Another dream came true for Melodious as he swam in the very undersea city his father told him didn't exist.
Merpeople and fish swam in and out of homes and buildings made out of coral with a big shiny palace in the middle of it all.
As he was admiring everything, Melodious accidentally bumped into someone.
"Sorry, my fault," a mermaid said.
"Sorry, my...fault," Melodious' words trailed off as he saw the mermaid. She looked exactly like the girl she danced with at his birthday party, except she wore blue seashells and had a turquoise tail.
"Hi. I'm Alexandra. Alex for short," she introduced, "I don't think I've seen you around here. What's your name?"
"I'm Mel...Mel..." Melodious realized he couldn't say his real name or else he could be discovered somehow. But his stammering didn't seem to have been noticed as Alex called two more friends.
"Hey guys! Meet Mel-Mel," she said.
"Hi," a young merman greeted.
"Hey, you wanna hang out with us?" a mermaid asked.
Melodious could only nod his head as he was at a loss for words. This could not be happening. He had to be imaging this somehow or dreaming. If this really was a dream, he never wanted to wake up!
"Alright, alright! Break it up! Break it up! There's nothing to see here. Move along," Tif said, swimming off with Dash and Melodious, "Come on, Mr Popularity. We have a previous engagement, remember?"
"Maybe I'll catch you later," Melodious called to his new friends.
"This is what happens when you bring a country fish to the big city," Tif grumbled. They swam into the palace with no problem.
Atlantica was even more incredible than Melodious ever dreamed. When this whole thing was over, he was going to live there. But first, they had to get "Morgan's" trident. They found the throne room and hid underneath a covered table. Peeking out, they saw Queen Tritana sitting in her throne. Something about her tugged at his heart though. Morgan said she was a thief, but she looked sad to be one. That was when they looked over and spotted the trident. Tif took one look at it and couldn't believe they were risking their tails for an oversized fork. They needed her to leave so they could get it.
While they were thinking, Queen Tritana sadly looked at a picture of her grandson as a baby. She missed him so much and hoped they found him soon.
Some servants came into the throne room to set up her lunch on the covered table.
"We haven't the time for this! I want every available merperson searching! Find him! FIND HIM!" she thundered and pounded the table for emphasis. Afraid, the servants swam away, unaware of the little black haired merman swimming behind a pillar from the table. Tif and Dash weren't so lucky though. Their fear of the mermaid caused them to shake the table. Fearing this was the end, the two friends apologized to each other for calling each other names.
Just as she was about to grab the table cloth to see what was underneath, a little seahorse steward came in.
"Queen Tritana, your son has returned," he announced.
The queen left the room and the gang came out of hiding. Finally, Melodious could grab the trident and get out of there. But he was very hesitant. Something about this didn't feel right.
"Oh sure. That's it. Take your time. Kick back and relax. Let's all just linger here and DIE!" Tif rushed.
"I'm sure he'll turn up soon," they could hear from down the hall.
"She's coming back!" Dash cried.
It was now or never!
With all of his strength, Melodious grabbed the trident and pulled! It came out of its stand, but the string of his locket broke and sank down to the floor.
"My necklace," he gasped.
He wanted to get it back, but Tif and Dash swam away with him just before Tritana came in with Sabrina, Aaron, and Flounder.
"Ah don't worry, Aaron. We'll find him," Flounder assured him.
Something drew Aaron's attention up to the throne and gasped to see the trident stand on his mother's throne was empty.
"Mom! The trident!" he cried.
"But that's not possible!" Sabrina said, "Nobody can remove the trident from the stand except you or one of your descendants, ma'am."
"Who could have done this?" Tritana wondered..
Aaron looked down to see a familiar necklace and instantly knew.
"Melodious," he gasped.
"Who I was supposed to be watching. Go ahead. Crack me open," Sabrina offered, "Make me a crab cake, ma'am."
"But how could he have gotten down here?" Aaron wondered.
"Morgan. If he gets his hands on my trident..." The realization of what could happen if that happened hit Tritana as memories of Urson came flooding back. She turned to some palace guards and ordered "Double the search parties! I want every creature in the ocean on patrol!"
Somehow, Morgan found his way to Melodious and was doing what Urson did to Aaron by using him. They needed to find Melodious before it was too late. A shadow went over them and the two friends looked up to see two familair manta rays. He remembered them. If they were there, then that meant they could lead him back to Morgan's lair. And maybe even Melodious.
"It's all my fault! If I had just paid better attention instead of blabbering on and on and on," Sabrina blabbered, "From now on, Your Majesty, nothing gets past...me." That was when she realized she was alone. She really had to stop doing that.
"We did it!" Tif and Dash cheered as they jumped out of the water and gave each other a high five.
They looked around for Melodious, but he wasn't even celebrating. Instead, he was looking up at his old home.
"All this time," he realized, "Atlantica was never that far away from home."
"That's your home?" Dash gasped.
"It used to be," he answered.
"Whoa! What a pad!" Tif marveled, "Talk about your kerb appeal. But, uh, what's with the wall? I know good fences make good neighbors, but isn't that a little much?"
"Yeah. What were you trying to keep out?" Dash asked.
"It wasn't built to keep anything out. It was built to keep me in," he answered and turned away from his former home, "Come on. Let's go."
He would explain everything later, but he wanted to leave that whole life behind him. If Mom and Dad wanted him back at all, too bad! They never listened or understood him anyway.
Even though it was never said in the movie the name of the young merman Melody bumps into, it has been confirmed his name is Alex.
It's one of those instances where they never say it in movies, but a character does have a confirmed name, like Prince Adam aka Beast from Beauty and the Beast.
See? I do my research haha