"I must say I am not in favor of this way of transportation." Alfred says as the group appears in the garden behind Wayne Manor in the middle of the night with him feeling queasy, Raven is still down hearted and Bruce hadn't said a word to her or the others yet and he remains silent as they make for the door, this isn't unusual when he has things on his mind.

"You'd get used to it eventually." Tim replies, though he had already told Raven she'd still be welcome in Titans Tower, it hadn't cheered her up, nothing seemed to.

"I certainly hope not." Alfred replies as he unlocks the door for them.

"Wait." Raven says as both she and Cerberus smells something as they step inside. "There's someone here. Tobacco." She hisses before she looks at her dog to make him stay by her side.

Batman quickly gestures them all forwards and they move carefully, leaving Alfred to hold Raven's small bag of things from the Watchtower as he follows them down the hallway and to the dark foyer, Raven gestures at the stairs with a hand, though Cerberus is looking at something else. Batman is about to lead them upstairs, when they are all caught off guard by a light being lit behind them. All of them spin around, with something to throw in hand to face whatever it was.

"Good evening Batman, I am here to speak with Nightwing." Most of the group curses themselves for failing to notice the massive form of Bane seated the single chair at the end of the low coffee table that stands before the entrance to the cave. But then they notice that he isn't wearing his mask, revealing Bane's broad jaw, very short hair and the deep brown eyes that hide some level of amusement in them.

"Bane." Batman growls in rising anger at the intruder along with Cerberus, though part of him was reminding him that Bane doesn't smoke, considering what he put into his veins, Bane is oddly intolerant of people smoking anywhere near him, something an unfortunate henchman of his had ended up in the hospital finding out. "What are you doing here?"

"I am here to make certain my services are honored as was agreed upon." Bane says as he gets out of the chair.

"You could have contacted us by other means." Nightwing growls, knowing Bruce is also re-running the memory of the last time Bane suddenly appeared in Wayne Manor. Nightwing was pretty sure it was an ordeal Bruce would never forget; Bane had returned to Gotham and maintained a very low profile under an alias and operated through a series of operatives. His big strike was to blow open Arkham Asylum and unleash dozens of lunatics on the city. Batman had to spend a month rounding them all up, not getting enough sleep, food and being exposed to the trials the madmen could cook up for him. He was worn down, physically and mentally when he returned home, only to find Bane ready and waiting in the living room. For once in his crime fighting career, Batman was caught in Bane's month-long trap that resulted in the brutal beating Bane delivered that ended with him breaking Batman's back over his knee.

"I could not resist." Bane replies with a smirk as he notices how Tim holds onto Ravens arm before she can launch herself at him. "Fear not, Batgirl, today I do not wish to fight, unless I must." He smiles.

"We had some other matters deal with first." Nightwing says. "Alfred, mind getting the pad from the dining room?" Alfred doesn't say anything but hurries off to get the device and hands it to Nightwing who begins operating it. Raven taps Batman's shoulder and motions with her eyes at the ceiling.

"They should be no bother." Bane notes casually noticing the gesture as well. "I found a group of four in Raven's room, preparing some kind of ritual by the door."

"What group?" Raven asks.

"A blind woman, a man in a sandy trench coat, a dark skinned woman with a peculiar nose piercing and a pale, dark haired man with red eyes. Perhaps you know who they are?" Bane asks.

"Yeah… I know who they are." Raven mutter's as another stone falls into her stomach this day.

"Hmm. I took the liberty of neutralizing them, as I did not want our meeting to be interrupted." Bane notes as Nightwing finishes.

"It is done." Nightwing says as he walks over with the tablet for Bane to see. "Even if Deathstroke called it in first."

"Hmm. Good." Bane says after confirming that it was the right account and that the correct amount had been transferred. "Then it is time for me to leave, I bid you a good evening, till the next time we meet." He says as he collects a large coat and hat from the couch before he makes for the door.

"Bane." Nightwing says as the big man reaches the door, making him turn. "Don't come here again." Bane huffs in amusement before opening the door and leaves.

"Think he will?" Tim asks after the door closes.

"I certainly hope not." Alfred adds, also remembering getting manhandled by the brute when he answered the door.

"Everyone, get changed. Raven, secure those people." Bruce rumbles.

