Nexus: I have good news! Once this story is over and done with, there will be a sequel! Current name: In Trouble Yet Again

It's that or I could call it In Trouble Once Again. If you review, tell me which one you like more.

Zac: That's great and all but what about the Sea Demon we're currently fighting?

Nexus: Oh right, sorry. On with Chapter 12 it is!

Chapter 12: The Battle

Everyone stood frozen still in the room, looking at the Sea Demon that was now in front of them at full height. It almost looked like a snake but with long arms. It had a large white jewel in the centre of its forehead. When it opened its mouth, several sharp pointy teeth could be seen. Its main body was black with scatterings of golden scales. It had almost a forest of black coral on its back and its tail spread out into a fan of deadly sharp points. As for its arms, black coral ran down the sides of them as well as having human like hands with incredibly sharp nails.

After Sirena took a good look at it, she remembered what Rita had told them about different types of sea demons.

*The worst of all is a black coral sea demon. You can recognise one easily for its black body and golden scales and most importantly, the black coral that runs along the back of their body and their arms. You can only but prey that the one inside Joanna isn't black coral. One touch of that coral will send a deadly toxic poison into your body and you'll be dead within minutes if that happens.*

"It's a black coral sea demon," Sirena noticed. "We're in trouble."

"One touch from that coral and we're done for. Plus, we're not going to be able to take it down without all our powers combined," Nixie added.

Lyla looked over her shoulder at Evie. "We need your help. Evie those chains on him are magic draining chains, he won't be able to use his powers if he stays in them. I don't think the Sea Demon knows that magic chains can be broken by pure human hands."

"So you need me to swim down and get Zac out of them?" Evie asked, looking over at the tank and how far down she would have to swim.

"Yes, you're the only one who can free him out of us! We'll keep beastie here distracted for you," Nixie replied.

Evie immediately ran over to the tank and began climbing up the ladder.

"Oh no you don't!" The Sea Demon screamed as it went for a swipe at Evie. Sirena and Nixie quickly created a flow of water from Zac's tank since the Sea Demon forgot to put the tank's lid back on. They began wrapping the water around its arm. Once in place, Lyla used her powers to freeze the water so that the Sea Demon wouldn't be able to move its arm any more. With a firm hold on it, the three girls swung its arm back against itself, the black coral slashing into its body, blood pouting out its fresh wound.

The Sea Demon let out a little scream as coral slashed itself. "Nice try but black coral poison doesn't effect me," it stated.

By this point in time, Evie was now at the top of the ladder. She took a deep breath in and dove into the tank, swimming down as fast as she could to reach Zac.

Zac looked up to see Evie swimming down towards him and tried to help her out by first swimming up as far as he could being restricted by the chains but he felt so drained that he couldn't use his magic to push her down to him.

When Evie reached the bottom of the tank, she felt rather faint and even Zac could see that she was running out of air. He grabbed her body and turned her around to face him. He lifted up her chin and gave her an air filled kiss. After giving her as much air as he could Zac let go of her.

Evie didn't waste any time in grabbing the chains around his wrists. When she did, they glowed before they shattered and Zac felt some of his powers coming back to him. She moved down to his tail and grabbed it, the same result occurring. He grabbed Evie and quickly pulled her back up to the surface with him.

The Sea Demon looked over at the tank to see that Zac was now free. An idea sprung to mind. They would all be helpless if the bottom of the floor was covered with a small layer of water.

It opened its mouth and let out a deafening roar. Luckily, a Sea Demon's roar is impossible to hear, kind of like a dog whistle. Whilst no-one was injured, the tank containing Zac and Evie suddenly shattered, the water from the tank now covering about 20cm's of the floor. A few seconds and the girls fell down, their tails appearing.

"Awe, good luck now," the Sea Demon taunted.

The four of the instantly tried to heat up the water and make it evaporate, but to no avail.

"I don't get it! Why isn't it working?" Lyla asked herself frustrated.

"Oh sorry about that. The water has a certain magical quality about it, it can't be heated up at all," the Sea Demon laughed. "Why do you think I said good luck?"

