Here's another chapter, my friends!

Thanks for reading! :D 

~Songs~

Skull & Crossbones- Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Monkey Mutts- Catching Fire

~Edit~

Me!

Chapter Thirty-Five

~Thea's POV~

The next morning, Max, Clint, and Nat take Jack and me to the top of the scraggly hill, where we are suddenly overlooking the large lake in between the two mountains. It's flat and grey, submerged in the ground so that it looks like a giant, filled-in crater.  The water does not stir, as there is hardly any wind even from up here. If I hadn't known better, in fact, I wouldn't have guessed that anything at all lives in the lake.

But then suddenly, with a splash so loud I can hear it even from this rocky ledge, something surfaces, curves out, then vanishes back into the water. It was so fast, I couldn't react in time to properly get a good view, but it's not hard to guess what it was.

Jack whistles, "I guess they really are there then."

Max has crossed his arms and leant against one of the trees. He looks concerned although his eyes are soft as he looks at Jack and me.

"We're going to the lake tonight, right?" I ask suspiciously

Clint and Natasha don't say anything, letting Max answer the question.

Max lets out a breath through his nose slowly, as if this piece of information pains him, "Thea, you definitely are."

"What?" I ask, shocked.

"What?" Jack asks, betrayed.

Max holds out a hand to stop Jack's indignation, "The mermaids are more attracted to men, and Thea is the only other girl- Jane is staying with Leah at the camp. I don't know Jack, I don't know if it's worth the risk."

"Of course it's worth the risk!" says Jack staunchly, "How many blokes can claim that they've seen a mermaid?"

"You just saw one," Max tilts his head towards the lake.

Jack rolls his eyes with great precision, "Max. You know what I mean."

Max runs his hand through his hair, "Look, we're still thinking about it. We've got the whole day, anyway. Let's cross that bridge when we get to it."

*

Jack and I find ourselves rather bored as the day drags on. The sun rises higher in the sky, it gets more and more hot. As the two of us lounge in one of the more spacious tents in order to beat the heat at least somewhat, I gripe, "I just want to go swimming or something."

"Oh now you want to go swimming," says Jack, who looks miserable himself, his legs thrown over mine.

"Get off me," I say, "You're too heavy."

"Stop whining, you're being annoying," says Jack crankily.

"You're the one who's being annoying," I shoot back, taking my legs off of him and purposely hitting his face in the process.

"Damn it Thea," he snaps, rubbing his cheek, "Stop it, would you?"

I roll my eyes, "You're the one who followed me in here!"

"This is my tent!"

"It's the biggest one, which makes it the coolest one, which is why I wanted to be in here."

"I don't care, I want you to get out now." He says, crossing his arms grumpily.

His words sting somewhat, and even though I know we're both cranky from the heat, Jack and I have never fought before, and this new feeling is not good.

"No." I snap back, "I'm staying here, I was here first."

"Well this is my tent!" he barks.

"No it's not! It's Kyle's and Clint's and whoever the hell sleeps in here's too!"

Jack rolls over so that his back is to me, "Whatever, Thea."

I feel tears prick in my eyes from his short tone. But I ignore them in lieu of the fact that I feel heated not only from the heat but from my anger as well.

"Well fine!" I exclaim, my voice rising, "Just fi-"

I'm interrupted by Clint, who has pushed open the tent flap. His expression is curious, "What's going on here?"

"Jack's being annoying."

"Thea's being a prat."

Jack and I glare at each other.

Then, we start cracking up.

Clint raises his eyebrows as the two of us continue to howl with pent-up laughter. Finally, he says, "All right then. If either of you are interested," he raises his voice to be heart over our peels of laughter, "Archer found a small pond that you guys can probably go swimming in if you want."

Jack and I stop laughing immediately.

"Really?" I ask. "But I don't have a swimsuit."
"Doesn't matter," says Clint, "Nat's got some exercise thing you can use instead or something."

"What about me?" demands Jack.

I jump up, crawling over Jack ("Umph, Thea, seriously?"), and call over my shoulder, "You're a boy, you can figure this stuff out!"

As it transpires, Kyle, Nat, Clint, and Archer join us in the pond, which is situated about a hundred yards from camp, with a miniature cascade trickling over one side. Natasha has given me something like a sports bra, but more built, and it nearly covers my entire stomach, and shorts, so that I'm wearing something roughly along the lines of an overly covered swimsuit (which is fine with me because I don't like to show much skin). The water looks cool and clear, and I can't help myself. With a shriek of glee, I leap into the water with a cannonball of a splash.

When I surface, I'm practically screaming, "It's cold!!!!"

Kyle rolls his eyes as he pulls his shirt off, "What else do you expect from a mountain pond, missy?"

"Put your shirt back on!" I exclaim as Kyle slips into the water- he doesn't even shiver.

He splashes some water in my direction, "We've talked about this before. If you're cut, then you don't need to wear a shirt."

"Well I am cut," I say (this is probably not true), "So does that mean-"

"Don't even go there, young lady," says Kyle, swimming out a couple feet towards me, "First of all, you are not cut, you're a stick," I roll my eyes, "And second of all you're a thirteen year old girl, so that means yes, you do need to wear a shirt."

