Chapter 11: Grudge

Chapter 11 dedicated to: DeathsLastBreath

Cyborg rubbed his one human eye and stared at the hologram that was still projected on screen. He shrugged. "As good a guess as I have… Beast Boy, did you go wake up Rae?" the android asked as Beast Boy slipped back into the room. BB shook his head.

"No… she looked like she was really peaceful. I felt kind of bad… and plus, I don't wanna deal with a grumpy Raven anyhow," he explained. Cyborg lifted his eyebrow but made no further comment.

"Alright. Let her sleep. Starfire, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to steal Robin for a bit. He's got to watch the defensive systems…" Cyborg apologized. Starfire smiled slightly.

"What ever would make you think I would mind?" she asked, a slight twinkle in her jade eyes. Cyborg grinned.

"True, I don't know what I was thinking. Sorry, Star." Cyborg responded, playing along with Starfire's game.

"Hey!" Robin huffed, but he was smiling. She chuckled.

"I should probably remain with you two at the controls. I believe I know this area a bit better than you all anyhow…" Starfire offered. Cyborg nodded and the three titans moved over to the panel. Beast Boy flopped over to them.

"Hey, what should I do?" Beast Boy whined, his rather small attention span catching up to him.

"Go drool over Goth-girl some more," Cyborg suggested.

"Fine… I can see when I'm not wanted…" Beast Boy sniffed and plodded away. He didn't go to Raven's room, but rather went into the room that Robin and Starfire had been using, figuring to mope about for a bit.

Cyborg took the helm and their star ship was off. Every once in a while, the metal teen would glance back to make sure they were on the right course via the hologram table. It was during one of these moments that a shape passed over the craft and a great thump was heard. All three teens looked up in surprise. There was a louder thump and the craft wobbled.

Starfire's eyes became big and narrowed. "What in the world…?" Cyborg steadied out the ship. Starfire's starbolts charged and she glared up at the roof.

"I would guess… a Gordanian zealot? Keep an eye out for a one-man space pod near by. If it is so… I shall have to dispose of them for us," Starfire hissed. Robin heard something in Starfire's voice he hadn't thought possible. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Gordanian… sounds familiar, but I'm not recalling anything. What are they?"

"Glemporks," she declared. The ship was slammed into again and it teetered back and forth again. Cyborg growled, irritated as the shaking became more violent.

"Their going to throw us off course…. Hey, is that the space pod you're talking about?" Cyborg yelped. Star looked over and her eyes crackled and blazed emerald.

"It is. I will be back shortly," Starfire floated up into the air went to the back of the ship. She placed her hand on the wall and yellow light outlined her hand and then spread outward. The light formed the outline of a door and then faded to reveal another chamber. She was about to step into it when Robin's grasp stopped her.

"Starfire, are you even at full power? You can't just rush out there…"

"I am fully restored," she replied, tapping the shards. "Besides, they will ruin the ship if they keep this rocking up. I shall not have the Royal Tamaranian Star Ship ruined by a Gordanian zealot," Starfire snapped. Robin frowned.

"Can you handle it? We can't help you up there. Come back in the second it gets bad, ok?" he said. A large shudder and a scraping sound went through the craft.

"Yes, of course. He is trying to infiltrate the ship. I must go now," Starfire said. Robin drew her into a quick, concerned kiss before allowing her to enter the chamber. The wall appeared after she stepped into it. Star's eyes were blinding green as she shot out into the dark of space, flying up and over to the top of the star ship. She was indeed met with the hulking form of a Gordanian.

The alien looked like a massive biped of reptilian origin, highly reminiscent of an iguana in a space suit of sorts. A very mean iguana that would have no qualms about putting Starfire in a Gordanian Zoo. Or back in some covertly operated slave camp. The creature looked up form where he was trying to pry into the craft and met her eyes.

"I would ask you on behalf of the royal family that you please leave my ship. Now." Starfire growled. The Gordanian stood up, his eyes glowed pale yellow for a moment before returning to their beady black.

"The royal family of Tamaran has been killed. You are an envoy for no one," he spoke in newly acquired English. Starfire narrowed her eyes.

"Oh? Then what interest would you have in infiltrating my ship?" Star snapped. "Or perhaps it is just the fact it is a Tamaranian ship. You have lowered your standards, Zychronos," she smirked. "I remember a time when you had interest in the torture of royalty and royalty alone," she said. The Gordanian, Zychronos, looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"How do you know of my name, Troq?" he hissed.

