Chapter 2: I Didn't Know

It was around six o'clock at night before the team found the unconscious Starfire.

"Starfire!" Robin called when he saw her. Raven had already spotted her and was flying towards her. Beastboy followed slowly…his arms and legs were more tired then he had ever been.

Robin jumped off his R-Cycle and ran at her, kneeling on the ground next to her. He picked up the communicator; it had thirty-six messages on it, all from him.

Robin stared at the goddess who lay unconscious on the floor. Her hair scattered across the ground. She really was a goddess. She was too good for him…was he over competitive? Was he a little weasel? Did she only date him out of pity? Was everything that X said true…?X's words were glued to Robin's mind. He wondered about these things all night, and when he saw her, he felt horrible that he hadn't waited for her. Robin quickly rolled her over so she was face up.

Starfire's arm flopped down, hitting the ground as Robin stood up, trying to get away from the repulsive girl. She was hideous, not at all a goddess NOW. Starfire lay in a shallow dirty puddle; blood streaming from a crack in her head and from her broken nose. Her bottom teeth had pierced about half way through her lip. Her entire mouth was full of blood.

Raven gasped and held out her hands, lifting up the poor alien with her powers, and carried her to the tower. The others followed, meeting the girls in the hospital wing of the tower.

Robin felt horrible. He did care about more than Starfire's looks…didn't he? He couldn't even look at her without feeling like throwing up. He just felt bad for her…right? No, but he didn't even help her out…had he failed her? Did he only like her for those reasons?

Raven was hesitant to heal Starfire with her powers, who knows what magic could be used on an alien. Her biological features were most likely different from humans, although her exterior was almost identical. Her internal organs could be entirely mixed up.

Raven took the risk, placing her hands over Starfire's head, fixing the broken nose. Raven took a razor and shaved a section of Starfire's hair until she found the gash were she had been hit, and was bleeding from. Raven raised her hands up in the air, closed her eyes, and focused. "Azarath Metrion Zynthos…" she said, and the gash in Starfire's scalp closed. Raven stood up, grabbing a wet rag, wiping up the now dry blood all over the girl's face and scalp. Robin stood above her, watching her mend Starfire's wounds. He couldn't help, he didn't want to touch the girl. Although he would never admit it.

So he wouldn't have to admit that he didn't even want to touch his girlfriend in her condition, he claimed it was too hard to see her in so much pain, and turned around, joining the other two males outside the hospital wing.

Raven nodded and went to work on Starfire's mouth. She put on a pair of gloves and gently held the girl's bottom lip, lifting it up slowly and off the teeth that had cut it deeply. She placed her hands up again, healing the wound in her lip, closing it completely. She then looked back up at the wound on Starfire's head. She still saw the wound up there was still really deep and bleeding again. She took a needle and thread, numbed the area with a shot, and sewed up the almost closed gash. Her powers weren't strong enough to close it completely for some reason.

When she finished, she allowed the guys to come in. Robin just stared at his once goddess, now ugly duckling. She was beautiful, but now…she wasn't a goddess. It was weird. What X said…it was true. He mentioned her seeing Slade and going after the villain alone, but he didn't actually think it happened. But it did. Starfire had been unconscious for over two hours now, and both the villains had gotten away.

He looked at the girl, her figure was still perfect, her body. But her mouth was full of blood, one of her eyes was a little puffy and black…her bottom lip was also puffy and was twice its size. A patch of her gorgeous hair lay on the ground and part of her head was shaved, and there was a sewn up gash on her scalp.

A dry towel was inside Star's mouth, soaking up some of the blood.

"What happened to her?" Robin asked.

"I don't know. I just finished fixing her up. I need to rinse her mouth out now, I am afraid she is going to choke on her own blood. That wouldn't be too good. Can you help me?"

"I guess…" Robin walked over to the girl after grabbing a little bucket and a glass of water. Raven instructed him to hold the bucket just under her mouth. Raven pulled the towel that was now soaked with blood and held Starfire, bending her over so the blood in her mouth could pour into the bucket. She took the water, put a little bit into Starfire's mouth, and then poured it back out. She did this a couple of times, until Robin was gagging, then she laid the girl back on her back and Robin threw up in the bucket full of blood.

