Kiri walked along the beach, just out of the reach of the waves. It was barely 5 AM, and the sky was slowly lightening in the distance. She shut her eyes and let the soft sea breeze blow her hair around.

"Kiri?"

Kiri's eyes snapped open and she looked towards the speaker.

"Elik…" Kiri spoke, surprised.

Elik smiled at her, "What are you doing out here so early?"

"I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep." Kiri walked towards him, "I thought you were at work…"

"The game's going through another test- of the level my boss made us add." Elik said, "I was just taking a walk while it was going on- unfortunately, I can't come home this time."

"That's alright." Kiri smiled a little, "Do what you have to."

"Thanks, babe." Elik drew her close. "I'm surprised to find you at the beach- I didn't think you liked the water."

"I don't." Kiri lied, "But it was quiet down here." Kiri shrugged, "I'm not touching it."

Elik chuckled, "True, true."

Kiri smiled.

Elik glanced at his watch. "Damn, I'd better get back." He kissed her, "If this test goes well, I should be back home in about a week. Are your friends going to have cleared out by then?"

"I can't promise anything." Kiri chuckled, "But I'll do my best. Good luck."

"Thanks." Elik said, squeezing her before jogging away. Kiri watched him go, before suddenly, something grabbed her ankle and pulled her off the rock they'd been standing on and into the water. As her form switched to her mermaid form, the diamond on her bracelet began to glow in anticipation of a transformation, but her 'captor' put his hands up in defense.

"Hey, hey, I just didn't want your boyfriend to see me!" he said, laughing.

"Ilywd!" Kiri shouted, surprised.

Ilywd smiled.

"Look, with me and Elik- it's not what it-"

Ilywd cut her off, "It's okay, I get it. We'll just be friends for now. That's fine."

Kiri frowned.

Ilywd raised an eyebrow, "You don't want to be friends?" he asked, "I mean, I can leave you alone, if that's what you-"

Kiri interrupted HIM this time, "No, no, please don't."

Ilywd smiled, "Good, because I can't say it would have been easy to leave you alone."

Kiri blushed a little. "So, what are you doing here?" she changed the subject.

"Actually, Orfio wanted me to check on that girl- Miriella?" Ilwyd answered, "Edur's been bugging him, and since he's literally tied to his bed in Milli's realm, Edur can't check himself. So, it falls onto my shoulders." Ilywd smiled, "Not that I'm complaining, since I got to see you, after all."

"Miriella's fine. She's recovering smoothly- still sleeping a lot, but otherwise perfectly fine." Kiri said, blushing a little.

Ilwyd didn't seem to notice, "Good," he smiled again, "Thanks for telling me."

"Of course." Kiri smiled back.

XXXX

Aryl stretched as she woke up. It was her turn on Kiri's couch instead of the floor, and she'd slept significantly better because of it. One guest room was Miriella's room now, and Rina slept on the floor in there. The three water demons shared the other guest room. Coco and Madison shared the den- two comfortable recliners were their beds. Kiri, of course, slept in her and Elik's bedroom, and then Lexia, Aryl, and Caren shared the living room.

A knock on the door made Aryl groan and climb off the couch, step over Caren's sleeping form- the girl slept even later than Aryl did, and that was saying something- and swing the door open. Rayza was standing there.

"Hey." She smiled. There was an idol mermaid around Kiri's age standing behind her with a girl of about six that Aryl recognized to be the new topaz princess in her arms. "I just wanted to introduce you guys to Sara and Seira. Is everyone awake?"

"Not a clue." Aryl let them in, "I just woke up myself, and I know Caren's still sleeping. Lexia's probably awake, but I'd have to check on the others." She shut the door behind them, "By the way, I'm Aryl. I'm the amethyst warrior." She smiled at the two orange mermaids in the room.

"It's nice to meet you." Sara smiled. Seira smiled as well, as Sara put her down on the ground.

Aryl clapped her hands together, "Well, I guess I'll go get the others." She said, "Hang out wherever- Kiri won't mind." With that, the warrior princess walked down the hall.

XXXX

A few minutes later found the mermaids practically stampeding into the room to see Seira. She giggled, quite happy with the attention, as they coddled her. Eventually they cleared out, leaving Madison and Coco with the little girl. Coco was still recovering from her capture, so playing with the girl was cheering her up, and Madison loved kids- always had. Sara, Aryl, Lexia, and Rayza ended up sitting in the living room, talking.

"So, how many princesses is it now that we've gathered?" Lexia asked.

Aryl began counting off on her fingers, but paused, "I don't have enough fingers. Damn."

Rayza giggled and rolled her eyes, "We've found 12. Actually, there's only two more missing, if I'm right."

"And Rina's was with Miriella, so we've technically found 13. Ooh, bad luck." Aryl laughed.

Lexia thought for a moment, "Then we only have one to find." She said, "And then we've got the force to take down Gaito."

"Gaito's not really our problem at the moment." Rayza spoke, "Jeredeau is. If we don't take her down, then there's no real reason to take down Gaito- since she'll destroy us anyway. You SAW what she did to Miriella."

"Three elements had to step in to fix that." Lexia frowned, "I guess you're right. But do we have the force to stop her?"

Rayza spoke up again, "Alone, no." she said, "But I have friends who might be able to help."

Lexia raised an eyebrow, and Rayza smiled, "I'm actually friends with one harpie, one centaur, and one half-dragon." She said, "And they've all been rallying their troops, so to speak, for awhile now, just as I've been trying to gather the mermaids."

"So, in other words…"

"Pretty soon, we might have a full fledged army to go up against Jeredeau."

XXXX

"LET ME GO." Edur snapped at Milli who just shrugged and turned back to her book. Edur was tied down to his bed, and was struggling quite a bit at the restraints. "I've recovered just fine, now let me go!"

Milli threw a blast of lightning at him out of nowhere, and he didn't get an ice shield up in time, "Oh really? You've recovered? Orfio and I trained you better than that, and your instincts only falter when you're low on energy. If you don't shut up and get some sleep right now, I swear I will make your attachment to that bed permanent."

Edur's eyes widened, seeing the no nonsense look in his surrogate mother's eyes before immediately deciding to go to sleep- or at least to try to.

Milli smirked, and stood up, shutting her book and leaving the room. Noel was waiting outside.

"Something has you quite on edge." Noel said, crossing her arms.

"I'm fine." Milli shook her head.

"If you were fine, Milli, you wouldn't have snapped at him like that. I know you well, and you're not usually this tense. What's wrong?" Noel asked.

Milli sighed, knowing her old friend saw right through her, "I can't find Lycoris."

Noel's eyes widened, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her in awhile."

"She was in that town with the other mermaids last time I checked on her, but with Edur and everything, I hadn't looked. She's GONE, Noel, and I can't find her!" Milli said.

"I'll go look now." Noel said, "Teleport me to Japan."

"Are you sure? Jeredeau could-"

Noel interrupted Milli, "I'm sure. Now teleport me."

Milli smiled, "Thank you," and teleported the girl away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

-deep breath- Geez. Anyway, this chapter was HELL to write. It just wouldn't write at all. Anyway, I've got a pretty good idea of where the next one's going, so it shouldn't take as long.

On a different note, I've got a justintv account now, and I'm hoping to have some reader/author chats. I'm actually gonna do one Thursday night around… let's say 9, eastern time. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the Fated chapter out tomorrow and let those readers know as well. Anyway, if it changes, check my FFN profile- it'll be there, along with a link to the page.

Review?