Chapter 24: Completing the Puzzle

Confusion and tension was in the air as Bridgett, Jessica, and their team stared down at Lydia and Marina, waiting for any sort of clues on what was really going on. Marie, still on the ground, had yet to wake up, which alerted all of the Splatoon agents greatly.

Lydia started pacing slightly. "Grab whatever you need. I don't want to be waiting long."

Marina nodded a bit, glancing down at Marie one last time before she moved to walk away.

Against Jessica's wishes, Bridgett pulled herself out of her grasp and super-jumped over.

"Bridgett!" Jessica shouted after her.

Marina was stopped in her tracks as Bridgett landed in front of her, changing back from her Octo-form. "Marina."

She paused, eyes widening. "Eight."

She looked between her and Lydia. "What is going on?"

"I…" She hesitated a bit. "…It's so good to see you."

Although she didn't say anything, Lydia was silently walking forward toward Bridgett, her fists clenched. Bridgett looked between her and Marina, not sure what to even say. The air remained tense for all three of them as they simply stared each other down.

Marina looked between the both of them. "…I, uh… know how weird this looks-"

"I already saw Project Legion." Bridgett interrupted. "I know who she is."

Lydia started circling them. "Do you truly know who I am?"

She watched her. "…It was your memories that I saw in the Subgrid."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes. Unless Gideon lied to me again."

"He tried to sway you, huh?"

She ignored that and turned back to Marina. "Marina, what is happening?"

Marina held a hand forward. "I know what this looks like, but the Octarians are not the bad guys here. There's a good explanation for all of this."

"Then what happened to Marie?"

"She…" She briefly glanced back at her. "…That just… happened…"

"Pearl's face is telling me very differently."

A bit confused by that, Marina looked back toward the Ray. She hadn't noticed before, but Pearl was very much watching them from the Ray's loading bay, and her horrified face told them that she had seen Marina's betrayal, as she stood there, frozen like a statue. The two of them made eye contact, before Pearl suddenly rushed back inside of the Ray. "Oh, no..."

Bridgett was staring at her as well, more and more betrayed by the second. "What the hell did you do?"

She sighed and sadly turned back to her. "…What I had to…"

Bridgett stepped back, teary-eyed. This betrayal stung even more than Gideon's did… Marina was… one of the last people in her life she would've ever expected to do something like this. Marina was considered family before she even knew what her actual family was like.

A part of her wanted to believe she was telling the truth about the Octarians not being the bad guys… but after what she just experienced in the Mine, she knew it wasn't true. As her sadness began to morph into anger that quickly bubbled up inside of her, she reached for her weapon.

From there, in the next few moments, chaos erupted. Waiting for any slight signs of hostility, Lydia suddenly drew her blade and slashed at Bridgett's throat, forcing her to just barely dodge out of the way by briefly turning to her Octo-form. As she turning back, she leaped backward in surprise.

"No! Don't kill her!" Marina shouted desperately.

"Get your things now, Ida!" Lydia shouted back as she marched toward Bridgett, drawing her second blade. "I will do whatever's necessary. I've been waiting for this for a long time…"

Marina stepped back fearfully as she watched their duel. Bridgett pulled her gun and fired at Lydia, but she easily blocked her fire with her armored arm and then swiftly disarmed her.

"Eight!" Jessica shouted as, seeing Lydia attempt to kill her, she and the other agents leapt into action. They, however, were blocked off en route as a smaller Octarian ship suddenly flew overhead, hovering in front of them. They all paused and looked up at it as a moment later, the ship opened up, dropping off many different Octarian troops to block them off. Octotroopers, Octobombers, and Octoling soldiers all landed or just floated into position in front of them.

Then, a few more ships began to arrive at the scene, dropping off even stronger foes like Octocommanders and even two entire Great Octoweapons, who dropped from the sky. As they landed, the Octoweapons shook the ground, splashing some dirt and grass around the surrounding area, before they straightened themselves up for battle.

Samantha gasped in fear, backing up somewhat, but the other Agents that were at her side just stared onward with their own furious determination. Daniel held his weapon up, his eyelid and his trigger finger both twitching violently, while Jessica stood up front, calmly gripping her own weapon as she prepared to lead the charge.

"Ready when you are, Three…" Dylan said, holding his own weapon.

Hearing his cue, Jessica raised her weapon and took the first shot as they all leapt into battle.

As the fight started outside, Pearl rushed into Callie's room with the key to Callie's cuffs, opening her door.

"P-Pearl?" Callie sat up, confused. "What are you doing?"

"Getting ya outta here." She moved to free her.

"W-Why?" She held her hand back somewhat. "I-I thought you weren't gonna-"

"Forget that." She took off her cuffs. She sounded panicked and almost on the verge of tears, but regardless looked her in the eye. "Shit's going down, we need everyone left. Also, I think I know what you were brainwashed for."

