“Where the fuck is Arria,” Carter ground out, using his arms to try to support himself and look more bold than what he actually was. He honestly looked kinda pathetic, barely able to right himself, and behind the anger in his eyes was complete and utter terror. Carter didn’t quite notice the gun yet. “I swear to gosh darn diddly fuck I just wanted one fucking day to be happy and safe,” He muttered angrily, trying and failing to push away his growing fears. His fears that this time he was too late, that this time something irreversibly bad could’ve happened while he was asleep.
“I’m sorry I don’t know who Arria is,” Jackson held his hands up in surrender, making a small motion with his hand for Jenny to lower the gun, which she did, “But if I take a calculated guess, he’s the sea demon Maria’s been looking for? The…” He paused, knowing his next words were going to be taken very badly, “The one her men took away on their boat about twenty minutes ago.”
Carter’s blood ran cold. He heaved himself off the stranger, “Where am I? Where did they go?” He demanded, trying to move to a better position but failing miserably—his arm slipping which leg him to fall flat on his chest. He needed to stop her, he needed to get to Arria. Right now, before he couldn’t fix things. His angry wall was slowly crumbling away to reveal a panicked, scared man. A man whose world was steadily falling apart again.
Jackson sat up himself, moving to offer a hand to Carter to help him up, “They went down the coast line. I’m sorry they’re probably long gone by now, you won’t find whoever this Arria is,” He sighed, “As for where you are, well, you’re at my base, Riot’s, base.”
Carter tried to right himself on his own first, and with another failure he looked at the stranger’s hand suspiciously. He cautiously took it, getting into a sitting position—or at least, the closest thing to it that he could get with the tail in the way. He glanced at Jenny, then back to Jackson, “Who are you?” He whispered, his voice wavering a little. He didn’t know what he could do anymore. Carter just felt so alone. He wanted to protect Arria so badly but he had failed. Again. And he didn’t know how much longer he could last on his own. What if he couldn’t save Arria this time?
Jackson offered a small smile, “My name’s Jackson, Jackson Smith. I’m the leader of a group called Riot. We try and take down high end criminals, politicians and so on, with people all around the globe doing their job to help,” He tilted his head slightly toward Jenny, “That’s Jenny, my second. And who are you uh… merman?” He helped he’d trust him at least a little, at least enough to explain what was going on and the facts that he knew. It was a lot to take in and he knew it.
Carter shook his head a little, “I-I’m not a merman,” He gestured at his tail as he said, “this will go away in a half hour probably. It’s from a potion,” Carter looked at the ground, hopelessness flashing in his eyes. “My name’s Carter. Arria-“ Carter had to take a second to try to reign in his spinning emotions, “Arria is a merman. He’s the love of my life.” And now he’s gone.
Jackson felt his heart sink for Carter. He couldn’t imagine loosing someone like that, and to a witch like Maria as well, “Oh shit Carter I’m so sorry,” He ran a hand through his hair, “Look, our current aim is to take down Maria, I promise you we’ll get Arria back, however long it takes we’ll get him back man. And take Maria down, too.”
Carter took a deep breath, dragging his eyes up from the floor to look at Jackson. “You’re really going to help me?” He breathed. Help was like a drop of water in the middle of a dehydrated desert. Carter needed it, he needed help. He couldn’t be strong enough to do this on his own anymore.
“I swear on my life, Carter.” Jackson placed a hand over his heart. He knew what it was like to be scared and alone, and two things were for sure, Carter was both of those and Jackson never went back on his promises, “Stock with us, and we’ll get Arria back.”
“What can I do to help?” Carter asked softly, a much needed glimmer of hope finally shining through. He’d do anything to get Arria back. Anything. No matter what kind of obstacles he’d face, no matter how long it took, he’d find Arria.
Jackson stood up, “First we need to find a way to get you into the base while you have your tail. Is there anyway to get your legs back now or do we have to just… wait?” He asked, raising a brow.
“I had potions, but…” Carter shook his head, “We’ll have to wait, unless you could carry me?” He asked with a tiny, only slightly forced chuckle. He looked down at himself, a sinking feeling in his chest. Without Arria, how long would it be until he swam deep in the ocean again? He didn’t have much access to the potions anymore, when he’d get his legs back. Carter told himself this wouldn’t be his last time with a tail, for his own sake.
He scratched at the back of his neck, looking to Jenny who seemed to understand what he was thinking and started heading off the boat, “Well, I suppose I can carry you to the front door, and then will a wheelchair suffice from there?”
“That’d work great,” Carter replied, grateful for the ability to have a wheelchair. He didn’t want to hold anyone back because he needed to be lugged around, it would only make it take longer to find Arria.
"Wonderful." Jackson sighed softly, looking across to the shore line where Jenny had managed to get a wheelchair to the entrance of the cave system, "Hold on." He bent down, hooking one arm around Carter's back and another under his tail, picking him up bridal style with a grunt.
Carter tightly put his arms around Jackson’s neck, knowing that being sore from being dropped would A, hurt very much, and B, only slow him down. He remembered when he had picked up Arria when they were on land, when they ran from the cops for a little bit. He desperately wished Arria was here now. I’m coming for him, I will find him one day, Carter vowed to himself, holding that promise close to his heart. He’d wait to find Arria even if it took the rest of his life.
(Okay, so question. Do we want to time skip now, or in a little while? Your choice)
(I'd be good with a time skip rn :)
(Okay, this'll be a long one so gimme a min)
Three years later
Technically it was three years, four months and seventeen days since the Incident. Arria had counted each and every single day he was trapped in the sticking tank Maria had put him in. Well, the third since he'd smashed through the first two before Maria had decide to make the glass a meter thick.
