Archive of Our Own

As Ryūji pushed the handle down, the door to the chopper almost flew up by itself as the rage of the storm met him. The loudness of it was only contested by the chopper’s blades fighting against being ripped apart by the gales that pulled and twisted, immediately filling the chopper with pinpricks of ice-cold rain. 

Below, far below, the ocean was churning and roiling like it was boiling at high-heat, even if he knew it would be freezing cold when he landed. The drop itself would most likely kill him, if the armour failed at its job. 

A lot of things would probably kill him, that they didn’t yet know about. They just needed something new, that might change the tide of the war.

When the alternative was to passively watch the world drown, fight against the ocean and its creatures that they were slowly but surely losing ground to, there wasn’t much else they could do. 

He reached up and fixed the mask over his face, folding down the frontal plate of the helmet, the sound of the storm mercifully fading away to a muted rumble. Still louder than his own breathing. 

“You have three hours.” Saboru’s voice was loud through the earpiece of his helmet, like he was standing right next to him and trying to hear himself speak over all the noise. Or trying to hide the nervosity, and fear. 

“One.” Ryūji said, speaking softly, still watching the waters below. 

“For All.” Saburo answered his call, an echo of the dozens of times they had done it before this, and it was all Ryūji needed to release the grip on the side of the door, and allow gravity to claim him. He heard the cut off “Good Lu---” before any connection was snapped away by disturbance and range. 

Ryūji fell. 

For a couple of seconds, everything was quiet. His own weight battled the winds that couldn’t get a grip on him, and through the glass of the frontal plate there was nothing but smashed raindrops and darkness. He had just a moment to feel like he had somehow been falling for too long, before the sea greedily consumed him. 

Even through the reinforced armour the impact was jarring, water closing in around him like  a coffin made out of liquid and he had to strain to keep all of his limbs locked against his body. No matter how much they had ensured it would hold, he was sure that letting an arm stray would wrench his shoulder clean of its socket. The fact that his right arm had a built-in needlegun didn’t help him much. The thing was bulky and uncomfortable, necessary for it to not be broken in the fall as well, but it kept putting him slightly off balance. 

The surface waves tried for a single moment to smash him to the side, before he was dragged further down. The water’s hold was stronger than the wind, but the weight of the armour worked well as an anchor as he sank, hisses in his ears as the suit worked to accomodate for the pressure rapidly increasing. 

The ocean rested around him, dark and seemingly endless. He didn’t dare to use any light, not yet, and could only hope that he would be near the deep caves that were his target. The longer he stayed out in the open, the more likely it would be a passing sentry or guard would spot him. The armour might hold for a second, but he knew that the mers would break him open like a tin-can and gladly get their teeth into him. That was not even counting the Kraken that the Deep Emperor had called forth.  

That was not even counting the Deep Emperor himself, if he had decided to return earlier than they expected. 

The storm he had brought forth, that Ryūji knew was tearing up the ships that would attempt to cross, trying to funnel survivors from the islands not yet sunken to the main-land, had been a chaotic smoke-screen that had allowed Saboru to take him this far out. If the Deep Emperor noticed that the ships were a decoy to draw him away… 

Cautiously, Ryūji reached up to the side of his helmet, and switched frequency. 

Lord. 

The hum, the sub-vocalisation that he would not be able to hear if not for the inventions scraped together in a haste after the war began, sent a spike through his forcibly calmed heart-beat. It was low, deep, the translation device obviously working as well as they had hoped but Ryūji had desperately hoped that he wouldn’t have had this bad luck. 

His feet finally touched something, uneven and leaning heavily to the side Ryūji had to reach out with his hand to steady himself against the rocky-formation that was forming into his awareness. He still couldn’t see anything. This far below the surface every piece of luminance had faded. The storm was like a distant memory, even if he knew Saboru was most likely fighting against it that very moment. 

Lord. The hum continued, and Ryūji stayed still, oxygen pumping into him at a steady rate through the mask and his eyes staring out into darkness as if he could see any shifting. He stayed still for a full minute. In this darkness, trying to get his screen open to see the radar would do nothing else than to make him a beacon of light alerting every single hostile in a mile radius to his existence. 

The shifting of water, waves pushing around him was what alerted him at first. Then, a large tentacle, marred with lines and growth of luminous underwater flora suddenly moved around what Ryūji now realised must have been a corner of the rocky formation that he had landed on. It latched onto the side with a force knocking stones down and with a pressure that would have sent him off the side if not for the armour keeping him steady. 

