Chapter 16: Haunting
Chapter 16 dedicated to: Social Butterfli
How can I look you in the eye and say I love you, yet know I will try to hurt you? How can I hold you now and whisper my dedication… when two steps from now we will be fighting? If only this touch could last eternity, I might be able to breath. In all the danger we've faced… it is now that we will truly face each other. And though my spirit breaks… as I'm speaking to you now… it must be and it will be and my heart… no matter my actions… will be yours forever.
…
…
…
…
It was a unanimous thought from the both of them as they gave one another a reassuring hug. They were well aware that only one of them would step past the final gate… and that would be Starfire.
Perhaps this parting was not forever, but it would be painful. So very, very painful. Behind them an unconscious Raven lay sprawled across the dusty rock ground beneath them. Ahead lay the next gate. Its golden bars glittered in a false joy. Starfire despised it. "Well, come on… Starfire, open the gate," Robin said quietly. He swallowed.
The thought that he would be trying his hardest to hurt her in a few short minutes did not rest easy with him. "Ok…" Starfire smiled softly, trying to put on the best brave face she could manage.
"Star… it's not that bad. I've been knocked out before. I think I'll be just fine," he gave her a crooked grin.
"Yes. Perhaps that is so… but that does not make it easy. That does not make me any more willing to go through with this," Starfire mumbled stubbornly.
"Hey, you made me promise that our friendship wouldn't get in the way of my judgment. The same applies for you. You know what's right." Robin persisted. He was trying to approach this calmly.
It was really much harder on his side of the spectrum. Here, the girl he loved with all his heart was standing beside him… utterly trusting. And yet he knew that the moment they passed through the gate he was in danger of… unwillingly trying to kill Starfire. All she had to do was give him a good whack on the head…
"But Robin… it is so much more than friendship now…" Starfire lamented, eyeing him with a betraying twinkle of pressing tears in her emerald pools.
"Starfire…" he trailed off. So it was. He could not deny it. But still… Starfire seemed to understand despite his lack of words and she quietly faced the gate.
Her eyes were illuminated by a fierce jade-silver. Her wrists shimmered and the outline of the shards flashed bright. The green light spread, dancing up her limbs and wreathing her head. Her hair fluttered out like an exotic halo of scarlet flame.
Starfire lifted off of the ground, hovering limply in the air with arms stretched out. A lovely crucifix. She was soon consumed in an orb of warbling green symbols that danced and pranced in playfully powerful rings that tilted and whirred in a lively orbit. Starfire channeled the energy forward.
A massive starbolt flew forward from her, the excess energy she was releasing to open the gates had increased threefold in the brief time in this precinct. She was getting so very close to the power source.
The gold gate swung open and Starfire landed on the ground. She peered through the gate and swallowed.
Before her was a dark expanse of old, slowly turning gears that creaked and groaned a mournful symphony. This place… was all too familiar and all too haunting. She turned to face Robin. He stared ahead, unsurprised. His greatest hate… his greatest fear. To once again endure the slavery that was his apprenticeship with Slade. To see himself gazing into his friends eyes and realize they feared him.
To become like his greatest enemy. "Robin…" Starfire mewed, realizing what sick hate her friend held in his heart. "Oh, Robin,"
He looked over at her and he saw the pain on her face. The last time he'd been apprenticed to Slade had been a very trying time for not only him but Starfire as well. It had been hard on all of them… but Starfire had put so much faith in him. She'd watched her world crumble. And here it was, staring her in the face again.
"Let's go," he said stiffly. Starfire hung her head, a curtain of auburn hair hanging forward to shelter her from the outside world. Robin glanced her way several times as they walked and he ached to see her so upset. It really was his fault… but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help the fact that this was his ultimate horror. Well… he supposed if he had been as forgiving as the girl trudging beside him he might have been able to put this past behind him and move on to realize new fears as well as new joys.
Their steps echoed as they walked, the sound accompanied by the patient creaking of the gears. They almost expected Slade himself to show up. In the shadows cast by the huge machines, a slender silhouette stood with one hand perched on her hip. She appeared as nothing but a black form and two tiny slits of feline-like yellow eyes.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Starfire concentrated on placing one booted foot before the other with slow methodical motions. She sighed. Her eyes trailed to her left, just a little. Robin's feet no longer shuffled beside her.
Her green gems squeezed shut. All sound ceased to be perceived. Only the slow draw and exhale of breath. She quickened her step. One after the other, a hasty rush forward. She snapped her head up to squint in search of the next gate.
