(A/N: Oh, jeez, has it really been a few months since I've updated this story? I'm sorry, everyone, I was really busy with my other stories and other stuff. That, and I thought no one really liked this anymore because of the direction I was taking it, which gave me some doubts as well as I was working on it. But, all of the views, new favorites and followers changed that.
I hope I can make up for my tardiness by writing a great chapter for all of you! Please, enjoy reading this chapter, everyone. Hopefully, my writing is still what it used to be (haven't written for this story in a while, I might be rusty). Once more, please enjoy.)
U-o-x-*I~Y~I*-x-o-U
XL's solid red eyes looked at Robin as if he had told him the most unbelievable story he had ever heard. It was difficult for him to fathom the idea that he might have been allergic to Angelos, it seemed impossible to him.
'No, I can't be allergic to you,' he thought, refusing to believe it. 'Angelos…' He was hoping for a reassuring response, but instead all he was given was silence.
He unconsciously began to scratch his arm harder as anxiety suddenly began to grow within him. He looked away from everyone and shut his eyes tightly, gritting his teeth with the force of a vice as his scratching became more frantic.
"No… no… no, no, no!" he suddenly cried.
His entire body began to shake and tremble like the earth during an earthquake. The irritated skin of his fingers and arm began to become slightly warmer the more they rubbed violently against each other as he scratched.
Slade grabbed onto his shoulders and tried to pull him to his chest to calm him. He seemed to struggle against his grip, as he would not willingly allow him to move him. His body was stiff, and he was focused only on tearing at his irritated skin.
"Hey, hey, hey! He's bleeding!" Kevin yelled, pointing at him.
He was right, XL was bleeding, blue blood poured out of his arm as if he had been fatally injured. He hardly seemed to notice or acknowledge that he was bleeding, he only continued to tear at his raw and bloody flesh without even a slight flinch. Blood spattered everywhere on the bed and on him the more he scratched, mirroring the scene of a murder.
"What is he doing? Why is he doing that?" Ben asked, practically shouting with concern.
"Psychological break most likely," Heilen answered, rapidly tapping on his tablet as he researched something.
"What are you doing?" Kevin questioned harshly. "Shouldn't you be trying to figure out how to calm this ass?!"
Heilen looked down on him, as if glaring at him for what he said about his patient. He then shoved his tablet into his chest once he was finished with it.
He approached his frantic patient and gripped both of his shoulders with two fingers, forcing Slade to let go of him. He then began to gently massage his shoulders with the two fingers of each hand. This continued for a few seconds before XL finally stopped scratching his arm, but still kept his hand on it.
Then, he stopped massaging his shoulders and pressed a finger in between his large eyes. He applied pressure to this area for a while longer than his shoulders, and whatever it was he was doing seemed to not only make XL calm but seemed to make him a bit tired as well, he yawned and his eyelids dropped a number of times.
Finally, he released his arm as he allowed his body to relax, and Heilen removed his finger from his head. The Highbreed physician then took his still-bleeding arm in his large hand and examined it. It was torn savagely, resembling something like butchered meat.
"What- what did you do?" Ben asked in shock.
"How did you get him to calm down?" Robin inquired.
"Pressure points," he replied simply as he examined and cleaned the brutalized limb.
"Wait, wait. Are you saying that you calmed him by applying pressure to his shoulders and forehead?" Cyborg questioned, bewildered.
"Yes," he responded, clearly slightly irritated with their questions. "Now, do not disturb me."
He used the body scanner again to examine the arm and hand for any serious injuries, focusing primarily on the arm. The injury was deeper than expected, his nails had managed to tear as deep into the arm as the upper most layer of muscle. If he had been given more time, he could have managed to sever a vein or artery.
The hand was unscathed, aside from irritation to the fingers, especially the tips. The skin around the nails was nearly thinned to the point of drawing blood.
Once the blood was cleaned, an opaque antihistamine cream was applied to the hand and arm to relieve them of the irritation marks. A thin, chrome device shaped similarly to a pen sprayed a white aerosol onto the fingers and badly torn arm.
The discoloration on his hand and arm began to slowly return to normal, much more quickly with the hand than the arm. Heilen then began to wrap the fingers and arm, wrapping the arm in multiple layers while the fingers were wrapped only once. The wrappings he was using were similar to gauze yet looked strong enough to withstand wear and tear for a considerable amount of time.
With the injuries cleaned and dressed, Heilen began to type on his tablet again. This time, instead of researching, he was documenting everything that happened, from the allergic reaction to the application of pressure to calm him.
The pressure points had been a gamble, he wasn't sure if it would work, but he was glad it did. It was a primitive technique and he was uncertain whether or not it would work on a Tyro Yagon. Fortunately, there were little differences between them and humans.
When he was done, he placed a hand on his patient's shoulder, "Are you alright?"
