Summary: The plan is put into action but not without consequences and questions that need answers.

Nixie sped through the water, clutching the glass in her hand. If not for Sirena, she would've missed the canal opening, she was so focused on getting back as fast as she could she forgot to look for the entrance . She hated swimming through the canals. There were too many of them and the water felt weird, and all the boats. So many boats. Sometimes at night the memory of being chased up this very canal by a relentless speed boat swirled around in her mind. So much could've gone wrong that day.

She surfaced under the jetty beside Cam, who was still supporting Rita's upper body, holding her above the water and looking incredibly uncomfortable. Lyla should've stayed with Cam. The land boy wasn't looking so good.

Sirena surfaced beside her, saying nothing but tucking in closer to Nixie.

"Anything?" Nixie asked.

"Nope. Nothing and more nothing," Cam said, "did you get all the stuff you need?"

He was shivering. It was weird how land people found it cold in the water. They were so bad at regulating temperature. Mermaids adjusted to changes in temperatures a lot quicker. Normally. But when Nixie took over holding Rita at the surface, (much to Cam's very visible relief) her skin was cold, far too cold - like a corpse. Nixie mentally shook that image out of her head, curled her hands ever so slightly over Rita's arms and kept them there for a second just to warm up the Mermaid. She wasn't dead, she wasn't going to die, it would be okay. They'd get her back to the grotto and she'd wake up in the morning, completely fine if not a little angry. Or maybe she'd wake up once they got back, Sirena said they needed sea water - canal wasn't sea water but the grotto pool was.

Moon Rings were dangerous but this wasn't one of those times. It wasn't. It was going to work out.

"Rita had it and Nixie knew what one it was," Sirena said.

The scars though - they'd shifted from pink to white in the time they'd been to Rita's and back. Thick white lines branched out from her chest, across the scales and going upwards to her shoulder and over her collarbone, down over her hip and circling around her side. Every golden scale where the scars cut across were bleached dead and white. Yet the edges of the scars were red and raw. Who was she kidding, Rita could wake up in the next second and it still wouldn't be fine, she'd be in pain and she'd be so scared. Nixie wrapped her arms tighter around Rita.

She might be a healer but she couldn't help Rita.

Rita was right, Moon Rings were dangerous.

"Did we do that?" Sirena asked quietly, looking at the scars.

"Well it happened when she got hit by a blast of energy sent out for a Moon Ring so I assume so," Nixie snapped. She didn't mean to snap at Sirena. She really shouldn't have snapped at Sirena. The whole point of having Sirena with her was to keep Sirena from going over the edge. She could've done this part herself. She just needed Sirena's Moon Ring.

"So what does that do exactly?" Cam asked from where he was crouched on the sand shaking and shivering. He had heaved himself from the water and flopped on the sand for a good few minutes before attempting to move.

Nixie removed one arm from around Rita and warmed Cam up, the way she'd done to Rita. He nodded at her in thanks and Nixie returned her arm to where it was, keeping Rita at the surface.

"It allows travel between two linked locations. You put some in the water where you want to go, and some in the water where you are. Use a Moon Ring to power it and you get there instantly," Nixie explained, paraphrasing the explanation Rita had given her when she caught Nixie going through all her potions.

"Nixie? What are you doing?"

Nixie froze. She held the glass jar in mid air above where she took it out of the little chest on the table. She could just imagine the disapproving look on Rita's face.

"Nothing?"

"Put that down," Rita instructed.

Nixie relaxed her body and set the jar down, she stood up straight and turned around.

"I was just looking, I didn't break anything."

"I should hope not. Some of these things are rare."

"How rare?"

Nixie stepped aside as Rita joined her beside the table with the collection of bottles stored neatly in their little chest.

"This one," Rita picked out one filled with a shimmering yellow liquid, "is used for instant travelling between two places. There's only a handful of these left now and no one's making anymore."

"Why not?"

"There are better alternatives," Rita set the glass back beside an identical looking one, "for this to work there needs to be some at the location you're travelling too and the location you're travelling from. One bottle gets poured in where you want to go, one gets poured in where you are, you activate it with your powers and then a Moon Ring and it takes you to where the second bottle is."

"That makes no sense. Why was it designed like that?" Nixie asked.

"The most common story I've heard was that during the war only Mermaids could make this stuff and had access to it. Since you needed this present where you're going it meant there were no Merman waiting and that it was a trap."

"Hmm," Nixie frowned. The logic was solid enough but there was no point in it. No point at all.

"What about this one?" Nixie carelessly pulled out a long, thin phial with a dark red liquid in it. Nixie swirled the phial around, holding the top between her fingertips.

"I'll take that," Rita held out her hand.

Nixie dropped it into the Rita's hand and Rita put it away, tucked in the back corner of the chest, far from where Nixie pulled it out. The surrounding bottles clinked in protest.

