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Six months later – The Crater
“Ready to go?” Jochi walked over to Bart and Avery, who were stranding on a beach of the floating island and watching the sunrise in silence.
“How many of the Sea Emperors are coming with us?” Avery finally looked at Jochi.
“Two. They’re already bigger than the Ghost Leviathans and will protect the Cyclops from them.” Jochi placed a hand oh Bart’s shoulder. “Bart, come on. They all are okay, they might just be on another safer part of the ocean.”
“You really believe that?” Bart snorted.
“Yes.” Jochi slapped his shoulder lightly. “Because if you don’t then someone has to. Now let’s go, we’re waiting just for you two.”
Bart, Avery and Jochi returned to the others and everyone boarded the Cyclops. The Sea Emperors were circling the floating island, waiting for them to prepare to go out into the void in search of another safe area and even dry land. They knew there was a shallow area after they managed to repair the scanners from the Aurora.
After what happened half a year ago with Ryley, living on the island wasn’t the same, nobody was the same.
Ozzy, who was friends with Ryley for years, was quiet, too quiet. They had so much in common. Ryley was someone who he could talk to at any time of the day and he could tell him anything, the most common thing to the biggest secret. They were inseparable since the first day they met when they started going to school together.
Danby was the reason why Ozzy wasn’t a mess, but it impacted him too. When he started going to Ozzy’s cafeteria on the Aurora he was introduced to Ryley as Ozzy’s best friend and became friends with him too.
Yu and Berkeley were never really friends with Ryley but after months of surviving together after the crash also became friends with him.
Keen sometimes exchanged few words when he met with him in the hallways. The first time he got to know something about him was when he was walking through the lifepod bay and ran into Ryley who was on his duty of regular check of the lifepods. From that day he sometimes also visited the cafeteria, receiving friendly interactions from everyone out of respect and the people in that area were just over all friendly.
Jochi never had friendly interactions with the Alterra crew since he was mongolian, but Ryley was different. Once they ran into each other in the hallways in the middle of the night and decided to walk around together, just talking about things, resulting in occasionally repeating these walks when they ran into each other at night when they couldn’t sleep. By the time of the crash, Jochi already liked Ryley a little bit, but after seeing how well he was around Bart, he liked him more and more ever since.
But the biggest impact it had on Bart and Avery. Bart felt comfortable around Ryley from the beginning, he felt like he could tell him what was bothering him when Ryley sat with him on the beach in the middle of the night when Bart couldn’t sleep. He understood him. Ryley showed interest in what Bart was doing before the crash and even after and liked to discuss the creatures and plants that could be found on 4546B. Avery was thankful to Ryley since he was the one who heard the Sunbeams messages and came to save him from the lifepod. He explained as much as he could when they got to the mountain island after the Sunbeam was shot down. Ryley saved his life and they survived together before the others have found them, Avery in return provided Ryley with support when he was at his lowest, thinking that everyone was dead and then the guilt of not being able to save two other survivors while running from the Aurora after repairing the core. Both of them shared a deep bond with the shorter man and they would do anything just to get Ryley back from the Precursors.
They all supported each other not to lose hope of finding him alive.
They had to find him.
Meanwhile – Sector Zero
Ryley tossed and turned in his bed. It has been a month since Marguerit, Paul and Sam helped him get out if the Precursor laboratory, which they abandoned after they finished what they wanted him for. The aliens caused him so much pain that he couldn’t keep track of how long he was there, only after he could have his PDA back he was able to figure out that he was there for five months. They took him and experimented of him like he was a rat. The pain was unbearable. Every new bone, every new muscle, he felt it. They mixed his DNA with DNA of some creature, if from 4546B or other planet he didn’t know. Now he has light blue marks all over his body that have slight blue bioluminescence. His eye lenses were more narrow almost cat-like and his vision in the dark was much better. His neck was now covered with two pairs of gills, it still felt really strange for him to breathe under water. But the biggest difference was that now he had a long black tail with light blue fins at the base and at the end of the tail and smaller ones on both sides. The only thing that now felt familiar to Ryley when he looked at himself in the mirror were the, now also bioluminescent, blue stripes in his hair that were beginning to fade some time ago but now looked like he just had them done and the scars on his entire body from the loose panel in the lifepod on his forehead and from various creatures on his body.
