"He obviously just should have been more careful."
He was just one of the bystanders, one of the fae that hid behind a glamour, unwilling to let humans see him as they gathered around the beach, looking like any other tourist to the non-magical eye.
His strange best friend and rival, a proud faere man named Francis, was watching the poor creature that found itself in its current predicament with a bit of distaste. "Surely the thing realized that he should have stayed down in the depths where they belong, right?"
Arthur stared at the thing, a tad more sympathetic than his partner. It looked to have just reached the peak of puberty, and even as it rolled against its human captors, trying desperately for an escape even as sand coated its lovely blue scales. "He's undoubtedly going to be sold, Francis." He pointed out, biting his lip. "He doesn't deserve that."
"That's his problem." The other faerie shrugged, turning his back on it. "We don't fly anymore because of humans."
"That's a lie and you know it, Francis." Arthur argued sharply, furrowing his brows. "You went flying last week, in an open field. You have a glamour that this poor boy doesn't."
"They have glamour-detection technology, Arthur." He pointed, hating that he had been found out to be lying so easily. "Additionally, he had the whole ocean to swim around in. Certainly he could have avoided the shore?"
"Maybe he could have, but would you want to stay underwater?" Arthur argued, weaker now with Francis's point that this was undoubtedly a suicidal option for him. He had so many other places to go.
"You and I can not leave this country even as the anti-magical crackdown continues its path to close its vile hands around our proverbial throats- he could have gone anywhere in the world, and yet he came here."
This was undoubtedly true, and bitterness was palpable in Arthur's mouth. He loved to fly, and though Francis had managed to get some time in the air, he was horribly right in that the merman had essentially handed over his freedom.
The merman stopped struggling, and Arthur spotted the tranq darts sticking out of him- 3 of them, to be precise- wasn't that excessive? He had been struggling for the greater part of 20 minutes, and the fae had stopped to watch the show, and some came to report, and others to sympathize but not do anything. They knew if they did something, if they showed their magic…their necks would be right next to the boy's at the auction, or at a government lab, or worse.
Blue eyes, pupils wide and eyelids dropping, caught Arthur's suddenly and kept him frozen for a moment, the faerie's stomach sinking lower as he realized that the other creature could see them for what they were. They didn't plead, they simply stared, and Arthur didn't know if he had pleaded if it would have been worse. The fact that he didn't even try only signaled to Arthur that the merman had resigned himself to not receive any assistance from his fellow magical kind.
His eyes closed, and that was the end of that train of thought.
Eyes went to the water, and they spotted two heads, one frantically screaming and the other dragging him back to the depths, baring sharp teeth at the humans. The other members of his pod, Arthur figured, as they sank under the water to avoid being shot at by humans.
His wings rustled invisibly behind him as he turned and watched the manhandling of the merman, going limp as humans gripped at it with their greedy hands, and no small amount of them decided to peel away bright blue scales for their own collections, and Arthur saw reddish purple blood dripping onto previously white sand. Of course, the humans were soon ushered away, and Arthur only caught glimpses of the merman being dragged away by men in lab coats.
Arthur's stomach sunk further. It wasn't the worst ending, but it was up there. In the best-case scenario, the merman would be kept in captivity for the rest of his life. The worst case meant experiments and eventual autopsy on him, or death the moment he arrived to wherever they were taking the boy.
"Don't even think about it." Francis murmured wearily as he glanced at Arthur, already knowing what was going through his mind. "Your brother would hate to lose you."
Arthur grimaced instantly. Damn Francis for always knowing what he was thinking!
His wings rustled again, delicate and hidden from human sight. He tried to turn away, not notice the license plate, not notice that the humans were taking him north…no, certainly didn't notice it. And he definitely didn't notice the fact that they weren't taking him to the highway, but rather up into the main part of town.
"But I must, Francis." He eventually sighing, settling on it after seeing the agents continue into town with a longing look. "I'll be careful. We'll plan this out; find a way to crash their system before we get him. I don't particularly wish get caught, but…he looked at me, Francis. He knew that we, the fae, saw him being taken."
Francis took a deep breath, before rubbed his temples and nodded. "I must wonder why I am your best friend, Arthur, since you always seemed so enthusiastic about the prospect of being killed for someone else."