The past three years Arria had dubbed the worst of his life. Moving from city to city, country to country. Where ever Maria decided he needed to be 'shown off' to the rich, or to just perform to people. For the first few months he'd tried to fight back, tried to find some way out. But without his potions he couldn't give himself legs to leave. And every time he did something wrong he was punished for it, accumulating an array of scares, cuts and bruises along his torso, back and arms. Then after a year he gave up and out up with it.
He'd matured and grown a lot in the three years. Muscles more sharper and more defined, scales a darker purple then they used to be, hair slightly longer and floofy. He frowned more, barely smiled. He'd locked away all good emotion apart from anger, really.
He'd prayed that Carter would would come find him. hoped and wished he'd just show up but he never did. And by two years he'd nearly given up entirely. A small part of him still wished he was coming, but majority of him new he wasn't going to come, not after three years.
During this time, Riot had been working hard on tracking Maria and Arria. But whenever they thought they got close, got a lead or attended one of the shows, they were gone before they even had a chance to confront them. Jackson new it was probably a hopeless task, and honestly he was ready to tell Carter they should put their efforts elsewhere, focus on other tasks, other criminals.
The leader of the group admitted to himself a while back that he had some feelings for Carter, and had told him about it. There was a connection, he could feel it and it grew every day. But with the task of finding Arria they never made anything official. Jackson was contemplating giving up on the whole Arria thing just so he could be with Carter. But he hadn't, not yet.
Carter had changed a lot the past three years. Firstly, the simple physical changes. He’d grown out his hair to about the middle of his upper arm, and kept it in a braid or bun often. Carter was a bit thinner around the waist as his eating habits had changed drastically, but he worked out a little bit more so his muscles were a bit more prominent. He’d completely given up on surfing, or even really being by the water that much unless it was work related. At first, it hurt too much. Now… the pain had dulled, but it still felt like there was a scar there.
Carter had probably spent the first year and a half longing for Arria. Trying to find him, searching on and on and on. Now, Carter realized how foolish he’d been. There wasn’t much hope left. The first show they’d went to, when they’re gotten so close to Arria… and failed. Carter had gone home crying that night, he must have cried into Jackson’s shoulder for hours. He wished he would’ve learned after that first night, but he had still believed he’d find Arria even after that. It took a couple nights to come home crying for him to realize how optimistic he’d been. How foolish he’d been.
Carter had learned. Mentally, Carter had given up. He believed that this had turned into a lost cause. The only reason he hadn’t completely given up yet was because of that promise he’d made to himself. Though he didn’t believe his efforts would amount to anything, he still went after Maria. The difference, now, was that his mind was no longer on Arria or Maria when going to the shows, it was on his future. Particularly, it was on Jackson, as it was tonight.
Carter’s hand found Jackson’s and he side stepped closer to the other male. “See anything interesting yet?” He asked softly as his eyes traced over one of Maria’s commodities sitting on a table underneath a glass case for display. Maria didn’t put her special items out for anyone’s eyes, one of the reasons they had never found Arria. Sometimes she had special guards, sometimes she didn’t even bring out the particularly valuable things until the end of the night. Tonight, Carter was suspicious of the backroom where the fancier, richer people slipping into from time to time after paying the guard off.
Jackson gave Carter's hand a small squeeze, looking at him for a moment before back to the glass cage, "The back room, if we get in there… well, he might be in there. We just need to find a way in." These missions were honestly starting to feel like a waste of time, not when Jackson knew he could tell Carter that there was no hope, when they could start a new life together, without the merman, "Jenny might be able to get us in. But there's no word from her yet." He looked over to the door as another business man slipped the guard some cash and headed inside the room.
On the other side, Arria swam idly in his tank. It was tall, extremely so. The glass extended higher even when the water finished so Arria couldn't jump out. It was filled with different sea plants and a couple fish but not many. Along the merman's arms were large, purple and black bruises that covered his entire upper arm on both sides, caused by Arria slamming his entire body weight into the side of it in an attempt to break the tank. Even if the glass broke he couldn't escape, but dying would be better then another one of these events in his eyes.
His eyes narrowed on the man that entered the room, jaw tightening even more then it already was. Then, he smirked, slightly at least. He swam as fast as he could to the top of the tank, jumping out of the water and arching his back into a flip. The people in the room awed as he dove back down… straight into the glass. People jumped back, not expecting the merman to do such a thing, causing a commotion in the room as he did it again, and again, and again, even though his arms protested, causing a bigger commotion. He found it quite amusing, since this was the only entertainment he would ever get.
“Yeah… hopefully…” Carter said softly, though he sounded like a broken record to himself. Carter closed his eyes and moved closer to Jackson, wrapping his arms around the male and rested his head on his shoulder. Carter wasn’t normally this affectionate out in public with Jackson, but he was tired, oh so tired, of all of this. He needed a break, and right now, he could draw comfort from Jackson. It was expected that he’d take said comfort. Honestly, Carter would be okay with going home right now and giving up on trying to get in the backroom. Arria probably wasn’t even in the building.
Jackson was about to wrap his arms around Carter when he saw Jenny. Saw her indicate when the guard slipped into the backroom. And saw he follow him inside, putting a small stopper into the door so it wouldn't close properly. Jackson was stuck. Stuck between taking Carter home and letting him give up so they could be happy, or telling him that the door was open, "Carter… the door…" He mumbled eventually after a minute of contemplating it, though he didn't agree with his own choice.
