Author's notes: This chapter took longer then I previously planned but here it is...hope you like it.

Also shout out to Darkstar248 who reminded me of a scene that I had originally taken out of an earlier chapter. I'm happy to say that scene found its use after all.

Don't forget to review and ask any questions you have for me. I love reading all of the feedback so I can constantly improve my writing skills.

Enjoy!

Chapter 21: Operation Octoling Restoration

"Something tells me that this isn't going to work."

"Why?" Molly asked as she turned to face Squil. He was currently holding Octilly, but she had become restless from being held so long on the way to the plaza.

"Because we're trying to sneak around Inkopolis with a baby Octoling with the faint hope that we can get her back to her mother as well hoping we don't get caught in the process," by this point Tilly had started to climb out of his arms and was making a beeline for his head to suck on one of his tentacles with her beak. As cute as the action was due to how sensitive an Inkling's tentacles are the first time she had done it to him after he had passed out during one of his shifts of watching her he had screamed at the top of his lungs and caused one of the neighbors to come over and see what the ruckus was about.

It was because of this incident that night had fallen nearly an hour before they could try to sneak out of the house.

"We have to try."

"Easier said than done Molly," Squil responded as he tried to keep Tilly as far from his tentacles as possible. Currently he was slowing losing the fight as she slowly creeped from his shoulder onto his head.

Walking over to him she yanked Tilly off of him and wrapped her up in her arms, "Squil, I never knew my parents and for all I know I never will. This is why I need to do this, I have to try to get her back to her mother so that she can live out a normal life with her own kind."

"Unlike you?"

She frowned at him, "If you don't want to help then I'll do it myself."

"No way am I letting you go by yourself Molly," he insisted as he shook his head in emphasis, "Agents have got to stick together."

"But Squil you're not an agent, I am."

He shrugged, "I might be someday. Now come on let's get to Octo Valley," he ran across the wide open expanse of the plaza and leaped down through the entrance to Octo Valley without missing a beat.

"Why do I have this feeling that he was showing off just now?" Molly muttered to herself before she followed him down with Tilly in tow.

When Molly saw that it still looked like daytime when the had entered into Octo Valley she instantly became puzzled, "Wha...?"

"Its not the real sky Molly," Squil explained as he looked around to see if anyone was there, "we are actually underground Molly. Originally this valley used to be the Octarian's until they were forced to find deeper places to hide from us Inklings. Since most Octarians never see the real sky their leader help created this artificial sky for them."

"Is their leader still around?"

"No, Marlin defeated him and for awhile he was entrapped here in the valley but after a few months he escaped and nobody has seen him since. Cuttlefish theorizes that he went back but so far as we can tell he isn't the leader anymore. But we also have no clue who the new leader is."

"Well we probably should get going before Cuttlefish finds out we're here," heading in the direction of the tea kettles she walked over to the one the two of them had traversed in the day before.

Only to find the top of it shut and sealed.

"What?! No!" placing Tilly on the ground she tried to pry open the top with her hands. After trying for several minutes she gave up and had to message the tips of her fingers, "why are the kettles shut?"

"Because they are sealed for your own protection as well as the whole city's protection," walking out from her hiding place behind the shack Callie glared at the two of them, her gold eyes glinting darkly, "I would have figured you would have been smart enough to know this Molly but apparently I was wrong."

"Callie! Ho-"

"How long have I been here watching you two? Well Squil I just happen to need to pick something up from my grandfather's shack and before I could leave you two showed up with...what is that?" her original anger was instantly toned down as she watched Molly pick the Octoling up from off the ground.

"This is Octilly or "Tilly" for short I accidentally took her egg back with me when me and Squil went to Inka's house. She hatched and I felt so bad for her I wanted to get her back to her mother and, and..." Molly trailed off as she watched Callie continue to stare at Tilly, "and please don't take her away Callie."

She looked back up at Molly, "Who said I was going to do that?"

"I uh...what?"

A smile formed on her lips, "you know you're lucky I'm a sucker for babies."

"So you're going to let us go and take her back?"

"Not by yourselves. I'll stay here and give you advice as to what to do if you get in trouble down there like if I was the Captain. Which means you two need to suit up."

"But Agent 1 I don't have an agent suit like Molly does," Squil pointed out.

"Well then you can use my old one...you still have my headset if I remember correctly after all."

He turned red at her statement, "I was going to give them back."

"It's not like I need it really...Agent 5."

"Wait, are you saying...?"

"Not officially you're not Squil...but you are going to be shortly."

