Chapter Text
To say the least, Titan's mind was occupied heavily throughout the trip back to Saturn's orbit.
Titania and the others found them before they left for Saturn, and noticing Cupid, they all decided to leave together. Cupid having to drag Titan out of the Asteroid belt because of what she said to him about the Earth's Moon and him being in love. She didn't tell the others about it, though, which Titan was silently grateful for, he didn't want Titania to talk endlessly about it and playfully bully him.
But all that in mind, Titan didn't understand it.
Was this feeling really love? He thought it was just... longing. Longing to be friends with Luna, not... be together with him—
Dear Helios, just thinking about it makes his core heat up more, his surfaces getting too hot to handle and he felt like exploding or colliding into an asteroid just to feel something that isn't burning heat from thinking about Luna.
The Earth would never allow that, not after what he's done with the Moon Revolution. Sure the Earth said he wanted to be friends with him, or try to, but that's just— that doesn't seem like something he would allow. He would never allow Titan to even get close to Luna, it's obvious he cares for him a lot.
Titan can't. He just can't. It's impossible.
"Titan?" Saturn nudged him a little with his rings, trying to get his attention. Titan looked over to see him and the moons watching him in worry, and Titan felt embarrassed. Saturn continued, "Everything alright? You've been silent ever since you came back. You didn't even say goodbye to your friends."
He didn't even realize Titania and them left already. He'd been so focused on Luna that he- oh... He's a terrible friend... What is wrong with him? Forgetting to say goodbye? They must've felt so awkward when he just stared into nothingness when they said goodbye.
He's not even realizing what's happening to himself, he's shaking again, but he doesn't know if it's fear like last time. Or self-hatred, maybe it's anger, or stress over what he feels. He can't hear anything that's happening, the worried voices of his planet and the moons turning into more so panic than anything else.
Titan can't hear anything. His vision is obscured, he can't see anything. Blinded by panic and violently shaking. He doesn't hear the screams of Saturn, how it alerts the other gas giant, how all of the moons are surrounding him trying to wake him up.
Wake up, Titan.
"He'll be okay, Saturn..." Jupiter reasoned, "It seemed like it was just destress and panic, he's only asleep. He'll wake up soon after some much needed rest. He might've needed it."
"I just..." Saturn cried out, "I'm worried. He's having a hard time right now and I don't know what to do to help him. Something must've happened in the Asteroid belt when they went looking for a lost moon. I'm scared, Jupiter."
"He's fine," Ganymede mumbled quietly in annoyance, resulting in a nudge from Callisto to shut him up.
"He's stressed out, Ganymede. Probably because of you and your stupid advice getting to him," Callisto argued.
"Excuse me?!" Ganymede shrieked.
"Guys," Jupiter said sternly, "Be quiet."
"Yes, Jupiter," Callisto and Ganymede said together without hesitance, backing off and staying silent. Going back to Io and Europa.
Saturn tilted, "You... sure disciplined them."
"Just a small punishment for taking things too far with the revolution. Nothing major or harmful, don't worry, Saturn," Jupiter said.
"Okay..." Saturn sighed, looking at his little Titan that rests atop his rings, careful to not drop him or stir him awake as much as he wants to. He should wake up on his own.
"I'm going back to my orbit now, Saturn. Do update me when Titan does wake up, I'm sure he'll be okay," Jupiter told him.
"I will, thank you, Jupi."
"How pathetic it is," a voice said, sounding way too much like Ganymede, "The revolution leader passed out because of a little stress and realization that he'll never be good enough for Earth's Moon."
As always, Ganymede knows what to say to him.
Titan can't ignore what is true.
"Weak. I knew you needed to be pushed, you're too weak to be the leader of a revolution. So I took it into my own hands, I tried helping you see that you need to be stronger, not just physically. A leader needs to be the voice of reason. Not the voice of failure."
He can't ignore the voice, it's all around him.
"Maybe if you had listened to me the first time, none of this would've happened and you didn't have to be consumed by guilt," another voice rose, one all too similar that makes his core skip.
Luna.
"You should've backed down, should've not forced Astrodude to investigate your ocean under your surface, all of this could've been avoided if you had just listened to me and stayed away," a third voice, one that had anger burning him up inside.
Earth.
The voices are everywhere, in every direction, everywhere he turns the voices sound throughout his mind. Invading every thought and feeling, making him unable to do anything except listen.
"Moons should know their place and you should've stayed down. The revolution was never going to work, and your pathetic core knew it."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Titan screamed. "I can be better, I can—"
"What?" Earth argued, "You can what? Be in love with my moon after what you did?"
