In the Vega System, billions of miles from Earth, there is a large white spaceship floating in the stars, with no signs of trouble. The inside of the ship told a different story. Inside, there were two preteen girls confined to a large pole. Both had orange skin, but the older sister had black hair and purple eyes, while the younger sister had red hair and green eyes. Each of the sisters had metallic shackles attached to the pole covering their neck, hands, and feet. Above them were two giant rays of some sort. Both were squirming and groaning, trying to free themselves.
"I would be calm if I were you," said a sinister voice. "The more you try to resist, the more painful the procedure will be for you."
"Yes. There will be no trouble if you make this easy for us," said another.
The sisters stopped squirming and turned their heads to see two figures walk towards them from the ship's hallway with evil grins on their faces. Both of them had humanoid figures, but had green skin, with yellow eyes, and slitted pupils. They also had scales on their eyebrows and wore brown spacesuits.
"Are we ready to begin? said the first voice as they walked towards a control panel of some sort.
"Yes," responded the other voice. "We will finally know just how powerful Tamaraneans really are. This will be the greatest success of the Psions!"
As they approached the panel, the second alien pressed several buttons as he made final preparations. It was then when the girls noticed that the giant rays above them were starting to emit a large ball of red energy.
"Beginning experiment, now," said the second Psion as he pulled a switch.
Suddenly, the rays released a long trail of red energy that blasted all over the girls. The girls cried in pain and anguish in their native language as the rays kept letting out the red energy. The creatures watched them for several minutes for the results. After ten minutes, they were getting impatient.
"Shall we increase the intensity?" the first Psion asked.
"Yes," replied the second.
With the turn of a knob, the shade of energy grew darker, and the girl's scream grew louder by the second. Then, the two aliens noticed that the girls' eyes were starting to glow. The older sister's eyes were glowing purple, while the younger sister's eyes had a green glow.
"We are getting close!" said the second Psion. "I can feel it!
Little did they notice that the redheaded girl's hand restraints were starting to melt. She began to feel something in her hands. It was almost like they were burning, but not in a painful way. Suddenly, her hand shackles had fallen apart, and she saw that her hands were glowing bright green. As if by instinct, she pressed onto her neck and feet restraints with her glowing hands, melting them and freeing her completely. The two Psions were surprised.
"Oh, no!" cried the first Psion. "She's free!"
"Quick, alert the others!" Shouted the other one. "We can-"
But before he could finish, the redheaded girl had flown at him at full speed and charged him into the wall, snapping his back in the process. Without taking a second to think, she charged at the other Psion and punched him in the back of the neck, never giving him another chance to get back up. Then, she heard the sound of an alarm as she saw a dozen more Psions coming down the hallway loaded with blasters. She flew up high and threw several bolts of energy at all of them. In less than a minute, all of the Psions were lying lifeless all across the room, as the redheaded girl floated back down to the ground. She turned to notice her sister had also freed herself from her shackles with her glowing purple hands. She had a smile of pride on her face, happy that her sister defeated the monsters. She then heard the second Psion mutter something before his eyes closed.
"This…. isn't….over...Troq… The….Psions….will…...be...back."
Starfire woke up with a gasp of terror. Much to her relief, she realized she was in her room with no Psions in sight. Robin was sleeping next to her on the other side of the bed.
"I do not like the nightmares," she sighed sadly.
She then pondered those last words she heard that day. She hadn't known what language he was speaking until the day she kissed Robin to learn English. Only now did she realize what he had said. Will the Psions really be back one day?
(THEME SONG PLAYS)
OLD WOUNDS
It took a while for Starfire to fall back asleep. Usually, she would wake up in a timely fashion, but today, it was past noon, and she still hadn't gotten out of bed. The other Titans were watching TV as they wondered why Starfire is still asleep.
"I don't get it. It's not like Star to sleep this late," Cyborg said.
"Yeah! She missed out on my tofu waffles at breakfast!" exclaimed Beast Boy.
"That's probably why she didn't come to breakfast," retorted Raven as the changeling fumed in annoyance.
Robin thought for a moment. He and Starfire began sharing a room weeks after they became a couple in Tokyo. He hadn't noticed anything wrong with her recently, but this wasn't Starfire's usual behavior.
"I'll go check on her," decided Robin.
