The Keeper of the House
By: Darien Ravier
Part I: The Fading of the Lavender Crown
Chapter 2: Gift From the Psions
Starfire hated guns. The few memories that she has of her childhood were of being separated from her parents while being surrounded by Tamaranian guns. Now the man she thought to have been her brother was aiming one right at her head. She saw the man's finger on the trigger begin to twitch and with less than split second timing, she was able to fly out of the way of the gun barrel before it fired. Hovering in midair, she looked down on the would-be assassin as he stares in confusion at nothing.
Starfire knew she didn't have a moment to think as she fired a scalding starbolt at the man's hand, knocking the gun out of it. As the man grabbed his hand through the searing pain, she flew down and grabbed him by his collar and hoisted him up in the air. Starfire yelled at the man, "You have lied to me and betrayed me in the most disrespectful manner I can think of, you Thelnian Globrivatz! Who are you!"
"I'm nobody, really," the assassin answered, "Just a man sent to do a job."
"For what job were you sent," Starfire asked, "And who sent you."
"Someone. And that someone wanted you dead."
The man created a starbolt with his hand and hit Starfire in the ribs with it, sending her reeling in the air from the pain and dropping him in the process. The man caught himself in mid air and began to fly when a series of starbolts came from the ground and all hitting the fleeing would-be assassin. This time, he plummeted to the ground. Starfire regained her composure to see her brother standing over the assassin, who was lying on his back. Her brother looked at him once and fired a starbolt at his head, killing him. Starfire flew towards the ground, pulling her brother away from the body. "What are you doing, brother?" Starfire asked in a state of shock over what she had just seen her brother do. "Why did you murder this man?"
"I am sorry, sister," R'yannd'r said, "but this man was dangerous and needed to be dealt with."
"But murder is no way to deal with a problem," Starfire pleaded.
"Sister, much has changed on Tamaran since you have left," R'yannd'r explained.
Starfire knew what her brother was talking about. It had been almost two years since her betrothal on Tamaran, which had been arranged by her sister, who had taken control of the Tamaranian throne and attempted to do away with her sister by marrying her away. Blackfire was able to make this possible by creating the illusion that Tamaran was being attacked by a foreign army and the only way to create peace would be to marry Starfire off. Starfire learned of this treachery and fought back against her sister in a violent battle over the crown. Starfire emerged victorious, but she chose to relinquish her crown to her Kanorfka, Galfor, who had many great plans for Tamaran.
"Brother, what has happened to our home," Starfire asked, "What has happened to Tamaran?"
"It is why I came here, sister," R'yannd'r said, "There is much trouble. Since Galfor came to the throne, he had set out to accomplish many wonderful things. He wanted to do away with poverty by sharing the nation's wealth and bring peace to warring colonies of the planet. Many were for this period of bliss, but there were still some who were unhappy with his decisions. Soon, they began to gather and protest against his rule. Then the protests became violent. Soon, they had a small army on their hands and began to recruit more and more people. Now, Tamaran stands divided among two races, those loyal to Galfor and the royal bloodline, namely ours and those…those who would have us dead."
"X'hal, no," Starfire said, "This is terrible."
"That's not the half of it," R'yannd'r went on, "For the past year, the entire planet has been at war with itself. The army has not only been killing those loyal to Galfor, but they've been hunting down anyone of the original bloodline of the Annd'r family. That means myself, you, our other sister, and our parents."
"But, R'yannd'r," Starfire interceded, "our parents have been dead for quite some time, so it is only you and I."
"No, Koriannd'r," R'yannd'r said, "Our parents have been alive as long as we have."
"But they died," Starfire said with such assurance, "I remember them perishing in the upheaval."
"We were all lead to believe that they had died so no one would seek them or us out. They live, sister, and they sent me to make sure you didn't come back to Tamaran and put yourself in danger."
Starfire remained silent as she looked up at the sky towards Tamaran. She knew the journey well and knew her way back home. Even as she looked up at the familiar path, she could sense the distress from the many light years away. She could feel that there was something wrong with her home and it pained her to think about it. After thinking for a moment, she turned to her brother and said confidently, "R'yannd'r, how can you stand here and tell me that my parents are not only alive, but living in a place that would have their blood for their own enjoyment and expect me to not want to return?" R'yannd'r let out a heavy sigh because he knew that there would be no talking his sister out of this journey.
"You're not going," Robin said. Starfire knew that is what his answer would have been, since he had always sought after his team's protection and that one member was asking to venture into certain danger. Starfire explained, "I am not asking for permission, I am telling you where I am going."
