Karen: Hello again, I've returned from the land of the dead to bring you Chapter 7!

Lacrima: Why would you say from the land of the dead?

Karen: Oh... I uh- might have stayed up one whole night to finish this game called Lightning Returns... it drove me mad running around with time limits! Without pausing time, it can be done is a possible time window of 36-50 hours... takes me over a hundred each time due to being a perfectionist

Lacrima: As nice as it is for you to fritter your time away like that, shouldn't you be focusing on this story?

Karen: Oops, I'll just get on with it then

Chapter 7: Eradia's Revival

"Lacrima?" Zac asked weakly, as he suddenly fell back onto his knees, unable to stand up much longer. The name at that moment sounded so familiar. He managed to open his eyes enough to get a decent look at the woman in front of him.

She had incredibly long blonde hair, tied back into a pony tail nonetheless. Whilst one of her eyes was an ocean blue shade, the other was a fiery red shade, and had a flame shaped scar over it. She was wearing a long sleek red velvet dress with a slit down the left side, starting at just below her hip and also wasn't wearing anything on her feet.

Zac was racking his brain to desperately try and remember why he could remember that name so much. Sadly, the Toxicated Krassa was dumbing him down, repressing his memories a little as well.

"Say, how exactly strong are those Ilax herbs you picked up?" Lacrima asked, turning to Lucas. "Did you get them recently or what?"

"I got them about two months back, they should be still fairly strong, I kept those ones is storage and only took 'em out a week ago," Lucas explained.

"Hang on a sec," Richard intervened. "Didn't you put that set in storage and then get out some of the older ones?"

The three of them argued on over the issue for another good 5 minutes, which was just long enough for Lucas' not-so-fresh Toxicated Krassa to wear off.

"Lacrima, as in Lucy Karleum, Evie's mother!?" Zac suddenly shouted as he rose back up onto his feet, his eyes full of anger. He looked her directly in the eyes. "Why aren't you dead?"

Lucy blinked at him a few times. "Me, a mother?" She suddenly began to laugh, which only made Zac even more angry. "I think you'll find that I haven't had any children in the last few hundred years that I've been alive, switching from body to body."

"What about Bill huh? Your husband?" Zac asked, his anger replaced by confusion.

"Bill? I don't know a Bill," Lucy replied. "I don't even recall ever being married," she thought out loud.

Zac suddenly lashed out at her, firing an ice dagger towards her. Lucy just held out her palm, fire erupting from it, melting the ice.

"That isn't going to work here," she said as she waved her finger at him. "You'll need more than just magic to take me out."

He decided that if magic wasn't going to cut it, hopefully brute force would. He lunged towards her, fist ready to hit her face. In a very sudden movement though, Lucy grabbed his hand and pushed him down the floor, resting her foot firmly upon his body, Zac unable to get up. For a woman, she was certainly stronger than him.

Zac managed to move his hand in order to create a small ice dagger which he fired into her ankle, Lucy letting out a little cry as a small bit of blood seeped out from the fresh wound.

As Zac stood up again, he was ready to give it another shot. As he ran forward, he was greeted by a barrier that Lucas and Richard had summoned around him, the same ones they used to protect themselves.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath as he readied himself.

"Right, I'm open for question time now," Lucy announced. "I presume you want to know how I'm still alive?"

She didn't get a response from it, but it was more than clear by his face that he wanted to know.

"All those years ago when I supposedly had my soul torn apart by the other Egyptian Pod, it's half right. Yeah they ripped it apart alright, but not before taking a small bit for themselves. As small as it was though, it was enough to bring me back into a newborn body. The only downside was that I didn't have any of my previous memories, and my old bodies. It was as if I was a true newborn child. Years and years went by and I still had no memory of my past, but my soul eventually repaired itself, and became whole once more."

"Okay, so then why are you here with the IMH? You're a mermaid all the same right?" Zac questioned.

"That's easy," she responded. "I'm working with them."

