The Next morning...

Agent 3 was out cold, leaning on agent 8s bed. Suddenly, agent 8 lost her mind, waking up and panicking. The ruckus woke up agent 3, as well as half the other patients.

"What's wrong!" Agent 3 said frantically, jumping to her feet. Agent 8 saw her, and calmed down.

"Wh-wh-where am I?" Agent 8 said shakily. Her eyes were wide.

"You're in the hospital." Agent 3 said. "You were sick."

"I wasn't sick." Agent 8 said. "It was terrible... I couldn't do anything! I punched metal man and broke his hand! I lashed out at everything in reach!"

Agent 3 had never heard agent 8 speak in full sentences like that before.

"It's ok now. No one's mad at you." Agent 3 said reassuringly. "You weren't yourself."

Then she got a good look at agent 8. Her face and hands looked normal again, mostly. But her eyes hadn't reverted, and her tentacles were still blue at their ends.

"It looks like whatever cure Axel mixed up worked... Mostly." Agent 3 said.

"What do you mean?" Agent 8 asked, concerned.

Agent 3 dug out a hand mirror from her pocket and showed agent 8.

"Ah! My eyes!" Agent 8 said.

"Are they hurting?" Agent 3 asked.

"No... They look like yours did, back when..." Agent 8 trailed off.

"Oh. Yeah, I see that..." Agent 3 said. She embraced agent 8. "But it's ok. There's no goo, it's just an eye color."

Agent 8 felt better being hugged by her best friend.

"Yeah... I guess you're right." Agent 8 said.

"By the way, I wanted to ask you a few things." Agent 3 said. "Starting with the obvious one, since when do you talk in full sentences?"

Agent 8 finally realized she was talking aloud, instead of in her head. "Oh! I... Don't know." She said. "I always thought the full idea it just never came out."

"It's like a whole new you!" Agent 3 joked. "Using your big girl words!"

"Oh stop you." Agent 8 laughed lightly. "What else did you want to know?"

"Well, here's the thing. While you were, uh, sleeping? Yeah, everytime I'd come in you would kind of wake up. That I get. But you would also kind of wake up whenever Colt walked in. Why's that?" Agent 3 asked, genuinely curious.

"Oh? I did that? Hmm..." Agent 8 said. "Maybe because he reminds me of my late brother, kind of."

"You had a brother?" Agent 3 asked.

"Yeah. I don't know what happened to him. I know he escaped you when you saved the Zapfish, but I never saw him again..." Agent 8 looked down.

"Hey hey. If he got away, I'm sure he's ok." Agent 3 said, patting agent 8 on the back. "After all, I'm the big scary agent. Rawr."

"Heh. I guess." Agent 8 said. She poked agent 3's cheek. "You're not that scary to me."

As the girls caught up on everything, Axel was in the lab, making sure the virus was non lethal to mammals. And he had one test subject. Himself.

"Cell apoptosis is negative, that's good." He wrote down some notes. The human half of his body was still entirely venerable to the sanitized goop, but it couldn't affect him because of the machine half. Thus, he could monitor the virus without risk, though he would miss out on some possible side effects.

"Blood cleaning is 90%, and rising. Eye color has reverted. Saliva is clear." He took more notes.

He bit into a cheese slice. "For what it's worth, my abysmal taste sense works again. Smell is also abysmal, as per standard. Looks like it works." Axel stood up.

"Time to see what the humans have been cooking up. But I should check on 8 first..." He exited the lab.

When he got to agent 8s room, one could say he was quite shocked.

"Uh....." He said, not sure what to begin with.

"Oh, hey Axel!" Agent 8 said cheerfully. "I've just been catching up with 3."

Axel's face became even more surprised, somehow.

"Yep. She speaks in full sentences now, I guess..." Agent 3 said. "Just roll with it."

"I wanted to check on you, but it looks like you're doing better than ever. But it looks like the cure didn't fully work..." Axel said.

"It's ok." Agent 8 said. "The important thing is that I feel better."

"This is gonna take some getting used to..." Axel said. "I'll uh... I'll have a doctor come give you a physical. I've got to get this to the humans. I can guarantee that crazy bio modder helped, but I'm an example of his work and do I look ok?"

"Oh dear." Agent 3 said. "Then go. Don't worry, I'll find a doctor."

Axel nodded, and left hastily.

"Where's he keeping his cure?" Agent 8 wondered aloud.

"I think he hid it in his side. Nasty but effective." Agent 3 replied. "I'll be right back, ok?"

Agent 8 nodded. "Ok." She nibbled a cracker, feeling peckish. A strange sensation filled her mouth.

As agent 3 left the room, she heard an excited squeak. "I can taste again!"

A numeric value of time later.

Axel arrived at the human camp. He beelined for the hospital. Upon arriving, he saw exactly what he expected. Macklemore had helped, but not perfectly.

But then he looked again. Macklemore had done a perfect job. Most humans were fully cured, and the remaining few we're looking about the same as agent 8, in general cleanness.

"Uh... Ok." He said.

He decided to instead drop off some cure at the human hospital, and went back to Inkopolis, where he left the majority. Then he went back the agent 8s room. All the agents were there watching agent 8 do her physical. For reactions, they were top notch. Her strength was just as high if not slightly raised, but the most profound change was her analytical skills, which weren't even on the physical. It appeared what had remained of her sanitation was increasing her brain function.

The thing she was most excited about was her sense of taste working again, far more than before, though that was only temporary.

"So can 8 come home?" Agent 3 asked.

"Well, I don't see why not. Still not sure how she made such a sudden recovery." The doctor said.

"Oh that's easy. Axel is very smart. He made a special cure." Agent 8 said.

"I guess I underestimated human biotech." The doctor said.

"No." Said Axel. "Viruses died out in the floods. You underestimated a disease to counter a disease."

"What." The doctor had no words.

"It's the old saying. 'fight fire with fire.'" Axel said. "A modified bacteriophage was more than what anyone here could expect. A virus that eats bacteria, or in this case, ink." He smirked. "It was entirely worth the sleepless nights. Look how happy 8 is."

"I suppose. Alright, but I'd like you back in 3 days for a check-up." The doctor said.

"Can do doc." Agent 3 said. "C'mon 8. Let's go eat some savory human food. You feeling like steaks or chicken?"

"Steak!" Agent 8 said. "I've never had any!"

"Yes you have. Just not the good kind." Agent 3 said. "Agent 4 got me a bite. It's great, you'll love it."

The group left.

"Glad 8s back." Marie said.

"We've all missed her!" Callie said.

"Uh. Uh, yeah! Yeah we have." Agent 4 said after Callie elbowed him in the side.

"Well, now I wait for the next massive problem." Axel said.

"Why are you so down?" Callie asked.

"Eh. Just a feeling someone doesn't want happy endings with me." Axel said. "I can't describe it, but I hope it's not the case."

"No way to know..." Marie said.