Nudity towards the end of this chapter! A small amount of smut as well! You have been warned!

(Y/N)'S POV:

I was scared, my body was in so much pain. It was bad enough that I'd started to dry out, my tail was so itchy I wanted to scratch off my scales but I held it together so Mark wouldn't worry. I felt really sick and my lungs were slowly burning, the air was so dry and my skin felt like it was shrivelling up. I was terrified about what was going to happen to me, but I knew so long as Mark was here I'd be ok. I knew he'd protect me from whatever was gonna happen.

When the artefact started absorbing my magic I remembered what the elders said. I remembered why we were forbidden from going near the artefacts or the warp gates. They absorb the life of a merperson to sustain themselves and grant themselves more power than they were ever built to have. The merperson would die, and the machine would go on with an excess amount of power that enabled it to do the impossible.

I was currently bawling my eyes out in Mark's warm embrace, had he not rescued me when he did.... I could have died....

He was calming me down, stroking my (h/l) (h/c) hair as he shielded me from whatever the ancient machine was doing with his body. Everything was going crazy from behind him, the giant thing had let out an ear splitting high pitched whirring sound that continuously echoes through the night. The portal on it was spinning so fast that it made me sick just looking at it. The fire and ice that it'd stolen from me were going haywire diving in and out of the spinning portal and circling the entire structure. Everything got really bright and I hid my face in Mark's chest. And then.... silence.

I opened my eyes to see the typical evening light, thinking it was all over. A man's voice cut through the air and my relief instantly vanished. For a split second I thought that Mark had spoken, but then I realised that this voice was slightly higher and had a light accent of some sort. It was also very loud and it sounded very angry and confused. Not only that but Mark was right here, so how could he be in two places at once?

We stayed beneath the tree for a while, listing to the stranger's ramblings. "I think I know this voice...." I was surprised by what Mark said. How could he know this voice? "Stay here (Y/n). I don't think you have anything to fear, but incase I'm wrong about who this is I want you to stay hidden." I silently nodded, giving him a quick hug for good luck. He began to stand up, rustling the grub baskets and voxel shrubs we were hiding in. I held onto his ankle, terrified of what was gonna happen.

"FIGHT ME BITCH, I'LL BEAT THE HELL OUTTA YOU!" The newcomer shouted at Mark and I whimpered, hoping that everything would be ok. Mark stood up straight after that, and everything went silent for a short while. "Jack, is that really you?!"

Mark asked the stranger to confirm his identity, I slide a little ways forward and peek through the underbrush at the man. He looked rather plucky, he was thin, but had slight muscles. His short brown hair changes to long light green at the top of his head, much like how Mark's went from black to red.

Suddenly, the man dropped to his knees with tears begging to stream down his face. "Oh my God...." he covered his mouth with his hand and his whole body was shaking. What was wrong with him? He didn't seem injured and Mark certainly didn't do anything to upset him. He started laughing as well, I started to get scared. He wasn't acting right, it was almost like the time before with that man who'd always hurt me and made me wear the shock collar. The bad memories flooded into my brain and I almost felt like crying.

"M-Mark, take me away from this. I'm getting scared." I turned away from the lunatic and looked up at Mark, tugging on his suit in an attempt to get his attention. I stopped after a second when I realised he too was crying and that his breathing was really shallow.

"Mar-!" He suddenly burst into a run and left me alone in the undergrowth. He dropped to his knees and slid into the man, wrapping him in a giant hug. I thought he was gonna crush the man for a second, but then the green haired man hugged him back with the same amount of force. I was absolutely dumbfounded, I mean, Mark could be a little strange at times but who in their right mind would run up and hug a crazy person like that?!

"Seán, oh my God! It's really you! It's you! Hahaha I- I thought I'd never see you again!" Seán? But I thought Mark called him Jack... was there more than one person who came out of the portal? I didn't think so but.... "I know Mark! Everyone was so worried about you! I-I didn't know what happened to you, I thought you might've die-" "DIED?! What do you mean, you thought I died? I'll have you know that my survival skills are the greatest ever known to man kind!"

