Everyone woke up around the same time the next day. Lewis had taken the last shift, and reported that nothing unusual had happened. David, Carly and Cameron had to get ready to open the café, so everyone else went to Rita's.

When they got here Mimmi told Rita her idea about a numbing potion, and Rita agreed. Everyone helped (except Sirena and Bella, and Rikki of course), finding different potions and chopping up sea plants for the potion.

Once it was made they handed the two cups of Sirena and Bella. The drinks were bright orange.

"What's this?" Sirena asked, holding up the cup at eye level.

"It's a potion, just to help your nerves from yesterday," Rita lied.

***

"She's obviously lying," Erik rolled his eyes. "They clearly have done something to the drink."

"And if they have you can easily get Sirena to zap everyone with her ring," Charlotte shrugged.

***

Bella shrugged. "Thanks."

Sirena and Bella drunk at the exact same time.

"That wasn't too bad," Sirena said, looking in the bottom of her cup.

Suddenly both Sirena and Bella dropped their cups. The girls stared straight ahead, their eyes wide and their mouths hung open slightly. Sirena and Bella looked extremely confused...

***

"Was there anything wrong with the potion?" Dr Denman asked.

Erik paused, and then groaned. "I don't know," he growled. "I've lost the connection..."

***

"Whoa," Sirena look up.

"Are you two okay?" Evie asked.

"I can think a lot clearer," Sirena replied.

"It was like Erik was in my mind," Bella said. "He was controlling everything we said and did."

"We tried to make contact with you, but we couldn't, not with Erik in our heads," Sirena added.

"Well, the potion won't last long," Rita said apologetic.

"Tell us everything you know," Ondina ordered.

"Erik is currently taking base on a big white boat," Bella started. "There's him, Charlotte and another woman... Linda I think her name is."

"Linda? A scientist?" Lewis asked.

Sirena nodded. "Yes."

Lewis looked at Emma and sighed. "Dr Denman."

"Who?" Zac asked.

"She knows about me, Cleo and Rikki," Emma told them.

"About you being mermaids?" Lyla asked.

"Yes, but she thought we lost our magic and tails," Emma said.

"Charlotte must have told her you hadn't," Mimmi sighed.

"We need to get the blue coral," Will said. "We have to save Rikki."

"And Cleo," Lewis added.

"I'll go," Lyla stood up.

"I'll go too?" Zac suggested.

Evie gave a small laugh. "No way!! I'll go with Lyla."

Zac immediately knew there was going to be tension between Evie and Lyla. He glanced at Lyla, and she looked at him, biting her lip.

Evie looked between them. "Is that a problem?"

"... No..." Lyla said slowly.

It was decided that Lyla and Evie would go.

"Wait," Sirena said before they left. She slipped off her moon ring and handed it to Lyla. "I don't want to be in possession of this when Erik makes a connection back to us."

Lyla took the ring and put it on her index finger on her right hand. "Thank you."

Rita then gave Lyla a small bag. Lyla and Evie ran to Rita's pool, jumped in, grew their tails, and swam to Mako Island.

Lyla lead the way, much to Evie's displeasure. They swam to Mako Island as fast as they could.

The girls swam to the surface.

"Make sure you grab as much as you can," Lyla told Evie.

Evie scoffed. "As if I didn't know to do that already!!"

Lyla looked down. "Let's go then," she said, unhappiness in her voice.

Lyla and Evie dived back to the blue coral and grabbed as much coral as they could and put it in Lyla's bag. Once their bag was full they began to swim back to Rita's, stopping once for air.

Evie noticed a huge white boat swimming towards Mako.

"Do you think that's the boat Erik is using?" Evie asked.

Lyla turned around to look. "I don't know."

"Let's go see," Evie said, and she swam off before Lyla could object.

Lyla sighed and swam after Evie.

They got to the boat and swam to the back, where there was a ladder. They managed to pull themselves up as far as they could, before Lyla steam dried them, so their tails disappeared and her legs reappeared.

They listened carefully. They could hear Eriks voice, and another females voice, but they didn't know if it belonged to Charlotte or Linda.

"Can I ask you something?" Evie asked.

"If you're quick," Lyla whispered back.

"When you were trying to get rid of Zac's tail and powers....did you...like him?"

"At first I thought he was quite annoying," Lyla said truthfully. "But I got to know him, and he is actually a great guy."

"Yeah, but...did you want to...date him?" Evie questioned.

Lyla looked at Evie. "I knew that flirting with him would annoy you. That's why I did it. I never really thought about him in that way. I thought you and him were a good couple."

"...Oh..." Evie said, realising that she had judged Lyla too quickly, and had held an unnecessary grudge for too long. "Sorry."

