Areala led them through the labyrinth like castle, through the maze like passage ways, past countless guards who stood vigilant in every hallway. There was a palpable nervousness in the palace, Raven could sense that every guard was on edge.

"Areala?"

"Yes, Raven."

"There weren't this many guards the last time were here."

Areala nodded as they continued to walk. "Ever since the young prince was murdered the royal guard has been on high alert. The opposition to the Empress grows with every day. Also, aliens are now viewed with the greatest suspicion. I'm afraid that you could not have chosen a worst time to be here."

"I can." The changeling interjected in a morose voice. Raven felt a pang of grief emanating from him over his lost son. She had made a personal vow to help him work through that tragedy, but it was at moments like these that she realized just how difficult of a task she had taken on. Her husband loved his son deeply and his grief at times like this one made Raven realize that he would never fully get over his death. But that was to be expected. Raven barely knew the boy, and try as she might, she could not grieve for him the way her husband did. All she could do was be there for him, support him and above all, love him unconditionally.

"Forgive me, Mr. Logan. The loss of your soon was an unspeakable tragedy. I wasn't operating in the palace at the time, otherwise I might have intervened to save him."

The changeling nodded. "I know, you would have."

Raven took his hand and squeezed it. She was pregnant with their daughter and hoped her birth would help to ease some of the pain he felt. She made a mental note to have as many children as he desired, or at least until her own reproductive system said "That's it. Factory closed. No more babies." which she knew wasn't too far off in the future

She placed her hand over her still very tiny baby and sensed her growing inside the relative safety of her body. One thing she knew for sure was that if anyone tried to harm their daughter, inside or outside the womb, they would have deal with Trigon's daughter first.

They entered the Grand Hall in the castle. It was the same cavernous place where years before Blackfire tried to force her sister into what possibly would have been the worst arranged marriage in all of history.

Starfire was seated on her throne at the end of the Grand Hall on a raised dais. On her right, also seated was Galfore and on her left, in the seat that once belonged to the changeling was Kreesad. There were now two much smaller chairs to Kreesad's left, which where obviously for Raven and Gar. Raven sighed. At least they would be allowed to sit on the dais with Starfire.

Areala led them down the long violet colored royal carpet to the dais as the honor guard blared their horrendous sounding alien trumpets. This time they were prepared and wore their very discreet ear plugs which keep the debilitating sound out of their ears.

What the ear plugs could not filter out, at least for Raven, was the flood of hostile feelings from all those in attendance. It was more than obvious they were not welcome by Starfire's court, who of course remained verbally silent in their disapproval. Raven had to suppress a grimace, as it was plainly evident that Starfire's court were little more than a group of opportunistic, xenophobic, self serving sycophants.

Raven was now truly regretting her return to Tamaran.

Areala led them up the steps to the top of the dais, stopping in front of the throne. Areala had briefed them on the rubrics of the ceremony. Starfire, Galfore and Kreesad rose from their seats and Raven dropped to her knees. Starfire walked up to her and placed her hands on Raven's temples. Her hands glowed green as did her eyes.

"Raven of Azarath, I have welcomed you into my Royal Family. Do you swear by X'Hal and her sacred light your allegiance to me, forsaking all other powers and principalities?"

"I swear by X'Hal." Raven blurted, knowing well that she did not recognize X'Hal as a true deity, which rendered her vow null and void.

"Do you swear by X'Hal to defend the crown of Tamaran?"

"I swear by X'Hal."

"Do you promise to bear children within our family?"

"I promise." She replied, mentally adding, but not with Kreesad.

Starfire released her head. Raven could feel Starfire's star bolt energy tingling on the surface of her skin as it slowly began to fade away.

"Rise, Lady Raven of the House of Tamaran. Let us be seated and let the royal banquet and celebration commence!"

Starfire took her seat first, followed by Kreesad, Galfore and finally by Gar and Raven. After this the assembled court took their seats. As things settled down the changeling pointed into the crowd.

"Rave, do you …"

"I see it." She interrupted him and raised a black hemisphere over the dais, and not a second too soon as a small projectile hit and exploded, shaking the Grand Hall. Areala was about to use her own Green Lantern powers to intercept the missile, but she had been caught off guard. Pandemonium ensued in the Grand Hall as the assembled members of the royal court ran screaming for cover.

The assailant discarded his portable rocket launcher and tried to escape through the terrified crowd was almost successful, except for a elderly nobleman who knocked him down. The terrorist was quickly subdued and disarmed of his portable rocket launcher by the palace guards.

"Drop your shield!" Galfore barked at Raven as the guards dragged the terrorist to the dais. He was a young Tamaranian male, possibly still a teenager.

"What is the meaning of this?" Galfore thundered. "How dare you attack the Empress?"

The young man was clearly a commoner of the lowest social standing. His only reply was to glare at Starfire. Galfore then turned to the chief of palace security.

"How did this happen? How did the commoner gain entry, and how did he bring that weapon in, undetected into the Palace!?"

