Raven had been unsure when she got into the kitchen and saw a red-haired woman sitting at the table talking with Tommy. She figured this woman was trusted by the rangers or she wouldn't be allowed this close with the situation at hand. Then Tommy explained she created their technology and she understood why they let her in without question no matter the situation. She was probably considered as much a part of the team as any of the rangers themselves.

She took a seat beside Hayley and noticed a small bag in front of her as Tommy left the kitchen to contact the others and make sure they remembered the noon meeting time.

"Look I know you probably don't trust me… probably barely trust these five and I don't blame you, but I promise you that they will stop at nothing to make sure you get back to your home safe." Hayley said with a smile.

Raven sighed, not speaking. How had Hayley pegged her so fast?

"Look, like I told them, knowledge is my specialty…" Hayley continued "This isn't a normal situation for any of us, but I know you've figured out Tommy isn't the type to turn his back on someone in need."

"I know, I could tell that from when we started talking…" Raven turned away and Hayley could tell there was likely a lot more to Raven than they knew. Things that she likely feared would turn them away from helping her if they knew.

Hayley pushed the bag towards Raven, and she opened it to see box of assorted herbal tea bags. She looked at her with a raised eyebrow. How did she know that she was a tea drinker? Raven didn't as but did file this under the category of 'mildly creepy' after Hayley pointed out an electric kettle with water in it that was already hot and ready for use.

It's still early so Tommy encourages her to get something to eat while they wait for Trent, Conner, and Ethan to arrive.

Trent arrives way early but he also notes that his father is out of town, and he doesn't like staying home alone any longer than he has to.

"Why don't we go ahead and join Tommy in the command center?" Hayley suggested "I have some things to look at before everyone gets here."

Raven nods curious what this command center looks like. So far, the house itself was unassuming, just your average cottage house furnished with a masculine flare but not much by the way of personality. She had the feeling the command center would be different, that was his real home. She also wasn't sure how they would get there but the trap door was not what she was expecting. They got downstairs and she was stunned by what surrounded her. The space was a perfect blend of the organic and manmade and she is immensely impressed.

"Welcome… this is where the rangers work from, our command center." Tommy said with a smile coming from one of the computers off to her left.

Kira and Trent go to another computer to discuss what Mesogog had been up to lately as Raven slips quietly off to meditate.

By the time Conner and Ethan arrived Raven had been meditating for almost two hours and Trent had moved from his conversation to making a sketch of their new arrival as she meditated quietly levitating in the middle of the room.

Conner went to ask what Raven was doing but Kira glared at him giving him a good idea that perhaps he was best not asking.

Raven came out of her meditation standing to join the rangers at the computer. She knew there was a lot they could go for. More people Mesogog could use against her. Before they could continue their conversation the alarm starts to blare, and Hayley pulls up the screen to show Elsa on the attack again in the city.

"I'll help" Raven volunteers without so much as a second's hesitation.

"Are you sure?" Tommy asked.

"Yes… this is big and she's after me… I'm not going to keep to the sidelines."

It became apparent as soon as they got on the scene that Raven was skilled in combat taking out Tyrannodrones with bolts of magical energy and using it to enhance her physical blows as well making her a formidable opponent in her own right. Then Elsa singled her out and Tommy watched her in concern fearing that Elsa would be too much for her.

"Well, well, who would have thought the daughter of the dreaded Trigon would fight on the side of the power rangers…" Elsa said purposely dropping Trigon's name knowing it would pull the rangers back to Raven and question her motives for bucking them and maybe force her into Mesogog's hands.

"My father has nothing to do with my decisions, I hate him… I will never be like him!"

Elsa goes to attack Raven, but Tommy intervenes concerned but he knows Raven well enough from the short time he's had her in his home Elsa is trying to call doubt to her when it isn't necessary.

The battle is short lived and Elsa leaves thinking she had planted enough doubt in the rangers' minds that they would soon get what they want.

"Trigon… who is Trigon?" Conner asked in confusion as the team gathered around Raven.

"Go home, Rangers I… I think I need to handle this alone." Tommy replied, his hand on Raven's shoulder. He knew there was a story here the teenagers weren't seeing.

"Dr. O… but…" Conner continued.

"Go, I'll be okay!" Tommy snapped "I get the feeling there is more to this than Elsa wants us to find out… she wants us to turn on Raven and I'm not going to cater to Elsa… she wouldn't have dropped that name if it wasn't something she thought would turn us on Raven."

Raven and Tommy returned to the command center as the others went to Hayley's cyberspace to wait for his signal.

"Okay I know this is going to be hard, but I need you to tell me everything about you… who is Trigon, I get that he's your father, but why would knowing who he is be bad for your relationship with us?"

She took a seat and so did he. He didn't need empathic powers to tell this was a difficult story for her to tell, a story she had been afraid to tell from the get-go or she would have already.

"I… Tommy, I'm so sorry, I should have told you but… I was afraid if you knew you would turn me away." She said all the while not looking him in the eye. "Trigon is a powerful interdimensional demon… he was banished decades before my birth, but… but there was a cult… a group of people worshiped him loyally and created a temple for him where Jump City, my home now, sits." She paused "My mother was a runaway who they lured in with the promise of acceptance and she was then chosen for a… a ritual that led to her becoming pregnant with me..."

Tommy was invested in what Raven was saying, knowing that her stutter was out of fear not because she was trying in any way to deceive him.

