It was a strange feeling, Clara thought, staring at the golden screen put up by John. Every single incident that had happened in the past few weeks was clearly visible on it. Nothing about the situation was making her feel any good. Even if she didn't know what was causing this, she could sense that there was a great, underlying evil to it.

Clara sat on the armrest of Zatanna's couch, watching with careful eyes as John analysed the images. 'Let's see what this guy thinks.'

The next moment, John ended the golden screen, making it disappear into thin air. Boston, hovering in the air like usual, looked rather grim. "Rama Kushna says this will break down the walls between the plains. Even the afterlife will be affected."

"Yeah, it's dodgy, all right," John said in a rather uninterested tone as he started walking down the dimly lit hallway from the library. "I'll look into it. Meanwhile, the House will drop you wherever you'd like."

"Woah woah woah!" Boston immediately flew in front of him. "Rama says we have to work together. Come on. It's a dream team. You, me, Zatanna, Lumière, Batman...maybe even the Justice League."

"The capes and tights crew? Useless against dark magic," John said, hands on his hips.

Feeling very offended, Clara stepped forward, ready to argue. But Bruce held out an arm in front of her, stopping her from walking ahead.

"Don't act like a child," was all he said. Clara glared at him, before returning to her previous position, arms crossed.

"That's why we need you," Boston appealed to John. "You can lead us."

"Boston, do I strike you as a team player?" John asked pointedly. "Much less, a team leader. Point is, even deities can get it wrong. It's how we got the appendix, neanderthals and reality TV."

"Z and Lumi, your help I could use," John said, turning around and facing them.

"Okay," Zatanna stood up from the armchair. "If we do it as a group."

"I'm with Z on this, John," Clara said, arms still crossed. "We have to work together to solve this."

"Uggh," John cried out in frustration. "This is the monkey cage in Sumatra all over again. Ooh, we need to save the monkeys, she said."

"You're such an ass," Zatanna immediately said, glowering at the annoying blond magician as she stormed over to him. And unexpectedly (or maybe they should have expected this), Zatanna and John started to argue.

"Uggh not the monkeys," Boston suddenly appeared next to Clara and Bruce and sounded rather frustrated. He leaned over, whispering, "They used to be a thing."

"I know, Boston," Clara said while Bruce simply grunted in acknowledgement. Sometimes, she wondered whether Bruce lost his ability to talk while wearing the cowl and could only speak in grunts.

Then, as Zatanna and John continued to argue, Bruce suddenly spoke up. "We're wasting time. He's dead and I accept the risks, so can we get to it or do you two need a time out?"

Clara covered her mouth and snorted. There it was. The gold old, stiff sense of humor that only came out at random moments.

Zatanna turned back to John, looking at him with a firm stare with hands on her hips. With a resigned sigh, John raised his hands. "Fine and dandy. Let's take a walk on the dark side then."

He started walking away and paused in front of the door, from where everyone had entered earlier. He opened it and with a bow turned to look at the others, "Coming, team?"

Clara stretched her hands as she started walking. 'Looks like things are finally moving ahead.'

With a loud crack and bright lightning, the House took them to their destination. Once they stepped out of the door, they started walking down a street, which looked old and somewhat abandoned.

"Stop being a child and slow down," Zatanna said as they followed John. "Where are we going?"

"Ritchie's," John answered.

"Him?" Clara stated with surprise. "Haven't heard that name in a while."

She had met the man in question a few times, but she was not close to him, not as much as John and Zatanna had.

"Have you talked to him lately?" Zatanna asked as they continued to walk.

"I know he's pissed," John spoke stiffly. "You don't have to remind me, love. It's on my CV, remember?"

"No, really has he told you..." Zatanna started to speak as they turned around a corner, but trailed off when she saw the creatures hovering in front of a house.

"Oh good lord," Clara was surprised. She hadn't seen so many shrouds in front of someone's house in a long time. This could only mean one thing. Ritchie was just a few steps away from death's door.

John seemed to have realized the same fact. "No, he's dying."

The shrouds took notice of them, and the first person they named was John Constantine, which in some strange way, Clara suspected would happen, given all the creepy and strange things he tended to play around with.

"No matter," One of the shrouds spoke, its voice rough and gnarly. "Your friend's soul will be collected, and there's nothing you can do to alter that."

"Why don't you go do something useful, like haunt a house?" John taunted, his voice carrying a hint of anger.

"Who's he talking to now?" Bruce suddenly asked.

"Shrouds," Boston explained. "They deliver souls to hell."

"Very nasty things, they are," Clara added, making a face at the dark creatures floating in the mist. Suddenly, the shrouds floated towards them. Not wanting to be touched by the creatures from hell, she stepped aside. But unexpectedly, all of them were floating towards Batman.

"They're drawn to you," Zatanna said, with mild surprise.

