A/N: This chapter is kind of a callback to things mentioned in earlier chapters of this story, because of that it may end up feeling like a repeat of an earlier event.

Octo Valley

"What's this?!"

When Inker and the others woke up, he was surprised to find a bound and gagged Elite Octoling present, along with Neon wide awake.

Actually wide awake wasn't the correct word here.

"Oh guys! You're up! Finally! Do you know how boring it was standing guard all night? Okay well since you're all awake I'll go get some shut eye, good night!"

"Don't just go to sleep like that! At least explain a few things first!" Inker shouted.

Neon rubbed her eyes

"What's there to explain? *yawn* She was spying on us so I tied her up."

"How did you know that?"

"Dunno, I had a hunch. Plus I noticed the grouchy girl constantly glance over at the barn so I figured something was there. Can I sleep now?"

"Yeah sure, but not for too long, we need to follow the schedule."

Neon laid down and instantly fell asleep, while Inker turned to Eliza.

Who else could be identified as "grouchy girl" but her?

"Did you know about this?"

Eliza didn't face him, but she still answered

"If you had been paying attention instead of talking about fashion or whatever, you would have noticed."

She knew.

Eliza putting her personal grudge infront of everyone else's well being really bothered Inker. But it was Victoria who was really ticked off now.

Victoria was a career soldier, who pretty much devoted everything to joining the Octarian army, she would put the well being of others first as she believes a soldier should.

So it was inevitable that someone like her would clash with someone like Eliza.

"So you knew! Hey we are supposed to be a team here, why didn't you tell us? If there's an Elite here, than that means Octavia knows we are coming! We could possibly be walking into a trap and all gotten splatted!"

Eliza didn't say a word.

"So that's why…. You think that if you did nothing the Elite would alert the others and the army come would take out Agent 3? Is that right?"

Eliza still refused to speak.

Victoria raised a finger and pointed at Eliza.

"You're unfit to serve."

'?!" Eliza, now faced Victoria with an equally angry face.

"Say that again."

"You heard me, you are unfit."

"Hmph. That's rich, coming from the one who sold us out in the first place. Why don't you stop and think: how many of my sisters in arms died when you led Agent 3 to Melanin prison? You should never have joined the army."

"I joined the army and helped Agent 3 because I'm doing what I believe is right. Why don't you take a good look at your captain? She's doing the exact same thing."

"She's doing it for the entire Octarian race, unlike a certain someone who did it for a free ticket to Inkopolis."

"She's doing what she THINKS is right and so am I. Also for the record I never once concidered leaving Octo Valley behind for Inkopolis."

Eliza and Victoria stared holes into each other, creating a tense atmosphere.

"Hey, calm down Victoria. I know how seriously you take being a soldier, but let's not start fighting amongst ourselves." Kal said.

"U-umm Eliza, are you really willing to sacrifice everyone here just to see Agent 3 splatted?" Lynn asked

"Don't pin everything on me, it's survival of the fittest in Octo Valley remember? Nobody befriends anyone so that they won't be bothered when they die. If the team must be sacrificed, so be it."

This made Lynn back away in fear.

Unlike Victoria and Eliza who were both used to the concept of not making bonds to avoid loss, Lynn had made friends and trusted them before.

She thought since Eliza was from her splatoon, she could be trusted just as much as Claire, but this wasn't the case.

"Wait…. That means you'll sacrifice me! You'd leave me to die with Agent 3? Cause that's probably what would have happened if Neon wasn't here!"

"..."

"I heard that you stopped harassing the Inklings back at base, So I thought maybe you had changed. Did you really hate Agent 3 that much for saving you?"

Lynn said something Inker couldn't ignore.

"Wait? What? How does that make any sense? Didn't I splat her sister and that's why she hates me so much?"

"It's not just that."

"Keep quiet Lynn."

Lynn ignored the menacing Eliza.

"I think that Eliza's mad that you had to go to her aid during the three way fight with the Vanguard movement and Octarian army."

