For anyone who is reading as this is being published: It did come to my attention that the site has just been acting wonky lately, and it has been struggling to load certain things, including my new chapters that I've been publishing. I don't know if it's still happening or if it's affecting anyone else, but if it persists, do keep in mind that I publish all of my fanfiction works simultaneously on Archive of Our Own, so if you're having trouble loading any of my new content, you can always swap sites and still find my new chapters easily.
Another heads up: Some of the stuff in the opening scenes of this chapter involve terrorism visuals that may be reminiscent of what is currently going on in Israel. While it's just a coincidence, do be wary of that if you feel sensitive to the topic.
Chapter 28: Survival of the Weakest
100 Years Ago
The Great Turf War
The time-travelling Octarians, led by Lydia, had already begun the bombing upon Inkadia, ensuring that the Octarians would swiftly win the entire war and build Inkadia City into the future Octo City.
Marina, during these events, had retreated from Lydia's presence onboard the station as she opted to spend this time on her own and put on headphones to block out any noise. She already saw the simulations of how to create this new future world… she didn't need or want to see the actual carnage in real-time.
Pearl, on the other hand, was still onboard the station as well, and could hear the distant explosions as the Octarians held her in their custody. At Marina's request, Lydia's Octarian forces had bandaged up her gun wound, but were still watching her closely with their guns ready so that she could not escape.
Lydia herself soon came by, and made eye-contact with her as she walked down the hallway where they stood.
"Hey!" Pearl hissed at her as she passed. "Shitty Bridgett wannabe!"
She paused as she faced her, then looked at her two guards. "Why isn't she in one of the cells?"
One of the guards shrugged. "It was a request that Ida gave us."
"Really?" She smirked slightly as she stepped toward her. "Still protecting her puppets?"
"Fuck YOU!" Pearl spit directly into her face. "I may have been used, but it won't stop me from BURNING THIS ENTIRE PLACE FROM THE INSIDE OUT! YOU HEAR ME!?" She shouted as she struggled against the guards.
Instantly irritated, Lydia wiped the saliva away before she punched her multiple times. Pearl groaned in pain and spit out some of her ink as Lydia casually continued on her way. "Put her in a cell, now. If she does one more move like that, put some high-pressure ink through her brain."
The guard sighed. "C'mon, Inkling." They both grabbed her and started dragging her down to the prison.
Pearl, however, had another plan. Silently bracing herself with some deep breaths, she suddenly pulled one of the guards close and bit her neck. As the guard screamed in pain, she grabbed onto her and kicked the opposite guard, before jumping out of their grasp and making a run for it.
"She's escaping!" She second guard announced, catching Lydia's attention.
Multiple guards chased her and fired at her as she rushed down the halls, using her previous knowledge of this station's layout to escape to the landing desk.
Lydia joined the soldiers that chased her as Pearl ran up, found the button to open up the exit port, and activated the alarm as the exit began to open up. She turned to watch as the soldiers closed in on her.
"ON YOUR KNEES!" They shouted at her as they opened fire on her.
She was unable to dodge multiple high-pressure shots before she super-jumped directly out of the exit port as soon as it opened enough, soaring away into the night air.
The Octolings all came up to the exit and paused. "Hold your fire." Lydia told them as she saw Pearl was already gone. The air that Pearl had escaped to was already filled with smoke from the bombings they had just committed.
"You just wanna let her escape?" An Octoling replied.
"Into the Inkling's decimated past?" She side-eyed her. "She won't survive out there. As far as we're concerned, she just committed suicide. Besides, she's not worth our energy."
"But how will Ida react to this?" Another guard asked.
She considered that for only a second. "…She won't. Don't let her know."
They all nodded as they closed the station back up and continued on their mission.
Lydia's estimations on Pearl's survival chances may have been off… but Pearl was still pretty much taken down, as she now trudged along the grass from where she had landed, bleeding as she desperately held pressure on the multiple shots she had just sustained. There was one in her hip, and another in her leg, significantly slowing down her progress as she slowly but steadily bled out.
Mustering every ounce of strength she had to press on, she made her way toward what she remembered to be Inkopolis. The sun was finally starting to rise by the time she slowly started to close in on Inkadia City, and her eyes widened a bit as she saw that the city was already on fire from the Octarian's actions the previous night, with its smoke filling the air. Nearly fainting just from the shock of such a sight, Pearl suddenly face-planted on the ground as she collapsed, groaning.
