I T ' S  H E R E

Cody

I strolled outside of the cave and into the opening, the tiny kraken following behind. I kept going until I was under the tall blue crystals, then decided to stay there.

I relaxed, resting on the crystal and closing my eyes. "It's a nice day huh?" I spoke, cracking open my eyes and seeing the kraken sitting down besides me. He grinned. "Yeah! Are you sure that it's safe?" His yellow eyes darted around, then reassuring themselves when no one else was around. I waved it off. "It's fine, don't worry about it man. You just need to calm down and chill."

His purple body relaxed and I couldn't help but chuckle. If I had told that to the KrakenKid from my time, he'd probably shoot me.

Suddenly, from a simple thought, more began to sprout. What did happen to the KrakenKid I knew? Was he transported somewhere as well, or was it just me? It was hard to tell, given I had no idea how the Nexus managed to do this in the first place, or why it did this. Why would it send me back in time? Was I supposed to meet KrakenKid here, or was I meant to do something else and just didn't know it? How was I going to get home?

That question nearly stopped my heart. Crap... How am I supposed to get home? Trying to calm myself wasn't really working when I didn't have any answers. Maybe Poseidon could help. Just thinking about that increased my heart rate.

Talking to my Dad was already a touching subject, and now going up and asking him a favor? Telling him I'm his son from the future? That was nuts.

I shook out of it and fluttered open my eyes. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but I did notice the state of KrakenKid. He might have been trying to loosen up, but I could still see him searching the area. I sighed, sitting up.

"Come on, relax a bit man! Even if guards do come, they won't hurt a child."

KrakenKid paused and looked me directly in the eye. "What?" His voice was colder than normal. Just hearing it reminded me of when I first actually talked to KrakenKid, back when he captured me. His eyes were dead serious, seeing them chilled me to the bone. But I didn't stop.

"I know you're scared of Atlantis but I get it. It's a big city and intimidating," His body tensed up. "But Poseidon is a good man and a great King! I'm sure if you just talked to him and told him about your situation he would-" A short tasteless laugh rose out of his throat. I stopped, getting a little confused. "What's so funny?"

He paused, not moving at all, his eyes hidden from my view. "You... You're just like all the other Atlanteans."

Everything around me seemed to stop. The only sound I could hear was my heartbeat. "What?" He continued. "For a while there... I was thinking that maybe you were different. He's so nice to me. I said. He even stole food for me, he's different from the others. Maybe I can trust him." Slowly, his eyes met mine. They were filled with rage that shocked my soul.

"How wrong I was. You're just like the rest!" His voice changed. No longer so childish, but now much darker. KrakenKid was talking louder than normal now. I stuttered with my words. "W-what? What do you mean? What are you even talking about? You're talking gibberish!"

A low growl emitted from him and he torn away from the crystals, now standing a few feet away, but not facing me. His tentacle curled into a fist. The purple body twitched. "I am talking about you! You think that he's so perfect!" KrakenKid spat the word like it was poison.

"You think he's a hero, the one who will save you all from trouble. All of you Atlanteans are so BLIND! WHY CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT I DO?"

I blinked three times fast. "Kraken-I..." I shook my head, now standing up. "What are you talking about? Please just, explain. I don't understand."

He didn't respond for a while there. I heard him take deep breaths, as if he were trying to contain the rage, but still failing. Many moments later, he spoke, his voice calmer, but filled with a hidden emotion that I didn't understand. He asked me a question, but not something that I expected. He asked me something that I never thought about.

"How many other kraken's have you seen?"

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. KrakenKid spoke again.

"In Atlantis, have you seen any other kraken's besides me? If so, when was the last time you saw one? One that wasn't me."

I thought back, searching my mind for an answer. There was BabyBlooper, but he isn't even born so I don't think that counted. I searched more, but only came up blank. "... No." I admitted. "I've never met another kraken that wasn't you. But what's that have to do with-" He cut me off. "Do you know why?"

"I-what?"

"I SAID, Do you know WHY?"

When he turned around, hate seemed to be clouding his eyes. I stumbled with the words. I didn't get what he was implying. "It's a yes or no question penguin NOW ANSWER IT." He roared. My heart sped up. Penguin? Did he call me penguin? I shook myself, finally saying something. "No, I don't know."

