Chapter 123

Katya blinked.

"Of course," Katya responded after a beat. "We will let you go home soon, but first we want to find out some more information about you so that we can prove our scientific discovery,"

"You want to prove mermaids exist?" Jenny asked.

Katya nodded, surprised by the girl's intuitiveness.

"Why would I help you do that?"

"This would be a great breakthrough in human research into proving the existence of mythological beings," Katya said excitedly, "It has been my life's work, finding evidence of mythological creatures – you are the evidence that we need,"

"What if we don't want to be proven?" Jenny asked with a frown.

"Then…um…" Katya was at a loss for words. "I guess I hadn't thought of that,"

After a beat, Katya started again.

"So, you call yourselves mermaids?" Katya followed up.

Jenny nodded. She didn't see any harm in answering that question. She thought Katya looked genuine. She wasn't sure about the man hovering nearby though.

"What is your name?"

"Jenny," she answered without much thought.

"That's…such a human name," Katya mumbled too quiet for Jenny to hear.

"It's nice to meet you Jenny. My name is Dr Katya Alekhin," she said louder. "I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. Can you tell me how old you are?"

"I'm ten," Jenny answered proudly. Jenny moved off the rock into the water and swam closer to the glass where Katya was standing.

"Where do you live?" Katya asked.

"I can't tell you that," Jenny said shaking her head.

"Oh, of course," Katya smiled. "I meant, do you live in the ocean? Or someplace else? I noticed that you breathe air,"

"Yeah, we don't have gills," Jenny echoed her father's words. "We don't live in the ocean. We just spend a lot of time in it,"

"Thanks for answering my questions," Katya said. "So that we can make you comfortable, what do mermaids eat? Do you want some fish, seaweed…" she trailed off.

Jenny made a face.

"No thanks," she said. "I eat human food, thank you very much," Jenny paused, thinking for a second, "Can I get a happy meal from McDonalds?" she asked. "I love the chicken nuggets,"

Katya stared shocked. This girl clearly knew a lot about human culture. But how?

Katya recovered. "I'll see what I can do,"

OoOoO

Jenny wasn't sure how much she should be sharing. Her family had said never to tell anyone that she was a mermaid, but these people had caught her as a mermaid.

Did this mean that she shouldn't reveal her nature as a human?

She had also been warned that if she was outed as a mermaid, she could become a science experiment. Jenny deduced that she was currently a science experiment, and as she ate her McDonalds, decided that so far, it wasn't so bad. Katya was nice. She still hadn't had interactions with anyone else. Jenny would be cautiously optimistic. She knew she wouldn't be in here too long, once her family found her.

Katya returned a short time later and found Jenny swimming around in the tank.

"Jenny," she began, "I need to take some biological samples. Would you let me take a small sample of blood, and a few scales?"

"I don't want to," Jenny responded.

Ryan came closer for the first time.

"I can use this at any time," Ryan said, gesturing to the tranquiliser gun. "We can always take the samples while you're unconscious,"

Katya glared at Ryan.

"Alright," Jenny complied. She would rather stay conscious. Jenny lifted herself onto one of the rocks and ran her hands over her tail. Finding two loose scales, she held them to the top of the tank. Ryan took them from her quickly, passing them to Katya quickly.

About 10 minutes later, Katya came over to Jenny.

"Okay, Jenny, I just need to take some blood. I'll come in there with you in a minute," Katya said.

"Actually, could you take it while I'm out of the tank? I'd quite like to dry off properly," Jenny replied.

"Oh," Katya was surprised. "Sure, I don't see why not,"

Katya looked to Ryan.

Ryan shook his head.

"I don't think this is a good idea, Katya, it might be dangerous,"

"Dangerous? She's a child!" Katya said with a frown, starting to open the tank.

Ryan watched warily. He couldn't of anything to say without giving away he knew more than he was letting on. He knew exactly how dangerous this girl's power could be.

"No funny business," Ryan threatened the girl.

Jenny rolled her eyes. She wasn't stupid. She could see just how many tranquiliser guns were around her.

Two of the men helped to lift Jenny out of the tank, and she was settled in a chair.

Katya took three small vials of blood from Jenny's arm.

As Katya did this, a comforting voice entered Jenny's mind.

"We're almost there, sweetie. We've ruled out a few warehouses, and have two more along the waterfront to check. How are you going?"

"I am fine, Mum," Jenny replied. "The lady scientist is actually quite nice,"

"Just hang in there, we'll find you soon."

Jenny only needed to play along for a bit longer. Definitely a relief.

Katya finished taking blood for the third vial, and pressed a tissue against the needle prick.

"Thank you Jenny," she said. "You can hold this now,"

Jenny did so.

