Author's Note: I have really dropped the ball on the review replies this time, I'm sorry for that. I'll be more on top of things in the future. Also, had a malfunction with my computer, lost the next chapter completely, so I'm in the process of rewriting it. I hope it'll be quick, but as fanfiction is the last thing I do during the day, I can't promise anything.

Illuminate

Starfire sat on the table, her feet on a chair as she watched Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy playing games while they waited for Green Lantern to arrive. While outwardly, she appeared calm and happy, smiling every time Robin glanced over his shoulder at her, inside she was a mess of doubt and regret.

She shouldn't have allowed herself to kiss him. She'd taken advantage of the new emotional freedom he was experiencing. He was compromised, a mess of emotions and she'd only make it worse. When… if he returned to being human, she was sure his feelings would return to the more platonic relationship they had and he would disapprove.

She'd been caught up in the moment, allowing herself to believe that he truly felt something different for her, rather than being swept away in his current state of mind. She'd cheated by progressing their relationship before he was ready to acknowledge his feelings and she was sure that would ruin it.

It didn't matter than he was happy the kiss occurred. It didn't matter it had taken them several minutes to ground him. It didn't matter that he still had to grab onto the couch to keep him connected. It didn't matter he purred.

It didn't.

She closed her eyes briefly.

X'hal, he had purred. It had been a long time since anyone had purred at her. That feeling of home and family which had come with the purr. Her mother's gentle rumble when she hugged her children. Galfore's proud tremor. And to purr during that sort of intimate moment… She'd heard about that sort of purr before but never thought, now she lived on Earth, she would get a chance to experience it.

Experience it as the lie it was.

Starfire hunched over, hugging her arms to her chest.

"Star?" Raven asked, watching her. "Want to talk about it?"

Starfire appreciated Raven not asking if she was okay, especially since the Empath knew she wasn't. She shook her head. "Not at present."

Raven studied her. "I'm going to need to shield myself soon," she muttered. "Flip-flopping emotions all over the place."

"My apologies," Starfire murmured.

"Not your fault," Raven said.

"It must be havoc on your sense to have two emotion-driven beings living in the same space."

"Don't you worry about me," Raven said. "I can handle it." She focused on Robin. "Is it my imagination, or is he having trouble staying on the ground."

"That assessment is correct."

"What happened?"

"I allowed myself to get caught up in the moment," Starfire said and fixed her eyes on the back of Robin's head. "We kissed."

Raven waited.

Starfire sighed. "I cannot help but believe if he was human, it never would have occurred and that I am taking advantage of the situation."

"Ahh."

"I foresee long conversations in my future."

"I foresaw them anyway," Raven said. "After this, he's going to want an in-depth report of everything Tamaranian."

Starfire dragged her hair over her shoulder so she could run her fingers through it. "True." She sighed.

Raven tuned her head, then lifted her chin so she stared upward. "Hal's here," she called.

The console game turned off. With lifting spirits, Starfire rose to her feet and the boys got to theirs so they could greet their friend. It had been some time since she'd seen him and she found, despite her mood, she was bubbling with excitement.

Consequently, the moment the door was open, she cried his name and tackled him. Green Lantern laughed and caught her, spinning her around in a circle. "Hello Princess," he said. "It's been a while; you're as gorgeous as ever."

Robin growled and Starfire pulled away from Green Lantern. "It is glorious to see you."

With a grin, Green Lantern turned his attention on the rest of the Titans. "Cyborg, my main man, how's it hanging?" he said, sharing a high-five.

"I'm awesome, as always."

Green Lantern pointed the index finger of both hands at Beast Boy, "Dude."

Beast Boy copied, grinning wildly. "Dude!"

He grinned at Raven, offering his hand to shake. "Raven, nice to see you."

"Likewise."

Green Lantern held out his hand to Robin, "Hey, Rob, how's it going?"

Robin shook himself and gave Starfire a confused glance. "Good," he said and shook Green Lantern's hand. "Thanks for coming."

"No problem," he said, offering a flash drive to Cyborg. "You picked a doozy of a question. The Guardians caught me with my fingers in the database, so I have to report to them what I know."

Cyborg headed for a console. "Is that unusual?"

"Yeah. No. Maybe." He shrugged. "Who knows, the Oa are pretty secretive. I still rate pretty high in the 'incompetent human' scale. Anyway," he lifted his hand, his ring generating a copy of the Locrix drone. "Locrix. Pretty much extinct in the central core of the galaxy, they lurk around the edges. From what I gather, they're left over tech of the Ancient Ones. Central hive mind, with each drone capable of acting on its own if severed. They're considered… well, sentient and not. They don't tend to interact but are territorial. Since they never inhabit occupied space, that's not usually a problem."

