(A/N: Wow, chapter 9, I honestly never thought I'd be able to get this far because I do have this tendency to stop updating for awhile and sometimes permanently. Anyway, I'm proud of myself for being able to make it so far.

In this chapter, our team will be taking a 'minor' detour. I hope you guys enjoy this.)

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They went back to the Rust Bucket and got inside. They went to the cockpit and sat in the seats from earlier.

XL was slumped in his seat and was struggling to stay awake again. He never got his coffee because it was spilled when they found Starfire on the floor.

He had no other choice but to go back to his other method to keep awake. He put on his headphones and started to look for a song.

Kevin and Ben prepared for take off, finally ready to get going to Augstaka. Unfortunately, that would not be.

Just as Kevin threw a switch to activate the propulsions, sparks suddenly danced on the controls. Both he and Ben immediately shot up from their seats as the ship suddenly shot out of the cafe hanger on its own at lightning-fast speeds!

As a result, everyone either jolted in their seats or fell out of them and onto the floor. Even XL's headphones fell right off his head along with his music player in tow.

"What's happening?!" Beast Boy shrieked as he tried to pick himself off the floor, but failed.

"The autopilot activated itself!" Kevin shouted. "We have zero control of the Rust Bucket!"

Suddenly, the whole ship started to shake as it started to rocket at unbelievable speeds. Everyone either held onto their seats or buried themselves into the floor in order to withstand the intense pressure.

"Its going at lightspeed!" he yelled through gritted teeth.

"Can you stop it, Gwen?" Ben asked, also through gritted teeth.

"I'll try!" she responded. She struggled to lift her hand but managed somehow, "Discombobulus Mechano!"

All the sparks stopped, as did the Rust Bucket. Everyone on the floor stood up and went back to their seats.

"Dude, what a rush," Beast Boy remarked sluggishly as he slumped in his seat.

"Tell me about it," Cyborg muttered.

XL picked up his headphones and music player, they seemed to be okay. That's good, he's not sure what he would do without them. It may seem like an unhealthy obsession, but these items are pretty much the only things helping him keep his sanity.

"Where are we anyway?" Ben asked.

Kevin checked their location and narrowed his eyes, "This can't be right."

"Why? What is it?" Robin inquired.

"It says we're not in the Milky Way galaxy, we're in the Andromeda galaxy," he informed everyone.

The music player and headphones slipped out of XL's hands and onto the floor. He looked traumatized, relieved, and possibly something more.

'Home,' he thought. 'I'm home.'

"How did we get all the way to another galaxy?!" Beast Boy shrieked. "That's like going to another universe!"

'No, it's not,' XL mentally scoffed.

Kevin shrugged, "Time flies by when you're going at the speed of light."

"What do you think caused this?" Cyborg asked.

He shrugged again, "I'd have to check the engine to know what's wrong."

"Need some help?" he asked again.

"I guess so," he replied. "If you know your rocket science."

"Mind if I go with you?" Robin asked.

"Do what you want," he responded.

The three of them left the cockpit to go figure out the problem. It left everyone else to do their own thing in the meantime.

"So it looks like we're sitting ducks for a while," Beast Boy commented.

"Yep, looks that way," Ben mentioned, looking out the windshield. "I better call Reiny and tell him that we took a little side trip."

"Yeah, you do that," Gwen remarked.

Raven was looking through her spell book again and gave it back to her. "How were you able to stop the ship?" she asked.

"I used a mechanical disabling spell to shut down the autopilot and stop the Rust Bucket from going at light speed," she explained. "I can show you how to do it, if you're interested."

Meanwhile, Kevin was down in a small, confined area where all the main engine components were contained. Robin and Cyborg stood on the main floor and looked out for him and handed him his tools when asked.

They offered their assistance, but Kevin practically growled at them for even thinking about touching his ship. Which is something that Cyborg can sympathize with, having his own ship and car either damaged or stolen more than a few times.

"I think I found the problem," he informed them, "someone hand me a wrench."

Cyborg reached for the said tool and handed it to him, "Here you go."

He took from him, "Thanks."

He was down there for a while before he finally came back up with the wrench and a red device. It appeared to be several layers of round, flat components.

"What is it?" Robin asked.

"It's a device that jury rigs all automatic devices and makes them activate on their own," he explained. "It also stresses them out to their limits until they can't function anymore. Luckily, we got it out before any serious damage could be done."

"I'm sensing a 'but' in there," he commented, almost pointedly.

He nodded and added, "But it fried the hyperdrive, there's no way we can make it to Augstaka in one piece without repairs."

They helped him crawl out of there and went back to the cockpit to inform everyone of their situation. If all goes well, there might not be a lot of drama. Then again, there probably will be anyway.

