Ester and Tubarina were on the former's bed in her room at the Starfish Palace, the latter being comforted by the former as she lay on her lap.
"How could Polvina do this to us?" complained Ester. "She was supposed to be our best friend!"
"Wasn't she your best friend first, or was I your best friend first?" said Tubarina, not caring about anything. "Eh, that's too much to think about right now."
Ester asked Tubarina, "Do you feel better now?"
She responded, "Yeah. I just don't know how I can face Father again after learning everything."
"Hey, do you think Polvina was right? That we always think of ourselves more than the bigger picture?"
"Now that I think about it, we kind of do, but Polvina could have been a bit more understanding about it." The two were astonished as it was rare for them to see Polvina getting angry as she did. Deep down though, she did have a point.
"Maybe we should apologise to Polvina. If she wants to end the war between Salacia and Dryland, then we should help her to make up for everything," Ester suggested.
"I agree. We should talk things out with Polvina and make up. First, second or whatever, she is our best friend, after all," Tubarina agreed.
It was then that Ester got a call from Leia. "Hi Leia!"
"Ester? Oh, thank Salacia you picked up! Please, you've got to help us!"
"What's happening?"
"Something's happened to Father! He's gone crazy and he's trying to kill me, Naimo and Mother! Marli, Isa and a few of us are trying to fight him off at my palace and we don't know how long we can hold out! Please, hurry!"
"Okay, hold on Leia, we'll be right there!" After hanging up, Ester told Tubarina what was happening and they quickly hurried off to the Whale Palace. On the way, Ester called Polvina.
As the group approached Salacia, Polvina was about to call Ester when she received a call from her first. "Ester! I was just about to call you. Listen, where are you and Tubarina right now? We need to talk."
"It'll have to wait. Can you meet us at the Whale Palace? Leia's in trouble and she needs our help!"
Polvina agreed to meet Ester and Tubarina there with her group, not knowing of the events that transpired.
Giddeon used his dark tentacles to tie up Baleia and pull her close to him so he could punch her in the head and send her flying, repeating the process numerous times.
Marli saw this and decided that she had to do something to stop Leia's mother from being hurt any further. She took out her sword and charged at Leia's father. "Tsubame Gaeshi!" However, King Marcos' signature technique was no match for Giddeon as he grabbed Marli with his dark tentacles, making her drop her sword. Soon enough, the others ended up being grabbed by his dark tentacles as well.
As the others remained restrained on the ground, Giddeon brought his wife and children above him. "I will cleanse your blood with my darkness!" he said to them, thinking he could "cure" their HIV by purifying their blood, but really he was just torturing them with his dark powers.
Ester and Tubarina arrived at the Whale Palace and so did Polvina, Seretao, Duante and Miss Marla. Ester tried throwing some shurikens at Giddeon but they just went past his dark tentacles and bounced off his body. Polvina took her gun out and began shooting at Giddeon, but to no avail. Tubarina then charged at him, but Giddeon's dark tentacles threw her back.
Seretao stepped up, the Staff of Oblivion in hand. "Allow me. Staff of Oblivion, Battle Mode!" The lantern disappeared as the end of the staff straightened. Charging at Giddeon, he jumped up and fended off the dark tentacles as he rose into the air. "Onbeishiramandayasowaka. Staff of Oblivion, Final Mode!" The end of the staff transformed into an orb that glowed the same light as the lantern did. Aiming at Giddeon, Seretao fired a shot at him, knocking him to the ground as everyone was freed.
Miss Marla and the others quickly helped Leia, Baleia, Naimo and everyone else out. Seretao went up to Giddeon in an attempt to take his crown, only to be stopped by Duante. "Leave him be for now. We can get the crown again later."
Everyone went to the hospital. Leia, Naimo and Baleia had to be taken into intensive care due to the damage they received, while Marli and the others were relatively fine.
Polvina and Caramelo were reading the newspaper from Astanucia that was dropped during the conflict. "Gee… I knew the Whale Queen had a reputation, but I never knew things were actually this bad," commented Polvina.
"Human immunodeficiency virus…" Caramelo commented as he read. "It's bad enough we're at war, now we're having to deal with diseases from Dryland as well. What if the Shark King hears about this?"
"He already did," Tubarina told him. "I only heard bits of it from Father and the soldiers, but he evacuated the town and killed those who were infected along with their doctors and nurses. The cover story was that everyone who was in that town disappeared."
"That's terrible!" said Ester. "What if the Shark King realises we know the truth about what happened?"
"Relax," replied Marli. "The only things the Shark King cares about right now is the war and making reels."
"But the Shark King is going to know eventually," said Isa. "What are we going to do then?"
"For now," said Miss Marla as she approached the group, "you should think about joining us."
"Miss Marla! How are they doing?" asked Polvina.
"They're in a stable condition right now. I let the doctors know what's going on so they could prepare accordingly. Duante and Seretao are going to use the Staff of Oblivion to make everyone remember the truth."
"Hold on, isn't that a bit too fast?"
"I think you've forgotten how the Staff works, Polvina, and also, I wasn't talking about that. Everyone, the Shark King has been using Time Vent to make things go his way and you've been caught up in it. Any moment now, you'll be getting a flood of memories you never thought you had. It's going to be hard, but we can get through this together."
