Author's Note: These two are killing me. I seriously love writing them. Also, thank you for reading - if you haven't left a comment, please do. I'd love to hear what you think :)


Melody and Harry rushed to the railing at the same time, looking out at the ocean where Gil had gone overboard.

When he didn't surface immediately, she nearly jumped in after him out of pure habit. She was so used to carrying her locket and having its power at her disposal whenever she needed it.

She stopped herself and turned to Harry, who seemed poised to jump in himself.

"Give me the locket," she said. "They need you up here on deck."

He hesitated for just a beat, before jamming a hand into his pocket and coming up with the locket. He pressed it into her palm and she handed him his favorite hooked weapon in trade. She hoped he wouldn't need it.

"Do not let them slow this ship," she ordered, snapping the locket's clasp closed around her neck. "I'll get Gil to shore one way or another."

He was about to say something, but she was already falling, diving over the side of the ship in a graceful arc she'd practiced a thousand times from her father's ship.

Her hands wrapped around the locket as she neared the surface of the water and she opened it. The sapphire at its heart glimmered in the light and she felt its magic wrap around her body, twisting and pulling until that familiar tingle of power had penetrated deep into her bones.

She slid easily into the sea with hardly a splash, diving twenty meters with one hard pump of her tail.

The bubble trail left behind by the ship's rudder made for an easy path to follow as she knew Gil was probably somewhere behind the ship, now. She searched frantically, sensing she was close when she started seeing debris from the mast floating on the surface.

She dove deeper. Even with her vision so much better underwater as a mermaid, Gil would be even easier to spot if she was looking from below. The bright sun shining down from the surface would cast a silhouette that would be unmistakable. She swept her gaze from side to side, searching.

There.

A shadow. A dark ghost of a figure suspended motionlessly in the blue abyss of the open ocean.

She pushed upward toward Gil with everything she had.

She grabbed for him, pulling him towards her by his vest. His head lolled sickeningly to the side and his eyes were closed.

Sea spit. This was bad.

She gripped his vest with both hands and kicked out with her fin as hard as she could. Over and over she beat her tail fin to propel them toward the surface. Gil was not a light man, but her tail was meant for powerful strokes like this, and after only a handful of seconds, she had his head above water.

The rest would be up to him.

"Come on, Gil," she encouraged, giving him a shake. A wound on his forehead was oozing blood. He must have been knocked out during the cannon blast. And he'd been in the water for at least a minute, which meant his lungs were probably completely sodden by now. She needed a way to lay him on his back.

By this time, a school of seabass had gathered to watch the commotion.

"Don't just float there, get something to help!" Melody commanded. "Something flat and buoyant. Over there!" She pointed to some bobbing debris from the mast a short distance away.

But the bothersome seabass made no move to help. They only continued to stare at her instead.

"It's just," the largest fish said. "We haven't seen a mermaid around these parts in a long time."

"Later," she snapped. "We can talk about it later." She turned her attention to Gil, letting the irksome fish see the extent of the problem she was dealing with. "Friend. Dying."

The seabass school circled quickly and dove under the surface, their green and black scales glittering in the sunlight. Meanwhile, Melody tried to tip Gil's head back, positioning him across her chest as she tried furiously to keep them afloat.

The problem was, if she was going to deliver any type of effective first aid, she'd need to be at his level to provide rescue breaths.

She pinched Gil's earlobe, trying to get a response, but he was still out cold.

Luckily, it was only a few more seconds before the seabass came through. They'd managed to tow a chunk of mast thick enough to be buoyant. It wasn't exactly flat, but with the help of the seabass school, it might be enough.

"Help me pull him onto it," she said. Hundreds of flippers fluttered against her skin as they worked to push Gil into position. Finally, with Gil's back flat, she pushed his chin up to open his airway. She didn't have a great angle, but when she flipped her fin just so, she was able to reach well enough to pinch his nose and give a life-saving breath.

She repeated this only twice before he sputtered, vomiting sea water all over her.

"Gil!" she said, relief flooding her, "thank the seas."

His eyelids fluttered, and he coughed again, drawing in a wheezy breath. It lingered and rattled inside of him before he took another, more complete inhalation. He stared up at the sky for a while, and Melody watched the rise and fall of his chest a few times. She checked his pulse as his breathing rate slowly returned to normal.

She exhaled a relieved sigh, looking back to where The Lost Revenge was quickly shrinking in the distance.

Well, at least Gil was alive. That had been problem number one.

"Thank you, so much," she told the seabass who were all gathered to watch.

The seabass leader poked his head out from below the surface and looked at her. "Anytime, Mermaid."

"Call me Melody," she said.

"Melody? Queen Ariel's daughter?" His fins flicked nervously. She winked and he seemed even more flustered. "Oh please, Princess. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. My name's Sigmund, friends call me Sig. I cannot believe - "

Gil had now come around to a higher level of consciousness and he was staring at her with a dumbfounded expression. "You are talking to those fish."

