Always and Forever

Ringing

Shortly After the Incident:
She had never seen Robin so upset than when she had seen him that day. He was completely disheveled, weak, and hopeless. Completely hopeless. He had never hugged her so tight. He had never let his walls come down that far, it was the first time Starfire every saw one tear fall from Robins eye. She hadn't even seen him that broken up about Slade, and it was all her fault, but she grasped him back tightly. Never wanting to be so naive again, never wanting to be that stupid girl that trusted ever again. She never forgot that day after the incident, and she knew Robin never forgot it either. Every time he looked at her, he saw a glimmer of that hopeless look running around in his blue eyes. She would never forgive herself for that.

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Present Day:
Starfire hadn't really seen Robin for a few days, he would walk her to school but remain distant and quiet. It wasn't unlike him to get caught up in whatever he was doing but this time it felt different. It felt intentional. She tried to fight past that feeling by doing other things. Hanging out with Raven, playing with silkie. She had even convinced Raven to take her to the mall for the first time where she spent money on the Teen Titians bank card Cyborg let her use to buy a whole new wardrobe for herself.
In those moments, she was happy and managed to forget about her darker feelings. Her hopelessness, her memories of the book, the thing, Robin. Robin. Whenever she thought she wasn't thinking about it she ended up thinking about it more.
It was one of those days where everyone had something better to do than hang out with her. Beast Boy had a new video game that he shut himself in the living room for, Cyborg was tuning up his car, and Raven was burying herself in the book. Robin, well, Robin did what he had been doing non-stop. Training, researching, and training. Even silkie had better plans, curled up all day in her bed snoozing way.
To Silkies credit it was raining heavily that day, making the atmosphere gloomy.
Starfire enjoyed the rain, the little pitter patters that echoed around the rooms, the muffled sound of thunder, but she had to admit it could be boring.
Starfire drifted aimlessly down the grays halls searching for something to do.
She thought about Robin again. Robin used to be able to have fun. He used to like hanging out with all of them but as the years went by he started to lose more and more of that. The more he started to duck away into his room to take mysterious phone calls, the more distance he tried to push between him and the Titians.
Starfire sighed, stopping at Robins door. It had marks indented on the metal from where they had a few encounters in the tower. Some where caused by fighting within the group. She giggled to herself, remembering each scar. She ran her hand over them.
The door slid open then causing her to jump back.
Robin stood there in a white tank top and black sweats. His mask was still plastered over his eyes. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. It looked like he has been at it for hours. There were bruises dotting his knuckles.
"Oh, hi friend Robin. I did not mean to disturb you, I was simply traveling down the hall and-"
"Do you want to come in Star?" He said this with a small smile.
She nodded, silently floating into the room. It was organized, and minimalist which never surprised her. There was also a punching bag hanging down from his ceiling. The outside was peeling, and cracking from constant use.
"Robin." She started as she slowly floated down to sit on the edge of his bed. He had begun to go at the bag again.
It took her awhile before she finished the sentence not really sure what she wanted to say.
"Where have you been?"
"Here."
"Yes."
Starfire folded her hands in lap, messing with her fingers for a long while before she spoke again.
"Why haven't you been with your friends?"
He stopped at that, setting his hands down to his sides in fists.
"I've needed to train, when the thing attacked I almost died Star. I can't let that happen again." He began to mutilate the bag again, this time with even more force.
"You have trained enough."
"You don't understand Star-" He stopped with a sigh, finally putting both hands on the bag to stop it.
"I understand a lot more than you think I do, why must you continue to not see that."
"After what happened?." When he said that, it felt like an attack on her and she felt like he knew it. Why the sudden aggression she didn't know. It didn't make her any less upset over it.
"Havent I done enough to show you that I understand?" She reasoned.
"Yes, I shouldn't have said it like that. I trust you Starfire I do."
"But you think I am clueless now. Like all others do."
"That's not it."
Starfire wanted to hear what he had to say, what lie he was going to tell next. She had always thought he was the one who thought more of her, that thought she was more than the helpless alien girl who was in over her head. Instead it seemed that his opinion of her had changed, well maybe it didn't.
She wanted to hear it, but then a loud crashing sound filled their ears. It was so loud it was almost unbearable. Star jumped up quickly from the bed rubbing her ears.
"Is that how loud thunder can be on this planet? I have never heard it like that before!" Starfire shouted through their stunned hearing.
"No!" Robin started to step toward her but a large gust of wind blew towards him pinning him to the wall. He struggled against the strong breeze to no avail. Starfire was knocked down to the ground.
"Can you tell me why it's raining all over my car!" Cyborg was soon in the door way soaking wet.