She couldn't die here. She wasn't going to let herself die here. She started slowly crawling over toward the city, whimpering as she tried calling out for anyone that could hear her. "H-… Help…" Her voice was weak, and her strength was diminishing further and further. "Heeelp… please…" She started crying, before finally, she collapsed entirely, lying there limply.
In what should've been her last moments of life, as she desperately held on to what was left of her very consciousness, it turned out that, after all, at least one person had heard her, and a small group of people were now closing in on her.
Present Day
Inside the golden Octarian ship, Pearl didn't exactly tell the Splatoon a lot of details about how she escaped the Octarians or how she ended up here, but she told them what they needed to know about how she had survived. Once she went around to undo the bonds for Jessica, Daniel, Marie, and then finally Bridgett, Bridgett suddenly shot up and pulled her into a tight hug, crying softly. Pearl hesitated a second before she softly hugged her back.
"I-I'm sorry…" Bridgett whimpered. "We thought you… W-We should've…"
"It's ok, Eight." She held the hug for a moment before she broke off. "You've all done what you could do. So have I."
Marie stood up as well, but was still especially confused. "And… what have you been doing?"
"Finding my way back to you all wasn't easy." She turned to face them all. "But I did it with this." She held up her arm, showing them the white mechanical suit she now wore.
Bridgett was slowly starting to recognize that familiar shape it had. "Is that-?"
"A shrinking suit. Yeah."
They all stared at her in complete bewilderment. She still had the face of the Pearl she knew, but… practically everything else about her was now different. From her posture, to her attitude, to even the look in her eyes…
Bridgett squinted a bit. "You are the Pearl we know, right?"
"Yes, Eight."
"Prove it." Jessica nodded somewhat aggressively at her.
She paused as she pondered a way to do that, before she turned to Bridgett. "Bridgett. Who was it that first named you that?"
Bridgett just stared at her.
"It was Dylan, wasn't it?"
"Y-… Yes." She nodded.
"And who was it that ultimately spread the word that you two were first starting to date?"
She paused. "I-It was you… and the Squid Sisters."
"Yes." She nodded. "And what did I tell you on that day when Marina discovered it?"
Bridgett again didn't respond.
"I told you that I had a dream you would be with Jessica instead. I made a joke, and called your relationship 'Agent 24'."
As the others looked at Bridgett to confirm what she was thinking, Bridgett just blinked and nodded slightly. "She's… she's right."
Pearl turned toward the rest of them. "I can go on about our shared experiences. The time loop on Clownfish Day. The white van and the suitcase we all thought had the weapon in it. Our ladies' night out." She said as she looked at Marie.
Marie blinked as she listened to her, remembering a couple of those same things herself.
"I missed you all." Pearl continued. "With everything that I am. And I never gave up hope I'd find you again."
"H-Hold on." Bridgett took another step forward. "What do you mean? H-How long have you been waiting to see us?"
Pearl looked down as she, again, hesitated. "…It's been some time." She turned away entirely as she walked back to the control panel. "I'm getting us to a safe place, so you four relax."
The four agents were all still extremely confused (perhaps except for Daniel, who was again choosing to classify half of the things he was hearing as hallucinations), so Marie and Bridgett stepped aside to have a word.
"What the hell?" Bridgett whispered. "You were the last one to see her, weren't you? You were with her for three months, did she change like this while you were out there?"
"No, she was the same old Pearl the last time I had seen her." Marie whispered back.
"Then are we supposed to believe that she… got stranded in the Great Turf War era and then made the round trip through 100 years to get back to us?"
"No, of course not, she hasn't even aged a day." She shot another glance at Pearl, who had taken a seat.
She did as well. "Then… why won't she tell us?"
Having no response, Marie sighed and just put her hands on her hips as she took some deep breaths. She wanted to sit here and theorize about Pearl, but… at the moment, her mind was being torn between multiple deep concerns, including where Callie, Dylan, and the others had gone, and as a result, she felt like she was nearly drowning in the distress. The same concerns applied to Bridgett, who was thinking especially about Oliver and Dylan as she gave one last look at Pearl. With her head down, she took her own seat.
As this was happening, another newer team of Tartar-Bots had been called in to sweep the woods where Dylan, Oliver, and Callie were carrying Samantha to safety. Other Tartar-Bots who had stayed behind to investigate the Ray were now looking through all of the Splatoon's things, scanning what they could.
