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Her own people would kill her because she tried to kill. That she was forced wouldn't matter. That she's a child wouldn't matter. For them that one law is absolute.

Time: The next morning.


The Fight Revisited,... A New Decree or Two from the Silver Minion,... Finding Fuel,... A World Given Hope,...

Beast Boy stretched and yawned, turning on the vast bunk he'd claimed as his just a little over two weeks ago. With the ship having carried a crew of around two hundred there'd been plenty of places for him to choose from. Scratching his head he yawned again and staggered to his feet, wishing he could just sleep in. He'd been up late thinking, and there were only two of them on the giant vessel, but that didn't mean he could just laze around. Much as I want to. He muttered to himself, nearly tripping over his own two feet as he headed to the washroom to shower.

Less than twenty minutes later, fully awake, he eased the door to his room slowly open and looked down. As usual there was Aeopie, curled up against the door asleep. His sensitive ears heard her arrive each morning, which was what usually woke him up. Not wanting her to lay on the cold metal floor for too long meant getting up himself. He stooped down and rapped the floor beside her ear with his knuckles. Immediately her eyes opened and she too yawned.

"Breakfast time." He told her. Offering her a hand, he pulled her to her feet.

"You're not going to kill me?" She asked, keeping hold of his hand as they headed to the kitchen.

"No. Why would I?" The shape shifter asked with a slight smile, feeling her fragile grip. Each morning his hand was only offered to help the gravity-challenged girl get to her feet, yet each morning she would cling to it like her life depended on it. He resisted the urge to shake her loose, knowing she would pout, and he just couldn't take that. For another if he was right then loneliness didn't begin to describe what she felt. Used to having a billion people she could open her mind to must make the ship seem like torture.

She didn't answer his question, instead she kept quiet and held his hand with all her might. His ears told him when her heart beat calmed a little. She was still afraid of that. He thought to himself, with his heart nearly breaking as it ache in sympathy for the poor girl.

A few minutes later he was wiping away a pale blue x and redrawing it on their makeshift checkerboard. "If you can control people, why don't you just make sure I can't hurt you?" He asked.

"I can't." She muttered, eyes focused on the board, nibbling on a piece of cake.

"Oh?' Beast Boy looked at her, wanting a better explanation. She'd fallen asleep on him yesterday before he could question her further, and he'd just tucked her into her bunk. Now he was getting the full story whether she liked it or not.

"Your mind is weird." She explained, eyes still on the board. "It's like there're dozens and dozens of you."

"Can you read my mind?" He asked, wondering if it was his potential to shape shift she was sensing, or rather the minds of the hundreds of forms he had.

"No." She reached out and moved, taking three of his pieces.

Beast Boy just stared. "I almost wish you'd said yes." He muttered, looking at the board. "At least that would explain why I keep losing to you."

She giggled. "Checkers is fun." She added, grabbing her cup. "I'm not very strong." She explained after taking a sip. "And I'm just a kid. When I grow up I'll be able to do more."

"Oh." The shape shifter mused, and took one of her pieces before looking at her again. "I want to know exactly what you did when Raven and the others attacked me." He reluctantly used a serious tone, and winced as he saw her become stressed with her heart rate soaring. "I'm guessing the Gordanians told you to do it, and you had no choice. Just tell me everything. Okay. I'm not angry at you." He toned the seriousness down a bit.

Aeopie nodded, and took a deep breath. "They wanted to break up the people protecting the earth, so they tried to get me to hurt them. But I'm not that strong yet and I couldn't even touch your mind." She paled, recalling the event. "That made them very angry. Then they did something to your computers and told me to make your friends think in a certain way. I couldn't, but I could make them angry so that's what I did. And when the fight started I really focused on getting them to do certain stuff. It didn't work." The girl frowned into her cup, with tears starting to run down her cheeks. "I'm sorry." She sobbed.

Beast Boy reached across the table and held her hand. "What do you mean it didn't work?"

