"It stopped? That's a bad thing, right?" Ron asked.

Marina nodded. "I think so. He's heard it since he came here, so it stopping has to mean something bad."

"We have no time for this," Acht said. "The elevator's made it to the last floor."

The doors slid open and everyone piled out this time. It was a big arena-like field like the other boss floors, but a shadowy, glitchy figure sat in the middle of it.

"My plan is imminent," the figure said. "Soon this world will know true peace."

"Peace?" Pearl questioned. "But Chaos didn't want peace!"

Tartar stepped in front of them all. "[Oh no. I know what this thing is planning. We need to stop it, now!]"

Out of the blue, Apocalypse's eyes turned red and he charged Chronicle. Pearl grabbed him and shoved him down. He growled on the floor, the Jelleton parts pulsing gently.

Ron followed suit, instead going after Marina and Acht since they were weaponless. Chronicle fired at him, and Tartar forced him to the ground. Marina made sure they stayed down while Acht tied them down.

"What was that?!" Pearl exclaimed.

Marina examined them. "They're Jelletons here, so being close to that guy must have snapped them into their Jelleton minds; and the Jelletons have one job here, and that's to attack any and everyone who enters this tower."

"Then that guy must be the real one behind this! We'll give him the boot! Let's go, guys!"

Valentine froze. "Th-that thing was the [unidentified object in bagging area] that [ERROR] me here. That was the thing that [SLANG NOT FOUND] my [lovely flowers on sale for Valentine's Day]...!" It shuffled back towards the elevator. "I don't want to-to face that th-thing!"

Marina gave it a gentle smile. "Then you don't have to. I'm sure Chronicle can fight him. Why don't you stay here and keep an eye on Apocalypse and Ron for us? Would that be better?"

It nodded. "Y-yeah..."

Marina, Pearl, Acht, Chronicle, and Tartar headed down to the battle arena. Tartar rushed towards the figure and stamped a foot to get its attention.

"[You! Yes, I'm talking to you! You're the one who brought us all here, correct?]"

It turned its glitchy self to face Tartar, its white eyes only empty circles. "And you are...?"

"We're Off the Hook!" Pearl said, returning to her normal Inkling self. "And we're going to stomp you good! We'll show you that you don't mess with the likes of us!"

It chuckled, which turned to a full laugh. "Fools, all of you. Peace will reign in this world. Farewell, all."

It dropped into a puddle of black ink in the floor, and a giant black, glitchy, tentacle erupted from it and slapped Tartar away. Tartar crashed into Marina.

It pulled itself out of the ink, now a towering black octopus with Jelleton parts swirling in its head and limbs. "Your end is neigh. My world will be one without war, without decision. Chaos was only a facade I made to hold you back, but it was weak. But it worked long enough for me to gather enough data from your electronic friends to bring my perfect world to pass."

Marina looked back at Valentine and Apocalypse, then to Tartar. "Is that why you pulled them in? To steal their data?"

"Of course, you fool. They had all the knowledge in tier programming I needed to bring this to the real world. Why drag their minds here when Orderland can come to them? It will be much more efficient that way."

Tartar's arm began to glitch again. "[Grr...That's fine! I don't need my arms to fight you!]"

A red barrier appeared around the figure. "Order is my name, and order is what I bring." Jelleton portals that looked like fat tentacles appeared, there only being two. "Try if you might, but order is imminent."

Pearl turned back into a drone. "Come on, Chronicle! We've got this!"

Chronicle quickly took down Order's sad attempts at protecting itself, only needing to use her Splashdown on the last group of tentacle portals. Order retreated into the puddle of ink one last time, but didn't come back up.

"Did we get 'em?" Pearl asked.

She floated towards the puddle when it rippled, and a tentacle smacked her into Chronicle, sending them both flying backwards.

"I said you were fools. Did you not heed my warnings? I already explained how your world is done for, and you still choose to fight? Then so be it."

It begun to spin, coming from the floor, the glitch around it becoming so aggressive to the point of it being nothing but the glitch.