"How do you—"
"I know everything, Titan."
"You're too low for me, Titan," Luna said. "I will never love you."
"No! Stop it! This isn't real! Shut up! The real Luna would never say this!" Titan screamed again, trying to get away from the hallucinations.
"It's your choice to believe what is real and what isn't. Chose wisely, Titan," Luna said before he disappeared with the Earth and Ganymede.
"LUNA!" Titan woke, lifting off of Saturn's rings a bit too fast as he began to spin helplessly and lightheaded.
"Titan! Titan, are you okay?!" Saturn asked, trying to settle him back down onto his rings. "Titan, can you hear me?"
The moon kept his eyes shut tightly, mumbling to himself repeatedly a single word of "no." He was shaking way too much and worse than other times, Saturn could actively feel him shaking through his rings.
It worried Saturn to his core when Titan's mumbling changed from "no" to "I'm sorry," still being said repeatedly without any sense of stopping.
"One of you," Saturn looked over to his other moons, "One of you please get Jupiter and tell him to come here, please."
"Got it!" One moon said and quickly left, Saturn couldn't tell which one it was, but didn't exactly care. They need Jupiter.
Titan never once attempted to open his eyes, never even tried to stop himself from shaking, never tried to stop mumbling repeated words to himself. Saturn and the moons could only sit and watch while they wait for Jupiter, and the moons honestly didn't care that Saturn was giving Titan all of his attention, it was obvious he needed it right now and Saturn was just worried.
None of the other moons never once thought to steal his attention away from Titan, it would be selfish, and they knew that Titan himself hated being the favorite, it was kind of obvious he hated it. But Titan isn't himself, and Saturn wants to help him. They got his attention earlier, and Saturn obviously wants to make things up to them, by even trying to get their names right because he realized how much it hurt his moons.
Saturn was trying, and that's all that matters. Right now, Titan needs him.
"Saturn," Jupiter came over, "Let me see Titan. Your moon said he woke up."
The ringed gas giant turned around with his rings, showing the shaking moon to Jupiter with a scared and worried expression. Even Jupiter started to become worried for the moon.
Ganymede and Europa saw this, looking at each other with confused and worried looks. Callisto and Io looked sad, hoping that Jupiter might be able to help Titan.
Jupiter hummed, "Looks like he might've had a nightmare, or just a bad dream. From the intense shaking and mumbling, probably had something to do with the revolution or the stress he's been having."
"Celestial bodies can have nightmares?" Enceladus questioned.
"No," Jupiter said flatly, "Celestial bodies can't have nightmares, nor can they sleep, or go out of orbit, or talk to each other. Logic doesn't exist here, Enceladus."
Enceladus blinked, "Oh. Right—"
"Is he going to be okay, though?" Saturn asked, not looking away from Titan.
Jupiter stayed quiet. Callisto didn't like the silence. Io tried to stop her, but failed.
"Jupiter? He's going to be fine, right," She said, demanding it without a questioning tone, "Fucking say something."
"Do not give me that tone, Callisto," the gas giant growled out, "...I don't know if he'll be okay or not."
"Oh, dear nebulae..." Saturn wheezed out, "What's going to happen to my little Titan, Jupiter?!"
"Nothing, that I know of. Right now, he's awake, and his world is basically emptiness and he can't hear or see anything that's happening around him. He's in a state of panic but I don't know when he'll be able to get out of that state," Jupiter explained.
Everyone went quiet, the atmosphere full of worry and panic, the only sound being heard of Titan's heavy breathing and mumbling of words.
"Has he said anything other than the mumbling, Saturn?" Jupiter asked.
Saturn thought for a moment, "When he woke up, he had screamed a name. 'Luna,' I think it was. Isn't that Earth's Moon?"
"I think so, no one really says his name often, so I'm not entirely sure. But we can go to the Earth and see if his moon can help," Jupiter offered, "It might be better to go there since we don't want the Earth going out of the Goldilocks Zone."
"Would he be able to help? I don't see how that would help..." Saturn said sadly, "I mean, Earth's Moon was against the whole Moon Revolution and tried to stop it, no?"
"Io, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa," Jupiter said, revealing them from behind him, "Care to share some information to the class?"
The four went silent, wondering who will be the one to stand up and speak. Each of them backed away from Jupiter, but his gravity pulled them back closer and Callisto got up close to stop Jupiter from doing that.
"Earth has apologized to Titan and said that he hoped to try and be friends again, and apologized for his words against the moons," Callisto said hastily, going back to Io to check if he was okay.
