Kaldur heard his own voice screaming, calling out names and incomprehensible Atlantean phrases in a delirious blur, but it was as if his body were acting entirely of its own accord. He had not given it permission to scream, yet scream it did as Manta dragged a wide, flat blade across a marked portion of his chest, the man's hands steady to keep the pressure constant. The screen monitoring his brain activity pulsed blue on its black background, little areas of green blossoming and fading with each repetition of the knife's application.

"Fascinating," Manta said, stepping back to review the screen as one of the scientists stepped in to wipe the blood off Kaldur's skin with a clean cloth. "You have the dense skin of an Atlantean, yet the pain sensitivity of a human, according to your neural imaging. Did you never realize that you felt pain more acutely than any of your classmates at the Academy?"

Kaldur did not, could not respond, sagging in his bonds. He was on the brink of unconsciousness and desperate to cross it, but the pain was just enough to keep him awake and not enough to send him over the edge. Caught in a wordless haze of agony, he could only watch as Manta stepped up to run a hand over the wound in his chest as if testing for something. Of its own accord, his body flinched away.

"I bet you didn't," Manta speculated conversationally, pressing his thumb in a little harder. Kaldur groaned. "I bet you just kept your mouth shut like the good little soldier you are."

At last, Manta turned away, running his hands under a nearby tap to wash the blood of them.

"Process the results," he said to his chief scientist, turning to leave. "If we decide to incorporate the half-breed adaptations into the newest clone tech, we'll need to adjust this area. I don't want my soldiers feeling they're weaker than they are."

And he swept out, leaving Kaldur alone with the researchers. They would heal him, now. They always did. Just enough to keep him alive for the next round.

"The coordinates Aquaman sent us are for an old warehouse off the Maine coast," Robin said, studying the hologram his glove was projecting before him. M'gann glanced over, but kept her eyes on the sky as she piloted the Bioship towards their destination. "Legally abandoned for four years, until a few months back, when a private contractor bought the deed and reportedly started cleaning the place up. Locals stay away from it, say it's pretty top-secret stuff, and well-guarded at the perimeter. I'm betting our best bet will be the roof."

He enlarged the hologram so the others could see from their seats as Conner translated for Garth, who had flatly refused to be left behind. Robin wasn't thrilled about the prospect of working with someone who couldn't understand a word of his orders, but time had been of the essence, and the Atlantean had been uncompromising in his intent to come with them. And…well, if Kaldur was still alive when they got there, he would probably be glad for the familiar face.

"Once we're inside, we split up and look for Kaldur," said Robin, still studying the hologram. "This place is huge, so we'll need to be efficient. Superboy, take Garth. Red Arrow and Kid Flash, you're squad two. Artemis and Miss M will come with me."

There was a short, awkward moment. Robin was the natural choice for a leader in that moment, but the fact that it was his voice and not Kaldur's delivering their orders served as a painful reminder of the purpose of their mission. Finally, Artemis nodded, seeming to speak for everyone.

"Comm?"

"Use it," Robin replied. "Anyone who finds trouble, or Kaldur, lets everyone else know."

"Right."

If Roy objected to taking orders from someone five years his junior, he didn't show it. He was staring out the window as if willing the ship to go faster, clearly preoccupied with his own thoughts, but at Robin's words he turned slightly and gave a nod.

"One minute to arrival," Miss Martian announced.

"Good," said Robin. He closed the hologram off, checking his utility belt more out of habit than anything else. "Prepare to jump ship, everyone."

The team moved to the center of the Bioship, steadying themselves on each other as the ship navigated over the low terrain. M'gann, still seated in the pilot's seat, kept her eyes on the last tricky part of the flight.

"Switching to camouflage mode."

"Prepare to drop in 15…14…13…12…"

Out of the right-side window of the Bioship, the ocean shone brilliant blue in the late afternoon sun, and their target came into view, a stout grey building, about three stories high, seated at the top of a high cliff that plunged directly back into the rocky sea. The ship soared over the docks, skimmed the steep slope of the cliffside, zipped over the heads of the guards on the building perimeter, then pulled back sharply to hover over the building.

"…one."

As a hole opened up in the floor of the Bioship, the team leapt from it one after another in quick succession, Robin Conner Roy Artemis Wally Garth M'gann, rolling in opposite directions as they hit the roof with the exception of M'gann, who hovered over the rest of them to look out over the whole complex.

"All clear," she reported. Not a guard in sight. Roy and Artemis lowered their drawn bows; the light faded from Garth's skin as he let go of the spell he'd been preparing.

"Look for a hatch down," Robin ordered. "Someone will have noticed the noise. We need to get in quickly."

