Central Continent Eastern Coastline - 5:41 am 35EE

The air was ferocious, constantly pricking at one's joints no matter how many layers you would wear. The dull blue haze lingering over the sea made it appear like there was no more ground as the helicopter soared through the misty curtain. Werren kept a cigarette between his fingers, the long drags he would take keeping his lungs from going cold as he collected the charred ash in his other hand. Once the ash went cold he would wipe it off and repeat the routine.

His handheld radio flashed red. He wiped his hands and unhooked it from his breast pocket before clicking a button. A rush of static flooded from the radio as he adjusted the antenna.

"Initiator Chrya speaking."

Through the static a voice cut through, the signal grainy and somewhat distorted.

"Foremast on the line. You're approaching the calling signal, dive closer to the ground, and look for a blue tugboat. Coordinates unknown, the mist is making it hard to identify anything."

Werren brought the radio close to his mouth.

"Alright, signals getting lost here as well. Comms might be cut once we intercept the signal."

Werren hears typing on the other side of the radio.

"Okay, setting a safety timer."

Werren chimes in quickly.

"Set it for 10 minutes."

"Hour? Are you sure? Standard is 30 minutes for signal operations, are you expecting trouble?"

"Nope, just wanna get this mission over with as fast as possible. We shouldn't be longer than 10 minutes."

"Roger."

Werren hears more typing.

"You're all clear. Preparing for communication cut-off, assistance will be called in 10 minutes. Good luck."

Werren turns the radio off and puts it in his back pocket before throwing his cigarette out of the helicopter. He stands up and walks to the cockpit. He sees all the controls and gauges sitting along the front panel, from the front window he sees more mist. Rina was piloting the helicopter as Werren took a seat.

"Set her down."

Werren put his hand on Rina's shoulder as the outline of a boat came into view.

Rina slowed the helicopter as it hovered above the tugboat. Werren leaped down onto the boat, using his tendrils to catch him. Rina soon followed him and gently flew down with her wings. Werren then turned the helicopter back into his tendrils as he and Rina walked across the back deck of the boat. Its hull is navy blue and the bridge is a muddy white, the hardwood deck was beginning to rot in the corners. Rope and net lay scattered along the deck with the winch sitting against the bottom section of the bridge. A flag with a crescent moon thrashed in the brutal wind.

Rina walked forward.

"Hello?"

She called out into the mist, the sound of her voice fell flat as it drifted endlessly through the sea.

Werren walked forward and inspected the ground, footprints trailed to the bow of the boat. They were large workboot footprints, most likely one of the crew members. The footprints were muddy, however, perhaps hinting that this boat was close to shore and drifted out here. Rina walked around to the bow, she noticed all of the life buoys were missing across the side. The trail of footprints diverged into many paths, now multiple different footprints were scattered across the floor, all walking in different directions.

Rina continued forward and walked to the bottom floor of the bridge. A table was flipped against the window, and cups, plates, and cutlery were thrown about everywhere. Food scraps were piled in a corner and bloody clothes were left on the floor. Rina walked around, the stench of rotten food making her nose twitch. It wasn't until she saw a small ID card lying amongst the clothes. She picked it up and saw the picture of a man, he had light stubble and no hair. His face was round with two brown eyes staring at Rina.

"Kyadiche Jolaeb... Age 36..."

Rina sighed, her eyes narrowing as she tried to hold back tears. She had never even met the man nor known of him but her guilt was overbearing.

"So where did you go...?"

Rina put the card in her bag and left the room. She looked up to see Werren in the bridge through the window.

The central panel spanning the length of the bridge was vast, with various panels and diagrams laid out with numbers scattered everywhere. Buttons blinked endlessly, Werren tapped a few but nothing happened. On the ground was a coffee cup, a large brown stain came from the mouth of the cup and dirtied the carpet. Werren picked it up, it was a pink cup with the words Plenty of fish in the TEA written on the side, a picture of a tea bag alongside the phrase.

Werren placed the cup down and left the bridge, finding nothing. When he looked out the window he saw Rina wave up at him, he smiled and waved back before joining her on the front deck.