"B-But, I… I'm still brainwashed… I'm… I'm not on your side…"

She shook her head. "You were always on our side, Cal. Moreso than some others on our team, apparently. You were brainwashed the entire time but you still helped us fight and stuff. Didn't you? You were used for a particular purpose, weren't you?"

She didn't respond… but she did think it was true.

"I'll just assume you agree." She reached over and handed her her roller. "Now let's go kick some ass."

The battle raged through the field that surrounded the Ray, while the chaos within the grand city of Inkopolis continued on its own. Any attempts by KRAKEN and the police to maintain order or do literally anything against the floating Octarian station had failed, as any attempts to attack the station head-on were shot down.

On the field, the agents continued their battle against the Octarian troops, while Lydia battled Bridgett in their more direct duel, which mainly consisted of Bridgett dodging her attacks.

Finally, awoken by the loud noises, Marie's eyes drifted open. Her head was once again killing her, and she groaned in pain as she rolled off her back and onto her side, glancing around at the battle around her.

At around that moment, Callie rushed up to her, shaking her. "Marie!? Are you ok!?"

"C-Callie…?" She held her head as she sat up. "W-What are you doing o-"

"Pearl let me out. Here." She picked her charger up and handed it to her.

She took it, then looked around, feeling pretty distressed. "Where's Marina?"

"I don't know, but Pearl chased after her."

As she looked around some more, she was still pretty confused, but she did notice one thing that gave her reassurance; Dylan and the other agents were all here and were in the battle. After all, in spite of her fears, Dylan had turned out ok. She didn't have time to question the new recruits that she saw at the same time, but feeling a new wave of motivation, she grabbed Callie's hand and let herself get pulled up.

The Great Octoweapons were currently the biggest obstacle for the agents, partially destroying the field around them as they raged about, attempting to kill any agent they came across. Jessica had taken these as her priority, attempting to climb on top of them when she could. Moments later, she received help from Marie, who used her long-range shots to help keep the machines distracted as she walked up.

Dylan looked over at that moment, happy to see that she was awake and up. "Marie!"

"Long time, no see?" Marie remarked, before she was forced to dodge out of the way as one of the machines slammed its fist against the ground and attempted to charge at her, running across the field like a bull.

As Callie joined the fight, using her roller, Daniel was fighting the most violently, and was using lethal options against many of the Octarians that he battled, screaming as he even tackled an Octoling and started beating him senseless. Samantha contributed the least to the battle, and had taken cover back by the Ray, but even she was doing her part, leaning out and taking shots whenever she saw a safe opportunity.

Finally, the battle seemed to be turned more in their favor as Jessica successfully got on top of one of the Octoweapons, attacking its hidden weak point until it was forced to reveal and expose its massive tentacle. "Take the shot!" She shouted at Marie.

Marie swiftly aimed and took it out with one high-pressure shot, violently blasting through it. Jessica leapt off of it as it collapsed, before it then exploded in ink, which flew all over the place.

Lydia's duel with Bridgett briefly paused as she turned to notice. She sighed and pressed her earpiece. "Send in more."

One of the Octarian ships flew back around, dropping in more troops, while another one came to drop off another Octoweapon. The agents all looked up as this happened, dismayed, before they regardless continued the fight.

Seizing the opportunity, Bridgett attempted to attack Lydia from behind, but Lydia swiftly blocked the attack, knocking her back.

She turned to her. "For the infamous Agent 8 and my own clone, you're somehow not as impressive as I thought you would be. You're holding back."

Bridgett held one of the cut wounds she had sustained from the fight, panting. "Because I don't want to kill you… You helped me escape Gideon's labs all those years ago… why?"

"Means of escape." She slashed at her again, which Bridgett dodged. "I regret doing it now. Because it created you."

She shook her head as she backed up from her. "Please, stop this, our father is a liar… whatever utopia you think you're creating, this hasn't been the right way to do it…"

"Gideon is my father, not yours." She slashed at her, more angrily this time. "And I'm not doing this for him."

At this point, Bridgett groaned as she finally decided to fight more aggressively, rushing forward with a punch, with every intention to now take her anger out on her.

As the battle continued outside, Marina had rushed down into the abandoned Shifty Station, and was now arriving at her own lab, frantically moving to unlock it. She ran inside, starting to pull out everything she needed. She grabbed things like notes, data, tools, and other equipment, but most notably, she pulled out a massive, cylindrical-shaped hard drive, that contained all of the work she had done for the Subgrid. Scarily enough, and even to some of her regret, this included data from the minds of the Splatoon agents from the times when they had been plugged into the program. Their deepest wants, fears, and even some of their very memories were stored in this giant drive.

More importantly than that: This drive held the simulated key that they needed to rewrite history… to create the perfect world that Gideon envisioned. It told her how it would form and how they could form it. She paused, closing her eyes as she gave some last thoughts into this. This… was the right thing to do, right? All of this time, she had done what she did for the right thing. She did it to create a better world. A better world for the Octarians, and a world where science, the one thing she was passionate about most of all, could flourish. Did she have some regrets on how they got this far? Yes, she did… but that couldn't stop her. This was too important to her. Standing up, she got ready to collect her things and head back out, but she was interrupted once more.