"Keep your stupid theories to yourself." Eliza commented, but her words landed on deaf ears.

"Am I wrong?"

"..."

"At least you know when to keep quiet." Victoria added.

Inker sighed "I'll go speak to Captain Vale about this once we get back, we still have to free the hostages in Bassoon prison right?"

"Are you sure it's a good idea? If there's an Elite here than the chances are that Octavia already knows we are coming." Victoria pointed out.

"Hey you tell me, I don't know much about gorilla warfare or whatever you call this stuff."

"It's guerilla, anyways we could continue as planned, or we could head back, though I don't think Vale would be pleased if we turned tail and ran."

"Then we keep going?"

"We should, since there's no way to contact the other groups, but there's a bit of a problem now. First off, if the Octarian army knows we are here, they could possibly reinforce Bassoon prison. Secondly we have no way of knowing whether or not the other groups have been discovered or not until we actually attack Bassoon prison. Thirdly we still have this Elite to deal with."

Victoria turned to the bounded Elite Octoling.

Had she seen her before? Her face looked kinda familiar...

"By the way, is Neon into bondage or something? I mean the way she tied up this Elite seems extremely well done..."

"Huh?" Sky, Inker and Kal didn't know what Victoria was talking about.

Once again surprised by the lack of knowledge, Inker and the other possessed, Victoria rolled her eyes then began to explain.

She pointed at the ropes.

Neon had tied the Elite's legs and wrists together with two separate ropes, the Elite could not move either her arms or legs due to them being held together by constrictor knots, the two ropes were then joined together by a double fisherman knot on one end, while the other ends were tied in figure eights which also helped secure the Elite's limbs.

Victoria explained all this and Lynn ended up joining in since she understood these things. They were normally taught how to tie those knots in the Octarian army.

Lynn also pointed out that Neon had removed the Elite's goggles and faced them towards a wall, since the goggles could record what was happening.

All in all, Neon did a surprisingly good job.

"Zzz"

Of course, Neon still didn't promote a dependable side of herself, considering the fact that she was sprawled out on the floor, fully asleep.

"Shouldn't somebody wake her up?" Kal asked

"Let her sleep for a bit longer, she deserves it don't you think?" Sky replied

"No actually wake her up now, we need to go split the rations anyways then leave for Bassoon." Victoria said.

Sky went to wake up Neon, who brushed him away at first, but when he mentioned eating and leaving, Neon got up quickly.

After retrieving their rations from the nearby barn, Victoria was about to distribute them, but Neon had already taken her share.

Victoria looked like she wanted to say something, but held it back.

She distributed the remaining rations among themselves.

Once again, Eliza was separated from the group, though now it was because nobody really trusted her anymore.

"By the way, what are we going to do about her?" Inker asked, pointing at the captured Elite, who hadn't said a word since capture.

"We can't take her with us, I was thinking we leave someone behind to watch her, I mean Neon did a pretty good job tying her up, but there is still a chance she'll break free."

Sky looked like he was about to volunteer, but changed his mind after hearing that last bit.

"We could send her back to the lair, but that would also be suspicious regardless of who does it."

"Maybe we could untie her and blindfold her, then tell her to walk towards the lair so the others can pick her up?"

"That won't work, she'll just turn around the moment we are gone."

While Inker and Victoria discussed this, Neon was sneaking away bits of Kal and Sky's rations.

Sky ignored it at first, but soon it got on his nerves.

"Why do you keep taking my food?"

"I'm hungry."

"Eat your own then!"

"Oh it's poisoned so I'd rather not."

"Oh okay…. Wait what?"

Everyone looked at Neon.

"What?"

"Did you just say poison?"

"Yeah, some of the rations are poisoned."

Kal and Sky looked at their remaining food with fear, while Inker covered his mouth.

"Oh don't worry guys, I took all the poisoned food." Neon pointed at her pile of rations.

No wonder she wasn't eating any of it.