"Right." Raven sighs before she bounds up the stairs with the others. She makes a quick assessment of her room, weary of any traps that might already be there, before entering. Finding, as expected from Bane's description; John Constantine, Sargon the Sorceress, Madam Xanadu and a man known as Tannarak lying on the floor where they were evidently preparing a ritual as Bane described. A circle drawn on the floor in salt right in front of the door , but disturbed by someone's feet, and some other ingredients are lying around the place. "Probably some kind of temporary containment spell before they could start on banishment or something more permanent." She thinks before she takes first John and then Sargon and throws them over her shoulders and heads down into the living room with them, then comes back for Xanadu and Zannarak.

Once she has them all lined up on the couch, she starts with emptying their pockets for whatever they are carrying. Constantine's trench coat, unsurprisingly, contains a shops worth of items; one and a half pack of cigarettes, a wallet, keys, a small flask, wool and a few bags of dried plants and something that might have been in something else at some point along with a few talismans and a fake passport. The dark skinned Sargon's tight fitting, leather pants and corset doesn't contain much, but Raven's skin crawls when she touches the other woman's bare skin, meaning she had enchanted herself for protection. Blind Xanadu, doesn't carry anything either, at least nothing her pink dress or the blindfold could contain. Zannarak's white suit however contains a number of items Raven identifies as having been enchanted with evasion spells and one teleportation trinket. She isn't surprised to find it on him; most of the group was of poor repute within magical circles.

John is a bastard and a backstabber, and everyone knew it, hence why he was known under a long number of unflattering nicknames like The Gutter Mage. Zatanna is adamant he means well, and Raven tends to believe her after she did some digging on her own, but Zee admits that John has deliberately and accidentally left several of his friends missing, mutilated or dead due to the events he gets them into. Xanadu is considered a wild card by most, her powers are mostly spoken of as divination these days, but some suspect she is far older and powerful than she lets on and that she has a hidden agenda planned in the cards she uses, Raven knows for certain that parts of this was true thanks to Dr. Fate. Zannarak is a man obsessed with power and his own mortality. No one disputes that he is powerful, but most also agree that his fear of death makes him easy to scare away. Lastly there is Sargon, her reputation is downright sinister; most believe she murdered her father, the original Sargon, to take his name and power to do as she pleased. Like Zannarak, Sargons presence could be explained in their hopes to get a piece of Raven's power, John could have reacted to her going nuts in the mountains, it is only Xanadu's presence Raven finds odd. Part of her actually finds it a bit amusing to think of the group being so focused on preparing to ambush her, only to have Bane suddenly come through the door like a charging elephant.

Not that much later:

"Uhh…" Constantine groans as he comes to, finding himself and his companions in the softly-lit living room, with most of their stuff on the table before them, while their hands are tied together before them with what appears to be rope from the curtains. Then he feels the pain coming from the back of his head. "Crist… what hit me?"

"A question I'd like to have answered as well." Raven says as she steps into his field of vision carrying a baseball bat making Constantine clench. "I come home, after months of abduction that I can't remember to find you people in my room preparing some kind of ambush. So let that be my more pressing one; what the hell do you think you are doing?" She asks as she fixes Constantine with an icy stare. "Because from what I can tell of the circle and the stuff you've brought along, I wasn't going to like walking through that door." But Constantine remains silent. "Well?"

"Ya can read me mind, can't ya?" He mutters while holding her gaze.

"I am a bit depleted after what happened, so not right now. Not that your mind is something I really want to get into from what I hear. Spill, or I am going to remind you that I am an Amazon as well." She says before pushing the bat under his chin while the others begin to stir. Xanadu appears to be calm, but Sargon and Zannarak look nervous. "Oh, and start muttering anything that sounds like a spell and I am going to hit you. As I was asking you're comrade here; what were you people doing in my room? And just so you know, I am having an exceptionally bad day already, so my fuse is short."

"Yeah, we figured that." Constantine says.

"Hmm." Raven hums to herself as something clicks for her and she lowers the bat and decides on a new tactic. "I get why you two are here." She says as she looks at Sargon and Zannarak as she leaves Constantine. "But you, Xanadu." She says as she leans in close to the blind woman. "Your presence I don't get."

