Chapter 2.

After what they heard back at the café, Zac and the girls were sitting on the beach, trying to figure out what to do.

"I think the best thing will be to go and talk to them." Serena said even though she herself wasn't so sure about it.

"Forget it, Serena." Lyla told her. "That's not going to happen."

"Why don't we just follow them around?" Nixie asked and everyone looked at her. "Like we followed Zac."

"Yeah, we can do that, but Zac was one person, and there are six of them."

"Actually, I don't think it's such a bad idea." Zac suddenly said. "We won't follow they boys, we'll follow the girls. They're only four like us. Each of us can follow one girl."

"No, Zac, it's too dangerous." Lyla protested. "Besides we must stick together until we figure out what had happened to us."

"But that may take months. And besides they're like us. If we get to know them better and they turned out to be nice people we can ask them for help."

"I don't like this." Serena stated. "What if while we're following them we got lost? What then?"

"Then we go to the nearest beach and go to the moon pool." Zac said. "Come on guys, it'll be fun."

"Fine." Lyla sighed.

They went back to the café. The group of the mermaids and their boyfriends was still there, only now there were two more people sitting with them. A girl with curly blond hair and shining blue eyes and a brunette boy who couldn't take his eyes off that girl. Zac and the girls took a good look at them, before walking out again.

"Ok, here's what we're going to do. Nixie you'll follow the blond that had her hands wrapped around her brunette boyfriend. Serena you'll follow the brunette one. Lyla you'll follow the other blond who was kissing her blond boyfriend. And I'll follow the curly blond."

The girls nodded.

"So, the plan is to follow them everywhere they go, right?" Nixie asked.

Zac nodded.

"Wait, what about their homes?" Lyla suddenly asked.

"Well, if there's a way, try to sneak in and look around without being noticed." Zac answered her.

"And what if we get caught?" Serena asked.

"We'll try to not let that happen." Lyla told her.

"Yes, but if it does happen?"

"We'll figure something out." Nixie told her.

All four of them shared a worried look.

"They're walking out." Zac said and before they all became invisible he whispered, "Remember, we must not be seen!"

Once they were invisible they waited for the eight people's next move...

{ * }

"I can't believe you actually let him back again!" Bella said to Rikki. – I mean he kissed her for goodness sake!

"It's only on a trial basis." Rikki responded. "If he makes one wrong move, it's over and this time forever."

"Yeah, you're saying that now." Emma teased her, rolling her eyes.

"Can we change the subject please?" Rikki asked them.

"Yeah, actually there was something I wanted to talk to you about. Lewis found something interesting. It's a book like the one with the potions, but..."

"Not again." Rikki groaned, making Emma laugh.

"But this one's for cultivating our powers." Cleo finished not paying attention to them.

"What do you mean by not again?" Bella asked curious.

"I mean that last time when Lewis was playing with such stupid book the whole situation became a complete mess." Rikki stated.

"Excuse me, but if I remember correct the potion turned out to be working and if you hadn't heated it up it wouldn't grow up to the point of filling up the whole café!" Emma rolled her eyes.

Bella bursted in laughter and the other girls followed. When they calmed down Rikki asked Cleo.

"Why didn't Lewis tell us about the book himself?"

"Because he knew what your reaction would be and he wanted me to do it. He probably hoped if I told you I'd make you take part in it." Cleo explained her patiently.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I don't want anything to do with his stupid experiments so count me out of it!" Rikki stated.

"Rikki, please, do it for me." Cleo begged her.

"No, Cleo!"

"Please."

"I said no!"

"Fine." Cleo sighed. "But when we succeed, you'll be sorry you hadn't tried it out with us."

"I'll live with it." Rikki rolled her eyes.

It was starting to get late.

"I think we should be heading home." Emma stated. "It's 6:00 p.m."

"Already?" Rikki groaned. "The time really does fly."

Emma smirked.

"We can have a sleepover at my house tomorrow. My parents would be gone for two days."

"Great!" Rikki smiled a little overenthusiastic.

"We'll be there, Em." Cleo smiled to her.

"Well, I guess it's settled then." Bella added.

A group hug followed, with an unnoticed wincing from Rikki and the girls got on their ways home. This was like a queue for the four invisible people to go after their targets...

