Chapter Two - GOODNIGHT,SWEET PRINCESS
Parting is such sweet sorrow
"Kory, look at me."
"Kory."
Sobs wracked the Tamaranean beauty. Her golden skin was pale and sickly looking and her eyes red-rimmed. She would not look up…how could she? How could she face them after –
"X'Hal," she breathed as a prayer and looking up found Donna Troy watching her
carefully. "Donna…is he…?"
"Kory. I can't lie to you~"
She began to hyperventilate. Terror gripped her heart and she knew she would die. Right here. Right now. She couldn't bear to live after…
"Kory." Donna's voice was stern. "Get a grip on yourself. I can't lie to you. It was close." She paused to take a deep breath, remembering the cold pallid form of her friend hanging limp in Joe Wilson's arms. Joey had been crying. "Very close." She knelt beside the golden alien and took her hands, feeling them tremble. "Dick's alive."
"X'Hal…."
"But very weak. We found Raven. She was able to help him." Thank Hera, Donna thought to herself. The empath had been away, walking mystic paths none of them even tried to understand. But Joey had found her…somehow. The connection between them was as curious as that between Dick and herself. As though they had known one another long before they met and somehow shared a common destiny. Dick was her best friend. She shuddered to think how close she had come to losing him.
"He's all right?" Hope lit Koriand'r's eyes as she sniffed. Donna noted that the skin beneath
her nose was ochre and raw. She had been crying for an hour while they fought to save her lover's life.
At first, Koriand'r had refused to believe what was happening was real. It had been
disconcerting to see her stand by and do nothing as Joey gathered Dick's broken form to himself. As Gar and Victor came running in robes and pajamas to see what had happened. As Raven appeared amidst a fury of lightning and smoke expecting a battle, looking for the foe…only to find her teammate, the explosive Starfire, sitting in the corner talking to herself as though she were the only one in the room.
The empath had gasped in pain when her dark eyes found the man she had chosen to lead the New Teen Titans fallen. She had ordered Joe to place him on the bed, knelt beside him, and then slowly, chanted and prayed, calling upon the powers bequeathed her by a demon-father and the gentle souls of Azarath who had sought to tame them. As the room grew silent and Raven bent to her task of healing, Koriand'r began to wake. Confused, she had looked about as one awakened from a deep sleep and then, noticing Gar and Victor
where they hesitated, lost and helpless near the entrance to the room, she rose and began to move toward them. Donna Troy, anxious, terrified, angry, had caught her arm, halting her.
"Kory!" she had screamed, unable to contain her fear. "Kory, what in the name of the gods did you think you were doing? Have you gone mad?"
Kory blinked and then met her eyes. "Donna?"
"Yes, Donna. Who else?" Her fury had abated a bit as she realized the tall alien
was unaware of what had transpired. Softening her voice, she began again, "Kory, are you~"
The alien's eyes had gone wide with horror. Not ten feet away Raven was sobbing, her head thrown back in agony as she sought to draw the deathblow into her slender frame without losing her own fragile hold on life.
"Who…?!" Kory shouted, glancing about, but then as her eyes met Victor's and Gar looked away, and she caught Joey's puzzled but sympathetic gaze, she gasped. The path of the starbolt had left the wall of their suite scorched and blistered. "X'Hal! Donna, I killed him!"
"Kory, he's not dead~"
The alien began to whine and turn in circles, her heart racing and her soul black.. Power began to build in her hands once again, but before she could explode, Donna screamed to Joe Wilson, and as Raven released her grip on Dick Grayson's pale but living flesh, Joey – as Jericho – moved to Donna's side, slapping Koriand'r's golden cheek. Her eyes flashed fire, but they found his and made – contact. Jericho's lean blond form had dissolved as he invaded the alien's form and took control of it, powering down her star-bolts and forcing her to breathe slowly, until the terror and anger died from her face to be replaced with a sickly resignation.
"She's safe now," Joe said with the alien's voice as she let him use her vocal
chords in place of his own, which had been sacrificed to a kidnaper's knife when he was just a child. "Her heart is racing, but I think she understands what has happened and her part in it. You're awake now, Kory. Do you understand?"
"Kory?" Donna repeated, "Do you understand? You are not dreaming. "
As Joe Wilson separated from his teammate, her strong form plummeted to the floor drained of its extraordinary strength by the ordeal. "I understand," she whispered, more to herself than to any of them,
"I understand. I've gone mad."
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"So there have been two repeating dreams. Both of which have resulted in your killing Dick?"
"No," Kory said, shaking her head, "first failing, then killing."
Joe Wilson knelt beside her, his hand on her knee. He signed concern and then
asked, "Is that something you are afraid of? Do you fear you will fail him?"
Kory's nostrils flared and she blew out a withheld breath. "Normally? I would
say 'no'. You know me." She paused and looked up at the other members of the Titans who
watched her, some with concern, others – Victor in particular – with suspicion. "You know me. I am not like this. It is not like me to be out of control…."
Gar Logan snorted quietly and then regretted it. "Hey, hey, give…okay? Kory, I
think you're just about the best thing to hit this planet since Elvis, but control? When are you ever in control?"
Koriand'r rose, angry. Her fists balled. But as she saw real fear kiss Gar Logan's deep green eyes, she deliberately unclasped her fingers and returned to her seat. In a small voice she whispered, "Help me, please. I do not know what is wrong with me."
Donna glanced at the man known as Cyborg and his small friend and gently inclined her head. As they began to protest, Joe Wilson shook his blond locks and glanced over his shoulder towards the stairs, where the young woman known as Raven was descending, her dark blue cape drawn tightly about her, masking her features. Healing Nightwing had taken much from her. They all knew that each time she used her power the chances of her losing control grew. Raven walked a thin line, teetering on the brink of madness; still she would have given her life rather than see Dick lose his.
