Hello everyone! Hope you're all ready for yet more Teen Titanic awesomeness, because here's a new chapter! In this chapter, the alliance of Titans, Tamaraneans, and Gordanians celebrates their great victory against Blackfire and the Umbrosians from the previous chapter; complete with Greerak granting Starfire an especially generous formal favor. However, could there yet be reason for them to be wary despite their current celebratory mood? Let's find out. Shall we? Here's hoping you read, review, and enjoy!
A/N: But first, I'd best remind you all once more that I do not own Teen Titans, or anything else DC based. And with my legal bases now covered, onward with the fic!
Chapter 11:
A Celebration Gone Wrong
Robin was uncertain how to feel as he sat upon a bench at the Gordanian Communal Feast Hall. As happy as he was about the victory the previous day, he was also bewildered by just how easily he and the titans, plus the Tamaraneans as a whole, still seemed to be getting along so well with the Gordanians in the aftermath of the previous day's battle. The less than graceful table manners of all the Tamaraneans, plus the equally horrid table manners of all the Gordanians, certainly didn't help.
Beast Boy blanched as he caught sight of a group of hungry Tamaranean warriors tearing legs off of what looked like roasted animals resembling tusked and scaly mixes between pigs and triceratops and ravenously stuffing themselves with gigantic mouthfuls of the meat. "Good grief," he managed to state quietly. "And I thought that the dinner we attended on Tamaran during the almost wedding was crazy. Starfire definitely learned proper table manners on Earth."
"I'll say," said Raven, shaking her head at the sight of several Gordanian warriors swilling their native ale straight from the tankards. "The Gordanians certainly aren't any better."
"I'll admit," Cyborg said, taking a break from his own hearty feasting on a serving of the triceratops-pig beasts being served, but with his mouth full. "I've seen better table manners in my day."
Robin raised his eyebrow. "Well isn't that a case of the pot calling the kettle black?"
Starfire, herself in the middle of her own vicious partaking in the feast, lifted her head, her own eyebrow raised in confusion. "Last time I checked, there are no talking pots or kettles here, and what do such things have to do with friend Cyborg's statement?"
Robin sighed, pinching his nose in annoyance. "I'll explain later," he grumbled. Starfire briefly remained confused. But then she shrugged, and resumed her vicious feasting upon her food. Cyborg, likewise, resumed his engorging upon the meat he'd served himself. Raven and Beast Boy, meanwhile, pushed their own still untouched plates forward.
"I'm not hungry," said Beast Boy.
Robin sighed, and pushed his own half eaten plate of food forward. "Me neither," he grumbled. Cyborg and all the Tamaraneans and Gordanians, naturally, continued their ravenous massacre of the huge victory feast.
. . . . .
Right as the feast was finally starting to wind down, Greerak raised his trident and slammed the blunt end on the floor thrice. All the Gordanians present turned their attention towards their king. The Tamaraneans and titans, both intrigued and wishing to be polite, similarly turned their attention to Greerak.
"Friends, Gordanians, countrymen, lend me your ears. Tonight, we celebrate a great victory!"
The Gordanians all cheered in agreement. The Tamaraneans also nodded in agreement with Greerak's statement. Starfire and the other titans, however, were the only ones to stay silent and motionless during this moment.
"Just last week," Greerak stated, eager to continue his speech, "we were subjected to a cowardly attack by the foul Tamaranean exile Komand'r and an army of our centuries old enemies, the living shadows of Umbrosia! With this attack, our cities and buildings lay in ruins, and several of our important nobles and soldiers, my father included, lay dead underneath. But only yesterday, we rose from the ashes, and claimed a great triumph against these vile enemies!"
The audience once again started cheering.
"However," Greerak continued, a serious look coming on his gecko-like face. "Credit for this great success cannot be fully attributed to any Gordanian. We had allies that had previously joined with us to combat the living shadows the previous time centuries ago, only to later tragically become our mortal enemies once more in the interval between then and now; the Tamaraneans."
The Gordanians turned to face the Tamaraneans, who shrugged, and then started waving and nodding their heads in acknowledgement.
"Yes, after countless years of enmity directly enforced by pride and alternative facts, we were able to restore our old alliance with the Tamaraneans. What do we have to show for it?" He lifted his hands and trident in triumph, lifting his head to face the ceiling. "We stand alive, free, and victorious against the living shadows and the accursed Tamaranean exile who dares to lead them in Nightfire's footsteps!"
