Karen: Hello everyone, been a while hasn't it?
Zac: It's not been that long, you only got the 9th Chapter out, what, a week ago?
Karen: I don't actually remember and I can't be bothered to che- *realises Zac is talking*
... get back on the ground mister!
Zac: Huh?
Karen: UGH! Do you not remember where we left off? You're supposed to be *CENSORED FOR SPOILER*
Zac: Sorry...
Karen: Well, we should probably get on with the story. Only one more chapter after this one and we're done... I think...
Chapter 10: Everyone's Happiness
"Huh?" Evie said in disbelief. Thick tension hung in the air over Ivan's words. If things seemed bleak when the world was going to end, it was a little mild in comparison for Evie and others.
"You heard me," Ivan reinforced. "He was using Overdrive without any of his magic from Mako Island, the Overdrive was feeding off of his human life force, it was only a matter of time until he used it all up. Destroying Rick and Lucien used the last of it. If he awakes, and I'm not saying he will, then he'll never regain a human form."
Evie almost refused to listen to the words that were coming out of his mouth. "So, he might not even wake up?"
"Using up his life force like that, he'll be relying on the strength his merman side gives him, and with no magic from Mako Island, his chances are slim," Bill explained. "I'm so sorry Evie."
"No," she replied breathlessly. "NO! He can't die! He just can't!" She leaned over his body and began crying like there was no tomorrow.
"What about the Archelite Shell?" Nick asked, whispering in Ivan's ear.
"Zac stands a chance of waking up, David doesn't," Ivan replied rather plainly, whispering back to him.
"Zac please, come back to us," Evie begged. She managed to look at his lifeless face through all of her tears, and noticed something odd about his ears. The scales had become a brighter shade of blue, and some scales almost had a diamond like texture to them, but they shone quite brightly.
Isis, Tanya and Sarah got curious of her staring, and went over to see what exactly it was.
"Evie?" Isis asked. "Is something else wrong?"
Evie swallowed back the urge to cry, as well as her tears and pointed to his ears. "They've changed."
The three of them then looked at his ears in detail for themselves, also noticing the brighter shade and diamond texture. It wasn't just his ears, looking down at his tail, the exact same thing had happened. "Well, I can honestly say I've never seen this before," Sarah stated, her voice a little broken. "Ivan, got any ideas?"
He walked over to take a look for himself, already rather worried when Evie mentioned that something had changed. As he took a look for himself, he slumped to the ground, landing on his knees, not wanting to believe it himself.
"Is it bad?" Tanya asked concerned.
Ivan looked to the ground, not wanting to tell them, but he knew he had to.
"It's official, there's no chance for him to ever retain a human form. There was the slightest chance before but now it's gone. It's other significance is even worse though," Ivan began. "He- he's not-" he squeaked out, unable to finish his sentence.
"No," Evie whispered, her eyes filling up with tears once again. Ivan didn't have to finish what he was trying to say for most people to work it out. "No he can't be dead! He saved the world but the cost was his life!? It's not fair!" She cried, completely slumping over his body, holding him as tight as she could.
All everyone else could do was either cry along with her or mourn in silence at their great loss. Yeah they saved the world, but at the cost of a very courageous man, their friend and companion. No-one even knew what to do.
"Zac, please," Evie began to say behind her broken voice and tears. "If even a part of you is still alive in there, then please. Come back. Come back, for me."
Things were completely silent for a moment, and then, it was broken.
Evie leapt up off of his body as it began to glow with a brilliant shining blue aura, much like the colour of his tail. His lifeless body was lifted high into the air, floating far above the ground.
His eyes snapped open, the same colour as the glow surrounding him, and his raised his arms up to the sky. "Oh might and powerful Goddess of merfolk, Aquarius, daughter of previous Goddess Oceana, look upon this scene and grant me thy blessing. Restore Mako Island back to its beautiful vibrancy, restore power that has been lost, and restore all life that drew its power from its source. As but a humble servant to you, please grant me just this one wish, and let your divine light shine upon what has been lost."
