Chapter Text
Please keep this safe, Mom, it's bigger than me.
Simon's mother had been gone for a long time, but if massive floating eyes and blood eels were real and speaking to him, maybe heaven was real, too. He spoke to her to tether himself to his humanity, even as he was actively losing the fight against evolving into more.
Simon knew that the blood ocean had him. He was so, so close to succumbing. There hadn't been any hope for him in a while now. I see you. Agreed.
That Eye thing, “It”, had found him promising. A plaything to keep. Simon had somehow earned Its favor, and was being blessed cursed to evolve, adapt, mutate. He knew that survival of the fittest meant turning into a blood eel like the one that had consumed Ava. Well, fuck that weird alien shit. If he had no choice but to evolve, the Eye so close to stripping him of his autonomy, then he would spend the last of his consciousness fighting to be humanity’s saviour. Wouldn’t that be atonement enough for his sins?
Simon didn't feel it when his body slipped away. The blood eel's teeth closed in on him, and the Eye watched, witnessing another organism evolve into something greater, stronger, something that actually belonged in this universe. The strange, tiny organisms called humans were never meant to be here in the first place. Life found a way, even in meticulously manufactured worlds. At least they knew their place; continuously sending sacrifices to feed the apex predators of their universe.
The Eye gazed upon Simon, eager to witness the birth of Its new child. The tail started to form, with an undulating membrane. Sharp teeth sprouted from a cheek. A satisfying start to evo--
No, something was wrong. Sharp, long appendages of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen splintered out of the human husk. The appendages slammed through the skull of Its beloved eel, shredding through meat effortlessly.
This could not be the human's doing. Such a weak, puny organism. The Eye’s suspicions were confirmed; a flagellum sprouted from the bottom of the newly born creature's body. Despite the human's efforts, it had evolved as planned. And it was a strong evolution, too– the infant eel absorbed its older sibling, displaying a cannibalistic violence that The Eye didn't recognize. Intriguing.
Simon The monster that existed now was consumed by a residual fear, and the inherited instincts of a human with a long history of shaping his fear into violence. It tore through its sibling without hesitation. It watched as a black box floated up, past the viscera. It was the hope of humanity and the assurance of its destruction.
And it knew there was a God, in this blood ocean. Something tangible, an Eye. Its instincts pulled towards the Light. It wanted to latch and split, absorb and consume.
It felt the gravity of the Light and rushed, pointing its branches like antlers and baring sharp teeth, and took more than the ignorant God had been ready to give.
I see you.
Fucking die–
~~~
The infant blood eel was floating in a space without stars.
Its consciousness came back online in phases. First, there was the barest acknowledgement that it thought and therefore it was. Followed by an intense pang of longing for home, for safety, for a fucking break for once in his fucking life. His name was Simon. It came to him at the same moment as the sensation of emptiness.
What was his purpose, now? He thought, maybe, he’d killed a God. There was a memory of rushing It, snarling, desperate to make his sacrifice worth anything at all. Then, nothing.
Maybe he had failed.
He was still floating in a void. Simon was used to a starless sky, but this was a different beast– there was nothing, not even an asteroid or another cursed blood moon. Nothing to kill, nothing to protect.
His mind slipped into a dull hum. This couldn’t be the afterlife. He thought of his Mother, what her paradise might look like; she used to share stories from her youth; exploring the Earth with her childhood friends, swimming in an ocean of water, lying underneath a gorgeous blue sky lit up by a massive star. That must have been where she went.
Simon wanted to live in that world so badly he could feel the ache in his cells. He pictured what it must have looked like, felt the void of space flow through him like a rolling ocean wave.
Simon felt water.
There was a moment of panic when he thought he was back in the blood ocean, but only a moment; it didn’t align. This felt like Real water, much lighter than the viscous blood ocean he had just been in, and cooler, too. It flooded into his gills. He smelled... Nothing. He saw nothing. Simon should have been seeing. That could be fixed.