After a while he settled in curled up position with his tail around him that wasn’t too uncomfortable. It was the same position he was in the entire night but he really didn’t feel like getting up at this moment. The base was much more quieter than the base on the floating island. Well, there was a significant difference between those two bases. In the first one lived nine people, it was above the water and in an area with warmer climate. This one was occupied only by four people, hidden in a cave under a biome of giant Lilypads, glowing whales and sharks with powerful internal jaw with long black teeth. Everything above the surface of the water was constantly covered in thick layer of snow.
Ryley started thinking about his friends again, something he found very hard these days. With a grunt he finally got up and changed into his diving suit on which he had to change couple of things. For example he removed the parts for the swimming fins to be attached because he’s now able to swim much faster without them, removed the sleeves after he started getting too hot as he was moving more when he was swimming. The neckline had to be lower co it wouldn’t cover his gills and he could breathe under water. He has another suit that is warmer and covers his arms when he’s on the surface. He didn’t feel hungry jet so he went straight to the hatch and exited the base. Sam went to do something in one of the Kelp Forests, Paul in the Shallow Twisty Bridges and Marguerit went to the Termal Spires or is fighting another Chelicerate since there weren’t any Reapers.
Ryley inhaled the water, which he still wasn’t fully used to, and started to swim out of the cave. Paul haven’t assigned him any major mission jet, only smaller things around the Lylipad islands biome.
In the crater they had a Cuddlefish that he thought how to give high five, but here he had a small family of Sea Monkeys that always swim right to him and play with him or bring him small gifts like small pieces of titanium or quartz.
Just as he thought of the small creatures, a small family swam to him, chirping happily. Ryley let them nuzzle to him before he started swimming to the surface.
Ryley wondered what the weather was today. He got up to one of the giant leaves of the Lilypads and looked around. It was quite sunny today and the clouds didn’t look like it would be another snowstorm in near time, but that didn’t change anything about how cold the air was, but he didn’t even flinch when the cold wing blew around him. His skin was a bit thicker and more cold resistant, which helped him in the cold water and to stay above the water for longer than the others when they wore just a regular diving suit instead of the cold suit.
Ryley always looked towards the open ocean instead of the cliffs of ice on the other side that surrounded the Sector Zero. It was the only way they could arrive from. Everyone - Ryley, Paul, Marguerit and Sam – never lost hope about seeing them. They need to arrive. They had to arrive. They believe that they can go past the Ghost Leviathans and be reunited again, this time with Paul, Sam and Marguerit.
One month later – edge of the Sector Zero
“Do you see something finally?” Milo yawned as he woke up and walked into the bridge of the Cyclops where Roman was piloting the submarine. Avery was standing next to him, seemingly talking about something with him.
Ozzy who was there with them placed his PDA aside and looked out of the window. “Guys! I see the seabed!” Ozzy exclaimed after a few minutes and the rest of them ran to the bridge. They haven't seen the bottom of the ocean for a month, it was only darkness the entire time.
Emily scanned the ground before looking up. “Woah, are those icebergs?” She pointed at the giant pieces of floating ice.
“This place isn't dangerous, we can part out ways for now.” One of the Sea Emperors spoke to them before turning away from the Cyclops and the other swam with them a bit longer before turning away as they reached the first patches of vegetation on the bottom of the ocean.
“This is it. We should probably find more shallow area and build a base. I'm starting to feel claustrophobic in this submarine." Danby sighed as everyone laughed and agreed with him.
“Okay, I'll get this thing into more shallow area and then we can build." Roman said as the others started leaving the bridge again to prepare the materials and equipment as they didn't have any opportunity to use it in the void.
The submarine slowly passed the floating rocks of the Lilypad Islands and the Purple Vents until they stopped under an ice shelves next to a Kelp Forest very similar to the ones in the Crater, only the creepvines were yellow with red seed clusters. On the other side of the Kelp forest was a shallow biome with mostly sandy seabed, all kinds of different plants and corals. Most of the the small fish were the same as in the Crater, only the Peepers were different, they were white with longer fins on the top and bottom of their bodies. The Bladderfish, Boomerands and Hoopfish were exactly the same. The other fish they couldn’t recognize.
