Chapter 37

The boat tore through the waves, water crashing over at each impact. The boat was soaring far faster than it was meant for, or was legal in the area. Dean scanned the sea for any sign of Cassie. He looked over the crew on the boat. They looked like a bunch of tourists, clad only in their swimming shorts. Bare chest. Bare feet. No weapons, save a shark's tooth. Nothing about them looked like hunters, save their stern faces. He looked down at the wound in his chest. It was bleeding too quickly. He pressed his hand hard against it.

"I have no idea where I'm driving!" Leon shouted over the roar of the boat.

Dean walked over and placed a big hand on the kid's small shoulder. "We'll find her. Don't give up." Leon nodded and refocused back on the search.

Sam looked all around the boat. There was no sign of anyone. He didn't want to say anything, but the search was seeming hopeless. The ocean was too big a body of water for them to ever hope to cover the whole thing. Cassie could be anywhere!

Dean kept his eyes peeled, searching for Cassie. He turned to check the other side of the boat when he caught Sam staring at him. He knew Sam was concerned for him, especially after that scene in the bar. He knew Sammy would want to talk, but for some reason, the idea actually sounded kinda' nice. He broke his gaze from Sammy and continued the search. Cassie needed them now. The talk could wait.

"There!" Leon shouted. They all gathered to the front of the boat and looked out to where Leon was pointing. "A boat."

"Gotta' be them." Dean said. Sammy nodded. "Take us in fast." Dean instructed. "He knows we're coming."

The boat came to an abrupt stop near the other boat, nearly colliding into it. The other boat was larger, like a small luxury boat. It had a couple levels, an interior area, and a pretty big deck. There was no sign of Cassie on the outside, but she was on it. She had to be. There was nowhere else she could be.

"Let's do this." Sam said, holding the shark's tooth up between his fingers, like a ninja does throwing stars. Leon and Dean nodded in agreement, but Leon faltered.

"How are we going to beat that lady's mate? Remember how strong she was? Her mate's gotta' be like a freight train!" He looked worriedly between Sam and Dean. Sam looked deep in concerned thought, and offered nothing. Dean, noticing the quickly fading morale, winked at Leon.

"I got my secret weapon." He smirked cockily at Leon.

"What's that?" Leon asked. "The shark's tooth?"

Dean let out a psh. "Nah, man. This!" He flexed his right arm tightly in the air, causing an impressive bicep to bulge up. Dean pointed at it and winked to Leon and smiled at Sammy. Sammy rolled his eyes, but Leon actually smiled. At least his spirits are alive, Dean thought. "Are we gonna' do this or what? Cassie's waiting for us."

"Yeah." Leon agreed. They all disembarked the boat and hopped onto the luxury boat. "I kinda' feel like a pirate."

"Arg!" Dean did his best pirate impersonation.

"Okay. Can we get serious?" Sam asked sternly. "This is life or death."

Dean gave Leon an "uh-oh" look, like a kid who got caught by the teacher passing notes in class. "Yessir." He saluted Sammy, but knew he was right. This was life or death. They had to be on their A-game.

As they crept on the boat, they peeked into the windows leading to the interior part of the boat. The room was elegant and clean. It looked like a nice room to sit and have a peaceful dinner with some wine. There was a nice table along the wall with built-in benches to ensure they didn't slide as the boat rocked. But there was no Cassie. No Monster.

"Hello boys." came a voice too familiar to Leon. They turned around and faced Stella, the bar's singer. She stood before them looking confident and a little sinister.

"Stella?" Leon asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Leon." Stella gave him a tsk tsk tsk. "What do you think I'm doing here?" Leon didn't give her a response. He was lost in denial of the obvious.

"Where's Cassie?" Dean asked sternly.

"She's here." Stella confirmed. "She's being prepared to be taken as my bride."

"As your bride? Who are you? Dracula?" Dean scoffed.

"Very funny." Stella said flatly. "I'm happy to see all of your dark episodes haven't killed your outstanding sense of humor."

"Me too. It's my best quality." Dean quipped. "That and my perky nipples."

"Truly..."

"Where's the girl?" Sam said in a threatening voice.

"Stella, please. Where is she? Give her back to me." Leon pleaded.

"In case it hasn't been made clear enough yet, my name isn't Stella." she said.

"What?" Leon asked, blocking the obvious truth.

"Aquarius."

"Like the song." Sam said, mostly to himself.

