Authors Note: Hi all! I hope you enjoy this extra long chapter, have a good day and take care!
Bonus Note: Please review, I had to request help from the-irish-clover of deviantart, for extra proofreading aid. Check him out!
Maize, Octoronia and Fulvous now were in a less stressful scenario at Urchin Underpass now that all that fighting had been gotten out of the way, and there was no remote chance the orange squid would be able to splatter either of the agents. It was time to interrogate her.
"Look, I really needed to talk to you Fulvous…" Maize insisted, though he was aware that hiding would have done no good since she had been hunting him ever since he ran away from the battle tower. He hated to imagine how many other poor blonde squids had been attacked by her randomly.
"I don't care to hear your excuses…" Fulvous said in her unwavering anger. The disguised octoling was a bit impressed by how long someone could keep their hatred and rage going, besides DJ Octavio's record breaking gaze that somehow always managed to be intimidating no matter what. Maize fixed his glasses, wanting to be a lot more friendly and relaxed around the orange squid girl, but the atmosphere showed that it was simply not an option. He could be friendly, but he had to be careful or else he might lose his last tentacle.
"She sure is pessimistic…" Octoronia commented, hating to admit that another squid could be completely negative like that, but was aware there was plenty of reasons for this. Maize went down on one knee in front of the orange squid.
"I didn't hurt your brother…" Maize repeated the same thing he had told her thousands of times. The more he said it, she felt more bothered by it.
"Again with this?! Why should I believe you?! I saw it all!" she reminded. The yellow squid recalled that testimony in court, but he never heard the whole thing from her. It now seemed like the perfect opportunity to talk freely without the pressures of prosecutors and defense attorneys breathing down their necks to try and synch the case.
"Alright… tell me what you saw then. I wanna know your perspective," Maize requested from her. She did not want to actively talk though. She would just super jump out of here if they weren't able to subdue her before she tried it.
"Please, Fulvous. We want the truth, no matter what it seems like. We need to know everything we can," Octoronia added to his plight. The disguised octoling's words seemed to finally make her relax slightly. She sighed, giving up and deciding to talk to try and get it over with quicker.
"Fine… me and my younger brother wanted to play at Saltspray Rig. Early on in the round, while I was fighting, I noticed he was gone…" Fulvous begun. Maize recalled this quite well. His memory of what happened at Saltspray Rig was still all too foggy. He wished he had used that hypnotist to relive the day back then, but reliving a murder in front of his eyes was not what he would have liked to do. He was hoping to find a way to piece his theory together entirely, and he had a good idea how to.
"And before I know it, I'm sneaking up from one of the side platforms. They were far away, so I tried to look with my charger… and that yellow jerk was on top of him! I watched him hold his hands around his neck. Cyan was kicking and flailing, and then… he just stopped moving…" Fulvous sniffled, looking ready to cry. The traumatic event was engraved in her mind. As if the emotional blow to the heart was not big enough.
"I'm telling you it wasn't me," Maize repeated. He was starting to feel like a broken record. They watched the orange inkling stand up, Octoronia aiming her weapon at her to make sure she did not try anything.
"Why should I believe you?! I saw it! Every last second! I barely could move and by the time I was able to get there, you were loooong gone, trying to blend in with your teammates! If I had gotten there, you'd probably have done the same to me!" Fulvous continued her accusations, having almost entirely forgotten the words they exchanged the last time the two of them tried to have a conversation.
"Because! …I promised Cyan I would take care of you. I had one of your friends fill me in if you ever were in trouble, and I swear the promise was made after he was dead… or at least near it," Maize claimed, only to gain a quite scared look from the orange inkling. How someone could claim to not be the murderer yet make a sick sounding promise, like there was hidden stalker levels of romance, was beyond her. Octoronia was starting to think this made even less sense, but they had her attention and she was not as angry as before. They still had to keep this angle of the conversation going smoothly.
"Y…you're sick!" Fulvous said, disturbed to imagine an inkling choking another to death while whispering promises into their ear.
"Hey, you're the one who bit off one of my tentacles!" he retorted.
