"Alright Starfire, you're up first."
The Titans, along with Batman and Nightwing, had been in the training area of the batcave for the past three hours. They had all donned their uniforms. Cyborg of course remained the same. Beast Boy decided to keep his same style of uniform, but is thinking about creating a new name. He first considered Beast Man, but they all shut that down. Raven now wears her white cloak, but Starfire has yet to have a new uniform created. She's been speaking with Alfred about the details, and he's going to have it made for her. For now, she wears an old uniform brought out from Nightwing's storage, which is just a tad bit snug. But it still works.
During the training, Starfire and Cyborg have undergone tests of strength, pushing themselves to the absolute limit. Beast Boy also participated in this with several animal forms. Starfire could feel her energy coursing through her. She almost felt like herself again.
They all were tested on their agility and speed. Of course, the girls could fly, but Batman had a special course design for them. Object came flying at them through the air, chasing them as well. Starfire was impressed with the course. It gave her a real workout.
Now was hand to hand combat. Starfire walked up to Batman, who stood in the middle of a large space. It must be designated for such practices.
"No restrictions. You can use your flight, eyebeams and starbolts." He begins to walk away.
"Mr. Batman, are we not to engage in battle?"
"Not us," he says as Nightwing walks toward the center. "You will be fighting Nightwing."
"But…"
"He knows all of your fighting styles. He trained the Titans before. Take a minute to prepare." Batman goes to stand with the rest of the Titans who watch from the sidelines. Starfire casts a glare at Nightwing, who seems to be smirking. She shakes her head, takes a deep breath, and tenses up into a fighting stance. She starts to think… she doesn't want to fight Nightwing. She always hated sparring with him. She didn't mind it when he was teaching her something, but when it came to actually fighting…she could never do it. She couldn't imagine trying to hurt him. So she always had to practice with Beast Boy or Cyborg.
"You ready?"
She looks at Nightwing. He nods. She wants to say no, but she can't show weakness. The future of the Titans is at stake. So she nods as well. Batman blows a whistle, and Nightwing lunges for her.
She dodges a blow, shooting a starbolt at his hand which just grabbed a wrist dart from his gauntlet. He quirks an eyebrow as he shakes his wrist around. He moves toward her, launching as series of punches, which she continues to dodge. She holds up her arms to deflect his blows, not feeling much pain, though he exerts much effort. His expression turns frustrated as he swings a leg under her feet and pounces on her, pinning her wrists.
"You're being defensive. Fight me, Star!" His face is too close to hers. She can feel his breath. His angry face turns soft as his masked eyes bore into hers. She can almost see the blue beneath the fabric. Way too close. He begins to lean forward.
"No!" she shouts, and she blasts him with her eyebeams, silently hoping that she didn't hurt him. His body is forced off of her, and she flies up over him. He jumps up from the ground, releasing a birdarang. She moves quickly out of the way, directing a starbolt at him. She sees his eyes widen, and feels a slight breeze. She looks down, noticing a large gash. Not in her flesh, but in her clothing. Her already tight purple skirt was ripped over halfway up, and if she swayed around, her pink panties were exposed. There was a scratch on her skin, but nothing too painful.
"You know, we could take this to my bedroom, if you want," said Nightwing. She glared at him, his serious tone of voice bringing out her rage. How can he say that in front of the others? Her eyes began to glow green, embarrassment fueling her anger, as she flew towards him. As she approached, her gave her a swift kick to the stomach. This sent her to the ground. How could she not see that? "You really need to work on your reflexes, Star." She pushed herself up off the ground and threw a punch. He grabbed her fist with one hand and her wrist with his other, swinging his body down to slide beneath her legs. This motion flung her forward through the air in a somersault, smacking onto the ground on her back. He released his hold on her hand, standing up to lean down over her. She lay on the ground, catching her breath. She felt winded. "Come on, Starfire, you're better than this!" She pushed up, launching her fists at him again as she rose from the ground and into the air. He blocks all of her hits, displaying that frustrated expression again. "Fight me!" he screams at her again.
