A/N: Thanks to - who else? - doglover500, leathman, and Dextra2 for reviewing. If you three keep reviewing like this for the whole story, I'll be very happy :)
Chapter Four: Imprisonment
"Great news, Koriand'r," Blackfire announced with mock cheerfulness as she sashayed over to Starfire's cell. "Your friends are here."
"What friends?" Starfire asked suspiciously.
"My, my, have you forgotten them already? I'm talking about that little group of super-powered teenagers you found on Earth." Blackfire placed a finger on her chin and pretended to think. "Let me see…what are they called again? I believed it was something along the lines of –"
"The Teen Titans?" Starfire gasped.
"Yes, that's it. Nightwing, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg. There was another one with them too – a beautiful girl with dark hair." Blackfire cast a pitying look on her captive sister. "You've barely been gone a week and they've already replaced you. Tsk, tsk. You should choose your friends more carefully."
Starfire glared at her and lunged forward, but the solar-draining chains clamped around her wrists kept her close to the wall of her cell. "You don't know anything about friendship," she said.
"Nor do I want to," Blackfire replied. "No one wanted to be friends with me – I was just the disgraced little princess who couldn't fly. Only now that I am Queen do they respect me – and even so, some of them resist."
"They know you are not the rightful ruler."
"Oh, pshaw." Blackfire waved a dismissive hand. "What does it matter to me if they resist or not? They'll all get what's coming to them soon – as will your little friends."
Starfire's eyes glowed briefly before her chains sapped the light away. "If you hurt them…" She left the threat hanging. Blackfire laughed.
"Your threats don't scare me," she said disdainfully. "I hold the power now – I could kill you the instant I wanted to. But don't worry. I won't hurt your friends unless they interfere with my plans – and right now, they're not in a position to do anything."
"Blackfire, what did you do with them?!"
Blackfire's eyes glittered with malice. "The same thing I did to Ryand'r."
"No!" Starfire cried. She was shocked, furious, and unbearably sorrowful all at the same time. For Blackfire's constant smug hints about their brother's fate and the time her imprisonment had given her to think had left Starfire convinced that Ryand'r was dead. And if Blackfire was telling the truth, that meant that the Titans…
"I suggest you get comfortable, Koriand'r," Blackfire called as she waltzed back the way she had come. "Because no one's coming to help you now."
It was barely an hour before the Tamaranean ship reached the city. This was obviously the capital of Tamaran – the dominant feature here was the large, ornate palace located in the exact center of the city. The walls were thick and fortified, with turrets running along their length. The courtyard was wide and spacious, and the spires soared gracefully into the purple sky. Yet for all its majesty and splendor, the palace bore signs of war – there were blackened scorch marks on the walls and debris littering the outer courtyards. One entire tower had collapsed, leaving nothing but rubble, and the walls were cracking in several places. Clearly, this had been the site of many battles.
Once they landed, the five Titans and Donna were seized by more guards who escorted them to the dungeons below the palace. After marching the prisoners through several dim, winding corridors, the Tamaraneans unceremoniously shoved them all into a dark cell and banged the barred door closed with firm finality.
"Ugh, I hate creepy dark dungeons," Beast Boy complained with a shudder. Something scuttled over his feet and he yelped. "What was that?!"
"A rat?" Raven proposed. She turned her head to observe her surroundings, completely unperturbed by the darkness.
"Look around, all of you," Nightwing instructed, running his gloved hands over the stone walls – this cell had obviously been hewn out of solid rock. "There has to be some way out."
"I don't know, man," said Cyborg, irritably working to get his circuits functioning properly again. "This place looks pretty solid to me."
"The door is the weakest point," Donna pointed out. "I bet Beast Boy could change shape and get us out."
"It's worth a shot." Beast Boy morphed into a mouse and ran for the door, intending to slip through the bars. However, an unseen barrier sent an electric shock jolting through his body, flinging him back forcefully. "Yow!"