"Please tone down the drama…" Octoronia requested the two, not wanting another fight to break out. She had an idea of her own to this murder and hoped it would help Agent 3 on this.
"You said you looked from afar with your charger. Do you remember what 'Maize' was wearing when you saw this happening, and what weapon he was carrying?" Agent 4 asked. She believed that the clothing and weapon the inkling had while he committed this murder might make the answer clearer. That did seem to strike the orange inkling as she began to think hard, trying to recall.
"…he was wearing an orange and yellow vest, and he didn't have his weapon or glasses either," Fulvous stated. That caught both of their attentions.
"Neither? At all?" Maize quirked.
"Yeah. You didn't have that dumb charger you always use. I thought you had just decided to wear contacts that day, or lost them during the struggle, and you tossed your weapon off the rig and let it just sink into the water," Fulvous claimed. That was the key sentence they needed. The disguised octoling and the inkling looked to each other with bright smiles. That disturbed the orange squid like she herself was about to be assaulted.
"Sorry, but whoever you saw kill Cyan was not me. Because trust me; I hate contacts," Maize grinned.
"Yeah. He's nearly as blind as a storeri without them," Octoronia backed up his claim, having witnessed first-hand how poor her friend's eyesight was without his spectacles.
"Plus I couldn't have just tossed my weapon off the rig because I was in the turf war, too. Remember? I couldn't just get rid of my weapon. I'd look too suspicious not inking any turf," Maize added. Now Fulvous was beginning to lose her anger, holding her hand to her chest, trying to think and process everything. The evidence was too contradictory to what she saw now, and this was the perfect time to continue their interrogation since she had calmed down slightly.
"Tell me who your stepdad is," Maize requested, seeing the orange squid's shocked expression.
"Huh? H-how'd you know I even had a step dad?" Fulvous asked. These two agents were beginning to come off like very professional detectives at this rate, but anyone could probably look like that if they were able to find the right evidence.
"Because, your tentacles aren't yellow at all… but you have a blue tinge. As far as I know, you and Cyan have the same mom, but your dad's not the same squid," Maize elaborated. It was all true, the orange inkling had a blue tinge to the end of her tentacles. Cyan however had completely blue tentacles with a yellow tinge instead of orange. She rubbed her neck uncomfortably. Talking about her family seemed like a tough topic.
"…my first dad wound up splitting up with mom because he was going to have to leave Inkopolis a lot for work. They both thought they would be happier without having to worry about a long distance relationship. She got engaged to someone I never got to meet, and then a few months later, Cyan was born," Fulvous exclaimed about her parents and their slightly complex path together.
"Your stepdad… his name was Arylide, right?" Maize had a straight face, looking anxious to hear the answer. Fulvous slowly nodded. It looked like Agent 3 was right with his little theory. Cyan was his half sibling. Now everyone was a bit more down knowing this revelation.
"Ye-yes… he left a while after Cyan was born. He used to be a worker at Saltspray Rig, but he quit," Fulvous stated. She got grabbed by her shoulders. The yellow inkling had a look in his eyes like he was desperate to know his location now.
"Where is he? Where's my dad?" Maize simply demanded.
"Wh-whoa! What are you going to do to him?!" Fulvous asked, Octoronia making her friend calm down and separating the two of them.
"He's the real killer! Where is he?" the disguised octoling informed the orange squid. This surprised her, and it was easy to tell why. Everything being taken in at once was all too confusing. Learning that her step father was related to Maize in a way was a lot to take in, as well as the other messy evidence that she had been arguing against thus far.
"Arylide? I don't know! I only know he was a worker at the rig and quit," Fulvous repeated. She was suddenly beginning to get overwhelmed in guilt, realizing she had taken Maize's tentacle in a fit of rage that was aimed at the wrong squid entirely. Octoronia watched Maize's feet stomp the ground as he took off, running.
"He-hey! Where are you going?!" the octoling called out, not wanting to be left alone with Fulvous.
