The Keeper of the House
By: Darien Ravier
Part I: The Fading of the Lavender Crown
Chapter 4: Evacuation
The Teen Titans stood in the middle of the Tamaranian citadel, a normally breathtakingly regal place, where the lobby was vast and the decorations were awe-inspiring. Now the decorations were in shambles and the Titans were surrounded by an amazing number of soldiers that were leading an uprising against Tamaran and it's royal family, which included their friend Starfire. Despite the overwhelming odds, the Titans fought the army so their partner and friend would be safe.
Robin fought each of the soldiers off with a deadly combination of martial arts and an extensive arsenal of weapons at his disposal in his utility belt. One soldier would stand up to him and Robin would take him down in hand-to-hand combat, but two or three other soldiers would approach from behind. Robin turned in enough time to toss a strobe light bomb that blinded all the soldiers in his radius. Taking this opportunity to get away, Robin then fired a grappling hook at the ceiling that pulled him above the battle. Robin looked around to get an assessment of the situation. He saw all of his teammates fighting off at least ten other members of the uprising's army, along with the rest of the Tamaranian army, who were equally overwhelmed. Robin didn't want to admit it to himself, but this fight was turning hopeless fast.
As he began to swing down, he heard a soldier screaming from across the hallway.
"Robin!" the voice said, which made Robin's head turn to see R'yannd'r being led away by a swarm of uprising soldiers. To the side, Robin also saw hundreds of soldiers entering every entrance of the palace hallway. Robin had to act fast, keep fighting the soldiers or save his friend.
Robin yelled at the top of his lungs, "Titans, follow me!"
Cyborg looked up as four soldiers were holding him down. Normally, he would have just thrown them off, but these were no ordinary soldiers, they were Tamaranian. Grown-up guy equivalents of Starfire, so they were exceptionally strong and giving Cyborg a hard time overpowering them, which he was so used to doing in a fight. Cyborg tried to use his arm cannon, but one soldier was holding it down. He looked up to see Robin swinging over his head.
"Little help, here," Cyborg yelled.
Robin let go of the grappling hook and landed a perfect flying crescent kick on two soldiers, knocking them off Cyborg. Cyborg then flung the other two off as he and Robin turned to see themselves surrounded by the army of the uprising, ready to attack. Robin and Cyborg took their fighting stances, ready to face the inevitable when a pillar swung down and cleared a path. Robin and Cyborg turned to see Raven flying towards them on a mystic platform she created and was using like a surfboard.
"Yee-hah! Come on, boys, climb aboard," Raven yelled in an overconfident manner completely unlike herself. Robin and Cyborg looked at each other in disbelief as to what they were seeing, but still got on board the skiff nonetheless. As they climbed up and looked at Raven, they could have both sworn that her cape had turned green.
Below them, a green Anklosaurus was swiping at the soldiers with his plated tail. The soldiers tried to attack the creature, but his protective armor was too strong. One soldier jumped on his back and within seconds, the Anklosaurus had turned into a bull and began to buck the soldiers off of his back, knocking him into the other soldiers. Beast Boy then transformed back into himself and was taking a fighting stance, yelling, "Yeah, who wants some, come on!" He saw the hundreds of soldiers lining up to protect him. Knowing that this moment meant his life, Beast Boy quickly transformed into his ultimate beast persona, ready to attack when Raven and the others flew by.
Raven called out, "Come on, B.B., you through wasting time?" The beast looked up and jumped onto the platform. Beast Boy transformed into his normal self and stared confused at Raven, asking, "Hey, Rae, you okay?"
"Fine as Friday, how about you," Raven answered.
Beast Boy turned to Robin and said, "I thought she hated war."
Robin answered, "So did I, I'm as confused as you are."
"So what's the plan," Cyborg asked."
"We're going after R'yannd'r and the other captives."
"What happened?"
Starfire's eyes blinked open as she heard the sounds of explosions outside. She tried to get to her feet, but felt extremely dizzy. As she tried to shake off what it was that caused her to feel this way, she remembered her sister, Blackfire, beating her before she blacked out.
"I have been hit by my sister before," Starfire thought, "but never like this. She seems much stronger now. What happened? I guess she finally grew up."
Starfire walked in a slow zigzag down the hallway, constantly leaning against the wall. She put her hand on her head to keep it from spinning, but it wasn't working. Her hand slid down her cheek. As it did, she felt something strange on her. She looked at her hand and saw blood. She put her hand to her mouth again and pulled it back to see only more blood.
