Madison watched, slightly bewildered, as Lexia chased Caren around the hotel room in a blind rage. Kiri just rolled her eyes threw a pillow at Lexia, but missed. The pillow hit Rilene instead, who spluttered and threw it back at Kiri. However, Rilene ALSO had bad aim, and this time hit Moiyu on the back, missing Kiri by a good ten inches. Jay caught Moiyu as she fell forward, surprised. She whirled around, eyes red with rage at whoever had thrown the pillow at her, but all members of the group were now currently calm, with the exception of Lexia who was still chasing Caren around the room in frantic circles. Staring at Kiri, Madison and Rilene's faces determinedly as she tried to figure out who had thrown the pillow, Moiyu proceeded in scaring three of the four people. Kiri was just… too indifferent to the whole situation to care. And, she was trying to ignore the fact that she'd started it.

The glaring silence was broken by a shout from Lexia as she tripped over a chair that "just happened" to be in the path Caren was, unknown to Lexia, leading her on. Caren snickered as she escaped the clutches of her stunned friend, and took refuge behind the still angry Moiyu.

"Look, can we just get down to business, or are you going to piss Lexia off again, Caren?" Kiri spoke up.

"I didn't do it on purpose." Caren muttered. Madison helped Lexia sit upright in the chair instead of the upside down, sprawled position she'd landed in.

"Madison, what were you saying?" Kiri asked.

"Coco, the yellow idol princess, is being held captive by Gaito, apparently, in the basement of his castle. I've been looking for her for four years." Madison said.

"We have to save her." Moiyu's answer was blunt and to the point, but voiced the thought on everyone's mind, except Rilene, who just wanted to "get away from these psychos and possibly retreat into a dark corner to avoid them forever."

"How?" Madison asked, "It's not like we can just infiltrate the castle and just save her. It's not that easy!"

"It can be." Moiyu smiled, "Hannah and Myieli would help us out." she explained, "In fact, knowing Myieli, she already has a plan, she just needs us to put it in action."

XXXX

"Hannah!" Aryl called out, swimming up to the water demon.

Hannah whirled around, "What are you doing here?" she asked Aryl, surprised.

"I need to ask you a question." Aryl said, "You told Moiyu that Gaito was sending a message through those natural disasters, right? But, we have Rilene in 'captivity' and she said that Gaito thought we sent the message."

"Huh? I never told Moiyu anything about that." Hannah said, "If anything, I would have told her that Gaito thought you were sending the message. You mean, you aren't sending a message?"

"Not us." Aryl said, "None of us can control the weather like that. But Moiyu said you told her."

"I swear, I wouldn't have told her that." Hannah said, "Why would I lie to Moiyu?"

"I don't know." Aryl said, sighing, "Okay, thanks, Hannah. See you." Aryl swam away, and Hannah turned back to continue swimming to the Dark Ocean as an image of a certain water demon that wanted revenge on the mermaids popped into her head.

"Shit, Jeri." Hannah muttered, "What did you do to me?" With that thought in mind, Hannah swam back into the Dark Ocean, determined to find Jeri.

XXXX

Soon after Aryl walked back in the door, she was caught up on all the girls had been talking about. She joined in, really making the semi-intelligent conversation that much less intelligent.

Rilene pulled her knees up to her chest, hardly listening to the chatting mermaids anymore. Moiyu walked over and sat down next to her.

"You okay?" she asked the younger girl, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"How can you deal with them?" Rilene wondered, "They're psychos, lunatics!"

Moiyu chuckled, "That they are." she said, "But they're my friends. And despite the craziness that happens on the surface, it just shows they're friends. What were you told about them?"

Rilene stared at Moiyu for a second, "What do you mean?"

"You grew up in the castle, right?" Moiyu asked her, "You weren't kidnapped in like me, or Myieli."

Rilene nodded, "Why?"

"Well, growing up in the castle, you must have been told something about the mermaid princesses. What were you told?" Moiyu asked the girl.

"They always said that the mermaid princesses wanted nothing more than the destruction of the Panthalassa clan." Rilene said.

"Panthalassa clan?" Aryl questioned, "Is that a type of fish?"

"What?" Rilene asked, 'How do you not know about the Panthalassa clan?"

"Because I just don't know?" Aryl guessed.

"I've never heard of it." Kiri said.

"Then why do you fight the water demons so ferociously?" Rilene asked.

"Because they fight us ferociously." Lexia answered, "And they cause problems in the human world. We've never heard of this Panthalassa clan, so how could we want to destroy it?"