Arthur rolled his eyes with begrudging affection. "You know that's exactly why we're friends." He pointed out, patting his shoulder as the former captive fell into step behind Arthur as they returned to their home.
XXXXX
Arthur, a bright and crafty fae even as a young boy, had once helped an older, more feminine appearing faerie man escape from an auction. The two had been best friends ever since, when Arthur, a 8 year old had helped Francis, a 9 year old, out from human hands.
The world had only recently opened its borders to them in every sense of the word.
They, of course, referring to the magical folk that inhabited the world- they had always existed, but a brave faerie woman had decided to reveal herself to her husband, and for a time, there had been peace.
Then of course, the husband had grown tired of milking her for fame, and the human world was easily disenchanted with magical beings when the faerie woman killed the man for sleeping with another, dooming her to a painful death. Not that the humans had cared that she was to die anyway- they had killed her sickly form in a form of justice, and started a war that culminated in the anti-mythical creatures act, also called the Mythical Creature Controls Act. As though they were creatures- as though they needed to be controlled.
The world had just as quickly turned on them, and suddenly didn't want anything to do with them. In the same breath of life as discovering magical beings, they began hunting them down. Some for glory, with the head of a unicorn mounted on their wall, others for prestige, with a personal genie willing to do their bidding. Others wanted them for science, and trapping them was easy for a time, until they broke altogether and could be dissected. And Francis had been meant for personal use, either sexual or manual labor.
It had been 20 years ago when the faerie woman had been revealed to the world. Arthur had been only a toddler at the time. He had been 7 when the law had been passed nearly unanimously in Parliament and a similar act in Congress.
Arthur had been quick enough and smart enough to devise a trap for humans before helping Francis out. Francis considered it his greatest debt to the younger faerie, but not his only. Arthur had a notorious hero complex, and though it wasn't always a good thing, it generally worked in his favor rather than against it.
And at the moment, it was telling Arthur to help the merman escape, so that would be their course of action.
"When we're finished with this." Francis griped on day 58 of looking through the human's system for the flaw to take advantage of, "I consider my debt to you fully repaid."
Arthur nodded agreeably. "Certainly, Francis. I wouldn't actually have held you accountable to any debt, you know. God knows I'd be glad to see less involved in my life."
Francis sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I know." He muttered. "It simply makes me feel better to say it, Rosbif."
Arthur's green eyes returned to stare We should be ready for infiltration in two days, since that's when the lazy guards are late to their night shift. How's the security footage looking?"
"I think I've found the best way to erase it, but since I can't find an error in the code from here..." He made a face. "I think we'll have to do it once we're inside their building. I have accessed their footage, and lord, Arthur. You know how to pick them, don't you?" He grimaced a bit, turning the monitor fashioned from magic and technology towards him.
The first thing Arthur saw was the blue scaled merman, with blood in the water, swimming so fast that he would hit himself on the side of his tank, or on the metal surface inside of it meant to function as a bed. The lights were bright, and his blue eyes were wide open wide and dilated as he sank to the bottom before starting up again. "This was him towards the start of his captivity"
Francis fast-forwarded with a flick of his wrist, and landed on the merman, this time seeming to be in a state of blissful unawareness on the surface with humans poking and prodding at him, and then Arthur saw them setting him up with a semen collector. He looked away out of politeness for his fellow magical creature as Francis turned it off. "He's alive, and they seem to be having fun with him for the moment. I'll keep an eye on the footage, but I think we have plenty of time for this mission timeline we scheduled to be executed as planned." Francis said.
"He's alive, and in two days, we're getting him out of there."
Arthur nodded firmly, and returned to preparing his magically enhanced sling, which required a lot of complex spells to work properly. Alistair had wound up finding them out a while back, and though he sighed dramatically at Arthur's refusal to protect themselves and let the creature die there, had agreed that the sea creature was very poor off and it made his heart- even more compassionate than Arthur's, though slightly more self-serving- bleed to see how the blue scales had dulled considerably at the three week mark of his captivity as the merman gorged himself mindlessly on food offered to him. They had been caught after 3 weeks, a personal record for Arthur in reference to keeping a secret from Alistair and his nosy personality.
But that aside- they had a lot of work to do still.
