Chapter 4:

Once inside Zac rested his hand becoming visible again.

He walked over to the couch and his eyes travelled all over her. Her beautiful curly hair was lying around her pale face. She looked so calm and relaxed almost like she was just asleep. Like the sleeping beauty he thought. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment still trying to forget the argument he had with the girls. He thought after a few hours of swimming the memory would've faded, but it didn't. He sighed and opened his eyes again, staring right at her face.

"I don't know what exactly I can do to wake you up, but I swear I'll do anything I can." He whispered quietly. "It's our fault you're in this state and even if the girls don't care and don't want to help you, I will."

He sat gently next to her on the couch. His mind suddenly drifted back to his home, his parents, even Evie. He realized how much he missed all of that. He knew the girls probably missed their pod the same way and immediately felt guilty for yelling at them, but he hoped they'd forgive him.

"It's my fault. Everything's all my fault. I wish I had never fallen into the moon pool. I wish none of this had happened."

A tear started falling down his cheek and he lifted his hand to brush it off, but it was too late.

It rolled down and landed on her face. Before he could do anything, her skin started glowing the same way Lyla's skin did when Rita and the girls used the moon rings to help her. Zac's eyes widened as he touched his cheek to brush off the rest of the tears and he looked at the palm of his hand in amusement before looking back at her. Rikki gasped for breath and her eyes shot open. He tried to make himself invisible as quickly as possible, but for a split second he was sure her ocean blue eyes had landed straight at his.

He tried not to panic, and to convince himself she hadn't looked at him but deep in his heart he knew; he had been caught.

A few hours earlier...

Zane ran into the café followed by Lewis, Ash and Will. Cleo, Emma and Bella were already there waiting for them. They all walked into the office where Zane gently put Rikki down on the couch.

He ran to his computer and started researching for a way to help her while Lewis sat next to him examining closely the stone. Ash and Will headed to Will's boatshed to get Will's laptop and some of his papers and books that they thought might help. Emma offered her services to Zane and took his shift at the café, making juices and serving the clients, in order to give him more time for research. Bella went out of the office for a quick sound check and Cleo sat down next to Rikki holding her hand.

The only one they felt they were now competing against was the time itself and they knew for fact it wasn't going to be an easy fight.

"Rikki, please open your eyes." Cleo whispered with tears in her eyes and then she looked at the boys. "Why isn't she waking up?! Whatever happened to her I thought she would...she would be awake by now." She dropped her hand, stood up from her place and started pacing around trying to compose herself and to stop shaking up.

Lewis put the stone on Zane's desk, walked over to her and hugged her tight. "We're doing everything to help her." He reassured the brunette. "Everything will be ok. I'm sure we'll find a way to wake her up." And he gave her an encouraging smile.

"I think I found something." Zane suddenly said and Lewis ran to him to look at the computer screen.

He then turned his head and shared a confused look with the brunette boy. "A trident?" Was all he said before leaning to read more of the article Zane had found. He scrolled through it and stopped to look at the photos attached to it.

"Look." Zane pointed at the one photo Lewis was now staring at. "The circle stone in the middle of the trident is exactly the same like the stone we found at the moon pool."

Lewis nodded deep in thoughts. "But if what we found is a stone from a trident, then...how did it get there?" He looked over to Cleo. "Have you guys seen this stone before at the moon pool? Or something that looks like a trident?"

She shook her head no. "But if it's part of a trident and if that trident was broken, it could've been hidden in the walls. Just like they are full of crystals." She suggested shrugging.

"I don't think that's very likely." Lewis shook his head. He then suddenly remembered the voices he heard before he found Rikki unconscious and a thought ran through his mind. "What if...what if someone had left it there?"

"You mean someone could've found the moon pool?" Cleo lifted her eyebrows.

"It's more than possible."

Zane continued searching the internet. He tried typing down "reversing the trident's stone's effect", but nothing came up except some old story tale about a war between mermaids and mermen. He sighed annoyed.

"I can't find anything helpful for reversing the effect of that stone." He groaned.