From there, it didn't take them long to locate the slot with the powered Axcian crystal inside. Intrigued, multiple Tartar-Bots stood by as one of them opened its face to scan it.
After a moment, it turned to them. "Identified. Alert Marina Ida."
The sun had started to once again fall as the Tartar-Bots' search for the missing agents led them in all sorts of directions. It was only suspected by them at this point that the agents had already slipped away from the woods and closer to Octo City, under Oliver's leadership, and had slipped into the city's underground sewer system.
As they journeyed fairly deep into these sewers to get away from the search party, Oliver turned on his light as he looked around.
These sewers were actually surprisingly clean, and had that same dark but sleek design as the city above, with the walls forming a pentagon shape down each hallway. The platforms they walked on held them up from the river of the city's sewer water below them, as they dodged some occasional orb-shaped maintenance robots that were also navigating these sewers while making their way along. Eventually, they found a somewhat random hidden spot in a dead-end hallway to relax.
"I'd say this is probably deep enough." Oliver said as he turned back toward the others.
Eager for a break, Dylan set Samantha down on the floor, and then lifted her shirt just enough to check her bandage. He groaned as he held his own injured leg. "Please tell me one of you has medical experience."
"M-Marie was the one who bothered to learn that stuff when we became agents, not… so much me." Callie admitted.
"I know how to perform basic resuscitation on a soldier." Oliver told them. "But I don't know how to treat this."
"Damn it." Dylan muttered as he leaned back, as panic slowly started to set in once again. "So what the hell do we do?"
"I still got the things." Callie held up Marie's first aid kid and the case with the Octoling prosthetics. "We just need to figure out how to use them. Right?"
"It's as Marie said before, we need better medical supplies."
"Then-" She set the prosthetics down. "That's where these come in."
They looked around at each other, thinking. They no longer had the rest of the team, let alone Marie, to bounce ideas off of, so this time, they came to a much swifter conclusion.
"Yeah." Oliver nodded. "Yeah, I suppose. But that doesn't mean going up there will be easy, especially if they're looking for us."
"Not like we have any other choice at this point." Dylan said.
He sighed. "Unfortunately, he's correct." He took another look around. "We were lucky enough that these sewers are safe, but they will only do so much for us."
Callie leaned her hand on her knee. "I just can't believe we… left them, though."
"We didn't have a choice there, either." He turned to her.
She looked down. "We're still gonna have to try and find them. Aren't we? W-We're the last ones left, they're all depending on us."
"Let's take this one problem at a time." Oliver pointed his light at Samantha, thinking. "Which one of us is going up into the city?"
Dylan and Callie awkwardly looked at each other, before starting to talk at the same time to suggest that they all go.
Oliver, however, cut them off. "At least one of us will have to stay here and guard Samantha. We can't just take a wounded, unconscious Inkling into the city, we'll be spotted fast."
Dylan sighed. "Then… I'll stay."
"You sure?"
"I'm not going to leave her side."
He looked at Callie, who just shrugged a bit. "Alright, then…" He continued. "Do you think you can figure out how to apply that?" He motioned to the prosthetics.
"I think I can." Callie said as she opened them back up. "I just… woah, these look really complicated."
"Well, take your time, then."
Callie paused as she started sorting through all of the tools at her disposal, examining each one. This kit of course had the more general tools that she was used to like face-paint, brushes, and hair tools, but there were also things like some fake suckers for her hair with customizable colors, fake Octoling ears, and specialized glue to help apply them. One thing it didn't come with, to her fear, was a mirror. Without a decent one for their usage, it was going to be hard to put this all on herself without help. She sucked in a breath. "Ooh, boy, why did I need to get stuck with two men for this?"
"Is there a problem?" Oliver asked.
"N-No problem, just… I may need… help, you know, with putting this all on. Have… either of you ever happened to… you know… dabble in make-up before?" She asked awkwardly, forcing a wide smile to help ease that feeling.
Oliver was just confused, but as he looked at Dylan, Dylan only added to that awkward air by huffing a bit and scratching his head in embarrassment. "…Yeah, I'll help…" He sighed.
"T-Thanks, Four. Always my savior." Callie reached into the kit and pulled the first tool out. "Let's get on with this, then."
Although the Tartar-Bots' search on the Splatoon agents had come out fruitless, the discovery of the Ray had made its way to the knowledge of Octavio, Lydia, and Marina.
