Thanks for the review. I know I haven't updated in a few months and said this would be the last chapter but this chapter kept running on longer than I expected it to so I'm cutting it up into 3 parts. Still working on the last chapter, but the next I will post tomorrow. It took me a while to figure out how to keep the story going in the direction I envisioned. My goal is to have this story done by my birthday (which is in 2 days). I know, lots of broken promises about posts, but I feel like it's time to wrap this story up so I can move on and so you can all finally find out how this all plays out.
Enjoy.
Chapter 24: Reconciliation
The gelatinous space worm quickly left his fiancée's room. Two officers stood at attention to salute the prince as he exited the room before slackening back to a more relaxed stance. The Schlurch headed for the control room down the hall behind a lobby door to see what set off the alarm. Right as he was entering the code for the cockpit door, an arrow shot next to him and into the keypad, disabling the alarms and the control room door.
The Schlurch pushed a button on his hoverboard, activating a silent alarm to alert his security team that he was in trouble. The sentinels guarding Blackfire's room headed towards the flight deck to seize the prince's attacker, both were met with disks flying into them; which got stuck in their gelatinous bodies. The disks exploded, but only temporarily stunned them for a few seconds before they went after their spiky haired attacker, who ran down the hall to lead the watchmen in the opposite direction from the archer confronting the prince.
"How dare you attack me!" The Schlurch shouted in his native tongue, which only sounded like gurgling sounds to his opponent.
"I have no idea what you're saying." Speedy admitted as he aimed another arrow at the blob. "But you're not taking Blackfire anywhere."
"Stupid human." The space worm laughed. "Risking your life for a lowly thief."
Though Speedy couldn't understand the Schlurch, he could tell the slime ball was mocking him. The archer shot the arrow between what he believed were the Schlurch's eye.
Blackfire wasn't sure what was going on, but when the alarms stopped she assumed whatever was wrong with the ship had been fixed. That's when Blackfire realized she had finally hit rock bottom. The thought of possibly dying on a malfunctioning ship sounded more appealing then being forced to marry that grotesque blob.
It was just a game of strategy when she set her sister up to marry him. Blackfire knew Glgrdsklechhh was gross and was a bit underhanded, but she had no idea how twisted and manipulative he was. She never really thought she was dooming her sister to such a terrible life. But Blackfire realized that back then, she wouldn't have even cared if she was. All she cared about back then was claiming what she believed was her rightful place as Grand Ruler of Tamaran, just as Glgrdsklechhh only cared about becoming Emperor of his home planet.
'I guess we really aren't that different.' Blackfire thought to herself.
She remembered when she was being escorted off her home planet, hearing her sister's first speech as Grand Ruler. Blackfire was surprised how quickly Starfire gave it all up, stating that she felt she wasn't the best person fit to rule the planet. At the time Blackfire thought her naïve little sister was a fool to give up such a prestigious title. But, now she realized her sister was truly thinking like a selfless leader, putting the good of the world and its people before her own wants and needs. Basically the opposite of what Blackfire spent her whole life doing.
The ebony haired Tamaranean never fully appreciate her sister's selflessness. Come to think of it, she never appreciated her sister at all. She always thought of her baby sister as competition for the crown, but never as a person who possibly had different aspirations. Blackfire mentally scoffed at the irony in how when she had plenty of free time to get to know Starfire, she kept her distance and only visited when she saw an opportunity to ruin her life. But when she finally realized most of her interpretations were based on sibling rivalry, it was too late to restore their relationship.
Roy had spent the last 2 months convincing Blackfire that Starfire would most likely forgive her for her past behavior, she almost started to believe it was possible. But any chance of reconciliation has probably gone out the window now. She only hopes the other Titans aren't too hard on Roy for bringing her to the party; if he even told them the truth, that is. He could easily get away with saying he didn't know who she really was. After all, Blackfire was able to fool the Titans who did know her, even her own sister, for a few hours.
Blackfire's head was starting to hurt from reflecting about her past transgressions. There was nothing more she could do about the situation anyway; as long as she married the Schlurch, Starfire was safe. Blackfire figured Roy would most likely forget about her after a few weeks, at most. Hopefully one day he'd forgive her for lying about her continued involvement with the space slug. But right now, all she wanted was to escape her reality through sleep. She curled into a ball on a small bench in her little room, facing the window. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down enough to fall asleep. But before Blackfire could even dare to dream, she heard the sliding door open behind her.
"What do you want now?" Blackfire asked her groom, not even bothering to turn around or open her eyes.
"I was hoping to get you out of here." A familiar voice answered in Blackfire's native language. "But if you wish to proceed with the wedding, I will respect your wishes."
Blackfire hadn't spoken, much less heard, Tamaranean since her exile.
"Starfire?" The surprised ebony haired Tamaranean turned to see her little sister standing in the doorway.
"Hello, sister." Starfire responded in English.
Blackfire instantly jumped up from her bench and attempted to greet her rescuer. The redheaded Tamaranean recognized the cuffs on her sister's wrists and used her laser vision to burn through the link chain that connected the cuffs, but the actual cuffs on Blackfire's wrists were immune to the lasers.
"You came to save me?" The confused older sister asked.
"Do you not wish to be saved?" The younger sister responded.
"I just thought that…" Blackfire tried to gather the right words. "After everything I did-"
"You are still my sister." Starfire interrupted. "Though we may have had our differences in the past, my only wish is that one day you and I can be friends."
"I'd like that too." Blackfire agreed as she hugged her little sister.
