Three had finally purchased a new alarm clock, it was a durable model that was designed for people like her who would slam their fists down onto it mercilessly. It was advertised as being able to withstand a hydraulic press designed for lifting cars. Three apparently has far more strength than a hydraulic press because now there's a hole in her nightstand along with the shattered remains of the alarm clock that was sitting there the night before.
"Heavy duty my ass." Three says, sitting up and stretching her arms to get herself prepped for the day. She slides the ice pack off her eye and sets it on the nightstand, making a mental note to put it back in the freezer later. She was eternally grateful to Marie for finding out how much Kamabo Sludge hates the cold. She'd finally able to exist without the pain that had previously been caused by her scar.
Three tosses her covers aside and makes her way into the bathroom. Normally she wouldn't shower in the morning but today was different, she was going on guard duty with Eight and she wasn't about to show up smelling like body odor and indifference. Her shower is quick and uneventful, she simply washes herself and when she's done she turns the shower off. Three stops by the bathroom mirror to look at her affected eye. The iris was still teal, but the area around it had lost most of its unnatural colour. Now it looked a lot more like most of her other scars. Though if you looked closely, there was still a little bit of discolouration. Three shrugged, it had been the same for a while now so this was likely as healed as it was going to become. So as long as she doesn't get infected with any more sanitization sludge, she should be fine. Maybe she could even stop using the ice pack.
Three shrugs off her thought process, she was going to end up being late if she just dwelled on her thoughts without care. She heads out of the bathroom and starts the process of getting dressed. Sheldon had graciously repaired her Hero headset, though he did keep insisting on her just switching to the new one. Three said she liked the look of the old one and would prefer to keep using it. She slips into her usual hero uniform, zipping the jacket up and sliding the safety vest over top. Once she's got them on she buttons her cape around her neck. If Jay saw Three in her cape she'd say Three was being dramatic. Which she was, but that's beside the point. Three takes a moment to look herself over in the mirror, her hero shoes are by the door so she'd but them on when she got there, but she had on her usual shorts and hero jacket combo, complete with its cape. Her hero headset was in her hands at the moment, she'd put them on once she got out the door.
Satisfied with how everything sits, Three walks out of her bedroom and switches off the light. Three has a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done. She scrolls idly through her feed on her phone as she eats, the stages for the day are pretty cool, Splat Zones is the ranked mode and it's on Wahoo World and Starfish Main Stage. The regular turf wars rotation is Inkblot and Humpback Pumptrack. Jay had always been enthusiastic about wanting to play turf wars and the various ranked modes, Three was sure that she'd be busy with those today.
Three finishes up her cereal, pockets her phone and puts her bowl and spoon into the dishwasher before slipping on her hero shoes and heading out the door. Once the door is locked behind her she slips her headset on and heads to the roof to the jump pad. Shortly after, she lands in Inkopolis square. Three takes a moment to examine her surroundings. It's early so there's not a lot of life in the square yet, mostly just jellies wandering around. Though there are a handful of Inklings and Octolings wandering the square as well. The Octolings seemed wary of her, and she understood why. Eight didn't even have most of her memories and she was initially wary of Three, so she understood why her being in full agent gear might make them nervous.
Three just smiles and gives a wave to anyone who looks her way, the Octolings generally look confused at this gesture but wave back and then return to their activities. Finally Three is confident there's no wandering eyes on her, and she makes her way over to the entrance to Octo Canyon and jumps in.
Three emerges on the other side, her Hero Shot clipped to her belt, and makes her way over to where Cap'n and Octavio are sitting.
"Hey Cap'n, good to see you again!" Three smiles and pulls him into a quick hug. "Things have been so busy that I haven't had time to stop by. How are you?"
The old Cap'n just chuckles, Three's enthusiasm has more than returned and he's grateful. He knows that part of it is because Marie found a way to make Three's physical pain stop, another part is because she's been going to therapy to help her deal with her traumatic memories, but a large part is Eight, who came to the surface in the most difficult way possible, and started spending time with Three. Three had needed more friends and the Cap'n knew this, but he hadn't expected Three and Eight to become quite as close as they did. But he wasn't complaining.
"I'm good, I'm good. How are you? That eye giving you any trouble?" Cap'n asks, pointing his bamboozler he uses as a cane at her afflicted eye.
