Chapter 13: Atlantica

It had been a long journey, but they finally had arrived at the outskirts of Atlantica. Like all the fish tales, it was made entirely of gold and laid on the ocean floor. Yet in a surprisingly shallow area, not tucked away into murky depths. In Atlantica, sunlight filtered through the pristine water and lit the golden city up as bright as a summer day on land.

Alex giggled and waved his arm over the city, "Welcome to the great mer city of Atlantica."

The awestruck little mermaid could hardly believe it, eyes sparkling with tears of joy. She almost went to wipe them away, but tears didn't exactly work the same when you're underwater. The stories of mermaids crying pearls seemed silly to her now, although part of her wished it true.

Alex studied her face closely while she was too distracted to notice. Her cerulean eyes glistened in a way he had never seen from any mer before. It was as if they made tiny sea droplets, all by themselves. Tears weren't something merpeople had, nothing came from their eyes when they cried. To Alex, seeing the little Princess with jewels coating her eyes was a truly rare sight to behold.

"Sorry, it's just… It's so beautiful…"

Alex only smiled and offered his hand, "Don't be sorry, it's even prettier inside."

Melody hesitated for a brief moment before putting her hand in his and following him into the city.

Lucky for her, Alex was the best tour guide she could have asked for. Melody had never left the castle and thus had no sense of direction to speak of. On the other hand, it seemed like Alex knew every inch of the ocean and how to get there too. Navigating an underwater city was also very different from a human one. There weren't any roads or paths to follow. Almost everything was built vertically, a neighborhood would be a single high-rise building with each floor home for somebody. The market was shops stacked on each other, people drifted up or down to visit different stores.

The first thing they did was get freshly cooked food, something they hadn't had while traveling. There was no meat to be found in Atlantica, and eating fish or fish was akin to murder. It made sense when considering merpeople could speak as casually to the animals as they could each other. Even humans wouldn't eat something that they could hold an intelligent conversation with. The astounding amount of spices and flavors in Atlantica's cuisine easily made up for the lack of meat in the diet. Melody's personal favorite was spicy seaweed salad, followed by the sweetest cranberry pastry she'd ever had.

They went to the markets next, and each shop had a window filled with treasures behind the princess's wildest dreams. One held hundreds of crystals in dozens of varieties, and Melody was quite shocked when Alex offered to buy her one. She was even more surprised when the small jade crystal she picked was about the same price as their dinner from earlier. Casual gem collecting was popular with mers and not an expensive hobby. One Atlantica shop alone could easily rival the royal family's jewel collection on land.

The plant shop was by far the mer princess's favorite. She could stay there for weeks studying species never seen by humans. The store was more like a massive wall-to-wall library with nothing but flora lining the shelves instead of books. It was somewhat taboo to cut and trim back plants in Atlantica unless it was necessary for their health or pruning. Thus everything overflowed from their pots and grew out in every direction it wanted. Most enchanting of all was how all the vegetation constantly danced and swayed in the ocean's current; never stilling.

While Melody was enthralled with the store shelves, Alex covertly bought a barette from the front counter. A large living lavender-colored flower, with its stem and roots expertly woven into the metal piece of the hair clip.

As Melody reluctantly left the shop Alex covertly tucked her hair behind her ear and clipped it in place with the flower.

Bright crimson bloomed across her pale face as she stuttered, "It-its beautiful…t-thank you…"

Alex tried to stifle a chuckle, but the sight of the flustered little mermaid was too much. He casually took her hand, and she caught her breath as he leaned in closer to her face.

A woman's voice interrupted them, "Alex? Who is that?"

Two mers were watching them closely, a boy and a girl. The girl had a pastel lilac tail, a pale yellow shell top, and beautiful chestnut-colored hair. The boy had hair blacker than night and a deep royal blue tail. Both of them were scrutinizing Melody closely.

Immediately Alex slipped his hand away from Melody's, "Oh hey guys! I thought you had work today…"

The mermaid responded quickly, "The castle is such a mess right now, no one is paying any attention to the cleaning staff. So we took the day off."

