Karen: I'm back yet again, and I bring the glorious Chapter 8 with me

*Mako cast still sulking over David*

Karen: Oh get over it! You've got a lot to think about this Chapter!

Hope you all enjoy it as usual ^_^ As for the Chapter name, it's not the end of the story!

Chapter 8: Prophecy - The End

It took ages before the white glow surrounding Eradia faded. Once it had, the white orb rose out of its body and fled back to the shell sitting on the table. What once was Eradia's appearance, returned to plain old Sirena, standing there, trembling at the sight before her. Everyone around her was focused with all eyes on her and David. Sirena steadily looked down at her hands, crying in fear of what she had done. If she hadn't of interfered for her sister's sake, David might have still been alive.

Suddenly, Sirena collapsed to the ground, almost like she had fainted from all the pressure.

For a moment, no-one in the room or just outside of it dared to move a muscle. Something had gone wrong with the prophecy. David had died in placement of Zac, and now Eradia had forced herself back into her shell. If it was Aquata as the vessel, things might have been different.

Lucien and Rick exchanged a quick glance to each other, though this had not gone unnoticed by Zac, still chained up on the wall trying to keep his tears in.

Rick walked over to the shell slowly and picked it up, giving it a shake. "Come on Eradia, get back out of your damn shell right now! We've worked too hard for you to just bottle yourself back up inside of it and not finish the prophecy!"

He continued to shake it for a few seconds before giving up.

"Well, looks like we've lost," he stated, sounding slightly sarcastic. He turned to Lucien and let out a small laugh, Lucien in turn starting to laugh as well. Moments later, both of them were in hysterics, not a single person understanding why they were laughing like maniacs right now.

Lucien stopped his laughter and grabbed another one of the vials off of the table, more Jellyfish Anthranox and jabbed it right into the side of scared Lucy's neck.

Realising what he'd done, she turned his head to him just in time to see his creepy grin. "Why would you-" she began to say before the Anthranox took full effect, her vision darkening and her body slumping to the floor.

"Lacrima!" Sarah cried as she saw her old friend and supposed companion of Lucien and Rick fall down under the drug. "Why would you do that to her? I thought she was your mistress, your master?"

Rick let out another small laugh. "Oh, you have no idea just how much trouble you're all in right now do you?"

Seconds after he'd finished his sentence, Rita, Lyla and Nixie suddenly reverted to their mermaid forms, even the unconscious Sirena did. Zac also randomly entered Overdrive mode, but as much as he thought of stopping it, he was unable to get out of it. Tough the actual golden glow of Overdrive was quite faint, his eyes remained the same bright gold shade, and his finned ear stayed the same too. Aquata's tail also appeared as well.

"What the hell's going on here?" Zac asked, still pushing away the tears, not able to look away from David's body, blood now starting to trickle out of his wound, and at a rather rapid speed.

- A few moments before the above, back on the shore of the Gold Coast -

It had been quite a nice day out otherwise, many people were out on the beach enjoying the glorious warmth of the sunshine, splashing about in the waves.

Though, in the moments back in Arcosta, when Eradia went back into her shell, the skies darkened and many black clouds began surrounding the distant Mako Island.

Nick, who was on Lifeguard duty at the time had seen the sudden darkness over Mako Island, and began to wonder what was going on.

"Don't tell me," he whispered to himself as a massive thunderbolt shot down from the clouds and struck Mako Island, practically over the head of the Moon Pool. The thunderbolt wasn't a regular colour either, it was a bright blue/ white shade, almost the same colour as the light that the Moon Rings emitted.

The shock from the bolt headed throughout the entire of the Island and sent a pulsing shock over the Ocean towards the shore of the Gold Coast. Nick could see it coming and alerted everyone. "Get out the water, now!"

Everyone headed his advice and made their way to the shore. Just as the last person was out, the blue shock wave had breached the shore, but did not come across the land, instead, it shot upwards and almost made a very faint barrier.

Nick slowly but steadily walked towards the barrier and placed his hand upon it, a faint flash of purple heading across where the barrier was now formed. He could never had anticipated that this moment in time would ever happen.

"Nick, what's going on here?" John, the newer recruit, asked him with concern.

