And now I present a brand new chapter! Boy I'm on a roll right now aren't I? All that said, here's to hoping you all read and enjoy this chapter (not to mention leave plenty of feedback). For in this chapter, some exploration is made on the planet that the Titans and Tamaraneans have landed on to escape the Umbrosians. And all that said, just what is this planet? And is it any safer then the earlier encounter with the Umbrosians? Let's find out, shall we?

A/N: But first, just to remind you all, I do NOT own Teen Titans, or anything else DC based. Get that? Got that? Good. Let us begin.

Chapter 5:

Marooned on Hostile Territory

The ships landed upon the planet's surface, deactivating immediately afterward. The Titans were the first to disembark from their ship, Starfire immediately flying over to where the Tamaranean royal starship had landed. She settled onto the damp grass not too far to the ship's right just as the ship's ramp lowered. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Galfore descend the ramp behind a small contingent of guards.

"Is everything alright?"

Starfire turned her head in time to see Robin and the other Titans come to a stop behind her.

The Tamaranean princess nodded. "Yes Robin, everything appears to be fine."

Metallic creaking drew everyone's attention to the ship's right wing as it detached from its mooring and crash landed on the soggy ground below. Starfire winced. "Well, mostly everything."

Cyborg took a look at the gaping hole. "That's one way to put it," he mumbled.

Galfore sighed, and shook his head side to side. "You there." The two pilots stood at attention. "There are mechanics on board, are there not?"

"There is a mechanic on board your excellency," one of the pilots responded.

"Find him, and make sure he gets straight to work on examining the damage if he hasn't already. We must have it repaired as soon as possible."

The two pilots hurried back to the interior of the ship to search for the onboard mechanic.

"K'norfka," said Starfire. "My friend Cyborg is a very skilled mechanic amongst the people of Earth. He is trusted with the maintenance and repairs of our ship and other vehicles and gadgets my friends and I use. If you will allow him, I do believe he could prove helpful assisting your mechanic."

Galfore thought to himself, and then nodded.

"I will allow it. We still don't know for sure what planet we're on just yet, and it could prove to be just as dangerous as what we just escaped from. If it allows the chance for us to depart back for Tamaran any sooner, I'll accept whatever help I can."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Cyborg said. He started making his way towards the hole from the outside. "I'll take a look. And if I find anything important, I'll make sure to mention it." He came to a stop directly in front of the hole, got on his knees, and started carefully examining the damage.

"Is there any way the rest of us can help?" Robin asked.

Starfire looked back at Galfore who thought to himself. He then directed a glance towards a nearby path behind the parked T-ship. "Take that path and explore the area around us. It would be wise for us to make sure that this area is truly safe before letting our guard down. And if at all possible," he continued, "see if you can find some material we can use to make fire. I don't wish to have to make camp here, but if the situation occurs that we must, it is better to be safe than sorry."

Starfire raised her hand. "K'norfka," she then said. "If it is the alright with you, I wish to accompany my friends in this task."

Galfore nodded. "You go ahead. The more people to cover ground and keep an eye out on the rest, the better." He turned his head to face the captain of the guard. "Captain, take your men, spread out, and form a perimeter around the immediate area. I want you all to keep watch while the rest of us work."

"Yes my lord," said the captain. He signaled for his men to follow him, and the guards departed to begin their watch.

Another silent signal from Galfore was made, and Starfire flew over to rejoin her friends. "We are free to go on our search."

Robin nodded. "You heard Star, let's move." The four younger Titans headed off into the undergrowth together.

. . . . .

After a few minutes of trekking through the swampy forest, the Titans found themselves at a crossroad.

Beast Boy shifted out of his bloodhound form. "Ok, which way do we go now?"

Robin thought to himself. "Raven." He pointed down the path to the left. "You and Beast Boy head that way." He pointed to the opposite path behind him. "And Starfire and I will take this path."

Beast Boy and Raven looked at each other, an awkward pause forming between them. Mentally biting their tongues, they looked back at Robin.

"If you say so," said Raven.

. . . . .

