The characters belong to DC and Time-Warner, and I in no way own them or plan to make money off of them, but the story belongs to me.
Today 2/27/2013 is the day that Damian Wayne the current Robin, dies in Issue #8 of Batman Inc. He has a heart-to-heart with Nightwing (Dick Grayson), just before his death. RIP Damian, aka "Bat Brat", You leave just as the fans were warming up to you, how sad.
Chapter 8
An Awkward Reunion
Starfire fired a star bolt in the direction of Cyborg, hitting him square on. Instead of the star bolt knocking him down as expected, Cyborg was instead surrounded wave of blue light and her star bolt was absorbed. Cyborg raised up his hands, waving them to signal he meant no harm. Selena stepped between Starfire and Cyborg in an attempt to stop Starfire from attacking again.
"Whoa Star, I'm not here to bring you in, I'm here to help!" Cyborg cried out.
Selena joined in, "Kori, it's ok, he is here to help. He's a friend."
Starfire narrowed her eyes at both of them, not letting down her guard. She did not put it past Dick Grayson or Batman to trick her into a trap. She was aware of Selena's past with Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne, it was not a far stretch to think that she lead her here to only trap her. She also aware of Cyborg's affiliation with the Justice League and how did she know that Jason's contact was not also part of the trap. Instead she remained vigilant watching both of them, but she would let them have their say. One false move though, and she would take both out, and Cyborg's new shields would not stop her.
"How do I know you only wish to help Cyborg, are you not a member of the Justice League?" She asked keeping her tone menacing.
"Star, look, I'm your friend, nothing will ever change that. I'm here to make sure you're safe and have an energy source for your needs. If you think I'm lying, then do your worst, but I won't attack you."
Starfire turned her gaze now to Selena, "You knew about this?"
Selena sighed and nodded her head. "I did, I was asked not to tell you though, because he thought you'd bolt, and be in danger of being captured by the Justice League, which is the last thing you want right now."
"You did not do the trusting of me Selena?" Starfire asked with a hint of betrayal in her voice.
"It's not that I didn't trust you Kori, it's that we had no idea how you would react if you knew."
Starfire looked at both of them, she felt angry and betrayed, but yet she also sensed no malice in either of them. She dimmed her star bolts, but still remained on guard.
"So who is this "he" that thought I would run, if I knew?"
Selena smiled cautiously at Starfire, "Jason, he wanted to make sure you made it here safely before you knew. It was Cyborg that contacted him and both agreed along with myself, and a few others that you no know until you were safe here."
Starfire looked at Cyborg, "Why did you contact Jason, would that not jeopardize your status with the Justice League?"
Cyborg stepped a little closer to Starfire, "Because I was the best choice since I could contact Jason and not be traced. I'm not worried about my Justice League status, there's always the Titans, and I still think of you as a friend and I want to give you the chance Batman won't give you. Besides, I was asked too," Cyborg said with a knowing smile.
Starfire raised an eyebrow. "Who asked you?"
Cyborg chuckled. "Nightwing did."
Starfire's face turned hard. "I do not appreciate that glempork meddling in my affairs or safety. You can tell him I can take care of myself!"
Cyborg nodded, "I'm sure you can Star, no doubts there, but when you have the whole Justice League after you, it's best to rely on what help you can get."
Starfire relaxed a little, "I suppose you are right Cyborg, but it still does the irritating of me that he is involved in anyway."
Cyborg grimaced slightly, "Star, I understand, but his reasons are different than what you think."
"Really, and how is that?" Starfire asked, with subtle irritation in her voice.
Cyborg took a breath and sighed silently, "A couple of days ago, we, I mean the Justice League were reviewing satellite and drone imagery of the attack in Qurac, that is when we discovered it was you that destroyed that armored battalion. We called in Nightwing to consult, since he is not a Justice League member, he has to be invited to the Watch Tower. After he reviewed the imagery and confirmed it was you, Batman made it clear you were to be aprehended. He also had the Green Lanterns contact Tamaran. It took them some time as we were unaware that it was destroyed and had to fine tune the direction of the communications array to find the Tamaranean Imperial signal beacon. Once we found it we opened a line of communications with the Grand Ruler, and all were surprised that your sister wore the crown once more. She addressed the Justice League and informed us of your exile and essentially stated that the Justice League were free to do with you as they saw fit, that you were no longer a citizen of Tamaran and any royal privileges or immunities were no longer in force. Blackfire then requested that she speak with Nightwing alone. I will tell you Batman ordered me to tap into the conversation, but your sister used an encryption routine I couldn't break. Anyway they spoke for over an hour and when Nightwing was finished he contacted me through the Titans frequency and told me your safety was imperative and to do what it takes to keep you out of the reach of the Justice League."