"Do not call me such a thing! Do you not recall? None the less, I will be forcing you off of my ship now, seeing as you will not comply," Starfire snarled. She flew forward with such force a green light seemed to explode from behind her. She threw furious bolts at him with intense speed. Zychronos stumbled back, having never encountered a Tamaranian with such powers. It was no wonder… Starfire's starbolts were characterized of only herself and her sister. Perhaps it was only Starfire now. The Psions' other test subject was evidently dead.

The thought added to Starfire's anger and she again assaulted the Gordanian with Starbolts. However, Zychronos was prepared for her attack this time. He blocked with a metal plate fastened over his large fore-arm. Then, he ran at her and she was force to dodge his strongly aimed fist. She ducked to the side and swiped out a long leg, attempting to kick him off of his feet. Starfire's ankle was grabbed mid-kick and she was flung straight across and over the front of the ship.

Robin watched from the no-longer shuddering craft and he stiffened as Starfire went sailing past the main observational panels. He watched as she recovered mid-fall and she fisted to starbolts and went flying forward, hair flowing out around her in the emptiness of space. She shot two blistering streams of green energy from her eyes up at whatever was on the roof of the star ship.

He and Cyborg watched as a lizard-like alien of hulking proportion came flying out at her, little rockets on the bottoms of his metal-encased feet keeping him afloat. The two teens watched on and were soon joined by Beast Boy who had finally come to inquire about the earlier shaking. He was soon locked onto the fight with intense interest.

Starfire spun at him, starbolts flashing, and at the last moment she swung out a leg and kicked him hard in the side before flying upwards with a blazing fist to connect with Zychronos' chin. The kick and the punch both hit their mark. Zychronos was sent upwards hard. He quickly recovered and flew down at her, slamming a fist in her gut and making her soar backwards. She did an aerial back flip to recover herself and she prepared to fly at him again. Her green eyes widened as he pulled out a strange form of laser rifle.

"HYA!" Starfire wasted no time in fling a hailstorm of bolts at Zychronos and then flying out of shooting range.

Robin clenched his fists. He looked down. The ships defensive systems provided with firepower that was too big. If he fired at the Gordanian, it was quite possible he'd hurt Starfire as well. Cyborg stared with rapt attention, jaw tight. It was always hard to just stand back and watch as one of their teammates fought.

The laser rifle fired. Starfire was safe. As soon as the shots subsided, Starfire darted back in to let loose a wave of starbolts. Zychronos did his best to dodge, flying out onto the top of the craft again. Starfire followed and soon both were on the roof, staring one another down and readying for the next attack.

Robin growled as the fight left his vision again. Beast Boy looked over at him. "Dude, after Star did that glowey wall thing… I think she can handle a giant lizard…"

"With an alien laser rifle?" Robin snapped. Something rocked through the ship and the titans cringed. Either it was a starbolt or the Gordanian had gotten trigger-happy. Raven marched irritably from her room.

"What's going on, I'm trying to sleep," she snapped.

"Starfire's outside fighting with a killer iguana with a laser gun," Beast Boy said smartly. Raven blinked.

"Joy… I take it she's doing ok? Considering Robin isn't hyperventilating yet?" Raven asked. Cyborg nodded.

"I think she's alright… for now at least. Something tells me these guys aren't really new to her…"

"HAAA!" Starfire felt power surge to the shards and she expelled it in a sharp explosion that threw Zychronos across the ship. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the telekinetic force within her and expelled it in a glassy blast that sent him over the edge of the ship. Zychronos groaned against the force that hit him and struggled back onto the ship's roof, aiming his laser rifle and firing. Starfire saw it coming at her and her eyes widened with no time to dodge it. "Ah!" Star squeezed her eyes shut and crossed her arms over her face, already cringing as she waited for the pain of the laser rifle.

Her eye opened moments later when no hurt came. She blinked. A wave of glassy telekinetic force had stopped the laser blasts and both the blasts colliding with the sheet of force as well as the telekinetic force itself appeared frozen. Starfire lowered her arms and the laser blasts exploded against the wave of force and both laser and manifestation of telekinetic force was dissolved. Zychronos had recovered himself and went running at Starfire.

Starfire aimed one compact starbolt pulsing with tons of energy and sent it at the laser rifle which exploded in is grasp. He yelled and fell back. Star aimed another at him and it hit him square in the chest. Zychronos landed hard on his back, rocking the craft. Starfire flew over and hovered above him. She landed just in front of him and ground a heel into his chest, leering angrily over him. Her fiery hair fell forward and her eyes retained their brilliant glow.

"I have forgiven you for my enslavement but I will not excuse this attempt of meanness against my people. You know as well as I that damage done to a Royal Star Ship is taken as a personal blow to each and every one of my people. I will not tolerate such things. You will return to your home world now and you will not harm us," Starfire hissed. "Zychronos, you must change your ways. They are very wrong," she snapped.

