Part 2: Tears The Words of a Final Whisper
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans
A word's aim is often more true than a gun's. A whisper is often more painful than any mortal wound. And missing your last chance to speak... is often more deadly than fatal blow.
Her chest heaved in shallow gasps, eyes blinking with numb surprise. Crimson hair fell forward over her face and hid her shocked expression. Everything in the room was utterly silent. She didn't scream. She didn't move. She simply clutched her stomach in disbelief. Her emerald eyes were locked on the shadowed form across the room from her. She still hovered in the air, but was slowly sinking towards the ground. A graceful fall in slow motion.
"…no…" a voice uttered behind her. On the ground. Helpless. Unable to do anything but watch. And then the pain swelled and slapped her. Her fingers became feeling again and she was overwhelmed with the sensation of thick, wet life slithering over her skin. It was at that moment that a barely audible whimper broke her pale lips. She fell. The slow decent ceased and she tumbled from the air. She didn't even brace for the impending impact. Her body dropped swiftly down to earth like something completely lifeless and limp.
Her eyes slipped shut and she waited for the hard slamming of her body into the warehouse floor. She never hit the ground, but was caught up in two strong and defiant arms. She was brought to rest cradled against Robin's chest. Starfire knew she must be staining him with her blood. Her fingers curled in the metallic, sticky liquid that flowed from her wound. "Slade, you bastard!" Robin's snarl jerked out, the sound chasing after receding footsteps. Had she not been such a delicate cargo, Robin would have been running after the madman. However, he had no such chance. Nor did he want it right now. He had something much more desperate at hand.
And Slade's calmly dimming steps stated clearly that he knew. Starfire was wilting swiftly in his arms. His heart pounded. That damned bastard had sunk lower than low. Slade had committed the one thing that even the most gracious deity could never forgive. He had pulled a gun on an innocent soul…
"Starfire? Starfire, answer me," The Boy Wonder's voice was low and urgent, striking her ears with persistent fear. Star managed a tiny grimace. She didn't like hearing Robin afraid.
"Rich…Richard…" Starfire mewed softly. Her vibrant voice had dwindled to a paper-thin whisper. Robin tightened his arms around her. As if he could pin her angel wings to the earth just a little longer… as if he could keep her with him just a moment more…
The other titans were in motion now. They shook free of the horror that had stilled them upon hearing the shot and watching the gun flare and seeing Starfire's body jerk when the bullet dug itself into her. They seemed to appear at Robin's side within seconds of Starfire's utterance, hovering with heavy distress in their faces. Raven was rhythmically muttering her mantra over and over again as she let her eyes flicker from Star's wound to her paling face.
"Starfire… oh God, Starfire…" he choked out the words. "You're going to be ok; I promise you're going to be ok…" Starfire dragged her eyes open slightly. Again, she was upset by the tremors running through his voice.
"…Robin," Cyborg warned. He could see his leader teetering dangerously on a reckless outburst. The android's robotic eye scanned Starfire's body. He swallowed a lump of bile that rose to his throat as the computer half of him bluntly twittered that the alien girl had suffered a fatal hit. She would not walk from this building… not without a miracle. Raven knew this without a scanner and she bordered on hyperventilating, wrestling her emotions and trying to subdue the horrible desperation slithering through her limbs.
Beast Boy let out a tiny sound that was muffled by tightly pressed lips. More death. More death was coming. Starfire's chest rose and fell choppily, her mind swimming and blurring. She fought the darkness that caressed the edges of her being. It was cold and she didn't want it. But it wouldn't leave and it was slowly working its seduction. The cold could soothe the flaming pain that was immobilizing her. "Robin!" Starfire shrieked suddenly. She couldn't give in. Not yet. She couldn't leave him… didn't want to leave…
"Starfire… dammit, Cyborg, we have to get her home!" Robin's voice sliced the frighteningly breathless stand-still that was paralyzing the titans. Beast Boy nodded furiously. They had to get her home. They had to make her better.
