So, yes, we're back to this being a collection. Hope you enjoy it! Sorry, I know it's pretty dialogue-heavy.


"Fonnie!"

"Jess!"

"Jess!"

The two girls race towards each other and collide in a hug. Ant grins at Jess, clearly hoping for a hug too, but her attention's focused on the friend she hasn't seen for months, even though they've talked online. A lot.

"You gotta show me the Egyptian crest, I've been dying to see it. Also, I really want to try the Angel Knight, d'you think your parents would let me? Oh and congratulations on winning that competition Ant, the fish-cam is an inspired idea," Jess babbles excitedly.

Ant glows with pride.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Fontaine animatedly replies. "How's it being 18? Have you been to any bars? Any movies? Any places you shouldn't have?" A wink and a nudge accompany the last question.

Jess laughs."I wish. We've been so busy with research and meetings and stuff I just haven't had the chance. Dad practically had to force me out to do something for my birthday."

"Yep, cuz we're the best birthday gift ever," Ant interjects.

Jess is saved from a reply by the approach of the elder Nektons, amused smiles lighting their faces.

''Ms. Nekton, Mr Nekton! So good to see you!"

"Jess! It's been so long, sweetie. Wow, you've grown so beautiful." Jess giggles and blushes under Kaiko's praise. Ant's murmur of agreement goes unnoticed.

"How've you been Jess? How's your dad?" Will inquires fondly.

"He's been good, Mr. Nekton. Have you heard about his research? He's on the verge of a breakthrough, we're all sure of it."

"Yes, I've heard about that. He's making some real progress. I'm sure we'll be hearing about him in the papers soon." Will grins at Jess.

She grins back."Hopefully."

Fontaine links her arm through Jess's. "Come on Jess, we've got a new coffee machine and it. Is. The. Best."

Jess laughs."Only you would be excited about a coffee machine, Fonnie, when you've got a gorgeous new knight."

"It's awesome though, there's french vanilla, and it makes an amazing mocha, and ooh, there's also..." Their voices trail off as Fontaine leads her to the kitchen.

Will shakes his head at his son's hopelessness as he stares after them. "Come on Ant, we've got to check something."


"Soooo, tell me about the guy. What's his name?" Fontaine cups her hot chocolate in her hands and stares intently at Jess, waiting for details. While she'd told Fontaine there'd been a guy, she hadn't wanted to give details in case she'd been overheard.

Jess blushes, suddenly interested in the pattern of the duvet. It's well past their bed time, but like all slumber parties, they weren't really planning to sleep anytime soon. Plus, they'd had to have their girls' chat in the dark of the night where no one could overhear them.

"Damon, and there's not much to tell," Jess sighs. Fontaine raises an eyebrow disbelievingly.

"Suuuure there isn't. Show me a picture of him again?"

Jess reaches for the glowing device, one of two of their only sources of light in the dark room. She picks a photo and hands the phone to Fontaine.

"He's cute, isn't he?"

"He is. You really know how to choose them Jess," Fontaine laughs. "Do you have any more?"

"Let me see."

"Imagine Ant knowing about this. He's probably, like, try to challenge him to a duel or something," Fontaine giggles as Jess taps away at her screen.

Jess looks up from her phone and grins at her. "Y'know, I really don't get your brothers liking of me."

Fontaine snorts. "I do."

"Here."

Fontaine scrolls through Instagram posts of a dark-skinned boy with blondish-brown curly hair and warm brown eyes, with high cheekbones and full lips. He's got round black glasses as well, giving him a sweet sort of look. Although some of his posts seem to suggest the opposite.

"You know, he kind of looks like a nerd - also kind of like Harry Potter - but he also kinda looks like a daredevil. What's he like?"

"Oh he's really sweet, and he's really funny as well." Jess grins at the memory of him. "He's sort of a bad boy too, you know."

Fontaine laughs. "Him?! Really?"

"Yeah. He smokes, and he can handle alcohol pretty well."

"Oh. Are you sure he's -"

"No, he's really nice though, and he, like, doesn't encourage me to do it or anything."

"Oh ok, that's good."

"What about your guy?" Jess playfully pushes Fontaine's shoulder.

"What guy?" She tries to seem disinterested.

"Come on, there's got to be a guy."

"Sadly there's not. I'm alone forever." Fontaine dramatically tips her head back and puts the back of her hand to her forehead. Jess snorts and shakes her head.

"Oh come on, there's got to be someone," she presses.

"Oh yes, Mr. Darcy is quite attractive. I think I'm in love with him."

Jess smacks her with a pillow, nearly spilling the rest of her hot chocolate. Jess had finished hers way before. She quickly drains the cup and places it on her bedside table before any disasters happen.

"I mean a real person, you dingbat."

Fontaine rubs her arm in mock pain. "Calling me names isn't going to make me share my innermost secrets with you."

Jess rolls her eyes.

"But seriously, when am I going to meet someone when I'm always on the sub?"

"Fair point. But there's really no-one? No one who likes you even?"

"Well," she says slowly, "I guess there's Finn."

Jess perks up immediately. "Finn? And pray tell who is this Finn?"

Fontaine's heart is hammering in her chest and she feels slightly tingly. Annoyed at herself, she suppresses the feeling. Mostly.

"Um, he's one of the Dark Orca pirates."

"Ooh, a pirate lover. That's so romantic."

Fontaine hits her with a pillow as Jess bursts into giggles. "Shut up. He's not my lover, I don't even like him. He just likes me." Jess looks at her intently. "What? I don't."

"Suure," Jess drawls.

"No seriously, Jess, I don't. You wouldn't like him either. He's annoying, and sneaky, and he can't be trusted."

Jess nods along sagely to the list of unflattering characteristics. "But he likes you."

Fontaine groans and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, he does."

"So then you must use your feminine wiles to make him do your bidding and give you all the treasure he takes."

"'Feminine wiles'? What are you, Shakespeare?"

"I could be."

"You're ridiculous."

"So what does he look like?" Jess asks with interest.

"He's like, really pale, like sickly pale or something. His sister's like that too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Their sub's like, got no windows, and I don't think they ever really leave it. They probably only leave it at night," Fontaine tries to explain.

"Huh. That's kind of weird."

"Yeah. Anyway he's got kind of black hair and blue eyes, and...that's all really."

"Black hair and blue eyes?! That's so attractive."

Fontaine shrugs noncommittally. "If you say so. But don't let Ant know I've told you about him - he'd tease me forever."

Jess makes a zipping motion across her mouth. "My lips are sealed." She yawns. "Ugh, I'm so tired. We better get some sleep so I can actually try the Angel Knight tomorrow. I bet Ant would kill me if I crashed it."

"Pfft, you? Never, " Fontaine snorts as Jess clambers into her air bed and snuggles into the blanket. Fontaine pulls the blanket over herself and lays down on her side, facing Jess.

"I hope we run into the pirates. I really want to see this Finn."

"Goodnight, Jess."


Fontaine's comm's annoying beep-beep, beep-beep wakes her the next morning. She groans and hits the button on the side, rolling over and already falling half asleep again as Kaiko's voice resonates from the device. "All Nektons, report to the bridge. We've got an issue."

Fontaine pushes herself up and looks blearily at the time. 7:00. Which means she got more or less 6 hours of sleep. That's enough to go by. She pulls herself out of bed and into the bathroom, almost falling over as the blood rushes around her body.

