AN: A lot of the Moon themes from this chapter come from two episodes of H2o just add water. "Control" and "Bad moon Rising". I also took the main ideas from some of the other episodes where the girls are moonstruck to add to it. The "Seeing the moon on the TV" bit wasn't based off of any of the moonstruck episodes, I came up with that one myself.

"How is that possible?" Zane asked. "How could they get moonstruck just from seeing the moon on TV?"

"It was a live feed." Max sighed, putting his hand to his forehead.

"This really shouldn't surprise us as much as it does." Lewis told them. "After all, they get moonstruck just seeing the moon's reflection, or a little bit of the moonlight, why not on TV?"

"But Emma's seen the full moon on TV before and this has never happened." Ash pointed out.

"That's because it wasn't live." Max reminded him. "And for all we know it might not have even been the real moon then, it could have been a studio moon which had no effect on her, unlike this one."

"Whatever the reason, we can't let them touch water." Louise said firmly. "If they touch water, we are done for."

"Alright, well they're all where we can see them, that's good." Lewis tried to be cheerful about that.

"Wait, where's Emma?" Peter looked around the room franticly, realizing that they suddenly only had three mermaids and not four.

"Em?" Ash called, walking into the kitchen. "Emma?"

Emma stuck her head out of the fridge, a piece of shrimp hung from the Conner of her mouth.

"Well, at least it's not water." Zane shrugged, entering the kitchen behind Ash.

"Hmm." Emma murmured, swallowing the piece of shrimp and then going back into the fridge again, pulling out a piece of raw fish and pretty much eating it whole right in from of the guys.

"Ew." Muttered Zane.

"Come on, Emma, let's go sit down in the living room where we can keep an eye on you, alright?" Ash put his arm around her and tried to nudge into the other room.

"Will there be sea food?" Emma asked, her distant wide eyes shinning brightly. She was still holding a plate of sea food that she refused to let go of.

"Of course." Ash lied.

Zane popped a leftover piece of shrimp that Emma had accidently dropped on the floor into his mouth when he thought Ash wasn't looking.

"Zane!"

"What?" He protested. "I had to skip dinner to get here on time."

"Whatever." Ash muttered, pulling Emma away from the bucket of ice water she was eyeing.

Back in the living room, Louise, William, and Lewis were struggling to pry Cleo away from one of the windows. She was trying to get the duck tape off the side crack so she could see the moonlight.

"Little help?" William asked looking over at Max, Peter, and Julia.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye on Rikki and Susan, you help them get Cleo away from that window." Julia told them.

"But the moon is so beautiful." Cleo protested as she struggled to get out of their grip. "I want to look at is some more."

"No you don't, Cleo." Lewis told her. "You have to stay away from it."

"But I want to look at it." Cleo insisted, finally breaking free of Louise's grip and almost getting her hands on the duck tape again.

"Peter, grab her hand, quick!" Lewis cried.

Peter grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from the shutters and duck tape.

Rikki got up. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Don't let her." Lewis told Julia, as he and Peter forced Cleo onto the couch while William and Louise made sure that the tape wasn't coming off because of Cleo's work on it.

"I can't not let her go to the bathroom." Julia reminded him. "It's the bathroom."

"But she might touch water." Lewis said pushing Cleo back down onto the couch as she struggled to get up again.

"Well, I'm not going in there with her." Julia said firmly. "There are some lines I will not cross."

Rikki was already headed for the bathroom while they were talking.

"I'll go with her." Zane offered, as he tried to pull a bit of raw squid away from Emma and ended up with bite marks on his fingers. "Ow!"

"You most certainly will not." Miss Chatham retorted.

"Well at the very least, there's no way out of that bathroom." Max said, thoughtfully. "Once she's in there, she can't get out without going passed us. And she can't get anymore moonstruck in there either. No windows."

"I say we lock her in." Lewis suggested. "That way, even if she does touch water, she can't hurt anyone."

"Alright." Max got up, walked to the bathroom and locked the door behind Rikki. He pressed his ear on the wood of the door in order to hear what was going on. He could hear the tub filling up, and the sound of a fish tail flopping.