For what seemed like an hour, Beast Boy and Raven travelled down the path without saying a word to each other. There were a few times where they felt tempted to speak. There was also one noteworthy instance in which both of them were startled by the shrieks of a suddenly appearing flock of small red crested green and yellow pterosaur-like birds flying overhead. But in the end, they mostly stayed silent.

After a while, Beast Boy finally couldn't take it anymore. "Well, so far, not seeing any firewood." He looked up towards the sky. "And unless those freaky birds we saw earlier turn out to be man eaters, I haven't seen any potential dangers to worry about either."

Raven snorted, rolling her eyes at Beast Boy's somewhat obvious assessment. "Me neither," she then said.

Beast Boy nodded, and then pointed further down the path. "Keep going?"

"Keep going."

The two resumed their walk. This time, it only took minutes before Beast Boy finally couldn't fight the urge to talk anymore. "Could we . . . talk . . . while we're doing this?"

"If you think we can do that without getting too distracted, then maybe. Though I can't say either of us will have an easy time figuring out just what to talk about."

"Well I don't think it would be too difficult," said Beast Boy. "I mean, for one, we were all able to see Black Panther last week. Or hey, there's a bunch of other movies coming out this year that could prove worth a watch together." He winced. "As a team I mean! Oh! Maybe we could talk about the latest books we've read."

Raven raised a brow and tilted her head in his direction. "You? Read?"

"I'm serious." Beast Boy sighed. "I mean, yes, I don't really read that often, but I do read every now and then. It helps that with a bunch of books I have read I watched the movies first."

"That must have been a world of improvement for you," Raven droned.

"I agree with you there," Beast Boy agreed, completely blind this time to Raven's deadpan delivery of what she'd just said. "I mean, look at those two Percy Jackson movies. But hey, some movies of books have turned out ok at least instead of outright terrible."

"Oh really?" asked Raven.

"Yes, really," said Beast Boy. "I mean, I thought Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker was at least decent, even if not quite as good as the book. And the Hobbit movies . . . eh, could have been better, could have been worse."

"Well that's a matter of opinion," said Raven.

"And then there's stuff like How to Train your Dragon. I mean, I know that it might not what you're into, but I thought they were cool."

"I'll look into them," Raven droned in a sarcastic voice, but privately making note to try to sneak in a watching of the DVDs Beast Boy had.

"And I know, for a fact, that you like both the book and movie versions for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I saw you watching and enjoying those movies, and there's also a chance I may have caught you and Star watching the Hunger Games."

Raven came to a stop, placing her arm in front of Beast Boy. He narrowed his eyes in confusion, but when he looked in the direction Raven was looking, his eyes widened. They were now standing right at the entrance to a clearing, and the sight of three very disturbingly familiar looking humanoid reptiles with wings that appeared to be impaled through the backs on top of tall sharpened bamboo stakes was the first thing to greet them.

The two chromatically challenged Titans looked each other in the eyes. "Tell Robin and Star?" Beast Boy asked.

"Tell Robin and Starfire," Raven responded. "Now."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Robin and Starfire, after a considerably more talkative trek down their own chosen path, had reached what looked like an abandoned temple. They stared intently at the dilapidated building, wondering whether or not they should enter the building and explore it, explore only the area outside it, or turn around and go back.

Starfire looked at Robin. "Should we go inside?"

Robin sighed, and shook his head. "I don't know Star. It looks like it's hardly been used, if at all. There might not be anything in there worth looking around for. For all we do know, there could be something dangerous in there."

Starfire took another look at the ruined temple. "Maybe it wouldn't be too bad to take at least a little peek? I mean, if there is something dangerous in there, it would be wise to know for certain so as to let Galfore and the rest of my people know about it."

Robin thought to himself. "Well I suppose you do have a point there. . ."

"And who knows, there may be clues in there as to what planet we're on. I took many lessons on the culture and history of other Vega system planets after all."

Robin nodded his head. "I guess it's fine then. But as soon as we get any concrete sign of legitimate danger in there, we get out."

Starfire nodded, and the two entered the temple.

At first, they found nothing noteworthy as they walked through a generic dark and abandoned tunnel. Then they reached the end of the tunnel, and their eyes widened. While hardly less damaged compared to the rest of the building, this central room seemed in better condition. In fact, as Robin found himself quite amazed to see, the large statue that dominated the center of the room seemed almost completely untouched apart from a few obvious missing pieces here and there.

