There was a delicate prodding in Raven's mind. She pushed it away for she was waiting.

She'd accompanied the others inside the Hall of Justice and slumped on to the first sofa that they'd come across. Upright with the need for understanding, Damian was immersed in mellow conversation with the jackal-headed god. Raven's eyelids were droopy and she curled in to her boyfriend's side; he leant back and, for comfort, ran his fingers absently over her knuckles, cradling her hands.

Raven had poured her heart (and so her magic) out in to Damian's soul. It was this that Anubis explained to the boy while Raven drew her knees close. She waited still and wished to pull apart the layers of the universe to seek the duat.

That something prodded again and Raven wondered if she should answer the tentative call.

"Osiris and the others dealt with Darkseid and that awful demon. Your grandmother had collapsed- so her spells faded. I revived Raven and kept the wraiths at bay." The god said, pairing a very odd, but warm, picture of an Egyptian god slouched besides a colourfully costumed boy and a demon witch in white.

Raven didn't need to pay attention- she'd been there.

And that 'awful demon'... she didn't want to think of him but he called to get again. Trigon, re-embedded in her mind, said her name once more and received no response so said his thoughts in the hope that Raven would hear it.

His spoke to his daughter of remorse, of intentions, of family and blood. He told of the regret that she would never call him kindly father; that his name would ever be swathed in red to her. Trigon pulled at her heart's desires, a beast of temptation above all, and sighed that he was proud. He thought the Al Ghul boy worthy, so did the demon lord disclose.

Oh how Raven wanted to believe it. But his sugar coated nothing but acidic sentiment. Perhaps some part of Trigon loved his daughter. She wished that she could make herself either believe or reject the idea outright, but the question existed in perpetual grey.

She attended Thoth, that faithful creature of wisdom, and his promise of a Pandora's box. Then Trigon would be rid of.

In the heat of battle, with the arrival of the towering gods, he'd taken persuading to desist his assault on Darkseid: immense Horus and Osiris, flanked by Bastet and even the vicious scowl of Set, had forced the demon out of battle lust. He'd relented to their power; none of the heroes had considered the possibility of any creature stronger than him.

But Trigon was an old being. These gods were rebirthed from a combined force- the strongest they ever would be. A fight with such entities would erase his existence; these gods commanded death and time and the skies and all between. Reason had won and Trigon had abandoned his attack.

She had awoken to his weakness, roused by the gentle hand of the god of death, and it was sickeningly satisfying.

"For you see, we had banished that thing- this 'God Eater'- to non-existence in a black hole and thusly thought it wise to condemn Darkseid to the same fate." Anubis continued his piecemeal depiction of what had happened. Raven listened with half an ear, favouring taking Damian's arm as a pillow over paying attention.

Her slumber drowned Trigon's synthetic sentiment out. Damian was so warm and so comfortable...

Raven awoke with a beak in her face. She recoiled in to the sofa, pushing a blanket off of herself in the motion. An awakening blink brought the white-clothed witch to her senses and she hastened to stand and bow.

Thoth was awkward in his physical state, powerful as it was, and stepped back. The ibis eyes embedded between fine feathers were wide. They soaked her in as she greeted him for the second time. Thoth's hands were softly wrinkled (like that of an old librarian or museum curator- hands meant for examining paper and papyrus) as he forwent a handshake and curtly held them out, holding a prison.

It was a perfect pyramid: four triangular sides of something more precious than gold and twice as vibrant; no larger than the palm of Raven's hand. Runes older than hieroglyphs etched their mysterious power in to the godly metal and it carried the fierce aura of the sands and a winding river- as if it had been birthed in the Sahara and bathed in the Nile as they both were thousands of years ago. And in the centre of one of the faces- the one before Raven-was a diamond-shaped indent.

The girl looked up at Thoth and he watched back, as if he saw all of her thoughts as they formed and whirred about in her mind before dissipating. In her periphery, she caught sight of Damian and focused on him. He noticed and gave her a small smile as if he were containing something much bigger. Besides him, the jackal-headed god of death sipped curiously on a carton of apple juice. Batman watched over them from afar.

Thoth moved his hands forward; she thought that he perhaps was gesturing for her to hurry up. In response, the god of wisdom answered what she hadn't voiced, in a deep, raspy, hooting sound unlike anyone she'd heard.

"Time has no meaning to the immortal." He said. She didn't know if she believed it though- that bird-face looked impatient but his aura was unmoved.

Raven hastened all the same.

Daughter! DAUGHTER NO! HORRID CHILD I WILL-

For the rest of her lifetime, Raven never got to hear what her father would do, for she had torn the gemstone from her forehead and placed it (almost throwing the abominable thing) in to the indented space and ridden herself of Trigon. The moment that the crystal left her skin, she sighed an un-imitateable sigh of resolute peace.

A beguiling guilt sat in her stomach when she thought of that moment, until the day that she took her last breath a very, very long time afterwards. She would curse her father for that; he didn't deserve her consideration. But a beautiful love and a fulfilling life would manage to submerge those feelings easily.

Thoth parted without more than a nod, disappearing in to a stream of golden dust that swirled magnificently before slipping in to nothingness.

She stared blindly at the spot where Thoth had been.

"He's gone." Raven said to no one.

A calloused hand on her check lifted Raven to reality. She leant her cheek in to Robin's touch and smiled tearfully. "I hate him Damian."

He drew her in to his arms and kissed her where the tears had dripped. Being so close to death, risking losing everything, it had touched Damian's heart in a way that the snappy, violent child that he once was would never had thought. His father, his siblings, the Titans, even Selina Kyle- they were so dear now, in their own ways. And Raven was the most precious thing in existence. He would not mind sharing his ephemeral mortal existence with her, quite the opposite.

"You have no need to hate him anymore." Damian said it and she knew it was true. "We've a whole life to think of, beloved." The word blazed in her heart and he felt it hammer through her ribcage.

After a moment, Raven repeated, "Beloved? Is that what we're using now."

His lips laughed against her own as they shared a sweet kiss.

"TT. No," Damian said, "that's what I'm using for you. You'll have to find your own word. Finders keepers."

"You're such a child." She rolled her eyes.

"TT. You love me really."

Raven narrowed her eyes coyly, "Hmmm...do I now...?"

"Raven!" He protested and she laughed.

"I'm only joking," the witch kissed him properly, gloved hands around his neck and feet hovering a few centimetres from the ground. "Beloved."

A.N:

I don't really know what to say...thank you guys. I love you all. Thank you so much for reading. We're coming to the end of this story and it's making me so saaaaad! :( I hope you enjoyed this week's chapter and I'm sorry that it's late!

-Bats <3