"Just because he headed off into the water is no reason to jump to conclusions," Conner said reasonably. He leapt easily out of the garage.

The Scarab armoured up and followed. "No, that is where he has gone."

Conner looked doubtful, but reported to Nightwing just the same.

-The question is, how do we follow him?-

"Bart's reckless, but he wouldn't go after the Reach alone," Nightwing's voice crackled through the communicator. "Why do you think he'd do that?"

-You can't tell them!-

"Our reasoning relates to information from the future... given possible risks to the timestream..."

"Okay, okay. Everyone back to base. I'm calling in the rest of the Team."

Jaime and the Scarab would both have preferred to avoid getting the whole Team involved, but with Bart's life on the line, neither objected. They entered the briefing room behind Conner to see the entire Team, Mal, and a few Justice League members; Zatanna and Rocket loitered in one corner, while the Flash paced abnormally quickly. Jaime noted everyone's increase in heart rate as they walked in. La'gaan's body didn't something that Jaime's systems couldn't understand, that he assumed to be magical in nature. The Bats all adjusted their stances to put a weapon in easy reach. Rocket's hand went to her belt. Jaime doubted that the Scarab, relying on human senses, noticed any of those things, but it was hard to miss the sudden silence.

Nightwing broke it. "Good, we're all here. So Impulse took an as-yet-unidentified water vehicle stored under the site of Mount Justice, and headed off into the ocean. We can't track him. He has a few hours' head start. But there is the possibility that he has gone after the Reach."

"Yeah, I'm still not clear on the why," Karen pointed out. Most of the Team tried not to glance at Beetle, and failed.

"Nevertheless," Nightwing said, "it's our only lead. We'll start our search where we had our last encounter. They may have moved the ship, but Bart will start there too."

-If he's found the Reach, he's probably already dead,- Jaime pointed out.

The Scarab shrugged slightly, which Jaime took for mild disagreement.

-You think he's captured?-

A tiny nod.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Conner asked. "Let's cram in the bioship and go."

"Uhm," Cassie announced, "am I the only one who think this feels like a trap?"

Everyone moved uncomfortably. But nobody tried to silence her.

"Seriously, you can't all just go along with this. Mysterious aliens with tech pretty much exactly like Blue's armour show up, launch an invasion plan, we barely escape... and suddenly the trigger-happy AI is in charge of Blue's armour, and right then we lose a teammate, but the AI is mysteriously sure we can get him back by all walking straight back into the arms of the Reach? And that's not even getting into Blue's 'big brother', that Back Beetle thing which, you might remember, completely slew us all last battle. I'm not buying it."

The Scarab tried a smile. "Cassie, I wouldn't – "

"Nuh-uh. No, don't you think you can get me by smiling at me with his face." She poked him, hard, in the chest. "You're planning to turn Blue over to the Reach, and the rest of the Team as a bonus. Well I'm not walking in that easily. You want a fight, you'll get one, mister."

"Guys," Bumblebee said, "if they have Impulse..."

"Then us all getting ourselves caught isn't going to help him," La'gaan interrupted. "We need a plan, at least."

-We don't have time for this,- Jaime warned.

"What do you suggest?" the Scarab muttered, earning several glances.

-Let's just go and start searching. The others will probably make up their minds and catch up before we need them.-

"But you're the one who wanted... oh, fine." The Scarab raised his voice, which was hardly necessary since everybody was already listening to him. "We don't have time for this. We're getting to work. You'll know where to find us." The Scarab marched out. Nobody stopped him.

The high pressure of the deep ocean was no problem for Beetle's armour, although they did have a minor scare when, about halfway through their dive, the Scarab suddenly asked, "Why can't I move my hand?"

Jaime checked. -There's nothing physiologically wrong. Does it hurt?-

"No. No sensation."

-Huh.- Jaime checked again. -I can't find anything to explain that.-

"It is now working again."

Okay. That was a problem to figure out later. Jaime easily found the exact location of their previous Reach encounter and pointed it out. He scanned the area for human life signs, particularly Bart's life signs.

-He's not here...-

"Check for his ship's trail."

He did. -Uhm... it's hard to tell, but there are traces of burned fuel... wait, what's that?-

"What?"

Jaime highlighted a patch of ocean floor for the Scarab. A few moments' digging produced a chip of metal. "Iron, apparently."

-No, no it isn't. It's...- The metal had... character. Information. Jaime felt around it, and something in it responded to its electronic touch. Through the Scarab's eyes, he saw strange networks light up on the surface. -I know that pattern.-

"This is of the Reach," the Scarab agreed. "Possibly a broken piece of their ship."

