Gavin was already waiting in the lounge by the time Ayla had finally resurfaced. It wasn't much longer until the door clicked open and the ex-scout spotted a fly as it buzzed into the room. It had just landed on the doorframe when the newcomer slammed the entrance shut.

"Now…" Quinn began with a clandestine bow, completely unaware that he'd just committed fly-icide. "If milady has been properly settled, we must commence this most honored interview. Shall we begin, Your Elegantfulness?"

Ayla didn't understand much of what he'd said, so she simply nodded along.

"Ah right away, my lady!" Quinn pulled a laptop from his satchel and shoved it at Gavin. "Transcribe, knave."

"Knave?" The Octoling raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes." Quinn nodded as if his answer was obvious. "I'm the knight and you're the knave; you said I needed to be more chivalrous to our good lady yet nothing about making you the rapscallion in our little scenario."

"…Aaaaand I officially regret saying anything." Gavin ran a hand through his pink mohawk.

"Perfect, mission accomplished!" Quinn clapped his hands together, finally dropping the medieval Inklish as he turned back to Ayla. "Valerie was your neighbor, correct?"

Ayla nodded again, thankful for more normal words.

"What did you know about her?" Gavin's fingers paused their typing as his red eyes poked over the laptop's rim.

"Not…lots." Ayla's thoughts ended with an empty sigh. "We not talk much. She does Salmon Runs…a lots of Salmon Runs." Her unfocused eyes widened at the two-to-three shifts Valerie would run per day.

"Was there anything about her that seemed…off, lately?" Quinn had fished a navy blue pen from his pocket and was absently chewing its cap. "Did she meet with anyone unusual, was she worried someone was out to get her…?"

Ayla thought for a long time before finally shaking her head. She watched Quinn scowl as he grunted to himself, still chewing on the cap. The Octoling felt her own shoulders deflate—she could tell she wasn't much help.

"Wait…" Ayla perked up as the memory floated back to her. "Her…" She swished an arm in the air, trying to find the right word.

"Boyfriend?" Quinn offered.

"Girlfriend?" Gavin glanced up from the laptop.

"Otherfriend?"

"Clothes?"

"Shovel?"

"Face?"

"Countenance?"

"That's the same thing, you idiot…"

"Friend." Ayla dropped her arm, relieved she could finally shut them up. "He was…" Her thoughts jumped back to the wifebeater and Salmonid tattoos. "Weird."

"What's his name?" Gavin poised his fingers above the keyboard. "I can probably look him up on the police's database."

"Ares." Ayla replied, looking around for anyplace to put her own hands. She eventually gave up and plopped them back into her lap.

"Got it." Gavin started typing away.

"How was he weird?" Quinn tugged the cap from his beak, only to have the clip snap against his fang and out of the Inkling's grasp. He spent a couple panicked milliseconds trying to catch the pen…but gave up when it landed halfway across the room.

"They speaking a day ago." Ayla almost felt bad at the minuscule relief of not looking like the awkward one. Almost. "Valerie said they talking work, but…that would be an illegal for business."

"Inappropriate." Quinn was quick to correct her. "It's legal, just weird."

"Holy carp..." Gavin chuckled in disbelief as he spun the mouse wheel. "This guy has...sooo...many...assaults on his record."

"But no homicides." Quinn leaned in to look at the screen. "Not even a squidslaughter."

"Most of the more recent ones were in the Deepsea Metro." Gavin narrowed his eyes at the screen. "In fact there's an arrest from just a few days ago, but the charges never made it to court and someone bailed him out almost immediately."

"Who was it?" Quinn leaned in further and almost tipped his chair over.

Gavin's finger scrolled through the document, but his search only ended with a shake of his head. "…I don't know; it doesn't say."

"…You were right." Quinn turned back to Ayla with a semi-impressed frown. "This guy is weird. But at least we can bring him in for questioning about what he's been up to and see where that leads. But that's enough for…" His words trailed off as the agent watched Gavin's frantic clicking on the laptop. "…What're you doing?"

"I'm closing your tabs." Gavin kept clicking. "I just…I can't take it anymore."

"No!" Quinn leapt out of his chair to wrestle for control over the computer. "Cod dang it, this is why I kicked you out! I don't want any of this unsolicited 'cleaning!'"

"It's for your own good!" Gavin fought back. "Cod knows you don't need 26 tabs on boats!"

"What if I wanna go back to those articles—"

"Then you write them down like a normal cephalopod!"

