Author's Note: Whew, the damn mid-terms are finally over. I spent quite the time writing this over the weekend. Thanks to everyone who reviewed this story, and now let's get the show on the road!
Disclaimer: You got the point, I don't own Disney or Square.
Chapter 2:
"Gosh, Kairi, you are too slow!" Ariel laughed. Kairi tried her best to keep up with her, but she was just too swift in the water.
"Ariel! Wait for me!" Sebastian yelled. The little red crab was always left behind. Because Ariel was the princess of the sea, she needed a guardian, and what a pitiful one it was. Sebastian eventually caught up though.
"So, Ariel, why did your father send a rainstorm anyway?" Kairi asked.
"Well… He did tell me something flew over his kingdom. Probably wanted to destroy it." She thought for a moment before continuing, "Hey, wanna go up there? Of course, we're not aloud to, but I've been up there a thousand times to collect treasure and stuff and I've never been caught. Come on, give it a try."
"Okay, I've always wanted to meet land dwellers," said Kairi. She never saw the land and sky before, so it was the only thing she wanted to look at. She knew there were humans, and she seen dead one under the sea. She wanted to see what's up there, so Kairi nodded eagerly at Ariel's remark.
They swam up to the water, and Kairi took one last look down, hoping that no one would see them.
"Wow, is this how it's like up here?" Kairi exclaimed. The sea from above was a lot bigger than expected. She looked up at the dull clouds, and around. Ariel grabbed her and pulled her down.
"There're humans passing our way," she whispered. Kairi followed her, and she glanced at the large dark oval passing their way.
"That's a huge ship," Kairi said. "Wait, so your dad saw the ship, and he sent rain clouds to scare it away? Isn't that kinda stupid?"
"Yeah, but he's always suspicious," answered Ariel. She looked around and spotted a human floating in the water. "Is he dead?"
"Dunt know." Kairi swam over to it and put her head out of the water. It was a boy, no older than herself.
"He's still alive at least," said Ariel. "Come on, we have to help him. She gazed at her friend, who was pink. "Like him?" she teased.
"I don't even know him," answered Kairi hotly. She swam over to the body and dragged him down.
"You're not supposed to drag him down. You're suppose to get him back on shore," groaned Ariel.
"Yeah, but we'll just give him our medicine, then we let him leave in peace," said Kairi. Ariel shook her head.
"And he can just get all the humans suspicious?"
"Well, I'll just tell him not to utter a word about us."
They came to Kairi's little hiding place, almost like her home, and she want to her coral shelf and took a bottle with a pill and went back to the big coral where the strange boy was. She dropped the pill into the boy's mouth, and a few seconds later he coughed.
"What's going on?" he asked wearily. He looked around, unconsciously noticing that he was sitting on a coral in the water.
"Are you okay?" Ariel asked. He looked at her, and then her tail.
"You have a tail?" Sora said, shocked.
"Yeah, dumbo," she replied as she flicked her green tail and swam up.
"Wait… that makes you… a mermaid," Sora pointed out. "You're a mermaid!"
"Do your eyes need adjusting? Because if you do, my friend can fix that." She pointed over to the other strange mermaid with a blue tail.
"But, you guys don't exist." Wait, what am I talking about? Sora pondered to himself. "I mean, I thought I did… lots of other people didn't."
"See? Some people believe us," the girl with the blue tail said.
"So, most people think that a human having a tail is crazy, and that's what Triton wants it, doesn't he?"
"Well, yeah."
Sora was lost, so he just listened to their ongoing conversation. He kept thinking if it were all a dream. He hoped it wasn't, but it was all a little awkward about it.
"So, what to do with him? He cannot, I tell you, go to our city. If Triton finds out, we'll die, even if Iam my father's daughter," said the girl with the green tail.
"Sorry, but I never advised that at all," the other girl retorted. She sighed and came swimming over to the boy.
"What's you name anyway?" The boy looked up with his blue eyes.
"Sora."
"Nice name. I'm Kairi." The other girl smirked. "And over there's Ariel."
Sora tried to stand up, but he floated instead. "Hey, how come I can breathe?"
"Good question," Kairi said. She turned around and asked, "How come he can breathe underwater?" Ariel shrugged.