The Gordanians cheered once more, and this time the Tamaraneans cheered just as raucously alongside them. Even Starfire and the other titans couldn't help but smile and nod their heads.
"But wait."
The cheering stopped, and dead silence hung in the air.
"Even the rebirth of that alliance alone wasn't the biggest factor to contribute to this victory. Ever since the time of King Sombragor, the entirety of our culture had become defined by his arrogance and refusal to accept his own faults, let alone any of our race and history as a whole. Our history was erased, locked away, and rewritten with blatant lies. Even with the living shadows on the rise to attack and destroy us both, there would have been no guarantee that we and the Tamaraneans would have been at all willing to work together against them."
The young king took a deep breath. "When the initial group of uninvited visitors from Tamaran were forced on our land by the living shadows, it would have been all too easy for us to slay them where they stood and be done with it. But there was one individual amongst this group of guests who made it possible for all our collective eyes to be exposed to the truth, and for the alliance to receive the rebirth it so desperately needed for all our sakes."
He directed his head so that he was looking straight at Starfire, and then pointed at her. "Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, arise."
At the sight of the mass scrutiny she found herself under after this, Starfire gulped, and hung her head. But then she steeled herself, rising to her feet to face the young Gordanian king. Greerak directed his head towards the still seated Yarboth and Garzvohg. The two generals rose from their seats and departed from the feast hall.
There was no time to wonder why the two generals had apparently been ordered to leave at this time before Greerak continued. "Step forward."
Starfire took a deep breath, exhaled, and stepped forward until gestured to stop at the base of the stairs leading up to Greerak's table. Greerak flew over to Starfire's location, landing on his feet right in front of her. With further prompting from him, Starfire turned around to face the gathered larger audience while Greerak repositioned himself so that he was standing next to her instead of behind her.
"She is the one truly deserving of credit for our current salvation! Let us all be honest, she had every reason to hate us and want us all dead just like the rest of her people did! Our kind had fought a long and bitter war against her people six years ago! And even more heartlessly, one of her own people had callously sold her to us as a slave! A slave! To serve a joyless, hopeless, lifeless existence as a soulless and barbaric gladiator doomed to forever spend her days and nights fighting to the bloody end against wild beasts, battle robots, and other warriors for the amusement of crowds in the accursed Citadel Coliseum!"
The audience snarled as one in vicious assent to Greerak's rage, the Tamaraneans considerably more venomously then the Gordanians.
"She had all this prior ammunition, plus the fact that my men were willing to slaughter her and her friends immediately upon arrival, and were accusing her and her people of deliberately ordering her exiled sister to make her attack on our planet the previous week! She could have given into her rage and called for our blood! But despite all the reason she had to despise us, she chose instead to take a more diplomatic approach, and that has made all the difference!"
He raised his left fist. "The war is far from over, and Komand'r and the foul god that the living shadows worship still have yet to show their faces in battle themselves! I will be honest about that. Nonetheless, we have won a magnificent victory in a battle against them, and until the time comes tomorrow for us to ready ourselves to once again go to battle with those monsters, we shall spend what little time remains before then continuing to enjoy and celebrate our triumphant success against them!"
The Gordanians and Tamaraneans cheered once more, this time with Beast Boy and Cyborg joining in while Robin and Raven merely nodded their heads and smiled in Starfire's direction. Starfire blushed, and hung her head modestly as this happened.
"But first, there is something special I have arranged for myself to do for our distinguished guest, Princess Koriand'r herself."
The doors to the feast hall opened, and everyone present turned their heads in time to see Yarboth and Garzvohg enter. For a brief moment, however, all of the patrons' eyes widened in a mixture of shock and horror at the sight of what looked very disturbingly like Gordanian slave cuffs. Starfire, in particular, was especially shocked due to how they resembled the very same ones she'd been forced to wear immediately after being sold to the Gordanians.
"Do not be alarmed," Greerak yelled. "I know that this looks bad. But fear not! These cuffs that Generals Yarboth and Garzvohg carry have been brought here exclusively for a ceremonial purpose! Nothing more, nothing less!"