The gate was ahead, gleaming pale amber in the flickering florescent light. She heard a soft rustle to her left, a swish somewhere ahead. Starfire inhaled sharply and jumped off of the ground, hovering and turning in place, looking on all sides of her. Two clutched starbolts bathed the floor around her in emerald light.
There was a yell behind her; she spun to see the Boy Wonder charging at her.
In full apprentice garb.
Mask blazing with yellow light.
Bo-staff ready to stab down on her as he leapt into the air and came plummeting down on her. Starfire gasped and did an aerial back flip out of the way. She let herself fall to the ground, feet impacting hard with the concrete floors. She used the repercussion fuel of a strong leap back off of the ground and into the air.
Her power of flight assisted her in soaring up above Robin, who had slammed his staff hard into the concrete. He snarled and jerked to face her, looking up with narrowed eyes.
"Richard…" Starfire mumbled, flying higher. He would not be able to reach her….
Robin shot a grappling hook up and it snaked around the girl's ankle. It drew taught and he pulled her down.
Starfire gave a tiny shrieked as she was pulled forcefully down towards earth. "Robin, no!" Starfire hissed, as if chastising him, and she flew against his insistent pull on the grappling hook.
Robin grit his teeth and leaned back, bracing against her upward flight. Starfire bit her lip as she strained up, the bind cutting at her ankle.
She looked down and with two searing beams of solar energy blasting from her eyes she severed the cord of the grappling hook. She also singed the fabric of her boot nicely. Robin stumbled back by the sudden lack of weight on the other end, but in true Boy Wonder fashion he caught his balance and whipped out an explosive disc.
If Starfire had been aware of any Terran curse words she would have been spouting them out in rapid succession at this point. She didn't want to hurt him.
Despite what Robin had said… despite what he had told her to do. As Starfire engaged in a stare-down with him, one hand raised and clutching a starbolt, she found herself unable to fling it happen. Her breath sighed from her lungs desperately and she bolted.
The girl darted quickly amidst the turning gears, hoping the young man would be unable to hit her with the disc in the tight area. Of course, she was not one to underestimate Robin's ability and she winced as he vaulted acrobatically up and perched on one of the few still gears before her.
He smirked and the disc flew.
"AHH!" Starfire yelped and leapt out of the way of the explosion. A cloud of smoke unfurled from the explosion and Starfire's bones rattled against the tremor. She panted and waited for the smoke to clear, eyes darting around and looking for Robin.
He found her first.
"RAUGH!" Robin jumped down from a higher location onto Starfire's back and she toppled forward. She groaned as her chin was slammed upwards when it hit the ground. She gasped for the breath that had been knocked from her lungs. Robin pulled his staff again and brought it down hard.
Star managed to jerk to the side enough that his blow hit her shoulder rather than her head. Starfire let out a silent cry of pain and swung to her feet, managing to throw Robin off of her back. He skidded to a top on his steel-toed boots.
"Robin… Robin, do not make me hurt you. Please do not make me hurt you!" She ballerina twirled out of the way of a freeze disc chucked at her. She stopped to face him and her eyes glittered with jade-silver light.
"Robin, I love you, do not make me hurt you!" Starfire pleaded. Robin growled and charged at her.
"Love is a waste," Robin hissed, plowing into her chest and throwing her to the ground. Starfire's eyes widened as he ground the toe of his boot into her collar bone. Starfire whimpered in pain.
"No… no, it is NOT!" Starfire used her alien strength and snapped up, throwing Robin off of her and onto his back. He groaned as he hit the ground. Starfire gasped.
"Robin!" She ran to his side and kneeled by his side. Robin's hand snaked out and grabbed onto her wrist. He pulled hard and jerked her onto her stomach before flipping onto his feet.
Starfire felt a few tears slither from her eyes. Robin…
She pulled to her feet and hovered in the air. She clutched two large starbolts and faced him. He glared at her, mask radiating yellow light. It was not Robin that face her. And yet… it was…
Her starbolts faltered. Robin's mask narrowed. "Starfire." He spat her name out as if it were a foul taste in his mouth. "Compassion is such a weakness." He ground out and then he hurled four birdarangs at her in rapid succession. Starfire felt more tears snake from her eyes as she blindly dodged the weapons. One of the grazed her arm and she let out a soft hiss of pain.
These were not words her Robin would say. This was not her Robin. And yet… it… it was… still. Star couldn't. She just couldn't hurt him.
But he would want you to end this. A low voice murmured into her mind.
"Ryand'r?" Starfire yelped suddenly. Robin was circling her slowly, three explosive discs in hand.
