I've been swamped with schoolwork, and I'm sooo sorry it's taken me so long. To make up for it, I'm posting this chapter and the next one at the same time!

Disclaimer: Still hasn't changed

Chapter 14

He walked down the empty streets, reflected on how much destruction he had caused because of his anger. And yet he couldn't find any regret in his heart; it had become as stone ever since he had ran back into his friends.

The walls were crumbling, and a few were still sparkling with xinothium. It almost seemed as deserted as when Terra had helped take over, only this time the annoying thud of feet was conspicuously absent; he hated being at the front of an army, it seemed almost unbecoming to him. So he chose instead to simply amble along the streets, making sure that any and everyone was gone before he would move on.

It was actually a good feeling, this control that he had over the people. The only thing left was to lose himself to his emotions long enough to destroy those who might oppose him, and then he could finally be truly alone. The more he felt anger, the less he felt of anything else, thus the less he had to think about exactly why there was a faint light on the horizon where a certain island was situated.

Suddenly, he heard an angry roar from above, and looked up just in time to see a green hippo falling towards him. He dove out of the way, avoiding injury, but now thoroughly annoyed with this kid. "What do you want here?" he growled.

As the hippo changed into the short green Titan, he could see the anger that lay in those eyes. "You're going to pay for what you did to Raven!" the changeling shouted.

"Am I now?" he chuckled, his eyes narrowing. "And what makes you think that you, of all people, are going to make me?" he sneered.

With a shout, the changeling transformed into a T-Rex and charged towards him, but he quickly sidestepped the attack and prepared to simply freeze the clumsy feet to the ground, but before he could blink, the large green creature in front of him was gone.

It only took a second for his keen eyes to spot the tiny green fly, but a second was all that the changeling had needed. Suddenly, a green bear had him on the ground as he struggled to lift it up. It would only have been that much easier if he hadn't just finished taking over a city...

Finally, he found his strength and managed to get the green beast off of his chest and strike him hard with a steel-toed boot. The bear stumbled away, giving him enough time to restrategize. He knew that the changeling could be a huge threat when he really turned on his powers and laid all joking aside, and he was wondering how long it would be before that "beast within" came out.

With a spinning kick, he was able to knock the bear to the ground, and a green human took its place, rubbing its head for a moment before transforming into a gorilla and attempting to grab him aroung the middle to crush him. He nimbly dodged this, but only barely, and took hold of one of the gorilla's shoulder, preparing to flip it over his shoulder, but suddenly he was trying to hold up an elephant! He had moments to dive out of the way as the green beast came crashing down, and immediately both fighters were back up, the green elephant's eyes flashing dangerously.

He recognized that expression, furious, determined, near insanity. The poor kid was losing it just as he had. Good, let someone else try to deal with this kind of thing for once, he thought angrily.

The elephant charged at him, and he brought out a bo staff, flipping over the animal's head and hitting it hard over the head with the staff. Though the creature stumbled and for a moment, a dizzy human was visible, Beast Boy quickly got a hold of himself and transformed into a crocodile, its razor sharp teeth coming within inches of exposed skin. He jumped onto the mouth to close it, and suddenly found himself riding on a bull prepared to send him flying off into a wall.

As he flew through the air, he caught hold of the bull's horns, taking it down with him. For a moment, he rested, and the green Titan did also. Both boys stared at each other with hatred before the fight began again with Beast Boy changing into a cobra.

His eyes widened. It was a spitting cobra, one of the more dangerous snakes, and deadly. It didn't seem like Beast Boy to change into something that could cause death intentionally, but the changeling had obviously been hurt. Thankful that his mask shielded his eyes from the venom, he prepared to rush out to meet this new challenge.

"The kid obviously did his research," he muttered as he watched the snake slither towards him. As it coiled to strike, he jumped away, though some of the venom hit his arm. Wincing at the cold touch of the liquid, he grabbed his arm instinctively, then realized that he had given the changeling an opening and jumped aside just out of the reach of the fangs. The poison could not hurt him as long as it did not get into his blood stream, he simply needed to make sure that he was not hurt there. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done...