Robin asked, "Sentient and not?"

"They're capable of complex thought, but they can't feel. Only one drone needs to survive and it can rebuild entire plantations."

"Plantations?" Starfire asked.

"They're terraformers," Green Lantern explained. "Programmed terraformes. They flit from system to system looking for suitable planets to terraform into an Earth-like environment. From what I understand there's a whole set of sophisticated algorithms a planet has to pass before they'll settle. They then fortify the surrounding space by use of gravity mines, and set to work. Once the planet can sustain life, they pack up and head off in search of the next one."

Robin glanced at Starfire. "What kind of algorithms?"

Green Lantern scratched his chin. "No life present on any planet in the system. Can't settle on an already occupied planet, planet mass, distance from sun, and probability of sustained life once the process is complete are all considerations. Those sorts of things."

"What happens to the planet if the terraforming is interrupted?" Starfire asked. "If the Locrix are forced to move on before it's complete?"

"The planet will eventually revert, I guess. It's a process which takes decades, I imagine it would take decades for the planet to become unstable again, depending on when the interruption occurred."

"So… the Vernathains are celebrating over conquering a dud planet?" Beast Boy asked.

"Oh, that's rich," Raven said.

"Vernathians?" Green Lantern asked, surprised. "You ran into one?" Turning to Starfire, he took her hand. "Are you okay?"

Robin growled again, a low rumble which caused Raven's head to turn, but no one else seemed to notice.

"I am fine," Starfire assured him, removing her hand.

Green Lantern narrowed his eyes at her. "Let me guess. Vernathian, plus Locrix… they tried to take one of the Locrix planets."

"They succeeded," Starfire murmured.

Robin shuddered, then answered, "And duped us into helping."

Green Lantern winced. "Ouch."

"We've only just found out for sure they tricked us," Raven said, ghosting closer to Starfire. "So we were wondering at the ramifications."

"And whether we were party to eradication," Cyborg said.

"Doubt it," Green Lantern said and glanced at his ring. "There are many, many colonies. Like I said, they're considered sentient, but not. Take out a central core, it disables all the drones in the region, but they've got lots of central cores connected together. That's the part that's sentient. Take out one, they're gonna know, as far as we can tell, they're programmed not to seek confrontation, only defend. At any rate, there won't be any retaliation from the Locrix. Without their core, they're useless, any attempts to activate their systems after the core's gone results in self-destruct."

"The Locrix chased Val-yor here," Cyborg said. "If they're programmed not to seek confrontation, what's that about?"

Green Lantern shrugged. "Maybe he stole something from them. They will defend." He frowned. "Wait, they made it here. To Jump?"

"Yes," Robin said.

Green Lantern gestured wildly. "And the League didn't respond?"

Robin frowned. "Jump is Titan responsibility."

"Aliens are League," Green Lantern countered. "If it comes from our space, we need to know about it. I check all the logs, there been nothing there about Vernathians on Earth, or Locrix. Even if you deal with it, someone must have contacted you for a report?"

"No one," Robin said with a wary glance at Cyborg.

"Nope," Cyborg said, answering Robin's question.

"There was another Vernathian visit today," Starfire mentioned.

Green Lantern pulled a face. "If Batman's deleting it, fine, but if they're slipping through the net, we might have a problem." He scratched his chin. "I'll have to look into this." Breaking into a grin, he continued. "At any rate, the Locrix shouldn't be a problem. Cy, that drive contains all the info on the we have, if you'd like to confirm for yourself."

Cyborg nodded. "Thanks man. Appreciate it."

"Was there anything else?" Green Lantern asked.

"Must you go?" Starfire asked. "It has been the while since we have seen you."

He tapped her on the chin. "As much as I'd love to stay and hang out, today is one of my busy days. Sorry, Princess."

"That is a shame," she said, disheartened.

"Another day."

"Hal," Robin said, stony-faced. "If you've got a minute, I'd like a word."

Starfire glanced at Robin but his expression did not yield his secrets.

"Sure," Green Lantern said.

Robin walked past him. "Come to my office."

Turning back to the Titans, Green Lantern grinned. "Duty calls. Catcha later guys."

The door slid closed behind the pair without another word. Cyborg lifted the flash drive. "Let's take a look, hmm?"

"I'm intrigued," Raven said.

"I'll get the snacks," Beast Boy said, bounding toward the kitchen.

