"Orin!" Mera protested standing up from the tub, reaching for her towel. "I thought you were asleep." She whined. He shook his head and turned from her. "Wait!" she pleaded desperately.
"Why so you can explain to me how I married a mortal enemy? How I went to get the tasks to challenge for the throne of Atlantis and was gifted with the tattoo that will never allow me to touch you or to be near my baby? You know my memory is foggy, but I'm sure you didn't mention this," he spoke turning to her and gesturing to her blue figure. "To me." He growled.
She started to cry. "You said it didn't matter."
"Really?" he glared and she only cried harder. "Then enlighten me, tell me how we met? What your family is like, what our wedding was like, I really want to know."
She sighed and closed her eyes and she became the woman that he had been sharing a bed with and chill slid down his spine. "We have never fought Orin, never. You said you could look beyond the color of my skin and love me for me..."
"You are avoiding the questions Mera. How did we meet? What was the wedding like, what is your family like?" he pressed. She scowled up at him.
"I was…." She shook her head knowing that she couldn't perpetuate the lie any further. "You want the truth?" she purred as she moved to sit on the bed in nothing but a towel.
"I deserve it." He glowered at her.
"You are right, we aren't married I only said all that did all that to win you over, to gain your trust. You are married and in fact do have a child on the way, but I took your memories, all of them and buried them deep into your psyche. I alone control them. If you don't do exactly as I say not only will I erase every one of them but I will kill your wife." She glared. Orin lunged at her. "Uh, uh , uh," she smirked and shook her head. "Hurt me and I will kill her, no questions asked."
"What is it you want?" he growled.
"What I and the rest of my kind should have had for years, the keys to the kingdom of Atlantis, being banished was not fair to us."
"And why would I help you?"
"Again, your wife and child's life depend on it."
"I don't," he spoke and she grinned as she pulled his memories forward and they hit him like a ton of bricks. He dropped to his knees, "Chloe, oh god, Chloe," he panted as all of his memories smacked him at full force. Mera then pushed them back inside of him, leaving only the faint memory of the blond with the green eyes and impish smile. "You are such a bitch," he hissed at her.
"I will take that as a compliment and thank you." She grinned. "Now that I don't have to hide from you what I am, I am going for a swim; I need to find my sisters. You pet, will look at the list I concocted and plan our first target." He shook his head.
"Oh you will, there is more than one way to hurt your wife, and if she were to see a picture of us naked in bed together." She grinned and headed out of the hotel room in a towel not caring who saw or what they thought.
Orin moved to sit on his butt back resting against the bed. He wasn't married to Mera, he had a baby on the way with a woman he only had a whisper of a memory of and if he didn't do what she wanted she would be hurt or worse killed. How in the world had his life gone so wrong?
He shook his head, he could sit and wallow or he could find a way out of the pit of hell he was in. He wondered if her influence was why the sea had been so quiet to him. It was like losing one of his senses; he missed the call from the ocean. IF Mera had taken away his memory it could have been easy for her to take his ability to hear the call of the ocean. He stood and went to the table where her list was. He sat in the chair feeling very nauseous. All on the list were highly popular heavily populated sites. He had wanted to heal the oceans not cause loss of life. He had been a fool to follow her he closed his eyes faintly hearing the laugh of a woman, that seemed so familiar to him. That beckoned to him like a true siren, he wanted to find the face that belonged to the laugh and tattoo the memory to his soul, how could he forget her, would she or could she ever forgive him for the thing he was becoming.
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Namor got off the phone with Chrissa and handed it back to Tom. "So now do you mind explaining to me how you got bit by a siren, again?" Namor asked Atlanta.
She shook her head and sighed. "I was trying to get back to Atlantis to find out more about the headaches and nightmares plaguing Chloe when I was attacked. There were 3 and they were sisters."
"Bera, Cimera, and Blue?" he asked. Attie just looked at him strangely. "They are fugitive's sworn enemies to Atlantis and the throne. But there are four, Mera; she is the oldest, the leader and the most dangerous of them all."
"They were looking for her too. She was missing." Atlanta spoke and chills slid down her spine. Tom moved and pulled her into his arms to reassure her.
"One was killed and the other was wounded severely." Attie spoke. "Bera is dead, Cimera and Blue are left, but I don't know if Cimera will survive her wound."
Namor cursed in Atlantean. "Well then I need to get back to the Tower then back home,"
"To Atlantis?" Tom asked.
"No to my condo. There is more than one way to check on the sea then going onto Atlantis. And if Chrissa and I are going to make it, then she needs to see it all." He grinned. He finished his beer and then set the bottle down. "Thanks for the beer Tom. Attie, always nice to see you. Get some rest, your body is still going to have to recover." He smiled then he went to the opposite side of the boat and rolled into the water disappearing.
"Attie?" Tom spoke staring at his wife.
"Yeah?" she still looked a little lost.
"You ready to head back?"
"And face the music?" she shook her head.
"No, to come to the Tower with me and face my family."
"Really?"
"It's really about time." He smiled and winked at her and went to start the boat and head back to the marina.
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"Ohh this is so damn frustrating!"Chloe cursed and tossed the pictures she was looking at across the table. "Nothing, not a dang blip, not a sighting, nothing. I have no freaking clue where he is and it's driving me freaking batty!"
