(A/N: I hope you guys are excited for this chapter because I am. Unlike with my "Scooby-Doo"/"Teen Titans" crossover, the chapters that are going to focus on their time on Soron aren't going to be one chapter focusing on one team and then the next on the other, it's going to be simultaneously (if that makes any sense). Well, at least I'll try to, but it'll likely be more of one team than the other at some points. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.)
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The underwater team walked out of the cockpit to get the necessary equipment. XL didn't feel like he needed any of it, so he decided to stay behind and listen to a little music. It may be the last time, these waters can be very dangerous.
He noticed that the other team was just about to leave. There was something he needed to ask them while he still had the chance.
"Hey," he spoke up, getting their attention, "I was wondering if you could do something for me?"
"Sure, what is it?" Gwen asked.
"I know it's a very slim chance, but if you ever find the building I lived in when I was young," he took in a deep breath, "could you bring me the pictures on the walls in the living level where I lived with my family? I want to see them again."
Cyborg scratched the back of his head, "Um, it's very unlikely…"
Raven stopped him from going any further, "Yes, we will."
He smiled and nodded, "Thank you." He then went back to his music.
"Why did you do that?" Kevin whispered harshly through gritted teeth.
She sighed, "Because I know what it's like to miss the ones you deeply care about. Not a day goes by that I don't miss my mother and the monks who risked their lives to protect me."
That was a hard case to argue against and it's one that hits close to home. With no further objections, they decided to take their leave.
At least that was the plan before XL had something else to say, "Wait, a little warning, if you see a green mist, do not inhale it no matter what."
"Why? What will become of us if we inhale it?" Starfire asked.
"There's a good chance you could die," he answered in an all too casual tone.
Cyborg's eyes nearly popped out of his skull, "Die?!"
He nodded, "The mist is actually a pathogenic cloud that will manipulate your DNA in such a way that it will make you sick once a year for the rest of your life."
"The rest of our lives?" Gwen repeated.
"To add to the bad news, because it changes your DNA, it can be passed down to your children and so on," he mentioned.
"Does this mean that it got passed down to you?" she questioned.
"Yes, but my species has developed an immunity to it, but I still get sick more often than not," he responded. "However, as far as I know, only my species can fight it so easily. I have no idea of what it could do to anyone of another race."
Kevin dragged a hand down his face, "Great, anything else you want to tell us while you're at it?"
"Actually, yes," he replied. "Thank you."
'Dammit,' he mentally cursed.
"If you can find any pictures, to know they belong to my family, look for my nephew in the pictures," he told them.
"How's a picture of your nephew supposed to help?" he practically snapped.
"My nephew is a hybrid, he looks different from everyone else," he answered. "He has black hair, black eyes, and skin like mine except his is lighter, almost like a teal color."
"Okay, thanks a lot, we should be able to find something with this information," Raven smiled softly.
They eventually left to find the parts for the Rust Bucket, which left him alone while he waited for the rest of his team. He decided to go back to listening to music in the meantime. The song he settled on was one of his favorites, "Let It Burn" by Red.
I watch the city burn
These dreams like ashes float away
Your voice I never heard
Only silence
Where were you when our hearts were bleeding?
Where were you when it all crashed down?
Never thought that you'd deceive me
Where are you now?
How long can you stand the pain?
How long will you hide your face?
How long will you be afraid?
Are you afraid?
How long will you play this game?
Will you fight or will you walk away?
How long will you let it burn?
Let it burn
Let it burn
I watch the city burn
These passions slowly smoldering
A lesson never learned
Only violence
Is your world just a broken promise?
Is your love just a drop of rain?
Will we all just burn our fire?
Are you still there?
How long can you stand the pain?
How long will you hide your face?
How long will you be afraid?
Are you afraid?
How long will you play this game?
Will you fight or will you walk away?
How long will you let it burn?
Let it burn
Let it burn
Will you wait until it all burns down?
