The journey

It was so simple, it baffled her why after all these years why she had never considered it before now. Getting dressed and letting Oliver sleep in his new quarters, Zatanna stepped out of Dracula’s castle in the dead of night, listening to the shores of Themyscira that the castle rested on. With the main gates closing behind her, she looked down at the indigo lantern ring in her hand and closed her eyes. “Ring… Tell me where the other Indigo Lanterns are.”

“The indigo lanterns are gathered on the planet of Nok; the home world of the indigo battery.” Her ring answered mechanically.

Nodding to herself, she conjured her indigo lantern staff made of bone and yew and clutched it with both her hands tightly, looking up at the night sky with resolve in her indigo eyes, she made her decision. “Send me to Nok.” Quickly enveloped in a sphere of indigo light, Zatanna shot up into the air and already flew past the moon before she could blink. Travelling several times the speed of light, Zatanna could barely make sense of the blurs of stars streaking past her as her ring sent her across the galaxy. Hours passed like this, a swirling vertigo of starlight before she noticed her speed slowing down, the stars looking less like streaks of light and more like points of light in the night’s sky. When she slowed down, she found herself orbiting a blue and purple planet, quickly flying through its stormy atmosphere and landing on a stony outcrop of what looked like a cave. Inside she could see a soft indigo light from within.

“I’ve come this far…”

Steeling herself, Zatanna made her way into the cave, finding it was both massive and spacious like some grand hallway, overhead openings in the cave roof let light in to illuminate the cave where indigo and purple ivy grew and rain water dripped down into basins. But this was all by design, great care was made to have the cave be a welcoming place. All around her were the rest of the indigo lantern tribe. Aliens from across the universe sat in the light or hovered in place chanting a language only she could recognise because of her indigo ring, the language of the indigo tribe. Even though they seemed welcoming and peaceful, deep down Zatanna knew that every one of them were at one time the absolute worst creatures in the galaxy: psychopaths, murderers, tyrants, warlords. Each of them was a monster without a shred of compassion. Now they are forced to feel nothing BUT compassion.

Looking up to a woman with indigo tattoos all over her body and her black hair in cornbraids draping down like a ponytail behind her back, she was basking in the moonlight with her staff on her lap. Looking up, Zatanna cleared her throat to get her attention. Quickly, the woman opened her pitch-black eyes and looked down with a warm smile. “Yes sister? What brings you back to Nok?” Asked Indigo-1, her voice a calm soothing thing, almost motherly.

“I’ve… Never been here before… I’ve come to get a ring.”

“You have a ring already tribe sister.” Indigo-1 stated, gently reaching down to hold Zatanna’s hand and smile down at the ring on her finger. “And I sense you’ve been VERY compassionate indeed.”

“It’s not for me… It is for a friend; she is a vampire like me. If the ring can bring her back, it would make a lot of my friends happy.”

Understanding, Indigo-1 nodded and pointed deeper into the cave where a soft glow could be seen. “Our battery core is there sister. Nok!”

“Yeah… Nok!” Bowing slightly in thanks, Zatanna went deeper into the cave, bowing to each indigo lantern who greeted her until she was all alone in the main chamber. The chamber itself was lit solely by the indigo metal construct at the heart of the cave, a soft indigo light filling the cave room and filling it with a sense of peace and caring, in its glow she wanted to help people, help everyone she cared about, even her enemies. She wanted to help Oliver and Dinah get back together, she wanted to help Talia find peace like she did, she wanted to help DRACULA let go of his pain, to be closer to Bruce and sooth his troubles. It was painful… and wonderful all at once. Stepping closer, she found another Indigo Lantern crouched in front of the core, where over a dozen rings orbited the cloaked figure clutching his staff tightly to keep standing.

“I am the keeper of the core… What is your business here?” Asked the hooded stranger, his face invisible behind the heavy cloak.

“I seek another indigo lantern ring, to save the soul of a friend I care about.”

