Melody woke with a start. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

The air felt thick and hot, and she could smell the distinctive scent of gunpowder. She tumbled out of her bed and peeked out the cabin door.

Smoke filled the hallway, and the cries of frantic crewmembers could be heard from above. Suddenly her door swung open, startling her, and Jim reached in to grab her hand.

"We have to go - now!" he said urgently.

"What's going on??" she padded along after him in her bare feet.

"We're under attack. Ironbeard tracked us down," he responded rather calmly, given the circumstances.

Melody's heart dropped into her stomach. So the pirates had finally caught up with them. She knew her father had hired only the bravest and strongest men to work on the Rising Tide, but she wasn't sure how well they would fare in battle against space pirates. It seemed that the odds were against them. But then, they did have one thing that the pirates didn't have...

"Jim, I need to go up to the deck!" Melody stopped and started pulling him the other way.

"Are you crazy? That's where the pirates are!" he tugged her back down their original path.

"No! I have to do something!" she wrenched her hand free of his grip and took off down the hallway. The ship was rocking back and forth from the blasts of cannon fire, and she was thrown to the floor several times, but she immediately got back up each time and ran as fast as she could. She could faintly hear Jim's cries for her to stop, but she ignored them.

Bursting onto the open deck, Melody was hit with a wave of intense heat. The ship was completely engulfed in flames, and all she could make out were the silhouettes of crew members fighting strange, ghastly looking creatures. Her heart was pounding. She needed to focus on what she could do. The fire needed to be put out - she could help with that.

She approached the nearest railing and looked out at the turbulent sea. She closed her eyes and stretched out her arms, feeling the strength of the ocean as she connected to it. She lifted her arms high above her head, and in response, the waves rose high above the ship. With a sweeping motion of her arms, she commanded the waves to wash over the deck with a controlled force, so as not to obliterate the entire structure. To her relief, the flames quickly fizzled out, leaving a foggy mist across the deck.

Lowering her arms, she looked around to see if anyone was hurt. However, no one was to be seen anywhere! No sailors, no pirates...where did everyone go?

"Melody!" she heard Jim in the distance. She raced towards the sound of his voice, seemingly coming from the helm of the ship. She thought she could make out the shape of Captain Howell through the swirling fog. She stopped suddenly, frozen to the ground at what she saw when she got nearer.

A looming silhouette of someone wearing a captain's clothing was indeed there, but it was not Captain Howell. She knew instantly that it must be Ironbeard. As the mist cleared around them, her breath caught in her throat as she saw that Ironbeard had captured Jim, holding him by the neck in his iron grip. Jim was struggling, but getting weaker by the second as his air supply was cut off.

"Give me the stone, child," a menacing voice came from the hulking metal form as it stretched its other hand out.

"But I can't!" she tried to explain.

"Oh yes you can, you will give it to me, or else he dies."

"No, you don't understand! I swallowed it - it's inside of me! Please, don't hurt him!" she pleaded with the alien.

"You what? Well, that's a minor inconvenience..." he sneered at her as he dropped Jim to the floor, barely conscious.

The next thing she knew, she was trapped in his grip. She struggled against his claw-like hand around her neck as he lifted her into the air. His eyes looked so cold, despite the fire that blazed within them. He took his sword and thrust it through her chest. She would have cried out in anguish if she could have, but his grip on her neck was too tight. She nearly fainted as he reached into her chest and pulled out the Sea Stone, pulsing with blue energy.

His iron jaw almost seemed to smile as he dropped her carelessly to the floor, next to Jim, whose eyes were wide in shock as he lay there unable to help her. They reached out to each other and clasped their hands together weakly, gazing into each other's eyes.

"Jim...I'm so sorry...I couldn't stop him...couldn't save you..." her eyes were drifting closed as she quickly succumbed to darkness.

"Mel...wake up..." his voice was raspy and weak.

"Melody..."

"Wake up!"

Melody sat bolt upright in her bed, gasping for air and clutching her chest. Her heart was racing and her breathing was erratic. She looked around at her cabin, confused and disoriented. The air smelled like sea salt, no trace of smoke or fire.

She suddenly realized that Jim was standing over her, looking extremely worried.

"Jim!!" she flung herself at him and wrapped him tightly in her arms. "You're okay! And the crew?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, settle down! What are you talking about?" he put his hands on her shoulders, attempting to calm her down. "Just breathe for a second - you're hyperventilating!"

Still confused, she just stared at him in disbelief.

"We were attacked by Ironbeard's crew! He hurt you, he took the stone from me...I..." Melody trailed off as she pulled away from Jim and stared at her chest. No scars, no pain, her clothing was still in one piece.

"I think you had a really bad nightmare, everyone's fine, there was no attack...we're fine," he reassured her.

"But it was so real! I even saw Ironbeard!" she argued. "It was so real..." she held her head in her hands and stared at blankets, the visions from her nightmare still raw and alive in her mind.

"Hey, it's okay. Just relax," he sat down next to her and held her close, softly rubbing her shoulders to console her. "None of it was real, you're safe."

She squeezed her eyes shut as tears trickled down her cheeks.

"No, no one is safe, not around me."

"Land ho!" the sailor in the crow's nest shouted down to the captain. Henley stood at the wheel and directed the ship towards the docks of Arlington. Jim quietly appeared at his side.

"Hawkins, please alert the princess that we shall be unboarding within the hour."

"Yes sir, she's still asleep, but I'll wake her."

"It's nearly noon! That's not like her," Henley remarked.

"She had a rather distressing nightmare, sir. I don't believe she's gotten much sleep."

"Very well, you may wait until she awakes. There is no rush."

"As you wish, sir," Jim saluted and headed back below deck.

Melody awoke to the smell of coffee and something sweet. She glanced over at the side table by her bed and saw a tray with a silver mug and a plate with some sort of pastry on it. She stretched lazily and pulled herself up to a sitting position so as to enjoy her breakfast.

Though her nightmare seemed like a distant memory, and the events thereafter were a bit hazy, the aching in her chest had not left her. It wasn't painful, but it was like a steady pulse, separate from her own beating heart, almost as if the Stone itself was alive within her.

What was the meaning of her nightmare? Was the Stone trying to warn her somehow? She wasn't sure exactly, but she did know one thing: she would not let it come true.

Mr Scroop was livid. He and his small crew had followed Silver's ship for quite some distance, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. When they had overtaken the small ship, and he boarded the vessel, he could not believe his eyes.

Completely empty.

What a fool they had made out of him! He should have known Silver wouldn't make it this easy. He cursed his old captain and reluctantly contacted his new one.

"You had better have some good news, Mr Scroop," Ironbeard's voice crackled over the holo-transmitter.

"I'm sorry Captain, but they have tricked us! The ship was a decoy," he braced himself for Ironbeard's reaction.

"You fool! Remind me again why I decided to save your sorry skin from drifting off into the etherium?"

"Sir, we can still find them! There might be a way to manually trigger the ship's recall function and follow it right back to Silver, " Mr Scroop offered.

"Very well, but I also want you to make a pit stop in that pitiful kingdom that the good Captain Howell calls his home base. I want to have some insurance in case your plan doesn't work. That is all," Ironbeard commanded before signing off.

A/N: For anyone who is unaware, the character of Ironbeard was taken from the plans for Treasure Planet 2, which sadly never reached production. I did read, however, that Willem Dafoe was in consideration for the voice of Ironbeard. So that's whose voice I had in mind while writing Ironbeard's lines. Also, thank you for sticking with the story and I promise to update as often as I can, I will not leave it incompleted! Next chapter, we will finally meet the Duke of Arlington! Stay tuned :)