Once everything had died down, and the team had gotten acquainted with their new members, Gar and Rose snuck off to speak privately. They were on the roof staring out to the city. Rose was leaning into Gar and he had an arm wrapped around her holding her close to him. Sighing in pure bliss, she spoke to him.

"Where did you find my brother and his friends?"

Gar tilted his head to look down to her and answer.

"We found them in Budapest."

She quickly turned her head and looked at him confused.

"I thought you said you were going to Tibet?"

He chuckled and returned his gaze to the city.

"That's where he was at originally. But then I remembered a few months back, he had told me he wanted to visit Budapest with Kole and Gnarrk. So, I figured we'd start in Budapest and if he wasn't there, we'd go to Tibet."

Rose nodded and kept her gaze on her boyfriend's face. She found herself smiling at the fact that he seemed to be happier here than with his old team. When she found him, he had a constant emotionless expression and walked around like he'd much rather be anywhere else. It's nice to see him smiling more and getting along with the new team.

He felt eyes on him and looked down to see Rose staring at him with a content look on her face. He gave her a warm and gentle smile and she returned it. Leaning up, she locked her lips onto his. They separated and gave each other one last look before returning their gazes out to the city.


Slade was in the lab looking over Gar's bloodwork he had Rachel get for him. He was amazed to see just how different his DNA was compared to an average human being. Gar had been telling the truth about having Sakutia. He had found traces of it in the blood, meaning the disease had in fact latched onto his DNA. As he was at the computer going over all of this, he heard the door open and heard footsteps walking towards him.

"You wanted to see me sir?"

He turned around to see Rachel had entered the lab.

"Yes I did. I have a few questions that I would like answered. And I would like the truth with these answers."

She gave him a nod to let him know she would do as he had asked.

"When you were doing his medical exam, how did Gar react?"

She shrugged her shoulders and answered.

"He seemed pretty fine to me. He didn't really have an issue until we took his blood sample."

Slade lifted an eyebrow. He had his mask on, but she could tell he was curious.

"Explain please."

She gave a sigh and did as he asked.

"Well, he doesn't like needles. When I went to take his blood the first time, he knocked the syringe out of my hand and sent me flying across the room. Once I gathered myself, I saw him and Rose struggling. We finally got him calmed down and he let me take his blood after that."

Slade gave a nod and processed what he was told. From what she said, his reaction could mean many things. Either he still was dealing with some sort of PTSD from how he got his powers, or there was something else that had happened involving needles.

"Was there anything else you found alarming?"

She squinted her eyes as if she was in thought. Nothing really came to her at first, but then she remembered she did find a lot of scars on his body.

"He has quite a bit of scarring on him. Mostly on his torso area and some on his neck and legs. He told us it was from previous battles so we figured not to look into it too much."

He gave another nod and turned back to the screen. He pressed a few buttons and enlarged the sample he had been looking at. Turning back to her, he began to speak.

"Take a look at this."

He pointed his finger to an image of his blood sample. She saw many foreign particles in it and other things in his blood that the typical human wouldn't have.

"What is all of that?"

He pulled up a side screen showing his DNA and one that was of another human. This image showed a major difference between the two.

"He wasn't lying when he said he had Sakutia. A lot of what you saw was actually traces of different animal blood and DNA. I believe when he was injected with the serum, they all latched onto his DNA and evolved and gave him his powers."

She was stunned. So the serum did give him his powers. All of this information was hard to process. She read up on the disease he said he had been given and found out what happens to a person who is infected with it. High body temperature, breakdown of the DNA, vomiting, aches, and bleeding of the eyes and nose. She felt sick reading it and couldn't imagine how he felt going through all of it.

Slade noticed something and spoke out on it.

"What is this?"

Enlarging the image even more, he saw a bunch of microscopic organisms moving around in the blood. Rachel noticed it too, and questioned it.

"Is that a parasite?"