Jess is still soundly sleeping as she comes out of the bathroom, wearing her wet suit and somewhat ready for action. She contemplates waking Jess up, but then decides to let her sleep. After all, she had travelled for hours to be here.

She softly closes the door to her room, and nearly has a heart attack as she turns to see a pair of brown eyes behind her. "Jeez Ant! You scared me!" She puts a hand over her racing heart.

"Sorry," Ant grins sheepishly. "Is Jess up yet?"

Fontaine rolls her eyes. "Of course that's why you're stalking my room, you creep. No she's not," she says as she starts making her way down the hallway. "We were up late last night, so I let her sleep."

Ant grumbles to himself as they make their way to the bridge.

"Morning Mom," Fontaine greets her with a hug as she walks into the room.

"Morning sweetie," her mom replies distractedly as she checks the radar. Fontaine throws herself into her seat and slouches back.

"So what's the-" she yawns mid-sentence ''-emergency?''

Kaiko gives her an apologetic look, noticing her tiredness. She grins back and waves off her unspoken concern.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Ant questions.

Kaiko grimaces."The pirates."

Suddenly awake, Fontaine sits up. "Pirates?"

Kaiko sighs. "We've been assigned by the WOA to retrieve some Aztec artefacts from a newly discovered wreck. Unfortunately, the transmission was intercepted, so we're possibly going to have to deal with the pirates."

"Wait, these are the Dark Orca pirates, right?"

"Yeah."

Fontaine groans and slumps back into her chair. "Perfect, just perfect. Jess's going to have a field day," she mutters to herself as Kaiko briefs them on their target. Ant gives her a strange look but doesn't ask what she's talking about.

"...and so we'll need to make sure we've got it all, which means checking the surrounding area as well. Hopefully we'll be done before the pirates get there, but we've no way of knowing where they are. Fontaine, make sure you take care of Jess-"

"I could take care of her!" Ant jumps in.

"I said Fontaine, Ant. Jess is her friend."

Ant scowls and turns his attention to his wrist, where he fiddles with something that looks like a bracelet full of water.

"But there's a chance we won't run into the pirates, right?" Fontaine takes advantage of the interruption to ask.

"What, you don't want to see your pirate boy?" Ant asks mockingly, clearly upset at being shot down. Fontaine shoots him a look, but he's still focusing on his bracelet.

"Right?" She presses.

"Well, there's always a chance, but it's unlikely. When Jess wakes up you can fill her in on the plan. For now though, I think breakfast is in order."

"That's something I could get behind," Will says as he walks into the room. "Morning Fontaine."

"Morning Dad." She gives him a quick hug as she passes. "I should probably wake Jess up. Hey Ant?"

He looks up. She grins at him. "Jess's favorite breakfast is pancakes." She laughs as he races past her into the kitchen.

She makes her way down to her room, surprised to see Jess up when she opens the door. Jess smiles sleepily at her from her nest of blankets on the air bed. "Morning."

"Morning sleepyhead."

"Hey, I'm not used to waking up this early," she yawns.

Fontaine shakes her head. "Jess, it's already 7:30."

"On a holiday."

"Fair point. Anyway, we're going to have some action today. We're gonna get some artefacts from a shipwreck..."

"Ooh, do you think I'll be able to try the Angel Knight?"

"Probably, yeah. Also, we might, possibly, maybe...run into the pirates?"

Jess perks up, all traces of sleep gone. "The pirates?! The ones you were telling me about yesterday? Finn?!" she whisper-shouts.

Fontaine internally flinches at what's to come. "Yeah, those pirates." Jess squeals. "We might not though."

Jess waves a hand. "We better. Or I'll make us run into them so I can see this Finn of yours."

Fontaine rolls her eyes."Whatever you say Jess. Oh by the way, I told Ant you liked pancakes, so lets see how well they turn out."

Jess half-laughs, half-groans."What do you think?"

Fontaine's eyes glint mischievously. "I think he's not a very good cook."


Half an hour later, and they had almost finished Ant's surprisingly okay pancakes when the radar beeps. Kaiko pushes her plate away and goes to go check it.

Will sighs and leans back. "Wow Ant, I'm impressed. I didn't know you could cook like that."

"Yeah, they're surprisingly edible," Fontaine says as she mops up the river of maple syrup on her plate with the last of her pancake. "Although I did need a lot of maple syrup." Ant makes a face at her, and she grins back. "No, they were actually quite good, Dad's right."

Ant brightens with with pride. "Thanks! Don't underestimate me Fontaine! I have many talents." He turns to Jess as Will and Fontaine chuckle at his antics. "Did you like them?" he asks nervously.

She smiles at him. "They were amazing Ant, you're a really good cook."

Ant's grin stretches ear-to-ear, but he attempts to reply nonchalantly. "Thank you. I'm glad you liked them."

Kaiko's voice sounds out over the intercom. "Well, looks like we're meeting the pirates after all. Everyone be prepared, lets try and keep the hostilities to a minimum."

Jess looks excitedly at Will. "Mr. Nekton, could I try the Angel Knight? I could help you fight the pirates!"

Will laughs at her enthusiasm. "Hopefully there won't be any fighting, but I don't see why not. Fontaine can help you with it."

"Great." Jess catches her eye and she can see a look of glee in them that makes her slightly apprehensive. Ant goes to the moon pool room to prep the knights, while the rest of them collate on the bridge for a plan of action.

"So it looks like they're not underwater, which is weird, so all the more reason to stay alert," Kaiko warns.

"Hmm, that is weird. They must be using the bubble," Will suggests.

"I didn't think it was big enough," Kaiko responds.

"Maybe they've expanded it, and that's why they've surfaced," Ant interjects, back from the moon pool.

"Maybe..."

Jess looks between them confusedly. "Um, bubble?"

"Oh yeah, its...well, you'll probably see it in a bit. It's kinda hard to explain," Fontaine says

"It's like this big kind of triangular dome thing that the pirates created and it pushes the air out as it goes down, so it makes like a bubble of air in the sea," Ant explains helpfully.

"..ookay.." Jess looks to Fontaine for help.

She waves a hand. "You'll see."

Ant pouts at the reception of his explanation. Jess looks at him sheepishly. "Sorry Ant, but I don't really get it. I think it'll make more sense if I see it."

His carefree grin returns. "Yeah, I guess it was kinda a complicated description."

The Dark Orca pirates appear on top of their ship.

"Well, looks like they've spotted us. We should probably surface and try to negotiate peacefully. I'll get into the Mag Knight in case we have any trouble from them. Jess, you should probably stay back-"

"Oh, but Ms. Nekton, I really want to see real-life pirates, and I wanted to try the Angel Knight - Mr. Nekton said I probably could."

Kaiko sighs and rubs her eyes. "Jess, this could be dangerous. We don't want them to target you because you're close to us."

"I know, I'll be careful. I can even use a fake name! How about Rose?"

Kaiko smiles at the girl's enthusiasm as Fontaine snorts. "You don't look like a Rose. More like a Peach. Or a banana," she says, indicating her long blond hair.

"Shut up." Jess grins and elbows Fontaine.

"How about Rie? Or Riya?" Ant pipes up. Jess nods thoughtfully, as Fontaine gives a surprised look to her brother.

"Yeah, that could work," Jess considers.

"How did you think of that, Ant? That's actually pretty good."