"No sign of anyone."

Rina caressed her arm.

"We were too late."

Werren put his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, there's still the underbelly of the boat. If we can't find who sent the signal we might find out what happened to them at least."

Werren walked over to a small hatch in the deck and lifted it open.

"C'mon. I'm sure we'll find something."

They both descended into the boat. From the mist, objects began to appear, skeletons of people covered in coral and sand floated upwards from the sea, chains wrapped around their legs as they floated around the boat like balloons. Their skulls pointed upward with their jaws agape. From the mist, more appeared.

In the underbelly, Werren and Rina couched through the tight space. A lantern illuminated the whole room. There were a couple of beds folded against the wall and drawers tossed around. Stuck in one of the drawers was a harpoon still attached to the rope. They followed the rope through the boat, pushing past boxes and squeezing through holes in crates until they found the corpse of someone, they were all but bone. Tiny traces of flesh still clung to the bone and from their hollow eyes a cockroach crawled out. The skeleton wore a neon orange vest as it sat against the wall, the harpoon gun beside it.

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Werren reached forward to touch it but Rina slapped his hand away.

"What was that for?"

Rina looked stern.

"Don't touch it."

Rina sighed before reaching forward and gently touching the skeleton's skull. The texture was rough yet still wet. Rina ran her finger along the skull as Werren rolled his eyes. Rina soon came to the jaw and found the disc connecting the lower and upper jaw to be cracked. The person seemed to have had their jaw forcibly opened. Werren then knelt and inspected the skeleton's ankle to see it had serious cracks around it.

"Was he attacked...?"

Werren stood up.

"We should report this. It seems this is all we could find."

Rina shook her head.

"No. I'll... try and look into its memories."

Werren looked astonished.

"Be serious. Listen we have a couple of minutes to finish up plus you need to bite into something to see its memories. Good luck biting bone."

Rina turned and scowled at Werren.

"Be quiet for a second."

Rina opened her jaw and put her fangs against the skull. She bit down hard but it didn't make a dent at all.

"Maybe you're right... I just wanted there to be closure. To know these people didn't die forgotten."

Rina caressed the skull before letting go and leaving the skeleton to rest.

"Let's get out of here."

Rina turned around to see Werren wasn't there.

"Werren? Wait up, idiot..."

Rina stood up to leave the underbelly but she then tripped. She hit her head hard and her vision blurred. She winced in pain before feeling a tight tug at her leg. Looking down, she saw a chain wrapped around her ankle.

"Werren...?"

The chain suddenly pulled her through the underbelly. She clawed at the floor trying to stop herself but the chain tore her out from the underbelly and back to the surface. Her nails dug into the ship as the chain kept pulling her. Her nails began to snap and tear off as she screamed. Her fingers gave out and she let go, the blood making her unable to grip onto anything. The chain soon pulled her over the side of the boat, she held onto the railing but as the blood from her fingers seeped all over her hand she lost her hold and was dragged into the water.

"WERREN!"

Her final cries before being dragged beneath the waves.

The icy cold water stiffened her bones, she reached her hand up but the surface left her. Her vision soon faded as the ocean consumed her.

Beneath Misty Waves - Unknown Time

Rina opened her eyes, the soft shuffling of the sand beneath her accommodating itself for her subtle movements. All she saw was a vibrant ocean above her, schools of fish swimming through the sea, rays of sun breaking apart as they pierced through the surface of the water. She sat up, around her was a beach, the ocean from above her dripping down. As Rina stood up she felt another light tug at her ankle. The chain was wrapped tightly around her leg, it lightly pulled her along.

She followed the chain's movements, it slithered through the sand. The beach was endless, around her distant laughs of children fluttered by in the wind. She looked around, finding herself alone. When she faced forward her destination had changed. A boat washed up on the shore, it was covered in coral and barnacles but running around it was a group of kids. She ran towards them but their forms broke apart into mist, their laughter fading.

