Long Road to Ruin

They Started It

The flight to Crisious Prime according to Strongheart had taken two Earthly days, so assuming we (and by we I meant X, Blackfire, and myself) don't get lost and stay on track two Earthly days is how long it would take to get back to Tameran. However, it was kind of hard to judge time when one of us was still dead asleep, and two of us were night-owls and pretty much insomniacs. The night-owls, of course, being X and myself who kept ourselves busy and entertained by just talking … and on occasion playing some stupid game X and a couple of his high-school friends use to play when they were freshmen.

A game that involved a lot of pain (go figure) and a complete lack of all common sense whatsoever, but still I played it since there was nothing else to do. The game was called Tap-Out, and the object of it was to get the other guy to, well, tap-out by grabbing them in a chock hold and squeezing the life out of them and that was if I was able to sneak up on that person to begin with. As any onlooker could imagine, playing this sort of game in a cramped ship was damn near impossible, but with 48 hours to kill and a lot of time on our hands to think and talk, there also came opportunities to plan sneak attacks.

X, took every opportunity to plan and at some points he even caught me off guard and nearly wrapped his arm around my neck, but I had grabbed his arm, twisted it and dropped him to the ground in a classic police hold. He grunted, moaned, and groaned about how he had the unfair advantage being the one with out powers; I just rolled my eyes and let him complain while I went back to checking our coordinates, keeping us on track and checking up on Blackfire.

She was starting to worry me.

It was now the ending of the second Earth day and we were coming into Tameran's orbit, but she still hadn't woken up. I began to try and see if I could find a way, and I started with a hard slap to her face that shocked X out of his zoned-out state of mine to stare at me in confusion, "Uh … what are you doing?"

"Trying to wake her up," I slapped her again.

X cringed and stood up from his chair to stand at my side, "Well I don't think violence is going to work … she slept straight through all the noise you made when you slammed me to the ground I don't think hitting her will do any good."

I shot him a dry look, "Well you got a better idea?"

He tilted his head in thought then lifted Blackfire's head up and stared at her face long and hard for a second before the light-bulb lit up in his head, "Got some adrenaline meds in this place?"

I arched a brow, "Epinephrine? You want to jump start her heart with another drug? You could kill her! You don't know what else is in her system!"

"You got a better idea?"

I scowled, "Smartass."

He ignored me and started to search around for the medical-kit, surprisingly it didn't take him long to find it and when he did he popped the top open and started to read all of the needles in the kit. I knelt beside him and yanked the box away, he glared at me and reached for it, but I pushed him back and with a cold dark glare I growled, "I am not going to let you kill her."

"I could be saving her life." He made another grab for the box, but I stretched out my leg and kicked it far from his reach while I grabbed a fist full of his shirt and pressed him to the floor of the ship. He grunted and then sneered, "You know, I offered for a little fun earlier, but you refused; now I don't very much feel like playing with you anymore."

"Shut up and think, there has to be a better way to –" I stopped myself when I felt Blackfire's aura flare up, not dangerously so, but the way a comatose person would awaken after a looong slumber. I sat up straight, still holding X down and looked over my shoulder to see Blackfire roll her head from against haul of the ship down so her chin was to her chest and then finally her eyes slowly opened. I let go of X and stood up to watch as Blackfire blinked her eyes open and found the strength to lift her head up to gaze around the ship.

Her lavender eyes narrowed when she asked the obvious, "Where am I …?"

Of course, this was before she swung her head around to notice X and I standing near the control-panel watching her like observers in a zoo would watch an exotic animal to study its habits. She glared at me after giving X a momentary glance of curiosity and scowled condescendingly, with her higher-than-thou tone of voice she stretched every word she said when she addressed me, "Raven, not exactly the first person I'd expect to see in a transporter like this … did my dear little sister send you?"

"No," I answered and then got straight to the point, "but I am taking you back to Tameran since my life seems to depend on your safe return."

"Really …" she didn't seem all that interested and even glanced down at herself to notice her state of dress, or lack-there-of and arched a brow, "You couldn't have given me a decent set of attire? I'm freezing ya know."

