An Inkling of Sympathy Ch. 8

AN: Hey everyone, sorry about taking so long with this chapter. I've been working on a new Table-top RPG system that I plan on publishing in the future. In fact, I'm almost three-fourths of the way done, I'm just looking for some artists who are willing to make some submissions. PM me if you'd like a list of needed artwork, and I'll gladly give you credit for your contributions. Also, be sure to join us tonight at 9PM CT for the live Twitch stream. The channel is FanoBelmont. It belongs to my good friend and roommate, but worry not I'll be there right alongside him for any Q's I can A. -Kiba

Callie's eyes went wide as she grasped onto my arm, trying to pry it away so she could get the precious air her body needed. This wasn't something I took joy in. Rather, inside her suffering was my suffering. Her flailing caused the tray to clatter to the ground as I watched her eyes roll upwards in her head. She continued to struggle until her body went limp. It was then that I quickly released her.

I placed my ear to her chest; thankfully she was still breathing. Searching her body, I found the key to the handcuffs that kept me trapped on the bed. I quickly twisted it into the lock before replacing Callie's wrist with my own. I wasn't sure if she could hear me. Even still, I whispered softly into her ear, "I'm sorry Callie. I can't stay here. When the Octarians find out that I've gone rogue...I can't let that fall back on you. I won't." Leaning closer, I gently kissed her forehead.

Turning away from her, I tossed the key on to the end table beside her sleeping head. I'd be long gone before she woke up. I quietly slid out of the room, shutting it behind me. "You went to talk to him, huh?" Marie's voice asked. Turning towards it, I saw she had her back to me.

"Sort of." I answered, causing her to wheel about in shock.

"Where's Callie?" she demanded.

"Alive and unharmed, save the awful headache she'll have when she wakes up." My assurance did little to comfort her as we began to circle each other. "I'm leaving Marie, and I'm not going to let you stop me."

"The Hell you are!" she snapped. "I'm not going to let you hurt more innocent people the same way you hurt Callie and me." Grasping a long knife from the kitchen, she lunged at me. I easily avoided her strike; she wasn't going to be able to fight me on even ground like this.

"I haven't hurt either of you." I protested calmly, dodging another slash from her blade. As she drove it down towards my chest, I grasped her wrist, holding it in place. "If anything, I've saved your life countless times. Maybe you find it easy to forget that I helped you escape from prison, or got you to your mother, or spared you when we fought in Octovalley, but I won't. Just like I won't forget all the times the two of you have saved me."

She made a grunt of effort, trying to overpower me. A foolish attempt, if anything. Striking outward with my hand, I smashed into her solar plexus, driving her to her knees gasping for air. Scooping up the knife, I placed the tip of it just before her nose.

"Remember this moment Marie. Once again I could have chosen to kill you, but didn't." I dropped the knife beside her, as she tried to stumble to her feet. "Stop fighting. You'll only get yourself hurt. I won't let the Octarians come for you. There's nothing you can do to keep me here anymore."

"Maybe not her, but I can." I turned to see Captain Cuttlefish standing at the door, another Electrozapper leveled at me.

"Don't start this." I pleaded. "You talked a big game about being a responsible warrior. Well, this is my responsibility."

"Hogwash." he retorted. "You're a prisoner of war son. As far as we're concerned, your only responsibility is to do what we tell you."

"Not any more." There was a flash of movement to my right, before I quickly spun, putting the blade she wielded against her own throat. "Really Marie?" I snarled, holding her like a human shield between the Captain and I. "Already, you've made another mistake."

The knife rested menacingly at her pale throat, only an inch from taking away her life as she struggled to be released. I could see the conflict in the eyes of the Captain.

"Your move, old man. Drop your weapon and kick it towards me, or risk firing it. One of two things happen: either Marie becomes paralyzed and ceases struggling, or you hit me and risk the knife dragging across her throat when my muscles spasm." He gritted his teeth, trying to decide what to do, when his eyes widened in surprise. What was he doing? Just as I opened my mouth to repeat my threat, there was a blinding pain behind my head. As I released Marie, I turned back to see a disheveled Callie wielding a frying pan. Surprisingly, I was still conscious. "Callie?" I groaned. "You're already awake?"

