(A/N)- Whew! What a ride this has been!

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me for this story. I'll not keep you from the final chapter. You've earned it.

Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own Teen Titans. Darn.

Chapter 16: Epilogue

Raven floated in the warm blackness, feeling strangely at peace.

"...ven? Raven?"

A light voice, full of concern, seemed to echo in the empty space. It pulled on her gently, calling her consciousness back.

She gave a small groan, loud-sounding in the stillness, and slowly became aware of her body. Horizontal, lying prone, cold rough concrete at her back. Her head was propped up and one of her hands was warm, enveloped by someone's fingers inside their leathery gloves.

A nip of cool, fresh air, smelling faintly of sea salt, met her nostrils. The scent seemed to awaken her, sending jolts of alertness and vigor through her head.

She cracked her eyes open, blinking in the dim grayish light. Shapes and forms blurred a moment before clearing into an actual picture, and a dark shadow hovering just above her face resolved into the image of a familiar changeling.

He cracked a small, relieved smile, his eyes brightening. "Hey Raven," he greeted tenderly.

"Beast Boy?" she slurred. Finding her limbs, Raven raised herself from the ground, partially propping her upper body up on her elbows.

"How are you feeling?" Beast Boy asked, slowly unpeeling from her side but staying close with his arms still extended.

Raven blinked, looking around. She took stock of the signals from her body. She could feel bruises around her forearms and a lingering sense of compression. She felt exhausted and drained in every limb. But...

The air no longer shimmered. Her ears no longer rang. The showdown was over.

And her headache had vanished completely.

The sky was clear. The pre-dawn light showed an empty rooftop. Starfire attended to Robin in much the same way as Beast Boy attended to her, wrapping his arm with torn strands from his cape. Cyborg paced back and forth, checking readings in his arm.

"Sore mostly," she answered, marveling as she sat up straight. "But I guess preventing two universes from crashing together will do that to you."

That earned a chuckle or two from her friends.

Raven glanced around anxiously. "We did stop it... right?" she asked uncertainly.

Beast Boy beamed at her. "You did great, Rae."

"Portal's closed," Cyborg confirmed, with a smile of his own. "The rift is sealing itself. Energy readings stabilizing." He lowered his arm. "And the extra-dimensional particles are beginning to disperse."

"And you, Cyborg?" asked Starfire, gingerly helping Robin up to his feet from where she'd had him sitting. "How are you faring?"

He tapped the metal side of his face. "No more interference, if that's what you're asking." He turned to Raven and Beast Boy. "Raven?"

"Ditto," she replied.

Cyborg swiveled back around, turning a cheeky grin on their injured leader. "And how do you feel, Robin?" he teased.

"Like crap," Robin mumbled with a grimace. Collecting himself he addressed them all. "But the Tyrants are gone, and the portal is shut. I think we can all be proud of that." He nodded towards the empath. "Good work, Raven."

She nodded mutely, almost unable to believe it. But her senses didn't lie. For the first time in hours her head was completely clear.

It felt akin to the sudden silence after a fountain shut off. Muted. Still.

Peaceful.

Her thoughts drifted. The specter of her Tyrant self floated in her mind's eye, her cruel smirk and burning red eyes almost visible against the rooftop.

So unlike her... Raven had always feared her own powers, tried to keep herself in constant check, even if it meant denying herself the ability to feel. Red Raven cared about none of that. She indulged herself what she wanted, whenever she wanted... and somehow had still managed to defy their father. It almost didn't seem fair. After all her efforts, all her desperate attempts to make sure her father could never use her emotions as a foothold, her double could just unleash hell whenever she wished and there were no immediate demonic repercussions.

On the other hand... Red Raven was a monster in her own right. Callous, cruel, mean-spirited, delighting in others' misery. Raven would never wish to be like her.

No, when she really thought about it... she had made the better choice.

They all had a choice, even the Tyrants. Fate, destiny... concepts that had once seemed so inevitable and inescapable held no power over her now. Twice now, in two different worlds, she had defied it.

She didn't know what kind of world the Tyrants lived in, what circumstances would have made them who they were, but she knew even they had the hope of redemption.

Though she doubted her other self would ever take it.

She pulled out of her private musing abruptly, seeing Beast Boy's eyes on her. His mouth was spread with a toothy grin and his gaze sparkled playfully.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Happy birthday Raven," he told her.

She started at that, looking around. In all the excitement she hadn't even noticed. It was still dark out, but the eastern horizon was starting to gray and the wind nipped with a distinct "early morning" air. Midnight had passed them when they weren't looking and the pale eastern sky signaled the arrival of the new dawn.

She laughed lightly, shifting over and leaning her head on Beast Boy's chest, resting her cheek on his shoulder.

