The first wave crashed into JJ with a startling force. The second snapped the tether keeping him attached to his surfboard. He tumbled under the water, the current pulling him down and out deeper into the ocean. All he could think of as the water pounded against him, keeping him down, was that he was going to drown and no one would know what had happened to him. He tried to kick his way to the surface, but by the time the waves stopped beating down on him, he wasn't sure which way was up.

Suspended in the open ocean, his mind starting to dull as his lungs screamed, JJ remarked to himself how peaceful it all really seemed. He could barely hear the waves up above, as the ocean continued its usual pattern. His presence didn't disturb anything in the end. The waves still crashed against the shore, the wind still blew through the trees. Everything was at ease in the face of his death.

So he thought.

He was seconds away from opening his mouth, letting the water flood into his lungs. There was no point in prolonging what he already knew was coming. He knew this day was coming, but now that it was here, he wasn't sure he was ready to die.

There was someone else in the water who agreed with him.

Just before JJ gave in, a girl swam up to him. Her hair was dark as the night, billowing out around her. JJ tilted his head to the side at the sight of her. He was sure he had never seen anyone so beautiful before.

Hold on to me. A girl's voice whispered in his head. He heard it clear as day, but the girl in front of him wasn't moving her mouth. She grabbed him around the waist, tucking her arms under his and took off toward the surface.

JJ had never moved so quickly through the water in his life. He knew that there were people who could swim quickly, but to swim this fast carrying another person, that should be impossible. He saw the light from the surface approaching and when he glanced down to the girl's face, he saw something in her eyes that looked like...grief.

As they were nearing, he felt the girl push harder, her face set in stone.

When they finally broke through the surface, it was like shattering through glass. JJ felt his body leave the water and then slam against the shore, coughing and spluttering water out of his lungs. He flipped himself onto his back, waves lapping at his feet. He looked back to the water, which was now even wilder than before. If the girl was with him when they left the water, she should be somewhere. But he was the only one on the beach and the tide was rising steadily. He lay there for a few more minutes, waiting to see if her body washed up on the shore. But there was nothing.

She was gone.

***

"You're crazy," Pope said the next morning as he walked beside JJ on the very same beach.

"I'm telling you, the girl saved my life," JJ told him. "You believe me, right Kie?"

Kie turned around, walking farther ahead with John B. She smiled at JJ and nodded.

"Course I believe you."

"What did she look like again?" John B asked from the front.

"Well," JJ said, rubbing the back of his next. "She had, like, hair? And this face, I mean, wow."

"Hair...and a face," Pope said with an "over-it" kind of expression. "Great."

"I didn't really have the time to check her out since I was, I dunno, dying!"

"You really can't remember anything, bro?" JJ shook his head.

"Real helpful, JJ," John B said, running a hand through his hair.

"Give me a break!"

"Guys," Kie called, yards ahead of them.

"It's not like we had anything else important to do today," JJ grumbled, kicking a piece of driftwood.

"My dad wanted help today and now I gotta spend all of tomorrow doing it because we're chasing after a hallucination!"

"Guys!" Kie cried out before JJ could respond. "I found something."

JJ ran over to where Kie was, pointing away from them. At first, it was nearly impossible to see, but as the wind shifted, they could all see what looked like fingers buried in the sand.

"Oh my God," John B breathed. JJ took off toward the body, Kie right on his tail. When they got to the body, it was half-buried in the sand. It was obvious from what little of the body that peaked out through the sand that it was a girl buried there. All four of them dropped to their knees, trying to dig her out of the sand. Once they had her half unburied, Kie yelled at them to stop.

"What, Kie?" JJ asked, continuing to scoop sand away from her legs. Kie grabbed his wrist, stopping him from going any further.

"She doesn't have any clothes on, JJ," Kie said.

"So?" JJ shook his head as John B and Pope stood slowly.

"How would you like it if you washed up on shore naked and woke up to a group of girls staring down at you?"

JJ considered it for a second, tilting his head to the side. Kie glared at him and swatted at his hand.