"To find my dad!" Maize called out. Cyan's murder did not have to happen simply because of the affair his father had, but the yellow inkling wanted this to be a personal meeting. All the years he heard his parents fighting, he needed to follow his mother's words through with them. If there was a corrupt weed in the Dagenhart family tree, then it had to be removed. The truth was getting closer to the palm of his hand.
"I don't know how to get around the city alone," Octoronia muttered in realization, having zero idea about Inkopolis's layout. Fulvous was feeling awkward now.
"I'll, uhh… take you back to the plaza. I need to get Sasha fixed, anyway," Fulvous offered while picking up her splatling gun. The dent it had received from the fight was a bit discouraging. She loved this weapon a lot. Octoronia gave her a smirk.
"Get me the right tools, and I'll make sure Sasha is better than ever."
Maize ran with unlimited energy across Inkopolis, spending three hours on this travel, his splatterscope rattling against his ink tank, his heart racing and sweat beading down his face. That cloudy sky seemed to almost start clearing up as a form of cheery sign to counter what was about to occur. It had not taken long to arrive to the bay of Inkopolis. This was mostly a fishing area, where a lot of inklings were hanging out around. The yellow inkling could see a few boats, and that all too familiar rig off in the distance.
"…great," Maize took in a breath, trying to calm down his rapid heart rate. Saltspray Rig was off in the distance. It was where saltwater was processed into regular water, one of the most expensive and valuable pieces to all of Inkopolis, and it was used as a fun turf war location in retrospective, which was, in a way, a good thing. Anyone attempting to attack a place randomly would not expect a bunch of armed squids in the middle of a huge ink battle. Thankfully nothing bad had happened to this rig ever since it was built a long time ago.
"Hey!" Maize jumped off the side and landed on the docks, seeing a few boats there. This was how the workers normally crossed over to the rig to handle their job safely out of the way whenever a turf war was happening.
"Eh? Hoi there, squiddy. What can this old crab do for ya?" the friendly crab greeted, appearing to be a regular angler in his early sixties. He was wearing a pair of green overalls and black boots.
"I need to go see the manager of the Saltspray Rig. Can you give me a ride there and back?" Maize explained what he needed, doubting lying to get through would be of much use. Usually the fishermen got along perfectly fine and gave free rides to the workers. Cooperation at its finest.
"Err… squiddy, me ship ain't what she used to be for crossing the waters even that distance. I'd need something in trade for the risk," the elder crab claimed. Maize looked to the left to see a very rough tiny dingy with a beat up motor to the back of it. Just his luck, he thought. The got the one fisherman who actually did not have a good boat, but whatever worked.
"I'unno… I'll give you a thousand coins?" Maize suggested the first thing in his mind that was a small amount of coins. It seemed plenty to get this old crab to grin and agree.
"Hop in and we'll set off," the crab accepted. The yellow squid could not believe that worked. He wondered if this was how Callie and Marie felt like whenever coins entered a conversation. If that was true, then it was very satisfying. Soon enough, the inkling was in the boat, just patiently waiting for everything to get ready so they could go. Needless to say, this old crab went as slow as a turtle.
Callie was at the Squid Sister's apartment in Flounder Heights, one of the only few there beyond Captain Cuttlefish and ECO at the moment. The black inkling was trying to play with her son in his crib while her grandfather rested in the nearby rocking chair.
"You think it was right for me to just abandon the mission to see him…?" Callie asked her grandsquid while shaking a rattle, Bondi giggling and reaching his tentacles toward it. They were too short to grab the rattle, but that easily entertained the squishie. The Squid Sister felt guilty for bailing from the mission, all because it went off the rails momentarily, but she also felt uncomfortable with the robotic octoling that currently was in their living room.
"Well, squiddo, you tried to do your part in searching. You probably should be a bit ashamed of not trying to tackle it alone," Captain Cuttlefish gave his honest answer, neither Callie nor Marie really had ever been in many situations where they were alone, and he knew that affected the cousins abilities and hesitation when it came to trying to do anything alone.
"I am, gramps. I didn't want any cops trying to grab ECO, either, if I left her alone," Callie added, aware that the metallic octopus was why they could not enter Hammerhead Bridge once again. The cursed bridge seemed to strike again. Bondi had gotten ahold of the rattle and was not letting go.