Fair sister… end this. He would not want to be hurting you like this. What he speaks are his fears… he does not believe them… the voice urged. Starfire spun wildly.
"Ryand'r!" She cried out. More tears. The whistle of an explosive disc hurtling at her. Starfire gasped and swung out of the way.
Do what he wishes! Let this fight not continue. Stop the hurt for you both. Ryand'r's voice persisted. Starfire bit her lip. She soared out of the path of the other two explosives.
"Ryand'r… where are you?" Starfire choked out as she flew in wild spirals, avoiding the various weaponry thrown at her from a grounded Boy Wonder.
A soul and no more, you must win this struggle. You must destroy the power. You must move on and end this task before he does something he will forever regret. Starfire hyperventilated. Her dead brother's voice. Robin's attacks. She clutched her head, curling into an aerial fetal position. A grappling hook popped as it shot out and wrapped around her curled form, taking advantage of her confusion.
Starfire fell to the ground. She must fight. Her brother said… fight. Robin said… fight. But she would not fight him as he thought. Starfire used two starbolts to burn herself free of the binds and flew up, hovering just above the ground.
FLASH! FLASH!
Starfire let starbolts fly, making Robin back up. He stumbled back, further and further until he was pressed against the side of a gear.
Star sucked in a breath and flew to him. Before he could do anything, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his. Robin struggled but Star persisted. The yellow glow flickered, fighting to remain in control. Faded. Died. He returned the kiss, briefly, before jerking away. "I told you to… fight me!" Robin growled. Her Robin. Starfire bit her lip.
"But… I…"
The yellow glowed back and Robin moved with such speed that the girl barely had time to gasp before it was her pressed against the side of the gear with the sharp blade of a birdarang pressed to her throat.
Starfire cringed and swallowed hard, her breath shallow and her body trembling. The yellow flashed out of existence and Robin had suddenly jerked the blade away from Starfire and to his own throat.
"NO!" Starfire yelled. In that instant she blasted him hard with her eye beams. Robin's body flew back and the birdarang fell from his hand. He groaned as he lay on his back. Starfire ran to him.
"That's… my girl…" he croaked, his hair wildly on end and a little bit of steam coming off of the place her beams had blasted him. He gave a tiny lop-sided grin as the true Robin before the yellow flooded his mask again and the grin contorted to an angry grimace. Starfire let another starbolt fly at his head with her eyes averted.
Robin sank into peaceful oblivion. Starfire breathed slowly, evenly, and looked back at him. Unconscious, he was smiling slightly. Starfire sniffed once, twice, and then she let the tears flow freely. She dropped into a huddled heap by his peacefully sleeping body and sobbed. Her shoulders shook and she laid her head on his chest, ignoring the cold of his apprentice suit.
Robin had feared becoming something that would hurt her and had hated Slade with such passion that when his turn came… this was what happened. And it had been the perfect. The perfect way to stretch Starfire to the point that all she could do was lay there and cry and choke back the uprising of power surging to the shards as she slumped but a foot away from the final gate.
Koriand'r, he will be fine. As will the others. I shall see to it. But you must end this now. End what evil was started so long ago. Starfire jerked her head up from where she was lying and gasped. A barely visible, smoky figure stood before her.
"Ryand'r…?" she breathed, shaking her head in disbelief. Ryand'r stared and drifted forward. A ghostly hand tilted her chin up. Tamaranian eyes met. A glow of green fire lit in both pairs, and then he faded. More sobs. Starfire shivered and cried and curled against Robin's body. "Robin… Ryand'r… Robin… Robin, my Robin…" Starfire whimpered.
She lay there for a long time. All four of her teammates were lying strewn in various precincts and she felt very, very alone. But now, there was nothing to turn back for. Everything had been done. Now she would go. And she would destroy the power, she decided. She would cut the shards from her wrists if she must. With this hard determination suddenly springing within her she pulled herself up off of the ground. The gears continued their slow turning.
She bent over and brushed her lips over Robin's and pushed back a few of his misbehaving, ebony bangs. A sad little smile lit her lips. He would be ok. That had been promised. That she believed. But how she wished he could be with her as she went on to this final struggle.
Author's Note: Ugh... seemed a little overly dramatic to me, but I had fun writing it. So... eh. Well, the last chapter will be up tomorrow, I think. I should have an epilogue up Friday. Again, this is all a tentative schedule... I would really appreciate your reviews... comments, critiques... whatever. Just... please don't flame.
Love, Princess Starfire of Tamaran