{ * }

Lyla hurried after Bella, Nixie – after Emma, Serena – after Cleo and Zac – after Rikki.

Serena, still invisible, was walking after Cleo for about a few minutes before they reached Cleo's house. Cleo walked in, and Serena quickly got in after her. She looked at the house. It was not very big, still not very small and was beautiful. Cleo went in the kitchen greeting her dad and Sam.

"Where's Kim?" She asked them a bit surprised her little sister was not home yet.

"She's staying at a friend's house." Don answered her sounding nerveous.

"I see." Cleo nodded.

The three had dinner together and she and Sam tried to cheer Don up a bit and distract him of thinking about Kim. Then everybody got to bed and Serena sneaked to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Meanwhile Bella had to stay at the café for a sound check and Lyla stayed too. She was looking around the whole café trying to get more familiar with it when she heard someone saying:

"What would you like?"

She turned around in a flash. A black-haired boy with dreamy brown eyes was standing in front of her.

"Sorry?" She asked.

"What would you like?" He repeated the question.

"I...um...nothing. I'm just waiting for someone." She quickly composed herself.

The boy walked away and she stared after him. "He's handsome", she thought and a mischievous smile appeared on her lips. That's when Bella's rehearsal ended and Lyla quickly left the café, becoming invisible and following close after Bella.

Nixie had to walk after Emma, watching her kissing with Ash and them both being all lovey-dovey and stuff. That annoyed her a lot and she was really thankful when finally they reached Emma's house and they said "Bye" to each other. Nixie followed Emma inside and when she saw Eliot coming towards his sister she had a bit of a flashback remembering Ben. She smiled sadly I at the thought of him. Emma speaking got her out of her thoughts.

"Eliot, I want to let you know that Rikki, Cleo and Bella will be staying over tomorrow."

"Ok, sis." He smiled to her and went to take something from the fridge.

Emma walked up to her room and Nixie followed her. She took out one of her photo albums, sat on her bed and opened it. On the first page there was a photo of her with her family and under it a photo of her with Rikki and Cleo. Emma touched the photo and smiled. Going through the pages of the album many different emotions surfaced back up in her heart. Nixie was looking at her and couldn't help but feel sad because of missing her own pod. She wished they'd accepted her, Serena and Lyla back. She wished Zac had never fallen into the moon pool. She wished none of this had happened.

Zac was the one who got to follow Rikki, by his own will. Something in her had caught his attention when he saw her for first time at the moon pool. Even though in the water she seemed familiar to the other girls, it could be easily told she was quite different from them and Zac felt that. He liked the fact he'd get to follow her, because that way he'd have the chance to find out more about her and to get to know her better. But what he didn't know was she was the smartest of all and could easily tell when she was being followed.

When Bella, came back to the café, Emma left with Ash and Cleo got on her way home, Rikki started walking to her trailer, but she felt someone was following her. Zac was deep in his thoughts and didn't notice that suddenly she disappeared. He hesitated whether he would make himself visible again and look for her, but he gave up that thought. He looked around and spotted Rikki behind a tree as if she was looking for something, and her crystal necklace was leaning forward.

Zac walked towards her, not noticing the crystal started glowing and he suddenly felt his legs started giving him up. He didn't understand what was happening and made an effort to continue walking towards Rikki, but he only felt weaker and stopped. Rikki noticed her necklace was glowing and started at it. That was the first time it did something like that. She didn't waste time and quickly dove in the water. Zac felt his strength coming back and feeling better enough, he dove in after her. She was the fastest swimmer Zac had ever seen. Even Lyla, Nixie and Serena weren't as fast as this girl was. He could barely chase her, but still he managed to follow her to the moon pool.

There she had already dried herself and was walking around the place looking at her crystal that was now back to normal. "Weird", Rikki thought. She was pacing around the cave with Zac watching her, for a few minutes when something caught her eyes. Zac followed her look and shocked he realized it was the stone from the trident Nixie had forgotten there. Before he could do anything to stop her Rikki leaned to take a better look at it. Her necklace started sparkling again, connecting to the stone and a beam of light burst from it, hitting Rikki and she fell on the ground.

Zac looked at her terrified. He quickly dove in. He knew if he wanted to save this girl, Rikki, on time he had to find Lyla, Nixie and Serena. He had to do it before it was too late...