It's been almost two years since I last updated this.

Damn.

I've gotten a second wind for this story, even though I don't enjoy Total Drama as much anymore and my writing style, skill and general preferences have changed quite a bit since I started this whole thing.

I am going to do my best to finish this by the end of this year, tapping into January next year, if I must. But it will be finished.

"Ah, Hawaii. How nice it is to be here without magical maniacs attacking you..." Bridgette sighed as she sunk into a beach chair, fancy drink with umbrella in one hand and a sea life magazine in the other.

"A quiet vacation on my own for a bit before the others get here..." she thought.

"It's not going to be so quiet once Izzy gets there though..." Heather piped up through the Link.

"Better enjoy the peace while it lasts, 'cause I'm coming down there for excitement!" Izzy cheered.

"Which is much more than I need. I'm just here to catch some waves, do some tours, visit an old friend or two before I actually have to start school..." Bridgette thought back.

"Meanwhile, I'll still be in Canada and Heather will be in Japan. Then again, after the fiasco that was World Tour, I've had enough of touring the world for a lifetime..." Gwen grumbled.

"You've never toured it at the pace you wanted to, going where you wanted to go and doing what you wanted to do while there, though..." Heather pointed out. "And my parents are much better tour guides than Chris could ever hope to be..."

"You do have a point there..." Gwen admitted.

Bridgette exited the mental conversation at that point and turned her focus back to her magazine and drink, taking a particularly large sip of it.

"You know, Bridgette, you haven't been to Aequor for a while now. I'm sure Magalie and Marina miss you..." she murmured, fiddling with her pearl necklace.

"I should go back to home base and see if I can arrange a visit..." she finished her drink and put away her beach gear before heading to the changing huts.

"Thanks, Gwen."

"No problem."

Bridgette smiled to herself as she stepped through the portal that Gwen had sent her way- to the apartment that was now hers.

As she found herself in the aquatic world, she took in all the initial sights.

Nothing had changed much in the months since Radcliffe's War.

The city was as beautiful and mystical as before.

Moving her wings to help propel her though the water (even though he'd discovered she didn't have to be transformed to be here, but she moved better when she was), she was soon in the city proper.

"Look, it's Keeper Bridgette!"

Bridgette smiled to herself. Here, at least, magic an everyday thing; something to admire and appreciate.

Not like many on Earth who reviled and feared it...

"Let the Keeper go by. I'm sure she's got important things to do..." one mer-policeman started crowd control, joined shortly by a few others.

"Thanks, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not here on any official business though. Just decided to come here, since I haven't been in a while..." Bridgette shrugged.

"I see. The two princesses are still at school, but they shall be done in an hour or so. The most I could do is let the King and Queen know through the royal guard that you're in our waters if you want to see them." the mer-policeman said.

"School?" Bridgette was confused for a moment. "Oh yes. I forgot that the system and times of year here are different than those on Earth. School's out on break in my part of that world..."

The mer-policeman chuckled. "I guess so, Keeper Bridgette. We'll pass on the word and if they can see you, they'll send you a Bubblegram..."

"Sure, Officer. Goodbye, and thanks for the help!" Bridgette swam off.

"I hear that in the Keepers' world, they're having trouble with people accepting magic!"

"I don't see why. I mean, magic is great! I don't see how we could even live without magic!"

Bridgette sat listening to conversations around her while being unnoticed (somehow) in an Aequori café, munching on some seaweed wraps, simply merpeople watching. It probably helped that she was seated in the very back of the restaurant, but still...

"Magic is different to them. They wouldn't understand. I mean, I heard that they were exposed on live television there. I don't think that would be the most ideal way to introduce magic to people, do you?" a third voice spoke.

"Guess you're right. Goodness knows how the Keepers and other Earthling magicals must feel about it all. I know I would feel so out of place in the Surface World..." the first voice that had spoken spoke again.

Bridgette tuned them out after that.

When she travelled to Pearl Cove Park, she found that many others were aware of her presence in Aequor.

"I heard rumours that you were here, but I wasn't sure!" a preteen girl exclaimed.

"Okay, little one. Come with me and leave her alone. I'm sure she just wants to relax." an older mermaid put her hand on the girl's shoulder and guided her away.

Anyone who approached her that day was rather polite, if not rather enthusiastic.

"Unlike a lot of my fans- and not so fans- on Earth..." Bridgette noted wryly.

She floated in the water, relaxing. She was so comfortable, that she could almost fall asleep here...

The Water Keeper was startled out of her relaxed state by the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong.

"Nothing is going to go wrong," she thought aloud. "Everything will be fine... I'm just being paranoid..."

She sat at the edge of one of the many underwater cliffs here and enjoyed the view of the aquatic city around her.

She was glad that she could come here on her own and enjoy it.

And to think that just over a year ago, she would not have thought any of this possible...

