CHAPTER NINE

Robin sat back on a rock, staring at the dark skies of Coris... er... coruscating over head, lit by random bursts of lightning. Judging by the terrain, he would have assumed that the catalyst of this world controlled darkness, or perhaps electricity. But Starfire had told the five space-faring Titans that it possessed the ability to alter reality itself. A scary thought to be sure.

"So, why exactly did Kori go in there alone?" Cyborg asked again, more pointedly than before. Probably because Robin had dismissed the question the first time, telling Vic that it was merely her request. Which was true, but Kori had confided in him the reason for this request.

"I told you, she wanted to go in alone." Tim replied.

"But, why did she want that?" insisted Roy, the arrow slinging youth formerly known as Speedy.

"Think about it, Arsenal," Collin said, more intense than Robin had seen him since... well, ever. "The power to alter reality itself? Heavy stuff, right? Even good people could abuse that power. What if Batman used it to remake the world into a picture of order—his idea of order, restricting freedoms and..."

Robin interrupted. "That wasn't Kori's reason, and Br.. Batman would never do that, Collin."

"You say that," he shot back. "But think about it. Do you really trust yourself with such power? I wouldn't."

"Are you saying Kori doesn't trust us?" Cyborg asked.

Robin piped in. "No, Vic, she trusts us, but as much as I hate to admit it, Collin is right. Think about it. What would you do to have a normal body again? Or to have your mother back?"

"Keep my mom out of this!" Cyborg yelled.

"He's just saying..." Collin tried to intervene..

Everyone looked at Collin and he seemed to wilt under the collective gazes of the other three.

And then Tim arched an eyebrow, and looked at the ground on the rock's behind where Roy and Collin were standing. "What?" Cyborg asked.

Robin didn't answer but ran over to a spot on the ground and crouched over, pulling a small ocular enhancement device from his belt. "It's a footprint. Fairly fresh. Have any of you been walking around back here?" It was far enough away from where they had been standing, and Robin didn't think any of them had been that far away from the temple door yet.

"No." The other three answered simultaneously, and Robin studied each of them. Cyborg and Arsenal looked rather confused... but Ragnarök ... The color left his skin, as if sucked into the vacuum of space, and he was suddenly white as a ghost. His "no" sounded truthful to Tim's Dark Knight-trained ears, but it was week, as if suppressing fear.

Cyborg walked over, careful not to step on any of the prints. The one Robin caught with the naked eye (indeed, even through his eye-color-protecting mask) was at least half a centimeter deep. But there were others, visible to Cyborg's electronic eye, and through the Wayne Enterprises high-tech magnifying glass Robin's mentor had given him.

"In that case, somebody has been here. Within the past day or so at that." Robin stood up, but continued to study the ground through his lens. "The footprints continue this way..." He followed the trail, made visible by technology, back to the center of the circle of rocks the Titans had been resting on while Kori searched the temple...

"What?" Roy asked.

"They go all the way to the temple door," Robin replied.

"Are you saying somebody. Has been trying to get in here?"

"Yes. And recently."

"But they didn't have the key or know the incantation," Collin insisted. "So there's nothing to worry about. Robin thought his voice indicated otherwise.

Cyborg examined the footprints of the rest of the Titans, and his best memories of Kori's.

"Nope. No matches," Cyborg said.

"No matches to what?" Starfire's voice came from behind the four males.

"Nothing," Robin lied, not wanting to upset her.

"Star." Cyborg walked over to her. "Somebody... has been here. Someone was here, on this planet within the last day or so."

Robin glared at Cyborg. That might upset her...

"I know." Kori said.

"WHAT?" Robin goggled.

"I told you the reason I went in alone: if only I entered, the defenses might stand down. I was correct."

"THAT'S the reason you let her go in alone?" Cyborg blurted. "What if they hadn't deactivated? She could have been killed!"

"It's OK, Friend Victor. I am unharmed. The security systems told me of an intruder on the temple grounds who left three ueivas ago."

"Where did he... or she... go?" Collin asked.

"I do not know. The odd thing is, there were no reports of ships entering or leaving the atmosphere."

"How long is a ueiva?" Collin asked?

"Approximately ten earth-hours," Kori replied.

"Thirty hours ago we had just broken orbit of Oela," Cyborg stated, concern obvious. "If anything had left the world, we would have seen it."

Cyborg's words hanged in the air for a minute, but lacking anything but speculation, the subject changed.

"We have the catalyst," Roy reminded, "so we might as well... head on to Tamaran."

