"I know this place."

The demon's voice creaked and strained; the sound fell flat without an echo in the stark blankness of the Starting Point. Somehow it reached Raven's ear and scratched along the inside of her aching skull, which was already flooded with an incoming tide of new memories.

"I was here," she continued. "Long ago. With Azar."

"You both were," Thunder Horse said. "Back when you were one."

How long? How long had it been since Raven had been here? Azar had used it to teach her the ways of inter-dimensional travel, but other than that she had little use for the place except as a place to catch her breath when the world had become too much. But such memories were drowned out by the new ones, which were the older ones, of a life that had until now been locked away somewhere inside her, hidden in some corner of her soulscape.

The older memories were a jumble, a deep pool of memory, not a timeline, and they threatened to bury Raven in an avalanche of sensations recalled, unbidden and uncontrolled. Sparring with her Azar father, playing, playing with friends, her death after a prolonged battle, all played out over and over in snippets, out of order; joy and grief and anger bubbling up out of a deep well, mixing with the first childhood that she remembered, blending until it was hard to tell them apart, hard to know what was real. The desert where she and Gar discovered their love was suddenly watered by the fountains of healing in Azar Noush. The rocky Pinnacle where she had meditated as a child sprouted in the middle of a marbled city square. The tapestry of Kwan Yin collapsed on her, and her young father Azar pulled it off her, laughing at her clumsiness. Ink spilled across the Book of Azar as its author lay dying, dying next to her own mortally wounded self in another body…

"Dawn Child?" Thunder Horse asked in a worried tone.

"I am fine," she said, shaking her head to clear the landslide of the past. "Just… remembering."

She had returned to this empty place a handful of times after leaving Azarath, but it had lain in a dusty forgotten corner of her mind for years. Raven blinked at her other self. Of course she would know this place. They had been here the first time, together, unwittingly and unknowingly together.

"I did not know that we were two in one until much later," the demon said as she struggled to sit up. She seemed a little stronger now, as if this empty place were loaning her some strength. "It took a sojourn in hell, watching you live your own life, to puzzle it out." She groaned as she finally managed to sit up. She rolled her eyes at Raven. "But apparently you never did. Curse you for a fool."

More memories forced their way in: her armor, pride on her father's face, her wonderful father's face, as polar opposite to Trigon as it was possible to be, as he taught her the craft of being an Azar, the beauty of the city of Azar Noush…

"Woolgathering again, Dawn Child?" Thunder Horse asked as he rested a steadying hand on her arm. In this place, his spirit form felt solid.

"The memories," Raven mumbled. She pressed her fingers against her temples to hold back the ache that blossomed there. The deeply ingrained pacifism of mother Azar resisted the warrior code of father Azar, and Raven's world was lost in a haze of confusion. "They won't stop."

"Your old life," the demon hissed. "It's haunting you. You deserve it, you thief."

Raven pointed a shaking hand at her, sputtering, fury leaking out of her tightened throat. She remembered her vow, playing before her mind's eye like one of the films Gar was so fond of; but it was distant, misty, not as clear as the happier memories. "You… she…"

"We need to call her something other than she," Thunder Horse said. "Or you. You need a name. What do we call you?"

"Raven," she replied. "That's the name my mother gave me!"

"No!" Raven growled back. "I am Raven! You are… you are someone else."

Raven's body tensed, as if her current muscles recalled the fighting stances that her soul contained. The demon hunched and coiled, as if gathering what little strength she had.

Thunder Horse pierced the silence, though his voice sounded muffled in this place with no echoes. "You are both Raven. And neither of you are. Raven was the amalgamation of two souls, and that Raven no longer exists. Not dead. Simply not in that form anymore. Those souls now walk their own paths."

"Then I don't have a name," the demon hissed. "She stole it."

"Then I will give you a name, little one. Every being needs a name. You and Dawn Child are as sisters." He rested a gentle hand on Raven's shoulder and the other on her reflection's. "You are Twilight Child."

"Twilight Child," she repeated, and Raven winced as she pronounced the name that Charlie had once given her, before he called her Dawn Child. Was Charlie this demon's cousin? Or her own?

"Twilight Child, listen to me. Listen. There is a way for you to live an actual life. And a way for me to atone for my crimes."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm not as dead as I thought I was," he said with a chuckle. "I know you inhabit what's left of my poor body. Apparently, it's still kicking."