TTTTT

Raven dropped to her knees beside the small, pitiful girl. "What are you talking about, Star?" she asked quietly, a hand on her shoulder. "And why are you wearing white?"

Starfire weakly smiled up at her, but gently shrugged the hand off of her shoulder, sighing. "My Robin has left me alone. He did not think to make sure that I was indeed dead. I was not, and I was making every attempt to come and get him, but he never attempted to bring me back. He left me alone, and now I do not know what has been happening. Because no one has attempted to stimulate the waves of my brain, I am stuck here, and I have slowly been dwindling," she explained. "And, Friend Raven, I am wearing the white color because only Hope remains behind in what was once my version of Nevermore."

She looked around at the desolation. "This is your mind?" she asked incredulously.

The girl laughed quietly. "No, this is what is left of my mind, Raven. I used to let my emotions roam in a forest of many colors and flowers. It was a joyous place, and it was even more so when I had my Robin, but now he is gone and I am wasting."

Tentatively, she reached out to put a hand on her friend's shoulder for comfort, but the girl shrugged it off once more. "Please, Starfire, let me-"

"No, you cannot help me. I no longer wish to be helped. What more is there to do if Robin will not try to revive me? Does he no longer think of me? Was I merely 'the plaything'?" she wept.

"No!" she cried out, wiping away the tears from her friend's face. "Robin thinks the world of you, and you're lucky to be his girlfriend. Please, don't give up like he did just because-"

"What has happened to him?" Starfire interrupted, her eyes wide.

"I-"

"What has happened to Robin? You said that he has given up. Is that why he does not come after me? Oh, how selfish I have been to be thinking of myself when something has happened to him!" she cried.

"Starfire, I don't know how to tell you this, but Robin really did think that you...well...that you had died, and he sort of...went crazy," Raven said. This was really akward, trying to talk about something Starfire herself had brought about, though inadvertantly.

"How so? What did he do, Raven? Tell me what has been going on!" she demanded. She gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "He did not...?"

She placed a hand on her shoulder, and this time the girl did not shrug it off. "No, Star, he's not dead, but he might as well be. He went to Slade."

At Starfire's shriek, Raven winced. "He did not! We must go after him and convince him to return to us! Where is he that I might be able to restore hope to his heart? Oh, Raven, help me to break free of my mind so that I may go after him!"

Raven looked away. "I...can't help you. At least not right now. Your mind isn't strong enough, and an attempt could be fatal for both of us. So here's what you and I need to do. We're going to help to rebuild your mind, and then we'll talk about getting out of here, alright?"

Starfire smiled gratefully. "Raven, you truly are my dearest friend," she gushed, and when she did so, a small purple bud grew on the tree filled with otherwise dismal leaves. A ray of hope in the darkness.

"Starfire, please, I don't deserve that kind of praise," she sighed, turning away as her face got red.

"Why do you not take pride in my feelings of affection? Do you not wish to be my friend any longer now that Robin and I are doing the 'going out'?" she inquired.

"No, no," she shook her head, inwardly trying to convince herself as well, "no, it's just that, well, I've been so jealous of you and your obvious power over Robin's heart, and I just wish that I could have done that before my time had passed."

Starfire smiled reassuringly. "Raven, I do not wish for a boy to come between our friendship. If it means that I must postpone my happiness until you can gather your emotions once more, I will postpone the 'going out' for now. As long as you are safe from harm, I will do so. Besides, if what you say is true, Robin may need to be alone for some time after we get him back."

"If we get him back-"

"Do not speak in such a way! There is always hope, as you have seen by my presence here! I am attempting to be your friend, and yet you still have such a dark outlook on everything that is going on! At least you do not have to work as hard to gain the affections of the one you love! You had a choice, but I did not. Do you not understand that Beast Boy has been doing the crushing on you ever since he 'got over' Terra?" she screeched.

