At one time, we were nothing but mere farmers.

Now, we are squinja.

I followed Braxton Annaki, our leader, through the bamboo forest. We had been running for many days, too many for me to count. With the tyrannical Emperor Bokun in charge, our families were forced to give over everything we had. We could barely keep any food for ourselves, our hard-earned crops going to the Emperor’s army and his closest subjects.

“Keep moving!” said Braxton. “His carriage should be coming through this path at any moment!”

Our mission was to kill Emperor Bokun and create anarchy. We were a small village, but we were determined to prove that even the strongest of enemies could fall to the most common of people. “Yes, Braxton,” I replied, fighting my aching muscles to see to it that Annaki was supreme above all other clans.

Emperor Bokun’s forces were fierce and terrifying, with brush-wielding warriors who could strike down a squinja with ease. I was scared of falling prey to them, as I knew it would bring great shame to my lineage. I was from the Enperrial Clan, an enemy of Annaki, and yet Braxton had chosen to keep me around instead of ending my life. I owed everything to him.

After another hour, we stopped, seeing a clearing. It was the pathway that Bokun’s carriage was supposed to pass through. I steadied my breathing, becoming silent. There would be no mistakes. It was now or never, victory or devastation, all or nothing!

We heard the footsteps, followed by the sounds of his horse. Horses were extremely rare in this day and age, almost extinct. I felt sorry for the one who had to carry around Emperor Bokun. Suddenly, Braxton let out a war cry, jumping in with his bucket, flinging globs of ink at everyone in sight. I also went in, wielding my hand-crafted bamboozler and quick-sniping anyone who got near Braxton. It wasn’t long before the area was cleared of his men.

Braxton reached into the carriage and pulled out the pathetic, sniveling emperor out from his carriage. Bokun, a young man, barely in his twenties, begged for mercy. “P-Please, no! I can give you anything! Anything you want!!!”

I looked at Braxton, fixated on his expression. Braxton stared into the emperor’s eyes with a cold demeanor. “Anything, huh…?”

“Y-Yes!” the emperor said with a forced smile. “Anything you want! I promise! A position, cash, land, power!”

Braxton grabbed the emperor by the head and forced the bucket of ink onto it, making me close my eyes as I heard Bokun’s screams suddenly cut off. Braxton merely said, “Give me honor.”

I opened my eyes, seeing the carriage covered in ink. With my hands trembling, I smiled. It was done. The tyranny had ended.

And then… I woke up to real life in my room, a pounding headache gnawing at me in the middle of the night. I felt so cold and my body was in intense pain. My back felt… itchy, and no matter how much I scratched, it wouldn’t stop. “N-Nem,” I tried to call out, feeling nauseous. There was no answer. I couldn’t even hear myself and I was starting to panic.

In the corner of my eye I saw what looked like… a t-tentacle, but when I turned to see, it was gone, making me feel like I was crazy. In this dark room, I couldn’t be sure of anything right now. A sudden thirst hit me. I needed water, now. Getting out of bed and stumbling into the kitchen, I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it up with water from the sink.

I half-drank and half-choked on the glass of water as I desperately downed it, my pain overwhelming and my thirst getting out of hand. I felt like I couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t think. I didn’t want to think. I wanted to feel better. Another drink, then again and again until the light turned on.

I was hit with even more pain from the blinding brightness while hearing, “Amelia? What on earth are you doing up at this late hour?”

“B-Body hurts,” I answered, refusing to open my eyes. I felt her take my hand and hold her other hand to my forehead.

“Sweet coral, you’re burning up,” she said in worry.

“N-Nem,” I said, hardly able to say her name. I couldn’t focus on anything, my mind caught in some kind of hazy storm. “My head hurts really bad…”

“Let me grab you some medicine,” said Nem.

I never did look forward to medicine, as it was always so bitter, and although there were some pain relievers that were cross-species, I just couldn’t always keep it down. David knew what was best to give to me due to his work in the field of anthropology and archaeology, so he had given Nem instructions on what to do in these situations.

But I had never been hit with anything like this before.

“David?” said Nem, holding her phone between her shoulder and her cheek. Her hands were too busy trying to open the medicine bottle. “David, Amelia’s got a nasty fever and I need you over here. ...Yes, I know what time it is!”

I was drifting in and out of consciousness, leaning against Nem for support and before I knew it, David had arrived and there was a thermometer in my mouth. I had a blanket around me. I felt cold and at the same time also burning up. I was scared. Was I dying? What did I just come down with?

“You’re sure ?” asked David.

“Yes, David,” replied Nem as I was set down on the couch. My vision was hazy and I could barely feel my hand in Nem’s. I was supposedly being comforted but I couldn’t feel it…? What kind of sick joke was this? I felt like I was slipping away from them.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” he said. “There’s the chance she’s contracted a virus she can’t handle, given that she’s been absent from this world for over ten thousand years. Viruses are constantly evolving, getting stronger. It was probably only a matter of time before she got one that was potentially fatal.”

“Don’t you dare say what I think you’re saying,” said Nem, tightening her grip on my hand. “Not again, David.”

...Again?