"I am here because my cards told me to be, not why." The woman replies, Raven looks at her closely, there are some twitches around her eyes and Raven decides to test a theory and strikes with the speed of viper. The fist stops right before Xanadu's mouth, but she dives aside far too late to have avoided it. "Wha… What was that for?!"

"Just testing." Raven mutters, she knew it would be very hard to intimidate Xanadu if she could see what would and wouldn't happen before it did. But as Raven had just seen, Xanadu is truly blind and her gift apparently only occasionally springs into action. "So John, what was it exactly you figured would work and give those two what they want?" She asks as she turns to the others.

"Why don't you tell me?" John replies

"I am not interested in guessing." Raven replies, she guesses he was playing for time or information. "So how about it Sargon?" She says as she turns to the woman and quickly grabs the silver chain that connects the ring in her right ear and her right nostril and lifts. "I am pretty sure it's not the chain or the ring that breaks first."

"Ow! Let go!" Sargon protests as she has to lift her head before she has to try and get up to follow it, but is held down by the hand on her shoulder. "It was a containment spell!"

"And then what?" Raven asks as she stops lifting at a height Sargon has to strain at. "Simply leaving me in the doorway wasn't the only thing, was it?!"

"No!" Sargon complains through clenched teeth. "We… we were going to take you down a notch or three!"

"By that I assume you were going to rob me. Quite possibly cripple me and on top of that imprison me somewhere in something. Probably until the end of time or till John over there found it convenient to let me out?! Am I right?!"

"Y-Yes!" Sargon cries before being released, Raven notes that she had to take any confessions with a grain of salt, as you had to with everything extorted under pressure like this.

"And as you probably know, when things went south, John over there would have no difficulty leaving you three to fend me off while he departed." Raven sighs. "How did you find this place?" She asks before pushing the bat into Zannarak's stomach.

"J-John said you lived here." He stammers as she keeps pushing.

"Did he?" Raven replies before she turns back to the Brit. "So then Con Job, how?"

"I have my sources." He says, getting a sigh out of her before she turns to the table where there is a bowl filled with nuts, just to demonstrate she takes a walnut and cracks it in her hand before starting to separate the shell from the edible bits.

"I am sure. But not for this, I took extensive precautions to shield this place from the likes of you, yet it wasn't enough." She says while she eats. "How did you find this place?" She discards the rest of the nut on the table before grabbing Constantine's right wrist in her hand as he remains silent. "Do you think you can do sleight of hand with a crushed wrist?" She asks menacingly before squeezing, getting several 'pops' to come out of the joint.

"ARG! Let go damnit! I'm not telling!" Constantine hisses as she puts on a little more pressure while he tries to kick her away.

"John, she will miscalculate if you continue, your hand will end up popping off." Both Raven and Constantine looks up in surprise at Xanadu, who hasn't moved her head, Constantine because he was genuinely worried that it would happen and Raven because she knew she wasn't even close to breaking anything unless he moved too much.

"Ah ok! I tracked your signature here, the area, it's all over the place… just not the room!" Constantine complains before Raven lets go, leaving him to clutch the wrist with his other hand while he sweats the pain out.

"Good, that's all I wanted to know." Raven says before she looks up and nods, Constantine, Sargon and Zannarak all feel a tiny prick in the back of their necks before they are all dozing off again. "You weren't just here because of your cards." She asks Xanadu after she is sure the drugs are working as they should.

"Zatanna alerted me to your situation before she was summoned and when she sounded the all clear. She asked me to be careful of John if he attempted anything." Xanadu replies calmly.

"Would you have sabotaged it?" Raven asks.

"It would have depended." Xanadu replies. "So what happens to me now?"

"Nothing." Raven shrugs. "I am going to have the others taken to Zatanna, they won't remember being here. And I am tempted to ask the same for you, because I am not sure you are telling me the whole truth about why you are here. You are noted as perhaps the best fortune teller around, and I know you have been that since the days of King Arthur, your cards aren't that vague and you aren't normally that willing to take a risk like his, and not with a bunch like this."

"Hmm." Xanadu huffs. "If I must be… I was concerned my sister had worked her magic's on you as well, but from afar and that it was the reason you… came out. She will have noticed you long ago."

"And is Morgan le Fay involved in this?" Raven asks, though she finds the wording a little odd.

