isobeljones2000

Cera's POV: Damien's eyes were focused on the images on the screen, as they had been for the last few minutes. Occasionally he would cackle evilly, and when Shellington evidently realised that Dashi wasn't actually there at all, Damien laughed out loud for a long few seconds. I wasn't really concentrating on the images, I was cleaning my fur absently, only half paying attention to what was going on. Lupo was sat next to Damien, but due to the look on his face he wasn't concentrating much either.

Presently, Fiona came into the room, glowering darkly at Damien's back when he showed no sign of having recognised her presence before sitting heavily down on a chair in the corner. Her newborn child was nowhere in sight. Some couple they were. I didn't know what my sister saw in Damien, but whatever it was, it wasn't constant. Why she wanted to go and get pregnant with his kid I really couldn't see, but what they did in private was their own business. I was only working with them. Maybe Fiona thought it would make him pay attention to her more, but as far as I could see that wasn't going to happen. I was amazed he sat with her through the birth.

Fiona looked over Damien's shoulder at the screen he was so intently watching, and her expression altered, if just for a moment, when she saw the wounded sea otter lying gasping on the floor of the top lobby, weakly trying and failing to fight the paralysis gas. I remembered that she had kissed him once, and wondered if she was thinking about that now. He had tricked her into doing it, it was evident from the footage that I had gone through later. He didn't care about her, he hated her, of course. But from the brief expression on Fiona's face which I had always been able to read so well, it was clear to me that she was desperate. Of course she was, by the way Damien was treating her right now. Maybe she was so deluded that she actually considered the Octonaut as a possibility. Which of course was madness. Fiona would never sink so low.

But it was an amusing thought.

Damien growled at the screen after a few moments. Shellington was now lying there, unmoving. The paralysis gas had evidently now kicked in, and whether he was still conscious or not was unclear.

"He's stopped doing things," complained Damien like a petulant child who had got bored of their new toy. "It's no fun when they're unconscious. Make him do something else."

I rolled my eyes at Lupo, who shared my look for a second, before he made another suggestion to Damien. "How about if we play a recording of Dashi crying out his name and screaming into one of our traps. He'll think she's in trouble and follow her voice, then fall into one of our traps. That entertaining enough for you?"

Damien smiled like a shark who had just spotted their prey. "I think that will be sufficient."

KateSeleneMelody3OCS

Eelean's POV: I stared down the staircase, trying to see where it led without actually going on it. Wherever it led, it probably wasn't good. But something seemed to draw me down there.

Christian had been here. I was sure of it.

Kwazii and Tweak ran into the room, followed shortly after by Kate and Selene. Peso hugged Kate on sight, which made her chuckle.

Selene was still and silent for a moment, before grabbing a decaying support beam that must've fallen from the ceiling. It was about as tall as her. She waved it in front of her, allowing it to touch the first step.

"It'll be a slow and perhaps tedious process, using this beam to check for traps, but better to go slow and avoid traps then get stuck in them." She spoke aloud. Everyone nodded agreement.

"Okay... so who's going to be first?" Kate asked. I could tell she was struggling to not volunteer for the position herself.

Captain Barnacles smiled, but it was grim. "Allow me." He replied. I could tell he didn't want anything to happen to his crew. His family. Not like on the Island of Fear, where he couldn't do anything.

No one spoke a single word after that. With that deciding phrase, the entire group began to slowly descent the ominous staircase, no one even daring to breathe.

isobeljones2000

Peso's POV: It was almost impossible to see anything down here. It was slow process, cautiously stepping down each step like it would fall away from underneath us. I was eternally glad that I wasn't going first; I pitied Barnacles very much.

This place was a very realistic reminder of the catacombs back on the Island of Fear, where Kate had... I gulped, trying to will the sudden thought out of my mind. I couldn't help myself clutching my girlfriend's hand though, and her eyes met mine in the darkness, the only light I could see in the cloying darkness that surrounded us. I could tell she was remembering that time in the catacombs too, when she - died. It was a chilling reminder, and I froze up on the step I was standing on.

"Everyone okay so far?" Selene asked from near the front. There was a chorus of quiet affirmatives, and I made myself join that group of voices, despite desperately wanting to run away.

Barnacles suddenly let out a cry as a step collapsed from underneath his foot. Selene was swift to grab his flailing arm, but it was a scary thought for all of us. How old were these steps, exactly? And what traps had the villains laid in wait for us?

KateSeleneMelody3OCS

Christian's POV: She was here. I could feel it. Eelean was here. And I heard those psychos say Elena's name. What was she doing here? Didn't she know it was unsafe? I didn't want anything to happen to my family.

The room was dark. Very dark. I looked over at Dashi... no, Dani. She had told me that she was no longer Dashi. I wondered if Shellington knew. And if he didn't, how would he react to finding out?

I heard Lupo growl. "The majority of them are coming closer. I'm setting up the traps and tricks as we speak." He muttered in his radio, the design one that he stole from the Octonauts.

I could hear the reply. "Good. We want them all. No one escapes us. Especially not those infuriating, wimpy, Octonauts." Damien replied.

