Chapter 6
Steven and Connie had to try very hard not to laugh at Jasper's reaction to seeing the car-wash for the first time. Her jaw had dropped in confusion and, in turn, she almost dropped everyone off her shoulders. After they had all gotten off the boardwalk and the van came into view Pearl started clicked in protest about getting inside again. Jasper hadn't understood why until Greg had started it and it moved. She had jumped so bad and kicked it so hard it left a nice indent in the back corner, locking one of the doors into place. Just the sound of it pulling up behind them into the car-wash made her jump even higher.
"This is where I live." Steven said to Jasper as the bigger mermaid eyed the van pulling up and turning off.
'I don't like that.' She clicked to Pearl.
'I don't either.' Pearl answered.
'You got to the beach in that?'
'Not willingly.'
Before Jasper could ask her what she meant Greg got out of the van and got there attention. "Ok Steven, explain to me why you needed a big bag of salt and a blow up pool?"
"Well I figured that they would both wanna sleep in water since Pearl is still hurt and I don't think they both will fit in the tub." Steven said looking after there two guests as Connie took them into the car-wash. "Dad I'm worried."
"I am too bud." Greg said walking around and opening the back of the van.
"Do you think it is safe for them here?" Steven asked walking up to his dad.
Greg frowned to himself as he pulled the salt out of the van and handed it to his son. He didn't like what was going on and even less that he didn't know everything. People out there where hunting down these two mermaids and they had come to them for help. They found a safe place but put him, his son, and Connie into direct danger. He didn't want to send them away but the kids safety came first. "I think its the safest place right now."
Greg took the big box out of the back and shut the van. "Go in and make sure there ok and stuff. Let them know where there going to be sleeping while I go set this up in the middle of the car-wash."
"Can we shut the front of the wash off? I don't think they will be too thrilled with a big way in and out."
"Yea, I'll pull the door down when I get this inside."
Steven nodded and ran inside.
Jasper was not impressed with the inside of the humans home. It was small and lacked water. Two things she didn't really like. The only thing really helping her was the magic she could feel. Just walking onto the property she could feel why Pearl was drawn here. The spells and enchantments covering this home were so strong and powerful that it was apparent it was in Connie's blood line, the one who used to stand side by side with them so long ago. Just standing in this field made her feel so much more safe then she should have.
Jasper was going to ask Pearl something but the smaller pulled away from her and to the small shifter. She automatically stood behind her protectively as the smaller knelt down in front of the child.
'Connie.' Pearl clicked slowly 'What's wrong?'
Pearl could see Connie didn't understand her but when she slowly reached up and wiped a tear from her eye she could see her holding onto her (she think she called it a 'cell phone') tightly. She was shaking as more tears fell down her face. "W-Where's Steven's dad?"
"Greg?" Jasper asked.
Connie gave her a watery nod but before she could do anything Steven ran in.
"Hey guys! I got- Connie! Whats wrong?!" Steven yelled. Both mermaids flinched at the volume as Pearl got to her feet and out of the way. Steven ran to his best friends side and grabbed her shoulders. "Why are you crying? Are you hurt?"
"I can't get a hold of my mom and I just got a voicemail from a number I don't know." Connie tried wiping her eyes but the tears were flowing too fast "Steven I'm scared. She's never gone this long without talking to me before."
"I-It's ok Connie." Steven said "Your moms a doctor. S-She probably is stuck at work or something."
"Connie whats wrong?" Greg finally came into the building to see one crying child, one worried child and two confused mermaids. "Your mom not answer yet?"
She shook her head "I got a voicemail from a random number though..."
"Well put it on speaker and lets hear it." Greg said "It mite be your mom on another phone."
"She doesn't have another phone." Connie said.
"Well maby she broke hers and is trying to get a hold of you with a borrowed one." Greg said coming over and sitting down "We won't know until we hear what the message is."
"O-Ok." Connie sniffled. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she unlocked her phone. She fiddled with it before placing it on the table.
"You have one new voice message." the automated voice said "First message."
"Connie!"
"Mom?"
