Disclaimer: I don't own anything affiliated with Disney, including the book mentioned (because it's real, in fact) or the princesses. I also don't own National Geographic, sadly.
I'll be selfish and dedicate this chapter to myself, since it's my birthday! Go me for living seventeen years!
It was a cold day in Boston; a day where the trees shivered under the weight of their frozen branches and people walked with their heads down, glaring at the cold sidewalks below. If there were birds in the sky, no one would know. Then again, no one was looking to the sky that day.
In the confines of a small Muslim mosque on the outskirts of the bustling city, the family and friends of Cahaya Moh congregated on the amber-colored carpeting. Sarah, Kory, Rachel, Garfield, and Victor sat a few rows from the front, each shifting uncomfortably from the cold drop in temperature.
As the imam rambled on about the young woman's life, Kory kept her eyes on the mahogany casket, closed due to the severe injuries.
"That's her sister, Aini," Sarah was busying herself by sprouting facts and not allowing the imam's words to soak in. One of her best friends was gone, taken away in the name of a psychopath. Sarah didn't want to hear the "Cahaya was" or "she did" such and such. Why couldn't she still be these things?
Kory nodded whenever Sarah stopped talking, feigning interest, but truly paid attention to the candlelight casting shadows around the room. She recalled the last time she had attended a funeral. Inside the coffins, however, were merely photos and letters from the loved ones, blessings and remember when's. Due to the tragic situation, there were no bodies found, so instead the people buried the memories. Kory tried to bury them, but sometimes, she caught sight of a little boy and his mother, walking along the street and the memories would resurface like a ghost from the grave.
Never be afraid, malareal'ta. There is no such thing as ghosts. The candlelight danced again as the imam's robes kicked up a small gust of wind. Only lost souls, circling where their feelings are strongest. To be afraid of them is to bring them shame. We must let them circle this world for as long as they need, until they pass through.
And if they never do? She could feel her mother's lips, pressing against her forehead, and the cool air invading and replacing the warmth.
Do not fret. We all pass on when the time comes.
"We must say goodbye now." An unfamiliar feminine voice spoke, awaking Kory's reverie. A lovely Indonesian woman with tears in her dark brown eyes motioned for the row to rise and bid farewell to her sister.
"Aini, I know how hard it must be to lose a sibling," Kory encased the woman into her arms, "I am truly sorry for your loss." Unable to speak, Aini nodded and hurried to summon the next row. Reaching the coffin, Sarah wrapped her body around it and kissed the top, whispering softly to the wood that hid her best friend. The others moved along politely, shaking the hands of Cahaya's brother and sister-in-law, before exiting the mosque. The five stood to the side with the other attendees, watching solemnly as the pallbearers began making their way to the burial site, just over the snow-covered hill next to the mosque. A line of men filed behind the coffin, marching like black-clothed soldiers.
"Why can't we see the burial?" Victor whispered into Sarah's ear as some of the men disappeared over the snowy knoll, ahead of the pallbearers.
"You can, hun. Only women aren't supposed to witness or attend a Muslim burial, so we have to stay behind."
"Yes," Aini sniffled from Sarah's side, "We women shall stay here and pray to Allah that my sister has found peace." Instead of hurrying after the train, Victor and Garfield stayed behind and watched with the rest as fat snowflakes floated onto their clothes. Rachel, who had been ordinarily quiet during the whole ordeal, spoke as the pallbearers were swallowed by the overcast horizon,
"Aren't we all?"
"All what?" She smiled sadly to her boyfriend.
"Left behind." At first no one moved, but after a moment, Kory broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Perhaps we are not stranded." A bone-chilling gust blew by, scattering Kory's red hair into single bloody ribbons. "We are merely waiting in line for our turn."
\/
Several days after Kory returned to Gotham, the couple met at a local café for lunch before Dick went back to work.
"How was the funeral?"
"Depressing," She eyed him strangely, "That is how American funerals are… correct?" He laughed at her confusion towards the question.
"Did anyone stand up and demand a paternity test?" Her green eyes widened. He laughed harder.