For a tense moment, everyone in the room remained on guard. Then, one by one, they all calmed down and relaxed. Though Starfire's fellow titans, plus all of the Tamaraneans, remained somewhat wary compared to the Gordanians. Greerak nodded in understanding, knowing full well that what he appeared to be setting up was perfectly worth suspicion.
The two generals walked up to where their king stood alongside Starfire and handed over the pair of cuffs. Greerak lifted them up, making sure that the entirety of the audience could see them. He turned to face Starfire, extending the cuffs towards her. "Koriand'r," he stated, "if you feel comfortable with doing so, then place your hands within these cuffs."
Starfire thought to herself. "If I were to do so, would they be closed around my hands? If yes, will they be locked?"
"Yes," Greerak admitted. "But I assure you, it will all just be part of the show. Of that, I give my word. You'll have nothing to fear."
Starfire thought to herself once more, then looked back at her fellow titans, all of whom seemed unsure what to think. She looked back at Greerak. "Very well, I will allow this. But be warned, if you violate your word. . ."
"I know. I will be punished greatly. Deservedly so."
"Good."
She extended her arms, placing her hands within the open cuffs. Greerak closed them, the cuffs instantly locking themselves in the process. He turned to face the audience. "As you know, six years ago, at the conclusion of our kind's war with Tamaran, Koriand'r was sold to Gordania as a slave. But of course, mere days after the sale, while the late Trogaar and his men were heading off to the Citadel home world with Koriand'r and various other prime fighting stock in tow, she escaped right as they were passing by Earth. From there, the efforts to recapture her were foiled by Koriand'r herself alongside four other powerful teenage warriors of Earth, and they were promptly driven away afterward by both these five titans and the added threat of the Justice League potentially getting involved."
He raised his finger, his orange eyes narrowed. "However, while our kind's partnership with the Citadel was ended immediately after this, my father largely dismissed her as mere hopelessly lost property, and Koriand'r has spent the last five years a free woman alongside her four friends from Earth, the simple fact is that, for these same five years, she has still remained, from a legal and technical standpoint, our property."
The Gordanians raised their eyebrows, the Tamaraneans clenched their fists, and the titans tensed themselves in case they'd need to fight. In contrast, the only ones apart from Greerak to remain calm and collected were Starfire and the two generals. The two generals were already aware of what it was their king had planned, whereas Starfire simply chose to keep faith in Greerak's word.
"However," Greerak said. "As it so happens, I have the contract that Trogaar signed with the one who sold her to us. Let's see what the terms of it are. Shall we?"
He drew out a scroll, obviously the aforementioned contract, unfurled it, and began to read it. After several minutes of tense silence, he closed his eyes and nodded his head. "As I suspected, while Trogaar was the one who met with the seller, agreed to the sale, and signed the contract as the accepting buyer, all that was only made possible by the explicit approval of my father, King Vraarak. Furthermore, as Trogaar was proud enough to brag to my father about, since the king himself gave his approval, the contract and the slavery granted by it can only be undone by the king's explicit word. Not even the death of the king will be enough to dissolve it."
Then he raised his finger, his eyes open and agleam with sudden happiness. "But wait! Before any of you gets confused or angry, listen to me again! I said, only the explicit word of 'the king' can dissolve the bonds of this contract. I didn't say that explicitly only my father Vraarak himself could have the power to dissolve the contract, did I?"
All the audience members thought to themselves, and their eyes all widened as, one by one, they realized the truth in the young Gordanian king's statement.
"Yes," said Greerak. "The contract, and my father's own words, made it very clear that only the explicit word of a Gordanian king could do away with the servitude status of any of our slaves. As we all know very well, my father Vraarak would have never allowed such a thing to happen, and possibly neither would have my brother Trarak! But with both my father and brother dead, I am king now! I now hold the authority and power to choose whether to solve this dilemma, or let it continue, and I already know exactly what I shall do." He clapped his hands twice.
Yarboth and Garzvohg stepped forward, the former drawing out a green crystalline key, which he handed to the young Gordanian king. Starfire's eyes widened, and so did the eyes of the rest of the audience.
Greerak lifted the key high in the air to ensure that the entire audience could see it. He turned to face Starfire, the key now lowered and firmly clasped in both of his hands. "Koriand'r," he stated. "If I may?"
