Shadow in the Glass: a Splatoon 2 Fanfiction

Chapter 14

Mona came to several minutes later, waking to the sight of Jake rubbing his eyes, dazed, and Three focused on piloting the helicopter.

Jake noticed her before Three. "Mona, You're okay!" He staggered over to her in his half-asleep state, and embraced her as best he could in his stupor.

Three spared a moment to look over her shoulder at the couple, fighting back a big grin. However, Mona could tell something was troubling her. "Glad to see the lovebirds are awake." Then she turned serious, and sighed. "I wish I could sugarcoat this, but I can't. Lyze is MIA, and we're being hunted by both Kensa and civilization as a whole. In fact, the only way I've been able to keep us safe is by staying in the sky, but that won't last much longer. This thing's almost out of electricity. I'm going to have to land soon, and when I do, we need to fight."

Mona protested immediately. "No. You know what happened to Lyze when he tried to fight, and he was only against a dozen Kensa agents. We're up against the entire company, plus the general population, most of which has experience in battle. And to top it all off, I can't fight. I've never even held the Splattershot Junior."

Three avoided eye contact with her. "I know."

Mona was starting to have suspicions about Three's plan. "Three, what are you not telling me?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Mona."

"Three, come on, stop screwing with me. Come out with it already."

The hero of Inkopolis chuckled quietly. "Guess you would know about signs of worry and anxiety."

This only served to deepen Mona's suspicions, and make her a little anxious herself. "Three..."

The agent finally met Mona's gaze. And what Mona saw there was more than worry and anxiety.

In the depths of Three's eyes, there was remorse.

"I'm sorry, Mona. It has to be this way. Please take your time finding your way out this time." And before Mona could digest what that meant, Three pulled out a Squiffer and, without a moment of hesitation, shot her straight through her chest.

...

Jake thought he was still asleep, in some horrible nightmare, as Mona collapsed to the ground, dead before he could blink. It didn't take long before she burst into green ink; the effect of an overload of foreign ink. Just like when he himself had shot her.

"Three!" He shouted, shocked at what had just happened, appalled by her calmness as she placed the Squiffer in a weapons box at the back of the copter. "What did you just do?!"

"I saved your girlfriend's life."

"No you didn't! You ended it!"

"Temporarily. I know what I'm doing, Jake."

Jake glared at her. "Yeah, you're right. A killer always knows what she's doing."

Three sighed. "Do I really have to spell it out for you?"

"You don't need to explain anything to me."

"Listen, Jake. I did what needed to be done. Mona said it herself; she's not a fighter. If she went out there, she would be slaughtered. And you would do anything to protect her, wouldn't you? You two would keep killing yourselves until the SPAWN Pad breaks down; and with all due respect, Jake, homemade Pads never last that long.

"So I sent Mona there now, sparing her the battle. Sheldon is going to help her when she resurfaces. By ending her once, I saved both of your lives countless times. Try to see through your emotions, Jake, at the logic of the action. Some pieces must be sacrificed in the grand game of chess."

As Jake's rage began to die down, he saw that Three was right. Ending Mona was, ironically, the safest and most logical way to guarantee her survival, and his own.

"Yeah," he admitted, "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Three. It's just... I saved her from herself, but not long after we lost Lyze, then almost lost our own lives, and now you just shot her. She's going to be in a bad state of mind at the end of all this."

Three nodded, resolute as always. "It's a risk I'm willing to take. And I believe that she'll always have an anchor to hold her firmly in this life."

"And what would this anchor be?"

Three smiled. "You. You're the anchor."