Brave New World: Batwoman

Chapter 2

"I wish I could convince you to stay." Safiyah said to Kate as they walked along the beaches of Coryana for the last time.

"You know a part of me wants to, but I think we both know that I was never going to stay here forever. Coryana is your home Safiyah, not mine. And my home, my family, I've been away from them for too long. Plus, there are questions that need answering and I can't find those answers here." Kate said.

"And there is the fact that you love another more than you love me." Safiyah said and Kate sighed.

"You know I never lied about how I felt about you. My time with you was the only good thing that came out of my crash and being cut off from society." Kate said.

"But you love the girl who broke your heart more than you love me." Safiyah said.

"I can't choose who I love. Believe me, I wish I could, but because then I'd be able to move on from Sophie, but I can't. And our time together has shown me that I can forgive her for what she did. You've shown me a lot of things about myself that I never even considered before I came here and I'll always be grateful to you for that." Kate said and Safiyah nodded.

"I know. Gotham needs Kate Kane far more than Coryana does. However, consider this a parting gift and a reminder that should you change your mind, you'll always have a place waiting for you here." Safiyah said as she handed Kate a small box and Kate was surprised at what she found inside.

"Is this?" Kate asked.

"A single desert rose." Safiyah confirmed.

"I thought the first rule of this island was that no one was allowed to take a desert rose off the island." Kate said.

"Well, one of the perks of being Queen is that I can make exceptions when I'm feeling generous and I consider this such a circumstance. Just remember, keep this to yourself. This is only enough for one dose of the serum and you know that I don't do mail orders." Safiyah said.

"That's fine, hopefully I won't even need this single dose." Kate said, though she also knew that she'd likely need Mary to run a transfusion of her blood to extract any remaining Desert Rose serum in her blood, since even though it had been five years, she was sure that there were still some residual traces of the serum in her veins.

"Can never be too careful." Safiyah said as Kate closed the box.

"I promise, I'll keep this and Coryana's existence a secret, as long as you don't give me a reason to reveal it to the world." Kate said and Safiyah nodded.

Jacob Kane was currently sitting in his office at Crows HQ, nursing a drink and preparing for the ceremony to shut off the bat light tomorrow night when his phone rang and he saw that it was an unknown number.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Jacob asked gruffly, only to drop his drink when he heard the voice on the other end of the call.

"Dad, it's me, it's Kate." Kate's voice said and since Jacob refused to allow himself to feel the hope that this was real, he felt nothing but anger.

"I don't know who you are, but you have some nerve making a prank call like this. You hang up right now before I trace this call and put you in the ground." Jacob said as he prepared to hang up.

"No dad, it's really me. It's Kate." Kate insisted, not at all surprised by how her father was reacting.

"Tell me something only Kate would know." Jacob said, allowing just a tiny glimmer of hope to enter his heart.

"I still have the ruby necklace mom gave me at my bat mitzvah. The ruby is my birthstone." Kate said and now Jacob was glad he was already sitting down, because he knew that his legs would give out, since only Kate could know that.