In few days they finished their base with several rooms, either for storage, bedrooms or just rooms with other kinds of furniture like growbeds and few aquariums. They didn’t really leave the base too much. When they saw the icebergs for the first time that started working on diving suits that would keep them warm in the cold water or when they went to the surface that was covered in thick layer or snow. But they were still quite surprised how quickly they managed to settle down. They already had a big base, Seamoths with some modifications, Prawnsuits, multiple sources of energy. The next thing of their list was to explore their new surroundings.
It was exactly a week later when Emily and Milo went to explore the Twisty Bridges, Ozzy and Banby went to the Kelp Forest, Roman and jochi took the Seamoths to the Termal spires and Bart with Avery took the Cyclops to the other side of the small island surrounded by the Termal spires, Purple Vents and the Tree Spires. They had a lot to explore in the new area was mostly surrounded by frozen dry land.
It was around an hour after Bart stopped the Cyclops next to a creature that was rooted to one spot, which they immediately after exiting the submarine found out it’s called Ventgarden, a leviathan class creature with transparent bell with other kinds of flora growing inside of it.
Without separating, Bart and Avery started exploring the close area to the submarine so they could refill their air tanks when they ran out of oxygen. This biome was dark with large trees covered in bioluminescent flora which also grew everywhere around, lighting up the surroundings a little bit.
Most of the fauna they managed to scan was passive, like the Triops, Feather Fish, Arrow Ray and schools of Hoopfish which they already knew from the Crater. Other fish could be only scanned when they used the Stasis rifle, like the Lily Paddler which was just much bigger version of the Mesmer with very similar ability of hypnosis and messing with their minds. The Brute Shark seemed not very interested in any of them, until they got too close and had to use the seaglides to get away from it’s yaws of sharp teeth.
Luckily, they managed to avoid the Chelicerate that was swimming above them a couple of times. Their PDAs informed them that they are running out oxygen and they had to return to the Cyclops.
“This planet surprises me more and more every day.” Avery sat down in one of the chairs they moved to the submarine.
Bart sat down sat down in the next chair and sighed. “Same, but the cold will get annoying. We have find a way to make warmer suits.”
“We’ll figure this out. We still haven’t been above the surface. There might be some animals with fur or something.” Avery said to which Bart nodded.
They spent some time discussing other ways to alter the suits before they stood up and walked to the bridge, ready to leave back to the base, when they noticed some kind of vehicle ‘parked’ next to the smaller island.
“Wait, that’s doesn’t look like a Seamoth. What is that?” Bart asked.
“That’s a Seatruck. New Alterra vehicle, but what’s that doing here?” Avery examined the Seatruck which had one module attached that he couldn’t recognize. “I think we should check it out, there might be someone.”
Bart nodded and they quickly grabbed their diving gear with their tools and swam to the island where they got out after looking at the vehicle for a bit.
“This has to be build recently. If it was build by your father or the mercenary you hired, it would be covered in barnacles and vegetation. This one is clean.” Avery looked around, noticing a cave opening. “Come on, we have to hide before we freeze to death.”
To their surprise, there were plants growing from the walls of the cave that generated a significant amount of heat, making the cave nice and warm.
They took a few more steps before Bart stopped them as a loud thumb echoed from behind the corner to another part of the cave they stopped.
They heard two people talking.
“Stop right there, Alterra, you’re out of bounds.” A female voice said while a mechanical noise was signaling presence of some kind of machinery.
“I’m not with Alterra!” A younger female voice called back.
“Then your position is doubly precarious.” The other woman said as they identified the machinery to be coming from a Prawn suit which now punched something, either a wall or the ground
“What do you mean?!” The young female said with fear in her voice.
Bart and Avery now turned the corner, only to see a young woman with long brown hair and dark skin lying on the ground and a dark colored Prawn suit with heavy damage and modifications standing over her. Neither of them could recognize the woman inside.
“If you’re telling the truth, you’re out of your mind. If you’re lying, there’ll be hell to pay.” The prawn suit stood up again.
The young woman sat up. “Wait! Who are you?”
