Chapter Text
There was a girl, but not just any girl, this girl was special, and she was stolen at a very tender age and taken to a people that was not her own. She grew up in an orphanage because everyone thought she was cursed because she had blue hair and it marked the beginning of the people’s sorrows. Fishing, swimming and boating on the waters meant death for anyone who dared try. Many times, people talked about taking her out on a boat and dropping her in the water as a sacrifice to appease the water king so he would allow people to fish and use the waters once again. But, that never happened and it only made things worse.
“Do you think he’s sleeping now? The water is calm today”
“Nah… He’s a sneaky one, Nino. The moment you try to go out there… BAM! You’re dead.”
“It’s not fair Alya, mankind hasn’t been able to eat fish or go swimming because someone took the jewel of the water kingdom? Whatever that is.”
“I know, right! … what do you think Mari?”
“Nino’s right, (((cough))), (((cough))), If there is a water king, he shouldn’t be blaming us, divers can’t even go down that deep to find a water kingdom and I bet The Jewel of the water kingdom or ocean is just a made up fairy tale, besides; the ocean could be just violent due to underwater quakes (((cough))), (((cough))), (((cough))), (((wheeze)))”
“Says the girl who’s deathly afraid of water, tell me again why you’re afraid?” Alya said as she handed Marinette her inhaler and a bottle of water. “Mar-bar, that cough sounds like it’s getting worse”
Marinette patted her chest after drinking the water and then took a long breath from her inhaler.
“Alya, I’m fine and I already told you, Chloe tried to drown me when I was 4 and I’ve never gotten over it. Then she tried to tell people that she had a dream that things won't be normal again as long as I'm breathing air! I always have nightmares of being underwater and being terrified. That brat never even got into trouble for it because her father owns the orphanage.”
"I can't believe she said that!" Alya looked at her shocked.
"Can you believe some people actually believed her? Tikki actually caught someone trying to poison my food!"
"Wow, what happened to that person?"
"Nothing! he was told to stay away from me because I was only 7"
“Dudes, I wish we could go swimming, I’m tired of that lame pool Kim has and Chloe just tries to rub it in everyone’s face at how big and fancy her daddies pool is”
“You know, they never let me get near it… she says I might contaminate it with my blue hair and kill everyone.”
“She’s an ass!” Alya said as she rubbed soothing circles on Marinette’s back. “Well, at least we can play in the sand and make sand castles”
“Sorry Alya… you know how my skin gets if it gets too dry”
“Scaly I know; you sure you don’t belong out there in the water?”
“I grew up in an orphanage Alya… I’m not a fish”
“It would be cool right? Being a mermaid? You do have cool looking blue hair, Oh, and you might want to get some more of that black hair rinse because it’s really blue again.”
Marinette put her head down. “Nothing works well anymore, Alya… as soon as water hits my hair, the dye just rinses away with the water… but anyway, now your saying that all mermaids have blue hair? Have you guys ever seen one?”
“No, and we don’t want to!” Nino cut in. “I hear they’re terrifying to look at and they eat people’s eyes, hearts and livers. My parents told me the story about the last diver that washed up on the shore without eyes and had a big hole in his chest! He also had claw marks all over his body.”
“Yeah, I heard that story too, it’s part of the school’s curriculum now to learn the story so no one makes the same mistake. I’m sorry, but that jerk had that coming, how many times was he told to stay out of the water? He would brag about the things he did and got away with down there. He even claimed to have taken the Jewel himself even though he could never produce it. He went around telling people that he also saw a green eyed, emerald green tailed merchild and he was going to steal it and bring it back to show everyone that they did in fact exist. He said he was going to use the kid to force the water kings hand; he brought that upon himself! And now we all have to suffer because of one man’s stupidity”
“How could one little man think that he could possibly go up against a sea monster?”
“There’s monsters?”
“Yeah girl… I did in fact see a picture of one and let me tell you, they are scary! I’d much rather deal with a shark!”
“When did all of this happen?”
“Hmm, about uh… 14 years ago I think”
“I guess that’s why I didn’t hear about it, I was only a kid in the orphanage when all that happened”
“You don’t remember anything before you went there? Your mom, your dad? Sisters or brothers? Anything?”
