◘

The space around Tom should have fallen away. Should have blurred into a Monet mass of deep greens and blues but the truth was, the world Tom was falling towards was much too dark and blurred for him to distinguish a variation on the colour black.

Tom had no idea where exactly he was being dragged towards but the sound of the lake water whooshing up and over his suit confirmed his movement. He flicked on the radio switch. No-one there. The small flashlight bulbs at the end of the suit's metal fingers had flickered completely out.

Yet he was struck with a strange sense of calm, as though he floated in the eye of a storm.

He wondered if this was what death was like: a light-less journey to no-where.

Then decided that it can't have been like death, for no sooner had this thought passed Tom's mind then his suit plummeted onto the ground, rattling his bones like an ancient Chinese soothsayer.

Alone in the deep darkness, Tom flexed his limbs, checking the mechanics of the Aquarist suit were still in place. Fingers. Arms. Legs. Neck. All still functioning.

The pointer of the atmospheric pressure metre flitted from Substantial to Maintenance Required and Tom found himself glad to be less reliant on the internal atmosphere compared to the oxygen breathers. He took off his oxygen mask.

***

-  Meanwhile: 2nd Rank Purifier Station -

"Ah the replacement team. Just in time. We'll only be needing 3 of you."

"Pleased to be of service Sir," Flynn said immediately before his colleagues from the 2nd Rank station had time to speak. He climbed out of the elevator into the underground compound and saluted his superior Colonel Hastings.

"See this is the respect I require. Obedience. Loyalty. Subordination." The Colonel said to the other trainees, tongue dripping in egoism.

Flynn searched the faces of the remaining trainees as they were locking into their Aquarist suits and found no indication of Kate or Tom amongst them.

"Troublemakers again?" Flynn inquired, arms crossed and legs a regimented distance apart.

"Indeed. The blighters won't be coming back in one piece though. 'Av made sure of that."

"Good riddance," Flynn confirmed, as any Purifier should. Though his heart ached as he forced the words out of his mouth.

They can't be gone, he thought. They didn't escape The Forest Facility to loose themselves in the lakes. Not yet. Not on my watch.

"Spoke out of term they did. Spoke against their leaders! Ungrateful little pricks," the Colonel said vapidly.

Flynn bit down hard- the sharp edge of his chipped tooth drawing thick blood and setting an iron taste on his tongue.

Another, more esteemed Purifier from the 2nd rank paced towards Colonel Hastings, clipboard in hand.

"Our superior wants me to take a detailed report on the events having led up to the deaths of the trainees," they said. "He wants to make an example of what happens when you don't obey. He plans to add them to the Worker Expiration Report on the news tonight."

Flynn's superior ushered him away, not noticing his pain. "I'll check if the trainees know any extra details about the resistance," Flynn said, adhering to the order. Though he kept an ear towards the Colonel and his collegue.

The two figures spoke in lowered tones that were easily drowned out by the loud stomping of the trainees who, unlike Tom and Kate, had time to test out their suits.

 Flynn lent closer towards his superiors and managed to catch snippets of their exchange.

"That stupid girl..." The Colonel was saying. "Too moody to survive the depths. She smashed a hole in the water collection glass of my suit. 'Thought I wouldn't notice and the water'd flood in and kill me."

And in response the 2nd ranking Purifier gasped a hybrid of sympathy and disgust.

Whilst Flynn's jaw bone almost fell out of its lower skull socket in his surprise. Kate was even more headstrong than he had remembered. She was either brave or extremely idiotic, to the point of endangering her own life. Yet Flynn felt an immense sense of respect for his childhood friend.

"So I gave her suit to another..." the Colonel continued to explain. "Blue...skinny little thing he was. Won't make a difference if we lose him... made sure that little forbidden friend of Kate's- Tom Darshana, went down into the lakes too."

"A Darshana boy?" the reporter asked in disbelief. "I thought there was only one left? Jack was it?"

"So did I. Spoiled brats- the whole family. Well Tom'll rot down there like his oh-so-blessed Father."

Head turned subtly to the side, Flynn missed the way the Colonel gestured to the water beneath the compound and drew a slender finger across his jugular in insinuation. 

"Keep up the family tradition eh?" he had said, laughing up poisoned air.

"Watch your mouth!" Flynn blurted out. It was so sudden. He couldn't control himself. The way the Colonel had spoken about Tom and Kate- with such cruelty, such disregard for their lives. It was all too much.

