Sorry for the slightly late update. Things are happening, so many deadlines to cover... School pressing down on my existance... Viruses on my comp...

Well, that aside, I can finally say that this next chapter is longer than the rest. But it's all the more exciting to read. The setting here will blow your heads off.

So... Enjoy!

Chapter Five

Star's head hurt. She could not understand why she could see nothing but the color black nor could she explain the spinning in her head. She did not remember swallowing any of the mouthwash. She tried to think about why people are not allowed to drink mouthwash though it felt good in their throats and smelled pleasant when she smelled her breath.

She contemplated on this little trinket of a thought for a while until she figured out that the point was moot. It had not real importance in the scheme of things and did not help her on the current problem. She would have to leave it for another day.

At first, Star could not even muster the strength to open her eyes. It took her the better part of a quarter hour to complete the task. Now she had to work on actually getting up. She was hard at work, having her severely cramped muscles in an effort to move.

Then a foul smell entered her nose. It was horrible; much like the stench of a toilet bowl when Beastboy and Cyborg would try to see how many pieces of blue, ill-tasting food they could flush down until the bowl would, as they say, "back up". The disgusting odor was too much to bear for hours of just lying there. In one bursting effort, she stood up. She breathed heavily and was sore in her knees and elbows. But she was happy to get up.

She looked all around and swiveled her eyeballs. She could see that she was in a fairly wide alleyway. It was a dark, dank corridor. The floor was grimy with all sorts of green things and the walls were creeping with strange looking animals. She turned her sight to the left and saw just where the reeking stench was coming from. There was a large green dumpster, swarming with flies. Judging by the fact that portions of garbage were still falling off from the main stack told her that there had just been a new dump.

The place looked like the ruin of Jump City when Trigon the demon had come to Earth. It was a dark period when Raven had disappeared and she had discovered that even she had a dark side. The whole Earth had been turned into one lifeless rock that spewed hot magma where water used to be abundant. It was a time she would rather forget.

She waved to off as she though. Through most of her trials, her friends had been with her along the way. But right now, she was all alone. Where was Cyborg? Where was Beastboy? Where was Raven? Where… where was Robin? She was alone and she hated being alone. There was no one around to help her. There was no one to guide her. There was no one to call for if she found herself in a fatal situation. There was only one solution: find her friends.

She saw that one side of the corridor was a dead end. There was no point in blasting a wall. She looked up, the corridor's walls stretched to seemingly endless heights. She would not attempt to fly that distance in her current condition. She would find herself at a loss of energy and anything happy that she could think of. There was only one way to go: forward.

She rubbed her head as she walked. Her head still hurt though she had already gotten up. It was a fair five minutes 'til she could see the end of the path where it opened up to another two pathways. She was tired, but she had to continue. There was no one to do it for her.

She was thinking as she moved. She asked herself, "Where am I?" But she had no clue. The Titans were all about to partake in a feast of the junk food and they were to watch event in the television. It did not matter what was on TV. All that matter was that there she would be, in the company of her friends, having a fun time. The question of how she got here also came up. But the answer to that could not be found until the first was behind her. After a while, she had done nothing but make her head hurt more.

She had finally gotten to the end of the walkway. A new question had risen. Which way should she go? The path widened but it split left and right. She looked up again, in hope that the walls would be more forgiving. But this was not the case; they were still as high as ever. She looked woefully to her left; this was a most depressing place. She turned left and she could almost feel the coldness of a metal barrel, centimeters from her head.

Starfire's green pupils widened at the sight. A silver gun-shaped object was pressed to her head. Her mind paced as she tried to make sense of it all. The gun was attached to a gloved hand, which was attached to a short, futuristically armored person.

"GET DOWN!" the person shouted. Star was only too glad to comply. She dropped to the floor, hands on her head. She did not want to be killed here.

There was a strange blasting sound. In the corner of her eye, Star saw a bolt of crimson light that shimmered in the air. It was hardly moments until she heard a heavy thump on the floor beside her. She was scared, very scared.

"You can open your eyes now." said the strange armored, his voice said weakly. What's wrong with you anyway?"

Starfire was hurt. She was almost shot with a very strange weapon and her would-be assailant was being most rude. If this was one of the "practical jokes" that Beastboy was most pleased to use, this was a very bad one.