"I'll finish unburying her. Just, give me your sweaters of something," Kie said. JJ huffed and stood, walking over to where Pope and John B had turned their backs. All three of them pulled off their sweaters and tossed them backward toward Kie. She got the girl fully out of the sand, rolling her onto her back before laying the sweaters over her.

"Okay," Kie said, kneeling beside her.

JJ spun around and looked at the girl. He recognized the hair first, black as the night. Her eyes were closed, so he couldn't tell if it was the same startling green, but from the rest of her face, he knew it had to be her.

"That's her, yeah. That's the girl that saved my life," JJ said, looking up at Pope and John B. Pope knelt down beside her, pressing his fingers to her neck.

"What are you doing?" John B asked, standing behind Pope.

"Checking for a pulse."

"JJ," Kie said, pushing herself to her feet. "If this is the girl that saved you then she's been out here since last night."

"What are you saying?"

"There's no pulse," Pope said with a sigh before Kie could say anything else. Pope dropped his hand back into the sand, looking up at JJ.

"What?"

Kie and JJ turned back to the girl, looking down at her.

"There has to be," JJ said, locking his hands behind his head. This girl did not die for him. She couldn't have.

"You want to come down here and check yourself?" Pope snapped. "Look, man, I'm sorry-"

"What the...." John B kneeled down slowly, looking at her neck.

"What is it, John B?" Kie asked.

"Her neck."

"What is that?"

"There's no way."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Are those...gills?"

Once the word was actually said, Pope stood up and backed away, eyes wide.

"No way. That impossible!"

"You look at her neck and tell me those aren't gills, Pope."

"It's scientifically impossible," Pope said, shaking his head, hands tense.

"Guys, look," Kie said, pointing at her neck. As they all watched, horrified, as the gills on the girl's neck began to close, starting to look more and more like normal skin with every second.

"What the actual hell?"

"If her body is doing that then she must still be alive!" JJ said.

"You don't know that," Pope said, still standing a few feet away, arms crossed.

"We can't just do nothing," JJ said.

"For once, JJ's right," Kie said, nodding her head slowly.

"Thank you, Kie!" JJ put his hands on his hips.

"What can we possibly do to help her...it...her," John B said, glancing between JJ and Kie and the girl.

"We could give her mouth to mouth," JJ suggested. Kie scowled up at him. "What? I'm serious."

"That might work," Pope said, wagging a finger and stepping closer again. "I mean, if she's used to breathing underwater with gills, then she'll need help breathing air."

"So, who gives her mouth to mouth?" John B asked.

"I should do it," Pope said, raising a hand. "I know what I'm doing."

"No way, dude!" JJ protested. "She saved my life, now I'm going to save hers."

"No one wants to wake up from being unconscious and see your face, JJ. It should be me," John B said, crossing his arms.

"Bullsh-"

Kie rolled her eyes, ignoring the boys as they argued over who was going to give the pretty fish-girl mouth to mouth. Kie had CPR training, she was probably the only one who actually know what she was doing. Without alerting the boys, Kie pinched the girl's nose, tilted her head back, and put her mouth against the girl's lips. She let out deep breaths, silently begging the girl's body to take them. If JJ was right and this girl had saved his life, Kie knew he would never forgive himself if she died. Kie wasn't going to let that happen.

The girl's eyes snapped open first. Then she gasped in a deep breath, sitting up so suddenly that Kie shrieked and fell backward. All three of the boys turned around, startled by the gasp and Kie's scream.

The girl gasped, sucking in shallow breaths. Her eyes were wide as her chest heaved, fists curling around the sand.

The Pogues stared at her, none of them moving as she sat there, heaving. Slowly, Kie moved forward. She didn't want to terrify the girl, but Kie knew that she would want to cover up before she exposed herself to the boys. JJ looked like he was going to step forward, but when Kie sent him a sharp look, he decided against it.

The girl pulled her legs up to her chest, shivering against the cold morning air. All three of the boys' sweaters had fallen off when she sat up, laying now by her feet. Kie grabbed one, JJ's, and inched it closer to the girl, holding it out for her to take. When the sweater was by her knee, the girl finally looked up. The intensity of her sea-green eyes sent a chill down Kie's spine, but she didn't move. The girl slowly untensed her hand, lifting it from the soft sand to take the sweater from Kie's hand.

