A/N: The writing in this chapter may be a bit strange and is definitely different from my usual chapters as it jumps between time periods. I hope this doesn't make it too hard to follow.

Chapter 4: The Truth Behind Eight

"Just stay with me… I'll tell you the truth." Ophelia said.

If that was supposed to put Eight and Inker at ease, it failed. It had the opposite effect of putting them further on edge against Ophelia.

Especially Eight, who trusted her, as she was the one from her bits of memory.

"You are actually working for Octavio, aren't you?" Inker asked

Ophelia shook her head.

"No, I didn't lie when I said that I was not working for Octavio."

"Yeah, she was listening to the Calamari Inkantation while you weren't here. She can't be working for Octavio." Eight added

"Don't assume that everyone has the same reaction to that song… Though this is probably not the best time for me to say that…" Ophelia said.

For some reason, that sounded a bit familiar to Eight. Maybe she had heard someone say that before? Or maybe something along those lines.

"No, I get what you mean, after all there are still those of support Octavio even after hearing the inkantation."

Not to mention the Elite Octolings, who were fiercely loyal to only Octavio. No wonder the free Octarians of New Octopolis had no Elite Octolings.

But so far all this did nothing to explain why Ophelia had been clearly lying earlier, nor did it clear up any of those lies.

'Is she trying to stall? Maybe she thinks that Bough, Neon and Victoria will be defeated and that giant thing will come for us next?' Inker glanced at Eight, who was no longer maintaining a defensive stance in front of Ophelia. 'Should I try and force Ophelia into unlocking the whole lair?'

Before Inker could do anything however, Ophelia glanced back at the console, then she began to speak.

"I will admit, I could have easily scavenged some power eggs from the abandoned lairs, instead of risking my neck, going to Inkopolis and stealing a zapfish."

"What changed your mind?" Eight asked.

"Well, you might not know it, but I've been keeping an eye on Octavio's army, for my own safety of course. I don't want anyone discovering this place. So, since I was.."

"You're stalling aren't you?" Inker called her out.

Ophelia didn't say anything, though Inker could tell that she had suddenly become a lot more nervous.

"If you really aren't working for Octavio, then you have no reason to trap Agent 4 and the others with that… thing…" Inker continued

"Okay I get it! I'll let them out, though I can't really control that beast, luckily it's not as strong as it seems."

Ophelia hurried to the console and tapped a few buttons.

"There, see!" Ophelia waved her hands to show that she wasn't doing anything hostile "It's done, now where was I?"

Ophelia began explaining things again, but Inker tuned her out in order to ask Bough and the others if they really were free to leave.

"Yeah the door is open." Bough confirmed over the radio.

It seemed like they could still communicate with those inside the lair, but not anyone on the outside.

"Well then? Get out of there."

"I could but… well, listen for yourself."

There was a slight scraping noise on the other end, then Inker started to hear someone else's voice instead of Bough's

"Wahahahahha!" a somewhat crazy yet familiar laugh accompanied with the sounds of super jumps and E-Liter fire.

Inker sighed

"Neon.."

Neon was probably too carried away with fighting that big abomination.

"Neon can't respawn, neither can Victoria, so if they are still fighting, keep an eye on them." Inker said.

"Yeah okay, but…"

Bough glanced over at the two girls.

Neon was going wild, she didn't look worried at all.

In fact she was having a blast kiting that giant monster with her E-Liter while hopping between Squid Beakons.

As for Victoria she had a cool air to her, as if being in battle came naturally.

Also Neon was making so much noise that she drew all attention towards her.

"Honestly it doesn't seem like those two need any help."

Confirming that the others were okay, Inker turned his attention back towards Ophelia and Eight.

Ophelia was saying something about purposely bringing Eight here.

"You are one of the only Octarians to make it out of the Deepsea Metro alive, so of course I had to lure you here and get a good look at you."

She had stolen the zapfish for that very reason… But why was she telling them this now?

