Archive of Our Own

Agent Four was inferior.

That's all there is to it.

As much as she tried to ignore it, or fought to change it,

She was inferior.

She was a replacement for the now-Three, Agent Three. Not because of anything else.

A replacement.

And shell, if anyone else had encountered Marie that summer day, Agent Four wouldn’t even be Agent Four.

Marie was desperate, honestly. Just wanted a squid to save them cousin, and then who knows what the fuck else, but that's not important now.

What is, is that she’s inferior. She will never be more than the goofy agent.

The laughingstock.

And, if she was honest,

She gave up trying to be something different a year ago.

The past couple months had been a whirlwind. Three got a promotion, moving to Splatsville. Four and Agent Eight joined them shortly. Then the rise of the mammalians, the new kid, and now when things we're finally settling down, Four had time to think.

Even the newest agent had more superiority than she did. The octoling, Agent 8.

Not that 8 was bad, no…8 was 4’s friend!

8 didn’t do anything wrong.

The people around them did.

Rage boiled inside of Four, it did. She hated being looked down upon. And if she’s honest, she blames Three.

Oh, the legendary Agent Three. The better fighter, the more experienced, yadda yadda. She was so good, she was to be the next Three.

The runt turned legend.

Three was the youngest agent. A year younger than Four themself. She was shorter, too. 

A weakling. She could be nothing, she would be nothing if not for Cap’n Cuttlefish. Nothing.

But she became something, and because of it, Four is looked down upon.

Rage boiled, and boiled in Four, until their breaking point.

It was a night like any other, Four was lying awake, and Three made the mistake of trudging to the kitchen for some water.

Rookie mistake.

Four got out of bed, and followed Three. Three felt them way around to the kitchen. their eyesight hadn't been the same after Kamabo.

She didn’t even see Four behind them, until they both were eye to eye. Three jumped, before sighing.

“Whew. You scared me Four, aha.” Three chuckled. Four gave no response.

Silence for a bit.

“Sooo…uhh…are you okay?”

No response. Three got worried at this, and took a step towards Four.

“Um…Four? Are you good? Do you feel okay?” 

Four was seeing red. Three said something else, but Four didn’t care. 

Four swung at Three, as hard as she could. Three gasped in surprise, and fell back. The punch had knocked the wind out of their sails. She wasn’t expecting it. She wasn't prepared.

It felt…good to hit Three. Great. Inflicting the pain she felt tenfold on the reason for it was delightful.

“What…the fuck Four!?” Three choked. their voice sounded pained.

Excellent. 

Four dropped to their knees, and grabbed Three’s foot. She dragged it, until Three’s head hit the floor, and she was laying flat on their back.

“Four, what’s happening!?”

Four sat atop of Three, who was squirming for escape. She couldn't let that happen, not after what she’s done .

“Four, please stop! You’re scaring me!”

Scaring them?

Oh that was new. Four liked that, she decided. Scaring the all-mighty Agent Three is something she liked a lot.

So much so, that Four swung at Three again. Another gasp. Four swung again. A pained cry.

Oh, Four was really starting to like this.

A punch, another punch. Three was starting to try to lift their arms up to prepare, only for their arms to be slammed down again, and more punches delivered.

Four didn’t know how long it was until she finally stopped. Three had been begging them to for a while, with choked noises. Four sat back, and looked at their handiwork.

Three’s face was bruised, and their nose was bleeding. Four’s favorite part was, oh and you’ll never believe this,

She was crying.

Agent Three, who never showed a lick of emotion, was crying. Sobbing, actually.

Agent Three was sobbing, begging for this to end, because of Agent Four.

Three reached up to their face, to wipe away the tears, but Four slammed them hands back down.

“No.” She said,

“Fo-our…” Three hiccuped.

Silence.

“W-what’s happ-happened to yo-youu?”

Four did not respond.

“Listen. I don’t kno-know what happened...bu-but plea-please stop.”

Silence, again. Four grabbed Three’s face.

“Plea-se…I'm sorry. I'm sorry i'm sorry i'm-”

Four wrapped their hands around Three’s neck, and squeezed. Three choked, and began clawing at Four’s hands.

A futile attempt. She then began to try and claw at Four’s face, make them stop.

She couldn’t achieve their goal.

Four was strangling Three. She wheezed, and struggled, and begged for air, but to have nothing come of it.

Three began to see spots, and felt themself ebbing away, when Four showed mercy, and let go.

Three gasped in every last cell of air she could, felt it rushing into their lungs. She coughed, and tried to get up, when Four pushed them down again.

“Stay there.” Four snarled, getting up.

Three should have moved, run back to them bedroom where Eight slept soundly but,

She didn’t.

She stayed, just as Four had ordered.

Four returned shortly after, with their phone pointed at Three.

Three’s hands flew to their face, to hide the battered, sobbing mess she’d become. Four dropped down onto Three again, and held both their arms above their head with one hand, while using the otthem to snap a photo.

She looked at the photo, then back at Three.

The photo wasn’t as good as seeing it in person, no. But it’d have to do. Four turned their phone, and showed it to Three.

“I know how you love your tough guy persona, Three.” Four cooed. “And how you’d hate for this to get out to anyone. So how about we make a deal.”

Three only sobbed in response.

“I get to use you as my punching bag, to relieve the pain you’ve put me through, and you get to keep your dignity intact. Okay?”

“And ho- And how do yo-you expect me to ke-eep these bruises a secr-ret?” Three asked.

“Oh, you’ll figure something out. I know how good you are at lying. Slippery snake, you are.”

No response from Three.

“I’ll take your awkward silence as a yes.”

And with that, Four was off of Three, and gone. She waltzed to their room, a new pep in them step, and closed the door. She glided to their bed, and laid down.

Four’s not sure what Three did after that. She heard the front door open, and slam, so she had reason to believe Three was gone, but she didn’t care.

She had gotten what she wanted. She took one long last look at the photo, before shutting their phone off and going to bed.

And the next morning, Four was back to normal. She still had the aloof air as normal, cracking jokes like normal.

Three was back the next morning, as well. Seemingly without bruises, most likely by makeup. Callie had given them those lessons a year back, she must have picked up something.

Four smirked at Three, the entire day. A small smile, just to remind them who’s in charge. Shell, sometimes she even flashed the photo, and Three would harden.

All-in-all, Four felt better.

She had won, after all.