Chapter Text
A warm spring day, just after midday in Inkopolis. Twenty years of changing trends had left Inkopolis Square no longer the center of Turf War culture, and instead the Square was now a dignified, quiet neighborhood, with several design shops and sweet cafes. Marina was seated at one of them, by herself, expecting more arrivals. Age had been quite kind to her, even if her days as Inkopolis's heartthrob were long past her, and she'd...filled out a little.
A short inkling came walking quickly on to the Square, and took her seat next to Marina. "Sorry I'm late," Pearl sighed as she took off her business jacket, hung it on her chair and sat down, "meeting dragged out." Pearl was still the diminutive, skinny inkling she'd been since her rise to prominence as a rapper and aside from an ever-deepening furrow on her forehead she hadn't aged a day. She blamed that furrow on the stress of managing her late father's business empire.
"That's alright, she's not here yet," Marina replied. "I hope she's fine, I've been worried sick," she said in the motherly tone she tended to have when reminiscing.
"She's got some explaining to do," Pearl replied much more strictly.
"How was work today?" Marina asked, sipping her herbal tea. "I hope you can make it home for dinner for a change."
"Yeah no worries, I took the rest of the day off," Pearl assured her as she ordered a cappuccino. "Even if this goes south, I'm all for spending the rest of the day with ya," Pearl teased with a peck on Marina's nose.
Marina blushed and giggled quietly. "You didn't have to, Pearlie. As long as you won't forget our anniversary."
"You won't let me," Pearl clarified, "but I wouldn't forget it anyway." She sighed and looked up at Deca Tower. "Cod, has it really been 20 years since we got married? Doesn't feel nearly that long."
"Best thing I've ever done," Marina smiled as Pearl turned back.
Pearl could only blush. "I really wish we could go back to being pop stars sometimes. I miss the rush of being on stage."
Marina nodded. "Felt like we were on top of the world back then, huh?" She eyed Pearl's business uniform. "I've been happy being a stay-at-home girl while you're out running your business, but...maybe someday we'll do a celebration tour or something."
Pearl smiled. "I'd love that. Can you still hit all the notes?", she teased.
Marina smirked, and hits her singing solo opener from Nasty Majesty, every note as on point as back then. "I think I'll be fine."
Pearl smiled widely and kissed Marina, then sat back as her cappuccino arrived. She also ordered a sandwich, as she hadn't had time to eat yet.
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Sometime later the person they'd been waiting for arrived. Agent 8 sheepishly looked around the corner of the Square, spotted the pair and moved to join them. Pearl pointed her out to Marina when she spotted Eight and Marina gasped. Agent 8 looked gaunt and ghostly pale, with a number of scars on her limbs and her tentacles dishevelled and of uneven length. Her leather garments had been patched several times and the heels on one of her boots had snapped, the other sawed off to match it.
She approached and stopped a meter or two away from Pearl and Marina.
"H-hey, guys," Eight started hesitantly, "h-how you been?"
"Amy, you poor thing," Marina said in the most concerned voice she'd heard herself in, "quick, sit down with us."
Eight quickly did as instructed. "So…how's business?", she asked hesitantly.
"Amy, it's been over a decade. You don't just show up and say 'hey, whaddup?'. I'm glad to see you again...y'know, finally, but what in the blue ocean happened to you? And why'd you suddenly come back?", Pearl asked. She figured Marina wouldn't have it in her to ask hard questions right now.
When Eight didn't immediately reply Marina intervened. "Maybe you want to eat or drink something first? You look like you haven't eaten in days." Eight nodded as she was handed a menu.
She leafed through it for a bit, but didn't get around to ordering as tears started welling in her eyes, and before long she put the menu down to wipe them off as best she could, sniffling to try and keep in her despair. Finally she fully broke down and cried in her hands, saying: "I'm sorry," which she repeated like a mantra. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
Pearl ordered Eight some tea in her stead while Marina shifted her chair closer to Eight and embraced her. The three of them sat like that in silence for a few minutes while Eight got her sorrow out of her system.
Eventually she calmed herself to the point where she was no longer sobbing like mad and she could hug Marina back.
“A-alright...I...I think I’m good,” she said, letting Marina go with a final sniffle. “It’s just...seeing you guys again…,” She chuckles weakly.