"I had noticed that he was being nicer..."

"But you were too busy attempting to win Robin's heart! Tell me, if I had not interfered, how would Beast Boy be now? Would he not be crushed, devastated, alone? Did you not think of him when you were so caught up in your emotions?" the Tamaranean paused. "I am sorry. I have no right to be shouting. You may feel however you wish to feel about whomever you wish, and I have no reason to be angry at you for your emotions, which are beyond your control in many areas, as they are for us all. Please forgive me for doing the 'exploding' on you."

"No, no you had every right to explode. I was being selfish and pessimistic, and you were trying to be optimistic even when your situation was worse than my own," she admitted quietly.

Finally, Starfire spoke up once more. "Raven, will you please sing with me?"

She was taken aback by the suggestion. "Sing with you? Why?"

"I wish to feed the emotion of love, and the best way that I can think to do so is to sing the lullaby that I remember hearing as a young child. It brings back to me the memories filled with love, and perhaps in this way we could begin to build my mind back up," Starfire explained.

"Alright..."

Starfire took a deep breath, and Raven prepared to wince, but instead there was a beautiful melody led by a gorgeous voice, and she could hardly believe that this was a Tamaranean song, much less that it was indeed Starfire who was singing it.

"Shoft'ash, min shaloff, shoft'ash, min lab'nic.

Shoft'ash ant'landar bilat'e

Shoft'ash und'ringash tir na'afta fiaron

Tri'ard ur'amri soktu min'ash."

It was a slow and soft melody, and Raven could almost hear the words behind it, yet she could not place it. "Starfire, could you perhaps translate it?" she asked quietly.

The Tamaranea princess opened her eyes slowly, as if reluctant to come back from her memory, but she nodded anyway. "In your language, it would be 'sleep, my love, sleep my child, sleep little one, sleep until the night sky brightens, and then shall dreams be done."

She nodded slowly, digesting the information. "I like it. I would be honored if you'd teach it to me."

Starfire beamed. "Yes, but I must warn you, it has five verses, all of which are in Tamaranean and best if sung in that language. Would you be willing to sing in my native tongue with me?"

"I guess so."

"Glorious! Now, repeat my words: Shoft'ash, min shaloff..."

And as the girl spoke, Raven noticed that the tree seemed to strengthen, and two or three flowers even managed to bloom. Perhaps this feat was not impossible after all. She smiled. "Shoft'ash, min shaloff," she repeated, and the words seemed to roll clumsily off of her tongue.

Starfire giggled. "Your pronounciation is very close, Friend Raven, but your accent is not vivid enough to give it justice. Try it again: Shoft'ash, min shaloff."

Raven obeyed, smiling at the joy in her friend's face when she finally had a "close enough" accent. The remaining dead leaves of the tree fell to the ground as new blossoms began to make themselves known in the branches.

But then Starfire got to the third verse and bit her lip, almost forcing herself to speak the next part.

"Bunt'na, min shaloff, itni'if ur'indor entre'issor hal'nif tressor...

Mist'riea min coba'ash tressor conti'ago

Tri'unade yora noc trog'isn sit ustaff gi'aran

Shoft'ash, min shaloff, bunt'na nofta shri'an karian..."

The once broad smile gave way to tears, and another tree began to sprout far off, the root of the tree of Sadness, no doubt, or Misery. "Starfire? Starfire, what's wrong?" Raven asked, confused by this sudden change in emotions.

"The words are so like Robin's situation that I find them hard to speak!"

Raven sighed. "I'm afraid I don't follow, Starfire. What's wrong. What is it that the words are saying?"

Taking a deep, rasping breath, Starfire nodded, then repeated the verse, this time in English.

"But, my love, if you should somehow die

Let my soul die with you

For I am nothing without your light, so

Sleep, my love..."

She paused to catch her breath in between sobs, then finished:

"...but not too long."