"Am I hearing things?" Hastings spun around on his heels, his thickly set legs not impairing but instead facilitating his deft movement. "Which one of you insolent fools was that?"

And in that moment Flynn realised, if the water hadn't killed his friends, the Colonel certainly would.

The trainees shuffled around in confusion, having been carefully preparing for the water collection to begin.

"Did I stutter? Are you all deaf?" said the Colonel, his lip twitching with rage. 

It was clear by the way the trainees avoided eye contact that they had heard his every word and were facing the floor in a naïve attempt to save themselves. Though few struggled to remain completely passive. 

One trainee shook visibly from inside their suit like popcorn in a microwave- ready to explode. And like a praying mantis Colonel Hastings leapt towards them, taking their weakness as a sign for outright guilt.

He dragged them out of their suit- tearing off their oxygen tank as it remained connected to the machinery.

From his pocket Colonel Hastings drew the electric blade and pointed it against the neck of the trainee. As he did so the switch blade swelled with a powerful current.

"I oughta kill you right now. Pour lake water onto your skin drip by drip until your skin slides off your bones." In his blazing fury he seemed unaware that the trainee was already choking from the lack of oxygen

Scared as he was, Flynn could pretend no longer. He couldn't let another be tortured, like he had been himself. Like Tom and Kate. The choking trainee took on the form of Jasmine in Flynn's eyes. It could have been her too. She could've gone through this pain and Flynn wouldn't have even known. He couldn't stand the not knowing.  

"Stop this, you monster! It was me. I said it and you can send me to the depths before I ever give in to your... your cruelty!"

Colonel Hastings flung the trainee to the ground and they scrambled on all fours to retrieve their oxygen tank and mask. 

A dozen sets of eyes fell on Flynn at once. Though they were not half as terrifying as the violet eyes of the Purifier Colonel, protruding like pointed obelisks in Flynn's direction.

***

- Lake Windermere: 352 meters below sea level-

It's strange, thought Tom, marveling at the great expanse of Lake Windermere. From above it was a dangerous webbing of wave upon wave; tiny and large, some crashing and some skidding.

Yet from underneath the lake was so far from that image of certainty and danger. In the underwater depths it became the unknown. A question- dark black and endless.

Tom mused like this to himself for a short while in a way of comfort. So as to feel less alone and angry at Kate for dumping him in her mess yet again.

"Han..." Tom whispered to the watery mass. "It's Korean. Means dull ache of the soul."

And suddenly Tom felt ridiculous. Who was he talking to? He was completely alone. That immense calm he felt earlier began to dissipate.

So, unable to keep still for a moment longer, Tom anxiously put one foot in front of the other.

The metal feet of the Aquarist suit made an unusual sound as Tom wandered across the bottom of the lake, parting the sand underneath as the metal glided through the watery masses.

How am I going to get back to the Dam Lock now? He thought, sweat soaking his shirt.

Not only was the surrounding water seething with unsettling heat, but his dread conjured up the harrowing consequences of him being trapped at the bottom of the lake forever.

How far he had travelled in the water, Tom didn't know. The grating sounds of his steps all blurred into one. So much so that he hadn't noticed the particularly loud thudding of something slamming into the lake bed, spewing up sand in an atomic shaped cloud.

Despite his inexperience, Tom travelled smoothly through the depths as the Aquarist suit's many joints and lightweight materials successfully fit their underwater function. 

However the lights of his suit remained faulty. He could barely see at all. Barely even see the dense silhouette that flicked across the corner hole of his limited glass view.

Yet he did notice it, ever so slightly, like the recollection of a whispered sin. The slight discoloration in his deep blue surroundings had been enough to rouse suspicion.

Something's out there

Then it happened again. This time the black shape shot diagonally across his path. Tom stumbled backwards.

What in the hell was that?

He pressed the light button on the control panel desperately.

Something crashed into him. He couldn't see all the way down. Though the pressure on his right leg told him that something had shunted the metal of his suit into one of his legs. 

Tom jabbed the light button over and over.

Come on! 

He looked around in terror, trying to get his bearings and locate the torpedo shaped thing amongst the murkiness. 

It shot in front of him a third time, the black mass, almost blocking his already weak vision. It's silhouette seemed to grow in size. It was moving towards him. Fast.

Afraid, Tom jammed his fist into the button and it finally flickered on -long enough for Tom to see his attacker.

He wished he hadn't seen it at all.

The creature, if you could call it that, was a stretched oval, with fins jutting out of it's body in thickly set spikes.

