This highly presumes that you have read the whole series. Please be aware there are spoilers

In the before, before he saved the world, before he woke up in a body that wasn't his, before he was able to save the pattern, Rand al'Thor was wrought through suffering. Through pain he was tempered like a piece of metal over the blacksmiths fire. He thought he had to be steel, he thought he had to be cuendiller. He had to be so much more than a man, the savior of the world, and through that he brought darkness into heart, shadows and a dangerous tempest. Swirling eddies of evil sought to turn him into a servant of the Dark One.

And then his father came. The only man he had ever known as Father. The one who lifted him into the apple trees when he was too small to reach. The same man who took him into the Waterwood to teach him to swim. The same one who one who would pull him out of bed by the arm if the rooster didn't wake him so he could mend the fences, milk the cows and help make the casks of ale.

Tam al'Thor, a man of many of years, with hair dusted gray at the top, held his son against his breast while Rand sobbed. "I've done so much that is terrible," he cried. Rand knew. By the Light, he knew now that he had made choices, that he was walking down a terrible path before he snapped, before almost killing his father had taken him to the slopes of Dragonmount where he was broken and forged anew. He found himself there, not quite at peace, but at acceptance. This world, this beautiful world he lived in needed to be saved. He had to live, to love, to invest in it, to leave pieces of himself behind, even if it was destined that he would die. To love again was more than worth it.

Of course he made big speeches to Min about accepting his death before. It was inevitable, unstoppable. It would happen and so why should she or Elayne or Aviendha love a man that was doomed. With those thoughts, his tears spilled against his father's chest. He cried for Moiraine who he knew he let die because he shamefully wouldn't raise a hand against woman. He cried for the Maidens who had died because of him, for Liah who he had killed to spare her Mashadar, burning her from the pattern, a soul that would never be born again. He sobbed for the sins he had committed at Natrin's Barrow, the lives he'd snuffed out all in exchange for Graendal's. Rand shook in the terror of the chest he was locked inside of and the beatings from Elaida's Aes Sedai. He sobbed for Min for what Semhirage forced him to do to her and the wedge it caused between them. Light he cried. For his hand, the one that he did not even give himself time to think about and he cried because in his callousness he had not given more to Elayne and Aivendha and there was so little time left.

"It's alright, son," Tam muttered against his ear, squeezing Rand so tightly he could scarcely breathe. "It's alright. You didn't let it knock you down. That's all anyone can ask for."

Sniffling, wiping his nose Rand stood and held his right hand, his only hand out to Min. Min with her curls and ringlets, and pants that squeezed her hips in all the places he enjoyed ogling. "I need to introduce you to someone—"

"Son, it's been three days. We've had a chance to get to know each other."

Min flushed with embarrassment. He could feel it through the bond and see it in the flames of her cheeks. What had she told Tam? What hadn't she? Those questions could be answered later, his Father was here. His father was really here. "I know but I didn't get to introduce you, Father. This is Min and she's very special to me. Actually," he tried to stifle his own embarrassment. Mat was supposed to be the one that was good with women, the one that could flit from one maid to the next but somehow, Rand had managed to entangle himself with three women. "Actually, she isn't the only one."

"Min told me about them too," Tam replied as they ascended the stairs back to the room that Rand had stayed in before. They walked slowly, step by step. Rand no longer trying to stifle his tears felt them start anew. Light the box, he hadn't cried for the box, for the beatings, for the torturing of Min. He stopped halfway up the stairs and closed his eyes, squeezing out each tear and covering his eyes. "It's been hard, son. But you're so close now."

Rand shivered and finished leading the way up the stairs, into his rooms. He called to the Maidens, asking them to bring tea and sugar, tabac if they could find it for he and his father's pipes. Exhausted, Rand lowered himself onto a chair. "Sit down," somehow he managed to get the words from his lips, although they didn't come easily. "Min—"

"You already apologized to me," she said gently. He had, right after the danger had been averted, he had picked her up, awkwardly. He had called for Nynaeve to heal her of the pains he had inflicted and then on his knees, darkly in monotone apologized. She knew it wasn't him. He would never raise a hand to her but it had happened anyway with that bloody collar around his neck.

