Chapter Four: Treading Dark Waters

As the Titans left the infirmary, Beast Boy pulled Raven to one side. "So, er, Raven…"

"Yes?"

"Soooo…er… "

"Beast Boy, what is it?"

"I'd … umm – umm – what'sthedealbetweenyouandBlackfire?" he said in one burst, before raising his hand above his head in a defensive posture.

Not that Raven was in any condition to react. "Me and Blackfire?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, you and Blackfire – I mean, um, you like talking to her and all that," he stammered.

"I like talking to all of you," Raven replied hesitantly, unsure about where the conversation was headed.

"Yes, but, er, you like talking to her…a lot," Beast Boy finished lamely, head down.

"Is that wrong?"

Beast Boy shook his head. "No, but, but…" His shoulders sagged. "Never mind. Forget I said anything," he said as he moved to walk away.

"Beast Boy."

"Yeah?"

Raven took hold of Beast Boy's arm. "Beast Boy, just because I spend time with Blackfire doesn't mean that you're any less my friend."

A small smile broke across Beast Boy's face. "Really?"

Raven nodded. "Maybe if you got to know her, it wouldn't seem so bad."

"Hint, hint, huh?" Beast Boy sighed. He placed his own hand on hers. "Look, Raven, I won't forget what happened the last time she was here, but I'll try to be friends with her, if it's important to you."

"It is," Raven told him, smiling. "Thank you, Beast Boy."

"Hey, what are friends for?"

As they walked away from the infirmary, a shape emerged from the shadows of one of the corridors behind them. Blackfire knew it was coming, but it still hurt.

It hurt a lot.

"Okay, so what do we got?" Cyborg asked Robin, when they all reached the main room.

"One, Mr. Fixit wasn't responsible for what happened, but I think we all knew that."

Everyone nodded, before Robin continued, "Two, there seems to be some new bad guy running around, someone with enough resources to take over Fixit's lab."

"So what? We've taken down bigger psychos than him, that's for sure," Beast Boy said. Blackfire glanced sideways at him, wondering if he was going to indict her somehow, but he seemed fully concentrated on the matter at hand.

Of course he wouldn't do anything like that, her treacherous mind told her. Raven asked him not to.

"I don't think so. If we hadn't stopped them, those robots would have caused a whole lot more damage than just a few wrecked buildings," Robin continued. "And the absence of other crimes still bothers me. It's as if all he wanted to do was destroy things."

His face took on a more thoughtful look. "Unless… unless he was testing us, seeing how we would react," Robin realized.

"But how would he do that?" Raven asked.

"What do you mean?"

"We were in three different places, surrounded by homicidal robots. Unless he has an army of henchmen, I don't see how he could see what was happening."

"Who says he doesn't have an army of henchmen?"

Then the jealousy spoke. "I do. I for one would not be so stupid to work for anyone who would treat me like trash, or be stupid enough to assume other people would," Blackfire said.

Beast Boy looked like he was going to retaliate, but then the fire in his eyes dimmed and he said, "I guess I deserved that."

Blackfire was thrown off her stride. "What?"

"I deserved that, after what I said to you. Sorry, Blackfire. Friends?"

For a moment, Blackfire felt offended. How could Beast Boy think this clumsy apology could-

Then she saw Raven's eyes on her, and she knew that she was as much Raven's as Beast Boy. "Maybe," she replied, with a playfulness she did not feel. She had her pride, after all.

"Uh, what?" Cyborg asked, echoing the sentiments of the rest of the team, except to a lesser extent, Raven.

"Nothing, nothing," Blackfire responded. "Robin, please continue."

"Ooo-kay, back to 'henchmen', I agree with Blackfire that they may not even have been people. After all, Slade had his android ninjas."

"Slade?" Blackfire asked.

"Big criminal mastermind. I'll tell you all about him later," Cyborg said.

Robin rubbed his eyes and yawned. It had been a long night. "Yes, you should. I don't think we're in any condition to handle anything worse than that, actually," he said with a tired smile. "So, Titans, go! get some sleep," he joked.

