Equilibrium
Chapter 4
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans!
Her mind was whirling with explanations and bewilderment as she assessed what had happened. Yes, she appeared to be still at the edge of the pool, but the palace was in plain sight, as if it—or the pool—had decided to move closer. The light of what should have been early evening had faded to an unsettling shade of crimson and there was not a sound to be heard. A panic rose in her throat as a solution came to mind: She had been pulled in. The Pool of Exile had taken her and now she stared down the hostile face of death. What could she do? What could be done? It was impossible to escape the pool once it has claimed its quarry. She was trapped.
Would anyone notice her absence? Would her family care that she had disappeared? Would they send a search party to investigate her departure? Probably not. They had their precious daughter. Their precious Starfire. A snarl arose from her lips. Even now, Blackfire could feel nothing but hate for her sister. A delicate chortle reached her ears and Blackfire spun to greet her assailant.
"We are so similar, you and I."
The raven-haired girl gawked at the intruder in awe and wonder. This was the owner of the voice! The voice that had lured her from the palace in the first place. A woman, perhaps no older than twenty revolutions, stood before her. Blackfire's jaw dropped considerably farther as she gazed upon the face. She had seen this countenance before—this woman's likeness in an image, somewhere, but Blackfire could not place it. The woman could have easily passed for an elder version of Blackfire with a cool, composed tone, witty demeanor, and a hint of icy disposition to match. She was very striking; raven tresses fell delicately past trim shoulders, curling slightly inward at the ends. Her elegant garnet coloured attire tightly accented her features as slender arms rose to cross before her. Such guise and decorum suggested that this woman was of royal heritage. Her fine, painted lips always seemed to be pressed into a bitter smile, as they were now. "Very much alike. I have been expecting you, but you came later than I had hoped."
It took Blackfire a moment to gather her wits about her and voice the inquiry that most pressed her mind.
"Who...who are you?"
The woman raised a pencil-thin eyebrow as her lips curled into a cruel smile. She took a step toward the young girl; her glossy, dark hair swayed beautifully behind her. Her chin rose in pride as she drew herself up to her full height.
"I am sister to the Queen, Fayetilfire."
"...Wh-what?" Blackfire stuttered in disbelief. "The Queen's sis—Mother's...but she has never spoken of..."
"Ah yes," the woman sighed dramatically, "I would deem it rational that my darling baby sister would not have spoken of me to any of the children, so I could see where that would come as quite a shock for you, my beloved niece."
Blackfire's eyes widened as she forced her mouth to clap shut, a recollection of a moment in time returning to her at last. She had seen this face on the palace wall, in a chamber she had been forbidden to enter. Blackfire had entered the room just to spite her parents and she was not disappointed. There were many aging artifacts of the old world, most of them locked away to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. Blackfire mused over an oddly fashioned relic for a moment, what wrong hands were there left to fall into? Curiosity had always been a fault of hers, and she could not resist reaching out to touch the craft. A sharp flash of bright light flew across her eyes and she froze. Maybe she would leave this unusual object be. She continued further into the highly arched room, marveling at the silly little trinkets and other unfamiliar odds and ends of the ancients. Blackfire had paused before a vast portrait of a beautiful woman all in crimson. Her face was very lovely, but she had held such a piercing expression; her delicate eyebrows tilted down grimly, her lips pressed into a taut frown, as if she had every cause to hold a great loathing for the world around her. Her eyes held a terribly fierce capacity, Blackfire could feel her eyes burn to behold it. The smoldering fury raging in the woman's eyes seemed incomprehensible to anyone but herself. Blackfire felt a strange connection to this woman, whoever she was, and the image was committed to her memory and stored away as two guards (the same from the assault of her sister and eventual recapture), stormed in and propelled her none too pleasantly out the door.
Blackfire's eyes narrowed slightly in hesitance toward a particularly interesting blade of grass. "Perhaps not as surprising as you think."
Fayetilfire's smile faded somewhat and her eyes widened faintly in interest. "I see."
An uncomfortable silence, perhaps more awkward for the raven-haired girl than the woman, ensued. Blackfire could not hold her aunt's rigid gaze and reluctantly cast her eyes downward. The intensity grew, drilling into Blackfire's forehead. She swallowed hard, heatedly thinking of any possible way to dispel it.
