Chapter One - HOGGLE

October 1994

Keiran Flannery was 8 years old when she moved away from Gotham City. Her mother, Raisa, had been offered a job as a housekeeper for a very rich and influential family in Starling City. Raisa, was nervous about making her daughter move, but Keiran wasn't. She couldn't wait to leave. Gotham City didn't feel like home anymore.

Keiran had suffered from severe migraines since the age of 3. A few times a week, her head hurt so badly that she couldn't get out of bed. Her mother and father called them 'heavy head' days. She couldn't go to school consistently like normal kids, so she was homeschooled by her mother. Kids were afraid of her and wouldn't talk to her when she had her big, dark and bulky light-sensitivity glasses on all the time. They helped with lessening the migraines, but made her look weird and robotic. When she wore them, which was almost every time she left the house, people assumed she was blind. And although many stared because they thought she couldn't see them, for the most part, people ignored her when she had them on.

She rarely complained or cried about her migraines. Nor did she feel sorry for herself. Her parents raised her to appreciate life and the world around her. For the most part, she liked to have people not paying attention to her. It meant that she could observe the world around her in great detail, especially on the days when her head wasn't hurting. She even found a short stick on a walk through the park with her father one day that was tall enough to be made into a walking cane, even though she didn't need it. They took it home, sanded it down and painted it bright pink with dark purple hearts. It made her laugh, how colorful it was.

The one and only time Keiran remembered truly feeling pity for herself was when she was 5. She was having the worst migraine pains in her young life. The pain was so strong, she couldn't stop crying, or keep her eyes open for more than a few minutes. Her father sat with her on his lap and told her that she was stronger than she could ever understand. He told her that her body was made of invisible steel and that was why her head would hurt her sometimes. Her body was working to get stronger to remove the pain from her mind. He knew her migraines wouldn't last forever and he needed her to believe that too.

While they were sitting together, he took out a necklace. It had a long, delicate silver chain with a large, violet stone hanging from it that he called an Amethyst. It was as big as the pit of a peach and surrounded by clear, tiny stones. As he put it over her head, telling her to keep it close, he told her that it had been given to him by his mother to be handed down to his child one day. Keiran thought the stone would feel heavy, but it felt like nothing at all. It was warm to the touch, which surprised her, and comforted her.

They sat still together for a while and he reminded her to focus on her other senses. He reminded her to work on patience, concentration and stillness. He said this was important for her to learn and control as it was going to be something she would need as she got older. 'You need to be disciplined.' He said.

Then he smiled down at her and listened as she worked on blocking out the pain and describing the noise from the taxis honking fifteen floors below, the smell of the garlic her mother was chopping in the kitchen, the feel of the stone on her chest – pulsing like her heartbeat. She though he would laugh at her when she told him how the stone felt. He didn't. He never laughed at anything she ever said to him when they were working together. It became their routine to practice every day when he came home from work.

Six months ago, on a day when she had no headaches, her mother was preparing dinner and Keiran was working through her yoga positions from the class her mother had enrolled her. It had been a good day. She had worked through her lessons with her mother that morning in record speed and then she had gone to yoga class where her instructor had praised her rapid improvement in the positions and forms. The instructor was encouraging Keiran to move up to the intermediate class after only two months.

From the den, Keiran heard a knock at the front door, and her mother walk over to answer it. A few moments later she heard her mother start sobbing. A Gotham City police detective was at the door and was telling her mother that there had been a bank robbery. The criminals had taken the police on a high-speed chase in their attempt to get away. The chase had gone through very congested areas. Her father had been waiting to make a turn with his limousine and couldn't get out of the way of the bank robbers. They crashed headlong into him and the crash had killed her father on impact.

Keiran had known the instant her father died. She had been waiting for her mother at the yoga studio and then, suddenly, she was standing on the street, in front of the accident. She could smell the scraped, burnt metal, feel the tension in the crowd of police around her. The robbers were climbing out of their car with their hands up. Then everything around her stopped moving, even the air. Her father appeared before her, clear as day, surrounded by a light blue haze.

He told her that he loved her and her mother and to not be scared. He said that someday, she would understand. He told her that he was sorry he wouldn't be there to help her, but that he would never truly be gone from her. He said 'There is real magic,' then he smiled and disappeared.