Jaime poked around a bit more. The metal began to heat, then cool. It twisted into a small, smooth sphere. Manipulating the metal was easy, easier than shorting an inhibitor collar, easier than monitoring other people's life signs. It felt almost like manipulating the armour. Like an extension of the armour, but... very slightly different. And wounded. A piece of a whole. -I think... I think it can find the rest of the ship.-

"Do you believe the Impulse can successfully find the rest of the ship?"

-I don't know. It's worth a look.-

"Unless it gets us captured for no reason. A second time." The Scarab paused. "Third if you count Nightwing."

-Well, the Team can presumably still track us using whatever they used to find us in the desert, so they'll be following and can provide backup.-

"While we charge in blindly without a plan against a superior enemy?"

-I just want to confirm whether he's there or not. If our sensors pick him up there... or if he's still searching, and we intercept him...-

The Scarab took a few seconds to respond. Finally, he said, "Which way?" Jaime showed him.

They were well on their way before it occurred to Jaime that the Scarab was being far too cooperative. He'd put up no more than a token resistance against their insanely risky plan with no real guarantee of payoff and he hadn't suggested killing anybody for hours. But he didn't care about Bart. He didn't care about any of Jaime's friends as anything more than useful allies and possible risks. The Scarab was planning to practically march into the Reach's hands for no reason.

Unless that was the reason. Did the Scarab want to go to the Reach? Was it defecting, merely pretending to be on Jaime's side so that he wouldn't sedate it again to prevent it from doing so? Jaime was painfully aware that the Scarab's loyalty to the Team and to humanity in general was merely a side effect of its loyalty to its host. Perhaps it had decided to stop listening to its host altogether.

He wasn't even the host any more. Perhaps, in twisted Scarab logic, that meant his opinion no longer mattered? That he no longer had authority? What was it he'd said, when they were fighting the muggers in El Paso? "In case you did not notice, Jaime Reyes, making that decision is no longer your role." And now the Scarab was going to do something stupid and potentially irreversible and as much as Jaime could fight and quibble on details, short of rendering them both completely helpless there was nothing he could ultimately do to stop him.

Was this how the Scarab felt all the time?!

The Scarab checked Jaime's map and saw they were getting close. Adrenalin spike, within safe parameters.

Aha! Of course. Jaime would simply ask. The Scarab couldn't deceive him, he was a living lie detector. And unlike a crude, unreliable polygraph, he has access to all sorts of physiological monitoring systems. And he'd been monitoring the Scarab long enough to have a good baseline of reactions.

-Why are you doing this?-

No anxiety. "It was your plan."

-But why are you helping? You don't care about Bart.-

"My motivations are irrelevant." No anxiety. He really was dismissing them as irrelevant.

-Not if you're defecting to the Reach.-

Adrenalin spike, and several other chemicals. Increased heart rate. Not anxiety, though; anger. He even sounded angry. "What? Why would that be your assumption? I have no intention of betraying the Team!"

-Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I'm just a bit confused.-

He started to settle down. A little. "It is unimportant."

-You know, it's a lot harder for me to do my job if you don't share your reasoning with me.-

"We already agree on actions."

-Your thought processes are heavily influenced by your mood, remember? If you want a rational perspective...-

"You saw how they looked at me. In the Cave. You heard what the Wonder Girl claimed."

-Yes.-

"Most of them believed her. Or at least suspected."

-Yes.-

"And even you believe her."

-No!-

"You just accused me of – "

-I was just confused.-

The Scarab huffed. "I have not at any point betrayed this team. I have not attacked them in any conflict that they did not start."

-You do occasionally suggest killing them.-

"And every single time I have deferred to your insistence that we continue to trust them, even when they are clearly unworthy of it. Time and again I have allowed you to drag us into battle for them. I may think you sacrifice too much for too little potential gain with this team a lot of the time, but I would have thought my actions to be a little more relevant in their judgements of me. If I must prove them wrong, then I will."

-You're aware that this is a trivial reason to run headlong into danger.-

"Unfortunately even my awareness that this is a terrible idea does not seem to decrease my motivation to do it."

-Congratulations, you've discovered what it's like to be human.-

"Dangerous and inefficient?"

-And you've discovered sass. A big learning day today. Reach ship up ahead.- The ship lit up on Jaime's sensors as nonthreatening and familiar. Comforting, like the smell of coffee in the morning. Jaime made a mental note not to automatically trust all his systems. -What's the plan here?-

"You will interface with the ship's systems and scan for the Impulse."