"You poor child," Fayetilfire's fair voice issued around Blackfire's being and teased a soft lull around her ears, imploring that she look up. When Blackfire refused, a ringing resounded deafeningly in her ears as reprisal for ignoring its presence. She glanced up unwillingly. Shadows seemed to lurch over her aunt's face as she neared the raven-haired girl. Blackfire felt a great discomfort as well as a calming ease at Fayetilfire's approach. She was unsure whether to trust the woman or run from her. Unfortunately, she did not get the chance to decide, as her aunt stood quietly before her. Fayetilfire gently brushed her knuckles beneath Blackfire's chin, tilting her niece's head upward. Blackfire shuddered at the action, a tremor climbing her spine. Her aunt's ardent eyes met hers. She paused with her lips parted slight to study her niece's face. "I can see it in your eyes." Her voice dropped to a despairing undertone. "You have been denied."
Blackfire looked up at her aunt in utter torment. Words could not describe how the young girl felt. Emotions flooded her in a fleeting swirl of color and sensation; amazement, admiration, alarm, hate, bitterness, fright, remorse. She was finding it incredibly difficult to breathe, the edges of her vision were fading, and her body quaked beneath her in instability. She could sense her aunt move deftly to her side as she fell forward and catch her in open arms. The woman gently lowered the both of them to the earth, kneeling and sitting back, allowing the minor to lean in the crook of her neck. She murmured words of encouragement to her niece and smoothed her dark, silky hair. Her palm tenderly stroked along Blackfire's shoulder- blades and the touch sent prickles of awareness through the girl's skin.
Blackfire shut her eyes tightly, a memory playing behind closed lids.
The raven-haired girl arrogantly ignored the personage behind her, feigning aloofness as she always had toward this woman. Sitting on the edge of the windowsill, Blackfire gazed out onto the Tamaranian Plain, trees waved in the distance as the creatures of the Setting crept from their nests and burrows into the open air. She gazed intently on a pretty little shetza, a bird of prey that hunted after the Setting, soaring on the wind. Blackfire longed to exchange realities with the creature, lifting and falling on the breeze, free to wherever it would take her. Her gaze drew toward the sheer vertical drop of the palace wall. Perhaps if she fell just right—she could feel it, if only for a moment—
"Daughter! Please do not lean so far outward. It frightens me."
Blackfire sneered at the voice and did as she was told, but did not turn in its direction. The owner of the voice continued.
"You know as well as I, that you cannot—"
"Silence!" Blackfire snapped, whirling to face the figure. "I know of what I am incapable, you need not tell me time and time again!"
Blackfire glared scornfully down at her mother, a venomous snarl pressing her lips back to expose pointed canines. The Queen lowered her eyes in apology, perhaps she had strayed too far into speaking on such a sensitive matter. "I hope that you will forgive me."
Blackfire merely scowled in response and moved only to cross her arms over her chest and shift her cold gaze over her shoulder. The Queen took a step toward her daughter, determined to understand this child, for her child should not be a stranger to her. "Look at me." After a moment's resistance, Blackfire met her mother's gaze with eyebrows tilted downward. The Queen exhaled shakily; she had seen this expression on her elder sister's face many a time and it was startling to see on her own daughter's face. "It would be tactless of me to say that I can even begin to fathom what you feel," she began, a silent malice flickered in her daughter's eyes, "but I wish to understand, I wish to help you my child."
"You could not possibly understand what it is like." Blackfire hissed bitterly, turning her eyes away.
"Hush." Her mother commanded softly, her voice low and uneven as she slowly approached her daughter. "I would give anything, go any distance, and die for you a thousand times over to give you a second chance. No one deserves this...this isolation. I fell such mourning and pain for you, my child." Tears were forming in her eyes as well as Blackfire's, although the latter was trying fiercely to stop them from falling—she gritted her teeth and balled her hands into fists; anything to stop herself from exposing this weakness. Her mother moved to stand before her and Blackfire could not draw away. "I weep for you every night, burdened by this loathing you feel for all of Tamaran and your kin because you have been denied." She fell to her knees before Blackfire, embracing her child as high as her arms could stretch. "I beg that you shall forgive me!"
