AU: SeaQuest (basically my Seafarers AU but flipped around, mer Steves and Sabre showed up via boat that somehow went through a portal and crashed. He lives on an island while everything is going on.)

Context: During the Rainbow Kingdom arc, some people might take advantage of the fact that Sabre needs oxygen to live...

Warning: Drowning

Dang this was a long one- 2304 words-

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[Sabre's POV]

Walking along the beach is nice, and I can collect things to craft with. Seashells are especially common today.

I pick up another shell, shaking the excess sand out of it and putting it in the basket I'm carrying with me. This shell is a nice lilac color, shaped like a cone. Must have been used by a hermit crab before washing up ashore.

Speaking of, I see in the distance that some floating wreckage has drifted to the beach, stuck in the sand. Running over, I examine the pieces of some lost half of a small boat. The wood is rotted and covered in barnacles and tangled seaweed, even some small bits of coral starting to form on the underside where the wreckage must have been submerged. Upon seeing that, I carefully take the wooden plank with the coral on it and break it off the debris, moving it over to the water and driving the wood into the submerged sand in a shallow coral reef. It's a living thing too, it should get a chance to survive.

Walking back to the wreckage, I keep looking for anything useful. It's mostly seaweed and algae formed on the wooden surfaces, but there's some more shells stuck to the inside of the halved vessel. These are nicer ones than I've been finding on the shore.

I pick them up, carefully looking inside each to make sure nothing's made a home inside them. Glad I did, because inside the last one I see a medium-sized hermit crab nestled into the pointed seashell.

"Whoop, sorry little buddy." I mumble to the crab absentmindedly, reaching over the debris and placing it gently on the sand. "There you go."

The crab waits for a moment, then quickly scuttles off into the ocean. I go back to looking through the wreckage, but don't find anything else of interest. I'll come back to gather the wood from it later.

Climbing out of the debris and continuing down the beach, I'm reminded of how I first got here, in this strange but beautiful world.

I was the only one left on that trade galleon, the rest of the crew abandoning me to die during that horrible storm that appeared out of nowhere. I was huddled in the ship's cargo deck, praying for my life as I felt the boat rock with every wave. What I didn't know is that somehow the ship had come across a portal to another world as it crossed the ocean, and was then being pulled inside it.

I remember feeling all of the rough waters suddenly stop, and I was confused before returning to fear as the entire boat was catapulted up and out of this world's ocean waters, the portal positioned at the seafloor on the other end. Physics launched it upwards somehow. Then, a rough landing as the boat collided with a nearby patch of pointed rocks as it hurled back to the surface of the water. Before I knew it, the boat was sinking and the saltwater was at my knees, and rising.

That's when Red Steve found me.

He had come to investigate and heard my screams, and imagine my surprise when some kind of merfolk species swam up to help me. He gave me a necklace called a Conduit Amulet, it somehow letting me breathe and navigate underwater, and told me to follow him out of there. I still have that amulet now, in my pocket currently. I use it to be able to visit the Kingdom whenever the Leaders need me. Orange Steve was on the outside of the sinking ship waiting for Red, and was immediately excited when he saw me. As they helped me adjust to suddenly being in an entirely new world, we became fast friends.

They saved my life that day. I only wish I could have done the same for them...

I'm snapped out of my thoughts when I see something glitter in the water. It's right at the edge of a drop off into the open ocean, the end of my island. I can't see what it is from here, so I set my basket down, take off my shoes, and walk into the shallow water to investigate.

The sand is softer underneath the water, and isn't burning hot. I take careful steps over to the drop off, still trying to see what the shimmering items is. As I get closer, I realize it's a glass bottle buried into the sand with something inside it, a cork in the top of the bottle keeping the water from rushing in and ruining whatever it is.

Finally reaching the end, the open ocean right in front of me, I lean down and examine the bottle closer. There's a piece of paper rolled up and bound with a piece of string inside. Did someone leave a message for me?

I extend my hand, reaching to pick the bottle up. As I reach into the sea and feel the pleasantly warm water surround my hand, I manage to grab the bottle without toppling over because of the waves.

But in a split second, another hand comes up from the water and grabs my wrist.

Before I can scream, I'm yanked off my feet and plunged into the sea, more hands grabbing onto me and dragging me down. I can't open my eyes, the saltwater burning them as soon as I try. I attempt to stay calm and wriggle free, but whatever's grabbing me has a strong grip on my limbs and torso.

Panic starts to set in as I feel my chest tighten. I try again, desperately, to thrash and make the things grabbing me let go so I can swim back up. One hand lets go for a second, but once again wraps around my ankle, continuing to pull me down. How far have they dragged me below the surface?

...Would I even make it back to the surface if they let go now?

Suddenly, I feel as something rams into a few of the ones dragging me, half of them letting go in an instant. I take the moment to struggle and try to break free of their grip, and another rush of water goes by as the rest finally release me.

However, as I swim up, it gets harder and harder to move my limbs. I feel lightheaded. I try to swim back to the surface as fast as I can, but it feels like the water goes on forever. How far am I from the surface? Did they bring me too far down? Am I even going to make it back up before I lose consciousness?

As I struggle to swim, though, another set of hands grabs me, but this time they're bringing me up. I still panic, but don't fight the person bringing me to the surface. Whoever they are, they're helping me.

But I'm still running out of time.