"Like the song." Aquarius repeated. The guys watched in horror as the slightly plump bar-singer transformed right before their eyes, not like a shapeshifter, tearing off skin and reforming, but more like a mirage that was being lifted away, allowing the guys to see clearly.

Before them stood a very tall, muscled man, wearing nothing but a conch shell around his neck. "Real nice." Dean said sarcastically.

"Let my sister go." Leon said, still staring at Aquarius in bewilderment. He was having a hard time processing the fact that Stella was never really their friend. She was never even really a person. It was always this large, wicked man.

"I'm sorry, Leon. Cordelia and I really did like your family. But Chester stumbled onto something he was never meant to. We had to kill him to make sure he never said anything. To make sure hunters never came for us. Obviously, it didn't work."

"Obviously." Dean said with a smirk.

"I thought Cordelia and I were being careful enough not to draw attention to ourselves. But we were ready to do our part and start a family. The mermaids are a dying creature. There are very few of my children left."

"Thank God for that." Dean chimed in. Aquarius stared at him, un-amused by his quip.

"Why is it that you humans go to great lengths to save your own race, to save tigers, polar bears, and every other form of creature on this earth, but the idea of mermaids going extinct is exciting for you?"

"Because animals aren't evil. They're just animals." Sam explained.

"And people? Are you to tell me that people aren't evil."

"Some are. Some aren't." Sam said.

"So do you kill the evil ones?"

"If we have to, but we try not to. See, humans have an advantage against us hunters. We're human too." Dean said through a cocky smirk.

"I cannot let you stop me from repopulating the mermaid race. We have just as much right to this world as you do."

"We'll see." Dean threatened. "What's that thing everyone's into nowadays? Survival of the fittest? Fight for your right to live. But I'm telling you man, we're not going to make this easy for you." Aquarius grinned and stepped up to Dean, so close Dean could feel the tall man's breaths hitting his forehead.

"You seemed to struggle against Cordelia." Aquarius smiled. "She was nothing in comparison to me."

Dean smirked. "You all look like the same class of monster to me, only she was hotter! Plus, she knew a thing or two about decency." Dean gestured at the man, drawing attention to his nakedness. "Come on, dude! Put some clothes on before you stand all up in my space like this." Aquarius simply laughed and walked backward.

"I'd say it's time for Cassie and me to become mates. The transformation preparations are ready by now, I'm sure." With that he retreated into the boat and reemerged with Cassie. She was gagged and unconscious.

"What did you do to her?" Leon asked concernedly.

"Nothing that hurt her. She'll be fine. In fact, she'll be better than fine." His deep voice purred the last words.

"Let her go!" Leon shouted.

"That's the plan!" Aquarius shouted gleefully as he tossed the unconscious girl overboard. She hit the water hard, but didn't wake up. Leon ran to retrieve his sister, but was body-slammed by Aquarius. "Sorry, boy. I can't let you stop me." He punched Leon hard, stunning the boy, and then jumped into the ocean, pulling Cassie underwater quickly.

Leon's vision was blurry. His temple hurt where he had been punched. As his vision cleared, Sam came into clear view, sporting soft, concerned eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked. Leon nodded.

"Hurry!" Dean shouted as he dove into the ocean.

"Be careful! The storm has the water pretty rough!" Sam shouted, but no one listened. Leon hit the water with a splash and submerged right behind Dean. Sam sighed to himself. "This is not going to be fun." He ran and dove in behind everyone.

Dean was swimming with all of his might and had pulled way ahead of Leon, but he could feel his body weakening from blood loss. Leon watched as Sam caught and passed him as he made his way down to his older brother. It sucks being short sometimes..., Leon thought.

The water was dark and foggy. Sand was floating everywhere and vision was pretty low. They all could feel the current pulling them all around, making it hard to stay still.

Sam gripped the shark's tooth tightly as he scanned around for any moving figures in the sea, but he couldn't see any. Finally, he couldn't hold his breath anymore and had to return to the surface. When he arrived he found Dean already up gasping deeply for air. Leon was still somewhere below.

Sam and Dean looked at each other with hopeless eyes. This seemed like a lost battle already. They couldn't see. They couldn't breathe underwater. They had almost no way of combating the stupid thing. What were they to do?

