Chapter Text
You cursed inside your mind as you curled into yourself, pressing yourself into the corner of the murky tank you were stuck in. How had it come to this?
You had once been a fearsome beast of myth. You were a man killer, a cautionary tale told to sailors, a creature of the dark and deep. Now, you were nothing more than a glorified pet and experiment. Cracked, jagged claws came to scrape at the scales on your neck and arms, roughly peeling them away from your skin and sinking to the bottom of your tank. The dull, discarded scales drifted to join the pile you'd already scraped away.
You knew it wasn't good for you, tearing away your only bits of defense and exposing open wounds to the murky, dirty, awful water you were stuck in. On the other hand, the itch you felt below your scales was unbearable, and perhaps, if you got sick, this new owner would decide you weren't worth the money to cure. You'd heal soon enough anyway, and the cycle would continue. A rattling breath escaped your mouth, gills fluttering as you struggled to filter the water around you.
A sudden jerk of your tank made you hiss, curling into a defensive position. You bared your teeth, still as sharp and deadly as ever. A hand plunged into the dark tank, and like a coiled spring, you launched forward, trapping the hand between your jaws and dragging the unfortunate lackey into the tank with you. Being left in a tank this small gave you one advantage. Whoever you pulled in couldn't escape.
A snarl left you, dragging the struggling human to the bottom of the tank, claws sinking into their sides as you shook your head viciously, pulling the human's arm clean off, blood spilling and darkening the already dirty water around you. A grin spread across your face, teeth dark with their blood. You dropped the arm from your teeth, letting it float away as your eyes narrowed. You could vaguely hear yelling from the others outside of your tank, but you ignored it in favor of tearing apart the human in front of you.
You would've laughed, seeing them trembling in fear, if you could. A scowl overtook your face, freeing a hand from the human's side to scratch and claw at the collar around your neck, growling at the raw, scarred skin underneath it. You kept your eyes on the person you had snatched, a rumbling growl coming from you as you pondered your next move.
Evidently, the person they'd sent to try and grab you wasn't a great swimmer, and you watched as they ran out of air, their body shuddering as the last of their oxygen left their lungs. You huffed, and lunged for their throat as their vision went black. You wanted their last moments to be filled with the image of you. Fearsome, dangerous you. Tearing their throat out with your teeth, you effectively decapitated them. You grabbed the head, tossing it out the top of the tank as a warning, letting the body float up to the top of the tank.
You delighted in the panicked screaming coming from the other humans as they saw what you'd done to their companion. Your delight was cut short, however, when you heard a voice call out a single command.
"Shock the damn thing!" A voice you knew well called, and you let out a shriek as electricity coursed through your body via the collar around your neck. Tremors wracked your body as you sunk to the bottom of the tank, eyes closing as you wrapped your arms around yourself in a sad form of comfort.
Now that you were properly incapacitated, more hands, this time metallic, slipped into the water and pulled your trembling form out and onto the grated metal flooring. You let out a cough, vision swimming from the harsh change in lighting. You curled into a ball, burying your face into your tail, too tired to attempt another attack as hands grabbed at you, moving you into a sling and up onto a table.
The cold metal shocked your systems back into action, struggling as metal hands strapped you down, collar locking into place against the table. More lights were angled towards you, making you hiss and squeeze your eyes shut against the offensive brightness. Being a deep sea mer meant you weren't great with light in general, but the bright lights the lab coats insisted on were especially offensive to your senses.
You took a deep breath and forced your eyes to open. You hated having those lights shining directly into your face, but you hated the thought of not being able to see what the lab coats were doing to you more. Squinting down at the table, you attempted to flex your tail, but it was tightly bound as well. They'd evidently moved a second table to achieve that, considering how long your tail was.
You grimaced at the sight of it, shaking your head and looking at the various lab coats around you, a pained hiss rattling out of you as they roughly jabbed, poked and prodded at you, taking scales, blood, skin and hair samples. One of the lab coats tsk'd at your dull, dirty "hair", making an offhanded comment about you being a "dirty animal". The lab coats had never bothered to check your intelligence, instead assuming you were a lesser being.