As she did that, the Elite struggled a bit, it seems like her plan had failed.

"How did you know?"

"Hmm? I mean there was someone watching us so I figured they might have done something already, so I spent last night checking everything we brought with us. Isn't that common sense?"

"I don't want to hear common sense from you… Wait hold the phone, how do you know which rations were poisoned?" Sky said

"Uhhh, if the bread isn't as tough as a baseball bat, or if the jerky doesn't feel like a ball of salt then I figure something must be wrong, oh and also sometimes you can smell the difference. So if you wanted to poison someone you should do it with something strong and acidic so it's harder for them to notice, like ice wine for example."

"Why do you know all this?"

"My mind is loaded with random bits of useless knowledge!"

"That's not exactly something to be proud of…"

"You can be proud of anything! Didn't you say that Sky?"

"I didn't, did I? I don't remember…"

"What do you mean? you were the one who said 'stop worrying over mistakes and start seeing all the times you did good.' and 'sure you made some mistakes, but you also did many things right.' remember?"

"Uhh yeah but, how come you remember everything word for word?"

"How could I not? I was depressed and you help me snap out of it! it's a precious memory for me!"

"So.. what other kinds of things do you know?" Victoria asked.

"Oh just cool things, for example, did you know that 'word salad' is an actual psychiatric term for the inability to speak?"

"I don't know if that can be defined as cool, rather it sounds like something Dr Asio would say." Kal commented.

"What about how when people offer something for "free" right after announcing it's price, then it's most likely a way to entice you into buying something else?"

"Isn't that just normal business?"

"Then how about the story of an Inkling from the Great Turf War sparing a crippled Octarian saucer and letting it fly back to safety?"

"Yeah that does sound more interesting."

"Oh and what about-"

"We don't have time for this…" Eliza snapped from the other side of the room.

"I thought you didn't care about our team." Victoria said

"I care about our objectives, the sooner we raid Bassoon and get back to the sooner I can get away from him."

Eliza glared at Inker, who by now was getting used to it.

With Neon returning to sneaking bits and pieces of other people's rations, Victoria and Inker whispered to each other.

"Is it just me, or has Neon been surprisingly useful of late?"

"To be honest, I always thought that if Neon could control herself instead of charging into battle, she'd be a better Agent 3 than me."

"You're thinking of stepping down already? First time I've heard of a soldier retiring this early."

"Don't forget I was never a soldier to start with, I became Agent 3 because I thought I could do some good, but well now I'm getting involved in some complicated things I can't even begin to understand."

"Oh.. well, you're still pretty useful as you are, don't go quitting on us yet."

Bassoon Prison

After a long trip, sneaking about in the Undercity, Inker and company arrived at their goal.

If Vale's plan was to be followed, they would have to attack at the other groups as an enveloping attack would be the most efficient.

Inker, Victoria, Eliza and Neon were all ready for battle.

Kal and Sky on the other hand, a little less.

Lynn was no longer with them, since they decided to let her bring back the captured Elite.

Neon stared at Inker, eyes glimmering with excitement.

"Stop looking at me like that, just go do what you're best at."

"Alright! RahhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Neon once again charged in at full speed.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Victoria asked

"Neon can handle herself."

"Isn't she poorly suited for this sort of thing?"

They were fighting in a prison after all, it was obvious that a charger user like Neon would be at a disadvantage.

"If it was anyone else it would be true, but this is Neon we are talking about, if she can do anything it's fight."

Indeed, the close quarters didn't slow Neon down in the slightest.

Neon would take out anyone who stood infront of her, and with great accuracy too, she pretty much never missed a shot.

Sometimes a swarm of Octotroopers would try to surround her, but Neon was flanked by Victoria and Inker, who both wielded shooters, they helped Neon deal with the larger groups of lesser Octarians.

Kal and Sky brought up the rear, where they were less likely to be hit, even though they had the most close ranged weapons here and would probably be better off in front, they weren't exactly prepared for this kind of fight.