-Won't that get us caught?-

"Almost definitely. But there is a slight chance that we will have our advantage in... uh, 'beginner's luck'."

-We're relying on luck?!-

"Uh, no, I may have misunderstood that phrase. I meant that complete amateurs often have a slight advantage over experts in a given field, based on sheer unpredictability. The systems will know my touch, but you are like to behave... differently in the system. It may make you harder to notice and your motives more difficult to deduce."

-You think that'll work?-

"It is much more likely that you will be detected even easier than I would. But since I would be detected almost immediately, the difference is unimportant."

-If you're trying to look on the positive side, you're really bad at it.-

"If you are trying to give me rational or impartial advice, you are failing."

-... Good point. Let's do this.-

The Scarab landed lightly on the surface of the ship and pressed one armoured hand to the side. Jaime felt his mind expend, open to the ship's programming. Very gently, trying not to disturb anything, he felt around, familiarised himself with the design. It was remarkably easy.

He recalled the brief glimpse of Bart's systems he'd gotten before Bart had run off. Find this, he told the ship. The moment he gave the command, he felt... something... in the ship pause, wary. After a moment, it moved on. Had he escaped notice? Or raised a silent alarm?

There... port side, far corridor, Bart's heart beat fast, much faster than any normal human heart could. But he wasn't moving; he was frozen, waiting in a corner for a couple of the Reach to pass by. Jaime could see that as soon as they turned the corner, they'd see him. He reported the relevant information to the Scarab.

"We extract him now."

-Got it.- Jaime opened a hole in the side of the ship and forced Bart out, into the ocean. That definitely raised an alarm. They didn't stay connected to the ship long enough to check the extent of the response; the Scarab was already swimming for Bart, struggling against the pressure of the ocean and trying to hold his breath. The Scarab scooped the little speedster up in one arm and Jaime extended a metal skin over him, synthesising air for him. Bart, though, continued to struggle.

"If you break out of my grip, you will drown," the Scarab noted neutrally, moving as fast as he could away from the ship.

"You haven't won," Bart said. But he stopped struggling. "You think stopping me will stop the Earth from protecting itself? You think killing me will make a difference? Go ahead. It won't."

-I recommend sedation.-

"Do it."

Jaime supposed that under normal conditions, sedating a speedster would be very difficult. But with a read on Bart's physiology and total control over his oxygen supply, it wasn't. He just added a sedative to his air supply and kept the concentration ratio to oxygen constant so Bart couldn't interfere with his own metabolism to fight it. He was asleep in seconds.

Pursuit was a more complicated matter. The ship itself hadn't followed, but Jaime detected three entities in the water behind him. He showed the Scarab.

"What are they?"

-Something Reach. Beyond that, no idea. I think they're... shielded from my scanning, somehow.-

"Ideally we should avoid combat. I cannot move my right arm."

-Oh, that's... that's gonna be a problem.-

"Are they too fast to outrun?"

-Yeah. They are. And with you partly paralysed, Bart in your arms and neither of us very experienced at our jobs... I'm going to divert all available power to getting us out of here as fast as possible. Maybe we can at least get Bart to the surface.- Jaime went to do exactly that. -Um. I appear to have lost control over some armour functions.-

"What? How?!"

-I don't know. Diagnostics look fine... the ones I can run. Uhm.. a lot of my scanning equipment is offline too.-

"What do you have?"

-Pursuers. Immediate landscape. Your vital functions, but not Bart's. Some chemical analysis I think... not much else. Can we hide anywhere?-

"I doubt it. We may still get the Impulse close enough to the surface that he can escape."

-Then we do that.- Together, they swam. Jaime considered waking Bart, but a panicked, struggling speedster underwater was probably till going to slow them more than a dead weight. Jaime watched their pursuers circle to surround them; one above, one in front, one behind. They dodged left; their pursuers followed. They didn't seem to be in any hurry.

"My right leg isn't responding," the Scarab said dispassionately. "You will need to take control of the armour to swim."

-I can't. I have practically no control.- Their pursuers winked out of Jaime's awareness, leaving him with only the Scarab's eyesight.

"Ugh. We won't even be able to go down fighting."

-You still have one arm, right? When they get close enough, punch them in the face.-

The Scarab curled his hand into a fist. When he was grabbed from behind, he did twist to punch his attacker in the face, but La'gaan avoided the attack easily. "You okay, Blue?"

"How did you get...? If the rest of the Team here?"

