Chapter 22: The Legend of Atlantis

"We'll be reborn from the deep."

Akikta laid sprawled out on the cold floor like a sack of potatoes, unable to muster the strength to sit up. He stayed there for a good bit, listening to the others' conversations.

Nakji and Callie were talking about their personal lives, eager to learn more about each other.

Marina and the snatcher, whose 'fake' name turned out to be Ricky, were discussing how to get back to the Residential Zone and regroup with the others. Marina also revealed to Ricky that Biggie was dead, which saddened him.

Akikta eventually got tired of lying on the ground, so he flipped over and stood up to face the white room where Subject 7 dwelled.

It had been at least ten minutes since the group hid away, and in those ten minutes, Subject 7 didn't do anything. He didn't scream, try to break down the door, or look for another exit. All he did was stay still in the darkness, which was highly unusual for him.

Subject 7 didn't even react to Akikta approaching the glass wall. "Come on, Chaska. I know you're in there somewhere..." Akikta mumbled, still not accepting the fact his brother was gone.

There was a moment of silence before Akikta lightly tapped his head on the glass. Oh, who am I kidding... If any trace of Chaska was still left, he would've come to his senses by now, wouldn't he have?

Akikta sniffled, coming to terms with the possibility that his brother was gone in everything but the physical aspect.

He sighed and slid down onto his knees, turning to put his back up against the glass wall. Suddenly, something fell out of his jacket. It was the tape recorder Marina had repaired for him earlier. He had forgotten all about it until now.

Akikta looked up to see everyone else was still doing their own thing, so he figured now was a good time to listen to whatever recording was on the device.

He brought the tape recorder close to him before pressing play. "Log one." A gruff tone of a young man spoke out, his voice marred only by the distorted static of the tape recorder. "It has been approximately one week since the flood. I've come across a voice receiver in the lower sectors, so I'll be logging everything in here from now on." There was a pause in the man's speech. "If someone other than me is listening to this right now, then you somehow got a hold of my voice receiver. That means I am either dead, or have no longer found it useful to log my entries. Hopefully, the latter is the case." Considering the man was speaking in clear English, the former was likely the case—unless he was kept in a cryopod somewhere, but Akikta doubted they had any of those lying around. "And if you found this recording where I think you've found it, then you've come to a terrible place, my friend. Not hell, if that's what you're wondering. No. This place is much worse. This place... is Atlantis."

It was settled. Akikta was officially hooked on whatever this man had to say. And boy, did he have a lot to say.

First things first. The man speaking in each log was a scientist. Well, his official title was Senior Genetic Advisor. But scientist was much simpler. His name was Paul Miller, which explained the faded-out words of 'ler's log' on the tape recorder, which he kept calling 'voice receiver.'

According to him, he was one of the 'unlucky ones.' What that meant was he had survived the flood within Atlantis. How did the flood happen? To understand that, Akikta had to piece together Paul's many ramblings to paint himself a clear picture of Atlantis's history.

Before Earth became inhospitable to humans, Atlantis was actually a massive submarine-boat hybrid. It being enormous wasn't so strange, since humans were known to overcompensate with big things. What made it strange was that it wasn't a military vessel. It was a cruise.

Apparently, some hotshots had the bright idea of creating a resort that was not only mobile, but could also submerge itself in water. Naturally, this attracted millions of customers. Only the richest of the rich could afford a ticket into Atlantis. Even if one had the money to afford the resort, they would unlikely be quick enough to reserve a spot within it. Atlantis was very popular, after all.

When the surface was a few years away from being uninhabitable, the days of Atlantis being a resort ended, and it was repurposed into a military settlement.

It was like Alterna in the sense of it being a human colony. The biggest difference was that Atlantis was mobile, meaning the Atlanteans were aware of the many other human colonies that existed on Earth.

The more Paul went on about Atlantis, the more Sal's behavior made sense.

