Silver was the first to reach the forest line, dodging all the sniper shots that were released through the abundance of trees. He panted, his back to the bark of the tall, thick tree. Laying down on the grass, he held his Splatterscope to assess the situation. As Bubblers, Splash Wallers, Krakens, and Bomb Rushers rushed in, he began to snipe the nearest of the enemies. His silver, sniper's line of sight was almost invisible, traveling through the grass and through the fighters who were clashing. With that position, he was able to take many Octarians out or at least immobilize them.

Thalia went in as a Kraken with her new weapon that was bought for her, the Octobrush. As she tripped and injured Octarians, Sapphire swam behind her in the trail Thalia made as a Kraken. Immediately after Thalia's Kraken ran out, she hid in the ink while Sapphire turned from a Krak-On Splat Roller to continue Thalia's job. When Sapphire's Kraken and every other fighters' special ran out, the Squids would have to fight back with ink and guns.

Meanwhile, Phoenix was traveling sneakily through the little rocky valley in the middle of the field. Using his speed, he splooshed and slowed down the Octarians hiding in the valley. Though, through his run, he was shot painfully a few times. Finally, he retreated back to one of the many beacons hidden in the forest.

Thalia and Sapphire and all the other fighters continued to push forward. Even with the many Octarian fighters, the Squid fighters were able to push forward. Soon, they had pushed them back past the middle rocky valley. The Octarians had stopped fighting, which was unusual.

"Phoenix, can you and other short ranged fighters charge on ahead first?" Sapphire requested.

"Sure," Phoenix said as he motioned to other fighters to drop down in the valley. Immediately as they dropped down, many Splat Bombs were thrown from the other side into the valley.

"PHOENIX, GET OUT, NOW!" Thalia yelled as she stood up to start rolling to the other side. As soon as she made her appearance known to the Octarians, a line of Inkzooka tornadoes were shot at the Squids. As fast as she could, she docked back into the rocky, plain cover with the others. She winced as she heard the Splat Bombs explode in the rocky mid-trench and screams afterward.

"PHOENIX!" she cried out. Her rage sped up her Kraken recharge. She laughed insanely as she jumped over the trench and turned into a Kraken, immobilizing and even killing some of the Octarian fighters.

Silver came from out of the trees after the army had advanced forward. He glanced down into the trench to see Phoenix barely alive, but many other fighters injured or even dead. He saw Thalia on the other side of the trench staying behind the front line.

"...Thalia!" Silver shouted from the other side of the trench. He motioned for her to come back to him. She jumped over the edge and went back to Silver with a blank expression.

"Hey, um Thalia?" Silver put a hand on her shoulder. "Can you help me get Phoenix and these people to the river over there?" he asked, pointing to the river that ran alongside them a few yards away.

"Why the river?..." Thalia said, almost crying as Silver went down into the trench to retrieve Phoenix and other injured squids.

"I can cleanse the substance off of the bodies and we can all send them to the front lines to be splatted and then respawning back somewhere," Silver smiled down at Thalia as he brought to weak and injured squids: Phoenix and another fighter.

"Why not keep washing the substance off the bodies?" Thalia looked at Phoenix sadly.

"It's inefficient and the Octarians would probably pull out their lethal, ancient weapons if they found us respawning and healing," Silver said as he nodded for Thalia to follow him. Silver carried the younger octoling to the river. With Thalia watching behind him, Silver laid Phoenix's body in the slightly running water. Soon, Phoenix began to wince which told them that Phoenix began to feel the pain of water once more.

"Do you wanna kick your boyfriend?" Silver asked jokingly to Thalia as he laid Phoenix on the grass.

"Oh my God, YEAHHH!" Thalia exclaimed happily, the somberness she once had replace by her happiness and playfulness. Then, Phoenix began to open his eyes a little bit.

"Oh... Hey... Thalia and Silver..." Phoenix murmured wearily.

"I'll see you again in a few minutes, Phoenix!" Thalia said cheerfully. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. But before he could say anything back, he was kicked forcefully in the side by Thalia and into the river. Eventually, he drowned in the water, and his squid spirit floated up, glaring at Thalia. Thalia giggled heartily.

