The end is nigh! Gill, Nemo, Marlin, Dory and those guys belong to Disney and Pixar. Stroke, Mr. Skimmer, Niches, Chang, Tanachi, Maisey, and Rosie are mine.

AFPI: Actually, I don't really think there are mistakes in this chapter, except for the ones you already know about. Here comes my second-favorite fish- Dory! Yeah, this chapter's one of the smallest in the fic, but the next one will make up for it. Yup, the end is nigh.

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Chapter 11: Reward For More Than Compensation

My streamlined body slipped easily through the shining blue ocean water. I twirled about, letting the pulsating waves carry me for a moment. It is amazing how we all live on one planet, yet there are so many totally separate worlds inside of this one planet. For instance, the humans live in a different world from us fish. Fish, too, can live in different worlds. The horseshoe crabs live in a different world than Niches and her friends, and my old neighbors lived in a different world than other parts of the reef. I was entering the territory of one of these new worlds, without knowing it. In fact, I had already crossed the border at this point in time. The world of Phil's aquarium was still alive in me. It had been terrible to be stuck inside a water-filled prism for two years, but I was actually quite glad I had that experience. Now I knew just how lucky I really was.

There was something else still alive in me, and I could feel it tugging. A magnetic force field was pulling me toward the other one. That was the only explanation I could come up with for the amazing coincidence that was now closing in on me.

I swam contentedly around this unknown zone, and turned back for a moment. Now the time warp I felt for a long time that I had been stuck in was bringing me back to a more recent past. Little did I know, I had done more than I thought I had done.

Oh, well, I had thought after departing from my own reef cavern for the second time in my life. I may never find a home of my own, and I may remain a nomad, wandering the ocean still in search of a proper residence. Perhaps I could travel around the world, and really become a good travel agent. With my knowledge of the human race, I figured I could also help by teaching fish how to avoid human capture while on vacation.

The ocean had other plans for me. It promised that it would take me to a place where I belong. Like me, it made a few stupid mistakes every now and then, but it never broke its promises.

As I silently swam a little further along my chosen directions, I thought I heard voices from my memories. Echoes of times past were floating through the tunnel. I couldn't have heard what I thought I had just heard…could I? Could I actually trust my optimistic assumptions?

And then- it came again. "Gill!" a little voice cried in the distance. I stopped in the middle of the water. Throughout the entire insightful experience, I had been chasing salvation. Although I wasn't aware just yet, for the first time, salvation was coming to me. The darkness of my past was trembling in fear, about to be penetrated by something much more powerful than its dreadful shadows. That one spot of light was in grasping distance. My future was waiting.

"Gill!" That little voice sounded terribly familiar…but…it just couldn't be…

"Shark…Bait?" I said, slowly.

"Gill!" the voice yelled again, this time louder.

At last, I turned around. As soon as I saw that little orange body, I nearly burst out in tears of happiness. I was so surprised to see him here- alive and well, and so soon after. It had only been about four or five months since he had escaped. "Shark Bait!" the familiar nickname erupted from my mouth all by itself.

The little orange-and-white body shot up, flinging his full fin over my neck area. "You got out!" he cried. "I thought…I thought I'd never see you again."

"Me too," I admitted. "Did you find…?" That question didn't require a specification or a reply. Just from looking into the little clownfish's sparkling reddish eyes, I could tell that he'd been able to find his father again. I was soon to know the story of this wonderful reunion, and how it involved me.

"Oh," Nemo suddenly realized. "I'm sorry, I forgot you don't hug." With that, he tapped the front of his face against my neck.

Smiling, I gave him a real nudge back. I thought it was kind of cute that he actually remembered the special "Moorish idol nudge" I had taught him back in the tank. "So," I spoke up. "How've you been, kid? Where's your dad?"

"Oh, he's back there with Dory," Nemo said.

Dory? I didn't remember anyone named Dory. I knew that Nemo's father's name was Marlin, only because Nigel had mentioned it while telling us about the adventure. During the whole escape sequence, I hadn't gotten to really look at what was in Nigel's beak, but now I thought I remembered someone else with Nemo's father. Does he have a stepmother? I wondered. He had never mentioned his stepmother before. Then my mind snapped at me not to jump to conclusions- I had been wrong about that conservationist holding Maisey hostage, hadn't I?

"Anyway, I've been doing great!" Nemo continued, happily. "Yesterday, I went exploring with my friends, and we…"

I was really trying to listen to his story, but something in the distance kept grabbing my attention and I found it hard to concentrate on anything else. Two figures were moving closer and closer to us, with each word, they seemed to swim a little closer. An orange and a blue blob emerged from the blue curtain, and a mere moment later two new fish came paddling into my life.

First came Marlin, the elusive father of Nemo. I was actually quite surprised to discover nothing out of the ordinary about him. After hearing about all the things he had endured, it was hard to picture him as the common, everyday fish before my eyes. He gave me looks of confusion, anger, and fear all at the same time.

The blue fish seemed slightly familiar, but only as a blue blob in the distance. The black design on her back and the yellow tips on her fins identified her as a regal blue tang. She grinned, absentmindedly at me.

Marlin, however, looked a bit frightened. "Nemo!" he cried. "How many times have I told you not to talk to strange fish?!" He swam forward a bit, probably to grab Nemo away from me.

Now, little Nemo looked confused. "But, Dad, he's not a strange fish! That's my friend Gill! You know, from the tank?!"

Marlin blinked his reddish eyes, identical to Nemo's, at me. Apparently, he couldn't remember me as much as I could remember him. "Yeah…maybe. I remember seeing something that looked like you…"

"He helped me escape!" Nemo cried. "After you left. I never told you about that, did I?"

