Edit November 6 2010: Edited, yet again, to comply with FFnet's punctuation. Inconsistency explained, grammer & punctuation, spelling, &c. Reformatted.

Notes: Disregards movie & probably a lot of comic canon. Takes place about a month after the final episodes

Time Benders
By icecreamlova

- : -

"You disappeared, Star... That battle with Warp was a long time ago."

- Cyborg

"I went back to steal this because history says it disappeared. History says it disappeared because I went back to steal it... Past, present, future: it's all set in stone."

- Warp

"History says it vanished, but history was wrong."

- Starfire

It was... wasn't it?

'The Teen Titans won their encounter with Warp.

Starfire returned to the past and changed the future.

But what if Warp had been right?

What if the desolate alternate future she entered was...

The only possible outcome?'

- : -

(Twenty years before the present)

"Titans, trouble!"

Robin's voice echoed through the walls just before the rooms were flushed red from the dazzling lights. Starfire did not pause to put down her comb. Her hair was messy, but it did not matter with real fights. By the time it clattered onto the floor, the alien had already arrived at the main room, sunlight warm on her face. She glanced around quickly.

Robin looked impatient even though she was the first to arrive. "The prison is under attack. And guess who it is..."

There was only one person who could induce such agitation in her generally composed leader.

"Slade," she murmured.

"Come on!" he said, ignoring the bewildered faces of their team mates.

But before they could react, the great screen that always amazed Starfire with sheer size (compared to the other plasmas in the shops) flickered on and a face appeared; an awfully familiar face that Robin, and, indeed, the rest of the Titans, hated. It was the reason they were running around so quickly in the first place.

"So you've finally reappeared," Robin muttered clearly enough for their contact to hear. "Even though you helped with Raven's father—"

"So impatient," the man teased. Between the orange and black mask he wore very little of him was visible, even if the light had been as bright as the beams that shone through the panels of windows in the T-Tower. "But it's not me who let those prisoners go. I've come to strike a deal..."

"No way," Robin said immediately. He glanced over at the other Titans. "What're you waiting for?"

"Hold up, Nightwing," the criminal cut him off.

And everyone was suddenly as still as statues looking up in disbelief. It was a common enough nickname for someone who called himself a bird, but to the Titans... it had been months since Starfire returned from her impromptu journey into the future, and strangely enough, the team was still jittery enough (after the 'end of the world' incident finally ended just a month or so ago) to comb fanatically through their files to remember every mishap. Not in the least the girl who actually travelled twenty years in time.

Starfire's eyes were larger than normal. "How did you know—?"

Slade said, his tone a little too smug for comfort, a change from the usual indifference: "I have my ways. And I can tell you now, for example, that the prison isn't being broken into."

"And why is that?" countered Robin, who'd almost forgotten about the actual emergency in his thirst to take his arch-nemeses down. The teenager strode directly in front of the screen until he was pressed almost as close as the wires behind it. His eyes fixed on Slade with barely-concealed hatred while his fingers twitched.

Raven tried to interrupt. "Robin, aren't we supposed to be—"

"You've never wanted to take over the city because you know all too well our weaknesses," said Robin, ignoring his withdrawn team mate. He also ignored the indignant sputtering of the people behind him, (apart from, "You know it is true.") before turning back to the screen to face Slade. "So what do you want?"

"I've had an offer that... interested me. All I had to do was..."

Someone burst through the walls before Slade spoke anymore. Ligaments of iron and steel rained down on the five but none of them were very interested in that. Rather, five pairs of eyes were fixed on the gold and black figure that appeared with blinding speed. He whipped out some weapon and before either of them could react, a hand grabbed onto Starfire and dragged her out of the Tower.

"Keep you talking so you didn't notice the breach," Slade finished, vanishing immediately with soft laughter ringing. It was only then Robin noticed how an alarm had been tripped without anyone looking in that direction.

No one paid him any attention either. They were already running outside, chasing after Starfire and the man who had a death grip on her grip.

It was disturbing to think that it was someone strong enough to resist her alien strength which could crush boulders with a single, earth-shattering punch. Strangely, none of the Titans recognised the person yet, the person who managed to fly.

They converged outside.

"Titans, go!" said Robin, bounding forwards.

Sadly, he couldn't match the enemy's feat and fly so Raven gave both he and Cyborg a lift in the form of levitating back panels. Her hands flicked in their general direction, and coupled with her three magic words, the two suddenly found themselves flying at break-neck speed towards their foe. Fingers on either side of her forehead to concentrate, Raven followed, cape billowing.

Meanwhile, it did not take Starfire nearly as long to break free from the grip her captor had on her wrist. As she raised her head her eyes gleamed in recognition and she kicked off and away, knowing well enough not to get caught within range of the man. But something the same hue as his suit was shining in the man's hand.

"Warp! The Clock of Eternity!" Starfire knew these two, one animate, one inanimate, well enough. The first was a villain who was supposed to be stuck in an alternate timeline twenty years in the future as a toddler. The second was the item which she'd regained from him in a fight at the same space-time continuum and was supposed to be at the museum.

"Hello, Titan," he said calmly, turning to face her. The two of them slowed until they were hovering, still and tense, above the vast expanse of ocean. His face was smoother than she remembered: he appeared younger than he'd looked at the first battle in the museum.

