Karen: Hi guys. Um, sorry that this chapter took so long to get out, College... I had a lot of work to do but I've finally found myself a break!

Sarah: Glad you found the time, at long last

Karen: Hey, don't blame me, blame my College course for using our classes as Guinea Pigs for this new course.

Sarah: Fine. Do I get my screen time now?

Karen: Okay okay! On with Chapter 6 it is then.

Chapter 6: The ones of Air and Fire

- At the IMH Base after the exposure -

"What the heck was 'that' all about?" Richard growled as he walked over to Lucas.

"What the heck was 'what' all about?" Lucas asked confused. This was the first time in a while that Richard had seemed rather mad at him.

"You know what I mean. Kissing Zac like that," he replied as he gritted his teeth.

"Come on now, something as perfect as him, who could resist," Lucas replied in turn. "Why would you be mad about it anyway? It's not like you ever cared for me."

That just about pushed Richard over the edge. He pushed Lucas firmly up against the wall and kept him there, staring deep into eyes.

"Rick?"

"I thought I told you not to call me that," he replied angrily. "I abandoned that name when I began this whole thing 1044 years ago. Don't forget, you abandoned yours too, Lucien."

Lucas growled back at him. "That aside, why do you care if I like Zac or not?"

Richard forced his own lips onto Lucas', which he was rather stunned about. After a minute, he released it, and let Lucas go.

"I may not have liked you much back when I first saved you, but it never meant I didn't care for you," he explained. "Seeing you kiss Zac like that, brought up some painful memories of the old times before this whole hunting business began. I also don't want you to get attached to him. I know what you're like when you love something, you don't want to let it go and our entire mission and years of works could go down the drain because of it."

Lucas couldn't believe it. Richard really did care for him. He'd been hinting on for years and Richard never took one second of his time to notice it, and he'd finally said in plain English that he cared for him. All the years of work seemed like it was worth it now. But deep down, there was still something about Zac he couldn't ignore, and if he couldn't surpass his emotions, they would be screwed.

"Hey, you gonna help me move these guys out so we can go see Lucy or are you just going to stand there in shock all day?" Richard called out as he smashed the tank the girls were being held in. The girls had had another shot of knock-out liquid. As Richard clicked his fingers, all of the water drained from the floor, and Isis and Tanya returned to a human form. Zac had already done so.

"I'll take Zac and Isis, you take Tanya," Richard ordered as he slung the two of them over his shoulders. Lucas picked up Tanya and slung her over his right shoulder as well, following Richard out of the base to get back to Lucy.

- The next day, at the HMC -

Everyone had stayed the night in the HMC, after deciding that they couldn't risk going back to the Gold Coast.

"Morning everyone," Sirena called happily as she joined everyone for breakfast, which was a massive feast of sea food.

"Morning Sirena," David replied as she sat next to him, followed by the usual morning kiss.

Both Evie and Lyla seemed rather unsettled. Both were worried about Zac, and Evie was still worried about why Lyla was showing so much care for him. She'd never shown much before, but once he'd been accepted into the pod on Mako Island, she seemed a little too happy about it.

"It'll be alright Evie. Felicity's sister Sarah will see us today and hopefully she can clear up what's going on," Rita said trying to comfort here a little.

"I hope so," she replied in a low tone.

After they'd finished their breakfast, they all heard a knock on the doors.

"Seiger!" The voice shouted. "Open these damn doors!"

Seiger clicked his fingers and watched as the huge double doors opened wide, Sarah standing in the doorway.

As we've said, Sarah is Felicity's older sister and is seen even less at the HMC than anyone else. She only usually goes out for very rare tough jobs and spends most of her time on spiritual expeditions, mainly up huge mountains where she finds it most peaceful. Sarah has red/ purple hair which she runs straight down to her lowest rib, is curly, and has a braid across the top of her head like a headband. One of her eyes is a hazel/ green shade whilst the other is pure white. She also has a scar with a curly wisp running down her right eye, the white eye. She was wearing something pretty similar to her sister, her mermaid top was white, and she wore a white skirt which was short at the front, but grew longer down the back and trailed on the floor. She was also wearing a white cape.

"Why were the doors locked?" She asked angrily.

"Sorry, recent events have forced up to keep them closed," Seiger briefly explained.

"So what has happened recently? Oh that's right, you guys got exposed!" She screamed. "How could you let yourselves be exposed like that? Do you have any idea how much trouble we're in?"

