Hi all! It's been a while, and I mean a looong time. I apologize for that. I've had a lot of issues with the way my story A New Beginning turned out. First of all, if you haven't noticed, I changed the ending. All you need to know is that they haven't gone back to the Tower yet. If you've never read A New Beginning, you will not understand a lot of what I'll be referring to in this story.

You will see a lot of differences in my writing style, such as "said" instead of "says" and overall just more past tense phrases. I made a lot of big no-no's in my first story so I'm trying to right all my wrongs with this one. I have the plot for this story all planned out but it's not completely finished yet. I have the first few chapters done so I wanted to start sharing this with you. I told you a long time ago that I was going to rewrite A New Beginning and make it longer, and before that I was going to write the sequel. Ever time I tried to write this it never seemed right. I finally figured out how I wanted it to go. I am so sorry for the wait but it's finally here.

Disclaimer: The Teen Titan's are owned by DC Comics and Warner Bros. Not by me (sniffle sniffle).

Enjoy!

Prologue

Still leaning over his limp body, Starfire stared across the room into the murderous eyes of Karras. Her fist clenched on her lover's chest. Not again, she thinks to herself as she exhales sharply through her nose.

The corner of his mouth turns upward into a sneering half smile. She felt her body begin to quiver with hatred, her vision turning green as fury coursed through her veins. She leaned down further to place her lips to Nightwing's forehead before she stood up on her feet. Glowing green orbs grew in her hands as she held Karras' gaze. This man took so much from her. Four years that she will never get back. But more than that, she lost a part of herself. She will not allow him to take away even more.

Or escape this place with his life.

Chapter One

Thunder pounded against the glass of the greenhouse, any sunlight that had been shining now hidden behind dark clouds. Yet there sits a Tamaranean girl in amongst the greenery on the roof of Wayne Manor. Her shoulders shook as she exhaled a shuddering breath, her flight faltering as she tried to hold onto her happiness. Starfire had come to this spot at the far back of the solarium every day to meditate, and Dick would secretly stand in the perfect position to watch her. His hair dripped with water from his journey through the storm, but he had to make it into the greenhouse. He always came to watch her here. He would never interrupt her; he figured she needed this time alone. Since her memories have been resurfacing, Raven has insisted that Starfire spend time talking with her. He tried not to badger her into talking about them unless she wanted to, but he couldn't help but feel worried.

It was two weeks after the incident with the Joker and yet they remained at the manor at Bruce's insistence. He said that the Titan's were not fit for duty and could not return to the Tower in Jump City until he deemed them fit. Members of the Justice League agreed with him, so there were no strings that Dick could pull.

Starfire took to sleeping in his bed at night, and despite that jokes and innuendos that Victor and Gar threw at them, nothing sexual was happening. Dick understood completely. Not only was she going through a lot of emotional things at present, but they had also only just gotten together again. He knew that they couldn't jump back into the relationship they had when they were eighteen. They had to rebuild on what they had now.

But Starfire was cringing away from his touch, nearly jumping in fear when he would come up behind her to give her a hug or ever lightly touch her arm. She would apologize profusely but never gave him an explanation. He tried not to let it get to him, but he wasn't succeeding.

And now he stared at her back as she meditated alone. Whenever she retreated to her little corner of the greenhouse, she seemed more reserved. At first it seemed like her visits here were helping her open up, but now that were making her shut down even more.

All the memories that had been hidden away from Starfire and then repressed were coming back full force after their encounter with the Joker. His bomb had blown himself, Batman, Red Hood, and Starfire into the ocean where the Joker himself lost his life. Similar to the explosion that sent her flying off that oil rig in Jump City and set in motion the events that would prevent the Titans from seeing her for another four years. Bobbing along with the waves of the water that night, Starfire remembered when she was taken from earth by a Tamaranean ship captained by the newly appointed King Karras.

Then she began to remember some of her darkest times.

Dick would awaken at night to the screams of his girlfriend, immediately rising to console her. But then she would resign to an eerie silence, eyes wide and yet not seeing. The first few nights this happened, he would try to get her to talk. But his attempts were worthless so he settled with cuddling her and waiting until morning came and she returned the herself.

It was heartbreaking that she wouldn't talk to him.

He didn't know what to do anymore. Neither did Raven, which was even more troubling. They tried getting her out of the manor and do fun things as a group but she never seemed interested. She would sit with them in the manor if they were playing games or watching a movie, but they would never hear her laugh mix in with theirs. She was there and yet she wasn't.

And he couldn't take it anymore.

...

Starfire closed her eyes, but the darkness behind them was shrouded by her memories. Being taken by the Gordanian's as a peace treaty created by her own father, where she was to be transported to the Citadel. She would be whipped and touched and be called foul names, but truly her time there was not the worst of her experiences. She escaped their ship before she ever made it to the Citadel and returned home to a war-torn planet. Her father was furious with her return and in his attempt to send her back, was murdered by his own wife. Starfire's mother fought with her last breath to protect her child, but to no avail. In the end she was put to death and all three of her children were taken by a Psion ship.

