Valor was panicking.
He felt their connection again, not a spark, not a tether, but a full chain—and not just any chain. He could clearly see it: the bond of marriage.
Fuck.
He did not mean this. Why did this happen? He was pretty sure—
Oh fuck.
The realization struck like a hammer to the skull. His desire. His addiction. Somewhere, deep under the blood-haze, under the panic, he had wanted it. Not consciously, not out loud, but in that hungry pit that never stayed empty, he had craved it. That sweet mead taste, that intoxicating perfume of her emotions.
Shit, shit, shit.
Okay—huh, fuck. We're gonna think about this after we're done here.
He turned to her, forcing calm into his voice. "Keep the line and remember—you're much more powerful than before now. Try and keep your magic in check. Unfortunately, we're kind of out of time here and I can't teach you anything right now."
Her eyes glinted, unreadable. "Are you saying you're going to teach me?"
He blinked. The tone wasn't teasing, not really. Beneath it he felt the echo of something else—longing.
Why the hell was he feeling that?
"I'm obviously gonna teach you," he said without thinking. The words dropped out before he could strangle them.
Why was he saying that again?
The bond pulsed between them, warm and sharp, and he had the sinking feeling that her smirk meant she'd felt the slip too.
Before he could drown in it, Glavor's chant boomed louder, the rift shuddering like a wound about to burst open.
Right. No time for panic-marriage counseling.
" Have to go now—"
"I can help," Zatanna said, stepping closer and taking his arm like a partner who'd already decided to lead. "Before you arrived I kept interrupting his teleport sigils. I can anchor him, delay the anchor long enough—if you give me cover."
Valor's expression, now calm, turned as he took in the scenery. He watched as the rift above the city pulsed wider, Glavor's chant clawing at the air like broken glass. The swarm pressed harder at the barricades; Diana's shield flashed like a beacon as she carved through another wave. Nightwing's movements were slowing, his breath ragged. They couldn't hold the line much longer.
"You were stopping him?" Valor asked, his voice low.
Zatanna nodded quickly, almost defensively. "He can't anchor the portal without focus. Every time I twisted the incantation, it delayed him. If I push harder—"
"—you'll fry your circuits," Valor cut in, black wings flexing, eyes narrowing. "Your magic isn't built for Hell-code. It burns mortals from the inside out."
"I'm no mortal now am I?" she said to his silence,
until finally he sighed, "stay ready for when i tell you, I'll go fighting Glavor, your teammates need you but when i tell you to, you disrupt his teleportation"
"Alright hubby~" she said now her voice a bit more sultry, still trying to hide her disorientation
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Licht and Found" shop- New York
The bell above the shop door jingled, though no hand touched it. A breath of brimstone swept in, curling through shelves of old charms and dust-heavy tomes.
Aurora Licht did not look up at once. Her dark hair, streaked faintly silver, fell loose around a face both sharp and tired, too young for the weight she carried. Her eyes — storm-grey, clever, and quick to harden — flicked over a spread of black-edged cards, coaxing them into place. Her frame was willowy, dressed in a dark blouse and skirt patched with chalk dust, as though she'd been bent over sigils too long.
Only when the air bent wrong did she mutter, "I thought I warded this place against your kind."
Click. Click. The sound of heels on wood, deliberate, smug. Glasya pranced lightly between shelves, brushing her fingers over bottles and amulets as if they were trinkets in a dollhouse.
"You did," Glasya said, voice velvet and thorn. "But you should know better by now. I've never been good at staying where I'm not invited."
Aurora straightened, arms crossing. "Or staying gone when you should."
Their eyes locked — infernal fire meeting human steel. The silence crackled.
Glasya's lips curved. "You've settled in. A little shop in Gotham. Quaint. Domestic. Almost… mortal."
Aurora's mouth quirked. "And you're still the same: chaos in a crown, sweeping in like a storm and walking out before the dust even settles." Her tone was ironic, but under the edge of bitterness lay the raw sting of memory. She wasn't just accusing her — she was remembering the nights left half-finished, the mornings with only the echo of laughter where a body should have been.