"For what?" Lyla asked.

"For judging you, and being mean."

Lyla smiled. "Me too."

Just them both girls felt themselves flying in the air, like an invisible force was trying to pull at them. Lyla and Evie tried to cling onto the ladder, but the invisible force got the better of them. They were pulled into the air and then thrown into the deck of the posh white boat.

Both mermaids groaned with pain, and looked up, to find Erik and Charlotte looking down at them.

"How lovely," Charlotte said mockingly. "They've become friends."

"Unfortunately it will have been for nothing," Erik said.

Lyla and Evie slowly stood up.

"You're the bossy one, right?" Erik pointed to Lyla.

"And you're the ameture, Zac's girlfriend," Charlotte nodded at Evie.

Evie's eyebrows narrowed and she began to lunge forwards, but Lyla stopped her.

"Aww, looking out for each other?" Erik asked. "Friendship is sweet."

Lyla growled. "What do you want?"

"I just need to make sure that you don't don't go back to Rita's with that coral," Erik said, looking at the bag strapped across Lyla.

So Lyla thought quickly, and did the only thing she could think of: take off the bag the throw it into the sea.

"Why did you do that?" Evie hissed.

"Yes, why did you do that?" Dr Denman walked out and stood next to Erik.

"You don't have the coral, and we don't have the coral," Lyla said. "Why don't you let us go?"

Erik laughed. "Not likely." He pulled his new moon stone out of his pocket. It was now nearly twice the size of the one he had on the previous full moon, and it was glowing.

Lyla and Evie took a step back.

"Not so confident now, are you?" Charlotte smirked.

Lyla and Evie gave each other glances of fear.

"You wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of us, now," Erik said. "-Oh wait you already have."

Erik held the stone out in front of him, and a bright blue volt of energy shot out, hitting Evie in the chest. She flew off her feet, flipped backwards in the air, and then landing, unconscious on her back.

"Evie!!" Lyla called, looking at her friend. She turned to face Erik. "You'll pay for that."

"And what do you think you can do about it?" Dr Denman shrugged.

Lyla responded not through words, but in actions. She held up Sirena's ring, and sent a bolt of energy towards Dr Denman, who ducked. But the bolt zoomed around and hit Charlotte, who fell on top of Erik, who crashed into Dr Denman.

Lyla then ran up to Evie and managed to grab her friend by the arms. She pulled Evie to the edge of the boat and pushed her into the water.

Lyla jumped in after Evie. She grabbed her friends hand, and looked for the bag of blue coral. Lyla spotted the bag, and used the moon ring to bring the bag towards her. Lyla slung the bag over her shoulder, and kept hold of Evie as she swam back to Rita's.

It took Lyla a lot longer then she had hoped, but she managed to get back.

Lyla left Evie floating and managed to pull herself up onto dry land. Lyla then pulled Evie onto dry land. Lyla steam dried both their tails, and stood up. She picked Evie up (but Lyla was taller then Evie, so she was at an advantage) and carried her into the grotto.

"Rita! Zac!" Lyla called to her friends, but when she got to the grotto she was surprised.

Everyone was asleep on the floor, except Rita, Zac and Mimmi, who were sat on the floor, rubbing their heads.

Lyla carried Evie in. Rita, Mimmi and Zac looked up at her.

"Evie!!" Zac jumped up and ran to Lyla. "What happened?"

"Erik used his moon stone," Lyla explained quickly. "She's still breathing, though."

Zac helped Lyla lay Evie on the sofa with Rikki.

"Can you help her?" Zac and Lyla asked Rita at the exact same time.

"I will be able too," Rita replied.

"What happened here?" Lyla looked around.

"The numbing potion wore off," Mimmi sighed. "Sirena and Bella were fine until Erik found out and made contact with them again."

"And then?" Lyla asked.

"They stood up and began some crazy magic, and we all fell unconscious," Zac sighed.

"And then?" Lyla repeated.

"And then they were gone," Mimmi said, shrugging slightly. "We only just woke up."

Rita found a potion at the table and poured it into three cups. She passed one of the cups to Lyla, one of Zac and the other to Mimmi. "Tip a tiny bit into everyone's mouth, and they will begin to wake up, including Evie."

Mimmi, her brother and Lyla did as they were told, and less then fifteen minutes later everyone was wide awake.

"What happened?" Will asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Erik," Nixie groaned. "That's what happened."

"He really needs sorting out," Ondina muttered.

"Well tomorrow is the next full moon," Lewis told them.

"We should do it tomorrow, before he gets rid of any others of us," Zac said. "We can't afford anything bad to happen to the rest of us."

Everyone nodded in agreement.