Glancing at it even closer, Slade leaned back stunned and in amazement. Gar had reproductive molecules in his DNA. And from what he could tell, these weren't normal.

"He has reproductive cells that can help restore any sort of injury he receives."

It was Rachel's turn to be stunned. That means that should Gar get hurt, his body will automatically fix whatever is wrong. This was amazing, but she was also curious as to how far it'll go.

Slade turned to her and spoke.

"I'm sure Rose is with him wherever he may be. Give her a call and ask her to come down here."


Gar and Rose were still on the roof. They had gone from staring at the city, to talking and sharing kisses, more so of the later by now. Rose heard a beeping and looked down to see her wrist glowing. Pressing a button, she spoke into it to see who needed her.

"Yes?"

The voice that greeted her was Rachel's.

"Hey Rose, is Gar with you?"

After hearing it was her best friend, she smiled. Glancing up to Gar, she answered the question.

"Yeah we're on the roof. What's up?"

She got her response.

"Your dad and I are in the lab looking over his DNA. Can you bring him down here for us please?"

She looked at Gar to see if he was alright with going. Receiving a nod, she gave him a small smile before answering.

"Sure, we'll be down there in a bit."

The button faded away and she turned to her boyfriend.

"It seems like we're needed."

He gave a nod and a smile.

"I guess our date is gonna have to wait for now."

She smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"You really think I'm gonna let my dad stop us from going on a date?"

He laughed and wrapped an arm around her, leading her towards the door back inside.

"I suppose not."


The couple walked into the lab to see Rachel and Slade looking at something on a screen. Hearing the couple walk in, the two turned to greet them. Rachel gave the two a smile while Slade just nodded his head.

"You needed to see us Slade?"

He nodded his head towards the green boy.

"Yes, I have something I'd like to show you."

He waved his hand, beckoning them to come over and stepped aside to let them look at the images on the screen. Gar instantly knew what it was and got a sick feeling in his stomach. Unwanted memories began coming into his mind and he grew quiet and distant. Rose looked confused at what she was seeing and turned towards her father.

"What is this?"

Slade looked at her then to Gar. While she was looking at him, Gar had his attention still on the screen, but had a look in his eye he couldn't quite place it as.

"They are reproductive organisms inside Gar's blood. This means that they are attached to his DNA and he can recover quicker from injuries."

He then turned his attention to Gar.

"Did you know about this?"

He lowered his head down and gave a quiet answer.

"I do."

This caught the other three off guard. Rose turned to him and could see his face had become distant again. Rachel and Slade saw it as well and all the focus was now on him.

"How did you find out you had it?"

Gar took a shaky breath and turned towards the group.

"You know how I said I was found by Madame Rogue?"

After receiving a nod from everyone he continued on.

"How much do you know about STAR Labs?"

Rachel and Rose looked at him confused. Neither one of them had heard of it before and was curious as to what he was entailing. Slade however had heard of them.

"They are a scientific group that studies animals and other meta humans."

Gar nodded his head and confirmed Slade was right. This made the other two girls question where exactly Gar was going with this.

"Where you there?"

He gave Rose a nod and elaborated.

"She took me there and would leave me for months at a time. She asked them to see what they could find about my powers and my body."

He turned towards Rachel this time.

"You know how I said I got those scars from fighting?"

She gave him a nod and got a sick feeling. Something was telling her that what he would say next is going to be horrible.

"I'm sorry, but that was a lie."

Before anyone could question it, he carried on.

"They found what you did after taking my blood. They wanted to see how much my regenerative powers could go."

He pulled off his shirt to show everyone the scars. Rachel and Rose had already seen them before but now took notice of where they were. Some were over where organs were supposed to be, like his heart, lungs, and digestive area. It was starting to hit them what it could possibly mean.

This however was Slade's first time seeing them. He too noticed where they were and what it could mean. He took notice of the scars on his neck and wondered if there were anymore.

