Megan and Rio had been walking for a while now, around the edge of the cliff face, until they had found a small rivulet of water, that sure as hell hadn't been there the day before. Curious, they were following it, watching as it turned into a bigger and bigger stream, sending more and more little rivulets off into the rocks. Water cascaded down the boulders in places, creating little waterfalls. The whole scene was actually rather pretty, and the water was good. The fact that it seemed to be swelling every minute was irrelevant. It had been only a couple of days that they had been following the stream, and on this, the fourth day, it had finally become deep enough for them to not be able to make it through the middle without taking their feet off the ground. It had finally become a swimmable river, widening with every step, both from its proximity to its source; the lake, and the constant amassing of water that seemed to be taking place.

"Megan, I need to go." Came Rio's voice as he waded through the shallow edge of the water.

Rolling her eyes, Megan looked at him in an exasperated kind of shock. "You only went a couple of hours ago!"

Rio smiled sheepishly, and gestured around them. "Running water. It has an affect on me."

Megan couldn't help but grin, but glared at him at the same time, undoubtedly making for a rather odd expression. "Alright, but make it quick, Mister!" she ordered with a laugh.

Grinning like a four year old, Rio gave Megan a salute and splashed off behind a rock to do his business.

Sighing, Megan pointedly looked the other way, checking through the contents of her bag in her own, special, obsessive compulsive way. They never had any trouble finding food, not with Rio's traps, and water was plentiful, almost too much so. She was curious about the water…it was interesting, some of it was salty, but some of it was fresh, often in the same part of a stream, defying the usual separation between the two type of water.

"Megan!" Rio's voice was frantic, and she could hear the pain clouding its desperate tone.

Her gut wrenching, Megan froze for a moment. What if he was being attacked? She would be running straight into the trap. Surely she would have heard anyone that came to attack though…

No, she couldn't say she would have heard anyone, if it was one person or even two quiet people. She was too busy going through their supplies.

"MEGAN!"

That was a full on bellow, full of pain and a need for her. Megan reacted before she could think, bolting towards the voice. He sounded so much like Ferrid. Skidding around the boulder with her knives at the ready, she bolted towards Rio, who was lying half in, half out of a river, trying desperately to scrabble back up the bank, while something else, something infinitely stronger, was pulling him away, down into the depths of the water. Blood was leaking out of the mangled legs in the water, and Megan gasped as she saw the cause. A dark shape was in the water…a large shape, man sized, bigger than either of them, it had the lower body of a fish, albeit a big one, but its torso, its upper half, was that of a man crossed with a fish.

His skin was deathly pale, almost translucent, and she knew he couldn't breathe out of the water. His chest was scattered with scales, and a fin rose up from his back, but his face, his pale, blank face was purely human.

No, it wasn't blank…it had an expression. Determination. It was determined to bring Rio down into the depths of the water with him, and it was strong enough to know that it had won as soon as its muscular, bescaled arms had grabbed Rio's legs. It had cold determination on its face as it slowly, methodically, pulled its captor further back into the water. Any injury done to Rio, he had made himself through his desperate escape attempts.

The mutt, for that was what it had to be, turned to look at Megan.

Her knives clattered to the floor. Its eyes were…they were….they were her father's eyes! They couldn't be! Intelligent, as present as always. Her father….

The mutt never stopped its gentle progress into the water with Rio, but cocked its head ever so slightly to the side, something, almost curiosity, filling those all too familiar eyes.

Then Rio kicked again, and it sharply turned back to him, sinking faster into the water. A broken cry wrenched out of Rio's throat as he scraped his bloodied hands through the mud, up to his chest in water. "Megan, help me!"

He spoke then, to the creature behind him. "Dad, let me go! I love you, but I'm not dying now! I don't want to go! I DON'T WANT TO GO!"

It took but a moment for Megan to see the mutt for what it really was. Everyone saw someone different. She had almost wanted to go into the water with her father when she saw him…surely Rio must have felt it too, but had now realised what that entailed…

"HELP ME! MEGAN!"

Now tears came, thick and fast, battling through the mud and blood on Rio's face, from where he had tried to stop his descent into the water with every part of his body. They weren't tears of physical pain, no, they were tears of fear, of confusion. His father…his father wanted him to come back to the underworld. No.

"DAD! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME GO! I'LL BE GOOD!"

Megan's eyes filled with tears at the childish language such pure fear and desperation was ripping from her District Partner.

And as always, the mutt remained stoically silent, pulling him deeper and deeper down, an unstoppable force that no-one could ever win against. Rio was now up to his armpits in water.

Megan ran down to him, grabbed his arms, tried to pull, but to no avail. Almost blinded by tears, she was shocked when two wet hands clasped around her face.

Rio's hands, muddy and bloody, and wet.

His eyes held a sudden clarity amidst all of the pain, the eye of the storm of fear and confusion. "Megan. Don't let him get you to."

She shook her head numbly as he slipped further back into the water.

The pain seemed to disappear from his eyes, the confusion and the fear sinking into nothing. What was the point?

Megan could see what he was doing. Accepting his death…

The look on his face was stern, and his grip tightened on her face as the unstoppable force pulled him back to his neck. "Promise me, you won't let him get you. Promise me!"

Barely even conscious of her crying anymore, barely conscious of anything except for Rio's tender, and serious eyes, she nodded. "I promise." she whispered.

A small smile lit Rio's face, and he closed his eyes. "I'm going to hold you to that." he murmured, letting his hands fall from her face.

He slipped under the water.

Megan was too shocked to do anything but watch as the dark shapes seemed to meld into one, flowing downwards, further and further, until they ceased to exist, just another part of the darkness at the bottom of the river.

Tears tracked through the mud Rio's hands had left on Megan's face and she closed her eyes, pressing her lips together as she waited for his cannon to go off.