Pearl was standing in the door way, holding her at gunpoint.

She paused. "…Pearlie…"

She scoffed. "'Pearlie' this, 'Pearlie' that. Did you even ever truly love me?"

"O-Of course I did. How could… how could you possibly think I didn't?"

"Oh, I dunno, it might have something to do with the fact that you just beat Marie's head in, left Bridgett to her evil twin, apparently brainwashed Callie, and have been going behind our backs this entire time."

She sighed. "…I know, this has been messy, but… This isn't necessarily a bad thing that's happe-"

"Shut up. Just shut the fuck up." She said, trembling. "You've been working for the Octarians this whole time, weren't you? They who kidnapped Zapfish, they who unleashed terrorists on the city, they who kidnapped us and tried to eject us into space, they who brainwashed Callie…" She started slowly breaking down into tears. "Seriously? That is not the Marina I fell in love with…"

She looked down. What she was saying was true… she couldn't deny that… even if it hurt like hell… "…Pearlie…" She slowly looked back at her. "…The Octarians are flawed… I'll admit…"

"Flawed!? Flawed!? They're the bad guys we've been fighting this whole time! Because they're evil! Do you wanna be evil like them, too!? Is that just who you are!?"

She desperately shook her head, starting to tear up herself. "No… no, I'm not evil. I promise you, this entire time I've been with you, none of it has been fake. I really love the Splatoon, Pearl. But, face it… they're too anti-Octarian… they wouldn't understand what we're trying to do. As we've seen."

"What the fuck are you even trying to do!? Break down the timeline and create a new one!? Sounds pretty fucked up to me!"

"Pearlie, please…" She sniffed. "…Look around at the world we live in after the great war… The Octarians are trapped underground. They've suffered under suppressive dictatorship and get nothing while we got everything… Then they found those crystals underground, but they weren't enough. They were just a key to making a new world. There's still so much suffering we can erase."

She shook her head. "Bullshit… absolute bullshit… what about all the good things we've been through? Off the Hook? Moving in with Eight? Did none of that mean anything to you!? W-What about me, do… I mean anything to you?"

"Pearl…" She took a couple small steps forward. "…You and Eight have been everything to me… I… If everything had gone well, I… I would've wanted you and the Splatoon to come with us. To the new world."

Pearl didn't respond, shakily staring at her.

Marina took another step forward, softly holding her hand out. "You can… you can still come with me…"

She glanced down at her hand. Part of her wanted to take it…

Marina gave her a reassuring smile. "…Please…"

Silence ensued. Painful silence. Finally, after a moment, Pearl sniffed, trembling as she cried. "…Naaah… I saw what you did to Callie… and it was fucked up. You are sooo fucking dead to me…"

She started crying harder. "Pearl, please don't say that…"

"We could've talked this over like goddamn adults instead of having you drag us across the galaxy just so that you can tear down the world and make a new one. Seriously… I guess you were never really as good as I thought you were, I guess it was all just bullshit."

She shook her head. "P-Pearlie, ple-"

She squeezed the weapon. "Stop calling me Pearlie! Just stop it!"

She clenched her fist, starting to steadily grow more frustrated. "…If you're not going to come with me… then get out of my way."

She held her ground. "Nope… nuh-uh. No fucking way. I'm gonna hand you over to the Cap'n himself."

"Pearl, I'm not gonna ask again, get out of my way."

"How about I just give you a count of three to surrender yourself? Huh?"

"Pearl…"

"One."

"Pearl…" She growled.

"Two."

"Pearl, don't do this."

"Thre-"

Equipping her hidden taser in her hand, Marina swiftly aimed and shot her. It was a soft tase in comparison to what she usually set it to, but it was still enough to knock her down and leave her groaning on the floor in pain. She immediately put it away again, softly crying. "…I'm sorry…"

She moved to walk past her, but Pearl reached up to weakly grab her leg. "No…"

She pulled her leg out of her grasp. "Pearl, stop already."

"No." She kept trying to reach for her.

"Pearl, I don't want to hurt you."

"You already hurt me…" She growled.

She sighed, walking past her and out of the room, leaving Pearl on her own. More tears fell down her cheeks as she did, but she regardlessly wiped them and forced herself to continue onward with as much as her composure as she could muster.

It remained unbeknownst to her as Pearl managed to stand back up, managing to slowly follow her.

As this went on, the battle was turning more dismal for the Splatoon agents outside. Jessica, Oliver, and their team held up as best as they could against the Octarian forces, but unfortunately for them, it was an uphill battle, as every time they defeated enough enemies, the ships were called back to drop off even more, including more Octoweapons.

At this point, Jessica was on her knee, having just helped to take down another one of their large machines. She panting in exhaustion as the fight continued around her.