"I am trying!" She frantically throws her punches.
"I call bullshit," he says as he pulls out his escrima stick, twirling it around behind him before jabbing it at her. She grabs it, but suddenly she's turned around with her back against him, the stick against her throat. "You aren't trying. You're acting weak."
Rutha, the word itself surges through her body, uprooting a ferocity from deep within her. She begins shouting in Tamaranean, using all of her strength to remove herself from his grip, sending Nightwing flying back onto the ground. Starfire stalks toward him, and the warrior in her searches Nightwing's face for fear. She wants that fear. But she does not see that. The corner of his mouth twitches upward. The warrior cannot take his smile, and it lunges at him. It launches a series of starbolts at him. Nightwing scrambles back on his hands before pushing himself up. He deflects her blows with his escrima stick, but she gets too close. She finally lands a hard punch to his face, forcing him onto the ground. She stands over him, gloatingly, eyes glowing.
"Hor'tar banastil ner prtath'is rutha," she glares into his masked eyes before storming away. Nightwing lays on the ground, hand on his face, gaping at the Tamaranean girl's back.
"Starfire, you are not permitted to leave," says Batman sternly. Starfire turns to him, eyes still bright with green anger. Batman blanches, not protesting any further.
"Now look what you did," says Cyborg, as the Tamaranean exit's the batcave.
After another hour, the rest of the Titan's finish their combat practice. They all retreat upstairs to the dining room where Alfred has prepared an early dinner. Nightwing grumpily pushes his food around his plate, holding a bag of frozen peas to his cheek, trying not to make eye contact with any of the Titan's. They're all pretty pissed at him. They love Starfire, and they hate to see Nightwing pushing her around like he has been for the past few days.
Hell, Nightwing is pissed at himself. He wants to get Starfire back, but he's really not making it seem like he does. For some reason, he says and does all the wrong things. Maybe Raven is right. He became an asshole. He has to fix himself before he can fix his and Starfire's relationship.
Starfire didn't come down for dinner. She shut herself up in her room again like she did last night. Nightwing considered apologizing to her, but then his jaw throbbed, a nice little reminder of how angry she is. She actually punched him. He knew that she was holding back because she didn't want to hurt him. She always hated practicing with him. But he pushed her anyway. What an asshole thing to do.
How can he be such an ass of holes! Starfire screams in her mind. She lays on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. After she came upstairs, she changed into some sweatpants and a pink tank top. She actually tore her uniform off in anger, not caring to get rid of the shredded pieces that sit on the floor of her bedroom. Alfred had called her down to dinner about three hours ago, but she didn't want to face Richard. So she's been laying on her bed like this since then, and now its almost 9:00. She missed the sunset again.
She sighs. Maybe she should just forget the sunset. It brings her heart too much pain to think about. Something that she shared with Richard. But she wonders once again, does he still watch the sunset?
There's a sudden knock on her door.
"I do not want something to eat, I do not want to participate in the video games, or do the mediating. Please, I am fine." Starfire waits for the sound of footsteps walking away. Her friends had tried a few times to get her out of the room, but were quick to give up. She is a very stubborn Tamaranean.
"Starfire? Can I come in?" Starfire sat up sharply. That was not the voice of any of her friends, or even Bruce for that matter. She gets up and goes to stand in front of the door. She presses her ear against it.
"Who…who is it?"
"Open the door, sweetheart." And she did, revealing a tall, thin, dark haired woman in a skin-tight black spandex suit.
"Oh, Selina!" says Starfire as she wraps her arms around the woman's waist, hugging her tight.
"It's so good to see you, honey." She kissed the top of her head before she walked her into the room and shut the door. She walked Starfire over to the bed and they sat together for a little while as Starfire cried into her shoulder.
Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman, had been around the manor quite often when she had once stayed here with Richard. Selina had spent time with her while Richard and Bruce had been "busy". They had ventured to the mall, getting their nails done and stocking up on outfits that they didn't really need. They stayed up together at night, watching chick flicks when Richard and Bruce were out late. Starfire had come to see her as a sort of mother figure. Starfire's mother, Luand'r, had died many years ago, before she had even gone through her transformation. But Selina had given her relationship advice and had helped to explain certain things to her. She listened to Starfire as she analyzed her feelings and helped to calm her down when she and Richard argued.
"I am sorry that I did not do the contacting of you, but I did not remember…"
"It's okay. Bruce told me everything. He said you lost your memory."
"Yes, and-"
"Honey, you don't need to explain anything. I'm just so glad to see you. To know that you're okay." Selina smiled down at her, tears in her eyes.
"Thank you. I get weary of explaining my situation."
"Well I'm not here to pry. Bruce just told me that you were having a tough time. Which is understandable, of course. But he was being an ass about it."
"His son is very much like him, then."
Selina's eyebrow quirks up. "Is Dick being a dick?"
Starfire actually giggles at that. But then she lets out a deep sigh. "Yes. Yes he is."
"Want me to set him straight?"
Starfire gives her a small smile. "That will not be necessary. I have done the upsetting of him. He just needs time to get over it."
"How did you upset him?"
"Bruce did not tell you?" Selina shakes her head. "I told him… that I could not be with him. I discovered that he was with Barbara the night that we came here."
"He's still with her?" Starfire nods. "Well why hasn't he broken up with her?"
"I asked him not to. I believe he should stay with Babs. He had just begun to move on before my return. I did not want to keep him from living his life."
"Starfire, he hasn't been living. He's merely been surviving. I saw how he was when you were gone. I tried to talk to him, to help him, but he pushed me away of course. I haven't talked to him much since. I've been away for a while."
"No wonder Bruce has seemed so reserved. He must have missed you."
Selina smiles. "Well I missed him. And I'm going to be around for a while."
"Glorious," says Starfire.
"So, did you lock yourself up in your room because of Dick?
Starfire frowns. "Yes, Richard was… being unkind during combat practice."
"So I heard." Starfire looked confused. "When I was walking to Bruce's study, I heard your little friend Raven yelling at Dick."
"She does seem to do that a lot."
"And he deserves it," says Selina. "But anyway, what did he do?"
"It is just that I cannot fight him. It has always upset me to imagine hurting him. Even now…especially now…But he kept yelling at me and making me very angry. Then I punched him."
"You go girl!"
"I did not want to hurt him. But he pushed me too far. And now I fear that I have ruined the future for the Titans. If I cannot participate in the combat practice, Bruce will never clear me to be a part of the team."
"Oh of course he will."
"He will think I am not ready. That I have lost my ability to be a hero."
"You can fight me."
Starfire looks at her. "What?"
"I'll practice with you. I'll even wear my mask." She puts the black fabric over her face. "There, now I'm a criminal."
Starfire laughs. Sure, Selina technically wasn't one of the good guys. But Starfire didn't consider her a criminal. Sure, she had a record. But she now assisted Batman in the crime fighting on occasions where he needed her. She proved the be a good distraction. And she was easy to trust.
"You would really want to help me?"
"Of course. Besides, I have just as many moves as the Boy Wonder."
"Thank you, Selina. I do not know what I would have done without you."
"I'm here for you honey." She nudges Starfire back onto her bed, drawing a blanket up around her. She places a kiss on her forehead before standing up.
"Where are you going?"
Selina looks back at her, a mischievous grin planted on her face. "Well, I'm not going to go down to Dick's room and give him a piece of my mind, if that's what you're wondering."
Starfire opens her mouth to say something, but stops. She knows that there is no stopping Selina Kyle. She just smiles at her before placing her head on her pillow giving herself to sleep.
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