Starfire extended her cuffed hands forward, and Greerak grabbed onto them, the key at the ready. "As of now," he began as he proceeded to unlock first the right cuff, and then the left one. "I hereby formally release you from your servitude to us."
Starfire pulled her hands out of the unlocked cuffs, which Greerak in turn pulled away from her. The Gordanian king turned around to face the audience and slammed the cuffs on the floor at his scaly feet. Then he extended his right hand in the direction of his two generals. "Garzvohg," he said, "the ax."
Garzvohg drew an intimidating, yet also very beautiful, looking battleax from his belt, handing it to his king in the process. Greerak raised the ax high above his head. "To truly seal the deal and emphasize how Koriand'r, the true unsung hero of this great tale, is once and forevermore no longer our slave, I shall take the ceremonial ax of execution and do this!"
He swung the ax down, the blade slamming down on the connecting strip of metal between the two open cuffs, shattering it and sending the two now disconnected cuffs sliding off to the sides, at which point they were blasted to ashes by the bursts of Yarboth and Garzvohg's tridents.
The king gestured towards the four still seated titans, smiling happily on sight of Starfire's own joyous smile. "I grant you leave now Koriand'r," he then said, "to join once more with your friends and consort as a well and truly free woman." He turned his head to face the rest of the audience, raising his hands triumphantly into the air and sending the contract scroll flying into the air before landing into the flames of a nearby brazier. "As for the rest of us, for the sake of both expressing our joy for this injustice finally being undone and making the most out of what time remains before we must resume our war with the living shadows, let us continue our great and glorious celebration!"
The audience once again cheered, this time with all three of the titan boys joining in while Raven nodded with a warm smile on her face. Starfire walked over to them, her own face similarly glowing with a smile. When she arrived back at their table, her friends were quick to talk with her. "How does it feel?" Beast Boy asked.
"I'm glad you asked. It feels quite the good."
"I'll admit," said Cyborg. "Considering how bad it looked when those cuffs got brought in, what happened just now was a darned nice thing for Greerak to do for you."
"You can say that again," Robin agreed. He looked in Greerak's direction, and then pointed his finger towards the exit. "Would it be ok for us to leave?"
Starfire nodded. "Well Greerak did grant me leave to join up with you. So yes, I suppose it would be acceptable for us to leave right now." She gestured towards the doors. "Come friends, let us depart to celebrate elsewhere."
The five teen heroes departed from the feast hall together, leaving all the adults to party to their hearts' content. But as they did so, neither they, nor any of the partying adults, noticed the one single apparent Tamaranean guard who directed a glare in their direction. This same guard got up from his chair and surreptitiously made his way out of the feast hall to follow the five teens.
. . . . .
Cyborg walked towards what he hoped to be the Gordanian palace's kitchen. Half an hour had passed the titans' departure from the feast hall and they had decided to split up to have some alone time. In the case of his four younger friends, the definition of 'alone time' seemed to be more inclusive then what the phrase implied, as he was the only one to not have a partner of some sort alongside him. Nevertheless, he now chose to find the kitchen due to now starting to feel very hungry and willing to see if he could have some further helpings of the surprisingly delicious Gordanian food, especially the meat, he'd gotten to taste over the course of his time in the feast hall.
"You appear to be lost."
Cyborg jolted, and turned around, only to relax upon sight of an elderly Gordanian that he recognized as the palace chef. "Oh, yeah, I suppose you could say I am." He chuckled, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "You see I . . ."
"Let me guess, you're looking for the kitchen?"
"Is it that obvious?"
The chef tapped his ladle against his left palm. "His Majesty did say that you in particular seemed to enjoy our food a lot more than the rest of your Earthling brethren."
Cyborg raised his eyebrow in interest. "Oh he did, did he?"
"Yes, and as a matter of fact, his talk with me about that is actually why I'm here. The Tamaraneans have departed from the feast hall, but my kin wish to have one last round of food and drink while the Tamaraneans are relaxing outside, and his Majesty sent me back here to prepare these final servings for the feast." He narrowed his eyes. "I presume that you will likely now ask if I could allow you to have a couple extra servings of swamp grazer."
Cyborg, remembering how that title had been used to refer to the triceratops pig hybrid that had been amongst the dishes in the feast hall, licked his lips before responding. "You read my mind."