"Agreed," Robin said. "If this phantom intruder shows up, we'll deal with it then. Until then, we stay on mission."

Cyborg, Robin, Arsenal, and Starfire began the short trek back to the T-Ship... And Robin looked back over his shoulder...

"Are you coming, Rag?"

"Yeah. Of course." And he followed.

0000

"We're now entering Tamaran's atmosphere," Robin announced some time later. "Make sure you're all strapped in."

The T-Ship arced in, enduring the heat of reentry and leveling out above what had once been a great ocean. The crater that dug into the ground where the capital city of Hastionfarlock had once stood was some thirty kilometer's north, and still visible, so big it was. As was the hurricane-like storm that swirled around it, scattering harmful rays all over the planet.

"This is insane." Cyborg double checked the readings that prompted that outburst. "I'm getting readings of massive epsilon radiation from the storm around the crater."

"What does that mean?" Roy asked the genius jock-cum-Million Dollar Teenager.

"It means that a good chunk of whatever killed this planet was made of pure Zynothium."

The mood of everyone in the ship sobered quickly. But nobody said anything, so Cyborg continued.

"In fact," Cyborg said, taking into account the deadly instability of most Zynothium isotopes, "the rock was probably no bigger than the T-Tower."

Roy swore. "Then it was... deliberate. If working with the Green Arrow taught me anything other than archery, it's chemistry. Zynothium isn't a naturally occurring element. It has to be manufactured."

Robin looked at Starfire's screen. She was on the verge of tears. Nevertheless, the horrible fact had to be stated: "Then someone intentionally killed Tamaran. Someone in the know, who probably wanted the Catalysts for themselves."

"Oh, Tim." Kori's emotions were on her figurative sleeves. Anger, fear, sadness. "How could anyone be so cruel! I do not understand!"

Robin tried to think of something he could say—anything that would comfort the distressed Tamaranian girl... but nothing came. And soon it was a moot point when the T-Ship's proximity alarm began blaring.

"Oh crap!" Robin said. He looked down at the monitor and out the window... and gathered that whatever was coming at them was energy, spherical, and roughly 18 feet in diameter—the size of the T-Ship." Evasive action! Separate the ship!"

But it was too late... the blast washed over them, and as best Robin could tell, he must have blacked out for a second. The attack was gone...

Instruments were scrambled, but coming back on... But his biggest alarm came from his... pants.

Yes. His pants. Which were now as red as his Kevlar shirt.

This alarmed him, because at first he thought he was soaked in so much blood that his green pants were died crimson, and his legs numb or cut off entirely.. But relief and confusion quickly washed over him when he felt them dry, and concealing perfectly intact legs. It was as if his original suit he had worn as Batman's young ward had been magically returned to him.

Quickly taking the attention off himself, he opened channels with the other Titans.

"Titans, report."

"Um..." Cyborg's voice came over, and Robin studied his picture... and goggled. "I have hair now." Sure enough, though his hair had, as one might think, stopped growing after Victor had been caught in the accident that made him a cyborg, was there on his head, close-shaved, just has he had once worn it when football season was on hiatus.

"My suit has gone green..." Arsenal said. "What the..."

Indeed, Roy's formerly read suit was now Green-Arrow green.

"Kori?" Robin asked.

"I have a problem, yes?" Robin goggled when he enlarged Starfire's picture on the small screen. Here skirt and top were gone, now replaced by something that can best be described as the result of a laser beam lawnmower mugging a purple one-piece swimsuit made of metal. And oddly, Kori now possessed a belly button.

The obvious line of thought one would normally extract from the fact she used to not have one (that is, how are Tamaranians born without umbilical cords) was lost on Robin, as he was too busy scolding himself for enjoying what Kori was wearing. A little too much for his tastes. (1)

He killed the com with her T-ship seat and opened a video channel between everyone and Collin. "What about you?"

"Um... guys..." the youth in the Tamaranian armor started. "My suit looks the same... Is there anything different about me? I don't have a mirror."

"Um..."

Ragnarök had changed, yes. His hair, formerly jet black was now a very dirty blond, and where it had once been flat on top with spikes on the back of the head and neck, it was now a mess of spikes pointing every which direction.

He eyed all the Titans with a look of exaggerated curiosity. "What?"

0000

Meanwhile, on the surface of the planet the cloaked figure from Coris stood in the blazing heat of what had once been Tamaran's red deserts, turned to white sands by the epsilon waves pounding the planet.

The attack had been a direct hit, and yet the T-Ship flew on.

This didn't bode well at all.

He looked to the east, towards where the ship flew.