"I heard you." She whispered, just before a jolt of electricity flooded my body. I tried to absorb it into my neural systems, but another bolt continued to prove too much. I reached forward, attempting to crawl away, another zap sending me sprawling on the ground. "Gramps, stop!"

"He's awfully tough." Cuttlefish commented as I tried once again to rise. "How many times must I shoot you until you stay down, boy? You've still got a long life ahead of you, don't throw it away like this."

"You'll have...to kill...me." I snarled, but Callie crouched down in front of me and shook her head.

"Mr. Octoling, stop." She pleaded.

"Screw it, I'll do it." Marie sighed, picking up the blade, but Callie held up her hand indicating for her to stop."Seriously, Callie? He just tried to strangle you! How many times is this going to happen before you realize that he's dangerous?"

The dark-tentacled Inkling stood up quickly, storming to her cousin before slapping her across the face. "And how many times does he have to save us until you finally realize that he can be trusted?!" Callie demanded, causing Marie to look at her startled. "Don't you think I get what's at risk here? Do you think, that if I even had the shadow of a doubt in my mind that he would hurt us, that I'd even consider letting him live? We are supposed to be a team Marie, so stop acting like I'm some dumb bimbo! I know who is dangerous and who isn't, and right now I can promise you that he's only half as dangerous as your attitude!" The whole room fell into an awkward silence as I again tried to get back up. Callie's foot went down on to my back pinning me to the ground. "And you," she bellowed, "how dare you even think that it'd be okay to just leave like that? If they knew where you were, do you honestly think that leaving would stop them from coming here?"

She didn't understand, how could she? "You...don't...get...it." I whispered weakly. "It's not…"

"Shut up!" Callie snapped, the floodgates that normally kept her anger reserved starting to burst. "It's your turn to talk when I say it is, you got me?! And that goes for you too, Marie! I'm sick of being ignored, so now I'm turning up the bitch to eleven, and if either of you have a damned problem with that, you can take it up with me when I damn well feel like it!" Her chest rose and fell in anger as she waited, only to be greeted with silence. "Good! Now then," she turned me over and pointed the frying pan at my head, "you need to stop being such a whiny bitch. 'Oh no, I feel so torn. I'm betraying my people. They're coming to kill me.' Boo fucking hoo! You think we're not doing the exact same thing by keeping you here?! I think we've proven adequately that if Inkopolis were to find out we were hiding you that we'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble, so stop pretending like you're the only one who is causing any sort of trouble. Why do you think we're keeping you here in the first place? You think it's easy having to cook extra food and sneak you around like we have been? The reason you are here is because the other option is that we kill you, and I for one am sick of having to bury dead bodies after the five we had to stash after the fucking concert! So no, you can't leave, screw you, you're staying here and you'll fucking live with it!"

"Callie…" Captain Cuttlefish began.

"No Gramps! I'm sick of this! I will handle it, so please just stay out of it!"

He fell silent as her cousin growled. "You can't just treat us like this Callie!"

"Fuck off Marie, I'll get to you in a moment!" she snapped. "Now, I'll ask you Lusca, are you going to sit there and shut up like a good boy or am I going to have to put a dent in your mantle with a frying pan? If you think my headache was bad when I woke up, it'll look like a fucking cake walk when I'm done!" I silently nodded, causing her to take her foot off of my chest. "Gramps, keep your gun trained on him. If he tries to leave shoot him again."

Captain Cuttlefish snapped to attention in shock and replied, "Yes ma'am."

"Now it's your turn Marie, and before you say anything, I don't give a damn if you're just trying to protect me. You're just as bad as he is, as far as I'm concerned. I don't need someone to protect me; in case you've forgotten, I'm a secret agent too and I'm more than able to kill an Octarian without batting an eye! Remember that I am Agent 1 and you are Agent 2. Gramps gave me seniority because, even if you think you're so much smarter than me, I am still your elder! So get over yourself, we're doing things my way and my way is that he stays alive!"

