Alice's subconscious was fading into the hivemind. It's been a few days since she had recorrected herself. Throughout the fragments of her splintered mind, she thought of a way to get herself out her ever-nearing fate, but she knew damn well whatever plan she had, she was backed into a corner. Alice had little choice; it has been decided. "Commander TarTar?"

In the gloom of the metro, a faint blue light appeared. It grew brighter and brighter until it covered the room in its blue light "ɎɆ₴, ₥₴. ฿Ɇ₵₭ł₦₲?"

Alice shuddered, then exhaled. "Remember Applicant 10008?" Alice asked.

The light reeled back to expose TarTar's robotic form. "ⱧØ₩ ₵ØɄⱠĐ ł ₦Ø₮?!" he spat.

"...So it seems... my brother was the one who destroyed you, hmmm?" Alice's lips grew a vicious grin. "I have a plan."

"₲Ø Ø₦...?"

"REMUS!" She called out forcefully, "COORDINATES TO THE HQ OF SQUIDBEAK VISUALS OF DIMITRI KENNETH BECKING!" Remus jolted, squeaking before pulling his laptop out of a satchel wrapped around his waist. After some rushed texts and demands from his laptop, he gained both coordinates and visuals of the coordinates, but no Agent 8. He gave the visuals to his masters. Remus's hands were jittering from his fear of TarTar. To her disappointment, she rolled her eyes, but she knew where he was nonetheless. "Zoom in to his bed," she noticed small notebook papers. Remus did as Alice asked, zooming into the notebooks until they were clearly visible. "Hmhmhm what's this now?" Alice asked herself, her eyes bulbous. "Snap, small pictures of those and decode them. Keith should be here any moment captive." Remus took multiple pictures of the papers before hurrying off to read and decode them.

A half an hour later, two captives returned. To Alice's glee, his brother was before her at her mercy. Alice stepped out of her throne room, "Here we are~ hello Baby Brother~" Keith struggled on his bounds. TarTar retreated into the darkness of the metro, only leaving small trails of sanitized ink. "Remus, take the boy and follow me." Remus grabbed Keith by his bindings and dragged him, following Alice as well. In the deepest part of the metro, she tied him up against two poles of the recorrection room. "That tracker of Arianna's was really something~ you can thank my little servants for hacking it so I could finally catch you~"

"Why do you want me?!" Keith shouted.

"Easy~ I've failed my mission almost two years ago to kill you, I'll succeed this time!" Alice promised.

"And how are you going to do the- ow!" Alice steals Keith's intercom forcefully.

"Simple~ Give you a reminder that you'll die alone," Alice responded wickedly.

"What you think I like that Octoling Soldier? We're friends and only friends!" Keith barked.

"Oh, believe me, I know you're not lying to me, but I discovered that you're into... someone else." the moment Remus was finished with her previous command, Alice gestured the hologram of the decoded poem.

"...Don't you dare..." Keith snarled, struggling fervently.

She turned on his intercom and placed it around her head.

Aria was in the kitchen, getting herself something to eat. She noticed that this place was quiet: too quiet. The intercom was giving a signal to Aria. It was garbled nonsense from Keith's intercom. Remus stood by Keith and Alice, rubbing his arm and his eyes shifting all over the room, something inside told him this wasn't a good thing to do, but he had no choice.

She looked down at her Intercom. "This is Agent 3, come in." She spoke into it.

"Is this Agent 3?" Alice asked, "This is Alice, I happen to have Agent 8 on the line." Tina peered over, in tune with Aria's conversation.

"It's been 6 months honey~" A hint of sanitization accent was in her voice, "I think Keith has been "DYING" to tell you something."

"Who knows~" Alice fibbed, "Is that Tiiiina? HI TINNAAAAAA!"

That quotation of 'dying' alarmed her senses. "What's his condition?!" The worried agent demanded to know.

"Oh he's fine, he's fiiine for now that is~" Alice sang, "Though he is in a bit of a 'tight' situation right now."

Remus facepalmed, a bit of sass marked his tone. "Oh come on! You could have done better than that!"

"Give us your location and we'll be on our way," Tina demanded.

"Of course~" Alice sent coordinates: bait.

"NO DON'T!" Keith's voice was distant, yet raw.

Remus's sanitation abruptly overcame his other thoughts and feelings about this situation. "Stop before I make you stop," Remus shushed Keith. Alice pulled out some mind control sanitation ink to put on Keith, but the ink looked foreign and unusual. Remus pointed an octo shot towards Keith's head while she toyed around with an eyepatch. Alice scooped the unearthly ink behind an eyepatch so no one could tell he was controlled.

Aria looked over the coordinates. "Grab your weapon, Tina. Let's go." Agent 3 shut off the intercom, grabbed her Hero Dualies and Dave of all things, and left according to the coordinates.

"The coordinates are (47.5°N, 153°E) hmm... That's the deepest part of the metro!" Tina discovered.

"What the shell are we waiting for?!" Aria shouted.

As they reached such location, Keith was seemingly unconscious as Alice was in the shade, and Remus was in the light as he glared at Aria and Tina with sanitized ink pouring from his eyes as if they were tears.

"Oh, my Oh my~ what a lovely reunion~" She replied. As she was revealed, she was Sanitized.