But the Prawn just turned away, walking towards the edge of the small cliff. “Stay off our land.” With that, the woman in the suit jumped off, staying in the air for few seconds thanks to two thrusters on each shoulder of the Prawn suit, before they shut off and the suit disappeared in the water.
“Wait!” The young wonan yelled, but this time, Avery and Bart joined as they ran to wards the cliff, but stopping on each side of the woman, who was still sitting on the ground.
“Oh my god! Who the hell are you?!” The woman jumped away from them, now in defense.
“Hey, hey! Calm down, we’re not gonna hurt you!” Avery held his hands up.
“Then who was that woman?” The young woman took another step back. “I genuinely feared for my own life.”
“We are not with her. We have no idea who that was.” Bart explained. “Please, calm down so we can sort this out peacefully.” He exchanged a quick look with Avery.
The woman looked them both over before finally straightening up. “Okay, but no surprises.” They backed back into the warm cave when a cold wind blew around them.
“Okay, so first of all, my name is Avery Quinn and this is Bart Torgal.” Avery held out his hand as a friendly gesture.
The woman shook his hand. “I’m Robin Ayou.” She was now calmer. “What are you doing here?”
Bart looked at Avery before he sighed. “About nine years ago, by now, my ship crashed on this planet, but in different area, only me, my father and our hired mercenary survived.”
“And about a year ago the Aurora and one another ship crashed in the same area.” Avery finished. “We’re trying to find Bart’s father, the mercenary and one of our friends.”
“Oh my god. I heard about it! The Degasi, Aurora and Sunbeam! Is that correct?” Robin said in shock. Bart and Avery nodded.
“And what you’re doing here?” Bart asked.
Robin sighed. “I want to find my sister, Sam. The Alterra have reported her dead but I don’t believe it. She called me when she was in this solar system and then I never heard from her again. I think she also crashed here.” She looked at them. “But didn’t you guys said something about trying to find one of your friends? There’s more of you?”
“Yes. Six to be exact.” Bart said. “But now, there have to be more people here.”
“Yeah, she said something like ‘stay off our land'.” Robin nodded.
“I think we should think about this somewhere else, there’s a storm coming and it’s freezing.” Avery motioned for them to return to their vehicles.
“We should get back. I don’t want Jochi coming after me again.” Bart snorted.
They started walking towards the other side if the cave where they entered.
“You have a base somewhere around?” Robin asked.
“Yeah, it’s not that far actually.” Avery prepared to put his rebreather back on as they stepped into the water. “I think you should go with us if you don’t have a base.”
“Oh, thanks. I still have only the lifepod. Do you need a ride?” Robin looked at them.
“No, we have a Cyclops.” Bart smiled. “Just follow us.” Robin nodded and Bart with Avery started making their way to the submarine. Robin following shortly after.
Meanwhile- Lilypads base
“Wait, so you’re telling us that there are more people in this sector?” Paul asked Marguerit for the third time as he tried to understand.
“Yep, mostly interacted just with a young girl and saw two guys just a second before I jumped off that cliff.
“Ugh, Robin. What are you doing now.” Sam burrowed her face in her hands as she sat the table.
“Robin? The sister of yours?” Paul now turned to her.
Sam nodded. “I didn’t expect her to come and try to find me. But who were the other guys then?” She asked.
“No idea. I only remember that one of them was really tall and had dark shin and black hair. That all.” Marguerit scratched her Snow Stalker on the head.
“We’ll have to ask Ryley. Where is he anyway?” Sam asked.
“M here.” Ryley said as he entered with a yawn the room from the hallway.
“Oh God. You look like you’ve been ran over by a truck.” Marguerit snorted.
“And I feel like it.” Ryley brushed his wet hair from his face. “What have you been talking about?” He sat down into a chain on which he left his towel earlier and hung it over his shoulders.
“Marguerit found another people here.” Paul also sat down finally, he was pacing around the room since Marguerit told them about her encounter.
“Wait, what?” Ryley asked.
“She met my sister, Robin. I have no idea that in the world is the doing here.” Sam sighed.
“And two guys, but I remember only one but not much.” Marguerit looked at Ryley who looked confused. “Tall, black hair and dark skin. I think you already said something about someone like that. What was his name again?”