'Maybe she just feels cornered and wants to reveal everything?'

This didn't sit right with Inker.

"-and when I found out you lost your memory, that just made things better."

"But why go through all this trouble? I trusted you already."

"I knew you would, you always did in the past."

"The past? What about the past? I am Alicia right?" Eight asked

"You really have no clue, don't you?"

"Of course not, that's why i've been looking for you, I thought you could maybe explain things, help me find out who I am and what I should do."

"Hmm, well then, I guess I should start from the beginning then."

Four years ago, the Octarians were still all under Octavio's rule.

They lived in Octo Valley, which had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair.

As usual DJ Octavio blamed all their misfortunes on the Inklings, young Octarians flocked to the army for a chance to make their home a better place by taking back the surface.

Octolings formed their main ranks, while those made from cutting off the tentacles of Octolings filled other, more expendable roles.

Yet to some, this wasn't enough.

So when a certain combat medic came up with an idea to strengthen the army even further with limitless numbers and better troops, Octavio agreed to let her give it a shot.

So began project E.E.L

Octo Valley

Back at Nautilus base, things got hectic when Kal and the others had read the documents they found on that hidden lair and project E.E.L.

"Can't you do some hacking or something and reach Eight?"

"I'm trying, but it's not that easy."

Pearl and Marina were still unable to contact Inker, and the others.

"We have to try something, I'll head over there and see what I can do." Kal suggested

"What good would that do?" Sky remarked.

"Well I can't just stay here. Besides, shouldn't you be more worried? From what we've Victoria and Eight should be safe, but Inker, Bough and Neon are in trouble!"

"Of course i'm worried, Neon can't respawn down there, but even so we can't do anything if we just go in alone."

Inker and Bough had hero suits, Neon had a ton of experience and Victoria had Octarian army training.

Kal and Sky couldn't do anything that they couldn't.

"What else can we do then?"

At this moment, another Octoling poked her head inside the room.

"What's going on in here?"

She wore an older model of Octoling armor and had her hair tied in a ponytail.

Lynn of the New Octopolis army.

That was enough to remind Kal and Sky that they were currently sitting in a New Octopolis base.

That meant that there still was something they could do.

"Hey Lynn, we could really use your help right about now."

Project E.E.L lab, Octo Canyon

"Alicia and I went through alot of trouble getting the project on its feet you know." Ophelia continued

She had been explaining, what was supposedly the truth for a while now.

Although some parts were left out, they managed to slip past Inker.

But for Eight, all this sounded familiar.

Was she Alicia? She could remember a lot of the things Ophelia described

The decaying state of Octo Valley.

Octavio doing everything he could to strengthen the army.

The beginning of project E.E.L.

'Wait a second, didn't she say that the project involved giving new bodies to the deceased, allowing them to live again?' Eight wondered

That bit never sounded familiar to her, though now Ophelia admitted the project was for the army…

Was it an Octarian attempt at an alternative method of respawning?

"Hold on! Didn't you say Project E.E.L was meant to keep us alive?" Eight asked

"Yes, that is true."

"But what does the army have to do with all this? I don't get it?"

"Oh right, I lied about that as well didn't I?"

Seeing Ophelia admit it so shamelessly was a bit infuriating to Inker.

Then she turned and grinned towards Inker.

"You can probably guess what our real purpose was."

"Huh?" Inker didn't know what she was getting at.

"Surely you must have noticed, when you were being attacked by those failed experiments, none of them attacked your Octoling friend."

That was true.

Inker recalled how when they were fighting, Victoria seemed to have it easy standing to the side firing her Blaster with caution to avoid friendly fire.

"F-failed experiments? I know their new bodies didn't last long, but isn't that a bit rude? I thought they were once your friends?" Eight exclaimed

Ophelia snorted "You believed that too? Those weren't ever real Octarians, just a bunch of failed experiments I didn't have the resources to put down." Ophelia groaned "urghh, it was all going so well inside the tank, how was I supposed to know that it was impossible to create a stable living Octarian without a base cell."