Ryūji dove into one of the crevasses that the soft-glowing light was illuminating, and pressed himself down into its shadow. A small beeping noise in his ears alerted him to his breath being too quick for the breathing apparatus to work properly, and he closed his eyes slowly. Forcing his racing panic to simmer down. 

Right outside his chosen hiding-spot, another tentacle moved, and beyond it further away into the darkness he could just see the vague shape of the Kraken. Its humanoid head was larger than even the chopper had been, looking like a gargoyle lit up by blue streaks just barely making it possible to see. What Ryūji saw was the profile of the face, the Kraken seemingly not noticing him. Its call echoing out on sub-vocal frequency, hopefully more like an engine running than any indication that it had noticed him intruding and actually trying to get the attention of the Deep Emperor. 

At least, Ryūji grimly thought, if it was circling this area, he must be at the right place. 

For what felt like an eternity, Ryūji stayed in his spot, squeezed in between rocks while the Kraken made its way past him. He didn’t even dare to deploy the needlegun in fear that the beast would somehow sense the movement in the waters. He kept expecting one of the enormous moving tentacles; capable of bringing down ships, coastal concrete buildings and even airplanes that got too close to the surface, to find his spot and snuff his life out, but excruciatingly slow the light from the flora growing on the gigantic beast faded as it continued on its patrol away.  

Ryūji turned down the frequency; hearing the call would help him understand what he would normally not hear, but it could also make him more susceptible to the influence if he wasn’t careful.  

While still in relative safety, Ryūji pulled up the screen on his right hand. The scan shone softly green and red up at him, showing a crude map of the underwater cave-system that was hiding inside the rocks right behind him. There was an entrance not far from here. 

Letting the darkness fall around him yet again, path and distance memorised, Ryūji halfway swam, halfway walked down on the side of the underwater cliff. Keeping his eyes peeled for any movement, any shade not completely swallowed by black until his foot found one of the entrances to the maze-like system he would have to try and navigate. 

Like going down the gullet of a beast, uncertain if he would ever find his way out again, Ryūji descended down inside before the Kraken could make its way around again. 

There was nothing but darkness. Using the walls he could push himself forward through the water. It felt like he was going slower than he had time to, but getting lost in the tunnels wouldn’t exactly help him bring back whatever intel he was able to find in this hidden stash of the Deep Emperor. All they knew was that the monster would return here at times. No other sirens coming close except for the giant beast keeping watch.  

Every once in a while Ryūji stopped, turning the frequency up to see if there was any lingering luring song drawing him somewhere he didn’t want to go, but the tunnels were eerily quiet. Ryūji opened the screen again, letting the light spread as the map was getting more and more detailed the further he went, the light itself making it easier for him to travel without suddenly smacking into naturally formed rock-formations. 

It took him much too long. Dead-ends and twists like a labyrinth send him further and deeper, without any sign of life or even a hint that there was something important hiding beneath. Doubt was just about to creep in, that he had risked his and Saboru’s life for nothing, when a tunnel took a sharp turn up, and suddenly he broke the surface. The air was surprising. It couldn’t be naturally formed, a small and just as empty dome, an air-pocket right in the deepest that he had been until this point. At first glance, looking around into the darkness escaping from the light he slowly twisted around, the dome seemed like nothing but a dead end, empty and desolate. Damp. 

Except when he heaved himself up from the water, the light caught on a shadow in the middle of the room, a hole that was unnaturally carved out. Ryūji pulled himself up, didn’t quite like how the sound of his steps echoed as he walked over to the hole. The needlegun was deployed held in front of him ready for whatever might lash out at him as he approached the edge. 

It was like a well, only half two metres of steep and crudely cut out walls before a calm surface of dark water below. He pointed his light down, and a shockingly green eye was reflected back up at him from below. 

He should have moved back, Ryūji’s muscles tensed as adrenaline shot through his system preparing for an attack, for whoever, whatever, was down there to somehow jump up through the strange well to drag him down like a jumpscare in every bad horror movie. 

The light was spread out enough that it didn’t just reflect back up on him, but filled what was a much too small, strangely revered underwater aquarium with light to every side. 