Whereas Alterna was a society of corporate scientists, Atlantis was inhabited by power-hungry council members, which checked out. According to Paul, everyone in Atlantis was insanely rich in some capacity. If you already had more money than you knew what to do with, then it made sense to obtain power. And the Atlanteans sought it out through any means necessary.

Most endeavors proved fruitless, but ultimately, they discovered the key to unlimited power: genetic splicing.

They accomplished this through a series of trials and errors. One doesn't simply master the skill of rearranging DNA in a matter of days, let alone years. Luckily, the Atlanteans found a way to expedite the trialing process by using non-humans as lab rats. And by non-humans, Paul meant literal animals.

Since Atlantis had the luxury to move around a flooding world, they were able to gather many creatures from all around the animal kingdom—mostly ones the Atlanteans deemed worthy.

Paul stated there was one point in time where the Atlanteans raided active secret government facilities and obtained beasts thought to be extinct, like the massive mammoth and the mythical bigfoot, which was apparently just a gigantopithecus. Of course, Paul admitted he'd never seen these creatures if any were ever caught.

Regardless, the Atlanteans did capture many non-mythical and endangered creatures. On one hand, it was good news for the animals, since it meant they were saved from their dying ecosystems. On the other, those same animals were subjected to tests and experiments, which Paul heavily implied were painful and sometimes downright gruesome.

Akikta doesn't know how long this lasted, as Paul never gave a timeframe. However, the Atlanteans eventually achieved their goal of perfecting a serum capable of transforming the human physiology. When the animals were no longer needed, the higher-ups had a tower known as 'Subzero' constructed. All the animals were then stored in various cryogenic compartments, in case they were ever needed again.

From then on, the Atlanteans played God, and most of the populace had their DNA spliced.

By manipulating the building blocks of life, the Atlanteans turned themselves into powerhouses. Humans with superstrength, the ability to fly, beast-like traits, and other qualities that made them inhuman became a common sight in Atlantis. Actually, to call them human would be a mistake. They were more akin to superhumans.

That would explain why Sal thought so highly of Akikta's race. If the Atlanteans were his only impression on mankind, then it'd made sense why he thought Akikta could handle the New Squidbeak Splatoon, even as a child. If only he knew.

Paul went on to explain how life in Atlantis was a hierarchy where only the strongest were considered people. Everyone else was either entertainment or an undesirable.

The whole thing reminded Akikta of that one ancient game he learned so much about, but never actually got to play due to being born way after it was released. What was it again? Oh, right. Bioshock, the franchise where there were no gods or kings. Akikta chuckled, seeing Atlantis as Earth's real-life version of Rapture.

Speaking of, Atlantis ended up suffering a rapture of its own. Ironically enough, its fate was the same as its mythological version.

Paul claims to not know how it happened exactly, but apparently, whoever was responsible for the submersion mechanisms did not properly maintain the gears. As a result, when Atlantis began its submersion protocols to avoid a terrible thunderstorm, the dome didn't seal properly. This allowed the entire ocean to spill in, flooding almost every sector. Since the Atlanteans didn't see fish as worthwhile guinea pigs, they never gave themselves the ability to breathe underwater.

As Akikta thought, the flood itself hadn't killed everyone. There were survivors. However, with ninety percent of the population dead, the remaining ten percent battled each other for food, shelter, other resources, and, most importantly, dominance. The need to be the strongest and survive outweighed any sensibilities.

Paul, not being a skilled fighter himself, chose to scavenge for supplies as a means to survive.

His original plan was to hop into one of the many cryo-chambers the animals were kept in. Unfortunately, Subzero had been locked down with a secret access code only council members had, and at the time, they were all dead. This meant he would have to plunge deep into Atlantis's net code just to fish out the keys to Subzero's locks, and he lamented the fact he wasn't that skilled in the technical side of things. Additionally, there was also the risk of awakening the genetically altered animals and releasing them, which would've been a death sentence to all the survivors.