She ignored Gil and responded to Sig the Sea Bass. "It's okay Sig, you've done enough, but if you know any dolphins or whales who are really quick, we could use their help right about now."

"Absolutely," he said, darting below the waves, likely sending the entire school to find someone who could help.

That was exactly when she noticed their second problem.

A very large problem. She'd been so concerned with saving Gil, she hadn't realized how close the Black Pearl was. And it was headed right for them. If someone on that ship saw them…

"Gil!" she yelled. "We have to dive under."

Gil's eyes widened even further from the already wide, dumbfounded expression he'd worn a moment ago. He had just noticed her fin and was moving his eyes up and down, from her raven-black hair to her salmon-pink tail. "Am I dreaming?" he said, sitting up a bit and adjusting himself to cling to the mast. "Oh no, I'm dead aren't I?"

"No, but you will be unless you listen to me," she demanded. "We are going to dive under. You need to hold your breath. When you get low on air, I can give you breaths until we're clear to go back to the surface."

"You're going to give me breaths? Like mouth to mouth? Oh, Harry isn't going to like that one bit. Are you sure I'm not dreaming?"

She wished she had time to consider the implications of what Gil was saying about Harry, but right now was not the time.

"Okay, when I count to three, I am going to pull you down under the water. Hold your breath Gil. One, two, three."

She waited for him to breathe deeply and then they were under. She was pulling him down, one fist clutching the back of his vest, one hand circling his arm. To his credit, Gil did actually kick a little way, trying his best to help. But with his lungs weakened from nearly drowning, she could sense he was tiring already.

She stopped swimming and leaned in close to him, forming a seal over his mouth with her lips, and blew a breath of life-saving air into his lungs.

Gil's look of complete astonishment was so humorous, she almost forgot that they were in such dire peril.

She collected herself and dove deeper. From here, she could see the silhouette of the Black Pearl's hull. It would be passing directly over in another minute. Melody thought they were now low enough to wait it out without being hit by the rudder or seen from on deck.

It wasn't long before Gil was looking tense, gesturing to his mouth and miming being out of breath. So she pressed her mouth against his and exhaled again.

When she drew back from him, he winked. The slimy little git actually winked at her and she silently vowed she would kill him herself if they survived this.

She looked up again just as The Pearl ghosted over them, the ocean silence devouring any sound she made.

After another grudging breath was delivered, they headed to the surface, the Black Pearl now a safe distance away. When they broke the surface again, Gil gulped air a few times, then turned to stare at her.

Melody was scanning the waves. The seabass hadn't returned yet, and she didn't see any other fish that had arrived to help.

Gil was still staring. "Now what? I mean, not that I'm enjoying this and all."

"Gil?" she said.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

He gave her a quizzical look but did as he was told. A moment later, she saw a large black fin cutting through the waves.

"Um, Melody, I know you said shut up, but…"

"It's ok Gil, I think that's a friend."

From Gil's perspective, the whole interaction that followed must have made her look like she had completely lost her mind. That's what everyone had always thought when she'd talked to fish as a kid. Gil probably heard her thank the orca for coming to help and heard her tell the orca to give Gil a ride back to The Lost Revenge. But Gil wouldn't be able to hear how the orca had agreed and said he was happy to help if it would help Queen Ariel's daughter. To Gil it would look like a completely one-sided conversation. Like Melody was completely delusional.

Hopefully, he wouldn't spread the rumor of her complete insanity around Auradon U.

When the orca actually listened to her and offered his fin for a ride, Gil's mouth dropped.

"By the gods," he said, placing his hand over his heart. "I don't think I'll ever eat fish again."

As if to ensure he stuck with his promise, the rest of the seabass school arrived, circling and teasing him with their fins until he squealed in what looked like a mix of glee and horror.

She almost told the seabass to cut it out, until she remembered Gil's little wink down below after she'd put her lips against his to help him breathe. Nah, she'd let the seabass have their fun.

The orca nudged Gil until he grabbed onto his fin. Melody then dove under, swimming side by side with the orca all the way back towards the bay.

Gil kept glancing at her but didn't speak again until they were within sight of The Lost Revenge which, for some reason, had stopped just outside of the bay. Her heart jolted, and when it picked again it seemed out of rhythm.

Panic. She was panicking.

Her friends, Harry, what if… she tried to force her mind to stop this senseless circling of thoughts as she swam closer.

She saw the boarding planks connecting the two ships. The crew of The Black Pearl had boarded The Lost Revenge.

This was bad.

She couldn't get a breath, her chest was tight as she swam. Closer, closer, until the sounds of clanging swords and pirates swearing carried over the waves and then, someone screamed.

This was really bad.