He had read about creatures similar to this in the government's forbidden books- sharks, they were called. Officially Extinct 2020 AD, it had read. After the last shark to exist was poached off the coast of China. 

But this one was unnatural. It hardly looked like the shark in the photographs anymore.

It's skin was scorched, threatening to fall off of it's body like candle wax. At certain points this skin had grown over large plates of what looked to be rusted metal, gluing the sheets to the shark's body like armour. 

Whooosh

Tom dodged to the left of the sharkish being with no time to spare and it spun past him.

He quickly found the creature again with his dim torch fingers, the lights reflecting off the patched metal skin and small rounded eye.

Mouth open, the shark lunged towards him, it's rows of  jagged teeth bared and pushing against each other like weapons in an arms race.

Out of instinct, Tom ran in the opposite direction. But he had never met a sea animal before and despite what he had read, Tom didn't recall how well adapted the streamlined beings were to water. 

The creature easily caught up with him and locked it's jaw onto his arm. In turn threatening to pierce through the metal refuge of the Aquarist suit. 

He froze, not daring to drag his arm away for fear of the shark puncturing his suit. As his shaky gaze shifted from the shark's pink fleshy jaw Tom noticed a change- reflected in the single functioning eye of the creature. 

It's pupil contracted as though the shark had realised something. 

Then slowly, it released it's grip on Tom's arm. Whom of which counted his lucky stars to find his suit to be still in tact, minus a few dents.  If he was asked later on however, Tom would deny that these stars had any magical properties whatsoever. They were explosions of energy. That was all.

He watched as the shark swam past him- noticing the flickers of memory board metal that adorned the creature like a labyrinth of tattoos. 

The boy was shaken, balled over, by such an encounter. He had seen an animal. A real life animal. So humans hadn't killed them all!

He was curious too. So, he turned around and began to trial it, following the shark's tale as it swished and propelled the elegant brute through the water. 

Tom's heart throbbed inside his ribs, threatening to break out of his body as a stream of thoughts scampered through his mind. He had so many questions. 

He wondered if his father had seen this creature too, if it had killed him and what he would say if he knew Tom was now an Aquarist, even if in an unconventional way. He always wondered what had happened to his father the day he didn't return. The question plagued him like an incurable disease. 

*

Loud and intrusive, a high pitched frequency sounded across the radio, his radio, and Tom held up his arms in a defensive position. 

"Ever heard of staying in one place and waiting for help to find you!" The voice teased.

"We fell almost right next to where you did! Surprised you didn't hear us," Blue added, suit-clad and emerging from the murk.

Tom may have recalled a loud banging from earlier on but it lingered only in the background of his memory, amongst monotonous movement of the suit.

"Did you... did you see that?" said Tom, too shocked to feel grateful.

"It really is dark down here..."  Kate noted, searching around her for some change in the darkness.

"I said did you see that?"

"And so far down..." she continued, ignoring him. 

"Kate?" Tom almost shouted.

"What?! No I didn't see anything. What are you blubbering about?" Her tone of voice was weighted with irritation. 

"I think I just saw an animal..."

"No way? As in alive? Not just a carcass?" Kate mused. "You're sure?"

"Yes.. No.. I don't know! It looked like a shark but it wasn't quite right..."

  "The government never said anything about creatures in training! I thought almost all were extinct!" Blue added. 

"Where did it go?" Kate asked, not caring what the creature was,  only that it existed.

"Well I was following it when you o-so-cleverly surprised me!" Tom said angrily. 

"We came down here to help you!" Kate replied, in disbelief that Tom thought that badly of her.

"Since when do you ever do anything for other people, Kate?" They stood opposite each other like futuristic cowboys in a desert showdown. Except the setting was not a desert, but an underwater black hole and their guns were the lights at the ends of their suits and their pointed tongues. 

Blue took a step back, not wanting to risk his own life by standing in between these two hot headed trainees. He sighed. I just wanted to do my job, he thought. That's all I ever wanted.

The lights of Tom's suit began to flicker again. Though before verbal shots could be fired and the real argument could begin Tom flinched. "Hey I just saw it again! Behind you Blue," he said with glee and he skirted around Blue to follow the vanishing slither of silver amongst the watery carpet of liquid ink. Kate and Blue followed too, spurred on by the strangeness of the situation.

The silver slither moved slowly but steadily and the three of them began to notice that the closer they got to it the deeper shade of black trickled through their underwater surroundings.

