Possible, but Not Probable

Collaborative mystery-thriller writing contest fanfic by Comicwing and Malice the NightWing. All Aquatic is in quotations like regular speech. Coding is modified from a design by Totally Random Person.
WIIIIIIIIP
== Prologue- The World Holds Its Breath ==
Moonlight.
Silver beams of the soft, quiet light streamed through the smoky grey nighttime clouds, making glittering patterns on the ocean surface.
A form rose out of the water, making hardly a ripple in the softly rolling waves. The moonlight washed over him like a spotlight, illuminating emerald green scales and glowing cobalt eyes. The SeaWing silently padded onshore, his webbed talons making heavy prints in the sand.
Firelight.
A female SeaWing awaited him, holding a torch. The flickering orange-yellow flames cast a reddish glow on her midnight-blue scales, dancing and crackling in the night.
The SeaWing dipped her head in greeting to the newcomer. "Starfish."
Starfish ignored the welcome. "Have you got the plans?"
The SeaWing hesitated. "...Yes, but-"
"But nothing." Starfish interrupted. "If there's a problem, get on with it. I'll be waiting for you next week. And remember- we're relying on you. For everything. Don't let them know, whatever happens."
And with that, Starfish walked away, not making a sound as he slipped between the rocks that lined the shore, fading into shadow.
The other SeaWing stared after Starfish until he disappeared into the distance. Spreading her wings, she took off over the glistening black ocean, until she was a speck on the horizon.
The world held its breath.
Blacklight. 
It was the night that everything changed.
== Chapter One- Her Only Request ==
I woke up staring at the blue morning light in my room.
I didn't try to get out of bed at first. I stayed where I was, laying on my back with my turquoise wings spread out across the rock ledge I slept on, watching the deep sky-blue light that shafted through my sea cave window hole.
I loved the silence of the sea in the morning. It was a pure, light silence, in which you could think whatever you wanted to think without interruptions. And right now, all I wanted to do was lay in that pure, early morning silence, watching the first light of day color the ocean azure.
Slowly, the light dimmed to let a brighter, whiter light in, and I knew instinctively it was time to get up. My thoughts slowly waded out of the half-dreamland they’d been hidden in, and I rolled off my sleeping ledge, landing perfectly on all four webbed talons. 
I searched my mind for yesterday’s goings-ons, trying to remember if there was anything out of the ordinary happening today. It slowly came back to me… Jellyfish (my best friend) and I in the largest schoolroom, with all the other students, but we weren’t in class.
I groaned groggily. What were we doing?
Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning. We were partying. Celebrating the end of the school year. I put two and two together (a large achievement considering I’d just gotten out of bed), and realized that today was the start of Advanced.
The SeaWing school years go through three phases: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. I was finally at the last stage, which I had heard was “a million times worse than Beginner and Intermediate put together!” according to Jellyfish. But then, Jellyfish was prone to exaggeration, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as he had said.
It’s possible he’s telling the truth… But not probable.
I plodded into the main cavity of my sea-cave home, where my aunt and uncle were waiting for me. They had already finished breakfast, and they had left a small pile of fish for me. Apparently I’d slept in.
“Good morning, sleepyhead!” My uncle Trout greeted me with a few overly-cheery flashes of his almost-white glow stripes. “Ready for your first day of Advanced, Finn?”
“Don’t remind me…” I groaned, sitting heavily at the table to pick at my breakfast.
“Don’t be so nervous!” Uncle Trout exclaimed somewhat melodramatically. “You’re a smart dragonet. You’ll be fine.”
“Especially considering all those ridiculous scrolls you read all the time.” My aunt Tuna muttered, her face conveying her sarcasm. 
I did read a lot of scrolls, and was generally either regarded by my peers as a nerdy scrollworm or an intelligent scholar. I much preferred the latter, but unfortunately, that was not the most common opinion. 
Aunt Tuna valued practicality above all, and I knew well that she would have been completely satisfied if I’d just gotten good grades in my schoolwork and generally acted like the average dragonet scholar. Unfortunately for her, I was always insatiably curious, and I loved reading scrolls and gaining more knowledge. It drove her nuts that I was always wanting to learn more and more “unnecessary information on unnecessary subjects.”
I started to collect my school scrolls, which were already in neat, organized piles in the corner of the room, leaving my breakfast almost untouched. Was Advanced really as bad as they said it was?
Just as I was going to leave, Aunt Tuna placed a talon on my shoulder, stopping me. “Wait.” She flashed. “Ah… Your uncle and I have something to give you…”
Give me? I wondered. Aunt Tuna was thrifty, and hardly ever gave me gifts. Was this a gift of some sort?
Uncle Trout suddenly looked very uncomfortable. “Wait… Should we give it to him now?” 
“Okay, really.” I butted in. “What is it?”
Aunt Tuna slowly nodded. “Go on and show him.”
Uncle Trout took out a small, black rectangular box. “Finn… Your mother wanted you to have this… On your first day of Advanced.”
Your mother.
