Everything was dark. Her head felt like it was in a vice and her entire body ached. Her wrists burned. Slowly Three regained her consciousness, and she realized she wasn't in Inkopolis anymore. She shakes off her wooziness and tries to clear her head but finds her memories are hazy, she nearly can't recall her own name. She tried to move but found her wrists were bound, she tries shifting to a squid to slip through them but her body refuses to change forms, she's stuck in her humanoid shape. She struggled against her restraints, something about them stung horribly and made her feel sick. There was a familiar smell but Three couldn't quite put her finger on it. Maybe if she could recall how she got here she could figure out how to get out...
She tries to remember what she was doing before this happened. She had been out on another date with Eight. They were walking in the park, hand in hand. She'd planned the entire day just to get the moment she wanted. They'd spent the entire day turfing and they were taking the long way home just so they could spend a few moments together in Inkopolis park when it wasn't busy, or at least, that's what Three had told Eight.
Three had been trying to find the perfect moment to ask Eight the big question, the question that involved the ring that had been burning a hole in her pocket as she tried to find the words she needed to present it to Eight. She remembers seeing the sunset off the horizon over the nearby lake, how the colours danced across the water. How the scene felt just perfect. Three remembers struggling to find words. She remembers Eight looking at the same sunset across the lake. She had reached into her pocket and was ready to do it, she was ready to ask the question. But then something happened...
She remembers being taken.
She remembers feeling something, or rather someone, grabbing her from behind, pulling her to the ground and then dragging her away by her arms. She panicked and being unable to fight she instead tried to call for help. The ring box landing on the ground where she once stood.
"Eight! Help!" Three called, but whatever had grabbed her was fast, by the time Eight turned to look she was already disappearing into the horizon. Three remembers crying as she tries to escape the clutches of the one who took her, hadn't she and Eight suffered enough?
Then she remembers blackness taking her. Whatever had snatched her had made sure she was knocked out cold before she was carried too far. Her head still hurt from where she was struck. Maybe that's why she was struggling to recall most things. She couldn't see very well either but that could be just from the darkness of the room she was in.
Whatever or whomever it was that had taken her had targeted her specifically. Why that is she had no idea. But here she was. She prayed it had only targeted her, and not any of her friends. Especially not Eight. But they likely would've taken Eight at the same time as her if they had wanted to do so. Maybe this had something to do with when Zod set them up, but that was so long ago it was a bit of a stretch to assume they were connected events. They'd figured that the whole ordeal with Zod had simply been him trying to get back at Marie for rejecting him, which seemed plausible enough, he's a jerk after all.
Three then heard a sound, it sounded somewhat like a heavy metal door opening and then closing from across a hallway. She then heard footsteps, they were heavy and metallic, and they were coming closer. Heavy metallic footsteps echoed in Three's ears as she tries to figure out where she is and why she was taken… though she's sure she'll find out soon enough.
Three struggles harder against her restraints, still unable to shift into a squid and escape, the footsteps are getting closer. Three pulls harder, her wrists burn and ache, in moments the source of the sound will be upon her. Three lets out a defeated sigh, and finally the source of the footsteps enters the room. The door swings open and an authoritative THUD can be heard when it closes again, followed by mechanical whirring indicating it was dead bolting itself shut. She's trapped in the room with whatever just entered.
The figure was tall, standing about 6 feet high. It's body looked like it was made primarily of metal, plastic, and electric components. One of the few things Three could make out was the Kamabo logo stamped on what would be the left pec on a living being. The figure's head was… terrifying. It looked almost identical to the head of the statue that Eight had covered in ink and saved the world from.
"Hello." The figure says in a somewhat robotic voice. "It's nice to see you again."
"Who the FUCK are you?!" Three spits. She doesn't care who this is, she puts up her bravest face, the rage and fire in her eyes the same as when she'd faced foes in October Valley. She wasn't going to be intimidated by a robot.
"Oh don't tell me you forgot me so soon, after I gifted you that lovely mark on your face there." The figures face didn't move, its mouth simply lit up when it spoke, but there was venom in those words and it stung Three's ears as she heard them.
Three's eyes went wide as she processed what it just said. No, it couldn't be, Eight had destroyed him! Three examines the figure more closely, it looks almost human save the large amounts of metal and plastic used for its body. It was as though it had created a body for itself from old artwork of what humans supposedly looked like.
The figure chuckles, filling the room with overwhelming dread. Three's hearts sink as she feels a surge of terror run through her body. She realizes that he knew how to get to her, he knew where she was and likely that meant he knew where she lived. Just how much of her life did he know?
"Forgive me, you must not recognize my new form. I'm Tartar, and you are my prisoner." His face doesn't change, given that it's made of molded metal and plastic, but his tone indicates that he'd be smirking if he could.
Three growls and struggles against her restraints, groaning in pain as her wrists burn and ache in response to her attempts to escape. Her feeble attempts at escaping prompt another chuckle from Tartar.