Zac clenched his teeth together. The Sea Demon was trying its best to slow them down. Sadly for it, water wouldn't stop Zac today. He focused his mind on becoming human, a soft glow covering his body.

Everyone including the Sea Demon looked at Zac, shocked at what they saw when the glow faded. Zac was now lying down in a giant puddle of water, yet he was human.

"How did you-" Lyla asked breathlessly.

"Rita wasn't letting you out each night for an hour or so for nothing. She was training me. Teaching me powers that only mermen have," Zac explained as he rose to his feet.

The Sea Demon hadn't planned on Zac being able to shape shift. If he could do this, what other powers did he have? It decided to shift its focus onto the mermaids instead. After all, they were more helpless than Zac right now.

Using its other arm, it took a good swing at all three of them. Zac clicked his fingers three times with his right hand and clicked once on his left hand which was now behind his back. As the Sea Demon's arm came down, the three girls were suddenly teleported to behind Zac.

"What!?" the Sea Demon cried when it saw that its targets where now behind Zac. "Teleportation," it growled.

"Girls, I need your help for this next part," Zac began. "Use your powers and gather up all the water into a ball just behind you. I'll keep you protected whilst you do so."

The girls followed Zac's orders and began drawing all the water around them and gathering it into a ball. To keep them safe, Zac pointed the palms of his hands at the girls, two balls of swirling wind on them. He fired them in different directions around the girls and when the two balls met, they encased the girls in a ball of wind. If anyone tried to touch them from the outside, it would be deflected, and the girls could still use their magic inside of it.

"How did Rita manage to teach him all this in just a week?" Sirena wondered.

"I think she only taught him one or two skills, and that he learnt the rest by himself," Nixie said giving her thoughts on it. "He's smarter than I give him credit for. But why does he want us to gather up all the water into on concentrated ball?"

"Let's just focus on doing what he said and wonder about everything else later," Lyla said, silencing her friends.

The Sea Demon hadn't planned for Zac to be this smart, neither for him to have as much power as he did. "You really piss me off, you know that right?"

Zac didn't respond. Instead he put his left hand into a point and fired a shot of air magic just above the Sea Demon's head. He began using his powers to create a storm over the Sea Demon's head but combined it with a little bit of his ice magic. Put together with the air magic that was swirling around the Sea Demon's head, Zac created an furious Ice Storm in order to try and slow down the Sea Demon's movements.

"A Black Coral Sea Demon has only one weakness. As powerful as it is, its attacks are slow so all you have to do is slow down its movements and it becomes as helpless as you are right now," Zac bragged, smirking at the Sea Demon which only enraged it even more than it already was.

"That does it!" The Sea Demon screamed as it let out another roar that no-one could hear. It's roar actually dispelled Zac's Ice Storm and also broke all the shards of Ice that had dug into its body as well as the Ice roped around his wrist.

"Oh great," Zac said to himself, trying to think of what to do next. He couldn't take down the Sea Demon until all the water in the room was gathered up into that ball. It looked like it would take the girls another two whole minutes to finish it, time which now seemed to have slipped away from them.

If Zac could at least try to slash its arms and spiked tail off, then that might be it. Freezing them wouldn't do any good as the Sea Demon would just roar and destroy the Ice.

"Slight change of plan girls, keep on gathering the water but at least leave a small covering over the floor," Zac ordered. He jumped into the air and blasted his feet using his Ice magic. When he landed back down, he landed on top of the water. He took a small run forward and then began gliding about on the surface of the water.

"What!?" The Sea Demon cried again. "Travelling on water as well?"

"Never underestimate me," Zac said as he carried on gliding about on the water. He used his left hand to create a ball of water, using a little bit from the water ball the girls were still making and created another swirling wind ball in his right hand. Gliding around towards the Sea Demon's right arm, he combined the water and air magic together and used his now free right now to control the combined magic. Much like the girls had done earlier, Zac lasso'd the water around the Sea Demon's arm and gave it an almighty tug, the air magic within the water slicing through its arm, cutting it off, blood pouring from where it had been cut off.

The Sea Demon cried in pain as Zac glided around to the other arm and repeated the process, the same result occurring, the Sea Demon now in even more pain with both its arms missing. Suddenly, the white jewel on its forehead began glowing and stopped the bleeding from it's arms.

