A/N: Warning: Starfire gets a wee bit brutal, so forewarning. Lot's of gore. And violence. Gore and violence is basically 80% of part II. SORREH, I sort of went off the grid on this one...

Koriand'r latched onto Cyborg's arms and lifted them both high into the air. Raven created a small platform for Robin to leap on to, and Beast Boy simply changed into something with wings. The psions did not recognize them as a threat until the five were already halfway to the ship. Robin, though reluctant with using his ranged weapons too quickly, took down three ships with explosive birdirangs. Beast Boy couldn't touch the engines without risking injury, so he settled with attacking the pilots directly. Their backs were exposed on the small ships they flew; almost like levitating jet-skiis. Upon ripping out of its ship, they finally saw their enemy. The psions had two, thick tails, spined backs, and unwieldy metal sticks clutched in their hands. Their teeth were exposed, and resembled bone more than anything. Sharp tones hissed from their ships, amplified so their fellows could hear. Koriand'r knew their forms far too well for her liking.

"Direct your assault to the slits on their neck," she shouted to Beast Boy, who must have heard, because his talons immediately went for the gills. The psions he attacked was so disoriented, he loosened his grip on his ship and Beast Boy was able to throw him over. Koriand'r looked down at Cyborg, who was charging his hand cannon. Panic overtook her; she knew she would not be able to sustain her grip if he were to fire his weapon. Their pace was already slowing significantly, and she did not know if she could last the fight that would happen on the ship. "Do not attack them," she bellowed quickly. "Save your power."

Cyborg looked up at her, face contorted in outrage. "Are you shitting me? Look down there!" He jerked down, towards the several dozen ships heading their way. "If I don't help, we're fucked!"

Before she could rebuttle, Cyborg let off a blast. The kick nearly knocked them twenty feet back into air, where Koriand'r struggled to retain her strength. She funneled all her strength to her arms, struggling to lift the weight. It did not matter; her arms used the power her flight needed.

"Raven!" she shrieked an instant before she began to plummet downwards.

Cyborg dropped twenty feet before he was landed on a black plate. Quickly recovering, he turned to the alien girl. "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't just goddamn drop people in mid-air, you crazy—"

It was then he realized the girl was collapsed, unmoving beside his feet.

"Cyborg!" Robin shouted, a horde of psions heading towards him.

"Lizard people, huh?" Beast Boy snorted, leaping down on to Cyborg's platform. "Respect your elders." Almost instantaneously, he shifted into a t-rex on Raven's platform and lashed out at a small horde nearing them. They scattered, and began thrusting metal poles at him. Beast Boy had prepared himself for the pain, but found only a faint tickle reach him. He began to laugh as he realized the weapons were practically useless against him, and promptly swept the alien lizards into the ocean below with his tail.

"You say your people were destroyed by these lizard shits?" Cyborg asked the unconscious girl, recharging his hand canon. It was the first time he'd ever used it seriously. The psions hissed as they fell into the sea. "Well, don't you worry you're sleepy little head. They won't be destroying anymore."

"Faster, Raven!" Robin shouted, using his grappling hook as a whip and taking out a psions ship. "I don't think she'll make it much longer!"

Their speed increased infinitesimally. Raven was at her limit. She was already using her telekinesis to rip out several engines, with not nearly enough focus being put on the alien. She shouldn't have let the girl take Cyborg; she'd felt how weak she was, how incredibly vulnerable. The wounds under her binding were slowly becoming fatal, but Raven couldn't give enough focus to heal them. She was in the mid-flight in the center of a battle, and she had to protect four people as well as keep them in flight. Raven heard a small voice inside her whisper, telling her of the faster way. As of now, they were minutes from the ship, excluding battle time. The alien girl would die. Taking a deep breath of air and resolve, Raven focused so intensely on the four lives around her everything else vanished.

"What the—how'd we get on the ship?" Beast Boy blurted, tail retracting into his back and looking around at what appeared to be a mechanical room.

"Teleport," Raven choked, never having done it with quite so many people. Or any people, really. She could feel her nose start to bleed.

"Is she alive?" Cyborg asked, kneeling beside the alien.

Robin decided to ask questions later, quickly sliding down to his knees to examine the girl. The green fluid—blood, he now realized—was pouring steadily from her stomach, congealing on the metal binding around her.

"Move," Raven murmured, tentatively touching the Tamaranian's blood, "I need to get the binding off her."

"You can help her?" Robin asked, eyes flashing.

"I think," she said softly, hands orchestrating the shadows that wrapped around the binding, and slowly disassembling the atoms, leaving only a few bands to preserve her modesty. The alien's exposure revealed the true extent of her wounds.

"Aw… shit," Beast Boy breathed, looking away.

Cyborg shook his head. "Hell no."

Robin flinched.

