Danny glanced up as felt a hand gently touching his shoulder in greeting before the brunette sat opposite him on the boat. The sun hadn't yet began to peak over the horizon, indicating it was still early in the morning, but Jayme knew that the ex-team leader would be here, preparing the boat for the long day ahead. He always had a tendency to start on things before anyone else was around; there were some things he preferred to do alone.

"Good sleep?" Jayme questioned, smiling at the man who was currently leaning over the map of the Loch Ness, analysing sections of it around the now locked anomaly where they would be diving in search of possible incursions. It had been late last night when they arrived yet Danny insisted on going out into the large lake anyway, and locking the anomaly; it meant a decreased chance of any creatures, or any more creatures from coming through, then they could search for incursions in the morning, which was exactly what they were planning on doing.

"If you consider Connor counting sheep all night relaxing, then yeah, it was perfect," Danny stated, the obvious hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"C'mon, it couldn't have been that bad, Danny,"

"Did I fail to mention that it was out loud?" The man questioned, chuckling to himself, "I swear that man will stay a kid forever,"

"If Connor wasn't annoying, he wouldn't be Connor, I even know that. Besides, he's probably one of the bravest people I know, granted he's a complete kid at times, but he's smart, he'll do anything for the people he loves, I admire that,"

Danny nodded in mutual agreement before raising an eyebrow at him, "And is Becker another one of these brave people?" He queried, smirking at the brunette and grabbing a slice of toast from the plate beside him.

Jayme swiped the food out from between his fingers before he had a chance to take a bite, matching the smirk that the man had been giving her, "Grow up, Quinn," She responded, taking a bite from the toast, "And yes, he is one, all of you guys are, you all go up against these dangers and the world doesn't even know it, you don't get the credit you deserve,"

"Well that was actually sweet, little Cutter, considering it came from you," Danny stated in a teasing tone, earning himself a playful glare from the brunette, "But let's be serious for a moment, how are we going to handle this whole thing, you know with Amanda? We can run away to Scotland for as long as we like but it's not going to change the fact that once we get back, we have no way of stopping her,"

"You really know how to ruin a happy moment, don't you?" Jayme queried, glancing out across the lake behind her for a moment, "I'm working on it," She added, in response to his question, before taking another bite from the slice of toast in her hand.

"Yeah, well, I guess we can deal with that tomorrow, we still have a possible sea creature in this lake, and I'm not liking our odds at finding it,"

"Hey, I'll work on Amanda, you can work on that,"

"I'm still trying to figure out which one will be easier," Danny stated, grabbing the remains of the toast from the brunette and finishing it off, "Amanda or Nessie?"

"Please, don't say Nessie around Connor, he really thinks it is some sort of Loch Ness monster, you don't need to encourage him,"

"You don't think it's possible that the stories are from something coming through the anomalies?"

"I don't know, Danny. I guess I just always thought legends and myths were exactly that, legends and myths,"

The brunette watched as the large glowing sphere rose slowly into the dull morning sky, casting sunbeams in every direction, sending a streak of illumination across the dark lake. It had been twenty minutes since they'd set out into the Loch Ness; Danny had wanted everyone up and ready just before dawn, and that was exactly what he received. It would only be another five minutes or so until they were above the locked anomaly that lay situated under the icy cold water. The team knew straight away that this job wasn't going to be easy, Danny had made sure they did; the lake was after all around 36km in length and 3km in width; they were just hoping luck was on their side.

"Jayme?" A voice questioned from behind the brunette who was perched on the edge of the boat, looking out across at the horizon. The voice was familiar, too familiar, and there was no need to plant her own eyes on his face to know who was talking to her; the one soldier who didn't seem to want to leave her mind alone.

"What is it, Becker?" Jayme queried, smiling slightly as she spoke his name, a smile which vanished as quick as it had appeared.

