Epilogue: Intervention

The makeup couldn't quite cover up the black eye. Lois Lane had let her hair grow the last few weeks, and when she let her bangs fall over her left eye, no one could see it. She smiled her brittle smile, glad the cooler weather let her get away with a baggy sweater that hid the little pooch of her belly. Fourteen weeks. The embryo was the size of a kiwi fruit.

Lois told herself that Angie hadn't meant it. Things had just been so intense lately. Hours in bondage. Suspended for entire weekends, over a bucket, Blaze wiped her cock over every inch of her body, raising and lowering her at will. Not letting Lois do anything for herself. The reporter had watched Blaze make her meals, and then jerk her cock off all over it. Feeding the cum to her with every spoonful. There were times Lois almost feared that Blaze wouldn't let her down, wouldn't let her out of the apartment, back to work...

...but she did. Even though Lois knew that it drove her crazy. Made her...violent. The reporter's ass still hurt. Blaze had wanted one more hard fuck before she let Lois out the door. Gripped her arms so hard that Lois still bore the bruises. Then there had been the donkey punch.

"I said tighten up!" Blaze had growled, and the fist had struck Lois in the back of the head, just above the hairline. The shock had made the pregnant reporter tense up, and Blaze had thrust harder, tearing the reporter's ass a little. Lois had turned...and that had been her mistake. Because Blaze's fist was already on its way to do it again.

After that had been apologies, makeup, an icepack...and the suggestion that maybe Lois could call in sick today.

"No, no, I have to, I have a big meeting today...it's alright, I'll be back tonight." Lois had insisted.

"Okay..." Angie had said finally. "I love you."

"I love you too," Lois had said. She thought she meant it, too.

Clark knew something was wrong, the moment she stepped in. Despite the hair, the makeup. He brought her coffee, a bottle water. Hovered over her cubicle as if he wanted to ask her something...and Lois sighed in relief when at last he turned away, leaving her slumped in her chair, head pounding.

Then nausea grabbed her gut. She rushed to the restroom. Despite calling it morning sickness, in truth it came at any hour of the day. The sudden revulsion, the sour taste in her mouth, the feeling of her gorge rising. Lois barely made it to the bathroom on time. Collapsed onto her knees and emptied an oily black goo into the toilet bowl, so like crude oil in sight and smell. Blaze's jizz, fermented in her stomach. Lois felt herself panting, sweaty, shaky...only dimly aware of the sound of other feet in the bathroom. A part of her didn't want to be found here, like this; didn't want to explain.

Then Lois remembered she hadn't closed the door to the stall.

A hand gently pulled the hair from the reporter's face. A familiar voice with a Greek accent said softly.

"It's alright Lois. Let it out." Wonder Woman said.

Lois did. Until there was nothing else. Feeling empty and yet oddly heavy, the reporter let Diana help her to her feet...and saw the other women in the restroom, waiting for her.

Supergirl. Hawkgirl. Zatanna. Black Canary. Catwoman. Harley Quinn. Batgirl. Mary Marvel. Big Barda.

"What..." Lois managed...but Batgirl stepped forward, handed Lois a bottle of water which the reporter drank greedily.

"We know, Lois," Zatanna said. "About Blaze. About the baby. We came to help."

"I...I don't need...it was an accident..." Lois said, guts knotting, but in an entirely different way than before. She looked from one to another, and somehow deep in her heart Lois knew they knew.

"Hey. We've all been in...abusive relationships," Harley Quinn said, her trademark smile somewhat brittle. "Some of us...I got pregnant. By the Joker. I know what you're goin' through."

If Lois had been hit by a lightning bolt, she could not be more shocked.

"When I left the orphanage at 18, one of the administrators...tried to touch me," Mary Marvel added.

"Granny told us every day she loved us," Big Barda said. "But that was her way of ensuring control."

"I...don't...you don't understand, it was consensual, I'm...I'm a slut, I'm a whore, she owns me, I..." Lois began to blubber, the words falling out of her lips faster than she could think, all the pent-up emotions of the last months since her night out crashing down at once. The choker about her neck seemed to squeeze tight...and Supergirl stepped forward and tore it off, with a snap of her fingers.

