When they finally got to the next boss floor, Apocalypse told Tartar to stay in the elevator, and that he would go with Chronicle and Pearl instead. Tartar assumed that meant the Tartar Unit was on this floor. Apocalypse was apparently heavy, as the cage had lopsided when he attempted to ride it with Chronicle. He stuck to flying next to it instead.

That's when something peculiar and horrifying happened.

The boss was an Inkling.

It wore a white, sleeveless crop top with an inky black coat over it, the pants long and black. The Inkling's hair was half-shaven, the back put into a low ponytail. Red died the tips, just like Chronicle's current hair and finger fade. Other Inklings without hair and wearing the same gear popped out of the ink after the first. Their faces were all metallic with large red eyes that seemed to pierce souls. The haired Inkling seemed to be the leader, and they also had a black drone that looked strangely like Pearl, with a single red eye in the center of its screened face.

Apocalypse landed with a thud and his eyes widened. "No, it can't be-"

"[What's wrong? It can't be who?]"

"That Inkling...It's not, it can't be! Ron?!"

The Inkling muttered metallic sounds, and the other Inklings rode a cage down to battle. The leader stayed at the top, watching.

Chronicle first splatted the one with the brella, as they were trying to protect their team members. Apocalypse took out the ones with the roller and slosher with one strike of his pointed tail. There were only nine of them, and they were surprisingly easy to remove. As the final one approached, Marina let out a small gasp.

"That's the guy Cap'n Cuttlefish introduced us to, Pearlie!"

"Wait, seriously?! That's an agent of the New New Squidbeak Splatoon?"

Apocalypse walked over to the Inkling's landing point and waited.

"Hey, big guy," Acht said with a hint of worry in their voice. "I wouldn't stand so close. The leader might be a tough nut to crack compared to the others."

The Inkling landed and held their Splattershot at Apocalypse's gut. But instead of an endless fire, they held still. Apocalypse smiled.

"I knew you were still in there, buddy. What did Chaos do to you?"

The Inkling muttered more metallic sounds and ushered Apocalypse to move aside. He didn't budge; so the Inkling tapped him their weapon.

Apocalypse gently stroked the Inkling's head, resulting in a lot of confusion from everyone else there. "Ron, it's me. Don't you remember? I know you're still there. What happened to my friend? Don't you remember 'besties for life?' You should, because I didn't want to say 'besties' like a ten year old girl."

The Inkling finally made eye contact with him, and held the gun higher.

Apocalypse sighed. "Alright, fine. I promise I'll try to 'chicken nugget' myself when you snap out of this, if you even can."

The Inkling let out a quiet snort of laughter, which led into a metallic laughing fit. "You actually said it! Chicken nugget!"

Apocalypse beamed, which Pearl thought to be kind of adorable; seeing him so happy for once. "Ron? Is that actually you?"

The Inkling's eyes faded from red to green, and he smiled. "Apocalypse! You're here too? Speaking of which, where is here? What's with the Octo-Inkling?"

"I'll explain on the elevator, come on." He stopped. "Wait, I can feel it again. The signal is somewhere on this floor. Give me a second." He took flight and glided towards the giant Jelleton being constructed in the background.

Chronicle grabbed the key.

"Hi, I'm Ron! Who are you? Why does your little drone look like Pearl? What is this place? What's the key for? How do you know Apocalypse? Where does that elevator go?"

Chronicle seemed a little overwhelmed with Ron's plethora of questions.

Pearl floated in a small circle. "One at a time, one at a time! First question, she's Chronicle. I look like Pearl because I am Pearl. This is the Spire of Chaos, and we were all dragged in here. The key's for a locker outside the tower. We just beat him up a few minutes ago. To the top, where Chaos is waiting to get his butt kicked!"

Apocalypse retuned, holding something. They went back to the elevator and went over the current events for Ron.

Tartar looked at Apocalypse. "[What is that you've got there, tucked under your arm?]"

Apocalypse revealed it. The strange character was a floating body with a floating head that seemed to be a flat HDTV screen, and floating hands that were just orbs. The entire body was clearly metal, as Tartar could tell from the shiny grey. A single antenna sat atop its head, bent out of shape in a zig-zag pattern, a single blue orb on top of it. The orb looked faded.

"[Is that the...]"

"Tartar unit, yes. It says here on the back of its head 'T.A.R.T.A.R Prototype Unit#4.' We went from seven to four. Where the shell are the rest of them then?"

Acht looked at the static-filled screen. "Huh."

Out of curiosity, they bent the antenna more pointed towards the roof of the lift. The screen went black. They let go, and static filled it once more.

Tartar looked up. "[Based off the fact that the static went away when it was pointed towards Chaos' level, they're attached to Chaos.]" He tapped his hand onto the bottom of his rectangle head. "[And since I'm missing some data, I'm assuming that Chaos is stealing our programming. This poor AI's lost a lot of it. I might be able to repair them, but I wouldn't have high hopes.]"

"Stealing your programming?" Marina asked. "But that would mean Chaos is unstable, wouldn't it? To steal another AI's code..."

"[And that would mean Chaos is the young AI I heard during the battle with the floor ten boss. If only I could hear Chaos speak...]"

"Well, we're almost there, so you'll be able to hear it soon."

"[That's what worries me. If he's stealing our programming, then going up there is like walking right into a ditch. You know it's there, but you just keep going until you're dead. I don't want Chaos getting hold of my code. If he's already done all of this to Dramatic Days in Orderland, then imagine what he could do with my expanse of knowledge.]"

"Well, we'll never know, and I hope we don't find out," Ron said cheerily.

Tartar faced back to the deactivated Tartar unit. "[Like I said before, I'll try to repair this guy, but you really shouldn't expect much. Apocalypse can come with you to the boss floors, Chronicle, while I work on this. I don't want to leave it on its lonesome because something could happen.]"

Ron smiled. "I can come with you! That way Apocalypse doesn't get in your way, and you can get past this tower and take down that order guy! What do you say?"

Chronicle nodded.

"Great! Let's go!"