What's that, you say? Alibi2014 is back with a brand new chapfic? Nah, it couldn't be... Well, it's true- I'm back with a vengeance!

So here's the deal: This fic is based on the rock opera The Forgotten Arm by Aimee Mann. The story is about John, a Vietnam vet and drug user, and Caroline, his girlfriend, and the way John's past and vices damage their relationship. For this fic, the part of John will be played by Robin, and the part of Caroline will be played by Starfire. However, this is not AU; I've adapted the story to fit the Rob/Star relationship in the context of Robin's obsession with Slade.

You don't need to be at all familiar with The Forgotten Arm for this fic to work, but each chapter will parallel the content and tone of a song, in the order of the album. However, THIS IS NOT A SONGFIC! I highly recommend listening to the song a chapter is based on before/while/after reading the chapter. If you need help finding the music, or just finding the lyrics, say so and I'll tell you where to find them.

So in conclusion: Listening to The Forgotten Arm is not imperative, but will add to the fanfic experience; this is not a songfic; this first chapter is really more of a prologue than a central part of the story; and I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own TT or The Forgotten Arm.

This first chapter is based on the song "Dear John."

Chapter One: The First Time

She could still remember the first time she laid eyes on him.

The year she turned fourteen her Gordanian masters had sold her to another Gordanian halfway across the galaxy, and underestimating her strength her transporters had taken only moderate safety precautions. As soon as she had seen a planet inhabited by life she had let out a thundering war cry, smashed her fists into the metal door until her knuckles were cracked and bleeding, and, knocking down the door and everyone who stood in her way, had stolen a space pod and launched herself at the planet she would later know to be Earth.

She had crash landed in the middle of a city, forming a pothole the size of a car, and had emerged raging and willing to fight anyone and everyone who so much as looked at her.

He had looked at her, and his expression had held none of the fear she was used to seeing on the faces of those she had seen upon smashing her way out of the pod. His eyes had startled her, the way they were a blank white outlined in black. But more than that she noticed he regarded her with no alarm, with no fear for his life and safety. Disoriented, she had taken this not to mean she had an ally, but that he did not respect her.

Furious that even on this new planet she should be undermined, she had let out a Tamaranian war cry and let loose a barrage of starbolts at the caped boy. When she lowered her arms and saw the cloud of smoke and dust where once had stood her opponent, she had felt confident he was dead, and had turned to find something else to release her rage on.

But no sooner had she turned around did she hear a woosh in the air behind her and felt a blade slice against the side of her stomach. The wound hurt madly, especially when paired with the bruises and cuts she had already endured, but that was nothing compared to her anger as she turned to face her adversary once more.

He was flying through the air at her, and before she could focus her rage into starbolts he had tackled her to the ground. He shouted some words at her that she didn't understand, but his voice had had so much authority in it that she felt sure she was under attack. Lifting her leg she kneed him in the stomach and shot up into the air.

By now the crowd around them had been pushed back by a rather large man in a grey hoodie and an equally short boy with green skin. She paid them no mind as she flung starbolt after starbolt at the boy with the mask, who dodged them with agility comparable to that of the warlords of Okaara.

Again and again she shot all she could at the boy, and again and again he dodged, rolling out of the way just in time that the fiery green balls of energy obliterated the sidewalk or the street, but never him. All the while they screamed at each other, her shouting angry curses and threats at him, and she guessing he was saying the same. It was an odd feeling, fighting with so much noise going on around them, but understanding nothing but the thoughts and words in your own head and mouth. It made her feel vulnerable, as if the entire city could gang up on her without her knowledge, and she immediately sought to remedy that.

She had been taught when she was young that to learn another language a Tamaranian need only come into contact with a being that knew that other tongue. She had also been taught that, where so brief a touch as a punch would not suffice at all, and a more sustained contact like a handshake would work minimally, the fastest and surest way was to go directly to the source. In other words, she had to kiss him.

She had felt none of the embarrassment an Earthling would feel when she landed in front of him with the sole purpose of touching his lips with her own, because Tamaranians were a warrior people, and the only thing on her mind at the moment was the battle at hand.

Seeing her standing there in front of him, not lifting a finger, just standing perfectly still, the boy had lowered his weapon and taken a step forward, speaking words she, as of yet, did not understand.

In that moment that he was a foot or two away from her she closed the gap between them and, grabbing the back of his head, smashed her lips against his own. He gasped in surprise and tried to pull away from her, but she held him close for one… two… three seconds, before removing her hands from his head and using them to push him away. Still in shock, the boy did nothing but stumble backward. When next he spoke, she finally understood him.

"What?… Why did you?..."

"Move out of my way." Her voice was cold, a trait she had picked up after years of enslavement, and her harsh tone surprised him as much as her newfound ability to speak English.

"You know English?"

Before she lifted into the air again she gave him a curt answer. "I do now." And again she flew off.

