Sooner or later, Damian came face-to-face with Orca and her half of the Aqua Senshi. All their nails were black. "Glad to see you're all here." Damian turned on a speaker so they could hear each other.
"We're not helping you!" Orca declared, and her Aqua Senshi, who are not spellbound, agreed.
"I think THIS will make you think twice." Damian pulled out a whip.
"That's not going to work in the water." Lucy said in a 'really?' sort of way.
"Who said I would use it on any of you?" Damian turned and cracked the whip on Karen's face!
Sadly, Karen was so heavily under Damian's control that she didn't scream but did jump.
"KAREN!" Orca screamed as she saw blood drip down the side of Karen's face!
Hannah hugged Seira, blocking the little mermaid's view of Karen so she would not see the blood. Lina saw a flicker of emotions in the spelled mermaid's eyes. Deep down, the real them is still in there somewhere. Lina wanted to call out to them. Yet she needed to be alone with them so Damian could not regain control of them too quickly.
"If you girls help me, I'll reward you. If not, I'll punish your friends until you do." Damian explained.
"Is that supposed to be a choice?" Hannah snapped.
"Well, I suppose you could swim away too, but that won't get either of us anywhere." Damian shrugged.
"Princess, we need him to trust us. Damian, I'll help you if I can do it willingly. We will have a better chance of opening the gate if we sing on free will." Lina reasoned.
"How do I know this isn't a trick?" Damian asked suspiciously.
"How do we trick you at this point?!" Orca quirked an eyebrow.
"You're young, beautiful, smart girls. I'm sure you would come up with something." Damian backhand complimented the Princesses.
"Thank you...I think?" Seira replied though a look of confusion on her face.
"As Lina is the wisest of my Aqua Senshi, we will offer our voices as well, but with the same condition on free will." Orca tried to keep her tone strong but felt they had already been defeated.
"Fine." Damian let his control over the spelled mermaids slip a little so they could sing their best, but not too much, as they could break free.
Karen, Noel, Coco, and Sara are let out of the sub and sing. As they sang, their pearls lit up and shot a beam of colored light at the lock, which unlocked when the mermaid's voices reached a particular pitch. Swimming through the city, Damian was disappointed as all he could locate were gold coins. He wanted to discover different treasures from the one he already had!
"What's that?" Lucy pointed her multi-colored nails at a bottle with a note in it!
Orca pulled the bottle out of a pile of coins, her nails grey, and broke it to get the note out. "It's a jumbled version of 'Do, Re, Mi.'"
Suddenly, they heard a clunk sound and the low note of 'Do.' Turning around, they see Seira darting around, her nails yellow and banging on odd, bucket-like objects, which play the tones of 'Do, Re, Mi!' Struck by an idea, Coco swam over to one of the musical oddities and used several coins to indicate which note matched the tone like; one for Do, two for Re, three for Mi, etc. Catching on, the others did the same until all these..."things" were marked!
"Seira, play these...whatever these are.
in this order!" Orca threw her the note.
Seira's face lit up as she followed the coin number corresponding with the note placement number. Once she was done, a rumbling noise caught their ears! Looking up, one of the golden temple doors lifted open!
"The first of the three temple doors is open." Lucy laughed, reciting that annoying line from the Soinc Unleashed video game.
"That makes just as much sense here as it did on that game," Damian commented.
Peering into the temple, all they could see was darkness beyond the outside light pouring in! Damian turned on his subs' external lights to lead the way, and the mermaids took out the pearls to light up the area even more.
"Look..." Hannah dusted off a slab of rock that had caught her attention and inspected the cryptic writing and symbols carved into it, "I think it's a riddle?"
"I stink at riddles!" Seira groaned, her nails turning red.
"Many of us aren't good at them." Sara seconded that statement.
Orca read the first riddle, "If you have lost what you seek, ask our man to give you a peek inside his paper sheets?"
"That's like 'Where's Waldo!' I'm good at those!" Seira cheered as her nails shined yellow again.
"Excellent attention to wordplay, Seira! Can you find the items here?" Orca pointed at the shapes, and the tiny girl nodded.
Paddling around, the tiny mermaid picked up objects that she knew looked like the images: Golden coins with specific makings, a silver chalice, platinum shaped like a card, a copper bracelet, an amulet necklace, and jeweled (mainly jade or lapiz lazuli) headdress, earring, ring, bangle, and anklet! This should have been expected as these materials were typical ceremonial festival offerings from the ancient people of Rush City, which were thrown into a river. Finally, Seira swam back, "Did I get them all?"
Before Orca could check the rock, it glowed, the objects vanished as if they never existed, and the riddle changed!
"I guess the slab knows when we solved the riddle?" Coco asked, giggling nervously but sounding more like herself again.
"It's magical, which means answering those riddles must open a door. Let's solve the rest!" Damian ordered.
Though Orca did not want to read the following riddle, she saw how sorry Seira looked for not thinking before solving the first riddle, as her nails were blue. The main princess hoped they could not solve the following puzzle, "Spirals are a hypnotist's most powerful gift, but all magician's acts have a trick. Can you find the fault in this one?"
"Let me see that..." Orca handed the slab to Sara as this riddle sounded challenging, but the older orange mermaid could crack it in seconds! "The one on the right is in two pieces."
"Amazing!" Damian shouted as the hunk of stone's message changed again!
"Love. Hearts are its symbol, but it can be tricky to find true love. At the end of the day, where can you always find love?" Sara blushed from Damian's compliment as she read the riddle.
"There is no such thing as true love. True happiness, companionship, and stability, but not love." Damian commented.
