MAL looked terrified as I dropped down through the hole into the ruined game room where Love was struggling to her feet off of the couch, shakily trying to avoid all the glass on the floor. I drop the sword and ignore the fact that it vanishes immediately upon hitting the floor. I rush to her and she swats me away, her strength seemingly gone or I would have been sent flying, "Get away, GET AWAY!! I'll- Oh..." she paused when she saw me, her already tear-streaked face being washed with more, "Green!" She grabbed me and pulled me close, her muscles shaking with the effort, I picked her up and carried her back to our bunk.

  "It's OK, it's alright, I'm here, he can't hurt you anymore, I took care of it."

  Green was mercifully quiet during this latest part, for once in our lives, our purposes aligned enough that I didn't require chiding or manipulation.

  She was sobbing so hard she could barely speak but managed to croak out, "It was my fault..."

  The sound of her crying woke Wolf and Edge as I sat her down, "It's not your fault, don't you DARE say that."

  "What's not her fault??" Wolf sat bolt upright in bed, I stroke Love's hair as I hold her, she presses her face into my chest, "tell me what happened...please." I whisper.

  She presses herself harder into my chest, my shirt soaking with her tears, my shirt muffling her voice slightly, "I couldn't sleep...he met me on my way to the bathroom and said he wanted to talk to me, he gave me a drink, 'just a nightcap' he said, to celebrate my first night out...I'd never had alcohol before...I felt so grown up...and then I felt...weak...I couldn't stand."

  Rage seared my scalp again as she began to shake with renewed sobs, attempting to continue the story, but I stopped her, I got the picture.

  He had DRUGGED her, that two-faced piece of shit had roofied MY Love.

  Our love.

  After everything he'd done to make us feel safe, he was domesticating cattle, had Houska planned this?

  I couldn't think about that now, i couldnt focus on rage, she needed comforting, we all crowded around her, all airs of sleepiness gone in the face of this new terror.

  She passed out from minutes of sobbing as we all lay together on my bunk, I looked at Edge, about to say something, but then Green spoke, "Make me a promise, guys."

  Edge and Wolf looked back up at me, "what promise?" Asked Edge.

  My lips quivered as Green could barely hold back his rage, "We never let this happen again, everyone has a bathroom buddy, nobody goes anywhere alone, twos, always in twos, ok?"

  Edge nodded, Wolf nodded, "Never again." Edge summed up, I bury my nose in her hair, she smelled like lavender.

  I look back up at them, "We can't trust anyone outside of this group, not even MAL who seems to have our best interests....seems to."

  Edge nods but Wolf looks apprehensive, "I wouldn't say that."

  Green growled, bristling at her, "we're not people to them, it's no different from Trigram, they didn't talk about leave or sending us home, but they did say the word reassignment when I spoke to them last."

  Wolf's brow furrowed, "Who did this to Love? Is he dead?"

  Green winces, the pain of the past hour still very fresh, but we had to explain, Wolf and Edge had been asleep for the better part of this, "Doctor Sharp did this."

  Wolf's face dropped into a mask of shock and disbelief, Edge clung to Love's hand tighter, Horror permeating his face, "That fucking-" Wolf put a hand over his mouth and pointed at Love with the other, she was sound asleep in my arms, to me she mouthed "lay her down slowly."

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I did so and she beckoned to both of us, walking slowly out of the room as we followed her.

  "How the hell did we get into this situation again? Where they treat us like property" Asks Wolf

  Edge gestures around the facility at large, "it's not like they're not paying us to do our jobs!"

  Wolf grabbed Edge by the throat with a snarl, "I will NOT be made into a plaything for some freak in a LABCOAT!"

  I pushed them away from one another, inadvertently becoming the target of violence myself as I was punched in the face by Wolf, I grabbed her other hand as she was about to swing again, "Hey, HEY!!" She headbutted me and threw me into a wall, I fell to the floor, dazed as she rushed towards Edge who immediately lept up onto the wall to get away!

  Wolf stood there and stared at him from the floor as I struggled back to my feet, "I said we can't trust anyone else, why does that mean we need to attack one another??"

