Forgiveness Chapter 2

Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg gathered in the spec ops room where Raven was holding a thick black book. There was a tense silence in the air, no one knew what to say. Finally Beast Boy broke the silence.

"Is it true?" He asked. "Is there a way to bring back Star?"

Raven nodded.

"We're going to need something physical from her though" Raven said. "A drop of blood, a lock of hair, fingernails, something"

"I'm on it" Robin said, heading towards Starfire's room. Her room hadn't been touched since her untimely demise.

"Wait a minute" Cyborg said, grabbing Robin and yanking him back by his collar. "Consider the role you played in her death, you don't have the right to go in her room. I'll go"

Cyborg walked into Starfire's room and started looking around. He saw that the pillow on her bed had been half eaten and looked down at the floor to see Silkie asleep on the floor. Poor thing, they had forgotten all about him after she died and it looked like he had no choice but to eat whatever was available. Cyborg ignored the larva and grabbed Starfire's hairbrush, extracting a few locks of hair. He then returned to the spec ops room.

"Now what?" Asked Cyborg.

"Now I just need to be able to focus and I should be able to bring her back" Raven said.

Raven sat in the center of the room quietly and began chanting the incantation. The room seemed to get darker but the Titans ignored it.

Starfire was at peace for the first time in months. Wherever she was, it had a vibrant joyful feel to it. When she first arrived, she was scared and confused. But a mysterious being that appeared as a silhouette of a man comforted her and told she had nothing to worry about. The other inhabitants were quite nice as well and consisted of all different types of species and life forms. She couldn't remember exactly why she had wanted to leave her home in the first place. All she knew was that for the first time in a long time she was truly happy. Starfire looked down and saw the earth beneath her. Even though she missed her friends, she had no desire of going back.

Starfire laid back and relaxed in a state of utter serenity. Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed at her ankles. Starfire pulled but more hands emerged and began grabbing her. Starfire struggled, but the hands dragged her towards the earth. Back into life. Starfire struggled even more, she did not want to go back to the place that caused her so much pain she wished to end her life.

The Titans noticed that Raven was visibly strained. She looked as if she were fighting against some unknown force. Raven even appeared to be in physical pain.

"Raven, what's going on?" Robin asked.

"I think her spirit's fighting back, almost as if she doesn't want to come back." Raven told them.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Beast Boy asked. "Maybe she doesn't want to come back"

"Why wouldn't she want to come back? We're her friends" Cyborg said.

"I don't know" Raven replied. "All I know is that I'm having a hard time"

Raven focused even more and finally managed to break through.

Starfire screamed as the hands dragged towards a bright swirling abyss. As she was coming back into the real world, she started to remember. The circumstances of her death, what lead her towards it, and most importantly the friends who betrayed her. A new emotion that she had never felt before began overwhelming her as she stopped futilely struggling. An animalistic scream tore through her throat. Anger, hate, and a desire for revenge coursed through her as well as the pitiful clawing of trying to go back. To go back to her paradise. The words that had driven her to suicide haunted her, being repeated over and over again.

"You're useless! You've lost control of your powers, you end up screwing up all the time! You're nothing but a Troq!"

Starfire felt herself being torn into two. She screamed as the pain coursed through her. As pain and anger merged. She saw a light, small and dim but a light nonetheless. The one who had dragged her away was there. And much to her joy, it was one of her targets.

Raven had barely caught her breath before a fist appeared out of nowhere and nailed her squarely in the face, sending her flying across the room. The Titans looked up and saw Starfire floating in front of them, however she looked quite different. Her red hair is was now black just like her sister's and her skin was noticeably pale. Her eyes held such fury that it sent shivers down their spine.

"Starfire?" Robin said before being nailed with a kick to the solar plexus. He fell to one knee, trying to catch his breath before Starfire laid into him with another hit, this one to his jaw.

"Starfire, what are you doing; we're your friends!" Beast Boy shouted, jumping behind the couch.

"My problem is not with you or Cyborg" Starfire told him before turning her attention back to Robin and Raven.

