AN: I own nothing. I introduced Mage as an OC several chapters ago but he is still sort of an enigma, so I decided to give you just a piece of his back story. This is the Mage that is Raven's cousin not son.

The Wizard and The Flower

"Zatanna, do you remember the short, fairy tale like, story that was about a wizard and flower?" I rolled over in our bed to ask her.

"Yeah, wasn't it like there was a flower that sucked all of the evil out of the Earth or something?" she asked with a confused look on her face wondering where I was going with this.

"Do you want to hear the original version?" I asked solemnly.

"Sure Mage," she smiled lightly.

"There were two beings living on a dying world, they were so much more powerful than the rest of the short lived life forms. One was a wizard who was stronger and older than any other; he was also cruel and unforgiving. The other was the most beautiful and strong flower one can imagine; these two beings were siblings. Every day the Wizard went out and killed every being that stood against him, and every day the Flower absorbed all the hatred and evil from the planet. While the siblings were more different than night and day they loved each other dearly and didn't want anything to happen to the other. The more the Wizard killed the more evil was put into the world, the more the Flower absorbed. No matter how much evil the wonderful Flower absorbed her sweet personality didn't change; though the more evil she absorbed the sicker she got. Now the Wizard didn't know that what he was doing was the reason his sister was dying; he was just trying to make the world his sister lived in perfect for her. The last act the Flower did was to pull all of the evil out of the planet and her brother. She gave the dying world life again; just as she gave her brother a chance to redeem himself. Now a lonely and old god watched this happen and took pity on her; he couldn't save her so he made sure that Truth was born from her to make sure the Wizard never again acted like he once did. The now kind, forgiving Wizard lived isolated for years just wanting to end his life but he knew he wouldn't because then all of the hard work his sister put into saving him would go to waste. Once the Wizard left isolation and returned to the world it had once again turned back to the way it was before his isolation. He gave up part of his pure soul to give the world a chance. Truth then came over and realized it wouldn't be enough so he did two things, one he split the lonely god into three beings; good, evil, and neutral. And two he gave half of his purity to add to the half the Wizard gave. The new three beings flew off and each chose a champion. The Good chose Truth, not realizing the fall he was about to take; and the Neutral chose the Wizard. The Evil not deeming any being on the world capable of being his champion raped a pure being and sired a bird. This bird he sired though was destined to turn against him and be his downfall, just as Truth was destined to be twisted away from pure truth to Rationalization. The Wizard seeing the mess of this new world that was crated from his mistakes, decided to do his best to fix it," as I finished the story I opened my eyes and stared at the roof.

"Is that original story about you?" Zatanna asked placing her hand on my cheek.

"Yeah, I was the Wizard, Veritas was the Truth and Rationalization, Rose was the Flower, Raven was the Bird, Trigon was the Evil, AΩ was the Neutral, and the Good was ΘΣ."

"Who is ΘΣ?" Zatanna asked.

"He is the person who chose Veritas as the corporeal sire of his powers, Veritas's 'dad'," I explained to her. "It is a story that has been all but forgotten by time, the effects are still felt though."

"What are the effects?"

"Roses are given as a sign for love and, on occasion, mourning."

"You are responsible for that then?" she asked giggling.

"Yeah, you are avoiding asking the one question you really want to though; ask it," I told her.

"The world in that story is obviously just a symbol for the universe, but if it is true you saved the universe from itself and are much older than you ever tell anyone; and was Rose just your sister?"

"Yes she was just my sister, nothing more, nothing less. Yes I am so much older than I tell people; but make no mistake I did tell you and I wanted to tell you the truth so many times, but…"

"It is okay Mage, I don't care; I understand fear," she said leaning her head into kiss me.

I pulled back a little, "There is more, you are dodging the subject; I have killed trillions upon trillions of people Zatanna, people in cold blood even."

"So, the supposed self-imposed isolation, wasn't just isolation was it; you couldn't leave at any time could you?"

"No…" I started before she interrupted me.

"See you served your time, you are a new you; it doesn't matter to me. I hexed many people before I started saving people; we all make mistakes and we learn. Plus now you are doing the opposite, who many people have you saved, trillions upon trillions upon trillions."

"No amount of lives saved equals one life taken in cold blood Zatanna."

"I realize that but I still love you; you need to realize that almost everyone has forgiven you for your actions except you. Even Veritas came by to try to reason with you. From what you are debating here, has Veritas ever taken a life in cold blood?"

Thinking about it for a few minutes I finally answered reluctantly, "No…"

"Then why do you hate him?"

"Because he is made out of my sister and he should live so much of a better life than the one he is right now in her memory than even killing; Rose never killed! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to yell at you," I wasn't able to meet Zatanna's eyes after yelling at her. I never yelled at her, but she realized why I did, I was just angry at the topic not her; she wrapped her arms around me.

"Mage, no one sees you as bad as you do; please forgive yourself, from what you said of your sister, she would want that wouldn't she?" She asked me with a pleading look in her eyes.

"I'll try," I leaned in to kiss her; this time it was her who leaned back.

"No, do not try. You have to promise me that you will," she had a look in her eyes that made me know that she wasn't going to drop this.

I sighed, "I promise you that I will forgive myself."

She then leaned in to kiss me. "Good, now I have good news for you, I'm pregnant," Zatanna said beaming.

Still after all my life things could still shock me. I couldn't say anything I was just staring at her.

"Please say something…" She pleaded with fear in her voice.

"That… That's… That is amazing Zatanna, that is great news; I love you more than anything," I leaned into kiss her.

AN: Please tell me what you think :)