"No! Why would that occur?"
"I always feel like that's what Bruce's funeral will be like." Since he expected the solid punch to the arm, it didn't hurt as much as it could have.
"Richard! You are a terrible person!"
"Aww, I can't be that bad."
"You are, I swear."
"And you're dating me because…?" His girlfriend feigned innocence and wrinkled her nose.
"You quite pleasing to look at."
"And?" Her nose wrinkled again.
"…I should have another reason?" While she didn't want to break the lighthearted flirting, Kory needed to turn the conversation to something a bit more serious. "It did hurt, though."
"Hmm?" She pretended to be increasingly interested in the pasta dish below her. When she didn't speak, his hand found hers and without realizing the fingers laced together. "What happened, Kory?" The situation called for a deep, soothing breath to calm the nerves jumbling about in her stomach, but she didn't answer the call. As soon as she opened her mouth, all of it came spilling out.
"Cahaya's funeral reminded me of my family's funeral." She didn't dare raise her eyes to see his reaction. What if they told her everything she needed to know? That he wasn't ready for what she needed to tell him, that he wasn't-
"Tell me." Gaining enough courage, her teary eyes locked onto his and she exhaled slowly. Somehow, someway, he knew. Maybe not what had happened per say, but he knew the pain she was holding inside. You lose the one of the most important things in the world to you and you learn how to find that same feeling inside other people. She felt the same thing when she met Cahaya many weeks ago.
"When I was sixteen, my sister decided that we needed to travel. She said it was something I needed to do before I went to college and that by the next year, I would be too worried about admissions to go anywhere." Kory bit her lip and glanced down at her plate. Dick squeezed her hand again, though, and their eyes locked again. Go on, his fingers tightened around hers, tell me. "I grew up on the island country of Tamaran- it is located in the Caribbean."
"Explains some things." Dick grinned and she nodded in agreement.
"Yes, even when I came here, I couldn't let go of the culture- never mind. That is not important. What truly matters is that when I went with Kom, we had no idea our country was in great danger. While we were away visiting relatives on a smaller island called Okara, the main volcano on our island- named Gordania after the Tamaranian word for 'beast'- erupted."
Kory couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and when she closed them, she could see the wreckage inside her mind. The clips and sounds that haunted her dreams for so long were coming back in the rush of a tidal wave, drowning her in memories that she was supposed to bury with her family. "The eastern side of the island was completely destroyed, nothing but a mangled mess of scorching trees and burning homes. The ship that dropped us off had a hard time maneuvering through the water due to the smoke covering everything like a thick blanket, so Kom and I were forced to wait until the ship reached the western side.
After we found out we were homeless, that nothing was left of the palace, we stayed with my father's friend Galfore for a month or so, desperately waiting for word that our family was okay. We'd just said goodbye to them only a few weeks prior, there was no way they could be dead, seared by Gordania."
"Wait, Kory- did you say the palace?" Her head nodded weakly.
"Yes. That is where my sister, my brother, and I lived with our father and mother, the Grand Ruler and Grand Empress of Tamaran."
"So… you're a princess?" Dick watched with a heavy heart as his girlfriend nodded again.
"I used to be, yes. After spending several weeks in the west, we decided to disobey Galfore, and the two of us made our way to the east.
The palace was completely burned, with only bits and pieces of columns or marble left. The lava had wiped out every treasure we held dear, including our parents and little brother, Ryan. Knowing that nothing could be done- that we were not old enough to rule an entire country- Kom dealt with all of the paperwork to bring Galfore's family to reign. After six months on the island, we were itching to get off. What was the point in staying if those that you loved were not there? Galfore eventually erected another palace, but it was missing what made a house a home."
"I can't believe- wow, Kory," Dick tightened his grip around her, sliding his hands up her arms and around her shoulders, pulling her towards him over the table, "I'm sorry you had to go through that. I… I don't know if there's anything I can say…. In fact, I don't know what to say."
Kory smiled, her chest thumping painfully as she continued, "Thank you, Richard. You have no idea how good it feels to relieve that weight off of my chest. I was worried that you might think badly of me, that I abandoned my country and ran away."
