Chapter 19: Demise

"I surrender."

For a moment this mental world was shocked into silence. Disbelief.

It was done.

It was just so hard to accept that it was over so soon.

But it was so fitting that her white cloak fluttered out behind her, like a white flag of despair… and it was so fitting that her name denoted a bird of white feathers. She'd heard it said that a white feather was a sure sign of weakness; the creatures she loved most, her namesake, were white in every inch of their plumage, and except for the thin silk strap across her waist, every inch of her was covered in that same color of demise. How could she have ever imagined victory?

The demon suddenly enveloped them in a dome of shadow, pure-black tainted even further by its veins of bloodred power - a sphere of stability, isolation, just empty enough to silence the winds and more than enough to mercilessly tantalize Dove with its sanity.

Beyond, thunder clamored in the sky and lightning reached to strike and destroy. The calamitous wind remained, a half-hearted echo of its former chaos - everything here was near its end, and they knew it. Dove's Trigon kept it alive because it gave him something to control. But here all mindscape sensations were reduced, now only flickers of thunder and whispers of lightning on the fringes of human perception.

And it brought Trigon's sliver of her soul into terrifying focus. His eyes - his smile - his triumph. His words as he reminded Dove with mocking clarity: "You surrender."

Dove nodded - gathered the last of her conviction… and had to force herself to remember everything she cared about. Everyone. "Only… if…" Her entire body quaked with a shudder; it was nearly impossible to hold her mind together when it was under the evil's control… "You can't… harm… Raven."

…she collapsed to the ground, too weak to stay standing…

"You have to leave my friends alone."

"Fine."

Could it really be that easy - ?

"But I have conditions as well."

- Of course not.

"You are NOT going to tell Raven. You are not going to gain her assistance. You may have lost your sisterhood with her, but she still feels the need to protect any worthless creature you may harm."

Dove closed her eyes in miserable resignation, her head pounding from the pressure and misty with palpable desolation, barely even able to comprehend what the words meant, let alone their meaning - her thoughts were miry and comprehension came only in slow and painful spasms.

The evil continued with the low, hissing threat of a cobra's flared hood, "And if you DO tell her – well. Then I will just have to break our little treaty and make. Her. SUFFER." She licked her lips in a flicker of motion that paraded each and every one of her mercilessly sharp teeth. It was clear she savored the idea. Like a wolf savoring the kill. "And the fact that you serve as my physical vessel will not free you from punishment." The glow of cruelty intensified in her eyes, that predator now starving and ready to devour its prey. "I will not show you mercy. I will NOT let your consciousness drowse while I fulfill this promise. You will find no sanction in trance; every level of your awareness will be slave to my desires. I will hold your mind hostage. I will let you feel her pain. I will force you to realize your guilt. And you will NOT escape."

Strict finality - Dove was given no chance to respond before she was hurled out of the mirror.

Right back into disorientation - she rolled through the forest shrubs and brambles, scratched, scraped, and stung by every thorn along the way, until she finally stilled on her stomach, bruised and bleeding, and she trembled and sobbed into the ground, deeply, uselessly, hopelessly, until there was nothing left to give.

Had the situation been any different, even a week earlier, her powers would have destroyed the forest from city to coastline. But now Trigon held the reigns. Her powers were locked down. And the lack of destruction here didn't balance the utter destruction of pain and sorrow and guilt ravaging her heart…

It was six nights before the Demon-Dove finished preparing her for possession.

Night 1.

"You will sleep. Well. I want your body to be in the best condition." And the sleep was dreamless. Black, merciful oblivion replaced her nightly torment.

Dove thought, it was holding onto their deal so far - she got her relief... Now will her dark side uphold the rest?

The day after.

The energies were manifesting, Dove could feel it - just before her captor took the newfound control over Dove's body and forced her to stand.

Dove didn't resist. But she wondered why she bothered -

Her captor told her she's near-starved; she needs to eat.

Dove didn't resist, despite her total lack of appetite. Her meals were small and tasteless. Toast and plain cereal. Bananas and steamed cauliflower. Even her tea had to be weak - bland, flavorless food her body could benefit from that her stomach wouldn't reject.

Small mercy, she was only made to go when everyone else was either occupied elsewhere or on a mission, and no one had to see the evil energies flickering around her body. They were as wild as ever, more solid, more DETERMINED than ever. They only flickered close to her skin, powerful and eager but under control.