Her body was covered in lacerations, varied in length and depth, but all swollen and weeping clear, green blood. Many followed in between the lines of her ribs, with four distinct breaks, while her stomach was riddled with gaping puncture wounds. What wasn't weeping was burned, or covered in deep, emerald green bruises. Entire chunks of flesh were absent from her thighs. Deep, raking scars covered the entirety of her arms. And though they hadn't noticed before, her fingers were distinctively broken. The skin covering her shins was completely flayed off, showing only a thin layer of viscera. She was missing three toes.

"Give her some respect," Raven said, breathing deeply to prepare herself. "Go guard the door."

Beast Boy acknowledged his uselessness, and quickly began scouting the area nearby.

Cyborg, on the other hand, spoke up. "I'm running a diagnostic, see what her system runs off of."

Raven was already gone, so deep in focus she heard nothing. Her hands moved over the girl's mutilated body, radiating darkness. It was clear she wouldn't be disturbed.

"They didn't touch her face," Robin realized. "Why not her face?"

Cyborg looked up from his scans, taking in the truth of Robin's words. "It was the only thing they could see. Maybe they were trying to hide the wounds."

"There's no way to hide this." He pulled out his flashlight, shining it on her wounds. The light glittered off her wounds.

Cyborg snorted, almost feeling ashamed. "We didn't notice."

Robin's jaw clenched. "Yeah, well, earth isn't used to people throwing trucks around when they're bleeding out."

"This is worse than bleeding out," Cyborg murmured. "This is torture."

Robin agreed darkly, trying not to feel what it was like.

They fell into a deep silence. Raven's power had finally begun to heal; small cuts were slowly sealing themselves, while larger ones had the infection calmed. The chunks missing from her legs began to fill; the skin rising like dough inside them. Bruises slowly transformed colors, from emerald to grass to a faint green. It was like watching a film sequence of a flower blooming in high-speed; the girl's body was shifting and knitting itself back together, leaving almost no scars. Her breathing was steady now.

"Holy shit," Beast Boy whispered from over their shoulders, having rejoined the group to watch Raven heal the girl. The rapidity of the healing began to slow, however, leaving only the smaller wounds healed and the large ones still gaping, but with no more inflammation.

"I can't," Raven suddenly gasped, falling over from her sitting position. She was struggling for air, hands splayed on the metal floor of the ship. Her nose was dripping blood. "I can't heal her. It's too much."

The four exchanged looks.

"Theeen… what do you call that?" Beast Boy asked, pointing the alien's still-gruesome yet-severely-improved health.

Raven looked down, her brow quickly furrowing at the very obvious healing. "I didn't do all that," she murmured, brushing a hand over a sealed wound, and then quickly throwing her cloak over the girl's exposed body.

"Then what did?" Robin asked, looking over to Cyborg.

The man blinked a few times before looking down at his scanners, suddenly remembering a distinct beeping he'd been too distracted to notice before. Cyborg frowned, and then looked to Robin. "What kind of light is that?" he asked, gesturing towards the one pointed at the girl's body.

"Uh—UV," Robin responded, disoriented. "What's that matter?"

"Because apparently Tamaranians derive power from sunlight," Cyborg announced, looking down at the alien. "Your flashlight was healing her."

"Badass!" Beast Boy blurted, grinning widely at the girl.

"Her face was exposed to the light, not her body," Cyborg realized. "It's not that they avoided her face, it's that her face had already healed from exposure."

The small smile Robin wore quickly fell as he recalled the hour. "The sun won't rise for another hour and a half," he cursed. "My flashlight isn't strong enough on its own."

"Here," Cyborg said quickly, grabbing the flashlight and pointing the glass lens at a newly-opened slot on his temple. The light exited out his red eye, much brighter than before. He removed Raven's cloak from the girl's body, and her wounds began healing much faster than before, and to a much greater extent. "It's a microscope," he explained, turning up the power as the four watched the Tamaranian's body sew itself back together. "It was designed to help me see the smaller wires embedded in my own system."

Each and every wound on her body sealed, leaving puckered scars. The bruises on her arms faded, and new skin grew over her shins. Here entire body grew back together, though signs of her suffering were still evident. The largest wound on her thigh just barely sealed. Her toes did not come back. Suddenly, the girl gasped, jerking up from where she lay on the cold, steel floor. She blinked, mouth agape for a moment, and a wide smile grew on her lips. Quick as it appeared, it vanished, and she ripped off the remainder of her metallic bands, hands sizzling as she did so. Completely bare, and she looked at them.

"They are here," she whispered. Then the Tamaranian leapt up from where she laid, butt-ass naked, and flew over the large metal cylinders surrounding them.

"Would you like a… shirt?" Cyborg called awkwardly to her, turning off his internal microscope.

Beast Boy emphatically shook his head for the alien, while Robin thrust a finger to his lips to silence them. Cyborg gave a look of what-else-am-I-supposed-to-do?

