What You Should Have Been
Summary: A political marriage Starfire can't back out of causes her end her relationship with Nightwing. She departs for Tamaran and he's devastated, but an unknown secret of his heritage rears its ugly head, causing him to draw closer to a dear friend. Nightwing/Raven.
Author's Note: I primarily ship Robin/Starfire and Beast Boy/Raven. I wanted to write this because I'm sick of people making Robin, Raven and Stafire out of character just so they can pair up Robin and Raven. And people break up Rob/Star for stupid reasons, and none of the Rob/Rae stories ever have anything in their summaries that compels me to read them. I'm writing this story as something I would want to read if I wanted to read this pairing. If you like Robin/Starfire and Beast Boy/Raven feel free to read my other stuff. I also wanted to write this pairing and give them a different reason other than "they're both mature so they should pair up" which is a reason someone on Deviant Art gave me of why they like the pairing.
And there will be no Stafire hating Raven for falling for Nightwing bullcrrap here.
And I don't want Rob/Rae shippers flaming Rob/Star when they leave reviews on here!
Remember That
"Rich'ard, I'm so sorry, my marriage to Prince Karras will bring peace to Tamaran, it's not like before, where Blackfire was scheming to get rid of me."
Starfire reached out and stroked his cheek.
"I know, Star, I know. God, I wish this didn't have to happen to us, can't there be some other way, can't they find peace without you?" he took her hand in his.
"We've changed over the years," Nightwing smiled sadly, "I remember when you always spoke formally to me, and you were a little naïve when it came to how things on earth too, but you cared about everyone, especially me, and that's why I love you."
"I love you too Dick, my home is always here and I will always love you, but this is something that I can't stop. I would be the happiest being in the universe if I could marry you, but I must put aside my feelings, and return to my home planet."
Nightwing pulled her into a tight hug. "I love you too, Star, so much."
"Same here," she smiled sadly, tears in her eyes.
"We're gonna miss you, y'know," Beast Boy said hugging her as Dick pulled away.
"Yes, Beast Boy, I know. Take care of yourself Green Jeans," Starfire laughed.
"Cyborg's rubbed off on you," he grinned.
"C'mere girl, I'll miss you too!" Cyborg pulled her into a big hug she returned it enthusiastically. "Come by anytime you need to, door's always open for you."
Raven smiled sadly, Starfire was her best friend, she'd learned so much from her, expressing emotions, the warmth and caring, and happiness, she was going to miss that.
Starfire pulled her friend close and hugged her, "Take care of him for me, please Raven?"
"You know I will Starfire," Raven returned her hug.
Starfire boarded the Tamaranean ship and it took off. Nightwing heard his communicator ringing. He answered it.
"Dick, I don't think I'll ever be coming back. I just really wanted to try—KSSH—proper goodbye. It—KSSSHH—felt to at least—"
Nightwing shook his communicator, as if that could fix the problem. "Wait! Wait—You're not coming back?" Dick asked in shock. "Not now or ever? Kori?!"
"I'm sorry, Princess Koriand'r, we're losing the transmission," one of the aliens on her ship told her.
He started to speak. "Hold on, Kori I—KSSH—Anything you can do about this connection Cyborg?"
His friend shook his head, there was nothing he could do.
Nightwing gripped his communicator, "—Not going to be able to hold out much longer here. Are you getting this?"
Dick shut his eyes and gathered his thoughts to put them into words.
"I just—I just want you to know, I'm sorry I couldn't talk about it more easily, I—thought there were no words, but they're simple really. I just need you to know I love you."
Starfire stared sadly at the monitor.
"—Losing you. The distance is too far to maintain a link, but—I wanted to try because I had to let you know... It's been so difficult lately, and I wish it hadn't been because really the only part of our history that matters—is that I'll always love you."
"Did you get that?" they asked each other simultaneously.
Dick smiled sadly. Then there was only silence. Breathing a heavy sigh, he walked back into Titans Tower.
He headed to his room, to be alone, to think. Dick was about to shut the door when he heard a familiar gurgling. Silkie, Starfire's beloved mutant silkworm.
"Come on in little fella, I miss her too," he smiled at the worm, who whimpered sadly, he knew that his beloved owner wasn't away on one of her mall of shopping trips, she would not bring her quirky things to eat or play with him at the park, and it could sense everyone's sadness.
Silkie wriggled up onto Nightwing's bed and curled up beside him. Dick sadly looked at all the pictures of Starfire, recollecting the wonderful times they'd shared, so many adventures and exciting things had happened, and yet all the hard times too.
Dick looked up as he saw Raven enter the room. He smiled up at the empath, he knew she could sense his distress.
"How are you holding up?" Raven asked, gently placing her hand on his shoulder.
"I miss her, Raven. It's not fair really. Everyone I get close to ends up leaving," Dick Grayson replied.
"I miss her too," Raven sighed, "Sometimes I blame myself, my father's influence ruined your relationship. I attacked you both on your wedding, and I've never forgiven myself for that."
"That wasn't your fault, Raven," Dick sighed, Kori's relationship had already been strained because she'd been kidnapped by Mirage who had shapeshifted and impersonated her, she'd slept with him, and then gloated about it to her. He blamed himself for not noticing something was wrong, being trained by Batman he'd thought that he would have deduced something was off about her.