"Booyah!" he cheered.

"Hey keep it down blue hot shot or you'll wake Gramps up!" Callie hissed as she darted a glance over to the shack to see if the Captain would come blazing out. Much to all three's relief he didn't, "Now I'll keep an eye on uh...Tilly while you go get changed."

"I still can't believe Callie didn't can us," Squil remarked as they traversed through the Octoling base, "maybe she's not as scary as Marlin described when she gets mad."

"I heard that Agent 5," Callie responded from their headsets and made Squil wince, "And as I've said before you're lucky I'm a sucker for babies. When this is all said and done let's all just agree to act like this never happened...deal?"

"Deal, but first we have to try to find the female Octoling that's Tilly's mother," checking to see if Tilly was fine inside the makeshift carriar on her back Molly gently rubbed the top of her small head.

"Yeah, but we are completely vulnerable since we don't have our ink weapons so even if we do find her mother she might still try to splat us into oblivion."

"She might...but if she sees that you have her newborn child she might spare you until you hand her over, after that well...let's just hope she'll take pity on you two."

"Thanks for the bode of confidence Callie," Squil muttered before being shushed by Molly. Pointing in the direction of some flickering light she and Squil crept towards it.

The light turned out to be a campfire in the middle of a small dry grass deprived area. Surrounding it were a dozen Octolings.

"Um...Callie, we might have a problem," Squil replied into the headset.

"What? Why? What happened?"

"We just found a team of Octolings camping out for the night and we're still pretty close to the entrance to this kettle."

"You think they're up to something Agent 5?"

"Who knows but there's at least twelve of them an-"

"Scratch that Squil," Molly whispered to him as another Octoling entered into the circle and sat down, "a thirteenth one just showed up and...uh oh."

"What? What's wrong?"

Ducking lower in their hiding spot Molly faintly growled, "it's him."

"Him? Him who?"

"Octarnick," she hissed as she narrowed at him, "He must be their leader and their elite Octoling."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he has seaweed wrapped up in that ponytail of his...did he have that before I wonder...?" unslinging the carrier she handed it to Squil and started to slink forward out of their hiding place.

Squil quickly grabbed her arm to stop her, "What are you doing?!"

"We need to know why they're here."

"But what if they see you?"

"They won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Do you trust me?"

He hesitated briefly before answering, "Yes."

"Then wish me luck," pulling her arm free from his grasp she darted out of hiding and behind a new hiding place before Squil could stop her. After getting behind some abandoned crates she was finally able to hear what they were saying.

"You know what I can't believe Octori?" one of the females next to Octarnick whispered to her partner on her other side with a slight snicker.

"What Octowa?" The other one responded as she also snickered.

"I still can't believe Octarnick became an elite when he can't even remember what happened to him three days ago...let alone three weeks ago."

Both of the girls as well as several others in the circle started to laugh while Octarnick continued to stare into the flames of the campfire like nothing had happened.

"Maybe the one who gave him his seaweed had memory problems too," one of the other female Octolings suggested which elicited an even greater reaction from the group.

"Well why don't we ask him ourselves," leaning over him the one named Octowa giggled once as she started to say, "hey Octarnick, was the one who..."

Quicker then a blink of an eye he suddenly had his hand around her throat and was starting to choke her as he pinned her up against the crate that Molly was hiding behind, "One more word out of you Towa and you'll wish I'd splatted you right here, right now. Is that clear?"

She stayed silent for a few moments before he slammed her head up against the crate again several times until finally she gurgled in response and he let her go. Gasping for air she crawled over to the opposite side of the circle as Octarnick brushed his hands off, "Anyone else got anything to say to me?"

The entire group was silent as he glowered at the all, "No? Good," with that he plopped back down onto the ground and brushed one strand of his seaweed off his shoulder so that both ends fell down his back like an extra pair of tentacles.

"Sir?" a slightly younger Octoling asked as she raised her gloved hand.

"What?" Octarnick barked, causing the Octoling to wince.

"I was talking to some of the other Octolings from my last team and they were telling me that you once went up against an Inkling agent all by yourself...is that true?"

He sighed, "Yes Octolia, a few weeks ago I did go up against an Inkling agent and if it weren't for the fact that the agent had a partner I would have taken them easily."

"Was it Agent 3?" another Octoling asked.

"No, she was called Agent 4."

"You know I heard that Agent 3 was captured shortly before Octarnick arrived and I even heard that he was captured by simple Octolings and not elites." One of the other Octolings whispered to the only one who had been silent the entire time. Her head resting in her hand as she stared blankly into space, "don't you think that's odd considering how many of us he has killed over the years?"