Starfire looked concerned and cocked her head slightly, "Did he tell you what she said?"
Cyborg shook his head, "Well, what Nightwing did tell me is that someone named General Ph'yzzon has had you declared a dangerous interstellar fugitive and put a bounty on your head. If you were captured and turned over to the Green Lanterns, you can be turned over to any recognized Vegan government meaning what's left of the Citadel or the Gordanians and I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. The other option was being thrown into Belle Reve Prison, where they'd slap a control collar on you in a cell block with the villainous meta-humans you helped bring to justice when you were a Titan and leaving you vulnerable to an assassination attempt."
What fury was still in Starfire was doused, her shoulders slumped and she hugged herself, looking down avoiding eye contact with both Selena and Cyborg. She felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she felt warmth in the touch despite the hand titanium alloy skin. She slowly looked up Cyborg, tears in her eyes.
"You ok Star?" Cyborg asked her.
Starfire nodded, but did not speak. She felt another hand touch her shoulders, thought this one was warmer and softer. She looked up and could Selena was now standing next to her.
"Kori, this General Ph'yzzon, he's your husband isn't he…, the same one you told me about earlier?"
Starfire nodded her head and felt her energy drain from her, she was emotionally compromised and she needed to lean on Cyborg for support. He helped Starfire over to a large armchair near a workstation and gently sat her down. Starfire looked up and attempted a smile.
Selena came over and sat on an arm of the chair and taking one of Starfire's hands in hers. "Oh Kori, I'm so sorry. Why would your husband to this?"
Starfire looked up a Cyborg, who was kneeling in front of her, "Did Nightwing say why?"
"He mumbled something about a Tamaranean power play and your sister was in danger too, even more so with you dead. He said nothing else though."
Starfire slowly nodded her head, and then sat up almost regally. "It would seem my husband is making a play for the crown. With me dead, he will invoke the right of Tevr'y forcing my sister to marry him or be challenged for the crown. Since General Ph'yzzon is my husband and the Duke of the House of Zzon he has the right to demand a marriage to her or challenge her for the crown if she refuses."
Selena looked confused, "Then why did he not have you killed outright, instead of exiling you?"
Starfire shook her head, "To do so would have marked him as a traitor. Instead he needed me off planet first so he could find some way to mark me as a criminal, thereby putting a bounty on my head. If I am correct it is a serious enough accusation with the manufactured evidence to be a capital crime and warrant my death. On Tamaran we do not have guilty until proven innocent and my status as a traitorous exile is more than enough to prove that I am guilty, whether I am or not. Once I am dead he can move on with his plans to take the crown and make himself the Grand Ruler, either by marriage to my sister or her death by defeating her via a challenge."
"But Star, from what I remember, only you and your sister have the ability to cast star bolts and the eye beams are unique too right? So Blackfire should be able to defeat this Ph'yzzon character easily, right?" Cyborg asked.
Starfire shook her head, "No, not really. Ph'yzzon was also experimented on by the Psions, giving him the power of bilocation. He can be in two places at once, and it makes him a challenging opponent. Also his flying skills are as good as mine, Blackfire may have been the better fighter, but she was not a natural flyer. She couldn't fly because of a rare disease, but that was fixed by the Psions when they held us both captive. Her flight skills are sloppy and two dimensional and he's a better tactician. As powerful as my sister is, I would count on Ph'yzzon winning a challenge against her and she knows this. As long as I live though, he cannot invoke the Tevr'y, There is no divorce on Tamaran, only death can dissolve our marriage."
"Well then, we'll do our best to keep you safe until Nightwing can get Batman to call off the search for you and this all quiets down. Thing is I don't know when that's gonna be. You're little display of power in Qurac has made the Quracki government very angry and they are threatening retaliation on the country they are blaming for this, Borastan, a strong western ally and with large oil reserves. If the Quracki's attack Borastan, the war could spread across the Middle East and cause an economic crisis like we haven't seen in ages."
Starfire became suddenly contemplative then smiled at Cyborg, "Enough of that for now, Cyborg…, Victor, tell me what has happened to you in the last fourteen years."
"Well you know I moved up to the Justice League. I did so not long after Sarah passed away." His voice cracked slightly.
