She was a wonder.

Peter had never been as speechless as when he saw her fully awake staring directly at him. He didn't want to break eye contact, for fear that they would never regain it. Her captivity now was much different than it was before. This felt more grounded and less dreamlike. He felt like he was actually in control of how he interacted with her. It had to be her voice that kept him under the surreal trance.

Mr. Stark looked uneasy and frustrated. He had been observing her for a much longer period of time and had no success in effectively communicating with her. Peter kept quiet, allowing his mentor to deliberate more possibilities.

"I have no idea. I tried talking slower, louder, with more diction. I spoke in Japanese, French, and Russian, but none of them seemed to register. I have no idea," Mr. Stark rubbed his eyes and continued to repeat "I have no idea" until it led him out the door. If Peter had anything to contribute he would have, but he was just as stumped. If Tony Stark couldn't figure it out, who would?

He watched Tony as he left, then returned to the mermaid's eyes. Not really thinking much of it, he reached out his hand and placed it on her glass encasement. She mirrored him. He didn't know how to explain it, but he somehow felt connected to her; there was an energy that laid between their hands, unlike anything he had felt before. Even when her hypnotic voice was stolen from her, he had a persistent fascination with everything that she was. Maybe it was the scientist in him; he was always curious and always asking questions. Though this energy, the tingling in the palm of his hand, couldn't be narrowed down to just curiosity.

boreíte na me akoúsete epeidí eíste diaforetikoí

The voice was in his head, but it didn't sound like his own. Startled, he jumped back a few feet, his entire person shaking with anxiety. It was a female voice speaking in a harsh whisper, and it had been inside his head. He looked at her, noticing that her eyes were filled with concern. She was looking at his hand, which was an obvious hint as to how he was feeling. He stared too, it was quivering uncontrollably.

It was her. She spoke to him through his brain. But how?

The language was recognizable. It existed. He repeated the words he remembered silently, honing in the skills he had gained from spelling bees. He had never been a champion, but he still knew how to recognize the origin of a word. If he could identify the origin, then maybe they could use that to help identify if the language was unique or if it was human.

Greek!

Not only was the origin Greek, if he was correct, the language itself was Greek too.

"Greek! It's Greek! I think you were speaking Greek!" he laughed, pulling his phone from his pocket. Pulling up Google Translate, he typed and retyped a few words. He wanted his first words to her to be clear and understandable. He settled on the phrase "You are Greek." A declarative sentence that he purposefully eliminated the contraction from. Google Translate was always a shot in the dark with its accuracy, so using a contraction would not be smart. While he didn't know much about her, either, he did know that she lived in the ocean for all of her life. Her use of language had to be vastly different than his. When the website presented the Greek translation, he hit the audio, knowing he would botch the pronunciation.

"Eísai Éllinas," it said. When he looked to her for a response, he saw her face light up with obvious excitement. He had finally reached her.

"Mr. Stark!" he yelled, laughing some more, "Mr. Stark I got through! I got through to her!"

Mr. Stark had been standing right outside of his lab, pacing back and forth. The sound of Peter's eager yells, he turned, looking skeptical. Peter waved him in with gleeful animation.

"Mr. Stark, she's Greek. She spoke Greek to me. So I used the audio on Google Translate, and she heard it. She understood," he explained, pointing to his phone and to her. The other man had his arms crossed, but deep down there was a belief that Peter saw.

"How did she speak? Did the device not work?" Mr. Stark knew that the device worked, he was quizzing Peter on how he came to the conclusion.
"It's weird. Complicated. But I promise it worked. Look at her," Peter didn't want Mr. Stark to think she was controlling his mind, because she definitely wasn't. She had simply told him something in Greek that he just didn't understand yet. All she wanted to do was speak with him.

"We need her to explain what she is and where she came from," Mr. Stark's voice was heavy with exhaustion. He'd been up since four in the morning, possibly earlier. They looked at each other, knowing they should carefully determine how to phrase their sentence.

"Would you like to explain-"

"No. Tell."

"Okay. Would you like to tell me-"

"Us."

"Would you like to tell us…."

Mr. Stark was chewing on the inside of his cheek, "Would you like to tell us who you are."

They nodded at each other, and Peter hit the audio button.

She nodded back at them, tapping on the device keeping her from speaking. Peter could feel Mr. Stark tensing next to him. Taking off what was keeping them fully aware was the last thing that he wanted to do.

"We can't do that."

Peter exhaled, "Mr. Stark I know that-"

"Peter."

He knew that the myth in front of them had no intention to hurt them, but he didn't know how he knew that. Some feeling, an instinct was aching to help her. For a split second, he feared that she somehow had her control on him, but the haze was simply not there. He had experienced the stupor and this was not it. If she had ill intention they would have been dead back when they first encountered her.

She was more afraid than both of them combined. He wished he could articulate to Mr. Stark how simple this all was, but that was definitely impossible.

"We have to," he whispered, staring at the floor. He felt Mr. Stark's gaze on him and heard him sigh and walk towards the tank. The creature met him at the top, hoisting herself over the edge where Mr. Stark unfastened his device with a screwdriver. The fact that the man had developed it in under 20 minutes was astounding, but that was just a great word to describe the mind of Tony Stark. He repeatedly did was no other man could do, and Peter admired that. He had admired that for a long time.

When she fell back into the water, the tension that she had been carrying in her shoulders and jaw noticeably released. Her hands lingered on her lips and brushed over her neck, remembering now that she had the ability to use them. Looking up at them, she focused her eyes on Peter and started to sing.

