It had started as nothing. It was silly, really; disjointed, scattered thoughts of the sun and moon, memories of being moonstruck on Mako, fire weeping from the trees as she silently prayed to be left alone. But the idea grew, becoming irrevocable, irresistible, out of control, like setting a forest ablaze or reaching for something forbidden. It comes to fruition before her very eyes as they trudge through the woods hand in hand.
Unchanged since their last visit, it is as enchanting as ever. Its waterfall trickles through the gap that bows above the pool, clear as a starlit sky, a strange white light filling the caves like the clap of thunder seen from beneath the sea. Even with the night sky above them, they shield their eyes from the brightness, squinting as light and dark join together. Encircled by boulder stones, the air smells of peace and salt and sunlight, and she knows when she sees it that they have found the answer.
"The sun pool," he breathes. "Of course."
Rikki edges her way around the caves, getting as close as she can without touching the water, Zane a few steps behind. Something in her heart propels her forward, a knowledge unknown to her until now, and she balances on one of the stones to gaze deep into the sun pool. Those disjointed thoughts have culminated, and she is not afraid anymore.
Zane holds her shoulders steady as she stares into the grey waters. "What now?"
"I think I know what to do."
Rikki extends a hand in front of her and takes a deep breath. As he fingers curl inwards, a fist clenching in her hands, she focuses on dissipating the water beneath her. The pool begins to evaporate at a glacial pace. It drains her energy rapidly, but she persists, grinding her jaw and forcing her hand closed until all that is left is hissing steam.
She hears her name on his lips as exhaustion overtakes her. Stumbling to land on her feet in the centre of the now-empty caves, she is not surprised, but still claps her hands over her mouth, and Zane curses under his breath.
Rikki is standing in front of the sun.
Zane holds her upright as they stare and stare and stare. Six rays of light point in different directions, surrounding the shape in the centre, a perfect circle that lived at the bottom of the pool, for how long they did not know. Yes, the sun seems strangely alive to Rikki as she sways on her feet, as if she can see or feel or hear it speak to her. It is a bright star made of the same strange rock found not far from where they stand.
"Sunstone," she says, her voice hoarse. "Just like at the moon pool."
He tears his eyes away to hold her face in one hand. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine." She nods, weary, and takes her phone from her pocket. "I'm gonna… let me call the others."
Zane sighs at her stubbornity, resisting the urge to carry her to the nearest cushioned surface and force her to rest. "Sit down first, alright?" he says instead. "You look exhausted."
"Zane, I'm fine…"
She cuts off her protests as he pulls her to the ground, sharing a yawn as they sit together in front of the sun. The ground is bone-dry now, and Rikki almost regrets having to call the others and direct them to this bizarre place. Her friends must be tired, too, but she has long since learned that the sea does not wait for anyone.
The silence that ensues does not go unnoticed by Zane. He inches closer to her as he hugs her knees to her chest, deep in thought, blue bruises beneath her eyes as she strains to keep them open.
"You okay?"
Rikki nods almost imperceptibly. "Yeah, I'm fine," she repeats.
"You know we can call it a night if you want," he says. "This will still be here in the morning."
A sliver of a smile is on her face, now, but she still seems pensive. "No, it's okay."
Zane cannot help but notice, even as she wills the exhaustion away, just how beautiful she is. She is almost ethereal, unreal, otherworldly as her white hair falls around her face in loose waves. Her dark lashes cast shadows on her cheeks, either unaware of his gaze or choosing to ignore it, as she chews on her bottom lip. He knows that she was never too preoccupied with her appearance, and in spite of this she is the best thing he has ever laid eyes on. This thought makes him want to fold her into his arms, to protect her, from the world or from him he does not know.
"There's just one thing I don't understand."
The sound of her voice, sharp and decisive, snaps him out of his reverie. "What is it?" he asks in a small voice.
"Do we not have a choice in any of this?" she turns to faces him, and he wonders how courage sets her blue eyes on fire like that. "Is all this stuff about fate and destiny just taking our ability to choose from us?"
He tries to imagine a world where anyone could tell Rikki Chadwick what to do, and wants to laugh at the thought. "You have a choice, Rikki," he reminds her. "You don't have to fix the moon pool or any of it." His lips twitch into a smirk. "Now that you're out of school you can shave your head and flee the country if you like."
Rikki laughs at the jibe, shaking her platinum hair as she begins to feel more alert. "You think I could pull it off?" she asks.
Zane nods. "I'd miss it, though."
There is a fondness in his eyes and, when she knows that he is really saying he would miss her, Rikki lays her head against his shoulder and sighs in contentment. She cannot bring herself to care about fate or destiny now, the pressure from those who could never know all they've been through, the judgement in Ms. Chatham's eyes or the sorrow in Max's voice. She is not them. More importantly, she is not scared.
