Hurray for reviews!

Hotshot, Wingblade, StarSoSweet – Thank you, I'm glad you like it so far.

April – Thank you! Sometimes I worry that I'm not descriptive enough, so it's good to hear that I'm worrying over nothing.

Pyro – Again, my friend, I'm just a writer. No better or worse than anyone here.

Samanthe – Everyone speaks English in space. It's a sci-fi convention.

Ramiro – I think the Speedy/Jinx pairing works well because they're both so damned cocky and they can play off each other. And I loved writing the dogfight, I'm glad you liked reading it.

Inuandrave – Try to keep writing? The story is already finished. I just get busy some days and can't post.

Here you go, everyone, the next to the last chapter. As always, I don't own the titans.
Chapter Eleven: Tamaranian Knights

Robin lay in a comfortable reclining chair next to Starfire's bed in the recovery room at Greyfire Hospital. It had taken all of ten seconds for the doctors to diagnose her terminal bar and'r'y and another ten for them to figure out that she was Koriand'r, princess of Tamaran. Once that revelation had been made, it had been five minutes before she was safely on a hospital bed with an intravenous bag dripping the powerful antibiotic barglox into her system.

Nor had Blackfire gone unnoticed. The dark princess of Tamaran had been treated for first stage bar and'r'y and held for observation. She occupied the second bed in the recovery room. Granted, her presence had elicited a police presence in the hospital, but the command of Starfire had kept her sister from being arrested on the spot. At this moment, both girls were asleep. Robin was nearly asleep himself, the exhaustion from the past month finally catching up with him. Only Mas y Menos, who sat in chairs on opposite sides of Blackfire's bed holding her hands, remained awake.

The other titans had left their comrades in the hospital and went back out to help with the recovery of their ship. Titan One was a mess: engines destroyed, weapons depleted, shields down, and hull crushed on the bottom from its mile and a half long skid through a forest of what were identified as Tamaranian iron trees. The Tamaranian army had quickly dispatched a platoon to secure the scene and help move the hulk of the ship to a nearby military base where repairs would be made.

Night fell on the city, and a supremely grateful Galfore housed the titans in the royal palace. The massive and ornate palace had no problem doling out an exquisitely appointed guest room to each titan. They were in their own wing so they could come and go and visit each other as they pleased. When Aqualad had knocked on Raven's door and entered, he found her stretched out luxuriously on a fluffy, canopied bed surrounded by pillows and covered in sheets of soft alien silk. She looked up and smiled, and he found himself glowing black and being pulled closer as the door behind him closed and locked.

Beast Boy had been too tired to do anything other than fall asleep as soon as he got into his room, but he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Terra, looking pitifully small and frightened, still wasn't comfortable with her lack of powers on the strange, new world. She clung to the green changeling who yawned as wide as any cat and pulled her along to bed. She locked the door behind them.

It had taken Speedy a full hour to calm Jinx down. In the pudding shop she had been in such a mix of emotions that she lost control of her powers, painting the shop in a palette of different colors as bowls of pudding succumbed to her uncontrolled hexes. Now, she was the Jinx of old, refusing to believe that he had survived reentry and his crash landing completely unscathed. Glowing bright pink, she pushed him into her room and demanded to check him for injuries, locking the door behind them.

Cyborg had calmed down enough to take a survey of damage done to his baby and realized that it was extensive, but not irreparable. They would be on Tamaran for a while, though. He had remembered, before they left the military base, to extract from the ship his portable recharger but needed to build an electrical adapter from scratch to fit the Tamaranian outlets. With Bumblebee beside him in her smallest form, they completed the task in record time. He plugged himself in and shut down for the night, knowing full well that Bumblebee had probably locked the door and would just crawl over the power cable and fall asleep beside him.

Palace life was pleasant for the titans. Robin, thanking his lucky stars to have his lucky Star back, had effectively cancelled any and all forms of combat practice for their stay on Tamaran. Each day, Starfire would fly him out to some new and exciting place from her youth that the boy wonder simply had to see. He had only said to the other titans that they needed a vacation and they were going to take one and enjoy it.

It was with this mandate that the Teen Titans dispersed into the city, each with their own specific destinations in mind. Beast Boy wanted to see the Royal Tamaranian Zoo. He marveled at the vastly different and exotic animals of this new world and tried to turn into them. Terra had come along with him and they walked through the menagerie, hand in hand. She had calmed down after a few days without her powers. Their only surprise was when a bunch of small school children came up and asked them exactly what they were.

Raven sought out a bookstore. Any bookstore would do so long as it had a small selection of Tamaranian folk poetry and songs. She ended up in a very impressive one, filled with hefty volumes of the history and culture of the planet. Aqualad, in an unceasing quest for coffee had tagged along. He figured that where there is a bookstore there is coffee, and he was not disappointed. He obtained a hot, refreshing beverage that tasted very nice. However, he had to actively purge from his brain the memory of what the beverage was made from.