"How do you know me, Troq!" Zychronos yowled. Starfire lowered her face very close to his, all usual cheery innocence gone from her infuriated glare.

"I told you not to call me such a thing, Zychronos. It is very rude to call a princess such names, is it not? I personally feel it is terrible to call anyone such a name,"

"P-princess? But how? You cannot be! Both princesses died! The younger one died with the Psions and the elder recently deceased by unknown causes!" he yelled it as if it were a scandal.

"Oh, is that so? Then I suppose I am simply a wraith? No. I am the remaining princess of Tamaran, raised by the current Grand Ruler and daughter of the past Ruler and his wife. I am Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran and you will not try harm me or my friends again," Starfire growled.

"No… you cannot be…"

"I am, master."Then she unleashed another stream of her eyebolts and her old slave master screamed.

"We've got to help her! I can't hear anything, I can't see anything. What f she's hurt?" Robin waved his arms around. BOOM. The unconscious body of the Gordanian slave master flew past their view through the observation panels. Starfire streaked after him and seconds later both of them reappeared hovering in front of the panels, Starfire holding Zychronos by his collar and glaring at him.

"Nope… she seems like she's got it under control." Raven mumbled. Robin watched as Starfire flew out towards the space pod hovering not far away. She sat him in the cockpit and strapped him in. Hovering above him, she punched in a few things on the consol and then slammed the glass top of the pod shut. It shot away from her, zooming in the opposite direction. She watched it go and then she flew back to the star ship. Her eyes lost their furious glow and she gave them a slightly saddened smile and a wave through the observational panels.

With a sigh, she floated around back of the star ship and entered the chamber. The door to outside slid shut and then the opening back into the main chamber opened. She walked out and was met with the curious gazes of her friends.

"Ah… I should like to think I have forgiven him, but I believe I may still have 'the grudge' against him for enslaving me…" she commented guiltily. The others blinked. Robin spoke first.

"That Gordanian… you were… what did he do to you?" Robin asked.

"What was done is in the past. Besides, it was what he attempted to do that frightened me more. But as I said, it is all in the past. I had never planned on telling you I was a slave at all." Starfire murmured.

"Starfire, please don't tell me you feel guilty about holding a grudge against a dude that made you a slave. I mean, in that case I must be the worst person in the universe! I'm still irritated that Cyborg put pepperoni in my socks last week!" Beast Boy exclaimed with exaggerated hand movements. Raven lifted a brow.

"You… had pepperoni in your socks…?" she asked. Beast Boy nodded furiously.

"Yeah! It was horrible! And I almost threw up! Can you believe…. Hey, why are you smiling?" Beast Boy frowned. Raven did her best and wiped the tiny grin from her face.

"I'm not smiling. But, Cyborg?"

"Yeah?"

"You got him good," she said. Cyborg beamed. The three proceeded to completely forget about the fight or anything else of remote importance and began bickering over the incident of Beast Boy's pepperoni socks.

"Starfire…" Robin murmured. Star looked at him. She knew he would persist. "Please tell me what happened," he said quietly. "I want to know what you went through…"

"I—would rather not… it is not the fondest of memories…"

"Do you remember the first year you were on earth and I had my birthday? Remember how you threw a party and I told you I didn't want it because it reminded me of one more year without my parents? Those were painful memories, but I shared them with you and you helped make them more bearable. I want to do that for you, Starfire. I want you to share your past hurts with me," he urged. Starfire looked down.

"I…" Robin drew her into his embrace. "Will try…" she murmured. Robin sighed.

"Thank you."

"Tamaran was at war. We were going to be forced to allow the Citadel take over. But Tamaran had been free for so long… nobody could give it up after tasting it. So my sister and I were offered as a peace offering. We were accepted and taken into Vegan slave camps. That is where I met Vyxiis. That is where I met my Gordanian master… Zychronos. He is… he is the one that was on the roof. Slavery was not good, but it was bearable. If I did my work well it was fine and I only received the daily beating. But… when I grew older the slave masters felt I was eligible to perform… different duties.

"I resisted and as a result I received extra beatings as well as cleaning duty and I was given only one meal a day rather than two. Meals consisted of a spoonful of… well, I am not sure what it was." Starfire looked up at Robin, seeing as she had slouched in his arms and had her head pressed to his chest. He now thought of how Starfire had immediately taken to cleaning and doing all of the titans' laundry the moment she joined the team. He supposed old habits die hard… especially when they were enforced by beatings.

"What were the new duties, Star?" he asked. He had a suspicion and it made him sick.