Ryley stared at her for a moment. “Marg, that was Avery for fucks sake. And the other one had to be Bart.” He stood up quickly as he talked.
“You think?” Marguerit leaned over.
“There are only two people who would go with him, and that’s either Avery or Jochi.” Ryley said, still shocked that they were actual in the Sector Zero.
“Why’s that?” Sam asked.
Ryley snorted and looked at Paul. “Because he ran away during a mission. Twice! The first time he just returned like if he had been gone for few hours and the second time we found him in a small base in the Lost River. Only Avery, Jochi and me could stop him.”
Paul pinched the bridge of his nose. “Unbelievable.”
“Well, look like we have a mission for tomorrow. Better to get some sleep.” Marguerit stood up and stretched before whistling at the Snow Stalker to follow her.
“I’m not going anywhere tomorrow.” Ryley whined.
“Why?” Marguerit looked at him over her shoulder.
“Are you blind? They can’t see me like this!” Ryley motion at himself. “They’ll loose their minds!”
“Okay, we’ll take few days off to rest. I’ll make a plan until then.” Paul waved them off as he looked at the screen with the time. Marguerit and her stalker walked into her bedroom, Sam walked to hers. When the doors closed Paul looked turned back to Ryley, who was now lying on the table with his arms as a pillow. “Ryley, they will be happy to see you no matter how you look now.”
Ryley sighed and looked, giving Paul a good look at his pupils, which we’re that narrow as the lights were dimmer. “I’m not used to how I look now myself.” Ryley said quietly.
Paul smiled as he walked around Ryley patting his shoulder. “You never know until it happens, Ryley. Go to bed and don’t think to much about it.” He said before leaving the room.
Paul’s right. Ryley sighed before getting up. In his room he changed into his shirt and sweatpants and curling on his bed into the only position in which he’s comfortable sleeping.
Few days later- base in the Sparse Arctic
“Morning..” Roman yawned as he entered the kitchen with Jochi right behind him, receiving “good morning" or just humming from the others.
“Roman? Where are we going today?” Milo asked sleepily.
“Milo, that’s the sixth time you asked since yesterday.” Ozzy sipped his coffee.
“I know, sorry. Just kind of confused by the happenings of the last few days.” He sighed.
“With what? The whole ‘this is Robin and there was some crazy lady in a Prawn suit' thing?” Emily poked him into his ribs.
“Ow!” Milo whined and glared at Emily.
“I take that as a yes.” Roman poured coffee into two cups before leaning onto the counter with one and giving the other to Jochi, who mumbled his thanks and leaning onto the counted right next to him. “So for you, Milo. I’m gonna repeat myself, again and for the last time. Thanks to Robin, we now have a cold suit and Hoverbikes. On the other side of the Sector Zero is an big open flied. And for weather reasons we explored only far enough to get the fur of the Snow Stalkers to make the cold suits. If we’ll be really lucky we might meet with your mystery crazy woman.” Roman sipped his still steaming coffee, which no one understood because they would only burn themselves. “And I would like to leave in under an hour so hurry up.” He laughed as everyone groaned.
“Is this what working at Alterra is like?” Robin asked.
“No. Alterra would kick our ass if they saw some relationship between any of us and put a crippling debt on each of us. Roman is just being an annoying Second Officer he is.” Emily smirked as Roman shot her a glare.
“You have a point.” Danby said before he noticed the questioning look at Emily’s face. “About the debt. The PDA said that we’re already at three million when we each found the first diamond for the laser cutters.”
“Oooh, you’re right.” Emily realized.
“So that literally means that you can’t go back.” Robin pointed out.
“Yeah, we could get out of it only if someone high enough stood up for us but everyone at Alterra is money driven.” Roman sighed.
“And everyone of you is from Alterra?” Robin looked at them, especially at Jochi, Bart and Avery.
“No, I’m the heir of the Torgal Corp, Jochi is Mongolian Emissary supposed to look for us and Avery was a captain of the Sunbeam from a smaller Trans-Gov.” Bart explained.
“Wow, so far I heard pretty good occupations. A second officer, an engineer, technical officer, medic.” Robin repeated some of their occupations for herself. “And the friend who you’re looking for?”