Sky still couldn't bear permanently splatting someone, while Kal was average at best and would probably had trouble dealing with a single Octoling.

And while they were all busy, Eliza left on her own.

She didn't need help from Inklings, she was an Octarian soldier.

She was going to prove it now, so that the captain won't pair her up with Agent 3 again.

'Yes that must be why the captain put me here, this is my trial by fire.' Eliza thought.

If only she knew how wrong she was.

It wasn't long before they cleared all enemies on their side.

"Huh?! It's over already? Awww that was too short!" Neon complained

"Hey isn't this strange? Why is Bassoon so poorly guarded compared to Melanin?" Inker wondered.

"Bassoon isn't a military prison like Melanin, though I do admit it's strange, I thought they knew we were coming. Shouldn't they have stationed more guys from the army here?"

Both Inker and Victoria couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing something here.

Guerilla camp, Octo Valley

"Attention Octarian renegades! You are to cease your resistance and surredner to the nearest patrol, we have captured all possible collaborators, their well being depends on your actions! Repeat!" This message was being played on a loop by several saucers flying around randomly in Octo Valley.

The way it flew indicated that it had no clear destination was was simply trying to get the message out to anyone in Octo Valley.

Vale assumed this was Octavia's way of threatening the hostages' lives.

'A bit too late Octavia, my forces are already attacking Bassoon.'

As Vale wondered how the teams were doing, someone had dug up their kettle.

"Honor to the valley."

It was Lynn, taking an Octoling, no an Elite Octoling with her.

Vale immediately rushed over to her adjutant.

"Lynn, you're back early, what happened?"

Vale prepared herself for the worst news.

After all she made a big mistake sending Agent 3 and a bunch of non combatant Inklings to do what her own troops could have done on their own.

'If Lynn was back here on her own, maybe the rest of the team was wiped out?'

'That would mean Agent 3 is gone, that's good…'

'No wait, what am I saying? That's bad!'

'Is it?'

Vale waited for Lynn's explanation.

"We found her spying on us at our designated waypoint, though we captured her before any major harm was done. The others decided I would bring her back here while they proceeded with the plan."

Vale sighed in relief "Oh good."

They almost lost a valuable ally because of a mistake that shouldn't have happened.

Vale was making sure to double check her own actions just in case she did something unnecessary again.

She only had a moment of relief though, because soon something else popped into mind.

"When did you find this Elite?"

"I'm not sure, since I wasn't awake at the time of her capture. But it would have at least been ten hours ago."

"Ten hours?"

Something didn't add up.

Vale looked into the Elite Octoling's eyes.

She didn't look like any of the Elite's she knew, in fact she looked much younger than most Elites.

"Ahh so this was a newly promoted one."

It would explain why she let herself be taken back here by Lynn alone, if Vale was in her place she would have escaped or died trying as an Elite should..

But still, something felt off for Vale.

"Ten hours huh, so that means Bassoon had more than ten hours to prepare for our arrival…"

"Do you think the others are okay?" Lynn asked.

"I'm not so sure anymore…"

Ten hours was more than enough to fly in fresh splatoon from the Nautilus base, or even battalions if Octavia felt like it.

But the fact that those saucers announcing the taking of hostages started flying around just now meant something was off.

'If Octavia had an Elite watching one team, she would have easily guessed that we already knew about Bassoon prison. So why make that announcement now?'

"Lynn, did anything happen between Eliza and the rest of your squad?"

'If something did happen, then maybe Octavia is counting on infighting to take us down. Not a bad idea, since we are technically freedom fighters and freedom leads to internal conflicts. But I'm still here and in command.'

"W-well umm… you see Eliza actually knew we were being watched before anyone else, yet she didn't speak to any of us about it."

"Do you know why?"

"U-umm, she only said like survival of the fittest, but I think that she was just counting on the Elites taking out Agent 3."

'Just as I expected! I knew that putting Eliza with Agent 3 was a goo- bad idea!'