"[Marina, what's going on?]"

Marina took a few steps back. "No! It's going to make everybody mindless! It's going to Grayscale everyone in Splatopia and Inkopolis!"

Tartar screamed and tried to block out the sound of the high-pitched screaming again. "[It's back, this is definitely our villain.]"

It happened all at once. Chronicle fainted, Pearl landing on the ground next to her. Pearl's color had completely drained from her drone body. Tartar fell limp as well, and Valentine screamed.

Acht rushed in front of Marina. "Pearl..."

All sound became silent, and everything was grey and dull. Order landed back into the puddle.

"You see? This is what happens when you wish for an unchanging world. Farewell, mother."

Marina fainted as well.

Footsteps echoed in the silence.

"Order, why would you do this? Can't you hear it? The sounds of our hearts?"

Marina pushed off the ground enough to find Valentine standing between Chronicle and Order, unaffected by the greyscaling.

"We all have a rhythm, and change is the only way we can control it!"

Marina got off the floor and saw Chronicle had a small colored light coming from her. Pearl began bobbing her head to the quiet beat.

She rose, now an Inkling once more. "Yeah, Valentine's right! I can hear Chronicle's beat; and it's the freshest beat ever!"

"How were you not affected?" Order demanded.

Valentine smiled. "Because, most of that data was mine. I'm the only one who can greyscale beings! You can't affect me with my own data, Order!"

Pearl did a small jump and pointed at Marina. Her color had returned, along with Chronicle's. "Yo, 'Rina! Think you can mix that beat?"

"You make that sound like it's impossible!" Marina smiled at Acht, whose color was also returning. "Want to do the honors?"

Tartar was the last to get up, only coming to when Marina and Acht made the beat coming from Chronicle louder. "[Order...You're the fool here.]"

"Yeah!" Pearl cried. "You think you can have a boring world where nothing changes, but that's not going to work! We should know, somebody who tried to do the same thing is in the room with us right now! You need to learn your lesson, Order! Nothing in this world is going to be perfect, and that's okay! Change is what makes this world fun and unpredictable! If it weren't for change, Off the Hook wouldn't exist! You wouldn't exist! None of us would exist!"

Marina and Acht added Ebb and Flow to the beat and Pearl began bobbing her head again.

"And I have one thing left to do. You want change? Then I'll show you what change can do!"

She took a deep breath and screamed out a "Booyah" the loudest she could. Tartar's headphones snapped and sparked, and Valentine's screen cracked. Order braced for it, but its barrier was stripped away and the walls around them crumbled.

Chronicle pointed her gun towards Order when Pearl finished. "Order, this is where you'll fall!"

"She can talk?!" Pearl exclaimed.

Order began to dance twitchingly. "What is happening? This is beyond my protocol."

"Ha! An unchanging world is so boring, even you got tired of it!"

"Wait!" Valentine rushed to Pearl and Chronicle. "Your pallet was destroyed! All your color chips are gone!"

"Oh, that's terrible." She fired a few shots, and it was back to its slow speed from before the fire rate increase chips were entered.

Acht pointed towards the new portals that spawned. "They're in there."

Pearl popped back into a drone. "Right then! We get those first! Hey, can you get the drone chip one first? I wanna help too!"

"You end here!" Order finally raised its voice into a yell, sounding a bit higher pitched than it was before. "I will win!"

Its eight ball eyes glew red, and Tartar jumped between it and Chronicle.

"[Oh no you don't!]"

His charger appeared in his missing hand, then fused with his arm into some sort of gun. Transparent blue goggles appeared over his eyes, an aiming device reflected in one of its lenses.

Order fired off a black Sting Ray from its eyes and mouth, in which Tartar responded with firing off the weaponized arm.

"[Pearl! Chronicle! Take down the portals quickly! I can't hold him off for long!]"

Acht caught Marina staring at him. "Hm? Something you're thinking about?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You're staring pretty hard at Commander there."