"How are you?" The soldier asked, sitting down; the casual tone in his voice made her wish she could feel completely natural right now, to not have any form of dark cloud looming over her mind, to not have to deal with the stress of what her and Danny were up against; the only time she could even feel close to that kind of feeling was talking to the very man who had just sat down beside her, even then, it wasn't totally peaceful, she still couldn't forget.

"Do you always want to ask me that," The brunette responded, smiling to herself, "I wish I had an answer," She added, turning to face him for the first time since he'd wandered over, and leaning her back against the railing.

"I know how you feel," Becker stated, keeping his eyes on her for a little longer than necessary, observing every feature on her face almost subconsciously. He let out a breathy laugh as he pulled himself away, "I think we're all feeling a little bit lost right now," He told her, trying to regain the casual appearance that had disappeared only moments ago, choosing to look away from those blue eyes that were trying desperately to figure him out; he definitely was feeling lost, it was just that he felt slightly guilty that the feeling had nothing to do with the situation the ARC was in, more to do with the girl that was positioned a fraction away from him; their arms almost touching, only the fabric and that tiny bit of air that distanced them. It was then that Becker mentally slapped himself for being so observant; why did he have to pick up on the little things that drove him completely crazy.

"Yeah, I think this helps, you know, being in Scotland, away from all the mess back in London; it's a nice break, even if it means the problems haven't gone away, it's refreshing to see them just a little postponed for the time being,"

"You're right there," Becker responded, resting his back against the metal, his elbows hanging easily over the edge of the railings, exposed to the cold splashes of lake water that were disturbed by the travelling boat.

After a couple minutes of silent travelling, heading onwards towards the locked anomaly, the boat came to a gradual stop as Danny shut down the engine, leaving the vessel to rock gently against the icy water, the anomaly only a few feet away. The ex-team leader reappeared from the bridge of the boat, the last of the diving equipment in hand, and added them to the collection that Connor had previously started. Becker glanced back as Jayme stood up behind him, wandering towards the sets of equipment.

"Where do you think you're going?" The soldier queried, placing a gentle hand on her arm to stop her in her tracks; he kept his voice low, avoiding any attention that could be drawn to their conversation.

"I'm going down," The brunette announced, leaving no trace in her voice that she was in any way asking for permission.

"You don't have to, Jayme. We can handle it," Becker told her, gesturing towards the security team with a swift tilt of the head.

"I wasn't asking, Becker. Besides, I've had plenty of experience swimming in freezing cold lakes with a much higher threat level than this. I'm going down, you're not going to stop me; I don't need protecting," Becker didn't argue, she was way too stubborn for him to begin a reasonable debate on the matter, she knew what she wanted and when she knew what she wanted, she didn't let anything stand in her way. But if there is something in the lake, he wasn't going to let it hurt her; that was for sure.

"Alrighty' then," Connor stated; his voice high on the chipper side as he distracted the two out of their small talk, making it clear that he knew what they were talking about. He sent a quick smile their way before syncing the underwater cameras attached to the diving suits to his laptop, enabling him to see whatever his team members could.

Sam and Scott would be staying on the boat to ensure no one came near the locked anomaly, and Danny, Becker, Jayme, Kate and Riley would be diving into the lake to try and attract any possible creatures that had come through. Once everyone was suited up, and the condition of the air tanks were double-checked, the five team members stood on the edge of the boat, and in one swift movement, they all entered the water, disappearing beneath the dark ripples.

The anomaly illuminated the dark waters beneath the surface, only to an extent, but it was better than nothing. The five turned on their separate torches and split up, the steady rhythm of the diving flippers could be heard softly deep in the waters, until everyone had distanced themselves far enough away from each other. Jayme found herself swimming towards the edge of the lake, the dirt cliffs soft beneath her fingers. The boulders on the lake floor were clearly worn down from the water over the years, yet they were still huge, big enough to hide behind. The occasional small cave at the edges weren't vast enough to hold a large sea creature, and so far, there didn't seem to be any sign of disturbance, but then again, there was no way of them knowing for sure; they were only searching a small section of the lake.

