The White Lantern

A plume of white smoke had exploded outward from the flash of light at the heart of the festival grounds. The army of amazons guarded themselves and averted their eyes to the flash, reacting to it as if it burned. A warm breeze followed, clearing the white fog and with it something strange caught the attention of the police and lycanthropes frozen in place. A sheet of moss grew out from where the fog had lingered, along with small bushels of plants and flowers that grew out from the cracks and seams of the road. When all became clear, the amazons looked up and immediately fell into a guarded stance with a battle cry to the pair of people who now stood where the light still came from.

Hippolyta herself stopped what she was doing to raise her own shield and aim her spear at the intruders, her red eyes wide with surprise and confusion, waiting for commands from her goddess to tell her what to do.

Stepping out into the open to see the intruders better, Dinah narrowed her eyes in contempt, her arms folded in front of her as she looked the woman over and the man hiding behind her.

Zatanna smiled back to her sister bride. The woman wearing a white version of her performance garb; her dress shoes, nylons dyed white, with matching bloomers, along with a button blouse, white dress coat with oversized coat tails and white top hat over her head. Her suit bore… Symbols, or glyphs that shimmered in the light, in different colours, etched into her clothing so seamlessly it almost looked like they were being projected off her clothes rather being a part of them. In hand, she held a staff that looked to be made of yew and ivory, where a cluster of gems of seven colours glowed at the top of the shaft. Behind her, a man in a trench coat looked around in confusion, then locked eyes with the vampire in shock.

Stepping to the side to take up all of Black Canary’s attention, the dhampir woman’s multi-coloured eyes shimmered and drew Dinah to focus solely on her.

“Zatanna…” The Black Canary spoke coldly.

“Dinah. I see you brought friends with you.” Stated the white dressed magician as she looked over Dinah’s shoulder to the army of amazons keeping their defensive stance against her. “But something tells me they aren’t here to bob for apples or try the pumpkin spice cakes.”

“They are my ARMY, a legion of amazons turned ghouls at my beck and command who will help me conquer this world, there’s a place in it for you sister, simply help me slay our former lover… And I’d be willing to share in the spoils.”

Turning her attention to the Count bleeding on the ground and to the frozen Selina Kyle unable to move, along with the rest of her friends frozen in place, what did catch her eyes that made them go wide was the massive vulpine creature licking its chops after feeding off a werecat she didn’t recognise. Even though it was twisted, hideous, and unrecognisable, Zatanna already knew who it was. Closing her eyes and breathing in sharply, the woman exhaled and turned her gaze back to the now smiling Black Canary.

“I see you and Oliver got back together.”

Folding her hands behind her and nearly breaking out into a laugh, Dinah playfully tapped her gloved finger against the bottom of her lip. Making a pose of thought as she did so.

“Men are easier to deal with when they don’t have those pesky traits that make them undesirable… Like free will. I see it as an improvement.”

“Damn, she’s gone shit for brains crazy that one.” Whispered John behind Zatanna’s back. “You sure you got this?”

“Hold that thought John.” Raising her staff high, Zatanna stamped it against the pavement between her feet.

A purple light glowed from the staff, followed by the same light forming at the feet of everyone trapped by the Black Canary’s will. All of them disappearing and then reappearing behind her, free to move and stopping to catch their footing after being in mid stride earlier. Immediately Selina fell to her knees and pulled Dracula to sit up, the feline woman checked him over, kissing his face and forehead as panic settled in, seeing how mangled and broken his body had become.

“My Love! Please don’t leave me, not again.”

Turning, Zatanna crouched to rest a gloved hand over Dracula’s shoulder, closing her eyes as a blue light bloomed from between her fingers. To everyone’s disbelief, Dracula gasped and coughed, his eyes becoming sharp and alert as he looked down to find his body being restored, flesh reknitting and limbs returning where once they had been severed and reduced to ash. In just seconds, the Undead king of vampires looked down at his restored hand, closing his fingers into a fist and then opening it again. His legs restored and granted the strength and vigor to stand once more. Instantly Selina collapsed over him in an embrace, one he returned in full. Slowly pulling away, Dracula was taken back when the white clothed magician gently reached behind his head and pulled him close to press her forehead against his.

“Zatanna? You have returned to…”

“Shhhh…. I forgive you.” Looking down at the man, she cupped his bearded chin with understanding in her eyes. “For all you did, for all you sacrificed to get her back, I forgive you.”

Smiling warmly, Zatanna stood to her full height and looked up at Bruce who narrowed his eyes and ducked to see her eye to eye. For but a brief moment, the massive black wolf smiled, even as a wolf, Zatanna recognised that smile. He was pleased to see her, pleased to know she was alright. Then his eyes went wide, his ears darting back as he looked over her shoulder.

“ZATANNA!”