"Not as far as my senses can tell." Xanadu replies. "But I must warn you, one day, you and her will meet, but I cannot see the outcome of it."

"A thing for another day." Raven shrugs, though she had to admit that meeting Morgan was something she could do without before she notices Xanadu is rubbing part of her dress in her hands, Raven had been too preoccupied with her facial features to notice it before. "Tell me, does it worry you to be this close to me now?"

"It does." Xanadu admits without hesitation. "I knew you would be here, I knew not of your invisible guardian or what state of mind you are truly in."

"But you knew if Constantine thought I was in the same frame of mind as the one he responded to, you most likely wouldn't be in one piece now? Yet you came anyway."

"I did." Xanadu replies. "If that had been the case, I would have died knowing you weren't under her control." Raven raises her eyebrows in surprise before shaking her head.

"Chances are good that Carnage would have kept you alive for your talents. But that is not who I am; you are going with the others to Zatanna. But you can remember this, as long as you remember; I don't want to be found here."

"I will remember." Xanadu replies without any movement before she rises and is untied, while the others are carried out to the waiting car.

"You left an opening." Bruce notes as he, Tim and Raven watch Nightwing depart with the group, probably the only time they would be in a Mayback, though she suspected Constantine had been in a few trunks during his life.

"Xanadu is considered one of the good ones, and if the day where her knowledge would be needed… it's for the best." Raven sighs.

"You said she's Morgan Le Fay's sister." Tim notes and Raven nods, it was something that wasn't in Bruce's files.

"Xanadu isn't even her real name and she isn't human." Raven shrugs. "She's one of the Fay, the Ladies of the Lake that surrounds Avalon. Rumor has it that Xanadu left seeking adventure while Morgan sought power."

"Does the rumors mention why a fortune teller is blind?" Tim continues.

"For a time she was in love with a certain incarnation of the Spectre, it came back to haunt her when the unbound spirit returned later on with an Old Testament mindset and took her sight, making the blindness permanent, no magic or science will bring it back to her." Raven replies.

"Met her before?" Bruce asks, ever suspicious regarding the supernatural, but he trusted Raven to fill him in on the important details he hadn't asked her to put into the databases, just in case someone stole it.

"No. I considered seeking her out at one point, but what she tells people she's seen is also said to be at times different to what she's actually seen, and I wasn't sure I could have taken leaving with the knowledge that what I looked like was going to be permanent." Raven replies before she has the feeling that there was something amiss and looks over her shoulder back into the house. "There's something else here."

"Thought you said the ritual in your room was a trap?" Tim asks as they move back inside, neither Bruce nor Tim doubts Raven's senses, even depleted as they are.

"It is, it may have been something they brought with them, or just something John brought with him unknown to the others." Raven replies before she has an idea. "Cerberus!" She calls and a moment later the excited dog comes running around the corner.

"He will be able to tell us where it is, whatever it is." Bruce nods as Raven leans in close to the dog's ear.

"Spirit. Ghost. Find." She hisses and croaks to the dog's ear in demonspeak which leaves her throat a little sore and the others feeling a little odd, but it makes it easier for Cerberus to understand specific commands when she can't project it.

The dog woofs and changes into it's wolf-like guise and sniffs the air before it heads upstairs followed by the others. They follow it down to Raven's room where Cerberus stands in front of her bookcase. "Not that spirit." Raven sighs as she follows Cerberus' nose up to the shelf where Malchior's bottle stands, or should have been standing. "Oh no… Get Richard to check them again!" Raven shouts before she starts looking around the vicinity of where the bottle should have been standing.

"Raven." Bruce notes as Ceberus growls and seems to be following something that passes along the walls before it's turned around facing Tim and Bruce before Tim has the distinct impression it was looking directly at him before everything goes black or him. "RAGH!" Cerberus snarls as it leaps through the air, transforming while it goes before it bowls Tim over as a mastiff and pins him to the ground.

"Easy! Easy! Get it off!" Tim cries in a voice that doesn't belong to him. "Oh nuts…" He says as he looks at Bruce who just grows more and more cross.

Raven is about to comply before Bruce holds her back. "Deadman." He growls with barely masked hostility, which Raven knows is from an incident several years ago when Boston 'Deadman' Brand had possessed Batman to save someone else by having him shoot the villain Black Manta in the head with a gun.

