The room was dark. And spinning. That probably wasn't supposed to happen.

Meggy groaned as she came to. Every brain cell in her head ached and pounded, her lips dry, her eyes unfocused. Her usually brilliant orange hair, falling like a waterfall of honey, was frazzled and sticky with...something. It had an iron-y scent. Blood. Oh, right, she had that now. Ever since becoming human. Winning the Splatfest and all. Heh, that was fun. She looked around. the room was dark, barely lit, with stock sitting around. She was tied to a chair, hands bound behind her. At least she wasn't gagged, that was something. Nevertheless, she panicked a little, struggling in her chair. The creak of wood and rope filled the room, followed swiftly by some footsteps.

"You're awake," came a voice practically dripping with venom, "Finally. You skinbags sleep in by nature or something?"

"Huh?" Meggy mumbled in her hazy state, "Who...who's there?"

"Oh, just a nobody..." the being could vaguely be seen in the dim yellow light, the single one providing illumination to the room. They stepped forward, into the light properly, "According to your boss."

It was an Inkling. Pale skin, dark cyan tentacles sloped down the side of his head. Dressed in a camo hoodie, shorts and green and black boots. Gold coloured Aviators dressed on his face, obscuring his eyes. A sneer spread on his lips. Meggy's jaw dropped, "Ain't you one of the Killer Inks?"

"The name's Shades. And not anymore..." the Inkling sighed sourly, "Well, thanks to you. And that man of memes."

"Still bitter about losing Splatfest, huh?" Meggy challenged, a wild smirk across her face, "Maybe if you-AAAH!"

Meggy recoiled in pain as Shades gave a hefty smack to her right cheek. She groaned in protest and pain, a red mark on her cheek at the point of impact."Splatfest? Losing that was just the beginning," Shades snarled, holding the offending hand. "How about losing Splatfest, getting blamed and attacked by your team leader to cover up her own useless skills?"

"I mean, she DID kick you in the-"

"Quiet!" another slap, this one harder, causing Meggy's head to spin for a little while. Shades continued as she sat there spiralling; "There is more to it, of course. While that leader of ours fought for the garish trophy, I fought to protect our culture from the likes of you. I was not going to let some disgusting human waltz in and appropriate our culture! To steal it from us! And yet...you did. The final showing of our way of life and now it belongs to those we hate. Do you have...any idea how that feels?"

"...Nope."

"Then you will," Shades stared defiantly, "I've been meaning to get you down here for a long, long time..."

Meggy looked around the room. Pipes littered the ceiling wherever she looked, "Where are we, anyway?"

"Deepsea Sewers. No way those friends of yours will find you down here. Shame. I'd love for them to hear you scream."

"Ha! I've suffered worse than anything you could throw my way," Meggy boasted. her spirit slowly filling as she riled herself up against the Inkling and his bored expression, "Just ask Francis. The guy who kidnapped all of you and tortured you for ink? Oh wait you can't, as my best friends kicked his ass! So there!"

"Ahh, yes. The guy who murdered my siblings and friends..." Shades readjusted his glasses, "Well, you're gonna join him a in a minute, you slimy harlot. But FIRST," he snapped out of nowhere, before turning around and walking to the back of the room. He began to rummage around in the debris, "I wanna have some fun. I read up on human biology and it is fascinating. Human limbs, especially. Made of flesh and bone, can't twist like ours, quite fragile in the grand scheme of things. And they don't. Grow. Back..." with a rustle of metal, he pulled something out of the rubble - something red and lined with teeth, "So, I think you can see where this is going."

The contraption caught the light - it was a bright red chainsaw. "...Oh no," Meggy wailed as Shades pulled on the starter motor, drowned out once it began to roar to life, "No! No no NO!"

"Yes!" Shades yelled over the dull whirr of the blades, "You deserve this, Spletzer, for the culture you ruined with your greed. NOW SCREAM FOR ME!"

And as the roaring blade was pressed into her leg, Meggy did. Long through the night.

/

Meggy awoke again some time later. Not like she could tell. Everything hurt with a special sort of stinging pain. Her eyes were blurry and bloodshot, her vision rung in her ears and there was a dizzy, spiralling sensation in her head. Like she was only barely there, waiting to tumble into nothingness. Nothing dulled the agony in her lower body, however, her legs stinging like no pain she had ever felt before.

