Moiyu was split. Half of her was happy to home in the dark ocean, but the other half was scared and wanted to hightail it out of there as fast as she could.

She calmed herself down and turned to where Aryl, Lexia, and Kiri were swimming, discussing something. Moiyu hadn't really been listening; she really wasn't that interested. She was focused on saving Jay.

"Moiyu, we're ready." Lexia said, grabbing the girl's attention. The three girls had transformed. Moiyu hadn't even noticed; she was so distracted. Lexia was the Sapphire Warrior, Kiri was Diamond, and Aryl Amethyst. They all had the color of a birthstone, and it was reflected in their attacks and weapons as well. Only Aryl had hers out, she was casually holding her gun at her side, ready to shoot at anything that popped out at her.

"Alright." Moiyu answered.

"How often does the castle pass through the dark ocean? Do you know?" Aryl asked the renegade water demon.

Moiyu shook her head, "I'm not sure of the exact number, but several times a day. The waters of the dark ocean are essential to water demons."

"I know." Kiri said, "So, the castle should pass through soon, then?" she guessed, "We'll just wait for it."

XXXX

They didn't have to wait long. Aryl had noticed the castle about twenty minutes later. Moiyu knew of several back doors to the Castle, and knew who was on guard duty at which time. The only one that would allow them to come in would be Hannah, and she was, luckily, on guard duty at one of the exits. Moiyu led them to that door, and knocked. Hannah opened the door, and silently let Moiyu and the mermaids inside before she questioned anything.

"Where are they keeping Jay?" Moiyu asked the older water demon.

Hannah pointed down a staircase, "He's in the basement. Be careful, Moi."

"I will." Moiyu smiled. Lexia, Kiri, Aryl and Moiyu swam down the staircase.

Jay was being held in a simple cell, and there was only one water demon guarding him.

"Jeri." Moiyu muttered. The four were watching from around the corner, hidden behind a wall. Jeri hadn't noticed them yet.

"She's the one that can take over people's bodies, right?" Aryl asked, in a whisper.

Moiyu nodded, "If she completes her spell, she can take complete control over a mermaid's body." She explained.

"Then we won't let her complete her spell." Aryl grinned, cocking her gun.

Lexia rolled her eyes. Aryl was always so eager for a fight. Kiri pulled out a katana and Lexia grabbed her club.

"We'll keep Jeri busy, you get Jay out of that cell." Lexia said.

Moiyu nodded, "Okay. Don't let her pull that lever." She pointed to a red lever, "It alerts the entire castle to our presense."

"Got it. No spells, no lever." Kiri said, "Let's go, girls." With that, the three girls swam around the corner and converged on Jeri. Aryl shot her gun, a light purple energy blast coming out instead of a bullet. Jeri saw it coming and was able to dodge out of the way, towards the lever, but Kiri was there, shaking her head, "Sorry, kid." She said, knocking Jeri away from the lever with the blunt side of her sword.

Lexia charged towards Jeri, with a shout of "Sapphire Club!" She then proceeded to hit Jeri over the head.

Jeri swam under Lexia, while Kiri shook her head and sighed, "We don't really need to call out the names of our weapons, you realize that, right?"

"Yeah, I know, but it's more fun." Lexia said.

"Uh, can we discuss this later?" Aryl asked. She was shooting rapidly at Jeri who was muttering a spell under her breath. Kiri charged at Jeri, knocking the girl over and making her lose her concentration, breaking the spell.

Moiyu swam to her friend, "Jay." She said, quietly, hoping Jeri was distracted enough by the three mermaids to not notice her.

Jay swam over to her, "Moiyu, why'd you come back?" he asked.

"I couldn't just leave you here. Come on, we have to go quickly." Moiyu smiled.

Jay nodded.

Moiyu unlocked the door and Jay swam out.

"Head out of the castle, I'll meet you in the Dark Ocean, okay?" Moiyu asked.

"I'm not leaving until you do." Jay answered.

Moiyu sighed.

Aryl noticed that Moiyu had Jay free, and brought this to Kiri's attention.

"Let's get going then." Kiri said, as she pushed Jeri backwards into a wall. The girl slumped to the ground, half conscious.

"Well, let's hurry, before she can get up." Lexia said. The three mermaids swam quickly over to Moiyu and Jay, who swam towards the staircase. They reached the top, where Hannah was waiting for them.

"Hannah, are you sure you can't just come with us?" Moiyu asked.

Hannah shook her head, "I wish I could." She said, "But Gaito activated the trackers in all of us after your escape. Go, hurry!"

Moiyu nodded, "Thank you, Hannah." She swam out the door, Jay right behind her. The mermaids followed quickly, just as two water demons swam into the hall.

