Guys, this is the only chapter I have written in advance. Ever. I just had this idea and it was too good to ignore while still fresh in my mind.

I'm writing this before chapter 16, right before the "Annie is Eileen" chapter.

So, hi.

It is me from the future, coming to say that no, I have not written this entire chapter in advance. The first part, yes, though.

It is me from even farther in the future, coming to say that no, I have written so many things in advance now.

A pool of orange ink was around me. The ground was below my head, below my back. I could see a ceiling, far above me. Something blurry whipped the air far to my side. The ink dug into me, but that was the least of my concerns.

I struggled to move, do anything other than lie there. But Agent 3, the most notorious name in Octarian society, had his knee on my chest.

I looked him in the eyes, aware of the blank expression on my face. I couldn't show him any fear. His cape fluttered behind him, and the Hero Shot he was holding was pointed at my forehead. He narrowed his eyes, knowing he'd won again. He looked down at me, lying there helpless, without a thing to do other than wait.

I… lost. That wasn't… what I was told…

Agent 3 has his finger on the trigger. He was going to pull it. No big deal. My nearest regeneration pad was close by, so I'd just reappear and be on my way.

But then he'd escape. And then cause more havoc down here. Why was he doing this, what did he gain, why—

I couldn't help but grimace thinking about it. I… I wasn't supposed to lose this fight! I was our chance, I was going to free us!

Agent 3 was free to do whatever he wanted to down here. Again and again, he'd tear through anybody that dared to fight him. He was good. Too good. And he had better equipment, better weapons, better everything. If he could beat me, then there was nothing in his way.

And as I realized that I failed not only myself, but all of us, I felt a tear run down my face.

No… What was this? This hadn't ever happened before. I… I never cried. This wasn't in the plan! It was never in the plan… I… lost. I lost.

"I lost…"

I clenched my eyes shut.

"I'm sorry…"

Through the veil of my tears, I saw Agent 3 hesitate. His knee against my chest weakened, and he raised his weapon, away from my face.

In an instant, I jerked my head to my side. My hand shot up and found his weapon—the infamous Hero Shot. I wrenched it out of his hand and flung it behind me, leaving it to clatter on the ground a short distance away.

Agent 3 reached for it, and I kicked him off of me. As he tumbled down to my side, I reached for the weapon myself, desperately trudging through the ink to reach it before he could. This was my last chance. If I could best him here, I could prove that I was better, and that I would stop him again.

I threw myself on top of it and opened its small ink container, attaching it to my own ink tank.

There it was. The battle was in my favor. Was I really going to turn this around?

Agent 3 was unarmed. I fired to his right, then left, then hurled a bomb behind him as I charged at him and forced him down. He let out a grunt as he hit the floor.

I… I did it. Now he was on the ground. I pressed my own knee against his chest and the nozzle on his forehead. He was the one in a pool of ink and I was the one holding him down.

"Excellent tactic," said a voice in my headset. "Feigning emotion caught him off guard."

I blinked. I realized I was still looking through a blur. I tried to steady my breathing, but all I could muster was a staggered gasp. I wasn't feigning anything. That wasn't fake at all. Did he think that I was faking it? Of course he did. He thought too highly of me to even consider that it was real.

"Agent 3? Agent 3?" I heard from his own headset.

Despite the tears, I felt… wonderful. Finally. Somebody caught him. And it was me. I could free us from Agent 3 here and now. All I had to do was prove that I was better, and he would stay out. I had won this fight, I'd pulled through. I could free us.

I saw his face, and he looked terrified. My smile dropped.

Oh.

I'd lured him all the way out here. His nearest regeneration point was so far away. If I pulled this trigger…

He won't come back.

He was just a kid, I saw. Not a grizzled veteran. Smooth skin, vitality, clear eyes, everything. He was so young. What was he fighting for? The protection of his kind? No, that couldn't have been it—the threat to Inklingkind ended over a year ago.

Or was it his own confidence, to reach for gratification and a reassurance that he meant something? That must have been it, right?

Or… maybe he didn't know.

However young he was… I was still younger. What was I fighting for?

To be the liberator of my own kind, of course.

