She was the strongest girl he had ever laid eyes on. She could rip through steel as though it were nothing and even lift their heaviest friend when she gave flight. Her face was never more ferocious than when she was defending someone she loved; her eyes glowed a bright, acidic green that warned the victims of the anger she was keeping deep inside of her.
And yet, outside of battle, she was always so happy and graceful. She floated through the sky with the faintest tinkle of morning bells, and when not angered her eyes were two beautiful green orbs in a pool of a lighter shade of the same color. Her skin was an odd sort of tan, and her hair shone in the light as though it were filled with reddish stars. She loved everything around her and attempted to avoid violence at all cost. She protected those she loved, sacrificing herself without a second thought.
It was probably because he had forgotten of her personality outside of battle that Robin had allowed Starfire to get hurt so badly. It was probably because he had forgotten of her gentle nature that Robin now allowed Starfire to lie in front of him and barely manage to escape death every time a second passed by.
Robin was sitting alone in the infirmary, looking helplessly down as Starfire's unconscious figure. Her eyes were shut in pain, and her face was filled with strain as she attempted to ignore the waves of agony coursing through her entire body. Her shirt and armor had been replaced with bandages in an attempt and stop the blood-flow from her open wounds, thought it didn't do much good. The bandages were still stained in a bright-chrism.
Robin saw Starfire flinch again in pain, and he turned away out of instinct. He couldn't look at her in such a state; it ripped at his heart to see her fighting for her life, and to know it had been his fault that this had happened. Only his and no one else's. Robin sighed, playing over what had happened earlier that day in his mind for the twentieth time.
It had been a normal day; the Titans had all woken up, and Cyborg and Beast Boy had been playing a video game when the trouble alarm went off. Instantly, a red right had gone off in Robin's head; it was Slade, the villain that had cost them a dear friend, and not to mention the man who had almost cost them Raven as well. It was impossible to describe in words how the very mention of Slade's name caused anger to rush into Robin's system. It was no surprise that he called the Titans to be out and on Slade's tail within a half-minute.
The Titans had much more of Slade's robots to fight than usual, so Robin had gotten the idea of sending Starfire on ahead of them to catch Slade. After all, Raven had still been shaky after her last encounter with the treacherous snake, and the others were unable to fly to the roof on which he had been hiding. Without so much as questioning him, Starfire had done as told.
The Titans had then fought Slade's robots for another good ten minutes; at least half still remained. That was when Starfire had come flying right through the steel of the roof and collided with the cement below. Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven had instantly all stopped in their battle to attempt to see if their friend was safe, but had found themselves back in the hands of the robots within seconds.
What Robin had done then, he regretted more than anything else in the world.
"Starfire! Starfire, get up! Don't let him get away!" He had shouted once he saw that the girl was just barely sitting up and shaking. She had looked at Robin with a hopeless, defeated look in her green eyes.
"Please...Robin, I am unable to out-match him..." She pleaded, but only get a yell in return.
"Starfire, we NEED to stop him! You can do it, I know you can! You have to!"
Starfire had merely blinked helplessly for a moment. Robin could have sworn he had seen tears in her eyes as she floated into the air, whispering nothing more than a weak, "As you wish."
She had flown right towards the hole she had been sent so violently out of no more than a minute before, and began her battle with Slade once again.
It had taken the Titans another ten minutes to finally reach the roof top to see how Starfire had faired. Robin had been confident that she had stopped Slade; after all, she was so powerful, born into a true battle race. She was a very useful Titan when it came down to it; fire power and brute strength in one.
Only when Raven had whispered an "Oh, God..." did Robin realize he had been terribly wrong.
There had been Starfire, bruised and battered, lying in a pool of her own blood. Her armor had been mostly peeled away and rendered useless, and her neck had been bruised, as though it had been grabbed roughly by metallic gloves. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she had been giving off nothing more than choked sobs.
"Starfire!" Robin had cried, running to her side and forgetting all about Slade instantly. All he had cared about was that Starfire was in such a pitiful state. He had attempted to lift her up, but she had flinched violently when he got near her.
She had weakly looked up at Robin, with a look of pure fear in her eyes. A look which Robin could not ever forget.
"...Please...Forgive me, Robin..." She had pleaded quietly, causing a wave of shock and fear to run through Robin's system. "I was unable to stop him...I failed...Please do not be...An..." Starfire's consciousness had faltered for a moment as her eyelids had fluttered. "Angry with me..." With that, Starfire had collapsed forward, Robin just barely keeping her from soaking herself further in her own blood by catching her.
Robin had merely stared at her in shock in disbelief, unable to understand why she had acted in such a way until they had reached the infirmary. After Raven had treated Starfire, Robin had sat down to stare at her and think things over.
Quickly, he understood why she had done so. He had ordered her to; Starfire was a woman of her word, and if she said she would do so, she would rather die than fail. Robin had ordered her to stop him, and she had been unable to. Robin hadn't realized or even bothered to acknowledge how hurt she had been. He was thinking of her as nothing more than a tool...
The idea sent shots of nausea up Robin's system now. How could he have treated Starfire like that? Out of all people, how could he have done such a thing? After becoming Red X, after becoming Slade's apprentice, even after losing Terra and almost losing Raven, Starfire had forgiven Robin time after time, persuading the others to do the same! And this was how he had repaid her... By causing her to flinch in fear when he attempted to help her up.
The idea sent a pang of guilt to Robin's stomach to accompany his nausea. She had flinched... He has actually frightened the person he cared most about into a state of fearing him. Robin simply couldn't bare it; the thought of Starfire fearing him was bad enough. The thought of losing her brought tears to the corners of the Boy Wonder's eyes. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was in love with her. Since the first day she had come to the planet, he had been in love with her.
Starfire had been the only thing that kept Robin going most days, knowing that if he survived, she would be there in the end. Starfire had always been so sweet and kind and had kept the Titans stay together though more than one hard time. Robin quickly found himself blushing every time she paid extra attention to him, and found himself jealous whenever she did so to anyone else.
But being Robin, he attempted to mask all his feelings just as he did his face. He had been unable to tell Starfire how he felt, and now...Now it could have been too late.
Robin ran a hand through his hair, unable to look anywhere near Starfire's pain-ridden form as he spoke.
"...Please...Don't leave me Star. I need you."