A second eye appeared as it seemed like the stringy white hair that had been covering it had drifted away as the siren trapped below had turned its head to look up at him, a long egg-shell coloured tail curled under him, sunken to the floor. It was either unwilling, or unable to rise to the surface. It wasn’t what drew Ryūji’s attention the most, but it was what made him take the incredibly irrational decision, after a glance to the rough walls, to jump down. 

He didn’t feel his impact even if his vision and every sound was for a moment filled with the splash, air bubbles moving up around him in a white surge and he braced for an attack, to have the siren lunge at him now when he was close enough. 

Yet when the bubbles had faded and the water was somewhat clear yet again, all he could see was that the siren had shrugged back just a little, still watching him with unblinking wide eyes. 

The siren was cuffed, long chains dragging against the ground and fitted to a metallic loop embedded deep into the stone. They were old, human-made, and most likely taken from some ship long gone. Ryūji could see the rust snaking around, having been worn down through time and disrepair. The chains were curled in a way that should allow him to lunge at Ryūji. Sirens’ claws were closer to talons than they were to human nails; if it had lunged it could easily have torn through the weak point of the armour’s joints, and if not kill him, at least grievously wound him. The way the scales were close to translucent, the way they were chipped, ribs showing through too soft skin, showed that the siren must be starving.  

There was no way it hadn't noticed him coming, especially with the light he had been forced to use. 

So why wasn’t he dead. 

Ryūji lowered his left arm fully, the gun pulling back into its dormant position. Either this was something that even the Deep Emperor found dangerous, or, someone opposed to him. 

“Are you here to kill me?”

It was always just as chilling. The words should not be able to travel so clearly through the water, the voice soft and beckoning, magic interwoven into their speech and Ryūji turned the frequency up again, trying to catch the possible subvocalization. If he was about to be charmed and eaten, he would at least want a chance to kill it before it could kill him. 

Through the hum, the notes harmonising underneath what he said into Ryūji’s mind and in the vibrations he could feel in his chest; there was an infliction that was nothing like he had expected.

Help me. Let me go. 

Ryūji waited for the effect to take hold, to strain against it, but the song didn’t carry the same thrall as he had encountered before while fighting the Deep Emperor’s minions. The call continued, echoing out into nothing. It wasn’t a call meant to be received, similar to the beast outside. A wish not expected to be fulfilled. 

Ryūji reached forward a hand, and the Siren looked at him for a moment more before it slowly lifted it's hands from where they had been curled in his lap, reaching one out towards him. Ryūji didn’t let his expression shift as he saw that a couple of sharp claws were broken, as if it had tried to fight someone, or maybe climb the jagged walls. The scales around its wrists were bent and disfigured, the broken and jagged pieces of the cuffs having cut into them for what must have been a very, very long time. He grabbed a hold of the cuffs themselves, kneeled down to place his knee on top of the chain to keep it stretched out. 

They were so close now, that if the siren just leaned forward, they would be able to rest their foreheads together. 

When he pulled the gun out again, the Siren shrugged back with a flinch. It didn’t try to break away from him, just kept his eyes staring straight into his opaque faceplate. It wasn’t with fear, it wasn’t a glare. The green eyes were just fixed and firm, like they themselves had clawed into his soul. 

There was no doubt in his mind that if he killed this one, those eyes would haunt him to his dying days. 

The gun released its spearlike bullet, cracking into the rusty part of the chains with a strength that sent his arm into direct recoil. A cloud of dust and red flew up around them as the siren moved its hand, the cuff still on its wrist but the chain now broken and trailing behind. After a second, less hesitation this time, it reached its other hand forward as Ryūji prepared another shot, the chain on the other hand breaking just as easily.   

After both chains had been broken, Ryūji stood up from the ground, and held out his hand towards the siren for a third time. For a moment they stayed there in the same position. Ryūji’s expression set into a neutral nothing like a watchful sculpture, the surface of the water of the well just a metre above his head, and the siren with its broken chains and searching look, the water moving it’s hair around making it seem to be perpetual in motion, before it as well started to rise, a hand grabbing onto his and allowing itself to be pulled along. It was smaller, but would probably be longer if the tail was stretched out fully. 

Ryūji braced himself against the bottom and gave himself a boosting jump to swim up towards the surface, taking a firm grip on the side of the wall once he reached the above. 