The chef rolled his eyes and hissed. "Out of respect for your friend, the newly formally freed Princess Koriand'r, and gratitude for you and your friends' work alongside us in yesterday's battle, I shall set aside a serving or two for you once I've finished preparing the final round for my kin. But know this, I will only allow you this one freebie. Understood?"
"Yes."
"Good." The chef walked up to the door directly to his right. "Please wait out here while I do my. . ."
He paused, his eyes suddenly narrowing, and he sniffed the air. "Someone has been in my kitchen."
Cyborg's eyes widened. "It wasn't me!"
"Do you think me a fool? Of course it wasn't you!" The chef took another sniff. "Yes, definitely not you. This smell, it is Tamaranean . . . and a male one at that." He leaned forward, his head going through the open doorway. Then he tensed up, and he hurried into the kitchen, the sound of metallic clanging and rattling ensuing. Cyborg hurried over to peek inside just in time to see the chef looking into what appeared to be an open pot filled with some sort of native Gordanian plant . . . or more accurately, half filled with said plant.
"Whoever was in here," the chef hissed, "stole a portion of my midnight ember herb supply!"
"Is that a problem?" Cyborg asked.
"I don't know," the chef snapped. "I don't even know why anyone would want to steal such a thing! We use it for spice and flavor!" He paused, now deep in thought. "Although, if grounded into a powder and mixed with the right additional ingredients, it can also be used to make a powerful. . ." He paused, his eyes widening with horror. "Anesthetic drug." He turned his head to face Cyborg. "Where are your friends?"
"Beast Boy and Raven are in the garden, and I think Robin and Star might have expressed interest in visiting the celebration chamber."
"Find them! I have a bad feeling they might be needed in the near future!" He hurried out of the kitchen, Cyborg just barely getting out of the way in time. "I'll go warn his Majesty and the rest of the army!"
. . . . .
Raven was meditating calmly in the central pavilion of the palace gardens, seated in a lotus position, and her eyes closed. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
Upon feeling a familiar mental presence suddenly pop in her mind, she sighed, and opened her eyes. "Beast Boy. Surely you are aware of how that's probably not the safest way you could be spending your time right now."
A green boa constrictor extended its head and neck from the leaves of a nearby tree, hissed slightly at Raven, and then slowly slithered all the way down to the ground. It reverted back to the familiar human form of the green shape shifter. "Good to see you to Rae."
"It's Raven, and I'm serious. Do you have any idea how dangerous it could be for you to just go playing around amongst the plants here?"
"Come on Raven, they're just trees. Besides, it can be surprisingly relaxing slithering through them as a snake."
"These aren't earth trees Beast Boy. We have no idea what sort of plant life can be found on this planet. For all you know, there could be a flesh-eating tree in this garden. Or worse, there could even be a tree with bark that's poisonous to the touch. You sure you want to take those kinds of risks?"
"You take the fun out of everything."
"That seems to be my specialty around you."
"Yeah, but at least you care."
"Uh-huh."
"Well hey, if you really want me to be safe from any potential homicidal plants around here, maybe I could join you in your meditating?"
Raven raised her eyebrow in disbelief.
"I'm serious." He gestured to the area around him. "I mean, we've got plenty of time, and there's nothing else we need to do right now. Besides, it could make a good bonding experience; and that kind of thing could certainly help with our next battle combo."
Raven sighed. "If you say so. But I'm warning you now, this kind of thing takes practice, patience, and especially focus. You can't learn this kind of thing within three or four minutes. Understood?"
"Understood."
Beast Boy took a seat next to Raven, and the sorceress raised her hands into her standard meditation position. "Find your center," she began. "Focus your energy, and . . ."
The wind blew against her and Beast Boy's faces, and the sound of an apparent shriek of disgust from the changeling caused Raven's eyes to widen in surprise, her hands instinctively glowing with black energy.
"My bad," said Beast Boy when he noticed this, his fingers now pinching his nose as if trying to block off a foul smell. "Sudden horrible smell reached my nose and I got thrown off. Sorry."
Raven sighed in irritation. "It's ok," she managed to say. "Just, try to be more careful how you react to sensory stimuli next time . . ."
