Thresholding by CidGregor
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
This story is dedicated to Post, for all that he has contributed to its existence. (Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik...)
Chapter 3
SPLASH!
Starfire plunged under the water like a torpedo, and the first thing she was aware of was an intense, penetrating cold. The water was downright freezing. She should have expected as much – it was ocean water, after all – but still, the cold countered the warmth she still felt from the ship, and chilled her to the bone.
SPLASH!
Starfire glanced up; a bubble of black was following her into the cold water. Raven.
The dark girl caught up to Starfire and drew the girl into the bubble, which was much warmer, and full of fresh air.
"You really should calm down, Star," Raven admonished the soaked girl before her. "That was reckless and stupid. The ship could've stopped right below the surface and you would have plowed right into it face first."
"Y-yes…p-perhaps y-you are r-right," Starfire said through chattering teeth. "I w-will attempt to b-be more c-calm for t-the remainder of our t-task."
"All right. Now let's get down there and search for survivors."
Raven's bubble carried the two girls down into the depths after the Isom'r. They did not have to travel far; the ship had wedged itself almost horizontally against one portion of Terra's wall. The damage seemed very extensive; the many spires of the ship – so very similar to the buildings Raven had seen on Tamaran itself – were broken in half and tilted over, now connected to the rest of the ship only by a few sheets of metal. Holes were punched through the ruby-red hull in several places, and ocean water was surely pouring into the ship through them, slowly flooding it…and dooming whatever survivors might be inside.
Raven guided their bubble down toward one of the holes, and slipped through into the open air of the craft. The interior walls were not the cold, uniform gray that Raven was expecting, but rather a soothing sort of peachy-cream color; easy on the eyes, and almost calming. Most of the interior lights, amazingly, were still operational, though they flickered every now and then.
Raven immediately dropped the bubble shield and scanned around the room, looking…searching…
"Ah…that'll do," Raven said, eying a slab of scrap metal in one corner. Her telekinesis took hold of it and pushed it up against the hole they'd just come through. "Starfire…can you weld this in place with your star-bolts?"
Starfire nodded. Her eyes glowed green and twin beams shot out, superheating the two metals until they fused together and sealed.
"That should slow down the flooding," Raven said, wading through the knee-deep water. "If we can block off as many of the holes as we can along the way it'll buy us more time."
"Do your senses detect any survivors?" Starfire asked.
"Not yet…give me a moment to focus," Raven said. Her eyes closed, and her senses reached out beyond the physical world and into the spiritual one. Her soul self searched…searched…
"Got something," she said finally. "This way."
Starfire jerked open the door in question…only to have a rush of water pour in on them.
"EEP!" Starfire squeaked, and braced for the impact. The wave slammed into her, pushing her back and into the opposite wall. Raven, however, pushed forward, parting the waters telepathically, until she could find another suitable slab of metal. She found one quickly enough, and forced it over the hole in the second room's outer hull.
"Starfire…hurry up and weld the hole shut, I can't hold this thing in place forever!"
Starfire struggled to get back on her feet in the now-waist-deep water, which was still cold as ice. She waded across the first room and into the second, where Raven was struggling to hold the metal slab in place; water was spraying out through the small gaps, drenching Raven's whole upper body that had somehow managed to stay relatively dry until then.
"Would you hurry up and seal the hole?.!" Raven repeated.
"Y-yes," Starfire stuttered, teeth chattering again. Her eyes flared, and green beams welded the hole shut and ended the downpour over Raven's body.
"Let's keep going…" Raven murmured. She too was shivering now. "I can still sense survivors…but some are fading…dying…"
"Then we must hurry to their assistance!" Starfire said. She trudged through the water to the next door in their way, but approached this one more cautiously; this time she jerked the door open from the side, expecting another rush of water to engulf them. But this time it was the water on their side that did the rushing; the next room was not flooded at all…or at least it hadn't been a moment ago.
The water level evened out within the new room, and now the water came up to a couple of inches below the hem of Starfire's skirt. The next room, too, was empty, and when the water level evened out again, it was back to knee-deep.
