Demyx had left the reef. He still felt terrible, but swimming around was doing him some good. The mermaids on the island had noticed him curled up in the reef earlier and had tried to cheer him up with shells and other nik naks. It had been enough to draw him out but swimming was already draining him out again.

He approached mermaid lagoon and pulled himself onto one of the rocks. The girls there were chatting away and happily started asking him questions when they saw he was feeling well enough to leave his hiding spot in the reef.

"Why were you hiding? Did the Leviathan try to get you?" one asked.

"Or was it the pirates?" another added on.

"Nah… some guy I know said the friends I was looking for were avoiding me…" Demyx trailed.

One mermaid put her hands on her hips, "Well he sounds rude. Why would someone want to ditch you? You seem perfectly nice."

Demyx lightly chuckled, "Thanks, but I wouldn't blame them. All I ever did was play music, avoid work, and ask stupid questions everyone knew the answer to."

The first mermaid looked scandalized, "How does that make you someone to avoid? Music is beautiful, work is terrible, and asking questions means you're learning."

He shrugged, "I dunno… they left me behind once before. I mean, it probably saved my life, but it sucked when they were gone."

"If anything, that means they value your friendship," a different mermaid said decidedly.

Demyx thought about it. They certainly had wanted him to be careful and not do anything rash while they were gone as they knew the risks. He wasn't integral to the plan, so his well being wouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things, yet even without hearts they had cared enough.

His mood started to lift, "You're probably right."

The mermaid nodded her head and scooted closer on the rock to sit behind him, "When I'm sad it's nice when the others do my hair so you just sit, ok?"

Demyx nodded, happy that if anything, if the mermaids were wrong and Xigbar was right, he could at least stay there.


A portal opened, not very far from the pirate's cove, and Larxene stepped out. She shed her cloak and packed it back into the bag around her waist and picked the larger bag back up.

"Last time I didn't go near mermaid lagoon and that's where Demyx will probably be," she stated as she started hiking through the jungle towards the mermaid's hangout. A ball of light followed her, quickly flying above her and showering her with pixie dust. "Jeez, Marly, I think that's enough for ten people," she coughed, fanning away the dust that had fallen into her face.

The light tinkled unapologetically as Larxene could briefly make out the words, "It was pretty useful last time."

She scoffed, "Yeah and you didn't use nearly on much on me then." Larxene continued picking her way around the trees. "Do you wanna check back in in Pixie Hollow while we're here?"

The light ducked around the branches beside her as it tinkled a faint "No."

"Suit yourself," she shrugged.

It took a few extra minutes of walking to get to the lagoon than she thought, but as the trees cleared, she could make out a tall waterfall, probably the source of the permanent rainbow above the island. Scanning the lagoon beneath her, she could see a few mermaids hurriedly speaking to each other and glancing toward the sea.

She jumped off the cliff and landed on their rock a few feet away. "Hey. Have you seen a merman around here? Blue eyes, blonde hair that's… kind of a mullet, actually-" the bells chimed a laugh at that, "-yeah laugh it up princess, at least his isn't pink." Larxene turned back to the mermaids, "And he also really likes music."

The mermaids exchanged a worried look before one spoke up, "The Leviathan caught our friend and he went out to save her."

Larxene looked out to the ocean. Marluxia couldn't do anything, if his wings got wet he'd be useless in the air, and he couldn't swim when they were waterlogged. "Marly, stay here. I'm going to find him," she ordered, flying off before she could hear the insulted bells from Marly, insistent that he could do something.

She flew as close to the water as the could, trying to see below the surface to find the Leviathan and her friend. It was a scary feeling, knowing that whatever heartless was under the waves was dangerous enough to provoke Demyx into fighting. A movement in the distance to her right drew her attention. A large creature crested the water and dove back down. If she squinted, she could barely see a blonde head tangled in one of its tentacles.

Larxene pursued it as fast as she could, terrified about what the creature planned to do to Demyx. She looked ahead in the direction it was travelling. Pirate Cove. Last time she had been here Marluxia had said how he heard in the Hollow of how the pirates had captured a mermaid. This explained how they had been able to do it. The Captain could be barely made out at the railing of his ship, darkness swirling around him as the creature drew closer to the ship. Racing ahead, she could start to hear him cackling, exclaiming how the mermaid would be bait for someone named Peter.

The creature crested again and Larxene hurried away in surprise when it rose farther and farther out of the water. Before she had the chance to swoop in and attack the tentacles gripping the merperson, she saw a blonde head with a dark blue tail vault up and hit it hard enough with a keyblade to release the mermaid in its grip. Larxene watched as she splashed back into the water where her rescuer swam up to her, pointed back toward the lagoon and exchanging a few words, before they both dove back under the waves.

Larxene's attention was snapped away from the mermaids as a ball of light flashed past her.

"MARLY!" she shouted. Anxiety boiled up inside her as now Marluxia, the one who couldn't swim, was heading for the creature who was often times under the water.

The creature turned back away from the pirate ship ahead and spotted her. Larxene darted around toward the beast's blindspot and summoned her keyblade, attacking the Leviathan as much as it could before it bellowed out and lashed a tenteacle at her. She dodged and found another spot to hit. Marluxia, she noticed, was sticking near her. It calmed her nerves to see he was safe and seeming to cause a little damage with plants growing and hindering the appendages the creature was using to lash out at her. It seemed their strategy was going well, until it gained a new one to use against them. Without any notice, it dropped at full speed back into the water.

Larxene was momentarily stunned as she was forced under the water. Blinking, she frantically scanned around her for the light that was Marluxia. As she located him, however, she was snagged around the waist by something that was quickly pulling her away. She lashed out at whatever was hauling her away from Marluxia and stopped as she saw Demyx trying to pull her up to the surface.

