Disclaimer: I do ot-nay own the Een-Tay Itans-Tay… Roughly Translated: I do not own the Teen Titans.

Gunsmoke and Black Roses—Chapter Four

Sub-Zero and Jinx were following along behind the T-Car on the way back to Smoke.

"Hmm… I have a bad feeling about this…" Sub-Zero muttered softly as they neared the old warehouse where Smoke still was.

"What do you mean?" Jinx asked, cocking her head slightly. "We destroyed those robot-jellyfish things… and Smoke hasn't reported any of them going back to the warehouse."

"I know, I know… I just feel… uneasy, that's all." The knight responded with a soft sigh.

By the time they reached the warehouse, they were surprised to find the place alive with noise.

"What the Heck's going on in there?" Beast Boy asked getting out of the car.

"I don't know… but it sounds like gunshots. Smoke must be in some kinda trouble!" Cy responded.

They immediately ran in and found Smoke hiding behind a crate, reloading his revolvers. He looked up at them, and gasped.

"Oh man, thank God you're here! Listen, I know it sounds crazy… but I'm getting chased by this crazy alien chick that look just like Star and…"

"Blackfire..." Star whispered. From what Smoke had said, her fears were confirmed.

The gunner froze mid-sentence when he heard her. "W-What? How did you know her name?" he demanded.

"Uhh…. Pardon…" Zero interrupted them. "But could somebody please fill us in, too?" He said motioning to Jinx and himself.

"Yeah. Who's this Blackfire, anyway?" Jinx agreed.

For a moment, nothing was said as Starfire tried to think of the best way to explain it… but… she never got the chance. A flying bolt of violet energy soared out of nowhere and blasted her away. She had enough time to cry out in pain before thudding into a wall.

"… I'M Blackfire." The other Tamaranean hissed, floating in from behind a large forklift. But after she said this, she began coughing violently and held a shaking hand to her mouth.

Starfire got up off the ground, eyes glowing bright, emerald-green.

"Sister… you have gone too far this time!" Star screamed with an anger uncharacteristic of her.

Without warning, the two aliens flew at each other and started blasting each other point blank with energy bolts. They flew around the room with such blinding speed; all you could see was a red, green, and purple blur that occasionally collided with another black, violet, and silver blur.

"Guys… I hate to say it, but we should get out of the way. They're too fast; there's nothing we can do." Cy said softly.

"What the Hell is going on?" Sub-Zero demanded. "Who is that girl, and why do she look so much like Star?"

"That's her sister… Blackfire." Robin explained. "They're nothing alike… Star's the most pure-hearted person you'll ever meet, but Blackfire's a monster."

"Well… I wouldn't say that…" Smoke said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well… she was actually not that bad at first. She was pretty nice and all when I first found her. She only freaked out when she saw my communicator." The gunman explained. "… And besides, she's hot."

At this last part, everyone almost did an anime-style face plant to the floor.

"I didn't know Starfire had a sister…" Jinx interjected, changing the subject.

They were interrupted again by Starfire going flying by and hitting the wall. She hit it dead on, and slid off with a soft moan. Robin immediately ran over and knelt down beside her.

"Star! Are you okay?" no answer. "Star, please answer me!"

Star just laid there in semi-consciousness; the blow to the head appeared to have stunned her. Blackfire hovered near again, charging up starblasts from her eyes.

"… Now… it's finally time for you to die, sister." Blackfire spat out the word sister with venom and sarcasm, as if it were something disgusting she wanted to get out of her mouth.

But before she fired off her eye rays, she froze in midair… and then fell to the ground coughing and hacking violently.

"Huh? What's wrong with her?" Robin asked.

"That's what I was gonna tell ya! She's pretty sick…" Smoke explained.

Blackfire stumbled back to her feet with glowing eyes again and snarled fiercely. "That doesn't matter! I'll kill her! I'll kill that little weasel!"

But just before she blasted Star with a finishing blow… Smoke got in the way.

"Please…stop this foolishness… now." He said softly.

