Disclaimer: I own nothing. Savvy? *then steals the franchise*

Chapter 1: Birth

She remembers her birth. Barely, but she does. Her eyes had not quite opened yet, still comfortably covered in sleep as her curled body rocked gently with the currents beneath the water. There were sounds. Beautiful, lovely sounds around her as she felt the presence of beings circling her form.

At once, a taint of curiosity to know, to see what they were stirred her from her slumber. She raised her head slowly, straining to hear what she could identify now as singing. She does not know why or how she can recognize it as such but it is like the knowledge has been cradled in the deep chambers of her soul only to be awakened and brought to the surface of her consciousness when the voices graced her ears.

Swish.

The sensation of something rushing past her caused her to recoil in fear but not completely. She could feel something soft coming in contact against her shoulders and bare back, floating in wild and slight disarray.

'What is that?'

The voice startled her for it was not the same as the ones surrounding her. It was much clearer, and tugged at the edges of the diminishing blackness of her mind. Then she realized that it came from herself though she could not quite figure out how. These…words, she sees now, were her own voice. Still unuttered but undeniably distinct from the blurred ones that she was only beginning to distinguish. There was a sudden yearning, a need for her voice to join theirs as she did not know where she was, who she was or even what she was and that made her all the more curious to find out as much as it made her afraid of this awareness she has gained, this vulnerability to a world she has yet to understand.

The voices drew closer. They were soothing and gentle, like a caress encouraging her to break out of the invisible shell encasing her. She wanted to respond to it, the sound scratching up her throat to let out a cry and have them tug her out into the open so that she may finally know 'What am I?'

But they made no other movements and she could feel some of them slipping away. Slightly alarmed, she lifted up her head faster this time and turned ever so little to the nearest source of heat she could detect. It was faint, the coldness of the depths enshrouding it mercilessly, but it was there. She could feel something flex and realizes she had limbs. Arms, fingers. They twitched and gradually unwrapped from around her torso, hesitantly stretching out to the empty space ahead of her. With that, she experienced the first instinctual kick of her tail as she swam forward awkwardly and blindly. She kicked again and again and again, with each one helping her quickly adapt to the strangeness she has woken to.

However, her eyes were still shut. She eagerly wanted to open them as the excitement roused among the ones who witnessed her emerging from her nascent state. She could feel hands on her now, touching her head, gripping her arms, pulling her fins. Some tenderly while others were rough as they guided her in an unknown direction. But none of them hurt her and because of that, she was not frightened by the strange welcome she was receiving.

Their voices were even louder now, but she still could not make out what they were trying to say. Immediately, she cried out, not knowing the reason why, but it rang clear enough for them to release her and swim a respectable distance away as she tries to wrap her confusion of the situation.

Then, slender hands cupped both her cheeks, the scales lightly scratching her skin, and turned her head to face their owner. She could sense the firmness as well as reassurance of the gaze of whoever was holding her. What's more, she felt a drop of warmth in her chest within that hold. A sense of belonging and a promise of protection that seemed as if it were solely hers the moment she was born.

"Come now, open your eyes…" came the melodic voice, sweet and alluring with a hint of amusement in its tone.

She dared and did, her eyes squeezed tightly before blinking several times to eradicate the haziness of an infant's first sight. No longer scared so long as she could see what she felt with those hands and what they appear to offer her.

What met those fresh pair of inquisitive orbs was not the warmth she had hoped but an unfathomable darkness. Harsh and cruel and relentlessly cold, freezing all the fibers of her very being, burying it beneath its destructive waves and leaving it to be forgotten like the very nature of the sea itself.

And her kin smiled sardonically at her, revealing the sharp fangs behind those exotic lips.

"Hello, little sister."

A/N: I think by now, everyone who writes a fic for these two have seen the movie already. And I need to see it again even though I only watched it this morning cuz it was just AWESOMESAUCE. The several flaws it had aside, Johnny Depp was wonderful as Jack as always, Penelope Cruz was absolutely stunning as a pirate, Ian McShane played the exact type of villain we need these days and did a splendid job, Sam Claflin was so adorable that I wanted to hug him and Astrid Bergès-Firsbey was just gorgeous. Oh, and there can never be another Pirates movie without Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa. I declare it. Nuff said.

Alright, so you'll have to forgive me for how awful this must have been. I haven't written a story in god knows how long so I'm really rusty on my techniques and stuff. This, however, I had to limit myself a bit since I'm writing from, well, a newborn's perspective so I'm wondering if I made the right choice or not. You tell me.
I hope it will get better as we go along and by that, I mean longer chapters as well but that's a guarantee anyway since I can write a hurricane up if I wanted to…I wrote 15 pages for one chapter once. It was crazy.

And instead of Philip and Syrena interacting straight on, I wanted to start with what I envision as the beginning of Syrena's life and how she came to be different from her ruthless sisters. I mean, yea, she's still a mermaid who eats sailors for breakfast but I get the feeling she was still too young in the movie to know what it means to be cruel (or have and act on a full man-eating fish nature, take your pick). Which may or may not have been the reason why she was so drawn to Philip's rare kindness and his somewhat flowery language (I swear, he reminds me a bit of Christian from Moulin Rouge, kekeke). But yea, I wanted to see how this idea of mine formed on paper and this is what I'll be expanding on.

Not entirely sure on how mermaids are born, though, since I couldn't find any workable information on that so I'll just leave that up for you to interpret on your own. No, there were no seashells involved and yes, this will be written mostly in Syrena's POV since it focuses on "feelings". Emotions speak louder than words when it comes to mermaid interactions, I should think.

Right, so I'll shut up now and I do hope you'll give me feedback on what I should improve on if you're still interested in following this story. I have more ideas for PhilipxSyrena stories (cuz they are quickly rising up the ladder to my next extreme obsession) that I might work on sooner or later but first, gotta get started on a Blackbeard and Angelica one-shot. Cuz I'm a sucker for parent-child relationships in my fiction. Heh. :D