Harumi's POV

The murky waters swished around me. It was funny, knowing that I was pretty much soaking wet, even though I felt dry. How this was possible, I didn't know. What I did know, however, was that I needed to get out of there.

If there was any way to get my hands free... I once heard about a guy who could make his hands smaller than his wrists so he could escape any sort of hand confinements. But even if I figured it out, I still wouldn't know how to get rid of the ring around my neck cutting into my lower jaw. At least there was some sort of buoyancy in the water. If this had been someplace else, gravity would be pulling me down even harder, and then the ring would be drawing blood. Sometimes I would try and push myself up to gulp air in a more comfortable way, but every time I ended up making my jaw sorer. After a while it got numb. I just had to breathe in a very inconvenient way.

Due to the ring around my neck, I couldn't look down at my hands. My fingers ran along the cool stone to which I was currently pinned against. I felt something slimy. Looking around at the other rocks, which had green stuff all over them, I guessed that it was algae. I would've slapped myself on the forehead if I could. This wasn't a time for worthless thoughts. Escaping was my number one priority.

I straightened my fingers and brought the tips together to meet in the center, trying to keep the circumference of my knuckles as small as I could, so much that they started to ache from the strain. Then, bringing it up to the metal ring, I tried pulling it through, only to find my hand still stuck. No matter what I tried, it remained stubbornly where I didn't want it. I gnashed my teeth and shut my eyes tightly, bracing myself for what was going to come next. Once I was ready, with my hand almost unable to hold the position any longer, I yanked.

A searing pain shot up my arm from where the metal scraped my knuckles. I raised my hand up to eye level and could see blood coming from the bumps. The initial pain had gone, leaving a throbbing sting in the wound. It was fine, actually, and at least saltwater was apparently good for wounds. Even though it hurt.

I did the same thing with my other hand, and by the time the blood had cleaned, all I saw was a raw mess. Dead skin hung limply around my pale knuckles, and for a second I thought I saw white bone underneath. But all of these were only minor injuries, especially compared to... Kai. I thought of him, feeling squeamish. And Nya... her sufferings really put my current situation into perspective.

So, ignoring the fresh pain in my hands, I reached up to my neck, my fingers clasping the metal ring. It was such a stupid idea, but if there was even the slimmest chance of freeing myself this way, it was worth a try. Then, just as I was about to pull, I froze. I pictured myself pulling out the ring, then falling forward, only to hear my ankles crack. Which meant I needed to free my feet first. The head would have to come last, because the force of the hands pulling on the ring would make my body fall forward, and since my feet were secured, my ankles would... the thought was too gruesome to imagine. Luckily I wasn't stupid.

Maybe I could free my feet the same way I freed my hands. I bent my toes down and pulled my knees upward. As I had expected, my ankle got stuck. but brute force would free them. So I yanked, as I did with my hands. Same sensation, same pain. Whatever. My feet were also free, even if the ankles were scratched pretty badly, from what I felt. A bit worse than my knuckle injuries, but that was fine. Now came the hard part: the head.

My fingers grasped the ring, and I brought my feet up against the wall. Pull, Harumi, pull, I repeated in my head. Gritting my teeth, with my hands and ankles still stinging, I lurched forward and pulled with all my might, at the same time pushing myself with my feet.

It didn't work. The ring remained where it was, and the only remnant of this dumb trial was a bruise on my neck.

After many unsuccessful tries (I was careful to not slam my neck into the metal), I didn't know what else to do. Of course the metal ring was firmly attached to the stone. No amount of energy I put into it could break the bond. My limbs hung at my sides. The ring was literally biting into my lower jaw. Then I froze.

There was something there. A small bump in the metal. Wondering how I hadn't noticed it before, I squeezed my finger under my chin and was not disappointed. The rest of the ring was smooth. This bump couldn't have been there by accident. Now all it took was a leap of faith and I'd be free.

As I expected, there was some sort of line running around that part of the ring, meaning that it was a break in the metal. With one of my hands pulling myself up so that I could crack open the ring without my chin in the way, the other sliding down the ring to the bump, I pushed it. And the metal ring cracked open. I got myself off the wall and looked back. A smirk spread across my face as I started to propel myself towards the surface. I hesitated.

That was too easy. Much too easy.

And suddenly I couldn't breathe. I choked for air, despite knowing there wasn't any. My eyes screamed in agony; my lungs were on fire. I felt like I was falling; the world around me was spinning. Then all went black.

