Chapter 10: The Search

Raven closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Her head was pounding. She had been searching for Beast Boy for hours to no avail. She was exhausted and the other's anxiety only made her task that much harder.

Starfire paced anxiously across the main room's floor while Cyborg and Robin sat on the sectional. "Have you found him?" she asked.

"No Star," Raven replied slightly annoyed. It was a frustrating search. She had been all over Italy and Gaul, from the beginning of Augustus' reign to his death. Why the hell couldn't she find him?

"He gave you his exact location in time," Starfire replied in frustration, "why can't you find him?"

"Easy Star," Cyborg quickly interrupted, "Raven's trying."

Starfire folded her arms and took a seat next to Robin.

Cyborg got up and made his way over to Raven who was in her meditative stance with her eyes closed and head resting in her one hand. "What's up?" Cyborg gently whispered to her.

"I can't find him," she said softly. "I've been over everything twice. He's not there." Raven was almost driven to tears.

Cyborg sighed, "Don't worry, you'll find him. Why don't you take a break for a few minutes?"

"There's no time," Raven countered. "It's my fault he's in trouble."

"Easy now," Cyborg said calmly. "It's not your fault. We'll get him back." He placed his hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her. Raven looked down and shook her head in agreement.

Cyborg made his way over to the computer and took a seat. "What if he's not where he said he was?"

"What do you mean," Robin asked

"You know how good Beast Boy is with directions. What if he screwed up the description of where he was?" Cyborg continued.

Raven groaned. "If he did it will take me hours if I have to start all over from scratch."

"Maybe not," Cyborg continued. "What do we know about Augustus?" He turned to the others.

"I am not familiar with ancient Earth history," Starfire said.

Robin looked equally perplexed and shrugged his shoulders.

"I know some Latin," Raven offered.

Cyborg sighed. "That's what I thought." He turned back to the computer and began to search their databases. "Let's try the net, we don't have anything on ancient history."

"All right, Augustus. The first Roman emperor. Nephew of Caesar," Cyborg listed off the facts he discovered on his search. "Wait a minute, his real name was Octavian?"

"So," Raven replied as she stood up and walked back towards the group.

"So," Cyborg continued. "Augustus is a title not a name. Almost all of the Roman emperors held that title afterwards. So Beast Boy could have met any one of them; there's over four hundred years worth of them after Octavian."

"What about the letters P and X on the shield Beast Boy described?" Robin offered.

Cyborg quickly scanned the list of Roman emperors. "No, there aren't any with those initials," Cyborg said in disappointment. "Could they be some other letters? Did the Romans only use Latin letters?"

"No," Raven replied. "Some Romans also spoke Greek."

"Ok, let's try them. What are P and X in Greek?"

"Rho and Chi," Raven answered.

"Nothing," Cyborg said in disappointment. "Wait, Chi-Rho."

"Chi-Rho, what's so special about that?" Robin added.

"Chi-Rho is an early Christian symbol adopted by the later Roman Emperors when they converted to Christianity." Cyborg explained.

"So we're talking about one of the Christian emperors who was caught in a rebellion," Raven concluded.

"Yea, but that still doesn't help us find out which one. It will narrow it down to two hundred years," Cyborg continued.

"How about those other letters Beast Boy gave us on that man's collar?" Starfire quickly added.

"Let's see, I.V.L.M.A.I." Cyborg began his search anew.

"Wait," Raven interrupted. "There is no J in Latin. They used I instead and V was substituted for U in some cases."

"All right," Cyborg said. The group was really humming nicely now. He punched in the new letters and awaited his search results. "Oh no…"

"What?" Robin quickly said not liking the tone of Cyborg's voice.

The communication consul suddenly came to life. "Someone's activated Beast Boy's communicator," Robin quickly ran to the consul to see who it was.

"Beast Boy, are you there?" Robin shouted into the consul.

Unfamiliar voices replied "Diabolus! Diabolus!" then there was static.

"Devil??" Raven said curiously as she translated for the others.

"The link is severed. Something happened," Robin glumly explained.

"No!" Starfire shouted in rage.