"Connie listen to me!" The Doctors voice yelled through the phone. "I need you to NOT come home!" There was clattering and banging going on in the back-round "There are people here who are looking for us! They know what we are and it isn't safe! I need you to stay where you are and don't move!" Shouting could be heard along with viscous snarls in the back-round "Stay with the two of them and don't trust anyone who says they are there to take you to us! I need to- Doug look out!"
"Dad?" Connie choked out as the sound of bangs and the sound of her father crying out in pain made it through the phone.
"Connie, don't change!" Her mother yelled as she grunted through the phone afterwards. They could hear here dragging something and it soon became apparent it was her husband. "I'll come for you as soon as I can!"
"Priyanka!"
"Agh!"
The sound of the phone dropping made everyone flinch. They could hear Connie's parents shouting and stuff being knocked over. It sounded like they were trying to barricade something but it wasn't working. Then a loud crash came followed by shouting to run and more snarling. It was loud and painful to listen too, even more so for the aquatics in the room, who were covering there ears. As the voicemail quieted down they herd the phone get picked up. There was the sound of clicking heals on the wood of the doctors study before everything went silent. Just as they thought it was over a voice spoke up.
"Tick. Tock. Times almost up shifter." A calming leveled voice said "We can't wait to meet you and your friends in person."
The line went dead and the voicemail ended. "To play this message again press 1-"
No-one said anything as Steven reached forward and hung up the phone. All eyes turned to Connie. Poor girl was frozen in place with an endless stream of tears falling down her face.
"Connie?" Steven asked gently.
Connie just let out a sob and sank to her knees. Steven was quick to give her a hug and try to comfort her. Greg wasn't looking at the kids however, he was looking at the mermaids. There faces were twisted in shock and horror. They both looked like they had seen a ghost. The way Pearl was backed up to Jasper and the way Jasper was holding her told him more then they ever would.
"You know who that was." Greg said getting there attention.
"No." Jasper said frowning.
'How did she find us again?' Pearl clicked quickly.
"This isn't my first time with the look your both giving me. Rose used to make the same face." Greg said frowning. "So who was that? What are we up against here?"
'We need to tell them.' Pearl clicked.
'This doesn't concern them.' Jasper clicked back.
'Connie's family got attacked.' Pearl clicked 'We need to tell them something.' Jasper frowned more 'This involves them now.'
"She goes by V.W." Jasper said "She was head of the enemy forces in the war. She's the reason we were almost wiped out of existence."
"But why did she attack Connie's parents?" Steven asked "The war is long over right?"
"It's been over for sixty years." Jasper translated for Pearl "And bout fifty six since she tried to kill us all off."
"That doesn't explain why she is attacking her parents." Greg said standing "Those initials sound familiar though..."
"S-Shapeshifters are in the same boat as mermaids in being hunted down." Connie sniffed "Only reason we have gotten away with hiding better is because were not bound to the sea."
"The fact that she said you and your friends means she either knows were here or knows your parents know something about us." Jasper said 'Pearl I don't like this.'
'Were stuck here until we figure out what to do.' Pearl clicked back looking up at her 'I hope the others are having better luck with her then we are up here.'
'Here's to hoping.' Jasper grumbled looking up to the others.
"Connie." Greg said coming over and kneeling in-front of the small girl. He was looking at her and the mermaids at the same time. The aquatic pair were in there own little world and by how fast and low they were clicking he figured that they had no idea what was happening anymore then he did now. This was very concerning as he turned to Connie "Would it make you feel better if I went over to your house to see if I can find your parents?"
"What if you get hurt?" Steven said.
"It's not safe." Connie said shaking her head.
"Hey, I got the old Universe charm. I can talk my way into anything." Greg said with a smile "And I've done work for your parents before. I can just play it off as a home visit for your dad's car."
"Do you think its a good idea dad?" Steven asked.
"I can't just sit here." Greg said "Even if I don't find them there I want to at-least try and help."
"I-If you think you can." Connie sniffled wiping her eyes. Steven leaned in and hugged her more.
"Do you want me to bring anything back for you?"
