The Third Party

"I was wondering when you would get back," Hook said, turning around to greet Ariel. The one they called the Silent Lady of the Seas scowled as the wave that had magically picked her up deposited her on the Jolly Roger. "You should have come for me," Ariel said, shoving Hook. "I should have," Hook admitted. "But I was too busy wondering what to do with the new carcass I attained."

Ariel rolled her eyes. Ever since she had started wielding Hook's artifacts of dark magic instead of the magic she had gotten from nature, the seas, along with all the elements of light magic, had completely shut her out. Ariel was more powerful than ever before, but all that power came at the loss of her original nature powers. Not that she cared.

"What do you know about the curse of Neverland?" Ariel asked. Hook frowned. "Where did you hear about that, love?" he asked. Ariel shrugged. "Maybe if you answer my question I'll answer yours," she replied. "Fair," Hook said, looking at her. The sun was setting in the sky behind the ex mermaid, and tomorrow morning, just as promised, the pirates would attack the kingdom. "

"The curse of Neverland is of old legend. Over half a century ago, a dark curse spread across the magical island, killing many life forms that dwelled on it. It is said a fairy managed to drive the curse away, and in the process, killed herself. Some say that later, that fairy was reborn out of the dark magic that she had defeated. She was called the Dark Lady, and was feared by everyone until a king- the king of this land, in fact, put a stop to her chaos. Why do you ask?"

Ariel stared down into the ocean's waters. "I met her," she said. Hook frowned, obviously confused. "What do you mean? You met who?" he asked. "I met the Dark Lady," Ariel replied. "And she told me of a third party that would enter this war- a third group of people who had the power to stop this entire war from even happening. Any idea who that could be?"

Hook stared into the waters with Ariel. A third party that had the power to stop an entire war from happening. . .

"Bloody hell," Hook whispered, realizing what the Dark Lady had meant.

"Mermaids!" the lookout screamed from the pier. Hook's head turned so fast that it almost looked like his neck had snapped. Fate had read Hook's mind.

The cry of 'mermaids!' spread throughout the entire fleet of pirate ships. Hook stared down at the water, which was trembling with the army of mermaids that had gathered beneath their ships. One glance at the army of mermaids below him told Hook that there was no way the pirates would be able to fight back.

"All of you, lock yourselves up downstairs, now!" Hook yelled at the fourteen other pirate ships. Normally, the captains were too vain to listen to Hook's orders right away. But, seeing as they were all scared out of their minds, the pirates obeyed the first orders they heard.

As the pirates of all fifteen ships began scrambling down beneath the top deck, Hook turned to Ariel. "The third party are the mermaids. Did the bloody fairy tell you how to get rid of them or not?" Hook said to Ariel as the first blow hit the ship- a giant tidal wave came crashing up against the Jolly Roger's hull.

Ariel furiously shook her head. "She said she would only tell us if I released her, and I wasn't stupid enough to do that," Ariel replied as the ship next to them shook violently. "Fine- go to my room, use whatever you can. You're the only one who's capable of saving us, love," Hook said, looking Ariel dead center in the eye. Ariel nodded, and pushed Hook down deck. The last he saw of her before she slammed the door shut was her flowing red hair, glistening in the sunlight.

"Again!" Attina yelled as the mermaids began raising their hands towards the surface of the sea. The ocean obeyed their commands, and the sea began to tremble. The ship in front of them began to slowly tip to the side. Just one more push would allow the ship to tilt all the way over the edge.

"Now!" Attina said, adding her own power into the push as well. But something was wrong. The ocean was fighting agaist her, the queen of the seas. How was that possible?

"They have magic, my queen," one of her soldiers said to Attina. Impossible. Attina had heard claims of pirates stealing magical artifacts, but they were human. Humans couldn't wield magic- not with such power like this, at least. Attina had only ever felt such strong dark magic once before, and that had been when Ursula had cast the curse to turn Attina's youngest sister into a human- this was a witch's magic at play.

"The pirates have a witch by their side," Attina said in a loud, clear voice. "Locate her, and focus your attacks on her."

Attina shot up to the surface of the sea. After a few seconds of searching, Attina located the witch- she was aboard the ship with the letters 'the Jolly Roger' incripted on the side. Her face was hidden by a large captain's hat, and Attina realized with a start that it was the pirate that had claimed she could level the entire kingdom of Atlantis and steal all its treasures back on the beach.

Attina focused all her energy into a single white orb, then hurled it at the witch. But instead of dissipating into light, the pirate stood her ground, and met the white orb with her fist. Immediately, the orb turned black, and began radiating immense dark magic.

Attina realized what would happen one second before it did- Attina swam downwards, as fast as her tail would take her. Down, down, down, into the deep sea- BOOM.

Attina looked behind her as the dark orb exploded, narrowly missing Attina. Had she been just one centimeter closer to the explosion, all of her nature magic would have ebbed away. This witch was much more powerful than Attina had anticipated her to be.

Attina headed back towards the surface, but by then, the witch had thrown a dozen dark artifacts into the water, and the mysterious objects were beginning to poison the ocean's waters. Now that the sea was by her side, the witch raised her hands, into the air, and the sea exploded. Attina felt herself getting raised into the air, and saw that her soldiers, too, were being lifted into the sky. With a loud bang, they dropped from fifty feet in the air, back towards the sea with incredible speed- well, the rest of them did, anyway. Attina, on the other hand, stayed hoisted in the air, right where she was.

She saw her soldiers sink into the sea. They were all obviously injured, and the fact that their queen was at the mercy of a witch- a witch who was a pirate, no less, could not have been helping with their motivation issues.

Attina once again shot attacks against the witch- but this time, her magic was much weaker than before. Attina was surrounded by an entire pool of dark magic, and the darkness was eating away at her light magic. In desperation, Attina pulled out the sharp piece of coral that had been holding her hair up, and hurled it at the witch. Shockingly, it worked. The coral imbedded itself in the witch's arm, and she helped in surprise, causing Attina to drop in the process.

Attina hit the water, and the moment she did, all her nerve cells screamed out in protest. Not only had she dropped from fifty feet in the air, but she had landed in a dark magic infested body of water that began burning her cells with excruciating pain.

She saw her soldiers make their way towards her, but they could reach her without having to step into the dark waters themselves. The witch would be recovering soon- Attina knew what she had to do.

Attina threw the crown of Atlantis, which had been resting on her head until now, to the soldier closest to her. "Give this to Alana," Attina said, as the waters' poisonous fumes caused her to slowly lose grasp of the world.