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An ear splitting roar shook the water around Frisk, physically pushing them back a centimeter. Dust swam near the entrance to his cave, translucent tail whipping the murky greenish water into a frenzy. Frisk sat upright from their desk, and saw their leviathan friend's agitation.
They quickly donned their modified diving suit, checking the luminescent strips winding around the limbs and torso. They shrugged their overcoat on over it, fastening it to the back of their diving belt. They stuck their feet into their flippers, tugging gloves on before donning their helmet and climbing out of a hatch in their base to join Dust outside.
The leviathan made another roar, stopping only when Frisk tightly clung on to one of his fingers. Dust gently brought his hand up to his face, making a soft whisting noise. Frisk gave Dust a thumbs up, signaling that they were fine with leaving the cave.
Dust shifted his grip on Frisk, gently holding their midsection, and shot out of the cave in a stream of bubbles. Once the duo left the cave and entered the Reef proper, Dust let go of Frisk, and they swam into a narrow crevasse in the rock, which opened up into a small cave about four inches in just big enough for Frisk to stretch and look out.
They did just that, sticking their faceplate into the crack. They could see Dust swimming around, and what looked like... two other leviathans? One was gray and oblong, with no fins or limbs. The other had the skeletal upper half of Dust, but a shorter, thicker gray and red finned tail instead of Dust's blueish one. It had a pair of mandibles on its head instead of horns, and it was currently... swimming right for Dust.
Dust was oblivious, attacking the grey leviathan, tearing deep gashes in it's side. Unfortunatley, the red leviathan took that as a personal insult.
With an earth shaking roar, it attacked. Dust roared back, grapling with the other Leviathan, their powerful tails lashing as they engaged in what seemed to resemble a fistfight with their skeletal limbs.
Frisk curled up into a ball, pulling their overcoat around them like a blanket and holding back tears.
The sounds of the fight rang in their ears, as they tried in vain to banish the images of their war torn childhood. They didnt know what they would do if they lost Dust. They would be alone. All alone, in this hostile reef.
They started hyperventilating, mind running through every scenario. Dust dies. But he wont die. But Frisk didnt know that. Horrible thoughts, images, and scenarios, both from their past and the present, mixed in their mind to form an unpleasant miasma of raw fear and panic.
One moment they were fleeing from soldiers, being torn from the arms of their parents and watching them die, shot full of holes and bodies left to fall. Squirming out of a soldier's tight grip and running, somewhere, anywhere but here, bloodstained cobbles at the forefront of their mind.
The next they were back in the here and now, watching the leviathans fight, the other almost cave in part of Dust's ribcage, its horrible jaws tearing at his flesh.
And then they saw the future, mandibles, teeth, and hand cutting too deep. Dust thrashing in the water, fighting valiantly to escape the other leviathan's grasp. But his injuries slowed him down, and the other was easily able to overpower him, forcing him to the rocks and poising for the killing blow.
They started clawing at their arms through the thick fabric of their wetsuit, almost unleashing a scream until they remembered they were underwater. Right. Screaming would only waste precious oxygen and strain the algae in their tanks. They took a deep breath, then looked outside.
A small light was coming from behind some rocks. It looked suspiciously like... a flashlight? Suddenly, they were no longer terrified but intrigued.
They maneuvered their body out of the cave, mindful of the treacherous eddies and currents the two leviathans created with their thrashing tails. Frisk stopped to watch them for a second. They were still fighting (Dust pinned down, the other lunging for his throat, blood staining the waternodontthinkaboutitdontthinkaboutitdontthinkaboutit- Frisk pulled their overcoat tighter around them, almost subconsciously) but both were still going strong.
Frisk continued to swim towards the light, battered by the swirls of water and occasional fish the leviathans batted their way. The closer they got, the more they were confident that the light was indeed a flashlight. Frisk slowly swam up behind the (person? It seemed humanoid enough) and tapped them on the shoulder.
Ok, maybe they didnt have to give the other person a heart attack like that, but come on, it was funny to see them jump. The other person scrambled backwards along the rock, and Frisk quickly held up their hands to placate the other. It had been a long time but... they peeled off their gloves, tucked them into their belt (nudging the handle of their knife to a more grabbable position in the process) and started signing.
"Hello. Do you know the gray big fish?" Embarrasingly, they had forgotten the sign for 'leviathan.' They were half suprised, but mostly relived when the other started signing back.
"Hello. I do know the gray fish. Do you know the dusty one?"