“Non-essential systems maintenance chief. Basically just a janitor.” Ozzy downed the rest of the coffee. They were finally at the point when they could talk about Ryley without breaking down. “A good friend of mine.”
Later – The Arctic Spires cave
Sam was standing next to Ryley, who sat on the ground looking somewhere outside of the cave they were momentarily in, eyeing him while she tried to do something on her PDA. A minute later she gave up. “How can you just sit like this on the ground? I have much warmer suit and I’m still freezing." She frowned as cold wind blew inside the cave.
“Not sure.” Ryley mumbled, seemingly still lost in his thoughts. “I rather don’t want to know what DNA they mixed with mine.”
“Wise decision.” Paul chuckled. He was repairing the Hoverbikes after they ran into a small pack of Snow Stalkers. “How’s your arm?”
Ryley finally looked away and on his arm wrapped in bandages. “Could be worse.” He had a shallow would from a Snow Stalker he had to wrestle off of himself when it attacked him.
“Yeah, like wrestling the grown Snow Stalker wasn’t a big deal.” Marguerit crossed her arms.
Ryley sighed. “It’s weird.”
“What’s weird? I thought you already named everything.” Sam asked.
“That’s true, but I haven’t named the fact that I already wrestled a Stalker, Squidshark and a Chelicerate-" Ryley jumped when they cut him off.
“You did what?!” Everyone’s jaws dropped.
Ryley cursed at himself mentally. He didn’t like when he made anyone worry. “In the Tree Spires and Purple Vents.”
“TWICE?!”
Ryley whined.
“Unbelievable.” Paul pinched the bridge of his nose.
“And you didn’t say anything?!” Sam said.
“I wasn’t injured, so I thought I didn’t have to.” Ryley said before he could think of what to say.
“Kid, have you looked at yourself in the mirror?” Marguerit shook her head. “You were just skin and bones when we found you and you still kind of are.” She motioned at how skinny he still was.
“I know, I’m sorry.” Ryley whined at the memory.
The was a moment of silence before Paul sighed. “At least you can defend yourself better that any of us.” Ryley looked at him. “But that doesn’t change that I’m not mad at you.”
Ryley turned back to the cave entrance, a soft smile spread on his face.
That was until he could hear a distant sound of Hoverbike, and not just one, and the rumbling and roars of Ice Worm. They all shot up and jumped on their Hoverbikes.
If someone else was here, they’ll be dead in the Ice Worm gets them so they had to act fast.
Meanwhile – The Arctic Spires
Two hours later they were making their way through the thick layer of snow. There was a bit open area which they haven’t explored yet, but to get there they had to ride their bikes through the wide gaps between the tall ice sheets. They finally started their Snowfoxes when they were far enough After a while they stopped at the edge of a big open field with giant ice spires. Roman, who was in the front, motioned to the others that they can increase the speed as there wasn’t that big of a risk with crashing into the wall of the ice sheet.
They started again only to stop in the middle of the field under one of the spires when a loud roar echoed through the area.
“What the hell was that?” Jochi asked.
Avery noticed a small group of Snow Stalkers when a rumbling round shook the ground and a giant worm creature broke through the ice, grabbing on of the stalkers and throwing it into the air before eating it with no problems.
“Holy shit! We have to get out of here.” Danby said.
They watched as the Ice Worm turned to the other side of the field, they followed the direction and gasped loudly as they saw two silhouettes in the distance. One of them was sitting of a Hoverbike, wearing the same white cold suit as them. The other silhouette was dressed in black suit, similar to the cold suit, but there was something about that person that didn’t sit right. They had one feature that stood out, the black tail that they held slightly above the cold ground as they finished setting up a device that started thumping loudly into the ground. The leviathan roared before diving into the ground, as the Ice Worm disappeared the two silhouettes signaled to direction somewhere behind the larger group hiding under the spire before hopping on the Hoverbike and speeding towards one of the caves in the ice walls, the Ice Worm emerging second later where they just stood.
A sound of two other Snowfoxes stopping in front of them brought their attention.