"Oh you like those restraints? They're designed specifically to prevent you from shifting forms. Small needles with just the smallest amount of my wonderful sanitization compound injected into your body keeping you from being able to change forms." His robotic voice snickers, he's enjoying the terror that he's causing Three to experience.
Three's eyes fill with fear and she tries even harder to rip her arms out of the restraints, knowing the sanitization ink is involved scares her deeply. She wants nothing to do with it. She can already feel the scar on her face starting to warm up, she'd gone so long without a reaction that she wasn't sure she could handle the pain anymore.
"Oh don't worry, I'm not going to take over you like I did last time. No. This time it's MUCH more personal." Tartar moves slightly away from Three, and seems to wheels some sort of cart closer to her. She can't see what the cart contains as it's covered by a white sheet, but the fact that he brought anything near her terrifies her. "This time, I'm going to make you suffer for what you did to me and my new world."
He removes the sheet that laid over top of the cart, revealing all manner of knives and other various objects that made Three shudder on sight. She very much did not want to find out what Tartar had in store, but by the looks of the instruments before her, she's not making it out of this unscathed… if she makes it out at all.
"You see, I had been working on this form of mine for quite some time. But the events that lead to my old forms defeat accelerated my plans." There's no emotion behind these words. He's monologging because he can. He knows Three can do nothing to escape. "I no longer have the means to wipe the planet clean of you disgusting creatures, but that is also no longer my goal. I have waited many long years for a worthy successor to the Humans that created me, and you just had to take it away from me. So now, I am going to show you true pain."
Three watches in horror as he picks up a large knife, it looked like it was as long as the distance from her elbow to her wrist if you included the handle, she can almost hear a smirk as he picks up another object, he presses a button and a flame shoots from the end. He brings the two objects together, heating the blade of the knife until it's almost glowing.
"I've always wondered, how sensitive ARE those tentacles on the tops of your heads?" He moves closer to Three who struggles to get away, anything but endure what Tartar has in store, but her attempts are fruitless as she is completely helpless to escape him as he approaches.
He presses the flat end of the blade firmly against the middle of her right tentacle, the searing pain roaring through her body, she lets out an agonized scream as she feels the heat burning and scarring her. It's an agonizing sensation like nothing she's felt before, even the sanitization scar across her face didn't burn like this does. Tears roll down her cheeks as she tries blocking out the pain but she can do nothing but focus on it.
"Oh wonderful." Tartar chuckles, pulling the knife away and finally allowing her a brief respite from the pain. "That is going to make this all the more enjoyable."
He grabs a needle off the stand and jabs it into Three's neck and injects the substance into her. She feels it course through her body and she realizes that she feels more alert than before, her hearts begin beating faster and her breaths become faster… she has to assume that he just injected her with a dose of adrenaline, but as to why she has no idea.
"I am going to ENJOY making you pay." Tartar taunts, Three can hear the smirk that his robotic face will not display. He brings the flame to the blade again, warming it back up for his next instance of torture.
"M-my friends won't let you get away with this, they'll find you." Three feels the tears already welling in her eyes, ready to fall down her cheeks again. Three feels more terror at this moment than she has ever felt at any other point in her life, not even facing down Octavio by herself had her this terrified.
Tartar brings the knife close to Three's face making her wince in fear, the heat from the blade warming her face and causing her great worry over what he plans to do with it. She's completely at his mercy and he shows no signs of concern over her wellbeing.
"I'm counting on it." He sneers, and before giving her any time to consider what he meant, he brings the blade of the knife away from her face and starts to press the sharp edge against the same tentacle he had just burned moments before. Three's eyes shoot wide and her pupils shrink.
"No!" Is all she can say as tears now freely roll down her cheeks, he hasn't even done anything yet however she knows what's coming and she's terrified.
Tartar responds by slowly, excruciatingly slowly, pressing the knife harder so it breaks the solid ink layer, and slowly the knife slides through her tentacle. Three wails in agony. Her screams piercing the veil of the heavens. She bangs her head against the table she's strapped to trying to focus on anything other than the searing pain but she can't. She now realizes why he'd given her that adrenaline, to force her to stay awake and endure the suffering. The ink in her tentacle boils and solidifies from the heat, the pain searing through her entire body. She can do nothing but scream and whimper as she feels the blade slowly cutting through more and more of her form. Her eyes are forced shut as she struggles against her restraints and wails in absolute agony. The only thing to escape her tightly shut eyelids are the tears they cannot hold back.
Tartar chuckles like the psychopath he is, enjoying the suffering he is causing and knowing that he's far from done with Three. He can hear the sizzling of the ink in her tentacle as it boils and hardens from the searing heat of the blade as he forces it through.