The one being spoken to said nothing and kept on sitting there like she hadn't been spoken to.

"Give it up Octarlinn, Octarly has been sulking all day and by the looks of it she won't be stopping anytime soon," the one called Octori cried out to Octarlinn.

"Well then I'm sure then Octarly would have no problem with doing the first watch for tonight," Octarnick stated as he stared in the direction of the mentioned Octoling.

Sighing softly she got up from her spot in the circle and taking an Octoshot in hand headed out of the light of the fire.

"You know what? I'm not really sure I like this new Octarly. Sure she's been a little moody these last several months but at least she would talk to me," Octarlinn said with a depressed tone as she watched her friend walk out of sight.

"It probably doesn't help that she lost her boyfriend Octatobias over a month ago," another Octoling pointed out.

"I'm sure she'll get over what ever it is that's bothering her...she has to," Octolia insisted as she smiled half-heartedly with her fangs half showing.

"Never mind her now Tolia," Octarnick said as he grabbed a long stick and started to draw in the dirt, "we need to come up with a game plan to get more of our troops up at the surface. If we can find a way into Octo Valley we can take out the agent's home base and nothing will stand in our way to taking over Inkopolis," a smile crept onto his face as he released a soft chuckle.

"Agent 4 you need to get out of there," Callie suddenly called through her headset.

"But what about-"

"If you or Agent 5 get caught it won't matter. Didn't their leader just send out a scout to check the area?"

"Shoot, you're right!" Scrambling backwards she headed back to where Squil was still hiding, who was simply staring off into nothing when she found him, "Squil? Are you alright?" she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Gah!" he quickly covered his mouth so that his scream wouldn't ring out, "darn it Molly you nearly gave one of my hearts a heart attack."

"Why only one?" she asked puzzled.

He rolled his eyes at her, "It was an expression Molly, anyway what were you able to find out?"

"Unfortunately not much other than the fact that by the sounds of it the Octarians are trying to find a way out of the kettles by going through Octo Valley."

"How do they plan on doing that?"

"I don't know, I had to leave before I could find out. Octarnick sent one of the other Octolings out on patrol. We need to get going or she might find us before we can find Tilly's mother."

"Alright," handing back the baby carrier the two of them headed away from the area where the group of Octolings were and farther into the Octarian base.

While walking down a narrow pathway they both suddenly heard a loud clicking sound that caused them both to freeze, "What was that?"

"I don't know Molly," Squil answered as he darted his gaze all around them, "Callie do you know of anything that makes a loud clicking sound that the Octarians use?"

"Nothing comes to mind."

"We maybe it was simply something settling or something," Molly said as she took a step forward.

Only to have both her and Squil suddenly get pulled up from their legs by a snare trap. Crying out in pain as their backs banged into each other they were both partially disoriented for several seconds as they finally came to a jerky stop upside down and several feet in the air.

"Something settling? Oh yeah, totally Molly," Squil stated sarcastically as he tried to gave her an upside frown, which was made difficult by the fact that the two of them were back to back in the trap.

"Callie!?"

"Oh yeah I forgot they had snare traps. Didn't think they still used those nowadays."

"Well apparently they do," Squil growled he tried to get away from Molly but instead caused the two of the to spin around once, "how on Terra do we get out of here Callie?"

"If you can find something sharp you could cut yourselves loose."

"Where are we going to find something like that Callie?"

"Well yelling at me is certainly not going to help you get free Agent 5."

"Wait Squil...where's Tilly?"

A squeak caused the two of them to look down and see Octilly looking up at them from the ground after having crawled out of the carrier, "Oh thank the squids above that we didn't squish her when we banged into each other."

"Um, Molly not to sound like I don't care or anything about Tilly but shouldn't we be worrying about the fact that we're sitting squids up here?"

"I would have to agree with your partner on this," a new voice stated as Octarly walked out of her hiding place with her Octoshot aimed at them, "not that it will really matter in the next minute or two."

"What? But we're unarmed! We couldn't hurt you even if we wanted to."

"Sounds like a bad move on your part," she said as she cocked the weapon in her hands, "Any last words Inklings?"

"Please no, we were just trying to get a baby back to its mother. That's all we were doing," Molly pleaded as tears started to stream down her face.

The Octoling slightly lowered her weapon in uncertainty, "Baby? What baby?"

