Interning on the Aronnax

Finn Makes a Friend

A/N: Not to be dramatic, but this is the point of no return! I start foreshadowing in this chapter for things way out in season two! Phew! This is either a really good idea, or a really bad one. ;P

That being said, the seahorse episode was hard to rework with Finn included because he's not doing much, so I skim the episode content, then move onto the important stuff.

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Half an hour later, Fontaine stared out the bridge's main view port. Will and Ant, having reconciled, huddled over Ant's tablet. Kaiko continued to study the brief flashes of video of the strange creature.

Fontaine never did figure out what had upset Finn. After letting himself be hugged and just shaking for maybe five minutes, Finn had dropped into his old, fake-smile habits. He had clearly wanted to be alone -probably embarrassed- so Fontaine had hesitantly left him.

She wondered what could have spooked Finn so badly. Since the incident with the squid, Fontaine had realized that she wasn't just searching for a way to get Finn accepted on the Aronnax. She also needed to ensure that Finn felt safe, which wouldn't be easy if Finn wouldn't tell her what was upsetting to him.

"Fontaine?"

Fontaine startled back to the present. She wondered how long Kaiko had been staring at her.

"Yeah, Mum?" Fontaine said.

"Did you hear what Ant said?"

"Uh..." Fontaine turned to see her brother looking very pleased with himself. "No."

"As I said before, we're going to prove to the world that this creature needs to be protected the same way Devil Daniels is!"

Fontaine wondered if she was missing something. "So you want to record us hunting the creature with cheesy music and weird edits?"

"No," Ant said, rolling his eyes. "We'll just make a video explaining that the creature is innocent and needs to be protected!"

"That's... a good idea, actually," Fontaine said. She wished she'd thought of it...

"I know it is," Ant said proudly. "Let me just grab a camera, and we'll be ready!"

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Ant's plan was great in theory. In reality...

Okay, so it wasn't like anyone could plan the creature -which suddenly looked so much bigger- swimming right past the Aronnax. Or it nudging the Aronnax around, while all the Nektons panicked. On live camera.

The camera being left running during the whole fiasco could have been helped, but Fontaine had been kind of distracted.

But it all turned out alright. Devil Daniels was so much of a show-off, he was easy to track down. The Aronnax had arrived just in time to save the creature from Daniels' net.

The second accidental recording ended much better, even if everyone had thought that the giant sea-horse was going to hurt Daniels. And since Daniels wrapped up his episode with admitting that the creature needed to be protected, Fontaine considered the day a win.

Almost. There was just one more thing to do, and the day would be perfect.

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Fontaine waited until midnight before making her move. She grabbed her backpack, which was sitting ready by her door, then hopped into the ducts.

Fontaine's first destination was the store room of clothing. She searched until she found what she needed, which she shoved into her pack, then returned to the ducts.