An electric-blue beam shot past her, jerking her awake from where she was floating with wide eyes. A quick glance revealed her team mates closing in around Warp. It had been Cyborg who shot, and his arm was still poised to do some more damage.

But Warp had the same too-advanced technology he'd wielded so effectively last time, even though he seemed younger than he should have. A single determined gesture of his arm towards the approaching titans activated the same, blue-tinted electric barrier Starfire recognised well. Too well, because her team mate's most destructive weapon was nothing to its force, petering out against the impenetrable barrier.

"One hundred years," Warp reminded them, dark eyes shining in something akin to triumph already.

"Because you are from the future, you must be invincible. Azerath, metrion, SYNTHOS!"

This time Raven's powers were not limited by the items in the room or dilemmas about keeping relics safe. Her eyes glowed white, a sharp contrast to the black, swirling waters from beneath them as they drew together, an aqueous hand surging up to crash noisily around Warp, enveloping him barrier and all.

She was the first to make an impact on Warp: the barrier sizzled, crackling and hissing. The watery hand swung, fingers curling around the electric blue ball and sliding off its glass-smooth surface, but his defence had been impaired, wavering and blinking in and out. The hand crashed down to the ocean, disintegrating with this final crack at Warp, splitting into rain; out of the mists leaped Beast Boy.

Green wings glided strongly through the air as the owner hurtled forwards; however, Warp was ready this time and he managed to catch a claw and, with some strange device, sent shock waves up.

The two appeared to buzz and shiver at such high speeds it was difficult to see them until Beast Boy's eyes finally widened in pain as he changed back to what he should have been. In human form he plunged towards the ocean like a green shooting star, and Starfire cried out, and pulled free, but Beast Boy was shaking his head to clear it and transforming already.

Unlike Warp, they were a team and Robin was coming already. He'd remembered Starfire's recommendations on fighting, on how his projectiles should be sharp enough to cut. They were still prototypes, but...

In one smooth moment his arm swiped the air, even as he rolled out of the way of any possible response Warp might have offered. To the untrained eye his projectiles seemed to appear out of thin air to hurtle towards Warp even as Cyborg fired a blue beam once more, not quite getting their foe's ear, but proved Warp's barrier was broken when the blue did not activate.

Unfortunately, the laser cannons on his shoulder were still fully functional and in a moment the red beams hit the medical marvel and Cyborg toppled down toward the water. It was only a half-dizzy Beast Boy, who managed to transform into some type of animal that no one had ever seen, which managed to save him; feather-like wings pumped air to increase altitude.

"Do griffins even exist?" commented Cyborg, still wincing from the pain as he was lifted up.

Further above them, Warp's attention was focused still on the projectiles which he dodged merely by dropping quickly down onto the waves, defying gravity by appearing to drift on the sea surface.

"And I had to fly up!" Beast Boy groaned.

He was successfully ignored.

Starfire was not successfully ignored as she seized the moment, and tried to punch the foe only to be caught by a rope her alien strength could not handle. Even as a tsunami rose to block out the sky, raised by a wrathful Raven, Warp was punching numbers into his suit.

"I'm sorry. Maybe another time."

And dragging Starfire, he disappeared once more.

- : -

(The Present)

No one visits this place any longer. The white pallor of the walls faded long ago into dark grey from the dust that gathers on the surfaces that were once smooth but now rough with innumerable cracks. It looks like it can collapse with a single breath or sound uttered however softly.

It is as silent as death and for some reason this is fitting. The only occupant might as well have died numerous years ago rather than be preserved forever. There, she sleeps, covered by glass so nothing can touch her porcelain face.

She is as still as she is silent.

Nothing can reach inside and nothing can leave. Not when her friends have sealed all exits long before they departed this place forever leaving behind only a memory or two, fading as time moves forward. They were once happy but now all that remains is a sad sort of love.

The rest of the room remains unchanged but for the steady built-up of dust. The occupant remains in her deep slumber. What she dreams of no one knows, because she has no way of knowing what has happened in the years she lay still and unmoving. And they have no way of knowing what has happened in the years she stays in forced slumber.

She, especially, stays the same even as year folds into year, decade into decade, breath as steady as the day she first entered so long ago and even now she takes the perfect, slow breath without a speck of difference in between. Even when her clothes start disintegrating from the oxygen, the only inter-changing thing in this room. Even that has stopped long ago, but she will keep breathing.

Her eye lids do not flicker no matter how bored she may be.

Lying in glass, her restful cage, she is nothing but a sleeping beauty whose time has long passed. Her body is so old and yet so youthful as to be in her prime long past the years she has a right to. But no one knows.

Even the spiders which crept in before the room was sealed away as a forgotten entity are nothing but patches of dust lying on a concrete floor, dead because there was no nourishment for empty stomachs. They cannot touch the girl for the seamless cage is truly seamless unlike the walls which once guarded it. No longer. They serve only to hide.

But no matter what happens in the outside world she will keep living on the brink of existence because with each laboured breath she takes she defies time even though she did not wish to be this type of hero.

