Chapter 58

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone for reading and reviewing. Finally it's the holidays, two weeks baby! This past week I had five internals due. FIVE! An English Speech, Creative writing in Maori, History Research internal (find sources – I had 27, and highlight, annotate and then write evidence templates on each), Art History internal, and Religious Education internal. I also had my art internal due the week before. (A collection of art works) I can finally breathe! And therefore, I typed up this chapter.

I have decided that from now on, I am going to respond to each review on the chapter due to the number of questions and people who don't have accounts so I cannot PM in response. So here goes, I've never done this before:

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I feel like a stuck record, its just all these reviews are so complimentary.

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And onto the chapter!

Chapter 58

'Be warned humans. Only those with good intent shall come out alive,'

Zane almost laughed. If there had been an ominous voice or even if the lights had arranged a few better sentences. Nevertheless, it was probably right. At least they had good intent, right?

They looked at each other. "And on we go?" Zane asked.

"Definitely." Alan replied. They both knew it was not an option.

'Are you going to continue despite the warnings of your ultimate doom?' the light transmission asked. They both nodded solemnly.

The lights dissipated.

They cautiously moved forward, closer to their goal. There was no electric shock this time. However, Zane heard a strange noise – he could not describe how it sounded. It registered in an instant and he pulled Alan back. It was in the nick of time, just as a volley of arrows shot from the walls, coming out of nowhere. How he registered Zane did not know, but he thanked God for it. They caught their breath for a second. That was a massive shock.

Again, they swam forward.

OoOoO

"Em! Emma," a woman called out to her. Emma was walking back to her classroom after the staff meeting. She stopped and turned around.

"Oh hey, Phoebe," she smiled.

"What are you doing this afternoon?" her colleague asked.

"Nothing actually," she replied. Emma had not been informed of her mer friends' predicament.

"Coffee at Coco's?" Phoebe asked.

"Sounds great," Emma said. "I'll meet you at five, I'll just finish off a bit of marking." she turned to go again. For some reason, Emma felt like something was off, and it wasn't because her friend had asked her for coffee. Phoebe looked like she was holding something back.

OoOoO

Zane and Alan continued forward suddenly stones began falling from the ceiling. Where did they even come from? They had thought the ceiling of the tunnel was flat. Magic. How they hated it at the moment. They dodged, weaving back and forth.

'Oof!' Zane exclaimed as one of the boulders hit him. He cradled his arm. Such pain. While he was distracted for only a second, a small boulder impacted on his head, knocking him unconscious. Blood flowed.

"Zane!" Alan yelled. Putting Zane's arm over his own shoulder he began to swim as fast as safety would allow through the tunnel and to the surface. Halfway up, they met Will and Cleo. It could not have been better timing. Now there were two dilemmas – the trapped friends and the injured Zane. They lifted Zane up onto the boat and took of his scuba gear.

"What happened?" Cleo asked anxiously.

"The tunnel is booby trapped for humans," Alan replied, "What do we do now?"

"Ahh…I'll take Zane to the hospital – and get Lewis to come in his boat…he'll have finished work now…and…you two go back down. You know what you're expecting…well, some of the dangers anyway."

"On it," Will said. Alan replaced his air tank just in case and the two men swam back down again.

Cleo lay Zane on his back and swam as quickly as possible through the water. She decided to leave the boat there in case they needed it while she was gone.

"Stay with me Zane," She said as dragged him through the water.

OoOoO

"Hey Phoebe," Emma said. They ordered their coffees and sat down. After the usual pleasantries, Phoebe began to get serious.

"I need to talk to you about Arianna,"

"What's wrong?" Emma replied to her daughter's teacher.

"Ah, she seems to be rather special…"

Now Emma was fearing the worst.

"Spit it out Phoebe," she sighed.

"Okay. Em, were you aware that your daughter has a tail?" Phoebe whispered.

Her fears were confirmed. She muttered something unintelligible underneath her breath. There was no use lying, and she was a friend. She would probably be able to tell anyway.

"Yes." She replied firmly.

Phoebe was speechless. "Did you say yes? How and why is she like that?" she rambled after a second's delay.

"Before I answer that, I want to know how you found out."

"A group of kids were having a water bottle water fight and Arianna just happened to get in the way. She ran past me into the class as I was about to lock it." Phoebe paused. "It's an understatement that I was surprised. But then I thought about it some more. It's not a surprise to you or anyone in your tightknit circle of friends."

"Excuse me?"

"Emma, not to burst your bubble or anything, but Kate and I have always felt out of the loop, like you were hiding something, that you were all quite strange. I mean, for a start, all of you guys' kids are 'allergic' to water in a sense. They are not allowed to participate in any water activities. I always thought that was a little harsh, but anyway, it wasn't my business."