The words crashed around me like a cave-in. My aunt and uncle never talked about my mother. They talked about my father a little, but never my mother. She was a forbidden subject. I didn’t even know her name. I had asked about my parents before, but the only thing they would tell me was that that they were good dragons, but had died of gill rot. From what I’d heard about my father, he was kind and good-hearted, but they always said it with a bit of regret, as if something terrible that they weren’t telling me about had happened to him.
I had researched the sickness many times in the libraries I had come to love. I found that gill-rot was very rare in the time period where my parents were alive. The only recorded death from the sickness was a royal hatchery guard named Abalone... and that was after guarding the hatchery for days without any food, water, or sleep. 
Again, possible, but not probable. 
I took the box gently, as if I was receiving a great treasure, and lightly traced the simple lined edges with my talons. “What is it?”
“It’s an ink-box.” Uncle Trout explained. “I don’t know why your mother wanted you to have it… But it was her only request of us, so we decided to give it to you.”
“Here’s the key.” Aunt Tuna added, giving me a slender gold key with an odd, swirled design for the locking part. I took it gently, peering at the intricate designs. The gold looked green under the water. “Now, take your scrolls and swim quickly. You don’t want to be late for your first day of Advanced!”
Before I had time to ask questions such as: Why would my mom want me to have this? Why does it come with a key? Are there frequent ink-robberies happening around these parts? And, how is this going to work underwater? I was ushered out of the cave. I floated in silence and confusion for a moment, and then tucked the ink-box away in my school-bag, and swam away. I would get to the bottom of this later.
== Chapter Two- Advanced ==
Advanced was certainly not for dragons like Jellyfish, that was for sure.
I sighed as I struggled to keep my attention trained on the teacher that was giving the lecture, my head feeling heavy and my thoughts drowsy. It had been two hours, and I still couldn't make out what exactly my teacher was talking about.
Something about the history of the Sea Kingdom, I was sure. It didn't really matter, though. Whatever he was teaching was probably just propaganda spread to promote Queen Coral, anyway.
Is there any chance this will be useful to me? I wondered vaguely, my thoughts sluggish. Possible, but... Not probable.
 At least I was sitting next to Jellyfish. Jellyfish was a small, scrawny, light-blue SeaWing that, despite all odds, had been my best friend since we were hatchlings. I didn't have any other friends, anyway, so it didn't matter to me very much that Jellyfish was scared of everything and a huge wimp.
I almost didn't notice when the bell went off. It was a small bronze bell that hung from the large, arched ceiling, and blended in perfectly with the overly intricate, gold-plated dome roof. I probably would've been watching it intently and waiting for it to ring, if I'd known it was there.
Jellyfish jumped from his seat with a jolt as the piercing chimes filled the room. "Whoa!"
I laughed at his surprise; he had fallen asleep five minutes into the class. "Lunchtime, Jelly."
"Don't call me that."
"Call you what?"
"My name is Jellyfish."
"Ah." I said teasingly, unable to resist. "And I suppose you need to be called that now so you can have a shred of dignity, now that we're in Advanced."
Jellyfish scowled at me in return, and followed me into the lunchroom. It was a huge, circular room, and even fancier than the classroom. The walls were green-toned marble, and at each corner there were large marble statues. I wondered if they were made by Princess Orca; they looked like her style of artwork.
The ceiling was huge. It arched high over the busy cafeteria, and had a circular opening in the domed roof that let ribbons of bluish light shaft into the room. There were paintings all over the ceiling depicting famous scenes of history- I recognized the Scorching, the War of SandWing Succession, and some others.
At each corner of the room was a large marble column. Where the columns met the ceiling, a large blue lantern hung from each. I had never seen anything like them. They seemed to have a light inside that danced like fire, even though they were under the ocean. Small metal dragon sculptures rimmed the outsides of the lanterns, giving them a mystical look.
As if reading my mind, Jellyfish flashed, "It's like a palace... But it's a lunchroom."
I nodded silently, then suddenly burst out laughing. It was ridiculous, but true. This place was way too magnificent to be a school. "I wonder if it used to be something else." I pondered.
"It did."
I spun around, facing the small green SeaWing that had spoken. She had a quiet but serene expression, and deep purple eyes. I hadn't noticed her walk up to us.
"This whole school used to be a palace, just like your friend said. It was abandoned only fifty years after the Scorching and was turned into this school. The only architectural difference is the statues... Princess Orca donated them to the school only a year before she died."
"Are they enchanted?" I asked, suddenly alarmed. I had heard about Orca's crazy egg-smashing statue. What if these were the same? Horrifying visions of me being crushed to death in my sleep filled my head.
"No! No!" The SeaWing laughed, and I exhaled in relief. "Don't worry, they already thought of that and tested them." She smiled brightly, and then seemed to remember something. She extended her talon for a handshake. "I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Conch. What's your name?"
"I'm Finn." I said. I had to smile at Conch's cheerful demeanor. Maybe Advanced wouldn't be so terrible after all. I mean, it was my first day, and I'd already made a friend.
