"Authors note: Hey guys! Sorry about the cliffy, it was just a really good place to stop lol. I'll try not to have those too often but to be fair, we Are dealing with Nereus here. Thankyou to everyone who favorited, followed, and commented. It helps me not be too late with updating (^ . ^') Now, Onto The Story

Nereus stepped on the stable floors of the Arronax, taking a moment to adjust his sea-legs. "Ah, much better. Thankyou." He went to go sit on one of the chairs. "Now, the best place to search for answers, is at the beginning! Finn, would you mind bringing this old man some water? I'm afraid the salt has rather dried my throat." "Okay!" Finn ran off with Kaiko quickly after him. Nereus's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Will smiled ruefully "He has a, habit, of climbing things." "And jumping off of them." Ant muttered.

Meanwhile….

Kaiko gave Finn a suggestion to stay in the room while she grabbed Nereus some water. What she didn't take into account, was that he would findem something/em to climb in the kitchen. "Hey Mrs. Kaiko!" She looked up for a second, rolled her eyes, before quickly looking back up. "Finn!" He was laying down on the top shelf, between the cabinets and the ceiling. She had dropped the glass, shattering it all over the floor. With her hand cradling her head she let out a 'what can you do' sigh. "For now, I need you to Stay up there until I get this clean, think you can do that for me?" He nodded and gave her a salute. "Good man!" She smiled and gave him a thumbs up before bending down and carefully picking up the larger chunks of glass. Once they were all in the trash, she wrapped a towel around her hand and gently wiped up the smaller shards and water. After checking that she didn't miss anything, she threw the towel straight into the trash and dusted off her hands. "You're good to come down now Finn"

Nereus's eyes were wide as Will finished telling the story from earlier that morning. "Goodness Gracious! That is certainly an interesting problem to have! I don't suppose the Arronax would have some sort of jungle gym the boy could climb on?" Kaiko came in after Finn, handing the water to Nereus. "Ah! Thankyou!"

Will looked over at Kaiko. "Was everything okay?"

"Mm-Hmm; we have one less glass to pack up in case we ever move subs."

Will watched Finn run around, playing tag with Ant and Jeffery. "I'll have to get the story on that later."

Nereus finished drinking the water. "Speaking of stories, you might find this interesting." Finn and Ant exchanged a glance, agreeing to put off the game in favor of listening to what the old man had to say. "While Lamuria was still in it's prime, a woman of science became obsessed with the idea of immortality! She figured that certain frequencies had different effects on different creatures! Unfortunately, it also had a negative side effect when she tested it out on herself. While the machine worked and she grew years younger, a little more than half her age was reduced in mere seconds! Including her memories. The project was deemed a failure but in fear of accidentally causing someone else to loose half their memories, it was chucked down some old sea-cavern."

Anteus looked horrified. "You Mean There's No Way To Reverse It?!" Nereus laughed at the boy's antics. "That isn't to say that the effects don't wear off by themselves or that the machine just has to put the main component in backwards to undo what was done, but all of this is speculation. We would have to find where the machine is in order to test things out. We Guardians have been searching for this when we noticed recent, oddities, happening in marine life, but we have yet to pin point the exact location. I don't suppose-"

"That we could use our more modern technology to triangulate where the machine might be?" Kaiko asked with a smirk. Nereus grinned in return. "Precisely!" Will put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "I think we could do that. Would you be wanting to stay on board?" Nereus stood up with a slight shake of his head. "As much as I wish I could, I'm afraid I have to go back to searching in the archives to see how exactly they did return the scientist back to her proper age. I know it was done, but for the life of me I can't recall how it was done!" He started walking to the door. "Oh, and Will, do think about what I said for Finn? The boy could use the encouragement in the right direction." He smiled mysteriously and left.

"And back to the cryptic we know and don't trust." Fontain blew the hair out of her face. She watched her mom and dad talk quietly, most likely figuring where was the best place to start the triangulation. Ant was chatting excitedly to his pet fish, and Finn…wasn't there. Dang it! Who was supposed to be watching that kid this time? "Uh, I don't suppose anyone noticed where Finn ran off to?" Ant, Kaiko, and Will scanned the room with no luck. Well crap.

"Finn! Come out come out wherever you are!" Ant called throughout the different rooms. Fontain came out of the ducts. "No luck in there. But let's see, if I were a climbing kid, what would be the highest point I could climb to?" She walked slowly, thinking what was the highest point on the Arronax. Ant thought too, they had to surface for Nereus to come on board. Then nobody moved the ship back down so that meant …"He's on the roof!" They said at the same time. The corner of Fontain's mouth quirked upwards. "Race ya!" She started running to the roof access point. "Hey!" Ant ran after her. "No fair Fontaine!"

The kids ran past Will and Kaiko who shrugged. Siblings will be siblings after all. "I guess we should follow them." He said after they were two specks down the hall. "Yep. After you?" Will bowed "Lady's first." Kaiko laughed. "Such a gentleman."

Finn was there on the tallest ridge of the Arronax. "Hey guys! Look!" He pointed at the water where some dolphins were playing. They really couldn't be mad at him, but he can't just keep wandering off like that either. Will knelt down to the 5 year old. "While the dolphins are pretty, I think we need a new rule." Finn cocked his head to the side, curious as to what it was and why. "How come?" Will sat down, watching the dolphins along with his family. "Well, when we can't find you or know where your at, it gives us a scare. Dolphins are kind of like people in that sense. We stick together and help protect eachother. We can't exactly protect our pod, our family, if we don't know where one of us is at." Finn gave it as much thought as a 5 year old could before nodding. "Okay. For now on I'll tell you where I'm going?" He asked

"Will smiled, pulling him in a loose side-hug. "It doesn't have to be me, it can be Kaiko or even Fontain. Just, be sure to tell someone, okay?" Finn grinned as one of the dolphins did a summersault. "Okay!"