Zac couldn't quite a believe it. A mermaid was working with an organization who's goal is to kill mermaids? It didn't make any sense.

"Why?"

Lucy briefly glanced over to Lucien and Rick who nodded their heads.

"Let me put it this way Zac. They needed my help in order to complete the Eradia Archelist prophecy. Not so much as the chosen vessel, but more or so as the organiser, a mermaid who could get on the inside and find out who was most suitable as the vessel, and claim her as the chosen one," Lucy explained. "And before you even ask it again, I don't know any one called Evie or Bill. I would just drop the thought."

Zac scowled. How could she not remember. She gave birth to David and then had Bill's child Evie, that's not something one should just forget like that, or having a husband, someone who she would have loved deeply with all of her heart. Nothing really made sense, even after some explanations.

A few moments later, the door to the tower was busted open, and Tetrus walked in with Aquata slung over his shoulder. Tetrus was a rather tall and handsome man, and he had a gorgeous tan. He had short matt-black hair, that was super fluffy, and he had a small bit of stubble for a beard. His eyes were a bright green shade and he was wearing nothing but a pair of white baggy trousers. Well, he had a sword attached to the side of them but you know.

He briefly bowed down to Lucy. "Greetings Lady Lucy, I managed to get your vessel much earlier than expected, hope you don't mind."

"No no Tetrus, it's fine," Lucy assured him. "Thank you so much for finding her, hope she wasn't too much trouble."

"Please, she was almost too easy to take down!" Tetrus laughed as he placed her down on the floor, Zac managing to catch a glimpse of her face.

"Aquata?" He said to himself breathlessly. Sirena's sister was going to be Eradia's vessel?

"It's exactly what you think it is," Lucy spoke up. "She is Eradia's vessel, the eventually chosen one."

Zac gritted his teeth. Just how many more people was she going to bring into this. First she couldn't remember having a husband or two children, and now she was using on his friends sisters as the vessel? Zac has just about had it today.

Tetrus finally looked to the side to see Zac still stuck in the barrier. "Who's this guy? A merman?"

"Pretty much. He's not a pure natural born but he's the best I've got right now," Lucy replied. "Zac, meet Tetrus, my second in command and by far the strongest man in the IMH."

"Pleasure," he joked as he bowed to Zac, who just looked away from him. "He's not very friendly is he?"

"Would you be inclined to be friendly if you found out your girlfriend's mother doesn't know who she is and that she's trying to destroy Mako Island?" Zac asked, trying not to let his anger take over.

Tetrus knew exactly who Zac was talking about, but decided not to say anything on it. "From your perspective, I can see why you're not happy."

"Tetrus," Lucy chipped. "Don't fall for the sweet talk, you're done with your mission and for now you can leave."

He looked over to Zac one last time before he walked back out of the tower door.

- Back on the beach -

Everyone had split up to take down the four IMH men more easily. Sarah took on Raidus alone whilst Felicity took Kaeylum. That left Nixie, Lyla and Rita to take on Illiandrus whilst Sirena, David and Evie took on Betro.

They'd had some difficulties in their choosing. Sarah was of course a woman of the Air, and Raidus just had to specialise in Air magic too. Between them, they'd created a protective wind barrier to fight in so that they didn't destroy anything else. After all, you put one and one together in tornado's and you just end up making one three times as powerful. Raidus also had his Hyperos magic on his side, a forbidden lost magic, something that no-one had a counter for.

Raidus would have just trapped her in a barrier and had done with her, but when he tried to do that, Sarah just used her magic to blast a hole through the sand and escaped.

With Felicity, Kaeylum was trying his best to freeze her with Ice magic, but Felicity was just too fast for him. She was hit several times by the ice which slowed her down, but she regained speed fast enough. The only thing she could do was try and use her Hydro-cryokinesis to melt his oncoming attacks, and try and get close enough to hit him physically up front.