“Alya, all I remember is being mistreated by everyone my whole life. I would have starved to death if it wasn’t for Tikki, she was sneaking food to me when everyone fell asleep. She told me that she found me on this beach asleep when I was little and she said I couldn’t talk or tell anyone where I came from or how I ended up on the beach with just a fishnet top on and nothing else. She told me I was special because I had blue hair and it was a sign, but the only thing it has ever been is a constant reminder that the people around here don’t like me!”
“It’s strange that no one filed a missing child report! How could anyone leave a little girl on the beach half naked? Unless you… are a mermaid and you washed up on the beach and you can’t remember cause your merparents were eaten by sharks.”
“Are you kidding? That’s stupid! If I were a mermaid I’d grow a tail every time I took a bath or shower!”
“You have a valid point but then again, it might be another reason you don’t have a tail”
“Really Alya? (((cough))) … I was abandoned by my parents because they didn’t like me, plain and simple!”
“Well I like you and so does Nino, we’ve been friends for 5 years now and your pretty blue hair will never come between us, okay?”
“Thanks, Alya… Do you know how many times I’ve shaved my head?”
“What?!... Why? Nino jumped in.
“Because I wanted people to see ME, not my hair, it was pointless though… the more I cut it, the faster it would grow back and twice as long.”
“Girl, if anyone understands your pain, it’s Nino and I. If it was up to me, I’d tell you to let it fly in the wind and to hell with these stuck-up people, they are all just jealous!”
There was a lightning strike that went from the water to the sky about two miles out from the sandy beach.
“Guys, I think we should get out of here now, it looks like the water kings kid is awake, I’m heading home, my parents told me if I ever saw lightning going in the opposite direction; the kid is having a temper tantrum and it won’t be pretty!”
“Are you guys kidding me? I don’t believe in any of those stories! There is no water king, no kid having a temper tantrum, no merchildren and no Jewel of the water kingdom!”
“Mari, then how do you explain that freakish lightning?” Nino pointed at the next strike that again came from the water and went skyward, causing the clouds to turn gray suddenly and the wind to pick up.
“I don’t know but there has to be some other explanation besides angry fish people!”
“Mari, honey… don’t get so upset, we’re just doing what we’re told. My mom doesn’t want me to be out here either when that happens; it’s a warning to take cover”
Marinette looked sad, she didn’t want her friends to leave, she had nowhere to go except back to the orphanage where she knew she would be teased. She was 16 now and lawfully to old to be there. If it wasn’t for Mrs. Tikki looking out for her, she would be living in a cardboard box. Marinette hated her life.
“I know you’re not allowed to stay over at my house, but are you going to be okay Mari?”
“I’m a big girl Alya… I’ll be fine, I’m just going to sit here for a while longer and then I’ll head back to the orphanage.”
“Mari, I wish things were different, I wish you could come home with me but my mom…”
“You don’t have to worry Alya; hey, I told you that I’m use to it. Your mom has every right to feel the way she does, I’m not mad at her; yeah, I’m a little bummed but it is what it is. I’m just happy that you and Nino are my friends.”
“It’s just stupid that those old folks think that a girl with blue hair and blue eyes…”
“Alya… it’s fine, go on home”
“Oh… okay, see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, same time and thanks for the food, I would starve to death without you and Tikki”
“Your majesty, your son is having the fit again and he’s getting worse”
“DO YOU THINK I’M DEAF?! THE ENTIRE OCEAN KNOWS HE’S HAVING THE FIT!!”
“Is there anything you want us to do your majesty?”
“What can we do? We’ve searched the entire ocean for the Jewel for the last 14 years! The Jewel must be on land!”
“But if the Jewel is on land…”
“Don’t say it! I know the consequences, we won’t lose my son or the Jewel of the ocean, as long as he’s alive, then we know the Jewel is still out there!”
“AHHHHH!!!! IT HURTS!!!! PLAGG, MAKE IT STOOOOOPPP!!!”
“Breathe kid, take in the oceans healing waters and let it cool your scales”
“THAT… AGH AHHH!! THAT DOESN’T WORK ANYMORE!!! JUST… JUST KILL ME!!!!
“Hold on kid, I’ve been working on this trident, it will help you channel your powers away from your body until the Jewel of the ocean is found”
Prince Adrien squirmed and swam around on the sea floor. He felt like his scales were on fire. His normal emerald green scales were turning black as coal and everyone in the underwater kingdom knew what that meant.