  Wolf looked at me, "Apologists get attacked, Green, on SIGHT!!" She raised a fist to strike me, but I fell to my knees and held out a hand, "Wolf I'm not making apologies, Edge was just making the argument that we're employees and not what we were."

  She brought the hand down across my forehead and I felt my skull rattle as my head hit the metal floor, I was expecting a stomp next but then we heard Love, "What the FUCK!?" I roll over to look in the direction of the yelling.

  "Something horrible happens to me and suddenly it's a free-for-all?? let me in on this, I need to HIT something!" She stormed up to Wolf and pushed her away, sending her rolling towards the Mermaid's pool, picking me up off the ground and flicking me on the forehead, breaking the tip of her index finger and causing my skull to crack, "I can't believe that I'm the victim here and I have to mitigate this BULLSHIT!!" She grabbed my shirt and threw me back against the wall, cracking the wall and my ribs, further fracturing my skull.

  As a direct consequence of my injuries, I passed out and woke up amid a warm cozy pile of bodies.

  Sitting directly next to me with her cheek pressed directly into the side of my face was Love, who snored deeply. Smushed between us both was Edge, curled up with his face pressed into Love's chest, tucked against me on the opposite end of Love and mumbling in her sleep, was Agent Wolf.

  I guess the argument has resolved itself and now we had the pile.

  The pile was always the result of a lot of hurt feelings and one Greivous injury, and in my experience that was usually mine.

  The following day we went about our usual day-to-day, but given that the game room had been decimated, we opted to return to our oldest favorite pastime, which I mentioned earlier and will not mention again.

  The week ended and Houska took us back to headquarters where we were given medals for undermining a potentially dangerous Houska official.

  We were assigned a bunk in HQ and it was that night that a guard came to get me.

  "What is it?" I asked, getting up out of bed, the guard shifted in his stance, "I need you to come with me...there's a problem."

  I put on my suit and follow him, tightening my tie as I follow the guard, "any sort of intel on the problem or am I just an unwitting participant?"

  The guard doesn't stop walking, "Doctor Sharp's court Marshall went under, there's evidence exonerated him."

  I stop, fear making my face flush, "what the fuck do you mean?"

  He doesn't stop moving so I rush to catch up, "Hey, HEY!!"

  We rounded the corner into a block of holding cells, in the closest one I see Doctor Sharp in a prison jumpsuit, smoking a fucking churro.

  He grinned at me, "Hey there, Green."

  I leap at the bars but the guard grabs me, "WHY did you do it!?" I snarl

  Sharp shrugs, "I didn't, kid, I just made it seem like I did."

  I stop flailing in shock but Green renews our efforts, giving the guard a run for his money, "You lying sadistic FUCK!!"

  He chuckles, "I'm not lying, Green, I never did anything but put on a big show for you." He mimes doing squats, "This is all I did, no penetration, my dick wasn't even out."

  Even Green pauses, "Wh...a show?? Why? For what purpose!?"

  Sharp sits down in his cell, "So that you would be skeptical, every time someone from Trigram was nice to you."

  I blinked in confusion, "Trigram? But...we're in a Houska facility...they're different"

  Sharp rolled his eyes and explained to me everything I had explained to you at the beginning, with a faux lamentation that they hadn't managed to save more of us.

  Of course, I was flabbergasted.

  "No, no, no, that's..." I feel like I'm having a fit, "why would they lie to us?"

  Sharp ashed his churro, "Keeping you calm is key to making sure they don't have to kill you, years of development was put into your creation, it would be a shame to waste it."

  I look back up at Sharp, "Why tell me this??"

  He laughed, "Because there's no evidence, because, despite the fact that I did nothing but scare you, they aquitted me without evidence I did nothing, and I'm free to resume my work watching the mermaid....an organization that does that without any oversight deserves to be scrutinized, and deserves none of your trust."

  I wasnt sure what to think now, he just admitted there was no proof behind his words, I couldnt believe a thing this man told me. "I don't believe you." I said, Green balling up our fists, readying for another attempt on Sharp's life, but then he smiled at me, "Good, lesson learned then, goodbye Green."

  And like that, the guard led me away.

  I never really learned if he was telling the truth or not.