Lloyd's POV

I tilted my head towards the sky, only to see about a hundred and fifty feet of water. In my hand I held a ball of fire, since the deeper we got, the darker it would get. I couldn't believe we'd traveled so fast. Morro noted the absence of sharks and other dangerous creatures. He said that that meant there was a dark presence in the water. We knew, of course, that the Shadow Knight was behind this. He had ordered the people in the water (if they even were people) to kidnap Rumi and kill (?) her.

I suddenly felt a surge of anger, or guilt, eating away my insides. She was in mortal danger while we strolled the ocean floor. And then there was Morro, acting like nothing had happened. Even if he didn't care about her, which I doubted, she was still my girlfriend, and he would care on my behalf, right? Right?

I glanced, or more like glared at his expressionless face. Lately I wasn't even sure what I felt about my cousin, whom I had known for years. It was somewhat like a roller coaster, where I was at first so incredibly grateful for his existence, then suddenly angry at him for so many reasons. As I tried to sort out my feelings, his eyes just stared straight ahead, and then he noticed me.

"I know you're extremely frustrated with the rate at which we're doing things," he said, with a tone that sounded as if he was suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. Or maybe it was merely my imagination. "I want to find her as much as you do. She's alive. You have to trust me on this one."

He'd said to trust him countless times, and I knew I should.

Then I registered what he'd first said. I want to find her as much as you do. And there was something in his voice... or was it just my imagination? I brushed it off. It probably was. Reminding myself to stop being so possessive, I stared back at the waters.

Not much happened, except that occasionally one of us would step on something sharp or slippery. There was a time Nya almost tripped, but Jay and Cole caught hold of her just in time so that the water wouldn't collapse on us. Once or twice, Zane would announce that we were slowly running out of oxygen, so Jay would shoot some electricity through freshwater that Nya formed with her spare hand, producing some more. I wondered if we were defying the laws of buoyancy by keeping an air bubble underwater, but I brushed that thought out of my head because if we were, we were, and if we weren't, we weren't.

And then Nya collapsed. The bubble popped. We all gasped and gulped in as much air as we could, but what was the point? She struggled to push the incoming waves but they were too strong. I flailed, arms waving and legs kicking. The saltwater made my eyes and nostrils sting. My lungs were on fire. Oxygen... I needed oxygen...

I didn't get any and blacked out.

...

And then I was lying on a bed, breathing. I sat up straight, gulping big breaths of air. Someone must've rescued us! I was alive! Hallelujah! I almost sang aloud. Until I took in my surroundings and realized I was still underwater. The room was made of stone, and there were holes in place of windows. The water made ripples in the "air". I saw coral, algae, and seaweed everywhere. After crawling out of bed, I swam out to the larger opening which could only be a door. My legs didn't help much.

Somehow I wasn't surprised at the turn of events. I suppose I should be overjoyed and crying tears of gratitude that the underwater people (mermen?) had decided to spare us, but I wasn't. For now I was only focused on finding the others.

I poked my head into a room, nails digging into the crevices of the stone wall to prevent the water from dragging me away. When I was younger and heard the story of the Little Mermaid, I'd never expected that swimming underwater was like this. Maybe I'd always imagined it as a pleasant experience.

Morro, sitting upright in the bed, turned to me. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, as if he was trying to smile then thought better of it. Hands pushing against the stone wall, I entered the room.

"Hey," I said lamely.

Morro swam over. "This is so weird," he murmured, then flashed me a small smile.

We went back out into the hall, and hearing sounds, we swam to the source. Turned out it was Jay and Nya, comforting each other over the recent events. I thought of Rumi.

Cole, Zane, and Ruby were found soon as well. We gathered into Cole's room to plan our next move. Morro went out of his way to not be next to Ruby. She noticed.

"Rumi's not here," Ruby pointed out, "Should we search this place for her?"

"I have scrutinized every room we have access to, but she is nowhere to be found," Zane reported, "While you were asleep, Cole and I scoured this entire building. Twice."

I was impressed by how fast they had moved. But now I was starting to fret.

"Then where is she?"

"Maybe she isn't in this building," Ruby suggested, "We have to search the grounds."

We glanced at each other and decided that she was right.

"How are we going to communicate?" Jay asked, "Or do we stick together? We could easily get lost."

