Well, i didn't think I'd be putting this up before Saturday, but I got a working connection today! Anyway, the Scientology thing; I don't believe in it, but I'm not putting down anyone who does, if it gives you some comfort, then so be it. What I am putting down is whatever crazy branch (and this exists in every religion) that Tom Cruise has been promoting, cause that dude is out of his fucking mind! Anyway, hope I didn't offend, and enjoy!

Chap. 31

Beginning of the End

"Are you serious?" Sara asked again, as the Knights walked up the stairs to the main room of the Tower. The group had just finished dropping the New Titans off at their homes a while ago, and since Cyborg had decided to let them keep the T-Car at the Tower (Martin had actually used a remote control to bring it to a hidden meeting place before), it had been a relatively speedy trip. However, as the group returned home, Eddie had decided to let them in on some very interesting circumstances that had occurred at the lagoon…..

"Serious as I possibly can be." The dog replied. "Rivers actually failed to realize he was aroused. And he didn't get the baseball thing at all."

"Well, at least we know how he feels about Katie." Terra said, as they walked inside the main room. Almost instantly, the young earthmover hopped on the couch and flipped on the TV.

"We know one way anyway." Sara said, as the TV flickered in the background. "Still this could certainly go somewhere. Brett, what do you think?" The bat however, was silent, as he moved over to a chair and all but fell into it.

"Honey, are you ok with this?" Sara asked, as she moved over to her husband. "You didn't say a word when Eddie started talking about it. I know that it's hard to think about, but we all knew how Katie feels about Rivers. This may not be the best sign from him, but it's in the right direction."

Brett sighed, and replied, "I know. I am happy that Rivers seems to feel something towards her, but it's just unsettling to hear that your granddaughter gave some kid a 'good feeling.'"

"OK, bad choice of words." Eddie admitted. "But now that you mention it, how come this doesn't bother you Sara?"

"What, hearing that some boy thinks Katie is attractive? Why would that bother me?" Sara answered. "Besides, we all know Rivers is the most trustworthy person on the team. I'd rather see the two of them together then for Katie to spend all her time regretting not being able to get him."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Brett said. "But still, it's kinda…" But the bat never got to finish, because then the phone started ringing. All four Elementals stopped and looked at it then, because this wasn't an ordinary phone. Eddie and Cyborg had set up a phone line that was connected to each of the New Titans' homes, in case of any kind of emergency. After dialing a special number for the Tower, the New Titan would have to enter a final three-digit code to finish the connection or be transferred to a Scientology hotline (a precaution against anyone outside the loop dialing the number by mistake as well as keeping them from ever dialing it again). Therefore, the group knew that whoever was calling had a problem, but after dropping the kids off so soon, none of them could imagine what it was. As they all looked at each other in surprise and concern, Brett walked over and picked up the phone, as Terra shut off the TV.

"Hello?" the bat said into the mouthpiece. As the others watched, Brett suddenly put both hands against the phone and pressed it against his head, as if he was having trouble hearing.

"Katie, is that you?" he said into the phone, trying to keep his voice calm. "What is it honey, what's wrong?" As the other's concern continued to grow, Brett tried to reason with the girl on the other line. "Katie, you have to calm down, I can't understand what you're saying. Please, tell me what's going on so I can help." That seemed to do it, as Brett was able to carry on a conversation after that. "OK, you guys went into the house, and….. Good Lord, are you sure? How bad was it? Are you and Bart ok? Good, what else happened? There's something in the living room? What does it say…..?" This was the point where the Elementals' concern became fear, as Brett actually paled underneath his black fur, and he gripped the phone almost hard enough to break it. But despite this, he kept his voice calm and said into the phone, "I'm coming to get you. Stay there."

With that, he hung up the phone and turned to face the others, with a face that seemed to have aged ten years. "What is it?" Sara asked, her fear of the unknown more then equaling her husband's fear of what he had heard. Brett ran a hand through his hair, and then he spoke, in a raggedy voice.

"Katie and Bart went inside and the house was a wreck. It looks like something tore through it. And Beast Boy and Raven are gone."

"Gone!" Terra asked in shock. "Do they have any idea…"

"One." Brett replied. "Katie said there was a message written above the TV on the wall. A message written in what looks like blood."

"What did it say?" Eddie asked grimly.

"I have them in the palm of my hand. Come out and play." The bat answered. "It was signed with an S, with both ends curved back."

"That's Slade's symbol." Terra gasped. "But how could he do this? He can't escape for another week. This is impossible!"

"I thought so too, but apparently it isn't." Brett answered as the leadership came back into his voice. "It doesn't matter, because we need to deal with it. I'm going to get Katie and Bart and bring them here. But if it happened to Raven and Beast Boy, it could've happen to any of them. So Sara, go to Star and Robin's. If they're there, bring them here along with Lisa and Rivers. If not, bring whomever you can find. Eddie, you go to Cy and Jinx's and do the same. Terra, you stay here in case anyone else calls. Tell them that we're on our way."

The Elementals all nodded their agreement and almost instantly went to their tasks. Sara vanished in a ray of light, and Eddie crumbled away a second later. Seeing they were gone, Brett closed his eyes and vanished into the shadows.

"Are they coming?" Bart whispered, as Katie hung up the phone.

