On the trip back to Montressor Spaceport Willow's brow knitted together as she couldn't shake a strange troubling feeling from herself, watching The Benbow Inn burning to the ground in the distance all felt too familiar as she watched its burning glow disappear beyond the horizon. Her thoughts soon fell on the book she had found in the bedroom, shuddering as the memories of her life before all flooded back as those first few sentences of the story graced her ears. She hadn't thought of her mother in over nearly ten years, the night she had died all seemed to be faded in the foggy corners of her memory; she shut her eyes and furrowed her brow as she tried to remember.

The sight of her home burning to the ground faded into nothing but an ominous fiery glow in the distance caused her heart to sink into a feeling of hopelessness, still tucked under the arm of the large man, Silver, her legs swayed along with the motion of his walk. The image would have been quite comical if the situation hadn't been quite so dark.

She saw a ship tied up at the end of the pier, where she had been sitting on not twelve hours ago, draw near as Silver made his way to the plank connecting the two, climbing aboard Silver called out commands and orders to his men, shifting her weight under his arm as his spoke.

"Get to work lads! I'll deal with the lass!"

As the men got to work unfurling the sails and preparing the engines, Silver took Willow below deck away from all the chaos happening on deck, he took her out from under his arm and set her on the top of one of the tables in the galley. Looking up at Silver Willow's eyes soon began to well up to the brim with tears threatening to fall from her large brown eyes as Silver sat himself down opposite her, the fear of coming to the same ill fate as her mother swirled in her head. The cold sinister glare that once spread across his worn features was now replaced by a much softer look as he leaned his elbows down on the table in front of her.

"Now, now lass, there be no need for tears. What happened to yer mother, it's a terrible thing but ya mustn't worry I'm not going to hurt ye."

As he spoke all Willow could do was try to hold back shaky sobs, she was trying her best to be brave, sitting on the table in front of the large pirate she gripped the sides of her night-dress in a white knuckle grip.

"I'm goin' ta have'ta ask ya to be brave again, like ye were back there. Re-light that little spark inside ye' alright?" He flashed Willow a slight smile in hopes she would calm slightly. "Me' name is John Silver and I'm the captain of this here ship. Now tell me lass, what's your name?"

Wiping away the tears building in her eyes with the sleeve of her dress she sniffled before answering the man in front of her.

"W-Willow, Willow R-Read." She said as she tried to swallow the hicks in her voice.

"Well then Wills, you'll be stayin' with me on my ship for awhile. Think of it as...a game of pirate, alright lass? No harm will come to ye as long as you keep playing."

Oh how Willow wished it was that easy, as hard as she tried over the next few weeks to think of it as a mere game of pirate it was impossible. She had a constant fear of everything, Silvers men, the plasma cannon being fired every ten minutes, the constant run ins with Naval Commanders, there always seemed to be something terrifying just around the corner. When Silver would have to leave and take his men, he would tell Willow to stay in the galley and not come out until he returned, but that was just the thing, there was always a chance of him not returning, she would wait in fear of being forgotten, or something happening to Silver and Willow being left at the hands of his men.

Over the months Willow had grown a somewhat attachment to Silver, he wasn't quite the father figure but it was close enough Silver was one of the only people on board who would willingly help her or just spend time with her, she was able to rely on him to keep her somewhat safe. He had put his men under strict orders to not harm or touch her but he could not guarantee her safety if she were to be caught in any kind of cross fire.

As much as Silver looked after her, he definitely did not baby her, he expected Willow to always be on her toes and use her common sense to keep herself out of trouble. If she got herself into trouble by being careless he would leave her to get herself out of it, bar a few exceptions when there was a considerable amount of danger involved.

He taught her how to fire a pistol, spar with a cutlass and basically taught her how to defend herself, soon enough she was able to hold her own against the other members of the crew if a brawl had broken out.

When Willow was old enough she was soon able to accompany the rest of the crew in their search for the map, being a lot smaller and more nimble that the majority of the crew she became a valuable asset to Silvers crew. With her bright eyed open face, in any spot of trouble she would be able to convinced herself innocent of any crimes, she was also able to blend in with a crowed and carry out any undercover tasks Silver required her to do.

