Story: Dragons, Demons, and Other Wonders of the Heart (chapter 26)

Authors: Allaine

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Chapter 26

Chapter 26

"Feeling any better?" Flash asked.

"Not really," Diana said angrily, shooting him a glare.

"Whoa, save it for the bad guys, Di," he said a little nervously.

"Hmph," she muttered, dropping the soldier she was still holding onto. "These 'bad guys' aren't the ones I want."

He nodded. "I know." The two of them had single-handedly destroyed another of Ra's al-Ghul's operations, this one dealing in the manufacture and smuggling of illegal weapons. But still no Vandal Savage. Still no Ra's al-Ghul. Still no spying, venomous snake of a Demon's daughter!

And they weren't the only ones. The League was engaging in a systematic war on DEMON. They'd hit almost thirty different locations where Ra's might have been hiding Savage, putting dozens of criminals in the hospital and undoubtedly costing al-Ghul tens of millions of dollars. Whatever his plans were, he might not be able to afford to put them into action by the time the League was through. They'd also rendered two of his precious Lazarus Pits completely unusable. Batman had been especially helpful. His files were vastly more extensive than the League's when it came to the Demon's Head.

It might not matter, though. Ra's could cause untold harm if he revealed the knowledge Talia must have delivered to him - the affair between Wonder Woman and Princess Audrey. She was surprised he hadn't tried to use that bargaining chip in some form of extortion scheme yet. She suspected he would if they squeezed him hard enough.

She suspected she might still be willing to meet him halfway if it kept Audrey out of danger.

"You know," Flash told her, "your name came up in a conversation recently."

"And?" she asked, not in the mood for guessing games.

"Do you remember a suspicious fire in Metropolis?" he answered with another question. "One involving Killer Frost?"

That cut through the haze of anger that seemed to be living in her head. "How did you hear about that?" she asked, startled.

"That, my friend, is a long and tangled web."

"Flash . . ." Diana warned him.

"Okay, okay. Volcana set the fire. Apparently she was being stalked by Killer Frost, and she used the flames and smoke to cover her escape."

"And you know this because - "

"She's pals with Superman."

She stared at him in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

Flash chuckled. "He's even on a first-name basis. They've got some sort of arrangement going, sort of a 'you stay out of Metropolis, I stay out of your life'."

Diana instantly thought back to Superman's odd behavior, and the note he'd discarded. "What is her first name, anyway?"

"Claire."

"Claire," she repeated, remembering the letter "C", signed with a feminine hand. "How strange." Then she frowned. "Funny, the 'friends' some of us have."

"Oh, boy," Flash muttered. "Not another diatribe about Talia, okay? So she screwed us. She used J'onn just like Morgan le Fay did. Can we just focus on finding them?"

She paused. "You're right," she said.

"I am? Wow, coming from you - "

"She DID use J'onn."

"Uh-oh," he thought.

"I've been so wrapped up in what she's done to Audrey," Diana realized, "that I haven't even considered the harm she's inflicted on J'onn! The betrayal!" She clenched her fists. "That seductress, that Circe - she WILL pay for the damage she's done. Not just to me, to all of us!"

Flash sighed. "What's the next stop on our list?"

"A white slavery ring in Asia Minor," Diana told him. "Hopefully they'll be expecting us."

"Uh, yeah, hopefully." He watched her fly out. "All things considered, I'd rather be with Batman right now," he grumbled.


"I'm not entirely convinced this is a good idea," J'onn said as Talia drove them to her father's location. "One call to the Justice League and they - "

"When I contacted my father's servants earlier," Talia interrupted, "they informed me that your fellow League members were tearing his empire apart looking for him. They've doubled security around this Pit. If the League shows up, my father will have the precious seconds needed to begin the process. Seconds might be all he needs. This mission requires subtlety, not Superman smashing through the roof."

Before leaving the airport in a vehicle provided by DEMON, Talia had notified Ubu that she wished to attend her father's ceremony. Confident that they would not be detected, her father had graciously agreed to postpone the "transfer of immortality" for the few hours it would take for Talia to get there.