There was no response.

Robin twitched, then quickly leapt onto the cylinders, climbing almost silently over them. Beast Boy followed, changing into a small pigeon and simply flying over. Cyborg stared after them, then turned to face Raven.

"Yeah, I'm the size of a port-o-potty. If I do that, I'll wake the next three planets."

She sighed and wound her shadows around them, disappearing into the floor and reappearing next to the troupe on the other side where they were huddled by the corner.

Robin had his cloak thrust out to the alien, who was staring at it with confusion. Raven almost had to suppress a laugh, seeing Tamaran in the girl's mind. People didn't wear clothes there; it would block out their sun absorption. To the girl, clothes were a hindrance. To everyone else, she was an uncomfortable distraction. She glided over to the alien, still amused in such serious situation.

#

Koriand'r felt… so much. She had not been this whole for years. To breathe in without so much as an ache was nothing short of freedom from herself. Her body had been her prison for long enough. The feel of momentum in her fist, striking an enemy with good force, and watching him collapse—she was breaking free of her mental shackles with every blow. To finally move without the hindrance of covers, binding her joints and restricting her movement… nothing was so glorious to her. Nothing, perhaps, but the wild rush of battle.

Robin was next to her suddenly, swinging his bo-staff and hitting his marks true. This calmed her anger; realizing there was another warrior she need remember and defend, if necessary. Together, they removed four psion guards before Beast Boy flashed into their vision, tackling the fifth into the floor and knocking him out cold. As they collected themselves, Koriand'r began to share information of their enemy. She was midway through explaining their lacking auditory sensors when she realized the group was acting quite strange.

Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Robin were all looking in opposing directions, though Koriand'r found no such spectacle on the ceiling or left wall that warranted such interest.

Did they regret their choice to assist her, upon boarding the ship and realizing what their promise truly cost? Only Raven met her eyes. The dark girl opened her mouth to speak, but Robin chose then to proffer his cape to Koriand'r. She stared at it, unconfident what this gesture meant.

Was it some sort of human resignation? She would refuse it.

"Take it," Robin muttered. His face was severely discolored now, causing her to panic. Koriand'r looked to the others, who seemed to have no problem with the change in atmosphere. Perhaps he was more vulnerable, being a more standard form of human?

"Robin, do you lack oxygen?" she asked, stepping close to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. His muscles locked with his head watching the ceiling emphatically. "Has your body not properly adjusted?"

Cyborg nearly burst out laughing, "Oh, his body has adjusted, alright."

Koriand'r was relieved for this, while Beast Boy joined in the raucous of Cyborg's strange amusement. Then, it occurred to her. She looked to Robin's hands, as well as Beast Boy's—swathed in fabric. Raven hid hers behind her cloak. Cyborg's; covered in metal. Koriand'r quickly removed her bare hand from Robin's shoulder.

"Apologies," she blurted, shoving them behind her back. "I was not aware the offense by which my hands brought."

Cyborg tried to speak, but Beast Boy's own laugh sabotaged his words, and the two dissolved into hysterical laughs. Finding no solace in their behavior, nor Robin's, Koriand'r looked to Raven.

"You need clothing," a voice echoed softly. Koriand'r realized it was the shadow that spoke; the empath. "Human culture deems it disrespectful to look at one another without clothing, especially at the opposite sex. He is being kind. Wear it."

Robin, clearly unaware this sort of thing had to be explained, was the color of a Tamaranian sunset. Koriand'r now understood his coloring to mark embarrassment. She should turn red as well, to advertise her part in the discomfort?

And though Koriand'r thought it imbecilic to wear something that would slow one, it appeared this issue could disrupt the cohesion of their plan. She took his offering, unsure how to put it to use.

"Which parts are the most offensive?" she asked, blinking down at her body.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were doubled over laughing. Robin was nearly purple. Koriand'r, desperate, looked to Raven. Though her smile was directed to the floor, she nodded. Her shadows grabbed hold of Robin's cloak, wrapping around Koriand'r's torso, binding her in a way that made her think of the Psion's UV armor. It was unfair to call them similar, and Koriand'r knew this. The UV armor was rigid and cut into her skin. The cape was soft, like the intention of Robin.

"The power core should be directly across from this door," Cyborg said, finally controlling himself. "I'd say about fifteen operators in between us and it."

"You couldn't have taken us directly to the generator's room?" Beast Boy muttered to Raven.

"I tried," Raven spat, eyes burning. "But I was a little distracted at the moment."

"The psions are mainly telepathic, so their attunement to noise is not as strong as yours," Koriand'r explained, glad to move past the miscommunication. "Any we come across now will be mere operators. They have been trained, however. Some armed. They will all be equipped with communication devices. Their number likely means they will get an alert sounded."