"Um, theirs a blue bag I keep under my bed. It has things I need in it. Shifter things. Then theirs another blue bag you can stuff with cloths." Connie said nodding "It's right inside the closet door."
Greg nodded "Ok. Now to the main problem." He stood and looked to the aquatics "You two."
Both mermaids looked to Greg and Jasper snapped. "What?"
"Steven. Can you and Connie go unbox the pool for me and pull the hose into the wash?" Greg asked."I need to talk to these two for a moment."
"Ok. C'mon Connie." Steven took his friends hand and both made there way through the front room and out the side door. Once they were outside Greg turned back to the mermaids.
"No more hiding. No more holding back." He said "What is going on."
"We don't know." Jasper answered.
"Who is after you?"
"We don't know."
"Well what do you know?" They shrugged and Greg shrugged back "Guys I need something." He said "Things are getting very dangerous here. I want to help you guys just as much as you need but my son comes first. I won't put him or Connie in harms way." The pair looked at each other then back to Greg "I don't know what to do to make things better. I'm not Rose."
"We know your not Rose." Jasper translated as Pearl clicked away "We know as much as you do. We don't know who attacked me. We don't know what there after with the heart. We have no idea who these people are or what they want from us." Pearl waved her arms around as Jasper spoke for herself "Were just as lost. They tried so hard to catch her then let her go."
"And they waited till now to come looking for you?" Greg said "Now Connie's parents got attacked and it's safe to assume that they are the same ones behind your attack."
'We don't know that.' Pearl clicked and Jasper spoke for her 'I don't want to think that but that message...'
"Were out of our depth with this." Jasper said as each passing sentence had her growling more and more. "We need to find a way back to the heart but it's too dangerous with the ones hunting us down lurking about. We also need to get to our pod but we don't even know if there still where we left them. The person they called out for help mite attack them and theirs nothing I can do from here."
Greg sighed heavily and ran his hands over his face."Look, I really need to go check if Connie's parents are still at there house and get her things. Can I trust you both to stay here with them and keep them safe?"
"You trust us to do that?" Jasper asked. Pearl smacked her in the arm and she looked at her 'Ow, what?'
'Don't be like that.' Pearl said with her own frown to match the Guardians 'There kind enough not to throw us out of here with everything going on. Least we can do is watch Steven and Connie.' Jasper huffed and rolled her eyes 'It's not like there a handful.'
'Fine.' Jasper grumbled before looking at Greg "What do we need to do?"
Greg knew the bigger of the pair didn't like being told what to do but Pearl had greater here say over her then she would ever admit. He knew they both wanted to be able to do more then they could but also that Pearl was a very loyal kind of being. When kindness was shown to her she would give it back and then some. There bit of clicking at each other was Pearl telling Jasper she wasn't getting her way and the Guardian grumbling about it.
"All you gotta do is just keep them in the house." Greg said "There pulling out the pool I got for you both to sleep in while I run and go to Connie's place. I'll finish setting it up when I get back. Any questions?"
"Yea." Jasper said "What's a pool?"
Deep in the Mariana Trench
The pod was following Bismuth down the trench as close as Garnet would let them get to her, which wasn't very close to be fair. The Guardian was trying her best not to be over bearing but she couldn't help it. She was swimming back and forth between there savior and her pod. She wasn't letting them get any closer to Bismuth and would growl at the others when they got too near to her path. Her need and pull in her core to keep them safe was in a moderate push. She was focused on safety but not so narrowly sighted that she could still hold herself back from attacking Bismuth straight out.
Bismuth in turn was taking it all with a grain of salt. She knew Garnet wasn't being a control freak fully on her own. She had seen and fought along side many Guardians in the war. They all had the insane drive to keep there pods safe and companions safer. There need to defend and protect could get to be too much at times and it could be very hard to come back down from that protective mode in there brain. She didn't think Garnet had really claimed anothers love since there last encounter so this behavior was chalked up to the safety of her pod. Even so, it was making it rather hard to talk to Sapphire.
