DC Hellblazer: I'm Constantine

###### C23. I'm Constantine

Kent Nelson was the first and longest running Doctor Fate before Khalid Nassour succeeded him and took over the mantle, and responsibility. Khalid had been an apprentice to Kent until then. If you ask him, Khalid will argue that it was too soon; it wasn't supposed to be like that; and Kent should have never died in that fire.

Only Zatanna understands.

"Hhihihiii..." Nergal laughs, a scornful mock at Khalid's determination. "Such a pity. For an object of such power to fall in the hands of a novice like you, youngling."

"Enrh.." Fate grunts with anger as he unleashes an eldritch blast of pure golden colour at Nergal, through his ankh. "Know your place, demon!"

Khalid makes sure to speak with that authoritative, bold and commanding voice that he always heard Kent using while dealing with filth like Nergal. It carries the will of Order if used in truth, Kent would always tell him.

*Truth?* Khalid never quite understood what Kent meant by that.

"Arrhhh!" Nergal yells wilfully as he swings his axe and slices the Eldritch Blast, causing it to disappear in a blip! "Hhihii..."

"It's not possible!" Khalid feels the doubt bubbling in his throat. It's never been possible for Fate's Eldritch Blast to be stopped so easily with barely no magic. It's even harder to bar it when he's using the ankh! Just how powerful is Nergal?

Nergal slams his axe on the ground and folds his hands, as if the fight's already over and worn. "Seems nothing's changed since we last crossed paths."

Fate stays still in the Sulphurous air, unsure if it's possible for him to really fight Nergal and win this time. He's failed before, and it left a mark on his soul. Maybe he should have listened to Zatanna and stayed on Earth. She knows and understands his entanglement with Nergal more than anyone else. That's why the minute she sensed Nergal's presence while opening a portal to Hell, she advised him to stand back.

But he understands, facing Nergal's an inevitable fate!

His momentary stillness lingers, but Fate finds it in him to attack Nergal again. This time, however, he chooses to engage his fists more than magic, but ensures to imbue them with magic to increase his strength to be more powerful than that of a demon lord.

Clash! Bang! Pow! Gah!

Fate delivers blow after blow and Nergal is on the defensive, staggering backwards with every punch and kick Fate throws at him. Nergal blocks some, misses most and it looks like Fate actually has an edge on him. But then, when Fate's about to land what he believes is a fatal blow, Nergal's face twists into a cruel maleficent grin that follows with a devastating punch at Fate that sends Fate hurtling back and crashing on the ground repeatedly.

"On the contrary..." Nergal says while moving deliberately fast toward Fate's projection. Nergal ends up appearing before Fate and stops the hurtling body with a foot full of stinking demonic claws. He squeezes Fate's body, crashing it to sink further into the ground as he revels in the moment. Fate screams, his magic and helmet unable to protect him from Nergal's brutality.

"...-something's changed," Nergal continues while grabbing and lifting Fate with his hands. Nergal's now a behemoth, feeding onto an eerie force that's continuing to increase around them. " It's suffocating. You've grown more desperate. Your uncle would be disgusted!"

Fate struggles under Nergal's grip. He unleashes blasts, more ankh-power, but nothing seems strong enough to make the demon let go. In fact, Nergal laughs at every attempt, a shrill, mocking jolt that dampens Fate's determination. "You are not a worthy Sorcerer Supreme."

With a swift motion of his hand, Nergal slams Fate flat on the ground, the rippling effect causing Khalid's head to bleed despite the Helmet's protection. His whole body feels broken, and Khalid finds it hard to move just a single muscle.

"You've sought me again. Step foot into my realm," Nergal rumbles with warning, pride being the hallmark of his voice and stance.

Nergal doesn't turn away or leave. Even after seeming to easily triumph over Fate. It's time to reveal the tools of his trade.

"Let's continue where we left off, shall we?" Nergal says, and Khalid feels it creeping in: the despair!

