A/N: This story takes place right after "Transferrence". I never saw "Jynx", therefore assume this is a replacement for it in terms of how Chloe and Clark managed to smooth things over somewhat. Hmm... any reviewers, please make note of any characters on the show that you think aren't being portrayed correctly. I'm struggling with dialog.

John Mercan wasn't exactly in the best of moods these days. Less and less students were signing up for his lessons which, quite frankly, annoyed him. It was his secondary source of income! His life. Teaching others about diving, but more importantly, exploration and how to do it safely. Seeing things up close and personal that most people would never see. The oceans - and, by extension, lakes - could be just as exciting as exploring space. There was far more to find on the bottom of the ocean floor than on the surface or Mars or Saturn. Wait... did Saturn have a surface? Or was it one of the gas giants?

Did it really matter? No, he supposed not. Nothing in space did matter when it came down to it, proving his point. The sea was glorious!

"We're here." he said, all of those recurrent thoughts again buried as he powered down the boat's engines and watched two of his students lower an anchor. This lake wasn't exactly the vast depths of the Pacific, but it was a most excellent place to teach scuba diving. The geography was stunning and intricate in parts, and very stable. he turned around, stepping down from his miniture 'bridge' and onto the main deck where seven students stood in front of him, all in appropriate diving gear of course. "We all know the drill. This is a practice survey. You're all going to go down there and retrieve a plant that you haven't seen in real life before. Who knows, maybe we'll find something special. God knows the lake is litered with them green rocks." he said, laughing softly. He always found stories of the meteor rock mutative powers humourous.

Richard chuckled along with every other student, though he really did hate remarks like that. Joking about the rocks... considering what he knows they were responsible for. He'd read stories of those freakish things caused by the rocks, it's effect on all living things. Causing mutations. He didn't believe it when he was a child, he horded the rocks like gold since his fifth birthday. They glowed every once and a while. But now, of course, he wouldn't get to see that glowing for much longer... they gave him his caner, he knew it. The doctors didn't have any other explaination as to why radiation didn't do anything to the cancer cells. That was unheard of.

"Alright, you all know what to do. We've never explored this area of the lake but the geography is stable. But, that's no reason to get careless! You'll all have radio contact with me and one another if you need it. Don't use up the frequency, though, others may need it to." the instructor said.

Richard sighed and nodded, going through the routine of his final checkup. In another twenty minutes or so he was under the lake, surprised at how warm it felt... he was at the bottom of the lake, scouring over a rather dull section of the lake. No plant life. Why were there no plants? Oh, there was some... new. Not old, but new. He wondered how the others' were fairing... Richard had gone away from all of them so he wouldn't be disturbed. He'd found a region with little plantlife. And, was it just him, or was it colder? Perhaps that was why there were so few plants... and so fewer in that direction, where it got deeper. Perhaps he'd find a special plant in there, one that could survive the cold? He would get commended for finding such a thing in the lake.

Richard swam closer and closer to a corner in a deeper orner of the lake, finding less and less plants... it was getting colder. And darker. Was the darkness cause for the cold? Too dark. He reached back behind him, pulling out his flashlight and turning it on... he pointed it in front of him, swmiming forward and forward. He was in complete darkness now. He looked up, finding rock quite a ways up... he was being overshadowed by land, and glowing green rocks. Horrible, vile, destructive green rocks. He looked to the floor, seeing it very much untouched... maybe nobody had been here, turned off by the ever-increasing cold and darkness. He could be alone here, seperate from everybody else... their annoying lessons and mindless chit-chatter. The cold became more comforting as he thought about this.

It just got colder and colder, though, enough to make him shiver... he was numb. He knew he should call for help, get someone down here to pull him out to safety. Live the last month or so of his life, wait for the pain to increase and kill him, surrounded by family that had never cared before crying and pretending that they were sad. He'd be in extruciating pain and unable to do anything but wait. Or, he could stay here... wait until his air ran out, end it here and now where he was cold, alone. Safe. They'd never find him, his body would remain here. And with the cold, oh, he'd be here for a while undisturbed. Peaceful. That seemed very appealing. He started shivering more, his body trying to keep warm... he kept swimming and swimming, down and forward, until he hit something.

Ice?

He reached out, touching it... there was no mistaking. On the floor there was a large... clump of ice. How had ice survived down here? It was 6 degrees in the water. Fall. This ice would have had to have been a glacier... and Richard knew quite well there were no glaciers - big or small - existing outside of a freezer. He drew his face closer, peering at the ice... something was inside. He put his flashlight up to the ice, trying to illimunate inside... yes, there was something. Meteor rocks? Was that the cause of the ice? Damnit, he couldn't see.

He pressed his face to the ice, opening his eyes wide... it was too cold to keep himself still, but he tried to see. For some reason his flashlight wasn't illuminating it very well... he tried angling it to the side slowly, perhaps refraction would help. Aha! It was working... he could almost see it... with one more degree, the object's contours were finally lit, it's dull angles reflecting light back into Richard's eye.

There was a boy in the ice.