Chapter 11

May sat outside the palace, quietly fuming at her situation. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this," she growled. "They weren't supposed to leave yet!"

"Who wasn't?"

May gasped and looked up, relieved to see a familiar face in front of her. "Ash!"

"Hey May. What's up?" her friend smiled as he floated over and sat next to her.

"The surface," May grumbled.

"I mean, that much is obvious," Ash chuckled. "I mean, what's new in life?"

"Again, the surface," she grumbled louder, turning to him. "Misty just got the forbidden potion for the four of us."

"What?!" Ash exclaimed. "Wait...I thought Serena was too young to –"

"Misty convinced Mother to make an exception," May went on. "They're heading up there tonight...and never coming back." Her voice shook as she looked down at her fins, but she did everything she could to control her emotions.

"And...you're going with them?"

May turned her head sharply and glared at him. "What?"

"Are you going with them? You said Misty got the potion for the four of you, so I thought –"

"What?!" May cut him off angrily, "That I'd leave everything I ever loved down here behind because everyone thinks I should become human?!"

"Whoa, hey!" Ash said, taken aback. "Take it easy! That's not what I –"

"NO!" May screamed at him, leaping up from her seat and getting in his face. "I won't take it easy! All my life, merpeople have told me that one day I'm gonna leave the sea behind to live on land as a human! No one asked if that's what I wanted; no one cared! Well, I've had enough of that pollution, and I'm done watering everything down! I will never be human, and no one is gonna change my mind: not my sisters, not my mother, and least of all, NOT YOU!" She swam away furiously, but before she swam too far, she stopped to say one more thing:

"I thought you would understand me better than that, Ash, but I guess I was wrong. You're no different from the rest of them." With that, she swam away.

"May!" Ash called, reaching out as he started to swim after her. "May, wait! That's not what I –!" He trailed off as he realized that before he'd even started swimming after her, she was already gone. "I didn't want you to go..." he said quietly. His arm lowered as he looked down, crestfallen. Seeing that there was nothing else he could do for her, he turned around, saddened for his friend, and slowly started to swim away.

May stared at the surface with a firm frown on her face. The night was still young, so she knew her sisters would leave soon. As much as she wanted to go back and clear things up with them, she worried that they would just try and push her to be human again. So she sat where she was now, staring at the surface. She was at the very place where she and Ash watched the sunrise after a full moon weeks before.

She pulled her tail close to herself, curling up in sadness. "I can't believe Ash would say that to me," she muttered angrily. "I thought he, of all merpeople, would understand me: understand that I actually like living in the sea." She pulled her tail closer to herself. "So much for reconnecting with old friends. And to think earlier this evening I was crushing on him. I can't believe I was so stupid to feel that way! I hate him!"

As she sat there muttering to herself, she heard a serene song from above her. She looked up and there, swimming to the surface, was her three sisters. They swam with their arms linked together, moving in a slow circle as they ascended to the world above...for the very last time. As the weight of her situation hit her, May felt her emotions reach a fever pitch. Before she could stop herself, she felt a tear leak from her eye. Then she felt another leak from her other eye. Then another.

The next thing she knew, she had her face buried in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. Her shoulders shook as her tears floated above her, dissolving into the water, and her tail curled up so tightly it almost hurt.

"They're gone," she whimpered through her sobs. "They're gone...and they're never coming back." Her sobs took control of her for a moment. "I'm never gonna see them again," she cried. "And the last thing I told them...oh!" she moaned and continued to sob into her hands.

She wasn't sure how long she was there, crying uncontrollably, but she didn't care. Eventually, she ran out of tears to shed and started to swim back to the palace. She didn't want to do anything else tonight: no scouting, no relaxing, nothing. She just wanted to go into her room and sleep, bringing this horrible night to an end and letting it fade into the past like a bitter memory.

She came into her room and immediately swam over to her shellbed, curling up in the middle of it as though she were going to sleep. Of course, the moon was still out, so she couldn't go to sleep yet. She didn't care; she was too miserable.

"It's a little early to be going to sleep, isn't it?"

May shot up from her position at the sound of the familiar voice. "Dawn?!"

"Hey," Dawn said, floating out from the shadows with a sad frown.

"What are you doing here?" May asked, confused. "I thought you went up with the girls."

"I did," she said, "but I came back down because I had one more thing to take care of." She floated forward and put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "May –"

"Don't," May said, pulling away with a bitter frown. "Don't try and convince me to come with you. I'm not coming."

"That's not why I'm here," Dawn shook her head. "I wanted to ask you something, and...this is probably the only chance I'll have to ask you." May turned to her, her arms folded as she flicked her fins impatiently. Dawn took a deep breath, one of the last she would take of the ocean. "Did you really mean what you said earlier?"

May raised an eyebrow, confused. "You're gonna have to be a little more specific."

"Do you really love your life down here? Do you love being a mermaid?"

May sighed; she should've known that's what her sister was asking. "Yes," she said. "I know that sounds strange to you and the others, but it's the truth. The ocean is my home, Dawn, and I really care about it: the merpeople, the Pokemon...they mean everything to me; the ocean means everything to me."

Dawn nodded and looked down sadly. "Then...I guess this is where you belong." Small tears were bristling in her eyes.

"Dawn?" May blinked, swimming a little closer.