He knew he was not in a trance, but she showed them a vision through the power of her voice.

A long time ago, from the sea foam on the coast of the island where I was born, my people arose. The first seiren swam, lonely in the sea until she discovered that whatever had created her gave her the gift of reproduction. She did not need a male to reproduce, she was fully capable of doing it all on her own.

They remained isolated and content for a long time. No one disturbed them. No one disturbed them until man invaded the sea. The seiren set very clear boundaries for themselves. We have our coordinates memorized. The law became that if any man crossed the border, they would be ended. That is when the trance began. Whoever created them gave them a power that no regular mortal could behold. Songspeak is what they call it. Their greatest and most deadly weapon. For centuries they lure anyone who trespasses into the depths of the ocean to never be seen again.

For centuries they remained undetected. Until now.

Peter had no idea how the words were forming in his head. She was not speaking them from her mouth, and he knew she didn't know English. It had to be a part of her gift. On some level, they were in her spell, but just barely enough so that they knew what she was saying. He blinked a couple times after she finished, his eyes dry from keeping them open for too long. When he looked over at Mr. Stark, the man was completely flabbergasted. It was his first time experiencing anything the seiren was capable of, and he it was obvious he was still trying to process it.

"How did we…how did we hear that," Mr. Stark was growing pale. They both looked at her, swimming and humming to herself.

"I don't think we'll ever know," Peter had shuffled through various scientific explanations, but all had come up short. There was always a place where he went wrong and his theory was debunked.

"I'll figure it out. I think it's time for you to go."
Peter was taken aback, "What? But Mr. Stark-"

"I probably have to speak with someone in government about this. Goddamnit they're going to want to meddle with her. Fuck," Mr. Stark was no longer speaking to Peter but to himself.

"Mr. Stark!"

"What, Peter?" his mentor looked wildly frustrated. This was way over both of their heads, and it was starting to show.

If Peter was honest, he absolutely did not want to leave. He had felt her fear dissipate when he entered the room, and it wasn't a coincidence. She felt safer with him, and he wanted her to feel relaxed if she could.

From this impression, Peter had trouble finding anything evil in her intentions. It was difficult for him to come to that conclusion, as she herself had said that they killed any man that invaded their territory. On the other hand, she had consistently referred to her own species as separate entities. It sounded like she didn't identify with them at all.

"I helped discover her too," he murmured, knowing that Mr. Stark either wouldn't hear or would kick him out nonetheless.

"I'm going to take a nap. Try to. Keep an eye on her. Any sign of getting hypnotized you stick that thing on her mouth," Mr. Stark rubbed his eyes, yawned, and made his exit.

They were alone.

Peter couldn't help but feel surprised at all the leeway he was receiving. This had been the second time today that Mr. Stark had given in to his pleas, but he was also extremely overtired.

Mr. Stark had brought up an important factor going into the situation they had been given. At some point, they were going to have to tell the UN that the reason that the ships had gone missing was due to a mermaid species destroying them. All the people on those ships are dead. It might be a good idea to change the trade routes.

He looked at her, feeling like he was actually allowed to for the first time since arriving. Her chest was bare, which would usually be a cause for him to be uncomfortable, but her hair was so thick and long that it tended to be covering her up for the most part. He knew that he shouldn't feel shy of it; it was merely a fact of life, but it was still something he wasn't particularly used to seeing. He kept his eyes on her face, studying her features.

She was so effortlessly beautiful. Even when he was free of her voice, he knew that. Her eyes were wide and inquisitive. Her lips were slightly open and had the perfect shape. She had high cheekbones and a sharp jaw. He knew he had never seen anyone as ethereal as she.

He sighed, sitting down in the chair that he assumed Mr. Stark had fallen asleep in and stared at her a while longer. She stared right back.

He decided he wanted to go out on a limb. If he could teach her one thing, he would try and teach her who he was. He approached the tank slowly, not wanting to startle her. She noticed this change and returned her hand to the wall, her urgent eyes asking him to do the same. He pressed his hand against hers once again, wanting to confirm that the smallest bit of energy he had felt wasn't all in his imagination.

"Peter," he said, pointing to his chest. "My name is Peter."

Her eyes looked as if they were processing the information, or that was just what Peter wanted to see. Now that he had time to look into them, he saw that they were a silvery gray.

"Peter," he said it slowly this time, this time pulling his hand from the glass to make sure she saw where he was pointing.

She swam to the top, Peter's head following her movements. He wanted to trust her, so he tried not to relay the fact that his heart had started racing and his palms were sweating. She hoisted herself over the edge, allowing the entirety of her torso to bend over the edge. She was bent halfway, and with Peter looking straight up, their faces were barely touching.

She rested a hand on the side of his face. It startled him slightly that her hand was cold and slimy. For a second, Peter lost focus, considering why this would be. The quickest conclusion he could come to was the slime came from a mucous layer that helped keep her skin and tail moisturized. While it sounded slightly odious, it made sense.

Blinking hard, he re-engaged himself with the moment, her eyes boring into his. He felt the weight of his cheek against her hand and acknowledged that everything in his sight was clear. He was not under any sort of spell; if that had been so, everything would have been hazy. He enjoyed the feeling of her touch. While it was initially unsettling, now it was comforting.

"Pete…." she was testing out the sound of her own speaking voice. The accent wasn't Greek, she sounded as if she had never spoken a word in her life, "Er."

He laughed, joyfully, "Peter. That's my name! Peter!"

"Pete...Er."

"You got it! That's right!"

"Peter."