“There you are,” John said, making Raven jump. I turned to face him, having been too focused on the TV to feel him coming. He had a plate of food in hand, and he was busy scooping it into his mouth. “Oh right, I forgot I had a telly.” 

“Did you forget to mention I apparently saved Metropolis?” I asked, pointing at the screen. The news seemed to surprise Raven. She looked back to the masked figures then to me, trying to see the resemblance. 

“No, I figured you would find out sooner or later,” he said boredly. He moved to the couch, sitting on it as he stared at the TV as well. “Quite the feat. How did you make so many of yourself?”

“I have no fucking idea,” I said truthfully. “This says it was like nine days ago. Did you know I did this? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You know I’m psychic, right?” He asked as if I was the stupidest person in the world. 

“I knew you fucking knew. Why else would you suddenly feel comfortable to go to the underground vampire dungeon with only me as a bodyguard?” 

“You’re not wrong,” he said with a tired sigh. “But I didn’t know for sure until I saw your mind. That pink heart is a little distinct,” he said with a shrug. “As you said when we met, this was an equivalent exchange. I help you, and you’ve helped me.” 

“What the fuck,” I spat. “So I’m from Metropolis? Dealing with this super powered shit. I was fucking helping Superman there. Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this? I could have gone there to figure my shit out.” 

“No idea, but you help people. And I need help,” he said, uncaring of my annoyance.  

“How the hell do you know I’m still going to help you?”

“I saw it in your mind. Besides, I have eyes,” he said with a nod. “They’ve been playing this news broadcast non-stop. I knew you right away. I could feel you were in distress from losing your memory so I thought, why not let you follow along? Let a hero that does a lot for strangers,” he pointed at the screen, “assist me.”  

“Why though?” 

“Because you’re strong,” he said with a laugh as if it were obvious. He pointed at me fighting a super-villain with powers similar to Superman. We were floating high above the water, attacking and retreating, while copies of me helped people around the city escape the wreckage. “I didn’t want to go to the Vampire Court without some backup.”

“So you used me?” I asked, not sure how to feel about it.

 
“We used each other,” he said. “You’ve been getting memories back, right?”

“Yeah,” I said with a frown. And my quest notification thing said I was a wanted criminal. I wasn’t sure why I had been wearing a mask in these fights, but apparently it was to hide my identity. The question was, was I a criminal for helping Superman, or some other reason I didn’t know of. The news focused on me helping save and find people, but I had also been fighting the guy I assumed was perhaps Bizzaro Superman, since he looked sickly and had the same powers as the man of Steel. Though I wasn’t doing near the damage as Superman, I was at least putting up a fight to stall him and draw the villain from the city. 

“Either way, it all worked out,” John said. 

“No it didn’t, I still have no idea how I lost my memories,” I said. “Or why I was fighting in Metropolis.” I wondered if maybe my third quest in DC World involved helping Superman. That would make some sense. Maybe that was what I did, jumped worlds and completed quests for some stupid reason. 

“Obviously you wanted to help,” Raven said. “They said the death toll would have been a lot higher without you.” Her Haki had shifted greatly while she watched the news. From fear to more than a little awe, and finally to something closer to want maybe. I frowned, the girl was 16 and despite who I was in the past, I had no interest in the age gap. I had studied myself in the mirror and I was pretty sure I was closer to John’s age, in my thirties.  

I frowned, not really sure what to do or think. On one hand, I must have had a reason for what I did. Though it seemed stupid to me now, old me had to have a plan, right? I frowned, for some reason that didn’t feel right. I wasn’t the best at plans. At least I didn’t think I was. 

I tried to guilt John some more for manipulating me, but he grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. “Alright, enough of that.”

“What?” I asked. 

“Awww,” Raven said, her mood far better than before. 

“You can jerk off to yourself in your own time, for now, we have to work,” he said. “After all the research I could manage, and once I called in a few favors, I found Myrddin should be in the Americas.”

“Back home,” I said, perking up as I shoveled more food in my face. 

“Yeah,” John said, uncaring. “Either way I need to narrow down where he is, and there are only a few people that could find him.” He said the words as if he regretted what he would have to do. 

“Let me guess, gotta break into hell to ask someone? Maybe bring someone back from the dead?” I asked. 

“You’re not too far off actually,” he said. “Doesn’t matter for now. For the time being I’ve already booked us a plane, so lets go.” He stood up, ready to rumble.

“Booked a plane?” I asked. “Like a private plane?” I asked. 

“I don’t fly commercial,” he said as if that was an impossibility. “Besides I’m psychic. If I wasn’t rich, I’d be a dumb psychic.”

“Yeah, but your house is a mess,” I said, following him as he left. 

“This house, yes,” he said. Implying he had many more. “Don’t worry about it. I still need a driver, and I’ll keep the gawkers and paparazzi away from you, Mr. Hero.” 

“Great,” I said, rolling my eyes, but to be honest, he had a point. I didn’t want anyone to know who I was with my memories gone. If I was fighting someone Superman had trouble with on television, I was a somebody in the real world. Which meant I had enemies. The last thing I wanted was for them to find out I was not near as strong as I used to be. 

