Operation Sanitized ~The 38 Saga 2nd Book~

Chapter 11: The Late Birthday Present

~8s POV~

It's 1am and I'm awake comforting Cora. She had had a nightmare a few minutes ago about her torture and being Sanitized. She told me about it at clinged onto my side the side of me, not letting go. I knew she was scared of this, but I didn't know it was this bad. "It's ok sweetheart, your back home and safe now, Tar Tar can't hurt you anymore." I sing into the light like I did when she was in my arms back at Tar Tar's base and she listens, looking into my eyes smiling as she knew she was safe with me. Soon after, she closes her eyes and drifts back to sleep on me. "I'll help you get through this Cora, don't worry." I whisper to her and fall back asleep, waiting for the morning to come, where I could take her out and ask her the one question I had been waiting to ask for a week now.

~A few hours later~

I wake up at 10am and get dressed straight away. One of the first things I realise is that Cora was already up and had left the room, as well as left me asleep. I put on my shorts and lime green shirt along with a pair of shoes and then head out to see Cora.

"Good morning baby!" She comes out of the kitchen and kisses my head, then passes me a plate of waffles. "Good morning sweetie. How are you doing after last night?" I ask as I take the plate and start eating. "I'm ok, still adjusting to living normally. The nightmares though, I don't think there gonna go away. I'm scard from what Tar Tar has done to me, and that probably won't change, but I know that I can get past it. Especially bieng back in your arms." She hugs me and we both blush. "So today I'm gonna go see Sheldon, apparently he has something for us both of us. Then I'm gonna come back and get you so we can go to the celebration with the rest of the Squidbeak Splatoon, then I'm going to take you somewhere special. Does that sound fun?" I ask her after finishing my waffles. She nods and takes our plates away. "Well, I'm going to get dressed into my summer stuff, and vibe here for a bit. I wanna get used to being back here, even though it wasn't long ago that I was first kidnapped. I'll see you later honey." She kisses my cheek and leaves to her room as I leave the house to go visit Sheldon.

Like always, the flowers are blooming and the sun is out. It was the perfect day to execute the plan: take her to the secret garden that was in the park, and ask her to marry me. I was nervous, but knew that she would probably say yes anyway, for now, I had to do everything else for the day before the time came. Finally, after walking for 10 minutes, I arrive at Ammo Knights. Sheldon sees me and invites me in. "Hello Tobias! Here to pick up the package 2 told you that you had?" "That's why I'm here Sheldon, can I also get 3s package? She's at home right now, so I'd rather take it to her instead of her having to come out and get it." I ask him as he passes me 2 brown bags with the symbols 3 and 8 on. "I assumed that you were going to ask that, so I had it prepared earlier for when you came over. The package is actually an Octo Shot Pro, the weapons the Octolings used when fighting for Tar Tar. It was also the weapon Tar Tar used to fight you. I managed to pick 1 up for every member after the fight happened. It has the burst bomb and booyah bomb for its sun weapon and special. I hope you find use for it!" Sheldon finished talking and I take both bags in one hand and shake his hand with the other. "Thanks Sheldon, I think I may use this as a backup weapon." I take mine out and hold it like I did when I used the octo shot in the metro. "No problem Tobias. Now, have a great day!" I leave the shop as Sheldon says that, and head back home to give Cora her Octo Shot Pro.

"Hey Cora! I have something for you!" "What is it?" She asks as she takes it and starts to open it. "Well, it's from Sheldon. A new weapon, the Octo Shot Pro. Best thing, it comes with..." I hold off saying it until Cora looks in the bottom of the bag. "The booyah bomb?! I gotta test this out later. Thanks for picking this up Tobias." She puts the weapon with her other 2 and picks her bag up. "So, we gonna set off for the celebration then?" She asks. "We will in a moment, I just have to get something quickly." I respond and walk to my room. Out of my draw I take the ring box. Placing it carefully In my pocket, I exit and head out of the house with Cora, holding hands tightly. We walk to the Crust Bucket and take a seat at the table that the team is sat at.

"Id just like to say thank you, to you all. You all helped during the mission, and we saved our 2 friends as well as saved the city from Tar Tar. 8 lead us through the entire process, demonstrating leadership perfectly. 7 defeated 3, and saved her life. If she hadn't done that, 3 wouldn't be safe with us. 6 and Lukas, without you, we wouldn't have been able to shut down the cameras and known the percentages for winning. 5, you flew the helicopter the entire time, and defeated Tar Tar using Princess Cannon. 1, you helped me and everyone else. 9 provided information and gave us our new weapons, the octo shot pros. 4 helped fight 3. Without you all, we wouldn't be sat here today, celebrating and bieng able to live another day safely. Well done Squidbeak Splatoon, you all deserve the recognition for that mission. Squidbeak Splatoon!" Marie finished her speech and we all shouted Squidbeak Splatoon after her. Sean then gave us all food, that was on the house and cooked a few minutes ago, and we all ate, talking and laughing, catching up with each other. Afterward, Me and Cora leave and walk together for a bit, before I pick her up in my arms and carry her to the park.

~7s POV~

I was sat in the square with Pearl and Petra. Pearl had told me she wanted to date someone; she was kinda jealous that Marina was going out with Lukas, so I set her up with Petra. So far, it was going well, they were loving each others company and enjoyed talking to each other. For about 20 minutes, they just talked, sometimes flirting with each other, but then Pearl asked the question. "Would you wanna date me Petra? I like you, and I mean more than like." She was nervous, she didn't know whether she'd say yes or not. "Sure! Id love to date you!" Petra responded and I grinned. "YES! IT WORKED! I KNEW YOU TWO WERE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER!" I shouted and we all started laughing. "Well, you two have fun, I'm gonna go spend some time with Leon. See ya later!" I get up and leave, and Pearl and Petra go somewhere else. I didn't know how it would turn out after a while, but I believed that Pearl and Petra would do well together as a couple, plus I thought they were cute together. Let's just hope that they will stay together for a while, or even forever.

~8s POV~

"Tobias, your embarrassing me." Cora says, blushing at the same time. I still had her in my arms. "Aww, Princess is embarrassed? Well you shouldn't be." I put her down and hold her hand. "For this next bit, I need to cover your eyes. Do you trust me?" I ask her as she let's go and looks into my eyes. "I trust you Tobias, and I always will." I smile and place my hands over her eyes. I then walk her forward toward the secret garden and let go of her. "Suprise!" I say. She turns around and looks toward the bench that is still infront of the small waterfall and surrounded by flowers. This time, butterflies were sitting on the parts of nature, and sometimes flying around. As she starts to speak, I get down on one knee and get out the small box. "Its time." I whisper to myself whilst listening to Cora. "Tobias... Its perfect... Tobias?" She turns around and sees me on one knee. Instantly, she covers her mouth and starts to cry.

"Cora, my agent 3, my princess, sweetheart and love of my life. I love you with all my heart. Your adorable, cute, sweet, kind, and you brighten up my life when your with me, and I want it to stay like that. So, Cora, will you marry me?" I open the box and show the custom made ring. "Let's say, it's a late birthday present." She smiles and hugs me. "Yes!" I pick her up and swing her around in my arms before hugging her tightly, kissing her and placing the ring on her finger. The butterflies flew around us during this time, and a few flower petals flew around as well. "It's beautiful Tobias. I love you, with all my heart." She kisses me once more and we enjoy each others company for the first time in a week. "Well I love you with all I am, Cora." We place our heads together and hold hands. Finally, I felt like a piece of me wasn't missing.

My Cora was home, and so was I...