"Oh you mean those bulky planners that you refuse to use unless they're exactly eight-and-a-half by eleven inches long? Because trust me that is not normal..."

Ayla just…sat there, not really knowing what to do or how to interpret their antics. She ended up awkwardly admiring the floorboards and pretending she didn't exist, which—given her history—wasn't hard to do.

Gavin (finally) glanced at Ayla and dropped the antic with an embarrassed cough. "Um, thanks for your help. You should, uh, you should definitely get some rest after a day like today. We can handle everything else from here."

Quinn took advantage of Gavin's distraction and wrested the laptop from his hands, reopening the lid with a discontented sigh.

"…Okay, maybe I didn't need all of those tabs…"

Delta's boots skidded across familiar indigo ink. There––she'd seen it: the telltale glimmer of gold as her opponent tried to sneak through Arowana Mall's main ramp. The enemy team was obviously pushing; assuming the two teammates guarding Delta's spawn would splinter under their three frontliners.

But they hadn't counted on Agent 4's sentry from the side alley, perfectly positioned to flank the enemy's defenseless rear. And they definitely hadn't counted on her boyfriend waiting to tag along.

"Ready?" Delta pressed a finger to her earpiece.

Dylan's tentacle bun slid into view as he poked half his head from the opposing parapet. "Ready."

And just like that—his head was back behind cover as if nothing had happened, making Delta crack an endeared smirk. Dylan often ended up goofy whenever he tried to be secretive—she didn't know if it was her NSS experience or if he was just plain bad at it…but she'd always thought it was adorable.

The member bringing up the opponent's rear passed the central billboard; time to strike.

"Go, go, go!" Delta leapt off her ledge, aiming her Splash-o-matic at the golden shimmer. Three shots of indigo left the player splatted and the Rainmaker surfaced from the green ink, shield already engaged. A quick Burst Bomb was all the attention Delta gave the startled frontliners and she set to work on the Rainmaker's shield.

Flecks of green whizzed past her periphery as the nearby N-Zap began to fire at her, but a single shot from Dylan's Tenta Brella made short work of the player. His canopy deployed moments later––protecting them from the other two opponents as the Rainmaker's shield grew and grew.

The barrier finally popped and a wave of indigo crashed into the last two green players. Delta dove for the Rainmaker, scooping the familiar weapon onto her shoulder; and Dylan was already firing his Tenta Brella to carve an indigo avenue in the sea of green. Delta wasted no time in dipping into squid form and swimming up Dylan's path. The couple had made it past the first ramp and were speeding across the enemy's turf when two opponents flanked the couple from above.

"Go!" Dylan gently nudged Delta ahead of him. "I'll take care of these two; you bring this match home!"

Delta raced up the final ramp but her boots skidded to a stop when she saw the N-Zap player below her. He raised his weapon's sights onto Delta's chest––but he didn't know he was dealing with Agent 4 and her prized Rainmaker. She dodged his line of fire with a forward flip she'd performed waaaay too many times against Octavio, and Delta's scarred palm slammed the fin against the tigerfish's flank. A huge, shimmering ball of ink sailed into the opponent's wide eyes, splatting him in an indigo explosion.

But Delta wasn't done. Her flip had covered just enough ground, held just enough momentum that maybe if she really reached…

…She could land by slamming that Rainmaker into the goalpost, just like she'd driven it into Octavio's face in their final battle.

In fact it had felt so familiar that Agent 4 found herself pushing the fin again—and was even surprised when no ink came out; it wasn't until the whistle that Delta remembered she was in a League match and not a high-stakes NSS mission. She released her grip on the un-modified, un-stolen Rainmaker and stood to watch Judd close the match. The others began to disperse from the stage, but Delta began to look for Dylan—except she didn't find him until he'd returned from their team's base.

Delta slowed to a stop in front of her boyfriend. "…Did they get you?"

"Yeah." Dylan brushed it off with a shrug. "But don't worry about that. It was what you needed."

Delta leaned in for a kiss. "Thanks. Glad you've got my back."

"Anytime." Dylan smiled back. "Now, all that shooting made me hungry. I say it's food court time."

So they ducked into one of the nearby restaurants and bought lunch—Delta ordered a catfish burger while Dylan got a hot sea dog—and the couple settled at one of the tables near the window to watch Arowana Mall's next match.

"So," Dylan began, dipping one of his fries into the tiny ketchup cup. "I definitely learned something new today; don't give the girlfriend a Rainmaker."