The team split instantly, circling across the rooftop to investigate its various bumps and indentation.

"Skylight," Artemis called a moment later from the west edge of the roof. "But it's a narrow one."

KF zipped over to check it out.

"Rob, you might fit through this," he said. "No one else."

"Found a hatch," Roy interrupted from the south side of the building. He knelt down to pull sharply on the handle, but it didn't budge. "It's locked. Superboy, get over here."

Robin looked briefly irritated that Roy had given an order that should have been his, but bounded across the rooftop to join them around the small rooftop panel. The team gathered as Superboy bent down and wrapped his hand around the thing.

Before he had a chance to pull, the hatch opened.

Gunfire exploded out of it, bullets zipping up out of the hole as several armed guards rushed up and at the young heroes.

"Get down!" Conner roared, throwing himself at the nearest black-masked goon and hurling the hapless man at the others – several tumbled back down the stairs below the hatch like pieces in a life-sized game of dominoes. A well-placed arrow from Roy knocked the gun out of the hands of another, Wally zipping in to kick it off the side of the building and into the ocean, and M'gann picked up another two telepathically and knocked them together in mid-air, stunning them. In moments, Robin and Artemis had them tied up, and then Roy was standing over them, posture imposing and intimidating.

"Where's Aqualad?" he demanded, grabbing one of the bound goons by the shirt, ripping off the man's mask and hauling him upright. "Where is your prisoner?"

"I…I don't know," the man gasped out, clearly terrified. "The boss doesn't tell us where…where he…"

"He's telling the truth," M'gann said quickly, taking her finger off her temple as the glow in her eyes died down. "He doesn't know. "

Roy made a noise of disgust and threw the goon back down.

"Move out," Robin ordered, hopping down into the hatch. "Soon as we're inside, we split up, as discussed."

Kaldur opened his eyes wearily as he felt himself lowered into the tank once more. He tried to focus on the sensation of the water as it slipped up over his feet, his calves, his thighs, his hips, his chest…anything to keep from thinking of the sharp lingering pain that now constantly coursed through his body. There was only the water. He had to believe that for the moment, or he would break too soon.

Just as the researchers activated the mechanical restraints that would hold his hands and feet to the sides of the tank, Manta entered the room. There was something different about him this time. He was dressed not in civilian clothes but in his underwater combat suit, all except the helmet, which he held under one arm. Kaldur watched him warily as he felt the metal close around his wrists and ankles, watched him step across the room to come right up to the tank so that he could hear him through the glass.

"You have proved invaluable to me, Kaldur'ahm," said Manta. "I've come to thank you for that, since it seems our time together is coming to an end."

Kaldur stared through dull eyes, his mind too numb to think too hard about what Manta could mean.

"I do regret the way things have turned out," the man continued, and there was a hint of sincerity in his voice. "I had hoped you would be more…open. More willing to see things for yourself. But I've observed you before, and I knew you were very loyal, so though I had my hopes, I had thought it might come to this, really. Still, this is a rather bittersweet ending for our time together. Not the one I would have chosen."

Manta pressed a hand to the glass, looking Kaldur over closely.

"You really do have your mother's eyes," he mused, then turned to go. "Goodbye, my son."

Kaldur shut his eyes, too tired to watch Manta go, or to register the fact that all the researchers had left the room, or to notice that they hadn't bothered to fit him with any sensors or monitors. He was only aware of a new sensation, a slight sense of heat, coming up from the floor of the tank.

The team hurried after Robin's lead, down into the narrow stairwell into which the hatch had opened. As the few goons who had been knocked back into it made as if to open fire again, Wally zipped forward and bowled them all over, leaving them to the trampling feet of the rest of the team. At the first landing they came across a steel door that Robin tried to open, but not only was it locked, it had no electronic security for him to hack. It was like they had known he was coming. He looked to Superboy.

Without a word, Conner made his way to the front of their line and wrenched the thing right off its hinges, setting it aside quietly, though after the racket the initial action had made, that seemed fairly pointless.

"KF, Red Arrow, this is your floor," Robin directed, and the two redheads nodded and disappeared into it together. "The rest of you, keep going."

The remaining five sprinted down, forced into single file by the narrowness of the passage. Somewhere between the third and second floors, a piercing alarm sounded, but no one so much as flinched; they just kept racing forward, more important things on their mind. Find Kaldur.

"Miss Martian, any chance you can locate him telepathically?" Robin asked as they reached the second landing, skidding to a halt. Dammit. He should have thought of that sooner, but he was used to playing to his own strengths, not to the entire team's…

M'gann pressed a finger to her temple, closing her eyes and focusing. Conner moved past her to wrench the new door off its hinges only to find himself facing an entire squad of armed guards.

