Starfire arrived at the rendezvous point and found Robin and the Beast locked in battle.

It was not to the death, from what she could tell, but Robin was finding it hard to manage not harming the Beast while still staying far from its gnashing teeth.

"Back off!" he cried one too many times as the Beast, like he was speaking to a frustrated hound that snapped at him.

Starfire saw that Raven was laying, hood over her face, at the edge of the grove. She was still and lifeless, and so Starfire intervened.

"Stop this!"

Both alphas looked up quickly at the sound of her command, and the Beast roared in distaste when his challenge was interrupted. Robin, for his part, looked relieved.

"Starfire!"

He collapsed his bo staff and ran to here where she touched back down to earth. She reached for him and they embraced quickly before Starfire pulled away.

"Cyborg has awoken! He is weak, but alright and I did not want to leave him alone, but Raven-?"

"Only responsive for a moment. She told me what you asked her to relay. I did my best. Most of the Qival you mentioned are dead, but I can't say how many are left on the ship. I don't know what we're up against, but it looks like you and I are on our own."

Robin shot a dirty look at the Beast who had paced back over to Raven's unconscious body. Starfire understood in Robin's expression that the Beast's territorial nature was getting in the way of their victory.

Well, that wouldn't do.

Starfire marched over to the Beast and, with a single shove, knocked it back into a large tree with a loud crack. Its eyes went wide in both alarm and fury at the affront. She stared him down with impatience and her own brand of righteous fury.

"I can save her."

It was all she said, but her tone was so commanding, so sincere, and so powerful that the Beast understood. Though his hackles were still raised, his teeth still bared, he snorted out a loud breath which marked his assent to help, and his permission to allow Starfire to take Raven.

Gently Starfire lifted her friend into her strong arms and cradled her. Then, she took off once more from the ground and hovered a few inches in the air.

"We take the ship. You and the Beast will break through the line, and I shall find the supplies I need to save Raven. We are running of time, so we go now."

"Agreed," Robin said.

Starfire nodded and the three of them advanced upon the Xaltan ship.

The Beast went first, a battering ram that was meant to tear through any remaining Qival and eliminate them.

But when they turned the corner of the ship and headed for the main bay doors, they realized that the doors were sealed tight. Robin cursed beneath his breath and turned to Starfire, who's eyes were turning a brightened, laser green.

"Take Raven," she said, and gently she transferred her sleeping friend to Robin's arms. "I shall get us inside."

Starfire's eyes glowed, then her palms, and she raised him in front of her and planted her feet firmly on the ground.

Inside the ship, the Xaltans were filing the last of their reports into a closed-system database that was not connected to their planet communications systems. The Xaltans would guard the information until they returned to their mothership nearly a lightyear away. It was there that they would download and transfer the files.

Until then, they would have to ward off the aliens here who were attempting to thwart their plans. They had to keep the files safe.

A Xalta clicked and snorted at a small Qival who screeched its little sounds back at him and took off with a pack of five Qival to the main bay doors. An hour ago, the doors had been sealed shut, but there was no telling what the Earthlings would do next.

Already the Tamaranean had escaped custody, and an Earthling had crawled its way through their pipe system, nearly compromising their laboratory. Several Qival had been killed. There was a little bit of damage to the samples, but overall, it had simply delayed things. They were delayed long enough.

It was time to leave, and soon.

The pack of Qival arrived at the main bay doors when they hear the first shot of star bolts. It shook the panels of the walls and a few lights flickered, disturbed by the shock. The Qival froze in the entryway, staring at the large doors which still stood, albeit there was now smoke coming through the cracks. The Qival screeched and chittered to one another, all five of them still with anticipation.

Another SLAM of star bolt shook the doorway, and this time the bay doors grew weak, folding into themselves with a terrible cry of metal scraping metal. Daylight shone through the crack now made, and the Qival breathed heavily in the dark spaceship, bracing themselves for what was about to come next.

A massive groaning came from the doors, and powerful alien hands, as well as a pair of clawed beastly paws, were pulling on the doors, and finally, they broke from their hinges. The Qival attacked immediately, but Starfire leapt backward, collecting Raven from Robin's arms and allowing the Beast to be their tank in the front; their own personal vanguard of one. The five Qival hissed and scratched at the fleshy parts of the Beast but could not draw blood. He was too fast; his hide was too thick. He took them on easily and made a path for the other two to pass.

Robin flanked Starfire who flew over the fight and disappeared down into the spaceship halls, Raven still clutched in her arms. He followed her for as long as he could, but soon Xalta and Qival alike were swarming the halls.