"It may be rude to ask, but in the future could I not be put in the same squad as Eliza?"

"Don't worry about it, this was a mistake on my part to begin with."

Vale noticed how Lynn's shy behavior wasn't there when she requested to be separated from Eliza. Eliza must have really created a gap between her and the others.

Well it's not like she wanted to put Lynn in the front, she wanted to keep Lynn as a possible successor in case Victoria would take the job.

Yes, Vale had intended to have Victoria succeed her ever since requesting her aid in the first place.

She felt that Victoria would be as good of a soldier as Maria, the one who had her back during the salmonid war.

Vale brought herself back to the present quickly.

'Dream about the future later, focus on the present now. What is Octavia's real angle here?'

It couldn't be something as simple as 'use the families of Vale's troops as leverage to make them surrender.' If that was the case than Octavia would have attacked Lynn's team already since they had been discovered.

What was the goal here?

Bassoon Prison, Octo Valley

"Something's wrong, this is way too easy…."

"Ditto."

Victoria and Inker both remained on high alert.

Bassoon was now filled with Vale's troops who went about freeing the captured citizens.

They were all related or at least known by someone of Vale splatoon.

Among them was one face Victoria hadn't seen for a while.

"Victoria? What's going on here? Why was I arrested? They say that you joined a terrorist group. Is it true?"

Victoria hadn't seen Violet since she left the Undercity, she had forgotten how clueless her roommate could be at times.

"Terrorist group huh, so that's what Octavia's been calling us."

"It's true?"

"It's no terrorist organization, just a band of soldiers who lost faith in Octavia. Listen, the Acting Leader is nothing like DJ Octavio, she doesn't care if Octo Valley gets repaired, nor if we ever get the chance to head back to the surface. She just wants to be the leader of Octo Valley, to that end she's even willing to threaten the lives of innocent Octarians."

"But they said that everyone here was held on suspicion of aiding and abetting terror elements."

"Look around, do these fellow prisoners of yours look like terror suspects?"

The Octarians held here were mostly the families of Vale's soldiers.

Most of them were either elderly citizens or children.

The few that were both mature enough to work and not physically crippled were those that had common everyday jobs, like construction workers, cashiers and janitors.

Contrary to what Octavia and the army had said, these Octarians did not have faces full of anger directed towards the valley, rather they were scared or grateful to be freed.

None of them looked threatening at all.

"So what's going on here? Are we going to have to go on the run?" Violet asked.

"Seems so, for now we will take you back to our lair, then we will decide what to do."

Octarians mainly used hovering vehicles as transportation, though they had their downsides they were useful in Octo Valley, where paved roads are non existent.

Vale's troops began loading up the rescued citizens onto what looked like hovering trucks to Inker and the others.

In addition, all the prisoners had some of their own belongs with them, but space was limited so they would only take what they could carry.

Inker didn't help out, instead he watched from a distance along with Sky, Kal and Neon, because Victoria said that his presence might end up scaring the prisoners.

Thankfully that meant Inker was the first one to notice the incoming Octarian army.

He called out to his friends.

"Sky! Tell Victoria and the others that there are Octarian soldiers incoming! Neon, Kal get up here and get ready for a fight!"

Sky ran in the opposite direct while Kal and Neon joined Inker.

They would need to hold off the advancing army until they had evacuated, which was difficult considering the amount of prisoners they had rescued.

Victoria and the others will probably hurry it up once Sky told them what was coming.

It could have been described as the entire Octarian army.

A battalion of Octarians advanced towards Bassoon, in the lead was a line of Octotroopers inking the ground while various other Octarians followed.

They had to leave quickly.

Inker watched the approaching army, while scanning the area around him.

The Octarians were often sneaky when it came to attacking, so a big flashy advance like that had to be a coverup for something else right?

Then he noticed something else.

Far from the rest of the Octarians, one of their Octolings were speaking with some other Octoling in prison suits.

