Have you ever known someone who was truly kind?
Kindness was not something that I had known a lot of in my life before I met Mae-Eye. My father was good, but it's a mistake to assume that someone who was good was also kind. In his way, I think, he loved me … but he did not know how to show that love in any fashion other than to do his best to prepare me to face my mother.
Atlas had been gentle and kind- far more so than his creators ever intended or wanted him to be- but even he paled next to Mae. She was one of the most kind creatures that I had ever known- in both of my lives.
Mae's magic was always powered by emotions. In her youth- when I had fought beside her- she had taken the fear and pain of those she fought to protect to give herself the strength and power to shield them. Nothing made her happier than to preserve life and innocence.
And I had made her someone who fed on those very qualities.
Hatred I had expected- I would have welcomed it. But this guilt … this self-loathing that made her focus her power inward … that made her desire death the way a man wants the touch of his one true love … this I had not expected.
I had expected her to hate me … not herself.
Atlas is at her beside. He is lightly touching one of her hands. He does not look up when we come into the room. Tara is beside him, holding his other giant hand in her two comparatively tiny ones. She looks at me hopefully.
I sigh.
Starfire is on the other side of Mae. She's humming some song that I don't recognize. She is holding Mae's other hand. She smiles at me. "Tell her you are here, Trigon-Man."
"She knows that."
Mae-Eye looks much more like her old self than she had when we freed her from the curse, but she's still not the slender girl that I had known as a youth. She is a woman now- a woman with pain etched into her face and even though she seems dead to the world her three eyes are still bleeding tears.
"Tell her anyway."
I take a seat beside Atlas and touch Mae's cheek. "Mae, I'm here."
Raven puts her hand on my forehead- the first time she has ever touched me- and another on Mae's. "I'll project what you're feeling."
"Mae … Mae I am so sorry that I did this to you. You were my friend- one of the best friends that I ever had. You stood beside me. You fought to save a world that you weren't born on. And in the end, when the smart thing would have been to flee, you tried to stop me. You saved Arella. You saved Raven.
"I can never thank you enough for that. You have every right to hate me. You have every right to blame me for every thing that's happened to you. But please … please don't hate yourself.
"You aren't to blame, Mae. You aren't to blame for any evil that you did. It's all on my head. And I have no right to ask this- but I need your help, Mae.
"Malchior needs you. He's like you- he's cursed to be the monster that he never wanted to be. I want to help him. I want to lift the curse. I want to bring our friend back. But I can't do it, Mae- I can't do it alone. I can't do it even with Atlas's help.
"We need you, Mae. We need you to save Malchior. We need you because you are our friend and we have been without your love and kindness for far too long. Come back to us, Mae. Please. Come back to us."
"Come back to us, Mae," Atlas rumbles softly.
"Come back to us, Mae-Eye," Tara whispers, smiling at me.
"Come back to use, Mae," Starfire says firmly. "You are needed."
"Come back to us, Mae," Raven said gently. "I want to hear the stories of my mother from the people who loved her. Come back so I can thank you for saving her."
For a moment … for a long moment, nothing happens.
And then another voice rings out. A strong voice filled with a certainty that had never wavered even when we were facing hopeless odds. "Come back, Mae- because I didn't come all this way just to watch you die!"
"It can't be," Atlas whispers. "She's gone."
"Who the hell is that?" Tara demands of me as I stare at the hooded and cloaked figure in the doorway.
Mae's eyes flutter. She takes a breath. A soft one, then a stronger one.
Raven lets go of us and stands up. She looks at me, and then back at the woman's who's walking towards us. "How is this possible?"
"I do not understand, Friend Raven. Who is this woman?"
"Beloved," I whisper. I want to touch her. I want to take her into my arms and never let her go. But I don't go near her. I'm afraid she'll vanish like smoke. I'm afraid if I go to her she'll push me away. I don't know which I fear more.
"Mother," Raven says quietly. "It's my mother."
"Arella!" Mae-Eye calls out and sits upright. "You're alive!"
Arella, Raven's mother. Arella, our team's leader. Arella … the woman I had loved and married.
Arella lowers her hood. She's older now, but every bit as beautiful as she was as a girl. She has the same sparkle in her eyes, the same air of derring-do. "Trig, I can't believe you'd even think of getting the band back together without me. If we had a couch, you would totally be sleeping on it tonight..."
"Arella ..."
"Trigon?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up and kiss me."
And I ran to her and did just that.