She blinked and was standing back in the yoga studio. Her mother was walking in to pick her up. She put her glasses on to hide any worry in her eyes, but she didn't tell her mother what she had seen. When her mother asked her what was wrong, Keiran told her that she was just working her way through a bit of a migraine that had come on suddenly. Her mother squeezed her hand and told her they would be home soon.

After the police detective left, Keiran sat with her mother in their small kitchen and cried for the second time in her life.

It was another 'heavy head' day as Raisa and Keiran arrived in Starling City. A driver was waiting for them at the airport. He spoke Russian to her mother to put her at ease. Keiran didn't understand what he said, but she appreciated the stranger trying to make her mother comfortable. Raisa had been through too much recently and could use a little kindness.

She was carrying her pink and purple walking stick, although it was starting to get a little short for her. She couldn't part with it. It still made her feel close to her father whenever she held the painted stick. She would never forget his lessons. She continued to practice seeing the world through all of her senses. Now, before entering any new environment, she like to take a moment to explore the area with her eyes closed, concentrating on her other senses for support.

Keiran closed her eyes and let the scents and sounds of the bustling airport surround her before she started to follow after her mother. She heard the clacking of the keyboards at the terminals, the smell of coffee brewing from kiosks and hushed, private conversations - one of which made her blush.

When she opened her eyes, she was also seeing something else. Shortly after her father had passed away, Keiran had begun to notice colors in the air surrounding people as she passed them on the street. It didn't happen all the time, but it was becoming more and more frequent. It didn't make her nervous, or scared. She didn't know why, but it made her happy. Her headaches seemed to be less painful when she noticed the colors in the air.

She knew that other people couldn't see it when she had asked her mother about it one day and received a puzzled look in return. So, she went to the library to research if there had ever been something like this in the world, or if she was the first. That was when she found out about Auras and how everyone had a color that represented them, but rarely could they be seen. When she left the library that day, she had skipped home, twirling her pink and purple stick, not even needing her dark glasses to make the journey.

She smiled as she thought about her 'secret' during the short drive across Starling City to their new home. As they turned into the drive, even with her heavy glasses on, Keiran could tell that this was different than any place she had ever been. The driveway was long and curved, with a large circle drive in front of the big mansion entryway.

The mansion itself was more like a giant castle from a fairytale her mother would read to her. When she stepped out of the car, she closed her eyes again. A light rain was starting to fall and the world around her smelled of fresh mowed grass. She could hear hummingbirds in the distance.

A family walked out of the house to greet them. A tall, blonde man was standing next to a blonde woman who was holding the hand of a blonde boy about her age. The woman also had a bump where her belly was. Raisa had told Keiran that the woman was pregnant and expecting a baby.

Keiran saw their auras as they walked up to them. The man was surrounded in a dark blue color, while the woman had deep, dark pink colors swirling around her. Everywhere but her stomach, which glowed with a pure white light. The little boy was surrounded in a deep, forest green. The three people stepped forward together to greet her and her mother.

Keiran smiled and a tremor went through her as her father appeared in front of her, but no one else seemed to see him.

'Your journey starts here,' he said. 'It will not be easy, and for that I am sorry dear heart. Someday you will see the light, I promise you.'

The blonde man moved towards her mother and greeted her with a welcoming smile that didn't quite reach his eyes as he shook her hand. Her mother had told her that his name was Robert Queen. The tall blonde woman stepped forward with the little boy to greet her mother warmly and then turned towards Keiran.

'Hello Keiran! My name is Moira, and this is Oliver.' She said. Moira nudged Oliver forward, 'Say hello, Oliver.'

The little boy took a step forward, looking at her funny glasses and the big purple stone around her neck, but stuck his hand out stiffly for her to shake, shyly glancing at his father, almost like he was checking to see if Robert was noticing him copying his movements. Keiran took his hand and the world around her exploded in bursts of dark violet and deep green as she fell to the ground, seeing images of stormy oceans and wild forests, violent earthquakes, men with orange and black masks on, swords, fighting staffs, bows and arrows. Thousands of images, none of them familiar to her, streaked through her vision. She was surrounded by the smell of the sea, burning wood and blood. Her head exploded in blinding pain.