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Ruby said abruptly. All eyes turned to her, surprised at how confident she sounded. She shrugged. "Come on, guys. We only have to ask others if they've seen anybody with legs. I'm sure we'd be able to find each other in the end. This way's faster."

"Makes sense," Cole agreed, "But we should go in pairs, just in case."

"I can go with Morro," Ruby offered. He glared at her. She didn't seem to notice. Morro opened his mouth to protest.

"Actually," Zane pointed out, "It would be unwise to go separate ways, since I am sure we can all infer that the Shadow Knight has already infiltrated these waters. Also, we have only one first aid kit remaining, which I managed to save. Therefore, we should stick together as often as possible."

"But that would be faster," Ruby said, frowning.

"Wait, you said you had a first aid kit?" Jay asked, ignoring Ruby and clearly impressed.

"When the bubble popped, I took it out from my bag then zipped it up in my jacket," he said proudly, then pulled out a rectangular case. "Do not worry, the package is waterproof."

"Dang, Zane," Nya said.

"Wow, what would we do without you?" I asked in awe. Zane grinned.

"That's great," Cole said, "But since we only have one, we definitely shouldn't split up in case anyone gets injured."

"Do you still want to go in pairs?" a smirking Morro asked.

Ruby hesitated, then ultimately decided to go with us.

Harumi's POV

I bolted upright. All I remembered was losing oxygen and getting dizzy. Guess the merpeople had decided to save me, even though I had tried to escape their confinement. The Shadow Knight must really want me alive.

I could breathe again, and now I was free to move. And then I realized I wasn't even underwater. In fact, I was lying on sand. Soft, golden sand that gleamed under the sunlight.

Confusion swept over me. What was going on? Why did they chain me underwater, then return me to the surface? And by the looks of it, I was on some tiny island in the middle of the ocean. I tried to piece everything together, and figured that this was the Shadow Knight's plan. He hired the merpeople to deliver me to him, since the plan with the beetles had failed. I knew I had to escape this forsaken island, since he was going to come and get me. Though I had absolutely no idea which direction the gulf was in, I leaped into the waters.

An unknown force sent me flying backwards. I tried again and the same thing happened. Circling the shore of the island, I ran towards the water over and over again, until I reached my original spot. I'd gotten nothing. Nothing other than a sore behind.

I had to find a way out. But no matter what I attempted, I still couldn't leave. I tried digging a hole out, but there was a barrier there, too. Then I dug another hole, hoping I could hide in it when the Shadow Riders did come. But by that time I was tired and hungry, and the sky was darkening.

I started to panic. Whoever I was dealing with, they were going to make sure I couldn't escape this time.

I thought of the Ninja. What were they doing? I looked back at my current situation and knew that I couldn't fail them. Refusing to give in so easily, I continued to dig until my nails cracked and drew blood. I winced and continued. If they thought I'd buried myself alive, they would probably go to Morro, hoping one person would be enough to stabilize the portal, and be secretly glad that I, their biggest threat, was dead. Now that I thought about it, the Shadow Knight must really want a stable portal. These were only guesses though, so it could be much worse. But if they found me alive, that would be a different story. Anyway, I wasn't going to turn myself over without a fight. Even if all the odds were against me.

If only I had a weapon...

As soon as the thought entered my mind, a golden gleam in the sand caught me slightly off guard. I squinted, wondering if I was seeing things. When nothing happened, I started digging.

My hands were almost numb to the point where I couldn't feel them anymore. I could visibly see them shaking as I dug. But knowing that this was my only chance, I went on.

The feeling of cool metal awakened my sense of touch. It was as if I had caught my second wind, and I began scraping away at the sand at least ten times faster than before.

I finally finished digging and cleared away the dirt to get a better look.

It was unmistakable. A golden sword. The one I'd gotten from the queen of the zombies.

A/N: First of all, if you made it this far, congratulations! I'm pretty sure this is the last chapter in which eighth grade me had any hand in writing. If not this one, then it's the next one but I'm pretty sure it's this one.

Thanks again to squidneyxd for suffering through the horrendous mess that was Draft 1. You did not deserve this but went through with it anyway. *bows in respect*

School is bad, but what did I expect lol.

Aaaaaaanyway, thoughts/predictions?

Thank you guys so much for reading! If you liked this chapter, please consider clicking that little star hehehehehe... (I wonder if this'll even make a difference lol)