A body was thrown back against the railing in a scuffle and the man happened to glance over the side and down at them. It was the sailor she'd helped before. He disappeared for a few seconds before coming back with a rope ladder. He flung it, one armed over the side of the ship and was gone again before she could wave thanks.

She could only pray everyone else on deck was too distracted to notice their approach.

Melody thanked the orca for his help and swam to the ladder with Gil. "I'm going to climb up just to see what's going on. Stay here in case we need to go back under."

He nodded and she wrapped her hand around her locket, opened the clasp with her thumb, and felt the magic wrap around her again. As always, it transformed her just the way she'd been before, fully clothed, but now a little wet from the thighs down thanks to her half-submerged position hanging from the bottom rungs of the ladder. She climbed the rest of the way up thanks to her human legs, just high enough to peek through the top of the railing.

The scene was complete chaos. Uma was doing her best not to be stabbed by a pirate who looked to be at least twice her size. Harry had his back to her, fending off two attackers by himself, trying to keep them away from his captain, no doubt.

On the other side of the deck, Jane was huddled next to Tarah and her friend, as a scraggly bearded pirate held them at sword point.

And scattered across the deck, Uma's crew, along with the experienced members of R.O.A.R. who'd been invited on this little excursion, were doing their best to defend the ship, despite the fact that they were sorely outnumbered.

"Search the ship," someone from the center deck growled.

She tracked the speaker, finding immediately that this pirate looked different from the others. His long coat and boots were of finer quality than the rest of his crew and his black dreadlocks were tied back with a silken red ribbon. The blade of the sword he brandished against the unfortunate Gonzo, was golden and the blue jeweled accents on the hilt caught the light of the afternoon sun. It was a special sword no doubt and it had a familiarity about it. Maybe she'd studied it in one of her history books or something.

But more than the clothing or the sword, what set this pirate apart most, was his swagger. He walked with the confidence of a captain.

"Well, well, well," he drawled, pushing Gonzo aside as he approached the fight between Uma and her opponent. "You must be the captain of this vessel. And what a relief it is to find someone so…" he licked his lips, staring Uma up and down, "delectable at the helm for once."

The Captain cleared his throat and the pirates who had been engaged with Uma and Harry stopped their fights mid-lunge, letting their sword hands fall limp at their sides.

"And you, I would recognize anywhere." The Black Pearl's captain turned his shadowed eyes to Harry who was poised to strike. "Clinging to that hook like a suckling babe to his mother's teat. You must be Hook's son."

Harry's stare could have iced over the sea itself as he strode confidently toward the Captain, stopping not two feet in front of the other man. He smiled wickedly as he twisted his hook in his hands, his voice as sharp and as cruel as his weapon. "Get off this ship or I'll show yeh exactly what this hook was made for, yeh bilge-suckin' scurvy dog."

The other captain laughed and turned back to Uma, completely ignoring Harry's insult. But Harry was having none of it. He lunged at the Captain, bringing his hook in a wide arc toward the other man's flank. Steel rang against steel as one of the Pearl's crewmen stepped up to block, protecting his captain with his sword at the last second.

"Save it," Uma ordered, waving Harry back. "Let's just see what he has to say."

She'd never seen Harry like this. Like a trapped animal, desperate and deadly. He'd told her that he'd done terrible things, but here, she could see that he had little fear of death. He'd been within an inch of spilling this man's entrails across the deck.

The captain of The Black Pearl, however, seemed unphased.

"My name is Captain Zachary Sparrow, my friends call me Zach," he looked to Uma with a smile, then turned quickly to shoot Harry a cold glare, "you may call me Captain."

He approached Uma who stood frozen, eyes fixed and emotionless as they studied her attacker.

Sparrow inched closer. "I'm sure you've heard of my father? Jack? He sends his warmest regards."

He reached for Uma's hand, in some sickening parody of a gentlemanly introduction, but she batted it away.

"Name's Uma," she said. "Daughter of Ursula and captain of The Lost Revenge. What do you want, Captain Zach Sparrow?"

It was shocking to see Uma hold back. Melody knew the sea witch's daughter wanted to pull this pirate limb from limb for what he'd done to her ship and crew, but with her side at a disadvantage, she wasn't taking any chances here.

By this point, Harry was pacing violently back and forth on the deck behind them like a caged jungle cat desperately wanting to be freed. He hadn't taken his eyes of Sparrow.

"Uma? Ursula's daughter herself?" This had Sparrow's lip tipped into a smirk. "The pleasure is all mine." And he removed his hat and bowed low to Uma.

"What do you want, Sparrow?" This time when Uma repeated her question, the tightness in her voice was audible and Melody wasn't sure how long Uma could keep this up, acting unphased after a vicious, unprovoked attack of her ship.

"Alright my dear, let's cut to the chase," he said, his voice suddenly losing all of its honey, shifting instead to pure venom. "Where is the mermaid?"