Nrowall paced in his office. The clock read midnight and he hadn't heard from anyone in hours, not from Joowan about the assault on the Manta Clan's estate, not Omnicorp, who was leading the attack on the Onaga Clan's estate; and he hadn't heard anything from the landships sent to pursue the Scrappers. One of his ships had called in saying that Chitinin Ironworks had decided to quit the battle and encouraged the rest of them to do the same. He had heard nothing since.

He knew something bad had happened, and since neither he nor Ahndee Stillsands, his counterpart in Omnicorp, could get a hold of Chitinin for an explanation, they both decided to activate their agents within the city to try and take out any member of the clans they could and to send back what information they found. The only thing he'd heard from them since was that they were already being hunted.

Nrowall glowered through the window at the Chitinin Ironworks building. It's last lights had gone out over an hour ago while those in his building were still lit, his staff putting in extra hours, waiting anxiously for people to return. He had seen the landships pull into dock but nobody had shown up to inform him of what had happened.

"Hey! Wait, you can't go in there!"

The cries of his secretary jarred him from his furious thoughts and he turned just as the door burst open and half a dozen armed cephalopods charged into his room. They aimed a mix of ink shooters and spiked hammers in his direction.

"Geord Nrowall?" One of the octolings asked in Inklish.

Nrowall grimaced. The Ascendancy had shown up at last, but it didn't answer what had happened to his people, or the other companies. They shouldn't have been able to bring enough people in to make a difference, and the clan's people were still out in the desert.

"I am, but I'd like you to know you are trespassing on ground recognized as sovereign territory of the Urchin Kingdom."

"Wrong, this is the territory of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Marie and the Soren Ascendancy, and you are under arrest on charges of conspiring against the local government."

"Ridiculous," he spat. "You have no right to arrest me."

She took another step closer to him, hefting the hammer in her hands. "You either come peacefully or in pieces, Mr. Nrowall."

They surrounded him now, weapons still pointing at him. They were young but the look they had in their eyes… they would kill him without a second thought. Somehow he was sure of that.

Nrowall thought about all he had accomplished, how close they had come to winning everything, and the price of failure. He wouldn't just drop, he would plummet, all the way to the bottom, a nobody, a humiliation to the kingdom. Everyone would pretend he never existed. He would be forgotten, his mark on the world erased under mountains of political denial. He couldn't accept that, and so he made his choice.

It was two in the morning by the time the remaining scrappers returned to Crater's Edge. Despite the late hour, many people still came out to meet them, wives and girlfriends mostly, but there were a few worried mothers who came out too.

The landships that had brought the wounded and dead to Riverside were already there. Neo imagined that a lot of people were still weeping over lost loved ones. There was no guarantee that all the wounded would make it either.

Neo climbed out of Rebel, exhausted. She just wanted to lie down and wished she could curl up somewhere like Lil' Buddy, who was already fast asleep in her backpack.

Frye landed next to them, stretched and yawned. "What a day, and what a way to cap it off. Never thought I'd ever see something like a space ship."

"The Precursors made a lot of space ships before they all died," Maiya said. "It's a good thing we got there first."

Shiver appeared next, looking out over the scores of people meeting each other in front of them, weeping with relief at their loved ones having returned safely.

"I'm not sure everyone else will be convinced of that," she said quietly. "A spaceship is nice and all, but how will you explain to everyone how that was worth dying for?"

Maiya gave her a firm look. "Even if it were about the vault and not your freedom, that's worthwhile too. Before I came to the Splatlands, I attended a lecture about how many Precursor inventions were driven by war. Even space ships didn't start off as space ships, they were originally designed to deliver weapons. Imagine if the Scrap Corporations had managed to change the flight path of that ship that took off and had it fall down on this town instead, or even on Inkopolis. It could have destroyed them."

Neo gulped, the horror of that scenario made her whole body shudder.

Tiyes bit his lip. "I didn't know… I heard the Precursors had crated terrible weapons but…"

Maiya's mantle turned red. "The Precursors didn't want to leave us weapons behind, they wanted us to have things that would make life better, but even those things can be turned into weapons with a little creativity." She gestured to Frye's hunting spear. "You use that to hunt prey, but today people used it to kill other people."

Tiyes and Neo both grimaced. Frye held the spear in both hands, staring at the bloodied tip.

"It doesn't matter what they would have found," Maiya went on. "They could have told you they had a powerful Precursor weapon that was immune to any form of attack we could mount against it, and you would have had to believe them, because how could you know otherwise?"

Shiver scowled. "I'm not sure I would have believed it, but I guess we would have been forced to take it seriously, not knowing what was in that vault."

"I'm just glad it's over," Big Man sighed. "Now things will start getting better."