Ant reddens and mumbles to himself.

"What? Speak up," Fontaine demands.

"I said, I got the idea from Jeffrey. Obviously we couldn't use Jeff cuz it's too close to her real name, so I thought Rie would work from the - you said it was good!" Ant concludes indignantly while Fontaine bends over laughing and Jess tries to suppress her giggles. Even Will was chuckling, and Kaiko had turned away to hide her laughter.

"It is good, it's just ridiculous how you came up with it!"

Ant huffs and turns back to the radar as the rest of them get themselves under control.

"So I'm Riya, Rie for short, nice to meet you." Jess exaggeratedly proffers her hand for Fontaine to shake.

"Lovely to meet you too."

Kaiko cuts short their interaction. "Okay, everybody up top to the deck. Let's try to keep the hostilities to a minimum, Ant," she says with a meaningful look at him.

Ant rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, don't antagonize the pirates, I got it."

"Do you have a death wish? Why would you antagonize pirates?" Jess asks him as they walk to the main deck.

Ant waves a hand offhandedly. "It's just Madeline she's talking about, she's no threat."

Jess looks at Fontaine, still mystified. "Ookay."

"Madeline's only, like, 11. She's Finn's little sister." Too late, she realizes her mistake.

Ant turns to her, a smirk on his face. "You told her about pirate boy?"

She feels her face heat up. "Shut up, Ant. I was explaining about the pirates to her so she could be prepared."

"Mmhmm." He gives her a look that shows he doesn't believe a word she's saying, but doesn't say anything else as they go on deck. The cool, strong sea breeze greets them as they exit the shelter of the Aronnax. The bright sun reflects down on sapphire depths, making the sea glitter and sparkle for miles around, the only interruption of the blue expanse what seems to be a tiny island floating in the middle of nowhere. Jess sucks in a breath.

"It's so beautiful."

"Yeah," Fontaine agrees, lost in the beauty of the sparkling ocean. Kaiko's voice on the comms breaks them out of their trance.

"Do you see the pirates?"

Will squints at the tiny island, which was fast becoming identifiable as the top of the Dark Orca. "Not yet, I think we're still to far off. Wait! I think I can just make them out."

Sure enough, blurry figures on the top of the Dark Orca are becoming clearer by the second as the Aronnax approaches them.

"So which one's Finn?" Jess asks as they get closer.

"That one." Fontaine points him out when they're close enough. Yeah it's rude to point, but it's not like the pirates are the epitome of politeness anyway.

"Where?" Jess studies the pirates as they come almost face-to-face.

"The one in the red tank and cargo pants - the guy."

"Oh yeah, I can kind of see him." Jess indicates subtly to one of the pirates.

"Not that one, that's Hammerhead, his dad." Fontaine rolls her eyes amusedly.

"Wow, he's massive."

"Yeah he is. Can you see him now? That's him, next to Madeline there."

"Oh yeah now I can see him. Damn, he's hot." Ant's head snaps to Jess, an incredulous look on his face. Jess is right though, he is. The contrasts of his pale skin and almost black hair makes both features more prominent. Bright blue eyes contrast against dark lashes, coupled with the slope of his cheekbones and somewhat thin lips makes him look like a faerie prince. Not to mention his lean build and elegant movements.

"Thank you," Finn's amused voice replies. Both Jess and Fontaine startle, not realising they were talking loud enough for the pirates to hear. Jess's cheeks adopt a light pink colour, but she tosses her long blond hair back and grins at him. Fontaine's heart gives a little flutter as she focuses on him.

"Of course."

He grins back at Jess. "I'd say you're quite lovely yourself. Shame I've never had the pleasure of seeing you before."

Was he...was he flirting with Jess? Something flips uncomfortably in Fontaine's stomach. Stop it she scolds herself. You don't care.

Jess laughs, and Finn's eyes slide to Fontaine. His expression softens a little. Aww he's so sweet, she thinks. And he really was to her, now that she thought about it.

"Hey Fontaine." His voice seems a little warmer. She smiles at him.

Then he smirks."If I'd known you had such a pretty friend I might've left you alone."

Jerk.

She knew there was a reason she hated him.

Well okay, maybe not hate, but intensely, intensely disliked him. She throws him a look of contempt, which only makes his smirk wider.

"You flatter me," Jess smiles at him. Fontaine looks at her, surprised. Was she flirting back?

"Nothing more than you deserve," he winks.

"Okay, hold up," Ant interrupts. "Leave Jess alone, she doesn't want to talk to backstabbing pirate like you. And besides, weren't there artefacts we were supposed to recover? So how about you hand them over and we'll be on our way."

Fontaine's never been happier with her brother.

"Well now,"Hammerhead replies. "Seeing as we just got 'ere, we've got no treasure at the moment."

"Hammerhead, that treasure doesn't belong to you. We've been assigned by the World's Ocean Authority to secure it and bring it back to land for studying."

"Hmm, well now, see, we've got ter make a livin' too. So how's about this? Whatever treasure ya take, you can keep, we won't fight ya for it. Same goes for us."

Will sighs and rubs his forehead."Hammerhead, we're not playing this game with you."

"Well we're gonna get all the treasure then!"Madeline gloats, sticking her tongue out at them and racing back the hatch."Finders keepers." The rest of the pirates follow her, hurrying down the hatch. Finn gives them a two-fingered salute and a wink before he disappears down the hatch. Suddenly the top of the Dark Orca is empty as Hammerhead also, surprisingly quickly, gets into the sub and slams the lid of the hatch shut.

Will sighs again, rubbing his temples. "I guess we'll have to get as much of the non-gold artefacts as we can before we try to get them from Hammerhead. I'll update your mom. Ant, can you go get the knights ready?"

"Sure!" Ant runs down to the moon pool as the others follow at a more moderate pace. Will updates Kaiko as they head down.

"He's cute," Jess whispers to Fontaine. Instantly she knows she's talking about Finn. "I don't know how you don't like him, especially as he's the only boy you know."

"What, do you like him? Got over Damon already?" It comes out more harsh than teasing.

Jess looks taken aback. "No, I just think he's cute."

She feels bad, but not as bad as she should. "Sorry," she mumbles. "I guess it's the lack of sleep catching up to me. I didn't have my coffee this morning." She smiles at Jess, but it feels somewhat forced. Get a grip, Fontaine, she chides herself. Stop being a brat.

Either Jess doesn't notice or lets it slide as she slings an arm around Fontaine. "No worries, I get it. D'you think we could grab a coffee before the expedition?"

Fontaine laughs, even though a slight feeling of discontentment is still present. "Jess, the expedition starts now. Soon as we get to the moon pool room and into the knights."

"Oh. Yeah." Then she brightens as she remembers. "I can't wait to try the Angel Knight!"

"Yes, I know," Fontaine rolls her eyes, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "You must've said it at least a hundred times."

Jess doesn't pick up on it, and luckily neither does anyone else. "I's pretty much the same as the other knights, right?"

"Yeah, but there are some differences. Ant can show you- he knows it best." Whilst not entirely true, as they all know the Knights pretty well, as a general rule Ant knows all of them best since he spends the most time tinkering with them.

"Ok, great!"