Zac was so taken in by the magic from the jewel that he didn't notice the Sea Demon's tail sweeping around from the right, headed straight towards him.

"Zac!" Evie screamed as her body automatically began running towards Zac. Before he knew it, Evie was standing by the side of him with her arms spread wide as the Sea Demon's tail hit her instead, sending Evie flying into the nearby wall, the familiar sound of bones smashing filling the room.

"Evie!" Zac cried as he saw her body smash against the wall, skating over towards her. Her body looked lifeless but she was still breathing. Zac began crying as he realised that he should have told Evie to leave. But if it wasn't for her, he could be nearly dead right now. He had the kill the Sea Demon here and now before he focused on saving Evie.

"It's all over!" The Sea Demon said as he sent its tail crashing down onto Zac, but for some reason, its tail didn't hit Zac and bounced off of something. "What?"

Zac's body began glowing with a golden aura. He slowly but steadily rose to his feet, turning around to face the Sea Demon, his face full of anger. His eyes had changed and instead of being their normal brown colour, they were now almost gold. Something had also happened to his ears, they looked a lot like David's ears back before the Higher Council had taken him in, shaped liked elven ears with blue fins coming off of the top and running down the ear, diamond webbing in between each fin.

"Zac, it's done!" Sirena called, the ball of water now complete.

"Good," Zac replied. "Now get the rest of water and shape in into spear." Zac also skated over in front of the girls so that the Sea Demon wouldn't be able to hit them at all, despite him dispelling the air bubble that surrounded them before.

The Sea Demon tried to take another strike at Zac with its tail but the same result happened, its tail just bounced back without even touching Zac. All the water from the floor was now into that ball and Zac quickly dried off the girls, the three of them standing up whilst finishing shaping the water.

Once they were done, Zac grabbed it. The spear first of all froze when Zac grabbed it and once it was crystallised, the Ice shattered, leaving a metallic spear.

"This is for Evie, Marie, Joanna, everyone you've hurt in your destructive rage!" Zac shouted as he hurled the spear right towards the Sea Demon's jewel on its forehead.

The Sea Demon tried to block it with its tail but the spear spliced straight through the middle of it, flying straight into the jewel. For a few second nothing happened, until a few cracks appeared in the jewel, moments later the entire Jewel shattered. Using telekinesis, Zac pulled the spear out and then shot it straight back down through the point where the jewel once was, the spear travelling right down through the Sea Demon's body. Again, nothing happened until a few seconds later when its body began to glow with the same golden glow that Zac had. Its body suddenly became crystallised like the spear had and then shattered into millions of tiny pieces, almost like a shower of confetti, its sliced off arms doing the same thing.

"We... did it," Sirena said slowly.

"We did it!" The four of them cheered as they all gathered for a group hug, Zac's glow still covering his body as well as his new ears, yet his eyes had returned to normal.

"Evie!" Zac cried as he stopped the hug and ran back over to Evie. Luckily, she was still breathing.

"Zac I'm so sorry," Lyla pleaded. "This is all my fault, I should have tried to stop the Sea Demon ages ago when I had the chance."

"Lyla no-one can stop a Sea Demon until it's fully grown, don't blame yourself," Nixie said softly, trying to console her friend.

Zac placed his hands over Evie's chest where the bones had broke, and then began glowing with a soft golden light.

Sirena's moon ring also began glowing with the same golden light as she pointed it towards Evie's chest as well.

Zac began clenching his teeth as he carried on fixing the bones within her body.

Once he was done, the golden glow from his body had gone, and his ears were now back to normal as well. The light from Sirena's moon ring stopped as well.

They waited for a moment, as Evie's eyes suddenly flickered open.

"Zac?" She said as she looked at her boyfriend who was sitting in front of her panting. He lifted his head to see his girlfriend back to normal health.

"Evie," he said quietly as he pulled her into a long hug. "Thank you Evie. If it wasn't for you protecting me back then, I might of been a goner."

"It's okay, after all, you saved me in return," Evie replied as she launched into a passionate kiss with him.

