Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Techno swam a slow loop around the ice floe, inspecting it halfheartedly. There weren't any fragile or faulty points that he could see, only the same solid white ice all the way through. He could see the faint shadows of a trio of seals laying on the ice, just out of his reach if he leaned over the edge of the floe.

The usual methods of dealing with this problem were either try to tail-strike the ice apart or just leave the seals behind and look for easier prey. This time, though, the whole seal hunting expedition had been to try a technique he'd picked up from an orca pod several days ago.

Techno rapped on the bottom of the ice floe one last time, testing how sound it was, then he swam away. From farther away, he could see the seals pick up their heads off the ice, looking at his wake warily. Techno watched them for a moment, then ducked back underwater.

As Techno moved smoothly back towards the ice floe, a wave built up over him. At the last second, he pushed his tail up to dive under the floe, and the wave carried on. The ice was thin and wide enough that when it rolled into the trough of the wave, it fractured into several pieces, leaving the seals on smaller, broken pieces of ice.

Techno lunged out of the water before the seals could react, landing half on top of the ice floe and grabbing the nearest seal with his claws. He rolled to the side off the ice floe, dragging the seal with him into the water, then tore its head neatly off.

The other two seals slipped into the water, rocketing off in opposite directions. Techno shoved the first seal in his mouth and dove after another one, catching up to it easily with only a few pumps of his tail. He didn't have enough hands to grab the third one, so he let it be, flicking his tail to lazily drift back up to the surface.

Blood was thick in the water, and Techno kept an eye out for scavengers. Sharks weren't nearly as much of a problem in the icy waters around Alaska as they were closer to the equator, but orcas were still around this time of year, and anything else would serve as free extra prey.

Techno oriented himself northeast, looping around to start towards his den. As far as he knew, most mer didn't have a particular territory that they claimed as their own. Techno didn't really have a territory, but he had a hideaway where he stashed extra food and anything he picked up from shipwrecks or human traders. It was a little ice cave that had been formed naturally in a glacier, with sunlight let in through the ice. The only entrance was underwater, and everything he kept in it was beyond a short ice cliff that couldn't be climbed with flippers. That way, he kept out both humans and wild animals. Not that there were many of either around where Techno lived.

"I'm going out on land," Techno warned, poking his head above the water in the cave. There was a chorus of disgruntled chirping and several streams of angry bubbles, and the swarm of remer that clung to his scales started to wriggle away. Techno took the time to toss the two seal carcasses a bit up the shallow slope, waiting for his remer to let go.

Once they had all dropped away, Techno clawed his way up the slope, pulling his tail half out of the water before he started to shift. As always, the shift began with a rapid shrinking. Techno went from a few feet longer than an average orca to about a foot longer than an average human. Then his tail split down the middle, the bottom part of his spine splitting in half as the vertebrae shifted and reformed into long leg-bones, hips and pelvis growing from nothing. The last to shift was cosmetic changes, things like his eyes and scales and the webbing between his fingers.

Techno hung onto his claws and teeth, as well as the scales on his feet. The ice was cold on bare skin, in a way that Techno didn't think he'd ever get used to. It was a relatively simple matter after that to sling a seal carcass over his shoulder and clamber up the short ice cliff. He tipped the seal off his shoulder once he reached the top of the cliff, shoving it against one wall and jumping back down for the second one.

The great thing about storing his food in an ice cave was that the cold air would make it last much longer without spoiling. Techno only needed to hunt every few days to stock up on food, and then he'd stash it in the ice cave and it would last for ages.

Once both seals were at the top of the cliff, Techno grabbed them by the tail to drag them to the eastern corner of the cave. The back was for his trinkets and the western side was a sleeping space, so all food storage went in the eastern side of the cave. It was a simple system, but it worked well.

There was a decent amount of food stockpiled already, and the two seals were dropped next to a few nets of salmon, a mound of sea otters, a trio of octopus, and a single squid. Techno rubbed his hands clean of blood on the rough snow, then turned around, heading to the western side of his ice cave.

Techno had used some orca ribs and a whole slew of furry pelts to partition off the sleeping section from the rest of the cave. The separation helped block out the rhythmic slapping of water on the entrance and the scent of blood from the food storage. Behind the curtain was a simple hammock, very similar to the nets Techno had woven to catch salmon. It was large and strong enough to hold him in his true form, and Techno much preferred it to having to sleep underwater with half his brain still awake. It was more restful, in his opinion.

Techno folded a pelt aside, careful to not pull too hard on it. The interlocking orca ribs holding it up weren't fragile per say, but the whole rod could pop out of the wall or fall apart if he pulled on it too hard in the wrong place. He carefully stepped through then let the pelt fall back into place, turning towards his hammock.

There was something in the hammock.

Techno froze, staring at the figure in the middle of the pelt-lined hammock. They were mostly hidden by a mound of pelts they'd dragged over themself, cocooning them in fur and leaving only their head and shoulders clear. There was some sort of dark material over their arms, not the kind of thing that would appear naturally after a shift, and scales faded in and out along their cheekbones with their even breathing. They were asleep. In Techno's hammock.

Ice creaked under Techno's feet as he flexed his claws automatically. He stared down at the mer in his bed, curling his hands into claws. The intruder had ice particles fuzzed over the front of their hair from their own breath.

In a smooth motion, like snatching a salmon while sitting on the bank, Techno dove a hand over the edge of the hammock and dragged the intruder out by their neck. They landed with a thump and a yelp on the icy ground, pelts sliding haphazardly off of them. Techno let go of their neck to shove down on their shoulders, slamming them back to the ground right as they tried to scramble to their feet.

"What the f*ck-!"

"What are you doing in my den!?" Techno demanded, cutting off the intruder.

"This- sh*t, this is your den?" the intruder faltered, blinking vaguely.

"You should have figured that out when you smelled me all over it!" Techno snarled, "are you stupid, what- what's wrong with you?"

The intruder was still blinking at him hazily, and Techno abruptly realized that the air smelled like blood. Fresh blood. Mer blood. Techno wasn't hurt. Techno didn't really get hurt enough to smell this strongly of blood. He hadn't for a long time. The intruder was still half wrapped in furs, though, and most of their body was covered.

Techno yanked the intruder to his feet, ignoring their yelp of pain, and ripped the pelts away.