To her surprise, it was actually Marie who rushed over to offer her a hand. She glanced at her before she took it, and Marie helped her to her feet.

"You holding up ok?" Marie asked her.

She took another moment to catch her breath. "I'll manage."

"The Octoweapons are figuring out our strategy. We need something new."

Jessica looked at one of them, unsure of how much longer they were gonna be able to last.

The other agents remained aware of this growing battle as they kept fighting, and this included Samantha, who was still hidden back by the Ray. She had largely been spending this whole fight in a more cowardly fashion, only coming up to take some shots when it seemed safe to… but she saw that the Splatoon was slowly losing this battle. She saw how Jessica was growing steadily exhausted, and she saw how Daniel was slowly losing his mind in the heat of battle with every Octarian that he killed, fighting off the apparent voices in his head. More personally to her, she could see that Oliver and Dylan were both struggling as well, slowly getting exhausted just like Jessica was. At that point, she saw as the tired out Dylan was tackled to the ground by some Octoling soldier with a knife, and was struggling to get him off and keep his knife away from his face, while the other agents remained too distracted to help him.

At this rate… they weren't going to win… and she had to do something. Shakily gripping her weapon, Samantha took in some heavy breaths before… she finally charged out. It was almost without thinking, and her entire body trembled as she did, but she did it. She walked over, pointed her weapon, and squeezed, promptly splatting the Octoling that had taken Dylan down.

Dylan panted to catch his own breath as he sat up, wondering who had saved him, before he saw her.

Samantha had truly joined the fight, and stood a small distance away as she aimed around and fired at some of the Octarians around her, making the best use of Oliver's training that she could, until she turned and made eye contact with her brother. They stared at each other for that brief moment, feeling a deep, proud, sibling bond that connected the both of them. She could tell, she had truly impressed her brother. A smile began to etch on her face.

A mere second later, multiple high-pressure shots rang through the air, and Samantha's smile immediately dropped. Her eyes widened in pain.

Dylan sat up further. "Sam?"

The Octoling who fired the shots was then splatted as Oliver came up from behind her with his own gun, able to see the same situation that Dylan did.

Breathing heavily, Samantha reached down to feel the gun wound in her abdomen, near her side. Whimpering in complete fear, she stepped backward before her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto her back.

"SAM!" Dylan rushed over.

Samantha was already crying by the time Dylan came over to cradle her, examining her wound.

"It's ok! It's ok!" He panicked, reaching over to apply pressure. "Just relax!"

Samantha screamed out like an injured child as this happened, completely overwhelmed as she grasped onto her brother for dear life. "D-… Dylan…" She sobbed.

"Relax!" He insisted. "I've got you!"

The other agents, including Callie and Marie, noticed the situation. Even Oliver stood where he was, frozen in shock. For the first time, he almost felt some tears building up as he saw what had happened to his new friend, and he felt tempted to run over and help her just like Dylan did. However, more Octarians were coming toward them, and he couldn't just abandon the battle, nor could anyone else. Taking a breath, he angrily pointed his weapon and marched toward his enemies, with that much more aggression.

Bridgett had also noticed Dylan and Samantha's predicament after she heard Dylan's shouts, distracting her from her brutal duel against Lydia. Lydia was already pretty evenly-matched for her, keeping the duel long and tedious, but now that Bridgett was distracted, she had gained superiority. As the duel continued, Bridgett was starting to get exhausted faster than she was, and with every punch she tried to land, Lydia dodged with ease, and landed her own attacks on her.

Bridgett panted, having more and more trouble keeping up as she weakly held up her battle pose. At this point, she only lasted one more weak punch before Lydia struck her in the face, hard enough that she actually flipped onto her back.

Bridgett choked a bit as some of the ink from her bleeding nose got into her mouth, and she attempted to get back up, before Lydia kicked her in the same spot. Extremely dazed, she tried turning onto her stomach to crawl away, but instead was met with some dirt in her mouth as Lydia shoved her boot into her back, pinning her down. She whimpered into the ground.

"Look at you." Lydia started. "The magnificent Agent 8. The one my father loved so much more than me… he treated you like you were some kind of chosen one. You know that? But you can't even face me in combat. You're just like the rest of them…"

She lifted her boot off of her, allowing Bridgett to raise herself slightly. She violently coughed up the ink and dirt in her mouth, before Lydia then grabbed the back of her suit.

Lydia leaned down toward her. "What was so special about you, anyway? You're absolutely pathetic!" She kicked her another time as she threw her backward. This time, Bridgett was left laying on her back, still coughing and absolutely bruised, as she weakly stared up at the Octarian station in the sky. Her eyes could no longer focus on anything- she was too dazed.

Lydia stepped into her view once again, standing over her with authority. "Look at me. Take in this moment."

Bridgett blinked as she tried to focus on her, her head spinning.

