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Chapter Text

With the light of the full moon and his handy flashlight, Lewis discovered he made a critical error. He forgot to refuel his boat, leaving him marooned on Mako. Luckily, he had set up base with a sleeping bag at the moon pool earlier, since he was unsure how long he would be there. Otherwise, who knew what he would have done. As he made his way to his temporary base, he remained unaware of the three stranded criminals that were stalking him.

As Lewis reentered the moon pool’s cave, he opened his phone and started writing his text message to Cleo. Letting her know he was stranded at Mako for the night, and that if she and the girls could bring some fuel for his boat tomorrow, he would be most appreciative. However, before he could finish, he was suddenly hit on the back of his head and his arms were seized. He was slammed into a wall of the cave. He let out a pained cry and ended up grabbing his sleeping bag that he tripped on.

When he stopped seeing stars, the first thing that he processed was the man in front of him, who had a shank hovering against Lewis’ neck with one hand and his unlocked phone in the other. With a gruff intimidating voice the man growled, “Who knows about this place?”

Trembling Lewis lied, “N-no one. W-why would a-anyone know about this place.”

With an unimpressed glare the man put the shank in his hand with the phone and punched Lewis’s stomach before getting in his face and snarling, “Try again you little rat.”

Wheezing Lewis irritatedly replied, “If you think I’m going to rat out my girlfriend and her friends you’ve got another thing coming.”

When he processed what he had just said his eyes practically bugged out, he hopes they didn’t catch it. With an amused smirk the criminal huffed, “Girlfriend, huh. Alright boys keep him alive. He’ll make a good hostage. Heh.” Then he began looking though Lewis’s contacts, trying to figure out who was the mysterious ‘girlfriend’ was only to circle back as Cleo’s was the only contact with a bunch of hearts.

-oOo-

Meanwhile Cleo, Emma, and Rikki were hiding within Cleo’s house with the windows boarded up and two sleeping bags in the bedroom. As they were gossiping and complaining about their teachers and the homework that was assigned. Cleo got a strange text from Lewis. At first, she was delighted that her boyfriend had messaged her, but that delight soon turned to confusion and concern.

“Hey girls, I just got a text from Lewis and it’s… pretty weird.”

Rikki looked at Cleo in a what can you do manner before sassily piping in, “He’s always weird so what’s new?”

“Rikki! Be nice. Come on Cleo tell us what’s happening.”

Hesitantly Cleo continued, “Well… he, umm… He says he wants us to go to Mako island…”

Rikki’s face scrunched up in concern and annoyance as she exclaimed, “It’s a full moon!”

Cleo nodded slowly as she agreed, “…Yes… That’s why I said it was weird.”

Emma hummed, then she inquired, “Do you know where he was supposed to be?”

“Umm… Oh! He said that he was going to collect some data on the animals over at Mako. He said that they have been acting weird lately.”

“Alone?! What is that idiot thinking!? I’m sorry Cleo but we might just have to get you a new boyfriend.” Rikki snarkily added

“Rikki!” Emma exclaimed huffily while Cleo just glared.

“Can it ice queen. He’s being a science loving idiot and you can’t deny it!”

Cleo rolled her eyes at her friend’s antics before grumpily crying out, “Guys! What are we going to do? We can’t go out go out beca-”

The door to Cleo’s room slammed open, revealing a smug Kim and Cleo’s Dad. “Kim! Be nice to my house!” Cleo’s dad scolded.

Kim exasperatedly sighed, rolled her eyes and snootily said, “Sorry dad.”

“Thank you. Cleo why haven’t you taken out the trash cans!? When I return home from work, I expect them to be at the street! I told you this morning to take them out to the street and they are not on the street!”

Cleo, Rikki and Emma glanced at each other angrily in confusion. They took the trash to the street hours ago so that they wouldn’t have to worry about it. Then Cleo realized the cause, it could only have been one person. Angrily she stood up and shouted, “KIM!!!”

“Hey! Don’t yell at your sister like that! Go outside and fix it!”

Angrily Cleo stood up and started stomping out of the room. Dragging her friends and growling at her sister as she exited. In her spurt of anger Cleo had forgotten about the moon and even with her friend’s frantic whisper shouting, “Cleo! Cleo! The moon! The moon!”