Cyborg had been forcibly removed from the repair hangar by a phalanx of Tamaranian guards after his third straight day of repairs. Orders had come, in a circuitous route, from the royal family that he was to take some time to enjoy himself while he was on Tamaran. That circuitous route involved Bumblebee telling Starfire telling Galfore telling the guards. It was messy, but it worked.

Currently, he was playing the Tamaranian equivalent of football with some local youths on the drill field. His team was winning because the Tamaranians were so unused to running the ball on the ground. Bumblebee watched from the shade of a blue iron tree and smiled, planning out the rest of the day that would involve shopping at a very nice open air marketplace that Blackfire had recommended.

Speedy and Jinx had taken to simply walking through the city most days. Their travels had allowed them to find the museum district. They spent their time pouring over ancient Tamaranian artifacts, priceless works of art, and exquisite statuaries. The crown jewel of their travels was finding a very old Tamaranian church where they stood in awe of its magnificent spires. The old, wizened rector had been very happy to show them around.

Mas y Menos kept busy by teaching Blackfire some basic Spanish. She returned the favor by helping them with their English and introducing them to some Tamaranian. In the end, the three were speaking a very odd hybrid of languages that they alone seemed to understand. The east titans took this as it came and figured that they would probably need to start setting out an extra plate for dinner some nights.

The titans had initially refused; they were merely doing their job to protect their friend regardless of the cost and danger to life and limb. However, Galfore and Starfire and Blackfire had all been quite insistent. The actions of the Teen Titans in protecting both the Tamaranian royal family and the planet itself easily warranted the awarding of the Tamaranian Legion of Glorious Valor, making them knights of the royal Tamaranian empire.

They stood, dressed in their freshly cleaned and tailored outfits, behind a set of tall, wooden doors that led to the throne room. Their cue was clear. From inside, they could hear a loud fanfare of brass instruments and the heavy doors slowly pulled open. The titans entered the ornately decorated throne room, which shone of gold and pink Tamaranian marble in the sunlight that poured in through the tall windows on either side.

Ahead of them, on the platform at the front of the room, seated in the tallest throne and wearing an impressive suit and the crown of grand ruler, was Galfore. To his right, dressed in a flowing purple gown and wearing a small tiara, was the princess Koriand'r, their Starfire. To the left of Galfore and dressed in black gown of similar design to her sister and wearing a similar tiara was the princess Komand'r. The dark princess Blackfire had been granted a reprieve by royal order for her actions in saving her sister and her home.

Robin led the procession of titans alone. His eyes never left the princess who had haunted his dreams for years now as he walked in time to the fanfare. Behind him, as leader of the east titans, Bumblebee walked with her hand in the crook of Cyborg's arm. The others followed suit in procession behind. Raven with Aqualad, Terra with Beast Boy, and Jinx with Speedy. At the end of the procession, Mas y Menos walked in quickstep to keep up with the other titans and their longer legs.

At the platform, the titans spread out. The three royals rose from their thrones and stepped down from the platform to the same level as the titans. Robin noticed that Starfire had attained the cool, distant look of royalty. Though this was not her chosen profession, she had all the training necessary to play the role since she was a child. For a split second her green eyes shifted to meet his masked eyes and a serene smile played across her face. Robin returned the smile, knowing that his Starfire was still safe inside.

From right and left, the princesses took the medals from velvet pillows proffered by nearby aides. Each medal was pure platinum and compact but exquisitely inscribed with the royal Tamaranian crest and some form of native winged creature. Each hung from a silken ribbon of luminous white. Starfire worked from the right side and Blackfire worked from the left, both hanging the medals upon their friends with an air of royal serenity.

When they were finished, they stepped back and Galfore stepped forward. From a sheath at his side he drew a small, formal dagger and proceeded down the line, pressing the flat of the blade against the medal and tapping each titan on the shoulder. With those simple gestures, the ceremony was complete and the titans became knight defenders of the Tamaran.

Behind them, they heard the sound of rustling fabric and when they turned, they found the entire assembly filling the hall had knelt. Starfire came to stand beside Robin, wrapping her arms around him. Blackfire went to the opposite end to stand behind Mas y Menos, placing a hand on each one of their heads. Galfore stepped to the top of the platform again and intoned in a deep voice. "For acts of profound bravery in defending the people of Tamaran from the Gordanian threat and for saving the life of the heiress to the throne, the government and people of Tamaran are proud to call you heroes and knights of the empire."

The people rose, their applause echoing through the marble halls of the palace as the titans stood in awe.