Mary (Ariel's) Memories

"Ariel you are destined for a wonderful life, my dear daughter." The woman with long red hair and sea blue eyes says as she lifts a baby up into the air. All the sudden her smile fades as she hands the baby to a man with a long brown beard. "Go!" She says and the man dives into the water, making me follow him. At first I freak out until I realize I can breathe underwater. 

'Wait I remember this,' I say as I look back toward the surface to see red filling the water. 'This was the day my mother died.' I say as I look back at the merman surrounded by a group of younger mermaids looks of sadness and fear filling their eyes. 

"Mary?" I hear from beside me and I turn to see Sam holding my hand. 

"Sam? How are you here?" He shakes his head as he looks around at my memory. 

"I have no idea. What's going on?" I look back toward where my mother had been and sigh. 

"This is the day my mother died." 

"What?" Sam says as he follows my gaze to the red stained part of the sea above us. Then turns back to me his face filled with sadness and says, "Mary I'm so sorry." 

I shrug as my grip on his hand tightens. "This is like looking through a mirror at all my past memories." I say as I release Sam's hand and reach out toward my family. "Aquata, Arista, Alana, Attina, Andrina, and Adella." I say as I look at the girls surrounding my father. 

"Huh?" Sam says as he follows my gaze. 

"Those are my sisters names, my mother loved names that started with the letter 'A'." 

Sam smiles as he says, "That's a lot of 'A' names." 

I smile as I stare over at them. "You were the only red head?" Sam says as he looks at all of them. 

"I was the only one that took after our mother, well in the looks department. I have to admit that I took after my father in every other way." 

Sam laughs as he says, "At least I'm not the only one who took after their father." I smile and rub his arm as the scenery changes. I look back to see a sunken ship and a lone mermaid searching through the wreckage. I laugh as I see a little flounder following behind the mermaid. "I remember this; this was when I found the snarfblat and the dinglehopper." 

"What?" Sam says a confused look covering his face.

I laugh as I say, "A pipe and a fork, although at the time I was fascinated by them and didn't know what they were called. So I went to scuttle and," I laugh out loud as the scenery changes to reveal me on the surface talking with a seagull. "Oh my god, Scuttle!" 

Sam laughs as he says, "So then you really did rely on information from a seagull, just like in the movie?" 

I fold my arms over my chest as I say, "I did." 

All of the sudden I hear a girl scream and I turn to see a young girl with raven hair thrashing around in the ocean miles from the shore. 

"Who is that?" Sam says as he follows the voice. 

I pause as pain fills my chest, "Regina." I watch as Ariel immediately swims over and saves the poor girl. 

"Who's Regina?" Sam says noticing my change of attitude. 

"She was my first human friend, after I saved her life we became friends. I used to visit her every day, until the day she lost Daniel." 

Sam tilts his head as he says, "Who's Daniel?" 

A silent tear falls from my eye as I say, "Her first love, Regina's mother pulled his heart out and crushed it in front of her." 

Sam's eyes widen as he says, "That was kind of extreme wasn't it?" I shrug as I watch the scenery change once again.

This time it was the night I decided to climb up the side of a ship because I was intrigued by their parties. My mood instantly lifts as I smile and say, "This was when I saw him," Sam tilts his head as he says, "Saw who?" 

My eyes fill with happiness as I say, "Prince Eric," I quickly search the crowd for him and when I find him I point him out to Sam. 

"That's Eric," I say as I point to the tall muscular man standing by the ships railing taking in the salty sea air. His long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. When Eric turns around my heart stops as I notice something I hadn't before, Eric looks exactly like Sam. My eyes widen as I look back and forth between the two men. "This is so weird." I say as I notice Sam's befuddled look. 

"You mean I'm in a fairytale, and I'm your Prince Charming?" Sam says as he looks back and forth between Eric and myself. 

"Oh please, Eric isn't you. He's just you from an alternate world, if that's how you wanna explain it." 

"I'm still confused," Sam says as he folds his arms over his chest. 

"How do I put this so you'll understand? In every world there is at least one person that looks like another, otherwise known as a doppelganger." Sam nods his head as he finally gets it.

"So you were in love with mine?" I nod as I turn back toward Eric dancing happily on the deck of the ship and say, "He was my first love." 

All of the sudden I hear the sound of thunder and the wind starts to pick up. "What's happening?" Sam says as he notices the crew start running around trying to shorten the sails. 

"It's a hurricane," I watch as men are thrown from the ship into the open water. I look over to see Ariel frantically trying to save all the men. 

"You saved those men?" Sam asks and I sigh as I say, "I did." 

Sam turns back to the memory and starts to search for Eric. As if guessing who he was looking for I point to the water behind my memory self. As the prince goes under so do we. Sam and I watch as Ariel saves Eric's life and take him to the beach. "Please be okay!" Ariel says as she lays her head down on his chest. A smile crosses her face as he starts to stir. "Who are you?" Eric strains to say as he reaches up to my face, I open my mouth to answer only to be cut off by a group of women searching the beach for seashells. "I never got to tell him my name." I said as I watch Ariel splash back into the ocean to hide behind some rocks and watch patiently as the women uncover the prince's' body.

