=====A=====

The next few days weren't as exciting as the previous few, though they were a bit more tedious. After we captured Ariale we called the Team, the League, and the FBI, at which point clean up began. Untangling a town-wide conspiracy took a lot of work, and even if we had the mundane authorities helping us do the legwork, we still had to stick around to keep an eye on things. Just in case something 'extra-normal' popped up. But while there did turn out to be a few more magical surprises laid about the town, the authorities managed to handle it.

Specifically, by the Federal Marshals who had also come to town, funnily enough.

Piecing together the info I could get from the authorities, it turned out that a good portion of the town's government and services were part of the cult, or at least the upper management was. Which made sense considering Ariale had apparently been involved in the town's founding in the late 1800's. She had been carefully guiding and grooming the town's residents so that she would always be in control. By the end of the arrests, there were more than a hundred people in custody, with many more implicated as well. Considering some were already claiming that they were under mental influence the entire time, this whole situation was going to be a long and messy ordeal.

When it came time for us to be questioned, we kept to our civilian identities, so we had to tiptoe around certain details. We left out our extra legal activities, and said that our alter egos had come to save us at the last minute. It was believable enough for me, as only Ariale had gotten a good look at me and she was being suppressed by Zatara for the time being. I was a little worried that Donna wouldn't be so lucky considering she never bothered with masks… but no one seemed to suspect her either. I had a feeling there was something more to that...

But, it could have just been that we just weren't important compared to the real key witness: Sam Channing, the man who had been working the cult for years. We had already made sure that the authorities would find his ledgers, so it only took a little pressure to get the man talking. Most of it was things I had already known or guessed, but the one thing I had been curious about was just why he had saved Donna. From what I gathered from the Marshals, while he was kind of a scumbag, he had become something of a god-fearing scumbag. He never believed in religion until he saw what he thought was a satanic cult sacrificing children. That he sold them.

With that in mind, he started backpedaling as hard as he could, starting with getting Donna away from the cult. He spent the next 16 years living in fear, both from the cult and for his mortal soul. I didn't know if repentance was really in the cards for him, but working with the Marshals to go through all the crimes he'd done was probably the best start he could hope for.

After those few days ended we finally got away from Willowbrook, though we didn't leave Virginia quite yet. We found ourselves heading to a small church about a dozen miles out of town. Neither of us spoke as we got out of the car and headed to the small plot of land behind it. We were still dressed in civilian attire, though Donna had changed to a nice sundress. This was an important day for her. We got to the spot we were looking for, and I hung back while she moved forward a few more steps before stopping. Donna took a deep breath and looked down at the thing she had come to see. "Hi mom."

Before us was a gravestone, the plain sort that was given to those who didn't have a lot of money. Engraved on it with simple text was the name:

'Dorothy Hinckley'

With Nyx giving us the name of Donna's mother, I was able to look into birth and death recorders to find a match. And sure enough after a sweep of all the hospitals around Willowbrook, I found her. Along with where she had been laid to rest after the cancer took her.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Donna let out a small laugh. "I wish I could have found you sooner, but, well, it wasn't easy." A sigh. "To use a tired cliche, it's been a long road from when we last saw each other to here and now. I've been through foster homes, amazons, superheroes, and now a cult just to get back to you. I doubt this is the life you imagined for me, or hoped I would have. But, looking back on it, it's been an incredible journey."

Donna talked, about her life, about her triumphs and trials, about just anything and everything she could. She poured her heart out to the grave of her mother, doing her best to make up for a lifetime of missed conversations. I had no intention of speeding her along, so I withdrew into dataspace for a bit to catch up on some things.

I reviewed Starfire's report on the Titan's latest mission, seeing that they managed to arrest the last remaining Orm loyalists. I checked the news feeds to see how the Willowbrook scandal was playing out, and found that they were emphasizing the child trafficking parts over the cult bits. I accessed what sections of the Marshals files I could, seeing that they were 'ritually containing' Ariale until they could properly remove her from Wendy-

I noticed a new update among the files, dated to have been added only an hour ago. Browsing through it I saw that it was a large number of files that had been pulled from the mayor's and sheriff's offices, scanned into the computers for evidence. Now that I had easy access to it, I scanned through the sheriff's files for a date around 16 years ago, and got a name I was looking for. I ran that name through a few databases, and a few minutes later I had an address.

I pulled my attention back to realspace just as Donna was perking up. "-don't want it to seem like my life is all doom and gloom. I'm doing well, I really am. I'm finishing up high school this year, and I'm looking at colleges. Diana and Hippolyta have been taking good care of me, and… I have some friends that can support me. Both the normal stuff and the other stuff." She wiped away the wetness in her eyes, and a smile crossed her face. "I know who you are now, and I know that you loved me. With that, I finally don't feel like my past is holding me back. Thank you, mom. You didn't have much, but you gave me everything you had."

She pressed her hand to the gravestone for a long moment before she turned and walked back to me, her steps lighter. "Thanks for waiting. I think I'm ready to go home now."