The whole room remained quiet. "Callie," I began, just as Callie turned on me. I quickly held up my hands as she thrust the frying pan back in my face.

"You'd better make it good if you'd like to keep your facial structure." She snarled.

I swallowed nervously. "I just wanted to say...it's not like that."

"Shut up, Lusca." Marie protested, but Callie just shifted so the frying pan was now pointed at her cousin before nodding for me to proceed.

My eyes went to the silvery-tentacled Inkling, her eyes pleading that I keep our conversation a secret as I'd promised. "She doesn't want to see you as a little kid." I explained, causing Marie's eyes to sink sadly.

"What are you talking about?" Callie asked. "How do you know?"

I shifted nervously. "I promised not to say." I finally surrendered.

Marie's eyes lit up for a moment, causing Callie to look between us both confused. "Something happened…" she muttered, her hand beginning to shake as the gears in her head began to turn. "Something happened between you two."

"No." Her cousin quickly protested. "Nothing happened."

"Gramps," Callie whispered, "escort Mr. Octoling to his room. Make sure he doesn't come out until I'm done talking to him."

I felt the shock pistol jab into my back as he pressured me towards the room, allowing me one final look at Marie before the door shut. Now that I was gone, she turned back to her cousin. "Callie…" she began.

"No Marie, let me ask you something first."

Agent 2 nodded her head. "Okay. What do you want to ask?"

"You love him, don't you?"

An awkward silence sank over the two as Marie's cheeks became a rosy red. She wasn't sure she knew the answer, but she couldn't bring herself to say so. "No." She assured her. "I don't."

Meanwhile, Captain Cuttlefish had his ear pressed to the door as I looked at him confused. "Shouldn't we give them some privacy?" I asked.

"Shh!" He hissed. "This is important stuff. Curse my old age, I used to have ears like a bat."

"Ears like a what?"

"Shh!"

Callie stood before her cousin, arms crossed. "Why won't you look me in the eye?" She demanded. "Are you scared I'll find out you're lying?"

"I'm not!" Marie argued, meeting her eyes before quickly avoiding her gaze again. "Look, I don't want to talk about his right now."

"That's too bad!" Callie snapped, her temper rising. "We're addressing it now! How could you be so hypocritical Marie? You always tell me that my feelings are blinding me, and here you are in love with the man you keep insisting we kill!"

"I'm not in love with him!" Marie shouted, causing me to jump in the other room.

"What in the hell?" I muttered.

"Damn it, I still can't hear a blasted thing." Cap'n Cuttlefish complained, but I quickly nudged him aside to join him against the door.

"I'm not." She repeated, this time more calmly. "I know you don't believe that, but it's true."

After a brief moment, her cousin spoke up. "I think I might be."

"Please don't say that." Marie pleaded. "That's not what I want to hear."

"I don't care what you want to hear Marie. It's true. I think I may be in love with him."

"You can't even remember his name, Callie." She pointed out, trying to hide the desperation in her voice. "How can you love someone whose name you can't remember?"

"I remember his name!"

"No, you don't! You keep calling him Mr. Octoling! Unless he's changed it while he's been here, I'm certain that's not his name."

"I know his name, it's Lus...Lusc…" Her voice began to tremble as well as her body. "I know it." She assured her cousin. "I just can't bring myself to say it. When I try, my tongue gets all tied and my hearts begin to pound in my chest."

"How can you even say that?" Marie asked. "We've known him for all of a week now! You can't love someone in less than a week."

"Then why did you kiss him?!" Callie accused. "You kissed him when he first broke us out, so how can you even say that?"

"I've already explained that." She shot back. "I don't have to explain it again."

"Why are you keeping this a secret from me?" Callie begged. "Why can't you just tell me how you feel about him? If you love him too, that's okay! We're cousins, it's normal for us to discuss these things."

"Not when he's an Octoling who's our prisoner!" She boomed, causing Callie to fall silent. "You want to know how I feel about him? How I feel about everything that's happened?"

