Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The airport rumbled to life as soaring planes took off from the ground and into the sky. The airport was small, only holding two or three planes at a time. That would make sense, of course, considering the place was stationed close to the tip of Canada, near the Arctic.

The few people that were at the airport were all running around, holding onto bags of science equipment and supplies; shuttling them to the cargo bay. You looked around, checking out the four other people who would be joining you on your journey.

You had recently signed up for an Arctic mission. You were a recent graduate from Ebbot University’s science department and you had taken this opportunity to study the ice flows of the Arctic region. It would no doubt be a difficult mission. Six months alone with only four other strangers for company, but you were excited. This was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and, hey, you’d worked hard to be given this opportunity.

“Hey newbie, are you almost ready to go? Planes leaving in a few?” A young woman says she looked only a couple of years older than you at the most. Her calm green eyes twinkled in the airport lighting as she waited for your response.

“Oh, yeah, sorry for drifting off! I’m just so excited!” You chirp out, The woman smiles and extends a hand out to you

“I’m Sarah, hope you like board games and shitty jokes cuz that’s all you're going to be hearing from me for the next six months!” You chuckled lightly at the comment and shook her pale hand. Her grin widened. Before anything more could be said another woman approached. She looked to be around her mid-forties, long black hair tied into a tight bun. She kept a blank face as she approached the two of you.

“The plane is leaving soon. Are you both ready?” She said in a blunt and formal tone. You smiled at her; her face remained unchanged.

“Uuhh, yeah we were just talking that’s all” you mumbled, cowed by your colder colleague's tone. Sarah patted your shoulder comfortingly, as the older woman walked away.

“Don’t mind her. That’s Jenny, she’s been doing these sorts of expeditions since she was an assistant, I’m sure she’s just excited to get going!” Sarah chirped. You pursed your lips, “Still, she didn’t need to be so cold” Sarah nodded and started walking you towards the plane.

You and Sarah both step onto the plane and find your two other colleagues already seated and chatting with one another, Jenny sits on her phone typing away. One of your colleagues, you notice, is a younger man, likely younger than you by a few years. He has long blonde hair that’s tied up into a bun, and square glasses sit atop his nose bridge, giving him a nerdy air. He jumps from his seat once he notices Sarah and yourself.

“Good morning! I’m Thomas, I’m going to be the new research assistant!” You smile at him and reach out your hand to shake his,

“That’s nice! I’m glad to have more people to talk to! I was worried it would get boring if I just had Sarah here!” you tease, Sarah pouts “hhheyy, I’m never boring!- Sup Thomas, is this your first time going out like this?” with a flash she's already forgotten about your tease and is now pushing into Thomas’s space, “yep! I just graduated last month. I’m really lucky I got this though, I had like a dozen of my classmates all sign up to work here” he rubs the back of his head. “Siren research is really catching up in popularity, huh” you say, Both Sarah and Thomas turn to you, seeming to have forgotten you in the heat of their conversation.

“Well, duh, everyone’s more curious about them now, especially with all those new ones being captured and displayed and all the new sightings” Sarah retorts, a friendly eye-roll accompanying her words. You huff and go to respond. Before anything can be said though, Thomas swings his arms around both your shoulders, “Ladies, ladies, there’s no need to fight, We can save that for when we land.”

“Not a lady” you state

“Ah, my apologies then, my liege” You chuckle at that, Thomas seemed to know how to keep the conversation flowing. Your grin widened.

“Alright, everyone, we all need to take our seats, The pilot is ready to go now” interrupted a calm voice, You turned around, seeing the woman you had yet to greet. She was the one funding the whole operation and had been for apparently quite some years now. She was maybe around her fifties. It was hard to tell, because, outside of a few wrinkles and grey hairs she looked very youthful. Her black hair was pulled into a tight bun and she was wearing a classic woman's business attire, knee-length black pencil skirt and all.

“Hi, I’m Doctor Calder, I’ll be working alongside you” You offer your hand out, and she takes it in a firm grip, shaking it for a few seconds.

“Lovely, I’m Morgan, I’ll be supervising you and the siren team”

“Wait you aren’t on the research team?” Thomas questions, his head tilting to the side.

“No, I’m going to be studying the ice flow of the Antarctic. Meaning I’ll just be recording how high the water freezes and how much it decreases over our six-month expedition,” you explain quickly, You felt like you’d already gone over this a dozen times with many people beforehand, and you likely had, not many people realised just how often science was just record keeping and then making reasonable estimations.

“What will you be studying about Sirens exactly?” you ask, Morgan butts into the conversation again

“We’re attempting to study Siren behaviour, they’re dangerous, one of the few creatures that actively hunt humans. The more we know about the way they act, the better we can prepare against them… too bad they’re so hard to catch, eh?” says Morgan, looking down with a friendly glint. You nod your head in agreement. Sirens were very dangerous. Supposedly, as a safety precaution, they were making everyone wear Siren-proof headphones.

With that, the conversation ends and all four of you get seated and settled in for the long flight ahead. You feel yourself drifting into sleep as the plane rockets into the sky. You can hear the excited chattering of Thomas and Sarah and the clacking of Jenny's sharp nails onto her laptop.

________________________________________

Soon you start to feel the chill of the outside environment sneak into the plane. An uncomfortable shiver is pulled down your back and your eyes blink to awakeness. The world outside the plane window is completely white, with small patches of broken ice dotting the landscape, letting small windows of the icy ocean peak out. Sarah leans over your shoulder and grins excitedly.

“See all those little patches of broken ice?” you nod, “that means there's probably a Siren hanging around, most Sirens that live in these environments are strong enough to break through the ice and create those little holes. They use them for hunting or to get a breath!” she rambles on and your mind tries to process her words before their lost to you entirely. You rub your eyes, trying to drain the last bits of sleepiness from them.

“- Oh! And not to mention their songs-” Sarah’s cut off by Morgan, who delicately places a hand on her shoulder.

“The plane is landing soon, we should all get changed,” she says, turning away before either of you can respond. Sarah takes the command good-naturedly and drags you to where your bags are stored. You both quickly suit up, wearing multiple thick fluffy jackets, alongside a pair of thick leather gloves, a warm beanie, snow goggles and the coziest pair of pants you’ve ever worn. Wearing all these makes it hard to walk, your body is stiff as you try to get used to the thick layers of clothes you’ll be forced to wear. That’s not even mentioning the boots you’ll have to put on once you land, You swear you’ll have to end up waddling to base camp at this point.

You chat amicably with Thomas and Sarah, both help fill in the silence when you struggle to bring anything new to the conversation. You peer back out the window, looking down at those ice holes, knowing that an apex predator made them. Intimidates you slightly, it sends a wave of nervousness to know that something that could so easily kill you is out there right now. You shake off the thought that, in all likelihood, you’d never see a Siren. If anything, you’d probably be the safest, considering you wouldn’t be with the rest of the team, tracking and studying the damn things. Still, even with this reassurance, some primal part of your brain screams at you, and your skin turns to goosebumps.

_________

The plane lands and you and everyone else depart. You all load up into some snowmobiles and race off to the base. You’re all tired, eyebags grow under everyone's eyes and even Sarah and Thomas have quietened down.

“Here we are everyone, Grab your bags, I’ll be showing you where your rooms are,” says Morgan, as she grabs her own bag. Your breath is taken away as you look upon the base, It’s massive, big enough to hold at least fifty more people easily, and its white paint reflects upon the snow harshly. It looks like it came out of some sci-fi movie with how the door automatically opens when Morgan presses a keycard onto a scanner.

“Here, Doctor Calder, your room is the first on the right,” Morgan hands you a key card attached to a black lanyard.” She walks off with everyone else, leaving only you behind.

You collapse on the bed, and the thick mattress cushions your head. You slip off your heavy boots, tear off your gloves and replace the rest of your thick outside gear with more comfortable pyjamas you’d packed in your bag. The room is kept at a cozy temperature, thanks to the base’s all-new temperature control system, courtesy of Morgan’s generous donations. You feel your eyes closing again, and just as quickly, you fall back asleep.

“Calder, Calder! C’mon dinners ready!” Sarah shakes you awake.

“Whuh?” you grumble out as you stretch your limbs, your blanket falling to the floor, You stumble up from the floor and hurry after Sarah. Soon you both make it to the dining hall. Everyone is already seated and plated up. You settle down next to Sarah and begin eating with everyone else.

“So do you like your room?” questions Thomas,

“Yeah! It’s surprisingly modern. I thought I was going to share with someone. I hope our labs are just as great!” you cheerfully say, Thomas and Sarah both flash a bright smile towards you. Jenny seems to have not heard you and is still typing away at whatever is on her laptop.

“I assure you, the labs here are some of the most modern in the world. I’ve personally seen to that” Morgan calmly states, her voice even and un-showing of any emotion other than pride.

“I assumed so, are you going to be working with the team, Morgan?” she shakes her head.

“I’ll mostly be floating about for most of the expedition. A sort of base commander. The team and you will be coming to me to submit your reports about your findings. I’ll also be the person to talk to if there are any problems” she explains.

With that explained, the rest of dinner is spent talking with everyone around you. It’s nice, even if Thomas does start to become a bit much at times.

Dinner ends and you find yourself stumbling back to bed, tired and ready to start a day anew.

__________________________________________________

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP

Your alarm clock screeches out, and you groan and slam a fist onto it, desperate to get another five minutes of rest. Nope, definitely awake now.

You push yourself out of bed and ready your clothes for the day. Hopefully, you’d get the chance to set up your first recording stations, but that was only possible if the weather was good. You shove as much of your breakfast down your throat as possible and hurry over to your lab.

It was large for one person. White all over and filled with expensive recording equipment. There was even a desktop situated in the corner of the room for you to write your findings. You quickly gather what equipment you’ll need and you head out, ready to figure out the science behind ice flow.

You leave before anyone can stop and try and chat with you. You are on a mission. You pile all your equipment onto a sled and start walking. You’d plotted out the first recording sight before you arrived. You were glad you’d done that, now you didn’t have to waste any time, you could just get straight to the experiments. You let out a soft hum, a song from your childhood, something your mother used to sing to you to lull you to sleep. Then, as the ice stretches on you make little jokes, comments about the surrounding area and comments on your co-workers.

The clicking catches you off guard. You hadn’t heard it at first, too distracted with your own thoughts to properly focus on your environment. But now you hear it. A sharp click would ring out from under the ice every few seconds, your blood turned cold and your legs picked up the pace. You were standing on thick sea ice right now, nothing should be capable of breaking it… except for a Siren.

‘Shit, shit, shit!’ you curse, hurridly dragging your sled across the ice, hoping to get to somewhere that is a little more solid, praying, hoping, that maybe your assumption is wrong. It isn’t the one deadly, apex predator that eats humans under the ice, tracking your every movement. Maybe it’s something else; what else could it be though?! You scorn.
You shakily make it across the ice. Your legs are shaking with terror. You take a breath.

“It’s fine, you’re fine. It can’t get you from here” you reassure yourself, placing a hand over your beating heart. You feel it slowly slow down. The clicking has quietened down, maybe because the Siren can’t see you anymore, you aren’t directly under it anymore. No matter, the clicking has stopped now, it's probably grown bored and swam off. You try and shake off the nervous sweat beading down your face and gather your equipment. The sooner you get this done, the sooner you can get back to base and report this. Sarah and the others will know what to do. You reassure yourself with.

Quickly, you measure and record everything down. Then pack everything back up and scurry back across the ice, making sure to keep an ear out for any more clicking, luckily, nothing is heard.

“Calm down Calder! It was probably just curious. It might not even be a Siren! It could be anything else! Plenty of animals use echolocation to see things!” You cheer yourself on, trying to regain the courage you had when you first left the base. Now, as you were entering it again, all you felt was the deep want to drink some hot chocolate and take a nap.

You exhale deeply as you step into the base, trying to give yourself the energy to tell Morgan everything. She should know, I mean, it’s kinda of her job to let you talk about any problems, she had said so earlier herself.

What you don’t see, what with your back being turned, is the ice cracking, a small hole being created as ice shatters and is pulled apart. A skeletal hand reaches out from the murky waters. His skull peeps out from the water, and the blue lights in his eye sockets shrink, giving the look of a cat right before the kill. He smiles sharply, his fangs on display, each one sharp enough to cut the flesh cleanly off of a person. His claws dig into the ice. He had missed his chance. He was sure another would come again soon though, one always did.

“How cute…” he dives under the ice, his large tail pushing him deeper into the deep blue.

Chapter Text

“Clicking, huh,” says Thomas, scratching his chin in contemplation. You told him what happened while you were on the ice. He seemed stumped for a moment.

“Well, you’re alive right now, so either it wasn’t a Siren or it was and maybe it was just checking you out?” he questions and he turns to Jenny. She had barely paid any attention to you much less everyone else, but now, she seemed at the edge of her seat. Trying hard to appear uninterested in the discussion.

“So was it a Siren?” you ask her, She jolts. Before shaking it off and answering.

“It’s likely. There aren’t a lot of Sirens out in this specific area, but the one that hangs around here the most likes to play with his food.” You pale, your heart quickens and you can feel beads of sweat start to build on your body. Jenny notices your reaction, “Oh, but don’t worry, if it were the Siren you would have likely already been eaten. They aren’t that patient” she interjects. You breathe a sigh of relief.

“Well, that’s good to know,” you say.

“Maybe we should tell Morgan about this?” Thomas questions, Jenny's eyes widen just a fraction and she shakes her head quickly.

“No, let’s not bother Morgan. It’ll just be a waste of time” she says, leaving no room for argument. She turns her back to the both of you, effectively ending the conversation. Your mind was briefly puzzled. Why was she so adamant about Morgan being left in the dark? You dismissed the thought, just thankful that whatever was watching you wasn’t a Siren.

You returned to your lab, spending the next few hours of your day analysing your recent findings. Soon the pull of hunger drags you away from your work and into the kitchen. You’ll have to go back out soon, you’ve done all you can with the records you have here and you’ll need new ones if you want to finish your work. You sigh, Maybe getting it over with would be good, in and out, like last time. Mentally agreeing with yourself, you cram the rest of your lunch down your throat and return to work. Soon the day ends and you stumble back to your room after dinner. Your mind is still stuck on the outside danger, and anxiety gnawing at you like a dog does to a bone.

A new day begins again, you rub your tired eyes and slam your fist down onto the blaring alarm clock. You groan as you stumble to your lab, skipping over the organised breakfast, throwing on your white lab coat you start your work back where you left it off. Strange, some of these new readings seemed off. Your mind now working again starts to run with answers. Maybe something bumped against one of the devices? Maybe it’s started to malfunction? Puzzling and strange, Morgan had promised that all the equipment was brand new, so a malfunction was unlikely. Ugh, no matter the reason, these readings wouldn’t be very useful if they came from an unreliable source.

You sighed deeply, whelp, guess you had to go out now rather than later. You quickly walked to your room, all your equipment lay on the floor, you were a very messy person it seems. You quickly got changed and left to leave the base.

“Bye guys, I’ll be back soon!” Thomas’s head pokes out from one of the many doorways,

“Wait! Have you got your S.S.K?” You squint your eyes in confusion,

“Uh, no, is that important?” now Sarah is poking her head out of another doorway

“Of course it’s important! S.S.K., the Siren Soundproof Kit! If what Thomas said was true then you should definitely be wearing one, c’mere” She gestures for you to come closer to you. As you reach her, Sarah pulls out two large earbuds that connect to a small black box.

“Here, plug those in” You plug the earbuds in and Sarah fiddles with the black box, twisting and turning the knobs that line the side of it. “Aha!” she exclaims, Her mouth continues to move but all you can hear is static. Loud and harsh, like a bug loudly buzzing in your ears, it’s all you can hear, even the rustle of your clothes is deafened by it. Sarah snaps her fingers near your ear, The static get louder for a second before lowering in volume. She plucks the earbuds out.

“There see, this is something we use when we have to go out for our research, it completely deafens you! Perfect against a Siren's song!” she exclaimed,

“What the hell’s a Siren song?” you murmur under your breath, Sarah doesn’t hear you but Thomas does. His eyes sparkle brightly as he launches into a tirade of information on how Sirens and their songs work.

“Yasee, Sirens lure in their prey with a hypnotic voice, usually in the form of a song! We aren’t too sure what type of magic allows them to do this, It’s probably unique to Sirens as a whole, no other Cryptid or Monster subspecies can do so. That’s one of the things we’re studying about them here!” he darts back into the lab. You and Sarah can both hear him throwing things around, seemingly in some mad search. He dashes back out, carrying another recording device, he slams it into your hands.

“You should totally record those clicks you were hearing! If it really is a Siren then we can use that to identify tons of things about it!” he says excitedly, rolling on the heels of his shoes. Sarah pulls him back a little, harshly whispering something you don’t quite catch. He winces.

“Don’t listen to him Calder, You don’t have to do anything like that” she reassures. Well, really was it that hard of a thing to do? All you’d have to do was record those clicks if you even ever heard them again.

“Oh no don’t worry Sarah, I don’t mind being of help. If it makes things easier for you guys then I’ll be glad to help” Thomas’s face brightens up with a cheerful grin. Sarah sighs and nods. With that, you leave the base, this time with your S.S.K. gear and the recording box.

The white winds of the Arctic wail on as you trudge towards your goal. The heavy winds shriek and scream, carrying flecks of snow and ice onto your covered face. Aside from the sounds of the wind, it’s silent. So unlike the rest of the world, which was under the constant pressure of noise and light, here the sunsets for all of winter and the only noise is the breaking of ice and gushes of breath from whales alike. You still weren’t used to it and likely would never be.

Luckily, you reached your recording devices with little drama. You pulled them from the icy waters.

“Hm, nothing damaged,” you attempt to restart the devices “Yep, internal shits working fine as well.” you sat there, remaining puzzled, the couple things you thought were causing the misreadings weren’t there, so maybe they weren’t misreadings? You pulled the devices further out onto the ground. A camera had been attached to each device in order to catch videos of the native wildlife. Which was more for the Siren team than yourself but you could still access it. You wipe away water from the screen and press play. Hours of footage replays, most of it empty, the occasional fish or seal would swim by but nothing big enough to mess with the readings. You speed through the footage. You let out a grunt of anger, you’d tried to remain patient but this whole debacle was really getting on your nerves.

THERE! Something large swam across the screen, You jolted from where you were sitting, hit rewind and slowed the footage down. A humanoid skeleton, with a long black and white tail, swam past the screen, it swam back and forth a couple of times. You could see its mouth moving, the camera didn't record sound but you could almost hear the distinct clicking it emanated. Its hands held long sharp daggers of nails that scratched the roof of the ice. Its sharp teeth were being licked by its blue tongue. Now it took notice of the device, It edged closer to the camera, taking it in its hands. The Siren shook the device, pulling it around, and even biting into it.

You couldn’t move, fear had paralysed you, stuck sitting on the ice like a stranded seal. Your ears strained to listen for that distinct clicking, nothing could be heard. Your fingers tensed around the device, turning white from the strain. You carefully placed the device back down into the water after downloading the recording. They had to see this. You took a shaky step up, gathering your things and readying yourself for the journey back.

Foolishly, you had turned your back on the one place the Siren could appear from.

“Leaving so soon?” a masculine voice queried. You froze. Turning around you came face to face with it. Large and skeletal, its fingers tapped against the ice. You could see his dorsal fin sticking out from the water, placed at the very start of where his body turns into a thick tail, black and white, like an Orcas. You could see the very start of many thick, sunken scars that started where the skeletal top half merged into the Orca half and trailed further down the tail, likely to the fin. disrupting the typical patterns of black and white. They looked old, possibly years old, You shuddered to think at what sort of thing could do such damage to a predator such as this.

“Y-yes, I am actually” you try to say with bravado. The Siren chuckles, tilting his head back and baring his sharp teeth. You took a shaky step back with your arms held out in deference.
“Fish got your tongue?” he laughed deeply at his own joke as you attempted to slowly edge further and further away from the apex predator. A glowing tongue rolls out from behind his pointed teeth, licking the top of his fangs. Sweat beads down your face.

“H-hi, can’t say this has ever happened before” you greet, he pauses for a moment. Probably unused to his lunch greeting him like a shy schoolgirl. He shakes whatever his thoughts are and starts to hum, cooing at you while he does so.

You feel your body relax, your mind becoming blurred, no, stop, don't lisTEN!

“C’mere, I promise I won’t bite. It’ll all be so much quicker if you just. Come. Closer.” beckoning you to the edge of the broken ice. Why was your head so blurry? Fog covers your mind, making even thinking a difficult task. It would be so easy to listen to him, wouldn’t it? Why don’t you just lean over… just a little more…

“NO, NO! Don’t listen, don’t listen, don’t listen, don’t listen” You hurriedly scramble for the S.S.K. jamming the earbuds in and dialling the knobs of the device. The fog over your mind lifted and you heaved back several steps, you had been almost eye to eye with the Siren. The blue lights in his sockets shrunk, Anger? Or was he having fun? Like a cat toying with a trapped rat. You weren’t sure, either way, his hypnotising song was now being drowned out by the static.
You run as far away from him as you can. You’re not ashamed to admit it, you’re no hero and almost plunging to your icy death was enough for you. Your instincts commanded you to run, and even as the scientific part of your mind screamed at you to at least go back and get your equipment, your body moved forward.

________________________________________________________________

The slam of the base door had everyone peeking out curiously, there you stood. Gasping for air, your eyes sprung with tears of fear and your body covered in a cold sweat. All of them approached you, curiosity for some, concern and worry for others.

“Are you alright Doctor Calder?” Morgan questioned, placing a delicate hand on your shoulder.

“Huff, Siren, there’s a Siren!” you exclaimed, Morgan and the rest of the team's eyes widened and they gathered closer, closing in on your panting body.

“What, where?!” Morgan demands. You held out your USB, it was the only piece of equipment you had taken with you. She snatched it from your open palm and stormed into the lab. Jenny followed her after giving you a worried glance you didn’t catch. Sarah and Thomas, however, stick by you, Sarah takes your hand and leads you into the mess hall. Thomas follows.

Your breathing slows down eventually, enough that you can explain to the two what exactly had happened.

“That's insane!” Thomas exclaims and Sarah elbows him in the gut, “Erh, I mean that’s crazy that you got away”

“You’re very lucky. Imagine if you didn’t have the kit with you,” Sarah says as she pats your shaking leg gently. Yes, you had imagined, very clearly in fact. You were sure that if you hadn’t had it, your body would be lying at the bottom of the ocean right about now. You took a breath, willing your body and mind to calm down.

“Yes, well, lucky I had listened to you then,” you said, your stomach growling with hunger, With all the drama, you and the rest of the team had neglected to make dinner.

“You two wanna start dinner then?” you asked, Thomas and Sarah both shared a look before agreeing.

“I’ll go and grab the other two, Why don’t you and Thomas start making something,” Sarah says.

You and Thomas both enter the small kitchen, Quickly and wordlessly you get started on cooking some pasta, it’s easy and comfort food for you. Thomas, however, didn’t seem to get the hint that you preferred to work in silence, as he began chatting to you about how his day had been.

“- and then I lost the damn sample! The worst part of my day! Oh, uh, not that mine was the worst or anything, yours definitely was. I mean, imagine the luck, you of all people coming face to face with a Siren! It’s amazing you aren’t dead…” Thomas trailed off as he realised what he said, You let the words roll off of you, in the few days you’d known Thomas, he was always one to put his proverbial foot into his mouth.

“...sorry, that was dumb of me to say”

“There’s no need for apologies Thomas, I know you were just not thinking.” You let a brief smile flash on your face as you drain the pasta. Thomas dives right back into his rambles. Soon you and he are plating up everyone's dishes when all three of your remaining colleagues return. All three peer at you curiously, Morgan especially it seems. A shiver passes down your spine but you dismiss it with a smile as you greet your three other colleagues.

“Me and Thomas made dinner, I hope you like it” Dinner passes by with much discussion. Whispered of course, between the three who had disappeared to look at your footage. Thomas keeps you distracted meanwhile, peppering you with jokes and entertaining topics to discuss. It’s hard to spiral with Thomas around.

Soon, everyone has finished and most have returned to their separate quarters. Except for you and Thomas, you were plating up all the dishes, getting ready to wash them all, Thomas seemed merely content to be hanging around, following after you when you would disappear into the kitchen.

“Sooo, how’ve you been finding the trip? Uh, excluding the hungry Siren of course”

“Ha! Yeah aside from the deadly Siren!” you bark out, “Other than that I’d say it hasn’t been bad, I mean, Morgan and Jenny are kinda distant but you and Sarah are great to hang around”

“Really?” Thomas asks, you laugh,

“Yeah, you’re hilarious and you know how to keep a conversation moving. I swear without you, all our conversations would be so, I dunno, stilted!” Thomas blushed lightly, he would make a good friend, you thought.

“Well, maybe later you and me could hang out, I brought some movies for the projector we could watch!” You hesitate, Uh oh, curse your socially clueless mind! You couldn’t tell if Thomas was asking you out as a friendship thing or because he wanted something more. You breathed in tiredly, Better to play it safe, you guessed.

“Sorry Thomas, I’m not interested, Maybe with some of the others? As friends?” you hesitantly ask, Thomas’s blush deepens, this time from embarrassment instead of flattery.

“Right, yeah, no, friends,” he mumbles, chasing his own shadow out of the kitchen. You worriedly tsk, he wouldn’t take the rejection too hard, he was young. You convinced yourself.

Soon your own exhaustion caught up with you and you retreated back to your bed. The covers kept you warm from the outside cold and sheltered from those wailing winds. Your eyes fluttered shut.

Click, click, click.

Your eyes zapped back open, Were you dreaming? A pinch of the arm proved that theory wrong, were you in hell? Unlikely as you weren’t dead, your pulse proved that theory wrong.

Click, click, click

The Siren was outside, just under the ice of the base perhaps, using its own abilities to locate you. You wanted to move, to alert the others, but some primal part of your brain told you not to. To stay still, hidden.

You didn’t sleep the rest of the night.

Chapter Text

Your eyebags were dark and heavy, no matter how much you tried to rub them away they still sat there. Mocking you and alerting the rest of the team to your sleepless night. 

“G’morning Sarah, Thomas” you greet the two, Sarah gives you a tired smile before turning back to her coffee, and Thomas gives you an embarrassed half smile before ducking back into his breakfast. 

“Good morning Doctor Calder,” Morgan says as she walks past you and into her office, You quirk an eyebrow, weird, she’d never been that friendly before. Ah, maybe it was the early morning that was getting to her? You silently questioned. Even Jenny it seemed was more open with you, well as open as Jenny could be, which really amounted to a solemn nod as she passed by you for the coffee. You shake your head, you supposed they were all just tired, what with all the excitement of the previous day. The kitchen seemed especially cold that morning, even with the heating the base provided you still had to restrain a shiver. You go to sit between Sarah and Thomas, “So how was your sleep?” you ask,

“Ah well, it was okay I guess, how was yours?” Sarah questions, tilting her head, her blonde hair falling to the side of her face. Thomas doesn’t respond to your question, pulling his face deeper into his mug. You wince at the question, You hadn’t slept at all, knowing that that creature was out there, stalking you. Had you unsettled, every time you tried to close your eyes all you could imagine was him leering at you, nose to nose, the song still echoed in your mind in quiet moments like this. 

“Perfect. Absolutely fine.” You grit out, grinding your teeth to form a polite smile. Luckily, Sarah turns back to her own meal without much questioning. You can feel Thomas’s worried eyes on you but having had enough you leave the table, cup of coffee and all. Retreating to your new haven, the science lab. 

You don’t find much new to do, once you’ve completed the usual everyday tasks required of your research, without your equipment (that now lay abandoned) you struggle to keep yourself busy. You pushed yourself around on your wheely chair, gliding across the white floors. 

“Wheeeeeeeeee!” you giggle out, “oh wait, oh sHIT!” you yell out as you nearly collide with the wall. You hurry out of your chair as you hear sharp footsteps echo down the hall.

Jenny appears, still as dressed up as ever, heels and all. 

“If you’re not too busy I was hoping to question you more about yesterday's incident ” Her face remains deceptively neutral. As it has always remained since you’ve known her. Your stomach clenches just thinking about it, rolling and twisting like angry snakes, You gulp a mouthful of spit. 

“Sure Jenny,” You could feel unreleased energy in your body course through your veins, the urge to get up and flee, like an injured prey is almost irresistible. Only made worse by the feeling of Jenny’s cold dark eyes piercing your own. 

“Call me Doctor Barlowe” she states, her words cutting the tension, You nod, right, You barely know her, she isn’t your friend like Sarah or Thomas. You remind yourself. Doctor Barlowe beckons you to follow as she leads you into the Siren team lab. Lined with dozens of top-of-the-line computers, test tubes litter all of the many desks and cabinets, and recording devices with large-looking speakers attached to the walls. If your lab was considered modern, then there's must have been borderline futuristic. Barlowe gestures for you to sit on one of the small stools, while she gathers some notes. 

“What was it like?” she blurts out, You jump a little, only out of shock at hearing her voice. 

“What was what like?” she rolls her eyes at your obliviousness. 

“The Siren! You came face to face with it and survived, do you understand how rare that is?!” she exclaims, placing her hand on the countertop next to you, trapping you in, her sharp nails clicking against the marble of the lab. You try to fix her with a glare of your own, but your eyes waver and duck as soon as yours and hers connect. 

“I was lucky to survive, it wasn’t like he was trying to spare me or anything! I managed to get away because I had my kit with me!” you explain, shying away from Barlowe's looming body, She leans closer as you do. Her mouth moves into a grim frown.

“Explain, don’t leave anything out,” she backs up as you leap into your tale. She hums and nods ever so often, her eyes keeping a steely focus, never letting up. 

“Interesting, what did the Siren look like? I noticed that you referred to it as ‘he’ How’d you know it was male?” You blink your eyes in confusion.

“Oh, I guess I kinda just assumed. When he talked his voice sounded masculine, so I just assumed” You ducked your head, embarrassed to admit you had assumed something like that. You could’ve been completely wrong for all you knew. 

“Oh, and he was a Skeletal Orca Siren, he had blue eye lights and he was massive. Probably only a little bit smaller than an actual Orca…” You trail off for a moment, trying to recollect more of the Siren's appearance, “he also had these deep scars that went from the start of his tail to the very end.” you finally said, Doctor Barlowe seemed on the edge of her seat, while you were talking she had whipped out a small notebook and started scribbling down your words. She looked up as you finished speaking.

“Anything else?”

“No, that’s all I could see,” She wrinkled her nose, putting the notepad away. 

“Thank you anyways. This was very useful, important even, to our studies. I don’t know why but so far you’ve been the only one to survive seeing the damned thing ”

What?! She mumbled the last part out so that you barely caught it, but what?! You doubt she had meant to say that aloud. Your mind raced with questions and you opened and closed your mouth to try and speak. Something tugged at the back of your mind, however, that wouldn’t help. You furrowed your brows, Had the Siren been a problem before? Morgan had assured you that the base was safe, that you were safe, Was she lying? Or did she not know herself? No, she’s been running these expeditions since they started, she would know everything! You chewed on your thumbnail, a nervous habit. 

You stiffly walked away from Jenny, your heart and mind raced as you walked into your own lab and took a seat. No, you were just being paranoid, this has been a stressful expedition and your anxiety-prone mind was looking for ways to justify regretting this. The logical part of your brain spoke out, yes there were some shady things hanging on this expedition, but to put so many people's lives in danger would be absurd. Morgan, Jenny and the others would have no reason to place danger to themselves and you. 

You took a few stuttering breaths, in and out. You’d be fine, focus on your work. You chanted to yourself; busying your mind with busy work was helping. 

_________________________________________________________

Another day passes and your new routine goes off without a hitch, keeping inside and researching the last bits of your data and then logging them down. Getting lunch with Sarah and Thomas and then fielding some questions from both Jenny and Morgan. At least both had started to warm more up to you, even if the conversations you had with the two were still mostly focused on the “Orca Siren incident” as you had mentally dubbed it. 

Eventually, though, you were forced to leave the safety of the base. Morgan had been pressing you especially, reminding you of your research, encouraging you to leave the base. She was right, you thought, you couldn’t abandon your research, even after all that had happened. You pulled on your gear and wandered into the red snow outside.

Red snow?

…

At the edge of the base, red snow thickened the land, thick ice lay scattered about, and you could smell the iron in the air, it sickened the sky around it. 

A seal, torn to shreds lay just a few feet from where you were standing, just a few metres from the base. There was hardly anything left, just tatters of skin and blubber. Even the head was gone, the flippers had been torn off. You gagged. You had hoped the seal died quickly, without pain. Your stomach churned and your lunch threatened to evacuate as you gagged into the snow beside you. Even where you were standing blood had somehow managed to seep into the snow. 

You could hear Sarah's cry of shock as she came out of the base, her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape. Her wide eyes flickered between you and the dismembered seal. 

“I-I didn’t do this” you stuttered out

“Yeah, I didn’t think you would” She let out a breathy sigh as she turned to face Morgan, Jenny and Thomas who had all wandered out, wondering why the base door still stood open. Thomas looked sickly green, turning back inside. Jenny and Morgan, their dark eyes glanced at one another. Morgan's body straightened out, placing a hand on your shoulder she guided you back into the base. Jenny and Sarah follow after a beat.

“It was a polar bear, I suspect” Jenny states, smoothing out stray hairs. You blankly nod, Morgan follows 

“I’ll be placing some bear deterrent outside, just in case it comes back. That is unlikely, however, with how much polar bears are prolific wanderers.” you gulp back, your nerves calming, right? Thank God it’s just a polar bear, you voiceless laugh at that statement. Still an apex predator and you’re glad it’s not the one you were thinking of. Funny, in a sort of fucked up way if you think about it. 

“I suppose it wouldn’t be too much to ask for a day off?” Morgan levels a sharp stare at you.

“Doctor Calder, I and everyone else on the mainland value your work. It’s important you keep on top of it.” you give a disappointed sigh, even though you suspected she would say no. 

“Alright, just, it’ll be safe right? Nothing else will be attracted to the seal?”