However, I held up a hand. "Actually, there's one more thing I think we want to do before we leave the state."

She paused. "What?"

"Just an hour ago the Marshals uploaded the files they found in the sheriff's office to the wider authorities, and subsequently to the League and Titans. Browsing through, I found the hidden report about the woman who came by shortly after the fire. She was looking for her adopted baby daughter who had been kidnapped. The one she adopted from Willowbrook Orphanage."

Donna's eyes slowly widened. "You mean…?"

"I think I found your first adoptive family."

Somerset Falls was about 30 miles from Willowbrook, and not too different at a first glance. It carried the same small, old town feel that the other did. However, looking closer I could tell that this place had a more colonial feel to it, with most of the buildings we drove past being of old-timey brick and wood construction. Call it a gut feeling, but I was pretty sure that the town used to be a farming hub way back in the day. It was far more residential now, but you could see it in the layout of the streets.

Donna's head was practically on a swivel as we drove through the town, taking in as much as she could. Which made me a little nervous considering she was the one driving. "Do you recognize anything?" I asked.

"Maybe..." she said with a slight frown. "But I can't be sure if I'm actually remembering something, or I just want to remember it."

I hummed, looking down at the rag doll that was laying on the arm rest between us. I had tried patching it up as best I could, but sewing was not one of the many skills I practiced these days. I had hoped fixing it up might jog something in her memories, but that hadn't really worked. She still appreciated the gesture though.

I looked back at the road in time to see our turn coming up. "Oh, you need to-"

Before I could finish, Donna turned the car right. I looked at her for a moment, but didn't say anything. She drove the car down a few blocks and we came up on the next turn. I didn't say anything, but she turned left down the correct street. "Donna… do you know where we're going?"

"I… I'm not sure." She said, her voice hitching slightly. "I feel like I've been down these roads before- there! That house! I know that house!"

The car stopped in front of a light yellow house, an old colonial by the look of it. In the front yard there were four people; a boy and girl adolescent, a balding middle aged man with a mustache, and a similarly aged woman with brown hair down to her shoulders. They were raking up the autumn leaves around their yard, but they turned to us as we got out of the car. After a moment of confusion the man looked at the woman. "Fay, are you expecting anyone?"

The woman, Fay, looked equally confused. "No, I don't know these people..." She trailed off as she looked at Donna, the lines on her face deepening a little as her brow drew in.

I looked to Donna to follow her lead, but she was just slowly walking forward. I saw she had the doll clutched to her chest, and her eyes were starting to water. "Y-you. I r-remember you, how could I forget..."

The woman stared back, uncertainty in her features. "How are you so familiar-" She cut off when her eyes drifted down to the doll, rake slipping out of her hand as she brought it up to her mouth. "No… it can't be you. I looked, I looked for you but I never…"

The woman's body shook, and when she spoke I could hear the desperate hope in her voice. "Donna? Donna! DONNA!"

The two almost ran at each other at the same moment, coming together in a hug before collapsing to their knees. While they wept in each other's embrace, I looked up to see the man looking between them and myself in bewilderment. "What in the hell is going on?"

I sighed. "Could we come in? We have a lot to talk about."

Once the lot of us were inside the house's living room, and the two women recovered enough to talk, Fay started to explain the situation to her family. And her husband, who introduced himself as Hank Evans, was just as surprised as everyone else. "You had a daughter?" He said in shock, leaning close to Fay on the couch. "You never told me that you and Carl had kids."

"No, we didn't. We adopted Donna." Fay was hunched over, hugging herself. She looked up to see Donna's questioning face, and she explained. "Carl was my first husband. My high school sweetheart, really. I married him right out of high school. We loved each other, but he had a condition that meant he couldn't have kids. So, we decided to adopt, and for a wonderful year or so we had you in our lives."

Standing near the window I remained quiet, simply watching everyone's reactions. Donna was sitting across from the couple and was in much the same state as her once adoptive mother, still trying to process everything that was happening. The kids were sitting on the carpeted floor, not doing much better as they stared at their mom in worry. Hank managed to press forward. "Fay… I've never pressed you about Carl or what happened to him, but why didn't you tell me about this? Carl being gone is one thing, but having a child-"

"I didn't know she was still alive!" She cried out, a miserable expression on her face. "The night that Carl died… people broke into our house and took Donna from her room. We heard her crying and Carl tried to stop them. They… they killed him, stabbed him in the chest. All I could do was call the police and try to stop the bleeding, but it didn't do any good."

"Why in god's name would strangers kidnap a baby out of their own home?"

After a pause Donna answered. "Recently a child trafficking operation was discovered in Willowbrook, one that's been around for decades. The orphanage was part of it. They took me back because they thought I was valuable."

Fays hand slammed down on the coffee table and I could see tears in her eyes again. "Damn it, I knew I should have kept searching. Nothing seemed right when I asked if anyone knew about you. I couldn't tell if they were covering something up or, or the stress of it all-"

"No, it's fine." Donna insisted, moving forward to take Fay's hands in her own. "These were very dangerous people. You probably would have been killed too, if you keep looking for me there."