"Batman and I can be quite subtle," J'onn murmured.

"No!" Talia retorted. "If anyone is to stop this from happening, it will NOT be Batman! I will have my justice!"

"Justice?" he asked, surprised.

She looked at the road ahead of them as she drove. "Batman with his heavy-handed tactics, my father with his megalomania, both always interfering in my life!"

"I hardly think this is about you, Talia."

She laughed bitterly. "It never is, J'onn. I'm always a footnote to their ongoing struggle. Who will Talia side with THIS hour? No, I will defeat my father, and I will do it without Batman. Maybe then they'll believe I've changed."

"Talia - "

"Besides," she added quietly, "I made them a promise." She jerked her head backwards. Harley Quinn was asleep, Poison Ivy clutched in her arms. Clayface had reluctantly agreed to help secure Ivy from falling with his body, and he looked out the window, lost in reflection. "Do you really think that if I let the Justice League stampede their way into my father's stronghold, I'll be able to walk in and say to them, 'Excuse me, but might I use the Lazarus Pit to bring a completely unrehabilitated criminal back to life?'? Believe me, if there's one thing I've spent a lifetime learning about, it is DUTY, thank you very much."

J'onn fell silent for a moment. "How much of what you're doing today is motivated by a sincere need to do right, and how much by your personal objectives?"

She sighed. "It was always ABOUT doing what was right, J'onn. That was why I tried to tell you in the first place! But Batman snatched the reins from my hands, and now I find that what is right has become all tangled up with what is of profit to me." She glanced at him. "I can't give you a better answer than that. I am certain that no matter what I do, there will be those who will see only the bad."

"I see."

Talia blinked. "That wasn't a very encouraging response, J'onn."

"I . . . until the League became my second family, I had to act according to what I believed in. Later, however, I did things that I might regret later, because I thought they were in the best interests of my new 'family'." He frowned. "What I did to you, for example. It didn't seem entirely right, but I did it for Batman."

She nodded. "And now?"

"Now - you are my family too. So I will do this if it is important to you."

And then he took the hand she wasn't using to drive. "As you are important to me."

Talia's cheeks turned red. "Oh, J'onn . . ."

"I think I'm going to gag."

"Hagen! Stay out of this!"


"Diana."

"Yes, Batman?" she asked, slowing down as she put a finger to her ear.

"You're receiving an urgent transmission from Audrey."

"Patch her through," Diana said, dreading that the other shoe had just dropped.

"Diana?"

"Audrey," Diana breathed, unable to stop from smiling. "Are you all right?"

"Well, dahling, other than the uproar in Kasnia over the abduction, yes. These American diplomats, however - they appear mildly pleased. As if now they are not the only country who couldn't hold Savage. It strikes me as entirely un - diplomatic."

Diana sighed with relief. "I was afraid Ra's had made his next move."

"Next move?"

"Since Talia told him about us, I keep waiting for him to make some attempt to warn me off the search. Threaten to expose us if I try to stop him."

"Talia told him about us?" Audrey asked, shocked.

Diana realized she hadn't fully discussed with Audrey their suspicions, and she did so. "Instead of warning us about her father's plans, she used her information against us," she added.

"That's odd," Audrey said.

Even now, Audrey was being way too nice to Talia.

"She tried to call me the other day."

"What?"

"I received an urgent message at the Kasnian embassy. She said her name was Talia, and that we'd just met at a party the other night. She gave me a number to contact her at, saying it was a matter of grave importance. I tried to call her after the Savage abduction, but I only got an answering service. It WAS her voice on the machine, though. I'm sure of it."

Diana considered this for a moment. "So Talia tried to contact you - BEFORE Savage was taken?"

"Yes, Diana. What if she really did try to warn you?"

"But why you?" Diana asked, exasperated. "She's so close to J'onn, why not just tell HIM?"

"What has J'onn said on the matter? It is his girlfriend you're searching for, after all."