"I can explain!" Boston replies from within his vessel as he lies flat on his back.

"It better be good." Raven growls, she wasn't happy either, having another fight with Malchior was something she could do without. "Start talking."

"I came with the others, kept quiet when I saw Bane coming through the door. Con-Job brought me along in case I could actually posses you."

"You haven't tried." Raven notes.

"Eh no, from what I can see from this end, that wouldn't be a smart move on my part. " Boston replies.

"Right. Who took the bottle?" She asks. "Did Bane take it? Or was it one of the others?"

"Bottle?" Boston asks in confusion. "Eh… I don't know?"

"Wrong answer. Startle." Raven replies and Cerberus barks into Bostons face.

"Easy! I don't know!" Boston cries before something happens. "Eh? What happened?" Tim asks in confusion before Cerberus licks his face. "Ah, I'm glad to see you too boy." He says.

"Damn it." Raven sighs. "You believe him?"

"He could have run off hours ago." Bruce sighs as Tim gets up. "It was Brand." He says to Tim as he helps him up. "How much damage can Malchior do in that shape if he's released?"

"More than enough. If he isn't provided a vessel of some kind by whoever lets him out, he can possess others if they don't put up too much of a fight, like a coma-patient or a brain-dead body. He won't be able to retake his true form easily, but till then, he is still a very powerful sorcerer." Raven explains. "And he knows you, and he knows where this place is…" She sighs, the last thing she wanted to do was to come home again one day only to find it all a scorched ruin.

"We'll, have to alert the others. Tim, head down to the garage and do an inventory check, I'll take the cave, Raven?" Bruce instructs before turning to her.

"I'll get started." She sighs; this night was turning into an unprecedented disaster in her mind, it really shouldn't have come to this. It was true, she only enchanted her own room, to shield the items inside of it, and now she feels so stupid that she forgot that she herself could also be tracked.

"Hey gang, I'm back!" Richard shouts as he steps into the darkened kitchen and hour after he left.

"Any problems?" Bruce asks as he emerges from the cave-entrance as Richard enters the living room.

"Zee was quite annoyed that she had to do this, so let's hope we don't have to ask her again. None of them carried that bottle you mentioned." Richard replies. "Running inventory?"

"Nothing suggests any of them have been down there. Tim is checking the garage and Raven is making sure nothing else is missing from her shelves." Bruce replies. "If we are lucky, none of them will have known anyone but Raven lives here."

"I have finished unpacking Master Bruce." Alfred announces from upstairs. "Perhaps you could all be persuaded to stay home for a pot of tea after the events of this late evening?"

"And a movie?" Tim asks as he emerges from the kitchen as well. "I could do that. Nothing missing or tampered with as far as I can tell, but we should go it over in detail later on."

"It's been a long couple of days." Bruce admits and looks out the one window he could see any bat-signals from here, but finds none. "One night can't hurt."

"Great. Hey Rae! We are staying in tonight!" Richard calls as Alfred disappears into the kitchen with Tim, but there is no reply from above. Making Richard shrug before he heads off for the home cinema to arrange the chairs and make certain everything was working, Bruce just looks up the stairs in question for a second before he heads off to help Richard.

"And here are the popcorn." Tim announces as he enters the home cinema with two large bowls of popcorn while Bruce and Richard sit and wait for the rest of them.

"Raven hasn't come down yet?" Bruce asks as Tim deposits the bowls.

"Didn't see her, should I go get her?" Tim asks before there is the sound of a tray striking the ground along with several pieces of glass. The group of men is out of the room a second later and storm down to the lobby where they find Alfred and Raven trying to pick up the pieces of the pots and cups, the only thing having survived the fall was the unopened soda cans. The damage isn't what makes the trio stop in their tracks, it is that Raven is in her cloak and leotard, a small suitcase is standing by the stairs along with Cerberus on a leash and an additional plastic bag with clothes.

"Rae?" Richard asks as his mind pieces together what was going on, Alfred had reached the same conclusion and the shock of it had made him drop the tray; she was leaving.

"Raven? What's the meaning of this?" Bruce asks in a tone that sounded more like Batman and points to the bags. Raven just looks up before rising, as her hood isn't up, they can see her eyes having gone pink, she had been crying.

