Chapter 6
When Starfire awoke the next morning, and felt something move against her back, she freaked. She leapt out of the bed and stared, panting, at the black length of Nightwing. Obviously, her movements had roused him from his sleep, and since he was never less than fully awake, he was looking at her but keeping perfectly still so as not to frighten her any further. He had expected this, but he regretted not being able to hold her for just a little bit longer, even if he had been asleep. She relaxed as she first recognised him, then remembered the night before. She smiled and ran a hand through her hair, and he smiled back. Just then they heard a knock on the door, and a voice said
"Starfire? Can I come in?" It was Raven. The two inside looked at each other, one thought clear on their faces. She can't find us together in here. Nightwing got off the bed with surprising speed and grace, and whispered to Starfire,
"If you fly out the window, you can get Nightfire to let you in her room, then you can distract Raven and lead her away while I get out." Starfire looked guilty,
"Maybe she'll go away on her own if we're quiet…." she said hopefully. Nightwing looked at her questioningly, and she begged him with her eyes not to ask. Nightwing pulled out his communicator out and dialled for Cyborg, he just hoped he was alone. Sure enough Cyborg's voice came clearly through the communicator,
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's me. Listen, I need you to get Raven away from Starfire's door." said Nightwing. There was a pause, then they heard Cyborg's deep chuckle and he said,
"You sly dog……"
"Just do it" Nightwing didn't sound impatient, he sounded happy, and on closer inspection you could see he was suppressing a smile. Another laugh, and the line went dead. Nightwing snapped the device shut, and looked at Starfire,
"Why did I just have to do that?" he asked, Starfire looked at her shoes, but kept her mouth shut. "Another thing your not gonna tell me?" he said. she said.
"Then give me the short version, give me anything. Any answers are better than no answers." Starfire looked at him, he deserves to know something……… she thought. She sighed,
"I can't use my powers anymore." she said.
"What? Why not?"
"Like I said, I was trying to blend in. So I stopped using them and now I don't think they work anymore. It's like they're jammed." she said.
"Have you tried?"
"Not really…."
"Then how do you know?" he asked.
"I can just feel it," she said, "My unbridled joy is not so unbridled, and not so joyous. And I haven't felt righteous fury in twelve years, just self-pity. The only thing that makes me happy is Nightfire and look at what she thinks of me."
"If you could have your powers back, would you want them?" asked Nightwing. Starfire thought about it,
"Yes, I would. The happiest time of my life was when I was a Titan, and my powers would remind me that I was hero, even if I'm not anymore." she finished. Nightwing put his hands on her upper arms and said,
"In my eyes, you still are." He was about to kiss her when they heard Cyborg's deep bass voice outside the door,
"Okay, Cassanova, you free to come out now" Nightwing waited before they heard his retreating footsteps before quickly kissing a startled Starfire, and darting out of the room. Starfire, left alone in her purple surroundings, slowly touched where he had kissed her, and blushed while smiling.
Down in the main room, a few minutes later, Nightfire appeared. She was wearing black trousers, with a white, sleeveless top with blue trimmings. The thing with this was that it showed all of her arms, and the Titans couldn't help but stare at the mark at the top of her upper arm. A mark that represented so much pain and hurt in their lives. It was a jagged S, Slade's mark. The Titans didn't know quite what to say. Oblivious, Nightfire strolled over to the couch and sat down. Slowly she became of aware of the stares of everyone around her.
"What?" she asked.
"Um, how'd you get the mark on your arm?" asked Beastboy eventually. Nightfire looked at it instinctively then covered it with her hand and blushed, it was one of her few insecurities.
"It's just a birthmark, my mum has one the same." she said. This just made them even more uneasy, because they knew that, last time they saw her, Starfire did NOT have any such "birthmark". Their thoughts were interrupted by Nightwing's entrance through the big, heavy doors.
Nightwing, Raven's voice rang in his head and he looked over to her, look at Nightfire's arm, the left one. Nightwing glanced at the girl on the couch, and moved so he could see her arm but she couldn't see him doing it. The moment he laid eyes on that S, his blood boiled. She says Starfire has one the same, she thinks it's a birthmark sent Raven. Nightwing, of course, knew what that S meant. Slade obviously hadn't killed Starfire, but that ….brand meant that he had kept her prisoner, along with her daughter. It was time, decided Nightwing, for the truth to come out.