"He . . ." Diana scratched her head. "Actually, I don't believe I've spoken to him about Talia. Maybe one of the others - come to think of it, he's been unreachable for several hours now," she realized. "He said he had a few leads he wanted to investigate personally. Audrey, can I talk to you later?"

"I'm hoping you'll do more than talk, Diana," Audrey said naughtily.

Diana's cheeks colored. "I'll see what I can do," she said before terminating the connection. "Batman, please try to raise J'onn for me."

There was a pause. "His communicator is off. I can't reach him."

"Then find out if ANYONE knows where he is."

"I assume he was too hurt by the situation to want to become involved in the search."

"A plausible assumption, but right now I need him. We have to find J'onn!"


"So let me get this straight," Catwoman said as Batman's fingers raced over the keyboard. "You had Talia drugged and incarcerated at Arkham after she went all 'beloved' on you."

"I was considering it earlier," he replied without taking his eyes from the screen. "But yes, the things I heard her and her father say - it was very troubling."

"And she promptly escapes, right before her father becomes number one on the Justice League's Most Wanted. So the one person who'd tell you where to find him if you batted your eyes at her is now on the run. Of course," she added, "she might not tell you anyway, seeing as how you drugged her and locked her up. Did I miss anything?"

Batman scowled. "Several 'friends' of yours have escaped with her."

"Right, Clayface and Harley."

"And Ivy."

"And Ivy," she said. "Way to go, stud."

He finally looked at her. It wasn't a happy look. "I was thinking of J'onn," he said. "I couldn't know what her father had planned."

Catwoman folded her arms and tapped her claws. "Strange choices she made," she said. "Clayface and Harley. They don't exactly talk much."

"She used Clayface's strength to bust out," Batman explained. "Harley was the middleman, since Talia was confined to the infirmary."

"I suppose. Still, what could she offer them? Has anybody thought about that?"

Batman stopped typing. "Not really," he said. "Everyone's been focused on al-Ghul. What can she offer them? And why bring Ivy? She's in a coma. She'll only be a burden to them."

"Didn't you mention Harley swore some kind of oath not to leave Ivy's side? Maybe that was a condition of their deal. Ivy had to come along. She's obviously very important to Harley."

"Important . . . what does Clayface want more than anything else?"

"His name in lights again?" she joked. Then she stopped. "He wants to be human again."

"And what does Harley want most?"

"Well, normally I'd say the Joker, but at this moment I'd say she wants her gal pal to be awake again."

"They both need cures," Batman said. "Cures that can't be effected by normal medical means."

Catwoman's eyes widened. "The Lazarus Pits."

"If anything can cure them, it's a Lazarus Pit," Batman agreed. "That's why they brought Ivy. Ivy has to be brought to the Pit, not the other way around. So that's where they're going."

"How many are there?"

"Twenty-three. Most are useless to Ra's personally because he's used them too many times himself, but he guards them anyway so others can't become like him. Talia could be at any of them."

"Is it possible her father will be there too?"

"Not unless it's a Pit he can use," Batman said. "There are only six of those. We hit the two closest to his headquarters. According to my data, he's not due for another 'bath' for a few more years, and we didn't think it was likely he'd go too far from his home base." A beeping sound alerted him. "That's interesting," he said as he brought something up on the computer screen.

"What is it?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder as she hopped to her feet.

"Witnesses at the airport in Tunis reported seeing a strange confrontation between a green man and several other people. One," he added, "barely looked human."

"J'onn and Clayface," Selina said. "He met up with Talia. Any Pits in Tunisia?"

"One," Batman replied. "A few hours from Tunis by car."

"And is it one of those six special ones?" Selina asked.

Batman nodded.

"Well then, Sherlock, I guess you know where you're going next."

"You too."

She blinked.

He rose from his seat. "You figured it out as much as anyone did. I want you in on this. The Pit will be heavily guarded if Ra's is there. We can't just go blundering in. I want someone as stealthy as me there."

Selina actually blushed a little. "Rub behind a cat's ears like that, and how can she say no?" she purred.

To be continued . . .

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