As the head of the siren broke the surface, the formally ethereal floating hair plastered over its face like strings, it held up one webbed hand, as to encourage Ryūji to wait. The hand drifted towards the gills at the side of its torso. The siren pressed its hand against them, first on the right side, and then on the left, eyes squeezed shut into complete concentration. Then, its chest suddenly expanded into a deep breath. It occurred to Ryūji that he hadn’t actually seen the chest move before. Its breathing was ragged, breaking down into coughs that sent rivulets of water down from his lips. The gills, Ryūji saw as he looked down, had sealed into slits on the side, no longer fluttering. 

Too-thin arm snaked around his neck without prompting, talons scratching against the armour but avoiding the small cracks in it allowing movement. It wouldn’t be an easy climb, but Ryūji had trained for worse. Had been dragging out water-bloated bodies from cities where an attack had come too quickly for people to escape. 

“Hold on.” He spoke, uncertain if the words even reached outside his mask. The dead weight of the rest of the siren increased exponentially as he started to pull them both up the side of the rocky wall into air, one reach after another, feet slipping against the damp sides of the wall trying to find grips that could handle their combined weight. 

It took much too long for the short distance that it was, gruelling and slow. Having the siren curled up around him, arms around his shoulders and its face right at the side of his, breath even leaving quickly fading vapor on the glass on the facial plate, didn’t help his nerves. It was a relief as he pulled himself up, the siren’s bottom half still hanging over the edge. 

The arms slid away, almost reluctantly, as he stopped and took a moment to rest up top. Letting the siren down onto the ground, his  arms immediately started shaking from strain and just as it would slip back down into the well Ryūji caught it, taking a grip below the still-remaining cuffs and he pulled it up fully on the rocks. He didn’t let go of the hand once he had, well aware of the sharp talons that had yet to cut through him. One push would have it back into its cell. 

As the next point of idiot decisions that he had made this last hour, his faceplate hissed open and the mask fell away as well. The air in the small grotto was stagnant and old, surprsiningly still breathable. He needed to be able to be heard. 

“Talk. Who are you.”  

He didn’t expect a laugh, eyes blinking multiple times like trying to make up for the unblinking-stare from before. It had two lids on each eye, one translucent and one of skin, closing and opening one after another. The siren opened its mouth and when the voice did come out it was with a whisper, rough from disuse. “You came here, and you don’t know?” 

“I know the Deep Emperor comes here.” It wasn’t defensive, just fact, and it made the siren smile with just a quirk of his thin lips, sharp teeth hinting behind. 

“Deep Emperor. Is that what my brother is calling himself now?” He scoffed, and the sheer incredulous way the siren spoke with had it take a moment before Ryūji realised what he had said. Glancing down on the tail, the very end of it still slightly hanging down into the well that had kept him trapped, the scales that were covering a majority of the body, even spots on his face like freckles. It would have the same colour as the Emperor, he imagined, if the siren hadn’t been severely neglected. His left arm which held the gun twitched, the siren following the motion with a tilt to his head. “...but maybe that’s how far he’s gone. How bad is it, up at the surface.” 

“Most of the coastal cities are gone.” Ryūji said, intently watching the smile fade. Trying to spot if this siren was faking it, impossible to truly know. “He’s your brother. You don’t know what he has done?” 

“Unfortunately.” Eyes found his again, and Ryūji found the same search for insight as he was scanning the other with. Looking for intention. A challenge. What will you do now? “The world could have turned into one big ocean, or this cave could be the last puddle left on earth. I wouldn’t have noticed the difference. I refused to be a pawn to my brother, refused to take part in his fear-mongering, and this is what being his little brother led to. He didn't want to kill me, but he has no hold over me except my freedom.” 

"And if someone would give you that freedom?"

"Would you?" 

The broken pieces of chains laid between them. 

“Why wouldn’t you join him.” His brother was trying to subjugate the world, wouldn’t it just give him more space, resources, everything? Why would he have allowed himself to suffer instead. “What stake do you have in this.” 

“I don’t want to see people suffer, not humans. Not us. I just want help all and everyone.” The siren had the gall to smile, eyes heavy-lidded and challenging. "Will you let me help? Hero?" 

An unexpected heat crawled up his neck, in stark contrast to the cold and damp air that was seeping in through his opened helmet. His face showed nothing. He hoped. 

Behind the teasing, the song was still ongoing. Saviour, whispering in his ear. Too genuine for comfort. 

“One for all.” He said instead, almost expecting the siren to reply to the call they usually made, to remind themselves of why they were doing this. Risking their lives.  

