In what felt like hours but was in fact only a second , the memories swamped Raven, bursting back in to the light after years crammed in the darkness. She daren't look at Adyn, her empathy told her how stricken he was, let alone Damian.

Raven's eyes, perfect blue, fell on that sweet, delicate face, and her mind could only venture to one place. The cliff. The Wastelands. The little hand that couldn't hold on.

But no.

The sweet, delicate face was wrong: twisted. It's eyes lightless, it's lips set in a harsh line. Not Sahara. It's aura was wrong. Powerful, and wrong. But she was there, underneath, that calmness of her aura. It was corrupted. A water bubble surrounded by roaring flames.

"Who are you?"

Damian.

But he knew who that was- or was supposed to be.

"Your end."

Black flames roared around the creature's figure, and her head tipped backwards, a deep rumbling growl worked its way up her throat and leafy with a roar like a hundred thunder clouds. Her arms splayed wide and she rose higher above the throne.

Batman looked at Raven and demanded, "What is that?"

"Something's possessing her.", Raven gulped, her eyes circles. "Something powerful..I don't know what..."

At that moment, a current of black surged through the room, flowing from the creature. Raven's previously seized brothers had taken advantage of the situation to escape over to the entity channeling pure black magic. It tainted the air with a sulphuric taste and Raven found herself coughing uncontrollably alongside the others.

Her mind became foggy, but she had enough sense left in her to create a forcefield, extending it to her allies. Under the translucent dome, she grouped with the other others and tried o make sense of what was happening. Cassandra, who had been closest to the source of the black magic, was on her knees, spluttering something awful. Batman knelt besides her, checking her vitals. Zeela too collapsed, wheezing.

Such a forcefield two years ago would have severely depleted Raven's strength and nearly nicked her out cold; now, with her nearing 17, the demonic age of total maturity, and around the time of the Blood Moon, she could sustain this barrier for an hour or more. She allowed her senses to branch out as she pressed her hand to Zeela's back and assessed her condition.

That was not good.

The magic surge was draining the life force of the sea-dweller. It hadn't been absorbed by the creature, only distorted in to the air, adding to the swirling mass of blackness.

"It's draining their life forces,", Raven explained, checking on Cass and getting the same results, "if we'd stayed in it any longer it could've killed us."

"So what do we do?", Aleil threw his hands up. He looked to his lover, "Any ideas?"

Adyn gave no response. The haunted look on his face hadn't left as he stared at nothing. Raven ignored it all. There was time for sadness afterwards, now was the time for action. There was a powerful creature inhabiting the body of an Al Ghul trying to kill them. On the cliff- off the cliff- in the Wastelands- in the land of the exiled and dead- what could have happened to her?

With a hypothesis in mind that she prayed was right, Raven declared to the recovering group, "I think I know how to defeat h-it, but I can't be sure."

Damian snorted, "It's not like we have a lot of options. Whatever that is, inside her, I'll gladly drag back to whatever hole it crawled out of."

Adyn seconded that.

They would have to fight both remaining Sins as well as the supposedly possessed Al Ghul. Raven's brothers were no issue, but what was in Sahara...they didn't even know what it was or how much damage it could do. Most likely it was an old demon long since banished to the Wastelands, or a vengeful spirit.

The tactic was simple and solid- one Batman didn't dispute. It had been proven by the JLA's encounter with demonic possession (when Trigon had tried to take Earth) that the entity would leave the host if they weren't able to sustain them.

So Raven brought the barrier down and Zeela and Aleil made the first move, clearing awayx the misty magic by summoning gusts of wind and arcs of water. Out of the blue, many of their  other forces that had been occupied fighting the usurper's army stormed in to the throne room, led by Etrigan himself.

Ephron and Calder were motionless.

The legendary demon Etrigan. The noble warrior ever demon was raised to fear and revere. The demon who was about to send their fractured souls straight to the Wastelands.

He charged forwards with no mercy, roaring at the demon brothers, "SPARE MERCY FOR NO MAN, FEEL THE WRATH OF ETRIGAN!"

The additional forces were around fifteen in number, but were certainly a match for the creature, sending thick black streams stabbing at the the attackers like massive spider legs. Constantine staggered back for a moment, looked from Raven to the creature and back to Raven.

"Bloody hell,", he muttered, then called to Raven, "You got a plan?"

She nodded, "Just attack and don't get killed."

Damian, who had leapt out of the way of one of the magical tendrils, landed crouched next to Constantine and grinned, "Hades knows you've sent enough demons to the Wastelands. They'll tear your soul apart." The thought made Damian a little happy.

Before Constantine could give his own smartass comment, Zatanna pulled him out the way as Lahra the half-Norse warrior jumped in front of him and fired at the tangible black limb mercilessly with her bulky gun. From a few metres away, Jason glanced at the weapon with adoration and whistled. Zeela glared at him, but pushed him away from a magical attack. Their sides worked to deflect the magical limbs and kept Raven's two brothers at bay, eventually sending them off in to the Wastelands with fatal blows.

Talia Al Ghul sliced a black tentacle in half, getting a clear view of the being that created it. Sahara. But not. Damian was there, fighting alongside his mother- did he remember her? Talia had last heard, years ago, that she'd perished- a scroll had been sent to Ra's Al Ghul by the acting leader of Hell, Sloth, after Trigon's temporary imprisonment. Yet, here her body was. Animated or possessed.

