A loud bang, some angry deep voice groaning what sounded like curses, another bang, the sound of a stingray revving up, only to suddenly stop with a third bang, someone firing tenta missiles in the far distance, the sound echoing through what sounded like a nearly infinitely large space.

As slowly her feelings returned and hearing stopped being as foggy, she found herself laying on her stomach over a bed on little wheels, under her something that felt rather cold, but her eyes didn't yet want to cooperate, only seeing vague colours.

She felt they were moving, lights on the wall passing them by, as did the wall itself, the air moving past her face. They were moving, and now she heard voices.

"...There!"

"There is... ?"

"... spotted Eight."

All of it felt distant, like she was hearing it through a long tube. It was a detached feeling, all that didn't feel like that was a cold that she felt not only on the side, but also inside her head, like she had just taken too much ice at once.

The surroundings changed, now those of what seemed like a metro cart. Everything slowly started to become somewhat sharp. Although a now upcoming headache brought back some blur, now with a throbbing pain. The only good thing about it was that the pain started to push out the cold.

She closed her eyes, feeling overjoyed for the fact that she could do that again. All that now came in were voices, that, even though she now had a headache like she had never had before, were clear enough to be understood.

"... in the train..."

"I am trying to get you out of there."

"I can barely fend them off." She heard Eight say from where they had entered the cart, her voice mixed with that of ink being fired and making contact with opponents as she got direct hits on them with her blaster.

The already sound rich environment was further filled with another as large explosions were heard from above. sounding like missiles striking down. She slowly got a better sense of her surroundings, only for it to suddenly start moving.

Minutes of relative calm went by as she slowly got her senses back, realising she was inside a metro cart. Furthermore, she was put over the short end of a bed on wheels, and lay on top of something, something cold, something laying on the bed.

It all started to come back, the chairs, the sanitized soldiers with buckets of that green stuff, being powerless to do anything as she seemed trapped inside herself. Beside her lay Three, still passed out, and obscuring the sight of what she thought to be a person under them.

The strange thing about this person was that their skin was not what one would expect, but instead a shade of light green. She got a sick feeling in her stomach as she started to connect the pieces of what she remembered with what she was seeing, further backed by more memories returning of what had taken place.

"They are moving, but I can't tell where to." She heard a voice say through her headpiece.

"Don't tell me you lost them again." A rather calm voice she recognized all to well sighed.

"I still have them on the map, and it seems they are heading for the way that they most likely came in from."

"Like that's any... Where's Gramps?"

"Wasn't he here just now?"

"What are you two mumbling about?" A third voice, a lot older than the rest, cut in. "I was just resting my old cuttle bones for a bit. How's the search going?"

"We found them Gramps…"

"What's with that gloomy tone?"

"They… how can I say this…"

"Maybe we should focus on the mission before we recap. Eight informed me that Four seems to slowly be waking, so that's a good sign."

"Four waking? What in the devilfish happened while I left you to overseeing this mission?"

"I think Marina's right. Let's focus on getting the agents back up here first."

"Eight, how is Four doing?"

"I shall check on her now." She heard not only through her headpiece, but also from closeby, the octoling with the blaster getting up to move up to her, crouching down to look at her directly.

"Four, are you awake?"

"... yes…" She sighed, not able to say much more than that.

"Do you think you can stand?"

"I… Don't know…"

"Maybe we can try to get you back on your feet." She looked over at Three, but she was still out cold.

With a lot of effort they got the agent back on her feet, or rather, leaning heavily on the other and then moved to a bench.

Four was shaking her head. Getting out of that laying down position had brought back the dizziness and made her vision blurry again. "What happened? I… I pushed her into that… that thing… and you… you came in and fought me… and then those loud sounds, like explosions…"

"You seem tired and perhaps somewhat confused. You should try to rest now we have the time to do so."

For as much as she wanted to ask about this, about everything, all she could do was lay her head back, closing her eyes. Four was just too tired to even stay awake. She knew she would only be a burden, but she just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.

"Rest, we are almost out of here." Eight assured her.

"Can you see the exit down there?" They heard the captain ask.

"If they are on the train they were before, they should be, right?"

"A guess isn't good enough, can't you ensure they are?"

"I told you, I can't find them." She seemed startled by the way Two spoke to her.

While Four could hear the voices continue to discuss, she couldn't keep her attention to it, slowly drifting into a dreamless sleep, not even feeling herself be put back on the bed, or the squeaky wheels of the bed as it was pushed out of the train.

"...to get this all straight. They had a machine producing this stuff that they now are going to bring up into space to destroy the planet?"

Someone most likely nodded, because Two's voice continued. "And if we don't stop it, we will all be wiped out in a few days?"

There was a moment of silence again. "And with two agents down-"

"Three ma'am." Eight corrected her, her own voice faint and sounding like she would rather cry then talk.