"We know how much trouble we're in but it wasn't our fault," Nixie defended as she rose up from her seat. "We hadn't even seen Zac since he went for a walk two days ago, and we never saw Isis and Tanya when we called for them to come over. So don't go shouting off saying it's our fault. We know how much trouble we're in and don't think we aren't totally distraught over all of this because we are!"

The two stared at each other for a minute before Sarah lightened up. "I'm sorry. It's just I never thought I'd live to see the prophecy almost come true again," she apologised.

"There is one thing you should all know. Felicity and Sarah are indeed sisters but they did not grow up here. They were born into a pod in America, more specifically, the air magic pod. As you can tell from her eye and scar, Sarah is indeed Aria," Seiger explained.

"Yes, and knowing that Elicia and Marina are in trouble pains me. Any idea how Lacrima's been?" Sarah asked.

Seiger looked down sadly. "I guess word never got around to you all those years ago. She died, her soul was ripped apart in a battle."

"I see," she replied, with a tear in her eye. "Lets try not to focus too much on the matter. What matters right now, is how we're going to beat the prophecy. You know it states that Eradia needs a vessel in order to be reincarnated, a lot like me, but she needs one of a natural born. It also states there is one merman who dies in trying to save Mako Island. I believe they plan to use either Elicia or Marina as a vessel and Zac as their destructive successful trigger. There are a few ways around the prophecy, but they are not nice. There are 10 different factors that can change it all."

She took a breath before explaining each one.

"Number 1, if Eradia cannot find a suitable vessel, she will die out. Sounds easy but I doubt it will be, they'll be keeping our friends under lock and key for the next four days. Number 2, if the merman doesn't die, there is a chance she can be defeated in combat. Number 3, if another merman other than the stated falls in his place, there is a chance it might ruin the operation. Number 4, if Eradia's shell is destroyed by the four original elemental mermaids, she will die. This can't happen know that I know that Lacrima has been dead for god knows how many years. Number 5, this one is rather weird, if the prophecy deems the merman not worthy of death, or sees it as too much of a threat, it will either try to make him die faster, or save him from dying. Number 6, if Eradia somehow doesn't make it into her chosen set vessel but gets into another one, her powers won't be stable, giving us a chance to kill her if it happens. Number 7, if the IMH turn against Eradia, she can die at their hands. Number 8, if Mako Island falls before Eradia is reborn or before she gets her chance to kill us, the prophecy will just stop, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Number 9, the ancient and forbidden Hyperos chant of death can weaken her, but it is unknown if anyone can read it. And number 10, whilst the blood of merpeople can make her immortal, blood of a human can weaken her too."

"So how did she get sealed up in that shell before? You said you've lived through one prophecy so what happened?" Sirena asked curiously.

"Ah well, numbers 2, 3, 5 and 10 happened. Lucien didn't die like he was supposed to and Hanyo took his death instead. Rick saved him and the prophecy altered itself to actually help him. Eradia was also tricked into drinking human blood just before her sealing," Sarah explained.

"Am I right in thinking that this prophecy is like a 50/50 thing?" Nixie wondered. "Because Eradia can die in so many ways and there are some options there that basically alter it from it's original plan. Is Eradia's prophecy like a hit and miss? If it succeeds, it gets what it wants. But if it fails and changes, does it do it for the better?"

"Yes it does. Eradia's prophecy wasn't originally meant for destruction which is how it was changed in the first place. The original prophecy was of Eradia's sealing and death, until two young men accidentally woke her up, just when she was near her death again. Those two boys were never supposed to find it, but in doing so, the prophecy was changed as Eradia went mad with rage and tried to destroy Mako Island. The prophecy itself had one original true form, but over time, it's shifted in favour between us and Eradia herself. The original true spoke of her downfall at the hands of the higher council, which it did back then, and her sealing inside a shell, where she would rot for 1500 years until she died, due to drinking blood of a merman. Afterwards, peace and prosperity would flourish throughout the sea, and once those 1500 years were up, mermaids and mermen would know no harm ever again. It's also said that the Archelist Shell can bring the dead back to life, which is why I want her dead so bad."

"Any idea on what we should do then Sarah?" Sirena asked. "You know the most about this prophecy out of all of us, and you've seen it change. Please, what can we do to save Zac and the entire of Mako Island?"

"The first thing we need to do, is find out where the IMH have taken our friends. They'll be keeping them under lock and key so it won't be easy and we now only have 3 days in which to find them. If we don't do it before then, our chances of defeating her are slim. We essentially need to save Zac before he gets killed and make sure he doesn't. And before anyone asks about option 3, I won't let another merman die because of me and slip-ups. I lost Ben to my mistakes in the past, and I won't let Zac or David go the same way," Sarah explained, a few tears forming in her eyes when she spoke of Ben.

