XXX - A Friend and Ally

"Where is Tatiana?" Orm grit out. He was still a little fuzzy after the blast, but was aware enough to notice that while Mera, Atlanna, and Kings Nereus and the Brine had joined them, as well as Topo and a handful of Atlantean guards, Tatiana was not among them anymore. Then, when no one responded, louder, "Where is she?!"

Arthur appeared regretful and answered. "Manta took her."

Orm flinched. "What? How could you let him? How could you let him take her?!" He had tried to kill her last time, so he could only imagine what Manta had in store for her this time, and none of it was good in the least.

Arthur didn't fight back, didn't try to defend himself or deflect the blame. "I'm sorry, Bro," was all he said, clearly full of regret.

Suddenly, the pain on Orm's chest from the burns was not so bad - the pain in his chest from her loss was far worse. "He'll kill her." Manta had come close to killing her last time, but now he knew how connected she was to them, and would know how to hurt them all.

"Don't worry," Atlanna said, her voice strong and gentle as always. "We'll save her."

"We were able to recover this." Arthur pulled something from behind him.

"Your trident!" Atlanna gasped.

Orm shook his head. "Her trident."

She was a prisoner.

She had been thrown - literally - into a dark, dank, freezing cell.

But that didn't matter. All she could think about was that last image she had glimpsed of Orm, unconscious, his chest burned open. She hoped and prayed that he would be all right.

When the door to her cell suddenly slid open she immediately jumped up into a defensive position. She was coming to thank God more and more for doing that intensive training program, because it had certainly been coming in handy this trip.

It was Dr. Shin who entered her cell.

"Dr. Andreas," he cried. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, great," she replied.

"Sorry, silly question. I know, this sucks." He held out his hands towards her. "Here, I brought you this jacket, you must be freezing."

She took the bundle. "Thanks."

He flopped down onto the bench next to her.

"What are you doing here?"

He heaved a heavy sigh. "I'm trying to help, but I have no idea how."

"Does Manta know you're here?"

He shook his head.

"Where are we?"

"Oh board an ancient Atlantean ship that we revived."

Okay, that was pretty cool. Was she nerding out even though she was a prisoner of a murderous madman? Yes, yes she was.

"Tell me about this Black Trident," she requested. "You never got to finish telling us about it." Before the blast, the attack, Orm's injury, everything. Her whole chest squeezed tightly at the thought.

"Right. Well, it's an ancient evil that's been enabling Manta with great strength and power. Suddenly, he knows all these things that he didn't before, like the orichalcum and the locations of it."

"What sort of ancient evil."

"Kordax, ruler of the Seventh Kingdom of Atlantis."

This struck her - she recalled one of her and Orm's many conversations from those four years ago, when he had been describing Atlantis and all that it was to her, and she had been hanging onto his every word:

"There were once seven kingdoms, but now there are only six."

"What happened to the seventh?"

"The Lost Kingdom? It was erased from the chronicles, it's lost to time. Some even believe it's just a myth, while others insist there once was one."

"Oh. Why?"

"I don't know. No one does. To us it's always been just the six kingdoms..."

"From what I can understand from my brief glimpse, Kordax, ruler of the Seventh Kingdom, exploited the use of orichalcum. He was the younger brother of King Atlan."

"O thee mou..."

"Yeah, and he wouldn't give up his power, even though it was beginning to destroy the world, and he had the Black Trident made and turned all of his kingdom, including himself, into monsters, and the two sides, and brothers, waged war. Atlan managed to stop Kordax by imprisoning him with a blood spell. But over the centuries, the ice has begun to melt-"

"That's why he was using the orichalcum to heat the planet," she connected. "To reach Kordax."

"Exactly."

This was crazy. O thee mou indeed. "Wait, how do you know all this?" She couldn't see Manta opening up about all this, that just didn't fit.

"I-" He broke off, then continued. "-I touched it too."

"You did," she cried. "And what happened?"