The strange black material was an open coat, similar to Techno's own. There wasn't a shirt underneath it, though. Instead, the intruder was bare-chested, their skin mottled black and blue and the shredded remnants of something green and gold wrapped around their chest, stained with a huge splotch of red on their right side.

"You're hurt," Techno said, "how did you even get up the cliff?"

The intruder shrugged, then winced, "Adrenaline, mostly."

"Where did you even come from," Techno asked, realizing finally that there weren't any mer pods anywhere near him. There hadn't been for years.

"Jumped off a human ship," the intruder admitted easily, "didn't expect the giant f*cking whale-dolphins."

"You got caught by poachers, jumped off their ship, and immediately lost a fight to a pod of orcas," Techno interpreted, finally letting go of the intruder with a sigh. "How are you still alive?"

The intruder just shrugged again, only lifting their left shoulder, "I got away from the humans and the whale-dolphins, didn't I?"

"And you decided to trespass in my den," Techno snapped, "you should be glad I'm not killing you."

"Uh… yeah. I'm very glad for that," the intruder said, eyeing Techno slightly nervously.

Techno snorted, nudging the intruder aside. "Great. Now leave, don't come back, and don't draw any scavengers to my den."

"…yeah, sure, Mate," the intruder managed, still reeling from the gentle push Techno had given them.

Techno tipped into his hammock and let the transformation wash over him, scales sprouting on his skin and teeth lengthening in his mouth. His hips melted away and his legs merged back together, long bones breaking apart and reforming themselves into vertebrae. Finally, he grew to almost five times his human height, stretching to fill his hammock.

The intruder cleared their throat, their ears flicking slightly.

"Leave."

"…right."

The intruder turned, carefully ducking under the curtain. Techno kept track of their footsteps as they walked across the icy floor, cursing every other step. There was a brittle skidding sound and a much louder string of curses as the intruder half-fell down the ice cliff. A bit of splashing, and then a yelp.

"…uh, Mate?"

"What do you want," Techno growled, propping himself up on his elbows.

"There are crabs all over your f*king entrance."

"Crabs?" Techno sat up all the way, considering the merits of shifting again. Crabs were a pain to find and not very filling, but they were good.

"They could also be octopi," the intruder said dubiously, "what the f*ck are these things."

Techno mentally merged an octopus and a crab in his head, then flopped back into his hammock with a frustrated grunt. "Those are remer, just go past them." The 'you idiot' was beautifully implied by his tone alone.

"What the f*ck is a remer."

Slowly, Techno sat up again. He stared incredulously at the place where, if the curtain and ice were gone, he would see the intruder. Finally, he stopped to think.

The intruder was small. Much smaller than Technoblade. They couldn't control their shift while asleep, and had needed an extra layer of pelts over them, most likely because they couldn't regulate temperature properly. They'd been captured by poachers and lost a fight to orcas, and they didn't even know what a remer was.

Techno raised a hand and slapped it against his forehead. Sunshade it. Sunshade it. A pup. The intruder was a pup, no doubt separated from their pod by the poachers. And now they were in icy Alaskan waters without anyone to teach them how to survive or even get them back to the equator. Well, no one but Techno.

With a heavy sigh and a muttered curse of his own, Techno tipped himself out of his hammock. He didn't bother to shift, instead rolling sideways under the curtain and then shuffling to the side to tip down the cliff, landing on the bank with a grunt and the crunch of ice splintering underneath him. The intruder – the pup – startled back with a yelp.

"What the f*ck!"

"Where did you come from?" Techno asked, already mentally planning for a long trip.

"I already told you, I jumped-"

"No, like, originally," Techno interrupted, "do you remember what reef your pod lived in?"

"I… don't really have a pod?" the pup said, taking another step away from Techno.

"At all?" Techno asked, now more than a little concerned, "Nothing? Not even before the poachers?"

"No?"

Techno sighed, dragging a hand down his face. When he'd woken up that morning, he had not expected to end up with an orphaned pup on his hands. But as the only adult mer in leagues, it was Techno's ocean-given duty to – at the very least – get the kid to a new pod. At least he didn't have to take them back to a specific reef.

"Alright, in that case we'll go to the nearest reef," He said, starting to shift again, "you should come raid the den with me. We'll need to grab anything we want to take with us now."

"Wait, us?" the pup spluttered, scrambling after Techno as he hoisted himself up the ice cliff.

"Yes, us," Techno sighed, turning to give the pup a hand up, "You can't survive here long, the water's too cold. I'll take you to the nearest tropical reef."

"You will?" the pup asked, almost tripping over their own feet as Techno pulled them up into the den.

"Of course," Techno said, a bit begrudging, "I would probably be cursed or something if I didn't. Ocean's Statutes and all that."

The pup was still staring at him like he'd announced he had decided to go live with sharks.

"Come look in the back," Techno beckoned, "there might be a few things you'll want to keep."

That broke the pup out of their shock, and they trailed after him to the northern corner of the ice cave. Techno had collected a lot of ultimately useless – but pretty – junk over the years, and he was sure something would catch the pup's eye. Techno himself was busy pulling together parts of his harness, gathering supplies and weapons, and emptying various pouches and pockets that he could stash useful things in and clip onto the harness.

The pup poked methodically through what felt like everything in the room, working their way through it with frequent glances back at Techno. He gave them a reassuring – though slightly awkward – nod every time he caught their eye, and it appeared to work. At least, the pup finally came away with something.

"What'cha got?" Techno asked absently, spooling together some rope he'd 'liberated' from a shipwreck.

 "Here," the pup replied, holding up their prize. They were still watching Techno with something like confusion in their eyes, but Techno ignored it for the moment. Depending on how long the pup had been on a human ship, they likely weren't used to the Ocean's Statutes working in their favor.

They were holding a short necklace made of some sort of silvery material. Techno didn't know what it was exactly, only that it wasn't actually silver, since neither the ocean nor the air had made it dull. There were two green gemstones set into the necklace, and an empty cavity where a third should have been.

"Good choice," Tehno said approvingly, "It'll probably fit on you, too."

"It certainly won't fit on you," the pup snorted, "not in your true form."

Techno only grunted an acknowledgement, shoving a few final things into a pouch on his harness. "Are you ready to go?"

"Right now?" the pup asked, hurrying to catch up to Techno, who had already started back towards the ice cliff.

