Chapter 23: Descension

Splatoon HQ

Cap'n Cuttlefish and Sheldon had not heard back from Oliver and his team since they sent them off on their mission. All of their contact attempts had failed, and it had felt like more than enough time had passed for them to at least hear back from them, which sent nothing but anxiety and worry to the both of them. So, while they couldn't outright contact the agents, and while they couldn't leave this base in fear of KRAKEN, they decided their time was best spent… waiting. Together, they waited, playing card games with each other and chatting to pass the time.

It was during one of these games when finally, they heard static coming from one of the radios at Sheldon's desk. Looking at each other, the two of them leapt up, and Sheldon rushed over to check who it was. Under the static, the two of them could just barely make out a feminine voice.

"Samantha?" He tried tuning it. "Jessica? Bridgett? Did you make it out? Are you ok? Where are you?"

The voice became more clear. It was Marie. "Sheldon?"

Cap'n Cuttlefish made it over at that moment. "Marie!?"

"Gramps?"

"Oh my god!" He immediately got giddy. "Are you… are you back?"

She sighed happily at just hearing him again. "Yeah, we made it back! Is everyone ok?"

"That's… hard to explain." Sheldon admitted.

"Listen, we're on our way down, we're gonna land soon. Hang tight."

"We'll meet you there!" Cuttlefish replied before he and Sheldon immediately rushed out of the HQ.

The Ray soared down into Earth's atmosphere, closing in on Inkopolis, until it came to land in the same field it had originally left on all those months ago. It didn't take long for Cuttlefish and Sheldon to arrive, just in time to witness the ramp open up.

Marie rushed down first, followed by Pearl and Marina. "Gramps!"

"Oh, Marie!" He opened his arms, which she ran into. They hugged each other tenderly.

Marie sniffed a bit. "Oh my god, I missed you…"

"I missed you too… so much…"

Sheldon gave his dramatic salute at Off the Hook. "You made it in one piece! Welcome back!"

"Hi, Sheldon." Marina replied, smiling a bit.

As Cuttlefish and Marie broke off, Cuttlefish looked her in the eye. "Where… is Callie?"

Marie hesitated. "…She's still inside. She's ok. Gramps… did the Octarians arrive yet? Have you seen anything?"

"The- The Octarians?"

"Yes."

"Why are you asking? Did you not stop them?"

Again, she hesitated. "…We'll have a lot to catch up on. But right now… we need to prepare for an attack. We need all hands on deck. Where's-" She looked around. "Where is everyone?"

Cuttlefish and Sheldon looked at each other, now more nervously. "Oh, boy…" Sheldon muttered. "We're gonna have a lot to catch up on."

"What do you mean?"

"Is Bridge not here?" Pearl spoke up.

"They're… somewhere…" Cuttlefish said.

Marie shook her head. "So… where is somewhere?"

Octo Valley

Bridgett finally allowed her eyes to open as she looked around. She was in… some kind of storage closet, lying down on the ground.

"...What-" She pushed some of the supplies that were on top of her to the side as she sat up, feeling her head. The last thing she remembered… she and the others had just barely managed to open the teleporter… they heard a loud explosion, lots of rumbling, they barely managed to climb inside, they felt a lot more rumbling, and then… she was here, in this storage closet. It was apparent that she had hit her head, but more terrifyingly… she was alone.

She shook her head and groaned in pain as she stood up. "Jessica? Dylan?" She pried at the door, getting it open as she headed out in the quiet hallway. "Oliver?"

The first person she saw upon heading outside and stumbling down the hall was Daniel, who was looking around, extremely confused. "Hello!? Hello!? Jessica!?" He cried out like a lost child separated from his parents in a supermarket.

"It's just me!" She announced to him.

He stared at her as she walked over. "…Are you really there?"

"Yeah." She walked over, although she kept her distance from him. "Are we… the only ones who made it?"

He rose his arms in a shrugging motion, before they both looked over to see Jessica, who came down the hall, investigating Daniel's calls.

"Daniel?" She asked around before she turned to see them. Sighing in relief, she immediately rushed over, as if to hug him.

"Uhh-" For a moment, Daniel thought she was coming over to attack him, but instead, she marched past him and threw herself into a hug with Bridgett.

