The Red Sea was just as he remembered it.

The sky a bloody maroon color as they walked through a decrepit wasteland. Phantoms of those who lived and had died there reaching out with ghostly fingers only to be turned into dust that floated through the water when the intruders hurried passed. The moon and its glowing gold light was the only source of luminance they had, yet through the haze of the scarlet waves little light made it through.

It made Samekichi grip the Sacred Sword a little bit tighter on his hip.

He often times still had nightmares about the last time he was there and his hand drift subconsciously to his scarred over eyelid. The last thing he head seen out if that eye had been this Sea.

He shook away the thought, hurrying his pace through bones and blood. The Red Sea was as big as its Blue counterpart. He was leading them straight for Princess Mikotsu's castle. If Lucas was anywhere, it had to be there.

"Samekichi." Fukami's voice had him pausing. He looked at the Octopus.

"What?"

The older glanced around, emotionless expression surprisingly drawn tight as he looked behind him. Fukami was the one who trailed behind so nothing could sneak up on them. The Cephalopod's senses were even more finely tuned than his own. He stood stiff and the shark saw this look in his eyes that gave him chills.

"We are being followed," Fukami murmured. He moved, faster than Samekichi had seen him before, towards a crumpled building. There was a voice that was not Fukami's yelp, then the Octopus pulled a struggling figure out from its hiding and threw him down for the group. Samekichi pulled the sword free of his belt as the others jumped back, Dolphi squealing and hiding behind Idate's back while shaking.

The hood fell away and the shark's remained eye widened.

"Sal?"
The albino shark looked at him with this sort of fear that Samekichi had not seen on his face... In years. He scrambled back when the sword came into view.

"W-Wait! Wait! Don't kill me!" He begged only to watch as Samekichi sheathed the blade, but his face held no kindness for the other. He let him stand up, knowing if he tried anything Fukami would be on him in seconds.

Sal didn't look like himself-or at least not like how he remembered. The pristine white suit was gone. Instead He wore a rumbled black dress shirt and jeans that looked too big on him, and his cape was frayed at the end. But what stood out the most were his eyes. They were not their usual blood red hue. They were muted. Faded almost.

He may have been seeing things but they almost looked blue.

"You're trying to stop us from getting to Lucas!" Memoca hissed, wings balled into as close to a fist as she could. The shark shook his head quickly.

"No! I'm not I swear! I'm try to help you!"

"Why the hell should we believe you, White-Bait?" The Orca looked over him and Sal shrunk away under the glare in his cold grey eyes. "Samekichi, lemme gut him. He's just gonna-"

"How do you know about Lucas?" Samekichi's question struck silence into the group, all eyes strained on Sal as he froze. He fidgeted under the stares, unable to maintain contact with any of them. His silence answered Samekichi. "You've been out this entire time. Haven't you?"

Sal nodded, then quickly shook his head.

"Which is it?" Fukami said in a cold growl.

"I... I don't know!" Sal said. "I don't know how long I've been out... It's just been long enough."

"Long enough to learn about Lucas." The shark nodded.

"So let me guess this straight," Samekichi said. "You aren't the one who took Lucas?" The Salmon shark almost looked offended, brows creasing in anger and balling his fists under his cloak.

"No. I'm not. I didn't take Lucas." His anger faded into a more serious tone. "But I know who did. And I can take you to her."

"H-Her?" Dolphi squeaked, peaking out behind the Whale. Sal nodded.

"Her name is Hebi. She's the one who took Lucas."

"How do you know?" Samekichi narrowed his eye in question and Sal lowered his head in defeat.

"...because I saw her take him."

Silent horror struck four of them and suddenly Samekichi had his hands around his throat with an angry snarl, watching as the older man choked.

"You mean to tell me you let her take him?! Your own son?!"

"Samekichi!" Fukami pulled him away, keeping his seething form away from the gasping man as he coughed and fell back on the gravel with his hands at his neck.