"Are there more scars on your body?"

Gar nodded his head.

"There's some on my legs and arms. Most of them are covered up by the tattoos I have. There is however, two visible ones on my thighs."

Rose was starting to feel short of breath. It seems like more and more they find out about her boyfriend, the worse it gets to be. Rachel was also beginning to feel sicker by the minute. Her friend seems to have gone through more trouble than she could have imagined to be possible.

"They would drug me and strap me down to a table. They started off by seeing if I could regrow limbs and such, like fingers, arms, and legs."

He swallowed a lump in his throat. He had intentionally left this part out of his past so he wouldn't have to go through it again. This to him was by far the most troubling issue from his past. Yes he had lost his parents and sister, been raped, lost another family, and thrown out by the Titans. But being tortured and being done so unmercifully troubled him more than anything.

"Then they moved on to more areas. They began to grow curious if I could regrow organs. They started off with my kidneys, then moved to my stomach, then liver and so on. Eventually, their curiosity got to be so bad, they took out my heart."

This shocked the group. They had pretty much killed him all to see if he could actually die. It was like he was used as a form of entertainment and to satisfy their sick minds.

"Eventually I did. It took 4 days, but I grew one and the hole they put in my chest closed up as well. They then began to see if my DNA was able to stop my body from losing blood too fast."

He cleared his throat before continuing.

"They'd sliced arteries and veins to see how quick the wounds could heal. They moved to my femoral artery and jugular vein for the last test. I lost more blood than it should be possible to survive, but they found out the regenerative organisms had no limit to what they could heal."

Rose took ahold of his hand and caressed the back of it. She could see that he was having trouble with going through another detail of his past and wanted nothing more than to take his pain away. Rachel was just staring at the boy in amazement. To hear what he had went through would put most people in an insane asylum or cause them to kill themselves. But yet, he found a way to push on and fight through all of this.

Slade looked at Gar and could see he had gone through enough. He now understood why he kept his past hidden from everyone, including the Titans. Even he wouldn't wish what Gar had gone through on his worst enemy. Walking over, he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Gar. You've been through more troubles than imaginable. When I asked Rachel to do this I didn't mean to make you relive another dark memory from your past."

Gar looked up and gave Slade a nod and a small smile.

"It's alright. Rose and Rachel made sure to let me know that you were doing this for different reasons than they had done them for."

Slade nodded and pulled his hand back. He could see how much this had upset Gar and his daughter and he didn't want that. Deciding to change the subject before anything worse could be said, he spoke again.

"I wanted to let you know that the President would like to speak with you today. He wanted to meet you and introduce himself. I told him that I'd let you know and send you over."

Gar gave a nod.

"Am I supposed to meet him at his office?"

Slade nodded his head.

"Yes. When you're ready, take Rose and Grant and go over there. Then when you're done, you can send Grant back so you can take my daughter out for your date."

Both Gar and Rose's eyes widened. How could Slade have known about that? Neither one of them had made mention of it to him and when they talked about it, he wasn't around.

Seeing their faces, Slade spoke in an amused voice.

"Rachel's wrist com has been malfunctioning lately. I'll need Jaime to get it fixed."

Both turned their heads towards Rachel, who had a sheepish look on her face.

"We might've heard you two talking about it after I called for you guys."

Slade smiled underneath his mask as he saw Gar chuckle and Rose blush and role her eyes. Rachel apologized to them, but Gar just waved it off as if it was no big deal.

Once they were dismissed, Gar and Rose went to go find Grant while Rachel and Slade remained in the lab to clean up the equipment. Walking down the hall, Gar spoke to Rose.

"Your dad didn't seem to mind about our date. I'm starting to think he likes me."

Rose leaned her head back and laughed and reached her hand out to take Gar's. Clasping his hand around hers, he gave a smile and both continued on to find her brother so they could make their way to the President and finally go on their first actual date.