A/N: So the contest is still on! Keep on guessing folks.

-AnaBananaMontana

Kori knew where she was. It was dark, and wind was pulling at her hair. Trees rustled around her, and the grass was cold underneath her feet. Her shoes were long gone.

She couldn't see. There were scrapes all over her body from where the glass cut deep. Blackfire had dropped her in the middle of Rose Park and had flown away, leaving Kori unsure.

But within moments, she'd returned, and Kori was still kneeling in the grass, her hands fisted in the grass.

She stood up. The skirt of her dress was torn and shedding feathers, and tendrils of hair were falling from its crown.

"Sister! You don't look so good!" Blackfire was stumbling around towards Kori, looking very angry.

"Blackfire! You have to stop!" Kori's voice was raw from yelling over the wind, and rain was beginning to slice into her cuts. Her hair began to be soaked, but she was too busy to thank the lord that she'd put on waterproof mascara.

Blackfire's hands were heating up, purple fire brightening the rain and lighting her sister's face in ghastly violet.

She had only one chance, and that was that she'd worked on her powers enough so that she could have a fighting chance against Blackfire in the driving rain. The rain would weaken Blackfire's powers, but it would weaken hers too. She just had to hope it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Standing up, shaking from head to toe, Kori lit her hands and felt the familiar warmth that accompanied the green energy. Her sister was going to kill her if she didn't do something about it.

"I won't let you ruin my life again, sister!" Blackfire's voice was drowned partially by the rain, but she could hear the words.

Out of the dark, a purple shot just barely grazed Kori's side, and it burned a hole in her dress.

Kori and Blackfire began to fight, not evenly matched, but neither gaining any ground against the other. One moment, Kori would dodge a shot, but soon enough, another was landing at her shoulder or her leg. The same went for her own aim. Blackfire would dodge, but then she would hear a yell or a grunt that proved that she had landed a shot or two.

The rain drove shards of cold into her bones, but Kori knew that if the it lessened Blackfire could see clearly again, there was no way that Kori could stand a chance for longer than a few minutes.


Everything was changing for Robin.

He'd known there was something he should be seeing about Kori, and he knew that she reminded him strongly of Starfire.

He should've known it was her. She was still as beautiful as she'd always been, and she had been right there the entire time. When she asked about Starfire in the car, when she told him to stay away, when she walked into that party with that twinkle in her eye—she was there the whole time and he should have seen it.

He wouldn't ever let her get hurt again.

The six of them, Bruce, Tim, Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven (Kiki and Shift were being detained at the manor by Selena and Alfred), sped down the road in the Batmobile towards the lights.

Halfway down Park Avenue, they saw clash of purple and green in the middle of deserted Rose Park, and they changed their direction.

At least it meant that Kori was still alive, and she was fighting back. But there was far more purple than green.


Blackfire was slipping. Kori could feel it.

Blackfire was out of practice from her time in prison, and it was clear that she hadn't worked too long on her powers when she was chasing Kori. That was her mistake. She had assumed that her powers were just like they used to be, and she let her pride control her. Even though she only spent a day in prison, Kori knew what Tameranean prison looked like, and it wasn't pretty. It would weaken the best of them.

Kori knew she was getting closer to beating her sister, but she didn't know if she could kill her. That was Kori's mistake.

They had pushed into the forest and made their way to Dillman Cliff, the cliff looking over Dillman Lake, hundreds of feet above. Blackfire had pushed her into the clearing behind the gate that kept civilians out of range of the drop. Kori was being backed to the cliffside, and she was edging closer and closer to certain death.


Robin was the first to the clearing. He saw her there, her hair falling out of its crown and her dress disheveled. Her face was streaked with rain, and her hands were lit green, washing her slender figure in green light. Her face was pale and her makeup was running down her face.

She had never been more beautiful than she was then.


Kori had found an opening. Blackfire had lunged forward, and Kori dodged, so the two switched places, and Blackfire was the one in danger of falling off the cliff. Just as Kori paused to catch her breath, Blackfire sent a gigantic bolt of energy at her that hit her square in the chest, and she collapsed.

"STARFIRE!"

Kori opened her eyes from where she'd fallen to the ground, and saw Robin running towards her. He knelt beside her and pulled her to him, as Kori's chest bloomed with pain.

Blackfire's eyes widened as Bruce, Tim, and the Titans burst from the tree line, poised to fight.

Kori watched, helpless, as her friends and her sister fought, and she wished she could yell at them to please stop, because someone was going to get hurt. She watched almost in slow motion as Blackfire lost her balance, and she fell with grace over the side of the cliff.

No one could fly in this rain. It was like nails. Maybe, if she'd been prepared for it, she might have been able to save herself.

All noise from the driving rain drifted away and Kori couldn't think. All she could see was her big sister's face as a kid, full of innocence and joy. She saw her sister's face, filled with that surprise, as she tumbled over the side of the cliff, and she could almost imagine an apology in her eyes. She just wanted to go back and never let her sister go, never do anything to make Blackfire want to kill her. Never come to Earth at all.