"Now taking care of other agents is something to not be ashamed of. How have you and Marie been handling this little guy?" Captain Cuttlefish asked. He had been the babysitter lately for little Bondi.
"Squee!" Bondi squeaked, playing with the rattle and cooing in glee. Callie smiled, her heart warmed seeing her son happy. She felt like she owed Maize so much at the moment, but when she pondered on how her cousin thought about the squishie, it made her unsure how to answer.
"Oh, Bondi's been an absolute delight. He's so easy to make happy that I really have no trouble with him… Marie, though… I'm worried she's jealous," Callie answered. Her cousin was coming off as jealous, but in a completely different sense than she ever anticipated.
"Eh? How so?" the old squid requested, worried for the white inkling. Her grandsquid tried to think of the best way to put it.
"Well… she loves Bondi, but she acts a bit down when I spend most of my time with him. It's like she's feeling empty inside," Callie explained, aware that when she adopted Bondi, she agreed to dedicate an entire part of her life to the squishie. Marie was more than happy to help, but ever since the adoption, the white inkling had looked somewhat down whenever she saw the mother and son.
"Mhm… that's odd… I'm sure it's just the season change affecting her mood. Don't let it worry you too much," Captain Cuttlefish reassured, but made a mental note to make sure that everything was alright. Callie smiled, looking to her grandpa. She suddenly got hit in the side of the head by the rattle thrown by her now giggling son. He had lately gotten the habit of tossing his toys. She groaned, thinking this was going to be a long wait to hear if the others turned up anything in their searches.
"We're here!" the old crab of a fisherman called. Maize had spent the next half hour waiting to get to Saltspray Rig lying back in the boat tiredly he suddenly felt a bump shake the boat. The yellow squid saw a metal platform with steps leading upward to the upper part of the rig.
"Thanks! Wait here please," the yellow inkling requested, getting out of the boat and beginning to make his way up the steps, glad to have gotten the somewhat lengthy ride. He needed that rest, having burnt too much energy out on the long run. Each step made a loud metal clank beneath his feet. Once he neared the top, he noticed a pink squid in the way.
"Hey, hold on a sec!" she said, halting the young squid. She was wearing an orange and yellow vest and carrying around a box of supplies for personal writing and note taking on her sides.
"Hi! Sorry, but I need to get through," Maize apologized, aware that Saltspray Rig was taking a lot more security measures once there were no plans for turf wars there, due to the common stage rotation. They had to get work done as soon as they could while they had wide openings for the hard work.
"Ugh… what for?" she responded while pulling out a pen and paper.
"I need to speak to the manager," Maize honestly answered, hoping that maybe the truth would repay him. When he got close to her, she pushed him back before returning to writing her notes.
"Aright… I'm Fuchsia, the manager of Saltspray Rig. What can I help you with?" the pink inkling questioned, having no idea how serious the situation was, and she seemed like the type to follow the books to the exact letter for orders to follow, too.
"I need help looking for my dad… Arylide Dagenhart. He used to be a worker here," Maize explained to the manager, aware that she was most likely busy running Saltspray Rig. He thought it was quite hard to be working in one of the only water purification facilities available, and he hated to get in the way of production, but this was far more important at the moment.
"I've only been here for a week, but we do have every worker's home address documented and categorized, both for workers still around or gone. I could go peek through those," Fuchsia explained the best thing available for her to offer. They mostly had all these details in files in case there ever was an illegal situation occurring on the rig and they had to perform background checks before hiring.
"That would be great," Maize squid bowed, glad she was not as up tight as he feared. The pink inkling began to lead him away to a small building set up on the rig. They entered inside the room, which seemed like a simple monitoring system to make sure none of the machines were in trouble. There were a lot of books everywhere lying carelessly around, looking like individual manuals. He hated to imagine being forced to read them all since each one looked over a hundred pages long.
"Lessee… Arylide, you said?" Fuchsia chimed, going to a nearby filing cabinet while beginning to rummage through them.