No one breathed. The boys watched from behind as the girl's breathing started to slow, Kie sitting, nearly unmoving, just inches away from the strange girl.
Once the girl pulled the sweater over her head, Kie sent another look toward the boys, giving them permission to move once again.

"My name is Kiara." Kie spoke gently, slowly, unsure if the girl even spoke English. "Do you understand English."

The girl nodded her head once, trembling still. Kie smiled at her.

"Okay. What's your name?"

The girl looked down, giving her head a short shake.

"You don't know?" Another shake. "That's alright."

"We should get her somewhere warm," Pope said, startling the girl again. She turned around suddenly, backing away from the boys, her breathing speeding up once again.

"You're alright," Kie said, hands out to stop her from backing into the ocean. "These are my friends."

The girl looked at each of the boys in turn. First Pope, who had spoken. He looked afraid, like the basis of everything he knew had just been shattered out from underneath him. The girl understood how he felt. She looked at the second boy, John B. He didn't look afraid. Far from it. If anything, she thought he might want to dissect her, to figure out how she worked and what she was doing here. He looked at her and saw a mystery that he wanted to solve.

But then she saw the last boy. His face was instantly familiar. She remembered seeing him floating there in the water, his eyes wide and unafraid. She could hear the ocean call from inside of him, the same call that pulled her to the ocean long ago. At the sight of his face, a smile tugged at the girl's lips.

"It's you," she breathed, her voice raspy from years of unuse. "You're the boy in the water."

And then she passed out.

***

"She is hot thought."

"God, JJ!" Kie dropped her head into her hands.

"This is the first known interaction between a hominid-fish species and humankind and the first thing you do is check her out?" Pope sounded appalled, but he wasn't really surprised. It was JJ after all. The girl lay in the back of their van, her head resting in Kie's lap. She was curled up in JJ's sweater with another blanket draped over her. Still, she shivered while she slept.

"Should we tell someone we found her?" John B asked. "I mean, someone could be missing her."

"What would we say?" Pope asked, turning to John B from the front seat. "'Oh, hey, we found this girl on the beach. Do you know anyone that might possibly be missing their fish-girl?'"

"Besides," JJ added, rolling a blunt mindlessly between his fingers. "We talk about her to anyone, next thing you know, the suits are pulling up and taking her away to experiment on her or whatever."

"She's safer with us," Kie agreed, gently running her fingers through the girl's soaking wet hair.

"Where can we take her?" Pope asked.

"My house," John B said.

"Why your house?" JJ asked, scowling.

"Because you barely live at your own house and Pope and Kie have actual parents who would probably turn her in if we brought her there. My house is pretty much the safest place for her."

"What, so you can have her around all the time? I don't think so," JJ laughed.

"Dude," John B looked at JJ in the rearview mirror. "I just want her to be safe is all."

They pulled up to John B's house, moving as quietly as they could, but nothing about any of the boys was very quiet ever. JJ opened the side door and Kie helped him get his arms underneath the girl. He pulled her out of the van as Kie made sure that the blanket was still wrapped around her.

JJ carried her toward the house while Pope and John B attempted to throw as many things into hiding places as they could.

"Put her on my bed," John B said, pushing open his bedroom door. JJ complied without complaining, setting her down on the bed.

"Keep the blanket over her," Kie said from the doorway. They pulled the blankets on John B's bed over her. She continued to shiver violently.

"We need more blankets," Pope said, running back to the front room to grab the blankets off of the futon that JJ usually slept on. He threw them on top of her, tucking them underneath her as best as he could. They all watched her, but she didn't stop shaking.

"It's not helping," John B said.

Kie stammered for a bit, pressing her fingers against her temple.

"Uh, yeah, John B go boil some water and Pope, find a balloon or something. If we can get heat in by her feet it might help."

John B and Pope rushed off to do as Kie told them. JJ stood by the bed, his mind running a mile a minute. Here was the girl who had risked so much for him, dying from the cold. He remembered the look on her face as she pulled him to the surface, the look of sadness, sorrow. He wondered what she had left behind to save his life.