She blinked away the tears. "Robin was the easiest one. He was fully human, but he kept resisting the command to kill you. When the fight finally broke out he was really mad, but not enough to kill. Then he grabbed a disc and he wasn't sure if it was the right one. I only managed to get him to throw it by making him feel sure it was the right one. If he'd known it was the wrong one he wouldn't have."

"And Raven?" The shape shifter prompted, feeling a mix of emotions twist inside him.

"Her mind is something like yours, like there's nine or ten of her, and I couldn't touch it directly. But she's very emotional so that's what I did. I made her angry and that made her lose control. She should've went into a rage and tried to kill you, but for some reason I could only make it last a second, and then she just felt sad and alone and worried. When the fight started she was conflicted. Robin was her boyfriend, but she wanted to protect you instead. I don't think she even realized that." The girl frowned. "I only managed to make her angry enough to lash out when you were holding Robin. I sort of managed to get her to focus on him instead of you."

"Oh." That was interesting. Beast Boy mused, feeling a little weird.

"Cyborg already had his cannon set to full power." Aeopie continued. "I did that before the fight and sort of made it slip his mind. When he entered the room I just made him angry enough to not check it. Then I fueled Starfire's worry over Robin, making her think he was dead. They refused to kill you, so I had to work around it." The girl finished her explanation in a rush and stared down.

"The glued book?" He asked.

"She was already incredibly mad over that. I just made her madder." Aeopie explained. "It made her hit harder than she planned to."

"I see." The shape shifter said. Hitting like that had been out of character for the violet-eyed girl. Sure he often annoyed her, but she'd never done anything that actually hurt before. That'd been a first. "Your move." He told the girl whose eyes were a very dark shade of orange.

"You're not going to kill me?" She asked, making her move and taking two of his pieces in the process.

"Stop asking that." Beast Boy told her. "Do you really think I am?"

She was quiet for a long time. "No." She sounded relieved, as if she'd only just accepted the fact. The intense dark orange in her eyes faded to a paler shade.

"And I'm pretty sure they'll forgive you to." He told her. "So why don't we go and do just that." The girl's eyes turned a darker shade again, and he sighed. Not going to be that easy. He silently noted.

"The Gordanians are still there." She stated.

"We took their ship?" The shape shifter frowned.

"They got twenty-one ships." Aeopie explained.

"Oh." Beast Boy gulped and felt shivers run down his spine. "What're they doing?" He asked.

"Invading." She explained. "They don't usually care for worlds where the people fight back, but earth has a lot of resources and a technological civilization at the right point where they're useful, but not so much that they can build effective weapons. But five of you destroyed one ship before so they're playing it safe. They're planning on using robots to police the people without showing themselves until they know they've won."

"Oh." He stared at the girl. "You know that means I've got to go back. No choice Aeopie."

"You can't." She let go of his hand and stared down, her eyes as bright an orange as he'd ever seen them.

"I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. Not if I can help it. You're ..." He struggled to find the right words. "You're like a little sister. I'll protect you no matter what."

She blinked, looking at him. "Really?"

He nodded. "Trust me. There's no one else in the whole universe I would humiliate myself playing fetch with."

"I'm sorry." Tears stared to run down her face again.

He stared, puzzled. What is it now? Beast Boy wondered with a sigh.

"We can't go back to earth." Aeopie sobbed.

"Why?" He kept his voice gentle.

"We don't have enough fuel. I wanted to make sure we couldn't go anywhere so I didn't tell you when it was getting low."

"Oh." He sat back to think. "Is there any place we can reach that would have fuel?"

"I don't know. Maybe a few places, but even if I weren't here they would attack a Gordanian ship."

He held out his hand. "Come on. Let's go and check. Beside when we get to earth they got a lot different cakes. I'm sure you'll love it."

Tentatively, peering up to see if he was angry, she reached out to take the offered hand.


