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I DO NOT OWN TEEN TITANS!
Starfire laid helplessly on the cold metal, unable to move. Whatever the Gordainians had drugged her with, it still held her body in an unbreakable paralysis. It doesn't matter, she thought. Robin is dead. She couldn't stop crying for him. She didn't care if she was captured or killed by the Gordainians, it didn't bother her. All she wanted was to see Robin again. After an hour or so passed, she finally calmed down and began to think somewhat clearly. She had to escape the Gordainians. Before she could come up with an idea for escape, one of her kidnappers approached her. She now fully recognized him as a Gordainian, most likely hired to find her. "Princess Koriande'r of Tamaran. We have been hired to find you and take you back to the Citadel." The alien spoke to her in Tamaranian. She tried to respond, but her mouth still refused to open. "You will not be able to escape. The poison you have inhaled will last the entire trip. It is futile." He added with a devilish grin. All she could manage to do was narrow her eyes. The alien chuckled as it returned to the cockpit. Starfire couldn't breath, she could barely think straight anymore. She was going back to the Citadel. She still had nightmares from her last horrific imprisonment. Now, she had to survive again. She let the tears flow down her face as they dropped to the cold floor. She was the reason Robin is dead. She breathed in deeply and tried to calm herself down. She tried to remember the scene, where Robin had fallen to the rocky shore. She had not heard him fall nor did she hear him crash to the ground. A small glimmer of hope emerged from her. Maybe he hadn't died and maybe he was looking for her right now. Starfire clutched on desperately to the hope and mentally prayed that he was alive. But her tears kept falling, realizing that she was still heading toward the place of her nightmares.
Starfire was startled back to reality when she felt the ship jar to a stop. She looked to see the massive prison. It loomed overhead as the ship approached the dock. Her heart pounded against her chest. She tried to shut her eyes and will herself awake. She had to be dreaming. This wasn't real. Yet, every time she open them, the prison still loomed ominously overhead, and she silently screamed in fear. The ship approached the large docking site as it flew into an open spot and landed gently down. When the ship was grounded, the two Gordainians approached her, one with a large spear and the other had special handcuffs. The cylindrical prism dropped into the ship and nothing stood between her and her captors. The Gordainians cuffed her numb hands and dragged her out the ship. They walked onto the metal platforms of the docking areas. They stood silently and waited. From the southern gate, 5 figures approached them. 4 wore layers of armor and metal while the one in the middle wore traditional royalty clothing. The 4 guardians halted in unison as their leader approached Starfire and examined her. He encircled her, gently grazing her with his fleshy, green hand. "It is so good to finally see you, darling. Welcome back to the Citadel. I am the new Warden. I am so happy to finally be able to see one of the few prisoners that escaped my prison." The Warden grinned maliciously. Starfire could only stare at him, not being able to complete any other task. "I am quite fond of getting to see you suffer. You made Citadel look like an embarrassment for a prison. I am overjoyed to see over your auction. It will be quite enjoyable." The Warden added. He shouted something in Gordainian and her two captors picked her up and dragged her to the holding pits. Before he left, The Warden turned around and smiled. "I hope you find my new buyers to be quite an extraordinary group of individuals. Enjoy your stay, "Princess." The Warden laughed as he trotted away, his bodyguards trailing his every footstep.
Robin had stayed up all night watching the satellite cameras. He didn't care that he was exhausted. He just had to find her. The others had been working all night to find any evidence of Starfire's captors. . Even though he tirelessly worked, he couldn't stop thinking about Starfire. She filled every corner of his mind. And every thought just made his will and determination to find her even stronger. He had been examining last night reports, when Beastboy burst through his door. "Dude, I found something!" Beastboy exclaimed. Robin jumped from his chair and approached them. Beastboy handed him a small rag. "I found this next to her drawers. I can smell there is some sort of chemicals covering it. It might even have the DNA of her captors!" Beastboy gleamed. Robin smiled softly. "Great work. Get this to Cyborg and tell him to examine it for DNA. We don't know what is covering it, right?' He asked. "No idea. I have never smelt anything like this before." Beastboy replied. "Then be extremely careful with it. We don't want the DNA to be destroyed nor do we want to get hurt by this stuff." Beastboy nodded and carefully took the rag back as he quickly ran to Cyborg. When he left, Raven approached him. "I checked our records. Of the criminals we have fought before, there is a only a few suspects." She stated. "Do you really think a human did this? It might have been that her captors are from an alien race, maybe enemies of Tamaranians.". She added. "That's what I am starting to think." Robin agreed. He turned to her. "I need you to examine our recent data over some alien lifeforms. I noticed on the ship that it had specific markings. It looked like writing, but I am not sure what it said." He said. Robin remembered Starfire trying to teach him some simple phrases of her language. He remembered how difficult it was then, and how complex her language really was. He assumed all languages were like that. "The symbols look familiar to Tamaranian writing. Maybe that is a place to start." Robin noted. Raven nodded. "Alright. Let me see what I can find." She said as she teleported off to her room.
