Underwater

Namora enters the cave and walks towards the hut hurriedly. 

Namor can be heard humming while mixing two kinds of paints into one shell.

"♫Entrе las sombras, mi amor♫"

"♫Tú eres el mayor destello♫"

"♫Qué bello, qué bello♫"

"K'uk'ulkan, ts'o'ok u desplegado biin bin yano'ob ti' dispositivo wa máquina ti' le océano. K ballenas táan inquietas yéetel uláak' ba'alche'ob ti' k dominio xan ku yiliko'ob afectados".

-K'uk'ulkan, some kind of device or machine has been deployed into the ocean. Our whales are restless and other animals in our domain are also affected.-

Namor sets the shell down and stands up immediately, "Tu'ux?" - Where?-

"Kíinsa'ab tu táan le k'a'nabo' k patria ancestral". -Off the coast of our ancestral homeland.-

"Bix yaanile'ex le ballenas. Ba'ax le letal. Ba'ax le dispositivo."

-How are the whales? Is it lethal? The device?- Namor calls upon a few Talokanils and they set off, heading to the location of the device deployed.

"Ma', le inofensivo ti' le ballenas. U alguna bix ken k descifrado le dispositivo".

-No, it's harmless to the whales. We have somehow decrypted the device,- Namora speaks, 

Namor, Namora and fellow Talokanil soldiers traveling underwater to the device's location, it's emitting whale sounds as they go closer, it's a beacon—

He waits for Namora to continue.

"Táan enviando t'aan".

"It's sending a message."

"Meenta'anil u vibranium" -It's made of vibranium.-

Namora never expected to encounter vibranium technology outside of Talokan besides—

Namor reached out his hand to touch the device.

"Je'el u jach, ka quienquiera u yaantal meentik le ba'ala'"

-Yes, it is, and whoever made this,-

"—'éel nonojbáij." 

- —is a genius.-

Namor was slightly in awe of the device, it emits signals that whales use to communicate with each other, which are complex vocalizations that can travel long distances through the water, allowing whales to communicate with each other over great distances.

But what this device is doing,

It's more than emitting signals to whales,

It's sending a message to all aquatic lifeforms and marine creatures.

Including them, if they came up with a device to decipher the signals, but it wasn't necessary. Namor had a stronger telepathic connection to marine life than his people because of his mutant physiology. 

And he can communicate with almost all forms of sea life if he wants. He caresses the whales and listens to what the whales are trying to signal him.

Namor calms them down and lets them know everything is fine.

Besides that, more and more creatures from other parts of the ocean had come into their domain, surrounding the device curiously.

It does not just emit signals to all forms of sea life, but the signals emitted by the device cover a large area.

It has a broader range than the conch shells they enhanced for communication. This device had surpassed their equipment and extended to the entire Atlantic ocean, even affecting the nearby seas.

Namor had expected nothing less from the nation that shared a common secret with them.

The nation that also wields the element of Vibranium is Wakanda. 

The nation who revealed their secret to the world, 

And in return, they exposed them.

Wakanda exposed the power of Vibranium to the world.

Namor believed that one day, their choice would indefinitely compromise Talokan.

But today was not the day.

The whales had informed him. He double confirms the message emitted from the device and received by the whales. 

It says,

"If you need help, please swim upstream directly above this device and surface on the water."

"We will be waiting for you there, and we have no intention of harming you in any way or ill-will in our hearts."

"Please trust us."

"We just want to help you."

K'uk'ulkan told his people to stand down. 

"Cha'ik u dispositivo tak u medianoche. Utia'al túun, k pa'atik".

-We leave the device until midnight. By then, we wait.-

For the next few days, they waited until midnight and froze the device, deactivating it and losing its signals. While aware that the device may be capable of tracking their whereabouts if they brought it back to Talokan, the Talokanil worked on the spot. They had successfully solved the puzzle of the device and could even replica the structure of it.

They learn everything they can about them. The surface nation, Wakanda.

