Author's Note: I've counted the reviews! I'm going to do more on Marquella, and perhaps show a little bit of Anchor… Oh yeah, and even though the thing says that the genre is Romance/humor. For the next few chapters it's Romance/Angst or romance/drama.

tinks-belle85- Yes, Dante is spooty. If only Dag was in this story to tell him that…

Insane Pirate Dragon- Hmmm, Maybe Dante should meet Lei… I'd like to see the day that happens; maybe they'd make a cute couple…lol

Disclaimer: I only own Marquella and Dante so don't sue me, blah, blah, blah, and all that other good stuff. Let's start the story!

Chapter Seven: Marquella's Tale

It was a depressing night for Anchor. He had just found out that his soon-to-be girlfriend had another boyfriend, and hadn't broken up with him. Tears stung his eyes as he swam toward a cavern near the East Australian Current: one of his thinking places. He could've gone back home, where he had two friends that would try to cheer him up, where his friends would've done anything to get him out of this state of depression, but he didn't. He needed time to think, and didn't want to vent all his anger and misery out on Bruce and Chum. What made the night worse was when dark storm clouds filled the sky. Anchor saw a bright flash, and thought, 'It's gonna rain soon.' So he hurried to get to the cavern.

Meanwhile, in another part of the ocean, Marquella was fighting with all the strength that was in her.

"Let me go!" Marquella said, struggling to get out of Dante's fins. "I said, let me go!"

"Aww, c'mon love." Dante said with an evil smirk. "That's no way to treat your fiancé, is it?"

That comment only made Marquella angrier and her struggles more forceful. "You're not my fiancé, and you never will be!" She shouted. She finally got out of Dante's grasp.

"Oh really? Well that doesn't matter, you're still my girlfriend." Dante returned.

"Not anymore." Marquella said, panting heavily. Her struggle had left her very tired, and the burning sensation in her side wasn't helping. "We're through."

Dante grabbed Marquella from behind, and put a sharp, pointy rock to her throat. "I don't think so. You aren't getting away that easily… again…"

Marquella gasped in fear at the words. She remembered leaving Dante, and remembered why she left him. He was too violent. He wasn't violent at first; when she first met him, he seemed like an o.k. guy. But a fateful night proved her wrong.

Flashback

"Stop!"

Bites kept ripping into her flesh, ignoring the pleas.

"Please!"

Teeth kept puncturing her skin, leaving deep gashes. Marquella was pinned to the bottom of a cave and her attacker: Dante. He had caused pain to her for the last three nights there, when there was a hurricane and there was nowhere else to go.

"Shut up!" Dante snarled, slapping Marquella across the face.

"You're a monster." Marquella gasped out, not in a condition to speak.

"You'll just have to get used to that, won't you?" Dante said with a malicious smile. With a painful jerk, Dante brought Marquella's ears to his mouth, ignoring the sob of pain she let out. "You're stuck with me forever… and don't you forget it. If you try to escape, you won't get away easily." He whispered in her ear. He then threw her against the cave wall, not knocking her unconscious but making her unable to do anything. "Now, I'm going to sleep, and you will too. G'night."

So, Dante went to sleep. Marquella, however, did not go to sleep, and when she noticed that nothing could startle him, she said, "I'm not going to sleep. I'm running away."

With a shock of pain rushing through her body, Marquella got up. She stifled back a cry; something pretty hard to do if you've been through what she has. She reached the exit of the cave and looked outside. There was a great storm outside, a hurricane. But, she had no other choice. Dante didn't sleep much, and who knew if he'd ever sleep again. 'I'll just have to take a chance.' Marquella thought. Without one glance back at Dante, Marquella set off to find another place, a place far, FAR away from Dante.

End Flashback

Dante noticed the look on her face, and had to taunt her more. "My," He said casually, "how time flies by. How long has it been? Four years?"

"Five. I was nineteen, remember? Not that you'd remember or even care for that matter…" Marquella didn't get to finish her sentence.

Dante had punched her nose, breaking it. "Don't get smart with me! And you definitely don't correct me!"

Marquella didn't answer. She didn't want to get punched again, but was punched anyway. Dante gave a hard blow to Marquella's eye.

"Aren't you gonna say anything? Huh?" Dante shouted, punching her face in.

His blow had smacked Marquella about two feet away from him. He swam over to where Marquella was, and began talking again. "After you left me, I woke up, and decided to look for you. I don't know why though; you're completely worthless."

'I don't know why you searched for me either,' Marquella thought, 'But I'm not worthless.'