Thunder rumbled through the dark sky, echoing across the dancing waves. The mood was bleak, but they couldn't give up. Both Sam and Dean knew what it was like to lose everyone they loved. They couldn't let it happen to Leon. They didn't want anyone else to have to know the feeling of being alone. With renewed vigor, they dove back under the water.

Dean just about jumped out of his skin when something grabbed his arm. He quickly looked to see what it was, while throwing a punch with the other hand. He quickly stopped the punch as he saw it was Leon. He pointed to the surface, so Dean and Sam swam back up with Leon.

"I found her." Leon shouted, looking both excited and worried. "Hurry!" He dove back under and Sam and Dean quickly followed. They all struggled against the current and cloudiness to make their way to Cassie. When they found her, she wasn't looking good.

She was floating in the middle of the water as if she was lying on a bed. She looked like Snow White, resting peacefully with her arms crossed over her chest. However, if they didn't act fast, she wasn't going to get the sweet awakening Snow White got.

They swam down to her and grabbed on. They began pulling her up to the surface. As they pulled, Sam looked her over and noticed a strange formation on her neck. He didn't want to believe it, but they looked like gills.

They emerged with a loud splash and a lot of heavy breathing from the Winchesters. Deep sea swimming was never in their training. "What do we do?" Dean finally asked. Leon and Sam just looked at him, both noticing that he was looking bad. His skin was pale and his eyes had bags under them. No one had any idea what to do. They didn't know how to stop whatever trance Cassie was under, nor did they have any idea where Aquarius was.

As if cued, Cassie's body was snagged back underwater. Dean reacted almost instantly, diving underwater to snag her back. There he came face-to-face with the monster himself. Aquarius, every bit as large as he was on the boat, swam before him in full-mermaid mode.

His face was devilish looking, snarling with large fangs. His arms and chest were incredibly muscular, like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his bottom half was replaced now by an oversized tail that looked like it could propel him through waters at immense speeds.

"Shit." Dean mouthed underwater.

Dean pulled on Cassie, but he couldn't budge her. Aquarius had a hold on her too, and as much as Dean hated it, he was stronger. As Dean struggled to pull on Cassie, he found himself only being pulled further under water. He watched hopelessly as the gap between him and the surface grew wider and wider. As his lungs began to burn, begging hungrily for air, he had to let go of the young girl and return hastily to the surface.

Sam raced over to his brother as he resurfaced in a large splash, sucking in air as frantically as possible. He placed his hand on Dean's shoulder. "You okay?" Dean just nodded, still catching his breath. Their bodies rose up and down as the ocean's waves moved over them. "You gotta' sit this out, Dean. You're bleeding out!"

"She needs me, Sam." Dean looked down at his chest. I do look pretty bad... "I can't quit now." Sam gave him the same face he always gives when he's worried about him, but he won't listen. Dean knew the face well. He could picture it in his sleep he had seen it so often.

"Where's Cassie?" Leon asked desperately.

"She's down there." Dean explained through serious eyes. "But so is he."

"What do we do?" Sam asked.

"This is what we do." Dean instructed them to huddle together. "Sam, you and I are going to handle the bodybuilding tuna. Leon, while he's dealing with us, you get your sister up here and onto our boat."

Leon nodded, but Sam looked at Dean with worried eyes. "How are we going to handle Aquarius? We can't beat him in a swimming contest. We can't overpower him either, plus you're losing blood like you're donating to the Red Cross!"

Dean ignored his brother's concerns. "We have the tooth." he said, trying to sound confident in their odds.

"Yeah, but we haven't broken his shell."

Dean gave him a strange look, as if Sammy was talking nonsense. "What do you mean?"

"The conch shell, Dean. Remember? It holds their mortality."

Dean's face dropped. "Yeah, I guess we'll have to handle that."

"How?" Sam asked.

"Remember, when he was that big naked guy on the boat?" Dean asked. Sammy nodded to him. "It was around his neck. The only thing he was wearing. It has to be the shell."

"That makes sense. He wouldn't want to separate from it." Sam affirmed.

"He even wore it every day when he was Stella." Leon chimed in.

"Gotta' be the one." Dean winked at the boys. "Ready?"

"This is a terrible plan." Sam admitted.

Dean didn't argue. "Yup. But it's all we got." With that he nodded at them. "Know what we're doing?" Both the guys gave their nods of understanding. "Let's do this." They each took a deep breath and dove under.

