"So you're telling me he mined Mako for moonstone with a pair of strangers, one of whom was a geologist, the other a girl he kissed, all so he could save his stupid café?"

Truly, it was only a matter of time before she and Emma would butt heads on something.

The reunion between them had been blissful until now. Lewis had driven them to the airport, pockets overflowing with packets of tissues for the girls, and even Rikki shed a tear at the sight of her friend as the three embraced. Emma had beckoned Bella into the group hug upon not twenty seconds of meeting her. They quickly made each other's acquaintance, bonding over the inexplicable sisterhood all mermaids share. Then the four of them had chatted for hours about everything and nothing at all until it came time to discuss the moon pool. Now, as the the morning crowd begins to filter through the café, Rikki bites her lip and gazes into her cup anxiously.

"It sounds worse when you put it like that." Emma frowns skeptically. "Ok, it was pretty bad but, Rikki's is really important to us. Still is.

"Us?" she echoes. "I thought there was no us anymore?"

From the corner of her eye, Rikki notices Bella and Cleo sharing a doubtful look, before they look the other direction lamely. "You're right," she says to Emma, ignoring the pair. "And I would have told him to take my name off the lease, but…"

She narrows her eyes. "But?"

"Look at this place!" Rikki cries.

As she lets her eyes wander around Rikki's, Emma has to admit that it is a far cry from the Juicenet. The café's decor is stylish yet homely, with happy customers gossiping over smoothies and grabbing their morning coffee. Nate exercises his questionable keyboard skills onstage in preparation for tonight's gig. A handful of waiting staff grimace at the cacophony as they mingle with the regulars. The sea is close enough to smell the salty air, yet the scent of fresh fruit and Cuban coffee and greenery fills the café. It is far from perfect, but it is a dream for Rikki, due to and in spite of its owner.

"I put so much work in to make this ours," she says. "I can't just throw it away."

Emma still seems hesitant. She reaches for the white locket back in its place around her neck and weighs her options before she replies. Unlike Rikki, she is always guarded and cautious when it comes to Zane. "I don't know about this," she says.

"Me neither," Cleo agrees. "What's in it for Zane?"

"Guys, believe me, he just wants to make things right," Rikki insists. "I'm mad, too, but Mako is more important than some dumb boy with too much money."

When she is met with silence, Rikki has to remind herself of the importance of this. After all, their home is at stake. "He's pouring all the profits from the café into fixing the moon pool. Doesn't that count for something?" she asks.

Bella crosses her arms. "It's gonna take a lot of work. The place is pretty busted."

She sets her cup on the table resolutely. "Then we'd better get started," says Rikki. "Who's with me?"

Cleo is the first to surrender under her friend's stare. "Fine!" she concedes. "I'll call Lewis."

"I'll do it for Mako," says Bella with a sigh.

She turns her hopeful gaze on the final member of their group. "Em?" Rikki pleads.

"Ok!" says Emma, throwing her arms up in melodramatic defeat. "But I'm not happy about it."

Rikki grins widely. "I know you're not," she responds with a squeeze of her friend's shoulder. "Now let's go."


"Oh…"

The four mermaids reach the moon pool a few hours later. They rise from the water and Rikki steams them dry, but Emma hardly notices as the water evaporates from her skin. After almost a year, the moon pool is nothing like she remembered it. Debris and rocks litter the unstable ground, its uneven slabs meeting the edge of the moon pool. The cave walls that rise inconceivably high are destroyed, and the air is heavy with dust and decay. Anger is a knee-jerk reaction for Emma, but she never expected to be so grief-stricken upon her return to Mako, and folds her arms in front of her chest to stop herself from falling apart.

"I didn't know it was going to be this bad," she confides in her friends.

"I'm so sorry, Emma." Bella places a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I wish we could have stopped it."

She gasps quietly when Emma suddenly places a hand over hers, holding tightly with a thin smile. Her lips seem to quirk up of their own accord. Bella can't help but grip her hand a little tighter as something passes between them. The others, however, are less preoccupied. Cleo is still as afflicted by the state of the moon pool, while Rikki silently wonders just how the others will cooperate with Zane.

