Chapter 7-
Emily had been waiting by the shore next to her truck for nearly 30 minutes now. The sun was setting, so it was technically sundown. She was growing restless, not from Lena not showing up, just that she couldn't wait for Lena to show up. Her phone started ringing, and she immediately answered it.
"Hi dad…everything's fine, I've just been down at the beach a ton, doing chores, at work and such…well, kind of…I mean, there is this girl I met…she's…well…I'd be lying if I said there wasn't something romantic going on…yeah…her name's Lena…yeah she's so nice…no, she's a real…" Emily couldn't believe what she was about to say. "…she's a real fish out of water…" Emily looked at the ocean to make sure Lena wasn't there. "…yep…well, yeah…yeah…no, Hana turned out to be kind of a jerk…just too competitive…well I haven't really seen her in that area yet…ok…ok…ok love you too. Bye."
She hung up the phone and got back to looking at the ocean. Then she saw a blue figure come out of the water.
"Emily?" Lena called.
"Lena?"
Emily ran straight into the water, forgetting she was clothed. She dove and swam straight to where Lena was and hugged her.
"I missed you so much, I couldn't stop thinking about you today. And…" Emily stopped to feel Lena, she was unwell, worried, sad.
"What's wrong?"
Lena nearly started crying.
"Emily, I'm sorry. It…it's just…Angela, she sort of found out everything, and…well…"
Emily hugged Lena closer. "It's ok, it's ok. Shh. "
"Emily…I'm leaving."
"What?"
"Angela, she's been wanting to move for a bit, somewhere a bit warmer, and I guess she was going to surprise us all last night…and…"
"When are you leaving?" Asked Emily.
"Tomorrow morning."
Emily was in shock.
"She told me we were moving to a place called the Caribbean, and to tell you too."
"Lena, the Caribbean, that's like…5,000 miles away."
"I know."
"Is there anything we can do about it?"
"No. She just told me to say my last goodbyes."
Emily started to sniff a bit too. But then she went in for a final kiss. It was so powerful, it sprung them underwater and they did multiple somersaults. They did it for nearly 30 seconds, and Lena knew that Genji and Lucio were watching, but she didn't care. The water wiped the tears from her eyes. She loved every minute of it. It probably felt better than anything she ever did in Antarctica. But then about a second after they broke the kiss, Lena felt a sharp shock in her back and went unconscious. She was stung by a jellyfish.
"Lena!" Emily and the boys yelled as they swam toward her. Emily brought Lena to the surface where Lucio and Genji met her up there.
"Not good, not good." Lucio said. Emily could tell who they were after all of Lena's stories.
"What happened?" Asked Emily.
"She was stung by a jellyfish. This can be lethal." Said Genji. "Go get Angela."
"On it." Lucio went swimming like never before.
Genji was carrying Lena on her back.
"Is she going to be ok?" Asked Emily.
"I…I don't know. Jellyfish are among the most dangerous things to merpeople, she may already be dead."
Emily shook at the thought, she almost started crying. Then Lucio, Angela, and Puppers surfaces a few feet away.
"Oh no, Lena!" Angela took Lena from Genji, and turned her over, revealing a massive cut along her spine. "Oh no, oh no." Angela's hand started glowing yellow as she waved it over the cut.
"What're you doing?" Asked Genji.
"Healing magic. It should soften out the edges, but…" Angela couldn't even bring herself to say it.
"Is it too late?" Asked Emily.
Angela started sobbing. "I…I think so."
Emily started crying as well. The two boys tried to stay strong, with Lucio shedding a tear or two. Even Puppers looked so sad. But then he let out a screech, and started glowing. Once Puppers was nothing but light, he morphed, everybody was watching with amazement. The light morphed into a manly shape. Then the light went away from him everywhere except from the top of his staff. The man wore a Navy Blue cape, with gold scale armor under it. He had longer blonde hair, a beard, an eyepatch over his left eye, and a crab claw for a left arm that held his wooden, barnacle covered staff. Angela immediately knew who it was.
"Aquarius."
Aquarius floated above the water.
"We have no time to lose, we need to get her onto the sand." He said.
"Wait, won't she cripple?" Asked Angela.
"Not if she's either fully dead, or half dead."
Angela was trying to figure out the concept. But was interrupted by everybody dragging Lena from the water to the sand. Aquarius flew over to where she was, Emily got in the dry sand, and the rest of them stayed in as much water as possible.
"Emily, we need a drop of your blood." Said Aquarius.
"What?" She asked.
"Not even I can cheat death, but we can bend it. Prick your finger and wipe it on Lena's forehead."
"Ok, but how?"
Genji began to draw his sword.
"No no! I just remembered, I have a pocket knife in the truck." Emily ran to grab it and pricked her finger with it on the run back, then wiped the blood on Lena's forehead.
"Stand back." Aquarius held his staff horizontally and started reciting a charm. Sand started to blow and eventually tornadoed around Lena. Then once the spell was over, all the sand blew away from her.