It gets harder to think the longer it goes on, and any movement I try to make is weak. I try to keep it in, but everything starts to fade away, and I feel as I involuntarily stop holding my breath, and the taste of saltwater fills my mouth...

...

Air.

I gasp, immediately coughing out seawater as I'm dragged back to the drop off. I continue to just breathe and cough out more water, until I'm set down on the shore and get a chance to process what's happening. As I wheeze and cough, I see the face of someone I'm so, so glad to see right now.

"Sabre! Sabre, can you hear me now?! You okay?!" Light asks, seeming to stand over me as I stare up at the sky, trying to catch my breath. I know it's just him sitting up while he uses his tail to support himself in the shallow water.

As soon as I can, I roll to my side and cough the rest of the water out, getting the help of gravity this time. Light helps too by smacking my back a few times, then he asks if I'm okay again while I roll back onto my back. I hear splashing a little ways away, and the sound of people surfacing. Then, voices.

"-just what in Origin's name you were doing!" I hear someone yell, seemingly having said most of their sentence under the water, their voice slightly muffled by something. They sound angry.

Managing to sit up with Light's help, I see two Colorless Guards apprehending a group of five Steves in the area of open ocean. Two yellow, two orange, one green. The Guards stare them down as they annoyedly glare back.

"We weren't doing anything, we were just messing around!" One of the Yellow Steves says, yelling at the Guard with a tight grasp on his wrist.

"Yeah! Just messing around!" An Orange Steve backs him up.

The rest of the group starts yelling as well, and the Guards start trying to get them to quiet down. After a few minutes of that, a loud, angry voice cuts through the air and interrupts them.

"ATTEMPTED MURDER ISN'T A GAME, YOU NITWITS!"

The entire group immediately shuts up and looks at Light, the Guards doing the same. Light looks furious, the first time in a very long time I've seen him like this.

"Do none of you realize the consequences of your actions?! You could have KILLED him, for goodness sake! Literally everyone in the Realm knows that he can't breathe like we do, and what do you go and do?! You seriously try to DROWN him!" Light continues, still yelling. "And you try to say you're 'just messing around'?! What part of any of this is messing around?! That's not going to excuse what you've done and is just a horrible reason for doing such a thing! Do you really think attempting to kill things is fun?! You're all either really messed up or really stupid to pull something like this! Now all of you better shut up and stay quiet while we make sure Sabre is okay, before I give you harsher punishment than the already harsh consequences you're going to face for such a monumentally idiotic stunt! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

After a moment of total silence, the group of Steves all nod with terrified looks on their faces.

"Good."

Light then turns back to me, his expression now concerned.

"Are you okay, Sabre?" He asks. "No injuries, anything?"

"I-I think so..." I reply, still coughing a little. "I'm pretty sure I'll be-"

Another coughing fit interrupts me for a moment. My throat is already sore from the harsh saltwater.

"I'll be fine. Just... need a little bit."

Light sighs, putting a hand to his head.

"I'm... so sorry about this, Sabre." He says. "I don't know what could have been going through these guys' heads, doing something like that."

"Hey, it's not your fault, don't apologize. It's okay-"

"No, no it's not." Light interrupts, his face turning to exasperation. "It's not okay."

Light quickly turns his head to glare at the group of troublemakers.

"ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THIS WAS OKAY." He yells at them. He then turns back to me, concerned expression returning. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm good, man. The only thing I could really be worried about is-"

I reach into my pocket, but the amulet isn't there. I look through my pocket again, now starting to panic.

"Shoot- my amulet! Where's my amulet?!" I exclaim. Light looks angry again.

"Oh for the love of- Did one of you take the amulet?!" Light says, moving towards the drop off and turning back to the group.

They all quickly shake their heads.

"If one of you is lying, I swear you're all going to the dungeon cells."

One of the group pipes up.

"We swear, we didn't take the-"

"I said quiet." Light glares at him. He shuts up. "Either way you're in deep trouble now, because now you've either stolen or lost the last Conduit Amulet that we know exists. Even if each of your Leaders give you a lighter punishment for your stunt, none of them will be very happy about that."

The group of Steves looks very scared now.

"Guards, take them to the Citadel for them to answer for what they've done. I'll meet you there in a moment."

The Guards nod, then all of them disappear under the water. There's a few minutes of silence, then Light turns to me. I've now sat up by myself and have brought my knees to my chest, my arms wrapped around my legs.

Light moves back over to me and sits beside me.

"...Are you absolutely sure you're alright?" He asks.

"I'm... not anymore." I reply. "It's not the amulet's value I'm worried about, it's..."

I take a deep breath.

"It's the last thing I have that was from him."

Light looks saddened by that. He looks towards the water for a moment, then back at me.

"Well... I'm gonna go look for it, okay?" He says. "If I can't find it, I'll go back to gather a few other Guards so it'll be found for sure. Don't worry."

"Alright... is it okay if I...?" I ask, pointing a thumb backwards.

"Yeah, of course. You can go home. I'll send for you when we find it. Just- take it easy for a bit. That was... probably a lot for you."

"I will, thanks." I say, getting up. "See you later."

As I walk back over to my stuff, Light goes to the drop off and dives into the sea, soon out of sight. I get back to dry sand and collect my basket and my shoes, quickly putting my shoes back on so I'm not burned by the hot sand as I head home.

...Why would they do that?