When we finally became too exhausted to fight back I was expecting her to shred my jugular, but instead her eyes glowed brighter and her bear trap smile fell into a scowl, "after everything you've been through, You aught to know better."

  Green had receded because of the sleep miasma we were in, using this opportunity, I spoke to her, struggling to keep my eyes open, "I know...but Green is a narcissistic psychopath."

  She squinted at me, "You and Green aren't the same person?"

  I shake my head, desperate to communicate the negative even as my neck muscles scream at me, "I'm not him..."

  She dropped me and I rolled from my knees to my back as my body shook with any effort, "...more than one? There's more than one of you in there?"

  I cough, breathing began to need more effort, "Yes...there's more than one...and he's not the best guy...im sorry..."

  She scrutinized me, apparently seeing some truth in my words, and she sat next to me.

  The darkness faded away and MAL leaned towards me, her skin no longer pale, her eyes no longer glowing, I looked up, struggling to even blink as I saw that my team was assembling to my defence, I wiggled on the floor, "Guys...wait..."

  After they seemed to relax, Love picked me up, "You need to stop instigating fights with our friends, Green."

  As she sat me down in a chair, MAL walked over to me, looking into my eyes, "Who are you? What is your name?"

  "Green," I responded with a wheeze.

  She shook her head, "No, your name, before Trigram."

  My head fell forward as I stopped being able to support my head's weight, knowing as I wracked my tired brain that I had forgotten my name. "I...I don't know."

  MAL looked incredibly sad as she patted my head, "We'll help you find out...all of you...for now, get some rest."

  She then swatted me in the face, "And STOP being an asshole!"

  As if given leave to die, I faded out of knowing, my mind finally haven given in to sleep.

  I woke up in my bunk back at the Trigram bunker, I gasped for breath, looking down I saw that I was wearing my old coveralls, as I was looking around, there was that familiar gurgling wash of water through the pipes in the corridor outside our room, the proof was right in front of me, I was 12 again.

  "Green?? GREEN!?" i shouted, straining to hear if he would respond, only to be met with a disgruntled grunt from above me, Love had woken up and was now looking over the bunk at me, "Shut up '42, I'm trying to get some sleep!"

  I blinked, 42, was a nickname I had been given by my squad, I wasn't Agent Green, I was JAB-76842, we were in the early stages of the project still, and judging from the long gash traveling vertically up my chest we had JUST placed first in the culling charts after I had taken a spear to my chest only to impale myself further and decapitate JAB-43561, I remember his face too, he had been so sure that his spear would keep me at a distance.

  Without my regeneration powers however, I was never sure if I was gonna die or not, Which is the exact level of badass dumbassery that landed my squad on top of the charts.

  I sat up in bed, "Sorry 44...what day is it?"

  She hisses at me, leaning over the side and slapping me, a light tap compared to what she'd be capable of later, "I said shut up! It's Hygiene day tomorrow and I need the sleep!"

  As she spoke, Ripper leaned over her, his kind face smiling at me from behind her, "Go to sleep, little brother, we don't get to take naps remember?"

  His smile fractured, the skin of his face peeling off and away to reveal the black oozing skin of that ooze monster, Agent Onyx, the one who I'm sure had died in the explosion, his smile wide, still speaking in Ripper's voice, "Not unless it's forever, y'know?"

  Suddenly I was sitting in another room that I immediately recognized.

  The Trigram Oxygen Garden.

  The facility was so deep in the earth that oxygen had to be fed to the lower levels, so every 2 levels or so they had an oxygen garden, a patch of trees and other plants fed by a hydroponics system, inside the garden they kept wildlife to feed the plants, a completely enclosed ecosystem.

  This was oxygen garden 3, 3rd one down from the top level, in this oxygen garden was a raccoon I had fostered a bond with by feeding him at lunch time, I had named him stinky because he liked to mess with the skunk that also lived there.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  In my lap sat an MRE, mashed potatoes, and sliced turkey with watery ass brown gravy, Stinky sat next to me, watching me look at him before reaching in to grab a handful of turkey, rushing off to eat it as I paid him absolutely no mind.

  "Hey 76842." A voice that seemed familiar, yet so strangely foreign graced my ears, there were seconds of confusion before I finally saw him standing in the door of the oxygen garden, his perfect grin terrified me, perfectly alligned and white, unnatural and eerily familiar. It was JAB-88888, he was older than the rest of us, closer to 13, larger at any rate.

  "I think that's my MRE." He said in a nonchalant voice, once again setting off alarm bells in my head, I had heard that voice present day...but where?

  I stood up and defiantly handed the plastic container to Stinky who took the whole thing and ran behind a tree.

  He grabbed me by the front of my coveralls and kneed me in the crotch, I grunted in pain, bringing an elbow up and across his jaw, he staggered away, regaining his balance and swinging a wild right hook that I barely was able to block in time, though I was able to interrupt his swing, his fist still made contact with my eye, rattling my brain and making me fall over.