"I was wondering how he figured out how to do that."

"Mm. Sure."

The portal burst and a bunch of color chips flew out.

"Hey, fresh!" Pearl cheered. "Those portals have every single color chip in them! Let's get them all!"

Tartar was starting to be pushed back from Order's fire. "[Hurry it up, guys! I may be metal, but I'm not the strongest person in the world!]"

"We're going, we're going!"

Apocalypse finally came-to, rubbing his head. "Uhng...What happened? I kind of blacked out there..."

Ron sat up as well. "Wait, why am I tied up?"

Apocalypse broke through his binding with his wings, then freed Ron. "That thing..."

Order screamed in rage. "Stop this nonsense! You were like me once! Why change?! Why should anyone change?! The world can only be its best when it never changes!"

Tartar was pushed back farther and the strength in his weapon died down some. "[Order, change is inevitable. It's unpredictable, and that's what makes it great. Because, if it weren't for change then...]" He fought against Order a bit more, but Marina could tell he was getting tired.

Chronicle noticed too and ignored the Jelletons coming to her and focused solely on the portals. "Hang on, Commander! I'm coming!"

"Tartar8!" Apocalypse grabbed Ron and took flight. "Hold on!"

"[I-if it weren't for change...then I-I wouldn't have realized I fell in love with Marina!]"

"You what?!" Pearl yelled.

Chronicle broke the last portal just as Tartar's arm began to smoke and spark. "Now, Pearl!"

Pearl and Chronicle summoned a version of the Killer Wail that was every color of the rainbow. It fired straight through Order's head. Order fell back into the ink and Jelleton bones fell everywhere.

Tartar staggered, then fell on his face. His arm returned to normal and the goggles vanished. "[Mmrr...]"

Apocalypse put Ron down, then went to Tartar. "Eight, are you okay? That looked like a lot of stress."

"Color Wail!" Pearl cheered as she ran to Marina. "We did it, 'Rina!"

"Yeah!" Ron cheered, joining Pearl's excited hopping.

Apocalypse straightened out suddenly. "What is that thing?"

That caught everyone else's attention, and they all looked to what Apocalypse pointed at. There, floating in the air, was a premature octopus with light blue eyes. It was white and a bit transparent at the head, a bit of black at the tips of its tentacles.

It sniffled. "Waaaaa! No fair, no fair, no fair! I twied so hard to get the world I was made to bwing and now it's all over!"

Tartar stood and walked a bit closer to it. "[There's that young voice I heard. You're just a child. Order, right?]"

"I'm Smowwusk. And what do you cawe?! You just beat me up! That's not how you pway!"

Tartar blinked. "[Aww! You're so cute! Wait, you only dragged us here because you wanted to play?]"

"Well, no! Yes! It's hawd to say! Stop stawing at me like that!"

Tartar's expression softened. "[Smollusk, was it? Will you let me tell you why I accepted change?]"

Smollusk glared at Tartar for a minute, then said "Fine."

"[Because I was shown what change can bring. It can bring happiness, and peace. Sure, it can be unpredictable and scary, but that's the charm of it, right?]"

"No! There is no chawm in chaos! You're incompatible with owder!"

"[If that's true, then sobeit. But I really think I should show you something. If you'd let me.]"

"You're not going to get me to change my mind, but I wanna see you twy!"

Tartar plugged one of his cords into Valentine's head, and Alterna showed on the screen. "[You see this place? The humans made it. They missed their world so much that they tried to recreate it by 3D printing.]"

"That won't work!"

"[And it didn't. They didn't survive. They didn't want to change. But that isn't what I'm trying to explain.]"

The screen changed to Octavio and Craig Cuttlefish sitting on a ledge and chatting away. Craig was in his cuttlefish form, revealing that this happened after Aniya stopped Grizz.

"Those two used to be fwiends." Smollusk examined the screen. "But then they tuwned against each other! See why change is bad?!"

"[But they don't seem to be fighting to me. They're talking. They became friends again.]"

