Order comes with a price (splatoon 2 fanficiton) (complete!)

Chapter 17

Things were a success so far. Marina was more then happy with how it was going.

The process of unsanitizing inkopolis was taking a bit longer then expected. Moving everyone from the eerily quiet turf stadium was a bit of a hassle, as they were practically just standing there frozen without orders in their head. A few cephalopods and Salmonid were sent back a few times for more ingredients for the cure. Pearl refused to actually inject the cure with her phobia of needles, so marie, comet, and eight were mainly doing that. Three eventually joined when the amount of sanitized cephalopods became too much for just three.

The injected ones were sitting down around the group, their minds still hazy as pearl explained to the ones who were conscious enough what was happening.

Marina couldn't help but find the process unnerving. Sanitization stopped your heart's beats and basically made you a zombie. And while Mizuta's heart never really started beating again, and after checking, Pearl's wasn't really either..

It was still odd that they were basically reviving zombies.

Marina stayed close to pearl, Three and Ahato not wanting her anywhere near the others. Which was fair in her opinion.

She glanced up at the buildings and looked back down, immediately feeling sick.

The octoling was startled slightly when she turned to see pearl had moved away from her, standing in the center of the crowd. Marie yelled to get everyone's attention, and all eyes were on pearl.

"So, it's obvious you all are gonna w-want to know what happens next." She let out a few coughs after speaking. It was obvious to see her voice hadn't returned to full strength.

Marina felt a fresh wave of guilt. She did that to her Pearlie. Her amazing, brave, strong Pearlie, who didn't deserve any of this.

"Plans have already been m-made to rebuild the city. Tartar is d-dead, so you all don't have to worry about being s-sanitized anymo-"

"What about marina?"

Pearl was cut off by the question of an inkling in the crowd. The one voice began the murmurs of many others.

"Yeah what about marina?"

"She's at fault for all this!"

"Who's TarTar??"

"Marina's the one who sanitized us!"

Marie and pearl were desperately trying to calm down the voices, and marina just wished she could disappear.

But that would be the cowards way out. She wasn't a coward. They were right, she caused this and she had to face her actions.

Once the murmuring died down pearl continued.

"Tartar is an AI that was b-behind this. As for M-Marina, she's going to help repair the damage to I-Inkopolis."

This news, did not settle well with inkopolis's residents.

"What?!"

"We can't let her stay!"

"I don't trust her with our city!"

"She could be double crossing us!"

"how do we know it was really this AI behind it??"

"She shouldn't be allowed to stay!"

The murmurs grew to shouts, and the rageful crowd was being sure their voices were heard.

"THATS ENOUGH."

Pearl suddenly screeched, her loud voice cutting off everything. After the outburst she had a small coughing fit, bending over slightly as Marie took her hand with a concerned look. Eventually she stood straight up again, glaring into the crowd.

"M-Marina's staying, that's f-fina-"

"They're right Pearlie."

All eyes seemed to be locked onto marina as she spoke up. Her gaze was hesitant, but she'd made up her mind.

They were right. She didn't deserve to stay here.

"What?! Mar no!" Pearl stepped away from the center, walking towards marina. Marie was addressing the crowd with plans for the city before they could start yelling again. Pearl grabbed both of Marina's hands, looking up at her. "You're staying, you can't just leave!" She whispered. "You fought so hard to stay here-"

"And I ruined my rights to continue being in inkopolis myself. It'd be unfair." Marina countered back, forcing a small smile on her face in hopes it'd be reassuring. It seemed to have the opposite effect as pearl shook her head, looking up at marina for a few seconds.

"I still love you."

"You shouldn't. You really really shouldn't."

Pearl dropped her gaze to the ground before closing her eyes. She still didn't let go. "I.. I know. I k-know I shouldn't." Marina silently rubbed circles onto Pearl's hands with her thumbs, her voice catching in her throat but she choked out the words anyway.

"I think we need to take a break from each other."

Pearl immediately looked up, and the hurt in her eyes made Marina immediately want to take it back. She wanted to take everything back and just walk home with her, and cuddle on the couch and watch a movie and pretend everything was once again alright. The shorter inkling let go of Marina's hands, nodding and avoiding her gaze. "Y.. Yeah. Yeah that's for the b-best." Pearl looked up at her with a fake confident look that the octoling saw right through. "Y-You hurt a lot of people. I can't let my emotions i-ignore that. Even if it's hard."

Marina smiled, desperately wanting to place a hand on the inkling's face and hold her close. "It's hard but you'll be ok. Maybe one day we can try again."

The look of hope in Pearl's eyes from that one sentence was enough for marina, as she stepped backwards when Marie ran towards them. "Um guys? Crowd's getting kind of wild, pearl you might want to deal with that."
Tuning back into the crowd, Marina could hear they were all yelling about what would happen to her. She sighed, moving towards the center. All the eyes on her made her feel shaky, but she forced her voice to be normal.

"It's ok everyone. I'm not staying. You'll be in good hands with Pearl and the others. You won't have to worry about me anymore."

And then she stepped away. The small cheers could barely be heard but Marina chose to tune it out anyway. She froze when she felt arms wrap around her. Turning around, it was pearl, who buried her face into her.

"Goodbye Marina."

The octoling looked up through the crowd. Eight was smiling softly with a longing look in her eyes. Mizuta still refused to meet her gaze. Marie looked at the two with only the faintest hint of a smile, and Four Comet and Three were ignoring them all. Octavio looked conflicted but waved slightly when their eyes met. Marina looked down at pearl and embraced her tightly, knowing this might be the last time she'd get to do this. Tears clouded her vision, which she did her best to blink away.

"Goodbye Pearl."

The two slowly let go, and Marina began walking. She could feel Pearl's eyes on her. She could feel her friend's eyes on her. She could feel all of inkopolis's eyes on her.

And yet she kept walking.

Goodbye Inkopolis. Thank you for the wonderful friends and memories.

With that final thought in mind, Marina continued until she reached the city limits. Closing her eyes, she inhaled, stepped over them, exhaled, then kept on walking.

They'd be just fine without her.