Merman (Miraculous Ladybug AU)

Chapter 6

The water was suffocating, like it was trying to pull the life from her slowly, painfully. Alya could feel her arms weakening and falling to her side, her legs slowing and dangling below her, as if she was in suspended animation. The fight was starting to leave her.

Alya's life started to flash before her eyes. She saw her sisters, her parents, her home, the Pollen. Marinette smiling flashed through her mind, as well as her friends on the ship, everything that she had done. If she died she would never see the sky again, watch the sunset, see the stars. She should have gotten off the ship as soon as she could have. This wouldn't have happened otherwise.

"No..." The last of the air bubbled out of Alya's lungs and into the water, floating back to the surface. Everything was starting to go dark, but Alya was determined to fight her way out of this situation. She was a few metres from the surface when someone wrapped their arm around her waist and pulled her into the open air.

As soon as she could turn around Alya struggled in the mystery saviour's arms and turned until she was staring into the eyes of a very shirtless merman. Alya let out a screech and pushed herself away, trying to escape.

"You don't have to panic. I won't hurt you."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Nino Lahiffe."

Alya looked at him questioningly, continuing to tread water. "Why should I believe you?"

"You don't have to, but I know where your friend went and I can help you get her back to land. Only if you trust me." Nino offered his hand to her, offering a way out, a way to safety.

"Okay. How do we get to Marinette?"

Nino gestured to the ocean. "I saw the son of the Royal Advisor pulling her back into the water. We'll have to go back to the city to find them."

"Let's go." Alya placed her hand into Nino's. "How do we get down?"

Nino pulled the shield off his back and spun it around in the air. Almost as soon as it was completely in the air, the shield started to shrink. By the time he gave it to Alya, the shield was the same size as the bottom of a glass. "Hold this to your mouth. It was made to help people breathe underwater and revive merpeople if they were on land for too long."

Alya followed Nino's instructions and help the shield to her mouth. When she tried to breathe, the shield made a whistling sound for a few seconds before it was quiet again and Alya couldn't even tell she was holding it. It was like it was floating on its own. "What is this?"

"A shield. I'm supposed to be part of the palace guard training program but I just stopped going. It was interfering too much with my life and I hated it more than anything else. I left and took the shield with me. Repainted it and everything as some kind of rebellion."

"I know the feeling." It was true. Alya had left because she was sick of her life, like Nino had stopped training to be a palace guard because he hated the life it was forcing him to live. She had left Paris because it was boring, but she could imagine the same drills and messages over and over could get repetitive and boring, too.

"Let's go." Nino grabbed Alya's arm and dragged her underwater. Alya gasped in shock and prepared to start choking on water, but could breathe normally. The shield was working its magic.

"Where?" Alya was even more shocked when she could talk normally. She expected her words to sound watery and drowned, but it was like the water wasn't even there. It was bizarre.

"The sewer system of the city. I have a dance club down there that I DJ at every night. You should be able to hide there until we can reuse your friend and get you both back to the surface." Nino pulled Alya through the depths of the ocean, picking up speed as he swam. Alya felt like she was just a dead weight dragging behind him, even though she knew she wasn't as much of a burden as she could have been.

The city came into view sooner than Alya had expected it to. She hadn't realised that Nino was swimming as fast as he had, and after hearing how deep underwater the city was, Alya expected the journey would have been longer.

"Amazing, isn't it. I never get any less than amazed whenever I see this."

"I can't believe you live down here. Sure, Paris is beautiful, but this is something else."

Sparkling in front of Alya was the most beautiful sight she had ever laid her eyes upon in her entire life. She had seen the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower at night, the works of art in the Louvre, but nothing compared to this. The city was a wonderful sight.

"We'll have to sneak in. You're human, and if we get caught we'll probably be both dragged to the city prisons."

"What?" There was no way that a city so beautiful was so brutal. Putting two people in prison, just because a human found their way down. Even if the human went back to the surface and tried to tell everyone else about what they found, no one would believe them. Instead of being celebrated as some kind of hero, they would probably be thrown into a mental hospital and left to rot.

Nino and Alya reached the ocean floor, and Nino started pulling Alya along behind him, almost pulling her along the sand. "The entrance to the sewers is up here, then its only a short swim to the club."

They swam in silence for a few minutes until a man hole cover came into view, partially covered in sand. Nino brushed the sand aside and opened the cover, revealing a hole leading down into the ground. He gestured to the hole and Alya swam into the hole, moving as fast as she could. Nino followed, pulling the cover back into place behind him.

A light pulsed at the end of the tunnel, pulling Alya closer and closer to it. When she reached the light, she was in a large room, with pipes leading in from every direction.

Nino caught up to her. He pointed down into the depths below. "We still have to go down there."

At the bottom, Alya could see flashing lights of different colours, and she could hear cheering. The club must still be open, despite it being the next morning. "Are there still people down there?"

"There are people here nearly all day. The sewers are the best place to get away from real life, and its easy to travel down here without being caught by the guards and police."

"But why do you have sewers filled with water when you live in the ocean?"

"They used to be for another city before this. You've heard of Atlantis, right?"

"Everyone has, but its just a story. There's nothing that proves that it was real."

"There was nothing to prove merpeople are real, but I'm right here." Nino pointed to himself. "When Atlantis sunk, the sewers were busted open and water flooded in. There are old ruins somewhere, but no one has found them yet.

"That's what the city used to be. Now it doesn't have a name, mostly so no one can put all the information together if anything gets back to the surface. No one must know about us. It would be too dangerous."

Alya and Nino reached the bottom of the pit and was hit in the face by the blinding lights. She was instantly sucked into the atmosphere around her until Nino pulled her away. They ended up in a small side room away from the noise.

"How do we get Marinette out?"

"Adrien probably would have taken her to the castle, and she would probably be hidden away from everyone in his room. We would have to bust into the castle and kidnap her back, but we won't be able to do it without help or powers."

"Where are we going to get those powers from? I'm a human and you're just one merman."

Nino swam to his bookshelf and pulled out an old book of fairy tales. "There's an old tale about some Miraculous stones that can give the wielder incredible powers. I've heard rumours about where they are now, so if we can get them we can fight our way in, give Marinette another Miraculous and get back to the surface. We can all hide and hopefully we won't get caught."

"What happens if we do get caught?"

"We go to the dungeon and rot there forever, or until they decide to get rid of us once and for all. I've heard the tales about criminals being thrown into the deepest abyss near the city. They get weighted down so they keep sinking into the dark. No one ever gets out, there are too many creatures lurking down there."

"Great. Let's go."