Two however kept going. "we can't just go in without a plan like we did last time."

"I'd think our agents have done a terrific job." The captain went against her. "We now know what we are dealing with."

"That may be Gramps, but what are we going to do about it?"

"Whatever it shall be, we'll have to think of it fast."

Then there was silence, most likely indicating people were indeed trying to come up with something. Mira took this time to look around. The ceiling and voices had already made it clear she was in the captain's shack, and now that she sat up she saw that she wasn't alone. She had been lain to rest on a small bamboo mat, next to her another with a still passed out Three, and in the far end a simple, somewhat shoddy bed with someone laying in it.

She got up, finding she was still wearing her suit, and someone had put a bandage over the side of her head, the area still feeling somewhat cold despite the warm weather. Looking over at the bed she saw octoling tentacles, red fading into a deep blue at the tips. Her breath caught as she immediately realised who it was.

"N-no…" She mumbled as she approached, trying to keep quiet as to not wake the others.

As she got closer she got to see the face, it still being as pale as she remembered it to be, but now with light green lines coming from the neck, climbing up like veins, moving up to her eyes, which still lay closed. She was breathing, albeit faintly, and gave the impression she was to pass away soon.

She stood there for a while, feeling so many things at once, each already hard to describe, but together being a twisted, indescribable mass of emotions. It was not just grief, not only guilt, not exclusively sadness, but a concoction of all of these and more that amplified each other.

Mira snapped out of it as she felt a hand on her shoulder, jumping in surprise before turning around and seeing Three stand there, looking into her eyes with her cold, calculated gaze. She had a bandage over the right side of her head, covering an eye,.

"You should sit down." She didn't order it, but it sounded like she would force her if she didn't comply.

"You did that to her, didn't you?" Lia then asked, not mad in the slightest, still staring at her.

"I… I did…" Mira muttered, sitting down by the lower end of the bed, Lia taking a spot next to her.

"You didn't." She firmly replied. "That wasn't you."

"But… but it was… I was there… I p-pushed her into… into that goop…"

"That wasn't you." She repeated in a somewhat friendly tone. "You had no control, didn't you?"

"no…" Mira looked down at her shoes, not able to stand watching into Three's gaze any longer, despite it only being a single eye that was watching her.

"Have you been told what that stuff they put onto you was?"

"no…"

"It happened to me before."

She looked up at her again. "It… it did?"

Lia lifted up her right tentacle and pushed the bandage aside some, revealing what seemed like a light green scar. "It leaves a mark."

"I… I have…" She touched the side of her face. the cold spot still being rather sensitive.

"With some proper care it might disappear completely. Mine was no more than a single spot, but I don't think I'll be that lucky this time." She pushed her bandage aside some more, revealing her other eye and how the scar extended from the side of her head all the way to it. Her up to now covered eye still had this weird, almost glowing green circle on it. Although it was barely visible now, it still gave her an unsettling feeling.

Mira took a deep breath as she tried to collect herself. "So… what even was that stuff? How did it force us to do things like that?"

"I have no idea about the second question and I doubt you would want to know the anser to the first."

"Maybe you're right, maybe I don't want to… But what about Devon?" She looked over past Three at the octoling who still lay out cold in the bed.

"Eight might have been in time, she might not have. We have no idea if she will be converted or not."

"Con-converted?" She couldn't help but feel a hollow feeling inside as she remembered the sanitized soldiers.

"Sadly, we would have to most likely splat her if that were the case." Lia sighed. "I hope it doesn't come to that. Eight has suffered enough already."

"What does she have to do with this?"

"That's something only you could ask, you were with them all the time. Didn't you notice?"

"Notice what?"

Lia sighed. "I know that Eight seems to be too eager to make friends, but I thought it was good that she at least found one in Devon."

"Are you saying…"

"That they were becoming friends? Yes, yes I am."

"I… I didn't notice…" she looked down again. "How did I not notice?"

"I think for exactly the same reason she didn't try to be close friends with you, you keep distancing yourself."

"But I-"

"I know why you do that. All I'm saying is to open up more. Anyway, with Eight having gone through all that she has done, I think she deserves a break."

"But... did you hear what they found out?"

"I did, and I think that we can handle ourselves just fine as long as we stay sharp."

Lia sighed, feeling ashamed knowing that it was because of her they got trapped on those chairs.

"And with that human being a valuable asset, I am sure we can think of something to stop their plan."

"You know… When Marie told me about you, I thought you were cold, emotionless even. And when I met you the first time, I thought she was right."

"Your point being?"

"That I was surprised by your kind side."

"I was once kind, and always cheery as well, but that was years ago. Having been an agent for so long got me to be like this."

"Then why is Callie still-"

"Everyone handles it differently. Remember when I cut you off when you realised that you have splatted all those soldiers, each one having their own life, their own family?"

"oh Cod…" She put her hands to her head.

