Tracker sat back silently, seemingly subdued yet relieved. His secret was out. His problem was out. Everything was out. Good and bad and everything in between.

"I think we're done with Tracker," Amy said quietly. 

"Agreed," said Crash. "But who's next?"

"How about we let one of the Octonauts choose shall we?" Princess suggested, spinning a pen around in her fingers, which had somehow grown claws since Crash had last looked at them.

"That's a good idea," Amy nodded. "But who?"

"The Captain?" Crash suggested, before tearing down his own idea. "No he's too nice. Kwazii, no he's an idiot. Peso wouldn't want to cause anyone discomfort, no matter how mild..."

"How about our favourite fake polar bear?" Princess suggested.

"What do you mean?" Amy and Crash asked.

"I mean," explained Princess. "The one, the only, the one who was apparently able to fool an adult polar bear into thinking she was his childhood friend, Dashi."

"To be fair," said Dashi. "Tracker was practically living out a flashback. It wasn't his fault he thought I was Isla."

"Regardless, I reckon you should choose who we question next."

"Well, in that case...  I would want to pick someone who I know very well, who's humiliated me time after time, who's an old friend... Since Koshi's already been questioned, I'll have to go with..."

A certain cave-diver wombat looked very pleadingly at Dashi.

"...Ryla."

A certain cave-diver wombat sighed and shook her head.

"Okay. Fine. Let's get this over and done with."

"That's what we like to hear!" Amy whooped. "Right. Questions. Not too many from me to you, but Crash might have a couple more up his sleeve. Let's just see. I mean... Sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't. It's incredibly hard to tell..."

"Um, Amy? First question?"

"Right. Yes. Sorry Crash. First question. What are your favourite types of caves, if there are really any different types of caves... I mean you're the expert!"

"Well, I do love cenote diving... Lava tubes are fun, but dangerous. Oh and then you've got ice caves... Honestly, I love a good karst cave, where the limewater has eroded the rock enough to make some really fascinating caverns."

"Have to agree with you there," Dashi said. "Cenotes are truly amazing, and they're just the gateway to a good karst network."

"Welp," said Amy. "I guess there are different types of cave. Right, next question. Were you ever afraid of the caves when you were a kid, or not at all?"

"I have always wanted to explore caves, even as a child. Never been afraid of one," Ryla said with a confident shake of her head. Amy was about to move on, but Dashi held up her hand.

"Krubera..."

"No. Not now."

"Krubera?" asked Kwazii. "Tell me more. Tell us more. I'm interested."

Ryla sighed.

"No."

"Krubera," continued Dashi with the comedic seriousness of a action movie trailer voice-over. "The only cave ever to strike fear into the heart of the great Ryla Wombat."

"And now I'm intrigued," Kwazii said, on the seat of his chair.

"Come on Ryla tell them," said Dashi, sitting back with arms crossed and looking pleased at the effect of her dramatic voice-over impersonation.

"No!" replied a frustrated wombat. "I don't want to. It's... No. Not telling."

"Aw, come on," said Kwazii. "And just when I was getting (pause to find another synonym of 'interested' starting with 'i'.) ... Invested."

"Shut up Kwazii," said Dashi. "Ryla, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to, but just remember, the Octonauts are a team, we're a family. We won't judge you. Things are better out in the open than locked away."

"Okay fine," Ryla said quietly.

"You have to tell me how you do that," Amy said. "Quite amazing-"

"Nawwwww, you really believed it?" Ryla laughed in that thick Aussie accent of hers. "Nah way I'm spilling about Krubera!"

Dashi looked down.

"I take that back," said Amy.

"You got me. But why don't you want to tell us?"

"Let's just... Let's just say I'm not exactly proud of what happened in the Krubera area," said the wombat, looking at her feet.

"We won't judge," said Dashi.

"You sure about that?"

"Dead set certain," Dashi said, with a gesture that caused a Mexican wave of nods around the room."

"Okay. Fine."

"And now I take back my take-back," declared Amy. "You definitely have to show me how you do things like that."

