Teen Titans #61: "Into the Cosmic Night, part 2"

-1-

Guy Gardner had a problem.

His ring was vulnerable to yellow again. And it shouldn't have been.

His and Hal's rings had been made invulnerable to yellow. Why his ring was displaying that weakness again, he didn't know. He would have to speak to the Guardians about that.

He was distracted, however, by Starfire shouting, “We need to catch her!”

“And we will,” Nightwing assured her. “Never doubt it.”

“Calm down, warrior princess,” Guy said, and he said it with far less of a sneer than was his wont. “Use your warrior tactics. She was trained in them just as you are, yeah?”

Starfire's green eyes bored into him. “I hope you have a point.”

“My point is, with a ship like that to back up her own abilities, why run? Why perform a single strike and then run away? Hit and fade? Doesn't sound like a Tamaranean to me. Unless...”

“Unless she's luring us into trap,” Starfire said. “I know. But we can fight through any trap she devises.” She gave a small, grim smile. “Be assured, Lantern; I know my sister. And if you know Tamaraneans at all, then you know we fight with passion. Not foolishness.”

Gardner spread his hands. “Looked like she was fooling you to me.”

“If I were human, she would be. No offense,” she hastened to add to her own team. “But it is our way.”

Gardner doubted if she was being completely honest with herself, but let it slide.

They rushed through space. First they shot past Mars, then on towards the asteroid belt. The planets were not in alignment like in some pretty textbook, so after the asteroid field they would have to take a sharp left.

No matter how many times he did this, Guy never found it got old. Even for a jaded cynic like him. He had traversed the depths of space, and seen the wonders of the galaxy, Oa not least. But the solar system was always a source of wonder for him.

The Titans seemed to feeling this too, to one degree or another, except of course, for Starfire. Guy had taken it in stride that the enemy was her sister. But every race had their renegades. Some things were universal. There was a story behind that, to be sure. But now was not the time to press her. Guy was more diplomatic than most suspected, if only in terms of what he held back. Certainly he was more intelligent than most gave him credit for.

As they got further and further away from Earth—and more importantly, the Sun—the darker things got. Some sunlight fell upon the asteroids, of course. But it wasn't like sunlight on Earth, not by a long shot.

The enemy ship—recognizable as Citadel by it's rounded shape, more vertical than horizontal, and it's gold and green color scheme—made a sharp jerk and tried to lose them in the asteroids.

Starfire cursed in frustration and her eyes blazed, but she kept control. Guy wondered if it was really that her intellect was in control of her passion, or if she had listened to him earlier. He decided not to say so either way, however.

Besides, if Starfire flew out of the bubble, she would asphyxiate same as the rest of them. Not as quickly, but that would make such a death all the more agonizing and unpleasant.

“If anything, we expected this attack sooner,” Nightwing said to Guy. “With our without Blackfire still being alive. The fact that she is only makes it worse, and surprising that she didn't make a comeback sooner.”

“A rogue Tamaranean,” Guy mused. “Scary.”

Nightwing merely nodded. “Starfire's history with her sister is a long and painful one, as you might guess.”

“Most histories are kid,” Guy said. “Most histories are.”

Nightwing nodded; the situation was far too grave to be upset over being called 'kid'.

-3-

Starfire's own emerald gaze was blazing bright. She knew it was a trap, obviously. But what was her sister after?!? What was the game plan?

Just to take her out? No. Not just. That was part of it, certainly. And surely she wanted to take Earth for the Citadel. And probably establish herself as 'rightful' ruler of their surviving people....under Citadel supervision, of course.

Of course....not.

Her sister would not be content with kneeling to the Citadel if she could be ruler in her own right. But to wrest control of the Tamaranean people from the Citadel would be difficult......

The realization struck her so strongly that she stopped flying of her own accord and let the inertia of Gardner's ring-created bubble carry her along. It would be obvious that her power-hungry sister would not be content with ruling their people on Tamaran. Instead of destroying Earth, she would conquer it and then use that to boost her reputation to be granted governorship over Tamaran....and from there, she would backstab her way to the top of the Citadel, and finally to rule it. It would fit with both her sister's ruthless nature, and her pragmatism; why fight to free Tamaran from the Citadel, when she could rule the Citadel itself, and through it, every world they held? A far greater prize than just Tamaran, that would be.

