LOOTING DC #44. Arcane Threat 1
Wonder Woman knew he was strong. Constantine believed there was something unnatural about him. And Zatanna… she hated the situations he kept dragging them into.
Back when it was Lian, the Justice League Dark had looked like the enemy, even though all they'd tried to do was help. Now it was happening again. With Raven. He was focused on protecting her from any harm, and to him, that meant protecting her from them.
But from the moment they entered this chaos field, the JLD had seen something else entirely. A rare window. A chance to free her.
The threat marker had made it clear. This was a full Trigon breach. But when they arrived, the battlefield told a different story. There was no towering demon king. Just Raven, possessed. Which meant Trigon was inhabiting her body. Which meant he was vulnerable.
They could do the impossible.
Exorcise him.
Not just banish him back to his realm. Not just break his tether.
With the Magdalene Grimoire, they could erase him.
Send Trigon to Oblivion.
So far, the ritual was working. Constantine kept the flow steady. Zatanna reinforced the spell matrix. Wonder Woman stayed on alert, eyes locked on the one threat they still had no answer for.
The Spider.
Trigon was fighting back, screaming through Raven's mouth. Her body shook, twisted by forces trying to tear it apart. Every cry from her lips twisted something in Wonder Woman's gut.
Was she in pain?
Probably. Almost certainly.
Which meant the exorcism was hurting her.
And that made the Spider their enemy again.
Whatever logic they gave it, he wasn't going to let them keep hurting Raven. Not for the greater good.
She heard the Spider's crazed laugh. Harsh and unhinged.
He was moving.
She saw it the second he launched. Web fired toward Raven, fast and precise.
Wonder Woman reacted instantly. The Lasso snapped out, intercepting the web mid-air. She twisted and launched herself between them, landing in his path. The Lasso went taut in her hands, golden light humming as it locked into defense posture.
She glanced sideways, just long enough to catch the falter in Constantine's voice.
"Finish the exorcism," she called. "I'll stall him."
Constantine did not stop chanting, but his voice rasped as he replied.
"He's after the gem."
Raven's gem - the mid-forehead relic anchoring Trigon to her body. If he reached it, he could sever the tether. Free her from the pain.
Sound logic.
But it would shatter the ritual.
And Wonder Woman was not going to let that happen.
"We are not the enemy, you know," she said, her voice steady as steel, facing the still form in front of her.
The Spider.
He wasn't speaking. Barely breathing.
He looked like someone whose soul had already been buried, and the only thing left standing was a body kept upright by a laugh that didn't belong to the living.
Shoulders locked. Every inch of him coiled in a grief too loud to contain, too quiet to name.
He looked broken - and still in the middle of breaking.
Yet he was ready to fight.
Wonder Woman hesitated. The pain in him was undeniable.
"You're... hurting," she said quietly, her grip on the Lasso loosening.
He didn't answer. Just laughed harder, the sound raw and unraveling - then went loose with his webs.
Webs shot forward as he tried lunging past her, aiming straight for the gem.
She moved, deflecting his webs, spinning low, and surging upward with perfect control.
He twisted midair, rebounding off a thread, both wrists snapping forward. Webs lashed out in a wide arc.
She shattered them with her bracers, sparks flashing off gold. In a blink, she closed the distance and threw a precise strike.
He ducked under it, slid across the ground, flipped back, and fired a burst straight at her chest.
She caught it mid-spin, tore through the strands, and pressed forward again.
He disappeared behind her, kicked her spine, and webbed her ankle in the same breath.
She slammed a palm into the ground, anchored herself, and yanked him off balance.
He used the pull to redirect. Whipped upward. Launched high. Then dropped fast like a hammer.
She met him in the air. Their fists collided mid-flight. The impact cracked the sky with a ripple of force.
He broke away, flung a wide net of webs to tangle the battlefield.
She burst through it. Sparks flew off her armor. Their eyes locked.
He landed wide, stance spread. Fired five webs in five directions at once.
