Warning! This story will have lots of swearing, violence, and blood/gore. If you don't like that, then this probably isn't for you and you shouldn't be reading this.

"Yes, I am Zero." = Regular speech

What is he up to? = Thoughts

"Where are you young one?" = Telepathic speech

"Hello, I am your PDA." = The PDA is speaking

I don't take any credit, nor do I own Code Geass or Subnautica. This story is purely for fun and my entertainment only.

Otherwise, let us start.

Ch. 4: Stepping out into the Shallows

Suddenly, a bar of text appeared in the middle of the glass screen highlighted in flashing yellow. Booting In Emergency Mode.

"Told you it was some communication device." Lelouch gloated in his small victory. Ego started to rear its head as he spoke patronizingly to Suzaku, who had an annoyed look on his face. "You really should listen to me more Suzaku."

"Whatever. See if I save you from any more alien predators next time." The burnette grumbled sourly.

"You two are fighting like children." Kallen deadpanned with a neutral expression.

"Alterra~" Suddenly, a mechanical voice chimed out from within the device Lelouch was holding. Breaking up the petty verbal spat and regaining everyone's attention. A loading screen and a logo with the apparent company name underneath appearing in the middle of the screen now. The emergency message moving up to the top.

It was quiet as the screen slowly began to load like a Windows Vista.

"The hell is Alterra?"

. . .

"Most certainly a company or organization." Lelouch deduced, watching with bored eyes as the device slowly loaded. "Though for this being possibly bleeding edge future technology, it's rather slow and disappointing."

"I can attest to that." Kallen agreed. "The Guren can start up faster than this thing can load."

"Yes, but should we be worried about this Alterra?" Suzaku questioned, watching as the device was almost done loading as well.

"You worry too much Suzaku." Lelouch stated as he took a sip of water. "Besides it's not like we can do much about it if Alterra is a threat. As we are now, we can't even protect ourselves from that sea monster that was swimming outside." All three occupants of the lifepod shuddered at the memory. A great first impression on this sea based planet. "For now, let's focus on more pressing matters and put those kinds of questions lower on the priority list. Our survival comes first and foremost. Now then…" The raven haired teen lightly tapped the glass panel again. "Let's see what this thing can do."

Once the loading screen reached one hundred percent, a blue light flashed out over Kallen, Lelouch, and Suzaku's faces. "Connecting to suit interface." Everyone reeled back at the blinding light, but they soon realized it was only scanning them.

With that finished, the strange device finally spoke once more. "You have suffered from minor stomach trauma and bite wounds. This is considered an optimal outcome."

"Minor my ass." Kallen scoffed.

"This PDA has now rebooted to emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive in an alien world." The newly dubbed PDA stated, confirming Lelouch's theory of this planet not being Earth. "Please refer to the data bank for detailed survival advice. Good luck."

Two things happened at once, the backs of the chairs suddenly popped open with a light hiss, and the PDA's screen suddenly changed to what looked like an inventory. There were six different tabs at the very top of the screen and the inventory was split into two halves. The left side was a basic inventory of what the person was holding, which was completely empty, and the right side was equipment, which was showing Lelouch's wetsuit, fins, gloves, and O2 tank. The six tabs from left to right looked like a person, a wrench, a beacon icon, an image, a document, and an open book.

"Very interesting." Lelouch hummed happily, before doing as the PDA advised and reading the detailed survival advice in its data bank.

Kallen and Suzaku went to check what was hiding behind the chairs. Each pulled out two rather big knapsacks though they were surprisingly light. All of them were colored pure black with white and silver straps and seemed to be made to let water flow through them while keeping any items stored inside.

"Okay…" Suzaku drawled, investigating his knapsacks and coming up empty. "At least we can use these to help carry stuff instead of using our bare hands."

"We even have an extra one incase one of ours gets ripped, so one bag for each person." Kallen agreed, also coming up empty while searching through her bags. The redhead put one of her knapsacks back into its storage space before pushing the seat cushions back into place with a click. Suzaku copying her movements but leaving both of his knapsacks out so that Lelouch had one.

"Okay." Lelouch spoke up once more, gaining the other two's attention. "I've read through the 'Start Here' and 'Survival Checklist' and the only really useful things I have learned is that once all of our suits are connected to the PDA we can communicate via microphone in short-range and that our suits are cross-compatible with all Alterra compliant products. So some good news, but not much else besides that." Dichromatic eyes scoured the lifepod until he found his transformed mask. It was the same except for the features he noticed when first landing on this planet but with clear, see through purple tinted glass being over his face rather than the one way glass he originally had. "Although, I bet that enormous ship that crash landed on this planet just recently belonged to this Alterra company, so we can use what scraps we can find from there and integrate them into our suits."

"But for that, we'd need to go outside, into the water." Kallen said, anxious energy pooling in her gut. The redhead's sapphire eyes snapped over to Lelouch as he began putting his injured arm back into his wetsuit. "Hey! Are you sure you should be doing that? You're still injured."

"All that's left of that bite is scabs. I'll be fine, Kallen." Lelouch reassured his loyal Black Knight before zipping up his wetsuit all of the way. "Besides, it was getting uncomfortable." Black gloved hands reached for Lelouch's discarded O2 tank and threw it on his back again. An exerted grunt puffing past his lips.

"But that thing is obviously still out there." Suzaku's olive green eyes shifted to the bottom hatch of the lifepod nervously. "It's obviously strong, huge, and has tons of teeth. We can't beat that thing without weapons."