"It's ok," Emma says. "We're going to fix it, together."

Cleo kicks a stray stone into the water. "At least now Zane's going to pay for what he did."

"It wasn't just Zane, remember?" Rikki reminds her.

Bella snorts. "If you want to tell that geologist we're mermaids, be my guest," she adds. "I'm glad to be rid of him."

"Too right," Rikki says. "The guy was a nightmare." She bends down to examine the moon pool, recalling the others who were present then, the fear and suspense and hope her makeshift family shared the night of the comet. "At least Sophie is going on holidays with Will for the summer."

Bella joins her to peer at the water. "Not the whole summer. They'll be home in a couple of weeks."

Cleo joins them, a mischievous glint in her eye. "You miss him?" she asks.

"Not really...it's strange," Bella says. "I thought I'd miss him more."

"I sure don't miss his big sister, anyway," Rikki tells her, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the mere thought of Sophie.

"Can't say I disagree with you."

Rikki turns as his voice echoes around the caves, and the sound nearly causes her to jump out of her skin. "Zane!" she shouts in alarm. "What are you doing here? We said one!"

He laughs in that way he does, the way that seems only reserved for her; it is not his loud, obnoxious laugh, accompanied by the plastered fake smile he gives to customers, but a softer, deeper chuckle that she feels in the bottom of her stomach and the soles of her feet. "Nice to see you, too. I thought I'd stop by early and make a start," Zane replies. "Besides, I ran into—"

"Lewis!" Cleo sings. She makes his way to Lewis' side, and Rikki has to look away when she leans over to kiss him on the cheek. The casual intimacy is painfully familiar.

"It's suddenly a little crowded in here…" Emma folds her arms across her chest as she stares pointedly toward the pool's exit.

"We don't need all these people here at once," Rikki says, more than happy to offload some of the heavy tension in the caves. "Why don't you take the night shift, Em?"

Bella tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. "I can come with you, if you like?" she asks.

"Sure." Emma's grin falters when she turns away from her. "Zane, I would say it's nice to see you again, but that would be a lie."

He purses his lips in a flat smile. "Nice to see you too, Emma."

With a parting grimace the pair dive into the moon pool. In a matter of seconds, their legs have transformed to tails, and they swim away together. Once they are gone, the silence among those left is abrupt and palpable. They shuffle awkwardly and wait for someone, anyone to break the tension. Zane gulps when all eyes fall to him.

"So!" Lewis exclaims. "You wanted to show us your plans…"

Zane rummages through his pockets. Brandishing a stack of crumpled papers, he uses an expensive-looking pen to point at his disordered plans. "We'll start by clearing up the debris from the cave and the pool. I'd say we'll need a few wheelbarrows for that," he says.

Lewis nods along, his eyes narrowing into slits as he attempts to decipher Zane's handwriting. "We'll need to level out the floor somehow and fill in the cracks with sand or cement or something…"

"What about the cave walls?" Cleo offers. "Maybe Bella could solidify some seawater there to hold the wall in place."

"No, that won't work," Lewis mumbles with a shake of his head.

Their voices slowly turn to white noise as Rikki wonders if any of this could work. Zane's ideas seem logical in theory, but there was always so much more to the moon pool than what appeared on the surface. She begins to consider the possibility that, no matter how judiciously they organise, the island's unpredictable magic will upend their careful planning. Tapping her foot impatiently, she shares a look with Zane as the others silently scorn him, making scathing comments and rolling their eyes as the afternoon wears on. Practicalities aside, Rikki muses, even the relationships confined between the cave walls are just as turbulent as the mysterious forces beyond anyone's control.

"Right now," says Zane, "the question is how we're going to get everything we need to the island."

Rikki pulls herself back to the conversation. "We can store the equipment at the café, and make a few keys?" she asks.

"We could keep them in the lockets?" Cleo offers. Gracie's necklace is on her neck once more, the blue stone glinting in the muted sunlight.

Zane nods. "I've got the Zodiac," he says, "but some of the tools we need are too big to fit down the entrance to this place."