“Unlikely, there aren’t very many predators in the Arctic, the bear that did this is likely still deterring anything else from coming by” Jenny bluntly says in a monotone voice. 

“We'll be moving it regardless,” Morgan says with a certain finality that silently says the conversation is done. She turns and heads back to her office. 

You prepare to begin your journey back out into the Arctic. Sarah gives you hushed reassurance. 

“Here” Morgan places a small device in your hands, “that’ll live record everything when you go outside and will be analysed at the base. It’ll also alert us if you’re in any immediate danger” You smile, 

“Thank you,” you say quietly, pinning the small camera to your front jacket, your eye still twitches with nervousness but the heavy weight of anxiety lifted off your chest. At least you felt more capable now.

With that, you head back out, walking around the corpse and carefully ensuring to avoid stepping on the blood-soaked snow. 

The walk is typical, and quiet, with the occasional quiet rumbles of the sea. You make it to a new station, one you hadn’t set anything up but intended to. Placing and activating the heavy equipment left your body out of breath. Digging small holes into ice as thick as your waist was, surprise surprise, hard work.

“Really. Need. To. Work. Out. More” you pant out placing the last buoy in the small hole you’d dug. You let out a huff, thank God that’s over, now you can get back to your sweet sweet laboratory.

The walk back is silent, this time occasionally being broken by your mumbling. Words slipped from your mouth as your mind drifted elsewhere. Sometimes you let out a small chuckle when you remember something funny. 

CRRZZZHHHHHHHHH

Ice rumbles and splits apart, sea foam sloshing into the air, and you freeze. More ice is pulled onto the snowy landscape as two skeletal arms pull themselves above the water. Your face drops as you see the Siren pull his upper body out of the water, his eyelights scan the surroundings, looking for something. His blue eyelights lock onto your own and a serrated grin blooms on his face like sunflowers in summer. Your body is stuck still, the primitive part of your mind is telling you to hide, pretend like you can’t see him and maybe he won’t see you. The rational part of your mind tells you that it doesn’t matter, he’s already seen you run! Run while he still floats in his icy hole. The Siren chooses for you, plunging back into the depths of the sea and disappearing from your eye line. 

Your feet slip on the slick snow as you sprint back to base, you almost trip, only being kept up by your hand coming out to keep you from colliding with the floor.

Click, click, click

As you run you hear him following, chasing you down like you’re a young deer. You take deep stuttering gasps as you try to keep away from the clicks. You can see his long black and white body swimming along in the less snow-ridden parts of the ice. His long tail fins only have to occasionally flick up and down to keep up with your sprinting pace. You turn your body to make a sharp left when the ice in front of you shatters to pieces, you only manage to escape plummeting by jumping backwards, falling onto your back, and the wind is kicked out of you. Breathing hurts and your vision is blurry from your now broken goggles. Still, you manage to crawl backwards before the Siren comes lunging out. He’s still grinning, his blue eyelights now small pinpricks in the large sockets of his skull. His claws dig tightly into your right leg. 

A small cry leaves your mouth and you attempt to send your free foot into his face; he pins your other leg down to the ice, leaving you completely open.

“Now, now little fish. No need to make such a fuss, just clam down” Your heart is beating out of its chest, and you can’t help but let a few fearful tears fall down your cheeks. This was it, you were going to die. You could already feel the blood starting to drip out from where the Siren was clutching your leg, his claws were too sharp not to cause any damage. 

“G-get off of me!” you manage to growl out. The Siren chuckles.

“Isn’t that cute, all puffed up like a little penguin” his claws dig deeper, “what? No name for your dear old pal?” he chuckles deeply, “It’s Sans, Sans the Siren” he pauses, seeming to wait for a response.

“You may call me Calder” his smile pulls back even further,

“So you do speak!” your mind was still whirling, Sirens could speak?! You internally cursed your lack of foresight to research more about Cryptids. You trembled in his grip, it tightened and you let out a quiet whimper. You felt around your pockets for anything to help, a knife, a flashlight, just something you could use to get his claws out of your leg, then you could escape. Morgan and the others would know what to do, you’d be able to go home. 

“C’mon don’t go all quiet after you just told me your name! You looked so cute just before, waddling away like a little penguin” he teased and your face flushed with embarrassment. 

“...what do you want?” you ask after a pause.

“Didn’t you see my gift?” Sans questions, your eyes shot up to meet his own. You thought the seal was a polar bear's meal, the others had assured you that it wasn’t the Siren. You gulp. Clearly, they weren’t always right. 

“The seal? Little torn up for my tastes” you retorted back, your hand had slipped into your back pockets, gripping onto the flashlight you’d shoved back there. Knuckles turning bright white from how hard you gripped it. 

Sans laughed mockingly, throwing his head back as he did so. 

“It was a gift, fur you. Did those other scientists take it?” his eyelights darken, “just a show of what I can do to someone” You snarl at him, 

“Whatever your problem is with me, drop it! I haven’t done anything to bother you and all you do is harass me!” he bared his sharp teeth at you, letting out a hissed growl.

“Little bird, I only let you live because I find you interesting. Don’t test me” his grip on your leg tightens again and he drags you across the splintering ice. His long tail starts to disappear more and more with the icy sea, he drags you closer to his chest. You frantically kick and pull as he does, screaming out. You whip your flashlight out, cracking it across San’s forehead, a crunch follows and he howls. 

Clutching the side of his head, blue magic seeps from the small hairline fractures that dance across his skull. He foolishly let your legs freely go. 

You jump up, blocking out the sounds of his angry growls, the ice now weak from carrying such a behemoth's weight starts to crumble and splinter all around you, the cold water sprays you, urging you forward. 

“GAH!” you cry out, as a particularly weak patch of ice crumbles under your foot, sending everything up to your calf into the freezing water. The rest of your body splays out on the weak land. You cry out for help, begging for your colleagues to hear your cries. 

You can hear Sans, the waves of the surface ripple with every tail stroke. His frustrated clicks echo from under the waves. 

“Calder!” a familiar voice screams out, “Calder run! C’mon, hurry” Thomas calls out to you, racing down to you, inching closer and closer to you by the second. He clutches down on a snowmobile, you see Sarah sitting behind him, arms clenched tightly around him. 

You kick up, pulling your leg out and fling yourself away from the hole. Sans lunges out gripping your arm, blood sprays as you try and tug away. You fall backwards, feeling your arm plunge into the subzero water shocks you. Like pins stabbing into every nerve, everything from your shoulder to your fingers goes deathly numb. 

“LET THEM GO!” Thomas shouts and a red flare goes shooting past you and blasts into San’s chest. Sarah leaps from the mobile and drags you out of the icy water. Half of your body feels completely numb like you never had a right half to begin with. The other half is buzzing with blood as it circulates through your body again and again. With Sarah's help, you land a final kick to San’s head, irritating the hairline fracture. Sans lets out a final growl, before diving under. He doesn’t resurface. Even as you’re practically hauled over the snowmobile and raced back to base. 

As you enter with one arm over Sarah's, you can see the place is bubbling with antsy energy. Jenny rushes forward, “Take them to the med bay, I’ll be right back” immediately charging back to the lab. Morgan reappears and disappears throughout the long hallway. She follows when you’re dragged into the med bay.

Sarah strips you over your water-soaked clothes and throws a large warm blanket over your turning-blue body. Jenny walks in, holding a bundle of bandages. She tightly wraps each deep scratch after cleaning them meticulously, you hiss in pain. The burning of the rubbing alcohol brings the frozen nerves to life. Burning brightly and painfully, like a dozen hornets had all stabbed you. 

“Could you be more gentle, that really hurts” you whine out, Jenny tsks, ignoring you. She wraps the last of the bandages around your leg before moving aside for Morgan, who sits down next to you.

“Do you have the camera?” Morgan asks, was her face always permanently blank? You thought, maybe her face was just stuck that way. You pondered.

“Y-yeah,” was all you say, still shivering from the cold. Morgan snatched the camera from your hand and walked off, not even a thank you? 

“Will you be alright by yourself?” 

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, it’s not like Sa- I mean the Siren will be able to get me in here or anything!” you fumbled out, something little part of your mind told you not to tell the others of Sans name. Like it was some secret that you and he were supposed to share just between the two of you. Jenny queried an eyebrow but left at your insistence. 

“I’ll come to perform another medical check tomorrow morning, if you get cold tonight just turn the heating up and pull another blanket out from the cupboard. Goodnight Doctor Calder” 

“G-good night!” you call out, still shivering.

The day had turned to night so quickly you had hardly realised it, the cold winds now blasted the arctic plains and the stars glimmered brightly on the moving sea. The base was silent, everyone had returned to their own rooms, and the corridors looked unsettling without the background of noise to echo through them. A small window let you see out into the wilds of the Arctic, you sighed, at least it was beautiful, dangerous, but beautiful. 

You lay your tired head against the window, watching the broken ice holes push and pull water around its edges. Soon you could hear the same distinct clicking you’d heard all too often. Sans occasionally emerged from the depths, every time he did he would stare down the base, as though he was trying to find you. 

You almost wanted to shrink away but something hypnotic kept you looking, maybe it was the powerful pull of his tail or his gleaming blue eyelights. You had bested him today, for the second time he had tried to drag you down and failed. Maybe you shouldn’t be so afraid of him. You shook your head at the thought. Don’t get too confident, it’d be really embarrassing if you did and then got dragged by him the next time you wandered out. 

Sans emerged again, this time you could see his entire upper half entirely. His ribcage was thick and wide. Makes sense for a creature that strong. He leaned out from the hole. His eyes caught yours and a smile grew on his face, you kept yours blank. You could hear him let out a few low croons. You grimaced, that seemed to make him chuckle. Don’t give him attention, and don’t feed into it, you’ll only encourage bad habits. You see him mouth something to you but you turn away before he can finish. 

sleep seemed a lot more welcoming now.

Chapter Text

The next morning was more relaxing at least. Jenny came in, gave a quick examination and then cleared you work-ready for tomorrow. The others had yet to visit. They’re probably just busy. Work never ends in a place such as this. You brushed it off, content in lying in bed for the rest of your morning. 

“We need to talk” Morgan walks into the room, her heels giving a loud clunk every time they pressed down onto the cold tiles of the floor. You sighed, well, there goes that break.

“Meet me in my office when you are ready, be quick” She doesn’t wait for any confirmation from you before she saunters back to her office. You groan in annoyance, you can guess what she wants to talk about. That fucking Siren! You almost growled at the thought of him and his mocking eyes. 

Nonetheless, clearly, you couldn’t avoid this discussion. There wasn’t anywhere to hide after all, so you rolled out of bed and dressed yourself for the day. Your basic lab coat gave you a small feeling of comfort as you stumbled through the hallway and to her office. 

You gave a knock, “Come in” Morgan looked up from her laptop, “Ah, good, I was wondering when you’d show up, take a seat” She gestured to the small wooden chair that sat opposite her, facing her oak desk. Were you in trouble? You could feel the vague deja vu of similar situations in your childhood and shuddered to remember the same piercing glare that your teachers and mentors would give you every time you had to speak to the principal. 

“The Siren… it’s very interesting, isn’t it. In the decade that I’ve run this expedition have I ever seen someone so simultaneously lucky and unlucky at the same time” You snort, well if that wasn’t your life in a nutshell. Morgan continues on, ignoring your laughing snort, “The Siren has never shown such an interest. It talked to you. Talked. Cryptids of any kind talking to humans or Monsters is unheard of. Impossible, deemed by the majority of the scientific world ” she pulls her hands together tightly, “I’m ordering for your transfer to the Siren team ", your eyebrows lifted and your face wrinkled in confusion. 

“What about my research?! I was sponsored specifically to conduct that and the spo-” 

“They’ll be dealt with,” she says, with a firm tone in her voice, reminding you of an old professor you once had. 

“Yes but what if I don’t want to join the team?!” you protested, molar grinding against molar. You were dedicated to your research and there was no way in hell you were pleased to get anywhere near Sans again. 

“I highly recommend that you do. This could open doors for you, new opportunities, new sponsors, better reputation.” she really wasn’t letting up, was she?! You scoffed.

“Sans just tried to kill me! Again! He’s tried three times now!” you blurted out, Morgan's dark eyes widened and her mouth moved into a small smirk. Shit! Something in the back of your mind told you that blurting out San’s name was bad. 

“ He has a name? Amazing, I wasn’t even sure it was male. Another reason why your expertise would be so valued. Names obviously aren’t commonly given among Cryptids.” you squirmed in your seat annoyed, wasn’t she supposed to just be some sort of overseer or manager? How could she have such control over your work? 

Morgan turned back down to her laptop, her fingers running across the keyboard, she then pulled out her phone and continued her furious typing. 

“No matter, your sponsors just got back to me and they agree that your addition to the Siren team is invaluable. Yours, what was it?”

“Ice flow” you drudged out, suppressing an annoyed huff. 

“Yes, ice flows. It can be continued another time. Report to my office tomorrow morning. Your new work will be assigned to you then” 

Wha- what?! You gaped at her. Ignoring her dismissive hand instead of just staring in shock. She couldn’t be serious, how had she had the power to just convince your sponsors?! They were relying on your results for many of their projects! What sort of sway did Morgan have?! You shake your head and lift yourself out of the hard chair. 

You opened your mouth to protest again, “There’s no need to bother complaining, I’m the manager of the teams on this base and I alone have the authority to assign who I want to where I want. I recommend, Doctor Calder, that you accept your new role. It’ll only have benefits for you and the team” she said with a patronising tone

Unbelievable! You weren’t a child, you knew when someone was acting out of line and you certainly didn’t need to deal with this. You stormed out of the office, thundering back into your own room. 

“Who does she think she is?!” you mutter to yourself, pacing up and down the room like a caged lion. Frustration and resentment roll off of you like the same deadly waves outside. Your nails dug painfully into your palms and trying to control yourself was a losing endeavour. 

You threw one of your pillows into the wall, collapsing on the bed and screaming into it in frustration. Control officially lost. 

You’ll have to do it. You’re stuck on this base for another 5 and a half months and the only people around are Morgan and the others. There’s no boat, no plane, and no way of dodging this seemingly inevitable fate. You blink away tears of fear from your eyes. Morgan was dooming you, Sans had almost got you last time and something about him screamed that he wasn’t the type to repeat mistakes. Dark thoughts and worries blasted through your mind, would you be leaving in a body bag? Would you survive? Would you come out maimed and disabled? You’ve seen photos of many victims of Cryptid attacks while scrolling through the internet. It was never a pretty sight. Faces and fingers peeled off the body, eyes and tongue ripped out by sharp claws and many were often missing limbs. Permanent reminders of their survival. 

Slowly your eyes closed, exhaustion pulled at the centre of your body. Sleep came to you quickly. Perhaps it would be better to sleep on this, you thought.

___________________________________________________________

The morning came too quickly for your liking, you pulled yourself out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen, not bothering to swap out your clothes for new ones. Fuck it. You thought. 

“Hey Calder! I heard you’re working with us now” Sarah says, her lips quirked into that same smile she always had. Thomas gave a similar greeting, handing you a steaming cup of coffee to go along with it. 

“Not willingly” you mutter, taking a seat at the long table. Jenny and Morgan enter together. Jenny gives you a cold glare as she moves to gather her own food. 

“How’d you get on?” Thomas questions, leaning close into you, 

“I didn’t ask to, Morgan just told me I was joining” you hurriedly mumble, ducking into your cup. Thomas and Sarah seem to frown.

“Really? It was so hard for me to get accepted, I had to write like a dozen papers just to get the opportunity!” Thomas exclaims, annoyance radiating off of him. 

“I thought you didn’t do Siren-related research?” Sarah butts in

“I don’t, I guess Morgan just thought my expertise would be helpful” Sarah's smile drops for a second, just enough that you almost didn’t catch it. 

“Yeah, I guess, that recording was something. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a Siren get so friendly with someone”

You rolled your eyes, “he wasn’t being friendly, he was trying to kill me!” you cry out. Sarah holds her arms out in the surrender pose. She and Thomas return to their own foods and the conversation settles into an awkward quiet. Even Jenny seems to notice the tension, opting to sit far away from the three of you. 

You internally groan, this wasn’t how you wanted your morning to start off. 

You procrastinated seeing Morgan, it’s not like you were jumping to start at your new role. At the very least, Thomas and Sarah had kept you company in the kitchen. Mostly they talked excitedly about the Siren and things about them you couldn’t really understand.

“I’m telling you Sarah, they aren’t that smart!” Thomas debates, Sarah retorts back,

“And I’m insisting they are! This isn’t just mimicking, it’s clearly showing intelligence behind those words” Thomas playfully scoffs,

“Sure, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe Sirens are more intelligent than we think, but sentient? No, if they were sentient, why would they attack people? Why would they reject technology? Modern medicine? It just doesn’t make sense” 

“Their culture discourages outside communication? Maybe they have different morals? Who knows, that’s what we’re here to find out!” Thomas opens his mouth, no doubt coming back with some retort, so you cut him off. Hoping to end this debate before you go mad. Anyone would get sick of hearing the same round-a-bout argument again and again.

“I’m sure you're both correct to some extent, let's just not argue all right guys? Why don’t we just talk about something else?” you suggest. The other two glance at each other before nodding vigorously, soon the two are completely immersed in a board game you found. Thomas had one consecutively three times in a row; and Sarah kept accusing him of cheating. 

You chuckled quietly at the loud scene the two were creating, at the very least, they had distracted you from your impending meeting. Eventually though, morning turned to midday and you knew you couldn’t put off meeting with Morgan for any longer. You said your goodbyes to your two friends and meekly walked into Morgan's office. Each step felt like you were trekking closer and closer to your own demise. Like a Greek hero marching towards their own hubris-induced death. 

“Ah, right on time. Take a sit” You feel the familiar repetition of yesterday's events. 

Morgan digs around her desk, flipping through a few pieces of paper before finally pulling a few up,

“You just need to sign these here before we start.” She gives you a black pen, one paper seems to be a liability, ‘blah blah, we’re not responsible for potential death or injury, blah blah’ and another seems to be about a pay rise.

Holy shit! That was a lot of money. Morgan must see your face change once you read the amount of money you’ll make. 

“We reward those who listen well, if you uncover anything new there’ll be more, much more, where that came from” You can feel her smarmy smirk as she looks at you. You pull your face into an expressionless reaction, you’d rather not give her any idea that you were okay with this, no amount of money could make you happy to be practically walking to your death. 

You signed the papers. Morgan slides them back into the small desk she pulled them out of. 

“Perfect. Now that everything has been sorted, why don’t we start on your task for the day-” she pauses, and you ignore the urge to shrink into yourself, she intimidated you, clearly a powerful woman not to be trifled with. “-you’ll be sent out of the base to wander around. You’ll have a snowmobile to take you over vast distances and you’ll have on your recording gear. Try and find this ‘Sans’,” 

“...why?” you question, it seemed pointless, only serving to put yourself in danger. Morgan straightened up, looking over you more easily.

“Its behaviour is peculiar for a Siren. It’ll be utterly invaluable for us to understand the nuances of Siren behaviour, it’ll make predicting them more easily” You nodded, at least there was a reasonable reason for your foray into danger. Maybe this research will help people, you comfort yourself.

“Who’ll be coming with me?”

“No one,” your mind pauses for a minute. Just yourself? Your stomach twisted at the thought that the Arctic could already be an unsettling place, now that you were actively looking for its most deadly predator, it would be terrifying.  

“Surely someone else is required to go? I mean it must be against the rules to not have a buddy system in place” you attempted to reason, trying to muster up an intimidating ‘I won’t back down’ glare.

“If you read the health and safety paper you signed you’ll see that there’s no such requirements. Truthfully, you're the only person on the Siren team whom I’m allowing to enter and leave so often. It’s a privilege” 

You scoffed resentfully, privileged your ass. 

“I’ll show you where all the equipment is,” Morgan leaves her desk and quickly walks down through the hallways, you jump up and rush to keep up with her long strides. She tightens the small camera onto your jacket and clips the S.S.K. equipment onto your ears for you. She takes you to the snowmobiles, you’d be in awe of the vehicles if you weren't busy trying to avoid vomiting out of sheer nervousness. 

“Is that all I’ll have?” Morgan nods, as she opens up the garage doors that lead the vehicle bay out into the Arctic.

“The rest of the Siren team will be monitoring the video feed remotely from base. So no, you won’t need to take anything else with you. It would only drag you down anyways” Is all she says before she leaves, briefly reminding you to shut the door on your way out. 

The Arctic is still the same frozen wasteland as it was yesterday when you were dragged back on the same snowmobile. This time you were the one dodging all the new patches of seawater that Sans had created. 

Sans, why had he told you his name? Sirens especially were never the talkative type, yet every time you’d seen him, he’d always strike up a conversation. It puzzled you, if he wanted to talk then what was with the attempted murder, the seal?! You questioned. 

The snowmobile brought you out further than you had ever been, the base had disappeared into the snow background, not even a noticeable dot amongst the snow and ice. Eventually, you could spot where the ice thinned and the sea became much rougher. Your heart tugged for the animals that lived below the ice. The waves were rough enough that they crashed against the ice sharply, throwing the water far into the air. You could see it being very easy for animals to get stuck. Ice crumbled and fell into the sea, creating a sharp splash. 

The drive continued and eventually, you started to circle back, clearly Sans wasn’t here today, and hopefully wouldn’t be here tomorrow, if you were lucky enough, that was.

Lady luck seemed to hate you in particular though. The snowmobile halted as you watched Sans. he hadn’t noticed you yet. 

Sharp blue eyelights flashed your way.

Shit. 

Chapter Text

His eyelights followed your body up and down, his mouth gritted into a fierce sneer. His heavy tail lay cut and bruised on top of the thin ice. You gasped slightly, in empathetic pain. A large, heavy chunk of ice pressed down right above Sans's tail fluke. Magic lightly flowed from where Sans had tried to pull and tug at his own avail. 

“Heh, didn’t think I’d sea ya again” his tone is light, giving light to what must be a painful situation for him. Your hands form a fist over your ears, despite the added protection you were still hesitant to trust it fully. 

Another deep crack emits from the glacial ice, and the large patch of ice pushes further down onto San’s tail. Sans lets out a low hiss and tries to pry the ice off of him, to no avail. 

“Heh, this is a real fishy situation for me, isn’t it, Penguin” You roll your eyes, avoiding his light smirk. 

“Heh, looks like you got me dead to rights, Penguin. You just gonna stand there or what?” he looked at you harshly, with a pained, hopeless look on his face. A sharp hit of pity filled your chest, wait no! Don’t feel bad for him! He tried to eat you! Multiple times! You scold yourself. Still, it’s hard to deny the situation. You’ve never been good at just leaving people to suffer, even when it’s in your best bet to just leave the person be. 

You step closer to San’s, luckily he isn’t drifting on some ice island or else you wouldn’t be able to help. His claws dig into the ice as you approach, his eyelights shrinking even smaller, Sans attempts to hunch up, some animal instinct to make yourself look bigger, you assume. 

“Woah, woah, woah, clam down, no need to get so close.”

“You’ve already used that pun before” 

you roll your eyes, and despite your rushing heart, you attempt to project a calm apathy. Hoping Sans would feel your intent, make him less likely to lash out or something, maybe you were likening him too closely to actual animals? Your train of thought abruptly stops as you stand over his tail.

“Sure I’ve used that pun before, bone hate me for it” you suppress a chuckle. At least the two of you could carry a conversation when he wasn’t trying to murder you. 

“I’m going to try and lift the ice, when you feel it start to lift move forward” Despite having no eyebrows, Sans somehow manages to give the same shocked expression towards you. 

“You realise that’s the opposite of the way I need to go? Kinda need water to live kiddo” irritation starts to brew in your mind.

“Once the chunks off your tail you can just crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of, and my name is Calder, not kiddo or Penguin, or fish, or whatever else you wanna call me!” Sans lets out a breathless laugh.

“Alright penguin, just tell me when” You can still hear his mocking laugh, ugh why were you helping him again? Ah right, because you don’t when to quit, joy to you. 

You crouch down, wrapping your gloved hands around the heavy ice, 

“Alright, one, two, three” grunting heavily as you attempt to lift the ice. The ice is hard to grip, your fingers keep slipping and your hands occasionally need readjusting when they slide across. Sans for his part does his best to help, immediately clawing forward. You can see him wince when parts of his tail grind against the ice. You let out a wheeze, 

“Hurry!” you urge, finally San’s tail sweeps in front of you, escaping from the shadow of the glacial ice. You drop it with a deep huff. Your nerdy build was built for comfortable chairs! Not deadlifting chunks of fallen ice off of deadly predators. You fall backwards, your body shaking from overexertion. Sans, rubs the bloody parts of his tail, you can still see blood pooling out, even if it is less than before. You sigh, there was no way you were getting off this expedition alive, were you? Depressing thoughts fluttered through your mind as you stood up to walk to your snowmobile. Each one had a small medkit strapped to the side, you pulled it out and started rummaging for bandages. You weren’t sure if normal painkillers would work, he wasn’t a Monster, you shrugged, he was magic, so Monster medicine should work on him. 

You rolled a bottle of Magic pills and bandages towards him. 

“Here, the pills are for the pain and the bandages will help stop the bleeding” Sans remained strangely quiet, his eyelights had blown back up again, his head tilted as he watched you. He was so chatty before, what made him quiet now? You questioned. Crossing your arms around your chest you watched him back. 

“See ya later penguin” Sans mutters, his eyelights still following your body as he leaps into the deep blue. Taking the pills and bandages with him.

You blink. Well, that was suspiciously easy, why’d he leave? Maybe he was embarrassed? Can Sirens feel everything that humans and Monsters can? You pondered. 

A shiver crawls up your spine, snapping you out of your thoughts. The ice had started to seep through your clothes. Thank the stars, at least you can head back to base now. Hopefully, Morgan or the others would leave you alone. 

The trip back you swore you could hear Sans. sometimes it seemed he would pop out from the ocean in the corner of your eye, then disappear as soon as you snapped your head back. Talons of paranoia echoed in your mind. 

‘Hurry up!’

‘He’s right beneath you’

‘Just waiting for the right moment to strike’ 

You shuddered, speeding the snowmobile up until you reached the base in record time. Parking the vehicle you hastily walked back to your room, hoping to avoid the others.

“Calder!” called Sarah, damn, you guessed there was only so much luck in one day.

“We saw everything! That was amazing! What did you do?!” you opened your mouth and were cut off before anything could be said.

“Never in all my years have I ever seen someone get so close to a Siren like that! It was talkative and friendly! I’ve been going on these expeditions for years and it’s never gotten so close to me! At least in a non-threatening way!” Sarah's eyes sparkled as she spoke, looking at you with a glint of deeper emotion you couldn’t place. The words rushed out of her so quickly you were struggling to listen. A hand gently places itself on Sarah's shoulder.

“Calm down Docter. Doctor Calders likely had a tiring trip. Take a seat” Jenny says, leaving no room for argument. Your shoulders sag, this wasn’t how you fantasised your afternoon going. 

“Could we make it quick?”

“We’ll take as long as we need Doctor Calder, you’re a part of the team now, get ready to make sacrifices for our research” Jenny grinds out, her mouth forming a disapproving frown. 

“Take a seat” She gestures to a small chair, uncomfortable to sit on, really you’d know, considering it’s your ass in the seat right now. 

Through the next hour, the two doctors pressure you. Asking question after question. Performing test after test, analysing every second of the video. All with you stuck in the same small chair. Sarah seems completely enraptured by your ordeal, stars practically form in her eyes and her mind seems to be stuck in her head for Sarah to pay attention to your growing discomfort. Jenny, however, is much more perceptive. Her eyes harden every time you shift uncomfortably and her words become sharper with every passing minute. The deep frown on her face shifts and her face wrinkles, causing her to give a vague sneer to herself. 

“Thank you, Doctor Calder! I think that’s all we’ll need from you for now!” Sarah cheers, giving you a sunny smile. Jenny ignores you, hunched over her computer, like a dragon over its treasure hoard. 

“Thanks, I’ll uh, be in my room” you grumble out, struggling to keep the annoyed strain out of your voice. Your back was killing you, tensed up from the hours spent slouched in the lab. 

What was Jenny's problem? Sure she’d never been the friendliest, which you respected, not everyone wanted to make friends with their colleagues. But now she was borderline rude, dismissive. It was strange, even Sarah seemed to hold a strange look in her eyes when they met yours. Hopefully, Thomas would remain the same cheerful man he was, and hopefully, Morgan would start leaving you alone more. 

“Hey Calder, long time no see!” Thomas calls out, 

“I heard you got stuck with Sarah and Doctor Barlowe, how long were you stuck there for?” he teases, poking his index finger at you lightly. 

“Too long, too long” failing to hide a tired shudder up your back. Thomas laughs, his stomach and chest heaving with him as he cackles loudly. 

“Hah! Yeah I’ve seen how those two reacted to the footage, knew you were gonna have a tough time fending them off so I bought this with me,” Thomas gently pulls out a small slice of chocolate cake. 

“Don’t tell anyone but I froze these slices of cake my mum made for me and I’ve been hiding them and sneaking little snacks whenever I get that chocolate urge” Woah, your mouth salivates at the sight of the cake. All the food here was healthy, healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner, with granola for snacks. Seeing something so cheekily forbidden made you more and more hungry. 

You snatched the piece out of Thomas’s hand.

“Ffhank you!” you hummed, mouth closing down on the sugary mess. 

“No problem, say if you're feeling up to it maybe we could hang out together, uh later of course, just the two of us?” he shifts nervously from side to side, eyes darting up from the floor to you. You held in another groan, at this point, you were going to burst a blood vessel with how many sighs, groans and huffs you’d been holding in. 

“Ah, maybe when we’re offshore or something. Uh, yeah, definitely not for a while” you stumbled out, the words came out more passive than you intended. Thomas blushes brightly, wringing his wrists.

“Yeah of course! I’ll uh, see you later, okay bye!” he stutters out, hurriedly walking back to wherever he emerged from. 

This time you let a deep sigh out, heading straight for your room, praying for some uninterrupted sleep. 

Your room still has a heavy mess. Clothes and blankets lay thrown on the floor. Scattered notes of your research (your face screwed up in anger when you realised you’d no longer have any reason for your precious ice flow notes) and day-old mugs of coffee sat on the floor. 

The mess irritated your already worn mind. Jumping into cleaning the mess of a room was a no-brainer. Clothes were folded, beds were made, and mugs were hastily stacked in the kitchen, when you made a sneaky walk out of your room, attempting to avoid the constant questions and unhappy looks from your colleagues. 

Finally, your room was spotless (you ignored the overflowing trash can, not everything can be perfected the first time around after all) 

You settled into your bed, nesting under the soft, heavy blankets. Your eyes fluttered shut, your mind floating into subconsciousness, ready to forget the stresses of the day and relax into the night.

Click, click, click

Your eyes snapped back open. 

“God damn it!” you cursed, hearing the familiar clicks of Sans. You were tempted to poke your head out and yell at him to quit it but you also didn’t want the other's attention. 

“Stay calm, breathe, relax” Your breathing evens out. You can ignore this, he probably is just… doing whatever Sirens do…

Click, click, click

Your eyes snap open, blood pressure rises and you whip your blanket off of you. Shifting on your arctic clothes you storm out, slamming the door shut.

“Sans!” you call out, in a hushed whisper, 

“Sans!” you can’t see him at all but the clicking has stopped

“Sa-”

“You called?” you yelp when you see Sans upper half leaning up against a small ice hole. Hand under his head, sockets blinking in a ‘I’m not innocent but I’m trying really hard to pretend I am’ sort of expression.

“Could you stop with the clicking! Please?” you peter off with a questionable plea. You felt less scared of him before, it was hard when you’d potentially saved his life only hours earlier, but he was still the one in control. This wasn’t your most well-thought-out plan, you scolded yourself. 

“Just wanted your attention, Penguin. Here,” he places a small nautilus shell on the ice in front of him. A gift? His face watches yours as it sees the shell. Watching you closely, he catches your apprehensive look. Your eyes darted to his powerful hands.

“Nervous? Don’t worry penguin I’m not gonna grab you, it’s a thank-you gift, for helping me earlier” he gently tosses the shell further to you, just out of what would be his reach. 

It’s cute, long red zig-zag stripes starting at the bottom of the shell and fading at the top. How Sans got his hands on one you weren’t sure. They don’t live in the Arctic, far from it. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow penguin, shell night” he disappears under the sea and you let out a small chuckle at the pun. He may be a homicidal Siren but at least he’s funny. You assured yourself, cradling the medium-sized shell to your chest you hurried back to the base. 

As quiet as a mouse you snuck back to your room, placing the shell carefully on your desk. A sense of unease washes over you as your mind replays the day's events. He had acted odd. You glanced over at the shell, questioning why. He didn’t have to, you weren’t expecting anything. 

Maybe it was a cultural thing? Still, a part of you hoped things wouldn’t return to how they were. You liked this new Sans, blushing, you glanced at the shell and quickly hid yourself in your blanket as a new wave of blood rushed to your cheeks. 

The gift was sweet, you wouldn’t deny that. Maybe you could get him something from the lab? 

Brainstorming further ideas, you drifted off into sleep, a red blush still across your cheek

Chapter Text

The blaring of your alarm clock throws you out of your comfortable sleep. You groaned out, smashing your fist onto the howling device. 

“Uugh, five more minutes” Despite your tired pleas the clock remains ringing. Forcing you out of your bed and ready for the day. Wiping the sleep crusties from your eyes you stumble into the kitchen, shrugging on your familiar lab coat. Scouring around you finally find your coffee. At least you can face other people now, you grumble. 

Your other colleagues have yet to arrive, and for that, you send a thankful prayer to whatever God exists. You don’t think you could deal with any more questions this early in the morning. 

_____

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

You’ll be heading out again for another expedition, try and maintain contact with the Siren. Attempt to see the extent of its injuries. 

Thanks,

Morgan

You dragged your hands down your face, did she have to sound so robotic about it? Although, this time at least you weren’t wracked with nervous energy. You almost thought last night could have been a dream. It was unlike Sans to just gift something. Well, not that you could really say you knew, considering much of your past meetings hadn’t been so subdued? Peaceful? You weren’t sure how to describe it. Helpful, you supposed then. 

