A/N: While editing this chapter, I realized it was the perfect time to delve a bit into the Knight mechanics when it comes to emergencies. It didn't occur to me during the Tunnel rewrites, so I rabbit-trailed here, and expect a follow-up chapter or two. ;)

Fontaine winced and hoped Pete's question was a coincidence. Surely he hadn't noticed that she was distracted?

Will yanked the harpoon free and threw it away. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Fontaine flinched from a burst of sparks from the right. "But my Knight isn't."

"I'm just here for the treasure," Pete said. "Leave now, and nobody gets hurt."

"You haven't heard too much about us, then," Ant said.

"Ant," Kaiko warned.

Pete chuckled. "Oh, I know all about you." He raised a fist over his head. "Dave, ready the next harpoon."

Fontaine tensed. Looking past Pete, she tried to spot his submarine, but it must have been well hidden in the mountains. She readied herself to move quickly, in case Pete aimed for her again.

For a long minute, nobody moved. Then Pete turned his head to the side. Following his gaze, Fontaine felt her mouth drop open when the Dark Orca appeared.

"The Dark Orca!" Ant said.

"I knew Hammerhead would be here!" Will said. "Pete was a distraction!"

"Really?" Pete said. Fontaine could almost hear him rolling his eyes. "Anyone who isn't the Dark Orca itself is just a distraction?"

Pete turned his body toward the Dark Orca. Kaiko turned briefly back to shrug, then faced forward.

"I thought you'd retired, Hammerhead," Pete called.

"You're not with Hammerhead?" Ant asked.

"Of course he ain't, Nekton!" Hammerhead bellowed over the comms. "Pete's a filthy traitor tryin' to steal me treasure!"

"We were here first," Kaiko said. "We're claiming salvage rights!"

"Aw, isn't that nice?" Hammerhead mocked. "But I don't care!"

"Technically, I was here first," Pete said.

"Shut up!" Hammerhead snapped.

"Say that again, old man," Pete said, a challenging tone in his voice. "Even better, come out and say that to my face."

"I don't have to answer to ya!" Hammerhead yelled.

Fontaine glanced at Will, and was grateful to find he looked as uncomfortable as she felt. They'd never been stuck with two arguing pirates. It was usually Hammerhead and one of her parents.

Ant waving caught Fontaine's attention. He pointed toward Kaiko, who was drifting closer to the urn. While Hammerhead ranted about Pete being places he shouldn't be and interfering where he wasn't supposed to, Kaiko simply grabbed the urn and returned to her family.

Hammerhead's yelling was abruptly silenced as Will disconnected the Nektons from the line.

"Can you make it back to the Aronnax?" Will asked Fontaine.

Fontaine tested her thrusters. The left one worked fine, but the harpoon must have done some serious damage to the Knight's wiring. When she tried to activate the right thruster, there was a pop from somewhere inside the Knight.

Hurriedly stopping the thrusters, Fontaine said, "Probably not."

"I've got you," Will said, moving the White Knight so he could hold it from behind. "Everyone ready?"

"Let's go!" Kaiko said.

"Can't we stay?" Ant asked. "I've never seen Hammerhead angry at someone who isn't us."

Thunk!

Fontaine watched a harpoon drift down from where it had struck the Dark Orca. The dark submarine began to advance on Pete.

"Back to the Aronnax first, then we'll deal with the pirates," Kaiko said, grabbing and turning the Shadow Knight around.

The Nektons hurried off. Fontaine craned her neck back, spotting the blunt nose of Pete's sub appear, then the Knights vanished into the mountains.

The Nektons made it back to the Aronnax without incident. Mostly.

"The arm was busted," Fontaine complained, nervously watching a flashing warning on her dome. "How does that affect the air?"

"Damaged circuits overloaded the whole Knight, killing your power," Kaiko supplied, moving the claw arm into position to grab the damaged Knight.

"Please don't say 'kill' while I'm stuck in a sealed Knight with no air!" Fontaine exclaimed.

"You have air," Kaiko assured her. "Even without power, the emergency supply has enough for twenty minutes."

Fontaine sighed and shuffled uncomfortably. Her family drilled for such emergencies all the time and knew she was safe -if she was in any serious danger, the Mag Knight was strong enough to just rip the White Knight's dome off- but the flashing red warning of "air scrubbers off-line" was more than a little unnerving.

The claw carefully picked up the White Knight and moved it close to the ledge. Fontaine heard some thumps on the back of the Knight, then a small rush of air as Kaiko manually opened the dome with the control panel.

Fontaine pulled her arms free and shoved the dome wide open. She jumped into the water of the Moon Pool, letting its soothing coolness calm her jangled nerves.

"Are you alright?" Kaiko asked, giving her a concerned frown past the White Knight's shoulder.

"Sure," Fontaine said, unconvincing to her own ears.

"Good!" Ant jumped in. "Because if I'd been in there, I would've been like-" Ant grabbed his throat and made a choking sound, crossing his eyes.

Fontaine couldn't help but smile at Ant's antics. Ant glanced at her, then poked his tongue out of the corner of his mouth for good measure. Fontaine snorted as she paddled to the edge of the Moon Pool where Kaiko and Will waited.

Noticing Kaiko and Will's intent gazes, Fontaine paused. The Nektons had all sorts of safety measures in place when it came to the Knights, but it was rare for emergencies to actually happen. Maybe she hadn't been the only one freaking out when the White Knight powered down.

"I'm fine now," Fontaine amended.

"I'm going to give that Pete a piece of my mind," Kaiko huffed, moving the White Knight out of the water. "What was he thinking? If Fontaine had moved the harpoon, could have gone through-" Kaiko broke off.

Fontaine looked down and winced. She wondered what, exactly, Pete was like. She'd thought Pete would be like Finn, but Finn would never shoot a harpoon so close to someone.

Shaking her head, Fontaine pointed to the urn Kaiko had set to the side. "Can we see what the big deal is all about now?"

Kaiko locked the Moon Pool, then the Nektons gathered around the urn. Will used a tiny pick and hammer to loosen the urn's lid until he could wriggle the lid. Setting the tools aside, Will carefully lifted the lid. Everyone leaned forward, eager to see…

"Seeds? All this for a bunch of seeds?" Fontaine said in disbelief.

"Maybe it's under…?" Ant plunged his hand into the seeds, then frowned. "It's all seeds!"

"There's enough seeds here to fill…" Will blinked. "Well, replant a whole island."

"Of course, it's a seed bank!" Kaiko said. "So many of Raruku's flora was unique to the island. Their ancestors must have wanted to ensure that their forests could always live on!"

"Huh. Then what about the cryptic warning on the map?" Fontaine asked.

Ant face-palmed. "It wasn't a curse! Think about it: withering, extinction, and starvation. All things that could wipe out their forests!"

"And so they set aside these seeds in case something happened." Kaiko gave an incredulous laugh. "Wow, talk about watching out for your descendants."

"So, who wants to tell the pirates that they're fighting over seeds?" Will asked.

"I doubt they'll believe me, but I'll try," Kaiko said. "Stay inside, everyone."

"No problem there," Fontaine said with a wry glance at the damaged White Knight. "While you do that, I'm curious about this Pete…"

"Have you heard of him before?" Kaiko asked.

Fontaine hesitated, then nodded. She said vaguely, "Finn's mentioned a Pete before. I'm going to check the WOA databanks for more information."

Kaiko accepted Fontaine's explanation without question, and Fontaine hurried away. Sure, she was going to check on the WOA info the Nektons had free access to, but she also had a more direct source for information.