(A/N: Chapter twenty… wow. That's all I can really say because I never thought I'd be able to get to chapter ten, let alone chapter twenty. It's just so amazing, and I feel like crying rivers of tears of joy.
Warning: slavery will be mentioned along with a little mild racism, but it's more or less just an implication. Incest will be heavily implied as well, but again just implications and it won't be too much. I know these are very sensitive topics and I just want to be sure everyone is aware of what will happen before they read something that could cause an upset.)
V*~*I*~*V-o-V*~*I*~*V
After XL gave them his consent, Heilen had a technician run his DNA and blood type on a computer. A whole battery of tests would have to be performed with the proposition they had in mind for the medical procedure for extracting Angelos.
Even with this advanced technology, the tests took a little time to fully process. This was due to the amount of tests that had to be performed because no two tests are exactly alike, especially when it comes to DNA.
Once the technician had the full DNA sequence, tests could be conducted. The first test the technician decided to perform was a familial test, family members of the subject would have the closest DNA match. Realistically, it's the best chance to find a person with a genetic sequence close enough to ensure a safer medical procedure with a higher probability of success.
After entering the DNA into a computed system and getting the results, the technician informed Heilen of what happened. Speaking in their native language, the eight heroes held their breaths with suspense. XL and Slade were also waiting for him to say something, although they both had an idea of what he might say.
Finally, he spoke to them, "I believe you should come with me."
"All of us, or just him?" Kevin asked, pointing his thumb at XL.
"All," he answered.
Heilen and the technician led them to a large monitor with a massive amount of pictures of people on it, all of them were Tyro Yagon. XL thought he could have fainted, he knew who all of them were, they were his family, the ones that had survived the Kreel invasion nearly a decade prior.
"This… this is my family!" XL's voice cracked slightly.
Ben whistled and commented, "You had a big family."
The technician nodded at XL's reaction, "I ran a familial DNA test in order to potentially locate any next of kin."
That gave him a small glimmer of hope, this meant that any of them could still be alive. He would be content with any one of them, even if it was someone he either didn't know well or if they had a particularly rocky relationship.
"Then I filtered out anyone who was no longer alive," the technician said. "And this is what happened."
With the tap of a button, entire rows of XL's family members disappeared from the screen, only a handful were left. He gripped his chest, he thought his heart stopped; he just wanted to curl up into a ball and die at this point.
"Damn," Kevin muttered.
"Can you tell us who these people are?" Robin asked XL, who was in a daze.
He fell backwards, but Slade caught him before he could hit the ground. His eyes were closed yet still slightly open and he was still conscious, but just barely.
"I think he's in shock," Gwen assessed.
"No shit!" Slade hissed as he tried to keep his 'son' from slipping into unconsciousness.
He tapped on his cheek and lifted up his chin, but that was futile. He even tried using his finger to caress the side of his face, but it was in vain.
After an undetermined amount of time, and multiple trial and error, he finally opened his eyes and stood up on his own. When he saw their faces, he expected them to be angry and even frustrated, but they weren't; quite the opposite actually, they looked more or less concerned and worried about him.
"Another blackout?" he asked.
"No," Robin answered, shaking his head slightly.
His voice was low and slightly saddened, which caught his attention. "Did Angelos do something again?"
"No, don't worry, it didn't do anything," he assured. "I think- I think it was all you."
"All me?" he repeated.
"Remember that panic attack you said you had earlier?" he inquired.
He furrowed his non-existent brows, but nodded, "Yeah, I do. What does that have to do with anything?"
"I believe you," he told him.
He blinked, "You believe me? Now? Are you kidding me?!"
"Calm down, I do believe that you did have one now, I'm still not sure about earlier," he claimed.
He shrugged, "I guess I can take those odds."
"What odds?" Ben asked.
"Don't worry about it," he replied.
He looked up at the screen and frowned when he saw his family members, the ones still left. He really wished he could crawl into a hole and die like a sick, old animal, but now was not the time to be thinking about it, they wanted to know who these family members were, so that was what he was going to do.