Then she opened her eyes. The sight inverted her view of the situation. The strange looking person was beside her to the left. To her right was a strange looking body flat in its face. It was no human body, the skin was green and there were two trumpet shaped ears that were protruding from the head. It was also, obviously, no longer living. There was a most noticeable hole that was seared into the back of the head. Whatever happened, happened quickly as the fatal wound was still smoking.

"Thank you." began Star; her sudden gratitude toward her rescuer was beginning to unfold. "I did not realize what you were doing."

"Yeah, sure you didn't." bit the person through the visor of his large helmet. "What's a person like you doing in lower level Coruscant? You wouldn't have lasted the day if I hadn't come."

Starfire sized up the person. The voice had given it away: the person was a male. Star had to wonder how such words could come from someone who was not even as tall as she was. It was almost funny how this person looked almost like a midget. But this impression waved over when she observed the dark green armor. It was scarred at some places and there were places on the helmet, wrists, and legs that Star could only assume were weapons.

"Coruscant?" said Star inquisitively. "I am not familiar with this… planet is it?"

"I guessed that you were one of the dumb ones." he sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know how you manage."

"I am trying to express my gratitude…" gritted Starfire through her teeth; she could feel a little droplet of sweat that was riding down the side of her face. She was most thankful for having someone save her. But right now, he was just being rude. Rude in a way Robin never was…

"Yeah, right." he said plainly "Thank me now. I won't be there next time." He then turned away to leave.

"Can I at least be granted the pleasure of knowing your name?" she said, it was merely a polite understatement. She did not really wish to know the name of the pig that had his back facing her.

"Fett." he said flatly. Then he began to walk.

But he had not taken more than a step when distant footsteps began to make themselves heard. They were coming from the direction of Star's former attacker. In moments, she could see who were making them. Three strange looking aliens were approaching.

One of the three looked very much like the one mister Fett had killed. It was a green skinned humanoid. It almost looked like it dressed like a normal person. But the face had immediately disqualified it as anything human. Aside from the strangely shaped ears, the being also had large spherical eyeballs and a strange looking snout that took the place of the mouth.

The other two were also humanoids. But they were also not human. Their skin was a bland orange color and she could see that their fingers were webbed. As strange as the green skinned alien's head was, these two aliens had extremely grotesque craniums. Both had mouths covered with tentacles and cone shaped heads. If Beastboy or Cyborg were here, they would have described the beings as "squid-headed".

They were running at an excited pace. They seemed to be attracted to the laser bolt that she had seen earlier on. But then, they stopped when they saw the dead alien. They started pointing and making a fuss. They were mumbling in a strange tongue and they seemed most distressed at the sight. The green one looked up and saw Mister Fett as he stopped.

"BOBA!" said the green one, his snout blurting out the words with a strange wheezing voice. "You dead now. You won't get away with dis one boy!"

The other two faced Fett's direction. They seemed equally as mad as green alien. They started muttering and shaking their hands. Through the confusion of it all, Star hardly noticed one of the squid headed ones reaching for his belt; reaching for a silvery gun.

Fett's response was almost instantaneous. He grabbed for his own belt and grabbed a strange looking metallic object. With a flick of his wrist, Fett threw the object right in front of the aliens. It was a split second that seemed frozen in time. The aliens had had hardly enough time to gasp and futilely cover their faces in an attempt to save themselves.

An explosion followed a second later. The metal case vaporized and let the fiery storm within. The bright yellow flash burst out and the aliens were blasted meters away. The ear splitting sound and the resonating shockwave nearly tipped Star off her feet but the aliens, all three of them, landed with sickening cracks. But it did not matter, they were dead before they hit the ground.

"Fools." Fett snidely commented, he brushed the incident away like dust from his hands. He resumed his stride as soon as if it had never happened.

Starfire was stunned. Boba, apparently, was a most competent warrior. Had she been the person in his situation, she may have flown up at first sight. She never wished to… permanently disable anyone who had wished to hurt her. Slade maybe, but he could be considered an exception. But Boba seemed to have no problem eliminating any and all threats. Maybe he could help…

"Wait mister Fett." said Star as she jumped to catch up. "I may need your assistance in much more pressing matters."