Starfire got mad. As she heard the sound of explosions in the background, she tried to pull herself together.
"Okay, what happened before I blacked out," Starfire asked herself. She remembered being hit repeatedly by her sister, but never being able to see her, and she also remembered how her sister was able to wipe out the small army that was with her all by herself.
"Something has definitely changed in my sister," Starfire thought, "But I must defeat her." Why, she asked herself. She knew she had to stop her sister, but why? What did she say to Starfire to get her so fired up? Another explosion went off outside and it triggered something in Starfire's memory.
A bomb.
A bomb placed blow the citadel.
A bomb that would not only destroy the citadel, but Tamaran as well.
Starfire instantly shook off the pain she was feeling and flew upwards, searching the hallways for her sister. One hallway after another, there was nothing, yet Starfire still flew with intensity to find her sister. Outside, she heard the screams of her fellow soldiers, which only enraged her further. Then, she heard a more familiar scream, which made her fly over to the window. Below, she saw her friends, Robin, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy all fighting an army that had amassed around them. Robin was letting out a battle cry that Starfire had never heard in him before. It was higher pitched and sounded like what Robin explained to her was Japanese. The warrior in Robin was coming out and Starfire knew that sound would only come out when things were at their most grave.
"Robin," she screamed from over two hundred stories up. All of the soldiers heard this and looked up to see Starfire leaping down from the window and firing starbolt after starbolt at the army around her friends. The army tried to fire back, but Starfire was too enraged to slow down long enough to be hit. By the time she descended on the army, she had already taken out at least a tenth of their numbers. She fought each of the uprising soldiers off with such tenacity that many of them decided to turn and run into the woods.
Starfire ran after the soldiers, screaming and chasing them off. Robin merely looked at her in disbelief. The once normally shy and sweet-natured girl that he knew was now standing before him with a bruised and battered face, which only blanketed her war-like face. Robin then back at the other Titans. Cyborg was actually looking pretty melancholy, Raven was still in her green cape and pumping her fists into the air and Beast Boy just stood in a ready-to-fight position. Robin took a breath as he realized that his team was changing.
"Beast Boy, you okay," Robin asked.
"Fine," Beast Boy answered plainly.
"No jokes or anything like that," Robin asked suspiciously.
"Nope, just waiting for the next fight."
"Boo-yah! We kicked their butts, didn't we," Raven was yelling triumphantly.
Robin turned his head to the sound of rockets were heard in the distance. The whole team looked to see a series of ships taking off from the ground into Tamaran's stratosphere.
"Hah, got you off and running now, don't we," Raven said.
"They are not running," Starfire said, "They are evacuating. There is a bomb beneath the citadel that will destroy the palace…and with it…Tamaran."
"Can we stop it?"
"No, we can't," Raven answered with her eyes glowing white.
"How can you tell," Robin asked.
"It's an ion destabalizer," Raven continued, "Right now, I can feel it already affecting the core of Tamaran. It will only be a matter of minutes before Tamaran is completely destroyed.
Starfire's mouth hung open. "So what can we do," she asked.
"Get as many people off this planet as we can," Raven said.
Starfire levitated and began to fly back towards the citadel saying, "Starting with my parents."
"Star," Robin interceded, "There's something else."
Starfire looked at him and asked, "What is it, Robin?" Robin remained silent. Starfire asked, "Why is it so hard for you to tell me?"
Robin took a moment before saying, "When you saved us out here, we were going after R'yannd'r. Starfire, you're brother's been taken prisoner."
Starfire was taken aback and just hovered in the air for a moment before slowly landing. She was quiet for a moment as her mind decided who she would to go after. Before she could answer, a light flashed on her from above. As she looked up, she saw that a swarm of the Uprising's attack ships had spotted them and had turned around. Within a matter of seconds, the parade of attack ships surrounded the Titans, leaving them no place to escape. Robin signaled his team to be ready, but before they could attack, a squadron of Tamaranian attack ships cut them off and fired back at the Uprising's ships, forcing them to retreat back into the stratosphere. The Tamaranian attack ships followed in hot pursuit, except for three larger ones, which landed in front of the Titans.
The bay door opened in front of them, revealing Galfor. Starfire flew towards him and hugged him tightly. "Oh, Kanorfka, thank you," she said.