He pointed up at the screen before crossing his arms, "Two of them are my cousins, one of them is an uncle, one of my nieces is up there and so is one of my nephews, and finally my brother."
It was dead silent when he was finished, hearing him explain who these people were was too much for them. These were people he hadn't seen in almost ten years, but he was more than capable of identifying all of them, as if he had just seen them the other day.
Naturally, they would have aged in the past decade, but in his mind, they were still the same people he called family. Even if his memories of them were clouded by the trauma he had to endure.
"You identified one of them as your brother and earlier you mentioned your brother helped the bounty hunter Sevenseven, do you think he could be the same one?" Robin questioned.
"I don't even know if it was my brother, but if that's the case then it is likely," he answered.
"Great, on that happy note, where are any of these people?" Kevin interjected.
'Is he trying to get choked again?' he mentally asked.
"Perhaps," Angelos replied. He mentally smirked and cracked a slight smile at the response he got.
"Four of the six cannot be located, however, for the last two, look no further than their images," Heilen told them.
They looked up at the pictures again, nothing from the chest down could be seen, but they could see the collar of a familiar white armor. It was an armor Ben, Gwen, Kevin, and those of the underwater team while on XL's home planet instantly recognized.
"Holy crap!" Ben gasped. "They're Plumbers!"
"Not only that, but does one of them look familiar to you?" Kevin questioned.
They scanned the faces of both of them and Ben and his team suddenly found themselves recognizing the younger of the two. The younger one was XL's nephew, who bore a striking resemblance to someone they knew from the Plumbers' Academy.
It seemed impossible, after they graduated and left they never thought they would see anyone they met while there. And yet, there was his picture on the screen, and DNA testing revealing that he and XL were related. What were the odds they would ever see him or anyone else they met during basic training after they passed with flying colors and left? Very slim.
"Oh, my- that's Tack!" Ben practically shouted, "We know him, we already know your nephew, XL."
He looked slightly flabbergasted, "What? How?"
"We met him at the Plumbers' Academy, he was our classmate," Gwen answered.
"How is he?" he asked, his voice somewhat quiet.
"I'm sorry?" she inquired.
"How is he doing?" he asked again, his voice stronger this time.
"He seemed to be doing fine the last time we saw him," Ben responded, "we haven't really been in touch though."
"I hope he is. I hope his father is, too," he mentioned.
"Why do you say that?" Raven questioned.
"He and my brother-in-law, his father, left Soron just days before we were invaded. I didn't see what happened to my sister, his mother, but I now know she didn't make it," he replied, his tone was inexplicably casual, but his voice was on the verge of cracking.
"Why didn't your sister go with them?" Robin asked.
"They were separated, going through a divorce," he answered. "I heard she was planning to contact his planet's consulate to report him for not registering her as their son's mother and accuse him of kidnapping and endangering the welfare of their child."
"She was blackmailing him," he surmised.
He nodded, "She was, but she probably wouldn't have been given custody anyway."
"Why not?" Beast Boy inquired.
It was an innocent inquiry out of curiosity, however, in this case, it may have been better to stay curious. Why? The answer was not as innocent as the question, not in the slightest.
"My brother-in-law has a double grandparent," he replied.
"What?" He looked hopelessly confused.
"His grandparents are related and not by marriage, by blood," he uttered.
Gwen's eyes were slightly widened, "Wait, you don't mean…" He nodded. She turned away with a hand over her mouth, she could feel the bile making its way into her throat.
Ben, however, was less fazed than his cousin and held up the Ultimatrix, "That might explain why the Ultimatrix seems to be on the fritz. Now that I think about it, I remember that it was having a hard time scanning Tack for his DNA."
"For some reason, with his species familial reproduction doesn't seem to have much of an effect on the offspring. However, while both parents contribute to the DNA profile of the child, one parent will typically contribute more than the other. The same thing will happen if they reproduce with other species," he explained. "If the parents go through a divorce, the parent that contributes the majority of the genetic material automatically gains custody."
