(To Grape 2:) Sorry if that last chapter sounded like a cliffhanger. It really wasn't meant to be. Sky only forget his name because she hadn't been down there in half a year.

Unless you were talking about something else in there, then ignore this.

Glad you're enjoying, though!

I didn't know what I was expecting, but the next few hours were a lot more uneventful than I thought they would be.

C.Q. agreed to pick up everyone from each station, but he seemed a little hesitant to part with the train he'd been piloting for… however long he'd been doing it. The idea of the so-called "promised land" won him over, though.

We were almost at the last station, so the train was getting crowded. There wouldn't be many people there. It was never more than two. So it looked like, miraculously, the subway could fit everyone in one trip.

I sat next to Annie at the back of the caboose under one of the outdated advertisements. I kept fidgeting in my seat—they felt like solid stone. Annie, though, wasn't bothered at all. Or perhaps she was too distracted to notice.

She was leaning against her arm, staring out the window with a tired expression I could barely see in its reflection. She hadn't said a word since boarding, and I was afraid to speak up instead. I didn't want to cause her any more worry.

"We will arrive at the next station shortly," C.Q. said. Even though that wasn't prerecorded, it definitely sounded like it was.

"Hey," Annie started. I almost jumped. "I never got to thank you back." She turned to look at me and smiled faintly. "For… for the same thing. Somehow, you also helped me get used to Inkopolis."

I blinked at her. We were just going to set aside her breakdown. I guess I had no complaints about that. "N— no worries…"

The train slowed and stopped. As the last of the passengers trickled in, C.Q. began his long lecture for the final time on why we were all gathering in here. Or at least, that was what I assumed it was. I couldn't speak the language.

I gripped the seat as we started moving again. The central station was near this one, so I didn't expect the ride to be very long.

Annie opened her mouth again to speak but paused before getting anything out. "Uh," she said, "I don't know how to bring this up. But I heard there's going to be a protest tomorrow."

"Protest?" I started running my mind to figure out what it might be against. It didn't take long to reach a good guess. "About?"

"Us. Sorry to be the… bearer of bad news, I guess."

Yep, I was right.

"The war generation is kind of going crazy over us. And some of the younger ones, I think. They'll be gathering in the square. Try not to get mixed up in anything. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Mm." I nodded. Honestly, I had thought that this would have happened earlier. I really didn't blame them. There was the trauma from the war, and now, I assumed, the Great Zapfish incidents had gone public.

And not even a month ago, Akash Octrope…

But I couldn't help but feel… something. Mildly annoyed? Probably.

For the last time, the train slowed down and stopped near the remains of the blender. A moment passed, and the doors opened. The ones at the front started flowing out of the caboose, proceeding forward to the exit door several cars ahead. Meaning Annie and I were last.

The line moved forward at an obnoxiously sluggish pace, and it occurred to me that we should have been in the front, knowing the way out and all. I stood up. "When tomorrow is this protest?" I asked.

"Like, all day," Annie said bluntly. "I'll be hiding in my room until it's over. I'd probably make things worse single-handedly, to tell you the truth."

I squinted at her but decided not to ask how.

"So I assume the tower will be closed for the day?" We passed into another car.

Annie snickered. "Is that all you think about?" she joked. "No, the whole thing is automatic. Can't see why anybody would be there, though."

"Income?" I suggested. To my left, I could see that locker from earlier outside the window. We were close. The door was in sight.

The Deepsea residents were all out there, mumbling and murmuring to each other. This was probably the most interesting thing that had happened to them in years. The blender pieces had all been kicked to the other track.

After Annie and I exited and stepped aside, C.Q. was the last one to waddle out onto the platform, still wearing his tiny conductor's hat. "Number 10,008, I never thought I'd see the day. I know I said we weren't allowed to leave, but after you reached the promised land… well, you weren't supposed to be allowed back in. Things have changed." He… bounced. I took it as a sign of gratitude…?

He turned around, and for the first time, I saw that train completely shut down. I sighed. Good.

"I'll take the front?" Annie suggested.

I shrugged. "It probably doesn't matter, but sure. Want this?" I held up my Octo Shot.

Annie shrugged. "Sure, thanks. I'll give it back."

I tossed it to her, and she caught it in her open hand. With a Hero Shot in her left hand and an Octo Shot in her right, she pushed through the crowd and dropped down onto the other track. "This way," she said. They didn't understand the words, but what they did was her point down the pitch-black tunnel.

We pressed on through the darkness with Annie at the front and me at the back. My unspoken purpose was to make sure nobody got left behind, but nobody collapsed or anything. It helped that C.Q. Conductor glowed a bit.

This guy… I didn't know what he was to Phone Guy. In those tests, he'd always announce when the bomb strapped to me would blow up, but it was never him that set it off. But it was always in a flat tone, like he didn't care that I was exploding.

He must have been numbed to the situation, with the others that must have come before me. How many were there? 10,008, including me? Maybe he was down there for only… the last 50 or so. It chilled me to think about being stuck there that long. I was glad to have shut down the operation, even if it were only temporary.