"Anything for my bumgorf," Galfor answered as he looked into the troubled eyes of Starfire. He asked, "What troubled you, Koriannd'r?"
Starfire hung her head and said, "Oh, Galfor, it's all over. Our planet, our way of life. Blackfire planted an ion destabalizer that threatens every passing minute of Tamaran. Now, I have to decide whether I should save my imprisoned brother or my parents who have ascended to the top of the citadel."
Galfor nudged Starfire's head upwards and said, "What does our empress decide?"
"But Galfor," Starfire pleaded, "I am no longer empress, I gave that title up to you."
"And I am seeking your advice," Galfor replied, "Now, what are our orders?"
Starfire took a deep breath, then flew up to one of the pilot's windshields and yells something in Tamaranian. Upon hearing his orders, the pilot revs his engines and lowers the cargo bay holders. Starfire then stands in front of Galfor and says, "I choose for you to go after my parents." Galfor hugs Starfire and says, "They will be safe with me." With that, Galfor enters his ship and takes off towards the citadel. Starfire then turns to the Titans and says, "We will go after my brother." Robin nods and walks with Starfire towards the ship. The other Titans follow him into the ship, which takes off over the treeline.
"Approaching an uprising outpost, Koriannd'r," the pilot announced. Starfire walked into the cockpit and asked, "Are there any signs of prisoners?" The pilot scanned the surface and said, "Yes, your brother does appear to be among them."
"Then commence attack positions," Starfire announced as the pilot prepared the ship's weapons.
Robin walked into the back room to see Raven sitting in a corner by herself with an uncomfortable look on her face. Robin walked over to her and asked, "Raven, are you feeling okay?"
Raven looked up with a heavy sigh, "I can feel this planet coming apart, Robin. It's not long before it's completely destroyed. We have to get out of here."
"I know," Robin said, trying to comfort Raven, "we're gonna get Starfire's brother, then we'll get out of here."
"I don't like this. It's not going to end well."
Robin wanted to say something comforting, but instead, he just hung his head. Within seconds, a siren was heard that brought both Robin and Raven to their feet. Robin saw Cyborg passing by and asked, "Cyborg, what's going on?"
"We're attack the uprising's compound."
Hundreds of soldiers scattered as the Tamaranian battleship descended upon the small outpost and began firing at everything moving. Soldiers rushed to get to their stations, but would find them demolished before they got there. The battleship ripped through each battlepost and command center before all of the soldiers ran to their ships.
Starfire, not able to take sitting back, decided to rush over to the cargo bay, open the door, and fly out on her own. She surveyed the territory, yelling, "R'yannd'r, R'yannd'r! Where are you?" Some of the Uprising's attack ships rose up in front of her, but Starfire merely outstretched her hands and something happened she didn't expect. A flurry of starbolts flew out of each fingertip like lightning bolts, tearing the ships to pieces. Starfire looked at her hands in disbelief. How was she able to react this fast?
Not wanting to dwell on something so trivial, she searched the remaining compounds for her brother until she came to one building. She burst the reinforced door down and stood face to face with her brother, who was tied up against the wall. However, standing in their way was a fairly sizable Uprising soldier, who delivered a strong right hook to Starfire, knocking her back outside. As she got to her feet, she saw the gigantic soldier running after her, swinging again. Before his fist could connect, she flew off of the ground and then threw a series of jabs to his face, which seemed to only faze him. Starfire knew that she was more powerful than her punches seemed to do to this man. The man threw an uppercut that not only took Starfire off guard, but lifted her two feet off of the ground and sent her crashing on her back.
Shaking off the damage, she charged her fist with a powerful starbolt and then punched the man in the face, which sent the soldier reeling in pain. Starfire got up and then fired a series of starbolts at the man, which kept him shriveled on the ground. Finally, Starfire had decided that she had enough of fooling with this man, so she fired the most powerful beam she could muster from her eyes. Upon connecting with the soldier, the beam seemed to engulf him before disintegrating him.
Starfire stood in awe as to what she had just done. Something inside her was changing, become more powerful than she was used to. Under any other normal circumstance, she would have been excited, welcoming this change and any attempt she'd make to understand it. But instead, she felt only fear that she wouldn't be able to control herself in the middle of a battle.
"Koriannd'r, are you allright," yelled R'yannd'r from inside the compound. Starfire looked up to see R'yannd'r standing up and looking at her with concern. Starfire flew over and broke the bonds that tied his hands behind his back. R'yannd'r hugged Starfire saying, "Thank you for coming for me."