"It must be an inside job my Lord." He replied in a contrite voice.

"I already know that! I want to know who! I want answers by sunset. Do not fail me again, Commander!"

The chief of security bowed and left. Starfire was still seated on her throne and looked calm and composed. Garfield felt as if his heart was about to leap of of his throat. Had Raven been a fraction of a second slower they would have all bee annihilated. Galfore turned his attention back to the terrorist.

"We will find out your identity and when we do, your entire extended family will pay for this outrage unless you begin to talk!"

He glared defiantly at Galfore. "I have no family, I was abandoned as a child, an orphan. Your threats have no power over me."

"Oh, so you can talk! Why are you doing this!?"

The young man, who wore his long blond hair in braids as was typical in the K'rax province glared defiantly at Galfore.

"Tamaran has become weak! We are wrutha!" He shouted.

"That is not true. We choose to remain autonomous. We do not wish to join the Citadel or the Gordanians in fool's errand of galactic war."

"You fear the Green Lanterns. You are cowards."

"We do not fear Oa's army. There is no point in engaging in wars of conquest. It is not our way."

"King Sunfire does not agree."

"That was a long time ago. Thousands of years have passed since his days. X'Hal appeared and she taught us the new way, the way of Tamaran."

"X'Hal was no goddess! She was just a woman!" The terrorist snarled. The entire assembled court., which numbered over one thousand people, gasped.

"How dare you say that, you cur!"

"X'Hal led us away from who we truly are! Great men are conquerors, not explorers!"

"Be silent!"

"I will not! Look at you! Two humans are sitting on the Royal Thrones! They are part of the Royal Family. And don't believe for a second that your court is OK with that! As I prepared for my attack I overheard their whispers of disapproval. And the people, do you even have a clue what the people think of this … abomination." He said as he gestured to Raven and Gar. "Filthy humans. And she is a witch!"

"Be silent, or I will have your tongue removed!"

The terrorist stopped talking.

"Take him away to be interrogated. Use whatever means necessary, including the mind probe."

Starfire gasped. "But Galfore, the probe will destroy his brain. It will reduce him to a drooling idiot!"

"They he'd best talk. Guards, take him now!"

As the guards hauled him away, he reached into a small pouch hanging from his waist and shoved something in his mouth, which began to foam.

"We are legion, you cannot stop us." He muttered before dying.

-( - )-

Raven kicked off her boots and removed her cape before sitting down on the edge of their bed. Her green husband sat down beside her and they remained in silence.

The banquet was canceled and not just because of the terrorist attack, Galfore ordered the food to be inspected and discovered that it had been poisoned. The kitchen staff was summarily executed as they too were part of the conspiracy.

Galfore, Starfire and the Prime Minister, whose name they learned was Halfarg were spirited away, along with Kreesad, to an emergency meeting with Tamaran's military leaders. The Logans, of course, were not invited. It occurred to Raven that their family name, at least on Tamaran was neither Logan nor Roth. She figured Garfield would probably know what it was, but she didn't ask; realizing that she didn't want to know.

"I never imagined that the situation was this bad." She whispered under her breath.

"I had no idea that it's this bad." He replied.

There was a knock on the door.

Raven balled her fists and dark energy balls appeared. "Who is it?"

"It is Areala, I have brought you some dinner."

"Come in."

Areala entered carrying a tray. On it was what looked like two Cesar salads, two bowls of some sort of soup soup, two plates of three cheese ziti and a bottle of red wine. Set set it down on the table.

"Guy Gardner, one of the Green Lanterns, brought this straight from Earth."

The changeling sniffed the food. "Smells good, like it was just made"

"Guy put in a stasis field after he picked it up from a … I believe the word is a 'restaurant'. I hope it is to your liking."

"Yeah, like I said, it smells great."

"Good, I was concerned. The aromas … they are strange to me. I was wondering if Gardner spoiled the food in transit."

"You mean you don't like the way it smells?" Raven asked.

"Not particularly … Earth food has reputation for being … well ... unusual. I had it sent from Earth because all of the earth ingredients in the kitchen have been poisoned. Starfire ordered new supplies from Earth, of which Gardner brought some, which are now in my care, the rest the Justice League will deliver in a few days. Gardner's arrival was unexpected. As you know, the Green Lantern Corps is banned by treaty from Tamaran."

"I'm surprised the Justice League sent a Lantern." Raven droned.

"I apologize for this meal, to me, your food is … weird."

"Hey, Tamaranian food is weird, not Earth food." Gar complained.

"Actually, I find Tamaranian food to be quite delicious. It is much like the food from my home world of Rishnik." Areala replied.

"If you say so." Raven replied. "Is there any news on the attack?"

"Not yet. The entire planet is in a state of disarray. I suspect that the Prime Minister will announce martial law before next morning."

"Thank you, Areala." Raven replied.