"Okay, who wants to hear the bad news?" he announced the second they walked into the cockpit.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Slade retorted sarcastically. Robin glared at him.

"Alright, we have a major problem," he informed them, his voice almost monotonous.

"What's wrong?" Ben questioned.

He held up the device he extracted, "This was with all the main engine parts, it causes automatic devices to activate and stresses them out until they can't function anymore. We got it out before any serious damage could be done, but it practically fried the hyperdrive. We need to land somewhere to make repairs, otherwise we'll never make it to Augstaka in one piece."

"So, someone tried to sabotage us," Slade concluded.

"Yup, but they failed," he replied nonchalantly and started to play with the device by tossing it from hand to hand.

"How are we going to get there?" Beast Boy asked, nearly shrieking. "You just said that we'll never get there in one piece!"

"Don't be so dramatic," XL growled.

"I think he has a right to be scared-" Robin attempted to defend his friend, but he was cut off.

"Don't talk to me about rights!" he snapped, standing up. "I have none."

He didn't continue the argument, so he decided to sit back down. He wasn't lying when he said he has no rights, that was true.

Everyone thinks he lies, but he only lies when it's his life that's at stake. And this instance is definitely not that type of situation.

"We'll have to find a place for repairs," he told everyone.

"Where?" Ben asked. "We're in another galaxy, we don't know any planets here."

"No, but I do," XL spoke.

Everyone looked at him, some surprised, others doubtful. It caused his blood to boil, but he was able to calm himself down just in time.

"You do? How?" Beast Boy asked.

"I'm from this galaxy, I'm not from the Milky Way, my home is here," he proclaimed.

"Okay, so where can we land?" Kevin asked.

He shrugged and asked, "What star system are we in?"

"If you're from here-" Robin started, but was once again cut off.

"I am from here!" he declared. "I am not lying. Now, do you want to complete this mission? Or do you want the universe to be destroyed?" He had no comment or response to this.

He may not have anything to say, but Gwen did, "According to the database of known planets and star systems, we're in a system called the Nubis System."

"My homeworld is in this system," he commented, smiling. He looked both relieved and content.

"In that case," Kevin started, he was back sitting in the pilot seat, "get up here. I'm not going to take a wild guess about where it's safe to land."

"I guess that's my cue to leave," Ben muttered.

He got up to make room for him and went over to sit in his seat. Just as he was about to sit down, he noticed that he almost stepped on something. He picked it up, it was XL's music player with the headphones still plugged in.

He tapped on his shoulder, "Missing something?"

He looked up and took them, "Thanks."

"Don't start listening to that thing now, I need my co-pilot," Kevin deadpanned. "We're coming up on some planets, do you see yours?"

He looked at some of the planets out there. One was green, likely a forest terrain, not his world. Another was bright red with some black here and there, likely a volcanic world and definitely not his. He gazed over the other worlds, but none looked like his.

He shook his head, "I don't see my home planet."

"Okay, we'll be seeing some more shortly, so don't beat yourself up," he told him, mildly joking.

He carefully directed the Rust Bucket towards some more planets. With the damage sustained during the time that device was messing with it, he had to be extra careful. The last anyone would want would be to lose all of the air and to be torn to shreds.

"Alright, how about now?" he asked.

He looked again, this time longer than before, which raised the hopes of nearly everyone. Only for them to be disappointed when he shook his head.

"You're killin' me!" he groaned.

"Is there anything you can remember about your planet that can help us find it?" Gwen asked.

He perked up when he remembered something, "My parents once said that our world is located in the farthest reaches of the Nubis System."

"Anything else?" he asked.

He thought for a second, "It's nearly isolated."

"What do you mean by that?" Robin asked.

"It means that there are hardly any other planets nearby," he explained. "Because of that, my people were very supportive of isolationism and conservative."

"Are," Raven spoke.

He looked back at her, "What?"

"You said 'were', past tense, you don't know your people are dead," she pointed out.

"We're running low on planets," Kevin announced, getting his attention, "you better pay attention."

For quite a while there wasn't much, just stars, asteroids, and other stellar objects. XL was started to get a little worried because it's not uncommon for conquered worlds to be destroyed, it happens more often than anyone would like to think.

Then, like the light at the end of the tunnel, there it was, his homeworld, Soron. It was a planet that was covered in a murky light gray color, the clouds that constantly cover the skies.

"There it is!" he exclaimed. "There it is, my home!"

Kevin was a little skeptical because it looked like either a gas planet or an ice planet. And he highly doubted he came from either one.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "It looks like a gas planet or an ice world."

"Yes, I'm positive," he responded confidently. "That is my homeworld."

With that confirmation, he set the Rust Bucket ready for landing. He flipped a few switches and pressed some buttons.

