"There is a poison in us," Kaldur admitted at last, hanging his head down into his hands. He squeezed his eyes shut as he fought for control of his mind, but everything kept slipping through his webbed fingers. "I've known, but I did nothing about it." Just the fact that he'd not acted was killing him; eating at his heart and teething on his ribs. "How could I have…?"

"Because you have a poison in you," Aquaman said to him, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You could not have fought it, no matter how strong you may be, Kaldur'ahm."

Kaldur looked up at him with remorseful eyes. They weren't their normal pale selves, but instead tinted darker by the bloodshot look in his eyes.

"Your words are kind, my king, but I feel that I do not deserve them."

"Nonsense, Kaldur'ahm," Aquaman responded, tightening his grip on his shoulder. "You've done well, for all the time I have known you. This is not your fault, no matter what your mind may tell you. Like Batman has said, and you yourself, there is a poison in you. We must find it and drain it from your body. And the bodies of your teammates."

Aquaman released his grip on Kaldur's shoulder, and walked back to the screens that were still checking his vitals.

It made no sense to Kaldur, how something could be affecting them all like this. He didn't want to think that it was beyond his or any of his team's knowledge, but it was beginning to dawn on his that that was exactly the case.

Aquaman read quickly, the words and formulas that had been scanned into the systems as it tried to read over Kaldur's and Wally's and Zatanna's DNA.

So far, Zatanna hadn't exhibited any changing symptoms in her body, but she had been exposed to whatever poison the rest had caught, so she was going through treatment as well.

But it just showed nothing.

Granted, there were abnormalities in their blood tests, but all of them should have been solved by the vaccines that they had concocted. The fact that the vaccines hadn't worked left a sour taste in Aquaman's mouth. He tapped his finger up against the holographic screen, scrolling through the rest of the medical reports, searching for something that might have been missed time and time again.

What he did notice to be wrong with them, it all should have been corrected by the vaccine.

Perhaps, Aquaman thought, another dosage would do the trick?

But then again, he thought not.

Perhaps an updated version, to attack the upgraded strain of infection? Viruses and diseases evolve especially fast, so maybe it just outgrew the vaccine before we had even finished it?

Aquaman let this theory run around in his head for a moment before he got to work on the computers. He located the files they had of the poison, or virus, or whatever it was. The information they had was so little, next to none in fact, so Aquaman didn't have much to go off of. Not even the entire chemical composition had been gathered. More evidence that the virus had evolved past the vaccine. If it was a virus.

Aquaman looked up the past blood samples collected from the team, and compared it with the ones taken just a few minutes ago. Aquaman concluded that there was indeed growth, a change in the…thing…that had soaked into their blood and muscles and brains.

"It is unfortunate," Aquaman said aloud.

"What is, my king?" Kaldur asked him, sitting upright and looking over at him with complete attentiveness.

"This poison within you all is unpredictable, and it seems to be able to change its biologics quickly. If it wasn't so unstable, we could have predicted what the virus would be like within an hour's time, but alas, we cannot." Aquaman sighed and turned away from the hologram in front of him.

"Do you think we'll ever get better?" Zatanna asked him, turning both of their attentions towards her.

"Of course!" Aquaman boomed. "We will solve this, and purge this poison from the world, and have you all back to normality in a week's time. That I assure you!"

Zatanna looked down at her feet, not wanting her disbelief to show on her face. She couldn't help but feel it would be a broken promise, no matter what they did.

Aquaman searched the databases some more, looking and searching but all the while finding nothing. Everything that should be accounted for they knew, and he just couldn't locate what was wrong with them that could make them still act like this. Wally shouldn't be angry and Kaldur shouldn't be nearly-zombified and Connor shouldn't be comatose. And the rest of the team, whatever symptoms they had been having... They shouldn't be having them either. Aquaman thought that if the others had some identifiable symptoms, then he could put together a better picture of what they were dealing with.

Swift, nimble fingers typed out various key words into the search box, but all came up empty. There was nothing that he could think to do; not now.

"My king…?" Kaldur asked, wondering if he had found anything.

"I am truly sorry, Kaldur'ahm," he replied, setting a hand on his shoulder, "but there was nothing more I can find."

Zatanna thought as much. She watched as Aquaman went towards the door. Before he left, he told them that someone else would be in shortly, someone with more medical experience, and left them with that. They all groaned and laid back on the cots. Wally's scowl was etched deep into his face.

Loud beeping filled the air.

The computer systems lit up with an incoming message. Kaldur pressed the green accept button, and Dick's face lit up on the screen.

