Chapter Four

Ready Or Not

A/N: Yeah, I'm back. These updates are getting more difficult, because I need time to figure out where I want the story to move from. Obviously, it's still similar to "Thin Ice", but I want it to take a slightly different path. Plus, school is still piling on, so it's harder to want to write.

Anyways, in this chapter, Nathan finally meets the Queen, and we have our first real fight. Hope you enjoy.

The Throne Room

With Nathan, Retvi and Persephone

Nathan felt the hairs on his neck prick up as he entered the throne room. It wasn't as extravagant as he had thought; despite being very large, it was also very minimalist. However, Nathan's mind wasn't really on drawing any conclusions just yet. Instead, he was paying attention to the woman at the end of the hallway he was currently striding down.

She sat on her throne, staring at them, and he could tell that she was staring at him in particular. It made sense. After all, she had probably seen many Octolings in her life, but he was new. He had to keep reminding himself of that: he was a stranger in a strange world. "No pressure, Nathan. You just have to represent an entire sentient species to the leader of a different sentient species," he thought, half comical, half cynical.

When he was within a couple body lengths of the Queen, he suddenly dropped to his knees, causing a couple Octolings to flinch back as she raised one

eyebrow (or is it an eye-tentacle? He didn't know). Then, he bowed to her. "Your Majesty", he spoke, his accent masking his voice a bit.

She waited a couple of seconds before letting out a sharp laugh. Nathan nearly flinched, being caught off guard by it, before relief replaced his nerves. "Rise, precursor", the Queen said, her voice oozing authority. "There's no need to be so formal. After all, I made you come see me in my home."

Nathan stood up from his awkward position, only to receive a sharp elbow from Persephone. Thankfully, it didn't hurt too much, since he was exponentially stronger than she was, but it did make him momentarily lose his balance. When he actually looked at her, he found her with her arms crossed, an I told you so smirk plastered upon her face.

"Well, what did I tell you?" She asked smugly. "I told you that you weren't going to need to worry, that she would be fine with you. But you were all 'no, she's the most politically powerful member of your species. I have every right to be nervous'", she continued mocking him playfully, now that she knew she was in the right.

Sheepishly, Nathan's hand went to the back of his neck, and the tallest member of the group stumbled over his explanation. "Sorry, sorry... before we went under, we were to show respect to royalty. People would bow."

The Queen chuckled at the little interaction the two had. She definitely hadn't expected someone to bond with a precursor so quickly, but if anyone could do it, it was going to be Persephone. Retvi had heard about her enthusiasm for all things precursors had to offer, so meeting one that was alive had to be a dream come true for the archeologist.

The royalty in the room broke up their little interaction with a clap of her hands, making them both fall silent and turn to look at her. "As much as I want to watch you squabble like a married couple," she said, (making Nathan raise an eyebrow as some of the other Octolings laughed) "we should get down to business. Precursor, I'm going to have to interrogate you a bit. Please step forward."

Nathan took one long stride away from Persephone and the soldiers and maintained eye contact with the Queen. And good heavens, he was tense. Despite towering over her and possessing strength well above her, she radiated authority. Nathan knew he needed to have the "interrogation", as it was called, go well.

The Queen spoke first. "State your name and your occupation."

"Ah, yes, a classic cross-examination, with the defendant on the stand," Nathan thought. He had a leg up as a diplomat, but he was still going to struggle through this due to his accent and difficulties with the language.

"My name is Nathan Eastbrook, Your Majesty. I am a fighter and negotiator, and the only member of the humans not dead or in a coma."

That made the Queen flinch a little. "It must be terrible to be the only member of your kind among the living. But I have to keep going."

"And why, pray tell, are you not dead?"

"It's long story, Your Majesty. In effort to keep humans from fully dying, I, along with few hundred others, were put into a coma, and kept that way until we could wake without having to worry about dying. I was first one to wake up because, as a soldier, I could make sure that nothing would be a danger to the rest of us before we all woke."

"How long were you in a coma?"

With a straight face and a serious tone, Nathan dropped a big piece of info. "Twelve thousand years, Your Majesty, but I am really twenty two." Honestly, he was surprised that the cryo pods worked for that long. "Oh, the miracles of ancient tech."

This cross examination continued for a while in a similar manner, with the Queen asking him a variety of questions about himself and humans as a whole. Eventually, the Queen, seemingly satisfied with the new information she had, asked one final question. "What do you plan on doing to the Octarian Empire?"

This was the question Nathan had been waiting for. This was how he could win the Queen's favor. He was practically rubbing his hands in anticipation. So he put the first phase of that master plan into action.

"Your Majesty, I can tell you I won't hurt your kingdom. I want to make sure other humans are safe. To a degree, we will be able to support ourselves. But eventually, we will need someone to help us."

He took a moment to kneel down and open his backpack, pulling out the blueprints for a bunch of solar panels. Slowly, he walked up to the Queen and showed her the document, letting her look at it.