"We'll just take them down quickly," Robin concluded, his face still a little pink. He looked to Raven, prepared to speak.

She was already shaking her head. "I can't teleport us anymore without risking severe brain hemorrhaging."

He nodded, and turned back to Koriand'r. "Where do we hit them? Do they have weak points?"

Koriand'r almost laughed. He assumed she had hit them so many times she knew just where to aim. And he was correct. She placed her hand on his torso, flattened her hand over the end of his ribs, and made a thrusting motion upwards, behind his ribs. She felt Robin tense at her touch. Koriand'r was aware of his discomfort, but she missed the warmth of another's energy. To share heat was something she severely missed during her imprisonment. She removed her hand.

"The psions have a gland that secretes pain hormones at the apex of their ribs," she explained. "The xrigion. Direct your attacks under the curve, and they will be rendered unconscious or immobile for a short period."

Beast Boy looked horrified. "You mean we're going for nut shots this entire fight?"

Koriand'r frowned. "They have no seeds. You are aiming for their pain—"

"Let's move," Robin ordered, already following his own order. Slowly, he extended his bo staff, softly padding down the hall. Cyborg took one, loudly resounding step, before Koriand'r hitched him by his arm sockets onto her elbows, and gave him silent, airborne passage down the hall. Raven simply levitated, while Beast Boy morphed into a parrot, landing on Raven's shoulder. She shot him off with a lone zap. He continued on wings.

#

The hall was at least three hundred yards long, with absolutely no cover. The walls were smooth, but not seamless. In fact, it was made almost entirely of panels hiding the alien technology. Cyborg could feel the electrically dense environment. It was almost as if computers were another living species to him; he could hear their patterns and discern their use. The ones to his left were calculating thruster strength and energy use. They transferred the continually updated information to the panels on their left, which cross-referenced them with geographical maps of the earth below them to determine the perfect amount of power required to keep them in the air.

It was a beautiful symphony to Cyborg, one that he understood every note to. He wasn't like people; he could put thoughts on the back burner in his mind. He didn't have to think about the sonar scan of the ship he was running. When information became relevant, he would become consciously aware of it. For example, he knew the exact layout of the room ahead, and where the psions were. He gave this information to the team, just as Raven had been about to. She was another test he was running. He had already categorized a few of her biological "gifts" in the first hour they'd been in contact. She was a being of complete empathy. Literally, she could feel everything others felt, as well as their pain and emotion. And he was almost envious. Sometimes, his computers got in the way of emotion. He would be too harsh, or not understand the hurt of… others. He knew it was ridiculous to be thinking of this now, so he did what no other human could do, and shut down the thought.

The little, green dude. He was human, yeah, but he was something else too. Something weird. Cyborg scavenged a few skin samples, and it was clear something freaky had gotten into his DNA. Even Cyborg's computers were having difficulty figuring out just how Beast Boy existed. It was clear he did, too. The Doom Patrols reports certified that. But the sort of energy required to pull off full-body metamorphoses, as well as the structure needed to do it at will was simply… incomprehensible. Science couldn't manage to do once what this guy had done at least thirty-seven different times in the past hour. Usually, he would claw at the data until he had an answer, but right now, keeping it out of his head was the most practical thing he could do.

Robin, on the other hand, he understood perfectly. Files upon files had been retrieved and sorted, summarizing some of what Cyborg already knew about the prodigal "son" of Batman. He was a fighter, and a damned overplayed one. Trained in all the sort of shit Cyborg's mechanical ass couldn't twist into if it were made of rubber. Clearly, though, he hadn't lost his mentor's sour attitude, passion for all things capes, or arrogant requirement to be at the top of the superhero-totem pole. No matter how irritating, it wasn't lost on Cyborg just how good Robin was at being to top. He knew what to ask and where to go, so maybe being lead suited the team. Just not Cyborg's ego.

The girl. She was fifty different kinds of weird. He was taking advantage of the current situation—her arms looped around him—to take skin samples of her, and running them through his system. What his computers deduced to be the Tamaranian equivalent of Cortisol was almost imbedded in her system. Though it seemed she was at a record low, looking back at the past seven years of her integumentary past. Her heart rate wasn't even too high. Cyborg predicted no overwhelming blood lust in her, but his mind looked at her as a variable. She was a product of torture and psychological trials; her actions seemed sure now, but what about when she didn't need them to remove her enemies? It'd taken her less than ten seconds to take down four psions. What happened when their help was nothing to her? She had no motive to hurt anyone, but she was also psychologically disturbed. Cyborg determined a fifteen percent chance of her going rogue, and he already knew her weakness to chromium. If she did go nuts and attack them after this fight was done, he wanted to make sure that happened before the sun came up. 'Cause when it did, fighting her would be one sorry battle.