The blue tail boy gestured to Melody, "Who is she?"

"Oh meet-"

"MELODY!" A frantic shout interrupted Alex's introduction. From far away a little fish was swimming towards the group like a mini torpedo.

Melody knew that freckled yellow face anywhere, "Lily?"

Alex shot her an inquisitive look, "Mel?"

Melody wasted no time to reply, "She is my friend, the one I came to Atlantica looking for." Another half-truth, Lily was only one reason Melody came to Atlantica.

Minty green fins grabbed Melody's hand tightly, hints of fear in her voice, "Melody! How did you… forget it, you have to come with me. Now."

Melody didn't take the deathly seriousness in her friend's voice lightly and never hesitated. The yellow and green fish began to swim away, Melody following closely behind. As they swam away the princess managed a last look over her shoulder," Thank you for everything!"

And as Alex replied, "We'll see each other again soon!" Melody noticed a very familiar purple flower barrette in the lilac mermaid's brown hair.

As the Princess swam away too far to hear the brunette mermaid broke out laughing, "I didn't take you as such a shark Alex, bringing a reef fish into the deep leagues. Works every time, little mer doesn't even know what hit her."

Alex glared at his friend, "Shut up Marie, it's not like that."

"Sure it isn't."

"Lily, where are you taking me?"

The fish halted abruptly, slapping a fin over Melody's mouth and pulling her into a cleverly hidden sea cavern.

"My dad showed me these tunnels, there DEFINITELY won't be any guards here. We can talk now." The two girls locked eyes and immediately embraced.

Lily cried into her friend's hair, "Where were you? It's been almost a week since the party, do you have any idea how scared I was?"

Melody felt painful tears well up in her eyes, crying them invisibly into a salty sea. Nothing hurts more than hurting those you love.

"I tried to find you but everything happened so fast. I was too scared to go back to our bay because-"

Her friend seamlessly finished her thought, "Because your parents are looking everywhere for you."

"But as a mermaid, they will never find me! Morgana the sea witch gave me fins, that's why I'm here in Atlantica. Here, with you!"

Lily pulled back from her friend, worry filling her eyes "Morgana made you a mermaid?"

Melody nodded with a smile, "She's the nicest person I've ever met, and she gave me everything I've ever wanted for free. I didn't even know mermaids existed, why didn't you ever tell me?"

Now it was Lily's turn to feel guilt, "If I had been caught hanging out with you I would have gotten jail time. If they had found out you knew about merpeople or Atlantica, they would give me the death sentence. I shouldn't have been such a guppy though, I knew you always dreamed about mermaids. I should have been a better friend."

Melody shook her head, "I should have been a better friend and not let you worry. I should have told you I was running away. Plus, I think the penalty of death is a good reason to hide the truth from me."

The two girls both began to cry softly, and they hugged tightly. When they broke apart Lily grasped Melody's shoulders seriously.

"I'm not going to hide anything from you anymore. King Triton is close to the human royal family, your family. He has sent people to help search since they know you stole a boat."

Melody furrowed her brow in confusion, "My family knows about Atlantica, and they know the King? That awful king? How…?"

A pained look crossed Lily's face, "Your family is lying to you, in so many ways… and I don't even know everything myself. But the king and your parents are searching for a human Princess, not a mermaid. As long as you're a mermaid they will never find you."

Melody went quiet for a while, puzzling over what Lily had said. She had always had a feeling her parents were hiding things, but she had never dreamed they were lying to her. At the very least her mother knew mermaids were real and lied to her face many times. How many other things?

After a long debate, fierceness took over the princess's face, "Listen, Lily, I need your name help."

"Wild Seahorses couldn't stop me"

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!

We finally made it to Atlantica! I'm so excited, and I had a ton of fun writing this chapter. I had fun fleshing out what Atlantica was like and it's culture which we don't learn a ton about in the movies. Melody and her best friend also reunite, and there is some romance going on too. Lots of fun things at once in this chapter! I can't wait to hear what you all think.