"What the hell?" Cyborg demanded, going over to inspect the door while Donna pulled Beast Boy back to his feet.
"It's fortified with invisible force fields. You won't get out that way." All the Titans dropped into defensive stances as a young male stepped out of the shadows.
The newcomer had the typical Tamaranean orange skin and red hair up to his shoulders. He was dressed in simple Tamaranean armor, and had the build of a soldier. His green eyes glowed slightly in the dark as they looked at the Titans knowingly.
"You're here for Koriand'r." It wasn't a question.
"We are. Who are you?" Nightwing questioned, wary.
The stranger smiled humorlessly at their battle-ready positions. "I'm a prisoner of Blackfire, just like you."
"Who's Blackfire?" Raven inquired.
"The 'Grand Ruler'." The quotation marks around the title, though not gestured with fingers, were obvious in his tone of voice.
Donna raised an eyebrow. "You don't consider her your Queen?"
The stranger scoffed. "No. The only queens I'll recognize are my mother and my second sister."
Nightwing's eyes narrowed – something about the way he had said 'sister' set off bells in his head. "Are you the prince?"
The unknown male bowed with a flourish. "Prince Ryand'r of the Royal Family of Tamaran, at your service."
There was a slight pause as they all processed the implications of this.
"So this…Blackfire," said Raven, "…she's an imposter?"
Ryand'r sighed. "Technically, no," he admitted. "She was the rightful heir to the throne."
"You're not making any sense," Cyborg complained. "Stop talking in circles and tell us what you mean in straightforward terms."
"Blackfire is my elder sister," Ryand'r confessed. "Our parents were the Grand Rulers – the King and Queen of Tamaran. Blackfire was their firstborn, so by right the throne should have passed to her."
"But?" Nightwing prodded, sensing more to the story.
"When she was an infant, Blackfire suffered a disease. It took away her ability to fly – something all Tamaraneans are born with."
"So?" Donna asked. Ryand'r gave her a look.
"On Tamaran, the ability to fly is as important as an Earthling's ability to walk. Blackfire could not fly; hence, she was considered disabled. Tamaran could not have a disabled ruler, so our parents transferred the succession to their second-born, my other sister."
"How is that fair?" Beast Boy demanded. "It wasn't Blackfire's fault she couldn't fly."
"Fair or not, that is the way things are done," Ryand'r countered. "My parents did what they thought was right."
"Let me guess: Blackfire didn't like it." Raven's tone was dry.
"She was jealous," Ryand'r affirmed. "She resented our sister for taking her birthright."
"So what did she do?" Beast Boy inquired.
Ryand'r's eyes darkened with anger. "She betrayed Tamaran to our greatest enemies, the Gordanians. She brought the war to our planet."
"And then she declared herself Queen," Cyborg surmised. Ryand'r nodded.
"If Blackfire is not the rightful queen, why are the Tamaraneans following her?" Donna wondered.
Ryand'r shook his head. "The Tamaraneans you have seen are her supporters. The majority of our people do not recognize her rule, but she has the army under her control. She crushes anyone who opposes her. She's merciless."
"But she spared you," Donna pointed out. "So your shared blood must mean something to her."
Ryand'r let out a short bark of disbelieving laughter. "Blood means nothing to her," he said bitterly. "Against their deal, the Gordanians murdered our parents – right in front of her – and she still happily formed an alliance with them to organize her takeover after she returned to Tamaran. The only reason she's imprisoned rather than killed me is because she loves to gloat. Besides, I'm the leader of the resistance – she knows that without me, the people can't do much."
"Is that why Blackfire was after Kory?" Nightwing asked. "Because she was in the resistance?"
"Koriand'r is a rebel against Blackfire's rule, but she never had the opportunity to join the resistance."
"Blackfire chased Kory all the way to Earth because she was a rebel who never joined the resistance?" Cyborg asked disbelievingly.
"No." Ryand'r looked at them. "Blackfire chased Koriand'r because she is our sister, the Princess of Tamaran, and the true heir to the throne."