Releasing her friends, Cleo slammed open the door and spun around and snapped, “What about the moon!”

As a result, Rikki and Emma got a perfect view of the moon. Seeing her friends awed expressions Cleo turned around in curiosity, getting trapped in the thrall. As a unit, the girls glided towards the pier and jumped in.

The sound of their splash caught the attention of Samantha, Cleo’s stepmom, as she walked back home. She had just come back from the neighbors’ house carrying groceries that she had meant to put away but got pulled into a riveting conversation with the neighbors for several hours. Upon reaching her driveway she immediately grew concerned as she saw the trashcans back at the house and the front door wide open.

Hurrying inside she nervously called out, “Donald! Girls!” Hearing his wife’s call Donald hurried downstairs with Kim at his heels. “Is everything alright sweetheart?”

Looking around Sam, with growing dread asks, “Where’s Cleo and her friends?”

“Cleo stormed off with her friends to go put the trash out like I told them to do this morning. Why? What’s wrong?”

“They stormed off!?”

“Yes…”

Shoving the groceries on the counter to be put away later she panickedly shouted, “We have to find them!”

Kim annoyed stated, “Why? Let them have their grownup tantrum.” With a smirk she sat down at the table and continued, “After all it’s their own fault that they didn’t take out the trash.”

Irritatedly Sam turned around and snapped, “You mean the magical trashcans that move back to the house every time I leave!? Nevermind, we’ll deal with this later. There are currently three dangerous criminals at large in our area!! You stay put!” she yelled pointing at Kim. Then turning to her paling husband she growled, “Honey, move it!”

Kim’s mouth clicked shut and was overcome with anxiety and guilt while the adults rushed outside to look for their daughter and her friends, hoping that the three girls would be found swiftly.

-oOo-

Within minutes the girls arrived at the moon pool. Effortlessly they glided in and when they surfaced, they found the three criminals holding Lewis as he clutched his sleeping bag in fear. Witnessing Lewis’s helplessness, the girls felt a surge of anger and protectiveness. With a growl Cleo caused a stream of water to rise just as the moon started to pass over the pool.

The three criminals’ heads whipped towards the sound of bubbling water. There they saw, what appeared to them, the equivalence of a geyser that was about to erupt with three furious girls in it. They assumed that the three girls were only alive out of sheer stubbornness and spite as girls tend to do. They all stumbled back, but the leader tripped over a red bag and kicked it into the water as he fell.

When Lewis saw the water, he had an unpleasant feeling gnawing at the back of his head. Something bad was going to happen to him. Then he clocked the rising water and the dread that was filling his entire being grew exponentially as he realized what they were about to do.

The water wacked his two captors, who as a result kicked his backpack and tacklebox into the water as they initially fell down, and then they threw his fishing rod panickedly at the water in a fruitless attempt to drive the water away. Did they know how expensive that stuff was!?!?! His BRAND NEW camera, gone! His trusty fishing rod, gone! All because of these idiot baffoons had to kick his stuff and then attempt to fight water!

The water then wacked the two cronies once more causing them to fall unconscious before grabbing Lewis as he panickedly shouted, “NO! NO! Don’t DO IT! I don’t WANT to be A MER-”  

His plea was cut off with a splash. When Lewis managed to claw his way to the surface he gasped for air. Then after sputtering water out of his lungs, he opened his mouth to voice his outrage. However the full moon had reached its’ peak, and everything that was in the water vanished and all was still once more.

 There was an unnatural silence that spread across the entire island. There was no rustling of leaves or any animal noises. The last of the criminals who was just barely holding on to his consciousness by a mere thread finally fainted from the shock.

Later when the three companions regained consciousness, they all silently agreed that whatever had happened was a collective hallucination caused by gas poisoning. They would never talk about it even when the police found them the next morning.

When interrogated about their experience they all said something along the lines of, “We got lost and couldn’t find a way off the island.”

After all what happens on Mako island stays on Mako island.

Chapter Text

When Lewis regained his bearings, he startled the girls as he exclaimed happily, “I’m not a fish!” He splashed happily in the moonpool, but they all started to notice that their surroundings looked eerily different from usual. It was… darker? Suddenly sunlight streamed in, they all glanced up in confusion. Lewis stuttered out, “T-that’s impossible! It was literally just nighttime! The only way that is possible is if we passed out or there was a solar eclipse!”