_____

You didn’t have to go nearly as far as you did last time to find Sans. This time he lay on a floating ice sheet, just a few metres out from the land. Loud snores drifted out of his mouth as he curled up on the cold sheet. 

“Hey uh-” his eyes snap open before you can finish your sentence. 

“Oh you're awake! Good, how’s the uh, tail” you say with an unsure tone. Sans snorts

“Doing fine penguin, no need to get your tail in a twist” his blue eyelights roll heavily in his sockets. 

“Is there any soreness? Or swelling?” he sighs tiredly, already exhausted from your prying. His eye-lights drift down towards your chest, lasering in on the camera strapped to your chest.

“No, and no, like I said penguin there’s nothing to worry about. I’m sure your nerds can already see that I’m still fine and breathing. Gotta make sure you stick around after all” he said the last part with a flirtatious wink. You blushed, brushing your hands up against your face in order to hide the bright pink flush that grew on your face. Ugh, 

“Wait, how’d you know-”

“Penguin, I've been around enough scientists to know what a camera is, and there’s one strapped right to your chest.” he pointed a sharp claw at the recording camera. 

“I’m not that dumb, Penguin” he insists, though he says it with a lighthearted tone. 

Oh boy, Sarah and the others were gonna have a field day with this.

Sans pushes himself off of the ice sheet.

Oh well, there goes that interaction for the day. 

Oh! Maybe you can sneak in some of your ice flow research! You dreaded having to completely abandon it, so many hours of your life were dedicated to researching, it felt like a waste to just completely abandon it. 

Turning back, hoping to have enough time to get to your old research stations, Sans bursts from the water. You shriek, falling back onto your butt, scrambling backwards as fast as you could. Water sprays up into the sky as his body flies out from the water below. 

“Hey, hey, calm down, just c’mere.” you shake your head, mouth open in wide shock.

“No way!” you shouted, scrambling further back, legs kicking out as they slipped under the thin ice.

“C’mon, just a little closer,” Sans leans over the edge of the ice, using his long arms he grabs onto your leg, tugging you closer to him and the edge. Your eyes look down, and seeing the deep, inky blackness of the water makes your heart pound against your chest. 

You let out a screech as Sans lunges for your chest, although you expect everything to turn black it doesn’t. Sans claws dig into the camera strapped to your chest. Sparks of electricity flicker as the camera snaps and buckles under pressure, and loud crunches and screeches of crumbling plastic and wires echo through the environment. 

He tears the camera off your chest, the fabric straps rubbing harshly against your clothes. Crushing it into fine pieces before throwing the remains into the ocean. The now crumbled and crunched camera sinks deep below until it disappears from your eyesight completely.

“There, see, no need to scream. I just prefer if our conversations remain between us” You duck your head, still afraid of what he might do, and also embarrassed. It felt silly to react like that, though you knew it was justified. Looking up, you saw a satisfied look on Sans's face, ugh, you internally groaned, he enjoyed that. 

“Forgive me, but you haven’t done much to inspire trust” you snarkily drawl out, your leg pulling at Sans's grip. Eventually, he lets go, letting you slide a little further away until you're at a more comfortable distance.

“Fair fair, penguin. Haven’t been the friendliest to ya. Why don’t we start over? Hi, I’m Sans, Sans the Siren.” he reintroduces himself, giving his skeletal hand for you to shake. 

You don’t, not wanting to put your body any closer to the deadly fingers more than necessary. 

“Heh, now's not the time to start clamming up penguin, don’t get your feathers in a twist. I’m whalely sure we’ll grow to be best buds” You try and hide the twitching smile that grows on your face, and huffing with amusement you turn your head away from him. 

“Yeah, whaley sure of that” Sans snickers now as you copy his own pun.

“There’s no fin need to steal my own puns! Get your own!” he says, you’re almost tempted to shake your head. Baffled at how this encounter had gone. 

Did he seriously just pun a swear? Did Sirens even have humour? Or at least good humour? The confusion was distantly amusing. You almost wished he could just go back to being a hungry predator.

At least then you didn’t have to think up puns on the spot. 

“Sorry, just out of practice with puns. I haven’t said any in years. Most people just find them kinda unfunny,” Sans leans more forward, hand under his chin as he listens to you ramble. You felt nervous under his gaze, words just kept flowing out of your mouth. 

At this point, you weren’t even sure of what you said. Probably something funny, since Sans is now laughing. Ugh, at least he’s enjoying this. 

“So what's someone like you doing here, with that stupid band of scientists” he interrupts, your mouth closes and you hum as you think of a response. You sigh, annoyance and exhaustion undertoning it. 

“I, uh, wasn’t originally a part of their team. I was researching the Arctic ice flows and then Morgan decided that I would be better suited working with the research team” Your eye twitches as you push down your emotions. No need to rant about your boss to the Siren, Calder. Gotta have some standards. 

“Hm, sounds unprofessional” was all Sans said, you nodded vehemently. Ditching the standards you formed about ten seconds ago you launch into a heated rant. Sans listens, his eyes don’t leave your face and he hmms and ohs at the right times, fueling your justice-filled ranting as you continue on. 

“-and then she basically treated me like a child the whole time! Ugh! She. Was. So. Patronising!” you exclaim, hands thrown in the hair, you’d tug at your hair but it's currently stuck under a heavy beanie. 

“Can’t say I wouldn’t expect this of her, Penguin. But I’ve hung around here long enough that I know she can do whatever she wants” 

you tilt your head, how did Sans know Morgan so well? You thought you were the only one who left the base, huh, maybe she used to as well.

Morgan had always made it seem like protocol for the Siren researchers to stick inside as much as possible. You pulled away from your curious thoughts, blinking your eyes that had glazed over as you thought, no, you doubted Morgan would ever lie. San’s has probably just seen her around the base.

You struggled to imagine Morgan in anything other than a work blouse and work skirt.

“How do you know? I thought I was the only one who ever left the base?” Sans tilts his head back as he laughs. You frown, was the question that funny? You were just covering your bases.

“Penguin, c’mon, that doctor bitch has been running these expeditions for years, she used to send people out by the dozen. She just started clamping down when she got sick of dealing with all those bereaved families. Stars, even she used to go wander out!” you shift nervously on the cold ice you sat on. For a moment you’d forgotten what Sans was and the fact that your initial assumption about Morgan was wrong. 

He likely had something to do with creating those bereaved families. You’d have thought it strange that Sans reacted aggressively in your first encounter. You supposed though, that if he was used to humans, it would possibly be a more normal behaviour.

San’s notices your nervous shifting, the way your eyes darted around. His eyelights softened and his mouth turned into a softer smile, less like the harsher, predatory one he wore before. 

“Don’t worry Penguin, I think I prefer fish to you hairy apes now. There’s plenty more fish in the sea anyway” he joked. 

The day moved forward. With the two of you exchanging quips the hours seemed to move by quicker than ever. You only noticed how much time you’d spent with Sans when you felt the glare of the sun blind your eyes. 

“Shit! The others are going to be worried about me. I’ll, uh, see you later?” you say unsurely, Sans nodded.

“See ya later Penguin. Try not to waddle too hard!” you squawked into outrage, shouting back at Sans as he dived under the ice. 

“Ugh! Friggin fish!” you grumble out, walking, not waddling, back to your snowmobile. 

---------

The drive is quiet, which doesn’t prepare you for the chaos that you walk into at the base. 

Thomas and Sarah are both arguing with Jenny, Thomas taking the forefront of the argument, leering down at Jenny and shouting harshly, Sarah meanwhile waves her arms around frantically. Jenny keeps a cool facade, speaking evenly and with an order in her tone. Her eyes sharply glare up at Thomas. The lab is a mess, not to add on to the already steeping pile of chaos, but it is messy. Papers and vials are scattered along benchtops and half-eaten food lies scattered around.

Morgan meanwhile, types away at her computer. Ignoring the shouting match that is going on. She momentarily splits her attention between some stacks of paper and whatever is on her screen. 

“Calder!” Sarah exclaims once she finally notices you. Thomas and Jenny stop arguing and even Morgan looks up from her work. She rushes towards you, bringing you into a crushing hug.

“When we saw the Siren grab you and when the camera feed was cut off we thought you were dead!” she wails out, hugging your chest deeply. You nervously pet her head. 

“No, no I was fine. He wasn’t trying to hurt me or anything” you reassure. Jenny storms closer. 

“What. the. Hell.” she seethes “A dangerous predator literally drags you closer to the ocean and your first instinct is to what? Chat it up? Have a tea party?!” you scowl. 

“Hang on, are you blaming me? I didn’t do anything! I was just following the one order I got from Doctor Morgan!” you defend yourself, gently pulling Sarah's arms away from your body and stepping away from Jenny. She follows every step you take back until you're practically nose to nose. 

“Yeah, you're supposed to follow the order with your camera on!” she leans in with a sneer. 

“Your little adventure today did nothing for us! How are we supposed to get anything from that if we don’t have the recordings!” she hisses out, flecks of spit landing on your face. 

“Doctor Barlowe calm down.” Morgan commands. You sigh as Jenny complies even though her glare continues. Really, should you have ever wished for just one quiet night with this group? You ponder.

“Obviously Doctor Calder cannot help if the Siren takes offence to technology. It’s barely an animal, and neither can Doctor Calder predict its reactions to things” You cross your arms, drifting closer to Sarah and Thomas. Hoping to keep Jenny and Morgan away from you. 

“I’m sure that’ll be a one-time thing. For now, since we know you’re alright now Doctor, I think dinner can be started. Thomas.” she calls, leading him to the kitchen. Sarah stays by your side. Jenny stays behind as well, her fists clenched tightly. 

“I don’t know what you did, to make that fucking animal like you so much. But you’re not special, we won’t need you after this. You’ll probably end up rotting at the bottom of the ocean like everyone else fucking did!” Jenny marches off. Her thick boots pounded harshly off the floor. She slams her cabin door shut with a loud thunderous crack. You jump at the sound. 

Sarah rubs your arm soothingly.

“Ignore her, she means well, she's was just a little, over-excited should we say. No one has ever had such an encounter with a Siren like that. She’s just angry it wasn’t her that got to experience it. Don’t take it personally or anything” 

You stand there silently, keeping your eyes on the floor and holding in the fearful, angry tears that watered your eyes.

“C’mon, let's make sure Thomas doesn’t burn the pasta! Remember last time?” she cheers, you blink, yeah, somehow Thomas had managed to both undercook and burn the pasta at the same time. You were surprised he hadn’t burned down the kitchen as well.

Rubbing at your hazy eyes, you let Sarah lead you out.

“Yeah, pasta nights are the best night anyways.

Chapter Text

For the next few months, things kept to a pattern. You would leave, wander the Arctic for however long, Sans would find you, you would both chat and laugh for the day, then you’d leave, and get questioned by the team before you wandered off to bed. Rinse and repeat for three months straight. You and Sans had become closer, you could even call yourself his friend. You still couldn’t seem to piece together why he was so interested in you in the first place. Every time you tried to ask he’d dodge the question. Then distract you with something.

The team wasn’t helpful in that regard either. You couldn’t quite place your finger on it but something was off. Soon after the argument between you and Jenny, the team distanced themselves. Sarah was quieter around you, trying less to engage you in easy-flowing conversations like she usually had and Thomas just seemed to close up. He stopped talking to you, outside of work-related things entirely. Jenny and Morgan remained as distant and ordering as usual. You wondered if you’d done something wrong. You’d approached Thomas time and time again over those past few months. You would notice his eyes darting around the room, avoiding you completely. His hands would tighten and his body would tense before he’d mutter some excuse and slip away. 

You hated the isolation. It was daunting, in a way. The Arctic had no ambience. Without Thomas or Sarah's voices, you were starting to go mad. Humans weren’t meant to be isolated like this. Every day you would wake up more and more tired, unwilling to go ahead with the day, getting more and more frustrated with the team and their silent shunning. 

You had to stop yourself from snapping at Jenny too many times. 

“Busy Doctor? No? Well, you can finish off this paperwork. It needs to be done by tomorrow night, so get it done soon” Jenny said, you could see her mouth twitch into a mocking smirk as she set down a huge stack of paper. 

“Nothing our resident prodigy can’t get done I’m sure,” she said, stalking off to her lab. You growled out in frustration. This was ridiculous. You weren’t teenagers and yet here everyone was, acting like you were the outcast nerd.

The sudden switch-up in attitudes was confusing at first. Now, you were just used to it. 

Sans, at least, had not changed. He still seemed to enjoy puns and still enjoyed scaring you every time you met up with him. He still hated the camera, always destroying whatever new one was strapped to your body. 

~~~~

“AAAHHHH” you shrieked as Sans leapt from the water. The ice sprayed you, lightly soaking your coat. 

“Augh, Sans! I have work to do!” you huffed. Sans let out a hearty chuckle.

“I thought your work was me?” 

“Don’t say it like that! Makes me sound like some mad scientist!” Sans raised an eyebone at that,

“I dunno penguin, you kinda do give mad scientist vibes. Betcha wears a long white coat at the base Dontcha?” you flushed with embarrassment

“Everyone does! We’re scientists, it's a proper uniform!”

“Proper uniform for mad ones maybe”

“OH! Go away!” you demanded, turning right back around and marching away, you could hear Sans chuckling behind you. Just because he was right on the uniform doesn’t mean he was right on the mad scientist part. You sighed before smiling a little, at least he was fun to be around right now! You thought pleasantly.

~~~~

“Watcha doing Penguin?” Sans would ask, tilting his head in curiosity as he peeked out of the water. You shrieked, jumping into the air with fright, your hands dropping the precious camera the team had gifted you. 

It smashed against the hard ice, oof, that was the third one this week.

“Nothing Sans, just doing something the team asked me to do” he smirked, watching as you slowly bent down to pick up the shattered remains.

A quiet giggle interrupted you from your thoughts, turning around you see Sans hiding a smile.

“What?!”

“Nothing, did you know you really do waddle like a penguin?” he said, cooly teasing you. 

You gasp offended. Rude! You flushed, somewhat self-conscious of how you walked now. It was hard! The numerous layers required to travel safely out here didn't exactly allow you a lot of flexibility.

“I do not!” you screeched out, flinging snow into his face. He sputters, laughing as the snow collides with himself. 

He dives underwater, hiding from your enraged snowballs. You rolled your eyes, at least he left you alone now.

~~~~

Another time, Sans would challenge you. Lightheartedly of course. But oftentimes he would bet on the dumbest things.

“Betcha one fish you can’t get to that flag before me” You rolled your eyes, it was a new day and Sans had already decided to bother you.

“Sans of course you’re going to beat me, I can’t walk ten feet without slipping on ice and you’re the fastest swimmer I’ve ever seen” Sans swooned jokingly.

“A complement? From my icy scientist? No, what a lucky day! I should mark this on my calendar!” you deadpanned him, rolling your eyes at his antics.

“You don’t have a calendar Sans, you live underwater” Sans stuck his tongue at you. You put your hands up in surrender, “Alright, alright, let me get the snowmobile and then why don’t we test that out” Sans eyelights brightened as you hopped onto your snowmobile.

“Ready, set, go!” you screamed out, revving the snowmobile loudly and taking off across the ice. Sans laughed as he dove under the water, chasing towards the flag. Every few seconds he would leap, jeering at you, laughing at you and so on. You gripped the handles of the vehicle tightly. No way in hell were you going to let Sans win. Time for Plan A

As Sans leapt out of the water, sailing through the air for the hundredth time, you turned and called to him. His head snapped to you, eyes on you completely. You’d feel flattered by his attention later, right now, it was showtime. 

“Sans!” you blew him a kiss, his face turned a light blue as he blushed. Distracted, he didn’t stick the landing and flopped into the water, losing what momentum he had gained. “HAHAHAHA!” you laughed, as you edged closer and closer to the flagpole. Sans, for his part, immediately launched back into swimming, you could see him gaining on you, powerful tail cutting through the water like it was nothing. You shook your head, be amazed later! Win this first! You declared, pushing forward. 

You edged closer to the flag, reaching your gloved hand out to touch the pole. You were nearly there!

Sans leapt out of the water, throwing himself a mindblowing distance. Diving into the small pool of water that had formed around the flag. You flinched back, trying to avoid the water spray. You could see Sans reach out and touch the pole. Gripping onto the cold metal like it was a trophy. 

“Hm, cute try penguin” Sans teased, his eyes half-lidded and his smile upturned. “Dirty play though, thought you were an honourable human, Penguin. Guess I was wrong” You puffed out your cheeks in annoyance. 

“Had to level the playing field somehow! You were too fast!”

“Yep, fastest Siren around. Swimmer, I should say” he joked. You sighed, it was hard to stay mad at him when he made jokes like that. 

“Sooo about that fish”

Never mind, he was the worst.

~~~

You giggled at that particular memory, you almost couldn’t believe you had to sneak him some fish from the base kitchens! You’d almost gotten caught by Morgan herself! Luckily you were able to hide behind a freezer. It would have been way too much to have to explain yourself to her. 

At least Sans was happy, you thought. Thinking back on how you watched on in morbid horror as he swallowed a whole salmon nearly whole! Disturbing, but you couldn’t look away. 

“Calder, are you in there? You’re needed” calls out Sarah. You pull yourself out of bed, quickly dashing out the door, trying to catch her in time. Maybe you could try and talk to her again? Maybe you could get her to talk to you again. You hurriedly threw your clothes on, rushing to the door. Dammit, you just missed her. 

Whelp, no point in not starting the day now. You could hear the shrieking of the wind outside, a snowstorm was brewing, and it looked like it had finally reached your base. You breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way you could be sent out there. It would be way too dangerous, too cold and you could very likely fall into the sea itself because of how low the visibility was. 

You dragged your feet into the lab, Thomas, Sarah, Jenny and even Morgan had already all started working it seemed. Thomas looked up, his eyes winced and he shut his head back down to his desktop screen. You internally groaned, that couldn’t mean anything good. 

