Chapter Text
“Alright, Wilbur please I need you to bear with me, tell your side as much as you can.”
The mentioned Siren scowled at the captain.
“What are you doing with this information?” Wilbur snarled “To get us killed?!”
Techno seemed to be the only one who was staying calm.
“Wilhnya, Philza was killed us long time ago if he wanted us die.”
This time around, it was getting close to dawn, taking a look at the sky. Tommy rumbled his eyes awake from Wilbur's yelling.
“Groee l fromph tr’uo aye?” Tommy asked with a grumbling voice.
“Wilhnya tu gapw jru nanlop (Wilbur is a nanlop)”
Wilbur’s mouth dropped open while Tommy covered his mouth snickering at the insult.
Poor Philza had no clue what was going on but cleared his throat.
“I apologize for the interruption, but anytime when you're ready Wilbur, I’m all ears.”
This was going to be a controversial topic that the Captain was thinking of writing about. Most places all over the world do not know of what goes on inside of Anania, it was based on a monarchy, but the crew of Esempii as most have discussed know better than that.
1. The citizens are not allowed in or out
2. The Kings and Queens are treated like Gods, while everyone else is lowly to them
3. There was no political power for the citizens
4. Anyone who said anything considered bad about the royal family would be heavily punished
5. The citizens are TAUGHT to hate anyone who wasn’t born, raised, and staying in Anania as they were considered inferior
Captain Philza knows this is a dictatorship, and he needs to stop the cruelty that happens to the people inside the kingdom.
By showing what happened to Wilbur, Techno, and Tommy.
Wilbur glared at Philza with a mortifying stare, and eventually shut his eyes, gritted his teeth, and said
“Fine”
As it becomes more apparent, everyone was knocked out and then taken somewhere new. As it becomes apparent Wilbur is put in a place where the water seemed cleaner than the open sea itself, he could see everything around him, and he starts sputtering and clicking in panic.
“Shhhhh!”
He whips his head around to the new noise and sees another Siren, Wilbur gasps at her appearance, she had beautiful and sparkling scales that seemed to glisten in different colors all around her tail. She had incredible green eyes and curly red hair. But he saw her ribs jutting out of her body, and the sunken look on her face.
“Groee l fromph tr’uo aye?” Wilbur asks the girl. She widens her eyes in shock, she clicks and trills silently.
“Iup huarti, droll’bip bom… (I know, but you won’t like it.)”
“She spoke a different form of our language, and fortunately it didn’t take long to figure out that she spoke it.”
“Ereeeee… dui polle tus? (Uhhhhh, so what is it?)”
“Primoro, bip kay noombo ko? (First, what’s your name?)”
Wilbur’s fear and uncertainty felt as if they had slowly melted away, at this point he was just mesmerized by her.
“W-wilhnya… tas? (Wilbur… yours?)”
The Siren smiled, laughing silently and dipping her head low and covering her mouth. When she looked up at Wilbur again, she softly said,
“Mis noomba, ris Sere, penkilo foe de te hapw Serenete. (My name is Sally, short for Serena.)”
“Serenete… noomba tas own ti hamentana. (Serena, your name is beautiful)”
“Rut’hi jop Wilhnya… Mane mapw vrithik gruw b malutinahka groeeo? (Thank you Wilbur, but don’t you want to know what’s happening?)”
He smiled, “Mas fronlto graqwu k l’l’la napt gruwa groeeo dan’g’gh tas. (I don’t think I will mind what happens if it’s with someone like you.)”
Those two shared a laugh and just lay in the tank and listened to the silence around them.
Like some sort of twisted cheesy novel, they would be THE two peas in a pod. Eventually, Wilbur found out what he was in this place for, which was to serve humans, he was devastated about this situation he found himself in. He had no clue where his brothers were, or how to get back to the sea.
And somehow, he didn’t completely mind where he was at.
“Sally made my upside-down life, right side up again. Felt like she was the only person who actually understood how I felt.”