"Mister Fett?" he said jokingly as he stopped suddenly. "Yeah…"

"So you'll-", Star began.

"You might want to get out of here real fast." he said as he cut her off. "The dead man has more friends coming." Then he pointed behind him. Star could not see anything. But Fett seemed too confident to make a mistake now.

"I do not understand." she said. "I do not sense any danger."

"Fine, but I ain't gonna stick my neck out for you again." Boba said. "They seem like a great bunch of guys." Then he turned around once again. Star noticed something on his back. He had some sort of backpack that was strapped on him. Star had seen things like this before, it was a portable, jet propelled, flight mechanism. It was what humans on the television would call a "jetpack". Star realized that he was about to run.

From a distance, she could see the danger. There was a most unruly mob of strange beings that was approaching. They were shouting and yelling and waving objects above their heads. It was made clear that they were to exact revenge on Fett for his actions. Star counted a good number of a dozen, and that was in the front line alone. There had to be a good forty or so that were behind him.

"Hold on Mister Fett." Star declared. "I can take care of this. Follow me if you wish."

"What? YOU!" Fett chuckled "What the hell can you do?"

Fett had barely turned when Star began to take flight. She summoned her emotions to her mind. Happy moments were needed. The time when Raven and Starfire had exchanged minds, the time when Robin finally said it was alright to have her as a "girlfriend"…

It was not long 'til her feet left the ground. She could feel the air below her and the absence of gravity. It felt nice, and that was good. She had to have something in her mind to keep her in the air. Star hovered a little higher. The higher she was, the better a vantage point she would have. Not to mention, a target in the air is not as easily hit as one standing on the ground. Even so, she always hoped that the enemy was a sore shot.

From behind her, she could see Fett. He was obviously stunned as his broken stature showed. Star's ability to fly was obviously uncommon in this world. Star was happy that she had found a way to get past Boba's impenetrable air of rugged omnipotence. She could not see the face behind the visor, but she was sure that it had an astounded expression on it. It was a strange feeling that she had not always understood. Maybe it was "smugness"? Whatever it was, it felt nice.

She turned back to the direction of the attackers. This time she had to focus on some righteous anger. This was the only way to generate her starbolts. She tried to think of other times… When Beastboy had sent a balloon filled with some oily goo straight in her face, the time when Blackfire had stolen her friends, the time when Red X had declared it a crime that they were not "dating"…

Star felt the energy flow through her. She did not need to look at her hands to know that they were radiating a bright green glow. The effects of the bolts would usually hurt the opponent a great deal. But she was immune to her own blasts while they were in her hands, that fact would change very soon.

She focused on a strange looking alien on the left. It seemed that its face was melting off. It did not matter now. She cocked her arm and thrust the bolt away from her hand. It flew perfectly and exploded right on the ground in front of the alien. It flew backwards and landed a distance away.

The crowd did not even slow down. They scattered a little and began to aim their guns. Star threw a couple more bolts at the things. The bolts hit the living mass and aliens began flying. Star could see that some of the aliens were bleeding greatly. Star was not bothered. She could not stop. If she did, she would fall to the ground and most likely get killed.

Some of the beings began shooting away. The air sizzled with crimson shots. Boba had snapped out of the trance of surprise and took out his dark, metal, weapon. The attackers were obviously not professionals, they were little more than upright monkeys with guns. But Boba was a clear professional. He hardly wasted his shots and he left a lot of his targets with fatal holes in their foreheads and chests. He aimed to kill.

But even so, there were too many thugs. Star could fling a starbolt at one of them and two equally angry people would fill the space. She felt one second of extreme panic. She could hardly feel the hair on her head fall away. But she could smell the air around her sizzle and the heat was unmistakable. A blaster had just skimmed the side of her face.

Fear had filtered his way into her mind. She had to think fast. The odds were against them and she knew it. There were far too many brutes approaching. She decided that she did not need many small bolts; she needed one, large blast.

She massed the energy at her hands. Thoughts began to flood in. She thought of how much Boba had underestimated her. She thought about just how foolish he must be feeling right now.