You never bothered to correct them. Sure, the idea they'd been torturing a sentient being might disturb them if they had any morals, but this group of lab coats seemed to lack that sense of right and wrong. Better to let them believe you were less sentient and be subjected to less testing. Soon enough, they were evidently finished with their prodding, and the main lab coat, the one who'd stuck around you no matter how many owners you went through, jabbed you with a large needle.
You let out a rumbling growl that shook the tables beneath you as you were stabbed, eyes drifting closed against your will as the sedative took effect.
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Soon enough, you reawakened in yet another tiny tank, but this one was at least clean. You greedily filtered it through your gills, finally feeling the gunk that had built up flow out of your gills. You wrapped your arms around yourself as the pain returned, feeling your ribs through your skin. You grimaced, curling up in a ball again and drifting to the bottom of the tank, before being roughly slammed against the side of the tiny glass structure as you started to move.
You looked around as much as you could, but they'd covered up your tank with a tarp as you were moved. Spotting a small gap in the cover, you slowly attempted to adjust yourself, managing to get one eye in line with the gap. You stared out, noting all the golden accents and bright white tiling. Obviously, you'd been purchased by someone unfathomably wealthy.
Just another rich bastard who'd get tired of you not being a perfect pet soon enough and return you to the lab coats. No one wanted to keep you around. The lab coats were constantly trying to get you shipped off to some amoral asshole, someone who'd take care of you and let them experiment on you to their cold, dead, hearts content.
You turned away from the gap, no longer interested in the area you were in. No point getting comfortable if you'd be leaving in a week or two. You felt the cart jostle as you moved over tiles, before stopping and moving downwards. You must be in one of those "elevators" the lab coats had mentioned. You heard a ding, and you were moving again, before the tank you were in was roughly jostled and turned upside down, slamming your head against the roof before the lid opened, dumping you into a new, slightly bigger tank.
You grimaced, opening your eyes and blinking, silently thanking someone, anyone, that this basement you were in was dark. It was a welcome comfort to your eyes. Not nearly as dark as your undersea home, but any darkness was better than the bright buzzing lights you were used to. You swam in a circle, taking advantage of the slightly larger tank to stretch, a groan leaving your lips.
"Ow." You grumbled in your head, looking around the basement. There were floodlights, but they were currently turned off, thankfully. There were some little aquarium decorations on the bottom of this tank, and you grimaced as you realized this was a show tank. Great. Not only were you purchased by a rich asshole, but they were planning to show you off to other rich assholes. Not that you would give them the satisfaction of looking pretty. You were a beast, one to be feared, and you'd remind them of that if it was the last thing you did.
You ran your clawed hands through the living mass that was your hair, shuddering at the dulled feelings. You hadn't had proper nutrition or care in years, and every part of you was suffering because of it. You silently apologized, sinking to sit on the bottom of the tank in one of the few clear areas, slowly working sludge out of your hair, feeling it curl around your hand. You took a deep breath as the feeling started to return to your barbels as you chucked sludge into the corner of the tank, uncaring if it dirtied the water.
You moved to your tail, scratching away at it, patches of dead scales falling off and joining the pile of sludge in the corner. Finally, you moved your hands to your mouth, using your teeth to cut your claws down, spitting the old, jagged ends onto the pile. You nodded to yourself. This grooming was for you, no one else. You definitely weren't pretty enough to be a perfect pet, and you could resharpen your claws on these pesky decorations littering the already small tank. Perfect.
Moving some of the decorations aside, you curled up in the corner of the tank, ears straining to hear anyone. Once you were sure the coast was clear, you let yourself drift into a trance like state. You'd be able to wake up quickly if someone came by, but it felt nice to rest, even if it would only be for a few hours.
With that thought in mind, you drifted off, eyes slowly fluttering closed as you fell asleep.