"That's how this job works, splat or be splatted. Most of them don't hesitate to splat you. They are just following orders. Why do you think I didn't shoot Devon on sight when we found her?"

"I… I don't know…"

"She was defenseless, scared, without anyone else to help her. She wasn't trying to hurt us, she wasn't trying to harm, steal, or otherwise negatively influence us. She was just as much a person as we are, even if she came from a cut tentacle, that doesn't make her an expendable tool."

Four was speechless, not knowing how to think about this. She was mortified to once again think about the countless splats, all that ink on her hands. However, the thought that with the right approach, even their enemies could be their friends was somehow softening that pain.

Lia stayed silent, giving Mira time to think, only to look up as they were interrupted by someone opening the door.

It was Eight, clearly holding back tears, but smiling as soon as she saw the two sitting on the side of the bed. "You two are awake!" She ran towards them, taking them into an embrace that seemed like she would never want to let go.

"Yeah, we are." To Mira's surprise Lia hugged Kim back.

"I thought… I thought that I… that you…"

"It's alright, we're fine." She tried to assure her.

Mira sat there, not sure what came over her, but finding the hug to be comforting, letting Kim continue. Taking a deep breath she calmed down and relaxed, trying to not think about all that troubled and was still troubling her.

The moment was interrupted by a phone ringing in the main room. The three looked up, and Mira, despite liking the embrace, took the opportunity to leave. Finding that Will had apparently been called. He seemed to be panicking as he listened.

Not wanting to have any more bad news, she opened the door and headed outside, walking up to and sitting down against the same tree Devon had sat under when she had comforted her. "Why did it have to be me? Why did whatever it was force me to do whatever it was I did to her?" She leaned back against the tree trunk and closed her eyes with a deep sigh, trying to clear her mind as she enjoyed the slight breeze that blew past her.

"They are here!" Mira suddenly heard being yelled from the shack, soon after translated by her headpiece. She opened her eyes and looked around, at first seeing nothing abnormal, the outpost as empty as it had always been, but when she looked over at the far edge of the canyon, her breath caught.

A line of figures could be seen, all standing perfectly still, at least, all but two, one who seemed to kneel down, and another that suddenly seemed wider than the others, like she had just put on a backpack, a backpack that suddenly fired tenta missiles.

Four didn't know how quickly to get back inside, slamming the door closed behind her. She was greeted by surprised, but mostly shocked expressions. Something clearly had already given reason for concern.

"What's wrong?" Marie resolutely asked her.

"On the canyon edge... they fired missiles…"

"We will be safe inside."

"But one also- Duck!" She suddenly yelled as they heard the whir, soon followed by a faint green line aiming where Will's head had been mere moments ago. Just like it had appeared without warning it suddenly grew in diameter, the whining turning into screeching.

"This is your final warning and chance. Please return. Resist and be annihilated."

"But why?" Will asked his phone. While it took a bit to be translated, Three and Four both recognized it as the voice that had commanded them, although they now got to hear what it had to say.

"All surviving staff should be launched with the cargo." Was the reply he got.

There was silence for a moment, broken by the missiles arriving, exploding on the roof.

"Alright, they are after the human. I'd say we hand him over." Three spoke up.

"We cannot just turn him in, we could try to take them on." Eight went against her, knowing full well she was going to get that idea shot down.

"We both know that their numbers are nearly endless." Three replied.

"Then what do we do?" Four joined in.

"Not staying here, that's for sure. We are sitting jellies if we stay here." Marie said, clearly not too happy to be in this situation either.

"I'll go and-"

"We could try to spread out."

"But they would await us if we try to get him away on the platform Eight."

"Guys, I'll just-"

"Perhaps we could launch a counter attack with the same weapons they're using against us? We must have some of those laying around…"

"Guys, I-"

"But with how many they are, we'll need a truck full of the things to even make a dent in their numbers." Three now suggested, ignoring Will trying to say something.

"Can I just-"

"Maybe we-"

"Guys!" Will raised his voice. "I'll go with them."

"But…" Eight blurted out.

"All I could do otherwise is run or die, and they'd most likely find me again anyways. I'm going with them, and that's final."

"Go ahead." Three replied bluntly, gaining looks from the captain. "What? He wants to, I'm not stopping him."

Will got up, and put the phone to his ear. "I shall go with them, but leave the others out of this." And then ended the call, letting out a sigh of not only relief, but also the fear of what hung above him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mira asked him as he stepped onto the platform.

"I'll have to." He sighed. "Besides, this way I could maybe find a way to sabotage the launch or something. I could try to make sure the cargo never makes it, one way or another. I can't think of the earth, my home, your guys' home, being blown up."

she remained silent as the platform started to move, no idea on how to react. She wasn't alone, even the captain didn't have anything to say. The only thing that she found odd was the slight grin on Three's face, but at this point she had given up trying to understand her.