"Ready for pickup, we just need to lose these guys." La'gaan didn't seem to notice the drag of wither of his passengers as he powered through the water.

"Atlantean or not, you can't outrun – "

"Don't need to. That's what the army is for."

Suddenly, they were surrounded by what Jaime could only assume were Atlantean soldiers. Sorcerors sliced their watery constructed through the ocean ahead of them. Armoured soldiers drew guns. La'gaan dragged his passengers toward the surface. Jaime's vision blacked out. He heard the Scarab mutter, "Jaime?" just before his hearing failed, and found himself unable to respond.

Jaime felt his heartbeat, a reassuring rhythmic pressure in his back. Something was beeping. He opened his eyes. A hospital room, it looked like. Not one of the Reach's containment pods. That was probably a good sign.

"Scarab?" he whispered.

-All physiological systems are within normal parameters,- the Scarab reported.

"Right. Thanks."

-Recommendation: we avoid ever repeating that experience.-

"The body swap, or the part where we tried to rescue someone from the Reach single-handedly?"

-Both of those things.-

"Yeah, agreed." Jaime sat up, expecting pain. He had some mild bruises, but there was no cramping. All his muscles seemed to be working. He stared at his own hands, then looked down at his chest, covered in electrodes for the beeping heart monitor beside him. His hands. His chest. "So... it's over?"

-That would be a sound prediction. As an aside, were you aware that there is a tracker attached to my carapace?-

"A... that's how Nightwing followed us?" Jaime thought a moment. "The first time we met after the switch! He got behind us during that fight!"

-Why did you not pick it up?-

"I was scanning you, it didn't occur to me to scan myself!"

-... then I am glad this situation has resolved so quickly.-

"I thought you did well with completely unfamiliar equipment too, Scarab." Jaime started pulling the electrodes off his chest just as assorted teammates charged through the door.

"Blue?" Cassie asked. She made to step forward. Nightwing beat her to it.

"Are you...?"

"It's me. Jaime," he amended. "It's Jaime."

The sudden outpouring of relief in the room was unmistakeable.

"Are you ok?" Conner asked.

"Fine. We're both fine. Where's Bart?"

Nightwing left the room, gesturing for him to follow. Jaime had the Scarab make him some clothes and did so. "We thought it best to leave him sedated until you woke up," Nightwing explained as they walked, "Lest he go do something stupid again. But I suppose we can wake him now."

Bart looked so vulnerable, a tiny, still figure lying in a hospital bed. Jaime knew there was nothing wrong with him (at least, there hadn't been in the ocean); he knew the heart monitor was a safety precaution and the drip in his arm was probably just a sedative, but it still hurt to look at him. While they watched, a doctor played with some drip tubing, then stood aside to wait. After a few minutes, Bart opened his eyes.

"Bart? Bart! Are you okay?" Jaime darted to his side.

"He'll be disoriented for awhile," the doctor warned.

But Bart's gaze immediately fixed on Jaime. Then, slowly, he smiled. "You did it. You beat him."

"Well, I didn't exactly..." It really wasn't the time for an in-depth discussion on the matter. "Yeah, it's me."

"I knew you would."

"Is that why you ran off to attack the Reach by yourself? What exactly did you expect to accomplish?!"

"It doesn't matter now."

"How did you even find the Reach?"

"Doesn't matter. Is everyone...?"

Jaime glanced at Nightwing. "Everyone's fine," Nightwing confirmed. "But you need rest."

"Rest? I've been lying in this bed for.. uhm..."

"About an hour. Besides, sedated rest doesn't count."

Jaime managed to talk Nightwing out of trying to keep him in hospital for observation, explaining how worried his mother would be. Then he zetaed home, armoured up and went on patrol. "So, um... Scarab."

-I am listening.-

"I noticed everyone was kind of happy that this whole thing was over."

-Including you.-

"Yeah, of course. But I mean, the Team... I know they still don't really trust you, and..."

-It is not relevant.-

"I don't care how relevant it is, I know you proved yourself again today. And I just wanted to say, well, I was really proud of you."

The Scarab didn't respond for a few seconds. -It is good for us to be able to trust and take pride in each other, given the nature of our relationship,- he eventually said.

"Right. Well. Anyway."

-Civillian in distress three blocks South.-

"Huh?" If he listened, Jaime thought he could hear some muffled screams. He changed direction. "Let's do this!"

It would be a lie for Jaime to claim that he wasn't happy to be back in his own body. But he was just as happy to have the Scarab back in his. They might not always agree, but they were a team and they needed to rely on each other.

He'd never really realised how much.