Just as Robin was getting off the couch, the doors of the hallway opened to reveal Starfire with rugged eyes and drowsiness all over her face. She floated to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of mustard, and squirted it into her mouth. The Titans looked at her with amazement as she joined them on the couch.
"Good morning, friends," she replied with a yawn. "Is it time for breakfast?"
"Uh, it's actually almost time for lunch Star," replied Robin. "You slept past breakfast."
"Hmm? I did?"
"Yeah. Did you sleep well last night?"
Starfire wanted to tell Robin about her dream, but she knew about his "no killing" rule and how it might upset him to know that she had killed before.
"No, but I can assure you that I am fine," she answered with a smile.
"Okay, but if there's anything you want to tell me, just-"
Before he could finish, the Tower's alarm went off. The screen showed an angle from downtown Jump City where a spaceship was seen approaching the Earth's ground.
"Looks like some extraterrestrials have entered Earth's atmosphere, and they're landing downtown" said Cyborg.
"Aliens? Sweet!" yelled Beast Boy.
After getting a look from the others, he thought over his choice of words.
"I mean, not sweet. Not good. They better not be like the Gordanians."
"I hope not," Robin added. "Let's move!"
Whoever the aliens were, they had taken a group of civilians hostage in their ship for an unknown purpose which they discussed amongst each other.
"I truly do not believe that humans possess the special spark that Tamaraneans do. They are much weaker and slower," said one.
"Perhaps, but it is worth a try. Besides, this is our chance to get revenge on Koriand'r. She won't be able to stop us this time, even with the help of her friends."
They were Psions, and they had come to Earth to do the same experiments they did on Starfire and Blackfire several years ago. They were wearing platinum spacesuits that had improved features over their old ones. They dragged more people into their ship as two Psions stood outside of one of the ships.
"How many more humans are we going to take?" asked one of the Psions.
"None!" shouted a voice from behind them.
They turned to see the Teen Titans, including Starfire ready to fight. Starfire gasped when she saw the familiar creatures. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming this.
"Well, well, well," said one of the Psions. "We meet again, Koriand'r."
Robin tilted his eyes towards Starfire.
"Do you know these guys, Starfire?" he asked.
"Yes," she responded. "These are the Psions. They abduct whoever they find in the galaxy and conduct cruel and unjust experiments on them to discover whether or not they hold a certain energy. They have no regard for the lives lost in the experiments."
"You would know that, would you not?" retorted one of the Psions.
Starfire growled at those words.
"And now, we've found our newest subjects on this planet. These humans will be no trouble in our next trial."
"I will not allow you to harm anyone from this world," Starfire said venomously.
"Well, it seems we will have to do this the hard way," thought the Psion out loud as he and the rest of the aliens got into a battle stance.
The Titans got into a fighting position, too.
"Titans, Go!" yelled Robin.
Robin launched at one of the Psions for a punch, but his fist didn't even put a dent on Psion's battlesuit. In fact, Robin felt that the impact almost put a dent in his wrist. Robin groaned in pain.
"Foolish boy," taunted the Psion as he knocked Robin to the ground. "You cannot beat what you cannot hit."
Beast Boy turned into a T-Rex to give himself an edge over the Psions. He tried to bite their armor with his teeth, but that didn't do anything. One of the Psions fired a blaster at Beast Boy from behind. Turning him back to himself and knocking him out.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" yelled Raven.
She formed a force field over herself to hold off the Psions's blasters. One of the Psions thought quickly and punched the ground, sending a shockwave in Raven's direction, bringing her down.
Cyborg could just barely keep up with the strength of the Psions and their battlesuits.
Looks like I'm fighting fire with fire," he said as he fired his sonic cannon at one of the Psions.
The sonic blast didn't do anything to the battlesuits, and the Psion fired a much more powerful blast at Cyborg.
"I think you were fighting fire against water, robot," replied the Psion.
Starfire was the only one who stood a chance against the Psions, but their battlesuits protected them from her Starbolts. She had to rely on her other powers to take them down.
"I am afraid that tactic will not succeed this time, Koriand'r," replied a Psion smugly. "The Psions always learn from their mistakes."
"If that was true, then you would have stopped these experiments long ago!" she shouted as she plowed into him.
She tried to rip off his battlesuit, but she felt a big shock to her body when she pulled it.
"Clever idea, but we knew you could have tried that," he said as he shot his blaster at Starfire.