The three of them gathered in the empty alley, meeting to discuss the new situation.

"Whoever's behind this is insane." Cyborg said, clearly shaken.

"They got to be." Robin replied, face pale.

"Not insane." Raven intoned. "They're not human. They can't be. The same rules don't apply." Her expression was one of horror, matching those of the other two.

A new decree had come down from their would be masters. It simply stated that any male over the age of fifty was to be killed while any women past childbearing age was to be similarly execute. It seemed unless a man was able to work in their mines he was considered useless; if a woman wasn't able to bear more slaves she was considered useless.

"Has a similar ordered been issued for the other cities?" Robin asked.

"No." The violet-eyed girl intoned. "I think they're catching on to the fact their policies are going to backfire on them. Jump City has become an experiment where they test new ideas."

"With technology like that they can't be stupid." Cyborg muttered. "The way they broke up the team means they can't be totally clueless about humans." He shook his head. "This is insane."

"Not a single person." Raven suggested. "Someone gives orders, and a subordinate carries them out. The group that broke us up understood us, but those at the top don't."

"Only explanation." Boy Wonder sighed. "So what do we do?"

"A second." Cyborg replied as his attention seemed to shift elsewhere. A minute later he closed his human eye and spoke faintly, nearly whispering. "Just came over the radio. A new decree. Kill four fifths of the female children." The cybernetic teen trembled in rage and fear. "Seems they only want workers and they think only males can work. They only want enough women to keep the population stable."

For a long time the other two could only stare in shock.

"What do we do?" Raven asked, directing the question towards Boy Wonder.

"We fight." He replied, eyes closed. "It's the only thing we can do. Before we could afford to wait, to see who was behind this and then strike. But that's not an option anymore. We can't kill billions of innocent people. And I'll die before I let them hurt a single child."

"It's the only thing we can do." Cyborg intoned, too shocked to express the rage he felt.

"Agreed." Raven said. "That's obvious. But how?"

"I don't know." Their leader admitted, looking down at his clenched hands. "We've already tried everything."

"Wrong." Raven spoke sharply. "Things are different now. The city isn't the roads or the buildings. It's the people. It doesn't matter anymore if we lose a few bridges or if the sewage system collapses. It doesn't matter if we lose whole city blocks. Before we had to hold back. Now we don't. There is something we can do. We just have to find out what it is."

The two turned to look at her.

"I might have an idea or two." Cyborg said.


"So, this is the only place." Beast Boy said, looking at the magnified image of a world still several billion miles away. "But why would they have fuel? They don't use starships." The planet was white with what looked very much like streaks of blood running across its surface.

"Their Citadel uses it though." Aeopie explained. "It requires a lot of power."

"Oh." He looked at the image again, studying the ruined planet of Tamaran. He turned as alarms sounded across the ship.

"Told you." Aeopie said. "This world hates Gordanians, and they're coming for us."

"We'll just explain we stole the ship." Beast Boy said. "If that don't make them love us nothing will." He smiled at the frightened girl.

"They're not going to listen." She pointed to a screen that showed twenty Tamaranians approaching, hands glowing with starbolts.

The radio proved futile, and for Aeopie to use her powers would give away the fact she was on board. In the end Beast Boy ended up donning a spacesuit much too large for him, and then going out to meet the approaching attackers. "Stay inside and don't do anything that would let them know you're there." He ordered the girl as he left.

"Hello." The shape shifter said a few minutes later as the Tamaranians drew close. The greeting was ignored as starbolts tore into his suit. With the vacuum of space tearing at him, he shifted into Killer Croc, hoping the form's tough hide would help protect him. His eyes started to buldge, and the air seeped from his clenched lips as he tried to hold his breath. Several fists pounded into him as the enraged attackers strove to tear him apart with their bare hands. They were mostly female, but finally one hit that was male, and he stole the DNA he needed.

