The night was young, the sunset was just on the horizon of the sky with the beautiful orange, yellow and red pigments in the clouds. It looked so much better when you were out at sea. It was a view Adrien's mother really admired when she went on these trips with her husband.

One specific evening, they thought that it was going to be a simple trip. Gabriel was always so fond of simply sailing out to sea to get some inspiration, a time to spend a quiet evening with his wife and son on occasion and to even get fixed into a new hobbies; fishing and snorkeling.

As a man that was purely fixated on his current job as creating and further growing his fashion line and label, he felt that he didn't have any time to spare for a hobby. But of course, the wife he adored was able to convince him otherwise even if it was just for the afternoon.

Unfortunately, this time, something felt off even if they were enjoying themselves.

Night came, a full moon shined bright in the pitch dark sky. The boat was still out at sea, the land a bit of far but still visible in sight. Light music played from the tiny radio Gabriel had between him and his wife's chairs. The music drowned out the silence that covered their environment. Gabriel had spaced out in thought a bit, thinking about his next project. What new and exciting thing could he bring? Emilie had a light smile on her face as she stared out to the water, but it quickly thinned, as she felt a sense of dread wash over her.

Suddenly she felt so scared she began to shake.

Her hand reached down to turn off the radio which left Gabriel confused. She continued to stare at the open water while seated but she slowly raised herself and walked towards the port of the boat. She squinted her eyes, believing that there was something just moving or crawling about in the water but she wasn't so sure. Carefully stepping, her shoes making the faintest clack as she stepped. The silence was unbearable.

"Honey-" Gabriel started but went quiet when Emilie held up a finger and then motioned towards her head to the direction she was looking at.

Then it all happened so quick, there was no time to really react until it was too late.

There was a harsh movement of the boat, which caused the two adults to swerve and nearly fall.

"Emilie, don't get so close to the edge" he let out a harsh cry but she had fallen with her arm just barely hanging outside the boat. It gave whatever was out in the water, a chance to grab and take ahold of the young woman. Emilie let out a loud gasp, feeling the creature rise from the water. To her horror and surprise the so called creature had similar features and figure as her.

For a second, she had thought that it was just a diver that needed help until she saw their eyes shift in color and their scaly skin that covered their entire body. The faint light just barely shinning of it. The hand that took hold of Emilie was webbed, feeling a bit rough and prickly.

The creature smirked, chuckling darkly and clicking their tongue as they had a stare down with Gabriel who was frozen with fear.

"What do you want" he demanded, hands curling into fists. "Let her go, just tell me what you want"

"Payback" it whispered. Several others of the creatures friend rose from different sides of the boat, surrounding the two humans. It was 6 against them two, they were clearly out numbered, not really anything they could do at this point.

"Payback?" Gabriel questioned, clearly confused. "Payback for what?"

" You humans are so selfish, pretending like you don't know anything. Im not falling for your little mind games. A body for a thousands you've killed should be nothing"

With a quick pull, Emilie was gone and pulled down to the ocean below, nowhere to be seen again. Despite how many hours after the incident Gabriel cried and did his best to find his wife, he wasn't successful. That was the last time he had seen her alive.

It was hard to come home to his son without his mother. What was even more difficult was having to explain the whole situation to him. Seeing that it was too much for even Gabriel to bare, he lied the first night and said she was staying at grandmas and would return in the morning. But when days would go by, Gabriel settled on claiming that Adrien's mother disappeared just like that and he knew nothing about it. Thankfully the nieve boy believed him. Telling him the full truth might just hurt the boy just as much as it hurt him. He was determined to keep it a secret at all costs regardless.

There were days that the police suspected it was his doing. Coming multiple times to the Agreste's house, questioning him for hours but in all he came up clean and they didn't have evidence he committed any crime. They hardly once believed his story about some sea creatures appearing and whisking her away in the night. One cop thinking it was nothing but a cover up story which most citizens of Paris assumed was the case.

Eventually the news to the public dies down, many mourning the loss of Emilie and soon they all moved on with their lives. This little event simply becoming nothing but a memory of the past.

Gabriel however, never gave up or has ever forgotten.

That's when he decided to take matters into his own hands. Hours of searching by boat turned into days worth. Days turned into months and months turned into a whole year. He was, needless to say, restless and hopeful she would turn up eventually.

Those creatures never turned up again. Despite hours of restless searching the internet to get the slightest information but nothing ever seems to be helpful. He was alone and left to hang on to the memory of his wife.

The attack was just an unfortunate encounter. A random creature taking a human and uttering nonsense.

But something in him was convinced that there was story behind everything. A reason for them to do what they did. What revenge against the "humans"? What had he ever done in his life to cause this?

And so, Gabriel was going to do everything in his power to figure it all out.

Well...

He'd try to anyway.

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I'm taking a chance at doing this Mermaid AU story. Hopefully you all like it.

Thank you to those who stopped by.