"Can you think of any place Pearl would go?" Bismuth asked over her shoulder. "Any place she would consider safe?"
"The only place I can think of would be the shore where Rose-" Sapphire stopped herself from talking as Bismuth slowed and turned around to look at her. This caused the whole pod to stop and Garnet unconsciously bearing her teeth.
"Rose." Bismuth said slowly "Is this the same Rose as those two?"
"Who?" Lapis asked Blue who shrugged.
"Yes." Sapphire said "The same one who betrayed the enemy's in the war to try and help us."
"I thought she ran after we lost." Bismuth said crossing her arms "What changed? Why did Pearl choose there to go? It doesn't make sense."
"Cause we were summoned there a few days ago." Amethyst spoke up "By her son."
"Her son?" The lone mermaids eyes got a bit bigger "She made a family? Yet couldn't answer us the last time we called out for help." The last part came out a bit bitter but the pod couldn't fault her fully for it. "What's she been up too since moving on from y'all?"
"Shes...dead." Amethyst said. "Shes gone Bis."
"How did you get summoned then?" The older mermaid was confused and it showed "She was the only one who could call our kind."
"Her son summoned us." Ruby said.
"I don't understand." Bismuth said.
"He has the same mark as Rose did." Peridot said "He also has the same blood line. He even looks just like her."
"That blood smelling thing of yours is still a bit creepy tiny." Bismuth said.
Before Peridot could open her mouth to speak Garnet's head snapped up. The others quickly followed her gaze to see a gigantic lone boat slowly drifting across the surface. They could feel the ill-intent flowing through the water and into there very cores from the vessel above. Just watching it slowly move had the pod sinking to the sandy bottom of the trench.
"That's one of the vessels I came across on the way here." Bismuth said lowly as if the boat could hear them "That's why it took me a long time to reach you."
"Somethings not right about that ship." Garnet growled out. The others could see her hands shaking as she was trying to hold it together. Everything in Garnet was screaming at her to attack the ship. To drag it down to the ocean floor and make sure not a soul made it off the boat alive. It was a threat to her pod and she wanted to do whatever it took to make it go away. To leave them alone and keep the heart safe.
"We need to keep moving." Bismuth said looking around quickly for a solution. The only one that came was a pod of dolphins. As the pod started swimming over the mermaids they started to see figures coming into the water around the ship. They didn't have a lot of time. "There, quickly!"
Bismuth darted up to the pod of dolphins and quickly swam into the center of the animals pod. Garnet wasted no time in shoving the others after her. They all quickly came to the pods center and the dolphins could sense there fear and worry as they joined them. They circled around the mermaids and started to swim quicker along. As they swam Bismuth and Garnet kept looking behind them at the figures in the water. What haunted them was seeing a silhouette of one of there own in the group shrinking away into the darkness.
They looked to each other and Garnet huffed looking to Lapis. The blue mermaid got the hint and started clicking and talking to the dolphins. The animals answered back and soon the group was flying through the water. They stuck with the pod as they swam and jumped in the waves. They jumped with them and kept pace with them until they reached the far end of the Mariana Trench. If you didn't look closely you would just assume it was a huge pod of dolphins swimming by. Once they reached the end of the trench Lapis clicked out a few thank you's and the dolphins answered back before going on there way.
The pod followed Bismuth closely as they started towards the shoreline where they met Steven. Breaking the waters surface to look at the coast was the only time they stopped moving. They had been swimming most of the day, without a current or rip tide to help them along it was a much longer journey then there first time here.
"There's a sunken ship close to here." Bismuth said coming back down into the water and swimming the opposite way of the shore line. "We can hide you all there until we know it's safe to go up and see if your missing peaces are around."
She lead the pod along the sandy sea floor as the drop off to shore came into view. Forty feet down off the drop off was a sunken cargo ship. Flipped almost completely on its top it had a few big holes in the hull, showing off what had brought along it's demise to the watery grave below. It was a rather big ship with loads of crates and boxes scattered across the ocean floor. The amount of sharks lurking about and sea life made it a great hiding spot. Humans tended to leave there trash behind in the water when fish claimed them as there home, only coming for there dead when they could. This ship itself looked untouched for quite some time.