"Does he have anything of our race?" Sora shuffled around his pockets and found the necklace Tidus gave to him before.
Ariel came racing over. "That enables human to breathe. How did you get that?"
"Ask my friend," answered Sora. He decided to put it around his neck, so he wouldn't loose it easily.
"I suppose I have to get back to land. Thanks for you help."
"Wait one moment," asked Ariel. Sora did what he was told, and Kairi whispered, "Don't tell anyone that there are live mer-people."
"What's the harm? Nobody would believe me," stated Sora, who was practicing swimming.
"You never know. People might believe in anything," Ariel said. Sora nodded and swam away.
"Okay," started Ariel, "let's put this straight. What if he tells about us? Then what?"
Kairi thought for a moment. "I don't know."
"If we get caught, I'll swear I'll kill you. Fine, I'm kidding. But you know what I mean." Kairi laughed nervously. They both didn't realize that someone was spying on them.
"Good, so that Sora kid has met the mermaids? I knew something funny about him," Ansem chuckled.
His hand swept over the globe, where the picture of Kairi and Ariel were talking. "Now's the good time for plan A." He laughed in his grotto.
Sora popped his head out of the water and breathed. He was close to the shoreline, and he found Roxas making a sandcastle. A sneak attack would be fun, Sora thought. He ducked under the water, and being able to breathe underwater, he didn't' have to worry getting choked.
He waited like a frog, and when Roxas came near to pick another seashell up, he dived up and tackled Roxas. His back hit the sandcastle, making it fall all over his body. Sora laughed.
"Wha –?" Roxas frowned at Sora. "I thought you were dead! How did you survive?"
"Well, uhh…"Sora trailed off.Roxas swept all the sand off of him, and then waited for an explanation.
"I have good surviving skills," Sora lied. Roxas stared suspiciously at him.
"If that's what you say… you owe me."
"For what?"
"Getting me all dirty, that's what."
"It was just a joke."
"Give me back my twenty dollar, and I'll spare you."
"No, I won it fair and square. You can get it back when you win the other bet," Sora sneered. "If you can."
Roxas crossed his arms. "Hmph."
"Sora!" Tidus yelled behind them. "How did you survive? We were about to give a funeral."
"You go tell him," Sora said quietly to Roxas.
"Give me my twenty dollars."
"No, they're officially mine."
"I don't care."
"But I've already ordered the bank to deposit it."
"Then withdraw it."
"That happens three years later."
"Liar."
Sora growled and took out his paper and pointed at it. "See, it says, 'Any money deposited by people under the age of 18 will get their money back when they are officially adults.'"
"Then pinky promise that you'll give me back when three years has passed and on the time of July 26, 6:24 a.m."
"I'll still be sleeping on my birth date," defended Sora.
"You sleep in a tree house that I kindly built for you, so I can come and intrude your dreams anytime."
Tidus bounced his eye back and forth on the argument.
"No."
"Yes."
"Get it when you win a bet."
"Never."
The sun started setting, for they had been arguing about a twenty-dollar bill for approximately four hours, or so Tidus counted. He wrote down what they all said, and when they finished, they looked up at Tidus and asked, "What are you doing?" Tidus gave a handy wave and speeded off, leaving them two to continue to argue until midnight.
The next morning, Sora and Roxas tiredly went to meet Cloud and Leon, who were blackmailed by Arieth to take everyone to the mall. Sora and Roxas were not interested in going to the mall at all. When they read the Sunday newspaper though, they both turned to Tidus.
"Tidus? Why did you have to put our argument in it?"Sora and Roxas asked.Tidus shrugged.
"Drat it, if mom finds out about this newspaper, I'll be doomed!" Sora yelled as he pointed at the small paragraph.
"I only did it for Roxas. He wanted the twenty dollar – he'll get one." He took out a crispy unfolded bill and gave it to Roxas.
"And what about me? I'll get discovered, don't you worry," Sora snapped. He threw his bottle away into the trashcan. Selphie went into Pac Sun, Cloud and Arieth went to talk, Tidus was buying video games, and Leon and Yuffie gone to check out the arcade, leaving the two sitting by the fountain, doing absolutely nothing.