"Stop that, son." Tam's leathery hand engulfed Rand's, pulling it away from his neck. He hadn't even noticed he was rubbing his throat as if it would erase the memory of cold metal against his neck. "She told me about that too. So much pain, my son."

"I told him about the collar," Min said timidly. He could feel her bracing herself, for the storm, for his anger, for the explosion of emotion and when it didn't come, he felt love, nothing but golden veins weaving their way between the two of them. Light she loved him and he her.

"I'm so sorry, Min. I'm so sorry," Rand cracked again. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried like this. Was it when Moiraine had died? A night by himself when he thought no one was listening? Maybe it was the night that Aviendha's bed had somehow moved closer to his own and he thought he felt her hand on his shoulder but nothing more.

"I know, Rand," Min responded and hugged him tightly. "Are you okay?"

To that Rand found himself chuckling through the tears. "Better than. I know what to do now, Min. I know what needs to be done. I went to Dragonmount—"

Abruptly, Jalani opened the door, the Maiden that still held her childhood pudginess especially in her cheeks and her waist. Carefully she set down the tray of tea, that smelled of sweet mint and fresh honey, along with trays of food, the others brought in, unspoiled meat, sweet carrots and celery and a stew piping hot. Rand raised an eyebrow in question, he had asked only for tea. "The Car'a'Carn must maintain his strength," Jalani answered flippantly and sternly, more like a mother than a younger sister.

Tam picked up a pinch of tabac and set it in his pipe and then padded his front down, looking for something to light it with. The fire was out. Then the older man grinned in a way that Rand knew was pride. The same grin when he was finally able to hit notches in the trees for the first time and he split his first arrow with a second one. "Care to help your father with his pipe?"

Rand smiled. It stretched his face, flexing muscles he had forgotten could do more than frown in the last two years. Rand embraced the source, the raging fire, life giving waters, wrestled to their brink and for once didn't feel the intense dizziness, although he still felt queasy. He lit his father's pipe first with a thin weave of fire, then his own and puffed rings of fluffy smoke into the air. "Dragonmount," Tam muttered with a far off look. "I haven't been there since I found you."

"Why didn't you ever tell me, Father? I never looked like anyone else. I thought I looked like my mother."

"You look like your mother," Tam said with a sense of relief and pride, almost like he was letting a weight off. "Kari and I talked about it, whether or not to tell you, to tell anyone." He puffed deeply and then blew two rings, one through the other. Tam glanced at Min and then at Rand, and added, "We tried for so long to have a baby. I met her in Illian. We got married right before I was sent to fight near Tar Valon. She had wanted something to remember me by. Someone to comfort her if I didn't make it back. It's a comfort to a woman at times, to have a piece of her man inside her when he goes to war."

Rand listened with rapt attention. Tam had never even hinted that Rand had come from somewhere else, someone else. Tam was his father. Tam was the man who taught him to read, to shoot an arrow true. The flame and the void. There was never a question in his mind. "There was so much blood, so much heat. So many Aiel that would kill you before you saw them. Of course you know that now. I had gone looking for survivors among my men. They must have found what they were looking for, the Aiel. I think word had finally come that they had found Laman and killed him for his sin against Avendendorelda. And then I heard you. Squalling, terrified, cold. I started climbing the slopes and that's where I found a woman with her veil still wrapped around her face. She'd given birth alone in the snow. You were there, son, blue from the cold, hungry. I picked you up, and tucked you in my shirt against my chest for warmth. I took her veil down, to get a look at her face. I had thought to find your father, and give you back to him, but it was dangerous and the Aiel were retreating.

"So I brought you back home to Kari, to your mother. She named you, Rand. She was so happy to go back to the Two Rivers with a baby to raise. Kari would be proud of you, son. So would your real parents, whoever they were."