They'd made it to the end of the hallway, and his computers detected a sudden additional ingredient to the girl's biological recipe. She set him down, ending the computer readings before they could fully determine the additional chemical. He saw her smile that same, cruel smile back from Taki's, and her eyes vanished underneath a veneer of violent green.

#

Koriand'r struck down the psion at the door, and was already upon the next by the time they had turned in response to the sound of their fallen comrade. She weaved through the air, flinging her starbolts like the Grand Ruler once threw gifts to children on Blorthog; with vigor and in large number. They exploded on impact, throwing the psion off their feet and giving Robin enough of a gap to knock them out.

Cyborg, much less subtle, knocked out at least three with his precisely aimed sonic blasts. His victims were thrown into the wall, and did not move again. One attacked while he was distracted, however, and was able to sweep his feet out from under him. Koriand'r launched herself at Cyborg's attacker, slamming into him and increasing her flight speed until they burst through the flight screens and right through the side of the ship. It was then she released the psion, shoving him downwards as she curved up. Koriand'r allowed him to plummet into the ocean below, knowing he would live, and quickly pivoting back into the navigation room. Beast Boy has just finished knocking the last psion to the floor in the shape of an animal Koriand'r did not bother to remember.

She grounded herself, observing the psion that lay unconscious on the floor. She was almost disappointed the battle had been so brief. A good fight had been absent from her life for years now. Koriand'r moved towards the generator room door, the one Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven had already passed through.

#

Robin stepped in front of the girl, furious.

"I thought you said they were trained," he spat.

"They were," she said, grimacing. "Very poorly, it seems."

"They weren't even armed," Robin hissed, looking to Koriand'r in a deep rage. It had been like fighting children. The psions hardly had a chance, not that it was necessarily a good thing they did, but there could've been an alternative to fighting. They were terrified. Hadn't she seen that? The veracity of her attacks was completely unwarranted.

He opened his mouth to tell her this, but it appeared that despite their speed, an alert had been sounded. Psions filled the room—these ones with weapons.

"Get your asses in here!" Raven yelled, throwing up a shield between the psions and them. Robin and the alien bolted into the generator room; and Raven slammed the door shut.

"You are pleased now, I trust," Koriand'r roared as the psions beat against the generator room door, "that we will be hindered with equipped enemies as your city burns."

Robin ignored her jibe, instead grabbing at his utility belt and flinging a high-intensity flare at the door. It flashed twice before activation, melting the door to the frame.

He could tell her fury had not waned—neither had his—but he directed his attention to the room in which they now stood. The room was massive, to accommodate the huge machine. It was whirring and sending a constant vibration through the wind. It looked like the engine to a jet plane, but with far more alien barbs and design features. It almost seemed to tug them towards it—quite likely, it probably had a small gravity field to keep it level. It let off a deep, red glow, throwing shadows over the vaulted ceiling. Cyborg was already at the control panel of the generator, viciously tapping at the alien board.

Robin could hear the psions at the door, and was torn between defending it and going to assist Cyborg. Ruining the generator would shut off all the ships attacking the city, but what about the psions that were about to blast through that door? Raven held it steady with her magic, but the steel would not hold out forever.

"How long is it going to take, Cyborg?" Robin grunted, throwing a few more flares at the door for good measure.

"About three seconds if you let me throw you into it," the robot snapped back. "So back off and let me do my thing."

Robin remained near the door, prepared for the moment of truth.

"This is the pride of the psion fleet," the alien remarked harshly, staring up at the generator. He watched her, bathing in the red glow. "It keeps their machines in contact with one another. Their leader, the Zor, does the same for them. Just as this engine is the center of the control of their ships, he is the center of control over this psion fleet."

"Is that how we beat them, then?" Beast Boy asked, eyes flashing to the door. "Throw this Zor guy around town? Show him whose boss?"

The girl didn't reply. Robin sensed a darkened mood about her.

The door wilted under the pounding of the psion aggressors. The alien girl pivoted to face it, her hands lighting up with her starbolts, and her eyes glowing brightly. Robin didn't like the look on her face, nor the way she began to bare her teeth. Keeping her anger in check might cost him something grand—namely, his life.

"Cyborg," Raven hissed sharply, face contorted in concentration. "You say throwing Robin in will break it?"

"Yeah," Cyborg growled from where he was hunched over the panel, clearly not listening to closely. Robin went in the defensive, brandishing his bo staff at Raven.

"Fantastic," she snapped, turning to face him.

Beast Boy's eyes flew wide. "Holy shit, Raven, he was joking. We're not actually going to—"

A hulking piece of metal flew over Robin's head, cloaked in the black of Raven's power, and sailed straight into the generator. The second it impacted, they were all thrown from their feet. Metal screamed and wires hissed, and several dozen metal scraps flew out like missiles. Raven captured at least three pieces before impact was made, forcing Beast Boy and Robin to dodge two, and the alien to shoot down whatever came her way. Raven's concentration was lost at that, along with her barrier on the door.