Under the water, Dean tapped on Leon's arm and pointed him toward where he had seen Cassie's body. Then he grabbed onto Sammy's arm. He would never admit it, but he was feeling weak. Sam knew it, but didn't argue. He just pulled him along so he could rest a bit. They swam together down to Cassie, a ways ahead of Leon.

Just as they assumed, Aquarius was looming over Cassie as her transformation into his mate ran its course. They could see that her gills had already grown in, and a casing was forming around her, like the people from the gym. Time was running out.

They swam in as quickly as they could and easily caught the attention of Aquarius. He swam at them, like a torpedo through the water, and collided into Sam like a freight train. Sam curled over in pain from the impact, and Aquarius began punching him, one after another. Dean swam up behind Aquarius and grabbed him from behind, locking his arms under Aquarius', trying to pull him off of Sammy. It worked, kinda'.

Aquarius bolted through the water as Dean held on tightly. He felt like he was riding the world's first entirely underwater rollercoaster. Only, this ride could end up being fatal. Water and sand pressed against his face as Aquarius took him on the joy ride from Hell.

As Dean held on, he could see the conch shell dangling from the monster's neck. He needed that! He reached for it, but Aquarius saw him. The monster grabbed Dean's hand and held it tightly. Dean winced in agony. It felt like he was going to break his hand. Dean looked around, on the verge of panicking. Sammy was nowhere to be found. He looked all around, and then finally up. Sammy was at the surface catching his breath. That made Dean all-too aware of his need for air. His lungs were burning. He let go of Aquarius, trying to go get air, but the monster wouldn't allow it. Dean couldn't hold on much longer.

Leon swam as quickly as he could with Cassie's body up to the surface. He made it there without any trouble. Sam and Dean were keeping their end of the plan. Aquarius was definitely distracted. Somehow, that only made Leon feel more worried.

He pulled Cassie onto the boat, out of the water, and noticed that the casing that was forming had a very negative reaction to being out of the water. Right before his eyes, the casing seemed to slowly deteriorate from around her body. She's fine. They need my help... Leon thought, reluctantly, having taken a look back at his sleeping sister, he jumped into the ocean to find his new friends.

Dean felt like he was about to die. Aquarius pulled him to the bottom of the ocean and wrestled both his hands away from him. Dean groped at the monster's chest in a ditch effort to snag the conch shell. With an intense pain, Dean felt his arm pressed painfully against the ocean floor. With ease, still holding Dean's arm down, Aquarius lifted a large rock and placed it on Dean's arm. Dean about passed out from the pain, he worried that his arm was going to break, but luck was on his side. His arm was pushed into the sand, stuck, but not broken. It still hurt like hell, though. Not that it matters much. I'll drown in a minute. Dean's hope was fading quickly.

Sam swam to the ocean floor and grabbed a long piece of coral. With great effort, he managed to break it off from the rest, and using a few long pieces of seaweed, he carefully and tightly tied the shark's tooth onto the coral, making a primitive spear ready to kill any mermaid in his way. Except he's still invincible... Sam thoughtdepressingly.

He swam up to the surface again. "Dean!" He hollered. He had no idea where Dean or Aquarius were. He better not be dead. Sam thought worriedly. He dove back under just in time to see Aquarius charging straight at him. He readied the spear, hoping to be able to ram it through the conch shell around his neck.

As Aquarius swam closer, Sam realized, there was no conch shell. It was gone. Is he mortal? Sam crossed his fingers, but only in his mind, and aimed the spear for the monster's heart.

Dean's vision began fading to black as his lungs ran empty. He looked up to the surface, as if just seeing it could fill him with the needed oxygen. It didn't. But he did see a dark figure swimming toward him. Great. I'm going to die. Dean thought. He didn't try to fight it. It felt like justice for all the wrongs he had done. I deserve this.

However, he noticed as the figure got closer, it was far too small to be Aquarius. He tried to focus on the figure, but couldn't. It was too hard. His eyes forced themselves closed so he could die in peace. Then they jolted back open as he felt lips pressing against his. Is someone kissing me? He thought, more confused than he'd ever been. Who is at the bottom of the ocean kissing me?

That's when he realized it wasn't a kiss. He could feel air being passed into his mouth. It was warm, and too little, but it was a start. He focused on the source of the air. It was Leon. He breathed his remaining oxygen into Dean's mouth. If Sammy sees this, he'll never let me live it down. Dean thought, embarrassed by the situation, but also thankful that he might not die.