"Which means we have to make them ourselves." Lelouch said simply, as if that was the answer to all of their problems. One hand grabbed a hold of his mask while the other pointed to the strange white and orange machine sticking on the inside of the lifepod. "You see that there? Watch this." As the raven haired teen stepped right in front of the machine, it suddenly whirred to life and unfolded itself into a crafting station of sorts. "We can use this thing to help make weapons or anything else we should need for survival. It's called a fabricator according to the PDA, and I believe it's name states its function rather clearly."

"So it makes items, but how do we make it do that, and don't we need materials for it to work?" Kallen questioned. Lelouch gave a 'come here' gesture which both Kallen and Suzaku obeyed.

All eyes fell to the PDA Lelouch was still holding. "That's where this PDA comes in." He clicked on the second tab and a few more buttons, before the fabricator's fabricating options appeared. "This is what we can currently make from this machine." All of the options were greyed out. "Obviously we can't make anything at the moment, but this lifepod did a scan of the planet once it landed down on the water. So it can show what natural elements we can use to make these items." Lelouch's lips pursed. "Although the pod did suffer a lot of damage and desperately needs repairs."

"Some of which you caused." Suzaku grumbled, rubbing his stomach gingerly.

Lelouch chose to ignore that comment and move on. "The scans the lifepod did of the planet can't transfer to the PDA completely unless we repair it. So, a few things we need to make first are knives, flashlights, a repair tool, and a scanner. We can also make O2 tanks that store more oxygen and better fins, so that's a plus we should consider as well."

"Okay, I can understand things like the knives and O2 tanks, but why a scanner?" A confused expression passed Kallen's face as she said that. "What can the scanner do?"

"From what the PDA is describing." Lelouch clicked a few more options on the PDA. Already starting to get into the swing of things and figuring out how this technology works. "It can scan scrap pieces and salvage to help make more blueprints for things we'll be needing down the road. It can also scan the plant life and fauna to help expand the fabricator's capabilities." After a few minutes of silence, it seemed that no one had much of a problem with this plan. That or they didn't have a choice but to go with it. "First thing we'll need is titanium, which can be found from limestone outcroppings and salvage from the ship, and creepvine seed clusters?" The raven haired teen's eyebrows furrowed at that part. "Whatever the hell that is. We'll need it to make silicone rubber."

"Alright." Suzaku raised both of his hands to stretch them behind his head, and looked outside of the lifepod with an apprehensive expression. "Alright, so we're really doing this." Olive green eyes met sapphire blue and mismatched violet and red. "But say we do go back out there and we encounter that thing again, what then?"

"Well, I got these." Kallen gestured to the blades on her arm. "But I doubt it'll do much against that thing, maybe scare it off or startle it if I get a good hit in."

Lelouch's extensions wrapped tighter around his body, an unintentional sign to show he wasn't as calm and confident as he portrayed. Judging from the vexed expression on his face when his dichromatic eyes looked down at his extensions he hadn't meant to show his unease and was unhappy with it. "The best choice we have if we encounter that thing or something like it is running. Drop whatever you're doing and just swim straight back to the lifepod, same thing if one of us gets injured." The leader of the Black Knights cleared his expression to give both Kallen and Suzaku a stern look. "We are stranded on an alien world. Anything and everything can be perceived as a threat. You see anything, hear anything, hell even feel something deep in your gut, you stop what you're doing, tell the others, and we all head straight back here. Got it?"

"Right." Kallen and Suzaku agreed, and nodded their heads.

"Good." Lelouch took one last deep breath, and swiftly put his mask back on. "Then let's get going."

Kallen and Suzaku followed Lelouch's movement, and put their own masks back on before everyone crowded around the bottom hatch of the lifepod. With a steadying breath that helped ground him Suzaku opened the hatch once more. The burnette was about to dive into the water feet first when a small strange looking fish swam underneath the pod, startling him.

The alien fish was mostly orange and purple with its strips being orange and its face and tail fin being purple. It was about the size of any regular medium sized fish you would see on Earth. A giant hole was in the middle of its fin, but it looked like it was actually a part of the thing's anatomy. Two big cyan blue eyes, one on each side of it's head, was all that the trio could see before it swam off like a mini bullet before they could blink. The thing obviously having been startled like Suzaku was.

That's when another fish, this one about as big as a Chinook or 'King salmon', came casually swimming underneath the pod. It was maybe even bigger than the salmon on Earth, but it was smaller than the three humans thankfully, yet that didn't make it any less possibly dangerous. The thing had no fins, arms, or legs, and instead had a very flat body. It's colors were mostly a dary navy blue, with bright neon blue outlines and neon orange on its tail, around its two big orange eyes, and on two big strange appendages pointing backwards that almost looked like rabbit ears. The thing had two big wing-like appendages on either side of its body that made the fish move like a ray. After a moment of staying idle, the fish seemed to realize it was being watched and fled.

All three humans let out a sigh of relief that they didn't realize they were holding in. Everyone looked at each other in disbelief.

"I can't believe we all just got scared by two fish." Kallen groaned. "They weren't even as big as us either, and not even close to that last thing we saw!"

"Better to be cautious than end up dead." Suzaku said lightly, and bravely dived back into the water without another word.

"I wouldn't be surprised we all got thalassophobia by the end of this hell, or maybe it would be ichthyophobia." At the questioning look Kallen threw at him, Lelouch explained. "Thalassophobia is an intense fear of the ocean while ichthyophobia is an intense fear of fish."

