Cam was lounging on a chair on a secluded beach when Erik appeared in the distance, his head bobbing in the waves. Immediately on his feet, he charged into the surf after the man who had nearly cost him everything. To his surprise, Erik did not run. He floated where Cam and had seen him and even when Cam drew back his fist he only watched the blond haired merman. All of the worry that Cam had harbored after Erik took his tail was packed into the fist that he sent crashing into Erik's mouth. The bronze haired man reeled back and spit blood out of his mouth, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Cam waited for retaliation, his body tensed and ready. He only then saw Erik's eyes. They weren't the eyes of the same man who had taken Cam's powers. They were the eyes of a man who had well and truly lost everything. Cam had seen those eyes before, in the mirror every time he looked at himself before he destroyed the chamber.
"You got your tail back." Erik observed, his voice broken and hollow. His lip had been split by Cam's punch and blood was slowly dripping into the sea. "I'm glad."
"What happened to the trident?" Cam demanded, searching the area for the weapon.
"It's gone." Erik said simply. "It disappeared. I don't know what happened to it."
"So you came back to get-." Cam began to guess but Erik cut him off with a vigorous shake of his head.
"No!" Erik said, his voice slightly manic. He cleared his throat and shook his head again. "No. I don't want the trident anymore."
"Then what do you want?" Cam asked suspiciously.
"I want to apologize." Erik said honestly, surprising Cam. "I want to get my job at the café back. I want things to go back to how they were. I want to not be alone anymore."
"It's a little late for that." Cam told him frankly. "Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you caused?"
"No." Erik said, his eyes seemed to grow even sadder somehow. "I don't."
"Then don't ask for me to forgive you." Cam's head was clear as he turned away and swam back to the beach. He never saw the single tear that slid down Erik's cheek as Cam swam away. Cam pulled himself onto the beach and dried his tail off. He got to his feet and cast a single glance back to where Erik remained in the water before he folded up his chair and left the beach.
The café was a veritable ghost town, the only occupants being those that could grow a tail at will and David. The human was sitting at a table with Sirena while Zach and Evie had their heads together deep in conversation. They turned in their seats when Cam entered and Zach waved his friend over. "What's up?" Cam asked casually, sliding onto a bar stool.
"Well, we were just discussing what we are going to do tonight." Evie told him cheerfully, stretching in her seat like a relaxed cat.
"Tonight?" Cam asked curiously. He wasn't aware of anything special happening tonight.
"The full moon!" Zach said with an exaggerated eye roll. "Remember?"
Cam quickly counted the days since the last full moon and gave a nod of his head after a moment. "Yeah, I guess you are right." He agreed with a shrug. "Guess I stopped really paying attention. What are you guys doing?"
"That's what are we doing." Mimie corrected, jumping into the stool beside Cam and leaning an elbow on the counter. "You are in the pod now. You hang out with us."
"Zach doesn't always hang out with you." Cam protested lightly. "He sometimes does his own thing for the full moon."
"Zach wasn't turned by the pod." Mimie explained. "You were. You are as much a part of the pod as I am. And that means that you are joining us for the full moon tonight."
"Well that sounds like a great time." Cam agreed. He paused and his face grew dark as he thought back to his meeting with Erik. "I ran into some one today."
"Who?" Evie asked, intertwining her fingers with Zach's.
"Erik." Instantly, Cam had the attention of everyone at the bar. He raised a hand before any questions could be asked. "He isn't here to start anything. He doesn't even have the trident anymore."
"Not that you saw." Ondina said, pacing the length of the bar over and over again. "He could have hidden it."
"Maybe, but I don't think so." Cam said. He couldn't explain it in words, the way that Erik looked so broken. He wasn't the same man who had stolen away his powers and the trident. "He's… different."
"Still, we need to tell the council," Ondina said. She grabbed Cam by the hand and pulled him along. "Come on, we need to go."
Cam looked back at the people left at the bar and they all shooed him away. "I didn't even get to have a drink." He said forlornly as Ondina pulled him out of the café.
Several miles away, the trident was speeding through the water. It wasn't an odd act of magic that it was moving, it was held by a merman. If Erik had seen him he would have recognized him as one of the men who had been for starting a war with the mermaids. He wore a beatific smile as he cut through the water, searching eagerly for a mermaid to test the limits of his new weapon. It wasn't however a mermaid that he encountered beneath the water; it was Erik.
The two mermen stared down one another, the man with the trident's gaze filled with contempt. It took only a moment for Erik to realize what he had been planning to do with the trident this close to Mako. Even though the trident was running low on power it still had the ability to destroy more than Erik was willing to lose. His eyes slowly filled with anger and he rushed towards the man, moving so quick that he couldn't react. Grabbing onto the trident, the two mermen began to wrestle for control of the weapon. They descended deep into the sea, odd flashes of light occasionally piercing the gloom.