"What-...What was I supposed to do?" He coughed, looking at him with pain. "Rescue the son who I've never even spoken to and then what? Wait for you to come back so you can beat me to a pulp? So You could throw me back into this Hell?" The tears pooled in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. "Do you have any idea how much I wanted to? To see him? Rescue him? Talk to him? I couldn't do anything!" He stood back up again, fists shaking with his rage.

"And no, I didn't just let her take him! I couldn't save him, Samekichi! No matter how badly I wanted to I couldn't!"

When he was finished he was red with anger and shame and tears continued streaking down his cheeks while they looked at him, astonished. The Sal they knew would have never cried. Never showed emotion other than twisted giddiness. This man-This Sal-was not the one they knew all those years ago.

"She would have killed him," He whispered through the tears. "I followed you in hopes I could help. So that I wasn't completely useless... So that I could do something for him!"

Samekichi let him sob to himself a little bit more before slowly dislodging from Fukami's grip and walking to him. Sal flinched and waited for a strike. But it never came and he looked at him with fearful curiosity.

"You really want to do something for him?" He asked. Sal nodded slowly, still unsure just to what he was getting at. "Fine. You lead us to Hebi. Take us to him. Then you're gone." Sal looked crushed but he didn't try to fight. Samekichi thought he looked pathetic as he nodded solemnly.

"She won't be at the castle. She has a Cave just on the edge of town. It's wear she..." He paused, looking away and making Samekichi raise an eyebrow.

"Where she what?"

"...where she feeds," Sal whispered. Memoca paled and Dolphi looked react to faint at just the thought. Even Idate looked queasy. Despite, they pushed on through the bloody waves in a different direction as Sal walked along side Samekichi. The darker of the two did not want to admit it, but finding Sal was probably their saving grace. Else they would be going on presumably a wild goose chase.

He couldn't help to just look at him. He look ragged, like the years had been so cruel to him. They were the same age, but Sal look so much older. If he had darker hair, Samekichi was sure it would have been streaked with grey. A part of him screamed that this was all a ruse, that Sal had betrayed them all before.

If he really wanted to stop them why would he be here?

Because its a trap, you idiot.

The silence was thick and filled with tension, uneasy looks trained directly on the back of Sal's head as they walked. This could be a trap. Sal could be playing them all again like he had before. At some point the albino stopped and pressed a hand to his head with a hiss, eyes screwed shut in pain and teeth bared.
It was just out of habit, some sort of forgotten action that he used to do, that was why he put a hand on his shoulder and asked if he were okay. It was just what he used to do.

A very long time ago...

"You're all protected by Wadanohara's magic," Sal grunt, rubbing his temples until whatever caused him pain seemed to disappear. "You don't have to worry about the Red Sea's affects on your mind." His brows creased as he shook his head. "We have to keep moving."

Is that what the Red Sea did? It altered ones reality and sanity until both were warped? Is that what happened to his brother?

He's not your brother anymore. He hasn't been for a long time.

Samekichi pushed that voice down as he picked up his pace. Even back then he had been Protected by Wadanohara's magic. It was what kept him from becoming...

Like Sal.


The Caves outside the Kingdom looked more like gaping mouths than actual caves, as if the mountain were welcoming them only looking to swallow them up. Glittering red stones that glowed with the Moon's light, bouncing the rays off the next stone, lit a path into the cave. Enough for them to see, at least a foot or so in front of them.

"L-Lucas is i-in there?" Dolphi whimpered, shaking in her place like a leaf. The poor thing looked like she regret her choice in coming. If it had been other circumstances she would have stayed safe at home.

"Lets hope." Samekichi took his sword by the hilt again, holding it tight as they started inside. It was better safe than sorry. He did not want anything catching them off guard.

The air was stale and smelled of blood, skeletons and half eaten corpses of poor creatures littered the ground at their feet and broke under their steps. Dust drifted up through the waves and made Idate grimace and cough while waving it out of his face.