"Tell me again why we agreed onto this?" Sora asked.
"I don't know," answered Roxas.Sora only snorted. He flipped another coin and wished the time to go faster into the fountain.
"Do you seriously believe on all that hocus pocus stuff?"
Sora didn't answer. He didn't know himself, ever since he found out about mermaids. And it sounded that they had a big city somewhere.
"Ariel, Kairi!"
"Now look what's happened to us," Ariel hissed.
"It was your idea in the first place to go up there!" Kairi hissed back at her. They swam forward to meet Triton, the king of the Atlantic Ocean. He didn't look happy.
"What have I told you two about going up there? You know it's dangerous!" he said.
"But we were…"
"Oh, shut your excuses, Ariel! If Sebastian wasn't watching you, who knows what could have happened? Ariel, you're grounded, and Kairi, I don't want you to bother her anymore," Triton yelled. Ariel gave the face to Kairi, you-owe-me-big. Kairi only swam away.
Great, more people against me, though Kairi as she sat onto the cliff, watching the busy city. She did not have a parent at all, and no one wanted to adopt her. "Huh," she grumbled, and sat there all day watching the city, even at night. If the problem never happened, King Triton would invite her friendly to his dinner at night, and she would chat with Ariel, who now was mad at her too.
And while all the moment, someone was lurking into Ariel's grotto.
"Come in," Ariel said wearyingly. She took a rock and threw it onto her little coral, where she liked to sit or weep on it. Ariel poked Flounder in the fin and turned around to see who entered. A merman that was extremely tanned and had white hair stood by the doorway.
"Has my father send another servant?" Ariel asked.
"No, girl, but I did come to take you to there," sneered the merman. He grabbed Ariel's wrist and towed her away.
"Hey, let go of me!" Ariel yelled. He only chuckled.
"Foolish girl." He continued to drag her to the kingdom, and when the guy opened the double doors, she screamed at him.
"What's going on here?" said Triton.
"We haven't met for a long time, had we?" said the stranger.
"Get your hands off of her," Triton demanded. He got up from his seat. Ansem only laughed as usual.
"Give me the throne, and I'll release your daughter and her funny little fish." He shook Ariel from her wrist and took out his knife. The edge faced toward Ariel's neck, and she stopped breathing instantly, afraid.
"So what's it gonna be, huh? I either kill your daughter, and find some other means of getting the throne, or surrender now."
Triton growled. Ariel tried to talk, but Ansem pressed it against Ariel's neck. If it were shoved further, Ariel would have been slaughtered.
"Fine. Give me back my daughter." Triton took his trident out. Ariel wanted to say something. Ansem took the trident and took the knife away. He took a potion out and dropped it to the ground, and when the black smoke cleared, the guards were posing there, ready to fight.
"Too late now Triton!" were Ansem's last words.
Kairi woke up. Something was bothering her, and she turned to see the kingdom. Where in the middle of the city was supposed to be bright, it turned into a dull shady color. Smoke was covering the middle, and it disappeared just as quickly it had appeared.
Kairi got up immediately, hoping that Ariel didn't get hurt. She swam over, ignoring everyone's presence and their swearing words of rushing. When she saw the familiar rock that covered Ariel's grotto, she knocked on it. There was no voice, so Kairi budged the door open and looked inside the empty room. She swam over to the coral when she found a piece of paper on it.
Your girl is gone.
-Ansem
Indeed, Ariel wasn't in the room.
"Ariel, Ariel!" she called. No one answered. Only her voice echoed off the walls. She hurried to Triton. She found him sitting there looking tiredly.
"Ariel's gone! So is the trident! Now sea is in danger!" Sebastian yelled over and over again. "We'll all be doomed, human or not!" He swam in a circle, and Kairi picked him up by the claw.
"What happened?" Kairi asked.
"Ariel's gone! The trident's gone! Our wise king is gone! Everything is gone!" Sebastian continued to panic.
"Who did it? Ursula?"
"Ursula's already dead," said Triton. Kairi let go of the little red crab. "Ansem took the trident and Ariel." He sighed. "It's all my fault."
"Ansem?"