As they got closer they could pick out good hiding spots and bad ones. Bismuth lead them into the wreck and deep into the belly of the ship. The inside had rusted cars and cargo containers in such a twisted pail that it made a mini cave of metal and rust for them to hide in. The younger of the pod swam all around, fascinated by everything they saw while the older three held back and watched.
"How did you know this was here?" Sapphire asked as she kept a close eye on Ruby and Peridot. Garnet herself was looking around at everything for threats while keeping everyone in her sight.
"When I left I wondered around for a good long time just exploring places we didn't ever go." Bismuth said "Found out the hard way about the good and bad places to hide." She pointed to her chest where her own mark as a mermaid was broken and distorted on her skin "Got a nice shiner to boot."
"Will this be safe enough for them?" Garnet asked. Her eyes hadn't stopped moving around since coming into the ship and stopping. Her need to protect and guard her pod was in the fore front of her brain. She was looking at every possible way in and out of this forgotten bay. Everything that could collapse on them or impale them, kill them. It wasn't an ideal place to hide but they had no other options. Going back to the cave was out of the question and going to the lagoon was a hard no right now. Not when there were too many possibilities of them getting hurt or killed.
"For now, yea." Bismuth answered swimming off to find a place to rest "Feel free to look around all you want just don't go back outside the ship. I don't know if there lurking around the shore line like the cave."
This made Garnet growl and Sapphire to place her hand on her arm, getting her attention "Let's go look around. Find a few places to put a few protection runes for the night."
With a huff they set off. As they did Bismuth had found a nice place to lay down and Lapis wasted no time coming over to her. "You were in the war right?"
Bismuth didn't really look at her as she raised her arms and stretched behind her, popping her back "Yep."
"What was it like?" Lapis asked "What happened?"
This had Bismuth pause. She looked at the young aquatic as she slowly lowered her arms from behind her head. The others still around were looking around the bay but were giving glances at the pair. The older mermaid could see there curiosity and it confused her just a bit.
"How much do you know about it?" Bismuth asked "What did they tell you?"
"That we lost." Lapis said huffing a bit and crossing her arms "They won't really say anything else on it."
"Do you know about our history or why the war started?"
"No."
Bismuth frowned at this and gestured to the others to join them "Let me tell you then. Come sit."
Lapis sunk down to lay across the hood of an old car as Bismuth sat on the back trunk. Peridot swam over right away with Ruby and made a comfortable little nudge into the blue girls side. Blue came over slowly while Amethyst stayed put where she was. She had perched herself at the doorway where Garnet and Sapphire went through and didn't want to get closer to the isolated mermaid.
"Well, long time ago there were three guardians of the heart. The top of our species and head of all pods." Bismuth began manipulating the water in front of her to show three aquatic figures and a resemblance of the heart above them. She felt herself soften a bit at the groups wide eyes and curiosity as they leaned a bit closer to look "There was Bella, who controlled the southern seas. Penny, who controlled the center seas, and lastly Alexandrite who controlled the northern seas." As she talked each of the three figures she made swam in a circle as each of there names were spoken. "What had happened was Bella fell in love with one of the powerful beings on the land. This being loved her back but the beings sister didn't approve." She showed the mermaid swimming up and a figure sitting on the waters edge talking to her, acting out her words.
"The sister of the being waited until she met Bella to attack her. In turn for not killing her sister she made the aquatic promise her three things. One, that the other two leaders of the seas give up there positions all to Bella. Two, that Bella was then to do everything the sister wanted of her, no matter how horrible it was. And three... That one of there own had to bring her the heart." She paused to carefully watch the mermaids reactions in front of her. They were intently watching her story play out in front of them but fear was coming into there eyes and it was the reaction Bismuth wanted. She wanted them to be afraid and fearful of this history. It was the reason they were some of the last in the sea. "The three of them fought against these demands but in fear of Bella losing her voice and becoming a siren along with the threat of violence, they came to an agreement. In lue of giving the sister the heart and ultimate power over them they promised to give her one of us as a kind of peace offering."
