"Meh…" Beast Boy spun in woozy circles, clutching his head that throbbed like a heartbeat. "I feel like crap."

"You must of... I-I mean, you hit your head pretty hard."

They noted her voice… it was monotone, broken…dull. Blackfire hunched upon the corner that blanketed itself in darkness, her knees, exposed by the tearing in her faded black boots, her knees pulled up to her chin and her arms locked around to hold them place. Her face was worn and beaten-looking: purple bags swung below her eyes that dimmed in pinkness with the look of misery, her jet black hair ravaged down her backside, and the various wrappings strapped across her skin that shined with less of a glow: her arms, legs, and neck were bandaged tight. Her aimless stare flooded upon the glaze of passing starlight that shimmered upon their floor, her eyes to avoid the others'.

"Blackfire…" Robin started. "Thank you."

"Why you thanking me?" Her voice was solemn, monotone… "I sold your best friend into slavery…I stole sacred gems and attempted to frame her for it... I pretended to be her so the policemen would take her instead…I tried to replace her on the team… What good have I done?"

Raven lowered her hood, stepping from her shadows, "The past is the past. It doesn't matter anymore."

Cyborg inched closer, delivering enough energy to place a hand on her shoulder. "Not sure how much longer a sleep could've turn into the end for us all."

Robin nodded. "You called for us." A smile beamed from the Boy Wonder as the memory-like dream of a red-headed tamaranean seeped into his mind.

"Oh Starfire, I... How do I go back?"

"You have to choose to hear a friend who is calling for you now. It will be painful though."

"Starfire—I. We made a promise…right?

Beast Boy struggled up, quivering to get onto his shins. "So we're not dead?"

She paused for a moment, hesitating to glance over her shoulder to find Robin, "y-you… you were muttering…her name, Robin…"

A pause broke through the cell, the eerie silence to shift the moment onto Robin. His eyes dimmed to find his palms… She was probably right, he thought to himself. Starfire's name was also so easy to say, he thought to himself. In moments of despair, he would always think of her name. Peace came with it, he guessed. Maybe that was the origin of his dream... then again, maybe not? He slipped a hand into his pocket to find a rough texture of the photograph... Still there, he thought to himself.

Blackfire conducted the silence to its end as she stiffly shifted her head to the team. "I couldn't leave you guys like you were."

Robin nodded honorably and beckoned to observe the premises. "Where are we anyway?"

They scanned the room. The walls stood impressively, glowering down at their prisoners, dressed in a chrome uniform that shimmered against the light of the passing stars displayed from the far window. The floor was ever so cold, gnawing at the team—the tamaranean had grown numb to the sensation… numb to the world.

"The UFE's prison chambers…most wonderful, isn't it?"

"Hey, Raven's the sarcastic one."

"Beast Boy, can you be serious for one moment?" She droned, "We were just shot out of the sky, taken down, and imprisoned."

Robin redirected his attention back to Blackfire who aimlessly starred at the walls: her dot-like brows pushed downwards and mouth askew. "Blackfire? W-What happened? We were attacked then-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… an' all went black." She paused, shaking her head, fastening her mouth, biting back her tongue…correcting her tone. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to all this."

"S'all right." Cyborg nodded with the others, giving her a moment to adjust to friendliness—her appearance flaunted her abuse. Their hearts fell with compassion for the sister their best friend loved so dearly even though the same love betrayed her twice.

She drew up her breath, her eyes glossed upon the nearby piece of floor, resting under her feet. "You guys are lucky to be alive… lucky that superman's captain… we've… they've known that you've been following for days, yet Superman 'happened' to attack you before we entered the Vegan Galaxy—where an army of Tamaraneans would be waiting to wage a first blow of war on the humans."

Four stares locked together. Their eyes wide, mouth unhinged, they broke and retreated back to the girl in the shadows. Beast Boy's attention pushed back to Blackfire. "A-and the UFE attacked the Tamaraneans already?"

"No…" She turned to the darkness, sliding down the outskirts of her face. "If you didn't notice, we took a turn to avoid the clash… Roak… It was Roak's idea that Superman bent to your benefit… Roak is the president of the UFE."

Robin nodded stoically, "…we're aware..."

Her eyes finally met the four, revealing a trace of sadness, beating upon the number of Titans that she knew lacked a heroine. "I-Is she…safe?"

"Starfire? S-She flew home before the army could take her as hostage…" Robin trembled over his words, "S-She flew home to stop all of this."

Her face lit, her pink eyes flared with a familiar glow. A breath soothed from the keeper, her eyes to melt, her face to soften, her eyes to trembled across the wall. She held herself from sinking, "She's…" A breath huffed, "She's safe…"

In the new born light, the Titans remained, soaking in the traces of resemblance that connected the sister to their friend who remained far off in the distance. Contagious: a grin spread across the team—however, another hid in the shadow of her own hood. The dark draped across her eyes that shook with a hint of sadness...

"And…" Blackfire's tone dwindled, "she'll… she'll be safe."

"How can you be sure?" Raven cocked her head up and challenged, her voice dry. She knew what none else did and bit her tonge, commiting to keep it a secret. "What do you mean?"

Blackfire's gaze slid from the wall, fell onto her palms, and followed them as they stirred a starbolt into the air. It burned with a white furious core—like Starfire's! The Titans beckoned as it breathed, consuming the darkness, casting them in shadows upon the walls that vibrated tremendously in shimmering light.

"That light!" Beast Boy called forward at the swing of a pointer finger.

The light flickered across the blue iris of the masked boy who thought pensively, hunched upon his hands and knees. "That… Star's… Starfire and yours?" He took his hand from his chin to meet her glare, "The starbolts…why are they white?"