"Ah, you're awake!" came a distant, echo-y Shades somewhere in front of her, "You've been out of it for some time," he chuckled, "Don't worry, I've helped keep the bleeding going without killing you. I wanna see you suffer for as long as possible..." Meggy tried to say something, but nothing came out but garbled hums and twisted cries. Shades tapped her on the head, "Hmm. High on pain, are we? Don't worry. You'll come around soon..."

As he glared deviously at her, a wretched flash and rumble struck the building. Meggy winced in pain, the bright light only adding to her sickness. Debris was raining from the ceiling now, alongside an unhappy Shades. Something was attacking his little base. Enraged, he grabbed the chainsaw, now far redder than Meggy's bleary memory remembered it, and rushed to the door to this little room. It swung open before he could reach for the starter pully, blown to the floor by the attack. Even in her barely readable vision, Meggy could see familiar faces! Tari! Mario! ...Shroomy? Even Saiko leading the charge! They were here to rescue her! In front of all of them was a strange figure, a brown blob of something, Meggy couldn't tell in this state. He wrestled with Shades for a bit, batting his hand away from the pulley, before managing to wrest the chainsaw from his hands and swinging with all of his might. The unpowered chainsaw still dragged through his torso, maiming it and flooring him as he rolled and screamed in pain. As the others looked on, the figure pulled something out of his pocket and two large booms were heard, then silence as something cyan dripped across the floor.

"Fucking Inklings," the figure growled, his voice deep and animalistic. He turned to look at Meggy, and what readable expression she could see on him shifted dramatically, "...Jeez. Oi, she's over here!"

Meggy could only barely see others pour into view, Tari the clearest among them. She crouched by her and pranced about frantically about her body, her face showing signs of despair, "OH NO!" she wailed, "OH MEGGY NO!"

[What did that freak do to her?!] Saiko sputtered angrily, looking over Meggy as well, [We gotta stop this bleeding!]

Mario was next, his eyes crawling in opposite directions, as they were wont to do. He placed his hand to his chin, thinking as hard as he could...which wasn't a whole lot, admittedly.

"Hmm...ooh!" suddenly, his expression changed to one of surprise. He took something out of his pocket...a small, beige plaster, sticking it to somewhere on Meggy's leg. It stung, keeping Meggy awake a little longer, but little else. He shrugged, self-satisfied, "...All done!"

Saiko was...less than amused, grabbing Mario by his overalls, [A band-aid?! MARIO NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO GO FULL DIPSHIT!]

"Hmm. You, mushroom...scout, thing," the figure said, turning to the Mushroom scout, "You have some medical training, right?"

"Well golly gee, I do!" Shroomy boasted proudly. He stepped forward to the hypothetical plate, "Alright fellas, I know what to do here, let's see...right, here we go!"

"Wait where did you get the iron from?!"

"Make her bite on this here stick, thank you..." Meggy vaguely felt something wooden being shoved between her teeth, "And..."

Then just...pain. Searing, white hot pain. Meggy screamed, her wails muffled by the stick, as her jaw bit down hard upon it. Her vision blurred and tears streamed from her eyes. The hissing sound stopped and she flopped back in the chair. She was sobbing now, her vision blurry and on the verge of blackness.

"SHROOMY!" Tari screamed, "WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"

"Cauterisation, you know?" Shroomy said, "That'll help!"

"It'll give us time," the figure growled again, "Saiko, give me a hand, we need to get her outta here!"

[YOU THINK?!]

Meggy was close to blacking out, finally. She felt herself being lifted up and carried out of the room. The extreme pain was dulling, but so was every other sense. She could see bright white ceiling lights, nearly blinding her already messy vision.

"It's okay, Meggy!" Tari pleaded before Meggy mercifully slipped into unconsciousness, "Everything's gonna be fine!"

/

Beeping sounds. Murmurs and talking, softened into indefinableness by...something. A bright light flashed into Meggy's eyes as she awakened once more. She felt no more pain, in fact she felt nothing at all, outside of a dulled ache in her head. She looked around somewhat; she was in a hospital room. White walls, white floors, white beds with white covers that she was currently under. White everything. To her left, and IV hooked up to her arm, feeding...something into her, and a table with get-well cards and a bowl of made up noodles. Chicken. Her favourite.

"Mmmh..." she groaned, holding her forehead and grimacing, "My head..."

Her stirring caught the attention of another in the room. It was SMG4! He hopped to his stubby legs and opened the door to the room, shouting beyond it, "Guys! She's awake!"

"Awake? Where am I...?" Meggy mumbled deliriously, "What...happened?"

