With Or Without You (fourth in Destiny Series)

16) Epilogue

The two Titans poured over the book before them. Their scrapbook of their memories and adventures together so far.

The first section titled, "Love Hurts," held an image of the two finding solace in each other while sitting on the couch in the aftermath of Terra's return.

The second part called, "Universal Threat," began with was a selfie from when they went to Egypt, Raven stood smirking with an arm around her temporarily blonde and sunburned companion.

The third division alternated between happy pictures of the couple kissing during the various holidays, and their darker counterparts smirking in the aftermath of defeating small criminals. This chapter was named, "Personal Demons."

The two Titans stopped flipping through the book when they came to the fourth chapter, the shortest, referred to as "With or Without You."

Only two pictures were displayed: the first was a close up of flowers at the memorial park where Raven was buried, the other was of the two resurrected people embracing each other.

"It feels just like yesterday we were teenagers, trying to hold the world on our shoulders," Changeling was the first to speak, lost in memory.

"I know," Raven responded, "But it has been six years now, we are both twenty-five and so much has changed."

"But it has all been for the better," Changeling reminded her.

"Do you remember when Cyborg proposed to Bumble Bee?" He continued, "Poor Cy could barely get the words out he was so nervous. I guess she must have been too, because she accidentally zapped him with her powers!"

"Talk about shocked," Raven grinned, ever since she had banished most of Rage she had been more at ease. Unfortunately, she would still flip out if someone interrupted her reading time.

"Or do you remember when little Mar'i was born? She has the most attitude of any kid I have ever met. When she was three, she refused to clean up her toys until I called her Nightstar," Changeling groaned.

"I still can't believe Robin left you on babysitting duty up until last year, that was so unfair, he almost never had me watch Mari." The sorceress smiled at Changeling.

"Probably because you had practice taking care of Melvin, Timmy, and Teether. Before Mari, I had never been around a small child since I was one of them."

"I suppose all that babysitting paid off," Raven murmured as she leaned forward and turned the page of the scrapbook. After the first four sections, which were indigo, the pages alternated purple and green.

The fifth, and largest, part spanned six years from when Raven and Changeling were brought back to life all the way to modern day.

It was simply called, "Destiny," and contained only the 'happiest of pictures' as Starfire would say.

"Do you remember this? Your face was priceless!" Changeling laughed at the woman beside him as he pointed to an image of the two.

"Haha, very funny," Raven responded, her face red. "If I had known that you were going to turn into a peacock when Cy took a picture of your proposal, I never would have said yes!"

"But the photo looks so nice! I can see your ring shining from the image and your hilarious shocked expression as you turned your head toward peacock-me!" Changeling protested.

"I like our wedding picture better," Raven replied, still a little miffed that her husband had put such a goofy engagement photo of them in the scrapbook.

"You wanna know what picture looks really cute? The one of Mar'i holding newborn Aurelia. I can't believe it took six highly trained and incredibly powerful superheroes to separate Nightstar from her little 'Lee-lee', what type of nickname is that?" Changeling shook his head and smiled.

"I wish I hadn't been so tired, that daughter of yours never let me get a good nights sleep for nine months straight; it's a good thing she's cute enough to make up for it," Raven groaned.

"Speaking of our little darling," Changeling began.

"No!" Raven interrupted, "You better not wake up our daughter after I spent forever trying to get her to go to sleep."

"It's a good thing we found such a good name for her," Changeling quickly changed the subject, kissing his wife on the cheek.

"Bee really is the best at recommending names," Raven said.

"I wonder what she is going to pick for her own baby. Do you know when she and Cy will know the gender?" Changeling asked her.

"I think maybe later this month. Speaking of babies, I think I hear ours waking up from her nap." Raven's face lit up as soon as she said the words.

As if to confirm this, a soft bell-like giggle sounded from the nursery room on the floor above the two Titans.

"Friends Raven and Changeling, your little bumgorf has awoken and wishes to play!" Starfire's happy voice called to them.

"We should probably get going, Aurelia can get a little fussy if she doesn't get the bottle within a few moments of waking up." Changeling started to get up.

"Hmm, cute but impatient, that reminds me of someone..." Raven drifted off.

"Hey! If you are talking about me, you can make your own breakfast for the rest of the week," Changeling teased.

"As if," Raven smirked, "We both know you like cooking, and you're pretty good for a vegetarian."

"You're looking at the best chef in Titans Tower, thank you very much. Even if it was just because I was the only one who entered the competition, I still count that as a victory."

"You know," said Raven, "This whole face-our-past-through-scrapbooking therapy thing was originally depressing, I'm glad we have added some nicer photos."

She got up and walked to the door before continuing, "Maybe we should form our own club: Heroes Who Came Back From the Dead."

"That sounds really depressing. I'd much rather play with the baby," Changeling stated.

"I think you might actually be right." Raven opened a portal to the nursery where their mint green, purple-eyed daughter awaited them.

And with that, the two Titans closed the scrapbook of their past, and floated up toward their future.