It seemed like hours before Neptune regained consciousness, but when he did, he was weak and on the brink of joining his ancestors. The only thing that kept him alive was the sound of two troll commanders that discussed some kind of issue among themselves.

"Report, sir!" demanded a troll commander.

Neptune struggled to awaken—but he felt like he could barely open his eyelids. Look at yourself, Neptune thought. Some king you are! You can't even open your eyes, meanwhile your people are dying to save their kingdom!

That simple shout was enough to rouse Neptune, and his eyes snapped open.

Enough is enough. I am not going to sit around and watch like a helpless barnacle as my kingdom gets destroyed! Neptune groaned and heaved himself up, surely more well in mind than body. No, I'll stand and fight!

His eyes cleared in a few moments, and he gained an idea of his surroundings. It looked like he was in some kind of machine with nothing but metal, metal, everywhere he looked! Well, minus the two trolls in front of him who quickly noticed that their prisoner was awake.

"The prisoner's awake, Joe!" shouted the first troll, a large, green troll with more warts than teeth, towards his smaller, orange buddy. "Go get him!"

"But, you're the big guy! Why can't you do the dirty work yourself?" shouted Joe, who was clearly unhappy.

Now's my chance! Neptune thought as the trolls argued among themselves. While they were lost in their fight, Neptune crawled towards his mace, which was strewn a few feet aside, as quietly as he could. This was his only chance—he had to take it!

"I'm telling you, it won't kill you to deal with the prisoner! Why do I gotta do it?"

"Because I outrank you," Bob retorted with a scoff and a pompous tone. "Now go get him before he—"

"Before I what?" Neptune hissed as he stood with mace in hand and now with every intention of kicking some tail.

Both trolls stared at Neptune while he approached them with every intention of causing harm, and they broke into a panic as they flailed about! They ran all around and collected every weapon in their arsenal and tried to aim them all at Neptune. But, they had little success—they were so panicked that they could barely even hold one tiny gun, least of all their entire arsenal! Neptune ran forwards, smashed through the weapons arsenal with his mace, and left little trace of it behind him.

Bob and Joe stood trembling, but Neptune just grabbed his mace and thrust it into the center of the weapons control panel! Sparks of all kinds flied from its base as Bob and Joe gasped, and their pupils went so tiny they were practically specks.

"Retreat, retreat!" Bob squealed, as the two frantically piled over each other to escape.

Neptune stared in pride, and smirked as he decided that he was going to have a little fun of his own. With no hesitation he followed them to where they ran off—it wasn't hard, after all. The two were in such a frenzy that they had no idea they were being followed!

A short trip led him to the head communications room that sent out orders to every single one of the drillers. It was filled to its brims with screens that depicted their other drilling units and flashing red lights, but the cherry on top was the giant, mechanical panel that was surely their communications unit. As they turned on the communications unit and readied themselves to deliver a message of retreat, Neptune grasped his mace even tighter than before and watched as Joe began prodding Bob.

"C'mon Bob, hurry up!" Joe exclaimed with so much sheer panic in his voice it could rival a nervous porcupine fish. "I want to get back to Lord Kaos in one piece!"

"Don't worry, Joe, I'll reel in the troops as fast as I can!" Bob shot back as he clearly tried his best not to crack under the pressure.

Something tapped Joe on the shoulder, and he turned around and found himself staring into the face of Neptune! Neptune waved, and slammed Joe in the face with a punch that rendered Joe unconscious before he could even shout a simple warning. Neptune thwacked Bob upon the head with his mace, and started up the communications device with a push of a button.

The device itself wasn't that fancy—it was literally a giant walkie-talkie, but with a button instead of a knob. Easy enough to use.

"Attention all troll forces!" Neptune proclaimed with a snide tone of voice. "We have received word that your leader has decided to, uh, do something else, so, stop drilling and retreat!"

Neptune ended the transmission before he ran out of the room and dashed towards the exit. Luckily enough, he quickly found his wish—a metal door left wide-open, probably courtesy of the trolls. He immediately dashed outside, ran onto the sands of a nearby island, and breathed in the fresh air...

Except it wasn't fresh; it reeked of oil and death.

As he felt the worst feeling, Neptune dove downwards, swam down to where his kingdom was, but found his worst nightmare in front of him of him instead. His kingdom was reduced to crumbling ruins! The corpses of his people littered the broken earth and floated in the somber seas, the many beautiful buildings were just nothing more than piles of sea-rubble, and everything… Everyone… Surely they were all gone.

Neptune was now overwhelmed with the worst kind of feeling, the kind that only allowed him to swim down to the sands he once stepped on and curl up in a ball. So taken by grief, he buried his face in his palms as he cried. After all, he had just lost his home, his family, his people…

He lost everything.

§

Wham-Shell gazed over at the deep blue waters of the fresh ocean before him, before he heaved a tired sigh and leaned against the deck's railing. He was surrounded by a sort of somber feeling as the tale came to a close, and his eyes glazed over with the soft evening light.

"So that's what happened," Chihiro whispered before she drew closer to Wham-Shell and rested her hand on his.

Wham-Shell's eyes trailed up to her, but quickly diverted back to the water in front of him. With a grunt, he made a nod and looked away.

"All I could find after that battle were their corpses. I may have been able to save myself, but I couldn't save my people," Wham-Shell reflected as his mouth finally dipped into a solemn, almost regretful frown. "What kind of a king am I?"

"Wham…" Chihiro frowned as she rested her cheek against her arm. He seemed so sad…

"You did everything you could've, dude," Zap said as he slid over to Wham-Shell and gently wrapped a leg around Wham-Shell's shoulders.

With a gentle look in her eyes, Chihiro moved her hand from Wham-Shell's hand to his shoulder in a gentle, almost gingerly manner. "Zap's right, Wham," Chihiro said as she nodded in agreement. "I'm sure you did all that you could've to stop them."

Wham-Shell croaked as he tightened his grip on the deck's railing. "And yet it still wasn't enough,"

Chihiro only frowned as she glazed over him once more.

"It hurts a lot, doesn't it?" Chihiro watched as Wham-Shell make a slight nod. "Thought as much—that's a lot of stuff for one person to deal with." Chihiro faced forwards, inhaled and exhaled. "Wham…" Chihiro gave the ocean before her a stolidly gaze, but quickly turned back to Wham-Shell, "I can't act like I completely understand what you've gone through, but—" Chihiro breathed in and gently smiled as she stared at Wham-Shell "—I'll always be here for you!"

"Chihiro's right!" Zap gurgled as he gently nudged his head against Wham-Shell's free hand. "They may be gone, but you'll always have me and Chi and all the other 'landers. No matter what, we'll always be there for you, dude! So don't feel like you gotta deal with all that stuff alone, alright?"

Wham seemed stoic for a few moments, but breathed in as the tension and gloom around him released.

"I guess you're right," Wham-Shell said as he wiped a tear away from his eye and smiled. "Zap, Chihiro, when did you kids get so smart?"

Zap chuckled as he cast Wham-Shell a teasing glare. "I've always been super smart, what're you talking about?"

"Now I wouldn't say that…"

Wham-Shell's weak smile turned to a weak smirk as he clearly got ready to recall some of Zap's less than stellar moments.

"C'mon, Wham." Zap stuck out his tongue. "I—OOF!"

Zap and Wham-Shell let out surprised shouts as Chihiro wrapped them both in a tight hug, then without even thinking they all broke into relieved laughter, as if all the pain and heartache they felt washed away in the ocean waves.