Sea Serpent

Chapter 27- Insomnia

"That's not exactly the thing I was so shocked about..." Cody admitted. He sighed and didn't meet her eyes. "Do you remember after the killer whales attacked? When I had a nightmare and you came to help?" Hesitantly, she nodded. Tanith had a feeling of where this would be going.

"And remember when I told you I killed someone? Someone I really regretted killing?" Another nod. "Well... There's this guy who's kinda the villain of Atlantis. His name is-"

"KrakenKid." Tanith blurted out. Cody gave her a confused look.

"Oh, do you already know about that?"

"Yeah, I- hold on." Getting up, Tanith slowly walked over to her closet and skimmed through the shelves before finding a huge book and bringing it back over. Dropping it on the table, it landed with a thud and made anything else on the table bounce in the air. Cody leaned forward, just enough to read the title.

History Of Atlantis was on it, written in big letters at the top.

"You would not believe the pain this thing is, but reading about this city's history is certainly worth it! Did you know that-" Suddenly, she hesitated, glancing at me and back to the book. "That... They update it every time something eventful happens!" The hybrid spoke quickly. Cody got the impression deep down, that isn't what she was going to say.

"More on," She continued, making the king decided to save that question and thought for later.  She let out a yawn. "It had more recent events. I read about, well, you know! It took a while for me to get to the part, and I had to skip ahead to read it but... I know. Do you mind if I ask what happened? From what I read, there was a big battle and you had to kill him to end it, but I know from experience that nobody gets the full details without being there."

Cody paused, but started to spill it out. "That's not what happened. I started the battle, I wanted to attack the place. A lot of people will tell you for different reasons, but truthfully I was scared. KrakenKid... He was unstoppable. He attacked the lab and won against the Hulk! He attacked the palace and held hostages there! If we hadn't freed them and drove him away, I... KrakenKid would have had a fully powered Gauntlet in his possession. He had me prisoner at his base! I barely escaped with my life! I was scared- no- I was terrified. Before him, I ruled Atlantis with little worry of dying or being killed. As soon as he appeared, I no longer had that luxury. And when I was captured in his base, I brushed with death. While I was in there, I realized that I could die in there. I could die, and Atlantis would fall."

Tanith couldn't say a word, even if she wanted to.

"So I fought against him, and I barely realized what I'd done until the aftermath came. Have you seen Jo- I mean, the Great Sword?" She nodded slowly, remembering seeing the great blade on the pedestal. "He had that. That thing should have been in my friend's possession, but when I saw it in his room... I lost control. I didn't want to bring him in anymore. I wanted him dead. Then my vision went all red and didn't fade until I killed him. I killed him! Not only that, we took his son! We destroyed his base! And now that he's alive, that's all coming back to me!"

Cody leaned back in the chair, eyes fixated on the ground. "... What do I do?"

For the longest time, Tanith said nothing. Eventually, she stood up, slithered over to her closet, and picked out another book, but this one was much smaller than the last one she pulled out. It had a brown, leather front with several pages in it, some sticking out. The number two was cut into the cover of it. Cody raised an eyebrow and she flipped through it, and stopped on a certain page. Then, the hybrid handed it over.

The penguin's brown eyes darted from her and the book, but finally took it and read what was on it. His eyebrows knitted together. "Jason Yen, Kenji Cor Toyama, StoneHeart, William "Billy" Martin Diaz? Why is the page filled with names?" Not only that, but tallymarks were at the top of it and on some of the names, a strange purple symbol.