Robin and Starfire - The War Beyond Tamaran

What was Taken

Unconsciousness had come unexpectedly. The pain was unbearable; it had taken her every attempt to stay awake when finally she had let the darkness taken over. It was the cool sensation of Snorbloth leaf and Bordlosh tree branches oil that soaked her burning body and blinded eyes, waking her from her sleep. The feeling of slowly fading pain made her body relax, forcing her to give more than a few minutes to rest.

A small groan came from beside her, and she flung her eyes open, ripping the fabric from her eyes. Around her was a massive underground infirmary with white walls, over forty beds placed facing each other with racks of medicine and a water fountain at the end of the long room. She staggered up to her feet, her eyes darting around in panic, "Raven? Beastboy? Cyborg? Robin?" She turned, facing a woman with white uniform and bandage on her forehead, a small shape of a triangle and vines pinned there.

"Kaskadia!" She exclaimed. The woman smiled, her face lit with joy and a touch of concern. "It has been a long time my Queen, I'm glad you have awakened."

"I am glad to see you too my friend, but I must ask you, where are my friends? Is the battle over?" Kaskadia shook her head, then waved around the room.

"As you can see, the battle is not yet over. This one is bigger than the last; a lot of our soldiers have fallen." Starfire gasped at the sight of something in the distance, a large part of the floor was covered by something she had thought as piles of used clothes. They were in fact bodies piled like sacks of sand, simply because there was no other place to put them.

"And this is just a few we have retrieved and failed to heal my queen, what must we do?"

"Kaskadia," She began but could not say anything; she didn't have a solution.

Wide-eyed, she walked towards the piles of soldiers, seeing they hair wet with blood, their eyes closed forever, and among them, she saw someone she knew. Aslam. He was Kaskadia's twin brother. She had played with him as a child, along with Kaskadia long before the elders in the palace forbid that. A healer may not be friends with royalty, only the ones in a high position. But still they played together; they played until everyone had given up telling them what to do; besides they were just kids. Aslam was so kind to her, one of her good friends here in Tamaran.

She turned towards Kaskadia, but she wasn't looking at her. She was looking down at the floor, a small yellow pendant in her hands; Aslams necklace. Her eyes were wet, her nose red, and she sobbed. The sound was full of sadness and grief as if someone had ripped something from her chest and now it was bleeding. She stared up slowly, returning her own green eyes.

"Tell me," She demanded, "As your friend, tell me Starfire. Tell me the people who did this to him will pay for their crimes. Tell me whoever took him from me will be given a heavy punishment, for taking away a part of my heart!"

Eyes had started to move towards them, the motion in the room pausing to a stop. The soldier's bloody hands, body, with bruised eyes, stared at her with hope in their eyes, the healers with the burden of seeing soldiers die in their hands had stared at her with demands, hope, and hardness of high expectations. They all stared at her, just her.

"Say something," Kaskadia said, shaking her head again. "I told him not to go, I told him he was too young to fight, he was just sixteen..." Her words trailed off into silence, the crowd still behind her. "But he didn't listen; he went anyway, even when he knew..."

"Knew what?"

"It doesn't matter," Kaskadia said in bitterness, "She is dead too anyway. Perhaps... perhaps it was the reason why he chose to leave for battle. Because there is no hope."

"You are wrong," Starfire denied, her foot firm on the ground. With no effort she floated to the air, she could feel the back of her eyes stinging with tears, but she did not let herself cry. This was not the time to cry when her people needed her the most. She had to be strong, for them.

"There is still hope; there is still a chance to win this battle. We should not weep now for the loss of our brothers and sisters, do not fear, there will be time for that. But now we have to fight! And I will see to it that this battle will not end the same way as our former wars. With mistakes, we are sure to learn brothers and sisters, and from that victory, we shall get!" The soldiers had risen to their feet, fists held high. The healers who were more restrained simply smiled and nodded their agreement.

She found herself flying out of the infirmary; through the long tunnels where it opened up to a black sky with millions of stars. Under her; healers were carrying injured soldiers, their body full of scratches, cut wounds, and terrible burns she wasn't sure how the soldier would survive. She had felt the burning liquid herself, anger rising in her chest. How dare they! That explosion of emotion shot her through the sky than she stopped.

In the distance she could see fire rising up from the city, the towers of Senaidel burned like torches in the night, the redness of it smeared the black sky. She looked away, to where her palace was, abandoned by the enemy. With a little effort, she shot herself there and landed where she wanted to be. The main entrance.

There were four there standing guard when she arrived, her eyes still shining in green.

"I do not wish to hurt you, stand down. It is that, or suffers my wrath." She said. As if they hadn't heard her, they started raising their guns. One man shot at her, the red blinding light nearly hitting the side of her stomach, but she was faster. With one kick, she sends the man's head snapping back like a broken puppet. Throwing her weight down as one of her legs stepped on the other man's face. He went down with a snap. Suddenly another shot blinded her eyes, the light made her head dizzy. The ground felt hard and sharp under her as she fell, her head hitting a large chunk of stone.

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