"They're close…" Raven said suddenly. "In this next room…but there's something strange…they're not…"
"Not well?.!" Starfire jumped ahead. "Then we must hurry and help them!" Her hand clutched the door handle.
"No, WAIT, STARFIRE, STOP!.!.!" Raven shouted a moment too late.
Starfire barely had pulled the door halfway open before it was blasted the rest of the way open by a sudden flurry of star-bolts that cooked the air around the girls.
"WATCH OUT!" Raven barked, yanking Starfire to the side before a glowing, electric-blue star-bolt could plow into her gut.
"Klaat'ua de X'Hal! Nu threttana! Berattan'm!" a harsh male voice rang out. Another blue bolt soared through the door and exploded against the opposite wall.
"What did he say?" Raven asked, couched in the knee-deep water in one corner.
"He was threatening us," Starfire summarized. "He believes we are the same ones who fired on his ship. They are…understandably upset about it."
"Well, then, tell them it wasn't us!" Raven shot back.
But Starfire could hardly manage to get a word in when star-bolt after star-bolt was hammering through the doorway, shining in hues of electric blue.
"There is only one set of star-bolts being fired…" Starfire realized. "Why are there not more…?"
Raven closed her eyes and extended her senses into the next room. For a long, long moment, the empath was silent.
"…Raven?" Starfire probed.
No answer.
"Raven, what do you see?"
The dark girl suddenly and violently shivered. "They're…dying, Star. They've been wounded in the crash…only three are left alive…and two of them won't make it through the night…"
Starfire bit back tears. "What of the third?"
"He's the one shooting at us," Raven said. "His life force is still strong…he's only trying to protect the two that are left alive…"
The blue storm of energy halted, and the harsh male voice rang out again, barking at them in Tamaranian.
"He says we will pay for causing these deaths with our own lives," Starfire whispered through the sudden silence.
"Tell him the truth then, Star!" Raven hissed. "Tell him it wasn't us!"
Starfire took a deep breath, turned toward the doorway, and spoke. "Ha'ato, Tromand'r! Emah'd Koriand'r! Nu threttana! Sanmiga'n! Sanmiga'n!"
A long silence held. Raven and Starfire waited with baited breath…then…
"…Sol Koriand'r?"
Starfire grinned. "Hesbad, Tromand'r!" She turned to Raven. "He knows who I am now. Please, wait here, Raven. I will speak to him."
Raven nodded, and watched Starfire walk slowly into the room beyond toward the lone standing survivor. The two conversed in rapid Tamaranian for a short minute – about what, Raven didn't have the foggiest idea – then the alien girl returned, her demeanor much more diminished.
"Raven…you were right. Aside from Tromand'r, there are only two survivors left…and they are both wounded beyond Tromand'r's ability to heal them. Is there…anything you can do to help them?"
"I…don't know, Star…" Raven admitted. "I can't say for sure without seeing them. Is Tromand'r okay with that?"
"Yes. I informed him of your presence here with me. He prays X'Hal grants you the power to help them."
"All right…let me go see them."
Raven stood up and sloshed through the water into the next room. A quick glance around told Raven that it was the bridge – or what was left of it. Not a single control panel had been left undamaged. None were spewing sparks, however. Tromand'r must have cut the power running through them. Smart, the dark girl knew, or else the slowly-rising water combined with the electricity would be frying them all alive.
She looked ahead of her then, and caught sight of the man that must surely have been Captain Tromand'r. He was tall; at least as tall as Cyborg, probably even more so. His physique was well conditioned, but not bulky; his muscles, though certainly strong, did not bulge and make him seem even larger, the way Raven remembered Galfore's did. His Tamaranian hair was the same ruby-red hue as Starfire's; it was cut almost all the way around so that it only hung to his neck, but one handful of hair hung long, tied into a long braid and swinging down over his chest. A thick scar ran across his right cheek just below his eyes; eyes that were not green, like Starfire's, but a bold, electric blue, like the star-bolts he'd been throwing. Eyes that reflected a lifetime of battle. Eyes that seemed to command respect. They were warrior's eyes.