Starfire wiped a tear that leaked down her cheek and tried unsuccessfully to push the memories away. The Psion's would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life. They were contained in the worst conditions; small, contaminated cages where one would only dream of stretching their legs. But that cage was their safe haven. For when they were released from their insufficient chambers is when the torture began.

They called themselves scientists, but what the Psion's did was more than simple experiments. They pushed the natural green Tamaranean energy into the three royal children until it was an unnatural amount, and then kept going. Starfire remembered the tubes and needles stuck into her flesh, the probing of her body and the pain. Her body burned with the amount of energy and fire ran through her veins.

Blackfire blamed Starfire for all of it. If she had only stayed on the Gordanian ship and accepted the fate that awaited her at the Citadel, Mother wouldn't have killed Father. And then they wouldn't have killed Mother. And then they wouldn't have been captured by the Psion's. Starfire believed that it was her fault, and because of that, she found the strength to fight. She had to get her siblings out of there, especially poor little Darkfire.

She killed any Psion that stood in her way, managed to release Blackfire and Darkfire from their cages, and blasted a hole into the side of their ship. It was during the ruckus that the explosion caused that it happened. The piercing scream that she fought so hard to forget surged to the forefront of her memories. She collapsed from her floating position onto the stone of the greenhouse and placed her head in her hands.

She remembered hearing the scream of her brother just in time to turn around and see him killed by two Psion's. The evil creatures leered at her as they held the bloody and broken body of her little brother. Her screams were lost to the soundless space as her sister dragged her by the wrist. But she didn't take her eyes off that ship until it was finally out of sight.

Her shoulders shook again as a sob fought it's way through her chest.

She had failed him. It was all her fault.

…

"Raven!" cried a voice immediately after a strong surge of emotions. Gar "eeped" as Raven pushed away from the table and enveloped herself in her raven to transport to the roof. The scene she entered was overwhelming; Starfire screamed in the arms of Dick, who huddled over her protectively. He stroked her wet cheeks as she let out her never ending cry until she finally gulped in a breath, only to ring out another scream. Dick flicked his eyes up to Raven with a frantic and wild look. She moved onto the other side of Starfire and placed a hand on her forehead, and on her chest right above her heart. Her eyes glowed with power and Dick helplessly watched as she tried to ease enough pain from Starfire's heart so that she would allow Raven to put her to sleep.

The screaming ceased as Starfire's wide eyes finally closed, leaving an eerie silence in the greenhouse. Dick wiped the drying tears from the sleeping girls face and let out a shuddering breath.

"This can't go on any longer," he muttered, kissing Starfire's forehead before he moved to stand up. Raven followed him as he carried Starfire out of the greenhouse and through the rain. They made their way through the manor in silence until they reached Dick's room. He laid Starfire down on the bed and sat on the edge. Raven sat on the side opposite and looked at him expectantly.

"I was watching her meditate again," he began. His hands trailed over he hair as he spoke. "I could see she was beginning to cry. That had gone on for about fifteen minutes when she suddenly collapsed on the ground. I had started moving toward her to see what was wrong when the screaming began. I don't know what happened-"

"I felt a sudden sadness, it was very strong. There was guilt mixed in with that. It was utter despair, Dick, I've never felt anything like it coming from her."

"I just wish she'd talk to me," he said. "What do we do?"

"I'll... try talking to her again. When she wakes up. She needs to understand how unhealthy this is. If she ever wants to work as a Titan again, she needs to snap out of this and get back to training. I know that if she did, she would feel better." Raven touched her hand to Starfire's wrist and sighed.

Dick ran his free hand through his hair, mussing it up so it stuck out in every direction. "Yeah, that's true. It's just so God damn hard getting her to eat something let alone get down to the batcave to train."

"We've got to try harder," Raven said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I know it seems like we're doing everything we can, but there's got to be some one to get to her."

Silence hung in the air as they watched Starfire sleep. There would be no waking up with screams for her in this sleep spell, but Dick wondered if she still had nightmares. Raven must have felt his worry.

"No, she'll sleep peacefully. I've tried to get her to take my sleep spells before but she claims she doesn't need them. I forced this one on her."

"She needed it," Dick said reassuringly. "She never let's me touch her like this anymore." He ran his fingers along her cheek bone, down her neck, and trailed down her arm to take her hand in his.

"Give her time," Raven said. Dick sniffled and turned his head away so she couldn't see.

"We've lost so much time already," he whispered.

This story starts out a bit darker, but I promise it won't be like this the whole time. Starfire has a whole lifetime of terrible memories flooding back all at once and it's overwhelming her. I changed up a bit of the lore so if you have any questions about anything PM me.

Just to let you know, I will be posting once every week.

Reviews!