A/N: I apologize SO very much for the delay of this chapter. I have been MAJORLY lazy with everything lately (including schoolwork), and I know it. I know that I did write two TLK fanfics while being lazy, though -____- *walks away ashamed* So being lazy mixed in with my new obsession with TLK didn't help get this chapter out any sooner. I still have a loving passion for Nemo, don't worry. So this story (along with 'all you wanted') will continue.

Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Chapter 8 – "Ink from the Squid"

Knowing it was no use; Marlin let himself float down to the bottom of the whale's mouth. Everything around him sort of disappeared once he touched the bottom, and he closed his eye, fighting back tears of frustration. A few seconds later, he heard Dory's voice next to him.

"There, there, there. It's alright," she told him sweetly. "It'll be okay." He shook his head, not wanting to yell at her anymore. "No," he said weakly. "No it won't."

"Sure it will," she pressed. "You'll see."

Marlin wished she would just give it up already. She had to find out sooner or later that life wasn't perfect, ad that bad things happen. And this case, nothing 'okay' was going to come out of this. Though deep down, he was happy to find another friend before he died. He had almost forgotten what it had felt like to have a true friend.

"No… I promised him I'd never let anything happen to him," he said more to himself than to her. She was quiet for a moment as he finally let his eyes open.

"Well," she started, looking away from him. "You can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him."

That got his attention. She really had a point, there, believe it or not. Dory was actually… right. She hadn't taken what he said the correct way, but what she said made sense. He had been to overprotective of Nemo. And that was why he had gone out to the boat in the first place. And how this whole thing star –,"

Marlin's thoughts were interrupted when he looked at Dory. She was smiling softly at him, and in that split second, he felt a newfound emotion pass through him very strongly. He was in a dazed state for a moment until she said,

"Not much for fun for little Harpo."

Her mistaking Nemo's name (again) pulled him out of the strange feeling. He just sighed and looked back at the ground. He didn't want to think about the awkward moment that had just taken place, but he couldn't help it. It had been so… he didn't even know how to describe.

Marlin shook it off, knowing it had probably just been a spur-of-the-moment type thing. He thought it would never happen again.

… But he was wrong.

~~~

His dream ending, Marlin opened his eyes slowly. He blinked a few times as the sunlight filled his eyes. As he let them adjust to the light, he yawned and got up from the ground.

Knowing that the clock was still ticking, Marlin didn't want to think over his dream. It had just been a memory, anyway. It was nothing….

He shook his head and pulled out the flat rock, looking for what he had to retrieve this day. He scanned down past the two items he had gotten already, and he stopped at,

Ink of the Giant Squid

Marlin let out a tired sigh and he looked up with a 'you've gotta be kidding me' look. He knew this task was coming, but he didn't want it to come so soon. But he guessed that getting it over with now was better than having to do it last.

Not about to waste any time, Marlin touched the words with the tip of his fin. He let himself be carried away by the force of the rock, and in only a matter of seconds, the twirling around him stopped and everything came into view.

He was getting more used to those trips.

He looked around and could only see murky waters in front and all around him. The only thing he could make out was the surface of the water, and a very, very, very large cave in front of him.

Marlin gaped at the size of the cave. He felt like he was swimming right next to one of those human boats that make the loud honking noise. Shaking slightly, he took a deep breath, and went inside. Once darkness completely surrounded him, the rock lit up, allowing him to see again.

He didn't swim for very long before he ran into something…. Squishy. He was hesitant in backing up to see what it was, but when he did, he gulped as he felt his blood run cold.

As he held the light up to see, he saw one gigantic eye. The giant, yellow eye stared at Marlin angrily before he heard a low growl come from where the eye was. Well, I guess that's the squid, Marlin thought to himself. He was frozen for only a moment more before he turned around and sped back in the direction of the cave opening.

Once out of the cave, Marlin turned to look as the enormous, red monster followed. The tiny clownfish was but a mere speck compared to the squid, and Marlin could only hope for a miracle to get what he needed.

Looking around for something that might help him, Marlin didn't see anything. So how was he going to get the ink? He knew that squids, or octopuses only let out their ink in defense, or if they're frightened. So if he could somehow scare the thing…

But how a tiny fish was going to scare a giant squid was beyond him. Though he knew he had no choice but to try.

It was for Dory.

With a sudden burst of determination, Marlin took off in the direction of the cave wall. He planned that if he could get the squid to run into the rock, it would surprise it enough to squirt out the ink.

He continued to swim until he was as close to rock as he could get without smashing into it himself. At the last second, Marlin bolted upwards, narrowly avoiding the rock wall. But his plan didn't work out the way he wanted it. The squid had enough agility to turn in time before hitting the wall also.

As the squid took after him again, Marlin swam upwards more. He swam around in all directions, just to have time to think of a plan, while not getting killed at the same time. Hew kept looking everywhere, for anything that would have the slightest chance of helping in the least - a miracle.

Then, looking up at the surface, Marlin saw it: a large fishing boat. If there was one thing that could scare any sea creature, it was humans, and their need to study everything new. And even the fishes of the sea knew that the giant squid was a popular legend.

Marlin swam up to the surface and poked his head out of the water. The squid was right beneath him, so he had to move to the side a bit. When the squid made it's way out of the water, (as Marlin had expected) the humans on the boat were staring in shock. One was pointing at it and shouting something to the other human as the other human made it's way to the edge of the boat. He took out what looked a large, fancy stick and pointed it at the squid. At first Marlin had no clue what he was doing, but right in the second before the squid landed back in the water, the stick let off a loud bang.

The squid seemed to stop in midair and fall into the ocean with a huge splash. The stick made the booming noise again, and Marlin noticed that whenever the bang noise went off, it was the hitting the squid with something… and very hard too.

Marlin noticed with a great deal of relief that the water around the squid was turning black with ink. He took out a tiny bottle found in his bag and scooped up the black water. He took note, also, that the water was now turning a dark red color.

The squid was dead.

Marlin watched for a little bit more as the humans threw a net over the giant creature and hoisted it up on the boat. He cringed, thinking of how horrible that must have been.

Back in the water again, Marlin decided to transport away from that area before going to sleep. He didn't want to rest in such a murky part of the ocean. And once he was in a good enough spot, he settled himself on the ground.

"Three down, four to go," Marlin said to himself. As he was falling asleep, he thought to himself about how he couldn't wait to finish this whole thing.

And see Dory again.

A/N: holy crap, this only took an hour to write. So I hope you enjoyed it, as I had fun writing it. Or at least, I must have, since I finish it so quick O_O Uh… once again I'll apologize for not having this done when I promised I would _ I'm such a bad person…