"Tilly, you can come out now!" Molly called out as she tried to spot where the young Octoling had gone.

With a scared squeak she crawled out from behind some crates but froze when she saw the Octoling. Whimpering she tried to slither back into hiding.

Octarly looked equally frightened as she stared down at Tilly through her goggles, "Why on Terra do you have a baby Octoling?"

"We took her by accident when we darted her mother to get a sample of Octarian ink from her. We came back to see if we could find her again and give her baby back to her."

"You came back...weaponless...to return a child to her mother?" She had by this point completely lowered her weapon back down to her side.

"Yes," Molly nodded, "that's all we want to do and then we'll go home."

"Hmm...I wonder...?" placing her Octoshot onto the ground she held out a hand to Octilly who immediately shrank back in fear. She turned back to face the two hanging agents, "What did you call her?"

"The name we gave her was Octilly but she'll respond to Tilly as well."

"Tilly," she repeated the name several times like she trying to hear how it sounded spoken out loud. Turning back to the shivering baby Octoling she held out her hand again, "Tilly...come here," she cried out in a gentle voice, "come on Tilly...it's alright."

Slowly Tilly got closer to the offered hand until she was able to place several of her tentacles on the hand. After a solid minute had passed Tilly let out a happy squeak before being scooped up into the arms of Octarly who had allowed a bubble of laughter to roll up from her throat, "Oh my little Tilly," she then cooed as she gently rocked her from side to side, "I thought I had lost you forever."

"What? You're Tilly's mother?" Squil's eyes grew wide.

"Yes...I'm the Octoling you knock out and the egg you took was mine. It was actually my first..."

"But how do we know you're her mother? You Octolings all look a lot alike to me."

"You can disbelieve me all you want but if there's one thing we Octolings and Inklings share other then our hatred for each other then that's how strong the connection between a mother and her baby can be...even to a point where even if the baby has never met its mother it can still recognize the person who laid their egg."

"We really are sorry for taking your egg."

"Actually because of what you did you actually saved my baby, young Inkling."

"How so?"

"When you knocked me out with you dart I was running away from an Octarian patrol who had spotted me escaping with my egg."

"But you're a Octoling warrior, why would you run away?"

"Not everyone in our race likes this constant war with your race," she replied bitterly, "I have seen too many of my friends and family die right before my eyes. Tilly's father isn't even alive anymore since he was killed in an accident only a month ago. Male Octolings are so rare in our race after all..."

"So you wanted to protect what little family you had left?"

Octarly nodded,"Me and Octatobias, Tilly's father, kept her egg a secret for months but when Tobias was killed I knew sooner or later her existence would be discovered so I decided to escape and find somewhere to raise her away from the war and bloodshed. However as I was leaving a scout spotted me and started to chase me with his other officers. When I came to after the effects of your dart had worn off and I didn't have my egg anymore I feared the worst and that they had destroyed it," pulling her goggles off her face she threw them away from her as tears streamed down her face, "I thought I was alone but now I know that's not the case and I owe you my thanks for protecting Tilly."

"You're welcome ma'am," Squil said as he did an upside down salut, "The New Squidbeak Splatoon was happy to help but I don't suppose you could..." he pointed at himself and Molly before pointing down at the ground with a nervous chuckle.

"Oh! Yes I think I can help with that," holding Tilly in one arm she walked over to where the trap's line was attached to a pulley system. Using a short knife from her short's pocket she cut through the line.

As suddenly as they had been yanked up into the air Molly and Squil crashed back down to the ground in a heap with loud groans of pain. After several minutes they got up from the floor and brushed themselves off, "Thank you uh...?" Molly hesitated since she didn't want the Octoling to know that she was spying on the Octoling group.

"Call me Tarly...that's what Tobias always called me."

"Thank you Tarly. Will we perhaps see you again?"

"Most likely not. I'm going to take Tilly far away from this place so that she can live the life that I had always wished I'd had for myself, but again I thank you Inkling."

"You can call me Agent 4 Tarly, and this is my partner Agent 5."

"Agent 4? Than you must have known Agent 3 very well."

"I'm afraid I haven't. He was kidnapped by your race before I joined."

"Really? Huh...that's interesting."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well I admit I've only seen him once but you look like you could be his cousin or something."

Fear started to grip Molly's heart as she hesitated before asking her next question, "Why do you think we might be related?"

"Because you are both orange Inklings and you two are the only orange Inklings I have ever seen in my life," she answered.