Without needing to look behind her, the woman erected a massive wall of solid green light, just in time to halt the strike of the spear of Artemis from impaling her skull from behind. Red eyed with rage, the former queen of the amazons sneered in disbelief. The first time ever the spear missed its mark. Seeing her victims freed of her verbal command, Dinah had simply snapped her fingers, and her champion and the rest of her army came charging forward with a battle cry, running towards the White Lantern as she slowly turned to face her attackers.

Resting a hand over her chest and closing her eyes again, Zatanna filled the entire area in an intense indigo light. It spread out from her feet and quickly crawled out from the green wall that protected everyone behind her, making its way up walls and buildings and spreading out in every direction like a flash flood. The moment the first amazon stepped onto that light, she immediately stopped dead in her tracks, dropped her weapons to the ground and fell to her knees sobbing. Looking back at her legion collapsing like leaves from a tree in autumn, Hippolyta was confused, enraged, and for what seemed the first in her current state, afraid. Especially when she looked to the stunned face of her goddess stepping back and flee to her steed, Oliver, to mount over his back and take to the air before the indigo light reach her too.

“My Goddess!” Seeing her people broken like straw, sobbing into their hands or embracing each other in weeping despair, Hippolyta was beside herself with rage, her fangs in full display as she glared down at the white dressed woman smiling softly up at her. “What have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY ARMIES?!”

“I merely opened their hearts. Opened them to see the pain all around them, the pain they caused, the pain others endured, the pain they can lift and the pain they can’t.”

Unsatisfied with the answer, Hippolyta roared out a battle cry and struck with the spear again, the force of it was enough to shatter the green wall like glass and make everyone present lurch back in a defensive stance… But the spear stopped dead in its tracks. Unable to pierce through Zatanna, and simply hovering a hair’s breadth from her heart.

“UPSTART LITTLE TROLLOP! I WILL KILL YOU; I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU AND SERVE YOUR SEVERED HEADS TO MY GODDESS AS A FOOTREST! I WILL GORGE ON YOUR BLOOD AND WEAR YOUR SKINS AS A LEATHER COAT! ALL WILL KNOW THE FATE OF THOSE WHO OPPOSE MY DESIRES!”

Like a raging storm, Hippolyta struck again and again. Each spear thrust creating a sonic boom like the blast of a thunderclap that sent everyone to their knees, clutching at their sensitive ears. But every strike, every slash and thrust and jab stopped just millimeters from Zatanna’s chest. Pushing down on the spear, the blade refused to budge, the ground at Hippolyta’s boots cracking and her feet digging deeper into the earth as she put enough force into the spear, she could have toppled a skyscraper from it. But the spear refused to budge.

“WHY?! My Goddess told me your sins were as vile as HIS are! A stain of evil the spear cannot ignore.” The queen gestured to the now standing Vladimir Tepes, holding his wife close for her protection. “WHY? Why can’t I strike you?!!!!!”

Raising her hand and extending her index finger to the tip of the blade, Zatanna simply pressed her finger forward and it was enough to push the queen back, her armored feet dragging back against the simple gesture.

“You are right, I’ve done terrible things. I have left scars in this city that may never fade… But I have also spent every waking day and night of my undead life to make amends for every life I have taken during that terrible war. I have driven out demons, I have healed flesh, and hearts and souls. I have stopped wars, prevented apocalypses, and destroyed the monster I used to be. That… THING I once was is gone and gone for good.”

Her eyes blazing red, Hippolyta glared back at Zatanna and now the spear of Artemis in her bleeding hand, once finding it a prized relic of her people, now nothing more than a useless, sharpened stick. Pushed back again with another step forward by the white dressed magician, the Queen had had enough. Discarding the shield and spear, she pulled free her personal sword and made to stab the woman, only to be caught by an almost blinding violet light.

“You have been poisoned Queen Hippolyta, by a serpent disguised as a songbird, who sung lies into your ears while she poured her venom into your veins. She did it to you, your army and your people, and nearly had you commit atrocities that you would never forgive yourself for.”

Stepping back, Hippolyta covered her face with her arms, unable to blink or look away as the violet light engulphed her. Going from violet, to indigo, to blue and back again. Hot tears streaked down her cheeks as the ramifications of her action caught up to her. She could see it. Her goddess would have made her do terrible things, to lay waste to a city of innocents, burn down a nation and kill her own daughter, but not before torturing her for days and savouring every second of it. A conscience, one she thought had been torn free of her returned in full force, making her feel every strike she made against Dracula and recoil at every debase and depraved thought she imagined doing to him… And HAD done.

Falling to her knees, the one that burned with more intensity was the blue, she could feel it, sear the darkness from her blood. Showing her what joy once was and could be. She remembered when her daughter was born, she remembered when she freed her people from Ares, she remembered the dark hero who stood shoulder to shoulder with her. And the longer she basked in that sky blue light, a piece of her was restored. Her skin regained its olive complexion, her fangs retracted back into human teeth, and her red eyes returning to an ocean blue before she fell to the ground in a weeping heap.