As more and more creatures came from other seas, they didn't stop them. Some injured sea creatures had surfaced on the water and wandered nearby the device.

The Talokanils waited. 

The animals were taken away by Wakandan ships and aircraft. 

In one or two days, they were released back into the ocean.

Unharmed and fully healed.

K'uk'ulkan had given the order,

Not to send any message back to the surface nation.

Talokan must remain hidden.

Away from war and bloodshed.

Whatever it takes to protect its people.

The time has yet to come.

The device was removed a week later. Nothing happened. Nothingcame after them.

Namor returned to the cave after taking a stroll in the city. Meeting his people and ensuring everyone's lives are moving on smoothly, they live in peace . He cherished the peace every minute, every second, every moment.

Because he deeply understands that the peace that comes with it is not easy, it can disappear at any time, be destroyed, vanish in a moment, and disappear without a trace.

Namor would hate to see that happen.

And they will wash away whatever steps in their way.

They will wash nations from the surface of the earth.

The surface nations. The surface world.

They will drown.

Talokan will not hesitate.

K'uk'ulkan resumed the painting on his wall that he left behind weeks ago, he gently strokes his vision with his brush, the stories that his mother told him—

Accompanied by the humming in his head that he once felt annoyed by—

He used to hate it—

It was a burden.

He hums along softly with the voice in his head—

"♫Yo daré mi vida entera♫"

"♫Por sacarte de las penumbras♫"

"♫Romperé con tu condena♫"

"♫En este mundo que se derrumba♫"

—His mother and her village were driven from their own home by Spanish conquistadors.

"♫Dame un poco más de tiempo♫"

"♫Que mi último aliento yo lo daré♫"

"♫Para mostrarte el cielo entero♫"

"♫En las nubes contigo me recostaré♫"

—Who brought war, disease and starvation.

"♫Y nos colamos con la brisa♫"

"♫Y navegamos con el viento♫"

—and this hateful language that he is humming now.

Namor hates it now, still. The hateful language that he is humming now.

Because he knows he could never get rid of it.

Because Namor knows he could never bring himself to hate the voice in his head. Not anymore. 

Not when that day happened.

"The voice in your head won't manifest into a person just because you hum it every day," Namora speaks to him in Maya.

"I do not hum it every day," Namor replies without missing a beat.

"Yes, you do, K'uk'ulkan. Maybe you could continue your search, everything is settled back down now…" Namora had known all along that K'uk'ulkan had tried to find the person whose voice he heard in his head.

"I have looked everywhere." He replies without missing a beat. He did.

"Maybe she doesn't want to be found—" Does not exist. Namor whispers softly and closes his eyes.

It was just a voice.

It was just an illusion.

It was just a mere dream.

But that was not the case,

He was lying to himself and he knew it.

The voice in his head?

It's real.

The voice in his brain?

She exists.

The voice in his mind?

She is real.

And she is somewhere out there.

And Namor has always known—

Someone was calling for him.

It started 21 years ago.

They were having a council meeting, and Namor caught something with his ears. He looked up upon their sun.

♫Yo…da…m…vi…da…te…ra♫

It's a faint humming—

A girl's voice, if Namor had not mistaken.

A little girl. To be precise, a child.

But he kept it down. He asked his generals when the meeting was over and everyone was dismissed beside her and Attuma.

The humming is still ongoing—

"Ba'ax Te'exe' tu yu'ubajo'ob jump'éel zumbido?" -You guys heard a humming going on?- He asks them.

Attuma and Namora looked at each other and went back to K'uk'ulkan.

They said no.

He did not tell anyone besides Namora and Attuma. Well, not sure if Attuma even listened to him.

Some people would worry if they knew.

Most of his people worshiped him.

While some people would want to start a war.

That their God had finally gonemad after living for five centuries,

And decided it was time for K'uk'ulkan to step down from the throne.

But K'uk'ulkan wouldn't spare them a chance to destroy the peace they built over centuries. And Talokan continues to grow under his rule.

The voice,

It's been in his head for 11 years.

