Chapter 13: Far Away

Author's Note: The two songs included in this chapter are "To the Moon and Back" by Savage Garden and "Private Radio" by Vanessa Carlton.

It had been less than a week since the Titans blasted off for their trip to Tamaran but for Silver Nova, it might as well have been a month. The sensation of Catalyst's lips on hers still made her mouth tingle when she thought about it and wearing her new Titans uniform that he had designed for her with help from Proteus only reinforced her affection for him. Silver Nova stood in front of her mirror and readjusted her hair to look neater over the headband that matched her cropped tank top and miniskirt. Beneath the whole outfit was a layer of special mesh that shielded her teammates from the radiation that her body naturally gave off. In reality, she owed Catalyst her life, and she would never be able to pay him back. If adjusting to life in Titan's Tower was a little tough for her, all she had to do was think of Rorek, the fantasy knight come to life. He had had to adjust to a completely different world!

Rorek was sitting in the ops room with Bumblebee and Mammoth, a large pad of sketch paper in his lap. Bumblebee finally dropped the controller to the Gamestation and scowled at Mammoth. The Massive villain-turned-Titan could only chuckle as he watched his teammate go as scarlet as she possibly could beneath her mocha colored skin.

"How do you do that?" Bumblebee screeched. "That's the third round in a row!"

"Practice. You never seem to want to participate when we play at home," Mammoth teased.

"Hmph. Bully," Bumblebee snorted, standing and leaving Mammoth to play the next round by himself. She looked over and finally noticed that occasionally Rorek would look up at her and then back to his sketch pad.

"Whatcha got there, Rorek?" Bumblebee said with a soft smile. She peeked over his shoulder and Rorek slowly lowered his pencil. Bumblebee had never blushed so hard in her life.

"Wow…" Bumblebee commented breathlessly. Rorek had drawn Bumblebee from the shoulders up, leaving no detail unattended to. Bumblebee thought she was looking in a mirror. Beside him on the arm of the chair was a small stack of other portraits. He had drawn Mas and Menos playing speed chess, Hummingbird fast asleep on the couch next to Robin, and more. Near the bottom of the pile, as if he was hiding it, was a brilliant drawing of himself dancing with Thetis.

"I wonder who danced with her at the grand ball the night they arrived," Rorek said with a small smile.

"I'm sure her father did," Bumblebee replied gently. "And probably Toby or Caleb. She and Aidan are about the same height. Maybe he danced with her." Rorek looked down at his drawing of Bumblebee and was quiet. Bumblebee squeezed his shoulder.

"I'm sure she misses you, too, big guy," Bumblebee reassured her.

Bumblebee left the ops room and headed down the stairs to the danger room, where she thought she heard the sound of someone running a simulation inside. Bumblebee hit the interrupt button and waited as the ringing alarm went off and the green light went on for her to enter. Aries was on her back on the floor laughing.

"I forgot how much fun their simulator was! That drone was about to kick my butt! Wanna help?" Aries cried, getting up off the floor and checking for breaks in her bow. Finding it sound she waited for Bumblebee to charge up her B shaped weapons and grinned as she shouted, "GO!"

The week had been uneventful by comparison to a similar time for Titans East. It seemed that there was never a shortage of bad guys to beat down in Steel City. It seemed that villains in Jump City were finally learning. Of course, there had been the odd mission here and there such as Dr. Light finding a very nice jewelry store, and just that morning Control Freak had haunted a hotel. But certainly nothing that Titans East couldn't handle.

Bored from sitting in her room, Silver Nova clipped an mp3 player to her uniform and pressed headphones over her ears before heading for the gym. She couldn't seem to get Catalyst out of her head and she decided that maybe a brisk run on the treadmill would help.

"She can't remember a time when she felt needed
If love was red then she was color blind
All her friends they've been tried for treason
And crimes that were never defined
She's saying, "Love is like a barren place,
And reaching out for human faith
Is like a journey I just don't have a map for"
So baby's gonna take a dive and
Push the shift to overdrive
Send a signal that she's hanging
All her hopes on the stars
What a pleasant dream
She's sayin'

I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be...
If you'll be my baby
Got a ticket for a world where we belong
So would you be my baby?"

Silver Nova lost herself in the rhythm of the music and the sound of her feet hitting the belt of the treadmill and slowly, her ache for Catalyst eased and she felt much better.

By the time she had finished her workout with Aries and had cleaned up, Bumblebee was starving.

"I don't know about anybody else, but I need to get out of the Tower for a while. Who wants dinner out, tonight?" she called. Seconds later, Mas and Menos were there, bouncing up and down begging to know when they were leaving. Aries, Silver Nova and Rorek came next, and Mammoth lumbered in behind them.

"I know the neatest little jazz club that makes the best food you've ever had," Bumblebee suggested.