In the safety of their own home, Arthur and Alistair's wings shimmered brightly. There wasn't enough space to fly around, though, and it led to them being a bit weak. He loved flying, and missed it dearly.
Alistair's assistance was much welcomed and much needed. Their mother had once told Arthur that he was the more responsible of the band of brothers, but he and Alistair were the only ones left living in this town, and there was no doubting that Alistair was also the more physically endowed of the two.
"The most tricky part is going to be getting him out of the water." Arthur mused as he looked back at their travel case for the merman.
"Mmm." Alistair nodded his head, examining footage with Arthur since Francis had long since gone to bed. "Our wings are water proof, brother."
"Still, do you wish to immerse them?" Arthur pointed out, before Alistair gasped as they saw two humans coming into the room with the merman.
Alistair turned up audio, a bit hesitant since they didn't know if they wanted to hear this conversation. "-nestly, there were simply too many confounding variables for this experiment to have turned out. The only useful sample and data you have produced is its semen."
"The creature is still under my jurisdiction." The first scientist, nasally and generally unpleasant sounding argued. "Get your morbid hands out of my lab. I have another 31 days before the experiment is finished."
"It is rapidly losing muscle mass!" The other scientist pointed out. "And brain matter! We have never conducted an autopsy on an unaltered mer, and that is foolish of us- to think that we don't know their potential in the wild!"
"If you keep harassing me, I won't let you have the body, I'll get it transferred to some auction, and surely someone disgusting would love a quiet merman who obeys every order and enjoys sex." The first scientist gloated, and Arthur and Alistair felt sick as the second one left the room with an angry huff while the first finished writing things up.
"I should have never let them take him." Arthur muttered in disgust, rubbing his temples. "Humans are despicable."
"Uh, we knew this, Arthur." Francis rolled his eyes. "Surely you know, even now some of them think that "gender" and "race" are anything more than social constructs that some people benefit off of daily while others get fucked because of. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that they would do this to us, other species entirely, if they treat their closest relatives in the evolutionary tree this way."
Arthur sighed, staring at the merman in the tank through the footage. "I just hope we're not too late…"
XXXXX
The night of the operation was simple enough. The guards were late, and Alistair had disabled the outside camera from their home. They had decided to bring as few hands as possible. Francis would destroy the technological data to prevent people from tracing who had been watching them, while Arthur freed the merman from his cage.
Arthur and Francis opened the door with ease with gloved hands, since Alistair had disabled the locks for the time being. He got through, since the last guard out had left all the doors open inside the building for the late guards, just as he usually did.
Humans were so stupid, he thought to himself as he entered the chamber that he had watched for weeks on end.
The merman was at the bottom of his tank, eyes closed in what appeared to be slumber. Arthur had to flinch, though. Those lights were even brighter in person. They seemed to be focused from the outside in, reflecting at all times at the merman- likely so he couldn't see anything outside his tank.
Arthur turned them off and the room went dim, as the lights above became the only source of light in the room. The merman had flinched, and opened his eyes slowly, blearily gazing around, almost in confusion. Arthur began step 2- draining the tank of most of its water. The merman seemed to notice, but didn't react other than to open his mouth dully and stare upward. He blinked as his head emerged from the water, as though he'd not known that it was coming for him, before he lay down entirely, sinking into the roughly foot and a half of water that remained.
Arthur climbed into the tank. "Hello?" He said while still not in the water. "Can you hear me?"
There was no response, not even a twitch of movement. Arthur leaned to get a sample of the water, flying over the tank to stay out of reach if the merman did decide to be violent. He collected a bit more, before stuffing them into the outer pockets of his bag.
The merman stayed to his part of the tank, and Arthur eventually fluttered over to him, staring down at the merman's bleary blue eyes and dulled, occasionally bloody scales, before he gently reached in and gripped his right hand, lifting it out of the water for a response. His skin was cool, but his heart rate seemed strangely high for someone resting like this. Perhaps he was scared?
"Don't be frightened…" Arthur murmured gently to reassure him. "I'm sorry it's taken us so long. But we're getting you out of here."
The merman didn't react, so Arthur scooped up him along with a bunch of the water into his bag, sending the merman into a magically created limbo for ease of carrying. He flew out of the tank with his bag, and drained it all the way. Then, he went on to Francis, who was rapidly destroying everything in their databases.