I could hear a shuffle as David stood up. They were both blurs in my vision, and I felt like I was swimming in a sea of burning intensity. “Nem,” he spoke softly. “You knew the risks. We can only hope she gets through. I can’t give her anything else other than the medication that’s been approved for her. If we reach out to anyone else, they will attempt to dissect her if she passes. Do you want that?”

“D-David,” mumbled Nem. “There has to be something else. She’s got the temperature of a furnace right now.”

“Just watch her. I’ll… see what I can do,” he replied. “I don’t know if you can hear this, Amelia, but we are trying everything we can.”

I tried to reply, but it only came out in an odd gurgle, my throat feeling like it had swallowed glass. I hear Nem stifle a cry as she sat down on the couch and pulled me into her embrace, shushing me. “Don’t speak, Amelia,” she said. “Save your strength. I don’t know what’s happening to you, but we will get through this. I won’t let you go.”

I felt consciousness slowly leaving me as my mind dipped into a sea of dreams.

I drifted off into a dark void, free from the pain. There was only a gentle warmth that kept me content as I sifted through the sands of time and saw the various stages of inkling society. From small families to clans, from clans to settlements, from settlements to villages, from villages to towns, and from towns to cities.

Inklings and octolings had begun mingling together shortly after the warring clans period, happy to know one another and feeling at peace with their co-existence. It was all thanks to Annaki’s influence on the populace, encouraging them to rise up against tyranny and to establish a new government that would ensure that all were treated fairly. There was peace between us until the sea levels began rising again. It was then and only then that we began to fight once more.

I held my splattershot prototype tightly in my hands. I was the last of my platoon and I was deep in enemy territory. My husband had begged me not to go, but I knew that if I didn’t, the octarians would take over Inkopolis one day. I had to protect him and my kid.

I was deep in the jungle, covered in sweat as the moist heat took its toll on my body. I felt so dehydrated, like I would collapse at any moment, but I continued on, despite the warnings my body gave me.

Then, out of nowhere, I was assaulted by three octolings, a glob of ink hitting me from behind in the back. I quickly turned around, firing back, the adrenaline of turf madness hitting me. I wasn’t going to let them get the drop on me and get away with it.

I took down one, then another, leaving me with the final octoling. She approached me, wearing a blank, white mask, much like you’d see in a theatre. I couldn’t let her win. These octolings were so sinister. How we had managed to keep peace with them before was beyond me. I knew they were the very essence of evil.

“Are we?” she suddenly asked me, making me jump in surprise.

I fired off a round of ink before stopping myself. “Wh-What?!”

“Nice dream,” she said to me.

What dream…? I’m not dreaming, am I? She approached me, taking off her theatre mask and revealing my face. I stepped back in fear. I was my enemy??? “What is this?!” I screamed. “What kind of sick joke is this?!?!?!”

“Admit it, Amelia,” she said. “You like being someone you’re not. All your time, dedicated to Turf War… It’s kinda cute, you know?”

“Amelia…?” I repeated. That name was… familiar…

“Snap out of it, Amelia,” said the octoling. “You’re having dreams.”

Having… dreams…

“AMELIA! SNAP OUT OF IT!”

I suddenly opened my eyes, seeing Nem‘s face looking down at me, her arms holding me tightly as she rocked. “You’re having such bad dreams,” she said. “You were whimpering. Are you okay…?”

I opened my mouth, hoarsely whispering as my throat burned, “I’m scared. Am I dying?”

“Shh… You’ll be okay,” she said. “I promise you.”

“You said… not again ,” I forced out. “You told David, ‘not again,’ and didn’t say much more than that.”

Nem’s eyes seemed to lock onto mine, our gazes catching each other. “It’s complicated, Amelia. It’s nothing you need to know about.”

“Please…?” I choked out. “I wanna know.”

Nem was obviously hesitant to tell me, yet she still laid my head against her chest as she let out a heavy sigh and said, “You’re not the first child I’ve taken care of, Amelia.”

…

“She’s… in a better place,” continued Nem. “I’ll tell you more later, but… you need rest. Now isn’t the time for stories.”

I gently nodded, closing my tired eyes. “You never told me anything abo--”

“Shh,” she whispered. “Sleep, kiddo. David’s seeing what he can do. You need to conserve energy.”

I simply stayed quiet for her, my mind drifting once again. It was strange news, yes, yet my sickly state wasn’t letting me feel surprised. I was too tired to feel surprised. Nem had taken care of someone before me? So… she was a mother… It was no wonder how she was able to form such a bond with me so quickly. She knew how to handle it from experience.

Drifting into the darkness of my mind, I seemed to… lose all memory of everything I ever knew, but when I saw the octoling girl again, floating beside me with my… f-face… I remembered waking from the cryopod and entering this… strange inkling world.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,~” she teased.

“Y-Yeah,” I replied. “What’s happening…?”

“Well, you’re having a fever, silly,” she said with a sincere smile. “I’m going to guess you’ve never been anyone else before.”

“Kinda obvious,” I remarked.

“That’s okay,” she said. “Neither have I. Then again, I’m you. ”

I had so many questions, but the most prominent one in my mind was, “If you’re me, then why are you an octoling?”

“I think it’s because you seem to relate to them more,” she said to me. “Stuck in a place that’s not theirs, judged by inklings, in danger of being found out…”

That made sense, I suppose. I now remembered a little bit more about how they had slowly made their way into inkling society in secret.