“It’s how it should be, shouldn’t it?” His lips quirked, as if pushing down a smile. “Meanwhile, my brother would be the opposite, the megalomaniac that he is.” 

Rūyji, for a brief moment, hated how he felt his own face respond to the suppressed smile. Kept his voice level as he could. He didn’t think he succeeded as well as he would have liked. “All for One might be a better description than the Deep Emperor, then.”  

A laugh, loud and almost sounding like it hurt as it broke off into a dry cough. 

“Don’t let him hear that, knowing my brother he would probably like it.” 

The words rang out, Ryūji finding that somewhere in the conversation the hold he had on the other had turned less into a grip, and somewhere along the siren had wrapped his fingers around him as well. It should have felt threatening, instead the realisation that his muscles had relaxed at some point into something comfortable felt like a slap in the face. A wake-up call of where they actually were. 

"We can discuss it later." What he had tried to make sound like a dismissal, ended up being a promise that he hadn’t even realised he had made. “We should go.” 

It felt too familiar to have the arms around his neck again, carrying (halfway dragging him) him the small distance over to the other ledge leading down into the water-filled tunnels again. Luckily, Ryūji had years of training to push down thoughts not relevant to the current ongoing mission. 

The siren slipped down, and Ryūji saw bubbles expelled from his lungs as he switched back to using his gills again, peeking his head up over the surface to wait for Ryūji to jump down. 

“What’s your name.” He asked, right before putting his mask on again. “It’s too weird to just call you siren in my head.” 

“Yoichi.” Came as the chilling voice was back to the one he had heard when he first spoke. Clear and melodic. Hero. Echoed in his frequency. 

Then, like a static, the soft sub-vocalisation that had been ringing in the background from Yoichi was completely drowned as a hum wrapped around his throat like a vice. A tidal-wave in comparison to the gentle rain that Yoichi’s song had been.   

Yield.  

He couldn’t move. His body froze like his every joint had turned as hard as the armour protecting him.  

He had felt this before. 

Finding his feet moving closer to the ocean, along with hundreds others marching to their death, unable to stop or resist the call that they had yet had the technology to even pick  up the frequency of. The fear drenching his bones and closing his throat off even before he reached the shore, before the wave crashed down and carried so many into its grasp. 

Lucky. They had said he was, finding his body half-drowned and stuck on a fallen bit of construction work that had saved him from being dragged out to sea and drowned. He hadn’t been able to see anything, hot and sticky blood pouring into his eyes from the wound on his face. 

“Shit. He’s coming back, isn’t he.” 

Ryūji had seen even sirens freeze at the Emperor’s call, but this one seemed to only be hindered by the lack of strength in his body, moving up to place a cold webbed hand on his exposed cheek.   

“It doesn’t work on me.” the siren paused before clarifying. “His song. He was not very happy to find that out. You really can't move?” 

Like a physical oxymoron, the only thing Ryūji could do was use all his strength to just slightly move his head to the side. 

“Do you trust me?” 

“No.” Ryūji thought, truthfully. Somehow it seemed to convey properly. The siren was moving in quick jerky movements, looking down towards where the tunnel split. 

“Do you want to die here?” 

Ryūji still had the frequency going, picking up the constant low song from the siren, and as it spoke he heard an echo of the sub-vocalisation colouring the words. It, in difference to the indifference that the siren seemed to want to hold, was uncomfortably frightened against the call coming from somewhere far away in the water. Coming closer.  

Equally truthful, Ryūji managed another pitiful shake. Yoichi could most likely only pick it up by feeling the movement against his palm. The siren nodded.

“This will hurt.” 

With a splash of his tail Yoichi pushed himself up by using the ledge, grabbing onto his body and with Ryūji’s blood turning to ice, his head screaming not only because of the command in the song as he saw Yoichi’s elongated and sharp teeth latch on and bite through the half-way exposed skin below his jaw. 

Instinctually, he tried to pull away, fighting against the grip that should have so easily broken, body unable to even twitch as the siren toppled them both over, having them fall down into the water with a splash that he was sure wouldn’t make their position any less known. 

Everything around him shut down, like an electric current bursting through his skin and travelling down his blood, shocking and painful and he opened his mouth to scream, immediately being choked by water flowing into his mouth and drowning him as the armour died around him in a flash of white and green like electric lightning, turning heavy and unmoving and somewhere in the peripheral of his mind he could feel the siren pulling at it. 

