With feigned reluctance and a sparkly new set of lab keys, Soul spends his lunch breaks up to his elbows in tank water. Usually Ox hovers nearby, to Maka's apparent displeasure. She keeps sending huge waves at him with her tail, dousing Ox in water. Ox takes twenty minutes to dry himself and his thick glasses off, giving Soul and Maka get a chance to spend some quiet time together. Soul wonders if Ox as gotten the hint yet, but much like Ox's constant rejections from Kim, he seems to be missing it or ignoring it.
"He really wants answers," Soul muses after the third time in an afternoon Maka soaks Ox. "What is he even asking you?"
Soul's tried to avoid asking her anything, not wanting to add to her stress, but he's painfully curious. He half expects her to shy away to try drown him, too. But she huffs out a breath and says "Who I am, where I am from, h-how I ended up in the t-tub."
"Who I am, where I am from, h-how I ended up in the t-tub." She turns green for a second and dips back under the water, her eyes closed. Her hair flows around her in the water, golden and light, as Soul seethes, pissed at the asshole who took Maka from her home and stuck her, the beautiful, elegant creature that she was, in a shitty bathroom in the worst part of town.
When Maka pops up again, she's still green but laces her fingers through Soul's. She rests her chin on the lip of the tank, her tiny mouth set in a pout. "I don't want to think about it anymore," she says, squeezing her eyes shut.
Soul squeezes her hands back, just as tight: A silent reminder of his promise to help her escape.
Back in his office, Soul's desk is littered with maps and blueprints. He pours over them when he should be filling out paperwork, mapping out the quickest exits out of the Bureau. As far as he knows, their options of limited; most of the exits are laden with security cameras or guards, and those that aren't are sewer related. He cringes at the thought of dragging Maka through toxic sludge, having avoided it once, but he needs to do whatever it takes to get her home.
Even if it isn't with him anymore.
Soul has the final plan in place, the wheelchair hidden in a nearby janitors closet, and flashlights hidden in vents along his chosen route. He and Maka just have to be patient, and wait for the right moment.
But then Soul walks into the lab nearly trips over his own feet. He finds Ox knocking on Maka's tank harshly, the sound echoing in the small lab. "We found you and saved you, but we might not find the others."
Maka tucks herself into the corner of the tank, her hands plastered over her ears, glaring daggers at Ox.
"How many others didn't we manage to find? How many are buried in unmarked graves who the hell knows where. You have to tell us, Maka. You can help save them."
"Stop," Soul hissed. He grabs Ox by the back of his labcoat and yanks him back. Ox shrugs off his coat, making Soul stumble back with a pile of white fabric in his hands.
"Who else has to die?" Ox insists. "Have your friends gone missing before? Are there rumors, stories about a man who takes mermaids and never brings them back?"
Maka's lips tremble and her eyes squeeze shut. She tries to press herself further into the glass walls of the tank, but there's no where for her to hide.
Ox barrels on. "You're not going to help us, your people? You're not even going to try?"
"Shut up," Soul says quietly. He stares at Maka, her fists pressed into her closed eyes. She's in distress, and Soul needs to stop it. He needs to save her. She's an innocent.
"How selfish are you?" Ox bangs on the tank again. Maka flinches with each pound of his fist. "You won't help save more? You're just going to let him kill again?"
"I said shut up," Soul snarled, gripping Ox's shoulder tightly and wrenching him away from Maka. He shoves Ox across the room, anger radiating off of him.
Maka unleashes a silent scream, bubbles rushing from her mouth. She shoots up to the surface in a rush of waves and gasps for breath as tears stream down her face, the salty trails barely discernible from her wet face. Maka struggles to the opposite rim of her tank, turning her away from them.
Away from Soul.
Ox clicks his tongue disgustedly.
"At least we found out one thing," Ox says, taking his notebook out of his pocket and writing something down.
"What?" Soul asked, clenching his fists.
Ox taps his pen against the plastic rims of his square glasses. "Mermaids can cry."
"You're a dick," Soul says flatly.
"I'm a researcher," Ox shrugs. "And I'm going to research how to save more mermaids' lives. Not just this one."
"You think we're done saving her?" Soul asks, livid. "We have to give her back!"
Ox rolls his eyes. "Give her back to what?" he says tiredly. "We don't know anything about her. Or her captor. You know, he might not have been at fault at all."
Soul stalks away from Ox. "You don't know what you're talking about." Maka would never choose to stay in a bathtub. She had been trapped there by an evil, deranged man. Why was Ox pretending that Maka was anything less than a victim?
"There are legends, Soul," Ox calls to him. "Legends of mermaids tricking men into following them into the ocean. To drown them and eat their flesh."
Maka gags from her side of the tank, still not looking at either of them.
"No," Soul says firmly. "Maka's not a killer." He scales the ladder and reaches for her, still clinging to the opposite side of the tank, heaving and trying to catch her breath. "Maka," he whispers.
It's impossible for someone who has giant, glittery, innocent eyes to be a killer. He'd see it, she couldn't hide it from him. She wouldn't even try.
"Be careful." Something in Ox's voice makes Soul turn around. It sounds oddly like concern. "She's pretty, but the literature surrounding mermaids isn't."