JJ wasn't going to let this girl die. Not after what she did.

He threw the blankets back and crawled into the bed beside her.

"What are you doing?" Kie asked, moving to shove JJ out of the bed.

"Body heat," he said. "We'll share it. You too."

Kie raised her eyebrow at him, but she knew he was right. The shared body heat might just keep her alive. Kie slid into the bed on the other side of the girl. With the girl sandwiched between Kie and JJ, they felt her shivering slowly start to fade. Kie watched JJ grab the girl's hand underneath the blanket.

"She's so cold," JJ said, his voice quiet as if he was afraid to wake her up.

"If she really is a fish person," Kie said and then cleared her throat. "I imagine going from the water to the air was a huge shock to her system."

JJ nodded his head, curling an arm around the girl's waist.

Pope and John B came running in with a balloon full of hot water.

"What-uh," John B said. "What's going on here?"

"Body heat," JJ and Kie both said at the same time.

"Put the balloon under the blanket near her feet," Kie said. "Then find a spot and get your asses under this blanket."

"We won't all fit on the bed," John B said as Pope did what Kie told him to.

"Do you want her to die?" John B shook his head quickly. "Then get under the damn blankets."

It was a tight squeeze to get everyone under the blankets and onto the bed, but they somehow managed it. Kie wasn't really sure if two extra bodies were helping any, but she could feel the girl start to shake less and less.

It took almost an hour for her shaking to go away completely. No one spoke the entire time, each of their hearts pounding with worry. If she died, then there would be a lot of explaining to do. Besides, she had saved JJ, which meant they all owed it to her to do everything they could to save her in return.

Once Kie was convinced that the girl was no longer trembling, she tapped Pope on the arm.

"I think she's okay," Kie whispered. Pope let out a quiet groan. Kie rolled her eyes. Had he really fallen asleep? "Pope?"

Pope groaned again but rolled off the bed, allowing Kie to get up. When she walked around the other side of the bed, John B was laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. He made eye contact with Kie and she gave her head a short nod. He sat up slow and moved his legs off the bed.

"JJ," Pope whispered, but JJ didn't stir. "JJ!"

"I think he's asleep," John B said.

He was right. JJ breathed softly, his arm dangled over the girl's waist. Even with three fewer bodies, the girl still remained warm.

"We should go," Kie said. "Try and figure out what we're going to do about her."

"What about JJ?" Pope asked. Kie looked back to the bed.

"Let him sleep."

***

The girl woke up first. Her eyelids felt heavy, but she peeled them open anyway. The room she was in was unfamiliar to her. She lay in a bed....

A bed. She couldn't remember the last time she slept in a bed. So, saving the boy from the ocean hadn't been a dream. She had made the decision. She left her brothers and sisters under the ocean and now she was stuck on land until she died. There was no going back for her.

A tear rolled from her eye, running down the bridge of her nose and dropping onto the sheets beneath her.

She tried to remember the sound of Ira's voice, her favorite sister. Ira was the prettiest of all of her sisters and because of that, she had the most kills. When the girl had first joined their family, Ira took her in, showed her the ropes. The girl would miss her sister, but for all her beauty and kindness and talent, Ira was still a murderer, like the rest of them. And the girl couldn't take it anymore.

She had every intention of leaving the ocean for land, but she didn't have the means to do it until she saw the boy floating in the water. He was going to die, she couldn't leave him. And she couldn't save him without leaving the water. By saving him, she knew what she was leaving behind.

Her mind was running through her time beneath the surface, trying to hold onto the little things she loved about all of her brothers and sisters. Lost somewhere in her memories, she felt someone shift beside her.

The girl startled, sitting up quickly. She hadn't realized that she was in bed with someone else. She tried to think back to what she could remember after she left the ocean. There was nothingness for a long while, just warmth. And then there was a girl and the boys on the beach. And then it was cold...so unbearably cold. That was it. She couldn't remember anything else.