His eyes rolled, shaking his head. "Of course you don't. None of you Atlanteans can ever answer it, and if they can, they never have the full story. Lucky you, you get to know exactly what happened without asking one of the blind ones."

He took a deep breath.

"Did you know there used to be thousands of krakens?" The yellow eyes bore into my brown ones. I shook my head. "There was. We were many, in fact I think we reached around a million or so. A million krakens! All living in Atlantis! Did you know that?" I shook my head again. My throat was clogged up and didn't let me speak.

"You might be thinking, a million krakens living in Atlantis? Why have I only seen you? Well, you see, that's where Poseidon comes in. Us krakens, we weren't the best of people. There was a fair chunk of us that were villains. We robbed banks, destroyed homes and did all sorts of things. We were dangerous people. However, the other half of us were good! We rebuilt homes, became heros or cops, some of us even joined the royal guard! We were powerful, and we were many. So many of us married each other and had more kraken children. Our life was good, and we always gave Atlantis a hand with the bad blooded krakens."

He huffed, now started to pace around, now longer meeting my gaze. "But that wasn't enough. There were so many bad krakens, that Poseidon thought we were more trouble than we were good. That King of yours thought krakens weren't worth it. So what did he do?"

His eyes met mine. My heart was going crazy and now I was breathing more heavily.

"Poseidon decided to kill us all."

My eyes widened and I back up. "N-no... That can't be true!" KrakenKid chuckled darkly. "But it is. You can't escape from the truth Cody." This time, I didn't meet his eyes. It didn't matter, he kept going.

"Men, women, children, royal guards, friendly traders, villians and heros, it didn't matter who you were. If you were a kraken, you were killed on sight. Krakens fought back of course, but that only made us look like the bad guy. All of the citizens of Atlantis just saw krakens fighting Atlantean soldiers and assumed we all went bad. Barely anyone questioned it, because Poseidon was their King, and they trust his judgement. No one had a voice of their own. There were some that escaped, but the estimated number was less than twenty, maybe even ten. Do you know how many survived that stayed?"

I said nothing. He answered for me.

"One. One kraken survived."

I tried to speak, but my words just fell out of my mouth. My hands were shaking. "My mom hid me in the place I live in now. She did it before anything happened because she knew that something was going down. No one else listened to her and everyone died. I even know what happened to her. She was vaporized by the Nexus, gone during one of the biggest escape attempts in history. I never saw my mom again. I never saw my Dad again either, he went MIA in the battle field like so many before him. I was alone." Dread filled my heart and soul. My world was breaking around me.

"Do you want to know why I want to be a villain?"

Eventually, I looked in his direction. He was staring right at me. Though I wanted to know the question so badly, I felt like now it was bitter sweet. Something that would break me. I couldn't stop myself from asking. I had to know. I gulped. "Why?" I croaked out. His eyes narrowed.

"Because heroes are corrupt! Poseidon did terrible things, worse than some of my favorite villains, and he's still called a "Hero" because of it. No. I want to be a villain because I won't lie about where I stand. You can always trust a villain to do bad things, but if a Hero does it, it shocks everyone. I want to be a villain because Atlantis has wronged me too many time! They call their King a "Hero", but they are blind to his actions! You can trust a Villain because you'll know what they'll do, but with a Hero, you can't because they can do anything. I want to be a Villain and show Atlantis what's really going on."

KrakenKid finished but I still was comprehending what he was saying. He stared at me, trying to see where I was standing. I cleared my throat, but shook my head. "N-no... That can't be..." I spoke horrified. His eyes narrowed. "What? I just told you everything and you don't believe me?" I kept shaking my head, my body now low key shaking. My idol a killer? This couldn't be true. "NO! POSEIDON IS A GOOD MAN! HE-He can't! He couldn't have! Y-you..." Something burned deep inside of me.

"You're lying! You have to be!" His yellow eyes flashed. "You don't believe me? YOU'RE JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM!" He screamed at me and ran for the tunnels. I watched him disappearing into them, and I was alone.

A man alone with his thoughts... What a dangerous mix.

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I told you no one was ready.

--JustAnAtlantisWriter