[Eclipsed] Chapter 11 - Starfire (II)

“You made a big mistake, chumps. Nobody messes with the Verdant Skulls and gets to see the next day,” one of the Gordanians on the flying bikes said as he took out a big baton crackling with electricity.

“We’re gonna make an example out of you losers so that the whole city will know not to fuck with us. Don’t worry, we won’t kill you. You’ll fetch good money on the slave market, especially those two bitches.”

The Gordanians’ cruelty was infamous all over the galaxy. The vast majority of them were slave traders, working closely with the Psions and the Citadel Empire of the Vega System. Those who were not slave traders were generally guns for hire, space pirates, or gangsters. They were like a plague wherever they went.

A sudden spike of rage and hatred burst from the cloak-wearing woman next to him. It had been so abrupt, and the intensity of her emotions was so high that Naruto involuntarily looked at her, inwardly startled.

The street under the cloaked woman’s feet cracked as she jumped, throwing herself at the one who appeared to be the leader of the Gordanians.

A sickening sound was heard, and the lizardman’s head exploded in a shower of bones and flesh, and blood started bursting from his headless corpse like a geyser.

The cloak covering the woman started burning, turning into ash, and revealing the appearance she had tried to keep secret.

It was none other than Koriand’r, the Warworld gladiator. As her anger exploded, so did the intensity of her fire. Her long red hair seemed to catch on fire, and her green eyes glowed with solar radiation.

Two rays of deadly heat burst from her eyes, and she turned her head, incinerating every single lizardman she laid her eyes on.

“Kill her!” the rest of the gangsters shouted, and they aimed their plasma blasters at her. 

Unlike the Gordanians working with the Psions or with the Citadel, the Verdant Skull were just a bunch of thugs; they had not received formal, specialised training, so they were poor shots with their blasters. But Koriand’r didn’t dare underestimate them, and she flew off, using other Gordanians as cover. She flew in their midst, killing them one at a time, and making it hard for them to shoot their plasma weapons at her in fear of wounding their fellow members of the gang.

Unlike the Tamaranean gladiator who went on a killing spree, Naruto did not lose his cool. The Gordanians were firing their laser rifles with wild abandon, not caring about the hundreds of innocent bystanders below or the insane amount of property damage they were causing. He had to do something about that first.

He quickly went through a series of hand seals, and his chest inflated beyond what should be possible for normal humans.

An enormous whirlwind burst from his mouth, and it wasn’t only the Gordanians who were caught in it, but the red-haired woman too.

A few seconds later, the whirlwind died out, and they were all dropped together with their flying bikes into the middle of an abandoned industrial area. Due to his shadow clones’ investigation while searching for a way to buy a spaceship (before unsealing Kyuubi), Naruto was familiar with the layout of Warbastion, the capital of Warworld.

Once a highly advanced and prosperous planet-sized spaceship, Warworld ended up in a state of neglect and disrepair after Mongul took control of it. The population was starving and turned to crime to survive, and Warbastion’s numerous factories had been abandoned, left to rot.

With that being said, no innocent bystanders were going to become casualties of their fight there.

Despite the wind vortex having caught her together with the lizardmen, Koriand’r was the first to regain her bearings, and she took full advantage of their momentary helplessness.

The Gordanians were sprawled all over the empty streets and abandoned buildings, struggling to shake off the dizziness and stand up, when Koriand’r's hands lit up with her starbolts.

As was the nature of her powers, the more intense her emotions, the stronger her abilities. She started throwing a dozen starbolts per second, melting their flesh and bones on contact and setting everything else ablaze.

Had the lizardmen known who they were up against from the start, they would have never dared to initiate an attack. Because that was what many thugs and criminals were like in general: strong against the weak and cowardly in front of the strong. However, once the Fire Princess' cloak burnt off and they recognised her identity, it was too late for them to back down.

A bunch of thugs got on their bikes and tried to fly away, but Naruto quickly went through three hand seals:

“Futon: Shinkugyoku!”

Invisible vacuum bullets were spat from his mouth, and the fleeing lizardmen were sniped down with deadly accuracy, all of them plunging towards the ground with fist-sized holes in the back of their skulls.

In close-quarters combat, the Tamaranean girl was burning them alive or punching holes in their bodies with her fists, and if they tried to flee, the human ‘magician’ would snipe them down with this wind magic.

It was pandemonium.

Pushed to the limit and on the verge of death, the Gordanians’ eyes turned blood red, and they roared as they charged madly at Koriand’r and Naruto. If they were going to die either way, they would at least drag them both with them to their grave!