Marina was staring straight ahead as the elevator she, Lydia, and a couple Eightfolds were standing in descended. She watched the lights pass through the door's slit with each floor they passed, until the door opened, letting them out into a large underground parking garage, with wide, distant yellow-and-black walls and a bronze ceiling that was fairly high up as well.
"C'mon." The Eightfolds shoved them out.
Marina sighed as she and Lydia regardlessly walked forward, until they arrived where the Tartar-Bots were stationed, as two golden Octarian crafts carried the powerless Ray in and dropped it off in an empty spot inbetween some other Octarian ships. Because of how shut down the Ray was, the ramp was still open just as the Splatoon had left it; It was like the ship had died and entered a rigor mortis state.
As Marina walked up and stopped before it, she wordlessly stared into its loading bay. It was to her silent annoyance that, in the time since she had left her former teammates with her own ship, they had already managed to trash it… although, she supposed she may have had it coming.
Lydia, meanwhile, was not hiding her irritation at all. She faced a Tartar-Bot. "You're telling me you got the ship but you couldn't get anyone inside?"
It turned back to her, opening its face to speak. "We managed to contain four targets, but the Tartar-Bot units assigned with taking them in have gone silent. They have yet to be taken into custody. The rest appear to have escaped."
"How long ago was this?"
"Shortly after our offensive."
Lydia nodded slightly as she slowly walked into the Ray. She hesitated for only a moment before she suddenly broke down into a tantrum, kicking some crates inside the loading bay and throwing some other objects toward everyone.
"Eight, don't!" Marina objected, not even realizing that she was mixing up her name.
Multiple Tartar-Bots turned to Lydia and then aimed their spears at her. "Stand down!"
"No, everyone stand down!" Another voice called to them.
Everyone turned to watch as Eva and another batch of Eightfolds came up, as Eva frantically rushed over to motion off the Bots. They all robotically resumed their guard stance.
"What is going on here?" Eva continued as she marched toward Lydia.
"My father sacrificed himself to create this world and give all of us purpose." Lydia faced her and poked her chest. "If a resolution can't be reached because your incompetent forces can't handle a couple fake Lydia Teccas and their band of misfits, then I personally will-"
"You'll personally do nothing." Eva told her. "We appreciate what you've done for our people, but if these new Splatoon agents are really going to be that much of a threat, then perhaps the responsibility will fall on you for not containing them in the first place." She turned to Marina as well. "Both of you."
Marina just looked down.
Lydia stared at her, thinking. After all, she had caught this woman giving her odd looks the entire time since she arrived in this place, and it was starting to get on her nerves. "What do you truly know of me or my responsibilities, drone?"
Eva just stared at her, a bit insulted. "More than you realize."
She fell silent and glanced at Marina.
"Now." Eva continued. "That's not why we've called you here."
"Then why did you?"
"Because my Tartar-Bots found some interesting artifacts onboard that ship!" They heard Octavio's voice call out to them.
Again, they all turned to watch as Octavio, surrounded by three more Eightfolds, steered his throne toward them.
"What?" Marina asked. "What'd you find?"
Octavio smirked as he motioned to one of the Tartar-Bots.
On command, the designated Tartar-Bot turned toward Lydia and Marina as a slot in its chest opened up. A tubed-shaped container slid out, before that too opened up, as the Bot reached inside to pull out the Ray's damaged Axcian crystal. It held it forward so that everyone could see it clearly, showing off the cracks it had sustained from the multiple powerful jumps the Ray had pulled off.
"Found this powering the ship." Octavio steered his throne around them to get behind the Tartar-Bot. "The ship that, unless I'm mistaken, you designed." He pointed at Marina.
Marina nodded a bit. "Yes."
"The other-dimensional readings that this rock alone exhibits are theoretically enough to puncture the universe itself." The Tartar-Bot said.
Octavio nodded. "So is this how you did it, then? You made our world with this?"
Marina nodded yet again. "Yes. With a crystal similar to that, anyway."
Everyone fell silent, and Marina fidgeted a bit where she stood as Octavio simply… stared at them.
In fact, everyone was staring, as they waited impatiently for the King's next words.
After a moment, finally, Octavio nodded a bit. "I want to show you something." He turned his throne around toward the elevator and started floating over.
Marina and Lydia silently followed him as the Eightfolds led them along.