TTTT

Two men stood in front of a large screen, watching the battle scenes from that day, watching Robin's reaction to what X said, and what Slade did to Starfire.

"Impressive…" Slade said, "What you said got to the boy wonder. Now, we should get through to the girl, huh?"

"Alright." X said, confidently. If there was one thing he could do, it was taunt people with their weakness, and he had found Robin's. Now it was up to him to get to Starfire, maybe he could get a date with her. He thought about the after date in bed…this made him smile, but he kept the thoughts to himself.

TTTT

Starfire's eyes flickered open…was she in bed? "what happened?" she asked herself, sitting up and cradling her head in her hand. She tried to lift up one arm, but it was broken, and in a sling. She looked down and saw a boy sitting next to her. Robin was asleep, his head in her lap.

Starfire felt secure, like she was safe…she didn't want this to end. The feel of her love was more than enough. She lay back down, closing her eyes, but she felt the body shift at her feet.

"Starfire? You awake?" Robin whispered.

"Yes, I am. How was your sleep?"

"Good, now that you are awake."

"Robin?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened?" Starfire didn't remember anything from the day before, except her feeling left out and going for a walk.

"I was hoping you could tell me that." Robin said. "The only thing I know was that you went for a walk for some reason. While you were gone, we got a call from Slade, and we were gone. By the time we were calling you, we could see you in the air. We drove to the scene of the crime where Slade was. He threw a bomb, causing smoke to arise, and Red X appeared in stead of Slade." Robin gasped for breath. He could tell that Starfire was really thinking.

"And Slade ran out of the smoke, down an ally. I went after him, but he saw me. I dove after him, but right as I was going to enter the hole, he put the metal in my face. It all happened so fast." Starfire said, it was coming back to her. "I wasn't completely unconscious, because I could feel Slade beating me even though I was defenseless. That is all I remember."

"That is good enough…" Robin said, he still kept his distance, not even allowing himself to look her in the eyes. He thought about kissing her, holding her, comforting her in his own way, but he was scared to. He saw the ugly girl laying there. The blood was not streaming all over her face anymore, but she still looked hideous. He also was scared to hurt her. Raven claimed that only her arm was broken, but if he tried to kiss her, he would taste the blood in her mouth, and would probably hurt her puffy lips.

Robin stood up, not wanting to look at her anymore. "I better let you sleep some more."

"Robin?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened though? Why does my head hurt so much, why do I feel a slicing pain in my lip and my scalp? Why is a patch of my hair on the floor? What is going on?"

"Starfire…" Robin couldn't say it.

"What?"

Robin sighed, she would have to find out. "You have a very deep cut in your scalp, Raven healed most of it, but it is still very deep, so she had to stitch it up. In order to do that, she had to shave a patch of your hair off. It is up to you if you want to shave the rest of your hair off with it. I believe Slade beat you while you lay unconscious, which would explain the reason your teeth had pierced through your lip and your nose was broken and your eye is black and puffy. Raven was able to heal your nose completely, but that was the only thing. For some reason, her powers had no affect on your arm, lip or scalp." There, he said it.

Starfire gasped. She must look horrible, and she must not even have make-up on! She probably looked like shit. Starfire started to get up when Robin stopped her, "Starfire, stop."

"What?"

"Please, you should lay in bed, rest. I am going back to get us some breakfast. I'll be right back." She would heal…and when she did, she would be beautiful again…but she was so hideous and repulsive…how could he love her right now?

"Robin…I wish to see myself." She said, "I need to know how horrible I look…" she had known something was wrong when he wouldn't look her in the eyes, but when he handed her the mirror, she screamed.

"Starfire…" Robin said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"What! I look hideous! I can not believe this is happening to me...I look like shit! I have no make-up, what mascara is left is streaked across my face, my lip is huge, half of my hair is shaved off. I can not believe this, what is going on? I look like a glemglorph ooz monster from my home planet…what a blemglorphka ephatukui na norphkanu!" she started ranting in her language, Robin knew was Tamaranian.

"Starfire, please."