Kate felt as if she had been swimming for days, and yet not a single prehistoric creature had crossed her path; this entire assignment was beginning to feel more and more pointless. She glanced down at the watch, visible over her diving suit, it had been three and a half hours, more or less, what were they expecting to find? Looking back up, she found herself squinting through the dark depths of the lake. For a moment, she could've sworn she had seen something moving, it hadn't been very clear, more of a faint grey form, but she was almost certain she had seen something. The black-haired soldier swam back in the direction of the surface, breaking the calm flat waters as she reached her location. The boat had to be a fair hundred metres or so away from her current position. Kate removed the diving mask, leaving it hanging around her neck as she reconnected the ear piece, waiting for the signal to clear.

"Connor, I think I may have found something," The soldier stated, gazing over at the boat where the man would be sat, most likely watching all of the underwater cameras for any sign of a creature incursion.

"What was it? Did you something?"

"Not sure, it was some sort of large shape, grey in colour; don't know if I imagined it or not though, it was gone by the time I refocused," She informed, feeling the first effects of paranoia sinking in, here she was floating in the middle of a lake when there was a chance of a prehistoric creature swimming just below her, a chance of a carnivore in this very lake.

"I'll let Danny know,"

"Got it, I'll circulate this area, keep an eye out,"

"Be careful, there could be anything lurking in those waters, there's a number of carnivores from the Jurassic period which you really wouldn't want to meet,"

"Trust me, I'm always careful,"

Riley managed to find his way back to the locked anomaly, even with every intention to swim in the opposite direction; it was just his luck to travel in circles, direction hadn't always been his strongest point. The brunette soldier had failed to yet see any unusual entities moving through the waters of the Loch Ness; the strangest aspect of it all was that this whole assignment had brought back a piece of his childhood. As a young boy he had been wholeheartedly obsessed with mythical creatures, especially the Loch Ness Monster, the amount of books he used to own on these sorts of legends were beyond counting. It was an interest he had grown out of as he aged, but he couldn't deny that he was starting to match Temple's own curiosity and excitement for the possibly of finding the root to the legend behind Loch Ness.

As he began his ascent to the surface of the lake, a flash of grey from the corner of his eye alerted him to movement. He wasn't alone. It had been far enough away to only see a slight variation in colour, but it was definitely some form of creature, it had moved, that was all the identification he needed. Turning back on himself, he swam towards his left, the direction of the shape, and kept close to the surface, in case he needed to get to the boat. None of the team members knew what they were dealing with; if it was a predator then he needed to have an escape plan. Riley continued to watch the waters below him, waiting for a sign of movement again. He wasn't disappointed. A vague shape, grey in colour, moved beneath him; it was enough to make him breathless; for the first time in a long time, he felt almost frozen, unsure of what to do. He couldn't make out what it was; it was too deep for him to get a clear view. One thing was for sure, it appeared as though the ARC team were in fact dealing with a creature incursion after all.

"Everyone be on the lookout, there's definitely something in this lake. We've had two sightings, Kate's and Riley's. We think we're dealing with a creature about five to six metres in length, not incredibly speedy, and greyish in colour. Be careful, we still don't know what it is exactly that we have on our hands," Connor informed, his voice reaching out across all five ear pieces from the divers in the water, at least now they knew the search was no longer pointless.

Becker was now on his way towards the edge of the lake, after swimming from the boat in a large clockwise circle to where he was now. Ever since Connor's message, he had been keeping an even keener eye out for this creature, yet he came up blank. It certainly hadn't crossed his path, but then again, it was only a matter of time. The whole team had already been up for a new tank of air about twice now, they were lasting for around two hours, give or take; it all depended on how deep you dived. Even then, if they didn't find this creature soon, there would be no more air tanks left and they'd have to give up for the day, which wouldn't go down well considering there had been two sightings; at least it hadn't been from a civilian, Lester would have a field day if that happened.