"Your Majesty, I only ask that, when the rest of the humans awake, you will be able to help them adjust to this new world. For the moment, I can give you these documents in return."

The Queen sat on her throne and ran her eyes over the picture. It was unfamiliar, and the text was foreign to her. "That is all well and good", she said, "but I have no idea what this depicts."

It was Persephone who answered, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"That, my Queen, is the solution to our chronic power problem, and something the Inklings do not have."

The Queen's eyes widened. This was a major game changer. "You... humans", she said, rolling the word around in her mouth, "could make power without the Zapfish?" She asked. She had to, since it was an extremely unfamiliar notion. If they could really produce power like that and Nathan agreed to hand these plans over, it could change the future of the Octarian Empire as everyone knew it. They could finally put themselves on even footing with the Inklings. It was practically a solution that came from the heavens.

Nathan could guess what she was thinking, and he decided to snap her out of her stupor. "Yes, Your Majesty. We had many methods to do this. This one uses the energy that the sun gives off. It can store leftover energy for use at night while giving you power when the sun is out. The resource has no limit. But you will need your best engineers and construction workers to build these, and I won't give you these plans unless you agree to help humanity in the long run."

The Queen paused. While he was on her turf, the plans were in his language, so she couldn't figure them out unless he translated them for her. She couldn't quite force him to hand the plans over due to his strength, and even if she did they couldn't be used without him. He had more leverage than she did in this scenario, so she could only go along with it.

"You have a deal," she said, thinking that the power crisis had been solved. She moved to shake his hand when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

It was a splat bomb.

"Get down!" She screamed, her military training kicking in. She quickly ducked behind her throne as the bomb went off; thankfully, no one was critically injured. However, the bomb was only a distraction. Twenty Octarian troops stormed the throne room, and all hell broke loose.

—

The Octolings in the room scrambled for cover as they were ambushed, with different shades of pink ink quickly filling most of the room. Many of the Octolings took a small amount of damage from the initial volley, it was going to be an uphill battle. At least they had the strength advantage.

Nathan had taken cover behind some overturned furniture, along with a male Octoling appropriately named Marsh. "What is it with water themed names nowadays?" He thought to himself, pulling his goggles over his eyes and taking a pistol out of his bag. He stood up and fired one shot. A loud crack rang through the room and the bullet fired hit an Octarian squarely between the eyes. Ink spurted out of his head and he dropped to the floor, lifeless.

Well, that was blunt. He had just killed a sentient being. It was a different feeling from what he was used to. Even though he had been trained to fight, simulations had nothing on real battles. It was disconcerting for the young soldier.

Even more off putting was the fact that hehad technically missed. Nathan had meant to aim for the chest, but he had instead hit the guy's head and killed him. He supposed that he was used to firing at slightly bigger targets, so he'd have to work on adjusting his aim at some point. For now, he'd just continue to avoid ink fire. While it wouldn't hurt him, it would slowly wear him down, with the strongest shots seemingly about as strong as a professional boxer's haymaker. He could take a lot of hits, but he still needed every advantage he could get, and he'd rather not be stunned.

Another thing he'd was just how far and high the Octolings could propel themselves. With a little space to work with, they kept jumping to all corners of the room. It eliminated his ability to cover himself because a soldier could just jump right over his cover and try to take him out at close range. And sure, while Octarians and Octolings couldn't actually run that fast, super jumps gave them agility that certainly surpassed most people. Plus, they could change forms and swim through ink of their color. So speed and agility were two things Octarians and Octolings definitely had an advantage in.

So while they jumped around the throne room like the House of Pain song ("Oh, what a terrible reference," Nathan winced internally), Nathan stuck to the outskirts of the fight, avoiding close range fights in favor of providing suppressing fire. His being there as reinforcements was definitely helping the Octolings out, as many of the Octarians were trying to focus on him, leaving his allies openings to attack. Marsh in particular was using Nathan's presence to get off a few direct hits.

The impromptu fight kept going, with Nathan using his being there to help the Octolings slowly gain the upper hand. While they had been outnumbered roughly two to one at the start of the fight, they had managed to either splat or knock out enough enemies to where they had a slight advantage. Miraculously, no one on their side had been splatted yet, although there were a couple that had been incapacitated. But with the numbers game on their side they were sure to win. At least, they were until the Octarians got desperate.

Two of the remaining Octarians, knowing it was a losing battle, busted out a pair of hydro cannons, seemingly out of nowhere. They looked just like splatling guns, except they could fire pressurized water at a long range. "Take cover!" A female Octoling screamed as the cannons went off. It took Nathan a few seconds to remember why this was bad; water was somehow harmful to Octolings.

Well, he could add that to his list of advantages. Humans could definitely take way more punishment when it came to non-human weaponry. Obviously, this included the overpowered water gun. He could probably just take it head on. "I'm gonna make a run for it," he said to Marsh, who was still right by him. "I'm gonna bum rush the cannon."