"That's messed up," Cyborg remarked.
"Agreed," Starfire replied to his comment.
He shrugged, "It's biology, what are you going to do?"
"Well, doc, try to contact one of them so we can get this done and over with," Kevin uttered.
Heilen started to type on the computer and soon what looked to be a schedule appeared on the screen. "Oh, no."
"What?" Ben questioned. "What happened?"
"Both of them are unavailable as of now," he responded. "It appears they are currently on separate missions. I can try to contact the commanding officers of the divisions they occupy."
"You do that," Robin replied.
If he was still in the bed, XL would fall back on the pillow in stress and frustration. He groaned, "Can this get any worse!"
"Is that a rhetorical question?" Angelo's asked.
'Who asked you?' he retorted.
"Why are you suddenly vexed?" He was suddenly asked again, which was a little unusual for Angelos. At least it was better than another massive headache or more stomach issues.
'I don't know, I suppose I just miss my family,' he admitted.
"Understandable," was the simple response he got.
"Anything?" Gwen asked Heilen.
He rested his elbow on the computer and fingers on his forehead, "No! Not one response!"
"Did you tell them it's a family emergency?" Kevin inquired.
He looked at him in what could be his own version of a glare and practically snapped, "Yes! And I told them it could mean life and death!"
'I think he's exaggerating,' XL thought.
"Possibly…" Angelos' voice trailed off ominously, almost causing him to physically shiver.
"What can we do until any of them are available?" Robin inquired.
"Nothing," Heilen replied. "Familial DNA is the closest match to any patient. A partial match from a random subject would have only a small probability of success."
"In other words, waiting is the best chance we have of getting Angelos out of him," Cyborg surmised.
"I hope it happens soon," XL uttered, he sounded anxious.
"Don't worry, it'll be out of you in no time," Kevin remarked.
'No, I just want to see my family, even if just for a second,' he thought.
Perhaps he was still shaken from learning that most of his family was dead, but he suddenly felt as if he had to retreat to some place comforting. Not physically, mentally. His heart rate was suddenly increasing and he felt cold, he wasn't sure why and, quite frankly, didn't want to.
Out of habit, he reached for his music player and headphones, but realized he didn't have them, he had left them on the bed. He went back over to the bed to get them, but never went back to the others afterwards.
"Ben, have you and your friends ever gone on a mission with the Plumbers?" Robin questioned.
"Yeah, we have," he answered. "The ones we went on didn't usually take too long. A day or two at most."
"Not unless you count the months it took to bring down Aggregor," Kevin chimed in. Gwen elbowed him in the side, "Hey!"
"So that means it could take some time before XL's brother and nephew are able to get here," Cyborg sounded as if he wanted to take a seat due to a headache caused by everything that had just occurred.
"We'll worry about it later, but for now, what do you say we grab a snack?" Ben suggested.
"I can arrange some provisions," Reinrassig told them as he approached after he had to leave for something.
Beast Boy rubbed his stomach, "That'd be great."
The eight heroes left with Reinrassig, leaving Heilen and Slade alone. It wasn't until then that Slade realized his 'son' wasn't there with them. He might have thought he left to go to the bathroom, but he wouldn't leave without telling someone.
"Where is my patient?" Heilen inquired after he noticed XL was gone as well.
"I was just wondering the same thing," he replied.
He looked behind him at the bed, but couldn't see if he was there from his vantage point. He went over to it and found him lying on the side of, he was so close to the side that it appeared as if he was trying to hide under it.
"Over here!" he called out to Heilen.
He picked him up and put him on the bed, flat on his back. Heilen took his hand in his, moving his thumb to his wrist to feel his pulse. It appeared to be fine, but that didn't mean it couldn't have been a factor in his sudden state, since a person's pulse can be rapid one minute and normal the next.