Soon they were close enough to reach out and touch the creature's triangular tail. "I can't believe that thing's actually alive..." Kate noted in wonderment.

Though almost immediately after she had spoken the shark sped up, sensing their watchful gaze and swimming higher through the water. 

The three trainees struggled to focus on the creature now that their eyes weren't on the ground where they walked and they began to stumble across the sand, pushing each other out of the way hungrily. 

When the shark was so far into distance that they noticed it was surrounded by others of it's kind, other silver slithers, hanging against the dark water preposterously  like snow on a warm night. 

That's when it happened. 

As the silver sharks swam around each other the movement triggered a circuit affect. It was as though a switch had been flicked on, as light bloomed all around the sharks, bouncing and moving languidly in ribbons to reveal the top of the rocky cavity. 

Silence. No noise except the bubbling of the water as the light emitters swam about the cave, innocent of their own stunning spectacle. 

One shark dove downwards into a smaller shoal, catching an odd looking thing in it's mouth. Kate and Tom stared up in awe. That shoal- it pulsated as if something ran through it. Something electric. Suddenly the creatures began to make surprising sense. The shoal was composed of hundreds upon hundreds of floating bulbs, each scintillating with a bright yellow light whilst they swam about the cave in one mass.

As the shark cracked one particular bulb fish between it's teeth and snuffed out the filament light, the creature hung limp in the shark's grasp. Then sank down to the bottom of the cave as the shark spat out the pointy remnants.

Before the dead thing hit the floor Kate held out her hand, plucking the shell from the water. 

"What.. what is.." Kate failed to grasp at basic sentences as she held the mutated being in her hand. She had seen nothing like it before.  A small tuna like skeleton jutted out of the bulb filament. It was as though the filament had become part of the creature's skeleton and the bulb it's shell. Kate looked back to the living shoal, swimming beneath the sharks, trying to understand them. But she was so overwhelmed and she let go of the skeleton, allowing it to settle against the sand. 

"This isn't natural..." Blue moved nervously away from group of plastic bag jellyfish that were pulsating a glass bottle blue. 

"But how would we know? How would anyone know?" Tom replied. "We've been lied to all this time."

 The three trainees looked back up at the cave, absorbed in the light display that lit up the place like an 80's disco. 

Kate managed to smile at Tom in the midst of her wonderment, forgetting their previous argument. She wished Flynn and Jasmine were there.  The four of them, like when they found the forest all those years ago. The government had hidden whole worlds from them. Kate clenched her fists, re-discovering her bitterness.

"We have to tell people about this," Kate said resolutely once she had found her ability to communicate again. 

"The workers must already know and they've been ignoring it," Tom noted. 

"Wise move. This is what we'll do to. Now lets go and do what we came for," Blue resolved, able to find the exit of the cave due to the blooms of light.  

"No. We can't just ignore this! This is how we could live as we did before, amongst the animals. The government are just trying to find more ways to make us suffer!" 

"We didn't live amongst them don't you see!" Tom replied. "We killed them. We starved the earth and it's about time we stop being greedy and leave the earth as it is."

"But we can change it for the good! We can reverse it! Then we won't need the government. They'll fall. "

"We're not kids anymore! Stop making up scenarios that just won't happen. When we were kids sure we thought proving there was life was a good idea. This time we've already seen too much. This time we're going to forget about this and pretend it never happened." Tom hated himself for saying it, but it was true. They needed to do as they were told. Even though he felt the spectacle already burned onto his mind. 

"You're acting like this is out fault!"

"Be careful how you're talking," interrupted Blue, his tone shifting. "I'm starting to think you've forgotten where your true loyalties should lie. I've never forgotten mine."

Understanding Blue's warning, Kate followed Tom out of the cave, taking one last glance at the creatures- letting the site add fuel to the fire. 

I won't forget this, she thought. Flynn will help. There must be a way we can live again. Just like before.  

*

But they were unaware, that Flynn already knew about the lake's underwater secrets. And he had done a good job hiding where his loyalties lay, until now, as he himself lay on the floor of the 3rd rank platform. His bagged head painted red from the blood seeping down his neck and collecting in pools on the tiled floor. 

Author's note- Hey all. So summer's drawing to a close! How was your breaks? Go on any adventures? I'm off to uni in a week omg I'm so excited ahhh. Gunna be a big big change for me but a very welcome one at that :)  Would love to know what you thought of this chapter. Stay awesome. -hippywitch