I glided forward a bit to meet him. "You must be Marlin. It's a pleasure to meet you; I've heard a lot about you."

He looked a little embarrassed and still scared stiff. Even though I tried to put on a smile and look friendly, he was still a clownfish, about half my size. "R-really?" he stuttered. "It's really nothing…" It was still amazing to me that this fish had faced sharks, jellyfish and monsters from the deep, yet I was scaring him. The quivering in his body was easily recognizable. This was the fish that had done more in a week than I had my entire life.

Slowly, he built up enough courage and stuck his right fin out, offering it in a fin-shake. I stuck out my right fin, the one that had been newly restored, and flexed it a bit, just to make sure the plastic was still in place. Then I placed it in his, and we shook. Now Marlin had truly entered my life.

"Fin-shakes!" the regal blue tang cried. "Fin-shakes all around!" She zoomed up, shook Nemo's fin, then Marlin's. At last, she barreled up to me, seized my fin and shook it. This was yet another fish that, like Maisey, was unaffected by my looming presence. "Hi, I'm Dory!" she cried. "What's your name?"

"Gill," I replied, a little flabbergasted. I checked my fin just to make sure she hadn't ripped the plastic off. "Um…nice to meet you."

Dory smiled. "Well, that's an easy name to remember. I'll remember it!"

At last, Nemo realized something different. He paddled over to my right side. "Hey, what happened to your fin? It's all fixed." It looked like we had a lot of story exchanging to do.

"Well, after the tank gang and I finally got out of the tank in the dentist's office, I got captured again, by a man called a marine conservationist. He fixed my fin, and my scars are gone too. It's not like it actually makes a difference, but…"

"Yes it does," little Nemo objected. "You look nicer." He swam a little closer to examine the plastic filler. "Do you think you could take me to that whatever-you-call-it guy. He could fix my fin too!"

I frowned. "Well, I'm not sure about that. See, I don't really know where it is anymore…" I knew the conservationist probably would not be able to fix Nemo's fin, because he had been born with it.

Marlin swam forward and took Nemo's little fin. "Now, Nemo, why would you want to fix your fin? Then it wouldn't be lucky anymore!"

"Da-ad," Nemo groaned.

I decided to play along a little. "I only got mine fixed because it was ripped. I was born with a normal fin. That fin makes you special because you were born with it."

Marlin looked at me strangely, and I backed away a bit. Maybe I was trying a little too hard to be fatherly and taking over his job. "So…um, Gill? What are you doing around here anyway?"

"Well, I'm looking for a place to stay, actually…"

"Stay with us!" Nemo cried.

The suggestion came so suddenly, that I immediately refused. "Well, I wasn't really expecting to…I mean, you don't have to…"

Dory smiled and disagreed, as always. "No, we don't mind! The more the merrier! C'mon with us, mister…um…what was it?" She screwed up her face, thinking. "Phil?"

"Gill," I reminded her.

"Oh, right. Sorry!"

By now I was receiving nervous glances from Marlin. The poor guy. He had to deal with this stranger suddenly invading his family, and there was nothing he could do about it because he looked like an army general. My beak opened to end this uneasiness once and for all, but Dory and Nemo were practically pushing me toward their end of the reef. Maybe I'll just stay for a day, I thought. That should be enough to satisfy them and not stir up trouble in the terms of parental dominance.

Behind me I could hear Nemo telling his father about how I had been shot out of the volcano and saved him from the giant terrorizing child.

"Gee," Marlin's voice floated from the back. "I never knew that! Erm…thank you, sir."

I looked back at him, trying to settle the uneasiness that lingered in the atmosphere once again. "Well you're certainly welcome. I wasn't going to just sit there and let him die. What kind of fish would I be then?"

"That's not all!" Nemo cried. "He saved the lives of those fishes in the net!"

When the little clownfish made this addition, my mind reeled. Fish in a net? The conclusion I first came to was that Nemo was making up stories, trying to give me tools to impress them with. He must have been trying to get me to stay. I knew he wanted me to stay, and that was one of the key factors in deciding if I left or not. I didn't want to disappoint the little clownfish, but I really didn't think I belonged with these fish.

"Remember when I told all the fish to swim down?" Nemo said, excitedly recalling his heroic deeds. "Gill taught me to do that when caught in a net. If he hadn't taught me, I wouldn't have known."

"Really?" Marlin replied. I could tell he didn't completely believe it, but he was letting it pass.

"And Dory was in that net, too. Guess he saved her too, huh?"

I felt it was time to step in and stop this inaccurate half-worshiping. "Well, I didn't really save them, I just helped. If you hadn't remembered…"

My sentence was chopped off as Dory abruptly threw herself in front of me. Her big, round eyes obscured my vision. "Really?! You saved me?!" Before I could stop her, she had flung her fins around my neck again. "Thank you, Dil!!!!"

I pushed her back the same time Marlin pulled her back by the tail. "Okay, Dory, that's enough," Marlin told her.

Our strange little group paddled along a sand bar. Somehow I felt that I was being held captive- or I was holding them captive. I could barely stand the awkwardness around me. Why was I here with a family I barely even knew, trying to be a part of them? Still, I had nothing else to do, and the change of scenery would be good for me. Our four heads peeked out over the cliff, and I first laid eyes on the next part of my life.

The sandy stretch of ocean bottom was now in front of us. This was where a very long journey would at last conclude. I had not known this, or I would have been much more eager to pursue Nemo's hair-brained suggestion. This was just an ordinary reef clearing in the middle of an ordinary reef, but like Marlin, its mediocre appearance hid something much greater. At last, the future had arrived.

"Well," Marlin said, taking a deep breath, "Welcome to Eco Valley."