Starfire felt the energy level rising. She lifted her hands above her head as the bolt increased in size. She began to count down. Five seconds, enough for her to mass up a large size, not enough for the opponent to notice. Four… she was still gaining energy. Three… it's almost there… Two… she felt her fingers buckling… ONE!

The enormous green ball had reached critical mass, and just in time. Star slammed her hands to the ground. The ball left her hands smoothly. It flitted through the air for one short moment and hit the ground. The action produced a wonderful discharge of green light and magnificent amounts of heat. Everything in the vicinity was enveloped in a flood of green light.

She opened her eyes the moment she could. The corridor stank with the stench of burned metal and left over energy. All around, moaning bodies were lying around. Others were just slumped to the grounds, silent. They were either unconscious or dead.

"Well, at least they will not bother me anymore."

Starfire slowly descended to the ground. She knew that Fett was still there. She was shaken up but she did not want any more comments from him on how extremely stupid she acted. She just wanted to get away and begin her search for her friends. If he was to accompany her, that would be helpful. But if he did not wish to, Starfire could manage.

She turned around, maintaining her false air of grandeur. She opened her eyes to Fett to see just what mean comment he had to throw. But there were no words, just a blaster to her head. It was just like where she was a few minutes ago. But this time, she knew that it was aimed at her.

"Step back Jedi." he commanded. He made it apparent that she was a threat.

"I do not wish to harm you." Starfire said. She was slightly startled, but she if she did not look to harm him, she might be able to do this next little act.

"That's not good enough." Boba said. He was about to shoot. Starfire instinctively blasted Fett's hand with her eyes. The metal weapon glowed red and he let go. It was a quick, reflective move. Fett had to think and send the message from his mind to the trigger finger before he shot. Starfire had had a marginal amount of time more to react. It was a millisecond's gamble and she took it.

Then she focused on Fett's armored helmet. Still rubbing his hand with the other, she was able to knock his helmet off. She was amazed at the sight. Underneath the intimidating helmet was the youthful face of a boy.

"You are merely a youth!" she said, dumbstruck as she was.

"Yeah, so are you." he replied as he dashed for the helmet before Star could get another look. "It's was a dumb move not to kill me when I was down. What is wrong with you anyway?"

"I am just trying to be polite!" she said, restraining as much of her reawakened anger. "I do not want to harm you at all! All I want is to find my friends. If you are willing to help me, I would appreciate it."

"Hmm, fair enough." he shrugged. "Look, I'll cut you a deal. Work a job for me and I'll help you out."

"I do not understand." Starfire said; her hate quickly waved off. Now there was hope for her mission to find the Titans. She was willing to blow away any petty arguments if it could make her search easier.

"Alright, I'll lay it out for you." he began crossing his arms. "The Republic encountered a threat. It looks like a hybrid organic splicing experiment. The thing took out a good number of troops until it was disabled in the retreat. Naturally, this guy has a Hutt's bounty on his head. I'd do the job but I'm already signed in with Inquisitor Malorum."

"So you wish me to help you with this "job"?" she asked simply.

"Yes, and if you can bring this guy to me, we split the bounty and I'll go help you out." he concluded.

Starfire thought. She might have to do things that were unthinkable to her and may very well shatter her ideals. To kill, to eliminate someone else's life… it was unheard of to her. But if the could find the Titans, everything would be okay. Everything would be back to normal. They would find a way out of this together. There was only one answer to give

"I'll do it."

"Great." he said. "Of course, I'll have to teach you a thing or two." Then he brushed some muck off the wall beside him. He stared for a minute, looking quite silly. Apparently, he found something and pressed a dull looking plate into the wall.

There was a loud hiss that came from below their feet. The entire wall section split in half, creaking at some points. Soon enough, where there was once a solid wall, was an enormous room. Lights in the ceiling flickered on and off. There was something inside, something big.

Boba slammed the panel beside him and the lights forcefully cooperated and they illuminated the scene. There was a strange looking vehicle right in front of her eyes. It had no wheels, so it was not a "car. The only thing that could qualify it as a vehicle would be the small "wings" that extended from the sides.

"Things like this." Boba said, breaking the unnoticed silence. "Say hello to Slave I."

Whoa. Don't tell me you didn't like that. If you did, and I'm sure you did... Review please!