Once again I apologise for my terrible introduction chapters but thank you to anyone who reads past it and I hope you enjoy the next one!

x-x-x

The sound of gulls cried out from the small rocky pool not far from the docks. To a tourist, it would just be noise but if a local fisherman were there he would immediately know that something had spooked the creatures. Something that wasn't normally there had arrived.

As for her, she knew this was exactly where she was supposed to be. Now all she had to do was find the girl before anything else did.

x-x-x

It was on a sunny San Francisco day that Amy's life changed forever. Two weeks after Valentina's funeral, the weather had finally cleared up but everyone's hearts were still heavy. Of course moving on from a loss wasn't easy but the most frustrating part of it all was that Amy felt more left out than she had at the funeral, where several Mai had made it clear how they felt about humans being there. Obviously no-one had dared to say a thing because they were the Uniter's friends, as well as allies of the new San Francisco Pride leader. But after the funeral, her hopes of playing a supporting role were severely dashed.

She stared across the cafe to the store where Chloe was working, waiting for her to go on break. It had become the only time she actually managed to spend time with her friend anymore. Ever since Meredith had found out Chloe's secret and the funeral, they had begun some kind of mother-daughter bonding experiences so that Meredith could better understand what her daughter really was. That coupled with her more dire Mai responsibilities and visiting Brian at the hospital didn't leave much time for a social life. She had said that school and work were the only things that, strangely enough, kept her sane.

Amy felt she understood the feeling somewhat as she looked at her phone. There was still no reply from Paul. Their breakup awkwardness had dissolved since the funeral but she was still hurt, especially now that he was spending a lot of time helping Jasmine with getting organised. Apparently she had found him to be really useful in eagerness to learn more about the Mai. Naturally, that meant he spoke less often to Amy and was more updated than her. She pouted to herself as she suddenly felt slightly neglected by her friends.

"Not a good time to be all childish Amy" She muttered to herself.

"And to be talking to yourself" A familiar voice suddenly spoke up next to her. The very British tone made her realise who it was right away but it still startled her.

"Alek!" She turned to look up at the blond with more enthusiasm than she had meant to. Said Mai raised his eyebrows slightly at her too but settled on the fact that it was acceptable that she was shocked to see him. He and Jasmine were almost next to impossible to see and Amy only heard updates on Alek from Paul because the Mai was still living with Paul while he looked for a home. Amy forced a cough "W-What are you doing here? Skulking around after Chloe isn't going to do a lot of good, y'know" She piped in knowingly.

Alek gave her one if his cocky stares even if it didn't have the usual glint behind them "I wasn't skulking, I was just checking on Chloe" Amy understood his hesitation. He seemed to blame a lot on himself; there had been that stuff where he didn't have the courage to speak to Jasmine until after the funeral and from what Amy heard from Paul, the two were still awkward with each other because neither one blamed the other what happened to Valentina but each blamed themselves. Then there was the situation with Chloe, not only was he angry with himself for getting jealous about her picking Brian and abandoning her when she needed his help, but he was also angry at Chloe for not listening to him and continuing to see the human and his pride prevented them from smoothing things out.

"Well, she's as fine as a girl can be considering her whole world was tipped upside down and the guy she loves is in a coma" Amy drew her eyes away from Alek and onto Chloe as she busied herself. Amy began to twirl around the straw of her drink. She decided to make the most of the time that Alek was there to get some information.

"So-"

"I just-"

Both human and Mai looked at each other in surprise for a few seconds until Amy shook her head and motioned for him to continue so she could get to her questions quicker without him getting distracted by whatever was on his mind.

"I just wanted to thank you" He caught Amy slightly out of the blue "You and Paul that is. For coming to Valentina's funeral. I already thanked Paul but Jasmine said I should pass it on to you too if I got the chance. I know that there were some Mai weren't too welcoming but we're all…shaken up by it. But it meant a lot to Jasmine…and me that you two were there regardless. So thank you" He wasn't even subtle about how difficult it was for him to be like this to Chloe's two irritating human friends but at the same time it was one of the most sincere tones he used with her. The only other time had been when he promised Amy he would look after Chloe when she first found out she was a Mai.