"Of course I could but where's the fun in that?" A smooth melodic, jumpy voice called. It was almost comparable to the storm itself which now seemed to have moved inside the tower.
A man appeared in between Starfire and the doorway where Cyborg stood. It was like he was made of the storm clouds themselves. Grey puffs went up and down his body like a robe of some sorts. His hair floated up the ceiling almost like he was struck by lighting, that theory was supported the scars that stretched out like electricity throughout his entire body.
The thunder tumbled around them again, causing Starfire to wince in pain. It felt like her ears were about to bled, it reminded her of the screaming in the thing. Disturbingly so.
"What? Do you not like that? I found it rather pretty. Should I try it again?" The man cooed. His voice was the only truly clear thing while her ears rung. She didn't even hear Cyborgs arm cannon blast, she just saw the scotch marks on the ground next to her.
The man gracefully jumped and landed gracefully right next to her.
"Such a pretty light, but not nearly as pretty as mine." The tall thing man lifted his bony hands which had lighting swimming around them. Starfire shot laser beams from her eyes at the mans ankles before he had the chance to do so.
All she heard from him was a slight wince, the burn that appeared was absorbed into his skin like it never even happened at all. It was like a big bite for him, a harmless little fly.
"That was not very nice little star, I just wanted to hang out with the all famous Teen Titians a little bit is all. Have some fun." He said this with a wide smirk on his face.
Robin broke free from the wind, stepping forward slowly towards the man already weak from pushing his body to the limit.
"Oh no no no Robin, I'm not ready to play with you yet." With a flick of the mans finger he was back up against the wall.
Starfire then tackled the man, knocking him to the floor. The mans skin felt like tiny little pinpricks of electricity. It didn't bother Starfire too much.
The man then opened his mouth to scream but instead of a shriek a large book erupted from his lips. The loudest bout of thunder yet. She felt her ears pop, and a warm liquid trickle down the side of her face.
She might've screamed when she rolled off of him, she wouldn't know she couldn't hear a thing.
She stumbled to her feet, clutching her ears in her hands. It was pure agony, like the inside of them has just been charred.
She glared at the man, but didn't move. She couldn't even think about what to do next with the pain.
She tried to shout something along the lines of don't touch him to her friends who were now all in the room staring at the man as he got up from the floor menacingly. She hoped she managed to get it through, they seemed to know what she meant as Raven threw objects from around the room at him making it a point to evade him.
Starfire shot from his hands at him, hoping that it would do anything to at least slow him down. Her hands were caked in her own blood. Robin threw all of his long range weapons at him from the side of the room.
Starfire could see the lips of her friends move but her world was without sound. It was all a flat sharp ringing. Rain was pouring down now from storm clouds that has formed on the ceiling of Robins room. Beast boy threw random objects at him with gorilla strength. Cyborg blasted at the man, also trying to slow him down.
Robin glanced out of the window, and Starfire saw his eyes make a connection to something. He glanced back at his team, his lips again only moving. They carried on firing random attacks at him, his lighting bolts and thundering screams become weaker and weaker.
Cyborg was now against the wall, or rather in it. The debris crumbling around him.
Robin threw one of his sleek bombs he grabbed from his nightstand drawer on the ceiling. He waved his hands widely as all the Teen Titian's cleared the room. Starfire began to run, falling out onto the hallway carpet. A rumble under their feet caused a he rest of them to fall to the ground. She didn't hear the explosion but she felt tiny pieces of rubble fall on top of her.
The rain stopped then, leaving nothing but the silence and a breeze coming from the now gaping hole that was Robins room.
Raven put a hand out, lifting the man out of the debris with her power. He was now a normal man in a polo and shorts. He was unconscious and the rain outside slowed down leaving only cloud grey clouds dotting the sky.
Robin held onto her shoulders facing her. He was talking, she knew it but there was still only the ringing. The infinite ringing.
She must have tried to say something because he flinched back. He put his hands on her cheeks as if telling her to calm down. He had a gentle look in his eyes that greatly contrasted to the one he had in the now demolished room earlier.
He slid his hands over to her ears, taking care not to put too much pressure on them. He mouthed slowly "Can you hear?"
She shook her head rapidly, the realization she couldn't hear anything slowing sinking in.
His touch made it better, made her feel like she had some sense of reality left.
He nodded and got up . He walked up to Raven and Cyborg who were talking next too the floating body of the thunder man.
Cyborg seemed injured as well with wires hanging out where they shouldn't and cuts on his human bits.
Robin and Raven nodded along before going their separate way. Robin was back to her again trying to explain the best with his hands but ended up helping her to her bedroom anyway. She just wanted the ringing to go away. The insufferable ringing.

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