Illiandrus and Betro on the other hand had no speciality in any element. Between the eight that were fighting, it was going nowhere. Everyone was fending off everyone's attacks and not a single blow had been landed yet. It didn't help that no-one fighting could touch them since they kept on summoning Hpyeros barriers to guard off their attacks.

Rita, Lyla, Sirena and David all use their magic to send a wall of water flying over Illiandrus and Betro's heads. They both naturally defend themselves at the last second using a Hyperos barrier. Once it disappears, they discovered it takes a little bit of time to come back. The second they did disappear, Evie and Nixie ran head on at the two, and managed to almost get a punch on both of them. The men grabbed their hands though and eventually managed to toss them back.

Nixie and Evie had also managed to get an even better look at their faces, and by now, they were dead certain on who these men where.

"Ivan?" Nixie asked looking at Illiandrus.

"Dad?" Evie asked looking at Betro.

Both men stood still, completely silenced.

Both the other fights had stopped as well, everyone in shock for different reasons.

Illiandrus and Betro both drew weapons from their sheaths and imbued them with some Hyperos magic, and sent them flying right at Raidus and Kaeylum. Unlike other magic, Hyperos cannot cancel itself out and nothing else can take it out, making it a formidable forbidden magic. Both weapons hit Raidus and Kaeylum right in the heart, a strong shattering sound filling the air. Within moments, their skin began to turn grey as did their hair. 1000 years of ageing suddenly rained down upon them, their bodies turning into ashes, leaving only the skeletons and the weapons that hit them.

There was now a thick tension in the air, and no-one dared to speak first.

"Someone care to tell me what's going on here?" Evie asked in a very authoritative voice. "Just who exactly are you?" She looked deep into the eyes of both Betro and Illiandrus.

Neither answered for a minute before Illiandrus finally spoke up.

"We were afraid of this happening," he stated.

"That's not what she was asking," Nixie scowled. "Answer us, who are you?"

They didn't want to admit that they'd been found out, but in this situation they had no choice.

"We may be known as Illiandrus and Betro, but our real names are Ivan Donovan and Bill Karleum," Betro said, trying not to look at Evie.

Both Nixie and Evie stood there in pure shock. They were who they though they were. Ivan Donovan, father of Cameron Donovan and Bill Karleum, father of Evie Karleum.

"Listen we can explain what's going on here-" Ivan began to say before Nixie interrupted him.

"Yeah you'd better damn well explain what's going on here! Ivan why on earth are you working for the IMH?! Same goes for you Bill!"

Neither could respond right at that moment.

"Let us begin by say that we are eternally sorry for this. We are indeed the fathers of Cam and Evie, and we are members of the IMH, we've been like that since 1044 years ago when the first Eradia Archelist prophecy ended," Ivan started to explained.

"Back all those many years ago, we were part of an experiment known as Hyperos, which is the magic we use. 100 test subjects had a crystal implanted into their hearts, this crystal being part of a massive one called Hypera, found in the darkest part of the Ocean near the North Pacific Ocean. The crystal itself had amazing potential, so much so that all 100 test subjects survived the transplant into their hearts. It was discovered, that the crystals had anti-ageing properties as none of us could age past the sort of thirties of our lives. Over time, the crystals let us use its magic, known as Hyperos. Not only could it dispel all other kinds of known magic, but it couldn't even be cancelled out by itself. It was basically magic with invincibility," Bill explained.

"Years upon years went by, and the IMH was formed out of the 100 who had Hyperos Hearts. Essentially, we vowed to destroy the mermaid race who'd pushed us away for our strange magic, not welcomed us at all and outcast us from the Ocean. We spent most of our time on land, many of us changing our names as a disguise, yet keeping them close to our original names, though some did not. Raidus always went by Flynn and Kaeylum by Tom. Even so, we grew jealous of our outcast, and many of us sought revenge on them. We banded together and formed the IMH," Ivan carried on.

"After living for another 1000 years though, some of us grew board of hunting down mermaids, but two people within the IMH completely took control of everything," Bill began. "About 18 year before today, I met Lucy."