"I've packed the barest necessities. My keys and wallet are on the night table… the spare uniform is on the bed." She says and looks down. "I'll be out of town as fast as I can manage." The group of men stand as if petrified, Alfred stops picking up the pieces as well.

Bruce is the first to react. "Raven, get in the cave, leave the bags." He orders with a harsh tone and waits for her to walk over to the clock and enter the stairway. "Tim, help Alfred. Dick, get the suitcase." He says before he heads after her.

After Bruce seals the door behind him, he heads down to the cave, finding Raven standing and looking up at the empty ceiling, it would take weeks before the bat's would return, he can already tell the same emptiness was now inside of her. "Well?" He asks, using his Batman voice, as he blocks the stairs while folding his arms over his chest.

"What's there to say?" She asks as she looks at him. "I broke the oath, I've taken a life."

"And?" Bruce asks.

"Means I don't have a place here; on your team, in your city… or in your house." She sighs and looks away.

"Sit down." Bruce says before he moves into the cave while she sits down in the chair. "Where in the oath you swore did it mention you would be kicked off the team or out of the house if you broke it?"

Raven looks down and thinks about it for a few seconds before answering. "It doesn't… I just know…" She starts.

"Shut up!" Bruce snaps suddenly making her head snap up because of how sudden it had erupted. "You don't know anything!"

"But…" She starts.

"Quiet!" Bruce snaps again. "Now it's my turn to talk and you listen!" He says with an angry tone in his voice. "You have been gone and out of your mind for three months, now you've come home and we learn you deliberately killed someone. And the first thing you do is run away?!" He asks, nearly shouting, but Raven just sits petrified in her seat. "I have been in Hell the last three months Raven! Not only did I know that I would have to wake up to get angry because of Damian, I was constantly worried Dick and Tim would call back with news on you… that they had been too slow, that something terrible had happened to you!" He shouts at her and turns away to lean on the table next to the computer and takes a moment to regain himself. "You are right Raven, I am upset about what you've done." He says in a much softer tone, a weary, almost tired tone. "But I am not sure what it was that really pushed you to do it, the torture at her hands? That you know what she does or something else? Whatever it was, it must have been… above and beyond anything you've seen so far. You told the League you saw something beyond how we see her, why her?" He asks and turns to face her again, easily reading that she was confused about his outburst, because he knew he seemed more upset about her trying to leave than her having committed murder.

"It… It's not just her." Raven replies. "It's how I see them… And somehow, I think, they see me the same way. It's like a multi-colored aura that surrounds us, telling us about the person it belongs to, giving us a sample of what the person is all about, what they are capable of."

"And are New Gods the only ones who have this?" Bruce asks.

"No. The Lowlies barely had it, Diana has it, Orion has it… it appears more clearly around those who are significant in some way to gods or are gods themselves."

"Why her?" Bruce asks again, almost softly.

"I got a sample of what she was about… torturing and breaking the wills of children… you know Apokolips produces orphans by the hundreds each day. All of them end up in Granny's network of orphanages. There she breaks them, in body and spirit. The strongest she keeps, those that just survive she sends on to become soldiers, parademons or merely Lowlies, the rest die in agony, misery and without any hope. I even learned how she picks her Furies…. She picks girls only, those she thinks have potential, those who survive the initial trials are all gathered from different Orphanages and locked in a room. Granny or her servants left them there for a month in groups of about a hundred, when the doors are opened again, those left would be considered strong enough to be a Fury and would be trained with this goal in mind, though only a small handful would survive it. What I saw Granny was… it wasn't human, it wasn't even inhuman, it was a machine; a factory you fed thousands of children into and something distilled and twisted came out the other end."

"Are you defending your actions?" Bruce asks quietly, noticing her voice hardening, growing bolder as she speaks.

"In… In a way I fear I am… I fear it, because I feel less human because of it." She sighs.

"Good." Bruce replies firmly, he can see it in the way she is looking up at him that she is confused again, as if he thought her losing her humanity was a good thing. "It will make you vigilant against it ever happening again." He sees the confusion growing in her again, and a small spark of hope in her eyes and he decides to explain. "When I started out as Batman, I honestly considered the option of killing the worst felons I caught, but I knew that my parents wouldn't approve, despite how they died, they wouldn't want revenge or for me to be that. Back then, I worried about it, but mostly for Alfred's sake."