Bridgett also sighed in relief as she hugged her back. "W-Where's everyone else?"

The next people to reunite were Dylan and Samantha, who came into view at around the same time before they called each other's names, hugging each other. Last up was Oliver, who silently came over. He looked around a bit. "Everyone here?"

"We're here." Bridgett replied.

Samantha walked up with Dylan. "Where the fuck are we?"

"I think we're in a school dome. Classes are probably out right now." Jessica wiped some bled ink from herself as she looked around.

"Gideon must've passed through here, we followed the same coordinates he used." Bridgett said.

"I did see a trail of ink." Dylan said.

"...Good… Let's see if we can find him." Oliver said as he started walking down where Dylan came from. "We can capture him, and take him back to HQ."

It took no words for everyone else to say that they agreed, as they simply followed him down. As they found and followed the ink trail down the halls, they hid to avoid any of the few Octarians that passed through these halls, but it didn't take them long to find where the ink trail disappeared into a small medical station… and stopped entirely, with otherwise no sign of anyone inside.

"...He… can't have gone far… can he?" Bridgett asked.

Oliver thought about it. "…Come on. Us pausing will just let him cross more distance."

Again, they all followed Oliver and Jessica down until eventually, their search led them out of the dome and onto Octo Valley's surface, where they came up in the more unguarded Sector One. From here, Gideon could've gone… anywhere.

Dylan sighed as he briefly rose his hand, dropping it again in frustration. "Well… needle in a haystack, now."

Bridgett sighed and clenched her fist in anger. "…I can't believe this…"

"Can't believe what?" Oliver asked.

"I let him escape!" She kicked a rock and slowly sat down. "Ugh… so, great, now what the fuck are we supposed to do?"

The other agents looked at each other, thinking it over. "…I… guess we go back to HQ." Oliver said. "Outside of combing the whole Valley…" He shook his head. "I don't see another option."

As they heard that, finally finding a moment to relax somewhat, Dylan looked up at the sky, noticing how… nice it felt to feel fresh air again. He took a moment to breathe it in, enjoying this moment of freedom before, again, they had to go back to work.

Oliver was the first to start walking back to Inkopolis, and the others followed suit. Bridgett, however, remained where she sat, angrily staring at the ground. She almost felt like crying yet again, with how much… distressing information she had been getting at once. It was all overwhelming to her… and mentally, she still hadn't even recovered from that moment when she saw… so many of herself… in all of those tanks.

If she had it her way, she would've stayed here for a while to sulk and think, but instead, Jessica stepped by her side, patting her shoulder. She looked up at her, and Jessica nodded in the direction of the others, motioning her to get up. It didn't even feel scolding, though, it felt… comforting. Like she was reminding her she was still here for her, even if they still had a job to do. Sighing a bit, she let Jessica help her up, before they followed the others.

They all made the journey through the manhole by Cuttlefish's old shack until they closed in on Inkopolis Plaza. However, instead of finding themselves home-free like some of them expected, they were instead met with only their next obstacle: The manhole was completely covered up, blocking them off.

"Oh, what the hell?" Jessica muttered.

Oliver, not understanding why it would've been covered up, immediately got up and tried banging it open. Then, came their next obstacle: Suddenly, after hearing some noises, the manhole cover was lifted off, and they were all immediately met with KRAKEN soldiers, who pointed their weapons down at them. "Don't move!"

Surprised, Oliver's eyes widened as he raised his arms in surrender.

"Get on out here with your hands up." One of the soldiers commanded.

"...I-I…" He looked back at the other agents.

"Now!"

Slowly, they all came out one-by-one, doing as they asked. Even Daniel, who tried to run the opposite direction, was quickly grabbed and pulled out. Looking around, they could see that the Plaza was already covered with KRAKEN trucks and personnel, who had placed the area on complete lockdown. Apparently, as Oliver realized, he and his team had not gone entirely unnoticed when they previously went this way to access the Valley.

A KRAKEN helicopter circled the Plaza as Daniel was shoved onto the ground, having his rights recited to him as they placed him in cuffs. Outside of a small scream from Samantha, the other agents remained silent as they too were detained in a less violent manner.