"Yes."

"Fine! I don't know how I feel! I don't know what to think or say when you keep asking me why I did what I did! I keep trying to remember the training Gramps gave us, and to just keep reminding myself of what's at stake, but it's not working anymore. Is that what you want to hear? That I doubt myself and my judgment so much that I'd rather see a guy that I may or may not love dead, rather than find out later that this was all just a ruse for our enemy to take advantage of you?"

"Of me?!" Callie argued. "How is this my fault?"

"Because you're the one who brought him here!" Marie finally snapped. "You're the one who aborted that Inkstrike and kept us from killing him when we had the chance! You say that you're the leader and that you're the responsible and mature one, but if that's true then why in the world do I keep ending up in your messes?!"

Both girls stood there, staring each other down as their chests rose and fell heavily. "So that's how you really feel about it, huh?" Callie asked.

"You're damn right."

I could hear the sound of approaching footsteps, and immediately tore myself from the door, just in time for Callie to rip it open. Noting that her Grandfather had been trying to eavesdrop, her glare fiercened, but instead she ignored it and looked to me. "Grab your things." She ordered, causing me to look at her confused.

"What?"

"I said, 'Grab your things'. We're leaving." She waited for me to hurriedly stuff my belongings into a tote bag, before brushing past her cousin. Shoving me through the front door, she turned back to glare at Marie. "Well congratulations Marie, you won't have to worry about my messes anymore! Have a nice life."

With that she slammed the door shut behind her, leaving the dumbfounded Marie standing alone in the living room. As the Cap'n went to go after Callie, Marie stopped him. "No. Let her go." She whispered, before turning away and going to pick up her own things.

"What was all that about?" I asked, as Callie continued to drag me away from the shack.

"Don't worry about it." She huffed, looking back at me before her expression mellowed out. "I bet you're glad to finally have some fresh air."

"Don't try to change the subject." I lectured. "I don't think you realize how badly you've hurt her just now."

"What do you care?" Callie snapped angrily before catching herself. "Sorry, I'm just...can we not talk about her right now? I'm not in the mood. Let's just go before something else happens."

"Go?" I repeated. "Go where?"

"Your place, obviously. We can't stay in Inkopolis. Marie would probably try to find us or something, so we need to go to Octovalley. It's only fair, I mean we kept you as a prisoner of war."

"Absolutely not!" I shouted, ripping my wrist from her grip, causing her to spin on me. "I'm not taking you to Octovalley!"

"Why the hell not?" She demanded. "Is there something wrong with me? I bet you'd take Marie, right?"

"No, I wouldn't take either of you! You two just don't get it do you? This…" I gestured to the city around us. "This is a paradise in comparison to what awaits you down there. Our lives are awful! We don't have hardly any power or electricity because we're living on DJ Octavio's scraps. What little food and water we have has to be rationed out because there are too many of us and not nearly enough to go around. Being brought here was probably the best and worst thing that's ever happened to me, and I'm not going to be the one to put you or anyone else through that ordeal!"

Callie's gaze was serious and intense. "Well, too bad. I don't care, you're bringing me to your house or else I'll make you."

"You could beat me to death before I'd take you there." I growled

"Why are you doing this?" She finally asked. "Can't you see I'm trying to escape from here? You don't know what it's like Mr. Octoling. This city is my prison."

I took a deep breath. "I'm not taking you prisoner."

"You made me take you prisoner! Why won't you do that for me?"

"Octarians do NOT take prisoners!" I bellowed causing her to flinch. "Don't you get it? When an Inkling comes down to Octovalley, that's the end of their life. We don't have enough food or power to run jails and prisons. We just kill them. That's it. There's no capture, no POW's, no interrogations, nothing. If the shoe had been on the other foot Callie, I'd have ended your life in half a heart-beat, because that's what I was trained to do."

She fell silent before replying. "So you'd still do that to me?"

"Of course not."