It was day three of being in this new place and Wilbur was chatting away with Sally.
“Quen hi tal popora? (What’s your favorite color?) Quopla ya an ga? (Where did you come from?) Quan tal la kruta? (What’s your favorite sea animal?)”
“Wilhnya! Primeo duroro kren! (Wilbur! One question at a time!)”
Sally wasn’t there most of the time in the tank, and most of the time when Wilbur would wake up from sleeping, she either was awake or just not there. Those were the times when it was truly crushing, but also incredibly boring for him to be awake. There were humans, in weird suits and carrying weird tools, every time one got too close he would growl at them. And as the days went on more and more sirens passed by him that were like Sally, none of them seemed as happy as Sally was. Wilbur would just float at the bottom of his tank wondering what on earth is going on.
One morning, or at least he thinks it’s morning. There were humans in front of his tank that was rumbling, but it wasn’t at all comforting. Wilbur growled and bared his teeth, flaring his fins to make himself look intimidating. But the humans didn’t pay attention to him, they just kept on mumbling and carrying the weird tools.
Until some other humans were carrying a Siren, Wilbur then realized who it was.
His brother, his twin, Techno was covered in scars, all of which were pretty decently fresh. The humans threw the unconscious Siren into Wilbur’s tank and it made a large ‘splash!’ Bubbles clogged up Wilbur’s ability to see for a few moments until he smelled blood, and saw the water turning slightly pink. His dorsal fins went straight up on either side of him when he saw his brother absolutely covered in new bruises, cuts, and scars.
“Teoka! Groee l fromph twoph, bulandenento?!” (Techno, what in the deep sea happened to you?!”)
Techno shot straight up in the tank facing Wilbur, with pearls gathering in his eyes, he wrapped around Wilbur’s torso and hugged him. Wilbur slowly hugged back realizing how much he cherished being around his brothers, and how heartbroken he is now that his youngest sibling was no longer with them. Pearls started to appear in Wilbur’s eyes as well, as they both silently sobbed in that little tank until they both eventually fell asleep.
Techno was woken up by a new presence in the tank and shot straight up to see if it was a human again. To his pleasant surprise, it was another Siren, they were still sleeping. But flinched when he saw the Siren move to the side to face him, she was still asleep and breathing silently, small little bubbles would breathe out of her.
“Quel nat yo… (who’s this…)” Techno thought tilting his head. He decided that he would just wait till either his brother or the unknown Siren to woke up.
The unknown Siren stirred first, she slowly raised her arms above her head stretching and yawning. She opened her eyes and they widened when she saw the new Siren. She lifts herself up, Techno and her having an impromptu staring contest. He was the first to blink, he trilled awkwardly, signifying that he wanted to know who she was.
The new Siren giggled and spoke, “Serenete, poco thulu no sere. (Serena, shorter is Sally.)”
Techno, also easily picked out her dialect of the language, “Mis noombo Teoka, ta druo nop’lala gro? (My name is Techno, what happened to you?)”
He could tell, she was surprised that he asked that question out of all the others. But Sally answered with her head low, clicking and trilling sadly.
“This place is Anania, they captured my family when I was just a little pup and was taken to perform in front of humans. My parents were too feeble to do the things they were forcing us to do so they died from exhaustion. That’s what they told me, but I highly doubt it, I think the humans just dragged them away and killed them.”
Philza was shaking with anger, he had no clue. He was livid that Anania had hidden this so well from the rest of the North. But he needs to keep on listening and keep on writing.
“Since I own the most colorful and shiny scales, I was the only one in my family who survived. And I’ve been something to look at ever since, and now Wilbur is going to be like that with me. I don’t want that for him.”
Techno and Sally at this point we’re dead silent waiting for Wilbur to eventually wake up. They heard a slight growl, closer to a yawn more than anything. They turned their heads towards Wilbur, and Techno swam over to his twin's side.