"Get OFF OF ME!" Daniel shouted.

"Shut up. Get on up." They forced him onto his feet.

"JESSICA!" He struggled against them. "OLIVER!"

They said nothing, simply watching his arrest. It turned out, however, that Daniel still had some luck on his side as, subtly, a large shadow started to come over them.

Before they even noticed it, an ominous wind began to blow past everyone's skin. Bridgett looked to see as some smaller tools in one of the KRAKEN trucks began shaking slightly, as the Plaza around them got darker and darker.

The KRAKEN soldiers all looked up first. Distracted, they even loosened their grip on Daniel as slowly, everyone looked up to see what was blotting out the sun. It wasn't just them that was being shrouded in darkness; the shadow was growing over all of Inkopolis. Even the circling helicopter changed its flight pattern as it flew away.

The KRAKEN radios all got louder as the lines were all filled with frantic reports, and several of the surrounding soldiers walked away for emergency protocols. Shortly after that, some of the trucks began leaving the Plaza.

Oliver was the only one of the group who truly knew what he was even looking at. "…Oh, no…"

The shadow also drifted over the Ray, as the other half of the Splatoon stood outside of it. They had been busy moving a few things from the HQ to the Ray and vice versa in anticipation of the coming emergency, including Sheldon's Octarian make-up appliances, while catching each other up on the essential knowledge of their separate adventures. They were interrupted, however, as they all paused and looked up to see the same thing all of Inkopolis now saw.

The ominous wind was enough to blow through them as well, as Pearl reached to squeeze Marina's arm. Marina reached to hold her as well, while Sheldon and Marie stood together, terrified. Cap'n Cuttlefish slowly walked forward, almost dropping his cane in fear as they all witnessed the massive Octarian station descend upon Inkopolis. It broke through the clouds that it passed through as it inched closer and closer toward the city's many buildings.

"...We're too late…" Marie whispered.

Just like that, the city descended into absolute chaos. As more and more people noticed the massive station floating over their heads, cars began crashing into each other, blocking up traffic and causing some cars to even crash into buildings, fire hydrants, or other objects. From there, the civilians were forced to exit their cars entirely as they fled on foot, alongside everyone else who now fled the surrounding buildings or were already on the sidewalks, further creating a massive panic the likes of which had only previously been seen during the Underdogs incident.

The Inkopolis Police Department was a bit slow to react compared to KRAKEN, who were already trying to reestablish control over the city. Luckily for the Splatoon agents, this now meant that they had bigger problems than taking them into custody, and the few soldiers that had stayed behind to restrain them were easily taken care of as Jessica, Oliver, and the others came to pull them off of Daniel.

Oliver grabbed Daniel's hand to help him up. Daniel looked up at the new threat. "Is that- are you seeing the same thing I'm seeing!?"

"Yeah. They're here. Just as Gideon wanted." Oliver replied, glancing back up at the station. "…The galaxy's union…" He muttered.

"We need to get back to HQ now." Jessica said.

He nodded in agreement as together, they ran out of the Plaza. Samantha was the only one who stayed behind, frozen as she stared up at the station in complete terror, until Dylan ran back to grab her arm, pulling her along with them.

Inkopolis' chaos was visible from the station itself, where Lydia now stood in the control room, with her hands behind her back as she silently stared out the window.

She rubbed her fingers together. "…The Inkling world is quite pathetic. How they won the original war baffles me…"

A few moments later, a light appeared down the hall, along with an audible, other-dimensional woosh sound. She turned to glance in that direction, until another moment later, another Octoling walked up to her.

"Ma'am. He's here." The Octoling told her.

She was followed by Gideon, who had teleported onboard. Although he had treated his gun wound as best as he could, he was still visibly wounded as he stumbled into the control room. She straightened herself as she saw him come in, and he quickly found a place to sit down.

He sucked in a breath as he faced her. "…Lydia."

"...Gideon."

Gideon groaned yet again as he tried moving his arm, and Lydia motioned toward another nearby Octoling to come over and help treat him.

"I'm ok, I'm ok." He motioned her off. "Worry about more important things."

"What happened?" Lydia asked.