The Tamaranean sisters fled the room and headed down the hallway towards the control room. As they turned the corner, they ran into three crew members who immediately attacked them. Blackfire instinctively attempted to use her powers, before she remembered the inhibitor cuffs. Luckily, she studied hand-to-hand combat skills from multiple planets. As Starfire used her starbolts to fight off the crew, Blackfire used what few combat techniques she knew of that might work on the gelatinous alien race. Most of the starbolts passed right through the green aliens and most of Blackfire's blows were blocked, and the ones that weren't resulted in her hand getting stuck to the aliens' gooey flesh.
When her starbolts weren't working on them, Starfire changed strategy and used her bolts to hit their hoverboards. After the first two aliens fell and stuck to the floor, Blackfire also changed tactics and kicked the hoverboard out from under her target and freed her hand from his slimy physique. The sisters ran down the hall and bumped into Robin as he was still distracting the two guards. Starfire threw her energy bolts at the boards under the guards chasing Robin, making them stick to the floor like the previous Schlurches.
"Thanks." Robin thanked his girlfriend before glaring at her sister.
Robin had calmed down a bit since the truth came out, but he still had his reservations about trusting someone who had caused the person he cared about the most so much pain. However, Robin knew Starfire still cared about Blackfire and was willing to give the ex-con one more chance for both Starfire and Speedy's sake. He noticed the inhibitor cuffs still on Blackfire's wrists and took out a picklock from his utility belt and unlocked each cuff.
"Thank you." The ebony haired Tamaranean thanked her sister's significant other while rubbing her sore wrists.
"Now let's find Speedy and get out of here." Robin instructed as the trio walked down the hall.
"Speedy's here, too?" Blackfire asked in disbelief.
"This rescue mission was his idea." Starfire informed her older sister.
Blackfire couldn't believe Roy was willing to put himself on the line for her again. She was especially surprised that Starfire and even Robin were willing to help her as well.
Back down the hall, one of the previously fallen crew members managed to inch his way to a wall and pulled the emergency lever that activated sprinklers throughout the vessel.
"It is raining... sea water?" Starfire asked, confused by the water falling from the ceiling and noticing the heavy salt water smell.
"It's the sprinkler system." Robin observed. "Is there a fire?"
"I wish." Blackfire replied, noticing the fallen guards sliding quickly through the hall with the three previous crew members catching up.
The trio ran down the hall to look for Speedy. When the door to the lobby in front of the control room opened, it revealed Speedy and Glgrdsklechhh fighting, with the gelatinous alien winning. The arrow Speedy attempted to shoot the Schlurch with went right through him and the two have been struggling against one another for a while. But after the sprinkler system was activated, Glgrdsklechhh jumped off his hoverboard and started sliding on the floor, ramming back and forth through the archer, and knocking the wind out of him each time.
"Roy!" Blackfire shouted, her excitement to see him overshadowed by her concern.
The Tamaranean sisters threw their energy bolts at the space worm, barely missing as he continued to torment the archer. Robin put a scrambler on the door behind them to lock the automatic electronic doors, preventing the crew members from entering and Glgrdsklechhh from leaving.
Blackfire flew over and picked up Roy, to give him a chance to catch his breath. The gelatinous space worm switched targets to Robin and Starfire. The redheaded Tamaranean flew up a corner as she continued throwing starbolts, while Robin used his acrobatic skills to dodge the Schlurch and threw some of his projectile weapons. The Schlurch shot at them with his slime, and slinked himself up the walls to get closer to his bride. As her groom made his way to the ceiling above her, Blackfire noticed the door to the control room with an arrow through the code box next to it.
She quickly rushed to the door and gently settled Speedy, sitting up against the wall, before using her alien strength to open the door. The gelatinous alien saw this and tried to relax his grasp on the ceiling, Blackfire quickly pulled Speedy in before closing the door behind her. She was prepared to fight off a pilot or two but the controls were set on autopilot; she assumed one or more of the previous crew members she encountered must have been the pilot.
The ebony haired Tamaranean gently removed Speedy's quiver and put it to the side, before gently lying him on the wet floor to recover. She knelt over him from his side to block the falling water from his face.
"Roy, are you okay?" Blackfire asked.
"I'm much better now." He said with a smile and a slight wheeze.
"I can't believe you're here." She said with a tone of relief.
"I couldn't just let my girlfriend marry The Swamp Thing." The ginger joked.
"So… I'm still your girlfriend?" The Tamaranean asked.
"Unless you really wanted to marry that nasty space slug." He replied wryly.
"I'm just surprised, after all the lying and causing this huge mess." She reminded him, ignoring his teasing.
"I haven't been very honest lately either." The archer admitted. "After you told me the truth, I came clean to everyone and took full responsibility for lying. Robin and Bumblebee are still deciding on consequences. I figured I can't be mad at you for something I also did… times, like 10. In fact, lately, I've only been completely honest when I'm talking to you."
Blackfire smiled, relieved that Roy didn't write her off for lying, like many before him.
"I may have told over a million lies in my lifetime." The humanoid alien confessed. "But I never lied about liking you, Roy Harper."
She was about to lean over to kiss him when they heard Robin's birdarangs ricochet off the door and brought their attention back to the situation at hand.
"He's too slick." Roy groaned as he struggled to sit up. "My arrows shot right through him."
"So did our energy bolts." Blackfire added. "When we kicked the hovercraft out from under them, they stuck to the floor long enough for us to get away. But when the sprinklers went off… Wait a minute, that's it!"
"What?" Roy was confused.
"What you were saying earlier: 'Space slug', 'swamp thing'." She remembered. "Drenthax IV is a swamp planet. They like damp environments and regularly bathe in the salty swamp waters. The water in the sprinklers is most likely from their swamps. They're like earth slugs."
"In that case, I think I might have just what we need." The archer caught on as he grabbed his quiver.