The memories come back, vivid as it was on that night. The moment he lost his uncle, his friend, his teacher. There was a fire. And his uncle went up in flames right in front of him.

"It's all my fault!" Khalid starts to curse himself as tears streak down his face, his voice full of self-hatred and loathe.

"It's all my- I'mm.. sorry..." Khalid screams, but no one can hear him. Not his uncle in the afterlife, and not Zatanna or Constantine. Nergal's ensured of it by sucking his conscience into his innate domain.

"I shouldn't have! Shouldn't.!!" Khalid grits his teeth as the despair heightens. He's not just remembering. He's reliving everything as it was. His crime... the flames... the Helmet.

"Zee..." Khalid cries of despair turn into sobs as he calls out for help.

"No one will come to save you," Nergal's voice reverberates in Khalid's head, intensifying the hopelessness. "You brought this on yourself. Your uncle's blood is on your hands."

"Not even an eternity is enough to atone for your sins," Nergal's voice turns into a cruel laughter, burning with the flames of disparage.

"Please..." Khalid succumbs into an ocean of hopelessness.

But it's when all the light's go off-

"Oi, mate,"

-that one may spot that controversial ray of sunshine that never seems to go off.

"Open your bloody eyes, Khalid," Constantine's voice grows more incessant in Khalid's mind. "Quit being pathetic, alright? You're Fate for chrissakes!"

"C-constantine?" Khalid wonders absentmindedly and tries to open his eyes to see.

Seeing him do this reassures Constantine that Khalid's not yet irredeemably deep into the pit of despair - the kind that turns one's soul into a skull for Nergal's keep.

"In the flesh," Constantine replies, charm in his voice. "Or rather, astral projection. But I don't have much time before the First realizes I've skipped my body. I'm here asking a favour."

Khalid's too hopeless to speak, and Constantine intends to shine a light on him. "Didn't know you were in a tight spot though. Nergal's always been a walk in the park for Fate."

"But I can help you turn the tables," Constantine continues and it twists something in Khalid's guts: hope.

"H-how?" Khalid manages to ask, struggling against the despair.

"I'll tear apart Nergal's twisted innate domain, pull you out before he can claim your soul," Constantine explains. "But once you're out and done redeeming yourself, whisk out of Hell as fast as possible when you see the signal. Pick up a friend of mine while at it, won't you?"

The reason? It all depends on the First's next move.

"CONSTANTINE!" Nergal finally picks up on Constantine's presence and his voice can barely mask his zeal. "How foolish of you to walk into my domain."

Nergal warps his domain and Constantine finds himself transported in an island of skulls and face to face with the face of a girl he recognizes.

"Remember her?" Nergal sneers, joyful that a prey has walked straight into a trap.

"Astra," Constantine's knows her proper. Historically, she is his first and biggest failure into the occult world. She was demon possessed, and he and a couple of friends, like Ritchie, tried to exorcise the demon by summoning a more powerful one: Nergal. The ritual, however, was botched, and Nergal dragged the little girl to Hell, leaving Constantine with a forever scar.

Now, Nergal wants to use the image of her to make him despair, and thus lay claim to his soul by turning it into a skull.

Tsk! Typical.

"You failed her, John," Nergal says as if to remind him the exact details. "A soul suffering in hell is one thing. But body and soul? Can you imagine what I-"

"Pulled the plug on that one mate," Constantine interrupts. "Astra's old news to Constantine now. I don't lose sleep over it."

"What!?" Nergal wants to scoff and laugh scornfully, but senses the luck of despair coming from Constantine. Despair is an Endless thing that follows a conscious, even in astral form. Constantine has no way of hiding it, unless...

"That's impossible!" Nergal argues, his voice becoming a bit too desperate, drastically. "You despair for her. For what you did to her. Break this facade already!"

Despair cannot be forced.

"Splendid," Constantine says as he watches Nergal's innate domain unravel. He doesn't waste a second longer before summoning his astral form back into his body, where he's left a poker face gazing at the First.

"Still don't trust me yet, Satan?"

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