So, Paul did what any sensible man would do. He took his knowledge of genetic splicing and used the last bit of intact Atlantean serum to create the ultimate being.

Paul went into profound detail on how to use the genetic splicing chambers, logging every step he took during the experiments he conducted. He also noted each failed result an experiment gave him. By listening to the recording, anyone could tell he was a perfectionist and very proud of his work.

Akikta listened to many logs before Paul finally got to his finished product. He wasn't sure how much time had passed between each log, since by the last one, Paul sounded much much older than he did in the beginning. He also sounded really sick, as if a terrible disease had gripped the scientist by the throat.

Paul was very minute with the details of his perfected serum. Since there was no one around to force him to follow Atlantis's regulations on genetic splicing, he made the holy grail of DNA. At least, those were his words. Once inserted in his bloodstream, he claimed he'd become God and 'the strongest human to ever live.'

After that log, there were no more. Akikta got a pretty good idea of what happened next. Paul Miller's disease ended up ending him before he could ascend, and millennia later, Sal took the perfected serum instead. It was the only explanation that made sense.

Akikta sighed. I didn't want to be reminded of our tendency to make things worse. It was amazing how, even long after death, humanity still managed to cause problems for the Earth. Maybe it was a good thing most of them were gone and dead.

Akikta shook his head. "What am I thinking?" He blurted.

Sure, humanity had its special moments, but he shouldn't forget it was also capable of good. In a sense, if it weren't for mankind's mistakes, inklings, octolings, and, well, every other evolved sea life probably wouldn't be a thing today.

Akikta stood up, leaving the tape recorder on the ground. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but from the looks of it, nothing much had changed. He turned back to the bright white dots beaming in the darkness, now understanding what he could do with Subject 7.

"I could use this room to turn Chaska back to normal..." Akikta thought, though realized there were several issues with doing that.

For one, he didn't actually know how to change a human's morphed DNA back into what it was originally. Paul only went into detail on how to merge two creatures' DNA together and how to merge the serum used by Atlanteans into one's bloodstream.

Second, even if he did have that expertise in genetic splicing, he wasn't sure if it'd work. The process Chaska underwent to turn into Subject 7 was drastically different from the procedure Atlanteans used to splice DNA. If Akikta were to use the splicing chamber, he might accidentally kill his brother while trying to change him back into a human.

There was the option of using the splicing chamber to eliminate the parasites within himself. Though, Subject 7 was already inside the white room where the splicing was done. Of course, Akikta could just go into a different splicing chamber, but to be quite honest, he wasn't very confident in performing a splicing on himself. Knowing him, he'd fuck around and merge the parasites into him permanently.

So then, what could he do?

Akikta placed his hand on his chin, only for Marina to interrupt his thoughts. "Aki." He turned to her. "I know you want to save Inka and Marie, but we're really not doing so well here. We have to call it quits and go back to the Residential Zone."

Akikta sighed. "Did you already forget? We don't know how to get back there."

"Ricky does. He says he'll lead us straight there."

Akikta twitched. "Well, what about finding the others? How will we find them, huh? They're likely hiding from other salmonids, so I doubt they're in that same apartment."

"Ricky said he and his brother have a special form of communication that's long distance. He'll be able to track them by tracking his brother."

Akikta's worry grew, as Marina didn't seem to be joking. He looked over to Callie and Nakji. "You two are ok with this?!"

Callie rubbed her shoulder. "I want to save Marie more than anyone else. But what's the point of going in if that means getting ourselves splatted for good? We need to rethink this..."

Akikta eyed Nakji. "I don't want to see you get hurt anymore, Aki. We already lost Biggie, so I think we should recuperate our losses and—"

"Dammit, guys! Don't you see? We don't have time to recuperate and regroup or come up with another lousy plan. I don't have time! I mean, come on! Chaska is right there, and you want to just leave him here?"

Marina shook her head. "I don't want to leave your brother unattended, but look at him. That room is completely sealed, and no other salmonid comes around here from the looks of it. We can just come back for him when this is all over..."