"Grandfather," Raven said, as his plan began to dawn on her, "why did you want to come here, of all places?"

"Because we are now back at the beginning, Dawn Child. Back at the starting point that Azar showed you, and showed you," he said, pointing at the demon, "when you were a single being. When you were both innocent. Before you knew you were anything else. It's the center from which you can travel anywhere in the universe. And we can, the three of us, move in any direction we choose."

Raven, entranced by his gentle voice, blinked at him. She glanced at the other, the Twilight Child, and found she was blinking, too. And as she found her small fingers twitching by her leg - her own nervous tic - she saw that Twilight Child's fingers were twitching, too, as the aged hands began smoothing as Thunder Horse's healing presence soaked in. Recognition sparked in her eyes as she noticed what Raven saw: their mutual habit in motion. Twilight Child clasped her hands to still them, and looked away.

Thunder Horse spoke again. "We are here to make that choice."

"But there is nothing here," Twilight Child pointed out, turning back to him. "What is there to choose from?"

"Exactly. It's a blank page. A fresh start." He nodded at each of them in turn. "We are all family here. Both the Twilight Child and the Dawn Child. Between the Twilight and the Dawn live the night and the day. Bookends. So to speak. You are both my children. And Charlie's cousins."

Raven sensed the plan behind his words. "You're going away, aren't you? You are leaving me alone again."

"Not alone. Dawn Child, you have a family, one that you have forged. You have your young buck-"

"I still can't believe you got together with him," Twilight Child muttered. "Why not Jericho?"

"You're not helping," Thunder Horse warned. "Dawn Child, you have Charlie and Karen and Old Bill. And you have me. You will always have me. Who does Twilight Child have?"

Raven bit her lip as truth boiled within her, a truth she did not want to acknowledge: the soul standing before her had nothing at all. Even Trigon had turned his back on this wayward child.

"She has me," Thunder Horse said. "And she has you." He held up his ghostly hands as she inhaled sharply, ready to protest. "You are twins, as far I am concerned. She needs a family."

"You would claim me?" Twilight Child cried. "When even my own mother did not want me? After all that I have - after all that has happened?"

"I do, child, I do," he said. "Would you, then, claim me?"

"Why would she accept?" Raven snapped, as the sea of memory renewed the hatred of Trigon, the one who had stolen everything from her… including her previous life, with its scenes sparkling in her mind like precious jewels.

"Why would I refuse?" Twilight Child snapped back. "You of all people know what it is like to be-"

"To be what?"

"To be lonely. To be all alone in the universe. To have even the one that spawned you, spurn you. Abandon you when you cannot fulfil their desires."

Thunder Horse nodded at their exchange. "We know what it is like to be alone. We three. We three old sinners. Seemingly beyond atonement for the things we have done. To others. To each other."

"What do you propose?" Raven asked.

"If we are so wicked, as you say," Twilight Child added, "what can we possibly do to make peace?"

"We can help each other onto a better path," he said. "Twilight Child, I know you now possess my body. That you have molded it to your form, but it is still my body. And it is ageing. Dying." He turned to Raven. "Dawn Child, you can heal that body, as you once healed my soul. Remember, in the cave?"

She nodded. "You said I was dying. You took my place."

Twilight Child finished the thought. "And I took his body as his soul slipped its bonds, just as the cave collapsed." She held up a pair of wrinkled hands. They were smoother than before, but she had not yet regained full youth and strength. "I could repair his body then, with power…"

"But your power is expiring," Thunder Horse said. "Your hold is slipping."

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Yes."

"It is because you are not properly bound to the body."

"She was bound to me, once," Twilight Child pointed out. "Yet we did not fall apart like this. Not until that body died."

Raven never wanted to agree with her, never wanted to be on the same side of the one who had caused her so much pain. But, rifling through her memories, she knew it was true. She had, as her Azar warrior body was dying, agreed to be bound to this one's infant body. "Yes," she finally agreed. "That is true."

"But she was properly bound, by ancient magic," Thunder Horse said. "Your possession of my body is loose, uncontrolled. We can fix that."

"You would give it to me?"

"Not exactly."

"Grandfather," Raven asked warily, "where are you going with this?"

He held out a hand to her. "Bind us both to that body. Merge our souls, as you two were once merged."