—

Raven was curled up into a tiny ball on the leather seat beside me. Her robe acting as clothes and a blanket I regretted not pushing to stop at some stores earlier. I had no luggage or change of wardrobe, and Constantine was too busy reading from the library of thick tomes he pulled out from his jacket to answer questions. 

“You know she can talk, right?” I asked, pointing at Tabi. The cat was sitting next to him in another leather chair. On the privately chartered plane we were over the ocean heading for North America. 

“Who?” John asked, looking up from his book. 

“The cat, her name is Tabi,” I said. “She can speak English and everything.”

“Are you sure?” He asked with a frown as he looked down at the cat. 

“I’m positive, you can’t sense her with magic or telekinesis or whatever?” I asked. 

“Uh no,” he said, closing the books for once. He leaned to look at Tabi. “Can you really talk?” Tabi looked up at him then meowed.

“You fucker,” I said. “I heard her fucking talk.” I felt crazy, but pretty sure I wasn’t. Mostly I was bored. Though we got right onto the plane, it was still over an 8 hour flight, and I wasn’t tired. My mind trying to remember stuff I just wasn’t recalling anything about fighting with Superman. 

“I believe you,” John said and went back to his book. 

“You do?” I asked, surprised.

John rolled his eyes and closed the book. Looking back to the lone stewardess, she was busy in the small kitchen near the front of the plane. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, the stewardess probably oblivious thanks to his psychic powers. 

“I can tell you want to talk,” he said. “What do you want to say?”

“I mean…kinda,” I admitted. “Dude, what was that? Could I really have been fighting alongside Superman?”

“Sure, why not?” He asked with a shrug. “What does it matter?”

“It matters because I don’t remember dick. Hell not even my own dick. So much about me feels…off. Like I’m not supposed to be here.”

“None of us are supposed to be here,” he said with a chuckle. He took a long drag, closing his eyes as he absorbed the nicotine. “This planet and our species should have died off a long time ago. Hell, I doubt we were even the original inhabitants.” 

“Oh yeah?” I asked, more than willing to hear more about this version of DC. Though I didn’t have memories of everything about DC, I knew me being in the world was off, so this had to be some twisted reality of what I knew. Or perhaps the 20th reboot of Batman. 

“Fuck yeah,” he said. “This planet has been the battleground of many planet destroying battles of literal biblical proportions. Magic has been around for a long time. Otherworldly power that plenty of people want. Drawn to this place, and fighting over it. But thankfully some very powerful people tend to leave us alone.”

“Thanks to Superman?” I asked. 

“Superman has been around for a while, but not that long. No, people like me. The ones that stand on the side of the supernatural. We backstab, make deals, and keep the average person safe and secure. Keeping the true dangers of the world well hidden away, rather than plastered on TV.” He looked out the window, staring down at the ocean for a while.

“Way to toot your own horn there, JC,” I said. 

“I’m simply educating you,” he said. “No one knows about what I do. Just like I don’t know about the secret fights you or Superman have been in. Everyone in the universe is indifferent to us, but somehow they end up fighting for this place, or its people. Earth is special. And for a long time I thought it was because we were unlucky. But honestly, we are the luckiest people in the universe.”

“Why’s that?” 

“Because we are alive. We have made it this far, and with luck we will keep making it farther. All thanks to the unsung heroes. Our ancestors that fought secret wars, made deals with devils, and kept the next generation safe,” he slowly eyed Raven, still curled up like Tabi. 

“That girl is strong. I don’t get much from her, but I know her power is beyond me, and dark, very dark,” he said. I was tempted to mention Trigon but didn’t. “But one day she might prove to be stronger than the power. She could be the next protector of the world that takes up the torch. Or the next evil somebody has to face.”

“True,” I said with a nod, feeling a little better. “So what’s so special about Earth anyway?”

“Who knows?” He asked, shaking his head. Sensing that I was mostly subdued, he picked up his book again. 

I thought for a time. In comics there was always some great evil trying to destroy the world. Either through the destruction of civilization or literal obliteration of the world itself, it didn’t matter. I was somehow at the center of it, or playing some part of it that I didn’t know the script of. In the end, I guessed Constantine was right, it didn’t matter. 

All I was trying to do was live my life. Despite all the weird things of the world coming at me, I was alive thus far, which meant I must have been strong enough to withstand it. I looked up, eyeing Tabi on the chair. 

“She really can fucking talk,” I repeated. 

“Uh huh,” John said, absently listening. 

I let out an annoyed sigh. “Who the fuck are we going to see anyway?” I asked. 

“One of those ancient evils,” John said. “She goes by the Enchantress.” 

"Oh, fuck,” I said. Memories of the first Suicide Squad movie going through my mind. “That old swampy bitch?”

“You know her?” He asked. 

“I don’t think so,” I admitted. “I know of her,” I said with a shrug. A shiver running up my spine I at least hoped I didn’t know her, but only time would tell if that was the truth or not.