He was about to press the button for the transmission radio, but XL stopped him, "Don't. There's no one down there."

He just shrugged and directed the ship downwards into the planet's atmosphere. It was like flying through a cloudy vortex that would take you to an alternate dimension.

"So far, so good. What luck, there are no storms or waterspouts," XL commented.

"Storms and what?" Kevin inquired robotically. "You never said that!"

"This is a water planet. What do you expect?" he questioned pointedly.

The clouds eventually disappeared, revealing a vast ocean with waters so deep that it looked like an endless abyss. In the water were small islands that couldn't be more than six square miles. There were also tall, white buildings that were scattered around atop the ocean via what looked like stilts.

Then, XL could see a familiar place seemingly arising out of the water on the horizon. It was the city he was born in and where he spent his entire early childhood in. He hasn't seen it since the day he left.

"Land in the city on the horizon," he told him, pointing at it.

"Whatever you say," he uttered.

He deactivated the propulsions and prepared the Rust Bucket for landing. When they got to the city, he was surprised and confused to discover that there was no landing path. He was confused, how and where would they land?

"Uh, there's no-" he started, but he got cut off.

"You can just land in the water," he told him.

'That's going to damage the paint job,' he mentally groaned.

"If you're seriously more worried about paint, you can kiss your future children goodbye," he deadpanned bluntly.

He was completely freaked out by that statement. It was as if he just read his mind!

"How did you-" he was about to ask, but he got up from the co-pilot seat before he could finish his question.

He looked at him with a smirk, "Let's just say there's a benefit to having strong hearing."

He snapped out of his shocked state, "Okay, so where's the equipment to fix this ship?"

"While we're at it, where are we anyway?" Ben asked.

"We are on Soron, my home planet," he answered. "We are in the city I was born in."

"You were born here? In this city?" Robin inquired.

He nodded, "Yes. Along with the rest of my family as well."

"Back to my question," Kevin chimed in before anyone else could ask him any more questions.

"There are good chances you will find most of what you need here," he replied.

"Most?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"The rest will be," he started, pointing down, "down there."

"In the ocean? Why there?" Cyborg asked.

"Because it's too dangerous to keep them up here," he responded. "If they fall into the wrong hands, there's a good possibility they could kill everyone and everything in this world."

That's a lot to take in. It also makes one wonder about what it is that the people were so afraid of and how its effects can kill so many.

"How far down will we have to go to get what we need?" Gwen asked.

"Roughly two hundred feet at the very least. At most, it could be as deep as a thousand feet," he answered.

"Two hundred to a thousand feet?" Kevin almost shouted and he was beginning to look very distraught.

He shrugged, "These waters run deep."

"Well, I don't think we have enough equipment for all of us to go down there," Ben spoke pointedly.

"I don't need equipment," XL uttered. "It's not that far deep, I can easily survive down there."

"Not that deep? How far down can you swim?" Cyborg questioned.

"Deep," was the only response he gave him.

"I can turn into animals that can survive in freezing cold water, so I think I'm good," Beast Boy claimed in somewhat of a cocky manner.

"Well, since those two are already volunteering and since the equipment is limited, I think our best chance to find the parts to fix this ship and get off the planet would be if we split up," Robin concluded.

"One team will stay up here and the other will explore down there, right?" Kevin guessed with a grin.

"That sounds like a plan," Slade remarked.

"Okay, so we already have two volunteers-" Gwen began, but she was cut off.

"Three," Slade interjected.

"Right, three volunteers, who else should go down there?" she asked.

"If two criminals are going down there together, then I am too," Robin stated.

"There are a lot of dangerous creatures in the water," XL spoke. "It would be best if we have one more with us as backup."

"In that case, I'll go along too," Ben volunteered himself.

"Then the rest of us will stay and find what we need," she concluded. "Alert us if anything happens, okay?"

Her cousin nodded, "Don't worry, Gwen. We'll be fine."

"I wish you the best of luck," Starfire uttered softly, a hanging concern and nervousness could be heard in her voice.

Her boyfriend caressed her cheek, "Don't worry, Star, everything will be okay."

'No promises,' XL thought with a soft sigh.

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(A/N: I know this chapter is kind of short, but I think this is a good place to stop. So, don't start to bagger or harangue me (ha ha). :) :) :)

For those of you who have read "Interstellar Roots", you know that I didn't give a very vivid description of Soron. That was on purpose, I did it just for a situation such as this. I wasn't aware that would in this story, but I knew it would happen eventually.

"Scooby Doo: The Curse of the Lost Civil War Gold" was updated just a couple of days ago, so if you want you can check it out. The next chapter of "Unknown Life" is in the works and let me tell you it's a long one.)