"...He'll teleport back to one of your beacons in the forest. You better watch out for him," Silver said, laying more bodies into the water and letting Thalia playfully kick them to be splatted back to Tentatique City.

"Oh, I will," Thalia said, running her hand down her octoling hair as they finished splatting the bodies that were still alive.

"...So, what should we do about the dead bodies?" Thalia asked after looking back at the trench full of dead Squid fighters.

"Even if they're dead... I feel like we'll still be able to release... their souls..." Silver said quietly.

He took one dead body and laid it in the water. Eventually, the running water changed the body back to its natural physical properties. With the physical properties returning, the dead bodies were worn out by the water. The body was splatted, but the sleeping silver soul of the fighter rose up into the air. The soul reverted back to the color blue, which was its original incarnation color.

"...Wow..." Thalia said, staring up at the sky where the soul had risen.

In the next five minutes, the two had respectfully released all the souls from the dead fighters. Then, Thalia screamed suddenly. Silver laughed as she turned around to see that Phoenix had come back and flicked Thalia in the back of the head.

"What was that for?!" Thalia yelled at him.

"For kicking me to death," Phoenix answered bluntly.

"Oh, yeah... But you didn't die!" Thalia yelled. "Can I at least get you back?"

"...Fine..." Phoenix sighed. Thalia quickly inked the ground under Phoenix and tripped him with her. She started to giggle endlessly.

"There, you got me. Now let's go fight," Phoenix said, pointing at the Squid army who was unable to push forward.

"You got it," Thalia said determinedly. Silver smiled warmly at the octoling couple. They had really come far since he met them as nervous refugee octolings. The three went to catch up with the army.

The three and the others who had just teleported back to the battlefield were climbing up the trench wall when they heard a gunshot. They all ducked to see an older inkling thrown and collapsed at the bottom of the trench, a hole the size of a sniper bullet through his head. Silver peeked above the surface of the ground and saw a sniper with a shiny, long weapon. He kept aiming it everywhere, his eyes on the lookout for any Squids to kill. There were no other Octarian soldiers out there. Only the lone sniper.

Then, a random fighter, behind his rock, set up a Killer Wail, another launched an Inkstrike, and the third went on as a Kraken to try to kill the sniper. The sniper only side-stepped the Killer Wail, swam backwards a few feet from the Inkstrike, and no-scoped the Kraken. Even as the Kraken, the bullet lodged itself into the body. The Kraken started bleeding. Soon, lifeless. As the Kraken special depleted, the fighter who used it lay on the ground dead with a bullet hole through his chest and bleeding slightly.

The sniper was just there to give allowance for the Octarian army to recuperate.

Silver yelled at the Squid army. "Guys! Go retreat. We'll be defeated when their army returns!" As the army retreated, Silver aimed his Splatterscope up and continued to shoot at the sniper from the cover of the trench wall. Soon, he forced the Octarian sniper into the forest on the other side.

After a few minutes of not inkfire or gunfire, Silver quickly got out of the trench and began to run lowly through the rocks and the grass. He was attempting to get back to the cover of the forest before bullets were shot by the Octolings.

Nearing the forest line, Silver caught sight of his friends and his army hidden away near the river and in the trees. He saw the octoling pair and Sapphire wave at him before he heard an echoing shot ring throughout the field.

As the Octoling stayed hidden in the trees, he held his arm steady, holding the fatal weapon in his hand. His cross-hairs in his scope slowly and steadily lined up with the back of Silver. Without hesitation, the Octoling pulled the trigger. In his scope, he saw the bullet enter Silver's back, and the inkling collapsed on the grassy ground.

"SILVER!" Sapphire yelled out in horror as she saw her boyfriend fall abruptly to the ground, a bullet hole in his back and blood slightly flowing out.

"So, Sean," a random fighter asked Sean as he and his army walked through the lit tunnel through the mountain to Rockenburg, "do you know Silver and Sapphire well?"

"Not that much, but I know their friends, Aiden and Chloe well," Sean grinned slightly as he kept to the wall of the tunnel.

"Really?" another fighter asked. He was a bit younger than Sean. "How?"

Sean smiled. "I used to be Chloe's boyfriend. Hahaha, I remember it as if it was two weeks ago. It actually was two weeks ago."

"Wow," Sean's army murmured and giggled.