"Other than a little bit of fuzziness in vision clarity, nothing. The pain stopped thanks to Marie's discoveries." Three smiles, but then her brow furrows and she looks around the landing of the Canyon. "Where's Eight? I totally thought she'd be here before I was."
"I'm sure she'll be along shortly, but sadly I must be going. Those granddaughters of mine are insisting I go with them to Arowana Mall for some big sale." The Cap'n chuckles before making his way over to the way back to Inkopolis. "Stay safe Agent Three, if you need anything you know how to contact us."
Three waves and the Cap'n disappears into the grate, returning him to Inkopolis. Three decides she may as well head over to where Octavio is, make sure he's not plotting anything sinister. Though from what she's heard Octavio has come to terms with where he is. Three walks over and sits down in the chair which Cap'n occupied before Three arrived to relieve him of guard duty.
"So, DJ Octavio… 'sup?" Three asks, looking Octavio in his eyes. Octavio is visibly surprised by this… conversational attempt by Agent 3.
"I'm trapped in a snowglobe, what could possibly be "up" other than that?" Octavio snarls, his eyebrows pointing down between his eyes.
"Relax edgelord, I'm just here to make sure you don't break out and steal the great zapfish again." Three rolls her eyes, she's not too thrilled about having to entertain this criminal mastermind by herself but hopefully Eight will be there soon.
Octavio sighs, his demeanor changes drastically and his body seems to relax. He looks away from the agent in front of him and into the distance, seemingly letting his thoughts drift elsewhere. Anywhere but the moment.
"I'm sorry. I know I can never truly atone for my actions, but I am sorry." Octavio says, still looking into the distance. "I thought I was helping my people, we were going to take the surface back. But now I find those who have been freed by the inkantation have not only made it to the surface, but have been welcomed into society as though there was nothing wrong with them, like there never was a war between our species… It's caused me to do some thinking."
Octavio turns and looks at Three, she's staring right at him with an interested expression on her face. She's fascinated by what he has to say. Weather she believes his words is a different story altogether but he's just happy to have someone listen to him. Craig never entertained him for very long when he started getting speachy so he was going to take this opportunity and run with it.
"I realized that I was going about it all wrong. We don't need to reclaim the surface at all. The inklings in Inkopolis would just welcome us as though we were one and the same." Octavio lets out a heavy sigh, it hurts his hearts to admit how wrong he was, but he needs to say his peace. "I should've realized this sooner but I was blinded by my own desire for revenge and now I am paying the price for it."
Three just rolls her eyes. Marie had told her what Octavio said shortly after she discovered the weakness in Kamabo Sludge, so Three to a degree knew this song and dance already. What she wasn't prepared for was how sincere his words would seem. She did think that a lot of Octarian technology was far above what inkling society had been able to come up with, so maybe if he had changed his tune they could work out a deal of some kind. But for now there was no way for him to be trusted.
"Well that's all well and good, but what you did with Callie is still completely inexcusable. She kept wanting to put those damn shades back on, Flo eventually got tired of seeing how distraught Callie was and made her a knockoff pair. They look the same but they don't take over her mind." Three says, no real seriousness in her voice, just spouting off facts about what happened as a result of Octavio's actions.
"I know, I accept that." Octavio sighs and looks to the ground. "Wait, the real ones were destroyed right? You do not want her mixing them up."
"Relax, they've been reduced to dust according to Marie." Three rolls her eyes. Octavio had a lot more to say than Three had initially expected.
Finally, Eight jumps through the grate, and Three realizes why she had wanted to keep her hero outfit a surprise. Her shoes are reminiscent of the armoured shoes Three would get on her missions, Eight also had on the same bike shorts that Three did, and then Three notices her jacket. Her jacket is almost identical to Three's, it's a dark grey coat with a safety vest over top, though Eight didn't have a cape on. Finally, her hero headset was somewhat similar to Three's, with similar bands wrapping around the back of her head, but they were more rounded to accommodate the different shape of her ears.
Three can't help but blush as she realizes that Eight definitely wanted her hero uniform to match Three's own. She stands up from her chair and makes her way over to her.
"Eight! There you are!" Three smiles, pulling Eight into a hug, which Eight graciously returns. "I was beginning to worry you weren't gonna show!"
"Sorry, sorry, Pearl kept insisting on making sure everything sat right on me, she kept hemming my jacket to no end. I kept telling her it was fine but she kept insisting." Eight rolls her eyes and smiles, she is grateful to Pearl for everything but sometimes she can be overly parent-y.