Maiya flashed green. "How is everyone getting back to the city?"

"Train," Shiver answered. "The clans agreed to pay to have the trains running all night to bring people back and forth. They even sent one or two to Iron End in case some relatives wanted to return to the city to take care of the wounded or mourn the lost."

Neo sighed. "That's going to take a while."

Shiver frowned. "Why are you coming? This is your home."

Neo stiffened and glanced away. "Well, yeah but I have to bring Tahlm home. You know, it's my responsibility. Besides, with everything changing, I want to know what's going on in Splatsville."

Shiver arched an eyebrow, Frye flashed burgundy and Maiya – Wait, did Maiya actually smirk?

"I should head home," Tiyes said, interrupting Neo's thoughts. "With Dad hurt, Mom will need help."

Neo grinned and lightly punched him on the arm. "That's right, she'll need a real inkyar to help her look after things."

Tiyes rubbed his arm. "You consider me a real inkyar now?"

"You are when it counts. Just don't let it get to your head. Oh, and do me a favour and let my parents know I'm going back to Splatsville. I'll probably be back either tomorrow – I mean, today or tomorrow."

Tiyes looked at her suspiciously. "You're not going to see them yourself?"

"They'll understand. I told Dad I have responsibilities to take care of in Splatsville."

"What you really mean is that you don't want them stopping you from going to Splatsville and you're trying to avoid your punishment."

Neo stiffened. "Noooo, that's not what I mean at all."

He flashed burgundy and turned away. "Whatever, see you later."

"Yeah… later."

Neo watched him go. Even Lil' Buddy peeked out of the bag to wave his fin at Tiyes' back.

"Come on," Shiver said wearily. "Let's see if we can actually manage to get on a train."

The first train ended up packed with people so they were forced to wait for another coming from Iron End. Deep Cut refused to leverage their status to get on any earlier. They ended up waiting almost an hour before they got on their way.

The train did have a handful of people from Iron End already on board and they had to shuffle to make room for everyone else. Neo sat next next to the door, all but collapsing in the seat and putting her bag on her lap. Lil' Buddy had gone back to sleeping soundly.

Tahlm sat on her shoulder and yawned. It had really been a long day. He'd managed to jot down some notes during the less exciting parts of it. One day he would compile them, do some more research, maybe conduct some interviews with the survivors, and put together a book all about how Splatsville became free.

Assuming we still count as being free under the Ascendancy.

He glanced at Maiya. She had her eyes closed but he was under no illusion that she was actually sleeping. He still wasn't sure who she was or what her real purpose here had been.

Frye stretched again. "First thing I'm going to do when I get home is have a bath and then dive straight into my bed. I'll worry about the clothes later."

Shiver sighed. "Wish I could do the same. I imagine I'll have quite a lot on my plate over the next few days, and probably beyond."

Frye wrapped an arm around Shiver's shoulders in a reassuring manner. "It'll be okay. I'm sure your punishment won't be that bad if it's your grandpa."

Shiver looked doubtful, but her predicament reminded Tahlm of what would be awaiting him when his parents got back.

"I'll be in serious trouble too," he murmured. "Just leaving the house is enough to get me grounded. My mother might have a seizure if she finds out all that I went through."

Neo huffed. "Eh, I did it all the time. Besides, what's she going to do to you really? Make you stay at home? The whole reason you sneaked out is because that was your every day."

He chuckled bitterly. "Yeah, I guess that's true. You're the first person I met who didn't try to keep me safely tucked away in a box. You even took me with you into the vault. That meant a lot to me."

She smiled back at him. "And even though you were small, the first thing you did was try to find a way to rescue me after I got caught, and you were brave enough to dive into those landships and sabotage them without me to watch you. You never used your size as an excuse to say you couldn't do something; you always tried to find a way to back me up. That meant a lot to me."

Tahlm shrugged his tentacles, feeling his face heat up just a little. "Eh, it wasn't nothing. I mean I couldn't leave you to do anything on your own. I mean–."

He was cut off as Neo pursed her lips and pressed them against the side of his head. She pulled back, grinning slyly, her cheeks a warm blue hue while his own face felt like it was suddenly on fire.

She giggled. "Thank you, Tahlm."

"Huh, oh… yeah, no problem."

He tried to calm himself down. It was the first kiss he'd gotten from anyone who wasn't his mother. He had never expected his first real kiss to come from an inkling.

"Tahlm?"

Tahlm's racing hearts came to an abrupt stop at the familiar voice. Neo turned her head to the source of the voice and he leaned forward to see past it, peeking over her pointed ear. What they saw was a takenam sitting on the other side of the door from them, staring in their direction, face framed by familiar, bright-yellow tentacles.