He wanted to test the severity of the situation, but the primary tests require blood and examination of the eyeballs, he has no DNA and his eyes were nothing but the iris, no pupils, no sclera nothing. With that in mind, he held his arm above his patient's head and dropped it. If it hits him, it means he's truly unconscious, and if it doesn't, it means he may be conscious to some degree; and it did, he was unconscious.
This was bad, he has no idea what could have caused it and no idea how to treat him. He looked fine visually, but he was clothed, so there could be something wrong under his clothes, or it could be something internal rather than external. If so, then this was a complete nightmare as well as a medical mystery.
While he was trying to figure out what was wrong with his patient, the heroes walked in with provisions. They saw both Slade and Heilen standing over XL, who was on the bed with his eyes closed.
"What happened?" Robin asked as he walked up to the bed to get a better look.
"That is what I am attempting to assess," Heilen answered.
He picked up the body scanner he used earlier to find any anomalies that could have contributed to his current state. To his surprise, confusion, and frustration, it found nothing out of the ordinary, except what he discovered and documented earlier.
He could have thrown it to the floor in anger, but instead shouted, "Nothing!"
The heroes were taken back by his frustrated outburst but couldn't blame him. If they were in his situation they would be the same way.
Then, something happened spontaneously after a fortunate or unfortunate accident. Beast Boy was holding a tube filled with a nutritional gel and tried to squeeze some out of it, but couldn't for some reason. He squeezed it a little too much and the orange colored gel inside burst out of it like a volcano.
It landed on XL's arm and an immediate irritation mark began to form on his skin. It must have been excruciatingly painful for him because he jumped awake and frantically tried to wipe it off. He was using his bare hand, so his fingers and palm had irritation marks on them.
"What the hell?!" he cried.
Heilen put the body scanner down and picked up the rag XL used earlier and helped him get the gel off his arm. He took it from him to get the substance off his hand, meticulously wiping in between each finger. Once it was gone, it left red marks with a faint dark bluish purple border.
"What's causing my allergies to act up?" he asked, scratching his arm with his irritated hand.
Beast Boy looked down at the tube in his hand and hid it behind his back with a nervous smile. Raven took it from his hand and threw it onto the bed.
"What's that?" he questioned.
"It's filled with a gel Reiny gave us," Kevin responded. "It's pretty much the same thing as the food astronauts eat."
"Astronaut food is made with artificial preservatives," Robin mentioned.
XL looked away and closed his eyes, grimacing. "I'm allergic to artificial preservatives and additives."
"You mentioned that the other day, in that Undertown place," Ben commented.
"What would happen if you ate something you're allergic to?" Beast Boy asked.
He smiled and laughed, "That would be worse. It would cause indigestion, stomach cramps and pains, nausea, and the occasional vomiting, especially in severe cases. After that, there's fatigue and sometimes a fever for a while. There was one particularly bad reaction where I was essentially out cold for a day or two."
After he said that, something hit Robin on the head like a ton of bricks in realization, "Wait a minute, vomiting, fatigue, fever, and unconsciousness?"
"What is it, Robin?" Starfire inquired.
"His symptoms after Angelos entered his body and what he just said about his allergy," he mentioned. He scratched his chin for a second as he pieced it together. "That's it! That's why he's been sick these past couple of weeks!" After what he claims next, everyone in the room could have been knocked to the ground with a feather. "He's allergic to Angelos."
V*~*I*~*V-o-V*~*I*~*V
(A/N: I know this was a bit late and kind of short, but what do you think? I hope I did a good job and satisfies everyone for a little while.
This was a bit of a hard one because I wanted to introduce Tack (the one-off character from the episode "Basic Training" in "Ultimate Alien") as XL's nephew, but I also wanted to somehow further explain his allergies. If don't know what I'm talking about, go to chapter six.
In case you're wondering why I decided to make Tack his nephew, I just noticed that the two kind of resembled each other. That's it, simple as that.)