"Zane…" Maybe she is a little scared after all, she thinks, her heart pounding like a drum in her chest. "I really don't care about whether or not we're a part of the universe's greater plan, or whatever."
"Yeah?"
His dark eyes are watching her closely as he listens intently. He hears her, gets her, understands her, and even after all these years it is so unfamiliar to Rikki that she has to stop the grin that threatens her features. Here in these mysterious caves on an island that turns ordinary girls into fairytale creatures, she has never felt more safe.
"Yeah, it's like…" she sighs. "I'm tired."
Zane lets his head drop against hers. His voice is soft when he answers. "Well, Mako isn't the best place to sleep, but the guys might be a while."
"No, I'm tired of…" Rikki weighs her words carefully. "Of avoiding the inevitable. I'm tired of trying to stay away from you, Zane."
His heart rate picks up and calms just as quickly. She feels more than sees Zane smile, and relaxes as he wraps an arm around her, pulling her closer to him. "Me too," he says. "Although I haven't been trying that hard."
"The thing is… I choose you." She is thinking out loud, now, saying the words as they occur to her. But isn't this always how they communicated? "Regardless of what anyone else thinks, or what's written in the stars, or how much of a moron that makes me, I would choose you over anyone else on this planet."
"Really?" Zane asks, incredulous. He beams, unable to hide his smile as he lays his forehead against hers, letting out a long-held breath. "I choose you, too. You sure the magic water isn't messing with your head?"
He taps at her temple, and she pulls his hand away, weaving their fingers together. "I'm sure," she sighs. "I guess that makes me a bit of an idiot."
"How are you the idiot in this equation?" asks Zane. "I messed up so bad, we both know it."
"You did."
Zane lets her words hang in the air. He waits for her to add something, amend her statement, but the rest of the sentence never comes. She merely stares into the caves, and he narrows his eyes in uncertainty. "So that's it?" he says. "There's no way I can make it up to you, at all?"
Rikki frowns. "What do you mean?"
"If we're going to…" He feels safe with her, of course he does, even as his heart threatens to give in and the truth comes spilling out. "I want to do this right, Rikki. I want us to trust each other."
"I do trust you, Zane," she says. "I trust that you're a complete dolt and that I look good by comparison."
He clutches his sides as a laugh wracks his chest. "Seriously," he replies, sobering when he meets her eyes. "I want to be with you, but not like this. Of course you have every right to be upset, but I don't want you to resent me, I mean…" Anxious, he tugs at the neck of his shirt. "We barely make one emotionally stable adult as it is. How are we going to make this work?"
Rikki smiles that knowing smile of hers, the one that means he's being an idiot, and she looks at him with resolute certainty. "Do you trust me?"
When his mouth falls slack into a grin and his eyes widen, glinting with hope, she knows she does not need to wait for an answer. The openness and honesty plain on his face overwhelms her and, moved by something so familiar it had long been ignored, she closes the distance between them with a kiss. It is sudden, fast as a lightning bolt though Zane has waited too long for this moment; his breath catches in his throat when he tastes her on his lips again. He recovers quickly, pulling her closer to him, feeling the warmth of her skin as she weaves her fingers through his hair. When they finally break the kiss he does not open his eyes, refusing to believe that this could be more than a dream. He feels her breath on his face, though, and lets in the light, the world slow and blue when he finally faces it.
"You kept the secret," Rikki breathes, "you dived to the bottom of the sea to get me Julia's locket, you saved me from a falling crate, you bought me a café. You made me believe that someone…" She says what she has known in the back of her heart from a kiss in an elevator in a part of town that she could never afford, with a boy afraid of heights who kept the rain away. "I love you."
"I love you, too," he says, before half a second has passed, "of course I do."
Zane wraps his arms around her, pulling her close to his chest as she lays her head against his shoulder. In the distance they can hear the waves crashing, the breeze gently shaking the trees, birds singing their nightsong as something settles in their hearts and roots itself there. Forgiveness is not easy to offer, though, and he knows he has a thousand more apologies to make before he has earned hers.
"I'm sorry…"
Rikki smiles sadly. "I know," she says, before her smile brightens. "Hey, there is one way you can make it up to me."
"Anything," he vows.
"How about my share of the café?"
His grin is huge as it lights up his face, and suddenly he seems so much more youthful, new, happy. "That goes without saying," says Zane. "Anything else?"
She tilts her head to the side thoughtfully. "A red Ferrari and a thousand dollars?"