"Thanks to you," he replied with a small smile. He yawned afterwards.
He looked at his bandaged fingers and arm and all of the blood. If it was a different color he might have thought he bit into someone again, but it was blue, the color of his own blood.
He was tempted to ask "What happened?", if he didn't remember what had happened. He did, however, he did remember everything. Not clearly for some of it, but that made no difference to him.
He gently dragged his fingers across his arm, bandages against bandages. He watched as the gauze-like wrappings caressed each other, as if it was an incredible sight to behold.
'This is a familiar sight,' he thought dryly. It was not the first time he had to be bandaged due to an injury, and he resented it every time.
"Hey, are you alright?" Beast Boy asked, sitting on the bed. He nodded silently and gazed down at his bandages. He couldn't help but to feel slightly guilty for what happened to him, "Hey, uh, sorry about the, uh, stuff getting on your arm." He shrugged in response, still silent.
"Are you angry or something?" Ben suddenly asked. XL shook his head, without a word still. "Say something. Come on."
Kevin grimaced, "Oh, please, don't encourage him. This is the best peace we've had in days."
The red-eyed alien glared at him and raised his unbandaged hand, extending his middle finger at him. The Osmosian was furious when he saw that, but did nothing besides clench his fists and grit his teeth.
The left corner of XL's mouth craned upwards into a slight smirk, 'He finally learned his lesson.'
He expected to hear something from Angelos in response to his mental remark, but heard nothing. The piercing cold voice was nowhere to be heard. He found himself frowning, he was beginning to miss the voice.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up, he smiled slightly when he saw it was Slade. "Feeling alright?" He nodded. "Tired of talking?"
He shook his head and chuckled slightly, "No. I'm exhausted."
"How did you know the pressure points would work?" he asked Heilen.
"I did not," he answered. "I did not want to drug him again and there are little differences between Tyro Yagon and humans."
"So, you gambled on the chance that it wouldn't?" Robin suddenly asked.
He nodded, "Yes. Fortunately it did, otherwise he would have bled to death and we would have lost Angelos."
He and Angelos were bonded together, XL knew this and knew that it was much more than anyone else did. The blank canvas that was its DNA was painted with his.
"Angelos needs me," XL uttered, his voice soft yet thick with what could have been guilt.
"Yes," the Highbreed physician replied. "You are its body, you die and it will die."
He lowered his head and entwined his fingers when he brought his hands together. 'Angelos… talk to me.' He still got no response, the grips of his joined hands suddenly became like vices, painfully so yet he hardly cared nor felt it.
"Stop that," Heilen suddenly told him.
He looked up with a slightly raised eyelid in a questioning manner, "What?"
He pointed at his own hand and tapped on it, then did the same to his arm. He looked at his own and saw thin blood trails traveling down both arms.
His eyes were slightly widened, "Oh." He then crossed his arms over his abdomen, his eyes still a bit wide with mild embarrassment.
"Anxious?" he asked.
He shrugged, "I don't know.
"What do you know?" he inquired.
Not wanting to reply in English, he gave his response in a different language, "Isk cresh aurek nern trill herf esk aurek resh isk trill."
"You can't hear what?" Kevin asked.
His eyes widened again in shock, his mouth slightly open. 'He can understand me?! I used a language not even spoken in this galaxy!'
His heart began to beat at a pace that made him even more nervous. He hadn't expected anyone other than the doctor to respond to him.
Heilen sensed his nervousness and put his arm around him, his large hand resting on his shoulder. "My patient and I need to speak privately." XL got down from the bed and he was led to another room. "We will only be a moment."
They went into the room and the door was closed to keep it private. Now, it was only the two of them, and no one else, it did not soothe his nerves.
"Now that we are alone, I would appreciate it if you could elaborate what you meant," Heilen told him.
He nodded silently, suddenly unable to make eye contact with him as he could not keep his eyes off the door. "Angelos is silent. Does not speak to me anymore."
He hummed, "That is mysterious. How long?"
"Since I suddenly passed out on the floor," he replied. "I tried talking to it, but there was nothing. I thought Angelos might be upset with me at first, but I'm not sick."
"Emotional distress?" he suggested. "You were disquiet only moments before."
He shook his head, "No, I doubt it. I have been in similar states before and the only time it was ever so severe was a little more than a year ago."
"What happened?" he asked, his voice indicating a slightly keen curiosity.
"Cardiorespiratory arrest," he answered, his tone was inexplicably casual and slightly monotonous.
If he could, XL figured Heilen's jaw would have dropped far enough to nearly touch the floor. "Myocardial infarction?" he inquired, his voice almost sounding nervous.
Again, he shook his head, "No. Similar, but not quite. But, let's not talk about it now. Is there anything else you want to ask?"
