Their Broken Bond

Author's Note: Hello again! I'm happy to see you're sticking with this story still! I'm sorry this chapter took a while to come, it was unexpectedly hard to write. Also, I wanna thank the few people that reviewed this. It does mean a lot for sure. So here we go :

JRedd7272 Duly noted. I write my story on a word document before porting it on here, so that's where this punctuation came from. I would never have thought that people would notice haha. Thanks!

RisingPhoenix56 Thanks! It's not a callout, people can write what they want haha. It just makes me so sad to see so few of them. What is there not to like about the one and only Squid Sisters, am I right ? Although, if it does get you to write more stuff on them... Haha, I'm just kidding. I really like your works by the way.

Guest (whoever you might be...) You're right. I will go back and edit the first chapter later address this, but I just want to get a few chapters in before doing that. Can't go around doing too many things at once. I also don't want to just keep repeating things along the lines of "she said" every time. I tried to make it less confusing this time around, tell me if it turns out better? I may try a few different things in other chapters and once I know for sure what works best I'll go back and edit the first one. Thanks for reviewing!

Again, I'm going to include another AN at the end of this fic to explain some things (I'm probably going to do this every chapter, I just really enjoy giving my perpective and explaining my reasoning/decisions on why and how I do things. And if it can spark some debate about the game, all the better! I like talking about it).

With all that said, here's the chapter.

"Next station : Inkopolis Square. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform". Here I am, Calllie thought as the train came to a stop.

It was a beautiful day. The sun, resting in a clear, blue sky, showered the streets of Inkopolis in its shine. A gentle spring breeze was flowing by, lazily swaying the trees on its way. All in all, it was the perfect day to go out.

Callie walked through the streets of Inkopolis Square. Even though it was only around 10 AM, they were already bustling with activity, with inklings left and right going on about their daily life, the mix and match splashing the grey pavements in a vast array of colors.
She took in her surroundings. A massive skyscraper stood in the far end of the place, blasting loud music out in the streets. She could see several groups of inklings chatting excitedly with one another near the tower, with some entering it and others leaving. A variety of stores made up the left part of the square, ranging from clothing stores that sold shoes all the way up to headwears, to a store that sold weapons most likely for turf wars. As she got a closer look at it, though, she gasped. Ammo Knights? So Sheldon opened up a branch store here? I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Although the lineup did remind her of the Booyah Base back in the Plaza. It was a melancholic thought. I've been gone for a long while now… After what happened, she had cut off all contacts with Inkopolis and had moved away to another town. An odd, airy feeling suddenly overcame her. She felt something was amiss. Wait, shouldn't I already know about this? But try as she might, she couldn't grasp on to this feeling. It bothered her. Regardless though, she continued on. On the opposite side, there was an arcade center. A few brave inklings could even be seen showing off their skills on a dancing game arcade outside the building.

And right next to it, there was the News Broadcast Studio.

This takes me back, she thought, back to when Marie and I used to do the news in the Plaza… Life used to be so much simpler back then… It was just us, having fun while living our dream… She shook her head. Not now.

So this is Inkopolis Square. I gotta say, it definitely holds up to its « newest hot spot for inklings » title. It's almost a shame I missed out on it for this long. Of course, she couldn't just be out in the streets without it causing a massive uproar. Thus, she went out with a disguise. She was wearing a long, purple cardigan with a simple white T-shrit underneath, along with a black short and a pair of black bukcled knit boots. She wore a pair of black tinted shades that covered most of her face, and a purple knitted cap with a golden star pinned on its right side in which she hid her long tentacles. All in all, she was sporting her trademark Agent 1 disguise.
She had missed this outfit. For a long while, she had been unable to wear a pair of sunglasses. It would always remind her of her time in octarian captivity. Just the sight of one used to be enough to give her a panic attack. She had broken down on scene, once, when she was supposed to wear one for her role in a movie. After that particular event, she tried her hardest and eventually got it under control and was finally able to wear shades again.

She had dealt with this alone, just like she always did.

Her thoughts moved back to her reason for being here in the first place.

…

"She tried to kill herself".

It took a while for Callie to register those words. She stared dumbfounded at her wall. Marie tried to kill herself? This had to be a joke, right? Instantly, she recalled every moment she spent with Marie. Ever as little babies, they had been unseparable. -"I found her in her in"- After all, both their families were very close to each others, and Marie was born barely a week after her. They were basically raised as sisters. They spent their entire childhood, all the way up to adulthood, together, going to the same school, doing the same activities… -"so I took her there"- Even as they decided to leave their town, family and friends behind to follow their dream and moved to Inkopolis as the Squid Sisters, Marie was still with her. -"Hey are you listening to"- Marie was the person she was the closest to, and even after Gramps had recruited them (well, he had recruited her, and she had recruited Marie), she never considered the thought of Marie dying. She wondered if she could live in a world where Marie was dead. The answer was a clear, resounding no. That's why she distanced herself from Marie in the first place.

