Roots

"I really don't think we should be down here," Lego insisted nervously as she followed closely behind Argos and Wollemia.

"No one cares about guarding the labs anymore, not when they're all busy with the surface dwellers," Argos waved her off, "Besides, there can't be anything worse down here than what we've grown up with our whole lives."

"Don't jinx it," Wollemia said darkly, sending a stern look the Oviraptor's way.

"Understood," Argos said, raising his arms placatingly, "I know we should be careful but I don't think Lego needs to be as nervous as she is. Look, first sign of trouble and we'll turn back, alright?" Lego still looked unhappy, her crest feathers flattened to the side of her head, but she nodded and continued to follow them into the dark.

The Atlantean labs had been off-limits for the inhabitants of Atlantis for even longer than the trio had been alive. It seemed to almost be an unspoken rule, everyone stayed out of the depths and just used the ground levels for storage. Behind the sliding metal doors were multiple layers of old human experiments, but it seemed no one had any interest in investigating them. Wollemia had often wondered if the elders knew what was down there and had decided it was too dangerous to entertain, or maybe it was too pointless to invest energy into. Either way, she was hoping to find out now the population had thinned out down in the dome and left noticeable gaps in the guard patrols. They had made it down the narrow stairway with great difficulty, Argos steering his bulkier companions through the turns until they reached the bottom of the stairs.

Unsurprisingly, the lights worked just as well down here as they did in the dome. The court only assigned one Iguanodon at a time to monitor the mechanisms that provided them with light and kept fresh water flowing, far more importance was placed on tending to the plants. Even without monitoring, it seemed the lights down in the labs were none the worse for wear.

The tiled floor was torn apart in places by creeping vines that forced them to crack under the pressure. There was soil underneath, and the roots of the plants dug greedily into it, densely packed with barely any room to breathe. The trio made an effort to step on what was left of the tiles instead, knowing it was safer to leave Atlantean plants undisturbed.

The walls were lined with shelves that were once behind glass, laden with more vines that burst through the pots they were planted in. The floor was littered with shards of glass and ceramic, like the plants within had lashed out and shattered their containment. It made Lego even more nervous, knowing that despite the lack of care these plants were as vicious as the ones on the surface.

“How much further are we going?” She whispered, like raising her voice would rile the dormant plants into unleashing their fury.

“Little more,” Wollemia said quietly, not elaborating. Lego sent a pleading look in Argos’ direction but he only shrugged and followed the Iggy through the next door.It was dark in this one, and he instinctively pawed along the wall for a switch, finding a small, narrow one just above the height of his head.

"Watch your eyes, I've got the light." Despite his own warning, Argos was left wincing against the bright white light that instantly filled the room. It took him a moment for his eyes to focus again, blinking furiously when he heard Wollemia gasp.

"There it is," she said breathily, the most emotive he had ever heard her.

"What is that?" Lego yelped, lacking the reverence in her tone and being solely horrified instead. The scene came into Argos' view all of a sudden, leaving him reeling at the sight in front of him. 

In a large, cylindrical clear tube in the centre of the room, a small Iggy floated in a stained blue liquid. For a moment he panicked, fearing they were watching a child drown but it was soon obvious that the Iggy was deceased, eyes fogged over and limbs limp in the water. Argos stepped closer without realising, horror dawning upon him as he finally took in the full scene. The body was overrun with roots, thick and tangled like they were mimicking blood vessels under the surface of the skin. They poked out through the mouth and feet of the Iguanodon, like there were too many to be contained within the small body and they had begun to spread out of it.

"How long do you think it was alive with all that?" Lego asked, her eyes wide and fearful, her voice soft and shaking.

"It's hard to tell. This had to be human research, but the body looks fresh," Wollemia noted. She circled around the back of the tube and even her stoic face pulled into a grimace. "Were they feeding the plants, or were they trying to combine them with us?"

"Human cruelty really knew no bounds," Lego whimpered. She had been told tales of the monsters that had created their home, but seeing the results of their evil face to face scared her more than any babysitter could with their tales of dread. She couldn't stop looking into the eyes of the juvenile, her mind immediately spinning the image of it growing with the plants growing inside them like a parasite. And now they were here, displayed like a grotesque trophy, like it was an example for other humans to work towards. Were there more of these poor souls, frozen in time just like this one?

"We should go back," Argos said, barely audible. Wollemia nodded, still frowning at the contents of the tube. She felt uneasy, like she couldn't turn her back to it and reversed the whole way back out of the room. While gruesome, it had confirmed her theory and she was even more determined to go back down some day. She needed to gather the evidence, indisputable evidence that the plants of Atlantis had been bred to rule them.