It happened the moment he first met his father on the ship—or rather, when he learned who his father really was: Black Manta. Not just a magazine villain. Not an enemy to fight and take back to base. His father was the leader of one of the most brutal organizations working with Light.

Kaldur hid this from everyone. He kept silent. Even from you.

He thought he could control the situation, he thought he could handle it himself, he thought he could carry out the plan "undercover." But when he first met him in person.. something inside him broke. Not just shock, not just betrayal. He saw in his father's eyes not just a villain—but a man who decides the fate of entire planets.. and knows your weakest spots.

It happened at night at the base.

The team, alerted by a call, gathered in the planning room. But Kaldur didn't show up.

And then his report came—but not through the comms. Not in his voice.

It was a video fragment. A reflected light signal. There he was, next to Black Manta, speaking as if he'd betrayed his team. He didn't even call. He simply vanished.

There were no words.

And everyone thought.. that he had truly defected. You saw it before anyone else.

The first few seconds seemed simply strange: you couldn't believe it, you thought it was a mistake, you thought he was joking. But when the picture didn't change, you felt the air rush out of your chest. And then panic set in, and there was no end to it. You've endured a lot. But not this.

When you heard a familiar voice, speaking.. to him—your mind simply exploded.

You screamed, cried, tried to kick yourself into the wall, tried to kick down the door to find him, trying to prove to yourself it wasn't true.

And when you looked at the others' faces.. those eyes said:

"We don't know what happened either."

And a lonely, bitter pain washed over you, one that no one could resist.

They didn't know the truth. They thought he'd left of his own free will.

Conner gently held your hand as you trembled in the base's corridor. He didn't say much, he just stayed close.

Kid Flash tried to distract you with jokes, but it did the exact opposite, it made things even worse.

Nightwing approached you cautiously, stopping closer than necessary. He placed his hand on your right shoulder, without answering.

That's what seemed strange to you.

And Artemis and Megan were always there, like girls, they understood the situation even better than the guys, they rarely left, only when you said that you wanted to be alone.

You cried for days. No one tried to comfort you with words. The team was simply there. No pressure. No demands.

It was the hardest week of your life.

After a while, you actually.. got cold.

You didn't "forget" him. You couldn't stop thinking about him. But you had come to terms with the fact that he was gone. Because hoping.. hurt.

You became more focused, less talkative, as if your voice had been left somewhere out there—along with him. You stopped crying altogether.

Soon, after a few weeks, the team discovered the Black Manta Submarine—a massive underwater vessel that served as a hidden base, transport.

And the team decides to infiltrate, to stop the operation.

You, Nightwing, Kid Flash, Megan, Superboy—that's your core group.

You make your way underwater to the submarine. Calmly, quietly, without unnecessary words. You lead the group as an infiltration specialist, because you're a cold-blooded professional.

You go to the control console to turn off the alarm, cameras and automatic traps. You approach the console unit—a shiny terminal, the backlight flickering.. And you begin entering codes, one after another. Smoke noise, motion sensors, buzzers—everything fades away under your fingers. You concentrate.

And suddenly you hear a painfully familiar voice.

"If you complete the shutdown.."

Kaldur said, pausing between words, — "the security circuits in this sector will fall in…" — a quick glance at the timer above the panel, — "…seven seconds.