"I would not have left you to die, my brother," Starfire said. She then broke the hug and rushed back into the Tamaranian battleship. R'yannd'r, trailing behind, asked, "Sister, what is the hurry?"
"Our parents are still in the citadel and we must go back for them," Starfire yelled in a panic. As she rushed towards the cockpit, Raven called out from behind, "Starfire, no!"
Starfire stopped dead in her tracks and turned to Raven, who was trying to stand up, but was obviously in pain.
"Starfire, this planet is about to be destroyed," Raven explained weakly, "I strongly suggest that we leave now."
"I can't abandon my parents, Raven," Starfire explained.
"You didn't, you sent Galfor after them."
"I have to help them, I can not just stand here and do nothing while my planet gets destroyed."
Raven walked up placed her hand on Starfire's shoulders, looked her in the eyes and said, "Starfire, you've done all you've can and there is still more that you can do for your people, but they'd need you alive. If you really want to help them, then don't put yourself at risk."
"I want to do so much more," Starfire explained, "I've been away for so long…"
Before Starfire could finish her thoughts, Raven lost her footing and began to collapse on the ground. Starfire quickly grabbed Raven before she could fall on the ground.
"Raven, what is wrong," Starfire asked.
"We have to go now," Raven said.
Starfire looked back in the direction of the citadel, then to the pilot and said, "Pilot, take us off of Tamaran."
The pilot nodded and the ship ascended upwards towards space.
Starfire entered the infirmary and sat down to take a breath. She finally let the pain from the fight with the soldier and her sister take over as she fell down on the cot. All this time, she wanted to be strong for her planet and her people, but now here she was running from its demise. She looked out of the window at her planet as she saw the ground beneath her get smaller and smaller until it became engulfed in clouds. Soon, the clouds turned black and she saw Tamaran from the outside view from space.
"Anyone out there, this is emperor Myand'r of Tamaran, sending a distress call to anyone who will answer." The emperor had been frantically calling anyone who would listen. He looked back at his wife, Luand'r, who was trying to enhance the signal on the other side of the room.
"Anything yet," Luand'r asked.
"Nothing," Myand'r replied, "And I am no longer hearing any war noises outside."
"You are right, it has been too silent outside."
"I wonder what is going on."
At that moment, there was a pounding sound from outside the barricaded doors. Myand'r and Luand'r both grabbed their rifles nearby and pointed them at the doors. Then a voice from outside yelled, "Emperor, it is Galfor." Myand'r lowered his rifle and rushed to the doors, pulling all of the barriers away from the door and opening it. Galfor rushed in and said, "Emperor, we must leave this place now. There is an ion destabalizer below this citadel.
Myand'r and Luand'r both were in a state of shock at this news. Luand'r asked, "Who would do such a thing?"
"It was Kommand'r, your highness," Galfor said.
"Our daughter," Myand'r said in disbelief, "Why would she do such a thing?"
"It is a long story, but we have no time to explain."
A violent earthquake shook the entire palace, knocking down equipment, breaking walls and shattering the floors. Once the tremors stopped, Galfor looked up at the royal couple and said, "It is already beginning, we must leave now."
"How are we to escape this," Luand'r asked over the loud crashing behind her.
"We must get to the hanger on the ground level," Galfor said.
"But that's nearly two hundred levels below," Myand'r replied.
"That is why we must leave now."
As Galfor, Myand'r and Luand'r raced down the hallways as more tremors shook the ground from underneath them. They leapt over gaps in the hallways, dodged falling pieces of the ceiling and within minutes, they had reached the hanger just as it the support beams were beginning to collapse. Galfor rushed everyone into his ship and started the engine. As the ship began to levitate, a support beam gave way in front of them and sent a series of boulders crashing down, blocking their way out. Galfor, beginning to get frustrated, grabbed the controls for the ships cannons and let loose a hellfire of energy blasts that eventually chipped the boulders away. Soon, the pathway was clear for them. Galfor punched the controls for the engine to hit full throttle and the ship took off with a powerful burst. As the ship soared through the hanger, pieces of the structure were falling all around them, even hitting the ship itself. Myand'r, who had taken the co-pilot's seat right next to Galfor asked, "How soon until we clear Tamaran's atmosphere?"
"At this rate, around two minutes."