"Wait, come back here!" When she had begun to fly away again the boy finally kicked back into hero mode and started to run after her. "I'm not trying to hurt you! Who are you?"

She stopped and glared down at him. "If you do not know who I am how do you know you do not wish to harm me?"

"Where are you from?"

"The planet Tamaran," she answered proudly.

"I've never heard of Tamaran. So I have no problem with anyone from Tamaran. I do have a problem, however, with you destroying my city."

She raised an eyebrow and lowered herself a few feet. "Your city? You are the ruler of this city?"

"No, I'm not. I live here, and I'm trying to protect it."

"If you are trying to protect it I suggest you show me somewhere else to go."

"Why? Why do you want to destroy the city?"

"I do not care what happens to this city. But I am under attack and if I am here the city will not survive."

"You're under attack?" The boy seemed to soften. "Why?"

An earth moving boom sounded out, the ground under their feet shaking. She whipped her head to the side, trying to determine from which direction the noise had sounded. "Why are you under attack?" The boy asked again.

"I will inform you later if you assist me."

Another boom rang out, and now the city-dwellers were screaming, running past the floating girl and masked boy, in the opposite direction. "Alright. Follow me."

He turned from the girl and started running at an angle to where everyone else was fleeing. "There's an abandoned factory a few blocks down this way. You can hide there," he shouted back at her as he ran.

"I do not want to hide."

His cape fluttering behind him, the boy didn't stop as he questioned her. "You don't want to hide? Then where am I supposed to be taking you?"

"I am no coward," she answered confidently. "I simply require time to regain my strength. If you cannot assist me, I will find somewhere on my own."

"No, I'll help you. You can rest in there," He pointed at the building they had stopped in front of. "I'll take down as many as I can."

"No!" She spoke fiercely, frantically, and it made the boy raise an eyebrow at her.

"Look, I really don't know what's going on, but you don't want to hide and you don't want me to help. Well, I won't make you hide, but I won't let those… whatever they are destroy my city."

"It is my battle." Her words struck him somehow, and it was now he saw the rage in her eyes. The rage that doesn't come very often in life, that is provoked only by a personnel vendetta. She took a deep breath. "I will allow you to assist me, and I would be most pleased if you did, but I will defeat them."

For a moment they stood in silence, regarding each other, sizing each other up. She could see that even without her boots she was a good couple inches taller than him, but his determination and courage more than made up for the difference in height. His eyes, though still alarming to her, held a struggle between wanting to defend his city and knowing how it felt to have one's battles fought by another. Finally he spoke.

"I know some other people. I just met them, but they're strong and able to fight. I'm going to go find them, and I'll bring them here. We'll be stronger in numbers."

"I will be prepared to enter battle when you return."

He turned to walk away before stopping and glancing back at her. "I'm Robin."

"You may call me Starfire."

"Right. I'll be back in ten minutes, Starfire."

He was back in seven.

When the boy called Robin returned, he had three others in tow. Two were the green-skinned and sweatshirt-ed boys Starfire had seen earlier, and the third was a small, meek girl in a blue cloak and hood. Starfire studied the new arrivals warily, her hopes sinking. If she, a warrior princess from Tamaran, could not defeat the Gordanians, how could she expect any better from a group of amateur do-gooders? Robin seemed to sense her hesitance.

"This is Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven. They all have powers, and Beast Boy's fought before." He paused and then asked, "Are you ready?"

Starfire clenched and unclenched her fists. "You are sure you will be able to handle the Gordanians?"

"The what?" The green boy, Beast Boy, asked.

"Your planet is no doubt too small and unimportant to ever have come in contact with them before, but I assure you they are no small foe."

"Either you'll work with us, or we'll work separately. Either way I'm not sitting around and watching them destroy my city," Robin said, irritation tinting his words.

"Very well." Starfire said, exasperated. Having no knowledge of the city, she allowed Robin to lead her and the others to a good attack spot. When they arrived, huddled behind a bank on the end of 7th Street, Robin turned to the rest of them.

"Anything we should know?" He asked Starfire, who glanced up at their opponents before looking back at her allies. "Hit them hard. Do not show them any mercy."

Robin smirked. "Anything else?"

Starfire's hands began to glow. "Leave the leader for me."

Starfire let out a yell and plunged into the battle, her starbolts going into overdrive and her speed reaching its maximum. Below her, Robin and Cyborg, who had shed his sweatshirt, were pummeling Gordanians right and left. A screech from above caught her attention, and she looked up just as a green pterodactyl flew overhead. Back at the bank, the cloaked and hooded Raven stood looking nervous and unsure. Starfire turned her attention back to her battle.

The fighting went uninterrupted for several minutes, the only sounds being those of Tamaranian cursing, Gordanian threats, and shouts from down below. Starfire found that Robin had been right; they were stronger in numbers, and the four fighting teens were cutting down the Gordanians faster than she had ever thought possible.

"Hey, Starfire! Which one is the leader?" Robin called up to her in between punches and kicks.

"I am."