Her eyes locked on him and he jerked back behind the cover of Neo's head but it was too late.

"I thought I heard a familiar voice." The other octoling stood and marched angrily to stand in front of Neo, hands on her hips. "What in the black pits are you doing here, and who is this?" She glared at Neo who just stared back, bewildered.

Tahlm coughed. "Um, this is Neo, Neo this is Vola… my older sister. She works for one of the mining companies." He grimaced. Had it been two weeks already? Well, it had to be pretty close to the time she'd been expected to come and check on him.

"Uh… how was your trip, Sis?"

"Don't 'Sis' me, Tahlm. There's no way Mother would allow you to leave the house when she's not around." Her eyes locked on Neo again. "Did you have something to do with this?"

Neo crossed her arms, mantle turning red. "Responsible for what? I'm fifteen, he's seventeen. He's old enough to make his own decisions, which maybe you guys would know if you didn't keep him at home in a bin like a pet rock."

Tahlm winced. "N-Neo, you really shouldn't…"

"Don't get snippy with me, kid. In case you haven't noticed, he isn't exactly a normal seventeen-year-old. Give him to me."

She thrust her hand out but Neo turned away, her red mantle starting to flash.

"No. He's taking care of himself just fine and I've been helping."

Vola bared her beak, her tentacles curling angrily. "You don't even know what he needs, only a kaaslan can take care of that or both of you will be in a huge mess of trouble!"

Tahlm's face flushed anew. "Ah! Sis, that hasn't happened yet, I'm not old enough!" And you couldn't take care of that either.

Neo acted as if she hadn't heard him and crossed her arms. "Well, if it's so important he needs one to look after him, why doesn't he have one yet? He can't go out and get a girl if he's stuck in a plastic bin all day. Isn't he being mature taking the responsibility on himself and fixing a problem that his family hasn't even tried to help with?"

Tahlm pushed his hand against Neo's cheek. It felt hot to the touch. "Neo, that's not true. Vola has argued with our mothers many times that she should take me out to meet girls and find a kaaslan. She's been my greatest advocate." He pushed his hand in a little further. "And I love her very much."

Neo's flashing red mantle relaxed and cooled to a dark orange instead. Vola, likewise relaxed a bit, taking a suddenly vacant seat across the aisle from them, arms crossed, scowling at the inkling.

"I have tried to get our parents to take him to meet girls, more times than I can remember. I know they've been busy lately but this should have been done a long time ago. Unfortunately, he was never able to meet many girls while he was younger, mother was always afraid they would break him, so it's going to be more difficult for him than most boys."

"All the more reason to start now." Neo sat up straighter, as if mimicking Vola's, authoritative posture. "After all, your parents aren't here to stop us."

Vola lifted her chin slightly as if that same thought had only just occurred to her, and scratched the side of her face with one of her tentacles. Tahlm was aghast.

"Neo, what are you saying?"

"Mother won't be happy," Vola mused, ignoring him. "But I suppose she's going to be unhappy anyway, to put it mildly."

"Exactly! We need to harvest this for all its worth. Anything else you think we should do?"

Vola paused. Her eyes studied Neo for several heart cycles before she responded. "Hmm, a few things actually, but are you alright with this? You realize that a kaaslan is first and foremost among the wives in terms of status, right?"

Neo flashed grey. "If it's a girl I get along with I don't see an issue. People usually decide within the first ten minutes if they like me or not."

Vola glanced at her watch, completely ignoring Tahlm as he waved his hands, trying to tell her without saying anything that he and Neo were not together, she'd just kissed him once. He liked Neo, yes but they were surely nowhere near that point. She was making too many assumptions and Neo wasn't helping.

Other people around the rail car were chuckling and giggling softly to themselves. Shiver was hiding her face behind her fan and Frye was holding her stomach. Big Man had his fins together as if in prayer, tears streaming from his eyes while his body gently shook, trying to hold in laughter. Tahlm suddenly wished the custodian gods would reap his soul then and there.

"I suppose that's about right," Vola said at last. "What he needs to do is go out and do things with other people his age."

"Oh, don't worry, he's been doing that for sure. It's been a crazy couple of weeks."

And so, the two of them went on and on about him, without him. He recalled some prophetic words his father had once told him: 'even the best females are a pain in the funnel'.

An hour later, they finally arrived back in Splatsville. It seemed like an eternity. Vola and Neo were already talking like they'd known each other for years and his sister had even invited Neo to spend the night. Neo pretended that hadn't been her plan all along.

Right when they arrived though, they noticed some things had changed. A dozen armed octolings and inklings in black and scarlet uniforms waited at the train station. They looked hardened and fierce. The crowd that disembarked from the train froze on the platform, anxious about moving closer.

