Panic set in immediately.

Wooyoung felt the barbs grabbing onto him and ripping at his scales and skin with each attempt he made to free himself.

He whipped his tail back and forth in desperation, hoping to dislodge any of the barbs, but it just made them sink in deeper.

"Help!" Wooyoung shouted.

He thought he could still hear the faint screams of his people dying below him. There was no one available to help him, but that still didn't stop him from calling out.

"Help! Someone, please!"

The merman reach around and grabbed at the net. The barbs sliced the palms of his hands open, but that didn't stop him from trying to pull himself free.

He flicked his head around, looking for something, anything, that could help him. But he was stuck in a net in the middle of the open ocean.

One thing he did notice, however, was that there were a few other sea creatures stuck in the net too. The biggest shock was a large hammerhead shark. It wasn't moving, so it must have been trapped long enough to have died, leaving it to just hang from where it was snared in the net.

Wooyoung flicked his tail again and cried out when the barbs dug in deeper.

His thoughts flicked to Mingi and Yunho. They weren't going to know about any of this... He had promised them he would come home..

Wooyoung screamed and tried to rip himself out of the net. He couldn't let get caught. He needed to get home.

But soon he found that the net was wrapped several times around his tail. He bent in half one more time to try and pull himself free.

Then a strong current shook the net violently and Wooyoung's left arm became tangled within it.

Now things were truly hopeless.

He couldn't even access his magic and he wasn't sure if it was from the fear or the blood loss...

Wooyoung covered his mouth with his one free hand and cried out when he tried to pull his other arm free, but just like with his tail, all it managed to do was make the barbs dig in deeper.

He was trapped. There was no way out now...

The merman glanced up toward the surface. He was still a good distance away, so there was no chance of any boats passing by seeing him, but he was in trouble when the owner of this net came to collect it.

For now, the only thing he could think of to do was try to calm down and tap into his magic. He closed his eyes and slowed down his breathing while also making sure not to move. He knew he needed to stay alert enough just in case any sharks came.

Wooyoung had no idea how much time passed, but he was jolted out of his attempts to access his magic when the net jerked. He opened his eyes and looked around for the cause.

His heart stopped when he saw the dark shadow of a boat in the distance. Right in the direction the net was now being pulled.

He renewed his struggles to get free, especially when the net stopped moving. It happened whenever a trapped animal was pulled out of the water.

Wooyoung glanced at the shark next to him and clawed at the net around his tail.

The surface was steadily getting closer and closer and Wooyoung started to hear the humans on the ship yelling at each other.

"Shark! We gotta shark in the net! Gimme the hook!"

"Hook comin!"

Wooyoung watched as the hammerhead was speared and pulled out of the water. He continued his squirming and pulled at the net, causing the boat to jerk.

"We gotta live one!"

"Everyone get ready to pull!"

The net gave a great jerk and Wooyoung cried out in pain. He wriggled desperately, but to no avail.

In a matter of seconds, Wooyoung was pulled above the surface of the water. Several gasps and exclamations came from the crew of the ship as he was hauled over the side and fell with a large wet slap to the deck.

He tried to pull his arms close to him, but the one was still snared in the net, leaving him on full display for the group o humans in front of him.

If he thought the shark attack had been scary, it was nothing compared to this.

At least ten sets of eyes stared at him in disbelief.

Wooyoung shook his head quickly. He decided it was best to play dumb, but at the moment he didn't really know what else to do anyway.

"Is... Is that what I think it is?" One of the men asked. He was a big, burly guy with a bushy gray beard and a bit of a pot belly with skin stretched thin from years of being on the open ocean.

"What else would it be?" Another, younger boy with flyaway red hair asked. "But I didn't think they were real."

"They aren't. This has to be a joke."

All of the voices started to blur together in Wooyoung's mind. He couldn't pick out who was saying what, all he could focus on was anything he could use to try and escape.

"Let's get it out of there, then we will decide what to do with it."

"Is it dangerous?" One of the men crouched down and held out a hand, reaching slowly for Wooyoung.

The merman used his free had to slap it away. All the humans recoiled and cried out.

Fear took over instantly and one of them grabbed a rope to loop around Wooyoung's free wrist. He pulled on it hard so that another man could come closer. He held a knife up and pointed it at Wooyoung.

To try and defend himself, Wooyoung mustered up the strength to try and hit the man with his tail, but it was so much heavier out of the water that all it did was flop uselessly against the deck.

With his one arm now also restrained, he couldn't do anything to stop the man as he got close enough to start cutting the net.

Another one stepped forward to hold down his tail once that was free while the net was cut away from his arm, chest, and stomach. "Bugger's strong." He grunted when Wooyoung jerked his tail.

"Bind its arms once you cut it free, we can't take any chances. I don't think it's strong enough to really do anything out of the water."

Wooyoung tried once more to summon his magic, but it just wouldn't come. He felt water running down his cheeks as he whimpered from how overwhelmed he felt.

