"Wanna know what I never understood?" Maui asked hanging from the top of the mast staring hard at the horizon seeing where the sky darkened with thick black clouds smothering all light. They were close.

Moana stood at the rig, Vahi'a sat with her tail in the water and her elbows propping her up on the canoe. "Not really," Vahi'a told him with blunt honesty. Looking up with a half hidden grin she added, "but that hasn't stopped you yet."

His large feet landed on the canoe causing it to dip beneath his weight, jostling Vahi'a so that she almost slipped off. He met her sigh with a chuckle as he stepped closer. "Why flowers?" he asked standing so he stood over where Vahi'a sat with Moana on his right. "They'd have given you anything: gold, statues, prayed every second they sailed on the sea in the name of Vahi'a who would see their travels safe. And you picked…flowers." His tone was mocking though not cruel. He couldn't understand something so simple as a flower, a quiet prayer. His was a story of legend and myth, songs were sung in his name, statues erected in his image. He preferred glory.

But Vahi'a shrugged. "I like flowers."

He waited for more, she didn't give it. "Okay, so what about the second flower?"

"What about it?"

"One is a prayer but two, you like the praise don't you? I know, I know," he said raising his hands as she rolled her eyes, "you're too proud to admit it. But there's no reason to make the mortals give you another flower after they arrived unless you wanna hear a thank you."

Vahi'a turned to the wide expanse of sea not bothering to respond, and Maui stood over her smiling at her refusal to answer him. If this is what arguing with her was like he could imagine their innumerous years, she wouldn't care enough to respond so he'd always be right. Except for the times when she did wanna talk back, he liked those too.

"That's not what it means," Moana told him, caring enough to prove him wrong. "It says we are safe, and it's beautiful." She turned to Vahi'a whose face was softened as she smiled faintly. Moana smiled in return, remembering the feel of her wet hand on her cheek.

Had anyone in Vahi'a's entire existence ever believe in her as much as she did? Vahi'a reached into the water pulling every flower Moana had given into her arms and set them on the edge of the canoe.

With wide eyes Moana recognized them and saw that she'd gotten every one. There were hundreds, so many they spilled over the side back into the water where they floated around the canoe. Vahi'a knew them all, could still hear Moana's whispered prayers. Out of the pile she picked up one and placed it in Moana's hair, seeing from her wet eyes the girl knew it to be the flower she'd given asking Vahi'a to come.

Maui watched silently the way her hand curled around Moana's cheek, the way Moana's hand fit over hers. He understood then it wasn't prayer or praise, but love. He held a flower in the palm of his hand watching as it melted, looking up to see whatever magic she had she wasn't strong enough to hold and only a puddle of water remained. As silent as he watched them he turned away, leaving them to a moment he didn't feel apart of.

[*][*][*]

A moonless night fell as a thick gray fog settled over the ocean clouding the sky. Every so often a star was seen before it was snuffed out. They were closer still. Maui looked down from where he hung on the mast first to Vahi'a who sat proud and quiet on the outrigger, her blackened tail curled beneath her. And then he looked to Moana, the girl who'd done it all, who reached for the water to feel the current and then straightened the sail to catch the wind.

She looked up meeting his warm stare. "What?"

"I figured it out," he answered jumping from the mast landing with a jarring thud. He faced the clouded horizon before them, knowing what lay beyond the fog. "The ocean used to love when I pulled up islands, cause your ancestors would sail oversea and find them. All those new lands, new villages."

That was a time long ago, almost forgotten. Vahi'a remembered it, had overseen every wayfinder to every new island until one day they'd stopped sailing. And she'd wandered listless and alone. Somehow even then, without ever knowing, she'd been following Maui. Until he disappeared.

"It was the water that connected them all." Fiddling with one of the ropes attached to the sail he turned to Moana. "And if I were ocean I think I'd be looking for a curly haired non princess to start that again."

