"Father, Zeus, I pray you answer. I...am lost. Guide me. You- you claimed me, blessed me with your power, so hear me now. Please..."

Clasped hands breaking apart, Diana rose to greet the one whose footsteps had disturbed her peace. She turned back and stared out of the glass, knowing she was under no threat.

"Diana, are you alright?" The Martian asked, approaching.

The Amazon sighed, rubbing her temples.

"I don't know J'onn. I truly don't know." She lay a hand against the cool window, her palm covering the Earth from her vision.

Ever intuitive, J'onn ventured, "Is it your gods?"

She looked to him and frowned, despairing, "My father..."

"Zeus." J'onn joined her in watching the Earth below. Eyes tracing the lines in her forehead, J'onn continued, "You connected to him, to his power, when we were fighting in the Aegean. Is that what is troubling you?"

In spite of the inner turmoil, Diana appreciated the characteristically J'onn J'onzz manner in which he spoke: quiet, attentive, and soothing; the sort of voice that could command a room with a single whisper or sing a baby to sleep.

Diana ran a hand over her hair (tied back as usual) and admitted, "Truthfully J'onn, I am having difficulties processing it." She held out her hands. "I still feel that electric power, his power, in my veins- traces of it."

The lack of the characteristic surety in her eyes was concerning; J'onn tilted his head to better see her face. He wishes to resolve her problem, "What is hard to process for you?"

She shrugged her shoulders before thinking.

"I..." the Amazon frowned, pressing her lips together. Diana then turned squarely to J'onn, saying, "All my life I have tried to reach Zeus. And for how many years have I walked the Earth?" She barked a mirthless laugh. "Now he has reached down, for a single moment, and I do not know what to do."

They stared at one another, in comfortable, contemplative silence. She searched for a lifeline in his eyes, an answer of sorts to her wandering soul.

The Martian's gaze found Earth and his heart warmed as a guardian over their ward. J'onn reached out and grasped Diana's hand gingerly. Her eyebrows subconsciously raised in surprise at the move, but she let her hand rest in his all the same.

"What you do now, Diana," he stressed, "is what you have always done."

She frowned, half-understanding his meaning.

"The gods have been threatened by the actions of these cults, Zeus intervened on that condition. It is unwise to spend time pining for more from the gods when you have never needed them before." He squeezed her hand, "Be sure of your faith, certainly, but there is no reason to let it consume you- not when so many depend upon your protection down there."

The light of Athena shone through his words; WonderWoman dipped her head in acknowledgement and straightened her spine. "Your words are as wise as even J'onn. Thank you. My purpose has not changed." Her eyes grew keen as she squared her jaw, looking down at the Earth. "This one touch of Zeus was a blessing. If there are more to come then I shall accept them gladly."

Diana rolled back her shoulders and clicked her neck, her sword itching for combat at her side. taking her shift in mood with great relief, J'onn allowed himself the simple luxury of observing the resolve beneath her skin, tightening her muscles.

"It is as you say J'onn, it is unwise to pine for the gods when my dures await on Earth. Thank you again." She said, and rose a few centimetres from the ground to place an unexpected kiss upon his cheek.

Diana marched from the room with a pleasant smile and a clear mind, leaving a charmed Martian in her wake.
***

Damian was a person who, Raven found, was extremely selective with his patience. On occasion, she'd seen him sit for hours staring fixated at a wall for the improvement of his concentration skills. She'd also witnessed Damian throw a man out of a window sixteen storeys high for breathing too loudly.

Magic and Damian were an interesting mix. For instance, a week prior, he'd worked on a single spell for basic water extraction for three hours with not a single word of complaint- hardly a word at all in fact- in spite of his minimal of success. However, at the moment, Damian was screaming at a pile of leaves, twigs, and strange thingamabobs, and had been doing so for the last five minutes.

Rave suppressed a laugh and buried her forehead in her palm.

"Damian..." she began. "If you've finished..."

He folded his arms and humphed, "No, as a matter of fact, I'm not finished illustrating to these worthless attempts at ingredients how utterly worthless they are. I've known rocks with more life in them than these damn leaves." Damian threw his hands up before pushing himself off of the grass.