He shifted without thinking, developing an eye like the one he had seen when he looked into the Light and it looked back at him. He kept his lower half the same so that he could stay afloat in the water.
Simon opened his eye, and yes. There was water, clearer than he'd ever seen, enough of it to satiate him for the rest of his life-- no, that might not have been a good estimate anymore. He had a feeling that his life expectancy may have changed along with the rest of him.
And sunlight, or something like it, overhead. And the shapes of giant rocks, warped through the lens of the moving surface of the water. Simon thought of his Mother’s stories. Did he earn his paradise after all? Was his sacrifice that great?
There was a shore. Simon wanted to be there, and then in the next moment he was.
He wanted to step out of the water on his own two feet, but instead, his wormlike bottom half reached brushed the sand. Simon fought down disappointment and anchored himself to the soil deep below with his tail. Despite his unfamiliar form, this was the safest he'd ever felt, after a lifetime of iron walls and blood-soaked dirt, and immediately Simon knew he’d do anything to keep his paradise. He felt peace. He felt contentment.
His insides squirmed with a sensation that shouldn't have existed in his personal heaven. He felt... Hunger, maybe?
The eel side of him reacted to a stimulus before his human mind could register it. There was movement up the hill from the shore. A living organism was here with him, appearing from a domed structure. He thought that maybe he should have been afraid, knowing all too well what Man was capable of, but the fear didn’t come.
He's blonde(!), Simon's human mind provided. Shorter than most who were born and raised in the low grav space stations. Less spatially aware than them, too. Simon watched the organism man leisurely walk along the waterline, towards where he lay watching. The water lapped at the man's feet.
Latch, his Parasite demanded, sudden and urgent, and for a moment, the rest of Simon listened. He lurched forward before being felled by his own tail rooted in the ground.
Simon vaguely thought through the fog of his mind, good. We don't chew on people.
His eyes flitted up to the organism again, closer now. Close enough to see tanned flesh, lightly muscled arms, cheeks reddened with a healthy flush from the blood coursing through its circulatory system.
He was so close to the water's edge. Simon's hunger flared, and this time, his human considered his situation. If he could absorb human bodies like he had done for the Blood Eel, adopting their traits…
I just want to live, is that so wrong?
Perhaps giving himself an eye had been a bad idea after all.
Simon didn’t deserve the additional senses. He slinked back into the ocean without a sound.
~~~
The little rock creatures almost caught him. They were highly intelligent, he recognized quickly.
The other organism - the human man, Simon reminded himself - exited his dome once again as the day cycle faded to dark. Simon allowed himself to develop one eye but no nose when he heard the man's door swing open. His human side's curiosity was insatiable, after all. And it wasn’t like Simon could reach him without legs.
The man greeted two creatures who looked similar to the rocks that surrounded his ocean, with 5 appendages each to allow for movement. They appeared from an orifice in an offshore cave. As Simon watched the man and the creatures interact, he felt a pull to them, like gravity in his chest. A desire for companionship. Safety in numbers. Something like that.
He let himself float closer to the shoreline.
The man led the rock creatures away from Simon back towards the dome, and Simon itched to follow, his bottom half already digging into the ground, a second eye emerging without his bidding–
At a terrifying speed that rivaled his own, the larger of the creatures sharply shifted its momentum away from the domed building and made a beeline directly towards Simon, its five legs kicking up grass and sand in its wake. The smaller one followed behind. It made a sound that vibrated Simon’s skull.
And yes, Simon was a powerful Blood Eel/ maybe something else more powerful, but the creature seemed pissed and that wasn’t ideal for cohabitation. He retracted his tail and got the fuck out of there, retreating deep under the waves.
The rock creatures both paced the shoreline and stomped--did they see through echolocation? Simon should try that-- for a short time before the man coaxed them back up the hill. He smiled brightly at the creatures, kept his hands constantly moving as he spoke with them.
Simon had never seen someone so alive. He wanted to absorb that energy, to become what the Man was. Another evolution, this time one of his own choosing.