The way they hugged made it look like a touching reunion but...

'Did they not know what was coming?'

"Stay here guys, I'll be right back. And Neon don't leave Kal behind!"

"Hey that's in the past, I won't do something like that again!" Neon complained, but Inker already took off.

He couldn't tell who the Octoling was from afar, but once he got closer he realized that it was Eliza.

'Not her again… What should I do here? Should I maybe get Victoria over here? No there's no time for me to head back.'

Inker wished he had one of Neon's Squid Beakons to hop to right about now.

He really didn't think anything good would come out of appealing to Eliza anymore, but he wasn't the kind to leave someone behind.

As soon as he hopped down near Eliza though, Eliza shot him once.

"Ow! hey!"

"What are you doing here?"

Behind Eliza, there were two other Octolings, they both looked much older.

They also looked shocked when Inker showed up.

"Eliza, is that?"

"Yes, it's Eileen's killer."

Inker sighed, of course that's how Eliza would introduce him.

"Look, put your grudge aside for now, the entire Octarian army is coming. Why aren't you evacuating with the others?"

"I can take care of myself thank you, I don't need your help."

"Don't be an idiot! We need to go now! Do you even know how many Octarians are on their way here?!"

As he said that, there were sounds of Charger fire.

The Octarian army must have entered Neon's field of fire.

Which also mean't they were in plain view now.

Eliza saw what they were up against.

"Come on, we need to get out of here!"

"I can't believe I'm doing this….." Eliza muttered.

"Why are they shooting at us?" one of the other Octolings shouted.

"Octavia isn't above crushing any possible opposition. Ma, Pa stay close." Eliza said.

Though she kept a calm demeanor while evacuating her family, Eliza was kicking herself inside.

'Twice! Not once but twice now! What is the meaning of this? Stop trying to play the hero Agent 3! You're supposed to be a villain! An evil, murderous, villain!'

Eliza would not stop repeating the same thing to herself during the trip back to the lair.

Guerilla hideout, Octo Valley

When the rescued Octarians and Vale's soldiers returned, they began to reconnect with their families and other friends.

Vale took the time to explain their side of the story, as Octavia had given a twisted and fictional story about how she and her splatoon tried to overthrow the government for their own gains.

When that was done Inker went to speak with Captain Vale regarding Eliza's actions during the mission, to which Vale apologized for as she believed it was her own mistake pairing them together in the first place.

As for the others, they watched as the soldiers and rescued citizens smiled and celebrated their safe returns.

As for others, they comforted those who had lost someone.

"Victoria, have you seen Lynn anywhere?" Kal asked

"She probably somewhere in this crowd. Why?"

Kal still remembered his time in Melanin prison, where he met Lynn for the first time, along with her friends Claire and Madison.

They all had poor families who were dependent on them.

"I want to know if everything worked out for her and her friends after they helped me get out of Melanin."

He never had the chance to bring up the subject before, but now it was relevant.

Victoria didn't really know Lynn, but she knew the value of family in her society, so she accompanied Kal in search for Lynn.

They found her heading towards the infirmary.

There were three Octoling children holding her hands too.

"Yo Lynn." Kal waved

"Oh Kal, Victoria, good to see you're all back safe." Lynn said

One of the kids accompanying her point at Kal.

"Inkling!"

"Yes Kalus is an Inkling, don't worry, he's a friendly Inkling." Lynn said.

The Octoling children shook Kal's hand one by one.

"Nice to meet you, mr Kalus."

'How cute' Kal thought.

"What's going on here Lynn? Babysitting for someone?" Victoria asked

"Sort of, well it's not like I have a choice, I'm surprised they were even among the prisoners to begin with."

"You know them?" Kal asked

"Yes, Kalus you remember Claire and Madison right?" Lynn looked at a young Octoling boy and girl holding her right hand. "Daniel and Jesse here were Claire's little brother and sister." then she introduced the other one. "And Leslie was Madison's sister. Umm Claire actually had two younger sisters but."

