Ice skating party:

me: skating and talking with friends

a bunch of guys!! (they were calling my name, which i wont reveal:P)

me: what the hell?

guys: We saw you guys yesterday!

me: whaaa?

then I'm suddenly being chased by guys and I'm trying to skate away but they surround me! I got hugged... normally I wouldn't have cared, but I had just seen my parents arrive...

Anyways, my parents saw us and they were like RAWR and I was in some deep sht for no reason. Which is my excuse for not updating sooner! And I still have no idea what those guys were talking about. Ah life is so confusing!

SORRY! ON WITH THE STORY!

Chapter 7

Test of Pain

"Here we go!" Cyborg hit the red button, and the test began.

First came the laser cannons, which surrounded Starfire and shot red beams rapidly at her. She quickly gathered energy in her hands and blasted away all the cannons with ease.

"Whoah! She destroyed all of them in... 2.2 seconds!" Beast Boy was amazed.

"WHAT! She broke my record!" Cyborg couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Starfire overheard this and took it the wrong way. "Ah! I am sorry for destroying them. I just acted out of self defense. I am truly sorry!"

"No, it's ok! We do that all the time," Robin said. "They'll be fixed later. Don't worry about it and concentrate on the test!" He was worried that Starfire might get hurt if she got distracted, and he was absolutely awestruck by her strength and agility.

At that moment when she was looking at Robin, something hit her back from behind.

"UH!" The pain she felt brought back memories of those cold metal arms that had crushed her not so long ago. She turned around quickly to face her enemy, wanting nothing more than to destroy the thing that reminded her of her tragic past. Standing before her was a giant robot that looked much like the one that had taken Kal El from her.

Kal El... Hah, more pain. No! I have to concentrate. Kal El is safe. Blackfire has let him go. I trust her... I must! No matter what she does, she is still my dear sister.

But as Star looked back at the machine, she lost all control. Anger erupted in her like a volcano and all of a sudden, her whole figure was glowing bright green. The painful memories set her in a confused rage. She flew straight into the robot, which was more than ten times her size, and slammed it to the ground with just a push. She could control her emotions no more. She made a huge starbolt, bigger than herself, and smashed it into the machine.

BOOM!

Pssssss...

The Titans stared, gaping at what they saw. Where the robot had been, there was a giant hole filled with silver liquid.

"SHE MELTED THE ROBOT!" Cyborg was shocked out of his wits. "SHE MELTED MY ROBOT IN ONE BLAST! THAT WAS FORTIFIED TITANIUM!"

"Dudes, SHE'S HELLA STRONG!" Beast boy said, equally amazed as Cyborg.

All Raven could say was, "whoah."

However, as they looked down at Starfire, they could see that she was trying desperately to control her rage. She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't control her pain and anger.

NO! I HAVE TO CONTROL IT! CALM DOWN! Calm... Down...

"Starfire!" Robin yelled, but she still couldn't hear him in her rage. She heard nobody for a while. "Starfire! The test is over! You did great!"

The green aura surrounding Starfire began to slowly fade away. She kept still, concentrating on one word. Control.

She could hear him now. "It is over...? I have passed? Oh, glorious!" She was about to fly up to Robin and give him a giant hug, when she suddenly felt her vision fading. She felt faint. Her mind refused to focus.

Not again... How... many times... have I... fainted? So... Tired...

Thump.

"Starfire!" Robin screamed. He jumped out of the stands to get to her. "She's unconscious! Cyborg, get her examined quick! Raven, you have to heal her no matter what!"

"Yeah. Hurry, bring her in!" Cyborg ran to the infirmary.

Raven quickly flew after Cyborg, her expression even more solemn than usual.

Robin... Starfire's most painful scars cannot be healed, even by magic.

"Do you see anything wrong with her?" Robin said worriedly.

Cyborg looked grim. "We should have had her examined when we brought her in the first time..."

Robin looked down at Starfire with sad eyes. "What's the analysis?"

"After running a couple of tests, this is what I found." Cyborg typed rapidly on the control panels and a chart came up on the giant screen. "This graph shows her energy level compared to the energy level of the average nuclear power plant."

"What!" Beast Boy yelled. "Are you sure you didn't screw up the numbers? Her energy level is like twice as high as the power plant's!"

"I know. And no, I did not mess it up. She has enough energy in her body to power Jump City by herself." Cyborg continued after seeing the amazed looks on everyone's faces. "Well anyways, enough said about that. She has a lot of critical injuries to be taken care of. There's the concussion from when Slade hit her hard in the head. And it looks like she's been walking around with three broken ribs all this time. There's also a hairline fracture on her right arm. That's probably from today. She should take it easy for at least two weeks. Seems that she heals faster than humans. Still, it was a bad idea for her to have taken the test when she had such severe injuries to begin with. It's strange though..." Cyborg said curiously.