"Dick?" Wally asked, jumping up from the cot. "What are you doing out? Aren't you supposed to be in here with us?" Luckily, he didn't seem as agitated as he had been before.

Dick still remembered him yelling at him, though.

"Yeah, well, I got my dad to take me back here and I just jumped down to the Batcave…look I had some stuff I needed to find out, and I knew that I would find what I was looking for in the Batcave."

"Why's that?" Zatanna asked him.

"Well, that Batcave databases are a bit more extensive than the Cave's," Dick replied.

"Really?" she asked.

"Look, long story short, I found something that might be interesting." Dick pulled his sunglasses off, and looked straight into the webcam that was focused on him. "You know that compound that I was telling you about earlier? Toxicodendron rosa anigoma? Well, as it turns out, I found an old file from several years ago when Batman and Superman were working together to infiltrate some of Belle Reve's technological issues that were being exploited by super geniuses, and—"

"Hey, Dick, you gonna get to the point soon?" Wally snapped at him.

"I'm getting there!" Dick snapped back.

"Well, you're sure taking your time getting there!"

"Enough! Both of you!" Kaldur said, cutting them both off before Dick could say another word. "Dick, what have you found?" Kaldur asked calmly.

"Okay, so, this substance has a long history of not being able to be killed or gotten rid of with vaccines, which is why its so dangerous. When it was created-by Poison Ivy, so I was right there-it was made with the specific purpose not to be able to get out of your system. But all that's artificial. What I did discover was that there was a natural cure for this…this…poison. It's a deep sea weed called Red Rags…in slang, anyway. The Latin name—"

"Where can we find it?" asked a voice behind them all.

They all turned to see Megan standing right in the doorway, Artemis behind her, peering over her shoulder.

"Well, uh—" Dick stuttered, "I'm still trying to get an exact location, but from what I can gather, somewhere really deep in the ocean."

"Well, that's perfect!" said Wally. "Kaldur can go and get it, can't you?" he asked, turning to him.

Before Kaldur had a chance to say anything, Megan jumped in: "I can go with him! If he decides to go, that is."

Kaldur waited for almost an entire minute before he was finally able to respond. "Yes, I'll go."

"Great!" Megan exclaimed. For a second or so she tried to restraint herself, but then she finally let herself run towards him and throw her arms around him in a hug.

He almost smiled.

"K, guys, just let me give you a few more pointers before old Bats calls me up for something…"

"Is this the location?" Megan asked Kaldur, as they neared the precise coordinates over the ocean.

Kaldur shrugged. "I cannot say for sure, I am loathe to admit. Things escape me."

Megan nodded, and pulled up the GPS with a wave of her hand. The Bioship blinked bright green on the grid map, and the numbers at the edges told her that they weren't there just yet. She needed to be a bit farther south, and a lot farther east. She steered the ship to its course, and they continued on completely silent.

Artemis tapped her fingers up against her knee.

She was the only one there besides Megan and Kaldur. They needed someone to steer the ship back to land once they were deployed, since they couldn't just leave it out in the open unprotected for so long. Plus, she was the second best at piloting the Bioship.

In front of the windows, nothing but the endless blue of the ocean and sky met them. There wasn't a cloud in sight, and Megan didn't know if that was normal for Earth weather or not. She still had much to learn.

"Hey, Artemis," Megan feebly asked, "do you know what the weather's supposed to be like today?"

Artemis scoffed. "You're so bored you're trying to make small talk about the weather?" she asked her, a smirk on her face. When she saw Megan's downcast face, it fell. "Sorry," Artemis said. "I…I didn't mean that…"

Sneaking another peek at the martian from the corner of her eye, she was relieved to see that there wasn't any harm done. She looked as placid as ever.

"But, really?" Megan tried again. "The weather?"

"I dunno. The news guy said to expect cloudy skies sometime around four o'clock or so…rain around four thirty… But y'know, those guys aren't known for their accuracy."

Megan nodded.

She wanted to ask why the sky was so clear if there were to be storms later on, but decided against it. This wasn't the weirdest Earth weather she had experienced. The knowledge of an abnormally hot summer took center stage in her mind, reminding her that things weren't normal and that she shouldn't expect them to be so.

"We're almost there," Megan told them.

Artemis and Kaldur nodded at her words, but said nothing.

A few more miles to go, and then she and Kaldur would jump into the ocean and go in search of this Red Rags weed, or whatever Robin had called it. He'd given them the scientific name for it time and time again, but it just couldn't stick to any of their tongues. So Red Rags it was.

The Bioship flew closer down, until it skimmed the edge of the water.