He was going to die, fighting this insane siren. Saburo would make the dangerous journey back, maybe even get snatched up by the Kraken when he came too close, killed by the Emperor himself all because Ryūji couldn’t...

“Don’t try to breathe. Just let it run through you.” Yoichi’s voice was right beside him, his hand pressing hard against the wound on the side of his neck. 

Trust me. The hum was strong, like it originated inside of him and not coming from the siren beside him as his whole body suddenly felt burning hot and cold, like his very skin was melting apart, as if someone had placed a tazer in his stomach electrocuting him inside-out. Then everything turned white as it felt like the bones of his legs were breaking all at once, a firestorm that was only made worse as his body moved to get away from the pain that originated from inside of him.  

His hands latched onto something, a body that stilled and held him as the final waves of pain mellowed out. 

He wasn’t breathing, Ryūji realised. Water was going into his mouth, but was expelled through slits, gills that he could see through in the broken pieces of his clothes, large holes ripped from talon-like claws that had scratched against his skin, against the scales that he now saw growing like misplaced nails on his body.  

A large mass of something moved beside him in his peripheral view and he flinched back from it, dragging himself out of the grip he’d taken on Yoichi, a moment before the flinch itself forced the mass to move strangely. In a twilight moment, his mind put together that he couldn’t escape from the mass because it was connected to him, a long tail merged and connected where his legs should have been. He felt a surge of pain where his panic had made the tail smash against the sharp wall. 

His tail. That he shouldn’t even be able to see. 

The armour had powered down. All the light was gone, and still he had no trouble making out the shapes and forms in the darkness around him. No colour, but as Yoichi swum back into view, there was no trouble seeing his expression, gaze flickering over his face. 

“It’s not irreversible.” Yoichi’s voice was clear in his head, a sorry without the underlying regret that he heard almost like it had temperature, a touch against his very mind. His brain trying to comprehend a sense it hadn’t had before. 

Below them, his armour was scattered on the rocky floor in pieces. So even malnourished the siren had been able to tear it open as a tin-can once it had been shut down. That wasn’t very comforting to know.

“Wait.” Speaking was strange, he felt it coming from somewhere in his chest, but it didn’t feel like it passed throat at all. 

Everything was strange. 

Ryūji decided to shove everything that had just happened, the panic and distrust bubbling up and making him want to shut down, into the same place as he had placed the earlier feeling of hearing Yoichi laugh. Focusing instead to dive down and scavenge what he could from the broken pieces of the armour. He felt better holding his gun again, the surge of whatever Yocihi had done to him had rendered everything else useless, but the gun worked. 

Saburo would have seen the tracker, the comm in his helmet lose power. That meant either two things: that he wouldn’t come back and they would think that Ryūji was dead. Or, he would return early for that exact reason. 

Not another second to waste, the two of them pushed the armour down out of sight, and then Ryūji let Yoichi take the lead through forks in the tunnels he hadn’t used before. Stumbling along with a body that felt simultaneously clumsier and more fluid than he had been entering. 

The song of the Emperor, of All for One (why that name stuck, he didn’t know, maybe because it reminded of those cartoonish villains of his childhood series, made less real) was loud in the new part of his mind, trying to suffocate him and his body wanted to stop. To yield, give up. Instead, a contesting hum from inside him allowed him to escape its grasp every time it seemed like it would be overwhelming. 

He missed the map, rough and rudimental as it was. If he was left behind he probably wouldn’t be able to find his way anywhere but Yoichi moved around the maze like he had done it a thousand times. He moved quickly, faltering at a point like a flinch of pain that made him crash into an unnoticed stalactite. There was a dead-end, and Yoichi pushed them both close against the wall. Ryūji knew better than to try and speak, especially as Yoichi had lifted a finger against his mouth, and then pointed it towards a fork in the tunnel in the direction that they had just come from. 

Heart stopping in his chest, he saw just a glimpse of the end of a tail disappearing along the tunnel, scarred, and almost shining white in the darkness. 

Both of them stayed still, like they had melded into the rocks and stone around. The hum he had gotten used to hearing was smothered, All for One’s song covering everything like a screeching white noise in the back of his mind. 

The moment they dared, hoping movements in the water wouldn’t be felt by All for One now gone past, they quickly entered the tunnel from which he had come from, and started to head back towards what Ryūji hoped to be an exit. 

Yoichi was falling behind and when he looked back, still surprised he could see through the darkness, he found the siren huddled against the wall, clutching the side of his torso and his face scrunched together in what could have been pain or frustration. 