Raven had barely lay her head on her bed when she heard a knocking at her door. "Raven?" she heard Blackfire ask from behind it. "Raven? Can I talk to you?"

Raven opened the door. "Yes?"

"Can I come in?"

This is sudden, Raven thought as she opened the door.

Blackfire walked slowly into the room, holding one arm within the other. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Raven replied, closing the door.

Silence was all they heard for a few seconds, before Blackfire said, "What happened between me and Beast Boy, it's, it's not something I want anyone to know about. I know I made everyone curious, but so what? I'm used to it."

Raven felt a small pang of anxiousness. This nihilistic talk felt all too familiar. When her friends were captured by the Puppet King, Blackfire often spoke like this when she referred to the life she led before she joined the Titans.

Or at least, was trying to.

Putting those thoughts from her mind, Raven was about to speak when Blackfire continued, "And I've never cared about what other people have thought of me, so if…if you don't want to be seen near me after this, I won't mind."

Raven did not need any of her powers to know that was a lie. "Blackfire-"

"We were arguing, the two of us. I won't bore you with the details, but it was basically about the amount of time the two of us were spending together. And then Beast Boy called me a lesbian."

This time it was Raven's turn to be silent, as her mind tried to process what she had just heard. "What?" she asked. It was all that could come out.

"Isn't that what you humans call a woman who likes women?" Blackfire asked. "I'm not stupid, Raven. I've heard about Earth, how the rest of the known galaxy thinks of it as one of the most corrupt, decadent planets in existence." Her eyes took on a more wistful look. "it's why I came here in the first place," she whispered.

Raven stood there in mute silence as Blackfire continued, "I heard that humans were allowed to do anything they liked, be whomever they wanted to be. I knew that something like that was impossible, but hey, I had nothing to lose."

She sat down on Raven's bed. "And then, when I came here, I found out most of the stories were true, and for a moment, I thought I could be happy." Her face darkened. "And then I found out that some things never change no matter where you go."

Although her mind was still a mess from trying to figure out what Blackfire was saying, Raven still managed to ask, "What do you mean?"

"I did not mind Beast Boy calling me a lesbian, just how he said it." Her voice grew quieter. "It reminded me of how my father would have said it."

She turned to Raven. "Raven, can I trust you, that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you now?"

What Raven wanted to say at first was, What kind of question is that, but then she saw the quiet look of desperation in Blackfire's violet eyes. "Yes," she said.

Blackfire took a deep breath, and began. "It was five years ago, on Tamaran. I was around fourteen then, although in human years I would have been almost sixteen…"

"I'm sorry, Father, I'm sorry! Please don't hurt her…please…" Komand'r wept, as she knelt before her father on his throne, the two of them alone save Komand'r's chambermaid, also crying as she knelt with her arms restrained. Behind her, the only other person in the throne room, Galfore, Komand'r's guardian stood reluctant watch.

Her father, King Meand'r, rose and stood in front of his kneeling daughter, his face dark with rage. "How could you think I will forgive you? How could you think I could forgive…her?" he spat out.

"Father, please – do what you want to me, but don't hurt her. It wasn't her fault."

"No, it wasn't your fault, that much I am willing to believe," her father growled. "But it was her fault that this unnatural union continued as long as it did, wasn't it?"

"No, father-"

"DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL!" her father screamed.

"No father," Komand'r said quietly.

Meand'r walked around his daughter to the girl who knelt, the chambermaid Pyurit'i, her long brown hair encasing one of the most beautiful faces Komand'r ever knew. "Tell me, Pyurit'i, is it true what I think my daughter says? That she is the reason that this…relationship lasted so long?"

Komand'r looked into Pyurit'i's ocean-blue eyes, willing her to tell the truth. Please, tell may father everything, tell him about I was the one who gave the first kiss, about how I made numerous excuses just so I could see you during occasions of state when I was supposed to attend, about how I spent the money I supposedly lost to buy you mother those medicines your mother needed.

