Seven Devils

Summary: Nothing is without consequence, however cruel the price may be. Headcanon ending for "The Little Mermaid (1989)".

Disclaimer: The Little Mermaid, as interpreted by Disney and all things related to the franchise, property of aforementioned company. The Little Mermaid as told by Hans Christian Andersen, is or was property of the late author (though one is unsure of how that works with public domain texts). If I seriously owned this, Eric probably wouldn't be a legal adult chasing after a literal jailbait.

The waters still churned warm with the events that transpired earlier that evening. Though the sea witch's remains began to settle and drift on the bottom of the ocean floor, the impression of her strength - amplified tenfold by the power of Triton and kingship over the sea - still lingered on the air.

Her prisoners of untold years wandered the sea, so changed from how they remembered it; their spells and wishes undone, they wondered if the outcome was worth the price paid. Triton watched as the unfamiliar and natives of his kingdom slowly began to return in small droves like a lost school of fish. His power returned to him and his crown restored, Triton sat with his head held high, eyes closed and his shoulders slouched.

His daughter hovered before him, her posture slouched and her head hung low. Her sisters and Flounder were gathered behind her, watching the two inanimate bodies ahead of them. Ariel returned to the sea shortly after Ursula's defeat, ready to face her father and tell him everything that happened. It was not an easy thing for either Triton or Ariel to go through; he listened to his daughter confess her wrongdoing on the verge of tears one moment or devoutly steadfast in her choices as right, particularly in regards to the humans. "They're not at all how you painted them, daddy," She told him. "They are a kind people and they have so much to offer, if only you'd see that they're not all evil."

Exhausted as he was, it was all Triton could do to withhold his rising temper and listen to his daughter with a fair ear. Memories of how he lost his beloved Athena, watching the life slip from her body as he held her in his arms, bubbled to surface. Sending off any poor soul who believed as Ariel did and knowing how they paid the price for their nativity. Barbarians, killers, kind and lovely, the concepts contrasted wildly in his mind like fire racing across oil on water. They were a two faced creature, "kind" one instance, cruel and murderous the next. "…. You'd love him, daddy. He's thoughtful; he's everything you'd want in a son. He loves me, and I love him." His eyes opened upon realizing who she was referring to; the boy who made her surrender everything to be with him, the boy who effectively saved his little girl from Ursula when he couldn't. Triton had emerged from the waters to find him sprawled on the beach in a swoon, Ariel watching him from the rock across from the beach. Sebastian pleaded with the king not to do anything rash, but at that point Triton wanted nothing to do with the human. Ariel was his main concern, she always would be.

"Whether or not he's anything I want is of little relevance in this matter, Ariel," He said. "You disobeyed me and broke the law of this land."

"Daddy, I know what I did was wrong, and I'm sorry," Ariel countered, her voice teetering on stressed. "But you wouldn't listen to me! I would've never made that deal with Ursula if you simply-"

"Laying the blame at my feet for your misguided actions does not vindicate your from wrongdoing, young lady," He interjected, silencing her. "There are a great many things that could have not come to pass if you'd simply heeded my words, Ariel. You're my daughter and I love you, but it does not excuse you from the consequences of your actions. The entire ocean would've paid a heavy price for your deeds-"

"But it didn't, Eric destroyed Ursula! He nearly died trying-"

"- Because you exchanged hands with the Sea Witch, your soul and that is exactly, my point!" Triton rose from his seat, his triton glowing. "Do you know how many people almost lost their lives trying to fix this- this mess you created?! All of this- all of it, was completely avoidable if you'd simply listened!"

What do you care if he lived or died? Ariel stared her father down with equal if not surpassing passion in her blue eyes, chin quivering. "You keep saying that, but you don't know that!" Ariel's voice rose to match her father's "Ursula could've found some other way of destroying you and the ocean without my help! Your blind hatred for humans put us in this mess!"

"My blind hatred for humans has kept this kingdom safe for over half a decade and thensome! Were it not for the surface laws and the common sense of your brethren, mermaids would've long since been extinct and exploited at the hands of your precious humans," He bellowed. "You fail to understand that the outcome of a situation does not justify or make right the past misdeeds. Your mother and countless others were killed because of humans!"

Ariel turned to face her sisters; the six of them regarded her with some surprise, knowing that she was silently asking them for help, any kind of back up to help her case. The youngest all looked to Attina for the 'okay'; Attina looked to her father, her hesitance getting the better of her otherwise boisterous courage. King Triton seemed not to notice, his gaze was entirely focused on Ariel. Regretfully, Aquata shook her head in objection. This was something Ariel was going to have to deal with herself.

Frustrated, Ariel turned to face her father, more than ready to bludgeon him with her point like it were a stick. "You can't hold that over mine and the people's head forever! Not every human is out to kill merkind! No living creature is perfect or without flaws, I know that. But what happened to mother and everyone else isn't proof that Eric's people-"

"Humanity is not the precious bottle of kindness you believe to be, Ariel. You think because you met a handful of kind strangers it erases what I know to be the truth? It doesn't, humankind is made of monsters and they will turn on you the very moment they have the chance," Triton continued.

"Daddy, I know what happened to mother was awful, I don't blame you for hating the people who took her from us, but you can't keep using her and a outdated law as an excuse to justify your hate. It's not right!"

