~Ten's POV~

I held on tightly to whatever I could get my hands on as the leviathan propelled us through the murky sea. The sudden acceleration nearly sent me to the floor which was now covered in ice cold water that swirled around my calves in dark currents. The alarm overhead drowned out the orders the Star King shouted at Mingi and the second was moving quickly between controls in an attempt to gain some kind of leverage.

Water continued to flood into the ship's cavity at an alarming rate as I looked around for something to stop the flow. Most everything was submerged beneath the black seawater so I ripped the hood off of my disguise and bunched it up before cramming it into the bullet hole.

Wooyoung was frantically trying to free himself to get up to help, his hands slipping over the buckle, but San was already treading water towards me. I tried to stay calm but before I realized it the surface had already reached to my knees.

Panic was a new emotion. It overrode my reason and filled my limbs so they felt heavy like lead. My heart was hammering painfully in my chest as my eyes darted around the hull struggling to formulate a plan.

All I knew is that if I didn't act within the next four minutes we were all going to drown.

San finally reached my side and grabbed my arm forcing me to look into his eyes. "Stay calm Ten we can figure this out, just breath—" I found myself shaking my head from side to side clamping my hands over my ears. The blaring of the alarm and the flashing lights were overwhelming and I couldn't keep my train of thought. The water was quickly climbing up to my hips and we were running out of time.

I looked out of the back of the hull as Fang and the guards gained on us. Their ship's lights were blinding in the dark of the ocean and I raised a hand to shield my eyes from it.

The Star King and Mingi struggled to get the panicked leviathan under control as it began weaving erratically. More projectiles whirled past us through the water, leaving streams of bubbles in their wake. The few that landed hit the beast's back with a boom and sent up clouds of bioluminescent blood. The inside of the ship lit up a glowing orange that made it difficult to see what direction we were headed. The leviathan let out a rumbling bellow in pain and lashed out at our pursuers. The guards narrowly missed being struck by it's massive fin but the shockwave sent them careening off course.

The Star King and I locked eyes from across the room. A silent understanding passed between us in that second as he took in my ever growing panicked expression. His eyes darted around the hull before settling on something. He shouted at me over the alarm frantically pointing to the latch above my head. My neck snapped up and I saw a red lever that read Emergency Flooding Valve.

"San, can you lift me up on your shoulders?" I asked. San looked up at the lever and nodded, dropping to his knees while I climbed onto him. He gripped the tops of my thighs to help keep me steady his hair now soaking with seawater. I could feel him shivering against me from the cold.

Mingi raised a clenched fist and smashed it against a metal panel. The cover came off after a few hits and he reached inside, withdrawing a fist full of wires to kill the alarm. Now instead of the siren filling my ears only the sounds of water roaring around us could be heard. Wooyoung managed to get half of his seatbelt off and cried out as the water lapped up over his chest. It was now up to my stomach and I gasped at how frigid it was against my skin.

"Hold on!" San shouted before lifting me into the air. I grabbed onto his shoulders as he unsteadily hoisted me up. I reached out to grab ahold of the handle and managed to latch my wet fingers around it. "I've got it!" I shouted before trying to wretch it open.

"Brace!" The Star King shouted. My eyes widened as I was lifted up and back as the ship shot upwards to the surface in our plight. The water cascaded back in a torrent sweeping San's feet out from under him who fell with a yelp. This also caused my hand to slip off the lever and I tumbled off of his shoulders. My body was shocked when I hit the water and felt how numbingly cold it was. My head crested the surface just as I was pushed back in the tow. I tried to fight against it to keep myself from hitting the wall and at the last second San threw himself behind me to protect me from the brunt of the impact.

The air left his lungs in a wheeze over my head and he gripped my shoulders tightly. "A-Are you alright.. Ten?"

"Yes," I responded weakly. My wound had reopened and blood leaked into my palm. "How about you?"

"I've been better," He grunted. The floor was tilted at a sharp angle so he grabbed my arm to lift me up out of the water. Wooyoung started screaming from above us, the belt digging into his ribs and his feet dangling from his seat. Both the Star King and Mingi clung to their seats as the first pillar of light from the surface broke through.