"I'm not sure that was the best idea." Miss Chatham sighed when Max came to tell them all that Rikki was safely locked away in the bathroom.

"Why not?" Lewis asked.

"She touched water." Louise reminded him simply.

"So?" Zane asked, putting a band aid on the now bloody teeth marks Emma had left on his finger. "By the way..." He showed his finger to Ash. "Does this look infected to you?"

"Oh shut up." William barked at Zane.

"Why isn't Susan doing anything?" Peter noticed that she wasn't trying to see the moonlight, or get to the water, or eat unnatural amounts of fish. She was just sitting there, gaping into space.

"Maybe she didn't get it as bad as the others." Ash said.

"No, she's got it just as bad, if not worse." Max warned them. "Look at her eyes. Those are the eyes of a moonstruck mermaid if I ever saw one."

"Too bad professor Kirke's not here." Peter said wistfully.

"Who is this professor Kirke?" Max asked.

"Well he's a friend of mine and Susan's who knows a lot about mermaids." Peter explained. "He was a big help one time when Susan got a really bad case of the full moon and swam all the way back to England from America."

"I haven't heard that story." Max sounded fascinated. "Do tell."

"Yes, do." Lewis added.

"Can we stroll down memory lane later?" Zane barked, pulling off the band aid with a shudder because he'd put it on wrong, due to being a bit distracted by Emma who'd somehow gotten a hold of a baked lobster that Max had been saving. "We've got too much to handle without having story time right now."

"Wow is it just me or is it getting really warm in here?" Lewis asked nervously.

"Actually, I'm rather cold." William told him.

"But you're closer to the heater." Lewis pointed out,

"I know, but I'm telling you it's colder over here." William insisted.

Lewis walked over, "Brr! You were right!" He started shivering. "But it's burning hot over there."

William got up to check. "You were right too."

"Um, is Susan's left cheek naturally that purple?" Lewis asked, pointing to Susan's swollen nearly frozen cheek.

Peter rushed over and put his hand on the cheek. He quickly pulled it away. "She's like an ice bucket! What's happening?"

"Peter!" William's eyes widened. "Her other cheek's turning red!"

Peter put his hand on that cheek. "Ow! hot!" There was a slight burn bubbling up on his finger now.

Susan looked up at him nervously. "I'm sorry Peter, I didn't mean to."

"It's alright." Peter tried to comfort her.

"No it's not." Susan said, her voice cracking a little. "I hurt you." she looked down at the burn on his finger.

"You didn't mean it, it was an accident." Peter said kindly.

Susan started crying.

"Don't cry, Su." Peter said, taking a step closer to her. "Look, I'm fine." He put his hand on her shoulder (unfortunately on the side of her body that was burning up not the side of her body that was getting cooler).

"Ow!" He'd gotten a worse burn this time.

Susan started crying even harder now.

"I remember this." Julia gulped looking very frightened.

"So do I." Lewis gasped. "Something similar happened to Rikki, the first time the full moon hit her except she didn't have a cool side. She just made the whole room burn up."

"That's because she could only heat things up." Julia reminded him. "I had the same power to boil water. Susan has all three powers...two of them are going crazy now...I don't know about the third."

Susan got up and shifted away from Peter. "Don't touch me." She whimpered. She moved her hand in the direction of the kitchen. Even though the faucet wasn't turn on, a lot of water pressure suddenly built up and shoot out into the floor, trickling down the tiles towards the living room.

"I'm guessing that's the third power?" Zane said.

"Everyone's in danger here." Susan cried. "And it's all my fault."

"Susan, it's not your fault. You're just a little moonstruck" Peter assured her. "Calm down."

"Maybe you're right." Susan nodded.

"Of course I am." Peter told her. "Just calm down, it'll all be over soon."

William got a fan and pointed it at the warm side of Susan. "Maybe that'll help."

"It's not working. We've closed up all the vents and it's getting too hot in here." Susan bawled.