"Hey! Callie! Are you still there?" Ace's loud voice finally registered in her brain as she tuned back in to her surroudings.

"Is Marie alright? What happened? Where is she?!" She frantically asked him. She heard Ace sigh on the other end.

"As I was saying, yes, she's fine. I managed to find her and get her to a hopsital in the square in time. As for what happened, welI… After that announcement she made, I was kinda worried about her. Usually, I wait for her backstage while she's performing until she comes back to get her stuff and all. But this time she didn't. I decided should go and check her apartment or something. She didn't answer when I knocked on the door, but since she didn't lock up behind her I just went in. I found her in her living room, down on the ground, unconscious. Even more worrying was… Well… When i took her to the hospital, the doctors said she fainted because she overdosed on medication, but what I noticed back in the apartment was… The knife. And the ink. I took her to the hospital as fast as I could after that" Ace slowly explained, his voice growing more and more tired as he went on. "Right now she's sleeping. The doctors say she should be fine to go in a few days, although they said they will appoint her therapy sessions".

Oh Cod… "What's the address of that hospital? I'm coming to see her". Ace sighed again.

"Alright, just meet me at…" Ace stopped for a short while "The Crust Bucket. You'll easily notice it when you get to the Square. It's basically a yellow food truck. How long will it take you to come?" He then asked.

"I should be here by tomorrow morning."

"Okay then, meet me there at 11 AM. That's when visiting hours start. See you." He then hang up.

...

She sighed as she recalled the events. Am i really ready to face Marie? I don't know if I can control myself… In fact, the fact she hadn't already lost control and basically told Ace off surprised her. Well, since I'm here there's no going back now. For better or for worse…

She made sure to arrive early so she would have plenty of time to spot their meetup place. Let's see, a yellow truck… She spotted it in the distance. Ah, there it is. She noticed a long queue of Inklings waiting in line. She raised an eyebrow. Woah, are they waiting for their turn? That looks a little excessive… However, as she got closer, she understood why as a delicious smell reached her nose that made her mouth water. This smells good! I wonder if I can get Agent 3 to treat me… Wait, is that… Crusty Sean?! He's the one managing this food truck?

Crusty Sean had been one of she and Marie's first friends after they moved to Inkopolis, and had helped them settling and adjusting to the city life. He had been a very close friends to them since. I didn't know he quit Shrimp Kicks. This odd feeling came back, like fog slowly clouding her thoughts.

Something was wrong. What is this? This is the second time it happens. It can't be a coincidence… Contrary to what most inklings might have thought, Callie was much sharper than what she was given credit for. As such, she realized the common element between those two events immediatly. It happened directly after she recalled past events : in other words, it was her memories. Her head was pounding. She sat down at a table nearby. No, this can't be happening. She held her head with her hands. How far had the octarians gone? How much did they mess with her? What did they do to me?! She recognised the begginings of a panic attack settling in and took deep breaths Okay Callie, deep breaths… Breathe in.. Breathe out… In, out. She didn't want to be here any longer.

Going to see Marie was a bad idea in the end, and she hadn't seen Marie, or even Ace, yet. She had no reason to be here, she was fine -But Marie isn't- before coming here. She had dealt with enough problems as of late -and she caused many more- she didn't need another one on top of this. Ace isn't here yet, she could still bail -stop running away- and never look back. Besides, it didn't matter to her whatever happened to th- NO! She slammed her hands on the table, breathing heavily. Several inklings stopped and stared at her.

"Errrm…" She heard a voice behind her. Callie whirled around and saw the person who adressed her walking towards her, her wild gaze gone unnoticed behind her sunglasses.

It was Agent 3.

Ace Squiffin, Also known as Agent 3, was a relatively tall inkling, with bright yellow tentacles tied together in a ponytail reaching just above his neck. He was dressed in a red and black checked shirt and a plain black short with red Hi-tops. Even though He held himself in a relaxed and casual way, his gait betrayed his training and alertness to his surroundings. His deep blue eyes showed signs of maturity, different from the childish wonder she remembered them having. All in all, He had matured into a fine young man.

Right, I almost forgot… Agent 3 should be eighteen by now. Heh, he sure has grown from the naive greenhorn gramps recruited in those 4 years.

Ace fixed Callie with a long stare, his eyebrows slightly raised. Completely ignoring what just happened, instead she decided to break the silence that hung over them. Her face broke into a large grin.

"Ace! It's good to see you! It sure has been a while! Look at how you've grown! Man, I remember, You used to be so small back then too…" She lightly teased him, her grin growing larger when she noticed his confused expression. Her sudden change in attitude had succeeded in catching him off-guard, it seemed.