“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked. “Why am I having this fever?”

She laid on her back in the empty void, looking up. “Hm… There’s many possible reasons. You may have caught a virus, or maybe your DNA is so damaged by the nanobots that you’re dying.~”

My DNA…? What nanobots…? And… d-dying.

“Why do you sound so happy about that last part?” I asked fearfully.

“You should know,” she said to me, rolling onto her stomach and looking into my eyes. “You’ve been through a lot of pain. Mom and Dad are gone, Mark is gone, and you’re stuck being a useless human in an inkling’s world. It’s scary and dark out there, Amelia. You just try to disguise your pain by chasing after Turf War.”

I… entered their Splatfest. I remembered that. I loved Turf War.

“But… I do like Turf War,” I defended. “It’s thrilling!”

“Is that really what’s thrilling, though?” she asked. “Or is it fitting in and being like the inklings that’s thrilling? Let’s face it. You either want to die or you want to be an inkling, and you know one option is impossible…”

I didn’t like how this sounded. This couldn’t be my subconscious self. Yes, I wanted to be like them, but… “Isn’t living with the inklings enough? Isn’t playing Turf War with them enough?”

She stroked her chin, her eyes wandering as she slowly floated upwards. “It’s complicated, Amelia… Your disconnection from your body is proof of that. You keep having more and more dreams of being an inkling. It’s no wonder why you’re having them. You want to be their standard of normal…”

My chest felt tight. She was hitting me with truths I’d been hiding from myself. My eyes watered. “Th-That’s not--”

“Don’t lie to yourself!” she shouted, interrupting me. “You stupid girl! Look at yourself! You’ve been desperately trying to cling to something just to have a normal life! You have nothing left! No more Mom! No more Dad! No more Mark! Two are DEAD and one is in captivity!”

I couldn’t… I broke down, crouching down and curling up into a ball as intense sadness and depression washed over me. As I sobbed, she approached me. I didn’t want her near me, closing my eyes tight as I choked out my cries.

She crouched and ran her fingers through my hair. “Poor girl. You should’ve ended it a long time ago, and now this might be it for you. It’ll be slow, I bet. Need a hug…?”

“Why would you offer that after pelting me with what you just said?” I questioned her in a hoarse voice.

“Gotta learn to love yourself, I guess. You’re the only human you know of left, right?” she reasoned.

“I suppose…” I whispered.

“Amelia? Amelia, wake up, please!” a voice pleaded. It sounded… familiar.

“Ignore him,” she said, holding out her hand. “Take my hand, please. All the pain can stop here and now.”

“She’s not breathing! NEM! SHE’S NOT BREATHING!”

I stared at her hand, tempted to take it. What good was it to stay here…? I had nothing left. My world was gone and I had no one from my old life with me anymore. “I…”

“Amelia, please! Wake up! It’s me, Bryson!”

Bryson…? Who was…?

I saw a blue, glowing figure in the distance up ahead, and… standing up, I stumbled towards it. I heard my other self ask, “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” I responded. “I don’t think I’ve lost everything yet… but I can’t remember who it was I still have.”

“But… you’re dying!” she shouted.

I could feel memories of other people flooding my mind as I ran past images of them, getting closer and closer towards the blue figure. Then, with that blue figure, another one appeared.

“C’mon, Amelia! Please don’t go! It’s me, Ace!”

Ace…?

Then a third figure appeared.

“Amelia, it’s Liv! If you can hear me, don’t let go!”

My friends…

I had friends here.

Just as I tried to run for them, my subconscious grabbed my wrist. She looked at me sternly. “No, Amelia. You’re going back to a place that’s no good for you.”

I jerked my hand away. “You’re not me!”

She made a grimace, looking at me in disgust. Her gaze towards me was so cold, so piercing. “You could’ve been something better had you taken my hand. I could’ve been real.”

“What in cod’s name are you talking about?” I asked, backing up.

She looked down, pondering before shaking her head. “Just go. I’ll wait for you next time, but you can’t keep me out of your head forever, Amelia. I will be you and you will be me. You could’ve lived a life without remembering anything. You could’ve--”

I was suddenly pulled away from her by a powerful force. My body felt as though it were jerking about, everything feeling like a sudden burst of energy. I was pulled further towards the blue figures yet again, feeling my heartbeat pounding heavily and erratically.

I was washed in a huge mass of light and I opened my eyes, screaming as I bolted awake. Hospital lights flooded my vision while I took a lungful of sweet air, my body thanking me. As I tried to calm down, I heard David shout, “I-It worked! The defib worked!”

Before I knew it, I was suddenly hugged tightly by Nem-Nem. “She’s alive!” she cried out.

I could catch glimpses of the room I was in. A poster of an inkling getting a flu shot, a few chairs where my friends were sitting, white walls, bright lights, and the bed I was on. I was in the hospital.

I could hardly speak, my teeth chattering, but I eventually managed to force out, “H-H-How l-long w-was I asleep?”

“A whole week,” said David. “You were in a coma and we were forced to bring you here.”

I tried to piece things together, but with how foggy my brain was, I just gave up with it. “Do you know what’s wrong with me?” I simply asked.

Nem-Nem turned her head to her left with an intense glare. “Yes, we do. I know everything, especially the nanobots and your little stunt in an octarian base.”

