Raven's POV

"How is this possible?" Iris asks as I lock eyes with my mother, tears beginning to fall down my cheeks. I couldn't answer that question of hers; all I knew in that exact moment was that she was my mother, and she was alive. 

"It took me ages to figure out how to get here, to get to you, but I finally made it," my mother breathes, clutching the black baseball cap she had on in her hands tightly. I can't find any words to say as I'm quickly running towards her, throwing my arms around her in a tight embrace. She drops the cap to the side as she buries her face into my shoulder, a sob escaping her throat. 

"I hate to break up the reunion, but can someone explain to me how this is possible?" Cisco asks, doubt in his voice. It suddenly occurred to me then that they have dealt with trust issues in the past; why would they suddenly up and believe that a random woman from another earth was my mother, who was supposed to be dead?

I pull away then, locking eyes with her. It felt like I could finally breathe again.

"It's hard to explain something that I hardly even understand," she states, her eyes drifting from mine to everyone else behind me. "Might I ask who all of you people are first?"

"They're my friends, my family," I correct myself, a sense of pride coming over me. Without thinking, I turn and introduce everyone to her. It doesn't take me long to explain that they were the people who helped saved me; who helped me discover who I truly was.

Cisco takes a step forwards, arms crosses. "Now that you know who we are, tell us how you got here."

"Like I said, it's something that I can hardly explain," she starts as she glances over at me. "I don't even know where to start."

"Let's start with how you're even alive," Barry says finally, it being one of the first sentences to come from his mouth since she got here. I didn't realize how quiet he had been. 

"I never even died - well, not fully anyways. The night that Zoom took Raven, he killed her father and tried to kill me too. From what I understand, he tried to make it look as if it was suicide; so he put me in a tub filled with water and dropped a curling iron into the water and left as if it was nothing. All I remember is blacking out and waking up hours later, completely fine. At least, until I realized what Zoom had done..."

I lower my eyes at the memory, it still haunting me to this day. Barry crosses his arms as he furrows his eyebrows. "You're a meta, aren't you?"

Without saying any words, I watch as my mother raises her hand, blue lightning dancing between her fingers. It wasn't the same type of lightning that Barry had; she wasn't a speedster. But something about the fact of knowing that she had these powers was something I couldn't wrap my mind around. 

"I didn't know how I got these powers or that I even had them until that night. I still don't even know what I can fully do...all I know is that they kept me alive." My mother pauses before continuing on. "After I came to my senses, I realized that you were gone. I looked everywhere for you, Raven...but I couldn't find you. I couldn't find you anywhere-"

Tears start to pour from her eyes once again as they do from mine, the thought of my mother looking for me breaking my heart. All of that time, she had been alive, and I had been wasting my life away with the man that broke me. 

My mother gathers herself again before continuing. "Then this is the part that is still fuzzy to me. I vaguely remember finding you, Raven. Years later...I think you were around sixteen. I found you and we talked. You were so vague with me...you didn't even tell me where you had been all of those years-"

"What are you talking about?" I ask, shaking my head, utterly confused. "I never found you, mom. I would remember something like that."

"That's the thing..." she fades off. "I didn't remember it until recently."

Everyone looks around at one another with suspicion as I ask once more. "What do you mean?"

Her voice begins to tremble, more-so than it already was. "One day I started to remember us finding each other...and then I remembered Zoom taking me. He locked us both away in these dampening glass cages; you couldn't use your powers and neither could I. Then Zoom was there, along with another woman that was called Dust Storm, and she took my memory. She wiped it clean of us finding one another, of what happened that night, and of you, Raven. She took every little piece of you from me that I had left. That's why I had to come here, to make sure it was true and that I wasn't crazy. I don't know how I got those memories back, but all I know is that I found you."

Hatred brews inside of me once again; the same hatred that fueled me to want to kill Hunter. Not only did he ruin my life, but he took away my mother from me. He lied to me about her being dead for years, and when I did find her, he took her away from me again. 

"How did you track her here?" Barry asks after a long moment of silence.

"It took some time, but I found the right people that helped me get here. There was talk about another dimension; another earth that Zoom had traveled to. I had a gut feeling that I would find you here, Raven. And I did."

Our eyes lock once again, and it was like the whole world stopped. I didn't know where we would go from here or how we would ever make up for the lost time, but what I did know was that I wasn't going to waste this opportunity. She was alive...she was the only part of me that wasn't ripped away from Zoom. 

I wrap my arms around her once more as I sob into her neck, holding her tight. "He won't take you away from me. Never again."

-*+*-

Barry's POV

I tap my finger slowly on the table top in front of me as I stare into the medical bay, watching carefully as Raven and he mother talk about something unknown to me. Something about the whole situation smelled fishy to me, but I couldn't quite figure it out. 

"What's up with you?" I hear Iris ask as she walks into the cortex, taking me by surprise. Her eyes follow my gaze before coming back to me. "You having second thoughts about her mom?"

I lean back in my chair as I shake my head, my eyes drifting to my hands. "I don't know, Iris...I want to believe that she really is her mom, but something isn't adding up."

My voice trails off as I start to let my mind wander about the possibilities of who she really could be, but before I could let it run too far, Iris is bringing me back. "Barry, I know that you've gone through a lot the past year; especially when it comes to trusting people. Eobard, Jay, and even Raven...so I get that you still have that guard up in case it happens again. But give it some time. Don't let your mind jump to conclusions before you hear the whole story."

"But I have heard the whole story, and it doesn't make any sense to me. How can she just suddenly remember all of this, Iris? Doesn't that sound weird to you?" I could tell that she didn't think it was. "I just don't want Raven to get hurt. If that really isn't her mother, it will eat her up alive. I don't want to see her go through something like that."

Iris smiles faintly at me as she rests her arms against the bar in front of me, leaning up against it. "I'm glad to hear that you care so much about her, Barry, but give this woman the benefit of the doubt. What if she really is right? What if she really is her mother? Wouldn't you kill to have a second chance like that?" 

My eyes drift slowly back to Raven and her mom in the other room, watching them as they laugh and embrace each other once again. I knew that if that was me and my own mother in there that things would be different. Raven wouldn't be the one sitting here where I am now thinking to herself that she wasn't her...she would be happy for me. 

"I'm not saying to let your guard down, Barry. There's nothing wrong with having it," Iris reminds me as she pushes herself up, placing her hands on her hips as she looks into the room with me. "Especially for someone you care about. All I'm saying is to try and be happy for her before jumping to any conclusions, okay? Just give them time."

"You're right," I nod my head as I lift my finger from the table, placing both of my hands behind my neck. 

Iris shoots me a sly smile. "I always am."

I laugh. "Sure, sure. You keep thinking that."

She walks towards the door as she winks at me. "I will, trust me. Let me know more about Caitlin if anything happens. Keep me updated, alright?"

"I will," I call after her before she disappears around the corner, leaving me alone in the cortex once again. I find myself looking into the med bay, thinking about Iris' words. She really did know the right things to say and the right time to say them. 

But there was still that thought in the back of my mind: what if?

I stand then as I shove the chair under the table, deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt. 

-*+*-

short lil chapter, but I randomly got a spurt of energy to write another chapter about an hour or so ago, so it's better than nothing! I also got lazy and decided not to edit this because I wanna go to sleep but also post this asap lol. things should start picking up again next chapter by my calculations, and I've got another bomb I'm ready to drop on you guys *wink*

don't forget to slap that star and leave a comment. I love reading what you guys have to say! 

Thanks again for sticking with me and Raven and for being patient, it means the world to us both *insert heart emoji*