About how I told you how much I loved you when you wanted to leave, because you were afraid of what happened to me if my father found out.

"Well, chambermaid, is it true?"

When Pyurit'i looked up at her father, Komand'r felt a wild hope enter her. She was going to answer him truthfully, and no matter what happened next, they would face it together.

And then she answered.

And she broke Komand'r's heart into a thousand shards.

"No, your Majesty, it's not true. I fell in love with your daughter, and I did whatever I could to force her into this relationship."

King Meand'r walked back to his throne, having heard what he wanted to hear and obviously not caring about the truth.

"Galfore?"

"Majesty?"

"You will go to Commander Kasd'r and instruct him that he is to bring this filthy creature to one our most inhospitable prisons, preferably the one on our third moon, where she is to be held indefinitely. Is that understood?"

Komand'r was too shocked to speak as Galfore answered, "But your Majesty-"

"Is that understood?" King Meand'r asked, the barely suppressed anger all too obvious.

"…Yes, yes, your Majesty."

"Good. Take her away."

As Galfore left the room with Pyurit'i in tow, Meand'r looked at his eldest child. "Do not worry, my dear daughter, I am still your father, and have no intention of punishing you."

"Lucky me." Komand'r said under her breath.

Not hearing her, the King continued, "I will ensure that all records of this deviance are erased, and all witnesses silenced-one way or another. Due to actions not of your own choosing our throne has barely escaped a scandal it cannot endure, and when you take your position as Queen of Tamaran-"

"No."

"What?"

"I said no." Komand'r rose, glaring at her father. "I will not become Queen of Tamaran. In fact, I do not want to have anything to do with you, this planet, or anything associated with it! As far as I am concerned, you and all of this can freeze in all the hells that ever were!"

"Komand'r! Remember yourself!" Meand'r said, arising from his throne.

"I remember myself! I remember myself as someone who had to endure seventeen years of endless ceremony, of having to always obey, of never being allowed to think for herself, of being held in a golden prison!"

She wiped another tear from her eye as she continued in front of her incensed father. "Of finally meeting the one person who had made it bearable, of being happy, really happy for the first time in her life." Her eyes narrowed. "Of having that person taken away from her, simply because it offended her father's delicate sensibilities. Yes father, I remember myself, I remember very well."

Her father sat in his throne, fuming for a while, before he finally spoke, "It is obvious to me that you are unsuitable for the throne. Your younger sister, Koriand'r, shall be made my heir in your stead," he said.

Komand'r didn't rise to the bait. "Good. I hope she's a better puppet than I was."

That night, Komand'r died, and gave life to Blackfire.

"I tried to rescue her, after I ran away, but apparently, there was an attack on the prison ship carrying her. There were no survivors, and no-one was ever caught." Blackfire said calmly, as if she were doing no more than describing the weather.

Her mind still reeling from what Blackfire had been telling her, Raven found herself inflicted with a kind of paralysis. She found herself not knowing what to say or what to do. Could any of the other Titans have handled this better? Raven asked herself, before Blackfire interrupted her thoughts.

"He killed her." Blackfire whispered, her breaking voice filled with sadness and rage in equal amounts. "Somehow, he killed her."

As Raven watched the ex-criminal, many things became clear to her - Blackfire's obsession with her sister's demise, her contempt of what the universe deemed 'proper', her emotional difficulties, all made sense.

"Blackfire?" she began nervously.

"Don't worry, Raven, I know you're not…not like me," Blackfire interrupted. "It's just that I feel more comfortable around-" Here Blackfire stopped, as if she wondered if she had said too much.

"Yes?"

"Nothing, nothing," Blackfire said dismissively, hurriedly moving toward the door.

"Blackfire, what were you going to say?" raven asked. She didn't know why she was pressing, at least consciously, but for some reason, she felt as if she had to know.

Standing in the threshold of the door, Blackfire stopped, and whispered something. "What?" Raven asked.

"Outcasts," Blackfire whispered, a little louder this time. Then she stepped out the door, leaving a confused and hurt Raven in her wake.