- Flash back -

War had begun yet again between the two Russian pods and Lucy had fled from Egypt entirely. After what had seemed like days of swimming to her, she finally ended up where she was told to flee to. The Gold Coast.

She looked upon the shore, seeing that no-one was around, and dragged herself onto the beach. As she was doing so though, she felt a sharp claw go into her body. She traced it all the way up to a terrifying sight. The claw was attached to a spear that had been thrown at her by a man who was hiding behind the rocks, Bill. Not only that, but she could clearly see the IMH tattoo across the centre of his chest.

Fear completely took over but she was unable to move.

Fate was on her side though, as something within Bill began to waver. Mermaids were his sworn enemy, but he was falling head over heels immediately for this one. He ran over to her and pulled the claw out of her body, using some Hyperos to heal over the wound as best he could.

He then picked Lucy up and dried her off with one click of his fingers.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," he tried to assure then.

"Then why did you stab me? You're from the IMH right, I thought you hunted mermaids like us?" Lucy stumbled out in fear.

"It was a natural reaction and I'm sorry," Bill apologised. "I uh, took it out and healed you once I fully saw your face, I must say you are beautiful." It was only then that he'd gotten a better look at her and noticed her red eye. "Lacrima?"

Lucy looked shocked for a moment. "How did you know who I am?"

"I remembered when I once met an old incarnation of yours, one who was oblivious about us for her young age back then," Bill explained. "And from the looks of it, you've ran away from your home haven't you?"

Lucy looked away for a moment. "I didn't run away, I had to leave. The two pods began fighting again, and they told me to come to the Gold Coast and seek refuge."

Bill thought on it for a moment before placing her down on the sand.

"Why not come stay with me for a while?" He asked.

Lucy looked rather not amused by the idea.

"Don't worry. No IMH stuff from now on, besides, there's only one other man in the IMH here and I swear I'll protect you with my life to make sure he doesn't hurt you."

Lucy didn't quite know what to say. Someone was offering her refuge, someone who should have been trying to kill her. Maybe the world wasn't such a bad place after all.

"Alright, I'll take you up on than offer, um-" Lucy replied, realising she didn't know his name.

"Bill. My name is Bill," he stated.

"What about your real name?" Lucy asked.

Bill looked at her confused for a minute, before realising what she meant. "It's no offence, but as of today, I'm leaving that name behind."

- End of flash back -

"Wait so if you stopped all your IMH activities, then what are you doing here?" Rita asked

- Meanwhile, back up in the tower -

Aquata and Zac were now chained up on the wall, side by side, held by magic chain locks, the ones that can't be broken except by human hands, and no mere human could reach Arcosta. (Arcosta is the name given to the castle and the protected island that it's situated on.) Elicia and Marina were still out from the Jellyfish Anthranox, shoved to one side of the room in a pile.

"Well boys, if we are all ready, there's no reason why we can't put time forward a little," Lucy smirked.

The two immediately caught on to what she meant. "Use the Time Keeper's spell to zip forward 2 and a half days with about one minute until Eradia is set to awake."

The Time Keeper's spell, out of all of the forbidden magic, is the most dangerous and comes out number one on the not-to-be-use list. It can move time forward by a set amount for those of the right authority, power and control. It was actually a little hard to call it a spell because it was not their magic they were using, but a god's. Mermaid's believed they had a god, and soon came to learn that there were other gods too, one of the most important being Testralla, Goddess of Time itself. She had the power to shift time when called upon, but unless the people calling her had enough energy to withstand the force of it, and also break off the flow of time, then disaster would occur. There aren't many cases of usage of the spell due to it's danger. The world once lost a fair few days due to these three and their testing.

Lucy, Lucas and Richard stood together in a triangular shape in the middle of the room, connecting hands, and raising them up. It was a good five minutes before the three of them felt the connection needed for the spell to work, and once complete, they spoke together at once.