I turned to see who she was glaring at, and my heart dropped when I saw Ace, Bryson, and Liv. Liv seemed to be the receiver of Nem’s deadly gaze. Liv stood up and straightened her posture. “I had to tell them,” said Liv. “They needed all the info in order to figure out what was wrong.”

Bryson folded his arms. “Well, she’s good now, right? That’s all that matters?”

“I feel like that’s not the case here,” remarked Ace.

“It’s not,” said Liv. “Amelia, when you were at the octarian base, did… they inject you with anything?”

My brain tried to focus long enough to retrieve the memory of Ophelia injecting me with the so-called medicine before she tried to freeze me. “Yeah…?” I answered. “W-Why?”

Liv had an expression of regret on her face as she said, “I’ve retrieved some data from the nanobots and… it’s really messed up, much worse than I initially thought.”

“What’s happening to me?” I pushed.

Liv approached the side of the hospital bed, obviously feeling Nem’s gaze from behind as her expression grew more guilty. “The nanobots detected another set of DNA that’s trying to set itself up inside you. They’ve been combatting it while also attempting to replace your DNA at the same time.”

I clutched my head, my body shivering as a wave of nausea and coldness swept through me. “You’ve found a way to stop it, right…?” I asked.

Liv stared at me in silence, that very lack of words being the answer I dreaded most. My face twisted into an expression of hopeless despair, sobs coming out from my mouth. I didn’t want to go through this anymore! I just wanted a normal life!

“Am I going to die?” I slowly asked her.

“It’s hard to tell,” she said. “There are three outcomes depending on what we do… and none of them are pretty.”

I shook in fear from that. “And they are?”

“One, the nanobots will successfully fight off the foreign DNA in time before the bots destroy yours and I can shut them down. Two, I shut down the nanobots and the second strand of DNA replaces yours completely. “Three, I do nothing and we see what happens…”

I was scared, really scared. It wouldn’t matter what we did. “So there’s really nothing we can do?”

“I had a feeling it couldn’t be fixed,” said David. “So I… called someone for help.”

Nem’s gaze hovered over David now. “David, don’t tell me…”

David, looking back at her, said in defense, “Now, hold on. We’ve known him for a long time.”

“David! You know what he’s like! ” she scolded.

“He’s always been on our side in the past!” shouted David. “Just trust me! ...You know that he might be her only chance of surviving!”

I had… the worst feeling about all of this, and it only got worse when there was a knock on the door. As it opened up, my eyes locked onto the person I had feared the most during my time in this world.

“David. I hope you understand that I am rather cross with you for hiding this secret from me for all this time.”

Doctor Scalpel stood in the doorway, his gray eyes staring at me in analysis. I felt my muscles lock up as he slowly walked over to the hospital bed, his eyes mostly focused on my hair. As he raised a hand, Nem grabbed his wrist, saying with a death-threatening tone, “Don’t you dare touch her.”

Bryson immediately attempted to rush forward, but Ace grabbed his arm, pulling him back. Liv also helped to keep Bryson at bay, the two convincing him to keep calm in the situation. We couldn’t just fight in some hospital and we all knew that. Bryson just needed a reminder.

Scalpel’s eyes glanced to his side at Nem with caution as he lowered his hand. “You’ve been keeping this from me?” he asked. “You knew what my research needed, Nem.”

“She’s not a test subject ,” Nem replied.

Bram’s cold gaze met mine, giving me shivers down my spine. “I had a feeling you were different,” he said. “I just wasn’t sure when to act on it…”

David stepped in between them and grabbed my hand, looking at Scalpel. “She’s had a rough time, Bram. With your increasing obsession with finding the freezing coffins, we were worried that you’d resort to your old habits.”

“I have restraint,” said Scalpel. “I am your brother, David.”

David gently tightened his grip. “Yes, and as your brother, I know you. You’ve done serious damage back then. You’re lucky that the Enperry company even keeps you employed.”

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” said Scalpel. “I am their leading researcher into gear and xenobiology.”

“You’re only still here because of Dad,” said David as he looked Scalpel in the eye. “Don’t push your luck.”

Seeing both David and Scalpel argue with each other made me a little grateful that my brother and I had always gotten along. From what David said, I could only think that their dad was either the head of Enperry or that he was high up there in the ranks of the company. Scalpel would take the occasional glance at me through his argument with David, only making me feel more and more tensed up.

“I know the limits,” said Scalpel. “As for the creature… I want her DNA.”

And I wanted out. “No!” I shouted. “David, please don’t let him near me!”

“David, should you shut me out of this, I will come forward with this information to the government,” threatened Scalpel. “I can assure you, child , that you will not be harmed in any way, shape, or form. All I’m asking you is your cooperation as payment for me saving your life.

If I were allowed to swear, I would’ve cussed him out then and there. He was already threatening to expose my existence and he expected me to be grateful? I couldn’t trust him! I wanted out of this hospital! I wanted to trust Liv and let her figure this out!

“David, why would you call him?!” I questioned him.

“Amelia, calm down,” said David. “Bram’s my brother and I know he may be abrasive but he’s also a genius! He’s worked on things most inklings can hardly comprehend! If anyone could figure out how to save your life, it’s him! ”

“I just… don’t like this!” I said in return. “I’m scared! What if he tries to dissect me?!”