Robin walked towards the statue, feeling strangely intrigued by it. For starters, the size of the thing reminded him of Trigon. Adding to the sense of wonder he felt was how very clearly it was of a humanoid reptile. The statue's legs and feet (one of which was missing all three of its front claws) resembled those of a t-rex. It had a long dragon-like tail with half of a fish-like fin on the tip. The body, particularly the spines on its back, reminded him of Godzilla. Although two spikes on the statue's shoulders looked considerably wider than all the spikes on its back. Finally, the head of the statue looked somewhat like that of a frog with a cracked t-rex-like mouth that appeared to be missing multiple teeth. The face of this head was also very harshly cracked and burned to the point that only one eye, plus one whole half of the face, looked remotely recognizable as a face of any sort. And clutched in its clawed hands was what looked like some sort of pole with jagged edges on both tips.

Then Robin found his attention grabbed by some strange markings near the statue's feet. He got down on his hands and knees, drew out a small flashlight gadget from his belt, and examined the markings. They appeared to be a trio of what looked like a mixture between hieroglyphics and Japanese kanji. "What do these mean?" he thought to himself in curiosity.

Starfire, meanwhile, was interested in the miraculously still recognizable murals and similar artwork on the room's walls. Without Robin even noticing, she flew over to the one directly to her left while Robin made his way to the statue. She landed, took a few steps towards it, and then narrowed her eyes in concentration as she gazed at the mural.

The image depicted appeared to be of a vicious battle between three animals. One of them was what looked like a large striped and saber-toothed cat that appeared to be breathing fire. The target of this fiery breath looked like a large lizard with fins on its back, a fish-like tail, and frog-like feet with hideously sharp claws. This lizard-like beast, subsequently was rearing out of what seemed to be some sort of watery environment and hissing skyward at a hawk-like bird with a serrated beak and a pair of tufts on its head that reminded Starfire of Beast Boy's ears. And this bird's very intimidating looking talons appeared to be prepared as if about to try to strike at the fire breathing cat-like beast.

The next mural depicted the same three beasts in more humanoid looking forms, but still looking fairly bestial in appearance. The only truly non-bestial aspect of the three figures in this mural was the fact that they each held very obvious weapons in their hands. The lizard humanoid held an intimidating looking trident that it was currently on the verge of thrusting in the direction of the cat. The humanoid hawk held a mace in one hand and a battle ax in the other, and was dive bombing towards the lizard. And the humanoid cat was lunging towards the hawk with its hands tightly clenched around a long spear.

Then she came to a stop in front of the third mural in the room, and froze. Her green eyes widened in horror at the sight of what was depicted in this mural. The same three different figures were present in the image. But this time, all three of them were sufficiently evolved to look rather disturbingly familiar. The humanoid hawk, despite retaining its wings, looked entirely like an earthling human, with the equally distinctive hawk-like head now reduced to the form of a helmet rather than flesh and blood. The humanoid cat, now revealed to be a female, similarly, no longer looked even remotely cat-like, and was dressed in an outfit that looked almost exactly like the one she was wearing. But it was the lizard's form in this mural that made her feel especially worried.

Gulping, she turned her head to examine the rest of the murals, and her heart leaped into her mouth. In the very last mural, the image depicted was a vast gathering of the lizard beings bowing reverently towards a giant figure that looked just like. . . her eyes widened, the very thing that the giant statue in the center of the room depicted.

She turned her head to face Robin. "Robin?" she asked worriedly.

Robin looked up from his examining of the alien word engraved at the statue's base. "Is something wrong?"

Starfire nodded. "I fear their might be." She pointed at the statue. "That statue. Is there an engraving near it I could see?"

Robin gestured towards the word he'd been feeling so curious about engraved at the statue's feet. "Right here," he responded. "Is this important?"

Starfire flew over to her boyfriend and carefully examined the alien markings that had attracted his curiosity. Her eyes widened in horror upon recognizing what it said, confirming her misgivings in the process.

"Do you know what it says?" Robin asked.

