(A/N: This is where they'll finally get started on the journey through space to Augstaka. All I'm going to say is that it's going to take a little longer than expected for them to get there.

This chapter will really be more like an insight into XL and a little bit about his past and his relationship with Slade. It will be more or less emotional based and full of angst more than anything else.

There might be some parts that don't make sense, but they will later. Trust me.)

V*~*V*~*V-o-o-o-V*~*V*~*V

With the vials now in hand, they left the underground area and went back up into Undertown. Once back there, they made their way up to the surface where the Rust Bucket was waiting for them.

The hatch opened and they went inside of the cargo area before going up to the cockpit. Kevin and Ben sat in the piloting seats, while everyone else sat in the seats they sat in before leaving.

Everyone buckled in while they prepared for ascension. The Rust Bucket hovered above the ground for a while, then lifted and soared through the air and began to rise further up into the planet's atmosphere.

"If anyone would like to make a last second request," Kevin started, looking back at them, "now would be the time, we're about to leave Earth's atmosphere." No one said anything. "Okay, I hope everyone's buckled in."

"We have a long trip ahead of us," Ben told them, "may as well get comfortable."

"How long will it take to get there?" Robin asked.

"Well, considering we just left, about a day, day and a half," Kevin answered and pressed a button. "Okay, you can unbuckle and walk around or whatever."

They did just that and went to look out the windows to watch the stellar objects go by or to have conversations with one another. Slade and XL were the only ones that did not move from their seats. Slade took on the role as an observer, while XL was using one of the computers to look at something. Beast Boy saw what he was doing and went over out of curiosity.

"Hey, dude, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Nothing," he replied flatly without looking up at him.

"So... uh, what's the deal with those vials you bought?" he asked again.

"The vials contain a serum that's the source of my Size Alteration powers," he explained. "Unfortunately, it won't work without my suit."

"So, why buy them if they're pretty much useless?" he inquired.

He stopped typing on the computer and looked at him, his expression angry, "I need them. That's all you need to know."

He backed away nervously with his hands held up defensively, "Okay, Okay!"

He shook his head and went back to the computer. He eventually stopped whatever he was doing on there and took out his music player and headphones. It's unclear if he stopped what he was doing on the computer out of boredom or because he found what he was looking for.

He put on his headphones and started to look through his long list of songs. He eventually settled on the song "My Happy Ending" by Avril Lavigne.

A lot of the songs on it were already there when he found it, but his friends like to mess around with it and add songs they would listen to. This song in particular is one that was selected by his former classmate Angel. At least it did not sound like an addict choking on autotune like some of the other songs he had.

He started mouthing along to the lyrics, not really confident enough to sing out loud. He didn't really want to be judged if anyone didn't think he was good. He mouthed in sync to the lyrics that he felt had a certain meaning.

Let's talk this over

It's not like we're dead

Was it something I did?

Was it something you said?

Don't leave me hanging

In a city so dead

Held up so high on such a unbreakable thread (unbreakable thread)

You were everything, everything that I wanted (that I wanted)

We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it (we lost it)

And all of the memories so close to me, just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending…

...All the things you hide from me

All the shit that you do (all the shit that you do)

You were all the things I thought I knew

And I thought we could be…

...It's nice to know that you there

Thanks for acting like you cared

And making me feel like I was the only one

It's nice to know we had it all

Thanks for watching as I fall

And letting me know we were done

You were everything, everything that I wanted (that I wanted)

We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it (we lost it)

And all of the memories so close to me, just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending…

When he was done, he started looking for another song, he then noticed everyone was staring at him. They all looked surprised.

"Oh, shit, did I do all that out loud?" he asked no one in particular, he was most likely talking to himself if anything. He crossed his arms on the computers and buried his face in embarrassment.

"Yeah, we heard, but it's nothing to be ashamed of," Gwen assured. His antenna twitched slightly, as if to indicate that he was listening.

"What kind of songs do you like to listen to?" Ben asked.

He lifted his head up and rubbed his eyes as if he had been asleep, "I listen to a lot of songs. A lot of them are songs my friends added to my playlist just to irritate me."

He got up and turned to Kevin, "Think you can manage without me?"

"I've been flying longer than you've been driving," he replied with a smirk.

He went over to him and leaned up next to him, "What's your favorite song?"

"I like a lot of songs," he responded, scrolling through his playlist and unplugging his headphones, "but the one I listen to the most is this one." The song "Skylines And Turnstiles" by My Chemical Romance started to play.

Slade was sitting nearby and was listening as well. The first half of the song didn't have any real significance to him, however, the second half almost made his chest hurt.

"And in this moment

We can't close the lids on burning eyes

Our memories blanket us

With friends we know like fallout vapors

Steel corpses stretch out towards an ending sun,

Scorched and black

It reaches in and tears your flesh apart

As ice cold hands rip into your heart

That's if you've still got one that's left

Inside that cave you call a chest

And after seeing what we saw

Can we still reclaim our innocence?