One of the little Octolings cut Lynn off.

"House went KABOOM and Letty went to a happier place, that's what firefighters said."

"Daniel, don't interrupt." snapped another child

"Sowwy."

Lynn smiled at the well mannered children.

"I think I might end up with a lot on my hands now, these kids don't really know anyone else except me, so I feel like I should look out for them."

"Well good luck." Victoria said

"Thanks, actually do you mind watching them for a sec, there's someone I need to see."

Lynn let go of the three Octoling children and went over to an old Octoling who was struggling to sit up in the infirmary.

"You really shouldn't push yourself dad."

"I can't keep depending on others Lynn."

"You can depend on me, both you and mom… U-umm, I couldn't find her among the others, does that mean…."

"Yes, sadly she passed away, after your checks stopped coming."

"I'm sorry…"

"It's not your fault, if you didn't follow your captain, we would have lost you too."

Kal and Victoria didn't interrupt, they watched Lynn and her father mourn in silence.

Kal remembered speaking to Lynn for the first time at Melanin Prison

'I'm Lynn, 86 Radula Blvd is my parents home, i'm an only child and both my parents are gravely ill, because of this they depend on me to send medicine and save up enough money for a doctor. They could not possibly do anything to hurt any Inkling, so please keep Agent 3's rampage away from them.'

Even though he didn't know Lynn that well, Kal felt sorry for her loss, since in Inkopolis, losing someone to a cause other than old age was extremely rare.

Then Victoria noticed her former roommate Violet helping out in the infirmary.

She did have a medical background after all, so it was no surprise that she would be there.

"Ahh Victoria."

Violet noticed her and came over.

Victoria hadn't forgotten how Violet sold her out to the Elites back then.

"You aren't still mad over what happened are you?" Violet asked.

Victoria did want to keep blaming Violet, but…

"After seeing how childish a certain squadmate looked when she was constantly empathizing her grudge towards Agent 3, I've realised it was better to learn to let go over time. So no, we're good."

"Oh good, I was worried what you'd do to me once we got to safety." Violet said, relieved.

Victoria turned to Kal "Am I really that scary?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Oh good."

Violet recalled something else.

"I don't want to bring back bad memories, but you should know that I buried your parent's corpses not far from the Undercity, the place is marked with a piece of wall from your old home."

Victoria knew that the custom for the corpses of traitors or criminals was to just leave them out to rot someone far from Octo Valley. She guessed that Violet was told to do just that, but disobeyed whoever told her to do so.

"Thank you."

"There one more thing…"

"?"

Violet held out a pair of Octoling goggles and handed it to Victoria.

"I took this off of one of the bodies, I heard a soldier mention that it may be needed for investigating what happened. They branded your folks as terrorists you know, maybe this can prove that they weren't."

Victoria knew what this meant.

Octoling goggles record up to 72 hours of footage and would automatically do so when it was being worn.

It's how soldiers who are splatted in battle are identified.

But in this case, these goggles probably recorded her parents' last moments.

Victoria spent a lot of time trying to forget that night, but she also wondered why they would sacrifice themselves for her the way they did.

Now maybe she'd find out.

Victoria hugged Violet.

"Thank you. If things ever go back to normal, let's return to the Undercity together."

With the goggles in hand, Victoria left the infirmary.

Victoria didn't feel like watching what was on these goggles alone.

But she didn't want to trouble anyone else by asking for their company.

Though Kal followed her out of the infirmary, probably out of concern, Victoria didn't want to expose Kal to the footage of Octarians burning alive.

There was somebody else would would probably be interested though.

Someone who once served alongside her mother in the Octarian army, Captain Emily Vale.

While Kal and Victoria were in the infirmary, Inker was discussing things with Captain Vale.

"... So we barely managed to get out in time, and it seems like we weren't followed." Inker said.

"It's a good thing you still managed to come through despite the way Eliza's been acting, though I'm not really in a position to talk. But are you sure that you weren't followed?"

