Author's Note – please read! (Disclaimer enclosed)

First of all, I've read submission rules and I don't think I am breaking any rules here. Okay, some of you people may remember that I once made a Finding Nemo story called No Turning Back roughly based off of Don Bluth's original The Land Before Time. I soon realized that the story wasn't going as I had planned, and it just kinda fell through after a while – it might get revived one of these days. Until then, though, I decided to actually do a true crossover between the two. A couple of people besides me have proposed this, but I've never seen a complete one around the Internet at all, so I thought I'd do it.

It should be mentioned though that I am not out to make any kind of money from this whatsoever – it is simply for fun. I'm a huge fan of both the original The Land Before Time and Finding Nemo and I'm sure I'm not the only one. All characters are property of Disney & Pixar, and all of my OC's (Jodi, Tara, Leila, Keona, and Greenspot) belong to me. The storyline and underlying script and narration belong to Don Bluth and Universal Pictures.

So what you are about to read is the story of the original The Land Before Time with the characters and environments from Finding Nemo. I tried to mesh storylines so that the two movies' stories actually kinda flow together. For example, I fixed it so that the actual Finding Nemo movie logically takes place between Nemo's hatching and the actual beginning of their journey towards the Silver Reef (the Finding Nemo equivalent of the Great Valley. Originally it was called the North Cape but it didn't sound splendid enough).

Also, some scenes have been altered in scenario and script to make the story seem like it could believably take place underwater. For example, the volcanoes seen in The Land Before Time have been changed into a dangerous field of hot springs, and instead of trying not to fall in the lava, the challenge is to get across the vast plain without getting scalded to death by the geysers. Script-wise, I had to redo a few lines because of their context – some of the little phrases said by the characters are reminiscent of the 80s and 90s and would rarely be heard coming from a kid these days, so I had to "modernize" it in a way. I also tried to stay true to the Finding Nemo characters so, for example, if Sheldon had to say a line that didn't seem to come from his character, I'd alter the line just enough so that it had the same point, but sounded more Sheldon-ish. That being said, if you by chance haven't seen the original The Land Before Time, it's best to watch that before or after reading this fan-fic so you know what's mine and what isn't.

Enjoy!!

Chapter 1: Hatching

Once upon this same earth, beneath the same sun, in a completely different world than yours. In a different world than the ape, and the elephant as well. Different than that of the wolf, the lion, the bear… was the wondrous world of the Great Barrier Reef. Hidden within this secret world lived species of many, many types of different fish. Now the fish were of two kinds. Some had smaller teeth and ate the algae that grew on most of the matter in the water, and some had sharper and larger teeth for eating meat, and they preyed upon the algae-feeders.

Then it happened, that the reef began to die. The beautiful creatures that appeared to rule the sea were ruled, in truth, by the coral. Desperate for food, some of the schools of fish set off towards the north, searching for Silver Reef - a place still lush and colorful. It was a journey towards life.

It was a march of many dangers. Sharks and barracudas stalked the schools, waiting to seize any who strayed. The algae-feeders stopped only to hatch their young.

Near a patch of fan coral on one side of the reef, Ted and his wife Jodi kept a vigil on their brood of eggs. The flapjack octopus couple's eggs were set to hatch at any moment.

Finally, one little egg jumped and began to crack down the middle. A nearby shrimp noticed the activity and drifted over to get a look. A little girl octopus poked her head out of her egg and right away saw the little shrimp. Her bright aqua eyes sparkled in amazement and she smiled. She reached out one of her tiny tentacles for the shrimp, who turned and darted in the other direction. The little octopus wiggled the rest of the way out of her egg and began to follow it at quickly as she could.

The shrimp began swimming circles around her, and the little octopus spun around and around until she fell over with a delighted shriek. Determinedly though, she squirmed back up as chased the shrimp as it led her farther away from her nest. A rather large grouper standing nearby then distracted her. She curiously got closer to him to look into his gaping mouth.

"Pearl!" Jodi suddenly showed up and whisked her daughter out of harm's way before the grouper could chomp her.

Pearl leaned back and looked up at her mother with a smile. "Mama!" she giggled.

Jodi smiled and ushered her back to her nest, where her newly hatched brothers and sisters were waiting. Ted and Jodi watched happily as their babies began playing together.

In another part of the reef, Phil the butterfly fish and his wife, Tara, watched as their brood of newborns raced around. Their five little girls squealed with laughter and scurried behind their mother to hide as the last member of Tara's brood chased after them. He was the only boy in the bunch, and at an early age he was turning into quite a little troublemaker.

The boy had been the first to hatch, but he still had a shell piece over his head that was blinding him. Stumbling around, he bumped into Tara's nose. The eggshell cracked and finally fell off. The little butterfly fish blinked his big blue eyes and looked at both of his parents. With a mischievous smile, he paddled back and playfully head-butted his mother.

Some of the young seemed born without fear.

After turning and then head-butting his father, the little butterfly fish paused and rubbed his sore head. A sudden clap of thunder from the storm above the surface made him nearly jump out of his scales with a scared yelp and hide behind his mother with his sisters.

Yet, even hatching could be dangerous… One clownfish had lost his mate and all of his children except one single baby, his last hope for the future. And he called him…

Nemo.

The little baby clownfish suddenly fell back out of his egg and into the giant world around him. He found himself upside-down, his tail hanging in his view. He somersaulted right side-up and tumbled onto the anemone bed. When he looked up, he saw an adult male clownfish smiling at him.

Marlin chuckled. "Hey, lil' guy…" He leaned in a little closer to him.

Eyes growing wide, Nemo tumbled on his back and tried to edge away from the giant. He curled up into a ball until he felt the soft touch of his father's fin on him. He lifted his head up looked at his dad, and then gave a bit of a smile. After a while, he turned around and reached out his own little fins to touch his father. Marlin smiled and nuzzled his nose against him gently. Nemo was only about as big as Marlin's nose, and the little fish clung to it and nuzzled against his papa. As he did, a school of little fish came floating above the anemone and looked down to see the newcomer. As Nemo continued to nuzzle his father, he opened his eyes and saw all of the fish watching him curiously from above. He gasped. Quickly, he backed away from his audience and hid under Marlin's fin, peeking out shyly.

Marlin seemed wary of the curious spectators, but spoke gently to his son. "It's all right." he reassured with a smile. "Come on out."

Nemo peered up at all of the creatures. As long as they kept their distance… Tiredly, he cuddled up next to his dad's scaly body and yawned deeply. When he opened his eyes again, there were more of the little fish watching. He gasped again and began to try and scramble away. But he wasn't very experienced with his fins - one of them withered - and stumbled down onto the anemone bed.

Marlin chuckled and nudged his son up gently with his nose. Nemo smiled as he slowly began getting used to his new fins. Marlin led him towards the tendrils and carefully brushed his son against them, something the little clownfish would have to learn to do every day to prevent from being stung. When they were done brushing, Marlin returned to the center of the anemone and lay down on the floor.

All that remained of his school was his father. He knew him by sight, by scent, and by his love. He knew they would be together always.

Chipper little Nemo began swimming around in circles until he stumbled onto the floor next to his father.

"Now," Marlin said to him with a gentle smile, "you be careful, Nemo."

Nemo let out a deep yawn. Sleepily, he snuggled up into Marlin and closed his eyes, curling his tail around and across his nose. With a warm smile, Marlin curled himself protectively around his son and rested his head down, and both fell asleep.

TBC…