"Or you'll what?" She sneered. "Shoot me? You couldn't hit the broad side of Mercury, much less me!" She knew that was a blatant lie; he was a superb marksman. But she didn't care.

"… Why do you want to hurt your own sister?" he asked, still in a soft, completely calm tone.

"…Fehsistersister… she's no sister of mine! She always got everything! Everybody hated me, but they always loved little Starfire! For that, she WILL die, if it's the last thing I do!"

She was charging up a bolt again. "And if you're not going to get your dumb, Earthling ass out of the way, I'll kill you too!"

Smoke just stood calmly and silently. After a moment, he spoke.

"… They thought you were a freak, is that it?" he asked in a calm voice.

Instantly, her eyes stopped glowing and she stared at him with wide eyes.

"… What did you say?" she hissed softly and demandingly.

"… They thought you were a freak, is that correct? They thought you were some sort of monster, just because you were different than they were."

Blackfire started shaking.

"…No…No, shut up! I…" she stammered.

"You've always been jealous of Star, because they treated her better than you. They thought she was normal." Continued Smoke, still standing between Star and Blackfire. "… And for that, you hate her…"

As the Titans watched in disbelief, Blackfire dropped from the air onto her knees, still shaking violently. She covered her ears, trying to block out his voice.

"NO! NO! I'm not listening to you!"

He continued anyway. "… I think I understand where you're coming from. Believe it or not... I've been called a freak, too."

"NO, YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND ANYTHING! YOU'RE JUST A STUPID, WORTHLESS LITTLE…LITTLE…"

Blackfire stopped her angry shrieking and started sobbing and coughing softly and weakly.

"Dude… what is he doing?" Beast Boy whispered to Cyborg.

"I dunno…. But… looks to me like Smoke's got a plan…" Cy responded.

At this point, the young gunner started walking slowly and purposely towards the hysterical alien, his boots clicking softly across the cement floor of the old warehouse. Once he got over to her, he knelt down and touched her shoulder. Reflexively, she reached out and slapped him across the face with all her Tamaranean strength. He did not react.

"Damn… that hurt." He said simply. "But if it honestly makes you feel any better… go ahead."

She fell silent and looked up at him with a confused, stricken face. And then she fainted dead on the spot. Instinctively, Smoke reached out and caught her before her head hit the ground.

Everyone stared in amazement at what had just happened.

"That… that was NOT the same Blackfire…." Robin said slowly.

Starfire, who had regained some of her lucidity at this time, stared in shocked disbelief.

"… Is that why my sister hates me so much?" she asked in a soft, haunted whisper. "She… everyone… hated her because she was different?"

"… I don't know…" Robin answered hesitantly.

"The question remains… what do we do now?" Zero asked.

"Well… I guess we…. Perhaps we could…" Jinx started.

"We could what?" Raven asked sharply.

"We could… take her back to the Tower?" Everyone looked at the witch like she had lost her mind… except Smoke.

"Are you crazy? Do you know what she's capable of?" Robin demanded.

"… We'll take her back." Smoke said softly.

"Huh?"

"We'll take her back. Put her under surveillance or something, I don't care. But we have to do something. She's sick and in pain."

Robin was silent.

"If anything happens, I take full responsibility." Smoke added.

"Robin?" Star whispered, tugging on his arm.

"…Hm?"

"… Could we? Take her home?"

The Boy Wonder stared. "You actually want to help her? After all she's done to you?"

"I… she IS my sister… and no matter what she's done… I want to help her. Even…. Even if she doesn't want to be helped."

Robin nodded in understanding, and the Titans made their way out with Smoke carrying the unconscious Blackfire in his arms.

Later, at the Tower…

Blackfire was in the infirmary, recovering. She was still unconscious, but Cyborg had administered a medicine through a needle.

"This should help her recover from whatever's makin' her sick, and keep her from getting sick again." He'd explained.

