Chapter Three - GOODNIGHT, SWEET PRINCESS
But He, that hath the steerage of my course….
"Gone!?" Dick Grayson sat up in the bed, meeting his friend Joey's eyes, "What do you mean…gone!?"
Joey signed that he was taking a risk even coming to him so he should keep his voice down. Donna was on the prowl…if she heard….
Dick looked sheepish. "Sorry," he apologized, lowering his voice. "What do you
mean gone? You mean left the tower?"
Joe nodded.
"How long ago? Hours?" He didn't think he had been asleep long, but sickness
sometimes played tricks with time.
Joey shook his head and signed, "More like half an hour. She flew off toward the city.
With luggage."
Dick rose unsteadily from the bed, trembling with the exertion…more from inactivity he told himself, than from any lingering effects of Kory's starbolt attack. He crossed to the closet and noticed the few items she had stored there were gone. So was the picture of the two of them taken last summer at the amusement park. Curiously, the one of his parents next to it on the dresser was turned face down. Righting it, he caught Joey's gaze, "Do you know what's wrong?"
Joey shook his head. "No. If I did," he signed, "I would have told you. It is
something that frightened even Raven." And with that he proceeded to fill his friend in as Dick Grayson began to transform himself into Nightwing, just as Joey had known he would. In spite of Donna's warning to keep the truth from him until he was stronger, there had been no other way. Joey knew that if he had not been allowed to try and find the woman he loved, even weak as he was, he would never have forgiven them…or himself.
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Donna looked up as a dark figure emerged from Dick's room. Joey signed quickly that he was going to town in one of the Titans' boats and would be back shortly. His curly blond hair glistened in the muted light of the hallway as he pulled his cloak tight and headed toward the door.
Something didn't seem quite right, but just as he waved goodbye and she thought to open her mouth to protest, a cold electricity filled the air as smoke began to fill the room.
Raven had returned.
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Once in the Titan's boat and headed out into channel that separated their island
headquarters from the mainland, 'Joe Wilson' removed his blond hair, revealing a pale white face crowned with thick locks black as a crow's feathers. Dick Grayson shed his temporary disguise and as he turned his attention to steering, another figure emerged from his own, quickly solidifying into his silent friend.
"Thanks, Joey."
Joe Wilson's hand found his shoulder and squeezed, wrinkling the royal blue fabric of the cloak he had lent him. "I give it ten minutes," he signed, his usually cheerful face sober.
"Give what ten minutes?"
Joe only stared.
Dick swallowed. "Right. Donna. Then we have to hurry." As he laid on the speed, making the distant shore loom suddenly closer, he grinned, "I owe you one, friend."
The mute's face remained somber. "You owe it to me to stay alive," he signed.
"Please, don't take any chances."
Dick placed his hand over the other man's. "I won't."
Gazing at the dark buildings that loomed before them as they drew into the harbor, Nightwing frowned.
Normally, he didn't lie.
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Koriand'r had meant to go to the her apartment in town, but realized almost too late that that was the first place her friends would look. She hadn't really known whereto go, and curiously enough, found herself many miles away in Gotham.
It was an ugly place. As dark as Tamaran had been light. The buildings were often
windowless, and most crawled with grotesques that sneered and leered at her as she flew past, as though they held some personal grudge. And despite the late hour and the fading light, she could have almost sworn one of them had moved, marking her progress as she passed, but she knew that was foolishness. Glancing back at it, it had simply been a piece of stone, lifeless, without a soul or heart.
Like it's protector.
Now she stood outside Wayne Manor unsure of her path. She had no friends other than the Titans on this planet, no parents or grandparents to turn to. But once, just once, she had met this old man who loved Dick as much as she did, and in desperation she had headed here…to Alfred – as though he would know what to do. Still, even if he offered her no help, someone had to make Dick understand her decision. If any one could it would be the man who had cared for him, who had healed his wounds and held his hand when he hurt. Her own golden hand was poised to strike the generously carved mahogany door, but she hesitated.
What if he was here? What if Bruce Wayne opened the door?
Stymied, she left the entrance to Wayne Manor behind and sought it's darker twin, knowing
that - if the car was gone – she would most likely find Alfred alone.
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Dick and Joey stepped onto the warped boards of the dock and hesitated.
"Now what?" Joey signed.
Dick Grayson, now dressed as Nightwing, grinned sheepishly. "If you ever tell
her, Joe, I swear I'll take turpentine to your paintings."
Joe Wilson, now Jericho, allowed his eyebrows to reach his curly blond bangs.
"Tell?" his hand echoed.
"The last time I lost …track of Kory, I placed a small bat-transmitter in the
collar of her costume. All I have to do is turn on this device…." He palmed a small square box that blinked into life at the touch of his finger-tip and, as Joe watched a tiny blip lit up the screen and numbers scrolled by, revealing latitude and longitude.
Nightwing's eyes went wide as Joe signed, asking, " What's wrong?"
"What is she doing there?"
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Koriand'r drew a sigh of relief. The Batmobile, as the newspapers had dubbed it, was gone. Its' berth was empty, though the scent of spent fuel still touched the air. She hadn't missed him by much. Wary of intruder devices, she entered the cave the way Dick had shown her the last time they had come here to retrieve some device or other he had needed to solve a case. She didn't know to this day if he had told his 'partner' she had been here. It hardly mattered. She had no intention whatsoever of exchanging words with that block of ice.