"I used to be abusive to Chloe. I used to be really inconsiderate and ignorant. But they've forgiven me and now I'm still friends with Chloe," Sean said, recalling past moments.

"Didn't you used to be against them or something?" someone asked. "Social medias were blowing up that you and three others were fighting them in ink battles."

"Yeah... But..." Sean grew silent, "I'm sure two are dead from the Octarians and another might be still alive."

Suddenly, whispering was heard around the corner of a tunnel. After it came ink shooting noises.

"...What was that?" a younger inkling asked Sean.

"...I'm not sure..." Sean hushed the army. They began walking with their backs to the wall of the tunnel, ink weapons up and ready to be used. After creeping alone the curving corner, they saw that in front of them, the road was fully painted with Octarian ink. Sean and some others began to aimlessly shoot.

"Sean, stop!" an octoling shot up from under the ink. "It's me!"

"Who are you?!" Sean said warningly. He still held up his gun along with some others.

"It's me! Clarisse!" the 'octoling' took some of her gear off. She was not an octoling, but an inkling. Her hair was the color of the octoling's but was still the same shape as an inkling's. There were highlights of purple, reminiscent of her original purple hair.

The tight clothing.

Her perfect lips.

Her eyes filled with lust. But this time, with less lust for Silver. She now had a look of weariness and determination.

"Clarisse!" Sean exclaimed. He dropped his weapon, ran up to her, and hugged her.

"...Why hug me?" Clarisse hugged him back as Sean's army quieted down. "Your whole team and I hated Silver, Sapphire, Aiden, and Chloe..."

"...Even though, you're still a teammate. A team sticks together no matter what," Sean said strongly.

"You're right," Clarisse smirked and returned to her usual antics, first by putting her hand on Sean's chest.

"What have you been doing lately?" Sean questioned, ignoring Clarisse's gesture. "Since we were force out of Inkopolis, you haven't been seen anywhere."

"Oh, some blind, old Octarian man took me into his house, gave me armor, and told me to fight for justice," Clarisse said. Then, a decently large group of Octarians, relatively young and old, rose up from the ink. The little octolings had scared faces while the elderly Octarians had expressions in which their eyes stared blankly as if they knew everything.

An old Octoling stepped slowly up to Clarisse, and she smiled. "This is the old man. He told me to fight for justice, so I did!" Clarisse said.

The old man smiled. His eyes were gray but were clouded. "You did, sonny... I thank you for that..." the old man said and slapped her thigh.

"Eww, get away from me!" Clarisse backed off from the old man as she dusted off her pants. "I'm a GIRL, and stop calling me sonny!"

"Alright, sonny. I'll stop being your mommy," the old man heard wrong. Sean's army snickered, as well as Sean himself.

"So, Clarisse," Sean smiled. "Good job. You've managed to capture the Octarians into slavery."

"It's not slavery!" Clarisse shot back. "I just stole all the Octarians who didn't want to fight. They all disagree with this war."

"Wow..." Sean said. "...That's a lot of people..."

"...Some of us want to help fight," an older octoling spoke up. He held up his Octo Splat Roller. Some other Octarians held up various weapons that were Octo versions of the Squid weapons.

"Really?" Sean exclaimed. "I'm sure Silver and sapphire would like your support. Clarisse, can you take the elderly and the young and those who don't want to fight back to Tentatique City? My army and these ready Octarians will push forward."

"Sure thing, Sean," Clarisse said. "I'll just teleport to one of your army's beacons when I'm finished."

And with that, Clarisse and the other people were heading to the other side of the tunnel, towards the river outside. With Clarisse's plan, they all dropped themselves into the river and eventually got splatted by the running water. Their souls were released into the air and heading back to Tentatique.

Sean turned to his army. "Guys, all of you who have beacons, please set some up. The tunnel has a lot of coverage and is a good spot to start fighting in."

As Sean said that, about thirty beacons were set. Though, the army decided to do one last thing before they headed forward with their mission. Taking out all of their weapons, the fighters painted every part of the tunnel silver as a way of taking cover and hiding from enemies.

"We're ready, guys. Let's move on," Sean said as he and his army continued to paint the tunnel as they sneaked through it.

"Hey, Marie," Callie poked Marie with her gun.

"What?" Marie sighed.

