A groan was heard throughout the house. As soon as the groan reached his ears he immediately appeared next to the couch which held the exiled princess. She stirred in her sleep but stopped after he took a step forward. She hadn't woken up and it had been almost a complete four weeks since she fell into his arms, quite literally.
Red x in the meantime had repaired the window he had thoughtlessly broken. He scratched the back of his head and wondered whether she would ever wake up. There were many times the thief was certain she was dead and would quickly try figure out why she had stopped breathing. The only thing that had scared him was the thought of leaving her alone while he was out.
The scenario of her breathing stopping when he wasn't there always compelled him to stay near her. He knew fully well what and who she was but that didn't scare him nor did it have any affect on his decisions he made. He simply didn't like the idea of someone dying while there was something he could have done to help. He was a thief not some heartless being.
As an end result he more than often helped those whose luck just wasn't all that good. That's all, he didn't have feelings for this pampered princess. Hell, he barely knew her and form what he's heard she was spoiled and threw fits of anger when things didn't go her way.
What got him thinking was how little she weighted when he carried her. Not even with Starfire did he feel like he would brake her with miscalculated strength. He shivered when he remembered how skinny she felt in his grasp. Her armored suit hid the fact that she was underweight. Only if you lifted her or payed any attention would someone notice that her cloths hung from her figure.
Red x raised an eyebrow behind his mask and reached to grab her arm. He immediately let go and stared at her. She was alarm raising skinny. She was practically nothing but bones if he wanted to describe her accurately as possible. It scared him to think that with just a tap she would break like a porcelain doll. Red x wondered that if what he heard Starfire say to Robin was true.
"It is okay Robin. The sun will help me heal quicker, you do not need to worry." Starfire smiled as Robin inspected the burn.
It still relatively bright outside. Red x put his theory to the test by picking Blackfire up and laying her outside on the futon that was outside. He placed a small gadget that would let him know if her heart stopped. Red x was anxious and really wanted this to work.
Right now all he could do was wait. That was one thing he absolutely loathed. Red x woke up with a start as he landed on the ground. He fell from the chair he was on while waiting for the tamaranean princess to wake up.
He looked up to see if she was up yet. No surprise to see she was still in a sleeping state. He sighed, it was nightfall now and she hasn't woken up. He got up and gently picked her up and headed back inside. He could only wonder what it was that was going on in her head. He set back down on the couch.
~Inside Blackfire's Head~
Blackfire was reliving an event that happened way before Starfire used as bargaining chip. Those were days that she didn't want to remember much less relive them. This was one of the days were her parents went meetings and discussed important things such as trading and making new allies.
One of the days she would look back on and try her best not to cry or let any of her stomach's contents leave. She was walking down the hall of the palace when her parents had approached her. She raised a questioning eyebrow at this.
Seeing as her parents barely remembered she was alive, it was even more confusing seeing her parents actually walk up to her and not the opposite way. Something was wrong. She felt it in stomach. In her very soul.
"Komand'r." Her mother said in a calm but firm tone. Blackfire was surprised and tried her best to answer. "Y-yes?" Her father looked at her with something she couldn't quit put her finger on. "You will be leaving with this nice gentlemen " This time it was her father that spoke and gestured to what looked a some type snake with very thin arms and legs.
Two guards, she assumed, of the same species came up from behind her and grabbed her arms with strength that completely contradicted the appearance of their limbs. Blackfire was at a loss of words but her parents were still able to read the unspoken question she had.
"These were enemies...." Blackfire's eyes grew to be the size of saucers with those words. She understood now. She was the price of their newly formed alliance. "....but we came to an agreement-" He was cut off by Blackfire. "And that agreement was me!?" She shouted.
He looked at her with a disapproval. "Yes." Blackfire felt tears come to her eyes as she continued to shout. "Why couldn't you give them Starfire!?" She was struggling desperately to free herself from the grip of the reptiles. She felt something hot on her cheek and it stung.
Then it registered. She was just slapped. She looked at her father stunned. "Why?" She whispered as she felt more tears in her eyes but she refused to let them go. To let them go meant she would accept defeat. To be weak. To be what her parents deemed unacceptable. To be what everyone including her parents thought she was.
The look in her father's eyes told her that he was completely livid. "She unlike you is a Tamaranean. A real one. She isn't a mistake. She wasn't born on the day we were attacked and most certainly she is able to use what you cannot. She has what you lack. She is the next in line to take the throne." He spat out.
That might as well have been the slap that she received. She looked to her mother and her mother just looked away. Not defending her daughter not even caring what was happening right in front of her.
"You are leaving with them and that is final." He said. The rulers of Tamaran left ignoring Blackfire's pleas. Her shouts for help fell on deaf ears. The tears fell. It wasn't fair. The throne was the only thing that she could call her's and they were giving it to their youngest? The tears were blinding her vision as she continued in vain to struggle out of grasp of the serpent like aliens.
