author's note: Yeah, it's me again, typing a little mesasge that will probably get deleted when I go to wrap up this story after posting the final chapter. Yes, I know the uploads have been slow (I partially blame college for that), but not to worry, I am most definetly not dead (yet). Anyway, as always, may your day be a good one.


The altitude meter slowly ticked up, the distance between them and the ground steadily increasing. Will didn't let his eyes off of it, knowing exactly when he wanted to enact his plan.

His colleague was minding his own business, reading the manual over again and again, giving the buttons another look from time to time.

Fighting the acceleration of the rocket, he pushed his arm forward, pressing the button that he knew would release the payload.

The entire craft shook violently as they heard a hydraulic system releasing its pressure.

"Wat was tat?!" Jan looked over at him, following his arm to see his finger on the button. "Wy did you do tat?"

Will didn't reply as he sat back, his arms next to him as he felt his heart pounding. He did it, he actually did it.


"So they're going up…"

"We know that-"

"One just dropped something!" Five pointed as a large cylinder fell out of one of the rockets, dropping out of the side as the rocket had started to tilt to make it's gravity turn.

"... it's coming back down." One had her hand above her eyes as she squinted to try and see what it was as it came hurtling back down.

"It looks like it's going to hit just next to where those things appear-" Her voice was cut off as the huge container touched down, making itself known with first a flash of light as a warning for the loud bang that followed, ending in a rumble as it sounded like someone had just blown up the foundation of a building and was now enjoying the view of it all crashing down.

"What was that?!" They heared Six ask over the radio, having been taken by surprise by the explosion too, the light and sound having spread out way beyond even Inkopolis, even the octarians feeling the ground shake in their domes.

"Well, whatever that thing was, it sure went out with a bang." Six tried to joke, still pretty shaken up.


Three felt the ground shake underneath her, but where the sound of the explosion that was the cause faded, the trembling didn't stop. Quite the opposite in fact, it continued to shake more and more, the sound of crumbling stone and concrete, mixed with the screeching of metal now heard and coming closer, it all echoing in the seemingly endless pit below her.

As the sounds came closer, she closed her eyes. This was it, the world was ending, and this would be where she met hers. To be buried in the remains of the facility she had already derailed a threat once, but now failed the second time. Somewhere there had to be some form of irony, but she couldn't find what that had to be at the moment.

She wondered if the others even knew where she was, perhaps they assumed she had been splatted or something, maybe even worse. The thought of being controlled a third time sent shivers throughout her body. She put her hand on the scar on the right side of her face just below her ear. After the first time she thought she could've just hidden it so she could forget about it all, but after the second time it had become so big she'd have to wear a mask or something just to hide it somewhat.

At least she had the reassurance of knowing the short period that Four had been hijacked hadn't left anything visible on her face. Even though it was her fault they'd ended up in that situation, she still didn't think that kind of punishment was justified.

To her Four, for as much as she had actually interacted with her, was clearly a capable agent, just lacking some of the impulse control. Perhaps part of that could be chalked down to everyone being stressed out. Having to save everyone was no small feat, and yet it seemed like that hadn't been the thing that had made her colleague act like she did.

She got up. Realising that, whatever she was going to go down for her failure, it wasn't going to be here. Four had managed to pull despite having trouble doing so, so who was she to give up now?

Three started running, continuing where she'd left off before ending up in the dead end she had lain down in. Taking lefts and rights in the exact reverse order of how they'd entered, eventually reaching the hallway that led to the exit.

When finally seeing the outside again, she also found One and Five, both looking up like they were trying to spot a distant object.

"I think they're too far to see by now."

"Yeah, those slippery steel eels slipped right away."

"What are you two looking at?" Three asked as she approached, the two looking down to see who had asked.

"Those two giant metal fireworks."

"Eh… weren't there four of us when we got here?" One said, counting the three of them again just to make sure she hadn't just miscounted.

"Well, about that…"

"Where's she at?" Five now jumped in on the subject. "You didn't just ditch her, did ya?"

"No, of course not!" She snapped back at her. "She got into one of those 'metal fireworks' as you called them."

"So she…" She looked up. "She's taken the 'shoot for the stars' advice a bit too literally."

"You could say that." Three glared at One, who promptly stopped laughing before it had even truly begun.

"Anyway…" Five tried to break the deadly silence. "What's the plan?"

"Head back and await the captain's next orders. Let's hope he at least knows what to do now."

"Sure thing."

One didn't speak, the gaze she still received from Three making it clear she didn't have to.


"Eight?" Two asked, accompanied by her knocking on the door of the side room.

A sobbing was all she heard in response, leaving her in the doorway without a proper reply. She sighed and stepped inside, closing the door behind her.