The psions burst through it, spilling into the room.

#

Raven didn't know how long they'd been fighting for, but it seemed as though the entire psion army knew where to find them. Worse than that, the generator was still spinning. Albeit, quite awkwardly and with a decent sized hole in the middle, but spinning, nonetheless. So much for her spur-of-the-moment plan, there.

She shielded Beast Boy from a blow to the head, throwing the attacker into the back wall and swinging a nice size of shrapnel on top of him. Robin was quite fine on his own, as well as the alien—for the most part. It was Cyborg's slow, calculated attacks that caused him the most trouble, as well as the most advantage. He would only need one strike to take a psion down, but he didn't do so well if that psion was already swinging. Raven defended him in these instances.

The battle, she thought, had been going quite well, otherwise. That is, until the wave of raw fear nearly knocked her from the air, as well as the presence of a powerful, mental force. She recovered before falling low enough to get attacked, but the alien girl did not. The girl crashed into a grounded psion, taking him out, but also herself. Raven shielded her mind from the overbearing force, and saw precisely what cause such a blow to her conscious.

It was more than a psion—it was a hulking monster. At least twice the size of its peers, with twice the muscle, and its scales were pure, unadulterated black. It was equipped with heavy, battle plating—clearly, it'd been given enough time to prepare—and wielded a weapon with several barbs, all tingling with an electric current. Its head was prognathic, the line of bone-teeth lining its mouth was sharp and strong. The coloring of its eyes—nearly all red—illuminated the air around them. And for all its size, it was swift. Raven could feel the obscurity veil it cloaked itself in, making it nearly impossible for Cyborg, Robin, or Beast Boy to see. She suspected the girl only knew its presence because she'd experienced it so many times before, and Raven felt its mental presence more than she saw it. This has to be the creature the alien girl had spoken of; the leader, Zor.

It made to swing its tail. She would not be fast enough.

"Robin!" Raven shouted, throwing her arm up. "Beast Boy! Azarath! Metrion! Zintho—"

It swung its tail once, nearly taking out Beast Boy in his rhinoceros form, as well as Robin—had the alien girl not slammed right into its face before it had the chance. The utter rage inside the alien girl nearly made Raven falter. The creature reared back from the girl's attack, but did not fall. Robin suddenly noticed the Zor's presence, taking only a millisecond to process it was actually there before throwing two birdirangs at it. The Zor did not seem to notice him in return; its eyes only followed the girl.

Koriand'r, a deafening hiss echoed in Raven's head. Koriand'r.

Catching herself before she fell from the air completely, Raven threw the voice from her head just in time to see the others were afflicted with it as well. Not just her team, but the other psions all collapsed, as if unable to function with such a massive, mental shout.

Koriand'r, it hissed again, physically stunning Raven once more.

All faltered under the voice of the Zor. She turned to see the alien's face distorted in pain. Building a mental barrier in her head, Raven thrust it out across the room, silencing the Zor's voice with no small struggle. The girl did not hesitate in her recovery, unleashing a barrage of starbolts at the Zor.

This is how Beast Boy first noticed its physicaly presence.

"Holy mother of hot Cheetos," he shouted, "where the fuck did that come from?!"

Raven nearly lost concentration at that, and a deep, mental hiss rang out before she could silence it. A psion took advantage of Beast Boy's shock, and tackled him to the ground. Cyborg quickly blasted the creature off Beast Boy, and into the Zor. The Zor swatted the psion away like a fly, and swung its staff at the alien girl. She dodged barely, curling her body in on itself before launching it at the Zor like a bullet. She uncurled the last second, slamming her feet into it at full force.

The Zor stumbled backwards, towards the generator. Robin took the chance, releasing his grappling hook around its scaled legs. The aim was true, and the titanium cable flung around its heels three times before catching itself. For all the armor it wore, the Zor could not defend itself against lost equilibrium. Beast Boy quickly morphed into the largest creature he could manage, and ran straight into the Zor's chest in the shape of a mammoth. The creature made to swing its weapon as it stumbled backwards, by Cyborg aimed the perfect shot, knocking the club straight from the creature's claws.

Raven could feel the creature struggling for telepathic dominance—some sort of advantage, but if there was one thing she was made for, it was mental fortitude. She steeled her hold on the room, and felt the vibration of its anger when it realized it was losing.

The alien girl did not waste a second. Her hand gripped a spine on the back if its head, and she pulled it with all her might towards the spinning generator. Robin looked like he made to stop her, but the Zor twisted in the last second, falling just left of the generator, and plucking the girl from the air.

With a hiss, the Zor flung her into the very grave she had intended for it.

"NO!"

Raven wasn't sure which of them shouted with her. Perhaps it was all of them.

