Page 31 of Song of the Abyss

Anya swiftly realized she knew nothing about the world she had just tossed herself into. And the deep sea was more terrifying than she had originally thought.

But maybe it was a little less terrifying with his arm wrapped around her and all that power between her legs. She felt her cheeks heat beneath the mask as she realized just where those thoughts were going to get her at the same time he surfaced in the air filled room.

Time to get away from the Stockholm Syndrome that was setting in way faster than she’d thought it would. Scrambling out of his arms, she half crawled up the broken metal floor and into the air beyond.

This she could do. This was air and home, and she knew how to wander around places like this. Ripping the mask off her face, she ignored the angry growl that rippled from the creature behind her.

Taking in a deep breath, she was relieved to find that most functions of this facility were still online. Obviously there was power if there was air.

“Computer?” she called out, her voice a little raspy. “Report.”

Crawling a few more steps, she pulled Bitsy out of her box. The little robot blinked a few times, looking for all intents and purposes like it was waking from a nap. Though she knew that wasn’t entirely how it must have felt. Still, she put the little droid onto her head.

Bitsy put the words immediately on the screen, a little warped as she projected the words coming out of two speakers, but not at the same time. “Life support, online. Messaging function, online. Research facilities, damaged. Living quarters, damaged. Generators, online. Air compressors, thirty-two percent.”

“Damn it,” she muttered, pressing her hands a little more firmly into the metal floor. She’d have to divert some of the power to this room. She’d hoped the generators would be outputting more electricity than that, but she assumed that meant quite a few of the generators were either no longer functioning, or that there was significant water damage in that room, too.

This was liveable, for now, but not forever.

“Bitsy, can you hack into the system?”

The droid gave it all a once over before the words flashed. “Of course.”

“Good. We’ll need to shift all life support to this sector and try to divert whatever power we can without letting my father know we’re here. If we can get into the system correctly, then we should be able to message Ace as well.”

Desperately trying to ignore that the undine was still right behind her in the water, she scanned her gaze over what would now be her home. A giant wall of windows made up an entire wall, but they revealed very little beyond ten feet. The murky water was only barely illuminated by the meager light of the consoles beneath the windows. The floor space was maybe fifteen feet wide before it hit the water that curled icy tendrils up into the air. Even her breath frosted with every exhale, and she could only imagine if she didn’t have her wetsuit on, she’d be freezing.

Currently, this room had no doors that were open to any other part of the facility. The drain doors were sealed shut, and when she leaned to look past the wall of windows, she could see both hallways on either side were filled with water. So she was stuck in this room, for now, until Bitsy could hack into the system and drain the water out. At least then they could maybe see what they were working with.

Scrambling to her feet, she bit her lip and took another step into the room. Red lights blared all around her and she could feel the reverberations of some kind of alarm. She couldn’t quite hear it, not really, but there was definitely the sensation that there was noise just out of her reach.

A hand grabbed onto her ankle and yanked her back into the water.

With a yelp, she hit the icy water hard. It flooded up her nose, and all she could feel was the burn of salt as she came back to the surface, gasping in air and trying to clear out her nostrils.

“What the fuck,” she muttered, but had a feeling she might have shouted, before that hand slammed the mouthpiece over her face a little too hard, and then yanked her back underneath the water.

The undine had his hand wrapped around her ankle, and he was dragging her into the depths. She couldn’t tell if the red alarm from above was turning him red, or if his own colors were flashing in answer to the colors above them. Either way, she was pissed.

Kicking out with her other foot, she slammed her heel into the hand holding onto her ankle.

He released her, but turned with a glare and flared fins around his body. She was stunned by how massive he was. Would she ever get used to that? Probably not. Especially not with his teeth bared like an animal and all that anger rioting through his body like a tsunami just waiting to sweep her away in the sheer power of his emotions.

But she would not be dragged around like luggage while he tried to get her to go somewhere else.

“I’m staying here,” she said, flexing her stomach to force the words out louder. “Here is safe.”

Those sharp teeth gnashed at the water as he mimicked biting. “Stupid achromo. Nearly got herself killed.”

The words flashed in front of her eyes, and it made her pause. She hadn’t realized Bitsy had downloaded his language yet, but apparently she had. The sassy little droid had chosen a vivid pink color for his words.

“What did you say?” she asked, her voice little more than a whisper.

He cupped a hand behind what she assumed was his ear, and also a handful of gills at his neck.

“This is so fucking frustrating,” she swore under her breath before squeezing her stomach to try to shout. This time, she used her hands as well, signing to him, “What did you say?”

He watched her hands moving, his gaze narrowing before she swore she saw his hand move in a similar way. But then he growled low under his breath.

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