"Zog," said Starfire. She turned her head to face Robin. "The name of the figure depicted by this statue. It's Zog."

"Ok?" Robin asked, now rather confused. "What does this have to do with. . ."

"Robin, look at the murals around us," said Starfire, pointing at the murals in the process. "Tell me, the lizard-like figures present in the images. Do they not at all look familiar to you?"

Robin examined the murals. Seconds later, his eyes widened. He looked at Starfire. "Star, this planet. Is it. . .?"

Starfire nodded, her face clearly showing how terrified she was now feeling. "We need to find Beast Boy and Raven," she then said. "And then we need to get back to where we landed and inform Cyborg, Galfore, and the rest of my people!"

. . . . .

Galfore stood before Cyborg and the Tamaranean mechanic, a half displeased, and half resigned look on his face. "You are certain of this?"

Cyborg and the mechanic nodded their heads.

"I am really sorry about this your excellency," said the mechanic, bowing his head in the process. "But it would appear that the damage dealt upon our ship by the Umbrosians is worse than we thought."

"He's right," said Cyborg. "The blast that left that huge hole? It also damaged the main power core. It's a miracle you were able to safely land here without the ship blowing up after that blast hit. Combine that with the rest of the damage, and we're in pretty bad condition."

Galfore sighed, and took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Can it be fixed?"

"Yes," said the mechanic. "But it will take time."

Cyborg nodded in agreement. "With what we've got available, and my help, it could take about at least an hour, maybe two if we're lucky, to fix this thing. And those are the best-case scenarios."

He sighed. "Look your highness, I know this probably isn't what you want to hear. But that's all the news we can give you."

Galfore sighed again. "Fear not, I understand." He nodded his head. "At the very least, try to get started on the repair work before we settle down for the night. I want there to at least be some level of progress made in fixing this ship before we all have to go to sleep." He turned to face the captain of the guard. "Captain," he said. "Call your men over and see if you can get a night watch set up. It's starting to look like me might need to make camp here."

The captain nodded. "Understood." He hurried off to make assignments.

As soon as he left, Starfire, Robin, Beast Boy, and Raven burst out of the undergrowth and arrived back in the clearing.

At the sight of the worried looks on his friends' faces, Cyborg raised his eyebrow. "Yo!" he said. "You ok?"

Galfore turned his head to face Starfire and her friends, his own face taking on a clear look of concern. "Starfire," he said. "What's wrong?"

"K'norfka," Starfire said, panting from how fast she'd flown to reach the area. "How soon can we be off this planet?"

Galfore looked over at Cyborg, who sighed. "Two hours if we're lucky. And if we're not, the earliest would have to be sometime tomorrow."

Galfore looked back at the now even more worried looking Starfire. "What happened out there?"

"K'norfka," Starfire said, clearly struggling not to panic. "If we cannot leave within the next two hours, then we must make sure that this entire area is kept as safe as possible. During our exploration, we found a temple. And I think I might know what planet we're on. And if I'm correct, then we are not safe here."

Galfore raised his eyebrow. "What planet are we on?" he then asked.

"YOU!"

"INTRUDERS!"

"WHO DARES TRESPASS ON OUR LAND?!"

They had landed on Gordania. And now, the Gordanians had found them.

Dun, dun, DUN! In all seriousness though, I hope you all read and enjoyed what I have to offer in this chapter (and remember, I require an exact minimum of two reviews for this chapter before the next completed and approved chapter can get posted). I should also mention that, for the sake of trivia, over the course of writing, there was initially a plan for a scene where Beast Boy and Raven explore a swamp (that ultimately morphed into the clearing in this final cut) and end up chased out by a Gordanian beast that resembles the piranhadons from the 2005 Peter Jackson King Kong movie. But in the end, I realized that I'd be better off having that idea removed for the sake of pacing. And in the end, I probably made a wise decision there huh? Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoyed what this chapter had to offer and leave plenty of feedback (with the exception of flames, as those are explicitly forbidden from my fanfics). Again, hope you all had fun!

Coming up Next: The Titans and Tamaraneans are now in a bit of hot water now that they've been caught on Gordanian land by the Gordanians. How will things unfold from here?