Starfire's head shot up and she found herself looking straight into the eyes of the being she hated most. He spoke in Gordanian, and Starfire was aware that only she, not her allies, was able to understand him. She answered him back in Tamaranian.

"I will destroy you for what you've done! I will see you pay for what you've done to me and my people!"

Her opponent laughed. "Girl, do you honestly think you can win? You've tried how many times to escape? Twelve? And we've always caught you. What's so different about this time?"

Starfire lowered down to stand in front of Robin and the others. "This time I'm not alone!" She turned her head slightly to look at Robin and said in English, "I would be most grateful for your assistance."

Out of the corner of her eye Robin smiled. "My pleasure."

The five of them, Raven having joined in at the head Gordanian's entrance, attacked all at once, as one team. Starbolts meshed with sonic booms and black energy, while birdarangs struck the monster on the head and chest, a velociraptor nipping at its legs. The Gordanian's cries where drowned out by Starfire's Tamaranian words, screamed at him with all the pent-up fury of three years of enslavement.

In the end, there was hardly a body left to identify.

TT

While the police came and taped off a good chunk of the city, Robin led the others to a small island in the Jump City bay.

"I thought we could all use a little space," He said, and when he turned and smiled at her, she was baffled again by the white pools surrounded by black where his eyes should have been.

"Your eyes… They are most strange. Can you not see?"

Robin touched the edge of the black lining and laughed. "No, it's a mask. It covers my eyes. I can see alright, and the mask doesn't get in the way."

"Why is it necessary to cloak your eyes?"

Robin cocked his head to the side. "Do you have superheroes on your planet?"

Starfire smiled. "I am afraid I do not know this word 'superhero.'"

"A superhero is someone that fights crime, but not like the police. It's someone that fights the villains no one else will fight. They wear masks to hide their identities."

"Why would you wish no one to know you fight villains? Is it not something to be proud of?"

"It… Well, I guess it is. But if a bad guy knows who you are they can hurt your family and friends. You need to protect the people you care about, not just the city."

Starfire motioned at Cyborg and Raven. "You do not wear masks. Why?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Kind of hard to conceal this," He said, pointing at his artificial limbs.

"I'm no hero," Raven answered simply. After a moment she asked, "Are you?"

"I… do not know. I would like to stay on this planet if I may, but I have given no thought to my future."

"That's alright," Robin offered. "You can find your place later."

Starfire smiled, and for the first time, really looked at him.

This would be the first time she laid eyes on him.

"I thank you."

TT

She spent the night in one of the centers set up to help people whose houses had been demolished in the fight. After changing her clothes and putting her hair up, no one had been awake enough to tell who she was. That night she dreamt of masked superheroes and men made of metal. They were the first good dreams she had had in years.

Robin had asked her to meet him on the island the next morning, and when she arrived there, shortly before he did, the sun had felt so good on her skin after years of captivity she had nearly cried.

"Hey." She turned to see Robin walking towards her, and for reasons as yet unknown she immediately perked up.

"Good morning."

"Were you able to sleep alright?"

"Indeed. And yourself?"

He smiled. "I don't sleep much."

"Is night the time at which you do your super-heroing?"

Robin laughed. "Whenever it needs to be done."

They stood in silence, the waves lapping at the rocks below their feet, and the early morning sun streaking across the sky. Before long, the city began to wake up, and clean up crews dotted the scene of last night's excitement. In high-rise office buildings lights flicked on as lawyers and businessmen started their workdays.

"Did your home planet look like this?"

Starfire smiled sadly. It had been eternities since she'd been home. "No. The buildings on Tamaran were not grey and the people did not move about in tiny pods."

"Cars. How do people on Tamaran get around?"

"They fly. Or walk."

"And they never get tired?"

Starfire turned to him. "Do you move around in a car?"

"No."

"And do you not get tired?"

Robin smiled. "I guess not."

A nervous breath passed through Starfire's lips before she spoke again. "Last night I thought about your superheroes. I was most impressed by the way you and your friends helped me. I would… like very much to be a 'superhero' as well."

Before Robin could say anything a voice from behind made them both jump.

"Hey, are you making a team? Can I be in it?" Beast Boy ran up the side of the island, followed slowly by Cyborg and a levitating Raven.

"I hadn't thought about making a team," Robin said, running a hand through his hair.

"Are we not all wishing to fight?" Starfire asked.

"I guess so."

"Then let's do it!" Cyborg shouted, his loud voice shaking the ground beneath them.

Robin, smirking, turned to look at Starfire. "I hope you know what you've started."

Starfire returned the smile in earnest. "I very much wish to find out."

TT

Later, that day would replay in their heads over and over, as would their fight against the Gordanians and Robin's explanation about his mask. Over the years she would find hidden meanings in what had been said, and later disregard those same clues. And later, much later, she would regret her words to him.

Because once she found out what being a superhero entailed, what it did to a person, she would wish nothing more than to make it all go away.