Chapter Text
Finding a rusty submarine in the middle of space was not something Grace had ever expected to stumble upon. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was even manmade at first until he boarded it, leaving Rocky behind despite the alien’s stubborn insistence on sticking by his side in case of danger.
What could possibly be dangerous in an abandoned submersible? Whatever was living in there was most likely good as dead, right?
Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong, super duper wrong!
First of all, the ENTIRE SUBMARINE was nearly filled to the brim with blood! Who and what bled enough to fill an entire submarine!? From what he could tell there was nothing floating above the liquid, meaning there wasn’t any body to recover. Did they… implode somehow? That couldn’t be it, otherwise the submersible wouldn’t still be intact to such a degree.
The inside of the submersible was eerily silent except for the drip, drip, drip of liquid. Grace cautiously stepped inside and surveyed the bloody scene before him.
Was that even human blood? It was everywhere he looked. On the walls, on the ground, even covering the controls.
He was so caught off guard by the blood that he hadn’t even registered the massive tree near the far back, branches pushed uncomfortably against the iron walls of the submarine in a weak attempt to continue growing. Growing from what? There wasn’t any dirt around as far as he could tell, and the entire floor was submerged in red liquid. How the heck did someone manage to grow a tree in this place??
He took a tentative step closer to the tree to get a better look. Just like everything else on this ship, it was covered in red. The blood clung to the branches like sap, causing them to glisten under the glow from the control panel lights.
Suddenly, the tree made a strange creaking sound. The sound of something… breathing? Was it breathing? No. No. It couldn’t be. That was ridiculous. The tree was a freaking tree. There was no way for it to be sentient.
And y’know, he was right. It wasn’t the tree making the freaky breathing sounds.
It was what was behind the tree that made it.
A body erupted from the blood in a violent splash, limbs flailing as it locked eyes with Grace. Its form was vaguely humanoid—tall, spindly limbs covered in weeping sores that dripped crimson onto the already flooded floor. A jagged mouth split its face ear to ear, long and sharp teeth nipping at the air.
Grace stumbled back, heart hammering against his ribs as the creature moved. Its limbs bent at angles that shouldn’t exist as it hauled itself up into the gnarled branches of the blood-soaked tree.
"Okay—okay okay okay," he muttered under his breath, hands shaking at his sides. "This is fine. This is totally fine."
Rocky would’ve been screaming by now—where was Rocky? Oh right, outside where Grace had very stupidly left him for "safety."
“Uh… Uhm… fr-fri-friend o-or foe?” He asked the man creature, both hands up as a sign of surrender.
The creature leaned forward on one arm as it cocked its head at Grace. Its eyes flickered from him to his raised hands and back to his face, a soft gurgling sound rising from its throat. Despite its horrific appearance, the creature was studying him rather than immediately trying to pounce.
It was like it was sizing him up, as if trying to determine whether or not Grace posed a threat.
Its limbs spasmed unnaturally, one arm elongating to hook around a branch while the other snaked toward Grace’s leg—fingers stretching like taffy in his direction.
Grace squeaked and yanked his leg back maybe a bit too fast, because he nearly tripped over a submerged crate. "W-Whoa! Okay! Personal space!" He blurted out, hands flailing in protest. "I-I don’t wanna be eaten? Or… dissolved? Or- or whatever this is?" He gestured wildly in front of himself, a nervous chuckle leaving him without his permission.
The creature made a sound that seemed to be a mix between confusion and mild annoyance as it paused, its unnaturally long fingers nearly wrapping around Grace's ankle. It retracted the limb back towards itself, leaning over to stare at the man with those flickering eyes. There was an odd, almost feral intelligence to its gaze that made it more unnerving than it had any right to be. It tilted its head again, its mouth opening and closing in what could only be an attempt to form syllables.
"You…are strange.” It spoke hesitantly, its voice gurgling and hoarse.
Grace paused, mouth hanging open.
Did the creature just-.. speak?? It—It had a mouth and vocal chords, and the capability to form words. Which meant that it was some kind of living, breathing creature. Maybe one that was once human, judging by the vaguely humanoid structure.
Although the long, spindly limbs and sharp teeth were making that theory sound more and more like wishful thinking.
Grace blinked slowly, eyes flitting down to the creature’s bloody lips. "Y'you can speak?" He blurted out. Smooth, Ryland. Very smooth.
The creature's face twisted, somewhere between offended and genuinely baffled. His(?) jaw unhinged slightly, a thin line of blood trickling from the corner as he opened his mouth again.