The devil laughed — warm, cutting, and far too close. It wasn't mockery, not entirely; it was the sound of someone who knew exactly which wound to press. "Don't lie. You loved it when I stayed. You loved the fire, the thrill, the way I could make the world feel less heavy"
"huhh, you left me with something far more demanding, a son is not something you can disappear on and still call yourself mom" said Aurora her tone tired
The smile faltered. Glasya's eyes narrowed. "He's ours. You can't deny that."
"Ours," Aurora echoed, voice low, tight. "But I'm the one who raised him. I taught him to fight, to think, to survive. I stayed when you—"
Glasya cut her off with a sharp gesture. "And you think that makes you the only one who matters to him?" She leaned in, her voice roughened, tinged with something almost wounded. "Time doesn't flow the same where I am. For him, Hell stretched on and on. He's spent more years with my blood in his ears than he ever did at your earth. If he won't talk to me, that isn't my fault."
"It isn't your fault?" hoh now she was pissed, "you abandoned us when he was a baby, do you think that is how a mother treats her child!!"
"Hoh now someone thinks they're superior! May I remind you that, UNLIKE SOMEONE i have duties!!" the devil says then continues
"I was trying to avoid a WAR! may remind you "she continues, at this Aurora laughed, not happily
"Yeah what shitty job you did, he was supposed to go down there with you to know you, instead my son becomes a FUCKING SOLDIER, sent to war," Aurora spat, voice cracking with the weight of years. "And you left us! You left him! Do you have any idea what that feels like, Glasya? What it does to a little child to be torn between parents like… like pieces of some damn puzzle you abandoned?"
Glasya's eyes darkened, but the fire in them was—it was tired. She stepped closer, close enough that the brimstone in the air wrapped around Aurora like a cloak. "You think I didn't know the cost? You think I didn't feel every scream, every fear? You think I haven't watched him fight wars that shouldn't have been his? You think i wanted our son to play hero?
PLUS, you left him too, with a note on the table with instructions on how to call me, half explanations and a note that said to call you every six moths! Don't act like you are a saint! He was in hell because YOU instructed him to find me, WHILE YOU FUCKED OFF TO NOWHERE!
HE WAS ELEVEN for grandpa's sake"
"I was TRYING to protect him unlike SOME people—"
Aurora's chest heaved. Her anger was still there, but it was tangled now with something softer, something that had lived beneath the fury for too long. "I was trying to protect him..." she said her tone saddened,
at this the devil groans " I'm sorry, i did not— it's just that i tried too you know, but he won't listen to me, ever since you sent him to me, he just treats me like i am— a stranger, he calls me dad just because he knows i don't like it, i can't talk to him, i can't even build something with him y'know, ughhh" a chair materializing behind her to sit.
"Ladies, let us calm down please, would the mistresses like some tea?" The two turned, they faced a man with blue skin, two small horns at the side of his head, his lower body was smoke, he was dressed like a classical butler, his appearance was aged, in his 60s
"Who is he?" asked Glasya, not only puzzled but astounded, it was rare finding a djinn in the human realm,
"My Butler, Ashram meet Glasya, Glasya meet Ashram" said the seer with a sigh
Ashram bowed politely, his smoky form rippling. "A pleasure, madames." He glided toward the kitchen, humming what sounded suspiciously like a Taylor Swift song.
"Knowing him he'll prepare a full service" said Aurora sighing deeply
"How did you know that there would be an incursion in Gotham?" asked the seductress, evidently wanting to change topic
"I didn't, i simply asked him to investigate, the imbalance, i would have told him where it was if not"
at this Glay simply giggled "and to think i've scrubbed everything clean to make sure he didn't find out about it, i thought he knew an incursion was going to happen, so i spilled the beans, fuck"
"Wait, where is our son?" Asked the witch, now a bit preoccupied
"Didn't he tell you?" asked Glasya