Will you hide until it all burns down?
Will it hurt when it all burns down?
Will you fight when it all burns down?
Will you stand when it all burns down?
Will you love when it all burns down?
Will it end when it all burns down?
Will you just let it all burn down?
Just as the last part of the song was about to play, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up and saw it was Slade, he removed his headphones, but didn't bother to shut off his music player.
He was about to say something, but paused to listen to the final verse of the song, which echoed in the room thanks to the speakers of the headphones. There was something about it that hit him close to home.
How long can you stand the pain?
How long will you hide your face?
How long will you be afraid?
Are you afraid?
How long will you play this game?
Will you fight or will you walk away?
How long will you let it burn?
Let it burn
Let it burn
Let it burn
Let it burn
Let it burn
He snapped out of it when his 'son' waved a hand in front of his face, "Are you alright? You look as if you saw a ghost."
He blinked his only eye and rested his head in the palm of his hand, "Yes, I'm fine."
'Why does it feel as if this has happened before?' he mentally asked. 'But I believe it was from a lower perspective.'
He noticed that he was in a Plumber suit, it fit him pretty well, which was pretty surprising considering his height and muscular build and that Ben and his team are the only occupants of this ship. One size fits all, he mused.
"Aren't you going to remove the mask?" he asked.
It seemed to catch him off guard, but only briefly, "Yes, I will."
He then did just that and removed the two tone mask. When he did, XL saw the white hair and eyepatch he saw when he was a young child. He took the mask from him in case he was tempted to put it back on, he wanted to see the face of his 'father' just a little longer.
At that same moment, Robin walked into the cockpit, "We're ready to get going, XL. Are-" he paused when he saw that XL was holding Slade's mask and that Slade himself was not wearing it.
This was the first time he - or any member of his team for that matter - had ever seen his face. He felt like fainting.
"You're- You're not wearing your mask," it took everything he had in him to hold himself back from shouting.
"Is that a problem?" he inquired, his voice was slightly softer and higher pitched than how it sounds with the mask, but it was still deep and almost menacing.
He eventually pulled himself together, "No, it's not a problem, not at all."
It wasn't that much longer later that Beast Boy and Ben walked in. Ben was pretty calm, but Beast Boy's reaction was not so different from the one that Robin did his best to contain.
"Dude! You're not wearing your mask!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pointing at him before falling to the floor, almost in a comedic way.
"Is he alright?" XL asked. "Also, what's the big deal about his mask? It's nothing special. Just a mask."
"Yeah, but do you know who that mask belongs to?" Ben questioned.
"Of course," he replied, "but if it's such a cause for concern," he gave it back to Slade, "it's an easy problem to solve." He then mentally added, 'Just like getting rid of insects among other things.'
Slade stared down at the mask in his hands, a sheen across the orange side of it was telling him to put it on. He was tempted to put it back on, but wasn't sure if he should.
This item to him was like how music was to his 'son'. He's supposed to be strong, but this was his Achilles heel, aside from the ones he cares for the most that is.
To the surprise of XL and everyone else in the room, he gave it back to him, "I don't need it right now."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
He nodded, "Yes, I'm sure."
He placed it aside, "Alright, are we ready to get going?"
"Yeah, but you still need to get a Plumber suit on," Ben told him.
"I can breathe underwater, I don't need one," he responded.
"You still need to put one on to protect yourself from the pressure and temperature," Robin pointed out.
He shook his head, "No, I don't."
He started to take off his shoes, they saw that his feet were no more than two sharply pointed toes attached to the soles, very similar to Ben's transformations. They almost looked like talons without the claws on the heels.
He then proceeded to check the pockets of his jacket and put the items aside with the mask before he took it off. When he did they saw that his arms were practically toothpicks, but the most alarming thing they saw was that they were covered in faint scars.
"My God..." his 'father' muttered in a whispery voice.
