Into the Deep

Chapter 12

TRIGGER WARNING! Assault, threats, injury, mild blood

You waited in front of the door nervously, rubbing the jar in your hands as you did so. Per Vanessa's request, you had come over to the library right away despite the sun having barely touched the sky in the rosy dawn. It was so early in fact, you'd only caught a glimpse of one or two people whilst you were on your way over here! Why did she need to see you right away? What kind of meeting were you here for? You didn't know, but it couldn't be anything good if anything you knew of her had anything to say about it. You nervously scratched at your neck and winced at the pain and the feeling of your dried blood under your nails. You really should've cleaned yourself up before coming here...

Why were you meeting here though? You thought before looking up at the door in front of you once again, hoping to find some answers to your question. She had said to meet her by an office in the back of the library, saying that there were some things you needed to be made aware of before going into a different meeting later. It had taken a little longer than you would've liked to admit, but you thankfully found the strange, worn office door. Its peeling paint and frayed edges looked terribly out of place next to all of the modern, well cared for doors around you which begged the question, why did it look like that? And perhaps more importantly, what secrets are hidden behind this door? You curiously leaned closer, trying to see once more if there was anything unique about this door before jumping back as the door was suddenly opened by Vanessa who seemed oddly pleased about something, but the look in her eyes didn't seem very happy to you.

"(Y/n)! Thank you for coming in such short notice." Vanessa said with a strange smile before gesturing to the door behind her. "Come in, come in! We have quite a bit to discuss before the team meeting later today."

    Even if you didn't want to go with her through that door, the way she smiled at you gave no room for debate. Nervously you passed by her and slipped through the door, feeling her eyes on your back as you did so. Was it just you or did she seem a bit weirder than usual? You went through a short, dark metal hall lined with pulsing, purple lights before everything broadened out into another room and you gasped openly at what you found.

It was another lab, but this one was far bigger and more ominous than Henry's little lab. The iron walls looked darker here under the harsh purple lights that covered the whole place, making them appear black instead of grey. The strange purple lines reminded you slightly of Tron as you followed their crisscrossing lines with your gaze to a slightly elevated area in the far back of the room where every line inevitably led. There, you found a large computer made up of at least 30 screens that nearly took up the entire wall it was built on with a tiny, black office chair in front of it which seemed oddly bland when compared to the rest of the room. Each screen showed different things, but none that you could really make sense of. One held blueprints for something that looked an awful lot like the collars you had given Moon to destroy whilst another showed odd waves in green. The only thing you could say for sure was that no two screens had the same stuff on them.

    Thoroughly confused, you shook your head to try and clear it turning around to look at the rest of the room. Lining the walls on both sides were about 10 strange tanks that reminded you of those circular aquarium exhibits except the water was far darker than it should be. Because of how dark the water was and the size of the tanks, you thought there was nothing inside that was of any interest to you. But when you saw something with a large tail move to the front of one of the tanks before swimming away again you couldn't believe what you were seeing. There were Mers here?! Why were they being kept here and not in the actual enclosures outside?! You thought to yourself before yelping as you suddenly felt hands on your shoulders and turned to find Vanessa there with that strange smile on her face.