“Let me get one thing straightened out,” said Scalpel. “Should I have wanted to dissect you, I would have done it already… I suspected you were human, as it was very obvious with your voice. You don’t have the gurgle we produce in our speech and I’m surprised that none of these inkling idiots were capable of telling you apart from the rest of the crowd.”

I still couldn’t trust him. It was just a feeling in my gut. “What will you do?” I asked, scared out of my mind.

“Hearing of your DNA problem… I’ve decided to help slow it down,” he answered. “You are of great interest to me, and to have your genetic material completely broken down would be a complete waste. You are the last of your kind and only you can help me with my research, so I will… attempt to refrain from dissecting you. I had it as a last resort, however, if all else failed.”

I shivered in fear and discomfort, my eyes occasionally wandering over to Nem. Eventually, she took my hand and said, “Only under my supervision. If he hurts you, I won’t let him live to see tomorrow.”

Scalpel took a step back, giving Nem and I some room, his gaze lingering on me for a little bit longer before he turned to David. When their gazes met, I could see the mutual stresses of sibling rivalry being exchanged. But what I could tell was whether it was intentional or not. Scalpel seemed to be pushing David away while David tried to get closer to Scalpel.

If Mark were to be distant to me if I ever found him, I’d be crushed. I could sympathize with David. Family was important, especially when there wasn’t much of it left. I honestly wanted to talk to him more, but with how my body was feeling, I couldn’t do a thing. I wasn’t comfortable with Scalpel here and I definitely wanted to get that message across to David.

“Can you blame me for keeping this from you?” asked David to Scalpel. “You know how sullied your reputation has been for the past ten years.”

Scalpel’s eyes seemed to move in a way that indicated he was thinking deeply about it. “I… suppose I can try to understand your reasoning. I’m just surprised that you would hide this from me when you know how desperately I needed that sample.”

“She’s gone, Bram,” said David. “She’s not coming back. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can move on.”

I wanted to know who ‘she’ was. Did Scalpel have a wife? Did she pass away…? If that was true, then… I guess my feelings about him were a bit wrong, but it didn’t mean he was trustworthy, especially since he was apparently known for dissection. Whenever I had read about him in magazines, he had always been described as the type to always dive into the research and get to the heart of it when it came to any near-extinct creature. Guinea pigs were one example he had experimented on, one of the few mammals leftover from the old world…

“That’s not for nature to decide,” said Scalpel. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll cease my efforts. For now, I’m going to keep trying.”

And so began my treatment…

With Scalpel’s injections, I began feeling better afterwards, my fever vanishing completely. I’d still have some symptoms, but even those faded over a bit more time. These injections would be under David and Nem’s supervision, the two making sure Scalpel wouldn’t try anything to hurt me. It was inevitable that I was released from the hospital shortly afterwards, with doctors being paid by Enperry as usual to keep quiet about my existence.

Scalpel would visit every day, once a day, to check up on my progress. I would get injections every two days and Scalpel would ask me questions about how I came to be here in a world of inklings. He would bombard me with entire lists of questions. Whenever there was a question that was too uncomfortable, Nem would step in, telling him to skip it.

Then, one day, a very particular question got stuck in my mind…

“Why did you begin pursuing Turf War?”

“Wh-What?” I asked, refocusing on reality. I had been sitting on the living room couch while he stood in a chair across from me.

“You heard me,” he said. “Why would you, a human, a creature who has absolutely no traits that could even be considered similar to an inkling, want to participate in such a barbaric sport such as Turf War?”

Nem had been in the kitchen at the time, and so I didn’t expect him to just suddenly ask me a question without her present.

“I… don’t know,” I said, unsure for the first time in my life about the sport.

“You don’t know?” asked Scalpel. “Then why do it?”

“I’ve been having weird dreams lately,” I said. I looked down, avoiding eye contact. His eyes were very emotionless, making it difficult to look him straight on. “It’s been really weird, like I’m having glimpses of events that I don’t remember going through.”

“Dreams are irrelevant to this question,” said Scalpel. “I want to know why you insist on playing this sport. You seem like a bright girl, but when I see your splatfest clips, I see something a little more savage in you.”

I really needed Nem here. “Can’t I just skip the--”

“No,” he interrupted.

I groaned and said, “At first, I was really enamoured with it. I loved the fast-paced action, and upon going into Turf War, I loved it more and more, even though I couldn’t play the same way as they could.”

“Very similar to early primates,” he muttered. “I’ve seen some of your early ancestors in action, you know…”

“Excuse me?” I questioned, confused beyond belief.

“Chimpanzees,” he answered. “There are very few left, all of them in captivity and studied by scientists the world over. You say you feel happy upon going through the action, and I’m guessing it’s the primitive nature within your species that’s still leftover from your ape precursors.

“Don’t inklings feel happy with it as well?” I asked.

I didn’t have to look up to know he was staring right at me because of my question. He must have been annoyed by the mere mention, as he sighed right then and there before answering, “Unfortunately, yes… It’s the curse of all life-forms until they can shed the disgusting trait through future evolutionary steps.”

“Why do you hate that?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, I thought I was asking the questions today,” said Scalpel.