As Willow thought about her past it dawned on her how easily she accepted her fate with Silver, it had taken her a few nights to cry out all her tears for her deceased mother but ever since then, whatever Silver told her to do she did it. He was a respectable captain, as respectable as a pirate could be anyways, now Willow wasn't treated much different to the rest of the crew; though she still had a strong attachment to the man she was sure he was fond of her as well.

Feeling the boat beneath her ease to a stop she pushed all the thoughts spinning through her head to the back of her mind and opened her eyes. Looking around her she saw that Silver had pulled into one of their usual docking bays, it was situated in the lower regions of the spaceport which was normally used for quick stops to re-stock cargo and a drop off and pick up point, the aliens walking around were shadier than the ones on the larger docks. The dark alley ways made for good cover when making a deal or two.

Silver stepped up onto the dock along with the rest of the crew and Willow following in suit, turning around Silver placed a hand on Willows shoulder.

"On yer toes Wills, the raid last night wouldn't have gone unnoticed; ya never know who might be watchin'." On that note he gave her shoulder a small squeeze and turned made his way down to their regular pub stop.

Willow walked down with Silver as the other crew members broke off and slowly followed in smaller groups to ease any suspicions in case they had been spotted the previous night.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sitting around a large table in the middle of the dark pub room, Silver and the crew were all discussing in hushed voices their next move in search for the map. He had found a lead on where the residents of the inn had fled too and soon discovered their plans to commission a ship. Putting two and two together they had obviously managed to unlock the map to Treasure Planet.

"So from what I've found, he's called Doctor Doppler, an' he'll be looking to hire a crew, I'll go to a commissioner's office at dawn to see if I can us put down as an upstandin' crew along with'a ship. He'll be needin' a few days to prepare so that gives us plenty'a time to plan a mutiny. Until then I'll be wantin' no trouble from any of ye, we'll need to be on the clear until we can get commissioned for that voyage do' ya all understand me?"

A chorus of "Aye Captain" echoed slightly throughout the crew members.

"Right..." Silver fished around in his large coat pocket and pulled out a fair sized sack full of gold coins and chucked it onto the table. "Now go an' do whatever it is that you lot do in yer spare time, get yerselves some drinks or somethin', I've got some work to take care of, Wills I'll be needin' yer help." He said as he waved a hand for her to follow him.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The Legacy

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The R.L.S Legacy was without a doubt a magnificent ship, the grandest Willow had seen in her life, the ship Silver had at the moment was alright but it was starting to get a bit dog-eared as it aged, a lifetime of piracy taking its toll on the poor ship, but the vessel in front looked almost brand new glistening in the sun light, floating proudly in the dock.

As Willow boarded the ship, she saw that most of the crew were all ready busy in their jobs preparing the ship for launch, Silver had already left along with the majority of the crew, she mentally kicked herself for not getting up earlier but was also slightly peeved that Silver didn't bother to wake her up, but none the less she wouldn't have expected him to have anyway, she was old enough to take care of herself and get her own butt out of bed on time.

Willow was a little bit surprised that her crew had managed to meet the criteria for an upstanding crew, if it wasn't for Silver's iron grip, pun intended, on the crews' discipline they would have been nothing but rebellious vagrants.

Suddenly, Willow let out a little squeak as a pink blob flew into her face, purring and nuzzling itself into her neck.

"Ah! Morph! Stop! That tickles!" laughing she tried to poke away the chirping blob.

"Ah Wills! They ya are, did ya sleep well?" Silver said as he met her on deck, a slight smirk spread across his face.

Catching Morph in her cupped hands, Willow sighed and slunk her shoulders slightly. "Sorry I'm late..." she mumbled into her chest, fully expecting a scolding.

"Oh now don't ye worry yerself Wills, I would' ave woke ya but I knew you'd be along."

Taken aback slightly, Silver seemed to be in a particularly good mood this morning. Obviously everything had gone along smoothly, and the captain hadn't suspected anything.

"Mr. Silver" a gravelly voice called from behind Silver, "I see this must be the young Willow Read."

A large rock-like man stood in front of the two, he wore an immaculate red naval jacket across his large chest, he eyed Willow up and down as if analysing her.

"Aye, Mr. Arrow sir! She'll be keepin' an eye on the ships engines, makin' sure they all be runnin' smoothly for the trip." Silvers face looked far too cheery it looked unnatural; he was obviously trying to keep up a convincing facade in front of his authorities.