She dodged left. Redirected with a shockwave. Collided into him full-force.
He staggered. Recovered. Leapt away. Swung fast.
She was faster.
She caught him in mid-motion. The Lasso snapped forward and coiled around his chest.
It locked him down. He hit the ground hard.
The golden glow of the Lasso flared bright.
Then, without warning, it pulsed red.
A webbed motif sprung to life and spread through the divine cord.
She saw it. For the first time in her life, the Lasso behaved… unpredictably.
It writhed in her grip. Not like a rope possessed. More like a living thing. Coiling. Tensing.
Then it snapped.
Not broken or severed.
It uncoiled in a blur, whipping around the Spider like a cobra lunging for a kill. The strike came for her face.
She moved. Fast. But not fast enough.
The Lasso grazed her cheek. A single lash. Enough to draw blood.
She staggered back, stunned.
The divine cord. Her weapon. Her truth.
It had just turned on her.
The sting still throbbed. The heat of it was real. Her own Lasso had attacked its wielder.
Nothing was known to bewitch it. No demon. No magic. Not even gods.
And yet…
She looked at the Spider in disbelief. The way the red glow pulsed across the golden thread.
Something in him had altered the Lasso.
She stood frozen.
He did not.
Raven still needed him.
He could feel her pain. Even now. Even as it faded. Even as the ritual neared completion.
But pain was pain. And she was still feeling it.
He no longer needed to laugh to hide it. But it was still there. He could taste it in his spine. Feel it in his ribs.
He moved.
Snatched the Lasso clean from midair.
Twisted his body in a single smooth flip.
Broke into the circle.
Before the others could stop him, he reached her.
The gem on her forehead still pulsed, now faintly.
He lashed the Lasso down against Raven's forehead.
Gold-red light cracked through the gem.
It shattered.
And the Spider flipped to the other side just as the circle exploded in light.
He landed in a crouch, chest heaving once as a short, guttural exhale burst out of him. For a second, everything was white noise and pressure.
Then came breath.
A long, dragging inhale, like oxygen could stitch him back together.
Behind him, the world convulsed.
A radiant shockwave burst from Raven's body - firelight flaring in pulses, raw magical force rippling through the air like thunder underwater. He didn't need to turn. He could feel her.
And more importantly-
She wasn't in pain anymore.
The empath bond, scorched and frayed as it was, still held. She was still there. But now it pulsed with stillness. No screams or agony.
Further behind, Zatanna and Constantine scrambled to maintain the circle - voices layered with desperation, hands darting in frantic gestures. Chanting surged and stumbled, laced with cursing.
"Bloody hell."
Constantine cursed as the energy around Raven collapsed like a sucked-in breath.
Then a body fell from the air.
Jake caught her without thinking - cradled her gently, hands moving like they'd done it before. She was weightless and warm, but her skin was pale. Still and silent.
He dropped to one knee, drawing her close, eyes sweeping over her face.
No gem.
Shattered fragments glittered faintly on her face, caught in the faint glow around her. He rubbed them off. The physical tether to Trigon was gone.
She was free.
And somehow…
She looked better without the gem.
She looked at peace.
Good.
Now to deal with the JLD.
He placed her down gently, brushing a stray ember from her cloak, just as they began to approach.
Constantine wore frustration like a coat. Zatanna's glare could've burned sigils into the air. And Wonder Woman - eyes fixed on the Lasso - looked caught between confusion and disbelief.
"You hurt her," Jake grunted in a low voice. "That was a mistake."
"No," Zatanna snapped, voice sharp. "Disrupting the ritual was a mistake. Repeatedly standing in our way is a mistake."
She stepped forward, chin high, eyes hard.
"Acting like we're pushovers is a grave mistake."
"We are the Justice League Dark. We specialize in the arcane. And you, Spider-" her voice narrowed to a blade, "-you are an arcane threat."
Silence followed.
Jake tilted his neck slightly. "Is that right?"
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