Disclaimer: Teen Titans belongs to Cartoon Network and Glen Murakami. I think. So don't think I'm claming this show!
Rory: Okay. I'm back. Hi, everyone.
This chapter may be a bit over-dramatic, but you have to remember that it's Starfire-centered and Starfire is a bit over-dramatic and flamboyant about everything.
Darkfire gazed sadly at his sister. I guess it's time, he thought tiredly. His entire face seemed to sink at the thought. "Kori, I – "
"Starfire!"
The door slid open to reveal Robin standing in the doorway, almost wild-eyed, leaning on the frame. Starfire turned hesitantly to face him. "Robin, we were talking – "
"Star, I think – I need to tell you something, okay?" he said, breathing heavily. It seemed that he had run all the way there.
She frowned slightly, then surrendered and gave her brother a helpless look. "We will talk later," Starfire told him. "You have not answered me yet." With that, she moved towards her friend and left the room with him.
Darkfire sighed sadly. He had to tell her. Soon.
"Robin," Starfire began, "What is wrong?"
"Not yet," Robin said under his breath. "In my room. I need to tell you something. It's important, Star, really important." They continued moving towards his room very quickly.
Finally, they found his room. Starfire sat down on one of the cold, nondescript metal stools by her friend's desk. Robin, meanwhile, paced before her. "I think I've figured out what's happening with Slade."
Her face lit up. "That is wonderful!" she said happily. "But why is it so important?"
"I'm getting to that," he said. "It all started when Cyborg mentioned something that Bumble Bee discussed with him. They figured out that, since Slade was the only one who used Slade's robots and devices, he was the only one who could have been behind the attacks. They also figured out that Slade does lend stuff to his apprentices. So – when there was that huge attack on the Tower, and you were the only one left, you knew that it wasn't Slade."
Starfire nodded. True, the figure had been too short to be Slade.
"Therefore, it had to be Slade's newest apprentice." Robin paced a few steps, then stopped and turned to face Star. "Then I remembered something from the attack. Before I was hit, I heard a voice. It was a male voice, Starfire." He gave her a significant look.
However, she was still confused. "So the new apprentice is a…male?" she asked, bewildered.
He swallowed. "Don't you see? The apprentice – he's Darkfire."
All color faded from Starfire's face. "No," she said in a hushed voice.
"It has to be," Robin said desperately. "Think about it. The first day he was here, he took Saffire and the Luand'r away from us, and we don't know where they went. We don't know where they went once they left us after the practice fight. Darkfire wasn't with us when Slade's apprentice attacked us. Don't you think it could be because he is Slade's apprentice?"
Tears were welling up behind her eyes, and Starfire tried to blink them away. It wasn't fair; her brother couldn't do that! "He would not," she said tearfully. "You do not know my brother the way I do! He would not become Slade's apprentice! That would be betrayal. A disloyalty of our blood. Ryand'r would not do that. We are bound by our royal blood."
"Blackfire didn't find that a problem," Robin said very quietly.
Emerald eyes went wide as Starfire realized what he was saying.
And everything clicked into place.
Disappearing from time to time. The story that didn't quite fit everything, even though she had not realized. The anger with the robot, and tearing its inner computers out. The apprentice's blatant cruelty in the taking down of Robin. How the apprentice knew – exactly – the weakness of every Titan.
The apprentice knew – because the apprentice was her brother.
It made sense. Slade had used apprentices from inside the Tower before. The Titans hadn't exactly become more careful, either. Starfire's family had betrayed her before; it wasn't a new concept. Her father, selling her to the Psions, and Blackfire's many treacheries. Only Luand'r, Starfire's mother, had been a good, virtuous Tameranian.
Kori'nyrith…
Everything made so much sense. Ryand'r's weak starbolts weren't because of illness. They were because of a binding. A binding to Slade.
Suddenly, Starfire's world – the final standing, crumbling walls – were crashing down around her. She had been betrayed. By anyone, everyone she'd ever known.