"Down!" Robin shouted, grabbing M'gann and pulling her to the floor with him as the bullets rang out over all their heads – even Garth had gotten the message.

Superboy and Artemis were up in an instant, the Boy of Steel barreling through the door and simply hurling himself at the nearest clump of guards, knocking them over and throwing off their aim enough that Artemis could take out the remaining two with a double shot. A moment later Garth was among them, electricity sparking at his fingertips, and the men who had gone down stayed down.

"Anything?" Robin asked Miss Martian, who looked shaken.

"He's here," she said uncertainly, eyes still shut as she used her telepathic powers. "But the signal, his mind, it's…it comes and goes, like he's…ahhh!"

She cried out and clutched her head, doubling over in pain. Alarmed, Robin reached out to grab her shoulder.

"What's happening?" he demanded. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," gasped M'gann, struggling to her feet. "I can't hold onto his signal, it's like…like he's barely there. They're hurting him. We have to find him, quickly!"

"Superboy, Garth, continue down to the base floor," Robin ordered, taking charge of the situation. "Artemis, Miss Martian, you're with me." He stepped through broken door and into the second-floor corridor as Conner repeated the order to Garth in Atlantean and the two made for the stairwell again.

The second the two strongmen had disappeared, a fresh wave of guards came storming around the corner, guns blazing.

"Naturally," muttered Artemis, whipping two arrows from her quiver and firing them off with impeccable accuracy; with a shout, her two targets were down. "Send all the guns for the squad with the two humans."

"Keep moving!" Robin shouted, ducking and weaving and firing off birdarangs all over the place; one took out the lighting fixtures, plunging the windowless corridor into total darkness as the whole system shorted out. "And um, switch to infrared!"

The confusion worked to their advantage as the goons tumbled over one another, unable to see in the sudden darkness, and M'gann soon had them shut into a side room, using her telekinesis to pile several pieces of heavy equipment in front of the door. They wouldn't be getting out anytime soon.

"Well played," Robin nodded approvingly. "Totally meant to do that."

"Sure," Artemis muttered. "Let's get moving."

They sprinted down the hallway, which didn't seem to have many doors – halfway down, there was one, but the only thing beyond it was a long, high-ceilinged room with a raised swimming pool. Drained and dry, it was as empty as the room itself.

"Robin to Superboy," Robin spoke into his comm as they continued down the hallway in search of more rooms. "Are you at the base level yet?"

"Yeah," Conner replied with a grunt; in the background, there was the sound of a loud crash and a series of alarmed yells. "Full of guards. Working on it. Haven't found Manta."

"We're looking for Kaldur first, then Manta," Robin reminded his vengeance-prone friend. "Keep me updated. KF? Red Arrow? Status?"

"This place is deserted," Wally complained, zipping back and forth between the sides of the corridor to poke his head into each new door. "It's all weird science tech stuff, haven't seen most of these machines before in my life. And trust me, I've seen some pretty obscure science tech stuff. There was this one time when Uncle Barry let me come with him to work and there was this…"

Roy didn't respond to the speedster's chatter, striding purposefully through the center of the hall, an arrow already nocked to his bow. He knew he couldn't keep up with Wally so he wasn't trying, using his eyes rather than his feet to search. At least KF was right about one thing – the place was eerily quiet on this floor.

"Weird," said Wally, tugging on the handle to a door towards the end of the corridor. "This one's locked."

"Search the rest," said Roy, coming to stand before it. "I'll work on this."

As Wally nodded and sped off, Roy unstrapped a line of canisters from his leg and popped the top off of one of them, withdrawing a large chunk of a putty-like substance. Separating it into two pieces, he stepped forward and pressed both into the crack of the doorway where the hinges would naturally be. Then he backed off, pulling a particular arrow from his quicker and nocking it to his bow.

"Stand back," he called to Wally, who skidded to a halt beside him.

"Rest are empty," the speedster reported. "What are you – "

Roy released his arrow, which whistled through the air to strike the door right between the two chunks of plastic explosive, then stuck there, a red light flashing on its fat, blunt tip.

"Cover your ears," he ordered.

Wally obeyed, and just in time – the red light at the arrowtip suddenly went solid and the whole thing blew, setting off a chain reaction that blasted the door right off its hinges and skidding into the room beyond.

"Oh," said Wally as the two of them stepped across the detritus and into the room. "That."

But Roy was not listening. His eyes were fixed on something much more important – an upright tank in at the center of the otherwise empty room, steam rising from its top and a familiar figure suspended inside it.