Moving past the initial surprise, he then replied in stride "Hey. It sure has been. It's good to see you too, One." So he noticed my outfit and caught on, she thought with a small smile. "I may have grown, but you sure haven't changed much since last time."

"Whaaat? You're not looking hard enough! Don't you see? I'm like, wayyy older and stuff. I'm totally more mature, right?" She struck an exagerated pose to demonstrate her claim.

He chose not to comment on it, and though he had a small smile on his face, she could see something flash in his eyes for a second before it disappeared. Instead, he asked her :

"Say, you hungry? Let's grab something to eat, my treat. After all, you probably don't have a ticket." after a small pause, he added "I know you're hungry." with a smile, teasing her back.
She put her hand behind her head, sheepish "Haha, you got me there. What can I say? This place just smells delicious." He had already turned around towards the truck. He had phrased this as a question, but she detected the steel lacing it. He wouldn't take no for an answer.

"I know, right? Just take a seat and wait for me, I'll be back with food." With that, he added himself to the already long queue of inklings.

Callie decided to go sit at a table further away. She knew what was coming up next. As she did so, she dropped her happy attitude and used the time to reflect over what happened. Ace sure has become quite good at this kind of stuff. She could easily recognize a warning when she heard one. So Gramps' taught him interrogation tactics, huh. He saw through me instantly. He had caught on to her act and played along. It was a test, both trying to get a read on each others. He had made sure to give nothing away, however. A nice little Agent.

Seeing Ace in person gave her mixed feelings. There was a part of her that was geniuinely happy to see him, but… She had to fight back her resentment from showing, to keep it at bay. She remembered subtle insults and mockeries. Callie could feel another headache building up. Ugh… Seriously, this has been happening way too much. Maybe I should consider bringing pain medication next time…
On this note, she remembered her almost-breakdown earlier. Ace really caught her at a bad time. She calmly went over what she had gathered. There was a problem with her memories, and it involved both Sheldon and Crusty Sean so far. She doubted it stopped there though, but she couldn't say. Maybe I should have went with Ace, I need to ask Sean some questions and beside, I really want to see him again. But she also didn't want to cause (another) scene right now- Wait.
She went over that again. She wanted to see Crusty Sean again. As in, she didn't feel conflicted over this like she usually did. I want to see him again! This was huge! She almost jumped from her seat in excitement. That was it! A connection with her old life she had been longing for! She did wonder why she was fine with Sean especially, though. Maybe because he's not an inkling? But that didn't explain why she didn't also feel normal towards, say, Sheldon. Maybe the octarians didn't know that I knew him? Although they were close, they weren't seen hanging with each others too often.
Regardless, she had something now. Coming to Inkopolis Square wasn't so bad an idea, after all. She definitely needed to see him now. It would have to wait until later, though. There were still too many inklings around, and she had to see Marie before. But she could see him after all that. Maybe she still had his shellphone number?

She noticed Ace coming back and sit in front of her, laying 2 identical over-the-top snacks on the table. It consisted of three layers of waffles stacked on top of each others, with ice cream in between each waffle and two fried shrimps resting at the top of the treat. The whole thing was also covered in chocolate sauce. Callie drooled. Man, this thing is huuge! I can't wait to dig in…

"Here you go, a triple fried galactic schwaffle." He told her. "Don't be shy." She didn't need to be told twice.

"Aw, thanks Ace!" Callie then proceeded to devour her food, while Ace ate at a more leisurely pace. It wasn't until they were done eating that one of them spoke next.

"That thing was delicious! Sean's definitely gotta tell me how he made these. Maybe I can get him to open up a shop closer to town…" She sighed contently.

"Don't bother, I already tried asking him. It's a trade secret, or so he says. Though, he is trying to expand his business to other places apparebtly. I heard from Pearl he opened up a shop in Wahoo World." Ace remarked. "But enough about that." He sighed and dropped his laidback attitude, adopting a more serious one and looked at Callie straight in the eyes. As she was about to say something, however, he interrupted her.

"You can drop the act now, you and I both know I can see right through it. I don't have the patience for these games right now."

She slowly lost her smile and carefully set her face in a neutral expression. Well, I knew this was coming eventually. After a moment, Ace broke the tense silence that had installed itself over them with an exasperated sigh.

"Look," he started, dropping his voice low so that people wouldn't hear them, "Marie told me what happened while the Cap'n and I were out. About the squidnapping, Octo Canyon and all." She kept silent, waiting for him to continue. "And, I can imagine you had your own problems to deal with after all this. But these have been 2 very draining years. Marie hasn't been herself ever since you left. When we came back from our mission, it was already too late. No matter what I or the Cap'n tried, we couldn't help her."
It is your fault she is like this. He didn't outright say it, but she heard the accusation in his voice all the same. Self-loathing clawed at her, but she refused to acknowledge it. Focusing on that now wouldn't be of any use. "What I'm trying to say is," he continued, "Why did you leave back then? Why are you here now? What do you want, Callie? I just want to know."

