Agent Eight wakes to the noise of a whirring machine. She carefully opens her eyes and turns her head to investigate her surroundings, attempting to be subtle in her movements.

As she looks, she sees numerous large chunks of machinery nearby, many clearly defunct. Some, however, are certainly alive, with their bits and bobs turning and moving in perfect rhythm. None of them seem particularly hostile; in fact, she is not sure they are even capable of causing her harm if they wanted to.

So, she begins to try and lift herself from the ground and her belly-down position. She feels immense difficulty moving her arms, however, including a sharp, shooting pain from her wrist. It is only now that she notices how battered her body is; much of it is deeply cut and scratched, and some parts, like her wrist, have deep gashes. Ink is pouring out all over her.

She tries again and again to lift herself up, but the pain is simply unbearable. In her current state, moving at all is almost impossible. She decides to stay put, waiting for her inky form to heal so she can move again. Her time in the Deepsea Metro had trained her for long, uneventful periods of time like this, where she could do nothing but lay down.

Really, that experience had shaped her in many ways. Eight had grown hardy, able to tackle tough situations. This is shown in her skills with the Octoshot, as well as in her emotional guardedness. Of course, being mute already gave her that burden; many are unwilling to give her the time of day due to her inability to talk, and being alone for so much of her life (at least, so much of it that she can remember) forged her into a deeply unsocial creature.

As she lays there, her mind wanders. She questions herself. Does she mind being alone? No, not really, she thinks. Plus, she isn't totally alone: she has her friend, Agent Three. Three always sticks by her. Of course, Three isn't very personable herself, and so Eight often wonders how much Three really likes her. Eight thinks back to the incident on the bridge, where it was almost like Three had given her the cold shoulder. Had she done something wrong? She didn't want to-

Suddenly, Eight remembers everything that happened. The explosion, the fall. Most importantly, she remembers Agent Three. Where is Three now?

Eight peers around cautiously, looking for any trace of Three. She can't see a single speck of ink, or any other indication of where her… her friend might be. Her best friend, she thinks. At least in Eight's mind, that is. Of course, Agent Three might not even like her! What if she was just being nice to her out of pity? Agent Eight has so few other friends, and Three is so caring, and so nice... surely, it is just out of pity. What does Eight have to offer?

Suddenly, one of the machines begins to whir much louder than before, shocking Agent Eight back into focus. She quickly turns as best she can to see it. The reason for the noise amplifying is clear: the machine has begun to transform. Before, it had simply been a large machine reading a long width of magnetic tape, but each of its individual parts are now tossing and shifting, morphing it into something much larger.

One spindle switches into a leg, while another forms more. Slowly each change in parts causes it to look less like the tape reader of an old television station and more like a large, spindly robot, suddenly towering over the other machines nearby.

Agent Eight is terrified. She knows she had to do something, but the pain is overwhelming. She notices her Octoshot nearby, laying on the ground in battered condition, but she simply can not move to grab it.

She is frozen.

As the machine finishes its transformation, it begins to move its legs back and forth, stomping loudly on the ground, each thud shaking Agent Eight to the core, and each movement causing a large, foghorn-esque sound to erupt from within the contraption.

Stomp. Stomp.

Agent Eight shakes and shakes her body in an attempt to move her body like a caterpillar away, but it is all in vain.

Stomp. Stomp.

It inches ever closer.

Agent Eight begins to cry.

She is ready to accept it, to take her death. She had never really been able to enter Inkling society, to become free. She wouldn't have been accepted. After all she had done to escape the Metro, she would die under the ground, even deeper than the Metro was, without having felt freedom. And she would die without ever having said goodbye to her friend, to the one person who ever seemed understand: Agent Three.

The machine readies its next step. It is so close. Next, it would step on her. Crush her. Destroy her. She knows it.

It raises its leg.

A loud scream rings throughout the vicinity as a figure blurs past Agent Eight's field of vision, ramming into the machine. It is toppled, slamming into the ground, beginning to make even louder whirring noises as various appendages suddenly appear from out of the machine, pushing against the ground in an effort to turn the horrible robot upright.

Agent Eight looks up at the blur that had saved her, now standing on the ground. The blur takes shape as dust clears. Eight sees the body of a strong, toned Inkling, bent out of shape, with various scars and bruises just like herself. She locks eyes with the green-haired Inkling.

Looking back at her is Agent Three.

Before Agent Three turns away, Eight can't help but smile. Her friend is safe! She saved Eight! And Three, despite all the scars, still has those beautiful auburn eyes, and that soft face. Agent Eight's face blushes a light purple, glad that Three can't see. Agent 8 would be so embarrassed if Agent 3 knew how she felt about her in this dangerous moment

Three quickly picks up the Octoshot from off the ground and begins to fire it at the joints of the machine, causing its new appendages to fail. It makes several angry noises before causing the tape reels to spin again. Suddenly, several tape ends come flying off the machine at Agent Three. She marvelously dodges each one, making sure they won't fly behind her and hit Eight.

Thinking the barrage is done, having destroyed each appendage with ink, Agent Three begins to turn around to check on Eight. As she does so, however, one last reel barrels towards her. Agent Eight tries to warn Three, but she is unable to; without the ability to move her arms, she cannot sign. Agent Three is struck by the tape, which begins to wrap around her.

After entrapping Three, the tape winds back up, pulling her back towards the machine. Meanwhile, the robot begins to uncover a gaping maw with sharp teeth, like that of an Octostamp. The teeth clamp down and up, forming a chomping motion. Just as Agent Three is about to be pulled into the mouth, she frees her arms and shoots several shots into the mouth, gumming it up. She then accelerates herself towards the machine and kicks it, knocking it backwards.

The machine, newly jammed with Ink, begins to sputter sparks, before erupting into flames. Slowly the fire dies as the various pieces of the machine falls apart and the tape disintegrates.