"That's what I was afraid you were going to say," Raven replied. "I don't know how. Azar had that knowledge, not me."

"You were an Azar, too. Search your memories. Do you not know it as well, even if she did the actual work?"

It bubbled up, unbidden, from the knowledge built in her time as an Azar: the ritual, the gestures, the words. Nothing else was needed - no wands, no potions, no animal entrails - nothing but the will and the strength to do it. She could it, if she wanted.

"I do not want to do it," she said. "Grandfather, do you know what it is you are asking me to do?"

"No more than you were willing to do yourself, once upon a time," he replied. He took Twilight Child's hands in his own. "But only with your agreement, little one. Dawn Child did not know you were there, but I do. We would be one being, together."

"What would we do? Where would we go?" She glared at Raven. "I am hated on Earth. I am hated everywhere."

Thunder Horse replied, "The universe would be ours to wander. We can go anywhere from here. Not to conquer, as Trigon wanted. But to observe, to cherish. See the stars through my eyes, little one." He looked at Raven. "And once time has passed, once we have gained some perspective, we could all meet again. On Earth, in the Celestial Cities, or here. Wherever you wish, Dawn Child. We can meet and, oh, I don't know. Compare notes. I'm running out of wise speech here, ladies." He laughed at his own joke. "Would you join me, Twilight Child?"

"I have a choice?"

"Of course. We can travel together as one being, if Dawn Child agrees. Or, your spirit may go on its own in peace. But I get my body back."

"Some choice."

"It's all I have to give you, little one."

Twilight Child turned her gaze on Raven, her eyes simmering with a strange emotion. It didn't quite taste like hate anymore. Raven wasn't sure what to call it.

"You owe me," she said to Raven. "Will you do this thing? Will you perform the ritual? It's in your memories, not our memories."

"Will you leave me in peace? Leave the Titans in peace? Leave Earth in peace?"

"Set me free," Twilight Child said, "and I will have no reason to stay. I have no need to conquer. That was Trigon's mad dream. I want a life of my own."

"It is dangerous. Remember the quake when we were born in Azarath?"

"Another reason to do it here," Thunder Horse said. "There's nothing to destroy. You're running out of excuses." His expression softened. "Please, Dawn Child. Let me make amends for what I have done under the influence of Charlie's formula. And you can make amends for taking over the life of another. And Twilight Child can make up for the evil that she has done on her own."

"The seeds of Trigon that she spread," Raven said. "Richard and Koriand'r's wedding."

One side of Twilight Child's face curled into a sneer. "They deserved it. They didn't invite us." Her smile melted. "But I don't plan on doing it again. I just want to be left alone. Trigon does not care for me. But you do, don't you, Grandfather?"

"I will help you," Thunder Horse said. "We will care for each other. What do you say, Dawn Child?"

Raven looked at Twilight Child. "It will at last be over? We will all… start over?"

"A new beginning," Twilight Child said. "Mercy, remember? From the tale of Kwan Yin that Azar told us. This is mercy. For me, for you, for Grandfather."

"Mercy," Raven whispered. Mercy, she remembered her original father telling her, every warrior must have the capacity for mercy. Mercy: the meeting point between the warrior and the pacifist bustling together within her. "Yes. I will."


Magic, such ancient magic. Raven had spent her life immersed in magic, but she had never cast such powerful magic as this, though this iteration of her life had been forged in its depths. She had never uttered the words before, but they flowed easily into the stark white space surrounding them. Visions of two lifetimes jostled for her attention as she fought to concentrate on the two beings before her and on the proper gestures. She shaped the air with her hands, wafting the arcane syllables around the body and spirit on either side of her.

Within Twilight Child, there was a wall, an icy wall, like the one she had encountered inside Thunder Horse in the cave. Shattering that wall had nearly killed Raven, but Thunder Horse had saved her. Saving her had severed him from his body, the body that Twilight Child had taken for her own…

Their tale was a spiral turning in on itself. Raven was so much stronger now than she was then. The magic gave her strength to face this new wall. It was stacked with rage and mortared with pain, shot through with scenes from their shared life. She sent in soothing , soothing both of them, and making space for future memory within them both. Not erasing the past, but making room for the future, a different future, brighter future. For all three of them.