"Shit. Can we maybe kick it into gear? A guy can't brea-" Sal shushed him before he could finish, quick and like a hiss.

"Be. Very. Quiet." The shark mumbled. He glanced back where they were going, muscles tense and drawn tight. Like he was waiting for something. When nothing came Sal slowly relaxed and stepped back.

"Hebi hears everything in here," He whispered, low as he could without them unable to hear. "And if she doesn't hear you... She will smell you." He turned back and let the warning hang in the air, moving forward and forcing the others to follow behind again. Albeit with much more precise footfalls.

They were dealing with someone that even Sal feared.

Samekichi was beginning to question whether the "in-and-out" route was still going to work.


Sal lead them through the winding tunnels that just went deeper and deeper into the mountain, into the Crust and Mantle yet no heat came through. Samekichi shivered often enough to actually zip up his jacket. He glanced over to see Sal breathing into his palms and rubbing his hands together. His gloves were gone. He must have been freezing and yet he stayed silent about it.

If you offer him your jacket will it be too obvious?

Would it be obvious? That he was actually glad to see him? That he had been so worried about him for the last decade wondering if he was dead? That he had missed him? He caught himself just as he had lift a hand to his zipper, halfway into the motion of pulling it down so he could drape it over. He dropped his hand and focused ahead.

The cave walls yawned before them, opening up into a large space with multiple smaller exits leading deeper into the mountain.

"What now?" Memoca asked as quiet as she could. She was looking expectantly at Sal, who only stood there. "Sal? Hey! I'm talking to you! Same-...Samekichi?" The seagull looked at the other shark in concern. Because Samekichi could see Sal's expression. The elder stood stiff, eyes wide with some sort of terror the others didn't understand. His hands trembled where they were at his sides, tail curling like a kicked dog around himself.

"Oh God," He whispered. "She... She moved. I don't... I don't know where she is now."

"You mean you lead us down here on the hunch that she just might have stayed in the same place for the last fifteen years?" Idate grabbed him by the back of his collar, not bothering to lower his voice as he glared. "Are you fucking serious?!"

"Idate, let him go." Fukami was ready to step in and intervene if he needed to, managing to keep his volume as a low resonate. But he kept looking around, like when they first stumbled upon Sal. Something was wrong.

"I think its best if we turn back," The octopus muttered with a scan of the room. "Something evil is in here with us."

As soon as the words came, a deep womanly chuckle echoed around the room. Sal shrunk down again, eyes tearing in every direction trying to find the source of the voice.

"How kind of you to return, Ambassador," It cooed, soft and sweet like velvet while following the dragging sound. "And to bring me such a meal."

"Show yourself!" Memoca squawked in a flurry of feathers. She was foolishly putting on a brave act. She'd no idea what it was they were about to come face to face with. Out of the shadows came the serpentine herself; black scales bejeweled and glinting in the pale lighting, one slender arm resting on the wall while the other rest behind her back.

Hebi smirked, red lips pulled back to reveal her fangs with a hiss.

"Hello, Ambassador. It's been many a while since you've come back to the Red Sea." She ignored everyone in the room, focusing only on Sal with deadly intent as she slithered forward. "You look terrible."

"Where is he?"

"Where is whom?"

Sal let out a snarl that echoed in the cave, pupils shrinking to slits in rage as he bared his teeth. "God damnit you know who I mean! Where's Lucas? What did you do with my son!"

Hebi's smile disappeared, her eyes narrowing in disgust as the sound of the boy's name.

"He is out of the way."

Samekichi's blood ran cold, his stomach dropping in fear. Out of the way. What the hell could that have meant? Were they too late? Or was she trying to scare them?
"Besides," She hissed. "It isn't his life you should be worrying about." Her tail shift and then Sal saw the barbs, jutting out like three inch spikes. Hebi was hiding nothing in her hand. It was a ruse.

