Author's Note:

Aww… it's the final chapter already?

Chapter 33: Tying Up The Loose Ends

Ariah lightly leapt across the docks, untying most of the riggings for the longboat. Only three ropes remained tied; the two that would lower the longboat into the Etherium and one last rope on the longboat's starboard side, of which her father was untying. Ariah tossed the two duffel bags of effects, which she had rapidly collected on their short stop by the crew's quarters, into the bottom of the longboat beside her father's.

"Morphy, we gotta make tracks…" Silver sighed as the pink transformer chirruped sharply, as if scolding the two pirates. "I know." The old cyborg glanced up at his daughter who looked away and returned to work. "Listen… Ariah." Silver started.

"It's only logical to miss him." Ariah interjected. She shook her head and sighed. "But I know that I have to stay with you, Dad." The young woman tightened the longboat's position, so it wouldn't leave without them, and stepped from the longboat, back onto the dock beside her father. "Maybe someday it'll all work out." She smiled weakly.

Silver sighed and suddenly felt a minute prodding in one of the chest pockets of his lengthy coat. He extracted a crumpled bit of scrap paper and quickly examined it.

'Thanks' was all that was written on the tiny piece of paper, in handwriting that was undoubtedly Jim's own. Wrapped in the paper was the tip of a fountain pen, slightly stained with black ink.

"Seems like Jimbo's left a piece of him with us…" Silver handed the piece of paper and the tip of the fountain pen to his eighteen-year-old daughter. "So we won't lose our memories of him." He half-chuckled.

Ariah looked at the paper and smiled. Then she examined the simplistic tip of the fountain pen with the same bittersweet smile. Ariah gently rolled up the piece of paper and fitted it into the tip of the fountain pen. She carefully placed the treasures somewhere where they wouldn't damage heavily and then got back to work.

There was a clomping of boots on the stairs leading down to the dock house, but the two pirates were too self-absorbed in their escape to pay attention.

"You never quit, do you?" Jim chuckled lightly; leaning against the doorframe into the dock house, there was a cocky grin on his face as he looked at the two pirates.

"Oh! Jimbo…" Silver chuckled uneasily. "We were merely checkin' teh make sure our last longboat was safe an' secured." He tied a clumsy knot with the rope he was holding.

"Mmm…" The young man rubbed his chin, concealing a bit of his smirk. "Well…"

Jim pondered, walking up to the longboat. He undid the knot with a short pull and quickly tied the boat properly.

"That should hold it." He looked up at the cyborg.

Silver chuckled proudly. "I taught yeh too well." He nudged Jim's shoulder friendlily.

Jim gave the two pirates a suspicious glance, particularly from the three bags already stored in the bow of the longboat beside Ariah.

"If yeh don't mind Jimbo, we'd just as soon avoid prison; Little Morphy here." Silver explained as Morph giggled. "He's a free spirit." Morph zoomed around Silver's shoulders. "Bein' locked in a cage…" The older pirate made his point by surrounding his mechanical fingers around Morph. "It'd break his heart…" Morph chirped sadly.

"Hey!" Ariah interjected. "What about me?" She hollered.

The old cyborg huffed. "Ariah, yeh are stuck in the middle of bein' exactly like yer mother an' me when we were pirates together..." Silver rolled his eyes as if he were stating the obvious. "Yeh'd figure somethin' out." He shrugged as-a-matter-of-factly.

Ariah groaned hopelessly. "Yeah, and I'd probably have to save you too." She scowled, sitting on the gunnels of the longboat with folded arms over her red vested chest.

The young woman was only slightly surprised at discovering that her mother was once a pirate in years past. How else could Silver have met her mother?

Jim chuckled lightly at the argumentative pirates and then shrugged.

"I- I wasn't coming down here, to stop you." He looked at them and smiled sadly. "I just wanted a chance to say good bye."

Jim walked the length of the dock and pulled the lever to open the hatch at the tall ship's hull for their lone longboat. Ariah weakly smiled back at him.

Silver noticed the bittersweet look between the two love-struck teenagers. He cleared his throat to break the tension.

"What say yeh ship out with us, lad?" John Silver offered cheerfully, "We three; Silver, Hawkins and Clarke…" The pirate raised his hands as if the words were pasted on an imaginary billboard.