Suddenly, all of the Psions heard their radio beep. That signaled that they had enough humans for the experiment and their ship was ready to take off.
"This battle is a waste of time. We must move now," one of them said.
All of the Psions agreed and they rushed to their ship as the Titans struggled to get back on their feet.
The ship began to leave the ground and began to pick up speed as they neared the exit of Earth's atmosphere. Starfire managed to get up and fly towards the Earth's, but it was too late. The ship was already long gone, and she wouldn't be able to catch them at her top speed.
"No!" she shouted angrily. "This cannot be happening again!"
Starfire heard her communicator go off and answered it.
"Don't worry Star," Cyborg assured her. "I've already got their signal, and the T-Ship will be fired in no time."
"Good. There is no time to lose. Those people are in grave danger"
"That's right. There's no telling what those things will do to them," added Robin. Oh and Star? Feel free to tell us as much as you can about the Psions on the way over. If we want to beat them, we'll need to know as much about them as possible."
Starfire gulped. She didn't want to hide anything from Robin, but she didn't know how to tell him about her actions against the Psions without making him upset.
The Titans were in space right on the Psion's trail.
"Okay, I got it. They're in the Vega System. It'll be at least fifteen minutes before we catch them," reported Cyborg.
"Good work," Robin said. "But if we're going to beat them, we have to find a way around their armor."
"Yeah, I couldn't even hurt him as a T-Rex!" yelled Beast Boy.
"What do you know about their armor, Starfire?" asked Robin.
Starfire was relieved when Robin started with that question.
"I know almost nothing about it," she answered honestly. "Actually, this is the first time I have ever seen them wear it."
"Any idea on what it could be made of?" he followed.
"No," she responded.
"My systems were able to scan the armor during the fight and I was able to find a match in the database before we took off," chimed in Cyborg.
"What is it?" asked Raven.
"It's Dilustel?"
"Dilu-what?" asked Beast Boy.
"Dilustel. It's one of the most powerful elements in the universe. It can take a lot of heat, and it's nearly indestructible.
"Nearly?" Robin raised an eyebrow.
"If it absorbs too much energy, which is a lot, then that would be enough to melt it," Cyborg explained.
Suddenly, Starfire had an idea.
"I know what we can use," she said.
"What is it?" asked Robin.
"The ray they use for their experiments. It releases a giant beam of energy that can be intensified from their control panel," she explained.
"Wait a minute. That's how they do their experiments? With a giant ray?" Robin wondered.
"The Psions came to believe that certain species could hold undiscovered powers that could be unleashed by absorbing large amounts of energy. The ray is what they use to discover who can or cannot," she explained. "If we can unleash the sufficient amount of energy on the battlesuits, that may be enough to destroy them.
"Do you know how to use the control panel?" asked Robin.
Starfire looked down to her feet.
"No, I do not," she replied.
"I can help with that," Cyborg said. My system will have to translate Tamaranean to English, but I should be able to operate the control panel."
"Good, but we'll have to evacuate the citizens from the ship before the Psions start experimenting on them," said Robin. "Turn on the ship's cloak, Cyborg. We don't want them to know where we're at, and we're going to have to take them by surprise if we want to get the citizens back to Earth."
"Way ahead of you, Robin," replied Cyborg.
All it took was the push of a button from Cyborg, and just like that, the T-Ship was invisible.
"We'll have to make sure all the people are in one place so Raven can teleport them back to Earth," Robin said. "Will you be able to fit them all at once, Raven?"
"Yeah, but I can only take four at a time. It will take me a few minutes for me to get all of them to Earth, but I can do it." she answered.
"Great. We cannot afford to leave any of them behind," Starfire said. "None of them would survive the experiments."
"How do you know that, Star?" Robin asked with uneasiness in his tone.
Starfire paused for a few seconds to collect her thoughts and figure out what she was going to say. Raven sensed Starfire was feeling anxious and afraid. This wasn't the first time Raven sensed those feelings within Starfire, but there was something different this time that caught her eye, but she couldn't figure out what it was.
"Star?" repeated Robin.
"Umm, well Robin," she stuttered. "I was one of the many subjects of their experiments."
The Titans were horrified.
"What?!" they all exclaimed.