“Take a seat, Calder, you still have some reports to fill out” Morgan called out, gesturing towards the seat next to her. In lieu of Sans's apparent hatred for all things cameras, Morgan had taken to making you write out every interaction you had with Sans every single day. There were only so many times you could scientifically write that Sans had made another sea pun before every report started to look the same.

~~~~~

Morning turned to lunch and you managed to excuse yourself to get something to eat. Your stomach gurgled loudly as you prepared a small cheese sandwich. You leaned up against the large window in the canteen, it overlooked a good amount of ocean but with the blizzard, you could only see the very start of it. Briefly, your mind wandered to Sans. Would he be okay? You hoped he wouldn’t get stranded again, like he did all those months ago. You weren’t sure if you’d be able to help him if the blizzard continued. You’d be stuck inside, with the rest of your colleagues. Ugh, you could feel the cabin fever already beginning to brew inside of you. Hopefully, you could keep yourself from getting too antsy. 

Lunch came and went and you wandered back into the lab, awkwardly sitting next to your colleagues and filling out the rest of your unfinished reports. 

You stretched, cracking your back as you typed up the last word of your final report. The blizzard had lessened somewhat, but you probably still wouldn’t be able to leave the base for a few more days. Your mind wandered to Sans, you had missed his company. You’d gotten used to his ironic and punny jokes, they were even starting to rub off on you. But still, safety first. 

You inched out of your seat and tried to sneak off from the lab as quietly as possible.

“Get your gear on in ten minutes Doctor Calder. Another expedition needs to be completed before nightfall” Another expedition?! You gaped at Morgan's words, swivelling your head back to the window. Still storming. 

“Uh, Doctor Morgan I don’t think that’s possible,” you said, lifting your eyes to meet her gaze. 

“Part of your role dictates that you take on as many expeditions as needed, rain or shine. Read your contract, it’ll say so” she practically dismissed you as she turned back down to her work

You stood there nervously, what were you supposed to say?!

“Doctor, it’s a blizzard out there, how am I going to be able to do anything out there? I’ll probably just get lost, or fall down some hole or something” She looked back up, her eyes as cold as the wind outside. 

“As I said before, your contract states that you must go on as many expeditions as the rest of the team concludes necessary. You’ll need to get your gear on now if you want to leave on time” you let out an angry huff of air. There was no way this could be right

“What I’m saying to Doctor Morgan is that it isn’t safe for me to leave. I could die! It won’t hurt anyone if we just wait a few more days until the storm blows over.” Morgan's constant frown deepened. 

“As I’m sure you’re aware, the contract states you are to do as required, or else there will be consequences. Reprimands. Things you wouldn’t want to be marked down on our internal folders. It’s easier if you just follow along with what you're told”

You shakily walked off. Gearing up seemed like your only option, even though entering the blizzard was so risky. You cursed Morgan under your breath, you cursed the stupid storm, the company Morgan worked for, the Siren team as a whole and you even cursed your stupidity for signing up for this expedition. 

“Hey Calder,” Sarah said, walking up to you, her arms crossed insecurely. You grunted at her coldly as you pulled on another thick layer of socks. You refused to even look her in the eyes, if she wanted to play the ignoring game you could play it too. 

Sarah went to take a seat next to you, placing her hand gently on your back.

“I just wanted to say sorry for ignoring you. It wasn’t cool, I don’t want to lose our friendship over this” you scoffed, snapping your head angrily at her. 

“Sarah, you ignored me for like two and a half months straight. I can’t deal with this right now! At least tell me what I did wrong!” you implored Sarah. She looked away from you, a nervous aura growing from her. She stood up.

“I’ll tell you later, I promise. It’ll be better if you hear it before you go out and see the Siren again” She walked away, each click of her shoe loudly echoing through the hallways.

You clenched your fists in frustration. You came here to learn, not play mind games with your colleagues. You stood up, ready to chase Sarah down when Morgan turned around the corner.

“Good. You came to your senses. Same task as usual, try to find the Siren and engage with it.” you scowled at her, not even trying to hide your contempt for her. Over the last few months, all your goodwill towards Morgan had dried up. You said nothing, only glared before stomping to the garage, pulling out the snowmobile and driving into the blizzard.

Hopefully, you'll find Sans.

He could help you think some things through.

Chapter Text

The winds smack against you, forcing you to lean in closer to your vehicle. At points, you feared the snowmobile would tip over, with how fast and powerful the winds blew. Shots of fear blasted through your veins like shots of alcohol. You grimaced, pulling your mask up as you braced against the flying ice. 

Shivering you hunched further down into the seat of the vehicle. You carefully drove in and around small holes in the ice. Moving at an inch a mile, you could barely see in front of you, the wind mixed together with snow and ice that blurred your vision and hid the sun. darkness had swept over the lands, you hoped it would pass soon but knowing your luck the storm would continue to rage on for hours, no, probably days at this point. 

How long have you been out here? It was impossible to see any further than a metre in front of you in these conditions and the small clock that would typically illuminate the time had been shut off; no amount of tinkering or hitting at the damn thing would get it to turn on. 

You flinched as you were forced to swerve as a glacier of ice suddenly seemed to appear. Cursing under your breath you desperately tried to regain control of the mobile as it spun around the ice. 

Finally, the mobile stopped moving, shuddering to a halt as trails of scratched ice followed. You sighed, God, this really couldn’t get any worse, could it?

Brrrrzzzzzcccchhhh 

The engine rumbled loudly and as you pushed down on the throttle loud cracking could be heard below. The skis moved, stuck in place and continued to dig deeply into the ice as you pushed down on the throttle. The smell of burning petrol omitted from the broken machine as you desperately pushed down, hoping to get it moving again.

“No, no please, please work!” you desperately pleaded, begging the inanimate machine to suddenly work. It shuddered, your heart soared for a moment and then dropped as it stopped moving altogether, not even the familiar sound of the engine rumbling could be felt. Your forehead bumped up against the console as you groaned in frustration. 

“Gotta be kidding me” you mutter, hopping off the mobile. The ice under you bends under your weight, that can’t be good, you guess, no you know. The snowmobile had already cut through some of the surrounding ice thickness. You shivered at the thought of falling back into the cold, numbing sea. 

Quickly you bend down to see a slurry of thick ice and snow wound up and caught within the many chains that kept the snowmobile moving. Desperately you dig your gloved hands in through the damaged chains. Only some of it comes tipping out, the rest seem wedged completely within the machine. 

“Shit” is all you say, hanging your head as you accept defeat. The blizzard continued to rage oblivious to your depressing situation. This was just your luck. Of course, you’d be sent out in a blizzard and then have your only means of transportation break down. A slurry of curse words tips from your mouth. Your face twists into one of desperate anger. 

For the next few minutes (hours? It’s hard to tell in this kind of weather) you sit by your vehicle. The ice digs uncomfortably into your butt and your pants grow wet from the surrounding ice. You fiddle with your jacket, it wasn’t your typical one, that one was still stuck drying; so you had no choice but to borrow from Sarah. It was strangely stiff for some reason, some parts of the jacket didn’t bend with the same flexibility that other parts could. The stuffing felt wrong too, empty in some places and overstuffed in others. You shuddered. Ugh, hopefully, that wasn’t for a gross reason or something. 

Deep down you knew that no one would come. The realistic part of your mind weighed the likelihoods. You had no means of communication with them, having not even brought the typical camera with you. Stars, you didn’t even know where you were! You could barely see a metre in front of you. 

You’d figured you would be fighting this battle alone even if externally you hoped for help. You leaned against the mobile, head tilted to the dark, cloudy sky. Your mind wandered, drifting from memory to memory. Eventually, you settled on a childhood nursery rhyme your mother used to sing to you. The familiar tune brought comfort to your despairing mind and freezing body as you shuddered against the winds that bashed against your body.

The words had escaped you, the last time this had been sung was years ago and time had muddled your most precious memories. But the rhythm and the flow of the song still stuck with you. Freezing and clinging to the last scraps of hope you hummed out the song. Your voice cracked and sometimes you stumbled over it, but you preserved through, determined to finish the childhood melody.

“Cute voice penguin.” you yelped, flinching from where you were sitting, your eyes swivelled around until they finally saw Sans. you breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

“Sans! A little warning before you appear from nowhere!” you exclaimed, pressing your knees to your chest. He smiled sweetly, well, as sweetly as was possible for him; teeth glinting as he did.

“Awww no need to clam up penguin! Keep singing, you’ve got a great voice” he encouraged. 

How had you not noticed him before? He floated only a few feet from you, the ice had been clearly broken. God you must have been more out of it than you thought.

“I’ll sing if you want. We’d make a great choir. All the fish in the seven seas would be falling head over fin to listen to us'' he teasingly assures, his blue eyelights watching your face for any reaction, you can see the magic stirring in them as they blur at the edges and grow bigger as you look deeper into them. 

“No Sans, I’m kinda busy here” 

“Busy doing what?” he questions, oblivious to your annoyed glance. The lights in his sockets tighten as he prods you for questions.

“Busy trying not to freeze to death out here! There’s kinda a blizzard going on!” Sans looks at you. His smile slowly disappeared off his face. His eyelights shrink to the point of disappearing altogether.

He presses forward, powerful body breaking past the thin ice. You flinch away, curling up against the snowmobile trying to avoid his moving body. 

His hand reaches out, tugging on a stray curl of hair that had snuck out from under your beanie. Twirling his sharp claws around it he tucked it behind your ear. He mumbles something under his breath, too quiet for you to hear, but he still looks at you expectantly. 

“Can you walk?” he repeats, you nod, still tense under his unfamiliar gaze. “Good, follow my voice, I’ll show you where the thicker ice is” he dives under before you can answer back. 

Whelp, you suppose this is the rescue you were hoping for. Even if the supposed rescuer had fins instead of feet.

Every so often a sharp click would echo out through the ice and slowly you would move your frozen legs in the same direction. 

Your joints ached harshly with the cold, twanging with pain every time you bent a limb. Your fingers and nose were numb as well, which you also hadn’t realised until you’d tried to pull yourself up and rubbed at your face. It frightened you. How cold you’d gotten without you noticing. 

You’d failed to realise how dangerous the Arctic could get, even without deadly predators breathing down your neck. Even the weather could kill you. You reprimanded yourself, you couldn’t be so headstrong to just think you’d be fine!

Nonetheless, you continued to follow Sans. He was the only person to come to your aid, he was the only one who could help you, so really, you reasoned, you had no choice but to follow him. 

Eventually, he led you down a sharp slope, you realised as you wandered further that it was some kind of cave. A small pool of water at the very edge connected to the ocean and was where Sans showed up when you reached the very bottom. Water dripped off his body and onto the cold ground below. 

“This is my super secret napping place; V.I.P access for only my bestest nerdiest pal,” he drawled out, hand under his chin. You would roll your eyes if your eyelashes weren’t so frozen. 

At least he was back to his normal snarky self, you supposed. 

The floor of the ice cave was littered with thick seal pelts which helped entrap what little heat existed in this wasteland of a continent. Some looked older than others, comfortably worn down like all beloved blankets were. Sans pulled himself out from the water, sliding his wet body near to the pile of pelts. You followed his actions. Falling down to the ground and snuggling deeply into the seal pelts. You dragged a few of the thickest pelts over your numb body, letting them shield you from the sub-zero temperatures outside. Feeling returned to your fingers, nose and toes and you could feel the frozen snow slowly melt away from your eyelashes as your body temperature rose. Your weary eyes were kept firmly to the ground, exhaustion permeated the very core of your being. 

A quiet peacefulness fell over the two of you. Your eyes drooped, too tired with the day's events to keep them open. Sans seemed content to lay next to you. His breath evened out as he lay beside you.

You could feel Sans eyes on you, his eyelights trailed down your aching body, watching as your own breath calmed down and your shoulders dropped. 

He was glad you were asleep, it would be embarrassing to have to explain the blue hearts that had formed in his sockets. 

He inched closer, dragging his drying body to your warm one. Skeletal hand wrapping around your waist. His body leans up against yours, his head leaning forward into your soft neck. 

“....goodnight penguin” he whispered, placing another of the furs atop your body before slipping back into the pool and leaning his happy skull on the edge of the pool. The scars on his back ache painfully, as they usually did. A strange tugging pulled at his soul, memories of an earlier, happier time. A time he had almost forgotten.

________________________________________________________________

“Wakey wakey penguin~ I’ve got food~” a low voice whispered into your ear. You shot up, jumping back as Sans leered over you, laughing now.

“Got you good there! Come fishere already!” you groaned, rubbing your eyes, how were the puns already starting?!

“That pun didn’t make any sense Sans” he handed you a raw fish. You blanched at the smell of it, holding back a disgusted frown. At least it was gutted. Although you still couldn’t eat it.

“Sure it does, I combined the words ‘fish’ and ‘here’ because-” you put both your hands up. 

“Alright, alright I get it, Sans. Thank you for the food but I won’t be able to eat it” Sans' smile fell and he tilted his head, concern laced in his expression. 

“Not up to your fishtastic standards? I can get a seal?” he offered. 

“No, no, it’s not that. I can’t eat things that are raw. It’ll make me sick” you explained, Sans had a brief look of worry flash across his face that quickly disappeared as quick as it came. 

Breakfast passes quickly between the two of you, with Sans devouring both your fish and his in seconds. If you didn’t remember your history with Sans you could view him as one of your closest friends here. Eventually, though, your need for cooked food and clean water wins over and you ask Sans if the storm has passed.

“Sure it passed ages ago! All clear, sunny skies” you dragged your hand down your face.

“Why didn’t you tell me then!” you exclaimed

“Well we were having so much fun, well, technically you were asleep and then I went off to get breakfast, should've woken up quicker, Penguin” he says drawls your nickname out.  

You rub your eyes before glaring down at Sans form. 

“The team is probably freaking out right about now, I should get going” Quickly you got up from the floor, tightening your jacket. 

“Thank you for taking care of me Sans. But I still have responsibilities at the base.” your heart burns at the half-lie. You did have responsibilities, but would they even care? You shake your head, dismissing the thought before your mind can focus too much on it.

You can hear Sans scoff at your blatant remark.

“If you’re going back to your little base, Penguin, be careful. You’d think I’d be the only dangerous thing around here…” he trails off in a tone you can’t quite place. 

His smile has turned into a deeply etched frown and you can see the ice cracking under the grip of his claws.

“Excuse me?” is all you say, confused and daring him to continue speaking. 

“What are you talking about Sans?” you follow up when he doesn’t speak.

“What, you’re smarter than that penguin. Think. Why’d they risk sending someone like you out where something like me is?”

your eyes narrowed as they stared deeply into the ground. Embarrassment and suspicion brewed deep in your body. You couldn’t disagree with Sans. You weren’t some seasoned scientist nor some experienced adventurer. So why?

“Enough Sans. I doubt they wanted me dead, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for everything. Just…just show me how to get back” you ordered, unwilling to think on the deeper questions. You sneezed, too cold as well.

You almost expected him to refuse, to try and keep you here; Luckily though, Sans silently agreed, ducking under the water and carefully leading you back to the snowmobile, patiently waiting as you slowly dragged it to the base. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow Sans”

“Stay safe Penguin, don’t be dumb!” he teases, a cheeky smile returning to his face. He ducked under the water, though you could tell he hadn’t immediately swum away. You sighed exasperatedly and walked inside.

The base is dead silent, most likely everyones still asleep. You glance at the clock, 5:00 am. Even Morgan didn’t get up till 6:00. Your mind itched on what Sans had said, why had they ordered you out? You tried to find a reason, though none made sense. 

You hummed, standing in the hallway. You were missing something, some missing puzzle piece that would explain everything. 

Your head turns to your own cabin and further down the hall, where Morgan's office and the labs are. A peak wouldn't hurt. No one would know. You thought to yourself, justifying your actions as you crept towards Morgan's office. 

“Always been too curious for my own good” you mutter.

You shiver as you step in, the room is pitch black and you can only see the outline of a few things, including, luckily, Morgan's laptop. You power on the laptop, surveying through a number of recent emails. Communications between herself and her superior? Or maybe a colleague back on the mainland.

You clicked through, and most of them provided nothing of interest until you looked through her ‘sent’ folder.

____________

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected] 

Things are progressing at a similar pace. We’ve been unable to get any more footage of the Siren. It’s smarter than we thought. Don’t be worried though, the shipment will still be boarding by the end of the expedition. 

Thanks,

Morgan

____________

Shipment? What? You switched to clicking through Morgan's documents. Perhaps those would 

____________

N.C report.doc

Opening…..

…..

05/02/2019

Nathaniel Conners was mauled by Siren 0-1 on September 2nd 2019, estimated time of 10:36 am. The body was destroyed, and not able to be delivered to the family. Send family his items and instruct delivery to say he slipped and fell into the ocean. The death certificate has already been certified and signed and will be delivered to the family. Doctor Conner's death will not be talked about. If I hear anything about it, whoever said it will be fired without severance. I’ll tell Doctor Barlowe of Doctor Conner, the two were close. I can make her understand what happened. She and him both knew the dangers of getting so close with such a thing out there. 

………

You grimace, you were aware that Sans had killed other people. Hell, you’d never forget the times he nearly killed you. But for Morgan to lie? How’d she even get his death certificate done so quickly? What did she need so badly that the law would be broken?! Your stomach twisted, you were beginning to have an idea of what she wanted so desperately. 

You keep looking on, you still have questions unanswered

Ding! 

An email is delivered, looks like it’s from the same person, whoever ‘mkensley’ is that is. 

_________

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected] 

How is progress? If you still think there’s more than one out there we can just poach the rest. Ebbot Co only wants the one anyway. Also, remember to send those reports in, the scientists back home are getting desperate. You know how they are.

Well, wishes,

Mark

_______

Sinking realisation hits you. Your idea was confirmed with the email. 

They want Sans. you growl angrily and dig your fingers into the wooden table. You were so dumb! No wonder she was so eager to send you out into that blizzard! Did she want to capture him then? God and you were dumb enough to believe that they only just wanted to deepen their knowledge of Sirens. 

You, as gently as you could at this moment, pulled the laptop down and trudged out of her office. Waves of anger, sadness, worry and regret all pooled into your guts, weighing you down as you struggled to maintain composure. Did Sarah know about this? Did Thomas? Had they just been stringing you along in order to capture Sans? 

Sans wasn’t safe here. Morgan didn’t seem the type to just back off if asked politely. You held down a snort at that image. 

You glanced over to the lab, the small radio that let the outer world talk to you lay there. There was no way Morgan hadn’t broken several important laws, in fact, you knew she’d broken them. 

No, you still had to gather more evidence. Nothing was stopping Morgan from simply deleting the emails the second she caught wind of any investigation. You needed something solid. You lay down on your bed. You needed time. 

But Sans still needed help. You couldn’t not tell him! Even if a small part of you wanted him to stay; you knew it would be selfish, cruel even.

Two parts of you were pulling in different directions. The selfish part of you wanted to keep Sans close, protect him with him by your side. Another more selfless side wanted him out of Morgan's clutches as soon as possible. 

Stuttering out a sigh you gathered yourself, wiping the look of mental exhaustion off your face; and you walk out of the base.

“Sans!” you call, after walking a short distance, hands cupped to help the sound travel. 

“Sans!” 

“Sa-”

“I’m here, I’m here penguin, bit early for a call?” Sans appears from one of the many ice holes. You don’t jump this time. Too used to Sans appearances and reappearances. 

“You were right. I’m sorry for not listening” Sans raises a brow bone, smiling cheekily. He leans forward.

“Water off my back, Penguin,” 

“But you need to stay away from me” Sans eye sockets widen. 

“Wha, huh?! Penguin, calm down! I’m sure we can get around them if it’s such a big issue!” you shake your head.

“Sans they want you ” you pause, “they think there are more Sirens out here…they want to kill them and capture you!” you emphasise each word as you spit them out. Silence fills the air so thickly it feels like your throat is closing. 

“Hehe,” Sans chuckles, you scrunch your face up in confusion, was this really the time to be laughing? 

“They’ve been ‘studying’ me for years, Penguin. They’re not going to catch me now. Besides, there’s no other Sirens around but lil’ ol’ me” You glance down at the deep scars that are etched into his spine. You winced, the old wound looked painful. 

“Still, I think they’re using me to get to you. It’s still not safe” 

Sans beckons you towards him, and you follow. Nose to nose, you're the closest you’ve been to him in months. Your heart is racing and your face feels warm, for some strange reason. 

Sans leans in whispering an idea. His voice, soft but guttural, makes butterflies in your stomach. But you listen, pushing away the strange feeling in your stomach.

“-Alright Penguin, go back to bed. Don’t let them know” you nod, hurrying back to base. They should all be waking up about now.

You hoped this would work.

Chapter Text

A month passes by. A lonely, cold month. The weather only gets worse. Sometimes the base door is barred shut with heavy layers of snow that built up over the night. Leaving you trapped with people you feared to trust. 

You’d stayed stuck, hidden in your room for the most part. Trying to avoid the perceptive eyes of your colleagues and ex-friends. Your relationship with much of the team had frozen over. Your mind filled with suspicious thoughts, did they know? Is that why they were being so distant? What more are they hiding? Were constantly repeating it over and over in your head. 

You avoid Sarah, despite what she had whispered to you as you walked out into that blizzard nearly a month ago. You weren’t playing mind games with her. If it was so desperate for you to know then she could come up to you herself. But she hadn’t in fact, after that moment it seems as though she’d gone back to ignoring you entirely. Aside from a few looks from her, you could never quite discern what secret message she was trying to pass along. There had been radio silence between the two of you. You sighed mournfully. Though you didn’t know her for long, your friendship kept you sane, especially at the beginning of the expedition. 

The same could be said about Thomas. Though he wasn’t as good at hiding his emotions as Jenny or Morgan were. A few times you’d tried to strike up a conversation with him. Each time ending in him stuttering off an excuse, before making his way to the nearest exit. Like Sarah, you missed his friendship, his laugh and his kind actions. It was hard to understand why he, like Sarah, would abandon you so. You still struggled to think of any reason why. 

Jenny had gotten worse, somehow. Constantly with the snide and rude remarks. Jealous, bitter eyes followed your wake every time the two of you were in a room together. It was exhausting, trying to remain professional as she pried at your patience. Even Morgan had become a stranger, more eager than ever to send you out into the snowy tundra. Despite San’s disappearance. She guarded her laptop more fiercely than ever. Slamming the lid down every time someone came near. 

You rubbed your forehead, trying to spell away a stress-induced headache. The glare of your computer screen caused you to avert your eyes, observing the now full lab. Thomas and Sarah sat together, huddled up, looking at the same computer. Jenny and Morgan meanwhile, sat alone. Occasionally Jenny would look up from her stacks of paper and would deliver a bitter glare towards you. Morgan would glance at you, carefully ensuring that her suspicious gaze never met yours. 

Looking back at your computer and only seeing sharp squiggles of lines instead of text. You know to take a break. Stretching, you start to head back to your cabin. Dinner can be missed just this once, can’t it?

“Doctor Calder, a moment” Jenny's voice rings out. You wince, goddammit. 

“Yes, Barlowe?” you retort back, failing to hide the nervous quiver in your voice. 

“The weather should improve by tomorrow. We all expect you to depart on another expedition by then.” your heart quickens at the thought. Since that night, you hadn’t heard, seen or even felt San’s presence near you. He’d disappeared completely out of your life. You missed him, his annoying jabs, his puns and most of all his company.

“I don’t think there’ll be any point in that. I haven’t seen the Siren in a month. I doubt he’s coming back anytime soon” Morgan butts in, cutting Jenny off from whatever she was about to say.

“Regardless of whenever you last saw it. Your job remains the same.” Morgan's eyes pierce deeply into yours. You shift nervously where you stand. It feels like she’s digging for more sometimes like she’s trying to find some deeper answer with you. It makes your skin crawl and makes you want to curl up into a ball. 

You duck out of the room, not waiting for any dismissal from either of the two. You rush into your room. Pacing up and down until you finally manage to get your anxiety under a tight lock and key. 

“Wait till night, wait till night,” you mutter, chewing on your nails. You sit on your desk, noting the mess. Scattered notes and half-eaten plates of food line your desk. You internally groan at the mess. You're lucky that ants can’t survive in the Arctic otherwise you’d have the worst infestation. You clean up, swiping the old food and crumbs into your bin alongside random bits of paper you’d scribbled on in fits of boredom. 

The nautilus shell catches your eye. It still retains much of its colour from when San gifted it to you. You never told any of your colleagues what he gave to you. Some small part of your mind feared they would take it away and never give it back. You thumbed over the zig-zag stripes that grew across the shell. Gently, you brushed some dust that had gathered on it. You curled up onto your seat, still holding the shell closely to your chest. You stay like that for a moment, gathering your thoughts and your plans. 

Eventually, you get back up, placing the shell back into its designated corner and readying yourself for the rest of the day. You grumbled as you realised what you’d have to do. 

Once dinner had concluded and everyone, aside from yourself had retreated to their cabins you executed your and San’s plan. Carefully you walked into Morgan's office, keeping your footsteps light, avoiding the same creaky board you’d learned to avoid. Approaching her desk, you flitted through any paper copies. Your eyes scanned over each paper, skimming over the old and looking for the new. Nothing new, damn. 

Quickly, you opened her laptop. For someone who was now so protective of her work, she didn’t seem to bother using an effective password. You typed it in.

‘PASSWORD’

‘Login successful’

Yes! Opening her email box you skimmed through her most recent ones. 

____________________

From: [email protected] 

To: [email protected]

Do you have any more information on the Siren? Managements getting bitchy without a report for so long. Just letting you know

Thanks,

Mark

_______________________

This was the most recent email, only received a few hours ago. She likely hasn’t seen it then. You smirk delightedly as you hover over the delete option. Deleting something has never made you feel more empowered than ever. Try dealing with your superiors now, Morgan! You think triumphantly. So far, your and San’s plan has been relatively simple. He would keep away, hiding from both yourself and your colleagues and you would play the double spy. Listening in on conversations and making it harder for Morgan to do her job. Can’t hunt a Siren if you can’t communicate with the people you're hunting them for, right? 

You rub your eyes. The night was still young and curious and your newly founded nosyness still brewed in your veins. You meandered down to Sarah's cabin, like before keeping your footsteps quiet. You give three quick knocks on the door. 

Sarah opens the door, her long hair is tied into a messy bun. She’s wearing a thick set of thermal pyjamas. Toothbrush in her mouth. She opens her mouth to say something, but you interrupt.

“You wanted to tell me something” Her eyes raised out of their half-lidded position. She seems much more awake now. 

“Now?” she questions, you hold back a frustrated huff.

“Yes, now!” you push your way inside. Her room is neat, not a single thing out of place, unlike your tornado of a room. 

“Wha- that was ages ago! Like a month. Why do you wanna know now?!” she exclaims as she rubs away the smudges of toothpaste that lined the corners of her mouth. 

“There were other things I had to focus on. And with how you were acting towards me I thought, maybe I should just hold off. I wasn’t sure if you would even tell me” Sarah averts her eyes at the reminder of her treatment of you. 

“Calder, I’m really sorry about that. I promise it wasn’t up to me” you scoff,

“What wasn’t up to you? Look, just tell me! Please” you say, your voice strangling slightly. A mix of frustration and genuine sadness of your broken friendship. 

“It’s about the Siren.” she pauses, breathing and gathering her thoughts. “It… We think it views you as its mate, or child, or family. We aren’t sure” you blink. Stunned into momentary silence. What? Mate? Child? Family? Your mind rushes over every meeting with Sans. the gifts, the cuddles, the competitions. 

“You think Sans is my mate?” is all you can say, still confused by how they came to that conclusion. Sarah shakes her head vehemently and her arms wave ‘no’

“No, no! We don’t think that you view it as your mate. Just that the Siren wants you as its mate or something else?. We were theorising that it’s displaying courting behaviour towards you… or it might view you as a child to take care of? We still need more data” she rambles on, oblivious to your horrified and embarrassed look that washes over your face.

“The uh, the cave it took you to during that storm was very informative! But we still aren’t sure yet. We think gift giving could be courting behaviour, or was it touch? No, it was singing! Ugh, either way the cave was useful data, but nothing solid!” your eyes widened in surprise, though really, why did you ever doubt them; of course they somehow knew the cave, no doubt some camera they’d hidden on you.

“How’d you know about the cave?! And what courting behaviour?” is all you can say, did Sans really view you like that? For some reason though, you didn’t feel as disgusted with that thought as you thought you would. You frown, not the time to be contemplating Calder. Focus!

“Well, Sirens aren’t exactly known for being so friendly or touchy touchy. The talking as well! No One's ever had a Siren talk to them, ever!” she pauses again, morphing her face into one that gives a more neutral look. “We all wanted to study what we thought could be courting behaviour… so, we thought some forced proximity would reveal things. I snuck a camera into your jacket when you went out” she revealed, face unchanging. Did she really feel no guilt?!

“So, you decided to put me in danger?! Ignore me?!” you blurt out. Her face flushed with embarrassment. 

“No, well, some of us were jealous; and we all thought, maybe it would make better results if you only interacted with the Siren. So we wouldn’t want to interfere” Sarah justifies, without a hint of remorse or guilt etched onto her face. You feel a sharp sense of hurt, just being used like that, by someone you thought was a friend. Who so quickly abandoned you for their science experiments. 

“Uh, please don’t tell the others I told you this. You weren’t supposed to find out” She breaks the silence, though she looks at you like she wasn’t asking but was rather commanding. 

“If you’re worried about tomorrow, don’t be. We won’t let you go out alone!” it wasn’t Sans you feared anymore, it was them. Keep calm Calder, don’t freak out on her. Don’t let Morgan know what you’ve done tonight. Don’t let Sarah know.

You give her a shaky nod, doing your best to come off friendly. 

“Y-yeah, never even think about it” You swiftly exit Sarah's room and make your way towards yours. Dragging your hands across your face you think back on what you heard. You were shocked that Sans could possibly be flirting with you, but another part of you was even more shocked that you didn’t mind. Your brain subconsciously played with the idea, how would things work out? Like, down there? 

Ew, wait, stop brain right now! Ugh, he’s your friend! Sarah and the others have no idea what they’re talking about! Sarah said it herself, he could just think of you like a human thinks of a baby kitten or something! Or like, he’s just a friend, a dangerous, aquatic friend! And that's what he thinks of you! 

You curl into your bed, groaning into your pillow. 

Stop. Brain. Right. Now. you commanded.

Go. To. Sleep! Your eyes slam shut and you try to chase away what Sarah said; simply try and prepare for whatever torture Morgan had planned for you tomorrow.

_________________________________________

The morning came and went. Just like every other morning. Until of course, it came to your expedition. Instead of finding yourself strapping in for the arduous journey by yourself, you find yourself surrounded by everyone. Including Morgan. All were, like you, decked out in heavy thermal clothes, goggles, thick boots and so on. 

“There you are, Doctor Calder. As you can see, I’ve decided it would be beneficial for all of us to participate in an expedition.” stunned, is all you can say to your current mental state. Really, after like four months of being trapped in this base. Just now they decided to leave? Your brain is screaming at you over this, blaring the red flag over and over again. You flashback to what Sarah told you last night. 

This had something to do with you and Sans no doubt. You shuddered. You just hoped no one would get hurt. 

“Of course, just don’t be surprised if you see nothing. Sans hasn’t been around for a while” With that said, everyone finishes suiting up and each of you settles down into the seats of the snowmobiles. Morgan takes the lead surprisingly, a part of you thought she’d just let you lead them. Shit. you’d hoped to keep them far away from the areas Sans likes to hang around, just to ensure nothing happens. 

The ride is bumpy. Not much is said between you all. You’d hope Thomas would jump in, and cheer up the mood. But he seemed strangely quiet today. His helmet stopped you from reading his face. Sarah was quiet as well, you’d hoped as well that she would keep the conversation flowing. 

It was unnerving how quiet things were, it shouldn’t be with how many of you there were. But it was. 

Morgan leads your group to where you and Sans first met when he tried to drag you underwater. All of them inspect the area, for whatever, while you sit on your snowmobile. 

“Have you seen the Siren around here recently?” you startle as Morgan starts speaking to you, her tone as clipped and formal as ever. 

“No, I haven’t seen him in, like, a month” Morgan mutters something, before grabbing a notepad and scribbling something down. 

“Alright, move on!” she calls. Throughout the rest of the day, she takes you to various locations. Askes you the same questions, writes something down and moves on. Eventually, she brings you all out, close to the sea. You notice it’s close to where Sans had kept you hidden from the raging blizzard. You hug yourself, trying to forget the warmth of San’s body. 

“Calder, Calder!” Morgan snaps, calling you for the second time.

“Y-yeah? Sorry, I, uh, didn’t hear you” she pinches her nose bridge.

“The Float, we need to take it back to the base before we leave. It was originally yours, so it’s yours to collect” she says with a hand wave, dismissing you before you can object. Do you remember installing this float, it was supposed to stay in the water for years, for other scientists to obtain useful data eventually. 

You huff, puffing your cheeks out in frustration. You didn’t trust Morgan for a second. Not after what Sarah revealed. 

“It’s not harming anyone just staying out there, it could be useful to other scientists later down the line. Besides, why do I have to do it?” Morgan groans in frustration at your noncompliance. 

“It's company property, and you put it out there! You bring it back!” she hisses out through gritted teeth. You glance to the three others, whose gaze follows you. You can feel scrutiny in their eyes. Gulping you step off your mobile. As you move forward you notice the thick, white ice slowly turning more translucent, clearly thinner than before. Your steps turn less confident and more shaky with each passing moment. 

“I don’t think this is safe guys. The ice is too thin to get close to the Float. Why are we even collecting it? I put it there so it could keep collecting data for years!” you exclaim nervously. Taking shaky steps back to where you came from. Trying to avoid causing any deep fractures within the ice. 

Thomas has taken off his helmet, he’s biting his lips nervously, and he avoids your gaze. Sarah keeps eye contact with you, a friendly smile graced upon her lips. 

“Cutbacks on funds have required us to stop maintaining some research. Just go and collect it now Calder. So we can all get this over with” Jenny says with harsh scorn on her lips. Morgan nods. Leaving no room for argument. 

You turn back, the ice seems so much more thin now. You can almost see the sea through it perfectly. You stretch out your hand, trying to grab the handle of the Float when a sharp snap catches your attention. 

You jump back, just in time. As for the ice, you were just standing on buckles under your weight. Falling deep into the ocean, small splatters of water spray onto your face. 

Your heart drops as more crunches are heard. You flinch to the side, as the ice where your left foot once was sinks like just before. You can hear Thomas yelling something to you, but it blurs as the blood pounds around your body. Adrenaline spikes your heart rate. 

CRUNCH!

Your right foot plunges into icy seawater. You scream out as the water gushes around your leg, the ice surrounding your fallen body cracking as well. One wrong move, and you would die in the water around you. You whimper, letting out a scared sob as your foot and surrounding leg go numb. You can’t even feel your toes. You wonder if the team will be able to reach you. 

Tears slide down your face as the cracks in the ice deepen. You spread your body flat out onto the ice, spreading your body weight to avoid too much pressure on any particular pane of frozen water. 

Desperately you called out for Sans. despite it being hopeless a small primal part of your brain reached out to whoever could help you.

“Sans!” you croaked out, your voice cracking and body shivering from the cold. You could feel the water slipping through the cracks and curling around your fingers. 

You closed your eyes, letting out a sob as you waited, “Sans!” you called again. The ice cracked around you, setting you adrift, away from your shouting colleagues. Thomas was screaming something but you couldn’t hear, only the rushing sounds of the water were entering your mind. 

“Penguin, stay still for me” a familiar voice comforted you. You cracked your eyes open, finding Sans in front of you. He cupped your face in his hands, dragging you further up the ice sheet. 

“Shhhhh, don’t move little bird.” he balanced you, sliding you further up the crumbling ice sheet and further up onto his warm body. Your body shook harshly, even as you tried to follow San’s order. Your limbs felt entirely numb, you could see how soaked your clothes had gotten now. You looked up, with a shaking smile.

“I thought we were supposed to stick to the plan?” Sans rolls his eyelights at you. 

He stays silent, you notice how small his eyelights are. They aren’t even there, you’re sure. And his teeth are pulled into the same tight, grin he first had when you met. You shift on top of him. You mutter to him. Nothing. Like he’s not all there. 

you can feel his powerful tail kicking through the water under your frozen body. You closed your eyes, tired, was all you felt. The cold melts from your body as you feel the rushing water move past you, ice pushed to the sides with strong kicks. You squint your eyes open at the loud sound of revving engines. Why were you so far out? Thin sea ice replaced the solid ground you once stood on and the water swelled as Sans moved farther and farther out. He crooned a low tune in your ears. You let out a content huff of air. 