"Someday, maybe," Zane chuckles. "For now we can worry about breaking even each month."
Rikki nods. "And," she replies, "transporting this massive rock to the other side of the island."
"Better wait 'til the rest of the fish club gets here."
"I preferred mermaid club," she says, her lips twitching at the corners.
"Duly noted."
Her eyes fall to his lips once more, but their little fraction of peace is broken by the approaching footsteps of their friends.
"Hey guys!"
"Hey," Rikki murmurs at the sound of Bella's voice. She reluctantly tears herself away from Zane, whose expression is sheepish as he looks the other way. They rise to their feet in unison and, while their friends gather with raised brows and knowing smiles, neither one fears for their reactions.
Emma snorts. "You two are so not subtle."
"You're one to talk," Rikki teases, reaching across the small distance to take his hand.
"What did you want to—" Emma cuts her sentence short as she peers over Zane's shoulder. The others, too, follow the strange golden light calling from the centre of the cave. "Woah."
Lewis balks as the sun illuminates his face. "What is that?" he croaks. By his side Cleo is stunned into silence, clapping a hand over her mouth in bewilderment.
"It's sunstone." Zane's voice is solemn as their friends gather together, squinting and shielding their eyes from the brilliance of the crystal. It illuminates the caves like a star.
"Emma!" Bella exclaims, oblivious to Zane's remark as she meets her wide-eyed gaze. "This must the sun pool Ms Chatham told us about."
"You're right," Emma realises.
Rikki plants her hands on her hips. "Wait," she says, "what did Ms Chatham say?"
"So she was right about…"
"About the sunstone?" Bella finishes.
Cleo, silent until now, pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I thought Mako was made out of moonrock," she says, confused.
"The shard from the comet that made Mako contained two different types of rock; mostly moonstone, but also sunstone," Emma explains. "At least, according to Max's hypothesis."
Bella nods and reaches for Emma's hand. "When a mermaid wants to give up her powers for good…"
"She goes into the moon pool during a planetary alignment?" Rikki says.
"Or into the sun pool during a solar eclipse." Emma is certain as she stand before the stone embedded in the ground. The other mermaids have no choice but to believe her as Bella stands by her side, the same sincerity in the set of her features.
Still, Cleo has to be sure. "The shard from the comet created the Sea Caves of Ireland, right?" she asks, crouching down to get a closer look at the sunstone. "You didn't mention any sun pool there, Bella."
Bella shrugs, as she does about most mermaid magic, knowing that it cannot be explained through science or reason alone. "We didn't stay in Ireland for too long. Maybe I didn't explore the caves enough?" she offers.
"Or maybe Mako is special," says Rikki.
Lewis begins to pace around the caves with a turbulent expression, his mind racing, desperate as always to reach a logical conclusion. "So what you're saying is," he wonders aloud, "the way to fix the moon pool is by using a component of the sun?"
"Basically," Emma says.
"I think I need to lie down."
Cleo rubs his shoulder with a sympathetic look. "It makes sense, though. Comets are composed of rock, dust, ice, frozen gases… if the sun is made of hot gas, then it could have formed part of the comet, which broke off and turned into Mako when it reached the Earth's atmosphere." She turns to face Rikki and Zane. "How did you guys find this place, anyway?"
The couple look askance, mumbling excuses as they try to avoid the question. "We'll explain later," says Zane with a gulp.
Cleo rolls her eyes. "Have you tried moving it?"
"Nah. Thought we'd call in the expert," says Rikki, nodding in Bella's direction.
"Too busy attached to each other's tonsils?" Bella teases.
Rikki, too deliriously, stupidly, madly happy to think of a comeback, merely laughs in response. She watches as Bella makes her way to the sunlit rock rooted in the ground. With a flourish she extends her hand, turning it this way and that. She steels herself with a breath, sweat beading in the dent between her brows as she gathers all her strength to try and move the stone.
"It won't budge," she admits, defeated. "At least, not without some help."
The other mermaids share a look, doubt and trepidation being replaced by cautious hope. One by one, the girls join her. They stand together, resolutely facing the sun and lifting their arms in unison. As they combine their strange and formidable powers, their clenched fists and flat palms working in harmony, the crystal begins to move. Inch by slow inch, they raise the stone until it hovers above their heads, the cave glowing like honey in sunlight.
"It feels almost… alive," Cleo breathes.
Rikki nods in agreement. As they balance the rock in the air, she is reminded of how it feels to bend flames to her will, how the heat seems to thud with a pulse in her open hand. "Like holding fire."
"How are we going to get it to the moon pool?"
Lewis' words interrupt the girls in their awe, and Cleo unwillingly tears her eyes away from the sunstone. "Air bubble?" she offers, skeptical.