"What do you call our adventure up the side of this mountain?" Callie held in laughter as she pulled herself up a rocky cliff.

"...What?" Marie said unamused, helping other fighters up the rocky cliff.

"...A splat-former!" Callie burst into laughter.

Marie and their whole army sighed heavily. "That pun was uninkceptable," a random fighter muttered.

"Haha, good one!" Marie exclaimed and high-fived the fighter. The whole army started laughing, but Callie started pouting.

"Why does everyone always makes good comebacks?" Callie said as she looked to the north of the area where she saw glimpses of silver and dark fuchsia colored ink fly through the air.

"Because you always make the joke first," Marie said. "Maybe you should wait until someone makes a joke before you can have a good comeback."

"But you never make the joke first! I always make the joke first!" Callie complained.

"Well, you should try to change that, Callie," Marie snickered. The whole group laughed along. Callie sighed and shook her head.

"Hey, isn't that where Silver and Sapphire are?" a fighter asked them as he pointed to a large plain north of the mountain, where Callie was looking at. Though, the large fields had no inkfire or gunfire, as it was earlier.

"Yeah..." Callie murmured as she stared out to the field. As their army rested on a large rock platform of the mountain, she saw something. "Hey, isn't that Silver?" Callie asked, catching the attention of the whole army and Marie. Callie pointed down to a very minuscule speck that had silver hair and a sniper.

"Yeah, it is," Marie, as well as the army, stared into the distance and observed Silver.

The silver speck in the middle of the field began to run back to the trees. To Callie and Marie, he seemed slow, but eventually he was almost at the trees. Then a loud, echoing shot of a gun rang throughout the area, causing the Squid Sisters' army to duck and look for cover under the rocks. Callie and Marie and some other fighters stayed out and wielded their weapons. Looking again, Callie peered into the distance at the field to see the silver speck motionless and on the ground.

"...D-Did Silver just get... shot?" Marie said slowly, obvious dread in her voice. Their whole army started to chatter and look down at the distant fields.

Then, a white-colored cylinder with a base was thrown and stuck to the ground. Its dark fuchsia outline shined and caught everyone's attention.

"Run!" Callie yelled. In a flash, the whole group of fighters tossed themselves of the rock platform. As soon as they did, the bomb exploded, covering the area with Octarian ink.

Callie, Marie, and some of the experienced fighters flipped and landed safely on other parts of the rocky mountainside. The others had unfortunately fell to the ground and tumbled down the mountain.

"Callie, go down and help the fighters that were injured. The others here and I will hold them off as long as we can!" Marie ordered as she and the other fighters hid under a small cliff.

"Fine..." Callie gave up. With a smile, she hopped down the terrain as inkfire from the higher areas barely hit her.

Marie and her little band of fighters waited until there was no more shooting from Octarians above. Then, Marie peeked her head a little above the cliff. On the surface were eight octoling, wielding their basic Octoshots, and cautiously crossed the small rocky platform, nearing to where Marie and her fighters were hiding.

"Eight octolings," Marie whispered.

"Eight octolings? That's easy," a cocky fighter said as they began to reveal themselves. As soon as he jumped over the cliff to release his Kraken, the four of the eight octolings began shooting him, and pushed his Kraken-self off the cliff to the forests below.

As those four octolings were distracted with the Kraken, some other fighters went up to fight, but were injured by the tornadoes of ink that came from one of the octoling's Inkzooka. Marie sighed as she started to set up a Killer Wail, while sending a few more fighters up. As the fighters went up, they shot from the sides of the area, so that the eight octolings were forced in the middle. Then, the silver sound wave hit the octolings, making them temporarily lose hearing. The fighters and Marie took the weapons off the octolings and kicked them off the edge of the mountainside.

"Dang, you guys are so brutal," Callie said, with some other fighters standing behind Marie.

"Why didn't you help?" Marie yelled.

"Oh, I wanted to watch," Callie said casually.

"And why are you back so soon?" some other fighter questioned her as he pulled himself up on the cliff.

"Oh, I killed those fighters that fell off the mountain," Callie said with a happy expression.

"YOU WHAT?!" Marie yelled at her, her face becoming anxious.

"Oh, I mean splatted them. I put them in a conveniently placed pool of water in the area and splatted them back to Tentatique," Callie laughed.