He picked up the merman's intake sheet, interested. "Alfred." He read, quietly. "That's his name."
"You should keep those." Francis instructed, nodding as he finished by planting the virus in their system to destroy as much as they possibly could. "It could be useful. But we should go."
Arthur nodded, folding the papers neatly and placing them in his pocket before he threw the emptied clipboard into the tank. "Mission accomplished. Let's leave this wretched place."
The two ran, and they were out before the next set of guards ever arrived.
With slightly labored breaths and a brief smile on Arthur's part as they greeted Alistair at the door, the three of them looked to the magically enchanted suitcase, and brought him into their home.
XXXXX
First order of business was getting the water he had been in tested, while Arthur rinsed him off. Alfred didn't respond to them whatsoever, not speaking or even moving. Arthur knew he could- he'd seen him do it before on the tapes, after all- so it was slightly strange to simply have him unresponsively staring at them as he was washed of his old tank water, before he was set into the clean salt water tank, that had some more décor in it than the barren tank with a metal bed in the center of it. Arthur kept him to the surface of it, resting on a soft hammock so that he'd be easier to feed.
However, blue eyes were fully dilated, and he seemed not to have a care in the world about anything.
"Ugh. Despicable humans." Francis muttered, holding up the results of what had been in the water. "That's ketamine he's been on…it's simply been in the water with him. No wonder he's so unresponsive. He's been taking it from every orifice."
Arthur decided to look over his lab sheets, and frowned. "It appears to be that he was originally being held for other experiments, but their medicating him made him useless for it. They did collect a fair amount of semen, though. The merman apparently was "milked" 3 times a day." He made a face. "Why are humans so disgusting, Francis?"
"I truly wish I knew why, Arthur." The two looked into the tank for a moment, before his friend spoke again. "…I think he might be blind, my friend." Francis said, after a while of staring at the merman's unresponsive form.
"We don't know that." Arthur disagreed, but it was weak. Alfred had indeed seemed not to be able to see anything, but what an awful, permanent side effect of Arthur's inability to act when he had been captured and his later cowardice in not saving him sooner.
"The lights were bright- and you attested to that yourself when you said that they were all directed at him, to prevent him from seeing what was going on outside the tank."
"Yes." He nodded, not really wanting blindness to be the outcome for this young merman they had worked so hard to save. "But…"
"But, merfolk have rather sensitive eyes. They might have damaged his with the lighting of the tank." Francis explained coolly. "Ketamine is a shorter acting drug. He should begin to experience withdrawal in about 12 hours, maybe a bit longer, maybe a little sooner. The sedative effects should wear off shortly, though, but I have no idea how long he's been exposed and research tells me almost nothing about it." He admitted, sighing.
"I'll keep an eye on him, then." Arthur resigned himself, fluttering to the top of the tank and sitting on the edge, where their merman had seemed to fall asleep in the hammock.
"Alright. I'm going to go see Alistair and the rest, Arthur. Just call me if you wish for me to bring him something to eat."
Footsteps told Arthur that he was alone with the merman, and he sighed. "Whenever you wake up…well, actually… if, you wake up…you are going to have a long time before you recover, if you recover. I'm so terribly sorry that it took us so long to get you out of that place… but you're free now. So there is that."
The merman had shifted, and he was clearly sleeping, looking relatively peaceful, his breathing easy as Arthur mostly talked to himself, to try and convince himself that this thing he did for this boy was good, and that this meant they were both safe, rather than both imprisoned in that…horrific place. That he hadn't taken too long, valuing his own safety above this boys life.
After a second longer, Arthur chose to lay down next to him with his hand in the water, gently stroking the cool skin in an effort to soothe him and apologize for not helping him sooner.
XXXXX
He awoke with a sharp bite on his hand and a splash of water landing on his face.
"Ack!" He shouted as he sat up quickly, and pulled his hand into his body, looking down at the bloody tooth marks on it. The merman had figured out how to get out of the hammock, and had obviously dived into the plants and leaves that Arthur and Francis had meticulously arranged for him to hide in.
"Ouch! That hurt!" The faerie shouted to no one in particular as he winced, putting pressure down on his bleeding hand. He didn't get a response, and he sighed. "Well, hello to you too. Is that really any way to thank the person who got you out of that shithole?" Arthur pointed out, before he fluttered down and away to get a bandage for his hand.