Beast Boy shifted into the form of a green Tamaranian, bleeding from several cuts, with bruises scattered all over his body. The harsh environment of space no longer had any affect on him.

The stunned foes drew back for a second before one woman flew forward, attacking. "It's a trick." She exclaimed, raining starbolts at him.

Instinctively he dodged, using the form's ability to fly, grinning as he did so. Tamaranian powers were fueled by emotion, and he was part beast which was nothing but pure emotion. And there's the girl I need to protect. He thought. It was twenty to one, but he ignored that, and just believed he would win, letting his boundless confidence harden him to the impact of starbolts on his flesh.

Turning to face the woman leading the attack, he focused on his need to protect a small nine-year old girl. The one he'd called his sister. Righteous fury fueled his starbolts, knocking the woman away with blasts that burned like green lightning. Turning and dodging, he struck back.

The battle raged back and forth, both protecting what was precious to them. In a one-on-one combat Beast Boy would've won easily. He'd seen Starfire fight, had sparred with her. His knowledge of how they fought, along with the beast he channeled, gave him an immense advantage. But there were twenty of them. Refusing to let his knowledge of certain victory diminish, he fought savagely even as his body was pummeled from twenty directions.

He focused on one, and dodged behind her, using her to shield him from the others as he rained starbolts upon her. As she twisted around to attack, he grabbed her hand and used her own movement to further the spin, keeping himself shielded. The others spread out around them, and he was once again under attack from all directions. He raced out and choose another shield.

The third time he tried it the woman tried to close her arms around him to keep him in place. Desperately, he made a succession of nearly instantaneous transitions; first to an insect, and then back to a Tamaranian. He took the moment of surprise to rain righteous fury upon his foe who was sent flying backwards. Moving with superhuman speed, he choose another shield and repeated the same trick.

Never stopping, never hesitating, he held them back for several minutes by the sheer speed and fury of his attacks. Several times he tried to speak to them, but they saw only the Gordanian warship with its weapons pointed out into space. Weapons which had once devastated their world. Still he knew he was losing. To keep his near invulnerability from fading he rejected the thought and replaced it with one that let him continue the fight. Everything has a weakness, I just need to find theirs. I won't lose. I WILL win. He told himself, focusing on the girl who would die if the starship was attacked. Searching desperate for a way achieve victory, he tried every trick he could. When one attack flung him against the hull of the ship it came to him.

I beat Starfire once. He recalled. How? Mass and pure speed. I can't become an elephant here, but I've got something better. I got a really really large stick. "Stop." He yelled out. "If we continue this I might hurt you, and neither of us want that."

"You're the one bleeding Gordanian." A woman called out.

"True. But I haven't gotten serious yet. And I'm not a Gordanian." The shape shifter replied.

"Right. They just gave you one of their starships." Another woman mocked.

He tried to explain how he'd acquired the vessel, but was met with a rain of starbolts. Why are they mostly woman? He wondered, as he thrust himself away from the ship, and eyed three of the attackers who were in a straight line circling him. Perfect. He mused, as starbolt after starbolt hit him. He started to spin until he was rotating around in a circle; then he became the Tree, as he'd choose to call the shape.

Born on a world with a gravity twice that of earth it was hard as steel. Sixty feet in diameter, with a height of five hundred, it massed over sixty thousand tons. Rotating with the speed he'd gained as a Tamaranian its edge was moving at over two thousand miles per hour. It smashed the three Tamranians he'd aimed at away like the wrath of a god. So much for being useful only for defense. Beast Boy mused, hoping the three were okay. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but they were focused only on their old enemy, and would rejoice at some small measure of justice.

Seeing the three return a few seconds later, the shape shifter kept rotating, making flash transitions to the tree and back. The Tamaranians were knocked away like balls against a baseball bat. For all their abilities, the transitions came too fast for them to see, and they didn't even know what was suddenly wrecking havoc on them. Seeing the ones he'd already hit were hurt he focused on the others. Then, deciding a second impact might really injure them, he stopped and waiting for their reaction.