She felt like she was frozen in time. She started to fall backwards and looked up to where she had seen her father, but he was no longer there. She felt her walking stick buckle and heard a loud snap. Then the world was going black.

Oliver Queen had never seen anything as peculiar as the little girl who got out of the car with their new housekeeper. He tried so hard not to stare at her, but he was intrigued. She was small with pale skin and frizzy light blonde hair. She wore big, boxy, dark sunglasses, a long silver necklace with a big purple stone and she carried bright pink cane covered with purple hearts! He snorted and would have outright laughed if his father hadn't given him the look which he always gave Oliver when Oliver was in trouble. He really didn't want his father to tell him he was disappointed in him again, so he stifled his laugh and stood as still as he could.

He watched the little girl while his parents spoke to their new housekeeper, Raisa. He was fascinated by her glasses because he couldn't see her eyes. He heard Raisa tell his mother that the little girl's name was Keiran, which made him smile, but he didn't know why. He just liked the way the name sounded.

His mother took his hand and they stepped towards Keiran. 'Hello Keiran! My name is Moira, and this is Oliver.' She said. Then she pushed him forward. He quickly glanced at his father, who he knew was watching him, then stood up straight and stuck his hand out, just like his dad always did. His mother said, 'Say hello Oliver.'

The moment he touched the girl's hand, he felt the oddest sensation go through him. It was warm and tingling and safe, almost like how he felt when he came home after a bad day at school, or how he felt when he ran up to his father to welcome him back from a long trip. It was comforting. And he knew it was stupid, but he swore he saw a flicker of green and purple around Keiran before she let go of his hand and collapsed on the ground.

Oliver had never felt this bad in his life. When Keiran had fallen to the ground, she hadn't made a sound. She had crumbed into a heap of blonde hair, pale skin and purple stone. Her funny-colored walking stick snapped in two and fell beside her. His father had picked her up and rushed her into their living room, while Raisa and his mother trailed behind him. Raisa apologized over and over again for the situation, but his parents kept reassuring her that they understood and then helped her move Keiran to their housekeeper's living quarters. They asked if Raisa would like a doctor to come to the house, but Raisa said no. She said Keiran would be fine after some rest.

His parents had told him that their new housekeeper's daughter suffered from really bad headaches called migraines, but he hadn't expected her to collapse like that after meeting him. He kept thinking it was his fault as he sat alone in his bedroom. He felt like he needed to do something. He didn't even know Keiran, and yet all he wanted was to make her feel better. It hurt him that she was hurting and he didn't know what to do about that. Which he thought was weird and normal at the same time. He was halfway downstairs and outside before he realized what he was doing.

He found the broken pink stick that Keiran had been carrying. He took it to the tool shed out behind the servant's housing and found the gardener there. He asked Gary if there was any way to repair the walking stick. Gary looked at it and brought Oliver to where he kept wood repair tools and supplies. He handed Oliver a piece of sandpaper and explained that he would need to sand the place where the stick was broken until it was smooth and would fit well together again. Then they could put it back together.

Oliver worked for an hour on the sanding until he had managed to make it so both pieces would fit together again smoothly. Gary helped him put wood glue on the broken area and they put the two pieces together and set it in a vice grip on the workbench so that it could dry overnight.

The next day was Saturday morning and his parents usually slept in and let him sleep late as well. However, Oliver woke up as soon as the sun started streaming through his window curtains. He brushed his teeth and got dressed and went downstairs. He found Raisa in the kitchen, taking a batch of fresh blueberry muffins out of the oven. The kitchen had never smelled this good before and he started to feel a little better than he had since the incident yesterday.

'Good Morning, Mr. Oliver' Raisa said in her slightly accented voice. 'Would you like something for breakfast this morning?'

'Yes, please, Miss Raisa,' Oliver said. He sat at the counter of the large kitchen island and she brought him a plate with a muffin on it, a banana sliced up, a few apple slices, along with a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice. He smiled, thanked her and started to eat his breakfast. As he ate, he watched as she worked around the kitchen, moving things here and there, where it seemed that the items worked better for her. As she continued to work, he started to feel a sense of calm come over the room. This was good because he wanted to ask her something.