As it dawned on Willow what Silver had just said, she felt her blood run cold and her face paled slightly. Engines? She knew nothing about engines! How was she supposed to fix whatever problems they had down there if she didn't know where to begin?

Her attention snapped back to Mr. Arrow as she felt Silver elbow her side slightly.

"A-Aye sir." She tried to put on the best confident facade she could, lifting her hands in front of her. "Small hands sir, good for the little fiddly jobs."

Mr. Arrow nodded slight before leaving Silver and Willow to go about their business, when he was out of sight Willow turned to Silver with red cheeks as she slapped him slightly across the arm.

"Engines! Are you nuts!? I don't know the first thing about engines! What am I going to do if something happens!?" Willow said in a strained whisper.

"Ye used to tinker about in that old life boat ye used to have didn't you? You made it run pretty well with nothin' but a few scraps, you'll be fine down there, it's really nothin' to it." Silver said with surprising indifference.

"You're kidding right? That life boat was just a piece of junk I messed about with as a kid, this is like... Navy issued rocket engines, I'm pretty sure they hire professionals to deal with those kinds of engines." She could feel panic bubbling in her stomach; if this was some kind of stupid test Silver was putting her through she'd be a tad more than livid. If she messed up and blew their cover the blame would land entirely on her shoulders.

"Ah don't worry yerself lass, you'll be fine." And with that Silver clapped a large hand on her back and made his way down to the galley where he would be working as the cook as Morph floated along behind him, chirping and purring along the way.

Sighing, Willow gazed around the ship and decided that it'd be best to go down to check out the engine rooms, she should at least know what her impending doom would look like. Just before she made it to the top of the stairs she heard the unmistakable sound of Zoff's gross flatulent noises, turning to the sound she saw him blowing his many trunks in the face of, what looked like, a teenage boy not much older than Willow. His brown hair stuck up in odd places as Zoff trumpeted in the boy's confused looking face.

Stepping up behind him stood a rather odd dog-like man, in the most ridiculous space suit, it was obvious he had been conned by one of the sales men on the Spaceport. It took a few seconds before it clicked in her mind that this must be the doctor Silver was talking about, Doctor Doppler was it? The man who had the treasure map.

"Don't worry Jim! Allow me to handle this." Stepping up to Zoff, the doctor started making flatulent noises of his own.

To her surprise and obviously to the boy's, whose name seemed to be Jim, got through to him as Zoff replied with numerous toots and farts and went about his business.

"I'm fluent in flatula Jim, took two years of it in High School." Saluting in finalising his point with one last 'pfft' noise he carried on walking along the deck.

Running his hand through his hair straightening it out he looked after the doctor. "Flatula... Cool."

After checking out the engine room Willow made her way up the stairs back onto deck with panic still bubbling in her stomach, the engine was huge, complete with hundreds of cogs, levers, buttons, the works, sure she recognised a few bits from tinkering with that small engine on the run down life raft she used to have but it was nothing compared to this. If anything went wrong with that engine, which it will knowing her luck, she's be utterly screwed.

With heavy thuds of her boots she made her way down to the galley to complain at Silver for dumping this on her shoulders, when she reached the bottom she found that Silver was already making himself at home in his new kitchen already preparing the next meal for the crew. If Willow had to pick her favourite aspect about Silver it would be his cooking, he could making the most boring dish into a masterpiece, he really had a knack for food which probably explained why he is so big, though she'd never say that out loud.

Silver stopped mid-whistle as he saw Willow drop herself down on one of the benches in the galley.

"So how're ya finding the ship Wills? Did ya take a quick gander at the engine room yet?" He said with a slight chuckle as she shot him the coldest glare she could muster.

"Oh, you mean my impending doom beneath the deck? Oh yeah it's great, fabulous, couldn't ask for anything better." Willows voice was thick with sarcasm as her head fell against her hands covering her eyes letting out a drawn out groan.

"Oh, lighten' up a bit Wills, it could be worse" walking over to a large barrel in the corner he reached in and pulled out a fresh purp, "here, eat this, you'll feel better." He said chucking the fresh purp to her laughing as he did so.

Catching the purp she tossed it about in her hands before sinking her teeth into it, as she ate the purp listening to Silvers whistles she heard a number of clunky footsteps make their way down the stairs.

"That woman! That...Feline! Whom does she think is working for whom?" The voice Willow instantly recognised as the doctors.