"Then…"

"I said, 'No' Callie! I don't care where you want to go or hide, but we can't go back to Octovalley. I can't go back to Octovalley. When I went to your concert, I went knowing I was going to have to kill you and Marie. That squad had set up an assassination attempt for you and the crowd. I'd have done it, too."

"Fine." She hissed. "If you won't take me, I'll go by myself."

As she went to leave, my hand snatched her wrist and with a fluid movement, I hip-tossed her to the ground. "I won't let you." I snarled, before she swept my legs out from under me.

"I don't care! I'm not staying here." She shot back, throwing another punch at me. I easily avoided it, throwing her again with a heavy thud against the ground. Her anger was getting the best of her, and in her eyes there was a certain sadness that I knew meant she wouldn't be surrendering this fight, no matter how hard I hit her. As we stood back up, I waited patiently for her to came back towards me.

"Yes, you are." I demanded, causing her to lash out again. I caught her fist and twirling her, pulled her to me in the same choke hold as before. This time however, my grip was soft and gentle. I drew her back against my chest, restraining her there, but keeping little pressure on her throat. "I can't let you leave." I whispered in her ear, my voice dropping to a hushed tone.

Immediately, her struggles ceased. After a moment, she pushed back against me, a soft hand resting on my arm that was wrapped around her. "Why are you doing this? Why won't you let me leave with you? Are you so desperate to get away from me?"

"Callie…" I murmured, her fingertips trailing along my flesh affectionately.

"Marie likes you." She replied.

"I know."

"So you heard us?"

"Yes...but you're wrong. She doesn't love me." I replied.

Callie shook her head. "You don't know that. She doesn't even know that."

"She may not know, but I do." I answered.

There was a brief pause. "How?"

"Because she's right. You can't love someone after knowing them for a week. It's the same way that I know you don't love me."

Callie turned to look at me, and silently, wrapped her arms around the back of my neck, drawing herself closer against me. Instinctively, my hands went to her waist, as we held each other close. "You can't know what's in my hearts."

"I know that there's kindness. Right now, your cousin needs that kindness."

"She doesn't want to see me." She retorted. "All she sees me as is a mess to clean up."

"That's not true." I chastised. "Your cousin loves you, more than you could ever know. You want to know what we talked about?" Her head bobbed up and down in affirmation. "She told me she kissed me because she's jealous of you. She wanted to know what it was like to be the little sister for once, instead of the big one. She feels responsible for you, because she feels like she has to be so you can be happy."

"But, that's not…" Callie protested. "I mean, she never…" She struggled to form sentences as she tried to come up with an explanation.

I just smiled at her and looking over her shoulder at the shack, Marie still stood in the living room, just staring at the far wall. "I have a plan." I whispered to her. "Go in there, tell her that you're sorry and ask her what she thinks you should do."

"I know what she'll say. She wants to kill you."

"Then agree." I stated, causing her eyes to widen.

"No! I can't just…"

"She won't do it. She's bluffing. I think the reason she keeps saying she wants to kill me, is because she wants to see if you'll still rely on her. She's hurt because she thinks that you don't trust her, so show her that you put more faith in her than you do in me."

Callie's eyes began to water as she backed away for a moment and wiped her eyes. "What if she does kill you?" She sobbed. "Then how will I ever forgive myself?"

"Do you trust her?"

"Of course, I do! She's my cousin!"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"Then you've nothing to worry about. Go, I'll wait right here."

Callie turned away from me, giving my hand one gentle squeeze for courage and returned to the door, leaving me to stand there as I watched the two of them through the window.

As she entered the cabin, Marie looked surprised to see her come back. "Forget something?" She asked, trying to hide the redness of her eyes. "I thought you never wanted to see me again."

"I'm sorry." Callie apologized, causing Marie to fall silent. "I don't want to leave you, Marie."

Marie quickly grabbed Callie and pulled her into a tight hug. "I love you so much Callie!" She whimpered. "Please, don't leave me. I don't want anything to come between us. You're my cousin...no, you're my sister!"

Gramps stood in the corner silently, still unsure of what to say. "Girls?"

"Not now, Gramps." Callie answered, hugging her back. "We're kind of having a moment right now."