.............................................................................................................................................................
The lunch line was enormous. And when I say enormous, I mean really, really huge. It would've probably taken me all day to count everyone in the line, so I settled for an estimate of about five hundred SeaWings.
Conch caught me staring. "I assume you're used to a smaller crowd?"
"Yeah... Intermediate is waaaay smaller. I guess I didn't know there were this many SeaWing dragonets in the Sea Kingdom!" I joked.
Conch smiled briefly. "I've been here for two years. I guess I forgot what it was like in Intermediate."
Jellyfish and I followed Conch into the lunch line, falling in place directly behind a tall, deep-blue SeaWing. It looked like it would take hours to get our food, but apparently the lunch line was faster than I thought. In only a few minutes, we were grabbing plates.
And then the disaster happened.
I was grabbing a couple chunks of fish and adding them to my plate, when I full-on tripped on the SeaWing's tail. In slow motion, I fell forward, my lunch tray flying out of my talons and floating off in the water around me. I think I screamed; I'm not sure.
I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth as I fell directly on top of the dark-blue SeaWing. The SeaWing immediately spun around, pulling her tail out from under me as I lay sprawled on the ground.
I looked up at the SeaWing, and realized she was a completely gorgeous female with icy blue eyes and a matching ice-blue tattoo on her neck depicting a moon and some swirled stars.
I think I lay there staring at her for too long, because she eventually snapped "Well?", breaking me out of my trance.
I quickly stumbled to my feet, clumsily grabbing my lunch tray (It had settled to the ground by then.). "Ah-" I stuttered, unable to think of anything but how amazing her eyes looked in contrast to her scales. "I'm so sorry! I totally didn't mean to, I-"
"Wait." She cut me off, and stooped down to about where I'd fell, picking something off the ground. "What's this? You dropped it."
I fell silent as I recognized the ink-box my guardians had given me. "Oh. Uh. Well. That's, uh..." I racked my brain for words to say. "That's my ink-box." I finally burst out.
"Your ink-box?" She asked, looking skeptical. "In the ocean? And why does it have a lock?"
I couldn't think of anything to say to that. "Ah... Well... I thought it was an ink-box... I haven't really opened it yet..."
"Silly, of course it's not an ink-box. That's ridiculous. It's got to be something else. Can you open it?"
Flustered, I gaped at her for a couple seconds, then got my act a bit more together. I fumbled for the key, then took it out. This is happening too fast. I just fell on her, and now she wants me to open an ink-box? Does this type of thing usually happen in Advanced?
Why haven't I opened it yet, anyway? I wondered, watching the key flash green-gold in the blue toned light. I knew the answer, though.
I was scared. Too much mystery surrounded the box and the key that my mother had given me. I didn't want to know what scarce bit of her past she may have left in the box, somehow, that my guardians had striven to keep from me.
From the moment I had received it, I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't just an ink-box. If my mother only had one final wish to give it to me, it couldn't be just an ink-box. And I didn't want to find out what else could be in it.
I knew I couldn't keep it closed forever, though.
I am my mother's son. She wanted me to have this on my first day of Advanced. Even if it's just an old ink-box... It's my duty to follow her only wish for me.
My duty.
Seeing my friends' impatient stares, I took a deep breath, and slowly slid the glittering key into the lock. Like clockwork, the key turned smoothly in the lock, and the lock silently fell open.
== Chapter Three- The Dagger-Box ==
Inside the plain black box, I could see the flashing glint of metal. My heart started to pound, and I swallowed hard as I opened the box fully.
Inside lay a smooth, sharp dagger.
The blade must have been silver; it had the familiar glittering, creamy metal that gleamed with a faint gold light. It shone as if it had been meticulously polished, and I could see my reflection clearly in it. The pearlescent light on the blade made my turquoise scales look greener, and made my dark-blue eyes look teal, but it didn't warp my reflection in any way.
There were small, swirled designs etched into the gleaming blade, and they glittered as if they were lined with crystal. I realized with a start that that was what it was- diamond, set into the designs in fine, shimmering lines. The hilt was burnished copper, and was wrapped with gleaming red wire set in with tiny diamonds.
The dagger was beautiful.
Ignoring the shocked looks of my friends, I carefully picked up the weapon, letting the curved hilt slide perfectly into my talons. I don't know that much about swords, but I swear it could've been made for me, the way it balanced flawlessly in my grasp.
I slowly looked up at the dark-blue SeaWing, something setting fire inside me. This was what my mother had left me. This was my inheritance.
"Wow." Was all she said.
I said nothing, but slowly turned to Jellyfish and Conch, twisting the blade so the light bounced off of it. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
Jellyfish was the first to speak after a long silence. "OH MY GOSH!" He flashed, completely panicked. "YOUR MOM LEFT YOU A DAGGER. A DAGGER! FINN, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS???!!!!!??!?!?!"