"Her cool side's getting hot now." Ash warned them, seeing the purple turn to blue then to pink and finally to a bright red.

Cleo got up from the couch and tried to lift the duck tape again.

Everyone was so concerned with Susan that they didn't notice until the shutters were tossed back and tons of shimmering white moonlight poured into the room.

Cleo let out a giggle. "I told you it was beautiful."

Peter, Lewis, Julia, Max, William, and Louise left Susan and rushed over to close the window and force Cleo away from it again.

"I want my tail." She told them, grabbing onto the window. "I want to see the moon, let me go!"

Peter grabbed onto her feet, William grabbed onto her legs, and Miss Chatham and Max struggled to get her fingers to uncurl from the dents in the shutter.

After they finally pulled her away again, Peter looked back at where Susan had been. She wasn't there anymore.

"Where's Susan?" Miss Chatham gasped. "Wasn't she there a moment ago?"

"She has to be in this house somewhere." Lewis tried to calm everyone down. "I'll look in the kitchen, Peter you check the hallway."

"Moonlight." Cleo sighed happily.

"Where?" William followed her eyes. They were focused on the open front door.

"This is bad." Lewis said.

"I have to go find her." Peter raced over to the door. "No one follow me, alright?"

"Peter, wait!" Miss Chatham called after him.

He stopped and turned around. "I have to do this."

"Peter, listen to me." Miss Chatham said in a firm, wise old voice. "When you find her, get her into the moon pool."

"But what about the special moon tonight?" Lewis protested. "It's possible that she could lose all her powers forever if she's in there."

"No it's not." Max assured him. "it's not that kind of special moon. It's just really strong."

"If it's strong, putting her in the moon pool could hurt her. I wont do it." Peter insisted.

"It might protect her this time." Miss Chatham said. "You have to get her there or she might over-heat, over-freeze or who knows what else."

"Fine." Peter said, turning to Lewis now. "I need to borrow your boat."

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Lewis asked him.

"Yes, I'm sure. You have to stay here with Cleo, Rikki, and Emma." Peter said, as Lewis tossed him the boat keys.

"But they've got the others to look after them, you can't go all by yourself. And Mako's a private island now..." Lewis explained.

"There's nothing I can do about that." Peter was unwilling to change his mind. He had to find Susan and he had to go alone. That was that. "It's like you said, it's a private island, more than one person might be noticed more easily."

"At least take Rikki's torch." Zane tossed the flashlight to Peter and he caught it with his free hand.

"Thanks." He ran out the door.

Cleo tried to follow him but the others held her back.

"Shut that door." Max ordered.

Lewis quickly slammed it shut.

Peter was in Lewis's boat zooming towards Mako Island as fast as the boat would go. And it still wasn't fast enough. What if Susan got caught at Mako by someone who worked for Mr. Bennett? What if she over heated or over cooled to the point of injury before he could reach her? How on earth had she gotten out of that house so quietly?

Finally the boat pulled into the sandy beach and Peter jumped off the boat and headed for the thick trees.

On the ground he saw what looked like the muddy tracks of a tail dragging itself along then that stopped and turned into foot prints. Her human half was really fighting her mermaid half this time.

"Susan?" He called into the woods. "It's me, Peter. You don't have to worry, everything's fine."

He came across what looked like three burned up trees two frozen trees and one bush that was so wet that it had been drowned to the point of never blooming again. At least now he knew he was going the right way.

Susan sat next on a tree stump with her face buried in her hands.

"Susan!" Peter cried running over to her.

She didn't look up. "Go away."

"Are you alright?" He tried to put his arm around her but she moved away from the stump and plopped on the ground. "I was so worried about you."

"Please just go away." Susan begged him.

"Susan, it's just the full moon." Peter said softly. "It's not you. Nothing bad is going to happen. We just have to get you to the moon pool, then we'll get you back home tomorrow. Everything's going to be fine."

"I don't want to hurt you." Susan said looking up at him pleadingly.

"I know you don't." He reached out for her again.

She moved further away. "Don't touch me."

"Alright, I wont." He gave in. "but you have to go right to the moon pool on your own, got it?"