He complied with his wishes by asking him, "How did you feel when you fell into unconsciousness?"
"I'm not too sure," he admitted, his undamaged hand was on his chin, touching the bottom of his lower lip. "It felt like someone had shut down my brain."
"How so?" he questioned, intrigued yet also a bit troubled.
He tried to think of how to describe it in a way he would understand, "Well, you know how a screen turns black when you shut it down?" He nodded. "That's the best way I can describe it. It just happened, I don't know how or why."
While they talked in private, everyone else waited for them to return, occupying themselves by talking. Slade found himself staring at the door multiple times, his heartbeat rapid with anxiousness.
He and XL rarely saw each other in person, phone calls between them were nearly as rare. He missed much of his life - school events, social gatherings, even birthdays - as was the case with his own children. Yet, he found himself anxiously waiting for him and the physician to finish conversing.
Finally, the door opened and they came out of the room to rejoin the others. XL sat on the bed and looked up at Heilen, he looked strangely troubled. The multi-colored Highbreed looked back down at his patient.
"My patient has something to say," Heilen announced. "He has agreed to breach the confidentiality agreement."
"I should have just come clean about it," he muttered, looking away from everyone nervously, rubbing his arms soothingly.
"About what?" Beast Boy asked.
He glanced at everyone, his body shaking slightly, he thought his heart was about to break out his chest. "Remember what happened before my headache?"
"Yes," Robin answered. "Are you ready to talk about it?" He nodded. "Okay then, what is it?"
"When I yelled…" he choked up slightly, "I was actually talking to Angelos. Trying to reason with it, make it stop." He thought he felt his heart drop into his stomach, it felt like he was betraying the trust of a friend.
He could tell by the looks of their faces that they likely didn't believe him. He couldn't blame them, who would? Who would believe him?
"I'm not crazy," he insisted after reading their expressions.
Robin felt his throat contract, but he didn't swallow anything, "Okay. Why were you trying to talk to Angelos?"
'Do I have to spell it out for you?' he thought sarcastically. "I mean, we talk to each other and I accidentally spoke out loud."
"So… you guys talk to each other?" He could heard the doubt in Ben's voice. "How?"
"Thoughts," he responded. "I think of something and sometimes I get a response."
"Like, all the time?" Beast Boy asked.
He shook his head, "No, not always. We communicated verbally at first until I learned how to do it mentally."
"Alright, so when was the last time you… 'communicated'?" Cyborg questioned.
He had to rack his brain for the answer to that question, his panic during his allergic reaction slightly fogged his memory. "Before I collapsed the last time."
"And nothing after that?" Robin asked him again.
Again, he shook his head, "No. And, honestly, I feel a little lonely."
"Why's that?" Ben questioned.
"It's like losing a friend," he answered in somewhat of a melancholy manner.
"Are you kidding me?!" Kevin angrily began before Gwen covered his mouth to prevent another confrontation. XL smirked thankfully.
Suddenly, he held the side of his head as he felt as if he was spinning. His vision started becoming blurry, he began to blink rapidly as he tried to retain it. He felt the cold floor under his head before he saw nothing but black.
Slade lifted him off the floor, his head and limbs hung loosely over his arms as if he was dead. He instinctively checked his pulse even though he knew he was alive and therefore had a beating heart, and as far as he was concerned his pulse was normal.
"Give him to me," Heilen urged.
He looked at the Highbreed physician, then his 'son', then back to him. Reluctantly, he handed him to him, the way he held him was akin to how one might carry a baby.
"Are you going to perform more tests?" Robin inquired.
"Yes… and no," he hesitantly answered.
"Okay, I'm tired of this cryptic shit!" Kevin snapped, greatly surprising everyone. "Tell us now or I'll pound you into next week!"
Heilen growled at him and swept his foot against his, causing him to fall. He fell onto his back and the multicolored Highbreed set his foot on his chest. His foot put pressure on his sternum, as if threatening to crush him.
"And I am tired of you!" he snarled. "I have a patient and an Android that may die and all you do is question me and infuriate my patient! You nearly got yourself and others killed! Blood is on your hands if they die…" he removed his foot and began to walk away "...all of yours."
U-o-x-*I~Y~I*-x-o-U
(A/N: I know it's short and I know it took me a very long time and I'm sorry for that. The only excuse I can give is the number of other stories I've been working on. Mostly "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Predator" stuff (both of which I plan to do crossovers with in the future), go and check them out if you want to. Anyway, I hope this is satisfactory enough for you until I get to this again.
The language XL was speaking in was taken from "Star Wars", the Aurebesh language. With that in mind, it should be fairly simple to figure out what he said, especially when paired with Kevin's reaction.
Please, keep up the support everyone and, once again, I'm sorry it took me so long to finally get to this. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take so long and maybe it'll be longer too.)