"I don't know, what does it mean?" I asked, my voice calm. Somehow, I wasn't surprised at all. I wasn't sure why, but it felt right. If my mother had left me an ink-box, it would've held no meaning. Daggers held purpose, ferocity. Daggers were used in times of desperation, when your sword was knocked down but you had to finish the fight. Daggers were for victory cries.
What did my mother mean by it? What victory cry did she want for me?
"Who are you guys?" The SeaWing asked, after Jellyfish didn't respond to my question.
I laughed quietly, realizing I hadn't even introduced myself. Thankfully, my head had cleared, although when I looked at her eyes, it felt like my stomach melted all over again. "I'm Finn. This is Jellyfish, and this is Conch. Who are you?"
The SeaWing narrowed her crystal-blue eyes slightly. "I'm Angelfish. I usually don't hang with your crowd, but I suppose you're interesting enough. I don't want to miss anything exciting."
I wasn't sure what to make of that, so I silently put the dagger back in the box, nestling it in the cushions. As I did, I noticed a small note I hadn't seen before, laying in the bottom of the dagger-box on a small piece of parchment.
Continue the experiment in Deep Trench 5. I'll be waiting there. Remember to bring the project.
My heart nearly stopped as I read the small, scrawled words in the messy handwriting. Jellyfish saw me staring, and looked over my shoulder. "What in the three moons...?" He murmured, his green eyes wide. "Is that a note from your mother? To you?"
I suddenly felt the urge to grin. "Possible, but not probable. We don't really have any facts."
"Are you kidding?" Conch suddenly said. "This is crazy! This whole thing is crazy! I don't even know you, but you're already pulling out mysterious notes and daggers and stuff?! I can't believe it!" She stared at me, a thrilled expression on her face. "You guys are nuts."
I nodded. "Yep, we're probably nuts. But really- I don't think this note was meant for me. It doesn't make any sense! It was probably meant for someone else..."
"Then why did your mother give it to you? What kind of mom gives their son a dagger for their first day of school, anyway? Can't you just ask her?" Conch demanded.
I realized that I hadn't really explained anything. "I never knew my mother." I confessed. "My aunt and uncle would never talk about her. They gave me this today, and they said my mother had wanted me to have it. I don't know any more than that, though. This is all new to me."
Conch just stared at me for a second, then something in her expression changed. "C'mon, let's get a table. All of us. Angelfish is right- this is too interesting to pass up."
.............................................................................................................................................................
Once we had situated ourselves in a semi-quiet corner of the cafeteria, Conch immediately jumped on the case. "Well, folks," She began. "We have.... a MYSTERY on our hands!"
I smiled at her dramatic tone. "I suppose you're right. Should we solve it?"
Looking back on this moment, I feel that this was the moment when everything really started. The first domino falling down that set off the series of events that changed my life. It was the moment that my best friend, a quiet intellectual, a popular girl, and I randomly got together and decided to embark on an adventure.
"Yes." Was the simultaneous answer.
== Chapter Four- Forbidden Information ==
"So, what did your guardians say?" Conch asked.
Conch, Jellyfish, Angelfish and I met at school the next day after an unsuccessful attempt to find out more about the box, via the school's library. The library was almost 90% filled with the writings of Queen Coral, who was only interested in writing fictional stories, not documenting history or writing guides to weird boxes.
"I couldn't get a word out of them. It was as if their snouts were clamped shut like a seashell. They told me it was for me alone and that they wanted nothing to do with it. Looks like it's another day combing the library for clues."
No one looked thrilled with that statement, especially Angelfish.
"We've searched that boring, dumb library all day and we never found so much as moons-cursed scrap of a scroll containing that box," she huffed.
"Well, what do you propose we do instead?" I replied, "This is the only information we have access to."
Before Angelfish could reply, Conch butted in. "Yes, but there is plenty of information we DON'T have access to. The private royal archives for instance..." 
Now it was Jellyfish's turn to butt in. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! WE COULD GO TO PRISON FOR DOING THAT! DO YOU KNOW WHAT PRISON IS LIKE?! Well, let me ask you this: How comfortable are you with eels? Are you friends with tight spaces? How about getting you scales fried off with electricity? How much do we want to know about this, anyway? I personally don't think it's worth my scales."
He stopped for a minute, his face a darker shade of blue, looking extremely worried. I wasn't too sure about this idea, either. Even though he was being a scaredy-catfish as always, Jellyfish had a point. How much DID I want this? How much did this information mean to me? How much was I willing to risk? 
I looked down at the box in my talons. I hadn't set it down for a day, always holding on, keeping it in my sight as if it would swim away if I wasn't careful. I wasn't about to let go of it yet- It was the only thing I had left of my mother. Right then, I resolved to find out what this meant, whatever it took.
"I'm not going to make any of you come with me and Conch, but I am going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what." I said, trying to sound a bit braver than I was. I swam over to Conch and brushed my wing against hers. We both grinned at each other like stunned flounders for a few moments before Angelfish pushed between us.