Sub-Zero and Smoke hadn't really been out and about since they'd arrived home. Zero had taken a large bag of ice and metal from his ship along with a few books, and Smoke had rounded up a bunch of Cy's old spare parts and tools… and they'd holed up in Cy's workroom. Nobody was sure what they were doing in there…

"I miss Zero…" Jinx whined from the living room couch. She was watching Cy and BB play a racing game on their gamestation.

"Yeah, and I want to know what Smoke was planning on doing with all that junk!" Cy agreed.

"Huh…. I think they said they were working on some new gear…" Beast Boy said uncertainly.

"Correction… we're done working on some new gear." Zero laughed, walking into the room with Smoke right behind him.

"Zero! It's about time…" Jinx said, getting up to go over to him.

"What have you been doing in my workroom?" Cy asked.

"Well… come on. We'll show you…" Smoke said with a grin.

They walked down to Cy's workroom, and Zero held the door open for the others to walk through. They looked around the room, until their gaze fell to a large steel table with a white blanket over it.

"What's with the blanket?" B.B. asked curiously.

"Well… it's not the blanket… it's what's under it…" Zero said cryptically.

The Knight and the Gunman laughed together and walked over to the table. Sub-Zero gave a cue with his hands and Smoke yanked the cover off. Everyone gasped loudly at what they saw.

There, on the table… was a hammer. Not just an ordinary hammer, it's handle was about six and a half feet long, and the actual head of the hammer was about three feet tall and about a foot and a half thick; clearly it was designed for combat. The handle was built from solid sterling silver, and the actual hammer head was forged from the same indestructible ice as Eviglasere, Zero's sword. The front of the head was engraved with the design of a snowflake…

Next to the giant ice-hammer… was a rifle. A very long, wooden handled rifle with a steel barrel. A large, brass scope with an ornate crosshair inside was mounted on top for aiming. The gun was extremely long, especially the barrel. A chamber for loading in bullets was on top.

"Guys… I give you: Hiverzbyrde. Means, 'Winter's Burden.' It's a war hammer, designed for melee combat." Zero explained, puffing his chest out with pride.

"And my new gear doesn't really have a name… but it's a customized Sniper Rifle… I made the rifle and the bullets myself." Smoke said. He pulled a bullet out of his coat pocket and held it out to them. It was large, about half-a-foot long, with a pointed, sharp tip. "This baby can hitany targetfrom up to five times the distance of your standard U.S. Army rifle, and with ten times the penetration and power."

Cyborg stared in disbelief.

"You guys…. Built this stuff?"

"Yep!" Smoke said.

"Damn… I'm impressed!" Cy said.

Smoke and Zero blushed a little. "Ah well… we figured we needed some new weapons… so…"

The gunner decided to change the subject.

"How's Blackfire?"

Cy shook his head. "She hasn't woken up yet…"

Jinx sighed. "I feel kind of sorry for her… I know she's done some awful things and all, but still…"

B.B. shrugged. "Yeah, well… what Smoke said to her, sure seemed to work. Let's just hope she doesn't go ballistic again when she wakes up!"

Smoke shook his head solemnly. "You know… I wasn't around when she did all this stuff… but I wasn't just making that stuff up back there. I really do feel for her…" he looked down and examined himself. "If there's one thing in life, besides combat and weapons, that I know about… it's about being a freak." He finished sadly.

"Don't say that." B.B. said immediately. "Besides… you're no better off than me… I mean, dude, come on… I'm green!" he joked.

"Or me…" Cy said. "I'm almost completely mechanical. And that can get you some funny looks, too."

Smoke looked at his friends and smiled.

"… Thanks guys…"

"Don't mention it."

Well, I'm thinking I'll leave it at that for right now. I'm sorry about taking so long to get this one up, but I've been busy…sorry.

Anyway, the idea for giving Smoke a powerful, long-range weapon came directly from the reviewer, Austin… or is it Doc. MeGot? Not sure, so I'll put both. Anyway, thanks for the idea. As for the hammer, I figured if Smoke gets a new toy, Zero may as well, too!

So, read and review, please folks. Reviews keep me going.

The Mad Phantom