"You can speak," he mimicked, voice rasping like rusted hinges. Then his limbs spasmed violently as he jabbed a too-long finger at Grace's chest. "Strange… small…not food."
Not. Food.
He…. He wasn't trying to eat him. Or at least, that's what he was saying. Despite its terrifying appearance, the creature didn't seem to be interested in making him its next meal.
Grace felt like the air was slowly returning to his lungs. He stood up straighter and forced a tiny, almost shaky smile. "Not food, right." He echoed, hands still up just in case. "What's… um, what's your name?"
The creature seemed to relax, his limbs retracting closer to his body, though his back still pressed firmly against the tree trunk he was half sprawled across. He didn't seem as agitated, at least.
"Name?" He sounded as if he was trying out the word for the first time, each syllable rolling hesitantly off his tongue. After a few more attempts, he rolled his eyes and shrugged one bony shoulder. The movement caused his skin to stretch, revealing weeping sores and raw patches of flesh around his joints.
"Don't…. have one. Not… Not anymore."
Grace's stomach twisted at the raw sight of the creature's skin, but he forced himself to stay still. “No name?" He repeated softly, tilting his head. "That’s… kind of sad."
A sudden thought hit him like a bullet train.
Wait. If this thing didn’t have a name anymore, that implied it used to. Which meant it was human… or something close enough for names to matter in the first place.
"...What were you before?" Grace blurted out before he could stop himself, eyes wide with curiosity.
The creature's entire body stiffened. His limbs coiled in on themselves, his jaw clenching so hard Grace could hear the bones grinding.
"Before?" His voice dropped into something low and dangerous, like rusted metal being dragged across stone. A shudder ran through him as he hunched over, fingers digging into the blood-soaked wood of the tree trunk like claws.
Then, he laughed. It was a wet, ragged sound that bled too much air from his lungs for comfort.
"Little man… little stupid man," He rasped between breathless giggles. "You don't want to know."
And then just as suddenly, he went completely still again as his eyes locked onto Grace with terrifying focus.
"...Do you?"
Grace felt his blood run cold.
Did he?
The question hung in the air, thick and suffocating. The creature was studying him, waiting. Like Grace had just stepped onto a landmine of his own making.
He swallowed hard, throat dry as sandpaper. "...I don’t know," he admitted quietly after a beat too long. His hands twitched at his sides like they wanted to fidget but were too scared to move on their own accord now.
"Was it… bad?"
The creature stared at him for a moment longer, as if weighing the sincerity of his words. Then, his shoulders slumped, and a long, resigned sigh escaped him as his gaze left Grace to stare out into the vast expanse of red.
"Bad." His response was flat, emotionless, as though he wasn't even truly there anymore. His body was in front of Grace, in that blood-soaked submarine, but his mind was off in another place, another time, somewhere long ago.
His eyes flickered back to Grace, distant and haunted.
"It was bad."
Grace felt his heart ache in his chest.
Whatever happened to him, it must have been absolutely horrific. Something so horrible that it changed him—physically, mentally, emotionally… until he was something completely different.
But what on earth happened to him?
Before he could ask, and before he could stop himself, Grace blurted out, "Do you… even remember what happened?" He winced as the words left his mouth, expecting to be yelled at or attacked out of sheer anger.
The creature fell silent, his breath coming in quick, shuddering gasps. It was clear that the question was causing him great distress, but for some reason he didn't seem angry. Instead, he sounded... frustrated. As if he was trying to force himself to remember but couldn't.
"I-I... don't... I don't know."
He let out a noise that sounded eerily similar to a choked sob. His long limbs twisted and coiled, his fingers clawing at the tree bark with a raw desperation.
"I can't remember."
Grace took a tentative step forward, hands still raised but his fingers opening in a gesture of peace. “Hey," he murmured, keeping his voice steady and soft. "It's okay. It's okay. Just breathe. You don’t gotta remember, I won’t make you.”
The creature’s limbs twitched violently, somewhere between recoiling and lurching forward in an instinctive reaction.
But then… he stopped.
Slowly, the tension bled out of him as he stared at Grace with wide eyes that flickered like dying embers. A wet sound escaped his throat, not quite a sob but something close to it.
"...Breathe? Can barely feel myself breathe anymore."
What did that even mean? What exactly happened to this poor man?
Grace’s mind swirled with a thousand and one horrible questions, but he pushed them aside. Right now this thing—this person—was clearly in distress, and he had no idea whether or not he could handle more without completely falling apart.