She will lay there forgotten, her green eyes never to be opened again to cast cheerfulness and hold that bond between her once-best friends and once-family that have disappeared off the face of the earth in more natural ways than she managed. She is a statue which cannot be alive. Because being alive means to change the world in her own little way.

Not only does she not change the world, the world does not change her. Her red hair is still as lush as it was so long ago and her skin smooth and face soft and tender.

There is only one way to identify here apart from her looks. Her beautiful looks with slanted eyebrows that are nothing but droplets of red as fierce and full as her hair.

Written on a plaque that has changed as little as she is:

'Starfire'

And nothing else. Not even her name as told by her family on her old world, since her family is on earth and nowhere else.

She sleeps, and she stays young and beautiful and alive even if she does not wish to.

- : -

(Twenty years before the present)

Slade had moved his lair once every week in the few months after the evil attacked this dimension through Raven. And then, when things finally settled down enough, he designed his next permanent lair though he couldn't tell how long it would last. In the end, it was not the Teen Titans who found him but a man dressed in gold and a head shaped like a bullet.

He stood with his arms behind his back, not because of respect but because it was his normal way of standing when he faced the mysterious person down. There were few people he knew nothing about and this was certainly a first. The fact that time could be changed proved very useful.

"It's a deal."

So when he complied he found Warp almost before the time-traveller intended or expected. Slade wandered up and down and around him as Warp watched calmly, confident in the abilities of his technology, no doubt. In contrast to the neat way the super-villain stood, Warp had his hands by his sides and faced wherever Slade happened to be.

"I do hope you have what you promised," Slade said, his eyes narrowed.

"And what will you do if I don't?"

"I don't waste time on threats. But you will never have been born."

To this, Warp laughed in a way that made even Slade nervous. This in itself was strange enough. "Time is set in stone. You cannot change it. Look what happened to the Teen Titans."

"But you don't know this yet."

"It's going to happen," Warp insisted, hand tapping his thigh in thought. Slade thought he looked cocky and arrogant, too much so for a man who was younger than him, and probably had less experience. But still, Warp did have time on his side.

"Do you have it?"

"Between villains... I do," the other man said. He smiled and tossed Slade a chip. "Pointless. The past is set in stone. You cannot change it." If there was something bitter in the way he uttered the words, neither super-villain commented on it.

Slade found out the hard way he was right. But he did not mind. It was good to be ahead of the Teen Titans, and even better to see a frustrated Robin wonder how Slade knew their every move. Even if he died before his time.

- : -

"You must be wondering why I have you," Warp said to Starfire, who was struggling against the binds across her wrists, knees and ankles, and trying to spit the uncomfortably dry gag out of her mouth.

Unable to speak, the alien settled for glaring. Unfortunately for her, she could not shoot starbolts out of her eyes, being tranquillised and only half-conscious.

"There is a reasonable explanation."

The gag slipped. "I do not wish to hear your explanations, now let me go!"

"No. History says you disappeared, and you know, history is set in stone."

"I changed it! Robin, Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy and I proved your theory to be incorrect."

"Not quite. You see, my dear, I was supposed to go twenty years into the future. And because I made a mistake on the time when the Clock of Eternity disappeared. It was today rather than those months ago, and this is why I failed the first time to steal the priceless relic."

"But—"

"I checked the records. Your friends from the future made me live in a prison once I'd grown but I still had my memories intact. When I was old enough I escaped from the jail and found my suit, travelled forwards a few decades until I returned in my time, appearing in the future exactly when records say I appeared. Because my regulator was damaged I grew young again, and was, therefore, found by parents and raised one hundred years in the future."

Starfire opened her mouth say something but could not find the words.

"The future you saw is the only future that is possible."

"I refuse to believe such ridiculous and distasteful comments."

"It does not matter. I am only doing history right. You did disappear in a battle against me, Starfire, and history said you were never seen again but for one appearance twenty years into the future."

"Then you knew my plans and actions would follow the rules you set up?" Starfire questioned.

"Of course. I have knowledge on my side, after all. You know, I'll allow your friends one visit before they seal the place up. I can tell you that you won't be discovered even after one hundred years has passed. You are shown as 'missing' in my time, and your body was not found."

"So..."

"Sleep well."

The last thing Starfire saw was the needle poking into her arm and a stinging of pain. Then, everything went dark.

- : -

Robin woke up panting after a strange dream.

He'd had many delusions in the night when his subconscious played tricks on his mind, flashes of memory integrating within his reverie and twisting into surreal faces which held eerie familiarity with those he loved and hated. But somehow there had always been some underlying reason behind what his brain managed to wring together while he was not looking, some fear that rose while he was most venerable.

There had been the dreams about Slade, how his face mirrored Robin's despite difference in height and costume. Perhaps, about how he interrupted some joyful scene with horrible tidings that tore Robin away from the ones he loved. The ones he cared about like a family, maybe more.

Perhaps it was the reason he'd dreamed of Starfire lying unconscious somewhere, her fire-red hair, with a tinge of orange in the shade, spread out like a halo around her head, face pale to the usual shade of healthy tan.

The scenery was still the same ever-shifting surroundings, but even as his vision blurred it stayed the same tainted white that he always associated with himself. A hero with the capability to become a super-villain. As much as he hated to admit it, that much was true. In the centre lay his best friend, sleeping or dead he could not tell.

