See the first chapter for acknowledgements and major canon divergences.

And here you have chapter 13! I don't know why but it was somehow a beast to write. Just 3-4 chapters plus an epilogue to go and then this chapter will be finished.

Anyways, happy reading!


Chapter 13

Sometime during the next day the two brother's arrived at Devil's Deep. The island was large and seemed to be filled with exotic trees and plants. As Kingfish had said, its center was dominated by a large volcano. Strange green smoke came out from its top.

"That doesn't look good," Orm commented. Arthur knelt down and ordered Topo to return to Atlantis and inform their mother of their location. She would know what to do and could return with ships and reinforcements. The octopus slithered back into the ocean and Arthur stood back up. "We can do some reconnaissance in the meantime and find out what is going on in that volcano." Orm agreed and they went on their way. As they walked along the thick plants and vines, the brothers filled their time with easy conversation.

"How have you been since last we met?" Orm asked.

"It's been alright," Arthur replied. "Busy with the kingship and keeping Atlantis safe whilst preventing a war with the surface. After all, I have a great example I need to live up to." Was it just his imagination or did Orm's cheeks turn a slight shade more pink? It suits him, Arthur thought. He briefly wondered how far down below the collar of the Atlantean suit the blush would travel. His brother distracted him from his pondering by asking "But you do take some time for yourself too, right?"

Arthur shrugged. "I take at least one or two hours a day for myself and I visit my dad twice a month on the weekends. And I have dinner with mum and stuff. I just… don't want to screw up this kingship-thing. I know how much depends on me doing my job well and I know how much you gave up by stepping down." He looked down and focused on not tripping over a large loose rock until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to find Orm smiling at him. "Arthur, you are doing more than just fine. Great waves, you are doing a lot more than some other kings have done in the past. You care for Atlantis and Atlantis knows it, even though it may not realize or show it yet." Arthur nodded his thanks and tried to clear his throat, which was tied up due to the emotions in his chest.

They made their way deeper and deeper into the island and eventually stumbled upon a glade with unnaturally large blue flowers. Their high vantage point showed the volcano in the distance, surrounded by beautiful tropical plants and trees. Water cascaded down a huge waterfall some distance away as well. "That's not normal, right?" Orm asked, pointing to an enormous butterfly landed on top of one of the flowers. Less than a second passed before the flower pulled its blue petals inwards, grabbed the insect, and swallowed it whole. "Definitely not normal," Arthur confirmed, before backing away. "Let's get out of here."

"You see how dangerous the orichalcum can be?" Orm asked as they jogged back into the forest. "I bet it mutated the flora and fauna in a short amount of time, turning them-"

Arthur halted his brother's movement and words by placing a hand on his arm. In front of them lay a huge dead rodent, the size of a baby whale. A similarly upsized insect stood on top of it, gnawing at bits of flesh. The king of Atlantis carefully tried to take a step back, but accidentally stepped on a twig, which snapped. The insect lifted its head towards them, let out some screeches to call its brethren and started to hop towards them. "Oh shit, run!" Arthur shouted as he pulled Orm along by his arm.

They took off, but Arthur quickly noticed they weren't going as fast as they could be. He looked back and saw that Orm was running really strangely: back straight and arms held in straight lines behind him. It was the same position Arthur himself assumed when he wanted to dive or swim faster. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I don't know," Orm replied. "I'm not used to running." Aah, well that explains the swimming stance. "Just do what I do. Use your arms, use your legs. Lift them up," Arthur explained and slightly exaggerated his movements. Orm thankfully managed to follow his instructions and started to go faster. "Like this?" The blonde Atlantean apparently had a better running speed than Arthur and shot past him. "Holy shit. Wait up!" Arthur called out, speeding up himself. He grinned ear to ear and felt an increasingly familiar warmth and fondness in his chest as he heard Orm laugh and call out "Whoooo! Yeah!" somewhere in the trees in front of him.


The two brothers ran as fast as they could, eventually stumbling upon a small clearing next to a ravine. A large statue partly covered in moss and vines stood to the side. They briefly stopped in order to catch their breath, having managed to put some distance between them and their pursuers. Orm glanced down beyond the edge of the ravine. He couldn't spot the bottom as it was covered in mist. "We have to jump. We'll survive the fall."