The floor they were taken to next, back up in Octavio Tower, was a wide, active laboratory, with white walls and decorations that contrasted the red appearance of other higher-up floors. Marina looked around, already impressed by what was actually just the lobby. This was one of a few lab floors actually, but was the highest and most important one, with plenty of labcoat scientists working in a calm, quiet environment. Finally… they appeared to be in what, in Marina's belief, at least, was the heart of Octarian society.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Octavio continued as he led them along. "Our top minds all work here. This is just our central lab that we keep here, in-house, too."
Marina glanced at him, curious. "Top minds?"
"Yes, though, our head of these operations has been pre-occupied as of late. But she'll be back soon enough. For now, though, let me give you a quick tour."
Marina gladly followed him, already feeling like a kid in a candy story before they even made it into the main parts of the lab. They were passing active projects involving robotics and other new technologies she wasn't even sure she recognized, with far more resources than anything she could've dreamed of having back in the Inkling world. Her curiosity remained heightened as Octavio eventually unlocked the entrance to the more restricted sections of these labs and led them inside.
"This is where the literal magic happens." Octavio held his tentacles out.
Marina looked around at all of the experiments that were happening here. There were tons of Axcian crystals here, along with energy cells that held Axcia's green energy inside, to be used for a variety of reasons. There mainly appeared to be orb-shaped robots that were working in these rooms to handle the crystals, but they were all working as hard as could be, ignoring their presence as they came in.
"Well?" Octavio wanted her thoughts.
Marina kept examining everything for a moment before she turned to him. "It's not magic, my King. I can assure you. It's science. All science."
"So you're really just as tech-savvy as I believe you to be?"
"I was born a prodigy, sir. From a young age, my timeline's Octavio saw my abilities. Even if I… occasionally made mistakes as I got older."
"I may not be as down in the dumps as your Octavio, but I can hardly see him making any mistakes." He ushered toward the Tartar-Bot who carried the Ray's crystal inside. "We found these crystals deep underground some time ago. Having crashed into the Earth who knows how long ago, creating a big pit down there. Lots of dead crystals, but with a fair amount of those living, green ones. This crystal we found in that ship, however, has a much stronger energy reading than any of the crystals we have here. Care to explain?"
She hesitated a bit. "Because we travelled to the source planet, sir. Gideon Tecca called it Axcia. We harnessed the proper energy and made new crystals so that we could create this world. It was the only way we could safely puncture spacetime, because the underground crystals only did so much for us on that end."
"Hm…" Octavio nodded a bit. "I suspected that you two weren't telling me everything when you first arrived…" He said as he steered his throne past her.
"...I'm sorry… It felt complicated to explain, we only thought we'd explain what was necessary for you to know."
"Don't be sorry." He said as he overlooked some of the crystal experiments here. "My scientists have studied these crystals since their discovery, and they've accomplished a lot of new technologies using this power. Yet… it wasn't until you two showed up, from a seemingly lesser reality, and until you come knocking on our door with all of the answers, that I've realized…" He turned back toward her. "This is truly a new era. Everything is going to change."
She did believe that she knew what he was talking about, but she decided to seek confirmation nonetheless. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I want you to move all of your research here. You're going to be based here, now. So that this research can be recreated and perfected."
A joyous feeling slowly built up inside her as she slowly came to believe what she was hearing. "M-My research? All of it?"
"All of it. Whatever projects you have, any crystals you have, they come here. We're going to change the world, and you will be one of the new faces of it. How does that sound?"
Marina felt like she could clap her hands together, do a twirl, maybe even start a full-on dance. She even momentarily forgot about Pearl, Bridgett, and the others, because this… this lab that surrounded her… was what she truly wanted. She knew it deep down. For the sake of maintaining her professional image, she only smiled widely. "T-Thank you, my King. I'll move everything here right away."
"Good. Let me know when you're fully moved in." He moved the throne past her as he headed out. He only gave a small look at Lydia, without giving her any further acknowledgment as he passed her.
Marina walked over toward a table, reaching her hands up to feel one of these energy cells. She then started walking around different parts of the lab, examining these new technologies and delicately feeling what she was allowed to with her hands. She was practically drooling over all of it.
She remembered what Octavio said about the head of these labs being out at the moment, but she was excited to meet her. She was excited to shake her hand and learn even more about what projects she was working on. She assumed that from there, she would dedicate the rest of her life to helping her. They would progress science and technology together, forevermore. She was going to be able to do so much more here…
Standing in the center of the current room she was in and looking around, she let off one last smile.
She was home.