"Yeah. Arylide Dagenhart. …well, if he didn't change his name," Maize said, thinking about it. If his dad legally changed his name now that his parents were practically divorced, he knew this would make it a bit harder to find him.
"Here's the file. Boy, it's gathered a good bit of dust…" Fuchsia muttered while opening it to view the folder's contents. There was mostly a bunch of black lines that were written out, mostly because once a worker left for any reason, they had some of their more work related details redacted from the files.
"He lives at 8413 Delfino Drive," the rig manager claimed. Maize rubbed his head sorely. Delfino Drive was mostly known for being a retirement home in a sense, but the yellow inkling doubted his father was old enough to retire yet, unless he somehow came upon a large sum of coins.
"Thanks! …err, what's the closest hospital from here?" Maize quirked while getting his splatterscope off his back, preparing it. The rig manager had to think on that for a moment.
"There's one right near the docks. Why?" fuchsia hesitantly responded, watching Maize squeeze the trigger and begin to charge his charger, and putting it to his head.
"Tell the old crab down there I said thanks for the ride," Maize let go of the trigger. A strong yellow burst of ink hit him in the head. He got splattered, exploding into a sudden mess of yellow ink, leaving a startled Fuchsia standing there in the remnant of the mess, a bit horrified to what she just saw on that part, mixed with annoyance to know she was going to have to clean up the ink.
Everything was dark for a brief moment, but then Maize suddenly appeared at a starting point. It was in an oddly lifeless room, seeing the platform beneath him. This looked like a storage closet. He groaned, making sure his splatterscope still was on his back. Both it and the ink tank were fine at the moment. He walked out of the room, now entering what he hoped to be a waiting room. This was odd, since usually spawn zones in hospitals were in more priority to be looked over in case some squid was desperately hurt and splattering themselves. This was the best option to get to a medical treatment facility.
"…this is a free health clinic, isn't it?" Maize rubbed his head, seeing the huge line around here. This building did not seem to have more than one floor, but also had a lack of staff. It all pointed to a newly built clinic. He did not care though. He just made his way outside, looking around. The sun shined bright on him, but from what Agent 3 could make out, he was at least a lot closer to Delfino Drive than he was a minute ago. The yellow squid began to walk wanting to conserve his energy.
The walk felt long, and all the while time seemed to just stand still. All Maize could think about right now was what he was going to say or do when he saw his father. Even if his dad was not at this retirement home, he was going to hunt him down if he had to. Every squid he passed by looked positively radiant. Every few minutes, the yellow squid would hear his cellphone making tones, trying to alert him to text messages and phone calls that he missed that were gradually beginning to pile up. He muted his phone, wishing to handle this mission alone. Even so, he was very grateful for all his friends' help. Maize never felt more at peace than now. The murderer status was proven wrong, but now he alone needed to confront his dad on all the questions that had piled up ever since he vanished a long time ago.
"…Delfino Drive, here I am…" Maize said to himself upon seeing the location. Delfino Drive looked like an everyday retirement location. There were a few huge buildings lined up. Maize had never been here before, but he had heard Callie and Marie talk about it in the past whenever they were joking about where to stick their grandfather in when he got too old.
"8413… he's in there," Maize gulped, feeling an unexpected wave of nervousness take him over. He sighed, beginning to walk up the steps, seeing the set of double glass doors in front of him. Upon stepping inside, he could see all types of elder squids and others in there, and the nurses and other staff helping out.
"Excuse me?" Maize said while approaching the front desk where one of the only non-busy staff appeared to be relaxing behind it.
"I'm looking for Arylide Dagenhart," he requested to know. The worker seemed a little surprised
"He's on the second floor in room 3, but this is the first time he's ever had a visitor. Are you family?" she asked. He nodded, making sure his glasses were on right.
"Yeah… thanks," Maize told her before heading off toward the steps. Each time his foot hit the ground, it felt like he was about to pass out at any moment with the overwhelming nervousness. He had no idea what to say, so like usual, the yellow squid was going to do one of the things he did best, to go in blind and rely on his luck. When he got upstairs, all the hallways were surprisingly empty with the wooden floors.