"Ariel's gone! The trident's gone! Our wise king is –"
"Shut up, Sebastian!" Kairi said as she muffled Sebastian's mouth. "We know. We want to find Ariel, and I'll try to help, okay?"
"You can't," said Triton. "You can't just budge into his cave. It's protected. You would need an item to deactivate whatever's in there. And can't go alone. You need at a human to help you. It's what the legend says."
"What's the legend?" questioned Kairi. She let go of the crab, and listened to everything, if she was ever hoping to help her friend back.
"The same cave that Ansem rests in was where Poseidon, the god of the sea lived. When a merman almost murdered him, Poseidon decided to protect the so-called cave with special effects. There's a shield blocking the cave, and if even managed to break it, you would end up on the other side of the cave if you wanted to go in.
"Ansem figured a way out though. Poseidon hid a locket away somewhere else, and Ansem found it after the long years. He threw the locket back to where it was found, so nobody could enter it besides him," finished Triton.
Kairi had never seen a king weep. She couldn't imagine it in her dreams at all. But there was one right in front of her eyes. Sebastian swam to Triton and patted his back.
Kairi couldn't take it anymore and went to go look for the same person she met yesterday.
"Wait, Kairi! You mustn't!" Triton called out. Kairi ignored his protests. Who would care if she met just a human she trusted?
She dived up to the surface and gazed around in the opening. It was much nicer than before, when it was storming. Kairi spun around before finding the shore. Sora has to be somewhere here, Kairi thought. She waited, watching the shore with her head unnoticeable.
"How long do they shop?" Roxas asked angrily. He was slurping on his twenty-seventh smoothie, along with Sora, who wasted fifty-two dollars to buy fifty-two ice creams, and managed to endure brain freeze.
"Want to go to the beach?" Sora asked. He threw his napkin away and took another dollar out. "I think they're too into their shopping to even remember where they are."
"Okay," replied Roxas. They walked out of the crowded, marble mall, and out into the sandy Central Island. They sat at the shore.
"Want to make a sand castle?" Sora asked. Bad mistake.
"Fine, but give me the twenty-dollars." Roxas smirked. Sora sighed and threw sand at him, then laughed.
Sora was happy. Life was sweet when he didn't have any more parents. If he never bumped into Roxas that day, he would probably have never felt this way…
Sora looked around the forest, then up onto his balcony. He felt stuck. If his parents found out that he was there, he would be grounded.
He took his flashlight out of his backpack and flashed around until he saw the path that led out of the stupid mansion.
Sora shivered. What if there were bears in there, or werewolves? Maybe it's a full moon today.
He slowly walked down the stony road, waving his flashlight around, making sure that he wasn't going the wrong way. If he were back onto his bed, he would have felt cozier with the warm heat.
But no matter how cozy it was he would have only felt comfortable his parents weren't so bad.
A crow screeched, making Sora freeze where he was. His mind told him to run back and get grounded, but he was close to his freedom. He decided to continue, ignoring the cracking wood beneath his feet.
Finally, he made it out, and saw that dusk already tainted the night sky. Sora sighed in happiness, but he felt really cold. He edged over next to the public sea, which was totally different from the private beach he used to own. It looked so unusual, where broken seashells littered the ground, with sand holes crabs dug up, unlike the other beach, where no crabs lived in the sand, and only a few unbroken shells were on the ground.
Sora knew that the beach he saw then was the real beach, just like how he saw it in books. Only if mer-people were everywhere in the water, the scene would have been perfect enough for a painter to paint a masterpiece.
The next day, Sora took his time to get familiar to his surroundings. It was all so exciting. If he were still in the mansion, his mom would have probably been making him wait in the library, ready for the next lesson. And Sora felt like he was already learning.
And when afternoon came, Sora was in a tough situation. He was getting hungry, and he only had a dollar he snuck from his mom's wallet.
Sora's stomach grumbled over and over again, and he couldn't do anything about it.
"Hey, dude, are you like okay? You've been sitting there for a while," the blond boy came over and sat down, talking. "You look like you need a little help."
He helped Sora up, and said, "Come on, what's your name?"
"Sora."
"Hey, two weirdoes were posting signs about someone lost. It certainly looks like you," he said suspiciously.
"I, err…" Sora couldn't say no, but he didn't want to say yes either. The boy grinned.