Leon quickly turned without even looking at Dean and returned to the surface. Thankfully the water where they were wasn't too deep. It only took Leon half a minute or so to return. He breathed more into Dean, trying to keep him alive. It was working. But how long can he keep this up? Dean worried.

As he left Dean, rather than going back to the surface, Leon swam to the rock resting over Dean's arm and tried to lift it. If the situation wasn't so dire, Dean would've laughed. The kid was so small. It looked so obviously like a hopeless battle. Leon could never move that rock. But Sammy could... Dean thought as he looked out into the murky water for his little brother. He couldn't see him. Leon left back for the surface. Dean didn't worry. He knew he'd be back. He would be fine, at least for now. It was Sammy that Dean was worried about.

The spear didn't even penetrate Aquarius' flesh. It deflected off it like a sword off of a knight's armor. The monster punched Sam hard, sending him back a few feet. Sam knew this was an impossible battle, so he swam away with all his might. As he fled, he noticed Aquarius didn't follow. Rather, the monster was going for the surface. I hope Leon will be okay. He thought. He needed to find Dean. The conch shell was missing. They had a big problem.

He swam until he saw Leon swimming down from the surface in a hurry. Sam looked behind him for any signs of Aquarius. He wasn't there. What is Leon running from?

Sam watched as Leon descended to the floor. That's when he saw his big brother, pinned under a rock. "DEAN!" He yelled, but the water muffled his cry. Leon swam to his brother and kissed him. Sam raised an eyebrow at that, but brushed aside all the hysterical comments he could make to a better suited time. He swam full-force toward Dean.

Dean's spirits lifted when he saw Sammy swim toward him. One: That meant he was alive. Two: It meant he could get out of under this rock. Sammy got Leon's attention and gestured for him to help with the rock. Together, they pushed the rock off of Dean's arm. As Dean pulled his hand off the sandy floor a smirk crossed his mouth. In his hand was the conch shell from Aquarius' neck. They all took a second to exchange celebratory smiles before rushing to the surface to catch their breaths.

Dean emerged from the water like he was ascending into heaven; not the heaven he had been to before, but the heaven like it was spoken of in the Bible. It felt glorious. The air flowed into his lungs so freely. He never thought just being able to breathe could feel so good.

They swam back to their boat. "No. No, no, no, no." Leon began panicking.

"What?" Sammy asked swimming to the edge of the boat.

"She's gone. He's got her again."

"We'll get her back." Dean assured him. "But first thing's first." With those words, Dean smashed the conch shell hard into the side of the boat. It cut his hand a bit, but he didn't care. He watched with hope as the eerie light flowed out of the shell, just as it had when they broke Cordelia's. It was the sure sign that he was mortal again.

"Now we can save her." Sam said sternly. "For good."

"First thing's first." Dean almost whimpered, hand clutched to his wound. Sam's eyes lit up with understanding and they headed into the captain's quarters and used the first-aid kit to sew the wound closed.

"Are you doing alright?" Sam asked, trying to both distract Dean from the pain and address his nightmare problems.

"I'll be better once that bastard's dead." He grunted.

"Me too." Sam smiled awkwardly. That wasn't really the answer he wanted. He wanted to know whether or not Dean was okay in the head. "What about..." His voice trailed off.

"About what?" Dean was looking a bit irritated.

"Forget it."

"Me? My head? The nightmares?" Dean guessed, knowing exactly what was on Sam's mind. "I'm dealing. Can we just save Cassie and talk about this later?"

"We need to talk about it." Sam was stern.

"I promise. Later. We'll talk. Chick flick moment. Bring ice cream and we'll have a pillow fight, whatever else you want."

"Dean..." Sam said, looking at his brother with admonishment.

"Fine." Dean sighed heavily. "We'll talk. Promise."

"Thank you." Sam put the needle down. "All done. Let's get this show on the road." With those words, Dean's face lit up. He was ready for this whole 'vacation' to be over. They both went out to meet Leon on the deck.

"Let's go." Leon said, looking antsy. Without even waiting for any indication of the Winchesters' readiness to dive, he dove back down into the Gulf. Sam held the spear up to Dean, and they both nodded. Things seemed a bit more possible now. Dean looked weak, like he was about to pass out, but brushed it off. It worried Sam immensely, but out in the middle of the ocean, there wasn't much that he could do. He just hoped he would be okay. They dove down and quickly caught up with the much shorter Leon.