Chasing Chaos - An Order Up Sequel

Part 4 - "The Swap"

"You're back!" Marina happily exclaimed as Pearl, Cyrus, Agent 4, and Agent 8 re-entered the elevator. "How was the floor? I wish I got to see it like we did on our first time here..."

"It was weird!" Pearl said. In drone form, she flew next to Marina while Agent 8, as usual, casually stood in the bottom right corner. Cyrus, similar to Acht, leaned against the wall, and Agent 4 straight up sat crisscross on the floor. Looks like they all had their designated "spots" to stay at in the elevator.

"Weird how?" Acht asked.
"We couldn't see Agent 4 and H4CKER on the other side of the wall at all! Then I had to shoot a soak block, but it made a bridge for Agent 4 instead of Agent 8!"
"Yeah, I made the bridge for Agent 8. Kinda weird, as you guys said. I couldn't actually see them, but they made it across," Cyrus stated.
"Hey! I was telling them the story already! Nobody needed you to cut in!" Pearl snapped.
He shrugged. "Well, I was there too. 'Rina asked all of us how it went. You just answered first."
"You cant call her 'Rina! That's my THING!"
"Again, talk to me when it's trademarked," he snickered, "and I might just listen. Or maybe I won't care."

"H4CKER, we know you're a criminal already. Why do you keep bringing it up? You shouldn't be proud of breaking the law, no matter how small it may be!" Marina insisted.

...Agent 4 had to agree with that. They, as an agent, did not like his..."questionable shenanigans." But he still saved their life, and they still got along pretty well, and the two of them still considered one another friends. Agent 4 just tried to ignore the "lawbreaking" part.

"I don't think you have any room to talk, really." Cyrus said, glancing at Marina. "Y'know, since you built a virtual reality capable of stealing souls. And should I remind everyone what it did to Agent 4?"

Agent 8 looked somewhat angry, and Agent 4 noticed. They knew the octoling felt guilty about what happened and probably felt upset that Cyrus brought it up - especially as a weapon to use against Marina.

"Hey! That wasn't her fault! She didnt mean to!" Pearl shouted.
"And, besides...Smollusk was just lonely," Marina said. "It wanted to make sure it always had a friend in Agent 4. Maybe it was just pretending to be the Big Bad when we tried to rescue them...?"
"Why would you say that? What makes you think that?" Cyrus scoffed.
"...Well, I..." she went silent. Agent 4 looked at her, intrigued. This was about them, after all.
Acht sighed. "If you won't say it, I will."
"NO! I can do it!" Marina cried.

She cleared her throat, and then sheepishly admitted, "...When I was first programming this place, I wrote something down in my Dev Diary. Pearl was supposed to test the Spire of Order while I'd wait for her at the top...and- I compared her to a knight coming to save the princess at the top of the tower!"

"...What?" Cyrus looked at her in a way that read, you can't be serious.

"Aww, 'Rina!" Pearl gushed.

"Yeah...it probably saw Agent 4 as a royal in distress, and Agent 8 and H4CKER as the knights coming to save them," Marina looked to the floor, clearly embarrassed.
"...So its fear of being alone, combined with its willingness to play a villain..." Acht pieced the parts together for everyone else. You know, in case anyone in the elevator missed it, "...mixed in to Marina's comparison to a princess and a knight."

"Really. What about that 'colorless world of order' and 'prepare to be grayscaled' talk? Was that part of playing a villain, too?" Cyrus asked.
"...Maybe." Acht answered, "To be honest, that part of its mission never completely went away. It kind of just accepted defeat after a while. But after the game started to break and it got all glitchy..."