Batman: The Animated Series - A Bounty Hunter's Love

Zatanna

Batman: The Animated Series 'Fan Fiction Love Story'

By Tayla Drago

Episode #50 – Zatanna

Bruce Wayne, Megan Tsuki, and Alfred are in the audience for a show put on by the magician Zatanna. She dazzles the audience with a few simple tricks, but Bruce's real focus is on Zatanna herself. Same with Megan too, since she's a huge fan of her line of magic work from her father Zatara who did so many things back then.

"Wow!" Megan was happy. "I never knew we would go to something like this type a show, Bruce! I love Zatanna and her father's work Zatara of their magic. How did you know about this?"

"I have a few good reasons..." he said. "Besides, I heard you like magic, so I wanted to take you on a date."

Megan got shy there.

"Date?! Oh, come on, Bruce, really! I'm your bodyguard while you're Bruce Wayne as I only go out with Batman."

"Does it matter to me?"

Now Bruce was teasing with Megan, and yet she wanted to know his other reason he took her to see Zatanna's magic show. For there was more about him knowing a lot about this woman.

"So, what was your other reason you wanted to go?" ask Megan.

Alfred reminds Bruce of his past acquaintance with Zatanna and her father, and Bruce begins to reminisce about his training days with the pair.

"How long has it been?" Alfred also asks Bruce. "Ten years? Twelve?"

"All that and another lifetime."

"She and her father were very fond of you."

Once Alfred saying this, it comes to a big surprise to Megan to her more about Bruce knowing about Zatanna.

"Were you two like childhood friends or something?"

"I was a different person then." Bruce answered. "I learn the escape tricks by her father, Zatara when I was trying to become Batman, to do some good..."

"Yes. Intense, driven, moody..." so Alfred remembers. "She'd never recognize you now."

Bruce tells Megan a tale from his past 'a flashback' on how it all happened...A teenaged Zatanna watches eagerly as a young Bruce (under the alias 'John Smith') struggles to escape from a straitjacket and chains, while hanging upside down. He manages the feat in less than a minute, and her father, Zatara, proudly informs him that he's beaten his old time by several seconds. But she is upset to overhear that 'John' will be leaving soon. Zatara wonders why he would be so determined to become an escape artist yet have no interest in performing on the stage—and even more remarkable, Zatara laughs, the elder magician ended up sharing the deepest secrets of his art, sensing something of the young man's tragic past (though he refrains from prying into the secrets he knows 'John' is hiding).

"It was an honor to study with you, Zatara." said the young Bruce as John Smith.

"But to what end?" Zatara asked. "Three months ago you showed up on my doorstep with no interest in performing and yet dying to become an escape artist." he laughs. "And for some reason, I wound up teaching you secrets I've never shown another magician."

I guess Bruce just got lucky...

"You could have sent me away."

"No, there was something inside you I had no right to deny, something deep and painful."

Zatara ejects Zatanna from her eavesdropping spot, and then makes a graceful exit. Zatanna is upset that John will not be finishing the tour with them, since she has become strongly attracted to him.