Summary: in which Aqualad becomes Tempest.

They are fighting Cinderblock when he feels a piercing pain searing through the side of his head, then a cold snail-trail of viscous fluid leaving his eye.

He was trying, in actuality, to slice bits and pieces of the behemoth off with razor sharp slices of water, but what he really ends up doing is shattering the man's stone head to little bits and pieces.

What he is left with is various scrapes and bruises, a painful neck ache, and two deep gouges across his eye.

Also, testimonies (Speedy's accompanied by a profuse amount of swearing) about the "Goddamn, sonuvabitch, friggen' LASER BEAMS shooting out of your motherflippen' EYE-BALLS."

When the slashes stop being a medal of valor and become more of an inconvenience, given their peculiar inability to heal, he decides to consult the only empath-slash-healer he knows.

Raven's hands hover slightly over the wound as his teammates look on, and then she-

"Yowch!"

"What?"

"It stung me!"

Sure enough, there is a bright red burn going across her index finger and the palm of her hand.

She looks worried.

"That magic- it's strong. Strong enough to repel me."

She continues.

"You need to find its source- where it came from."

And then, fatally, she gestures towards the ocean.

Dammit.

After apologizing profusely to Raven (due to the nature of the magic, it takes her an exceptionally long time to heal it), he goes back to the tower, his heart heavy.

Then he leaves.

x

x

x

One and a half years later.

He has a dozen or so more scars than before he went back to Atlantis, and a bigger chip on his shoulder than ever before.

He's never felt better.

Yes, the council backing his half brother (himself being the bastard child) did in fact try to kill him.

Yes, the years at the bottom of the sea, scrounging for advice and a kind word were the loneliest he's ever felt.

And yes, Trident did try to destroy him. Again, but that ended up with a lot of gross orange goo (apparently, that's what amphibious, humanoid-but-not-nearly-enough, individuals bleed) that gets all over his cave.

But he comes back with a face a little sadder, all hard angles and sharp corners, each defined around the jagged lines about his eye.

Surprisingly, it is Raven, not Karen or Speedy, who is leaning in the doorway when he arrives at Titans East headquarters.

"Speedy left," she informs him.

"Oh."

"Karen's on a trip. She'll be back soon."

"Oh."

"Aqualad-"

He gives her a faint smile.

"Call me Tempest."