Many things had changed, but one thing remained: The man in the Tamaranian armor had to die.

0000

"My readings are totally normal," Cyborg told the Titans as he deactivated his sensors. "Other than our changed appearances, nothin' seems out of place."

The Titans had finally landed shortly outside the temple's defensive sphere, but Robin had thought it best to test all the possible side effects of both the Epsilon discharge and whatever it was that altered their suits, much to the chagrin of both Kori and Collin.

"Look, Robin," Collin started, "we're all fine. Now can we please get going? I'm mondo bored here!"

Vic arched an eyebrow. "Mondo?"

"I… uh…" Collin stammered.

"I know what mondo means, man. But that lingo went out with the Turtles, ya hear, dawg?"

"Um…" Collin went from defense to offense. "You know I hate to see people stereotype themselves. Southerners who talk like hillbillies and can't even spell the word; when black people use ax instead of ask. Makes me mad!"

Collin's rant caused everyone to experience some minor face-vaulting, but it subsided quickly.

"Typical liberal bull crap," Roy commented. Collin just smirked. Robin wanted to punch that smirk off his face.

"Hm. My eye can't see through your armor, Collin; How's that bruise?"

"My bruise?" Collin shrugged, and then rubbed his side. "It's feeling a lot better now. I swear I'm fine. Now let's go!"

"I agree with Friend Collin," Starfire said. "The sun will set soon, and this desert will become frigid."

0000

The frigidity of the desert became noticeable just about the time the Titans five arrived at the door of the temple.

"Collin, I have need of the Crimson Catalyst." Kori held out her and.

"Right. It's grey right now."

"But a key doesn't need to be shiny to work." Kori removed the Catalyst from Collin's glove. It was odd, but his new-found scar made him look downright rugged, especially in conjunction with his change in hair style. Kori smiled, but it wasn't a real one. It couldn't be real, standing there on the lifeless rock that had once been her native world.

She sensed, perhaps perceived, that there was something else wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Nevertheless, Starfire placed the Crimson catalyst in it's slot, and then removed the other four from her travel bag and inserted them in their respective holes; Dark, Red, Prism, Green.

Lights matching the colors of all the catalyst ran up grooves in the massive doors—(The Dark Catalyst lights were purple, actually) and suddenly the door seemed to fade out of existence as the light around it faded and the door receded into another dimension, or perhaps went into the ceiling. All the bright lights made it hard for Kori to tell.

"Friends: The Grand Temple of Lord X'hal, Creator of the Universe."

She looked back at her friends. Awe was on their faces—and Collin seemed rather overjoyed. The Temple's interior was sandstone, with columns of pure platinum holding the distant ceiling up. Mosaics all over the walls and floors and ceiling were carved into golden plaques, colored by cobalts, coppers, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.

"I've never seen anything… manufactured so… beautiful!" Robin blurted.

"Amazin'!" Cyborg's real eye looked like it was going to bug out of his head.

Roy said nothing; he just stared.

"I can't believe it!" Yelled Collin.

"Kori," Robin asked, placing a hand on her shoulder, "did you know about his? I mean… this place.. it must have cost a fortune."

Kori smiled as she looked around. "I had always heard of the legends of this Temple, but until now I had never seen it with my own eyes. It is truly everything I imagined it to be and more."

"If we could auction this stuff off… we could fund the Titans for decades!" Roy said. This was the wrong thing to say in Star's presence, though.

"YOU WILL NOT DEFILE THIS HOLY PLACE IN SUCH A WAY!" Her eyes were bright green, glaring daggers down at Roy, whom she towered over by nearly a foot.

"I didn't mean we were really going to!" Roy insisted, shrinking away from Starfire's fury. "I was just being hypothetical."

"It is not polite to even joke about such things. This place is the only remnants of my civilization, Roy. I'm sorry if my fury scared you, but…" A tear fell from her eye. "I felt disrespected by your comment."

00

Roy tried to say he was sorry.. but the words felt hollow, and he was ashamed. He noticed Cyborg and Robin were rather somber about the outburst… But when he looked at Ragnarok… he saw mirth.

So typical of the lefties, he thought. They talk big about respecting other people's beliefs, but they really only respect themselves.

0000

The walk was long, but not arduous, so soon the tired-but-not-exhausted Titans found themselves in the Grand Hall. And grand it was, though not much of a hall; It had no floor.

This wasn't a problem for Tamaranians, who could naturally fly, but it did cause a bit of a problem for the males of the group.

"Collin," Starfire said, "if you would, make us a bridge please."

"But you took my Crimson Catalyst."