"Of course not, we lost the army not long after leaving Bassoon and splitting up."

"That's strange…"

"Why is that."

"The Octarian army has flying saucers for a reason, it's strange that even with such fast patrol craft, they'd be unable to find even one of you."

"Oh, so i'm not the one feeling like something isn't right."

Both Inker and Vale had thought that something was wrong with the way that mission went.

"How many soldiers were guarding Bassoon?" Vale asked

"Not much that's for sure, it didn't take us very long to capture or splat them all."

"That's not very reassuring."

"I know right, we were already being watched by an Elite, even if we did managed to catch her, she still had more than enough time to alert the rest of the army. So why was Bassoon so underprotected?"

"I'm wondering the same thing. Lynn said you guys captured the Elite ten hours before the raid on Bassoon. Ten hours is more than enough to transport a few battalions from Nautilus to Bassoon. I'm starting to think that maybe Octavia wanted us to come rescue the hostages."

Inker and Vale both thought hard about what Octavia's angle might have been.

"Do you think there's a spy mixed in with the hostages?"

"Unlikely, since each hostage is well known to someone in my splatoon."

"What if they were brainwashed? Like Lila?"

"That would take too long, the only method they could have used would be the easiest and quickest way: implanting trigger words. But if they used trigger words, they would need a way to contact the brainwashed in order to control them, that worked with Lila because it's easy to call someone living in Inkopolis. There is a possibility, but we are in a lair with no contact with the outside world."

"Then I'm out of ideas, I'm really not used to this kind of stuff."

"You'll do well to learn then, at the same time brush up on your hand to hand combat, how can you let yourself be outdone by someone who isn't even a soldier?"

"That's because it's Neon, she seems like a carefree and simple person, but she's actually unpredictable."

"Hmm, she's quite talented too, with the right guidance I think she'll surpass even you."

"Hey don't tell me you plan on taking Neon under your wing as a soldier."

"No way."

Vale and Inker kept wondering, what could they have missed?

"Maybe the Elite we captured will tell us?"

"If only it was that simple, she may be an upstart, but an Elite is still and Elite, they won't talk without proper motivation."

"Motivation?"

"Threaten someone close to them, cut off one of their limbs, or maybe put them on the verge of death."

Vale was talking of torture, as a former Elite Octoling herself, Vale was used to both doing it and resisting it thanks to Octarian counter torture training.

"Yeah….. heh…. I don't think we should do something like that." Inker said

"What choice do we have?"

"Uhh I don't know, maybe something will come up? We'll be busy taking care of everyone for the moment so maybe hold off on your torture."

"Busy taking care of everyone, that could be it actually, maybe Octavia wants us to busy ourselves taking care of citizens so that we can't focus on bringing her down?"

"Maybe, I'm really out of my league here, rescuing zapfish was much easier than this."

"Not everything is that simple, well if you can't think of anything then you're dismissed, go get some rations before the rest…."

Vale stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"Rations! Maybe that's it! By letting us rescue everyone we cared about, Octavia gave us hundreds of mouths to feed."

"In other words?"

"She wants us to run out of food and wear down our supplies. That will force us to raid the Undercity or other places. Then it will be even easier to make us look like the bad guys….

Octavia took advantage of me and my splatoons' emotions. Leave me for now, I need to come up with a counter strategy."

As ordered, Inker left Vale to herself.

'I say that but, am I still fit to be in command?'

Another Elite probably would have seen that ploy and ignored rescuing the prisoners.

'And why did I object to training Neon? That girl has a lot of potential. Normally I wouldn't have a problem, why is it that I seem to hate Inklings so much, yet I can't seem to find a reason?'

There was a lot on her mind, Vale even thought back to tossing Inklings into boiling pits for relaxation.

Why did she enjoy such a thing? Why couldn't she think of a reason?

Since leaving the army, Vale began to notice these things about herself.

She wanted to save her subordinates, but now she also wanted answers.