I held on to the wall as my feet lifted off the ground. The water began cascading in even faster as the pressure built from our ascent until San and I found ourselves floating. I heard the hull groaning overhead along with even more cracking and I glanced at him.

"Help Wooyoung..." I panted as San's eyes darted between my own. I could tell he was worried about leaving me alone and wounded in the water so I gave him what I hoped would be a reassuring smile.

"It's going to be alright," I lied as I handed San a blade I had hidden in my slave disguise. When it didn't look like he was convinced I said the one thing that I knew would work.

"I'll be okay, I have a one hundred percent chance of survival."

San blinked and nodded as I pressed the blade into his outstretched hand. "Here you'll need this...T-Take it and use it to cut Wooyoung f-f-free." My teeth were chattering as I felt the warmth leaving my body. The water was so incredibly cold.

San nodded again before swimming to the other side of the hull and grabbed onto a seat to hoist himself out of the water. Wooyoung was now whimpering as he kept fumbling to try and pull apart the buckle that was hopelessly stuck around him.

Suddenly the hull was flooded with lights as I looked down into the water. Fang was back and eating up the distance to the leviathan at a break neck pace. He was going to reach us in a matter of seconds. A light strobed overheard and a robotic voice repeated. "Proximity alert, proximity alert..."

He's going to blow us out of the water.

I couldn't do anything but screw my eyes shut and cling to the side as I braced for impact.

"What is that?!" I heard Mingi yell from somewhere above me.

I heard it before I saw it. I opened my eyes when my infrared sensor filled with red. There was something else in the water with us. And then just as fast it was on Fang's ship.

A wild leviathan emerged from the deep and captured our enemy within its powerful jaws. It was sleek and powerful, far bigger than the one we rode as it swam alongside the hull. I thought I saw it's glowing emerald eye fixate on us before it bellowed and snapped its fangs shut. This blew up Fang's ship inside of its jaws with a dull boom. Oil and smoke ran in tendrils out of it's open mouth. Then with a flash of its blood red scales and giant waving fins, it veered away from us and wound through the water in a coil until it eventually faded from view, swallowed up again by the sea.

The Star King's legs swung in the air as he scrambled to stay on the wall and Mingi was pulling himself back onto a seat having very nearly fallen into the water. Wooyoung was luckily still strapped in and San clung to him with my knife in between his teeth.

The force from the explosion sloshed me around in the cold pool and the riptide bashed me into the side of the wall. I saw lights behind my eyes and a sharp pain radiated from my side where I'd been struck. I tried to breath in deeply as I kicked my feet to stay afloat.

"Ten!" The Star King shouted at me. I looked up to see that he was already swinging a leg down onto a shelf and testing his weight over it. "I'm climbing down to get to you so hold on to something!"

"No!" I shouted back wincing as my body bobbed up against a wall. "I'll be fine just stay there.."

Everything hurt all over but I somehow managed to hold my head above water. I looked over at San who was furiously sawing at the belt around Wooyoung. After a few seconds I heard a grunt and a snap as San released Wooyoung and held him to the chair to keep him from falling down.

"Thank the stars..." I mumbled as I locked eyes with San. He had sweat on his brow from the exertion but gave me a thumbs up. I smiled and gave him a thumbs up in return happy that at least Wooyoung was no longer stuck.

However my happiness was short lived as I heard a groan and a crackle over my head. A torrent of water sprung free from the hole and fell over me pushing me under. I floundered for a second and came up choking, gasping as my lungs were set ablaze in my chest.

We weren't going to make it.

I looked up at the Star King who was steadily making his way down towards me. The look in his eyes only slipped for a moment but I could tell that he knew it too. Whether the hull filled with water and we drowned or if it caved in before that and crushed us, none would survive. No one needed a simulation to tell us that our chances of living were at zero percent.

There was a squeal as metal gave way and a rack from the hull careened through the air. I gasped and dove back under the surface just as it hit where my head had been and smashed into the walls on either side. It bent inwards and wedged itself there pinning me to the back of the hull. My fingers wrapped over the grate and I pulled myself back up just as the Star King made his way over to me.