"Well… here we go" Maize took in a breath again, and he knocked on the third door.
"Come in!" that familiar voice called. The voice of his father. Maize grabbed the doorknob and made his way inside, letting it close behind him. This room had a wooden floor, with an odd carpet lining the center of the room that was blue with random patterns and colors on it. There was a small balcony, as well as a television above a fireplace. There was a bed off to the side, and the walls were completely bare, with not a single picture hung up beyond a few on the fireplace.
"Hi… dad," Maize said, feeling that awkwardness take over again. He looked at his father, whose back was turned while in a wheelchair. It looked like he had been trying to repair one of his shelves since a hammer and a few other tools lay nearby. The wheelchair spun around, and Maize saw the big yellow tentacles dangling off the sides of the wheelchair. He was wearing a pair of glasses and a red robe.
"My boy… I did not expect a visit from you… you could have brought a gift at least," Arylide greeted his son. He looked like he was not near old at all to be in a retirement home.
"It looks like a lot of things have happened to both of us since I've left," the yellow inkling's father added, seeing his son's stub of a tentacle. One of them was wheelchair bound and the other had a tentacle completely missing, so clearly a lot had happened.
"Yeah… what happened to you?" Maize requested, wanting to know why his father was stuck in the wheelchair.
"I took a bad tumble down the steps and broke my lower back. The doctors said I ain't gonna be doing anymore walking and because of that, it made working a lot harder…" Arylide claimed, rubbing his head. He seemed caught between a mix of disregard and surprise. He never anticipated a moment like this happening in front of him.
"How'd you retire so early?" Maize continued one of his dozen questions. He saw his father reach over to the fireplace, picking off one of the only few framed pictures that were on it and handing the frame over. The picture seemed to show two squids, with his father holding a giant check for coins.
"One day, I said I was sick of working, so I took a loan for two million coins. I spent them all on scratch tickets and won three tickets altogether worth four billion in coins," Arylide exclaimed. Maize somehow was not surprised by this. He could take a safe guess at whom he got his luck from in the family, but it was insane to take a big loan like that out from a bank. He wondered how he convinced them to give him the loan of coins in the first place.
"…why did you leave? You know all me and Fallow had left was you, and yet you made us live alone. Now I want the truth," Maize requested.
"I had another life to lead. Responsibility is a hard thing, and I had to make a very tough choice between you squids or…" Arylide tried to continue when his son stepped closer.
"Your other family? Right?" Maize finished it for him. That was not what his father planned to say at all. Hey seemed intent on keeping secrets and trying to lie.
"…so you knew about my affair? Guess that's not a shock. Me and your mother were far from discreet with all our shouting back then," Arylide chuckled while rolling around in his wheelchair to the side, opening the blinds to one of the small windows to let more sunlight in.
"Of course. You ran mom off because of it," Maize repeated what he saw in that memory. His father shook his head in disagreement.
"I didn't run mom off because of the affair. She just left because she was sick of it all. When I first met Apricot her entire family was in debt, because her old man had tried to start a company to 'help the world', by helping other squids medically," Arylide began explaining the event when they met. Maize just listened, but was feeling a fuse start to light a fire in his heart as he listened.
"So I made a plan to help pay off their debt. After a while, me and your mom were married, and I had become a Dagenhart. She always kept asking me what my decision for tradition was… even though I told her over and over again," Arylide added. It was irritating to recall it, how he worked so hard to pay off that debt, but he appeared ungrateful.
"You said you wanted to help build the world, right?" Maize saw his father nod, recalling that as his decision for the tradition. Or so what he claimed.
"Yeah… but so what? I never cared about this Dagenhart tradition. Who does? It seems to have just gotten squids either killed trying to do anything, or in such a debt that it was not much different," Arylide described his view on the Dagenhart tradition. This seemed to be beginning to get under the yellow inkling's skin.