"Starfire never told." Raven stepped in, fastening herself down upon the floor to listen. The image of the light before the empath was a direct match to the burst of light in the vision. This pulled her to the others who gawked in light's triumph over the shadows of the prison cell. Her eyes withered in the brightness.

"There is a reason for this light and why it's this color." Her fingertips ever so gently brushed the air, the light exhaling and inhaling its mass. "I don't think Starfire would have known to tell you guys… Upon the Tamaranean crest—the one that is stamped onto every wall within the palace—a sun is the main center for a reason. It's the center of us all. Born onto a planet with three Suns, they have adapted… the Suns have imprinted onto them, so they can absorb and release light."

The images of the crow's-nest in Jump's Harbor shot through the team's mind, swinging to the burns upon the watchtower they investigated later on. They inched closer as a deep breath was taken by the tamaranean hunched against the wall. Darkness slid down the outskirts of her face.

"Them? Are you not Tamaranean?"

"I am not of Tamaran…. I am not of Earth…Mind that for me." She continued, "Before any war, Tamaraneans collect to the planet's center, as if it were a ceremony, and together reap intense amounts of energy from the Suns. When the light is called down by the mass of Tamaraneans, and it is their code to do this only during emergencies, it is absorbed and strength, agility, and power of the race are enhanced."

"Such power... at your hands." Raven drew her hood to her shoulders, to reveal two wide eyes.

Blackfire hunched forward, the light claiming her visage, "Not my hands… theirs… I am not of Tamaran! and not of Earth!" Her glare swung back to the darkness as she pacified herself.

A pause was placed, then died with the returning croak of Blackfire's voice. "But yeah… This ceremony is so easy to corrupt, yet… they choose not to though. They summon such power only before wars… The first and last time I witnessed the 'Descending of the Lights' was before the Gordanians launched their first attack upon the planet… Starfire was too young to remember…"

She began again, "After the treaty was signed…" she choked at a sob, "…after my mother was killed… Starfire and I were taken by the Psions, allies of the Gordanians, and experimented on. They knew of Tamaraneans and this relationship with light we had…. So, they tweaked at me first… Starfire second. We were placed in solar chambers, where we would burn in the blistering of light…As time went on, we developed this gift… the gift of starbolts and laser vision. They released me…" her eyes dwindled back down to the floor, "and kept Starfire due the negotiation..." her voice broke, "the negotiation I sold my sister on."

Robin held his distance, biting back his lip. To him? What Blackfire has done in the past was the worst thing he could ever imagine anyone doing: selling a sister into slavery and attempting to imprison her again. He remembered the wounds severed across her body the day he meet her and how those eyes flooded with misery when he got close enough to see them. Instead of anger, something forgiving riddled from his mouth, "Like Raven said." He paused to say five more words, "The past is the past."

Cyborg stepped in, "Starfire would want you forgive yourself and move on."

Overtaken by the moment, her two eyes watered. She shook her head to rid herself of some emotion, then proceed on with a story, recovering her broken tone.

"N-Now…" She trembled over her words, "You add two and two together: the 'Descending of the Lights' and our powers. With this bulk of energy swirling inside Starfire and I," she ignited the light once more, it to cast five distinct shadows upon the walls. "…our starbolts are stronger, so they become this color."

"So…." Beast Boy questioned, "Let me sum this up… The ceremony-thingy of sunlight gives intense strength to the Tamaraneans? And it overflows into you and Starfire? Making your bolts white?"

"Way to dumb it down, Beast Boy."

"Hey! I'm just clearing things up, Raven!"

"Call what you want," Blackfire intercepted, her voice dry… "Tamaraneans are strong… and if Starfire can't do anything to stop this… there will be a bloodbath."

Cyborg shook in his seat, "There's gotta be something we can do."

Blackfire snickered dryly, "We're prisoners… What do expect us to do?"

"Is that how Blackfire used to talk?" Robin defiantly rose to his feet and stepped away from the four, his arms fastening around his torso. From the dark-pitted hallway they were barred from, he glanced to the pink, rosy light peaking in from afar. He wheeled back around, "Listen, team! We all have a part to play now! That's what I've learned from all this! Whether they are big or small parts, we can't give up."

Blackfire's glare broke from the boy at the shaking of her head. "Look at me, Robin. Am I in any condition to do... to do anything?"

"You may think that... But the Blackfire we used to know wouldn't," He retorted. "Look at your palms! There is a light that connects you to Starfire as much as you don't want it! It's strong and you can help her in a way unlike the rest of us! Like you yelled to us earlier, as much as Starfire needs us, she needs you too." He stopped, his panting to reign over the silence. "Don't you understand, Blackfire?"

A moment of truth fell upon the five. With a snarl, the girl stiffly rocked her torso from Robin and to the wall, her back turned to the team, her eyes shunning the Titans. A dark voice muffled from her corner, "I will never help Earth or Tamaran, do you understand?"

Author's Note: In most stories, Blackfire is shown as a menace, completely consumed by evil. I wanted to show her in a different light: her being so broken, confused, and completely unlike herself. I also thought it would be an interesting touch to have her renounce Earth's and Tamaran's claims on her (after being exiled from Tamaran and tortured by Earth, who could blame her? Like reality, no side is 100% evil or 100% good like Robin said before in Chapter 4). This completely differs from her sister, Starfire, who is of Earth and of Tamaran. In the series, I loved how different the sisters were, so I wanted to express that even more.

I have this story all mapped out, so there are a lot of foundation and foreshadowings in each chapter, so, look for clues? Anyway, thank you so much for reading and your patience! I hoped you, personally, are enjoying the story as much as I love telling it! If there is anything I can improve on, a comment could really help!