Kori ignored the pain in her stomach and wrenched away from Robin and crawled away from him, dragging herself across the grass to the ledge, and looking over. Her sister was floating in the water, waves throwing her body harshly against the cliff side, and she sunk below the waves.

Either Blackfire simply couldn't fly in the rain, or she didn't want to.

Kori screamed with all her might. Someone had to hear her. Someone had to know that this was all her fault. Someone had to see that Kori was the one who should've died, that she was the one who ruined everything for everyone. Why wasn't it her? Why wasn't she the one with water swirling down her throat and into her lungs? Why was she the one still breathing, even if she was breathing raggedly and barely at all? Somehow she couldn't find any air to breathe, it was all replaced with water falling into her open mouth. She sat on her knees and she looked up at the rain, wishing it could drown her too.

Kori even tried to follow her off the ledge, but hands pulled her back and held her with an iron grip.

Robin recognized the pain Starfire was feeling. Losing your family sucks, even when they try to kill you. No matter how Starfire changed, she would always care too much for others.

"I'm so sorry, Starfire. I'm so, so sorry." Robin let her cry because she was still alive and her sister was sinking beneath the waves.


Two days later, and Starfire still hadn't left her room. This was how Tameraneans mourned, by removing themselves to think only of the one they have lost, out of respect.

Robin came in and sat with her, held her hand. Sometimes it was Raven, or Cyborg, or Beast Boy.

One day, Sami Magis came in.

"Bruce explained everything to me. I'm so sorry, Kori. I'm sorry about Dani and your sister. And I'm sorry I had anything to do with it."

Starfire looked at her and smiled slightly. "Thank you, Sami. Could you please send Bruce in?"

Bruce and Starfire talked for fifteen minutes, and then Starfire began to pack while Bruce sent for Robin.

Robin walked in and sat down as Starfire zipped her last bag. She took her box, and she handed it to him.

"What is this?"

Starfire sat next to him. "It was mine. It has all the pictures of the Titans together. I have the key."

Robin looked at her, confused. "I don't understand."

Starfire sat on her feet next to him and looked him in the eyes. "I know you want me to go back to the Tower with you." He looked excited. "But I can't. As much as I want things to go back to how they were, I am a different person now, and I can't go back there yet."

Robin frowned. "But, even after all this, you still don't want to go back?"

Starfire nodded. "It's especially after all this that I can't go back."

Robin shook his head. He just got her back, and he wasn't going to imagine letting her go again. "I'm not letting you leave, Star. Not this time."

Starfire smiled sadly. "It's not that I don't want to go back, Robin. I just can't. Not after this. I can't imagine trusting anyone so soon after... after Dani. But I promise, you will see me again."

He understood it then. He saw it in her eyes, in the way she sat on her couch, as if she wanted nothing more to fly out the window. This wasn't her home anymore, the way that the Titans Tower wasn't home for her after she thought the Titans betrayed her. The way she had to leave Tameran after her sister sold her. He understood that even if he made her stay with him, made her go back to Titans Tower, she would never be happy. She had to do this herself, or she wouldn't ever find her way again.

"Where will you go?"

Starfire smiled. "I'm going to find my own way home."

Starfire hugged Robin and left her room, closing her door behind her, and she passed Bruce, Sami, Tim, and Selena on her way out.

Sami was nodding as Selena and Bruce spoke.

There was a position that needed to be filled now that Starfire was leaving.

Tim caught her eye as she passed, and Starfire tried to send all her love, all her sorrow into that one glance, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't ever going to be enough. She wished she could give him a real goodbye, but if anyone could convince her to stay, it was Tim. She owed him that and so much more, but she wouldn't ever get away if she was thinking about everything she might've said. Everything she should have said.

She passed the Titans, who were arguing over the last piece of pizza. Only Raven seemed to notice Starfire passing, and she smiled and waved, a sad look in her eyes, but she understood enough.

Starfire was moving on, away from Gotham, from even more bad memories about betrayals by best friends and leaving loved ones.

And when she was ready, she would come back, and she would be ready to be a Titan again.

A/N: So that's the end of the actual story, but don't worry, there's an epilogue, though it's pretty short. It wraps up the story quite nicely in my opinion, but I'm tossing around the idea of a sequel. We'll see, since I'm not sure what a sequel would be about. Here's an idea: if you want to see a sequel of this story, comment what you think I should do or private message me because I'm interested in continuing with this idea, but I'm not sure how. Maybe it could be about Sami and Tim? The down side of that is that Sami isn't my character, and I wouldn't want to steal her from her owner I'mOnlyHumanDude. So, let me know what you think in a review, or don't. That's cool too. And may I just say that you guys have been the greatest readers there ever were, and that I am so sad to see this story end. I love all of you so much because you guys are truly my first readers, and I have never been more proud to be associated with this fan base because you are all such amazing people. Remember, I'm not totally done. Next week, expect a short but hopefully fulfilling epilogue, in which I tie up all my loose ends in a probably-not-as-neat-as-I'd-like bow. But I hope you enjoy it anyway! P.S. the results of the contest will be revealed in the epilogue, so you still have time to guess!

-AnaMontana