Chapter Text
Even Neverland had its gloomy parts. Not everything was colorful and dreamlike. Some parts were grim and nightmarish. This was one of those places. It was a rocky part of the ocean. There was no coral, no fish, even the sunlight struggled to reach this place. The only thing that wasn’t a shadowed grey was a small, yellow squid.
The squid darted through the maze of rocks and tunnels, one of his tentacles curled around something. There was a giddy sort of excitement about him, like he was a cat bringing a prized catch to its master. Soon enough, he swam into a cavern.
“Lord Fathom!” The squid called, “I found it.”
The cavern was only dimly lit by a few magical lanterns. Against one of the rocky walls was a large desk with books and papers scattered around it. Working at the desk was a figure that haunted the dreams of the merfolk. The mershark that was the villain of bedtime stories that parents would tell their children. The wizard who had almost had the seven seas under his command: Lord Fathom.
The man paused his work to turn to his henchman, “Are you certain, Sinker? Last time you brought me a barnacle covered in bioluminescent algae.”
The squid cringed at the reminder of his past failure, “Yes, yes, I’m certain this time! Look!”
Sinker swam over to the desk and held up what he had been holding. It was a tiny shard that was glowing a vibrant green.
Fathom gasped and snatched the shard from Sinker, “Yes! Another shard of the emerald! Well done, Sinker.”
The squid smiled, “Why thank you! It was nothing, really.”
Fathom turned back to his work. Sitting on the desk were several more shards, each matching the one that Sinker found. They were arranged like an unfinished puzzle, roughly forming the shape of a gemstone. However, even after Fathom placed the new shard in its place, there were still several chunks missing. This was all that remained of the dark light emerald.
The wizard frowned, “This can’t be the last shard.”
“I-I’m afraid it is, sire,” Sinker stuttered, “I-I searched the area around that shard all day and found nothing. Not to mention…It’s almost been a year of us looking for shards. I hate to say it, Lord Fathom, but any other shards would be long gone by now.”
Lord Fathom let out a deep sigh, “Plan B will have to do, then.”
The merman reached over and grabbed a jar full of glowing, teal crystals. Sinker looked at the jar, his eyes lighting up with curiosity.
“What are those?” Sinker asked.
“These are known as siren sea glass,” Fathom explained. He set the jar down and picked up a spell book, “Back in the days of drowning sailors, these were used to help supplement a siren’s song. The dark light emerald, in its current state, is not nearly as powerful as it once was. I’ll be lucky if I could control more than one sea creature…”
“That’s not good,” Sinker frowned, “You used to be able to command all the creatures in the never sea! Even shipwrecks and the waves themselves bent to your will!”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Fathom cut off the squid’s theatrics, “But if I add the siren sea glass to the emerald, I’ll be able to do so much more than command the seas.” He turned to Sinker with a wicked grin, “I’ll be able to control people.”
Sinker’s face broke out in an identical grin. He laughed excitedly and rubbed two of his tentacles together, “Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! So what’s the plan? Control that nasty Queen Coralie and make her hand over the crown?”
“Not yet. If I did that now, it would only be a matter of time before that no good ‘League of Pirate Captains’ came to stop me,” Fathom’s lip curled in disgust, “No, I need to get them out of the way first.”
He set the spell book down, now open to the page he needed. He then looked at the emerald and the shards.
“And I have just the plan…”