Jessica was still with Ariel's sisters as they dolled her up. "Are you done yet?" she asked.
"Almost!" Attina smiled, then looked to her sisters. "Okay, what do we put in her hair? A crown?"
"A shell?" Alana suggested.
"A scrunchy?" Adella suggested.
"A cute hat?" Adriana suggested.
"This is gonna be a long day." Jessica groaned.
Arista came behind Jessica and put in a starfish barrette. "Here, this should do."
Jessica looked in the mirror then and smiled. "Wow, that is a good one!"
Arista smirked to her sisters in victory. This caused for the rest of the girls to groan out of defeat. Arista and Jessica then hugged each other with a laugh together.
Meanwhile, Flounder was still leading the others to the surprise he was talking about.
"Oh, come on, Flounder, could you just tell us what it is?" Atticus asked.
"You'll see," Flounder chuckled. "It's a surprise."
"Ugh, this better be worth it..." Darla got tired of waiting as she followed along.
"Oh, trust me, it will be." Flounder smiled.
Flounder made them close their eyes and led them into the grotto, once he got into a good spot, he smiled. "Okay!" he called for them to show they could look now.
And when they saw what Flounder's surprise was, it made Ariel smile. It had been the statue of Eric that was washed away now under the sea with them.
"That's your surprise?" Urchin asked.
"It's mostly for Ariel." Flounder explained.
"Oh, Flounder!" Ariel hugged her best friend. "Flounder, you're the best! It looks just like him!"
"Yeah, it even has his eyes." Darla said.
"Why, Eric?" Ariel talked with the statue like the boy of her dreams was right there with her. "Run away with you? It's all so sudden!"
'Well, at least she's happy.' Urchin thought to himself.
Darla was surprised that Urchin wasn't immaturely disgusted for a change, but she said nothing. Ariel smiled, but she gasped. The others turned and saw Triton was standing there and looked aggressively unhappy.
"Daddy!" Ariel gasped.
"Oh, crud." Atticus groaned.
Flounder took Atticus, Darla, and Urchin and hid with them behind a treasure chest.
"Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?" Triton demanded.
"Daddy, I had to." Ariel frowned.
"Contact between the human world and the merworld is strictly forbidden, Ariel!" Triton scolded. "You know that! Everyone knows that!"
"He would've died!" Ariel tried to defend.
"One less human to worry about!" Triton retorted.
"You don't even know him." Ariel said, glaring at her father.
"Please, stop and listen!" Urchin added, also glaring to Triton.
"Yeah!" Darla added, doing the same.
"You stay out of this!" Triton glared to the meddling others.
"Uncle Triton, stop!" Atticus scolded his uncle. "You of all people should know better! My own mother chose to become a human and look at where it got her, her own brother-in-law is bullying his own daughter being in love with a human!"
"It's true, Daddy, I love him!" Ariel told her father, referring to Eric.
Sebastian looked rather horrified by this.
"No..." Triton was in disbelief and shock.
"Why can't you be happy like you were half an hour ago!?" Darla tugged at her curls in frustration with her adoptive uncle.
"Ariel, you've lost your senses completely," Triton strongly disagreed. "He's a human and you're a mermaid!"
"I don't care." Ariel pouted.
"And besides, does it matter if he's human or not?" Atticus asked.
"It'll never happen, your mother got lucky, Atticus!" Triton glared to him as his trident glowed. "So help me, Ariel, I am going to get through to you, and if this is the only way, so be it..."
"No!" Darla and Urchin gasped.
Triton didn't listen to them, he zapped Ariel's treasures with his trident as punishment for Ariel's 'misbehavior'.
Stop!" Atticus yelled as he was now trying to take the trident away from his uncle.
"Get off, Atticus!" Triton yelled back as he continued.
Darla and Urchin held Ariel in comfort as her heart was breaking at her father's actions.
"No, I won't let you keep doing this!" Atticus yelled back as he began to try to pry the trident away from his uncle. "And if I have to use my full strength, I will!"
"Stop this at once!" Triton demanded.
During the fight, they came closer to the statue.
"Guys, wait!" Urchin cried out, noticing that they were close to damaging the newest addition to Ariel's collection.
"Uncle Triton, I won't let you destroy anything else!" Atticus glared.
Atticus and Triton argued for the trident, but it soon got loose from their grip and it flew against the statue and it broke.
"NOOOOOOO!" Ariel was extremely horrified, she was so upset right now. She quickly swam off and started to cry all over again and this morning started out so lovely.
This caused for Atticus to gasp and where he began to think that it was him to blame.