"So was it like the book or the movie?" Sam asks and I turn back to him with an eyebrow raised, "Well aren't we an overachiever?" Sam shrugs his shoulders and I laugh, "And to answer your question, it was like the book." Sam frowns he looks back toward the beach just as the scenery changes. I look around at the trove I had filled with all the human artifacts I had found in the wrecked ships at the bottom of the ocean. "So you really did have a trove of treasures untold?" 

I laugh as I say, "Sam you must've been a fan of fairy tales to remember that line." Sam blushes causing me to laugh harder. 

"Ariel!" I hear a man's deep voice bellow out and I turn to see my father swim through the opening of the cave. "Daddy?!" Ariel yells out in shock as she backs against a table of antiques. "Ariel, what is all this?" Triton says as he looks around at all the treasures. "It's my collection." She says fiddling with her hair. "This was the moment I wish I could go back and change." I say as I watch the two argue. 

"What do you mean?" 

My heart clenches as I watch my father destroy all the treasures I held dear. "It was this moment that I decided to go to Ursula and become human." I say as I watch my father leave and Ariel cry into her hands.

I feel Sam's hands rub my arms and I try to hold back the tears as the scenery changes to a dark cave filled with strange looking creatures. I watch quietly as Ariel gives up her voice in exchange for a pair of human legs. Then the scenery changes again to reveal Ariel lying naked and unconscious on the beach. I quickly reach up and cover Sam's eyes. "Mary you act like I've never seen you naked before." 

"You haven't!" I say as I continue to cover his eyes. 

"Mary when I found you, you were naked remember." 

I slowly pull my hands away from his eyes as I say, "Oh,"

 "Wait isn't that the girl from the pawn shop?" Sam says drawing my attention back to the memory. 

I smile brightly as I say, "Yes, her name is Belle. She's the one that found me on the beach. She took me in, fed me, clothed me, taught me how to read and write. She had become my greatest friend. She's even the one who helped me get to the palace where Eric lived." 

At the mention of the Prince the scenery turns to when I first met him after I had acquired my human legs. I was wearing a long blue dress that accented my sea green eyes and red hair. "The prince recognized me right away but since I didn't have my voice he didn't truly believe that I was the girl that saved his life. He took me in and we became great friends. Every day I fell even more in love with him. That was until she showed up,"

 "Who?" Sam asks as the scenery changes to Prince Eric dancing with a woman who looked like me but instead of red hair hers was black and her eyes were brown instead of sea green.

"Vanessa, she was a princess from a neighboring kingdom. After I left Eric on the beach she was the one who found him. In his heart she was the one that saved his life and she was the one he loved." 

Sam looks at the two dancing before us and says, "I take it this was the night he decided he wanted to marry her?" I nod as a silent tear falls from my eye. The next scenery was on the back of their wedding ship. "What are you doing?" Sam says as he notices me standing on the railing looking out to the open sea as tears fell down my face. 

"The sea witch told me the only way I would be able to be reunited with my family was if I killed Eric, but when I looked down at the two of them sleeping happily in each other's arms I couldn't do it." "Ariel Wait!" I hear Eric call out and turn to see him standing a few feet away from where my memory self was about to jump. I watch as Ariel turns back to face him her face filled with tears and my heart breaks again. "Don't so this!" Eric says his eyes pleading with her to step away from the edge. I grab Sam's hand as Ariel fakes a smile and gently waves goodbye to him as she lets herself fall back into the water. "Ariel!" Eric screams out as he rushes over to the railing and looks down but it's too late, she's gone. 

"You were willing to die instead of killing the one you loved?" Sam asks as his grip on my shoulders tightens. 

"I was," I say as the scenery changes again.

Ariel opens her eyes to see Killian and his crew covering her body with a jacket. "That's right, this was the moment Killian saved me from the water." I say as I watch Killian carry Ariel into the cabins quarters. 

"So you knew Killian from before?" 

I smile brightly as I say, "Yes, he took me in ant taught me how to sword fight and pretty much be a pirate. Then he told me about how he lost his first love to," My eyes widen as I turn to Sam and say, "Sam, Killian lost his first love to Rumplestiltskin." 

Sam's brow furrows as he says, "But isn't he the one helping you get your memories back?" 

I tilt my head as I remember something my father had told me when I was a child, "Ariel, magic always comes with a price." 

I look back at Killian and my heart clenches as I say, "What did you do?" I reach out to Killian but my hand doesn't reach him. 

"You were in love with him?" 

My heart clenches tighter as I turn back to Sam and say, "I am in love with him." As I say the words the scenery changes to when Ursula found me and took me from Killian.

"Ariel!" Killian cries out as he reaches for her as Ursula takes her overboard. My anger flares as I watch Ursula open a portal and say, "It is a shame you won't every be able to return to your family." 

"What do you mean?" Ariel says her eyes wide with fear. Ursula smiles devilishly as she says, "Because I'm send you to a place where happily ever after doesn't exist, and to make sure you never come back, I'll also be taking your memories so you will have to wander the world forever not knowing who you are." As she finishes her sentence she lifts me up and tosses me into the whirlpool that had been created by the opening of the portal. 

The scenery turns black as I look back to Sam and say, "The rest you already know." 

"What happens now?" Sam says as he looks around us. 

"I don't know I guess I just wake up?" We stare at each other as a gold smoke starts to fill the room around us and then I wake up back in the back room of the pawn shop. 

"Ariel?" Belle says as she looks down into my eyes.