Eight shuddered at that cold remark.

The kind and warm Ophelia from before seemed to just vanish.

"Wait, but what about Project E.E.L being about preventing death as a whole?" Eight asked

"Ha, that's impossible, just how do you expect someone to just take control of another body after death? You want to know what E.E.L really stands for? It's not Enhance Existing Life, but Engineer Eradicative Lifeforms."

Eight gasped, she was completely in shock.

But to Inker it all made sense.

Ophelia looked at the two. "Now I assume you two aren't stupid enough to not notice the connection between E.E.L and the army."

Engineer Eradicative Lifeforms.

The failed experiments not targeting Victoria and acting docile to Ophelia and Eight.

"Project E.E.L isn't creating surrogate bodies, but creatures designed to eradicate Inklings?"

"Correct." Ophelia smiled, thinking about the naming of the project. "Just like actual eels, the soldiers we were meant to create would be vicious and aggressive when disturbed by Inklings."

One year into the project, progress had grinded to a halt

"We're losing her, we're losing her….. Dammit! Failed again!"

Ophelia pounded the vat as she failed yet another attempt.

"I don't understand it! Why do we keep losing them!"

She had done everything correctly, that Octoling should have been perfectly fine.

Yet it had died off as soon as it's body was ready to leave the vat.

"Is something wrong Ophelia?" Came a slightly curious voice.

"You bet! Why do these Octolings keep dying!? At this point we will need a landfill for all these failed experiments!"

"Calm down, you can't think straight when you are angry." Alicia assured her

"Smarter individuals get angry easier! I've done everything correctly! Nothing is wrong! So why won't it work!"

Ophelia shouted in frustration, pounding the vat's console a few times.

Alicia glanced over at the vat.

Indeed everything had been fine.

The Octoling Ophelia had created matched perfectly with any real Octoling of 16 years of age.

To create something this accurate from silicon and synapse, without even a bit of genetic material from a real Octoling was quite something.

But maybe what Ophelia was doing was a tad over complicated and a bit inefficient.

"Now hold on, take a deep breath and tell me what went wrong."

"What would you know? You're just here for security purposes!"

"I'm just trying to help."

"Ha! Well if you want to help, try figuring out why a perfectly healthy subject dies as soon as it's ready to leave the vat! I'll wait."

Alicia didn't know as much as Ophelia did, but she still wanted to help in any way she could.

If Ophelia's project went well, there would be a significant increase in the Octarian army's numbers.

No, there would be a limitless supply of them, they wouldn't even need to train them since Ophelia designed them to do nothing but fight Inklings.

They would be cookie cutter soldiers, press them out of their vats and send them to the front lines.

'Wait maybe that is the problem…' Alicia guessed

Ophelia intended for these creations to have just one directive, to fight for the Octarian army.

Maybe something as simple as that couldn't sustain itself?

"Ophelia, how do you program these guys to attack Inklings?" Alicia asked

"I don't think you'll have the time to learn."

"Well then, in that case can we try something different? Instead of making Octarians from scratch, why not make one based off an existing Octoling?"

"You want me to waste time with cloning? That's nothing new and a waste of my genius. We aren't just going to clone the army when I can make better soldiers this way."

Perhaps there was a sense of pride which prevented Ophelia from going that route.

"Oh… well that's too bad, I thought I was onto something there."

"Feh, cloning was already discovered and explored years ago, it's not worth it."

'Discovered and explored years ago huh?'

Cloning wasn't Alicia's idea, rather she felt like creating an Octarian out of nothing and giving them only one purpose wasn't enough to make them want to live.

Maybe they were smart enough to realize that they were just some creation bred to fight and die.

Unfortunately Alicia wasn't sure how to explain such a thing to Ophelia, without her assuming that she was trying to push her into making a clone army.