“Don’t stare and follow us! We have to get out of here!” A woman, who’s voice Robin, Bart and Avery recognized from the island, shouted at them. She and the other person, an older man, had their masks on to protect themselves from the cold air, so their faces weren’t visible.
Another loud roar made everyone speed towards the opening in the walls from which they came from. They didn’t stop or slow down until they entered the small ice shore. When they stopped, they got off the bikes to catch their breath.
Ozzy was the first to take of his mask and turning to the two people, who were leading the way until now. “What the hell was that?!”
“An Ice Worm. They are attracted to sounds above the ground.” The older man said before turning back to the ice sheets, looking for the other two people. “Come on, where you two?” He whispered.
“Where is who?” Milo asked as he also took off the mask to breathe better, the others followed shortly after.
After a short while, the last Hoverbike emerged from the gap of the ice sheet with smoke and sparks coming from one of the small propellers. The woman got off, the last person was nowhere to be seen.
“These Ice Worms are starting to get on my nerves.” The woman said as she looked at the damages before she turned to the others. “Is everyone alright?”
“I have a better question.” Jochi frowned. “Who are you?”
The three people exchanged a look before taking off their masks.
And there they were, standing in front of them. Paul, Marguerit and Sam.
Meanwhile- Glacial Basin
Ryley slid down the wall of the cave, trying to calm his breathing.
What are they doing here? It’s too dangerous. They could have died! He cursed in his mind.
He told Sam to stop at the cave opening and told her that he will catch them later, he couldn’t bring himself to face them. He just couldn’t. He can’t even look at himself in the mirror. All the new changes remind him of how he left them there and the pain caused by the Precursors.
He took another deep breath, less shaky this time. Okay, there’s the shore right at the other side of this cave. You can do this. Just don’t let anyone see you. He slowly stood up. You can hide at the island as you always do. Just calm down. He kept telling himself as he walked through the cave. Everyone’s fine, there’s Sam, Paul and Marguerit. They can take care of them. Explain everything. They have a lot to say to Bart and Robin. Ryley stepped out of the cave and looked at the sea. The weather was nice today. The island was visible all the way from here. Just swim there. Sit under the Thermal Lilys and take your time thinking about it. He jumped into the water and started swimming to the island.
Back at the Glacial Bay (shore)
They have been sitting in the Cyclops for over two hours by now. Both sides had to explain a lot, but there was one more topic they still had to cover.
“Who…Who was the person with you on the other side of the spires?” Emily asked Sam who was sitting next to Robin.
Sam looked at Paul, who sighed whether to answer or keep it for later.
“He’s probably going to freak out when he finds out.” Marguerit crossed her arms over her chest.
“I know, but if we leave it on him they will never find out.” Paul inhaled deeply before he started. “It was Ryley.”
Everyone gasped.
“What do you mean?” Ozzy asked with wide eyes.
“The new features are the fault of the precursors. They experimented on his DNA and what would happen if they combined it with one from another creature.” The submarine was silent as Paul explained. “They left before we found him.”
“Had it any impact on him?” Danby asked from where he was standing behind Ozzy if he needed any support.
“You definitely saw one, and that is the tail.” Sam said and everyone agreed. “Other changes are bioluminescent marks on his body, better vision and the ability to breathe underwater.”
“Oh God.” Roman shook his head.
“I guess that he’s hiding on his usual spot again.” Marguerit sighed.
“What do you mean, Maida?” Jochi looked at her.
“Let’s say that he didn’t take the change very well. That’s also why he’s not here now.” Marguerit explained. “We rather give him two to four hours alone before we go check on him.”
“I think that someone from you should go there this time. This panic attack can’t be good.” Paul said. His, Marguerit’s and Sam’s face turned into confusion when everyone looked at Bart and Avery.
“Oh, I think that you should go comfort your b-“ Emily smirked and started teasing.
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” Bart and Avery glared at her. They got up and started to prepare to go the island.
“I’ll explain later.” Bart turned to Paul before he could ask.
“Hey, don’t you wanna take the Seamoths?” Milo shouted after them.
“Thank you and no!” Avery shouted back before the hatch closed behind them.
“Well-" Emily smirked again.
“What ever you’re about to say, don’t. Unless it’s not about them.” It was Roman’s turn to smirk as Emily childishly crossed her arms and the others laughed. The tension finally disappearing.