Susan nodded and stood up. "I'll go by the water way."

"Good." Peter breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course he wasn't going to completely take her for her word while she was moonstruck. He was going to check the moon pool to make sure she actually went there.

Careful not to fall down as almost everyone who entered through the land way to the cave the moon pool was located in did, Peter climbed down.

The full moon wasn't completely over the pool yet. There was a series of ripples and then, much to Peter's great relief, Susan surfaced. She'd kept her word.

"Feeling any better?" He asked, squating down to be on eye level with her.

"A little." She told him. "I'm not burning or freezing anymore..." She glanced up at the moon. "It's so lovely. Why am I so scared of it?"

"That would be because it makes you do crazy things every time it gets full?" Peter said almost laughing as he spoke.

"Maybe it's meant to be this way." Susan said in a dreamy voice. "Maybe I'm supposed to be a mermaid all the time like this. I'm much happier when I'm in the water."

"Then we'll see that you stay in it then." A voice came from behind Peter.

He quickly stood up and spun around. Harrison Bennett was standing there.

"If you even try to hurt her..." Peter threatened.

"Hurt her?" Mr. Bennett's eyes widened with fake-shock. "Aren't you worried about what I'm going to do to you for trespassing on my land?"

The full moon came completely over the moon pool causing it to bubble and shine. Susan felt much stronger all of a sudden. She lifted the water and made a block of ice, flinging it at Mr. Bennett's head.

"Stay away from him." She ordered.

Mr. Bennett managed to duck and avoid getting hit in the head by the ice block.

"Susan." Peter told her. "Listen to me, swim home now. I'll meet you later."

"I am home." Susan insisted.

"I'm glad you plan to stay here." Harrison Bennett grinned at her. "I hope you like Bennett's white-gold sand resort getaway catchy name no?"

Susan let out a snort of disproval.

"Come on, it's expense sounding yet tasteful." He defended the name.

"It's stupid, yet stupid." Peter muttered.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes. "the name's a working progress."

"I was hoping to have four mermaids, when are the other three set to arrive?" Mr. Bennett asked, his eyes shinning bright with greed.

"They aren't coming." Peter told him.

"I'll settle for this one for now I guess." Mr. Bennett sighed.

"You can't force her to be your slave." Peter glared at him.

"I'm not focusing her." He laughed. "She's going to do it more than willingly."

"What makes you think that?" Peter asked him.

"I know from a reliable source that Mermaids are hard to control during the full moon but little Sydney here..."

"Her name's Susan." Peter corrected him, willing himself not to add, "You idiot."

"Whatever." He waved that off. "This mermaid has one weakness."

"And what's that?" Peter had a feeling he wasn't going to like the answer.

"I'm looking at him." Mr. Bennett said proudly. "

"What?"

"She doesn't want you to get hurt. Not even now." Harrison Bennett pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. "If this is how it has to be...I'll threaten your life, and she's give me her's."

"Over my dead body." Peter hissed.

"That was kind of the plan." Mr. Bennett laughed.

"Wait, don't hurt him." Susan pleaded from the moon pool.

"Stay out of this." Peter told her. "Get out of here. I'll see you later."

Suddenly, Susan looked so angry that Peter got shivers up his shine. He wondered how Mr. Bennett could stay having someone look at him like that.

Susan lifted her hand, controlling the water in the air, she caused a wind storm that blew the gun right out of Mr. Bennett's hand, smashing it to bits on a rock. Then she clenched her fist the way she did when she made water boil and lightning struck the ground two feet away from him.

"I said, don't hurt him." Susan said, her voice firm but still distant.

Mr. Bennett let out a whimper and rushed out of the cave. He wasn't done yet. No he still had his wicked plans. And Mako was still going to become a resort. And of course he still wanted to use the mermaids for his own gain. But he couldn't stick around now. It was too dangerous.

"Um Su.." Peter looked at her nervously. "How did you do that?"

Susan looked up at the moon again. "It's a special one this time."

AN: Please review? I really want to know how I did with this chapter.