnaw ot wonk," she chanted.

She felt herself get sucked in again, the courtroom disappearing as everything took on a brownish tint. Zatanna half-expected to be in some underground hideout or something, but instead she found herself in some sort of cave. She was in a chamber with a doorway behind her, one that was clearly man-made. In front of her was this large hole, a sickening glow rising out of it. The hole started at the far wall and spread out towards the entrance, stopping on the rocky floor she stood on. There was a rock formation that stretched out over the hole, where a metal grate hung in the air, supported by chains that were connected to a crane built into the cave wall. She couldn't see the ceiling as it was pitch black, meaning it was so high up it couldn't be seen. There were also a few men of the Demon's Fang, each standing at attention. It was like they were guards or something.

She…felt like she knew this place…

But why was she here? Why wasn't she seeing some hidden base of Brother Night, where Rajir was having some clandestine meeting? Why this cave? Why these Demon's Fang guys standing there, guarding a large hole?

A hand touched her shoulder, causing the dark-haired woman to jerk her head to one side. There stood Constantine, his hand on her shoulder. He must have decided to join her in her memory spell. "What hellish place is this?" he murmured as he took in the sight.

Suddenly, the doors to the chamber swung open, drawing both of their attention. There was a group of ninjas walking in, carrying something between them. It was taking all of them to do it, so it must have been heavy. "Ma chareh i nadarim," one of them said.

"Ema eger in kar ra beknim estad az dast ma narahat mi shod," another one responded.

Hmm, seemed they weren't speaking English. She needed to fix that.

"Kaeps ni hsilgne," she said.

"To chikar mikni think he'll say if he knows we've failed." The sudden conversion to English was startling, but at least she could understand them now.

"He got himself killed. We cannot be blamed for that," another protested.

"Which do you think the Master will prefer? A dead body, or an alive one?" the first one pressed.

The men were passing by Zatanna then, and she saw that they were indeed carrying a body. She couldn't get a good look at it as they passed by, so she followed them.

By now, she recognized Rajir as the first voice, now that she could actually understand them. He seemed to be urging the others into going along with something that the others didn't want to do. Considering they were still helping, they must have felt like they had no other option, or they didn't have the ability to stop what was going on.

Unsurprisingly, they went right to the metal grate and dumped the body they were holding onto it. Immediately, the men backed away, but Zatanna kept going until she could get a better look. She saw the body was in black, wearing what looked like armor. The armor had certainly seen better days as it looked as if it had taken a beating. There were scorch marks on it too, as if it had survived a fire. Her eyes trailed up it until she saw something on its chest, and her entire body went cold.

That…that…

The Bat Symbol.

Immediately, her hands shot up to cover her mouth, which was open in horror. Her eyes darted to the body's head and she could see Bruce's face, pale and blue from death. That's when she looked into the hole and saw at its bottom a bubbling liquid.

Now she knew for certain where they were at. This was the Lazarus Pit outside of Gotham. And if she wasn't mistaken…

"You okay, Zee?" she heard Constantine ask her as he came to stand next to her. "Any idea what—"

"Piz ti," she responded, and an actual zipper zipped its way from one side of his mouth to the other, silencing him. The blond man looked surprised, or at least she imagined he did. She wasn't really looking at him.

The sound of the crane started, and Bruce was moved out over the Lazarus Pit. The clanging of the chains filled the room as the grate began to lower down into the green fluid below. Well, she knew it was green. Right now it was a dull brownish-green color. She watched the whole way, even until the grate reached the lazarus and sank beneath it. Bruce was soon submerged, disappearing beneath the surface.

Time seemed to stretch onward for what felt like an eternity. Zatanna watched every second of it. She didn't fast forward or anything. She just…watched. At some point, her hands began shaking. This shaking spread out through her arms and eventually it affected her entire body, making her tremble.

Then the bubbling began to increase. There were more of them, and the surface of the lazarus began to ripple, creating larger and larger waves. The green liquid splashed up against the walls of the pit, reaching higher and higher with each subsequent wave.

And then the lazarus surged upward. It reached higher and higher into the air, until Zatanna could just make out the dark silhouette of something in it, flames were pouring out of its mouth and eyes as he closed in on her.

And it was screaming.

Zatanna jerked back as a wall of lazarus rushed up out of the pit. It swallowed up the little cliff that hung out over it. Even the ninjas were flinching away from it.

Then as sudden as it happened, the lazarus fell back into the pit. However, it left something behind. Standing on the cliff was Bruce. He was trembling as lazarus dripped off of his body. His eyes were vacant, blank of thought, as if he were staring out into some unknown void. He just stood there for what felt like forever.

Then there was a spark of life in his eyes. He seemed to focus on what was around him before something else appeared. The corners of his mouth began to stretch out, forming the widest smile she had ever seen on his face. "Heh heh heh," he began to chuckle, his voice hoarse and raspy. Insanity glowed from his eyes now as he began to laugh louder and loud.

"Ha Ha Ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Zatanna jerked herself back, forcing herself out of the memory. The courtroom returned into focus and color. She was still trembling.

That…that was how it had happened.

She had wondered once; what it had been like. She hadn't expected that. She really hadn't.

But why did she see that memory? Something had drawn her to it, somehow. Her spell...maybe it was too vague? Or was she influenced somehow? She saw the ninja outfit Rajir wore, along with the thoughts of Bruce. Had that subconscious drawn her to that memory? Was that it? That she wanted to know if this man had known about—

Constantine was immediately at her side. He grabbed her by the arm with one hand, his other one clasping to her on her opposite shoulder, which interrupted her thoughts. "Zee," he urged her. "It's alright. You're alright."

"Doesn't look like she got the answer she wanted," Rajir observed. "How terrible for her."

The horror that was on her face immediately vanished. Zatanna focused entirely on the bald man. "It was you," she said softly before her anger exploded inside of her. "I lost three years…because of you!"

She violently shrugged Constantine off of her, once again standing in front of Rajir. The man just looked up at her with a confused look on his face. "What are—" he began.

Her hands shot up to either side of his head. Instantly, he was cut off, his head jerking back. His eyes widened as he realized he couldn't speak, nor had control of any part of his body.

Tears were welling up around Zatanna's eyes, her mouth clenched tightly. "You took someone important away from me," she growled. Her palms and fingers began to glow a dark purple light, seemingly seeping into Rajir's head.

"Now, I'm going to take everything away from you."

The Lazarus Pit memory is a scene I've thought about over the years. I had thought about making a one shot of it at one point, but never got around to it. When planning this story, I figured out a way to work it in, even digging up Rajir from Genesis to get it to work. As you can imagine, it's based off of the BTAS episode, The Demon's Head, though it was Ra's al Ghul who took the plunge rather than Bruce. As you can see, it's a scene that's stuck with me and I borrowed it for this story's purposes.