She knelt down toward her. "You are nothing… even your precious Marina… she doesn't care about you. All this time… all behind your back, Marina was working against you. Do you realize this? This is all a consequence of your failure to see her true nature."

Bridgett teared up as she stared at her. Even more than the physical beating she took, these words cut her deep… she knew she wasn't lying. One tear escaped her eye and down the side of her face.

Lydia drew her blade and used it to rub her cheek, near where the tear was falling. "…How does it feel to be unloved…?" She whispered.

Still choking up some ink, Bridgett forced her next works. "…W-What about… S-Sondra…?"

Lydia paused.

"...She was our mom… she loved us…" Bridgett continued.

Lydia said nothing, simply staring at her. She was shocked she would even bring up such a thing.

"...I saw her… in the Subgrid…" Bridgett choked, as more of her tears started falling. "…I saw when she died…"

Lydia clenched her fist. "You didn't really know her… she's not your mother…"

"B-But I felt the pain that you felt when she died… I felt all of it… I felt everything that you felt in your childhood… When Gideon… gave you up to the military… When we heard the Calamari Inkantation… When you knew you were going to die like our Mom… I felt all of it…"

She fell silent once again, almost frozen where she was.

Bridgett kept crying. "…She loved you…"

Lydia was now fighting back some tears of her own. She remembered the day when Sondra died clearly… even if she tried not to think back on it too often. Her fist remained ready to shove the blade into her, but she held herself back.

"...Please…" Bridgett finished.

A moment passed as Lydia found herself unable to simply finish the job. Her hand simply wouldn't move forward. Groaning in defeat, she stood up, withdrawing the blades entirely as she stared down at her. "…I will offer you and your friends this one chance only. I have more important things to do, regardless. Do not stand in our way again… or you will not receive anymore mercy." She turned to walk off, touching her earpiece. "All Octarians, fall back."

The agents all paused in confusion as the Octarians did the same. Even the Octoweapons stopped, falling into a neutral state, as they all began to disperse, leaving the exhausted agents behind. Bridgett watched as Lydia walked off, and multiple ships came up to pick up the remaining forces, before they all flew up toward the Octarian station. Left alone, Bridgett turned onto her side, where she allowed herself to cry softly, reaching her hand to feel the grass below her.

In spite of the Octarians' retreat, it did nothing to change the fact that the Splatoon had lost. The agents all stood around, realizing this fact, before Marie looked back over at Dylan and remembered what happened. "Four!" She rushed over.

Callie and Oliver followed as Marie went over to kneel down next to their fallen ally. Samantha was still crying as Dylan held her, but seemed to slowly be losing consciousness as she lost more ink.

Dylan was starting to lose more of his cool as well, having only been able to apply as much pressure as he could. "I-I don't know what to do, I don't know what to-"

"Get her into the Ray! I'll take care of her!" Marie briefly rubbed his back before she stood up and ran to the ship. Dylan picked Samantha up and carried her over.

Marie ran to the wall in the Ray's loading bay and pulled out the emergency medical kit, as Dylan set Samantha down on the floor. Callie and Oliver came up as well, standing by to watch.

"Oh my god…" Callie nervously covered her mouth.

"Give me some space!" Marie ordered, prompting Dylan to back up slightly as she knelt next to Samantha and prepared for work. "This is gonna hurt…"

Samantha started screaming bloody-murder as Marie worked to treat her wound directly. Dylan reached to squeeze her hand.

"It's ok! You're gonna be ok!" He kept insisting. Samantha, however, seemed to steadily be dying, and her eyes rolled inside her head as she lost consciousness from the pain. "No…" He desperately turned to Marie. "TELL ME SHE'S GONNA BE OK!"

"I'm doing everything I can!" Marie shouted back at him. "I'm not gonna let us lose anyone else!" She moved to check her pulse. She was still alive, but they were slowly losing her. From there, she moved to do some more drastic measures to keep her stable.

Callie whimpered as she started crying, watching her work. Oliver stared in silence, with an almost distant look in his eyes.

One after the other, the Octarian ships all returned to the Octarian station, which had maintained its place in the sky above Inkopolis. Finally, after everyone returned and the station was once again closed, it began making its way back up, preparing to once again leave Earth's atmosphere. Inkopolis, still in its panicked state, was left with its civilians wondering what was even going on.

As the station ascended, all of the Octarians were exiting their smaller ships in the landing deck. One of them was Marina, who sighed as she slowly stepped out, still carrying her things.

Lydia joined up with her. "You get everything?"

"Yeah." She handed the massive hard drive to her. "Um… is… everyone ok? You didn't… hurt anyone… did you?"

"…They're alive, if that's what you want to know." She turned to carry the hard drive into the main sections of the station.

Marina paused as she heard that, awkwardly standing there as she wondered what exactly Lydia had done in that battle. After a moment, she was about to continue on her way, but was interrupted as she heard Pearl's voice behind her.