"You didn't care. So you didn't even want a part in this family, did you?! You did not just have one affair, but also had a squishie with another woman while you were married," Maize declared. All those times he heard his parents fighting, all because of his mother believing in the tradition, and after Cyan, his dead half-brother, he still did not have any clue about what was going on with his father.
"…I won't deny, I had another squishie. An old friend of mine and I met up shortly after I married your mom. We tried to keep it friendly, but sometimes your heart goes to another," his older squid said.
"You never loved mom! You never loved me or Fallow. You just did it because you wanted something out of repaying a debt. Is that what you're telling me?!" Maize fumed. His father gained a smirk.
"I adopted her, because your mom wanted to. You should be thankful, squiddo. If I did not tolerate your mom, you would not be here today," Arylide said in the condescending tone. Maize, struck critically, shoved him back, his wheelchair sliding into the wall.
"I should be thankful… for what? Your negligence? We suffered because you chased mom off! You abused her, and when she was gone you took it out on Cyan! You murdered him… and because of that, you made me, Fallow, and even his sister Fulvous suffer!" Maize declared what he had long since figured out. He was now knowing how Fulvous felt, an undying rage for something that was caused a huge misunderstanding, at the hands of another crazy madman that had no control of his anger.
"Heh… you're the one who put ya fingers on his throat. Sure, I killed him. So what? No one'll believe it because there's no evidence, and you gladly helped all because you saw your dear old man in a tough spot, and 'promised you would do anything to help'," Arylide reminded his son of the exact words he had heard. Maize's memory began to come back quite strongly. Things seemed to go blank for a minute as everything began to quickly come back to him.
That one blank moment, Maize found himself in a completely different area. It almost felt like he was back under the hypnotization he had received. He looked younger again, but only fifteen at most. He recognized it all too well. It was the plaza battle tower, and here he was with a random group of squids. He could see Cyan alongside his team. Fulvous was on the other team with other random squids.
"You're silly, Maize, y'know…" a soft voice said, Maize looking to his left. Cyan had spoken up. This memory was odd to relive, but he decided to go with it, just hoping it would not go off the rails.
"Uhh… what makes me silly?" Maize responded while they were climbing onto the platforms so they could prepare for a turf war right at Saltspray Rig. Cyan was carrying a krak-on roller on his side.
"You've just made five promises in a row in less than an hour. How do you do that without a second thought?" Cyan asked, another one of the many who were curious why Maize kept making so many promises. The yellow squid could not recall one of any of these promises, but he presumed he had gotten them fulfilled.
"Because… I know they can make someone happy. Mom wanted to use her promises to help change the world for the family tradition. I'd like to do the same," Maize answered truthfully. He was doing his best to recreate the memory, but it was still eerier He was talking to his own thoughts.
"Hm… I have something like that. I want to help cheer up the world with my painting!" Cyan declared with a smile. Maize remembered that all too well. Cyan always loved the bright vibrant colors of ink and they always made him and his sibling happy, so he wanted to use them to cheer up others. Maize however found something odd in this memory. There was no recalling of any talk about Fallow, which was odd to him. His adoptive sister got a horrific injury because of Cyan, yet neither of them felt the extensive hate. The yellow squid was not recalling ever bringing up talk about Fallow.
The memory was quickly changed. Maize found himself walking along Saltspray Rig. He was doing the usual, covering a lot of it with ink, though during his run, he came across a horrific sight that was found in his mind quite well. He saw his father who stood by Cyan, holding the tri-slosher.
"D-dad? What happened? Why isn't Cyan moving?!" Maize requested, seeing his father panting and trying to calm down. He went on one knee before his son, putting on a sympathetic face.
"Son… he hurt Fallow, and I saw him and got angry. But right now, I need your help. You have to put your hands all over his neck, alright? I need to try and act casual," Arylide requested. Hs son shook his head, appearing to be upset. For being fifteen years of age, he was not the toughest squid at that age. His father shook him quite roughly.
"Look at me, Maize! If they arrest me, I'll be gone forever, just like your mom! You don't want that, right?" Arylide asked. His son slowly nodded at the memory of his mother.
"Good. Now please do this."