Wilbur opened his eyes to see Techno right above him and gasped with a smile on his face. He went up to hug his twin and they were still like that for a few moments before Wilbur let go and went over to say good morning to Sally. She smiled and said “Brilop Wilhnya, i brilop Teoka. (Good morning to you too Wilbur, and good morning to you too Techno.)”
“Oh, brola noombas li’li? (Oh, you know my brother’s name?)”
Sally nodded, she was about to speak again, to explain how Techno knew.
“HEY! Sally! You're up today with Wilbur, explain what he needs to do…”
Sally sighed and shook her head as she faced Wilbur, chatting away with Techno. She hated this, she wanted to have Wilbur stay longer with Techno, but if she doesn’t then…
“Wilhnya, to tu neu halop bunatoa. (Wilbur, I need you to do something for me.)”
“Frua? (What is it?)”
Wilbur swims back into the tank backstage of the whole set and sinks to the bottom out of exhaustion. For a moment he closes his eyes massaging his head and bringing the heat back to his dorsal fins. But then he feels a shadow loom over him so he peaks an eye open to see Sally deadpanning him unimpressed.
“Fa laick tu nan tow (It wasn’t even that bad/ come on)”
He made a grunt that was the equivalent to “leave me the fuck alone please.”
Sally rolled her eyes and swam over to Will, dragging him by the arm to where they would be checked for the next show.
To both of their surprise, no one was there yet so they had some time to themselves.
Wilbur finally sat up again, looking at Sally, her annoyed facial expression turned into sadness and exhaustion. Will sighed and looked off to the side.
“Will dis be se rest of are libe? (Will this be the rest of our lives?)”
“I have no clue Wilhnya, I’ve been in this place for about as long as I can remember my childhood, and I’ve never found any way of escaping.”
He looked back at Sally, Wilbur was already so miserable and this was only his 3rd show, and he was doing it with someone he liked. So he could feel his heart weigh heavy in his chest when he thinks about how much pain she went through. And how Techno is going through torture. He got an idea, and just like in Wilbur fashion. He’s too stubborn to give up on it.
“Aso, vivi na lo mi toaqo. (But, I could let us out)”
Sally looked him in the eyes and shook her head,
“Tas- danolapat Wilhnya. (You- Wilbur it’s impossible.)”
He swam closer to her and whispered.
“Will will get us ow of here.”
Sally started tearing up and laughing silently.
“Your English is fantastic, Wilhnya. I never would have known you hadn’t spoken a lick of English.”
He tilted his head and clicked in confusion.
“What does spoken lick of English mean?”
She started laughing harder and louder now.
“I- I take it back, you're still not great at it.”
Wilbur’s jaw dropped in offense and he pounced on her in retaliation. She shrieked with laughter as Wilbur wrapped his arms around her body, pinning her to the ground, laughing as well.
“Blaoq, blaoq Sere! (Take it back, take it back Sally!)”
“Hey! Knock it off you freaks!”
They both stopped moving entirely, Wilbur got off of Sally and backed away from her. He felt ashamed and embarrassed, Sally was already rambling apologies, saying it was her fault, and she started it.
“Sally, don’t let this keep up, you're slipping. Fix this and soon. You’re going on in 10 minutes for the next performance so rehearse your actions.”
The man walked away, and when he was out of earshot Wilbur hissed at him. He turned to Sally with his head down.
“You need te stop taking te blame for me, it is not fair.”
She sighed and grabbed his wrist and swam backstage.
“They trust me more since I’ve been here longer, if they don’t trust you…”
She trails off and stops moving.
“If tay don’t trust me, ten what?”
“I’m afraid they’ll make your journey to the mother sea as her water.”
Wilbur sighed, “Danan loa inta mano ka. (Escaping is going to be hard.)”
He was quick to change the subject though, suggesting that the two should get started rehearsing now.
“I don’t know how but I somehow found it.”
For once Wilbur found Sally still sleeping when he woke up.