"When you're on the run you don't really have time to be picky."

She grunted and unbuckled herself from her seat to sit forward and cup her head in her hands, "Ugh, your vagueness is not doing anything for my head, tell me, if it's not my sister that has bestowed upon you these orders to kidnapped me from Crisious Prime then who's command do you fall under?"

It was at this point did X speak up while I listened intently, "Kidnapped? You were pretty much a pickle in a jar before we came to bust your ass out."

She sneered, "Yeah, well, that pickle-jar was a rejuvenation capsule; a friend of mine from Crisious said I could use it to restore my health and power-level ever since my dear-dear sister had me banished from Tameran." Blackfire then scoffed and crossed one of her legs over the other while she sat back up and leaned against her chair. She narrowed her lavender eyes when she added, "Since birth the naïve little twit has never understood what exactly banishment from Tameran really means around these parts."

"And you do?" I interjected.

She looked up at me and smirked, "As a matter of fact I do, you see, they – being my people – will strap the banished Tameran to a device that sucks away all lethal energy to leave the banished with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the abilities of a bumgorf." She then shrugged lazily and added, "With all my connections in places of ill-repute you can see that I wasn't planning on rolling over and playing dead."

I frowned, "So all that back at Crisious … was voluntary?"

She laughed, "Of course it was! What idiot drained of all their power would in their right mind pass up a rejuvenation capsule? They are very rare and I guarantee you despite how sweet my little sister is, even she wouldn't turn it down if given the chance."

My frown deepened while that paranoid feeling in my gut started to churn over and over again till I felt sick. Strongheart had said Blackfire was in trouble and sent X and me on a rescue mission, but the mission had gone too smoothly, hell, Blackfire wasn't even guarded and for good reason she was just there to revitalize her systems and we interrupted that. Come to think of it … everything X and myself had done was based under assumptions and what we were told simply because we didn't know anything at all about these alien planets. All we've known was Earth (and Azarath pertaining to myself, but that's a different matter), the point is we've been running around like chickens with our head chopped off going where the aliens said to go and believing in whatever we were told to believe.

Well, my gut started to rebel against blind belief after everything Blackfire had said, and she had no reason to lie to us, hell, she sounded quite smug about using one of the rare rejuvenation-capsule so it was safe to assume she was about as clueless as X and I were at the moment. I sighed heavily and sat down on my captain's chair to stare at the ground in thought, while Blackfire stretched to get the circulation back into her body and X leaned on the back of my chair and asked, "Still think something's wrong?"

I looked up at him through the corner of my eye and my lashes, "Did you hear what Blackfire said? She didn't need rescuing; she was there to restore herself so in a way she's right. We did kidnap her, but why would Strongheart lie to us?"

He shrugged, "Maybe he got the wrong message from one of his informants, who knows, who cares."

I scoffed, "I care … we could have set ourselves up for a trap … or condemned Blackfire to death."

"Death is a strong word sunshine."

"But it's appropriate … you remember the story he told us about the conflict between the Embarrassments and the Forsaken Ones?" I didn't wait for a response I continued to make my point while my eyes locked on the ground and glared at nothing while I put the pieces back into place to see the bigger picture. "Well, the Forsaken are the royal family right? Strongheart was born an Outcast, which means he never stood a chance; he was brought up to be prejudice against those of noble blood. Banishment or not Blackfire is noble blood," I shook my head, "you can't tell me a lifetime of teachings and coaching had all been washed away the moment he saw her."

X, again, shrugged dismissively, "True love maybe? I dunno."

I snorted and stood up, "True love my ass, I don't believe in that …"

"Well, he did seem to genuinely like her, who are you to question the way someone else feels?"

"When those feelings conflict with your belief you are going to be forced to make a choice and might I remind you life is not a Disney movie where all your dreams come true if you wish upon a star and follow your heart. That's the fastest way to get yourself killed if you're that naïve."

X laughed and shook his head, "Damn Rae, are you that negative?"