"I'm with you, too." She smiled at me and I couldn't help but notice that made her face all the more attractive. It also made Conch glare at her. "I was about to say the same thing before you so rudely interrupted. My dad has a job at the palace, he's one of the Queen's treasure guards. He takes me to work at the deep palace sometimes and given the choice of standing around with nothing to do, 'guarding,' or exploring the castle, I chose the latter. I pretty much know the whole layout of the place and other dragons are used to seeing me there. We could get in and out with whatever you need to know, easy as clams."
"That sounds possible..." I mused.
"...But not probable?" Jellyfish stammered hopefully. 
"...But we're going to do it anyway. We'll meet up at my house after school and work out a plan." I finished, giving him a sideways glance.
"You're all idiots." Jellyfish muttered, looking very worried.
"Well, then why are you following us?"
.............................................................................................................................................................
My eyes adjusted to the dim light of the ocean surrounding the Deep Palace. It was an enormous structure, mostly made of dark grey marble, looming in the dark like the shadow of an enormous whale. Its size was intimidating, but Angelfish looked right at home, her scales blending in perfectly with the darkness of the sea around her, save her tattoo. Conch was there, along with Jellyfish. He looked as nervous as I was on the inside.
"Thanks for coming, Jelly. It really means a lot to me." I told him, attempting to sound reassuring.
"It's JELLYFISH." The rest of his reply was slurred aquatic, something about eels.
We swam through the surrounding gardens and the colossal double doors leading into the palace. It was very clean; the walls looked as though they had been scrubbed and polished every day, not allowing a single barnacle to dirty it. There were many holes and tunnels leading every which way with dragons coming and going, each looking like they knew exactly where they needed to go and that they had very important things to do. Although we could see in the dark, the palace was decorated with jars of luminescent jellyfish every few feet and the ceiling had carvings of sea creatures etched into it. It wasn't as lavishly decorated as the Summer Palace, but it had a simple, practical beauty. 
It had an air of mystery to it, as if the dragons who'd built it long ago were trying to leave a secret message in the carvings, light fixtures, and shadowy marble walls. I took it all in with a certain thrill, although I didn't really know why. 
We greeted Angelfish's father on the way to the archives. His name was Sardine. He was a lighter blue than his daughter, and she certainly didn't get her looks from him, but they had the same cold blue eyes. I could barely concentrate on the conversation. I felt sick with nerves, but also... excited, surprisingly. 
I was snapped out of my distractions when I noticed Sardine was staring at me strangely. He looked away as soon as I had noticed and we said goodbye and continued on with our mission, but I could feel his eyes on my back as we left.
"Did you see the way he was looking at you? It was almost as if he recognized you." Conch's wits were as sharp as ever.
"Well, I've never seen him before. Maybe I looked like someone he used to know," I replied, before we stopped at the corner around which was the door to the Queen's private archives. "Alright, we're here. Does everyone remember the plan?" Everyone nodded. 
Jellyfish shot me a "You owe me BIG for this!" expression, and then swam out in front of the two entrance guards and started waving his arms and wings and flashing all of his scales randomly, creating a laser light show of Aquatic gibberish. If that won't distract them, nothing will. 
While the guards looked at each other, puzzled and worried, wondering how to handle this, Jellyfish suddenly flared his wings out to their full length, hitting them in the snouts and flashed all of his scales at once, blinding them long enough for Conch and I to swim up to the top of the high ceiling, where there was a vent with a grate over it embedded into the wall above them. 
The archive room had a series of vents running throughout it so that fresh water could come in. I had read that the scrolls were waterproof, but that didn't keep them from falling apart in musty, stagnant water. We only had a few moments to get through the vent and follow it to the archive room. It would be a tight squeeze, but we might be able to make it-
Bubbles escaped my mouth as I gasped in horror. There was a lock on the vent! I looked down and saw that Angelfish had come to the doors and was doing her part to buy us some time.
"I'm so sorry! It's my brother! He was dropped as an egg. He... he can't help it... Sad, I know...."
We only had a few more seconds before it was over. I clawed at the vent hopelessly before Conch shooed me aside and stuck her claw into the lock, twisting it around before it was jimmied open. 
"Great job!" I congratulated her. Conch grinned and climbed into the vent. I followed after her, grimacing at the tight squeeze. I could only barely fit through by folding my wings up as tight as they could go with my arms pinned to the sides of my body, relying on my tail to propel me forward. 
"Oof. Stop poking your horns into my tail!" Conch grumbled.
"As soon as you-ouch- stop sticking your talons in my eyes." 
The tunnel felt like it was crushing me, trying to swallow me whole. I wanted to get out of here so badly, but at the same time, I realized, I was sort of happy to be here, as long as I was with Conch. Everything seemed a lot better with her at my side. She stopped suddenly and I rammed my head into her tail.
"Ow! Stop doing that!" I grumbled.
Conch ignored me. "We're here."
The vent carried on towards the open ocean, but that was our escape route. Our path lay on another vent leading upward. She swam upward and lifted up a grate. "Uh...I think I need a push." I shoved on her until she popped out and she returned the favor by pulling me out. I stretched my wings, sighing with relief. 