“She looks so precious.” He thought. And waited for her to wake up. Wilbur really needed to tell her something.
Like really needed to tell her something, and hopefully, Techno would be in his tank today, since he memorized the schedule.
There was a desk in front of their tank, and a human at one point left a couple of papers there for at least an hour and whispered “Good luck”. So Wilbur forced himself to remember as much as he could.
There were three things, a map, a schedule, and a security map as well.
There are two exits, one on either side of the giant facility, of course extremely far away from them, but Wilbur figured out a plan for that.
Techno came every Tuesday, and every Saturday. There were 2 guards at each main entrance to the facility, and multiple humans walking through the halls. There are also many containers with fish that get transported around, they could easily sneak into one and wait for a human to push them to one of the entrances to be filled with fish.
It wasn't a foolproof plan, but it was a plan nonetheless. So he waited and went over the details in his head over and over again. Wilbur hoped it would go well, dying to feel the open ocean again and to let Sally see and feel the loving arms of the water as well.
He heard a stir and snapped his head to look back at Sally. She was about to wake up!
“We’re gonna WHAT?!”
“Shhh! Keep it down, you dumbass!”
Wilbur perked his fins, listened intently against the muffled glass, and heard two humans walk close to the room where he and Sally were. He slowly lowered himself down next to Sally on his side and closed his eyes to pretend he was sleeping.
“Are you sure about this? I mean the crowds actually have good reviews of them together.”
“I don’t mean it like that when I say it’s bad that they are together a lot, I mean we need to use this to our advantage here.”
“Ohhh, I get the picture. I’ll let her know.”
“Go do that now and then we’ll get some sleep.”
The humans stop talking and one pair of footsteps are walking away from the tank. But the other was coming towards the room Wilbur and Sally were being kept in. What were they gonna tell Sally? He slowly moved his way through the water to place himself right in front of Sally trying to make it seem like she wasn’t even there. Wilbur knew it was useless, but it was comforting to at least try and protect her from something.
The door slams open, and the human walks in. As he got closer and closer to the cage that they were being kept in, Wilbur had the dying urge to jump out of the water and strangle him. He couldn’t help himself anymore, and when the human dropped something in the tank, he growled and started to hold Sally’s sleeping body.
“Oh shut up, go back to sleep, this doesn’t involve you, yet.”
The human starts cackling as the item drops to the bottom of the tank. It was a box-looking thing and it had a red blinking light on the side of it. Wilbur clicked in confusion but immediately picked up what it was, he swam over and tore the thing to pieces with his hands. It shocked him with electricity and gave him a scratch or two on his webbed hands, but he wasn’t thinking about that. Wilbur’s eyes only saw red when looking at the human.
“Woah, hey, I wasn’t trying to hurt your girlfriend here, I was only going to wake her up for something!” He was chuckling but had a tint of fear in his eyes when he realized what had just happened.
He disturbed a full-grown male Siren, by trying to interact with another Siren, that Wilbur soulfully attached himself to. And that golden Siren wasn't at all happy.
“You get out of my sight, you land monster.”
Wilbur’s face was contorted, into a terrifying expression.
The man was shaking at this point and rushed out of the room yelling out for help.
Wilbur had no time to lose, he had to escape now.
He softly shook Sally asking her to wake up.
Her eyelids fluttered, as her eyes flicked open; slowly sitting up.
“Wha’ iz eh? (What is it?)”
“Serenete, me polo thulaii, snaplah’h (Serena, I found a way out.)”
She stared at him wide-eyed and shook her head, frantically trying to convince him not to do anything.
“Fruo’d ladna’a ai (Please, trust me.)”
She sighed and said,
“Okay.”
“Clearly, it didn’t work, well… It almost didn’t work, all I wanted was for her to be free, and before Techno and I were forced in the ship, she had a dart logged into her side and she slid into the seas”
Everyone was silent for a moment, Phil then spoke.
“And you’ve never seen her since, and you’ll probably never see her again.”