He took in another breath. "…A few things have happened… but they don't matter. We only have so much time. And time…" He smiled a bit. "…shall be changed…" He nodded at her. "…Did you succeed? Did you harness Axcia's energy?"

She slowly nodded. "…I have."

"Oh…" He leaned forward, sighing in relief. "…Yes… that is such wonderful news…"

"...We can leave now. We can make our new world. I've dealt with my half of the Splatoon, and I assume you've dealt with yours."

He smiled a bit as he forced himself to stand up, walking over to her. "…I admire your newfound eagerness… but the Splatoon has yet to be dealt with. We still have one task to complete."

Lydia didn't respond.

"Lydia…" He delicately pet her tentacle. "You have one more mission before we move along."

She shook her head. "I don't want it…"

"You used to. I remember before you first touched that crystal and saw your future, you used to make entire strategies on how you'd deal with this part."

She paused and looked him in the eye. "…Agent 8?"

He nodded a bit. "You know we just need one more thing… and Agent 8… hurt me… Hell, she hurt me more than just physically." He awkwardly chuckled a bit, then sighed. "…Lydia… I know I've already asked so much of you… and you've done me proud… so proud…" He caressed her tentacle. "…But please."

She barely moved, letting him do whatever with her hair. She hesitated before she ultimately responded."…Ok."

He smiled, pulling her head forward enough that he could easily lean forward and plant a kiss on her forehead. After they had their moment, Lydia abruptly turned to walk out, without any further signs of affection.

The Ray

Marie, Marina, and Pearl, followed by Cap'n Cuttlefish and Sheldon, rushed up the Ray's ramp into the loading bay. They all knew they needed to do something about this, but… everyone largely came up blank, instead simply standing around in a panic.

"None of you have any ideas on what to do?" Pearl asked. "We have some of the Splatoon's greatest minds here together, and none of you can think of anything?"

"We're trying, but this is unforeseen and half of the team is still currently unavailable." Cuttlefish replied, shaking even more horribly than he usually did.

Marie had only a couple ideas of maybe confronting this herself, so she was the first to speak up about it. "Gramps, Sheldon, go back into HQ and start reading their activity or something. We'll figure it out."

"What are you gonna do?" Sheldon asked.

"I said we'll figure it out. Please, just, go. Let us know if anything happens."

Sheldon looked at the Cap'n, who just stared at Marie.

After a moment, Cuttlefish nodded a bit. In spite of the situation, he was extremely proud to see her granddaughter is such a leader position. "…I'm very proud of you, young lady. Let us know if you need anything else." With Sheldon, he walked back down the ramp.

Marie immediately turned to grab her charger, holding it over her shoulder, before she rushed back to Callie's room.

"Marie!" Marina tried to call out to her.

She ignored her as she marched straight to Callie. Callie was still in the same position they had left her as Marie opened the door, walking in.

"What's going on?" Callie sat up.

"Callie…" She knelt in front of the bed. "Shadow's Octarians are here. At Inkopolis. What do we do?"

She shook her head. "…I… I don't-"

"You seemed to know at least some of this was going to happen, and we have to be able to do something!" She told her, sounding more desperate and insecure than ever before. "What do we do? What's going to happen next?"

She shook her head some more. "…I can't tell you…"

She didn't respond, staring at her.

She started tearing up. "…I'm sorry…"

"...Can you… tell me anything…? Anything we can use against them?"

Again, she shook her head. "…They have one last secret that you don't know about… and it will help them win. They planned it from the beginning… and not even Marina could tell you everything about this mission. Because it put everyone in too much risk…"

"...What? What hasn't Marina told us?"

She didn't respond.

"...Callie? Callie, please? What do we do? What's the secret?"

She just ominously stared her in the eyes now, with one singular tear falling down her cheek.

Marie stared back, on the verge of a panic attack, before she simply walked back out to look for Marina.

"Marina?" She asked around. "Marina!?"

The first person she saw was Pearl, who had rushed over to poke around at the jump mechanism in the wall. Similarly to the central power room onboard the Octarian station, the surrounding area in the hall was scorched by the last powerful jump that the ship performed.

She walked up to her. "Where's Marina?"

