I'M SORRY FOR BEING DEAD FOR MONTHS!
There, I got that out of the way. But seriously, I'm an awful person. I describe more of what happens on my profile, where I make updates about what's going on in my life. Check there for details. But that's all for my rambling about being awful. Let's cheer in hopes of making this a successful chapter!
I DO NOT OWN TEEN TITANS!
Robin's body was soaked in sweat when he jerked from his slumber. His heart throbbed in his chest, and as he gripped the sheets of his bed, he gasped for air. After several minutes, he wiped his hot tears from his face and tried to compose himself. He had another nightmare. They were coming more frequently now, each one growing more and more vivid and real. He could still hear Starfire's high pitched screams haunt his mind.
With every passing day, the desperation and determination to find Starfire grew. The Titans had spent 3 days searching every location Cyborg directed them to, with no luck in finding anything that could lead them to The Citadel. Every failed search only fueled Robin's worst fears. He turned himself to sit on the edge of the bed and laid his head into his palms. Robin was helpless to the doubts that crept into his brain, but he pushed them aside and growled. "No, I won't doubt…I will find her…I have to…" The sound of light knocking was heard at his door. "Robin, we're at the next location." Raven stated, her hood shielding away her face. Robin didn't need to turn around to pick up on her weariness. His emotions must be wearing her down, and combined with Cyborg's, Beastboy's, and her own emotions, she must be feeling tormented. He wasn't the only one not getting any sleep. As she was turning to leave, he whispered. "I'm sorry, Raven…" She stopped, instantly knowing what he implied, and bowed her head. "It's not your fault, Robin. We can only hope to find her soon." She stated and made her way to the central command of their ship. Robin sighed, and quickly followed after her.
"I've got a good feeling on this one, dudes!" Beastboy cheered hesitantly, trying to lighten spirits. Cyborg nodded and grinned slightly, the first time he had since Starfire's capture. "I think Grass Stain is right! Maybe we will dig up something useful!" He reassured. "We'll work as a team on this one. The area is small enough for all of us to remain in communication and luckily, we'll find something." The Titans released their drones and split up, searching the area.
"So anything yet?" Cyborg asked after a few minutes. "Nothing yet." Raven replied. "Nothing." Robin grunted, his focus remaining on the search. "Hey guys! I think I found something!" He replied eagerly. The green drone hovered over a mass of metal, what looked to be the remains of a ship. Mostly desecrated by scavengers, the mass still had leftover encryptions found engraved on each piece. "My little robot is analyzing it I think! Almost done…there we go!" Beastboy read over the data that was sent to his screen and he paused. "Well, what is it?!" Robin asked frantically. "Umm…it kind of looks like some weird mumbo jumbo science stuff. I can't really make sense of it." Beastboy sighed. "Maybe it's lab reports? It could be a number of possible things depending on its origins. Do you recognize the language?" Raven suggested. "Not really. It just looks like a bunch of pictures and symbols to me. It doesn't look anything like Tamaranian." Beastboy added. "Here, send me the data. I can hopefully match the data to some of our records on alien language. Hopefully we can determine which one, and then be able to translate it. Great find BB!" Cyborg cheered as he downloaded the data from Beastboy's drone. "Yeah, good work Beastboy. Let's finish our search of the area. Maybe we can find something else." The Titans continued to search the area, and when they came up clean, they decided to end the search and wait for Cyborg to match the data to already recorded data. Once they deactivated their drones, Cyborg disconnected from the others and focused on the translations, while the others remained in connection.
