"Um, Mother? If you could stop trying to swallow Father's tongue long enough to answer some questions I'd appreciate it."
"Have a heart, Raven. The last time I saw Trigon I thought I had lost him forever." Arella smiles at her.
"I know the feeling." Hidden in her hood again, Raven's got four eyes again. A sure sign that she's not happy. "I went back to Azarath- it was restored. I sensed your presence, but I couldn't find you. I couldn't find anyone. I thought Trigon had killed you all."
"I'm sorry, Raven. I would have come to you sooner if I could. The last thing I remember before a few days ago was Azar putting me to sleep. She said that was the only way that Trigon could be defeated. That if he had me then there was no way anyone could stop him."
I close my my eyes as the memories come. "She said you were gone. That you had died. That you were beyond my power."
"And you killed her." Raven still has her four eyes. She is still shrouded in darkness. "You killed them all. Everyone in Azarath."
"No." The memories are hazy, like a dream. But I knew that much. "They were gone. The monks. At the end, there was just Azar and me."
I had heard of her. Felt her presence for years. I knew that Azarath was all that stood between Earth and myself. She had taken Arella. She had kept my daughter from me. And now at last .. my power was at its heights while hers was dying.
"Our first meeting is our last, Azar," I had told her. "You cannot oppose me any longer. Your dream- and you- die today."
"Our first meeting, Trigon?" She had smiled … and that smile was somehow mockingly familiar. "You know so little. And that power and you are still little more than a child."
"I conquer! I destroy! I rule!"
"Your world is an ash heap. Your daughter is safe on Earth. Arella is beyond your reach. Death has claimed her."
"Arella dead?!" Pain- vengeance denied- or something else? Something that I had thought myself incapable of feeling? "No! I will burn this place to ashes, Azar! I will burn YOU to ashes."
"Go ahead and try, Demon Lord." Her hands began to burn with power. "I have harvested the power of everyone in Azarath- now your reign ends!"
"We fought," I told them. "We fought and she lost. I saw no one else there. Our battle leveled Azarath. I left and went to Earth."
"You said you just woke up," Raven said to Arella, ignoring me once more. "What could have caused that? I defeated Trigon months ago."
"I'm guessing I woke up when Trigon freed Atlas from the curse. Somehow I knew that my team needed me. I knew I had to get back to Earth. It took some doing for me to find a means of activating a portal back home."
"Your team?" Robin asks her. He's joined us in Mae's room while Cyborg is giving my old friend an examination.
"Don't you know?" Arella smirks again. When I was young, I had found that smirk of hers irritating at first, then charming … now I was just thankful that I got to see it again. "I was the leader."
"She was really good at giving orders, too," I admit. "We could practically hear her in our sleep."
"I did," Mae says softly. "That's why I came back. I knew if we had Arella, things could be all right once more. There's nothing we can't do when we're all together."
Arella reluctantly lets go of me and walks back to Mae's bedside. She kisses our friend on her forehead. "I came back for you, Mae. I am so sorry I left you all behind."
"It was our choice, Arella," Atlas rumbles, laying one of his giant metal hands on top of her delicate human ones. "We would do it again if we had to."
"Please don't say that." She smiles at him. "I couldn't live with myself if I had to go through that again. If not for Raven I don't think I would have lived through it the first time."
"Mother." Raven's voice is cold, tight with self-control. "Why didn't you tell me all of this when I was growing up?"
"I couldn't, Raven."
"What do you mean you couldn't? You were practically a stranger to me. You left me for the monks and Azar to raise. Azar said that it was because you were overcoming the trauma of my conception and birth. That any woman who was raped by a demon and gave birth to his spawn would need years to overcome it all. I thought that was why you didn't want to be around me. Why you didn't love me-"
"Raven, there has never been a time when I didn't love you or want you." Arella walks over to our daughter's side. I'm struck once more by how much Raven resembles her mother. And not just physically- like Arella, Raven had the courage to start live anew on a new world.
"Then why-?"
"I didn't tell you because I couldn't, Raven." Arella closes her eyes. "I don't know how to explain it, Raven. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to go to you and tell you the truth about your father- but I couldn't. It was like some force was binding my tongue. I knew Azar wasn't telling you the truth, but I couldn't bring myself to speak. Azar was keeping you safe- if we had gone to Earth we would have been helpless to stop your father from taking us both. Only Azar had the power to keep you safe. I didn't like it, but I didn't see another answer."
"A geas." Raven and I said at the same time.
"What do you mean?" Atlas asks.
"Someone magically prevented Arella from telling Raven the truth about her origins. Three guesses as to who."
"And the first two don't count," Raven added angrily.
"Azar," Arella murmurs. "But why?"
"We'll probably never know the answer to that," I admit. "Not after … what I did."