As his feet marked angry, trampling paths around a flower bed, Raven tapped in to her empathic abilities too gouge the depth of his frustration: the dents between his eyebrows and the tightness of his fists had been too severe for him to just be annoyed. And there it was, laying just under the dark cloud of Anubis' joint aura- a shimmering ring of pale blue encasing Damian. That was hurt, deep, emotional hurt.

Not seeing any apparent reason for such sentiments regarding a little more complex Earthly magic, Raven stood and probed, "Damian, have you had any experience with earthly magic before -I mean, outside of what we've done together?"

He paused at her question, placing his hands in his pockets put of habit.

Please Damian, won't you tell her? It will feel better once you get it off your shoulders.

There was more of a sting in Damian's words than he'd intended as the boy snapped, Thank you, Anubis. But if I wanted psychiatric analysis, I'd get myself sectioned.

He apologised a moment later, but the damage had already been done. Training his eyes mutely on the assortment of spell ingredients below, Damian's thoughts returned to his incompetence and he frowned. His knees found their way to the ground of their own accord; he crossed his legs and picked at the grass.

By the approaching rustling, Damian knew Raven was coming to console him- to pick apart his defences and lay his heard bare for her to hold. The frown receded and he looked up at her with his eyes wide and searching.

Raven sat across from him, their knees almost touching, and stripped back her mental walls. If he was upset- vulnerable- then so too would she be, leaving only the prison of her father fortified in her mind.

"Have I..." he pulled out a stray daisy from the ground amongst the grass, casting it away absently. Damian realised his nervous actions and dusted off his hands, clasping them tightly in his lap. He spoke to her intently, blinking away the glare of the sun. "Have I ever spoke to you about my grandmother?"

Raven was taken aback, "No...only in passing. I assume you aren't referring to-" she thought of the name- "Martha Wayne..."

"I'm speaking of my grandmother of my mother's side who..." he took a shaky breath, "was the dearest person to me in infancy." Damian glanced up to gouge Raven's reaction: her legs were tucked up to her chest and she rester her chin a top them. His words were received without comment or judgement, simply by eyes that listened as much as her ears.

Damian continued, "It is...vexing... to struggle with this enchantment. Grandmother (as you could well imagine considering my lineage) was a witch of sorts. Her aptitude for Earthly magic was renowned in the region." He smiled distantly, "Khadija Al-Azraq."

Raven's eyes were saucers.

"No...that's your grandmother?" She held the ground for stability. "That Khadija Al-Azraq? The stuff of legends! Why she is practically the mother of modern magical medicine." Raven looked around as if hoping to find other spectators to share in the shock with. "Her written works have carried generations of elemental witches and healers!" Raven snorted in disbelief, "By Azar those are hard footsteps to-"

She clocked Damian's deadpan expression and shut up.

Clearing his throat, Damian continued, "Lately I have been thinking of her more and more often- perhaps this was a step over the precipice. Certainly, grandmother could have mastered this enchantment with a snap of her fingers."

Could have... Raven thought of the figure whose name laced the books cherished in her shelves. Surely the great Khadija had passed away?

"Your grandmother, is she-"

Damian surprised her, "Not dead, no. But missing." He sighed, "I spent years looking behind father's back but...no trace of her."

Then the lightbulb pinged something glorious.

The demon, the witch, the magician in front of him...his wonderful Raven...perhaps she could-

"-Do a locator spell?" Raven finished the thought for him. "It is worth a try at least." She reached forward and took Damian's hands in her own. "If you know that she hasn't passed away, the least I can do is help like this."

He raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

The stupidity of her boyfriend was ever-alarming to the witch.

"Because, Damian, I love you..." she cocked her head and grinned, "aaand perhaps because I would never refuse the offer of meeting Khadija Al-Azraq."

A.N:

Yes, I will admit that this is one of my shittier chapters but at this stage in life, none of us are looking our best.
Also fascists lay siege to the American capital which is disgusting from one perspective, but also almost amusing from an outsider position. Welp, since you can't do one abroad because of covid, America had to have a coup at home. Seriously, the entirety of Latin America and the Middle East watching the outrage about America 'a beacon of democracy' facing this like o.O huh???
💅and that's on Evo Morales honey 💅 periodt

Okay now that I've recovered from the cringe of that last, unmentionable word, I love you all my darlings!!!!

-Bats :3