“Well, it’s day now.” Rikki huffed.

With the bright sunlight streaming in; Cleo, Rikki, Emma, and Lewis got their first proper look at their surroundings. Instead of the dark grey walls that they were used to seeing, the walls were obsidian black with a glassy texture. Upon closer inspection, the walls also had faint specks of white scattered randomly throughout. The sand that was once light brown was now a dark cloudy grey. Even the water was different, the light teal color was replaced with dark azure blue. What truly disturbed them, was the constant growling, screeching and thumping that seemed to be resounding outside of the cave.

An echoing roar echoed throughout the cave, snapping the group out of their reverie. The silence that followed was deafening. Slowly the sound of wildlife returned as though nothing had occurred. Emma hesitantly started, “Okay… Let’s not panic. Oh! We should review what we know of the situation so far and go from there.”

A chorus of affirmation sounded from the other three. Emma nodded and said, “I’ll start, we are in a cave that is similar, yet different from Mako. How did we get here?”

“Well… it was a full moon and I got a weird text from Lewis.” Cleo said as she gently helped Lewis get out of the water.

“That… wasn’t me. A bunch of crooks might’ve… ah, caught me off guard… and uh, might have, uh, roughed me up a bit and grabbed my phone.” Lewis’ clear denial, gradually became more mumbled until it became almost incoherent. Even without listening, the girls could tell he was embarrassed because he turned his gaze away from all of them at the admission.

“So that’s why you were being weird! Well, weirder than usual. Glad we cleared that up!” Rikki exclaimed. Lewis pouted at the comment while Emma and Cleo glared daggers at her while they simultaneously exclaimed, “Rikki!”

Emma continued to scold Rikki as Cleo gently tried to comfort her boyfriend. It seemed to work moderately well. It reminded Cleo of a kid who got the ‘magical’ band-aid and is ‘feeling better’ after a bad scrape. After all they can fix anything!

Meanwhile, Rikki held her hands out in surrender as she shrugged and looked down in annoyance. Her expression became bewildered the longer she stared down the abyss. Seeing her puzzled expression, Emma and Cleo looked down and began to process what they were seeing.

Hearing silence Lewis looked up from where he was wringing out his clothes. Taking a few steps closer to the ledge he peered down. His face scrunched up in horror. His mouth opened and closed like a fish before he shouted, “THAT’S MY STUFF!!! QUICK SAVE IT!!! WHY ARE JUST STAND- SWIMMING!! YOU ARE LITTERALLY FISH PEOPLE!!!”

The girls snapped out of their daze. Cleo and Emma glanced at each other, mouthing, ‘fish people?’. They gave Lewis one disdainful glance before diving, purposefully splashing Lewis in the process. Rikki on the other hand, looked up at Lewis and back down at the water. Then looked back at him, and deadpanned. “What’s there to save? It’s already soaked, and for the record we are mermaids, not ‘FiSh PeOpLe’.”

Before he could retort, Cleo and Emma emerged with the first aid kit, his sleeping bag, and, most importantly, his backpack. He reached for his back with grabby hands while frantically muttering over and over, “Gimme!”

Cleo looked on unimpressed as Emma says, “You have manners use them. No need to act like a toddler.”

Lewis deflated and apologized, earning himself the soaked bag. The unopened bag seemed to be mocking him. Was his stuff alright?!

Once his precious bag was in his hands, he panickedly began opening and rummaging for his most precious item. He quickly found his ‘supposedly’ water proof box. As he anxiously opened the box, he hoped that the advertisement was correct. He hadn’t had the chance to test it yet.

Why hadn’t he tested it yet!? With all that was going on completely forgot, and now he might have a faulty product! He should have known better! After all he went to an island, surrounded by water. For goodness sakes, with his mermaid friends involved, his precious camera will never be safe!

Lewis clutched the box with tears and grief for several long moments. The girls glanced awkwardly at each other. Trying to figure out how to proceed. After all this was his brand-new camera after the last one’s …unfortunate end, which the trio referred to as, ‘The Incident’. The girls were determined to bury as deep as possible. No need to remind Lewis.

When Lewis finally grasped the courage to open the Pandora’s box, it was with his eyes squeezed shut. He slowly cracked an eye open to peer inside. He was delighted to find that there were no signs of water leakage.