She raised her eyebrow at a suspicious detail she was now seeing in front of her. "Beast Boy. That tree you were in not too long ago. Do you see anything suspicious near the roots?"
Beast Boy looked carefully at the tree, turning into a red-tailed hawk for good measure. He reverted to human form.
"Hmm, it does look like someone's been doing a bunch of digging lately around that tree. Although granted, that could easily be the result of the groundskeeper, or maybe some animal. Then again, that smell earlier did seem to be like that of a dead body . . ."
Raven extended her hands towards the dirt, which then glowed, and levitated into the air before being placed on the ground to the right of its original location. She got up from her seat, walked over to where the dirt had originally been, and looked down into the newly exposed hole in that location. Beast Boy got up and joined her, only for his eyes to widen in shock at the sight of what lay at the bottom of the hole. Raven similarly found herself blanching in shock at what she now saw.
As Beast Boy had unwittingly caused Raven to suspect, there was a dead body at the bottom of the hole. The body, which appeared to be that of a relatively young Tamaranean man dressed in nothing but a loin cloth, appeared to have had his head rapidly yanked around a complete 180 so that it was facing upwards despite his body lying in a 'facedown' position, his face now forever frozen in an expression of shock. Since the body hadn't yet decomposed, it was clear that whoever this Tamaranean was had been killed and buried fairly recently.
"Oh God," said Beast Boy.
"No kidding," said Raven.
"Yo! BB! Raven!"
The chromatically challenged duo turned their heads in time to see Cyborg coming to a stop nearby. "Guys, I need you to come with me! I think there might be an emergency . . . holy smoke!"
He had now caught sight of the dead Tamaranean. He got down on his knees and gazed carefully at the corpse, his eyes still widened and mouth gaping open in shock. "Oh my God, what the heck happened . . . wait a second." He pointed at the corpse's right arm; or more specifically, at a long dark scar on his right forearm. "That scar! I recognize it! This was one of the guards! He came by me after he'd finished bathing yesterday while I was polishing my armor, and he helped me out before he left! Ah man, I was going to thank him for that later this evening!"
Then his face seemed to blanche. "Oh no."
"What?"
"This same guy, I could have sworn he was at the feast hall."
"What makes you say that?"
"When in armor, he also had very distinctive gloves. All the other Tamaraneans have emeralds in their gloves. But his gloves had topazes, and there was someone in the feast hall wearing his gloves."
"That guy must have been an imposter," said Raven.
Cyborg got back on his feet and started to hurry back towards the garden's exit. "Come on! We've gotta find Rob and Star!"
"Why?" Beast Boy asked. "What's going on?"
"I'll explain on the way!" Cyborg yelled. "But the short answer? We may be in trouble!"
. . . . .
Robin waited patiently on a bench within the palace celebration chamber, waiting for Starfire to return from her apparent errand. Earlier, they had been sitting together, sentimentally remembering the day they'd met for the first time as well as other important days in their lives that they'd since come to treasure. Then Robin had noted how this room in the palace reminded him very much of a standard ballroom and offered for Star to go ahead and have a dance with him. Starfire, after about a minute of thought, had proven quite happy to accept.
Unfortunately, they had been interrupted right as they were in position and ready to dance by the arrival of a guard who had informed Starfire that Galfore needed her for something. While Starfire had been willing at first to let Galfore and the guard wait, Robin had decided that whatever it was Galfore needed would be more important in the long term and promised her that he'd wait for her to come back. Thus, Starfire had departed with the guard.
He checked the time on his communicator, and his eyes narrowed. It was seeming to take an awfully long time for Starfire to finish whatever it was she'd been called away for. "It's probably nothing serious," he said to himself. "I mean, it's not like I have any reason not to trust a Tamaranean guard; even if his armor did look a little loose fitting on him, and the scar on his forearm looked as if it were a smudged stripe of makeup, and his hair seemed to have unnatural streaks of white in it." He shook his head rapidly, trying to get all these strange details out of his head. "Stop making yourself worry," he thought to himself. "Everything's fine . . . everything's fine . . . no everything's not fine."
The door suddenly burst open, and the boy wonder jolted out of his thoughts in time to see his friends come skidding in. At the sight of the very worried looks on their faces, he raised his eyebrow despite mentally feeling very alarmed. "Guys? What happened? Is something wrong?"
