An Octarian Princess

Connections

Ember had joined Octavio in the search of Dr. Gros. All they had found were some bits and pieces of scrap that could be tied to her, or Naida. But definitely nowhere concrete. One kettle had some almost evaporated blue ink, which seemed to be the good doctor's calling card by now, she'd always kept her tentacles blue. "Why do you think she'd do this?" Octavio asked his companion "I'm not really sure. Just power hungry, I guess." Ember replied "she had power, she had influence. It's not every day you become the top scientist of a nation." Octavio grumbled "for some people, it's never enough." Ember said, almost mournfully "you don't mean..?" Octavio looked at her, she quickly looked at the ground "I wasn't inferring anything about...her. Just, saying, I've lost a lot of good people to greed and temptation." Awkward silence stood between them. They'd never really discussed how things happened with Okuto after her death.

Ember and Okuto were like fire and oil, could never be left together or else they would explode. They could never see eye to eye on anything. Especially during the Great Turf War, neither of them could give anything to the other, or else it could be weakness. Octavio had always tried to quell things, they were his best. Okuto was just higher ranked than Ember was at the time. Other than that, they were pretty much equal. They were near masters of battle, could dominate a mission, and almost always brought the results Octavio needed. But then, there was the "incident". Octavio and Okuto had been dating for years, even before the Great Turf War. But slowly, he'd been falling out of love with her given her rising madness and unwillingness to listen, not just because he was her king, but as her boyfriend, as her friend. Finally, after yet another argument between Ember and Okuto, Okuto attacked her. Almost fatally wounding Ember, and so, Octavio sent her away. Sent her back to the front lines, freshly single, but then, Okuto never came back. Killed in the middle of the battle, trying to hold the line.

Given Ember's wounds, she couldn't do much commanding, so Octavio had to reassert total control. Which then led to abject failure, and absolute ruin of the Octarian people. The loss of Okuto had absolutely wrecked him, and as much as he tried to hide it, that sorrow stuck with him to the present. One of his true regrets, which was now accompanied by trusting Dr. Gros and stealing the Great Zap Fish twice. "This is useless." Octavio said Ember looked at him "what? We haven't found anything and it's been 3 days. I want my kid back. But Gros just vanished." He kicked a rock out of frustration "I know, sir. But we shouldn't give up hope, when you got taken back with the Great Zapfish, I practically had to drag Naida home myself. She kept trying to superjump after you." Ember replied "seriously?" Octavio asked with a raised eyebrow "yes, seriously. You two are very much alike in that regard, I remember it like it was yesterday..." Ember looked towards the sky.

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Naida stood next to Marina, who had almost looked zoned out staring at her laptop controlling the Octobot King. Ember was almost pacing by that point. Agent 3 was winning now, and these "Squid Sisters" had shown up and saved Cap'n Cuttlefish. Ember wasn't necessarily mad about him, but this agent couldn't win, these Inklings couldn't win.

But unfortunately, they did. The Octobot was blown to pieces, and the Great Zapfish chortled happily before flying away, Agent 3 picked up Octavio and superjumped away. "Dad!" Naida screamed, she grabbed Marina's octoshot and tried to chase after them, Ember grabbed her "Naida! Think about what your doing!" She shouted "but he's my Dad! I can't just let them take him!" Naida shouted back, tears beginning to run down her face "I know, I know, we aren't just going to let them. But look around." Ember gestured to the lights now shutting off. Marina seemingly came back to her senses and put a hand on Naida's shoulder "we should go." She said. All of it seemingly won Naida over, she wiped her tears, handed Marina her weapon back, and the 3 made it back to a transport.

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And just like that, Marina was gone. The Squid music had affected her and she just up and left. Marcus was devastated, they'd always had each other's backs, but she just left him like he was garbage. No one really had time to grieve, so she just joined the lengthening list of names of Octolings who had defected for the Inklings. There was barely any time to try and find anyone on the list, trying to get power back on was of greater concern. But even that was a struggle. Things were just stagnate, nothing really changed, some power returned, but not to the level that was needed to support those still in Octarian cities.

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Marcus and Marina were working in Marcus' office. Both were coming through Dr. Gros' files in the hopes of finding something, anything. Even through they were both on laptops, Marina could still feel the absolute anger radiating off of Marcus. "Uh, bro?" She asked hesitantly "mh?" He replied "can I tell you something?" She said "shoot, I guess." Marcus replied, Marina took a deep breath "look, I'm sorry, about leaving." She said, Marcus chuckled "no, your not." He responded.

It took Marina a second to process what he said, but he was also right. She wasn't totally sorry, she was so much happier after she left. Sure, she had missed them all so dearly, they were her family after all. But she had Pearl, who she wanted to protect and love at all costs, and she would've left Octopia a thousand times over before letting something happen to Pearl. "Gotcha, didn't I? Look, you are clearly happier there. You can't apologize for something you don't have remorse for. Go be happy with Pearl." Marcus said, he was angry, super angry. But at the same time, it felt like he just wanted to end the conversation, but Marina wanted to settle things, to make amends; "But I want to be with you all too." She said "if you wanted to be with us then you would've stayed." He replied harshly "but I wasn't happy! After the Octobot I just couldn't! I could see how wrong things were. You weren't there, if you were then you'd know!" She shouted, Marcus shut his laptop with a huff "Naida was there and she still stuck around!" He shouted back "but was she happy?" Marina asked "her Dad was taken for Cod's sake, and we had the power crisis getting worse! How, Marina, could anyone be happy?!" He looked down at his desk, he had gotten up at some point during his sentence "when we needed you most, one of Octopia's brightest, you left us all to die. To be forgotten, Marina. I'm happy for you and Pearl, really. She seems nice. But by Cod if the only reason you met her was because you couldn't give a carp about us!" Marcus fell back into his chair, he was crying now.

Marina shut her laptop with a sigh. Then walked over to Marcus and gave him a hug "yes, that's true. But I'm home now, and I want to try and make up for my mistakes." She said, Marcus hugged back with a sob "do you really think Octopia's still home?" He asked, Marina hesitated again, Marcus chuckled "it's ok, things change, I guess." He sniffled "I just missed you a lot, even though I was mad at you. I just wanted to know that you were ok. I spent a lot of nights in here trying to find any trace of you. But y'know how that went." Marina wiped some of his tears.

Then Kirumi burst in, she was panting "what? What's wrong, Kirumi?" Marina asked, Kirumi leaned on the door for support and pointed down the hall "Gros on videocall." She then put her weight on her knees "have her on hold right now, go." Marcus and Marina looked at each other before taking off down the hall.

So, I was gonna make this longer but my motivation took a nosedive. Have fun with this. Stay fresh!💚💖
-Alexsismindina