Raven was clutching her temples, eyes closed. Starfire's aura was fading so quickly… so quickly…
"Robin she's…" Cyborg stopped himself and turned suddenly. He forced himself forward. They wouldn't give up hope just because the situation was hopeless… It was the often childishly naïve hope that kept him human. So he hurried towards the T-car. Robin was moving swiftly after him, trying his best not to jostle Starfire as he rampaged towards the t-car. The others were quickly following.
"Raven, can't you heal her!" Robin blurted as Starfire let out a rattling sigh of breath and whimpered.
"Her wound is too extensive… I can't… my emotions… I'll blow us all to pieces… I can't…" Raven let out a frustrated growl, stumbling after the rushing team with her fingers still glued to her temples.
"Robin… I…" Starfire murmured softly. Her beautiful amber skin was ashen.
"Starfire, don't talk… don't talk…" he mumbled, sending her a pained glance. He ripped his gaze from her slender fingers, curled over her wound and caked with drying blood and wet with new blood. A human would have been dead by now. But Starfire's Tamaranian body had bought her an extra fifteen minutes… and the fifteen minutes had dwindled to five. They were almost at the T-car when Starfire began to speak again.
"No… I have to… Robin… I am not… I am leaving…" she slurred, panting after the labored words and wincing as more pain bolted through her. Her jade eyes flooded with tears. The hurt was agonizing.
"Star, don't talk like that... Kori, you're not going anywhere!" he insisted stubbornly. Just a few more steps to the car and they could go home and save her. They would make it. They had to make it. The shot played in his head again and again. The call, another cryptic clue laid by Slade and a confrontation… and Slade had decided to drive a dagger into Robin's soul… with a bullet that had lodged itself deep within Starfire.
"Richard… listen… please listen," Starfire pleaded weakly. Cyborg unlocked the car. They all piled in with a single motion. Raven was in the back with Robin and Starfire and her eyes flickered open just long enough to gather the look of utter despair rolling onto Robin's face before her head pounded and she had to return to concentration. Block out her aura. Block out what's left of her aura. Don't feel her die. Raven suppressed a dry sob. No emotions. She shook in her seat.
The car roared to life and they screeched towards the tower. "Richard… I am sorry… I will not… be here for you… but you… you must know… you must believe… I-I love you… so much… I am… never really gone… I love… you…" Starfire labored to say it. Her eyes grew glassy then and slid closed. A final hiss of breath escaped her lungs. And Starfire was still. The t-car shuddered to an abrupt stop in the vacant road. The car was silent. The occupants were silent. The night was silent.
And a shuddering sob shattered through the air and whipped through the car. Not a tear had been shed since the day his parents died and now they flowed freely, sliding from under his mask and running down his face. Despair in every shaking heave of breath that left his body. Raven's body went limp. Her hands fell to her side and her eyes opened. She stared forward. She didn't see. All that was perceived was the absence of Starfire's beautiful and innocent aura and the ruined sobs of a broken man.
"I love you too. Starfire, I love you too… I do… I… Starfire, my Starfire…" Robin clutched her to him and tried to make her hear. He tried so hard. His kisses fell on cold skin, his voice vibrated on deaf ears. She was gone. She was really gone.
Beast Boy cried. He didn't care about the tears. He cried unashamed. Cyborg was still as stone and his human eye glistened with tears that he would have shed if he could have. Raven was blank. And Robin… Robin sobbed for them all, for himself, and for Starfire and the love he'd never given her until it was too late.
A titan died that night. But it wasn't really Starfire. She lived on in every heart. The whole city was saturated with her memory. The tower was filled with her caring essence. Her voice, "I am never really gone…" echoed in every ear. The one who died had been killed by her final words. The one who had died was Robin. And Robin's spirit had died with a finishing "I love you."
Author's Note: Ah yes, you have now entered the zone of tragedy. Or at least, the best tragedy I'm capable of producing. I often think any skills I may possess end in the more light-hearted or lightly angsty realms and vanish completely when I reach into the deeper tragedies and such. This whole collection is bringing a lot of firsts... today's first would be: my first time killing one of the titans off in a story... Anyhow, what did you think? Reviews are appreciated! I'll post again next weekend... maybe I'll post tomorrow... I don't know. Either way, I hope you enjoyed it?
Love,Princess Starfire of Tamaran