Ariel hadn't meant for everything to go so horribly wrong. The moment she watched Melody storm out of the room she knew she had messed up.

"Oh no…" The Queen collapsed onto her daughter's bed, clutching her head in her hands.

"Ariel… darling." The sweet sound of her husband's voice drew her attention, the handsome king standing in the doorway. In another moment he was by his beloved Queen's side, taking her hands in his.

His deep soft voice instantly comforted her breaking heart, "Maybe… maybe it's time. We can't hide the truth from her forever."

Ariel hated to admit it, but she knew he was right. She wanted to believe she could hide everything evil in the world from her daughter forever.

"Oh, Eric… You're right. Maybe it's time I trusted her with the truth."

Melody had no problem sneaking out of the castle completely unseen. Wrapped in a black thick cloak from head to toe she slipped into the shadows until she made it to the shoreline outside of the castle. The beach was abandoned in the dead of the night.

It wasn't until she knew she was alone did she finally drop her hood. The sea breeze lightly tossed her raven curls, and she took a deep breath of the salty air. Something about being alone with nothing but the sea felt incredibly grounding to her, it was always changing and yet never changing at the same time.

After a few moments of calm, the princess pulled out the golden clamshell locket. Looking at it closer she noticed a gold chain attached to the shell, just long enough to make it a necklace. After tying it around her slender neck she pried the locket open yet again.

The familiar lullaby began to play, something about it so familiar to the princess's ears in a way she couldn't explain. The blue orb appeared again, the underwater castle scene reappearing. Yet the scene was slightly different than last time. The water was darker, different schools of fish rushing by, different merfolk bustling through the castle.

For a while all the princess could do was watch the magic in awe, but after a while, she forced herself to close the locket. She wasn't careful she would stand there all night. Melody had come to the shoreline for a very specific reason, there were dozens of boats tied up for the night just ready for the taking.

Melody felt bad stealing someone's boat but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"This necklace means something… and if no one will tell me what, then I'll find out for myself." Melody set out for a long night of rowing, she wasn't going to stop till she found another safe coastline to dock at. She thought being out on the ocean in the middle of the night meant it would be impossible for anyone to see her. She was completely unaware that the minute she left the shore she was being very closely watched.

Far away, in the freezing ice caverns of the northern sea, a spell was cast. The magic was nearly identical to Melody's golden clamshell. A luminous orb appeared, lighting up the entire cave and revealing a scene playing out far away.

That scene was of a young woman, stuck on a small boat out at sea all alone. In the freezing night, she had curled up on the hard wooden floor in a shivering sleep.

"Well isn't this just delicious? Isn't this just divine?"A cackle echoed off the undersea walls, "Undertow! You know what to do."

"Let's go flatsos!" a piranha circled the enchanted orb a final time before starting to bark orders. As he began to make his way out of the caves, two massive stingrays appeared to follow him.

"Hurry Undertow! There is a poor little princess who needs our help."

The King and Queen had falsely assumed Melody had simply fled to another part of the castle, something she had done during fights before. They also made the mistake of believing she had no way of escaping the castle, they had too much faith in the castle guard. Melody had already been evading them for years at that point.

Only about an hour after Melody had stormed out of her room did a search begin to find her. At first, no one was worried, figuring she would show up somewhere in the castle. It wasn't till a couple more hours passed I'd everyone begin to panic.

It was Carlotta that finally broke the news to the King and Queen.

Desperation filled the Queen's voice, "What do you mean she is gone? Search the castle again! She has to be here somewhere."

"We have searched the castle three times, your highness… She is nowhere to be found. We believe she is not on the grounds."

Panic began to set in Ariel's heart, "Where could she possibly be going?!"

"Going to Morgana's? And you think she could tell me what this locket means? Why it has my name on it?"

Melody had been lucky enough to meet a friendly piranha fish out at sea, and he had offered to help her.

"Oh, sure kid! Morgana is the best, she'll help you for sure."

A small amount of hope bloomed in Melody's chest, finally, something was going her way.

"Wow, thank you! I'd love to go meet her."

The second she spoke, two stings appeared just below the surface of the water. Their long tails winded around the ropes attached to her boat, and they towed her along as they swam. They followed faithfully behind the piranha but stayed quiet the entire time.

The piranha flashed her a toothy grin before swimming ahead, "We got a long way to go kid, why don't you just relax? You look like you need it, princess."

Melody didn't remember telling him she was a princess, but perhaps it was a nickname he used for everyone...

Hi everyone, thank you for reading my AU of The Little Mermaid 2, with Melody at 19 and not 12. I originally posted this FanFiction on Deviantart, and it is updated there every 1st and 15th of the month. I will be adding chapters to this story every Monday till it's caught up to the deviant art version.

If you would like to read ahead or check out my Disney fan edits here is my deviantart link:

mermaidmelodyedits

You can also check out my Disney fan edits on Instagram:

mermaid_melody_edits/

I'd super appreciate if you guys could leave me your thoughts in the comments! Critique, comments, discussion, etc. I want to hear it all! Feel free to also message me if you have any questions or want to chat!

Chapter 7 is when Melody runs away from her family and make the decision to go see Morgana. I wrote this chapter a long time again and have since gotten much farther in the story, but I kind of wish I had Lily join Melody here in this chapter. Melody and Lily will meet again, but not for a little while. I should have reunited them sooner! oh well, I still enjoy how this and the next few chapters play out. I hope you all do too! I cant wait for Melody to finally be a mermaid ️