"Mingi I need you!" The Star King called to his second who saw what had happened and was already on the move. I knew the only hope was for me to reach the emergency lever on my own. I wasn't going to risk anyone else's life when there was only one person needed to turn it.

"No Mingi stay back!" I screamed at him hating how my voice betrayed my emotions. The Star King dropped to his knees to looked down at me through the wire. He grabbed at the grate and tugged on it so hard that I could see the muscles in his neck straining as he tried to get it to budge. He was breathing heavily through parted lips as soon as he the realization struck him that I was hopelessly trapped. I felt my heart break at how frantically he still continued to pry at the grate knowing that his efforts were useless.

"I can do this don't worry I have a hund—" I started before he loudly interrupted me.

"Bullshit!" He cried indignantly as he wildly looked me over. I felt hot tears spill from my eyes and tried to hide just how frightened I was. He laced his fingers through mine in the grate to try and hold me there. "I know what you're thinking Ten but don't you dare!" His voice was breaking and his grip tightened painfully over my knuckles. "I'll figure it out... there's got to be another way..."

He shot a look over his shoulder again at his second who was nearly to us. "Mingi hurry!"

Fortunately the lever was on my side of the hull and I knew I could reach it if I swam quickly. I might even be able to get it open before it filled the part of the hull the crew were trapped in and give them just enough time to make it. It was going to take the last of my energy reserves in order to do it but I had to act now.

There was a part of me that was terrified to die but there was another part, one that was much stronger, that would rather have the crew live.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered under my breath. I tugged my hands free from the Star King's wet fingers as he fumbled to keep ahold of me. "No Ten!" He screamed.

I sucked in a huge breath right as my back hit the water and I went beneath the waves. The Star King's startled expression was the last thing I saw before being swallowed up by total darkness.

I could hear the muffled noises of him yelling orders above the water as I spun in a circle feeling disoriented and trying to get my bearings. It was dark but I was somehow able to make out the red emergency lever not far from where I was.

I swam as fast as I could over to it and gritted
my teeth as pain flared up inside of my chest. Regardless of my wound my adrenaline propelled me forward until I felt the cool metal of the handle. I braced my legs on either side and pulled on it as hard as I could. It barely budged so I readjusted, seeing my own blood waft in front of me in the water.

My progress was frustratingly slow as coldness seeped into my hands and arms sapping me of all my energy. My lungs screamed for air when I felt it finally give and opened with a squeak. I felt a pull as the water began to drain and hoped I had made it in time.

I pushed off the wall and rose to the grate hoping I'd be able to steal a breath of air. Light filtered in over the water and I knew we must've been close to the surface of Aquaceria. This revelation gave me a small glimmer of hope even as I began to drown.

An overwhelming pressure was building behind my eyes as bubbles erupted from between my lips. Once I reached the surface my arms shot out of the water hitting the empty air but the surface was still just above my head blocked by the wire. It was so close. Inches had become the difference between living and dying. I panicked as I fought against the urge to open my mouth and take in water.

And then he was suddenly there above the grate filling my vision with his shifting outline.

He cupped my cheeks and brought me to the grate as soon as the last of my oxygen left my body. I saw his wavering face right in front of my eyes as he leaned in close.

I felt something very human stir inside of my chest, impossible as it seemed in the face of death, as I felt our mouths connect for the first time.

The Star King sealed his full lips over mine and breathed life back into my lungs. I inhaled gratefully and felt the pressure dissipate in my chest as I relaxed into him. Ever so slowly the pain lessened and my hands came to rest over his that held my face. I hesitantly intertwined our fingers together to hold him there just a little longer.

And then the soft way it touched me, coiling inside my chest and winding around my fast beating heart made me long for much more of this blissful feeling...

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So I guess by now you guys should just not trust in anything I say as far as when I'm releasing new chapters and such... I just feel guilty when I don't put out something so I just keep releasing them... I hope I didn't leave you guys aren't too bad of a cliffhanger this time.😅

So yeah I would love to know what you thought of the chapter! Thank you for reading, commenting, and voting as always. I will see you guys in the next chapter!