Genuine tears of agony and anguish streamed freely down Blackfire's cheeks as she knelt with her mother to embrace her in return. Blackfire felt a deep love for her mother in that instant as she cried into her mother's shoulder, racked with sobs and raw, uncontrolled emotion. The worries of the world seemed to fade away in that moment, and all that was left for them was the moment. Blackfire fantasized that this instant would miraculously change her views of the world, that there was indeed hope for her yet. Perhaps she would not be as reviled by her kin, perhaps they would accept her if the Queen...her mother could find a cause to love her as she was, for who she was, it would be enough for the people as well. Acceptance was perhaps, all she had ever hoped for.
Her reverie shattered as a small voice broke through the sounds of the weeping woman and child.
"Mother, sister, why are you crying?"
Starfire stood uncertainly in the hall with her hands to her lips in wonder and fright to see her sister's tears, for her sister never cried. Starfire looked questioningly at her mother, confusion written across her brow. Her mother's expression faltered to that of concern for her youngest child and her hold on Blackfire unconsciously loosened and shrugged away. A sudden choking flare of heat rose in Blackfire. The motion was all the indication that Blackfire needed. She tore from her mother's grasp and stumbled away. She had become nothing again in the time of an instant. The true pride and joy and honor had returned, and Blackfire could feel the shadows descend over her once more. Her mother had chosen her little sister over her. Her notions to bettering her existence had been dashed and she realized that there was no hope for her; there was never hope for her, as long as her sister possessed her birthright.
Blackfire's arms rose to her throbbing skull as she pressed the heels of her hands into her temples, agony burning like wildfire through her flesh. She could not stand to be there any longer. She fled the hall, her mother's anguished cry echoed down after her through the corridor.
"Komand'r, wait!"
AN: Whew! That chapter was a significantly long one! I still get the shivers when I read it over. Who knew that Blackfire had an aunt? (Oh, and pronounce her name exactly how it is spelled if you please! Faye-til-fire) The next chapter will be the final installment, but it is going to take me a little while to conclude as the next week will be a busy one for me. Expect the last chapter next Saturday or so. What will befall our young friend? Who is this strange aunt? Why had she never been mentioned before? And what has brought Blackfire inside the pool? Stay tuned. Thanks to all of those who have faithfully stuck with this story (you folks are so crazy!) and reviewed! Please continue to do so!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans!
Her mind was whirling with explanations and bewilderment as she assessed what had happened. Yes, she appeared to be still at the edge of the pool, but the palace was in plain sight, as if it—or the pool—had decided to move closer. The light of what should have been early evening had faded to an unsettling shade of crimson and there was not a sound to be heard. A panic rose in her throat as a solution came to mind: She had been pulled in. The Pool of Exile had taken her and now she stared down the hostile face of death. What could she do? What could be done? It was impossible to escape the pool once it has claimed its quarry. She was trapped.
Would anyone notice her absence? Would her family care that she had disappeared? Would they send a search party to investigate her departure? Probably not. They had their precious daughter. Their precious Starfire. A snarl arose from her lips. Even now, Blackfire could feel nothing but hate for her sister. A delicate chortle reached her ears and Blackfire spun to greet her assailant.
"We are so similar, you and I."
The raven-haired girl gawked at the intruder in awe and wonder. This was the owner of the voice! The voice that had lured her from the palace in the first place. A woman, perhaps no older than twenty revolutions, stood before her. Blackfire's jaw dropped considerably farther as she gazed upon the face. She had seen this countenance before—this woman's likeness in an image, somewhere, but Blackfire could not place it. The woman could have easily passed for an elder version of Blackfire with a cool, composed tone, witty demeanor, and a hint of icy disposition to match. She was very striking; raven tresses fell delicately past trim shoulders, curling slightly inward at the ends. Her elegant garnet coloured attire tightly accented her features as slender arms rose to cross before her. Such guise and decorum suggested that this woman was of royal heritage. Her fine, painted lips always seemed to be pressed into a bitter smile, as they were now. "Very much alike. I have been expecting you, but you came later than I had hoped."
It took Blackfire a moment to gather her wits about her and voice the inquiry that most pressed her mind.
"Who...who are you?"
The woman raised a pencil-thin eyebrow as her lips curled into a cruel smile. She took a step toward the young girl; her glossy, dark hair swayed beautifully behind her. Her chin rose in pride as she drew herself up to her full height.
"I am sister to the Queen, Fayetilfire."
