Chapter 1: Requiem

Starfire woke up, dazed and confused. She felt a sharp pain in the right side of her head. It felt, to her, like someone, or something was trying to crush her head, but she couldn't tell. For all she knew, she was hallucinating the couldn't say anything or move anywhere. She felt trapped, captured. "Where am I? What is happening to me?", her mind said to herself. As she slowly became more conscious, she realized she was being rolled down a long hall. It seemed as if she was in what the humans call a "hospital". She had been hospitalized! She started to panic. She struggled loose, but couldn't seem to get the mask off of her face. She looked around to see the doctors and her friends lunge towards her. As the humans were approaching her, they turned into what looked like mutant turtles, from the evidence she had gathered studying Earth's biology. She heard them mutter things in high pitched, but still masculine voices; at first, she thought they were slightly cute, that is, until one of them in red armor ran towards her and bit a chunk of flesh out of her calf muscle. She screamed in agony,wondering what happened to them. The one that bit her said in delight, "Mmmm...that yummy! Me want more!", and it took another bite out of her leg. Clasping her leg, trying to stop the bleeding, and trying to step backwards, she tripped, but was caught by something that felt like a wall. Turning around, she gasped as a tall, dark, grotesque figure wearing strange armor and a worn cloak and hood grabbed her and lifted her up by the neck so that they could see eye-to-eye, choke-holding her. It had bovine-shaped legs and a reptilian shape. The thing moved her around, inspecting her for whatever reason. It didn't have any features of her human counterparts. "Let me go, or I will destroy you!" Starfire said, angrily thrashing about. It laughed, finding Starfire's struggling humorous. It sounded very deep, rough, reptilian. She asked it, "What are you?" "Ni' jafla" It then started to talk in a language that was all too familiar to her. "Riok krushex diolan iuera, buotq'en ohleru ji." This sent a very human chill throughout her spine. She suddenly found herself speaking in the same language. "Aue?" It replied, "Ei ni' krorjka riok...wolool...Koriand'r." Her eyes widened and she gasped in horror. It felt like her heart skipped a few beats. She hadn't heard that name in years. It brought back gut-wrenching, nostalgic memories of her "former life". In fact, the only ones she knew who called her by that were her family and friends, and she didn't know who, or what, this was. With regret and unease, she slowly removed the hood from the creature's head. What was under the hood was something horrifying. It had a clover-leaf-shaped mouth, with four mandibles instead of jaws, and eyes as back as night. This thing looked intricate, ferocious, was huge in every definition, and looked dreadfully familiar to her. She started to let out her usual blood-curdling scream. Her scream startled the monstrosity, which caused it to rear its head. It proceeded to ram her into the wall. She felt her bones crack and crumble... and she woke up.

Titans Tower; Common Room
6:30 AM

Cyborg was making breakfast for him and his teammates, with Robin supervising. Robin planned out the entire meal: one slice of everything for everyone; several large pancakes, twenty-five strips of bacon, (five strips per person), several large omelets, and two dozen doughnuts, (though that didn't seem to suffice either of them). Cyborg had been up all night making this giant feast, and he was nearing completion. Robin was up the night before setting out the breakfast plans. Neither of them could remember the last time anyone of the team sat down and leisurely ate a nice, large, breakfast together. Cyborg was about to mix into the pancake mix when he heard a loud clattering noise, then what sounded like a window being shattered. He ordered Robin to go check out what that noise was. With uncanny swiftness, and a curious face, Robin headed towards the noise. It sounded to him like it was coming from Raven's room.

He rushed into Raven's room, expecting a few broken glasses or a window, but everything was as it seemed (as far as he knew). The next thing he noticed was a scantily clad, and seemingly unaware, Raven. Without turning to face Robin, she looked up slightly, saying in a playful way, "Like what you see, boy?" Feeling like he had no choice but to reply, Robin said in a very embarrassed voice, "Y-yes-s...bu-ut, I...uh..."
"But what? You gotta go see how your 'girlfriend' is doing?", Raven huffed, as if taunting him.
"Uh..it's...um,ya-yes...uh,s-sorry...Raven."
"Oh, that's fine, just fine, go do your thing." And with Raven's dismissal, Robin slowly backed out of the room feeling like either he or Raven had violated the sanctity of his and Starfire's relationship. When Robin was out of her room, Raven cheerfully reassured herself, "Someday, I will have him, when that bitch alien's gone."