As she moved closer to the boat she suddenly found herself in the bridge of another boat, the inside was clean, unlike the one on the beach. Sitting in the captain's chair was a man with a sailor's hat and uniform, in his lap was a small boy. The boy laughed and spun the steering wheel as they both mimicked the noises of a boat. Rina reached her hand forward but the area around her left once more as she returned to the beach. As she looked out to the sea she saw a boat, sailing towards a rising sun. On the shore, a boy and woman stood waving.

"He'll be back soon, right Mommy?"

The woman remained quiet as they faded into the sand. Rina kept following the chain along the beach.

"Where are we?"

The chain kept slithering forward guiding Rina to a house. A home. It sat half-buried in the sand but slowly the sand began to consume the house, filling its corridors, its bathrooms, and its bedrooms. By the house, standing on the sand was the woman. She had a shovel and was slowly digging the house out but she could not compete with how fast it was filling. Next to her, another shovel lay, shiny and untouched. Inside the house, the boy banged on a window crying out. His wails did not phase the woman. He and the house were slowly consumed.

Rina ran forward and grabbed the shovel.

"I'll help! Hold on."

Rina began to dig the house out as the boy's cries soon stopped.

"Just keep going I've almost got it!"

As Rina kept digging she looked over to the woman, she was frail and old. Her expression was one of regret. She let go of her shovel.

"I'm sorry."

Her voice was hoarse and tears ran down her face. Rina looked with pure sorrow.

Soon the house was gone, buried beneath the sand. As Rina held her shovel tightly, she looked down to see a hole in the ground. A coffin lowered in as Rina tossed the shovel away. Her hands trembled.

"Don't worry."

A man spoke, he wore work boots and a large neon orange vest. He tossed a miniature boat into the hole with the coffin.

Suddenly the chain pulled Rina forcibly across the sand. Rina tried to reach out to the man.

"Wait! No!"

Rina watched as the man disappeared.

She was pulled past everything once more, past the house, past the wrecked boat, past the bridge with the man and the boy before being pulled up. She hit her fist against the chain as it dragged her up into the ocean above. Once more she was consumed by the water, she thrashed around vigorously, refusing to let herself be consumed once more. She reached the surface of the water she was surrounded by mist. Her clothes and hair were drenched as she looked around. In the distance, the lights of a boat approached.

"HELP! OVER HERE!"

Rina waved her hands as the boat sailed up beside her. From the deck, a man put out his hand. Rina grabbed on and was pulled upwards, not to the boat but to the sky. She tumbled through the mist as the boat faded away.

"NO! Come back!"

Rina floated through the mist. Suddenly, she passed skeletons with chains around their ankles.

"Humanity."

A deep voice broke through the mist.

"From the sea it came... to the sea it returns."

A skeleton wrapped its arms around Rina and gently caressed her head.

"All life eventually returns home. What about you?"

Rina looked up at the skeleton as it held her.

"I... I have things I have to do still..."

The skeleton nodded and let her go.

"That is good. Many come here to leave the things they have behind. Or perhaps the things they don't have. Or even the things they need. The sea will wash it all away."

"What if... they remember?"

"Then they continue to live..."

Rina fell through the mist, all of the memories she'd witnessed passing her as her eyes widened. She takes out the ID card, she smiles before tossing it out into the mist.

Central Continent Eastern Coastline - 6:02 am 35EE

Rina opens her eyes to see she's in a helicopter, hunched over on a chair. Her head leaning on someone.

"Someone's finally awake."

Werren smiles as she lifts her head from his shoulder.

Rina looks around to see members of Lockdown in the helicopter with her.

"What? What happened?"

Werren chuckles.

"You slipped and hit your head. Had to carry you out."

Crux comes forward laughing.

"Yeah, not only that it seems this buffoon couldn't do a mission in 10 minutes. How's that for a humbling lesson ay?"

Werren sighs and shakes his head.

"Not my fault miss slippery shoes over here fell over."

Rina looked around and smiled. She looked out of the helicopter and watched as they flew further away from the mist, the only thing she could see was a pair of lights coming from the mist before slowly fading away.