Katya put two of the vials away and left one of the lab table. As she turned back to Jenny, Katya saw a sight she wouldn't have believed if she hadn't seen it.

In front of Katya's eyes (and the eyes of everyone else too), Jenny – still seated in the chair – turned fully blue and clear for a split second, and then she changed again.

The girl turned into water…and now she was a human?

Katya stared gobsmacked. Ryan had theorised that mermaids could turn human, and the metamorphosis of the samples definitely supported the theory…but to actually see it first hand? A miracle.

When Katya got over her initial shock, she took in what the girl was wearing.

Jenny was in a black Kim Possible t-shirt with blue jeans and sneakers. She had a watch on her wrist, a pink and yellow friendship bracelet, and her blonde hair was no longer down, but tied back in a simple braid.

There was no denying it now.

Jenny was a child. Not a test subject or an animal, a child who lived as a human.

Katya took a step back in horror. This was kidnapping.

"This is what you meant by 'dry out'?" Katya asked quietly, hand covering her mouth.

Jenny nodded.

"I was on my way to school when you guys got me– I wanted to show off my new t-shirt," she said, pointing the character on the shirt.

Katya didn't know what to do now. This hadn't been the plan.

"Time to go back into the tank now," Ryan said, coming over to the two of them. He had been watching from a distance and was not liking how phased Katya looked.

As Ryan steered Jenny back towards the tank door, yells were heard from the entrance to the warehouse.

"What's going on?" Katya exclaimed.

Ryan released Jenny and started moving towards where the chaos was coming from. Another man came to stand with her.

Someone suddenly flew into the room, being knocked back by a burst of water.

Rikki and Cleo entered the room. Hands up with serious faces, ready for a fight.

"Mummy!" Jenny exclaimed with joy, big grin crossing her face.

Relieved smiles crossed their faces as they saw Jenny unharmed.

Cleo saw another man with a tranquiliser gun move near her. Without warning, Cleo took some water out of the air and pinned him against the wall.

"Drop the gun," Cleo demanded. With terror in his eyes, the man did as asked. He was not getting paid enough for this. No one had mentioned that mermaids had super powers.

Ryan reached for his gun. A lightning bolt struck a metre from his feet.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Rikki said, staring Ryan down.

"Ryan," Cleo greeted angrily.

"Cleo," He responded, grinding his teeth.

Katya was absolutely bewildered. Not only did mermaids have powers, apparently, Ryan knew one personally.

"How could you do this? How could you kidnap my daughter, Ryan? She is a ten-year-old girl. A baby,"

Now Katya felt betrayed. Ryan knew Jenny's mother. And still targeted the child. She knew Ryan was desperate but this….

"She's a fish," Ryan retorted, mostly to convince himself.

"Let her go," Rikki demanded. "Don't make us hurt you,"

"No! She's what we need!" Ryan exclaimed.

"No, Ryan," Katya said firmly. All eyes turned to her for the first time.

"Jenny, you're free to go," Katya said, gesturing to the guard to release her.

The women looked surprised.

"I'm sorry," Katya explained. "I didn't know,"

"No, Katya," Ryan said, moving towards Jenny again.

"Ryan, you are way out of line. Let them leave," she responded.

"Thanks, Katya," Jenny said as she moved towards Rikki and Cleo.

Cleo embraced Jenny in a big hug before Cleo, Rikki and Jenny hurried out to the entrance to the warehouse.

As Katya saw the quick hug, she knew she had done the right thing.

Ryan was seething, watching his mermaid leave.

Katya felt her own anger building quickly. But not anger for losing the mermaid.

"Ryan," Katya bit out angrily.

"How could you?"

A/N: Hi everyone! What did you think? These are exciting chapters to write :P she's free! But...is it over? mwahahahahaha

Please let me know your thoughts!

Thanks to the following people for commenting/reviewing: YaleAceBella12, CrazyHayniac, RockMintSwirl22, Noisy fan, Skalo and Sammiloveschoc.

I really appreciate each one :)

Noisy fan, in answer to your question - I have started a few original fiction stories in the past, but lose interest before I get too far with them haha. So I've thought about it, but don't know at this stage. I'm a speech language therapist, so I do a lot of report writing and stuff for work, but these h2o fanfics are the extent of my fiction/story writing right now haha. Each of these chapters for this story or my other h2o fics all take between 2-4 hrs of solid writing to finish, so that's why updates are once every month or two, and why while I am writing fanfic, I can't see myself having longevity with an original ahhaha. My next project is actually rewriting this series - I've already started on Fishy Tale- added in a better prologue and edited the first chapter. Someday, I'll upload it all (probably a few years away). I started the first story when I was 15 - I will be 25 at the end of October hahahha - so I find my first chapters cringeworthy, hence the re-write.

Sorry for the long answer hahah.

See you all next time :D