As he travelled onwards, he spotted movement up ahead. It wasn't six metre long movement though. Just as he thought he was catching a break, it all fell apart. He made his way towards the dark figure, which spun around in shock at his sudden appearance. Beneath the diving mask, the familiar blue eyes of Jayme were visible, shooting him a playful glance of accusation for his unexpected entrance. She pointed upwards towards the surface of the water, before heading in the same direction. As she lifted the mask from her face, she noticed that the sun had hidden itself behind the dark clouds which were looming; typical UK weather. Becker soon joined her, breaking the still waters of the lake as he swam up from the depths.

"Found anything yet?" The soldier queried, running a hand through his soaked hair to clear it from falling onto his face.

"Nope; there's nothing unusual in any of the caves, I haven't seen any six metre long grey sea monster, what about you?"

"No such luck, I'm just hoping we haven't scared it away to the other end of the lake; that definitely won't make things any easier,"

"I doubt it, it'll be staying near the anomaly, this water will be different to the water back in its home, probably senses the danger, it won't travel far. I thought about if we opened the anomaly and just let it go back itself, but then again, any number of creatures could come swimming through, and they could be a lot more dangerous, so I guess it's probably not a good idea,"

"It would've been easier though,"

"Since when do our lives get easier?" Jayme quipped, sharing a smile with the soldier before glancing around at her surroundings. "We should get back to searching," She added, pulling the mask back up onto her face and descending into the dark waters to continue the search that was bringing up very few results. Becker was close behind, swimming not too far from her, searching for any form of life that may pass them. It was Jayme's abrupt stop that caught the soldier's eye, as she remained still, concentrating on something. He gazed in the same direction, yet there was nothing in sight; no creatures, no movement, no life. She gestured towards her ears, and before he even had the chance to understand what she was trying to communicate to him, the same noise travelled to him. It was low, barely audible, but it was definitely something.

Jayme turned back to concentrating on the sound; it was ever so similar to what a whale would make underwater. However, this sound was quieter, lower, more of a deep but gentle vibration through the waters. She'd heard communications like this before, they usually came from a breed of plesiosaur, just as her and Connor had predicted the day before. The brunette swam over to Becker, gaining his attention before signalling for him to follow her. She wasn't one hundred percent sure, but there was a possibly that the sound was coming from the very direction she had began travelling in; then again if she was wrong, they'd be pretty much back to square one.

Ever since Connor's voice had informed the team that there was in fact a creature in the lake, Danny had taken extra precautions. It would be useless to end up dead. Even with surveying the areas he was swimming in, there'd been nothing particularly suspicious in his path. He should've known not to speak to soon. A low sound reached his ears; it seemed to be a distress call, although he couldn't be certain. One thing he did know was that it belonged to a marine animal; that much he could be sure on. As he carried on swimming through the waters of the Loch Ness, a vague grey form caught the corner of his eye. The ex-team leader kept still, hoping that if there appeared to be no threat, it would come closer. That was one thing he did do right. The shape became clearer as it neared, making Danny's heart skip a beat faster. He knew Connor would be getting this all on video; his camera was directly facing the creature as it approached. The head couldn't have been that big, no more than half a metre long, it was the neck that took him by surprise, it had to be at least three metres long, and then its body followed. The body was rounder, bulkier than the neck; the four flippers that adorned it seemed rather powerful, pushing the creature elegantly through the waters. There was no mistaken that if a civilian had in fact seen this creature, they would have assumed it to be the thing behind the myths. The creature passed, without showing any sign that it had noticed him, and swam off, most likely travelling in a large circle around the anomaly; given the locations of his team members when they had sighted the creature, it didn't seem to be travelling far enough away from its only way home.