"Any bets on whatever it is that I found?" Beastboy asked. "It doesn't matter what it is. As long as it helps us find Starfire, that's all that matters." Robin replied coldly. "Well, at least we found something this time. I don't think I could have taken another empty search." Beastboy added. "What do you think, Raven? You've been quite for a little while." Beastboy asked. When she remained silent, he started to worry. "Hey, Earth to Rae? You okay?" She snapped away from her thoughts and sighed. "Oh, yes. I'm fine, Beastboy…" She replied quietly. Beastboy frowned. "Is it the "sensing our emotions" thing?" He inquired. She shook her head. "No…yes…a little. I've just got a lot of things going through my head is all…" She explained. "Raven…" Robin replied somberly. "Don't Robin. Don't apologize for anything." She commanded. Robin growled. "But it is my fault! All of this is my fault!" He yelled. "Robin, you know that's not true. You did everything- "Robin cut her off. "No, I didn't Raven! It was my fault she was captured! If I had just paid closer attention to what was entering the Earth's atmosphere that night, she would still be here! She could be getting tortured because of my mistake!" He screamed. "Don't say that. Cyborg said that ship had some sort of cloaking device. You could have never known it was on Earth until it was too late. None of this is your fault!" Raven assured. "Hey Titans! I've got the data decoded, and I think I know what it says!" Cyborg voice cheered. Robin growled and the others remained silent. The happiness that Cyborg felt faded away almost instantly. "Umm, did I miss something?" He asked hesitantly. Robin took a deep breath and sighed. "What does it say?" Cyborg typed in a few commands into his screen, which sent the data to all the Titans screens. "As you can see, I've been able to translate the language to what the Gordainians use. The wreckage we found was trash, but the most interesting thing is, it's recent. This was just ejected from a Gordainian ship." Cyborg explained. "How does that help us? We missed the ship!" Beastboy groaned. "What it means, Beastboy, that a ship has just been here recently. We now know that this area is active with traffic, which means we won't have to wait very long for a ship to spot us." Cyborg explained more thoroughly. "Oh. Right. Makes sense!" Beastboy grinned sheepishly. "So, what's the next step?" Raven asked. "We wait. A ship will turn up eventually. We'll need to pretend we are incapacitated, which will attract pirates like Gordainians. Once the targeted ship is within range, we'll need some way to board the ship and get the information we need from its crew." Robin explained. "How do we know a ship will be attracted to us?" Beastboy asked. "From what Starfire told us, Gordainians are pirates and mercenaries. If there is any opportunity to find wealth, they'll search it out." Robin summarized. "The only problem is getting into the ship. We have no way doing so without alerting the ship to our presence." Raven stated dryly. "That's where you're not entirely correct, Raven. We technically do have a way." Cyborg stated hesitantly. "Well, what is it?" Robin questioned. "It requires a lot of timing and preparation. In case of emergencies, I installed an eject button into each of our pods. We can eject our pods and wait from a distance, and when the ship approaches we can take out its engines and quickly board before they can escape." Cyborg sighed. "It's dangerous. We only have one shot, as the pods don't have any cloaking systems to hide us from the ship's sensors. What makes it worst is, without someone inside the T-ship, there will be no firepower to disable the enemy ship. One of us has to stay to keep the T-ship running, and if the pods are detected too soon…." He trailed off.
Starfire had just stirred from her slumber when her Gordainian guards busted into her room. Without her consent, they quickly threw her into the hallway and marched her to the interrogation chamber, where The Breaker was sitting in a chair waiting for her. He absent-mindedly toyed with the small pistol-shaped torture device in his hands while the guards pushed Starfire into her seat. When they finished, he motioned for them to dismiss, and they obediently exited the room and shut the door behind them.
When they were left alone, Breaker grinned. "Hello, Koriande'r." She growled inwardly but replied. "Hello, Breaker." He nodded and showed her his toy. "Do you recognize this? I was gifted this at our last session by my superiors. We have yet to test out its functions, so today it has been scheduled to do so." He flicked a switch and watched the tool come to life in his hands, pulsating a bright red and orange light. "You have yet to reveal any information of value to my superiors. As they feel my tactics are "unsuccessful" for you, they have decided to subjugate you to this." He tightened her restraints and snickered when he saw the glimpse of fear in her eyes. "I see it within you. Fear. Don't worry, Koriande'r." He drew the tool to the back of her neck, and with a sharp pinch it began to inject a clear liquid into Starfire. Her vision grew hazy after only seconds, and when the room started to rapidly spin around her, she heard Breaker's final words before losing consciousness. "You're entering the hell of your own making."
Starfire groggily opened her eyes, rubbing her head from the massive headache that she now experienced. "What happened? Where am I?" She examined her surroundings. 4 white walls surrounded her, with a bright illuminating light that intensified her headache every time she looked up. She groaned from the pain and tried to stand up, but fell backwards when she noticed the state of her body. All across her body, were burns. Every inch of her was burned with the word she despised, "Troq." Her breathing became quicker as she discovered more and more burns all over her, labeling her nothing. Her mind, her body, her soul; all nothing. Tears brimmed her eyes as she tried to close her eyes, trying to shake herself from the nightmare she had just entered. But to no avail, every time she opened her eyes, more burns appeared all over her, growing more and more painful every time they appeared.