Morph rapidly zoomed over to Jim and changed into a three-pointed first mate hat, plopping himself lightly onto Jim's brunette head.

"Full of ourselves…" His eyes glinted thoughtfully. "…An' no ties teh anyone."

Jim smirked and looked up at Morph's visible eyes on the hat. "You know." Jim lightly picked up Morph from his head. "When I first got on this ship, I would've taken up you're offer in a second…"

He tickled Morph until the tiny transformer shifted back into his normal, gelatinous form.

"But, uh, I met this old cyborg," Jim glanced at his feet. "And he taught me that I could chart my own course."

The young man cleared his throat and narrowed his pale blue eyes determinedly.

"And that's what I'm going to do."

Silver smiled broadly, recognizing his own words of wisdom. "An' what do yeh see off that bow of yer's?" John Silver asked experimentally.

"A future…" Jim smiled back.

Silver chuckled. "Why… look at yeh." He smiled proudly, looking over the young man, whose body was backlit by the rising stars. "Glowin' like a solar fire." The pirate sniffed slightly. "Yeh are somethin' special, Jim." Silver stated. "Yeh are gonna rattle the stars, yeh are…" Silver opened his arms and Jim hugged him tightly around the middle.

Ariah walked up beside the two men. She beamed at them happily.

Silver coughed self-consciously, still mulishly trying to avoid his softer side. "Got a bit of grease in this cyborg eye of mine…" He stated as an excuse for his real tears.

Jim turned away to wipe away his own tears. Ariah giggled at the men's identical stubbornness. Breaking the warm, fuzzy moment was Morph. The pink transformer cried loudly until he dissolved into a small puddle of tears.

"Aww it's okay, Morph…" Jim cupped his hands around the transformer's puddle. "I'll see you around." The young man reassured. His thumbs caressed the sobbing pink blob.

"See you around…" Morph sorrowfully mimicked Jim's voice with a sad chirrup. The blob reluctantly changed back into his normal self, zooming back to Silver's shoulder.

"Morphy." Silver said in his commanding whisper. "I've got a job for yeh."

The tiny, pink transformer listened intently.

"I need yeh teh keep an eye, on this 'ere, pup." He glanced at Jim and smirked.

Jim looked at Silver in amazement.

"Will yeh do me that little favour?" Silver challenged.

"Aye-aye Captain..." Morph squeaked obediently. The transformer nuzzled Silver's cheek. Silver chuckled and motioned at Morph to go to Jim.

Morph zoomed over and licked Jim happily, like a well-trained pet. Silver lowered himself into the longboat with his hands on the first rigging.

"Yeh comin', darling?" Silver chuckled to his daughter. "Or are yeh going teh stay 'ere with Jimbo?"

Ariah scoffed. "I told you before, Dad." She shook her head in disbelief. "You're not getting rid of me that quickly..."

The young woman turned to face Jim. There were tiny tears forming on the rims of her copper-brown eyes. She tried to clear her throat nonchalantly before Jim interrupted her.

"Aw… Ariah." Jim smiled to reassure her.

"I…" Ariah sniffled. "I never did like good byes." Ariah smiled weakly and wiped the tears from her face.

Jim wrapped his arms around Ariah and chuckled a bit. "I'll miss you, Ariah." He admitted, holding the young pirate closely.

"I'll miss you too, Jim." Ariah hugged Jim back tightly. She buried her face against his shoulder and let a few tears slip from her copper-brown eyes.

The couple stood in each other's arms; soaking up their last moment together on this ship.

Silver fingered the rope that would lower him into the Etherium. He could just simply go, right now, and let his daughter have a future with the man she loved.

But the old pirate had a feeling that Ariah needed him to be with her to be truly happy, and as long as he was what he was… that kind of future wasn't ready for her.

Slowly, Ariah raised her head and unwrapped herself from Jim's arms.

Jim looked up. "I'm giving this back to you." He held out Ariah's necklace. "For luck."

Ariah folded Jim's fingers over the pendant in his palm. "Keep it." She smiled. "You can give it back to me in person, when we see each other again."

"We will see each other again…" Jim looked up. "Won't we?"

"You can bet on it." Ariah stated with a smile. "I mean…" She shrugged nonchalantly. "I need to come back sometime to work on that pesky invention of mine… with you." Ariah giggled and gave Jim a quick kiss on his cheek.

