Sell you a Bridge chapter 297

June 15th 2016 Shadowcrest, Earth -11, 3:00 PM EDT

As we stepped inside and pushed back our hoods, Johanna's eyes raked over  us assessingly. We closed the door behind us, and I saw her staring at  all of us, but especially at John and Zee. I think Zee took a bit longer  to recognize because of her elven heritage, but Sindella's appearance  seemed to solidify her suspicions. "Right, you lot aren't from around  here are you? A bit of resemblance from cousins is fine, but that kid  looks like me, and I know I don't have any brats or relatives running  around. Plus something about him feels...familiar."

I  nodded to John, letting him know he could take point here. This was him  after all, or at least a much older female version of him. Weirdly, he  was taking this better than I'd expected. I guess growing up on the  Street of Gods and training under John Taylor would do that for you. He  looked her over. "My name is John Constantine. I'm a private detective  and...I suspect I'm a version of you from another world."

Much  like our John, Johanna hardly seemed phased. "Right, well that explains  it. Bit young aren't you? Or are you from an earlier timeline? Alright,  what is it this time? You here for some kind of ancient artifact to  save your world from destruction? Or is this one of the ones where you  try to ritually sacrifice me to become more powerful, because I'm  warning you, I wasn't bluffing about the defenses I set up in here."

She  was glaring at John suspiciously, but our brit just put both hands up  placatingly. "No, nothing like that. We're stuck here, trying to figure  out how to leave and we need a place to lie low. Maybe some info if you  can spare it." He looked around uncomfortably. "Is it...I know it's  probably shit to bring up, but what happened to Zachary." He gestured to  Zee. "He would've been a version of Zee as far as I can tell. I think  she's probably curious about what went wrong there."

Johanna  turned to look at Zee, giving her a once over. "The elf thing is a bit  strange, but I can't fault you for your taste. She's even cuter than  mine. " She gave Zee a wink. "To answer your question, the same thing  that happened to almost everyone else in the city. The Drowned  happened." Her face hardened with grief and anger. "Crazy bitch. All of  this is her fault."

I  stepped up next to Zee, feeling the urge to put an arm around her.  "First of all, he's not with Zee, I am. Second of all, who or what is  The Drowned. Is that another name for the Atlanteans that attacked? Or  those weird fucking red things that tried to kill us on the way here? We  were able to find out a bit of basic info from a newspaper, but we have  no clue what the hell actually happened here. Care to fill us in?"

That  got a raised eyebrow from the blonde woman. "Right, all of you come  inside. I need a bloody drink if I'm talking about this. I can still  turn you to chunks if you try to hurt me, so be on your best behavior."  She led us into a dining room, before pouring herself a double of scotch  and slumping into a chair. She took a long pull off the drink. "Ok,  before we got further, why don't you all introduce yourselves. Some of  you I think I know, some of you I decidedly do not. Best get this out of  the way."

"That's  fair." I said with a shrug. "So, you know John, Sindella, Zatanna, and  I." Pointed to Artemis. "This is my other girlfriend Beautiful Dreamer,  my best friend Artemis Crock, my daughter Morana, her boyfriend Wally  West, my cousin Kitrina Falcone, John's Mentor John Taylor, my mentor  Jim Craddock, Suzie Shooter, also known as Shotgun Suzie, Kit's  boyfriend Eddie whose last name I never asked, and my sometimes teacher  Tommy Oblivion, the existential detective." I said all that in a single  breath, possible using my ghostly nature to avoid breathing.

Johanna  finally looked shocked. "Wait...Artemis Crock, as in Arthur Crock? I  mean leaving aside you being a Falcone, I'm assuming you're another  version of Wendy West, as in the Flash? And Tiger King is an elf where  you're from?" She shook her head in amazement. "Bloody other dimensions.  I shouldn't be surprised, but some shit still gets to me. That's an  interesting group you've got with you kid. I've never heard of a Falcone  named Morgan, but I admit Gotham wasn't always my stomping ground so I  probably wouldn't have."

Wally  cut in as soon as she stopped talking. "Wait. What do you mean the  Flash? I was Kid Flash for a while before I retired. Are you saying I  was the Flash here? What about Uncle Bar- I mean what about the previous  Flash? What happened to him?" His voice sounded raw and afraid, but  after a second he grimaced and shook his head. "No. Sorry. Tell us what  happened to Gotham. I...I can wait until later to hear more about me.  This is more important. I didn't mean to pull us off track."

The  expression on Johanna's face was almost soft as she looked at Wally.  Not romantic or anything. But fond. I got the impression she had known  Wendy, and liked her. She shook that off. "Right. Gotham then. Where to  start. So the easiest place is probably a few years ago. Sylvester Kyle,  also known as Catman, was murdered. Batwoman and he were...complicated,  but close. She went off the deep end when he died and started hunting  down villains who had a hand in it. At first. After they were dead she  was hunting any meta she could find. She killed dozens of people."