"You are welcome, and I will keep you informed, For the time being, it would be best if you stayed here. Now. if you will excuse me, I have some work to do. Enjoy your dinner and have a good sleep." Areala replied as she left the room.

The Chromatically challenged couple stared at their dinner.

"I'm hungry, but I don't really feel like eating." He mumbled.

"I also, have no appetite, but we haven't eaten all day, we really should try to eat."

He nodded his agreement and they began to eat.

"Nice soup." He said.

"It is, tastes like that bean soup from the Olive Garden."

"You know what, I think it is from the Olive Garden."

"No surprising, since Gardner brought it." She replied.

"At least he remembered to keep it meatless. The ziti isn't bad, I mean, considering it's from Olive Garden."

Using her powers she opened the bottle of wine and filled their glasses.

"I guess this is our honeymoon." She told him as she handed him his wine glass. He stared at the glass's contents. They clinked them together in a half hearted toast.

"When we get home, we'll have our real honeymoon."

She sighed "If we ever get home. Sweet Azar, what a mess we've gotten ourselves into."

He put his fork down. "So what are we going to do? Hide in this room until Star gets things back under control?"

Raven leaned back and folded her arms. "I don't think so. I'm already going stir crazy hiding here. We need a plan."

"Now you're talking, mama!"

She looked him in the eyes. "You're the insider here. Where do you think we should start looking?"

Before he could answer there was a knock on the door.

"Areala is already back?" He asked.

"You may enter." Raven called out.

The sliding door swung open. They both gasped as it wasn't Areala who was at the door.

A red skinned humanoid with a large forehead was levitating in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, he was wearing a black and yellow form fitting outfit. On his left hand, a yellow ring glowed with an awe inspiring hue.

It was Sinestro of Korugar, the former and disgraced Green Lantern as well as the founder and head of the feared Yellow Lantern Corps.

"Raven and Beast Boy, I presume?"

They leaped to their feet, assuming fighting stances.

Sinestro's ring glowed even brighter.

-( - )-

The console on the small spacecraft began to beep. Nightwing had dozed off and the noise woke him up. He jerked and then sat up straight.

"What's that?" he asked.

Blackfire pushed the hyperdrive lever forward and their ship dropped out of otherspace. A large green planet was under them.

"We've arrived, lover." She replied with a huge grin. "Behold Rishnik the sensous!" She chortled as she presented the planet to him with her extended arms. Nightwing leaned forward and scrunched his nose.

"It looks kind of ordinary."

"Believe me, it isn't."

The ship's radio squawked to life.

"Greetings, Blackie One. This is Rishnik Control Space Control." A disembodied voice welcomed them. "What is the purpose of your visit, business or pleasure?"

"Pleasure, pure pleasure." She purred in reply.

"Then you've come to the right place. Standby for your landing vector."

"Blackie One?" Grayson asked.

"My ship's call sign. It's what my transponder says … well, except when I'm sneaking into Tamaran"

"Your landing vector is 112.8876, carom 2.87. You are cleared to land."

"Thank you, sweetheart."

She punched the vector into the NAV computer, which took over and guided her small ship into the atmosphere. The descent was a bit bumpy at first, but once they were in the lower atmosphere it smoothed out. Grayson was able to see the space port in the distance. They would be landing in a minute at most.

"Blackie One, this is ground control. You may touch down at landing port AB-247."

"Thank you, dear." She replied.

A minute later her ship reached the designate landing location. She hovered over it before adroitly touching down. She quickly ran through the shut down checklist.

"So this is Rishnik." Grayson remarked. "So what do we do now?"

To his immense surprise Blackfire began to disrobe.

"Blackie, what are you doing?"

"What does is look like? I'm taking my clothes off."

"Yes, I can see that, but why?"

As she tossed her panties aside she replied "Look out the window."

They were parked in the private spacecraft section, which was full of hundreds of space yachts and shuttles. Nightwing rose from his chair and took a good look outside the cockpit, and gasped. There were hundreds of humanoids outside, from many different worlds. They were of different sizes, shapes and colors, but the one thing they all had in common was that they were all as naked as the day they were born. Not only were Rishikians nudists, then entire planet was one large nudist vacation destination. And apparently it was a popular destination.

Blackfire slipped on some sandals, which was the only thing she was wearing and the the opened the ship's hatch, which hissed as it slid open. She stepped out and raised her arms.

"Nothing feels as good as the Rishnikian sun does on the body. It emits no ultraviolet radiation, so there's no risk of sunburn, not that it's a problem for me."

Nightwing stared in awe at the beautiful and very nudeTamaranian woman.

"Richard, you're still dressed."

"What?"

She laughed. "Rishnik isn't clothing optional, my human stud, clothing is outlawed. So unless you intend to stay inside my shuttle during the visit, you'd better start taking it all off!"

Nightwing was still stunned. He then appear to relax.

"Oh, what the heck." He mumbled as he peeled his shirt off."

-( - )-

Sorry for the delay in updating. I've been fighting a really tough cold and just couldn't motivate myself.