"What's right and what is necessary is rarely the same thing and as King of this land I have to do what is right for my subjects," Triton stated firmly, bringing his triton forward. "You're never to see that boy or visit the surface again."

"You can't control me like this anymore, daddy. I'm not some puppet to be pulled around," Ariel snapped.

"I have no intentions of controlling you, Ariel," Triton said, the weapon of the sea coming to life. "However, I can make it so you'll never touch fin to land ever again."

"You can't, I won't let you!" Ariel turned her back on her father and swam as fast as her fins could carry her. Her sisters parted like seaweed and watched her go with wide eyes. Triton's sour expression grew darker at the sight Ariel and Flounder's departing figures. Rising the triton above his head, he collected the energies necessary to carry out his deed.

Ariel glided through the ocean at top, never stopping for a moment to look back at the kingdom she left behind. "What are you gonna do, Ariel? You aren't human anymore, and your dad sounded really mad," He said. "Like, madder than usual. I think he meant it this time."

"I don't care, Flounder," Ariel replied. "He's not keeping me from Eric, no matter what I'm going to be with him." The sound of triton going off overhead nearly made her stop, but she swam faster, scared to know what it meant and scared to find out what would happen if she stopped.

Ariel wasn't anywhere to be seen when Eric finally regained consciousness. Dogged and disoriented by the events that he couldn't rightly explain despite knowing he witnessed them, he wandered the edge of the beach with what strength he had and called out for her. Grigsby, Max and the others were missing, presumably safe, maybe not. He had no idea where he was besides dry land. The sound of his voice, hoarse and raspy from the salty waters made his head vibrate with the familiar pain of a headache.

Dizziness claimed him on more than one occasion as he continued to stumble his way through the damp landscape of sand and driftwood. Whenever he thought back on the time after that night on the balcony, his thoughts became fuzzy and tangled; he couldn't think straight and for the life of him he still hadn't quite figured out what happened in between that night and waking up on the ship, dressed and ready to be married to a transmogrified octopus with a human half and a rotten temper. Clearly he was just a pawn in some in twisted game he knew nothing about, something had transpired between Ariel and that 'woman', something that made him feel all too much like a prize to be won by the victor.

"Ariel!" He shouted as loudly as his voice would permit. "Ariel, where are you?!" Lightheaded, he started to sink to his knees, hope leaving his body. Had he- they gone through all of that for nothing? He wondered, his mind wandered to dark places and his stomach began to tie itself into knots. Had Ariel been killed during the fight with the monster? The last the he saw of her was right before he'd been swept off by the tidal wave that pulled them apart. He'd been so caught up in getting to moderate safety and stopping the monster, that had he never stopped to look for Ariel. Had he been too late to help her?

Eric looked out into the wide expanse of the ocean before him. Once he thought of it as a home away from him, now his outlook wasn't so pleasant. It'd brought him nothing but trouble, possibly taken away his first real chance at love and for what? What purpose did it serve to tear them apart, why was the world so against what they had together - however small it was?

His breath burned in his chest, raising his arms he encircled his mouth with his hands and bellowed Ariel's name as loud as he could. The name reverberated against the stony walls behind him and out across the ocean. "Ariel!" Eric shouted for Ariel as long as he could, even when his voice was hoarse and beyond the point of speech he still tried to call for her. The best it did was lead those searching for him to his location; Grigsby and group of men arrived thinking him delirious and struck silly by the brief and sudden storm that overcame the seas earlier. His limbs, his entire body felt like malleable rubber in Grigsby's arms as he hoisted him from the ground. "Master Eric, calm yourself!"

"No! I can't leave, I have to find her Grigsby!"

"Sire, she may have been lost to the sea," Grimsby declared, his expression etched with remorse. "There's nothing we can do now, we must return to the palace." No, no! Eric looked into the weary eyes of his manservant and shook his head. Ariel wasn't dead, she wasn't dead because she was a mermaid; mermaids were immortal, they couldn't die, she was still alive.

Eric tried to pull himself from free from the grip of his men, they only held on tighter to his arms. "No, Grimsby, I can't leave her! I can't!" Eric tried to fight against him and the others without avail. "ARIEL!" Eric cried as one of the crewmen hoisted him off the ground and over his shoulder.

"Eric," Just at the surface, Ariel heard Eric cry out for her; her heart ached sound of his voice, desperate and just as heartbroken as herself. No matter how hard she tried she could not break the surface to see him again. Her muscles tensed up, locked in place and she would raise her hands above her head and try to breach the water but it's very surface seemed too immovable, she couldn't move forward as Flounder did when emerged from the water and he tried in vain to catch the grieving prince's attention. Flounder watched with great distress as Eric was dragged away by his servant and crewmen.

"Flounder, what's happening?!" She cried.

"One the guys just threw Prince Eric over his shoulder!" Flounder exclaimed as he swam back down to her. "Now they're taking him away from the beach." No! Ariel felt her heart being squeezed by her anxieties.

She looked to flounder then back up at the surface above her, glittering like an unattainable jewel. She wasn't sure what her father did to the sea - or to her, maybe -, but it was clear he meant what he said.

Ariel was stuck, she couldn't get to Eric and he would be none of the wiser of her attempts. "Ariel, why don't you just go up?"

"I- I can't move the water, Flounder. I can't break the surface!" She whispered, pressing her hands against the glass-like water. "Daddy won't let me."

END.