The realization ached... but Dove couldn't deny it: her dark side was right. This surrender, this takeover - it gave Dove more control than she ever knew possible.

And that terrified her. Part of her delighted in it. She was born for this. It was in her blood. It meant fulfillment - and strength and power and FREEDOM! It should be EUPHORIC! But to all the rest of her, it meant fear, and resignment, and all her nightmares coming true. She never wanted this. And her mindscape turned the potential pleasure into excruciating pain.

Day 3.

"You are still too weak." Another lash left Dove whimpering helplessly - "But maybe we can find SOME use for you." (S)He locked eye-contact and a whirling sensation disoriented Dove's every sense, of balance, space, existence - "You may not be a portal," gratingly dissonant voiced hissed through her thoughts, "but you do channel BEAUTIFULLY."

Dove's groan rose to a yell as she slapped her hands to her head and locked her eyes shut, envisioning iron barricades between them, pulling away, fighting to regain her mind -

Dark Dove laughed, let her struggle a moment more… and then pulled away so suddenly Dove collapsed to her knees, sickeningly dizzy.

Up till that point, the testing had gone well; apparently her hostess was far more resilient than she seemed. But perhaps less wise than she wanted to show…

Laughter frothed forth at the futile and obviously last-ditch attempt at rebellion. "You cannot win by defying the very reason you HAVE strength right now. Remember, it can so easily be revoked…"

Dove, desperately and painfully gulping in air, breathed, "When's it coming?"

"Soon enough. I am savoring the power, and preparing you for the final transformation."

"Transfor...?"

At first all she responded with was a quiet chuckle. "Even YOU can't be ignorant enough to not know what it means."

And on the 5th day of surrender, Dove finally felt it rising to swallow her soul and choked on a near-sob, prayed a quiet funeral chant, and isolated herself completely. She had already surrendered and knew her dark side was coming, and what hope did she have left? Except to not let it hurt her friends. They struck a deal but she didn't trust her dark self to keep its promise... It was her last conscious hope of protecting them.

She may have given up on herself. But she wasn't going to surrender her friends.

A knock. No response. Raven wasn't surprised, and with the faint touch of her telekinesis, she carefully opened the door.

Raven came into Dove's room meaningfully, expectantly – but of what, she wasn't sure. Precognition had already warned her that something terrible was coming… and even without the intuitive and empathic powers screaming cautions and warnings as she neared the room, she knew immediately that something was very wrong.

The room was dark, with no natural light (so odd; it was midday and Dove usually kept her curtains all the way open - but now the window was covered by a thick, black cloth). Sight was provided by only a single small candle flickering to the left of the threshold, casting foreboding shadows across the room, and drowning Dove's back in darkness. Her hood was raised, shadows covering her face. And her head was bowed - most of her body was hidden beneath the cloak, so dark a color it blended into the murky depths. Worst of all, an aura of chilling power emanated from her as she meditated on the bed. And a short distance in front of her, the mirror lay precariously on the bedside table, seeping a calm but sinister black energy. The edges of its aura melded with the shadows - the same impenetrable darkness that had nearly swallowed Dove whole.

Dove didn't move when Raven entered, didn't even look up. She held still. Unnaturally still...

"Dove," Raven called.

"Raven..." Still she made no motion.

"Dove, I know what's happening." Raven held her place at the threshold, and she kept her voice low, though suspicion and vague urgency seeped into her tone.

"Raven, please..." Her voice was slow, and breathless, and resigned... "Raven, I can't tell - I can't speak of it..."

"Why not?"

"She'll take me... and then..."

Raven couldn't be sure, but had Dove's voice sounded more broken than usual? Almost... tearstained.

She would speak but Dove spoke again, her voice hardly anything more than a whisper, distant and so empty - yet sure of her words. "I... I can't tell... I can't let myself - no, not right now, I can't come out… Please, Raven, please try to understand, but… I need to meditate. More than anything, I need this solitude, this calm..." She let out a near-silent breath, and was still.

Raven stood, quietly, watching as Dove slipped back into the empty - and uneasy - chasm of consciousness she barely seemed to have left. Knowing the importance of meditation, especially when their minds were so unstable, she turned and left... but her thoughts lingered on that brief conversation. Who was "she," and how - and why - would she "take" Dove? Perhaps there was more to this dilemma – or was Dove truly losing all control over her mind?