Was that really it? No, it couldn't be. There was nothing in killing someone else, even if it was for the good of the Octarians. This wouldn't get us any closer to the surface.

But we'd been down here our entire lives. And he was the one stopping us from breaking through. To kill Agent 3… That would be the first step to freeing us.

Was it really? Was he really the one responsible for our prison? There were other ways to keep him out. I'd never considered it before then, but looking at him now…

I couldn't pull the trigger. I wanted to, but… No, actually. I didn't want to. I didn't want to end a stupid child's life like this. I needed to make him understand that this wasn't a game. This was reality.

There must've been something. Something to keep him away from us. Something to make sure that he wouldn't terrorize us… me… anymore.

And then, I saw his face.

"Never come back here again." I glowered at him, brought my face closer to his, and a tear fell onto his cheek. "Look at me. This is what you caused. Is this what you want?"

"No! What are you doing?" pleaded the voice in my headset. "He's right there! How do you know he'll stay out?"

Hearing an Octoling speak his language perfectly must have shocked him. Slowly, I backed away, clutching the Hero Shot with both of my hands as I took my knee off of him. I wiped my face, one eye at a time. I breathed in, then out.

That was it. That was the battle between me and Agent 3. A draw. No, I was the victor. I had made it clear to him that he was not welcome here. I looked back at him as he struggled to get up.

When he stood, he took one glance at me and stepped back. Good. I bit my tongue. I had no idea how I felt about that. I didn't know how I was supposed to feel. The voice in my headset kept rambling, but I was too jaded to listen.

It hadn't sunk in just how quickly it had ended, and the moment I started to realize my job was done, a sharp pain hit the back of my head.

"What the—!" I sat up, back in my bed.

What kind of hyper-realistic dream—?

No… wait, was that a dream? Wait, yes, of course it was, but why did it feel so real? Did that really happen? Was that what I did right before Deepsea?

Hold on. Stop. I had to slow down. Yes, that was a dream. But was it just a dream, or was it a recreation? A memory?

Nothing in there made me think it wasn't.

I stood up, stretched, and looked outside. Night. There was still some time before midnight, so I didn't need to hurry. I cleared my mind and reminded myself that I was Sky and that no amount of past could change that.

I closed my eyes, taking another deep breath, and thought back to the dream. One thing was certain: in it, I fought Agent 3 and won.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

Ugh, I'd just woken up, and I was already thrown back in. Not even a chance to rest. Yesterday, I'd learned Eileen's name, and today, this?

Okay, so when I first awoke in Deepsea, Cuttlefish said that I was fighting Agent 3. That checked out. I heard Simon say that I'd almost made him quit. That… also checked out.

"Never come back here again," I whispered to my reflection in the window. Something told me that I had said those exact words before.

So I decided that it was real. Everything just… fit too well. I hadn't considered that thought I'd had would have invaded my dreams. I didn't know that was possible.

That was only the second actual memory I had. But there weren't any ominous undertones in this one. Just me, trying to beat him and free the underground. The pre-Inkopolis Eileen wasn't there, I wasn't a bloodthirsty monster, I even spared his life.

I knelt down, and my head dropped onto the bed. "Never come back here again," I said. Those words shouldn't have been as comforting as they were then. It was an order to leave, but it couldn't have felt more inviting.

Was this really what had pushed him to the edge? One sentence from me?

I recalled the brief time I'd spent with him, locating Deepsea. I grinned, my face still buried in the sheets. He was fine being around me? Even though I traumatized him?

Well, it couldn't have been difficult to see me as a different person. He'd barely known me.

And there I went, already accepting this memory. It had only taken a couple of minutes for this one.

I hoped that the rest would be like that.

But then again, this was only one thing. It didn't change the fact that I knew Eileen before Sharktown.

This… I had to revisit this later.

I was torn from my thoughts when my phone rang. It was just one thing after another for me, huh?

I pulled it off the desk and read the name on the screen.

"Annie…"

Y'know, sometimes it feels like I'm writing fanfiction of my own fanfiction. Like, all of this is basically a continuation of The Agents of Inkopolis but with Sky as the main character.

Even the entire genre of the story is completely different.