𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃, steve rogers

32. TRUE PAIN

2016 | AVENGERS COMPOUND — Natasha landed the Quinjet as fast as she could on a safe platform and followed them into the compound. Steve was up front, carrying Ariel in his arms, rushing down the halls with pure adrenaline. Poor girl, thought she was going to die, drop dead right on the spot. The noise inside her head was pure torture. Her throat was burning, her head was pounding and she was struggling for oxygen.

She was screaming uncontrollably, each scream that left her throat was like a sharp stab with a knife in Steve's ears, but he ran and ran, not once stoping for the direction to the lab.

The doors open, revealing Tony, frozen at the scene that played out before him. "PUT HER ON THE TABLE." He yelled, barely recognizing the young woman in Steve's arms. Her lips were bluish, almost purple. The fiery red hair faded into a grayish-orange color.

When Steve carefully laid Ariel down on the cold lab table, almost everyone in the room was startled. Tony brushed strands of her hair out of the way and glanced at her neck, revealing gills. His eyes widened, but Natasha couldn't help but let out a gasp. Those gills looked like they had been carved into her flesh with a blade, the backs of her hands were covered with shiny blue scales and her skin was freezing cold. At this point she looked more fish than human.

She was screaming again. "Hold her down!" Tony instructed Steve and Natasha, holding the girl down with all their strength.They thought they could handle it, but next was a short scream that echoed through the lab and burst several test-tubes. There was blood coming out of Natasha's and Tony's ears, but they didn't give up either. "Hold her still." He commanded as he turned, syringe in hand, and carefully grabbed her chin, fingers instantly trembling at the cool contact.

"Woaaah... what the hell is that?!" Natasha asked in concern.

"Salt water." Tony replied, before pointing to a screen in his lab, where a scan of Ariel's body was depicted. Her body temperature was at twenty-one degrees. "I'm afraid Hydra has gotten her addicted to that nasty stuff, if she already has too much of those fish-genes or whatever in her system, she needs it to keep her body going. It will calm her down I believe."

"But what if it kills her?!" Steve protested, before Tony could even explain any further, but they were loosing more and more time. Ariel let out a scream again, shaking and twitching uncontrollably in pain. „STEVE, HELP ME HOLD HER DOWN!" Natasha demanded, forcing Steve to hold Ariel down. One second later, Tony grabbed her chin and pushed it aside, gripping the syringe tightly in his other hand and pierced the needle into the side of her throat. He pushed down the salt water, forced to listen to the poor girls wailing, hoping this all will work out somehow.

As soon as he pulled the syringe out again, one final scream escaped her lungs as she sat up. The sound waves shook the whole laboratory and shattered all the window panes, the glass flew towards the four. And while Tony and Nat turned and huddled, Steve leaned over Ariel to keep her safe from any of the glass shards.

As soon as the long scream stopped, Steve opened his eyes again, he saw Tony and Natasha still in a hunched position on the floor. Despite the shock in their eyes, the two slowly sat back up and approached her. After that, Steve's eyes fell back to Ariel below him, his hand still gently holding her head.  There were tiny remnants of the glass shards on her face, which he carefully brushed away with his thumb.

"No..." he murmured, noticing that her eyes still wouldn't open. "Ariel..." he sighed a little louder, hoping she would finally open her eyes. His two warm hands always held her cold face and he tried to wake her up somehow. "Ariel?" he called her name again, gently stroking her head. "Ariel, come on." He begged her, helplessly looking up at the others. "No, no, no... come on Ariel, wake up!" His voice was filled with worry. "Come on wake up! Can you hear me? Ariel..." He didn't give up hope. He was sure that any second her blue eyes would open again and look into his. "Ariel open your eyes ... come on ... come on, listen to me Ariel." Again and again he tried to wake her up with gentle tugs. His words just had to bring her back. "Please show me your eyes." he sighed. "Hey, you need to open your eyes." He forced a laugh, trying not to lose hope.

"Please come back to me..." He finally exhaled before Tony put a hand on his shoulder. Steve, who was still waiting for an answer even after several minutes, turned his gaze from Ariel toTony, but he was shaking his head. Steve stared at him in disbelief. No this can't be it, he thought. But he was even more devastated once he saw the little tears forming in Natasha's eyes.

They say you don't know true pain until you beg for the life of the person who is the reason you keep living... and Steve Rogers, just lost a part that had kept him alive. Yet again, he lost someone. And maybe it was naive of him, but when she saved him a few months ago, when she pulled him out of the water – he believed it was fate they had met. It wasn't the first time he almost drowned, third time to be exact, but this time something was different. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern. This time he not only survived, but he wanted to live and find out what had saved him. Mermaids were usually drowning men, not saving them. Seeing her like this after everything that had happened, he felt himself drowning once again...