  He stepped over me and though I was too dazed to see it in reality, I knew what he was about to do.

  As soon as he had passed me, he grabbed for Stinky who was absorbed in eating, as I finally got up, I heard his anguished, fearful hisses and squeaks as JAB-88888 squeezed the life out of him, I turned to rush to Stinky's aid, too late, I body checked that fucker, knocking him over as I climbed on top, grabbing 88888's face, jamming my thumbs into his eyes with a yell of anger! Angry tears seeping down my face as I ground down, blood spraying into my own eyes as he struggled. After he had stopped moving, I let go and stepped off him, wiping my eyes.

  When things once again became visible, I was no longer in the oxygen garden.

  I was standing in a living room watching PBS Kids.

  I looked around, the walls were a strange but comforting shade of salmon, there were works of art on the walls along with pictures of a family I didn't know.

  Looking down at myself I could see I was no longer 11, I was younger, much younger, 1 or 2 perhaps.

  Into the room walked a woman, blonde, wearing wide rim glasses, she seemed older, she was holding a stuffed dalmatian, tiny but perfect for small hands, "Here we are, my grandson's little stuffed friend, whats his name, Jackie?"

  "Didoh..." came out of my little mouth, she pulled me into a hug, "Ben! Get in here, He said his first word!!"

  A man with an oblong head and long hair rushed in, looking excited, "Jack said what? What did he say?"

  She pointed to the Dalmatian, "Didoh, he told me the name of his little friend."

  Ben rolled his eyes, "Mom that's not his first word his first word would have to be-"

  I cut him off, "Daddy!"

  They looked at me shocked, then burst into laughter that blasted out my tiny eardrums, making little me cry.

  Suddenly I opened my eyes and saw MAL, she'd been holding my head apparently, there were tears in her eyes as well, "Your name..."

  -

  I hold up a hand, my body feeling very well rested as opposed to how it had felt before that series of flashbacks, while my head throbbed in horrible pain.

  "Do. Not." She looked taken aback at my words, "Why? Aren't you happy to learn it at long last?"

  I shake my head, the memory she had unlocked burning in my skull like hot iron, "it hurts." I whimpered, feeling pathetic as she looked at me, worried.

  I sit up, immediately being forced down by Love who looks at MAL, "Go on, keep digging."

  She sat back down, "No, we're done here...I know his real name and so does he, now I can start on all of you."

  I sit up and see that my squad and I are in the relaxation room of the gym, with dim lights and beds, an empty room, robbed of the people who would usually need it, because of Green's hubris.

  Love gets off me, touching my face gently, "When we're done, we can finally know each other's names!"

  They laid down on the other beds, MAL looked at me sadly, "You can go back to your bunk now...I've put Green down for a nap, I will send the others back to you as we uncover their names."

  I feel a twinge of worry, this was a creature of the night, notoriously out for themselves, she seemed way too eager to help us and my head still hurt, "how do I know that you're not planning on sucking their blood??"

  She stopped, looking offended, "why would you accuse me of that when I've done nothing but help you??"

  Edge hopped up from his bed, rushing over and violently shoving me, "Leave, now."

  I looked into his eyes as I stopped myself from falling over, they were furious, "Are you seriously going to try and stop someone from helping us get home!?"

  I lower my eyebrows, confused at his choice of words, "You...want to leave?"

  He looked like he wanted to hit me, his hands, shaking at his sides, "I've wanted to leave since we started!! At first I thought this was all there is for us, but MAL explained that we don't have to be this way forever, if we can recall things about our lives we can get free and go home! HOME, Green!! Don't you want that??"

  I look at my team, at MAL, and then at Edge who looked so angry with me, I felt nothing but pain in my heart and my head as he seemed so ready to just beat the shit out of me, then it hit me that everything was about to change, a Renaissance, enlightenment, but maybe the cost of that is that I'd never see any of them again, my scalp prickled with fear, my face flushing, the words came out of my mouth before I could stop them, "but...I am home." My voice wavered as I spoke, the horror on Edge's face was clear, I had somehow crossed a line, "What??" He seethed and I flinched, "Look, the comfort and love I get from you guys daily are all I think about when I think of family, our bunk, that's where I feel at home, being intimate with you...all of you...It's the closest thing I can think of when I try to imagine heaven."

  As he continued to stare at me in shock, I tasted salt, I was crying.

  He didn't hit me, that was the worst part.

  He just walked back to his bed.

  MAL tried to say something to me, but I was already moving, I ran out of the room, the hallways turning into a blur as I rushed back to our bunk.

  Upon arrival, I lay down, looking at the wall as I allowed myself to make the connection, the baby in that vision was the same little boy I'd been, killing JAB-56473.

  Agent Green

  And

  Jack.

  No longer the same, now separate people.

  I was myself...I was me.

  And like that, I passed out.