It started out as a small spot the size of a pebble 14 years ago the moment when the Jewel was taken and no one even knew about the spot until they found the little prince scratching at his fin and hiding in sea kelp. Now 14 years later, most of the scales on his body are black.
The problem began 14 years ago when a Mer-guard found a human’s dive knife where the missing Jewel was, the water king exploded in anger. The merfolk caught up with the diver but he had long since hidden the Jewel away and refused to tell them. They were about to drown the man but his friends from the dive boat saw too many bubbles rising to the surface of the water and dove in to help him thinking the worse. The merfolk swam away so they wouldn’t be seen. Afterwards, a decree went out across the oceans to destroy any human that dare fish or step foot in the oceans waters and everyone was to search for the Jewel. Later that evening, the diver went back to the hiding place within some rocks to retrieve the sedated pink mermaid, but she was gone. Little did he realize, she was taken by the oceans current and washed up on the beach and because she laid out on the sunny beach for a long time, her tail magically transformed into legs to protect itself.
The diver was angry and went to the town to tell everyone what had happened but no one believed him. He swore he would go back and bring proof and people just laughed at him.
“Hey man, you must have the bends, I hear that swimming up to the surface too fast can mess with your brain and kill you”
“I’ve been diving for twenty years damn it! I know what the hell the Bends is and I don’t have it! I’m telling you, there’s Merfolk down there and I had that pink merchild! and Let me tell you, that fish sparkled like pink diamonds. I’m going to bring back that bright emerald green scaled Mer-kid and make a fortune off those scales!”
“Yeah Man, good luck with that and I can’t wait to see it” the tavern man chuckled and left the diver who was gritting his teeth at all the people who were pointing and laughing at him.
“I’ll show you all!”
Needless to say, the diver never had a chance. The first ripple from the surface water alerted everyone. He was pulled under fast and brought to the king.
“Will you tell me, my son and these merfolk, where you hid the Jewel?”
The diver looked at the sad emerald scaled merchild who was sucking his thumb and then to a very large Merman that held close a short grieving mermaid.
"I- I didn't take a Jewel!" the diver yelled behind his face mask.
"The child mermaid! the child that has pink scales that sparkle! she is the jewel of the water kingdom! the princess to my son that will be king of the ocean! where did you hide her!" Gabriel yelled, causing the current to move harder.
The diver looked scared. From the appearance of the grieving mermaid, he could tell that the Jewel belonged to her.
“I don’t know where the Jewel is!” I went back but the Jewel wasn’t there” The diver yelled behind his oxygen face mask.
The Mermaid let out a cry similar to a dolphin in pain. She swam away and her husband followed.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?!”
The diver frantically shook his head no. He was shocked to find out that he actually took a mermaid princess that would eventually be a queen.
The Water king sent his Mer-child off to his care takers and then turned to face the diver.
“You will die this day… slowly. My son is a prince of these oceans and is bonded to the Jewel. That Jewel was foretold to come to him and my people 200 years ago... 200 hundred long years!!! To come when the child, my child of emerald green was born that held inside of him a terrible power! The power of death and destruction. The Jewel was sent to bring balance! He brings death and the jewel brings life. Now he has no way to keep his power under control thanks to you! You have not only put my world in jeopardy, but your world as well! He will bring tsunami's to your shores, storms that will destroy everything on land! and he will boil the seas if she is not reunited with him!! ”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry I didn’t know!” the diver cried out.
“You humans are full of apologies after you pollute the oceans, after you spill oil that nearly wiped some of the sea creatures from existence! I allowed you humans to feast on the seas bounty and you still come down here and steal the most important thing the merfolk have!”
“Please, let me make it up to you! Let me make it right!”
“You said it yourself, you don’t know where the Jewel is, you are no longer useful… guards, feed him to the Kracken!
After Alya and Nino left, Marinette made herself a bit more comfortable on the beach. She watched the clouds and felt the wind pick up but she didn’t move, she felt oddly relaxed with each lightning crack. Marinette eventually fell asleep on the sand.
