Eternal Tears

Book Two: Hopeless

Chapter I—Inhumanity

Everything was deadly quiet that one could hear a pin drop. The eerie silence of the Octopod wasn't anything new to the crew, as they had drifted apart after the tragedy. It was like a piece of their souls were separated from them, causing them to become so cold. Even the ocean remained still, not a single sound to be heard. Not even any sea creatures were in sight. It was like the ocean was devoid of any life.

The sound of the octohatch being opened echoed through the silence. Dashi hopped out and settled down on a chair, fiddling with the buttons laid in front of her. She checked the radar—which was clear. She scanned the ocean—nothing. She sighed as she took a sip of hot cocoa with marshmallows floating on the surface. Chamomile tea would be more suitable to her current situation, but it was too bad that it wasn't provided.

Dashi lazily rubbed her eyes, let out a grunt and stretched before slouching back on the chair. The constant lack of sleep was weighing down on her like a sack of rocks. Because of that, she couldn't focus on work, and her friends are starting to think that she was lazy. She tried everything she could to help her return to her regular sleeping schedule, but nothing worked. Every night, she tossed and turned on her bed, her nightgown soaked with sweat and sticking uncomfortably to her fur, disgruntled noises escaping her throat. Thus she spent her sleepless nights at the control room.

Dashi lazily pushed a couple of buttons and on the screen was the main menu for the Octonauts' photo album. She clicked on a bubble with her face on it and began browsing through her photographs. Most of them were the sea creatures and aquatic plants, while a small percent of them were of herself. The remaining portion were... her crew mates.

Dashi still refused to call them her friends; not that she minded. Even though their new captain wanted to repair their bond that intertwined the team together all those years, it was too difficult to even talk to them. Well, if her crew mates gave her black faces, then to 'fit in' was to probably return the gesture.

Seeing those pictures of the old days, those smiling faces, those enthusiastic spirits, those supportive gestures... ah, the old days, back when they were all still the best of friends, enduring hardships together and share happiness with each other.

Dashi felt a small, genuine smile creep onto her lips for the first time in forever. Suddenly, she chocked and tears pooled in her eyes, slowly dripping off her chin before all her tears that she had been holding back poured out like a waterfall. She tried to banish her sobs in case anyone heard her by covering her mouth with her paws. It backfired horribly as she fell off her chair in a sobbing heap.

Dashi's sobs echoed throughout the control room, and soon they would come up here to investigate. Then they would see how pathetic she truly was. An utterly hopeless nutcase.

Probably it was luck that turned on her back that someone did came in. "Hello? Who's th—oh, I thought... never mind." The sea otter saw her and was prepared to leave when his sharp eyes caught something on the radar. "What's that?"

Shellington pointed at the screen where it showed what seemed like a submarine and divers were everywhere. And when I mean "everywhere" I mean, everywhere. There were approximately about a hundred divers maybe?

"They must be here to explore. No big deal." Dashi said between sobs as she furiously wiped her tears.

Shellington rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Why are you even crying if they are just merely exploring? What, sad that you aren't able to leave the Octopod during missions?"

Dashi wiped the last of her tears and stood up straight. "NO! I was upset about... something personal. It's none of your business."

The sea otter shrugged. "Oh well. I'll leave you be. Just don't... disturb my beauty sleep, m'kay?" He once again turned to leave when Dashi suddenly let out a horrified gasp and collapsed on the floor again. She tried to scream, but only whispers were made. Knowing she couldn't get Shellington's attention, she banged the floor as hard as her marshmallow paws allowed her to. "Sh...sh...lii...ten..." she wheezed.

Shellington groaned, annoyed. "What is it now?!" He reluctantly turned around, expecting to see Dashi weeping pathetically and rant about her problems. Only he saw her sprawled figure looking out of the ship's screen. What he saw turned his coat and fur as pale as a moonflower. "I...I... AHHHH!"

He scampered around the control room like a panic little mouse trying to outrun a cat, trying to find the Octoalert. However, in his panic state he couldn't tell where it was. Nonsensical words, formulas and other gibberish spilled out from mouth while flailing his arms.

Dashi wanted to press the button for him, but her legs were like jelly and she couldn't stand up. It was like as if she were an old feeble woman despite her young age. Even though she felt extremely weak, she knew she had to press that button. Or else...