What was happening? I didn't understand why Mark was so happy to see this Jack or Seán or whoever he was! I called out to him once more, hoping he'd just leave the man and go back to the base with me. "M-Mark?"

The green haired man jumps in Mark's arms, clearly surprised to hear another voice. He looks around but I'm too well hidden. Mark jolts up, a huge smile on his face. "Oh yeah, Jack! I've got someone for you to meet! She's very special...." I couldn't hear the rest of what he was saying because he leaned over and whispered the rest in the strangers' ear. It must have been something nice though because the green haired man smiled and punched Mark's shoulder, calling him a "sly dog". What's a dog? I'll have to ask Mark when we leave the green haired man, I'm sure he'll laugh at me for not knowing.

"Alright Jack, this is (Y/n), she may be a bit... cold at first but I'm sure over time she'll get better as you get to know her." Cold? I wasn't cold, if anything I was burning alive! I have to tell Mark about me drying out. Anyways why was he introducing me to this man?! I didn't want to know him and I was getting mad because Mark seemed to only be thinking about him now, it was like he completely forgot about me!

He walked up to the plants I was hiding in and started to pick me up. "Mark, let's go! I'm starting to dry out and I don't wanna-!" I whisper yelled at him but he cut me off, he didn't hear a word I said! "It's okay (Y/n) he's my best friend, he'll really like you and I want you to meet him!" I tried to struggle out of his arms but I felt too exhausted from drying out and from losing a lot of energy to the warp gate.

"Ugh, just make this quick." I finally gave in and allowed him to easily lift me out of the plants. I could hear the man gasp from behind Mark and tried my best not to glare at him. If he was Mark's friend I'd... behave. I didn't want to upset Mark after all.

He turned with me in his arms and walked me over to the man, gently sitting cross legged in front of him and placing me on his lap. I felt like a toddler sitting on their fathers' lap. I pulled away from the stranger and curled myself into Mark's lap, burring my head against his chest.

The man smiled and eagerly stuck out his hand "HELLO!! My name is Seán, but you can call me Jack! Markimoo over here is my best friend, we've known each other for a long time now and we often do YouTube together!" I flinched away when he thrust his hand towards me and looked up to Mark. He warmly smiled down at me, gently grabbing my hand and leading it towards Jack's. "I know, he can be really hyper sometimes but he wouldn't hurt you! Here, shake his hand. I'll tell you more about YouTube later if you're confused." I nodded and nervously turned to Jack, he softly grabbed my hand and gently shook it up and down.

"See?! I would never hurt you! That's a really cool tail by the way! Mind if I touch it?!" He eagerly reached down and rubbed my tail without waiting for my response. His hand gently stroked up and down along the upper middle portion of it (around a certain area that would be there if you weren't a mermaid). I shrieked and instantly dove behind Mark, practically begging him with the look I gave him to take me away from Jack.

"Sorry, I'm sure he didn't mean to freak you out. He's just excited to see you, we don't have real mermaids on our planet so you're very interesting to him. Hell, you're interesting to me too! But I can control myself more than he can."

I nodded in understanding of what he said. It made sense, we didn't have humans on our planet so why should they have merpeople on theirs? Mark seemed apologetic for Jack's reaction to me, Jack on the other hand had no clue he'd upset me.

"Like seriously! How does it glow?! Do you have a special way to clean it? Can you swim really fast in the water?!" He was like a kid opening a present, full of energy and life... and really loud....

"A pigment in my DNA makes it glow. No, I wash myself just like any human would. Yes, I can." I kept my answers short and simple, not completely shutting him down but not engaging in the conversation either. He continued to make comments on my tail and shell bra, talking about how cool I was.