"The longer you spend outside tropical waters, the worse you'll get," Techno said bluntly, "No time like the present."

"But- you were just about to go to sleep!" the pup objected, scrambling awkwardly down the ice cliff, "You don't need to-"

"I can sleep on the way," Techno interrupted, "not my favorite way to rest, but we need to get to warmer water."

"You really don't have to do this," the pup said while Techno shooed remer off the icy bank. "If you just point me in the right direction, I can go on my own."

"It's a month-long trip at least," Techno told them, "probably more like two at your speed. Plus, the closer to the equator we get, the more predators will be around."

"I can deal with some predators on my own!" the pup objected.

"You couldn't deal with the orcas."

That left the pup spluttering long enough for Techno to slip into the water, harness in one hand, and start to shift. With a sigh and another muttered curse, the pup followed him, picking their way over the remaining remer.

As Techno grew to his proper size, the remer rushed to him, settling back into the gaps between his scales.

"What the f*ck, mate," the pup said flatly, staring at the swarm.

"Come on," Techno said, jerking his head back, "get shifting." Techno started putting on his harness while the pup edged closer to the water, hesitating at the edge of the bank. They were eyeing Techno's tail with a healthy dose of caution.

Finally, they slipped into the water, clinging tightly to the ice. There was a brief pause, and then scales started to trace over their skin. Techno pulled the final buckle of his harness into place, watching the pup shift.

Their scales were smooth, far smoother than Techno's. They were thin and metallic, colored in very bright swathes of green and gold with a few dapples of white on their belly. Their fins were sheer, fluttery things, velvety black edged in a white diamond pattern.

Techno frowned at the pup, looking them up and down. They were less than half his size, though he knew little enough about pups that he couldn't tell what age they were from that alone. The smooth scales and bright color, he was pretty sure, were normal. They were supposed to blend into bright tropical reefs and be less susceptible to infections. What was really strange was the pup's fins. Not only were they thin and fluttery, not nearly the stiff, solid fins on most mer, but the fins on the pup's tail were sideways. Instead of spreading horizontal like an orca's tail, the fins were oriented more like a salmon's, like the tail was supposed to move side to side.

Slowly, a few holes in the pup's backstory filled themselves in. According to the Ocean's Statutes, the pod that birthed a malformed pup couldn't be the one to raise it. Once the pup was old enough to breathe on its own and sense north, the birth pod had to abandon it. Some pups found a new pod, some died in the wild, and some ended up living on their own from a much earlier age. If this pup hadn't met another pod since they'd been sent away from their birth pod, it would explain a lot of the gaps in their knowledge.

"You good to swim with that injury?" Techno asked, gesturing vaguely at the pup's chest, where their makeshift bandage had melted away as they shifted.

"What? Oh, yeah. I'll be fine."

"If you say so." Techno ducked underwater, then waited for the pup to follow him. When they did, he continued, "We'll swim a straight shot until we come across something edible or until noon tomorrow."

"Where exactly are we going?" The pup asked, following Techno out from underneath the glacier. In the water, their voice sounded warbly and almost musical, like they were trying to imitate whale songs.

"Hawaii," Techno said, "about fifteen degrees south-southwest from us. Here, swim closer to me so you can be in my slipstream."

The pup clicked – even their clicks had a weirdly musical quality, almost trilling – and shifted closer to Techno, ducking into his slipstream.

"Keep us swimming south-southwest," Techno told the pup, "just nudge me if I start drifting. I'm going to take a quick nap."

There was a long silence, and Techno almost managed to fall asleep when the pup spoke up again, almost panicked.

"Wait a moment, I don't even know where we're f*cking going!"

"South-southwest," Techno told them, mildly concerned, "about fifteen degrees off straight south. I told you that."

"Do you have, like, a compass?" the pup asked, "how do you know?"

"No, just northsense, then go the opposite direction. About fifteen rotational degrees to the right from directly south."

"I can't f*cking sense north!" the pup shrieked.

Techno slowed, ducking his head down to look incredulously at the pup underneath him. They were staring back at him with baffled blue eyes. Techno let out a long stream of bubbles, then picked up his speed again.

"Fine. I'll keep us on track. Poke me awake if something comes near us." Half-sleep was so much worse than even the partial sleep he got while swimming, but if the pup couldn't sense north, he'd have to play it safe.

"What's your name?" The pup blurted after only a moment of silence.

Techno vented another stream of bubbles, blinking blearily. He maybe should have thought of that earlier.

"Techno," he grunted.

"Oh. I'm Phil, then." The pup – Phil, apparently – sounded slightly put out, but at least he stopped talking. Techno finally managed to drift off, half his brain keeping track of their direction while the other half had the chance to sleep. It was going the be a long two months.

Chapter Text

Eventually, the two of them settled into a groove. 'Techno' – or whatever his real name was – insisted on surfacing every little while for no apparent reason. Phil suspected it had something to do with his supposed ability to sense north. So far, they hadn't veered too far off whatever course Techno had set – the sun always rose and set at approximately the same place – so Phil was inclined to at least give his 'northsense' the benefit of the doubt. For now.

So far, Phil hadn't seen anything more threatening than a large school of salmon. They'd left behind the kelp forests three days ago and the ocean was open and exposing. It made Phil's scales itch, even with the admittedly comforting presence of Techno swimming above him. Even after four days of swimming, the water was far too cold for Phil, and the body heat that Techno put off was most of what kept him moving through the day. And Techno had said it would take them two months to get to Hawaii – wherever that was.

Phil could tell that he was slowing Techno down. He couldn't swim as fast or as long as Techno when they were awake, and when they both slept, Phil only slowed him more. Fortunately, Techno needed to sleep more than Phil did, and when Techno was asleep, Phil could actually keep up relatively easily.

They swam without incident for almost five days straight, pausing only to hunt and eat. Through the whole trip, Phil never heard Techno sing.

The farther they went – and the more time stretched without so much as a note – the more suspicious Phil got. Questions popped up left and right, questions Phil didn't have the answers to.

Techno had been very insistent about Phil's shoal, but he hadn't said anything about his own. He'd had whole human-made nets in his den and, Phil realized, had only ever referred to the humans that had captured him as 'poachers'. Not humans. Phil wouldn't be surprised if he had a human-made compass in one of the pockets or pouches on his harness. Maybe it only worked above water. He hadn't even told Phil his name.