"Will you give that a rest?" Atlas demands. "We all have done things we regret, Trig. We can't change the past. Beating yourself up over it isn't going to help Mal. As soon as Mae is back on her feet, we have to save him. How do we find him?"
"That won't be a problem," Raven tells us. "A thousand years ago a sorcerer named Rorek captured Malchior inside his spellbook. I have the book."
"I thought that Brain freed him when he captured almost all of us Titans," Robin murmurs.
"I totally saved everyone that time," Beast Boy says with a cocky grin.
"He didn't free him from the book. He wouldn't have done that if he could as Malchior would have been far too powerful if left to his own devices. I took the book back after we defeated the Brain and his new Brotherhood of Evil," Raven says by way of explanation.
"Well that's good, right?" Atlas says. "We can lift the curse from Mal with no problem whatsoever."
"Sadly, no." I sigh and close my eyes. "The curse prevents Malchior from using his full powers, but it will also prevent me from lifting the curse on him. The only way we can free him is if we free him from the book."
"That's a bad idea," Robin replies. "He nearly defeated us all the last time he got free of that book. If Raven had not put him back ..."
"It's not his fault he's evil. He deserves to be saved. I am going to save him."
"Are you going to save him because it's the right thing to do or to make yourself feel better?" Robin challenges me. "I'm sorry for the person he was, but that dragon is too powerful just to be set free again. What if you aren't able to lift the curse once he's free? He'll never let himself be bound in that book again."
"Whatever my motivations, he deserves to be free." I can't answer Robin any other way because I don't know the answer. I am Trigon, after all.
"There is a way," Raven finally says. She doesn't look thrilled, but I can tell that she has an idea.
"Like what?" Robin asks he skeptically. "I know your mother just literally talked Mae-Eye into waking up but do you really think that he'll submit if she just asks nicely?"
"Mal was very fond of me," Arella murmurs, and I try not to let the sudden surge of jealousy show on my face.
"He was in love with you," Mae whispers. She is barely able to sit up, but she forces herself to do so. "He was the one who found the magic to send you to Azarath."
"So my first boyfriend had a crush on my mother," Raven mutters. "That's not creepy."
"Boyfriend? He was just leading you on, Rae." Now it's Beast Boy's turn to look jealous.
"Whatever," Raven waves a hand. I can see the slight smile on her face, and I realize that Beast Boy's affections for her are not unreciprocated.
Arella's eyes meet mine, and we share a rare smile.
"Just what do you have in mind, Raven?" I finally ask her.
"Simple. We can't remove the curse-"
"We?" Arella and I both exclaim, but Arella silences me with a look before she continues. "I don't recall anyone giving you permission to involve yourself in this, Raven."
"I am involved whether you like it or not, Mother." Raven glares at her. "Your friends saved you- saved us- and they paid a terrible price for it. And as much as I hate to admit it, Malchior is one of them. Father's right; the dragon doesn't deserve this curse. Much as he hurt me, he saved my life before I was born. I owe it to him to help save him if I can- and I'm the only one who can help you save him."
"What do you mean?"
"Robin's right. We can't free Malchior. It's too dangerous. We also can't leave him cursed. There's only one way for us to save him and not endanger the world."
"I don't like the way this sounds," Cyborg growls. "I don't know magic, but I know Raven's 'This is incredibly dangerous but I'm going to do it anyway' tone of voice."
"What is your plan, friend Raven?" Starfire is still sitting at Mae's beside, helping Cyborg treat her. It's the first thing she's said since Arella arrived.
"We can't let Malchior out of the book, but we can go into the book with him. Once we're there, Father should be able to removed the curse."
"That is a terribly bad idea," Robin declares flatly. "You told us before that Malchior has absolute power inside the world of the book."
"Raven can just send us into the book," Arella says. "Trigon and myself. We'll take care of this. I can reach Mal. I'm sure of it."
"You're not going anywhere without me," Atlas declares. "You're my friends- all of you. Even Mal. He'd never forgive me if I wasn't there to stop him from hurting you."
"And you'll need my power too," Mae adds quietly. "It will take all of us to save Mal."
"Then Raven can send us into the book-" Arella begins desperately.
"I can't use the curse that put Malchior in the book in the first place," Raven tells her gently. "I barely had the strength to release him before. No, there's only one way for this to work. I'll teleport us all into the book-"
"Can you do that?" Robin asks her.
"Yes."
"You aren't going in there alone," Beast Boy says. "I'm going with you, Rae!"
"I also will accompany you!" Starfire chirps in.
"You know I'm not going to miss this party!" Cyborg declares.
"You realize how stupendously bad this idea is?" Robin finally asks us all.
"Yep," Raven says deadpan. "You're coming with us, aren't you?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Robin runs a hand through his hair. "All right, Titans. Let's go save a dragon!"