"Oh Cyborg, not Sarah Simms, I am so very sorry to hear of that." Starfire said genuinely concerned as she reached out and touched the human side of his face.
Cyborg closed his human eye, then looked back at Starfire, he noticed Selena looked sadly at him too. "Yeah, it happened about six years ago, she got a rare form of leukemia and there was nothing the doctors could do. Even the medical geniuses at S.T.A.R. Labs and Wayne Medical couldn't find a cure. I first blamed myself for it all, thinking my power cores were leaking an unknown form of radiation, but the Doc's assured me I was clean and that her form of leukemia was a genetic mutation. I still felt guilty though, but Raven helped me through it. I was invited to join the Justice League by the big guy himself, Superman, and I took the offer. The Tower was too depressing since Sarah stayed with me there, I had to get away. Only Raven and Changeling, as Garfield call himself, are there now from the original members. You know they got married and have two kids, a girl and a boy. The girl, Jenny, is a lot like Green Bean, and even morphs like he does, but has Raven's empathy The boy, Ash, well he's gloomy like Raven and can form portals, oh and he was wings, dark raven like wings, they come out when he reveals his abilities. He can't change into animals like Jenny can, instead he changes into a dark angelic being, and when he does he goes by the name Azriel. Traditional name for the Angel of Death, like I said he's a dark little boy. Raven's sent him to Azaroth for a while to be trained and learn to control his darker self."
Starfire smiled, a reflective look on her face, then she sighed. "I should like to see them all, but I am not sure if now is the time. I have much to work through myself Victor. When I came back to Earth I resolved to never see any of you again as I did not want to relive the emotions and pain that would come with such visitations. Now that I have seen you again, I was correct that I would feel painful emotions, but I also feel good emotions, as you say bittersweet memories. Believe me though, if there was another place in this galaxy for me to go to, where I would have felt safe, I would have. I had no other choice but to come to Earth and I made a rash choice in seeking out Red X, but I did. Had I known he was Jason Todd, I would have sought someone else, but I did not. I only planned for my liaison with Red X to be temporary anyway, but I found him to be engaging, comfortable to be around and he allows me to be myself, unlike Dick who wanted me to conform to the ways of Earth."
Cyborg chuckled at that. "You know Star; I don't think Dick ever truly appreciated you. He loved you sure, but he never quite got over you being an alien. I'll be honest and tell you, that he and I had a man to man talk shortly before he asked you to marry him and he was concerned about you being an alien and a princess, but mostly being an alien. He said he loved you and wanted more than anything to be with you, but he worried about how compatible the two of you really were. If you the two of you could even have children, he always wanted kids and if your alien nature would affect the kids and those around them. He told me he planned to pop the question to you and wanted to marry you, but how would others accept it; a human marrying a Tamaranean. Frankly I thought he worried too much and I told him to take the plunge and ask you any way. Sometimes I wish I told him different and maybe wait, and no need in rushing something that didn't need to be rushed. The two you were doing fine without the pressure of marriage. Maybe you would've not left and we'd still be fighting bad guys together… Buy hey we can't dwell in the past can we?"
Starfire smiled, but it was bittersweet smile and she felt the tears well up in her eyes again. The memories of when she was on Earth before flooding her mind, Beast Boy, Raven, Cyborg, the other Teen Titans, and of course Dick Grayson. The boy who was Robin 20 years ago, the human boy she fell in love with and who in time returned her love and became her lover. Together they planned his transition to Nightwing and on the night he announced his change from Robin to the other Titans, was the same night he asked her to marry him. Of course she said yes, he was the young man who held her heart, the man she loved with all her heart, soul and body. Then the day before the wedding, betrayal! She found him in bed that fateful morning with Barbara Gordon and her heart shattered into a thousand pieces. Her world destroyed and she had to leave get away from the hurt and the pain. To her it seemed the others were protecting Dick, telling her to calm down, there had to be an explanation, but it was too much, so she flew out of there with the last happy memory she had left to her and that was of the day Robin let her keep Silkie. She flew to her room in the manor and grabbed Silkie, then she found Bumble Bee knowing Herald would be with her and asked him to open a portal to Tamaran that she needed to go home and get something important before the wedding. She did not tell them the truth, they would find out soon enough. Maybe after she calmed down, then she might come back, but Galfore forbade it and she remained on Tamaran.