"Is that what Pearl was made for?" Blue whispered gently, getting everyone's attention "It isn't a secret. She just never really told us the exact reason for her existence."
"Didn't think you all knew that." Bismuth said. "It doesn't surprise me that you don't really know though. It isn't something to really brag about."
"Know more then you think." Amethyst grumbled to herself. She crossed her arms and flinched away from Bismuth's look as she looked to her for a moment.
"Where did it all go wrong?" Peridot asked. At this point Garnet and Sapphire were swimming back slowly down a hallway to the group. They could hear there conversation and were cautious to what Bismuth was telling them. It's not they they didn't want them to know about the war and there history, it was just very hard for them to talk about it.
"Before Pearl was to be given to them she had to be taught what to say and not say. Not to tell them anything about there kind but to answer every question asked of her. Just to make them happy so they would leave us all alone to live. It was all going well until the sister got tired of waiting." Bismuth took a breath "Before Pearl was given to her, she was literally being escorted there, the sister attacked the elders. They three tried to defend themselves but Penny was killed in the scuffle." The younger mermaids backed up slightly in fear as they watched Bismuth's figure turn into many and start fighting, ending with one of there deaths "What happened next is fuzzy at best but rumor had it Bella was forced onto land with the beings and Alexandrite fled into the north."
"She just left?" Lapis asked "Why would she even do that?"
"In all honesty no-one knows exactly what happened to her. Her body was never found, her pods and there homes were sealed off, and the beings never calmed to have her." She looked up to see Garnet and Sapphire hovering around one of the doorways. Amethyst had swam over and hand wrapped herself around Garnet. The smaller was clinging to the guardian tightly. Bismuth could see her fear in the story and noticed she was the only one shaking, making it obvious that she was the only one out of the ones in front of her that knew about there history in greater detail then she was telling. "This is where the war came to start. All of us with a few species on land came together to fight the beings and there people but we lost before the first punch was thrown."
"There power heavily out weighed ours and it took a long time for us to loose." Garnet said running her fingers through Amethyst's hair as Sapphire swan over to curl up next to Ruby.
"We fought to get Bella back and they fought to kill us all. At the last fight, right before it started, Pearl and I were moving the heart to safer waters. Someone-" Bismuth looked at Garnet before waving her hand to make her figures fade back into nothingness "Someone came to us and..and I did something bad and got myself banished for it."
"What did you do?" Lapis asked but Garnet's growl answered for Bismuth.
"Doesn't matter." Bismuth said waving them off "It's in the past and can't be changed." She locked eyes with Garnet "No matter who is at fault."
The Guardian huffed at this but caught the hint. She knew Bismuth was glossing over details in telling her story to the younger of the pod. Bismuth understood that knowing there history was important but also that telling them every single detail wasn't worth the mental scarring. Garnet also knew, but would never say anything, that when Bismuth and Pearl were moving the heart, something did happen. Something absolutely terrible. That the truth of what truly happened was a story both her and Pearl told differently. This raised more red flags then it should have but she needed to get Bismuth alone to truly ask her about it when all this was over.
She needed to know the truth.
"Find a place to rest." Sapphire said pressing her forehead to Ruby's "We have a lot to do in the morning."
The pod silently swam around and all chose one giant open cargo crate to sleep in. They grabbed random seats and fabrics that weren't too damaged by salt and time to make a comfortable place to lay there heads. Garnet slept at the entrance to this crate while Bismuth chose to sleep where she lounged. She knew the guardian wouldn't let her anywhere near the others and she was ok with that. She was so used to sleeping alone that it would be very strange to suddenly have company. The guardian was the last to fall asleep. Keeping every entrance and Bismuth in her line of sight was her fleeting thought as she slipped into sleep.
Unknown to the pod a single ship silently sailed over top and to a stop above the ship. A pair of cold bright eyes looking over it's edge to the water below.
Note: I had a hard time picking three characters for the three heads of the mermaid species but once i figured who I wanted it made it a lot easier to weave the story from there.