"Yeah? And what if he isn't here? What then? We'll have blown our only chance at rescuing Chaska!" He jumped in anger, increasingly agitated with the girls' protest.

"The key to all our problems is in this room! I can feel it! We just—" Akikta froze with widened eyes.

Everyone stared at him, confused.

"Aki?" Nakji spoke.

Suddenly, he vomited gallons of blood out onto the floor before dropping to his knees in a coughing fit. The others gathered around him in shock, only for his body to hurl into a seizure of toe-curling pain.

He somehow managed to stifle back bloodcurdling screams, not wanting to alert the salmonids of their location.

After his painful episode, Akikta was still left in immense pain. "Oh...no..." He whimpered, realizing this meant the bitter drink had worn off.

He was out of time.

Everyone but Ricky had a mortified expression on their face as they realized the same thing as Akikta.

"It's...over for me..."

"N-no!" Nakji shouted. "Don't say that! We can do something about this!" Akikta continued staring at the ground, surrounded by his own blood. "R-Rick can make you another one of those potions! That'll—"

"No, Nak..." He said in a defeated voice. "That only blocks out the pain... I'll still die either way."

The reminder nearly sent Nakji into tears. She got onto her knees and held Akikta up, pulling him into a hug.

"There's gotta be something we can do!" She sobbed, the grip around his neck getting tighter by the second. But there wasn't anything they could do. The hourglass ran out of sand.

"I'm sorry, Nak... Really, I am..." Akikta stared at the ground. "The only way I see myself making it out of this is if I ate those parasites from the inside... But the only one who could do that is—"

Something clicked in his brain as his eyes met with Subject 7's. He pulled away from Nakji's hug, staring over at his brother.

He was made for self-preservation. Akikta turned to the terminals on one side of the splicing chamber, then to the pads on the other side.

Without saying another word, he got up and walked over to the terminals. He ignored the bruising pain each step caused him and immediately began typing on the keyboard of one terminal. Fortunately for him, it didn't request authorization.

"What are you doing?" Marina questioned, but he didn't respond. He just kept typing away on the terminal, which was a bit slow since he was using one hand.

A loud robotic whirring noise rang out, and a green horizontal beam appeared in the white room. It slowly trailed down, scanning Subject 7 as it passed him. The machine identified him as an unknown organism, marking him in the database before giving Akikta the next set of instructions for him to follow, just like Paul said it would.

"Aki?" Nakji looked confused and concerned, along with everyone else.

"Ok, guys. This may be the craziest idea I've ever thought of, but hear me out." He walked over to a pad and stood on it, allowing a blue light to scan him. "This room was used by the Atlanteans to make themselves superior to others."

Marina tilted her head. "What?"

"They were mixin' and matchin' their DNA with the genes of other animals. They bettered themselves. And thankfully, some old guy went into explicit detail on how to use one of these machines."

"What are you saying?" Callie interrupted Akikta's ramble.

"I'm saying..." He pressed a button, and a foggy gas filled Subject 7's white room. "I'm going to merge my DNA with Chaska's."

The group looked to Subject 7, then Akikta, then back to Subject 7.

They did this several times before Callie raised her voice. "WHAT?" The sudden shout made Ricky shush her.

"Aki, you're joking, right?" Nakji pleaded, but Akikta shook his head.

"I'm dead serious."

"I-idiot! You could die if you do that!"

"I'm going to die if I don't."

Nakji jolted at the response. It was quick, precise, and true. "Aki, there has to be some other way..."

"I'm sure there is. But we... I don't have the time to explore those other ways. This is the best thing I can think of." He lowered his gaze. "Besides, if my brother is never going to be normal again, maybe I should be with him so he isn't alone."

Nakji perked up when a loud 'ding' echoed through the room. Akikta knew that meant the room was prepped and ready for the merge.

"W-well, what if you turn out like him? What if you lose your sense of self?!"