He could leave him, Ryūji realised. 

All for One would go after his little brother first to drag him back to that strange cell, it might give Ryūji time to flee. 

A moment later he squeezed himself in next to the siren (other siren?), heaving his arm around his own shoulder and didn’t stop to look at what expression Yoichi wore as he started to push them both through tight corridors. Eventually falling into a rhythm. The tunnel they were in was widening, coming closer to an exit different from the one he had entered through.

There was light coming through the opening, and they slowed down just enough to not alert two shapes, guards, left at either side of the exit. They were looking for attacks from the outside. 

The moment that All for One realised that his little brother was gone, was when the oppressive song that had been scratching at the back of Ryūji’s head turned furious. 

Two guards had been left outside crumpled as Ryūji as well felt the wave like a hand trying to grip hold of his very mind, crush it to pieces and for a split second nothing existed except for a command not even directed to him to Come Here. 

By the time of his next blink, Yoichi was moving, surging up from behind one of the guards, hands balled together and smashing against the head of the guard with the metal cuffs still hanging from his wrists. There was no finesse, as the disoriented guard twisted to turn against its attacker, Yoichi was already going for its throat. The second guard had woken up by then, managing to get a hold of Yoichi’s arms by the hanging chains and wrenching them back from its partner. 

Ryūji almost felt insulted that it hadn’t even checked if Yoichi was truly alone. By that time it noticed the mistake, Ryūji had already lined up the shot and pulled the trigger too close for the siren to even have a chance to escape the sharp bolt lodging into its back. 

“Come on.” He barely needed to say it, Yoichi shaking the first guard off him as it tried to get its bearings back. Ryūji threw a glance down the tunnel, before both of them started to race up towards the surface. The storm was gone, he could see sunbeams filtering down from the above. 

The sea was open like a calm oppressing void on every side of them. Now when he could see the blue seemed endless, an empty wasteland and this very underwater cliff like a lone island in the middle. If they tried to go anywhere but up, there would be no place to hide. There would be no place to hide as they went to the surface either, not if Saboru had decided him to be a lost cause. If he didn’t recognise him. 

The rumble was felt through his bones, and Ryūji’s stomach dropped, right as they started to crest over the top of the cliff and was met by a tentacle the size of half a sky-scraper, latched onto the top. The Kraken. It was not that Ryūji had forgotten its existence. He had just hoped it wouldn’t appear. How does one even begin to plan how to fight something that not even tanks can handle.

The gigantic head followed as three more limbs, gripped a hold of the rocks and it pulled itself over from the other side, for a moment the face swirling around as to look further away at the expanse below, and when it looked down the mouth opened just a little. Like it was surprised to see how close they still were. Its shadow stretched over them, blocking the light from above. 

“Stay near me, it is unable to be delicate and it isn’t allowed to kill me.” Yoichi said through gritted teeth. 

They had already not strayed far from one another, but even before Ryūji could decide what to do, scanning for weaknesses, if they could hurry past if the Kraken truly couldn’t touch them, a cold voice interrupted. 

“No. I wouldn’t let that happen.” 

Ryūji pulled Yoichi against him, placing him in between himself and the siren that had appeared next to its beast above them. The moment he did Yoichi stilled against him, didn’t try to fight even when the point of the needlegun was placed against the soft and unprotected skin under his jaw. Same place, as when Yoichi had torn into him. He was cold against him, eerily so, like he was already clinging to a corpse and not a living being. 

Even when in comparison to the giant beast forming a living backdrop behind him, the siren holding one hand on the tentacle that seemed to have brought him there from some other exit that must have been out of sight, there was no doubt that the Deep Emperor would tower over them. Visually, he did not look much different from the other Merfolk; pale white scales dotted intermingling with a midnight black, but his presence was like the sea itself. Unpredictable, and immense. 

His blood rushing in his ears, pressure on his body like he had been sent instantly hundreds of metres further down, Ryūji felt the strain and ache in muscles that he didn’t know existed. His body shaking from an unknown source. White strands of hair were tickling against his face, floating in deceptive calm. 

Yoichi leaned his head back, to give him better access or as a subtle attempt to get away, Ryūji didn’t know. All that mattered, was that the Deep Emperor, the very one who had caused Ryūji to lose everything and everyone he had had before the war, was stopping his approach. 