More and more water dipped over your body. A small part of your brain screamed of the death sentence this was, another part of you struggled to care. San’s soft singing sweeps your thoughts from your mind. 

Sans sharp claws began to dig into your skin, shocking you into keeping your eyes open. A low, feral hiss emanated from Sans. you could feel the rumbles of it in his ribcage. 

“Drop them! Calder, come here! Quickly!” you can hear Thomas' familiar voice ring out. Panicked and filled with a nervous undertone. You move up, and Thomas’s outstretched arms fill your vision. You reach back out, ignoring Sans's growls and hisses. Shifting your frozen body so you can get closer, even if Sans tries to move away. Thomas edges closer hand outstretched. 

Hidden instincts take over and you grab onto his hand. Thomas drags you onto the thin ice, then drags you further inland. Sans bellows out a sharp scream, and his claws come down onto Thomas’s hand, digging deeply into the flesh. Blood spurts out as he nicks important vein after important vein. The water and ice around you turn a bright bloody red. As you reach further in, Thomas pushes you forward, yelling something to the others. Sans jumps from the sea, swooping through the air, he crashlands next to Thomas. The ice around them shattered and crumbled under Sans's weight. You can hear Thomas’s pained screams, you can see his arms as he flails weak punches to Sans, who bats them to the side, digging his claws deep into Thomas’s body. He opens his sharp mouth, his fangs glimmering in the sun before biting down on Thomas’s neck. A final spurt of blood and a twitch from Thomas is all you see. 

The others drag you towards them and swarm around you. Sarah fretting over you like a mother hen. Sobs come crying out at you as you shake with fear, adrenaline and hypothermia. 

“Sans…” you mumble out, reaching for him as he growls and yells from the water. He dives under dragging Thomas with him. 

Your wet clothes are stripped from you. The team works efficiently as they shoulder you into a new jacket and wrap a blanket around your shoulders. One snowmobile is abandoned as the group of then five, now four escape back home.

_________________________________________________

The base is silent when you all return. You’re dragged into the medbay and looked over by Jenny before being given a minor sedation. Thomas’s screams echo in your mind, all you see are the pools of iron blood when you close your eyes. 

It’s too easy to sleep and too easy for nightmares of the day's events to replay in your trapped mind. 

You awaken with a gasp. All you remember of the dream is Thomas’s horrid screams and the cold. You shake as a few tears fall from your eyes. 

You don’t notice Jenny enter the room, nor do you notice the furious frown that marches upon her face.

“Meeting in thirty minutes, cafeteria,” she states, walking back out with her fists clenched.

Okay, meeting, you can handle that.

What could go wrong there?

Chapter Text

Heavy breaths echo from your body, as you shiver under the heavy thermal blankets the others had stacked onto you. Your eyes wrinkle with worry as you think about the past few hours. Sleep still escapes you. Dark heavy eye bags indicate your newfound insomnia. You rub your eyes, closing them again and sinking down into the bed. Eyes snapping open again you tiredly sigh. Looks like you wouldn’t get any sleep then. 

You roughly pull yourself out of bed, letting the blankets fall to the floor. Too exhausted by the day's events to really care. 

‘6:30 pm’ the clock read, you shuffle out of the room. The meeting should be starting right about now. You walk into the cafeteria. Everyone is there, all sitting at one of the centre tables. They’re quiet. You can see Sarah's heavy head ducked down in between her knees, if you were closer you could probably hear her crying. Jenny, or Doctor Barlowe's (at this point you’re too tired to decide what to call her now) stoic facade has cracked with clenched fists that are shaking with rage. Morgan, however, seems like business as usual. Like one of your colleagues, someone who you all called a friend at one point died. Died horribly and painfully, pulled under the arctic waters, turning it a deep red. His screams echo through your mind and you're sure it echoes through theirs as well. 

Morgan shuffles a few papers around before she notices you. 

“Ah, we were just waiting for you Doctor. Good. we can start now.” she gestures for the seat between her and Jenny. You take an involuntary gulp. Jenny’s face tensed, like the muscles in her face and her vocal cords were telling her to do, say, anything. Still, she sat there as still as a statue. The silence was thick, only pierced by the occasional sob that Sarah threw out. She hadn’t looked at you yet. 

A few minutes go by without anyone saying anything. Then Morgan disrupts it with an authoritative tone.

“I know today's events have shocked everyone, and we will all dearly miss Doctor Thomas as much as possible. I think today’s events have revealed a lot of things we needed to know” She pauses, waiting for anyone to say anything. Sarah still sobs, Jenny still tensely watches and you sadly look to the ground, focusing on the grout in the tiles. 

“I think a break is due for all of us, work duties will resume in three days” Jenny's eyes snap up, levelling a deadly glare at Morgan. You shrink into your seat, trying to hide your shivering form. 

“ ‘Due a break?!’ we just watched one of our colleagues get dragged under by some fuCKING SEA MONSTER! DO YOU SERIOUSLY EXPECT US TO JUST NEED A ‘BREAK’?!” Jenny screams out, snapping under all her built-up fear and rage. You keep your eyes tightly on the ground. Gripping your cold hands tightly. Huddling into yourself as Jenny's spark of rage grows into a fiery blaze.

“Doctor Barlowe, I understand that this may be a frightening time for us all. But we cannot abandon our work. This is the most of any wild Siren anyone has ever seen” Her cold words shook you to your core. The way the Siren, no, Sans, had dragged and tore at Thomas terrified you. When you looked into Morgan's eyes you saw the same predatory, hungry look Sans had given Thomas. So professionally said like she was explaining why there would be no bonuses this year, not that there would be no escape, not that you were all stuck in the base with your colleague's death weighing on your mind. 

“This is ridiculous, I’m leaving.” Jenny unflinchingly says. Her tone leaves no room for argument. She turns on her heels and storms off. Sarah glances at you, watching your face for any reaction. The cold prevents you from doing anything though. 

“Doctor… I think we should give Barlowe some time. She just needs some time to process, that’s all” she reassures. Morgan breaks her poker face with rolled eyes and an annoyed sneer. 

“If you need me, I’ll be in my office,” Morgan says, sauntering off into her office. Probably to start covering Thomas’s death. You cynically think. Dipping your tired head in between your legs. 

Sarah's hand starts to rub between your shoulder blades soothingly. 

“C’mon Calder, let's go back to your cabin” You nod, too tired to talk, letting Sarah guide you to your room. She wipes her tears away and continues down the hall slowly, guiding you with her hand in yours. 

She opens the door to your room, guiding you around the messy floor. Your face flushes. You had cleaned it up, it had just gotten dirtier more quickly than you expected.

“Sorry bout’ the mess, wasn’t expecting any guests soon” you mumble; Sarah’s face brightens with a smile. Her eyes crinkled as she did.

“Pfftt, Calder I think we have bigger matters to focus on than a few stray clothes littered on the floor.” she pauses, sighing as she does. “What was it like?” your eyebrows raise questioningly.

“The song, there’s not much on record for what it makes someone feel” You shy away from her. Was this really the time for an investigation?! You questioned.

“...it was peaceful” she perks up as you break the tense silence. Your mind falls back into your memories. Feeling San’s arms wrapped tightly around your freezing body, the way the song soothed your deep aches, the way your thoughts drifted and all you could focus on was him and his haunting voice. 

A part of you craved it, a part of you wanted to crawl back into the sea to feel his arms wrap around you, to feel the comfort, the care, the kindness in his hold. 

Then you snap out of it, and remember Thomas charging towards you. Sans warned hissing and his swinging claws. Blood and gore and Thomas’s once cheerful voice changed into one of a dying animal. 

Tears prick your eyes. Slowly, they fall, even as you try to blink them away. You turn away from Sarah. 

“Like I was… like… all my problems were gone” Sarah nodded, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. Dry tear marks wiped off of her face and the redness in her face slowly faded away. 

“Do you think you could see it again?” your head snaps up, and your eyes squint accusingly. Two main thoughts run through your mind. How could you ever be okay being around Sans again, and why do they always refer to him as it ? 

“I-I don’t know” is all you manage to say, the cold slowly ebbing away from you as you remain seated on your warm bed. 

Sarah sighs, you’ve all been doing a lot of sighing lately, you notice. 

“I know you’re traumatised, I miss Thomas. Everyone will miss him. Just… give it a few days and we’ll see how you feel” She picks up one of your fallen blankets and sweeps it over your shoulders, petting your hair, and she slowly walks off. Leaving you to your thoughts.

Patronising. Is all you think of her little speech, Originally you had thought Sarah was like you and Jenny. Clearly, you were wrong. 

Thoughts drifted through and around your mind. From your window, you could see a heavy flurry of snow and ice falling from the sky. Hopefully, the storm will slow down, heavy ice will make it hard to get out of here, and a storm will make leaving impossible until it passes.

Eventually, afternoon turned into evening, dinner came and went. It was just you in the kitchen. Everyone had separated off into their cabins. Morgan went into her office, doing whatever she did. Jenny, well, hopefully, her anger had calmed and Sarah seemed to lock herself in her cabin, like you were so tempted to do. Alas, hunger struck you and forced you to make something.

“Ah, I wasn’t expecting you here” a familiar voice calls out, your shoulders tense, ready for another interrogation. Instead Morgan, with her long black hair pulled out of its typical bun. Red reading glasses lay on her nose. 

“Don’t mind me, just going to grab some food before I head back to work” You nod your head, quickly turning back to your toaster. 

“Ah, Sarah told me you told her about the siren song?” she queries. Goddamit, can’t you just get a moment of peace here?! Whatever happened to people minding their own business? You glare at your innocent piece of toast, clenching down onto the bench tightly, or, as strongly as you can. 

“Yeah, I’m sure she already reported everything I said back to you” You snap back, still glaring down at your toast. You can almost feel Morgan's smug smirk. The greedy glimmer in her eyes. 

“Why don’t we talk in my office, I have tea.” although it sounds like she’s asking, really she’s commanding. You know that tone in her voice well enough by now. 

You follow after her, with your single piece of toast holding strongly in your mouth. 

Entering her office, you seat yourself in the chair opposite her desk, no need for any formalities, you’ve been here before. Morgan sits herself down, pulls out a few papers, and shuffles them around before finally looking back up at you.

“How did you train it?” 

Huh? Wha- train?! Your mind pauses briefly before you speak with a cautious tone.

“I, are you referring to Sans?” Morgan nods,

“Uh, I, uh, didn’t train anyone.”

“So what did you do then? This behaviour is completely unheard of. You must have done something” she insists, tilting her head as she speaks. You finish eating your piece of toast, at least it was good. 

“Well, I didn’t, he’s just, was, my friend” Morgan patronisingly laughs.

“Doctor, its an animal. You can’t befriend a wild bear like how you can’t befriend a Siren.” you huff, frustrated with her antics. Where was she going with this? What answer was she trying to find? It’s not like she was listening to you!

“Trust me, we’ve tried, I don’t know how you managed to get the thing to mimic your words but clearly you’ve trained it well Doctor, my congratulations,” she says with an exasperated tone, like this was supposed to be the truth that everyone was secretly aware of. Your patience is pushed to its limits when she delivers a patronising smile.

With a roll of your eyes, you speak up. “What do you want me to say? That I’m a mage and I can mind control people?!” Morgan looks you up and down, clearly frustrated at your snarky response. 

“Never mind, clearly this conversation isn’t getting us anywhere. I’ll call you back when you're ready to discuss the Siren. Goodnight” With a wave of her manicured hand she dismisses you. With an angry growl, you jump out of your seat slamming your feet down onto the ground back to your room. 

You shift over to your desk. Damn, it needed cleaning. Papers stacked so high you couldn’t see the actual desk. Slumping down into your chair, head in hand. This was too much, all of it. The same deep, primal fear that had become so normal to feel etched its way back into your chest; clutching your heart. 

Outside the storm rages on. Only growing stronger and angrier by the minute. The water outside bashing against the ice, and the snow piling on and on. If you were lucky the storm would end as quickly as the last one did. Then you could all leave, maybe even ditch Morgan behind (that last thought makes you chuckle, even if you would never really do it)... you don’t think you could leave Sans behind… 

A soft hum snaps your attention away from your thoughts. It’s soft and gentle and so comforting. You close your eyes, letting yourself hum along. So familiar, so haunting. You could never forget Sans's song, not ever. Though this time it has a desperate tone to it. You can feel the fear and worry in your bones. 

Scrambling for a way out of this peaceful trance you look around your desk. The heavy shell catches your eye. Grabbing it you march towards the door. 

Ignore the pull, ignore the pull, ignore the pull, ignore the pull, ignore the pull, ignore the pull

Slamming the window open, shaking off the ice and snow that has gathered you through the shell with all your might. You don’t see it land, but you can hear it plop into the water below. Icy winds gather in your eyelashes and hair. 

“Penguin, wait!” Sans calls out from below. You slam the window back shut as memories of the day flood through your mind. 

“Let me explain, Penguin! I promise I no one else will be hurt” You can hear Sans let out an animalistic whimper. 

“I’ll wait, Penguin, I promise I’ll explain. We can stay together. We won’t have to worry about anyone hurting us, hurting you, hurting me” he says. 

You remember Thomas, he wasn’t hurting anyone. Not you, not Sans. He just wanted you safe. Tears race down your sombre face as you slide down the wall. Hand covering your mouth as you let out a loud sob. 

“...Please Penguin” You can hear him breaking the surrounding sea ice, and can hear the water rushing around him as he pulls his powerful tail through the water. 

You let out a final sob before exhaustion takes over. Still hearing Sans desperately call for you over and over, again and again. Too tired to focus on his pleas, or on the thought of Thomas anymore. Closing your eyes you could still see picture-perfect snapshots of his body tearing apart under the ice water, the blood drenching the ground and coating your hands as he held onto you. 

You hoped it would be a peaceful dream, though with Thomas’s screams echoing through your disturbed mind, you doubted that would be possible.

Chapter Text

Sans's desperate voice drifts away from your mind as you toss and turn in your sleep. The wall had not made a comfortable bed, your neck and back were practically screaming at you to move. Your mind, however, was preoccupied with the twisting and turnings of your nightmare. Flashes of memories that your mind had twisted haunted you as you slept.

Finally, you jolted awake, gasping for deep breaths of air. You wiped the heavy layer of sweat that had beaded across your forehead. 

“Fuck” you gasp out, wiping away the wet tears that had fallen across your face as you slept. You listened to the outside world for a moment. Sans was quiet, whether he was still around or not, you weren’t actually sure he had left, he seemed too determined. Though you wouldn’t really know, not unless you poked your head out and called for him. Which your tired mind was unready to do. 

Your back creaked as you pulled yourself off the floor, you glanced out towards your window. Ice and snow had layered upon itself dozens of times over. You could see the front door was completely hidden from all the snow. Shattered pieces of sea ice littered the floor, Sans had clearly stayed the night. Fresh holes dotted the ice beneath your window. 

An off-putting feeling led your gaze downwards. Deep red blood dyed the ice below, you almost retched at the reminder of blood. Hand cupped over your mouth, you breathed in deeply, trying to quell the nausea that had sprung to life in your stomach. A few moments pass and eventually, you feel well enough to keep looking. You narrow your eyes. The red ice eventually trailed back to a seal. A deep slice to the throat, so deep you could see the bone; had spilled the hot blood onto the icy floor. 

‘Sans’ was all you thought. Brought back to a previous memory, from months ago. Where Sans had left a seal's corpse, torn and shredded to near pieces for you to find. You breathed out a heavy sigh, at least this one died quickly. At least he had been kinder to this one. 

Though you wondered why, why had he killed a seal? It didn’t charm you to him any more than it did last time, was he hungry? No, it wouldn’t be uneaten then. 

You dismiss the thoughts, wondering about Sans's quirks could wait. Right now, breakfast awaits. 

You shuffle out of your room. Back sorely hunched over and your neck screaming as you craned it forward. You glanced at the kitchen clock, ‘8:30’ it read. Huh, when would the others show up? Usually, they’re always almost done with their food by the time you wander in. It seemed today would be one of those strange opposite days. 

Inhaling the scent of the coffee, you waited for your toast to finally pop up. The room seemed to lighten as you woke up more and more. Thank the stars for coffee. You thought. Pointedly ignoring Thomas’s favourite mug. 

“Morning’ Doctor Morgan” you politely greeted, gritting your teeth as you pulled a tense, fake smile. Morgan nodded at you, pouring herself a large cup of coffee. Drinking it straight with no milk, cream, or anything that made coffee tolerable, at least to you. 

“There’s much for the two of us to do today. We’re already behind schedule for some tests I wanted to run. Meet me in the lab in thirty minutes.” Morgan says, her voice carefully balanced so as not to betray her feelings for you or anything for that matter.

You choked on your coffee. Sputtering and coughing as you thumped at your chest.

“Work?!” you coughed out “You said there’d be two days before we returned to work!” you sputtered out, wanting another thousand visceral words to spill out. Morgan's face briefly darkened before turning to its common neutral look. 

“As the scientists with the most amount of work on our hands, it’s important we recontinue as soon as possible. Now, the lab-” you loudly scoff, interrupting her speech. Her sharp eyes narrow and her nose twitches, you can see the corners of her mouth pull into a frown.

“Work? What work do you do?” you sarcastically laugh, “as far as I can tell you don’t do anything, other than send emails off to your corporate shills” You stilled, shit. You weren’t supposed to know that; and the look on Morgan's face means she knows you're not supposed to know, you don’t think anyone was supposed to know her email buddies. 

“I don’t know how you know my colleagues, but what I do, and what my work is! Is none of your concern” she spits out, venom falling from her lips. You shifted nervously before your eyebrows furrowed in frustration. 

“Sure, do whatever you want. Hardly work when it’s compared to me though, is it? I’ve been risking my life for you for months. I nearly drowned only, what, twenty-four hours ago?! Because you forced me!” you seethed, “stars, I just wanted to study the ice flows, not be forced into following the trails of some deadly fucking Siren! I knew nothing about them! I had no reason to be forced onto this goddamn team!” Morgan digs her manicured hands into her hips, glaring down at you. 

“And you’ve done very well, no one could have predicted what would happen to Thomas, much less you” Your head snapped up, and you snarled out vicious words of contempt.

“Don’t give me that bullshit! You knew exactly how dangerous he was! You just didn’t give a shit, I’ve seen the reports. Yanno-” you let out a hopeless laugh, “-at least have the guts to tell people what really happened. Don’t just cover things up. Like some sort of coward!” 

Morgan’s narrow eyes snap open, you can see her mind turning and ticking as it figures out how you could have known. She storms up to you, pressing one of her sharp nails into your chest as she pushes you against the countertop. 

“I don’t know exactly how you know about that, but if you say anything to anyone I’ll ruin your fucking life. Your career, your family, your friends, I control everything here! Don’t ever call me a coward again! You have no idea the lengths I’ve gone to for this goal. For my work! ” she seethes out, pushing you further into the marble counter. Your back digs uncomfortably into the counter as she moves forward.

You angrily stare at her, breathing out heavily. Your nails draw blood as they dig into your palms. Your jaw tenses and you can almost feel it crack under the pressure. 

She shakily breaths, “I have worked towards this for years. I don’t know why that thing obsesses over you so, but I am not throwing away this opportunity. I am not giving up now.” she straightens up, taking a calming breath as she does, her sharp finger pulls away from your chest. 

“I expect you back in the lab by lunch. There’s much to discuss” 

you close your eyes, hiding the well of angry tears that threaten to fall down your face. You lean against the counter. Food and drink lay abandoned. You were thinking too quickly for you to actually remember what you were thinking. You rubbed your face tiredly, blinking away the tears that watered your heavy eyes. Your neck screamed out as you bent it forward. 

Just think, you can work things out. Not everything can be that bad. You thought. Although, you knew that everything would change between you and your despised boss. You had hit a sore spot, you’d proven to be a threat. Someone who needed tight watching. Someone who could cause trouble. 

God dammit, why couldn’t you just keep your fucking mouth shut?! Why’d you have to speak up now, of all times?! What was wrong with you?! And why did you seem incapable of keeping out of trouble for even one day?!

Eventually, you wandered out of the kitchen, having eaten and drank your remaining breakfast. You returned to your room. Unwilling to see Morgan's face so soon after your altercation. 

Your eyes scanned over the room, the familiar view giving you comfort. Still, you really shouldn’t leave things this messy. It would make it hard to do work. Over the next hour, you clean your room from top to bottom. It’s calming and makes it easier for you to think, to plan. 

Eventually, your gaze wanders back over to your small window and to the ground below. In the past, in times like this, you could turn to Sans. he always listened, even if he didn’t understand the intricacies of workplace politics, his advice was still oftentimes useful. 

You grabbed your thick jacket, strapping on your gear. Decision made, you would get down to the bottom of Sans change. It was too sudden for you to really accept his hurried and worried words from before. Fear sprung into your heart, though you resisted the urge to turn tail and hide in your room.

Being a coward right now wouldn’t get you anywhere, if you were too afraid to do this for yourself, then you’d do it for Thomas. 

The front door would be sealed shut, the snow and ice were still piled up and no one seemed to care enough to dig through it anyway. Through the window would be easiest. You looked down, gulping nervously. The ground seemed to grow farther and farther apart the more you looked at it. 

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid” you whispered out, reassuring yourself. You pulled your legs over the edge and jumped out the window. Crashing down into the ice, you carefully balanced yourself. Spreading your weight out on your two legs, giving yourself the best possible chance of avoiding falling into the water. You shudder, let's not try to relieve that memory. You think. 

Edging closer to the wall of the lab, you tensely avoid the seal's body. Shifting your feet so that they avoid even touching the crimson-stained ground. Your head turned to the side, looking out into the far distance. 

Soon, you find yourself looking down at one of the many broken holes. Water overflowed over the edges as the currants beneath swayed to the pull of the ocean's silent song. 

For a few moments, you stood there. Alone, waiting for Sans to return. You grimaced at the thought of him never returning crossed your mind. No, he wouldn’t do that. Too stubborn. You declared. Waiting as patiently as ever. 

For what felt like a few seconds, but was more likely tens of minutes. You crouched over the hole. Your heavy eyes scan the dark, murky waters. Occasionally a glimmer of something would get your hopes up, only to realise it was a fish or a trick of the eye. 

Sighing, you closed your eyes, rubbing them tiredly. You should go back inside, Morgan would no doubt be looking for you soon enough. The last thing you wanted was for her to find out your attempt at a secret meeting. You didn’t like the greedy glimmer in her eyes as she ranted and raved at you earlier. Your soul shrinks at that look in her eye. 

Breathing out, you muttered to yourself “Great, now how to get the hell back up there” You looked up, the window wasn’t too high up, maybe-

A loud splash captures your attention. Sans eyelights meet your own as he watches from under the cold ocean. Your eyes widen and you scramble to get closer to the ice hole. You can’t hide the fear that washes over your face when you meet his glowing eyelights. You almost gag when reminders of Thomas flash through your mind. 

“Sans!” you scramble out, his head peeks out from the water. His blue eyelights are shrunken so tiny that you can barely see them.

“I was waiting here forever! We need to talk right now!” you exclaim, tapping your foot impatiently against the ice as you try and hide the fear that bloomed in your chest. Tense silence fills the air between you two. Your face cringes nervously as you shift from foot to foot.

Would he not want to talk to you again? Would he pull you under? Why wasn’t he saying anything? Stars, why are you so nervous? All those thoughts and more came rushing through your head. Fear started to build as Sans looked up at you, his expression indiscernible. 

“I, uh, wasn’t sure you would ever come back, Penguin,” he says your pet name with a love-sick tone. You resist the urge to step back. Looking into his eyes, seeing the way his face dropped at your fearful expression; you doubted he would hurt you, not like Thomas did. 

“I” you pause for a moment, struggling to keep eye contact with him. “I need answers.”

“Answers to what?” 

“You know what answers Sans!” you snap back, barely containing the frustration that brewed deeply in your mind. 

So sick of all the lies, of all the hidden parts of things you never knew of. This expedition had truly tried your patience for these sorts of things. 

“What were you talking about, when you pulled me into the water? You were acting completely differently.” you paused again, gathering your thoughts to continue on, “Everyone says you're acting strangely that, you view me as your ma-” you stumble out, unable to finish the last word as you look down onto his face. “You killed Thomas…” you say, voice cracking as you say his name. 

A sharp, elated smile grew wider and wider as you continued talking. Sans had slowly emerged from the water. His entire waist was out of the water. Clutching something in his hands, he held it like it was the world.

“You are, you are my mate” he laughs quietly, “I’ve been courting you for stars knows how long, I thought you were playing hard to get, Penguin” he opens his hands, revealing a large geode that shimmers and shines when the light hits it. Deep purple and gorgeous. You almost want to snatch it from his hands and submerge yourself in its beauty. 

Your hands shrink away and keep closing to your body. Was he just going to ignore the last question?!

Sans face falls for a second, before smiling once again, smile tight and pointed, eyes misty and wavering in his sockets.

“I probably should have been more direct. But, I can take care of you!” he gestures to the seal “I can feed you, and remember the cave? Yeah, I can make sure you always have somewhere to sleep.” he pulls himself up further, grabbing onto your hand. His thumb rubbed against your hand gently and lovingly. 

“You’ll never go hungry, you’ll never go thirsty. Just, just trust me, Penguin” 

You try to tug your hand out of Sans's grasp. He had pulled you to the ground, forcing you to sit on your knees uncomfortably. 

You gently speak up, “Sans, I’m human. I’m sorry but I couldn’t survive here. You killed Thomas, I need to know why!” you demand an answer, frustrated by him. “Please Sans, I trust you, there must have been a reason! Please!” you plead. Deep down you hope and pray with everything that you had that the Sans you knew wasn’t some lie, that there was a reasonable explanation for everything. 

his grasp on you tightens painfully. 

“No, Penguin, you don’t need to worry, I promise” he reassures you, your eyes water at the pain of his grip. “That scientist, he was a threat. They all are. I am supposed to be your mate. He was getting in the way” The way he emphasises the ‘your’ makes nervous sweat bead along your forehead. 

“Sans, I can’t breathe underwater, I can’t swim here without dying, I can barely be outside.” you try and reason, something in your heart clenched at the idea of you together.

Sans Interrupts you, pushing himself more out of the water. His other hand comes up to caress your face. You flush, trying to pull away from him.

“I could make you breathe underwater if that's what you want. It would be easy, all you’d need to do is listen. I promise, Penguin” You shake your head firmly, finally ripping your bruised hand out of Sans' grip. 

“What about Thomas?! You keep dancing around the question! I know you’re smart enough to know he wasn’t a threat!” you shout out, avoiding saying that Sans had killed him directly, for some reason, it made it easier to think about it. If you danced around the exact words; it kept the bloody memories from surfacing from your mind.

Sans winces as you shout, his hand reaching for yours again. You dodge his grasp taking sharp steps back until your back collides with the wall of the lab. Sans's smile falls into a worried frown. 

“He was trying to take you away, I had you, I was taking care of you and he tried to stop me!” he seethed out, his sharp teeth clenching under his jaws and tense snarl. 

“He was just trying to help me! I’d have died if I stayed in the water!” you insisted, shrinking further against the wall. 

“Not with me you wouldn’t have.” you pinched your nose, frustrated with Sans's strange insistence.

“I’m not a Siren, Sans! I’d have drowned, I’m human, we’re not built for arctic waters!”

“You wouldn’t have stayed human,” he says, deadly serious, you glance up, cracking your eyes open to see his face. He’s dead serious, you realise. Confusion rushes through your mind, how? That was all you thought. 

Sans's grim face settles down, coming back to the calm, friendly Sans you knew. Tense frowns disappear.

“It’s alright, Penguin, things like this can be confusing at first. I didn’t realise how I felt for a little while as well” he sits himself on the ice, tail curling up around him. He holds out the amethyst geode from before.

“Here, it doesn’t have to mean anything right now, just a promise,”

“A promise to what?” you question, hesitantly inching closer to him. Watching his strong tail tense and relax as you do.

“A promise that you’ll be here tomorrow, nothing more, Penguin, I promise” You gently take the geode out of his hand, inspecting its beauty. It must have taken him hours to find. Geodes this big were rare, especially ones this good-looking.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” you say, feeling defeated as you do. You can feel his glee radiating off of his body. His eyes follow your own body as you struggle to scale the frozen wall. 

You fall into your room, landing face first onto the floor, clutching the geode to your chest protectively. You place it on your desk, right next to where the nautilus shell had been, and you almost regret throwing the shell into the ocean. 

Memories rush through your mind as you struggle to try and remember when Sans had started to court you. Was it when you helped him from under the broken glacier? Was it from one of the many times you escaped his hungry clutches? Was it from another time? You weren’t sure. The thought of you being unsure of something so important bothered you. 

Whatever, push it down, and focus on the future. You dismissed the bugging thoughts. You glanced outside, wondering if Sans would still be sitting there, curled up on the ice, the same lovesick look he’d given you before still planted on his face. Sadly, he had disappeared, and gone wherever he went. A painful tug at your soul pulled you away from the window, unable to look out any more. At the very least, you had answers, no matter how confusing and convoluted they were. 

As you changed out of your expedition gear, a knock pulled you from your thoughts. 

“Yes?” you called out, still shrugging off your heavy jacket. The door opens before you can squeak anything out. 

Jenny appears in the doorway. She looks you up and down, taking in your half-changed appearance. Giving you the same disgruntled look she’d always given.

“You went out” she blankly said, you nodded nervously, would she tell?

“Y-yeah, I did,” she hummed.

“You went to see your Siren didn’t you” she accuses, though she does so in a calm voice. With no infliction of anger or jealousy in her tone. You meekly nod, trying to cover the geode Sans had just gifted you.

“You’re free to do whatever you like with the fish, but I need your help with something,” she says with a heavy eye roll. Before you can say anything she interrupts you.

“I need you to cover for me for the next couple hours, just till tomorrow morning really,” she says, her eyes finally perking up with some emotion. You notice she’s clutching a backpack in her hand. It looks like it’s been packed to the brim with things. She elaborates.

“Doctor Sarah and Doctor Morgan are too invested in their works to realise how in danger we all are. I tried contacting the mainland to arrange a pickup, but communications are down. The storm destroyed them.”

“Shit, how long would it take for communications to get back up?” you ask, worried. This could be your chance out of this hellhole!

“Too long, I’m not interested in dying for my work, and neither are you, I assume” she continues on, “There’s an old communication tower that’s not used anymore, I’ll break in there, once I reactivate the generator I should be able to send out messages. I just need some more supplies before I leave” Jenny says, she lists off what she needs; which is some wires, electrical tape and a snowmobile before she can leave.

“I’ll uh, help with the little things, just hide in the vehicle bay” She nods, taking off to the bay without another word. You finish changing out of your gear, and putting on the clothes you were wearing before. You snuck out of your room, sticking to the walls of the base. Head down, you crept into the lab. Morgan wasn’t there, though her things still were.

Quickly you rummaged through drawers and boxes, finding the things you needed. Stuffing each one into the pockets of your clothes. 

Dashing off into the vehicle bay, keeping your eye out for Sarah and Morgan as you did. 

“Here,” you huffed out, gasping for air. Why didn’t you take P.E. more seriously?! You thought. Jenny snatched them out of your hands, shoving them into her bag as quickly as she could. 

She was already seated on one of the snowmobiles, her bag fastened tightly around her back and a heavy rifle strapped over her shoulder. You gulped, where did she even find one of those?!

“You’re not gonna use that are you?” 

“If needs be. Sirens are dangerous. I doubt a single bullet will kill it though, as long as it’s not a headshot” she says with a thick smirk. 

“I’ll be back by tomorrow morning, just make sure the others are kept in the dark.” she places a hand on her shoulder “Don’t worry, everyone will be getting out of here soon” she says kindly, before pressing the ‘open’ button and revving the engine. You rub your shoulder where she’d touched you. You were pretty sure that was the kindest she had ever been to you. 

“Take care, Jenny,” you called out. Jenny turned around, hair hidden under her beanie, eyes covered by her goggles, and a polite, distant smile graced her face.

“Stay out of trouble, Doctor” she murmured before she sped off into the distance. Snow and ice kicking after her.

You waved for a moment, before closing the door and sneaking back into your room. 

“Please Sans, don’t cause any more trouble” you silently prayed, hoping your small whisper would reach the Siren, wherever he may be.

Chapter Text

Water rushed over my face, as my tail swam beneath the frozen glaciers of the Arctic. Sharp, aching pains echoed over my body. My back and ribs throbbed as the remnants of what I’d survived screamed out. The thick ravine of scars that raked over my upper body brought a twisted frown to my face. Only did it disappear when I heard the sounds of crunching footsteps. 

Ahh, I was wondering when someone would wander out. I let out a loud whistle. Letting it bounce off the watery walls, giving me a clear picture of what I was seeing. I closed my eye-sockets and let another sharp click out. A human, heh, waddling around on the surface. They didn’t even have a vehicle. Not like the last ones. A hungry grin grew on my face. 

‘It was too easy, were they even trying anymore?’ I questioned, scraping up against the roof of the ice, I followed after the little human. Letting out the occasional click as I followed after them.

Stifling a laugh as I watch them nearly fall flat on their ass. Smirking, I swim closer to them. I can see their head swivelling around as they finally manage to hear my clicks. Nearly slipping again, they hurriedly pulled, what was it? I shook my head, unsure of whatever they were dragging alongside them. 

Sighing, I held off on making any more noise. It wouldn’t be as fun if they dropped dead from a heart attack. I watched them finally slow to a standstill, what were they doing? 

Waited under the sea ice, waiting for them to make the next move. 

The next few moments passed slowly, tension building in my tail. Instincts clawing at the back of my head. 

The Little Penguin, I chuckled at the nickname, plunged a familiar device into the water. I watched as a red light shone through the murky waters. What were they recording? I swam over, passing the camera. 

I kept an eye on the little Penguin above, huffing, and I turned around. Letting the camera catch my fanged smile as I chased after the human. 

Poking my head out of the water, through the same hole they plunged that device in moments ago. Blue eyelights shrunk to a small prick as I watched them leave. Taking wide steps to avoid crashing down onto the ice. 

Diving back underwater I trail after them. Leisurely pacing after them. Letting the occasional click out, just to make sure I knew where they were. 

My smile widened farther and farther. This was too easy, where was the challenge? Some part of me screamed for me just to get it over with, but no, it’s more fun this way.

Chuckling, I watched as the human scrambled into their lab. Really, they are just like a penguin. 

_________________________________

“Leaving so soon?” I questioned, barely keeping my face from twisting into a predatory smirk. My claws tap against the ice, clicking loudly against the ground as they do. I watched as the human's face paled as their eyes trailed over my body. Their heart pumping faster than ever.

“Y-yes, I am actually” they stutter out, trying and failing to pull a brave face. My claws dug into the ground, I took a steady breath, ‘just wait’ I thought, dismissing my body's instincts. I lean out from the water, inch by inch, not something the little Penguin would catch. 

“Fish got your tongue?” I tease, laughing as the human inches away further and further from my grasping claws. I roll out my tongue, licking my sharp teeth. Seeing the human jump further away from me brings a laugh, but I suppress it. 

Well, as fun as this was, I was hungry. Letting out a mocking coo I slowly start to hum out a familiar tune. I push away the surrounding memories, instead taking in their face. 

“C’mere, I promise I won’t bite. It’ll all be so much quicker if you just. Come. Closer.”

face gone slack, their terrified expression dulled into a bland expression. As I command, the human takes a slow step. Their face tenses and cringes in worry. How adorable.

Before I can react, the human reaches into their pockets. I let out a frustrated hiss, watching as they plugged it in before I could react. Quietly, I curse. Seeing the human body and face tense up with fear and adrenaline. I can practically smell the terror. I let out another hum, though they managed to ignore it. Instead, they took off, leaving me behind. 

I scoff, really, what’s a guy to do around here? Where’s the politeness? For cod’s sake, humans really have lost all respect. My claws dig into the bones of my hand. 

Ah well, they’ll come out soon enough. At least their interesting. More interesting than any of the usual scientists I see.

_______________________________________

Finding any seal was easy, the things were practically everywhere. I heard a scientist call them the rabbits of the sea before I snuck up and dragged him down. But finding a good one was hard, the big fat ones were also usually the smart ones. They were the ones to have lived long enough to get fat.

Though my sharp claws and powerful tail were no match for them. Soon I had my teeth biting down into one's throat. Blood floated out of its torn body, its once powerful body left twitching in the floating ocean.

That scientist would taste better. My jaw snapped at the blubbery flesh. Teeth grinding the bones. Frustration etched onto my face. 

Stars, I’ve never been this desperate for humans. Maybe I’m developing a taste or maybe I’m going mad? The idea doesn’t bother me as much as it should.

“Pretty little human, whatever shall I do with you” I pulled at the skin of the seal, pinching it between my phalanges. 

I looked up, feeling the sun's gaze on my body.

“Brilliant Sans, that'll seal the deal with them” I chuckled darkly, pulling myself and the seal to the surface. 

The lab, or whatever the humans called it, was only a small distance away. Smirking, I threw the seal across the ice. Its limp body skimmed across the ice, painting a bloody picture. 

“Hope you enjoyed your gift little Penguin” diving back under the water. I waited nearby. The sun was up, they should be leaving soon. My eye-lights peeked over the water, glowing brightly in anticipation.

The shrieks and the jump! I had to dive under the water so they wouldn’t be alerted to my presence. 

“Hehe, too easy” I muttered, watching as they and the rest of the humans all huddled around the seal, I could hear their worried voices, and see the wringing of their hands. 