She didn't stop…

"Star…" he knew what he had to do to shut her up. He almost gagged because he had to do this. He reached in and kissed the corner of her puffy lips. Starfire immediantly stopped. She stared at him, bringing her hand to her mouth, where he had kissed her. Robin smiled at her. "Ill be back."

Robin turned and walked out the door, heading towards the main room.

As soon as the doors closed behind Robin, a dark figure appeared at the window of the Hospital Wing. Starfire looked up to see who it was. It looked like Raven, a cape flowed in the wind, a hood drawn over the figure's face. She walked over, opening it up, letting Raven in.

"Starfire." It was a man speaking! Who was it? Was it Slade…no, he would never wear a cape…

He pulled the hood off, Starfire gasped, gathering starbolt in her good hand. "Wait, I want to talk to you." He said, holding up his hands, motioning for her to wait.

"What do you want?" Starfire asked.

X stepped closer, Starfire could see compassion in his face. She allowed her eyes to stop glowing, but she kept the starbolt lit up in her hand. X cupped his hand around her cheek, "What happened?" he asked.

"Like you wouldn't know!" she said, her voice started to choke up as she yanked away from his reach.

"I seriously don't. Did Slade do this to you?" Starfire just sniffled and nodded. "What happened?"

Starfire explained how she went after Slade and was beaten.

"Starfire…I saw you laying there…your face down towards the ground. I didn't know this was going to happen, or I wouldn't have helped out Slade. I figured your friends would've found you soon."

"But…why do you care?"

"Because, I have always cared, Starfire, unlike that Robin." he shook when he said the Boy Wonder's name…

"What do you mean? Robin loves me!"

"That's what you think. Did you notice how he just brushed you off yesterday? How he can't look you strait in the face right now, because he can't stand to see you. Your wounds aren't the prettiest to look at and because your face is not as perfect as it was before, he wants nothing to do with you."

"You are lying…he kissed me!" Starfire said calmly.

"No, he only likes you for your figure, your looks, Starfire. I don't think he really likes you for you. Did you see the look on his face when he DID kiss you? He looked like he was going to gag."

"You are lying…" Starfire whispered, tears were streaming from her puffy, bloodshot eyes.

"Starfire…I want you to know that I care, and I won't let anyone hurt you again. Please just keep that in mind. I know I am considered the villain to you guys, but really, I am not that bad a guy. I just needed some money to get out of debt…and Slade has an incredible invention he is working towards. It will change the world."

"For the better or for the worse?"

"It is all how you look at it." X said, cupping his hand around her cheek, looking deep into her green eyes.

"Who are you?" She whispered.

"For me to know and maybe…someday…for you to find out." X said, and with that, he let go of her cheek and disappeared out the window. Starfire lay back down on her bed, smiling…she didn't know why. But she really liked this Red X. She really liked his sly nature. She liked how he spoke to her, and he really helped to calm her down. She liked how he could actually look at her face without turning pale. She really liked this guy and hoped to see more of him.

Robin walked in with a plate of food. He once again kept his eyes glued on the floor, set the tray of food down. "I brought a whole bottle of mustard in…thought you would like it."

"Robin…"

"Yes Starfire?" he rose his head up, but his eyes didn't look at her, but at the wall behind.

"Robin…why won't you look at me?" Starfire asked.

"Star…" he didn't know what to say. Was he supposed to say that he can't look at her because he found her repulsive and he wanted to throw up when he did?

"If you can't even look at me, I don't know how we could ever be together, Robin."

Starfire's words stung. Robin's eyes drifted toward her face. Starfire saw this and she saw the hurt look in Robin's face. "Robin?"

"Yeah Starfire." A tear escaped from one of Robin's masked eyes.

"Please, don't blame yourself. I love you, and I know you love me. I am sorry for what I said. I guess…I just felt doubt."

"Starfire" Robin sat down on the bed, next to her, "I could never love anyone else. It just really hurts me to see your….your face…I blame myself. I should've been there."

"Don't blame yourself. You did what you thought was right. I shouldn't have dove after Slade."

Robin thought about his conversation with X…Red X…that bastard

So, just an FYI, this story is rated T for later chapters, and I probably should have said that in my summary, but I didnt, so here it is! Thanks for all your reviews, and i sent you replies! Thanks again for reading, I'll have my next chapter up soon!