He marched out of the room, with the others following worriedly behind him. They were unsure what he was about to do, anything was possible. Nightfire was only following because she knew something big was going down, and that her birthmark had set it off. When Starfire opened the door, and saw them all standing there, Nightwing with determination set on his face, the others looking worried, and Nightfire looking curious with her left shoulder visible to the world, Starfire quickly evaluated the situation.
"Let me explain it to her first" she said. Nightwing paused, then nodded and stepped back. "Nightfire, you've always wanted to know the story of your birth, your origins." Nightfire nodded eagerly, "Well it looks like the time has come for you to find out." Starfire held the door open, and her daughter walked in. Starfire turned to her friends, "I promise I will tell you everything, but she has a right to know where she comes from." she said.
"We understand," said Raven.
"We'll be waiting downstairs for you when your done." said Nightwing. Starfire nodded, and closed the door. She turned the girl on her bed. God, where do I start? she thought.
"I guess I'd better start with me," she said. "Nightfire, I am not actually human." She waited for this to sink in before continuing," I come from a planet called Tamerran, very far from Earth. I came to Earth when I was the equivalent of fourteen. Back then, Raven, Beastboy, Cyborg and Nightwing, although he was called Robin back then, were a team of crime-fighters called the Teen Titans." Nightfire, of course, knew all this, but she didn't want to stop her mother from revealing what she had been dieing to know since she was old enough to know you need two people to make a baby. Starfire continued, " They welcomed me onto their team and I fought by their side for many months, the happiest months of my life. They became my best friends, one of them even more than a friend. But there was one man who despised us, a criminal named Slade. He hated Robin the most, and he knew that Robin cared for his team-mates more than anything else, so he kidnapped me. He made it look like he had killed me, but he hadn't. Everyday, he would give me an injection to suppress my powers, flight and these sort of energy balls called "starbolts"" Starfire wasn't sure how to describe her starbolts to someone who'd never seen them. " Anyway, he would beat and torment me, but he kept me alive, because the thing he wanted most, besides hurting Robin, was an apprentice. He knew I'd rather die, but I was pregnant with you, and it was you he wanted. He hoped you'd have my powers because you were half Tamerranian. God, everyday I would dream of seeing my friends again, but they never came. It almost drove me mad, but I knew I had to stay healthy for you." Starfire touched her daughter's face lovingly. "Eventually, nine months past and I went into labour. It took sixteen hours, Slade wanted it to be a natural birth, something about life not be easy. Anyway, it was good he did because in all the confusion he forgot to give me my injection. My powers came back just as you passed from my body. I was exhausted, but the moment I saw him sear your flesh with his signature," Nightfire looked at her birthmark, realising it's horrific history at last. Starfire spoke with such hate as she continued, " just as he had done to me, marking you as his own, marking you, the embodiment of the love that two heroes shared, for evil…Let me explain to you how my powers worked. To fly I needed to feel unbridled joy, but for starbolts I needed to be feeling righteous fury, and boy was I feeling it then. My extra, Tamerranian strength allowed me to last long enough to blast Slade's lair into the ground, and the joy I felt from holding your tiny, living form in my arms allowed me to fly to the nearest city, where I collapsed outside a free-clinic. And the rest is history."
Starfire watched her daughter for any signs of anger, or hate but when her daughter turned her eyes up to her mother, they held nothing but the highest esteem. Silently she rose and wrapped her arms around her mother's waist, and the two women just held each other.
"Do you have any questions?" said Starfire softly. She felt her daughter shake her head against her chest. Nightfire was too overwhelmed by all this to ask questions, but no doubt she'd think of some for later. "Okay, in that case I have to go down stairs and explain everything to all my old friends. Do you want to come or do you want to stay up here and be alone for a bit?" she asked,
"I'll stay up here." Nightfire didn't think she could face anyone just yet.
"Okay" Starfire hugged her daughter tightly, then turned and walked out the door. Nightfire slowly trudged back to her room, where she collapsed on the bed, staring at the ceiling and digesting the story of her heritage which she had just heard. Tamerranian, she thought, that would certainly explain this…Nightfire held her hand up in front of her face, thought about what Slade had done to her pregnant, teenage mother, and watched as it glowed a bright, fiery blue.