He didn't quite know how to answer at first, but decided in the end, to partially tell the truth. "Mako Island, is falling."

"What do mean falling?" John asked, thoroughly confused by Nick's response.

"You heard me, it's falling. Unknown forces are sinking it. We will not see it ever again."

"What about this strange glow then?" John walked over to where Nick was, and placed his hand upon the barrier, a faint flash of blue heading across it, much like when Nick had touched it.

"It's a barrier," Nick replied, touching it again for himself. John was a little confused when Nick touched it.

"Why is it when you touch it, the barrier comes up purple?"

Nick couldn't respond to his question, there was no way John could know the truth right now.

"I'll explain it to you once this is all over. What I need you to do, is hold down the fort, make sure everyone is evacuated from this strip of beach." Nick then began sprinting away to his home, to grab his car.

"Hey, where are you going?!" John shouted as Nick began running home. He was so far away that Nick didn't hear him at all.

He just kept on running, and quickly grabbed his keys from his pockets, opened his car door, and revved out of the drive as quickly as possible. He knew exactly where he was heading.

A few minutes later, he was outside of the rock face where the IMH base was. He swiftly found the black gem and bolted it down the steps into the base. When he was inside, he searched for the passage system and entered the password to open it up.

He looked down at the water below him, preparing to jump. "I never though I'd have to come back to this place."

Meanwhile, back on the beach, John had gotten everyone to leave the area, leaving just himself. He turned around one last time to look over at Mako Island, and felt an insane rumble run through the shore line and looked up to see that the waves had turned very choppy. Within moments, Mako Island had begun to sink, just as Nick said it would. He stood in pure silence, and watched as the mysterious island sank under the waves.

Mako Island, was no more.

- Back inside the tower -

"It's finally happened!" Lucien grinned as he grabbed Eradia's shell. "The End had begun!"

Rick proceeded by placing a barrier around Elicia and Marina, and one around the group in the door way. After all, Hyperos magic cannot be broken by its own kind, trapping Ivan, Bill, Evie and Aria.

Lucien fired a shot of Hyperos at the back wall, creating a massive hole which he and Rick jumped out of, landing directly into the water, the tower being closer to the shore than first though. A lot like Tetrus, both men also had purple tails once they hit the water.

Lucien and Rick had begun swimming far away from the shore, Eradia's shell tucked under Lucien's arm.

"You know there's only going to be about 10 minutes before those barriers wear off right?" Rick asked.

"I know that. But it's not like they'll be going anywhere, four of them can't move, one of them is still under drugs, and the two in magic lock chains won't escape even if the girls touch them, I barred them with a small bit of Hyperos, so even when they touch them, they won't break, the Hyperos will make the chains seem like someone with magic is touching it," Lucien explained.

"Lucien... you do realise the Hyperos will fade away don't you?"

"Of course I do, but by then they'll have given up all hope of breaking free of those chains!" Lucien then swept his right arm in front of him, shouting, "Olcultus!" One of the passage ways then appeared in front of them, swimming right through it.

At this moment in time, Nick had entered the passage way from the Gold Coast and made it into the water just in time to see Rick swim through the passage way, that entrance closing when he went through. He gritted his teeth and swam as fast as he could to the shore, immediately running onto the shore and heading straight through the doors of the castle, up towards the tower, seeing as how it was unchained right now.

Up in the tower, Ivan and Bill were having a very hard time explaining what was going on.

The only strange thing to occur, was that the girls realised they had no powers at all, and couldn't revert back to being human. After trying to use their powers, they felt rather faint, and much like Sirena, went into an unconscious state, not dead though.

Ivan began first.

"There's no other way to explain this really. There is another prophecy besides Eradia Archelist, but this one relies on its failure. 1044 years ago was a different matter, it changed itself to shape its success, and this time, it's remained that Eradia was to shed blood on Mako Island, and make it fall. After fleeing back into her shell, it triggered what it known as 'The End' prophecy, and it sounds as bad as it is. Once Eradia flees back to her shell, Mako Island sinks and all magic from the Island disappears. This is why the girls suddenly had their tails reappear, and also why they have no powers. With all the magic from Mako Island gone, there is no way for them to turn human again. We'll have to get them to water soon though, or they will die. But right now, we're trapped in these barriers and Aquata is locked in magic chains, no-one here is now awake and without magic."