Batman worked his way closer to the creature, dodging the magical attacks. And so began the plan. He surged forwards and threw several batarangs straight at the woman's torso. They were deflected by a swipe of her hand. That distracted her. Raven had slinked around slowly, she now was behind the creature. As the batarangs were deflected, the blackness surrounding the supposedly possessed Al Ghul dissipated. Raven jumped. She drove her dagger through the creature's side, from the back.

The half-demoness was slammed in to the tapestried wall, her demonic blade clattering beside her as the creature shrieked something terrible. The sound reverberated off of the walls like the scream of a cave full of bats, amplified a hundred-fold. Damian fell to his knees, curled up, clutching his ears. His  vision was blurry but when he looked up, he could vaguely see the crouching forms of his allies.

Damian blinked repeatedly and winced at the harsh ringing in his ears.slowly but surely, his vision cleared and the high-pitched whistle faded from his ears. Above them, what looked like a floating sphere of tar bubbled, Damian narrowed his eyes, rubbing his head.

Some of the others got to their feet, staggering for a moment and checking on each other before they too noticed the mass above them. Batman faced Damian, "Are we assuming that she is in there?". Damian nodded. "I won't ask you what she is, now. But-"

He could finish his words, for in that moment, from the black tar-like ball spat out a body. A blanket of purple caught her. Raven hadn't suffered any major injuries from being slammed in to the wall, thankfully. The blanket drifted to the floor.

Sahara. Just Sahara. No dark entity inside. No black magic. No twisted features. Just her. And the wound spilling red over the  sleek stones.

The black mass contracted like water boiling on full heat, then, much like a bubble, it popped. A cloud of black. Black black black. Pure darkness. A conscious darkness. It screamed the same howl that had left Sahara Al Ghul's throat...and it left. Sinking up out of the throne room in and out of the palace. Out of the demonic towns. Out of the land of the living. In to the pits of the Wastelands.

It was confirmed then. An ancient, powerful, broken demonic spirit. It had found a living host, but that living host was compromised.

Damian rushed to his sister's side. Her chest rose and fell. Breath. Life. He put pressure on the wound, all concepts of medical technique escaping his mind. What the fuck had he trained for a decade in the League of Assassins for?! Raven joined him at her side, as did Adyn. He didn't care that there was a room of people looking over his shoulder, he looked Raven straight in the eye and begged her, "Heal her. Do something. Heal her. Please! Raven, do something! ", he looked at the fluttering eyes of the girl who'd loved him when he didn't even know the meaning of the word, his sister that had been more of a mother to him than his own mother. Tears unashamedly painted silver streaks down his cheeks and drip-dropped on her hands.

Raven's eyes were glassy and she whispered, "I...I can't. It's a demonic blade-I- it can't be-..."

Those fluttering green eyes opened a sliver, then wider they grew until Sahara Al Ghul met her brother's eyes for the first time in almost ten years. Her voice was scratchy and weak, Damian never realised how much his heart was missing it, it brought forth a new wave of tears. "D-Damian?", her lips pulled themselves in to a smile and her face lit up in an attempt at life. "Ya hayati...ayna hatha al makan?...Kinta tifl...ya 'alby...(My dear (literally: 'my life' but it's used in the 'my dear, darling, love etc' way) ...where is this place?...You were a child...my dear (literally: my heart)." Sahara's eyes moved to the other two at her side. "Raven. Adyn. We- we were going...so far away...did we make it? I just- but it feels like so long ago..."

Adyn's throat bobbed and he found himself forsaking his demonic warrior form. "Of course we-we made it. It's all okay. It's fine. We're together. In the end."

Sahara breathed in sharply, "It hurts a lot. Does freedom hurt?"

Damian shut his eyes tightly and shook his head, this wasn't it, this wasn't the end.

"But Damian is here... have we died?", Sahara asked faintly. "This is a good place for an after-death, but it hurts still. Doesn't that go once you are gone?" Her eyes slammed wide open in panic, "Mother! I have to report to her on the South America division trainees. She'll be so angry. I can't disappoint her again, Mother's loosing her patience. She might send me away. I can't leave you!", she implored Damian.

Her brother shook his head, "No. You won't. Mother can't-" it occurred to him. Damian turned his head. There, behind him, was his mother. Talia looked at her son. A single tear felt from her chin to the floor.

Damian's eyes twitched, and in a voice low enough that Sahara wouldn't hear, he spoke in lowly and slowly, he had never spoken with such danger in his voice. "Don't you dare. You will come here and tell her exactly what you need you- what you've never said. Do you understand me?" Salt-water leaked furiously from his eyes. "I said, do you understand me?"

Tongue heavy in her mouth, Talia nodded. She stepped forwards and knelt by Sahara's side looking at her, at a loss for what to say.

"M-mother?", she stirred. "Nghh... I've failed you again, haven't I?" Sahara winced and struggled to lift her head, managing in the end. She stared her mother straight in the eyes. "I can see it. I've disappointed you."

Talia choked, "No-", she cleared her throat, "no. You haven't. I'm... proud of you, my child.", she tucked her daughter's hair behind her eyes as it fell in her eyes. "I'm proud of you."

Sahara relaxed, closed her eyes and smiled a relieved smile. She exhaled for the last time, and those green eyes never opened again.

A.N:

Cry bitches.

-Bats ;)