"Tigraine and Janduin," Rand admitted quickly, lost in visions of his infant self on the slopes he had stood on before and the kindness of his father's heart to bring him home. Why hadn't the Dark One found him then? The Two Rivers must have been the most forgotten place, and Tam wasn't one to boast and never admitted that his son had been born outside the Two Rivers.

"Tigraine as in the Daughter-Heir?" Tam gasped, nearly choking on his tea. "You're sure?"

Rand nodded vehemently. "Janduin was a clan chief of the Taraad Aiel and Tigraine came over the Dragon Wall. She was told by an Aes Sedai that if she didn't leave her life behind, her son, her husband that the world would come to an end. She couldn't return until after the Maidens had gone to Tar Valon."

"So you really are royalty?" Tam laughed and slapped his knee. "All this time I was raising a Prince."

"An illegitimate prince. I have a brother, father. Galad Damodred. He doesn't know about me and with time so short to Tarmon Gaidon I don't think he ever will."

"You always wanted a brother. I remember you used to ask me if I would get remarried. That's why you Mat and Perrin were always so close."

Colors swirled in his vision, Perrin in the snows, trekking towards Camelyn, Mat already there, speaking to Elayne and then jealousy. Why should Mat get to be with the woman he loves and he not? And then suddenly the swirling colors focused on Elayne, her middle so much fuller than the last time he saw her. "She's pregnant," he whispered under his breath, hands on his mouth and heart in his throat. "Min, did you know?"

Again the bond sent guilt and frustration and embarrassment. "You were so angry, Rand. So lost. I didn't know how to tell you. It's twins."

"Twins?" This time Rand choked on his tea with enough force that Jalani opened the door and asked if he was okay. Light what was he going to do? He was slated to die and his children would never see him. He and Min had spoken of children but she drank Heartleaf tea. He wouldn't have let her stay if she didn't. Before everyone close to him was a target but he was addicted to her unconditional love and acceptance. He needed her. Light he needed to be loved, to feel a body close to his at night when the dreams and nightmares came, to hold her and make love, to forget that he was the Dragon Reborn, breaker of the world, doom of man, destroyer.

"You know it's not a bad thing, Rand," Tam spoke softly, the way he always did. "I said before a woman should have something to hold onto, son." With leathered hands, that had seen so many years of work on their farm, Tam grasped his son's hand, the only one he had left and added, "A father should have something to remember his son. You have to remember who you are. The son I raised you to be, the son your mother loved."

"Mother," Rand thought guiltily. He used to put flowers on her grave every Sunday. He hadn't in two years, so afraid that if he showed any affection towards the Two Rivers that the Dark Ones armies would mass there to draw him out. They did mass there. He realized in those moments with his father and Min that staying away didn't save anyone. Perrin lost his family. Tam had gone into hiding with Abell Cauthoun. Mat's sisters and mother taken with the Luhans by the White Cloaks. His distance did nothing. "Jalani!" he shouted into the hallway. "Tell the Maidens I'm leaving."

"Where?" Min asked quickly standing and sliding her feet back into her shoes.

"Home. If this is the last time. The days are so short. It's coming." Light Elayne was pregnant. What was he going to do about that? There was nothing he could do but meet her on the fields of Merrilor and prepare for the Last Battle.

Nandera peeked her head in, catching Rand's attention with a raised eyebrow. He still had to meet his toh with the Maidens. They had spanked him a few times, half-heartedly. After the box, they couldn't raise a hand to him without feeling guilt and he knew it. "Nowhere dangerous, Nandera."

Embracing the source, he weaved a gateway, a white slash rose in the air and then twisted, landing just outside the farm where he grew up. His father rose to join him, Min behind and quickly four Maidens jumped through before he stepped into the open. So little time left.

The farm was scorched beyond repair. The livestock long gone, and smells of sulfur still tainted the air. As they walked towards what was once his home, Tam told him how the house had never been repaired after the Trollocs. He had gone with Abell to Tar Valon with the hopes that he would see his son again. By the time he got back, the White Cloaks were there, the Trollocs returned. The house had been razed to the ground and with everything going on, he hadn't had time to rebuild it.