"Kory, you didn't abandon your country. You were right: you were too young to have so many responsibilities. To stay there would have brought you more heartache." He suddenly realized he was speaking for two people instead of one, "To stay would have reminded you of them every single day and sometimes, it's best to step away from the spotlight." Kory brightened in front of him, lighting up the immediate area as her green eyes glowed.
"My mother, Aisling, always told me- her malareal'ta or little star- to never be afraid of the unknown, but in that moment Kom and I boarded the plane for America… I couldn't bring myself to feel brave. I had too many questions and Kom was beginning to feel agitated at my nervous state. She has always been the… better fighter, you might say, the braver one and she didn't see any reason for my distress.
Soon after we arrived, she bought a modest apartment on the coast of Maine, and once I finished high school there, I moved down to attend Syracuse University in New York, which is where I met my friend Rachel, whose boyfriend is the veterinarian you met. After I began working on my Master's degree in Commercial Photography, my sister contacted me and begged me to come to Gotham after I graduated. Even though I wasn't sure if we could return to the way things were before we split apart, she helped me find an apartment and introduced me to one of her clients, who offered me a job at the gym."
"Photography? But… you're a yoga instructor."
"Richard, just because I have a job as an instructor doesn't mean that is my passion. Although now I can say I'm glad I took the job because I met you, it's not what I plan on doing for the rest of my life." She twirled the straw in her drink around, stirring up the ice and letting it clink softly against the glass, "I am waiting for National Geographic to contact me in response to my portfolio they requested several weeks ago."
"Can I see some of your photos?" Kory chuckled lightly at his excitement.
"You already have. The ones hanging in my apartment and the photographs in the lobby of the gym are all mine. When my boss found a folder I'd accidentally left behind in the break room, she paid to have them blown up and framed." Dick's eyes glazed over for a moment and she knew he was trying to remember the interior of the lobby. Realization blossomed across his face and he flashed the all-too familiar Grayson smile.
"Those are yours? Kory, they're amazing! I always thought… well, I didn't really think about who took them so much as how they took them." He could see the inspirational-themed photographs in his mind, his favorite being the up-close picture of the black panther at the Gotham Zoo, only the cat's amber orbs staring deeply into the lens. Focus was the title of the picture and for it being his favorite, Dick gazed at it each time he entered.
"Thank you. I'm glad you enjoy the photos." For a moment, both of them were silent, and the straw circled the sweet tea again. "I'm not trying to pry, but… it seems that you have a story as well." Dick jolted, his blood running cold.
"Why would you think that?"
"Your eyes." Her voice leaked the sympathy he had shown her earlier. He didn't want to hear the tone from her, though. "I'm fairly sure the saying is used in American culture as well, but my mother used to tell me that the eyes were the windows to the soul. Yours are no different." He didn't talk about it. In fact, he never talked about it, something he had made clear when he'd started in the police academy, when the others explained why they wanted to be an officer. After several "I was robbed" and "my brother's a druggie and I don't want anyone else to hurt the way I did," there didn't seem to be any room for a sob-story of "my parents and I were amazing acrobats and I watched a madman murder them right in front of me." So when his time came, he threw in the towel. He claimed that Bruce had forced him into it, to which everyone laughed and slapped him on the back, and he smiled his Dick Grayson smile, the one that showed he didn't have a care in the world and thought the academy was as easy as riding a bicycle.
"I… it's… complicated." This is where Barbara had drawn the line. If you don't have the decency to let me know who you really are, how am I ever going to trust you, Dick? It was always Dick, never Richard with her. If we don't have trust, we don't have anything. Then he'd agreed with her and she'd walked out because she wanted him to be someone who would fight for her. And he couldn't, he wouldn't fight for someone that didn't respect his need for some privacy. If she had respected him for once, he would have told her. Demanding and backing him into the corner wasn't respect.
"Richard, if you do not want to, it's all right. The only reason I told you my story was because too many things weren't making any sense to me. I felt the need to tell you."
