Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Peace
Quiet at the Blacksite meant death. Not the casual silence, the one filled with distant screams your brain had long decided to render as background noise, nor the soft electric buzz of machinery in desperate need of repair. Death hid only behind the silence in which, perhaps, the only sound present was your own increasingly frantic heartbeat.
That was the silence Sebastian feared. He wouldn’t be fool enough to admit to such, of course, but it was a fact he mentally acknowledged. He feared not the grotesque noise of execution but the quiet that always followed the carnage. The silence that meant something had already killed off everything that could scream. Silence which meant that something was making its way towards you.
And so, Sebastian resented his new placement.
“Temporary, my ass” he grumbled, slithering through yet another excessively large pavilion. The surface was smooth and slippery and he went out of his skin to be thankful for that (the Blacksite floors were harsh on the scales) but he was still hell knows where. Obviously not in the Hadal. Heh. As if they could keep a place this tidy.
Or light.
Well, the white tiles covering the floors and the walls combined with the oddly placed light that came out of nowhere, only further deepened his belief that this place, whatever it is, could in no way be a part of Urbanshade co. Must be a pocket dimension, or whatever.
But what kind could it be anyway? It couldn’t be the Banlands, known better as hell — the pavilions were filled with water to the brim, nothing like that bloody and fiery hell. And even the water somehow had a subliminal quality to it. It was crystal clear, clear enough for Sebastian to see the sheer depth of some of these artificial pools just by peering down from the surface. High above his head the arched entrances and exits lead simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. The line between a destination and a lack of thereof, when here, somehow seemed to blur.
Yes, yes, great, just keep distracting yourself… You just gotta find an exit, Sebastian. Nothing you’ve not done before… he mused to himself, while carefully maneuvering his inconveniently shaped body along a dangerously thin passway in one of the odd, seemingly meaningless hallways.
The main advantage of this place though, was the fact it seemed to be completely devoid of life. There weren’t any of Urbashade’s best brutes or bums, or any other potential scoundrels that Sebastian liked to imagine in the utmost cartoonishly villainous manner: standing in a hunch twirling a thick black mustache (or a nice spiky goaty if he felt fancy enough) and rubbing their little filthy hands against one another in a manner eerily similar to a fly discovering a dump, just itching for a taste.
…It didn’t work as a distraction though, not a good one anyway. He still thought of where he’d be now if he hadn't… fallen… here somehow.. Felt phantom touches and pricks of needles. Thought of the excruciating pain and the coolness of the tables. Heard words that didn’t make sense, muffled by the blue medical masks.
A shudder ran through him and he attempted to redirect his mind to the question of greater importance. How did he end up here? He was captured by the company recently. Or to be more specific, about half an hour ago. He was being transported to what he was told would be a ‘temporary location’. Sebastian knew it was a lie, (He didn’t believe in things temporary from Urbanshade and suspected it was a torture chamber instead).
To make matters even worse. They’ve learned their lesson from his infamous breach, and either upped the dosage or simply began to use a new, much stronger sedative. So what could one do about their predicament when drugged out of their mind? Vaporize through the very fabric of reality, apparently.
He wasn’t too sure of what exactly happened. He was as high as a kite and spent a bit just waiting for the drugs to wear off wherever it was, that he ungracefully had fallen from the ceiling. He could recall very few things, most of which were the feels rather than clear observations. The very surface of the truck in which he lay melting and becoming pliable and hot like molten plastic collapsing and warping more so beneath its own weight than his. And then the pain of a barley functional body smacking against the cool tiles.
What was it that one expendable said? …when the atoms align perfectly…
‘One hall behind and a new one ahead’ could very well be the slogan of this place. This time he stood at the very edge of the pool, the entirety of the tall room filled with water to the brim. In the distance a wall was split into various identical arches all leading to a hall with more arches and more halls and even more arched exits.
The place looked like a labyrinth protected by water and lack of sense the exit and entrance placement had. It was headache inducing. And just as a cherry on top, taking a swim was entirely unavoidable.
He inched closer and peered. The area began as a normal pool, with a pleasant gradient in depth and clear bottom, and located precisely in the middle there lay a hole. An entire Mariana Trench in the very center of the otherwise rather shallow pool. A vertical tunnel, unsettlingly dark in comparison to other pools he’d found while roaming, a bottomless abyss.
He stammered, looking back at the slippery, thin path he had to crawl on just moments prior, and how low the water level was, and how highly elevated in comparison that only path was.
Cautiously he began to approach the ominous trench, and sat at the very edge of it, tail hanging off into the darkest depth, fins fluttering in the dark murk of deep waters, contemplating.
He was in no way a small creature and had a bad habit of towering over anyone who’d approach. But the tunnel made him feel small. It was surrounded by an air of mystery and cosmic grandeur. It was the ocean's eye, found in a measly poolroom. Its very existence was sinful with temptation, curiosity that brewed within a man knowledgeable of his immunity to a fear such as ‘drowning’. Reverently, he shifted closer.
Sebastian submerged his head beneath the water’s surface and allowed himself to sink down. The pressure spread around his entire body evenly and instead of dragging him to the bottom this water seemed to accept him with a welcoming embrace. His descent was slow and smooth rather than the usual jagged flop into the water.
The temperature of the water too, unlike Blacksite’s, was much less harsh. It was that Sebastian considered it to be one of the few simple pleasures in life. A pool of lukewarm water, big enough to fit the entirety of his inhumanly large body with the ability to stretch.
Maybe this… whatever this place was… was for the best.
A well deserved break, one could say.
He squinted his eyes open, although oddly, sensed no danger. In fact, he felt his muscles voluntarily relax and his lids beg to be shut. His heartbeat slowed and he saw the slowly descending light beam which was the surface turn to a mere dot as he sunk lower and lower. He let out a heavy sigh, watching a few stray bubbles rise to the top before they became too small to make out or popped completely.
For once in Sebastian’s otherwise miserable, adrenaline-pumping-and-nightmare-inducing lifetime, nothing was chasing him, nothing wanted him dead and he was completely alone, in a place where he wasn’t actively hunted.
The mutant could no longer resist the urge and let his eyes drift shut, his body becoming ragdollish and listless, not yet realizing that he was completely submitting himself to the subtle, unexplainable flow of the faux-still water.