Nodding in response, the hunched and hooded figure waved his hand to shoo the rings away as if they were flies, keeping his hands closed and wrapped tightly around the staff he used to prop himself up. “The ring CHOOSES who its wearer shall be, not you. Even if I were to grant you a ring, it would fly off to find another wielder, otherwise it would have sought your friend out already.”

Sunken and disappointed, Zatanna crossed her arms to hug herself, she wanted to cry but deep down she knew he was right. She remembered now, she was not ‘given’ the ring, it shot to her hand during the war. Seeing her as the most heartless creature it had ever seen. If Dinah had become as horrible as her over the last 5 years, she would have had a ring by now. “What do I do then?”

Scratching his chin, the robed indigo lantern gestured up to the roof of the cave. “There are other rings, other powers, other lights that come from the ONE light, the light of all. The white light has the power… to create life.”

“I COULD BRING HER BACK TO LIFE?!” Gasped Zatanna, blinking in shock at the implication. “I CAN BRING BACK JOHN!”

“The white lanterns are legendary but forbidden, for their power is unlimited. With all seven rings you would wield the powers of life and death itself.”

“How? Where? Where do I start?” She pleaded, a new sense of hope in her to save her friends and herself.

“The ring will show you the way.”

Clutching her hand, Zatanna bowed in thanks and ran out of the cave as fast as she could, exiting the lair of the Indigo tribe to stand out in the dawning light of morning over the horizon. Looking down to her lantern ring, the vampire brought her ring to her lips. “Tell me where the nearest lantern corps is.”

“The nearest lantern corps is on the planet Zamaron, the Violet Lantern Corps.” Her ring answered mechanically.

Kissing her ring, Zatanna raised her fist in the air. “Take me to Zamaron!” Enveloped in indigo light once against, Zatanna shot straight up into the sky, leaving a trail of indigo light in her wake as she left the Nok system, now with a new purpose.

*

Seeing Zatanna leave in a hurry, Indigo-1 knelt off the ledge she was meditating on and entered the core room where the battery was stored. Once inside, she found the hunched and hooded figure, chuckling to himself while still shooing the rings away from him.

“Who are you? You are not of the indigo corps.”

“Is that Iroque I hear? Ah it’s a shame what happened to you, you would have murdered across the stars for no other reason than for your own amusement, now look at you!”

Narrowing her eyes, Indigo-1 clutched her staff more tightly. “I do not go by that name anymore.”

“I KNOW… Sickening, and all because of these little nuisances.” The robed man hissed, flicking several rings out of his sight. “Even without that damned ring on, you are beyond my touch now.”

On her guard, the leader of the indigo lanterns confronted the now smiling robed figure as he stood straight, revealing he was much taller than he let on before snapping his fingers and changing his appearance to a handsome man in a black business suit. “Who are you? What are you doing in this place?”

Tilting his head back with a smirk, the stranger crossed his arms and kept his fingers clenched to avoid one of the rings coming to him. “Straight to the point, I always liked that. In reverse order, I am here to clean up a pet project I started back on Earth, sigh… She would have done me proud! She would have been a blight that would blot out the stars, NOW I have sent her on a wild goose chase for a white lantern ring, you know what happens to the undead in the presence of white light? POOF!” The man gestured with his outstretched arms, miming an explosion. “One less mistake to worry about.”

“And the matter of who?”

Rolling his eyes, the stranger stuck his hands in his pockets and spun around on his tailored shoes almost playfully. “Please tell me you’ve at least heard my song?” Getting a confused look from Indigo-1, the man’s smirk turned to a cruel grin.

“Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste… I've been around for a long, long year…Stole many a man's soul to waste.” Suddenly the stranger burst into shadow and disappeared from sight, forcing Indigo-1 to cover her eyes, when she looked back, she found nothing of the stranger save for the tail tip of a snake slithering into the cracks between the stone floor.