The girl hurdled into the generator, and the blades she struck screamed and burst apart, flinging hot metal at the lot of them. Darkly, Raven realized this projectile is what would've ended the generator. A small explosion happened within the machine, compromising the infrastructure. The glowing, red centerpiece blew apart first, and the inner shell followed.

Raven leapt in front of her team, throwing a shield around them an instant before the shrapnel hit. Her concentration was divided, and therefore weak. The Zor shattered her mental barrier, bellowing into all of their minds. Laughing. Raven collapsed onto the ground, landing hard on the steel floor; her nose bleeding and her vision blurring.

The Zor, knowing which of them had kept its voice at bay for so long, launched itself at her. Raven made to dodge, but it was far too big to simply roll away from. Beast Boy quickly stepped in shaped like a tyrannosaurus rex, ramming the Zor backwards. The creature barely wobbled, striking him down with a single, solid hit. A sonic blast hit the Zor straight in the eye, but with another roar, Cyborg's aim was lost. Robin fell into the same trap; his birdirangs missing their mark and striking the Zor harmlessly. Raven struggled for mental purchase, but the Zor was not so flippant now. It allowed no room for retaliation, crushing them all under its metal force.

The Zor was laughing again. Its weapon, back in its hands, was lifted, bearing down upon them. Just as it was to strike, a fusillade of green pummeled it from the back. Its attack was thrown, and the electrical burst struck the floor mere feet from where the team lay collapsed on the ground. Raven, realized the Zor faced distraction, gripped on mental traction. She attacked with all her might, and grinned when she saw it stumble.

The alien girl bolted from the remainder of the generator, screaming in her native tongue, and knocking the Zor off its feet. Cyborg quickly flung a piece of shrapnel, hitting the Zor in precisely the right spot to knock it off balance. The creature stumbled back once more, but made to countermove Robin's grappling hook. Beast Boy took care of that, scrambling at the Zor's face, distracting it just long enough for Robin to entangle the creature in his web.

Together, Raven, Robin, Cyborg, and the girl unleashed a flurried attack at its head as Beast Boy took its attention elsewhere. Just as before, the Zor stumbled over, landing on the spines of its back with a rumbling bellow. It released one, last dithering echo into their minds.

Koriand'r.

It was her fault, truly, for not taking notice of the cathartic emotion emanating from the ceiling.

And her fault again, for not stopping the alien girl from launching herself at the collapsed Zor.

#

Koriand'r rose to the highest altitude the room would allow, then thrust herself downward with all the force her flight would allow. She pointed her heels and slammed them directly into the Zor's xrigion. He was far more armored than his fodder of an army, but bone cracked beneath her attack, and she knew she had struck true. She did not stop after her feet crushed his ribs. Koriand'r flipped in the air, slamming her feet into his throat. She heard them tear through flesh, and found pleasure as she felt the shriek that would never make it to his mouth. Found pleasure as she recalled what he had done to her, and how deeply he was paying for it now. She could feel nothing but her own fury as she lit her hands with starbolts, continuing to attack this putrid creature.

The Zor knew Koriand'r only as she had been; angry, restrained, and defenseless. Now he would know her as she was meant to be, as she was now; strong, alive, and free.

Her foot crushed hooked under his ribs, and pressed into his xrigion, rendering him powerless beneath the weight of his pain. She twirled up to his face, placing two hands on either side of his mutilated face, and letting her starbolts burn into his flesh. She watched as it writhed and became smoke in the air. Slowly, Koriand'r leaned down, close to his eyes. They saw naught but pain and the green of her glowing eyes.

"Tell me," she hissed in her own tongue, baring her teeth. "Did you think you could keep the Princess of Tamaran for so long without cost? That she would not make you pay for every cut you made? Every drop of blood that dripped you spilled?"

With his throat opened, he could only return a muffled gurgle.

One, quick flash, and the Zor was unconscious. Another, and she was thrown off its body. Koriand'r did not think; she simply acted her vengeance upon the one that stole this satisfaction from her. Launching herself at the thief, she slammed them both into the far wall. Through the shadow of her rage, she just barely recognized the boy she had pinned to the wall.

#

That small, tingling sensation of "shouldn't have done that" rang through his gut as Robin was slammed against the back wall of the ship. The alien girl's eyes were nearly charred his face with the intensity at which they burned. After another moment's deliberation, he determined he did not regret stopping her at all. She was going insane just then, and had he not ended it, who knows where her fury would have taken her. At his team, namely.

"We do not kill," he growled to her, jaw clenched tight. "We do not hurt where no hurt is necessary."

"For what purpose?" she snarled back, her green eyes steaming. "He did not treat me in such a manner."