In one last attempt she just screamed with one pull that she put every last once of her strength she had left. It made the guards stumble forward but other than that, it was all that it did. The serpent like alien that had walked with her parents seemed to enjoy the way she struggled against the guards.
It let out a rasp like noise that seemed to resemble a chuckle. Blackfire kicked the serpent on the what she assumed was the shin. It immediately stopped and hit her hard enough to have knocked her out.
She awoke to find she was the ship and was getting ready to leave the Tamaran. "NO!" She screamed only to be shocked. She looked down at her wrists to see two metal like gantlets that resembled what Starfire would often wear. Except it had two small rods on each one.
Blackfire tried to take it off but was stopped by getting electrocuted. The voltage was higher than the last one. She heard a hiss and looked up to see one of them, the serpent like alien. It walked up to her cell and looked at her from head to toe.
She felt like it was sizing her up in case she had succeed in taking the bracelets off and had decided to make a run for it. "Those are to make sure you don't go off and return home." She was startled to find that she could understand what they were saying.
"They also have built in communicators. And if you raise your voice the slightest bit...." It paused and looked at her. "Well you've already felt what it could do." It had made the same rasping noise the other had previously had done. "Mess with them, disobey an order, or even as much as look at any of us the wrong way and that will zap you." It rasped a little more.
It cleared it's throat before speaking again. "You are now our slave and as you witnessed each time it zaps you the higher the voltage gets." It seems to smirk. "It goes and can go past the point of deadly voltage." It turned and left to another part of the ship right after It finished. Blackfire started to sweat.
She never thought her parents would do this to her. She looked at her new 'bracelets'. She wanted to scream but didn't want to risk having it electrocute her again. Tears flooded her eyes again and this time she let them slip silently.
It would be four maybe five years before she would come back to her home planet. All those years would be hell. During those years she had been electrocuted countless times and smacked. The one and only day were her tears fell was the last time they did.
She cursed Starfire and her hatred kept growing as she remembered everything they ever done and they were the reason she was imprisoned for so many years but there was a silver lining to all this. Blackfire smirked with vengeance in her eyes. She would make her sister pay. Oh yes. She chuckled which eventually grew to full blown laughter.
Her laughter was heard throughout the entire prison where they kept her.
Blackfire was sweating bullets and Red x didn't know what to do. She started to scream then she was sweating with a raging fever. Red x wanted to take her to an actual hospital but seeing as she, in everybody's eyes, was a villain with some sort of agenda towards the beloved redhead hero, Starfire. Something was bound to happen to her if she was in an actual hospital. She wasn't his problem. So why was he going through so much?
One simple reason she was some in need. Red x never liked playing the hero nor would he ever but he helped people. Blackfire gasped like she was running low on air. Red x checked her heart.
It wasn't beating.
Quickly he made the suit charge up and shot the heart of tamaranean. Still no beating. He did it one more time then waited for a couple of seconds. It was faint and slow but her heart had started beating again. Red x slouched in a chair across from her. So much trouble.
The sun was shinning brightly outside and it was hot. Summer was never fun for anyone in Jump city. Red x wanted to be outside for little but seeing as Blackfire could have another close call he did't want to leave.
In the end he placed her on a chair next to him outside in the shade. Feeling the warmth of the summer but not the merciless rays of the sun was something. That he enjoyed a little more than he would like to admit. His eyelids felt heavy though he didn't exactly want to have someone die in his backyard.
Blackfire took one painful breath in and let it go as she opened her eyes to see she was somewhere different than an abandon planet or moon. She felt sharp pains in her chest. Her whole body felt like it was on white hot fire. She hated the healing process.
'Wait.' She observed her surroundings more. 'The sun.' With that in mind tried with all her might to move from her spot but felt her bone were like extremely thin glass only meant to be seen, not used. Oh did it hurt but she kept trying. Red x had been startled by her sudden awakening and could do nothing but watch.
That was until his brain finally processed everything snapping him into action. "What are you going for?" The banished princess seemed to be surprised by his ability to speak. She coughed violently before being able to speak herself. "Put me in the sun." She rasped out. Red x wanted to tell her no but she seemed pretty set on going into the sunlight with or without his help.
He carried her to the spot where seemed to have the most sun and set her down. She just laid there slowly closing her eyes. Was being in the light her last wish? He didn't want to interrupt her last moments so he went back inside. He did all he could and that's what mattered right?
He went to his kitchen and grabbed a couple of drinks headed to his room and would go back out when he felt he could come to terms. Right now he just needed to bare with the situation.
Blackfire felt everything being healed but not everything could with the sun, her nutrition and physical strength would have to be looked over every now and then. She'd have to eat a lot more.