Robin continued to search for the source of the noise. He heard soft crying, screeching, and more cluttering noises; this time it seemed to be coming from Starfire's room. Robin hurried down the hall. He opened the door to her room to see a broken window, a trashed room, and a seemingly traumatized Starfire, on her knees, sobbing, and gasping for air. Her eyes were glowing green and bright. She stuttered, "H-help m-me...p-please!" Robin kneeled down over her and replied, in an equally depressing manner, "Help you with what?" With unexpected swiftness, Starfire pulled Robin, by his collar, down to the floor close and whispered into his ear, "Help me...help me kill...it."
"What? Help you kill what?"
"It haunts me, m-mocks me every night in...my s-sleep; i-it reminds me...that I am-am not welcome here. It reminds me that I am an alien." And with that, she put her head to his chest, feeling his heartbeat. "What are you talking about? Of course you're welcome here." He combed his fingers through her hair, lovingly, trying to comfort her. She looked up at his face, which she thought was the most precious thing she had ever seen. "That is not what I mean. I mean other humans mock me for being...inhuman." He felt shocked, but he kept a straight as possible face, trying to hold back any emotion, and told her,"They're wrong. They don't know you."
"I feel like they do know me." Robin looked upon Starfire in disappointment, "Oh, my little star..." She began to become annoyed with the notion of "needing help". She said, "I do not need this 'help'. You are not understanding. My dreams are real."
"How do you know what is real?"
"How do you know that this isn't a dream, or, in fact, are we in the Matrix!?"
"You know what? I don't know, anymore."
"Then choose! What are we in: a dream, the Matrix, or reality!?" Starfire was becoming frustrated, with Robin, with her teammates, with Humanity, with herself,"I do not wish to harm you, the others, or Humanity. I believe that I should do the 'getting lost' thing." To Robin, it seemed as if she had gone insane. He tried to calm her down, speaking as calm and as soothing as possible, " Starfire, please, calm down. There is no Matrix." She wrestled her way out of Robin's embrace, saying, "No!"
"Please, listen to- "
"No!"
"Stop this madness, right now!"
"No, damn you! I will not calm down! I will not listen! I will not stop...this...this 'madness' you damn humans believe I have! I am not insane!"

By now the others were standing just outside the doorway, watching the kerfuffle. The argument came to a climax, with Starfire clutching Robin hard by the neck and dangling him precariously off the edge of her new balcony (it was the window she smashed). Robin tried to breathe "Starfire, let me go!"
"Or what? Are you going to kill me?"
Robin hung his head and replied, "I'll do what I must." She paused, almost as if she was paralyzed. She managed to say, "You will...try." Her mouth was gaped slightly open, as if she had just had a revelation, which she did; her mouth closed, and she slowly started to tear up, trying to hold back the tears. A few moments after her revelation, she threw Robin across the room and started to have a breakdown, and collapsed on her knees, almost as if she went into a massive depression with the words Robin last spoke to her. She clasped both of her hands over her face and sobbed, "Oh, by the prophets, what have I done!?" They all saw Robin struggling to get back up on his feet. They wanted to help, but they knew it was meant for them and only them. Robin answered her question, "I know what you did. You," Robin gave a sigh full of dread. "you betrayed me."
"No!"
"Yes, you did, Starfire."
"No, please!"
"It's too late for that sappy talk forgiveness bull crap."
"I cannot forgive myself knowing that I nearly killed my dearest friend." She started to calm down, her voice becoming steadily lower. "Maybe you are right...maybe I do not understand. Maybe I am not meant for this team, or this world." Looking at Robin, she got back on her feet and slowly approached him, shaking her head in disappointment of herself. He slowly backed away. "Robin...I am as sorry as I can be, but what happened then can never be undone, so I-"
"I know."
"-I will be seeing you...later." She gave a sad smile and started to tear up, again. Confused, Robin asked what she meant. She answered in a subtle voice, "It means, I love you." Robin gave Starfire a curious glance, "What?" Without saying anything, and without warning, Starfire then clenched his right hand with hers, pulled Robin close, and before anyone could react, she grabbed his dagger and plunged it into her chest. She shuddered, then whispered into his ear, "I am sorry, love." She collapsed in a pool of her own blood, which happened to be the color purple. Just before she blacked out, she barely managed to utter, "I am...so...sorry."