I  winced, trying to imagine serial killer Batman. That sounded  terrifying. Something about the whole Catman thing tickled my memory  though, and having perfect recall I got it fast. Catman, Sylvester Kyle  was dating Bryce Wayne. Bryce Wayne was Batwoman. Dick Grayson was Robin  when we were younger, and lived with BRUCE Wayne which would make  him...well shit. I had robbed Batman. I felt like a fucking moron for  never putting that together, but in my defense Bruce Wayne was such a  himbo it was just ludicrous to think of him being Batman. Which I  guessed was probably the point. I'd always assumed Dick just snuck out  to do crime fighting like I snuck out to do crime.

I  focused back on Johanna, who was still talking. "With Batwoman off the  reservation the city actually got quiet for a while, but a few months  ago Aquawoman showed up with a bunch of new metas. She claimed she was  here to forge diplomatic ties with the land. Turned out Aquawoman was  having an affair with Wonder Man for years. Batwoman had killed her  lover and she was out for revenge. It didn't work out well for her.  Batwoman killed her, and in a rage the rest of Atlantis declared open  war on the surface, and pretty much said 'fuck Gotham city in  particular'."

This  place was a fucking shithole. I'd though our Gotham was garbage, but  this place was worse. Not just dirty and crime ridden (well, less crime  now after the water apocalypse) but also WET? Gross. I cleared my  throat. "Ok, that all sucks, but what the hell happened to Batwoman? And  what the actual fuck are those red things?"

Johanna  shrugged. "After Batwoman killed Aquawoman the Atlanteans hit Gotham  with a massive tidal wave. Killed millions. She went underground, and  when she resurfaced, she was...different. She stole Aquawomans trident  to kill her, and when she came back she was wielding it like the queen  of the seas herself. She could breathe and control water, and she had an  army of mutated monstrosities she called Dead Waters with her. She  killed off the Atlanteans, and then kept on going, killing everyone left  in Gotham she could reach. The started calling her The Drowned."

I  froze. "Wait...so Zee's other self was killed by evil female Batman  with Aquaman powers? That's so fucked up." I slumped back into my own  chair. "This place is awful. We need to get home. Do you think we can  have access to the library? If anywhere on earth has the necessary  information to get the fuck out of this hellworld it's here." I didn't  want to be in the fucking dark multiverse for any longer than needed.  Barbatos would notice us eventually, and we needed to get moving before  that happened.

The  blonde brit sighed. "I would normally say hell no. But...Zachary gave  me this house. I don't think I even can refuse you entry into the  library if you're Zatara blood. Plus it's not like you can fuck this  world up any worse. As long as you aren't planning to murder me for  power this is one of the more harmless instances of dimensional  traveling I've seen. Get what you need. You can't stay for long, trust  me when I say that being alone in here with only me isn't safe. I have  methods for keeping The Drowned from attacking, but having others around  actively impedes them."

Sighing  in relief, I nodded. "That's fine. We want to get gone as quick as we  can. We just need to figure out..." What? We knew this was the dark  multiverse. All I could think of was learning fucking magic from the  ground up to compare it and find out how metaphysics worked differently  here. Maybe that way we could figure out how Rana could get us back  home. It would have been impossible if we hadn't had an entire master  level magic research team here. Between Sindella, Jim, Zee, John, and  hell even me when it came to things like the void and travel, we might  have a shot at this.

We  thanked Johanna and headed for the library first thing, though John  stayed behind to talk. I think he had a lot of questions about Johanna's  past and how she ended up here. I wasn't sure I would have wanted to  know about the life of a version of me in such obvious pain, but I  wasn't John. It was his call if he wanted to ask questions he might not  want the answers to.

Zee  and I walked towards the library, and I took her hand as she looked  around this strange parody of her childhood home. She had so many  memories in a place just like this, but so much different. Not all good  ones, but not all bad, and seeing this strange hell world version of a  place she had at one point felt safe was jarring. I felt through the  bond how confused and agitated she was, but my girl kept it together.  The same easy relaxed manner she always had. When we first got together I  wouldn't have even known.

But  I did now, and I wasn't the only one. Drea stepped from behind Zee,  reaching up to run her hand through our girl's hair. She smiled at our  sorceress, then at me. "I see great minds thing alike. I thought you  might need someone to talk to. It seems I wasn't the only one." She  pulled Zee into a huge, letting our girlfriend rest her head on her  shoulder. "How are you doing love? Is there any way I can help?"

Zee  shook her head against Drea's shoulder. "I just...seeing this is  just...it reminds me of what happened to my dad. Of what happened to mom  before I got her back. So much loss, and death, and horror. Even I  died. Or at least this version of me." I could hear the tears in her  voice. She sounded so lost, so empty. I wrapped them both in my arms and  held them as Zee cried. No one interrupted us.