Memories
By Bonekhan123
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Suddenly, she didn't feel so innocent.
She walked around the outside of the remnants of her old home, a flood of memories rushing back. The tower was horribly scorched, black metal blending across the outside surface.
The top of the tower was caved in leaving a large hole at the top, rough and jagged.
Starfire's eyes scanned the whole of the building and the surrounding island. The grass was yellow; old and dead. Those words could describe most of Jump City, whom Slade had taken over.
No sense of free life was anywhere, no green trees, not even the sea was as blue and clear as she remembered it.
She had risked a lot just being here… Creeping through the city in the shadows, always waiting till nightfall to make her way to the tower.
People now were… They moved through the streets, followed by Slade's robotic henchmen. They weren't free. Only a false sense of freedom.
Slade hadn't enslaved them, he just wouldn't let them leave. Didn't force them to do anything, but huge restraints were on the people.
It was saddening, to see her and her teams once-beautiful city like this, under Slade's rule. Criminals were celebrated for stealing and killing…. It was like an alternate universe.
Starfire looked to the left and she could see the once-beautiful park from across the water, an angry fog hanging over it giving the same, deadened look to the whole city. The park where her friends had spent so many lazy afternoons, having picnics, engaging in sports or just 'hanging out' as she recalled Robin explaining it to her once.
She sighed and walked through the broken door by tossing it aside.
Only tore-up remnants of their furniture remained as she walked through the halls. The couch were her friends had spent so many hours in front of the television.
So much memories…
She could hear each of the Titan's voices echo through the walls although no one was there… Actually, there was someone.
He was the only one who never left…
Robin was now Nightwing, the only one trying to bring justice to the city… and not doing a good job at it.
Slade had crushed them, each and every one of them.
Cyborg had gone first. He might still be alive, but they gave up on that hope three years ago. He had simply gone on patrol, alone; Beast Boy was sick that day and he was the one who needed to go with him.
Cyborg simply never came back. Nobody blamed Beast Boy… Beast Boy blamed himself. Cyborg was his best friend after all. He became depressed, and not long after that, he got hurt in battle.
Slade had broken into a biochemical laboratory. Dangerous chemicals, Raven had told her. Chemicals you shouldn't go near. She said that they would hurt and burn and do awful things to you.
Beast Boy had gotten separated from the rest of them. That was when Slade attacked him. No one could get near him and Slade, all they could do was hear the cries of agony that come from Beast Boy as he fought.
When it was all over and they found him, he laid in the chemicals, soaked in it. Robin had said he had gone into a coma. He never woke up…
And later, someone came to the hospital to finish it. The whole building was destroyed, countless patients killed.
She had always tried to reassure herself that, as long as their was a Teen Titans, she would always fight for what was good… That was the promise she had made when she had meet them.
So had Raven, but she broke it. Raven says that she doesn't feel, but Star and Robin both knew that when Beast Boy had passed away, she was hurt. Badly.
At Beast Boy's funeral, when they were lowering the casket of what remained of him, she had cried. Starfire had never seen Raven cry before. She had frowned at Cyborgs death. Never cried. Never.
But she did, and they both knew that she liked Beast Boy. One day, early in the morning, Starfire went to tell Raven breakfast was ready. That's when she found the note, laid slender on her bed.
She had showed to Robin, not believing what it said, not believing that their dark friend had left. Maybe it was just a joke and Raven had a bad sense of humor. Maybe she would come back. Never did.
And Starfire had stayed a year after that. They had gotten beaten on the streets of Jump City horribly.
Robin had went to the hospital on the other side of town more than three times. Starfire bore the pain, bore the cuts and bruises, bore the loss of her friends.
But she could bore it no longer. Slade had already won. He hadn't gotten Jump City, but he had broke up the Titans, the only people willing to protect it.
He had already won, yet Robin was determined. Many times before she had thought of leaving, maybe doing the same as Raven had done.
She had gotten nearly killed twice but never showed, in fear that Robin would give up and all hope would be lost.
Never once did she show her true feelings against the whole scenario. She had been so strong, been through so much, and nothing needed to be expressed to show that to Robin.
She knew Robin knew. They both knew that hope was lost.
But the both of them still persisted. Sure, they had gotten better fighting just the two of them, together, but it wasn't enough. Their losses piled high while their wins and victories that they gotten so long ago faded.
And eventually Starfire gave up.
She wasn't a coward. She walked up to Robin. Explained why she was leaving, maybe he would go with her. He didn't. Maybe that was what Starfire admired in Robin, his persistence; but certainly not his foolishness.
Robin understood, he was foolish, not stupid---although the line between the two was almost impossible to tell--- but he understood. She left and went to her home planet, Tameran.
But, she found that she was out of place. Like coming to Earth, she was new with all the ways of living there; Tameran had changed a lot since she was there.
She tried to have a normal life, tried to have just a normal, Tameranian life. But she eventually returned.
She didn't fit in; The only place she did fit in was at the Tower. That's why she had come back.
Maybe they all came back, just maybe she could start living like she normally lived. But she came to her home to find it in ruins and in terror. Slade had won.
The Titans had lost.
And there was Robin--- Nightwing--- standing in the hallway in awe. Starfire's face was full of grief and sadness, Robin--- she still had trouble remembering the name Nightwing --- knew it.
"You came back," he said in utter shock. His voice had changed; darker, deeper, no longer the adolescent she had known for what seemed like so many years before.
"Yes," she replied simply. Her voice had changed too, softer, more frail, yet some power and meaning still behind it.
They had both changed so much. Robin had obviously grown, now many inches taller, taller than her. His body was still lean, not bulging, almost no fat at all, but not skinny. His hair was drew back like it always was, although nothing was as it always was.
Starfire had also grown and, although her species generally grew slower then Robin's, she had grown taller too, her bust increasing, legs more slender, and longer hair.
He smiled, spontaneously, finally taking note that she had returned; before he had been in utter shock---maybe this was another cruel dream his mind played on him late at night.
But it wasn't; she ran over to him, embracing him tightly. Her touch was soft, much softer than it used to be, but real, warm, inviting.
That sat on the busted couch, not at all comfortable but just for the sake of sitting.
"We have a little of catching up to do, Star," he said, a slight grin forming from the corner of his mask. She nodded in agreement.
"And we have a long time to do it."
-Bonekhan123