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I've been wondering for some time how Odo could still have that morphogenic virus Section 31 gave him when he was a Solid for a long time. You'd think it would have purged him of it, as it was implied when they first discovered it. Now I have a theory, and if this doesn't work, everyone is free to come up with new ideas and theories.

I believe that when they discovered the baby Changeling, the Bashir Changeling briefly linked with it to gauge its feelings. He probably planned to bring it back to the Founders someday, so it wouldn't be corrupted by Odo and his Federation beliefs. And then when it sank into Odo, giving him his shapeshifting powers, he got reinfected, and the rest was history.

No. It's almost certain he was infected by Section 31 between him regaining his morphing powers and the occupation of DS9.

Bashir speculated in "When it Rains..." that Odo was infected (or in this case re-infected) when he linked with the Female Founder during the occupation of DS9 in Season 6 (also means Laas was infected when he linked with Odo).

And given how Odo was essentially Patient Zero, the changes to his molecular structure could explain why he contracted the disease; the agency couldn't have had him dying before he infected a Founder. That Odo did them one better and infected the entire Link was a masterstroke.

Bashir said in "Things Past" that even though Odo had been turned into a solid, there were still various Changeling enzymes in his system. It's possible that the virus remained latent in those enzymes, then was fully reactivated when Odo regained his shape-shifting powers. Of course, even if that did happen, he would have been re-infected either way when he linked with the Female Changeling.

Flagg wrote:No. It's almost certain he was infected by Section 31 between him regaining his morphing powers and the occupation of DS9.

If that had happened the great link as a whole would not have been infected.

Crazedwraith wrote:

Flagg wrote:No. It's almost certain he was infected by Section 31 between him regaining his morphing powers and the occupation of DS9.

If that had happened the great link as a whole would not have been infected.

Bingo. He got the virus in 'Homefront'/'Paradise Lost', because that was when he was on earth.

He was reinfected when he had sex with the female Changeling in 'Favor the Bold'/'Sacrifice of Angels'.

This was revealed in 'When it Rains...' in season seven.

Poor Laas. Hopefully he came back to DS9 once he realized that he had been infected and was then pointed to the Great Link.

"What the hell, dude! I thought you said that you were clean!"

Eframepilot wrote:Poor Laas. Hopefully he came back to DS9 once he realized that he had been infected and was then pointed to the Great Link.

The DS9 relaunch touches on this and shows Laas has made it to the Great Link and been healed of the disease.