He swallowed hard. "I saw everything. It was awful."

"Is there any way to snatch it from him?"

He shook his head. "No, he keeps it personally guarded. The only reason I was able to get to it was because he let me, I think. He wanted me to see what was going to happen, what he's going to do with its help. And none of it is good. It will mean the destruction of the entire world as we know it."

O thee mou indeed.

Later, Dr. Shin came back to her in a panic. "Manta's taken Aquaman's son!"

Her heart leapt. "Junior!" His plans suddenly became clear. "He's using him as bait!"

"Not just that," Dr. Shin said, his tone and expression equally grave. "Royal blood."

Now her heart leapt even further as she too connected the pieces from his story of the Seventh Kingdom: Atlan sealing Kordax with his own royal blood. He was going to kill a baby?! O thee mou, O thee mou-

"We have to do something!"

"I know. I've already secretly broadcasted our location signal - I'm hoping Aquaman will see it and it will lead him right to us."

"That's brilliant!"

He blushed. "Thanks. Like I said, I've done some things I'm not so proud of - I can't change them, but maybe I can do better."

She reached out and gave his arm a squeeze. "You can, and you are."

He smiled a little. "Thanks, Dr. Andreas."

"Hey, we're in this together now. Call me Tatiana."

He smiled. "Stephen."

They arrived in Antarctica. She only knew this because Dr. Shin - Stephen - kept her updated.

He hid her in his own personal ship - one of the ones that resembled an octopus - where he also carried Junior.

Their plan was as followed: she would hide back at the ship with the real Junior, while Stephen would hand a bomb wrapped in blankets to Manta, hopefully delaying him enough for them to then escape.

She heard the blast when it happened, and then saw Stephen rushing back to them - only to be shot by something that shocked him with electricity.

"You picked the wrong time to grow a spine, Doc," roared Manta.

"Stephen!" She had to protect Junior, but she couldn't just let Stephen die after all he had tried to do for them. She rushed to help him to his feet, but was roughly tossed aside by you know who. Through the pain, she could just make out Junior's cries. Oh no-

"GET AWAY FROM MY SON!"

A new voice - Arthur! Aquaman had arrived, having followed Stephen's broadcast.

She heard him give a great war cry and slam into Manta.

"Your blood will do just fine!" Manta roared.

"Aquaman!" Stephen managed to cry.

"Tatiana!"

"Orm?"

And there he was, standing over her, all in once piece, seemingly healed. "Are you hurt?"

"Not so bad..." But she was still a little fuzzy as he helped her to her feet. "And you?"

"I'm much better now." He held something out to her - the trident. "I believe this belongs to you."

"To both of us now, I think." She took it. "Thank you."

Then he lunged for Stephen. "No!" she cried. "He's helping us!"

"GO!" came Arthur's shout. Mera was there too, and had scooped Junior protectively into her arms. "All of you, go!"

The four took off running - but not before Manta launched the Black Trident their way.

Mera and Junior were right in its path.

But it never reached them - Orm had caught it mid-flight, saving them.

She recalled Stephen's words about the Black Trident, how it possessed it's bearer.

Oh, Orm.

"Mera, run," he grit out. She turned and fled, still cradling Junior, Stephen right behind her.

But not Tatiana. She was rooted to her spot as she watched the dark green magic swirl around Orm.

"Tatiana, keep going, don't turn back. Please."

Oh, Orm.

She wanted to reach out to him, but couldn't at the risk of becoming possessed herself. So finally, fighting tears, she obeyed, turning and running after the others, feeling sick the whole way.

But then she did just that - she turned back.

"Tatiana!" Mera screamed, but she was already gone.

Yes, I borrowed her turning back from another Orm story of mine ;)

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments I keep receiving on this story :) they always brighten my day!

Unfortunately, as you can probably tell, the end is near, but don't worry, I will stretch it out as long as possible beyond the movie storyline - I have ideas ;)

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)