Alas, the Verdant Skulls were punching above their weight class. Their enemies were on an entirely different level. One was a Kage-level shinobi and the former General of the Apokolips military, while the other was a former princess of Tamaran, trained by the Warlords of Okaara, and an undefeated gladiator in Warworld’s arena. From the beginning, they never stood a chance.

Most of the lizardmen charged at Koriand’r, viewing her as more dangerous than Naruto, but the young woman wasn’t struggling with even more than ten of them attacking her at once.

She dodged their plasma bullets, blocked their melee attacks with her bracers, and melted their heads off with her starbolts.

Naruto was relegated to little more than a spectator as he watched how the redhead killed them mercilessly.

Minutes later, only smouldering craters, melted metal, and the smell of burning corpses were left as several dozen lizardmen lay on the ground dead, their appearance unrecognisable.

After a few moments, the girl’s laborious breathing evened out, and the tension in her shoulders disappeared.

Flying above the ground to avoid stepping on the lizards’ charred and mutilated corpses, she landed in front of Naruto.

Standing face-to-face with her, he was forced to look up to meet her eyes. She was half a head taller than him. 

‘Makes me think of Big Barda and the Furies,' he thought inwardly.

They, too, were very tall and athletic women, skilled in the art of war.

“Your help was invaluable. Thank you for taking us away from the civilians and assisting me in battle. I am Koriand’r, from Tamaran.”

As if she hadn’t just brutally killed a few dozen thugs, the red-haired girl smiled sweetly at him and raised her hand to shake his.

“Starfire?” he said when he heard the translation his device gave for her name. “A fitting name. It’s nice to meet you.”

The girl looked like she wanted to talk more with him, but a group of 20 flying robots flew down from the sky and encircled them.

“Koriand’r of Tamaran. As per Great Mongul’s orders, you are to return to your quarters immediately.”

Seeing Naruto tensing up and looking as though he was going to attack them, Starfire put a hand on his forearm, stopping him. 

“No, don’t attack them. . . I have to go with them.”

Naruto looked at her in confusion. His Negative Emotions Sensing ability was telling him that she wasn’t happy. Regret and a sense of helplessness radiated from her.

“You’re fighting in the arena out of your own volition?” he asked. “Didn’t look like that to me. They tortured you when you refused to kill Draga.”

Starfire blinked at him in surprise: “So you did recognise me after all!” 

“Of course I did. You’re hardly forgettable.”

His compliment made her smile.

“Most people react visibly when they see me, so I thought you probably didn’t know who I was. I am glad to hear that you find me memorable.”

Their little conversation came to an end when the robots raised their plasma cannons.

“We could take them,” Naruto said in a quiet voice. “I could destroy all these chunks of metal in seconds.”

Starfire shook her head. 

“Killing these robots will not do any good,” she said with a hollow smile.

She turned around and moved her long red hair out of the way, exposing the back of her neck to him. 

“There is a chromium alloy chip implanted in the back of my neck. . . all that Mongul needs to do is push a button, and I will have two hundred million volts coursing through my body. . . or he could decide to detonate. My life is in the palm of his hand. . . I have no choice but to obey.”

He narrowed his eyes, anger rising within him. But Starfire left his side, walking towards the robots. 

“I am ready to go,” she told them.

Turning to look at him one more time, she waved at him and smiled.

“We could meet again one day. I will come to that tavern every time they allow me. . . Will I find you there?”

“I don’t know for how long I’ll stay on Warworld,” he said honestly. “But I’ll go have dinner at that tavern every day until the day I leave.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

The smile she showed him at that moment could light up an entire city.

“I hope to see you again. I hope that we can become friends.”

Leaving those words behind, Starfire allowed the robots to take her away.

⁂

Days passed, and Naruto found himself looking forward to his encounters with Starfire more than he could have imagined. She could not come every day; Mongul allowed her to visit the city only when she put on a particularly spectacular performance in the arena. But Naruto waited for her at that tavern every day, in the evening, sometimes even four or five hours at a time.

At a time in his life when he contemplated ending it all and wondered if there was any point in him to keep on living, Starfire's presence was like a ray of sun.

He was startled himself by how much their meetings meant to him. Was it because of how attractive she was? If mere beauty was enough to catch his interest, Naruto would not have turned down Darkseid's Furies when they tried to sleep with him. 

But Starfire was different from the Furies.

'Kara too. . .' he thought, a melancholic look surfacing on his face. 'I wonder, how is she doing? Is she alright?'

The last thing he knew about her was that her family and friends came to rescue her from Apokolips.

