Landing in the cool water almost felt therapeutic to his gills. Kaldur hadn't been able to spend as much time in water lately, as he would have liked. But, now wasn't really the time to lay back and relax.

Glancing around the dark water, he noticed the tunnel to the far left side of the forest's edge.

'Tunnel spotted, heading there now', Kaldur said over the mental link.

No one responded, leaving Kaldur feeling uneasy, but he knew it was just part of the silent treatment his team was giving him. They wouldn't really cut him out, right?

M'gann felt awful.

After Kaldur left the bioship, Superboy had abruptly spoken.

"Cut him out."

M'gann blinked, confused. "What?"

Connor turned angry eyes onto her. "Cut him out of the mental link."

Miss Martian's eyes widened. "Superboy, no! That's dangerous! What if something happens to him! He's still our friend!"

"Nothing's going to happen to him. He's our fearless leader, remember?" Kid Flash mocked. "And, last time I checked, friends don't hide secrets from each other."

M'gann looked away, horrified. She could understand their anger, but this wasn't right.

"Just for a few minutes, Miss M. It'll help. Not hearing him for a while," Robin interjected. M'gann was about ready to disagree again, but she had noticed the soft tone in his voice.

Reluctantly, she agreed. "Fine, only for a few minutes."

Throughout this exchange, Artemis remained silent, opting to stare out the window with an unreadable expression.

Kaldur was worried. He hadn't heard back from the team for a while now. And now that he thought about it, he couldn't feel their presence like he normally would.

Distracted and troubled, he failed to notice the large spike sticking out from the side of the metal tunnel. And how fast he was swimming. That is, until his left arm came into contact with the obtrusion.

Grunting in pain, Kaldur curled into his stomach, grasping his injured arm protectively. The cut was deep and long, and from it, a cloud of blood erupted, leaking into Kaldur's clenched mouth.

Spitting the blood out, the best that he could considering that he was underwater, Kaldur uncurled and looked towards the tunnel. He hadn't noticed before, due to being distracted, but the inside of the tunnel was horribly warped; the metal seemed to fold into itself at times and more spikes littered the surface.

'How was this not discussed during the briefing?' Aqualad remained in place before slowly continuing, still grasping his slashed arm. His senses were on high alert. For some odd reason, the more he ventured into the tunnel, the more anxious he got.

Luckily, he didn't need to go too far before he reached the end. The tunnel led to a large collection of water inside the base.

'That is... weird.' Kaldur blinked, a little puzzled. Why would they have a tunnel with such easy access to their base? Come to think of it, he hadn't heard any sounds from above since he arrived.

Extremely cautious, and more than a little perturbed, Kaldur swam up to the top. Popping his head a tiny fraction above the water allowed him to see over the ledge.

'No guards..' Aqualad furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before stepping out of the water. Muffling a hiss of pain when his teared skin made contact with the cold concrete, Kaldur examined his surroundings.

It was a small, but tall space. Straining his eyes against the darkness, Kaldur could make out the door in front of him, hanging to the side and barely attached to the doorframe by its remaining hinge.

But that wasn't what unnerved him. No, it was the dried blood that poked out from the dark hallway that stretched out from the open doorway.

Kaldur felt a chill down his spine. Still, he had to carry out the mission.

And so, he walked through the hallway, pulling out his flashlight as he went. The first thing he noticed was the amount of blood that stained the flooring wasn't as much as he had anticipated; instead it had a very broken pattern. The second thing he discovered was the smell. It wasn't gross, but it wasn't pleasant. The smell had a very distinct... stale scent. Crinkling his nose, he carried on until a familiar voice resounded throughout his head.

'Aqualad! Can you hear me?' Upon hearing Miss Martian's voice, Kaldur heaved a heavy sigh of relief before answering. 'Yes, I can hear you. What can you report?' He opted for the leader response, rather than ask why the link hadn't been established earlier: he had his own sinking suspicion as to why.

'Drop-Zone B was a success. We sent Artemis and Kid Flash to scout the premises; there are no enemies present, strangely. However, the only way into the base is guarded by a barrier we're struggling to break.' That certainly got his attention. This whole situation was incredibly confusing. Shaking away his doubts, he noticed no one else was answering.

'Miss Martian, why can I not hear the others?'

Kaldur could feel her hesitation. His stomach dropped.

'They... requested not to be included while I contacted you. You don't have to worry though! We're in safe distance to each other and Robin activated our communication devices.'

A part of Kaldur was sad that his friends would act in such a manner. He forced it down, letting the other side of him surface. His 'leader' side, that was angry and disappointed in his team members for endangering the mission.

'I expected better.' Kaldur thought coldly, aware that M'gann could hear.

'Our mission is priority. To let our emotions get in the way is not only unprofessional, but can prove counter productive as well. I am aware the Team may not think highly of me at the current moment, but I am still their leader and as such my task is to ensure the mission's success.'

Anger coursing off of him, Aqualad continued in stride throughout the hallway, noticing the end was not far away.

'Connect them, Miss Martian. That is an order.'

'...okay. Connecting them now.'

'...'

' What the hell, M'gann?!'

Superboy's angry voice shouted in his mind. Kaldur was fairly surprised he responded so soon, but decided that was not the right thing to focus on right now. Neither was his anger.

Taking a deep breath and pausing momentarily in his stride, he prepared himself to address the team.

He never got to.

'Aqualad? Aqualad, respond!'

'Miss M, what's going on?'

She didn't know. Aqualad had been severed from her mental link by an unknown force. It felt as if a hand was applying pressure to her head. She had noticed it when she had first contacted him, but paid it no heed.

Barely remembering that Robin had asked her, she responded. 'I don't know. He's just...gone.'

Although, she could still feel rage coming off of her teammates, Miss Martian also registered something else from them: concern.

'What do you mean he's gone?' Artemis questioned.

'I can't hear or feel him anymore! Something severed our connection!'

'And this barrier isn't letting up either.' Wally practically growled.

'So, what do we do?' Superboy was still angry but his voiced was laced with concern.

'Our best bet is that tunnel underwater Aqualad entered through.' Robin theorized.

'Hate to break it to you Boy Wonder but we don't have gills.'

'Come on KF, you're not old enough to have dementia.' Robin smirked, holding his rebreather in the air.

'Me and Miss M will go under and check out what's wrong. You guys stay here and try to see if there's something we missed that can get rid of this barrier.'

Not waiting for a response, Robin turned to Miss Martian.

'Let's go.'

Kaldur looked at the room before him in horrified amazement. There was a large circle etched on the floor with strange and foreign symbols. Blood was splattered everywhere: but the heaviest amount was located in the center of the circle.

Aqualad's eyes meandered over the circle to his objective. The stone was right there, atop a concrete pedestal glowing softly in a blue-white glow. The engravings on the surface of the jagged rock were similar to the ones on the floor.

Swallowing thickly, Kaldur'ahm walked cautiously around the circle towards the rock. The anxiety he had felt in the tunnel intensified with every step he took. His eyes were transfixed on the stone.

All thoughts of reprimand gone, he only vaguely noticed his connection to his team was severed upon entering the strange room.

Kaldur stopped short of the pedestal. His unease felt as if it would drown him where he stood.

Slowly, his hand reached for the stone. Just before his fingertips touched the surface, a shudder attacked his body. Blinking, Aqualad regained his composure.

Shoving all feelings of hesitation to the side, he curled his fingers over the stone, just as everything was engulfed by a bright blue light.