The twenty bruised and battered Tamaranians stared at him. Their confidence was gone while his was soaring. Still even as he tried to speak, to explain, they moved as one to attack. He repeated the process, rotating in the form of the giant Tree, but only at half the speed he'd used before. He flashed through the transitions at an incredibly rapid pace; first a green-skinned Tamaranian to aim, then using the giant Tree to strike. When finished he waited again.

"Stop." He begged, as his battered and bleeding foes moved to attack again. There was no reply. They were soldiers protecting their devastated world, and it seemed nothing short of death would stop them. He wondered if the ship had enough fuel retreat. Killing them wasn't an option.

"Stop!" A voice commanded, and the twenty immediately halted the attack.

"Princess Starfire." One of the women said, and they all made a kneeling motion as though they were standing on a solid floor. "It's not safe here. Return to ..."

"Beast Boy?" Starfire asked, floating in front of him.

"Hi Starfire." The shape shifter replied, glad the fight seemed to be over.

Suddenly the girl backed away as she recalled how they'd last parted. The battle where the Titans had tried to kill him, where she'd tried to kill him. "I'm sorry." She simply said. "I don't know what came over me,... over us"

"Huh?" He asked, confused. Oh that. It's over and done with." He told her as he realized what she was talking about.

"You're not angry?" The orange-skinned alien asked, surprised.

"No. Seems the Gordanians were playing tricks." He pointed to the ship. "Found them dropping off some sort of silver machines in Spark City."

Starfire eyed the ship. "Where're the crew?" She simply asked.

"They abandoned it." Beast Boy told her. "I didn't take kindly to them trying to kill me." He explained with a shrug as she raised an eyebrow.

"You're not angry." She asked again.

"Only at the Gordanians." He replied, only to be grabbed in a bone crushing hug. The twenty Tamaranians surrounding them raised their eyebrows at that, but did nothing.

"We've missed you." Starfire exclaimed, backing off. "The guilt when we found out the truth ..." She paused.

"How's Raven doing?" The shape shifter asked, and then nearly kicked himself. "And the rest?" He hurried to add.

The Tamaranian looked at him closely, and a small smile tugged at the edge of her lips. "She misses you the most of all. The others are okay, but they've surrendered. The Gordanians haven't shown themselves and act only through the use of robots." She looked at the vessel behind him. "We never suspected it was them, though perhaps I should've. I've already seen them kill one world."

Suppressing his panic he moved back to look her over. Despite her happiness at seeing him, and the slight smile she'd had shown earlier, there was a look of defeat to her. "Knowing who the enemy is is half the battle. The earth won't suffer the fate of Tamaran." His eyes turned cold. "If they do then it will be the last world they ever touch."

"Is there anyone else aboard." Starfire asked, looking at the vessel once again.

"One other." Beast Boy admitted. "Just a girl they captured." He hurried to add, seeing the suddenly enraged look of the twenty aliens surrounding him and Starfire. "She's not a Gordanian." The fury immediately faded.

"There's never is a good time to mention the word Gordanian around a Tamaranian." Starfire said with a tired smile. "But now is the worst time of all."

"Why?" He listened as she explained her world was dying. When the fuel came into the discussion she said it would be no problem, but it would take time.


In the Citadel Beast Boy gratefully returned to his human form. "I really hate that." He muttered. "Changing into a form that's intelligent." He added, seeing Starfire's confused look. Looking out across the endless desert, at the nearly dead world, he felt like crying. I knew this world was suffering, but for it too die... He sighed.

"The girl? Would she like to visit?" The badly battered leader of the group he'd fought stepped forward.

"I don't think so." He wondered what to say that would make them leave her alone aboard the ship. "She's delicate, and your gravity is a bit higher than earth's." He explained. "And she's been traumatized by the Gordanians. I think she would prefer not to leave the ship."