Robin became Slade's apprentice.
Her father sold her.
Her sister sacrificed her to the police.
Terra was an apprentice.
Her friends couldn't help her.
Darkfire had made the ultimate betrayal.
Starfire closed her eyes as tight as she could and began to cry. Completely wilting, she sank from the seat to the floor. On her hands and knees, sobs racked her body.
A hand came to rest softly and comfortingly on her back. "Starfire? Are you all right?" It was a familiar voice, or, at least, it should have been. In her current state, though, the only thing Starfire could associate with this voice was pain and deception.
Slowly, unsteadily, she stood. Starfire could trust no one. Everything was – broken. She turned and left Robin's room, even though he called out her name.
I was betrayed…
Starfire wandered through the Tower. One thought went through her mind: I need someone to trust.
Mentally, she ran over the few people in her life that had been kind to her. Her mother, of course, but she was dead. Robin betrayed her. Blackfire – a back-stabber. Darkfire had just come back to her – but he betrayed her too.
My friends, she thought miserably. Then, she realized. My friends.
Cyborg had never hurt her. Beast Boy made her laugh. Raven may not act like it, but she liked Starfire, and they understood each other – to an extent. Starfire nearly began to cry again from joy. She rushed of to find them.
As she went, she realized something. Darkfire couldn't have been the apprentice. He was much stronger than she, and could easily have defeated her in mortal combat. If he really had wanted to, he would have taken her to Slade, or incapacitated her. He would never have let it go on so long.
Starfire's heart was nearly singing.
As she rushed past a shadowy hallway, a voice called out to her. "And where are you going, Starfire?"
She froze. That voice…she knew that voice…
"Surely you aren't going to see Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg," the voice said, coming up behind her. Starfire didn't dare to turn around. Certainly the apprentice would have a gun, or – something that would cause bodily harm.
Instead, she decided to negotiate her way out of it. "Greetings, apprentice," she said quietly.
The teen laughed. "Cut the crap, Starfire. We both know what's going down."
"I do not understand," she told the apprentice. "What is 'down' about this?"
The apprentice – the Informant – shook his head. "You know, I never thought you'd be this stupid," he informed her.
Heat prickled her face. "I am smarter than I seem," she said tersely.
He laughed again. "Just keep telling yourself that."
She could hear him taking a few steps closer. "You know, I'm doing this for Slade," he whispered, only a few inches from her ear. Starfire shivered. It seemed that he was as tall as she was, and she was beginning to think that it was Darkfire.
"Slade wants you safe," he whispered, now even closer.
Gulping, Starfire tried a different track. "What have you done to my friends?"
He shrugged, although she couldn't see it. "Same thing I did last time," he said. "Trapped them. Cyborg got a virus from his breakfast, Raven's slowly being pulled underwater with the tide, Robin is locked in his room with poisonous gas, and Beast Boy is too - tied-up to save them." The Informant chuckled at his own little joke. As if it wasn't a total cliché.
"You will not get away with this," Starfire said. (Oh, the cliché-ness of it all…)
"On the contrary," he said. "I sure as hell am. Now. Any last words as a Titan? Because once we leave the Tower, you will become Slade's apprentice."
She took a deep breath. There was one thing she wanted to know. One thing she had to know, and she would give in. "Did – was Saffire a part of this?" she asked, defeated. "Did she help you carry out your plot, Darkfire?"
This time, the apprentice laughed harder than ever. "No! Saffire wasn't a part of this, Starfire. She didn't help me 'carry out my plot'. And do you want to know why, Starfire?"
Pain overwhelmed her, but she didn't care anymore. "Yes," she said. "I wish to know."
He smiled evilly, showing his canines. "Saffire didn't help me," he said, turning Starfire around to face him, "Because I'm not Darkfire."
Pogo: EEP! Betcha didn't see that coming, did you? Ha!
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