Queen's note: Saying goodbye is hard. Someone Hug Lily man

Garnets

Chapter Four:

Fishy

"It's a little alarming how fast things just…vanish." Lily noted from where she sat in the galley. The tables and chairs were still folded and tucked aside, where they had been put months ago. The crates that used to take up space were gone. It left the galley barren to her.

"It's been what? Nine hours?" Lily asked in the empty room.

"Nine and a half." Riggs offered, so to say he was keeping a close eye on his charge. She was sitting at the sole table, finally eating the cupcakes she had made earlier in the morning. It was not the healthiest of meals like she normally made, but the AI could understand. Yet eating just cupcakes in the current stress levels was a little better than nothing.

"Are you going to eat something more substantial?" Riggs asked, getting a warning from Vega that a portal was opening again in the workshop space again. Making sure that there was nothing other than the big armored form coming out and pushing the next few crates through.

The animals had all been carefully packed up and the first to move. Including Lily's three tabby cats, who were very unhappy about this drastic change in routine.

"No," Lily shook her head, setting the last cupcakes back into a sealing box with the frosting. "I…don't want too much in my stomach, Vega said it would be tonight right? If something is wrong with the mask then I don't want to throw up a lot."

"Will you at least drink a protein shake?" Riggs offered something that might help his charge while she did not feel well.

"Okay," Lily rolled her eyes as she got up, but constantly fending off a worried AI was not worth the headache. Padding into the kitchen propper, making a note to be sure to change before too much longer.

It was not hard to get a bottle, shaking up water and the meal replacement powder. Or to grab a smaller cucumber to nibble on. The young woman was just getting herself into finishing packing up the last sable goods in the kitchen when a familiar chime sounded.

"...Riggs?" Lily asked, looking up and in the general direction of the observation room as there was another larger wave to send vibrations through the floor.

"Mr. Hawkins is back." The platform AI said, noting how the Slayer paused in the workshop bay. As if hearing his speakers from rooms away. "He's dragged something in again."

Lily swallowed, and put down the bag of dry noodles, jogging out of the galley. She had to slow and then stopped at the stairs leading to the higher level. Pressing the mask to her face to breathe before skittering up the stairs. Not used to looking around in her pocket of safety, Lily did not notice how there was a large form coming slightly around a corner.

She was out of breath fully when she got to the dim observation room despite taking breaks. Stopping at the closed door for a few minutes with the mask to her face, "Riggs? Is the…the room secure? Dad can't… god I hate stairs now- he can't get out of the hall right?"

She could hear a dull thud through the door every little bit.

"The room is secured, and the lights are dimmed again," Riggs reported as he unlocked the door his human was beside, "Keep this door open just in case this time."

Just in case he could get in, were the unspoken words.

Lily nodded, staying to one side of the door as it slid to the side. Peeking in carefully, and once she was sure the inner door of the hallway was showing it was locked, easier herself closer. Seeing how the altered man was belt over, head against the window. His changed right arm hung limp at his side, as the left, more human was lifted. The thump was thankfully not him hitting his head but the closed fist lifting and hitting the thick glass enough to make sound, not break.

"...Dad? Dad?" Lilly called, climbing up on the two step-like boxes. Knocking on the glass in a rhythmic pattern. She tried to look around him, startled at seeing a massive…tuna? Sword fish? Not a shark, it was dragged in with minimal damage, and seemed like it was freshly killed. "Hey, look, I'm still here, yeah? I was downstairs eating a cupcake. Remember this morning? Did…did you get that for me?"

The possessed man gasped a few times, making some sound as he finally registered that Lily was there. His fisted hand slid down until it was lower, pressing flat. Making something that was a mix of a snarl and grin. As if what was left of Fredrick was trying to show his pride at the unexpected prize.

Making another moment where it was hard to believe her father was not completely gone. Lily was trying to not look up to much, look at his remaining eye, looking instead of the fresh stains on his armor. "Thanks dad. I… I can't get it until you leave though."

The possessed man gave a sigh like sound, head lowered again as if trying to press against Lily's through the glass. Both arms relaxing to hang as he listened.

"Were you, ah," Lily rubbed at her face with her shirt. "Were you feeding… mom? She might get upset later. I have to move things around. Yeah, I'm cleaning stuff up, that's it."

What was left of her father huffed, squinting down at where her hands were bracing on the glass. He shifted, it took two attempts but he spread his left hand near. The possessed focusing so intently he did not notice the light from the hall behind the young woman shifted as a large form filled the doorway. He grumbled as Lily rapped her knuckles three times over where his palm was.

"You, mom and me, right?" It felt wrong to lie to what was left of her father, but… "Go let Mom know I'm moving things. The storm is really big, I don't want stuff to fall."

It took a few seconds before the possessed man staggered to the outer door.

"Don't get washed away, dad." Lilly called after, feeling strange.

What was left of her father wavered, as if hearing something in her voice before going back out into the storm. The door closed and an override lock was engaged.

"He got a fucking fish?" Lilly said, looking through the window into the red lit hallway. "Holy shit…"

There was a soft sound behind Lily, making her tense reflexively as it was not a normal sound. Looking back she was startled to see the bigger man standing there, helmet in place and it was hard to read his body language given how… still he was.

Lily was suddenly struck with how wrong she was with one her first impressions were with a fresh comparison. The Slayer was not as big as her adopted dad, but nearly another head and shoulders taller than her dad. They both still had a similar outline.