"…I promise, I'll make sure you're safe dad," Maize sniffled. His dad patted his shoulder before running on ahead, carrying the roller in his hand. For some reason he was attached to it. Maize looked down at Cyan. The blue squid's lifeless face showed his wide open eyes. He put his splatterscope on his back and went on his knees at the head of the blue inkling, before closing his eyelids.
"…I'm sorry… I know you didn't mean to hurt Fallow. I promise to make sure your sister is alright as often as I can," Maize said to Cyan before he began to get his hands all over the squid's throat, in a desperate attempt to keep his dad out of jail, covering his fingerprints up with his own. Upon recalling this memory, Maize felt sick. He could never believe what he did at that age, and his father still abandoned him and his sister.
"You used me…" Maize growled as he snapped out of the memory, glaring at his father in the wheelchair. The yellow squid began to walk to another part of the room toward the closet.
"So what if I did? You still did it for me, and I had left you a long time ago. You sure know great timing, though. You saved my hide," Arylide exclaimed. Maize's involvement with the murder was a set up out of a horrible coincidence of a meeting, that and his wish to make sure his dad would be able to come home one day.
"And motive. In comparison, of course I could have killed Cyan in anger… but you're in the same boat. He hurt Fallow and she had to get another surgery, right?" Arylide reminded. Maize grit his teeth. There was conflicting evidence, and Maize's theory made complete sense, but he had no way to seal it. Fulvous would look like a liar if she changed her testimony so dramatically different.
"I've already spent a year in jail, and spent a lot longer thinking I was the real killer because of you," Maize said, hating to have taken the blame for this horrible squid he called a dad. He was calming down while opening a closet door that was full of junk from front to back. He began to toss things aside carelessly.
"Hey! Knock it off! It's hard for me to clean up, you know!" Arylide demanded. He had no desire to try and hurt his son if it meant peeling himself out of his wheelchair, but he appeared to get more distressed as his closet was cleaned out.
"Motive doesn't matter when the right evidence is around," Maize retorted, lying in the back of the closet. Covered in years of dust was that all too familiar krak-on roller. He presumed his dad had kept the weapon belonging to Cyan always close by, because he doubted he could get away with simply dumping it in some remote location. Maize heard a creaking on the floor when he turned around. Arylide had gotten a hold of the hammer and swung at him, the yellow squid dodged it grabbing his hand.
"Who do you think you are?! I wasted part of my life raising you!" Arylide roared. Maize smacked the hammer out of his father's hand, grabbing his wheelchair and flipping it upwards. He watched his dad fall backwards out of his chair and onto the ground.
"I'm Maize, Agent 3 of the Special Squid Services," Maize simply answered while standing over his father. After all this time, the puzzle and true killer were solved and revealed. His dad just looked up blankly at him.
"Heh… guess you've gotten a lot stronger than you were as a squirt," Arylide chuckled. His son shook his head.
"No… I've always been weak, but if I had not been such a coward, I'd have never suffered like I did… none of us would have," Maize stated while pulling out his cellphone, beginning to dial the number for the authorities. His dad seemed far from done when it came to talking though.
"Wa-wait! Look at what the Dagenhart tradition's done! You only made that promise to me because you made it your decision to the tradition. You could have simply broke it. If you don't call the police, I'll tell you where Apricot is," Arylide tried to plea to Maize, gaining an angry glare from him. He missed his mother a lot and wanted to see her desperately, but he kept cool, continuing to dial the cops.
"No need. I'll find mom again, one day. I made that promise and kept it to try and keep our family safe. You're no longer a Dagenhart… just a murderer and a brain-dead idiot. I've saved your hide, 'dad'… but now, I'm letting the police handle your hide," those last words seemed to be all that needed to be said before silence began to set in. Arylide was realizing there was no way out. His riches in coins were not going to get Maize to stop. Agent 3 was finally able to take a breath in relief, now that he knew things could calm down, and he could clear his own name, but he could not have done it remotely if he had not gotten all the help from his great friends. It made him smile, hoping there could be nothing but good times, and no more twisted secrets about his life. The darkest ones had been brought out and illuminated after all these years.