"Almost ready?" she asked them brightly.

Muttered words of agreement was all she got in return.

"Fine, be sulky," she muttered.

Minutes of silence passed between all three of them as they did nothing more than sit and wait, their eyes fixed on the endless ocean horizon. The silence wasn't uncomfortable, but Megan still felt that tension in her, one that crept up her spine and made her hair fluff. Artemis tapped her nails on the arm rests of her seats, able to feel that same unease that filled the air. Kaldur only stared on and on, unblinking. His vision was blurring, the blue of the ocean mixing with the blue of the sky, and the monotonous sight was starting to lull him.

"We're here," Megan announced.

The map that appeared on the screen confirmed what she'd just said. A green dot blinked at them, lining up perfectly with the coordinates at the X and Y axises.

Megan and Kaldur stood and a small hole formed in the Bioship's floor for them to jump through.

"Good luck, you guys," Artemis said to them.

They both nodded at her, and then jumped down out of the ship and into the water. Kaldur went first, and when he dived into the ocean water his senses immediately felt sharper. The cold water made him more awake, his vision focused and he was able to see even minute details from far away, and his hearing increased tenfold. Distant whale songs found their way to his ears, along with the rush of the ocean currents, and sounds far below him that still remained a mystery.

The ocean was so deep, and Atlantis was so shallow in comparison.

Megan appeared next to him. Morphing herself, she compressed her body for the ocean depth, grew a mermaid-like tail, and developed gills along the side of her neck that mirrored Kaldur's. All this happened quickly.

She signaled to Kaldur that she was ready.

Through their mental link, Megan could feel the Bioship and Artemis retreating, returning to the land where the rest of the team still dwelled.

They swam together silently. Occasionally, Kaldur would say something, guiding her towards to ocean bottom to where the weeds grew. He knew the ocean far better than her, so she trusted his instinct. Megan spoke with her mind, mostly. A song was playing in her head (the intro to Hello, Megan!) and Kaldur could hear a few strands of the music in his head every now and then.

The ocean darkened. Kaldur couldn't see well in the dark, but he didn't have to. Other senses came to life, including a strong echolocation. Megan, however, made it so that her eyes glowed bright green. The light was nice, Kaldur thought.

Approaching the ocean floor, Megan spotted what was supposed to be the Red Rags. Her heart leapt, and that joy was transferred over to Kaldur. They swam faster, wanting to reach the weeds as soon as possible. Kaldur could see that they were indeed the weeds that they had been searching for; they matched the description perfectly, and the scientific sketches (the only images available).

They felt like sea weed always did, slimy and a bit tacky. Megan closed a fist around as much as she could, and pulled them free, making sure that the roots were still intact. She formed a bag out of her cloak, and started stuffing the Red Rags inside.

Kaldur helped her, pulling free as much of the weed as he could.

These weeds look like shadows, he thought.

The red clashed with Megan's green light, and they appeared a dark, inky black against the dark ocean water. When Kaldur stuck his hand out to collect more, he felt vaguely like he was in a dream, swimming in shadows and being pulled away by the currents. Deeper than he'd gone before, and feeling out of place, drifting…

He watched as his hand ran through the dark sea weed, looking more and more like shadows. His movements slowed, and he focused on the dance of the weeds, the way they flowed along with the movement of the ocean, shifted with the waves.

Kaldur… a voice rang in his head.

Kaldur…

Still, it didn't pull him out of his trance. He was focused on the weeds, and the dull sounds that came to his ears. A strange feeling weighed on his chest, and it felt like it was pulling him down. Down to the dark, inky depths were morbid stories came to life and he would be forced to play out horrors in slow motion.

Remember, Kaldur, just as the land dwellers cannot conquer the land, we cannot conquer the sea… His king's words floated across his mind.

Kaldur!

He winced. Now aware, everything sharpened again. Megan had screamed at him…in his mind or out loud, he didn't know. But it brought him back to the present. He looked at her, and he could see there was worry on her face. Her eyes were filled with concern, and he looked away because he mistook it as pity.

"I am sorry, M'gann," he told her. He went back to pulling the weeds, and stuffed them in her cloak for her to carry. "I was…lost in thought."

I believe the term is…spacing out again… Megan replied.

Something like that, Kaldur mentally replied.

They went back to collecting the weeds in silence. Until…

"There's something in the water!" Kaldur said, spinning around. His muscles were tense, his eyes wide.

What?! Megan asked, fear going through her. What is it?!

"I don't know," Kaldur replied. "But it is…unusual. And big."