"Cool!"

"Sounds great!"

"Is there a live band?"

"¡Vayamos!"

Fifteen minutes later, all seven Titans were seated in a round corner booth facing the stage. The ambiance was cool and fresh and the music was even better. The food, as Bumblebee predicted was one of the best meals the team had ever had. After the dinner dishes were cleared away, the soloist on the stage changed, and the amazing trumpet player who had played all the way through their meal stepped down to allow another artist to play. The lights went down low and the dance floor was open, and slowly, pairs of people walked out to the floor to dance. The smooth, passionate tones were easy to follow, and Rorek bravely stood and made a short bow before his teammates.

"Dearest Aries, would you consent to dance with me?" Rorek asked politely.

"When you word it that way—how can I say no!" Aries grinned, giving him her hand to help her up. They were not gone long when the soloist from the dinner hour strode calmly to their table and smiled at them.

"I don't get undivided attention very often, so I had to come over and say thanks," the man said. His voice was smooth, warm and deep, like melted dark chocolate. The same analogy, Bumblebee observed, could be applied to his skin and certainly his eyes. She shifted uncomfortably and the musician looked up at her. With a toothless smile, he softly winked at her. Bumblebee was glad the lights were down; none of her teammates needed to see the shade of blush she was turning.

"Hey, pretty lady, wanna dance?" he said, looking pointedly at Bumblebee. Without a word, the leader of Titans East slid out of the booth and gave this dashing stranger her hand. Waiting a few minutes to be polite, Mas climbed out followed by his brother and took his hand. Then the two held out their free hands to Silver Nova.

"¡Venga y baile con nosotros, chica bonita!" they said together.

"Well, since you put it that way!" Silver Nova giggled. "Will you be okay, Mammoth?"

"Sure, kiddo. You go ahead," Mammoth replied, smiling at Silver Nova. As soon as she was out of earshot, he muttered to himself, "Maybe there's a carnival in town and I'll get lucky…" Meanwhile, out on the dance floor, Bumblebee was having the time of her life.

"You sound so familiar. Do I know you?" Bumblebee asked.

"I do some freelance hero work here and there. Y'know, requests and such," he replied. "The name's Duncan. Malcolm Duncan."

"Karen Beecher," Bumblebee replied as they swayed. Malcolm's eyes widened.

"You're Bumblebee," he said. "I've seen your pretty face on the news."

"Aw, I'm not all that. Couldn't do it without my team. What do they call you when you do your thing?" Bumblebee flirted.

"Well, I got this horn that opens dimensional portals and such. They call me Herald," he replied.

"Sounds fascinating," Bumblebee said with a smile. She lightly bit her bottom lip and then looked her partner in the eyes again. "So…what else can that horn of yours do?"

Half an hour later, Bumblebee handed her keys to Aries.

"What's going on, Bee?" Aries asked.

"This nice gentleman has kindly offered to escort me home later tonight," Bumblebee said with a grin.

"She's in good hands," Malcolm assured Aries when he saw her look of uncertainty.

"Do you have your comm. Bee?" Aries asked.

"'deed I do!" she said, leaning into Malcolm's arm.

"All right, be careful then. We'll only be a few more minutes here ourselves and then we're going to call it a night," Aries said.

"Gotcha. See you guys in the morning!" Bumblebee sang as she and Malcolm left the club.

"She said her companion would return her later tonight," Rorek commented. "Why did she say she would see us in the morning?" Aries laughed.

"Rorek, how old are you?" Aries asked.

"By your calendars, I appear to be approximately 18 years of age," Rorek replied. Aries leaned closer and wound her arm around Rorek as they danced so that she could whisper in his ear. As she spoke, Rorek's expression took on a look of increasing horror.

"Bumblebee is aware of what she is doing?" Rorek gasped. Aries was laughing again.

"Yes, Rorek, I'm sure she knows exactly what she's doing!"

"All the world has gone to bed
And I am drowning in it's silence
But a solitude is in my head, from you, baby

And if the silence was a song
Well, its rhythm grooves and it's a private radio
And on this night I did belong
In harmony

And you can't deny me
And you will oblige me
It's my melody

When the night comes
When no one knows
I can hear it
I've got my private radio

Find me out of my pillow
'Cause I'm lyin' here, but I am ready good to go
And on a whim I leave this town
Or not, I'll stay and chase the sun now"

Silver Nova's mp3 player was ringing in her ears as she lie in her bed. She couldn't sleep, and decided that she would try something that Catalyst told her she could do. She took a deep breath and arranged herself flat on her bed, limbs uncrossed. Silver Nova closed her eyes and concentrated on Catalyst. She tried to picture him as clearly as she could in her mind. When she had him there, she called out in her mind, "Toby? Toby, can you hear me?"