~~~
It wasn't until two night and day cycles had passed that Simon realized he was still deteriorating from radiation.
The discovery was unpleasant. He was floating just below the water’s surface, considering how to get close enough to the man to absorb him so that he could feel the sunlight on his skin again. He extended the tip of his tail to test the air above, and a chunk of rotted meat peeled off and fell back into the water with a plunk.
Simon's disgust sent him retreating deep into the water. Right. Radiation from the stupid x-ray camera that he stupidly hadn't read the stupid submarine manual for. Thank the Tree he hadn't revealed himself the other night, or the man and the creatures would have fled in terror upon seeing his form.
Simon monitored his body, identifying the radiation that had spread throughout him. He could probably evolve to heal the rotted flesh, but as long as the radiation remained, it would rot once more. Gross. It needed to go. Simon declared it, and therefore it was.
His body shivered and began to expel liquid in every way possible. Sweat, tears, urine, his *ahem* digestive tract… and with each wave, his body felt more and more purged of the radiation. He felt his tissue begin to mend itself before the process had even been completed.
Simon took mental stock of his condition, just to be sure. The chunk of meat missing in his tail was already healing over, although a divot remained. His teeth felt secure in his mouth. His gills didn't appreciate taking in the now-polluted water around him, but overall, Simon was confident that he was in much, much better shape than before. One step closer to being human again, to truly living.
The thought made him pause. Would he be foolish to sacrifice this power in pursuit of humanity?
He examined his mutated body, felt the vicious strength and sharpness to his movement that wasn't there before. In this form, he was pretty sure he couldn't die. The knowledge provided him with a sense of safety that he'd been chasing his entire life. He'd spilt so, so much blood in the pursuit of that comfort.
But, power wasn’t really what Simon craved. He thought of his mother’s loving touch, the ache in his muscles after a day of satisfying work, the awe he felt when witnessing the Last Tree. What had he done with this power, anyway? Teleported himself to paradise and just… sat around?
His ambitions were left in the blood ocean, tied protectively into the black box. Now he just wanted to live.
A daydream about walking to the domed building, feeling the sand turn to grass and wood under his feet, began to take root, but it was quickly cut off as a siren began to drone, the vibrations reaching Simon through layers of ocean water and his own grime.
Curious, Simon darted to the surface to investigate. His eye was immediately drawn up as the human man stepped out of his dome, a quilt still wrapped around his shoulders, clearly roused from sleep by the noise. Simon's eyes tracked him as he stumbled down the hill towards the opening in the cliff where the rock creatures had come and left days before.
Was this some kind of fire drill? Simon couldn't detect any other organisms in the biome. Nothing else was here.
He watched with an odd fondness as the human man turned his head towards the water for a moment, and Simon's instincts squirmed. But he couldn't do anything, say anything, before the man whipped his head back to the cave-door and disappeared into it as the siren ceased.
A fire drill after all, then. Nothing was triggering any of Simon's many survival instincts. He resigned himself to a boring morning without the human man to observe. Maybe he could sleep. He felt his mind turn hazy, lulled by the push and pull of the waves.
Simon sensed a shift in the biodome right before he felt it. The air stopped moving, the waves stopped rocking, the not-sunlight lost its gentle warmth. His eye opened.
Then, there was a rattling roar from the edge of the water that Simon felt in his bones. The ocean floor below him creaked, and Simon was brought harshly back to the SM-13, with the sound of iron adjusting for movement all around him.
His beautiful star that lit up the daytime flickered out. Simon watched in horror as the ocean floor itself opened a massive hole, a vortex forming in the water, emptying out of his paradise with a roar. Simon could only scramble to cling to the sandy shore in an effort to not get sucked down along with it. He thrashed on the ground, gills begging for oxygen from the water to breathe.
And then every pain receptor in Simon's Blood Eel/Man husk screamed at him as an unfamiliar atmosphere pressed into his body, making him feel on fire from the inside-out.