“Let us go, or I’ll kill him.” Ryūji said. 

“I don’t recognise you.” All for One spoke, cold gaze mapping him curiously, and underneath in harmonisation he could feel the song shift. lilting and lulling, placicating telling him that there was no need to fight.   

“I’m hurt.” Ryūji answered, shaking the feeling off, and the smile he got in return made him want to puke.  

“Why don’t we get to know each other then? I’m sure we can come to an agreement somehow.” The siren drifted closer, slowly, and Ryūji pressed the point further into Yoichi’s skin. Stilled the urge to back away. 

Yoichi didn’t speak, but like sparks passing through, sub-vocalisation his mind was trying to parse, it felt like their hearts were beating in tandem. If Ryūji pulled the trigger, they would both die here. 

If All for One would move closer, if he could just take the shot and kill him. If he was able to end all of this, right here and now. It would all have been worth it. Every person lost. 

A hand on his kept his aim steady. 

“You know I don’t want to die.” Yoichi said, voice soft and melodic as in a mockery of the lull his brother had tried to put them in. “Stall all you like, brother, by the time the rest of your… worshippers come here I will have drowned.” Eyes flickering back to look at Ryūji like they shared a secret. “or be shot, of course.” 

He kept his face neutral and schooled, couldn't allow his eyes to look at Yoichi longer than a moment. Couldn’t let the confusion show, not when he saw rage and incredulity flash over All for One’s face. 

Bubbling up from the space where he usually put all unnecessary details to be picked apart when the crisis was over, a single thought escaped. 

Didn’t Yoichi have scales under his eyes? 

He didn't have them anymore, at least.

Oh. 

That changes things. 

All for One made a sharp movement, and Ryūji flinched back, Yoichi unmoving and regal in his arms. But then the Kraken hesitated just for a second before it started to move back. Long and crushing limbs folding away as the surface was presented for them. 

“I will hunt you down.” All for One promised, his voice devoid of emotion, like a casual observation. The song still trying to claw into him, carried the thrum of intent in its place. 

It wasn’t clear to whom he was speaking, and Ryūji could not find it in himself to care. They moved, and as they passed All for One Ryūji made sure to look straight at him. Hoped he remembered his face. 

Hoped he would remember it when he came to kill him. 

As they broke the surface, a blue sky met them. Like the storm had never existed in the first place and the sun was a too bright spotlight in his face. Enough that he barely spotted the dot far up ahead, circling on a height that the Kraken itself would not  reach. 

Not until this point did Ryūji release the threatening point against the siren he had saved, and he pointed the needlegun up at an angle near but not on the dot, shooting once. 

“Thank you.” Yoichi said, the weak and raspy above-water voice difficult to hear. 

“I would have done it.” Ryūji said, truthfully, and in contrast to what he had expected the siren relaxed back, leaning into him. 

“I know.” Yoichi said, “Thank you.” 

On the cold hard metal floor of the chopper, their bodies pushed together close and in a heap of cold limbs, and feeling the salty-air smell, Ryūji realised that he was breathing again.

“I think I’m going to pass out.” Yoichi said his lips right next to the shell of his ear. Arms wrapped around his neck, andRyūji tightened his grip just in time for Yoichi's body to go limp. At least, he kept breathing, chest moving slowly and shallow, the gills on his sides opening up once before the body apparently decided that it was a bad idea, and closed them again. Was it just his imagination, or did they seem smaller than before? 

Strangely, Ryūji could still faintly hear the sub-vocalisation of the siren, a stringing hum like coming down from way too much caffeine. In muscles he had never had before, a faint vibration that he couldn’t quite translate.   

“Are you okay back there? What the hell happened. I thought you were dead.” Saboru could not hide the shaking of his voice, as he finally looked back from where he had been focused on getting them away without being snatched down into the ocean again.

From the view of the open window, the vast blue expanse looked deceptively beautiful.  

“What the hell is that.” Saboru had gone pale, made even more noticeable against his red hair as he gestured to nothing in particular. His hand just made a motion over the entire floor and their bodies as his eyes went down Ryūji’s torso, to where scales were still painfully pushing up and solidifying like horrible blisters. 

Ryūji looked at the siren, Yoichi, the brother of their greatest enemy lying collapsed against him, then down at himself, at the way his body was unfamiliar like watching through someone else's eyes as the new tail moved and twiched through new muscles he was finding one by one. Then back at Saboru.

“New tidings."