...Where is this place? It's so dark. I can't feel, I can't see, I can't hear, I can't...I just can't. Wait, why am I here? Who am I? What am I?"

"Hey."

What was that?

"Heeeyyy."

It's louder now.

"HEY!"

The Octoling's eyes snapped open at the sudden yell, seeing a figure standing above them with their foot held back, only to quickly drop it when they saw them awaken "Took you long enough."

She looked down at herself, clad in nothing but cut up biker leathers, her sea green hair dangling down her shoulders. She looked up to the person hidden in shadows by the light behind them, eyebrow raised "I'm surprised you're even alive," they looked around "clearly you got lucky."

The instant the person finished those words a horrible stench filled the Octoling's nostrils, if she knew the word to describe it she would use it.

"Where'd he go?" The shadowy person questioned her.

The Octoling blinked "What?"

"Where. Did. He. Go?" They repeated sternly "The man who slaughtered everyone on this station."

The answer to that question was something the Octoling wished they knew. They closed their eyes, trying to think back to anything before their awakening. Nothing. All they knew was the darkness.

The person sighed "I'll take that as a no, then."

The Octoling opened their eyes and looked around, where ever they were was painted red with blood, body parts and corpses littered about the place "Where…?" They quietly muttered to themselves, a hand tracing along the dirty tiled floor.

The shadowed person crossed their arms, loudly groaning "Whaddya mean "Where?", you're an Octoling, you should know where we are!"

The Octoling didn't answer, the only noise being the whirring of fans around the place they were, taking in the details of the place. She couldn't quite describe what it was, but the word station seemed to work, even if she didn't know what the word meant.

"Hang on," the person told them "look at me real quick."

The Octoling looked up at them, the light behind them fading away to reveal their details. Messy black hair, a red jacket and black scarf with cargo trousers and brown boots, small bits of blue armour all over their clothes with some pieces having an odd O-like symbol on them. They took a good look at the Octoling, tapping their foot "You ain't one of them."

"What?" The Octoling tilted her head.

"You're not green."

The Octoling looked at their arm, observing their pale skin. The only hint of green she saw was in her tentacles, at least the parts she could see. The sleeve of her jacket slipped down to reveal a word engraved into her flesh, the wound still fresh. The person noticed that, looking down at it "Subject D..." He muttered "Hmm, you know what that means?"

The Octoling shook their head.

The man took a bag off their back and unzipped it "Thank god she gave me this..." He ruffled around inside it before pulling out a handheld mirror "Here, look at this." He handed it to the Octoling, who held it up to their face. Her purple eyes shined in the light that seeped down to them, scar-like markings adorned her face around her eyes "You know who that is?"

The Octoling, once again, shook her head.

That man blinked, eyebrow raised as he lightly turned his head "You don't even know that's what you look like?"

The Octoling gave the same response as before, pointing to her hair and skin "Only this."

The man looked away for a second or two, muttering something to himself under his breath "Name?" He questioned as he quickly turned his head back to her.

"I..." The Octoling looked down, scratching her shoulder "I don't know."

"Hmm..." The man hummed, taking the mirror back and putting it in the bag "First smokes now a random Octoling...ugh, why do I always have to be the one to name things?" His sky blue eyes made contact with the Octoling's, before immediately breaking away to look at the scarred flesh on her arm "Delta."

"W-What?" Delta spluttered back.

They rolled their eyes once more "I'm calling you Delta. That Subject D thing has to mean something."

Delta's legs shook as she finally kicked them into action "You…?" She almost silently asked as she got onto her own two feet, realizing the left side of her clothing was stained in the red that had been painted everywhere.

"Marcus." Marcus nodded "I'm required by the oath I took to tell you I'm an agent of Overwatch. Of course, the last time they had any activity was 12,000 years ago..."

Not knowing a word of what Marcus was saying, Delta just went along with it "What's going on?"

Marcus shrugged, adjusting his bag "Dunno, little girl." He turned around, revealing the back of his jacket was covered in a shining dragon pattern "I can tell you what I do know, though – we're in some kinda Subway system, from the locals I've heard it's called the Metro. I've got some friends deeper in trying to find a way out, dunno how we even wound up here. Of course, there's also the fact that..."He looked over to the opposite end of one of the tracks in the station, a stack of bodies that had been split clean in two was sitting there, one Octoling's eyes staring right at him; for a moment he could've sworn he saw it move "there's something in here with us."

Delta silently nodded, the last detail sending a shiver down her spine...was that what was responsible for the massacre here?

