Chapter 7: Realizations

Um. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Chapter 7. Not sure how in-character I kept Silver. In case you haven't noticed, I've kind of given up on keeping Jim in-character xD Well, c'mon! xD it's a really warped AU!

"I'm tellin' you, it is," Silver insisted. "I woulda thought you'd be a little less cynical, considerin' you believed in it for years."

Jim and Silver were still talking an hour later – after all, nobody cared where Jim was, except of course if they wanted something from him – and Jim was proving hard to convince about where the ship was headed.

"The captain won't want me tellin' you this," Silver confessed in a low voice, "but 'onest, it is real and it is where the ship is headed."

Jim raised an eyebrow. "But how d'you think Flint did it?"

"Did what, Jimbo?"

"You know. Stole everything and just…vanished. Without a trace."

"I have no idea," Silver responded honestly. "Theories, but they aren't likely." He shrugged.

"Hmm," Jim mused. He wiped a bit of hair out of his eyes, clucking his tongue and thinking about Treasure Planet and Flint and Scroop and—

The truth hit him like a ton of bricks. "Treasure Planet."

"What?" Silver asked, looking up at him.

"Treasure Planet. There's a map, aboard the ship! It's in the captain's quarters right now and it'll lead the crew to it! I opened the map, it works just like a Rubix cube, have you ever seen one of those? I mean, obviously, if you haven't…but I don't know why I didn't see it before…"

"The map is aboard this ship?" Silver squawked.

Jim nodded absently, running his fingers through his hair, blue eyes clouded with the questions that came with these realizations. "I don't understand…it'd be weird for Master to trust me with something like this…but then, it makes sense, that's why he never told me where we were going…guess he thought I'd try to make off with the map and find the treasure myself…"

Silver thought he saw something in Jim's eyes, something bright and warm and happy and he sensed that he was looking at the real Jim Hawkins for the first time in his life.

He may have spoken with the boy several times before, but this was the only time they had really talked.

"I can't believe you managed to open that map!" Silver replied, still stuck on Jim's last bit of conversation. "I opened the map, it works just like a Rubix cube…"

"Well, maybe Master hadn't managed to open it," Jim said, clearly deep in conversation with himself. "Which wouldn't make sense, Master's smarter than the rest of the crew put together…" he stopped himself here, covering his mouth and looking fearfully at Silver before realizing the man himself was so deep in thought that he hadn't even heard.

"Do you know how many people have tried?" Silver was saying. "Thousands upon thousands of explorers…although, I do admit, I'm surprised this ship's captain trusts his crew enough to let them know where we're headed. Not particularly clever, not clever at all."

"How many people have tried what?" Jim asked.

"To open that map!" Silver replied. "Even I…" he stopped himself here, looking a little guilty.

"Even you?" Jim repeated, surprised. "R-really? I mean…but you seem so…"

"I knew too much abou' Treasure Planet, kiddo," Silver responded tiredly. "I was tryin' to get to it. I had always liked to be an explorer, I traveled 'round the world. I woulda visited every planet in the galaxy if I could 'ave.

"But, uh…well, when I heard about Treasure Planet, that became my obsession. I managed to get hold of the map, which your dear captain…" here he made a face, emphasizing the second-to-last word. "…so graciously took off my hands before imprisoning me aboard this old tub."

"Gosh," Jim whispered, surprised by what he'd heard. "I never knew that's why you were imprisoned. I thought Master had good reason…I mean, what am I saying, he always has good reason…"

And yet, here was the proof to contradict that, sitting right in front of him.

"Still," Silver continued, "it's just surprisin', tha's all. Woulda thought it'd be an adult or someone who'd be able to open tha' map."

"What's so impressive about being able to open it?" Jim asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't think anybody in history has ever managed to, before, Jimbo," Silver replied seriously. "If they 'ave, they sure kept it quiet and you can't keep nothing like that quiet, not at all."

Jim, who had been sitting with his knees close to his chest, relaxed his position and stretched out his legs, leaning back on the dusty cell floor and turning his head to look at Silver. "Well, if someone was able to open it, then Treasure Planet would probably be a wasteland by now. No more gold or treasure left, just an empty, lifeless planet. So we'll know when we get there."

"What's this 'we' you're talkin' of?" Silver demanded, raising an eyebrow.

"Well…we are on this ship, I mean—

"They're not gonna let you near the treasure, boy! If they wouldn't even tell ya where we're goin', what makes you think they're gonna let ya even get close enough to sniff the gold?"

Jim turned his gaze back to the ceiling, his mind reeling from everything he'd just discovered.

"Hey! Where's the slave boy?!"

"No idea. Disappeared. Hasn't been seen since this mornin', now 'as he?"

"Maybe he did us all a favor and died."

"Maybe he left!"

"Oh, please, Truff. He's way too cowardly to try that. Not with the captain."

"Have a point there, then…"

Jim had gone white. With every harsh, cruel word the two aliens above them spoke, Silver saw Jim flinch.

Jim sat up quickly and stumbled over to the stairs. "I'd better go back up," he said hesitantly. "'Bye, Silver. Thanks…thanks for everything."

He started up the stairs.

"Jimbo?" Silver called, acting on an impulse.

"Yeah?" Jim whipped back around, one boot on the second stair, one on the first.

"Don't listen to 'em. They're the idiots, remember?"

Jim's face threatened a small smile. "Thank you, Silver." And with that, he disappeared up the stairs, away from the prisoner's kindness and understanding and back up into the world of harsh cruelty and cold darkness.