I didn't bother to respond, not when I felt Blackfire's slowly growing aura approach with light barefooted steps. I looked over my shoulder to find the tall sexy alien with her alluring eyes staring at me and a permanent smirk on her tempting full lips, "What's so funny?"

Again, I didn't bother to respond, but this time it was because the computers were warning me about the gravitational pull of Tameran when the large purple celestial ball finally came into view. I sat myself back in my chair, swirled around and locked myself in place then strapped myself in, I told the others to do the same as I slipped on headphones to translate any oncoming transmissions while I firmly grasped the handles and pulled us off autopilot. A feminine computer voice suddenly spoke up, "Angle of approach: Good."

I kept the ship on course despite the violent shaking and trembling of the haul as I brought us through the atmosphere at a 45 degree angle. Still in the clouds with zero visibility of the ground I locked my concentration on flying, even when I heard that familiar BEEP which meant we were receiving a transmission. I tapped the left side of my headphones to begin translation when a male voice, obviously a scout rattled off in my ear, "Warning, unidentified aircraft, this is a restricted airspace, fly down and dock at O-2-9 station. Comply or I will use deadly force."

From my left peripheral I saw a Tameranian fighter-jet swoop in to flank my left, he had an clear shield and through this he gestured with his thumb to fly down. Behind me, Blackfire frowned, "That's an attack-ship … what the hell is going on?"

I ignored her demand and instead said, "Hold on."

With that, I pulled my ship up and tumbled over the attack-ship, the Tameranian never knew what hit him when I dropped down on his left wing and smoothly slid under him, but stayed under him. Then, with a quick jerk I smacked the top of our ship to the bottom of his and sent him off course, I knew it would take him longer to get over the shock than to correct himself. So in that time I forced my ship down and dropped out of the sky in a rapid decent that made the computer panic, "Angle of approach: Bad."

At this point it just felt like I completely cut the engines and we were falling right out of the sky nose first. X gripped his seat and gritted his teeth when that stomach-falling sensation started to take its toll, Blackfire braced herself while her eyes darted from me to the rapidly approaching ground then back to me. I then twisted into a spiral that made X cringed and shout my name in panic, "Raven!"

Without warning, I pulled up and nearly bounced off the ground as I hovered literally ten feet over the barren purple landscape keeping to the coordinates Strongheart had given us. This close to the ground I flew under the radar headed for the Wastelands. With the ship once again steady, Blackfire and X took a breather, but Blackfire was quick to mouth off, "Okay, what was that all about? Why aren't you taking me to Lenphog'Dor?"

I sighed when I remembered Lenphog'Dor was the palace, so I said, "Because you're still banished from Tameran …" then an idea struck me, I tested it, "Yet, surprisingly the only person who actually wants you back is Strongheart … you know him?"

I didn't have to look back in order to feel Blackfire's astonishment, bewilderment, and confusion as she sat back in her chair and softly repeated Strongheart's name in Tameran, "Ja'marnixzz … you're taking me to Strongheart? Why?"

"I told you already, he wants you back … he was worried, he thought you were captured on Crisious Prime."

Her aura flared angrily, "And you believed him?!"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because Strongheart is a stupid closed-minded Kuriphim'gar that still blames the nobles for a war that was their fault to begin with."

"That's not what he told us, he said the royals were the one's trying to exterminate the Embarrassments."

"Uh, yeah, that's because they came together and tried to overthrow all of society, I had descendents who died in such a stupid war that never should have happened to begin with! Total anarchy is what they're after."

I could have called her on that anarchy bit for she wasn't too keen on following rules either, but I bit my tongue and instead stayed on topic. The truth was finally coming out and I wanted to know every lie Strongheart had told us, "And the traditional tournaments?"

"Again! Their doing! You see here on Tameran convicted criminals are put into what your Earthen tongue would call a Prison Farm, and based on the severity of the crime the criminal will be tossed into a plot of land that corresponds to their category. If you ask me the idiots probably grew bored and started to fight one another as entertainment and sport, but they blame the nobles for their own stupidity." I felt Blackfire glaring holes into the back of my head when I didn't respond to her explanation and suddenly her anger was directed at me, "You don't believe me … do you?"