He remembered looking up in a way that suggested he was incorporeal as he was surely taller than the table on which Starfire lay.

And strangely, he could not feel his feet. That, too, was a clue.

So he took advantage of his situation by drifting up until there was no doubt he was floating as he had never been that tall and gazing down at the princess. He remembered, with a rare blush, thinking clearly that she seemed beautiful and, so unlike what he remembered, perfect.

But the perfection had been what triggered his mind. She was warm, not coolly flawless.

When his hand reached down it passed through the glass like it—he?—was not even there. But Starfire's face seemed cold and horribly solid when he finally brushed it. And worse of all, she did not react at all to his touch, and he'd always known his best friend to be a very light sleeper. She'd been the only one to hear the Puppet King when he attacked, after all.

It was only when he withdrew that anything changed at all.

Starfire's eyes were not opened but she rose so suddenly Robin was almost hit and thrown back. Somehow, the glass barrier, be it cage or sanctuary, seemed as immaterial as Robin felt when she passed through it without any reaction on her calm face. Her eyes were still closed and unmoving.

When he finally tore his eyes away, trying not to look at Starfire who seemed a ghost, Robin had not been comforted at all. He saw the smooth walls breaking and cracks running through it, motionless spiders crumbling into dust. He heard the sound of clocks ticking so quickly they warped into a smooth buzz. Starfire's clothes were crumbling also, but somehow her features were suddenly blurred.

All he could make out was an orange-shade of tan, a blur that seemed somehow different from the girl—woman, he knew.

But then, her eyes opened to reveal eyes that were nothing but the same shade of green. Eyes that were not poised in calm cheerfulness and fortitude, but in a haunted glance that suggested life after life and years on years of memory.

Flames erupted around him, whether from his friend's eyes or from the very ground, Robin could not, even awake, distinguish.

He'd been drowned in darkness and silence but for the insistent ticking of clocks.

But that was a dream. A dream, nothing more, even though he should not have fallen asleep while hunting for Starfire. He should not have been slouched over his desk looking over clue after clue, examining and piecing together what the other told him since they would not let him out lest he scare off someone who could help. Lest no one was there to receive a message from Warp.

Raven had even threatened him. She was always so quiet, but Starfire... they knew perfectly well what could happen if she suddenly disappeared.

Strangely enough, his friends were perfectly correct. Something drew him into the main room, gloved hand still clutching all the papers where he'd scribbled bits of information. With a thump he set them onto the coffee table, turning on a light since so many hours had passed the windows gave nothing but starlight and a grey-blue sort of glow that filtered through the glass. The lights of the city were too small.

And then, the screen flickered open.

To reveal Warp, just like it had revealed Slade. But this time he was too worried about Starfire.

Only the knowledge it was Warp who held Starfire captive prevented him from breaking the screen at the sight of the familiar face with bush eyebrows and an equally bushy beard as dark as Robin's hair. The gold on his hat made Robin wince since it was strangely similar to the shade of skin Starfire possessed, a warm orange-tan.

"What do you want!" he snarled, pressing his communicator. He left it up to his team mates to watch and find Warp on time.

The said villain grinned in a way that made the boy grimace.

"To answer a question."

"Where's Starfire?"

The grin was replaced by a smirk which fit much more comfortably on his narrow face. "I cannot tell you or show you, but I can bring you there. After all, you need to see her one last time..."

"What—"

"Your team mate was wrong. History cannot be changed. There are only certain places which can bend slightly as long as it does not change what actually happens."

Robin cooled off enough—just enough—to frown and think. "Why are you telling me this? Stop wasting time and tell me where Starfire is!"

"I can't." It was said in a way that showed familiarity.

"I don't believe you," Robin said. He was not to be deterred that easily.

"Frankly, I don't care. I'm giving you a chance to bend history slightly. Things which are not yet set in stone. Like in a story, where not everything is listed, and the unlisted might vary. For example, you have managed to change when the Clock of Eternity disappears but not that it disappeared."

Robin paused. He could almost feel Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy listening intently to their conversation. After a long hesitation, he finally asked, "Why?"

Suddenly, there was that same grin as before, still as uncomfortable on that face as Robin felt at waiting. Warp did not speak for a long time, even longer than Robin had paused. His face twisted in thought even as his mouth curved up, and somehow, the martial arts expert felt something turning in the pit of his stomach, something which spoke for all his fears and worries.

It was Raven that spoke through her communicator: "I'm trying to track down his location but something's blocking my mind."

"Can you do that?" Robin hissed, trying not to let the villain see his other conversation.

"I said I couldn't."

The Titans' leader drew a slow breath and turned back to his conversation with Warp. "Well?"

This time, the man had an answer. His mouth turned up at the edges in a half-smile. "Because not everything is good and evil. Sometimes, when one knows the future, he can do whatever he wants because he knows he cannot change the past. He has the luxury of choosing the side he wishes to stay on. And when your actions have been decided for you long before your birth, each small choice means everything."

Beast Boy interrupted. "Do you actually trust this guy?"

Robin waited for a moment until all three pairs of ears on his private line were concentrated on his answer. "What else can I do?"

Logic didn't apply when Star was involved.

- : -

"Don't try to wake her. She won't wake up. And if you try to take her out she will die."