She vowed to speak to her again, as soon as Dove finished. She was concerned. She cared for her sister. Until recently, she had trusted her. But she also couldn't trust that Dove was okay. She couldn't trust that something terrible wouldn't happen if Dove lost herself in this mental battle. And she couldn't not feel her instincts warning: Something was definitely going to happen. Something terrible. And it was approaching far too soon.

Throughout the rest of the night, Dove refused to come out of her room, she had locked her door, resisted offers of visits, turned down dinner for lack of an appetite. Raven once noticed vivid fear emanating from the room – but once confronted, Dove spoke only flustered words of vague helplessness, and fled back into meditation, back to security. Something was definitely wrong.

Raven only prayed they could find out what it was, and fix it, before something terrible happened, to Dove or anyone else...

Now if only Dove would LET her!

Dove's hope to relax, and calm herself, before she was forced to face the others, was completely dashed when Robin's voice echoed over the PA system, calling everyone to a team meeting in fifteen minutes. This was urgent.

All in the tower rushed to finish what occupied them. Raven was meditating, just barely heard the announcement – she stood up, stretched, and left the room, the candles extinguishing at the swish of her cloak. Dove roused herself from her thoughts and lifted her hood before heading to the main room anxiously (she only heeded the call because it was entirely possible that her dark side had stricken her friends and forbidden her to remember), and Beast Boy looked up from the animal encyclopedia and tossed it onto the floor and left. Cyborg grinned at his reflection in the newly-polished T-car for just a moment more and Starfire hurriedly put the zorkaberry pie in the fridge.

Dove was the last one to enter, and Raven watched her out of the corner of her eyes as she joined the others at the computer. Her cloak was white - but not with the shining silvery light it held before. Now it was empty, colorless - her hood shadowed her lowered face and she held the cloak so closely, only her ankles and her feet showed any sign of the Dove she had once known.

Robin began the moment she arrived. "Team, we have a mystery on our hands."

The power behind Dove's eye-sparks crackled with relief as she listened eagerly, her robe an intellectual yellow met with a hopeful flush of rose – she was more than willing to help out if there was no physical violence involved. She would give anything to distract her mind… and she would do anything to give the world one last good thing before she became completely evil.

The leader's voice rang out, with his eyes intent and determination in his voice, "It happened too quickly and too quietly for the police to respond. It's gotten out of hand, the incidents are numbered, and no one can tell if they're all linked, or if it's even one person doing this or a group," he broke off as he typed, "and be warned – it's not pretty."

He pulled up the first picture. A crime scene, an alley, a body - obviously lifeless, with his neck snapped at an unnatural angle and his expression locked in glassy-eyed, endless terror.

The Titans all gasped; "X'hal!"

"Whoa…"

Raven asked, "Murder?"

Only Dove was silent. Her eyes widened greatly and the enthusiasm fled the moment she registered the image – she was horrified to realize she recognized that face.

…the experiment… the dream… No, she forced herself to remember that the dream was-was… it had been REAL…

"Nothing was stolen. Nothing but innocent lives." Robin loaded the second picture. It was another corpse, with a wild and chaotic array of small lesions everywhere on the skin and splintered wood and shattered glass strewn around the body, the exsiccated red stain of blood spread across the concrete…

Oh, Azar… Dove was already feeling sick with nerves

And Raven could sense her mental discomfort… She glanced her way, her expression mainly concerned… but also with growing suspicion.

Robin pulled up the third – this one showed a hospital bed instead of the crime scene. The amount of medical tape on her body could have wallpapered the entire Titans Tower.

"A survivor?"

Robin nodded. "Someone called an ambulance, but left before the medics could arrive…"

"Isn't that just a little weird?" Beast boy asked. "Why would someone call an AMBULANCE, and then just leave?"

"That's what we're here to find out."

Cyborg asked if the police had gotten to the scenes yet, and Robin replied, "The culprit left no trace whatsoever." Of course, the confidence in his voice hinted that he would prove the police statements wrong.

Dove only felt worse and worse and infinitely worse as the team spoke – she felt her stomach churn unmercifully as she remembered what it had been like to feel their deaths, regardless of her attempts to swallow the feeling and leave it all behind. And Robin's word choice didn't help any.