I sucked in a deep breath, still concentrating on getting to the Wastelands I said, "It's kind of hard to considering you're not exactly the most trustworthy person I know."

"Well why would I lie?"

"That's your prerogative, I'm not looking for a reason behind what you tell me, I'm looking for the better way out and so far, the way I see it despite Strongheart's evil intent he gave us the chance at freedom."

Blackfire scowled and clenched her hands into tight fists of frustration, "He could be lying to you and you'd still take his side over mine?"

"…"

She growled when I didn't respond, "I will not be ushered to my execution without a fight!"

Through the reflection of the glass I saw Blackfire's eye's glow dark lavender and she was aimed directly at me, but she never got the shot off, not with X on standby. I had no idea he had saved the suppressant he had picked off of my neck, but I was relieved when he jumped Blackfire from behind and strapped the device on. She screamed in outrage when she was turned powerless and held down by a mere human that she could have otherwise thrown out the window without much effort at all. X remained on top of her, pressing her stomach flat to the ground, her hands behind her back with his knee holding her hands against her lower-back Blackfire screamed again, "I have done nothing personally wrong to –!!"

I cut her off, "You tried to have your sister, my friend, killed numerous times did you really think I wouldn't take it personal? For your own sake Blackfire, keep your mouth closed, or I will make Strongheart's life easier and kill you myself."

She challenged me with a sneer that I didn't see while I concentrated on landing this ship near the massive crater where the arena was in. I came in at a hover and Blackfire hissed, "You can't kill me … you don't have the heart."

Once the ship was down, turned off, and the cargo-ramp was dropped so we can off-load I stood face to face with the tall alien ex-princess as she glared down at me with such a dark look that it could have reduced me to ashes if she were to have her powers fully functional. Just before X dragged her off the ship I reminded her of one simple fact that most people overlook about me, "You don't know me."

With that I helped X drag her off the ship, but it was then did I notice her hands were bound by the itchy rope that held us together on Crisious Prime. I shot him a questioning look and like he usually does, he smirked and winked at me as if it were a joke meant to only be shared by us. I rolled my eyes and sighed when I noticed three Tameranian males fly up from the crater, Strongheart at the lead as he dropped from the sky and quickly approached us with a very devious grin on his face when his sights were set on our catch.

X kicked the back of Blackfire's knee and forced her to the ground, I shot him another look, but he ignored me as he held Blackfire's head and forced it to the ground to take the lead in the transactions. I let him, only because I was curious to know what he was planning, I could see it in his amber eyes, that mischievous glimmer that said: I'm up to no good. He jerked his head to the side in order to get a cowlick of hair from his sights and glared at Strongheart, "You know … I should have told you this before, but I don't do kidnapping."

Strongheart chuckled, "Oh I am quite aware of it, that's why I lied, I had to get someone to bring this hexezbrk'fe back on Tameran to finally complete our tournament." He crouched to Blackfire's level and grasped her chin in his hand to force her to look at him, Blackfire stubbornly tried to resist, but he was obviously stronger, "For what is a celebration without a sacrificial lamb, hmm?"

Blackfire sneered, "You act as if killing me will solve your people's problems, our lineage will go on and there is nothing you can do to stop it."

"I never said I wanted to wipe your bloodline off the face of this terra, but just to be able to kill one of you will suffice." He roughly released her and stood up, he gestured for his men to take Blackfire away, but X dragged her back away from them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down here for a second, what about our little phone call, you said if we did this you'd call up Earth to come pick us up."

Strongheart impatiently huffed and blinked, "Already done, now all you have to do is wait."

Again his men made a grab for Blackfire, but this time X picked Blackfire up by her forearm and swung her around so she was behind him, she grunted and whimpered at the harsh treatment she even glared up at X, but didn't say anything and let X do all the talking. And I wasn't so sure that was a good idea, I knew X wasn't the nicest nor the easiest guy to get along with, especially when he was purposefully trying to be an ass. Not only that, but with narrowed eyes I was beginning to suspect that he was stalling for something, probably trying to figure out a way to save Blackfire perhaps?

