"Ok, we have a week before go time. Everyone sorted their excuses?" Aries began.

Once again at the spirit pool, the group sat around the edge, tailed dipped in the water.

"I told my parents I'm sleeping over at your pace" Pandora said.

"Same" Icarus added.

"I have a morning shift at the plant nursery but I'll be there by midday, parents think I've got a longer shift" Zagreus explained.

Was it probably risky to lie to your parents about something like this? Yeah. But the mermaid business was still a secret, the only ones who even knew of Izroulias existence where Zagreus' parents. He did plan on telling them of the whole ordeal... eventually.

"How about powers?" Aries asked.

The group had been practicing pretty much every day. When they could meet up they'd spend hours working on it together, otherwise they'd find small ways to improve after school or over the weekend.

"I mean I'm not an expert by any means but I can keep an illusion going for quite a while now" Pandora said.

"Same, I can fix things that break pretty well" Icarus added.

"I've been having way too much fun basically reading peoples minds and making them tell the truth all the time" Zagreus snickered.

They may not be masters with the chaos gems but they were decent enough for the task at hand, that was really all they needed.

"I think I'm decent enough for the plan, I've gotten the art of disintegrating things down by now" Aries added.

The chaos gems were a difficult thing to master, luckily for them they didn't need to be masters, just use them well enough for the fight. While it was pretty fun having extra powers and being blessed by Khaos themselves, they couldn't get used to it. As soon as the gems had served their purpose, they'd go back to chaos.

"When the whole ordeal is over expect them to disappear overnight, Khaos will take them back when we're done with them" Aries reminded.

"Yeah I know, kinda sucks these powers are fun. I get it though" Zagreus sighed.

"I mean on the bright side there's a chance we'll get a cool boon in return" Icarus shrugged.

The chance was there, no telling if it'll happen but the chance was indeed there. There's been quite a few stories thought history of mortals being granted a boon for carrying out a task for the gods. The coolest part of the whole situation though would be the fact their names would be etched into history forever. Being granted a chaos gem is rare, really rare. Their story would be spread around and put into history books across all the realms that know of it.

"Hope you don't mind but the post battle clean up we might have to tap out on. We have finals on a few weeks" Pandora reminded.

"That's fine, get your education" Aries shrugged.

"Good luck with that. I did not like finals, too stressful for me" Zagreus said.

"I'm literally going to drop dead mid-test if they make me read long ass sentences" Icarus sighed.

She was a bit worried about the last few weeks of the school year. It was all final exams, handing in the last lots of homework and assignments etc. dyslexia has beaten her ass for years, and even with help there were still words she just couldn't process.

"You'll be fine, you get an extra 10 minutes right? That's plenty of time" Pandora assured.

"If they make me spell disappointment I'm suing. Is it two s' or two p's? My brain never remembers" Icarus grumbled.

"Ok to be fair double letters suck" Zagreus replied.

"THANK YOU! What is even the point of double letters? I can never read them right"

The girls had a bit extra on their plate at the moment, on top of the rebellion they had finals coming up and all the other school traditions that came with graduation. Final assembly, the graduation ceremony, getting WACE certificates etc.

As nerve racking as it was, they were all ready. They had the plan finalised, their powers were good enough to fight with, they had help in the form of Haru, Micha and Styxx. And of course, they had someone to be king for them once it was all over.

Said future king, Haru, was thinking about the situation himself. Sitting in the swing he and Aries used to play on all the time, his feet dipped into the water of the lake. He'd grown up, gotten taller and his feet and tail would touch the water below him now. Micha was hopping from rock to rock, looking for fossils. This area was known for its fossils, some kind of natural disaster must have buried ancient animals thousands of years ago. Because everything that had been found in this area was perfectly preserved.

"Oh sick!" He spoke up, reaching into the water.

Haru looked over, watching him pull harshly on something below the water. He yanked it out, stumbling and almost falling in. Holding up a chunk of rock to the sun for a better look he could tell what it was just from looking with his expertise.

"It's a broken turtle shell, embedded in the rock" he said, hopping the rocks over to Haru.

Haru looked down at the fossil, impressed Micha was even able to spot it amongst all the other rocks and plants.

"Oh wow, that's bigger than I thought" he said.

"Prehistoric animals were bigger than modern ones. Although whatever happened to this guys kinda crushed him. That's only half a shell" Micha explained.

Haru couldn't help but smile at him, watching his face light up with joy and intrigue as he inspected the fossil.

Being king may be hard work, and definitely anxiety inducing. But he'd get to provide Micha with everything he wanted. It was worth it to see him smile and light up while covered in dirt holding some ancient artefact pulled from a dig site. Not only would he be able to have access to the royal library and archives, he could be in charge of expeditions into other realms, dig sites for artefacts, missions to unravel an ancient mystery.

"You're doing the puppy eye stare again" Micha snickered.

"I just love seeing you exited" Haru replied.

Micha smiled, Haru never failed to make him feel so loved.

"When I'm king by the end of the month, I'll make sure you get to be in charge of all the history archives and expeditions in the realm. You'll get front row seats to unraveling history" he continued.

Micha grabbed onto the ropes on the swing, pulling himself up to sit in Haru's lap. Haru helped him up, wrapping his arms around his waist so he wouldn't fall.

"Do I get a big office I can deck out with display cases and books?" Micha asked.

"You can have the biggest office in the castle" Haru replied, placing a kiss on his cheek.

Micha smiled again, returning the kiss with one atop the dragons nose.

"You'll be ok though right? King is a pretty big deal. I don't doubt you'll be good at it but it can be stressful" He asked.

"It's only stressful if you make it stressful. Once I've fixed the broken ass system Agnemetra created and reverse all the damage, things should run smoothly" Haru replied.

"You've really thought about all this huh?"

"I've been planning since I accepted the offer. For the sake of the realm as whole, the return of Merfolk... and you. You deserve it, you've helped just as much as everyone else has"

Micha rested his head on Haru's shoulder, the two gently swinging in the wind enjoying each other's embrace.

Even with a whole castle to themselves, they'd always find the time to just sit out by the lake and relax. They were free spirited people who loved an adventure out in nature, they couldn't just give that up. From time to time they'd find a way to take a date out across the realm and picnic in the flowers.

The future looked bright, as long as this fight went down without a hitch. They were determined, the Merfolk were determined.

By the end of this month, Izroulia would be theirs again. No one was stopping them.