How had this happened? The only thing he could think of was the surprise attack on his pod down below. The memory of their screams had him collapsing against the deck.

A stiff breeze whipped around him, bringing a chill to his skin and Wooyoung found himself shivering whenever he wasn't wincing from barbs being pulled from his skin.

Once the net was gone, one man worked on yanking his arms behind his back, bending them so that he could grab the opposite elbows with his hands, while another one worked to bind his forearms together. Then, as if that wasn't enough, another rope was looped around his arms and chest, immobilizing his upper body.

"Should we do anything with it's tail?" One of them asked hesitantly.

Wooyoung wriggled in place, testing his bonds, but remained as silent as he could. At this point, there was really no way out of his situation. The most he could do was try to protect as many of his secrets as he could...

The realization hit that he was trapped, and it hit him hard... It felt like he was trapped beneath a boulder sinking to the bottom of the ocean, being forced down faster and faster and faster...

He slowly lowered his head to rest it on the deck and stopped struggling. There was no point. All the precautions, all the safety measures, all the magic... it was all for nothing. He was going to bring ruin to his race.

"Someone call... somebody. Who do we even call?" The man with the potbelly asked, rubbing the back of his head while studying Wooyoung.

"I may have someone, let me try them real quick. We may have to head back to shore to get service, though."

"This net is trash anyway since we had to cut it apart. Hopefully there was nothing else of value in it."

"Are you kidding?! We've hit the jackpot!"

The ship erupted in chatter as the humans finally realized the prize they had on their ship. A few of them were shaking hands or patting each other's backs.

All while Wooyoung was left tied up at the front of the ship.

He closed his eyes and tried to tune out everything. And the only thing that allowed him to do that was letting his thoughts drift to his time with San. This whole trip was supposed to help him forget about his time with the sweet, kind, amazing human...

The first thing that came to his mind was the way San's face would light up as soon as he saw Wooyoung walking up to him on the beach. His smile would get so wide, allowing the dimples on both cheeks to form and turning his eyes into adorable half moons that gave him the most precious look ever.

Just imagining it was enough to bring a faint smile to Wooyoung's face. He tried to hold onto that feeling. It filled his chest with so much warmth, but even more pain that a sob escaped him.

Thankfully the humans were being loud enough that they didn't notice. Wooyoung tried to curl into himself and hide, and he was flexible enough that he could slide his tail across the deck and fold in half to rest his forehead against his tail, but it didn't provide as much comfort as he had hoped it would. But for now he could at least hide his face.

After some time, one of the humans started talking in a rushed manner. "No, I'm not kidding! It's right here on my ship! We just pulled it up in one of our nets... Yes... Well I mean, this is huge, right?... What can we do with it?... Yeah... Ok... Ok, see you soon."

"What's the plan?"

"Don't go to the main pier. We are going to a small cove where we are going to meet my buddy. He works for a research facility and promised that we will be generously compensated."

"I like the sound of that." Several of the men started to laugh.

And all Wooyoung could do was wait...

That time seemed to fly by, much to his displeasure, because he suddenly had several pairs of hands grabbing him and trying to haul him off the deck.

It was then that he realized just how dry he was. He glanced in the direction of the ocean and started to squirm again in one last attempt to free himself. But it was no use.

Five men were needed to carry him from the ship and keep him under control. They dumped him on the beach a few meters on shore and the biggest man stepped on Wooyoung's stomach to keep him from rolling away.

The merman yelped in pain and closed his eyes. If he didn't get in water soon, he was going to be in a different kind of trouble...

"Well I'll be." A new, older voice said. "At first I didn't want to believe you, but... you've actually found on." Wooyoung opened his eyes just in time to see a greying man snap his fingers several times and start pointing around. "Quick, get him loaded up and make sure there's enough water in the tank. We have a long journey ahead of us. And pay these boys what they deserve."

Once more, Wooyoung was lifted off the ground, this time after being rolled onto a large blanket secured to polls on either end that was used to carry him.

He watched with wide eyes as a large vehicle appeared in front of him. He was lifted into the back and gritted his teeth when half of the blanket was dropped and he rolled into a tank of water that was barely long enough to fit him. It forced him to sit up and lean his bound torso against the side of the tank while his tail stretched, almost, out in front of him.

Even though he knew his situation was bleak, he was thankful to be in water again. He already felt revitalized, although still not enough to make his escape.

The old man came to sit next to him and place his palm against the glass. "At last. Do you have any idea how long I've searched for you?"

Wooyoung turned his head away and pretended not to understand. It was the one advantage he knew he had over the humans, so he needed to hold onto that for as long as possible.

"You don't even know what I'm saying, do you? No matter... You are going to be the key to everything. My masterpiece."

The man started to laugh, and continued to do so even after the tank jolted, indicating that they were moving once more.

On top of being held prisoner by what could be considered his worst enemy, Wooyoung felt any last possible shred of hope he may have had leave him as he was forced to get further and further away from his home.

And he knew... deep down, that he would never see his home again.