"Alfred?" Raven asks, though she knew Alfred had a past within the British military, it wasn't something he talked about, not with her at least because he considered it a closed chapter of his life.

"I feared I'd make a mistake one day and he would end up killing someone who was after me." Brue sighs. "With time it faded, but then Dick came into my life. Because he was so angry back then I created the oath as a deterrent, one he would have in the back of his head, hopefully it would be enough to keep him from doing something unforgivable if he ever caught Zucco alone. I made it a tradition because I didn't need to have you arguing over who was more trustworthy than the other." Raven thinks back, three weeks after Richard fled the Manor, she's standing in the dark, and Batman in front of Batgirl with a candle between them, swearing that she would help bring justice to Gotham, defend the weak and innocent and above all else; remain true to the rules of the Clan. Then she thinks about Richard, it was true, despite his often joyful boyish attitude, Richard had a temper few could match if it was first set off, the Titans knew that all too well. And she can understand why Bruce needed something to deter Richard when he was going to teach him a set of skills that could make him one of the most dangerous men on the planet. "I always hoped it would be enough, while fearing my own temper would one day get the best of me and I would be the one who broke. And that you would all be there to bring me down if needed." Raven has an image of Batman lying out cold at her own, Robins and Nightwings feet, she blinks and clears her eyes as she sees herself and Nightwing carrying Batman towards Arkham Asylum. "Do you want to stay here Raven?" Bruce asks, the question catches her on the wrong foot and she easily shows it before she can answer it.

"Of course... Of course I do. But..." She starts.

"Then this is what you have to do." Bruce cuts her off. "When your powers are back, you are going to show me what it was you saw, what you felt, all of it, I want to know why you came to this decision. Till that happens, you are going to be working it off here, in Gotham. Tompkins' Free Clinic is currently working double as an open kitchen and supply stop for the relief effort, I expect you to volunteer for the day shifts. When you are back here, I expect you to make sense of what you did, make peace with it and continue to make the city safer to live in. Stand up." He says and she slowly rises, unsure why he was doing this before he hugs her. "And don't run anywhere Raven, this is your home, this is where you belong." He whispers into her ear before he lets go.

"Bruce… why? Why are you being like this… with me?" She asks as her confusion finally reaches the point where she can't stand it. "You haven't shouted at me yet, not really… If anything I would think you didn't care about what I did?!"

"I do care Raven." Bruce replies. "That's why I am not shouting, because you don't need to be shouted at to know that it was wrong. Because I know you will be striving to be better than that. Because you are already shouting at yourself louder than I ever could. And I am not shouting because I am just too glad to see you back here, in one piece. And because I have seen now what it means to be lucky. And I have been lucky, with all of you that's come into my life, except for one."

"Was it really that bad?" Raven asks after a moment of stunned silence.

"It was." Bruce sighs. "Damian is my son, I know that, but he is nothing like me, or any of you. He wouldn't make the personal sacrifices needed, he wouldn't even consider it. It's made me appreciate what you, Dick and Tim put up with to be here, it made me appreciate you even more Raven. Because you don't have what drives the rest of us, but you put up with it and I can't remember a night where you didn't earn the suit and your place here."

"Two-Face." Raven notes. "And others." She sighs; there had been plenty of nights in her mind where she didn't do the suit justice and a few nights where she thought she's messed something up so badly it was going to end her time in Gotham.

"All done while keeping the illusion that Batgirl is one of the breed. Sometimes Raven, it has impressed me that you haven't resorted to your powers, never in the presence of the enemy, everything you've done has been done by the book, no different than the rest of us. Think about it Raven, think about how powerful you are and how much we are asking you to ignore it. How many do you know that would be able to withstand that temptation in the situations you've been in?"

"I don't know." Raven replies, unsure how to respond to the praise. "I… I just know I need to stay on the ground as well, before it all goes to my head."

"It won't." Bruce replies confidently before putting his hands on her shoulders. "Not as long as you keep it in mind. You can't be everywhere Raven, be everything for everyone, not even Clark can do that. And no matter how good you think you've become, remember; you aren't above the people around you."