Followed soon after she heard Jim reply in an equally irritated tone;

"It's my map, and she's got me bussin' tables - !"

"I will not tolerate another cross word about our Captain; there is no finer officer in this or any galaxy!" Mr. Arrow's intimidating voice boomed above Jim and the doctors as they came into view. "Mr. Silver!"

Drawing him away from his cooking Silver looked over at the three men stood in his galley, putting on his overly cheerful facade, which in all honesty creeped Willow out slightly.

"Why, Mr. Arrow sir!" Silver gave an exaggerated bow to the men "Bringing in such fine and distinguished gents to grace my humble galley, had I know I'd 'ave tucked in me shirt." He said stuffing the bottom of his apron into his belt laughing.

Willow looked over to the three men standing in the galley, she looked Jim over and saw him gasp slightly as Silvers cybertronic arm and leg came into view. She had been with him for so long that it just looked natural to her now, but for someone seeing him for the first time, they were bound to be, if anything slightly frightened.

"May I introduce Dr. Doppler, the financier of our voyage?" Mr. Arrow said, gesturing towards the Doctor.

Switching on the laser-pointer in his eye, Silver pretended to scan through the Doctor's suit, bashful, the Doctor crossed his arms over himself trying to hide, what Willow assumed to be, his man-hood.

"Love the out-fit doc." Silver said with a smirk.

"Uh, t-thank you, love the eye" Trying to take the attention off of himself he pushed the boy in front of him, "And uh, this young lad is Jim Hawkins!"

"Jimbo!" Silver said and he pushed his hands forward, forgetting to switch the blades he used for chopping the vegetables back to his normal hand.

Glaring at it, Jim sent a cold look up to Silver, feeling a pang on anger in her chest Willow glared at Jim. 'How friggin' rude, he shouldn't give him a dirty look just for that...'

Brushing off Jim's glare, Silver returned to his work top until he glanced at Willow still sat on the bench with her feet propped up on the table.

"Ah where are me' manners! I'd almost forget about ya Willow, quiet as a door mouse ye are sat in the corner." Silver said as he wiped his hands on a cloth before taking her by the shoulders and pushing her towards Jim and the Doctor. "May I introduce, whom I like to call me'... partner in crime, Willow Read."

"Ah! It's a pleasure Miss. Read" The Doctor said smiling, holding out his hand politely.

"Hey, nice to meet you" She replied, shaking his gloved hand, before turning to Jim and offering her hand to him.

"Hey..." He said in an almost mumble as he shook her hand.

'Well someone has the angsty teenage boy facade down to a T...'

Silver left Willow standing with the three others awkwardly as he made his way back to the counter, quickly chopping up unusual looking vegetables before blasting the with a flame from his hand and mixing it all together in a large stew pot, seasoning it and tasting it.

"Mmm! Here," Silver picked up two bowls and poured in two helpings of stew and handed them to Jim and the Doctor "have a taste of me' famous Bonzabeast Stew!"

Looking down at the bowl the Doctor give it a quick sniff and soon tasted it before licking his lips.

"Mmm! Delightfully tangy, yet robust."

"Old family recipe." As he spoke, the Doctor went to take another taste until an eyeball plopped up onto the surface of the stew, gasping he looked at the bowl horrified. "In fact, that was part of the ol' family!"

Willow let her hand slap her forehead as Silver let out a loud laugh, every time he makes that joke, and each time it just gets un-funnier.

"Ahah! I'm just kiddin' doc! I'm nothin' if I ain't a kidder." Silver chuckled and he nudged Jim with his elbow, "Go on Jim have a swig!"

Making her way back to the bench she had be sat on earlier, Willow eyed up Jim smirking as he scooped up some of the stew with a spoon. Jim eyed the stew suspiciously, as if he were contemplating it being safe to eat or not, as he eyed his spoon it suddenly jiggled in his hand. Nearly dropping the spoon it had Spouted two eyes it turned pink, the head of the spoon chomped down on the stew and as it swallowed the whole thing transformed back into Morph, purring and chirping at Jim.

Laughing, Willow watched Jim inspect the pink gelatinous blob floating in front of him, imitating Jim as he perched on the end of his finger.

"He's... A morph! I rescued the little shape-shifter on Proteous 1. Awh, he took a shine to me, we've been together ever since." Morph nuzzled into Silvers collar as he walked back to the counter tops, cooing at Morph as he went.