The young pirate hopped down beside her father and smirked up to Jim.

"Now, don't you go and get married without me, Jim Hawkins..." Ariah chided playfully.

"Well it's not like I can have an entire future without you, Ariah Clarke." Jim stated with a smirk. "You've got to come back sometime to take up Captain Amelia's offer for you."

"Really…" Ariah tapped her chin thoughtfully. "For the Interstellar Academy?"

Jim nodded.

"Well…" Ariah brooded the matter over in her head and then shrugged. "Maybe…" She seemed hesitant about the thought of more years in school.

Jim's eyes brightened. "Head mechanic and programmer, Miss Ariah Clarke." Jim imitated Silver's enthusiastic billboard imagery. "Finest inventor in the cosmos."

Ariah and Silver simultaneously chuckled at the thought.

Jim casually leaned against the davits supporting the longboat with a sly smile. "Not that you need a degree in mechanics and engineering to be the finest." He winked.

Ariah giggled. "Well, I've got to come back any way..." She cleared her throat. "I want to see what your mother thinks of me as a daughter-in-law."

Jim laughed aloud thinking of the many possible reactions that his mother could have to him marrying a pirate. "She'll be… surprised." He shook his head.

"Oh. That reminds me…" Silver pulled out a handful of treasure from an outer pocket of his coat and tossed it lightly into Jim's hands. "This is for yer dear mother, teh rebuild that inn of hers."

Ariah's eyes widened as she glared at her father. "You destroyed his mother's inn?"

"Well… it was the only way teh get Jimbo on a voyage, yeh see…" Silver explained.

Jim laughed at the arguing father and daughter, pocketing the treasure. "Take care of yourselves…"

The young man lightly touched Ariah's point of contact with his carefree grin plastered on his face as the two pirates lowered the longboat below him.

"You batty scallywags." He added with a chuckle.

Morph chirped loudly in farewell. Jim held Ariah's simplistically designed necklace in his free hand.

"Why Jimbo." Silver laughed heartily as Ariah opened the tiny solar sail and fired up the longboat's engine. "There's nary a moment when we haven't taken care of ourselves…"

He waved good-bye to the cabin boy as Ariah shifted the longboat into drive. She looked up one last time and smiled warmly.

"I love you, Ariah." Jim smiled.

"I love you too, Jim." Ariah stated.

The young woman then punched the throttle to the longboat's engine, and blasting herself and her father into the depths of the everlasting Etherium.

Captain Amelia and Doctor Doppler then rushed into the dock house, moments after the two pirates disappeared from sight.

"Jim, what happened?" Delbert enquired, breathless from running through the lower decks. "Are you hurt?"

Jim shook his head, still leaning against the wooden davit that had held up Ariah and Silver's longboat. He looked over the necklace Ariah had given to him, his mind preoccupied by their parting.

"What happened to Miss. Clarke and Mister Silver?" Captain Amelia raised an eyebrow.

Jim smiled faintly, pocketing the necklace, his hand brushing against the treasure that Silver had given to him. "I let them go."

"Why?" The two hybrids exclaimed.

Jim shrugged simply and sighed. "Felt like something I should do."

"Oh bother." Captain Amelia cursed. "I was so hoping to get a programmer of Miss. Clarke's stature into the Academy." She frowned. "She had such a promising future."

Jim chuckled, easing a hand through his bangs. "It's strange what people will do, for the sake of family ties."

The two hybrids looked at him with the exact blank expression, both confused at this sudden rush of information.

Jim laughed aloud. "Maybe I should fill you two in on some things." He offered.

"That would be most helpful, Mister Hawkins." Captain Amelia stated.

Jim gave the opened hatch one last glance –spotting the minute glint of the longboat on the vast horizon- before pulling the lever and escorting Captain Amelia and Doctor Delbert Doppler back to the main deck.

This was the last of the two pirates and best friends -Ariah Clarke and John Silver- that James Hawkins would see for a long time…

But the story of their reunion, an explanation of why there was three duffel bags between the two pirates -when the extra was neither their effects nor treasures-, and the strange yet extraordinary adventures all of them were challenged with… is another tale.

Author's Note:

(Sighs) The story's finale… Thank you SO much to Whisperwings for loyally betaing!

It's been fun, so you guys keep rocking, and pop by my profile and check out some exciting news (if you haven't already).

MG#6