"Just over a year ago, I didn't know that any of this existed. I'm glad that being a Keeper allowed me to be a part of all this... That I became worthy of the power that came with the role, even with all the responsibility that it brings..." she thought aloud.

Then, all of a sudden, the ground beneath her bean to shake and the water around her started pushing her in all sorts of directions.

"What... is this some sort of underwater storm?" Bridgette thought as she fought against the currents to make her way back to the city itself.

"An underwater storm? Now? We haven't had one like this in over thirty years!" she heard several people around her screaming as she made her way through the city.

The sea around them became more violent and with every moment, Bridgette had to fight even more, just to move even slightly through the water.

"Come on, come on!" She pushed herself as she tried her best to help the merpeople in difficulty around her, but then she head more screams coming from somewhere on her left.

"Mommy! Daddy! Sissie!" a young merboy's voice screamed.

"No!" a woman's voice screamed. "The current's got him!"

Bridgette changed her direction and immediately went after the young merboy instead of trying to get herself to shelter.

Flapping her wings to propel herself, she shot off through the water quick enough to leave what looked like a mini tornado behind her.

The boy was still screaming; terrified as he was hauled through the rough water.

Who could blame the poor kid? She'd be scared out of her mind too if she were in his place...

"Come on, come on!" Bridgette pushed herself.

She almost had him.

Her hands reached out; the tips of her fingers just barely touching his skin...

"Gotcha!" Bridgette cried out as she grabbed the boy and held him close to her as she formed a protective bubble around them.

The boy clung tight to her; whimpering and shaking horribly.

"The danger's not over yet, but you'll be safe with me, I promise that."

She did her best to comfort the boy as she guided the bubble back to the city, manipulating the water around them to bat away bits of debris that had come loose during the storm.

Finally, she managed to bring the merboy right back into the arms of his terrified family.

"I have to go. I have to stop this storm. This is my Element. I can do it. I have to try." Bridgette said as she turned to leave that family's home.

"Be careful!" the boy she'd rescued called out.

"Don't worry," Bridgette turned back to them and smiled reassuringly. "I will."

The Water Keeper stepped out into the raging water, refusing to let it stop her.

"This is my domain. My Element. I'll be damned if I let it beat me." Bridgette's expression was serious as she stood firmly, taking in her surroundings as her wings flapped slightly.

Water started gathering around her clenched fists as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Okay. I am the Water Keeper. I help keep the peace both in the water and out of it by harnessing its power whether against a natural or man-made threat. If that means fighting against my own Element to bring it under my heel..." Bridgette sighed as she opened her eyes. "So be it."

Stretching out her arms, she did her best to let her magical energy flow to her fingertips.

She felt the familiar coolness that always occurred when she used her powers, whether she was dealing with the ice side of them or not.

More and more water gathered around both of her still clenched fists, until both spheres of water appeared to be the size of basketballs.

When she unclenched her fists, the water around them dispelled quickly; as if it had never been there in the first place.

Bridgette smiled.

"I can do this."

She felt fully connected to the water around her as she moved her arms, almost as if she was sharing her energy with it.

When she controlled water, it was as if she had grabbed onto someone's hands; as if she were guiding someone down a street.

Though most times it felt as if the person was willing to go, sometimes it felt as if the person was pulling against her.

Such was the case in the current situation.

Pushing herself, she took control of the ocean itself, for a brief moment feeling as if she was perfectly in sync with it and all that was currently in it.

Being in sync with the water, Bridgette had learned, was different to merely controlling it. At least, to her.

It went on a deeper level.

Other Water Keepers agreed with her; at least, according to the Elemental Book passed down their line...

Her line.

Stretching her arms back, she then swung them forward and put her palms together.

"Now, ocean, you will become calm!" she spoke in a commanding voice as she brought her hands apart.

Bit by bit, the storm around her subsided until it became completely still.

Bridgette glanced around.

If it weren't for various bits of debris scattered all over the ocean floor, one wouldn't even have been able to tell that there had been a raging storm going on just moments earlier.

She breathed out, relieved.

Even against Radcliffe and his ilk last year, she'd never had to quell a storm of this magnitude. And to have done it so quickly...

Marissa would be proud.

Heck, even Madeline would have been proud, were she still around today...

"What's going on? I've been trying to get through to you for ages!" Gwen's thought-voice suddenly burst through the Link.

"A bit of a situation came up here in Aequor. I had to take care of it." Bridgette explained.

"What sort of situation?" When Gwen asked, Bridgette could feel the concern. "Do you need help from me and the others?"

"No, no!" Bridgette reassured her. "Everything is fine now. Everything is fine. As I said before, I took care of it."

"Well, it is your Element, so I guess I should expect nothing less." Gwen did the mental equivalent of a shrug. "I'd like to hear the full story whenever you can, though."