"I'll remember that." Raven replies, trying to look calm, but her insides are in chaos now. "Are you saying I am trying too hard? That I have to step down somewhere?" She asks wondering if he was poking at the long held argument that he thought she had too many things going on at once.

"You had six to seven League calls a month on average, same as me, four lessons with Fate a month, weekly checkups on the Titans and once in a blue moon a call from the Birds of Prey or Shadowpact. All of that along with what's going on here on a daily basis. It may be for the better that you won't have to answer the League for a time."

"Getting a workout is going to be tricky… You make it sound as if I can get back in?" She notes with a raised eyebrow as she catches the last part.

"We will figure something out." Bruce notes. "Eventually they will call you back. You've formed strong bonds with most of the council; you are personal friends with over half of them, and a good portion of the rank and file. And they know you. I expect some of them will end up coming over to visit and check up on you, maybe ask if you can help them out."

"That wouldn't be so bad." Raven notes.

"No. But there will be a cooling off period before everything settles down." Bruce replies before he appears to remember something. "Now that I remember it, the League was meant to ask how Carnage came back and what happened to Doomsday and Kalibak." Raven looks up in question before realizing that no one had actually bothered to ask her that.

"She's saying she managed to break free after getting to Apokolips, she found Kalibak in the forest and possessed him because she was moments from reaching a state where she didn't know what would happen to her. Doomsday I took the liberty of throwing into the Abyss, the dark pit that surrounds Hell, if we are lucky, we will never see it again."

Bruce nods. "Is there any chance of that?"

"I can't guarantee it, but if he falls far enough, it will be nearly impossible for him to return. No one knows what's really at the bottom, if there even is one, some say there is only non-existence, some believe there is something alive down there and some think there is a only hole at the bottom of Creation."

"Let's hope it doesn't return to tell of it." Bruce replies. "Do you have any idea what Darkseid wanted with you?"

"I guess it was revenge." Raven sighs. "I wonder, why hasn't he come back yet?"

"Biding his time and preparing. He caught you off guard, he will wait till he can do it again." Bruce shrugs. "We'll have to be ready. But you are sure it wasn't something else, the others were certain he was looking for something, and that he found it in you."

"I'm sorry Bruce, I don't know what that could have been." Raven replies after a moment of thinking. "But considering he appeared as if he had us, I'm not putting it past him that he was just torturing me for his own pleasure."

"I hope you are right." Bruce replies, but notes he down he needed to find out what Darkseid wanted so badly he was willing to attack New Genesis to get it. "We don't need him to get any more powerful or even a tiny edge over us." Raven nods in agreement, she knew he could be beat and she had done that on her own, but she wasn't prepared to go to that level again anytime soon, or ever if she could avoid it. "Alfred will have the drinks replaced, would you go change and join us for a movie? You can choose."

"You had me at the warm pot of tea." Raven smiles before she embraces him. "Thank you Bruce." She says and kisses him on the cheek. "Thank you for everything."

"Don't mention it, now come on, the others are waiting." He replies before they leave the cave, Raven turns off most of the lights before they close the door.

Later, in the early morning, a lone figure in black could be seen watching the rising of the sun from the tip of the Gotham Cathedral. She needed to see this, to embrace this new day and remind herself that everything would go on and so would she, like the night fleeing the day, her personal turmoil would as well with time.

Most people in the city of Gotham know her as Batgirl, the silent defender of Gotham. To others she is known as one of the five founders of the Teen Titans, an ideal for young heroes to aspire to. On far away Paradise Island, she is known as the Champion of Themyscira. Throughout the endless realms of Hell, she is known as undisputed Mistress of the Eight Pit.

Her name is Raven, and the story of her life… has only just begun.

Author's Notes: And there you have it, the long off-put ending of Book Four. And currently the end of the Raven Rises series.

I just want to thank all of those who have stuck with the series since I began publishing it, those who wrote encouragements to keep posting has kept me going and made rewrite a huge chunk of material (the original ending just didn't feel right, since it would have ended two or three chapters after Al-Qasr Al Ghul in a rather lacklustre fasion).

While I am leaving the door open for more to be done with this series, initially there will only be a few epilogues. But untill then:

"Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos!"