Pearl glanced at her, still trying to get the wall slot open to reveal the actual mechanism. "I dunno, she told me not to disturb her. We're both trying to get the Ray combat-ready again."

"Are we not already combat-ready?"

"We were, but that jump damaged our systems!" She sighed. "That crystal was too powerful."

"...So… to make matters worse, we can't even defend ourselves!?"

"That's why I was trying to-" Finally, her repeated attempts at pressing the button to open the slot paid off, as multiple layers of the wall finally opened up, revealing the bright green light.

Marie briefly covered her eyes until she could adjust to it, allowing them both to look inside and see the stabilized crystal that sat perfectly in its own little slot. They both stared at it in amazement.

"...Woah…" Pearl muttered. "I mean, I know that she was using the energy to power that jump, but I didn't realize…" She trailed off.

Marie stared at it. Neither of them had really looked at this mechanism before- in fact, Marina hadn't allowed them to access it- but now that they could see it, she noticed the slot was perfectly shaped to fit one of these crystals. And unlike the Octarian communicator she previously discovered, it was most certainly a direct part of Marina's design for the ship. It was all designed so perfectly, so that one of these crystals could power the whole ship…

Was this Marina's secret? That she had access to Axcia's crystals the whole time? It did explain a lot of how the science worked if this ship was already crystal-powered from the beginning… Backing up in silence, she rushed down toward the loading bay.

"Hey, where are you going!?" Pearl asked.

"Marina!? Marina!?" She kept asking around as she headed into the loading bay. Finally, she saw Marina just outside by the ramp, on the grassy field, as she playing around with a radio. "Marina!" She walked up.

She turned to her. "Marie, what?"

"Callie mentioned that the Octarians have one more secret and she mentioned that you were hiding something. Mind telling me what that is? And how come you haven't told us about the perfectly-shaped power mechanism and what powers it?"

She paused- froze, even. "…I, uh… you weren't supposed to look in there. It's a dangerous device."

"Pearl opened it, not me. But I can't deny what I saw."

She awkwardly cleared her throat. "…Yes, I… I guess after I updated the jump systems, the power mechanism was left more open for you to see… I'm sorry, I should've secured it again."

"This ship was crystal-powered the whole time, wasn't it? Why didn't you inform us? We could've… we could've been using that this whole time."

She nodded a bit. "…Well, how else would you explain the jumps we could do? I didn't want to make it clear to you guys before, because it was just… it felt too risky."

"Risky?"

"Yes."

"...Where'd you get the crystals from? There are others, right?"

She briefly rose her arms in a shrugging motion. "I just… always had some around. I've played with Octarian-related tech for a long time, you know I have, because I used to work with them. Now, please, we have something more important going on in the sky, in case you haven't noticed." She turned around to re-focus on her radio.

However, as Marie kept thinking about it, a realization was slowly starting to form in Marie's head… and everything about it clicked together too perfectly. "…Marina, were you… behind all of these designs in the first place?"

She sighed, hesitating. She was growing steadily nervous, and Marie could tell. "…Marie, please, I'm trying to focus on this."

She tilted her head slightly. "…Who are you contacting?"

"Sheldon."

"Does he have an update?"

"No, we're just trying to talk about what to do."

She looked down a bit. She didn't believe she was actually contacting anyone in the Splatoon; she was actively trying too hard to tune it. As things further clicked together in her head, she subtly took a step back and reached for her charger. "…This whole mission was planned out from the beginning… and you were… at the center of all of it. From the beginning, you were… you were the one who told us about Axcia, about how to get there, you built the Ray in anticipation, you pressed us into going, and you…" She trailed off. "…Shadow herself said that this mission goes deeper than what we've already seen… she said that they needed to split the Splatoon up…"

"What are you saying?" She turned to her, pausing as she noticed the way Marie was holding her weapon. "…Marie?"

They fell silent for a good moment, simply staring at each other.

"...This really was all you, wasn't it? This whole mission… Shadow's plan… you helped organize the whole thing." Marie spoke up.

"What? I… I thought we already discussed this. Didn't we?"

"Callie broke down and told us the truth the moment I started threatening to get the truth out of you… You were trying to deflect blame that whole conversation… Now she's telling me you have one more secret… Marina… what secret was she talking about?"