"I always thought that...when we went to the surface to live on land...we would all go together...as a family," she said, hiccuping as she struggled to hold back her tears. "I just assumed that's how it would be...because we did everything together. And yet…" Tears leaked from her eyes, floating away and dissolving in the water. "I never once thought to ask if that's what you actually wanted. I just...I…"

"You assumed that I'd want to be human," May finished for her, "because that's what every other mermaid princess wants."

Dawn nodded through her tears, not trusting her voice. "I'm so sorry, May," she managed to choke out through her tears. May lunged forward and threw her arms around her sister. Dawn reciprocated her embrace and cried loudly into her shoulder. May had small tears leaking from her eyes as well, though she wasn't crying as hard as her sister. She'd already gotten her tears out.

"Shhh," May said soothingly, much like their mother used to when she would calm them down when they couldn't sleep. "It's okay, Dawn."

"No, it's not!" Dawn cried into her shoulder. "We tried to force you to be someone you're not. You deserve so much better from the people you call family, May. I'm so sorry I never tried to understand you better."

"It's all right," May said softly, pulling out to look her sister in the eye. "To be honest, I'm just glad I was able to see you one last time before you went to the surface." Dawn nodded, but her tears continued to flow. May raised an eyebrow as a thought occurred to her. "Unless...is that really what you want?"

"Yes," Dawn said quickly. "I've always wanted to be human, and to see the human world. I just thought that I would do it together with my family." She sighed sadly. "I guess that's not gonna happen now."

"Yeah it is," May said, smiling softly at her. "You've still got Misty and Serena to experience it with, don't you?"

"Yeah, but…" Dawn said, but she trailed off.

"You wanted to experience it with me, too?" May finished.

"Yes," she nodded, "but more than that...I want you to be happy, and...maybe you were right earlier. Maybe trading your tail for legs wouldn't change your breathing problems at the surface." She sighed again. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

May surprised her sister by pulling her into another embrace. "I want you to be happy, too," she said quietly, "and if that means you're gonna be human, then so be it." She sighed sadly. "I'm just gonna miss you so much."

"I'm gonna miss you, too," Dawn agreed, holding her sister tightly. For a moment, they just floated there, hugging each other tightly, as they knew this would likely be the last time they could be together. As they separated, Dawn's eyes lit up. "Oh, that reminds me!"

"Huh?" May blinked as Dawn reached behind her and started pulling on something on the back of her tail. After a moment, she pulled out three scales, each of a different color.

"I had an idea that the girls and I could each take a scale out of our tails and keep them as a reminder of where we came from," she explained.

"Ooh!" May grinned. "That's a good idea! Did they agree?"

"No," Dawn shook her head with a frown. "They wanted to leave any connection they had with the sea behind. Thankfully, they were nice enough to give me a scale from their tails before they drank the potion." She took the scales from the water and brought them forward, cupped in her hands. "But...I think it would be better if you had them."

"Me?" May blinked. "But Dawn…"

"No 'buts,' May," Dawn stopped her. "You need them more than I do. And don't worry," she smiled, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder. "I will never forget you."

"I should hope not," May smirked. "If you did, I'd swim up there and slap you silly until you remembered!" They giggled at this, and she gratefully took the scales from Dawn. "Thanks, Dawn," she smiled sincerely. "This means a lot to me. Oh, and just to return the favor…" she reached behind her and pulled a scale out from the back of her tail. "Here, this is for you."

Dawn took May's scale in her hands and stared down at it, almost in awe. "Wow," she whispered. "It's...beautiful." She looked up at her sister. "You always did take really good care of your tail, didn't you? We always thought you were wasting your time." She sighed sadly. "I guess that's just another way we failed to understand you."

"Dawn, don't think like that," May said. "Even if it's true, that doesn't make you a bad mermaid. You shouldn't dwell on your past when you should be focusing on making a better future." She smiled softly. "Mother once told me that life is like a series of currents, and when you find yourself caught up in one, you have three options: swim with the flow, swim against the flow, or find another flow to swim with." She put her hand on Dawn's shoulder. "You and the others did pressure me to be someone I'm not, and I will admit that I always hated that, but that's in the past now. If you spend all your time dwelling on it, you'll just be swimming against a current. And besides," she went on, pulling her sister into another embrace, "the fact that you came back down here to try and make up for what you did means everything to me. Thank you so much, Dawn."

Dawn smiled softly as she reciprocated May's embrace. "What did I do to deserve a sister like you?" she whispered.

May just smirked. "You didn't."

"Wise girl," Dawn smirked, pulling away and playfully shoving her. They giggled a moment more. Then, with everything said that needed to be said, they swam out of the room, through the hall, and out of the palace before swimming up towards the surface. When they were only a few fins away, they stopped, knowing that May wouldn't be able to swim any further.

"Well, I guess this is it," May sighed.

"Yeah," Dawn nodded. She turned to her sister and pulled her into one last embrace. "Goodbye, May," she whispered. "I love you."

"I love you, too," May said quietly. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

"You too," Dawn said. With that, they pulled apart, and Dawn started to slowly swim the last few fins towards the surface. She and May kept their gazes locked on each other until she disappeared from May's sight into the light of the moon shining down through the surface. When May was sure her sister couldn't see her anymore, she turned and slowly swam back down towards her home.