In the darkness of the night and grey skies from wretched storms, came a shining white light, covering the entire area of Olcultus. It was nothing like anyone had ever seen before, as thousands upon thousands of small crystals came scattering down from the clouds. As Zac closed his eyes once more, the crystals began changing colour, to that of the aura surrounding him.
The ground began to violently shake, causing everyone in the area to flee from the area, diving back into the water. Before Sarah left though, she grabbed the Archelite Shell that had fallen down onto the floor. As they did, the land that was once Olcultus sank beneath the waves, only to be replaced moment later by the steadily rising Mako Island. Within 4 minutes, the Island was revived to its former glory, volcano, moon poll and all.
As the light began to die off, so did the aura surrounding Zac's body as he fell from his current position in the sky, directly above the Volcanoes head.
"ZAC!" Evie screamed as she watched him fall, diving under the water and racing as quickly as she could to the moon pool, everyone else following her.
Upon entering the moon pool, he was lying there on the floor, now completely lifeless again. She picked up his body, noticing how frail it was, and also incredibly heavy, even underwater.
She managed to pull him back to the surface, Bill immediately taking Zac into his arms to keep him afloat. As Evie went over to cuddle his body with her dad, everyone else marvelled at the fact that Mako Island was back to its full glory.
"I just have one question," Isis spoke up. "How on earth did he manage to convince our Goddess of all people to use her divine powers to resurrect Mako Island?"
"I'm pretty sure she must have been watching over us, including how hard we all fought to save our lives, and the lives of everyone else in the world," Tanya choked. Death was not something she was used to seeing, even though she was a few 1000 years old on the inside. "But still, the fact that one mere once human boy managed to call upon her with practically no magic left is incredible."
Before anyone else had the chance to speak, a white portal appeared not to far away from them, Seiger coming out of it, diving into the water.
He surfaced in front of the group. "Just what on earth happened to you all over the last three days?"
No-one dared to give an answer in the state that they were in. Most of them looked still pretty beat up and bruised. "If you're all alive, then I can only assume you beat the prophecy?"
Ivan looked up to see Seiger's anxious face. There was no point in lying or covering up the truth of what happened. "Sort of. It failed to begin with, and triggered another prophecy, that relies on Eradia fleeing back to her shell. All the anger contained inside can be unleashed and they planned to destroy the shell, meaning the Ocean would be out of control and everything would end up underwater. The two that came up with this plan, are the two who exposed us in the first place. They'd planned for all of this happened, they even drugged up Evie's mother, and used her as a bargaining chip, or shall we say, someone who could just help on the inside. I should tell you that Lacrima never really died, some of her soul was saved in the fight, but she had none of her memories. Lacrima was in Lucy's body, but we got her to perform a soul swap with Evie, so now she's Lacrima's host."
For an old man like Seiger, it was a lot on information to process, but he got their eventually. "So you battled it out and you won, am I right?"
"Of course we did," Ivan replied plainly, his face dropping for what he had to say next. "But it didn't come without major casualties. David is dead, he was the one who made the first prophecy fail, and Sirena isn't looking much better, as she became Eradia's unintended host. But the worst casualty, was Zac."
Seiger's face lit up with concern, swallowing before asking, "how badly hurt is he?"
Ivan almost began crying, but held it back. "He's not even really hurt, one or two scratches and that's it. What happened, is that he- expended all of his human life force using his Overdrive to kill Lucien and Rick! Now he can't even return to a human form, and he's dead!"
Much like Evie, Seiger's eyes began overflowing. "No, please tell me you're lying," he squeaked.
Ivan simply moved out of the way so that Seiger could get a good view of his grandson in Bills arm, completely lifeless and still. He slowly moved his way over to Zac, giving him a long hug, he himself having a good old cry.
"I'm so sorry Zac. I promised that I would protect you from the day I first saw you, and I've failed." He lowered his head in shame. There was one thing he could do, but it would be a great sacrifice.