Far away, nighttime had fallen on Tamaran. The majority of the search teams had returned to the palace without finding more than decoys leading to nothing. Team three, Nightwing, Rumble and Tempest, had yet to return and they had broken radio contact. Poor Catalyst could hardly keep his eyes open. His team had gone north looking for the origin of what looked like an emergency landing. When they arrived they discovered more evidence to suggest a landing, but no ship and no passengers. Catalyst was sitting in the great room near the fire and quickly nodded off to sleep. He wasn't asleep long when he heard it.

"Toby? Toby, can you hear me?"

"Kyler?" he mumbled in his sleep. Focusing his energies, the sound became clearer.

"If you hear this, Toby, I miss you! Bumblebee took us all out for dinner and dancing tonight and even thought Mas and Menos are great…oh, I wanted you! If you get this—send me another kiss, won't you? Always yours, Kyler."

"I'll send you one now, but you get two when I get home. I've missed you, too. I hope your suit is working well. Give my best to Titans East. I really need to get some sleep. Goodnight, Kyler. Toby." Catalyst transmitted back. He debated telling Silver Nova what had happened, but he knew that there wasn't anything she or the other Titans could do from there. He was startled awake when Robin's team returned. Robin was not a happy young hero.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit!" he screamed, throwing his staff and his cloak across the room. He ran his hands through his hair and dropped into a chair. Arsenal walked through the room carrying Beast Boy. Catalyst looked up at them when he distinctly heard his little brother crying.

"What happened?" Catalyst demanded. Arsenal motioned for him to be quiet and gently set Beast Boy into Catalyst's lap. Instinctively, Catalyst wound his arms around him.

"Are your parents back yet?" Arsenal asked softly. Catalyst shook his head.

"Teams three and four are the only other ones back besides us," Catalyst told him. He nodded. "Where's Torque?" he added.

"I'm right here," Torque murmured, coming into the light. She looked as though she, too, had been crying. "Nightwing's team is still out there. My baby is still out there."

"I know, angel. He's safe with them. I'm sure everything's all right," Arsenal said, pulling Torque into his arms.

"Where are the other kids?" Torque asked.

"Auntie Starfire put them to bed a while ago. Erin's probably asleep, but I'm sure she'd still like to know that you guys are back safe," Catalyst said. The Harpers nodded and left the great room. With them gone, Catalyst turned his attention to his still weeping little brother.

"What happened, buddy?" Catalyst asked, handing Beast Boy a tissue.

"We didn't find Rosie," Beast Boy wept. "and Jason's really, really mad…Mamma and dad and Olivia aren't back yet, are they? Is Emily?" Catalyst held his brother tight and little Beast Boy buried his head in his shoulder.

"Shh…it's okay, buddy…Emily's here, she's safe, Caleb," Catalyst said. "Aren't you, Emmie?" Thetis approached them and sat down on the arm of Catalyst's chair. She sniffled and nodded.

"I'm right here, Caleb. Don't you worry about me, okay?" Thetis replied, gently rubbing Beast Boy's back.

"Can't you talk to Mamma with your mind, Toby?" Beast Boy sniffled.

"Mamma's gotta concentrate right now. She'll be home as soon as she can. She and dad and Olivia are working really hard and they'll come home as soon as they can," Catalyst said. "I'll bet if we all go to bed right now, they'll be back when we wake up." By now, even brave Catalyst was tearing up. He stood, hoisting Beast Boy into his arms and carrying him as he and Thetis made their way back to their suite. To comfort Beast Boy as much as himself, Catalyst consented to them all sleeping in their parents' bed. Beast Boy latched onto his mother's pillow and quickly fell asleep. His siblings were not far behind.

Back in the great room, Jinx sat forward and rubbed her temples.

"They're all right, baby. Don't you worry none," Cyborg said. He had taken up the chair that the Logan kids had just vacated and Jinx was perched on his knee. In the chair opposite her was Terra, still rocking little Coral to sleep. Terra hummed softly to her little one, wrapped warmly in her favorite thick fleece blanket.

"Vic's right," Terra murmured. "We've all got family out there still. I'm just as worried about Garth as you must be about Reese."

"He didn't get much practice with that new arm cannon of his. I just worry about him running into a malfunction or defect that he doesn't know how to fix," Cyborg said.

"Reese is a smart kid. We'll just have to trust him," Terra said. Terra got up briefly to go and put Coral to bed, but just as she was returning, there was a noise in the corridor and familiar voices met her ears.

"We could have kept going."

"It's gotten too late. We're not going to find anything if we can't even light the way in front of us."

"We could put the little guy to bed and then go back."

"No."

"No?"

"We're exhausted, Gar. Even if we did find something we couldn't properly fight—not like this."