They walk over to Ant as Will gets into the Mag Knight. Kaiko jumps into the White Knight and then turns to debrief them as Ant helps Jess into the Angel Knight. "Alright kids, so here's the plan. Me and your dad are going to head down and save the artefacts we can, then we'll work on getting the rest from Hammerhead. Jess can come with us, since the Angel Knight's got some weaponry attached-" Jess's eyes widen comically " so she can be our defence. Don't worry Jess, Ant will be controlling the weapons system remotely. He'll be able to see and hear everything from the cameras. And Fontaine, we'll need you to secure the artefacts as we bring them up. Everyone clear?"

A chorus of "Yep"s and "Uh-huh"s answer her question, and Fontaine watches as her parents dive down and Jess takes a few seconds to get used to the Angel Knight.

"You all good?"Ant asks.

Fontaine grins, making her way over and tapping on the glass. "How's it feel to finally be in the Angel Knight?"

Jess sighs dramatically. "Like a dream come true. I probably should get down there and help your parents though."

"Yeah, one sec. Let me just..." Ant taps his screen a few times before Fontaine pops up on it. She waves into the camera, and Ant nods. "OK, great, it's calibrated. Just don't push too hard on the thrusters because I have less control of that. And you'll need to make sure you're secured when I shoot some of the bigger weapons, but I'll let you know before I do that. And just be careful of the pirates, especially Finn," Ant warns.

Jess turns to Fontaine. "Are you sure you don't like him Fontaine? If you don't, can I have him?" She grins, clearly teasing, but there's still a hollow kind of feeling in her chest as she tells Jess "Sure." But Jess's already gone by the time the lie slips from her mouth.

She sits down with Ant at the edge of the moon pool as they watch the feed from the Angel Knight's camera. Ant turns the volume up.

After a minute of watching the Knights move through the wreckage and listening to the others talk about how they've not found anything, Ant gets up and runs off. A few seconds later he's back with a glowstick in hand. "Jeffrey could use some practice," he explains as he sits down again. Fontaine rolls her eyes.

"What good is teaching a fish to-" She's cut off by Jess's excited exclamation of "I found something!"

Ant snatches the tablet up and Fontaine looks over his shoulder at it. Jess's found what looks like necklace with a stone pendant or something on the end. "Woah, this is heavy. And its covered in grime too." Ant and Fontaine watch as Jess turns it over in the Angel Knight's hands. There's a scraping noise and Jess almost drops it. "Oh no, I've scratched it!" She turns it over and brings it closer to herself and the camera, trying to analyse the damage.
"Oh wow," she gasps. Ant's eyes widen and he exchanges a look with Fontaine, before he turns to the screen again, about to tell Jess to bring it in, but her voice cuts across first. "This thing's solid gold!" she calls out to Kaiko and Will.

Ant groans. "Jess, quick, hurry, bring it back to the Aronnax before-" People in grey suits start to appear in the camera. "- the pirates show up. Okay hold on." Ant focuses on the tablet, tapping furiously, and then returns to Jess. Hammerhead and two crew members are talking, trying to 'convince' Jess to hand over the pendant. Jess isn't relenting, and the pirates seem to be closing in. Fontaine watches them suddenly yelp and scatter as the camera shifts a little- Jess getting used to the weight of something on her suit.

"Alright, that's a mini-cannon. It just shoots plastic balls though, don't worry. It'll only push them out of the way. You can also shoot any that get too close and I'll watch for them. Bring the pendant up and Fontaine'll be ready to grab it, okay?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, go now."

They watch as bubbles fill the camera, then the Aronnax comes into view. They watch the hatch of the moon pool room come closer. Fontaine runs to the switch, and at Ant's nod, presses the button to open the hatch and then closes it, with Jess safely inside the moon pool. They breathe a collective sigh of relief. Jess hands the pendant to Fontaine, who takes it to a corner of the moon pool room as Jess starts on an indignant rant. "They said they wouldn't touch any of the treasure we took! I found that, fair and square! Who do they think they are, just demanding me to give it over?! They said they'll let us be!"

"That's pirates for you," Ant grins, clearly happy Jess is on his side of don't-trust-pirates. "Always stick to my motto - Never trust a pirate!"

"Too true," Jess growls.

Fontaine laughs. "Well, you better go get revenge on those pirates then and get all that treasure. My parents are waiting for you."

"Yeah, just wait. They're not going to be getting any treasure on my watch. Hey can I keep this up? I want to shoot those pirates when I see them."

Fontaine shakes her head and snickers as Ant cheers. "That's the spirit! Yeah, you can keep it up. You just fire it by doing this motion." He makes a circular movement with his arm, and then sort of slices it down. Jess copies him, and a hard-plastic blue ball shoots straight for his face. Ant ducks as it passes where his head was seconds before.

"Ohmygosh I'm so sorry Ant, are you okay?" Jess asks frantically as Fontaine's peals of laughter ring out.

"I'm fine," Ant replies ruefully, rubbing his head where the ball would've hit.

"You should've seen your face!" Fontaine cackles. "Ant looked so surprised and Jess looked so horrified!"

"Glad to see our suffering amuses you," Jess replies dryly. "But you're sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry. I've got ninja-quick reflexes," Ant says, demonstrating his point with some karate moves.

Jess laughs. "Okay, master ninja. Sorry about that."

Ant waves it off. "Don't worry about it. I think you should worry about the artefacts though."

"Oh, right!" Jess gasps. "I better get down there!"

"Go kick some pirate butt!" Ant cheers as Jess heads down.

Fontaine turns to her comm. "Hey Mom, Dad, find anything down there yet?"

"Yep, we found a lot of stuff," Will responds. "But we've been busy trying to keep the valuable stuff away from the pirates."

"Isn't all of it valuable?" she snarks.

"You know what I mean Fontaine. Just be ready whenever we come up."

"Okay," Fontaine sighs.

"Hey Fontaine, come look at this! Jess's about to nail some pirates with the gun!" Ant gleefully calls her over. They sit back down at the edge of the moon pool and watch as a grey-suited figure approaches Jess.

"Jess, did you find something?" Ant asks excitedly.

"I sure did," Jess replies, but her voice sounds cautious, her words careful. "And I think someone's planning to take it."

"Nail 'em with the gun!" Ant encourages. "Here, I'll aim it for you."

He taps the screen, the perspective changed to the gun. He aims it at the pirate's head.

"Whoa," a somewhat familiar voice says, as the pirate lifts his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Easy there, don't shoot that thing."

"Finn?" Fontaine says as she registers the blue eyes, dark hair, and voice of the pirate. Somehow Jess hears her over Ant's chant of "Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him!"

"What do you want, pirate?" Jess growls at him. He grins at her, unperturbed.

"Hmm, there are a lot of things I want, but that treasure you're holding is not one of them. What's your name?" he asks, still keeping his distance, but adopting a more relaxed demeanour as he sits down on a nearby boulder.

"Are you trying to keep me away from the Nektons?" Jess asks, ignoring his question.

"Yes, you go Jess!" Ant cheers.

Finn shrugs, spreading his arms out in a gesture of I don't know. "Depends. Is it working?"

"No," Jess responds, but the bite has gone from her voice.

Finn looks down in exaggerated sadness. "That's a shame." He looks back up again and grins as Jess laughs. Fontaine tries to hide her snicker, but Ant catches it and rolls his eyes, scowling at Finn through the camera.

"I would've thought you might want to talk to me," he continues, mischievousness in his tone as he grins slyly at Jess, "seeing as you thought I was 'hot'."