"This world, passes far too quickly for a man of my age. I can't keep up with the passing times for much longer, so, there is only one thing I can try. Just because he'd become a diamond merman, it doesn't mean I might not be able to save him. If I offer up the rest of my life force, all of it, to Zac, then he might just wake up. I can't make promises on him having a human form, but it should be enough to save his life."
A general gasp came from the group. Seiger was willing to offer up the last bit of his life in order to try and save his grandson.
"Seiger, you'd really do that for him?" Nick asked, just checking that Seiger was sure about this. "He might not even make it as you said, it's a huge ri-"
"God dammit I know it's a huge risk Nick!" Seiger interrupted. "It's the only solid plan we have right now, and it might work. It's the best we've got and I'm seeing it through."
He extended his arms out over Zac's heart, and activated his own Overdrive, the golden glow only appearing around his hands. Just like when Zac's erupted into a white flame, Seiger's did the same, the light slowly but steadily sinking into his body.
He could see that it was already making a huge difference, as Zac's pale face began to regain its colour. After another minute of the light sinking in, miracles were at work, as Zac's eyes began to open. His left eye was no longer its usual brown colour, but instead the same sort of incredibly pale blue as his diamond scales.
Zac eventually turned his head to the right, seeing something he didn't want to see.
"Grandad?" His body had begun to fade away, his waste almost completely gone. "What's going on?" He sounded very groggy, like he'd woken up from a bad night of sleep.
"How many times have I told you just to call me Seiger you cheeky boy," he replied, grinning at Zac. "Don't worry about me, you're going to be fine."
"I don't understand. Why are you fading away? And why wouldn't I be fine?" Zac asked, it becoming very clear at this point that he had no idea what he'd done to himself.
"I'm sorry Zac, but I don't have time to explain to you what's happened. All I need you to do, is promise me something. Don't ever do anything stupid like using up all your human life force again. And, live."
Upon his his final words, the last of the light sunk into Zac's body, and Seiger just faded away, as if he never existed.
All focus was shifted back to Zac, Evie in complete tears over what had just happened. The moment Bill got him back to floating by himself, Evie launched into a very long hug with him.
Part way through the hug, he looked up to the sky, tears suddenly pouring out of his eyes. At that moment, he'd realised that Seiger was gone. He wasn't entirely sure why, but his loving Grandad and leader of the HMC, was dead.
"Zac, I thought I'd lost you for good!" Evie cried as she gripped him harder.
He had no idea how to respond except to keep hugging her back to comfort her. Everyone seemed so focus on him, and he had no idea what had happened. The last thing he remembered was taking down Rick and Lucien, but that was it, the rest was a complete blank.
After Evie finally let go, Zac turned around to get a look at Olcultus, only to realise that Mako Island was now back in its rightful place.
"When did it-" Zac began to ask, only to be interrupted by Isis.
"That was your doing. Even though you were down for the count, you managed to call upon our Goddess in the heavens and convinced her to revive Mako Island and all of its magic."
Zac just stared in awe at Mako now back to its former glory. "Um, the praise is nice and all but could someone explain to be just what the heck happened after Lucien and Rick were defeating?"
- Just after Mako Island's Revival, in Arcosta -
With Mako Island now returned, the girls began to slowly shift, feeling their source of power rushing back into their bodies.
The five of them jolted awake, quickly taking in their surroundings, dragging themselves into the water a little.
"We're okay!" Sirena cheered, bringing everyone in for a group hug.
"They must have done it and revived Mako Island, or else we wouldn't be feeling this great," Aquata pointed out.
"You know I still underestimate Zac and what he's capable of, even though this is what, the second times he saved our butts now?" Nixie joked.
"Three time for you," Lyla giggled. "The time he found you out and saved you from being found out by Joe?"
"Don't make me remember that," Nixie retaliated, giving Lyla a friendly small punch on the arm.