The fourth image was pulled up – the children… dead, desensitized, and driven mad before they were brutally murdered. So much blood smeared the little girl's face that it would be impossible to tell where its sources actually were. If it wasn't for the gaping black and gore-spattered sockets left empty and unseeing.

Even Robin had little to say here - their horror left them speechless, infuriated, driven, disbelieving - how could anyone do that to an innocent child…?

"Everyone within a three-block radius was found unconscious but unharmed."

Dove gulped and leaned over, resting her hands on the table and keeping her eyes closed, trying to breathe away the nausea… Memories flooded her mind; she kept thinking back to the sensations, she couldn't hold them back, how she had wallowed in the pain, stricken them comatose, the fear she had sensed and delighted in, the moments of death she found so energizing – all remembered feelings that only weakened her now… No, no, no, don't… She tried telling herself not to let herself be so weak, she knew that Raven would know that pictures alone couldn't make her so sick, what if the others knew as well and they could guess that the problem was deeper than squeamishness? She had to get out, had to leave before they had the chance – No, then they'd know for sure that something was wrong – they were already suspicious of her, and if she ran out then they'd know for sure… They would ask, and she couldn't lie, they would know, and her dark side would strike… No, no, NO, she couldn't stay here but she couldn't leave, what could she do‽

Dove felt a droplet of sweat trickle down her face as he clicked to show the final picture, and she blinked, frozen, looked up - and gasped sharply.

The face was a contorted scream, flesh and blood caked under the fingernails; vicious marks, small and severely deep cuts coexisted on the body, and the body lay mangled in the center of a deep-red pool, blackened concrete parting the blood to reveal symbols, shapes - the script was sharp, severe, and sinister.

Raven's eyes widened immediately. Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy all glanced at her uncertainly; that style of writing was burned into their memories, and they remembered it from the books they had borrowed right before The End of the World.

Starfire asked, "Raven…?"

"What does it say?"

Raven's eyes narrowed, displaying near disbelief as she translated the morbid canvas. "You cannot stop me."

Dove choked back gasp of pain at those three portent words – she remembered all too vividly exactly how that had happened… I didn't do that, it wasn't me! She tried convincing herself frantically as the memories came flooding back – He was taking over, I didn't do it - ! The images flared in her mind too vividly, no matter how hard she tried to stop it she was trapped in the pains as if they were happening all over again –

It was too much. Dove felt her stomach heave, and she ran to the sink before being sick. She whimpered, closed her eyes tightly - and then she was overtaken by a fit of silent sobs. She couldn't hold that back, either. Frenzied shocks of invisible power flickered wildly around the room, maddened by her emotion and crazed with his delirious, evil triumph.

It knew she couldn't hold out for long.

"Hey - "

"What -?"

The others turned to her, startled by her sudden movement and the redhot sensations burning through the room, like lightning on fire.

And Raven watched her intently, suspicion burning in her eyes. "Dove," she called, her tone strict and commanding.

Dove moaned, and she began shakily rinsing her mouth, catching her breath, completely unable to keep the tears from streaming down her face. "It was me…" she whispered under her breath. Then, louder, tearfully, she raised her voice so the team could hear. "It's not a mystery, it was all me." Her mind was still desperately denying it, but she couldn't keep them from the truth any longer. The secret was out.

"Wait, what?"

"I don't believe it."

"How -?"

For a moment, Raven couldn't believe what she had heard. She didn't want to believe it. But distantly sifting her memories, of Dove's fear, constantly distracted, absolute terror, she felt her suspicions fall into place. And that dark and horrible thing she had sensed… So this was why Dove had been acting so suspicious lately, so secretive… She had become a murderer.

No wonder she had trouble focusing on her lessons.

Too many pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place for Raven, and the need to understand why only pressed her harder than ever. The others, however, were utterly confused.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Cyborg said, shaking his head and then staring at Dove with an expression of total bemusement. "You're saying, you, Dove, the one who cries when you see fighting – "

"And is unable to be around arguing without great discomfort," Starfire added.

Beast Boy finished, "…did all that?"

"Aren't you a pacifist?" Robin asked, and Raven told him, "She is, and killing would be the worst form of violence she could inflict on anyone."