Marie sighed in relief. "Why do you keep saying 'Oh' every time you talk?" one of Callie's fighters asked behind her.

"Oh, that? Oh, I don't know," Callie shrugged her shoulders. Callie's fighters began to giggle.

"Come on, let's go. I see the cave in the summit of the mountain, we can go camp out near there when we get there," Marie said, regaining composure as she began to lead the army up the large mountain, peering up at the tiny and distant cave hole in the side of the peak of the mountain.

"I just wonder if Silver's okay..." Callie murmured quietly as she glanced over at the open field faraway, seeing that the silver speck on the field ground was nowhere to be seen. Callie sighed as she climbed quickly and safely to catch up with Marie.

Similar to the invasion path of Callie and Marie, Aiden and Chloe and their own army led themselves up the West side of the mountain. It was more treacherous than the East side, where Callie and Marie were. The East side of the mountain had a few rocky cliffs nearing the top, and the rest were elevated hills and inclines of ground and grass. On the other hand, the West side began with the grassy ground at a steep incline. The rest were unkempt pathways weathered into the mountain rock.

"Aiden, you gotta climb up and then help us up," Chloe giggled.

"Okay," Aiden said. He hoisted himself up the high rocky cliff. Then, he held his hand down to reach for Chloe. He took her hands and pulled her up the cliff.

Two by two, they pulled their army and fighters up the cliffs. Even though the trip up the side of the mountain was tough, the outlook and scenery were something to behold.

"Aiden..." Chloe looked up at the now night sky. "It's been a long time since I've seen many stars..." She tapped Aiden on his shoulder and pointed up to the sky. Resting on a decently sized platform of rock, Aiden, Chloe, and their army looked up into the night sky. And indeed, it was littered and twinkling with tiny beacons of light. Some were bigger than the others; some were smaller. The space outside of the earth seemed to be visible from the mountains. Beautiful colors of dark blue, purple, and black made the scenery and the stars seem vivid and lively.

"Why can't we see the stars and space like this anymore?" Chloe questioned Aiden. It was true that she has not seen a clear, starry night sky for years.

"Maybe because of the city lights," Aiden suggested. "I think they brighten up the night too much for the stars to be seen."

"I love this..." Chloe murmured. Then, she thought for a few moments.

"Hey, Aiden?" Chloe asked quietly.

"...Yeah?" Aiden returned his gaze back to Chloe.

"Do you think that the stars have some sort of power?" Chloe spilled her thoughts. "Like some kind of celestial power that can influence us or something?"

"...My guess is no..." Aiden said slowly after thinking for a while. "But... I guess... They can influence you if you believe in it..."

"Aww... Don't give me that 'believe in it' sh-crap," Chloe pouted.

"Well, I don't know what to say," Aiden. "Silver once told me that many things in his life, he perceives them mentally and spiritually."

"...Wow... That's deep..." Chloe said softly, sighing.

"Wait, did you say Silver?" one of their fighters spoke up. Some others wanted to listen in on the conversation as well.

"As in Silver and Sapphire?" another fighter asked, younger than a majority of the group.

"Yeah..." Chloe answered. "Sometimes, Silver's such a strange person..."

"Wow..." the fighters said. "How did you guys get to be friends with them?" someone raised their hand and asked Aiden and Chloe.

"Oh, we stole them and then we forced them to play on our team to beat our rivals," Chloe said in a comical voice.

"Well, we didn't exactly steal them," Aiden scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Whatever," Chloe muttered and smirked. "Let's continue up. The other groups may be up the mountain by now."

"Okay," Aiden said, pulling himself up the rocky ledge.

As Aiden, Chloe, and a few of the members arrived on top of the small ledge, they saw, not too far away, a small group of about sixteen octolings quietly chatting behind a tree. It was a small forest on the side of the mountain, and some octolings were hanging around in there.

"Oh, shoot," Aiden muttered as he saw one octoling notice them and alert his comrades. "Go! Fight!" Aiden yelled as he released inkfire on the octolings.

As Aiden and Chloe's army began to shoot, so did the octolings. Continuing to dodge inkfire and shots, both opposing armies seemed equally powerful. Though, it became a disadvantage to the inklings when one of the octolings threw a potion.