Upon further inspection the tension in his frame partially melted away with relief as he saw that his prized possession, his brand-new camera, was not waterlogged. However, he could not grasp victory too soon.

He had to make sure his camera was still functional!

Picking up his camera he began thoroughly examining it for any possible damage. Turning it this way and that way. He paid special attention to the lens, making sure that there was no scratches, cracks, or any other type of damage. A sigh of relief escaped him as he completed his inspection. He gave a giddy laugh before turning to the others who were slowly creeping towards him.

Giddiness quickly evaporated into alarm. He clutched his precious cargo to his chest, scrambling backwards and screeching, “Get away! You three are not allowed near my camera! I’m not risking it after you broke the last one! I’ve already had enough heart attacks in the past half hour! I’ve only had this for a week, you three are going to let me have this!”

The girls looked away in shame and annoyance. They had no desire to remember, ‘The Incident’. They still remembered the pure unadulterated rage. They had never seen him so furious in the entirety of knowing him. They also had to pay him back and it wasn’t cheap.

Lewis gently put his cherished camera back in the box with its’ solar powered charger. Then he began pulling things out of his backpack and organizing them. The most notable was a pile of granola bars. “Wow. Planning a feast without us Lewis?” Rikki teased, desperate to change the subject.

“Excuse you. Every time I eat a granola bar you guys ask for one, so I just started carrying extras. Plus, I simply haven’t been through my backpack in a while.” He retorted defensively. Rikki rolled her eyes while Emma smirked. With mirth Cleo inquired, “Did you find anything useful?”

“Not particularly… I mean I’ve found bug spray-”

“Bug spray!? Hand it over mate! This solves all of our problems!” Rikki teased. Cleo snorted while Emma hid a smile. Lewis glared daggers at Rikki, ‘the Incident’ temporarily forgotten.

“As I was saying I have a bug spray and a flashlight. Not all that helpful right now.” Lewis replied annoyedly.

The mood dampened a bit at the reminder of their situation. A few moments passed in silence before Rikki huffed and exclaimed, “Welp! It isn’t doing us any good to just sit around waiting. Let’s get out of this musty cave.”

Cleo nodded while Emma and Lewis hesitated. Lewis slowly drawled, “Are… you sure that would be safe? You guys have heard the noises outside too, right?”

Rikki was about to retort when Cleo interjected, “Well… We are in an inverted Mako cave. We already are in danger. We should at least try to figure out our surroundings, even if it’s only in the water. Besides, it’s better than rotting away here.”

Rikki snorted and added derisively, “For all we know those animals that are making these noises already have access. There’s no point in acting like sitting ducks!”

Emma nodded convinced, and added, “Alright, but we’ll take it slow. You two are right, we’ll have an advantage underwater, even if it’s unfamiliar. …Plus, even if there is no nearby civilization, we can catch fish. Lewis, you’re cooking it.”

Lewis scrunched his nose and retorted, “Just because I like fishing does not mean I like gutting fish!”

“Well, we aren’t doing it!” Rikki huffed.

“Please Lewis?” Cleo pleaded while giving him puppy eyes.

“Fine, but why can’t… Nevermind. Anyways, I don’t even have a fire to cook it!”

Rikki stared at him unimpressed while Cleo and Emma pointed at Rikki. With a resigned look he conceded, “…Fair point, you’ve already proven you set anything on fire. But what if something happens to you guys!”

Rikki rolled her eyes, pointedly ignoring the jab at the incident. With a huff she dived, successfully avoiding Lewis’ gaze. Leaving Cleo and Emma to reassure and reason with the worrywart.

As Rikki reached the bottom of the moonpool she noticed a strange glint in the sand. Pausing, she glided closer. Brushing the sand away gently, she found Lewis’ prized fishing rod partially buried in the sand. Grabbing it she quickly resurfaced. Interrupting Lewis, Rikki shouted, “Think fast!” Throwing her find at the unsuspecting man.

Lewis sputtered as he fumbled, trying not to drop the projectile. Once he managed to secure it, he was able to process what he was holding in his hands. “My fishing rod!” He exclaimed delightedly.

Cleo seeing her chance, exclaimed, “That’s great Lewis! We promise we’ll stay safe and come straight back here if we see danger. …Alright?”

