Sebbain Pein stood with his tablet and uniform cap tucked under his arm. Behind him, the core of Inkopolis lay in shadow as the sun set behind the mountains, but the shadow had yet to reach where he stood, at the top of The Pinnacle. In front of him, a pair of enormous ebony doors, with the coat of arms of the office of Monarch pressed into brass at eye level.
The terminal next to one of the door guards beeped and they waved him inside. Taking a deep breath, Pein pressed his hand against the cool surface of the door and pushed inside.
An L-shaped room awaited him. In the middle of the room, a small fountain and koi pond bubbled, surrounded by perfectly maintained plants. Beyond it was an entertainment area with comfortable seating and a large TV set, mostly for discussion and video calls. The robin's egg walls were adorned with only a handful of paintings, based on the occupant's tastes. In this case, a few pieces of abstract art helped add colour to the room.
For the main office of the leader of one of the world's leading nations, most in Inkopolis would agree that it was fairly spartan. But, this was, more or less, how it had been for nearly a century.
At the opposite side of the room, a lone figure sat behind a desk, the backdrop of the ocean and Inkopolis Bay sparkling in the setting sun through the gold-tinted windows, silhouetted her stately profile beautifully.
The doors clicked softly behind him, but he remained motionless, waiting. The figure's head lifted, golden eyes as deep as the ocean itself examined him like a sculpter examining a peer's work. Finally, a brief flash of tuk'yan beckoned him forward.
He walked briskly past the bubbling fountain and koi pond; and the entertainment area before walking up the six steps to the magnificent desk, made of gold-veined marble that had served Calachora's monarchs for over eighty years. Its current occupant stared at him, hands neatly folded.
With her golden eyes and mantle, Luna Orvenii seemed destined for the seat of Monarch from the moment she hatched. Despite having lived over 120 years, some of which were during The Great Turf War, she looked as vital as someone half her age.
"Good evening, Chief."
Despite a full century in the oratory battleground of politics, her voice rang crystal clear.
"Good evening, Monarch."
She gestured for him to sit down, then shifted to a more forward-leaning posture.
"Now then, what have your investigations found?"
Pein's mantle rippled and darkened. "Through the course of our investigations, and, I admit, no small amount of espionage, we have found that, yes, Callie and Marie have interacted with the Octarian Empire, or whatever's left of it. Most of the Octarians in Inkopolis are, in fact, deserters from their army, and they formed the bulk of the force that wiped out the crab gangs in Xapheerell Ward, and the incident at the wharf."
Orvenii absorbed this information with only a slight narrowing of the eyes, her mantle remained a placid sea of gold.
"Do we know what the nature of their interactions has been? I'm curious how they were able to get a bunch of army deserters to suddenly march on their command."
"We're still not entirely sure, but what we do know is that they have their complete loyalty. They seem willing to move Heaven and Earth if the Squid Sisters command it. That's not the kind of loyalty money buys."
"Indeed. Which means they must feel indebted to them, somehow. Perhaps the Squid Sisters organized their escape?"
Pein grimaced. "That is a possibility we've touched on, but we haven't heard or seen anything of the Octarian Empire for almost a century. It seemed odd, even unlikely, that a couple of young celebrities would have any kind of association or interaction with a dead empire that hid underground." He sighed audibly. "Until we remembered the obvious connection."
Only then did Orvenii's professional shell finally crack, as her mantle and eyes both darkened.
"Cuttlefish," she growled.
"Without a doubt. He's the only one who could have gotten a couple of kids involved in anything like the Octarians. If Callie and Marie did stage some kind of mass escape, it could be considered an act of aggression by us against the Octarians. If they come out and conduct some kind of reprisal, we're in the worst possible position for it."
Orvenii's mantle rippled, and he knew her well enough to tell she was seething, but she forced herself back under control, her mantle returning to its natural gold.
"So, it's possible he has manipulated his grandchildren to do what he no longer can. He might have even trained them for this since they were little."
"I have spoken to him, directly. He didn't openly admit it but, yes, he more or less seemed to do exactly that. As to whether he put them up to actually causing a mass desertion, of that I am less certain.
"He's always hated the Octarians, and the last thing he would want is hundreds of them roaming free in Inkopolis. You know him better than I do but it seems out of character."
He saw her jaw clench and her eyes become distant for a moment before they refocused. "I suppose that's true, but you're sure he's responsible for their connection?"
"Yes, at least initially. As for its current form… well, I think I think that's a product of their own making."
Orvenii's eyes hardened and bored into him, searching. After a moment she leaned back in her chair and placed her hands on the armrests.
"Sebbain, we've known each other too long to try and maneuver like this. It has been a very trying day, so please, speak plainly."
Sebbain suppressed a grimace. "Yes, of course, just so long as you understand that I'm just talking about my own opinion and not established fact."
"Yes yes, I know, just tell me. You know I trust your opinion."
We'll see, he thought.