He shook his head and took another half step forward. "Just take it easy, alright? I got you. You don’t have to stay trapped in here. I… I have a planet where you can stay on. It’ll definitely be a change in atmosphere for you but i’m sure we could work on that together—“
The creature's entire body jerked as Grace took another step closer. His limbs spasmed violently, his fingers curling into claws that dug deep gouges into the tree bark beneath him.
"No. I have to stay here.”
Grace paused, confusion knitting his eyebrows together. "You have to stay here?" He repeated, baffled. It was the last thing he expected to hear. "Why?" The biologist questioned, cocking his head to the side. "This place looks… miserable. You don't..." He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to word his concern without offending the creature.
He decided to just go with it.
"You don't seem to be okay here. At all."
The creature's head snapped up, his face twisting into a snarl as he let out a guttural growl. His entire body coiled, like a wild animal about to pounce.
"I'm doing FINE." He spat the word, as if the very implication that he was not fine was the greatest insult imaginable. ”Tree is here. Tree is alive, which means i’m doing FINE.”
Grace immediately raised his hands again, trying not to flinch at his sudden outburst. He frowned, studying the gnarled trunk where the creature was slumped against.
Was this guy… was this guy bonded to a tree?
“Um. Okay. What if we somehow… moved the tree?” He counterpointed slowly.
The creature's entire body locked up. His limbs stiffened, his eyes widening in pure, unfiltered horror.
"Move the—? NO."
He let out a screech that was more animal than human as he launched himself from the tree, landing in a crouch inches from Grace’s feet. Blood splashed violently around him as he reared back on too-long fingers and bared every jagged tooth at once.
"Tree STAYS HERE."
His voice dropped into something low and guttural, almost like an echo of two people speaking at once.
"...or I die with it."
The biologist took a shaky breath, swallowing the anxious lump in his throat as he forced himself to meet the creature's gaze. He was scared, alright. But more importantly, he was deeply concerned.
"That's… not okay," he protested softly, shaking his head. He took a small half step forward, despite the way his hands were trembling. "That's- that's not sustainable."
The creature was coiled like a taut rope, primed for violence. "Not… Okay?" He mimicked, each word dripping with anger and frustration and pain. He took a slow, measured step closer, his limbs tensing as he loomed over the scientist with his surprisingly… shorter height.
"I don't CARE."
Grace refused to cower. He stood his ground, though he couldn't help the nervous way his fingers curled at his sides as the creature loomed.
The way the creature said it, matter of fact. That was the thing that hurt the most. No shame or hesitation. No emotion.
But… something wasn't adding up. Not to Grace.
“Then we… move the submarine?” He suggested next, slightly weaker. “I won’t touch the tree! But!” He moved to raise one finger, “My spaceship can carry the submersible back home without anything being left behind or messed with.”
The creature paused, his body freezing as he considered the proposal.
There was a long, tense moment as he stared at Grace with that strange, almost feral gaze, the silence in the submarine becoming more and more suffocating with each second.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he growled out a reluctant agreement, his voice laced with irritation and reluctant submission.
"Fine. But if anything happens to the tree… I'll kill you."
There was definitely some serious possessiveness around that particular tree.
Grace let out a slow, shaky breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. "Okay! Cool! Noted!" He blurted, hands still raised in surrender as if the creature might change his mind at any second. "No harm to the tree—got it."
He took one step back and gestured toward the exit with a nervous jerk of his chin.
"Uh… so i’m gonna go and… find a way to board this thing onto my ship. You just stay here and uh, keep doing what you’re doing, ‘kay?” He flashed the man creature a small smile, hopefully conveying truth.
The creature nodded slowly, his gaze still tracking Grace's every movement. He remained coiled and tense, like he was physically struggling to hold himself back from pouncing on the scientist the moment he dared turn his back.
His eyes flickered back to the tree, watching it with a strange, almost fanatical protectiveness. When he finally spoke again, his voice was a low, rumbling growl.
"I'll be... here."
Grace exhaled so sharply it made himself flinch, and for a second he swore the creature's head twitched in his direction like a predator catching movement. He swallowed hard.
"R-Right! I'll be back!" He squeaked before practically sprinting toward the exit, limbs flailing as he tripped over submerged debris twice on the way out.
Rocky was still there when Grace finally burst through the airlock door into space, panting like an idiot with zero dignity left to salvage.
"Okay," Grace wheezed at no one in particular while clutching at Rocky’s hamster ball for balance, "We have… we have a situation."