As far as Phil knew, humans didn't have the kind of magic that would let them look like a siren. Not even a strange, too big, deformed siren like Techno. But they could certainly bribe a siren. Especially if they'd caught a pup right after it had been turned out of its shoal. Most likely, whoever first caught him either didn't realize what his conduit was or didn't care. They took it, leaving him tuneless, and raised him like a human. He would have been taught to hunt and trap and sell other sirens.

The problem was, Phil had already been caught. Techno was faster and more enduring than him, and without him Phil had no way to stay warm in the too-cold water. If he tried to escape, there was no way Techno wouldn't catch him. But the idea of swimming willingly into captivity rankled him. He'd just gotten out.

Phil's best course of action was to hope he could configure the necklace Techno had given him into a proper conduit. That would take time and concentration, neither of which were sure things at the moment. He had no idea how long they would be swimming – Techno had said two months, but he could have just been lying – and trying to configure a conduit would only slow him down more.

At about the week mark, the creeping sense of anxiety finally overpowered Phil's willpower and he started configuring his conduit. As expected, his pace slowed significantly. Several times, Techno almost left him behind on accident. He didn't bother to stop, though, just tried to hurry Phil along faster. Phil's suspicions only mounted.

Eight days after they left the iceberg, something finally interrupted their slightly tense truce. It had been a while since Phil had seen a seal, but he was pretty sure they were usually just over half his length with torpedo-shaped bodies and very short fur. These seals were a dull, washed-out brown and almost as long as Phil was. Their noses were thick and bulbous, and the moment they caught sight of Phil and Techno, the whole pod shifted direction.

"Uh, Techno?" Phil asked. Techno, predictably, did not respond. The seals were getting closer. Sure, they were still about a meter shorter than him, but there were half a dozen seals and only one Phil. If he had a proper conduit, this would be a nonissue, but he'd barely even started configuring it.

"Techno!" Phil kicked his tail hard, rising up towards Techno's head, and jabbed him sharply in the neck. Techno's closed eye – and wasn’t that a bizarre mutation – flew open, and he whipped around in the water, snatching Phil's wrist in a bruising grip.

"Phil?" Techno blinked, looking almost human in his confusion, "what…?" He released Phil's wrist almost as an afterthought, but it still seemed to linger on Phil's scales. He couldn't have pulled out of that grip, not without dislocating something.

"I think those seals are hunting us," Phil said after a moment to regain himself. The pod of huge seals had gotten much closer now that Phil and Techno had mostly stopped moving. Phil could already see their shiny black eyes getting ever closer.

"Elephant seals," Techno agreed, studying the pod, "they sometimes pick on lone sharks or orcas. Especially during mating season."

"We're not alone." Phil pointed out.

"Yeah, and an orca pup wouldn't do much to phase them."

That took a moment to sink in, and then Phil realized that Techno was comparing him to a pup. "I am not a child!" Phil objected, hurrying to catch up to Techno, who had already started towards the pod of seals.

Techno cast him a humoring look, "Of course not. You're very old. Practically an elder, in fact."

Phil trilled at him, angrily flaring his frills, but didn't bother to protest. At this point, it would be counterproductive.

Techno hit the pod of seals like a shark setting on dolphins. They were less than half his length, but they still had teeth and strong tails. Phil felt more than useless, hanging back while the half-dozen seals swarmed around Techno. If he was any sort of proper rearward, he would be singing, either a hunting song or a battle beat. Something to strengthen and quicken his allies. Except he didn't have any allies, not really, and even if he did, his conduit was barely configured.

Fortunately, no songs were needed. The water rapidly filled with a cloud of blood, darkening the ocean around them. With liberal use of claws, teeth, and powerful strikes of his tail, Techno efficiently routed the seals. Four of them swam away rapidly, trailing thin ribbons of blood. The other two were steadily sinking towards the seafloor.

Techno snagged one dead seal and Phil followed his lead, diving to catch the other one before it could sink too far.

 "That was impressive," Phil admitted, following Techno to the surface, "have you done that often?"

Techno shrugged, tearing his seal's head off with a flick of his claws, "Every now and again. Most elephant seals are smart enough to not pick fights with me, but it does happen."

"How long have you been living out here?" Phil asked, ripping his own seal apart.

"Oh, I don't know," Techno mused, "gotta be at least a decade."

"You see many others up here in the cold?"

"Nah, not really. I prefer it that way."

“How about humans?”

“Sometimes, yeah,” Techno admitted, “I used to work in those boxing rings in Kodiak and Anchorage, but I haven’t been up there in a few years.”

Which was all well and good for Tehcno to say in that casual, careless tone except that it made no sense at all. Surely, if Techno had been in a fighting ring, if he’d even gotten free of it, he wouldn’t still be out trying to hunt down other sirens. Maybe… Phil had misjudged him?

Maybe Techno was actually just trying to help him? But that still raised the question of what was wrong with him. Using human tools, not giving out his name, not even singing? Phil couldn’t wrap his head around the conundrum that was Techno. There had to be something he was still missing.

“Let’s get going,” Techno said as Phil finished his seal, “That way.” He pointed in an apparently arbitrary direction before starting off again.

Phil quickly followed, ducking into Techno’s slipstream. He cupped his hands around his half-configured Conduit, channeling power into the gemstone. Techno was awake now, and paying attention, so Phil could focus completely on configuring and didn’t have to bother looking out for threats.

Or so he thought, until a powerful concussive force ripped the two of them apart. Phil spun, confused, trying to figure out what had happened. The sun had been abruptly blotted out, throwing a broad column of ocean into darkness, and Phil couldn’t see Techno anywhere. With the little bits of magic he was still holding onto, Phil forced the golden spots along his sides and the white marks on his fins to light up, glowing in the shadows.

Techno was drifting several dozen meters away, fins fluttering weakly. His eyes flashed in the light from Phil’s scales, and he looked furious and dazed at the same time, tumbling slowly downwards. Phil opened his mouth to call out to Techno, but he cut himself off when he caught sight of a flash in the corner of his eye, the light from his scales reflecting off something shiny and manmade.

It was a net made of thick, shiny cords, steel cables that Phil knew from experience he couldn’t bite through. It was around him before he could do more than shriek, the end cinching shut with the low growl of a motor. He spun, searching desperately for some kind of opening or flaw in the net. His fins tangled with the cables, and the net abruptly started moving upwards.