"Hebi-"

"You were alway too weak," The Woman said with a glare. "And now, you made the foolish move to bring him here!" Her tail lashed out. Sal saw where it was going from a mile away.

He moved, just barely missing Hebi's claws when she slashed at him and instead lunging.

He shoved Samekichi seconds before her barbed tail could have touched him.

"SAME!"

Samekichi watched as the spikes tore into the soft flesh of his stomach, embedding themselves deep into the muscle before ripping free and tearing. Sal dropped like a rock, blood gushing from his mouth and the wound and pooling. The younger of the two scrambled back up, ignoring the blood soaking into his jeans as he grabbed at the other and tried to stop the bleeding. He had to stop the bleeding.

"Sayake! Sayake!"

He hadn't used the name in years.

He barely heard Idate and Fukami going after Hebi, driving her back into her tunnel and away from the scene. Hopefully not without her own share of scrapes.

"Sayake-"

"F-Fin..d...L-Luc...as.." The albino managed through his bloody breaths, eyes unable to focus, and staring at nothing but over Samekichi's head.

"Samekichi, we have to go. Hebi is-"

"I AM NOT LEAVING HIM!" He wasn't sure what brought outburst. He was sure he was finally losing it to the Red Sea, that he was losing his mental battle and finally slipping away into insanity.

"He won't live long enough. And will only slow us down."

"I-I can get him back to the Sea Kingdom!" Dolphi piped in, having shielded her eyes for a moment. "I'm fast enough! I can do it!" If there was any hope for Sal, it was with Dolphi. So long as she swam fast enough.

"Just-hurry," Samekichi pleaded as he tied what he hoped was a good enough tourniquet around the other shark's Abdomen. The youngest of them all nodded as she hefted the injured onto her back. Nevermind the blood, she had to get Sal out of there.

"Wadanohara will know what to do!"

With a kick of her tail she was gone.


Tatsumiya paced back and forth, wringing out her hands out nervously and worrying her lip between her teeth. She couldn't stop glancing at the open portal, expecting something to happen but unsure what and to scared to actually wonder. She had sent Isaac home after a very loud and heated argument that it was too dangerous for him to be there. That anything could happen at any moment and she could defend herself better than he could.

"Tastumiya, please," Wadanohara said from her spot. "Stop doing that. You're scaring me."

The Oar Fish halted and looked at the witch. "I'm sorry," She sighed. "But seeing Sal-... I'm scared, Wadanohara. I'm scared they won't come back." She chewed her nail, brows coming together as her eyes screwed shut.

"There's so much more to this now that we didn't even consider. Here we thought it was Sal who took Lucas but he couldn't have when he was here this entire ti-"
"Tastumiya!" The fish jumped at the sound of the Witch's voice, blinking and shaking her head while wiping her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Meikai's Hat, I am just so scared." Wadanohara stood and gently out a hand on the other woman's forearm, giving a squeeze.

"I am too," She said. "But we need to have hope. Samekichi and the others will come back with Lucas." She managed a smile up at the distraught woman. "You'll see."

The portal wavered.

Both jumped when the electronic buzz of the portal sounded and out bounded Dolphi, panting and heaving with a weight on her back too heavy for her own good. All they saw was blood and snow white hair.

"Dolphi!" Wadanohara hurried to her familiar, easing the unconscious shark off her and asking out of fear. "Lucas?"

"No," Dolphi shook her head. "Sal! Wada, he's hurt bad! He needs the doctor!" The Sea Witch gasped at the sight of the wound, hands coming up and eyes growing in horror.

"T-Tatsumiya!"

"I'm here! Dolphi, help me get him to the infirmary!" The small Familiar nodded and scooped up the man once more. With the aid of the Oar Fish, they hurried out to get Sal proper medical attention. Wadanohara slumped to her knees, dropping her face in her hands and bawling into her palm.

"Samekichi!"