"What kind of villain rip-off is this?" Talon complained on the walk back to the tower. "She wants to come and attack us, then leaves right in the middle of the fight? And her "I'll be back" speech was just a little too stupid for me. I mean, doesn't every villain say that?"

"Yeah, but they usually keep their word," Stardust said dully. She tighted her hand into a fist. "If Eva wants to come back and face us, let her go ahead; it'll be her funeral. We can take her."

Talon shrugged slowly. "I dunno, Stardust, I'm not that good of a fighter. You said you'd train me, but we really haven't had time."

"They are attacking us when they think we are most vulnerable," Rorek said.

Stardust closed her eyes and sighed. "We need to work better as I team. Uh, don't get me wrong, you all did a great job. I just mean that each of us need to know how to work correctly with the other two."

"You're right," Talon said. "Looks like we've got a lot of training to do though."

"And a lot to learn about each other too," Stardust said.

The three of them were silent for a few minutes until Rorek stopped walking and turned to Talon. "Could I talk to Stardust for moment?"

Talon looked at him, then a huge grin exploded on her face. She glanced at Stardust, her eyebrows going up. "Sure, I'll go away," she said. Then she punched Stardust's shoulder and continued on to the tower.

"Huh?" Stardust said, holding her arm and watching Talon go.

Rorek didn't speak until Talon was out of ear-shot. He cleared his throat, then spread his arms out a little, palms up. "I want to talk to you."

"Yeah, go ahead. What is it?"

Rorek dropped his arms, then pressed his knuckles to his mouth and said, "About learning to work together. You're right."

"We have a lot of training to go through, I know-"

"That's not exactly what I meant," he said, his voice low and his accent thick. "I meant just me and you. There are things we need to learn."

Stardust raised an eyebrow. "Like, what do you mean?"

He tilted his head up and looked at the full moon. "I want you to trust me, Stardust."

"But I do trust you. I don't have any reason not to."

"Perhaps we should go somewhere and talk."

"Sure... like where?"

"I don't know. Like I said, you know this city better than I do."

"All right. Come with me."

They walked in silence, and though she didn't want to, Stardust couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. There was nothing not to trust about him that she knew of, and she was more than likely stronger than him by far, but she couldn't help it. Men were stupid. There was no getting around that. But until he proved himself completely trustworthy, she would have her guard up on the inside.

"This is good," she said, motioning to the surroundings. They were just on the edge of the woods, and there were no other people in sight, the moon was full and bright, and it was just the two of them.

"You said you wanted to get to know each other better, correct?"

"Yeah." Come on, Rorek, what are you getting at? she thought, suspiciously.

He sighed and looked away. "I told you I am from London. That is true. But there is something else."

"What is it?"

"It is hard to explain... and I am not even sure myself how it happened."

"Just tell me. Whatever it is, go ahead."

"I am not from this time, Stardust."

She blinked hard. "What do you mean, not from this time?"

"I am not supposed to be here. My life was intended to be over one thousand years ago."

"Woah! Well how in the world-"

"I do not know. It's a long story, but somehow I ended up here."

"I said you looked like you were from mideavil times... and I was right. How long have you been here?"

He shrugged. "Not much longer than before I met you. As you can imagine, when I ended up here I was quite dazed and confused. I still am. There are so many confusing things here; the technology, for one. I was quite stunned. "

"Wow. That's really amazing."

"Yes. In my time, super powers are quite rare. A lot of people thought I was a wizard, but I am not. I was the oldest of seven siblings, and a knight- a warrior as soon as I was old enough to do battle properly. I fought so well that I became quite popular. Stories were even written about me, though nothing that was written was true."

"So, how did you get here? You don't know?"

He shook his head. "I am still confused by it myself."

She looked at the ground. "I guess that means you'll be looking for a way to get back to your time."

He tilted his head and looked at her, as if he wanted to say something, but he was holding back. Suddenly, a look of irritation overtook his expression, and he whirled around, launching a ball of crackling white energy behind him. It apparently hit its mark, since they heard a feminine gasp, followed by a crash and a loud thud.