Many times, he could not help thinking about the petite blonde girl and what they used to have. It had not been a long relationship, but the few weeks he had spent with Kara Zor-El had been the happiest time of his life.

'Were my feelings for her real? Were her own feelings for me real too? Or was everything fabricated by Darkseid, who wanted to have a servant that had both Kryptonian and Shinobi DNA?'

Maybe he could go to Earth one day and ask Kara those questions himself. But then, he snorted in self-deprecation and shook his head, trying to banish those thoughts.

'That's probably the last thing she needs. If I went to see her now, I'd be nothing but a reminder of the pain she endured on Apokolips.'

He had caused enough suffering to other people as it was. He did not want to add more on top of that pile. He laughed again, a quiet chuckle, filled with self-loathing.

'Do I even need her to say it? It’s obvious what she would tell me. Who would love someone like me after everything I've done?'

⁂

Due to not using the Henged appearance from before ever again, the tavern owner and his daughter did not know that he had been the one to save them, but his daily appearances at the tavern and the significant amount of money he spent there every time quickly made them recognise him and treat him as a special guest. They reserved a table for him every evening and also cooked his food before he arrived, knowing what dishes he liked.

Fortunately, today happened to be a day when Starfire was allowed to visit the city. Seeing her tall silhouette entering through the door, Naruto smiled. 

It was only their fifth meeting so far, but, before he could even say a word of greeting, Starfire flew at him and, irrespective of the other customers' stares, she threw her arms around him.

"My dear friend, I have missed you!" she said in a voice filled with joy, squeezing his body in a back-breaking hug. 

It was the type of embrace that would have hospitalised a regular man, but Naruto returned her hug just as tightly.

And just like that, the thoughts of self-loathing and gloom from before vanished from his mind. It was simply impossible for him to be depressed when she was around.

Their dinner at the tavern did not last long. Both of them were fast eaters, and the tavern was just a meeting point for them. They preferred to spend their time walking or flying without being wary of others listening in on their conversation.

Now, they were back to the abandoned industrial area where they had fought together for the first time. Warbastion, the capital city of Warworld, did not have any green spaces or nature. And Starfire wasn’t allowed by Mongul to leave the premises of the city either.

The dreary and abandoned factories were the only place where they could be alone. But they didn’t mind it all that much.

“It is so exhausting to pretend that I’m weak to make the fights exciting for the audience. . . but when I think that it’s for the sake of being allowed to see you, I gain the strength to endure it,” Starfire said.

Her warm, airy voice and the way she said such things with a straight face often embarrassed Naruto. But, secretly, his heart couldn’t help fluttering.

“I’m happy to see you too . . . spending time with you is the only thing that keeps me going these days,” he confessed.

Due to her orange skin, it was not easy to see, but Starfire’s cheeks reddened at his words.

“Surely, you are joking. You are free. You can do anything you want. Go wherever you want. Eat whatever foods you desire. And with your strength, there are not many who would pose a threat to you. Come to think of it, you have not told me anything about yourself. I would love to get to know you better!”

Naruto sat down next to her, so close that their shoulders were almost touching. 

“I would rather not talk about it,” he murmured. “My life. . . it’s not something that I’m proud of.”

“Come on, tell me. I promise not to judge!” she whined and pushed her shoulder against him lightly. 

“Maybe I’ll tell you someday after we get out of here,” he said, chuckling at her behaviour.

“Aww, don’t be like that. I told you about my past, did I not?”

Their fight against the Verdant Skulls took place less than a month ago, and this was only their fifth meeting, but the girl had already opened her heart to him and told him about her past hardships. 

Starfire used to be a princess from Tamaran, the next in line to the throne of the planet. From a very frail age, her parents sent her to be trained by the Warlords of Okaara, the greatest warriors and fighters from the Vega System, as was the royal family's tradition.

But her elder sister, Komand'r, was envious of her talent and martial prowess and of the fact that Starfire would one day become the queen of Tamaran instead of her. So she conspired against her. Blackfire sold the secrets of Tamaran’s defence to the Citadel Empire, which proceeded to invade the planet.

Tamaran was conquered in a matter of days and forced to become a vassal of the Citadel. Blackfire exiled her parents, the king and the queen, and took the crown for herself. As for her younger sister, Blackfire sold her to the Psions.

For the next six years, the Starfire endured inhumane experiments at the hands of those mad scientists who tortured her and broke the limits of her body again and again. . . until she gained her solar powers. She broke out from the laboratory they were keeping her imprisoned in and killed dozens of Psions in a rage before escaping.