"What about the artifact that originally powered your suit?" Robin asked.

"I.. er.." Collin gave a sheepish grin… "I left it on the ship."

Robin scowled at that. "Then how are we going to get across?

"Hold on a moment," Starfire said. Then she recited something in Tamaranian, and suddenly, a stone jutted from somewhere in the deep chasm that should have been a floor; and all five of the Catalysts were in it.

"I was wondering what happened to those," remarked Cyborg.

Kori hovered off the ground, and suddenly, the stone glowed and the catalysts shot out from the stone, the Red and Prism Catalysts entering the circles on her gauntlets. The Crimson and Green went into the gauntlets in her boots, which had only appeared after she had been altered in what Cyborg had determined must have been a freak epsilon discharge that had somehow bent reality around them, perhaps using the Dark Catalyst itself in her bag, drawing power from it.

The Dark Catalyst itself fell into the orb on her chest, which had moved up about two inches to accommodate for her new costume. (1)

Energy radiated out from Kori, making a bridge of Earth, tempered by fire, lined with foliage, and bright as day. The power of the catalysts.

"Now that was cool," said Roy.

The Titans walked along the new bridge, elated that their long quest to save Tamaran's legacy was finally over.

And the room in which the Final Guardian stood, was no different than the rest of the Temple: extravagant, beautiful, and generally awe-inspiring. And in the center was a statue of a Tamaranian woman in golden armor, holding onto a Golden Catalyst.

The Ultimate Catalyst.

"Oohhh… Pretty."

"What does it do?" Collin asked.

"Kori read the symbols above the Catalyst. "It draws power from all of creation, and uses it to enhance whatever system it's placed in." Her face changed to one of confusion. "It says here that…"

But before she could finish, Collin snapped his hand out and grabbed the Catalyst from the hands of the statue.

"What are you doing, Collin?"

"Why'd you ask?" The tone of his voice changed drastically, and a bright light flared up from within the armor, which exploded off of him, revealing…

A very similar set of armor. But where as the first set had a bandoleer pair that came across in an X shape, the new armor was like an upside down Y, and in the center, Ragnarok inserted the Golden Catalyst.

"It's about time I got my hands on this!" And Collin—if that was even his real name—held up his right hand. And in his right gauntlet was… A Dark Catalyst. "All I had to do was earn your trust and follow you in here. Steal your toys. Now I'm gonna remake this universe as I see fit!"

"Collin, please! NO!" Starfire yelled. "This can't be! You are not…"

"I'm not what? For real about this? Think again. This is dead serious. With the power of the Dark and Golden Catalysts together, I am invincible. I'm like… a god or something. Heh."

"Ragnarok! Stop! Robin held out his bo staff. "I should NEVER have trusted you. Raven said you were hiding something." He bit out a curse and lunged at Collin, but he just dodge, and kneed Robin in the gut.

"Aw, Timmy-Boy can't hit me? I've absorbed Superboy with this Dark Catalyst. Not here, but in a world just like it. There's no way you'll out class me." His face twisted into a sadistic smile, and he leapt up just as Cyborg's sonic canon lashed by him, missing him by centimeters.

"You monster!" Roy yelled, firing off a rapid chain of arrows. Collin held up a hand and then something odd happened. It was as if space itself when two-dimensional around the arrows, and spun in place, pointing them back at Roy, who dodge two, only to receive his third and final through his right shoulder.

Then he lunged at Kori, grabbing both her hands with his and stomping his feet on her feet. And a flash of the DC energy, which looked like space-time itself was bulging, flashed around Koriand'r, and suddenly, her costume was back to normal… mostly.

The Dark Catalyst in her shirt's receptacle was now an enormous spider, her gloves had been transmuted black, and her boots were now a white powder…

Starfire studied her hands more closely: Ants. Thousands of ants. She let out a squeal, the typical squeal of teen girls when afraid of bugs. With barely a thought, she blasted the Spider off her chest with eye beams, and started flailing her hands wildly till it occurred to her to use a starbolt to vaporize all the ants. "Ragnarok, please don't do this!" She suddenly realized that in half a second he had destroyed all five Lesser Catalysts. Oh X'hal, she thought. He is like a god.

"Adios. Literally."

And in a flash of Dark Catalyst energy, he was gone.

His voice echoed, however, throughout the temple. "By the way, my name isn't Ragnarok. You can call me DELIRIUM."

BUM BUM BUM! Well, it would seem the cat is out of the bag, but we still don't know who the mysterious stranger on Earth is, or who the cloaked figure on Tamaran is. So keep reading!