Thanks so much to all my reviewers: kjesStar (who helped a lot with her concrit), Doenemi Domino (my inspiration buddy!), Rainbow Queen (who gave me a really good idea to use), raeXXstarry (sorry for confusing you awesome possum!), katara12171 (who got out of school before me! Grr!!), BerryDrops (best concrit so far), xStarfirexRobinxo (who made me feel special), itS All SWEEt Nd SOUR x3 (who annoys me with her chatspeak, but is very nice), whitexgodess (WINNER of the best idea contest!! Her idea is featured below), skye668 (winner of the shortest review contest), RobStar4ever (who had a wonderful birthday party that I threw for her), iSoccer (who wins the contest of most out of place idea!), linkinparkh2over (who spotted that emotions come from the sole of everyone's feet!).
On with the story!
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Chapter Five
"She freaking attacked me!" Robin yelled.
"We have to do something to help her," Raven suggested. "It's pretty obvious she wasn't doing those things voluntarily."
Robin, Raven, Cyborg, and Beastboy were all crowded in the medical room, looking over the last analysis on Starfire. It was dark as night in the room, and no one bothered to turn on the light, preferably by choice. They weren't ready to face the wrath of Robin, whose contorted face was already visible with only the blue machine lights.
"Apparently," Cyborg broke in, "Star breaking the wires messed up some of the computer analysis. So, the only thing it ended up tapping into was identifying the virus, and the typical symptoms."
"Well, that won't help us much," Raven said.
Beastboy, despite being left out of the conversation, tried to calm down Robin. "Robin, dude, she'll be fine," he tried, patting his friend's back reassuringly. "Cyborg says she's not affected the same way others are, so why should she die like the rest?"
"Because it's not worth living if you have to live life as a monster," Robin stated gloomily. Being the pessimistic person he was, there was no hope in his mind. "She's probably out there now, doing what she did to me to other innocent people."
Giving up, Beastboy decided it best to leave him to sort out his own thoughts. He left the Boy Wonder to sit in his corner, and went to go join Raven and Cyborg over at the computer screen. The blue screen was full of numbers and letters, none of which that made sense to him. He could sort out some easier words such as 'symptoms' and 'virus', the words Cyborg had pointed out before. But then it hit him….
"Hey, Cyborg," Beastboy said, cutting into their quiet mumbling. "If this thing says the disease is contagious, wouldn't you and Robin have caught it when you where in here with her?"
"Beastboy, that's-"
"Exactly right," Robin interrupted, coming forward from the back of the room. "If it's true that the disease spreads on contact, we would have already been dead. But since we aren't, there has to be some other way…."
"Robin, what exactly happened last night when she attacked you?" Raven interrogated.
"Well, I remember that she jumped on me. She was on top of me, staring off to the left of my shoulder. I couldn't see what it was she was looking at, but she kept on mumbling things-"
"What things?"
"I couldn't quite make them out. Something about her not wanting something… And she kept mumbling, over and over, 'That's not me.' Then, once she looked back at me, she bent down and kept…kissing my neck. Her hands were shaking violently on my shoulders, like she was trying to wake me up. Then, when I thought for a moment that she would bite my neck, she whispered 'run' in my ear. But, it seemed like she was lifting a million pounds when she said it."
"Ok, let's start at the beginning," Raven began. "Do you have any idea what she was staring at?"
"It might have been a stray cat or dog, or another person. It was rainy, it might have been a puddle," Robin answered.
"So, let's say it was a cat or dog. She might be saying she doesn't want it, but she wouldn't have said that it wasn't her." Everyone looked at each other. Raven continued speaking. "And if it was a puddle…she would be seeing her reflection…"
Even though each and every one of them knew now, Robin couldn't help but saying the truth out loud. "So, she doesn't want her herself, or what she currently is. Because that's not her. It's someone else."
"And she's trapped in it's grasp, unable to get away."
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Tears were only simple little things now, and no one seemed to mind that. Too many had fallen to keep their rank as important, for they were as common as breathing now. Everyone had slipped at least once, and no face had not succumb to the heartbreaking sadness. Because now, everything was a sure fact. And because now, they had true and honest proof that she was that monster in their minds.
Starfire lay on a medical bed in the dark room, wires attached to every inch of her body. Even though there was a heart rate monitor attached to her chest, there was no beeping to indicate life inside her skin. The amnesia had set in, knocking her completely out of her feral state. Everyone around her was left shuddering, anticipating the answers that the test would give them. Because whatever the computer analysis said, meant life or death for her.
No one bothered to lighten the mood. Everything was dark and chaotic now, and no one dared try disturbing that certain silence. Waiting, just waiting, they were all silent.
The computer began to beep, indicating some sort of achievement. Immediately, everyone crowded around the computer to see the results of the blood test. Unfortunately, all there was was a bunch of numbers swarming the screen. They assumed Cyborg was the only one who knew how to read it, so they left it to him to decode.
"It says…," he tried, sorting out the numbers until they made sense, "that the virus is dependent on her. So, if she dies, it dies, and if she gets sick, it gets sick."
"Well, we didn't need to shoot her with a dart to figure that out," Beastboy droned. "A bunch of bugs depend on their host."
"But this is different," Cyborg said, pointing to a few numbers on the screen. "It says that not only is the bug dependent on Star, but Star is dependent on the bug. So if we ever happened to find a way to kill it…."
"We kill her," Robin finished. Everyone looked back at him, fearing what he might do out of anger. But he, like the rest of them, remained somber.
"But," Cyborg continued, "there is one way. If she happens to spread the bug to another, however that works, then she becomes dependent on the other person. They share blood, hence the fact that they're dependent if the other dies. So, then we could kill the bug in her."
"So," Beastboy tried, "what you're saying is that if she infects another dude, we could kill the bug in her, but have to kill the other dude?"
"Pretty much," Cyborg shrugged.
"So," Raven began, "we have to wait until she chooses her victim."
Everyone just stared. Robin, though, ran out of the room.
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Sorry I didn't read this chapter over! I'm in a rush again!
Sorry this chapter was a bit short. I'm going on vacation next week, and I won't be back until the end of the month. So I just wanted to give you a chapter, because I won't be able to update for a while. This is probably my most popular story, so I'm really sad to have to leave it for a month. But I promise a really good chapter when I get back!
There are more stories coming up soon, after this one's finished! Here are some previews, help me by filling in the blanks:
Drunken Lullabies:
Unable to sleep because of the fact that (fill in the blank), Starfire goes to the roof to wait out the night. Watching the stars, she feels (fill in the blank). Robin comes to the roof (she's sleepwalking, and doesn't know what's happening), and pulls her close. She falls asleep in his arms, and when she wakes up in the morning, she's (fill in the blank: in her bed, on the roof without him there) (possibly in the beginning just start with her sleepwalking).
Storm Dance (any other title ideas?):
She's weird, wild, and all around crazy. She doesn't care what others think, whether it be dancing in the hallways or singing in the middle of class. With all of the tragedy's and heartbreaks she's gone through, she still finds the time to dance in the rain.
-Alien