Why Heroes Can't Sip Champagne and Apples are a Girl's Best Friend –
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Chapter 17: Set Me Free
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This chapter has a sad ending! No spoilers! Leads up to a few twists, since getting back into it from my sladin kick…here we go!
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He stayed up for the trip into space. The bat rocket, the work hole generator?
No! Cy had to fly over at Mach speed to lend a hand because, Bruce pulled an I told you so.
Dick didn't care. He'd scour the galaxies wide over with a fine-toothed comb to have her, to wed the love of his every waking hour and seconds that matched.
Blackfire was after HIS family. It was go - time as Raven, Changeling, Blue Beetle, Wonder girl and Cy himself piloted the T – Jet into eons apart from the earth.
The cosmic wall was no match as Dick gripped the arms of his seat, Rave sending her protective charms to all her allies to link them telepathically. Wonder girl as Donna had no intention of falling short, Kori was family to the heroes. They'd learned from each other, Dick had even crushed on her too but regardless of a little bellyaching boyfriend, they were still that close.
And there was a child, a baby girl locked away as Kori was probably tormented and ruined of her star-studded character, one without flaws on the surface as Dick chewed his lip and rode out the grief as long as he could.
"She'll be fine." Raven reassured the ex – leader of her team, now only there for temporary stand by missions. "Starfire knows Blackfire has a problem with her emotions, she's tougher than you know."
"And I know how much stronger Blackfire must be out of jail and revenge, against a half Tamaranean unborn child…. our baby…" Dick screwed his face into a ball, a sniffle heard by most of the crew as the new papa had to face facts.
"If I lose her, there will be no more Nightwing, and… no more Titans." He told them all grimly, calming down a bit for the mission. "Starfire brought us together, made us face our foes that were after her then. We failed to keep them away. So now? We owe it to Kori to finish this, right now." He said completely, nearly out of breath.
"We can go to Tamaran, get our girl back before sunrise on our planet earth." Cy shook his head. "But we can't expect Blackfire to change. We just have to be fast, light-years from here kinda speedy." He said with a slight drop of sweat off of his brow and to the seat's arm.
"Kori wanted a wedding." Donna told Dick as they spoke amongst the group, letting no secrets be left in the backdrop. "Even if it was taboo if she loved you too much, when we were Titans all the time…. she spoke about you being this amazing and…" Donna dotted her eyes with her wrist. "We have you, Wing." Gar piped in. "Don't sweat this, we are on the job!"
"Kori isn't a –
"Wait on that, Changeling." Beetle pointed to the wormhole they were about to run into. The pull in space was more than a vacuum, it was a suction that gave Cy very little time to drag them out.
Cy gripped the controls and growled as he tugged for dear life, trying to steer them in the right direction.
"I'm gonna try to reverse the polarity – get us there an' through to her home…. we…. got to just –
"Is it gonna work??" Beetle exclaimed in a panicked voice.
"It had better." Raven checked the grid.
"We have company."
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The blasts were not fired until they'd made it to the other side, only to be stopped by patrol ships.
Centauri ships, which meant…
She just had broken out to bluff, she wasn't on Tameran at all!
"We're looking for a convicted alien going by the name "Kommand'r." One alien police guard told the heroes via their communications.
"We're doing the same, she's kidnapped our own. A princess of the same nation. We think it's for revenge and the princess is, with child." Dick worded the best he could, a good practical way since joining his precinct and picking up the grunt of it all.
The Centauri police alien looked at his partner who nodded, the other returning its eyes to the hero's.
"That may be difficult with her connections in the black market."
"No!" Gar and Blue gasped. "That's illegal trade of…of a person!"
"How can we get close; she's in danger –
"You won't, not without our help." The Centauri police were more agreeable than those days, even offering Dick aide since he was a cop on his world when he showed them his badge in their database – which Cy envied for years after.
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They made it to the ship's docking center; all so Clash of the Planets, any fan boy might want to be locked up forever here.
"We'll have you scan through her profile. If Blackfire's tracker is still active, we can get to your "princess" before any illegal activity goes galactic."
"OH….is…. what?" Reyes didn't like this one bit, yet they could do much more with the police and a microchip inside the ex -princess's brain.
"We couldn't leave her to her own devices, so our decision was unanimous that under Centauri law Blackfire needed to be tagged for her many crimes."
"How many? Overthrowing the government on Tameran or stealing and swapping styles with her better twin?" Gar scratched his chin while Raven held back a sigh.
"More since then. Overtaking the king's seat on Omega 9 and killing her own heirs in cold blood. She's a monster and not to be trusted."
Dick's heart hammered.
Killed…
The swamp creature thing's…. kids??
(Betrothed 2003.)
His own kid or kids…he started to feel light headed as Cy and Donna made Dick take a seat.
"By your biometrics and fluctuating hormone levels sir, I believe you happen to be the one to have coupled with our victim." The one main Centauri guard crossed his arms. "I understand, this is a crime and we are doing everything in –
"We have a link, Sir Sreenth!" The guard at the monitor caught them all by surprise as a dot popped up, until…the blurry image grew fairly clearer.
"An…. oh no…"
Dick flailed and reached for a waste bin, yet instead failed and fainted before he could even think to lse his lunch.
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Wake up, sister dear…."
The coaxing coos of another had the groggy princess struggle to see past a rather dim sky. Was it night? Was she not on –
"All eyes on me, sister. Happy to be reunited? Oh, you too! No way Tameran could forgive "two" traitors to the crown." She laughed airily as a body guard had Kori tazered and her wrists cuffed - to remain pulled to her knees by a silent, dropping chaos.
