Inked Over Secrets: a Splatoon 2 Fanfiction

19: On My Own Terms

After Telk caught the other agents up on everything that had happened, Stinger touched the now-blue puddle of ink.
"Link hands, everyone," he commanded, and waited until everyone had connected. With Arty's hand grasped in his, he stepped into the ink.
Where he came out was a surprise to even him. They were on an island, far away from Inkopolis. There seemed to be a large, broken-down building on the island, probably corroded away long ago.
"It's called Alcatraz," a voice called down from the top of a cliff. Stinger knew who it was before he looked.
"Hey, Tartar."
A gasp from Agent Eight brought Stinger around. "Tartar? But he was the defeated! I brought him down!"
"Ah, Number 10,008. It's been so long."
Eight bristled. "Shut up."
Even from this distance, Stinger knew Tartar had a smile on his face. "I see you've brought the rest of your attack dogs, Stinger. But dogs need to be put down."
He raised his hands, and the space behind him erupted with his soldiers. "Let's finish this war, right here, right now."
Stinger gripped his Inkbrush. "We can agree on something for once."
With no more words, the two groups charged each other; blue against green. Arty, with her quick thinking, hobbled over to the nearest small ridge, set her cane down, and took out her E-liter Scope. She held the scope to her eye, and took a deep breath.
Telk revved his Nautilus 47, and brought down the all Greens in his line of sight. If he was being surrounded, he would swim away and pop up not too far from the Octolings, and splat then all with a charge.
Avia charged right into the fight, taking out Greens left and right with her Splattershot Pro. Every now and then, she would Melt into the ground and appear with the barrel of her Pro pressed to a Green's head.
(A/N I was going to include Cepholo here, but then I remembered... ;-;)
The Agents sunk into battle, each with their respective Hero weapons; One with the Roller, Two with the Charger, Three with the Shot, Four with the MK II Shot, Five with the Dualies, Six with the Brella, and Eight with the very same Octo Shot that destroyed Tartar that day, so long ago.
Stinger zigzagged through everyone, avoiding all fights and saving his energy for what was to come. Along the way, he spotted a few familiar faces; his old rival Auru bringing waves of blue with his Gold Dynamo, and a trainee named Mauritius, using her Glooga Dualies to bring down two Greens at a time.
But, putting these thoughts aside, he reached his destination. He looked at the cliff Tartar was standing on, and tossed a Splat Bomb up next to him. As expected, Tartar easily avoided it, but wasn't ready for when Stinger came barreling out of the puddle. Tartar managed to dodge, and create a blade shape with his goo. The two traded blows, and Stinger's mind when on autopilot: jab, parry, thrust, roll. Against anyone else, Stinger would be a whirl of pure death and destruction.
But Tartar knew him. He was in his head for a long time, and could tell when he was about to strike. However, Tartar still didn't have a full form; his current Stinger echo lacked quite a few things.
In this way, the two were equal in power. But the strange thing was that whenever one of the two fighters parried or thrusted, they seemed to be growing in power. Soon enough, the energy released from just one blade hitting the other bordered on nuclear, shaking the battlefield around them.
Even then, Stinger knew he couldn't go much farther. As much as he tried, he knew he could never defeat this monster in front of him and live to tell the tale.
But what if he didn't need to live?
Thoughts raced through Stinger's head as Brush met blade.
Down below, things were chaotic. Every single time Stinger and Tartar clashed, a wave of energy strong enough to topple a grown Inkling would rocket out at speeds higher than Mach 5. However, even with these disturbances, Blue was triumphing. With Arty and Agent Two both sniping, Auru and One dominating the front lines, and Three, Four, and Eight wiping out groups of Greens, things were looking up.
But what Blue had in quality, Green had in quantity. More and more Greens rose out of the ground, seemingly from nowhere, and struck. Still, Blue has an advantage.
This war wouldn't end, however, until one of the leaders fell. And those leaders were in stalemate.
Stinger was tiring. Mortals cannot continue forever, and Stinger was aware of this. As such, he started putting his plan into motion.
He dropped his Brush, and took one, two, three, four, five hits across the chest in a fraction of a second. Now weak from the near-godlike speed of the slashes, he fell to his knees.
Tartar smirked. "Well, that was fun."
Stinger looked up with a tired smile. "You... can't say... it wasn't... exhausting."
Indeed, even Tartar's blade arm was trembling from delivering and parrying blows at this speed. "True enough. Time to die, Stinger."
Strangely, Stinger's smile widened. "If I die, I die on my own terms." With the last of his strength, he rose to his feet, and threw himself into the ocean.
Out of the corner of her eye, Arty saw movement, and took a moment to focus on the shape falling into the ocean. When she finally focused on the figure, it was a few inches from the water. With a small splash, it was submerged.
But Arty would know that Inkling anywhere.
"STINGER!"
Grabbing her cane, she hobbled faster than ever toward the oceanside. By the time she arrived, however, there were only a few ripples left in the water.
Arty dropped her cane and collapsed, crying. No one could comfort her, even if they weren't in the middle of a war. Her heart was shattered; her soulmate gone forever. It almost made her... want to join him.
Arty shakily got up, and headed towards the water. When she was but a few steps from touching the water, she saw slight movement in the midst of her tears. She dried her eyes, and confirmed that, yes, there definitely was a ripple in the water. And it was growing bigger.
Before Arty could make sense of this, however, a form burst from the ocean, surrounded by water but somehow not dissolving.
It was him.
Tartar couldn't believe his eyes as Stinger rose back up to the cliff, on a geyser of water.
"As I was saying," he said with a smirk, "I die on my own terms, or not at all."

;)

Only a few more chapters until this book comes to a close. And honestly, it's about time. This book was WAY longer than I thought it would be. It's been great writing thus far.
Thanks to everyone who is reading this.

Here are some edits I did in my spare time oof.