There was no response, but Arthur eventually saw the merman's head poking out, blindly feeling around the enclosure, hands first. "I assume you can hear me?"
The merman's face, with wide blue eyes, turned to where Arthur was speaking, and hissed dramatically, his shark-like teeth shown to frighten Arthur, as he backed into the tank's foliage once more.
"But you can't see." Arthur eventually said, slowly. "My name's Arthur, Alfred…I got you out of that place."
No response.
"I'm a faerie. Another person impacted by the anti-mythical creature laws. I saw you when you were taken, and I helped you escape. This is my home. You're safe now. Your body is going to go through withdrawal, and I need to watch you, okay? Can you please come out?"
Nothing.
"Do you want something to eat?"
The silence that greeted him made him sigh one again, more dramatically. His mouth was apparently sealed. Arthur knew that the merman could talk, but he wouldn't force it.
"Alright. You're obviously a bit disoriented. That's fine." He resigned himself to the silence. "You're going to feel a bit sick in a few hours, if you're not already feeling sick- but it's the withdrawal from the shit they had you on. Don't be shy to say something if you need help."
There was another hiss, and Arthur jumped briefly in a combination of shock and fright at the unexpected aggression, before he sat down to get his work done.
XXXXX
A few hours later and there were groans of pain coming from the tank, clearly the withdrawal coming to attack Alfred, but every time Arthur had tried to fish him out, the merman had reacted intensely negatively writhing and hissing and snapping his maw to remind Arthur that he didn't want help.
Francis had come in, and the two of them stared at the tank quietly, attempting to problem solve. They needed to talk with the merman, but he was simply refusing and it was potentially dangerous of them to force it.
The snapping teeth truly were the dangerous piece. Arthur's bandaged arm was a testament to it.
"Alfred?" He murmured, seeing a broken face as the merman floated blindly in the water. He tapped on the tank, and the creature flinched. "We don't want to hurt you. But you're hurting yourself. Please, let us look you over- we can help you… We want to help you."
"Can…." His voice was hoarse. "Can you…" He coughed and hacked, looking positively green and sickly. "Prove…. that you're… a…ff….ffff…not human?" The merman seemed unable to form the sound, and his words were slow, the sound slurred.
"Of course." He flittered up to the surface, gently sitting on the edge, his back in the water. "Swim to the surface, you can feel my wings." Arthur gently dipped his delicate green wings in the water, fluttering them slightly as the water was cold. He didn't watch as the merman slowly rose to the surface, hands first. Cold hands gripped his wings, making Arthur shiver and pull back the wings automatically. "Be gentle! Those are breakable!" He pointed out, before he tentatively set them back into the water.
This times, the hands were equally tentative, gently rubbing the edges and then following them to his back, where he felt the connection to his skin and Arthur's wings fluttered anxiously, the faerie not really liking being touched there.
The hands pulled away, and Arthur felt the merman's grip rest on his shirt, holding the merman at the surface. "Can I touch you?" Arthur eventually asked, and the grip tightened on his clothing. "I need to pull you out so that we can examine you. And when we're done, we will put you back in if that's what you want."
There were no words, but as Arthur took a look at him, Alfred nodded.
"Francis, can you help me?" Alfred tensed, but Arthur hushed him gently. "Don't panic, you're just a bit too heavy for me to carry. He's the doctor, he's the one who'll look at you."
Arthur slowly pulled him out of the water, the merman's blue eyes partially glazed over and his body shaking periodically, however, as he was pulled out, he gripped Arthur tighter, first the bottom edge of his shirt, and then he adjusted his grip to be in the middle of his chest.
"Nngh…" Alfred groaned as he was lifted out of the water, gripping Arthur hard and desperately. He absently noticed that the man's fingers were webbed, and he lacked fingernails, at around the same time he noticed that the poor creature was even worse off than he had let on.
Once he was out of the water, Arthur and Francis flew carefully to the table, gently setting him down on it, finally able to see the merman in all his glory- if they could call it that. His tail was long, so long that it flopped off the table, and patches of scales had come off, undoubtedly from the chafing of the collection tools against his body. It looked, however, to be painful to touch, and Alfred looked incredibly uncomfortable. Arthur fluttered over to the tank, dipping a blanket in water, before he came back over, and gently wrapped the top part of his tail with it.