Lewis hesitated before quietly and defeatedly saying, “…Alright… Wait a second, that means leaving me alone!”

“We’ll only be gone for a few minutes. Who knows what will happen to your precious camera if we stay around it too long?” Rikki snapped.

Lewis’ face contorted into a grimace. Glaring he begrudgingly choked out, “Touché. …ugh, fine! But, stay safe?”

With a cheerful nod, Cleo gestured for him to get closer. When he was in range she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Rikki faked gagging at the scene, smiling at Emma who playfully splashed water in her face in response. Seeing the lovebirds reluctant to part Emma swam forward and gently steered Cleo away and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll all be back before you know it. Safe and sound.”

Lewis’ voice cracked as he said, ”…Alright. Alright. Come straight back when you’re done!”

Cleo nodded, “We will, we promise.” A mischievous glint entered her eye, “Annnd Lewis…”

“hmm?”

“I love you.” Then she dived.

Lewis’ face turned a bright cherry tomato red. Emma suppressed a laugh and said a quick, “Bye Lewis” before diving after Cleo.

Lewis, still focused on Cleo’s declaration, didn’t even process it and began sputtering about how Cleo can’t just say stuff like that so suddenly. Rikki snorted, amused at Lewis’ predicament, she interrupts his rant by saying, “You just received a kiss, and this is what gets you embarrassed? It’s very clear who actually holds the pants in this relationship.” With a teasing smile she dove below once more, leaving Lewis to splutter indignantly to himself.

As the girls exited the cave, the first thing that they noticed was the lack of coral reefs. Then they were all hit with the temperature difference. As they swam further away from the cave the colder it got. They could only swim about a mile out before it felt like being plunged into an ice bath. It was strange, back home they were just fine being in the water during its coldest. With the condition that they were transformed.

There was life in the form of fish, but it was more sparce than Mako’s. It was also a completely different variety. Rikki recognized a few like tuna, but was unfamiliar with most of them. Moving forward she found three sunken ships close together about a half mile to the left of the cave.

When she swam closer to inspect the largest ship, she recoiled in disgust, not because of the giant chains, but because a single decomposing body that was tied to the mast. The little fish surrounding the corpse would have been adorable, if they were not nibbling at its remaining flesh.

The other two ships luckily did not have similar signs of death. However, Rikki was not going to explore them with a chance of seeing more dead bodies. She wasn’t Ariel.

After a bit more traversing through the area she decided to start heading back to the moonpool.

Cleo found a ravine to the right of the moonpool’s entrance, as she descended her surrounding area got darker and darker. She stopped before it became completely dark. Just as she was about to turn around, she saw a glowing shrimp get eaten by a larger fish. Letting her eyes adjust a bit more she managed to see the outline of a deep-sea coral reef. Deciding not to push her luck she began ascending slowly, planning on reconvening with the others.

Emma swam around the island and found a bay on the opposite side of the grotto. Inside of the bay there was a large bed of mussels. After exploring some more, she discovered that there was more animal life. However, it was strange that a good chunk of it was eels. A few of them were massive, she doubted that she would be able to wrap her arms around its torso. Luckily those ones were heavily scarred and slow. With her curiosity sated she started to head back.

As the three gathered several meters away from the cave entrance they swam in lazy loops around each other. Just as they were ready to head inside, a streak of teal caught their eyes.

Soon a reptilian figure glided into view. It was large, about the equivalent of four of the girls stacked on top of each other. Its long serpentine head had what appeared to be the combination of a pelican pouch with an iguana’s. Its large yellow eyes stared at the girls intently. Sizing them up. Slowly it opened its mouth, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth. The girls tensed as it warbled curiously.

They quickly fled, leaving a puzzled dragon and a trail of bubbles behind. Resurfacing in the cave they found Lewis rummaging around in the first aid kit. With a sigh of relief Cleo breathily said, “Lewis!”

Lewis’ head snapped up and he quickly exclaimed, “You’re back! No injuries, right?!”  

With a chorus of no’s Lewis’ body relaxed like a puppet with cut strings. He reached forward and gave Cleo a tight hug. However, his relief was short lived as Emma said, “We encountered a…  bit of a …setback.”

Lewis stared intently as he inquired, “What kind of setback?”

The three chorused, “Dragons.”