"Oh great Testralla of the stars and heavens, grant us thine divine power. Shift the clocks, abandon all that once was in order to move forward. As but loyal servants, let your unrestrained rage flow, and allow us to stop it for the greater good."

Beneath their feet, a clock had appeared on the floor, and slowly but steadily, the clock hands began moving forward, the world around them becoming a strange blur, distortion every where.

"Damn it, I don't know if I can hold on!" Lucas screamed as his body began to feel weak.

"You've gotta hang in there, another minute and then we break the seal to stop this massive flow!" Lucy screamed back at him.

Sure enough, another minute later, they had roughly the time they were looking for. The three of them pulled apart from each other, the clock on the floor disappearing and the world around them returning to its normal looking self.

Lucas glanced down at his watch. "Awe man!"

"How close did we get?" Richard asked in anticipation.

"We went 10 minutes out," Lucas sighed. "10 minutes before Eradia can enter her vessel."

Lucy herself sighed on it for a moment. "It's not too big of a deal, we just wait patiently."

- Before the time shift, back on the shore -

"Wait, you were forced back into this because of a drug!?" Evie checked in shock.

Both men nodded their heads.

"Yes, Lucien and Rick are more troubling than they look. On the day you were born, they broke in and drugged Lucy up, giving her a false memory. No children, no husband, just the will to want to complete the Eradia Archelist prophecy. With the right Anthranox drugs, it was inevitable. However, they did not drug up any other members. For now, me and Ivan have just been going along with their plan, acting on their orders so that we might be able to find a way to stop them. And now that you're all here, we might be able to do it in time. Lacrima is up in that tower, along with Elicia and Marina, and Aria is here with us. Do any of you know what a Memory Meta-code is?" Bill asked.

"That sounds... familiar," Evie said to herself.

"The exposure," Rita said slowly as she began to remember where she'd heard it. "Memory Meta-code 237,429, release."

"Good, so you do know what it is," Ivan cheered.

"Not entirely. We've heard it but we don't know what it does," Sirena replied sheepishly.

"Oh. It's simple really. I'm sure you've all heard of a strange thing called Memory Changing Powder, or it's real name, Eraser Anthranox. Each memory that is taken away is stored within something known as a Memory Meta-code. If someone says those words along with the corresponding number and release, then the false memory is taken away and the real memory returns, like the Anthranox was never used in the first place," Ivan explained. "This is why we came back to the IMH, we've spent ages looking for the right code, and now, we've finally found it, code 32,879. And yes, the numbers are ascending as to how many times it's been used before, pretty big numbers."

When Ivan finished his explanation, everyone felt the world around them become a swirling blur, distortion filling the air, everyone feeling rather sick.

"What the heck is this!?" Lyla screamed as she tried to focus on not being sick.

"We're in trouble, it's Testralla's time spell, it's used to shift time forward!" Bill screamed back. He knew that up in the tower, Lacrima, Lucien and Rick must be using it for Eradia to get as close to the right time they need as possible.

"To help them get closer to the prophecy time," Aria said under her breath. No-one else could hear her above all the noise around them.

Within a minute or so, the distortion faded, leaving everyone with banging headaches.

"We need to get up to that tower, now! No time to explain!" Ivan announced as he and Bill ran up to the castle doors, kicking them open and running inside, everyone else in tow behind them.

"I don't know how long we've got, we might be too late," Bill said in staggered breaths.

"What do you mean?" Evie breathed back.

"They've already got they body that they need, all they need now is time," he replied.

Sirena thought on that for a second. "You don't mean, they're going to use Aquata, my sister?!"

"I'm so sorry Sirena, but it seems they are," Ivan replied in a sad tone. Him and Bill had to use the Memory Meta-code to release Lacrima before it was too late. But then again, for all they knew, it might have already been to late.

- Back in the tower, only one minute to go -

"Not long now," Lucas sang as he glanced down at his watch. One minute to go until Eradia would arise out of her shell and enter Aquata's body. Aquata was now fully awake, but was under the influence of some slightly fresher Krassa Harshen.