Their numbers had drastically decreased. Only eight remained, and Robin estimated that there were only three to five Xalta on the ship entirely, and as soon as all their poisonous pets were defeated, they would be helpless.

Robin drew their attention and Starfire left him behind to continue her search, disappearing down the long spaceship hallways. Robin hoped that the Beast wouldn't be delayed too long behind him. Eight Qival on his own was already too much, but he did his best to keep himself from getting scratched. If the poison didn't reach his blood, he was sure that he would be fine. His cape, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. A wayward Qival claw slashed through the incredibly strong fabric like it was nothing. Robin jumped backward and found himself pinned to the hallway wall, his only weapon the bo staff, a few bird-a-rangs, and his wits, which were fraying from the exhaustion of the last two days.

Suddenly, all the Qival turned in unison. They were looking down the hall that led back to the entrance, their large, bug-like eyes wide in alarm when the Beast slammed into all eight of them. They went tumbling into a massive pile of claws, teeth, and screams.

Robin let out a huge sigh of relief, caught his breath, and reentered the battle.

Starfire flew carefully but with haste.

Raven stirred once in her arms after the screeching had started behind her from the fight. Now there was nothing. Starfire raced around the ship, looking for anything that might help her. A lab, a garden, anything! Antidotes for Qival poisoning came from plant extracts, like the one in the room that had held her prisoner. Yes, those plants could paralyze, but they could also heal if mixed with the proper compounds.

Starfire wanted to shout in frustration. Alarm and warning bells were going off back the way she came, screeching and bloodshed muddling her thoughts.

Then she saw it.

Huge glass double doors led to what could only be a conservatory of what seemed to be hundreds of plants. The source of specialized air filtration that the Xalta aliens needed during deep space travel. It was the heart of the ship, and the doors were not even locked.

Starfire threw them open with one arm and rushed in. She lay Raven down on the cool tile floor and turned to barricade the doors behind her using crates of soil and a few heavily potted plants.

Then she set to work.

Starfire had never really made a reversal agent for Qival poison before, but she had heard of it; had seen it done on one occasion. Raven was practically on death's door, so Starfire had better just try her best.

She found the plants that looked most familiar to her and began sniffing them. She cut one – like the aloe-looking plant from her cell before – open and let the juices trickle out of it into a small bowl she had found on a workbench. Then she opened a particularly black lily, plucking amethyst-colored stamen from it and grinding it into a paste with her teeth. She spat that in the bowl, too.

Starfire knew that antidotes on Earth had completely different properties, but this, she was sure, would heal a Tamaranean from Qival poisoning.

As long as she made sure to give Raven enough of it, she was hopeful that it would heal a half-demoness as well.

Hopeful, but not sure.

When Starfire had finished the concoction that she had heard of but only had seen made once, she turned to Raven who lay motionless on the floor.

"Please," she asked no one, "please let this heal my friend."

She lifted Raven's hood and saw her face once more. Her grey skin was now full of patches of black and purple, her veins doubled in size, trying desperately to pump healthy blood through her body, but only furthering the spread of the poison and putting strain on Raven's heart. Starfire could smell the necrotic flesh, she didn't need Beast Boy's heightened smell to notice, and Starfire held her breath when she forced open Raven's mouth and trickled the strange potion down her throat.

If I fail, she thought briefly, the Beast may try to kill me.

Starfire watched in fear when the potion began to trickle back out of Raven's mouth, as though her friend did not have the ability to swallow it down. With regret, Starfire pinched Raven's nose and covered her mouth with her hand, gently, and asked, "please, Raven. You must!"

Raven didn't hear her, but her body was still alive, and it needed air, so it swallowed. Starfire's tears fell in a small moment of relief.

Now, all she could do was wait.

Killing the last of the Qival had been a hard-won battle, but Robin and the Beast came out unscathed.

A miracle, if ever there was one.

The Xalta clicked and snorted their displeasure, but they had been beaten. They had no weapons, only minions, and those were all defeated. There were five Xalta total: a captain, two researchers, a botanist, and an engineer. They had no way to contact their mothership, and so they were stranded here, at the mercy of the Earthlings.

Robin didn't know that, of course, as their language was gibberish to him. He warily watched all five of them as they stood outside the laboratory and voiced their hatred and displeasure at their defeat, but they made no moves to attack.

Starfire had set the order to kill, but surely if they erased all the research, they could let these aliens go?