The other three were also surprised by the marks that decorated his arms, but they all knew that he was likely not in the mood to talk. Even if he was he likely wouldn't tell them the full truth, even though he claims he never tells a lie.
Finally, he took off the shirt he wore underneath his jacket and was not a pretty sight. They understood what Ben was talking about when he said he was concerned about him the other day.
They saw that he was so thin that not even a skeleton would envy him, it would probably feel sorry for him if anything. It was as if a single layer of skin was stretched over his skeletal frame. But that wasn't even the most alarming thing about it.
No, the most alarming thing was that there were scars - both faint and recently healed - covering his entire torso! Some of them were very jagged, most likely due to accidents, but there were some that were long and straight, no doubt the result of deliberate slicing.
"Holy shit!" someone exclaimed.
XL expected that to be from his 'father', but he saw that he had a hand over his mouth, so it couldn't have come from him. He saw that Robin and Ben were dumbstruck and in shock, it couldn't have been them, they look like they wouldn't be able to talk. However, he did see that Beast Boy was close to ripping his hair out by the follicle. Could it have come from him?
"What's the matter?" he asked, then remarked jokingly, "I would think that this isn't the first time you have seen someone get ready to get into water."
Beast Boy shook his head vehemently, "No, it's not that, dude, it's all those scars you have!"
'Ah, so it was him,' he mused. "Yeah? So? You're acting as if you have never seen scars before."
"It's not that, it's how many you have!" he shrieked.
He looked down at them, some were pretty deep and others could just barely be seen. Some of them he didn't even remember, others he remembered very vividly.
"That's funny, I don't even remember half of these," he commented flippantly.
He might not be taking those war wounds seriously, but they made his 'father' very angry. His 'son' was tortured by others and may have even possibly done so to himself.
He then remarked to himself in the same manner, "Ten years of self-deprivation and survival and look what I have to show for it."
"Ten years?!" Ben's arms were crossed and he looked absolutely flabbergasted.
"I landed on Earth when I was eight," he responded. "But it wasn't until I was nine that it became survival of the fittest."
"Look," Robin spoke, his arms crossed, "I know you're confident you can handle this, and I have no doubt you can, but please put on a Plumber suit for your sake just in case."
He thought it over for a second, before he finally caved in, "Fine, if it will make you happy."
He left the room, giving them a full view of his back, revealing larger and deeper scars than anywhere else on his entire body. Although they were healed, they almost looked like third degree burns covering his entire upper back, as if he had fallen onto a bed of hot coals - if only for a second.
When he left the room, Beast Boy turned lime green and groaned sickly, "I think I'm going to be sick!"
'You shouldn't have left him on that train,' Slade's conscience scolded him. 'If you hadn't, he wouldn't be in that condition, physically or mentally.'
That was a hard argument to argue against, because it was true. He made a mistake that he can't change, no matter how much he wishes he could.
All he could do was reply with an, 'I know.'
Ben tried to take his mind off of the scars by playing with the Ultimatrix. He wasn't going to transform yet, but he wanted to make sure it wouldn't play any tricks on him while down there.
Beast Boy saw what he was doing and asked, "So, what alien are you going to turn into first?"
"I can't transform right now," he told him.
"Why not?" he asked curiously.
"Because if I change back into myself before we get to wherever we're going, I won't be wearing my Plumber suit. The Ultimatrix always changes me into whatever I was wearing after the reboot," he explained.
"How long would you have if you transformed now?" Robin inquired.
"Fifteen, twenty minutes most of the time. Thirty minutes if the Ultimatrix is feeling really generous," he answered jokingly. "But I'll only have about five, ten minutes if I go ultimate. Going ultimate will drain it of its power."
"And will thus increase the chances of drowning, freezing, or being crushed to death down there," XL concluded as he walked back into the cockpit.
He was dressed in a Plumber suit just like they were, except he was missing some of the armor, including the gloves and boots. He likely did so because he felt that the armor would keep him weighted down and the underwater pressure on it could make it difficult for him to swim at the depths they would be swimming at shortly.