"Oh." The woman stepped back, obviously sadden by the response.

The shape shifter looked around. It seemed everyone was. He looked to Starfire for explanation.

"This world is too hurt for us to bear children on it." She explained. "I was among the last generation born here."

"Oh." He gulped. "I didn't know it was that bad."

"What remains of our oceans is toxic to what passes for algae on our world." She explained. "We grew enough in vats to feed what little life remains, but machines aren't perfect, and there will be no algae to continue the thread of life."

"Earth algae won't do?" The shape shifter asked.

"No. It would die instantly in the water. At least our algae manages to live for a few days, and the other creatures eat it. Thus we hoped to maintain things until something adapted and the oceans truly lived once again."

"What happened?"

"Machine's break. The refrigeration units where samples were kept heated up due a malfunctioning processor. The algae in the oceans died. Thus there is no more algae."

"You have dead samples?" Beast Boy asked, frowning.

She nodded. "Tons if it. Why?"

A few minutes later he rested his fingertips against a drying clump of dead matter. Not a single one of the tiny plants retained their DNA unbroken. But his body, however it did it, sorted and analyzed the fragments. Slowly, with difficulty, it took form as a new shape. I was right. He mused happily. With some alien species the distinction between plant and animal isn't quite as evident as on earth. As a simple test, he became the new form for a brief instant.

"You ..." Starfire didn't dare pose the question as she stared at him.

"I can change into it." Beast Boy smiled at her. "Thankfully it's already green so you won't know the difference from the original."

The place that had been silent just moments before rang with noise as vats were filled and prepared to grow the life-giving algae. Nearly a thousand joyous Tamaranians worked frantically, knowing it was only time before the few forms of life in the oceans died without food. The shape shifter sat back and watched along with Starfire, thinking.

"Why don't you modify the algae so it can survive in your oceans?"

"We tried and failed." She explained. "It's not so simple to splice genes, and our population doesn't allow us to put much effort into it."

"The help of other worlds?"

"We aren't welcomed on other worlds." The orange-skinned alien simply stated.

"But there are people on earth who could've done it." He pointed out.

The girl pondered that. "True. We're so used to doing things without help that it's in our nature by now. That's something I will bring up with the grand ruler. We have plenty of minerals to pay with." Her eyes glowed green as she realized her world might have a chance.

"There's something I want to test. Do you have any vats that contain just ocean water." Beast Boy, looked away from the frenetic activity to glance at her.

"No. We do have some labs where we used to try to modify the algae. Why?"

"An experiment." He smiled at her. "Something to pay for the fuel with."

"You've already paid us." She pointed out, leading him to a lab where, at his request, she filled a vial with ocean water.

He became the new form of algae and rested in the water, feeling it tear at his delicate flesh. Focusing, he sought to change just a small fragment of himself. The form was simple, but what he wanted to do wasn't. It took an hour before the form he was in changed, incorporating the Killer Croc's resistance to toxins. The water stopped burning. He rested and studied the new shape. Changing so much made it totally different from the original. It could no longer grow as fast, actually less than half the original rate. But then in nature you rarely gained something without losing something in return. Frowning, he multiplied a few times, and resumed his human form.

"That might be able to live in the oceans." He told her, pointing at the vial. "But it's slow growing so ..." He shrugged.

"It's algae, and it can live in our oceans?" Carefully the orange-skinned Titans held the small vial up to her vibrantly green eyes, and then gently placed it on a rack. "The rate of growth doesn't matter." She explained. "Just so long as it can grow it will spread and fill everything. There will be a source of food for life to spread throughout the oceans again. It will find a balance. And then it will serve as the basis for the land to recover."

Turning, the excited alien pulled him close, and gave him a very deep and passionate kiss.

Beast Boy opened his eyes. "That was interesting." He smiled. "Though lets not tell Robin about it."


End of Chapter.

Next chapter, the return to earth.

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