So instead she observed quietly over the next month as Ophelia failed a few more times.

Ophelia was a clever Octoling, she'd give her that, but she could be stubborn and hot tempered.

Alicia decided that if she couldn't explain, she could try to show Ophelia instead.

While Ophelia was getting some rest, Alicia had decided to try her hand.

Ophelia had just failed again and was once again trying to create an Octoling.

She had gotten so used to the creation process, that she had simplified it and had the vats programmed to do it for her.

Alicia could even change things if she wanted too, that was how simple it had become.

And change was exactly was Alicia did.

It wouldn't be cloning if the Octoling they created was only loosely based off her right?

First she decided to add some of her own cells to the mix.

Then, using the vat's console, Alicia scrolled to the part beyond the physical appearances.

Once again Ophelia had given only one directive to this Octoling.

'Fight for the Octarian army at all cost.'

It was a simple yet clear directive.

And obviously not enough.

Octarians were complex living beings, not robots programmed for a single task.

Erasing that, Alicia thought hard about her own life and what it had been up to now.

She began with more specific things, like why she served the Octarian army, who was to be considered a friend, what was worth fighting for, etc.

From there she worked her way down to more basic things such as what she thought were good intentions, how to communicate, how to live, learn and adapt.

Alicia spent hours making these changes, before turning in for the night.

It didn't take long for Ophelia to discover that she had messed with her project.

"Alicia, you've been doing nothing but patrol the lab and occasionally run some errands for me, right?"

"Right."

Ophelia looked at her with scrutinizing eyes.

"Well then, care to explain why this Octoling looks so much like you?"

Perhaps it was because Alicia added some of her own cells, or because she pretty much put her own memories and ideals into the console meant for directives, but this Octoling had formed much quicker than any previous one and it looked alot like a younger version of her.

In response to her friend's question, Alicia shrugged.

Ophelia then started scrolling through everything on the console.

"Ahh wait!"

Too late, Ophelia discovered the huge wall of text where her simple 'fight for the Octarian army at all cost' directive had been previously.

"What is this? What did you do?"

"I thought I could help."

"Help? You call this helping? We are supposed to make superior soldiers who follow the army's every command!"

"Well I put in a few things about what is worth fighting for so tha-"

Ophelia interrupted her, reading out some of the things Alicia had added "What are the qualities of a friend, what is fresh and was is not, how to adapt and overcome... All you've done is create a normal Octoling!"

"Is that a bad thing? I mean it's better than just some drone with only one goal."

Ophelia sighed.

"Oh well, it's too late to change anything now, I guess we'll just wait for this one to die as well and try again." She had already been getting disheartened, failing over and over.

But a few days later, Ophelia was surprised.

The Octoling Alicia had tampered with, hadn't died off like all the previous experiments.

In fact, for the first time ever, one of her experiments opened their eyes.

Still floating in the vat of green liquid, the Octoling slowly looked around, as if discovering the world around her.

On that morning, Ophelia squealed with joy.

Alicia came running over to see what had transpired and was ambushed with a big hug from Ophelia.

"Thank you!"

She wasn't yet sure as to why it worked, but whatever Alicia had done, put project E.E.L back into motion.

Alicia herself could hardly believe her idea had worked.

"Wow, that really worked?"

"What did you do?"

"Nothing, I just had an idea."

"You mean a theory."

"Sure a theory, I thought that maybe Octarians needed a bigger reason to live than just to serve the army."

"Huh, well whatever you did, there was something that fixed the problem."

Now all Ophelia needed to do was look into what Alicia had changed and she could make the simple Octarians with only one purpose that she had promised Octavio.

Ophelia had just finished retelling another part of her past.

"You were trying to create living weapons of war…" Inker muttered

"Of course I was, you should have seen the terrible state of Octo Valley three years ago."

"Well I can understand why you started, but now that Octavio is gone and you've heard the Calamari Inkantation, why haven't you stopped?" Eight asked

"You should know that by now." Ophelia replied

"Uhh, really?"