"MARINA!" Pearl shouted. She turned to watch as Pearl limped over, still holding her dualies. She had apparently managed to sneak aboard and hitch a ride on one of the ships. "I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!"

Marina's eyes widened as more Octarians turned to the voice. The station was already on the move, meaning that they could no longer leave Pearl behind with the others. She was just… here with them now. "…Oh, no… Pearl…"

Pearl was panting angrily as she limped over. She aimed her weapon. "I WON'T LET YOU GET AWA-" She was knocked to the ground as someone else fired a clean, high-pressure shot at her. Struck in the shoulder, she was left bleeding on the ground, crying from both the physical and emotional pain of her situation.

Marina covered her mouth as multiple Octolings came over to restrain her.

"Did you smuggle her on board?" An Octoling turned to ask Marina as they got Pearl up.

"No!" Marina replied. "Of course I didn't!"

They glanced at each other, as Pearl started mumbling. "I'm gonna kill… all of you…"

"...Get her out of here." Another Octoling said as they hauled Pearl off.

Marina turned to watch, her eyes filled with tears. Again, as everyone else walked off, she was left standing there, silently weeping to herself.

This wasn't how she wanted this to go at all.

As the station once again ascended into outer space, every Octoling on board was getting ready for the final part of their plan. The station had charged another jump, and they weren't just preparing on jumping through space, this time; They were going to jump through time itself. They were going to forge their own future. However, they were all met with one problem: As deduced before, the more powerful crystals were damaging the central power room, and as they tried to activate the next jump, it simply… didn't work.

Compelled to investigate, Lydia was walking down the halls down to the damaged room, where multiple scientists were already examining the situation. Gideon was among them, still up and about despite his own injury.

"Gideon." She told him as she walked up to him. "What are you doing up?"

He just smiled at her, ignoring her question. "…Hello, again, sweetheart… heh… I already heard the reports about how the mission went… so I guess I don't need to ask… do I?"

Lydia didn't respond.

He nodded and looked back at the crystal-powered mechanism that powered the whole station. "Of course I don't… You wanna know something? You handled this mission so much better than I ever did… You… You perfected it to a T." He looked back at her, smiling. "…I couldn't be prouder."

Again, she remained silent.

"...Agent 8… did you kill her?"

She hesitated. "…No…"

"...I see…" He nodded a bit, relieved. "But in the end… I figured you wouldn't." He sighed. "…It's just a shame I couldn't bring her with us…"

"...Gideon, we have one last obstacle blocking our mission, and I would like to focus on that, please."

"I am focused on it. Here's our problem." He nodded to some of the mechanisms in the nearby wall. He was slowly pulling on gloves that looked like they had similar technology to Hunter 12's gauntlets, although they were more flexible and skin-tight, leaving the wires inside visibly bulged. "When such a large station commits to such a powerful jump, this whole room lights up like a big celebration. Heats everything inside up stupendously, too. Such heat damaged that mechanism right there… which is supposed to hold itself in place, allowing energy to transfer through to the rest of the station to complete the jump."

She looked at it. "…So… we repair it."

He shook his head. "That's the thing… we need a new part to do so. We don't have one right now. Someone's gonna need to go in and hold it in place manually, at least long enough for the jump to complete. And that person, will of course…" He paused before he made a slight exploding motion with his hands.

"That…" She shook her head as well, looking down at the gloves on his hands. "No, that's not necessary. We'll build a new one."

"We don't have time for that. The Splatoon is still out there. They'll come for us if we stay. They'll never stop." He stepped forward, toward the mechanism. "…I'm sorry, Lydia… I was such a failure of a father…"

"...What are you… saying?"

He turned to her. "I'm saying that my whole life… I've just wanted everyone to be happy… I wanted all of us, to be happy…"

"...We will be… won't we?"

"You will. Me… I'm not so sure…" He looked down somewhat. "Ever since that day that Sondra died, I… I wasn't sure I'd ever be happy again…" He reached to touch her tentacle. "Something I realized recently was that… Project Legion… Agent 8, the others… they have just been… an attempt to fill that void. But the facts are… I had already failed as a father. As a scientist. Hugh Ward was right about me from the beginning…"

She grew steadily nervous as she listened to his words. "Gideon, what are you saying?"

"...It's ok, Lydia…" He kept feeling her tentacles. "I already knew this would happen for quite a while... ever since I saw my future… one could call it… my fate… my fate that was always etched in the universe…"

She shoved his hand off of her. "Gideon, no. You're being absurd. We're about to change history… aren't we? Isn't that what we're supposed to do? We're supposed to remove all of our suffering. Isn't that what you always intended to do?"

He shook his head. "…I guess we can't win every battle… can we?"

"...No…" She shook her head. "No, I won't let you."

Getting quite teary eyed, he stared back at her. "…Oh, Lydia… I could never forget that day where you were first born… When Sondra…" His voice broke. "…Held you in her arms… and I got to touch your face…" He shakily touched her face one last time. "I have achieved many accomplishments… but none as great as that…"

She was starting to cry as well, as he started pulling him out of the room. "Gideon, enough of this absurd talk, we're going to find someone else to do this."