The searing pain of the blade disappears suddenly, and a wet flop can be heard on the floor, the only pain left is from the damage that remains. She looks down and realizes he's cut her tentacle completely off! The stump where it was once connected to her head was charred and calloused, she knew what that meant, her tentacle has been severed and burned, it was gone forever. Tears well up in her eyes as she realizes that it won't grow back, she's damaged permanently.
Three had never cared much about her appearance, but she had personally always liked how her tentacles looked, and now she'd never get that again. She could no longer put her tentacles back into a ponytail to match Eight, she could no longer style her tentacles together. She had lost a piece of herself. She cries as the pain and her emotions overwhelm her, she wants this to just be a nightmare, she wants to wake up and be in Eight's arms. She wants anything but what she's experiencing now.
Tartar then jammed the knife directly into her shoulder, pulling her focus away from her tentacles and again causing her to scream in unimaginable agony. The knife was still hot so the wound cauterized quickly, but the pain was more intense as it had cooled slightly, meaning the process was slower. She groaned in despair, Tartar only chuckled.
"Oh don't cry, we're only just beginning." He pulls the knife from Three's shoulder causing her to wince. "When I am done with you, you're going to be the best soldier in my army. And you're going to end those pathetic friends of yours with your own hands."
He sets the knife down then grabs a smaller one, he doesn't bother to heat up this one and instead instantly jabs it into her thigh. Three shrieks in pain, her form is unstable but she doesn't splat, she knows she's taken enough damage at this point that any connected spawn point would have automatically had her reforming. The horror fully dawns on her as she realizes there's no spawn point within range, and if she dies here, that's it. She's gone.
"Finally realizing your true situation? Good." Tartar taunts before continuing into an explanation, he doesn't want her to get the wrong idea of his intentions after all. "In order to turn you into a true soldier in my army, we need to do more than just mind control you. That simply left too much of you able to fight back and resist. We need to fully sanitize you, but to do that, we need to drain you of that pathetic ink that flows through you first."
He forcibly yanks the knife out of her thigh and she feels her ink starting to leak out of the puncture. Her form locks down and slows her hearts, the ink leaking from the wound slows dramatically but she can feel her form destabilizing. It's struggling to hold together. She knew that if she took too much more damage, she wouldn't be able to respawn even if a powered spawn point was nearby. She feels her body try to solidify, her skin layer of ink becoming thicker to try and stave off more abuse. It's a natural response but she feels herself calm as she realizes her body is fighting back
Tartar simply laughs, with a disgusting mechanical laugh. It's like he can sense her body's response and almost revels in it… like it was what he planned all along.
"Oh my dear sweet child, I'm afraid you're doing exactly what I need you to. That thicker outer layer will keep you in tact while we submerge you, and then you will truly be entirely mine." His voice is calm and cold, sending a chill down Three's spine as his words reach her ears.
Three struggles harder against her restraints, if her form is fighting subconsciously, she's going to fight consciously. She pulls hard on her wrist restraints, they burn and feel like they're digging harder into her, but she doesn't give up. It feels like she's ripping the skin, it burns and aches but it's better than anything that Tartar would do to her if she doesn't escape.
"I... Won't let you... WIN!" Three stammers between breaths, trying desperately to both escape as well as make herself believe that maybe she could win. She has to win, not just for her own sake, but for everyone she loves. If she's sanitized, she knows her friends wouldn't be able to splat her… they wouldn't be able to take the shot, she knows that if she was used that Tartar would win. She had to fight.
Tartar places his cold robotic hand on Three's shoulder, and squeezes hard, causing the fresh wound to ache and making her groan in pain. It stings like nothing else she's ever felt before and she hates every second. He leans in so whatever it is that speaks is close to her ear and he somehow whispers into her ear.
"I won as soon as you were brought to me, this is just me having fun" Tatar pulls away from her as she looks up at his form with disgust and fear, whatever happens she just wants it to be over.
Without warning Tartar mercilessly jabs the knife into her stomach, causing her vision to blur and her breathing to stop for a moment. Again he rips the knife from the wound and ink begins leaking from the opening. She's beginning to feel weak. Her body feels light and her head is fuzzy. She knows she's lost a lot of ink and unless she can stop it somehow, it's going to be replaced by Kamabo sanitization. She's going to be the reason her friends die.
Confident that she's now out of it enough to move her to the sanitization chamber, Tartar releases the restraints on her wrists. They make a loud hiss and thunk as Three falls on the floor. The door unlatches itself and two sanitized octolings walk in, if Three was conscious she'd question why they were still wearing hypnoshades if they were sanitized, but presently she's too busy trying not to die.
"Take her to chamber B, she's already been prepped." Tartar commands. The two octolings that walked in grab hold of Three and carry her away from the table she was strapped to and towards one of the chambers at the back of the room. She feels her strength lessening and she feels her ink pressure drop… she's lost nearly half of her ink now, soon there won't be any of it left. She lets out a quiet sob and she whispers what will become her last words.
"I'm sorry, Eight… I love you."