Vic just stared at her. "Sorry Liscious, we have everyone working on it."
"I know, I know, it's just….god, I miss him. I have to go see the OB later today and I would love for him to be there. This just blows."
"I wish I could understand, but I don't but we will find him."
"I hope so." She frowned. "I just can't shake the feeling that something really bad is going to happen."
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The two sirens sprawled on the beach of a totally uninhabited island. The one was a sickly pale blue the other was struggling to breath. They had put hundreds and hundreds of miles between the human and his Atlantean mate. The uninjured one finally sat up and looked at her sister. "Bera," she whispered. "IS dead, please sister don't leave me too." The weakened siren looked up at her sister.
"Blue, I have no choice in the matter, I have lost way to much blood. But don't let our deaths be in vain. Wreak your vengeance, find Mera and…make….them…..pay..." The siren's eyes fluttered closed and she took her last breath and a second after that her body disintegrated into dust.
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Orin spent an hour pouring over the list, picking a location that had the least of amount of collateral damage. The process seemed to keep him centered. Planning seemed so familiar to him. He yawned, he was tired, but he needed to formulate a plan. He closed his eyes and massaged his temples. Taking a few deep breaths, he could almost feel her breath on his cheek, feel her smiling against his skin, and feel her hands on his neck. He wanted to remember her, wanted to see her face, to remember who he was fighting for. He shook off the sensation and looked back down at the paperwork, the schematics to the main building. One word kept popping out at him.
"A.C."
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Mera was exhausted, she had been calling for her sisters in the water for nearly an hour, nothing. No response. She sighed it was time to go back and check on her puppet to see how well he was preparing to help her get the keys to Atlantis.
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Namor was tired when he walked into the solar of the tower. Chrissa was there sleeping on one of the loungers a lunch tray next to her. He smiledat the sight. Oliver had caught him before he reached the solar to tell him what a great contribution she had made to the team. It wasn't specifically on looking for A.C but a couple of other projects, her linguistic skills were very impressive. Namor knelt by her side and smiled. He cupped her face with his hand and rubbed his thumb gently across her cheek. She stirred then opened her eyes slowly to look into his eyes.
"Hey," she smiled
"Hey yourself" he smiled. "Sorry to wake you."
"No, no I really didn't mean to fall asleep. It was just so comfy out here, I couldn't help it."
"Well, what do yousay we head to my condo? I'll cook you dinner, we'll have a little wine."
"What about the search for your cousin?"
"The team is looking, besides, I have some things to tell you about my afternoon and I could use your input."
"Really?" He smiled and nodded. ""And you're cooking me dinner?" she beamed. "I am a lucky girl." She leaned and kissed him gently.
"No sweet heart. I am the lucky one." He smiled back. "Now, let's get out of here." He grinned and picked her up from the chair and carried her out of the tower.
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Chloe went to the OB and after her appointment never came back into the tower. She kept hearing the words over and over in her head. She wandered the back garden and went and sat under the tree that she and AC used all the time to feel close to him. She had had a sonogram and she cried all the way back to the Tower. She needed her husband in the worst way and he was so lost to her. She tried calling her father in law, but just kept getting voice mail. She couldn't have been more surprised but what she learned today, she could have been knocked over by a feather. "Twins," she muttered. She shook her head; she and A.C were having twins. "Holy crap." She spoke shaking her head and then she began to cry again.
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Mera entered the hotel room to see Orin dressed in short and a t-shirt, sitting at the table reading over a stack of papers.
"My haven't we been busy." She spoke cheerily. He said nothing to her. "Awe don't pout, all you have to do is give me what I want and I will leave you too your pathetic life."
"It's not that easy you bitch." He hissed. "By accepting Poseidon's mark I may not be something that my wife would even want anymore. So save your act for someone who cares. I will find a way to stop you, I will see you get what you deserve."
"And risk the life of your precious wife and child, I hardly doubt that." She spoke smugly.
"You don't know me so don't presume to know what I will or won't risk." He hissed. "Now, I need to go and check out my target."
"No, you aren't leaving this room."
He cocked his head at her and shook his head. "What are YOU afraid of? Afraid I will break the chains of your control? Afraid that I can't get the job done? Who isn't so confident now?" he sassed.
"Shut up!" she screamed. "I have you totally under my control. I alone can release your memories to you." She glared.
"Then let me do what you want me to do. I need to recon. the building to time this right."
"Then I go with you."
"NO!" he spoke standing up.
"Why not?" She spoke suspiciously.
"One person is less suspicious then two. The less attention I draw to myself the better. Give me 3 hours. If I'm not back by then…..then you have the right to do what you must to my wife." He spoke.
"And where is your first target?" she asked.
"Aquaticonia, Metropolis." He spoke plainly. She smiled.
"Perfect." She laughed. "3 hours, and if you're not back in time. I will send your bride pictures of us." She spoke. Orin nodded and stood and stripped off his t-shirt.
"I will be back." He spoke and left the room heading to the water. 'I am A.C, I am A.C' he thought over and over again. 'By Poseidon, let me remember my wife.' He thought as he dove in to the water and swam toward Metropolis.