"Yeah, Grampa says he's on his way." Katie answered, trying to sound as confident as possible for her brother. Ever since they'd found the writing on the wall, Bart had been deathly silent. When Katie had gone to the phone to call for help, he'd had curled up into a ball on the couch and hadn't moved or spoken since.

Sighing, Katie sat down next to Bart, and hugged him as much as she possibly could. "We'll get through this Bart." She whispered. "We'll find Mom and Dad and bring them back. Everything will be ok again." But as Bart trembled against her and she looked around at her broken home, Katie wondered how much she believed her own words. Everything they'd been going through in the last few months, all the training, all the battles, none of it had prepared them for this. This loss, this fear, was something they had never expected. Brett and the others had spoken about it, but none of the New Titans had ever expected it to truly happen, at least not like this. Katie didn't know what the others had thought about their new roles, but for her, the fear was always in that she would mess up on the field. That she would prove to be a disappointment to her grandfather and her parents, to their legacy. She had never once thought about losing this part of her life, losing the home and the people she held most dear. Bart had been different; he'd seen this as a great adventure, the ultimate ride. He'd only seen the glory of being a hero, never the downfall, and certainly nothing like this. That, more then anything, was what was causing his reaction; the realization that being a hero has as much tragedy as glory.

Did this happen to the others too? Katie wondered, as her thoughts moved on past her brother.. Are they in their homes, worried about their parents? What are we going to do if that did happen? Before she could answer that question though, Katie saw the shadows around her and Bart begin to move around and shift. For a second, Katie was filled with fear, and began to activate her powers. But then the shadows parted, and Brett walked through. Seeing him, Katie let out a gasp of relief and calmed down. But his coming had much more of an effect on Bart, who leapt off the couch and into his grandfather's arms.
"Grampa!" the young shape shifter cried out as he wept into the bat's clothes.

"Shh, shh, it's ok now." Brett whispered, as Katie came over as well. Wrapping his arms around both his grandchildren, the bat said, "Grampa's here now, and I'm going to fix this. I'm going to get your parents back, if I have to dig down to hell and fight the devil himself. I'm going to make everything ok again."

After both Bart and Katie seemed calm, Brett slowly disengaged and said, "Listen, I'm going to take both of you back to the Tower, but first, I need to see this message. There might be a clue in it I can use. Do you two want to stay here while I look?" Both kids nodded their heads. "All right, stay here and call me if anything else happens."

Slowly, Brett made his way into the living room. He was filled with just as much fear over this as the kids were. Brett had very little family in the world, and the idea of losing Raven, the daughter he had fought so hard for, and even Beast Boy, who had become both a friend and a son to him, was something the bat could not comprehend. Therefore, when he finally made his way to the message, it took him at least four minutes to raise his head high enough to truly see it. For the bat was terrified he would see that the blood it was written in would be from his children. For such a grim skill was part of being the Knight of Shadow, the ability to 'read' death simply by looking at its signs, especially blood. Slowly, the bat looked it over, waiting for the inner knowledge that would tell him what he feared to know. But after a few moments, he saw that this blood was not human, not even half. Brett sighed with relief, and seeing nothing else he could use, walked back into the room where his grandchildren were.

"Did you see anything?" Katie asked as he reentered the room.

"Nothing." Brett replied. "Now, let's get out of here." With that, he placed both arms around them, and called the shadows once again….

Darkness surrounded them for a moment, and when it faded, Katie and Bart found themselves in the main room of Titans Tower. As they looked around, they saw that Rivers, Lisa, and Martin were all there as well.

"You guys too?" Katie asked, her worst fear now being realized.

Lisa nodded, and Katie could see that she was close to tears. "Everything was a wreck." The ebony-haired girl began to say. "And the message… we should've been there. We could've… we could've…."

But that was all she could get out, and Lisa collapsed into sobs a moment later. Rivers caught his sister and hugged her tight, as her tears mixed with his. Martin looked on from the side, his face neutral, but his eyes echoing sympathy for the two.

"Did you find anything at the other houses?" Brett asked Sara and Eddie, as the siblings comforted each other.

"I did. It was buried in the wall next to that damn message." Eddie said, his voice tight.

"What?" the bat asked, hoping for anything that might help them understand this.

"Good news and bad news." Sara answered, as she showed her husband the one piece of evidence that she and Eddie had managed to uncover. Eyes wide, Brett gingerly took it and stared in horror. The object he held was a metal pole, about half the length of a billiard stick. The end was wrapped in leather that was quite worn, as if it had been gripped multiple times. The pole ended in a large, spiked, metal ball better known as a mace. Slowly, Brett turned it over, as if to make sure it was real. He turned back to Eddie and Sara, ready to ask questions, but before he could, Terra's voice rang out.

"You know what that is, don't you?"

Slowly, the bat turned to face the young earthmover. "They won't tell me what it means." She said, as the other Titans came up beside her. "Does it belong to one of you? Is it some kind of demon weapon? Please, tell me."

Slowly, Brett held up the mace and began to speak. "This belongs to your uncle Carter." The bat said. "He's also the Elemental Knight of Metal, Forger. If Slade left this here, it means three things. One, the Titans are alive. Two, that he's trapped them in limbo with the Knights. Three, that if we ever want to see any of them again, we have to figure out how Slade got out, and send him back in, or else the world and our friends and family are doomed.