"Where's Starfire?" asked Raven.
He pointed behind them. "She left a little while ago with a guard. He said Galfore needed her for something."
"Can you track her?" Beast Boy said.
"Um, sure."
Robin accessed the tracking feature on his communicator and entered in Starfire's communicator ID. He got a result and showed it to his three team mates. "She's right outside the palace. Why?"
Beast Boy looked at Raven and Cyborg. "We've gotta go; now!"
"Why?"
Cyborg looked to his leader. "Robin. This guard you said Starfire left this room with; did he have topazes in his gloves?"
"Um . . . yes, as a matter of fact, he did. Why? Is everything alright?"
"We are, for now," said Beast Boy.
"But unless we hurry," Raven continued, "Starfire might not be."
"Yeah Rob, come on! We've gotta go," said Cyborg.
Robin snapped to attention. "Right. Titans go!"
. . . . .
Robin kicked open the front door to the palace, skidding to a stop at the other side of the drawbridge. "STAR!" he yelled. His masked eyes widened as he saw that apart from him and his friends, there was nobody present in the area. He turned his head left and right, desperately scanning for any sign of his girlfriend. "STAR! STARFIRE! WHERE ARE YOU!?"
Panting and gasping, he drew his communicator back out and tracked Starfire's once more. "It says she's right here."
"BB," said Cyborg. "See if you can sniff her out."
"On it."
Beast Boy turned into a bloodhound and started sniffing the area.
"What's going on?"
Robin, Cyborg, and Raven turned their heads in time to see Galfore, Greerak, and all the guards and soldiers in the combined army come to a stop. Robin pointed in their direction. "Have any of you seen Starfire?"
Greerak narrowed his eyes in confusion. "I thought she was with you."
"She was, but she left with a guard."
"More like some guy impersonating a dead guard in the palace garden," said Cyborg.
This sentence was enough to get Galfore, Karras, and Greerak instantly on guard. Galfore leaned forward towards Robin. "Where's Starfire now?"
"We're looking for her now," Robin explained, showing Galfore the tracking results on his communicator. "Though oddly enough, my tracker says she's somewhere around this area."
"Um . . . Robin? You might want to come see this."
Robin and everyone else turned their heads in time to see Beast Boy, now in human form once more, standing nearby a cluster of bushes holding a communicator and a scroll, and multiple pieces of discarded Tamaranean guard armor lying at his feet alongside a distinctive pair of Tamaranean gloves.
Robin's eyes widened, and he pointed at the communicator Beast Boy was holding. "Is that. . .?"
Beast Boy slipped the scroll under his arm and drew out his own communicator from his belt. "Yep, it's Star's."
Galfore hurried over to where Beast Boy was standing. "Let me see that scroll."
The changeling instantly handed the scroll over to the Tamaranean emperor. Galfore unfurled the scroll, read it carefully, and then clenched onto it tightly as he snarled in anger.
"What happened?" Cyborg asked.
"Yes," said Greerak. "What happened?"
"Read this," Galfore said as he handed the scroll to the young Gordanian king, who then read the scroll, and hissed angrily at what he saw.
"Just as I thought that vile worm couldn't get any more dishonorable and underhanded."
"Let me see," said Robin.
Greerak handed Robin the scroll, and the boy wonder proceeded to read it while Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy looked over his shoulders to read the scroll as well. As one, their eyes narrowed upon reading it. Their worst suspicions had now been confirmed. The supposed guard who'd left with Starfire earlier had been an imposter, and he'd now left Gordania and taken an unwilling Starfire with him.
And just like that, another chapter. And that being said, oh no! Starfire's been taken! Just how will things unfold from here!? All that said though, I hope very much that you enjoyed this chapter (not to mention like how Starfire was at least formally released from her nominal status as a slave to Gordania before her abduction) and that you leave plenty of feedback (remember, I require an exact minimum of two reviews for this chapter before I post the next chapter)! Once again, hope you enjoyed!
Coming up Next: Starfire finds herself held prisoner aboard Blackfire's brand-new personal luxury warship. And in the process, she has a not entirely pleasant reunion with both her older sister AND with Cometbolt, who she in turn comes to recognize as someone she indeed DID know very well before being sold to the Gordanians. Sound worth a read? I certainly hope so!