“You told me how you escaped, but you didn’t tell me how you ended up being captured by Mongul," Naruto changed the subject. “How did you end up on Warworld?”

A bummed-out expression appeared on her face. 

“I fell into a trap. . . Have you heard about the Liberator?” she asked. 

“Who?” he asked, a bad feeling creeping up in his heart. 

“The General from Apokolips,” Starfire explained. “One of the most feared men in the universe.”

Naruto’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. He had not told Starfire anything about his past, about what he had done, or about who he really was. He was afraid that the moment she found out his identity, those green eyes that glimmered with joy whenever she looked at him would be filled with anger, fear, and hatred instead.

He knew that the truth would come out at some point and that, sooner or later, the girl would learn of his identity. But he couldn't bear to let her know about it now. He could not bear to give up on these beautiful moments with her. He wanted to enjoy her company just a bit longer.

“Oh, that guy. I think I’ve heard of him once or twice,” he said vaguely.

“You see, after escaping from the Psions, I joined the Omega Men. They’re a group of freedom fighters from the Vega System. Our purpose was to protect the innocent and defeat the Citadel Empire one day. . . but things didn’t work out that well for me.”

As he listened quietly to her tale, Starfire continued:

“A few months ago, the Liberator and his army invaded the Psions’ homeworld and massacred most of them. It was one of the most joyous moments in the history of the Vega System, one that I and many other people will celebrate for many years!”

Her words made Naruto swallow the node that had appeared in his neck. He had never thought about his deeds from that perspective. He had never truly sat and considered the fact that maybe not all his past deeds had been evil.

“Unfortunately, some Psions did escape. Although their nation and government were destroyed, the Psions had colonies and external bases over the entire Vega System.”

The green light in Starfire’s eyes shone brighter as her emotions of anger intensified.

“I could not miss out on that chance. Now, when their army and planetary defences were destroyed, it was the best opportunity to wipe them all out for good. As such, I made it my personal mission to hunt them all down. The Psions should never be allowed to regroup and continue their heinous experiments on innocent people. . . I did not want anyone else to suffer like I did,” Starfire said, clenching her fists. 

Feeling her emotions through his sensory ability, Naruto placed his hand on top of her clenched fist. 

The negativity within her vanished almost instantly as the girl looked down at their hands and then glanced up at him shyly. His hand was rough and just as filled with calluses as her hands were from a lifetime of wielding weapons, but Starfire felt an untold measure of comfort from his touch. 

“What happened next?” he asked. 

Soothed by his display of affection, Starfire slowly intertwined her fingers with his, unknowingly locking them in a lover’s hold. Seemingly unaware of the intimacy of her gesture, she glanced at him with a smile that left Naruto speechless, his heart pounding in his chest. 

Still holding his hand intimately, Starfire resumed her tale as though she did not know how greatly her actions were affecting him, as though her enhanced sense of hearing could not hear the hammering sound of his heartbeats.

“Things went well for a while. I tracked down and killed 17 Psions who had escaped from the Liberator and his army. I killed them, destroyed their laboratories, and freed all their prisoners. I was on my way to hunt down my 18th target, but that turned out to be a trap. This Psion had made a contract with Mongul, seeking his protection in exchange for offering his skills as a scientist. When I arrived at his secret laboratory, the Psion I had been chasing was not there. Instead, a gas bomb was detonated, and once I was weakened, Mongul’s army overwhelmed me.”

“Since then, I have been forced to fight in the arena. Every day is the same here. . . waking up, being thrown into battle, fighting for my life, and then being tortured if I refuse to kill my opponent.”

A moment of silence followed.

“I always wanted to ask you, Kori, how do you stay so chipper? How can you still smile after everything that happened to you? How have you not lost all hope?”

Her situation resonated with him. Whereas he had been enslaved and brainwashed by Darkseid, Starfire was captured and tortured by Mongul, who was forcing her to fight in Warworld’s arena by threatening to detonate the implanted chip in the back of her neck.

However, while he was lost, filled with guilt, and had no hope for the future, even contemplating putting an end to his life, Starfire was still smiling. She still had hope that better days would come.

His question made her squeeze his hand comfortingly.

“It’s when we are at our lowest that we have to hold onto hope.”

Sometimes, the girl sounded like a cute and oblivious airhead, but other times, like in the present, she sounded wise beyond her years.

She looked vacantly at the ruined scenery of the abandoned industrial area, staring into empty space.

“It was not easy for me either. From the princess of a planet who had everything she could have ever wanted, I became a living experiment, and now a gladiator. But our lives aren’t a straight line. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we hurt. But better times will come too, as long as we are strong enough to endure.”