I kept staring at him as he inched forward. That little hat almost fell off with each lurch.

And, suddenly, he started to slow down.

I looked up and could barely make out that everyone in front of him was too. The mumbling picked up again. I shoved my way forward—there was no use trying to communicate.

"Annie?" I called as I dove between the cracks. No response. Some of them started moving back, for some reason. The crowd thinned as I got closer to the front.

The faint sound of shots being fired echoed down the tunnel, and as soon as I heard it, I broke into a sprint. I dodged left and right, barely avoiding anyone in my way.

Eventually, I broke through and found myself staring at the damaged end of the first train I saw. Annie was not there.

With nobody in my way anymore, I kept sprinting forward, making a sharp right to get out of the car and into the place where I first awoke.

The wall was shut. And from behind it, the sound of gunshots.

Annie must have been back there. She didn't… No, if she'd abandoned us, then why the fighting?

I looked up at the faulty light. If Simon was right, then he'd fallen in from there and managed to get back in. I only hoped whatever mechanism it had wasn't holding it too tightly.

I jumped and hooked my fingers under the tile the light was on. And just barely, it began to swing open under my weight. I jerked my arms down, opened it all the way, and swung myself inside. The tile snapped shut as soon as I made it up.

I shielded my eyes with my hand. It was bright. Much brighter than the metro. This was the white cube room with the glass, right next to the control room with the elevator. The walls and floor were… surprisingly spotless. That yellow liquid must have been an incredible cleaning agent.

I spun around and found the glass wall, and once I looked through, I stopped.

Annie was there, weapons drawn. But across from her was a group of Sanitized in the other corner. At first glance, I estimated around fifteen. And she had been there for a while. Were there more even earlier?

All at once, they split and fired at her with their identical Octo Shots. One approached Annie, but she dodged her fire, kicked her weapon away, and grabbed her to use her body as a shield from the rest of them.

That would have been a really unethical move if these guys weren't all mindless freaks.

Annie backed herself into a corner and held the body with one hand and my Octo Shot in the other. The rest moved to surround her, but she crouched down and leaped to the side, still holding the body. With the Octo Shot, she tore through the rightmost pair.

I kicked the glass, but it wouldn't budge. It was too thick and too sturdy. Not even a crack formed.

Out of the corner, Annie chose to forego the body shield, dropping her and eliminating her with the Hero Shot.

Both of her hands were free, so she fired blindly behind her with both weapons, splatting four more in quick succession.

For a moment, as she ran, I saw her face. It was blank, just as it was when we first arrived at the central station, but this time, it was detached, rather than a mask hiding anything deeper. She hadn't noticed me.

Annie swam away from the rest, who split once again. She aimed both weapons at two different ones, hitting both of their heads perfectly with both streams of ink. She chucked a bomb at a group of three, hitting the middle one in the legs and catching all three of them in the blast. As the last three backed her into another corner, Annie dove backward into the staircase and out of my sight.

I turned, ran back to the trapdoor, and jumped onto it. It opened again, and I dropped back onto the floor by the broken train. Behind me, the front of the crowd was gathered inside of it, investigating the noise.

And in front of me, the wall slid into the floor. Annie was standing there alone, with a hand on the lever and a face that reminded me of an innocent child's.

Were those the instincts she was suppressing?

I weakly lifted my hand, dumbfounded. "I…" I began. "I got the trapdoor above us open," I said. I pointed at the ceiling. "You… I got to watch all of that."

"Wha— Really?" Annie's eyes widened. Flustered, she turned away. "H— how was it?"

That… was an odd question. "Intimidating," I admitted as the crowd stumbled forward. I was not the greatest battle critic.

"Did you remember anything?"

"Oh, uh…" So we were back on this topic. "No. Nothing."

"Ah." She scratched her head. "I see…"

I raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn't react. Or even notice. "I'll, uh. Head back. To the back."

It took ages to get everyone up the elevator. I was basically their bellhop, standing guard at the bottom as I watched each group step in and ascend. I couldn't do much other than stare at the white cube room. Even calling Annie at the top was out of the question, since there wasn't any signal down there.

And after ushering them all out, Annie and I plopped down by one of the tables in the square.

We decided to trust them with all of the complications of being on the surface, like the gigantic language barrier and culture shock. They'd probably form their own little community in the city. I just hoped it wouldn't become a gang. In any case, Inkopolis residents tended to have hearts of gold, from what I'd heard. Unless, it seemed, you were an Octoling.

Dawn was starting to break. That night was probably the most eventful night of my life, at least since reaching the surface. I didn't end up doing much, but still, a lot had happened.

Annie, at least, did a ton. Protected that crowd, shut herself in with those Sanitized… Leave it to an Octoling to bring people to the surface— No, this wasn't an Octoling thing. Not many could have pulled off what Annie had.

"Welp, I'm going to sleep." Annie stood up and stretched. "Try to not get into any trouble tomorrow. That protest will hopefully be shut down."

"Yeah," I said. "That protest…"

Mildly annoyed? Probably.