"And I said you're not going," Robin said, "Starfire, like it or not, you're part of this team and if one of us goes somewhere dangerous, we're all going."
"Robin, this is not your fight, this is mine," Starfire said.
"I agree," Raven seconded from the background, "What is happening on another planet is no concern of ours. If they come here, then we shall deal with them. But if this is between her people, then it should only involve her people."
"I'm with her," said Beast Boy, much to everyone's surprise. The Titans, even R'yannd'r turned his head at this statement. Beast Boy walked over, stood next to Starfire, looked at everyone assuredly and said, "I mean, yeah, this is junk that's happening on Tamaran and not Earth, but still, Starfire's our friend and we should stand by our friends, right?"
Cyborg raised one eyebrow at Beast Boy and remarked, "Hate to say it but the little green barrel of monkeys has a point. So does Robin. Starfire's our friend and what happens to our friend happens to us." Cyborg walks over to Starfire, saying, "I'm with you, too, Star." Robin walked over and put his hand on Starfire's shoulder. "What made you think you'd go anywhere without me backing you up?" Starfire smiled at this gesture that her friends have made for her. The four Titans looked back at Raven, who, to no one's surprise, was emotionless as she chimed in, "It's still a war, a pointless fight over frayed ideals, hardly worth my or anyone's time." She thought for a moment, then blew a strand of her hair back onto her head as she said, "Fine, I'll go." Starfire reached out and hugged Raven, exclaiming, "Oh, thank you, friend Raven. I will forever be in your debt!"
"You can pay me back by never hugging me again," Raven said through a squished face.
As the T-ship glided through the Centarui galaxy, Starfire looked out of the window with a troubled mind. So many questions were running through her mind about herself, her home, her parents, even the assassin that tried to kill her. Lucky for her, the man who could answer many of these questions happened to float into Starfire's chamber.
"Something is troubling you, sister?" R'yannd'r asked.
"That man who wanted me dead," Starfire asked, "who was he?"
"An experiment. And not a well made one at that," R'yannd'r explained puzzlingly.
"An experiment," Starfire wondered, "what kind of experiment was he?"
"Why, one of us, sister. A child of Psion."
"Who is the Psion?"
"The Psions, actually. They're a group scientists who had given us our powers."
"But I thought that all Tamaranians had this kind of strength on Earth, much like how Superman gets his powers from the Earth's yellow sun."
"That is true, but you also have those powers on Tamaran while others are merely average the way that humans are on Earth."
"I still do not understand," Starfire said with a look of despair on her face. "Please, tell me as much as you can so that I may better understand what has happened to my beloved Tamaran."
"Okay, do you remember when we were separated from our parents," R'yannd'r asked, hoping this would trigger something in Starfire's memory.
Starfire closed her eyes and vividly remembered the only memory she could recall.
"Yes, I remember many guns between my mother and myself," Starfire said with a tear forming in her eye.
"Those guns were royal guards, making sure that no one saw you being taken from your parents. This all started back during the great rebellion of the southern states."
"Yes," Starfire said, snapping to attention, "Galfor had spoke to me about that."
"Well, the southern states wished to rise up against your parents," R'yannd'r explained, "Your parents knew that we would be targets for the uprising army, so they sought out a group of scientists that would ensure that their children would never be defenseless against any army that would try to attack them. They had experimented with other Tamaranians before, most were unsuccessful, but they had mastered three abilities: flight, incredible strength and the ability to harness light and turn it into a deadly weapon."
"My starbolts," Starfire said, looking at her hands.
"Yes, but the Psions knew that any trace of experimentation would key off outsiders to your enhancements, so they planned everything around the Tamaranian lifecycle. That's why you had to go through transformation before you could earn your laser eyes. Your flight was given to you at a young age, so was your strength."
"Galfor had always told me that all infants could fly and that my feelings of boundless confidence and righteous fury would trigger my abilities," Starfire said, trying to find an explanation for something she thought was so ordinary for her people.
"Galfor was a trusted advisor for your parents," R'yannd'r clarified, "They knew he would protect you at all costs, but the one thing they asked of him was that you be raised like a normal Tamaranian."
"This is all too much," Starfire thought, "I always thought I was abnormal on Earth, now I find out that I am different on my own planet."
"Surely, you do remember some now, right," R'yannd'r said.