The last to climb back onto the boat was Becker's second in command, Kate. Mimicking everyone else's previous actions, she pulled off the diving mask and placed it on one of the tables, giving her face a rub with both hands. As she looked over at her team members, it was strange how she seemed to really notice the way everyone was stood. It hadn't been that obvious before, or at least she hadn't paid much attention to it. Becker didn't stray too far from Jayme, Jayme often kept at a close distance to Danny, Sam seemed to prefer being at opposite ends to Becker, only glancing over when she assumed no one to be looking; Kate had never noticed that before, she didn't really think about how much her friend may still be hurting, it had to be a weird situation for her after all; Riley and Scott usually remained either near each other or far away, their friendship often went from close to petty arguments and back again; it was only Connor who didn't seem to care where he stood, he was happy to be close to anyone, then again, he did get on well with every single one of the team members, most of the time; and for herself, she liked to be close enough to the action to know what was going on, she always wanted to be kept in the loop about things.

"I think I know what we're dealing with," Connor announced, shaking Kate out of her trance and mentally pulling her into the conversation, "My best guess would be a muraenosaurus,"

"A muraeno-what?" Becker questioned, furrowing his brow slightly; he always wondered why they had to have such complicated names.

"Muraenosaurus, it's similar to a plesiosaurus, but bigger, by around two to three metres; more proportionally sized neck and flippers," He informed the soldier, glancing back over at the image on the computer screen from Danny's camera; he had paused it at the best shot, it was view from the head, and then downwards on a slight angle; it was the best he could do considering how close it had been to the ex-team leader at the time.

"So are we thinking that the anomaly leads to maybe breeding or hunting grounds of a family of these muraenosaurus'? It would explain the whole Loch Ness Monster; they generally sound like the same creature when you read the stories, excluding the odd exception," Jayme added, folding her arms as she did so and looking over at Connor.

"Probably something like that; if it's a family it would explain why these stories have been going on for god knows how many years," Connor responded, hesitating slightly at his words; he wasn't sure of the top of his head how old this myth really was.

"First sighting was by Saint Columba in the 6th century, claims he came across a group of people burying a man who had been killed by a creature in the lake, and then he came across it himself when he went swimming; it was written about by Adomnán in the 7th century," Riley informed, pausing after the words had left his mouth; he wasn't even sure where that had come from.

Scott raised an eyebrow at him, "Are you often a walking encyclopaedia of myths?" He asked, smirking at his friend. It seemed as though Scott wasn't the only one interested in the answer to that, everyone had turned to face Riley, their faces slightly confused.

"I read about a lot of things like that when I was a kid," He responded, the pitch of his voice rising slightly in defence.

"Okay, so now that this weirdo is done talking, how about we come up with a plan to get Nessie back home?" Scott quipped, playfully punching Riley's arm who sent him a swift glare in return, only making the soldier smile more.

"Well we can, after you two kids stop teasing each other," Sam added, gently slapping the pair on their heads before wandering over to the edge of the boat and glancing over the side at the locked anomaly that shimmered beneath the surface, "What exactly are we going to do?"

"Ooh, I know!" Connor burst out after a moment's silence, startling a few of the team on the boat. He moved around, glancing at every single one of them until concluding that there was no one on the boat that was there when the ARC dealt with another underwater creature, one that was from the future. "We use the sound waves from Danny's camera, we use the sound to attract the creature,"

"Will that work?" Danny questioned, giving the man a slightly sceptical look.

"Yes, it's worked before, none of you were there though, Cutter was, but that's beside the point, he's all the way back in London. We dealt with a mer-creature from the future a few years ago, back in the ARC's early days, we used the sound to attract the creature and it worked, it came straight to us,"

"It was that easy?" Sam queried, sharing a similar expression to Danny as she watched Connor explain.

"Well, it didn't go perfectly. It took Abby, nearly killed her," He began, watching as the majority of the team looked at him with faces full of scepticism, "But, it did work. And a muraenosaurus wouldn't eat us, and it doesn't have the ability or the intelligence to kidnap us and take us away, so I think we're pretty much good on this one,"

"If you say so, Temple," Sam stated, sharing a look with Kate before glancing over at Connor once again, "Just tell us what we have to do,"

.

A/N: Thank you for all of the visitors and views so far, it's great to know people are still reading this! I would really appreciate it if you reviewed and let me know what you think, I'll give you cyber cookies? :)