The Deep

Chapter 7

Fontaine comes back just as Finn is back on the screen. 

"Y/N, we're needed on the bridge." Fontaine says as she looks at me. I nod and give a small wave to Finn before leaving the room. Fontaine stays behind.

When I walk onto the bridge it's obvious there was some damage. There's a light blinking on and off and the shields have been put up.

"What happened? Did the Great Unknown do this?" I ask as I stare at the shields. "Actually, never mind, I don't want to know."

Kind of the truth. In reality, I knew. I also knew I couldn't handle actually hearing it.

"We may have to abandon ship. Please be prepared for that possibility Y/N." Kaiko said to me as she rushed off. More than likely to the place with all the wires and what not. You know, the stupid part of the ship that I have no idea what I'm ever doing in there.

Fontaine joins us again. "Did mum tell you?"

I nod, then walk off. If we have to abandon ship I want to be prepared, and by prepared I men I want my things. The important things, at least. I open the door to my room and grab my small bag. Then I open a draw and grab my writing book and a pen. This book has all the stories of when I was alone on The Bubble, no way in hell am I ever leaving it behind. I find some old leather gloves that my mum got me before I boarded The Bubble and put them on. The were plain black and, when in the dark, glowed to show jellyfish tentacles on them. Now that I think about it, jellyfish were everywhere in my life, kind of hard to think I missed it all.

I then grab the photo of my pop and I on the drawer. I don't take even a second to look at it. Looking at it might bring tears to my eyes, and I really don't feel like crying. I mean, walking out to where the Nektons are and having red puffy eyes is so embarrassing. I would never do that. I also grab a book on jellyfish from the shelf, then I leave the room. I didn't grab much, but if I could I'd take everything with me, so I'll just deal with whatever I grabbed. I place the bag near the door, just in case we're all good and don't have to leave.

When I walk back onto the bridge, I look at Fontaine. "Are we still abandoning ship?"

"Mum might be able to make it to Fiction, so we should be fine." Great, so basically there was no reason to place my valuables into my bag, awesome.

"I still want to know some stuff about your pop Y/N."

Really? We're still on this? Whatever.

"Sure, what do you want to know? I can't help with everything. Honestly, I'd say I'm pretty useless when it comes to information on pop. My grandpa wasn't exactly very 'talkative'. Mostly kept to himself." I say placing my hands behind my back.

"Fontaine, you should get straight to the point." Ant said looking at his sister. When she said nothing, he sighed and turned to me. "So, what's your family symbol?"

Family symbol? Is he talking about the jellyfish? "Uh, my pop said it was a jellyfish." I tug at the pendant hanging around my neck and hold it out to him, showing him the jellyfish in the middle. His eyes widen as he runs over to the... I dunno what it is. Big doodad in the middle of the bridge. it looks like it's some sorta big tablet.

Anyway, he pushes a button, and the tablet opens to show an old... soccer ball? Seriously, what the heck is that? I'd say it's the size of a soccer ball. I look at Fontaine, confused by the stand holding the... thing-a-majig.

"What's that?" I ask her, pointing my thumb over my shoulder. "Is it a really old soccer ball? Because if so, it's definitely seen better days."

She just sighs and shakes her head. "No. It's... Ant, are we even allowed to tell her? What if mum and dad get mad?"

Ant just laughs. "You can't be serious! We have a mystery on our hands, and you expect me to sit still? Besides, she already knows about Lemuria." Great, now their talking as if I'm not here. I ignore them and walk over to the 'not' soccer ball. I begin to reach out, and just as I am about to touch it, I hear the door open.

"What on Earth is going on here?" I spin around as Kaiko walks over and looks at us with anger in her eyes. I leap back from the ball and knock it off the stand. It clashes to the floor with a thump and rolls over to my feet.

With everyone's eyes on me I pick it up and walk back over to the stand. I can feel my face burning. Goodness this is embarrassing.

"I'm really sorry miss Kaiko." I whisper as I play with my leather gloves. I forgot to take them off in my room before I came out here.

"It's alright Y/N. Please just don't touch the ephemycron again." Ah, so it's called an ephemycron. Not as cool as a really old soccer ball, but sure.

I pull my gloves off as Kaiko walks over to Ant and Fontaine, talking to them quietly, probably about letting someone they barely know see the ephemycron.

I know I really shouldn't, but I really, quite desperately want to touch it. I look at Ant, who is staring at me. Which... isn't weird... at all. He looks back to his mum talking with Fontaine and then back to me and nods. Is he encouraging me to touch it? I look at Kaiko and Fontaine, then back at Ant and point at the ephemycron. He nods again, which gives me my answer. I quietly walk towards the stand again and place my gloves on the iPad tablet doodad. I stand on my toes and reach up, carefully picking up the ball. Nothing happens.

"Try putting sea water on it." I jump as I hear Ant practically right next to my ear. I look around and see a fishtank with a Yellowback Basslet in it. I cup my hands and carry a small amount of sea water to the ephemycron, and drop it on there. Then I pick it up again, and the thing bursts with light.

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A/N: This is not an Ant x Reader story. Just want to clarify. Also, why is ephemycron spelt like that? You know how long it took me to figure that stupid thing out?! A good 10 minutes! I ended up skipping through episode 13 season 2 'The gates' with subtitles just to figure out how to spell it!