Raven slowly stood to her feet. Her nose was broken and blood poured down her face. Starfire grabbed Raven and tossed her through the window. Before colliding with the ground, Raven opened a portal and warped back into Titans Tower.

Starfire attacked Robin, elbowing him in the face. She kicked him as hard as she could in the ribs, resulting in a loud crack and all of the air being driven out of Robin's body. Robin dropped to his knees and gasped, trying to take in air. Beast Boy and Cyborg stood back, too scared to step in.

"Starfire, please" Robin pleaded, getting a boot to the face.

Robin turned over and spit out blood as well as a couple of teeth. Starfire saw Raven out of the corner of her eye and flew at her with a murderous rage. Raven instinctively threw up a barrier but Starfire punched through it. Starfire grabbed Raven by her throat and slammed her against the wall. Raven began struggling, gasping for air, which only caused Starfire to squeeze tighter. Starfire smiled with sadistic glee as she watched Raven squirm and choke. She would've finished the job had it not been for Robin pleading with her.

"Starfire, please?" He said. "I know you, you don't want to do this"

Starfire dropped Raven and turned to her ex boyfriend. Her gaze was ice cold.

"I forgot for a moment you two were a couple; of course you wouldn't want anything to happen to her" Starfire scoffed. "The Robin I knew, or I thought I knew, would have never lied to me. He would have never called me a Troq. He would have never betrayed me and broken my heart. I guess I was wrong"

"Star, I know what I did was wrong; I'm sorry and I wish I could take it back" Robin apologized. "I love y-"

He was cut off when Starfire fired an eye beam at him that just barely missed.

"You don't love me and you're not sorry" Starfire said. "You're only saying that because I'm taking you to task!"

Starfire backhanded Robin as hard as she could, sprawling him out on the floor. She grabbed Raven and dragged her over to Robin and placed them in romantic pose.

"You know you two do make a cute couple" Starfire said mockingly, her hand glowing dark green as she prepared to annihilate the two of them. "You will make an even cuter couple when you're dead!"

At this point, Beast Boy and Cyborg finally stepped in. They grabbed Starfire and held her back.

"Let go of me!" She demanded, struggling wildly.

"We will as soon as you calm down" Cyborg said.

"I know you're angry but killing them won't make you feel any better" Beast Boy said.

Starfire began to calm down but was still pretty pissed.

"Why did you bring me back?" She asked.

"Are you kidding?" Asked Beast Boy. "We're your friends Starfire, of course we'd want to see you again"

"I know you and Cyborg care for me" Starfire replied pointing to Raven and Robin. "I was referring to them"

"We wanted you back to, we felt really bad about-" Robin said.

"So it took me dying for you to realize that what you were doing was wrong!?" Starfire replied, grabbing Robin by his throat. "You didn't bring me back because you were sorry; you brought me back just so you could clear your guilty conscience!"

At that moment, Robin looked her in the eyes. Robin could see his former fiancé's eyes narrowed, blazing with scorn, anger, and hatred and felt a pang of fear. Starfire tossed him aside and sauntered towards the exit.

"Star, where are you going?" Asked Cyborg.

"I don't know, but I don't want to be in the same building as those two" Starfire replied.

Before anyone could stop her, she was gone.

"Well that didn't go over well" Beast Boy said.

"That's an understatement" Raven snarked.

"Why did she try to kill us?" Robin asked. "I know she was angry with us, but Starfire would never actually try to hurt us"

"Something must have went wrong with the spell" Raven proposed.

"What went wrong?" Robin asked.

"I don't know" said Raven. "I'll read over the spell again to see if I can find anything"

Starfire walked around Jump City, trying to get used to being alive again. How dare them. How dare they kill her and then bring her back to soothe their guilty conscience. Starfire decided to go to the park to get her mind off things. Birds chirped and children played, but still Starfire felt livid. This was not helped by the fact that all around her, happy couples were kissing and having picnics. Almost as if they were taunting her.

Starfire felt a little tempted to unleash a few starbolts on them. Just as quickly, Starfire pushed those thoughts out of her head, terrified at having contemplated such a thing. What had happened to her, why was she so bitter. Fearful of the thoughts popping up again, Starfire left the park and headed down to the docks.