"Was this Ben your lover?" Rita asked in a comforting voice.

"He was my human lover, back when I was in a different body. So, I turned him into a merman so he could live with me longer. We went out on a mission together and I screwed up, costing him his life. I don't want to go into details about it. But with that Archelist Shell, he could live again," Sarah replied, everyone now realising why she wanted Eradia dead so badly. "Even so, the plan is to save Zac, not let him die, and to make her drink human blood to weaken her. I'm going on what happened in the past, but we don't know if numbers 5, 6, 7 or 9 could happen as well. Either way, they should all roughly go in our favour, except number 5, that's risky."

"Where do we start looking for them?" Lyla asked with determination.

"We should check out the base where they were previously held, I know where the one on the Gold Coast is and how to get in," Sarah replied. She summoned a white portal next to her. "It leads out straight onto the beach where the cave is. Don't worry, it's pretty darn secluded."

"Before we leave though, I've got a gift for the two of you, Felicity and Sarah," Seiger spoke up.

"What is it?" Felicity asked in suspense.

"You know how mermen have shape shifting abilities? David here knows how to transfer it to other mermaids," he explained.

"Seriously? You know how to use ancient forbidden transfer magic?" Sarah asked surprised.

"Only a little, Zac knows it better than I do," David replied as he walked over to the sisters. He held his palms flat, touching the girls hands. Slowly but steadily his body entered Overdrive, and he chanted the words, "Eldura Heischia Lantura." The same silver glow engulfed their hands and eventually sunk into them, David's Overdrive wearing off once he was done.

"For only having been a merman for just a little under a month David, you certainly have a strong control over your powers," Felicity complimented.

Now that that was over, one by one, everyone left through the portal and stepped out onto the beach on the other side. Seiger decided to stay at the HMC and warn all the other members of their situation. The council below them now knew about it, and an issue was sent out. No mermaid was allowed to stay in the Ocean if they had legs. Everyone else was to remain in their respective homes, under their Silver Seals.

Sarah started off by looking around the rocks, trying to find the black gem that opened up the entrance. She 'aha'd when she found it, touching it and watching as the rock face opened up, showing a set of steps.

"Is this what he first found?" Evie asked herself.

"Must have been, this gem can only be seen by merpeople, to anyone else it just looks like an ordinary rock," Sarah briefly explained.

Evie summoned a ball of fire in her hand, using it to light the way down the steps. As everyone began walking down the steps, Evie went in the middle so that the light spread out evenly.

"How the heck is she able to use fire magic?" Sarah whispered to Felicity in wonder. "I thought you said that Lacrima was dead."

"She is but, we don't know ourselves how this is possible. Evie had a human father but a mermaid mother, and her mother died after giving birth to her," Felicity replied in the same whisper.

"I see."

As they reached the bottom, Evie no longer needed to use her ball of fire as the light switch had been left on. As they looked around, they saw the completely smashed tank without any water around, as well as the chains that they were previously held in.

"This is definitely where they were before," Nixie stated. "But why did they feel the need to expose us?"

"I've got a pretty good idea why," Rita spoke up. "Think about it, with us exposed, neither Land or Sea is safe for us any more. Now that people know that mermaids are out there, wouldn't you want to find one yourself? Our mission to find them has only been made harder by this fact."

"Yeah, that does make sense," Nixie replied, letting out a small huff at the end. "Great."

"What do we do now?" Sirena asked turning to Sarah, everyone else looking at her.

She thought hard on what to do for a minute, remembering something her mother taught her. "Air magic has the ability to pick up traces of foot prints, almost like dusting."

Sarah summoned a small ball of air into the palm of her hand. Kneeling down, she blew on it towards the floor, a strange white dust covering the entire area. It was made pretty clear where people had been standing, but there were a set of foot prints that intrigued her the most. They lead over to a smaller area of the room, rather hidden, with a strange device, taller than anyone in the room.

"What the heck is that?" Lyla asked herself. It almost looked like an elevator, but it had a keyboard attached to the side of it. Sarah blew some more white dust over it, discovering about 7 finger prints on 7 of they keys. As she looked at them, it was pretty clear what it spelt out.

"Lacrima?" She said to herself. "Why would they type in that word?" Sarah typed it in for herself and hit enter, watching as the doors of the elevator opened up, suddenly learning that it wasn't an elevator. Looking down it, they could see a pool of water below, it almost looked like a passage way.

"Now what would the IMH be doing with a secret passage filled with water?" Rita asked.

