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Characters: Zatanna & Batman || Zatanna & Robin
Date: Following the events of this, this, and this.
Location: Wood Sector
Situation: Zatanna has a little birdie to talk to about everything going on...but first, there's a bat to glare at.
Warnings/Rating: potential discussions of trauma, violence, burn victims, and all that other post-Zombie Apocalypse fun stuff.

She was going to go gray before she turned 15.

Zatanna barely had time to recover from the news Annabeth gave her, before some red-haired idiot decided to plaster her smug face all over the Network, along with the Helmet of Fate. Which meant the Emperor would know it had been stolen. And that Zatanna wanted it back. Then, to make matters worse, some anonymous bringer of joy announced they'd been carrying a potential second Zombie Epidemic in the making. And that they could have already infected others. Because yeah, sure, why not?

Her head was aching and her stomach churned and she needed to talk to Robin. He needed to know about Eva, and she needed to know he hadn't holed up again after reading that text. She'd left her window open all day in hopes that he might show up. No luck.

What she hadn't expected was the person who did; the swish of the cape alerted her to his presence, eyes widening when she recognized its source. Then, Zatanna Zatara did what any sane teenager would do when coming face-to-face with Batman himself.

She glared.

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[He'd shrug if this were his Zatanna. The one that knew him well enough to lie to him and get away with it for... longer than he liked.]

Your feelings aren't a factor.

Uh, yeah, they kind of are.

I'm the one being spied on here for no reason. And your overdeveloped sense of paranoid doesn't count.

In this line of work, Zatanna, they aren't. If you don't want the scrutiny, find another job. One that doesn't put you in a position of power over others and increased vulnerability towards external manipulations. Or can you promise me that there's no chance of you ever succumbing to someone else's influence? Can you swear that there's no way you would ever be taken over by a spell, an artefact, an alien? That your abilities would never be turned against your friends, or innocent lives?

Like it or not, doing this work makes you a target. Doing it publicly makes everyone you know a target. Your feelings are not worth someone else's life. Ever. I don't care how slim the chance, it's not one I'm willing to take.

[There's a barely contained anger just beneath the surface of her words. It's about all he can do not to tell her she's being childish. It's the first time he's had to stop and forcibly remind himself that she's not his Zatanna. Not the woman he knows, the one he's had so much history with. She's being childish because she is a child.

But that doesn't mean it doesn't make him angry.]

[No, she wasn't a child. Not in her own mind. She was a 14-year-old girl who, admittedly, was still new to this kind of life. Sure, she knew what it was like to be the daughter of a Leaguer. A girl whose father purposely shielded her from the spotlight he lived in because he wanted to keep her safe. Whose entire battle experience consisted of a vague affiliation with a Team with whom she had shared maybe two and a half missions with. Each of which had just...fallen on her.]

[Part of her knew this. That, on some level, he was right. She had power. That was something she couldn't change. Something she didn't want to change. Technically, she had even already succumb to another's 'influence'--though not in the way he insinuated. She made her choices, and she would continue to defend it, no matter who told her otherwise.]

[Even if that other person was Batman.]

No. I can't promise any of that. [Her voice was low. Like she was trying to keep from screaming at him with all the frustration of someone facing a lose-lose argument.] But what about you?

You're giving me this whole speech about trust and scrutiny, and yet you're standing here, expecting me to trust you when, right now? You're basically saying I'm one step away from betraying everyone I care about. And I'm supposed to be okay with this, because I 'chose' this life? You don't trust me, you haven't trusted me since the moment I showed up, and I want to know why.

[She wants to know. How much of what he can say will become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Does this version of Zatanna even know she has the power to alter minds? Is telling her a sign of trust, or the first stepping stone to damnation?

He releases a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. If he refuses, she becomes increasingly suspicious, and he creates the same sort of woman who would erase his mind.

At least then, he knows it would be on him. His choices. His actions. It's a measure of control he might not be afforded if Kyle decides to tell her. Or Clark.]

The Zatanna in my time betrayed me. She - along with several others - held me down and erased my memory of an incident they knew I would never condone. I don't think she was counting on my being able to recall it later.

You aren't her. I can accept that. You are growing up in a time when you aren't my contemporary or even close to it. The circumstances of your life are entirely different. I am not judging you by your potential for unspeakable acts. But your magic makes you a threat, just as my abilities do me. The League is here in case I stumble, in case I fall victim of or party to some influence I can't fight off. But I'm here in case the rest of you do, and I won't apologize for that.