"Yes. Me and my sister, both. They abducted us while we were training on Okaara. They restrained us, and unleashed their giant ray on both of us," she said solemnly.
"But, how did you two survive?" asked Cyborg.
"Because we had the undiscovered powers that they were searching for. Our starbolts came as a result of the experiment. We were able to free ourselves and defeat the Psions with our starbolts."
"Hold on," said Beast Boy. "You're saying that your starbolts came from the experiment? I thought you were born with them."
"No, Beast Boy," Starfire replied. "There are no other Tamaraneans who can throw starbolts. My sister and I are the only two."
"But how is it that you two were able to defeat the Psions so easily that day?" asked Raven skeptically.
"They did not have the battlesuits they are wearing now," Starfire explained. "They did not expect us to be powerful enough to beat them."
Raven accepted her reply, but she could still sense something suspicious about Starfire.
"We'll, we're real sorry that you had to go through that Star," Cyborg said
"Yeah, I don't know how you're able to live with it," added Beast Boy. "It must've been really painful."
"Thank you, friends," she responded. "But you need not worry. I am still here and ready to kick the butt."
"Happy to hear it, Star," smiled Robin. "Because we're getting close."
Robin saw the T-Ship was almost near the Psions's signal, and they started to see the Psion ship right in front of the T-Ship. The rescue mission was about to begin.
Inside the Psion ship, the abducted humans were screaming and crying in fear. Two Psions were standing next to the confinement cell to make sure they wouldn't resist.
"This will be much easier if you stop whining and start complying," one of the Psions said. "There is no reason to make this unpleasant."
But, that didn't do anything to calm them down.
Suddenly, the other Psion shot his blaster at his head, where his armor wasn't covering him, which knocked him out. Then, the other Psion blasted his own head and fell to the ground. Suddenly, Raven's astral projection appeared from the Psion who just blasted himself in the head, revealing Raven was controlling him. Raven spirit returned to her body and she flew up to the senseless Psions. She then phased through the confinement cell to placate the abducted citizens.
"Okay, I can only take four of you at a time, but I'll be as quick as I can," she told them.
Raven pulled out her communicator.
"I got them," she said.
"Good job, Raven," responded Robin. "Cyborg, is their security system offline?"
The rest of the Titans were still on the T-Ship as Cyborg was hacking into the Psion security system.
"Yep, everything's down," confirmed Cyborg. "You can start sending the people home Raven."
"Alright, I'll get you guys when I'm done," responded Raven as she began her part in the mission.
Back on the T-Ship, the rest of the Titans, except for Beast Boy, were ready for the next part of Robin's plan.
"Beast Boy, you're on," Robin told the changeling.
"Got it!" he exclaimed from inside the Psion ship.
Part of Robin's plan was getting Beast Boy to distract the Psions so they wouldn't notice Raven sending the citizens home, and for Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire to make it into the laboratory and take control of the giant ray.
Beast boy walked through the ship hallway waiting for a Psion to see him.
"Hey!" called a voice from behind him.
Beast Boy turned his head to see two Psions with their blasters ready to fire.
"I bet you dudes can't catch me!" He said before turning into a cheetah and ran as fast as he could.
The two Psions chased after him and fired their blasters at him, missing all of the shots. More Psions saw Beast Boy, and they joined the chase, but to no success. By the time most of the Psions had noticed Beast Boy, Raven was done sending the citizens back to Jump City. Raven had to catch her breath for a few seconds after she finished. She went back to the T-Ship and brought the rest of the Titans into the Psion ship. Robin debriefed his team before they carried on the rest of the mission.
"Okay, it won't be long before they find out we're here, so we got to be quick. Titans, Go!"
Starfire led the way to the laboratory, and they saw the experiment tables and giant energy ray in front of their eyes.
"Alright Cyborg you can sta- AAH!"
Robin, Cyborg, and Raven, were blasted from behind by a pair of Psions. Starfire gasped.
"Are you looking for something, little girl?" taunted one of the Psions.
Starfire glared at them. They had already caused her enough problems. She was going to stop them no matter what it took.
"This ends now!" She yelled as she charged at them.
She grabbed ahold of both Psions, lifted them high into the air, and threw them down to the ground. This did little to wear them out.
Then, a thought came to Starfire. She recalled how Cyborg said that Dilustel would melt if it absorbed too much energy. Her starbolts seemingly didn't do anything to their armor, but was it because she wasn't using enough energy?