"What? That's crazy! It'll get you killed!" Marsh responded with a worried tone. He had lowered his weapon to respond, and quickly ducked under a shot of water that came a little too close to his head for comfort. "You can't just sacrifice yourself to play hero."

"Just trust me. I've got this," Nathan said, reloading his pistol and pulling the Dazzler out of his pack for good measure. Then, he stepped out of his cover and made a break for it, sprinting right at the hydro cannons.

He quickly abondoned the outskirts of the fight, both weapons at the ready, and the Octarians grinned, aiming the hydro cannons right at him. He managed to get a few shots off with the revolver, aiming for their torsos and landing some body shots. A few staggered before dropping to the floor, and the Octolings were trying their best to back him up. However, one Octarian caught Nathan off guard, and he fired at him with full force. All Nathan could do was take the hit head on.

The Octolings watched in horror as Nathan took a wide shot of pressurized water directly to the face. It was the second time Persephone had thought that Nathan was going to die.

Well, he just had to defy expectations. The blast knocked him back a few feet, and he dropped to one knee, but he was still alive. With determination, he got to his knees and began moving towards the Octarians, who had now lost their nerve a bit. When they fired again, he managed to avoid the shots and continued his advance, moving his legs quickly. He needed to end this before they hit him again, but he didn't quite want them dead either.

He dropped the pistol in favor of the Dazzler, pointed it at the Octarian manning the cannon, closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger. A bright flash went through the room, temporarily blinding Nathan's target. It was more than enough time for him to pistol whip the poor soul into unconsciousness. The other Octolings quickly left their cover and took care of the rest of the Octarians still standing.

That had ended the fight, and Nathan's adrenaline wore off quickly. As a matter of fact, he was kind of tired, and when he looked around he saw that the other Octolings were tired as well. He slowly strode over to them, a fatigued smile on his face. They all smiled back, happy that none of their own had died.

Persephone, of course, was the first one to speak up. "So, you're immune to water too, huh? You're just full of surprises," she said, mainly out of exasperation. However, he also detected a small hint of fondness in her voice.

"Yeah, I guess that's weird," he joked, before turning to look at the damage that had been done. "Now let's make sure these guys can't try to kill us again." He gestured over to the unconscious Octarians and their lethal weapons to make his point.

One of the captured later claimed that they had all just foiled an assassination attempt on the Queen.

—

It had taken a couple hours, but eventually the group had managed to subdue the captured Octarians. The Queen said that they were probably going to be taken off to be interrogated by someone that worked for her, so that loose end was probably going to tie itself up. "Good," thought Persephone bitterly. "Perhaps now we can get back to negotiations."

Nathan had been so close to fully winning over the Queen when they had been ambushed, in her own throne room no less! They would have to figure out how they had managed to sneak in. Queen Retvi's paranoia had spiked because of it as well; she had also stated that she thought that she would have no choice but to watch her back a little more.

Not to mention she wasn't done talking. Actually, it was almost as if she had planned out a speech specifically for Nathan and the other Octolings in the room, talking about what their next move was going to be. Nathan, as the human diplomat, was probably the only one even trying to pay attention. The other Octolings, Persephone included, were spread across the floor, most of which had been cleaned by a few of the Queen's servants. Some of the Octolings in question had been bored to sleep. "Simply put, the Queen's speeches are boring," Persephone thought to herself, as the Queen in question droned on and on. Eventually, she decided to listen in to what the Queen had to say.

"...Perhaps they could stay with you for a while," the Queen continued, seemingly talking to Nathan in particular. "They could keep you safe and you could show them your culture."

"Well, that is an interesting proposal," Nathan finally answered. Frankly, he was just glad she was giving him a chance to speak. It seemed that even though she wasn't born into royalty, she had gained their penchant for boring speeches. "I'd have to ask them."

He suddenly clapped his hands, forcing the other Octolings back to attention. Persephone actually snickered at the sight of a group of trained Octolings stumbling to their feet. It was just so out of character for a group of people that were supposed to constantly be on guard. "Guess that goes to show how bad the Queen is at public speaking," Persephone thought humorously.

"The Queen thinks that it would be a good idea to have you guys live with me," Nathan said. "This seems like a pretty good choice. I can have people watch my back, and you can take part in a culture exchange. You share your culture with me, and I can share with you what humans had to offer. Also, someone back there can translate, so I won't sound weird. What do you think?"

He got general agreements from most of the party, and Persephone said yes almost immediately. It sounded like he was already developing a cult of personality.

"I guess it's decided then. You guys live with me while we translate the plans into Oceanic. I can meet your needs while you stay..." he continued.

An absolute disaster had narrowly been avoided, and the exchange between humans and Octarians was starting off well.

—

So, that was chapter four of "From Before". The Queen has ordered the squad of Octolings to stay with Nathan for the time being while the plans for solar panels are being translated into Oceanic.

How was the writing? Did I write out the fight scene and the opening negotiations well? Could it have been better? Did I miss something. Review it and let me know, because I know this story can be better. Anyways, have a good one.