Darla came up to her adoptive brother and held out her hand. Atticus dismissed her and he swam off on his own, feeling sad as well. Urchin and Darla frowned for their older siblings, then glanced to Triton. Triton's anger turned into sudden guilt.
"We should leave Ariel alone for a while." Emily suggested.
"Is everything going to be okay?" Darla grew worried.
"I sure hope so, dear." Emily sighed.
Patrick hugged and comforted his wife. Emily sniffled and hugged back, deeply pouting. This was not working out as well as she hoped when they planned the visit.
After they left, Sebastian went over to Ariel.
"Ariel, I-" Sebastian frowned.
"Just go away." Ariel was not interested in seeing him since he spilled the beans, though unintentionally to Triton.
Sebastian frowned, he wanted to help, but he respected her wishes and backed off. Flounder left with him along with Darla.
Urchin came to his foster sister's side though, he may had been a jokester and usually gave others a hard time, but Ariel was his family now and he thought he would try to help. A couple of eels were swimming by them however.
"Poor child..." one eel cooed.
"Poor, sweet child..." the other eel said.
"Who's there?" Urchin asked, alarmed.
The eels smiled rather sinisterly to each other, then looked back as they came to the young merfolk.
"Don't be scared..." one eel said.
"We represent someone who can help you." the other eel added.
"Someone who could make all your dreams come true." the first eel said.
"Just imagine, you and your prince, together forever." the eels said together.
"And don't you like a human as well yourself?" the other eel asked Urchin. "Doesn't she sing so beautifully for a temporary mermaid?"
"One, we don't understand and two, how do know Darla?" Urchin asked.
"Oh, we know all..." one eel grinned. "Ursula has great powers."
Ariel and Urchin looked frightened. "The sea witch?"
"But that's impossible...,No, get out of here and leave us alone!" Urchin told the eels.
"Suit yourself..." one of the eels slithered away.
"It was only a suggestion..." the other eel added, then flicked a piece of the statue towards Ariel.
Ariel frowned, she then saw what happened and looked at the piece, it was some of Eric's face.
Urchin saw the look in Ariel's face and thought that it would be great to be human as well.
"Wait!" Ariel and Urchin called to them in unison.
"Yeeeeessss...?" the two eels looked back, rather darkly.
Meanwhile...
"Poor Ariel..." Flounder sniffled, feeling very bad for his best friend.
"I didn't mean to tell, it was an accident." Sebastian said.
Ariel and Urchin passed by.
"Ariel, Urchin," Sebastian looked to them. "Where are you two going? What are you two doing here with this riffraff?"
"We're going to see Ursula." Ariel and Urchin replied blankly.
"No!" Sebastian gasped, trying to stop them. "She's a demon! She's a monster!"
"Why don't you tell our father?" Ariel scoffed. "You're good at that."
"B-But, I..." Sebastian felt bad.
Ariel and Urchin continued to follow the two eels.
"What's going on?" Darla swam over.
"They are going to see the sea witch!" Sebastian cried out.
"What?!" Atticus cried out.
"We gotta stop them!" Darla cried.
"Come on then!" Sebastian swam with them over to Ursula's hideout.
Flounder was nervous, but he followed after.
"Why are they even following those eels?" Atticus asked.
"I don't like this..." Darla bit her lip.
Flounder was incredibly nervous due to Ursula's really horrific reputation in the sea.
Ariel and Urchin kept following until they were outside a cavern.
"Come in..." a female voice called to them. "Come in, my children... We mustn't lurk in doorways, it's rude..."
"Um, sorry?" Urchin said, confused.
"One might question your upbringing..." the evil female voice continued to reveal an octopid woman that was the famed Ursula, the sea witch, truly more evil than the former Marina Del Rey who was paired off with Evil Manta before her banishment. "Now then... You're both here because you have a thing for those hum-Erm... Prince and former child star fellows... Not that I blame you, they are quite the catch, aren't they? Well, angel fish, the solution to your problem is simple. The only way to get what you both want is to become humans yourselves."
"You can do that?" Ariel and Urchin asked.
This caused for the evil sea witch to smirk evilly. "My dear sweet children," Ursula came between them. "That's what I do, it's what I live for. To help unfortunate merfolk, like yourselves. Poor souls with no one else to turn to."
'I have a feeling a villain song is coming on.' Urchin thought to himself.
Ursula led Ariel and Urchin deep into her cavern so she could help them out as she saw them as poor, unfortunate souls. Flounder and Sebastian were coming with Atticus and Darla to fetch Ariel and Urchin.
"I don't know Ursula," Darla said to her adoptive brother. "Is she... Dangerous?"
"Well, if she's known as a sea witch and she's this far off from anyone visiting her, then yeah, she must be dangerous." Atticus said.