"No," Bella says with a shake of her head, "we have to do it together."
"We'll have to be careful." Zane is filled with trepidation as he watches the crystal hovering in the air. He fears deeply for the girls' safety as they twist and steady their hands to balance it. "We know next to nothing about this thing."
Emma turns from the sunstone to face her friends. "Bell, you and I can make a bubble by solidifying the water," she says, "and Cleo, you trap the air inside the bubble."
Rikki, affronted by the exclusion, snorts. "I'll carry the thing, I guess."
"You have powers over heat, right?" Bella asks. "You can help me meld it to the wall."
Running a hand through his hair anxiously, Zane purses his lips before he speaks. "Is this going to be safe?" he says.
"I don't care." Emma stares, resolute and fearless, into the eye of the sunstone. "I'll do it for Mako."
As the others nod along in silent, mutual agreement, Lewis and Zane share a look. It is seldom that they agree with each other on anything, but when it comes to the safety of the four mermaids, they have common ground to tread on. "Hold on…" Lewis says with a gulp. "I'm not letting you guys do something this dangerous."
Zane folds his arms across his chest. "Couldn't we just, I don't know, throw it in a wheelbarrow or something?" he adds.
"I think we need to bring it in this way," says Rikki.
Cleo nods at her assertion. "It feels right, somehow."
"Spidey senses tingling?"
"Lewis," Cleo groans.
He cracks a smile, taking her free hand. "Fine. I trust you, just…" His smile begins to falter as his expression clouds with worry. "Be careful."
With six figures silhouetted in the light of the sunstone as the night draws to a close, the pair sit on his patio and gaze out at the sea. They pray that their successors have made the right choices this time around.
It had started as nothing, and comes to fruition as they wade the waters of the moon pool together. It had been nothing but a silly, fleeting thought, memories that rushed to her and faded just as quickly, like fire turning to ash and dust in her hands. It felt right when the words finally passed her lips. After all, with the powers of all who came before them reaching their fingertips, impossibility is so much closer to reality.
There is a better power that they possess, though, a power that is more than friendship, bigger than secrets, and stronger than anything that could keep them apart; love beats their hearts and pumps the blood around their body, keeping them alive, keeping them strong, and keeping them together. As one they move with this power, and the force of their unity is strong enough to move the sunstone, emanating golden light as it hangs in the air before them.
Beneath the water, Emma and Bella lace their fingers together, sharing a look of faith and devotion before turning to the others. Hope glows in Cleo's eyes as she steadies her shaking hands and grits her teeth in determination. Rikki, too, turns to look at her friends, relaying a sense of calm and of trust as she meets each pair of eyes. She can feel his presence in the corner of the room, he and Lewis crouching in the entrance to the caves, peeking around the corner as their hearts hammer in their chests.
It is time.
The four mermaids gather their strength, smashing the bubble that surrounds the crystal. The boys fall back to shield themselves from the shards, pieces shattering around the caves, something lighter than glass and heavier than ice splashing into the pool. They hardly notice, though, raising their arms higher to propel the sunstone forward as the moon pool begins to bubble with fervour. The indentation in the cave walls, its shape eerily similar, seems to call to the crystal. It welcomes the mermaids as they guide the sun and moon together, their strength slowly waning as, finally, they fix the sunstone into the wall.
With a blinding flash of light, the waterfall returns to the wall and begins to trickle down the rocks as the two stones meet and merge together. The mermaids sink to the bottom of the pool in exhaustion while the waters effervesce around them. As the bubbling begins to subside, however, they rise to the surface one by one and wrap their arms around each other, breathless and triumphant. They are together, they are safe, and the magic is returned to the moon pool once more.
"You did it!" Zane crows from the cave's entrance.
Rikki returns his joyful grin and resists the urge to pull him into the moon pool with her. "Who's up for celebrating?" she asks. "I know a great little café not far from here."
a/n: phew! well done if youve made it this far. i dont even know what to say at this point other than to express my immense gratutide that yall stuck solstice out for so long and left such lovely heartfelt reviews. both the sun pool and the sunstone, as well as the whole idea of fate/destiny, were always going to be central to the plot, but i like to think the story culminates in our heroes choosing certain paths for themselves. but thats all ill say on that bc i want you guys to have your own interpretation of all the magical goings on. that being said, i think things are going to be easier for zane and rikki now that theyve learned to be honest with each other and truly communicate
it was just such a thrill writing this and im so overwhelmed with all the views, feedback etc. there are honestly no words. there is one more chapter, however, an epilogue of sorts on the way very very soon! Again, thank you so so much for everything my loves
Love always,
A xxxxx