"I am afraid you cannot hurt us," said one of Psions.
"We shall see," she replied determinedly.
Starfire then shot two beams of energy at the two Psions. It seemingly had no effect on their armor.
"Silly girl," taunted one of the Psions.
"She doesn't know when to quit," said the other.
Starfire continued to hold her own against the two Psions, and she moved the fight outside the lab in hopes that Cyborg would get up and take control of the ray. Cyborg waited until they were out of sight, and got up and got working on the control panel.
Robin and Raven got up, too.
"I think I'll be able to get this thing working," he said hopefully.
"Quick Cyborg!" yelled Robin. "Beast Boy's coming with the rest of the Psions!"
"I know! I'm waiting for my system to translate the keys from Tamaranean to English! You guys go back up Star! We need to stall them as long as we can!"
With that, Robin and Raven went to join Starfire as Cyborg continued to work on the control panel. Cyborg was making progress, and Starfire was still holding on. She kept firing energy blasts at the Psions's armor, and she noticed it was starting to smoke. It was working. Meanwhile, Beast Boy was still a cheetah and being chased by the rest of the Psions, and he was almost out of breath. He had to find the laboratory so the others could blast the Psions with the ray. He wanted to sniff out the other Titan's but he couldn't afford to turn into a dog unless he wanted to get caught by the Psions, so he had to stay a cheetah. He used his nose in hopes of picking up the scent of the other Titans, and he got it. He was just hoping that he wouldn't get there too early. Cyborg almost had the ray ready. He even found a way to steer the ray towards the doorway so he could land a direct hit on the Psions. With the push of a few buttons, the ray was ready to fire.
"Alright BB, it's up to you now."
He ran to the entrance and saw that Beast Boy was coming up fast with the rest of the Psions behind him.
Beast Boy saw Cyborg wave to him, and realized that he was in the lab. Cyborg quickly ran back to the control panel and pulled the switch.
"Gotta be careful," he thought to himself. "Don't want to hit BB."
As soon as Beast Boy entered the room he turned into a fly and watched all the Psions run past him into the giant beam of red energy. Cyborg quickly turned the knob to increase the level of intensity. The Psions cried in pain as their battlesuits began to melt. Cyborg steered the ray to make sure all of the battle suits had melted. All of the Psions were so hurt that they couldn't get up.
"Boo-Yah!" shouted Cyborg triumphantly.
"RAY to go Cy!" joked Beast Boy.
"You had that one in the bag, didn't you?" Cyborg asked as he rolled his human eye.
"What can I say? I gotta be prepared to have a good joke in a rough situation," answered Beast Boy.
Cyborg began to run to the door.
"Come on, this ain't over yet," he said. "The others are fighting the last two. We gotta lure them to the ray."
"Aw man," moaned Beast Boy as he followed him. "It feels like I just ran 200 miles in the last ten minutes."
Robin and Raven tried whatever they could to help Starfire, but none of it was working, and both were easily thrown to the ground every time they tried to attack. Cyborg and Beast Boy joined the fight, but they couldn't do much either. Starfire kept blasting her energy on the battlesuits. The smoke on their armor was becoming more visible, but the Psions were too focused on the fight to realize it.
"You have such loyal friends Koriand'r," said one of the Psions. "They risk their lives to help you, not that you deserve it anyway after what you did."
"Something tells me you don't take losing very well," suggested Robin. "Take it from someone who hates losing, winning isn't everything."
The Psions chuckled.
"This isn't about winning, boy," replied the second Psion. "This is about making things right. Acquiring the humans for our experiments was only our secondary motive."
Starfire was taken aback.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Do not pretend you do not know what we mean, Koriand'r," "We have wanted revenge on you since you took the lives of our friends."
The rest of the Titans were shocked. Starfire was starting to get nervous. Her friends were about to find out what she had been hiding from them.
"We have been searching for you since that day, and just recently Komand'r approached us and told us about your whereabouts."
Starfire gasped at those words.
"Wait. Blackfire told you-"
"Yes," replied the first Psion. "Her goals are not dissimilar to ours. After all, she was there that day. She saw everything. And at least she was grateful for the experiments. We do not see a lot of our subjects showing that type of gratitude."
"You did not just beat them after you escaped, you destroyed them," said the first Psion. "You know it is true."
