"Well, here we are. Present day Inkopolis," Candie said once the time machine came to its equivalent of a standstill.
"Home, but not quite home," Mo added.
"Now let's go find your moms," Wolfram said as they disembarked and surveyed the area around them.
The Inkling children led the way to their home, an apartment in the moderately expensive region of town.
"This is going to be tricky to explain," Madie said as she knocked on the front door.
"Can I help you?" asked the wealthy looking middle-aged Inkling man who answered the door.
"I hope so," Candie replied. "Do the Squid Sisters live here?"
The kindly man gave a brief chuckle. "Your sources are a bit outdated, I'm afraid," He laughed. "They haven't lived here since their single days. You're the first media crew looking for a scoop I've had in a while. Where are your cameras?"
"Single days?" Mo echoed. "So they don't live here?"
"If they did I'd have no choice but to charge them rent." The old Inkling said with a smile. "This place was already pricey just because they used to own it."
"Could you tell us where they do live?" He asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid if common folk like us knew that," the occupant explained, "There'd be no end to the media boots through their doorways. Five famous people under two roofs? Forget about it!"
"Five?" Candie repeated.
"Two?" Madie reiterated.
"That's right," the gentleman continued. "The sisters and all three of their children. You could say fame runs in the family. It's just the dads no one really cares about. Wow, for a media team you hardly do any homework at all!"
"Any ideas on where to find them now?" Wolfram said once they were outside
"There's one other place we can look" Mo answered. "Our great grandfather used to keep watch over Octo Valley. It's a shared duty now so we ought to find someone we know down there."
Just like Mo had said, an Octarian man was sitting at the post surveying the underground landscape.
"Hi uncle Callum!" Madie said as they neared the lone watchman.
"Oh, hello, kids. I almost didn't recognise you. Did you all change your hair?" he said as the travellers came up to him. "Who are these two?"
"It's… a little complicated." Madie answered. "We're not who you think we are. I mean we are, but we're not the us you know from here. We're another set of us from another Inkopolis-" She began to ramble. Callum was not quite following.
"Parallel dimensions." Mo interrupted. "It's a long story but the short version is that we've been doing some reality jumping with the help of our new friend here." He gestured toward Wolfram.
"I'm sure stranger things have happened," Callum remarked, downplaying his astonishment. "How can I help you?"
"We need to find our moms." Candie explained. "Can you tell us where we live in this world?"
"Certainly," Callum said politely and explained in detail where they needed to go to next to continue their mission. Half an hour later they reached what Callum told them was Callie's house.
The door opened revealing an Inkling man in his forties. He froze on the spot when he saw Wolfram and Clarity and greeted the company of five with the word "Humans…"
Wolfram looked the Inkling in the face and his jaw dropped. Although it was the face of an inkling, it was one he would recognise anywhere. "Dad?"
A look of panic spread over the inkling man's face. "I can assure you I'm not who you think I am."
"No, I don't mean my actual dad… well… you are… I think… are you Edward Kidman?" It took a lot to astound someone to whom hopping across different realities was a hobby.
The Inkling opened the door. "I think you'd better come in."
"I haven't gone by Edward Kidman in sixteen years," The man said once everyone was seated and helped to their beverage of choice. "Where did you find this kid?" He asked Candie
"He found me," she replied. "It's a long story involving time travel and timeline crossing."
"Yes," Wolfram confirmed. Let me start from the beginning: I have a gift for jumping across timelines." Wolfram did a quick to-and-fro into a reality where his sudden appearance and disappearance wouldn't cause any panic as a demonstration. "I use this gift to check up on myself and my loved ones in various realities and see how they're doing."
"I have loved ones in another reality?" Edward asked in surprise.
"You have a whole family!" Wolfram replied. "You're my father in my reality and this girl…" Clarity waved "… is Allan's daughter. This may come as a shock but where I'm from you, Allan, our mothers… we all have special gifts that we use to protect the world!"
"Superheroes…" Edward mused "How about that. I wouldn't trade it for what I have here, though."
