The rose petal wafted to the ground listlessly; it was useless to hang on to a stem that would forsake you in a heartbeat. The young man bent on one knee, dark cloak now at full length billowing in the wind floating off the writhing waves. Black uniform on gray rocks behind him, his home. Clouded, pain filled eyes scanned from behind a black and white mask…yes, he was alone at that early hour.

Alone…

"I pronounce you, man and wife."

"Richard?" a curvy, radiant young woman in an elegant long white dress asks, bouncing on her heels. Her cinnamon hair is up in an intentionally messy, curled updo, a thin, one diamond tiara on her brow.

Her long eyelashes and flawless makeup are more visible as she tosses her veil back.

"May I kiss you now?"

Grayson placed the rose on the ground near the stone, gazed out to the harbor on the shoreline. If one was looking hard enough, one could have detected the slight softening of his stone cold eyes, the crease and tightened jaw line relaxing slightly. Letting go…

The kiss is too short, his hands in her hair, she pulls back and for once his smile is as wide as hers.

"I love you," the handsome man in the tuxedo says to the girl in his arms, stroking her forearm as they walk out to the garden party, friends cheering or smirking in turn.

He could still remember the dance, their first as a couple. Her spinning to the music, the dance floor a private haven, the spring sunshine overhead. Richard swore he could see her skin faintly glowing with joy, though he had never asked her about it.

It was one of the many things he wished he had done…their honeymoon to Europe, his introduction to her homeworld…even visiting his family's graves and finding comfort in her arms.

God, there was so much.

An emaciated girl lies in a bed surrounded by wire and beeping. Her hair is stringy and ragged, beautiful face hollow and scared.

A dark haired young man sits in the chair next to her, exhausted and terrified. Starfire's hand is cold in his grip, her large eyes staring at her lover's face.

"Richard…"

And he was helpless. No villain to fight, no one to blame. Just words, microscope slides, her weakening body.

Richard squeezed his eyes shut, the three month old wound still bleeding every day. The physical pain of her…gone…knawed at his gut with a serrated edge.

When he thought he could cry no more, tears fell on the gravelly soil, his handsome head hanging in defeat.

"I still feel you, Star. I roll over every morning and think you'll be there, next to me," he whispered to the stone, his hands along the ground.

"And I…it hurts so much, baby, like my arm is missing, like I can't go on…and I know I have to go on, because everyone needs me, depends on me, but my strength was from you," his voice built in volume over the crashing waves and breath of gray sky

"Like I'm lost in the dark, my candle snuffed out…" Richard stopped, and ran his finger over the rose, one color on gray.

"Goddammit, Star, I loved you!" he screams in frustration up at the clouds as he drops to both knees, "We were forever! How could you? How could you…leave me?"

And no more words spilled out, just tears from his eyes as it started to rain, heaven weaping on the broken hero.

Water mixed on his face with the salty drops. The man stood, and read the stone a last time before turning back to reality.

Kori Starfire Grayson.

Friend, Hero, Wife

Love is Eternal.