A blinding light flooded the empty space around them as Thunder Horse's spirit slipped back into his body, the grey hair growing black again, the wrinkles and the scars falling away, as he merged with the possessing soul of Twilight Child…

The shockwave of the binding threw Raven off her feet, and the energy surge pressed her down into the strange ground in this otherwise empty place.

And where there had been three, now there was two.

Raven blinked at the new life standing before her, unsure of what she had just done.

"Grandfather?"

"We are Twilight Child."

The voice spoke in harmony, a sweet-sounding chord to Raven's ears. The body standing before her shone with newness, shifting now to look more like Thunder Horse, and now again to look more like her own reflection. Raven watched in silence as the shifting settled into Thunder Horse's smiling face. He stretched and yawned as if waking from a long winter's nap, then bounced from foot to foot as if anxious to set off on a great journey.

"It worked, Dawn Child," he said, with the same harmony as before.

"Am I talking to my grandfather, or-"

"Both of us. We have merged, but we are both aware. We are both here."

"What happens now? Where will you go?" She suddenly felt bereft; she had grown used to having Thunder Horse around. "What will I tell Charlie and the others?" She swallowed hard. It would be a relief to know that her dark shadow was shepherded by him. But that meant he would be gone. "Will I ever see you again?"

"Tell them the truth, at least what they can understand. Tell them we go in peace to see the universe. We have a powerful body now, with great power of the spirit. We have the means to go where we will. We can venture the stars and see other worlds. And, yes, we will return one day to tell our tale." He rested a hand on her shoulder, and to Raven's great surprise she did not flinch as she felt her other self's energy within him. She sensed it was content, at last. "You should talk more to Sian, we think, Dawn Child. Learn more about your previous life, and your other father. Visit the Celestial Cities. Who knows? Perhaps we will meet you there someday. When they are ready to forgive us for Trigon's sins. Give Charlie our love. Tell him we are free and alive, now. And some day we will return."

He stepped back, smiling gently at her. "Until then, Dawn Child, you have our love. And our thanks. Farewell."

He swept his arms in the travelling gesture that Raven knew so well, and he disappeared in a billow of smoke, leaving her in that great blank space, alone. She looked down at her empty hands, hands that had just melded two souls into one body. Would Azar have approved? Was it just their plan finally coming full circle? She had no way of knowing.

She no longer felt the same person that had left the others by the campfire. Who was she? What was her original name? She could not remember, other than Azar. There were so many memories, so many feelings, to sort out, and she found herself grieving for a man whose face had never been seen with the eyes she saw with now. And grieving for Azar, her teacher and past-life mother, and Arella, the mother she had shared with the demon…

No, she thought, I will not call her that again. She has a right to determine who and what she is. Just as I do. Thunder Horse is right. We are free.

And she mourned Thunder Horse, as well. He was alive, but he was… elsewhere. For so long, she had felt alone, and had had no one to confide in. Who could she tell all this to, who would understand it?

"Garfield would," she said, and the flat sound of her voice startled her out of her reverie. Why was she still in this empty place, when there was a warm fire for her back on Earth, surrounded by friends that would be worried about her?

"I'm coming home, beloved," she said, and made the same gesture that Thunder Horse had made just a moment before.


"You're back!" Gar exclaimed, nearly tackling her in his greeting.

She squeezed him back, hard, as she could hear the others running towards them and calling out their relief. And demanding to know what had happened. Even Slade Wilson seemed happy to see her return alone and unharmed. She felt stunned for a moment, almost overwhelmed with sensation after the blank whiteness of the Starting Place.

Earth, she thought. Earth is my home now. Truly. For my heart is here.

Gar kissed her, warmly and firmly on the lips, and she welcomed the warmth and the scent of him, wet dog and all, and the Jolly Rancher sweetness of him, even in front of the others. Something was missing inside of her, something she had lost in the last few moments. But then she realized it was something she needed to lose before she could be with this man completely. She had lost her fear.

"What happened? Is she-"

"All is well, all is well, beloved," she said. She felt the loss of terror more keenly now, and felt hope pressing her forward, ready to take hold of her future with the man she loved. She whispered directly into his ear. She was bursting to tell him everything. But especially this. "And there is something else, my love. Something wonderful."

"What? What is it Raven? Has something changed?"

"Yes. I am no longer afraid."


This is the end of the last official chapter. Stay tuned for the Epilogue! Coming soon!