Why would he want to?

Morality maybe?

I don't know, but for whatever the reason, X was enjoying his little game, "Okay then, we'll wait till the Titans get here and then you can have your princess …" he looked at me, "The T-Ship has warp-drive right?" I nodded, he grinned and faced the scowling Strongheart, "Well, you said with warp-drive it won't take long to get from Earth to Tameran, so … I'm sure you can wait for a few right?"

Strongheart growled, "You are testing my patience human …" his eyes started to glow and I felt his aura grow stronger, bigger, brighter, and meaner, "Give me Toriand'r … or you both will be thrown back into the arena to fight the sluzgnorfs."

His men changed targets, they aimed for us and the moment they tried to grab me, I pulled out the blaster still tucked into the back of my shorts, armed it, and pointed at the hesitant Tameranian. Beside me, X had done the same with a cocky smirk on his face, "Tell your boys to back off or I set Blackfire free and we'll really have a party."

Strongheart snorted, "Toriand'r is a coward and a thief, she'll more than likely take flight than stand and help you fight."

Blackfire spoke up, "Oh, but for you Ja'marnixzz I'll make a special exception."

X chuckled, "You know what they say: Hell hath no fury … do you really wanna get your hands dirty for this?"

Strongheart flew high into the sky and his men followed his example, I sank into a defensive pose and slid up closer to X to whisper, "We're about to go up against three Tameranians … you sure in that arena match you didn't knock something loose in your head?"

"Pretty sure, but then again after our little talk I'm not sure my blood is going to all the right places if ya know what I mean."

I scowled, "Oh yeah, crack your sex jokes now while you still have a life to waste."

Strongheart, a top his high perch floated over our heads and stared us down like little insects he would no doubly squash without hesitation. The glow in his eyes grew brighter and began to spark as he shouted loud enough to make his voice boom across the empty plains, "This is your last chance human! Hand over the princess, or die!"

Blackfire scoffed and rolled her lavender eyes, "True born idiot, I was dethroned, I no longer hold a title."

X scoffed, "What is up with this guy anyway? Why does he need you right now?"

"To complete the ritual of course … the official tournament of low-lives can't begin unless someone of noble blood is slaughtered … just like my cousin was."

"Hmm … then I guess there's no point in reasoning with him," a quick glance at X, I saw him undo Blackfire's bindings. She sighed in relief and swirled into the air to hover over us much the same as Starfire would when she was in her battle-ready mode. Her eyes glowed a dark purple with her fisted-palms matching as she glared at Strongheart through her brows, X charged his blaster and stood beside me with a smirk, "well … can't say we didn't try to handle this peacefully. So let the good times roll."

Strongheart cried in outrage, "You fools will all die!"

Without hesitation I flipped my blaster to X and took to the skies while Blackfire darted forward, "Ja'marnixzz is mine!"

I brought forth my power from its depths and screamed, "Azarath! Metrion! Zinthous!"

The entire ground shuddered under my power as I cut out chucks of the earth and flung it at the Tameran who advanced me; I flew backwards while he smashed through the boulders like feathered pillows and with his eyes fired a concentrated blast of green energy. I quickly brought up a shield, but the impact threw me back down to earth where I nearly fell on X as he rolled under me, and let loose a stream of laser-bullets. Apparently, they were small machine guns and with each shot he nailed his opponent, but with the Tameranian's metallic arm-guards he blocked every shot then rained down his explosive starbolts.

I got on my hands and knees, but X grabbed the back of my cloak and would have dragged me out of the way if I hadn't already got to my feet and ran along side him. When the rain was over, we both skidded to a stop, back-to-back when I saw the man who shot me out of the sky floating a foot off the ground his right hand fisted and a dark smirk on his face. I prepared to charge, but X made a gesture that caught my attention when he said, "Launch me."

"Huh?"