"Princess."
The unexpected voice chilled her as she spun to find the Batman minus his mask standing to her left, his sharp features harshly illuminated by the light generated by the giant computer screen that filled the wall behind him. As she stared he deliberately drew the cowl over his head, as though retreating behind its power.
Her own head high, she returned the greeting. "Bruce."
His jaw tightened. "You do realize you are trespassing."
"You do realize you are rude."
The dark knight shifted some papers he held from one hand to the other and then turned towards the computer. "Is Dick with you?"
That surprised her. From this one, it was almost an admission of feeling. She hesitated and then answered truthfully. "No."
He paused ever so slightly, and then resumed his course. How about that? She had taken the mighty Batman by surprise. Before he could ask, she supplied the answer to his next question, "I'm here to see Alfred. Is he here?"
The Batman turned and pinned her with an unwavering gaze. A second later he echoed her abrupt reply. "No."
"Why are you here…?" she blurted out, and then thought better of it. It was his home, his…cave. "I mean, the car…."
He glanced toward the rotating circle that normally housed the jet-black machine. "It's in for repairs." He laughed. A short harsh sound. "So is Alfred."
"What?" Koriand'r was appalled. "What…?" .
"He's at the doctor." When he saw her start, he raised a gloved hand. "Not to
worry. Routine. Even classics need to be fine-tuned now and then." Laying the papers down, he leaned against the edge of the computer and finished, "Now if that's all… You apparently know the way out."
She turned to go, but all of the pent up emotion and anguish she had endured for the last few days seemed to be ignited by this man's emotionless demeanor. He had no concern for Dick. Why, he hadn't even asked why he wasn't with her! Trembling, she felt her star-power rising in her blood, but she held it back, words exploding from her instead,
"I can not understand how someone as wonderful as Dick can abide your heartless arrogance. Aren't you going to ask? Don't you even care why he isn't here? For all you know, he could bedead!"
The dark knight shifted his hip and favored her with a cold smile. "If it had been important, you would have told me. And if he was dead, you wouldn't have taken the time to stand here exchanging insults with me." Implicit in his words was the fact that she was a silly, irrational uncontrollable creature that he could read like a book.
Fury boiled up in her. X'Hal, he was a bastard. "That shows what you know."
Unbelievably, she saw a flicker of doubt cross his face. He stiffened. "What
are you saying?" Each word had a weight of its own. "Is Dick all right?"
Now you've done it, Kory. She took an unconscious step back "He is…now," she
squeaked.
Now he was standing. Advancing towards her. "What do you mean…now?" The white slits that were his eyes narrowed, and she was strongly reminded of a maternal beast sensing a threat to its young. He stopped face to face with her. They were of a height. He would accept nothing less than the truth.
"He was hurt," she stammered, lowering her eyes. "I.…I hurt him. I've been
having dreams, they confused me…. I didn't know what was real and what wasn't. I …That's why I wanted to talk to Alfred." Suddenly she sounded like a little girl very far from home. "I don't want to do it again. That's why I'm leaving."
"Leaving," he echoed.
"Going away," she whispered. "I can't stay here, I might –"
"Leaving," the cold voice repeated, seemingly without mercy, "or running away?"
Her head whipped up, seeking eyes that were masked, "What? What did you say?"
"Are you a warrior or a child?," he countered, "Dick's alive…." It wasn't stated as the question she knew it was.
"Yes."
"He's strong. He'll survive. But you? Are you a fit mate for him? Little girl lost. Child of royalty. Spoiled and insecure."
"W-what?" She tried to move away but he had her arms, and he was remarkably strong. Stronger than she had expected. "What?"
"I've watched you. Golden child. All fire and fury. You've bewitched him. Taken from him everything I ever taught him about reason and cold clean logic. Even if you didn't kill him with your undisciplined powers, you've destroyed everything he was meant to be." His voice, low and raspy, had risen in volume as he spoke, and his fingers seemed to press into her flesh, tearing and scratching, as though the gloves he wore had jagged nails or claws.
"Let me go. You have no right!" she protested meekly.
"I have no right! You, with your wild emotions…. You almost killed my ward. You could have crippled him, left him worse than dead, and you have the nerve, the audacity to accuse me. You are worse than nothing. You are evil. Alien. How could he love you? You're not even humani!"
Koriand'r was shocked. Her heart pounded furiously as she struggled within his
grasp. He couldn't be more powerful than she. He couldn't! And yet he was.
Lashing out with her starbolts, she blasted the dark figure in front of her, reducing him to ash.
"Kory. God, Kory! What have you done ?!"
Kory whirled. Behind her, the man she loved cried in agony, horror etched into every one of his handsome features. He pushed past her and knelt to run his gloved fingers through the pile of ash that had been his mentor and his friend.
"He was like a father to me, Kory. I loved him. Dear God, what have you done…?"
Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran – warrior, Titan – sank to her knees, numb.
What had she done?
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Though Koriand'r thought she knelt in the Batcave listening to her lover sob, in reality her slender form huddled on a darkened hillside not far from Wayne Manor. After leaving the Titan's Tower she had been compelled to come to this spot , and soon after her arrival had been tricked into thinking she had entered the house for a final confrontation with Nightwing's guardian.
In truth, she had journeyed no farther than the field where her feet had first struck the earth, and so she lay, curled in a ball, undone by an enemy she could not see or feel or strike.
Above her head a wizened creature laughed.
Let him come.