"My mother knew that nothing good could come of the pregnancy and attempted to take her own life before I could be born… but she was stopped by the monks of Azerath, a small pocket dimension, she was taken there and that was where I was born." She paused "The magistrates looked into my future and found that with my birth started a prophecy in motion that would end the world… but an attempt to cast me into limbo failed, so Azar the spiritual leader decided to try to teach me to resist Trigon's influence and live a life of my own for however long I would have." She wiped tears from her eyes. "I was fourteen when I left Azerath and went to the Earth I live on now and met the rest of the titans. They gave me the friends I never had before and an outlet to use my powers to do any good I could before… before the prophecy came to pass, but they did more than they could ever imagine… more than I could have imagined."

"What happened?"

"The prophecy stated that when I came of age, in this case sixteen I would become the portal to allow my father to return to destroy all things mortal, The time of the prophecy came to pass and I gave them a gift, a bit of my power, in hopes they could find a way to save the world… what I never anticipated was I would be reborn after the events… after becoming the portal for my father… Robin… now Nightwing… braved the dangers of my father's realm, a place that could only be described as literal hell, and found me alone and hopeless. I had been reborn but as a small child. I don't know why but he believed in me… they believed in me and in the end it was that faith that gave me the strength to vanquish Trigon… the strength that I am assuming Mesogog wanted to use against you and your rangers to rid the world of you in order to get to his end goals of returning the world to the age of the dinosaurs."

"When did this happen?" Tommy had noticed that since she had started to recant her story she hadn't looked at him, her fear forcing her eyes to look anywhere but at him. What emotions did she fear he would show? Anger? Yes, he was plenty angry but not at her, Elsa was the one that put her on the spot this way. Her father's identity had no bearing on their current situation, dropping his name was a strategic move on Elsa's part to split Raven from them by planting seeds of doubt and anger in their midst. Tommy wouldn't let that happen. Hatred? She was a powerful sorceress who, frankly, had saved his bacon about an hour earlier when a Tyrannodrone had decided to attempt a sneak attack from behind, why would he hate her?

"It's been a little over a year since those events took place…" she sighed finally gaining the courage to look at him expecting him to be angry at her for not telling him sooner that this was in her past, what she saw wasn't what she expected.

"Tommy…"

"I can't believe… no I can… I can believe Elsa would drop that… would think we'd turn on you for that… but Raven that isn't how I work… you didn't choose to be born under those circumstances… with that looming over your head." He pulled her into his arms "you are not your father, and I won't punish you for his crimes. Don't worry, we will get you home, we won't let Mesogog get away with trying to use you."

"Thank you" she returned the embrace.

"The others need to know, but don't worry I will do the talking." He assured her gently. "Is there anyone… anyone at all in your universe they might grab to lure you into their hands?"

"Well, my team, but there is also my cousin… her name is Amanda Roth, but we call her Mockingbird." Raven sighed as she sat back in the chair "She shares a lot of my powers, but she is extremely young and not as powerful as me."

"How young?"

"Thirteen… she'll be fourteen in a few weeks."

Tommy became worried instantly, that was young, she'd be impressionable and easy for Mesogog to fool.

He called the rest back to the command center to fill them in on what Raven had said.

Conner led the team into the command center not sure what to expect. Tommy had seemed confident that this lead, this Trigon, was not something to be concerned about. Not something that tainted his view on Raven.

"Dr. O… what was Elsa talking about?" Conner asked.

Tommy recanted the story Raven had told them of who Trigon was and why Elsa thought they would turn on her for not telling them.

"Damn… so… your father… this Trigon… his only reason for even having you was to use you to concur the world?" Conner said.

Raven nodded; not leaving her seat, not looking at the teenagers afraid they wouldn't be as understanding as Tommy had been. She was shocked when she felt a hand on her back, she looked back to see Trent standing there.

"Apparently Elsa still doesn't know us very well… you can't choose your family… we've seen people who came from questionable origins become great heroes." Conner replied as Trent squeezed her shoulders.

The rangers were still unaware of his own secret, his father being Mesogog, but this gave him hope that they would forgive him when that information came to light.

Raven felt weak with relief as the rangers took in the information not holding it against her that she didn't tell them when they met. It seemed they understood why she had held that secret until she had no choice.

"I probably should have given you that information to begin with but…"

"No, Raven, we get it… you were probably scared that if we found out… we wouldn't be willing to help you." Conner said, "You proved to us in that last fight that you had our backs even in the hard times, the way you came to be here isn't important, you're here and you have proven you are a great ally to us."

"Exactly… your father's identity was kind of irrelevant until Elsa brought it up trying to make it relevant." Kira added.

Meanwhile Elsa was seething in rage, all of her hopes to get Raven to her side had failed and she knew Mesogog was furious with her for that fact.

"You have failed me Elsa… luckily I have been working on a contingency plan…" Mesogog said.

She looked at him in surprise as a small girl joined them, espresso eyes laced with concern.

"How can I save her?" she asked, "How can I save my cousin?"

Elsa looked at him in confusion.

"Yes, your cousin, Raven, she is in the custody of the power rangers, they will harm her, you must fight them to get her back." He explained also letting Elsa in on the cover story that he had used to get the thirteen-year-old into his influence. Elsa had to work hard to suppress the wicked glee that threatened to spread over her face. This should be fun, using Raven's own family against her promised to be entertaining to say the least.

Tommy sighed as they sat around trying to figure out exactly what to do next. Hayley was scanning for invisiportals to see if they could get into Mesogog's lair and get to whatever device he had used to pull Raven into their dimension and use it to send her home. Meanwhile Raven had returned to meditating and Trent was finishing his portrait of her.

Kira looked at it for a second then sat beside him.

"Don't worry I'll show her when I'm finished… I can't imagine what her life has been like… growing up with that over your head…" he sighed.

"I can't either…" Kira agreed sitting beside him.

It was quiet for hours and the rangers were about ready to pack it up for the evening when the alarm blared again.

They gathered at the screen to see Elsa and a young teenage girl in front of a small hoard of Tyrannodrones.

To Be Continued…