"...Marie…"

"...What secret?" She insisted.

She didn't respond.

"Was Callie just covering for you? Were you both compromised? What about Pearl?"

"Marie, there's a logical explanation."

"Then how come you haven't explained it yet?"

She looked down, scoffing a bit.

She gripped her weapon tightly, more and more convinced. "...Please tell me you're brainwashed…"

It was too late. There was no more hiding… she was busted. She avoided eye-contact as she decided to just say it. "…I… wish I could say I was. That'd be much easier to explain..."

Her hearts sank. The final revelation slammed into her like a bag of bricks. "…Oh my god… you were the actual double-agent…"

She said nothing, looking back up at her. They now both knew the truth was out.

She started tearing up a bit. "…I… why? Why!?"

She rose her arms in surrender. "Marie, I promise you, for everything I've done, there is a reason…"

"What reason!? What could have possibly driven you to… to…" She stammered. "…After all these years… after everything we've been through-… you were working behind our backs the whole time, weren't you?"

"Marie, please, don't freak out."

She shook her head. "Did you know about Shadow's face? Did Pearl know?"

"No, no to either of those things, Marie, please let me explain-"

"Did you- What about the Subgrid? What were you really using it for? What about Cal-" She paused. "…You used Callie…"

She fell silent, closing her eyes in defeat.

"...Oh my god…" She blinked as she looked down at the ground, almost feeling dizzy herself. "…You used Callie…"

"...Marie…" She stepped forward slightly, but froze yet again as Marie held the charger up, aimed directly at her head.

No more words were going to be said. Here they stood, simply staring at each either, with Marie far too shocked to do much of anything else. She even considered pulling the trigger… she actually kind of wanted to do it…

Marina knew that angry look in her eye, growing nervous in fear of her own life. She stood like a statue, waiting for whatever result would come next.

Before Marie could do anything, she was suddenly knocked to the ground as Lydia snuck up behind her, striking her across the head. She fell limp, unconscious.

Lydia simply stood there, as she and Marina stared at each other. She smirked slightly, finally revealing the face she made whenever the other agents could see her amused posture. "Well, then… nice to see the true you… Ms. Ida."

Marina didn't respond.

Lydia drew her blade, leaning down toward Marie to finally finish the job.

"No, don't kill her!" Marina shouted. "Don't kill any of them. We'll make them understand… eventually… they'll have to understand."

Lydia glanced at her, considering doing it anyway.

"...Please… after everything I did for you and your father…" She continued.

She frowned slightly as she withdrew the blade, straightening herself. "Fine… but they only get this one chance."

Marina sighed in relief. "…There's just one more thing I need to do… then this will all be behind us."

Bridgett, Oliver, and their team were still navigating Inkopolis' panicked chaos, performing super-jumps to get around the frantic sidewalks and KRAKEN soldiers that were trying and failing to restore order, until they finally came out the other side, closing in on the field above where the abandoned Shifty Station was hidden.

They came up from over the hill when they finally saw that the Ray had returned and was parked.

"Is that…?" Dylan asked.

Bridgett's eyes widened a bit. They were back. After everything she had just been through, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. She could reunite with Pearl and Marina.

"Marina…" She was about to run forward, but Jessica suddenly grabbed her.

Jessica had noticed the situation first, covering her mouth as she held her back. "No, don't." She warned her.

Now, Bridgett and the others noticed it next. Not only was Lydia visible to all of them, but she was very much standing with Marina, still standing over the unconscious Marie.

Bridgett squinted her eyes in confusion and concern. What the hell was going on?

Hey, everyone! Funny thing, despite the fact I outlined this so long ago, I was actually a bit nervous about finally publishing this chapter, because I know Marina is a fan-favorite like the rest of the idols and this is kind of a big swing I'm taking with her. But, uh... yeah, my version of Marina simply isn't who we thought she was. Anyone who's been reading since NSS:OD or have just been paying attention to the clues here and there, you may have seen this coming.

Anyway, things are coming to a head, and Part 1's finale is coming up next, which I plan on publishing very soon. Remember not to post spoilers, and I'll see you then. *waves*