No way he was getting away with this, not after asking me so many questions. I deserved some answers of my own. I don’t know why, but at this time, I felt very daring, like there was someone else in my mind pulling the strings, but I didn’t seem to mind it as I asked, “Are you avoiding the question?”

“I am,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

Scalpel shuffled in his chair as he straightened out his coat. “I’ve been through a lot. I’ve seen the consequences of our actions.”

“Explain,” I suddenly demanded.

“Someone is very bold today, isn’t she?” asked Scalpel.

I paused for a bit, then… asked in my softest voice, “Please…?”

“At least there’s some amount of mannerism in you,” he said. “Fine… If you must know, I’ve had quite the loss. Ten years ago, I had a daughter who, just like you and the pitiful citizens of Inkopolis, loved Turf War.”

“You lost her?” I queried.

“As you know, I improved existing spawn point technology at a young age,” he said. “I knew its risks, its chances of failing, but I considered those risks very low, so I allowed her to play. What a fool I was. I was attending her match, watching her, wanting to be a good father and to support her. Then I noticed something wrong.”

I didn’t like where this story was going…

“She was splatted, as was common occurrence in Turf War,” said Scalpel. “But… she didn’t come out of the spawn point…”

…

Scalpel’s voice was a little more emotional, with a tone of regret. “I rushed onto the field, hoping to reactivate it before she was lost for good, but I was too late. Her life essence was gone, the machine unable to recapture it in time due to its sudden malfunction…”

I didn’t know what to say. I had literally just pushed him into telling me about her death and I had thought I was in the right. I didn’t know I’d be hearing this!

“I’m… sorry,” I said, clutching my left arm with my right hand, feeling a little ashamed of making him tell me that story.

“Do not apologize,” he said. “It means nothing to me. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I can bring her back if I can get a sample of fresh human DNA. With the degradation of human DNA in the bone samples we’ve obtained from fossils, I can’t get what I need from them. You, however, are alive… I need to keep you that way for now.”

“So, you want my DNA in exchange for my life,” I assumed.

“You are correct,” he answered.

How was human DNA supposed to bring back an inkling? It was her soul that was needed, right? It was gone. How would human DNA bring the soul back?  Was there something special about us we didn’t know about? I had no clue. I still had more questions, however. “You said you can bring the dead back to life,” I mentioned. “Can you bring anyone back…?”

Scalpel’s gaze shifted upwards as he thought before answering, “I don’t know. I don’t care enough about any other creature to attempt it on them. My only concern is my daughter.”

“So you wouldn’t be interested in trying to bring back my parents,” I guessed.

He looked at me with hardly any emotion, yet he answered, “I… might, if you do more than just supply me with samples. I have relics that can only be accessed by your species. Old AI machines that won’t allow me to look at the information they hold. Do this for me and you can very well have your parents back.”

“Even though I want them back, how can I be sure you’ll be able to do it? Even the octolings couldn’t bring my parents back. One told me so,” I said.

“They’re beneath me,” said Scalpel. “When I was only six, I constructed a nuclear fusion reactor for the school science fair. At ten, I was already building advanced A.I. capable of predicting even the smallest of movements. At fourteen, I graduated from a university for the intellectually-gifted and joined up with the enemy, simply to learn more.”

“Y-You joined the octarians?” I questioned.

“I did,” he answered. “Sadly, they had little to offer me when it came to technological progress. I left shortly after wiring a few inksplosives throughout their base. They think they can simply keep me there, but I’m no fool. I’m always prepared and I’m always listening, carefully planning the demise of the ones closest to me. You can never trust a friend and you can just barely trust family. What David did was completely unnecessary.”

“You blew up a base,” I reminded.

“There’s no one alive to prove that,” he said. “For all you know, I could’ve just told you a lie, and who’s going to listen to you on such a matter? David? Certainly he would, but then again, he’s my brother. I’ve done far worse and he’s kept quiet about it…”

Scalpel’s confidence was unsettling. His words were those of someone who was potentially crazy, but I wasn’t so sure if that was really the case. Maybe he was just so focused on getting his daughter back that he had undergone a complete personality change. A death could change people, and I knew that from experience. There were still days where I had constantly thought about them.

“You wouldn’t think so, but your DNA is very valuable,” said Scalpel. It could contribute to science and save countless lives.”

“I don’t want to see myself that way,” I said. “I’m just a girl.”

“You’re the last human alive,” he said to me.

“Not if you count my brother,” I replied.

“Your brother…?” he repeated.

“He’s missing,” I admitted. “I’ve been looking for him.”

“Then this puts me at an advantage,” he said. “Help me with my research and I can help you find your brother.”

The audacity of this squid… He was using my parents and my brother as a way to coerce me into being a guinea pig for him. Just how far was he willing to go to get me to help him?

“You’re only doing it if I help you,” I stated.

“You are correct,” he coldly said. “Nature is war, dear human. It’s a constant struggle for survival and the only way we can get what we want is through cooperation. "Cooperating out of kindness is merely a result of the brain coaxing you into strengthening relationships in order to selfishly ensure your survival in a social hierarchy. In simpler words: no one has ever truly cared for anyone else."

“But you care about your daughter,” I pointed out.

He had a small smile on his face, but his eyes showed that he was possibly annoyed with me. “Clever human, trying to make me contradict myself.”