"No one else has volunteered… this has already been set in stone from the beginning… I love you, Lydia… I love all of you… more than anything…"

"Gideon, stop thi-" Suddenly, she was pushed out of the room by a small, green burst of energy from his glove. She slid out into the hall, where she frantically sat up again.

She was too late. Gideon had already pressed the button to slam the door shut, locking it. He moved to activate the jump, and then hold the mechanism in place. His gloves lit up to help power it.

"No!" Lydia shouted. She shakily reached for her earpiece as she felt the jumping mechanisms start to power on. "No! Someone shut down the jump! Now! We're not ready! We're not-" Again, she was too late. An intense light started to pour out from the door cracks. "NO!" She got up and slammed herself against the door, trying and failing to open it. "DAD! DAD!"

In his final moments, consumed by light, Gideon closed his eyes. His final thoughts went back to that day when Lydia was born… held by himself and his dear Sondra… as slowly, heat built up around him and he was steadily reduced to ash.

"DAD!" Lydia pounded the door as the station around her started to make the jump. "DAAAAAAAD!"

A moment passed, and the jump was completed, as everything fell calm once again. Everything around her had fallen into an eerie silence, as she stood there in fright, with her eyes wide. Was… this really happening to her?

A moment later, she finally managed to open the door again. The room inside was completely scorched, and Gideon was gone, now left as nothing but a pile of ashes on the floor.

Lydia fell to her knees, sitting there for several moments in shock as she stared at her father's remains. As the room slowly cooled down again, she inched forward, with nothing but her armor to protect her from the scorched metal beneath her knees as she reached to touch some of the ashes. She ran her hands through the pile, trying to pick some up. As she rose her hands again, they slipped and fell through her fingers.

She started crying, reaching to feel more of it. "…D-…Dad…" She whimpered.

The Ray

Everything was left in an eerie silence following the Splatoon's defeat. Even Inkopolis felt unusually quiet, aside from the fact that it was filled by many different KRAKEN, police, and fire department sirens.

Among the deathly silence, Cap'n Cuttlefish and Sheldon had finally re-emerged from the underground HQ, looking around at the destruction that had been caused to the field. "…Oh my god…" Cuttlefish muttered.

It took a little while for the remaining Splatoon members to wind down to be able to lick their wounds. Marie was busy stabilizing Samantha to her best ability, who was unconscious, but thankfully alive.

Dylan was still squeezing her hand. "…Is she… is she gonna be ok?"

Marie didn't respond. She simply wasn't sure… and she had nothing to say, about anything. She simply looked Dylan in the eyes, with her own filled with remorse and sadness.

Dylan looked back, slowly slumping down in defeat.

Everyone sat in silence inside the Ray. Daniel was staring ahead at nothing, covered in Octarian ink, while Oliver sat nearby with his head down, feeling like his life and his small, sad existence on this planet had amounted to absolutely nothing. Everyone was so shocked and appalled by everything that had just happened, Callie and Marie didn't even care that Daniel Murdock was on board and part of their team, or about who Oliver even was- they simply didn't have room in their minds to question it right now.

After a bit, Bridgett, who was still heavily bruised and beaten, went to slowly sit next to Dylan against the wall. Dylan, who was staring in Samantha's general direction, glanced at her, but said nothing.

She shakily stared at him. She wanted desperately to talk to him, but all she could possibly muster at the moment was a simple: "…I'm sorry…"

Dylan again glanced at her, but still said nothing. Silently, Bridgett leaned her head on his shoulder, allowing herself to softly weep next to him. In response, Dylan slowly and carefully put an arm around her. Seeing this, Jessica sighed and slumped down by herself against another wall.

Meanwhile, Cuttlefish and Sheldon were still outside, examining the situation.

"...Did Marina… really do all of this…?" Sheldon asked, still unable to believe it.

Cuttlefish didn't respond. He couldn't believe it, either. Slowly, he turned toward the Ray, making distant eye contact with Marie. Marie stared back, having now been taking this time to take care some of his own wounds, as they silently apologized to each other about what had happened to Callie. After a moment, he looked down and sighed.

"...KRAKEN might be coming after us soon." He finally announced to Sheldon. "Any moment now. So we need to move."

Sheldon nodded. "I, uh… guess we should grab some things, then." He stepped away.

He looked back at the Ray, wondering where Callie even was at this moment.

Callie, in fact, was watching him from a more hidden position onboard the Ray. He couldn't see her, but she could see him, thinking back to that horrible vision the crystal had shown her… with the Captain's ink-covered cane falling to the ground, next to his limp hand.

As the old dizzy feeling came over her once again, Callie silently stepped away, and she wandered into the cockpit, where she looked around. With no one around to stop her, she took a breath before she went over to her own controls, where she sat down. She started pressing some buttons.