"Beats me," Sarah replied sighing. "But there's only one way to find out." She jumped down the hole and landed in the water below. Her tail was a brilliant pure white shade, flecks of silver appearing throughout. "You guys coming?"

One by one, they all jumped into the water, following Sarah down through the passage. It wasn't long before the very straight tunnel stopped and opened out, with nothing but water all around them. Shooting up to the surface, no-one was prepared for the sight in front of them. "Oh wow."

They almost felt like they were in the ocean, looking out onto a shore of sand. Upon the shore though, stood a humongous red and black castle. Right at the top of it was a massive spiral that looked liked it was covered in chains, barring the windows and the door that they could just make out.

Seconds later though, the chains suddenly disappeared much to everyone's shock, the door opening and closing a few seconds later, as well as the chains reappearing.

Nixie looked like she was about to move forward, so Sarah stopped her, shaking her head.

"Have you seen the shore line?"

Looking closely at it, Nixie saw a countless number of men stood by the shore, sharp weapons in hand. "So what do we do then smarty?"

"I don't know okay." Sarah took a look around the area for herself. Besides the castle on the shore, they were completed surrounded by water, and it didn't seem to end. "I think we should head back to the HMC for now."

She tried to create a white portal but to no avail. Even Felicity couldn't do it.

"Strange, we can't create portals to get back," Felicity stated.

Sirena dove under the water and looked for the tunnel that they'd just come out of, but she couldn't see anything. Coming back up she said, "that tunnel we came through, not there any more.

"I'm sorry, what do mean not there any more?" Lyla asked slightly worried.

"I looked for it but it just wasn't there," she replied.

"Okay, so it really is a case of 'now what,'" David spoke up. "We're now stuck here."

Moments later, everyone heard a strange noise in the water and dove back under to find out what it was.

They saw that another tunnel had randomly appeared. Out of pure defence, everyone turned invisible. But what came out of it, they weren't prepared for.

A merman had swum out of the tunnel, clutching a mermaid to his body. Not just any mermaid, it was Aquata. She looked weak and injured with several gashes on her tail. Sirena was trying her best not to scream or cry, so David linked their invisibility, giving her some comfort. The strangest part of all, was that the merman's tail wasn't the regular blue shade, it was purple.

They all followed them to the shore line and watched as the merman stopped part way and clicked his fingers, returning him to a human form. Once he was out of the water, he clicked his fingers again, drying off Aquata.

"So, it seems your mission was successful," one of the men on guard said.

"It was really easy actually. For a mermaid of the Higher Council, she didn't put up much of a fight," the man holding Aquata replied.

"Now now Tetrus, you know they're totally useless against Hyperos magic. Without it, I think you'd of had some trouble," another man snickered.

"Me, having trouble? If we all didn't have it, you'd still be as hopeless are you are with it," Tetrus remarked. "Also, I suggest you spend your time focusing on guarding the castle and not pissing me off!" With that said, Tetrus kicked open the castle doors and headed inside, the doors automatically closing behind him.

Heading back under the waves, they released their invisibility to have a talk.

"How on earth did they get their hands on Aquata?" Lyla asked. "I thought she was safe at the HMC?"

"Lyla, she was sent on a mission the day before this all happened in South America. She had supposedly completed it as well, so she must have been heading back when she was caught," Nixie explained giving her thoughts on the situation. "Also, those tunnels that keep on appearing probably lead to different IMH bases all over the world. If we went through one of them, the chances of us ending up in an Australian one is slim!"

"So what do we do huh?" Lyla asked in response. "Just sit here and wait until we find the right time to get inside that castle?"

Nixie was about to retort until David noticed something odd. "Hey, where did Sarah go?"

Felicity looked around for a second, she too noticing that she was gone.

To answer their question, they could make out her voice in the air.

She'd shot up to take action, floating on her air magic, now back to a human form. She was wearing the same pure white mermaid top as she had on earlier and a really long but slim white skirt. She was bare footed but had very long white sleeves that fanned out and were very poofy at the bottom.

"Now listen up here you IMH creeps!" She screamed, catching the attention of her friends and of course, the IMH men standing on the shore. "I don't know exactly what this place is, but I just saw a good friend of mine injured and getting taken into that castle. And right now, you're in for a world of pain!" Her eyes were filled with anger and rage, as she let out a deafening roar of air magic, causing most of the men to get caught in the tornado that she'd summoned to sweep around the beach. A few of them in the heat of the moment had managed to summon the same sort of purple barriers as Lucas and Richard could to protect themselves.