He was hesitant to make the call. Starfire was somewhere in the belly of the ship saving Raven and therefore could not be consulted, and the Beast was so bloodthirsty that it had taken all his remaining patience to make the monster stand down until a decision was reached. Robin glanced into the laboratory behind the wall of Xalta, who seemed determined to die for their research, and saw the many samples of soil, plants and earth that they had stolen in their travels here. He feared the potential of the Xalta's mission being deemed successful, and just how horrifying it would be if they returned with thousands of Qival and other reinforcements should they decide to colonize Earth.

But did they have to die?

The Beast snuffed and paced behind Robin, anxious and ready to carry out the kill order, but Robin waited.

Just like before, though it was the last thing he was good at doing, Robin waited.

Starfire ran her hands over Raven's skin and felt the heavy lines of her veins begin to recede back to more normal size.

The blackness in her face was becoming dark bruises, but Starfire's heart sped up when she realized that those would heal.

Just as Raven would heal if given the chance.

"Oh, thank goodness," she said to no one, holding Raven's icy hands in her warm ones. "Thank goodness."

After several minutes, the Xalta's cries of anger turned to desperation, and then finally silence.

They did not know what their fate was going to be at the hands of these aliens, but for now, they remained quiet.

Robin and the Beast stared them down, the war at a brief pause. Then, the Beast's head snapped up, and he ran to Robin's left down the hall and out of sight.

It was awkward to be left alone with the enemy, and though they seemed defenseless, they also outnumbered him. Robin didn't betray any worry over it, though, but he did steal a glance down the hall where the Beast had disappeared. Then he saw what was happening.

The Beast was trotting beneath Starfire, who flew with Raven cradled once more in her arms. Raven was still unconscious, but the black lines that had crisscrossed her face was far less stark against her grey skin.

"Did you do it?" Robin asked, his voice hopeful.

"Yes," Starfire said, but then shook her head, "well, I think so."

She approached the Xalta who shied away from the Tamaranean, a princess of one of their oldest enemies. Yet she pleaded in Tamaranean, a language they were sure to know, and asked them if she had indeed been successful. That she would show mercy if they examined her poisoned friend.

The hostages gave each other wary looks, but one stepped forward. The botanist. It reached out a hesitant hand to touch Raven, and the Beast launched forward to kill the alien for it. Starfire put out a knee and knocked the Beast to the side with a swift kick to the ribs.

The Beast roared but she yelled, "this is for Raven!"

Robin, too, stood in front of the Beast to bar its way. Inside, Garfield was begging him to stand down. The Beast then had no choice but to yield.

The terrified Xalta had pulled its strange-looking hand back but reached out once more in response to Starfire's gentle encouragement. It ran its skin along Raven's, sniffed her once, twice, and pulled on the lids of her eyes. The black webbing was nearly gone, though her veins were bloodshot. It clicked and snorted at its comrades who responded in their strange language. Then the captain stepped forward, and he spoke in a garbled Tamaranean that Starfire could only just understand.

Her shoulders sagged, and she turned to Robin and the Beast with relief.

"She will live."

The joy was so great in all of them that Garfield almost pulled his consciousness forward enough to expel the Beast back into his mind, but the Beast was steadfast. He would not yield for that.

"Starfire," Robin said, "what now?"

"I have offered them mercy in exchange for examining Raven, but their research must be destroyed."

That information she relayed to them, and the outrage and shouting started again, but Starfire silenced them with more Tamaranean. The threatening of her world, she told them, would not be tolerated. Their mission, as of this moment, was now a failure.

The Beast stood watch over Raven, cradling her cold body against him once more as Starfire and Robin set to work. They destroyed the entire lab, and Starfire demanded their files, which the Xalta gave up begrudgingly. She demanded of them three times if there was anything else, but there wasn't. Even if Starfire hadn't destroyed their work, the Xalta would never come to Earth again. Not if they had to deal with a Tamaranean princess, a were-beast, and a particularly skillful human.

No, they would never be back, but Tamaran was still their enemy. Perhaps even more so now.

Starfire would send word back to her home planet and warn them of the Xalta movement in her sector of the galaxy. Until then, she would believe that they had given everything up.

With the main bay doors destroyed, Starfire advised that they get as far as they could all squeezed together into the pressurized cabin of the ship. The vacuum of space would no doubt kill their plants because the ship wasn't properly sealed, and Starfire was sorry for the botanist, who cried in distress at the thought. But they would live, the five of them, and they would return home.

They would return to their mothership a light year away, limping along in a broken craft, and they would tell the tale of Earth, a planet which should never be set foot upon again.