Kallen lowered her eyelids and gave a near disbelieving look, before shaking her head and wordlessly diving into the water like Suzaku. Lelouch merely watched the interaction silently, before he rolled his mismatched eyes, grabbed ahold of the PDA and their knapsacks, and too jumped into the water after one last grounding breath.

Once the bubbles cleared from his vision and Lelouch made sure the tears in his suit didn't affect his O2 levels the raven haired teen began to look around at their surroundings. "Woah."

The sea water was completely clear and tinted a light baby blue. Unlike when they had first dropped down here on this watery hell, there was no kelp around them to obstruct their vision. Instead, there were tons of giant coral tubes that easily towered over the humans like the kelp that was scattered across the area before. Near pure white sand with no seagrass stretched across this new environment along with other weird forms of plant life and fauna. Plants ranging from giant purple mushrooms with pink interiors, wavy purple weeds with glowing cyan tips, to purple, blue, red, and orange barnacles. While some places seemed shallow and even, other parts of this environment had ledges and caves, but the land was nowhere near the depth as that kelp forest. Limestone formations and other strange twists and shapes were seen here and there with deep red and marron coral plates sticking out on the side.

At this rate, Lelouch figured that limestone was the main material on this planet.

In terms of fauna, it was all rather surprisingly small. Judging from Kallen and Suzaku's cautious turning into awed expressions as they too really took in the environment they had expected something more life threatening and big. That was fine, Lelouch was expecting something like that as well.

There were fish that had the holes in the backs of their tails and a few of those bigger fish they had encountered earlier. However, there were also more different looking fish then that. One looked like a green and yellow boomerang with small teeth and two tiny eyes at the front of its face. Another was rather small and mostly orange while it had two small red fins on it's side and a small tail. Its two tiny eyes at the very top of its head made it look rather weird. The freakiest looking ones though had to be the seemingly purple floating air sacs casually swimming through the ocean and the fish with two huge eyes that basically took up more than half of its body. The air sac being a mainly transparent glowing purple with a thin tan skeleton, six feelers surrounding its air sac, and one tiny cyclop eye where its supposed head was. There wasn't any form of mouth or anything of the sort on its body. The other one, baring its enormous glowing yellow eyes, was mostly a dark green and blue with a big tail. It had a beak for a mouth in front of its eyes, and two extended appendages that helped the creature propel itself and move around quickly in the water. Three holes on either side of its body extending towards its tail most likely acted as gills.

"I don't see that thing we first encountered anywhere." Suzaku finally spoke up softly. His olive green eyes gazing around at the gorgeous and peaceful environment with wonder. "This place is beautiful."

"Yeah, when it isn't trying to kill you." Kallen remarked, but her expression clearly agreed with Suzaku's statement.

"Right. You forgot about these by the way." Lelouch agreed as well, but quickly shook off his stupor and tossed Kallen and Suzaku a knapsack. The bags floated over to the redhead and brunette, and the two quickly put them on their backs. The raven haired teen putting his own around his shoulders and over his O2 tank. Surprisingly, whatever the material was made of didn't slow down or restrict his movements in the slightest, it was almost like it was never there to begin with.

"The Aurora has suffered orbital hull failure. Cause: unknown. Zero human life signs detected." The PDA suddenly spoke up. The bad news gaining everyone's attention.

"Well then. That's not good." Suzaku piped up.

"So that's what the huge ass ship is called? The Aurora?" Kallen questioned. The redhead turned to look in the direction of the enormous ship they could all see even underwater.

"Zero human life signs detected?" Lelouch repeated, near incredulous. "That ship is absolutely enormous. I wouldn't be surprised if more than a thousand people were on that ship before it crash landed on this God forsaken planet. How can we be the only three people alive?"

"We weren't on that ship." Kallen stated.

"But still." Lelouch insisted, clearly vexed. "There has to be other lifepods like this one that landed into the water. People being in those lifepods. What the hell happened to them?"

"What nearly happened to us I suppose." Suzaku spoke hushly. The mood turning dark and somber as the realization sunk in. "They weren't lucky enough and became fish food."

After taking a moment to gather each other's wits, the leader of the Black Knights spoke to his two other charges while keeping a studying gaze out in the ocean in front of them. "Alright, fine. Let's just get looking for those supplies. We need titanium and those weird creepvine seed clusters, so let's look for strange outcrops in the limestone formations or metal salvage from the Alterra ship." Dichromatic eyes watched as one of those slow weird air sac fish swam straight into Suzaku's side, scaring the bejesus out of the teen. "Maybe catch a fish or two so we can eat it later and preserve our food supply."

"This thing isn't poisonous, is it?" Suzaku asked wearily, grabbing a hold of the fish and keeping it as far away from his person as possible. "I'm not, like, going to die in five minutes because I'm touching this thing, right?" The fish didn't even struggle against Suzaku's hold, it's one eye gazing out at something unseeingly. It was obviously freaking the burnette out since his hand was right by that single unseeing eye.

"Alien lifeforms may have unexpected applications. Utilizing alien resources is a proven survival strategy." The PDA added in unhelpfully. Everyone here already knew that using the resources around you was a key point in survival.

"I have no clue." Kallen watched the interaction with the fish with an uneasy gaze of her own. "Frankly, until I see or know otherwise I'm just thinking that everything wants to kill us. So maybe?"

"Let's take a look." Lelouch interjected calmly, and held the PDA out in front of the strange alien air sac.

"New creature discovered." A new section of information popped up in the fabricator options alongside a bit of info in the database. Dichromatic eyes quickly looked over and reread the information to memorize it completely.