In an attempt to repair their relationship, he'd proposed marriage, she'd told him that he was rushing into this, but he really hoped it would strengthen their relationship, but as they were saying their vows, Raven suddenly attacked them, after her father's evil had corrupted her. She attacked Starfire, implanting her with Trigon's seeds with a kiss; she proceeded to plant Trigon's seeds in various Titans, including Beast Boy.
Beast Boy had been having his share of problems, he found that wearing Mento's helmet had unleashed a darker side of him, letting him transform into demonic side and he found himself liking it. They had to take him to S.T.A.R. Labs to purge him of Trigon's influence.
Cyborg had been injured had been repaired by Russian scientists who had made him more machine than man. He'd connected to the planet Technis and had left the Titans to teach them more about humanity. He had eventually returned to them, when they needed him to help fight Raven.
Planting seeds in the other Titans, they battled her, and with the help of Danny Chase, they destroyed her, or so they thought. Raven then stirred up conflict in the Vegan system to draw out Starfire, who had left on a spiritual journey after Raven had attacked her.
The Titans managed to purge Raven of her demonic side, because Raven had managed to implant her good soul into Starfire. The Titans were able to destroy her demonic side and Raven's soul remained with her friends.
A new Brother Blood had resurrected Raven and the Titans had rescued her, but there was tension now that Tamaran had demanded Starfire return to her home planet for a political marriage to Prince Karras.
"I fell under my father's influence, and I should have fought harder, resisted more," Raven sighed.
"Raven, you're one of the strongest people I know, you did everything in your power to stop your father from coming to earth and that's more than a lot of people would have done in your situation."
"We really should change the subject, if we keep talking about all the bad things that happened to us, it'll make the depression worse," Raven smiled a little.
"We should all go out, get away from the Tower for awhile," Nightwing suggested.
Cyborg got the car and they all got in, they decided to honor Starfire by going to her favorite restaurant. Seemed like a fitting way to end the day.
They laughed and talked and carried on as normal. It was on their way home when something interesting happened.
Dick saw the man, he looked tired, disheveled and he seemed to be following him, not the Titans specifically, but him.
Nightwing turned to face the man, "Mister, can I help you?"
"They're real. They're everywhere. And they're coming for you—All of you."
The stranger grabbed his arm, so tight that Dick could feel his nails digging into his skin, enough to leave an imprint. He didn't push the man away, but took note of his words, what he'd told him, was a warning, but what did it mean?
The man suddenly let him go, and left in a hurry, as if he needed to get away from some unseen enemy.
"Dude, what was that about?" Beast Boy asked.
"I don't know Beast Boy, but I have a bad feeling about this," Nightwing examined his arm.
"He left marks on your arm, man, he seemed desperate or something."
"I could sense he was desperate, but I couldn't sense why," Raven contemplated what just happened.
"This whole day has been crazy, I just need to go home and get some shuteye," Beast Boy sighed. Dick agreed with him, he just wanted this day to end, so he could prepare to move forward, to move into a life without Starfire, the emptiness was threatening to overwhelm and consume him.
They headed back to the Tower and he prepared to get a little sleep, Dick wasn't like Bruce, he'd moved on from prioritizing being a hero over everything else and unlike Bruce, he got more than two hours of sleep in a week.
Dick awoke to find the Titan's alarm blaring. He rushed to the monitor. A poice officer was onscreen. "I'm sorry to bother you, this isn't a crime in progress, but I'd like you to come look at it."
"Of course, officer," Dick said. The Titans drove to the crime scene.
"Whoa!" Cyborg exclaimed, shocked.
"Dude!" Beast Boy chimed in.
Raven said nothing, the victim was a man, he was impaled with over 20 throwing knives and pinned to a wall.
"Who is he officer?" Dick asked.
"Don't know, he was living under a fake ID," the officer replied. "He put up a hell of a fight though."
"What do you make of the throwing knives?" the officer asked.
"They're standard, you can find them in any circus," Nightwing replied.
"Someone had it out for this guy, missed all his arteries on purpose, wanted him to die a slow, painful death."
"Mind if I take one?" Dick queried.
"Hell, go ahead it's not like we're going to run out."
Dick tucked one into his utility belt.
"What do you make of the symbol?" the officer asked.
"It's an owl," Nightwing observed.
"I know, but I'm from Gotham City, you know, do you really think it's about the old wives' tale about the C—"
"I know what you mean officer, it's just a myth you know," Nightwing told him.
"For a long time, so were you," the man replied.
There was something off about the place, Dick picked up a strong scent. He turned to Beast Boy.
"Do you smell that Beast Boy?" he asked.
"The paint thinner? Yeah, it's been bugging me," Beast Boy replied.
Dick examined the wall, there was definitely paint thinner there.
"So the guy spilled paint thinner, what of it?" the officer shrugged.
Dick removed a lighter and placed it against the wall, he lit it. The flames ignited and spread. He read the message that appeared.
"Dick Grayson dies tomorrow."
"John Doe's not Nostradamus that's for sure, time of death was a week ago so Dick Grayson's in the clear."
"Not unless he knew when he'd be found, he knew when the landlord would check his apartment."
"Good luck killing Grayson, he's Bruce Wayne's ward, his security has security."
"Leave Grayson's safety to us, we'll investigate this officer, let us know if you find anything else."
The Titans turned and left. They got back into the car.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to die tomorrow," Dick reassured his friends.
Raven felt a sense of dread come over her. There was something lurking in the dark, and she didn't like it one bit.