The helmet turned from the outer door to look down at where Lily was standing. Then stepped closer as if to get a good look at the fish in the hallway he too originally used to enter the inside of the platform.

A hand lifted, as the Slayer signed a question.

"How often does 'he' come like that?" Vega's voice spoke through the room's speaker, his voice somehow softer as he translated.

Lily considered a moment, "Normally? Once a day at most, but doesn't always stay like that. 'Visits' like that every few days."

The big man stared at the door, then the Slayer looked back down. Right hand lifting, fingers spread and tapped the knuckle of his thumb against the helmet, above his visor. Then pointed to the outside door.

Lily recognized the basic sign from high school, she nodded, "Yeah, that was my dad. Whatever is left of him."

The Slayer was still again as he seem to think, then moved to the inner door. Tapping the override code into it. This time Lily got a look at it to remember as it was not one she knew. A low rumbling came from the Slayer as the young woman hopped down from her spot to follow. Motioning her to stay back as he knelt by the big fish.

Lily peered through the door, holding her mask in place, as it did have filters, but did not enter the hall. Watching as the bigger man turned the fish almost as big as him over. Saying something in sign she could not see. Lily realized very belatedly that Vega was likely connected to the Slayer's helmet in more than just auto comms.

Well.

She felt so smart.

The Slayer knocked his knuckles on the ground, drawing Lily's attention. Taking that as an okay, she came into the hall. After making sure her mask was secured, Lily reached out to manually adjust the light so everything was not just in shades of red, gray and black.

"It's surprisingly in good condition with no demonic corruption or poisoning." Vega did sound surprised, and made Lily wonder how advanced that armor really was.

"Not as much as you might think actually," Lily pipped up, trusting that the AI could hear her as the Slayer tilted his head. Watching as Lily pulled up her right pant leg to pull out the hidden dive knife. Using it to help shift the gill plate and peer inside to see how long it had been dead. "For some reason the farther out to sea you are, the less things are messed up like on the mainland. Main-lands? Mom had a working theory that the reason things got so rapidly… bad, gross, bad on land and in the cities was because of the abundance of freshwater."

The armored man suddenly snapped his head up from inspecting what Lily was doing. Free hand to make half a sign. How?

"What do you mean miss Lily?"

"Riggs, can you send what we recovered?" Lily called to the other room, "About the comparison of freshwater fish and saltwater?"

She looked back up at the apparent living myth beside her. "I was still pretty sick, but if you noticed outside, the oldest of those shamblers? They hunker down in the storms. Or if something climbs up from the support pillars, it's like the salt water burns the creatures. Even the bigger ones that climbed up don't last that long after being dunked a second time."

She had triggered the submersible drop doors on the bigger demonic creations before that were washed out or swam out. Only to be dropped back into the seawater.

Carefully, the Slayer reached out to very carefully tap a finger to Lily's mask for attention. Water?

"If I remember right, mom and the others thought the toxic gasses were tied to fresh water as well as the. Um. Growth?" Lily could only really see what had been on the mainland that first day, and pictures after before things stopped transmitting. "She has more notes, but I can't get to them. I don't know what else survived her change but you can see one computer's complete hard drive on the cameras."

The Slayer had to think a little harder on this, mulling the possibly new and useful information over. How several of the possessed had been huddled and looked strange, other than the bloated.

"That information might be useful," Vega pointed out, making sure this was just spoken to the Slayer's personal comms. "If nothing else, it could be useful for humanity to try and recover."

The demigod shifted his spot crouched on his heels, looking down at the big sword fish. Still more than a little baffled at it being a gift for the girl. He had followed out of concern and had been coiled to end the possessed soldier when it would try to smash through the glass.

It never did.

The Slayer was not even sure it saw himself before staging out. Normally demonic creatures, even the possessed had an instant reaction to become aggressive. He knew there was something off about the creatures outside. It was almost like some were controlled out there, but that one.

That was strange.

"I should have this mostly ready in a while," Lily spoke motion to the big fish, it was longer then she was in the body. Maybe a bit bigger, but at least 200 pounds of usable meat. She paused to level a look at it then around before staring at where her dive knife was.

"I need to get my filet knife, I'm not going to be able to… move… that…" the young woman started to say before trailing off as the Slayer stood and after hooking his fingers into the gill slit. Just, lifted the whole swordfish up, grasping the tail to keep it from dragging. "Or, we can do that."

The Slayer tilted his head at the inner door in a clear 'Lead the way,' motion. He was tempted to go back outside, clear a little more of what was left of those possessed if the storm had not swept them away. Maybe to try to find that former soldier, see if he could find what the once man was tired to-

The demigod put those thoughts aside for now, following Lily back to the galley. Setting the big fish down on a table dragged over. Lingering to watch with some fascination as the younger human found her filet and carving knives. It really was interesting to see how Lily almost automatically went through the actions of processing the big fish.

Slicing the fins off, gutting and oddly happy to find another two fish inside it.

"Can you push down here?" Lily asked, after a while, as the Slayer had not moved away. She pointed at the bigger cutting knife that was in position to cut the very big fish head off.

The Slayer moved the few steps over, checking what she wanted and then finished the fishy decapitation with surprising ease.

"Normally I would set some crab traps if it was nicer out." Lily noted, setting everything to be discarded aside in a bin. Starting to cut the meat off of the body into more manageable pieces. She paused to look up and gave a smile as the helmet tilted to her. "At least I can make some fresh dinner tonight for you as a thank you?"

The Slayer gave a distinctively pleased sound and signed. Yes. Please.