When Temple saw the familiar orange armor, his whole world stopped. His brain stopped working and he stood frozen. He remembered being friends with that armor. An optimistic friendship, even though they were on opposite sides of the war. He remembers looking into the helmets visor when they talked. More importantly, though, he remembers the armors inhabitant. He remembers talking about their plans for the future, after they got out of the war. Temple remembers hiding their friendship from the others and on the battlefield. He remembers sneaking away at night to meet the man and his Orange armor. He remembers remembering the good old days with Orange, running around, laughing, having fun, teasing each other.
He remembers finding out about Orange's plans to return to Earth, to home. For a girl. He remembers feeling happy, excited, even elated for Orange. But… sad as well. Sad his long time friend is leaving him alone in the big, dumb war. He remembers Orange gushing about this girl and about how he's gonna be a father, and Temple remembers feeling like he needs to help Orange get out of the war. Temple remembers agreeing to help. But then one thing lead to another and…. He remembers a freelancer. Mean, angry, horrible, Freelancer is after the flag. For the first time, the two teams work together to stop Freelancer. It didn't work.
Temple remembers a sick, horrifying sound. Coughing, gagging, spitting up a red, copper smelling liquid. Temple remembers hesitating to look, turning his head slowly to Orange. Temple remembers choking back a sob and forcefully stopping himself from showing how affected he is as he stares at the wooden flag pole sticking Orange to the wall, red pooling around the wound and seeping out of the armor. Temple remembers seizing up, clenching his fists tightly and taking a deep breath in, not letting it out. He remembers tears pooling in the corners of his eyes as Orange tries to speak, tries to talk. To him.
He remembers Orange choking about the girl, how he wanted to go home, how he was so close to being able to get out of this stupid war, how he's finally out now, how it wasn't Temples fault, how Temple was his best friend. He remembers taking shakey steps towards him, reaching his hand out and grabbing Orange's. He remembers letting the tears go, sobbing, ripping both his and Orange's helmets off. He remembers hugging Orange so tightly he could hear the armor creaking. Temple remembers gripping Orange's hand tightly, as if that would stop him from dying. He remembers Orange holding on just as tightly. Temple remembers feeling eyes on the back of his head, watching in disbelief as the two supposed enemies gripped onto each other, crying, sobbing, as one died slowly in the others arms.
Most importantly though, Temple remembers a name burning brightly in his mind, Orange like the armor. One name that meant so much, held so many emotions, burned on the tip of his tongue. One name.
"...Biff?"