Slowly opening her eyes to an expanse of black sand, Delta groaned as the grogginess of her mind blurred her vision, the twilight sun locked in position in the western horizon, dark clouds stretching across the sky. Of course...Delta knew nothing of all this, leaving her merely confused once her vision cleared...Where am I? was her immediate question This isn't where I closed my eyes.

Slowly pushing herself onto her feet, the young Octoling simply looked around the dark wasteland, every aspect of it so alien to her...despite the unending shadow, it all felt so serene.

"Marcus!?" Delta called out into the dim light. No answer. She called out for the other three she had met, but was met with only a howl in the air, her hair waving in the gust.

The girl hastily spun around, trying to find anything else in the vicinity that wasn't part of the stretching flatlands of black powder. Slowly spinning a full turn, Delta suddenly found herself at the edge of a sharp drop, her toes perfectly aligned with the edge, her eyes instinctively snapping down to view the drop, which despite the inky blackness that perpetuated it, felt as if it was writhing and rolling in on itself. Delta found her feet bolted to the floor, frozen there despite how much she was screaming at herself to move away from the edge.

And then the darkness looked at her.

Hundreds of eyes opened at once in the shadows, all red with small black pupils, all rapidly looking around for something until one locked its gaze on Delta. The other eyes froze and a second later all began staring directly into Delta's very being, sweat quickly running down the girl's forehead.

She yelped as a hand suddenly slapped onto the cliff face, made out of the goopy black substance she had seen Johnny made of, Delta's feet finally unsticking themselves from the floor. She immediately took off in the opposite direction of the ink blackness as another hand hit the floor, a humanoid body pulling itself out of the darkness with rows of sharp teeth adoring its mouth, dozens of red eyes dotted across its body. It let out an unearthly screech as it began a rapid chase after Delta, globs of its own body being flung around as it tripped over its own trickling ooze, catching up to Delta in mere seconds. The young Octoling shrieked as she looked over her shoulder to see the approaching horror, which made a tremendous leap for her, the girl's throat straining from her incredible scream as the being's mouth swung open to an extent she never thought possible.

Delta shot up in an instant, screaming and scrambling out of her seat. She fell to the metal floor as she tried to shuffle from where she had just been lying, only to back into something soft. Looking over her shoulder, she found Rem looking down at her, the tall woman being sat against the row of seats opposite with Ix lying sound asleep across them. C.Q Cumber and Marcus, however, were nowhere to be seen. Delta simply looked at Rem in silence, her body shivering all over.

Rem spoke with the most soothing tone Delta had heard yet, gently putting her hands on Delta's shoulders and massaging her slowly "You alright, luv?"

"I..." Delta choked out "There was this thing..."

Rem hummed "Sounds like you had a nightmare. Poor thing." She watched Delta's forearms quietly, seeing the shivering vanish as she continued to massage the girl I shouldn't be surprised, though. Rem thought, looking down the carriage for a moment This isn't the place for a kid like her...even if she did wake up here only today.

"Where are you from, Rem?" Delta asked after a few minutes of silence, gently leaning further back against Rem "Did you wake up here, too?"

Rem chuckled "No, darling. I'm from somewhere...well, I dunno where it is in regards to this place but my home is a place called Ooinkhu. You might like it there, when we get out of here. I got a family there, too. My boyfriend and 3 kids...technically 4, haha." She smiled as she thought of her home "We'll bust outta here, eventually. Ix has a family of her own, too. We'll introduce ya."

Delta hummed a simple "Hmm..." in response. She then had another question "Rem...does this place scare you?"

Rem thought about that...at just 20 she sure had seen her fair share of scary and horrifying stuff, her mind immediately thinking back to the time Future Leonidas had his organs ripped out and face torn off at just 15 and how that managed to make Callie puke...even if the vampire did regenerate from it all just 30 minutes later. She finally answered Delta's question with "I'm not sure, luv. I've seen some stuff in my life already...but there's new things for me here. But hey, listen, no matter what happens," an earnest smile appeared on her lips "we're your friends, we're all in this together, no matter what."

Delta couldn't help but smile at that, feeling her eyes slowly closing again "Thank you, Rem..." She let out a long yawn before she went right back to sleep against the titan of a woman, who slowly stroked the girl's head until she was certain she'd drifted off, eventually falling asleep herself.

At the very front of the train, Marcus and C.Q Cumber were busy inspecting a map they had strewn out across the train's controls.

