Chapter 111
'Varine, we have returned,' Emma projected. 'We have what you sent us to get. Honour our deal,'
OoOoO
"Welcome back," Varine said, nodding first to the girls, then to Khasha. "Show me the necklace,"
Rikki held it towards Varine. Varine had a hard-to-read expression on her face, but the girls could tell that behind it, Varine was feeling extreme relief.
"Well done. I am glad you were successful in retrieving this. You have no idea how important it is to keep safe," the Queen said.
"Oh we have an idea," Anna said. "Non-mermaids can use it to control mermaids. The man that had it used it on us. He made Jessie do this to me," she gestured to her injury.
"Ah," Varine said. "I am sorry,"
"Sorry that we found out? Or sorry for what you sent us into?" Rikki asked, hands on hips.
Varine ignored Rikki's comment and gestured to her guards, saying something to them quickly in their language.
"What else does the necklace do?" Emma asked.
"It does what you say happened," Varine said. "A long time ago, when we split into the merman and mermaid pods, a merman elder created the necklace as a means to control the mermaids. He enchanted it so that mermaids could not use it – in case we ever got our hands on it. The merman council reportedly did not approve of the necklace, and told that elder to destroy it. He decided to demonstrate its power, and used it to control most of our pod. Fortunately, the necklace could not control more than fifty mermaids at once. Mermen that disapproved and mermaids that were not controlled battled with the elder, his merman followers and controlled mermaids. We lost mers on both sides. Fortunately, the mermen and free mermaids won the battle, and the elder was killed in the fight. They tried to destroy the necklace, but the elder must have made an enchantment to protect it. So, the necklace was given the mermaid queen of the time so that no one could misuse it again." Varine explained.
"I hope you take better care of it this time," Emma said. Varine nodded.
"We have created a more secure vault in the catacombs, and will double the guards. We cannot let the mermen get their hands on the necklace," Varine said.
"You have your necklace now, return our children to us," Anna said.
Varine nodded again and gestured to the guards. A few minutes later, different guards arrived, followed by a large group of children.
OoOoO
The boys were playing tic tac toe, with the variety of toys they had been given, when Kina was given the command to bring them to the Queen.
"Where are we going?" Jay asked.
"Your mothers have returned," Kina smiled at them. "If they have brought the necklace, you all will be free to go,"
The boys became excited and chattery, and there were many hoots and hollers across mindspeak. Kina led the boys and the girls, once they were retrieved, to Varine. The girls and boys embraced excitedly.
OoOoO
"You honoured your side of the deal," Varine said, "You are all free to go."
With this, the children, and their mothers, ran towards each other beaming.
Their children barrelled into them, and the women held them tightly.
Jessie watched the reunions with a big smile on her face. Cleo comforted her girls, Jennifer and Andy as they burrowed into her arms. Emma chatted quietly to Ariana. Bella had Jacob clinging to her back, and Daniel was holding Anna's hand tightly. Jessie could barely see Rikki beneath the two sets of twins hugging her.
Charlie had handed Fi to Rikki before the two sets of twins embraced their mother. On seeing her five children, Rikki's eyes watered with happiness.
"Are you crying, mum?" Jay asked.
"Not at all," Rikki grinned, "It's just the salt water in my eye."
Her children laughed.
"Did you get up to much while we were gone?" Rikki asked.
"It was pretty boring," Leila grinned, sharing a look with her siblings.
"We tried to escape a few times," Alex bragged.
"Tried being the word," Jennifer commented from a few feet away. "The twins botched the plans."
Rikki laughed at Leila's sheepish expression. Leila retorted,
"How was I supposed to know that casting lightning underwater was a bad plan?"
OoOoO
All the girls hugged Khasha tightly.
"It has been a pleasure knowing you," Khasha said.
"Yeah," Cleo smiled.
"Maybe you can come visit us in Australia some time?" Anna said.
"Maybe," Khasha said. "I'd like that,"
"If you're ever nearby, call us over mindspeak," Jessie said.
Khasha nodded.
"I will," she smiled. "Goodbye. Safe journeys,"
OoOoO
There was joy among the group as they swam home. Before they passed all the islands, the group stopped by a village and paid to use the phone.
"Hello, Lewis speaking," he answered the phone.
"Hey Lewis, it's us," Emma said.