"What do you have?" Wolfram asked and sat forward in his seat. "I'm dying to know what you guys are doing out here!"
"Allan and I were miserable back in the twenty first century," Edward began "Then one day our lives reached a turning point when we won a contest…"
"The Squid Sisters concert!" Clarity knew this story. "You and my dad took our moms with you and stayed behind after the show, where you met the Squid Sisters in person and learned they were not projections but in fact real! You got them to sign three posters you'd brought along!"
"That's right," Edward continued, "but in my reality the two of us came alone: We didn't have anyone to bring with us. So naturally learning Callie and Marie were real awakened a joy in us that we hadn't known since we were little. We gave up our whole lives to make it to their fourth concert and stowed away aboard the vessel that brought them. We haven't looked back since."
"And…?" Wolfram asked expectantly.
"And what?" Edward echoed.
"And this?!" Wolfram asked gesturing to Edward's inkling tentacles.
"Oh, you like them?" Edward smiled. "We arrived in the Mollusc Era as two humans who couldn't understand a word of Inklish. The Squid Sisters took us to their scientist friend who taught us the language in an instant using something called the Thinking Cap."
"We know it." Mo said and pulled the computer-wig out of his backpack.
"So after that we had a long chat with Akkoro, that's his name, explaining who we are, where we came from and why, he then took me and Allan to a lobster guy he worked with, who sequenced our DNA and formulated a special radioactive ink that turned us into Inklings!"
"Did that… hurt?" Madie asked with concern.
"The injections stung like a ray, and the degeneration of our bones was about two and a half hours of unparalleled discomfort, but our determination saw us through it. Plus, we gained a handsome amount for letting them use us as test subjects."
"And that was it?" Wolfram asked. "Two and a half hours and you guys were humanoid squids?"
"Not exactly." Edward continued. "We gained the appearance of inklings in the time it took our bones to dissolve, and our brains mutated into inkling brains overnight, but the rest of our human cells had to die off and be replaced by inkling cells in the next few months before we could truly be inklings. We changed our names to Allan and Edward Squidman, won the hearts of our idols, and the rest is history."
"Wait. Your idols?" Candie said in bewilderment. "You mean the Squid Sisters? Callie and Marie?"
"That's right, Candie. Who else would I be talking about?" Edward answered.
"How did you know my name? I haven't introduced myself." Candie said in more bewilderment.
"What are you talking about, Sweetheart? It's me. Your dad." Edward said sounding a bit confused.
"My what?"
Just then a second Candie walked through the door.
"Daddy!" she said happily, ran up to Edward and hugged him. "Who are these guys?" she asked, looking at the familiar looking strangers on the couch.
"What's going on here?" Edward was astonished.
Wolfram had seen his fair share of this sort of thing and knew exactly.
"Oh, right. This is easy to explain. Dad- I mean, Edward, notice the slightly browner tinge in this Candie's tentacles. She is your daughter. This Candie is a visitor from an alternate reality just like the rest of us." He clarified. Edward's Candie didn't appear to understand completely, but smiled and nodded anyway.
"I never knew my father." Candie said sombrely.
Edward's smile faded for a moment and he turned to his real daughter. "Sweetheart, why don't you go see what Madie and Mo are up to?"
The new Candie gave a confused look at the Madie and Mo seated on the couches across from her.
"Race you to my house!" Madie said playfully, and the local Candie jumped out of her seat and sped out the door.
"I'd like to show you something." Edward Squidman said getting out of his seat. He walked Candie up a short flight of stairs and down a corridor. The walls were packed with framed pictures of the small family of three. In all of the ones that featured Callie she wore the broad smile Candie knew from the old concert videos, and in all of the pictures featuring Candie she wore the same smile.
"Did you see how cheerful and carefree you are in this world?" he asked rhetorically. "Your mother's spirit is joy personified, and you are her daughter in every sense of the word. That same spirit dwells within you."
"It's easy to say if your ride's been smooth all the way." She said bitterly.
"Our ride's been anything but smooth all the way," Edward disagreed.