"It was… well… I… I never complied. B-but so many other female slaves… innocent young women… I believe I was one of the only at the slave camp that left in such a state that I would be… fully presentable to a future partner," Starfire murmured. She shivered slightly. "Although it was rather cruel, I feel as if I should have forgiven Zychronos and the other Gordanian slave masters by now," she confessed.

Robin held her closer to him. "Just wanting to forgive them proves you have a better heart than I do. I wasn't even there and I want to kill those bastards," Robin snarled. He spoke quietly then, so the others could not hear if they tried. "They tried to rape you, Kori. That's not exactly something I consider forgivable," he hissed. Starfire sighed.

"This is not really the most appropriate time to become upset, Richard," She whispered.

"I know… but… they hurt you so much…" Robin clenched his teeth. Starfire kissed him softly. She moved to pull away gently, but he held her to him, deepening the kiss. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she let her fingers tangle with his ebony hair. He held her waist tighter and moved his lips from her own to trail kisses down her throat and onto her collar bone which was still exposed by the ripped black gown she had yet to change from. Starfire's eyes closed as he came back for her lips again, savoring her taste.

"Er… I'm not trying to interrupt or anything… but would you mind moving things into one of the other rooms if you're going to bite each other's tongues off like that?" Raven droned. Robin pulled away from Star slightly and glared at the dark girl across the room. Starfire blushed sweetly. He and Raven continued the exchanging of glares for some time and Starfire gently tried to detangle herself from Robin's arms. She squeaked as he tightened his grip on her slender waist and refused to let her go.

"Sure, we'll take a room," he said finally, an irritated look on his handsome face. He took her into the bedroom and shut the door. Starfire giggled softly.

"Robin… please do not be irritated," she tugged at his sleeve and pulled him over to the bed where they both sat cross-legged across from each other.

"I know… I just waited for so long to be able to kiss you when I wanted to and now I can and I really, really, enjoy it. But those three keep… interrupting me," he huffed. Starfire shook her head in amusement.

"It will be alright, my Robin," she comforted. She leaned over and hugged him.

Raven was still staring at the door, a very small smirk on her face. She had to admit, albeit to herself and herself alone, that Beast Boy was right when he said that Robin and Starfire were cute. Beast Boy sauntered over and popped up about two inches in front of Raven's face. She took a surprised step back. Beast Boy gave her a toothy grin, and then he kissed her. Raven's eyes grew very, very wide and a Tamaranian chair exploded with obsidian energy. She pushed him off of her with enough force to send him onto the floor.

"What was that for!" Raven yelped, uncharacteristic of her. Beast Boy rubbed his butt as he stood.

"Eh, I figured you'd probably never been kissed before and ya know… Robin's fixing Star up pretty good so I figured you should have a chance too. So I kissed ya. Deal with it Miss Grumpy." He said, grinning to himself with the usual impish joy dancing in his forest green eyes.

"Don't you ever do that again," she growled and stalked off to the remaining empty room. The door slid shut with a bang. Cyborg cringed, but then he turned and smiled at Beast Boy.

"Nice one," Cyborg commented.

"I know." The changeling replied. Truth be told, although Raven was simmering angrily in the room, had she been forced to tell the truth… it hadn't been half bad.

Author's Note: Ha! I got some sleep and I'm back with a vengance! Ok, well... not really vengance but... the chapter was longer! And hopefully it was a bit better as well. Next Chapter: Gates. That's all I'm saying. Time to kick the search up a bit and actually get to the power, eh? Well... I've got about a week and a half left of posting every day... or at least trying to. Then school will start and I'll be limited to weekends. I got a Dickies Girl t-shirt the other day... it made me quite happy. I was considering adding Graysnon after it but... yea... that might not go over the best with my mom. She prefers to just look at it as the company. I'm all... ok, whatever. I still got the shirt. :):):) Oh, Catgirl R and S fan... I promise I'll read your story soon, I'm just a little busy at the moment. But I promise I WILL read it soon.

Love, Princess Starfire of Tamaran

Titans News: Ok. This is just a product alert. I suppose many of you have either seen or heard of them already, but oh well. Ok, first of all there's supposed to be a T-ship model that's been released to add to the Titans' toy line. I thought that was metionable. Also, if you've been to Hot Topic recently, have you seen the new Titans shirt they're selling? It's quite nice, actually. Black with a red strip across it that has all the titans on it and ithas the little Teen Titans logotoo, I think. I thought it was pretty cool... but my mom wouldn't let me get it... At least I have my Dickies Girl shirt...it makes me happy... (goes and stalksDick Grayson... he's mine! MWAHAHA!)