I was so dry though and I turned away from him to find Mark happily smiling at me. I blushed and looked up at the sky. "It's getting late Mark, we should really go...." He jolted and stopped staring at me. "Ah yes. Here Jack, carry my bag and follow me!" He tossed his backpack to Jack and started to walk back to the shore.

Why did Jack have to come with us?! I wish Mark would've just left him, it's not like anything on land would've attacked him anyways. The worst part was Mark left me on the island with the babbling idiot while he went to get Big Box Berry. I was so close to the water yet I couldn't get in because I wasn't close enough, and I'd be damned if Jack were to pick me up and carry me to the waves. Mark came back in his Exosuit, waving for jack to get in and helped me get in the Exosuit beside them. I motioned for him to put me in the water, and even tried asking a couple of times, but he didn't notice because he was too busy showing off all of his technology to Jack.

MINI TIME SKIP BROUGHT TO YOU BY SEPTIC SAM!

We were now in Mark's base, I still haven't been put in any water. This was ridiculous! On one hand, I was happy for Mark because he gets to be with his best friend again. On the other hand, I was absolutely fuming because he wouldn't pay any attention to me!

I guess you would call this feeling jealousy. Most of my symptoms had gone away and I was back to normal for the most part. The only thing that was still bothering me was my itchy tail, it was about 10 times worse than when I'd first started to dry out.

I told Mark that I wanted to be alone and for once he listened. He took me to his bedroom and sat me on the bench between the two fish tanks. He and Jack were talking in the other room and every once in a while I'd hear them laugh as well. I leaned against a tank and stared out at the ocean through the window. The fish in the sea and the fish in his tanks were basically mocking me by swimming around. I was so close to water, but I was so far from actually being able to reach it.

The fish tanks were too high for me to reach when I stood on my tail (basically on your knees because you can't stand upright on it), and the windows were too thick for me to crack. Even if I could crack a window, I'd feel awful for flooding his base.

I heard strange, almost electric, noises after a while of them being gone. It carries on for around 20 minutes before it stops and I hear someone coming to Mark's room. My tail was really bothering me now, and for some strange reason it was glowing brighter than normal.

I silently cheered when Mark walked in alone, but I couldn't really think of something to say before he went into his bathroom. He came out after a little while in his red plaid sleeping pants. He didn't have a shirt on which made me blush. Unfortunately for me, my tail was now bright enough to illuminate my face and he saw, giving me a blush of his own.

"Where's Jack?" It was a little hard to speak because just then the world around me started to spin. He came up behind me and placed me on the bed, sitting next to me as he began to talk. "He's in his own bed room. We used a lot of my stored materials to make it so I'll have to collect more sometime soon." "Ah...." my reply was short and Mark realised I wasn't feeling right.

"Hey, (Y/n)! Are you ok?! (Y/n)?! (Y/N)?!"

Everything was suddenly really bright. My tail felt really tingly, like millions of tiny needles were pricking me all over. And then the pain came. It felt like my tail was burning, like someone had taken ahold of my (f/c or s/f/c) fins and was pulling my tail apart. I cried out in pain and fell back on the bed, writhing in agony as I could feel my (f/c) scales breaking and being dissolved. I looked down to see these strange (s/c) lumps coming out of my split tail, there were five on each end. I closed my eyes when the light got too bright and the pain was too unbearable. I whimpered and grabbed onto Mark's arm, trapping him in a death grip.

He was trying to talk me through this, and was doing his best to calm me down even though I knew he couldn't see and was just as scared as I was. The pain continued for a little longer before suddenly, it stopped.

I slowly opened my eyes and laid there in complete and utter shock. My tail was gone! In its place were two (s/c) legs and there was this strange hole in between them. My feet had five toes, and each toenail was a bright (f/c) colour. I was scared and sat up on the bed, spreading my new legs apart to look at the hole in between them. I groaned in slight pain as I moved my new lower body, it was gonna take some getting used to.