Arthur shook his head. "It's going to hurt. And we'll lose time climbing back up on the other side."

"What do you want to do then? Stay here and fight the hopping demons?!"

The half-Atlantean let out a frustrated groan and started pacing around. Orm glanced down the ravine again. Jumping down would not be fun, but he did not see any other options right now. Eventually his brother walked next to the statue and noticed some writing along its base. "What is that? What does that say?"

Orm moved closer and quickly scanned the old letters and words which he had been taught in class. "The writing is ancient Atlantean. 'A true king builds bridges.' Arthur looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding to himself and walking a short distance. "What are you doing?" Orm asked with a frown on his face, confused. Before he could say anything more, however, his brother turned around, ran towards the statue, and headbutted its base before falling to the ground. Orm sighed and raised his eyes to the sky. His brother was an idiot. "Got any more krill-brained ideas?"

Then, the stone base started to crack and the statue fell down perfectly across the length of the ravine, forming a bridge. Orm stood stunned for a moment with his mouth agape. The precision needed to let the statue fall exactly right and not let it slide into the ravine was enormous. Beside him Arthur got up with a groan and rubbed his head. An unremorseful and proud grin was on his face. "See? A true king builds bridges," he shot back before laughing and starting to run across the statue.

Orm watched his brother go in front of him. Who was he kidding? He was completely head over heels deep in love with said idiot, and didn't mind one bit. "That's a metaphor!" he quickly shouted before starting to following, hearing the huge insects catching up behind him.

They ran across the statue before pushing it off into the abyss below. The unfortunate hopping insects that were already half-way across fell down with it. Arthur caught Orm's gaze and send him another grin. "Looks like my metaphor just saved your ass." Orm really, really wanted to grab his brother's face and kiss that smug look right off of it. Instead he just shook his head with a fond smile and they continued on their journey.

As the sky turned darker and darker, they came closer and closer to the volcano spouting out green smoke. The plants and animals became stranger and stranger due to the omitted radiation. Eventually the brothers arrived at the side of the volcano and started to trail around it, finding a large crack that seemed to serve as an entrance to the interior. Two guards, wearing black clothes and holding ancient-looking weapons, stood in front of it, but were quickly knocked out. Arthur and Orm both picked up a gun and quietly made their way over to the large crevice.

"Hey," Arthur whispered. "Once this is over with, we should go get some burgers and beers."

"Not much of a beer guy, I'm afraid," Orm whispered back.

"Tacos and tequila?"

"I prefer pizza."

"Hmmm… pizza and pepsi, then."


Arthur and Orm entered the volcano and slowly made their way over to some sort of control chamber. Every time they met a guard, either Orm or Arthur would distract them whilst the other came up from behind and knocked them out. After they entered the room, they took care of the guards inside and locked the doors. Because of the high position of the chamber, the floor-to-ceiling windows gave a good overview of what was going on inside the volcano. Beyond the glass, Arthur could spot an enormous machine, vaguely resembling a furnace or oven, with rotating pipes near its top which were fuming out the green smoke he and Orm had already spotted when swimming up to the island. Near the bottom of the machine, some humans, dressed similarly to the guards they had already met, were operating octopus-like machines to put orichalcum containers into the machine.

Orm, who had come up to the window next to him, gasped. "It's an orichalcum furnace. All that stolen orichalcum, they're just burning it up! This is catastrophic." Arthur nodded, having come to the same conclusions. "He's heating the atmosphere on purpose. But why? And how do we stop it?" The blonde Atlantean looked down at the control panels in front of them. "The whole place must be heat-shielded to protect it from the surface's thermal satellites. Figuring out the controls to stop this would take took long. To take out the furnace, we would have to crater the entire island."

Before Arthur could respond, the doors of the control chamber blew up and both he and Orm were knocked through the glass window down to the bottom of the volcano. The King of Atlantis groaned as he and Orm got up from the floor. Apparently their presence had been noticed sooner than they would have liked. He looked up and saw a female black-clad guard looking down at them. She pointed and shouted "Stop them!"