"Alright, frankly speaking, I don't think Cuttlefish had anything to do with the deserters, at least not directly. I know he's had Callie and Marie trained, and he's also had those other two girls trained, but I think it's Callie and Marie that have been calling the shots lately."
Orvenii frowned. "What other two girls?"
Pein keyed up his datapad and set the display to a screen he'd had ready, then handed it to her.
"Cortina Scarletteri and Tani Highwater. You might not know it by looking at them but they are Cuttlefish's trained hooks. Callie and Marie have their careers after all and are much too public. He needed unknowns for whatever he had in mind. I also know for a fact that they've received much of the same training our own Enforcers get, and Marie even claimed she'd put Scarletteri against any two enforcers."
Orvenii looked at him, questioningly. "She told you this?"
"After Scarletteri broke into my office without anyone seeing and held me at gunpoint to get me to listen."
Pein allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction at seeing the rare look of genuine surprise on his Monarch's face, brief though it was before morphing into displeasure.
"And why do you look so pleased about it?"
"Because it means she's on our side, which means she's an asset we might be able to use. Not only that, but Callie and Marie have a means to defend Inkopolis from Crab aggression, if it comes down to that. It might not be an army of our own, but the crabs don't really know that. They just know they got beaten, badly."
"Not the same as open war," Orvenii replied harshly. "I've seen what happens in war, Sebbain, I've seen what it costs, even for the survivors or the so-called victors."
Pein looked at her levelly. "Sometimes we don't get to choose whether or not war happens. Sometimes we can only choose to fight or roll over and die. Let's not kid ourselves, the crabs are leaning heavily towards the latter. We've known it for years; Bellchora is just a testing ground for the Grand Consortium to see where all the cracks are. We're who they're really after, and they will come, we know it."
Orvenii's with a betrayed look. "You want to raise an army."
"No," he said. "I don't want to raise an army, I'm just worried we may have no choice. The incident in Xapheerell Ward was beyond anything we imagined and we couldn't have stopped it with Security and the Enforcers alone. We've gotten complacent and we've been too worried about the population decline and the threat of the Consortiums to do anything about it. Callie and Marie have bought us time, but we have to make use of it."
Orvenii leaned forward, her eyes boring into him. "And how do you propose we do that?"
Pein leaned forward as well and looked right back into his Monarch's eyes. "A leader can only make the right decisions if they have the information they need. Right now, you don't have that, so we need to get it."
Orvenii tensed visibly and she leaned back slightly, staring up at the pyramid ceiling as the shadow of the mountain finally shrouded the top of The Pinnacle.
"A lack of knowledge and understanding helped cause the last war. It's a mistake I would rather not repeat." She sat in silence for several moments before letting out a defeated sigh.
"Place Callie and Marie under house arrest but leave these girls alone," she gestured to his tablet. "I'll let you decide how to handle Cuttlefish."
He pulsed green, slowly. "And the Octarians?"
"We need to find out, quickly, what exactly is going on with them and what happened that caused this seeming mass desertion. With the crabs rattling their claws, we can't waste time."
He couldn't hide the displeasure in his mantle and expression this time. "I can justify putting them under house arrest but I can't legally question Callie and Marie without charging them first and while we do have grounds to do so, it would be very unpopular. The media has gotten a hold of the story and is elevating them to the status of heroes."
"The house arrest is for their protection, of course. The crabs will no doubt want the absolute worst for them."
"Of course."
"As for the questioning.." she had a smile that was not quite cruel, but definitely had a predatory edge. "I know a sure way to get those girls to loosen their tongues. They're young and a little overconfident, I think. Best they learn now that some weapons can be gripped by other hands."
Author's Notes:
Well, this is it, the end. I hope this story had a better conclusion than the last two stories did. I know it leaves a lot of unanswered questions and unresolved conflicts yet, but I want to save those for a sequel; although I'm afraid, there's no guarantee of me writing one yet. Hopefully, but I can't say for absolute certainty at this point due to how life is going for me at the moment.
What a ride though, eh? War, terror, intrigue, this is the most complex story I've ever written and no doubt you have been wondering just what is up with Callie and Marie? What are they going through? Why are they acting so oddly? Well, that goes way back to before this series was started, on a story that I started but could never conclude in a satisfying way, so it died, but I used many elements from that story here. If I can manage to get to the sequel, then you will find out what's happening to them. It'll no doubt confuse you greatly at first, but like other things, I hope it will make sense once you have all the pieces. Even if I don't get around to this story, you can still expect periodic writings from me from time to time at the very least. I already have a one-shot in the works that should be uploaded this month.
I would like to thank everyone for reading and commenting thus far. Your critiques have given me a lot to think about for any future works. I know I have a habit of putting in odd or confusing elements in my stories that might have put some of you off a fair bit and while I thought I had alluded to them earlier, I suppose I need to be better at that so that's on me; not you. I'll try to do better with that next time. Still, I hope you all had fun reading and I hope to be able to write another story in this series so you aren't all left hanging, especially with Splatoon 3 coming out.
Thank you once again and I hope to see you all in the near future,
~Roguespirit