"I promise I will tell you, Kory," He kissed her deeply and ran a hand through her crimson hair he adored so much, that he knew was merely a single part of this woman he… adored, "Have you been back?"
"No. I- I cannot." For the entire conversation, she had been able to withhold her tears, but with the soft sunlight coming in through the windows and the man in front of her kissing her soundly, she couldn't contain them any longer.
"Maybe one day we can go together. I'd love to see the island." His thumb wiped the tears from her eyes before they ever fell.
"You have never been?"
"Nope." He smiled mischievously as the last of her tears were dried away, "But I hear the women are pretty hot." She punched him again in the same spot, clicking her tongue.
"I would very much like to take you, but you must keep your eyes to yourself."
"My eyes are only on one thing, Kor, trust me." He watched as the sparkle fitted itself back into her irises, settling there like it had never been washed away by the current.
"I do, Richard." A moment passed, comfortingly this time, until Dick swallowed his lunch down and spoke again.
"Kory, I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to the annual Christmas party for the department. It's this Saturday at Wayne Manor." The gorgeous redhead graced him with one of her breathtaking smiles.
"I would love to."
\/
"Hey, stranger, long time no see," Rachel greeted as the redhead entered Nevermore Bookstore, a pair of ravens perched on the sign outside. Inside, though, the bookstore was crowded with teenagers and middle-aged women, all clinging to black hardback books.
"I apologize, friend. I've been so busy with Richard and-"
"So it's Richard now, is it?" Rachel smirked as Kory blushed, "Why the change?" She watched smugly as her friend twirled a finger in the red curls encased in a messy chignon.
"Yes. Calling him Dick sounds too harsh on the tongue. Richard has an almost… royal sound to it." Rachel refrained from mentioning there was a King Richard- several, in fact- but bit her lip and rang up another overzealous customer. "Please, why are there so many here? Are you having a sale?"
"Nah. It's the release of those vampire romance novels. If they ask you which team you're on, back away slowly." Kory eyed the people like one would a hungry mountain lion.
"Okay." As more of them flooded the counter to make their purchase, the Tamaranian moved to the back of the bookstore to escape the rush. While sauntering through the aisles, a particularly large purple book caught her attention. Interest piqued by the lovely color, Kory pulled the book from its place and momentarily glanced at the six or so princesses adorning the cover before hurriedly flipping to the title page.
"Disney Princess: Happily Ever After Stories. Includes excerpts and illustrations from seven feature-length Walt Disney cartoons: Cinderella, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." She gasped loudly and nearly dropped the storybook when a hand came to her shoulder.
"Whoa." Rachel muttered unenthusiastically, "You okay?"
"Perhaps." Kory squeaked and closed the book, fingering the hard edges.
"Having a Disney fetish?"
"No, no. I am wondering, however, if I could purchase this book to show Richard?"
"Do you think it has something to do with the murders?"
"How did you-"
"Listen, Kory, I may be dating Gar but that doesn't mean his stupidity is leeching all the common sense out of me," A small smile appeared on the dark-haired beauty, "Let's just say I'm psychic. Besides, I know you're not buying it to read him bedtime stories." They both headed to the front of the store. When their eyes caught the impending line of addicts, Rachel grabbed the book out of Kory's hands and ripped the price sticker off. "Looks like we're having an enormous clearance on fairytales."
"Rachel, I can't! You must allow me to pay for this." The half-smile faded from sight as Rachel sobered.
"If it helps you solve those murders and catch the killer somehow, there shouldn't be a price on an item like that." The raven-haired woman turned to glance at the growing number of customers. "Take it." Kory glowed with adoration and wrapped her arms around her reserved friend.
"Oh, thank you!"
"Yeah, yeah. Now find Dick and show him that book."
\/
Abstract paintings lined the walls. Soft indie music bubbled out of the speakers. Comfy modern chairs formed a single, straight line. Feels like those two years of therapy Bruce forced me to take, Dick muttered to himself as his hands clenched the arms of the chair he was seated in. Suddenly, a door to his right opened and a black-haired Tamaranian peeked out.