There was one thing that struck Zac as odd in all of this. "So why hasn't my tail appeared then huh? My source of power came from Mako Island as well."

This was true. Zac's powers were indeed sourced from Mako Island, and the girls had transformed back again. It suddenly struck Bill why he was still in human form.

"Overdrive. You were once human, you weren't a natural born human child. Your Overdrive state right now is what's stopping you from regaining your tail and losing your powers. If you're Overdrive stops, then you've expended all of the powers that you're still human side can give to you."

"And it's pretty obvious why no-one else has transformed," Ivan butted in. "The four elemental girls don't come from Mako including Felicity, and Evie and David are children of Lucy, therefore, their power comes from Egypt. So in total, me, Bill, Evie, Aria, Felicity, Elicia, Marina and Zac are the only ones here who can still fight. Rick and Lucien will have fled to Olcultus. For when Mako Island falls, the ancient bare ground known as Olcultus will rise. There, they will destroy Eradia's shell, where immense power will flow throughout the world and sap all of the life force from all other pods. Without the Moon Pool's power from the world, the Ocean's will become unstable and every last bit of life as we know it, will be swept underwater, and the world will be no more."

The sudden realisation of the world ending had hit everyone hard.

"Damn it! If only I could get out of these chains!" Zac shouted as he curled his fingers to touch them. To everyone's surprise, both chains shattered and Zac ended up with his face hitting the floor.

"No way," Ivan muttered to himself. "Overdrive isn't recognised as Magic, that's how they broke."

Zac then touched the chains on his ankles, rising to his feet with a massive grin on his face. "It doesn't make any sense to be but I'll take this as a good thing."

Ivan smiled at him. "Mind trying out these barriers? I've got a feeling your human magic might do us some good here."

Zac was a little confused by what Ivan meant, but he touched the barrier nonetheless, a little shocked when it shattered.

"Now I thought you said that no type of magic could overcome Hyperos?" Evie asked, glaring slightly at her father.

"Hey give me a break here. I don't know much about Overdrive other than it's a subconscious state, I didn't think its magic could break Hyperos."

Zac then proceeded by breaking Aquata's chains, lowering her gently to the floor, and then breaking the barrier surrounding Elicia and Marina, both thanking him as they joined the other group.

"There is one other thing I would like to do before we leave," Ivan announced, then turning his attention to Evie. "I need you to do a soul swap with your mother."

"Huh?" This response came from pretty much everyone.

"Let me put it this way, the only safe way to destroy that shell, is for the four elemental originals to use their magic together, and without Lacrima, we ain't gonna be able to do that. If you do a soul swap with her, you'll gain her powers, and temporarily become the host for Lacrima's soul."

Evie could see what he was getting onto, she would become Lacrima in the process.

"How do I do it?" She asked in an authoritative voice.

Bill smiled at his daughter, glad to see that she was prepared to do so. He reached into his pocket and took out a red diamond shaped crystal. It wasn't exactly thick, but is was very long. "It's a little risky, you'll need to plunge one end into Lucy's heart, and then pierce the other half into yours. Once you do so, the crystal should light up and exchange your souls. Because Lucy is out cold, she'll feel no pain, but you'll have to endure it."

Evie's face turned a little sour when she heard that she would have to bare the pain to make this happen. She snatched the crystal out of her father's hand, knowing full well that she would just have to accept it and get along with it.

She knelt down next to her mother and plunged one end of the crystal into her heart and prepared to pierce the other half into her own heart. "Here goes nothing!"

When she pierced her heart, at first she didn't feel any pain from the crystal, but once it lit up, she could feel herself flittering on the edge of life and death. She didn't scream, but it felt like her soul was wasting away, even though it was only passing through the crystal.

She felt a pair of strong hands come to her shoulder, and even though she didn't turn around, she knew that Zac was supporting her.

"Just hang in there," he told her in a soft calming voice.

A minute later, the crystal stopped glowing and Evie pulled it out of their hearts, noticing how Lacrima's scar was gone. She turned to Zac, checking that one of her eyes was now a fiery red, and the fiery scar was now over one of her eyes. Zac confirmed it, amazed that it actually worked.