Amy chuckled "Very sensitive there" But she carried on her smile "And I'm sure Paul's told you that we were happy to do something to help" Alek only nodded and continued to watch Chloe "You know, you should really just talk to her about it already. Since you're her protector and all, it'd make everything a lot easier. And this awkwardness between you two, yeah pretty obvious. I'm just saying that she already feels really bad and I'm sure she's not the only one" Amy hurriedly added. For a second, she thought Alek might lose his temper.

And for a second he wanted to but as his eyes flickered to the human friend that the Uniter kept, he realised that any anger wasn't directed at her. He was just generally angry. She was just trying to help. So instead he folded his arms and leaned against the table she was sitting at "So what is it that you wanted to ask?"

"Ah" Amy finally stopped spinning her straw, simply relieved that she wasn't on the receiving end of an Alek-Outburst "About how everything's going. It kinda feels like no-one has any time to fill me in anymore, not even Paul. I get that there's not anything I can do but I wanna do something, you know? Aside from being Chloe's occasional coffee buddy there's nothing else for me to do. And Paul's involved, and I want to be too" She immediately regretted saying too much as she saw a strange look wash over Alek's face.

"There's not been much progress and that's all you need to know" He pushed himself from the table "Because there truly is nothing you can do. Just be there for Chloe when she needs you. We really can't handle keeping an eye on more than one human and Paul is more than a handful" Harsh perhaps, but Alek simply knew that he had to get it across and there was no point of beating around the bush. Brian, a human, had gotten involved and now he was lying in a hospital bed with no-one certain when he was going to wake up. And as much as he was annoyed by Chloe's friends in the past, he didn't wish that on either of them. Paul was enough to look after. Amy just needed to stick to a normal life.

Well that had been blunt. Amy watched Alek walk away with a mixture of hurt, anger and stunned silence. Suddenly she found she didn't want to see Chloe and quickly sent her friend an apologetic text saying to postpone their meeting for another time. The brunette gathered her items as she forced the burning tears in her eyes back until she ran out of the store.

Chloe, as it turns out, was listening to their conversation the entire time. She grumpily mumbled so that Alek's Mai hearing could pick it up "That was a little much, don't you think?"

"Now you're complaining? You're the one that keeps talking about pushing your friend out of this for her own good or whatever. You were taking too long and I found the perfect moment. Personally, I think this should have happened a long time ago before either of them got too involved with you" Alek said, resisting the urge to get too snappy as he did genuinely take in Amy's words about Chloe's guilt. When Chloe didn't answer, he added "Remember to meet us tonight, Jasmine's been worried about the weird stories popping up in the last few days" as he left too.

x-x-x

It wasn't long after she ran out the store that tears did burn their way down her cheeks. Amy furiously wiped them as she reminded herself that Alek was a jerk but a jerk with a point. In the face of the threat the Mai faced, there wasn't anything she could do.

"Pretty lady like you shouldn't look so sad" A rough voice grumbled. Amy snapped her head to see that she had run down to closest warehouse out of a need to be alone. But it turns out the gruff man with a beard and tattoos wasn't going to let her be alone. Immediately Amy took a step back and he noticed "S'no reason to be scared darlin', I'm not a monster"

"I think that's up to her to decide" Another voice joined them, a much more feminine voice and it sent some kind of spark through Amy. It belonged to a girl that had just walked in the same way Amy had. She was a beautiful girl with olive skin, dark brown hair and a long, straight nose with a small mouth but full lips. Her eyes, however, were a startling blue that stood out against the rest of her features. She was oddly dressed too as she wore a simply white, cotton dress that blew loosely around her body. She turned her eyes to Amy "This guy bothering you?"

"Just looking out for the special young women of this 'ere city" The man scowled at the newcomer. The way he eyed Amy up sent off alarm bells in her head and she found herself inching closer to the female stranger, who didn't seem much older than her. But the closer she got, the thicker the air seemed to get and the more the wind picked up, blowing in sudden clouds. It was beginning to freak Amy out until she finally got closer to the young woman and their arms brushed against each other.

It was like an explosion went off.

The whole warehouse seemed to buzz with an energy as the strong wind rattled all the loose metal. For a brief second, all was silent and then white doves sprang from every hidden spot in the vicinity when Amy had been sure there were none. For a few seconds, they flew around together in a massive white cloud high above the two girls for several seconds and then soaring off into the sky. The girl beside had an astonished smile on her face and chuckled.