"I came to check on you." She tried not to sound displeased by the fact she had to, clearly not feeling anything for checking on her while the other agents were out doing fieldwork.

There still only was sobbing as a reply as Eight lay over the figure that occupied the bed, not making it clear if she had even heard her or not.

"You know that she's as good as gone, right?"

"… … …"

"Your sobbing isn't going to change that."

"… … …"

"Is she really worth crying for?"

"… … …"

"At least just talk to me then instead of just sobbing." She sighed, a hint of annoyance now in her voice.

"S-she… She was…" Was all that the octoling could muster to say.

"That's a start…"

"She was my f-f-friend…" As if she had only held it back the sobbing continued with new vigor.

"You only met her for a day or so. How could you two be friends?"

"I… we… we were…"

"You for sure cared for her, didn't you?"

"I… I… I did…"

"Maybe you should get some fresh air." Marie suggested, putting a hand on Eight's shoulder.

"D-do you think so?" She looked up, her face showing just how badly she had been crying.

"I think you do." She tried to ever so gently drag Kim away from the bed.

The octoling let herself be led, out the door, through the main room and then outside. Two set her down on a small bench, sitting down next to her, Kim immediately resting her head on her shoulder once she had sat down.

"You really cared for her, I can tell." She began, not sure where to take this or why she somehow felt for the octoling that now lay sniffling on her shoulder. "But you must realise it wasn't your fault."

'h-huh?" She looked up.

"Four feels guilty too, and I assume even Three's more caring side feels responsible to some extent."

"Do… do you think so?"

"I do. I felt guilty too when One disapeared, yet I have come to accept that, while what I did was a part of what had led to this, it wasn't only because of me."

Kim stayed silent, looking up at her as she dried her tears.

"Just know that even if you had wanted to, you couldn't have changed everything."

"you… do you mean that really?"

"Yes, I really mean that." She replied, partially to correct her.

Kim put her arms around Marie, embracing her. "Thank you."

"... you're…. welcome?" She looked down, conflicted between her empathy for her and the urge to push her away, eventually realising that maybe she too had to take advice in her words. she might've not been the only one responsible for her cousin's disappearance, and moreover it meant that the octarians weren't the only ones to blame either.

Letting out a sigh she put her arm around the octoling, comforting them as she came to terms with the fact that she might have been too hard on them while trying to avoid blaming herself for what had happened.


A force that felt like she just landed after a superjump pushed her down to the ground, the thing was that unlike a landing this force kept pushing. At first she'd just been able to walk around, but now she was stuck to the floor like a magnet to an iron plate, only able to watch as the blue sky seemed to disappear, making way for a black void in which stars started to show up not too long after.

"What in shelfish's name is going on!?" Was all that went through her head, the noise from below the metal pipe she sat on the top of dousing out any sound she made, even almost drowning out her thoughts.

Suddenly the feeling of being forced into and through the floor ceased. What to her was even more worrisome was that there was not the usual feeling of gravity pulling her to the floor to replace it, leaving her in what felt like a freefall, just like one felt when at the top of a superjump when going straight up. There was no feeling of falling down, since the air around her moved with her. Only after coming to terms with all of this did she notice that the loud roaring of whatever was beneath her had stopped.

Calmly she floated through the capsule, not able to control where she was going, not even able to do much about her orientation, even though she was still able to freely move. I truly was disorienting, and to add to that she started to feel nauseous. Not able to make sense of her surroundings anymore she closed her eyes, curling up as she felt her stomach retch. Whatever was going on, she wasn't a fan of it in the slightest.

Even being in her squidform didn't seem to help anything, she was still floating about, ocasionally bonking into the walls and bouncing off of them.

There was no sound whatsoever, leaving the inkling with only herself to hear, from her stomach making unhealthy noises and the beating of her hearts to her ink flowing around inside her.

Eventually she dared to open her eyes again, finding that nothing had changed. As she drifted to one of the tiny windows at the top of the capsule, she could see outside, finding herself to be looking at what seemed like a clear night sky.

What wasn't normal about it is that there was something in that night sky, something blue, with tiny marks of green and even some green spots. She couldn't help but marvel at the sight, the sight of the planet she and everyone she knew lived on.

Looking around further she didn't see much else of interest. After what seemed like forever her attention was drawn to a blinking light on one of the control panels. Pushing herself off of the wall she slowly drifted to the panel in question, and while holding onto a nearby chair she curiously pressed it.

Next to it a screen lit up, showing more of the night sky, only now with an overlay of lines and a couple circles that seemed to ever so slowly move to line up in the middle of the screen. "I wonder where this is for." She watched it, giving the panel another look, but not finding any other blinking buttons.