The humming grew stronger and stronger every year, the voice changed from a child to a young girl.

He had never hummed along. Not even once.

Namor felt a pull and resisted, continuing to bury the voice under the bottom of his consciousness, not wanting to acknowledge its presence.

Because one day, he had finally heard what the voice had been humming clearly.

♫Yo daré mi vida entera♫

He doesn't know what it's saying, but he recognizes it.

The voice was humming in Spanish.

The language that he hopes to eradicate from the entire world.

Since then, he had shut himself away from the humming, from the voice in his head, not wanting to be swayed by it.

If this is a curse bestowed upon him by the gods, he is willing to bear it for the sake of his people, to spare them from the curse or disasters that will fall upon Talokan.

But one day, everything changed.

K'uk'ulkan looked upon the sun that he had brought to his people.

A glimpse of light in the darkness—

A trace of warmth given in the bone-chilling depths of the sea—

The faint humming voice in his head stopped, giving him a moment of serenity—

Hello?

Namor looked up at the sun, shocked.

The voice that always been in his head for the past 11 years,

…Did it just call out to him…?

It's impossible, this is not real—he must be hallucinating— he never had—!

Save me

Namor swims out of the city hurriedly.

For the first time in a century, he panics.

He swims out of their domain, floating in the vast sea.

Take me

The voice,

It's coming from everywhere.

The voice is coming from all directions—!

He couldn't pinpoint the exact location—

Take me down

The voice came from—

From the east, 

From the south, 

From the west, 

From the north,

It's calling to him.

The voice digs deep into his head,

Dampening under the bottom of his unconsciousness,

Leaving him in a distant flow.

Take me down with you

Namor feels the water submerged over his head,

—But he was already underwater .

He stared ahead, lost in the vast expanse of the sea, wandering aimlessly in the boundless ocean. For the first time, Namor felt lost, not knowing where to go or what to do.

Please

It was the last thing Namor heard in his head.

The calling vanished,

And the faint humming voice resumed,

Echoing in his head softly,

Like the voice calling to him just now never even happened,

Like it never existed.

"K'uk'ulkan, is everything alright???" Namora followed him quickly when he suddenly left the capital.

♫Yo daré mi vida entera♫

The humming, it rings in his head again. It's the exact phrase as the start of the humming,

Where he had avoided for the past 11 years.

Namor swam back to the city silently, he went straight to their lab. 

He wants answers.

As a lot of questions are popping up in his head now.

Why is the voice talking to him now?

Did she just say, "save me"???

Is she alright? Is she still…alive?

His thoughts ended in only one conclusion.

Please be safe—Don't die, please

Namor wants answers now.

"Translate Yo daré mi vida entera—"

"Translating…"

Of course, he knows how to hum the whole thing even though he doesn't want to admit it, he's been hearing it for over ten years.

But he never wanted to understand what it meant, he hates the language,

Until now.

"Teene' yaan in ts'áik ti' in kuxtal entera—"

His heart sank to the bottom of the ocean.

I will give my whole life—

"Translate por sacarte de las penumbras, romperé con tu condena, en este mundo que se derrumba, dame un poco más de tiempo, que mi último aliento yo lo daré, para mostrarte el cielo entero, en las nubes contigo me recostaré, y nos colamos con la brisa, y navegamos con el viento." He murmurs.

"Translating…"

"Tuméen jóok'sik a ti' le penumbras"

Namor's heart sank to a place deeper than the depths of the sea.