Fay gripped the younger woman's hands back and gave a teary smile. "I tried to find you, I really did. But I didn't have a job back then, and without Carl supporting me I couldn't… I had to do everything I could just to keep this house. I had to find a way to take care of myself and I just couldn't do both. I'm so sorry Donna, please forgive me."

Teary eyed as well, Donna shook her head. "I understand. I'm just happy I finally found you." She drew in a breath before looking around the room. "I think I actually remember this place, just a little. My memory of those years is fuzzy but being here is bringing things back. I remember… flying around this room?"

Fay laughed. "You loved it when Carl held you up and carried you around the house. He would hold you above his head and call you his little Wonder Woman." Her mirth faded a little as she turned back to her husband. "I'm sorry I never told you any of this. I felt so ashamed of what happened that I just wanted to put it behind me."

Hank sighed, and looked at her with loving eyes. "You did everything you could Fay." He turned to Donna, "As for you young lady, anyone who Fay calls family I call family. It may be a little late Donna, but welcome home."

Donna brought her hand to her mouth, and the tears started flowing in earnest again. In short order the whole family was clustered together in a hug, with Donna in the center. It was a truly heartwarming scene… and one I had no place in.

Standing apart as I was, I felt an unexpected pang of longing. I looked away as I got a hold of myself. Aerial had dragged memories of my family to the front of my mind, and the group in front of me was reminding me of what I was missing. I wondered how they're doing. How they've handled my disappearance. And if I'd ever get a reunion like the one in front of me.

I turned my head back to see they were still in each other's embrace, but Donna had her eyes fixed on me for some reason. Before I could say anything they broke apart, and Fay seemed to remember that I was there. "Oh, right. Thank you for helping to bring Donna back to me. It means the world to me."

I put on a smile and nodded. "I was in the right place and right time to help."

"Regardless, you two should stay for dinner. There's so much to talk about."

We spent much of the day at the Evans' home, the family doing their best to make Donna feel welcome. After dinner Fay went up to the attic and pulled out a trunk she had hidden away for years, revealing some of the belongings she kept from her last marriage. This included a photo album, which had numerous pictures of Donna as a baby. They were happy images, always with Donna smiling with one of her parents, and almost always holding that doll of hers ("It was the last thing your birth mother gave you. You loved it so much, we practically had to pry it away from you for bath time.") The pictures showed Carl to be a wiry man with short auburn hair, with a worker's tan. Donna lingered on the image of Carl holding her up on his shoulder, posed a bodybuilder flex as he grinned for the camera.

Eventually we entered the long hours of the night, and it was time to head home ourselves. Donna promised to come back tomorrow as we walked out the door and headed to the car. "And now, I think, we are truly done." I remarked. "I wonder if the Moirai knew it would be this messy."

Behind me Donna stopped. I turned back to her but before I could speak she suddenly launched forward and wrapped her arms around my neck, knocking me back a step from the force of it. She planted a kiss on my cheek before pulling back, a sunny grin on her face. "Thank you. For everything you've done for me. I never would have found out my past without you."

"Ah," I stammered, actually flustered for the first time in a long while. I certainly wasn't unused to physical contact, but ever since Gaia all of my attention in that respect had been on Kori. But now, with Donna abruptly pressed against me and smiling up at me… well, she was kind of hard to ignore. It took me a few seconds to regain my wits. "It… was no problem. Ok, maybe there were a few problems, but it was still worth it."

She pulled back, but didn't let go of me completely. "If there's any-" she started to say, but stopped and shook her head. "No, you're just going to say you don't need anything, so I'll say it straight. I want to help you with your family." I started to respond, but she kept talking. "I know, you don't want to talk about it, and I don't know what happened. But I know that it's eating you up inside, and it's not going to get better the longer you avoid it. Please, let me help."

I looked back at her for a long moment… before I let out a sigh. "You're right. I have been avoiding it. Mostly because I don't have a good way of dealing with it. I've thought to myself more than once that I should just drop everything and focus on it, but I have so much to do here and now."

"Well, just take some time." Donna insisted. "You spent all this time helping me, there's no reason you can't do the same for yourself."

"It's a little more complicated than that," I said, looking up at the night sky in thought. Vega wasn't really visible, but my thoughts turned back to the day I had first come to this reality. And the decision that I had considered making ever since the Titans formed. Thinking on it, I was still scared of what might happen… but looking back down to see the concern on Donna's face made the choice for me.

I breathed in deep. "You deserve better than me talking around the subject. All of you do." I untangled myself from her. "You should know the whole story. But, we're going to have to get back to the Mountain first, and get the rest of the Team together."

"Alright, but why?"

I turned and resumed walking to the car. "Because this has been a while coming, and I rather that I only have to explain this once.

=====A=====

A/N: A bit short this time, just to wrap some things up.