She never heard from Nightwing again after her hasty departure, and it only confirmed in her mind that he did not want her or even cared that she was gone. He had Barbara now and she was back amongst her people, a princess again. For a while though she hoped he might try to contact her or show up on her balcony one day to explain everything and ask her to come back. She would check her private console every day at least ten times a day or go out on the balcony hoping to see him standing there, hand stretched out to her. He never did though and as time went on, she gave up hope. At first, she imagined that she would go back with him, forgiving him of his lapse of judgment, but over time she became bitter and no longer wanted to see him again.
By the time she married Karras, she rarely thought of Dick Grayson any more, but it was hard not too since she gave him her heart. On the day of her wedding to Karras, part of her felt like she was the one who was the traitor, but she held her head high and pushed Dick Grayson's memory away and enjoyed the ceremony and night of consummation with her new husband. If only Karras had not loved another too, she might have considered Dick Grayson dead to her, and given Karras what remained of her heart, but his love for Tayria prevented that. She thought it odd though that even after fourteen years away from Dick Grayson and two husbands later, that her heart still belonged to him.
Now Jason was in her life, she felt different. It was true what she said about Jason in that he appreciated her as a Tamaranian and he put no pressure on her. She felt comfortable around him and not like she had to be the naïve little lost alien girl, and she appreciated that. She knew she felt no physical attraction towards Jason, or so she thought, but she really never considered it. She liked Jason as a friend, someone she could trust and be open with or at least until now. After yesterday things had changed, Jason sending her off and not telling her who she would be going to. She felt that again she was unappreciated and not trusted. She had to push her anger back though, because she knew that duplicity was the way of humans and something she never quite understood. One thing she did know was that if the people of this planet ever got past their differences and headed out to the stars they would be a force to be reckoned with. She never met a race as duplicitous as humans could be.
She turned her attention back to Cyborg, "Victor, how much longer will I be here and where are Jason and Roy."
Cyborg's face to a serious tone, "I don't know how long you'll be here Star, that's why I brought that solar chamber here. As long as Batman is looking for you, we can't let you out of here to be seen. As far as Jason and Roy, well…, Jason's still on the run, he went into deep hiding, but Roy was caught and is now being held on the Watch Tower. Fortunately for you, he has no idea where you are, but Jason does and until we hear from him or he gets caught you're to stay put here."
Starfire grimaced, the thought of being this deep underground brought back too many bad memories of the Citadel and the Gordanians. "Victor, you have to get in touch with Jason, I cannot do the staying here, it would be like a prison…"
Cyborg held up his hands, "Star hold on, you won't be here too long, can't be, we just need to make sure Jason's deep enough before we get more instructions about what to do. Hopefully he won't try to rescue Roy, he'll more than likely get caught, ole Bats has set up traps for him if he comes as either Red X or Red Hood."
"I need to get in contact with Jason then…"
"No can do Star, I don't know where is. Only one person besides Jason knows where he is and he ain't telling."
Starfire considered what Cyborg said, "It is Nightwing correct? He knows where Jason is hiding…"
"You didn't here that from me Little Lady." Cyborg said trying to avoid Starfire's glare.
Starfire's visage turned thoughtful then determined. "Then you give me no choice Victor, as much as I dread it, I must speak with Nightwing."
Yes Dick Grayson slept with Barbara Gordon and was caught by Starfire. That was the betrayal, but the why he did it is coming up. For those who may not be aware of this, comic canon wise, Dick Grayson did sleep with Barbara Gordon the day before he was to marry Starfire (though she didn't catch him), unfortunately that wedding was a disaster with Evil Trigon Possessed Raven practically violating Starfire and killing the priest. Both Dick and Kory didn't recover and she left Earth for Tamaran, marrying General Ph'yzzon three months after returning home (I guess he was the rebound guy). The disaster of the wedding effectively ended Dick Grayson's and Starfire's relationship as committed lovers, though they would meet up again from time to time, the big reconciliation never happened.
Sarah Simms does not die in the comics, but she and Cyborg do have a falling out. I opted to go for a more tragic end to their relationship and one from which Cyborg never fully recovers. I want to set up a common ground of tragedy between Cyborg and Starfire. He's going to be Star's anchor in the upcoming chapters.
Raven and Beast Boy's kids are my own invention, and have no correlation in the comics. Though Raven and Changeling (Beast Boy) still run the Titans and live in Titans Tower still, similar to the current comics.
Anyway, more chapters in the works, angst is going to go up quite a bit so be warned.
Later
Hammer of Oblivion.