At first it seemed like a bit of dirt on the screen, but whatever it actually was, it steadily grew in size, soon large enough to clearly be seen on the screen, slowly getting larger, so big even that it no longer fitted on the screen after some time.

Mira watched, not sure what exactly she was looking at, but finding that it looked like a building that was still under construction with all that grating and those support pillars all exposed, holding some internal structure of tubes, cubes, and spheres.

As the object grew, she noticed that as the two circles on the screen met up in the middle, they perfectly fitted around a lit up piece of a cylinder that was sticking out of the whole construction somewhat. It kept ever so slowly coming closer, and when it was about to hit the camera that the screen was displaying, it went black, accompanied by the pod shaking around her. It all was followed by some clicks, then hissing.

Looking over at the source of the sound she saw that a hole, about the size of a manhole, had opened up, revealing a short tube connecting the pod to some larger room that too was cylindrical in shape.

It took some getting used to, but eventually she pushed herself out of the capsule and into the room that lay ahead. She was happy she'd found her dualies floating around in the pod, feeling a little safer with them in hand as she slowly drifted through what seemed like a corridor, the ends mirrored and a single tubular room connected to the middle, which she decided to go through, ending up at a closed door.

Through the built in window she could see a common room of sorts, a couple of chairs with belts around a table and a bunch of monitors all around in varying orientations. Looking around she sadly didn't see any doorhandle, not even a lever like the pod had.

Four was caught off guard by a click and then a hiss, just like when her pod had opened up, the noise coming from the other end off the corridor that had previously been a dead end. "That must be the other… but that means that Will and the other human are here now too." She turned around, not sure what to do.

"... at least we still hav te oter pod, so all hope is not lost."

"Yeah…" Will replied, clearly not happy about the thought that an entire intelligent species was going to be exterminated.

"Wat is wrong? You seem sad."

"It's… it's nothing… really…" He pushed himself forward, happy to not have to carry his own bodyweight, for he didn't know if he could've even mustered it with all of his depressing thoughts.

Where he would have been happy to have these thoughts pushed aside in practically any other case, having this done by the surprise and sheer shock of finding Four in the corridor wasn't in any way what he'd expected to be the cause.

"You should try to upcheer a little b-" Jan stopped talking as soon as he spotted the inkling, only to continue in a voice so different it sounded like a completely different person. "oh, it's you. I thought you'd be really busy being dead right now."

Both Will and Mira looked at him with their mouths wide open, and even though Will's face wasn't visible through the helmet's visor, his sudden stiffness clearly conveyed the even greater shock that had now gone through him.

"Almost was the goal reached, and yet here we find ourselves with a teensy-weensy, but ever so crucial little, tiny detail that has not yet been taken care of." He said as he reached for one of his suit's pockets, revealing the revolver that Will thought he himself still had with him, a quick check in his own pockets revealing it had indeed disappeared.

"How did y-" He couldn't get any further, hearing a loud bang and seeing a bright flash. however, where he had expected to feel a bullet, he felt nothing. "What the... ? what's gotten into you?!"

"A better question would be: 'what has gotten into her?'." He replied with a hint of joy in his voice.

Where he indeed failed to hit his colleague, it had been on purpose, for he hadn't been aiming at him in the first place.

Four had gotten to endure a lot in her career as an agent already, but having a piece of metal get shot into her at well over the speed of sound hadn't been one of those things. She was gripping her shoulder as firmly as she could, still feeling her hand and the clothing under it getting soaked. Gritting her beak she tried to fight the urge to yell out in pain, to start crying and wailing.

"Now all we need to do is throw her out of the airlock and we can proceed as planned."

"What…? Why did you do that?!"

"Are you going to act up like that or are you going to do as I tell you?"

"I… I…" He looked at the barrel of his gun. "I will…"

"Good, then carry her to the airlock. We do not want her to meddle with yet more of our plan."

"Plan?" He carefully asked as he took the inkling in his arms, it being even easier with the lack of gravity pulling them down.

"The plan that will result in finally getting this ship to go travel between the stars, away from this doomed ball of mud."

"It is home…" He sighed, not finishing the sentence.

"Change it usually rejected at first, you will get used to it, and if not I have a way to deal with you."

"A way to… So, a big change then, huh?"

"It is, then again, I am only here to guide everyone back up. It was sad to see how not everyone would comply though. It was such a waste. But objectives are objectives, and our one was to get back up as many alive humans as possible, preferable people involved with the project, and if there was room any other surviving human."

"They… what happened to the others?"

"That is not important for you to know now, and since we have arrived, let us eject this lower life form."