"I guess it is."

-TT-

The sky boiled a dull red, a simmering angry color that cast only dim light on the shadowed streets below. Wisps of shade and smoke drifted about, prowling, hunting for screams. Eerie faces peered out from the darkness, and aside from the occasional piercing demon screech it was unnaturally still, all the roads abandoned.

The gloomy atmosphere conveyed one message: Red Raven was pissed.

Swordstroke lifted up a slat of the blinds with his finger, peeking out at the empty intersection.

Casually noting the streak of ball-shaped fire that darted from one end of the street to the other, he commented, "She's outdone herself this year."

"I dunno Double S," said the voice of X behind him. The thief leaned back into the dinner booth lazily, his feet up on the table. "Sending minor shades and fire demons out to wander the city while she holes herself up in the Tower seems kinda lazy for her," he mused aloud.

"Yeah," agreed Komand'r, seated next to him. "She's half-assing it this year."

Swordstroke grinned. "With the hole I put in her I don't blame her for sitting out."

Dr. Light studied her datapad from a nearby single-seater table with a frown, waving the man back from the window. "I hope she sits out a good long while. This quiet haunting is a nice change of pace." She set the pad on the table in front of her and looked up from her seat. "Any sign of the rift-ripping device?"

Swordstroke dropped the blinds back into place and stepped away from the diner window. "I didn't see it on any of them," he said. "I think, in the excitement, they must have left it in the other dimension."

"Too bad," bemoaned X. "I'd have loved to take it for a spin."

The Brotherhood leader shot a brief glare at him before returning her eyes to Wilson. "And its cyborg inventor?" she asked.

The man folded his arms with a faint smirk. "I don't think he'll be rebuilding it anytime soon."

He had watched the fallout from a distance, once he'd escaped a good ways away from the Tower. Red Raven had collapsed from blood loss and exhaustion and Arsenal and Tempest had argued a long time, shouting in each other's faces, while a green-skinned furry creature curled up around Red Raven's pale prone form. Eventually the boys dragged the cold metal husk of Cyber-Vile into the city and dumped him just inside the threshold of his lab. The last Wilson had seen of him, his buzz droid assistants were beginning to creep out of the shadows to crawl over him, poking and prodding.

Red Robin and Blackfire were still missing. The last anyone had seen or heard of them, they had been spotted outside the Dixon power plant on the northeast outskirts of town, heading into the woods. There had been a palpable expression of hope on Komand'r's face when she'd heard. She'd begged him for every detail of the final battle and no sooner had he finished relaying the story than she was on the communications array, trying to pipe a signal in to her sister's communicator.

Neither she, nor her male companion, had answered yet. Wilson hoped they had made it out of the city unaccosted.

Dr. Light made a few more notes, then switched off her datapad. "Then I suppose congratulations are in order," she said, standing up from her seat. "You did good work out there, Wilson. We're very proud to have you."

A rare smile broke through her stern steel features and Swordstroke bowed his head at the high praise.

"Hey, I helped some," grumbled X under his breath.

"Truth be told," Swordstroke said, "most of the effort belongs to the Titans." A fond grin touched his lips, making the corners twitch. "Our little heroes are quite... remarkable." He turned his gaze on Komand'r, solemn again. "And I don't think I'll forget the unexpected but entirely welcome assist from your sister."

Komand'r fiddled with her Brotherhood communicator, flipping it open and closed as she stared down at the table. "I could have never imagined..." Her eyes turned up, meeting his. "Do you think—now that she's away from that witch—that there's a chance? For her to come back?" she asked, an almost-eager tone in her soft voice.

Wilson shrugged.

Dr. Light strode for the door, motioning for her teammates to follow. "All we can do is hope," she told the younger woman. "In the meantime, let's get back to base and see what we can do about Red Raven's little demonic infestation."

The two teens got up from the booth, following behind Dr. Light and Swordstroke as they headed for the back exit of the diner.

All four Brotherhood slipped into the shadows of the alleyway and were lost to sight, disappearing to evade the Tyrants once more.

-TT-

Robin stared up at the ceiling as though the plain gray steel held hidden answers to the questions that roiled around inside his head. He was running through yesterday's events, still processing everything that had happened since his date with Starfire had been so rudely interrupted.

They had returned to the motel room the Tyrants had been using as a hideout, to retrieve the jewelry and other items the teens had stolen. Upon discovering the portal ripper still stowed in the closet safe, the Titans had very quickly taken custody of it and agreed upon what to do.

It had to be destroyed. They couldn't risk one of their villains getting hold of it. Couldn't risk the Tyrants somehow using it to return.