"Now, that's something I never want to do again." Unless you're with me. 
"Come on, let's go find those scrolls."
== Chapter Five- The Archives ==
The archive room was far more impressive and ancient-looking than any other place we'd seen thus far. I gaped at the tall marble walls that stretched upwards into a huge domed ceiling, so high above us it made me dizzy to look at it. 
It was filled with rows upon rows of shelves filled with scrolls. Luckily, they were labeled alphabetically. My talons itched to pick up and read all of the Sea Kingdom's best-kept secrets, but I was only here for one thing. 
I pulled out a scroll labeled Deep Trench Projects. I remembered in the box, there was a note asking for someone to meet her at Deep Trench 5. Perhaps she was asking me. This was it! I unrolled it and began reading eagerly. 
The projects and experiments conducted in the Deep Trenches are kept out of normal sight because of hazardous material and questionable motives that would offend the public and stopping progress...
I unrolled it more, Conch reading over my shoulder, until I found a page with the words Deep Trench no. 5 written above it. 
This trench held experiments to help better the Sea Kingdom using DNA alteration on certain sea creatures to make them more useful to us. This operation was shut down because things were getting too dangerous and it looked like there was to be no success down this path of science. Recent activity in the closed off area leads us to believe- 
I stopped. Conch was tugging on my arm. I looked up and saw the doorknob to the room jiggle. We both scrambled towards the vent, but I stopped for a moment, hastily unrolling the scroll, my panicked talons shaking, until I found a section of the scroll that portrayed a map, labeling the locations of all the Deep Trenches. I tore it off, but it was too late. The doors were open. I ducked behind a shelf, my gills flaring with hyperventilation. The two door guards were in the room, swimming in between the bookshelves.
"What makes you think someone's in here?" one of the guards said my thoughts out loud.
"Well, an opened lock just floated down in front of us from the now lock-less vent that leads in here. I'll eat my tail if there isn't a dragon waiting for us behind one of these shelves." I mentally kicked myself. Why didn't I pay attention to the lock after it was opened? I just let in sink down to the floor where they noticed it. They were almost to my hiding place by now. I needed to do something quickly, before I ended up in eel-jail and lost everything I had worked for. Then my blood froze.
"You go check the vent that leads out of there. They might have tried to escape that way."
I hoped with all my heart that Conch had saved herself, that she had swam off and left me...
"Over here!"
I looked around the corner to see him tugging Conch out of the vent. She wasn't all the way out yet, just her back legs and tail. She would be doomed once they got her out the rest of the way. In a sudden flash of crazy bravery and panicked urgency I didn't know I had, I streaked through the water, slamming into a bookshelf behind the two guards. It toppled down, raining scrolls on their heads, and before they knew what hit them, I dove into the vent, shoving Conch forward as we scrambled through as fast as we could. I felt talons on my tail and squirmed even faster, looking behind me to see that one of the guards had tried to enter the vent, but, being a fully grown adult dragon, he couldn't fit and had gotten himself stuck. Taking one of the vents, we finally swam out into the open ocean, where Angelfish and Jellyfish were waiting for us.
"Hey, guys, how'd it-"
"SWIM!!"
We swam faster then we ever had in our lives and didn't stop until we were in the shallow, warm water of the beach of a remote island. Where we all finally stopped to catch our breath. I turned to Conch.
"WHY IN THREE MOONS DIDN'T YOU GET OUT OF THERE WHEN YOU COULD??"
"Well, EXCUSE me for being concerned enough to wait for you! I thought you's appreciate me not leaving you to the guards!" she snapped
"Well, think again! It was YOU who would've been left to the guards if I didn't step in! You're lucky you weren't caught! I could have handled that without your blunder!!" I retorted.
"Fine! Next time you're in danger, I guess I'll just leave you to your death, mr. I-can-handle-anything! You wouldn't want any of my blunders messing up your heroic escape, anyway!! She splashed off in a huff. 
Angelfish and Jellyfish floated awkwardly between us. They both looked to me for an explanation, but I didn't have one. Both of our nerves were totally shot and and I caved under so much stress that I just started yelling at her, and then she started yelling at me. And now...
"I...I guess we're both still a little edgy after what we've been through."
"Well, I think you've been very brave," Angelfish said, using her tail to turn my head from watching Conch walking away, to focus on her face.
"You were... pretty brave, too." I blushed.
"A-HEM." Jellyfish cleared his throat indignantly.
"Oh, yeah. You, too. You both helped us get what we need." I held up the stolen map. "Next stop: Deep Trench No. 5!"
"We'll meet tomorrow. Your cave." Angelfish proposed, flashing an adventurous grin at me. 
I nodded. "Tomorrow it is."
== Chapter Six- Deep Trench 5 ==
It was only a day after our escape from the archives with the map, and I had the strange feeling that it was too soon to start our adventure. 