I reached down with one hand and began to feel the folds of skin around the strange hole, there wasn't any blood so I suppose that was good. But a strange feeling shot through me when I hit the little nub at the top with my fingers, and I made a noise I'd never made before.

MARK'S POV:

Everything seems to calm down after a while, and I felt her let go and shift on the bed. I opened my eyes and turned to see (Y/n) against the headboard of my bed. Her legs were spread open before me and she was feeling around on her vagina. I instantly blushed when I realised what was happening in front of me.

Somehow she'd grown legs, and her tail was no where to be seen. She was laying on my bed completely naked, except for her shell bra that was hiding her plump breasts from my view, and looked like she was playing with herself as she rubbed her fingers around her tiny hole.

I swallowed hard and tried not to get a massive boner. "(Y-Y/n), you have legs!" She ended up flicking her clit and let out a breathy moan.

'She's on my bed, almost completely naked, and just moaned while slightly playing with herself.'

I was so turned on right now, but I couldn't let her see the tent that had started to grow in my boxers. I shook away all my dirty thoughts and snatched up a pillow, slamming it over my lap just as she looked up at me. "M-Mark?"

"Yeah, (Y/n)?" She looked like she was going to cry. "W-what happened to me?! Wh-What is this?!" She grabbed my hand and placed it over her hot, slightly wet, entrance. My heart was racing as I swallowed and took a deep breath.

"You... seem to have grown legs in place of your tail. Th-that's your... v-vagina." My face was so red, this should be a talk my future wife has with our teenage girl! Her (e/c) eyes widened as she realised what it was and she flung my hand away, instantly closing her new legs. She winced in pain at the sudden movement, a large blush was forming on her face.

I realised how scared she must've been. This must've never happened to her before. I gently leaned over and tucked a lock of her (h/l) (h/c) hair behind her ear. "It's okay, I'm not gonna do anything to you. I'm here if you're scared, I promise I'll help you through this." She nodded with tears streaming down her face. I pulled her in for a hug and she nuzzled into my chest, crying her eyes out. I combed my fingers through her (h/l) hair and rubbed my hand on the small of her back in an attempt to soothe her tears.

"C'mon, let's get you something to cover up. She nodded her head and I walked over to the closet looking for something close to her size. The only thing I could find was my lucky flannel. "Here, it's my lucky red flannel, you can wear this like it's a short dress." I helped her get her arms into it, she tried to do the buttons but got frustrated when she couldn't do it. I hesitate a little before asking if she'd like any help.

"They can be tricky when you're first learning how to do them, I can show you if you'd like." She looked a little reluctant at first, slowly she moved her arms away and stuck out her chest so I'd have better access. I gently reached over, my fingers lightly caress her breasts as I picked up the fabric of the shirt. She's looking down at my fingers, watching how they slip the button into it's corresponding hole, and even though I can't see her face I know she's blushing.

I finished buttoning up her shirt, and I couldn't help but think she looked cute in it. It was long enough that if she were to stand it'd be about halfway down her thighs. "T-Thank you Mark." I smiled at her and gently pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry about it. Remember, I'll be there for you if you need anything, okay?" She nodded and looked back down at her legs.

"It's all gonna be ok. I promise (Y/n). Now c'mon." I gently pulled back the covers and lowered her onto the bed before laying down myself and covering us both up. "We'll figure this out tomorrow, but for now, I think it would be best for the both of us to get some sleep."

We'd laid there for about 10 minutes before I felt her gently snuggling up into my chest. I softly sighed and pulled her close, wrapping her in my arms and softly playing with her hair with my fingers. Before I'd knew it, we'd both fell asleep in each other's warm embrace, smiles softly etched onto our faces.

AUTHORS NOTE!
I loved writing this chapter, and I hope you all didn't mind the tiny little bit of smut towards the end. I'm gonna let you all know right now that the next update might take a while. My birthday is in 3 days and school starts shortly after. Thank you all for your support!
Author-chan out! ~<3