"Launch me! Come on!" He leapt as high as he could in the air, and without further question I flew up with him, grabbed his wrist and encased him in my darkness. As fast as I could I spun us both around and on my second revolution I flung X back down with enough force to kill him if he should hit the ground with a nasty splat. I had no time to notice him flip into position so his foot was grabbed by the Tameranian, but before he could smash X to the ground, X took aim and fired pointblank in his face, unfortunately it was not a lethal charge.

My opponent on the other hand had fired starbolt after starbolt and forced me to throw up a shield as he flew up to me to smash my shield with sheer brute strength. The force he put behind that one punch made my head ring and my shield crumble; he didn't hesitation to bring me back down to the earth face first with him subduing me. At least he had tried to subdue me, tentacles of dark energy shot up all around our mini crater and wrapped around his limbs. He cried out in panic and used his eyes to try and free himself, but I managed to wobble back up on my feet to run and nail a genuine fly kick in his gut that would have smashed him back to the ground.

However, I wasn't finished with him, I had at the same time grabbed his wrist and swung him around to throw him across the plains, but as it turns out, X had done the same to his opponent and so the two Tameranian's slammed into one another. They stumbled away from each other with ringing ears, but X and I charged them both and with simultaneous axe-kicks we brought them both to the ground. X tossed me back my blaster and without hesitation I charged it, and fired execution style to the back of one of the Tameranian's head. The shot, if it were at a lethal charge would have killed him … but since that wasn't my aim, I simply knocked him unconscious. For how long? I don't know, but for now it would end a fight that should have never have been brought about to begin with.

I sighed heavily, but I didn't let my guard down just yet, not when I heard a scream of anguish echo throughout the empty plains. It was Blackfire, I looked all around in search for her, and only when I looked up into the sky did I see the barely-clad ex-princess struggling within Strongheart's single handed grasp around her small neck. He squeezed hard and her scream was silenced and replaced with a squeak of pain. I gritted my teeth when I saw his lips moving, but I could not make out what he was saying, not from where I was, so I crouched to launch myself in the air to help, but X held up his blaster and took aim.

I paused and shot him a bewildered look, "What do you think you're doing?"

He disregarded me, "Relax … I've done this before."

I glared warningly, "X …"

"I said relax," his entire body was completely still, relaxed, even his aura was calm and collected if not a little excited and pumping with energy after our fight. He tilted his head, kept both eyes open, and without hesitation he pulled the trigger and the laser sliced through the air and nailed Strongheart on the wrist that clutched at Blackfire's throat.

He cried out and Blackfire fell to the ground, I ran to catch her, but she regained consciousness and hovered over the ground just before she was seriously injured. She growled, her ferocity returned and she glared up at Strongheart as he snarled down at us, "This does not concern you humans! Stay out of it!"

X scowled and shouted back, "Shut up and get your ass down here so I can kick it!"

I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to growl, "Are you crazy?"

He chuckled and shrugged, "What? It's not like he's actually going to do anything."

"What makes you think that?"

He pointed to the sky behind me, and I turned to notice about five Tameranian fighter-jets closing in, X said, "Because I don't think it's legal to kill people here on this planet either sunshine."

He was right, I looked up at Strongheart to watch him glare at the same ships we were staring at and then took off in the opposite direction while Blackfire gently touched the ground and rubbed her neck, "Well … this is bittersweet, apparently they've tracked your fuel signature. Clever."

Truly, this was bittersweet.

Here I was, stranded on a planet in a world I hardly understood with one known criminal and a thief who's identity was already in question where my leader was concerned. Could I look any guiltier than I already was? With another heavy sigh I prepared for contact when we were surrounded by the attack-ships and I thought dryly to myself, Great … now how am I going to explain this one …

--

Disclaimer: Don't own the Teen Titans, don't own Tameran, DC owns all dat … I do own the name Toriand'r, and I do own Strongheart … yeah … the end …

A/N: YAY!! They're going to prison again!! Whoopie!! Yeah … right … um … yeah, this chapter, pretty straightforward so any questions or comments you know what to do and thanx for reading until next time!

L8er daez