"You need a home." He towed Sora away.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Sora demanded.
"I'm not going to report to the police, if that's what you're thinking. You're on of those people who doesn't like their home." He continued to drag Sora, who calmed down and followed him.
"Oh, my name's Roxas," the boy piped up. "Did you ever bet before?" Sora shook his head, and Roxas stopped and searched his back pockets of his jeans. He pulled out twenty-dollars and gave to Sora. "It's where you vote for something, while I vote for something else, and if one of us gets it right, we get the other person's money, and so the winner get all the money from the losers who give up their money." Roxas looked at Sora's confused face and laughed.
"Okay, if two people were to race from here to their destination, two people or more may want to 'bet' to see who would get there first. Let's say the first person was Spongy, while the second is Bob. I would say that Bob would win, while in your thinking that Spongy will win. Then we say how much money or something else we're betting, and we see who wins. If Spongy won, you would get the things I bet. If Bob won, I would keep my things and get all of your things that you bet. Is that more clear?"
"You are a horrible teacher," was all Sora could think of. Roxas laughed again.
"Want to be friends?" Roxas gave him a hand. Sora took it uncertainly.
"Okay," Sora slowly mumbled. Roxas bent down to get something, and when Sora turned away, Roxas threw sand at him.
"H-hey!" Sora shook his spiky hair and glowered at Roxas. "What was that for?" Beyond Roxas was a restaurant, and Sora's stomach instantly grumbled.
"Food awaits us!" Roxas said cheerfully and dragged him into the restaurant.
Sand fell flat onto Sora's face.
"H-hey! I wasn't ready!" Sora yelled as he wiped the sand off his face. Roxas only snickered.
Kairi looked at the two fighting each other and smiled. It was just like playing with Ariel in the water. The sun was setting, and nobody was at the shore anymore except Sora and his friend. Kairi took a risk and swam over to the group. She couldn't wait for the other human to be gone because Sora would probably go along with him.
"Sora!" Kairi yelled. She didn't yell to loud, or it would've caused people to look at her. Sora's friend turned to the voice.
"Dude, what's with people staying in the water in the sunset these days?" the boy asked. Sora turned to look too.
"Kairi, what are you doing here? Isn't your city going to get in trouble?" Sora asked. He moved closer to the shore, along with the other boy.
"Just who is she?" the boy asked.
Sora didn't know what to do. Would Kairi want Roxas to know that she was a mermaid?
"Um, Roxas?" said Sora. "Would you promise not to tell anyone that she's a…"
"What?" Roxas said. Kairi moved as close as possible and mouthed to Sora, "Tell him!"
"She's a… she's a mermaid." Roxas looked disbelievingly to Sora. Kairi saw the scene and showed her fins. Roxas yelled and hid behind Sora.
"It's okay, she's nice. She helped me!" Sora hissed. He looked over to Kairi, who was telling them to go into the water.
Sora walked into water, and Roxas followed suspiciously.
"Ariel needs help!" Kairi said the moment Sora's waist was in the water.
"Who's Areca?" Roxas asked. Sora snatched Roxas's ear and tugged it. "Ouch, ouch, stop!"
"She's been kidnapped, along with the trident!" Kairi explained hastily.
"What's the trident?" Sora asked, not letting go of Roxas's ear.
"It controls the sea, and your world can be in danger as well as mine," said Kairi. "You have to help." She explained the rest of the story to Sora and Roxas. When she finished, no one spoke.
"You mean, he'll destroy the world?" said Roxas. Kairi swiftly nodded.
"If we don't find this locket, we'll all die soon enough, and it'll be too late when Ansem unleashes the trident's most powerful attack."
"Heesh, isn't that a little harsh?" inquired Sora.
"Come on, I know where we can start looking. I know these waters very well –"
"Wait, just why do we humans have to come along?" interrupted Roxas.
"Look, I just do. Please stop asking questions, we're wasting our precious time," begged Kairi.
Sora took out his necklace and snapped the weeds into two and handed it to Roxas. He looked at it as if it was untrustworthy. Sora wrapped his own around his wrist. Roxas glanced at it once more before following the same. Before any of them could say anything, Kairi hauled them down.