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Cleo missed the sea. She missed the ocean, the sound of it, the feel of it, she missed it more and more the longer she stayed in space with Joe. So when Joe landed them on a planet and told her to go, told them to call when she was ready to go home? They left, found themself a small town with a small port, a town with strange people and an even stranger crew of fishermen who came in and out.
Cleo found themself speaking to the ship's captain one day in a bar, reminiscing about their days on the sea as he spoke about his crew, about how some days he wished he had someone else on board with him because it felt like they needed just one more set of hands.
It was a week later when Cleo joined the crew, when they stepped on board, greeted by a man with grease stained fingers and a smile on his face and his sister, a girl with a large smile on her face and a knife strapped to her waist for de-boning fish. A girl with green eyes that seemed to sparkle with the sea, with hair that she kept tied up in a brilliant braided bun, hair that Cleo could see setting a coral circlet in. She'd have looked at home in the ocean courts where Cleo grew up.
Cleo watched for the first week, saw how while Etho tried to teach a few things to Gem he mostly taught things to Fwhip who would then teach those things to Gem if she didn't already know then, she watched as Fwhip and Etho did most of the work around the ship and left Gem to fish and sometimes sketch the fish she'd found.
Cleo joined Gem and began to teach her all the tricks she knew.
"The Ocean isn't your enemy Gem, she's not someone who must be tamed, she's a friend you embrace. You can't tame the sea, she's wild and she'll drown you for trying."
Her father had taught her the same thing when she was younger.
One day when they were docked, Fwhip and Etho fixing up their boat from a storm, Gem searched for Cleo.
"Cleo. Can you teach me to fight?"
Cleo looked Gem up and down, watched as she squared her shoulders and smiled at her with teeth just a bit too sharp.
Cleo smiled back with her own far too sharp teeth.
"I can."
A routine began then, when they were on the ship Cleo and Gem would talk, they'd fish together and trade stories and once they were off the ship they'd train.
Cleo taught Gem what she knew of the sea while Gem soaked everything she was told up like a sponge, treated the Sea like she was part of it, like it flowed through her veins while Cleo watched, proud of her.
Then one day when they were getting ready to spar on the small beach the town had Gem spoke.
"Cleo can I show you something?"
"Of course. What have you found, Swordfish?"
Gem pulled down her shirt just slightly to reveal scales on her shoulder, scales that she hadn't had before, scales that seemed to shift in shades of blue and green, scales that looked like they were every bit part of Gem's skin.
"When did these grow in?"
Gem was silent.
"Gemini."
"A few days ago."
A few days ago Gem had been having trouble with her shoulder and said she must have pulled it lifting something too heavy.
Cleo reached out to Gem's shoulder and gently ran her fingers along the scales, her eyes locked with Gem's.
"They suit you. The Ocean adores you, hold her as she holds you."
What else could this have been but the Ocean claiming Gem as hers? She'd heard tales of oceans with champions they claimed with scales and inhumanness, yet she'd never seen it with her own eyes. Now here she stood, staring at a woman who would have been treated as the closest thing to a goddess back home. A queen before Cleo's own family.
Cleo would stay here with Gem, keep her safe and help her remind the people of her world just how powerful the sea was.
She wouldn't allow the fate of the oceans of her home to befall this world.
No, not when this Ocean had chosen someone who had speared Cleo's heart like a swordfish.
Cleo watched as Gem's scales spread, she watched as Gem gained confidence in them, as she held the Ocean as her own, as she began swimming in storms more and more.
She watched as Etho and Fwhip lost themselves to insanity, fearing the Ocean and trying to tame her.
She held Gem closer to her, kept her away from the others while telling her all about the Ocean of her home.
Then she found Gem crying, some of her scales ripped out, blood on her hands and in her nails that had become to resemble claws or talons.
Cleo grabbed Gem's hands gently and began to patch up her wounds silently. Once she was finished patching Gem up she spoke.
"What happened, Swordfish?"
Silence.
Then-
"Am I a monster?"
"No. No my dear, you're a gift, a gift from the Ocean, as wild as her. You're not a monster, anyone who thinks you that is simply scared of the power that comes with the sea. You're not a monster, never a monster my dear."
She should have acted quicker, should have pulled Gem off of that boat quicker.
Gem was dying, her blood covered Cleo's hands and arms as Cleo ran to where Joe said he was.
Gem was dying and that just couldn't do.
Cleo looked at her brother, Gem's body in her arms, bleeding, dying.
"Fix her."
"Cleo-"
"Joe. She's dying, I can't lose her. Fix her."
"Bring her inside."
When Gem awoke it was to Cleo's hand in hers, to Cleo humming a song, to a plate of cookies shaped like fish nearby with two cups of hot chocolate.
"Cleo?"
Cleo looked at Gem, their eyes meeting for a moment before Cleo's arms were around Gem.
"I'm here, swordfish. I'm here."
Once Gem was settled, once she was speaking with Lizzie and Joel, Cleo nearby watching just in case, Joe settled by her side.
"Is picking up strays going to become a habit, Cleo?"
"Gem isn't a stray, Joe."
"If you say so."