Techno started towards him, baring his teeth furiously. Before he was even halfway there, a sharp hiss sounded from behind Phil and a swarm of sharp, shining projectiles sliced through the water. Tiny explosions went off around Techno, shuddering through the water. It only made Phil’s head pound, but Techno curled in on himself like he was in intense pain, wrapping his arms over his head and going limp in the water, sinking slowly away.

Phil twisted painfully in the net, trying to see where the attack had come from. There was a diving cage in the water with a human at its center. They had a gun in one hand, the other braced on the controls of the diving cage. Phil managed to shrill furiously at them, and then the net yanked up harder, hauling him free of the water.

The net was, predictably, attached to a human ship. Phil swung slightly in the air next to the steel hull, clinging to the strands of net while water sluiced off his scales. The winch on the ship was growling, pulling the net up by a pulley. Phil growled back, snarling and gnawing at a strand of the net. He only succeeded in hurting his teeth.

Phil wanted to scream. He wanted to fill his lungs with air and shriek a true siren’s scream that could deafen anything above water. He had just gotten out!

But there was the whistle and chirp of another siren on the ship, frantic and scared, and Phil wouldn’t do that to them. He would gladly deafen every human in the world, and tear their eyes out, too, if he could manage it, but he would never wish that on another siren.

The net swayed over the deck of the ship, and Phil squirmed into a better position, fully ready and willing to shred the first human that came anywhere near him.

Humans shouted at each other, and the crane arm tipped down, setting the net – and Phil, still caught inside it – on the deck. A trio of humans approached, wearing thick gloves and helmets that went down over their shoulders.

The instant the net was lifted off him, Phil was moving. He couldn’t shift – not on demand, with his Conduit not even configured – but he didn’t need to. He just needed his claws and his teeth. Legs were unimportant.

The first human went down with a scream and half their ribcage missing. The second lasted longer, but eventually found it pretty hard to keep standing with one leg little more than bone. The third managed to get behind Phil while he was distracted, jabbing something sharp between the gaps in his scales.

Phil twisted viciously, catching the human with his tail and sending them skidding across the deck with more rib bones than they’d started with. The next nearest human was over a dozen meters away, the edge of the deck behind him, but Phil wasn’t going to let that stop him. He dragged himself across the deck, clawing deep gouges into the steel decking. He felt uncoordinated and heavy, his tail dragging behind him on the cold steel. He stopped halfway, trying desperately to fill his lungs. He couldn’t breathe. The gills on his sides flapped weakly, and Phil’s arms finally gave out, sending him toppling onto the deck.

His vision wavered, the world flickering around him. There was noise, footsteps on steel and shouted instructions that he couldn’t make out.

Something cinched tight around the base of his tail, dragging him backwards across the cold steel. Phil clawed feebly at the deck below him, trying to stop, trying to keep moving towards the salvation of the ocean, trying to do something.

A winch was growling behind him, pulling him inexorably backwards. Finally, the cable tied to his tail tipped upwards, hoisting him off the deck until he was dangling in the air, his head only about a meter above the deck.

“Lock it down!” A human called from somewhere Phil couldn’t see. The world was still a wash of grey-blue, interspersed with unexplained flashes of color.

“Somebody get a muzzle on that thing!” the voice barked, “and take it down to the freezer!”

Human hands manhandled Phil, wrapping another cable around his chest, binding his arms and fins to his side. Something cold and metallic was shoved into his mouth, and Phil recognized it distantly as a bit designed to stop him from singing. It was topped with a wire cage that locked his jaw shut, wrapping around his head to buckle under his frill.

His head was still pounding, and the metal was cold on his scales.

“Oh, somebody grab the Conduit!” the human snapped, sounding frustrated, and a hot human hand unclasped the necklace Phil was still only halfway through configuring. He thrashed directionlessly, managing a furious growl low in his chest, but of course nothing came of it. The cord around his tail only pulled tighter, and blood flowed up to his head.

“It’s tied off, get going!”

And then Phil was moving, whatever was holding him up sliding across the deck. There were humans all around him, moving the scaffold and opening doors and shouting orders at each other. Phil twisted and squirmed, flaring his sail and straining his head frill. It did nothing, of course, but make the humans curse at him.

Finally, there was a rush of cold air, colder than the Alaskan waters, and whatever was holding Phil came to an abrupt stop. The rope swayed, Phil swinging slightly with it, and the ground tipped and wobbled. There was something in front of him, something vague and blurry.

“Hello?” a voice whispered, concerned and confused.

Phil managed another growl in his chest, snarling as best he could at whoever it was. He rolled his eyes back into his head, flicking them forwards a moment later. The vague, blurry shape in front of him started to take shape. There was a human net, like a hammock but made of metal and strange rope. Also, the top of it was closed, and the person in it was clearly unable to get out, cocooned tightly in the ropes, his hands cuffed together by the same cord that was holding Phil’s arms and fins down.

The person had a Conduit wrapped around their neck, a simple twisted cord with a pair of gemstones in the pendant, one red and one green. His eyes were the same colors, the one on the left bright red and the one on the right pure, seaweed green. His hair was split just as neatly, golden white on the left and deep brown-black on the right. He was clearly not human.

“Oh- I, sorry,” the stranger said nervously, “I just- you’re a siren, right?”

Phil hung in silence for a long moment, flicking his nictitating membrane over his eyes. It made the world hazy and dull, but it would protect his eyes from whatever was in the air. He managed a rumble in his chest, not a growl but not really any other sound he was used to making.

“Can you… not talk?” the strange siren asked, sounding more horrified by the second.

Phil made the rumbling noise again, managing to give it an affirmative upward tilt.

“Oh, Stars, that’s horrible,” the siren said, “I- I don’t really get that, of course, but my- My friend’s a siren, and he’s- oh, Stars.”

Phil pulled his nictitating membrane back, trying to get a clear picture of the siren. What would make him not understand? Any siren should know how horrible it was to be Silenced. …Well, except Techno. And kids. Oh, Stars, was the stranger a child? And they had him in a net!?

Fury burned in Phil’s chest, though there wasn’t anything he could actually do about it. Not trussed up like a dead fish, getting colder and colder by the second.