"You just answered the question! Where does happiness, companionship, and stability start? At home. Our families will always love us!" Lucy put her pink-nailed hands over her heart.
Looking down, Sara read the next riddle. "Left or right only matters if you are moving, but which direction is this vehicle facing?"
Lina swiped the slab from Sara and studied the bus carving on it, "That's easy. It's moving left."
"How can you tell?" Karen asked.
"You can't see the busses doors from this side," Lina explained.
On and on, the questions went like this until everyone had answered one, excluding Damian, and a rumbling sound caught their ears! Looking over, another door slid open! In this room, there seemed to be nothing but a mirror...Orca floated over to peer into it and screamed as what was looking back at her was a monster version of herself! This main princess turned and rocketed into Sara's arms. She did not care if she was spellbound; she just wanted Sara to hug her and make this situation less scary as she always did.
"Princess, what's wrong?!" Sara did protectively wrap her warm arms around Orca.
"There's a horrifying monster in the mirror!" Orcs pointed.
"Looks like you found the 'Mirror of Inner Demons.' If that is what this is, we're in trouble." Damian tried to inspect the mirror without looking into it.
"Why?" Noel questioned.
"This mirror feeds on your deepest, darkest emotion and, depending on how big it is, your reflection will become more monstrous. There are tales of people who have gone mad because they could not conquer themselves and died in this room to end it all. So, will you be brave enough to face your true self?" Damian explained theatrically.
"Don't be so dramatic..." Karen giggled.
"So...we just admit our issues?" Orca was not even sure what her darkest emotion was.
"Yes." Damian nodded, and Lucy decided to go first!
Pacific Princess took a deep breath and faced what could be considered an awful-looking siren form of herself, "I try to stay optimistic because Orca and my friends mean everything to me. If they got hurt, felt lonely, or forgot me, I wouldn't have the will to go on."
Slowly, the siren melted away to reveal Lucy's proper form!
"Me next!" Hannah popped up in front of the mirror, and, of course, she did not like what she saw but remained resilient. Then, she turned to address her spelled friends, "Sara, forgive me, but my biggest problem lies with you: I know you are only trying to protect us, but you seem to forget you are one of us when you raise your voice. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it makes us feel like we don't trust our judgment about things."
"That's not true. I may be a little overbearing, but I don't want you to get killed...like my kingdom did..." Sara's eyes were downcast.
Most of the Princesses have people from their kingdoms safely housed at the Coral Reef Palace until the other homes are, at least, rebuilt. Sara's people perished, except for an elderly servant of hers. Same with Seira: She is the last of her kind. Downheartedly, Hannah clasped Sara's hands between hers and began a song she and Sara used to sing when they were younger, and it was used to cheer Sara up. With nostalgia filling her mind, Damian's spell on her slipped, but Sara still acted like she was under his control as she knew it was too soon to let it known she had broken free.
Sara pulled her hands from Hannah's to hide her nails as they changed from grey to lilac. Also, Sara would not leave without Coco.
"If you don't like Sara raising her voice, then maybe it would be better if she stays with me; I love her voice." Damian snapped.
"Love, my a-!" Hannah swore.
"I would if I got to squeeze it." Damian retorted.
"You would be too busy squeezing your severed neck after I slice it open with my shurikens!" Hannah threatened.
"Uh...Hannah? It's my turn." Lina tapped Hannah's shoulder.
Hannah turned and smiled as she had not noticed her reflection had returned to normal until now.
Lina's reflection was not as grotesque as the others, but she had to think for a minute before she responded, "I am Lina Brewer, Princess of the Dead Sea. I am calm and level-headed because I believe seriousness, fearlessness, loyalty, and maturity are the qualities that make a Senshi. I know some people have a problem with my attitude, but as long as I can protect Orca and my friends, I don't care."
Lina smiled as her reflection shifted back to normal.
"Seira, do you want to go next?" Orca turned to her shortest companion.
"I need more time to think." Seira whimpered.
"I'll go next." Sara volunteered as she went up to the mirror. Not prepared, Sara saw her reflection as a black, serpent-like siren, and she gasped as her memory of the events concerning the leviathan came back to her!
"It's alright, Sara." Coco hugged her.
"I...I...I am Sara, Sailor Gulf. Though I act friendly, loving, insightful, happy, kindhearted, and determined, I can be cold, hateful, foolish, sad, selfish, and lazy. I suppress those traits, but Damian brings those out in me..." Sara began to cry.
"Sara..." Coco wanted to comfort her, but not when she said Damian brought out her worst traits.
However, as Sara's tears hit Coco's arm, she starts to feel as though she is refreshed and her mind is free! Seeing the shine in her best friend's eyes, Sara whispered briefly in her ear, "Act like nothing changed. It's not time for you to switch yet."
Coco nodded and hid her lilac nails, "May I go next?"
"But of course." Sara moved aside and bowed as Coco giggled; they always acted this silly way with each other.
Both their nails turn yellow.
"Spooooooky!" Coco is unbothered by her reflection as she laughs.
Every Aqua Senshi tried not to let their twisted visage in the mirror bother them, except Sara had to hold Seira as she was shaking in fear when it was her turn. Seira expressed how sad and lonely she felt in her home because there was nothing there for her anymore, but she remained as happy and encouraging as possible as her nails flashed from blue to yellow.
"What about you, Damian?" Karen turned to the man as he was the only one who had not gone.
"I don't have any inner demons." Damian lied.
"If you don't think of something, the next door won't open," Noel begged him to choose anything to tell the truth about.
Truthfully, Damian did have one stain on his heart he should tell the truth about, but he did not want to lose the spelled mermaid's heart.