And if the world needs something better

Let's give them one more reason, now

This broken city sky

Like butane on my skin

Stolen from my eyes

Hello angel, tell me, where are you?

Tell me where we go from here

This broken city sky

Like butane on my skin

Stolen from my eyes

Hello angel, tell me, where are you?

Tell me where we go from here

Tell me, we go from here"

When the song was finished, Slade placed a hand on his chest as if he was about to have a heart attack. His heart was beating rapidly, but he wasn't sure if it was due to anger, sadness, or something else entirely.

"Why do you listen to that song the most?" Robin asked.

It took a few moments before he responded, taking in a deep breath, "This song is an allegory for the 9/11 attacks and how much it both hurt people and made them stronger. It's a very motivational song and I feel like listening to it just once a day is enough to get myself through tough times."

This was something a lot of them could sympathize with and they agreed with what he was saying about it. Life is full of highs and lows, sometimes it can feel like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place and other times it feels like you're on top of everything.

"What else do you like?" Ben asked.

"I prefer artists from the 1970s to the late-2000s," he replied.

"That's quite a time gap," he commented. He just shrugged and looked through his songs again. "Do you ever listen to Shag Carpeting?" he asked suddenly.

He nodded, "Occasionally. They are not a band I would listen to daily, but I do. Why?"

"My grandpa Max listens to them all the time and used to go on and on about them," he laughed at the memories. "He even got our grandma Verdona hooked on them."

He then perked up all of a sudden, "Verdona? Is she an Anodite?"

"Yeah, she is," he confirmed. "Why?"

"My parents taught me about various beings who coexisted with humans and even had children with them, dating back tens of thousands of years," he explained. "There were quite Anodites and I remember them briefly going over someone named Verdona, who was once married to the Plumber Max Tennyson."

"Why would your parents teach you stuff like that?" Raven asked, Gwen's magic book was in her hands.

He took in another deep breath, "I was born premature and my parents felt that I needed to spend more time being educated rather than being like my siblings who were trained soldiers."

"I take it that means you don't have much combat experience?" Kevin asked with a smirk.

"I do. My elder siblings taught me, but it was always either in the presence of at least one parent or my eldest brother," he explained.

"What else did they teach you?" Ben questioned.

"I know over six million languages from across the Universe," he answered.

"Six million languages?!" nearly everyone exclaimed.

"Dude! That's insane!" Beast Boy exclaimed excitedly.

He smiled at their reactions, "Well, there's a benefit to having parents who were really into various cultures on a universal scale. I do wish they let me train more with my siblings."

"They're just protective. Parents are protective of their children," Slade uttered, surprising everyone else, except for XL, especially the Titans at that comment.

'You would know,' he thought.

He was about to plug his headphones back into his music player when they slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor. He bent down to pick them up and something fell out of his pocket when he did.

Ben saw this and picked it up. He looked at it and was very intrigued by what was in his hand. The item was made of a metal that aged to give it a light brown coloration. It appeared to be two rolled up bundles of rope with what looked like a pine leaf on top.

"Hey," he spoke, getting his attention as he plugged his headphones back in, "what's this?"

He took it from him, holding it with two fingers, "I'm not sure. I think it has some kind of nautical significance, but I'm not sure what it is."

Robin came over and looked at it, "Where'd you find this?"

"I found it in Nova Scotia, Canada. I found it outside of a port-side town, there was an archeological dig site not too far away," he explained.

"Archeological dig site?" he repeated.

"I didn't steal it if that's what you're thinking," he told him jokingly. "I was over a mile away from that site when I found it, there's no chance they would have found it."

He put it back inside of his pocket and Robin and Ben just couldn't help but to notice how distraught he looked all of a sudden. He almost looked as if he was worried about something, but they weren't sure why.

"What's wrong?" Ben asked. "You look a little worried about something."

"I just don't like to show people the things I have," he replied lowly.

"Why's that?" Robin inquired.

"Every time I show something I find to someone it vanishes," he answered, now beginning to grow frustrated.

"What do you mean?" Ben asked again.

"One day I found an old watch and when I showed it to a friend it was gone the next day. I find a rock with rare minerals embedded into it and it disappears just a week later. Do I need to say more?" he questioned. They didn't say anything more.

He took this as a sign that they were done talking to him, as was he. He put on his headphones and started to look through his list of songs. Seeing that he was done talking, Ben went back to the co-pilot seat and Robin went back to his friends.

They were now roughly six hours into their long trip, though it may as well be much longer in the vacuum of space where time is undeterminable. Everything had been smooth sailing for the most part, but they still had a long time before they got to their final destination.