She shook her head as quickly as she could and pointed to the sinking light. Demyx looked toward the area and finally saw it. Larxene used the pixie dust enabled flight to launch herself back to the surface and out of the water, hoping that Demyx actually saw what she had been trying to show him.


Marluxia had not been expecting the creature to fall back into the water. He was going to die again. Wings were not meant for water, and even water fairies were careful around it. Being submerged was a death sentence. Remembering, Larxene, he turned to see if she was ok, but instead saw her being taken away from the fight. That was good, at least one of them wouldn't drown.

He turned back to look at the monster above him. It had started to chase after Larxene and whomever had carried her off. Using his arms, he tried to go after it, but it was useless. Marluxia blinked. The person who had gotten Larxene out of the fight was rushing back and without a weapon this time. He expected the person to be eaten by the leviathan's gaping mouth when they suddenly dodged and swam under its belly, right toward him.

The next thing Marluxia knew was that someone was cupping him in their hands. If it was a rescue, he hoped he'd break the surface soon as he was quickly running out of oxygen.

"Larxene!" he heard a familiar voice shout. The hand above him removed, he looked up and saw Demyx waving at Larxene. She came down from her position in the sky and picked him up and away from the water.

"I'm taking him back to shore. Come on!" she gestured toward the beach.

Demyx shook his head, "It's just going to keep targeting the mermaids. I can't just leave them!"

Larxene looked toward the shore and back to the creature, "I'll be right back."

He nodded and dove back under the water to attack the heartless. She flew as quickly as she could and deposited Marluxia onto a rock, far beyond the water's reach and where the sun could help dry him.

"I'll be right back," she told the fairy as she flew back toward the ocean.

The new strategy worked very well. When the heartless would launch itself out of the water to escape Demyx's attacks, Larxene would hit it from the sky. When it retreated into the ocean, Demyx would hit it until it went back to Larxene and so on. When it was finally defeated and its heart floated away before fading, a demented yell of defeat could be heard from the pirate ship.

Larxene could see the silhouette of Demyx swimming back toward the cove, presumably to tell the mermaids the threat was gone and to check on the one who had last been attacked. She went back to the shore and picked Marluxia back up. He was mostly dry, but not enough for flying.

The two then returned to the lagoon where the mermaids were fawning over Demyx and thanking him for saving their friend. When the mermaids noticed the pair, they deflated a bit.

"You're the friends he was searching for aren't you," one glumly asked.

Demyx looked back to Larxene and grinned, "Larx! I've been searching everywhere!"

Larxene landed on an unoccupied rock, "So I've heard." She lowered her hand to the rock for Marluxia to step onto. "We've been looking everywhere too. We tried Atlantica first but I guess we just missed you."

He perked up at that, "You were in Atlantica?"

Marluxia made a few tinkling sounds, reminding Larxene of the trinket she had picked up. "We raided your hideout a bit…" she said as she pulled the music box out of her pocket. She handed it to Demyx as he pulled himself onto the rock next to her.

"I probably should have stayed longer then," he softly said.

She shook her head, "We don't blame you for leaving. You were gone longer than us and no one really seemed to remember you by what we gathered. We'd have left too."

Demyx turned his attention to the light sitting on the rock. "Is that…" he asked, barely containing his laughter.

Marluxia chimed indignantly, insisting that everyone was just jealous.

His friends barely kept themselves from laughing. "Sure, Marly," Larxene wheezed.

Marluxia chimed again, asking why Larxene wasn't teasing Demyx about his tail if she was doing so on his wings and small stature.

She paused, "That's a good point. HA Demyx is a mermaid."

Demyx rolled his eyes and nudged her, "Yeah yeah, you two already knew that."

The trio became silent, just thrilled that they had finally rejoined. After a few minutes however, Demyx realized something.

"You have a keyblade," he stated.

Larxene nodded, "You do, too."

Demyx nodded and after another minute asked, "Do you , Mar?"

The bells Marluxia made were a "No."

The mermaids had kept their distance, knowing how the friends would be wanting to catch up, but eventually they approached again.

"Thanks for getting rid of that thing," one said to the group. "Are you going to go other places and get rid of more?"

The trio looked at each other before Larxene replied, "We haven't really thought about it.."

Demyx looked toward the mermaid, "We've been so focused on finding each other there hasn't been a chance."

The mermaid cocked her head, "Well whatever you do, I'm glad you're back together." Her demeanor turned serious, "If you hurt Demyx we'll hear about it though." With that she ducked back under the water and returned to her friends.

All three were stunned a little at her sudden change of attitude before Larxene's face grew a teasing smirk, "Well aren't you popular-"

"BUP BUP BUP BUP Don't do it," Demyx interrupted. "They were very nice to me after Xigbar, thank you very much."

Larxene shrugged but her smirk didn't fade, "I've got a lot of teasing to make up for."

Demyx groaned as the Marluxia chimed with laughter.

Giving the area one last look, Larxene stood and stretched, reaching into her bag and shrugging her cloak on. "Well I say we move on to another world."

The longest sigh was let out from Demyx as he sank onto the rock and sprawled out, "Can't we staaaaay? It's nice here."

Rolling her eyes, Larxene summoned a portal, "Lazy as ever."

Demyx responded with two finger guns, "You know it."

Marluxia, finally dry, flew through the portal as a yelp was let out from Demyx who was being dragged by his arm through the portal by Larxene.

"I can go through myself!" was the last thing the mermaids heard before the portal closed, giving them a fit of giggles.