And Komand'r could do it, too. She had the brains, cunning, and fury. Whatever else Koriand'r might think of her evil sister, she knew that Komand'r was a warrior and leader, more than capable. Her time in the Citadel had shown that. She had lost to the Titans before, it was so; but victory was not guaranteed, this time or any other.

The only question left, then, was what trap Komand'r was luring them into?

She didn't know. She couldn't know, yet.

And that was the thing that worried her the most.

-5-

Nightwing drifted through the green bubble over to his lover. He said no word, but reached for her hand.

For a moment, the intensity in her gaze faded a bit, and she gave a thin smile and took the hand he offered. They bond had slowly deepened, and was not merely carnal, for all their enthusiasm on that level. As Gar and Tara were slowly learning, that was just the most obvious manifestation. The more time he spent with Kory, admiring her warrior spirit, and her passion for all aspects of life, not just the sexual ones, the more he came to respect and love her.

“We're with you all the way, you know that, right?” he said now.

“Always,” she smiled and embraced him fully. Then she pulled away a bit and frowned. “But what if we have to kill her? I think that quite possible.”

He swallowed. Risk of collateral damage was always possible especially out in space like this. “Only if there's no other choice. If our not so friendly neighborhood Green Lantern can take her to Oa for trial and imprisonment, we will do that.”

Starfire nodded. “I am not so blindly vengeful that I cannot see justice in that my love,” she reassured him.

“But it may come to that,” he said, anticipating her. “But we'll do our best to see that it doesn't.”

“It is part of what we do,” she acknowledged, anticipating him in turn. She held him close. “I do wish we could free my people from the Citadel. It has been so long.....”

“Perhaps our Lantern 'friend' can help with that. There's no love lost between the Corps and the Citadel.”

“Yes...” her face was troubled. “Earth is my home now, with you love. But that doesn't mean I want to leave my people in chains.”

“Nor would I, if our positions were reversed,” he assured her.

She hugged him then, and returned her attention to the Citadel ship in the middle distance.

He floated over to where Beast Boy was brooding. The changeling started when Nightwing clapped him on the shoulder. “She had her own battle to fight,” Nightwing said.

“I know, I know I should have gone with her.”

“She would have appreciated this, I think. A proper space adventure. She'll be so jealous to hear about it when we get back.”

“If we get back,” Beast Boy countered. “If she gets back. If any of us get back.”

“We will. She will. Never give up.”

“I hope so,” Gar said. “I hope so.”

-7-

All sorts of proximity alarms went off as Starfire, her human consort, and the Lantern came directly for Blackfire's flagship.

Panicking, the Gordanian crew began firing without orders. Blackfire did not bother to countermand them or kill any of them for their insolence. She merely watched. She was not afraid, or even really surprised. But she was impressed.

The Lantern and her sister easily avoid their shots. Her sister's consort was naturally agile, and aided by the Lantern's ring, easily dodged the attacks.

They passed through the ships defensive screens and shields as though they did not exist.

Then there was a shudder as they rammed their way into the ship. There was a brief groaning wail of the hull breach alarm, then that shut off as the emergency bulkheads closed behind the intruders.

Relatively composed, Blackfire turned to her minions. “Well, what are you waiting for? Kill them. Save my dear sister. Leave her to me.”

-9-

Aboard Blackfire's flagship, Nightwing found himself at a disadvantage. The Gordanians were strong enough to absorb most of his physical attacks without complaint. Fortunately, he had other tricks up his sleeve, tasers, smoke grenades, and concussion grenades not least. For him it was something of a flashback to his younger days as Robin, taking on bigger, slower guys, out maneuvering them. He smiled at the memory; these days he too often found himself thinking of his tenure as Batman, rather than his longer, happier run as Robin.

Gardner, still worried about his ring, used it to attack the Gordanians indirectly, tripping them up and then beating them down. It was not as though Lanterns had not been fighting yellow-wielding enemies for millenia, after all. His concern was their numbers.

Starfire was in here element here, blasting away with her starbolts. The Gordanians fired back, of course, but her blasts countered theirs, and she fired faster. Her warrior spirit was singing.

It was then, of course, that Blackfire arrived.

“Hello sister,” she sneered. “It is time for this to end.”

They traded starbolts, and Starfire finally became concerned. She and her sister were evenly matched; she could win, but it was not certain. Then with her sister's Gordanian backup added to the equation, things became dire. She had her own support, of course, but her lover and the Lantern were tied up with knots of enemy forces.

Nevertheless she did not falter. She would see this to the end.

However bitter an end that might be.