Conch and I would've been dead if we'd been caught in the royal archives, and we had escaped by the skin of our teeth. And now? We were about to do something that was probably even more dangerous and illegal than what we did yesterday. 
I took a deep breath as I unrolled the map before us, revealing the intricate details showing the forbidden whereabouts of Deep Trench 5. Conch, Jellyfish, Angelfish, and I were sitting hunched over the small table in my bedroom cave, ready and expectant for our upcoming adventure. 
"This is the part that I ripped from the scroll." I explained to them. "I didn't get to read very much of it before they found us." 
"I guess we'll have to figure that out when we get there, then." Angelfish frowned. "This map is very interesting. I wonder what was illegal about the experiments in Deep Trench 5..." 
I looked at Conch out of habit, expecting her to state some science-y theory, but she looked away and said nothing. I thought I saw a glimmer of frustration in her deep violet eyes. Hurt, I wondered what was wrong- Then I remembered our argument yesterday. 
Is she really still mad at me? I wondered. I didn't know why it mattered to me so much, but I couldn't bear the thought that Conch was holding a grudge against me. I wanted to apologize, to scream that I was wrong, but I couldn't find the words. 
"What are you doing, Finn?" 
I jerked my head up, startled to see Uncle Trout standing in the doorway. Angelfish and Conch bolted upright, as if suddenly realizing the fact that they were two total strangers in my room without their permission. 
"Uhhh, nothing, just... I mean... What I'm saying is..." I floundered for the words before Angelfish jumped in. 
"A school project we're working on together." Angelfish said smoothly, giving my uncle a charming smile. "I'm Angelfish. You must be Finn's uncle?" 
I shot Angelfish a grateful grin, ignoring the now-intensified glares from Conch. "Yeah, a school project." I repeated, relieved. "Nothing to worry about." 
Conch poked me. "Shut up! You're overdoing it!" She whispered out loud in my ear. 
I ignored her. "Actually, we were just about to leave to... Um..." 
"Collect shells!" Angelfish jumped in. 
"Yeah, collect shells for our project on... Shells. So, um, we'll be leaving now..." I fumbled. 
Uncle Trout looked at us like we had arrived from outer space, flooded his living room with fried eggs, and explained that it was for the greater good. "Well... Be back by dinner, then..." 
I almost laughed out loud with relief. "We will, don't worry!" 
As soon as we were out of sight, I motioned for us to follow me down to a dense kelp forest. Among the waving ocean plants, we settled at the bottom, and I pulled out the map. 
Conch peered over my shoulder. "Looks like we're close." 
I nodded, secretly glad that she was talking to me. "According to this map, Deep Trench 5 is only about a mile north from here." 
Jellyfish looked through the softly waving kelp forest, looking worried as usual. "If it's so close to the SeaWing villages, then how come it's so secret?" He mused. 
"You're right, it doesn't make sense." Conch agreed. Her bad mood seemed to have gone by now. "I bet there's something shielding it from others, otherwise we would've heard of it before." 
I looked at her, concerned. "What do you mean, shield?" I asked tentatively. 
"I've heard of things like it before- I think they're like animus enchantments that obscure a place or a thing from vision, or even awareness in any manner." Conch frowned slightly. "It's very possible..." 
"But not probable." I added. I rolled up the map and began to swim upward. "C'mon, guys, let's go." 
............................................................................................................................................................. 
The darkened seascape became slowly more and more barren as we swam northwards. The kelp forests thinned and slowly disappeared, making way to small coral reefs, until finally those disappeared as well. The bottom of the ocean was nothing more than an endless stretch of rock and sand, like a face scorched of its features. 
I shivered. I had never seen this part of the ocean before, and it gave me a bad feeling, close to the sensation that comes from being hunted and having no place to hide. 
Suddenly, Conch stopped. "We're here." 
I looked around. "What?" The ocean was as barren and empty as it had been before. 
"Look down." Conch nudged me, and I peered down at the ocean floor. It was smooth and flat as always, except... 
"There's something there." I realized, and swam downwards. There was an odd shimmer to it, as if it was a projection of some sort. 
As soon as I neared the ocean floor, it suddenly dipped and morphed into a giant deep-sea trench, a gaping valley in the ocean. I gasped at the sight of it. "What in Pyrrhia...?" 
The trench wasn't just a dip in the ocean- It was filled with dozens and dozens of wooden crates, all strewn about the ocean floor. Each had a different label on them stamped in faded ink, naming a different part of Pyrrhia. "Possibility, the RainWing village, The Scorpion Den, Scarlet's Palace..." I read aloud. "What are these?" 
Jellyfish suddenly grabbed my shoulder. "Finn! Look!" 
I followed his gaze to the far side of the trench, where there was a gigantic metal circle set into the side of the trench. It had, in plain letters, the words Deep Trench 5 carved into it, although it was hard to read because of the barnacles that encrusted the entire surface. 
"Deep Trench 5." I read aloud, squinting through the dark water at the metal circle. "This is it- the doorway, I'm sure." 