"So, my guess is that the Victoria Line has nothing else of importance to us." C.Q Cumber pointed to a blue line on the map that stretched from the centre all the way to the left edge of the map "But the question is where the rest of the Gems are...there's 5 more of them and 10 more lines. Hittin' a dud could be bad if Johnny or the Sanitized show up."

Marcus crossed his arms, muttering a few things to himself before responding "Yeah, Delta finding the Soul Gem was pure luck, really. Unless the Gems resonate, we're going to just have to go through these one by one."

C.Q Cumber looked behind him at the mention of the Gems resonating, an idea striking in his head "We could try making them resonate. It's worth a shot."

Marcus nodded "Reinhardt always did have that kind of mentality. If we had more notes on the Gems, though...ugh, of course that slimy bastard had to eat our guy." He clenched his teeth as the frustration of losing so many important assets came back to him, time and time again they'd be right on the edge of solving their dilemma only to be sent right back to the start…he sighed and went back to the map "Which line is closest to us right now?"

C.Q Cumber looked back at the map as well, inspecting it closely "Well right now we're around here," his spike elongated, tapping on a point halfway between the middle of the map and the far left "Tentacle Circus is the one we just left, so our next opportunity to switch tracks is...3 hours away, onto the Central Line." He retracted his spike, shuffling the map away and adjusting the train's levers "Everyone should be awake by then."

"Everyone except Delta." Marcus commented "I feel bad roping a kid with no memory into this, but...well she wants to find herself out, I guess." He looked out the small window to his left, seeing the misty expanse of the void once again consuming the entire space "...I miss 'em, ya know."

"I know, Marcus." C.Q Cumber responded "But just think: we found a Gem. A real one. And if things go our way, we'll be out of here in the week."

Marcus silently nodded, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a slightly damaged picture of his wife and daughter – Callie's smile, Mysteeri's very being, it gave him resolve to continue this fight.

2 hours, 56 minutes later

"She should be up by now." Marcus crossed his legs, slouching in the driver's seat of the cabin "Ix!" He called out to the blue haired woman, who popped her head round the door.

"What?" She questioned, rubbing one of her eyes.

Marcus spun the chair to face her "Go get your sis, will you? She needs to hear the plan for getting the next Gem."

Ix nodded and quickly zipped away down the train until she came back to the carriage she had been sleeping in the night before. Rem was still sitting there, Delta having moved during the night to be lying across the ginger woman's thighs. Rem turned her gaze to Ix when she entered, gesturing for her to be quiet "She's asleep." She said in a hushed tone.

Ix pointed her thumb over her shoulder "We kinda need you at the front."

Rem rolled her eyes "Well bring the front to me, then. I'm not going to wake the little one up!" She said through clenched teeth, gently brushing one of Delta's tentacles out of her face.

Ix scratched her head, sighing "Alright, alright. I'll let them know to come down." Just as she turned on her heel, she began sniffing the air, remaining still as she did for a few seconds, Rem watching her do it. Ix then turned back to her sister "We should find some other working showers...the men may be able to deal with how bad they stink but ugh, this is unbearable."

Rem shrugged "Alright, but don't get too worked up over it. We have priorities, remember."

"Yeah, yeah." Ix waved her hand as she turned around and walked back down to the front of the train, leaving Rem on her lonesome in the carriage.

That was, until a hand suddenly smashed through the roof, oozing a green slime. Rem immediately looked up at it, watching the hand tear a hole in the metal rooftop until a sanitized Octoling dropped in through the opening, a physique rivalling the Inkling's. She sighed, looking at Delta "Of all times for one of you to drop in, you had to do it when she was asleep..." She ever so gently lifted Delta off her, placing her upon the seats. Rolling her arm, she tightened her belts and prepared to fight, the two fighters staring each other down. The Octoling charged for Rem, who immediately reacted with a roundhouse kick, sending them crashing into the wall. She was back up in an instant, slamming their fist into Rem's cheek. Rem swept the Octoling's foot out from under them, gracefully swinging around and kicking them in the gut with force to send them flying through the carriage.

Rem stood firm, her imposing presence filling the area around her "I'll give you one chance to get outta here. I'm hungry, we got a kid to look after and in general I'm feeling a little pissed off right now." She cracked her knuckles "And you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

The Octoling's reply came in the form of an unearthly yell, springing up from their down position and charging at Rem. The two of them immediately began to exchange rapid blows until the Octoling slipped their first through the duel and crashed it into Rem's chin with a WHAM, sending Rem recoiling back and then sent her straight to the floor with a flying kick, the metallic impact echoing through the mist.