The air here was boggy, unnatural as she was reduced to a puddle. Her child could not enjoy this, for she did not!
"I …should not –
"Oh, but you must!" Blackfire grinned sweetly. "You, with a child to some fleshy human mate, and me? A swamp gas god's ex …"
"Ex…" Kori swallowed with a stale breath. "Is…. are you now, with the Rekmas?"
"No, dummy." Blackfire acted too young for her age, yet she could have passed for twenty-two. Had she tried to hide a scar by her cheek.
"Your face!" Kori gasped. "Wh –
"Those police of the galaxy ordered me in chains, sister. I was forced to bed…. a brute…he was so disgusting!" She shuddered, "Until, he showed me his planet, so I overthrew him and got rid of anything related to that relic all on my own. You could follow me, overthrow Earth's rule to recreate YOUR vision of Tam –
"That is very criminal, sister!" Starfire shot at her elder sibling. "I once admired the wit you'd possessed on our home world, yet no longer!" She proclaimed, wrists changing from red to green.
Emerald, as the cuffs fell to ashes.
"We shall end this –
"When you waddle as a " Durrfmorgenflock !?" Gawked the elder princess. "I don't WANT to face you like a warrior…. you'll only mock my superior skill!! I want you to finally suffer!" Blackfire's eyes blasted as Kori floated back, weak from the drug and shock as Blackfire could win. She might just…
"I know the earth boy that has courted you…I knew it all along! If you dare to do as I, no amount of begging to Galfore will save you or the children you'd bare to disgrace an entire quadrant! You'll sully their blood as I was forced to – they made me stay until I was of age to bear that beast's babes…. only to mutilate their sucker – fists with one blow!"
"You are "the crazy!" Kori threw up her arms as her hits were still imperfect while under the influence of that knock out drug.
"I…. will not follow you….no…"
"Too late anyway, sister DEAR ." Blackfire stood over a panting red-haired princess as her victory was won by way of more tricks. "Your worthless body won't be found here; the greatest and more discreet of planets to navigate, if you die before having that child on this uninhabitable plane, you might just die in childbirth instead!!" She laughed and punched Kori to see her face turn as the scarred rebel's.
"I! Was! Better! Than! YOU !" She kept hitting, Kori too weak to fight back as her child's presence made her roll into a ball to shield it.
"YOU! ARE! NO! WARRIOR!!" Blackfire's last fist would have been her own, yet a swing of one metal ally changed the game.
A yelp; Blackfire turned to see why her wrist was now scraped by an inferior weapon….
Her purple and black glowing eyes saw the enemy, and it was…
"You're under arrest." A Centauri squad of alien SWAT BOTS had landed in the nick. "Exiled Princess Blackfire; for the attempted assassination of the Princess Starfire of Tameran, you are to be taken in for your many heinous crimes across the star system."
"Long intro…" Gar rolled his eyes and whispered as Blue just clicked his tongue. "So, are you gonna show them a "hands up?"
"Or are we gonna have to bring you in, in cuffs, to judge for ourselves." Cy pumped his fists as the fight began.
And to the winner, a kiss upon the brow was given to the wakeful princess with that radiant red mane.
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Shedding tears of a dire anguish that only the guilty posessed, Blackfire was put back in a cell hold as Kori stayed beside her beloved, cold to touch and so, was the drug for pain why she looked at the floor?
"We can go now, right?"
"First." Raven and Dick with Donna and Cy turned to the Centauri guard's captain.
"We want to know if Blackfire was handed intel by any of your own convicted. Anything, since we believe this wasn't just an attack on her."
"Huh?" Kori looked up, her lashes batting with confusion. "Why was Blackfire not –
"Someone set her free from the outside."
The team recalled a similar even with a dust in their tower. Dick ground his fists and hugged Kori closely.
"I'm sorry, Star. We're being targeted and…I'll search the whole JLA log until we locate the criminal responsible."
"Who…would want us, torn apart?" Kori's lip wobbled. "Should we not then be wed? Will it not be safe as Mr. Wayne said??"
"We can't panic. It –
"No." She shook her head. "Someone knows who I am, you…we cannot do the "I Dos."
Yet the group looked on as the Centauri finally deemed them fit to travel home. A gate way crafted by their tech made things smoother, yet not the now turbulent relationship between the rather disconnected betrothed and his reluctant beloved.
The day of what would have been a day to announce things, and Kori had left. Dick stood dumbly in the doorway to his, their apartment until his vision became blurred by his wet tears, slipping as Haley came to lick them away.
She must have not gotten every single drop; Dick was on sick leave for days before his eyes had dried.
Marks remained as bags under his once vivid complexion, the love he'd lost…now nothing but a passing star shower into an imperfect night of celebrations interrupted.
From that day, Dick stayed platonic in any relationship, cold and his eyes were pinned on any evidence of the monster that had put those scars over Kori's heart.
He was going after Blackfire's savior, however long it would take to bring Starfire back. To see if that child in Kori's belly might ever one day remember that her mother had loved a man from the planet Earth.
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So, Kori left with Wayne's protection and promised to stay in her world where the kid is going to grow up, but wait! Fast forward? What about How long is forever?? Getting to that!! Recall; Kori brought the Titans together so without her? The whole world wouldn't be as before. Find out!
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