To get you out of the gloom

He listens to the translation for the rest, taking in word by word—

Romperé con tu condena

"Romperé yéetel a condena"

I will break with your penitence

En este mundo que se derrumba

"Way yóok'ol kaabe' u derrumba"

In this world that's falling apart

—His world is falling apart…

Dame un poco más de tiempo

"Ts'áaten jump'íit asab u k'iin"

Give me a little bit more time

Que mi último aliento yo lo daré

"Ba'ax in k'oos múusik' Teene' kin ts'áik ti' teech"

Cause my last breath I will give

—Taking his breath away…

Para mostrarte el cielo entero

"Utia'al in we'esik ti' teech le ka'ano' entero"

To show you the entire sky

En las nubes contigo me recostaré

"Ti' le múuyalo'obo' wéetel in recostaré"

In the clouds, with you, I will lay down

—He should have done this sooner…

Y nos colamos con la brisa

"Ka k colamos yéetel le brisa"

And we blend in with the breeze

Y navegamos con el viento

"Ka navegamos yéetel le iik'o'"

And we sail with the wind

—He should have known…

He closes his eyes to calm himself down, trying to breathe steadily—

Namor should have known—

That the voice in his head,

The girl,

She meant something to him,

All along.

He looked everywhere for her, from their domain, the Atlantic Ocean, to the other oceans. He went to the Arctic Ocean, and the voice in his head quickly faded and completely disappeared.

Looks like his guess was correct. The voice in his head will fade if he leaves the source too far away.

Like he is getting farther and farther away from the source of the voice, from the girl.

He went to the Pacific Ocean, but the voice disappeared as well.

He went to the Southern Ocean, but the voice started to fade, not as strong back in their domain and barely can be heard.

He went to the Indian Ocean,  the voice didn't disappear or fade.

He was close.

He looked into every sea, river, place that has water, places that are connected or submerged in water, he found underwater caves, he found places that were secretly hidden.

Namor was sure the voice came from their domain, the Indian Ocean, or in between. 

In the end, he found nothing.

He did not find anyone, or any girl.

He became restless.

And Namora had warned him. Remember who you are.

And Namor stopped looking.

So he stopped looking for the voice in his head for a while. And to them Talokanils, a while passed away quickly, it turned into years, and Namor had settled down, he decided to live with it, knowing the girl was alive since the voice in his head remains. The calling that day had never happened again.

K'uk'ulkan believed that he would find the girl of the voice in his head one day.

He outlives the others, he would outlive her as well. But he will find her before she dies. And he has all the time to search and wait, it's only been 21 years, if his guess was correct, the girl should only be 21 years old now.

But nothing could prepare him for what comes next.

It was like the day he buried his mother in the soil of her homeland.

The world has been wiped out of half the population, including his people .

But they couldn't do anything.

K'uk'ulkan was powerless.

Not even the Feathered Serpent God can bring back the lives of his people.

The lives that were lost.

The lives that were being taken away.

The lives of those he loved.

He thought it wouldn't hurt that much anymore,

But it still does, his children fading before him.

And he couldn't do anything to stop it.

People would have thought he grew heartless after living for centuries.

Namor had known long ago,

That he will lose everyone he loves.

But not until the voice in his head stopped.

It disappeared.

It vanishes without a trace.

He could feel something pulling out of his consciousness.

It was ripped out from his head. 

Softly.

Like it never existed.

Namor scoffed at himself,

The voice in his head,

The girl he's been looking for all these years,

Does she mean something to him? 

What does she mean to him?

He doesn't have an answer to that question.

It doesn't matter anymore.

She was gone, along with some of his people.

She was gone.

Long before Namor gets to find her.

He lost her before he even met her.

As if the gods pitied them, or—

There was a group of remarkable people,

Who bring themselves together and fight the battles that others never could,

The Avengers, people who didn't know they needed them,

Five years later, they brought everyone back.

His people whom he lost five years ago, had returned to him.

So does the voice in his head.

So does she.

And Namor has always known—

Deep in his heart, Namor has always known.

Maybe he didn't look everywhere.

He knew it five years ago.

And he knew it five years later, which is now.

"I don't know exactly how the voice in your head works, but if the girl was "suffering " the same situation as you—" Namora's voice snapped him out of his deep thoughts.

"Maybe she's not even looking for you…" Namora shrugs, since there isn't anyone come looking for K'uk'ulkan either.

"Ouch," K'uk'ulkan replies without missing a beat.

"Or maybe she doesn't realize there is a "you" out here, looking for her for almost three decades—" Namora tries to comfort him a bit.