"Are you sure you should be taking that thing in the water with us?" Suzaku questioned. One eye on the weird, most certainly stupid fish while the other looked towards Lelouch's PDA. "I mean, that thing is our only working tool and key for survival. If it breaks because it couldn't work underwater in the saltwater we're basically royally screwed."

"I'm sure if that huge ship provided equipment and lifepods based on this planet's environment their PDAs can survive under the water. Hopefully." Lelouch added that last part in after a second. "Besides, we don't know what any of this stuff is. The only way we can tell what is what and what creepvine seed clusters look like is by this thing." The teen waved the PDA in the water for emphasis. "Anyway, the PDA says it's called a Bladderfish. Obviously their slow and passive seeing as one quite literally swam into Suzaku and is rather relaxed in his hand." Suzaku cringed at Lelouch's word choice, but otherwise said nothing so that he would continue. "Air sacs hold oxygen that we can use, and apparently we can fabricate water out of this thing." Dichromatic eyes looked back up into Suzaku's olive green ones. "So we're keeping that. Otherwise, until we get a scanner that's all the current info I got."

"So it can still be poisonous?" Kallen questioned.

"Possibly." Lelouch answered with a hum. "But I doubt it seeing as Suzaku isn't foaming at the mouth or dead yet."

"Gee, thanks Lelouch." Suzaku spoke sarcastically. "Glad to have helped by being your guinea pig."

"No problem. I appreciate your willingness to cooperate and be one." Lelouch answered back just as sarcastically. "Now let's look for that titanium and seed clusters before it gets dark, because I'm not swimming out here when it's dark." No one needed to say anything to reach a consensus agreement to that statement.

With an annoyed huff of breath that spat bubbles out of his mask and towards the surface. Suzaku glanced at the bladderfish with one last freaked out expression, before quickly tossing it into his knapsack and zipping the thing up so it didn't escape. "Why do I have to carry the fish?"

"Because it ran into you and I'm not touching it until we figure out if it's poisonous or not." Lelouch stated blandly.

"Same here." Kallen agreed. Both terrorist allies looked around the peaceful environment for any sign of salvage, outcrops, or seed clusters. "I think I found an outcropping." The redhead called out, and swam towards one of the many ledges in this shallow area. Quickly, the redhead reeled her hand back, and striked the outcropping with her wicked silver claws. Breaking the outcropping away to reveal a shiny orange and dark cyan ore underneath. "The hell is this, because I'm pretty sure that's not titanium."

"Copper?" Suzaku questioned. The burnette being cut off from saying anything else as another bladderfish swam into him. "Dear Kami not again."

After a wordless exchange between him and Lelouch. The burnette sighed, and begrudgingly put the second bladderfish into his knapsack.

"Copper is an essential component of all powered equipment. Your probability of survival has just increased to: unlikely, but plausible." The PDA piped up and spoke near sassily. Everyone glared down at the PDA, before deciding to just ignore the thing completely for now.

"Yes, that's copper ore." Lelouch agreed. The raven haired teen holding his PDA to the ore at first before moving to the outcropping itself to scan it for a moment and for more information. "The PDA says that the limestone outcroppings either have titanium or copper ore in it. We're most certainly going to need it for later so put it in your bag."

"I figured." Kallen agreed lightly and threw the ore into her bag before they all moved on. The group went up to the surface for a moment to replenish their oxygen, before diving back down and swimming a little bit further away from the lifepod.

"So, if we're going to be staying here for a while what should we call this place?" Suzaku asked after they had found a few more outcroppings that held mostly titanium and two copper ores. "Incase we explore this planet further and need a place to meet up besides the lifepod, because this area seems rather safe. No predators like that thing we first encountered and mostly small, hopefully edible fish."

"That's probably because this area is so highly elevated in terms of the other environments around here." Lelouch theorized. "It's super shallow over here unlike that place with all of the creepvines, so it's not a very maneuverable place for big predators. They'd have a bigger chance of getting stuck or beached than getting any prey." Dichromatic eyes narrowed down towards a small valley in the ground to their left that had cave systems in it and was rather dark from the shadows it formed. "But I would still be weary of any small predators or fish with dangerous defense mechanisms like poisonous barbs. Like the lionfish from our home world but they could be herbivores, carnivores, or even omnivores here."

"Yeah, right." Kallen spoke up, and everyone made sure to keep a wide berth from the valley and its small caves. "We'll be sure to look out for that."

A strange noise suddenly echoed out from the water, and all three humans stilled as one.

Lelouch put the PDA away and grabbed a hold of his other two allies' arms, extensions ready to book it back to the lifepod. Dichromatic, sapphire blue, and olive green pairs of eyes all wildly scanned the calm environment before them for the source of that noise. It didn't sound like that crocodile-shark abomination, but that didn't mean it couldn't be another new predator or danger.

Suzaku was the first to spot it, the creature casually swimming out from behind one of the giant coral tubes. "What the hell is that thing!" The burnette pointed the creature out to the others, and everyone watched the new alien with weary curiosity.

The thing was even bigger than the predator they had first encountered, but it didn't have the menacing teeth or slim figure like that of a predator. It actually looked like a demented manatee but bigger. The thing had a swollen belly that looked near painful with a white scaled underbelly, and four appendages. Two were near the front and just under its gills, and were rather small compared to the rest of its body while the other two were much bigger and actually seemed appropriate to its size. It's tail was shaped like a club, and had a bunch of eerie lime colored glowing bulbs dotting around it. A small dorsal fin was on its back towards its rear end. It's face was probably the weirdest looking thing about the creature. It was shaped like an old fashioned gas mask that soldiers used before chemical weapons were universally banned from their world, something that even Britannia agreed to. It had super small teeth inside of it's tube-like construction at the front of its face, and it's eyes glowed the same lime green as the back of its tail that looked around unblinkingly. Overall, the thing was slow, bulky, and moved in a near ridiculous and clumsy fashion. It's scales were thick and leathery brown with shades of green all over its body.