Robin was left in the silence of his room. He fell into his chair and laid back. He let his face fall into his hands as his tears slowly escaped his eyes. He couldn't believe that this was happening again. He had lost his parent's and now he was starting to lose his girlfriend. He looked up at his desk to see his pictures on his wall. One was of his parent's, a few years before they died. He had been very young in when the picture was taken, and it was one of the few remaining happy moments he still had of his family. The second picture was of his team. They took it one day while they were out for pizza. It was a great day to remember, since it was their first successful day at crime fighting. The last picture held only Robin and Starfire. He took the third picture in his hands and examined it more closely. It had been taken right after they got together. The picture showed Starfire and Robin sitting together on a bench at the park. Beastboy had taken it while they were at the park one day. Robin smiled through his tears as he remembered why he kept it. The pictured captured Starfire's true beauty. Robin clenched the edge of the picture tightly as he gently placed it back on its spot on the wall.
Robin jumped when his communicator went off. He wiped his tears away and answered, finding Cyborg staring back at him. "Any news?" Robin asked promptly, trying to contain his emotions again. "I identified the chemicals on that rag Beastboy found. It appears to be some sort of drug. I am still not sure how it works, but I believe this is how they were able to immobilize Starfire so easily." Cyborg replied. Robin nodded. "Good. Did you find any DNA samples that could lead us to the suspects?" Robin questioned. "No, I didn't, but I can trace the origins of the drug. It might be able to lead us to whoever created it in the first place and maybe to the one who used it on Starfire." Cyborg answered. "Good. The more evidence we have about these guys the better. Did you find anything on the security cameras?" Robin asked. Cyborg shook his head. "Nothing. The two guys who kidnapped her were wearing cloaks and masks. The cameras got good shots at their ship, however. It has markings of unknown origins all around it." Robin sighed briefly, then looked at Cyborg. "Raven is looking over some of our records for alien lifeforms. Send her those images so she can hopefully match them with whatever lifeform did this." Cyborg stood puzzled. "You think an alien lifeform did this?" Cyborg asked. Robin nodded. "The ships look familiar to ones that we encountered last time, when Starfire's sister came to visit us. Starfire told me she had escaped an alien race that had imprisoned her so her planet could retain peace. They might be the same race that kidnapped her last night." Robin explained. Cyborg thought about his reasoning and nodded. "That would make sense. It would also make our situation even harder." Cyborg concluded. Robin nodded in agreement. Take care of criminals was easy compared to fighting an entire race of alien lifeforms. "Are you alright?" He asked his leader. Robin returned to reality. "Yeah" Robin stated sadly. Cyborg bowed his head. "We'll get her back, man. Don't worry." Cyborg reassured his friend as he ended the call. Robin returned his gaze to the wall, where his pictures still hung. Robin clenched his fists. "I won't give up. I won't lose you, Star." He muttered to the wall. He picked himself up and ran out the door and into the Titan Library, where all of their records were stored.
Starfire was dragged by her arms into the holding pits. She felt the fear boiling within her, ready to explode at any second. She tried her best to act calm, but was failing miserably to hide the fear from her eyes. Her two captors dragged down the metal halls and pushed through a brass door, where they entered a large, dark room. The room was barren beside the empty, stone bed and small whole in the ground. They deposited her at the edge of the hard stone bed, and tightened her cuffs before they hurried off, locking the brass door behind them with a large click.
When they finally left, Starfire released all of her bottled up emotions. She sobbed into the small bed, her body barely able to move. Even though she still felt the numbness of the poison, she was able partially move. She laid down on the hard bed, not caring about how uncomfortable it was. For hours she cried into the hard rock until she could not produce any more tears. She lifted her head slightly and flipped on her back to look up at the ceiling. She felt her heart cringe as she saw how truly dark this room was. There was no real source of light, except for small pockets that dotted the marble walls. The walls were lined with moss and water, making the room humid and hot. She felt like she was in an oven. She was drenched with sweat only after of a few hours of sitting in it. Besides the bed, a corner had a small hole in the ground. She cringed, realizing that this was her only bathroom. "X'hal, please help me escape!" She whispered. She noticed in the corner of her eye a small red dot, blinking in rapid succession. As she looked closer, she noticed the camera slightly swaying back and forth, watching her every movement.
Starfire finally started to move her tired muscles, resurrecting them from their slumber. She slowly made her way to the ground and started to stretch the muscles in her arms and legs. Once she felt her muscles were mostly awake, she started to exercise. She walked a few laps around her cell and then completed a set of push-ups and sit-ups. She felt alive again. After her work out succession, she felt the energy drain from her tired body. The combined lack of sleep and the workout had drained her. She trudged back to her stone bed and curled up into a ball, her exhaustion carrying her into a deep sleep.
I hope you enjoyed. I will be posting a new chapter of Life of a Teenager soon.
Thanks so much!
-N. Wolf