"Oh, I feel like this is going to end badly..." Darla bit her lip in worry.
"Come on, we're in a hurry now!" Sebastian called as he found Ursula's cavern as Ursula was talking with Ariel and Urchin.
"Now, here's the deal," Ursula had a golden scroll hidden away for now as she showed images for Ariel and Urchin to watch. "I will make you a potion that will turn you both into humans for three days. Got that? Three days. Now listen, this is important. Before the sun sets on the third day, you've got to get dear ol' princey and Goldilocks to fall in love with you. That is, they've got to kiss you. Not just any kiss, the kiss of true love. If they kiss you before the sun sets on the third day, you'll remain human, permanently, but, if they don't... You turn back into a mermaid and merboy, and you'll both belong to me."
"No, Ariel and Urchin-" Sebastian tried talking them out of it before getting wrapped up by the eels. His words of protests were then muffled out against his will.
"Have we got a deal?" Ursula grinned viciously.
"If we become human..." Ariel thought about it and how Emily rarely came to visit due to her life on dry land and plus, she had to make a deal out of this and probably wouldn't have the same benefit as her aunt. "Then, we'll never see our father and sisters again."
"Yeah..." Urchin frowned.
"That's right..." Ursula cooed to them. "But... You'll have your soulmates... Life's full of tough choices, innit?"
Ariel and Urchin sighed, feeling lost for a moment.
"Oh, there is one more thing," Ursula thought quickly. "We haven't discussed the subject of payment. You can't have something for nothing."
"But, we don't have any-" Urchin spoke up.
"I'm not asking for much, just a token, really, a trifle," Ursula stopped him. "Ariel, you won't even miss it... What I want from YOU is... Your voice."
"M-My voice?" Ariel asked, shocked.
"You've got it, sweet cakes," Ursula glanced at her. "No more talking, singing, ZIP!"
"But, without my voice..." Ariel stammered. "H-How can I-"
"You'll have your looks," Ursula came to her side. "Your pretty face! And don't underestimate the power of body language, HA!"
"Okay, but what about my price?" Urchin asked.
"Like you have something I want," Ursula chuckled darkly to him before unleashing the contract for them to sign so they could make the deal official and they would become temporary humans to make their dreams and wishes for love come true. "You both have three days and you both have to earn the kiss of true love at the same time... Otherwise, you'll both belong to me."
"We get it." Urchin said.
"Flotsam, Jetsam, now I got 'em, boys." Ursula whispered to her eels.
Ariel and Urchin both signed the contract and the deal was set, much to Flounder and Sebastian's misfortune. There was now a huge explosion like in a witch's cauldron.
"Paluga, sarruga, come winds of the Caspian Sea," Ursula recited a spell. "Now rings us glossitis and max laryngitis, La voce to me! Now... Sing!"
Ariel then took a breath and sang the best she could for Ursula's spell to work.
"Keep singing!" Ursula told her.
Ariel continued to sing. Magical and mystical hands appeared from Ursula's spell and seemed to reach into her throat and take her voice away from her. Ariel's singing was heard, but it was no longer coming out of her mouth. Ursula now had Ariel's voice, she laughed as she finally got what she had wanted.
Flounder and Sebastian then saw Ariel and Urchin were now changed into humans and they rushed the two former sea creatures up to shore, after all, humans could not breathe underwater. Atticus and Darla joined in to help the two get up to the surface. Ursula laughed wickedly and wildly as things had gone her way.
Eric and Max were walking by the castle on the beach while Cherry was staring at the full moon.
"Hey, Cherry, how you doing?" Bud asked.
"Just thinking..." Cherry said as the wind gently blew her hair.
"I know, you wish you had a friend with you on this vacation..." Bud gently hugged her. "It'll be okay though... We're with a real prince."
"Yeah, but still..." Cherry looked away distantly.
"How's about you read this?" Michelle asked, handing her daughter a book.
"What's this?" Cherry took the book.
"It's called 'The Little Mermaid'." Michelle said.
"Uh-huh?" Cherry asked as she flipped through it.
"It's about this mermaid princess who falls in love with a man on land and she would do anything to be with him, even sell her voice and tail fin to an evil sea witch," Michelle urged. "I loved it as a child... I thought you would like it."
"Well, I guess I do like a good book..." Cherry shrugged. "Thanks, Mom."
"You're welcome, sweetheart." Michelle smiled.
Cherry put the book on her nightstand, she would read it if she couldn't sleep. Eric was outside with Max and playing his flute by the moonlight. Cherry continued to read the book and where to her surprise, it was exactly of what had been happening.