“What’s the difference between caring and believing that you care?” I asked. “Shouldn’t just believing that you care be enough?”

“I do accept that I believe I care,” he said. “It’s just that evolution looks at everything in a dim light, no matter how much we like to sprinkle it with optimism. I’ve seen what inklings do to get to the top. I’ve been betrayed by many and I’m willing to betray everyone as well. In this world, I have been pushed around for far too long to simply turn the other cheek.”

He seemed to have the exact opposite of my beliefs. Could a death really drive someone into this kind of behavior? Was he always like this? I had questions, but I was afraid to ask. I had already uncovered the truth about his daughter, so to ask more questions would just make things much more awkward.

“You’re zoning out,” he stated. “Deep in thought, I presume.”

“Y-Yeah,” I quietly answered.

His eyes stared at me as he thought of another question. “What does your brother mean to you?”

“What do you mean?” I asked back.

Leaning back in his seat, he twiddled with his thumbs. “David and I have had quite the past together. How did human families work?”

“The same as how inkling families work, I think,” I replied. “He’s always been there for me. When he went missing, I was distraught. I had no one else to turn to except for Nem.”

Speaking of Nem…

“Are we done for today…?” I asked.

“Eager to be rid of me,” he said. “I see how it is, but you are also correct. I have a meeting in thirty minutes.”

He stood up and gave me one final glance before turning for the doorway. After he left, Nem walked in from the kitchen. “Amelia, could you help me with a bit of taste testing?” she asked. Noticing Scalpel’s absence, she then asked me, “Where’s Bram?”

“He said he had a meeting,” I said, leaving out the additional questions. I didn’t want her to worry about him asking more than he was initially allowed to per day without her supervision. I still needed those shots so that he could keep my DNA from literally unraveling.

“He’s always been like that,” she said with a sigh. “Even as a kid, he was focused on his studies and his little meetings with other equally-gifted students. Barely had time for David and I, but he did what he could to spend time with us. He’s not like he used to be anymore…”

I walked into the kitchen with her, thinking about what she had just said. Scalpel wasn’t always like this? So, I was right. His daughter’s death really did change him. Walking into the kitchen, I saw a tray on the counter, accompanied by a bowl with frosting inside. It looked to be chocolate. “Is it that?” I assumed.

“Mhm,” she answered. “A new recipe. I wanted to experiment a bit more, but I had no time to collect the ingredients until recently. I had to close down the bakery for the weekend to do just that.”

…

“Nem, I wanted to ask…”

Nem looked down at me. “Hm?”

Did I seriously dare to ask after uncovering the truth about Scalpel’s daughter? I’d feel even more guilty. I didn’t think I had it in me to ask Nem about this.

But… she did it for me.

“I know,” she said. “I can always tell by those expressions on your face.”

“Y-You don’t have to,” I said. “I’m sor--”

“Shush,” she said. “It’s about time I told you the truth on some things. Might be a bit of a bombshell, but then again, I’m not sure if you’ve suspected it before or not throughout your time with me.”

“I… okay,” I said, already feeling more of the guilt settling in.

“Go sit down in the living room and I’ll grab us some cocoa while I tell my story,” she said.

I nodded, that tinge of guilt inside me. As I walked into the living room, I began to feel like I was getting too much information at once. Too much had happened within the past few days and I felt like this was getting to me. I had a dangerous combination of nanobots and DNA that was literally killing me, had uncovered the truth about Scalpel’s daughter, and now Nem was going to tell me everything.

If this was a fictional story, I’d say it was going too fast for any reader’s liking. Give me a break, right…? Real life was very hectic… I didn’t know if I could even process it all myself. I had almost died and I felt like there was something inside of me that wanted out, something that wanted to kill me and take my place. Those dreams I had of the other me had stayed with me, with her constantly holding her hand out to me, waiting for me to take it.

Luckily, I’d wake up before I ever could. And before I had ever woken up, she’d give me a pitiful look each time, making me feel like I needed to question my own existence more and take her little ‘offer’ into consideration.

It gnawed at my brain, keeping me on my toes. These past few nights, I had been seeing tentacles in the corner of my vision, making me feel like I wasn’t alone in my own room. It scared me and it made me feel like I was being hunted.

Sitting down on the couch, I leaned back, waiting, my eyes closed. Before I knew it, I heard Nem-Nem clear her throat. “Amelia? Are you awake?”

Opening my eyes, I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Scared me a little,” said Nem. “Almost thought you went into another coma.”

“S-Sorry,” I apologized.

She held out a mug of hot cocoa to me and then sipped from her own mug before settling down in her favorite recliner chair. “You’re afraid of hearing this?” she asked.

“A little,” I answered. “I really don’t want you to tell me. I regret asking in the first place.”

“You needed to know sooner or later,” said Nem. “I’m sorry, but I need to tell you right now. I have to get this off my chest.”

I stayed still, staring at the marshmallows drifting through the cocoa in my mug, quietly saying, “Okay…”

“You… know how David and I fight a lot,” she said.

“Yeah,” I said. “A lot more recently.”

“We weren’t always like this,” she said. “We… were an item, a couple set to be married.”

My eyes flitted up to meet her gaze. “What…?”

“Yes, I know,” said Nem. “You’re very confused. I can explain it all.”