All three of them splutter. Fontaine nearly falls into the moon pool.

"Well, I- you-, um- WHAT?" Jess responds coherently, summing up the feelings of all them as she tries to process how to respond to his candour. "Well, you said I was pretty!"

"I did," he nods solemnly. "And so I wanted to talk to you. I'm Finn." He stands to give her a half-bow.

"Yeah I know who you are," Jess responds snarkily.

Finn's grin widens and he looks remarkably pleased with himself as crosses his arms and leans against the boulder. "Fontaine tell you about me?"

Fontaine feels her face heat up with a blush as Ant gives her an I-knew-it look. She looks away from him, at Jeffrey, who is somehow giving her the same look. She shifts uncomfortably before looking back at the screen, where Jess is trying to backtrack as she responds.

"Um, what?! Well, yeah, she um- she said you were annoying, and sneaky, and you were, like, really pale and that she doesn't like you," Jess says, confidence growing in her voice as she lists off the characteristics.

It could be a figment of her imagination, but Fontaine thinks she sees Finn's face falter for a second before he smirks again. "Did she tell you anything else about me?"

Jess shakes her head confidently. "Nope."

"And what about you? Do you think I'm annoying and-"

Their viewing is interrupted as Will and Kaiko surface in the moon pool. Ant and Fontaine yelp and scramble back as white frothy water surges up with the movement of the knights surfacing.

"Kids, get ready to secure the cargo! There's lots coming up and we've got to be quick!" Kaiko yells at them and they plonk full crates on the side of the moon pool. Ant drops the tablet and starts pushing the crates toward the back as Fontaine runs to the control panel and quickly calibrates the claw. The next half an hour is spent rushing around and rapidly securing artefacts and treasure. They all but forget about Jess as they hurry to gather the artefacts before the pirates figure out what's happening and manage to snag any of them. Eventually, they've managed to get all the treasure and materially valuable items Kaiko and Will have collected into the sub, and Fontaine and Ant work on securing them as Will and Kaiko prepare to return to the shipwreck for the artefacts with more historical value. They'd seen some stone slabs and sculptures with runes, among other things, which were a top priority.

"Okay, so we'll get this stuff up here. Kids, we're going to need you to move the Aronnax over to here-" Kaiko shows them some coordinates about fifty yards from their current position. "-okay? Do it gradually though so the pirates don't notice anything. We found the figurehead for the ship-"

"The thing's pure gold!"Will exclaims, interrupting Kaiko. She gives him an amused, slightly exasperated look.

"It's probably not pure gold, but it's definitely solid. The pirates will for sure be trying to get their hands on it. But it's too big for us to bring up, so we'll have to get the Aronnax hooked up to it directly, then reel it in. So just subtly move it over, okay?"

"Got it! Stealth mode," Ant says, imitating a spy slinking around the White Knight. Kaiko shakes her head and laughs at Ant's antics.

"Secure the rest of the stuff, won't you Fontaine? How's Jess doing?"

"Oh! I forgot about Jess," Ant exclaims, interrupting Fontaine's response.

"You? You forgot about Jess?" Fontaine giggles. "Wait 'till she hears that!" Kaiko and Will leave them to it, returning to the shipwreck.

"Shut up," Ant replies, annoyed, as he picks up the tablet. "Look, she's fine, she's-" his eyes widen as he takes in the scene. ""still with pirate boy?!"

"What?" Fontaine tilts the tablet more towards her, and sure enough, she can see Finn among the swaying reeds and debris. Clearly he's talking. "Turn up the volume."

"JESS! Get away from the pirate!" Ant all but yells at the tablet. Fontaine can't really see what's on the camera from this angle with Ant's face ridiculously close to it, but as Ant turns up the volume the sound comes trickling in.

"Ant! Fontaine! You're okay? You guys went quiet there for a while," Jess says, relieved."Nothing happened, right? You guys were just busy?" Fontaine can hear the worry in her voice.

"Yeah, we're fine, don't worry, just securing some stuff," Fontaine reassures her.

"Ok, good. I'm glad. YAY!" Jess exclaims, surprising them."You found something!"

Finn's voice interrupts before they can respond. "What did they find?" he asks curiously.

"DON'T TELL THE PIRATE!"Ant yells.

Fontaine scowls at him."Jeez, Ant, could you be any louder?"

"Don't worry, Ant, I wouldn't. Besides, I don't even know what it is, remember?" Jess reassures them, playfulness in her tone.

"Question," Finn interrupts. Again. "Have they been listening this whole time?"

"Yup," Jess responds happily, at the same time Fontaine says "No."

"Wait, what?" Jess asks as Fontaine's response registers."I thought you guys were listening."

"No, we got - busy - with something. We missed, like, the whole part where we find out why you're still with Finn."

"Oh yeah. He's helping me search."

"Helping. You. Search," Ant repeats."You know he's just going to grab the treasure and run when you find it, right?"

Fontaine shakes her head in disagreement as Jess says "No, he wouldn't."

"Yeah, I wouldn't betray Jess," Finn jumps in.

"YOU TOLD HIM YOUR NAME?"

"Relax, Ant it's fine. Trust me. We've already collected several artifacts. Now that I know you guys are good we'll bring them up."

Ant and Fontaine give each other panicky looks. "NO!" they shout in unision. Finn couldn't know what they'd found - he'd probably tell his dad and then they'd be faced with a possible invasion of the Aronnax. Fontaine tries to think quickly. "Um, we don't trust Finn to come on the Aronnax. He can't come with you."

Well. That was exactly the reason. There's no way Finn's not going to find a way to come up with Jess.

"Aww, don't you trust me Fontaine?"

"No," she says flatly.

"Fine, I'll just wait down here. Don't be too long." Fontaine watches as Finn settles down on a rock and gives Jess a nod and a grin. She tries to focus on the surprise that he listened rather than the sinking feeling in her stomach watching his interaction with Jess.

"Okay, you can bring the stuff up," she says quietly.

They wait in silence for a few seconds before Jess appears. She hands over the artifacts in the net of the Angel Knight, and chats as they work to unload it.

"You know, he's really not that bad," she says, handing over what looks like a vase. "He's not tried to steal anything from me, and he's actually pretty good company." Ant bristles at that, but before he can respond with something like "we're better, " Fontaine speaks, kneeling down to grab a circular disk-shaped thing from the net.

"Yeah, I suppose he is, but he still does what his dad wants him to. And if his dad wants him to steal from you,-" she shrugs "- he will."

"I don't think he's like that. I don't think you're judging him fairly," Jess says, reproach in her voice as she gathers the empty net together and disappears down into the moon pool. Ant glowers as he closes the moon pool hatch.

"I'll get us to drift towards those co-ordinates," Fontaine says, trying to break the heavy mood that's suddenly settled over them. "Just keep watch and you can secure the artifacts if they come up, right?" Ant sighs and nods in agreement, turning back to his tablet. Fontaine heads to the bridge, thinking. Had they really got Finn wrong? She shakes her head at the thought. No, they'd given him a chance and trusted him, but he betrayed them. They were judging him based on his own actions and nothing else. She sighs as she sits down in the captain's chair and inputs the coordinates. She lets her thought drift as she steers them towards the location.

It's true that their judgement might be skewed by the interactions they'd had with the pirates. They were always on the defensive, but she supposed they had to be- Lemuria could house who knows how many treasures. There'd be more than enough people and groups trying to get their hands on the find of the century. If they ever found it.