Raven's words pierced her like a flaming sword, her tone twisted it in the wound, and Dove choked on a sob before wheeling to face the others, her eyes pleading, desperate - devastated. "I know! That's why I hate myself right now!" Her voice was loud, choked, high and tense with the tears still cascading down her face. "I've hurt, and tortured, and killed all those innocent – I took away their lives…" That thought cut off her voice, and she sobbed again as she covered her mouth with her hand, her head bowed and her eyes locked closed.

"Why would you do that?" Robin asked, trying to make sense of it as he realized that this had to have been going on for awhile now; he remembered her bolting through the halls, her expression absolutely terrified…

"I didn't know what I was doing!" Dove cried helplessly. "I-I lost control - the evil - !" And her voice gave way to violent, body-racking sobs.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Raven demanded, her frustration obvious.

"I-I didn't - I was too-too afraid – "

"Of what? If you had told me what was going on, none of this would have happened."

Dove couldn't do anything but sob helplessly, huddling into herself and placing her other hand over the first. The deal – She couldn't have told her – but she felt absolutely horrible for lying to Raven, she had since the lies began, and Raven's tone right now – she was so upset with her… She thought she had nothing to lose by telling them, but now everything she feared was crashing down around her.

Raven's eyes were narrow as she spoke, her words still slicing right to the heart of Dove's guilt. "We could have stopped it. I could have helped you. You obviously can't help yourself."

"I'm sorry!" Dove cried, her eyes tightening as she buried her hands in her hair. "I'm so, so sorry – I-I wanted to tell you, but – but – it just seemed – Every time I thought about talking to you, I just grew so afraid, and something inside me screamed NO…" She shook her head, letting out a sob before she spoke again. "He wouldn't let me. I didn't think it would be this bad! I really thought I could gain control, Raven!"

The other Titans sans Robin stepped back discreetly at her tone – the two were really getting tense, and none of them wanted to be the one to interrupt.

"Why did you lie to us? You said you were going to be fine."

Raven's voice was a blade of ice, tearing Dove apart with every word, and her expression matched in arctic disappointment.

"We're your friends, Dove. Don't you trust us?"

"I'm sorry!" Her voice was drowned in her sobs.

"How did you not know you were -?"

"It came and went… I really thought everything was - !"

"Obviously you were wrong."

Black shocks of energy began flickering into existence, wrapping themselves around Dove's body and forcing the air to become something palpable, cold and alive. Electric tension poured into every bit of Dove's body, Raven's frigid tone turned it to ice, so horrible, so piercing, she hated the feeling - ! She was so helpless, and frustration added itself to the emotions - began mounting, why wouldn't Raven listen, she knew what she did was wrong and now they knew, it wasn't her choice, why was Raven suddenly so angry at her - ‽

A bolt of energy tore through the air, knocking the faucet from the sink and leaving Dove with a searing fear as she realized how terrifyingly wild her emotions had grown, all of them - !

She was completely oblivious to the water jetting into the air where her energy had stricken – too terrified that she told them the truth, broke the deal - now she knew why the evil waited to take her over, because she couldn't keep the secret forever. And now her terms were nullified -

"NO!"

Dove let out a cry as she realized exactly what was rising in her mind, and she did the only thing she knew how. She fled.

As long as she stood there, her friends and the last member of her family were in immediate danger. She took refuge in - gave the world refuge from her with - the mirror. She knew it was chaos, shattered, evil - but at least here she couldn't hurt anyone but herself.

And that was when she felt it.

DAUGHTER!

She was summoned. Her soul's reaper was calling. And she couldn't resist if she had the strength. Its voice was a command, a pull, its source an inavoidable instinct…

The black lightning fizzled out to smallest streaks of chill power as she heeded the evil clarion call.

Transporting.

The world corkscrewed around her in a sickening rush of brokenness before, tottering, she was released in the heart of her soul.

Slowly her half-lidded vision cleared, slowly, slowly, slowly, mind-numbingly slow… Everything in the mindscape was wilted, lifeless - resigned.

Everything but the evil.

The evil influence within her had taken the visage of Trigon - and when it spoke, it was in his voice. Her own, even her own evil shadow, had become less than an echo.

"It is time."

Dove bowed her head; she couldn't look into those sadistic, merciless eyes… didn't want to see the smile as the essence of evil gathered fourfold and struck out.

But oh Azar, she FELT it!

