The Deep Oneshots Part 2

age swap au

Poor poor Ant. Everything's about to go wrong.

It was early morning at the Nektons home base, most of the Nekton were still asleep, but not Alpheus and Fiction. They were hard at work ensuring Aria's safe transfer. Ant was also awake. He had a meeting with one of Pyrosome's friends who worked at the foster agency. He was hoping to get registered as a foster parent as soon as humanly possible.

The meeting went surprisingly well. They'd gotten the paperwork filled out and Ant had been assured he would hear from a social worker by the end of the week. He walked in to see Fiction and Alpheus still working. Fontaine was sat next to them trying to get both of them to eat something. She was being completely ignored. Ant smiled and walked over to help. He eventually managed to wrangle his son into eating, he'd stuffed the food down his throat so fast Ant thought he would choke and immediately got back to work. Ant chuckled and left Alpheus to his work.

Nereus had shown up again. Non of the Nekton trusted the man, he'd lead them into traps before, but he had an uncanny ability to find Lumurian artifacts. With Will's parents having disappeared looking for Lumuria they were finding as many artifacts as possible in hopes of retracing their steps. 

With the promise of another artifact the Nektons decided to follow Nereus. After making some arrangements of course. Ant was not bringing Alpheus along in this trip. He'd been through enough with Proteus he didn't need the extra stress. He found his son sitting next to Fiction working on something, Ant didn't recognise it.

“Alpheus!! We're going out on the Aronnax with on of dad's old friends. We'll be back soon, Fictions going to take care of you while we're gone.” 

“Old friend?” 

Alpheus glanced behind him. Eyes locked onto Nereus almost immediately. 

“Yeah, we'll be back soon. Take care!!” 

Ant smiled walking out of the room. Nereus looked nervous.

“Is something wrong?” 

“Well… I'll talk with you about it when we get on the Arronax.” 

Ant gave the man a strange look but continued on his way. Nereus glanced back at the room Ant had just come out of, before hurrying to join the Nektons.

Alpheus stared at the door, thoughts racing at a hundred miles an hour. He pushed himself away from the desk.

“I think I'm going to lie down.”  

Fiction tilted his head.

“Alright, let me know if you need anything.” 

Alpheus nodded and headed for the stinger. He curled up in his bed and started thinking. 

“Aria?”

“Yes Alpheus?”

“Can you tap into the Arronax's security system?” 

“I can.” 

“Great. I want to hear what they're talking about.” 

A screen popped up next to him, it showed the Nektons sat in Williams office. Nereus was stood talking.

“I knew Alpheus a few years back.” 

“You did.” 

“Yes, for a while he was my apprentice. The guardians and I took him in when he was young-”

“How young?” 

“He was six. We tried to raise the boy right, teach him morales, how to be a good leader. But no matter what we tried nothing worked. He was selfish and destructive-”