A moment later, as Cuttlefish and Sheldon lingered outside to talk about their next move, the Ray's alarm suddenly activated. Everyone looked over as the ramp started to close.

"...What…?" Marie stood up, confused.

"Marie?" Cuttlefish looked over. "What are you doing!?" He shouted at her.

"I-I'm not-" She tried to shout back, before the ramp closed entirely, closing all of the Splatoon agents inside.

Marie went over to press the button and open the ramp back up, but it was now sealed shut. The agents all looked around at each other, extremely confused, before Marie suddenly rushed down toward the cockpit. Some of the others followed.

"Callie!?" Marie shouted as she climbed into the cockpit, while the Ray started to lift into the air. Sure enough, as she arrived, she saw Callie had activated the jump system. Her eyes widened. "…Callie… what did you do? Where are you taking us?"

Callie simply stared back at her. The blank, in-Inkling stare in her eyes had returned. "…We have to follow them." She said flatly.

Marie blinked as they simply stared each other down, now unable to do anything.

Outside, Cuttlefish and Sheldon were rushing up as they saw the Ray lift up into the air, before the powerful distortion effect began to form around it. "Marie! Callie!" The elderly squid shouted desperately.

Sheldon reached up to grab his helmet in fear as at that moment, the Ray disappeared in a flash of light. A final wind blew through the field as Cuttlefish and Sheldon were simply left standing there, surprised, afraid, and alone.

As the Ray exited the jump, Callie let go of the controls, sighing.

Marie looked around. "…Oh my god… where are we?"

Callie simply slumped down, sitting against the wall. At that moment, the rest of the agents began to climb up into the cockpit to also check what had happened.

"What the hell was that?" Jessica asked.

Marie walked over to the window, where the blue, albeit cloudy sky outside was still visible. She shrugged slightly, extremely confused. "…We're… still on Earth…"

The other agents all slowly went to the window as well, and they all stared out in amazement. Among the clouds that were surrounding them, they could see familiar mountains, telling them that they were still in the general region of Inkopolis, at least. They were just much higher in the sky, now.

"...We're… still in Inkopolis… aren't we?" Dylan asked.

Oliver looked downward. He shook his head. "…No… we're not."

The rest of them followed his gaze. They were still in the area of Inkopolis, but Inkopolis itself… was no longer there. It had been replaced. Their eyes started to widen.

It was just like what Callie had seen in the vision the crystal gave her. It was a grand Octarian city, filled with so many larger, taller buildings, and lots of lights and technologies they didn't recognize. Unable to believe her eyes, Marie slowly turned around to look back at Callie. Callie looked back, but again said nothing.

"...We're not in our own world at all…" Oliver concluded.

Hearing that, everyone simply stared out the window at the new world that surrounded them. The Inklings no longer reigned supreme. The Octarians did, now.

A new world, a new history, had been forged.

To Be Continued

Alright! That does it for Part 1! So, if I have another moment of your time, as I do with other stories, I'd like to use this AN to talk about what I'm doing next. From almost the beginning of this story's planning, I had outlined this story to be divided into two halves, and in some ways, these two halves are like their own stories. In that sense, I very much just completed one. So, before I start on Part 2, I'm taking a break from my friends in the NSS for a little while. Hopefully not for too long, but it may be at least a month or so before I come back to resolve this cliffhanger. However, despite what you may be thinking, that doesn't mean I'm taking a break from general writing.

So, let's talk side projects because I have a few of them in mind. One: the obvious one, I'm still working on Into the Splatlands, which I have a list of ideas for like I did with NSS:OD. Two: NSS:OD readers might remember I announced way back when that I was working on a prequel two-shot based on the Great Turf War and the original Squidbeak Splatoon. I plan on finally getting back around to that, because I actually had the idea of using it as a palate cleanser inbetween these two arcs and it's actually going to help lead into Part 2. Three: Really old readers of mine might remember all the way back from NSS: Uprising, I announced I had a Zelda story I was planning. I never got to it because of a few reasons, but now that TotK is out, I finally see a good opportunity to just tackle it, and I may just go for it before I start Part 2. I'm not going to start and finish a whole other story before I get back to this, because I still consider this my priority, but yeah, it does mean that from now on you may see me juggling two different major stories, because otherwise I'll just never get to it. Keep an eye out.

Anyway, now that I'm finished here, what did you think? I'd love to see reviews for all of Part 1, there are plenty of things that have been silently bugging me about this story throughout the chapters. How was it paced? Was it too long? Was it too boring? Were there too many characters? Did it ever annoy you? Was the plot too ridiculous or confusing? Did it stick the landing? Things like that. I'm aware this is a big story, so there's lot of variables, but yeah, any feedback you may have would help a lot. And well, with that, I do believe that's all I wanted to say here, so, yeah, see you when I see you. Thank you so much for reading and for reviewing, and I'll be back soon enough to start Part 2 with chapter 25. *waves*