"What is it?" Robin asked impatiently.

"Just that it looks like she fainted from stress rather than physical pain. And why didn't she tell us she was in pain? She just walked around like she was downright fine."

"Dude..." Beast Boy said while looking at the unconscious Starfire. "How the hell did she smash that gigantic robot to the ground with three broken ribs? I mean the impact would have killed any human being, right?" For once, Beast Boy was being serious.

"It's all my fault!" Robin yelled, furious at himself. "I carelessly attacked her! And today I was so eager to see her powers that I just forced her to take the test!"

"It isn't your fault Robin," Raven said. "You didn't know any of this before."

"I-I just don't understand! She looked fine. She looked so happy! Why would she just keep it all inside like this?" Robin was angry at himself and Starfire.

"I know why..." said Raven solemnly.

"What?" Robin calmed down a bit to listen to Raven.

"When I talked to her, I could sense a lot of pain and sadness within her. I tried to block it out but I saw bits of her past. It was horrible. She didn't want to mention anything because it would always lead to the past. Something terrible happened to her and she didn't want to relive it. She didn't want us to worry about her either..." Raven looked down at Starfire's face. It looked so peaceful right now. It made her want to break out in tears.

"Raven... Can you tell us what you saw?" Robin wanted to know. He wanted to understand Starfire and help her.

"I only saw scattered bits. It was as if she needed someone to lift her burden, but she didn't want to give her pain to others. I was just reading next to her and these memories just invaded my mind. There was a girl who looked kind of like her... and cold robot arms. A man was dying... and she was screaming. That's all I saw. I couldn't take it anymore, so I ended it when I finally gained control. It hurt for me to watch." Raven could feel her hands shaking slightly.

"Why didn't you tell us all this before the test?" Robin was a little frustrated that Raven knew all this and didn't say anything.

"If she wanted us to know, she would have told us herself. I didn't want to disrespect that. Sorry Robin." Raven felt a sick sense of guilt in her stomach.

"No...what you did...you did the right thing. I should be the one apologizing." Robin gave Raven a reassuring grin.

"Yeah," agreed Beast Boy. "I'm sure she'll get better soon. I mean it only took her a day to recover from whatever horrible thing happened to her. We'll help her through all this."

"As weird as it is, Beast Boy makes sense right now," Raven teased now that she was feeling much better.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" It had taken a while for the green boy to realize what she meant by that.

"Nothing at all," Raven replied sarcasticly.

Robin looked at the girl lying in front of him. Each time he looked at her, or even thought about her, his heart started pounding like crazy. It was becoming increasingly difficult to resist temptation. He desired nothing more than to hold her hand, caress her, kiss her, talk to her, just be with her. Yet something was wrong. Although Starfire seemed so passionate and friendly, he found it hard to approach her in the same way. There was an invisible barrier she encased herself in. She was determined to keep everyone out. Like she wanted love, friendship, and happiness, but she was afraid. Robin smiled. He was determined to get Star to open up. She needed friends. After all, his friends were always there to cheer him up. What would he ever do without them?

Starfire... Starfire...

Who are you? Show yourself!

It is I... Kal El.

Kal El? Teacher! Where are you?

Princess... You mustn't return to Tamaran.

Why? I need to go back. My people need me.

No! If you go back now, Blackfire will try anything and everything to kill you.

Sister? She would do no such thing. She is my dear sister!

Princess... Don't you see? She betrayed you! She let jealousy and hate conquer her. She rules Tamaran now.

Sister became Queen? What has happened to Father?

The king has taken ill. Blackfire told him that you ran away, Princess. The Tamaranians think you ran away from your destiny. They think of you as a coward now. If you return now, Blackfire will kill you.

No! Father... I have let you down once again... What am I to do, teacher?

Stay where you are. Stay on Earth. Blackfire does not know you are here.

But I must see Father! I cannot stay here when he is ill! Teacher? Kal El? Answer me!

I wish I could be with you. I wish you could go back. But for now, you have to stay where you are. It is vital. Stay with your new friends. Forget about me. It will be safer.

Teacher! Kal El! Please do not leave me again! I cannot go on like this! I cannot forget you!

Princess... you will go on. I know you can. Every waking moment without you by my side is so painful. But I keep going. For you. Forget about me for now. It's for the best. I must go now.

Starfire suddenly woke up, drenched in cold sweat.

Kal El... He is alive!