"Obviously." Would the voice in his head come looking for him?

If she knew,

The voice in her head was someone out there,

Underwater, it seems.

"And most likely not." No one can find him,

No one can find Talokan.

Namor sets his brush down, admiring his new painting and gets up,

"I'm going for a stroll." He leaves the cave, not bothering to wear his neckpiece or bring his spear.

"You are running away—" Namora follows him.

"I'm not." He waves her off and tells her he'll be fine alone.

Namor wanders aimlessly in the ocean.

Clearing his mind about the voice that digs deep into his head.

The voice in his head came back alive, humming again six months ago, as everyone was brought back from the so-called Blip. Sometimes it's fading, sometimes it's stronger, he had no plans to look out for her since he was busy settling down with his people that came back to life. Reuniting and rejoicing.

She must have reunited with her family as well, Namor hopes.

If she had a family.

Namor listens to the water, and the marine animals. Some whales sing their beautiful and haunting songs. The sound of bubbles since the place was surrounded by reefs and kelp beds. It's soothing and gentle, like a bubbling brook underwater.

The sounds of coral reefs, accompanied by the sound of snapping shrimp, chirping fish, and clicking mollusks, contributed to a symphony of underwater noise. It's one of Namor's favourite sounds he likes to hear underwater, soothing, mesmerizing and calming.

The volcano near their domain has been calmed down by them recently. The sound of underwater volcanic activity can be both eerie and fascinating, with the sound of rumbling magma and steam rising from the depths, which scared most of his children. Namor finds it fascinating to watch.

The water gives them oxygen, gives them life. The water shimmered in his eyes as the sun shone through the surface of the water, he could scarcely feel the sun’s warmth that was high in the sky. The waves are gentle today, crashing along the riverbank. There is a riverbank near here as Namor recognized the place. There is no underwater surveillance for this area.

He somehow wandered into a riverbank belonging to the only surface nation with vibranium like them, Wakanda. He continues to stroll, no one will see him here. The water here is clear and pristine, Namor wonders if the air is the same. He would like to breathe the air on this land but wouldn't risk Wakanda getting aerial surveillance footage of him.

The water does not pressure him as it erases his gravity. Feeling alive and free. He buried his winged ankles in the sand, soft and comfortable, almost as free as when he soars along the wind and breeze in the sky.

♫Entrе las sombras, mi amor♫

♫Tú eres el mayor destello♫

♫Qué bello, qué bello♫

The faint humming voice…

The voice in his head,

It's getting stronger and stronger the moment he left his cave,

It didn't stop.

He should return home now, Namor ponders while looking at the riverbank, few more steps, he will be out of the water, someone may see him—

Namor's gaze stopped when he saw—

A figure—

His eyes widened slightly…

Sitting underwater in the shallow—

—A girl.

Closing her eyes, holding her breath—

A surface-dweller.

Namor's heart skipped a beat.

—And Namor has always known.

He had looked everywhere except one place.

The surface world.

He had knew the moment his people faded,

And the moment when everyone came back from dust,

So does the voice in his head.

The war on the surface,

The people that sacrificed,

The voice that he's been digging deep into his head,

It was not from any part of the ocean.

It was from the surface.

The surface is calling to him.

The girl…

She's a surface dweller—

From the surface world that he has no love for.

Namor stood there as he couldn't make himself to move—

He told himself to move before—

The girl opens her eyes—

♫Yo daré mi vida entera♫

The humming reached its peak in his head.

I will give my whole life—

Namor wanted to huff out in disbelief, 

Is this the girl he's been looking for all these years?

Chaac, are you serious???

She was so close to me after all this time???

The girl…

This girl…

She is the voice in his head that he's been looking for for the past 26 years.

He didn't even need to hear her voice to confirm his suspicions,

His heart had already told him the answer.

The girl opened her eyes and saw him—

They lock their gaze—

Namor felt strange as he gazed upon the girl…

The feeling was…strange…as he not only felt happiness or surprise—

She feels like home to him.