Without a glance back at her home planet, Starfire flies toward Earth. Robin, Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy. How could I forget them? she thinks to herself. She begins to realize the time they spent apart, feeling a longing for them and missing them so. She loves them all so much. Where are they now?
She approaches Earth, no more than maybe ten minutes away from its atmosphere. She aims toward North America. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she reached her true home. She can remember the beautiful view from the roof of the tower, the special place she shared with Robin. Oh Robin, where are you?
Not before long, she nears a large city. An unfortunate blank in her memory is exactly where Titan's Tower was. She could not name the city of its location. But she has a plan.
She plants her feet on the concrete behind a large building. She takes a minute to brush her fingers through her hair and smooth out her clothing. She's going to need to figure out something new to wear. Her royal garments were even more revealing than she remembers her Titan's uniform to be. She takes the crown from her face and holds it in her hands. After a moment's consideration, she tosses it in the dumpster.
Starfire lets out a sigh before making her way down the alley. She reaches a busy street. Traffic is piled up and people line the roads calling out "taxi". She sees billboards and posters lining the streets, but can't seem to understand what they are saying. She knew English, didn't she? Starfire could remember when she made lip contact with Robin when she first arrived on Earth. But for some reason, she couldn't understand a single word. She opens her mouth to speak, but only mumbles Tamaranean. She tries a couple of other alien languages and remembers those clearly. She shakes her head, frustrated. What a terrible time for her to forget English.
She notices a group of boys standing on the corner near a bench, seeming to be a designated bus stop. She decides that the boys are around seventeen years of age. Starfire walks up to them, obviously without saying a word, and plants her mouth against a short blond boy with glasses. She holds it there for a second, letting the information sink in. She pulls away and continues down the street, leaving the boy stunned behind her.
She follows a crowd along the sidewalk, glancing around and keeping her eye open for a library. She remembers a past trip to the library that she took with Raven. It was the first time she had ever seen one. After wandering around for hours, Raven found her sitting at a large, strange-looking computer.
"Friend Raven, what is this for?" Starfire presses on the keys randomly. Raven stops her hands.
"Here," says Raven. She motions for Starfire to get up from the chair. She takes the seat. "This is to look at records and newspapers. You can type in the search engine here," she points to the upper right corner of the screen. "Like I'm going to type Batman." She clicks on the keys, searching for the Dark Knight. "Press enter. Then it'll show me all the newspaper and magazine articles that Batman has ever been featured in." Starfire was astounded by that information. She could look up anyone? She spent the next hour reading every article ever written on the Teen Titans.
After about a half an hour of walking, she approached a man at a magazine stand. "Excuse me, sir?" The short man looked up at her from his newspaper. His eyes bugged out of his head.
"C-Can I help you, miss?"
She smiled kindly. "Could you possibly tell me where I can locate the library?"
He just blinked at her for a second. "Uh, yeah. You're just a block away." He leaned out of the magazine stand to point down the street. "Just get down to that light and take a left. A couple of buildings down and you'll hit a large marble monster of a monument. You can't miss it." He sits back down but keeps his eyes glued to her. She shudders when she notices his eyes travel down her body. She really needs to find some clothes that don't reveal her entire stomach.
"I thank you," she says, about to walk away. "Oh, but one more thing. Can you tell me what city I am in?"
"Steel City, miss. Hey, you look a lot like that Starfire."
"Oh yes. I have been told that I resemble her. Thank you for the information, sir." She bolts away from the man. While she knows she can be easily recognized, she doesn't want to confirm who she is. She would rather find the Teen Titan's before they hear about her return on the news.
She travels down the block and turns where the man says. Sure enough, she finds a large marble building with tall pillars in the front. She walks through the automatic doors, which do not seem fitting for such a beautiful building, and goes over to clerk's desk. As she approaches the desk, a stocky woman with glasses looks up at her with a strange look on her face. Starfire can't decide what she could be thinking. Maybe it's regarding her appearance? She shifts uncomfortably.
"Yeah?" asks the woman.
Starfire clears her throat. "Can you direct me to the computers that could locate newspaper articles about people that I search for?"