Raven threw the villain a dirty look. For some reason she could not phase through the door, and in her heart, she knew perfectly well what Warp said was true. It merely confused her why exactly Warp wished to help.

So she refrained from entering, waiting outside while Cyborg and Beast Boy entered. She would go next, and finally, Robin. He'd have the most time alone with their former friend, if Warp was to be trusted. She was not sure why exactly Robin had agreed but as her leader, she trusted him on anything not to do with Slade.

The doors closed behind her two team mates, and she turned immediately to Warp.

Who'd somehow disappeared.

Raven sighed. He'd probably gone forward in time, although she thought it strange he had not tried to stop them if they did decide to bring Starfire out. After all—his words were probably lies, and there was no way Cyborg and Beast Boy would listen. Even if they failed Raven could pull the alien out and phase away, since she could move through solid objects.

It was merely—the risk was great, and there was no way of knowing if Warp had been lying. Something blocked her mind whenever she tried to look for the truth. Then, she glanced over and saw Robin who was brooding and trying to refrain from punching the wall.

"Robin—" she began, but the boy shook his head and turned away.

Raven sighed, and wished it was her turn to look at Starfire.

- : -

"Star," Cyborg whispered. The door closed behind him but he did not turn to stare.

Because indeed, before him lay his prone team mate, ghastly pale and motionless.

"Come on; let's get her out of here," Beast Boy tried to persuade his friend. He was walking closer and closer, hands reaching out to touch the cage so clear it was almost impossible to see, would have been impossible to see if not for the light reflecting off its surface. But he paused, not sure of the consequences.

"We can't get her out."

"You actually believe the guy?"

"No, I believe my senses and it's saying that Starfire's heart is only beating four times every minute. The normal speed is about seventy-two, and shocking her would definitely strain her body and kill her. There must be something inside that cage which keeps her alive and preserves her."

"You make her sound like a vegetable or something, stored in the freezer so it won't rot!" Beast Boy retorted, crossing his arms and glaring. Then, he sighed, and his anger deflated. Starfire had this effect on him for some reason. She never seemed to irritate Beast Boy at all, unlike everybody else on their team.

Cyborg seemed to still as well. "BB... she is a vegetable. She's in a comatose state, and unless there's something completely wrong with her system, she's in a slow sleep. There no way she could be thinking or dreaming since that'd require too much oxygen."

"Dude!"

"Star..." Cyborg ignored his friend. "We'll miss you... we will get you out some day."

"We..." Beast Boy tried to say it, but he could not get himself to admit how much he thought Starfire as his sister, to say that he loved her in a serious way. As a joke, not a problem, but in this way...

But he knew Starfire understood even if she could not hear.

"Let's let Raven in," Cyborg said. He left the room, albeit reluctantly.

Beast Boy followed after a long glance at Starfire. He knew it would not be the last time he laid eyes on the girl, but it would be the last time he looked at his Starfire, not one from another time.

- : -

"You know I'm not good at words." Raven looked down thoughtfully at her only female team mate. "Especially since you can't hear me."

Starfire did not answer, and Raven could not feel any emotion coming off her friend.

She spent the rest of her time levitating in the cross-legged position she used for meditation, and was suddenly struck by the memory of the rare moments when Starfire was quietly meditating beside her, both humming the same words to clear their minds from unwanted emotions.

For some reason, she thought it was most fitting that she do what the friends had shared the most while 'hanging out' together, and for once, she let go of her emotions. There was sadness and love, but the happy memories flowed out anyway. In her minds eye, she could almost feel Cyborg and Beast Boy's emotions, while Starfire shone out like an empty beaker that had never been even half-empty when she was awake.

She knew, somehow, that Starfire would be able to sense what emotions she left behind because the alien had always been perceptive. She'd merely acted in a way which did not quite suit the situation.

In her mind she saw the friends she'd made, and whenever she tried to imagine the picture without Starfire—she could not really see it. Something was missing.

Grimly, Raven wondered if she would really lose her mind like Starfire had described.

"No. I cannot."

There was another period of silence before Raven warped through the walls. Apparently, she could exit, but not enter.

- : -

"I can't believe this really happened."

He'd been alone with Starfire many times but Robin knew it would be the last time he ever saw the Starfire of his time once again. The Starfire who was his age. There was so much he wanted to say but... what was the point of speaking to someone who could not hear?

He supposed it was his duty to speak to a former comrade. "You know that I don't really want to say goodbye but I have to..."

No, that was not quite right. He couldn't speak to Starfire as if she'd been nothing more to him than a mere companion who he worked with. She was a friend. As close as a sister, though his feelings about her were not even close to that. True, she was a work partner and a comrade, but there was more.

In some ways he was closer to Starfire than to anyone else. In most ways, and Robin could not deny it. He'd loved her.

Without warning, he slammed his fist onto the glass covering in frustration, half-expecting it to shatter, cursing his quick temper. Warp (and Cyborg) had warned him not to do so or his best friend would die. But it held, thankfully, without even a scratch or dent under the boy genius's strength.

He wondered if he should try and break it anyway. Would Starfire want to lie in 'enchanted' sleep while the world moved on, forgotten and dead on most accounts? Would she want to wake up some time in the future when everyone she'd known was dead? Robin knew he wouldn't but for once, he couldn't really answer for someone he knew almost as well as he knew himself.