Moana smiled touched. "That is literally the nicest thing you've ever said to me," she said as heat rose in her cheeks. It almost sounded like a goodbye. "Probably should've saved it for Te Fiti."

With a short nod he replied, "I did." He extended an arm as the thick fog cleared revealing the shadowed form of the island ahead of them. "Moana of Motanui. I believe you have officially delivered Maui across the great sea." He moved behind her back and whispered the cheer she'd given him days before, "Moana, Moana, Moana. You're so amazing."

Vahi'a smiled gently as she strained to see Te Fiti, her heart leaping and begging to be near her. All she saw was stone. She was cold.

"It's time," Maui said taking the stone from Moana. There was a quiet steady hum as it beat. As if in knowing there was a rumble and cracking of stone, they all turned to see the shadows glow a bright red as lava burned. With his hook in one hand and the heart in the other he stretched readying himself and stepped to the edge of the canoe.

Vahi'a watched him, her hands clasped with such force they could've broken. A thousand years ago he'd stolen the heart destroying her home, taking from her her only companion. She felt no anger toward him, no annoyance. She wished him well, safe in his travels.

The breath caught in her throat at the familiar call fluttering in her chest. Between two bars of wood she reached tenderly catching the leaf floating on the surface of the water. She looked up seeing Maui half turned toward her, a small smile pulling at his mouth. "I'll send you another," he promised. He looked then to Moana, who stood with so much belief in him he could feel it.

"Go save the world."

He grinned at the two girls before he leapt into the sky. "Cheeehoooo!" he called and with a blue flash transformed into a hawk.

Vahi'a held the leaf in her fist clutched to her chest watching as he flew closer. When had she stopped finding him a hindrance, an insufferable oaf who couldn't decide if he wanted to keep her or throw her to the sea? She wanted to go back, to sit on this canoe feeling that way. Maybe then it wouldn't hurt so much.

Smoke billowed and lightening flashed. A boulder was hurled sizzling with flames and he quickly swooped to the right where it landed in the ocean with a loud hiss. He dodged another, and another soaring ever closer. The thick black smoke swelled higher, angry bolts of lightening cracked and flashed. Until with a bellowing roar Te Ka rose with fire in its eyes smacking the demigod out of the hawk and batting him out of the sky.

"Maui!" Moana cried as he fell. She sailed them closer hoping to help.

Vahi'a waited with bated breath as he grabbed the heart and his hook becoming a hawk once more. He wasn't defeated yet, there was still a chance. He flew out of the way of one fiery hand, and was struck by the other. His back hit the water, his grip loosened on the stone and it glittered as it sank.

Time was up, she wasn't waiting anymore. She dove into the ocean after him. The glow of the lava above illuminated the sea below lighting her path. Transforming into a shark he grabbed the heart and headed back for the boat, they needed a new plan maybe even a new demigod because he wasn't so sure he could do it anymore. A boulder was flung into the sea narrowly missing his tail throwing him forward and out of the shark. Smaller, he needed to be smaller.

Grabbing the heart again he looked back seeing the glowing flame of another boulder above him tearing the surface of the water. He slammed into a heaving chest feeling her arms come around him as they rolled out of the way of the hurtling stone. Vahi'a held him against her as she raced for the canoe feeling the way the water bent around another heavy stone. She tossed Maui onto the boat, he bounced a few times before transforming back into himself as he caught his breath.

Vahi'a loosely held onto a bar of wood breathing deeply as she turned back to Te Ka, who seemed so much more impossible to defeat. The boat was torn out of her grasp and she looked to see Moana had straightened the sail. "Moana," she called swimming after them. She heard Moana yell she was finding him a better way in, but Vahi'a didn't see how. Te Ka loomed above them shrieking as it watched the canoe.

"We won't make it!"