" If I were a twenty-something chick with long hair, curves, and a dirty mouth," I say with a smirk, "I think you'd be saying the exact opposite."

Kyle gives me a fierce look, then ducks underwater.

While Kyle pretends to drown himself or whatever he's doing, I call to Jack, "C'mon you chicken, get in the water!"

"Look out!" Jack hollers as, with a running start, he leaps into the pond with finesse, splashing me so much that I'm sputtering water.

Shaking my head to free the water from my ears and mouth, I shout, "That's a little overboard!"

Jack flips over on his back, then begins to whistle merrily, "There's never such thing as overboard, Thea."

I'm about to roll my eyes again for the umpteenth time, but that's when something underneath me grabs my foot. I scream and try to grab onto something- which is difficult, because grabbing water isn't exactly my forte- but then Kyle surfaces completely, his arms around my legs as I sit on his shoulders.

"Kyle!" I wail as he and Jack crack up, "You scared me to death!"

"That was the point," he says, grinning up at me, "And by the way, has anyone told you that you're as light as a feather?"

"No, act-KYLE!" I squeal as Kyle kicks up, launching me up about five or six feet and into the clear water once again.

 When I surface, coughing the water from my mouth, Kyle is laughing. "I hate you," I groan, "You're such a dork."

"Me? A dork?" asks Kyle as Nat and Clint slip into the water too- apparently, Archer has elected to stand guard. "Impossible. You, however, are a probable candidate."

Kyle leaves me glaring at him indignantly as he ducks under the water and swims back towards shore.

I swim lazily around towards the waterfall, laughing happily as I let the water trickle over my face. I move my finger along the surface of the water, sending ripples across the silvery pond. Above me, birds are flapping, chasing each other through the trees, cawing and dipping through the leaves.

Archer is standing above the pond, on a ridge, looking over it, the always-present white shape of Miryen beside him. In the sunlight, he looks pale, the scars easily visible on his chest. I sigh. He looks scared. But if Videl is really tracking us, then who knows that's happening, and how much longer we have, how long any of us have.

The water over here is less clear, due to the vegetation surrounding the waterfall, but I don't mind. I let the waterfall pour over my hair, and it feels wonderful- I haven't showered in three days, three days of trekking through the jungle, and I'm disgusting. The water rinses away most of the dirt and grime and I sigh with satisfaction.

I'm about to swim back over to Jack, but that's when something wraps around my ankle again. At first, I think it's a vine, and I reach down to try to get it off me, but then my hand hesitates from underwater. There are fingers wrapped around my leg.

I roll my eyes, then say, "Okay Kyle, that's enough."

"What's enough?"

I freeze. Kyle is across the pond, shaking water from his dark hair.

The fingers tighten, and I barely have time to scream, "KYLE!" before they yank me underwater, wrapping around me, slimy and pale.

*

~Nobody's POV~

"Thea, stop kidding around," says Kyle, looking over to where Thea has vanished. Stupid kid, he thinks. But then he frowns, and so does Jack, as several limbs splash around frantically from the surface, one of them skinny and brown, but two of them pale and bright in the sun. Definitely not normal.

"THEA!" yells Kyle, and then panic hits him as Thea surfaces for about half a second, shrieking horrifically, and then the hand forces her head back down.

Clint and Natasha have noticed the scene as well, and Clint stops talking immediately.

Kyle, ignoring Jack's yelled questions, kicks out towards Thea, and swims as fast as he can towards the back of the pond, where the splashes are getting more and more frantic.

From above the ridge, two figures emerge, running down towards the pond. One is Max, his face drawn in fear, and the other is Loki.

But Kyle ignores them, diving underneath the water. Opening his eyes, he sees Thea struggling with a pale, humanoid-like creature, but the water is so churned with blood, he can't make out much.

Kyle, infuriated, kicks towards the pale thing, which hisses and recoils, loosening its hold on Thea long enough for her to gasp a precious breath of fresh air before it pulls her back down. Kyle surfaces, then grabs the creature with all his strength, and pulls it off Thea, then slices off its head with his knife. It's pale, slimy, bloodless, and its eyes are nearly as pale and unseeing as its skin. But Kyle doesn't care about it, what he cares about is that Thea hasn't surfaced again; her hand is above the surface, grappling weakly. He dives underneath once again, wraps his arms around Thea's body, and comes back up. When Thea hits the surface, she begins to cough, and then begins to scream her head off, her cries ricocheting off the clearing, causing birds to swarm up.

Ignoring the floating corpse of the white thing, Kyle swims Thea, still screaming, towards the edge of the water, "Everybody out of this damn pond, now! Jack, get me my bag!" he yells, then looks down at Thea.

She's soaked in blood. There's an ugly gash on her side and her torso, and blood is sprinkled over her legs and face too. Her face is pale with fear and pain.

As soon as Kyle sets her down on the ground, she begins to writhe, sobbing and screaming. Seconds later, Loki and Max have reached them, kneeling down on the ground. When Archer tries to approach, Kyle barks, "No, you stay away!" The Velah recoils, but does what Kyle says, moving back towards the trees.