"Anything waterproof that the girls could take from the boat and swim in with?" Lewis asks, before Cleo interrupts.

"Air bubble!" she sings. "I can create a bubble of air around the equipment and carry it through the moon pool."

"That might just work," chuckles Zane.

Lewis begins to pace around the cave, stepping over rocks and crevices, taking in the destruction of the walls and balancing precariously on the unsteady ground. "And where are you getting the money to fund all this again?" he asks, accusations in his tone.

"We sold our crystals," Cleo tells him.

Lewis starts and opens his mouth to protest. Rikki intercepts him before he can object. "Online, on the condition that no questions are asked by the buyer and they never contact us again after." She toys with the chain on her neck, Julia's locket back where it belongs. "It's all under control."

"I'm so sorry, I…"

Rikki almost laughs at Zane's sudden outburst. By her side Cleo scoffs, rolling her eyes and looking at anything but him. Lewis, too, casts his eyes away to ignore his words, though Rikki silently wonders if he even understands how sacred the moonstone is to the girls. She has to admit to the ridiculousness of the whole situation. How did they possibly get here?

Still, there is so much work to do.


"Let's get started, shall we?"

"I wonder…" R

"What?"

Not much progress had been made since the moon pool's repairment was first planned. If anything, the time spent there only proved that tension was rife between the four of them. Lewis and Zane elaborated on his plans with Cleo either offering criticism in clipped tones or turning to roll her eyes in Rikki's direction. As the couple took over organising, Zane begins to help Rikki clear away some of the debris, when she has an idea.

"If there's a way one of us could produce rock," she says, incredulous.

Lewis snorts. "That's scientifically impossible."

"So is everything else they do, if you hadn't noticed," Zane argues.

With a sigh, Cleo approaches Rikki as she faces the cave wall, examining its surface. "Our powers are tied to water, Rikki," she says. "It wouldn't make sense for us to be able to control the earth."

Her mind begins to work at twice the speed, her keen imagination jumping over itself to reach a conclusion. "You have wind powers, I can make fire…" she mumbles.

"What?" says Cleo.

"Bella!" Rikki sings.

"You think she might be able to manipulate earth?" Cleo snaps, irritated as realisation dawns on Rikki's face.

"It's worth a shot." Zane turns to her, brown eyes wide with anticipation as he considers the possibility, quietly cursing himself for effecting Bella's absence earlier.

"I don't know…" Cleo says.

Zane folds his arms across his chest. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

She paces around the moon pool and clutches the pendant at her neck. "I'm starting to think there might be no hope for this place."

"Cleo—" Rikki interrupts.

"Don't be such a pessimist. We can fix this." Zane's tone is filled with clipped tones and disapproval as he holds Cleo's stare.

She grinds her teeth together, anger simmering closer and closer to the surface. "Who's to say that, even if we fix the moonpool, the magic will return?" Cleo argues.

"There's no harm in trying, Cleo," Lewis offers, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Cleo frowns and brushes him off, facing Zane with barely controlled rage contorting her features. "You're wrong," she says sharply. "The magic left for good the night you and that geologist and Sophie tried to steal it."

"If the magic is gone," Rikki says, using all her strength to soften her voice, "then how come we could make the Tower of Light and deflect the comet?"

"You're seriously taking his side?" asks Cleo.

Zane pinches the bridge of his nose. "Don't be ridiculous—"

"Emma and Bella were right to leave," Cleo cries as she backs away towards the moon pool. "You ruined our home, and we never should have trusted you!"

With a final shake of her head, Cleo ignores the parting words of those she leaves behind, diving into the water. Seconds later, she is gone, and the moon pool falls silent with her absence. Quiet tension fills the air before Lewis decides to follow her.

"I'll go talk to her," he offers.

Rikki ignores the eyes that follow her as she walks towards the water. Sinking down to the edge of the pool, she hugs her knees to her chest and wonders why the urge to jump into its depths is absent. Strange, usually the call to the sea is almost irresistible to her...

"And then there were two," she says. When she turns to face him, guilt is plain as day on his face, and she feels some of it tug at her heart, too. "Hey, it could have gone worse…."