"You own yourself, Lois," Catwoman said quietly. "No one else. I think you've forgotten that."

"Blaze can be very persuasive," Zatanna added. "It's what her kind are, what they do. Lie. Corrupt. Violate. They desire nothing so much as control, complete subjugation, unconditional love. Because any act of rebellion, even the smallest, and their hold on their victim vanishes. She's been feeding off you. Sculpting you to be her docile plaything. Because she wants that to be born."

Zatanna pointed at the reporter's stomach, still hidden by the sweater.

"She wants to control that too. Which is why you need our help, Lois. For your sake...and the baby's."

The words stuck in Lois Lane's throat. Tears leaked from her eyes. Her knees, weak and wobbly, collapsed and Wonder Woman caught and lifted her like a child. Lois clung to her and let the tears flow, and before she knew it, the other women had crowded in, hugging her, wrapping her in their warmth.

Across town, at Lois Lane's apartment, John Constantine completed the final sigil. It glowed a dull red.

"Right then," he said, knocking a single cigarette from a pack of Silk Cut. "Got a light?"

Superman's left her burned red for a moment, and the tip of the cigarette flashed into flame.

"Ta," Constantine said, and brought it to his mouth.

"Will it hold her?" Batman said.

Constantine snorted. "'course it will. Copied the sigils straight from the Magdalene Grimoire. Completely separate dimensional pocket. Not that she isn't still dangerous, mind."

Superman's jaw was set. The other Justice Leaguers filled the hall. Captain Marvel, J'onn J'onzz, Aquaman, the Green Lantern John Stewart, Hawkman with his wings furled, mace at the ready; Green Arrow, Cyborg...and out by the balcony, Doctor Fate was completing the other part of the enchantment.

Batman picked the lock and opened the door.

They weren't prepared for the smell. Constantine's spell had torn away the glamour that Blaze wove about the place. Now they could see the scummy dishes piled in the sink, the simmering pot in which a human hand stewed. Cockroaches scuttled across the floor as Superman stepped forward, maggots spilled from an overflowing trash can. Jizz, grey and dried or black and oozing, covered nearly every surface, even the framed pictures on the wall of Lois Lane's family. The reek was phenomenal.

The smell was strongest from the bedroom.

A red, naked figure gave a screech of rage as it launched itself from the darkness at the Man of Steel...and he moved swifter than the eye, grabbing the horns and smashing the angry, maddened thing through the kitchen table. Hellfire vomited, half-liquid, to envelop Superman's chest...and then J'onn and Captain Marvel was there, and the rest of them were filing in as the superhuman figured bucked and heaved, invoking what powers it could.

Unprepared for the most powerful mortals in the world to pin her face-down on the ground. Emerald chains bound and gagged her. The white light of Doctor Fate's amulet made her scarlet flesh smoke and blister. John Constantine came in last, fishing something out of his trench coat.

"Now, we could just stick you in a magical prison on Oa, or the Rock of Eternity, or back down in Hell. And we will do that," the British occultist said. "But you'll escape from that. And if we killed you here, well, your spirit will come back in one form or another. You're immortal."

It was a scalpel. Constantine knelt down.

"So we're going to bind you with a restraining order. To stay away from Lois Lane forever. And to make sure you actually abide by it, I'm going to carve it into your soul."

The blade pressed into Blaze's spine...and for the first time, the demonic dickgirl tried to scream in pain.

It was later that night Clark Kent stopped by the women's shelter. Diana met him at the door. He handed her the box.

"This is all we could salvage from her apartment," he said. "Doctor Fate said a lot of it had to be burned."

"Thank you, Kal," Diana said. He looked past her, but made no move to enter.

"She isn't ready yet," Diana told him. "Leave of absence from the Daily Planet. Therapy. Prenatal screenings. Lois has a lot to go through before she's ready to be with anyone again. You don't want her on the rebound. Just wait. You've done a lot for her already."

He nodded his head and smiled. "Thank you, Diana. For everything."

Diana smiled back.

"Thank you, Kal. If we hadn't intervened when we did...it could have been much worse."

Clark Kent's smile faltered. "But I should have done it sooner."

"We can't save everyone."