The thing probably couldn't swim and catch up to them even if it wanted to, but then again looks could be deceiving.

The thing gave another call, but this one sounded like a echoed cackle.

"Should we run?" Kallen questioned quietly, near whispered. Almost as if she suspected the thing would attack them if she spoke too loudly.

The strange bulbous creature looked over at them, and everyone tensed, ready to run. After a moment, the thing gave another disturbing cackle call. Another similar call, this one farther away and most certainly from a second creature like this one bounced through the water, before the first turned and began swimming away from them. It's strange club-like tail swung for a second before it just swam in a docile manner using its bigger fins.

The group only relaxed when the thing was completely gone, collective breaths escaping at once.

"Let's surface for a minute." Lelouch suggested, and everyone agreed. After spending a few minutes just idle on the surface, everyone ducked back down below the surface.

"You think that thing was another predator?" Kallen questioned as she broke another limestone outcropping to get some titanium.

"Not sure." Lelouch answered back, completely honest. "Though, from the way it was structured it probably wasn't. Unless it has some secret weapon that we couldn't see at a glance it's probably a herbivore. However, until we can be sure of that and get a scan I'm not taking any chances and am staying away from the thing."

"I can agree to that." Suzaku added, before his olive eyes caught something on the seafloor. "Hey look, that's a metal salvage from the ship, right?"

Everyone turned their heads to see a rather sizable metal piece sitting idly on the white sandy floor a couple feet ahead of them. "Yeah, that's some salvage from the ship. I'll get it so we don't lose those fish you got in your bag." Lelouch agreed, before swimming over and putting the salvage in his bag with the help of his cape extensions. "At least these things are useful in this environment."

"Quick question." Kallen interjected as she and Suzaku caught up to Lelouch. "How fast can you go with those things? Because if you didn't have us weighing you down when we were being chased by that thing you probably would have gotten away much quicker."

"Faster than you I can be certain about that." Lelouch replied. The raven haired teen gave one last uneasy glance to his back before looking at the PDA. It was obvious the dichromatic teen was still uncomfortable and not used to the extra appendages. "They're rather strong too. I remember managing to land a hit on that predator when it cornered me in those cave systems. Made the thing's head snap to the side and swim away, probably dazed it. I don't want to have to test how fast I can go until I have to. I'd like to think I don't have two strange metal contraptions welded to my skin and back at the moment."

Kallen winced at that. "Right, sorry."

"Though I know for certain those things pack a punch I didn't see a way to get them off when Kallen first told me about it." Suzaku pondered. Eyes watching those metal extensions nervously, and unconsciously rubbed his still very sore stomach. "What if we just like, sawed them off or something? If you really don't like them I'm sure we can get rid of them somehow once we get the right tools for the job."

Lelouch snapped his head up from the PDA and looked towards Suzaku, scandalized by the suggestion. "Are you kidding me?! You'd at least have to get a hacksaw or some sort of laser cutter to get through the metal. Not only that but there are probably circuits and who knows what in there that can end up electrocuting me to death if we do."

"Sorry sorry!" Suzaku apologized, holding his hands up in surrender. "It was only a suggestion. I know these things are making you uncomfortable. Hell, I'd feel freaked out if I found two strange metal contraptions suddenly bonded to my body too." Dichromatic eyes glared into apologetic olive green.

"Okay, so they're made of metal and hard to break." Kallen spoke up before another argument could happen. They had enough verbal spats in the lifepod. "But what happens if they do get damaged somehow. I mean, come on." Kallen laughed breathlessly even though nothing was funny and gestured out towards the sea around them. "It's obvious there's going to be something fucking bigger than what we've seen so far. It's bound to be stronger and faster too."

Now Lelouch looked near sick, so instead of looking at anyone he focused on the PDA again and cold hard logic. "Seeing as these extensions are obvious cybernetic implants that leaves only two options. They're somehow connected to either my brain or to my spine. Otherwise, there would simply be no way they would work and interact like how they do now on a dime. If they get damaged or broken since it's connected to either two vital organs and structures in my body…" He trailed off, but Lelouch didn't have to finish for the others to get the idea.

"You could either end up dead, a vegetable, or paraylzed." Suzaku nearly wheezed the sentence out. The burnette looked absolutely horrified. "Dear Kami."

"Yeah, let's try to avoid those options." Kallen stated firmly. The redhead herself looked rather spooked at the mere thought.

"Yeah, let's." Lelouch agreed whilst still studying the PDA. After a few minutes of scavenging and finding two more metal salvages Lelouch growled. "I haven't seen hide nor hair of these damn creepvine seed clusters." The raven haired teen held the PDA up towards sea based flora. "Blue palms, veined nettle, writhing weed, spotted reeds, hell even acid mushrooms but no creepvine seed clusters!" Just as Lelouch was about to swim away from the strangely colored underwater mushrooms he paused and looked at his PDA again. With his eyes squinted towards the PDA still, Lelouch wordlessly picked a bunch of the acid mushrooms and put them into his bag with the help of his extensions.

Kallen raised an eyebrow. "What are those used for?"