Pearl pushes the tea towards Eight. “Aight, let’s hear it.” She gets a scolding look from Marina for being so direct.
“Well...so after I left for the mainland and I’d done my best to get over...you know,” she implied, and Pearl and Marina both nodded that they understood her, “I just meandered along for a time...most of it actually...living off the streets...and feeling sorry for myself…” she took a sip of her tea with her expression showing she was drinking the memories down too, “and then before I knew it, it had been 10 years since…” Nods from Pearl and Marina again. “A-aand...a lot of things suddenly clicked when I realized that...and then all I wanted to do was to come back and...see you guys again,” she cast her eyes down, “and it took me a...a while to save up enough to get back here...and well...here...here I am,” she ended with a sheepish sad smile.
Pearl and Marina eyed each other, and Pearl then leaned forward and said: “That year was hard on all of us, y’know. Losing both the Cap’n and Li-” she held herself, feeling the name might be too much for Eight’s fragile spirits, “Agent 3, that was tough for us all, not just you. So I don’t understand why you felt you had to leave. We were worried sick over you for months, we spent so much time trying to find you…”
“I KNOW!” Eight shouted, tears in her eyes again, “That’s what I’m trying to say!” She settled down a bit and sniffled, then continued: “I was dumb and overreactive and stupid and selfish to leave, and I’m sorry. I want to make things right. I know now that Craig and Liz wouldn’t have wanted me to wallow in self-pity, I can see that. So...yeah,” she drank from her tea again. “I burned a lot of bridges 10 years ago, I know that. I want to try and rebuild them.”
Marina nodded and smiled warmly. “Well, I just wish you’d have realized it sooner. We’ve got your back.”
Pearl nodded in approval. “Come stay with us.”
Eight was surprised by the kindness Pearl and Marina were showing. “W-wait, you’re not upset with me?”
Pearl replied: “Not really. I know why you did it, I felt the same things you did. It’s just, like Marina said, you should’ve come back sooner.”
Marina embraced her again. “We’re still here for you, things haven’t changed there.”
Eight felt tears welling up again, of joy this time, but suppressed them. “A-and the others?”
Pearl shook her head. “Zoe wasn’t as forgiving as us, she really won’t appreciate you coming back. She’s been doing the Agent business alone all this time.”
Marina let go of the hug and spoke up too. “And Callie and Marie felt you were...betraying Craig’s memory by just leaving like this...I called and asked them to join us and they said they didn’t feel like coming to see you.”
Eight nodded. “Right. Well, I guess...I’ll just have to make it up to them. Whatever way I can.”
Pearl smiled. “Won’t be easy. But we’ll be with you as long as you need.” Marina nodded in approval.
Eight cried again, but they were tears of joy this time around.
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Later that night, a lone boat approached the ruins of the NILS statue out in Inkopolis Bay. The statue’s ruins had been reduced to rubble further, and not just by erosion, as Agent 8 knew. Tartar had come back after rebuilding his resources for a decade and the only surefire way to stop him, as was found out by Agent 3 as she was covertly exploring the place, was to destroy the statue further and allow the sea to flood the whole Kamabo complex. But Agent 3 had been captured and with no way to rescue her, the Splatoon was forced to...well, you get the picture. Cuttlefish had died of natural causes just a week later.
Eight disembarked as Grizz’s voice sounded through the speakers: “I’m not into this whole sentiment thing and I got some folks waiting on a shift, so get on with it, missy.”
“At least you haven’t changed any,” Eight mumbled.
She scrambled over some of the concrete debris and found a small depression that had once been the statue’s eye. She sat down and spoke quietly: “Liz, Cap’n...I’ve let you down. The past decade, I’ve done no good for anyone or anything, I didn’t know what to do without you two, and I’ve only felt useless and sorry for myself. And I know now you wouldn’t want that for me. You’d want me to carry on in your name. I’ve left Zoe to this job alone for too long. I...I will make you both proud of me again. Everything I will do this next decade, I will do to honor you both. You have my word,” she said determined, wiping a tear from her face.
She got up and walked back to the boat, leaving behind two flowers and a 20-year-old framed picture, showing five cephalings celebrating a victory over the ruins of a wrecked statue.