"Guess I finally found you" Her sternness from seconds before was channelling into excitement and Amy was more confused than ever. She was about to turn and run when an awful feeling bubbled in the pit of her stomach. With rising horror, she realised the man from earlier was…hissing!

"Skrooll, I should have guessed it was you" The woman shook her head "So you were the cause of all the happenings around this city. I should have known. I guess we're both searching for the same person. Which begs the question, who are you working for? This isn't something that should interest the descendant of the Ophiotaurus"

The man's eyes widened with shock for a brief second "You know what I am? Who are you? No wait, it doesn't matter. I'm going to kill you and I'm going to take the girl. It's obviously been noticed, how much power she's been exerting"

The girl snorted "She hasn't been exerting squat more than she had her whole life. It's just she's coming into her powers and she's been calling out. Although…" She looked Amy's terrified form up and down "…she hasn't been doing it consciously. So now I'm really curious about who sent you, they've gotta have a lot of power to sense her" The girl paused, noticing that the man's skin was slowly turning a strange shade of green and his body hair seemed to be shifting to fur "Oh boy, this is not gonna be good. White doves, you know what that means, right? See if you can guess about me" She pulled the hairband around her hair and tied her hair up into a messy bun.

Amy's eyes widened "What is going on!?" She yelled when she saw what now stood in the place of the man that had creeped her out before. It was a human sized snake but rather than scales, a large part of it was covered in fur and it had two large horns on it's head "What, what? This isn't normal even for me" She half sobbed and got ready to run.

"I wouldn't" The girl sang quickly "He'll cut you off before you get a chance to get away. Stay exactly where you are. This guy's not gonna be much of a problem" She raised her hand and Amy felt compelled to listen to her. Whoever she was, she seemed trustworthy, especially since she appeared to be Amy's way away from that thing. So she watched as the raised hand shook slightly. The air was quickly becoming drier and the girl scowled. In amazement, Amy watched water begin to appear in the girl's palm. It slowly began to extend outward like some sort of cane.

The creature, Skrooll as the girl had called it, had obviously decided to take its chance and launched forward. But he was too slow, the girl had gotten what she wanted and brought her hand slashing down directly in the course of the creature. It was as if she were gripping the water like a solid item. But it flexed itself at the last minute like a rope and struck the creature in the face. It gave a horrible yelp of pain and covered it's eyes. Taking advantage, the girl twirled her fingers and once again, the water she had summoned obeyed her and wound it's way around it's enemies' lower body, knocking it to the ground with a large thud. In a swift movement, the water wrapped itself around the creature's neck and began to choke it.

Something about the girl's beautiful face had changed and she looked fierce, like a warrior rather than the beauty before. It wasn't the most pleasant sight to behold. She gritted her teeth and kneeled next to the creature as it gasped for air.

"M-Maira!?" It choked out.

"Uh-huh. Now listen up, you and I both know I can't kill you because of your 'special position' which makes whoever sent one of you very clever. But I can make things so much worse for you. I can drop to some of the deepest parts of the ocean to things that you can only have nightmares about. So you leave, right now or I do whatever I want to you. You're not as smart as the others of your kind Skrooll, they would have known not to get involved"

"Alright" It tried to pull on the water but only dissolved and reappeared again "I'll leave. But don't think others won't come, for you both" Without another word, the girl waved her hand and water vanished permanently as the creature seemed to shrink from its bulk back down into a human grown man. He stood and, with a final dirty look at the girl, ran off through the entrance. As he ran past Amy, she gave a shriek and dived out of the way and felt the ground collide with her rather roughly.

Footsteps approached and as the sun began to shine once more and the air had gone back to feeling like the moisture was back, Amy saw the girl had a calm look on her face, almost amused actually, as she extended her hand to Amy. With a few seconds of hesitation, Amy took it and allowed herself to be pulled up.

"Sorry for the sloppy rescue, won't happen again" She dusted the dirt from Amy's skirt and then looked at her seriously "But you have not been an easy girl to find, especially for Aphrodite's daughter. You have been well protected indeed"

"Excuse me, what?" Amy shook her head in confusion, scrunching her eyes and forehead together "Who are you, or what are you?"

The girl nodded "Aaaand you're clueless about it too. My name is Maira, as in Mae-ra, Maira Stratis and as you could probably see I'm the daughter of the sea-god Poseidon. I'm the same as you, albeit I came into my abilities way before you, I'm basically a demigod and basically, so are you"