"Let me see." The other boy looked at the screen. "What's that?" He pointed at the link Zane had just clicked open.

"Some old myth about an ancient war between mermaids and mermen." Zane answered with a sigh.

"Hang on, look at this." Lewis pointed at one of the sentences on the screen.

"The only weapon that stood a chance against the mermen's tridents was the mermaid's moon rings. They stored the power of the moon in them and were quite powerful. They even had the power to heal."

"That's it!" Lewis exclaimed. "All we need is a moon ring."

"And how exactly are we going to get one, Mr. Genius?" Zane asked sarcastically.

Lewis and Cleo shared looks. "What if we try to search at the moon pool?" The blond suggested.

Zane looked both of them. "There are only crystals there, Lewis."

"We found that stone there. Maybe there is a moon ring too." The other boy insisted.

Zane sighed. "Fine, you go search at the moon pool then."

"What about you?" Cleo asked.

"I'll stay here."

"Why?"

"I..I'd like to stay here with her."

"She won't wake up anytime soon if we don't find that moon ring, Zane. You better come help us. It would be more helpful of you than staying here. Besides the band's sound check will be over soon and I'll tell Bella to stay here with Rikki and wait for Will and Ash who should be back soon too."

Zane nodded defeated. "Ok, ok, I'll come with you, then. But I still think we won't find anything there."

The other two rolled their eyes and they all hurried out of the office.

{ . }

Zac and the three girls ran inside Rikki's and sat one of the tables. One of the waitresses walked to where they were sitting to take their order.

"Welcome at "Rikki's". What would you like?"

They turned to look at the girl and froze on their places. It was the blond mermaid Nixie was following before the accident.

Zac was the first one to compose himself. He looked through the list of the drinks. "A mango smoothie, please."

The girl turned to Lyla. "Anything he says." The other girl hurried to stay.

"The same." Nixie added quickly.

"A creamery booster for me." Serena was the last one to order.

The other girl smiled and walked away to prepare their drinks.

Zac was just about to say something when they heard a door open and looked at the direction of the sound. They saw a brunette girl followed by two boys walking out. The girl walked over to the blond one who took their order and whispered something in her ear. She then walked to the stage to the other blond girl who was singing to whisper a few words to her too and after that she nodded to the two boys waiting for her, walking out of the café along with them.

Lyla turned to the place Zac was sitting at only a few moments ago to tell him something, only to find he wasn't there. However she wasn't surprised when seconds after he reappeared.

"They're going back to the moon pool." He stated nodding towards the door the girl and the two boys had disappeared behind only seconds before.

"What?" Lyla whispered. "Why?"

"If I heard the brunette girl correct, they're looking for a moon ring."

"A moon ring?" Serena whispered frightened. "That's really bad."

"Relax, Serena." Nixie told her, her voice stern. "

"Wait a minute." Zac suddenly spoke. "If that girl and the two boys are out to Mako, one of the blonds is singing and the other is serving us, this means that girl is alone in there."

"Aren't you forgetting someone? Those two girls here have boyfriends too. They may be in there just as we're speaking." Lyla interrupted him.

Zac gave her a look. "So what? We can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"I don't see why not." Nixie commented.

"You can't be serious." Zac said harshly and glared at her. "What are you trying to say? That we should just forget about the mess we made and go home?! Come on, you know perfectly well we can't just walk away. We have to help her."

"That's your opinion."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That we should do exactly what you just said. We should think of a way to reverse what we did and get back home instead of running after some stupid girl who accidently got herself into trouble."

Zac couldn't believe his ears.

"I am with Lyla." Nixie added shooting her a smile.

"I thought you were better than this. I thought after everything that happened you've changed too like I did. But you know what? You haven't."

Zac was looking accusingly at Lyla and the other two girls.

"The only thing you ever cared for was yourselves. You wanted me to give up my powers so you could go back to your pod." He focused his eyes on Lyla.

"I thought you were different, but you're just like your friends."

With that he stood off the table and stormed out of the café diving into the water.