Megan closed her cloak tightly, securing the Red Rags in their place. She took her place at Kaldur's side, ready to fight off whatever Kaldur had sensed. Her mind expanded, far out in every direction, psychically searching for the threat. Something was there, just as Kaldur had said.

The leviathan's just a myth, right? Megan asked him then.

"No," Kaldur said, "but the leviathan is the least of our worries."

Okay, not the leviathan, great, she thought to herself. Then…what?

She focused in on the thing, moving through the water at a quick pace. It didn't have a single consciousness, but many collected together, all melded into what was attempting to be uniform. But it divided, drew her in every which way.

"Hello, Megan!" she said aloud, startling Kaldur. "It's a submarine!"

"There aren't supposed to be any submarines in this part of the sea," Kaldur replied. "I looked before we came out here…the closest one is supposed to be four hundred miles from here." He paused.

So what's this one doing here?

The bay doors opened, and the Bioship flew smoothly inside.

Artemis stepped out a moment later, feeling drained for no reason at all. Maybe it took more mental power to fly the Bioship than she realized. Or maybe it was because she hadn't gotten much sleep (despite her best efforts). Or maybe both of them combined. Maybe none of them. She didn't want to think about it for too long.

Wally stood by the wall, waiting to greet her.

"Hey. So how'd it go?" he asked her, trying to act nonchalant.

"Fine," she said.

"Just fine?" Wally asked. He crossed his arms and leaned back. Artemis walked towards the doors that lead into the rest of the cave, and Wally leaned in close when she got near.

"Yes, just fine," Artemis said.

They slid open, and Wally followed her inside. He walked up to her side, looking at her as she strode forward, but Artemis kept her gaze straight ahead. Still, she couldn't help but feel irritated by the way he was watching her.

"What?" she asked him, still not bothering to look.

"You look tired," he remarked. "What are your symptoms?"

"Really? That's what you wanna talk about?" she asked.

Wally shrugged it off like it was nothing. "Doctor wants to know. She's been studying us for most of the morning. Wants to study you too."

"Great," Artemis sighed.

She pulled the cowl from her face as she walked, her face exposed. She didn't really care all that much. The Cave was safe, secure, and her fears had long ago vanished. Still, doubt started to form in her mind.

If none of the Justice League members come around the cave out of uniform, why should you? Doubt asked her. Come to think of it, the only person you actually know is Green Arrow. None of the others care enough to tell you who they are.

Artemis shook her head, trying to make her thoughts disappear.

Easier said than done. Her doubt kept nagging her, asking her stupid questions and making her jump to even stupider conclusions. Reason told Artemis that there was no sense to thinking those things, to be questioning everyone like she was, but still…

They still don't trust you, y'know…

Artemis groaned and put a hand to her head. She stopped walking, and when she did, Wally stopped too.

"Everything okay?" he asked her. When Artemis didn't respond, he tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but she reacted before he could.

Artemis jumped away from his hand, her body tense, almost snarling at him as she looked at him. Wally's eyes widened, not quite believing that he was seeing this. "Don't touch me," she snarled, and stormed away from him.

Wally stood dumbfounded before muttering, "Freak."

"What did you call me?!" Artemis asked, turning to him.

Wally remained silent, but put his hands up in defense. Whoa, I didn't mean anything by it, he wanted to say. The look on her face frightened him, though he wouldn't admit it.

"What did you say to me?!" Artemis asked, her voice rising. Her hands started to move backwards to her bow and arrows, but she flinched and moved them away, trying to play it off as just random movements. Wally wasn't buying it.

"Were you actually gonna…?"

"NO!" Artemis screamed. She started backing away from him, and he only stood there bewildered and accusing. "No," she said again.

Artemis could feel eyes on them, watching them, drawn by her outcry. Her and her outburst and Wally standing there like a victim. Her heart started racing in her chest, and her blood felt suddenly icy. Her breath started to come faster and faster, tears were forming in her eyes, and all her doubts came crashing into her at once.

Not knowing what else to do, she bolted.

She ran towards the zeta tubes, quickly punched in the code quickly, and vanished before panic could overcome her.

Once she was away from the team, she allowed herself to feel it all. Artemis put her hands to her chest, like trying to keep her heart from bursting out of her chest. She sank down to the ground, clutching her knees to her, trying to even out her breaths and fight off the panic that was surging through her.

No… she thought.

Sorry this took so long to do, everyone. Like I said, I've been struggling with my health and writing's been a bit more difficult for me because of that. But it's out here now, and hopefully the next chapter won't take so long. Thank you for your patience, and please keep reading!