Marcus shot Delta an icy glare "Don't just stand there! Loot the corpses, maybe they'll have a weapon for you to use should we get jumped, there's more than one shithead in here."

Delta nodded, instinctively saluting.

"And don't salute me, I was just a soldier, not Commander Morrison!" A loud groan came from within the tunnels, causing Marcus to turn his head around and scream "HEY! HEY! I'M TALKIN' HERE!"

Delta dropped her arm and ran off to find...whatever a weapon was. She came up to a lone Octoling among the death, seeing they were holding something scary looking. Delta lightly took it from their sick, green, pustule-covered hand. It was heavy, but still light enough for Delta to hold...even if she felt like she wasn't using it right.

The Octoling's hand suddenly shot out and grabbed Delta's ankle, making her scream out. The Octoling looked up at her, their eyes shimmering with a liquid Delta didn't know "Save...your...self..." They wheezed, their voice warped and coarse, before their grip loosened to nothing, arm slumping down to the stained marble floor.

Delta groaned as she slowly stepped away from the corpse, quickly sprinting back to Marcus. He shifted his gaze to her, huffing "Alright, let's see what you got."

Delta handed him the weapon, Marcus carefully examining it "Well, beginner's luck, I've heard getting a genuine rifle in the Octarian army is difficult."

"I don't understand." Delta's words made Marcus roll his eyes yet again, handing her back the weapon.

"Most of the time you'll find weapons powered by ink and not traditional weaponry, as in, using bullets and the like. Seems whoever you got this from was a good shot, that sniper rifle looks powerful."

Delta nodded, mildly understanding what Marcus was saying. A horn then screeched through the station as a blinding light emerged from the tunnel, the sound of metal against metal making Delta's ears fold up as a long silver rectangle screamed out of the darkness, hissing as it finally came to a stop "Good timing." Was Marcus' reply as the doors hissed open. A few odd-looking creatures emerged from within, none of which Delta could name. But they all looked at her with odd glares and stares, Delta cowering under the looks "C'mon, kid." Marcus called for her as he boarded the...thing, Delta running in after him.

After a few minutes the doors hissed shut and the metal being took off back into the darkness. Marcus didn't say anything, only occasionally looking around "Where is he…?" He grumbled, tapping his fingers against the metal handles of the seat.

"What am I?" That question from Delta caught Marcus off guard. He looked at the young girl, seeing her young eyes with a light of innocence that reminded him of someone special. He sighed, shaking his head "An Octoling. That's all I know."

Delta sighed dejectedly, going back to just staring at the dark metal floor. Questions charged through her head like a bullet through glass, who was she? Why was she here? Where did she come from? It all made no sense to her.

"Hey, scruffy!" A voice suddenly echoed out through the chamber, Marcus standing up from his seat as the voice rang through the chamber "You got the stuff!?"

Marcus nodded, dropping the bag onto the floor "It's in there, all the stuff you need to keep this thing from falling apart."

"Knew I could count on you." The owner of the voice, an odd spiky blue thing with a hat on sounded very chuffed as he looked into the bag "Not bad, for an ancient relic."

Marcus sighed, shaking his head "At least I can actually get a job done, unlike the rest of the guys stuck down here."

The spiky blue thing grumbled as he pulled out a collection of gears "Ah, they don't train Octolings like they used to-" He then took notice of Delta, staring ahead of herself out into the dark tunnels, lightly running her finger up and down the scope of her rifle "Who's that?" One of his spikes extended out, curving to make a gesture like he was pointing at Delta.

Marcus looked over his shoulder at the young Octoling "Her? She's Delta. Well, that's not her name, she doesn't know it, it's what I named her-"

"Wow first you named your daughter after a dead guy and now you're just throwing the greek alphabet around?" The blue thing chuckled to himself.

"Can it, Cumber." Marcus snarled at his pal "Or you're going to be jelly on the rails."

C.Q Cumber smacked Marcus in the foot, sending him onto the floor with a loud KANG "Respect your elders, kiddo."

Delta's eyes shot over when she heard Marcus fall, yet remained in her seat with an awkward look on her face. Getting back up, Marcus shot C.Q Cumber an icy glare, which the blue slime-like conductor easily ignored as he slithered up to Delta, what was presumably his face turning up to look at her "Ain't seen you around these parts before."

Marcus wiped some dirt off his jacket "Yeah no shit, Sherlock, she wasn't in that station yesterday and then when I got there today, there she was. Can't remember anything, not even how she got there."