"Drop that and no one will be able to come in here for weeks."

"Why? What does it to?"

"Releases poisonous, hallucinogenic fumes."

"Awesome," Nixie grinned.

"Not awesome. Dangerous."

Nixie rolled her eyes and pulled out a green one and held it up. "How about this one?"

"A teleportation potion? That only works if you've been to where you need to go?" Cam asked.

"It's not commonly used anymore. It had a flawed logic."

"I'll say. So did you pour some in the water back … wherever you're going?"

"Lyla and Zac are there to do that," Sirena said.

Cam nodded. "So what now?" he asked.

Nixie opened the bottle and emptied the contents into the water. The yellow liquid swirled on the surface into a small whirlpool. Rita never mentioned that. Nixie thought it would just puddle on the surface, like the oil that land people dump.

"Woah," Cam breathed.

"Sirena can you use your powers on it?" Nixie asked, bringing both Cam and Sirena's attention back to what they were here to do.

"What do I do?" Sirena asked.

"Hold your hand out and direct your powers at it," Nixie instructeded. She probably should be doing this but the idea of letting someone else keep a hold of Rita didn't sit right. She was the only one not involved in creating the situation they were in now, she needed to stop anything else happening.

The liquid swirled faster and faster and tiny specks in the liquid began to glow.

"Sirena I need you to use your Moon Ring on it."," Nixie spoke calmly.

"I can't! I don't know what I'm doing. I can't do it."

"You can," Nixie reassured Sirena, "just breathe and imagine making it glow."

Sirena's Moon Ring glowed and the light from the potion shone brighter and brighter and waves were whipped around, hitting into the wooden supports of the dock and splashing Cam on the shore.

Then it stopped.

Cam was left alone under the dock. No Mermaids. No magic potions. No one but Cam. The bright land and blinded him and the waves had soaked him right through and when he'd opened his eyes again the Mermaids had been gone.

Cam stood up as tall as he could, pulled his mask back down and splashed into the water. He swam back down the way he came, ignoring the suspiciously shark-shaped dark shadow off in the water.

Nixie's head spun so violently it took her a second to realise where she was. She was in the grotto's pool, she was still holding Rita, Sirena was across from her. It worked.

"You did it," Nixie said to Sirena. Her voice was weaker than she expected, matching the shaking in her hands which she hid under the water.

"You actually did it," Lyla said. Nixie looked around, Lyla and Zac stood at the edge of the pool watching.

"Oh shit!" Zac exclaimed.

"What?" Sirena asked shakily, her voice was worse than Nixie's.

"She's bleeding."

Nixie looked down at Rita. Small drops of blood were leaking out from some of the harsh edges around the scars along her collarbone and chest. The ones on her side seemed alright for now. Nixie placed her hand over the bleeding and breathed out slowly. She may have inherited her mother's natural healing abilities but she wasn't well practised. There were only two other healers left in the Pod once her mother left - Veridia and the Pod's healer Kelpie. Both were on the council and both were too busy to train the younger ones.

She could handle small wounds though. Her hand began to tingle and her veins glowed a faint blue that pulsed once before fading away as the wounds on Rita's skin closed over.

"You stopped the bleeding," Zac breathed.

"Nixie's a healer," Sirena explained.

"Untrained," Lyla added, "but still a healer." That last part came out very grudgingly, Nixie could hear it in her voice.

"Make sure she keeps breathing," Nixie instructed and dragged herself out of the pool, letting Sirena keep Rita afloat in the water. She swallowed the lump that had grown in her throat when she wasn't paying attention, before reaching behind her and drying off. Now wasn't the time to let her emotions overwhelm her or fight back with Lyla. She was so tired, healing takes a lot of energy, but someone had to stay calm and take control.

Nixie stood as soon as she was able to and turned back around .

"So how do we do this?" Zac asked.

The plan in her head, and everyone's apparently, had been to get Rita out of the water and into the grotto. As long as she didn't get too dry she would be fine. It had been a good plan in her head, they could keep an eye on her and any bleeding wouldn't cause an issue, but now seeing how it would actually work out in the physical space - it wasn't such a good plan. The time it took for them to get her to the grotto could easily be enough to cause further damage with Rita drying out and they couldn't carry her without her being completely dry. Only one land person could help and he couldn't carry a Mermaid by himself.

"We don't," Nixie said, "we can't do it without help and Cam can't do everything. She'll be better in the water."

"Are you sure?" Sirena asked.

"Positive."

Negative. Negative. Negative.

So chapter four is for the most part finished and I'm aiming for it to be up next week but I can't guarantee anything. It is more likely it won't be up but I'll see. Between starting college two days ago and working I'm honestly exhausted. It'll just take a couple weeks to get sorted out and then it's back on track.

I'll try not to leave it too long between chapters.

Until next time.