For Lydia, however, she wasn't feeling quite the same as Marina was as she headed back out of the lab and sighed, her mind once going back to her last moments with her father…
She knew that memory was probably going to haunt her for the rest of her life, how she was right there yet was unable to stop Gideon from making his final decisions when he did. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist. Her father… had died for this… he had claimed to die for her… so… why wasn't she happy? Why did she, with the more that she looked around, feel almost… disappointed?
Then she remembered. When she had first received a vision of this future from that crystal, she had seen a world of Octarians at her own fingertips… an unopposed world. But the Splatoon was still out there, her mission was still not over. She had not yet reached that vision that she saw.
Yet… she knew the vision she saw couldn't have been a lie. She had made it this far; Perhaps she just needed to crawl a bit further to get there.
If only her father were still here to explain what exactly she should do next…
As she idly stood out in the hallway, sorting through these thoughts, she was interrupted as Eva walked up to her. "Can I get you anything, Ms. Tecca?" Eva asked her. This time, for once, she wasn't accompanied by any other Eightfolds.
She opened her eyes and side-eyed her before she just walked off.
Eva followed her, still holding her weapon in her bodyguard manner. "Does something here bother you? If so, you shouldn't hesitate to make a report."
"I have no report to make. Besides, if you need anything explained, you should just ask Ida. Now, goodbye." She kept walking.
To her dismay, Eva was still following her. "Marina Ida appears to be quite excited to be here. Why aren't you?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Is it because of what happened with Gideon Tecca?" She seemed genuinely curious and concerned.
"Why are you following me?" She asked, getting irritated.
"Because King Octavio assigned me to watch over you."
Upon hearing that, she stopped and turned to face her. "Why?"
"To make sure you can still be trusted."
"You think I'm gonna blow a hole in something? I'm here as your ally, so leave me alone. Or find another less annoying guard to do that job."
As she again turned to leave, Eva cleared her throat to stop her. "Actually, I made a personal request to King Octavio to be the one to watch over you."
Again, she turned to her. "…Why?"
Eva looked down partially, not responding.
Squinting, she stepped toward her in a threatening manner. "If you have some quarrel with me-"
"It's not a quarrel, I assure you."
"Then what is it? I've seen you staring at me, and you keep trying to make conversation. What do you want? Who are you?"
Eva hesitated one more moment as she leaned her weapon to the side. "I don't know how weird it will sound."
"I've been through weirder."
"Perhaps you have, but I need your word that you're not going to overreact if I tell you. I… may prefer to keep it on the down low. Even if the King already knows."
"What? What do you know?"
Hesitating, Eva looked down as she held her wrist up and waved her hand over her watch. Lydia watched as Eva navigated through some holographic menus, before pulling up her own full identification file.
Lydia paused as she saw her photo, and then her name as Eva held her wrist to show it to her. It read: Eva Tecca. She stared at it, then stared at her.
Eva closed the menu and lowered her wrist as she nervously stared at her, wondering what she would think. "If you… have any questions…"
But Lydia didn't have a response. She didn't know how to react. They stared at each other in silence as thoughts because to race through her head.
Bridgett and Marie walked over to join up with Pearl once again as they stared out the window of the golden Octarian ship together. Bridgett leaned on the control panel as they all watched the ship approach the recognizable shape of Octo Valley. Except, in this world's version of it, its more central layout was actually quite different, and it was even missing the distant Octopus-shaped rock carving.
Wondering what they were staring at, Jessica and Daniel soon joined up behind them, staring outward curiously.
"You're taking us back to the place where this whole mess started?" Daniel asked.
"It's not the Octo Valley you're used to." Pearl replied. "Here, we call it Inker Valley."
"We should be going back to find Callie and the others." Marie replied.
"This is our best retreat. Trust me."
They all simply watched in silence as Pearl sat down to manually fly the ship. She guided the ship down into the Valley, and then aimed its trajectory toward the massive rock wall. More specifically, they were hurling toward a massive waterfall, which had nothing but rock behind it.
"Uh… Pearl." Bridgett grabbed her shoulder. "Pearl, might wanna slow down-"
Daniel flinched as the ship dove through the waterfall, splashing through unharmed into a hidden cave behind it. They stared, wide-eyed as Pearl continued to guide the ship through a series of tunnels that took them deep into the Valley's underground, until finally, they emerged into a large garage room in what was clearly an underground dome, just like the ones they knew from their own reality's Octo Valley.