It was on the tip of her tongue. She definitely owed everyone an explanation. She could tell him how the octarians had changed her. How she couldn't even control herself anymore, how she was scared of herself and her thoughts. She could tell him how much she hated her life for the past 2 years, how she desperately wanted, longed for things to return back to the way there were before, for her to return to her old self, to forget those 2 years even happened. She could tell him all this, but her throat refused to work. Why can't I tell him?! Instead, she felt the now familiar emotions resurface. She was horrified. Oh no, I'm losing myself. Now of all time too... She only managed to get one thing out :

"Those are my own problems to deal with. I don't want to talk about it. Can we go see Marie now?" Callie internally screamed. She hadn't even meant to sound this hostile and confrontational. This is bad. Ace raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Fat chances on that. I think we're due at least some kind of explanations, don't you think?" He replied calmly, challenging her. Callie was agitated. Come on, don't be a hardass now of all times.

"No, I don't. If I say I don't want to talk about it, then I won't. Do you see me bothering you with questions on your personal life, Ace?" Things were going downhill very quickly. She struggled to regain a hold on herself.

"Maybe I would, if my personal life was the reason behind your problems. But I don't think I'm to blame for that." He countered, referencing Marie's situation. However, Callie suddenly exploded.

"YES YOU ARE!" She yelled, standing up abruptly, glaring at him and catching Ace off-guard again. Her body was vibrating with unrestrained anger. After this outburst, though, she felt drained, although it did allow her to regain her self-control. She fell back down on her chair and caught her head in her hands. Right now, she just wanted to cry. I'm so done with these mood swings. I feel like a coddamn lunatic.

"Callie…" She heard Ace softly call to her, but she stopped him.

"Can we just go see Marie now? Just… Please. I can't let her throw away her life like this." Ace contemplated her for a long moment, before finally relenting.

"Alright, yeah. Let's go see her." He stood up and motionned for her to do so as well, which she did. She was grateful that he didn't mention her outburst just now. But at last, she was finally going to see Marie.

Callie just hoped it didn't go as poorly as her encounter with Ace.

Author's Note : And that's chapter 2! Poor Callie, she isn't doing too hot :c Anyways, hope you liked it. Now for my favorite part (lol) : Here's my ramble!
So, as I said in the beginning, this chapter was much harder to write than I expected. I couldn't settle on the way I wanted it to go. I had many different ideas, and anytime I would imagine this chapter I would do things differently. Should it start right after chapter 1 left off? Or should it start directly in Inkopolis? Or maybe directly with Marie? etc etc... That kind of conflicting ideas.

In the end, I probably imagined like 15-20 different versions for this chapter before settling with that. That's why it took me so long really, I couldn't decide. This lasted for about a week, until I just told myself "Hey, just sit down, write something and see where this goes". That's how I got this chapter.

I used Callie's first time in the square as a chance to try my hand at descriptions. I'm not sure if I did a good enough job at it to be honest, that thing is hard. Also, writing characters is hard too (well you can say writing in general is hard lol). However, I definitely like this chapter more than the previous one. I think this one feels more complete. Whenever I re-read Chapter 1 I always feel like it lacks some things.

While writing this chapter, I got an interesting idea for this story though. Fortunately, even though I didn't think about that when I wrote chapter 1, the beginning was written in a way that allowed this idea to happen. Maybe you guys can figure it out? I'm not gonna spoil, though I did give a little hint. I don't think it's anything super hard to figure out or groundreaking, but I do like it regardless.

On the topic of characters, I think Agent 3 may come off as a little too harsh? I tried to tone it down a little, and it's not like he hates Callie now, but he definitely holds her responsible. There's going to be more to it, though. Maybe I'll do a chapter from Ace's POV? What do you think?

Also, Agent 4 should be coming soon. I'm not sure if it's gonna be in the next chapter or not, but Agent 4 definitely has a role in this story. By the way, a funny thing about Agent 4 (not particularly related to this story) is, that according to Marie, Agent 4 is 2 years older than Agent 3, which would make him 18 in Splatoon 2's story (since Agent 3 would be 16 by then). This is inconsistent with what the director said in an interview, which more or less implied that Agent 4 was 14, belonging to a "new wave" of inklings (compared to splatoon 1's). Funnily enough, Maire supposedly doesn't mention Agent 4's age in the japanese version. I wonder which one I'll go with...

But anyways, what do you guys think? As I said in the previous chapter, I'm definitely open to any kind of criticism you guys can think of (for as long as it's not just something like "hey ur bad lol"). See you next chapter, and stay fresh!