Sirena disbanded the group hug, only to turn around, suddenly remembering what had happened.
"David!" She screamed as she rushed back over to his still and lifeless body. "No. This isn't fair. Why did you have to go and get yourself killed to save us? Why?"
They were all feeling great sympathy for him right now, an great honour. "If he hadn't of saved Zac and took his place, we might not even be alive right now Sirena," Rita briefly explained.
"Rita," Aquata scolded. "Now's not the time for lecturing her."
"You're right, I'm sorry," Rita apologised, giving Sirena a comforting hug. Sirena just leapt into her arms and cried her heart out. David was the one thing she cared for, and the one thing she could have in both her lives in the sea and on land. And now, that precious one thing was gone.
- Back around the shores of Mako Island -
"I... died?" Zac asked incredulously, unable to believe it himself. "But, I'm alive right now. Aren't I?"
"You are, and against all odds you shouldn't be. You killed yourself in killing Lucien and Rick, and you might not be able to see it, but merpeople who die or lose their human side gain diamond-like scales, and the ears from your overdrive, get used to them," Ivan explained. "As far as I know, you're the first merperson alive to have gone through a diamond transformation, and be alive for your Grandad, he gave up the last of his own life force and transferred to you, in the hopes that you would awaken. There's still no guarantee that you've kept a human form."
"So, Seiger died?" Zac stuttered. "For me?"
"For you," Bill replied, placing his hands on Zac's shoulder. "He's given you another shot at life after being so foolish with wasting what you had to left of it to kill our enemies. So don't waste it. As Ivan said, no merperson has gone through Diamond and come out alive."
Zac lowered his head for a moment. He didn't mean to use up all of his Overdrive in the first place, he didn't even know he would possibly die from doing so. "I'm sorry then, for being foolish before."
Ivan sighed. "The point is, you're alive, and you also saved our asses on that cursed land. If of anything, sorry for cursing you just then."
Zac looked over to Ivan and gave him a brief smile.
"Guys!" A voice could be heard calling in the distance.
Sarah looked out to see her sister swimming directly towards her. "Felicity!" She began to head out a little to meet her sister head on, launching into a massive hug with her.
"I'm glad to see you're alright," Sarah whispered. If it wasn't for Zac, Felicity could well and truly be lost by now. "Is that stupid Hyperos magic gone?"
"Yeah, the Corsollan Anthranox and Sentrian Copy are gone. Zac got rid of them for me but if not fully, then Rick and Lucien's death certainly took care of it," Felicity replied, flashing Sarah her regular cheeky grin.
After letting go, Felicity noticed what Sarah was carrying. "The Archelite Shell."
Attention shifted almost immediately. Zac's issues were cleared now, and all focus shifted on the Archelite Shell, they needed that to bring David back, but they were pretty sure Sarah would want something different.
"Sarah," Nick called to her. "Hand over the shell."
Sarah's face and body tensed up, gripping the shell even harder. "Depends on who we intend to bring back."
"Sarah," Felicity scolded. "It's been years since Ben's death. Let it go already."
That pushed her over the edge a little as she turned back to her sister. She was going to retaliate against it, until Felicity made her feel guilty.
"I won't let any other mermen die because of my mistakes."
Sarah loosened her grip on the shell. "I did. David, is the one who deserves to live right now. He sacrificed himself for Zac, even though I told him not to do it."
She tossed the shell over to Nick, asking, "how do we get back to Arcosta?"
"There's only one way, through the tunnels in the bases."
- Back in Arcosta -
Sirena was still mourning over the loss of David, Lucy joining in now that she was awake after the stupid Jellyfish Anthranox finally wore off.
Moments later, a group of head appeared just behind them, the small group turning around to see all of their friends alive and well. Almost all of them.
"You guys are alive!" Lyla cheered, immediately going forward to find Zac, stopping herself just in Evie. From Evie's perspective, Lyla looked rather confused for a moment, as if she was looking for someone. The only one missing from their party was Zac, and that was enough for Evie to confirm her suspicions. Lyla was indeed, somehow, in love with Zac.