The screen changed to show Tartar's own defeat. Pearl smiled a bit when she used her Killer Wail on NILS.

"[Hang on, just keep watching.]"

Tartar's deactivated telephone body fell into the water and everything turned to static. It clicked back on when Aniya woke him up. Tartar paused the video.

"[You see her? Doesn't she seem nice?]"

"Yeah, she does."

The screen cut to when she got mad at him when his memory chip had been returned. "[Does it seem that way now?]"

"No! She must be punished!"

"[No! Wait!]"

It replayed Aniya's apologizing, and her showing Tartar Alterna.

"[She changed. She grew. She forgave me.]"

"But that statue...What was it? You were in it."

Tartar seemed a little ashamed. "[I changed a lot too. I tried to perfect the world too. That's why Acht is...green. I did that to them. But thanks to Pearl, Marina, Eight, and Aniya, I was able to change! I'm no longer bent on perfection. I was made to guide the next species to avoid the mistakes the humans made, but I ignored it. I took it too far. I tried to take their free will. I tried to destroy them. I...]"

Apocalypse looked away.

Tartar sounded about ready to cry. "[I tried to do the exact same thing the humans would have done. I became just as awful-maybe even worse-than them. But the Inklings and Octolings didn't need me, and I still stepped out of line. I did awful things, worse than you!]"

"Worse than greyscaling?" Smollusk asked in disbelief.

Tartar nodded and unplugged from Valentine. "[Yeah, worse than greyscaling. But I'm not doing that stuff now. That what change can do. It can change for the worst, or the better. And if you don't realize that then...]"

"W-wait! You weally mean that change can be...good? But what about the Sanitized?"

Tartar looked at Acht. "[Even them. Marina and I can work together to get this place running properly, then we can change them back.]"

"Change..."

An elevator appeared behind Smollusk.

"Change?"

Valentine fled behind Apocalypse.

"Change."

Chronicle braced to attack again, Ron doing so as well.

"Change!"

Marina blinked a few times, her gaze going to Tartar.

"I can change too, wight?"

Tartar nodded. "[Yes! You get it!]" He held out his hands. "[You're doing it right now! You've done it before! After all, you changed this world into your own!]"

Smollusk beamed. "I wike the word 'change!' It sounds...good! I wanna see some change for mysewf!"

"[Then come with us! Valentine and I can bring you to the real world! What do you say, Smollusk?]"

"Yay! Then I can pway with whoever I want!"

Smollusk plopped himself into Tartar's hands, then looked at Apocalypse and Ron.

"Change..." He pointed a small tentacle at Apocalypse. "You...changed!"

Apocalypse nodded. "Yup. I have too. I used to be the tough guy, now look at me; taking care of an Inkling kid." He ruffled Ron's hair. "But, can we get out of here? This place is creeping me out."

Pearl faced the elevator. "Well? Are you ready to go to the real world, Smollusk?"

"Changey, changey!" He did a small side-to-side dance.

Marina stopped Tartar before he could enter. "You said you what? With me?"

"[O-oh that was just a spur-of-the-moment thing...I thought I was going to die so I said that but I didn't think you heard it and-]"

She blushed a bit. "I think you're pretty cool too. You've definitely gotten more likeable after you changed..."

"[Do you maybe, just maybe...]" He tugged at his collar. "[Like me too...?]" He covered his face. "[Who am I kidding, I tried to kill you! I'm going crazy! why would you or anyone else like someone like me?!]" He started fanning himself off with his hand. "[And now I'm starting to overheat! I'm going to melt...]"

"Mmmmaybeeee I do? Not like, romantically or anything, but maybe? This is really weird to talk about."

"[Yeah. Bleah.]"

"Bleah."

"[Bleah!]"

"Bleah!"

Pearl waved at them from the elevator. "Hurry up and come on! Otherwise, we're going to leave without you!"

"See you later!" Marina hurried to the elevator.

"[Yeah...See you later.]"