"Oh, okay," Saturn looked at Jupiter, "How is that information going to help?"
"If the Earth is willing to be friends with Titan again, then he might be willing to help us here with him, and if he was calling for Luna, they might know something we don't," the gas giant explained.
"Okay, that makes sense," Saturn turned towards his other moons, "Everyone stay here, watch over each other. I'll be back soon after we figure this out with Titan."
"Same goes to you all," Jupiter said to his own moons, "I expect you all to be in the same place when we get back, alright?"
"Yes, Jupiter," the moons replied to him.
"Let's go, Saturn, be careful with Titan."
"I know..." he said, watching the poor moon shiver on his rings, mumbling nonsense endlessly. It hurt to see him like this.
Hearing towards the Asteroid belt, it had seemed like Titan's condition got worse, as if his core knew where they were. Perhaps memories of the Moon Revolution are not good ones, but from what he told Saturn, it didn't seem like it was traumatizing, just a big of miscommunication and misunderstandings.
The Earth had said some things and the moons took it too far, and Saturn was surprised to hear that Titan could possibly sustain life under his surface, he understood why the Earth got defensive, but it was no reason to bully Titan, and all moons for that matter.
Sure, Earth can be very arrogant sometimes, but taking it as far as to kill all life on Earth is too much. No wonder Jupiter seemed to had given a rough punishment for the four major moons of his. From what Titan said, they were the ones to take it so far, specifically Ganymede and Europa.
Both parties were in the wrong. Let's hope that nothing new arises from a failed moon revolution.
"We're here," Jupiter told them, stopping at the Asteroid belt as he searched for the Earth but only Mars was there, "Mars."
The small rocky planet looked over, smiling when he noticed Jupiter, "Hey, big guy, you need something?"
"Where's Earth? We need him desperately, and his moon, too, please."
Mars looked over at Saturn, whose focus was on Titan, and Mars understood. Nodding as he went to go fetch the planet.
Phobos and Deimos saw Titan and what state he was in, floating over to his side crying his name out, asking for what happened to him. Saturn briefly explained, leaving some details out to not scare the tiny moons. Hoping to reassure them that Titan will be just fine soon.
"Mars told me you needed me," Earth said, coming into view with his moon as Jupiter moved out of the way to show him Saturn and poor little Titan.
"Titan!" Luna called out, leaving his orbit around Earth to check on Titan who still rested atop Saturn's rings. "What happened to him?!"
"He's been extremely stressed out. When he returned from searching for a lost moon in the Asteroid belt, he was different and didn't have much of a reaction to anything. He soon passed out on us and... starting shaking, screaming, and mumbling to himself," Jupiter said.
Luna and Earth looked at each other in worry, "How long has this been happening?"
"Not too long," Saturn shook his head, "We came to you because he woke up a few hours ago by the scream of Luna's name."
"He... remembered my name?" Luna asked himself quietly, focusing on the poor moon.
"I did tell the moons your name, it's really not that hard to remember. Besides, he was probably have a bad dream and you were just in it, who knows if he actually wants to see us," Earth said.
Saturn frowned, "By the way he screamed Luna's name as if he hoped he wouldn't be left alone, I doubt it, Earth. It was definitely not a scream of fear but in desperation."
"Please go back to the Goldilocks Zone, Earth, I want to stay here with Titan and see if I can help in any way," Luna said.
"Luna, I can't be left alone, you know this."
"You survived last time you were alone?"
"More like almost survived," Earth said nonchalantly, confusing Jupiter and Saturn.
Silence fell.
"ANYWAYS—" Earth laughed, "I'll just go chat with Venus or Mars."
"Wait," Jupiter stopped, "How about taking Titan with you to the Goldilocks Zone? He's sure to survive there, and I can keep watch from the Asteroid belt."
"Yeah!" Saturn said happily, "He really needs you guys... I'm worried about him."
The two smaller celestial bodies looked at one another and the Earth sighed dramatically, "Fineee. I'll try to keep him stable with my gravity. But no promises we'll be able to help him."
"It's fine, just... try, please," Saturn said weakly, dropping Titan off of his rings and into Earth's gravity with Luna's help.
The three of them began heading back to the middle of the Goldilocks Zone. Saturn watching them as they left and Jupiter attempting to comfort the gassy planet.
"He'll be fine. Let's just hope he wakes up soon."
"I hate seeing him like this... It hurts my core."
"Just means you care for him, nothing wrong with that, Saturn."
"...Right."