Hi!

I know, I've been gone for absolutely ages and I'm so sorry about that. This chapter comes with a massive thanks to everyone who reviewed to let me know they were enjoying it and wanted an update. I'm so incredibly sorry it's taken this long, I had so much going on in my life and some unexpected and unfortunate situations happened but I'm here, I'm back and I'm actually working on the next chapter (No promises on when it will be out though, sorry!)

Thank you so much for bearing with me while I took forever to update and again I'm so incredibly sorry!

I hope you enjoy!

"Okay and cut here, " Kaiko said as she indicated the next byssal thread, supervising as Fontaine carefully sliced through the thread with the aid of the laser cutter on the rover, her and Finn had been making a really quite excellent team as they worked on freeing the clam which their younger siblings were stuck in.

Even Hammerhead and Will had stopped their constant arguing and were now working together to pull up byssal threads out of the murk on the sea floor, making it easier for Fontaine to cut though the threads. Carefully, thread after thread was cut, gradually freeing the clam.

"Last one," Kaiko said as she stood back.

Carefully, Fontaine sliced through the final thread before sitting back in the rover and cheering, her and Finn almost ecstatic in their celebrations.

"Yes!"

"Woohoo!"

To everyone's surprise, including themselves, the two teens hugged each other in their excited celebration and after sharing a moment of awkwardness, they both continued cheering.

Chuckling slightly at their antics, Will picked up his comm,"Ant, are you there?"

Inside the clam, Ant was still trying to work out a way to pass the time, and trying to stop Madeline from panicking.

Her breathing almost seemed to have gotten shallower, sometimes to the point of Ant wondering if she was even breathing before a slight gasp would come from her and her breathing would become a little more even.

Suddenly, his comm sprung to life, "Ant, are you there?" his dad's voice was broadcast into the clam.

Madeline sat up a little more upon hearing the voice and Ant shuffled closer to her as he replied to Will.

"Yeah, Dad I'm here,"

"We've cut all the byssal threads," Kaiko commented.

"We're going to try and get you out now!" Fontaine added in.

At this, Ant and Madeline shared an excited look.

"Wait really?" Ant asked.

"We're really getting out of here!" the pirate asked, excitement evident in her voice.

"Yep, we're going to get you out, Maddie!" Finn said.

"Wait, Finn, are you and Fontaine together?" Ant asked suddenly.

"No!" Fontaine said, quickly.

"The comm says you two are both in the rover," Ant said.

"Oh, yeah, we are both in the rover," Finn replied.

"We needed it to cut the byssal threads," Fontaine added.

"Oh," Ant said," Why did you say no then?"

"She thought you meant something else," Finn responded, the smug grin on his face could almost be heard in his voice and a sound that could have been Fontaine shoving Finn rang out on the comms.

The abrupt silence that followed was met with Kaiko and Will's chuckling.

"Okay, so getting back on track, we're getting out of here?" Ant asked eagerly, keen to finally get some good news.

"Well, the byssal threads are cut so now comes the lovely task of lifting and transporting one of, if not the largest clam ever discovered," Kaiko replied.

"However, if we all work together, it should work out just fine, Ant, don't wor-" Will never finished as he was interrupted by an impossibly deafening boom coming from the volcano.

"Okay, no time for this, come on, everyone help with the clam!" Kaiko commanded, scaring even Hammerhead into obedience.

Everyone quickly began heading for the clam, even Hammerhead, who was realising the seriousness of the situation more and more each moment, given that there was a great surge of molten lava rapidly approaching the clam his daughter was contained within.

"Did we decide on who was going to go where for lifting the clam?" Finn asked as Fontaine began to quickly - and exceptionally carefully - manoeuvre the rover towards the clam.

"All due respect, Finn, but -" Kaiko began.

"That's not a priority right now!" Fontaine snapped before her mum could finish her sentence, just as the rover reached the clam.

Finn just shrugged, he did end up where he wanted to anyway, working in 'perfect harmony' with Fontaine.

"Mum, I think if the knights swim above the clam and hold onto it with their cables, Hammerhead and us in the rover should be able to support the weight from below," Fontaine supplied .

"Perfect, sounds great, Fontaine," Kaiko replied, " Ant, Madeline, are you ready? This may get a little bumpy, "

Inside the clam, Ant and Madeline were listening to the conversation occurring in the outside world through Ant's communicator, anxiously awaiting news of their fate.

Looking at Madeline for confirmation before responding, Ant replied, "We're ready, Mum, get us out of here! "

With that, there was a moment of relatively smooth movement as the clam transportation began before there was a loud crash sending both clam prisoners flying, colliding forcefully with each other.

"You guys okay?" Will asked, soon after.

" Yep, we're good, Dad, just maybe be a little gentler if you can, remember we are in here! " came Ant's response.

Will chuckled in response and promised they would try to be more careful.

Turning back to his pirate clam mate, Ant realised Mad Madeline really wasn't looking all that great.

She was still looking as though she were cold despite the boiling temperatures they were being exposed to and her general response to the surroundings didn't seem great given she was still being unnaturally quiet and still in her own dark corner of the clam.

"So, uh, what are you going to do? You know, when you get out," Ant asked, desperately trying to ease the tension in the clam, realising it was not at all having the desired effect when her only response was a silent unhelpful shrug.

Ant sighed to himself.

He guessed he was going to do this - he was going to try and fill the silence and maybe even keep up a (dare he say it) civil conversation with Mad Madeline.

So yeah, sorry again for how late this was, life gets stressful and sad sometimes.

Plus, I really struggled with how to write this chapter, specifically the ending. I'm still not exactly happy with it but I felt I had kept you all waiting for more than long enough.

I hope you enjoyed, you readers are absolutely amazing, you make my day and I can't thank you enough!

Until next time! :D