Tidal Wave 32 Gemma, Her Sister

"She's really heavy, do you think we'll be able to get her by everyone without questions being asked?" Marty looked worried and Darya didn't quite have a good plan at the moment but when her eyes landed on a spot in the ocean they could hide in she redirected them. "There's a spot over there where we would have coverage from wandering eyes." She pointed with her face and Marty followed her eye line and nodded in agreement.

They shuffled over to the spot she pointed out second ago and tried to hurry as quickly as possible. Time was not on their side. Once they were under the coverage of the large rocks they laid her back in the water and made sure she was completely covered up to her neck so she could breathe properly.

"Gemma, come on you need to wake up." Darya wasn't sure if she's ever been above the water before but when she looks down at her new bare legs she sees the pain Gemma had to go through to get to her. The trails of blood left behind and the scales that were still apparent made Darya's heart clench. "Please, you came here for a reason, wake up." She spoke again while she held the sides of her face as she looked at Gemma upside down while her almost silver hair flowed around the crown of her head.

"Maybe speak to her the way you do under the water?" Marty suggested and for a moment Darya felt stupid. Of course, she wouldn't be able to understand her in this form. She concentrated and formed the familiar thoughts she would use to speak with her father. When he would pick up, anyway.

"Gemma, talk to me...You came here for a reason, please wake up." She thought the waves of worry over to her. It had been forever since she's spoken to Gemma through this link and she was a little rusty but when she heard the quiet voice of the person below her she knew it was working. "Darya? Did it work?" Her link voice was weak but it still brought a smile to Darya's face when she responded.

"Did what work? What happened to you? I thought you would be the last person to ever come above the water." Darya asked her and when Gemma's hands reached up for her's that held her face and looked deep into her eyes before she pulled herself from the shallow water and onto Darya's water covered lap. "It's an emergency and I'm not supposed to be up here. Only royal bloodlines can turn into humans." Her voice was scratchy and rough but they both hung onto every word she spoke.

"If only royal bloodlines can transform then how are you here and how did you find me?" She helped her sit up better but still keeping her against her chest for support.

"It was very hard, it took all of my energy to make these horrible legs you love so much. It's not fully done either because I don't have a lot of time up here." Her voice wasn't sounding better the more she spoke out loud but Darya noticed her gills had gone to the side of her neck completely which meant she wasn't gasping for water like she was before.

"Tell me what you came up here for, what's the emergency?" She felt the cold and wet hands of Gemma clinging tightly to her and when she looked over at Marty she could sense his apprehension at the impending news.

"It's grandmother, it's the palace, it's father. Everything is going wrong and I can't control it!" She tried to shout but her voice cracked and forced her back down on Darya's lap. "Did the creature attack again?" She asked with a worried tone that only gave away her fear of the unknown.

"It's not the creatures, we irradicated them in the last war. It's this being, with legs like yours. They came and attacked and..." She got cut off by a loud crack of thunder. They were too preoccupied with getting her help they didn't notice the storm that was forming overhead.

"We need to move this indoors, can you walk? I can give you my suit cover and Marty can give you his pants or something."

She shook her head no at the offer and when they looked down at her slightly tanned legs they noticed the scales beginning to form into bigger sections. She was turning back.

"What's going on, Gemma? You're scaring me." Darya confessed as she squeezed her hand tighter. "Grandmother is dead, she was killed by the being that stormed our home. No one else was hurt and he only took one thing. I was hiding in the bedroom you stayed in when you came to us the first time. They had these bright lights that filled the rooms of the castle and it was so scary. I'm not meant to rule if I can't even protect my family." Salty wet tears streamed down her face and Darya fought the urge to wipe them away.

"You did what you had to do, you protected yourself and our father would be proud of that. Him losing his mother will be hard on him but he'll pull through with you by his side. Which brings me to my next question, where is dad? Should he be telling me about our grandmother dying?" She asked her and that's when they saw her face turn from tears of pain to a horrible expression of anguish and loss.

"He's gone, our father is gone. The being that stormed out home took him with them. I didn't get a good look at their faces or anything but they knew what they wanted. They wore nothing but black and the weird things on their faces. But they had two fins, not one like us." Darya's heart hammered in her chest at the news that her father was missing. She held onto Gemma's shaking body even harder and when she looked at Marty she could no longer hide her fear. Her tears matched Gemma's as they fell from her eyes and into the water that sloshed around them.

"Dad's gone? We have to find him if he's not in the ocean he has to be on land." She said, finally sure of herself. Gemma let out a struggled gurgle and all eyes were on her again. "I can't be out here any longer. Please find him, Darya." She heard her voice in her head and watched as she sunk back into the water in front of her. She didn't want to let her go just yet. She wanted to make sure she was safe and sound but she also knew that the kingdom needed her. She was next in line and with their grandmother dead and father missing, they needed her more than ever.

"Take care of yourself, sister, I'll find our father." She spoke sweetly through the link and watched Gemma's smile spread on her face before she pushed away from her and drifted back into the water to her home.

"Marty, who do we know that wants a mer-person more than anything else in the world. So bad that he would put other people's lives at risk?" She stood up from the water with Marty's help. The images from the last encounter with the horrible man she was talking about flashed behind her eyes.

"Johnson, but we took care of his memories." He reminded her while trying to think of some sort of plan. "Yeah, but it was from an algae that hadn't been tested on anything except him. We don't know if it ever wore off or not since he left the lab not long after that incident." Marty's heart sank, it had to be that man and he had to of gotten people to help him this time. They had more than just school work on their plate now.