Vahi'a stopped swimming and watched the small boat sail for what looked to be a narrow opening in the stone. It was too close. She didn't know if she should try to go after them, if she'd be able to convince herself to move. With wide eyes she watched Te Ka raise a glowing hand and with a loud shriek bring it down over the canoe. There was a bright flash of purple where the blue from Maui's hook mixed with the red of the lava raising massive swells that carried the canoe far away. Vahi'a swam to the bottom of the ocean to find there was even a current there and it pulled her a long ways before the water settled.

Slowly she swam dragging herself along until she finally spotted the canoe drifting along the ocean in the wrong direction. She found Maui sitting on the edge cradling his hook in his lap. The water parted around her face as she broke the surface, her hair splayed in the water a shadow of a halo. She was beautiful, he'd always thought so, but it touched nothing in him then. He continued staring at the place his hook was charred and had cracked.

Brushing timid fingers over its broken surface she sighed pulling herself around so that she could sit beside him. She hoisted herself up on quivering arms dragging herself onto the canoe, feeling his hand wrap around her waist giving her a small push. He looked down seeing the black stain wasn't just on her fin anymore, it covered over half her tail and he could hear from her heavy breaths it was taking everything from her. He didn't know when it happened, only that she was dying and he couldn't save her. He couldn't even save himself.

"Are you okay?" came Moana's soft, guilty, voice having finally woken. "Maui?"

He turned showing her what she'd done. The hook sparked and sizzled in his hands. "I told you to turn back."

Vahi'a sat up at his unhappy voice, looking from his deeply knitted brows to Moana's wide eyes. She wanted to tell her it was okay, but it wasn't. She listened as Moana admitted she thought she could make it, with no thought to Maui or even Vahi'a who'd she'd left behind.

"We can fix it," Moana said trying to come up with something, anything to make it better.

"It was made by the gods, you can't fix it," Maui replied raising his voice, startling the girl. At Vahi'a's hand on his leg he not quite kicked her, but nudged her away. She'd never liked him had called him useless, even with his hook he still was. Nothing had changed.

Hurt Vahi'a slipped back into the water slowly moving around the canoe to where Moana knelt at the outrigger tying a loose rope tighter. Moana came up with a new plan: Te Ka was stuck on the barrier islands so they'd find a way around.

She listened quietly as Moana tried to convince him to stay, knowing he wouldn't. Why had she ever believed in him, had let herself hope she'd finally found…It didn't matter what she thought. He was leaving, and it felt an awful lot like he was leaving her. She wanted to hate him for it.

"Without my hook I am nothing!"

But there was something so sad in the way he believed it, that he'd always believed it. And there was Moana trying to be brave enough for the both of them who believed he was more. She was there only to save her island, and Vahi'a had only come to help her. Her own wants and fears aside, she was there to see Moana safe in her travels.

So when Maui transformed into a hawk and flew away she swam around the canoe looking up at Moana. "I'll bring him back," Vahi'a told her, seeing the tears shining in her eyes.

Maui flew angry at Moana and Te Ka, at the humans, his parents, the gods for ever thinking he could be someone. But mostly, he was angry with himself.

"Maui."

He growled a sigh at hearing Vahi'a beneath him. Great, he thought, just great.

"I know you heard me."

He flew higher, it wasn't like she could come after him. A wet rope wrapped tight around his middle, he had only enough time to look down to see it was water, before he was hurtling toward the sea. He struck a small half sunken rock formation with such force it knocked the wind out of him.

She climbed onto the rock seeing him lying on his belly defeated. "Get up," she ordered finding herself so tired and out of breath that she had no patience to give him. "Seriously, Maui, get up," she demanded smacking his arm.

"You want me to say I'm a coward," he yelled sitting up, eyes blazing. "Fine, you were right, I am a coward."

"How else can you be brave?"

He was quieted by the way her voice scratched her throat raw from how loud she'd yelled it. And he found himself unable to look at her, for her to see how ashamed he was. "This the part where we have a heart to heart and you convince me I'm strong enough to beat Te Ka if I just believe?" he asked, his voice one part soft and two parts scorned. His head was bent low, his hair hanging in his face.