Pearl guided the ship along softly as she set it down and shut down its systems. She stood up and pulled the small USB from the control panel as she turned and walked in the other direction. "Follow me."
Bridgett and Marie looked at each other, catching on to what this place was, as Pearl went to the back of the ship and pressed a button. It opened up similarly to how the Ray would, except instead of lowering a ramp that was already in place, a ramp was automatically formed and slid into place from hidden ports in the underside of the ship, before settling on the ground, allowing them to walk out.
As Pearl led them out, Bridgett paused as she noticed that there was an entire group of Inklings, already inside the garage, that were approaching their ship at that moment. It was group of completely curious people, including children that were accompanied by their parents. In fact, several of the adults appeared to be soldiers, wearing dark green ink-proof camouflage uniforms.
The one up front, wearing that very same uniform, lifted his head slightly. He had somewhat short yet untidy gray hair that awkwardly accompanied his pale skin. Yet, his face formed a smile as he stepped toward them. "Got another one of their ships, huh?" His voice was recognizable as the masculine voice they heard on the radio before.
"All yours." Pearl threw him the USB as she and the rest of the Splatoon stepped onto solid ground.
"W-… Who…?" Bridgett could barely speak.
"This is Jaxon." Pearl turned to them. "One of our best soldiers and hackers."
Jaxon awkwardly stepped toward them, his eyes gleaming. "I'm a big fan, actually." He nervously shook Bridgett's hand.
Bridgett barely returned it, staring at him as she grew more and more confused by the second.
Some of the younger children in the room were confused as well. "You brought an Octoling?" One asked.
"I…" Bridgett droned anxiously.
"She's a friend." Pearl told them all. "Everyone, this is Agent 8. Along with Agent 2, and Agent 3. As well as Agent 3's brother." She pointed at them one-by-one, calling them out respectively.
"Agent 3!?" Another child shouted. "The one who you said decapitated Hugh Ward!?"
Now Jessica felt as awkward as Bridgett, nervously opening her mouth to protest to that.
Before she could, that child's parent shushed him and pulled him away. "Where did you even hear that?"
"Stories spread, mom." He replied in a frustrated tone.
Marie stepped forward. It didn't take an historian to tell what these people were doing here… and she was on the verge of tearing up as she saw what had become of the Inkling race. She did suppose it was better than extinction, but… it cut deep all the same.
One child approached her. "Where's your cousin? Agent 1?"
"What about Agent 4?" Another said.
"What about the nerdy Horseshoe Crab?" Yet another asked.
Marie didn't respond, just as shocked as Jessica and Bridgett before her. Unable to stop herself from visibly tearing up, she stepped away again.
But the children and even some adults did not step away, and even got closer as they kept asking them new questions. Amid the noise, Marie looked back at Pearl.
Pearl stared back. "They've been waiting for your arrival. Everyone here has."
"I…" She shook her head slightly. "H-How many…?"
"A few thousand Inklings live in these domes."
A tear finally fell down her cheek as she looked back at the children. It was an even smaller population than what their own reality's Octo Valley had…
"You're going to save us, right?" Another child looked up at her, directly in the eye.
Having no response, she stared back until she abruptly turned away.
Noticing, Pearl nodded. "Alright. Everyone, give them space. Let's not make them feel unwelcome."
It took her a moment to successfully break up the group, while Jaxon took the USB and went up into the Octarian ship. Finally, the team was left to themselves once again.
Everyone turned to Marie as she covered her mouth, allowing herself to cry fully. First she got separated from Callie and Dylan once again, and then this… it was far too much…
Pearl rubbed her shoulder. "They're happy to see you."
"Pearl, we seriously need an explanation about the hell you got here." Bridgett turned to her. "How long have you been here? What have you been doing here?"
Pearl let go of Marie and turned to her. "As I said, we lead a rebellion. Against Octavio's empire. This dome you stand in is where our operations happen. As it has been been for nearly 100 years."
"What rebellion is that, exactly?" Jessica asked.
She looked up and pointed at the dome-shaped ceiling.
They all looked up as they noticed the classic Squidbeak Splatoon logo that was painted onto the ceiling. Marie, with tears on her cheeks, slowly followed their gaze. It wasn't the same emblem they were used to, and this one could be traced all the way back to the Great Turf War, but it spoke volumes to them. They looked back at Pearl.
"Everyone in this dome is a member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon." Pearl finished with a proud stare.