Angelfish grinned at me. "Then let's go." 
== Chapter Seven- The Lever And The Tunnel ==
"UGH!"
I fell back away from the metal door after ramming into it again. "This thing is indestructible!"
Jellyfish backed up, taking his shot at the door. He propelled himself through the water with incredible speed, crashing against the door with the most force he could muster. The only response was a dull clang from the door, which remained stubbornly in place.
I glared at the door. "How in Pyrrhia are we going to get in there?! It's jammed shut!" I let out a long sigh, frustrated. 
"Maybe we should just give up." Conch suggested, looking as disappointed as I was. "There doesn't seem to be a way."
Angelfish glared at her. "Are you crazy?! We went all this way, risked our lives for the information to get here, and sacrificed our perfectly good weekends to go adventuring. No way we're giving up now." She swam forward to the door, running her opalescent talons across the words on the door. "There's got to be a civilized way to get in here..."
"It's useless." I argued, upset. "There's no knob, no lock, no way to open it, and it's jammed into the side of the rock. Whatever secrets they kept there, they're sealed off forever."
Angelfish ignored me. She continued to trace the words, deep in thought. Her tail lashed slowly, creating small whirlpools in the water. Suddenly, she turned to me. "That's it!" She exclaimed, her face alight. "Sealed off! The door's sealed off!"
"Uh, yeah. That's what I said."
"No! It's artificially sealed! There's got to be a secret way to get in- I bet there's some type of lever that opens it from the inside. You're a genius!" 
I considered telling her that she'd thought up the whole thing herself, then decided against it. Something about the smile she gave me set a fire deep inside me, making me feel warm and happy all over. "Uh, thank you." I fumbled. "So... Where do we find this... Lever?"
Angelfish swam further up, surveying the random piles of wooden crates the trench was filled with. "I bet it's somewhere around these crates." Angelfish mused, darting down to a particular stack of boxes. I looked for the label on them, but they had none.
Jellyfish, Conch and I followed Angelfish, a bit more slowly. I could almost feel the tension in the air- Binding around us, casting suspicion on us towards each other and our mission. It was a balancing act, and I could tell we were losing our footing.
Just as I was going to land next to Angelfish, Jellyfish suddenly cut in front of me, taking a sudden turn to the right and colliding with me in the process. "AUGH!" I yelled out loud, the force of the impact sending me crashing into the wooden crates. A bolt of pain shot through my back as I slammed into the rock face of the trench. I scrambled up, rubbing my back, when I noticed something. 
"Hey, what's that?" I asked, pointing to the large spire jutting from the rock face that I'd fallen on. It looked unnatural- the rest of the rock face was smooth and shafted. 
Angelfish looked at me, surprised. "Looks like you've just found our lever. I knew those blank crates had something to do with it!"
My heart started to pound. It was pretty obvious that our adventure wasn't quite finished yet. I looked at Angelfish, feeling sick with fear and tingly with excitement at the same time. "Do you want to do it?" I asked her, my eyes wide.
Angelfish hesitated, then nodded slowly, her crystal-blue eyes glittering with something like steely determination. She reached forward and grasped the spire, then yanked down hard.
There was an ear-splitting screech that whistled through the water, making all of us jump and turn to face the metal door.
It was moving.
I watched with fascination as the gigantic metal circle slid slowly to the side, making a bone-chilling grating sound. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the gaping black tunnel that stretched beyond the now-visible opening. 
"This is it." I told the others, an otherworldly thrill rousing in me as I swam forward towards the tunnel, the gaping shadowy abyss pulling me towards it. It was almost as if I could hear some long-buried secret inside calling to me... Come, Finn. In here. Your destiny is here.
As soon as I stepped inside the tunnel, the others following cautiously behind me, I felt the water get suddenly colder. A tangible shiver ran down my spine, as if we were passing through an invisible force field. Ignoring it, I continued on through the tunnel.
It was a tunnel surrounded completely by rough natural rock, as if someone had hollowed out the tunnel with their bare talons from the trench rock face. It was lit by a couple of odd, glowing spheres that hung from the ceiling. They provided just enough light to see by. I stopped and stared at one of them, marveling at its strange design.
It was in the shape of a dragon egg at the end of a tube, and made of smooth glass. Inside was a coil of shining wire, with a dim, flickering light at the end of it. I looked at it for a couple more seconds, transfixed, then continued to walk down the tunnel. 
Finally, after a long time of walking, there was a white light, a pinprick at the end of the seemingly endless corridor. I picked up the pace, madly wondering what lay at the end.
It was closer than I thought- a large white metal room, lit much more brightly with the same odd light fixtures. It was almost as large as the cafeteria, but looked much cleaner, blanker, and more practical. 
== Chapter Eight ==
Blah
== Chapter Nine ==
Blah
== Chapter Ten ==
Blah
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Content (Malice the NightWing)
Category:Genre (Adventure)
Category:Collaborations
Category:Genre (Mystery)
Category:Genre (Horror)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Content (Comicwing)