Rand listened, feeling his heart break. He could have come back and ended it quickly. He stopped with a tug on his plain brown coat. "Look up, sheepherder," Min said, loving surging through their connection, hope and relief.

The sky had cleared. With each step Rand took, fresh green, luscious grass sprouted by his feet and the trees creaked and cracked with life. New leaves grew, greens and vines sprouted around him. Even the pumpkin patch and their herb garden started sprouting life. He strode, the Maidens following him until he found Kari's grave, covered in dead leaves and torched ground. His presence pushed the death away and old flowers began to bloom in vibrant red, yellows and purples. He knelt down, and touched the ground. He didn't remember much about her, much beyond that she loved him. "She used to sing to me at night. I got sick once with fever and slept on her lap. I remember that."

Murmurs rose up around him, the voices of the Maidens recognizing where he had taken him. In a circle they sat around him, almost like concerned mother hens while he spoke quietly with his father about memories of Kari al'Thor, the woman who had raised the Car'a'Carn. Never before had the child of a Maiden come back to them and now they knew the parents who had raised him. He thanked his mother and father together for teaching him kindness, for raising him well, teaching him right from wrong and then stood gazing off at the Waterwood where he used to swim with Mat and Perrin. "What?" Min asked him, arm wrapped around his stump and head on his shoulder.

"I haven't swam in two years," Rand answered her.

"Take your time while you can, son. If there's time to be had. Between battles, between loss and friends, lad, take the time you have."

"Swimming?" Nandera scoffed.

"What Far Dareis Mai? I thought you weren't afraid of anything?" He felt mischievious. Maybe Mat had something to the tricks he used to play on people. He seized Saidin, staving off an upset stomach and the need to fall over and then lifted Nandera in a thread of air and started walking towards the lake.

"Rand al'Thor!" she screeched at him and he started laughing as the other Maiden's surrounded. It only encouraged him to stride faster, with his head high and shoulders back, stripping off his coat and shirt right before he got the water. "Don't even think of it!"

"I still have to meet my toh," he said with a chuckle and gave her a jiggle in the air. "I thought Maidens were afraid of nothing."

"Son, I think you're pressing your luck."

"Really?" Tenderly, Rand wrapped his father in air too, bouncing him slightly, trying to keep a straight face and carried him over to the water.

"Rand the water is cold this time of year!"

"Is it?" Rand cocked his head to the side.

"Woolhead put them down!" Min tugged on his arm. Jalani nearly bit her lips to keep from laughing as did the other Maidens.

"You know I always wondered why the Maidens never learned to swim." He lowered Nandera who was struggling uselessly in the air.

"Rand, put me down now," his father barked in the voice that said no more or less than you will do what I say.

"As you wish," he said and let the air go. He watched them fall. Nandera kicked and yelped and then held her nose and closed her eyes tight. Min kicked his shin making him hop in pain and he nearly missed catching them before the water broke and then Rand laughed. He laughed so hard his sides hurt when he set Nandera and his father down who only shook his head smiling. He laughed until tears coated his eyes and he had to support the two wounds in his side with his palm to keep them from bursting.

"There's the son I know," Pridefully Tam exclaimed. "Now show me these dragons on your arms. Maybe you can toss Sulin into a pond next time."

"That one would never forgive me. I think I've earned more toh, haven't I, Nandera?"

Nandera stopped skulking and then started laughing. "A very good joke." Aiel humor, it never made sense.

Rand turned to his father, a hand on his shoulder. "I have need of you, Father. I need you to gather the people of the Two Rivers. Tarmon Gaidon is coming. I need everyone able to fight, mend, blacksmith, cook. Can you prepare them? I'll send an Asha'man in a few days to bring them back."

"My son," Tam said proudly and then hugged him. "It will be as you say, My Lord Dragon." And then Tam grabbed Rand around the waist and tossed him full bodied into the water.

Rand laughed again, finally remembering what it meant to be alive.