"Who are these people?" Vola whispered.

"I think they're the Ascendancy," Neo whispered back.

Maiya separated herself from the crowed and walked towards them. They squinted at Maiya then stiffened when they seemed to recognize her and came to attention.

"What's going on?" She demanded.

"Ma'am," one of them replied crisply. "We've been asked to escort Miss Shiver Balt Ralok and Miss Frye Onaga to the Onaga estate by Yar Rimar Onaga."

Maiya's mantle turned yellow then returned to its usual green. "Is the city safe for these people to get home?"

"Yes, Ma'am, but we are still working with the clans to hunt down enemy agents, which is why the clan members require escort. Everyone else should be safe."

"Fine then."

They all passed the soldiers, warily, and left the train station. Everyone said their goodbyes before Tahlm, Neo, and his sister began the long walk back to their family apartment.

Vola asked, "what's been going on here since I've been gone? What's the Ascendancy? And why did they start running trains so late into the night?"

Tahlm asked. "They didn't tell you anything in Iron End?"

"We heard that if we were worried about loved ones in Splatsville then we should take the emergency trains they were sending. Some people saw a bright light fly up into the sky to the south-west so a lot of us got worried. Mom wanted me to check on you so I took the opportunity. I was pretty much done my trip anyway."

Tahlm nodded. "Well, it's a long story."

Vola sighed. "I figured. Tell me later.

"Neo, when we get home, we'll take a nice bath then get some sleep. How does that sound?"

"Oh, sure. I might need a little help since I'm still not used to being one-armed."

"It's no problem. You still awake, Tahlm?"

"Yeah, I'm awake," he sighed.

Neo giggled. "Look, Tahlm, I know you're a little upset right now with us kinda' deciding things for you, but at least with me and your sister, you have people who will actually listen to you when you want to say something. Think the same will happen with your moms?"

Tahlm crossed his arms. "Nobody was listening to me on the train."

Vola sighed heavily, as if he'd missed something obvious. "What was said on the train wasn't about you, even if it seemed like it; it was girl talk. We'll discuss what we'll do with you tomorrow. Right now, I'm too tired."

At least they could agree on that. This day had been exhausting enough. Anything else could wait until tomorrow.

Shiver felt a little nervous when she got out of the large truck, seeing yet more armed soldiers on the Onaga Estate grounds. She hadn't dared breathe a word during the ride over. Frye hadn't either. It was like being surrounded by Maiyas.

The soldier that Maiya had spoken to followed them with two more behind her.

The signs of battle were all over the estate. Pools of dried blood lay here and there, crumpled bushes, gardens that had been trampled, and one of the lower adobe walls had been smashed through.

As they walked to the house they found the entrance guarded by two soldiers and two Onaga security. They pushed inside and saw Matriarch Onaga herself coming down the corridor, flanked on one side by her head of security and a young inkling soldier on the other.

"Gran!" Frye ran to her grandmother's open arms, the latter embracing her warmly.

"Frye, I'm so glad you're safe."

Frye laughed. "Didn't Gramps tell you I was okay?"

The old inkyora huffed. "That old fool didn't tell me a cursed thing, just walked in and passed out on the couch before I even had a chance to talk to him."

Frye giggled. "Well, it has been a long day. Why are you still up?"

"Because of those awful company agents. They've been trying to get at us all night. Apparently, there were more of them than we thought. With you not home there was no way I could sleep."

The soldier bowed. "Please don't worry, Matriarch. We'll make sure you can sleep soundly." She thumped her chest and proudly declared, "nothing gets past Four's Formidables without a fight."

The clan matriarch gave her a grandmotherly pat on the arm. "I'll take your word for it, dear. Shiver, your mother brought you some clothes. They're in Frye's room."

"O-oh, thank you."

The two Onagas began walking back down the corridor and Shiver followed. The soldier and the head of security shared a brief exchange through tuk'yan then the soldier remained behind while the security chief returned to the matriarch's side.

Shiver had been anxious about the rest of her family while she had been out in the desert. She might not care for her sisters as sisters but she didn't want them to die. Besides, she had a reasonably good relationship with her brothers and her father, and her egg mother…

Shiver frowned. There was still a discussion to be had with her. She needed to know more about what happened. Even with her grandfather she couldn't take everything at face value. She didn't think he was lying, just that his perspective might be limited. One way or another though, it was going to happen. This was one loose thread she couldn't leave unresolved for long.

Author's Notes:

Relationships are complicated, even sometimes with your siblings.

It's a little unnerving to fight for freedom only to your city and find it seemingly under occupation. Clearly, everyone has a few things they still need to work out, Shiver chief among them.