"Come on, don't make me do all the work here. I've already said so much, you should recall the rest."

"Hmmm.'

Eight tried to recall the rest.

What else was there to recall?

All she remembered were tanks of green liquid, a song, her friend…

Wait there was also the argument.

She couldn't recall it clearly before, but after seeing this lab again, seeing Ophelia again and hearing that story, everything was coming back.

Two years ago, Agent 3 and DJ Octavio fought.

During that battle the Squid Sisters intervened, spreading their squidtastic grooves across the valley.

Only a few days after that, deep within Octo Canyon an Octoling woke up.

At first her mind was blank.

Her vision was a blur.

Slowly, reality came into focus.

She looked around.

She appeared to be trapped in some sort of glass tank.

Strange, how did she get there?

Someone came walking in.

The Octoling looked at her face. It looked familiar, maybe she should try remembering who she was.

That's right, she was a friend.

The Octoling smiled as the friend jumped back in shock and squealed with joy.

She looked happy.

That was good but… Who was she?

The Octoling pondered inside her vet.

Oh right, it was Ophelia.

She could recall some things about her.

Like Alicia and her serving together in the army.

Wait who is Alicia?

Was that her own name?

Oh wait, maybe it was the name of the second Octoling, running in and getting hugged by the first.

They looked happy.

That was good.

Being happy, being with friends, was good.

'What a strange memory…' Eight wondered.

"Still not remembering what happened next?" Ophelia asked

"I'm not sure, I think I do but… it doesn't add up to what you said. I remember the scene of you jumping with joy, but I don't remember rushing over to see what happened."

"No? Well, that makes sense, you aren't Alicia after all."

"What?!" Eight exclaimed

But Ophelia had told her she was Alicia.

Ophelia treated her like a friend.

What happened to that kind looking Octoling, who was so afraid of being splatted? When did she become so cold?

"If I'm not Alicia, then who am I? And what happened to her?"

Ophelia, without the slightest hint of regret, said "I killed her."

"Huh?"

"I killed Alicia, you were awake and present at the time, you should remember that too, the promised land, the argument…"

That was all Eight needed.

She couldn't recall it clearly with just the mem cake, but now that she had seen this lab again she could remember.

It was only days after Octavio's defeat, that the Calamari Inkantation began to spread through the underground civilizations of the Octarians.

The Octarians of Octo Valley would soon find themselves split in two, between those that supported Octavio and those who condemned him.

It was no different for the small research group in Octo Canyon.

"Ophelia!" Alicia came running in just as Ophelia was taking notes on the first subject to come to life.

"What's wrong Alicia?"

"Listen to this!"

Alicia showed her a recording of the fight between Octavio and Agent 3.

"What about it?"

"Just listen, I know it's pretty bad quality, but doesn't that song clear your head?" Alicia was brimming with excitement, it was almost childlike.

"Well I guess it does…" Ophelia smiled "Thanks, this could really help me with Project E.E.L."

"Forget Project E.E.L, there's a whole new world up there, a promised land just waiting for us. We don't need to keep working down here, we can leave."

"What… Alicia… What did you just say?"

"We can leave, it's our choice you know! I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I actually don't have anything against the Inklings. I'm sure we can live a better life on the surface among the Inklings rather than rotting down here."

"No way! I have worked far too hard for this project! I am not abandoning it now to live some fantasy of yours!" Ophelia was furious.

How could this so called friend of hers, try and make her abandon her work? Sure that song was nice and it did feel refreshing to listen too, but that didn't mean she was going to abandon everything she worked for.

"It's not some fantasy, there really is a promised land waiting for us up on the surface."

"NO! I will not go! Not until I am finished…"

"Come on! Is Project E.E.L really that important? All it's going to do is cause more violence."

"You're a soldier! You should be fine with that!"