Breaking the awkward silence Mr. Arrow spoke up.

"We're about to get under way, would you like to observe the launch doctor?"

The Doctor looked practically giddy, "Would I? Does an active galactic nucleus have superluminal jets?"

Not following the Doctors jokes, Mr. Arrow just frowned down at the Doctor, making him recoil sheepishly.

"I'll follow you."

"Mr. Hawkins' will stay here, in your charge Mr. Silver."

Mid sip of his stew, Silver coughed and spluttered at Mr. Arrow's statement, sending a wide eyed look towards Willow before turning back to the first mate.

"B-Beggin' yer pardon sir, but- -"

"Captains orders! See to it that the new cabin boy is kept busy."

'Cabin Boy?' Willow had to refrain from laughing at the rank they had given him, looking at his under-cut, rats' tail, gold earring and heavy leather jacket, he was obviously going for the 'Bad Boy' look, the title of cabin boy had obviously put a damper on his ego.

Both Jim and Silver turned toward Mr. Arrow, trying to argue but failing to complete their sentences, as Mr. Arrow made his way back to the deck ignoring their complaints.

Standing up, Willow dusted off her pants and stretched her back smirking at Silver. 'Ahh how sweet revenge is. That's what you get for sticking me down in the engine room!'

"Well then Silver, looks like you've got some company in the kitchen! I'll leave you two guys to get acquainted." She said trying to retain a snigger, "If you need me I'll be down in the engine room." Sending a look between a glare and a smirk at Silver, she make her way back onto the deck, she wasn't really going back to the engine room, she wanted to observe firsthand the launch of the R.L.S Legacy.

The now named 'cabin boy' glared after Willow as she made her way up the steps on deck then turned his attention back to Silver "so uhh, your daughter?" He said pointing a thumb the steps behind him.

Silver thought for a moment as he continued to chop up vegetables and putting them into different pots, "Ohh no lad, though a'spose she might as well be. The lass 'as be under my wing since she was a young girl."

"Huh, that's interesting, so I guess you travel a lot together?" Jim said as he walked around Silver, casually tossing around a fresh purp in his hands.

"Aye, ah 'spose ye could say we've sailed the length of the Ethrium and back." Silver said smiling fondly.

"Oh yeah, that's cool. Y'know, these purps are kind of like the ones back home, on Montressor, ya ever been there?" Jim asked as he lifted himself up to sit on one of the counters.

Silver gave a side glance to the boy; there was something in his tone that he didn't like he obviously knew far more than he should, and that didn't sit well with him.

"Ahh can't says I 'ave Jimbo."

"Huh, so uh, just before I left home, I met this old guy who was looking for a cyborg buddy of his."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, what was that old salamander's name...?" Jim pressed the purp against his forehead thoughtfully "Oh yeah, Bones. Billy Bones, ya ever heard of him?"

"Bones? Booooooooones? Mmhmm, t'aint ringin' any bells." Silver humoured him "Must 'ave been a different cyborg, there's a slew of cyborgs, roamin' this port."

Suddenly a call from up on deck interrupted their conversation.

"Ahh, off with ya lad, and watch the launch." Silver pushed Jim over to the stairs leading up to the deck. "There'll be plenty 'o work awaitin' for ya afterwards."

Silver eyed Jim as he made his way up to the deck, his suspicions had been correct, he knew far more than he should "Best keep a sharp eye on this one, aye Morphy? Keep him from strayin' into things he shouldn't. Go up and find Wills an' bring her back down. I need a word with her."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A.C: Please let me know if Silver was in character or not for the first part, I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to go about his speech.

Once again reviews and critiques are welcome. C:

Muer rasta!

Review replies:

Mila Ligaf:
Thank you very much for being the first to review my story, ah yes, I was slightly hesitant about writing this because I know the whole Jim/OC Re-Write has been done to death, but if I'm perfectly honest I don't know if I'll have them end up together or not. I hope that doesn't put you or anyone off reading this story, I'm just going to see how things pan out. C: Really? Thank you, that makes me very happy to hear! Ahah aye captain I'll try my best! *salute*

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Oh goodness, thank you so much C: It makes me happy to know you're enjoying it! I'll do my best to not disappoint!

Dha weles diwettha! x