Cyborg was slumped in his seat when his stomach suddenly growled. "Ah, man! I wish I'd eaten more of those artificial alien kid things!"

Beast Boy groaned in agreement, rubbing his stomach, "Ugh! Me too! Isn't there anything to eat in here?!"

Kevin tossed them two blue cakes that almost looked like pies. "You can have those."

"What are these?" the cybernetic Titan asked.

"Fleen cakes," he answered. "Best snacks in the galaxy."

They opened the packages they were in and each took a bite out of them. They were sweet like birthday cake; there was no other way to describe them.

"Pretty good," he commented.

"Yeah," his green friend agreed.

He was about to take another bite out of it, then noticed XL was sneaking glances at it. His eyes were glazed over and he looked hungry.

He tore a piece off and offered it to him, "Want a piece?"

He took it from him gratefully and put the sweet snack in his mouth. The piece was a little too big for his mouth, so he had to force it further into the back of his maw, to the point where it was practically touching his gag reflex. He swallowed it without chewing.

"Didn't have to wolf it down," he pointed out jokingly.

He was about to retort, but his stomach suddenly heated up and grumbled. He knew what that meant, he covered his mouth just as he tasted a familiar vile tang.

Kevin saw this in the corner of his eye and all but demanded to Ben, "Get him to the bathroom! I don't want him puking on my floor!"

He got up from his seat and helped him stand up, "C'mon, let's go before there's a mess."

They left the cockpit in a hurry, worrying everyone, Beast Boy and Slade especially. Beast Boy was worried because he had developed a small friendship with him in the past couple of weeks, it hurt him to see any of his friends in pain. While Slade was worried about him for his own reasons.

Ben returned to the cockpit without him a few minutes later and sat back down in his seat. His hands and the sleeves of his jacket were wet.

"Where is he?" Beast Boy asked.

"Cleaning up in the bathroom," he responded.

"He better not have gotten puke anywhere besides inside the toilet," Kevin deadpanned.

"He almost didn't make it, but he did somehow," he replied. After a couple of seconds, he uttered, "Guys, I'm worried."

"Why? What happened?" Gwen asked.

"When I helped him over there and when I helped him stand, I could feel his spine and ribcage," he explained. "I could feel every rib. He's practically a skeleton."

When he heard this, Slade looked away from them, it was difficult to tell why due to his mask. However, his reaction did not go unnoticed.

"Slade," Gwen spoke softly, "what's wrong? You look upset about something."

"I am," he replied stoically.

"Why? Did something happen?" Ben asked.

"This may be hard for you to believe but I'm genuinely worried about him," he claimed.

After a few more minutes, Ben started to grow concerned when he didn't come back, "It's been a long time. What's taking him so long?"

"Maybe he got lost," Kevin uttered with a small smirk.

He scowled and got up to go check on him to see if he's alright. Slade watched as he left the cockpit and got up himself, he had a pretty good idea of where he could be.

While Ben went to check the bathroom, he walked down the passageway that led to the cargo hold. He pressed a button and the door opened, his suspension was proven to be correct.

He was there, sitting on a metal crate, looking through his music player. He sat with one leg up on the crate and his arm resting on his knee. His headphones were over his ears and he didn't seem to notice him or even the door open.

He leaned his back up against a wall and he suddenly spoke, "How did you know I was here?" He didn't look at him and his tone was monotonous and completely free of emotion.

He shrugged, "Call it intuition."

"Criminal's intuition?" he inquired, his tone the same.

"Possibly," he replied, his calm voice growing amused.

He looked up at him with a raised eyelid and closed mouth smirk, he looked amused. He pulled his headphones off his ears and let them rest around his neck, he put his music player away in his pocket.

"Tell me honestly, why did you suddenly decide to help them?" he asked calmly with an amused smile plastered on his face.

"Why should that be of your concern?" he questioned.

His eyes moved in a fashion that was most likely him rolling his eyes, "Please, I know you better than any of them, this is not who you are or how you operate."

'Is that a fact?' he mentally questioned. "Now, I think you now owe me a question."

He raised his fingers lazily, "Shoot."

"Did you intentionally make yourself sick?" he asked.

He suddenly got angry and snapped, "No! We- I would never make our- myself ill!"

He narrowed his steely gray eye as he looked at him. It was hard to miss him using plural pronouns instead of singular pronouns and caused him to wonder what was going on in his head that would make him do that. He knows him better than possibly anyone else on Earth and that was not something he had ever done before.

He had a feeling that this unusual behavior has something to do with Angelos. Somehow, it must be messing with his mind, at least that's what he said to himself.

"You think you know everything, but the truth is: you know nothing," he told him, almost in a mocking and taunting demeanor. "You only kept me around because you needed someone to fill in the hole missing in your life that lives in that void you call a chest."