When she and Dave got there, immediately the agent noticed that her comrade was knocked out. Then, she eyed Remus and Alice coldly. "What the shell happened here?" She looked like she was about to draw her Dualies. Dave was very much cautious.

"It's been too long... too long." Alice snapped her fingers as now both Tina and Aria were pinned down: two servants per agent.

"Oh come on!" Tina snapped.

Remus kept his octo shot pointed at Keith's head. His eyes rapidly shifted among the group. He desperately yearned to disobey any commands from Alice: for now. Aria tried to squirm her way out of their grasp, going so far as to go into squid form, knowing that she'd be smaller but to no avail.

Dave looked at the SO with his blank stare. Though inside, he was irate.

"Commander TarTar! Give a hand for two of the Defenders of Inkopolis!" Alice clapped insincerely. "And our special guest with us! APPLICANT 10008! THE HEROIC AGENT 8!"

"You piece of infected sushi, TarTar!" Aria cursed.

She struggles to reach her bomb stash and successfully chucks an auto bomb out to reach Alice. Dave, an Autobomb himself, looked at his little friend go, only to watch in horror as Alice stomps on the first one quickly.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year: Squidmas Eve everyone~ I've been working on something special! Baby Brother has always been sooooo emotional, but I never thought he'd fall for someone like you~" Alice taunted.

"For... someone like me?" Aria raised an eyebrow, expression warm.

"H-huh?" Tina stuttered.

Tartar's body hung from the ceiling as he looked at everyone in his vicinity, he kept quiet waiting for events to unfold.

"Yes... I guess he has a boner over someone strong and independent," Alice added, "Strange how I thought he was into that Octoling soldier, He saved her life after all, but I guess it was just a mere platonic relationship," Alice pondered, "I also wondered if he'd ever come back to that Elite Soldier he banged before he lost his memory~ But no! plot twist! we just found out his little poems were about you, Agent 3!"

"What are saying?" Tina asked.

"I'm saying that I'm surprised he didn't say SOMETHING before he died 5 minutes ago~" she revealed.

"DIED! 5 minutes ago! What...?!" Tina shrieked.

"He's...dead...?" Aria's eyes widened with shock.

"Remus... It's time to put on a show..." Alice demanded, "WAKE HIM UP!" Remus shot Keith's kneecap, so Keith immediately woke up and started shooting the two of them.

"That's it you sick bastards. No time for crying now. It's time to kick your ass!" She broke free from the Sanitized Octolings and started to ink, neutralizing the guards. TarTar watched In glee seeing Agent 8 attack his comrades. With a low deep chuckle, he disappeared back into the depths of the metro. "What?! COME BACK!" Tina started to dodge the shots until she got hit by one. Aria, not wanting to shoot at Keith, thinking of how she was once mind-controlled, tried to go for a different tactic. Dave followed. "I distract him you do what you need to do Aria." She chucked an autobomb, a friend for Dave, and bolted off, hoping Keith will follow her. Tina glanced at Keith with rage. "I see how it is. I'm sorry, but..." she pulled out her gun and shot Keith in the foot. Aria ran off and kept focus, making sure TarTar wasn't near the range of battle. Keith stumbled due to the impact of the ink shot, but that shot only pissed him off more. He threw his octoshot on the floor and pulled out some Duallie Squelchers.

Remus watched the fight, inching closer to Alice. Alice watched as well but with a blank expression. "Remus," Alice called. Remus responded with curiosity. "TarTar knows nothing about what my goal is to do. I'm going to let you free for now," Alice informed.

Remus tilted his head "let me... Go?" Remus remained quiet. He was conflicted: frozen.

"How do I know if he's back or not." Tina spots a splotch of ink. "Got it." She goes towards a wall and jumps hoping that he would hit the wall. Keith hit against the wall and fell unconscious. Due to this, his form retreated to 'octopus' form. "Perfect." Tina injected some low tide ink to shut him down. The ink detached from Keith, but there was no response. She hid him in a small compartment. "Now then, time to take care of Alice."

"Why aren't you leaving?" Alice asked Remus, incredulous.

"You're my Priestess: my commander. We stick together no matter what happens, right?" Remus asked.

Alice gasped, caught off guard, but her reaction softened with comfort. "If that's the case, Tina's going to be our hero."

Remus made a small grin "...Thanks"

"...Tina...? It was no lie. Agent 8 is truly gone. I finally finished what I wanted two years ago." Alice taunted.

"But why, you sick fuck, why?!" Tina spat.

"I'm Alice Veronica Becking, that's why." Alice pridefully answered.

With her lungs raw, and her body painted with sweat, she took out her gun from her holster. The hero-shot was focused on Alice's head. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

"...Because there's one thing I haven't lied about... TarTar must be stopped." Alice reminded coldly.

Tina lowered her gun, a tad lost. "Which side are you on," she inquired, "What are you playing at?!"

"Do me a favor, Tina..." Alice asked.

"What is that?" Tina groaned.

"Shoot here." Alice pointed to her glasses. Aria was watching from a distance, making sure TarTar didn't come back. As such, Tina was tempted to shoot somewhere else. "If I kill you, Fine. If you're really against TarTar, good. Either way, I'm willing to die." Remus wheeled around and aimed at Tina. Due to Remus's threat, Tina relented, now defeated. Wincing, she shot Alice's glasses dead on.