Candie snorted. The pictures on the wall suggested otherwise. They continued their walk down memory lane in silence.
"I have one question, though," Candie said after a while.
"What's that?" Edward asked.
"In my reality my mom named me on her own. In this one I have two parents, yet I have the same name. Didn't you care what my name ended up being?"
"Very much," Edward defended. "I had all kinds of names in mind. But that stubborn mother of yours, she insisted that your name be Candie. I didn't really have a say. It seems she's wanted you for a very long time."
Edward's last comment took Candie by surprise and she gave a quick gasp that sounded almost like a hiccup. A single tear poked its head out of its duct and slowly rolled down her cheek, dropping from her chin before disappearing as a dark spot on the carpet underfoot.
"Do you really think so?" she said with a quiver.
"I know so with all my heart." Edward said gently.
Candie hugged the man who was her father and yet not her father. "Thank you," she said. "I really needed to hear that."
"You're very welcome, child." Edward answered.
"It really hasn't been easy all the way." Edward continued. Sometimes your mother's work gets so bad it knocks her down hard and I wonder what happened to the woman I married. But that spirit of hers gets right up and back in the fight. Especially now that she has you to fight for. It gets hard, for a fact. But it's moments like these," he gestured toward the photos on the walls of the hallway, "that make it all worthwhile. And these are the moments we'd do well to remember, always. That's who she truly is. And I have no doubt that it's who you are as well."
The team of five was walking back to Inkopolis Square, each silent with their own private thoughts.
"Thank you all for your help." Clarity said after a while.
"Yeah," Wolfram confirmed. "We're more than satisfied with the answers we were able to find and we couldn't have done it without you."
"Oh, you're welcome." Madie said with a grin. "It was quite a fun little adventure."
"Now unless I'm mistaken," Wolfram continued, holding his hand out to Candie, "I believe we had a deal."
Madie's smile disappeared and the siblings looked at Wolfram and Candie in silence.
"No," Candie said after a while. "Just take me home." The group relaxed.
The company of five was back in the place and time they had first met, the pavement still wet from the car that had soaked Candie what seemed like ages ago.
"I guess this is where we go our separate ways," Wolfram said.
Mo felt like an event this significant somehow needed to feel ceremonial. He cleared his throat. "I hereby declare the Gladius Brigade officially disbanded."
"Let's say temporarily for now." Clarity added.
"You think we'll see each other again?" Madie asked hopefully.
"Who knows?" Wolfram said chirpily. "We're from the same reality, after all." The group chuckled bittersweetly.
The two groups of young people who were related and at the same time not related said some teary goodbyes and waved at one another as the time machine's door closed. As soon as the Inklings were strapped in they returned to their own time, but this time it was the right reality.
"I'm sorry about everything," Candie said as Mo was packing up the Time Machine. "And when we get home I'll understand if you don't want to lie for me."
"Lie for you?" Madie repeated. "I hardly think there'll be any need for that. I definitely remember attending a Squid Sisters concert."
The three inklings smiled at one another. Candie realised anew what magnificent friends she had in her second cousins. "We should get going," she said.
Callie opened the door wearing her oven mitts, so when she reciprocated Candie's unexpected hug it was all the softer.
"I love you, mom." She whimpered into Callie's shoulder.
"I love you too, darling." She said, confused about Candie's sudden gesture of daughterly affection but in no mood to question it or complain.
"What's going on here?" Candie asked after about a half minute of motherly embrace.
Callie came back to earth. "Oh, I realised that I haven't been myself lately with work and Octo Valley taking so much out of me. I just felt like showing my appreciation for how strong you've been for both of us." She took a roast from the oven which smelled heavenly. "Look, I made your favourite!"
Candie sat down at the table grinning uncontrollably from ear to ear. The spirit of Callie was alive and kicking in both mother and daughter. Her cousins each took a seat on either side of her and she flashed each of them a loving glance which they could tell meant "I couldn't have done it without either of you".
"So tell me about your day" Callie said as she generously loaded the plate set in front of her daughter
THE END