Several things flashed into Robin's conscious then. Realization, mainly. Realization that it had been that creature—exactly that one—who was the main butcher of her flesh. The Zor, who had been the cause of her torture. The Zor, who had sentenced her to death and so much more. The girl saw this comprehension in his face, and did not take kindly to it. Her starbolts briefly ignited upon her hands, burning through Robin's uniform. He was aware of the quickly intensifying danger, and chose next his words like he chose his attacks; with precision and purpose.

"We are not him," Robin breathed. "You are not him. You are more."

"Am I?" the girl barked in return, leaning in close. "I want nothing more than to rip the flesh from his bones and watch it burn in my hands. Tell me how that separates us."

Robin swallowed. The skin on his chest was beginning to burn. Very delicate sailing from here on out, then.

"Koriand'r," he murmured quickly, preparing himself for her attack as her fist clenched. "That's your name, right? Koriand'r?"

She threw him into the metal floor, which wasn't exactly the attack he had imagined, but it would do. He rolled onto his knees, settling himself in a position of defense and meeting her burning eyes.

"You said your people died for you," Robin said, their eyes locked. "For your name."

Koriand'r bared her teeth at him, making to attack him.

"No—listen to me!" he snapped at her, taking a step back and subtly gesturing to Cyborg not to attack. "They died for you, and you would abandon them so quickly?"

She threw half a dozen starbolts at him, but her exhaustion was beginning to show—Robin easily dodged them all. Her fists alive with fire and her eyes steaming, she growled, "I abandon nothing. I know each of their faces. I've see them in every ray of light that has touched my face since their death." He saw her prepare for physical attack. "Do not tell me of their sacrifice as if you feel it!"

Quickly, Robin rolled to the left as her fists slammed into the metal floor.

"I don't care what you feel!" he roared, dodging a second bum rush. "You're killing the person they died for—" he leapt to avoid flurry of kicks, "—and becoming the one they fought against! Don't tell me that's not abandoning!"

Koriand'r slammed into the ground, denting it beneath her. Robin was in the midst of dodging a fourth attack—as he realized there was none. He landed, rolling into a kneel, and turned to see she had not moved. He threw a gaze to the others, and each of them was prepared to leap into the fray to defend him the moment he motioned for it. Meeting their eyes, he nodded slowly, and moved towards Koriand'r with them.

His turn was wide, so that she would see him approach, and would not take it as an attack. Her long hair hung in front of her face. Because of this, he could not discern her emotion completely, but from the shake of her shoulders, he determined it was no longer anger. Robin was a single step away from Koriand'r when her head rose. The glow of her eyes was long faded, but the torture in them remained. The naked pain of what she had done lay in them. In that moment, Robin almost regretted that he wore the mask, because he could never convey the emotion she needed to see from behind it.

It was then that looked down to the creature she had scarred. The Zor lay unconscious—but alive—almost ten feet from her. From the distance, Robin could see what she saw; a hand, emblazoned on its face. The lines of her fingers were now welts in its flesh. A small pool of purple blood trickled down its throat, with its chest concaved from where she had struck it. It was gruesome; the damage she had done. Robin recalled the horror of watching it happen, and wished never to see such fury again. Not when so much more was possible of this girl.

Now, he looked back at her. There was revulsion in her own eyes now, seeing what she had done in her cathartic rage. Robin saw her fingers brush a scar along her arm. This wound had been a burn, as well; the skin was dappled, shiny, and raised. He knew it had been the Zor that bestowed it upon her.

Slowly, Koriand'r lifted her head to meet Robin's eyes. To meet all their eyes. Her face pinched; pinched, then opened to reveal shame and guilt and unending self-loathing. He knew now, what she believed her actions cost her, as she gazed at them as if they were angels, and she, the sinner.

"Please," she murmured, so soft he barely heard. "I will hurt no longer. I know now—my—fault—" her broken apology remained broken. Her eyes slid shut in shame. Her whole body collapse on itself, shrinking to hide from their eyes.

Without thinking, Robin felt his hand fall on her shoulder. Koriand'r lifted her head, eyes wide. Vulnerable. His hand slid to hers, and gently, he pulled her to her feet. The smile that bloomed across her lips was sad and small—almost unbelieving. She looked past him as well, knowing it was not only his trust she would need.

Beast Boy threw her a wide smile. "Remind me not to piss you off," he chirped. "I kind of like my current bone structure. Nice and not shattered into a million pieces."

Koriand'r's smile grew less broken and more whole.

Raven was next, giving a single, small nod with an equally small smile.

There was a long pause as the alien girl looked to Cyborg. His face was dark and suspicious, and only after weighing at each of the other's decision carefully, did he finally relent. Taking a step forward, he clapped her over the shoulder.

"Shit, girl," he baritoned, looking back at the little bits of generator strewn across the ship. "You sure do know how to fuck up a perfectly good ship. Just stay away from my cars and we'll do just fine."

A/N: Hello, warrior princess of Tamaran. There will be a third and final part to conclude this "episode."