Robin's features tightened, remembering their evil counterparts. Remembering Red Raven's burning hate-filled eyes. The Titans would have to be vigilant. True, the Tyrants had no way to return right now, but there was always a chance, always some sliver of possibility. If their Slade had returned from the dead, it was certainly possible that, just a universe-hop away, the Tyrants were already planning their revenge.

Red Raven didn't seem like the type to let such a humiliating defeat go easily.

He shivered slightly, trying to banish thoughts of her from his mind. He found himself wondering about the others, about Wilson and his apparent history with Red Robin. It was still surreal. A universe where Slade genuinely wanted to help him, turn him from an incorrect path. Robin filed away his mental notes on Swordstroke, starting with the man's last name, fully intending to add them to his Slade research later.

And the others... he'd have to update their villain casefiles to include them. For a brief moment Robin was acutely aware of the absurdity of it all—of having to legitimately add "Evil Counterpart from an alternate universe" into their lexicon of baddies—before his trained analytical mind nonchalantly started composing the entry on... well, himself.

So many things about the other him were different... and yet almost as many things remained the same. He had still been raised by Batman. He had still found his way to Jump City. And, somehow, he and Starfire had still found each other. Robin recalled Blackfire's feral excitement, her unpredictable mood swings, her bloodthirst and battle-eagerness, and thought... yes. She was exactly the kind of girl his other self would go for.

"What are you thinking about?"

Robin looked down at Starfire, nestled comfortably against his chest as they lay together on the couch. Her radiant red hair spilled onto the cushions around them. One warm orange hand rested gently on his right wrist, and he wanted very much to hold it—if said wrist was not currently wrapped up in bandages and tucked into a sling and such an action would cause him no small amount of pain right then.

He sighed heavily. "I'm worried," he admitted.

"About?" she prompted.

"We shut the door to the Tyrants' world before, back when we retrieved Kilowatt. But they found another way in." His good hand shifted, so he could run his fingers through her hair. "If they did it once, they can do it again."

"And we will stop them," Starfire declared confidently, interrupting him. Robin's eyes refocused on her face, to see her meet his gaze with bold, faith-filled eyes. "Just as we did today," she continued.

He smiled faintly. "You sound so sure."

"We are heroes. It is what we do," she said, giving a little shrug of her shoulders.

Robin chuckled. "And that sounds like something I would say."

"Many years of knowing you," she quipped lightly. Her expression took on a twinge of worry. "There is something else?" she discerned, spying something in Robin's face that told of further unsettled thoughts.

Perceptive as ever. Robin settled back into the cushions, sighing again.

"It's just weird... how alike we are. I mean, he's a lot more callous and selfish—" Robin said, "—and he doesn't seem like he cares much about anything." He bit his lip. "But that pain he hides, that anger at the world... I relate to it. And..." His voice dropped even softer. "I understand it."

He turned his face, mumbling a little into his shoulder.

"I guess I'm just wondering... what exactly is it that makes us different? Chance? Circumstances? I just—"

He stopped, seeing Starfire shaking her head. Her hand drifted up to touch his cheek gently.

"You could never be like the Red Robin," she told him.

"How do you know?" he asked, even as the words warmed his heart to the core.

She beamed at him. "Because you choose not to be. You choose to be the hero, to see the good in this world that is worth saving and to do your best to protect the innocent, so that no one would suffer as you have." Her features tightened, faint displeasure appearing in her expression. "The Red Robin is a jerk who takes out his resentment on the rest of the world."

Robin laughed. "You know, 'you' weren't that pleasant either." Suddenly anxious, he straightened up a little and asked, "He—the other me I mean—he didn't do or say anything... inappropriate to you, did he?"

Starfire blushed and seemed abruptly very interested in something past him. "Why do you ask?"

"Just checking," he said.

Sheepish, the Tamaranian princess rested her chin on Robin's collar. "He did make a comment about our... assumed virginity."

Robin felt heat rush to his cheeks and his heart give a weak little stutter. "Oh," he said awkwardly. "Is that—I mean—Does—does it bother—?" He cleared his throat with a pointed cough. "You know, we never got to finish our date yesterday."

Grinning impishly, Starfire tilted her head. "Oh?"

A little more confidently now, Robin smiled and continued. "And I was thinking... we're already on the couch so... movie and popcorn?" he suggested. Quieter and hesitantly, as if testing the waters, he added, "And then... and then anything you want?"

She propped herself up, beaming down at him with affection.

"Your proposal is accepted," she whispered, before melting into him for a kiss.

His good arm wrapped around her and a contented sigh went up from him as her body molded into his. The morning sunlight from the window, from the fresh new day, beamed in on them from the window, and the calm seas and clear blue sky signaled a peaceful afternoon to follow.

In their dimension at least, for a while, all was well.