"Would you?" he asked aloud, even while he berated himself for speaking to a comatose. He'd heard that some people in this state could hear and understand the words of those speaking to them, but there seemed to be no flicker or sign that proved Starfire could hear his speech. She was truly like a vegetable now, completely cut off from the rest of the world, or would be when the Titans sealed her chamber.

She'd have done better to stay on Tamaran. At least there she might have lived some sort of life which would not require sleeping while the rest of the world aged and died. While the people she loved aged and withered. But would she have been as happy as she seemed on earth?

Robin couldn't answer this either. They were close, but he was not his best friend, and would never be. For one, he was not a girl, and he didn't want to be.

His hands touched the cage again. "It's hard to believe that you're going to be the first of us out of action. How can anything stay the same without you—how could you let this happen?"

He had it bad. Now he was half-angry with the girl, even though he knew he could never really direct fury towards Starfire. She was too sweet and kind, always doing the best for everyone. She was too... her. And his best friend, even though she'd abandoned him.

"I won't be able to visit again." There, he was talking again, but now he found he did not mind. "You'll have to visit me."

He took one last look at the person he loved. There might have been something between them more than friendship or sibling love, but there was no chance of it now. There would never be any chance of it, for even if Robin managed to get her out without killing her, she'd still be so much younger than him—the cure to her coma would not be developed any time soon, and he would be gone if she ever woke up.

Starfire lay as still as a statue, he found himself thinking again. There had always been a picturesque look about his team mate: she was tall for a female, certainly someone her age, and her stride graceful and even. The healthy tan was diminished into a shade much closer to white, still within the range which humans took, but far too pale for a someone of her ethnic group.

But her hair billowed around her in a wave of red and her face, if completely expressionless, was still peaceful. There was no smile, and her eyes were not shining in delight, but somehow, Robin knew she was not unhappy. Just like what he'd seen in his dream.

How could on be unhappy if they could not think?

"You're still my friend...forever."

Somewhere in the depths of Robin's labyrinth mind, a sudden realisation shone as bright as the sun: he would have a chance to tell Starfire of her impending doom some time in the future. Should he do it...?

He'd have twenty years to decide.

- : -

(The Present)

More than a decade passes and she stays lying there, prone, motionless, unmoving...

(She will not move before she leaves her cage. She will not live to move if she leaves her cage.)

...not quite motionless. The edge of her eye twitches, just slightly, even when her mind is still. It is only a nerve, nothing more. There is not a spike of consciousness in her mind even though there is the inexplicable urge in her body to move and exercise her muscles.

She has ignored that urge for so long she does not notice it. Her body does not notice it either and stays still and unmoving. Really, her limbs have not weakened that much at all. All change takes time and time moves so slowly inside the chamber, and inside her body, there is not enough of it to satisfy the demand of her body. Still, she sleeps on, her body not changing.

In all rights she has not aged even a day from the moment decades ago. More than twenty years ago. The room remains blank and waiting for something to move. It is disappointed when she still stays so still.

The pallor of the walls seem to gloat to no one as if saying 'I win', though no one notices even though, somewhere, Starfire can feel a pressing feeling upon her chest. But for her, it takes months for even one thought to form and be released, and her mind is so deeply asleep the thoughts never come often. This is why, although she is thinking, she looks unchanging.

She is a statue, and idol, and nothing more.

- : -

Time seemed to fly by so quickly. A blink of an eye ago, Robin and the Teen Titans were happy, as close as family. Everyone laughed on the bright days and shared their sullen thoughts when restless and cooped up in Titan's Tower, snowed in. Beast Boy managed to hibernate, but there had been his friends.

There had been Starfire also, to talk to and share thoughts with. Perhaps teach a little about the world.

The moment passed, no more than a patch on the great line of time that stretched into infinity in either direction. Perhaps, like the theories of Shinto and the Buddha and Hinduism, it actually curved into a wheel so great the pieces seemed to go on flat forever in either direction.

As flat as the world, before curving to join again. If so, Starfire would probably remain in her prison, in her sanctuary for the rest of time... but he would see her once more before going back to find a way to cure Starfire of whatever Warp injected into her system.

(Robin couldn't recall any satisfaction greater than realising Warp was trapped forever, destined to fight and lose and fight and lose again and again. Your actions have been decided for you long before your birth, Warp had once told them, referring to himself. Nothing less than what he deserved, Robin thought.)

Somehow, their team managed to stay together for some time, largely because they didn't want to lose what friendship they had, so clung on desperately. He thought, because he lost her, he would be more careful with the friends he did still have. Because he lost that friendship, he thought he'd be the one to cling to whatever was left of their tattered team...

But even the best plans of mice and men could be swept away like so much dust, and soon, Robin found himself cutting ties with everyone he'd ever known and wandering into the shadows until he became as close as a human could get to one. Only one bond still remained, and that was one-sided. Only that of Starfire, through the name he took up.

Nightwing. The name she'd told him about so long ago his head ached to think of the events which had passed.