"Eva?" Stardust said.

Rorek nodded once.

"Well she's back a little early," Stardust early, flexing her hands and firing up her starbolts.

"I am not in the mood to fight with her," Rorek growled savagely. Stardust had never heard him so irritated.

"Titans," Eva's earsplitting voice said. "I don't want all of you this time."

"Miss us or something?" Stardust said, then she let out a yell and hurled her starbolts hard in Eva's direction, putting holes in the pavement.

Eva dodged gracefully, then lifted her hand. A few trees uprooted straight from the ground and come flying at Stardust. She busted one to pieces with a starbolt and dodged the other, but the last one hit her hard in the stomach, smashing her to the ground. She dug her fingers into the bark and threw it to the side, only to be grabbed violently by vines that had emerged from the ground.

"All right then," Eva said, grinning evilly. She turned to face Rorek. "It's you I came for, cutie." She waved a fist. "Now that I at least know your past, I can use for better purposes."

"You do know it is very impolite to eavesdrop, don't you?" Rorek said coldly.

"Oh, sure. I just don't care. Now why don't you just come along without a fight, okay?"

"No, Eva. You came looking for a fight, and it is quite a fight you are going to get." He slammed his fist into the ground, opening a large crater under him, but his power erupted under Eva's feet instead of where his fist came in contact with the ground. She yelped and was smashed to the ground, but she somersaulted to her feet and glared at him.

"Why do you have to make this difficult, Rorek?" Her hands charged with dark green power, but a purple starbolt smashed her hands and rocked the ground under her.

"This has got to end," Stardust said slowly, her eyes glowing dangerously.

Eva, looking quite ticked, screamed in rage and took control of her vines, throwing them wildly at the Titans, but they dodged, landing lightly beside each other.

"She doesn't want to kill us, she wants to capture us," Stardust said, throwing starbolts rapidly.

"Let her try," Rorek said. "She has to learn some way, does she not?"

"I would guess that she's working for somebody, but who?" Stardust stopped throwing starbolts and squinted to see through the cloud of dirt and dust she had stirred up. A vine slammed into her and smashed her into a tree.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself," Eva said, her hand extended. "The answer is none of your business."

Stardust struggled and snapped the vine that was squeezing her. How long is this fight going to go on? she thought. The Titans are supposed to whip the villains quick- this is our first official fight and wer still haven't defeated her.

Rorek jumped forward punched Eva hard. She smashed to the ground and spit blood out of her mouth.

"I thought you didn't hit girls, Rorek?" she said, gasping.

"I'll refrain from that this time," he said, throwing his powers into a nearby rock, and once gaining control, hurled it at Eva, and she barely got out of the way just in time.

Wow, Stardust thought. He could have killed her. But she pushed the thought aside and shot forward, only to be whacked hard with a vine. She sailed backwards uncontrolably and smashed into Rorek, causing them both to hit the tree behind them.

"Sorry," she said after she got to her feet, embarrassed.

"It's all right," he said. He spoke pleasantly to her, but she could see the fury in his eyes as he set his gaze on Eva. He tossed his bangs back quickly and said to Stardust, "We have to take her down. If we do not, we could suffer a lot of damage. She's more powerful than I thought."

"Right," she said. "How are we going to do that?"

He said quickly, "In my time people die in battle all the time. I do not wish to kill her, but we have to do what we must."

"But it's not the way in this time; and it's not the way of the Titans." She jumped to the side to avoid a flying green sphere.

"I will spare her," he said, then he spread his hands and a white shield appeared in front of them, blocking Eva's powers. The he let the shield die down and he threw a wave of his power at Eva, hitting her squarely. Just as she was getting back up, he came from down low and did an impressing flying kick into her face, but grabbed her and punched her up before she even hit the ground. As she was in the air, Stardust flipped into the battle and slammed both feet onto Eva's head, knocking her so hard into the ground it left a deep crater, then she hurled multiple starbolts into the hole.

