#fae'a

If only they had known what lurked below.

It was meant to be a wonderfully calm trip, something to take ease and be able to go without the strain of muscles. Shuri had proposed it and it was a wonderful idea, but G’raha had become slightly skittish around some in Angelique’s friend group after all the events that had occurred in the First. Angelique really hoped that this submersible trip with all of them in close quarters was a chance to get everyone on some kind of even ground especially with the news that she had been keeping under her hat for a little bit. 

G’raha and Angelique had taken time to go to the bridge of the submarine to look at the expanse of ocean and shared smiles of the brightly colored fish with the occasional cephalopod. The red haired Miqo’te had pulled out a journal he had started to take along with him, writing on the pages with a pen Angelique had gifted to him, a feather that was sleek and white but tipped with a very faint tinge of green. It was almost too beautiful to use, but as the bard is often fond of making mention of, she wouldn’t purchase anything if it wasn’t meant to be used in some way shape or form.

However, they eventually had reconvened to a corridor with a portside window to look out on, Angelique was absently fiddling with a necklace that she had pulled from the depths of her shirt, fingers tracing along the blue circular surface to the tiny flowers formed on it. G’raha looked up as he had placed the journal into a waterproof casing in case any leaks were to happen and leaned his shoulder against the wall, as well as his head resting against the cool metal. His gaze however, solely focused on her. “Are you feeling ready to tell them?” he asked, voice slightly quiet but enough to bring the bard from her stare into some far off distance.

“I don’t know yet.” she sighed softly, “After everything, and I mean everything, it sometimes feels like there’s just this distance.” Angelique’s green eyes glanced down the hallway where the cabins were and looked down again. “I would just like it to feel like a happy occasion, but part of me often worries about the tension that would hang in the air. It really does scare me to tell them sometimes.” 

“If I know anything, despite all that’s happened, I trust they would at least be happy for you.” The sunseeker gave a slight chuckle and reached over to take hold of her hand and gave it a small squeeze. “And above all, I want you to be happy about this.” His other hand reached over to lightly rest against the side of her head and his thumb brushed against the crease that was forming on her brow. “Don’t stress too hard right now.” G’raha smiled, and it was infectious since it did get Angelique to smile too. 

For now this was supposed to be a simple and fun journey with no danger for them.

Except it seemed that danger would always follow those that often wanted to get away from it. Red allagan eyes looked out the window and a prickle rose up onto the back of his neck as something dark streaked past the sub, at first thinking it was nothing, but something was throwing him off and it was the faint fluorescent shade of blue that had not been seen during this time since they’ve been below the surface of the waves. The mere sight kicked in an instinct that was roiling at the pit of his stomach.

“I’ll be back. There’s something that I have to do.” G’raha had told Angelique and before he could offer anymore except a warning to stay away from the windows before his hand slipped from hers in his rush.

“Raha, wait! What has you in such a state?!” she called to him and groaned slightly to herself, but a clamour had started to form and Angelique frowned, starting to head into the hallway. At first she had intended to return back to their cabin, there might have been something simply wrong and an error was being corrected. But there was a wild lurch from the submarine as something had collided with it and hard, and for a faint moment of weightlessness, pain at the back of her head before nothing but black after a faint vision of red. Only the faint echoes of alarms, panicked screams, shouts, becoming nothing more than a fading cacophony.

-o-o-

There was something to say about luck when Angelique finally came around, every ilm soaked thoroughly with salty water, making everything feel heavy and sluggish as her clothes clung tightly to her skin. The necklace around her scraped along a smooth metallic ground as she hauled herself up, staring around a little bit. Everything was a blur and she could barely remember what just happened. However, when things started to become a little bit more steady, Angelique looked around her and couldn’t help the groan of exhaustion that left her throat. She recognized these surroundings, or at least the makers of it. Ancient Allagan had built something, and when she looked to the dark water behind her in a hole that must have broken sometime...or not even that long ago...was under the ocean. 

The room despite its lights felt cold and Angelique hugged her arms close to her as she started to walk, what else could she do? Sitting around in an Allagan facility would do her no good. She needed to find a map, a node, something activated. She also needed to find G’raha and her friends, as well as little Fae’a who had come along the trip so excitedly. Hopefully Meeps and Fae’a were together at least, it would be awful if they ended up separated. Fae’a was a boy, and this place was large, and who knew what could be in it still lurking around.

Angelique walked along the lit passageway and through a door that had been stuck ajar and was greeted with what looked almost like an observation deck. The wide expanse of ocean still lurking above her head in a dome, which looked like it had sustained no damage. “Wow…” she breathed, not sure if she should be impressed by the size or unnerved with the way her voice echoed, but the vision of what strewn across the floor took away from that. There were a few shattered nodes, monitors looked as if they could have seen better days. Not even a bright screen could help her this time. 

Angelique though decided to look through the broken nodes, frowning a little, such a waste of good technology. Gods, G’raha really was rubbing off on her. It was enough to almost make her chuckle. Almost, but not quite. Carefully picking through wreckage she found at least something that could yield at least SOMETHING if she could find anything that worked. Brushing off some of the dust from it she smiled a little. “A tomestone, great.” she breathed, but the smile she had was short-lived as something cast a shadow over the blue hazy shimmer from the ocean. That faint red glow creeped across the floor and Angelique swore her hair stood on end with her fight or flight instincts. She willed herself not to turn around, but her body betrayed her mind and what she had seen nearly made her scream as what she saw, was a red ringed eye staring back at her. Lines of red and blue marked across a dark body she couldn’t make out, but the fact it could shadow almost the entire observation room made her blood run cold. 

It seemed to stare for a long, long moment before slowly, very slowly started to creep away. Angelique slowly released the breath she didn’t think she had been holding, knuckles long since turning white as she clutched the tomestone in her fingers. It seemed to go away further, and for the briefest moment she felt like it was just something her imagination was playing on her.