The cell was dark.
Dark, and cold. Meant to keep her submissive and quiet.
It wasn't working.
She screamed again, bright green eyes flashing in the darkness, once more hurling herself at the metal walls of her prison. It did no good. Hours and hours she had been raging, fighting, flinging herself at the walls. She hadn't even been able to make a dent; she just wasn't strong enough.
She hit the door with a crash, the impact shuddering through her…and she just…couldn't do it anymore.
A whimper slipped out of her ravaged throat and she slumped against the wall, her strength draining away, frigid cold rushing in. Her knees trembled, unable to support her any longer, and she slid to the floor, shivering.
What was the point? The walls felt just as strong and immovable as they had when they had thrown her into this cell hours ago. All she was doing was exhausting herself.
There was nothing in here with her. Just the four metal walls and the cold and the dark. Despair clawed at her, panic rising instantly at being trapped forever inside this small metal box. But this was just the transport, she reminded herself, they would not keep her in here forever.
And she knew that what was coming next was worse. Much worse.
She curled in on herself, tucking her knees up to her chest as she fought for breath. The edges of the manacles dug into her wrists, dark bruises forming where the metal met her skin.
Her captors had taken no chances; the shiny, reflective metal covered her hands completely. Any energy she could have summoned was trapped beneath it, unable to discharge. It made her skin itch maddeningly.
When they came back to collect her, there would be nothing she could do to stop them, to fight them off. If she was going to escape, it would have to be now. When they weren't expecting it.
She couldn't just sit here and wait, she had to keep trying. She opened her eyes, looking at the metal gauntlets, feeling her trapped fingers flex inside.
Tears started to prickle her eyes and she clenched her jaw, refusing to cry. She would not give up. She would not go quietly to her demise.
She screamed wordlessly again, her throat raw, and banged the lump of metal enclosing her hands into the floor. The pain was a sharp jab back to her senses.
Fighting against the pain and the terror, the young woman climbed awkwardly to her feet, the heavy manacles pulling her weight forward. She fixed large green eyes on the door to the cell and considered it.
She backed up slowly, her aching body protesting, until she hit the back of the small metal room, needing all the space she could get. Bracing her feet against the wall, she readied herself for one last push, one last attack.
"LET. ME. OUT!" she roared, and charged.
Just before she collided with the door, she raised her arms and brought the heavy hunk of metal encasing her hands slamming down, throwing every scrap of strength she had left in her into the blow. She hit with an ear-splitting boom that echoed through the cell. The collision reverberated through her bones, and she was thrown backward, crumpling in a tangle of long legs on the floor.
A small sob shuddered out of her chest, and she curled into a ball on the floor, her body aching.
She stared up at the door, despair swallowing her, the glow in her eyes dimming.
And then she blinked.
The door…it looked wrong.
She sat up quickly, tear filled eyes wide, gaping up at the slight indent her body had made in the solid metal.
Hope sparked in her chest. Her green eyes lit with an inner fire as a savage smile slowly grew on her face.
Never taking her eyes off of that small indent, she climbed back to her feet.
Backing up again, she braced herself once more against the back of the cell.
She drew in a deep breath, feeling the panic in her chest burn away into something calmer, stronger, filling her veins with steel. Yes, she was tired. Yes, she was hurting all over. But she was not broken.
They would not break her.
She screamed her challenge and charged.
With an echoing, resentful crunch, the metal buckled beneath her attack.
The guards outside of the cell shouted to each other in alarm, spinning to face the door with weapons raised, scaled reptilian faces furrowed in apprehension.
They had been assured the metal would hold, even against the prisoner's incredible strength. She had been screaming and screaming, her cries muffled through the metal walls, throwing herself wildly against the constraints of the cell, and it had held firm. But now, after hours and hours of abuse, the door had finally reached its breaking point.
The cell fell silent, and in unison, the guards backed away a step, red eyes fixed on the door in sudden fear.
With a crashing, echoing boom, the door exploded out towards them.
The thick slab of metal flew across the space in a shower of sparks, blasted completely free of its hinges. It smashed the two guards into the opposite wall of the corridor with a dull bang, their bodies dampening the noise, the crunch of breaking bones nearly smothered by their screams.
The girl came flying free behind it, her momentum carrying her through the air to crash heavily on top of the wreckage. The door clanged and bent as she collided into it a second time, the bodies trapped beneath it crunching horribly at the force.
Immediately, an ear-piercing alarm split through the air, ringing through the metal corridor.