"Sirena," Sarah called, getting her attention. "David won't be dead for much longer, we've decided to use the Archelite Shell to bring him back."
Sirena didn't quite know how to respond. "I thought you want to bring Ben-"
"I did," Sarah interrupted. "But, David is more important at this moment in time. I'll live on for a fair while, you'll only live your life once, which includes your life with David."
Sirena swam over to Sarah and gave her a comforting hug. "Thank you Sarah."
Sarah looked down at Sirena and smiled, glad that she could make someone happy at long last.
Isis, Tanya, Sarah and Evie gathered around David's body, the Archelite Shell floating above his body.
"Through the thousands of years that we have lived, we ask our Goddess to grant us our true forms, so that we may purge this world of evil and bring light and hope to it!" They all chanted. Within seconds, each body began to glow with the colour of their respective element.
"Ice Takeover!" Tanya screamed as her body became nothing but solid Ice.
"Lightning Takeover!" Isis screamed as her body turned into a current flow of Lightning.
"Air Takeover!" Sarah screamed, as her body began to get made up of swirling Air magic.
"Fire Takeover!" Evie screamed, as her body ignited itself.
Each of them began charging up a ball of their respective element and then simultaneously fired them at the Shell. "Takeover Destruction!"
The Shell hovering above David's body shattered, its small fragments falling onto him. Seconds later, they began to sank in, healing the wound near to his heart, along with any other wounds.
He slowly but steadily blinked his eyes open.
"Huh? Where am I?" He asked, looking around to see everyone with their attention directly on him. "Am I in heaven?"
"David!" Sirena cried as she fled to his side, bringing him into what was going to be a very long cuddle. "It's okay, you're alive now."
He suddenly recalled the events of himself taking a blow from Eradia and dying in hope of the prophecies failure.
There would be time for questions on his revival later, he was more or so curious about what had happened.
Everyone took it in turns to help tell the story.
"Long story short, we won," Ivan finished. None of them had mentioned what happened to Zac, as to try and lift everyone's broken spirits.
Lyla had twigged that throughout the entire story, they'd been avoiding that subject like it was a plague. "And what about Zac? Where is he? Why is he not here with you?"
Everyone exchanged glances for a moment, most of them to Ivan as if to tell him to say it.
He lowered his head for a moment, which concerned Lyla. "He's not dead is he?" Tears began to well up in her eyes for a moment.
"No Lyla he's not dead. Look, after he defeated Lucien and Rick, he completely passed out. Zac's Overdrive was running off of his human life force and he used it all up. He transformed and wasn't waking up, at which point we thought he was dead. He's even gone through the process of diamondization, something which should only happen with death. Lucky for him though, Seiger came to see him, and offered up the last of his own life force for Zac, who's now awake, and most importantly, alive. Seiger is dead now, and the HMC is without a leader. As for the reason why Zac isn't here, it's because he's afraid to see if he can still become human."
Lyla took in all of that information, and smiled.
"At least he's alive," she replied, wiping the remaining tears from her eyes. "So what if he can't become human again? We all know he was bound to sea after the trouble with the Sea Demon."
"Missions Lyla?" Nixie butted in. "He won't be able to do land missions, which is something you need to be able to do to work for the HMC. He won't even be able to access it if that's the case."
"Sorry," she apologised. "Personally, I say we go find him."
- Back on Mako Island -
Whilst waiting for the others to return, Zac had taken up residence in the moon pool, resting his arms on the edge of it, floating there in silence. Deep down, he was terrified. Terrified of the fact that he might not even be able to take on a human form any more, truly bound to the seas.
During his thoughts, the clouds in the sky cleared away, revealing the moon. Not just any moon, the full moon. Shining down upon Mako Island, the waters in the moon pool began to bubble, which startled Zac for a moment. As the moonlight filled the area, is was evident to Zac that it wasn't just a full moon. He recognised the small crystals in the air, a work of their goddess.