Three hours later, Marinette woke up in a panic. The tide came in and something was pulling her by the foot into deeper water. She started kicking and screaming and fighting for freedom. She couldn’t see clearly what she was fighting and she didn’t want to look. Nino and Alya made it clear how scary the underwater monsters were. Marinette started to cry, she didn’t want to die, she didn’t want her heart ripped from her chest or her eyes eaten.
All of Marinette’s screams caught the attention of a man that was passing by on his way home as he also knew all too well what this type of storm meant. He ran to the woman’s side just as she broke free from the creature’s grasp. Marinette threw herself at the man but as soon as he took a good look at her, he pushed her off of him in horror.
“DON’T TOUCH ME YOU CURSED WOMAN!” The man yelled.
He looked at the water and saw movement within it and a pair of yellow-green orbs bobbing in and out of the water.
“Please help me! My ankle!” Marinette pleaded.
“NO! Ever since you arrived, the people have been cursed from going near the water! We’ve done everything to appease that monster hoping it would allow us to fish again and nothing’s worked! Maybe…”
The man grabbed Marinette’s arm roughly.
“Ouch, let go of me, what are you doing!”
“Maybe things will get better if we offer YOU as a sacrifice? From the looks of what I saw earlier, it tried to get you anyway!”
The man began to drag Marinette to the water.
“NO! PLEASE DON’T DO THIS!”
Marinette fought the man’s hold on her arm and it became a battle of wills. It was about the depth of a six-foot-tall man from the shore that the next crack of lightning erupted from the water and went skyward. A team of dolphins and sharks made their dorsal fins known a few seconds later.
“Looks like that was the call of the dinner bell, lass!”
Marinette looked at the water in horror, she’s never seen so many sharks that close to shore in her life and something was indeed calling them.
“PLEASE… I’M BEGGING YOU, DON’T DO THIS!”
“One sacrifice to save many, Lass!”
Marinette tried desperately to remove the man’s grip from her arm but he was just too strong. All the struggling was causing her lungs to hurt and become dryer. She glanced at the water and it was like a frenzy of activity. They were just at the waters edge and Marinette scratched him really hard.
“Ah… you bitch!”
Marinette crawled on her hands and knees to try to get away and the man kicked her in her side, causing her to fall down and scream out in pain.
A Trident erupted from the water and struck the man in his back, killing him. He fell dead on the sand next to Marinette.
Marinette stood up slowly, holding her side and wheezing at the same time. She looked at the dead man with a black smoking hole in his back and then at the water. It was completely calm and earie looking. She could make out orb reflections by the hundreds watching her and it terrified her. She turned to leave the beach and a multitude of aquatic wails and cries broke from the water. It was enough for her to nearly run home regardless of how much her chest hurt. She didn’t want to be the next to die from being stabbed.
Prior to the incident
“Your highness, there’s a human asleep on the beach shores and if you continue to stir up the waters, the tide will rise and over take them and according to your father, we must kill them”
Adrien hissed and the merman backed away.
Forgive me your highness, I just thought you should know before we kill the human female.
“Female? I want to see this… Female, surely she is not ready to die”
Adrian and his armada swam close to the beach. The water hadn’t touched the girl yet and she was sleeping peacefully.
Adrian felt a surge of relief in his scales the closer he got to the girl. He handed his triton to the guard next to him to test out his theory and sure enough nothing in his body hurt.
“Could it be?”
Adrian deflated when he saw the girl’s black hair and her face was turned away so he couldn't see it. It was hopeless, how could he think that out of all the girls in the world, she would be the one. He was going to die and so was the jewel.
“Let the waters rise!” Adrien commanded as he took the Trident and Pierce the sandy floor beneath him.
On cue, the waters rose in the first thing it touched was Marinette’s hair. The prince was turning to leave but a guard stopped him.
“Your highness, the water rinses a black substance from the girl’s hair!”
“Is that not normal for human females?” Adrien asked.
“No, your highness, it could be a poison meant to kill our kind!”
“They wouldn’t poison the waters again after their last oil spill. They need the waters just as much as we do!”
“What are your orders your highness?”
“We wait until the waters are deep enough, my father won’t be happy if he finds out a human was in our waters and survived to talk about it”
another merman swam over to the Prince.
“Your highness, come quick! The girl, she has…”
“She’s has what?!”