The comment almost made me smile. Oh, the Octonauts weren't wimpy. They were stronger than you, Damien. Just in a different way. A more important way.

I found myself thinking about my family. I decided to send Eelean a message. "Keep my family safe, please," I thought. "I don't want them to know this pain. Keep them safe."

isobeljones2000

Selene's POV: As we made our painfully slow descent down into the darkness, my mind was apparently finding it very difficult not to wander. An image of Stefan was imprinted into the front of my mind, who I had so far somehow managed to keep from thinking about. But seeing him in the hallucination, if even only for a second, was a reminder of my secret.

It would be all right if I was certain that I had done the right thing in shunning Stefan's offer of the Octonauts working with his secret agency. But the trouble was that I wasn't sure any more; would we be better off working with them to catch the villains for good? Should I have kept the secret to myself?

But I just knew I couldn't face my family, not now. I had spent years, half a lifetime learning life lessons on my own, becoming independent when they left me. I had made some right choices and some wrong, some that changed my life for better and worse. But, as Kate always said, I wouldn't make any choices differently if it would change any of my past. Lupo I wouldn't have married if I had truly known him inside, but I wouldn't have been a target then, so maybe I would never have met the Octonauts. But then Lupo would have never set up the Island of Fear to get at me, so then my friends wouldn't be in danger.... It was all so difficult!

This was exactly why I couldn't face my family right now. I was fully independent now, and recognising them as all still alive would just bring back the knowledge that they had left me all these years, without ever telling me about the agency or the fact that they were still alive. What sort of family would do that?

Maybe one day I would forgive and forget. But for now, I would guard my secret alone.

KateSeleneMelody3OCS

Kate's POV: I was feeling very nauseous all of the sudden. Morning sickness, I guess? Was it morning? I wasn't sure.

What if Peso or Kwazii found out I was pregnant? What would they think? Even worse, what if the psychopaths that we couldn't seem to get away from found out?

I thought on this for a moment. Damien liked to torture me, both physically and emotionally. He also knew that emotional torture seemed to have a bigger impact on me, especially when he hurt people I cared about. That was the reason why I often tried to distance myself from others.

He would probably allow me to get a connection with the child, but then what? He'd either kill them or raise them to become a killer. I didn't know which would be worse.

I shook my head. I had to stop thinking like this! "Let's just find our friends, and get out of here before we're noticed." I murmured, wishing we could just find the dungeon already instead of hunt down the criminals.

Peso overheard me and jumped down a couple of steps to catch up to my longer stride. "Kate, are you alright? Are you overthinking things again?"

For a split second, I thought about confessing. I hated keeping secrets, especially from him. But if he got hurt because he was trying to protect us, I couldn't bear it. Besides, who knew who was listening?

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about." I lied. The words themselves shattered my heart. Peso didn't look fully convinced, but nodded.

Finally, as light began to glint right at the bottom, I felt a tremor in Peso's grasp on my hand, and took the opportunity to squeeze it reassuringly. Just because I had to lie to him, didn't mean I couldn't be a good girlfriend, and it was obvious to all that the little penguin was pretty terrified.

While Peso made it to the end of the steps just ahead of me, I took a chance to acknowledge the little person growing inside of me. "I won't let anyone hurt you." I whispered as softly as I could. None of my friends seemed to notice. "I promise."

KateSeleneMelody3OCS

Tweak's POV: It was one slow and tedious process, going down this stairwell. We were all silent, not daring to speak in the blackness, barely even daring to breathe. I was honestly wondering how Kwazii was keeping sane.

I stopped slightly in my descent when I came to the fallen stair, wondering whether it had fallen because it was old, or because it was rigged. It seemed as though it was both. There was a hinge, but any wood that been attached to it had fallen into the hole.

We were all much more careful after that, stepping much lighter as we went down. Eventually, when it seemed that the stairwell would never have a bottom, the floor evened out. But I still could hardly see a thing.

Kwazii, however, tensed up. Right, cats can see quite well in the dark. My boyfriend was the first member of our crew to break the thick silence.

"We're definitely in the right place. It seems that someone, no names needed, has set up a workshop here." He said almost inaudibly.

isobeljones2000

Dashi's POV: I can feel myself slipping away.

Sometimes I try to cry, to let it all out, but the non-tangible state that I'm currently in won't allow that.

I know it can't be long until the copy retains all her false memories. I can feel it, feel every time she gains a new memory from her past, completing the jigsaw of her life. Every time a new piece of that puzzle is found and slotted in place, a part of my consciousness slips away into the nothingness abyss that lies somewhere beneath me.

She's out living, while I'm stuck fading away in the tiny box in the copy's head that the Flame built for me.

I still scream for Shellington sometimes, even though I know he can't hear me. I know him, and I know that he'll never give up on me no matter where I am, but a part of me does wonder whether the copy has similar feelings for him as I do.

I used to scream for him, for anyone constantly.

Now I don't as much.

I haven't given up hope.

But I must have been here weeks, and no one's come for me yet.

Shellington wouldn't give up on me.

So neither must I.