"I went to the cops while it was still storming outside, and told them that you had gone missing. They followed me back to the cave, and found the evidence that I had hit you a lot." Dante continued with a mixture of malice and anger in his tone. "It was your fault! If you hadn't swum away, I wouldn't have had to spend a year in prison!"

Marquella winced as she felt a burning sensation on her spine. She didn't know what he did, but felt blood trickle down her spine, and thankfully realized that her spine wasn't broken.

"After I got out of prison, I began looking for you. My goal was to make you suffer." Dante continued. "Who knew that it would take me three, no, four years to find you. And when I saw you I thought 'Boy, is she gonna pay.' I would've just gone up and whacked you, but I couldn't. Someone else was there with you; that shark guy. He would've hurt me for hurting you, and I couldn't have him in the way, now could I?" Dante paused, and looked at the pained expression in Marquella's face. Anybody who didn't know what had happened so far would've thought that she looked pained because she was bleeding in a million places and still getting beat up on. But Dante knew better. He plastered on one of his evil smirks and continued to speak.

"Speaking of that other shark, what was his name? Stupid?" Dante said.

"It's Anchor." Marquella snarled.

"Anchor? Well his name might as well 'ave been stupid, believing a lie like he did." Dante taunted.

"He didn't know you!" Marquella yelled with the little voice she had left, sticking up for Anchor. "You would've believed it too if you were in his place!"

"Oh, so he did care?" Dante said.

Marquella didn't answer. She only glared at him.

"He did!" Dante taunted. "Well, it doesn't matter anymore. He hates you now, and he's never coming back for you…"

"SHUT UP!" Marquella shouted, punching Dante in the mouth. Her punch had caught him by surprise; he was expecting her to cry, not punch him! Dante tried to get up, but Marquella pinned him down. She punched both his eyes, and when he tried to punch her mouth, she began to bite him continuously, giving him noticeable scars and ripping off a chunk of his skin. "HE DOESN'T HATE ME AND HE WILL COME BACK…' Marquella didn't finish her sentence; next thing she knew, she was knocked against a tall boulder, cutting her dorsal fin, slamming her head, and knocking her unconscious.

"You're wrong." Dante sneered at her lifeless body. "Where you're going, nobody is coming back for you, and no one will know about what happened."

But Dante was wrong. As he swam away, he didn't notice that there was a witness…

Anchor was swimming towards his 'thinking cavern', reminiscing on what happened.

'I'm never going back to that place again!' Anchor thought. 'Too many memories…'

"Anchor!"

Anchor turned around, hearing his name. When he didn't say anything, he thought, 'Must've been the wind.' But it wasn't the wind. He heard his name, this time louder and more clearly.

"Anchor!"

Anchor turned around and saw… Crush?

"Crush? What're you doing here?" Anchor asked.

"Never mind that man." Crush said, with a hint of panic in his voice. "You gotta come quick dude!"

"Well what's wrong?" anchor asked, the panic catching his tone too.

"I saw Marquella over there getting' beat up by some evil guy!" Crush explained. "That evil dude has some serious issues."

'Dante!' Anchor thought. 'I knew I should've stayed when I had a feeling that he was evil.' Then Anchor's brain started working. "Wait, how d'you know her name's Marquella? More importantly, how do you know who she is?"

"Aww, that's easy dude!" Crush answered, laughing his Californian accent laugh. "Little Blue told me. Said you had a girlfriend."

"You mean Dory?" Anchor said in disbelief. "But she doesn't even know her, they never met…" It all suddenly came clear. 'That's why Bruce and Chum were gone that day! They told 'Arlin, Dory, and Nemo that I had a girlfriend! And that music that was playing…' Anchor chuckled. 'I'm gonna have to thank Bruce and Chum one day.'

"I don't know how all that happened, but you have to hurry!" Crush said, swimming back home. "Your friend's bleeding badly, if she doesn't get help… I'm afraid she won't make it." And with that, he was gone.

'What?' Anchor thought. 'She won't make it! She has to make it; I have to help her… I've gotta say sorry or something… Let's face it, whether she's engaged to that guy or not, I still like 'er and anyone who hurts her like that will get hurt.' With those words of confidence ringing in his ears, he went off to find Dante…

TBC…

Well, what d'you think? Was it good? Comments, grammer and spelling corrections are always welcome. Flames are welcome too, remember; I'm having a barbeque party and need some fire. In the meantime, it's time for, that's right…

Reviewer's Choice!

What should happen in the next chapter?

We see what Anchor is doing

We see what Bruce and Chum are doing

OR

Both

That's it mates. R&R please!