The rest of the crowd flooded into the room; Saiko, Tari, Mario, Axol, even Shroomy. "MEGGY!" Mario cried in happiness, getting close and gyrating in place, as he was wont to do, "Mario's a-so happy you're okay!"

"We're all happy," Tari sighed, "We came real close to losing you back there..."

[I knew it was a bad idea to go back to that stupid city!] Saiko said, angrily and bitterly, [Ain't goin' back again...after uh, all that.]

"What're you talking about?" Meggy asked, looking at the despondent faces on everyone in the room. Axol especially had a guilty look on his scarred face.

Tari's expression somehow dropped further when the realisation, "She can't feel it..."

"...Beanie Human Girl?" Axol asked shamefully, "You might want to look down...just, brace yourself."

Meggy had no idea what he was talking about. She looked perfectly fine above the covers. What was wrong? Even if she did feel nothing under her waist. But then, she just assumed they were asleep, right? ...Right? A sense of dread welled up within her. All of a sudden, all of the memories of that room came back, in as perfect a clarity as she could remember them. Her heartbeat raced as she tried to calm herself. No. No, it wasn't possible. It was just a bad dream! She threw the covers off. And all of her fears came true.

Meggy's legs were gone.

Well, sort of gone. Her thighs were still there, and continued down to about the knee...but then they stopped. Just gauze and bandages and pretty severe burns around where her knees SHOULD have been, but weren't. Her heartbeat kicked itself into Omega Overdrive.

"AAAAAAH!" Meggy screamed loudly and fearfully, "MY LEGS! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY LEGS?!"

"We don't know!" Tari pleaded, tears in her eyes, "We found you like this in that lunatic's lair!"

"...Shades," the realisation dawned on Meggy, "W-Where is he?"

[Our new friend blew his head off,] Saiko seethed, [As he deserves.]

"HE DESERVES SO MUCH MORE FOR THIS!" Meggy screamed as emotion over came her, "Oh God...what'm I gonna do?"

"That's fairly simple," came that voice again, as the figure stepped into the room, "You recover. You spend your time to grieve, of course, but then you get up and you keep going. I've seen it happen before."

The figure was...weird. Tall. Sort of a hedgehog...thing. Brown, spiky and unkempt fur. Dressed in a blue jacket, black trousers, tall combat boots and fingerless gloves. A red beanie stretched across his head, and a big red woollen scarf wrapped around his muzzle and part of his torso.

Tari was confused, "...Wait who even are you?"

"They call me Traveller," the figure said, nodding politely and waving his hand, "Just passin' through, you know?" a brief pause, then he sighed, "Well, that and tracking down people like that Inkling. Or, whatever was left of him, anyway. It's complicated."

[...We have literally never heard of you.]

This caused Traveller to jump and stutter, scratching the back of his head, "OH, uh, I was introduced in one of the arcs. The...Smiler Arc, I think?"

A pause as people stared at him, looks ranging from confusion to disbelief. And suddenly, with a flash of red and blue, "...Makes sense to me!"

"Guys!" Tari called out, gesturing towards the forgotten-feeling Squid-ish Kid before them, "Kind of forgetting the afflicted here?"

"Oh, right..." Mario sighed. It wasn't often he was this...lucid. But when Meggy was hurt, it felt like he was able to wrangle his three braincells into action. Just for long enough. He turned to the girl, grovelling and sniffling, "Meggy...Mario wanna help..."

"I know, Red. But..." Meggy whimpered, looking down at the stumps. All the ramifications came flooding in and once, and tears welled up in her eyes, "...Look at me. What can I do now? These won't grow back. When I was still an Inkling, I never thought I'd lose them. I mean, Red loses his head all the time, why doesn't..." she stopped, her breath ragged and choked with sobs. No-one dared to speak or act for a while, as she worked out her grievances. She hugged herself, shivering horrifically despite it being warm inside the room.

"Beanie...M-Meggy?" Axol finally broke the silence, "Would you like us to give you some time?"

A pause. And then, "...Yes please."

The others nodded respectfully as they exited the room. Tari stayed by the closed door for just a little longer, hearing in now all was gone. She caught only a few seconds of pained sobbing before she tore herself away from the door to go and cry herself.

/

An hour passed. It was getting dark now, the events of the day from rescuing Meggy to leaving her alone in her hospital room having taken its time and quite a bit of its toll on the group. Many were tired or sadly had other duties elsewhere, and left the hospital some time before. Even SMG4 had to take his leave eventually. Making memes was less important than Meggy's well-being, but it was still his job. That left only four people; Saiko, Tari, Mario and that Traveller guy. The girls and the creature were sitting around in the hospital cafeteria, slowly sipping on some truly awful warmed sludge pretending to be coffee.