Soul scoffs, but seeds of doubt dig themselves into his mind. He wants to respect Maka's privacy, seeing as how she was the victim of a terrible crime, but what if she's actually hiding something serious from him? What if she was somehow involved in getting herself stuck in the tub?
Maka inches over to him, calmer but her eyes are still streaming. "He's horrible," she whimpers.
Soul hesitates. "Is he right, though?"
Maka blinks tears out of her eyes. For the first time, Soul notices a double set of eyelids: One normal, human like set, and a secondary, clear set. He makes a mental note to tell Ox about it later.
What else has she been hiding?
His resolve melts as she looks at him like a kicked puppy.
"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Maka hisses. "I didn't want- No one would want- I was trying to save-"
She can't finish because she's gasping for air again. Soul grasps her hand and she nearly breaks his fingers with the pressure she puts on him. She pulls him closer, sinking down in the water so that it is up to her chin, and Soul has to partially lean over the edge of the tank. Her lips are by his ear; as she speaks, her warm breath washes over his cheek.
Maka takes a few deep breaths and speaks slowly, in a low voice. It resonates in his ear, quiet but strong.
"H-he takes one of us every few years. Always at night, always the smallest."
Soul's shoulders stiffen. Always one that would fit in a tub.
"We used to think it was just what happened," Maka continued, her grip on his hand growing tighter with each word. "Ever since my mother was a little girl. We would fall asleep and our young would go missing. The little ones were the most vulnerable to seals and sometimes sharks so we would mourn them like so. But seals and sharks leave… evidence. The elders began to grow suspicious. By the time I was born, they knew."
She leans her forehead against his cheek. "He takes our children, our little girls."
Soul fights the nausea as he wraps his arm around her shoulders, ignoring the water soaking his sleeve, sick at the psycho that hurt all little mermaids, sick at his own doubt. He strokes her back in silent apology, mindful of the still raw scales growing from her spine.
"One night, I think it was weeks, maybe a month ago," she starts to breath hard again. "I lost track in the… tub."
"You don't have to-"
"No," Maka says, leaning back to look at him straight on. Her eyes are still wet but she doesn't waver. Her voice is as strong as her grip as her places her hand on his shoulder, steadying herself, and him. "You're going to find him and I'm going to help. No more girls."
He swore to do whatever it took to help her, and now what it took was to shut up and listen. So he does, with a reassuring hand over hers.
"Every year, at night, he comes to our shore. We keep our young in the middle of the squad, but somehow he lured us to sleep, a deeper sleep. Sentries, guards, mothers; all of us. The air was so heavy, it was hard to breath. I don't know how, but I managed to keep my eyes open. I could barely move," Maka added thoughtfully. "And the air was green."
Some kind of gas, Soul thinks.
"He took his time, looking over the group. We had a lot of little ones this year, he must have had a hard time choosing. He finally picked one up, one with black scales and pale skin, but he had taken too long. He stepped over me as he left and I couldn't help it, I needed to help. So I grabbed his leg and bit it as hard as I could. He dropped the little one and she began to cry. My head got clearer and the others started to stir. I think he panicked; it had never happened before. He grabbed me and rushed to the boat. That's the last thing I remember before the tub."
She cocks her head, furrowing blonde eyebrows. "He was lighting candles when I woke up. All different kinds-"
"How do mermaids know about candles?" Soul interrupts.
Maka stares at him with ire.
"The same way we know about bathtubs," she says poking him hard on the shoulder. Maka takes a deep breath, drifting back pensively. "The smell was so strong, it made me light headed. It was hard to concentrate. He would come in once a day, I think, and give me food. Raw salmon, usually," she adds, wrinkling her nose.
"Shame," Soul deadpans. "I really like sushi."
"I prefer oysters," Maka says with a smile. Releasing Soul with a sigh, she sinks back into the water. He takes it as a dismissal; she's talked herself out and he wants to respect her space.
Soul hops off of the ladder and strides towards Ox who's vibrating with excitement.
"We're looking for a shore, somewhere secluded, only accessible by small boat, and probably warm. Fascinating. Make sure she eats something," Ox adds, scribbling so furiously in his notebook it's almost smoking. "We can order oysters from a local- owfuck!"
Soul has snatched Ox's notebook and smacked him with it. "You're fucked up," Soul says. "You're an asshole," smack "and if Maka tries to kill you," smack "I won't try and stop her."
Soul drops the notebook and shoves his hands into his pockets. He walks to Maka's tank and just manages not to kick in in frustration.
She swims up to him with a sad smile, pausing to glare at Ox over his shoulder. Soul can hear Ox grumbling about setting a timer, clocking how long Maka can stay underwater.
Soul mutters obscenities and shifts to block Maka from Ox's view. It's definitely time to get her the hell out of there. She's been through enough, first in the horrendous conditions in the tub, and now in the lab. Maka had people, maybe even a family. Soul had promised to help, and he was going to make good on that promise.
Tonight, he mouths to Maka. Her eyes illuminate the dim room and she does a happy backflip out of the water, the resulting splash soaking him and Ox. The researcher groans and starts stripping his white cloak off, while Soul ignores his wet clothes and simply presses a hand against the glass of the tank. Maka copies him, her hand dwarfed compared to his.
Tonight.