Rorek held up a hand to signal her to stop. When the smoke cleared away, they both looked down into the crater and were surprised to see no one there.

"How does she do that?" Stardust said, clenching her fists. "Just disappear right in the middle of a fight?"

"She disappears when she knows she is beaten," Rorek said, brushing the dirt off his armor. When the fight was over, he looked nice and peaceful again.

Stardust cleared her throat. "You fight really well."

"Thank you. So do you."

She smiled and stared at him. He was like two different people when he was fighting and when he was not. He was such a polite gentleman, but when it came to battle he was a hurricane of power, agility, and skill. Just by looking at him at first, it was hard to even believe he was able to fight so well.

"Where did you learn to fight?" she asked, then felt stupid. He had already told her he was a warrior in his time.

"My father somewhat, but especially other knights." He glanced again at the moon and flexed his thin hands. "If I had my sword I could be of better assistance to the team."

"You were trained with a sword? That's really cool."

"Yes, and lots of other weaponry." The way he said it was not as if he was bragging- he was far too humble and polite for that.

"My mother taught me how to fight and use my powers," Stardust said. "You see, she's Tamaranian; Tamaran is another planet on the far side of the galaxy."

"I see."

"My father is just human, but I luckily inherited all of my mother's alien powers. They're controlled by my emotions... so I have to be careful what I feel and when I feel it." For some reason she felt embarrassed when she said that, and felt herself blush. Was it because she liked him? Maybe so, but they hardly knew each other. But though she wouldn't admit it, she could not deny the crush she had on him.

"Perhaps I could meet your father sometime?" he suggested politely.

"I don't know where he is. My parents split a little while back."

"I see. My apologies."

"No, no, it's okay, you didn't know," she said, waving her hand. She turned her face away from the sharp wind that hit them and grabbed her hair so it would stay in place.

"You have the most beautiful hair," Rorek said, reaching out and touching it with two of his fingers.

Stardust blushed hard and let it go. "That's what I was gonna say about you. Have you ever cut it?"

He let his hand fall away from her hair and cracked his knuckles. "A couple of times I think, when I was younger. But not anytime soon."

"Well, I think it's a lot nicer than mine," she said, trying to turn the attention away from herself. But he just talked about her again.

"How come? I have never seen a girl with such pretty hair as yours."

"Thanks," she said, her smile now uncontrolable.

Rorek stretched his fingers again. "Maybe we should get back to the tower. I do not really think Talon should be left alone. Especially with Eva..."

"I know what you mean. She's a nice girl with cool powers, but she doesn't know how to control them, and she doesn't know how strong they really are. I can feel it. She can pack a harder punch than she thinks she can."

They walked side-by-side and Rorek said, "I agree. Are you going to train her?"

"Yeah, as much as I can, but I don't really know how her powers work. Mine are emotion-driven. I'm not sure about hers."

"I am sure you will find out eventually," he said.

"I mean, Talon's still a part of the team, but until then, I think you and me are on our own."

He shrugged. "She'll get better, with practice. I can tell she is eager to learn." He stopped and took the muffler from his face. Why, Stardust didn't know, but now she didn't really care. It was the first time she had seen his full face, and she definintely liked what she saw. His features were thin but masculine at the same time. Even his lips were thin.

She stared at him, almost in a daze. He looked back, a tiny smile on his face, and Stardust felt her heart speed up. He leaned forward slowly, but slightly. Now it felt like her heart stopped. Maybe he's not trying to kiss me... but who cares, kiss him first! a voice in her head screamed at her. She leaned forward too, and he tilted her chin up with his finger. Then he leaned forward rapidly, though still slowly, and Stardust touched his shoulder with her hand, slightly tilting her head to the side.

Something in the woods moved suddenly. Stardust saw it out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to look. Obviously the shape of a person, and they moved again.

Curse you! Stardust thought at the person. She whirled around, clearly annoyed, her eyes glowing with rage. Rorek pulled his muffler back on and set his sights on the figure in the trees.

Stardust sighed heavily. Here we go again, she thought.