She sighs. This is stupid. She knows she can't trust Finn - she's trusted him before. He's a pirate, and at the end of the day, he would always be a pirate. Even if he didn't always steal. Like that time with the pearl. And he did care about wildlife - it had been his idea after all to make the fin for that pufferfish. Heh. Finn. fin.

Anyway, she mentally slaps herself, even if she's still grinning from her lame (awesome) joke/realisation, he's not a bad guy. She's always known that. He's not a bad guy, but he doesn't always do what's right. He's more of a grey person, she supposes. Doesn't do bad but doesn't do good. Doesn't encourage good but doesn't stop bad. He's, what was it, neutral lawful? No, he's not lawful. True neutral! That's it. He's-

Beeping from the control panel interrupts her musings. Seeing the Aronnax locked in place, she heads back.

"Finn's the worst," Ant grumbles sourly as she walks back into the moon pool room. He tosses the glow stick for Jeffrey to fetch into the moon pool.

"You're telling me," Fontaine sighs, dangling her legs into the moon pool. "What did he do?"

"Ugh, he's flirting all over the place with Jess. Clearly he's charmed her into thinking we're the ones being judgy. They're pirates, for God's sake!" He throws his hands up in frustration. "We're allowed to judge people who are pirates. I mean, come on!"

Fontaine nods to the back of the tablet. "What're they talking about?"

Ant shrugs as he fiddles with a loose bit of plastic on the glowstick. "I don't know, I didn't want to watch anymore."

She gets up to grab the tablet and turn it over. She turns the volume higher again. Ant had left it loud enough to hear any yells for help, but not loud enough to make out the conversation. She hears Jess's voice first. "...great, but I guess she can be a little judgy."

"Tell me about it." Finn rolls his eyes. "I've tried to get her to see me as something other than a pirate, but I feel like she just can't see past it." A sinking feeling starts forming in her stomach as she processes the words, slowly coming to the conclusion they're talking about her; confirmed by Jess's next words.

"I think maybe Fontaine's just too sheltered to realize that someone who does bad things can still be good." WHAT?! White-hot anger shoots through her. How dare she? Maybe Fontaine didn't get to meet as many people as Jess, but she had more knowledge than that. Is that what Jess thought of her? Some judgmental, pretentious do-gooder? Just because she doesn't trust Finn, it doesn't mean she's writes off everyone the second they make a mistake. She didn't trust Finn because of his actions, not with anything to do with herself or her personal views.

She turns down the volume and puts the tablet face down on the floor, even though she feels like flinging it down into the moon pool and letting it hit both of their stupid faces. Angry she may be, but destructive she is not.

Ant looks at her sympathetically, and she feels a little better. Ant knows she's not like that. She sits down again. Ant hands her the glow stick to throw.

"I can't believe Finn's turning Jess against us," Ant says as she tosses it with more force than necessary into the moon pool.

"I just...I really did think he was okay. It's not like I didn't give him a chance!" she says, pulling her legs up to her chest and hugging herself.

"I know, don't listen to them. You've given him way more chances than he deserves," Ant assures her vehemently.

"Why don't you like Finn?" she asks, genuinely curious about his words. As far as she knows Ant just didn't like Finn on the basis he was a pirate, and that he'd betrayed them once. In fact, she doesn't think she'd seen them have even one conversation, other than that painfully awkward, reluctant thank-you Ant gave Finn when he saved them from the air bubbles. He also caused her dad to almost die, but she glosses over that fact.

Ant looks halfway between gleeful and angry. "He's a pirate, for starters," he begins, karate-chopping his hand for effect. "And he's betrayed us so many times."

"Like when?" She can only really recall one actual betrayal, when they first met.

"Hah. Well. The first time, when we let them on our sub. The other time, when they took over our sub. And when we were racing for the treasure. Pretending to be in danger is not cool." Fontaine can agree with that. "Also, when he took the pearl - I know he gave it back," he says, seeing her face. "But he still let his dad take it and made us worry about it. And he stole that treasure chest even though we told him not to, and he almost got us killed! He almost got Dad killed!" He takes a breath, then looks at his hands and finishes quietly. "And because every time he betrays us, you get hurt."

Fontaine's touched by his sentiment. And he does have a point - she just never really thought of those events as betrayals, but they sort of were.

He takes the glowstick from Jeffrey, who had been holding it for a while. "Your turn. Why do you like him?"

Fontaine half laughs, half groans as she watches Jeffrey swim in circles, waiting for the glowstick. "I don't even know. I guess, he's not actually a bad guy, he's a pretty decent person, you know? He's kind of forced into what he does." She drags a hand down her face. "I don't want to like him, but I just do, I can't really explain it. He's always been nice to me, and he likes me, so I guess...ugh, I don't know, it's all just so confusing. Why am I even telling you this?"

Ant laughs, clearly very amused at her humiliation.

"You can't tell anyone Ant, and we can never speak of this again."

Ant chuckles and shakes his head, but he agrees. "Even though I don't need to tell anyone, cuz they all know you like him anyway," he points out.

"Even Jess?" she challenges. The mood becomes heavier with her name.

"Maybe not. But maybe."

They're silent for a few seconds. Then the realization dawns on Fontaine. "Wait, weren't we supposed to be securing the figurehead? Where's Mom and Dad?"

Ant's eyes go wide. He snatches up the tablet and searches it for any sign of the White Knight and Mag Knight, but all they see is Finn from Jess's camera. Fontaine tries not to panic as she opens the channel on her comm and asks "Mom? Dad? Is everything okay? Do you need us to open the hatch?"

Simultaneously, Ant opens the microphone on the tablet and asks Jess. "JESS! Have you seen Mom and Dad?"

The tension grows when Jess replies in the negative, and the walls seem to close in as they wait for a response from the comms.

After what feels like hours, but in reality was probably only a few seconds, Kaiko's voice crackles over the intercom. Ant and Fontaine breathe a collective sigh of relief, and Fontaine's pounding heart slows a little. "We're fine kids, don't worry, we just-" she groans. " Ugh, great. Okay kids, be ready. We're going aboard the Dark Orca."


"What happened?" Fontaine asks as they touch down on the sea bed, Ant in the Shadow Knight. Fontaine had opted to go without, as the Swamp Knight was the only one left. Jess is nowhere to be seen.

Kaiko sighs in annoyance as Will tells them what happened. "Well, we covered the figurehead as best we could, but I guess it wasn't good enough. We were just collecting a few artifacts a few yards down-" he points to an area partly hidden by a cluster of sea kelp. "- and they somehow managed to find and hook it up!" He throws his arms up in frustration. "And then when we went back to try and get it from them, they took the other artifacts we'd collected!"

"Where was Jess?" Fontaine asks, and even though she knows the answer, she's still hoping she's wrong. "She was supposed to be your defence."

"I don't know. She must've gotten busy treasure-hunting. Also, we didn't want to call her and put her in any danger," Kaiko answers. "Looks like she's going to be in danger anyway," she sighs. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Ant asks.

"Unless we keep her on the Aronnax. Tell her it's not safe on the Dark Orca and you guys have experience with it, but she doesn't, so we need her to secure the ship!" Kaiko exclaims, clearly warming to the idea as she explains it.

"Hmm. Yeah, that's a good idea. Except, I'm not sure she's going to buy it now," Fontaine hesitantly says.