The mermaids all turned around and decided to give them a private moment, turning invisible.

Once they were done, Nixie released her invisibility and turned around. "Right, smooshy moment over. Now that the Sea Demon's gone, what do we do now?"

Realisation suddenly hit Zac and remember what Rita said before. "Yeah, what do we do now? Joanna's dead and I can't go back on land considering I can't really explain how I went missing."

"Well, there might be a way around it," Evie spoke up.

"Really?" Zac asked shocked.

"My Dad could draw up files to make it seem like you went on holiday for a month abroad. We'd just need to tell him everything," Evie explained.

"Woah woah, that's really risky," Nixie interrupted. "Telling your dad that Zac's a merman who was help captive by a Marine Scientist who's now dead? Yeah, that's going to go down well."

"Look, I never told anyone this but my Dad once said that he met a mermaid and he even has a photo to prove it. That's why I wasn't so shocked when I learnt about all of you," Evie explained. "He'll be fine with it and everything will be okay."

"Evie you are a life saver you know that right?" Lyla complimented.

"I know," she replied.

The five of them walked out of the room, hopped back aboard the boat and left EC42. That place was now deserted so at least no-one would be returning any time soon.

- Three days later -

Zac's parents were making a good recovery in the hospital and would still be there for a little while longer.

Evie's father was surprisingly okay with the situation and managed to draw up some papers stating that Zac had gone away to America for a month. It was even broadcast on the news that Zac wasn't missing and that even though a notice had been given to the school, it had gotten lost so it seemed like he'd disappeared. There was also a new casting on EC42, stating that some strange freak accident had occurred and everyone including Joanna Fischer and Marie Westhall had died.

Suncoast High had a small ceremony for Marie, as they would for any student who died. Zac was back to school and everything seemed fine. The Higher Council had sent Aquata and Maya on a small job the night before he was going back. They changed memories of everyone from Suncoast High, stating that Zac had returned from his holiday and everyone remembered being told that he was going away for a while.

It was now Friday morning and Zac had been spending his nights over at Rita's place still. He didn't want to move back home until his parents were back.

"Right, ready to go?" Rita asked as she gathered her stuff for the day ahead.

Everyone called in response that they were ready.

Zac opened the door to leave, a lone female standing there.

"Um, hello," Zac said.

"Hi, you're Zac aren't you?" The girl asked.

Sirena wondered who Zac was talking to and walked out of the lounge to see who it was. She was shocked when she was who it was.

"Aquata?"

"Hi Sirena," Aquata replied. Zac stepped to the side as he saw Sirena run towards her and launch into a hug with her sister.

"Aquata what are you doing here? And with legs?" Sirena asked slightly confused.

"Oh yeah, um, the four of you all have a call from the Higher Mermaid Council, today," Aquata explained.

"What would the Higher Mermaid Council want with us?" Nixie asked as she joined in the conversation.

"It's very important, our leader himself wants to speak to you four about the recent events," Aquata replied.

"Himself? The leader of the HMC is a man?" Lyla asked surprised.

"Yes," Aquata replied once more, sighing. "Look we don't have time to waste we need to go now."

Aquata created a portal behind her in which she ushered everyone into. Just as she herself was about to go through it, Rita stepped around the corner.

"Aquata? What are you doing here? Where are the girls and Zac?" Rita asked, firing off those question at her.

"They've all got a calling from the head of the HMC. You can come with if you like," Aquata said motioning towards the portal.

Rita quickly pulled her out her phone and left a message for the Vice Principal. "Hi, I'm not going to be in today, so you're covering for me." She shut her phone down and left her stuff on the nearby table, walking through the portal.

Aquata then closed the door to Rita's house and stepped through the portal as well, it disappearing as soon as she did.

Nexus: Well, that happened

Zac: So I was able to go back to land all fine and then you go ahead and put me in another situation?

Nexus: It's vital for the rest of the story. Besides, now we get to find out what's happened with David at long last

Sirena: Finally! I was worried that you'd almost forgotten about him

Nexus: I couldn't possibly forget about David

I'm not entirely sure when Chapter 13 will be out since College Work will start getting harder now so I'll try my best to work on it when I can xxx