Eradia's shell began to glow with a strange white light, and a small orb rose out of it, floating around until it stared at Lacrima.

"Tell me," the orb spoke, "who is my new body?"

Lacrima simply pointed to Aquata, the orb seeming to notice her.

Outside, Ivan and Bill began to remove the chains from the tower, managing to open the door.

This of course shocked everyone in the room, including the slightly dumbed down Aquata who could just make out her sister.

"Sirena," she called in a desperate low tone.

"Aquata!" Sirena cried as she saw her sister chained to the wall, the strange floating orb that was Eradia heading towards her.

Sirena suddenly made a mad dash towards her sisters body, putting herself in front of Aquata, Eradia not stopping, and entering Sirena's body, her body suddenly slumping to the floor, a white glow engulfing her body.

"Sirena!" David cried, about to make a run towards her. He was pulled back by Ivan.

"It's no use," he told David.

Everyone stood and watched in anticipation for the white glow to disappear.

When it did, you couldn't even tell it was Sirena any more. Eradia stood up, admiring her new body. Eradia had long flowing white hair, which was rather curly, and almost touched the floor. She was wearing, was a simple long black dress with white frills on the bodice, shoulders straps, and base of the dress. One of her arms had a long white glove on, going over the elbow whilst the other one didn't even reach her elbow. She had nothing on her feet, but in her right hand, was a spear pole, that looked like it was drenched in water, a few drops falling off of the tip of the spear.

"Well, it wasn't the body I was hoping for," Eradia stated as she looked at Aquata who was still hung up by her chains. Aquata was also now wide awake, the white glow seemed to have stopped the Harshen from working, same thing went for Zac, Isis and Tanya who were now all wide awake. "But it will do nonetheless."

Eradia then turned her attention to Lucien and Rick.

"Well well, this is something I never thought I'd see again. If it isn't Lucien and Rick, the ones who got me back in my shell are the ones who now helped me get out of it, I must thank you," Eradia said as she lightly bowed to them.

"Please, the pleasure is all ours, after all, once we're done with the prophecy, we must thank you," Rick replied, bowing to her in return.

Eradia turned her body once more, this time towards the wide awake Zac hung up by his chains next to Aquata.

"Am I right in thinking you're the merman who's going to be destroyed so that Mako Island can fall?" Eradia asked him. Zac didn't say anything and watched as Eradia raised her spear, looking like she was ready to toss it at him.

"Aria, you said that if another merman other than the one who's originally chosen dies instead, there is a chance that the prophecy won't come true right?" David asked her.

"Yes," Aria replied nervously. It then hit her. "No don't even think about it!"

"Too late," David replied as he wriggled free of Ivan's grasp and ran to stand arms wide in front of Zac.

At that moment, Eradia tossed her spear directly towards Zac, David making it just in time as the spear hit him instead, towards his heart. For a few seconds, David felt very faint as his eyes rolled over, his body slumping and falling to the ground, the water from the spear head transforming him as he hit the floor.

No-one in the room said a single word as they watched the events unfold, tears being brought to a lot of people's eyes.

Within Eradia, Sirena could see everything that was going on. She screamed as loud as she could for Eradia to stop once she saw David run to cover Zac, but it was no use. She was forced to watch David fall the ground, almost certain that he would never get back up.

For some reason, Eradia herself began crying, her eyes wide with fear, almost like Sirena was. Seconds later, she let out a massive scream of pain and suffering, the same white glow covering her body again.

Lucien and Rick grinned widely together. This was exactly what they wanted to happen. With this, they could carry out 'The End.'

Karen: Ah, cliffhangers.

*Entire cast of Mako Mermaids staring at her with an evil glare*

Karen: What? Yes I know, I just got someone killed. It was going to happen eventually, but this is nothing compared to what's going to happen in the chapters to come.

Next chapter, we'll find out about 'The End' and what Rick and Lucien are really up to. See you all soon ;) xxx