She gives her a look like she's an idiot. "Yeah, all the way in the back. Right side of the building." She looks back down at what she was doing before. How rude, thinks Starfire. But she just shrugs and walks to the back of the library. She reaches the far right corner and finds the computers. They're not as big as the one she had seen with Raven, but they seem to do the same. She enters the words "Teen Titans" into the search engine like Raven had showed her. She presses enter and waits for the information to flow. Suddenly, the screen comes alive with several different articles and video links from news channels. She tries to think back to the last memory she had of being with the Titans. She remembers it being the summer. She and Robin were holding hands walking through the hallway. It was time for bed, and they had been sharing his room. Summer. Summer… when? She looks through the articles and finds one dating back five years ago. Her name is mentioned in the article. It talks about Starfire and Robin being seen together at the park. So this is before she left Earth. She scrolls through the articles and catches her name in another one. It is titled, "Where Have Our Titans Gone?".
"The city grieves after the declared death of beloved hero Starfire, member of the Teen Titans. The twenty year old alien girl allegedly drowned in the sea after being knocked unconscious during battle against the notorious Slade. Though her body has still not been found, it was decided that there would be no way that she could have survived. The Titans have since been spotted fighting crime on a few occasions after the death of their team member. But after the Teen Titans failed to arrive at the scene of an attack by Cinderblock, Jump City began to wonder where their heroes might be. It was discovered that on Tuesday September 8th, the Titans evacuated their Tower." As she reads, tears begin to spill along her cheeks. The left Jump City on September 8th. Yes, Jump City, my true home. She begins to remember more. She looks through more articles, finding one about Beast Boy and Raven. "Months after the Titans disappeared, well-known heroes Raven and Beast Boy met up with the mayor of Jump City to discuss their return. Though it is unknown as to where the disappeared to for the past six months, we now know that the two will remain in the city. But they have one condition; they will not be expected to fight crime. They ex-heroes have no comment as to why they have given up their ways, but only say that they want to begin normal lives. Of course, we will always recognize them as Raven and Beast Boy, but they will walk among us as regular citizens of Jump City." Raven and Beast Boy stayed in Jump? But that was nearly three years ago. She's been off the planet for four years, who knows where they are now?
Robin, says a nagging voice in the back of her head. Her fingers pluck on the keyboard. She presses enter, sending his name through the computer. She scrolls through the articles, searching for any that were written in the past four years. If Raven and Beast Boy went back to Jump, then where were Cyborg and Robin? She finds a Gotham Times article from four years ago. Apparently, Batman got his Robin back for a few years. She typed in the search engine again. Dick Grayson. Just as she suspected, he returned back to the Wayne Manor at the same time that Robin returned. He had made an appearance at a number of parties. Her heart throbbed as she read about him. He never responded to any interviews regarding the Teen Titans. Or her. Apparently, his reactions to her name were not pleasant. The newspapers claimed he was "certainly heartbroken".
Starfire begins to feel the pain of the loss. As she reads about her friends, she realizes just how much she misses them. She thinks that even though she didn't remember them these past few years, part of her yearned for them. Yearned for her Robin.
Tears flowed as she stumbled across a few more recent articles. Dick Grayson's graduation from Gotham University. His departure from Gotham City and his father. His arrival at Bludhaven, working as a junior detective. It's just a hunch, but she searches for it anyway. Nightwing.
More tears escape her eyes as she discovers articles that locate Nightwing in Bludhaven. He still took the name. And she knew that he did it for her. Nightwing, she croons in her head. She'll have to get used to that. He'll be twenty-four now, just like the others, except for Cyborg. What does he look like now?
She types in one last name. Cyborg. There are no new articles about him. No arrival in a new city and he hasn't been spotted driving his "baby" around. She sighs. Where is my big brother?
She gets up from the computer and notices a large map on the wall. A little star with a "You Are Here!" indicated Steel City. She traces her finger around the map searching for Bludhaven. She leaves her finger there. Then she traces her other finger around to find Jump City. Jump is closer to Steel City than Bludhaven, and while she wants to get to Nightwing as soon as possible, it will save her time to find Raven and Beast Boy. Hopefully they are still in Jump, or this will be for naught.
She exits the library and heads to the back of the building. She tries to conjure up happy thoughts, thinking of her friends and her discoveries. Slowly her feet begin to lift off the ground. She pushes way from the concrete and soars in the direction of Jump City.