"Tell me what the hell is going on here?!" he demanded. "What are you doing to my son?!"

He smirked, "Son, huh? I always thought I was nothing more than a rat you comforted until I fell asleep. You pitied me because I have no family and yours hates you. Then, when you no longer wanted me, you left me to rot in the streets at the mercy of a race that would love to watch me die in a pit!"

Although they were some distance apart, he could see a certain amount of sadness behind a fiery anger and overpowering pain. His eyes were glossed, he was about to cry, if he wasn't already crying on the inside; because he was.

He took several steps towards him, "You're wrong, you are my son and I didn't care for you because I thought you were a rat, I did it because-"

He was cut off by Robin suddenly opening the door, "What's going on? We heard screaming and-" he paused when he saw Slade and XL in the cargo hold together, "What are you too doing in here?"

"Just chatting," XL answered casually. "Isn't that right?"

He was silent for a little while before he finally said something, "Yes... just chatting."

He jumped down from the crate he sat on and left. As he walked by, he could see a small, barely noticeable tear streaming down his face.

After an undetermined amount of time going through space, almost everyone was asleep in their seats, including Kevin, who put it on autopilot. The only ones who weren't asleep were Robin, Slade, and XL.

Robin was still suspicious of what they were doing earlier, but all he could do was speculate because neither one of them was talking. Although he wanted to know, if he knew, he would never be able to look at villains the same way again.

XL struggled to stay awake and every time he was able to fall asleep, he would suddenly perk up and look around frantically as if he was hearing voices. To stay awake, he would turn up the volume on his songs and continuously play the same song until he got bored with it and picked another one to continue the same process.

Slade could only watch as his 'son' tortured himself by not sleeping. He could tell that there was something wrong - very wrong - with him, but he wasn't talking and he doubted that he would talk to him anytime soon.

Like Robin, all he could do was speculate what was wrong with his 'son'. He suspected that his behavioral change had something to do with Angelos, he never had any problems with him before it took residence.

Then again, he had to consider the fact that he was no longer a child, or even an adolescent, he was an adult. He knew that he hadn't been an adult for very long and his behavior could have something to do with that. Although he highly doubted it, life is full of surprises.

It wasn't long before Robin finally fell asleep, slumped in his seat and resting his head on his arm. Now, it was just the two of them, 'father' and 'son'.

He watched as he rested his head in his palm and jumped awake just as he was about to allow himself to drift asleep. He looked scared to death.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes, "Nothing. Nothing's wrong with me."

"Why torture yourself?" he questioned.

"I'm not," he denied. "Someone has to stay awake and stand guard."

"You're exhausted," he spoke calmly. "You need to rest."

He scoffed tiredly, "Don't start now, I don't want to wake up the whole solar system."

"Listen to me, s-" he paused, "Xilo, I'm just a little concerned about your well being. If there's something wrong with you, you can tell me."

He looked at him sadly and asked quietly, "Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Promise," he responded.

He sighed, "I'm putting myself through this because Angelos periodically tries to take control. Whenever I let my guard down, it makes its move to take over. I can't relax or sleep, it will take control."

"How do you know this?" he asked.

"I'm not insane," he asserted sternly. "I'm not insane."

"I never said you were," he reassured defensively. "Just tell me how you know."

"It talks to me," he replied quietly and shaken up. "Ever since that day it decided to merge with me, it talks to me. Sometimes I agree with it and sometimes I disagree. It's when I disagree that makes it hard to get through the day."

His eye widened in realization, "It makes you sick, doesn't it?"

He noticed, "Yes, it does. It's not always on purpose, but it's always when there's a disagreement. Sometimes it's bodily, other times it has to do with what should be done. We do seem to agree more than disagree lately."

"How often does this happen?" he asked.

"Several times a day," he answered.

"You fall ill several times a day?!" he all but yelled, but not loud enough to wake up everyone.

He nodded and shrugged slightly, "It's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal!" he asserted. "Do you know how much harm it can do to you?!"

Beast Boy yawned and rubbed his eyes, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing," XL replied. "Just go back to sleep."

"Don't have to tell me twice," he joked. He morphed into a cat and curled up into a ball.

Slade looked over at his 'son', who turned away from him. He hung his head and closed his eye in shame and sadness.

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(A/N: I'm sorry this took so long, but I had to rewrite my original plan for this chapter because of my writer's block. I normally go with the flow when writing my stories and this chapter just took a more emotional turn somewhere in the middle so I had to change the plan.

I updated "Unknown Life" a few days ago, so you can check it out if you haven't read it yet. I do have some big plans for that story and my OC in the future.

This will likely be the last update to any story for a while and the reason for that is because Toy2711 and I will be writing a "Ben 10" one-shot together and we'll be getting started on it soon. While you wait, you can check out my other stories or check out Toy2711's profile, he's pretty cool.)