"Ahh, the elusive Mr. Grayson," Komille held out her hand for a shake, "We meet again."
"Hello, Miss Anders." He followed her into her office, which was surprisingly covered in heavy European-style furniture and lined with crown molding, a shocking change from the bright lights and stark white theme of the rest of the store.
"Please, call me Kom. And it won't be Miss Anders for long." She flashed a shiny engagement ring at the detective.
"Who's the lucky man?"
"His name is Seth. Apparently, you two know each other too because when Kory, he, and I went out to eat the other night, he recognized your name." Dick's eyes widened into crystal blue saucers as Kom continued smirking.
"Seth Gordon? You managed to tie him down?" Dr. Gordon, the department's resident criminal psychologist, was infamously famous for being just as bad as Bruce. Dick recalled a bet a few years ago involving how many women Gordon could date in a single week. The homicide unit had lost due to him rounding in four more ladies than the fifteen they betted.
"Oh, yes, I've tied him down. Many times, in fact." The detective shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Congratulations."
"Thank you." Kom purred, leaning back in her black leather chair and running her piercing dark blue, almost violet eyes over the man opposite her. "If you break her heart, I will not hesitate to sever your body into pieces and dump each one in a different location so no one can piece you back together for the funeral." Dick withheld a laugh at Kory's sister and her dark personality, in contrast to Kory's bubbly one.
"I'll start hacking off my arm the moment I do." Kom regarded him silently for another moment.
"And you're nothing like your father, besides the attractive aspect?" Of course Bruce's playboy ways would get him into trouble, even at this age. Dick resisted rolling his eyes.
"Trust me. We're nothing alike."
"Good. After what happened with her last fling, it's been hard on Kory to find someone that she can trust. And kudos to you arresting his ass."
"What happened with Wes?"
"Overbearing self-absorbed asshole is what he was, to put it bluntly. She moved to Gotham and he pined after her like some sick puppy and practically stalked her. When she wouldn't give it up to him after they started dating, he told her he was going to kill himself is she didn't 'prove her love to him,'" Kom shook her head in disgust as Dick reminded himself that if he shot a seemingly innocent person, he would be fired and Kory would most likely hate him forever, "Luckily, she had spent enough time in this society to understand what he was doing wasn't out of love but out of selfishness. She severed ties with him and every now and then, he'll pop into town and claim he still has feelings for her. If you ask me, he's a straight creeper and he needs to move on."
Before Dick could comment on this topic, the door to the office burst open and in popped his girlfriend, wide-eyed and concerned with a large purple book in her hands. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Kom quipped comically and then realized the waves of anxiety pouring off her sister, "What's wrong, sweetie?" She removed her heels from the desk and moved across the room to console her sibling.
"Kory?" Dick stood along with Kom and placed a hand on the book.
"I've found the pattern, Richard."
Kom's gaze flickered between the couple as they glanced uncertainly down at the cover of the storybook her sister was holding. "Pattern? What pattern?"
"The pattern of the killer." Kory swallowed and tried to calm her shaking hands.
"I know who he's going after next."
AN: And now the games begin. Interestingly enough, the minute I started typing the last part, it started thunder storming and a lightning strike pierced the sky. (In an ominous, 90's-style horror voice): the storm of chaos is just beginning. Mwahaha- okay, I'll stop.
My apologies if the Muslim aspect isn't correct. If anything is off, please don't hesitate to PM and correct me. Hopefully, Google hasn't failed me this time.
Tamaran is where Puerto Rico is located, because that's what I kept imagining when I wrote this. Okara is a substitute for Barbados.
I know that Starfire's parents owned the titles of King and Queen, but Grand Ruler and Grand Empress sounded so much better to me. Admit it; Empress is more kick-ass than Queen!
Aisling, pronounced Ash-ling, is the name given to a popular poetic genre from the 17th and 18th centuries and is personified as a beautiful woman in peril. Need I say more?
Chapter Seven: "My Skin" by Natalie Merchant / "The Guardian Suite" by Trevor Rabin