'Miss Raisa,' Oliver asked, 'would it be ok if I visited Keiran today?'

Raisa turned to look at him for a moment, a small look of worry across her face. 'You don't have to do that Mister Oliver. Keiran is ok. It was not your fault, she just had a little fall. Sometimes after an…episode, like the one she had yesterday, she just needs to rest and she will be ok.'

'Miss Raisa, please…I…feel bad that her first day here wasn't any fun and, well, Gary is helping me fix her walking stick, so when it's done, could I please visit her and bring it to her?' Oliver asked again.

Raisa couldn't help but smile at the little boy who was showing more concern for her daughter than any other child had before in Keiran's life. She looked at Oliver and said, 'Mister Oliver, you have a good heart. You may visit Keiran any time you like. Thank you for wanting to help her. You are a good boy.'

Oliver stood up a little straighter and blushed. He looked at Raisa and smiled and nodded. He'd never been told that he had a good heart before, but he liked how it made him feel when Raisa said that. He finished his breakfast and got up and brought his dishes to the sink. He heard his parents starting to move around upstairs and headed to the Garden shed before they started to look for him. He needed to finish his project.

Tommy Merlyn found him in the shed three hours later as he was finishing painting the walking stick. Gary had helped him find the paint and had shown him how to sand the top coat of paint off the stick before applying the new color. He repainted the entire stick white, thinking that was more normal for the little girl, especially when she went to school. He knew how mean the other kids could be and didn't want them to have another thing to tease her about on top of her bulky dark glasses.

But, he remembered the bright pink and the purple hearts and thought maybe painting it all white was not what she wanted. He found some pink and dark purple paint and added small swirls and thin stripes to the stick. When he was done, he turned to Tommy, who had a very perplexed look on his face.

'What do you think?' Oliver asked.

'About what?' Tommy said.

'The walking stick…Miss Raisa, the new housekeeper, has a little girl named Keiran. She's kinda weird looking – she has these really big dark glasses that make her head look huge, but she's like, tiny. And, well, yesterday, when she was shaking my hand, she just fell down and her walking stick broke. I felt bad, so I fixed it for her. So, what do you think?'

Tommy looked at the walking stick. 'Well, since you broke it, it's probably a good thing you fixed it! And, I guess since it's a girl's, white and pink and purple would work…'

'Good. I'm going to bring it over to her. Do you want to come with me? Or do you want to hang out in my room until I'm done?'

'Yeah, staying alone in your room sounds like so much fun…thinking the new weird girl sounds more interesting at least.' Tommy said.

Oliver looked at Tommy and frowned a little. 'Tommy, you have to be nice though. Keiran is…different. Something weird happened when she held my hand yesterday, but I don't know what. I just know that I feel like it was my fault that she fell down and got hurt. So, be nice, ok? I don't want Raisa to be mad at me. She told me that I had a good heart.'

Tommy started to laugh. 'Oliver has a good heart…' he called in a singsong voice. Oliver hit him lightly, but smiled at his friend's teasing.

'Come on,' said Oliver. And they headed towards the housekeepers quarters.

Keiran heard Oliver and Tommy coming up the walk a long time before they arrived at the door. She caught the faint scent of the sea and woodsmoke again as they walked up the path. She opened the door off the kitchen before they came around the corner, but she didn't smile or say anything. Since she had fallen yesterday, she had felt very odd. She didn't feel like herself. Her head hadn't hurt at all this morning and she hadn't felt the need for her glasses today. Her colors were out again, though, because Oliver was still surrounded in the green shade from the day before and Tommy was surrounded in the same light blue that she always saw around her dad.

Oliver looked at her and stared. Without her glasses on, she looked different. She was even smaller looking. Her face was pixieish, fitting her small form, and there were small freckles cross her button nose. But it was her eyes that surprised him the most. They were round in shape, the irises a very light purple color, so light that they almost seemed to glow. He felt like if he stared into them for too long he could get lost.

He shook his head and smiled. 'Hi,' he said, 'I wasn't sure if you'd be up and around today…this is my best friend, Tommy Merlyn.' He nodded to Tommy.

'Where are your glasses?' asked Tommy. Oliver hit him in the shoulder. Keiran stared at them for a minute and then started to giggle.