She supposed she should've said something along the lines of, she'd drag him by the hair to Te Ka herself and maybe even wield him as weapon because his only use so far was being hard headed. But she couldn't find the energy or the will to say. Her sigh shrunk her and she gently brushed his curly hair over his shoulder, her hand catching his chin forcing him to look at her. "We both know I'm not good with words," she said seeing his hard face soften, and in its place came his sorrow. "You need to decide what kind of demigod you are," she told him soft and warm. "I can't decide for you."

He leaned his heavy head against her hand so that she was cradling his cheek. His fingers brushed her skin feeling how cold it was. She wasn't strong enough. "If you go back you will die," he told her finding he was afraid of the thought.

Her smile was small and it quivered. "I already am, Maui," she told him sadly. She watched that settle in his eyes before he looked down, before he looked anywhere but at her. There was no going back. From the moment he tied her to the canoe she'd been his. Holding his face she pressed a soft kiss to his round cheek hearing the breath he held and feeling the flutter of his lashes as his eyes closed. When he opened them again she was gone, leaving only a ripple in the water.

[*][*][*]

Moana emerged from the sea with the heart in hand looking for her grandmother. The sky was dim, and she was alone. With a sigh she swam for the canoe feeling something brush her leg. "Vahi'a?" She turned finding the fish woman treading water behind her. In a rush Moana threw her arms around her thin shoulders, feeling her slick tail swaying in the water keeping them afloat. "Thank you," Moana told her.

Vahi'a pulled away smoothing the wet hair off of Moana's forehead. "I don't think he's coming."

It hurt, having thought he was her friend. But if he wouldn't be a hero then she would be. "We'll do it then," Moana said climbing onto the canoe. "Together."

With a smile Vahi'a pulled herself onto the boat, pausing to catch her breath, and tied off the loose ropes Moana threw to her so that they could sail. They traveled all night into late morning until ashes blew on the wind and the sky darkened with clouds. Moana of Motunui and Vahi'a daughter of the sea.

"Te Ka can't follow us into the water. We make it past the barrier islands. We make it to Te Fiti," Moana said mapping out the plan one last time.

Vahi'a sank into ocean readying herself. "I'll stay under you, make sure nothing Te Ka throws gets too close."

Moana placed Hei Hei into a basket in the hatch, who clucked looking up at her. "None of which you understand. Because you are a chicken." With that she closed the lid and turned to Vahi'a. The two shared a long look as they breathed deeply, as they prepared. With a nod Moana turned to Te Ka and Vahi'a slipped beneath the surface of the water.

Vahi'a kept under the boat seeing the red glow of Te Ka who loomed over them. Te Ka raised a hand to bring it down on the canoe but they took a hard left and its hand struck the water hardening the lava. She looked at the wall of barrier islands seeing Te Ka crawling over them and cast a ball of lava toward them.

The water erupted in front of the canoe and Vahi'a grabbed the bow weighing it down so that they weren't overturned. In a cloud of ash and smoke Te Ka met them at a break in the barrier island, but Vahi'a helped Moana quickly turn the boat around before it noticed. Another sharp left and they sailed through an opening surrounded by a wall of stone. Te Ka threw another bout of lava that struck the cliffs above them sending rocks plummeting into the sea around them. Moana cried out as the canoe lurched losing her footing and the heart.

Give me the strength, she prayed to her father. Taking a steady breath she sent the canoe on a fast current away from the cliffs. And she hurled herself to the surface pulling the water with outstretched arms creating waves that slammed against the sides of the cliffs catching every rock before it struck the boat. She seemed to hang in the air with her hands held high, a wall of water on either side of her, her reddened hair splayed around her.

She was a sea witch. The daughter of Tangaroa, god of the sea. A sea goddess of her own right. Her name was Vahi'a.
Without a breath to catch she fell back to the water where she slowly sank. Her arms still outstretched as though to reach for the canoe that sailed away without her. Lifeless she lay on the bottom of the sea, where she breathed her last breath.