Terra smiled and greeted them when they were almost to the great room. "You're okay! Why did you cut off radio contact?"

"We didn't," Changeling said in confusion.

"Those radios have a range of thousands of miles. It couldn't just cut off," Raven said.

"We called you over and over and you didn't respond," Terra said. "Here, come in and sit down. Vic and Ronnie are gonna want Reese so that they can all get to bed."

"My mom and dad are here?" Reese yawned. Terra ruffled his hair.

"They sure are, buddy. Go on inside," she said. Terra followed the team into the room and was treated to the relieved looks on Cyborg and Jinx's faces when Reese plodded sleepily into the room. After the Stones went to their suite, Terra told Changeling and Raven that their children were worried and that she would stay up until the others returned. Raven wrapped her arms around Changeling as they turned around and walked to the door. They were nearly there when Changeling swept her up into his arms without even stopping. Raven spontaneously giggled and gasped, "I'm fully capable of walking, you know."

"I know, but I got to thinking just now: how long has it been since I carried the woman I love?" Changeling replied with a grin. "I mean, you've carried me before without even knowing it. You were there when I needed you and I don't think I tell you often enough what that means to me. So tonight, Mrs. Logan, you rest your feet for a little while and we'll go say goodnight to our children." Raven smiled and looked up into the eyes of her husband.

"I love you, Gar," she whispered. Terra smiled as they left, biting her lip to keep from crying as she turned around to resume her vigil. She noted that Robin was still sitting in the shadows at the back of the room and cautiously she joined him.

"Are you okay?" Terra asked.

"Do I look all right?" Robin muttered.

"I understand that you're really angry right now and that's okay to feel that way. If you want to talk about it, I'm going to be awake for a while, ok?" Terra said.

"This is some vacation," Robin growled. "We come to relax and be with our family and no matter what, something's always gotta go wrong."

"It's easy to get frustrated when you're a superhero, Jason. We're under a lot of stress and a lot of pressure and it's not an easy life whatsoever. It's a good habit to have someone you can go to and talk to when life throws you a curve ball," Terra replied.

"What do you know? You've never had to watch your family be separated and put back together and separated over and over again!" Robin shouted.

"Now wait just a minute here. We'll find Rosemary but it's going to take time," Terra said. Robin was on his feet.

"The Missing Persons Unit in Jump City declares a child dead after 48-72 hours. As in, if we don't find her in the next 24 hours, we're looking for a corpse, Auntie Terra. I won't put my mom through that!" Robin shouted.

"We have no reason to believe that Blackfire and Calypso would kill Rosemary. She's more valuable to them alive!" Terra cried.

"We've been searching all day and now it's almost midnight and Dad and Olivia are still out there! Am I supposed to consider them collateral damage?" Robin ranted.

"Tempest, Rumble and Ryand'r are out there, too. Don't you dare think that I haven't thought of them!" Terra growled, finally starting to get genuinely angry. "Tempest is my husband and this team is my only family! You'd better start learning a little self-control, young man, or that temper is going to get you nothing but trouble!"

Robin's anger boiled into rage. Without thinking about what he was doing, he did the first thing that entered his mind. Terra had no time to react before Robin's fist made contact with her face. The petite geomancer stumbled backward and tripped over a nearby chair and then remained motionless on the ground. Shouting something in Tamaranian, Robin stormed out of the great room, easily slamming the heavy wooden doors.

Several floors down, Hummingbird and Ryand'r were just completing their search of the dungeons and with that, their assigned part of the palace. They heard the reverberation of the great room door being slammed and looked at each other with concern.

"My communicator shows that all except team three is back here at the palace. We're done here and I'm beat. Whatever that sound was, it wasn't good. Let's go," Hummingbird said. When they reached the great room, there was still a light burning but Ryand'r spotted a shadow of someone disappearing down the long corridor.

"We'll deal with him later. If that's who I think it is, I'll need to deal with it myself. Come on," Hummingbird said, proceeding into the room. When she saw Terra on the floor across the room she rushed over and knelt next to her.

"Who has done this, Olivia?" Ryand'r demanded.

"…hits like a t'n 'f bricks…dn't see him comin'…" Terra mumbled incoherently.

"Take it easy, Auntie Terra. We're here now. I'm going to take care of this right now," Hummingbird growled.

"Be careful, Livie," Terra said, sitting up with Ryand'r's help.

"Prince Ryand'r, can you make sure she gets to her room? If you need to, you could wake up my brother Toby or my mom. They could heal her face for her. I'm going after Robin," Hummingbird said.

"Let someone go with you, Olivia," Ryand'r advised.

"No. Jason's my responsibility and I'll deal with him," Hummingbird insisted. She left the room without shutting the door and Ryand'r and Terra looked at each other in concern. This night would not end well. Not well at all.