Loud alarms started to ring and the bottom floor of the volcano started to flood with more guards, some wearing jetpacks. Arthur knocked out one of them, grabbed their gun, and started shooting at others coming towards him. He glanced over at Orm and saw that his brother was doing the same. When the gun jammed, he started grabbing pieces of loose equipment and debris around him to throw at more guards.

Eventually, after most of their opponents had been taken out, one of the octopus-like machines appeared. It was operated by the same female guard they had seen in the control chamber. The machine charged towards Orm, who barely managed to duck and flee up a flight of stairs. Arthur, still busy fighting a bulky guard, couldn't reach his brother in time in order to prevent the machine from grabbing the blonde Atlantean and throwing him on the ground hard. The machine made its way over and raised one of its arms in order to squash Orm. Arthur felt panic seize his heart. He quickly knocked out the guard he was fighting and ran over as fast as he could. Just before the machine lowered its arm, he managed to catch it and throw it off. He had never felt as glad for his Atlantean strength as at that moment. Using a large chain lying around and a crane, Arthur and Orm managed to take out the machine together.

They stood on the middle of the floor for a moment, keeping each other upright and catching their breath. Arthur quickly looked his brother over to make sure he was okay. When his eyes finally met Orm's ocean blue ones, he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in. They were alright and alive. He was also suddenly struck by the thought that his brother's eyes were really beautiful. He had always just assumed they were simply the same as their mother's, but now that they stood close together he could see a million of subtle differences and color combinations that were uniquely Orm. The moment was interrupted by a familiar red laser beam, which hit a container next to them. Both brothers were thrown a few feet to the side due to the impact of the explosion.

Arthur helped his brother get up and together they watched as Black Manta descended down a set of stairs. Similarly to when he broke into Atlantis, Kane only seemed to be wearing his distinct helmet and a black trident. Gone was the strong overpowered Atlantean suit which he had been wearing in Sicily all those years back. From the corner of his eye Arthur could see Orm's brows were furrowed. "He's going to fight us without the power suit?" "I told you he's stronger now," Arthur reminded him.

Orm snorted. "He's still just a surface-dweller." The blonde Atlantean started moving towards their enemy, but was stopped by a hand on his chest. He raised a questioning eyebrow at Arthur, who shook his head. "Together." A look came over Orm's eyes and face which had become increasingly familiar over the past few days. It contained a mixture of fondness, pride, and something else, something Arthur still couldn't put his finger on. Whatever it was, it made his heart beat faster and his throat dry. And the king of Atlantis didn't know what to do with that knowledge.

"Together," Orm responded, and they turned towards David Kane as one. They both managed to land some hits, but due to Manta's new abilities, they spent most of their time avoiding being hit themselves. At one point Black Manta had swiped at the brothers with his trident and managed to draw some blood from Arthur's arm. At another point the helmet had recharged and Kane tried to fire at Orm, but Arthur quickly pushed the human aside, allowing the laser beams to harmlessly hit a rock. Manta let out a frustrated growl, assembled the two pieces of his black trident and hurled it at the blonde Atlantean, before kicking Arthur in the stomach and sending him to the floor. Orm deftly moved aside and let the trident embed itself into the rock next to him. He then reached out to grab it, but froze as soon as his hands touched the metal. Arthur could have sworn he saw his brother's eyes turn an unnatural green for a moment as well. Before he could stand up or react however, Black Manta hit Orm with his laser beams. The blonde Atlantean was thrown back upon a rock and seemed to have lost consciousness. Burns littered his chest.

"Nooo!" Arthur shouted as he got up and ran over. Kane grabbed his trident and was about to stab his helpless victim when the volcano trembled. A number of explosions seemed to be hitting the island all at once, and Arthur sighed in relief at the realization that the Atlantean and Xebellian reinforcements had arrived. He used the split second of hesitation Black Manta had shown in order to push the human aside. David Kane fell into the water and swam away.

Arthur was tempted to follow, but knew he wouldn't be able to stop him right now and his priorities lay with Orm. He carefully scooped his brother into his arms, jumped into the water, and swam to safety.


Aaand that's it for this chapter. It's a slightly longer one and I hope you enjoyed it! I hope to post the next chapter next Sunday (8-9-2024), but please don't be angry if it has to be postponed to the week after that (15-9-2024). My university teachers think 200-300 pages of reading work per week is fun :(.