Wandering Worlds

Chapter Two – When I never have to wake

Koriand'r hands shook as she held them over Dick's face.

Her chapped lips moved in their own accord as she prayed for X'hal receive him in her glory, yet she wished she could pretend he was just asleep, but the waxy complexion of his skin wouldn't let her illusion hold verisimilitude. Oh X'hal, why should her life be like that? Why so much sorrow and loss? Why drag her so far from home to meet him to just lose him like that? She was so tired. Kory wished she could just lay by his side and sleep for a thousand years.

A sob broke the silence and she turned to her side, Rachel. The corner of Kory's lip trembled, unwilling, but she managed a weak smile, holding her arm at the girl's direction. Rachel let another choking sob, and ran towards Kory, her face crashing against the elder woman's breast, arms locking around her waist, as if she was shipwreck sailor and Kory's the rock of salvation. Kory's hand fell on the girl's hair, and then, she bowed her own head, taking a deep breath. Her other arm joined the embrace, pulling Rachel close. She'd never, ever let her go for so long again.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine" Rachel answered with a barged voice, that won another sad smile from Kory, she pushed a few stray hairs behind the girl's ear, happy to have the mercy of having her close to touch again.

"Is your fa-?"

"Trigon is still trapped," Rachel snaked her arm between the two of them to touch her own forehead. "Nothing here" she tapped the red jewel "seems to have changed."

Kory frowned, they all had seeing Rachel lose control, and Kory herself had nasty wounds as souvenir.

"What you mean?"

"I don't know. Nothing seems different, but my powers… I don't know why they worked that way then, but won't now. Kory, I tried so hard, I can't bring him bac-" the calm Rachel had managed to have that little conversation abandoned her as that last sentence ended with a desperate wail of despair and grief so powerful that seemed to physically drag Kory with it. Kory pulled Rachel back into a bear embrace, cursing the universe under her breath for putting that child under so much.

But their moment was broken by Gar's voice shouting Kory's name.

Rachel's arms fell, and Kory gave her a last check before abandoning the girl's fearful gaze to attend to Garfield.

To her relief and apprehension, no apocalypse seemed to found its way there. Just the upsetting scene of the stranger screaming and fighting like an animal to be unbound from his bed. A disgusting thought passed through Kory's mind as she stood before his dirty, fetid spectacle, how was possible that her Dick was dead, and that mockery of the man who in such a short time had become everything to her, was alive? Something had to be really wrong with the universe to make that possible.

"Yes?" Her question broke through the madness, contempt dripping from her voice.

He stopped. Silence fell on that corner of the infirmary, followed only by the rattling from the chained man's movement.

He took a few breaths, still silent, Kory clenched her jaw, impatient, repulsed.

"Can you please unbound me?" he asked, his voice gruff but unmistakable.

Kory blinked, incredulous, she rotated the ring on her middle finger. His eyes followed her movements, and X'hal, was that a tear making a path on his dirty face?

"You attacked our friend," she explained in a kinder voice, she felt something that was close to guilt but there was so many layers of anger and grief, she couldn't tell.

"Yes," he swallowed, "I'm sorry. I thought she was about to release Trigon."

"What the hell, man!" she heard Gar exclaim, but Kory didn't take her eyes from the stranger.

"Gar, go see if Donna and Conner need something."

"I'm not letting you alone with him!" He protested.

Kory sighed, and turned to the boy, he had a broken arm and just like everyone in their house, looked like shit. She pulled him close by the nape of his neck and kissed the top of his head.

"Please, take Rachel upstairs, you've missed each other. I'll meet you in a bit."

"But Kory-"

"He can't hurt me, please, Gar?"

He pulled the corner of his lips down a few times as if he was about to protest again, visibly unhappy, but finally sighed, nodding, and then turned, giving the stranger a last dirty look before leaving.

Finally alone with the stranger, Kory licked her teeth before putting her hands on her hips.

"Who the hell are you?"