He lay on his back, basking in the comforting light. During this time, his tail lit up for a brief moment, then returning to its now light blue colour and diamond texture. And deep down, he could feel that something had changed. Once the moonlight disappeared, he finally decided that he was going to try. With great effort, he pulled himself out of the water, and lay still for a moment. He concentrated on turning back to his human self, with legs, closing his eyes in the process.
The goddess was truly on his side. For when he opened his eyes, he had legs. He sat up, staring at them in amazement. For the time that he was without then, he'd almost forgotten what it felt like to have them. He had to touch them, just to make sure they were real.
As he stood up, two heads appeared in the moon pool, speechless at the sight before them.
"Zac," Evie said in utter amazement. "You, still have legs."
"Unbelievable," Lyla commented under her breath. All she wanted to do was leap out of the moon pool and give him a massive hug, but she knew that would be impossible in the presence of Evie. In fact, as long as Evie was around, she wouldn't even be able to get close to him. The thought of it made her begin to cry, Zac noticing this instantly.
"Huh? What's wrong Lyla?" He asked, rather concerned since when she was worried or upset, it was usually over something pretty big.
"Nothing, it's nothing," she lied as she wiped some more tears from her eyes. For some reason, tension began to gather.
"Are you sure?" Evie asked, she herself showing some concern. She didn't always like Lyla because of the way she always acted around Zac, or the way she seemed to care for him a little too much, but, she felt worried.
"I told you I'm fine!" Lyla spat, practically glaring at Evie. "Why are you always on my back Evie?"
Evie had had it with Lyla, it was time for her honest opinion. "Because, I'm worried for you sometimes. Not in a good way though, you always seem to be so concerned about Zac and everything he does, even when one little thing happens to him. When he's around, you practically never take your eyes off of him. When we came to save David, you rushed to us, looking for him. It was the first thing you thought of, no-one else mattered to you. Why do you want him so badly? Are you trying to ruin my life!?"
If the tension seemed thick before, it was so much thicker now. Zac didn't know what to do. He himself had known for some time that Lyla was clearing trying to hit on him, even though she knew that Evie was the one for him. She never seemed to back down if it was something to do with him.
"Great to see you think so highly of me Evie," Lyla replied, all her tears gone. "You really think I'm trying to steal him from you? That I'm trying to make you hate me?"
"Yes! Let's all face it. It's clear that you're in love with him, and you just can't let go of the fact that you can't be with him! I've just about had it with you! You're always trying to get his attention, or blaming yourself for things that harm him. If you really love him that much, then just have him, because I've had enough of trying to be happy without you!" With that, Evie dove underwater and torpedoed it out of the moon pool.
"Evie wait!" Lyla called, feeling really sorry for what she'd done. Worst part was, she knew it was all true. She was always trying to get the one-up on Evie, to get Zac's attention. All she wanted, was for it to be him and her. Ever since he was first transformed, she knew she'd fallen in love with him, and she was in denial at first because of Nixie. But she'd let herself slip after he'd left his life on land. It would have been perfect, had Evie not been there with him. Ever since, she'd been determined to try and get Evie to give up.
But, now that she had what she wanted, she felt terrible. Was it really worth it, if it made one person that upset and angry with her?
"Lyla, why can you just never say when you're in the wrong?" Zac asked, trying to stay calm.
"You know why. I'm jealous," she replied, no longer hiding anything. "I'm jealous that Evie spends so much time with you, that she's made for you. Before the whole business with the Sea Demon, I had you all to myself, the sea keeping you and her apart. And now, she's one of us, even though it was meant to happen. I just can't accept that fact. If I can't have you, then..."
She didn't finish her sentence, but instead followed what Evie did and left, leaving Zac completely speechless. He let out a massive sigh.
"Why are women so damn complicated?"