She barely heard the rumbling of a horn below her feet, signaling the opening of many pipes and chambers that pushed water through. The rushing water quickly began to fill the room, and before Starfire could react, the water had raised above her head. She swam to the ceiling and gasped for what little air remained. Her screaming became only sputters and coughs as the water filled her lungs, sucking away her life by every second. She released her final gasps before feeling the water overfill her insides and slowing her heartbeat. Few thoughts came to her mind, only the feelings of despair filling her mind. "I'm dying…this is the end, Starfire…"
When she felt herself lose consciousness, she closed her eyes and opened them to a pitch darkness surrounding her. "Am I dead?" She thought morbidly. She looked at her arms and legs, feeling the tears of joy arise from her as the burns disappeared. She cautiously took in a deep breath, allowing air to fill her lungs. A chilling breeze threatened to suck away the air that filled her lungs, and as she looked around, she realized she was in the darkest reaches of space. In the distance she could make out the billions of stars overhead. "This is quite confusing… How did I get here? How am I breathing air?" She stated plainly. "What is happening to me? What did The Breaker inject into me? Are these hallucinations brought about by the injection?" She thought worryingly. Whatever she was experiencing, she had to find a way to wake up. This couldn't be real! None of this could be real. She just had to find the way to break from this nightmare and awaken. Just as she started to pull away from her thoughts, a distant firefight drew her attention. The pulsating lights of energy bolts was seen as two ships, one much smaller than the other, dueled in space combat. As she drew nearer, Starfire gasped when she recognized the markings on both ships. The larger, more advanced ship was a Gordainian raiding ship, while the other one…The enormous T engraved into the front of the ship indicated exactly who it was. She watched in horror as the Gordainian raider bombarded the T-ship, every bolt jolting the small ship and breaking a part off. As if she was on the ship, she could accurately hear the frantic voices of her friends. "We need to pull back! The T-ship wasn't built for this kind of fight!" Cyborg's desperate scream ringed in her ears. "Engine one is down! We won't be able to escape without it!" Raven's yelled. "It doesn't matter anymore, Titans! We came here to rescue Star! If we can't escape, then we need to bring this ship down with us!" Robin commanded. "I hate to admit it, but…. Robin's right…" Beastboy concluded sadly. "Right…All power left is being focused to the main guns. This is it team…" Cyborg stated, his voice cracking with his own fear. "No…" Raven mumbled, her sobs interrupting her. "At least we go out with a bang, right?" Beastboy stated, his eyes beginning to tear up. "Yeah, Grass Stain. When we reach whatever is beyond this…I hope we'll all be there. Starfire too. At least we'll be together then…" Cyborg cried, wiping his face with the backs of his metal hands. "Star, I'm sorry…We couldn't save you…I failed you. I'm sorry, Titans…" Robin muttered with despair.
"ROBIN! FRIENDS!" Starfire screamed. She pushed herself as fast as she could, but when the raider continued to pummel the breaking ship, she watched in agony as the T-ship tore apart, and with one last final barrage, exploded into millions of pieces. Starfire screamed and cried, tears floating off her face. She crumpled into a ball and sobbed into her knees, desperate to wake herself from this terrible nightmare. She sobbed and cried until she felt herself lose consciousness again, from which she wished this meant the end of her living nightmare.
Starfire slowly peeked her eyes open and saw The Breaker calmly sitting back in his chair, examining her. He grinned when he saw her awaken. "Hello, Koriande'r. You are quite fascinating to watch. So inform me, what did you see? The destruction of your planet? The death of your friends? From the tears currently falling from your eyes, it must have been quite the night terror." He asked, his lustful eyes gleaming with his own perverted desires for violence and pain. Starfire growled and remained silent, adverting her face from his eyes. He grinned again, and gently lifted her chin up towards his face. He lowered his voice and whispered in a singing voice. "X'hal calls to us, my dying child. She beckons us, and we must answer. Follow her through the light of enduring, and never let go. Her embrace, the only comfort I know." Starfire gazed at him with terror, her face paling as he chuckled lightly. "Are you afraid of me? Do not fool yourself, "Starfire". This is the real nightmare." He looked up and whistled, signaling for the guards to break through the entrance and pull Starfire from her restraints. Before she was pulled away, she looked back to hear The Breaker whisper in his low voice. "See you soon, Koriande'r…" She was pulled away, leaving The Breaker to continue absent-mindedly playing with the injecting gun from before, only this time, he whistled the tune of the lullaby once more.
Sorry for this one being a little on the short side. The next chapter is going to be where stuff starts to get intense (At least that will be my intention) If you are also keeping up to date with my other in progress story, "Life of a Teenager", you might understand (Maybe even desire?) for my priority at the moment to get that chapter out faster than this story. Personally, I can write this story quicker than LOAT. It's just easier for me to write and get out. That is not saying I'm giving my readers bad writing, I'm hoping for quite the opposite in actuality. Maybe it's the longer chapter thing? For those who don't keep up with LOAT, I sincerely apologize and I hope you understand.
Anyway, I'm rambling again. Both stories will be updated in the near future. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and feel free to give me your opinions of any matters that I have recently brought up. Or just critics on my writing. That's cool too.
See you soon!
N. Wolf