“Sorry, I just realized, I, uh, I never introduced myself,” the stranger said, tipping his head towards Phil, “I’m Ranboo! I live- well, I guess I lived in the waters around Hawaii. Now I’m- now I’m here.”

There wasn’t much Phil could say to that. There wasn’t much Phil could say, unless it was a growl or a weird rumbly sound. There wasn’t much he wanted to say, and all his blood was gathering in his head, making it even harder to think. He couldn’t think.

The ship creaked around the two of them, breaking the silence with the shift and strain of steel. It made cold tingles prickle at the edge of Phil’s fins, and his sail lifted automatically. The whole thing was too familiar. The cold, slowly draining away his energy. The fry in the net beside him. The creaking of a human ship. The only thing that was missing was the scent of cold, dead blood from Sirens who had been caught before him.

Phil slid his nictitating membrane back over his eyes, blanking out his mind and trying to ignore the sounds and scents of steel. He honestly never thought he’d say it, but he missed Techno. At least with Techno, he’d been – no matter how temporarily – safe.

Chapter Text

It took Techno several minutes to recover from the sonic attack, and his head was still spinning when he started after the boat. It was moving slower than him, fortunately, even slower than Phil could swim. So, he could keep up. That was a good thing. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything but keep up. Sure, there was a ladder leading from the ocean to the deck, but Techno didn’t know how many people there were on duty, or what sort of above-water weapons they had, or even if the ship was booby trapped somehow. All he could do was follow, and hope he came across an opening.

About two hours in, Techno finally accepted that he couldn’t do anything useful on his own, and he started singing. It was deep and loud, reverberating through the water like a whale song. The song thrummed through his skull, higher than a whale song and with a tone to it that no whale could get, almost like keening.

Only a few hours after he started singing, something answered.

Their voice was much, much deeper than Techno’s, and coming from somewhere far below. The only way Techno could tell that they weren’t a whale was the almost buzzing thrum that shot through their song.

Techno surfaced briefly, filling his lungs with air, and dove.

The floor of the ocean had long since dropped away, and it got colder and darker the deeper Techno went. The deepest Techno could comfortably dive was around a thousand feet. Whoever was singing in response was far, far below that. At least twice, maybe three times. Fortunately, they were rising as they sang.

The water was dark so far below the surface, but Techno could make out the immense silhouette of a leviathan rising from the depths.

Their song cut off in a low thrum, and in moments, the two of them were face to face. In his life, Techno had previously met one leviathan. He had been small for his species and young still, but he had still been easily twice Techno’s not-very-impressive length at the time. Even though Techno was now a full-grown adult, over thirty feet long, the leviathan still dwarfed him.

“I am Technoblade,” Techno said, swirling his fins to stay level in the water, “I called for aid.”

“I am Niki,” the leviathan said, and her voice seemed to reverberate in the water. “I answer your call.”

It was the sort of formal exchange that was supposed to happen after any such call. In practice, it rarely did. Interspecies oceanwide calls for aid were usually emergencies that left little time for chatting beforehand.

“I was escorting a pup to warmer waters,” Techno said, beckoning Niki towards the surface, “but we were attacked by poachers.”

“You were separated?” Niki asked, following him with a smooth, almost effortless flick of her huge tail.

“Sonic charges,” Techno said, a bit of his fury leaking into his voice, “they netted the pup and dragged him onto their ship.”

“Have you ever cracked a poacher’s ship before?” Niki asked, and Techno wouldn’t be surprised if ‘cracked’ was not a metaphor to her.

“Not one this big.”

Niki hummed, laser-focused on the task at hand. The two of them surfaced, and Techno didn’t need to point out the poacher’s ship. It was the only thing on the ocean.

“I’ll kill their rudder,” Niki said once they’d submerged again, “You’ll have to go on-board to find your pup.”

“Can’t you just sink it?” Techno asked, well aware of Niki’s huge claws that likely had the strength to rip apart some military vessels.

“If your pup has been forced into human form, they won’t be able to hold their breath long,” Niki told him darkly, “Even if they haven’t, shipwrecks are hard to navigate, and they sink fast once they’re waterlogged. The pressure could kill them, and pups can’t hold their breath as long as you can.”

Techno hummed, resigned to that truth. “We’ll need to attack soon, then.”

“Now? At night? I’d say we should wait for day, when they’re more tired and paying less attention to their area.” 

Techno blinked at Niki for a moment, and then remembered that leviathans didn’t usually have much contact with anything that lived on the surface. “Humans are diurnal,” Techno told her, “and they have bihemispheric sleep. At night, most of them will be sleeping. The others will be tired.”

There was a slight pause as Niki considered, peering up through the water. Then, she noted, “We have time.”

“But do we want to run that risk?” Techno and Niki shared a long look, and both of them knew the answer to that question. Techno took only a moment to temporarily transfer his Remer to Niki, and then they were moving.

Niki shot through the water, strong and silent. Techno wasn’t watching super closely, trying to figure out the best way onto the ship, but he saw her dive for the propellor. Techno hauled himself out of the water by upper body strength alone, getting about half his tail up before allowing the shift. He shrunk to almost the size of a human, and the ladder was an easy climb, especially with his bare hands and feet.

When Techno was about two thirds of the way up the ladder, there was an ominous groan somewhere far below him, and the whole ship shuddered.

Techno caught muted voices above him, rapidly fading, and by the time he reached the deck, there wasn’t a soul on it. There were a lot of damning machines, though. Techno recognized a net used for catching mer – made of steel cord, to stop them from biting or clawing through it – as well as a rig-and-noose setup to string someone up by their tail.

Techno sniffed the air, trying to track the scent of mer. It was all over the deck, mingled with the scent of blood and humans and steel, but it also led through a tall cargo door. Techno followed that, taking the appropriate turns, then down a ramp and through- wait. There was a brushed-steel desk by the door, and draped on the desk was the emerald necklace Techno had given Phil.

Fury welled up in Techno’s chest, finally overwhelming the frantic desperation and terror that had been fueling him up until that point. That was Phil’s necklace. Possibly the first piece of treasure he’d ever had. And they’d discarded it on a table like it was nothing.

Techno was scooping up the necklace and literally kicking the door open before the red had even faded from his vision. On the other side of the door was a feezer. Techno’s rage only mounted. For an adult, being kept in temperatures this low for long enough would make them sluggish and compliant. For a pup, it would kill them.