"Hey, at least you're here now and I don't have to watch this old grump by myself!" Three smiles and takes hold of Eight's hand as they make their way over to the cabin, sitting on the bench outside of it, still able to see Octavio from where they are.
The rest of the day goes by uneventfully, Three and Eight talk more about Three's past, and how Three is finally warming up to Clam Blitz. Eventually though, they both realize that they are getting hungry. It's been a long day and they skipped lunch, partially because of guard duty, and partially because they were so enthralled with each other. They'd only been dating for a couple weeks at this point so everything the other had to say was still fascinating to them.
"Hey it looks like the sun's starting to go down, I have some spare tickets so I could run grab us some food from Crusty Sean if you wouldn't mind watching Octo dumbass for a bit by yourself. I promise I won't take long." Three smiles, silently hoping Eight says yes because she's been dying for a Seanwich for two hours.
"Yeah sure! I mean, I defeated an evil AI and saved Inkopolis, how difficult could it be to watch a single trapped octopus?" Eight giggles, earning a giggle in response from Three.
"Alright well, be careful, he's broken out once before." Three says as she stands to leave. "Any requests? I've got a ticket for just about anything off the menu."
"Uhhh, whatever the medium sized Schwaffle is called, I had it last time I got something from him and it was really good." Eight replies, smiling at Three and the thought of getting some food in her system.
"Alright I'll be back soon!" Three waves to Eight and jumps through the grate.
Eight now was alone with Octavio for the first time. She didn't think it would bother her until she noticed him staring at her, she couldn't shake the feeling that he knew her somehow. Something she very much didn't like. She decides it would be best to just get the inevitable conversation over with, at least this way maybe he'll stop looking at her like that. She stands from the bench and makes her way over to his snowglobe, taking a seat on the chair Three was occupying when she arrived.
"What?" Eight asks sharply, causing Octavio to recoil slightly, as he wasn't expecting such a cold response.
"What do you mean, "What?"?" Octavio retorts.
"You keep staring at me, I wanna know why." Eight says, staring directly into Octavio's eyes.
Octavio sighs and rubs the bridge between his eyes with one of his tentacles.
"You really do have almost no memory don't you?" Octavio asks disappointed, crossing his tentacles in front of him.
"No, I really don't." Eight scoffs, glaring right into his eyes. "But I remember enough to know I don't like you."
Octavio shrinks, he wondered how much she actually knew. Did she remember everything about what lead her to being in Kamabo, or did she only remember bits and pieces; or did she possibly not remember anything from that time period.
"Look. I don't know what you remember, but just… please know I'm sorry for what I did." Octavio looks to the ground through the snowglobe, defeated.
"And what, may I ask, did you do?" Eight sneers, trying to keep a strong facade so Octavio doesn't attempt to take advantage of her.
Octavio doesn't speak, he continues looking to the ground in shame. Eight's gaze burning a hole through his soul as every passing second makes him wish more and more that he hadn't ever broken out in the first place. He wished he could take every mistake back, every tiny little misstep, every single miscalculated action. Finally he brings up the courage to speak, though it's through a more hushed voice than before.
"I sent you on a suicide mission, I knew you weren't good enough to defeat Three on your own. You'd give her a good fight and maybe even injure her, but you were never going to win that fight. I sent you to die." Octavio closes his eyes in shame, he's come face to face with his own mistakes and it's eating away at his being.
"Why?" Was the only response Eight gave. She didn't sound mad, she didn't sound like she was ready to rip his throat out from his neck, instead she just sounded… confused. "Why send me on the mission. There has to be a reason you wanted me gone."
Octavio looks up at her, expecting to see fire and rage in her eyes but instead sees only questioning. She's looking for the pieces of her past that her mind can't fill in, and Octavio knows that once she starts remembering, she's going to hate him more than anyone else in the Splatoon.
"I don't want to say too much." Octavio says, trying to keep his cool. "But, you were the leader of an Octoling uprising. I sent you to your death to cripple their efforts. As you are both still alive and I am presently imprisoned, I think it's safe to say I failed miserably. Again."
Eight doesn't flinch, but her eyes close and her brow furrows as she seems to be trying to recall a memory, she struggles for a moment before opening her eyes again and looking at Octavio.
"I've got all the time in the world. You are going to tell me exactly how I went from being in your army, to being sent on a suicide mission."
