Hello, lovelies!

I'm so happy to be able to give you all an update! How are you all? Sorry that this chapter is pretty dark and angsty again but hopefully it's going to start cheering up a bit soon! I apologise if there are many errors in this chapter, I'll be honest, I did much of the editing while I was at quite an important social event and using fanfiction as a means to avoid some of it XD. Regardless:

I hope you enjoy!

Movement of the clam once again slowed, although not to a complete halt this time, just a slower pace and the silence continued for an uncomfortable, extortionate length of time before anyone said anything.

Kaiko was the one to break the silence, asking, "How much air does she have left?" she sounded worried. And that was enough to invoke panic of unimaginable proportions in everyone else. Kaiko Nekton did not scare easily. Yet, right now she sounded worried. Very worried.

Ant looked to Maddie for an answer but the pirate just shook her head, still struggling for oxygen.

"Uh, not much, her tank's nearly empty," Ant replied, before adding in a lower volume, "I'd say she's got maybe a few minutes max, but even that's pushing it, Mum, I think we're almost out of time,"

"I- can- still hear," Maddie said breathlessly, rolling her eyes a little, "I- know, we're done-"

"No, we'll be fine, we'll figure it out," Ant told her, sounding definite although the slight quiver in his voice ruined the illusion of certainty, "We'll be able to figure out a way to get us out, right, Mum?" he spoke into his comm, hoping for a response which would be reassuring enough to Maddie.

"We're not too far from the Aronnax now, we should be able to get there in the next few minutes, then we'll be able to get out of the way of the volcano," came Kaiko's reply although she still sounded fairly wary.

"Yeah but-" Finn started.

"The volcano ain't the one stoppin' 'er from breathin' is it? We 'ave to ger 'er out!" Hammerhead's bellowing drowned out his son's words as his angry words were loudly broadcast across the comm link.

"We understand that Hammerhead, but there's nothing we can do to help with that right now and there's a much higher chance of us all getting out of here safely if we get the clam back to the Aronnax first," Kaiko told the pirate, still remarkably calm.

She looked down at the Rover and Hammerhead supporting the clam from below and was slightly confused and surprised to see the Rover appeared to be disconnected from the comm link and the two teens inside seemed to be having a private conversation of some sort.

Hammerhead drew in a deep breath and looked as though he were about to furiously say something before Will cut in.

"I know that you're worried about your daughter, Hammerhead, but Kaiko's right, the sooner we get the clam to safety, the higher the chance everyone will get out of this safely," Will said, embellishing his words with a meaningful look in Hammerhead's direction as he spoke.

"Wait, Mum, I might have a solution, at least for a little while," Ant's voice sounded over the comms, "It could be pretty risky, though," he added as a hesitant afterthought.

Kaiko and Will shared an anxious glance at hearing Ant's words.

"How risky? And risky for who, Antaeus?" Kaiko asked sceptically, and obviously nervous for her son.

"Hey, Pirate Boy, you doing okay?" Fontaine asked, turning to the pirate teen beside her, he'd gone oddly silent since Madeline's predicament had been announced, just staring off into blank nothingness, his eyes had dulled and he seemed almost unresponsive to his surroundings. She muted the comms, figuring the constant running commentary on the mortal peril their siblings were in probably wasn't helping Finn with whatever state he was in, and then turned in her seat to fully face him.

"Finn!" She tried again after another long moment of silence.

"Huh?" Finn mumbled, confused as he was jerked out of his daze by Fontaine.

"Are you okay?" She repeated, looking him dead in the eye.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He breathed out, mumbling under his breath and avoiding eye contact, shuffling back in his seat slightly to sit up properly.

"Yeah, right, what's up, Pirate Boy?" She asked, still fixing him with intense eye contact and giving him her full attention.

"Well... what if we can't get her out? Even if we do manage to outrun the volcano, what if we can't get her out and she won't be able to breathe and then-" Finn's voice got quicker and more panicked as his words went on until Fontaine had finally had enough - she didn't need him hyperventilating on her with everything else they already had going on - and cut him off.

"She'll be fine," She interrupted, speaking over him to halt his spiralling panic, "Finn, the sooner we get to the Aronnax, the sooner we can work on helping your sister, let's focus on this for now and then we can put all our efforts onto Madeline, okay?" She cautiously laid a hand on his shoulder, it felt odd being this close with the pirate boy.

Finn still looked panicked and entirely doubtful of Fontaine's words but he nodded along with what she said.

"She'll be fine," Fontaine repeated before reconnecting the comm links to resume the conversation with the rest of the rescue team.

As she did, the first thing she heard was her mum's voice saying:

"No! Absolutely not, Antaeus, it's too dangerous!"

Fontaine and Finn's eye's met: her green eyes meeting his terrified blue ones.

Great, Fontaine thought, what had Ant gone and done now?

"Wait, hang on, what's happening?" she asked.

I hope you enjoyed! I'm pretty sure we're definitely nearing the end now, I hope you're liking it. I'm very sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than what I usually aim for but here felt like a good point to stop, both for the plot and for the dramatic cliff hanger. XD

Also, I need some suggestions. I'm currently writing a pretty long AU fic (and I've been writing it for quite a few months now because I want to have written as much of it as possible before starting to post to make sure I can keep on top of updating schedules) and although I have the main overall plot mostly fleshed out, I desperately need some suggestion of slightly smaller sort of sub-plots and small story arcs. So, if anyone has any suggestions of plot to do with the Nektons, Finn and Madeline, and really any other characters you want to add in, they'd be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking they should probably be mostly sort of fluff however, they can definitely include angst and/or hurt/comfort too and overall I'd just love to hear your ideas. Thank you so much for reading!

Until next time! :D