Starfire thought back on her one memory, then it all came to her. Being held in her father's arms as her brother and sister were led down a long spiral staircase. She remembered voices, but she was too young to know what they were saying, so she could only remember their tone. There was a frantic urgency in it that made her uneasy, but then her mom broke into tears and hugged her intensely. She began to cry as she remembered crying as she was pulled from her mother's arms and led down a long hallway. She remembered looking back and crying, "Mama! Mama," but her mother was only crying in her father's arms. The next part was a blur as she was rushed into a vehicle that rocketed through underground tunnels. The next memory she could then recall was being on a cold table as green liquid bubbled all around her in various flasks. Strange men in leathery coats stood in front of her, trying to sound sympathetic as they approached her with prodding instruments that would inject the various bubbling serum into her. She cried again, "Mama! Papa!" as the painfully hot liquid entered her young body. Starfire stopped remembering that one, for as she did, all of the pain came back to her and she didn't want to relive it again. She then remembers being in a throne room as Galfor was talking to a very princely figure. Behind Starfire was a crushed statue. Yes, she remembered she thought it was a giant doll and tried to play with it. She lifted it up from its marble column and had swung it around like it was one of her dolls. But then the princely figure (her teacher, yes, it was her teacher and she was at school!) startled her and she dropped the statue. She knew she was in trouble when Galfor was called in, but she didn't think it would lead to what happened in her next memory. Starfire was sitting in a rocket ship, looking back at Galfor with tears in her eyes, begging not to be left again. She then remembered Galfor's words to her, "Koriannd'r, no one ever really leaves you. They are always with you as long as you remember what you want to remember about them. Hold onto only the memories you want to because they will make you who you want to become." Starfire instantly stopped crying, flew up and gave Galfor the biggest hug she could ever give a person.
Starfire opened her eyes and realized that it was with those words that Galfor had helped her to ignore the pain in her past and remember only what she wanted to, which is what she was able to stay so happy all of the time. Just then, Cyborg announced over the intercom, "Yo, Tamaran's coming up in five minutes. So get your butts in their seats so we can land, get this over with and go home in time for some waffles!" Starfire smiled, took a deep breath, looked back at her brother and said, "Come, brother, I am ready to go home now."
"Oh, X'hal, what has happened," Starfire gasped in horror as the T-ship glided over the forest terrain of Tamaran, which has been either leveled or reduced to cinders. Below, she saw villages burned to the ground while their families wander through the rubble, looking for other family members. It broke Starfire's heart to see that much of the beautiful Tamaran she remembered had become a demilitarized zone. She then caught sight of something that made her scream through her earpiece, "Land this ship immediately!" Cyborg, having pulled the earpiece away from his ear, looked below for a landing space and saw an army surrounding a small tribe. Instead of landing, Cyborg took an offensive position with the ship and asked R'yannd'r, "Which ones are our enemies?"
R'yannd'r responded, "The army with more soldiers."
That was all Cyborg needed to hear as he swooped down and fired on the opposing army. Once the army saw this ship attack them, they scattered to find some hiding places. Robin got over the intercom, saying, "Titans, on my mark, Raven and Beast Boy, take the opposing flanks, Cyborg, you take out their stronger weapons, Starfire, you…"
Starfire had already left the ship and was tearing the giant guns apart with her bare hands, tying the barrels in knots and breaking them over her knees. The army tried to fire at her, but she turned to face each of the soldiers with such speed that they couldn't even aim properly. Within seconds, Starfire unleashed a hail of starbolts at each of their weapons, melting them in their hands. The army stood petrified as they looked up at this new opposing foe, who was hovering in midair before them with green bolts of fire in her hands and eyes glowing green. "Surrender now, villains of Tamaran," Starfire yelled, to which the army only responded by turning and running into the woods. Starfire was about to fly after them when R'yannd'r called out, "Starfire, let them go. Someone here wants to talk to you." Starfire turned around to look at who had called her. Instantly, her eyes widened with joy as she flew like a lightning bolt across the sky into the arms of her Kanorfka, Galfor.
"Oh, Galfor, I am overjoyed to see that you are not injured!"
"Precious, Koriannd'r, it is good to see you too," Galfor said, sharing the sentiment with Starfire as they hugged.
"You should not have come, Koriannd'r," Galfor began to say, when R'yannd'r cut him off by saying, "I tried to warn her, but she learned the truth."
"About her past?" Galfor asked. R'yannd'r nodded his head. Galfor let out a heavy sigh. "Starfire, now your enemies know you are here and know of your powers. There is a great force driving this rebellion. Something that none of our powers could control. I'm afraid that force will now come after you."
"I do not care," Starfire said earnestly, "I just want to be with my family again."
Galfor then said, "Then perhaps it is finally time that you return to your parents, Starfire."
To Be Continued…