Lucy at that moment, began to stir, the effects of the transfer dispelling the Anthranox and waking her up. Not only did the soul transfer give her magic to Evie, but it also brought back some of her memories.

"Evie?" She asked as she looked up to the girl sitting in front of her.

"Mother?" Evie replied, tears being brought to her eyes. Zac let go of her shoulders so that she could launch into a hug with her.

"Evie my dear. At last I get to see you all grown up!" Lucy exclaimed. It was only until she got a good look at Evie's face that she realised what had happened. Suppressed memories of when Lucien and Rick drugged her came flooding back in, realising that she was only getting these memories because of the Soul Switch Evie performed on them. "You, you have a world to go and save my child. Make your mother proud, and don't make me regret giving you my powers." Lucy then fell back to sleep, Evie suddenly realising that the sudden Soul Switch only suppressed the drug for a short moment.

As happy as she was to have her mother remember her, there were slightly more important matters at hand.

Everyone in the room grabbed one of the mermaids as well as David, and prepared themselves to jump out of the tower from the hole Lucien so kindly made when someone burst open the door that Ivan had closed.

"Wait!" Nick screamed as he burst open the door, not all too shocked at the sight before him.

"Nicholas?" Both Bill and Ivan questioned as they looked at the all too familiar face.

"Nick?" Zac and Evie questioned as they looked at their neighbourhood friendly lifeguard.

"No time to explain what I'm doing here, it's time we got you lot to Olcutus." Nick then proceeded by jumping out of the hole in tower shouting "come on," as he hit the water.

Even though the pair of four were really confused about what Nick was doing here, they just had to trust him. They all jumped out of the tower, and left the mermaids and David as close the shore as they could, their tails still in the water.

With them now surely safe, oh boy did Zac have some questions for Nick.

"Who exactly are you"? Zac asked, slightly afraid of him.

Nick sighed. "My real name is Nicholas, I'm a member of the IMH, one of the 100 who were implanted with Hyperos Crystals in their hearts, a lot like Ivan and Bill. I've been living out my life in Australia, stopping all of my activities as an IMH member and dedicating my life to Lifesaving. I never would have guessed at the time when you saved that little girl, that you'd become a merman Zac. I suspected you were no longer human, but I didn't expect this of all things.

"And I never expected you to have been alive for over 1000 years," Zac retaliated. "Also, can someone here please explain the tails?"

"But of course," Ivan spoke up. "The reason we have tails is because the Hyperos Magic granted us them. Unlike normal merpeople, we can transform as freely as we want to. It's one of the original reasons why we were shunned away all those years ago."

Zac could see the pain in Ivan's eyes as he spoke about not being accepted and tried to get them off of this topic. "That explained, how do we get back?"

Ivan and Bill turned to Nick. "You still know how to recreate the passage ways right?" Bill asked.

"Of course," Nick replied.

"Then you can make us one leading to the shore of Olcultus?" Ivan lead on.

"No, I can't take us that far, I don't know quite how to create the passage. What I can do, is take us back to the Gold Coast and find a way to destroy the barrier surrounding the Ocean."

"There's a barrier surrounding it?" Zac and Evie asked confused.

"Let's just focus on getting back first," Nick ordered as he dove under the water, everyone else following him.

Much like when Lucien created the way to Olcultus, Nick swiped his right arm in front of him and shouted, "Gold Coast!" Seconds later, the passage way that they'd come through before appeared before them, disappearing once the last member of the group had gone through. Instead of ending up in the IMH base though, they ended up right outside of it, the passage way hole appearing in the sand.

Once everyone got out and dried themselves back to their human forms, Nick place his hand on the barrier that was still in place, several waves of faint purple light shooting across it.

Evie touched it for herself, though when she touched it, it turned Red. "So we can't get into the Ocean with this being here right?"

"Yep, we need to find a way to destroy it, ordinary magic isn't going to break it down," Nick briefly explained.

Just as an idea came to Bill's mind, they could all hear a voice shouting.

"Nick!"

"Oh no, John." Nick suddenly remembered that he'd told John that he would explain everything in a bit, but he didn't expect John to come and find him himself.