He clenched his eyes at her, pulling his chains again, the rattling noise making her headache unbearably worse.

"I'm Dick Grayson."

"Yeah, right," she answered sardonically.

"I don't know what you want me to say."

"I want you to tell me the truth instead of pretending to be a man whose dead body, you know, is in the bed behind me."

"I'm not pretending anything. You saw me coming from that portal."

Kory rose one of her eyebrows to that.

"Where are you from, then? The future? The past?"

"I don't know."

"How did you get here? And why?"

"I don't know!" He snapped.

She stepped back, biting her lip.

"I… I can't deal with this bullshit right now."

Kory ignored his protests and walked away, stopping only to steal a last glance to the body on the neighbour bed, his hands crossed over his inert chest. She clenched her teeth and eyes, straightened her back and kept walking. Donna was at the door. X'hal, she had never even embraced her friend in the heat of the madness their lives had become. Kory had a million of questions, so much she wanted to say to Donna, but now, she was exhausted.

"Hey," Donna greeted her. "How you're feeling?"

Kory let out something that could be a chuckle or a sob, covering her eyes with the heels of her hands for a moment. Donna awkwardly patted Kory's shoulder and that made Kory, laugh, now for real. She rose her head, meeting her friend's concerned gaze.

"I'm sorry," Kory sniffled.

"For what?"

"You just came from the dead and we didn't give you the best reception."

Donna snorted.

"Oh, that's an understatement. You guys are the absolute worst at welcome parties," that got from Kory another teary laugh and Donna's expression softened. "Off you go, princess. We'll talk later. Now I want to have a little chat with my fellow zombie there."

Kory winced.

"Do you think it's really-" Kory stopped herself, clenching her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms. "He's all yours."

As she walked through the Manor's corridor aimlessly, Kory knew she had to check on the kids. They needed her more than ever but she felt so empty she didn't think she'd be any good to them. There was nothing else left for her to give. Her legs took her to a familiar door, her vision already blurring by the tears as her hand twisted the doorknob.

His smell was everywhere. Kory tried to breath it in, trap it inside her ribcage, fill the void inside her with the air he had once breathed, trap inside her body something of his that couldn't be taken away, but a powerful sob made her choke. Her legs wobbled towards the bed, and Kory let her body fall sitting on the mattress like a pile of rocks.

She looked around, as if she could find him behind the shadows of the curtains, or under the frame of his family's circus show. They never shared this bed, she thought, caressing a pillow with reverence. She pulled the soft object to her chest, pressing her face into it, thinking about their first night in that dingy motel. The way he had looked at her then, the way he felt under her skin, their chests against each other's, hearts beating together, they would never again. Her body tipped to the side and she curled against the pillow as the memories of that morning after the asylum flooded her brain. She'd never wake up beside him again, she'd never find comfort and belonging in his embrace.

And the kids… What would she do with them and herself without him by her side?

They've wasted so much of the short time they had together and for what?

But there was no way to turn back time.

Kory woke up startled, and it took her a while to assure herself that she was safe. It was dark, but even under the penumbra, she recognized the red and golden tones of Dick's old room. She felt warm, warmer than all the nights she spent in that city forgotten by the sun, the stillness of the room was perturbed for more than the now decreasing beats of her own heart, but also by the steady cadence of two separate breaths. And, without mistake, when she patted around herself, she found the sleeping forms of Gar and Rachel curled on Dick's bed with her like kittens.

She lied in place for a while, trying to will her body to fall back into sleep, but after a while it became obvious that's not happening. Worried that her toss and turning could wake up the children, Kory removed herself form the bed carefully and left the room.

Her plan was straightforward and simple. Go downstairs, raid the liquor cabinet and get shitfaced enough she'd sleep for at least a decade, but, as she entered Bruce Wayne's drawing room seemed someone else had the same idea.

Oh nooo it's a cliff-hanger XDD

So, what do you think will happen next? And what are your impressions regarding Kory's reactions? Can't wait to find out! See you soon!