The ground almost seemed to fall out from underneath Molly as she almost fell backwards before Squil caught her, "Molly! Are you alright?" he whispered into her ear.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she answered him shakily. Pushing herself from him she stood up on her own but her nerves were clearly a mess. As she turned to face Squil a sharp hiss escaped his mouth, "What?"

"Y-your eyes Molly, they're...glowing."

"What?!" looking at the shiny surface of a crate she gasp at what she saw.

Her eyes were still orange but it just like Squil had said they were glowing faintly like they had dim lights behind them.

Just like how that male Inkling's tentacles were glowing yellow, Molly thought as she continued to stare at them in her reflection. The pain in her chest she got usually when she was about to change suddenly flared up making her groan, "Squil...help me..."

"Um, right," turning towards the Octoling and her baby he gave them an apologetic look, "sorry we have to cut this goodbye short but Agent 4 is not feeling well and I have to get her out of here."

"I understand, good luck Agent 5 and Agent 4. I hope I find more Inklings like you two in our travels," holding young Tilly close to her chest she walked off into the gloom without looking back once.

"Well that certainly wasn't what I was expecting to happen," Callie commented through their headsets.

"I think we have bigger problems to deal with Callie," Molly moaned as she almost became doubled over in pain, "I about to change in the middle of an Octarian base and we'll never make it back to Octo Valley in time."

"Molly, you need to calm down. When you're stressed you seem more likely to change so if you calm down you might be able to prevent the change."

"Calm myself with what Callie?" the pain was already spreading out to the rest of her body. She only had a few seconds before she would become a Landdweller again.

"Squil! Do something! We can't have her change in there!" Callie nearly screamed as fear entered into her voice.

Quickly grabbing hold of Molly he brought her close to his face and locked eyes with her for a second before kissing her full on the lips.

Shock instantly replaced the fear she had and the pain in her chest disappeared just as quickly as it had come as well. They continued to kiss for several more seconds before releasing each other and both taking a step back, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that without asking you and I-I..." Squil started to say as he turned a bright red.

She placed a hand on his mouth to silence him, "No Squil...it was okay...and I really don't mind...in fact..." an equally as red blush crossed over her face as she removed her hand from his mouth to kiss him back. This time the kiss lasted far longer than the first one had.

A faint cough from Callie finally forced them to pull away from each other again, "Don't worry Callie we're on our way back."

"Good, this was seriously starting to get incredibly awkward...or at least in my position it was."

Laughing at Callie's comment the two of them headed back the way they had come, hands clasped together as they walked.

"Hey where have you two been? We haven't seen you guys since before the last mission two days ago."

"We got a little tied up with something," Molly insisted as she continued to hold Squil's hand underneath the table. Neither of them wanting the others to find out about their budding relationship.

"Um...okay," Inka responded slightly confused by Molly's answer, "Well are you and Squil going to come with us to hear what the results were from the samples we collected versus the stuff that Whark and Neel expelled from themselves?"

"The results are done already?" she accidentally yanked Squil's arm causing him to nearly fall under the table they were sitting at. Trying to hide her blush she continued, "we'll be there in a minute."

"Okay..." getting even more weirded out Inka walked away from them, "I'll tell them you're coming."

Popping up from the grate they both found the others standing around, "we weren't that long in getting here were we?"

"No Molly, you two are just in time," Callie explained as they joined them in the circle, "alright so my friend was able to find a difference between the samples from Whark and Neel and the samples from regular Octolings."

"Alright, well what did he find?"

"Patience is a virtue Ploosh," Callie stated flatly at him, "I don't have to sit on you again do I?"

A look of fear came over him as he rapidly shook his head, "No, I'm good!"

"Good, now my friend compared the genetic the double base pairs and he noticed that over a dozen of them don't match normal Octoling or even normal Octarian genetic code patterns for that matter."

"Wait...what do you mean they don't match normal genetic code patterns for Octarians? Does it match a different species genetic code patterns?" Inka asked.

"As a matter of fact it does Inka...ours."

"What?"

"The double pairings that aren't normal for an Octarian are perfectly normal for our race."

"So...are we dealing with a hybrid Octoling/Inkling or something?"

"We're not sure but what is probably the strangest part of it was the fact that the genes that code for the Octoling's color of ink wasn't the standard coding for Octarian's purple colored ink."

"Then what color did it code for?" Molly asked.

Callie swallowed nervously before she answered her, "Most of the double pairings that code for the ink color coded for the color orange Molly, whoever produced the ink that was ingested by those two Inklings has the coding for orange ink as well as the standard Octarian ink."