"You're not going to tell right?"

"No. I'm not that heartless. I know what could be done to her – that would mean hurting you. I do have one question though – well more than one, but…"

"Yes? Wait, before I answer this question, let's go somewhere more private." Emma and Phoebe finished their coffees and went to the mainland house. They sat down on the deck.

"Are you a mermaid too?" Phoebe felt like she had hit the nail on the head by her friend's reaction.

"There's no point in denying it right?" Emma replied.

"Not really," Phoebe smiled. "You could try? However, you can trust me. I promise."

"I am a mermaid. Would have guessed had Arianna not transformed in front of you?"

"I think so; eventually."

"Are you upset I didn't tell you?"

"No. I can see why you didn't it is a dangerous and amazing secret to possess." Phoebe said.

"You're handling this very well,"

"Well, I'm just hiding the shock," Phoebe laughed. "I'm sure it will dawn on me fully later."

"Was Ari really upset that you found out?"

"She looked like she was about to burst into tears…"

"We've been drilling secrecy into her, her whole life. She probably thinks she's in trouble with us."

"I told her I wouldn't tell – she looked relieved after that and then I told her I would talk to you after school."

"Hmm."

"So how did you and Arianna become mermaids?" Phoebe asked eagerly.

"I was transformed on the night of a full moon at Mako Island; it was when I was a teenager. Ari however, well, she was born a mermaid because of my genes."

Emma continued to answer Phoebe's many questions.

OoOoO

Phoebe's P.O.V

Mermaids. Who would have thought it right? That I would know some. Emma had been filling me in on the details. Her eyes seemed to light up when she described swimming in the ocean.

Emma was looking out into the sea. Suddenly she stopped. She had noticed something or someone in the water. She stood up. Someone was bringing an injured man towards us. I realised they had a secret dock. He did not look good. Emma raced down to the water. I was close on her heels. Now closer, I recognised it was Cleo and Rikki's husband Zane. Cleo was a…she was another mermaid. I really shouldn't be surprised. They all acted the same way. A mermaid colony?

"Em! Help me with him," Cleo yelled. She was exhausted from swimming fast with a heavy weight.

"Phoebe, can you help bring him up?" Emma asked urgently. Cleo suddenly realised it wasn't just Emma who was there.

"Emma?"

"Don't worry, she knows. And she's not going to tell."

I nodded in response. I understood that Emma did not want to get wet.

I dragged Zane up onto the grass.

Cleo did something amazing; with a flick of her wrist, somehow she had lifted all the water off her. Ten seconds later, she was a human again. She did the same to Zane, drying him out.

"What happened Cleo?" Emma asked. She felt his pulse. He was still alive, Thank God.

"Long story. I'll explain on the way to the hospital. Car?"

Emma and Cleo jumped in their car and I followed them to the hospital.

OoOoO

Normal P.O.V

Meanwhile, Will and Alan were back in the tunnel. They had successfully and safely dodged the booby traps and were closer to reaching their objective.

'There it is.' Will said; the golden pillars were obvious.

'Here goes,' Alan said as they entered the room. It seriously was a scene of carnage. Pillars and broken stone was everywhere and no gold was to be seen. Their friends were all still pinned to the floor. They reached Jessie first and lifted the pillar off of her. She had a deep gash on her forearm and she was getting paler as time went on. She was running out of air. Although the pillar was off of her, they were all still paralyzed.

'How do we reverse it?' Will asked.

'The jewel?' Alan asked. He took a deep breath and then gave the mouthpiece to Jessie. She sucked in the sweet oxygen. The colour would have returned to her face had it not been for her blood loss. As try as he might, Alan could not lift her – or any of the others. Will and Alan scanned the room for anything to return the troublesome jewel to. Will spotted it. There were only two pillars left standing in the whole treasure trove. They were against the far wall. Around the whole room, near to the ceiling, there was an intricate pattern that looked to be from an ancient culture or even alien-like. Amongst it above those pillars, there was an indent. It was the same shape of the ruby. Will carried the jewel up to the indent. When he was a metre away, the gelatine ball crumbled. He could no longer see what he was holding. Suddenly he felt himself being scanned and the jewel was zapped from his hands. A bright light filled the room. They all braced themselves for the worst.

A/N: OOH! What's going to happen next? :P That chapter didn't quite turn out like planned, but I hope you enjoyed it. It is really long!

Thanks so so much everybody! I LOVE YOU ALL: Kei te aroha au ki a koutou katoa!

If there is another long wait, I'm sorry. He wā roa: Aroha mai. Tu meke!