Later- the Delta Island
Ryley have been watching the Pengwings feeding their young over two now. He refused to go back to the base in case that Paul, Marguerit and Sam invited the others over. He also refused to go into the water in case he would run into them. He had nothing to do, except sitting on the ground with his back to the Thermal Lily, which was actually nice as the plant warmed up his arching back from the extensive swimming, and carving random pictures, lines and symbols into the ground with his knife. He didn’t even have to think about food since there were several Leafy Fruit Plants in the caves.
He stabbed the knife into the ground and hugged his legs closer to his body to rest his chin on them. Cold drops of water ran down his face as he covered his head with his hoodie, therefore his hair couldn’t dry faster. He settled on watching his tail with which he occasionally moved to observe the way the muscles tensed and relaxed. The light blue fins lightly illuminated the ground with the blue bioluminescence.
After few minutes of staring at his tail Ryley grunted and bowed his head so his forehead now touched his knees. He felt like a coward for running away and hiding from his friends, the people he cared the most about.
“You are an idiot, Robinson.” Ryley told himself.
He said few more curses, but what he didn’t know was that he wasn’t alone.
“No, you are not an idiot.” A calm familiar voice said.
Ryley’s head shot up only to see Avery and Bart standing at the entrance to the cave he was in. He immediately turned away.
“Go away..” Ryley said with shaky voice. He wasn’t ready to face any of them.
He heard Bart snort. “You really think that we will leave when we finally found you?” Bart said with kind voice as he and Avery slowly approached Ryley, who was still turned away.
Avery kneeled in front of Ryley, Bart doing the same next to him. “Hey.” He gently placed his hand on Ryley’s. Avery noticed a light blue barks on his hands as he wasn’t wearing gloves and his sleeves weren’t long enough to hide them fully. “It doesn’t matter that you changed physically. You’re still the same.”
Ryley let out a quiet sob before he slowly took off the hood and finally looked at the two people he missed the most.
Avery and Bart could finally look at his face. His hair haven’t changed that much, only the blue stripes were more vibrant again and had light bioluminescent glow. His scars were the same- from his hair line to his left eyebrow, smaller one above the right eyebrow, on his lips and from his left cheek to his neck. His dark brown eyes now had a narrow pupils. And symmetrical glowing marks on his face with two pairs of gills on his neck.
A single tear ran down his face from his red and watery eyes. He was pulled into a tight embrace by both Avery and Bart. He finally let the other tears spill.
The tears of happiness. Ones he haven’t shed in a long time.
Later- Sparse Arctic base
“Ugh, I don’t like this.” Jochi groaned from where he was sitting at the table with the others. He was getting impatient from how long Bart and Avery were gone.
“Jochi, for the fifth time. Neither of them haven’t ran away. Ryley and Avery had talked him out of it a long time ago. He’s fine, I swear.” Roman placed a cup with coffee in front of his cranky partner. “They just have a lot to talk about.”
“I know, but still.” Jochi took the cup into both of his hands to warm them up.
“I swear to God, if they don’t return with Ryley, I’m gonna find him myself and beat some sense into him.” Ozzy said.
“Hey, this is Bart and Avery we’re talking about. Of course they will drag him back even if he didn’t want to.” Milo pointed out. “We all know how it is with those three.”
“You’re making me more confused each minute.” Paul snorted. “Looks like there’s something mu son haven’t told me yet.”
“I would love to tell you, but I’m not allowed and later got my ass kicked.” Emily pouted at Roman.
Marguerit laughed from where she was standing at one of the windows of the large room. “And that would be pretty soon if you actually spilled it.”
Everyone shot her a quick look before standing up to go to the windows.
And there they were. Bart and Avery in their diving suits and equipment with Ryley swimming swiftly around them.
“Holy shit..” Danby breathed out.
They were to shocked to look away that only the sound of the hatch opening and closing made them look away and to the direction of the sound. Ozzy was the first one to break into a run to finally hug his best friend after what seemed to be eternity. The others followed, but much more slowly than Ozzy.
In matter of seconds Ryley found himself in a tight embrace from everyone.
“It’s so good to finally have you back, Ryley.”