"I see..." C.Q Cumber nodded, looking Delta up and down "Not even whoever it is going around slaughtering everyone?"

"Nah." Marcus responded, leaning against a pole "It's like she was just dropped there."

Delta rolled up her sleeve, revealing the still bloody "Subject D" written into her arm, wincing lightly as the leather rubbed against the wound "Have you seen anything like this before?"

C.Q Cumber hummed before giving a straight "Nope. Is there anything you remember, anything at all?"

"No..."

C.Q Cumber looked Delta up and down again before nodding to himself "Ya know, I think I can help ye."

"Y-You can!?" Delta's eyes sparked with excitement.

"Yeah, yeah, but we're gonna need your help in return." C.Q Cumber said firmly, Delta leaning forward to hear it "So, I heard there's these things called Gems of Eternity round these parts, your friend here has been looking for them already, and those girls that got dragged in a few days after he showed up, but no one's found anything yet."

"Hey, hey." A loud echoing KANG rang out through the chamber as Marcus banged his knuckles against it "Don't expect her to follow through if she doesn't even know what the Gems are."

"I was getting to that!" C.Q Cumber barked back, his skin spiking up in anger. He quickly cleared his throat as he returned his gaze to Delta "These...Gems of Eternity are, from what we know, as old as the Universe itself, born from the moment it all came into existence. They hold powers so incredible that just tapping one wrong could wipe out a whole cluster of galaxies. After someone found traces of one being here, it's been a scavenger hunt for years to find it. And then people found more and more hints – now anyone who somehow winds up here gets pulled into the search." He sighed "I've been working this place for 50 years, kiddo. No one has left this place alive."

"How do people get here?" Delta questioned.

"Dunno." C.Q Cumber answered "My guess is that just thinking about the Gems warps you here."

Marcus spoke up from the back "That would be my guess, too, but I can remember things before I got here, as can the other two. Not sure about Delta."

"I guess the Gems are our best bet for now." C.Q Cumber suggested, slithering back to the bag and dragging it along "Get off at the next station, kiddo. Take the stairs down when we get there."

"Um..." Delta murmured, her brain not able to make an answer.

Marcus tapped the pole with his knuckles "Do as he says, kid, you can trust him."

"R-Right." Delta nodded, quickly returning to her silence.

The entire carriage was quiet for the rest of the journey to the next stop, not even the other travellers of all kinds of sea life saying a word to each other. Finally, the thing came screeching to a halt, the doors hissing open "That's your queue." Marcus gestured to the door, Delta hastily hopping out of her seat and running onto the station.

She looked back at Marcus with a questioning look "Are you coming?"

Marcus shook his head "Nah, I gotta do something further down the line, I'll come back, though – don't worry, kid."

"...OK." Delta quietly responded, the metal being screeching into life once more and vanishing into the darkness. As soon as it was completely gone, a hollow, cold wind blew through the station, chilling Delta to her core. It was then she heard a ringing noise coming not too far away – it was coming from a stand a few meters away, a golden bell shaking with the ringing. Delta slowly made her way over to it, picking up the bent rod on it "H-Hello?"

"Delta?" A raspy voice came through the device. Delta's body went cold at the mention of her name...only Marcus and C.Q Cumber knew that.

Nevertheless, she responded "Y-Yeah...that's me. I'm Delta."

"Good, good, I knew I had the right one." The voice said, its speech pattern very smooth and calm for its tone "Listen to me very closely, I'm a friend of C.Q Cumber and Marcus – Cumber told me all about what's happened – you can't remember a thing, can you?"

Delta gulped before carefully replying with just "No."

"Mmmm...unfortunate. And you're looking for the Gems of Eternity, yes?"

"That's right." Delta nodded "C.Q Cumber said I can get my memories back if I find them."

The voice chuckled "He's a good man. From what I heard, there's one nearby. So good luck finding it, just go down the stairs and you'll know where you're supposed to be."

"Um..." Delta whispered, feeling her hands going weak "OK. Bye." She quickly put the rod device back in its holster, gripping her rifle tightly as she approached the stairs, staring down into the inky consuming blackness at the bottom.

Her eyes wandered briefly, landing a subtle red glow in the shadows of the station – a small dot, seemingly looking right at her. Without a word she just looked away and made her way down the stairs, metallic stomping echoing through the subway system as she disappeared into the void.

And so much screaming.

SPLAT X: OCTO INSURGENCY