There was a hanging rig at the far end of the room, Phil’s shiny green-and-white scales clear against the dull steel wall. Next to him, there was another standard poacher rig, a closed hammock-like net with a shifted mer trapped inside.

“He-hello?” the unknown mer called, teeth chattering. “I-I can’t breathe, pl-please I-I- can-can’t bre-eathe.”

Techno was beside him in a blink, ripping through the net. The mer spilled onto the ground, breath shaky and shallow. Techno took one last glance at Phil – hanging limply, arms bound to his sides, eyes open but unresponsive, clearly not in immediate danger – and scooped up the unknown pup. They were too light in his arms, and Techno practically flew up the ramp and onto the deck. There were still no humans, but the lights were on, and Techno could hear voices. He hesitated for a long moment, the pup in his arms, then carefully tucked them behind a metal box on the deck.

Once they were settled and already warming up, Techno raced back down to the freezer for Phil.

That took more finagling, since Phil was hanging upside-down, and Techno was only about nine feet tall at the most. With a lot of frantic button-pushing and switch-flipping, Techno managed to release the rig. Unfortunately, instead of the steady lowering, it just undid the catch. Techno just barely managed to catch Phil before he hit the ground headfirst.

Since Phil was longer than Techno was tall, he was a much more cumbersome load. Techno almost fell over twice just getting to the deck. Then, well, he had to set Phil down really fast, because now the deck was swarming with poachers.

Three were on him in an instant, two with guns and one with a long knife they’d pulled from various holsters and sheathes. Techno had only an instant to prepare before they opened fire, and in that instant thick, sturdy scales erupted from his skin. One of the gunshots went wide, and the other only clipped him, deflecting off his scales.

“Phil!” Techno shouted, nudging the pup in the ribs maybe a bit rougher than he should have, “being awake right now would be great!”

Phil’s eyes slid towards him hazily, but Techno very quickly had to fend off the long pointy knife that was the exact right shape to jab in between his scales.

“Catch it!” Someone shouted behind him, “portside!”

Techno batted the knife away, craning his neck to see the unknown pup wavering on the edge of the banister. A swarm of poachers surged towards them, and the pup flung themself backwards, tipping over the edge of the ship and toppling towards the water. Techno just hoped they’d shift fast enough to take the impact.

Another gunshot went off, only this time they weren’t firing bullets. A tether dart, fluted to follow the natural curves of his scales, rammed home in Techno’s side, burying its barbed head deep under his scales. Techno screeched, whirling around to find the tether attached to a huge burly poacher who looked like he could wrestle a walrus. The poacher yanked on the tether, almost pulling Techno off his feet and sending agony shooting through his ribs.

Well, they’d find that Techno didn’t go down that easily. He turned and sprinted towards the poacher, tackling him in a flying leap. The poacher may have been broad and solidly built, but Techno was taller than almost any human ever, and he had enough mass to rival an orca. They both went down on the deck in a tangle of limbs, teeth, and tether cord. Techno had far more natural weapons than the poacher, and in the end he left the high-stakes wrestling match with his head still connected to his body. The same couldn’t be said for the poacher.

“Overboard!” one of the poachers shouted, “Cargo overboard!”

Techno, still tangled in tether cord, looked up just in time to see Phil’s weird sideways tail disappear over the edge of the ship. Well then.

Since there was no more threat of crushing any pups, Techno started to shift. As his anatomy changed, the tether snagged on his scales, rankling under his skin like a barnacle left unchecked, but it wasn’t anything Techno hadn’t felt before. In moments, there was a thirty-foot adult Mer on the deck of the poachers’ ship.

There was very little in a poacher’s arsenal designed to deal with a full-sized natural-form Mer on the deck of their own ship. Bullets, knives, and even fluted darts would deflect off his scales, his claws could tear through steel, and even the sonic charges they’d used on him earlier didn’t work above water.

And that was before Niki leaped out of the water.

Techno had seen Mer breach. He’d even seen a humpback whale breach, once, and there were videos of even blue whales breaching. None of them compared to this.

She was a huge shape in the dark sky, blotting out the stars. Blotting out the moon. Like a tiger shark hunting albatross, she emerged from seemingly nowhere, landing with huge hands braced in the center of the ship. The steel screamed under her weight, not designed to hold the weight and acceleration of a creature who was at least a hundred thousand pounds, flinging her own body out of the water as a weapon.

Techno was out of here yesterday. The ship tipped dangerously, and Techno literally rolled with it, crashing against and then through the barrier to fall into the ocean below. The tether still buried under his scales pulled taught for an instant as he fell, then tore out, ripping a decent chunk of his side out with it.

Techno crashed through the surface of the water and pain shot through him as his bleeding side hit the semi-solid surface tension.

“Techno!”

Techno swirled in the water, emerging from the cloud of bubbles he’d caused. Phil was hovering nearby, visibly concerned, and the unfamiliar pup was lingering in the water behind him.

“Are you alright?!” Phil demanded, “what happened!?”

“I’m fine,” Techno sighed, pressing a hand to his bleeding side. “It’s just a few scales. We need to get moving.”

“Why?” the stranger asked, “What- what’s happening?”

“That ship is sinking fast,” Techno said, “we need to get out of its whirlpool area so we don’t sink with it. Come on.”

Techno circled around both Phil and the stranger, herding them away from the ship.

“I’m Ranboo, by the way,” the stranger said, “Do I- uh, do I know you?”

“We’ve never met,” Techno told him as gently as he could manage, “I’m Techno. Do you know what happened to your pod?”

“Um. I think they’re in Hawaii?”

Something made a dull shrieking sound behind Techno, and Ranboo hesitated, peering wide-eyed over Techno’s shoulders. Techno could already feel the crosswise current of a sinking ship tugging on his fins.

“Well, fortunately we’re already headed that way,” Techno said, shifting to block Ranboo’s view of whatever Niki was doing to the ship, “do you want to come with us?”

“That- really? That would be great. Um. Yeah.”

“Of course,” Techno said, “Ocean's Statutes, you know.”

“Right, yeah. Um,” Ranboo’s fins flickered nervously, “Is it just you two?”

Techno blinked. “I mean, unless Niki wants to come with, yeah.”

“Don’t you need… another Siren?” Ranboo asked.

“Why would we?” Phil said in the same moment Techno asked, “What’s a Siren?”