Stunned silence filled the cell, only to be broken a minute later.
"Kory's a princess?" Beast Boy echoed in amazement. "Like a princess princess?"
Ryand'r blinked. "What is a 'princess princess'?"
"It's just an Earth expression," Cyborg explained hastily. "What he means to say is that we never knew Kory was the Princess."
Ryand'r nodded. "Understandable," he said. "Koriand'r never felt comfortable being the Crown Princess – she believed it should have stayed Blackfire's birthright. She loved our sister dearly." Here he scowled darkly. "Too much."
Donna frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I'm guessing Koriand'r never told you how she got her abilities?"
"I thought they were natural?" Nightwing questioned.
"Flight is, but her starbolts are not," Ryand'r told him. "Out of all our people, Koriand'r and Blackfire are the only ones who can convert solar light into energy missiles."
"So how did she get that?" Beast Boy asked.
"When the Gordanians attacked, Blackfire made a deal with them. In exchange for their help in conquering the planet, she would hand Koriand'r over to them as a slave. During the tradeoff, a Psion ship attacked the palace and captured both Koriand'r and Blackfire. The Psions are as ruthless as the Gordanians, but not for power or land – their pursuits are intellectual. They wanted to see how much radiation Tamaraneans could absorb before their bodies burst from the strain."
"That's horrible!" Donna exclaimed, shuddering. The grim looks of the Titans said they agreed with her. Ryand'r's expression was bleak too.
"Koriand'r and Blackfire were their test subjects. The Psions set up the experiment and left them alone." Ryand'r's fingers had unconsciously clenched into fists. "I don't know how long my sisters were trapped, but eventually Koriand'r broke free using her new starbolts. Then she released Blackfire out of the goodness of her heart, but Blackfire turned on her." He exhaled slowly. "No one knows exactly what happened on the Psion ship after that, but a few months later, Blackfire returned to Tamaran to assume the throne, and she made quick work of the rebellion. We were forced to go underground, and we've been fighting ever since. Koriand'r, on the other hand, was never heard from again. We thought she was dead – Blackfire never actually said it, but she led us to believe she had killed her. Until the Gordanians brought her back to Tamaran, we in the resistance did not dare hope that Koriand'r was still alive."
"Kory's been on Earth for over a year now," Nightwing said.
Ryand'r nodded. "That adds up. She's been missing from Tamaran for the same amount of time." He frowned then, as though something was bothering him.
"What is it?" Raven asked.
"You say Koriand'r has been on Earth for over one solar cycle?" Ryand'r clarified.
"Yes," Nightwing replied.
"And she was not injured or indisposed?"
"No…she's the picture of health."
Ryand'r's frown deepened. "And yet she never attempted to return home – or to even contact Tamaran," he mused, mostly to himself, beginning to pace. "Why wouldn't she?"
"She didn't exactly have a ship," Cyborg pointed out.
"That doesn't matter to us. Tamaranean bodies can withstand the harsh environment of space – if she had wanted to, Koriand'r could have flown all the way here under her own power."
"Are you thinking that she abandoned you?" Nightwing questioned shrewdly, his tone accusing.
"I don't know what to think." Ryand'r stopped pacing. "Koriand'r had to have known that things were not good on Tamaran, and yet she remained on Earth and made no attempt to return. It makes me wonder."
"We don't know what happened between her and Blackfire on the Psion ship," Raven reminded him. "Let's not jump to conclusions."
"I agree," Donna concurred. "I think the key to this entire affair lies in that one encounter."
"But only two people know the truth of it," Ryand'r concluded.
"Regardless," Nightwing interjected, "we came here for Kory, and we're not leaving without her."
"You're very optimistic about your chances of actually leaving Tamaran in the first place," Ryand'r observed.
"I'm not planning on staying here. I've got things to do back on Earth."
"How do you propose to escape?" Ryand'r challenged.
Nightwing actually smiled.