"Batteries, surprisingly." Lelouch ground out, before the trio resumed their swim. The revolutionary using his extensions to swim instead of his legs since he was already feeling tired out by the exertion. "Fabricator takes two of the acid mushrooms and some copper ore to make one battery." His nose scrunched up in frustration and a scowl was fixed onto Lelouch's face. "Which would have me completely fascinated at any other time, but we still need those creepvine seed clusters."

"Maybe they don't grow in this environment." Suzaku suggested as they began to swim back towards the pod with their goods since their bags were just about full. "They probably need different requirements like temperature or something which these shallows can't provide."

"That's highly probable actually." Lelouch agreed. Trying to get his PDA to say anything more about the strange alien material.

"Shallows." Kallen piped up, an intrigued look on her face. "That sounds like a good name for this area. Safe shallows, because it has a high elevation and because it seems safe, mostly."

"I don't mind calling this place safe shallows or shallows for short." Lelouch added in. Watching as one of those weird big eyed fish quickly swam by before they could catch it. "It's name implies the type of environment it is, and frankly I don't feel like calling it something complicated that you two wouldn't be able to pronounce." Both Kallen and Suzaku directed similar sour frowns towards Lelouch.

"The shallows sounds fine, but I'm just saying, those creepvine seed clusters." Suzaku cringed as if thinking back on a bad memory. "They make me think about that kelp forest we swam for our lives in."

Suzaku's words made Lelouch come to a screeching halt in the water. Both Kallen and Suzaku looked back towards him in worry as Lelouch's dichromatic eyes widened in realization. "Oh God."

"What? What did you just realize?" Kallen asked quickly. Sapphire blues looking around the water nervously. They were just a few strokes away from the lifepod now, so true safety was rather close.

"I know where those seed clusters are." Lelouch stated. His eyes looked between Kallen and Suzaku's own. "You guys remember seeing those weird, huge glowing yellow bulbs bunched together on some of those vines?"

"I was rather preoccupied at the moment, so no." Kallen ground out through her clenched teeth.

"I do." Suzaku added in. Body posture tense and eyes filled with nervous energy. "I remember seeing a couple of them when we first fell into the water. Don't tell me those are the creepvine seed clusters." The burnette near begged.

"With my luck, they probably are." Lelouch uttered slowly. His cape extensions unintentionally twitching. "We won't know for sure though until I can get a quick scan with the PDA."

"Are you kidding me? But that thing lives over there!" Kallen yelled out, pointing back towards the huge kelp forest they could just barely see in the distant waters. "We're getting these materials so we can defend ourselves from things like that in the first place!"

"But we need those seed clusters if we're going to get the tools we need to survive, Kallen." Lelouch reasoned harshly. "Besides, it's as you said, there will most certainly be bigger fish in this ocean that we'll have to encounter. Going up against something like that with a mere survival knife- Hell, even with a knightmare, we'd still most certainly lose. At least the tools we'll get out of this will be worth the risks and help us in the future." A heavy, tired sigh leaked past the raven haired teen's lips as he leaned back in the water. "It's as I said before we left the lifepod. Our best chance at survival is running away from any possible danger back here."

"Okay then, who's the fastest out of us three? Fastest person can just swim in there with the PDA, scan the weird glowy yellow bulb things, grab them if they're the seed clusters we need, and then get the hell out right after." The area around them suddenly gained an awkward tension as all eyes fell towards Lelouch.

"Fucking fantastic." Lelouch, to be fair, looked like he had come to the same realization and looked pale yet pissed off about it. "I hope you two also realize that I have the least amount of stamina out of us three." He stated darkly.

"But your extensions are made of metal, they're mechanical." Suzaku interjected. "They can keep going even when you can't."

"Now wait just a damn minute!" Kallen spoke, her voice rising. "Lelouch just barely managed to get out of that hell and away from that monster with his life intact. Now you want to send him back in there?!" Now she was yelling, her arms swinging in the water to emphasize her anger. "Is this really because he's the fastest? Or is it because he's Zero and you want to get him out of the way?"

Suzaku looked like he had been slapped and insulted at the same time. His expression turned from one of shock to rising anger as his olive green eyes darkened to glare at Kallen. "This has nothing to do with Lelouch being Zero! Just because you're his obedient bodyguard doesn't mean you can rail on me like that when I give a simple suggestion!"

The two looked like they were about to throw hands and shed blood, so it was about time Lelouch himself intervened and stopped it. "Okay. Okay! That's enough!" The teen had to bodily put himself between the two arguing sides and unleash his inner charismatic Zero to get them both to calm. "Kallen, Suzaku was just offering the most logical suggestion. Stand down." Zero ordered sternly. "While I may not like the suggestion, and from the way it looks neither do you, I can see the logic in what Suzaku is saying."

With a growl, Kallen crossed her arms under her bust and turned away from the two boys stubbornly. "Yes, sir."

With Kallen having been calmed, Zero turned to address Suzaku. The burnette tensing up and glaring at Lelouch darkly. He hated it when Lelouch acted like Zero. "Suzaku, just because Kallen works under me as my Black Knight ace does not give you the right to make her the equivalent to an obedient dog." Lelouch grinned darkly to himself. "She is anything but. A rather fiery and talented redhead that helps keep my head on my shoulders if anything." Both missed the red dusting Kallen's cheeks at the compliment. "What you equalling her to something like that is rather similar to what Britannians think of Honorary Britannians in the military." Now Suzaku really looked like he had been chastised. "Just because I am Zero doesn't mean she has to follow my every order. In fact, I couldn't force Kallen to do anything even if I really wanted her to. Perhaps think a bit before responding with knee jerk reactions."