"No! Just because I care about our species doesn't mean I want to fight every non Octarian! You should realize that Octavio's methods are wrong!"

Ophelia stared in disbelief.

Is this what they called an epiphany? Still there was no way she would abandon her work.

But Alicia had a point, why did she have to work for Octavio? He wasn't the one racking his brains trying to engineer soldiers with unwavering loyalty.

"Fine then, how about this, instead of finishing Project E.E.L for Octavio we do it for ourselves?"

"What?"

"Like you said Octavio's methods are wrong. But that doesn't mean we have to conform to whatever the Inklings do."

"We won't have to."

"How can you be so sure? Octavio never forgave the Inklings for the great turf war, so how can you be certain the Inklings don't feel the same? I'll finish Project E.E.L just to be safe. With an army by our side, we can make our surface life whatever we want it to be."

Alicia violently shook her head

"No! We should never have even considered doing this! If we explain things and apologize to Inkopolis I'm sure they'll forgive us for even starting Project E.E.L."

"How could you even say that? We have worked so hard just to get here. Forget Inkopolis and Octavio, we won't need any of them if we can make our own army."

Alicia turned her back on Ophelia.

"No… I'm sorry, I don't want to be a part of this any longer."

As for Ophelia she was shocked

How could Alicia just turn her back on everything they've worked for?

Not only that, but she's heading to the surface and thinks turning herself in would guarantee her place in Inkopolis.

Ophelia wouldn't allow that to happen.

Not when she struggled so much getting this project to where it was.

She had to see this through, even if it meant going against Inkopolis, Octavio, or anyone else.

Not even Alicia.

She reached for any sharp object she could find and found herself holding a scalpel.

As her former friend was calmly walking away, conflicted by the choice of either a happy life in Inkopolis or a normal life with her friend, Ophelia ran up behind her.

Without a word, she drove the blade into Alicia's throat.

All under the eyes of the Octoling they had created together, still sitting in it's vat.

Eight buried her face in her hands.

Now she knew why the name Alicia sounded familiar.

She knew why one of the Octarians at the Last Bastion mistook her for Alicia.

She knew why the Octoling mem cake brought back memories of a vat of green liquid, of an argument and of Ophelia.

She could also recall how things went on from there.

First she was taken out of her vat and lived alongside Ophelia for a while.

Ophelia would often stay up all night, apparently hard at work.

Eight would often find her deep asleep after she had passed out trying to pull an all nighter.

She remembered gently touching her face, trying to rouse her from sleep.

Finally she was turned over to Octavio after he had been rescued from the Inklings.

Eight would then serve in the Octarian army, while Ophelia seemed to vanish back into the lab.

Those two were parted, but Eight wouldn't let that bother her.

At the time, Ophelia was her first and only friend.

She believed that for sure, they would meet again someday.

"Wh-wha…. So all that about eliminating death, giving older Octarians new bodies, Ava and Ana…" Eight asked

"Are all lies. You know, just like your whole life." Ophelia replied.

Eight stumbled back in terror and Ophelia didn't stop there.

"That's right, anything you remember, or think you remember from before you were out of the vat, was nothing but text that Alicia punched into your head."

Eight stood, trembling as she stared at her own hands..

She never would have thought that she was a science experiment.

Meanwhile, Inker had been listening and watching all this.

He didn't care about where Eight came from, he didn't like Ophelia knocking her down like that.

This time, he definitely won't let Ophelia off easy.

"I've heard enough, once we get out of here I'm handing you over to either Octo Canyon or Octo Valley." He grabbed Ophelia's arm and violently pulled her away.

"I just have one more question, why did you bring Eight here?"

However unlike before, Ophelia didn't act scared or nervous.

Instead she just sneered.

"You aren't in a position to ask anything Agent 3. I know much more than you ever will in your whole life. I know Eight hid down in the Deepsea Metro and managed to make it back alive, so I took a suggestion from my good friend Alicia and made slightly altered copies of Eight."