The girl rolled free of the bloody pile, her chest heaving in exertion, vibrant red hair catching the light in a braided coronet around her head. The guards she had squashed into the wall groaned, struggling to free themselves from beneath the twisted sheet of metal.
She pushed herself up, nearly falling over in her haste, her weakened legs stumbling on the smooth floor.
She looked around quickly, gulping down the air, trying to orient herself. She was in a sort of hallway, one side lined with large metal doors, one of which was now a gaping, slightly smoking, hole.
She looked from side to side frantically, not knowing which way to go. Growling shouts echoed from her right. Left it was, then.
She stumbled forward, her weight thrown off by the metal shackles encasing her hands, and lurched into a run.
The doors flashed past, their overlarge height towering over her, making her feel as if she was no more than a child. Shouts chased her from behind, and then she heard them ahead of her as well.
Three more guards rushed in to block the passage in front of her, enormous blue-green scaled bodies heavily armored in overlapping, golden metallic plates.
They raised their weapons towards her.
She screamed in ferocious rage, no hesitation, charging forward at full speed to meet them head on.
The shots missed her, her instant reaction and increased speed carrying her forward faster than they anticipated.
She crashed into the first body, his enormous bulk towering over her, hunching her shoulder and colliding directly with his abdomen. His armor caved in beneath her, and he flew backward into the two behind him, all three falling in a tumble. She rolled free, tucking her hands in tight, and sprang to her feet, barely registering the pain.
Two more had come up behind them, directly in front of her now. They stopped in their tracks, balking at the impossible strength she had concealed in that lithe body, at the complete savagery of her attack.
They raised their weapons, shouts drowned by the wailing alarm, but she was already closing on them, swinging her arms in a wide arc as she leaped.
The heavy manacles, meant to keep her contained and harmless, whistled through the air with deadly momentum, crashing into the first scaled creature with a powerful blow. His helmet dented with a sickening crunch.
His body flew to the side, dead weight smashing into his companion and knocking him down with a grunt. The shots from their weapons went wide, smoking blasts of plasma splattering on the walls.
She let the swing from the blow carry her forward, spinning in a full circle before she fell. She hit the ground manacles first, a shower of sparks trailing behind her, and tumbled across the floor, her elbows and knees screaming.
The crack of weapons discharging reached her ears and she flung herself to the side, the fighting reflexes that had been so ruthlessly trained into her taking over. She slammed into the wall, her cheek cracking against the metal, just as three more bursts of plasma sizzled through the air over her shoulder.
She leapt back to her feet before her body had fully registered the impact with the wall, lurching back into a run. Her breath burned in her lungs, her body pushing itself to its limit, legs pumping as she sprinted towards the end of the corridor ahead. A trail of groaning and screaming bodies behind her.
She burst free of the cell-lined corridor into a larger hallway running perpendicular through the ship. The bright lights made the walls shine white.
She swung to the right, still racing forward at full speed.
But they were waiting for her.
Several rows of huge armored bodies stood between her and a pair of wide glass doors at the end of the corridor, spears and blasting weapons leveled at her as she careened around the corner, directly into their firing path. She caught the briefest glimpse of the room behind them, filled with lights and flashing screens.
A nasty looking brute in the back let out a roar, and they opened fire.
Blasts of superheated plasma flew towards her, and she twisted wildly, trying to shift her momentum, moving too quickly to stop.
She flung herself across the corridor, towards another passage branching off on the other side, continuing on in the direction she had been running before. She slammed into the corner of the intersection with a yelp of pain and flung herself into another bright metal hallway, just managing to shield herself from the barrage. She hit the floor with a crash, sparks bursting out as her manacles skidded along the metal.
"No!" came an infuriated shout from behind her, "do not let her escape!" Others shouted incoherently, echoing voices and thunderous footsteps following behind her.
Frantic, she threw herself forward.
Escape? How could she escape? She was on a ship, there was no way…
Was there a way off the ship?
She had caught only a glimpse of the exterior of the vessel as she had been marched down the corridors of the palace, already bound in the horrible manacles, their strange, alien metal keeping her tied to the ground, making her feel heavy and slow. The ship had sat waiting, hovering in the air high above. Its golden metal skin gleaming in the sunslight as it cast its shadows over her world, dozens more squatting on the horizon in every direction.
They had loaded her onto a small transport vessel that rose up through the air, taking her to the ship, guards holding her down as she struggled, still fighting, even knowing that if she escaped there was nowhere she could go on her world—nowhere she could hide—that she would not be dragged back.