Starfire stared at the closed door a moment longer, then turned to be with her friends.

TTTTT

Robin rounded on Green Lantern the moment his office door slid shut. "Stay away from Starfire!"

Green Lantern's head reared back. "I beg your pardon?"

Robin poked him in the chest. "Just leave her alone."

Confusion filled Green Lantern's face. "Dick, you know I'm in a relationship, right? And Star's a nice girl but—"

Robin's hands flared and burnt the fingers of his green gloves to ash. "You're touching her and hugging her and—" Robin's fists clenched and unclenched and he shook his head, the shudder ripping through his entire body. Robin turned away to march across his room, turning in a tight circle. "Damn it, that's not at all what I wanted to say!"

"You just created a starbolt," Green Lantern said, stoic.

"Yeah," Robin said, still marching as he tried to work out his anger. Discarding the gloves, he tossed them to the other side of the room. "Had an accident, Star's powers got duplicated into me. I'm now Tamaranian too."

Green Lantern lifted his ring hand for a moment, allowing the ring to flare and Robin guessed it was supplying him with information. "Completely?"

"Seems that way. All the strengths and weakness and odd body quirks."

Green Lantern dropped his hand. "I see. How are you handling that?"

"It was okay to begin with. I got to fly. I can survive in space. I can lift weights like you couldn't believe. Except now, I get stuck on one emotion and I can't break it until I follow that emotion through! It's so frustrating."

"What do you mean?" Green Lantern asked.

Robin paced. "That Vernathian who visited, she wanted to pick a fight, right?"

Green Lantern nodded sagely. "They all do. Pretty violent race, from what I can tell. And their treatment of Tamaranians…" He pulled a face. "I would have tried to punch her, too."

"Well, I got so angry, I couldn't see anything else. I couldn't think straight, couldn't do anything but be angry. The rage was so powerful, it filled me up completely, made me blind to everything else."

Green Lantern rubbed his chin. "Sounds like someone else I know."

"Normally I can control myself, but now, I can't. At all. I don't even know where to begin to control this."

"Well—"

"I hit Starfire and all she did was try to calm me down. I hit her and then when I went to see her to apologise, my brain latches on to something she said and I end up all gooey inside and wanting to kiss her and the apology goes out the window!"

Green Lantern blinked, then a sly smile slid across his face. "Kiss her? Did you?"

Robin didn't acknowledge that. "I'm used to flicking from one thought to the next without ramifications. That's how I was trained. That's how I work things out. Flick through my thoughts, follow a line, and crisscross a network until I get an answer to whatever problem, all the while staying detached. Now I can't even finish a thought, without whatever emotion connected to the thought occurring. How am I supposed to operate like this? How can I lead the Titans when I can't control myself?"

"Ask Starfire. She's probably the only one who can help you."

Robin turned away. "I can't."

"Why not?"

He flushed. "Every time I look at her, all I want to do is shove my tongue down her throat."

Green Lantern didn't try very hard to hide the smile. "And that's a problem because?"

"Now my tongue is a six-foot long prehensile organ and I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be used like that."

Expression melted from Green Lantern's face. "Six feet?"

Robin shrugged. "Roughly."

"You measured it?"

"Um… yeah."

A sly grin, "Do you measure the size of your p—"

"Hal!"

Green Lantern whistled. "Six-foot tongue, just imagine what you can do with that. Tamaranians are lucky people."

"I'd rather not," Robin said, desperately trying to squash the slowly forming image in his mind. If he thought about that now, he'd never cope.

Green Lantern laughed. "Carol would love it if I—"

Robin groaned and pressed both hands to his head. "Hal, stop it."

"Okay, okay, sorry."

Robin glared. "No, you're not."

"But I'll fake it for you. Keep going."

Robin tugged at his hair. "How… When you first became a Lantern, how did you cope?"

"Ahh. Well…" Green Lantern rubbed the back of his neck. "I think it's a little different from me. I had heaps of people who'd been through it before helping me. Training specifically designed to aid the transition. And nothing fundamental changed about my physiology, all I had to worry about was the ring manifesting every damn thought and how to keep the constructs from failing."

"Yeah, but the ring's still controlled by an emotion."

"Yes. A single emotion. One. Not a multitude." Green Lantern considered Robin. "You seem to be doing okay at controlling yourself now."

"I'm struggling," Robin replied. "I just don't know how I do this."

Green Lantern rubbed his chin. "You know what? I think you should come and meet Razer."

Disclaimer:

Locrix being Terraformers comes completely from my imagination. We don't know anything about them and I believe Val-yor was lying.