Sarah then used a little bit of her Air magic to bring Felicity into the air, as well as everyone else, who immediately returned to human form. "Felicity, you know what to do."

Felicity looked at the sweeping tornado, catching on to what her sister wanted her to do. She raised her hand into the air, rumbling noises and dark clouds focusing over the tornado. As she pushed her arm down, lightning strikes hit the tornado and turned in into an electric storm, badly injuring most of the men caught inside of it.

As it disappeared, the four remaining men turned their attention to the gang.

"Well well, what do we have here?" One of the asked, studying the eight floating in the air. "If it isn't Aria of Air and her little sister. Come to pay your fare wells to your friends?"

Sarah gritted her teeth and returned the stare at the four men.

Evie and Nixie couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right. There was a way too familiar a feeling with two of the men, like they knew them.

"How about some introductions? My name is Raidus, and my friends here are Kaeylum, Illiandrus and Betro," Raidus introduced. All of them were wearing masks as well, so you couldn't see their faces. There was also an incredibly thick tension in the air, as nothing happened. "No introduction in return?"

"Why do I need to give one?" Sarah spitted. "You already know me and my sis. It's not like there's anyone else super important here?"

Everyone else turned and stared at Sarah in almost disgust. "Well you aren't a very old mermaid or her sis are you now?" Sarah gave in and pointed to everyone, naming them one by one. "Fine! We've got, David, Sirena, Rita, Lyla, Nixie and Evie. Happy now, Raidus?"

"Very," he replied with a short bow. "Might I ask you how you even ended up here?"

Sarah didn't respond by words and just shot a burst of Air magic at him, Raidus summoning a barrier to dispel it. "Now that wasn't very cooperative was it? I'm only trying to save some blood shed here." He looked at Kaeylum and nodded his head. "So if won't cooperate, we'll just have to kill you."

- Back to when the chains on the tower were removed -

At this point in time, it was Lucas and Richard who opened the door along with Zac, Isis and Tanya in their arms.

They stepped inside the open circular room, the door closing behind them and the chains on the tower reappearing.

Inside the room, was a lone chair and a table. Upon the table was a spiral shell alongside various vials of liquid that were a strange purple colour, and sitting in the chair, was a long haired blonde female woman.

"Good afternoon Lady Lucy," Richard said bowing to her, dropping Zac and Isis to the floor. Lucas followed in pursuit, dropping Tanya as well.

"Afternoon boys. I see you've brought me the bodies I was searching for," Lucy replied standing up from her chair, walking over to look at Zac. She picked him up and forced his eye lids open, noticing how black his pupils were. "How much Jellyfish Anthranox did you give him? He looks good to be asleep for another day at least."

"Sorry about that, might have gotten carried away with it a little," Lucas apologised.

"It doesn't matter too much, but what does matter now, is cooperation with them once they wake up. I suppose a little Toxicated Harshen won't hurt them to speed up the process," Lucy said to herself idly. Harshen is basically a toxin used to remove any of the Anthranox liquids and powders. For example, Jellyfish Anthranox, which is known as knock-out liquid, and Mirror Anthranox, the watching powder. "Lucien, can you make me some Toxicated Krassa as well, it'll help keep him a little doped up when he's awake. You still have some Ilax Herbs for Morocco right?"

"Yep, always keep 'em spare," Lucas replied taking one of the herbs out of his pocket. He walked over to the table and unscrewed a vial of the Harshen, dropping the Ilax herb into it, watching as the liquid turned from purple to bright blue.

Lucy grabbed a separate vial of Harshen and jabbed it into Zac's neck, releasing the liquid into him. Just a split second later, Lucas injected the vial of Ilax herb Harshen into his body.

A few minutes later, Zac eventually stirred, even though he felt dopy, drugged up and tired. "Where the heck am I?" He asked himself as he tried to stand up off of the floor.

He was greeted by Lucy as he did so, Zac trying to register who she was.

"Who are you?" He asked, his words a little slurred.

"Don't worry Zac, my name is Lucy Karleum, but you can just call me by something a little more familiar, Lacrima."

Karen: Okay going to have to stop you here myself

Sarah: Aww, why did you stop? I was so ready to see myself fighting it out with those IMH guys.

Karen: I'm saving that battle for the next chapter when things will get a little complicated. I'll put it this way, next chapter will make you forget everything you knew about this chapter and some of the previous ones. The story is about to take a massive flip and many harsh truths will be revealed, and the 'true' part of this story will be revealed.

It could be a little while, but I'll try my best to get it posted quickly for you ;)

Love Karen xxx