"What? Why not?"

"Because she kinda, sorta, made friends with Finn?"

Will shakes his head. "That boy. Always complicating things. Okay fine, we'll just lock down the Aronnax until we've got the stuff and can bring it on board. Good?" The others nod in affirmation. "Where is Jess?"

"Still with the pirate boy," Ant growls. Will sighs.

"Okay, well, lets just leave her with him- he's not much of a threat, and they'll probably suspect something if we call her back. We'll just keep track of her, and she'll probably end up with us anyway. Lets try to make this as quick as possible, okay? In and out."


Of course, of course it wasn't that simple. Of course they'd known the Nektons were coming, and of course they'd hidden the treasure. And to add salt to the wound, of course she had ended up alone with Finn while searching stupidly almost empty hallways. Somehow he had managed to find her specifically, when there were four other people he could have found to bother - Jess had joined them in their hunt- instead of her. At least she wasn't alone in her suffering. Madeline had picked up on Ant's less-than-chipper mood and when she'd left them, Madeline had clearly been having the time of her life in the face of Ant's despondence. She certainly wasn't going to let him search in peace.

"What are you doing here?" she growls at Finn.

He grins, raising an amused eyebrow, unaffected by her obvious annoyance. "Um, last time I checked, this was my home. I should be asking you that question."

"I mean, why are you bothering me specifically? Go chat to Jess or whatever," Fontaine says, trying to mask the bitterness in her voice as she waves him away, pulling the lid off a random crate. Seriously, if they're trying to hide treasure, plonking a random crate in the hallway isn't doing it very well.

"Someone's feeling jealous," Finn says in a sing-song voice, leaning on the wall as he watches her open the crate.

"Shut up. There's not even anything to be jealous about." Why is this crate so hard to open?

He just smirks at her. Damn, Jess was right about him being hot. Especially with that look on his face. Frustrated, she slams her hand on the lid of the crate, and the opposite end pops open. Well. That's one way to do it.

"Hmm, then why are you not talking to each other? I could practically feel the tension from you guys. Even Ant." He grins wider as he realises. "Wait, Ant has a crush on her, doesn't he? Oh wait 'till Maddie finds out." He laughs.

"Shut up Finn," she spits venomously, anger building up at his making fun of her brother. "What's your problem? Just leave us alone, I'm not in the mood right now. Go bother some fishes or something."

"Aww, I thought you liked my company. Jess certainly does," he says, a glint in his eye as he hops onto the crate and grins at her.

Anger boils in her blood, her hands curling into fists as she tries to calm herself. Of course Jess likes his company, she's never been betrayed by him. He doesn't look like he'd betray anyone - look at him sitting so innocently on the crate! The same crate she's trying to open. Wait. That means... the treasure must be in it! The realisation provides enough of a distraction from her anger for her to be more annoyed with him than actually angry.

"Stay away from Jess," she says as she tries to push him off the crate. He's not budging.

"Why, because you think I'll like her more than you?"

She freezes.

That hits home. Exactly what she'd been trying to avoid thinking about.

She tries to shake it off, but there's almost no way he could've missed it.

There's only one course of action here: denial.

She attempts to laugh derisively. "No, I don't trust you around my friend."

He jumps off the crate and stalks closer to her. She backs away, avoiding his eyes, until her back hits the wall. He's still coming closer, close enough that she's forced to look at him, close enough for her to see the myriad of blues in his eyes. He puts his hands on the wall, trapping her, and leans in, studying her face. Her heart starts pounding and she feels like she's blushing, but she's not sure. She barely dares to breathe. "I don't think that's what it is," he finally murmurs.

Suddenly remembering to breathe, she pushes on his chest to make him move away. He doesn't move for a second, and all she can focus on is the warmth of his body on her hands through his red tank. Distantly, she worries he's going to keep her there and make her confess everything.

Then he moves away, and suddenly the hallway feels much colder than it did a minute ago.

He looks at her from the other side of the hallway, familiar smirk in place. "So what is it?"

She studiously doesn't look at him as she finally manages to open the crate, heart still hammering. "Nothing." She finally manages to pry open the lid, excitement at finding the treasure building as she lifts the lid and sees...seaweed? What the heck? There might be something underneath, right? Her excitement's slowly ebbing into disappointment as she picks some up and tries to move it around. It's just full of seaweed.

"Not what you were looking for?" She can practically feel the amusement in his voice and clearly see it in his face as she spins around and stalks closer to him.

She's disoriented. And still angry. And now frustrated and disappointed. And knowing that he's laughing at her is really not helping. "You- I just- I don't - " she starts, planning to let him know exactly how she feels about him right now, but the frustration and anger and hurt and confusion building up in her chest makes it kind of hard to organise her thoughts into coherent sentences, and she fights to keep back the ridiculous tears that are for some reason rising up. To her horror, one slips out and traces a path down her face as she tries to maintain her fierce glare. She swipes it angrily away as Finn's expression softens.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Oh Fontaine." And somehow that just does it, like the fact that he cares is too much somehow, and she can't stop her tears from falling. She backs away and covers her face with her hand as she tries to breathe, to calm down, to stop. There's silence for a few seconds, and distantly she registers movement. Suddenly, she feels strong, lean arms slide around her as Finn pulls her in for a hug. She's torn between wanting to shove him away and yell and scream at him, and wanting to push him away, and walk away and make him feel guilty, and wanting to hold on tight to him and never let go.

She presses her face into his shoulder as he rubs her back.

She's still angry though, so she doesn't make a move to return the hug.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd be so upset," he says quietly as he rubs her back soothingly. She can hear the worry and regret in his voice, and the mess of tangled emotions starts to unravel. "I pushed it too far. Sorry."

His apology makes the rest of her anger and frustration almost disappear. She pulls her hands down away from her face, and can feel him tense - expecting her to push him away. She wraps her arms around his waist, returning the hug. He holds her tighter, and rests his head on top of hers.

"Am I forgiven?" he asks tentatively.

She laughs through her sniffles, and reaches up to wipe her eyes as she says, "Yeah, you're good." His body relaxes a bit. "Sorry," she continues. "I just...not finding the treasure, and Jess." She starts to mumble, pressing her face more into his shoulder, half-hoping he won't hear her. He smells like sea salt. "And you. Maybe you're right, y'know, about me being jealous."

Unfortunately, he does hear her. He laughs, the sound reverberating through his chest. It feels nice. "That was kind of the point Fontaine."

"But...but I don't even have a right to be. It's not like you...and me...you know, or anything." She's definitely blushing at this point. Her face feels as red as a crab.

He chuckles again. "You know, that would make no sense to anybody else."

She half-laughs, wiping her eyes. "I know."

He's quiet for a second. Then he sighs. "I just didn't know if you cared enough to really care, y'know? Regardless, I still shouldn't have pushed it so far. And yeah, we're not, like, officially together I guess, but it's just an unspoken thing. Right?" The uncertainty in his voice as he asks tugs on her heartstrings.

"Right," she confirms. "Even though now you've said it, so you've kind of ruined the unspoken thing."

She grins even as he pulls away from her. He still keeps his arm around her as he shakes his head in amusement, dark locks falling into his face. His eyes soften as she reaches up to push them away, threading her fingers through his hair. He closes his eyes at her touch. She smiles. "I am sorry, you know. I really don't want to betray you," he says quietly, opening his eyes and casting them down to the floor. He sighs. "But as much as I don't want to betray you, I also don't want to betray my family."