"Maybe it's your cologne, Batsy," John said plainly.

The shrouds were hovering quite close to Bruce now. Even though he couldn't see them, Clara had the slightest feeling that he could sense the darkness that came attached to them. Given that, of course, he was a creature of night himself.

"Boo," Bruce said, in his usual emotionless voice and the shrouds hovering next to him just flew away. Clara chuckled to herself. Now that was an interesting way of getting rid of these things.

"This has been lovely, but it's time for you lot to bugger off," John summoned a golden orb, ready to attack.

"When the time comes, I'll be the one to collect your soul, Constantine," One of the shrouds hissed with fury.

"Yeah, yeah," John replied in a casual tone and then released the golden orb from his palm. In a burst of light, it cut through the shrouds, leaving nothing behind.

"Well, that was fun," Clara said, stretching her arms. But before she could say anything else, the door of the house opened and she heard a slightly familiar voice speak.

"I thought I felt a disturbance in the force." Out walked Ritchie with his cane. From the first glance, anyone could see that he was not doing well at all. "How you doing, Johnny boy?"

Ritchie looked at the others. "Zatanna, Lumière and Batman?" At seeing Batman, his eyes widened almost comically. "What the hell?"

"Tell you everything inside, mate," John said as he started climbing up the small stairs. The others followed, with Clara walking right behind Zatanna.

On the side, the house was a mess. Books, papers and random objects were scattered about. Even more were hung up on the wall. Clara could feel a small trace of magic, but it was quite small and was probably residuals from Ritchie's powers.

"You poor thing," Zatanna spoke, as she stepped forward and placed a hand on Ritchie's cheek.

"Yeah, I may have lied the last time we talked, about exactly how fast I'm sledding downhill." Ritchie then looked at John. "But it means a lot you're here, John. And hey, you don't have to say it. You're forgiven."

"Haven't seen you in a while, Lumière," He looked at Clara, who just awkwardly waved. "Still wondering what Batman's doing in my living room. And when is he gonna shut up, right?"

Awkward silence suddenly reigned over the small gathering. John suddenly had a mildly sheepish look on his face.

'Oh, this is not gonna go well, is it?' Clara spoke, as she turned away, looking right at her shoes and fiddled with her fingers.

"What? What's with the face?" Ritchie asked. Then his expression darkened. "You're not here to say you're sorry, are you?"

"Of course I am, but I was looking to borrow the Keshanti Key as well," John spoke, trying to appear casual.

"Not the way to do things, John," Clara mumbled under her breath.

"Unbelievable," Ritchie sounded outraged, as expected.

"I tried to tell him on the way," Zatanna interrupted, trying to placate him.

"Yeah, it's not your fault, Z," Ritchie said. "Just like everything, this is rock star Johnny's fault."

"I was with you when it happened, Ritchie," John added. "We were side by side."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, side by side. But I got the weird magical cancer while you, you added to your rep, am I right?"

Clara thought back to what she had learnt from her family's tomes and scrolls. Magical diseases were very hard to cure and often times, there was nothing that could be done. And on top of that, healing spells were a very dangerous form of magic. One incorrect thing said and everything could go wrong. So, she could somewhat understand what Ritchie was talking about.

"Look, me not making proper amends isn't related to the Key," John started to say. "Which, truth be told, you're not gonna need, mate."

"John!" Zatanna and Clara said together.

Without warning, Ritchie swung his fist into John's face. But because of his weak body, he almost stumbled to the ground. Keyword being almost since Bruce reacted quickly and helped him stand up straight again. Ritchie roughly pushed him away.

"Getting that a lot lately," John looked slightly apologetic.

"You can go screw yourself," Ritchie almost yelled, sounding very angry. "I am not giving you crap."

"Your anger is understandable, but you need to reconsider," Bruce now stepped forward. "Innocent lives are at stake."

"I know you're reluctant, but we really do need your help, Ritchie," Clara added.

Ritchie looked at Zatanna, and then John, and walked over to a crooked dresser. On top of the dresser was a box. He opened it and pulled out the Key. "Well, doctors say an upbeat attitude can help, so what I'll focus on today is that I met Batman. Force of good. It was also nice seeing you, Zatanna. And you too Lumière. Now, if you'll excuse me....you can show yourselves out."

He walked away, his cane making a clattering noise against the ground. With one last glance at the house, everyone walked out.

Traces of residual magic still lingered in the air.

okay, I'm really really sorry. I haven't updated this in a year and I feel really bad about it. It's because last year was very chaotic for me and because I got back into watching anime, I lost inspiration for my DC fics and was completely invested in my anime fics. But I have promised myself that I'm going to finish all my DC fics by December of this year, so that I do not leave anybody hanging. 

and I know this chapter was a really boring one, but I promise things will pick up from the next chapter. till then, I hope you all enjoyed reading this! let me know your thoughts in the comments <3 <3