Ranboo and Phil both spun in the water, staring at him in silent shock. After a moment, Techno crossed his arms, scowling at them. “What?”

“Did you just ask what a Siren was?” Phil demanded.

“I mean… yeah?”

“How long have you been up here?” Niki’s deep, reverberating voice echoed behind him. Techno half-turned, glancing at the Leviathan. She also had her arms crossed, though she just looked judgmental.

“I don’t know, a long time?” now Techno was starting to feel ganged up on. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“He’s a Siren,” Niki said, and pointed a huge claw at Phil.

Techno blinked at him. “Um.”

Phil flicked his tail, realization slowly growing on his face. “Wait.”

The three of them turned to him, and Ranboo cocked his head slightly.

“If you don’t know what a Siren is,” Phil said slowly, “what are you?”

“By the Midnight Trenches,” Niki sighed, uncrossing her arms to pinch the bridge of her nose, “You’re both impossible.”

“We’re Mer,” Ranboo said nervously, “They’re like somewhere between Sirens and Leviathans.”

“You at least all know what a Leviathan is, right?” Niki asked, almost pleading.

All three of them nodded, glad to be back in familiar waters.

“Well, at least you’ve got that much,” Niki sighed, “Siren, where did you live before this?”

“I have a name, you know.” Phil snapped, “And I don’t know. I never really left. At least, not under my own power.”

“You never gave me your name.” Niki said flatly.

“Oh, yeah. It’s Phil.”

Niki looked at him sharply, almost glaring. “Is it really.”

Phil bared his teeth with frustration. “Well, I can’t just say my real name out loud. Not in front of him!” He gestured broadly to Techno, who blinked at him, befuddled.

“Hey! What did I do?! What do you mean that’s not your real name?”

“You didn’t give me your name!” Phil snapped, sails flaring wide. “I don’t owe you anything!”

“I did tell you my name!” Techno objected, “You’ve been using it this whole time!”

“That’s not your name!” Phil said, “There’s no need to lie to me about it!”

Techno opened his mouth to argue, but Niki interrupted before he could say anything.

“Stop!” Niki snapped, “Stop, both of you!”

They both went silent, eying each other warily.

“This is a culture gap,” Niki sighed, shaking her head. “Don’t get at each other’s throats.”

“What do you mean?” Phil demanded, “There-”

“No,” Niki interrupted again, “I’m trying to explain it. Sirens can tell what your ‘true name’ is,” she informed Techno, “It makes their magic more powerful to know true names. Nicknames and shortenings of your name don’t count.”

“Really?” Techno asked, tipping his head to the side, “They can tell?”

“You can’t?” Phil returned, “how else would you sing someone’s- oh. Right.”

“Mer don’t sing soulsongs,” Niki said dryly, “In fact, most Mer don’t sing at all, unless they’re singing for assistance.”

There was a long pause while Techno and Phil digested that and Ranboo looked on nervously, fidgeting with his necklace.

“My name’s Technoblade,” Techno said at last, “But only people who don’t like me call me by my full name.”

“Same,” Phil agreed instantly, “I’m Philza.”

“Back to my original question,” Niki sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, “You don’t know anything about where you’re from?”

Phil shrugged. “Not really.”

“Well, it definitely wasn’t Hawaii,” Niki said, “not if you’ve never met a Mer before. Do you know any other Leviathans?”

“Yes,” Phil said immediately, “We called her Lady Death, but that’s not her true name. She was dark purple, and she needed four Conduits to take on a completely human form.”

“What is her true name?”

Phil hesitated, unwilling to share the information that was apparently very important in his culture. Then, he finally admitted, “Kristin.”

“Ah,” Niki said, “I do know her. She’s a wanderer, but usually touches base in the red sea.”

“Convenient,” Techno observed.

Niki hummed in agreement.

“Well then,” Phil sighed after a brief pause, “Niki, do you have any idea where I do come from?”

“Nope,” Niki said airily, “Kristin goes everywhere. Including to the Hawaii reefs.”

“So, his best bet is still to come to Hawaii,” Techno reasoned.

“If you’re still wiling to take him,” Ranboo pointed out. “You’ve only come this far because you thought he was a pup.”

There was another drawn out silence.

“You thought I was a child!?”

Techno winced, covering his ears. Okay, he’d wondered why they were called Sirens, but with that level of shrill volume, he was beginning to understand.

“You’re pup sized,” Techno defended himself, hands still hovering around his ears. “I just assumed-” He hurriedly cut himself off before he could say something unreasonably rude.

“You thought I was born strangely misshapen, kicked out of my shoal, and immediately snapped up by humans.” Phil had his arms crossed, the thin fins on his sides fluttering rapidly.

“How did you…”

“Because that’s what I thought about you,” Phil admitted reluctantly.

“Wow, you guys are messed up,” Niki sighed.

“Well, you can’t blame us for that!” Phil was trying to protest, but Techno couldn’t hold it back anymore. He burst out laughing.

After a moment, Phil and Niki joined him, and Ranboo even cracked a nervous smile.

It was just so ridiculous. They’d been traveling together for the better part of a month, and hadn’t even realized that they were different species.

“Okay,” Techno managed once the chuckles had run their course, “Okay. I’m still going to swim to Hawaii, because I know for a fact that Ranboo is a Mer pup, and it’s my job to get him home to his pod.”

“Shoal, technically,” Ranboo put in, and the three of them turned to him. “Um. Because there’s more Sirens in it than Mer. So, it’s a shoal.”

“I’m taking Ranboo to his shoal, then,” Techno said. “If anyone else wants to come with me, I won’t object.”

“Yeah, I’ll come,” Phil agreed easily. “Niki?”

“Me? Why?”

“Well, you did just save our lives,” Phil pointed out. “We’re pretty much duty-bound to repay you for that, and it seems unlikely that you’ve got anything important going on at the bottom of the ocean.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Niki agreed, “and I have been wanting to catch up with Kristin for a while.”

“Great.” Techno clapped his hands together, drawing attention back to him. “In that case, Niki do you want to take the lead? It’s about fifteen degrees south-southwest of us.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She spun slowly to orient herself, then started off. Techno fell into her slipstream, and Phil and Ranboo hurried to join him.

“…do you have a human compass somewhere?”

“What?”

“Oh, yeah. Sirens can’t northsense.”

“What!?”