"But…"

"Please." Marie replied. "Promise you won't leave."

"I promise. And Marie, I don't know what to do...please help me. I need you to tell me what we should do."

"Girls…"

"WHAT?" Marie snapped at him, upset that he ruined the mood.

He pointed at the window with a trembling finger. "He's gone."

Callie straightened immediately. "No." She muttered. "No, no, no." As the both of them rushed to the window, they peered out to see that the lot was completely vacant.

"You've got to be kidding me! He gave us the slip, again?" Callie turned and sank against the wall as Marie's eyes continued to scan the horizon for any sign of life.

I stood absolutely still, my flesh now completely translucent. The last thing I wanted was to be proved wrong. I'd stand here all night if I had to until they stopped looking for me. The sooner I could disappear, the better it would be.

"It looks like Gramps was right. He must have left when you came back in." Marie murmured.

"So it's all my fault...again." Callie stated, hurt and confused.

"I'm sorry I kept blaming you Callie." Marie whispered, helping her to her feet. "But this proves it now, he's been trying to deceive us this whole time. He's been trying to pick at us and tear us apart, and now that he has, he's used the chaos to slip away. We have to find him and stop him."

The pink-clad beauty nodded. "Alright." She responded. "Let's get him. This time, we'll make him pay." Despite her serious expression, however, inside a small flame of joy flared into life. She didn't realize this had been his plan all along, but now she knew, once and for all, she truly did love him. Now, she'd chase him to the ends of the Earth. "Gramps, give us guns."

Walking to their armory, they began to tug on their secret agent uniforms. "So how are you planning on finding him?" Cap'n Cuttlefish asked.

"We have the advantage." Callie explained. "While he's navigating he has to try to sneak around, but we can just walk about like normal. We'll intercept him on his way to the Valley. Keep him from re-entering the kettles."

"I disagree." Marie interrupted, selecting her favorite charger from the wall and strapping the ink tank to her back. "We know he's smart, really smart. He'd expect us to go there. I say we follow his tracks in the dust. He couldn't have gone too far."

Callie, going for a more compact weapon, grabbed the aerospray. She personally preferred the roller, but with it's weight she knew it would only serve to slow her down. Stepping out, she witnessed her cousin standing there in the dirt, staring intently at the ground. "Something wrong?"

"The tracks stop here." She muttered, leaning down to investigate.

I held my breath tightly. Already, I could feel the hot air from her lips against my thigh. I couldn't move though. Even an inch, and she'd probably be able to feel it. Looking up from the sand, I found myself staring into her golden eyes. I knew she couldn't see me, but even still my heart skipped a beat. If anyone could see the awkward position we'd found ourselves in...well it'd be difficult to explain what was happening. For a moment, it seemed like she was going to draw back, until she swung forward with a jab and struck me hard in the gut.

With a cough, I sank to my knees. My eyes opened to see hers glaring at me. "Was...that truly...necessary?" I hacked, using my arm to shakily support myself. With a click, I heard the charger starting to power up.

"You've got a five second head-start." She growled. "Trying to escape again, after you caused so much chaos? That's ridiculous."

"N-no!" Callie called, causing Marie to let out a frustrated groan.

"Really?"

Callie gently stood beside her cousin, leveling the nozzle of her weapon in my face. "Let me do it." She calmly stated, causing me to look into her eyes. I couldn't even tell if she was playing along anymore. I know that I tried to escape again, but would she couldn't have guessed that.

Shouldering her charger, she nodded. "Fine. I'll let you handle it." She whispered, turning away from her before whispering in her ear. "Thanks. I don't know if I could bring myself to do it."

"Y-yeah." Callie stammered. This wasn't what she planned, it didn't seem like Marie was going to back down. Her hand began to tremble as she pressed the nozzle against my forehead. Steeling herself with a nervous swallow she nodded to me. "Alright Marie, just give the word…"

"Good bye, Lusca." Marie called over her shoulder.

I could see the conflict in Callie's eyes as her finger slowly squeezed down on the trigger.

To be continued...