Wilbur choked up, and just gave a quiet “yeah…”
There was knocking on the door, which startled everyone except Phil.
“Come on in, you're not interrupting anything.”
Ranboo and Tubbo were the ones that walked in, they both smiled and faced Phil.
“Are they finished?”
The captain grins and nods.
Wilbur and Techno were confused, and Tommy… Well, he was just playing with the metal keys the whole time but looked up too to see Ranboo and Tubbo. He squeaks with joy and waves frantically
The two hybrids outside the door wave back, but Wilbur just hushes Tommy and has a threatening glare.
“What are you planning?”
Techno gains a dark look on his face too and agrees.
“Choose next action carefully.”
Phil reassures them, “I promise it’s nothing bad! Actually, it’s a surprise mainly for Wilbur. I think you’ll love this.”
Wilbur quirks his eyebrow in confusion and says slowly.
“Go on…”
Tubbo blurts out, “Close your eyes!”
Wilbur and Techno share a look, having a conversation with each other in their minds. Techno nods and Wilbur then closes his eyes.
Ranboo added in a sing-songy voice, “No peeking!”
Wilbur growls, showing very well that he’s not going to be happy if the situation went a certain way.
Phil isn’t worried, he knows Wilbur is going to be so greatly excited when he sees the surprise.
Niki and Karl are carrying a huge pile of blankets, and when they get to the tank they lift it up as high as they can, and throw it over the edge.
The captain smiles and laughs.
“Open your eyes.”
When Wilbur opened his eyes, he saw a colorful shape swimming right toward him. Knocking him over onto the bottom of the tank, he feels a familiar sense in his heart and hugs the new presence back. Realization pools into his eyes as pearls start raining down his cheeks.
Everybody, including the captain, left the room, and even Tommy and Techno backed from Wilbur to let him have a moment. Techno was slightly offended that his twin was more relieved to see Sally than him when they saw each other again. But, he couldn’t dictate to who Wilbur wanted to devote himself. So he was happy for him, and Tommy was confused but happy to see Wilbur happy.
He whispered to her, “Me pola twula hahi sanole kao nippi me ah wei. (I can’t express in words how happy I am to see you.)”
“Anan de ai! Teoka! Teoka! (I want a hug too! Techno! Techno!)” Tommy whisper-yelled.
The aforementioned Siren sighs and hugs Tommy too. But he’s decently at peace now, and so was every Siren in the room. They knew they were going to get justice for themselves, and their people who were tortured in the kingdom of Anania.
Sally finally lets go of Wilbur to just fully look him in the face, she wipes a tear that was dripping down his cheek and gives him a soft smile.
“Me grut kao nippi me ah wei (I’m so happy to see you too.)” she whispered.
“Captain, I don’t mean to doubt you, but are you sure this is going to go well?”
The Captain looks at Dream and nods.
“It’s alright to have doubt in me, but I’m pretty confident the court will rule Anania’s government inadequately.”
Dream looks forward to the door that the jury walked through 3 hours ago. In a deep train of thought, his knee was bouncing and he started fidgeting with his fingers.
Philza and Dream are at the front; the King and Queen are at the front as well, anticipating the jury to walk out of the room. The rest of the Esempii crew are in the very back and watched the court case unfold.
An almost completely quiet room heard a loud door open. And the jury walked out into their seats again. Tension was rising in the large and crowded courtroom as the silence continued.
“Have you made your verdict?” The judge asked.
One of the people on the jury answers, “We have your honor.”
Everyone seemed to lean forward and started to sweat a little.
Judge swallowed and took a deep breath.
“What is the verdict?”
The jury stood up, and the only hybrid on the jury answered.
“We found the defendant…”
Dream whispered under his breath, “Just say it god damnit, this isn’t a Television drama series.”
The whole room was quiet, Philza was clenching his fists and trying to keep his heart rate low, heavily failing, but a man can try.
“Guilty as charged.”