"Now, are we ready to go?" he asked, a little moody.
"Yes, we're leaving now," Robin answered.
Ben pressed a button near the pilot seat and a hatch in the top of the Rust Bucket opened. "We'll have to leave through there because Kevin will kill us if we leave through the cargo bay."
'I can think of a million ways he could do that,' XL thought, slightly amused.
He leapt onto the side of the opened hatch and climbed onto the roof. He was soon followed by everyone else.
They discovered that the roof was wet due the impact caused by when they landed on the water. The surface was also slipperier than XL expected and it was difficult for him to stand without slipping.
Which was exactly what happened. He lost his footing and fell off the roof and slid down the side. Everyone else heard this and looked down to see if he was alright.
As luck would have it, he was. He landed on the wing, which was partially submerged in the water. He was on the part of it that wasn't submerged.
Ben got down on his knees and called out to him, "Hey, you okay?"
He cupped the side of his mouth to reply to him, "Yes, I'm fine. Are you coming down?"
"Yeah, we'll be down in a second," he responded. He then stood up and struggled to keep his footing at first, but quickly regained his balance, "Well, it's now or never."
He lifted up a foot and he was sliding down the smooth, wet metal. They watched as he went down and nearly fell into the water due to a miscalculation on his part, but XL caught him just in time and helped him onto the wing.
"You heard him," Slade spoke. "Time to go."
He went down the same way Ben did, but landed on the wing perfectly. He was soon followed by Robin and finally Beast Boy.
"Now that everyone is here, I think it's time to get into the water," XL uttered.
He started to walk down the sunken part of the wing, the water was midway up his calves. He glanced down at the deep waters and saw nothing but the blue abyss that was so familiar and so unfamiliar to him.
Beast Boy crouched down and looked at the water, "I can't see a thing. How far do you think this goes?"
"Probably pretty far," Robin responded. "It's probably as deep as the oceans on Earth."
"Deeper," XL spoke, never looking away from the water. "Soron is roughly half the size of Saturn. So when I said that a thousand feet isn't that deep, I meant it."
As he continued to stare at the endless blue curtain below him, he could see something down there, but couldn't tell what it was. He discovered what it was when it leaped out of the water.
He shrieked in surprise at first and it gained the attention of everyone. They were a little confused to see that he was holding a silver fish with flowing fins, it was squirming in hand in an attempt to slip free.
"False alarm, just a flying fish," he told them, tightening his grip on his catch, "these things are such a nuisance."
They expected him to put the fish back into the water, but he did something completely different. He tightened his grip as tightly as he could until it stopped squirming. He then threw it as far as he could and it landed in the water some fifteen yards away with a small splash.
He dusted off his hands, "That takes care of that."
The three heroes were more than a little freaked out by his actions, Slade was not. After everything he's seen in his life, the smothering of a fish seems pretty low-key. Although, he couldn't say he wasn't a little shocked by his 'son's' actions, he never knew him to be that brutal with anyone or anything.
"Well, are we going to leave?" he asked, snapping them out of their shock.
Robin cleared his throat, "Yes, let's go."
He, Slade, and Ben put on their helmets and all five of them jumped into the water. They went under and Beast Boy turned into a shark. They started to swim down and XL led them to the buildings where the parts for the Rust Bucket will be.
They aren't sure what's in store for them down there, but they better be ready for anything. This planet is much more than just water.
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(A/N: I tell ya, I'm tired after all of this. This was hard work, but with a lot of satisfaction.
I'm working on the next chapter of "No More Chains" (which is almost done), and I'm also working on the sequels to "Cold Waters" and "A Briskly Encounter" and a new "Star Wars" story that stars one of the most underrated bounty hunters (that's all I'm going to say). Yeah, I've been busy.
Also, my birthday is in just a couple of weeks so things might be a little slow in the meantime. So, happy (early) birthday to me.)