The ship finally blasted out of the hanger as Galfor and Myand'r looked in front of them in horror. The tremors were eating many holes in the terrain, swallowing everything and everyone around them. Some of the holes created by the quakes actually had lava spew out from them as well. All hell was breaking loose on Tamaran as Myand'r and Luand'r looked at each other, hoping to find comfort as the ship made it's way into the atmosphere.
Starfire could see the violent changes on Tamaran even from the distance she was at in space. It brought tears to her eyes, but she noticed something from a far that made her want to sit up and look closer. It was a small glowing speck that was quickly rushing into space. Starfire looked closer and could recognize that it was Galfor's ship. A smile had finally returned to her face as she screamed for joy. She knew the only way that Galfor would return was with her parents safely on board. She was overjoyed, but the smile quickly left her face as from behind the ship, she saw the terrain of Tamaran break out in small bursts of orange and yellow. Soon, the entire planet became a giant fireball that exploded outwards into space. Starfire took a few steps back as the fireball actually lit up the blackness of space for a short while. She then noticed that the flames were rapidly approaching Galfor's ship from behind. She stared in anticipation, hoping that he would outrun the flames. But the flames were spreading too rapidly and eventually encased Galfor's ship. Starfire saw the ship glow orange, then eventually disintegrate into nothing.
"NOOO!" Starfire screamed at the top of her lungs as the flames finally dissipated and tapered off. She looked into the flames and saw that there was nothing left of Tamaran. The planet that she once held so dear in her memories now only existed as memories. She collapsed on the floor, ready to cry when R'yannd'r entered the room. Starfire turned to her brother and the two siblings embraced and began to cry. Starfire clung to her only family member as tightly as she could before he broke the hug to look her in the eyes.
"I know this is a hard time for you, Starfire," R'yannd'r said, "but something is happening right now that we need your help with."
"I do not know, brother," Starfire said between sobs, "I'm not sure of what else I can do right now."
"We really need you."
"For what."
"The hundreds of other Tamaranian ships that escaped into space to escape the war are calling in. They want to know what the next plan for Tamaran is."
"What are they asking for," Starfire wondered.
"Some ask for permission to settle on other systems while others ask for the blood of the uprising's army. They await your orders."
"Why do they need my orders"
"They are asking for Empress Koriannd'r to give them their next plans. All of them are asking for you."
Starfire wiped the tears from her eyes and turned to look back at the void that was once Tamaran. She said, "Please, brother, let me have a moment alone." R'yannd'r turned away and walked back outside. As he did, he passed Robin in the hallway. They both stopped.
"I'm sorry for what happened to Tamaran," Robin said.
"Thank you," R'yannd'r said, "But it was not your fault to be sorry."
"If there's anything I can do," Robin began to say.
"You can go be with my sister," R'yannd'r said as he walked away. Robin looked back at the infirmary room.
As Robin walked inside, he saw Starfire bandaging up her wounds as she looked out the window. Robin walked up behind her and said, "Starfire, I don't know what to say to help you." Starfire only finished tying the bandage around her wrist as she continued to look out of the window. "Raven and Cyborg think we ought to return home, but we'd understand if you'd want to stay."
"And why would I not stay with my people, Robin," Starfire asked.
"I thought you would say that, but I want to remind you that you do still have a home, with us."
Starfire still looked outside as she said, "Do you see that pattern of stars there?" Robin walked over to the window as Starfire outlined the pattern of a circular "M" shape. Robin said, "Yeah, I see it."
"It was the first constellation charted by my people when the citadel was built to unite the colonies of Tamaran. What drew them to the pattern was that one in the center, the one that seems to shine purple. For an entire year, that one bright star in the center would never leave its place in Tamaran's sky. It became the beacon for all space navigators to use to find Tamaran. In fact, the royal crown was modeled after that constellation as a symbol of the harmony that we wanted for our planet. The constellation was then named B'an Giamdri P'lian, which means The Lavender Crown. Ever since its discovery, the purple star in the center shined brightly. Now that Tamaran is not there, I have been watching that purple star lose its luminosity and as I do, I can't help but think that if I don't do something, then our people will begin to fade away as well."
"Starfire, I promised to back you up any way that I could and I will," Robin said, "but I'm afraid as to what will happen to myself, the other Titans, even you if we stay behind."
"Then you do not have to stay, but I will to lead my people into one final battle against my sister where we will either have our revenge or we will be remembered for our courage. Either way, Tamaran will not fade so easily and I will make sure of that."
To Be Continued…