It was a potion encased in white with dark purple outlines. Chloe saw the potion fly through the air, about to hit the area in which they were fighting.

When the potion hit the ground, it seemed to dissipate into the air in swirls with purple gaseous substances. Immediately, many of the squid fighters started wheezing and coughing, clutching their heads as if they were being mind controlled.

Aiden, Chloe, and some other older, more experienced fighters looked back at the poisoned fighters. Then, they realized that their sub weapon, the disruptor, used in ink battles was converted to a poison that slowed down enemies, not to mention harming them or killing them from the inside.

As Aiden and Chloe decided to retreat down a cliff, the octolings had the same idea and retreated into the forest on the mountain. Looking over their poisoned army, Aiden and Chloe became anxious and started to panic.

"Aiden! What do we do?!" Chloe asked quickly, her gaze shifting to one poisoned fighter to another.

"I don't know," Aiden panicked. "If only we had water so we can splat them and have them respawn healthy."

Then, one of the fighters caught their attention. "Hey, Aiden and Chloe. There's a conveniently placed cave in the mountain."

Indeed, there was. A conveniently placed cave in the wall of the cliff.

A VERY, VERY conveniently shaped cliff.

And it so happened to have water.

"Wow, what a conveniently places cave with water in it," Chloe said, picking up one of the fighters to bring to the cave.

As the two and some other fighters dropped the poisoned bodies into the pool of water inside the cave, Aiden's phone in his pocket began to vibrate.

"Oh, I forgot I even had a phone," Aiden giggled and answered his phone.

"AIDEN, SILVER GOT SHOT," Sapphire's slightly static voice yelled through the phone.

"...Huh?" Aiden muttered as he held the phone away from his ear, it being too loud.

"SILVER GOT SHOT! And I don't know how long until he bleeds out to death!" Sapphire yelled in a panicked voice.

"Then what are you waiting for?!" Chloe yelled into the phone. "Go put him into some water!"

"I already took him to the river near us. I don't know if he'll respawn in Tentatique... or if he... died..." Sapphire said in an almost sobbing voice.

"Sapphire... Just do anything you can... Silver needs to be kept alive," Aiden said, sighing heavily.

After a few moments of silence, Sapphire hung up, and Aiden's phone went to sleep. Aiden seemed to barely mutter something as he put his phone away into his pocket. He returned to tending to his poisoned fighters.

"...Aiden? You okay?" Chloe tapped his shoulder slightly.

"...Yeah... It's just that I've never heard of Silver close to death before..." Aiden said quietly as he sent the remaining poisoned fighters into the water to go back to Tentatique.

"Well... I'm pretty sure Silver and Sapphire have been close to death at least once in their life. But whatever it was, they got out of it, and I'm sure they can get out of this too..." Chloe said softly.

Aiden smiled. Some of the other fighters did too. He caressed Chloe's head, and he, Chloe, and his temporarily smaller army looked upwards to the darkened sky, returning to the sight of the celestial specks twinkling over the battlegrounds.

"...Come on, Silver..." Sapphire mumbled to herself as he held Silver's hand, who was submerged in the water.

The blood from the bullet wound had washed away in the water, but the goal was to splat him in the water back to Tentatique.

Only if he was still alive.

Time seemed to stand still as Sapphire knelt in front of Silver's body with fighters standing behind her. Silver would still be alive if his body would melt into the water and his soul floated into the sky, but he would be truly dead if the soul floated out of his body, and his body remained physical and intact.

It had already been a few uneventful minutes, though, feelings were anxious and questioning. Most people began to let their guard down, seeing as nothing happened. Sapphire sighed and buried her head in her arms as she sat on the river bank. Then, fighters began to gasp and pointed to the river. Sapphire looked up, and immediately, her heart plummeted.

A lone, silver-colored soul was slowly rising out of Silver's seemingly lifeless body. Tears began to trickle down Sapphire's face as Silver's physical self remained intact, the soul struggling to rise.

"...No..." Sapphire muttered incoherently to herself. "...Silver..." she broke down and started yelling in sorrow, her Silver gone.

~AuraMasterADV13

Originally published on Wattpad on January 21, 2016.

Republished on Wattpad and Fanfiction on October 27, 2018.