Chapter 4 – Solid Ground Again
I stepped off the planet-side teleporter pad, fresh air greeting my nose after the stuffiness of the ship and the starting to smell 4-year-old in my arms. I was almost instantly greeted by a man a good 20-plus years my junior with bright orange hair and black eyes set into a face similar to my wife's. He started coming at me, arms open as if to gather me and my son into a big hug. I saw a quick red and purple body streak past me and meet our host before he got anywhere close to me.
"Looks like Starfire recognized Windfire now that she's seen him. I wish I could be like that with long lost family of my own."
"Don't get your hopes too far up there, Flare. She hasn't been here for close to three decades, my friend. How would you feel if you either haven't seen or never knew you had family after thirty long years away from your home planet?"
He shrugged, his wings shifting as his shoulder blades moved under his skin. Galacia squirmed and I set him down, allowing him to run to his mother and wrap his arms around her legs. I smiled, Rainger laying her left hand on my right shoulder, Flare continuously shifting his wings. Starfire explained things to Windfire in their native language and did a small round of introductions, our names the only things I could pick up amongst the flurry of sounds. After a good 20 minutes or so of catching up on the last 30-plus years, Starfire turned to me with her hand held out.
"He wishes for us to join him for dinner at the dwelling he shares with his family. He thinks that our Galacia will get along fine with Swampfire after a good, hot meal. I am eager for something to eat anyways, Reaver."
I heard three other stomachs grumble, knowing that one of them belonged to yours truly. I did a quick mental sweep of Starfire's cousin to see that what he said was the truth about everything, from his father's bloodline right down to Swampfire being Galacia's age.
"I could go for just about anything right now, my sweet," I said. "Besides, I've been wanting to try some good home cooking on Tamaran."
Everyone laughed, including Windfire. I smiled as we followed Starfire's cousin to his home for a good meal. We made small talk, asking about landmarks and how the Citadel got defeated. I asked about the rest of Starfire's family, wondering if her older sister, Blackfire, had returned to her normal carefree ways and if her younger brother, Wildfire, had decided to come back to his home planet after being gone from it his whole life.
"Blackfire died during the confrontation with the Citadel, just after her release from our off world prison chambers. Wildfire has yet to return. I am unsure if he even knows of his origins. He was sent off as in infant, so I am not sure if he will ever return."
"Blackfire…is dead?" Starfire asked, shock coloring her tone. "But she was…is…my sister and she never would have let herself get killed regardless of her jealousy of me. There is no way she can be dead and gone from my life."
I nodded when she looked at me in assurance. She threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her face in my chest. I held her as she cried in her grief over her sister's death. After a few minutes, she was cried out and Windfire guided us the rest of the way in silence to his family's home.
When we got there, a small black and yellow blur aimed itself at Windfire's legs, almost making the young man lose his balance. He laughed as the blur took the shape of a 4-year-old girl with black hair and a yellow outfit similar to what Starfire wore as a teenager. I heard my wife's quick intake of breath and instantly knew that this young girl was the spitting image of Blackfire as a child, only the outfit was colored differently. Swampfire had wrapped her arms and legs around her brother's legs, her squeals of joy telling us how happy she was that he had made it home in time for the family dinner.
"My sister, Swampfire," he smiled, prying his sister's limbs from around his legs. "She has yet to actually start talking, but she has obviously found a way to express herself through sound. It's unusual, but we've managed the last two years."
"I wonder what that means for our people," Starfire murmured. "I started talking at age three, Blackfire at two, from what Mother and Father told me. I'm not sure about Wildfire because he's been away his whole life."
She looked at me when she said this last part and I shrugged. I felt a tug on my pants leg and looked down. Swampfire was looking at me with a pout and whimpering while pointing at Galacia. I could tell she wanted to play with my youngest so I nodded after a quick questioning glance at my wife's cousin, who also nodded. Her face brightened and she toddled off toward Galacia and wherever it was the children played at in these parts. A sudden, not-my-own thought popped into my head from somewhere in the house, more toward the back.
"Who's in the house, Windfire?" I asked, somewhat bluntly.
"My parents," he replied quickly, confusion coloring his tone. "Mom should be in the kitchen making dinner and Dad is usually setting the table. They agreed to use the special dishware being that we have some special company. And you saw Swampfire run off with Galacia. I don't know if we're expecting-"
He was cut off by a sudden scream from the back of the house, where I got the thought from and where I assumed the kitchen was. I swept in and raced to the back of the house, the other four adults close on my heels. I saw a young man, no older than Windfire, holding a barbaric looking knife against the throat of an older woman, presumably Starfire's aunt. She looked at us, pleading for us to leave while we could with her eyes.
"Who are you and what do you want with my mother?" Windfire growled.
"She has secrets to tell my people on how to defeat this sorry excuse of a planet again," sneered the man with the knife. "She was in the palace when the Citadel first invaded, more than forty-seven years ago. It's a shame she didn't die with the royal family at the time."
"Wildfire?" Starfire stepped forward. "Is that really you? It's only been thirty-two years since the Citadel invaded our planet. It's me, Starfire. I'm the youngest of your two older sisters. Blackfire is…was older than me by a year, maybe two, and you were born just after the Citadel invaded. I had to leave when I was fourteen, so that I could help preserve our family line and the royalty in our blood."
"But I am of the Citadel," he insisted, his grip tightening on his hostage. "I have no true family. They all died in the Tamaran Take-Over when…when…way back when!"
I patted Starfire on the shoulder and stepped forward. I gently pressed into his mind to see what he was truly thinking. I felt five pairs of eyes on us as I traveled lightly through (and gently tweaked) Wildfire's earliest memories. He truly didn't remember his parents or either of his sisters. He had to grow up without his family, which tore me up more than ever. I could never imagine my live without my older, freak of nature (pun inteneded) brother, Loto. Mom and Dad died just after the initial Brainiac attack, so they lived long, mostly normal lives…no thanks to me running off at age 11 and Loto being recruited to the Justice League at 16.
I pulled out of his mind and motioned for everyone behind me to give the man some thinking room. The only two people that knew I had done something were Flare and Starfire. Windfire and his parents didn't know that I had slightly influenced Widlfire's earliest memories so that he would at the very least recognize the woman at my right shoulder, who just so happened to be in the verge of hyperventilating in my ear.
"Calm down, Star," I whispered. "He'll come around in a few seconds, I'm sure. Just don't so anything sharply sudden or you'll freak him out and he'll kill her."
I directed the last part more at Windfire and his parents, but I saw Starfire nod in my peripheral vision that she understood. I heard Flare chuckle just behind my wife at what I had done. Windfire was at my right elbow in an instant. I could feel him shaking with both anger at the young man holding his mother hostage and fear that he would kill her out of pure spite. I sort of knew how he felt because of Loto and our bond. I looked at him fiercely and pushed him back so that he didn't disturb my brother-in-law with his rash behavior. I returned my gaze back to Wildfire to see that clarity had returned to his eyes and he was thinking a little more clearly.
"Starfire?" he asked. "Why did you and the rest of the family abandon me? I would have wanted the opportunity to grow up and fight the Citadel. Instead, I am abandoned by my own family in space and I'm taken in by the very people my planet is fighting against."
"We didn't want to abandon you, Wildfire," she answered, gracefully playing along. "I tried to talk Mother and Father into keeping you on the planet, but they didn't want you to grow up fighting a near impossible enemy to defeat."