The breaking had been over something so miniscule, merely after a long argument on one of their battles against a foe who popped out of nowhere. Sometimes, Robin thought if he was fighting and fighting the crimes would soon disappear altogether. Most of the time, he recognised that villains would rise and fall, and that immoral conduct would never be banished. He no longer acted surprised when another super-villain rose up and fought.

But he had been surprised, even though he really had no right to say he knew his friends any longer, when Beast Boy departed on his own spree of fighting as a solo superhero. Somehow, he faded deeper and deeper into the shadows away from Cyborg and Raven and Beast Boy, renamed 'Changeling', though Robin could almost never get used to calling his old friend by such a strange name.

The earth changed and science took over much of the rolling green plains where they still might remain. Temperatures dropped until snow fell where rain usually plunged and wet the earth, but Robin knew his Starfire would still remain unchanged throughout the years that passed.

Slowly, just like his friend predicted, they had drifted apart, even though they'd once been so close and happy.

Robin knew where his friends were. Whenever he glimpsed the Titans' Tower he would think of the good old days when there had been five of them, as close as family—even closer, maybe. He'd be reminded of their former days when villains rose and fell as they did now, but they'd braved it together.

He'd think of Cyborg, the only person still living in the tower as far as he knew, but even his hand did not stretch far enough to see into his old home. Robin couldn't remember why, exactly, but he suspected it had something to do with the new technology which came, which Cyborg could have difficulty in using.

Eventually, his thoughts would turn to the other former Titans unbidden, even if he was working in the shadows to defeat a foe, and he'd wonder about Raven and Beast Boy—Changeling—as he wondered about Cyborg. He knew where they were, just as he knew the location of Cyborg, but the last time he'd talked to them had been so long ago...

He knew Beast Boy—still, he could not call him by his other name—was a superhero no longer even though for his life he could not figure out why exactly the man had never contacted his old friends. But that was hypocritical, since he was as faceless as he'd ever hoped for and never contacted them either. He wondered why the man had chosen to join show biz when he had no talent in comedy, although, the last he'd heard, Beast Boy wasn't a comedian.

He knew Raven stayed as much in the shadows as he did even though her room was completely white with no shadows anywhere. Because—and he hated himself for knowing and doing nothing about it—she could never hide from her mind no matter what she did. The memories which haunted her, the 'figments of her imagination' she could not control now that she was alone. Sometimes, he would think about contacting her—then he would remember she'd think him a part of her mind as well.

It was always last, but his mind always turned to Starfire. Twenty years had passed since they sealed that room shut so no one would enter and somehow kill his best friend. They weren't really friends any longer. Friendship was two-sided, and as much as he missed Star, she did not contact him. Because she couldn't do so, of course. She was lying unconscious in both reality and in the few dreams he still had of his past that he left behind but for that single name, and the transmitter he kept hidden.

Even those twenty years passed in sections, sometimes in the blink of an eye, as if he'd been dreaming and felt no time had passed (sometimes, he wondered if it was what Starfire felt like in her dreamless sleep) while, in other times, the days seemed to stretch on forever out of sight into the distance. But with everything considered, he did not have nearly enough time to decide...

- : -

And now:

(The Present)

"I'm redirecting the wormhole. You've got to go!"

The blue beam shooting out of Cyborg's arm widened until the gap there was large enough for someone of Starfire's height to pass through easily enough. Robin—Nightwing—stood back watching as his once-best friend made her way across the floor to pause before she stepped in. When she turned around, he could see her eyes were wide. Those green eyes. It had been so long...

"Please, must this really be our future?" she asked, her voice soft and hopeful. "Is there nothing I can do to change it?"

He had a chance. He had one chance to tell her everything which would happen. Looking back, he could see his friends all waiting, waiting to see if he would answer. They still looked to him as the leader, and it was his right. Compared to them... but was it his right to keep Starfire in the dark?

Was it his right to meddle in time? To change it?

He could tell her that Warp would return. That he would capture Starfire and shoot some substance into her arm which made her sleep, slowed her heart-beat so that she could never be awakened for shock to the brain. He could prevent the Titans from splitting up again with just one sentence.

It was his choice.

He stepped silently beside her, face close, still trying to decide. Even twenty years had not been enough time for a choice. Now the moment had come, the fork in the road, the final chance. He needed to make a decision: tell her, or let her go back ignorant to the events that would one day come. Robin opened his mouth, trying to think of the words to say...

But when he looked at her wide, trusting eyes he just couldn't bring himself to utter the words. He couldn't bring himself to shatter all her hopes even with the knowledge of what was to come. He couldn't do it... he hated himself for being so helpless to speak the truth for once in his life, but he couldn't.

History would repeat itself when Starfire returned.

"I'm sorry Star." But she would never understand how sorry he really was. "There isn't time."

He took her small hand and in it placed the Clock of Eternity, restraining himself from crushing the delicate artefact. It was difficult, one touch could shatter the past as it was and Warp would never return to look at it, and Starfire wouldn't be prone in deep slumber hidden behind thick walls.

Softly, he touched her shoulder. It would be the last time he could see her again.

Then he stepped back, and after a moment, Starfire's eyes widened, and she stepped through the wormhole.

He would always remember how she looked last, her red hair flying and her green eyes wide and glittering with unshed tears. Tears from joy, or from sorrow, or from something else, Robin did not know. And then, the wormhole closed and the vision was gone.