"Yes. We should tell them to stop fighting." Together the two people swam, to the battling leviathans, right near their eye levels, back to back. Frisk faced Dusk and the other faced the grey leviathan. True to form, both aquatic behemoths paused in their battle to grab their humans and check them over, chittering and whistling in an almost motherly tone about how fragile humans shouldnt get involved in leviathan battles.
Frisk turned to the other human and signed:
"I have a base here. We can go there if you want." The other nodded, and Frisk somehow got out of Dust's grip and started swimming to their base. The other tagged along, with the grey leviathan and Dust reluctantly following. They got down into the entrance to the lost river, and stopped at the large pile of bones and scrap there, with one battered base off to the side.
Frisk angled off to the base, hauling themself out of the moonpool along with the other human. They took of their rebreather and mask, and Frisk pulled off their helmet, glad for some air that didnt small like algae. They stood in akward silence for a few seconds before the other human made the first shot at something akin to an icebreaker.
"Uh... hi. What's your name?" Frisk was relived that they spoke English instead of Spanish or Hindi or something. Their poor battered PDA was probably too fried to translate for them.
"Frisk. What's yours?
"Y/N. Weren't you a P.R.A.W.N Suit operator in the Secondary Bay?" Ugh. The Secondary Bay. Frisk was demoted cause some other guy hopped on the ship at the last moment.
"Yeah. Unfortunatley, I can't take you out to crush asteroids or something. Secondaries are basically only allowed to use our suits for repair work. Anyways, you can put your gear and wetsuit there..." Frisk trailed off at Y/N's puzzled expression. They looked at the locker, tilting their head in confusion.
"You mean you dont keep your wetsuit on whenever you're awake?" What a weird question.
"Uh... yeah. My wetsuit is specially modified for deep water, so it takes a really long time to dry. Also i need to feed the algae in my tanks. With them, i can stay underwater for hours without having to refill my oxygen." Y/N nodded slowly, taking in Frisk's words. They pointed to Frisk's overcoat.
"Whats that for, then? It doesnt seem to be as practical as your tanks or your suit. It kinda reminds me of your leviathan's skin, actually."
"First of all, his name is Dust. Second of all, you're right. He takes dust baths to break up his shape in the water. With his bioluminescence, it makes him look like a small school of fish. He also shows affection by dust bathing me, so the overcoat is there to catch on to the silt and, with the luminescence on my suit, create the same effect." Y/N still didn't look satisfied.
"Earlier, i saw you clutching it around yourself like a scarf or blanket. That doesnt seem like it's for camouflage." Oh shit. They knew. They found out. Frisk felt the familiar bubble of panic rise up in their throat, before forcefully pushing it down.
"Its.. just a habit. Uh... we should really move to the observatory. The moonpool edge is probably not the best place to have a conversation." Without waiting for a response, Frisk tugged off their gear at lightspeed, shoving it into the locker before shouldering past Y/N to their main base.
The moonpool opened up into a multipurpose room, with bulkheads and I-compartments leading off in every direction. A fishtank was set into the floor, leaving Y/N craning their neck to see the wide variety of plant and animal life below their feet. There was a ladder leading to another multipurpose room. Frisk turned into the rightmost I-comparment, heaving open a door and then shutting it once Y/N stepped through.
The corridor opened up into a glass observatory, affording a view of the glowing green of the Lost River. A small table and two chairs were set up in the middle of the space. Y/N raised an eyebrow.
"Expecting guests?"
"I like to be prepared." The duo sat down, gazing at the sludge and the two giant leviathans that had somehow figured out where they were and who were taking turns tapping the glass with their massive hands. After a minute of what would have been silence excpet for the tapping of the leviathans (somehow it was still awkward), Y/N cleared their throat.
"I was just down here for resources, if Dust isn't comfortable with other people here i can go."
"No, it should be fine. So long as you or your leviathan dont hunt down here, he won't bother you. In fact... wait here." Frisk strode out of the observatory, heaving a bulkhead open and climbing a ladder to their storage compartment. They sifted through their lockers for a few seconds, before finding a cooked fish and a chunk of nickel ore.
They climbed down the ladder, making their way back to where Y/N was waiting.
"Here. A gift. To solidify our truce." Frisk thrust the ore and the fish at Y/N, who accepted.
"Thanks. Speaking of gifts..." they rummaged in their pockets before coming up with two live hoverfish in a plastic bag.
"Here. For your aquarium. I should really go back to my base now, but I'll visit sometime and show you my base."
And thus the two Survivors parted ways, though not for long. After all, if they every wanted to leave this godforsaken planet, they would need to leave together or die trying.