Kyle grabs the bag Jack- whose face is stricken- has tossed him and begins to rummage through it. Thea is still screaming, and Kyle can hardly think over the noise, but when Loki moves to cover her mouth, he says, "No, let her, it helps with the pain."

Rapidly, Kyle wipes his hands with a sterilizing agent, and then takes a small bottle of water from the bag.

Thea is still convulsing on the ground, screaming in agony, the blood spurting from her wound. "Hold her," orders Kyle, quickly brushing Thea's hair from her torn face before rummaging back in the bag. He hears Thea's frenzied shrieks intensify as Loki holds her down, but doesn't touch the area where the bloody wound is trickling over her skin. Max crouches beside her, holding her shoulders down.

"Okay, calm down, calm down," mutters Kyle. He winces as he peels back part of the tankini off her stomach- it's sticking to the wound, which is coated in blood. Thea howls.

"Sh, sh," soothes Kyle as he pours the water on the wound, which isn't horrifically deep, but part of it is deep enough to require stitches, "Okay, this is gonna hurt, you're going to need to hold on," he says as he then pours some antiseptic cleanser on the gash, and when her screams grow more desperate, he says, "Shh, Thea honey calm down."

But his words have no effect at all. Thea is twisting on the ground in petrified agony, maybe not purposely, but she's struggling against Loki and Max. Kyle, working quickly but carefully takes out a syringe filled with mild painkiller and pushes it in Thea's arm. She is still screaming, so Kyle knows that the pain has only gone down a little bit, and so he puts more painkiller around the direct area of the wound. He takes out a towel and presses down on the wound to stop the bleeding, and Thea wails, tears streaming from her eyes. Within seconds, the towel is soaked and disgusted, Kyle flings it away and takes out another. It takes three of the towels to staunch the bleeding long enough for Kyle to feel satisfied enough.

Fingers flying, Kyle takes out a needle and sterile thread and gently squeezes the deepest part of the wound, trying to ignore Thea's sobs. First making sure the area is basically numb, he pushes the needle in her skin and stiches up the worse part of the bloody wound within seconds. Thea is still crying, but not screaming quite as loudly, which Kyle takes to be a good sign.

After he's done stitching the wound, Kyle takes out some white pads and puts it on top of the rest of the wound. Lifting her body slightly, Kyle wraps some gauze around her torso, trying as best he can to ignore her cries. He glances at the smaller wound on her forehead, and then wipes the blood off with a cotton swab and covers it with a large square bandage.

The rest is fairly simple, and Kyle breathes a sigh of relief as Thea's screams are reduced to whimpers and gasps, and she stops writhing. He wipes clean the cut from her leg and wraps that up too. He takes a deep breath as he looks down at her, "All right cutie, you're fine, you're fine now."

"What happened?" asks Max aggressively as he and Loki let go of Thea.

Kyle jerks his head towards the floating pale corpse, "That got her. Don't know how it cut her like this, but doesn't really matter. What matters is this piece of crap," he points to Archer, who is looking frightened after all of the screaming. "Archer, tell us, why do you want Thea killed?"

"I didn't do anything," snarls Archer, and Kyle is somewhat startled at the Velah's tone. "I did not know that thing was there That was the dead spirit of a murdered Velah."

Kyle, recovering, laughs humorlessly, "Yeah, okay. Here's what I want. I want you out, back to whatever damned hole you came from, you hear me?"

"No," Thea looks stricken, "Please no."

Kyle doesn't look at her, "He almost got you killed, Thea, and you want him to stay?"

"He didn't know," she wails, kicking with frustration, "Don't send him away!"

Kyle glares at Archer, then at Thea. There's a silence. "Fine. The brute can stay. But one more wrong move-"

"He's innocent!"

He ignores her, "And I'll kill you with the same knife I just used to kill this thing."

"Point taken," says Archer coolly, looking enraged for being blamed.

"As for you," says Kyle, looking down at Thea, "You are going to rest, and you're not going to move much. I don't want those stitches coming open. You hear me?"

Thea knows he is being short because he's worried, "Y-yes," she whimpers.

Kyle sighs, then affectionately swipes her cheek with his thumb, "Okay. Okay you're fine."

But then suddenly, Kyle presses his fist into his mouth, his face contorted.

"Ky-Kyle..." stammers Thea.

"I'm fine," says Kyle in a very thick voice, leaning down, "It's just-I don't- when I saw you go down-you can't do," finally, he just shuts up, kissing Thea's forehead, "Don't you ever scare me like that again."

"Okay." She says, smiling tremulously. Then, in a mischievously weak voice, she says, "You're crying."

"I am not crying," snaps Kyle, swiping his face quickly, "And if I hear you say that again-"

"You'll kill me?" Thea asks sweetly, her voice still hoarse.

Kyle glares at her.

 Hi!

Hope you enjoyed it!!!!

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~Three Tasks Fact~

For Supernatural fans, the title of this chapter may sound familiar :) 

~Three Tasks Fact~

The creepy thing in the water is based off of the Inferi from Harry Potter ;0