Robin thought if fitting that her last glance of the future would be one where her friends stood side by side once more.

- : -

"It's been so long since I've entered the tower," Beast Boy muttered.

Robin had to agree. It had been even longer for him than for any of them, and it was strange since it had been he who united his friends into a team which fought crime for years. Until... but he had decided not to tell her, and if anyone was to be blamed, it was him.

"I don't blame you," Raven said suddenly.

He suddenly remembered she had the ability to look into the conscious of others.

She smiled. It had been so long. "It has been so long, hasn't it? Since the last time the five of us gathered together."

They dusted off the seats which somehow still remained intact, though softer now from the years of disuse, and weak, like a comatose patient's muscles that had succumbed to atrophy.

"Though—why didn't ya'll tell her?" It was Cyborg, who'd been the only one still living here. Perhaps he would be more comfortable, but a glance made him realise the half-robot was as nervous as anyone else in the team.

Nightwing took his time before answering, slowly, "I couldn't bring myself to do so. Would she really run away just because I told her of what had happened? Could I have given her a list of instructions, and have expected her to follow them when she knew what leaving would mean? Remember, we know that we are risking our lives every day in the profession we chose those years ago. And even if she left, disappeared by herself..."

Raven sighed. "We might have split anyway," she finished.

Robin couldn't help smiling at the matter-of-fact way his old team mate still had of speaking to everyone else. He sat down, trying to shift and remember how he'd lounged on the sofa and competed on the video games with Beast Boy or with Cyborg. Somehow, he doubted the tower still had ample electricity to actually use that huge screen any longer.

"Does it strike anyone else that we're suddenly together because Starfire appeared?" Beast Boy said suddenly, changing into a dog so he could turn three times on a chair before sitting down. He was green, true, but by now Nightwing was more than used to the strange colouring of his team mate.

Cyborg paused before answer. "Actually, I sort of expected it. It was because Star disappeared that we'd split—the main reason, probably—and it was because of her that we suddenly gathered again, B-B. And, because of Nightwing, of course."

The man laughed. Laughing. It had been a while. "I probably wouldn't have done it if Starfire didn't return."

Raven, as usual, saw through his words. "Twenty years wasn't long enough, was it Robin—Nightwing? It seems so long but then it passes with a blink of an eye."

"Starfire," Robin murmured out loud. Suddenly, something struck him. "Remember what Warp said about bending time?"

His team mates were suddenly alert, even Beast Boy, who looked tired enough to doze off right there. No doubt the man had not had a good night's sleep for longer than Robin, since at least Nightwing had a place to stay. Changeling was alone in his cage; like Starfire, caught somewhere that oscillated between being a prison and being a sanctuary.

"What about it?" Cyborg asked.

"If you think about it, Starfire's probably one of the people who can bend what happens, if not completely snap it. A time bender," Robin decided.

By this point Beast Boy had dozed off. Glancing down, Nightwing saw more signs of weariness on his former team mate's face than he found on his own. So he didn't disturb a peaceful sleep.

"Everyone's a time bender," Raven retorted. Her eyes sparkled in a way that reminded Robin vaguely of happiness. Her face softened. "Though Starfire was one who really did more for her friends then for herself."

"Time bender," Robin repeated.

"I'd like to think of her as a friend instead than a title," Cyborg replied.

"So... what are you going to do now?" Raven prodded. "After this..."

Nightwing hesitated. Something in him wanted to see Starfire's wish come true. "Maybe... well, Starfire did change this for us but I think it's our turn to try and stay together. Make her sacrifice mean something."

"We couldn't do it the first time she disappeared. What makes ya'll think we can do it this time?" the mechanical person asked.

Robin sighed. "Well, you don't know unless you try."

Raven said, suddenly, "Starfire once suggested that the reason she could not use my powers—that was when the Puppet King caught you three—was because she knew nothing about me. Maybe, this time we shouldn't keep secrets?"

"I don't know if it will work," said Cyborg, "But it's worth a try."

- : -

The light flickers where she is. For a moment, no more, before it returns to the half-light of dawn or dusk that covers what might have been clear in the daytime.

The princess lies still on her bed, a death-bed and yet one of a hospital, for she is clinging onto existence as the rest of the world clings onto the old customs where rolling parks were still there before being covered by power snow that drops temperatures. An ice-age, but not quite for humans still use electricity, and the sun and moon are still vaguely visible beyond an earth swathed with dark clouds.

She does not dream. She does not think, and her nerves do not twitch without command again. She is like a doll, a beautiful, still, life-sized doll that is nothing but an ornament.

But for a moment, just a moment, she moves for the first time in over twenty years before lying down onto soft white.

The corners of her mouth rise into a smile, and Starfire does not look quite so perfectly calm anymore. She is serene, but she is smiling, and something warm flickers into the heart of her friends, into her own mind; her first thought.

And then she is motionless once more, and everything is the same but for lingering warmth which spread out from nowhere. Unlike the memories, it does not die. Like she does not die.

- : -

THE END

- : -

Notes:

Warp? Trapped in a time loop – you've gotta feel sorry for him, destined to fight the Titans again and again and always destined to lose.

Well?