"...Wh-what?" Blackfire stuttered in disbelief. "The Queen's sis—Mother's...but she has never spoken of..."
"Ah yes," the woman sighed dramatically, "I would deem it rational that my darling baby sister would not have spoken of me to any of the children, so I could see where that would come as quite a shock for you, my beloved niece."
Blackfire's eyes widened as she forced her mouth to clap shut, a recollection of a moment in time returning to her at last. She had seen this face on the palace wall, in a chamber she had been forbidden to enter. Blackfire had entered the room just to spite her parents and she was not disappointed. There were many aging artifacts of the old world, most of them locked away to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. Blackfire mused over an oddly fashioned relic for a moment, what wrong hands were there left to fall into? Curiosity had always been a fault of hers, and she could not resist reaching out to touch the craft. A sharp flash of bright light flew across her eyes and she froze. Maybe she would leave this unusual object be. She continued further into the highly arched room, marveling at the silly little trinkets and other unfamiliar odds and ends of the ancients. Blackfire had paused before a vast portrait of a beautiful woman all in crimson. Her face was very lovely, but she had held such a piercing expression; her delicate eyebrows tilted down grimly, her lips pressed into a taut frown, as if she had every cause to hold a great loathing for the world around her. Her eyes held a terribly fierce capacity, Blackfire could feel her eyes burn to behold it. The smoldering fury raging in the woman's eyes seemed incomprehensible to anyone but herself. Blackfire felt a strange connection to this woman, whoever she was, and the image was committed to her memory and stored away as two guards (the same from the assault of her sister and eventual recapture), stormed in and propelled her none too pleasantly out the door.
Blackfire's eyes narrowed slightly in hesitance toward a particularly interesting blade of grass. "Perhaps not as surprising as you think."
Fayetilfire's smile faded somewhat and her eyes widened faintly in interest. "I see."
An uncomfortable silence, perhaps more awkward for the raven-haired girl than the woman, ensued. Blackfire could not hold her aunt's rigid gaze and reluctantly cast her eyes downward. The intensity grew, drilling into Blackfire's forehead. She swallowed hard, heatedly thinking of any possible way to dispel it.
"You poor child," Fayetilfire's fair voice issued around Blackfire's being and teased a soft lull around her ears, imploring that she look up. When Blackfire refused, a ringing resounded deafeningly in her ears as reprisal for ignoring its presence. She glanced up unwillingly. Shadows seemed to lurch over her aunt's face as she neared the raven-haired girl. Blackfire felt a great discomfort as well as a calming ease at Fayetilfire's approach. She was unsure whether to trust the woman or run from her. Unfortunately, she did not get the chance to decide, as her aunt stood quietly before her. Fayetilfire gently brushed her knuckles beneath Blackfire's chin, tilting her niece's head upward. Blackfire shuddered at the action, a tremor climbing her spine. Her aunt's ardent eyes met hers. She paused with her lips parted slight to study her niece's face. "I can see it in your eyes." Her voice dropped to a despairing undertone. "You have been denied."
Blackfire looked up at her aunt in utter torment. Words could not describe how the young girl felt. Emotions flooded her in a fleeting swirl of color and sensation; amazement, admiration, alarm, hate, bitterness, fright, remorse. She was finding it incredibly difficult to breathe, the edges of her vision were fading, and her body quaked beneath her in instability. She could sense her aunt move deftly to her side as she fell forward and catch her in open arms. The woman gently lowered the both of them to the earth, kneeling and sitting back, allowing the minor to lean in the crook of her neck. She murmured words of encouragement to her niece and smoothed her dark, silky hair. Her palm tenderly stroked along Blackfire's shoulder- blades and the touch sent prickles of awareness through the girl's skin.
Blackfire shut her eyes tightly, a memory playing behind closed lids.
The raven-haired girl arrogantly ignored the personage behind her, feigning aloofness as she always had toward this woman. Sitting on the edge of the windowsill, Blackfire gazed out onto the Tamaranian Plain, trees waved in the distance as the creatures of the Setting crept from their nests and burrows into the open air. She gazed intently on a pretty little shetza, a bird of prey that hunted after the Setting, soaring on the wind. Blackfire longed to exchange realities with the creature, lifting and falling on the breeze, free to wherever it would take her. Her gaze drew toward the sheer vertical drop of the palace wall. Perhaps if she fell just right—she could feel it, if only for a moment—
"Daughter! Please do not lean so far outward. It frightens me."
