AN: Hello! This is actually my first fanfiction (that I have posted) and so reviews are appreciated. Not really much to say here... Oh! Um, these chapters are short, but I will try my absolute hardest to post them daily on Monday and Friday. At some points I will post two 'chapters' at once. On the same page. The viewpoints change during the story, so you might want to pay attention to that. I own none of the characters except the Duke (so far. I don't know what I will do later. But I'll say so.) Okay. This is too long. I'm just so exited! Here we go!

"What would I give to live where you are? What would I pay to stay here beside you, what would I do to see you, smiling at me?"

That voice. She knew that voice.

Eyes as blue as the sea jolted open. Those same electric blue eyes searched the owner's surroundings with fear in their depths. The mermaid who belonged to those eyes was gorgeous- or she would be if she wasn't so weathered down by time and pain. But years of belonging to a pompous duke- far too inland for her taste- being shown off to guests had taken its toll. The once pristine nails on the delicate fingers had been worn down by attempts to open the confining tank she was in. The callouses on those porcelain hands were from pressing against the top of the tank desperately. The premature wrinkles on her lovely face were due to the lack of salt water in that cursed tank. This astounding beauty had faded from her years of terrible sadness and loneliness. But today something was different.

There had been a beautiful song, one of such pure joy that this trapped beauty had heard it. The amount of happiness in those notes had moved her to tears- not that you could tell, underwater as she was. But they were there, and a new determination filled the faded mermaid. She ricocheted across the tank, searching for a weakness in the glass, some way of escaping. "Come on, Athena, you are a Queen! You can do this!" Yes, this broken mermaid was the amazing Queen of Atlantica, beloved bride of King Triton, and mother of seven little merchildren. But she had been ripped away from that, from them, from all she loved. The only things she had left were memories. Memories of a better time and place, of love and laughter, peace and joy, pure happiness and bliss.

After hours of beating against the resilient glass, Athena gave up. She sank to the cold bottom of the tank, breathing heavily and crying. That voice... Whose voice was that? She could almost place it; it was on the tip of her tongue. But she just couldn't make it tumble off her tongue. With a sigh, Athena scooched to the corner of the tank where she had put a blanket and a little pile of sand and settled down to rest. But behind her eyelids, images of home and family danced. Athena wished she could have broken through the glass, but even if she could have, it wouldn't have mattered. She could never make it home.