Starfire's friends were speechless. They never thought Starfire would kill, but the look in her eyes said a lot.
"Starfire, is this true?" asked Robin nervously.
Starfire turned away from the Psions and looked at her friends. She didn't like the looks on their faces. She didn't want them to be upset at her, but there was no longer a reason for her to hide the truth from them.
"Yes, Robin," she sighed. "I annihilated the Psions who tortured me."
The Psions laughed.
"Well, so much for making friends," said the first Psion. "How can you be so sure they will be by your side if you cannot be honest with them?"
"Were you ever going to tell them the truth?" asked the second Psion. "Or were they always going to be unaware of who you really are?"
Starfire saw that their battlesuits were starting to fall apart. This was her chance.
"It is you two who are unaware!" She yelled. "Your armor is useless now!"
Starfire zapped the two Psions with an energy blast. And with that, their battlesuits were completely destroyed. She stood above the two aliens as her friends continued to stare at her in shock.
"No! No! No! No! No!" cried the first Psion. "Our suits are supposed to be immune to your spark! How is this possible?!
"It seems your invincible armor is not invincible at all," suggested Starfire. "Perhaps you should discover how long they can resist energy. It would not be as harmful and unreasonable as your experiments."
"The only feelings we care about are our own," replied the second Psion. "We do not care how our experiments harm others. We just care about our own goals."
Then, the Psion pulled out a gadget from his torn up battlesuit, and pushed a button. Suddenly, red lights began flashing across the hall as a loud siren went off. Starfire grabbed one of the Psions by the chest.
"What did you just do?!" she asked angrily.
"We have engaged our ship's self-destruct sequence," replied the Psion smugly. "Do not worry. We will be alright. We can teleport ourselves back home with a push of a button. It is you who must find a way out of here."
"And we shall meet again someday, Koriand'r," promised the other Psion. "And that shall be the last time we ever meet."
"We shall see," Starfire replied bitterly.
The two Psions took out the device from their ruined armor, pressed a button, and they disappeared in a flash of light.
The Titans ran back towards the laboratory and saw that the rest of the Psions were teleporting themselves out of the ship. After all the Psions were gone, the Titans knew what they had to do.
"We have to get out of here now!" shouted Robin. "Raven, get us back on the ship!"
"You just read my mind," she said as she used her powers to teleport her and the rest of the Titans back on the T-Ship.
They watched as the Psion ship exploded in a giant inferno as they started the trip back to Earth. Starfire was glad the Psions were defeated, but she knew she was in trouble. The looks on her friends' faces made it clear.
The ride back home was very quiet. The rest of the Titans were still processing the fact that Starfire was a killer. When they arrived back at the tower, Robin was the first to speak.
"Why?" he asked with despair in his voice.
"Robin, please, I never meant to hurt you-"
Robin cut off Starfire before she could finish.
"HURT me?!" he snapped. "You KILLED those Psions all those years ago! You don't have the right to kill anyone! I know they tortured you, but two wrongs don't make a right!"
Starfire looked down on the ground. Robin's last sentence made sense, but he didn't know the galaxy's biggest threats more than she did.
"Robin, I understand your anger, but I was saving the universe from danger!" she replied, defending herself.
"What are you talking about?! Killing doesn't save anyone!"
"Robin, you do not know the universe's biggest threats like I do. There are more dangerous threats than the Psions who cannot be spared. My actions saved the innocent lives of those who the Psions would have used for their experiments."
"That doesn't give you the legal right to kill," Robin replied angrily.
"On Tamaran, I am allowed to kill. My parents gave me that privilege when I was training on Okaara. I still have that privilege under Galfore's rule."
The Titans were stunned.
"Wait? Your parents actually said it was okay for you to take someone's life?" asked a dumbfounded Beast Boy. "There's no way a parent would allow their kid to kill someone."
"Well, Beast Boy, it depends on the circumstances," explained Starfire. "The reason for me to kill has to be just and cannot be for selfish reasons."
"Killing IS a selfish decision Starfire, no matter what the situation is!" yelled Robin.
"That is where you are wrong, Robin. In my world, we imprison people we believe do not deserve death, because they are capable of understanding the consequences of their actions and redeeming themselves. Those who take innocent lives and cannot learn to care about the lives they ruin are beyond saving. We can imprison them all we want, but not everyone can be spared. In order to save innocent lives, we have to be rid of those monsters for the greater good."