She was thankful that she was able to wake up. She didn't want to relive everything much less clearly feel the emotions that welled up inside. It happened and everything is in the past so she needed to get over the emotions evoked by her family over her entire lifetime. 'How dare they.' Blackfire opened her eyes and saw her dear sister's team far somewhere in the air.
Starfire was carrying Robin while Raven had made some sort of solid black disc so Cyborg and Beastboy could stand on. They seemed to be rushing. Loud noises were heard and that seemed to push them to go faster.
Blackfire glared at them until they were out of sight. She just couldn't seem to let her anger go. She felt her bones shifting a little bit and it worse than she thought it would. Blackfire took a deep breath and started to stand.
Her body hurt but she felt better and that urged her to try to take flight. In the end the pain was greater then she could stand anymore. Blackfire laid there soaking the suns rays. Letting the sun heal her. Breathing started to become an easier task. When the raven haired tamaranean opened her eyes the sun had started to set.
'I must've fallen asleep.' Blackfire lost herself in thought and didn't notice being gently lifted and carried back into the house. 'At any case I should be somewhat out of immediate danger for now.' Her thoughts were interrupted by a light yawn. Her muscles hurt and her throat was like a desert. She tried to keep her open which was much easier said then done.
Red x felt the weight of the world leave his shoulders when saw her still breathing. 'She's tougher than she looks.' He smirked behind his mask. He went ahead and picked her up and took her back into the house gently setting her on his bed this time. He figured sleeping on the couch wasn't as comfortable as a bed.
He heard her yawn a bit and snapped his attention back to her. Her eyes kept dropping but she seemed to be pretty persistent on staying up. "You should probably rest." He spoke up and the sound of his voice seemed to have caught her off guard. It didn't last long though for her gazed turned into a glare. Her body tensed and her breathing seemed to get slightly more harsh.
"Who..." She began to speak but started to cough violently. Once she managed to get her breathing under control she turned to him only to have a glass of water getting close to her. Blackfire didn't trust the clear liquid and the look in her eyes said just that clearly. She heard him sigh before lifting his mask enough to have a sip of the contents.
She glared at him. Such a small amount didn't mean anything. For all she knew he could have some tolerance to the poison that he could have potentially put in it. He groaned and drank half the class before pulling his mask back down. Only then did she try to lift her arm to take the cup from him.
He made a gesture for her to stop. Puzzled she dropped her arm back to her side. Red x put the cup close to her lips and started to tilt the glass. Blackfire couldn't believe this man thought she couldn't even hold a glass of water. She didn't have the strength to argue at the moment though so she swallowed her pride and drank the water.
She drank the water slowly. Blackfire's throat felt so much better than she thought it would and relished in the tiny bit of relief. Within seconds she back to glaring at him. Red x rolled his eyes behind his mask but her glare wasn't anything nice. He had to look away for a brief second before looking at her again.
"Who are you?" The her voice might have been weak and little raspy but the look in her eyes said she wasn't going ask twice. "The man of your dreams sweetheart." Red x replied smoothly with a tone that told her under that mask was a smirk. Her glare intensified and her frown deepened.
"Look does it really matter who I am? The way I see it your in no position to be using the tough act." Red x said. Blackfire had stopped glaring but scowled and from what he could tell it wasn't going to be easy to help her. 'Should I continue to help her?' Red x was certainly leaning towards leaving her on the titans doorstep but decided the thought was more out of annoyance than any display of any real problems.
'At least for now.' Red x got up from his place and closed the door as he left the room. Blackfire didn't realize she had relaxed once he was gone. Her body felt sore and beaten while her eyes were stinging. The lids of her eyes felt they had more weight than possible. Finally she gave up on keeping them open. 'It wouldn't hurt to let them stay closed.' She groaned as a sudden jolt of pain came from her stomach.
She wasn't to pleased with the pains but they were bearable. Feeling uncomfortable she tried moving slightly but her eyes shot open once she felt the uneven cold ground. Immediately she jumped to her feet and into a fighting stance when the sound of metal clashing reached her ears. She searched the area and it was all too familiar. The hissing came from the other side of her jail cell.
Her eyes narrowed as she saw exactly what was cause of the hissing. She kept her stance. "Ready princess?" The serpent like alien let out its raspy laughter and grinned widely clearly waiting for her to give him an answer. "What do you need?" Her eyes narrowed further but the tone of her voice was polite and soft. She learned to master her tone and keep her feeling out of it for the sake of not being electrocuted.
"Relax today is a special day for you." It laughed again before unlocking her door and leaving already expecting her to be following. She rushed and followed behind like a good trained servant. She fought to keep her growl in and schooled her expression into indifference. Her eyes glued to the floor and head slightly tilted down. Her arms were at her sides but were quickly placed in front of her and clapped together.
They reached a courtyard filled with many troops they quickly made a turn to the left and entered an enormous building. Dread filled her very core. 'The militaries weapon and execution section.' Her face paled as thoughts of why they possibly brought her there filled her mind.