Suzaku pursed his lips, the expression making him look rather salty, but he eventually calmed as well. "Alright, fine. I understand." The burnette looked past Zero towards Kallen's turned form.

Seeing as the danger had passed, Zero heaved another big tired sigh. "In the end it all comes down to the fact that we need those creepvine seed clusters. Another fact is that I am the fastest swimmer here even though it's mainly because of my cape extensions." Lelouch looked back and forth between Kallen and Suzaku before tugging on his knapsack and swimming up towards the lifepod. "So, I'll check if those yellow bulbs are the creepvine seed clusters and get them."

"No you can't!" Kallen stated towards Lelouch's retreating figure.

"You really don't have to if you don't want to, Lelouch." Suzaku said softly. Now that everyone has managed to calm down worry and anxieties replaced anger and frustration. "We all know that what happened to you freaked you out more than you yourself may think."

"Yes, well. That's only when I'm unconscious." Lelouch spoke darkly towards himself as he opened the lifepod hatch and climbed inside. Kallen and Suzaku followed right after. "Trust me, if I wasn't confident in my ability to do this I wouldn't be agreeing to go."

"But if you got hurt- Dammit Lelouch you know we need you to stay alive!" Kallen protested loudly, dropping her knapsack to the lifepod's floor rather abruptly as the ores clattered together in her bag. Suzaku silently followed her gesture and took off his own bag to empty it of the materials he had gained and of the two bladderfish. Both of which still freaked the burnette out as he held them at arm's length away.

"You need me, or do you mean you need Zero?" Lelouch questioned the redhead. The question made Kallen's mouth open and close without any words coming out, before she settled for keeping her mouth closed with a click of her tongue. "As I thought." The raven haired teen went back towards his bag, and began to organize their storage unit while putting the acid mushrooms in there and the metal salvage to the side against the wall by the fabricator. "If it helps to calm both of your nerves. I'm having you two posted at the edge of the shallows to keep watch for any of those predators in case I can't see any while I work. If I need any help, you're close by and can swim in at your own risk."

Kallen's shoulders slumped, but she still looked opposed to the idea. "I just- I don't- You-" Finally, Kallen rubbed her face after taking off her scuba mask for a moment. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I'll be fine, Kallen." Lelouch reassured the redhead softly. Dichromatic eyes looked over from the one fourth filled storage unit towards Kallen with a confident, near cocky grin plastered on his face. "I've got this."

The way Lelouch's extensions wrapped tightly around his body showed how he really felt about the situation.

Kallen looked down at the unintended tell from his extensions, before averting her gaze with a growl. "Fine. Let's just get this shit over with and out of the way." Without any further need to speak. Kallen left her bag behind in the lifepod and went out into the ocean, Suzaku following a few steps behind her.

"Let me just empty my bag and then we can get started." Lelouch said, and turned to finish unloading his bag. He was the only one that needed it after all at the moment. Once he was done, Lelouch gave a big yawn and third sigh before opening the bottom hatch again and heading out into the shallows. His mismatched colored eyes immediately fell onto Suzaku and the sight of another bladderfish swimming right into the burnette's way.

"You've got to be kidding me." Suzaku griped. The Britannian soldier wanted to roughly snatch the fish out of the water, but instead he just gently pushed the fish away and to the side since being harsh was against his nature, usually.

Both Kallen and Lelouch sported greatly amused expressions, much to the burnette's exasperation. "Those fish sure to like you." Kallen grinned. "What did you do to get them to like you so much? Got some kind of fish attracting cologne on?"

"I haven't the slightest clue, but it's rather annoying." Suzaku grumbled, and all three humans began to swim back towards the deadly kelp forest. "That's the third bladderfish that's swam into me. I mean, you'd think they would know not to swim into the thing that's obviously going to eat them."

"The only animal that really managed to tolerate and even like your presence was fish." Lelouch near teased, but what he said was also true. Dogs, cats, horses, hell even birds and frogs absolutely despised the brunette ever since he and Lelouch were children. The raven haired teen having front row seats to many embarrassing and hilarious hijinks. Only fish seemed to tolerate, hell even liked, Suzaku's presence. "I remember this one time especially when we were kids before Japan became Area 11. It all started out with this huge bullfrog-"

"Lelouch." Suzaku growled, which was unusual for the usually bright Eleven. "You swore that story would never see the light of day again. Don't make me hurt you." He warned. Though Lelouch didn't seem too intimidated by the threat if his maniacal grin was anything to go by.

"That's right! Arthur can't tolerate you for even a minute before he bites you." Kallen barked out a quick laugh at the memory. "I'm surprised you haven't bled out what with how many times he's swiped and bit at you by now."

"Indeed, Suzaku here is a real work of art, huh?" Lelouch hummed.

"Yeah, well. You're a real piece of work yourself Lelouch." Suzaku grumbled. All of the pleasantries and jokes went out the window once they reached the edges of the kelp forest. The trio treading in place in the water, eyes carefully looking at the different warmer environment from the shallows. "Well, here we are. Creepvine kelp forest." At Lelouch and Kallen's questioning looks Suzaku explained. "You know, because it's a forest of kelp and it has the creepvine seed clusters we need."

"It might have them." Lelouch corrected, juggling the PDA between his two hands. "We won't know until I can get a scan in with the PDA."

"Well, this place is also creepy as fuck, so creepvine kelp forest it is." Kallen stated. Her paranoid gaze shifting from the ground towards a bunch of glowing yellow bulbs bunched together on one of the huge kelp vines that was behind a couple of other sparse kelp stalks. "So, that's what we're looking for?"

