Starfire: Return to Tamaran

Scene 11: Betrayal

The bad news: there was no way to get the ship operational again. The wreckage was scattered all across the Kraitorian field. Nightwing hated to admit it, but Jennifer had been right in saying their best chance in leaving this place. The good news, though, was the communications array and the weapons cache had survived the crash. Not only was his supply of tools still intact, but that meant Nightwing could get in touch with Oracle and give her an update.

"Well, this is certainly turning out to be quite the rescue operation," she said dryly when he had explained about the crashed ship. "Well, at least these natives sound friendly enough."

Nightwing had hoped she wouldn't mention them. Mention of the Kraitorians only made him think of the argument he had just had with Starfire. Even though she couldn't see his face, Oracle seemed to gather what must've happened when he remained silent.

"You had a fight with her, didn't you?"

There was no point lying. "Yes, we did have one."

"What about?" asked Oracle, sounding both amused and concerned at the same time.

Nightwing hesitated before deciding to stick with the truth. And so he told her about how Starfire had misinterpreted his desire to leave to protect Phisanua and her people for lack of trust. He also talked about his resentment toward Jennifer. In his opinion, she still had yet to earn his respect and had also done nothing to actually contribute to the mission.

Oracle was silent for a long time. When she finally spoke, her voice's tone was hard to discern. "Well, you certainly handled that well. You better get your act together, Dick. If you don't, how can you possibly hope to save a planet? As for Jennifer, cut her some slack. If you ask me, she's doing more for the mission than you're giving her credit for. Sounds like she has the right idea about some things."

Nightwing wasn't sure what he would've said in reply to this, but before he could make up his mind, he heard footsteps. It was Jennifer. "Speak of the devil," he muttered, then he said to Oracle, "I'll call you back," and he turned off the communications just as Jennifer came within hearing distance.

"What is it?" he asked her, trying to avoid sounding hostile.

"Just seeing how things are holding up," she replied. "Did you find everything you were looking for?" Before he could ask her why she was here, she seemed to know what he was about to ask. "Starfire is talking with Phisanua. She wanted to have a word with her in private."

Nightwing nodded distractedly. "That's good." He thought back to what Oracle had said just seconds ago. He still wasn't sure what Jennifer had actually done to help on the mission, but perhaps she was right about cutting her some slack. "Look, I'm sorry if I've been harsh lately."

Jennifer shrugged indifferently. "My dad's worked with harsher. Anyway, I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. You need to talk to Starfire again. I know you meant well when you said you wanted to leave, but you didn't do much to clarify your reasons. You need to go back and explain things to her."

Nightwing was stunned by her words, but only because her words were almost exactly what Oracle had said. It occurred to him right then that the two of them were similar in a lot of ways. They had the same teasing sense of humor, the same kind of perception over issues.

He was just about to say something, but something over her shoulder caught his attention. It was more wreckage, but it didn't match the hull of a Kryptonian ship. It had to be what was left of the Citadel ship that had collided with them.

Suddenly tense, Nightwing moved forward, toward the distant wreckage. Jennifer called after him, but he didn't stop until he was right next to the remains of the other ship. After taking in the scene, he stifled a gasp. When Jennifer caught up with him, he asked her, "What do you think this is?"