I dive under as my little Penguin leaves. So soon as well, I was worried for a second they’d disappear back into their little nest. 

--------------------------------------------

CRZZZZHHHHHH

The ice breaks in half as I burst out of it, my eyelights scanning across the tundra. There they are. A sick grin twists my face. I can only reach out for a moment before they’re dashing off, their little legs striding across the ice and snow. 

This will be fun.

I swim under them, following their every move with a few precise clicks of echolocation. I swim under them, before quickly smashing through the ice in front of them, they jump back. My claws almost miss them, but I manage to cling to their ankle, sending them crashing down into the icy ground. 

They struggle, pulling and tugging. My claws dig in deeper, blood slowly drips out. Hazing my mind with its smell. 

“Now, now little fish. No need to make such a fuss, just clam down” I mockingly say. Their face freezes, and although I cannot see all of it, I can imagine that their jaws have dropped. 

“G-get off of me!” they squeak out, puffing themselves up.

“Isn’t that cute, all puffed up like a little penguin” This is too easy, surely they’ll do something more interesting? “what? No name for your dear old pal?” my claws dig deeper into their ankle, and more blood seeps into the ground below.  “It’s Sans, Sans the Siren” 

I hold them there, for a few seconds it seems like it could be a normal conversation. 

“Little bird, I only let you live because I find you interesting. Don’t test me” I snarl at them, suddenly getting tired of them. 

Getting clocked in the head with a flashlight wasn’t how I wanted this to go. I growl, lunging for them as I do, teeth bared into a fierce snarl. Their foot collided with me, making my already throbbing head explode with pain. 

Holding my head I was as they scrambled away. Pathetic. Blue magic seeps from the crack in my skull. Ice crumbles under them, sending the leg into the water. 

I sink into the water, following after them. 

Throwing myself out of the water, my claws drag down their arm, sending blood spurting out, my teeth grinding against my jaw. Hungry, craving food. 

Red hot light blasts into my chest. I yelp, dropping the human. Groaning in frustration. How many times can one human get away?! 

The middle of my ribcage cracks and fractures from whatever hit me. I look up, and the handsome face of a human etches into my mind. Square glasses and long blond hair. 

No matter, two targets is easy enough for me to handle. 

---------------------------------------------------

Muttering curses, I tugged at my tail; wincing as this ice dug in further. Magic seeped from where my tail had been rubbed raw. Gritting my teeth I held back another yelp of pain. My head still pounded, the Penguin really hadn’t held back, had they?

“Heh, didn’t think I’d sea ya again” I called out, wincing at the sound of my loud voice. Really, Penguin, this was really not the time. 

The glacier suddenly cracks, weighing further down on me. “Fuck” I mutter out, my eye-lights glancing over to the Penguin, or Calder, as they’d introduced themselves as. Their fists were clenched and an expression I couldn’t read crossed their face. “Heh, looks like you got me dead to rights penguin. You're just gonna stand there or what?”

They march over to me, my eye sockets widen, would this be the end? I guess it made sense, sick of me chasing after them. Get me while I’m down. I’d do the same.

I hunch up, trying in some desperate attempt to seem bigger, to seem less like a wounded, hungry animal.

“Woah, woah, woah, clam down, no need to get so close.”

“You’ve already used that pun before” They snark out, coming closer. 

“Sure I’ve used that pun before, bone hate me for it” I joked, though my body tenses ready for a fight. 

“I’m going to try and lift the ice, when you feel it start to lift and move forward” My face freezes. What? Why? How? Could they even lift something so heavy? They’re aware I’ve tried to eat them right? Have they got a twin that I haven’t terrorised yet? My soul pounds against my ribs and a flood of emotions rush through my mind.

“You realise that’s the opposite of the way I need to go? Kinda need water to live kiddo” I deflect, trying to distract myself from everything. My soul still seems to scream out for some reason, 

“Once the chunks off your tail you can just crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of, and my name is Calder, not kiddo or Penguin, or fish, or whatever else you wanna call me!” they snap, levelling me a furious glare. 

“Alright penguin, just tell me when,” I say, trying to keep a cool facade.

When the pressure on my tail finally lifted I scrambled out from under it, pulling myself across the ice and sliding across the ice. Tail sweeping across the floor. My tail stung as it glided against the sharp ice, aching from pain.

For a moment the two of us share a mutual silence, unsure of what the other is going to do. My eye-lights keep to the floor, something I’m unused to doing. 

The rolling of a bottle and bandages breaks the silence. 

“Here, the pills are for the pain and the bandages will help stop the bleeding” 

I want to say something, break the tension, the awkwardness with a pun, a threat, just something. Something strange stirs within me, scratching at my mind. I hate it. 

“See ya later penguin” I snark out, diving under the waves, items in hand. Just need some time Sans, that’s all

____________________________

The cave was warm, I had ensured it would be, lined with thick seal furs. I held Penguin tighter, clinging onto them. My tail had started to dry, and feeling uncomfortable I pushed it down. Watching as my Penguin sighed deeper into their sleep, curling into themselves tightly; their back pressed up against my chest. 

A drowsy purr grew from my throat, I smiled sweetly. I wasn’t even sure if I was capable of that anymore. Nuzzling into their neck, I let my sockets close, this was perfect. Nothing could change this happy moment.

____________________________

The cold was getting to them. Floating on my chest, they struggled to keep their head afloat. Eyes glazing over, body shivering. My soul pounded in fear. They were going to die. I was supposed to take care of them and they were going to die. 

“Shh, don’t worry little bird, just listen” desperate music notes poured from my mouth, lulling them into a serene bliss. They looked so beautiful. 

I ignored the panicked sounds of the other humans. Reigning in my anger I simply swam farther out. Those humans weren’t stupid, they knew what they were doing, sending someone out onto such thin ice. 

They weren’t getting them back. 

“-Take my hand!” an irritating hand swoops down near Calder's face. 

“GET AW-” my snarl is cut off as his hand is taken and Calder is pulled from my arms, the man, I’m too angry to bother to learn it, drags them across the ice. Their shivering form sends sympathy pains for my mate. 

“Come here mate, I can take the pain away, I promise” I murmur out, reaching out for them with a clawed hand. The man comes closer and rage consumes me.

Like a red-hot fire is exploding through my body I let out a great scream that cracks and shatters much of the surrounding ice. The man takes a fearful step back. Good. my eyes narrow in wrath. My claws come down on the man's wrist, slitting it with my claws. I drag him closer to the water's edge, digging deeper into his body, reaching across the veins that connect his hand with his arm and cutting them. The veins hang uselessly out of his wrist. Pouring hot blood onto the thin sea ice below. 

The man pushes Calder further away, yelling something, I don’t care. I jump from the sea, gliding across the air and landing next to him. The ice shatters and crumbles beneath me. I drag another hand across his body, slashing his chest deeply. He throws meaningless punches at me, each one carelessly batted to the side. I internally scoff, how weak! In a haze of rage, I’m unaware of the screams, the begging, none of it passes my mind. 

Finally, I open my mouth, each tooth glimmering in the sunshine. My claws dig deeply into his sides, cutting veins and organs. With a heavy snap, my teeth dig into his throat, tearing at the warm flesh. 

My eyes glow a bright blue as I drag his twitching body under the water. 

Only do I snap out of my hazy rage when he finally stops moving, floating above as I let go of the mangled corpse. 

Fear shoots through me. Penguin, I burst off at quick speeds following the way to the base. To my human’s nest. 

I push at the ice, looking up at the window. The light is on and I can hear them. Painfully I call, repeating over and over, only stopping when I hear their tired sobs. My eye-lights darken, taking me back to a past I’d tried to forget long ago. 

I could fix this, I would.

I leave them alone, rest my little bird. I’ll be back soon

Chapter Text

The snow flung into Jenny's face, blinding her temporarily. She grunted, wiping the snow off her goggles before she continued her treacherous hike. She could just barely see the tip of the ancient metal tower. Sparks of electricity occasionally shot off, sending white-hot jets of electric power into the sky, like a constant illumination. 

She breathed out tiredly, how long had she been walking? Jenny wasn’t sure. The blizzard that raged on washed away her past footsteps. She gripped her gun tightly; it was locked and loaded, something she had continued to bring with her since her first-ever expedition. The muzzle of the gun glimmered in the blizzard. 

“A few more minutes, that’s all,” she muttered, bringing her mask back up to her face. Her lips were already numb from the cold. Loud snaps and cracks pulled her from her deep thoughts. 

Whirling around, she aims her gun, eyes unblinking as she blasts through the thick ice and into the seawater. A small seal barks in pain.

“Thank God” she mutters, turning around, ignoring as the seal squeals in pain, blood oozing out from the bullet wound in its side. Adrenaline still flooded her veins, her heart pumping and her knees shaky with fear.

The tower grew closer in sight, only a few more minutes of walking and freedom, communication, would be in her hands. Jenny could see now the wear and tear the tower had gone through, rust permeated the structure, and some of the steps seemed to have fallen apart. The front door was covered completely with piled-up snow. 

‘God, it’s a miracle it's even standing’ she thought, boots slamming into the ground with every step. Aside from the howling wind, the land was silent. It always unnerved Jenny how quiet things were up here. She had always preferred the loud hustle and bustle of the city.

Jenny climbed up the stairs, stretching over the ones that seemed particularly rusted, or just jumping over the large holes in the stairwell. 

The tower had been here since before even Jenny had joined the team, and she had been here for quite some time. The only person who predated the tower's construction was Morgan. Supposedly it was where the first base was before it was abandoned due to…well, Morgan always trailed off after that. Jenny had an inkling of an idea of what caused the abandonment. 

Regardless, the tower still stood, and from what Morgan had once told her, there would be a small hatch at the top of the tower; right where the balcony looked over everything. 

The balcony was even worse up close. Most of the fence was completely gone, rust and wind having eaten away and snapped at many of the iron bars. The ones that remained were pointed and sharp. Jenny stepped away from the edge, a fall from this height would kill her, and there were no longer any safety precautions left. She shivered, shrinking into her fluffy coat. The downy feathers that built it kept her warm. A gift Morgan had given her years ago for her achievements. 

She scoffed internally, not that it mattered anymore, with that young scientist taking up everyone's minds. Jealousy wormed through her heart as she scornfully thought about the young doctor. To catch the attention of such a predator, the knowledge that could be personally gained still stunned her brilliant mind. There was no doubt in her mind that they were keeping secrets. The others may be less perceptive but Jenny wasn’t. She had seen the strange acting, the cameras that mysteriously ‘broke’ every time they adventured out. Even the sneaking out Jenny was aware of. 

You didn’t win a Nobel prize by being oblivious

Jenny brushed the thick layers of snow off the trap door. She pulled and tugged at the handle until it finally came loose. Loudly crashing against the floor. She climbed down the ladder, being sure to avoid cutting her hands on the rusted metal. 

It was pitch black, she groaned, hopefully, there would still be power. Old crimson blood stained the floor, and rotted jackets and plates of food painted a telling story. Jenny stepped around the dried blood, shivering in disgust at the dirty scene. 

Dimly glowing red buttons grabbed her attention. This should be it.

“Right, this should work” she spoke, whispering despite there being only herself there, and of course, the long-forgotten souls of the tower. 

Her fingers danced across the console, inputting passwords, restarting grids, etc. She opened the circuit board that hung on the wall close to her. Slowly she flicked each switch on, watching for any signs of electrical failure. No sparks, no burning smell and no fire kept her moving. Soon all were switched on and the lab sprung to life. Ancient generators whirred with power, overhead lights blinked rapidly as light flooded the room. Jenny winced, hiding her eyes behind her hand. The light only temporarily blinded her for a moment, before they adjusted, revealing the true scene of the tower. 

She could tell it was bad, but she couldn’t see how bad it truly was until bright, white lights showed down. Papers lay everywhere, scattered around like someone had tossed them into the air. Plates of food lay rotted on the tables. Most of the food had simply rotted away, eaten by the bacteria, leaving only piles of mould that soon spread to the surrounding tables. 

Dried blood caked the walls and floor, bloody handprints painted a horrific picture. Jenny winced, looking away as she saw a bloody science jacket lying across the floor. God, how did it happen?! Had they taken no safety precautions? Did they think themselves stronger, smarter than a Siren? She ducked her head in shame; her team had been no different, Morgan no doubt had encouraged that line of thinking. Jenny pondered for a moment, looking down on the blood, how did she escape here? Did she get what she wanted? no, Jenny thought, she wouldn't be here if that were the case.

Jenny's eyes grew wet as she thought back to her own team's tragedies, her fist gripped the handle of her gun. Finger itched for the trigger as her mind spun back to past and present team members. 

So many gone, so many lost into the maws of the watery predator. She hated to admit it, but she’d grown sick of her job. This would be the last expedition, she promised herself, then she could go work in some safe lab, earning the recognition she deserves, she continued. 

The loud buzzing of the microphone comes alive. Jenny snaps out of her thoughts and rushes over to meet the expectant buzz of talking. It’s silent, aside from the obnoxious buzz, no one speaks. Her fingers flick over dusty switches, checking they're on. 

“Emergency call, emergency call, is anyone there?” She speaks clearly into the microphone, resisting the urge to cough as a bloom of dirt and dust blows into her face as she speaks. Jenny begins to lose hope after the first minute of silence. 

“Emergency call, emergency call, hello?” she calls again, silence.

“Emergency call, emergency call, I repeat, this is an emergency call” 

“Roger that, this is the Ushuaia radio communications team, do you need help? Over” Jenny breathes a sigh of relief, taking in a deep breath.

“Affirmative, this is the ASR Head team member  Doctor Jennifer Barlowe. We need immediate evacuation”

“This the Arctic Siren Research team? Why are you contacting us here?”

“A storm took down our communications, I tried there and only got static and had to travel all the way out to get any signal. We’ve lost a team member, animal attack, we need immediate evacuation”

“Animal attack? Can’t you just shoot the thing?” she groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“A Siren attacked us, it’s dangerous and an active threat. When can you send the next boat” Jenny waits, hearing hurried rustling on the other side, various voices call off on the radio, just far enough away from the microphone that they can’t be exactly heard. 

“There’s a shipping boat that drifts nearby in a few days, I’ll direct them to the docks in two days in the early morning” 

“Copy, I’ll inform the others, out” she turns the radio off. Now for the hard part, how to get the others into the boat. Calder would be easy, they seemed terrified, Sarah would need some persuasion, Morgan thought… Jenny sighed, she doubted there would be a way to get Morgan onto that boat without what she wanted. 

Jenny zipped her coat back up, and she turned the generators off, hoping to conserve energy. She climbed up the rusty ladder. She looked over the landscape. Eyes carefully scanning the scenery. 

The walk across the ice was silent, only the cracking of the ice and scraping of snow would break the silence. 

Halfway through her walks peace is broken. 

Ice cracks and breaks under the pressure of the Siren. Jenny’s eyes grow wide with anger and terror, and her hand grips tightly on the handle of her rifle, finger itching over the trigger. Her hands shake. 

The siren's skeletal body emerges from the water, carrying the same heavy seal Jenny had shot only hours ago, though it was partially eaten now, bits of flesh and blubber chewed away at. 

It hasn’t noticed her yet, too busy eating away at its easy lunch. 

Jenny takes a hesitant step back, keeping her eyes cautiously on the beast at all times. She raises her heavy rifle, holding it at a position that makes her shoulders ache, her finger takes off the safety of the gun. She raises the muzzle until it points to the Sirens' unaware skull. Still too preoccupied with eating its food to notice her. 

SNAP!

Jenny’s heart drops. She lifts her foot letting the cracks of a broken icicle drop from her boot. 

The piercing blue lights of the Siren jolt up, shrinking as it finds Jenny. It drops the dead seal, letting it fall onto the icy ground. It drags its tail further onto the ice, hunching its body up to make itself seem bigger. The black dorsal fin shadow stretches over Jenny’s face. 

Drops of blood fall from the sharp canines of the Siren. Mouth stretched into a snarl, a deep threatening sound travels from its throat. 

Jenny freezes, rifle still aimed at its skull. She can’t move, her legs have frozen solid with fear. Her mouth stutters out a response to the low snarl that shook her to the very core. 

“S-stand back!” her legs finally listen to the commands of her mind. The Siren hunches up further, the shadow of his body eclipsing Jenny. 

She takes terrified gasps of air as she struggles to remain calm. Her heart pounds in her chest, it feels like it's going to break out of her ribcage, with how hard it beats. 

Her mind flashes back to old colleagues, Thomas, Nathaniel. Tears of remorse and regret well up in her eyes. She should have been better, should have dragged Thomas back from Siren, from the cold seawater. She should have stopped Nathaniel from leaving by himself. 

Both were her responsibility and she failed both times. 

She blinks away her tears, not letting a single one fall down her cold cheeks. She wouldn’t, no, couldn’t show weakness in front of it  

What was once terror turned to rage. Seeing the rapid beast snarling, spitting, at her made her eyes twitch with rage and her teeth grit into a cold look. Her eyes hardened as she pushed the memories of regret, remorse and love deeper into her mind. Letting herself forget them in the moment. 

The Siren raised a bloodied claw at her, hitting the ground near her. Ice and snow flew up into the air, specks flicking onto her goggles. With a casual wipe, they were gone. 

“You don’t have any idea what you’ve done have you?” she muttered, keeping her voice in the same cool tone, not letting the quiver in her throat escape into her words. It was easy, once you got used to the constant repression. 

“This is for Thomas” she whispered as she raised her gun, finger pulling the trigger. The beast's eyes shrunk as it realised what was happening, its body reared back, tail fin dipping back into the water. Its mouth opened, letting all its teeth be seen.

Though the Siren was fast, the bullet was faster. Bone crunched and folded into itself, creating a sickening sound that brought joy to Jenny’s ears. The Siren let out a pained yelp as it crashed into the ice beneath it, magic seeped out of the large wound in its shoulder. She could hear it painfully wine to itself as bone ground against bone. 

‘Shame it didn’t hit its skull’ was all that she thought. 

She raised the rifle again, bending her knees so she could remain at eye level with the creature. She wanted to see the magic snuff out of it when it died. 

Her finger tugged at the trigger, the beast had by now realised she was there. Its clawed hand dug into the ice, desperately trying to drag itself closer to her, though its broken shoulder meant only one hand could be used. 

Jenny smiled at the scene. 

The bullet shot off from the rifle cutting through the air like a sharpened blade. 

The beast slammed both of its hands into the ground, even as the broken shoulder creaked in protest. It dug in and pushed itself off the ground. 

Jenny watched in shock and horror as the bullet missed the creature's head, instead breaking off a piece of the lower ribs. Magic spurted out, covering the snow in a blue glow. 

Jenny could only watch as his body connected with hers, sending her sprawling to the floor, head aching as it slammed against the ice. 

Its claws rose into the sky, slicing through the air as it connected with her throat. She tried to gasp, tried to beg. All she could do was gurgle as she choked on her blood. Eyes wide in shock. She slammed her arm into the creature's chest, her hand wrapping around the broken rib and pulling . 

The Siren howled in pain, twisting its body away before sinking its sharp teeth into her arm and tugging. Tendons ripped, muscle pulled and her jacket was shredded to pieces. 

As the word darkened around Jenny, all she could see was her arm hanging in the Siren's mouth, bone poking out and all. She gurgled something out, perhaps an apology, or a beg for mercy. 

The siren didn’t care. It left as her eyes began to flutter shut, shock and blood loss pulling her away from her dying body.

The world was silent again.

-------------------------------------

You paced in your room again for what seemed like a hundred times this past hour. The morning had come and gone, the storm sweeping away into the sea taking its destructive gails away like they never existed; Jenny still hadn’t come back yet.

You grasped your wrists tightly as your head peaked through the frozen window for the seventh time. She should be back, she said she’d be back. It was only supposed to take a couple of hours, why isn’t she back yet?!

You flinched as the sound of harsh knocking interrupted your anxious thoughts. 

“Meeting in ten minutes, I’ll see you there alright!” Sarah’s optimistic voice alerted you. Did she find Jenny's room empty? Was she about to? Oh god. 

Anxious nausea pulled at your stomach, what if she’s hurt? She could have slipped, hit her head, or broken a leg! Maybe she’s stuck somewhere. Your mind raced as it struggled to remember if you ever knew where the old tower was. 

No, she had never mentioned the location and you’d never even known it existed before that. Would the others know? God, you hoped so. 

You leaned over your desk, gripping the sides tightly, should you come forward now? If Jenny didn’t miraculously appear in ten minutes then the others would find out anyway.

You groaned, internally despairing at your helpful nature. 

“Calder, are you in there?” Sarah calls out, you jump, shrieking quietly.

“Yes! Yes, I’m just uh, getting ready that's all!” you say, as you stand completely dressed.

“Well all right, just hurry up, at this point you’ll be there earlier than Jenny, hah!” she laughs, walking past your room. You gulp.

You walk out of your room and into the lab, where all of your meetings are typically held. You kept your eyes trained on the floor, mouth held into a tense smile that made you seem more stressed than delighted. You sat down, bouncing your leg up and down as you did. Sarah and Morgan were caught up in a conversation, talking so quietly you couldn’t hear what they were saying. Morgan looks up, taking in your dishevelled appearance. Her eyes crinkle in distaste. You don’t notice, too focused on keeping your eyes trained on the floor. 

“It’s good that you made it doctor, we’re all just waiting on Doctor Barlowe now” Morgan's voice rang out, calm, and unsuspecting. Your leg bounced off the floor harder than ever. You rubbed your wrists harshly, trying to hide the guilty look.

“She’s probably still angry, maybe we should just leave her alone?” you speak up, praying that Jenny finally does show up. 

“No. Just because she’s unsatisfied with my leading decisions does not give her the right to disregard her duties. Important information will be given at this meeting. Attendance is required” 

You wince. Morgan's tone was strict, making no room for disagreement. Sarah nods along as Morgan speaks, her long blond hair bouncing up and down as she does. 

“Did you inform Doctor Barlowe of the meeting?” she asks, Sarah nods.

“Yep, knocked on her room and everything, she didn’t say anything so I just assumed she heard”

Morgan curses under her breath, frustrated and annoyed. Her face wrinkles as she thinks.

“This is ridiculous, Doctor Barlowe is nearly fifty, not fifteen” Morgan stands up, her heels letting her glare down at everyone as she storms away, heels harshly clicking against the floor. You and Sarah watched as she left the room, Sarah jumping up to quickly follow after her; you jumped up as well, jogging to catch up to the two of them. 

Morgan knocks on the door.

“Barlowe, we have a meeting now, you are required to attend,” she says, her tone kept in a firmly neutral voice, not slipping her anger or frustration. You shift uncomfortably as Morgan's fists rap against the door. 

Your eyes darted to the clock on the wall, she really should have gotten back hours ago, she said the journey would only take her at most till the early hours of the morning. 

“Doctor Barlowe, we are not children, come out now or-”

“Jenny might have left!” you shout out, stunned at the loudness of your voice. Morgan's head snaps to where you stand, her eyes glaring down at you. Sarah looks at you questioningly.

“What. Do. You. Mean?” she grits out. 

“She, she, Jenny wanted to contact the mainland team; but communications systems were down and she wanted to leave-” Sarah interrupts you, shock underlining her words.

“She wanted to leave?! Wha, where?!” you're almost confused at the shock, why wouldn’t she want to leave, only your worry for Sans kept you from joining her.  

“She went to some old communications tower, she said she’d be back by morning, but she’s not and I think she’s hurt!” you pause, nervously waiting for a response from either. 

“You knew?” Morgan speaks, her face holds complete skill, if you didn’t hear her you wouldn’t believe she was speaking.

“You knew and you didn’t tell us?! You didn’t stop her?! Do you have any idea what you’ve put at risk?!” she storms over, grabbing your arms with her hands, pulling you eye to eye with her, noses almost touching. She seethes as she opens her mouth, spit flying out and landing on your face.

“You had better be fucking sure she didn’t succeed, that boat could put everything I’ve planned at risk and you better hope it won’t!” she bellows out, saliva spraying out as she does. 

You shove her hands off of you, taking a few steps back. Sarah watches silently, her hand outstretched ready to stop fists from flying if need be. 

“This is ridiculous, what plans could you possibly have that are more important than your life?! Then our lives?!” you spit back, finally regaining your voice and voicing your concerns with a venomous tone. 

“I don’t blame Jenny, who wouldn’t want to leave?! After what happened, honestly, did you think people would just forget Thomas?” Morgan's eyes narrow, she steps forward, and you step back. Your back collides against the wall.

“She has gone on this expedition for fifteen years, she knew the risks, and so did Thomas, everyone did. The research we do will save future lives.” Morgan presses a sharp, manicured finger into your chest. 

Your face twists in horrified anger. 

“Bull. you care more about knowledge than you do our lives! Your life! I’m sure Jenny succeeded, I doubt anything could stop her from calling for help. She’s probably hurt, we need to get out there and find her!” your anger turns to pleading, worry for Jenny’s life overtaking your need to lecture Morgan. Who, for her part, stays silent. 

“Why do you even care so much?! I don’t understand how you could all be so arrogant to think nothing like this could ever happen. And you!” you turn to Sarah, your emotions boiling over completely. 

“You stood by and did nothing! You could have helped, could have stood up for me, or listened to Jenny or dragged Thomas away but you always just sat by the sideline and let everything play out!”

Sarah stutters for a moment, tongue tricking over words as she struggles to come up with a defence.

“It’s not my job to babysit you! My job is to study the Siren! I can’t do that if we’re on a boat! And how was I supposed to save Thomas, hm? Was I supposed to leap into the water with him?! I’m not working two jobs at once just because everyone else couldn’t get their shit together!” she snaps back, her hair flying past her face as she pulls her head forward. 

Morgan's hand hits Sarah's chest, stopping her from moving any closer to your already pinned body. She seethes out, “You better be wrong if that boat is coming, I. Will. Ruin. You!” She emphasises every word. A tense pause descends on your trio, Sarah and Morgan watching your shaking body in rage, awaiting your response. 

Your body shakes, hands unable to hold onto the wall any longer. You nearly slide down the wall, legs quivering. 

You shakily stand up, feeling Sarah's accused eyes watch as you stumble away into your room. You slam your door shut, locking it with the heavy key given to you months ago. You can hear Morgan's heavy footsteps slowly walking after you, she’s in no rush, you have nowhere else to go.

“Open the door doctor, this conversation isn’t over!” she bangs on your locked door, jiggling the doorknob as she does. The lock holds tight, not giving in to the furious knocks on the door. 

Anxiety, fear, and worry all wash over you. The feelings cripple you to the floor. Your knees hit the floor, and your hands come to your face, wiping away the angry tears that had welled up during the fight.

“Doctor, if Barlowe was able to get a ship. I. Will. Ruin. You” she seethes, the heavy weight of fear pulls in your guts, your head pounding as your mind rushes to cope with everything that has so quickly happened. 

“If you do not open the door I will find the key to this room and open it myself, do not make the situation worse by acting like some petulant child!” 

You block her out, listening to the sounds of the waves crashing outside. You can hear her shuffling keys through her hand, trying and failing to find the correct one.

Minutes pass, what are you hoping for? Morgan will get in, even if she couldn’t you’d still have to leave eventually. You couldn’t stay in your room for god knows how long till the ship arrives, would there even be a ship? You could only hope. Though you feared for Sans, the others wouldn’t ever leave him alone, could he cope without you? Dark thoughts stirred through your exhausted body.

Shrill cries pulling you out of your dark spiral. The outside world echoes out the cries. You recognise that voice…

Sans! 

Quickly you jump up, forcing the door open and scanning the foreground. You can’t see him, but you can hear him. 

Did Jenny do something? Is she nearby? You had to stop her!

Flinging your jacket over your body you climb out the window. Morgan's keys still jungling in the lock, the door pulling open just as you leap down into the ice below. You can hear Morgan's furious screams as you follow Sans’s pained cries.

You find yourself running further and further away from the base, the cries leading you out to the wider sea.

“Sans! Sans are you there?! Where are you?!” you shout out, hoping your voice carries out across the gales of wind.

“...Penguin, no…” a weak voice calls out, your body chases the voice, reaching right to the edge of the ice, where the arctic sea meets. Your pants dip into the sub-zero water. You ignore your shivering, calling back out to Sans.

A little further out you see Sans's dorsal fin break the water's surface. His face is clenched, no longer holding the same comforting smile you’re always used to seeing. 

His hand tucks under his rib, the other hand clenching down on his shoulder. 

You gasp. Fractured and cracked bones splinter across his shoulder, like a spider's web. Another crack, another cry, and another addition to the ever-growing web on his shoulder. 

He crashes against the ice as he struggles to stay above water. He chokes on water as he yelps in shock when his ribcage bumps up against ice. 

“What, what happened?!” you say, pulling his heavy body across the ice. You feel almost nauseous as you see the snapped rib. Blue magic seeps from the wounds, his body growing weaker and weaker as more and more magic spills from his wounds. 

He can’t speak, he can barely move. You wrap your hands around the snapped rib, stopping more magic from draining his body. 

“Sans! Oh my God, what happened?!” you begged, eyes waving in horror at the wounds. His hand drags a lock of hair behind your ear, ignoring your pleading questions.

“So pretty,” he mutters. His hand travelled down to hold yours, the lights in his skull dimming in brightness until they were almost disappearing into the inky blackness of his sockets. 

“Please!”

Chapter Text

Your hands tightened around Sans's wounds. Your mouth opened in fear and horror at the sight of his wounds. Magic seeped out of your hands, trickling on the ground below. Nausea pulled at your stomach, you resisted the urge to throw up, this was too much. You gagged as a spurt of the stuff fell from his shoulder and dripped onto you. You tried to wipe the drying magic but only managed to smear it further across your jacket. 

“Sans what the hell happened!” you choked out, meeting his eyes with your horrified ones. He groans out, his broken shoulder creaking out ominously. His eyelights failed to meet yours, choosing to instead look around the empty environment. He remained silent, tucking you in closer to his bleeding body, more magic smearing across your clothes as you pressed harder against his wounds, he let out a low hiss of pain as you did.

This wouldn’t work, your hands were too small to stem anything and the way his shoulder cracked and creaked made adrenaline shoot through your veins with worry. Once again, you cursed your lack of knowledge, your helplessness, stars this was just like with Thomas. You chased away those memories, choosing to instead focus on the bleeding present. You felt your heavy jacket brush against your face as your head scanned the area for anything that could help you. 

Nothing, just empty plains of ice filled your vision. Tears well up in your eyes as you truly realise the situation you're in. You weren’t in some plentiful forest. There was literally nothing but ice and whatever you carried off your back with you. You slipped your jacket off, goosebumps immediately followed and a sharp shiver of cold fell down your spine. Your body shivered as you wrapped the jacket around his shoulder. Hopefully, that would at least stem the bleeding a little. At least until you can figure out a proper plan.

“No, keep it…” Sans trailed off, weakly pushing at your hands as they wrapped your thick jacket around him. His light, bright blue eye-lights remained dim. You could hardly see them now, but at least they were there. That must be an improvement, right?!  

“Sans! Stay awake, don’t fall asleep, whatever you do, don’t fall asleep!” you ordered out, emphasising every word that fell from your mouth. His head lolled to the side, leaning against your shivering waist. 

“Heh, couldn’t stay asleep around you even if I tried, Penguin,” he said, chuckling as he spoke. Your mouth straightened into a thin line of worry as you watched him darkly chuckle, tightening the jacket around him. He stiffened at that, letting out a low curse of pain when the fabric brushed up against the shattered shoulder.

“God, Sans, what happened?!” you repeated after what felt like the hundredth time already. His head turned away from you, nearly sliding to the floor if you hadn't caught him in time. You pulled him up, dragging his limp body over your legs. You grabbed at his hand, clinging to it desperately with your own. 

Slurred words spilled from his mouth. You could hardly understand him though, as words of English turned into animalistic clicks and whistles. You could vaguely recognise it. The clicks and whistles sounded like the sounds dolphins and whales would make to communicate with each other. 

Crimson blood stained his teeth, covering half his skull with a pretty red. You froze, hesitating to place a comforting hand on his skull. You glanced at the wounds that littered his body. Fuck, fuck! You cursed silently. 

Bullet wounds. 

Jenny had left with a rifle. You weren’t stupid, you could put two and two together. Jenny hadn’t come back yet and Sans was bleeding out with two bullet holes shot through him. There was a natural conclusion to come to, though you struggled to make peace with it. 

You looked down at the fading face of Sans. This wasn’t the time, to worry about whatever the hell happened to Jenny later, right now, you had to figure out how to help Sans. otherwise, neither of them would be making it out of this hellhole.

The wind pushed against your shaking body, the hair on your arms standing to a point. There was nothing here, nothing but ice and water. You turned your head back to where you had run off from. 

Would it be safe to leave Sans? Would you even be able to find anything? Morgan and Sarah would still be at the base. No doubt Morgan was waiting, fuming as she slammed the door open, only to find you missing and your window flung open. In this moment you couldn’t be bothered to fear her, too focused on Sans and his wellbeing to truly care about the consequences you would face. 

Your mind was stuck in a dilemma, either face the lions in the den back at base or hope that Sans pulls through. Your skin prickled, and the day would move by, temperatures dropping until it reached the double-digit negatives. Could you survive staying the night out? Especially with no jacket? Your fingers were already starting to go numb; your face already losing feeling in the outermost extremities 

Luckily for you, the decision to make was stripped away as the rumbling engine of a snowmobile echoed out in the distance. Your body tensed at the sound, Jenny. No, not from that direction. 

Sans head perked up, lifting ever so slightly off your lap. He growled out. His hands came up, gripping your legs loosely as he did. Even being so weak, he still tried to protect you. You pushed his hand down. Stroking his skull comfortingly as your mind rolled away at figuring a plan out.

Your eyes widen even more, pupils shrinking, as you spot long black hair flying out from behind the snowmobile. “Shit” you curse, “Sans can you move?” he doesn’t answer, tightening his grip as his eye-lights focus on Morgan racing down the ice. You can almost see the red-hot fury emanating from her body. 

He pulls you closer to his weakening body as Morgan comes to a stop a few metres away from you both. Covered to the nine, you're almost thankful you can’t see her expression, covered by a thick mask and black goggles. You look almost naked in comparison to her.

Morgan takes notice of Sans's angry growls, “control your dog, doctor,” she says with a disgusted expression. you grimace in distress at her words and the powerful look on her face.

“He’s not a dog! He’s a person!” you can almost feel the roll of her eyes as she steps off her bike, Sans tugs you closer. His bloody teeth catch Morgan's attention. She steps back, sucking in a tight breath as she does. You call out her name in fear as she edges closer to her bike. She keeps her eyes fixed on Sans and yourself as she lifts a heavy gun from the back of the mobile. She pulls two, no, three darts with bright red tufts at the ends of them., loading them into the cartridge. 

Your heart races and you raise your hands, trying desperately to de-escalate the situation. One hand was in front of Sans's broken chest and another raised in the air. Darkly, you think for a moment that Morgan might just shoot through your hand if she had to. She wasn’t the type to ever back down.

“Woah, woah! Morgan just… let's just all calm down!” your voice tightens as the words struggle to come out. Your throat struggles to even inhale the cold breaths of air you need to survive. 

Sans doesn’t help, he only bares his teeth further, pulling you closer to him and further from Morgan. A headache blooms in your skull from the panic. The sounds of the world around you overwhelm your mind. 

“Of course, I’d find you here. To be truthful, I wasn’t sure if I’d find a half-eaten corpse or well… never mind, you’re still here and you’re you. I suppose that’s all that matters in the end”

She pulls her goggles up, levelling her fierce eyes to your worried ones. “Step away doctor, this’ll be easier if you’re not playing the proverbial meat shield” she snarks out. You flinch away as she releases the safety of the gun. 

Narrowing your eyes you wrap your shivering body around San’s. Though your hands can barely meet as you stretch them across. You turn your back to Morgan, guarding San’s most injured parts, his head pushed down onto your lab. You ignore him, even as he whistles and clicks in surprise? At this point you're not sure what he’s saying, or if he’s even saying anything at all. Sans tries to pull you under him, though he’s too weak and finally relents under your caring touch.

“Shh, Sans, just calm down, we can get Morgan to understand, we just have to try” you nervously say, unsure of what you're saying could happen. Morgan seemed too dedicated to her years here to just let things go so easily, though you hoped deeply that you could end this peacefully. He doesn’t respond, perhaps too caught up in the moment to pay attention to your quiet words.

Morgan clicks the safety of the gun off, her mouth turned into a cruel sneer of hatred.

“If you don’t move, I’ll shoot you” she speaks, each word given a tone of finality, daring you to challenge her. You shake your head, clinging desperately to San’s body as you do. 

Morgan raises the gun, snarling out an insult towards you as her finger slowly closes down on the trigger.

Sans suddenly moves, pushing you under him, one hand wrapped tightly around your body, the other pushing himself off the icey floor with a shaky creak. Web fractures spread out across from his broken shoulder down to his shaking hand. His face tightens in pain before going blank, fear and anger swirling on his face as he glares up at Morgan, eyes focusing on her smirking face and the end of her gun.

“Sans! Don’t your arm!” you plead out, desperately trying to pull Sans to the ground, wincing as his shoulder bone cracks and crumbles as his weight bears down onto it. 

“Morgan stop! You’ll only hurt him more! I know you don’t want him damaged so just stop! Please!” your voice goes unheard between the two parties, Morgan's eyes glance down at your sheltered, shivering body for a moment before darting back up to Sans.

The trigger pulls and two loud booms echo through the ground. You feel it reverberating through your body, even with yourself still pinned to the ground. Two darts pierce through Sans, bright tufts of red fur signal they’ve stabbed his body. You suck in a breath, watching as Morgan quickly loads another two darts into the gun. 