"What are you talking ab-"

There was a sudden storm of footsteps.

Inker looked towards the door and saw Eight come running in.

No wait, Eight was already in the room, there was another Eight.

And another...

And another…

'What was going on?'

Inker found himself encircled by Agent 8s

"How did you.. Ah!"

Inker noticed the console that Ophelia had been using before.

Like before it showed information on the various vats in the lair.

But now the timer on it had reached zero.

"Don't tell me… You told us all that just to stall?" Inker guessed.

"Oh, I thought you had forgotten, I guess Inklings have some brains after all, though perhaps it's only natural since you accused me of it earlier."

Inker grit his teeth, he should have suspected something was up.

He shouldn't have let his guard down around Ophelia just because Eight thought she was a friend.

Speaking of Eight, which one was her?

Inker looked around.

There were seven Eights staring at him with blank expressions.

And one whose eyes were wide with both shock and fear.

Eight was in a panic seeing so many copies of herself.

'Where did they come from? Why are there so many? Why are there so many of me? How did Ophelia make so many of me? oh!?'

Eight noticed how one of her clones had blue eyes.

Then she remembered that she had let Ophelia cut a part of her tentacle and use it to supposedly make a new body.

Eight recalled how Ophelia chopped it into many bits and only dropped one piece into the vat.

So the other copies of her must have been made from the remaining pieces…

She counted seven more of herself in the room, they all stared blankly at Inker.

And Inker, trapped in the center of a circle of Eights, sweated nervously expecting one of them to make a move.

Ophelia was enjoying this.

Ever since she heard the Inkantation she realized she didn't have to work for DJ Octavio, instead she could work for herself.

These copies of Eight was proof of that.

They weren't just following the original order of 'Fight for the Octarian Army at all cost.' But rather they were set to do whatever Ophelia ordered them too.

And since they were copies of Eight, an Octoling who survived the deepsea metro, these selfless and mindless duplicates were guaranteed to be powerful.

Inker had the same train of thought, that made him worried.

Could he beat them all?

"U-ummm, what am I supposed to do?" Eight suddenly asked

"Oh come on! That should be obvious!" Inker remarked, but Eight wasn't paying attention to him anymore.

Eight knew that she wasn't an Octoling named Alicia, but a product of Project E.E.L

She had been searching for the individual in her memories because she felt that she had lost her purpose upon completing everything in the metro.

"You're not just a friend, but my creator too! If anyone can tell me what purpose I have left in the world, it's you!" Eight begged

Nothing else mattered now, all Eight wanted was to accomplish her original goal, to find something to fill in this empty feeling of pointless existence.

But Ophelia only laughed

"You really need to ask that? Well I can't blame you, you were originally designed to follow whatever directive you were given, too bad Alicia meddled with it and replaced it with a bunch of random thoughts and memories. Hmmm… let me think."

Ophelia looked around at the new versions of Eight standing around her.

Ophelia only lured her back here because she heard she survived the Deepsea Metro. That and because it proved impossible to create a new stable life form without any Octarian cells to use as a base.

Her own creation, Eight, who had survived a place where 10007 Octarians died, was a perfect candidate for that.

And before, all she needed Eight for was...

"I only needed you as a sample for the Octarian army in order to get more resources. But now I don't think anyone has a use for you anymore." Ophelia said nonchalantly

She made a cutting motion, jabbing her thumb across her neck.

"So do the world a favor and kill yourself." Ophelia said.

That was it, there was no reason for Eight to remain.

Like Ophelia said, she didn't have a use for her anymore.

Neither did C.Q Cumber, since all his tests were done.

And Neither did the New Squidbeak Splatoon since they already had other agents.

Eight, who had lost her sense of purpose, found herself agreeing with Ophelia.

She began to feel weak in the knees.

If she really didn't have purpose to live for, what reason did she have to keep living?

Like a puppet with her strings cut, Agent Eight dropped to the ground in despair.