She suddenly realises how hard this must be for him. He doesn't want to be a pirate, he doesn't want to betray her, yet he doesn't want to let his family down. And she understands that. The few times she'd disappointed Kaiko and Will, she'd felt awful, and hadn't ever wanted to see that expression on their faces again. How hard must it be to be encouraged to do wrong? And punished for doing right?

She squeezes him a little tighter with the arm still around him until he looks at her, guilt heavy in his sapphire blue eyes. She could get lost in those eyes. "I understand. It's okay Finn." She tries to lighten the mood. "It's not like I'm going to trust you with all our secrets, now is it?" she says playfully, nudging him.

It doesn't work. He gives her a weak smile at her attempt, but it disappears as he whispers, "But I want you to be able to."

She sighs, reaching out for the hand that's not around her and twining their fingers together. "Hey, don't worry about it. It's fine. We just have to make the best of what we have," she reassures him.

"You're right," he says, squeezing her fingers. "But I can still help." He lets go of her hand and steers them back to the open crate. He pulls the heavy seaweed away from the corner so it folds back like a sheet, revealing a collection of old items below. Fontaine gasps at the gold artefacts stacked together.

"You should've seen your face when you saw the seaweed," Finn snickers. Fontaine pushes lightly on his chest.

"Hey, I put a lot of effort into opening that crate. Which you were no help with, might I add." She pokes him. Then something else dawns on her. "Did you hide all the treasure like this?"

"Awed by our awesome hiding abilities?" he teases. "We kind of hid most of it, but we didn't...no. No no no no no," he says frantically as Fontaine grins mischievously, pulling her comm up to her face.

"Hey guys," she says into it. "Look under the seaweed in the crates."

Finn groans."Dad's gonna kill me."

She laughs, patting his shoulder consolingly, which was actually quite hard to do considering his arm was still around her shoulders and hers around his waist, but she manages. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll survive." She nods to the crate. "Are you going to help me move that then, or what?"

He lifts his hands up and backs away from her. "No way, you're on your own for that. Dad'll take ages to get over me helping you find the treasure anyway, I'm not going to make it worse by helping you steal our treasure."

"Technically, you stole it first," Fontaine argues, pulling out the seaweed to lighten the load. "Mom and Dad found the treasure first, then you guys stole it."

Finn shrugs. "Possession is nine-tenths of the law. I will, however keep you company until we get to the moon pool."

"How generous of you," Fontaine retorts, starting to push the crate down the hall. Jeez this thing was heavy.

"I know," he smirks. Fontaine rolls her eyes but doesn't reply.

It takes a while to make it to the moon pool, especially since they come across another two crates on the way there. Finn still wasn't helping her steal - no, take - the treasure, claiming the cameras could see him. Like anyone ever checked the cameras. When they finally make it to the moon pool, they find everyone there bar Ant, working to load up the treasure. Jess sees them come in together and gives Fontaine a bright smile, which she tries to reciprocate, although being exhausted from pushing the crates makes it kind of hard. She doesn't have any hard feelings toward Jess though.

Fontaine helps her parents secure some of the crates in nets which would be attached to the Mag and Angel Knights, and in the Rover. As they're working Ant appears, pushing a crate and looking both thunderous and desperate to leave. Madeline had somehow found out about his crush and was taunting him about Jess, and as they walk in she shrieks, "Oh look, your girlfriend's waiting for you!" She cackles as Ant spins round to shoot her a look.

Fontaine decides to intervene. "Madeline, shut up," she says. The younger girl looks at her incredulously, like what did you say? She supposes it's a given - she hardly talks to Madeline. She gives Finn a look as Madeline opens her mouth to retort.

Finn sighs, then turns to Madeline and tells her, "Maddie, leave him alone." She can't help the grin that spreads across her face as he backs her up. He actually listened to her! She gives him a radiant smile.

He smiles back resignedly as Madeline goes off at him."Why are you listening to her? Just because you like her doesn't mean you give her everything she wants! You know, if Dad found out that..." Fontaine tunes her out as she focuses on securing the crates.

"Thank you," Ant murmurs as he comes up next to her, dragging one of his crates with him. "I was getting really fed up of her."

She grins as she rearranges the net to make space for Ant's crate. "Now you know how I feel about you sometimes." She laughs at his expression. "But Finn really made her shut up. Actually, no, look at him suffering," she giggles, looking at Finn from the corner of her eye as he nods along distractedly to Madeline's tirade.

Ant grins too. "Yeah, I guess Pirate Boy's not that bad."

"Ant, can you take that crate with you when you get in the Shadow Knight?" Will calls, suddenly appearing in the Moon Pool. Fontaine didn't even recall him and Kaiko leaving, but they'd made quick work of the bonds holding the figurehead in place and had attached it to the Aronnax instead. With everything loaded up, Fontaine could see Jess walking over to the Angel Knight, preparing to get in. Finn had managed to extricate himself from Madeline's lecture and was talking to her as she pulled herself into it. Fontaine could only make out some of the conversation, but she could tell Finn was being friendly, but not flirty. She turns her attention to maneuvering herself around the boxes and into the driving seat of the Rover, as the others got into the water. She had no idea what her parents had done or what they had said to make Hammerhead let them leave with the treasure, but she was definitely grateful for it.

She catches Finn's eye as she prepares to dive, and he grins at her. It feels weird to just be leaving like this, after everything that's happened.

Ant taps on the glass, drawing her gaze away from Finn. He smirks at her, clearly knowing she was staring at Finn, and she makes a face at him in response. She sighs. He's right- it's time to go. She waves at Finn and she just about sees him wave back before they disappear into the sea.


Back on the Aronnax, and with the treasure secured by the WOA, they're all just relaxing. Fontaine and Jess have got their coffee and are sitting in the living room, sharing the window seat, watching the ocean and chatting.

"Sorry I was kind of harsh with you and Ant," Jess mutters, picking at the cushiony seat. "He just seemed so nice, I didn't get why you hated him so much."

"It's okay, Jess, don't worry about it. And we didn't hate him -we actually quite like him- we just have to remind ourselves why we can't trust him, I guess."

"Yeah. He still doesn't seem like the type to betray you," Jess frowns, looking down into her half-full coffee mug.

"Yeah, I know. He doesn't want to, but he kind of has to."

"Did he tell you that?"

Fontaine blushes, suddenly very interested in the contents of her cup. Jess's head snaps up at her silence. "Oh my god, he did, didn't he? Spill! What did he say?" she demands. Fontaine shushes her frantically.

"Keep your voice down! I don't want Ant to know about this." Jess nods her head enthusiastically as Fontaine sighs, then tells her the story, from Finn finding her in the hall to when they'd joined her in the Moon Pool room.

"Woah," Jess squeals. "So I was right! Now you do have a pirate lover!"

Fontaine blushes and laughs, looking down into her now-empty coffee cup. "Yeah, I guess I kinda do."


Yay, you made it to the end! Please, some constructive criticism? And jeez does it take long to write, I didn't realise. I've been working on this for a good month, and I thought it would only take a couple days initially. Respect for all the writers out there. I can't imagine how long it would take to write a book.

Anyone get the Guardians of the Galaxy II reference?

Heads up! I've been working on another story, hopefully it won't take too long to come out.