When she looked over, there was a boy beside her. He was asleep on his stomach, his hands underneath the pillow. She couldn't see his face because it was shielded by his long, blonde hair. The girl tilted her head to the side and leaned toward him to brush the hair from his eyes.

As soon as her fingers grazed his skin, his eyes shot open. He sat up almost as quickly as she had, his arm covering his head.

"No!" He called out, palms facing out toward her.

"I'm...I'm sorry," the girl said, voice still weak. "I will not harm you."

Slowly, the boy lowered his arms, eyes fixed on her. He dropped his hands suddenly into his lap, the look of fear on his face turning into a smile.

"Hey!" He said. With his hair out of the way and his hands no longer shielding his face, the girl finally recognized him as the boy in the water.

"It's you," she said again, the same smile pulling at her lips again. He had survived.

"JJ," he said, offering out his hand. The girl shook it with a smile. When she didn't say anything, JJ narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "What's your name?"

The girl shrugged her shoulders.

"I need to pick a new one," she said as if everyone just randomly picked new names every now and again. JJ's scowls deepened and he moved off the bed, standing by the door.

"Hang on, let me get my friends," JJ said. He stood and the girl nodded her head slowly, pulling her hands into the sweater she still wore. "She's awake!"

It took only a few seconds for the three others she remembered from the beach to flood into the room. The one who looked afraid, the one who wanted to solve the mystery, and the girl who saved her.

"Hello," she said to them all, smiling.

"Damn," the fearful one said. Pope, she remembered his name was. "She is beautiful."

The girl felt her cheeks heaten as she looked at her hands.

"What happened to not hitting on her?" The girl, Kiara, seethed at Pope, slapping his arm with the back of her hand. Turning her attention back to the girl, Kiara lowered herself onto the edge of John B's bed. "How are you doing?"

The girl smiled and nodded her head.

"I appreciate all that you have done for me," she said.

"Is there something we can call you?" Kiara asked. The girl shook her head.

"I have had two names in two different lives. But now I am on my third and final life so I need a new name."

Pope sighed and put his head in his hands. There was that fear again. The girl knew that her existence did nothing but shatter his version of reality. The more she spoke, the more she would continue to do that.

"What do you mean?" Kiara asked, her voice gentle.

"I lived a human life long ago. They called me Anthea then. Anthea Steelheart. And then I became one with the sea and I joined my brothers and sisters. There they called me Apa. Now I have left the sea, never to return, and I must take a new name."

"We...we've never met someone from the sea before," Kiara said, confusion evident in her voice. "Will you explain how it works?"

The boys stood in confusion; JJ with his arms crossed, Pope with his eyebrows pinched together, and John B with his eyes narrowed in thought. The girl smiled and nodded her head. When she opened her mouth, her story began.

***

Anthea Steelheart was born to Captain Amarylis Briarheart and her husband, Cael Stoneheart, aboard their ship, The Iron Anchor. She grew up among the scum of the earth, the scallywags and the heathens, the lords of the sea. They were her family and she would do anything for them.

She got her last name by the age of 13, when she ran a man through with a sword. She carried the name 'Heart' from birth, but when she killed the man who was threatening the life of the cook with no hesitation, her parents gave her last name the prefix "Steel". She worked alongside her mother and father, stealing cargo from European ships, cargo that was actually people.

They were boarded one day by a British ship in retribution for stealing the passengers from one of their own. The Iron Anchor was overrun by British soldiers looking for punishment. Anthea watched the Commander of the British ship kill her father, watched as he went for her mother. There was no way Anthea was going to watch her mother die. So she ran at the British soldier, sword ready. The fight didn't last long before she had his sword in her belly.

She was dying. She was going to die. But she wasn't going to die without taking the man who killed her father with her. She hooked her arm around his, stabbing her own sword through his stomach, pulling them toward the edge of the ship. She heard her mother scream, heard the British calling for their commander. But it was too late. The two of them tumbled overboard and into the deep ocean.

Down, down, down they fell into the blue. Anthea watched the life drain from the Commander's eyes. She could see her own blood swirling around her, light draining from her vision. She didn't want to die, she didn't want her life to end here.