Sans roars, loudly screeching as the darts shoot out. His injured hand pushes him off the floor, his other hand reaches out, claws sharply shining in the sun. though he doesn’t make it close to Morgan. 

With a loud SNAP! His shoulder shatters completely, bone flying into the snow below, and his arm collapses under him completely. His screech of rage turns into one of delirious pain. He sluggishly whines as his body limply falls to the floor. His eye-lights now a dark, hazy blue. You scramble to your shaking feet, your body soaked from the melted ice beneath you. 

"no, no, no. Please stars no!" you horrifyingly whisper as you look down at Sans.

You only have to move a few feet in front of you. Your hands unwrap your jacket from San’s shoulder. Cringing in sympathetic pain at the broken shoulder. Not much is left, small bits of bone shatter and fall off from his body. He moans in pain as you gently move his shoulder. Cursing out as you do.

Morgan steps closer, gun still raised, pointing at the two of you with a threatening glare. Desperately you rewrap your jacket around San’s mangled shoulder. Even as his other hand pushes at you to stop. 

“Stay still,” you whisper, tightening the jacket around his shoulder for a final time. 

By now Morgan steps within grabbing distance of you. You turn around, glaring at her fiercely. Sans's body rumbles in warning to Morgan, loud clicks and growls echo out from his mouth. You can’t understand him, but you get the vague idea that what he’s saying isn’t pleasant. 

San’s unbroken arm curls around your waist, tugging you closely to his side. He wraps his working arm around your body, shielding you from Morgan's furious gaze, and her gun. The magic that once circulated his body now seeps into your clothes, staining them a pretty blue. The warmth of his body fades and his arm gradually loosens his grip on your body. 

His head reaches over yours. His voice is strained with pain as he whispers out untranslatable words. Your face quivers with fear before hardening as Morgan steps closer. You blink away worried tears, putting on a poker face that to Morgan must seem so familiar by now. You keep your eyes wide open. Some primal part of your mind thinks that if you do, Sans will disappear and you’ll be left to fend off Morgan's hateful actions. 

“Come in Sarah, coordinates -79.4063075 0.3149312. Bring the equipment…” Morgan's voice falls into silence as she listens to Sarah's response. The walkie-talkie crackles with sound, Sarah's voice blaring out over it, responding in affirmation to Morgan's request. 

Silence falls over the three of you, Sans falling in and out of consciousness, you surrounded by his sweeping body, refusing to give Morgan any more satisfaction, and Morgan, looking down on the two of you with a satisfied smile. Her body relaxed, shoulders dropping after what was likely years of tension. 

Soon, maybe a few minutes later, Sarah enters your field of vision. Speeding through the ice on a heavy truck. Your eyes narrow in confusion. Where did they store something like that?! It certainly wasn’t in the vehicle bay. 

A large tank, filled with old saltwater sloshes at the back. Splashes of water hit the ground as Sarah makes a narrow turn. The water is hazy like it's been sitting in the tank for years. Specks of dirt flow through it.

“Why?” you ask, so confused about why Morgan would go so far for him, surely there could have been easier options?! Morgan turns her head, thinking of your question. 

“It’s a rare specimen, easy target, no surrounding family to fight off. It helps that it is remarkably intelligent as well, she answers, turning her body back around and watching Sarah drive closer and closer to your trio. 

You shake your head, “No, that’s not what I meant, why even bother?! Was it all worth it?! The deaths, the cover-ups, the chaos. What are you and your fucking corporate colleagues so desperate for that everything was worth it?!”

You snarl out, unable to hide the anger that had been building since you’d arrived at the mysterious base. 

Morgan doesn’t answer, silence befalls the two of you, till Sarah pulls out of the truck, loading the tank of dirty water close to you and Sans.

“Knowledge” she pauses, as strands of fine black hair fall over her shoulder, “And money are all fine motivators” Her eyes squint against the sun, but that recognisable smile finally appears on her face after so long. You scowl in anger, basking in the rage of your predicament.

Knowledge, you almost want to laugh, and money, how simple. Honestly, you don’t know why you expected better reasoning from some corporate pig! You spit at the final thought. Levelling a fierce glare at Morgan's body. 

Sarah gently walks up to you, holding her hands out in peace.

“Let's go, c’mon you’re probably freezing, the truck is nice and heated” she attempts to persuade you away from your fallen friend. 

“Hell no! I’m not letting you anywhere near him and I’m sure as hell not letting you put him in that !” you spit out, pointing at the grimy tank. Sarah tenses, sighing annoyingly as she looks back to Morgan.

“Look at him doctor, protect him all you want but with a shattered shoulder and broken rib he won’t make it for very long” Morgan reasons, speaking to you condescendingly. You glance back to Sans, whose magic has thoroughly soaked the ground below him, his ribcage slowing down as he exhales and inhales, wincing as his broken rib grazes the ground. His face is slack, unlike the once expressive one you grew familiar with. 

Tears built up as you realised what could happen. You had nothing , no medicine, no bandages and certainly no medical experience. Sans was practically dead already.

You wiped your eyes. Barking out unkind words to the other two, the true last scientists left standing.

“Fine! Take him! Just make sure he doesn’t die!” you harshly shout out, forgetting the once kind tone you always used to use. Mouth turned into an unfamiliar snarl.

Sarah smiles, her fingers grasping around the large steering wheel of the pulley. The truck creaked with age. Hints of rust catch in the corners of the chains as they dredge against the snowy ground. Your eyes fell downwards as you watched Sans's unconscious body be pulled away from you. You patted his tail, wincing as you felt how dry the skin was. Small patches of it are already drying and tearing off his body. Sympathetic pain struck your heart, that wouldn’t heal well.

You sit in the snow, watching blankly as the two work together like a well-oiled machine. Guilt pools in your soul, as you watch Sans, slip into the tank. Unconscious and unaware. You struggled to remain cool at the thought of Sans waking up hurt and alone, stuck in a tank. Surrounded by people who either failed him or wanted to hurt him. 

Sarah steps next to you. Hauling you up and slinging your arm over her shoulder, a cheery smile present on her face. Your body twitches, eyes widen, you’d forgotten how still your body had become from the cold. She slings you over the middle seat. The both of you silently and awkwardly wait for Morgan to enter the truck.

The ride back is silent, except for the chattering of your teeth. Your hands shake from the cold or maybe from anger? A flurry of emotions sitting on your chest suppresses any finer thought.

You desperately hoped Jenny at least managed to get that boat.

Chapter Text

The ride back is long and silent. Tension so thick a knife could cut through it. You kept your body turned to the back, focused completely on San’s unconscious body. 

The dirty water swirls around, occasional bubbles coming out of his mouth and floating to the surface. You sighed, at the least his wounds had stopped bleeding, though his shoulder had still been completely shattered. Tiny bits of bone, brittle enough, would snap off his shoulder and turn to dust. 

“Five minutes away from arrival” Sarah called out as she focused on the wild path in front of her. Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, and you could see her eyes occasionally darting over to your body. Morgan seemed entirely unconcerned about you, her face lit up with a bright smile. You scoffed dishearteningly, of course, the only time you see her smile in all these months was when Sans was finally locked up; like some circus animal. You spat at the thought. 

The storm had finally calmed, the last bits of angry wind had left, and the snow had stopped so tightly falling onto one another. No longer were there any sounds of the wind to comfort you now; Or to fill the silence between the four of you. 

Finally, the base came into view. Drenched in snow you almost couldn’t spot it from the other mountainous piles of snow that lay nearby. 

The sliding door to the vehicle bay screeched as it opened. Metal grinding against the ice in the gears. Soon the truck was pulled in and Sarah and Morgan stepped out, ignoring you as you shakily attempted to follow after them. Your body is still warming up from the sub-zero temperatures it had been subjected to. Your fingers tingle as the heat of the base hits them.

Morgan has already pulled out a chunky satellite phone, no doubt dialling up her corporate buddies. You sneered at her disdainfully, her voice proudly greeting whoever answered the phone. So cheery and syrupy sweet it shocks you how kind she's being. 

Sarah meanwhile is hooking up the tank to another smaller cart, precariously transferring Sans in his tank. Her long blonde hair swept up into a tight ponytail. You follow after her. Heavy footsteps hit the floor.

“Where are you taking him?” you ask, voice straining as you struggle to maintain civility. She glances over at you, eyes wide as though she didn’t expect you to ever speak again. 

“The lab. Me and Morgan will be monitoring his condition from there until a boat arrives” You frown. Sarah continues to avoid looking at you, even as your eyes chase after hers. 

“And what will I be doing?” you grunt out, barely able to contain your anger. You watch in disdain as Sarah stumbles over an answer, umming and ahhing over her words.

Morgan snaps her phone shut like a thunder strike and saunters over to you, pride evident in her smug look.

“Sadly, Doctor Calder, we won’t be needing your services any longer. You will remain in your cabin until further notice.” Morgan's voice changed from cool and collected to excited, like some psychopathic child on Christmas day. 

“If you think I’m just going to leave you alone with him then you’re sorely fucking mistaken!” you snarl out, eyes wide with anger, fists clenched. You failed him then, you could at least try and protect him now. 

Anger coiled around your heart as Morgan's face twisted into one of blank neutrality. Her lips cinched into a politician's smile. 

“I can assure you, doctor, you’ve been a welcome addition to the team. But your knowledge is no longer needed for our newest study” Your eye twitched in frustration. 

“Although we will have to talk with your previous company.” 

“talk with them about what ? How I disagreed with your attempts at a kidnapping?! That I wanted to leave this hellhole?! God forbid that, right?!” 

Morgan's false smile faltered at the edges, “As I was saying, you broke numerous rules, placed multiple lives in danger and even got two of our beloved team members killed.” your mouth dropped before twisting angrily, nose flared and teeth gritted. 

“I didn’t kill anyone!” 

“Didn’t you? Thomas would never have drowned if you were smarter about where you stepped. Jenny wouldn’t be dead if you hadn’t promised her help. You directly broke multiple rules that I put in place to ensure everyone's survival.” she paused, taking in your hurt and enraged expression. “One doesn’t survive years out in this godforsaken landscape without being. Hm, flexible ” she says, tapping the side of her nose. 

“Regardless, you were useful for a time. You’d have been more useful to me-” she pauses as her phone rings, cutting her off from her impromptu speech. 

She leans forward, whispering in your ear as the phone continues to loudly ring from her pocket. “I allowed you to choose us. But there are limits to my graciousness. Good luck, Doctor,” she haughtily steps back, looking down on you. 

Guilty thoughts seeped into your mind. It was your fault, wasn’t it? Even if you couldn’t control everything. You still could have avoided their deaths. Still could’ve prevented them.

Survivors' guilt swept over your mind, leaving you speechless as you fought back the guilt that welled up in your body. 

For a few seconds, you can only stand and watch as Morgan steps away, talking to someone new. You shudder to think about what exactly. Sarah grabs your wrist, nails digging in as she does. The door to the vehicle bay slams shut and you are pulled from your mind. 

“Let go!” you shout out, pulling away from Sarah's tight grip. She doesn’t relent, hand only coiling tighter around. The hallway echoes your words as you're dragged down the base. 

Your cabin door slides open, and Sarah drags you in. Still a mess, at least that was one thing that had stayed the same throughout everything. Sarah's face stiffened in disgust as she took in your mess of a room. 

Good, be uncomfortable, you thought.

“Morgan doesn’t mean any of that” she flatly says, only exhaustion in her tone. You sneer at her, fingers digging into the palms of your hands painfully.

“She just doesn’t think before she speaks sometimes. It wasn’t your fault. She’s not going to get you fired. You were very useful, I promise” You flinch away at her words, did she think that was what you were upset about?! About being called useless?! About your career being ruined?! 

“Stop playing both teams Sarah!” you screech out, voice catching in your throat. She steps back from you, edging closer to the door. 

What, did she not trust you at all now?! Think you some wild beast?!

“God, that’s all you’ve done since we got here. First, you act like we’re friends. Then you ignore me, then you send me out into danger how many times?! God and now you dare to act like I should just agree with you?!” You get closer to her, step by step. Until your nose almost touches hers. 

“Don't ever try to comfort me. You’re not my friend. So stop acting like it” your voice lowers into a dangerous whisper. Sarah nods, losing all facets of emotion that you could see swirl behind her eyes.  

“I know you're angry. Just stay in here and try not to make things worse.” Sarah laughs, eyes wet, “At least Jenny was successful, she's got a boat coming for us in three days” She lets out a cough, clearing her throat. “I’ll bring your meals to you” Her coat spins in the air as she turns around. Long blonde hair falls to her shoulders as she walks out your door. Slamming it shut.

The sound of a lock clicking into place sends you running to the door. You pound on it, yelling for Sarah to come back. Threatening her, screaming for her, begging her. 

You try the windows, though they’re locked shut, and you have no doubt that they would simply rather let you freeze to death than let you back in. What's one more coverup?

You stand in your room, head in hand. Even more of a mess than before, clothes, papers, and old dishes lay scattered and broken around the room from your hurricane of wrath.

You pace. It’s the only thing you can do. Hours seem to pass by and you're alerted to nothing new. Neither of the two has even so much as passed down your hallway. The only sound you could hear was the scuffing of your own shoes as they marched up and down your room. 

Finally, the sounds of footsteps stop you in your tracks. Not the clicking of heels that would signify Morgan, but the sound of sneakers quietly stepping across the floor. 

The door clicks open with a satisfying clink! Sarah steps in, her once straight hair now frazzled and tied into a tight bun. Bits of hair poking out. Her coat is as pristine as ever, unlike yours, which always seemed to be covered in some mystery sauce.

Holding a plate and a cup of water she silently walks in. She places the food and water down on your cluttered desk. 

“That’s dinner, I’ll come back with breakfast tomorrow morning,” she says, gracing you with a smile. 

You stumble out a “Wait!” as she turns to leave, key in hand. 

“Just, please let me out. Sans is going to be pissed off when he wakes up and you’ll want me around to help!” you make your case, staying a few cautious feet away from your soaking colleague. She shakes her head, the smile dropping off her face and a polite frown replacing it.

“Morgan's orders. Don’t worry, the Siren is more important to us alive than dead” Before you can protest, she slips out the door. Locking it behind her as she trails off to the lab.

---------------------------

The morning passes, or at least you assume morning passes. There are no clocks in your room, at least none you didn’t destroy in your destructive rage yesterday. So you can only guess what it is. Time seems to pass by and with every second you expect to hear Sarah trotting down the hallway, breakfast in hand. 

You sit at your desk, fidgeting with your fingers. Fast different thoughts travel through your mind too quickly for you to really focus on anyone in particular. 

SLAM!

Your cabin door crashes against the wall, metal against metal. You wince, folding in on yourself as you turn to see Sarah. Drops of water drip onto your floor, her hair slick against her face as water runs down it. She gasps and breathes as water spills from her throat. 

She runs up to you, stumbling over her soaking shoes. Gripping your wrist as tightly as the night before she begins dragging you out of your room. 

“Come with me, now !” she emphasises, manic panic in her eyes as she dashes through the hallway dragging you with her. 

Confusion and worry run through your mind as you're rushed through the hallways of the once-familiar base. This couldn’t be good, Sarah was quite literally dragging you by your feet to wherever she was taking you. 

Your heart pounds as the both of you reach the lab door. Sarah slams the door open, shoving you forward. You can hear the furious shouts of Morgan, the blaring of alarm bells and Sans's familiar screeches and clicks. 

“Fix it! Now!” She emphasises each word. Shivering as she turns around, you can see her running to a panicked Morgan. Who holds the butt of the rifle you vividly remember; she loads each one with a large dart. Her eyes lead yours to the small tank in the centre of the lab

Loud pounds of force hit against the tank walls. Deep scratches etch the glass. Water seeps out from each one, slowly draining out onto the floor. Creating a slick surface that made it hard to keep your balance.

Sans claws dig deeply into the glass, pulling and prying at the layered glass. Even as it stabs into his hands, magic pools out of the wounds and floats up. He winds his long tail, now coiled up in the too-small tank; and slams it into the glass. 

THUD! 

Another crack against the glass. Sans teeth are bared, snapping at the empty water in front of him. 

The lights in his sockets flare menacingly, shining brightly through the disgusting tank water, piercing through your soul. You’d almost be intimidated if you didn’t know him.

Morgan rushes up the stairs, following to the top of the open tank. She aims her rifle in, following his twisting and curling body as he attempts to wind himself up for another attack on the glass. He looks up, snarling with broken rage as he makes eye contact with the barrel of the rifle. 

He sinks down to the bottom of the tank; tail coiling uncomfortable. Morgan steps back, keeping her body far away from the open tank lid. You wish she would just slip in. Make things easier for you. 

The splash of water falling to the floor and the creaking of the metal walkway shudder out. Your eyes widened as in just the few seconds you were there Sans had rushed up. Torpedoing himself through the water and landing on the old rusted walkway. He gritted his teeth, grinding against each sharp tooth as pain shot through his body. He lunges out with a clawed hand, swiping Morgan's leg. 

She lets out a scream, of rage or fear? You don’t know. She jumps through the air, desperately trying to aim a rifle at him. When that fails, and Sans finally manages to dig his claws through her leg, (though not deep enough to drag her down) she takes the butt of her rifle and deftly swings at him. 

San’s body scatters to the floor as his head connects with the gun, a sickening crack echoes from his head and you wince in pain. You can faintly see fracture lines cracking across his skull. 

Bile rises to your throat, guilt compounding onto your mind; you weren’t sorry for Morgan, but Sans didn’t deserve something like this; and yet you had doomed him to it. 

You rush up the walkway, shoving past Morgan as she bleeds her way down the stairs. Your eyes water with guilt and worry.

“Sans! Oh god, no, no. I’m so sorry” he lets out a groan, clutching his fractured skull.

“Don’t move, just slip back into the tank and I promise I’ll make them go away” he opens his eyes meeting with your own. His eyes widen as he takes in your form. Sharpened claws flexing in as he lifts a shaky arm out. You hold his arm out, before pushing it back to his chest.

“Don’t move that! You haven’t even begun healing!” you scold, leaning into him.

“Shh, god you must be so confused, let me explain!” you hurry up, glancing over to where Morgan had rushed to. She was gone now, as was Sarah. Only a trail of blood leaving the room is the only evidence of them being there. 

You let out a gasp as San’s hands wrap around your waist. Pulling you into the water with him as he tilts his body back into the tank. 

“Sans!” you manage to rush out before the water wets your body. Your mouth slams shut in surprise. Your body is tucked against his heavy chest, carefully manoeuvring you so you aren’t carried in his weak arm. 

Your head tucked under his chin, his arms locked tightly around your body. Deep purrs emanate from his body. 

“Are you alright? No dizziness? Memory loss?” you ask, finally shaking off the shock and letting yourself be enveloped by him. Your eyes look down to his hands, shards of glass poking out, you suck in a breath, that couldn’t be good. In the time that Sans had been here, not much had been done to treat his wounds. Loose bandages were wrapped around his shoulder, though they now were loosened, and floated around in the water around you. 

“Nothing that can’t stop me, Penguin” he smirks, his teeth glinting under the harsh lights of the lab.

Hushed apologies spill from your lips as you watch him wince in pain as chips of his shoulder bone crack off. The wound still looks sore and almost inflamed. 

“I should have done more, I’m sorry. They were supposed to be treating you” his face falls into an angry frown.

“Treating me? Hah!” he spits out, “Did they hurt you? Couldn’t see you coming in or out at all”

You glance over to the trail of blood. You can’t say she didn’t deserve that, nor could you say you care anymore. 

The two of you's embrace continues. Sans floating above the water, holding you against his chest as he worriedly cups your face, fingers tracing down your cheeks. You cling onto his ribs like a lifeline as you glance over to the two still in the room, tucked away in the corner, observing. 

You lean forward, hair brushing up against San’s face as you do. “I’ll be back soon, promise me you won’t break the tank or kill anyone. I’m not letting them keep you. Just have to figure out a plan” you mumbled that last part, shivering as the cold water lapped over your face. 

Sans chuckles at you, face blushing bright blue as he looks into your determined eyes. 

“Don’t get yourself hurt, Penguin, whaley wouldn’t want to see you end up here like me” you snort at the pun before rolling your eyes. 

“Don’t think I don’t see what you're doing, Sans. I promise, just lay low for a little, we just need some time” You glanced at his injuries. You had no doubt he wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild. If you took him now, he would only get himself hurt, or Morgan would simply recapture him again. He certainly wasn’t in shape for any long-distance swimming. You’d have to wait. 

Sans chuckles roll through his body as he curls around you tightly, not wanting to let the moment go. 

Soon you slip out of the tank, pointedly keeping the tank lid off as you step down. You let out a sigh, should just get this over with. With a dejected look, you begin following the blood trail down into the medical bay. 

Morgan's face is pained, though she tries to hide it with a displeased grimace. Her leg is bandaged heavily and still crimson-red blood manages to soak through. Her hand still tightly coils around her rifle. You almost wish you had the same poker face. 

“Clearly, we overestimated our abilities.” you can’t hide the smug smirk that blooms at Morgan's concession. “We’ll be dosing its new tank with sedatives routinely, I want you to make sure it doesn’t destroy anything in the process” 

You scoff at her, rolling your eyes. You should be used to this behaviour by now but oh well. 

“Before you interrupt with some smart-ass comment. Just know, that your Siren's safety is in my hands entirely. It eats, when I say it eats, it sleeps, when I say it sleeps, it breathes, when I say so” 

“If you want me to do that then you have to listen to me ” You step forward, “that means when I say, stay away from him, then you listen” you say, emphasising the last word.

Morgan scoffs, bemused at your remark “Just make sure it doesn’t bite anyone's hand off” she drawls out. 

“So are you going to listen?” Morgan rolls her eyes, waving you off, “I see no point in bothering the thing right now. We’ll continue our studies later”

You nod your head in agreement; before heading back to Sans. Intent on making sure neither of the two would do anything more to him.

------------------------

The next morning comes by, Sarah unlocks your door and leads you to the lab. You watch as Sans limply floats at the bottom of a new tank. This one is slightly bigger and less dirty than the other—no scratches or cracks against the glass either. 

Sarah diverges off from you, walking over to Morgan, whose eyes follow you as you approach Sans in his new tank. His tail moves languidly until he notices your approach. His hooded eyes widen brightly and he smiles. His eyes shift to the two remaining scientists, watching their reactions. He stops smiling when he sees Morgan's eyes follow you. Face darkening to a frightening degree. For a moment, you catch a glimpse of the predator that dragged so many down to their deaths. 

The two scientists quickly leave when you shoot Morgan a look, reminding her of your previous day's discussion.

For the next two days, you had been tasked with feeding and caring for Sans. It still felt degrading for him to be basically treated like some wild animal. The two of you occasionally talked about the future, what would happen, what could happen and what the two of you could do about it.

“I brought you some food, here” You offer out a small bucket's worth of fish, old and frozen. Sans wrinkled his face at the smell before accepting, hunger overriding his sense of smell or taste. 

“Got any more of that fish -tastic food left?” he asked, chewing on the skeleton of one of the frozen fish. You shook your head. 

“Sorry Sans, I doubt they actually ever prepared to house someone like you here,” you hesitated over saying the word ‘Siren’ ashamed over Sans's capture. 

“Never mind, c’mere anyway” Sans reached his arm out for you, claws scraping against you gently. You narrowed your eyes softly, you’d noticed that he still favoured his left arm. 

“Hang on a minute Sans” you murmur, stepping up from the tank and leading yourself down to the small cabinet of emergency medical supplies. You gathered the meagre amount of bandages and medicine they had allowed you to use. 

Slowly you wandered back up to Sans, whose head tilted with curiosity at the items in your arms. You gestured for Sans to get closer. 

“Take this, it should help with the pain” Sans picked up the small pill you handed to him, his eyelights swirled with bright blue colours as he inspected it. Trusting you, he swallowed it, gagging as the dry pill dissolved in his mouth. 

“Eugh, see! They’re trying to poison me!” Sans jokes, letting the quiet tension in the room that had somehow appeared, dissipate. 

You pull softly at Sans, getting him to turn around so you can bandage his shattered shoulder. 

He smiles at you, letting you tug him gently through the water as the bandage is spun around. Silence falls over the two of you. 

“Do you have anyone out there? Anyone the others might go after?” you murmur, carefully tying the bandage around his shoulder. You turn your eyes to the small window of the lab. You could see the ocean waves moving in the far distance. Desperate to know more, you needed to know more. It felt wrong to you to leave and never know a thing about his past.

“No.” Sans dully states. The lights in his eyes no longer swirl with light. He pulls your arm away from his shoulder. Placing his two hands next to yours he pulls himself up, letting him be eye-level with you. Your hand rubs his cheek, eyes softening as you look into his. You feel a strange pull at your heart as you do. 

“I used to have a family: mother, father, brother, cousins; we were all happy, just living and being with each other,” he says, breath hitching in his throat. “I was ten. Humans came, with boats, nets, and harpoons” he gently knocks his forehead against yours, arms coming to rest around your waist. 

“They took my brother! They took him and my mother and my father and everyone . Till nothing but dust and myself were left” Blue tears dropped onto your lab, and you wrapped your own arms tightly around Sans, comforting him silently. 

“I hid away, I tried to grab my brother but a harpoon-” he stutters, breathing out as more tears fall down his face. 

“I’m so sorry Sans, I shouldn’t have asked” you murmur out, holding him tightly in your arms. 

“Left me with some scars as well,” he strains out. Your eyes look down to the deep etches on his back, and your hand trails down each scar, dipping in and out of each one. 

Flashbacks of an earlier time, when you would cry to your mother she’d lay you down in her lap and sing you a childhood rhyme. 

Soon the childhood tune falls from your mouth, sometimes the key is wrong or you stumble over the long-forgotten words. Your hands trailing up and down the scars as you do. 

Sans stiffens for a moment, before relaxing in your hold, head leaning against your shoulder. You can feel his body loosen its grip on you as the medication works its way through his body. 

Slowly you pull away letting Sans dip into the ocean, drowsy and tired. Your heart tugged at his tired face, tears still falling even as he slept. 

You quietly walk out the door, eyes blazing with determination. 

You would save him. No matter the depths you might have to sink too.

--------------------

The third day comes quicker than you expect, it rears its head like an ugly beast and you have no choice but to confront it head-on. 

You drag yourself out of bed bright and early, shaking off the disturbing dream you had. You could only remember flashes, but they were enough to want you out of bed and ready to forget about it.

Sarah and Morgan had mostly kept to the lab. At the very least Morgan made good on her agreement with you and kept a healthy distance from Sans. you cynically wondered how long she would keep listening to you.

You still couldn’t hold a chuckle at the sight of Morgan's bandaged leg, shame, he should’ve taken it off completely. You hurried down to the lab. Sans was already awake, dully floating at the top of his tank, tail bent uncomfortably in order to accommodate his whole body. 

“Mornin’ Sans” you greet. Sans's face sharply swings up, a grin spread wide across his face. His body twists and curls around the tight edges of the tank as he swims up to the surface.

“Ah, frozen fish, a classic ocean staple,” he says sarcastically, you chuckle. 

Breakfast goes by slowly, Morgan coming in halfway through, gathering documents and shooting the pair of you an unreadable expression. Your eyes meet hers, refusing to back down from the impromptu staring contest. She mutters a few words under her breath, then leaves, finally letting Sans and you talk in peace. 

“You alright Penguin? Seems a little distracted” Sans asks as his body drapes across the walkway, still digging through the bucket for fish. 

‘No, just thinking about some things that's all” You shrug off his question, gazing off to the door. You weren’t sure what to do. Sans didn’t know today would be your last day together. You chuckled to yourself, you doubted he would go without you without a fight. 

The morning passes by, all too quickly in your opinion. Soon you're putting the bucket of frozen (now gone) fish away and bringing out Sans medicine. 

Gently wrapping and rewrapping the bandages you’d tightly laced around Sans's shoulder, handing him a small painkiller to swallow. You can see his face scrunch up at the taste.

“It’ll make you better Sans, don’t pull that face” you lightly scold him, 

“Blegh, stars for all your human technology how haven’t you made good-tasting medicine”

“It’s already strawberry flavoured!” you remark back, holding in a laugh at his disgusted and confused face. 

You excuse yourself, walking down the wet, metal floors and quickly cleaning up (aka shoving things into cabinets and shutting the door) Sans floats down to the tank floor, boredly picking at the small scraps of food that had fallen to the bottom. His body constantly shifts to and fro. 

Occasionally you would catch glimpses of your colleague's shadows, hear their footsteps, and see the last flickers of their bodies through the window on the lab door. Huffing silently, you knew you couldn’t avoid them now. 

Saying your goodbyes to a reluctant Sans, you make your way out of the lab. Dozens of crates and boxes lay scattered around the floor, in them, old equipment, personal items, food, etc. 

Then, strange new voices ring out across the hallway, and you pick up the pace. Following the new sounds finally reach the end of the hallway that leads to the front door of the base. 

Hulking strangers carry the heavy crates, dragging them outside, whilst others shout instructions to the labourers. 

You look around in shock, you hadn't expected people would come to the base. You had just assumed that like last time, you’d drive out to the boat and wait there. 

“Put the box over there! I want us out before evening, oh-” Morgans's voice rings the loudest, her orders followed diligently by a dozen strong-armed men. She pulls her head back, catching a better look at you, before her nose wrinkles in disgust. The old frozen fish smell still hasn't washed off of you yet. 

“I was looking for you, done playing house?” she snarkily says with a mean smirk. It takes all the self-control within you to not roll your eyes. 

“I’ve completed my responsibilities for the day, yes,” you say, keeping your tone emotion-free. Despite the anger welling up inside you. 

“Good, why don’t we move somewhere more private? We have some matters to go over” Morgan turns, ordering Sarah to follow alongside her. She leads you down into her office. Now sparse, almost completely empty aside from her desk and a chair. 

The two of you settle down into your seats, Sarah standing over Morgan's shoulder, her arms crossed loosely around her chest; her face holding a small smile. 

“As you’ve seen, the boat has arrived and we’ll be transporting the Siren to Ebott City Marine Research Centre.” she pauses waiting for your reaction.

Your jaw stiffens, hands curling into fists. You let out deep cool breaths as you try to regain your calm. You knew this would happen, this was always their end goal. 

“I’m aware” you muster out, voice straining as your teeth grind against each other. 

“Good, as I’ve come to recognise, you somehow manage to create a bond with the Siren. Which, while remarkable, is also going to be extremely helpful in keeping it placid whilst experiments are run” She intertwines her hands, gripping herself tightly as she carries on. “There’s a job for you there” She slides a small piece of paper towards you. The words scramble themselves as you read it, ‘offers of employment’ and‘ employee responsibilities’ The terms make your head spin.

Was she serious?

“Seriously?” is all you can say, flabbergasted at Morgan's actions. Morgan's face screws up in annoyance, Sarah biting away a smile.

“Yes I am. These past few days have been an eye-opening event for everyone. You’d do better working somewhere where your skills can be put to use” her hands folded over each other patiently. Giving the aura of a patient teacher.

You pause, words held on the tip of your tongue. Sarah's eyes held a curious glint, wanting to know what would unfold. Morgan's eyes unsettled you; a mad gleam to the usual poker face expression, you could hear her foot tap, tapping against the floor. Impatience is an uncommon expression for her. The pricks of your hair stood at a standstill as goosebumps covered your arms. 

A flash of fear struck your heart as you imagined that same hungry, impatient look, not directed at you, but at Sans. 

You weren’t so naive to think Morgan wouldn’t do whatever she needed to fulfil her craving for money or knowledge. Hell, everything had happened just so she could get her hands on him. No remorse, no care. You were wrong to trust her, and now here you are.

You feared the torture that would await Sans. 

You slowly nod your head, “Okay, I’ll join” You raise your hand to grasp Morgan's bandaged one. Stomach twisting with nausea as her greedy hand crunches down on yours. Her smile is that of a prideful devil, eyes twisted in arrogance. 

“Perfect. You’ve made the right decision, Doctor Calder.”

Your heart burned as though you made some deal with the devil. Though this was Morgan, so really, it wasn't a wrong feeling.

Chapter Text

The ship rocked steadily as it moved through the waves of the ocean. You glanced out the small window and saw the ice moving past the great ship. Stacks on stacks of metal containers lined the ship walls, painting it with colourful swatches of reds and blues. A exhausted sigh pushed out from your chest as the cold atmosphere made your bones ache. 

You rubbed the back of your neck, exhausted from recent events. You let yourself retrace your steps until you found yourself with Sans again. Stuck in the same tank but the lid was sealed shut. The captain refused to take him on board if there wasn’t even the most bare minimum of safety. You couldn’t blame the captain, with the way Sans looks at the crew, you’d be worried for them as well. 

“Hey Sans, we’re almost there” you lean your head against the glass, looking up at him with a patient smile. He read your lips, swimming down to the bottom of the tank, placing his hand over yours. His sockets lull and he stops baring his teeth. At the very least, Sans was recovering from his recent injuries. His ribs were starting to heal and the crack in his skull had faded slightly. Only his shoulder seemed to give him the most pain. Even then it was lessening by the day. 

You had stood watch over Sans as medicines were dropped into his tank. You were the only one who could get close enough to him to wrap his bandages and feed him potent pain killers. 

Guilt still gnawed at your mind every time you saw him flinch in pain. Sleep was starting to become a struggle, with near constant insomnia and nightmares plaguing you the rare time you actually managed to fall unconscious. You’d decided to stick close with Sans, forgoing some care for yourself in order to stay with him. Really, it was the least you could do. 

Though at least you had more time to think, to plan. Formulating an idea would be important, even so early. You were sure there would be other scientists around you, Morgan couldn’t hide such a discovery after all. Influencing them would be important, if you could just get them to chose you over Morgan than everything would be easier. A part of you still hoped that among those new scientists would be like-minded people; you hoped none of them would be like Morgan. You didn’t even want to think of the power struggle that would come to be.

Morgan approaches, carrying a wooden clipboard with stacks of papers on it. Your tender moment is ruined the second Sans sees her. He hisses, slamming his fist into the glass and looming over your body through the tank. She snorts, unaffected and unamused by his attempt at intimidation, 

“I have your paperwork here, just some minor things we have to get out of the way” your eyes narrow in suspicion, carefully plucking the papers out of her hands and reading through them. Morgan's eyes crinkle with friendliness as she waits for you to finish reading. 

Yeah, you don’t trust her. Not after everything that's happened. You keep a good distance between her; putting yourself between her and Sans. 

“Are you done? Good, we can sign them later. Once you’re done doing… whatever you were doing” she taunts before sauntering off down the hallway. You grit your teeth, eyes twitching in frustration. 

Nothing about the papers had seemed off, no secret clauses, no hidden requirements. Just regular old work documents. Still, you couldn’t help but not trust her, why would you? She hadn’t exactly done much to inspire trust.

Sighing, you turn to Sans. grinning up at him with a tight smile.

“They feeding you enough?” you heartlessly chuckle, “ probably not,” with that you gather a small bucket of frozen fish. You almost doubted they were feeding him enough, one bucket for a Siren his size was practically starving him. His claws twitched and blue tongue licked his teeth as he saw you carry the heavy bucket and drag it to the lid. 

It could only be opened from the outside, which luckily you were on. Opening the lid, Sans burst from the water, spraying you with flecks of the stuff as he hungrily grabbed for the bucket. Stuffing fish into his mouth faster than he could chew. 

“Woah, woah, Sans calm down! You’re gonna choke!” you try and drag the bucket away only to have Sans tug you forward, sending you colliding into his chest. 

“Sans!” you squawk out, face smashing against his ribs. He lets out a laugh at your pointless struggle; his hand still tightly gripped around your wrist. 

“Penguin, what's wrong? You seem so tense~” he teasingly coo’s out, wrapping his other arm around you as he chews on the last frozen fish. 

“You’re squishing me!” you squeak out, laughing lightly as he does.

“Am I?” He tries to play clueless but the growing grin on his face shows that he isn’t actually as oblivious. Finally, he releases his grip on you, letting you scoot back away from him. You huff, puffing your cheeks out as you snatch the now empty bucket away from him. 

Your face falls as the ship rings out a thunderous chime. The ground rattles with sound as it does. That meant you’d be docking soon. Your eyes welled at the thought, these past few hours had been so good, you had almost convinced yourself that everything would be alright; the bell chimes again, snapping you completely from your fantasy. 

An exhausted sigh escapes from your lips, shoulders sagging as you do. You turn away from Sans, unable to look him in the eyes. Holding tightly at the bucket's edge, the smile dies on your lips.

“Don’t tell me a little bell got you scared~” Sans teases, drawling out the last word. His head tilts in worry when you don’t respond. His eye-lights waver with worry, flashing a darker blue. 

“Penguin?” he murmurs out, gently grabbing your hand and enclosing his fingers around you. 

You shake it off, wiping off the distant look on your face and turning to him with a bright (but fake) smile.

“Sorry Sans, I’m more tired than I thought, hah” you let out a humourless chuckle. Still, you let Sans hold onto you, emerging yourself in what you fear could be the last moments of physical affection you two would ever have. 

Deep down, you wanted more, wanted to bring him into you and hold him tightly and never let go. 

You shook your head, no, it would be wrong. You cursed yourself mentally. He’s stuck in a godforsaken tank! It wouldn’t be right. 

“Penguin, you don’t need to lie” Sans words snap you back to reality, “huh?” is all you can say.

“ Whale something is bothering you. I can handle the truth,” he rolls his eye-lights, “you don’t need to hide things from me, I’ve been through worse” he cheers on. Your eyes falter as he continues to talk. You hoped he was right.

--------------------