"I was afraid of something like this." Moiyu said with a sigh, "They make the water demons born there grow up hating the mermaids. That's the only reason they're loyal; they've just never seen the other side of the fight. Rilene, do these five girls actually look like they're out to destroy anything?"

There was a pause. After a couple moments, Rilene pointed to Aryl, "Umm…"

Moiyu turned, only to see Aryl in her warrior form, pointing her gun at Lexia, who hadn't noticed yet.

"Aryl!" Moiyu shouted.

"Whaaaaat?" Aryl cried, "I'm only out to destroy Lexiaaaaaaa!"

Moiyu sighed, "Okay, ignore Aryl. Do the other four look like they're out to destroy anything?"

Rilene shook her head, "They just look like nutcases."

"They are nutcases." Moiyu answered, "But, with the exception of Aryl, they are not maniacal nutcases. Rilene, maybe you should think about the way you're treated when you fail a job back at the castle. I don't know how it differs from the way we who were captured were treated, but I'm pretty sure you weren't greeted with a hug and an 'It's alright, everyone fails sometimes' from one of the Black Beauty Sisters, or that old hag, Maria."

Rilene shook her head, "I can't fail- they'll hurt me." the girl cried, pulling her knees closer to her chest as Moiyu pulled her into a hug. The girl cried into Moiyu's shoulder.

By the time she'd calmed down, Kiri and Lexia had already tied and gagged Aryl and placed her in a chair. Rilene saw this and giggled.

"Rilene, there's a lot we don't know about you, and there's a lot you don't know about us, but we'd really like to get to know you." Kiri said, "We promise to never hurt you like they did, or anything, so will you… will you help us?"

Rilene was surprised at the proposal. Less than 24 hours ago, she'd tried to kill the mermaids and now they were offering to help her? It was bizarre, but Rilene had to admit that despite the craziness that had ensued in the room, she really kind of liked the atmosphere. "Y-yeah." she stammered, "I'll help you, just keep Gaito from getting me back, okay?"

"Of course!" Kiri said, "We'd never let him get you back."

Rilene smiled, and for the first time in a long while, she had to admit she was actually happy.

XXXX

"Oh, right, Aryl." Moiyu said, later that night. Rilene had fallen asleep and so had Madison. Kiri and Lexia were out getting food, since the earlier trip had been unsuccessful. Caren was watching TV. Moiyu and Aryl were standing on the balcony, waiting for the food to arrive, since they were both hungry. "What did Hannah tell you?"

"She said she never told you that Gaito was sending a message. In fact, she was surprised when I said that we weren't sending it." Aryl answered.

"What?" Moiyu asked, jumping up, "But she actually came over to me and told me!"

"That's what I said, but she said that she's sure she didn't tell you." Aryl answered.

Moiyu thought for a moment, "Wait- could Jeri have done something?" she asked Aryl.

"Jeri…" Aryl thought for a moment, "She's the water demon that can take over people's bodies with a spell, right?"

Moiyu nodded, "I've never heard of her taking over a fellow water demon's body before, but I'm pretty sure she can. If she took Hannah over, she could easily give me a false message and make sure that Hannah didn't remember ever telling me it. But what kind of gain would come out of that, especially if she didn't tell Gaito that she did it?"

Aryl shook her head, "I'm not sure." she said, "But I do know one thing."

"What?" Moiyu asked.

"There is no way that Kiri and Lexia are coming back with food unless they steal it." Aryl said, completely calm.

"And why is that?" Moiyu asked, not at all disturbed by the sudden change in conversation subject.

"Because Kiri gave me her money earlier to buy her some candy and I never returned it. And no one lets Lexia carry any money."

Moiyu sighed, turning around, "Well, give me the money you've got. I'd better go try and find them."

Aryl pulled some money out of her pocket and handed it to Moiyu who hurried off the balcony and out of the room without another word.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I know I said there'd be Lycoris, Miriella and Rina in this chapter, but once I got this written, I was satisfied with ending it here even though it's kind of short. But, since I know exactly what I want to do with the next chapter, you can expect it probably as fast as this one! I can't believe I got this done so fast! I never finish chapters like this!!

Anyway, I realized while I was typing this chapter that I needed to do some explanation about some of the places in this story.

I'll explain the kingdom that Anayis is from in the next chapter, so hold on for that one, but I can explain the Dark Ocean. I'm not sure if there was an actual "Dark Ocean" in the anime or manga, but it's pretty much the place where all the water demons come from. Most are actually pretty peaceful, except those that are dragged into Gaito's schemes. That's why Kore took Madison in when she hurt herself- she wasn't working for Gaito.

And that's enough for now.

Next chapter: Everything I said would be in this chapter and wasn't.

Review please! See you next time!