"Okay," Gar pouted, unaware of the tempest raging in the small dark form that had entered the room. Transforming into a green rabbit and hopping toward the Tower's exit, he snapped, " Come on, Vic, I know when I'm not wanted…."
Moving to join him, the cyborg added, "Or needed. Let us know how Grayson does, and …." He hesitated, his eyes brushing over the group, "…take care."
Donna Troy frowned. She wasn't certain who that was meant for. Koriand'r, or
the ones left within her reach.
The tall alien suddenly became aware of the empath's presence, and partially
rising, locked eyes with the tenebrous shadow that was Raven's face. "Dick…?" she asked,
tentatively.
"Is resting. Richard is very…weak."
"Can I see him?" Kory's eyes filled with tears. "I need to tell him that I'm…"
Her voice failed.
Raven's gloved hand reached out, not quite touching the other woman. "He knows. First, we must see if we can find the 'heart' of this matter."
"What do you mean?"
Raven settled near Kory's feet as Donna stepped back to stand by Joe. "If you
are willing, I will try to see if I can ascertain what is causing these dreams. You have had, you say, two?"
"That I remember. There may have been more. I'm not certain." She glanced at
them, watching as Joe moved off to keep watch at Dick's bedside. "I'm not sure this isn't a dream."
"I assure you it is not," Raven spoke softly but with strength. "I believe someone
is influencing you. Planting these suggestions, perhaps to drive you mad. We have many enemies who would stop at nothing to disable our 'strongest' member. Do you remember any thing you might consider suspicious? Has anyone attempted to make contact with you, anyone out of the ordinary?"
Kory frowned and cast her thoughts back over the last few weeks. She and Dick
had gone out a few times, they had caught that jewel thief, almost by accident, and there had been an incident with the police. Too many autographs requested too quickly. Traffic had stopped. One woman had fainted, striking Dick and scratching her arm as she fell. But other that than? "No. Nothing. No one."
"Then we shall have to see if your 'sub-conscious' knows more than your conscious." Raven shifted, black hair spilling from beneath her velvet hood. "May I?"
Koriand'r dropped to the floor, offering her face for the empath to lay her hands
on. "Willingly. I want to know. I need to know."
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Minutes passed as Donna Troy watched for some sign of progress. Koriand'r's face was
blank, her eyes distant. Without warning, Raven moaned and shifted as though uncomfortable. The stone on her forehead flashed as she lifted her head, her mouth forming a round 'o'. Suddenly, she grew rigid and gasped.
"No! You mustn't! I cannot live. I will not~" Her hands jerked apart from Kory's golden
flesh and clawed toward the sky, blue and white fingers flashing like silverfish. "The threat is not new, but new to me. I dare not. I am too weak. Too near losing control… My soul," she whispered as though speaking to herself, and then, suddenly fully conscious, she rounded on Donna to cry, "I must leave."
Crimson lightning sparked amid black storm clouds, and she was gone.
Donna and Kory sat stunned. Tears stained the alien's cheeks and Donna's hand crept out to take her friend's. She noticed it was shaking as much as the other woman's.
Koriand'r remained silent a moment and then seemed to draw herself together. Her back straightened and determination returned to her eyes. At last, there was something she could do.
"No," she said, seeking Donna's bright blue eyes, "I must leave."
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She had to see him one final time. Creeping into the room they had shared, Kory
sat softly on the edge of the bed and stared at the still form of the man she loved. His chest was rising and falling in natural sleep, and with his eyes closed and his black hair tousled, he looked like a little boy. With that thought, memories of her dreams intruded and she found herself trembling. Ever alert, even injured, Dick Grayson's eyes opened to focus on the golden girl who sat by his side.
"Kory," he whispered, his voice seeking strength after sleep, "I wondered where
you had been. Why did you stay away? Has there been trouble?"
Other than me?, she thought. "No, no trouble. You weren't well, and I couldn't… After what I did…" Tears filled her eyes. "Oh, Dick, how can you ever forgive me?"
His blue eyes narrowed and he shifted slowly up on the pillows that cradled his
head so that he was sitting. "Forgive you? For what?"
"For what?" Her eyes were wide as moons. "I almost killed you. I did kill
you. If not for Raven…."
He took her hand and refused to give it up when she tried to pull away. "Kory,
look at me. Kory."
She couldn't disobey. He was a natural leader and the authority in his voice
would have compelled her, even if she had not simply longed to look at him. He was so
beautiful.
"Yes, Dick."
"You didn't hurt me. Not on purpose. You couldn't. I know that even if you don't. Something is wrong here, and when I'm up to it, I'll figure it out. We're in this together. Don't forget that. I love you."
Inside her heart was breaking. She remembered another who had told her she was
loved as she said goodbye. On Tamaran, as the Gordanians took hold of her arms and wrested her from her parents – from R'yand'r, her brother, from the planet she loved and the people she was to have governed – her mother had cried out that she loved her. Then, as now, it had made no difference. For her mother's good, she had been taken away. For Dick…. Before she would hurt him again she would have returned to the Citadel, to the monsters who had tortured her. She loved him that much. It was why she had to leave.
Leaning forward, she kissed him, slowly, passionately, and then rose. "You get some rest. I
couldn't live if anything happened to you."
Dick started to protest, as always, busy reminding her that she was being over-emotional and would, in reality, survive if something did happen to him. But she knew better. She kissed him again and then whispered, "Sleep well, my love."
With that, she was gone.