The merman looked slightly more comfortable, and Arthur gently squeezed his hand. "I'm so sorry." He murmured. "What they did to you was unacceptable. They're simply…animals."
Alfred didn't answer, and Francis' gentle hands were met with flinches at first, the merman uncertain if he could trust him, but he slowly relaxed. "…Can you… heat…?" He shivered, his voice distorted.
"Are you cold?" Arthur asked, and the merman nodded quickly, Alfred's voice betraying him with feeble noises that were quickly growing into whimpers. He shifted, before casting a spell that would warm the merman from within.
Francis briefly gave him an odd look, but Alfred's shivers stopped, and things continued quietly.
That was, of course, when Alfred started to tense up, his eyes rolled back into his head and he began to seize violently. "God." Arthur muttered as he and Francis helped the young man to the floor, to prevent him from falling off the table. "They did this to him knowing he would suffer for it."
"They did this to him with the plan to kill him, Arthur." Francis corrected as he gently held down the tail, and Alfred kept Alfred's head in his lap until the motions stopped, and he seemed to have passed out.
"W'ssat…?" Alfred asked them, weakly, looking about ready to pass out. "Happen' in thngn…"
"It's a seizure, Alfred." Arthur explained, stroking his hair as they rode out his remaining tremors, and once Alfred had stopped entirely, Francis and Arthur put him back on the table. "Did you hurt yourself?"
The merman seemed dazed for a moment longer, before he nodded. "S' weird… dun' like…" He slurred, before his breathing evened out and he seemed to be dozing.
Arthur sighed, his wings flittering anxiously, betraying his mood. "They had mentioned on the tapes that…you know. That he was losing brain matter."
"And muscle mass." Francis agreed grimly. "However, we don't know what that means yet. For now, we will simply watch him. Don't forget, he's riding out the withdrawal symptoms. He has been drugged nearly constantly for 2 months. This will be a rough patch for him- and we knew that going in. But he is alive. Thanks to you."
Arthur sat down next to Alfred, and the merman shivered a bit. The spell had worn off, since Arthur's magic had been directed elsewhere. "Do fish need heaters?" He asked, eventually stumped. "I know next to nothing about caring for merfolk!"
"It might be that it's an after effect of their treatment? It could have harmed his ability to regulate his internal temperature? I know that can happen to humans." Francis suggested with a raised eyebrow for his outburst. "If so, it might be good to heat the water a bit."
Alfred's head rolled to the side in his sleep, and Arthur looked down at him quietly, simply observing. He gently pushed his wet blonde hair out of his face, and smiled down when he noticed the dull blue eyes staring at him. There was no response, and the smile went away once he remembered that the merman was blind now.
"…Can't see." He mumbled, frightened as he stared sightlessly, and Arthur watched helplessly as the merman began to whimper and curl in on himself.
"Shhh…" He hushed, making the merman jerk suddenly and gasp, before breathing out a sigh of relief. "I've not left you alone, Alfred." The merman simply curled up, and Arthur figured he'd explain. "It was the lights that did it to you, we think." Arthur explained quietly, taking the merman's shaking hand and gripping it. "Shhh…it's okay. It's okay. It's probably scary, but it's okay."
The merman nodded jerkily, letting Arthur's words wash over him. "Don' leave…" He begged in a broken whisper, hanging onto the offered hand in desperation. "Don' wanna be alone…"
Arthur tensed at first, the merman having gripped the hand he had bitten only 5 or 6 hours before, but then he jumped up to the table, and sat down by his head, lifting it before he shifted over slightly, and rested Alfred's head in his lap. "I'm here, Alfred. I've not left you alone…I promise, love."
He shivered, and Arthur warmed his body once more with a thoughtless spell. "Just keep pushing… the withdrawal will have to end sometime, and then you'll feel much better. Keep your chin up!" He tried to be positive, even as the merman stared sightlessly, hopelessly, up to where his face was in space.
"Why d'they…?" Alfred slurred after a moment, his blue eyes gathering tears as his face crumpled into sadness, and his broken sobs stabbed through Arthur with guilt.
"I wish I could tell you, love." He whispered gently, wiping his tears and trying to comfort him. "I wish I could tell you."