After hearing the utmost beautiful siren, her smile was so big that her face would tear. Usually the siren can be mildly annoying, but right now on a crisis like this, it was the most melodic sound in her ears.

...

"Dashi! Shellington! What in the seven seas is wrong with you two?" Kwazii shouted, but not in that mad sort of way. It was more like concern. He leaped out from the Octochute, only to lay his eyes on the most horrendous thing he had ever laid his eyes upon. No, it wasn't any monsters from Kwazii's stories; in fact, it wasn't the appearance of it, rather the situation.

Kwazii clenched his teeth and curled his fists into a ball. How dare they, how DARE they! He was positive that he wasn't hallucinating. Nope. They were doing something extremely wrong, inhuman, sick, twisted, horrible, many other things you can think of.

Those cursed divers were handling guns, knives, spears and bottles of liquid. Whatever the liquid was, Kwazii was certain that it was not something good. What they were doing with it was the main thing that made him so enraged. They mercilessly stabbed every sea creature in sight, firing with their guns at those who tried to get away, spears to reach those who hid in enclosed areas and the bottles of liquid—no—poison were filled in syringes and the needle is stabbed into the creature's flesh. Blood stained the pure blue ocean, turning it crimson. Screams and shrills were heard all over the place. Altogether, this place could be easily mistaken as hell, only underwater—the divers were the demons and the sea creatures were the sinners whom all needed to be punished, and the Underlords were the Octonauts themselves.

When Tweak had entered the scene, she was shell shocked at first, and she shook her head repeatedly as she muttered "no" to herself repeatedly like a broken recorder. As she continued her fur turned to a lighter shade of green and squatted on the floor with her paws covering her face, sobbing hysterically like a mental patient. Turnip tried his best to comfort her but to no avail.

"N-no...no….n-n-no...n-o...no… This can't be happening. No, it can't be. I must be in a nightmare… yes! A nightmare! This can't be true, it's totally preposterous! He would never…"

By now Tweak was barely reaching the point where she could finally break down. Kwazii couldn't let her join the mission if she acted like this! In her last sentence, he was suspecting that Tweak knew one of the crew members that were spilling the blood of the innocent, but it was just a guess.

Never before had anybody in the Octonauts had ever encountered a situation like this before. Not even the toughest ex captain of the crew. They had always believed that no matter how tough the situation was, they would always find a solution to the problem.

But he had none. His mind was as blank as a fresh sheet of copier paper.

The vow that he took when he became an Octonaut to protect any sea creature no matter what seemed like a lie right now. Here were the Octonauts, the guardians of the ocean, helpless against a group of probably psychopath people who wanted to wipe out ocean life. Wow, just wow.

Kwazii inhaled deeply before saying in an authoritative voice, "Octonauts… this mission is our biggest and with no doubt challenging one yet. I know that we have not been trained to deal with psychopaths… but those creatures out there need our help. We must find a way to stop them from slaughtering any more creatures." Somehow Kwazii felt a dark aura emitting from Tweak when he referred to the divers as 'psychopaths'. "I know this will be extremely tough for all of us, but I believe that we can do it."

"Aye aye, Captain!" The Octonauts chanted together as they regained at least a little bit of confidence and tried their best to hide their expressions of pure terror. Except Tweak, who stormed off to the launch bay.

Kwazii realises what Tweak was attempting, and tried to stop her. "Tweak! You don't know what you're getting yourself into!" He yelled frantically as he rushed up to her.

Tweak just ignored him as she grabbed her oxygen tank and prepared the Gup D. She turned to glare at her captain in the eyes, her stare penetrating into his soul. In those eyes, the cat could see betrayal and hate. "Don't worry about me. The leader knows very well that he is not so heartless to even kill his own daughter."

What can I say? I never planned this story proper, and it resulted in leaving this story on a super long hiatus. Now that I have a few concrete ideas on this story, maybe I won't be on another super long hiatus and leave you guys with a cliffhanger.

P.S: I'm planning on doing an Octonauts parody series based off from 'The Story of Evil' from Vocaloid. I have ALL the character roles planned, and hopefully I can do a comic or fanfic 'bout it. :D