[So, let me get this straight...] Saiko started, placing her cup of sediment down, [You're some kind of...vigilante. And crazy.]

"FORMERLY. Crazy," Traveller gestured to make his point, a sort of annoyed tint to his tone, "Big difference. Look, here's the skinny; out in the multiverse are these things called Warmongers, right? I didn't come up with the name...though, I was one of the first. They occur when your soul breaks under moments of extreme stress. Corrupts you. Makes you a slave to this...thing. This mockery of who I was. So that's fun."

[Sound like my kinda people,] Saiko chuckled, [So what, you saying that inkbag was one too?]

"Yes," Traveller nodded, calmer now. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a smartphone, pressing a few things on its touchscreen before sliding it across the table to Saiko's view, "Couldn't see from when we were down there, but security footage...well."

The phone was playing security footage. It was Inkopolis Plaza, late at night. It was devoid of people, barring two in the corner. It was Shades, dragging a bound and unconscious Meggy across the cold pavement towards the base he had found for his little purpose. It made Saiko's blood boil to see him roughly pull an already bruised Meggy across the ground, knowing now what he would do later. He hit a raised bump of pavement and dropped his sunglasses to the floor. He picked them up, before glaring at the security camera. It was near enough to capture his death glare; to Saiko's surprise, his eyes were pitch black, with red pupils. He snarled, before putting on his shades and continuing his duties.

[Jeez...] Saiko grumbled, looking at the footage. There was an angered, bitter look on her face, [They took losing that Splatfest...thing, poorly. Freakin' ink sacs think they rule the goddamn world...I should burn their stupid little city to the ground for what they did to MY friends!]

"I wish I could do the same..." Traveller sighed, staring down at his phone before taking it back and turning it off, "But, I can't go down that route. Not again..." there was a pause, before he turned to Tari. She had been silent the entire time, sipping her coffee and playing with a rubber duck. He cleared his throat, "Hey, uh...Tari, is it? You're awfully quiet."

"Sorry, it's just...Meggy," Tari sighed.

"I know, shocking business," Traveller nodded solemnly, "But, that's where you all are now. It's not like she can magically grow them back."

[Why?] Saiko asked. Well, sort of demanded, [That fat plumber's head comes off every week, why is he okay?!]

"Because not everyone dares to be as realistic and miserable as this narrative," Traveller mumbled wearily, staring at some unknown figure off in space somewhere, "Some people refuse to play along with reality."

Tari was shocked to hear that, "...It's that easy?"

Traveller tapped his nose and chuckled, "You'd be surprised."

"WELL I'm not going to just sit around and mope!" Tari slammed on the table, spent a few seconds nursing her bruised hand, before getting up out of her seat, "She's my friend, and I'm going to help her through this! I didn't leave her side when she missed Desti, I WON'T now!"

[Hell yeah, sister!] Saiko fist-pumped, a new spark in her eyes, [We're gonna help her get over this, even if it kills me! And it won't, of course.]

"Sounds like fun. I guess," Traveller shrugged, slowly getting out of his seat, "I wish good luck to the both of you."

"You not going to stick around?"

"I'm a traveller," he shrugged, "It's...well it's not even in the name as much as it IS the name. I don't stick around long. Unless...you want me to."

[It'd make sense for her to get help from the guy who saved her life,] Saiko said, before pulling an aside, [Besides, we don't have a lot of...competent people in this little group.]

"Explain."

Saiko pointed to the back of the cafeteria. For the entirety of their conversation, Mario had been desperately trying to get a stuck chocolate bar out of the vending machine; crowbars, punches, shouting...humping? Finally, enraged, he stomped to the other end of the room. And then, with a battle cry, sprinted towards the vending machine.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" CRASH! Mario threw himself at the machine, ragdolling upon impact and splashing to the floor in a bruised state. The machine barely moved. Traveller could just vaguely hear, muffled against denim, "...Mama-F*CKER!"

Traveller's expression, what little could be seen, was one of a sort of mutant amusement, "...Good explanation. Alright, I'm in. Always wanted to heal instead of hurt anyhow."

"Alright!" Tari cheered, "Meggy's gonna be so happy when we get her back on her fe-" She stopped, catching herself at the last minute. She chuckled warily, "U-Uh...y-you know what I mean. A-Anyway! Let's do this!"