Starfire turned to look at him. 

“I don’t want my life to amount only to this. I wish to free my planet from Blackfire and the Citadel. I wish to travel the Universe. I want to make many friends. . . and I wish to find love one day and go out on dates. There are so many things I want to do. . . so I endure.”

“Warworld is even more terrible than the experiments I endured at the hands of the Psions. . . But I was not wrong to hold onto hope. I was not wrong not to give up because look, even here, in the darkest moment of my life, I actually met you,” she said, her bright smile contrasting with the heavy subject of their conversation.

“Because of you, my life became brighter. Now, every morning when I wake up, my mind goes to you, my precious friend. Every day, I cannot wait to see you. And even when I’m in the arena, fighting for my life, I—”

As she spoke, Naruto raised his hand, gently cupping her face. Her words died in her throat as his thumb caressed her cheek tenderly. In that moment, the oblivious girl finally realised just how close they were too. Breath hitching, Starfire’s face turned a lovely shade of red, and her mouth half opened in surprise, unknowingly drawing his eyes to her lips—those full, glistening red lips that begged to be touched and kissed—and Naruto could no longer hold back the desire and longing he felt for her. 

His face leaned in slowly to hers, giving her the chance to pull away, but Starfire remained still, and Naruto pressed a soft, chaste kiss on her lips.

A few seconds later, he pulled back, smiling as he caressed her cheek. 

She appeared to be frozen from surprise, but it was only for a moment. Mirroring his actions, Starfire reached up to him and cupped his face with her hand too, caressing his cheek with just as much tenderness as he was doing to her.

Their lips met again, and it was nothing like their first kiss. Despite her inexperience, Starfire instinctively tilted her head, deepening their kiss. Her lips moved against his earnestly, her actions growing fervent as she tasted him. 

A muffled moan of surprise came from her when his tongue slipped through her parted lips. Heat pooled in her stomach, and a shiver ran down her spine, and suddenly, what they were doing was no longer enough. She wanted- no, she needed more. 

Starfire straddled his thighs and wrapped her arms around his neck, mewling in pleasure as she melted into him. As she climbed on top of him and embraced him with all her might, Naruto lost himself in that pleasurable intimacy too.



She tasted so sweet, her lips were so plush and soft, and her body was so warm that he could not get enough of her. She whimpered when his hands came to embrace her svelte waist, and she started kissing him even more passionately than before. 

The princess’s long, flaming red hair fell around them like a curtain, and the outside world ceased to exist for him. Momentarily, he forgot all about Darkseid, about Apokolips, about his guilt, about his self-loathing. Everything disappeared except for her.

⁂

All good things come to an end eventually, and so did their kiss too. After pulling away from their lip lock, they did not let go of each other. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and Starfire laid her head on his shoulder as they basked in the afterglow of their intimate kisses.

“I’m going to take you away from here,” he said. “I promise you, Kori. I will find a way to remove that thing off your neck. And Mongul will pay for everything he has done to you.”

She raised her head from his shoulder to glance at him. 

“Killing Mongul will not be enough. The Psion that I had been pursuing lives somewhere on Warworld too. I am certain that he has a second remote that could explode the chip in my neck.”

Naruto nodded. 

“Yes, I’ve thought of that too. My shadow clones are scouring Warbastion and the surrounding cities. They also infiltrated Mongul’s palace. It’s only a matter of time now. I only need a few more days.”

“I look forward to that moment,” Starfire said, smiling. “But will you stay with me after that too? Will you be with me, together, forever?”

Her question sounded almost like she was asking him to marry her, and Naruto found himself growing hot under the collar.

He was not sure if the Tamaranean girl was just oblivious or if she was a master in the art of seduction, but she was definitely an expert at making his heart skip a beat. 

Doing his best to fight down his embarrassment, he said:

“If you will have me, yes, I will. I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be.”

Starfire giggled happily and threw her arms around him, squeezing him in a bone-creaking embrace that took his breath away.

Once she let go of him and he could finally breathe again, he said:

“I’m going to infiltrate Mongul’s palace in person tonight. I might not be able to watch your match tomorrow, but I’ll leave a Shadow Clone behind. Just make sure you win, Star, like you always do. You don’t have to pretend you’re weak this time and play around to impress the crowd because you won't need Mongul's favour anymore. The next time we see each other, you will be free, and Mongul will be dead.”

Little did Naruto and Starfire know that her next fight in the arena would be her greatest challenge yet.

Little did they know that her next opponent would be the most powerful and dangerous foe she had ever faced in her entire life.