I have a lot of plans for this but hopefully I'll manage to weave them all in. This fic is a lot darker than Mako, so you've been warned. Enjoy!

I don't own Mako Mermaids or Skulduggery Pleasant.


Zac stood in the empty grotto. While piles of gold coins and other trinkets remained a large bulk of the once splendid array of rare and valuable objects and ingredients were gone. It wasn't just that. The whole place had a ghostly feel. Mimmi was gone. Rita was gone. Ondina was gone. Sirena never dropped by. Neither did Lyla or Nixie. And Nerissa was far more gone than the rest. They were just across the ocean. Ha, just. Shanghai was thousands of miles away. And Ireland even further.

It had been two months. Two months since he had seen through Mimmi's eyes the body of his mother lying drenched in blood. She had been a Mermaid and she had spent her last moments bleeding out on land. After that Rita and Mimmi left. The Sanctuary came in and took over the investigation. Stories were set up. Plane records falsified. As far as anyone else knew Rita had left for Ireland to visit family a week before and Mimmi had left the day before. Rita had dropped back a few times to collect stuff, but she never stayed long. She had left a phone number on a small, rectangular strip of paper. Zac kept it pinned up on a board, but never called.

Zac now officially owned a house. Rita still paid the bills but it was officially his. Cam convinced him to keep it. They were planning to turn the grotto into a man-cave. Thank god for Cam. And Evie. And Carly. And David. And his parents.

He has grown up without the knowledge that the parents who cared for him and allowed him to flourish in the harsh world, were not his true parents. Then he found his real mother. Then he lost her. Whoever had ended his mother's life had not stepped forth to claim their notorious fame of killing one of the most powerful mermaids in the oceans.

Zac trailed his fingers over the wooden railing, leaving tracks in the settled dust.

"Zac!"

"In here Evie!"

He let his cloak of sadness drop. Evie didn't need to see him like this. Not any longer. Neither did Cam. Not when there was work to be done.


Mimmi stared at the ceiling. It was white with indented patterns. It was surprisingly warm, snuggled under the duvet like a land girl. Her room was silent, but she could hear the murmur of Rita's TV through the thin wall separating their rooms. Ireland was far colder than what she was used to, but then she was spoilt. She was a Northern Mermaid who grew up in the cushioned warmth of the Pacific instead of braving the North Atlantic where her original Pod dwelled.

She felt she was drowning. In grief. In the unknown. In the fact that she was so far away from her only remaining family. What was that song Sirena sang? Mimmi softly sang to herself

Being alone in this place

Knowing that soon I'll be home

And I'll pray

As we share forever and grow together

Facing so much everyday

I'm closer right now but still so far away

But I won't surrender

Cause I remember -

Mimmi cut off her singing as the all too familiar tears leaked forth. She spent her whole life believing she had been abandoned, she grew up away from her brother. Now she was alone again. Not totally alone. She had Rita, but the Mermaid was busy dealing with her own stuff to be there as much as Mimmi needed her to be. They were both looking for someone to support them, but it was something they couldn't find with each other. Mimmi listened to the whispering from the TV trying to find something to latch herself onto the world before she spiralled away, like a guppy caught in a whirlpool.

She didn't want to close her eyes. She didn't want to open herself to nightmares that festered within, ready to torment her 'rest' with the images and scene of finding her mother lying her own blood while whoever had done it left free.

At that moment, Mimmi felt she would do anything to be with Nerissa or Zac. The only upside was that Ireland, or the west coast was battered by the same ocean she came from and her mother came from. And for now, it was the best she had. It was her strongest link to her own past.


Thoughts?