Blackfire sneered at the voice and did as she was told, but did not turn in its direction. The owner of the voice continued.
"You know as well as I, that you cannot—"
"Silence!" Blackfire snapped, whirling to face the figure. "I know of what I am incapable, you need not tell me time and time again!"
Blackfire glared scornfully down at her mother, a venomous snarl pressing her lips back to expose pointed canines. The Queen lowered her eyes in apology, perhaps she had strayed too far into speaking on such a sensitive matter. "I hope that you will forgive me."
Blackfire merely scowled in response and moved only to cross her arms over her chest and shift her cold gaze over her shoulder. The Queen took a step toward her daughter, determined to understand this child, for her child should not be a stranger to her. "Look at me." After a moment's resistance, Blackfire met her mother's gaze with eyebrows tilted downward. The Queen exhaled shakily; she had seen this expression on her elder sister's face many a time and it was startling to see on her own daughter's face. "It would be tactless of me to say that I can even begin to fathom what you feel," she began, a silent malice flickered in her daughter's eyes, "but I wish to understand, I wish to help you my child."
"You could not possibly understand what it is like." Blackfire hissed bitterly, turning her eyes away.
"Hush." Her mother commanded softly, her voice low and uneven as she slowly approached her daughter. "I would give anything, go any distance, and die for you a thousand times over to give you a second chance. No one deserves this...this isolation. I fell such mourning and pain for you, my child." Tears were forming in her eyes as well as Blackfire's, although the latter was trying fiercely to stop them from falling—she gritted her teeth and balled her hands into fists; anything to stop herself from exposing this weakness. Her mother moved to stand before her and Blackfire could not draw away. "I weep for you every night, burdened by this loathing you feel for all of Tamaran and your kin because you have been denied." She fell to her knees before Blackfire, embracing her child as high as her arms could stretch. "I beg that you shall forgive me!"
Genuine tears of agony and anguish streamed freely down Blackfire's cheeks as she knelt with her mother to embrace her in return. Blackfire felt a deep love for her mother in that instant as she cried into her mother's shoulder, racked with sobs and raw, uncontrolled emotion. The worries of the world seemed to fade away in that moment, and all that was left for them was the moment. Blackfire fantasized that this instant would miraculously change her views of the world, that there was indeed hope for her yet. Perhaps she would not be as reviled by her kin, perhaps they would accept her if the Queen...her mother could find a cause to love her as she was, for who she was, it would be enough for the people as well. Acceptance was perhaps, all she had ever hoped for.
Her reverie shattered as a small voice broke through the sounds of the weeping woman and child.
"Mother, sister, why are you crying?"
Starfire stood uncertainly in the hall with her hands to her lips in wonder and fright to see her sister's tears, for her sister never cried. Starfire looked questioningly at her mother, confusion written across her brow. Her mother's expression faltered to that of concern for her youngest child and her hold on Blackfire unconsciously loosened and shrugged away. A sudden choking flare of heat rose in Blackfire. The motion was all the indication that Blackfire needed. She tore from her mother's grasp and stumbled away. She had become nothing again in the time of an instant. The true pride and joy and honor had returned, and Blackfire could feel the shadows descend over her once more. Her mother had chosen her little sister over her. Her notions to bettering her existence had been dashed and she realized that there was no hope for her; there was never hope for her, as long as her sister possessed her birthright.
Blackfire's arms rose to her throbbing skull as she pressed the heels of her hands into her temples, agony burning like wildfire through her flesh. She could not stand to be there any longer. She fled the hall, her mother's anguished cry echoed down after her through the corridor.
"Komand'r, wait!"
AN: Whew! That chapter was a significantly long one! I still get the shivers when I read it over. Who knew that Blackfire had an aunt? (Oh, and pronounce her name exactly how it is spelled if you please! Faye-til-fire) The next chapter will be the final installment, but it is going to take me a little while to conclude as the next week will be a busy one for me. Expect the last chapter next Saturday or so. What will befall our young friend? Who is this strange aunt? Why had she never been mentioned before? And what has brought Blackfire inside the pool? Stay tuned. Thanks to all of those who have faithfully stuck with this story (you folks are so crazy!) and reviewed! Please continue to do so!