“She has blue hair!”
“That’s impossible, we just said she had black hair!”
“But the water is washing that black substance out of her hair, it’s blue now”
Adrien commanded every sea creature to stay back while he managed to get impossibly close. Her hair was long so it floated in the water and Adrian was able to touch it. As soon as he raked his hand through the floating strands a few of his scales turned emerald green and Adrian wanted to cry. He finally found the jewel of the water Kingdom. His mate! Unfortunately, he could also feel how much pain she was in. She was weak, her gills were without the oceans water for 14 years and have’s struggle to work like normal lungs. She also produced legs to cope with being out of the water to protect her tail.
“No more pain, Princess” Adrien said as he choked back a sob. “No more pain for either of us!”
Adrian’s tail prevented him from retrieving the jewel properly so he waited for the tide to rise a bit more before he grabbed her ankle and started tugging her into deeper water. The word spread quickly through the kingdom that Adrian found the jewel and was currently trying to bring her home. Mermaid Sabine and merman Tom as well as the entire water Kingdom rejoiced.
But, it was short-lived when Marinette woke up in a panic as something latched on to her ankle. The Prince didn’t want to hurt her and he didn’t want to let her go either. He held on strong no matter how hard she fought, only backing off when he felt her struggling for breath. It was a tug-of-war, a war he couldn’t bear to lose, but her cries and wails for freedom cut him deeper than his Trident ever could.
Did she not know that he was trying to help her? Did she not recognize her own kind? What did the humans do to her?
If it wasn’t for the slick fish oil that covered his scales he would have succeeded in pulling her under. She slipped from his grasp and was screaming for help. The merfolk watched in horror as the jewel moved farther away from the water and Adrian nearly lost his mind.
“No! I can’t lose her!”
Everything in the water started to panic. It didn’t help to see the Prince thrashing back and forth, trying to get to her. There was only so far that he could go before he would be stuck in the shallow depths. They watched as her screams alerted a man passing by. Two mermaid guards restrained Adrien from hurting himself on the rocks.
The sea watched in trepidation at the exchange between the man and the jewel of the water. It was an unpleasant exchange that caused the entire body of sea creatures to splash around as if they were ready to go to battle, but Adrian watched patiently as the man pulled her to the water. He was in aw of her beauty. He didn’t like that the man had his hands on the jewel, but it was the only choice he had of getting her into the water. All that changed when she got away from the man and he violently kicked her. It was a pain that Adrian could feel himself. He was more than outraged at the man for kicking his Princess and it was not something he was going to tolerate. When he saw the man ready to strike the jewel again, he grabbed his Trident, aimed it at the man and called on his cataclysm and threw his Trident at the man and it stabbed him in his back; he died. They watched as the jewel stood up while holding her side, she looked to be in pain. Everyone in the water watched to see what she would do next. She looked to the water and they tried to make themselves known but she just backed away in fear. It was not until she started walking further and further away that they realize the gravity of the situation; she was leaving. The Dolphins, the mermaids, and every sea creature that could make a sound, cried and wailed but Adrian’s wail was the loudest.
“Your highness, you can’t… it’s too dangerous! Your father wouldn’t approve!”
“My father isn’t here right now and she’s getting away; this might be the only chance I have!”
“Let one of the guards retrieve her, please!”
“She will only run away, I must do this myself!”
“Your highness, you’ll only have three days, if you’ve not returned to the sea by the sunset on the third day you’ll die and we would lose you both!”
“If she doesn’t return to the ocean, you will lose us both anyway!”
The mer-guard bowed his head and the sea creatures watched as Prince Adrien swam to the shore. He dragged himself onto the beach and dried his tail with the heat of his cataclysm. He howled in pain as his tail dried out and gave way to new legs. He stood on shaky legs for the first time and fell.
It took about 7 tries before he managed to get the hang of walking with them. He slowly walked over to the dead man and retrieved his Trident.
He didn’t want to take it with him so he took it to the waters edge and waited for a mer-guard to come close. When he did, he threw it. The mer-guard collected it and Adrien dismissed him. The Mer-guard left 4 sentries at the beach to await Adrien’s return.
Adrien looked in the direction to which the Jewel had fled....
"I'm coming for you Princess, you belong to me and no one else will ever hurt you again!"