She braced herself - there had been searing heat and murderous pain whenever he took her before - but nothing could have prepared her for the insidious agony of total transformation.

And she now knew why the demon needed her to be strong. If she were frail now, the pain alone would have killed her!

This time Trigon didn't just strike her – he struck her, forced away her protective layers, sliced her open, and joined himself at the rift in her astral being, melting into her physical body with the heat of stone-liquefying magma and burning her mercilessly as the total transformation took over, a maelstrom of power tearing through her, twisting her, using her, manipulating her, raping her soul and tearing her body apart – pain so deep, being alive felt WRONG, like a molestation of reality – unraveling the fabric of her existence thread by thread and staining her body and soul with his blood.

And then the wave of physical pain crashed.

She screamed wretchedly the whole time, a wail voicing her absolute agony as pain and corruption became everything she knew – Compared to this, the tormenting death sensations were resplendent, blissful paradise.

It all started as an abysmal ache in her chest where the energies entered – it spread through her veins and they itched maddeningly, as if Dove was able to endure any more insanity as they lengthened and the biochemicals shifted to carry the power in the demon's ichorant blood – electric fire burned under her skin as that power stampeded through her body, faster and harder with every heartbeat – It seeped across her neck and her screams became strangled gasps. Healing facets become weapons of destruction – it streaked down her arms, and fingers with a touch once so timid and gentle grew nails that could cut through steel; it raced up her neck and her mouth becomes an arsenal of serrated blades. Power pooled above her eyes, burning through her skull, her flesh, until she felt the energies bursting through to form the demon's fourfold scarlet eyes. Even her innocent human skins was stretching, hardening to malleable armor in this hypersped mockery of evolution.

She bled all through the torture but it healed quickly as the magickal and demonic energies entwined within her – still it scarred her with deep lashes of smooth, whitened flesh… On her chest, four strange wavering marks erupted where he struck her and split her skin – and it burned into her back as a line of scarflesh charging down from between her shoulder blades to just a few inches above her tailbone. A total split, separating everything she was from everything the demon brought her to be.

And it was marring her unscarred body – she had always been careful and gentle in the past, protected by a thick web of her mother's spells and her own supernatural instincts – though she only despised it now, she had always denied it, that her demonic heritage gave rise to acute senses, sight, sound, smell, reflexes even the best-trained human couldn't match when the demon's acrid equivalent of adrenaline shot through her veins. To deny her heritage further she had always locked that gate closed with an iron chain, cutting the flow of power and instinct from herself whenever possible – but in moments of exhilaration and fear it would leak into her mind and supply her with the extradimensional strengths that kept scars from her flesh. Even before her mind began its collapse, especially after hitting puberty and her powers began to mature far too quickly for her to keep reign of, those moments of both excitement and panic had marked her mind.

Now that power rammed the gate open – empathy flared to a blazing furnace within her – sight sharpened so she could see the currents of astral energy around her – she could smell the oxygen, the carbon, the nitrogen in the air, and she could taste how faint those shadows were of reality. She heard the fire burning on the stars, felt the blood streaming through her – experience sharpened to a level that would drive any human straight over the edge of insanity – and she reveled in her power.

But hatred also welled within her, from that part of her that was still good and still disgusted by her choice; it didn't last long, but she felt the heat, the blaze of raging fury seething into whatever was left of her soul.

Her dark side smiled in Trigon's image – then fostered that hatred and fanned the flame, until even what used to be fear was poisoned by the evil energy and was wrung to absolute fury. The ferocity of emotion opened the gate to her powers, laying the causeway for her father's influence to rise above her own being.

Entirely.

…or, almost.

After Dove's conception, Alerina fled to Azarath to escape Trigon's reach. He followed. But her mother Magena intercepted him. Damn the woman, Dove's grandmother had protected some remnant spark of humanity too strongly with her foolish "noble sacrifice", with her life. The evil rammed at the wall with all its force - but even its pure hellspawn abilities couldn't shatter the barrier of humanity Alerina had so carefully protected with a lifetime of spell and affection. Dove had never been trained in breaking spells, cutting the flow of Azar's power wasn't in her arsenal. Yet. And she couldn't free herself completely of her human bounds.

No matter.

Dove's resistance was neutralized – Dove was no longer Dove. And totally consumed by the essence of her own inner evil, Dove was utterly and irrevocably lost.