He said something in rapid Tamaranian, which Starfire quickly translated.
"He asks you for your help. His second-in-command, Officer Lysand'r, is still alive, but fading fast."
Raven followed Tromand'r's gesture and took a good, long look at the other two survivors, whom had been laid atop flat surfaces above the water. One, Raven knew without even a moment's hesitation, was done for. Even if they'd gotten there sooner, it wouldn't have mattered; the hole in his stomach made that extremely clear.
The other, however – Lysand'r – Raven thought she might be able to help. He was suffering from severe burns and some broken bones in his arms and one of his legs, as well as some severe bruising all over; but at least he didn't have a hole in his gut. She had to act quickly, though; he wasn't as far gone as the other man, but he would be if she didn't hurry.
Raven closed her eyes and placed her hands over the man's chest. She muttered strange words under her breath, and rather than the usual black energy that flowed from Raven's body, a wispy white cloud engulfed her palms. She ran them slowly up and down Lysand'r's body, and where her hands moved, the bruises and the burns faded…they did not disappear entirely, but the worst of them were diminished. The broken bones, however, were harder to deal with. She could fashion some slings and braces to put the bones back into place and mend the skin, but little else.
"Starfire, I need you to find a long pole so I can brace his broken leg, okay?" she asked.
The alien girl nodded feverishly, and within half a minute she had uncovered a suitable metallic pole from the wreckage of the bridge. Raven took it, swept her cloak off and pointed a flashing black hand at it; in an instant the cloak had shredded into strips. She placed the pole against Tromand'r's leg and wrapped a few strips of her cloak tightly around it until the leg was sufficiently braced.
"Ata'nna nem?"
Raven turned and saw Tromand'r standing over her, gesturing at the other man with a soft look in his eyes.
"He…asks if there is…anything you can do for the other man…" Starfire translated softly; but they all knew the answer long before Raven shook her head in silence.
Tromand'r heaved a sigh, eyes closed. But when they opened again, they had hardened once more. He spoke in his own tongue to Starfire while Raven finished wrapping Lysand'r's wounds with the shreds of her cloak.
"Raven…I believe we should be departing now," Starfire said. "Shall we inform Terra to remove the wall?"
"Yeah…I'll take care of it…" Raven said. She grabbed her communicator. "Terra…can you hear me?"
A moment of silence…then a small burst of static before…
"This is Robin. Terra's resting for a minute after making that wall. Have you found any survivors down there?"
"Yeah…two, including Captain Tromand'r. The other survivor is badly hurt, though."
"How badly?"
"Burns. Bruises. Broken bones. He'll live, but he'll be healing for a good long while. Tromand'r seems mostly unhurt."
"All right. I'll have Terra lower the wall in a moment so you can get out. We'll get the other survivor into the medical wing as soon as you get him here. Robin out."
Raven snapped the communicator closed. "We're leaving. I'll take Lysand'r. My powers can hold an air bubble around him while we swim back to shore."
Starfire didn't answer. She looked hesitantly and the other being in the room. "But…what shall we do about...the thirdsurvivor? We cannot just leave him…"
Raven glanced back at the other man…she could see him with her own eyes…but to her senses, there was no one there. To her senses, the surface before her was empty. Raven knew what that meant.
"Star…I'm sorry…he's already gone."
Starfire shut her eyes, but it did not hold back her tears. "No…"
A rumbling sound told Raven that Terra was lowering the wall again. She lifted Lysand'r into the air with her telekinesis and hovered over to where Starfire stood. "Come on, Star. You can grieve later. We need to leave, now."
Starfire wiped her cheeks dry forcefully and nodded. "Y-yes…you are right. Come…the airlock is our best option."
The foursome entered the airlock and sealed the inner door behind them. Raven encased them all in a black bubble as the outer door opened and the freezing bay water poured in. A burst of telekinesis propelled the bubble out of the airlock and out into the ocean, and it sped away from the once-mighty Isom'r that was now little more than a sunken tomb.