Archive of Our Own ^beta

Pirate Captain Steve Rogers and First Mate Bucky Barnes were once high ranking officers of the Royal Navy in the War against The Hydra, a collective of the worst sea-faring pirates. Scarred from the war - physically and emotionally, neither could find a place in "civilised" society, especially after experiencing first hand the disregard the Crown had for the common folk and the exploitation of the people in other lands under their control. Knowing, also, that their relationship would be forever threatened by the trappings of propriety, that there was no way for them to openly love each other lest they be executed for it, Steve and Bucky banded together with a few of their former comrades from the Howling commandos, stole on of the Navy's fastest vessels and repurposed it for a life on the sea. 

Over time, they picked up a motley of crew members (like the expert archer and thief Clint "Hawkeye" Barton, the deadly redheaded Russian Natasha "Black Widow" Romanov, a liberated slave Sam "Falconer" Wilson), as well as a reputation for getting in skirmishes with both the Navy and other pirates - and always coming out on top. The code they followed was simple - to right what injustice they could and provide a safe sanctuary to whoever might need it.

After evading the most recent attempt by the Navy to capture the Avenger, the ship drops anchor off of an island in an uncharted region of the seas so its crew may recuperate. As dusk falls, a man is spotted near the cove by Clint. Believing him to be an inhabitant of the island, the crew attempts to search for a town or a village but find nothing for their efforts - not even a hastily constructed shelter or the remnants of a fire pit. 

The next time the man is seen, under the bright midday sun, it is evident that what they came across is no man at all. A creature thought only to belong in superstitious sailor's stories and songs has apparently made the area near the island its home. 

Toh'nee is an anomaly amongst the merfolk, enamoured by the deep sea ruins of structures of men. With a gift for tinkering, unlike his father who served their clan leader, he has no interest in building weapons. His refusal to build weapons for perpetuating clan wars leads him to be shunned. However, a lonely mer is an easy target for predators - of the sea and land alike. When he is captured by a fishing vessel of men, caged and jeered at, there is no one to come to his rescue.

In the many sunrises Toh'nee spends in the men's captivity - beaten, jeered at, treated like a beast - he slowly picks up on their strange vocalisations and body movements they use and what they mean. It's somehow both similar to and very different from how he and his clansmen communicated. The upside to being treated like a beast is that the men never watch what they do or say in front of the mer. Over time, he learns of the workings of this strange swimming cave- ship, how long he can stay out of water before his tail dries out- an experiment he starts the first night he can get the latch on his tank open using his claws, what they intend to do with him- nothing that would ever give him his freedom back. 

His plot is risky and he doesn't fully understand how all the pieces he intends to use work but he knows that the smaller shells contain black sand that causes destruction, the mini suns created by the men are dangerous to take near the shells, and that water makes the black sand and the mini sun not work. He also knows that the man who comes to throw fish into his tank leaves the mini sun maker device hanging ten tail lengths away from Toh'nee's cage and the mini sun maker is not hard to figure out after a few accidents that sting worse than jellyfish. 

A quiet full moon night, Toh'nee escapes out of the cage, ties the rough rope around the black sand shells, drags it to where the sun maker hangs and creates a mini sun at the end. He barely has enough time to get back in his tank for protection before he's blinded by the fruits of his labour, his chest a pierced through with pieces from his tank and the outer shell of the ship, and thrown back, back, back, until he falls into the sea again. 

He doesn't stop swimming away from the wreckage until he finally finds an underground network of caves. It's there that he finds Jah'vis.