Delta hid a shy smile behind her burger. "…You saw that before you were splatted."

"I don't think I could've missed that even if I was." He chomped on his french fry, wiping the slippery salt off his fingers with a napkin. "You jumped so high I wouldn't be surprised if somebody could see it from the other side of the stage. Why do you have to be so showy sometimes?"

"Because it's fun." Delta bit into her burger with a smirk. She wasn't lying; her final battle against Octavio might've been stressful, but the thrill of dancing around an enemy's attacks and returning fire with an explosion-launching statue was easily one of the best moments of her life.

"'Because it's fun…'" Dylan echoed with a knowing chuckle. "Well, I now know how to advise Kai on the Rainmaker schedule: don't have them while you're around."

Delta set her burger down in favor of the chips along the side of her plate. "How is his project coming along?"

"Actually, not too bad." Dylan replied with an approving shrug. "With a little more stage equipment, a little more know-how—and Echo's Edge might have its first Ranked Battles pretty soon." He dipped his chin but his green eyes stayed on his girlfriend. "Entering League matches with you helps the know-how quite a bit."

"Well, any time you need a showoff––" Delta flicked his forehead, "––I'm around."

"Ow." Dylan feigned a wince, bringing a hand up to rub at the nonexistent injury. "As you wish, violent-but-beautiful lady."

Delta smirked at the compliment, but a familiar voice bellowed from the loudspeakers outside. The couple looked out the window to find two Turf War teams––one sporting orange and the other purple—gearing up as the announcer finished their introductions.

"…That looks like a Nationals match." Dylan spoke what Delta was wondering. "Wow, I guess it really has been that long. Now other teams get to run the gauntlet."

"You know," Delta glanced down at her plate as she remembered Marie's advice a couple days prior. "Have you ever thought about bringing the team back together and entering in other competitions?"

"I have, once or twice." Dylan turned his attention back to his girlfriend." But I don't think Kai or Addam are interested anymore. And besides," he glanced away. "I don't think it would be good for me anyway."

Delta looked back up, caught off-guard by his answer. "Why's that?"

"All this time away from Entrenched has made me think about a lot of things." Dylan's tone lowered into something more somber. "And watching everybody with their new hobbies has made me realize something. You're here in the city doing your own thing, Addam's all over the country doing his own thing, Kai might be back at home but he's still doing his own thing, but…" His lips pursed into an upset line, looking away. "But what's my own thing?"

Delta set her burger down but said nothing, deciding to let Dylan finish his vent before butting in.

"I mean, what am I doing?" Dylan pulled at the tiny tentacle buds at the back of his neck. "I'm helping Kai keep his squit together––exactly what I've been doing since the two of us have been friends. Everyone's moved onto new phases of their lives but I feel…stuck." He dropped his hand with a sigh. "And I don't like it. I want to find something new where I feel like I can make a difference; rebuilding Entrenched would just push me backwards instead of forward."

"How long have you been feeling like this?" Delta asked, because she honestly had no idea. She'd always thought Dylan was perfectly content with his job as Kai's second-in-command, and she would feel like an especially bad girlfriend if she missed something that had been bothering him since their Turf War days.

"A few months, at least." Dylan shrugged as Delta silently breathed a slight sigh of relief. "I haven't talked to Kai about it yet because I don't want to ditch him either, plus I have no idea where I'd even go. Where can I really apply myself and contribute to this world?"

"Hey, don't ask me." Delta held her hands up. "I got my own answer from a tigerfish that I beat half to death with a rock. I have no idea how to answer that question normally."

Dylan burst into laughter. "You're unique, I'll give you that." He finished the last of his sea dog. "But not for nothing, a lot of folks travel to Mount Nantai's summit to reflect on themselves—maybe a hike there would do me some good. I'll just be sure to stay out of tigerfish-occupied caves."

"It's not fun." Delta mumbled back. "Trust me."

Dylan gave a little chuckle. "But that'll have to be some other time—we've got a lot of other stuff planned today so we should move out. Let me just head to the bathroom first." He stood up and disappeared behind the door labeled "men's," and Delta was busy cleaning up their table when her shellphone buzzed. She pulled it out to find a text from a familiar number named "2":

"Meet me in the Cabin tomorrow night—but don't tell anyone. We need to talk."

A/N: I apparently didn't have much to say about this chapter when it first came out, and part 1 stole all the comments that were still relevant. So, uh, have a smiley face instead :)