"Em! Wow it is good to hear from you," he said. "What happened? We have been worried sick – school has been back for a few weeks and we've had to excuse you all from work and school,"
"It's a really long story, but we're truly on our way home now. We'll tell you everything when we get home,"
"Could I speak to Cleo?"
"Okay, but make it quick – this call is costing a fortune," Emma said, before passing the phone to Cleo.
A few days later, the group arrived back at Mako.
"We're home," Anna projected via mindspeak, as they arrived on the beach below their village.
"Everyone! They're home!" Ben shouted, announcing the news.
The men gathered their children and hurried down to the beach to meet the rest of their families.
They gasped when they saw the injury to Anna's arm. Lewis was shocked that she had been able to swim all the way back. The others must have helped her along.
There were many hugs and kisses, and tearful smiles all around. A few of the younger children were hysterical as they clung to their mothers. Once everyone was calmer, the families made their way up to the dining hall. Lewis took Anna to the McCartney household and addressed her wound – disinfecting and placing plaster stitches on to help close the wound. Cleaning the wound had turned Anna to her mermaid form, so Lewis applied two bandages, one on her mermaid body and once she dried off, on her human body.
It felt so strange to be together as a family, using powers to distribute juice and going back into the dinner time routine. Bella explained what had happened to them and why it took them so long to get home, talking about Varine, Khasha, the necklace and Ryan.
"So let me get this straight, Ryan, rock loving Ryan, tried to control you with some mythical merman necklace?" Zane asked incredulous.
"Yeah," Rikki replied.
"And he knows that all of you are mermaids?" Will asked worriedly.
"Yeah," Rikki acknowledged. "Hopefully he won't be stupid enough to share what he saw,"
"Let's hope we don't hear from him again," Lewis said.
OoOoO
In the days following, the children returned to school and the mermaids returned to work. Anna took a few more days off work to recover her energy. Jessie missed Anna at their workplace and tried to ignore the guilt of her role in Anna's injury. Logically, she knew that she was controlled and what happened while under Ryan's influence was not her fault, but it was hard to shake.
It was good to be home.
OoOoO
The more he thought about what had happened on his boat, the more he wanted to prove he was right. It was not fair to be shunned by society for believing in something he had seen with his own eyes. Ryan felt conflicted. He hadn't seen Cleo and the others for years, but he did know them, and knew that they had regular lives and families. Heck, he had once worked for Cleo's stepmother. The effects of the necklace had worn off a few days prior, and he had felt regret of how he had behaved with the power of the necklace. He had caused some of the mermaids great harm. He could understand why the mermaids were so determined to get the necklace back – in the wrong hands, it could have devastating consequences. At the same time, as he thought over how they had had the nerve to try and steal it from him, an artefact that he had paid for, he started to get angrier. How dare everyone treat him so badly over his quest to prove the existence of mermaids?
How dare they feel they had the right to steal from him? He deserved to be able to prove the existence of mermaids, after all this time. He would show the other geologists and scientists he had tried to convince. He would finish this, once and for all.
Angrily, Ryan opened his laptop and looked up Cleo Sertori, smashing the keys. Nothing useful came up in the search.
'Maybe she's married?' Ryan thought. He remembered that Cleo was seeing a boy that had moved overseas when Ryan met her…was there a chance that they were still together? What was his name? Ryan wracked his brain. Dang. He couldn't think of the name. The blonde girl, Rikki, was also a mermaid. Maybe he would have more luck finding her. Oh, that's right! She was the one Zane was moping over. Could Zane and Rikki have patched it up?
Crossing his fingers, he typed Rikki Bennett into the search.
"Bingo," he said with a smile.
A/N: Hello everyone! Again, sorry that it's been so long! I'm on my neuro placement at two different hospitals at the moment.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! So sorry for the cliff hanger :P It just felt like the right place to finish the chapter. I wrote a lot of this in transit (on planes), and unfortunately lost a significant section from the middle of the chapter. I had to rewrite it from my memory, but I couldn't capture the reunion scene as I had written it the first time. Hopefully, the scene in the chapter is still ok :)
Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope you tune in next time (whenever that might be)
Thanks so much to the following people for reviewing, you mean a lot to me :D
geohen, Makodragon, Angleface16, The Writer Es, CrazyHayniac, Fire'sCatching, Sammiloveschoc, Charmedhpgirl, The Midnight Angels, Walker, GodoftheSea, ZiikiLightwoodShadowhunters, and Guest.
Love you guys.
See you next time!