"You don't know if they can't change," Robin said. "Anything can happen. Maybe something will happen that changes the way they see things."
"Robin, the Psions have been the way they are for centuries, and they do not plan on changing their ways anytime soon," reasoned Starfire. "Sometimes, it is impossible to be victorious, and this is one of those instances."
"I don't think anything's impossible," said Robin in denial. "It's not right to kill anybody, no matter how horrible their crimes are."
"Well, Robin, it appears the only thing we can agree on is disagreeing."
"I guess so," replied an unsatisfied Robin.
The Titans stood in an awkward silence for a few seconds before figuring out how to steer the conversation.
"Were you ever going to tell us, Starfire?" asked Cyborg.
"I wished to tell you after I first met you all," replied Starfire. "But I did not wish for you to judge me for those actions, so I decided to wait for the right time, but when I learned that Robin had a rule of "not killing," I chose not to."
Robin thought about those words for a few seconds. Would've he seen Starfire in a different way had she told him the truth when they first met? Would they still be boyfriend and girlfriend? Would he not have even liked her, or even be friends with her? He'll never know, but Robin felt blindsided. He was under the impression that Starfire wouldn't kill a fly, or anyone for that matter, but today, he learned that wasn't the case. Robin saw Starfire in an entirely new way now, and he wasn't sure if he would ever see her the same way again.
"I can't blame you for hiding the truth," Raven finally spoke.
The rest of the Titans turned their eyes towards her.
"I'm not saying I support your actions, Starfire, but it's easy for everyone to make assumptions about you based on one bad little thing they know about you. I know what that's like being the daughter of a monster. Some people think killers don't have good qualities or aren't capable of doing good things. That's what you do Starfire, and you help people from a planet you're not even from. You've helped save Earth more than anyone could've asked for. I won't let your actions against the Psions define the way I see you."
Starfire was stunned. She wasn't expecting Raven to be so supportive of her, or any of her friends for that matter. Starfire wanted to hug Raven, but she knew she didn't like them, so kept herself still.
"Thank you, Raven," she said softly.
"You know what?" said Cyborg. "Raven's right. You can't judge people by their worst mistakes. You may not regret it, Star, but we're still friends."
"Yeah!" chimed in Beast Boy. "Mento's done tons of crazy things over the years, but I still love him. This doesn't mean we still can't be friends, right Robin?"
"Robin?"
But when they turned to Robin for his answer, he noticed he wasn't in the room anymore. He had done his disappearing act again.
"Man, I hate it when he does that," complained Cyborg.
Meanwhile, Robin had locked himself in his room. He just wanted to be alone. He didn't even want Starfire with him. Sure, it wasn't right to judge people by their worst mistakes, but she supported something that went up against everything he believed in, and she was his girlfriend. It didn't help at all that she didn't have any regrets, and the others were being supportive of her. He wasn't sure how he was going to deal with it, and he wanted to figure that out so he could save his relationship with Starfire, and if that meant being alone for a while, then so be it. He loved Starfire, and he didn't want to let this ruin their relationship, but he needed time to process everything that happened today.
"What have I gotten myself into?" he thought out loud.
He laid down on his bed and closed his eyes. He thought maybe if he slept on it, maybe he would feel differently tomorrow. Tomorrow was going to be a new day. He wouldn't let something like today ruin tomorrow for him.
Back in the Vega System, parts and pieces of the Psions ship were scattered all over the place. A familiar figure with black hair and purple eyes looked at the carnage as it floated around.
"Looks like the Psions's attempt for revenge was for naught," said the voice which belonged to Blackfire. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I wasn't there to help them. Regardless, I have another plan in mind. One that will be rid of Starfire once and for all!"
Blackfire took out a communicator of some sort, and sent a call.
"Yes mistress?" a voice asked from the communicator.
"It's time," she responded. "The Psions failed. We may start preparing for our invasion of Earth. Get all the Gordanians ready"
"Yes, mistress." replied the Gordanian before Blackfire hung up.
"Get ready little sister," she said out loud. "You and your friends won't be able to stop me with the entire Gordanian army under my command!"
Blackfire laughed evilly in confidence and excitement as she was so sure that she was about to make her sister's life a living nightmare.