Zane shuffles awkwardly. "I don't think so. I really, really messed up…"

Rikki offers a reassuring smile. "They'll come around," she says. "If I can, so can they."

Still, he seems conflicted, wringing his hands together in dread. "Do you think the magic is really gone?" he asks, unable to hide his fear any longer.

"I don't know, Zane. I do know it's gonna take a lot of work to get this place back to normal." Rikki lays down to rest her head on her hands and stare up at the sky. At least now this is possible, she thinks, with some of the debris out of the way. The moonless night seems to reach for her through the rock, a purple sky dripping with stars that look close enough to touch.

Zane allows himself to sit but keeps his distance, a wide berth between them, as he lets out a sigh. "I can't forgive myself for this," he says, "but helping out is a start."

Rikki chuckles softly at his words. "Listen to yourself. When did you get so modest?"

"What?" he asks.

She rises, folding her legs beneath her with a fond smile. "This time two months ago, Zane Bennett would have cussed Emma out for bolting like that. You would have told Cleo where to put her 'magic' or demanded that we get back together on the spot." His expression is filled with such vulnerability, the curve of his smile so sincere and the darkness in his eyes deep enough to fall into, that she has to look away. "This new temperament doesn't suit you."

Zane snorts, but his grin does not falter. "I'm sorry. I guess I'll be more immature and selfish next time," he jokes.

He realises, too late, that these are the words that she used when… She realises, too, and snaps her mouth shut before it can fall. "That's not what I mean," Rikki says.

"What do you mean?"

There is a toolshed in a lavish home by the sea, too big for love and too empty for a mermaid who never should have been. She remembers what it felt like when the café was the juicebar, when they didn't have enough time, when they had all the answers. Yes, she remembers it well.

"Someone once told me that I don't have to let the other side win," says Rikki. Her steel grey eyes flash with an assuredness that makes his heart rate accelerate. "If you don't forgive yourself for what you did here, then they won't either."

Zane mulls her words over before responding. "I'm trying not to do the whole self-righteous, arrogant egotist thing this time." His lips curve upwards. "But… duly noted."

"You don't have to be any of that, just have some conviction," she explains, looking skyward once more. "You messed up big time, but at least you thought you were doing what was right."

"When did you get so wise?" he wonders aloud.

She grins. "Time apart from you will do that to a girl."

Zane snickers and leans towards the pool to splash her with water. He fails to remember its affect on her. In an instant she is glowing with a wet sheen, her damp curls falling into her face with a mermaid's tail replacing her legs.

"Thanks, for that," she grumbles, slowly inching towards the pool as fast as her tail will allow her.

"Sorry." He helps her into the moon pool, and the familiarity of the touch is not lost on either of them. "I forget you're part fish sometimes."

"I'm gonna go make sure Emma and Cleo haven't blown a gasket," she says, heartbreakingly beautiful as she gazes up at him from the waters, so disarming that he can't tear his eyes away.

"While you're at it," he says with a gulp, "you could make a few copies of the keys to Rikki's for the others?"

"Sure," Rikki says. Of course, her own key is in Julia's locket already. "Now get back to work."

"See you," Zane murmurs.

She is sure to smack the water with her tail as she leaves, drenching him with water as her laughter fills the caves. "Later!"


a/n: happy solar eclipse everyone! i hope you kids enjoyed this chapter and thank you so so much for giving it a read. i wont usually be posting this frequently, im just a sucker for good timing (which is ironic considering how the moon phases are all over the place in this fic but, i digress), who else was a little pissed that the girls abandoned their lockets post season 2? its like the legacy of the former mermaids was completely done away with. this will come up again in a more plot-y way in the future, promise

to the anon reviewer wondering if this is going to be will/rikki endgame, i can assure you that i have no patience for them as a ship either! not-so-spoiler alert/reminder that zikki is endgame here and that their relationship is pretty central to this fic. as for bella, youll just have to wait and see !

thank you so so much for the reviews/favourites/follows etc and much love to all of you,

A

xxxxxxx