"We're going to have to split up! We only have two on our tail, they can't follow all of us." Kiri said, going into leader-mode. Kiri's leader-mode was one of her six different modes, all of which Aryl and Lexia could explain in detail. "Lexia, go with Moiyu and Jay. Aryl and me will go into different directions. We'll meet back at the apartment."

"Got it." Aryl said, swimming up and turning around, swimming away from the others. Lexia nodded and she, Moiyu and Jay swam towards the dark ocean. Satisfied, Kiri headed off in the same direction she'd already been heading in.

XXXX

Aryl was glad a mermaid couldn't get lost at sea. She always knew where she was. Knowing how to get home from where she was… that was a different story entirely. She hadn't been followed, but she had ended up in the middle of nowhere. She recognized her surroundings as being somewhere near Africa.

"How the hell did I end up here?" Aryl asked herself, with a sigh. She knew that mermaids swam fast, but she had never herself tried to prove the fact. "Okay, so how do I get home?" she asked herself, getting what looked like a strange look from a passing fish. "Yeah, so I'm talking to myself. You got a problem with it?" she shouted at the fish, who swam off quickly.

"Excuse me?" A voice asked from behind the distraught mermaid. Aryl turned to see an idol princess swimming there.

"Yes?" Aryl asked.

"You're yelling at fish." The idol said, pointedly. "Are you lost?"

"I'm not lost." Aryl said, "I know exactly where I am, I just don't know how to get to where I'm going from here."

The idol sighed, shaking her head, "Do you need some help?"

Aryl shrugged, "Point me in the direction of Japan." She said.

"I'm heading to Japan as well, I'll come with you." The idol said, smiling.

"Alright." Aryl said, "Thanks."

"It's no problem. I'm Caren."

"Aryl, nice to meet you."

XXXX

Kiri was the first one back at the apartment, having lost her pursuer by a coral reef. She kept the door unlocked so the others could come in, and walked over to the phone to see if Elik had called. He hadn't.

"Dammit, Elik." Kiri said, sighing. The door opened, and Lexia walked in, Moiyu (in her human form) and Jay (in his water demon form) entered.

"Do you have any idea how many people stared at us on the way over here?" Lexia asked.

Kiri shrugged, "I'm not really surprised. Jay, you can use some of Elik's clothes if you want to change to your human form."

"Thanks." Jay said. "And thanks for helping Moi out."

"No problem." Kiri said, ending the conversation, "Lexia, did you throw off the water demon following you?"

"Barely." Lexia said, "As soon as we did, though, we hightailed it back here. Ignore the pun."

Kiri giggled.

"Where's Aryl? She wasn't being chased, she should have been back by now."

XXXX

"Caren, you have no idea where you're going, do you?" Aryl finally asked the purple princess.

Caren sighed, "I thought I did."

Aryl shook her head, "That's it. I'm taking over navigation."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

I've always interpreted Caren as having bad directional skills. Or, at least, I always have in this story. If someone cares to, go ahead and correct me. Anyway, I'm not that great at action scenes, especially when the girls are at half strength. It's a lot more fun to write their fights when they're at full strength.

Aryl and Caren are going to become close, because they're "technically" from the same kingdom. Technically. Aryl, being a fighter princess, has never lived there. In fact, I doubt she's ever been there.

The idols know about the warrior princesses, but Caren doesn't recognize Aryl as one, just like Luchia didn't realize that Kiri was a mermaid. Instead of a pearl, they have the stone that they represent. It's in a bracelet on their wrists in human and mermaid forms, and when they transform, the bracelet transforms into their weapon. I used all birthstones for them, because I felt like it, and it was easy. Aryl is amethyst, Kiri is diamond, Lexia is sapphire. Miriella, who hasn't shown up yet but was mentioned, is garnet, and the other two are emerald and ruby. They were originally random colors like crimson, lavender, ice and navy. In fact, those are the four I needed to change, because emerald and ruby were already emerald and ruby.

Yeah. Anyway, that's it for this time. I don't really like this chapter, but it's one of those mountains I had to get over before I could get to what I wanted to. More idols in the next chapter, and more bad directional skills! Like I said in the last chapter, feel free to ask any questions you want to.

Oh, and I don't have any pairings, except the canon ones from the show, picked out, so as my original characters get introduced, throw some ideas my way. Just nothing with Kiri or Elik yet, 'kay? That couple's got a future plotline.

Does anyone want me to pair Moiyu and Jay up? Right now they're just friends, but that's easily changed. I have a couple of stories where their human counterparts are paired up. Anyway, just throw your ideas my way.