- Following Evie -
After leaving the moon pool, she fled for the place she found most comforting, a small coral reef not too far out from Mako. Whenever she felt down, she'd always go there and cheer herself up. Today though, it wasn't working. She'd really had it with Lyla, and she didn't know what to do if she kept being on Zac's tail all the time.
She sat there in complete silence, which was broken when a hand came to her shoulder.
"Zac?"
He swam around and joined her on the rock she was sitting on, slowly bringing her into a cuddle.
"I just don't know what to do any more," she began. "Lyla's always after you, and she'll never let you-"
"Don't worry about her," Zac interrupted. "I'll talk to her later. I'm not interested in her, you should know that. If I was interested in her, I would have chased after her instead of coming to find you."
He was right. Evie felt a lot more comforted by this fact. "Yeah, you're right."
"Just one thing though. There's no need to be jealous of her. If you hadn't of said anything back in the moon pool, I'd have said something instead to clear the air. I'm not mad at what you said, just a little surprised that you had the guts to tell her the truth," Zac explained, giving Evie a quick peck on the cheek.
She turned around to get a good look at his face. He wasn't mad at her whatsoever. He almost seemed glad that she'd said what she said to Lyla.
"I'm still sorry. I shouldn't have blurted it out like that. I must have hurt her feelings a little," Evie questioned.
"I'm not sure you did. She seemed more angry at me if of anything. Like, you becoming a mermaid was my fault, even though it was pretty much inevitable. I would go check up on her, but I think the company of someone else will keep her busy."
"Who?" Evie asked, rather confused by that remark.
- Following Lyla -
She'd high tailed it all the way to Rita's grotto, throwing herself onto the pile of pillows that had been left there after Nixie spent a night asleep amongst them.
"Lyla," a voice called out, startling her.
"Tetrus?" Lyla asked in shock. "How did you find me?"
For those who are confused about this, Tetrus and Lyla know each other quite well. Whilst Zac was working at the HMC when Evie first began her lessons, Lyla regularly met up with Tetrus, as he offered to show her all different places in Australia. Neither of them knew each others secrets, but after the whole prophecy thing, they both knew what they were.
"Call me a creepy stalker but I followed you after I saw you leaving the moon pool. Truth be, I came to find you before that, but you were occupied," Tetrus explained. He walked over to where Lyla was and sat himself down beside her. "Care to tell me what happened between you and that other mermaid?"
Lyla sighed. "I, had a fight with her, over a guy I 'used' to be madly in love with. When Zac first came into our lives, I couldn't get over him, I loved him. Just when I thought I stood a chance after our fight with the Sea Demon, his girlfriend became her true mermaid self and since then, I've not been able to get close. And yes, at first, I was incredibly jealous, but I think I've finally learnt that I don't love him as much as I thought I first did. In fact, there's someone else I love, someone who I know pretty well."
"Oh, who would that be?" Tetrus asked intrigued, though smiling internally.
"You." Lyla cheeks became rather flushed after admitting that to him. She looked away from him, embarrassed to look at him after confessing her love.
Tetrus grabbed her face and turned it around. "It took you long enough to come your senses."
He pulled her face closer towards his, capturing her lips in what was her first kiss. After several long minutes, they let go.
"I love you too Lyla, despite my past. Truth is, after seeing you roll up in Arcosta, I was afraid to go along with the plan. But, Zac's determination, made me believe that he would make it through. It was about time someone took care of Lucien and Rick, so I'm in your debts."
"It's not me you should be in debt too, I didn't do anything, I was powerless," Lyla spurted, Tetrus kissing her again to silence her.
"No, you stayed strong. When you lost all your power, you had a fairly good chance of dying without it. But you didn't, you were strong, and you survived." He looked her deep in the eyes. "I'm proud of you."
Lyla launched into a hug with him, glad that she was finally able to get all of the recent events off of her chest. And the best part, the man she really loved, loved her back.