"God I've been looking all over for you, where di-" John would have finished his sentence, until he noticed that Zac, and the two girls from the Exposure a few days ago were standing with Nick.

John covered his mouth, staring head on at Zac. He remembered what happened that day on TV, and also pieced together the explanation of Evie and Sarah. They had eyes just like Elicia and Marina, they must have been mermaids as well. The other girl with them must have been as well.

"So, it's real huh? That whole thing with those mermaid hunters, you really are a merman aren't you?" John asked after removing his hands from his mouth and calming down.

Zac looked away for a second before turning back to look at John, simply replying, "yes."

"And you five," he stated looking at all the girls, "you're all mermaids?"

They all simply nodded, trying not to make too much eye contact with the boy.

"Nick, you promised me you'd tell me what's going on. The whole truth." John glared at Nick, directly into his eyes. There was no escaping it, Nick had to explain what was going on.

"If we don't break this barrier and make it out to where Mako Island was, the world as we know it could end. Two men plan to use the power of an ancient spirit to destroy all the magic in this world that controls the Oceans, and the world will be put eternally underwater," Nick explained, finding it rather difficult to focus when John looked so shocked of everything he was learning.

"And what about you? What part do you play in all of this?" John asked. Nick turned away from him, refusing to answer. "Why won't you answer me?"

He was about to turn Nick around to face him when Ivan grabbed his arm and pulled the boy in front of him.

"Listen here kid. Me, Bill and Nick have been through more torment than these guys ever have. Do you know how long we've been alive for? 1060 damn long years! We've been forced to live this long because of a crystal implanted in our hearts, and the only way we can die is if someone else in the IMH kills us. We've spent hundreds of years trying to get revenge on mermaids and now look where it's landed us! The world is going to be destroyed and we are the only ones who can put it right!"

If John seemed frightened before, he was even more scared now. "Is it true, Nick?"

He refused to answer for a moment, but decided to in the end. "Yes, I've been alive like them for 1060 years, and yes, I did at first, kill mermaids. But, once I learnt of what two people in our group were truly after, I only focused on how to stop them, and I failed. We have to destroy this damn barrier so that we can go and stop those two idiots from killing us all!"

John actually lightened up for a second. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Nick turned around to face him at long last. He'd always treated John like the son he'd never had. He walked over to him and placed his hands on his shoulders. "I want you to stay here, and wait for us to return. Act as our beacon."

John didn't quite know what to say to that. All Nick wanted him to do was to wait. "Alright. I'll stand here and wait. But in all seriousness, how are you going to break the barrier?"

Zac thought back to what Bill and Ivan had said to him about Overdrive and how it could break Hyperos Magic. He slowly walked over to the barrier, and as he placed his hand upon it, a bright white glow ran across the barrier, shattering it, everyone now feeling the full force of the choppy Ocean waves.

"Well," Nick said a little stunned, "that uh- that takes care of that. So, does anyone propose how we get across without risking our lives swimming?"

Sarah was the first to speak up. But when I say speak up, she didn't really. She just used her Air Magic to lift everyone into the air, the same sort of swirling air around everyone's feet. "Easy way really, we fly," she smiled.

Nick was a little sceptical at first about Sarah's powers, but once he focused on moving forward a little, he saw that it was rather easy and perfectly safe.

"John, make sure you stay here, no matter what happens!" Nick called as he began heading out to Olcultus with everyone else.

"I will!" He shouted back, watching as everyone flew out towards where Mako Island once stood. As he watched them go, a tear was brought to his eye. "Just come back safely."

Karen: I think it's safe to end it here. If anyone is confused, Mako Island went bye bye, Rick and Lucien want to destroy the world using the powers of Eradia now that she's locked up in her shell, with a new prophecy that could lead to the end of the world, which is what Rick and Lucien wanted since day 1 all those years ago. To clarify, David is dead, no-one else is, they're just completely out of power.

I hope the next chapter will make a little more sense than this one. The only reason I brought Nick into the story was because of the slight involvement he had in Chapter 1 of the first story, sort of tying in his previous thoughts and it also gave side character John a reason for being alive. I need happy endings all round here people!

Zac: Just leave her to rant and we'll see you all in Chapter 9, where we'll be kicking some serious ass.

Karen: You were suppose to let me say that!