'Hi Tommy, I'm Keiran. I don't need my glasses today, but I can show them to you if you want…' she said.

'I have something for you' Oliver said quickly, before Tommy could say something stupid again. He brought the repaired walking stick out from behind his back and held it out to her.

She held her hand out slowly, almost like she was afraid to touch him again, but when she took it from him, she smiled and blushed.

'You repainted it,' she said. She sounded almost pleased.

'Yeah,' said Oliver. 'When I put the pieces back together, the paint had chipped and been sanded in a few places, so it didn't match. I thought this would be ok.'

'I knew you would like it. I told him that too!' said Tommy, grinning at Keiran and then Oliver. Oliver shoved Tommy and started laughing, Keiran following shortly with another small giggle that made him smile harder.

It was starting to rain again, so Oliver thought they should probably let Keiran go back inside. 'I guess we should be going.' He said. 'See you later?'

'Have you ever seen Labyrinth?' Keiran asked.

'Nope,' said Tommy. 'What's Labyrinth?'

'It's a movie about magic and make-believe and goblins and trolls and, well, I was going to watch it since my head wasn't hurting me so much today. It's my favorite movie. And…um…' she hesitated, and then said very quickly 'Wouldyouguysliketowatchitwithme?

Oliver and Tommy stayed to watch the movie. When it was over, they thought it had been pretty good for a girly movie.

'I mean, the whole ballroom thing – that is really boring,' said Tommy.

'I hate dancing,' chimed in Oliver.

'That's only a small part. I saw you guys when you got totally grossed out by the Bog of Eternal Stench. And, Tommy, you said you wanted to buy a dog so that you could call him Sir Didymus!' giggled Keiran.

Oliver felt warmth spread through his chest at her giggle. 'What is your favorite part of the movie?' he asked her.

'That's easy. It's Hoggle' she replied.

'What?' Tommy asked in total surprise. 'How can you say that?'

'Yeah,' agreed Oliver. 'He betrays Sarah. He's the whole reason she gets stuck in that ballroom scene!'

She laughed again and he smiled. He really liked that sound.

'I know that,' she said simply, 'But, in the end, he chooses to do the right thing. That reminds me of my dad. He always said choose to do the right thing. Always try to help others. Be good. When he…died last Spring…I watched this movie and Hoggle, well, I just felt like it was my dad reminding me what he taught me. '

She watched them, not sure of what they would say. She didn't know why she said anything about that. Except…well, for the first time she didn't feel like she was invisible, and she realized she liked that. They had been nice to her. Oliver had fixed her walking stick. They had both stayed to watch her favorite movie. Maybe, for the first time, she was making friends.

'My mom died a couple of years ago.' Tommy said quietly. 'It sucks. But, I remember that she used to do a lot to help people too. So, maybe Hoggle isn't such a bad character…' Tommy smiled at her.

'Maybe not…but, I still can't forgive him for giving her the peach and the ballroom scene.' Oliver said.

Keiran laughed. 'I'll convince you someday.'

'We should probably get back to the house Oliver,' Tommy said. 'I'm not sure if my dad is coming to pick me up, or if it's just a driver again…do you think maybe your Mom would let me stay over?'

'Yeah, probably' Oliver said. 'Let's go find her so she can call.'

Keiran walked them to the door. The rain had stopped and the setting sun was starting to peak out. Her eyes and head still hadn't started to bother her. 'Would you maybe want to come by again and watch movies…or something?' She looked at the two boys, trying not to show too much hope on her face.

Tommy and Oliver looked at each other and then turned to grin at her.

'We get to pick the movie next time.' Tommy said. 'Or maybe you can come up and check out Oliver's comic book collection. He collects X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Avengers…'

'You collect comic books?' Keiran asks.

'So?' Oliver challenges her, staring straight into her eyes.

'Nothing,' says Keira, staring right back at him with her glowing, purple eyes, 'I collect Dazzler comics…I know she doesn't have the coolest power…I just like her.'

Oliver looks at her and grins. 'Well, it's a start. See you later…Hoggle.'

Keiran waves goodbye and closes the door. For the very first time in her life, she hung out with kids her own age. No headaches. No glasses. Just a normal afternoon with two boys watching a movie and talking about things they have fun with.