"Yup." Lelouch nodded his head and made a popping sound with the 'p'. "I'll be quick, just in and out and then we can head back to the lifepod for a nice long break, because after this I'm taking a nice long nap." The raven haired teen nearly yawned, but he managed to hold it in. "You two watch my back and give any warnings in case that creature shows up."

"Right."

"Of course."

"Then I'll be right back." After shuffling his knapsack onto his shoulders for a second Lelouch began to quickly swim over towards the glowing yellow bulbs with his extensions. Dichromatic eyes flickering to and fro both the kelp and the ground below him as he closed the distance to his target. Lelouch nearly started muttering support to himself before he firmly shook his head. I don't need to start talking to myself and acting crazy. I already know I've got this. It's a simple matter. There's no need to be afraid or look weak.

But slit yellow eyes and gaping jaws full of teeth still flashed before his eyes at the very corners of his vision. Something his sick twisted head would cook up and throw at him even when it obviously wasn't real. He really didn't want to feel the pain he had first felt when landing on this watery planet. Phantom pain and once punctured and torn muscles in his right arm flexed and shuddered.

"Life on this planet grows in unusually distinct and diverse ecological biomes. Further study recommended." Lelouch came to a sudden halt right in front of the softly glowing yellow clusters as his PDA spoke. His eyes flickered to his surroundings first, before looking back to see Suzaku and Kallen tense and at the ready. Suzaku saw his gaze, and gave a quick thumbs up.

Nothing spotted at the moment. All clear.

With that, Lelouch quickly turned back to the glowing plant bulbs, took out his PDA, and scanned the bulbs quickly. Information on the plant itself came up first, which was rather annoying and time consuming when he only wanted to see if the things were creepvine seed clusters. "Creepvines. A kelp species concentrated in large forests, in shallow, sandy waters. Loose roots anchor the plant to the sea floor, from where it grows steadily toward the surface in pursuit of sunlight. The stem is fibrous and rich in iron, making it both a viable base material of fabrication of textiles, as well as a basic foodstuff. Assessment: Vital alien resource - Edible - Construction applications." That increased the chances of these actually being what he needed to ninety seven percent. Good.

"Got one over here on the right." Kallen spoke up suddenly through the short communication relay the PDA established when scanning them back at the lifepod. "Seems docile at the moment but hurry hell up and get the stuff we need before it decides to attack and become less than friendly." Her speaking up so suddenly nearly made Lelouch jump, but he managed to hold it in and instead snapped his head to the right. He couldn't catch any glimpse of the big predator from where he was, but it was clear Suzaku could see it too judging from his very tense posture and near panicked expression. Kallen had a similar afraid expression on her face, but her blue eyes were steeled for a possible fight as she raised the blades under her arms out towards the creature in case it did attack.

Acting much faster after this startling announcement, Lelouch nearly hit the PDA to make it's next scan show up on the bulbs themselves. "Creepvine Seed Clusters. Mature creepvine plants that have survived the predation of small herbivores produce these bioluminescent seed clusters, which may be knocked loose by currents or consumed and later deposited by predators. The embryo is surrounded by a thick oil and silicone layer, which would disperse into the ground as the outer skin deteriorated. This may provide the seedling with the nutrients it needs to survive the low-light conditions on the sea bed. Assessment: Vital alien resource - Construction applications." Bingo. A victorious grin grew on Lelouch's face at finally finding what they needed.

"It's getting really close to you now Lelouch." Suzaku warned, his voice rising.

"Look out!" Kallen yelled.

That grin on Lelouch's face instantly changed to one of fearful panic as he spun around to see the huge predator slowly swim towards him. Yet, the revolutionary knew it could swim faster. Swiftly, Lelouch spun back around and picked a couple of the bulbs to throw into his bag, but he wasn't going fast enough.

"Lelouch get out of there! Shit!" Suzaku hollered, beginning to swim forward as the creature began to gain speed and open its jaw.

"Fucking- MOVE!" Kallen roared at her stubborn leader.

"Fuck!" Lelouch screamed, before roughly grabbing a bunch of the clustered seeds by the roots and harshly pulling back with the boost of his cape extensions. The entire bunch of seed clusters were torn free from the harsh pulling, but Lelouch didn't have enough time to process that as he just barely dodged the predator's attack. A snarl escaped the alien's lips as it's jaws clamped shut mere inches from his face. "I got it! Go back go back!" The raven haired teen didn't dare look back, and instead turned and began to swim away as fast as he could away from the alien creature with the creepvine seed clusters firmly in his hands. Kallen and Suzaku, who were at first swimming forward thinking the predator had gotten Lelouch, quickly back tracked and all three swam away towards the lifepod for all they were worth. None of them speaking or daring to stop to take a break until they were safely back inside of their haven.

The creature gave out one last roar that echoed out through the sea, before it decided to give up and move on to simpler prey to catch and eat.

The information on the creepvines and creepvine seed clusters I got from the actual PDA entries and from a quick look on the Subnautica Wiki. Speaking of the game, I sadly cannot use game logic and inventory store space located in a pocket dimension, so I improvised and gave them knapsacks. They won't restrict their swimming or weigh them down, but it'll hold their supplies, so yay.

Ahh don't you just love arguments. I know I do. There's gonna be a lot of spats between our trio. Yay. :D

If you have enjoyed the story so far leave a REVIEW, Follow, and Favorite the story so you can keep track of when chapters pop up. Because FYI, I don't have a posting schedule and I just post whenever I feel like it.

Otherwise, later folks! -MoonlightWright