You reach the harbour only a few hours later, too soon in your opinion. You hang around Sans, not letting him leave your sight as he lid is screwed back on and various sailors surround the tank to load him onto a truck. Though Sans doesn’t speak, you can see the anxiety brewing in his bones. He moves to and fro in the tank, bumping his body up against the glass. 

You tap the glass lightly, reminding him to stop doing that. 

“You’re going to hurt yourself” you whisper, hoping he hears you over all the commotion of the harbour. 

Walkie-talkies crackle over the bay, metal crates crash against the ground with heavy booms, before being ripped open and their treasures moved to lifts. You don’t see where you’re going, too busy focused on keeping Sans calm. 

His bumps against the wall only grow more frantic as you travel further through the busy dock. People stop and look in shock as you pass by. Jaws dropped and eyes wide. You had almost forgotten how rare it was to see a Siren in real life. You chuckle bitterly, under the right circumstances, none of these people would have even known Sans existed. 

Soon everyone comes to a halt. A large empty truck lays in the parking lot. A fat man hangs out the driver's window smoking a cigarette. He flicks it onto the ground once he spots you.

“I’ll open the back, load it in when you’re ready!” he shouts out. The labourers nod, driving the precious cargo to the now open back. 

You can only stand to the sidelines, watching, as they slam the truck door shut, plummeting Sans into darkness. You can almost feel his worry, his fear. 

“You alright, nervous? I am too” a perky voice calls out. You let out a groan of frustration as you spin around. 

Sarah in all her glory, hair neatly straightened into a tight ponytail, eyes wide with energy. You feel hideous compared to her, hunched over, dark eyebags and smelling of frozen fish. 

You don’t bother offering even a polite smile. Your face falls into a deep set frown, eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

“Can I help you?” you tensely say, undertoning your words with a ‘what the fuck do you want now’. Sarah nods, either oblivious or intentionally avoiding recognising your obvious dislike for her. You can’t tell which it is. 

“We just haven’t spoken in a while; and seeing how we’re going to be working closer than ever now, I thought it would be good to get speaking again!” she chirps out. She steps closer to you, nose wrinkling as she catches your scent. You snort at her look, ducking your eyes away as her eyes snap up at you. 

You sigh, you doubted Sarah would just wander away without at least some conversation.

“How long until we reach the facility?” her smile stretches, showing her bright, white teeth. 

“It’s only about an hour's drive from here! It should speed by quick enough!” she steps back away, pointing at a small car near the truck. 

“We’ll be riding in that! Don’t worry Morgan will be driving” you can’t hide the plain distaste that arrives on your face when Morgan is mentioned. Sarah winces as she notices the look.

“I think I prefer to ride with Sa- the Siren” you say, stumbling over his name. What did it matter? They didn’t think of him as a sentient being anyways. You thought bitterly. 

Turning away from Sarah and her perfect hair you slammed the truck door open and sat in the pitch black next to Sans. 

The truck rumbles to life, engine purring as it takes off down the twisty roads of Ebott City. the busy ships disappearing into the distance. You close your eyes, leaning against the tank, letting the rumbling of the engine pull you to sleep.

--------------------

You arrive at the facility quicker than you think. You rub your tired eyes, patting the tank walls.

“It’ll be alright Sans, I promise”

“I know, Penguin” he mouths back. You open the door, beams of sunlight hitting your eyes painfully. You groan and hide away from the powerful rays. 

“EBOTT AQUARIUM” the building sign says, the inside lights dimming as the building prepares to close. 

Sarah and Morgan step out from their car, stretching their stiff limbs as they do. Four people exit the building, three in the common lab coat and another in a black business suit. Two of the scientists are Monsters, one a small cat Monster with calico fur and bright green eyes, the other a whimsun with huge square glasses, they shook terrified as they approached Sans. Who for his part, does not do much to calm their nerves. Gnashing and grinding his teeth, clawing at the tank glass and looming over you with an evil glint in his eyes. The third scientist is a plain human. Your heart grips mournfully as you take in his long blonde hair that's messily tied into a bun, with circle glasses that sit atop his face. 

Flashes of Thomas’s face race through your mind, the short friendship you had and, of course, his pained screams as Sans pulled him under. You face away from him, looking up at Sans instead. Who also seems to recognise the familiarity between them. For a moment he stops his threatening facade and observes as the trio walk closer to you. 

Sarah and Morgan appear at your sides, you jump in surprise once you see them. 

“Stars” you whisper.

“Welcome, welcome! Oh this is so exciting! Oh I should probably introduce myself, I’m Catmilla!” her tail bounces excitedly as she stretches out her pawed hand to shake yours, Morgans and Sarahs. 

“H-hello I’m Whimmy,” the Whimsun whispers out, you almost have to ask her to repeat herself. She flutters in the air with a nervous aura, lowering herself when she reaches Morgan, giving you all a stiff nod in greeting. You give her a friendly smile, trying to calm the aura of anxiety that fluttered around her. 

Finally, the one human scientist steps up. You glance at Sarah and Morgan, only Sarah seems to have any sort of reaction to him, similarly shocked and saddened by his similar appearance. Morgan only smiles passively, shaking his hand authoritatively. 

“And I’m Percy, it’s nice to finally meet you all. Me and the team have been so excited to work with you all” 

“Likewise doctor,” Morgan responds, you and Sarah standing quietly, taking in his familiar appearance. 

“Ah, there you are! I was worried we wouldn’t see you until tomorrow! It’s good that you’re here now though, come, come!” the older man says, his belly spilling over his black pants. 

“I’m Lucas Jones, director of the Ebott aquarium. Here we’ll all show you around” everyone but you follow him as they walk back to the aquarium. You stand by Sans, afraid to leave him. It would get cold! And quite frankly, you felt safer with him than with them. 

“Real lions den” you mutter, Catmilla turns around once she realises you're not following, she gasps excitedly, rushing back over to you. You step back, colliding with the glass of the tank. 

Sans growls menacingly, bending uncomfortably to meet Catmilla’s eyes. His teeth open and bared like a hungry shark. This doesn’t deter her, yellow eyes sparkling with fascination.

“Amazing! You must be the one who tamed it! I’ve never even heard of such behaviour before! How did you do it? Oh you must tell!” you shift uncomfortable as Catmilla begins rambling, unaware of your increasing discomfort. “Oh! You should definitely come hang out with us! It’ll be so much fun! We meet up every-”

Morgan's hand clamps down on her shoulder, “now, now, Doctor Calder has had a very long day. We can discuss this all tomorrow” Morgan whistles out to the truck driver, “you! Get the Siren into tank 14! I’ll have some other workers help you” she clicks her fingers and the driver obeys, hurriedly calling out to passing workers as he stills the truck to a halt. Water sloshes around in Sans tank, banging up against the glass walls. 

Soon the shouts and grunts of workers fill the air. You and the surviving members of your team are still surrounded by the three new arrivals. Their excited, but well meaning voices, momentarily overwhelm you. Heart and head pounding as you adjust to all the new sounds and smells. You smooth your face over, covering the feelings of anxiety and worry that plague your mind. Now, you look bored and ready to head home. 

“I’ll be back soon Sans alright! I won’t leave” you call out, Sans nodding his head sweetly as you do. His face no longer bears the fierce snarl. Transports soon haul his tank away from your vision, delivering him to his temporary home through a large back door. The metal door slides open, revealing a busy ground. Many people running to and fro, some clearly designated as the aquariums workers, others here on temporary visits. Though your attention remains on Sans, trying in desperate vain to remain in his eyes sight. 

---------------------

The tour around the aquarium is saved for tomorrow, the sunset giving the building an eerie feel. Especially with many of the rooms being plunged into complete darkness, allowing their fishy denizens to rest. Occasionally you would see a fish swim by, cutting through the water like a hot knife through butter. Your eyes caught on a more desolate looking hallway though, it had been taped up, dusty, like it had been abandoned. You tilted your head in curiosity as you passed it by. Surely such a big aquarium like this wouldn't want to waste space? 

"Doctor! Keep up, we don't have all day" Morgan calls out, you resist rolling your eyes, instead speeding up and falling into pace a little ways behind her. You in a moment of petty induced emotions, kick a piece of trash towards Morgan as you walked behind her. The trash stuck to the bottom of her shoe, smearing against the sole of it. Gross. You hid a growing smile. But funny.

The three of you are instead directed to Lucas’s office. Lined with various awards and expensive knick-knacks. Each one meticulously polished and shined until you had to shield your tired eyes away from them for fear of pain. 

Huh, you had never realised Ebott aquarium was so highly ranked, ‘number 1 aquarium of 2022’ never even knew those awards existed. Though you saw no recent award, had they gone down in popularity or something? 

A set of keys are dropped into your unsuspecting hands. The keys are old, semi-rusted over and are attached to a dark green key ring. 'EBOTT AQUARIUM" plastered over it. They look like they've been used for decades and not been cleaned even once. 

“These are for your apartment! Only a ten minute walk from the aquarium, courtesy of Ebott Co!” Lucas joyfully says, handing out similar keys to Morgan and Sarah. "Free accommodation of course, as per your employment agreement" he chirps out. 

“You’ll all be neighbours! Isn’t that great!” the three of you side-eye each other. A fluttering of different emotions in each ones eyes. Morgan, disinterested and uncaring as usual, Sarah excited? Or nervous, you couldn't tell. She was fidgeting around too much for you to get a clear answer; and you, overwhelming dread and exhaustion. It seems even on land, you wouldn't get a moments peace. 

It seems no one was as excited for that as Lucas thought.

"Just for today, why don't I drive you all home. It was probably a tiring trip, c'mon!" he practically cheers you along. You sit a far distance away from everybody in the back, head hitting the cushion as another wave of exhaustion hits you. Finally he pulls over to your small set of apartments. It isn't much to look at, not in the worst part of town and all, but there's a hint of messiness to it that the building couldn't seem to quite shake. 

Your own apartment isn’t much to look at. A quaint studio apartment, with a small queen sized bed smushed into the corner of the room, the kitchen collects dust, with only a small pot and kettle tucked deep away in the cabinets. The bathroom also looks to be growing a new kind of mold, fantastic. That'll do wonders for you. You dragged your hand down your face, collapsing onto the bed. Trying to chase away the negative thoughts. 

Your eyes closed, mind filled with cyniscim about your future. Though your soul still burns with a glimmer of hope. Sleep escapes you, but your running mind keeps you busy from your insomnia as half-baked plans begin to form. 

Chapter Text

Your eyes snapped open moments before your alarm blared loudly. Groaning, you rubbed your eyes, rolling to the side of the bed. 

“Five more minutes…” you moan, eyes closing as unconsciousness takes you once more. 

Wait! The aquarium! You fell out of bed, yelping as your body collided with the wood floors. Springing up you threw on your new uniform and rushed out the door. Skipping over the typical morning routine. You rushed through the empty morning street, a scant few cars drove past you. The sun had barely risen. Your early start of five in the morning was probably the reason for the lack of people. 

Finally you turned the street corner and Ebott aquarium fell into your line of vision. You doubted anyone else was there, too early for most. You prayed that would be the case. A plan that had brewed in your mind since last night would finally be put into action. You unlocked the employee door and slipped in. 

Your eyes scanned the roof as you walked in, dodging the cameras as best you could. Huh, for a top of the line aquarium and research facility you’d think they’d have better security. You shrugged, they probably thought no one would be interested in sea sponge data. 

You smirked, well, until you came along of course. You couldn’t trust any of your new colleagues. Sure the scientists seemed nice; but Lucas? No, he seemed much too similar to the greedy businessman stereotype. You shifted uncomfortably as you remembered the way his eyes lingered on Sans form. You could almost see the money signs flashing in his eyes. 

That’s why you were here, disgustingly early, just to check things out. Without any busy bodies poking their heads over your shoulders. No harm, you doubted there would be anything too serious. 

You sucked in a breath as you hid behind a trash can, hiding from a morning janitor as he passed by. 

You ducked through the hallways, walking through the closed section of the building. Old tanks filled with dust and plastic rocks lined the walls. Nothing alive, not even the glow of the overhead lights illuminated your path. You flicked your phone's flashlight on and continued your march down the abandoned hallway. 

From what the director had informed you, this hallway was supposed to be going under huge renovations. All new types of marine life would be kept here. Supposedly it would now be the ‘Arctic life’ section of the aquarium. You hummed as you poked your head through the door, another grand, but empty, tank. Dust and cobwebs gathered at the corners. You snorted, you’d think they’d want to keep the place clean for when renovations started. 

You reached the end of the hallway quicker than you thought, only one final room remained unchecked. The door was shut and covered with bright yellow ‘under construction’ tape. You jingled the door knob, weird, it’s locked as well. 

You stepped back. A bright blue glow omitted from the bottom of the door. So the lights were on as well, this doesn’t bode well. 

Ear pressed to the door, you slowed your breathing as you listened in. no voices, no footsteps, nothing but the faint sound of water sloshing against the glass. Small trickles of water falling from the tank and trickling down the sides onto the carpeted floor below. 

Not someone, something was in there! You centred your foot into the middle of the door, then slammed your foot into the door with all your body weight, again and again. The door creaked and groaned under your attack. Old wood bending under your strength. Finally the lock broke off, clattering to the floor with a loud clang as the door swung open. 

You winced as a strong musty smell flew through your nose. Clearly, no one had cleaned here in a while. Much like the other rooms, cobwebs and dust lined the corners and walls of the room. 

In the centre of the room, a large tank stood. The overhead lights burned brightly, casting a faint blue light over the room. Your eyes widened, mouth dropped in shock as you took in what swam in the tank. 

Long, black and white tail and long skeletal body followed a line to and back. Briefly stopping, exhaustion clear in their form. Their long head bobbed out of the water, their eyelights completely dimmed. 

You hesitantly stepped closer. Vaguely remembering how Sans was like when you and him first met. The siren stops moving, languidly floating at the bottom of the tank. Flecks of dirt and the remains of food float around him. 

CRUNCH!

You wince as you lift your foot up, small pieces of crunched chips crumble down to the floor. 

The Sirens head snaps up, their sockets landing on your face. Their body tensed and for a moment you're ready to turn and run, heart pumping with adrenaline. 

They knock their knuckles against the glass, smiles stretched wide across their faces. They seem more alive now, waving their arms frantically in the tank. They swim up and down.

You take a step to the right, they follow, you step to the left, they move as well. 

Hands stretched out, you slowly walk to the front of the tank. The siren goes mad with excitement, waving their arms vigorously and their tail slaps the bottom of the tank. 

“Hello? What’re you doing here?” You ask, looking up at the siren. You can tell now that it’s a boy. Though you can’t discern much else.

“Are you alright? Did they forget you?” The siren looks at you curiously, head tilting in question. Could he understand you? You had always just assumed sirens could speak English. 

You knock lightly on the glass, mimicking the Sirens previous actions. His smile widens, showing his teeth, you gasp.

What would have once been ferocious weapons had been shorn down into harmless, flat teeth. Hardly befitting of an apex predator like him. Light web fractures spread from his shaven teeth. They look old, injuries that never healed right and instead painfully scarred. 

You scowled, honestly for a second you had thought the aquarium would be good. That you’d only have to focus on taking down Morgan and Sarah. You cursed under your breath, just your luck.

The Siren swims back, grin gone and he shrinks in on himself, shielding his weak ribs with his curled up form. Weak and painful warbles and cries. His voice hitches and cracks as he tries to speak, or maybe not, you can’t tell. 

“Woah, woah, calm down! Please” you plead, the scowl falls from your face as your brows furrow with worry. Finally after a few moments the Siren stops his pained cries and looks up at you, much to your relief. Tears welled up in his eyes and quickly blinked away and a nervous smile danced across his face. 

He starts tapping at the glass, following you, even mimicking your own movements. Was he playing? You pondered. He splashes at the water, trying to gain your attention. 

A giggle slips from your lips. It’s hard to be serious when you have a Siren trying to play with you like some energetic puppy. Faint white eye lights dance in his sockets as he glances at your hand, an orange tongue flicking out and gliding over his shaved teeth. 

Oh, he must be hungry. Looking at his thin bones you wonder when he was last fed. Probably not recently.

Usually there’s a lid to every tank, gotta access the animals somehow. You glance up, craning your neck to try and see the top, bingo! You jog around the edges of the tank until you find a set of stairs that leads to the very top, the Siren following your every movement. 

You reach the top, digging your fingers into the tank lid. They slip and slide as you struggle to grip onto the wet edges. 

Dammit! You’re not strong enough, the lid remains tightly shut even as you pull with all your strength. The Siren taps against the lid, the taps ringing out through the empty room. You think he’s still trying to play with you. 

Wires and old cords hang from the ceiling, connecting the tank to dusty old outlets. You bend down, magnets line the top of the tank walls that keep the lid shut tight. Tilting your head, you look at the middle of the tank. The lid looks like its supposed to split open down the middle. 

Maybe you could? No, nevermind. The way some of the wires are perilously hanging over the ceiling, sparks of electricity occasionally zapping out of the exposed copper makes you shiver in fear. 

You assumed it must have a controller somewhere, how would they have fed him? Cleaned his tank? There must have been one at some point. Pained croons echo out from the tank, the tapping continues harder than before. 

“Shhh” you whisper, walking away from the lid and down the stairs. The blue glow of the tank shadows over your body, the Siren circles you, spinning wildly as he does, grinning all the way. 

Stern determination falls over your mind. He was so skinny, even for someone who was part skeleton, you could see the edges of starvation etching into his bones. Old injuries healing incorrectly, stars, it made you sick. You had thought just for a moment that maybe the aquarium would be better, that you could find help this way. But no, you weren’t ever that lucky. 

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Your watch snaps you out of your distracted mind. You turn heading for the broken door. The Siren whines out, hand pushing against the glass of the tank. 

You turn around, giving him a calm smile. His cries stop as he meets your eyes. The determined look not disappearing from your own even as your watch screeches out from your wrist. 

You close the door, trying to hide the broken lock as best you could, though you doubted anyone else would be by here. 

“I’ll see you later, I promise” 

You rush down the empty hallway, dodge the hallway cameras and hide from the excited shadows of your new colleagues. Fear and anxiety brewing in your gut as you get closer and closer to where Sans is kept. 

The tank is larger than the one before. At the very least he can move around in this one. Though not by much. 

Wide, unfriendly grin stretches across his face, his sockets pitch black with not a trace of the typical blue lights.

He swims in vast circles, claws dragging across the concrete floor. 

“There you are! We’ve all been waiting for you, where have you been?!” Sarah scolds you, rushing over to you near the doorway. The others watch on as you only watch on, eyes and mind focused elsewhere. 

“Doctor Sarah, Morgan” you greet coldly, nodding your head in greetings to the others. You turn to face Morgan, though you address the group as a whole, “As the most knowledgeable person about Siren behaviours and health I was thinking it would be best if I would remain in charge of the Sirens health, and all executive decisions surrounding him” Morgan and Sarah narrow their eyes as they listen to you speak. The other three though, they seem interested, not in the suspicious, ‘we totally know what you’re trying to do here’ way. You spot Catmilla nodding in agreement as you continue trying to make your point, even Whimmy, who seemed the type to never pick a side, looked at you in agreement. “I don’t think we should be testing anything on him right now, he’s tired, injured and confused. Anyone getting close to him could serve to just scare him into aggression!” you add.

Morgan lets out a sigh, approaching you with a polite, managerial smile. “Well, I suppose there is some sense in that” she pats your shoulder and speaks in a sickeningly sweet tone, “Though we’re still going to conduct tests on the Siren. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Think about it like this, we’ll be saving peoples lives with the technology we’ll be testing. Without us, people will be at risk” she leans forward, her eyes meeting yours. She doesn’t say anything more but the glint in her eyes is telling you to shut up and move along. 

Your eyes meet with Sans. he brightens up when he notices you looking, a threatening face replaced with a more comforting one. 

“Doctor? Doctor! We’ll let you be the one to feed it and such; but the tests continue” your eye fleet to the floor. Morgan looks down on you with a strange look on your face. She doesn’t say anything more, just looks down on you with that threatening glint in her eyes. 

Nervous sweat beads down your forehead. Morgan huffs and walks off, leaving the room without another word. You look around the room, the large tank, Sans swimming about, a long walkway with tall metal railings hanging above it, along with a small walkway that surrounds all sides of the tank. You shudder, why they would want to get anywhere near him you couldn’t tell. A large black box is attached to the wall, kept shut tight. You briefly ponder what's kept inside.

The three scientists watch on awkwardly, before Sarah interrupts the silence. 

“Well, we should move on, as I’m sure you’re aware this is the Siren captured in the Arctic region” she twists around, distracting the three from your sudden silence. 

She walks around the tank, the trio following her like a group of ducklings. Scratches of pencil on paper follow them. 

“Male Orca Siren, estimated to be around thirty years old…” you don’t bother focusing, nothing new you haven’t heard. Or figured out.

You keep your eyes focused on Sans. The lid is open and now the scientists hang around the edges. Sure the edges are barred, you’d have to climb over them in order to actually get in, but you don’t trust it, neither should the scientists. 

“It was injured in our attempt to capture it, sustaining severe damage to the shoulder and moderate damage to the ribs” Catmilla raises her furred hand.

“Will we be treating it here?” she questions, Sarah sagely nods.

“Yes, Ebott aquarium is the best of the best, its injuries should continue to heal just fine. Meanwhile, it will be an excellent reason to study Siren healing patterns” she moves further along the walkway, Sans following after her, splashing below. 

You follow Sarah and the others nervously, trailing far behind them as you do. 

“Now, we managed to gain some insight into Siren courtship behaviour, Doctor Calder actually helped us acquire that. Sirens use physical intimacy in order to establish bonds with one another” your face flushes with embarrassment and shock when Sarah pulls out her phone and starts playing a video. Its from when you were forced into that blizzard and Sans had directed you to his small alcove, you had spent the night in his arms. Huddling for warmth away from the cold airs of the Arctic. You shuffled further away from the group. The trio's eyes burned a hole through your body, piercing you right to the soul. 

“Amazing!” all three whisper under their breaths, their scribbling gets even faster as they jot down notes as the video plays on. You rush over, trying to snatch the phone out of Sarah's hands. Sans growls from beneath before disappearing under the water, his body now just a dark shadow of the blue salt water. There’s no audio to the video, thank god. 

Sarah steps away from you, ignoring your flailing hands as you try to grab the phone. Not even looking at you she continues speaking, the other scientists look at you strangely. You want nothing more than to curl up into a ball and die. Your face burns red as Sarah continues speaking. 

“Doctor Sarah! You’re only going to be aggravating the Siren! There’s no need to be doing this here!” she turns to you with a harsh glare. 

“We will be fine! There are metal railings, it won’t be able to make the jump!”

You can’t hear Sans anymore, not even the splashing of waves. It makes you nervous. She pushes you away, shoving you into the cold railing when you try and reach out again. The others look on nervously.

Suddenly, he jumps up crashing through the iron railings and digging his claws into Sarah's ankles. She lets out a pained scream as she crashes into the railing. Sans pulls down with all his weight, tail just touching the water below. Snarling and growling he reaches his other hand and claws down Sarah's thigh. 

“Shit, shit!” Whimmy screams, fluttering high into the air out of even Sans reach. Percy blanches, his feet falling over as he stumbles down the stairwell and slams a large black box that’s attached to the wall open. Catmilla jumps to Sarah's rescue, pulling on her arm as Sans digs deeper into her ankle. 

You rush past Sarah, ignoring her cries of pain. 

“Sans! Wait, we need them to trust us, think you’re docile. Just let her go!” you whisper, clutching onto his shoulders, one hand pushing at the tight grip he has around Sarah's ankle. Sans eyelights reappear and he reaches out with his other hand, cupping your face and rubbing your cheek softly. Though his grip still remains around her ankle. 

“C’mon, we need to follow a plan, trust me, please?” Sans turns, looking back at Sarah and he bares his teeth. You can see his grip tighten on Sarah. Trying to hold him back, you press yourself up against his chest, leaning into his ribs. 

As much as you’d hoped it’d work it doesn’t. Fueled by rage, humiliation and protectiveness Sans bares his teeth, forming a terrifying grin as he lightly pushes you back and drags Sarah across the floor and closer to the open tank

Finally, Percy reappears, clutching onto a heavy taser like it’s a lifeline. He aims the weapon at Sans, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he pulls down on the trigger. Sans freezes as the first jolts of electricity pour through his body. He grunts out in pain, falling to the floor as his bones lifeless twitch with jolts of energy. 

“No! Wait!” you shout out, rushing to Sans's twitching body as high levels of electricity course through his body. His hands go limp enough for Sarah to whip her ankle out of his claws. She stumbles forward, collapsing onto Catmilla who drags her down the walkway, shouting orders at Whimmy; who still floats high above the unfolding scene. 

Sans body still twitches, even as Percy stops holding the trigger and jogs down to the other two. His body halfway out of the water, you desperately cling onto him. 

“Fuck! Just stay still, I’ll deal with this” you rip the bards out from his body, pulling away the last of the electrical energies. This is what you wanted to avoid, this wasn’t how things were supposed to pan out. Sans can only growl in response. His jaw is sealed tight with pain as he drapes over you.

Doors go flying open as more aquarists come rushing in, grabbing Sarah by the shoulders and lifting her from the ground. She groans, limping as she struggles to put weight on her maimed leg. By now, Morgan has come rushing in, still as immaculate looking as you last saw her. She gently guides Sarah down to the ground with the help of the other scientists. Her eyes snap up, meeting yours.  A sneer grows on her face, lips and nose curling up in a foul looking way. Percy runs up to her side, quickly informing her of what went down. She glances at the small trickles of blood that drip down the stairs and that slide down Sarah's damaged ankle. Her eyes meet with Sans twitching form, she tilts her head, glancing at the now empty box that stood open on the solid wall beside her. 

“Aggressive, even when provided with companionship, food and relatively safe environment, interesting” Morgan mutters, tapping her chin curiously before she speaks again, satisfied with a smile playing on her lips.

“Send that thing to the medical tank. Clearly it’s not as well as we think it is” she huffs out, letting out another pained groan as someone wraps her leg with thick, white bandages. “Clearly, it needs some more adjustment time,” she groaned. 

“You can’t do that! He was just stressed out, that was all” you shout back, still clutching onto Sans' twitching body. “You knew he was dangerous and you still let yourself get close to him!” you retort, not letting her get in anything else. You glance hurriedly at the other scientists, urging them with a frenzied look to join in on the argument. 

Catmilla hums curiously, “should we really go through the effort of a tank transfer, I trust Doctor Calders judgement on the Sirens' behaviour. If they say this happened because of stress then wouldn’t it be counterproductive to induce more stress?” Whimmy butts in with a nervous stammer, "Right! s-shouldn't we be trusting them more? I mean, Doctor Morgan did just put them in charge of the Sirens care!" she exclaims, anxiously fluttering up into the air. 

“Doctor Furr, now is not the time to be arguing about such things! We’ll discuss this once things have calmed down!” Sarah grunts out, staring daggers at both you Catmilla and Whimmy. For all her help, Catmilla simply glances away from Sarah's and your own gaze, suddenly taking interest in a random dirt mark on the carpet. You look up at Percy, hoping to appeal to him as well. His eyes dart away with a grimacing face contorting at the idea of speaking up. 

“Doctor Sarah is right, clearly the Siren still needs some adjustment time in a calmer place. Transfer it to the medical tank. We’ll revisit moving it back here at a later date” several of the senior staff surround her, muttering words you can’t hear fill up the room.

“Morgan, no! You can’t punish him for this! Sarah knew what the risks of this were! I warned her!” you accuse. Morgan laughs breathlessly, watching you with disdainful eyes. 

“If you’re not going to be a cooperative member of the team, Doctor, you can go home” you let out a loud insistence, you didn’t want to leave him, not in the hands of them. “Doctor, that wasn’t a suggestion. There’ll be a team meeting tomorrow morning. Goodbye, Doctor” you sputter out a few words, watching in shock as she directs a few of the aquarists to grab long electric rods from the black box attached to the wall. Sans growls out as they approach. He tries to lunge for one and is harshly jabbed by another, he screeches out as harsh jolts shoot through his broken rib. Another poke, he screeches again. 

You try and rush forward, tugging at the aquarists bodies, trying to grapple with them. You’re shoved to the side, landing on the metal floor below. 

They push Sans' twitching and shivering body back into the tank. You can see Morgan fiddling with a small controller and the lid to the tank closes. 

“Morgan!” you grit out, demanding an explanation. The way she analysed the situation, was she really still playing these mind games?! Stars you thought she would stop once you got to the mainland. 

“Goodbye, Doctor. The day is over. You’ve been very helpful I assure you” her heels click sharply against the cold metal as she inches closer and closer to you, her hand reaches out, patting your cheek patronisingly. You flinch away from her touch, like its poison or hot metal. 

“Why don’t we have Percy escort you out? '' she snaps her fingers. Percy walks over, taking your hand gently and leading you off the walkway, small droplets of blood are scattered around it from Sarah's hurried escape.

You turn back, watching as Sans sinks to the floor of his concrete tank. Blooms of liquid tranquillisers are mixed into his water when Morgan opens up the small vents on each side of the tank. 

Soon you make it to the busy entrance of Ebott Aquarium. Frazzled parents carrying excited children scramble for tickets. The gift shop is filled with overpriced (but cute) plushies. Percy walks you to the sliding doors. He scratches his head, looking to the side, instead of meeting your eyes.

“Exciting day huh” you let out a humourless chuckle, rubbing your tired eyes. 

“I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow…oh and sorry about before, for the record, we don’t think you should be sent home. You were only doing your job” he awkwardly says, shifting on his feet. You wordlessly start to leave, pushing through the busy wave of customers. At least Catmilla had been there for you, she might be someone you could use. Hm, you’d have to think about it more. 

You glance back at the aquarium as you walk back home. Fear sits deep in your heart. You hoped Sans would be okay, as well as that strange, new Siren. 

Chapter Text

The apartment slams shut with thunderous crack. You throw your bag down onto the ground, items spilling across the floor. You storm through the apartment until you find yourself circling back to the front door. 

This was bullshit! Morgan had no right! She wasn’t your boss anymore, she shouldn’t be able to tell you what to do! Why has no one jumped in?! 

You threw your arms until the air, stomping your feet in frustration. God this was really just your luck, nothing could ever go your way, not a single break; and now Sans was left in their hands and that other strange Siren had been left to starve. You let out a string of frustrated curses as you realised you had never fed him. His thin bones rippled through your mind. 

Taking deep breaths you halted your mind. There was always tomorrow, you just had to hold hope. You’d visit that new Siren before your shift started, get him something to eat. Then you would stay by Sans for the rest of your shift. You huffed, no way were you ever letting that trio of scientists around him, or Sarah around him alone. 

Your stomach rumbles loudly, pulling you from your thoughts. Right, you probably shouldn’t starve yourself. You walk over to the kitchen, pulling it apart as you look for something to eat. Nothing but old dust and air sat in the kitchen cabinets. Ugh, you had gotten so used to food always being available back at the base you had forgotten what grocery shopping was. 

Pulling fresh clothes on you left your apartment. The city was still busy, despite it being the early afternoon. The grocery store was eerily quiet however, you grabbed the closest things off the shelf, paid and rushed back to your apartment. 

The dish bubbled suspiciously, you eyed it. Well, you were never an amazing cook you supposed. The dish was quickly eaten, even if it tasted like soap (somehow?) 

Afternoon turned to evening and though you tried to drive the thought of Sans and that new Siren away from your mind, you couldn’t. Despite your mixed feelings of Sans (that you rarely ever liked to think about. The quickening of your heart disturbing you) you weren’t so cruel as to leave him in the hands of Morgan and her little minions; and that other Siren, what was he doing there? Why was Morgan so obsessed with Sans if there was already a captured one? 

The thoughts and the theories stirred in your mind, letting you lose your appetite. 

“Just sleep it off, don’t focus on it, you’ll be seeing him tomorrow” you said, speaking to yourself. Maybe you were just tired? It had been a long couple days after all, an early night's rest could be what you need. 

So you jumped into bed, holding the thin blanket over your body. Compelling your mind to fall into unconsciousness. 

Shit. your eyes snapped open, the room now completely pitch black. You sat up, blanket spilling to the floor. You glanced over at the small clock, ‘2:45’ it read. Slumping down you let out a tired groan, wiping the sweat that had gathered against your brow. 

You stumbled out of bed, tripping over the fallen blanket. You dug around your closet, finding one of your few casual clothes, a large blue hoodie. You tugged it over your body and pulled the hood up until it draped over your face. 

You slowly pulled your door open, wincing as it creaked loudly. You tiptoed past the other apartment doors, keeping an ear out for any sounds. Soon you were down the street and making your way to the aquarium. 

You were going to get some answers, even if it meant you’d break the law. 

The doors were locked shut, tight chains wrapped around the handles. You cursed, thinking you’d have no choice but to turn back. When the employee door you had walked through only a few days before popped into your mind. You hoped someone had forgotten to lock it, otherwise you’d have to run all the way back and grab your keys. 

The door creaked open, yes! You thanked whatever god existed in this world and walked in. keeping your face low to the ground, you followed a similar route as last time. Though instead of turning down the forgotten corridor, you followed the signs of a red cross against a white background until you stumbled into the medical tanks. 

Various tanks of differing sizes filled the room, most filled with some sort of creature. Fish, eels, even an Atlantic octopus, all sat in dull, empty tanks as they were cured of their illnesses. You paid no attention to them, walking to the very back of the room, where the largest tank sat. though you did note that it wasn’t very big at all. Barely big enough to hold you there comfortably. 

“Sans!” you called out, eyes widening as you saw him. His body twisted and curled up sorely. He lay at the bottom of the tank with his back turned to the door. He sluggishly moved his head. Head lolling to the side as he noticed you. 

“Are you alright?! I’m sorry I couldn’t stay, they made me leave!”

You climbed up the small set of stairs that led to the top of his tank. You waited for Sans to swim up. Tapping at the water with your hands. 

Slowly, his body twists and unfurls, scraping against the concrete floor of the tank. He rises to the surface, head falling to the side as he looks up at you with lovestruck eyes. 

“Sans?...” you reached your arm out, cupping his cheek in worry, turning his head for any signs of injury. Some scrapes, some cuts and what looks like electrical burns scattered around his body. 

“Hmm?” he deliriously hums, nuzzling deeper into my hands. One of his hands coming up to hold my cupped hand. He leaned in, purring at my touch. 

You inch closer, petting his skull gently, trying to soothe over the pain he no doubt feels. Your heart clenches when you see the burns scattered across his body, you can even see bumps and scratches on his tail, parts of it being rubbed raw from the concrete bottom. 

He let out a fit of giggles, “silly human” he said, face falling into your stomach. Fits of laughter stuttering out of him. 

Well, at least he didn’t seem to be in any pain. You thought sarcastically as you tried to pull Sans away from your now wet stomach. His arms dropped to the ground and quickly wrapped around your waist. A tired sigh escapes your lips.

“At least you're okay, they've been feeding you?” 

“Hmm, yep, cute little human” 

“Sans!” you admonished; face going bright red. Though now you relent, stopping yourself from squirming out of his hold. It’s not like he’d remember this anyway, way too high for that. 

You trace small patterns into his back. Carefully avoiding the painful scars etched deeply onto his spine. 

For the next few moments silence overhangs the pair of you comfortably, like a soft blanket of comfort. Only broken when Sans lets out a quiet, broken hum. Your muscles can only tense up for a moment until the music hits your ears. Then, despite knowing the danger, you can’t help but relax. Eyes softening as you continue to trace circles over Sans back. 

“You’re sweet Sans” you whisper, body swaying with the sound of his melody. 

“Hmm, sing back!” he demands, though with no real threat in his tone. Like a needy child demanding affection. 

You let out a snort, the music's effects wearing off now. 

“I can’t sing Sans, not like you” your hands slow their tracing as you glance up at the clock, ‘3:50’ it blinks. Shit, the first workers got in by five o’clock! 

Gently as you could you pried Sans hands off your waist. Though you did have to promise him a number of fish, and cuddles. 

“I’ll be back in a couple hours alright, I won’t be gone long I promise” you pat the top of his skull, “I just need to finish some things, alright? Be good” he slips under the medicated water without another word. You watch as his body twists and curls until he can comfortably sink to the bottom. 

You dodge the increasingly familiar cameras as you make your way out of the medical bay and down the halls. Following the twisting turns until you make your way to one of the many ‘employees only’ doors and brush through it. Hiding under the camera's blind spot until it’s safe to pass. Then you pass by each office, ‘head of aquatic mammals’, ‘head of veterinary care’, ‘head director’, ‘head of the science division’ 

There! You almost walk past Morgan's door, momentary exhaustion nearly leading you straight into a camera's path. 

The door is tall and metallic in its build. With a silver door knob. It exudes elegance and prestige. Certainly befitting of the station. Though not the person, you note. 

You had had your suspicions since you first saw that new Siren. Morgan wasn’t dumb, there was no way she would spend decades of her life chasing after an Orca Siren when there was already one right here. There had to be more to this then you could see. Like last time, you were sure the answers were locked tight up in her office. 

You jingled the door knob. It didn’t open, you jiggled it open, this time with more force. Nadda, crap.