Rem pushed her torso up, snarling with fangs bared. Her long, thick tentacle suddenly sprung to life, whacking itself into the Sanitized Octoling as Rem let out a loud "DORA!" The tentacle wrapped itself around a nearby pole and slung Rem onto her feet, where she immediately wrapped her legs around the pole, hanging upside down from it as the Octoling righted themselves, staring at Rem in earnest confusion about her position. Nevertheless, they charged for her once more, leaping into the air but only smashed their face right into the pole as Rem suddenly spun around on it, switching herself upright and slamming her foot into the Octoling once more. At least, that's what would've happened if the Octoling didn't grab Rem's foot. Slamming back into the floor with a KANG, Rem was immediately leapt on once again by the Octoling. Her legs shot up and planted themselves firmly in the Octoling's stomach, grabbing their wrists with an iron grip, the Octoling's sharp nails only inches from her eyes.

"Oh to hell with being quiet!" Rem snapped before she released a tremendous scream, enough to send a quake through the whole train, alerting the group at the front and numerous passengers further down. Delta immediately shot awake, staring in shock and awe at the tremendous flaming aura that surrounded Rem. In an instant Rem tore the Octoling's arms right off, black blood coating the floor. In one movement, Rem grabbed the Octoling and threw them out of the window into the abyss below and their arms with them. Her aura faded as she stumbled back to the pole, breathing heavily "What the hell...that was just one attack, why do I feel so...drained?"

"Um..." Delta murmured, Rem immediately looking towards her "What was that?"

"Nothing, darling." Rem chuckled "You just go back to sleep."

Before Delta could respond Ix came charging into the carriage with C.Q Cumber on her shoulder "What tha bloody hell is goin' on!? You coulda shaken this thing off the tracks!" C.Q Cumber barked, a red tone forming inside him until he saw the pool of blood near the doors and sighed "Another attack?"

Rem simply nodded in response.

"Damn..." Ix growled, then noticing Rem was out of breath "Sis...are you OK?"

"Yeah, yeah." Rem mirrored the hand waving movement Ix herself had made earlier "Just – powering up drained me a lot. Might not be used to it or something."

Ix simply hummed in response, crossing her arms "Well...anyway, we need to go over the plan."

Inkpool Street Station, some time later

Delta stepped out onto the bleak and dank station "Bye, guys." She said over her shoulder.

"Stay safe, DD." Ix smiled as the doors closed, the sisters keeping their gaze on Delta as the train vanished into the darkness once more.

The ringing came back.

Delta looked further down the station, seeing the exact same phone from earlier now illuminated by a spotlight. A feeling alone compelled her to approach, her hand swiping up the metallic rod once again "Hello?" She spoke, her answer being a few seconds of breathing before…

"Delta."

It was the same guy from last time "Y-Yeah, that's me." Delta replied.

"Good." The voice responded "I hear you found a Gem of Eternity."

Delta nodded with a simple "Mhm."

The voice laughed "Well that's very good. I'm proud of you."

Delta didn't reply to that, simply looking around the station, a gentle howl of wind blowing through.

"Where do you want to go when you escape?" The voice suddenly asked.

Delta blinked...she had never thought of that...where did she want to go? Of course, her first priority was finding out who she was, but after that…

"I don't know." Delta spoke quietly, tangling the chord of the phone around her finger "I guess- I guess where ever Rem, Ix and Marcus go."

"The Promised Land, eh?"

"Promised...Land?"

The voice sounded surprised "They didn't tell you? They're from the Promised Land."

Delta thought back to what Rem told her last night.

"No, darling. I'm from somewhere...well, I dunno where it is in regards to this place but my home is a place called Ooinkhu. You might like it there, when we get out of here. I got a family there, too. My boyfriend and 3 kids...technically 4, haha."

"Rem didn't call it the Promised Land – she said it was called Ooinkhu."

The voice chuckled in response, the sound of something being scribbled being faint in the background "I see...well I guess I got so used to it being called the Promised Land around these parts that I forgot its real name. Thank you for reminding me, Delta." The voice groaned suddenly, numerous clicks audible behind them "Anyway...I believe you have a job to do, don't you?"

Delta nodded "Yeah...bye." She quickly hung up and looked towards the set of stairs that once again led into an inky consuming darkness...all too similar to what she had seen in her sleep. Swallowing her fear, she made her way into the shadows.

On the ceiling of the station, dozens of red eyes opened up in unison, watching the Octoling go. Teeth of the same substance formed, as did the rest of a vaguely humanoid face.

Johnny released a hoarse echoing chuckle through the tunnels, slipping into the vents of the facility.