That's when she saw it, the face in the water. It wasn't the face of one of the men thrown overboard. It was a woman with a face like an angel. She approached Anthea, swimming up to her effortlessly.

Do you want to live? Her sing-song voice whispered in Anthea's head. Anthea nodded as best she could. The woman took her by the hand dragging her deeper and deeper into the water until there was only darkness.

When she awoke, all she felt was numb. She didn't realize that she would spend the rest of eternity feeling nothing; no cold, no warmth, no pain. Even when she thought of losing her father, of never seeing her mother again, didn't bring her pain. She never once cried about it.

They called her Apa. She was one of their best. With eyes like the sea itself and hair black as night, there were few who could resist her. She killed to feed herself and her family and it ate away at her day after day.

Anthea knew the cost of returning to the surface. Once again live a mortal life. Never set foot in the sea again upon pain of death. Never see your brothers or sisters again. She knew the price and she took it anyway.

***

"You left your...family for me?" JJ asked once she finished.

The girl nodded her head a few times, twisting the blankets in her hands.

"I suppose so," she said.

"She has a higher body count than you do, JJ," John B said, laughing at his own joke. Kiara threatened to kill him with her eyes.

"We have to come up with a name for you," Pope said as Kiara and John B argued about whether or not it was appropriate to joke about killing people and having sex. JJ was silent.

"I would love a name," the girl said.

"Should we stick with 'A' names? I mean you've got Anthea, Apa...." Pope offered, sitting beside the girl. She tapped her chin with her finger.

"We could, but there are so many letters in the alphabet to chose from," the girl said. Pope could see her mind whirring with possibilities. There were a million names in the world, but which would work for her?

"We could go simple," John B said. "Something like...Sarah!"

"No," Kiara said instantly, her voice harsh. "That's a stupid name. What about Emma?"

The girl tested out on herself for a moment. Emma. Emma. Eventually, she shook her head.

"What about something Greek, like Amphitrite?"

"That's a dumb, Pope," John B said. "No one would know how to pronounce it."

"Okay, so Athena," Pope offered. "She's a boss ass bitch who doesn't take shit from anyone."

The girl's eyes widened, a smile pulling up her lips.

"You have the mouth of a sailor, Pope," she said as she leaned forward. "My parents expected me to keep my mouth clean, but I'll tell you a secret. Around the other sailors, I had the worst mouth of all."

The boys smiled at her. Kiara letting out a sigh.

"Athena was also the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy," Kiara said. "It might be fitting."

"I knew a pirate by the name of Athena," the girl said, sitting straight once again. "She was, in fact, a 'boss ass bitch' as you would say. I would feel strange taking her name."

"Okay," Kiara said. "What about something space-y, like Jupiter?"

The girl shook her said instantly. Her father had been the navigator on their ship, always talking about the stars and space, stacks and stacks of books about the universe covering his corner of their cabin. She couldn't bear to carry the weight of one of the names her father loved so much.

A few more names were thrown around that the girl didn't really like. Her heart was starting to sink when none of the names stuck. She hadn't been there for the name deciding process of her parents and she hadn't known the process for choosing names amongst her siblings. Things seemed to be going sour, until JJ finally spoke up.

"What about Mera?" He asked, lifting his head. Everyone looked up at him. "I read it in a comic once."

The girl considered it, mulling it over in her head.

"A comic book name, JJ?" Kiara asked. "Isn't that a little...strange?"

"I like it," the girl said suddenly, meeting JJ's eyes with a smile. "Yes. Mera."

JJ smiled back. He shot a look at Pope, who glared at him.

"Mera," Kiara said and it was then that the girl knew the name was right for her. She wanted to hug JJ, hug them all, but she knew that she wasn't wearing pants and if the world was anything like it was when she left, pants were often required before you hugged someone.

"Thank you," she said, looking around at the others. "For saving my life and then giving me my name. It is more than I could ask for."

The four of them smiled down at her, a warm feeling spreading in her chest at the sight of them.

"It's no problem. You're one of us now," Pope said.

"Yeah," John B continued with a smile. "Welcome to the Pogues, Mera."

She wasn't sure what a pogue was but somehow, it felt like family.