"Simple," said Dashi. "I'm a therapist. Anyways, Ryla's question."

"Yeah, don't remind me. Fine. Shellington?"

"Krubera is the second deepest cave on earth," the scientist explained. "It's located in the country of Georgia, 560 kilometres from their capital, Tbilisi. It gets down to 2199 metres, and it's filled with twists and turns and pits and abysses. A terrifying area, but quite fascinating from a distance."

The Captain shuddered.

"Why do I feel like I'd hate that?"

Ryla chuckled, then looked at her feet again.

"Well... You're not the only one to hate Krubera. I went in and... It was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. Looking down on the lip of the cliff, staring abyss in the face... It made me want to give up. And I don't like talking about it."

"Hey," said Dashi. "Hey. We've all been through there."

"Definitely," Shellington agreed. "Each and everyone of us have had a point in our lives where we just needed to give up and let things go. We've all had our fears, we've all had our moments of vulnerability. It just depends whether you bottle that fear up, or whether you let it out."

"Now who's the therapist?" Dashi laughed, giving Shellington a playful shove. Crash, Amy and Princess shared one of those looks.

"Thanks," said Ryla quietly, so that the Octonauts almost didn't hear her. "I needed that."

"So," said Amy. "Another question from me. Where was your first expedition and where was it?"

"Ah, you never really forget your first," said Ryla. "For me, it was a little exploration with a couple others in the Jenolan caves." Blank faces from the rest of the crew. "You don't know where that is? It's just past the Blue Mountains from Sydney." More blank faces. "Still don't know? Oh, yeah, I forgot youse aren't Aussie. Basically, East coast of Australia."

"Now that makes sense," Tweak nodded.

"Yup. It wasn't much and now that I look back on it, the expedition was actually pretty crappy, but hey, it got me into cave diving so... Must have been exciting for twenty-one year old me."

"Yeah fair enough. Okay last question from me. Wait no, there's another. Second last question from me. How did you and Dashi meet?"

"In uni," said Ryla casually. "We didn't have classes together, but we both went to ocean conservation club."

"That's a thing?" asked Kwazii.

"Anything's a club at uni. Anyways, we parted ways after that, we weren't really good friends to begin with, until I needed an underwater photographer. And there I was, about to write a book thinking, what about that Aussie girl with the camera back in uni?"

"From there," continued Dashi. "She got my name from some old friends, searched me up and gave me a ring. Ever since then we've been best mates."

"Okay," said Amy. "Last question for you Ryla. Unless Crash had any questions..?"

Crash shook his fish-jar-head.

"Okay then. Final question. Well... It's actually more of an information drop, but anyways. Did you know that Dashi mistook a whale shark's mouth for a cave?"

"Amy!" said an exasperated Dashi. "Did you have to tell her that?"

"Yes, sorry I had to tell her," the questioner replied.

Ryla was looking at Dashi, eyes widening slowly.

"You... You mistook the... You thought that... You... I thought..." Ryla burst out laughing. "You... You thought that... You thought that the whale shark's mouth was a cave."

"Yeah. I did."

"Did I not teach you any better? Ya'know... The mouth is, uh, pink and squelchy and a cave is usually... Rocky?"

"In my defense," said Dashi. "I thought it was just a pink and squelchy cave."

"Dashi, there is no defense for mistaking a damn shark mouth for a rocky tunnel expanse. No defense." Ryla turned to Amy. "Thank you for informing me of the mistake of my student. How long ago was this?"

"This was a good seven years ago," Dashi said quickly. 

"Hmm," said Ryla. "Perhaps there's hope for you yet. Well, any other questions for me?"

"Nope," Crash shrugged. "That's it from us."

"Okay then. We gonna continue with the tradition of letting an Octonaut or agent choose the next, um, victim?"

"You know what?" Crash said. "Sure why not. Who do you want to question Ryla?"

"How about Selva?" the wombat asked, giving her favourite botanist a nudge.

"Sure," said Amy. "Selva it is."

Selva whimpered.