“A-Alright,” I said.

Nem took a sip from her mug and swallowed before saying, “It was back in college when we had first started taking a romantic interest in each other. After an entire childhood of being friends with him and Bram, I had finally seen qualities in David that I found irresistible. He was kind, responsible, and he wanted to be with me as well.”

I had so many questions now, even when I shouldn’t have had them. “But why di--”

“Shush, Amelia,” said. Nem. “Don’t interrupt.”

I lowered my gaze, nodding. “Yes, Nem-Nem…”

Nem took a small sip before continuing on with her story. “We got together and it was… wonderful. I had given him the necklace I gave to you a while back and he wore it for a long time. We were together for about a year before we thought about having a child.”

So… there was a child before me. Throughout the four years I’d been here, Nem-Nem had never mentioned another child, and I felt like I was about to know why.

“Many months later, we had our little prodigy,” said Nem-Nem. “Her name was Nemmi. Although she was a hybrid, she took after my side, being mostly anemone. She was rather proud of that fact. At the age of six, she became fascinated with Turf War. At that time, I was very famous and was still participating in the adult division. She’d watch my matches from the crowd, cheering me on...”

Looking down at my hot cocoa, I listened to the tone in Nem’s voice. It was the tone of a proud mother, the same tone I heard when she had confessed to seeing me as a daughter. I may have thought too much about it, but… was I a replacement to her? Was that why she looked after me so vigilantly?

“She was a natural during training when she was seven,” said Nem. “By the age of fourteen, she had already begun to wipe out the competition, ruthlessly taking down even the toughest of opponents with ease. I felt so much pride from that.”

“Yeah?” I said.

Nem nodded with a sad smile. “Then came the accident…”

Accident…?

“It was her very first Splatfest,” said Nem, her voice almost breaking up. She shivered before continuing. “David had just picked her up and was driving her home. I had prepared a cake for her and was putting on the finishing touches, writing her name on top. It was to celebrate her victories from that night.”

I… couldn’t help myself. I looked up at Nem, almost breathless as I assumed, “She didn’t get to eat that cake, did she…?”

Nem spilled a bit of her cocoa onto the carpet, a near-silent sob forcing its way through her throat. She very slowly shook her head, then said, “He didn’t see that truck coming. The driver didn’t have their headlights on.”

…

“The authorities were at my door,” she barely managed to say. “David had survived with a leg injury, but as for Nemmi… she was gone the moment the vehicles collided.”

How was I supposed to comfort her? All I could do was listen as she broke down into tears after that. There were no words I could say, no actions I could take that could have possibly lessened her pain. So I sat here, listening to her sobs.

After she had collected herself, she told me what happened with her and David. David, feeling traumatized and guilty, had returned the necklace she had given to him, saying that she had deserved better than him. David had eventually entered another relationship a few years later, one with a wife who was, according to Nem, cold-hearted and self-serving. Strangely enough, his wife had recently divorced him prior to our trip to Wahoo World.

As I laid in bed that night, I stared up at the ceiling, so many thoughts going through my mind. It was almost kinda funny. I just wanted to look for my brother. I didn’t want all of this to happen to me, sidetracking me so easily. Was I even close to finding him? I had nothing to go off of and I was under threat, my life literally being held together by some madsquid scientist.

And to top it all off, I had to deal with knowing about Nem-Nem’s… daughter.

…

No, bad girl, Amelia. Nem loves you. You know she does.

At least, that’s what I tried to tell myself. Was I selfish for feeling this sudden jealousy? This feeling of just being a replacement? Nemmi was the prodigy, just like Nem had said before. Was that why she clung to me so easily when we first met? Was she just… so desperate that she would’ve chosen any other kid over me if they had been put under her care instead?

“You’re pretty busy,” said a familiar voice, making me jump in fear. I saw her in the corner of my room, the other me.

“Another dream,” I reasoned.

“Maybe,” she said. “I’ll let you figure it out. So, what’s all this I’m hearing in your mind lately? Feeling pretty empty, huh?~”

“Please, stop,” I said.

She slowly approached, then sat at the foot of my bed. “I offered you a chance to die and you refused. You could’ve been reborn and you could’ve forgotten everything about your old life, never to feel the emotional pain ever again. I pity you so much.”

“You’re the other strand, aren’t you?” I asked. “The DNA that was injected.”

She smiled sincerely this time. “Mhm.~ I don’t hate you, Amelia. I just wanna make you all better. We’re the same, you and I. I promise, it won’t hurt. Just get that scientist off your back and we can get better acquainted.”

I shook my head. “Liv said it’d be fatal.”

“Of course it is,” she said. “Doesn’t mean your consciousness stops existing, though. I’ll be there to take over. You won’t notice a thing. You’ll simply feel like you’ve always been an octoling. Maybe you could win over Nem’s poor, old, broken heart.”

“You’re sick,” I whispered.

“I think it’s you who’s sick,” she said to me. “Symptoms may be gone, but I’m still very much working my way into your genetic coding. For now… it’s almost morning. I think I’ll let you sleep. It’s my body too, after all. We need to take care of it.”

Before I could hurl any form of insult at her, the dream faded and I slept through the rest of the night with no problems. When I woke up, I shivered in fear, wondering what else my future would bring to torment me.