"Hell yeah!" Izzy suddenly butted in. "What did I miss?"

"You'll find out later. I have to go." Bridgette cut her off (though not before noting some objection from the Fire Keeper) as she realised that some merfolk were cautiously emerging from the places they had ducked for shelter to investigate the sudden change in underwater weather.

"My word, that was impressive! I've never seen anything like it!"

A mer-policeman who had been helping to rescue others from the storm before it got too rough for even him to handle swam over to her.

"I've never seen anything like it either..." Bridgette murmured.

"I don't blame you. Sudden storms like that which literally form out of nowhere are extremely rare. The last one was thirty years ago. Over thirty years ago, as a matter of fact." the mer-policeman paused as he looked around, taking in the sight of some people peeking out of windows and from behind various places where they had swam for shelter. "The last one before that was over one hundred and fifty years ago!" he exclaimed. "And no Keeper of any sort was here to banish it almost as soon as it started!"

Bridgette let out a low whistle. "Whoa. And I thought hurricanes forming in a few days on the surface was bad enough, but an actual, full-blown, category five sea storm in an instant? That is really, horrifyingly impressive..."

"It is. Such is the life of living in a place like this. It is well worth the risk in my opinion, though."

A message came through just then on the mer-policeman's communication device and after excusing himself, he turned away from the Water Keeper to answer it.

When he turned back to Bridgette, it was with a smile.

"The king and queen wish to see you. They have already heard of what you have done here. Word spreads quickly under the sea, you see." he spoke cheerfully.

"Ah. It will be a fine opportunity to see the princesses as well." Bridgette shrugged. "I suppose I should be off then. Wouldn't do to keep the royals waiting..."

"Certainly not!" the mer-policeman shared his agreement.

She turned and swam off, through the city, on the way to the Aequori royal palace.

As she swam, she noted things such as upended sculptures, broken windows, uprooted aquatic plants as well as a general tense air amongst the few members of the undersea population that dared to venture out so soon after the raging tempest had occurred.

Objects had become buried and half buried beneath sand and sea moss, some more obviously than others.

However, one object in particular caught her attention, glinting from a narrow space between two buildings.

Or piece of an object, rather, as she discovered once she retrieved it.

It looked like a jagged-edged piece of a metal cylinder, with some strange markings on it, likely magical runes of some sort.

It was also emitting such high levels of dark magic that it made her feel ill.

"What is this?" she spoke aloud as she made the object float a few metres away from herself, encased in a bubble.

"I don't know what it is, but I cannot let it stay here..." she reinforced the bubble and commanded it to follow her as she swam.

However, as she went, she failed to notice the rapidly moving grey blur approaching her until it was too late.

She screamed as the blur pulled the object out of her hand and swam off with it before she could do anything leaving a long, thin scrape on her arm as it went, drawing blood.

"What was that?!" she winced as she put a finger on the scrape, tracing along it as it healed.

Looking around wildly, she could see no sign of what had collided with her and had taken the object from her.

"That was... perhaps I'd best just tell the king when I see him and see what he makes of it..." she mused aloud, continuing her swim towards the royal palace.

Some distance away, in the midst of a particularly rocky part of the ocean, the grey blur slowed down, revealing that it was some sort of shark.

A few seconds later and the shark had transformed into a man with a platinum blond Mohawk.

Twisting his neck briefly, gills appeared there as he tapped the bracelet on his wrist.

"Well, Drake. How did the test run go?" Xavier's image appeared in a projection above the bracelet.

"It certainly caused a big impact down here as expected. It exploded though and I had to track down the only piece that survived it so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands." Drake answered.

"Ah well. There's nothing for it, I suppose. Aside from that, did all go well? Were you harmed?"

"I'm fine, but the Water Keeper happened to be down here at the same time and not only did she manage to quell the storm, but she found this-" Drake held up the object. "before I could. Luckily I managed to get it away from her before she had even realised that I attacked her..."

"I thought you said that aside from the device's explosion, that all went well. That does not sound like all went well at all. She will go to the authorities and she could cause problems for us!" Xavier's tone was calm at first, but got angrier as he went on.

"Relax, man. Everything is fine! Even if they figure out that somebody planted something down here to stir up the weather, they'll never be able to pin it on any of us!" Drake reassured him.

"You had better hope not," Xavier spoke darkly. "because if I go down, all of you are coming down with me. My power reaches very far in more ways than one. Remember that, Drake."

Drake rolled his eyes. "Yes sir, Mr. Winsdor sir." he saluted him mockingly.

"Shut up and get out of there before somebody catches you. Don't push your luck."

Drake rolled his eyes again as he ended the transmission, continuing to swim on in his current form, not stopping until he burst above the water in a secluded area of the shoreline.

Chuckling to himself as he held the object tightly in his grasp, he disappeared with it in tow.