Inside the hospital room, Leia and Naimo were talking with their mother. "Why was Father beating you up, Mother?" asked Naimo.
"Yeah. What could have happened to Father for him to get so angry? He was never like that before," added Leia.
"Ohh…" sighed Baleia. "I'm sorry for not admitting this to you, but your father is right. I have HIV and I gave it to your father. Your father also thinks you might have it, but I'm sure you don't because I only got it quite recently and not before either of you were born."
Leia was confused. "What do you mean? What's HIV? How did you get it in the first place?"
"It's a Dryland disease. You know how I've been open with you about me moonlighting as an escort or volunteering as a comfort woman? I don't know who gave it to me or when, but I might have gotten it from another saline who got it from another Drylander. Look, I'll see if I can get you both tested, but whatever happens after that, I want you to promise me something."
"What is it, Mother?" asked Naimo.
"That you exercise precaution and use protection when you get together with someone and have sex with them, whether you end up with one person or multiple. Protection isn't just about HIV. There are other diseases that are transmitted through sex, not to mention that you could end up having a baby when you least expect it. Do you two promise?"
"I promise," said Leia.
"I promise too," Naimo followed.
Meanwhile, Seretao and Duante were on their way to the Thumb. A decade ago, Polvina went up there with Ester and Tubarina to reveal that she had been studying the birds up there so she could build a giant kite to fly in the air, a prospect she quickly gave up on after one of the birds miraculously saved her from being flown away while holding onto a Drylander plane. In legend, the Thumb was also said to be the place where the goddess Salacia used the Staff of Oblivion to remove all memories of the Salacians from the Drylanders, though there is debate about that because the legend said that she went up to a huge coral hill to do so.
Although Seretao was unable to obtain Thorn's crown, his plans had to make do with the Staff of Oblivion for now. Seretao and Duante climbed up to the top of the Thumb as the former wielded the Staff, which was back in its Lantern Mode.
"Staff of Oblivion, unlock the memories of the lost and found!"
The Staff glowed in a bright light and the light was seen all across the planet, on land and on sea. After the light dissipated, the confusion began as people's memories of lost timelines were returned to them.
At the hospital, Tubarina received a call from Marcello. "Tubarina, I think I've found Marcela! I didn't get any time to recognise her properly, but I've got no doubt that it's her!"
Isa remembered her arch-nemesis. "Fox Fonseca… the Combo Rangers! Nico, how did they manage to outsmart us again?"
Polvina remembered someone important as well. "Ester, you know that boy who helped us that time with Leia and the whale?"
"Yeah. He was the secret admirer who left shells for you that other time, right?"
"Exactly. I saw him. He was fighting with the Drylanders when the Shark King sent us to fight their commander."
"Finally, it begins," commented Miss Marla to herself.
Everyone in Salacia began to remember everything, all the battles they fought, all the things that happened, all the times they died. Though some people's stances on the war would begin to change, others would remain steadfast in their convictions, justifying their deaths as more reasons to keep up the fight against the Drylanders.
On Dryland, the everyone went into confusion as well as they remembered their lost memories. Like the Salacians, there were some Drylanders whose opinions on the war hardened or softened as a result of remembering the memories of lost timelines.
The Combo Rangers remembered that in one timeline, the battles in Cubatão were more intense than they were in the current timeline as despite their best efforts, they were eventually no match for the Salacians. Even the Demon Slayer Corps thought similar things as well about the Campinas Campaign.
Among the Kongming Army, Daniel remembered the girl in pink, the girl in yellow and the girl in blue. For years, he was unable to convince anyone that there were girls living under the sea, but now that his stories were validated, he lamented the fact that Dryland and Salacia were fighting. He wished that the war would end and that humans and salines could coexist in harmony so he could meet the Salacians on good terms.
With this, Parker realised that his intuitions were right all along, that someone was indeed reversing time to get their own way in the war and making everyone suffer many times over. He was glad that Seretao finally came through for him, but for now, he had other matters to deal with.
Who would steel themselves further into the war and who would have a change of heart about continuing to fight any further? That is a question that will be answered with time.
The Shark King was overseeing the inspection of Salacia's armies from his office in the Shark Palace when he began hearing whispers among the soldiers on the screens and radios. They had all remembered what had happened during all the timelines the Shark King made everyone forget using Time Vent. Some of them became angry, some of them went insane, and some of them became confused as to whether they should continue supporting this farcical war.
Having anticipated everything that was happening, the Shark King calmly got up from his chair and went downstairs into the cellar. When Tubarina was a baby, she was scared of what was at the bottom of that staircase, but Ester showed her that there was nothing to be scared of. Entering the cellar, the Shark King walked past the rocking seahorse and manipulated some controls inside a secret panel. A secret passageway opened and the Shark King walked down into an underground bunker which was full of stasis tubes. A bunch of them were empty, but the rest of them contained clones of the princes and princesses. Looking at a computer, he saw that the Killer Queen Protocol had been activated.
"All according to plan…" the Shark King said to himself.