Edited (added a bit) 2013-02-20 03:12 (UTC)

[That stopped her oncoming rant cold.]

[She inhaled sharply. Color draining from her face. "She" did--and he-- Suddenly, it all made sense. She'd been right all along; he was essentially blaming her for something she hadn't done. Something the other Zatanna had done.]

[And she understood why.]

I...

[She what? She would never? Apparently not.]

...I'm not that powerful. I'm nowhere near that powerful.

[Right then, she felt like that was the only thing she could offer him: full admittance to her own inadequacy.]

Maybe if I was, we wouldn't all be trapped here like this.

[Oh, Zatanna. He knows so much better than to blame you for things that might never come to pass for you.]

Don't. If you start beating yourself up about that, you'll never stop.

[He's speaking from experience, although it isn't obvious. If Bruce were half as intelligent as everyone around him expects him to be, he'd have solved the problem of Keeliai some months ago now.]

Our remaining trapped here has about as much to do with your inability as it does with Superman's. This isn't on you.

Yeah, I know.

[That was a lie. She didn't know what she knew right then. Her mind was still a whir from the thought that, in some universe, there was a version of her wiping other people's minds. Hard as she might've tried to disassociate herself...the possibility was still there.]

I still don't like this. [That wasn't going to change anytime soon. Though her words were no longer defiant. It had gone from difficult to argue with him to near impossible.] ...but...I sort of get why now. A little.

[Begrudging acceptance.]

One more question.

[He says nothing, tacit permission that she can ask whatever it is she wants to know.]

[Oh, that list was endless. But for right now, stick with the one thing still partially relevant to this conversation.]

Does Robin know?

[She knew the two of them were pretty close. Robin obviously trusted enough to be willing to share just about everything on their end. And since this was about her, she needed to know if he'd ever made any attempts at 'warning' him. However discreetly.]

No. It's none of his business.

[The answer is without hesitation.]

It kind of is a little, actually.

[Though no small part of her is inwardly sighing in relief.]

If you want him to know, tell him yourself. But it isn't any more relevant to him than it is to you. The actions of the Zatanna I know have nothing to do with who you are as a person, or who you might choose to be.

[... trying. to be comforting.

not particularly succeeding.

but trying anyway.]

Except for the part where they made you forever suspicious of any me you ever meet again.

[Trying. To not still be bratty about this.]

[But she does have a point.]

I'm no more suspicious of you than I am of anyone else.

[You an be a brat all you like, you really can't fight him on that point.]

Well, now I feel less special.

[She will, actually. And thank you for the permission.]

[...except, no, she wouldn't fight him on it.]

I don't know. I have to think.

This...isn't exactly something you hear every day, you know?

No.

[He raises an eyebrow. It's not quite obvious beneath the cowl, but there is a general sense of 'are we done here'? in his overall posture. He came to check up on her, and has accomplished that goal. If she has nothing further to say, he's going to leave.]

[It takes her a moment. She hasn't become fluent in bat-speak yet, and the translation has to filter through before she realizes what he's nonverbally asking her.]

...hey, you're the one who showed up here in the first place.

Come to think of it, why did you show up here? [She highly doubted it was so he could explain himself.]

I heard what happened during the Jiangshi invasion.

[unspoken: 'I wanted to make sure you were all right. Belatedly'.]

[...oh. That.]

[Well, since they were already taking the honest route:]

Which part? The part where your son pulled me out of the water, half-dead, or the part where he then blew up someone close to both of us right in front of me?

Both.

[... Hey, he's Batman.]

[Yes, he is.]

[So she shrugs in response, out of a lack of anything else to do. Just because she wasn't as repressed as he was didn't mean she was about to go spilling all her most inner thoughts on the matter.]

What do you want me to say about it? It sucked, and I'd just as soon never have to witnesses something like that again...but I also have this nagging feeling it won't be the last thing that happens to us here.

[Translation: she's about as okay as she's ever going to be]

Hn.

[Well, there isn't much he can say to that, is there? She may not have made her peace with it, but he knows personal avoidance when he sees it, and there's no reason for him to push the issue.]

Next time you're in trouble, contact me. I'll come if I can.

[... and with that he's just going to. Pull one of his Patented Batman Disappearing Acts.]

...why does he always have to have the last word?

[Despite everything, she manages an eye roll as she gets up. Well, that was fun.]

[Still...as if one heavy conversation hadn't been enough for the day, there was still one more she needed to have....]

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