The smaller ship they had used to transport her from the surface…it had docked inside the main vessel. It was on board, somewhere. If she could get to it, she could get off the ship…
But even if she managed to escape, she would probably never see her planet again.
She had no way to know how long they had kept her, how long she had been trapped in that box. They had needed to drug her, knock her out as her anger and fear turned into full blown hysteria—as she realized what was coming—and she had woken up locked inside that cell.
They could have traveled entire systems away from her home by now.
Shouts and thundering footsteps echoed behind her, blending in with the continual wail of the alarm. She kept running, passing more sealed cells, resolve hardening in her.
She had known that she might never again see her home. It didn't matter. Anything would be better than the fate that was waiting for her when this ship reached its destination.
A plasma blast hit the floor just behind her and splattered. She screamed and stumbled as droplets of the molten goo sprayed across the back of her thigh, burning through the thin armor covering her legs, her flesh sizzling beneath.
There was nowhere to hide in this straight hallway, nothing to use to protect herself. She pushed herself faster, her body almost numb, trying to stay outside of their firing range.
The corridor ended with a T junction ahead of her, splitting off to either side, and she turned in the opposite direction than she had before, towards the other end of the ship.
She raced down the corridor, throwing herself forward, empty hallways flashing past on her left at regular intervals. The passage veered to the left, curving inward and shielding her from her pursuers, following the line of the exterior of the ship as it narrowed at the back.
A railing appeared in front of her as she rounded the last curve, barring the corridor at a set of stairs; open space ahead. She used the manacles to brace herself and jumped, vaulting the railing and flinging herself over the side.
It was a short drop but she landed heavily, her balance thrown off by the heavy counterweight on her hands.
And in front of her, spaced out against the hull of the ship, their doors open and waiting, sat a row of the smaller transport vessels they had used to bring her aboard.
She let out a cry of relief, her chest constricting, throwing herself into the first one she could reach.
Heavy steps clattered down the stairs.
The control panel for the tiny ship was enormous, spread out in front of her in an array of buttons, levers and dials. She stared down at it for a second, eyes flicking back and forth.
She knew absolutely nothing about the kind of technology in use here; her people were not capable of space travel. She had never even been on a ship like this before.
And even if she did, her hands were bound, the manacles too big to hit any of the tiny buttons.
She glanced back just as the horde charged towards her through the launch bay, weapons raised. Time was up.
She slammed the manacles into the console with a scream of desperate frustration, aiming for a large, important looking red button on the top.
Alarms went off immediately, and the door to the shuttle craft slid shut with a hiss. The whole thing shuddered, and she ducked down, jamming herself underneath the control panel as the guards opened fire.
With a terrible lurch, the escape pod blasted away from the ship.
Flinging her out into space.
Author's Note-
I grew up watching the original Teen Titans. I loved the show, I loved the stories, I loved the characters. They had a major effect on my life at a time when I didn't feel like I really fit in with the other kids my age.
And then they made Teen Titans Go...which broke my heart.
So, like most other fans, when I heard that DC was rebooting the series for live-action, I was so unbelievably excited. These were my people, the characters that were so important to me, finally given an adult storyline that would fully bring them to life.
And my heart was broken again.
Crappy costume design, chopped up, nonsensical storylines, and completely missing character development. And Starfire… I guess at that point in the writing process their brains were just too overtaxed and all they had left was: huh, we don't know what to do so let's just give her Amnesia™…that'll work… (I actually really liked the idea of Star being dark-skinned and I kind of use that here, but I think Diop was too old for the role. Especially with Thwaites opposite her. He looked like her child – ew)
And then I had the absolutely absurd idea that if I had been on the team that got to write a new story for these characters, I could've done better.
So then I thought, well, what would I have done? And I started writing - purely as a cathartic exercise for me, to give these beloved characters the stories they deserved. And then 50,000 words in, I realized that what I had made was pretty frickin cool, and that other fans might like it too, so here it is!
It will be an adult retelling of the original 2003 Teen Titans show, starting at the very beginning just like the live action show. But a NEW beginning. The story has bits and pieces from a bunch of other versions, even the original comic, and lots of easter eggs. Anything that made me happy went into my canon. Mwahaha.
There will be blood and gore and foul-mouthedness, and real consequences to five superpowered idiot teenagers running around and beating the shit out of people, and subsequently getting hurt themselves.
It will be 100% BBRae with a heaping side helping of RobStar - Sorry Cy, I'll try to get you hooked up, at least I didn't just leave you out (yikes, I'm still bitter.)
Slow burn, idiots to lovers.
ENJOY
- Kat