- After a few days -
Everyone was currently gathered in the moon pool. Zac, Evie, Lyla, Tetrus, Nixie, Sirena, Aquata, Maya David, Felicity, Sarah, Isis, Tanya and one new addition the group. And yeah, it was a little cramped but after Mako Island was revived, the space in the moon pool had seemed to have gotten a lot bigger, almost three times the size originally. No-one really knew why, but no-one was complaining.
"A toast, to welcome you back," Sarah chanted, lifting her small glass of drink that Zac had bought for them all.
"To Ben's revival!" They all cheered.
Yep. Up in the heavens, Seiger had removed his soul, completely destroying his chance of coming back to earth in a new born body, and used it bring Ben back for Sarah. She made a huge sacrifice in not bringing him back, and Seiger confronted their goddess over it, who granted Seiger his last wish. Ben was a little like Tetrus in terms of fluffy hair, though his was a chocolate brown colour, and he had hazel eyes.
"So, what are we all going to do now?" Zac asked in general.
Nixie started first. "Well three days from now, me and Cam are returning to California, again. Now that the IMH won't be able to bother us any more, we think its safe to go back. I'll come and visit once every two Sundays."
"Me and David are still going back to living on land, someone's got to keep running the Ocean Cafe. In short, life will be the same for us," Sirena explained, David nodding in agreement.
"As for me, I've been appointed the new leader of the HMC," Aquata cheered. "So I'll be pretty busy."
Sirena turned to Lyla. "And you? Now that you have your new boyfriend?"
"Well, we're going to go live in Italy, which is where Tetrus comes from," Lyla replied. "He's got a nice little house over there. Unlike Nixie, I won't be promising about visits."
She turned to Evie for a moment. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused those few days ago, and any pain I might have caused you Evie."
Evie was rather stunned that Lyla actually apologised to her, but took it in a good way. "Apology accepted."
"In three days, we too will return to our respective homes," Tanya spoke up. "It was nice to work with you all for the time that we were together."
"I'm going to miss you guys," Isis followed. "We should try and meet up some other time."
Everyone seemed to agree you that.
"Say, what about you guys?" Zac asked, looking over to Sarah, Ben and Felicity.
"Well now that I'm back, we're all going to start going on more spiritual expeditions together. Just the three of us. We're thinking of climbing Mt. Fuji first," Ben explained, giving Sarah and Felicity a quick hug each. Felicity was basically his new little sister to him. "As for you Evie, what about your family?"
"After that soul swap I did with my mother, she doesn't plan on returning to her pod in Egypt. Instead, she's going by a new name, Larissa. Her and dad are just gonna take life easy, but they're moving to Victoria."
"From what I've heard, Nick is going to stay doing Lifesaving for a little while longer, and John is basically his son now. Ivan of course is returning to California with Nixie and Cam, and he's also finally going to tell his wife the truth, along with Nixie," Zac then explained, exchanging a quick nod from Nixie. "Three days from now, our lives begin all over again you could say. One final toast, to the future!"
"To the future!"
Karen: Boom end of this chapter!
Zac: Well, you really did mean it when you said Everyone's Happiness. For once, you've left this story on a high note.
Karen: Yep, and as it stands for now, this is the last of the running In Trouble Series. There is a chance of there being an In Trouble spin-off which starts at the end of the last story. It'll be like what happened if the IMH didn't exist, and it will focus on the Trident and some dark truths. In short, you'll need to forget everything about this story to read that one.
Evie: Well, I'm looking forward to it, but I don't think Tanya, Isis, Felicity, Sarah, Lacrima, Ivan, Bill, Rick, Lucien, Tetrus and Ben are looking forward to it. They'll basically have never existed.
Karen: I'm not that mean! Felicity, Sarah and Tetrus (character reprisal needed) will make an appearance, like they were supposed to originally. Everyone else though, sorry!
*Cast who were mentioned go off to sulk*
Karen: Oh come one! There's still one more chapter left, a bonus chapter as a continuation of your lives after those three days are over! I'll see you all then xxx