"Well then, you better send an agent to take me down." Akikta chuckled, but Nakji frowned at his joke.

He placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "Look, Nak, I'm not gonna turn into some mindless monster. Alright? My brother might be one, but he wasn't even supposed to survive whatever experiment he went through. That just goes to show how tough the Miles family is, and remember, you're part of that now." Nakji avoided his gaze. He moved his hand onto her chin, gently tilting her head so her gaze met his. "I'd never leave you here alone, Nakji. Never. So trust me and be strong like a Miles. Can you do that for me?" Nakji stared into Akikta's eyes without blinking, then nodded. "Thank you."

He patted her shoulder before turning around and facing the door.

Before stepping forward, he felt something gently tug him back. "Wait," Nakji called out, turning him back around to face her. "Before you go in, I have something for you..." She fiddled with her thumbs like an embarrassed schoolgirl, then reached for something behind her. "I wanted to wait for this whole situation to be over and done with before I gave it to you, but... well, here."

She thrusts something into his chest, practically forcing him to take it. He looked down in his hand, and his breath hitched.

"I asked Marina to help me repair it. We patched it up to the best of our abilities. I-I'm sorry. I wasn't able to gather all the pieces to it."

Tears formed in Akikta's eyes as he stared down at her gift. He couldn't believe it. In the palm of his hand was his grandfather's mask, the same one Sal broke.

There were cracks, big and small, all around the mask. The bottom mouthpiece was completely missing, making it look like some phantom of the opera mask. But he didn't care. The fact that the mask was in his hands—er, hand, once again was more than enough.

"Is it... ok?" Nakji asked, unsure. She got her answer when she was suddenly embraced into a hug.

"I love you, sis." He wrapped his arm around her tightly, squeezing her in the hug. After a short delay, she returned the hug.

They stayed like that for a minute until Akikta felt another surge of pain flow through him. He winced and pulled away. "I'll be wearing this from now on." He strapped the broken mask onto his face with some help from Nakji. "I owe you big time, Marina." He said, acknowledging her help in all this.

"Oh, please don't worry about it! It was the least I could do after you helped Pearlie."

Akikta nodded with a smile before turning to Nakji. "By the way, I'm gonna give you my translators."

Nakji furrowed her brows. "Why?"

"So you can use them. Y'know, in case..." Akikta stopped, seeing the expression on Nakji's face turn grim.

"You're gonna be fine." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Right, I'll be fine. But I'm still gonna give you these." With a huff, Nakji held out her hands, awaiting the translators.

Akikta turned to Ricky. "Please close the door behind me once I go in." Ricky waved a fin, seemingly agreeing to his request.

Akikta took the one earpiece and cylinder translator off, placing them both in Nakji's hands. Afterward, he walked up to the metal door, staring at it intently. Whatever happened next was going to go really well or really poorly.

After a few deep breaths, he pressed the green button that was above the red button and the door opened. He walked into the white room confidently, hearing the door seal shut behind him shortly after.

Akikta couldn't see Subject 7 anymore due to the fog clouding the room. But he knew he was there. His primal instincts screamed at him to run because danger was nearby, but he didn't. He stood there defiantly, waiting.

Akikta trembled slightly, nervous as hell. What if he inputted the wrong sequence of code? What if Nakji's fears came true? What if it didn't work at all and Subject 7 devoured him?

He shook the doubts and negative thoughts out of his head. Now wasn't the time for any of that.

Akikta stared forward into the heavy fog, not being able to see anything in front of him past a few feet. "Well, Chaska. I'm here. You want me?" He extended his severed and intact arms out, exposing himself. "Come and get me."

The moment he said that, a torrent of black ink shot at him, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground instantly. Akikta didn't even get to react to what happened as Subject 7's black ink wrapped around him like a boa constrictor.

His heart rate increased, and his breathing became rigid. The last thing he saw was a jet-black hand rising and covering his face.