Molly awoke to pitch blackness. She reached out her wings instinctively, trying to feel her surroundings. Instantly she felt a long pole of metal. In wonder, she felt the little room she was in, covered in metallic poles.

A cage.

She carefully tried to stand up, but the cage wasn't large enough.

"Liam?" she whispered softly. She heard a shifting noise.

"Molly?" came the weak reply. Flooded with relief, she pushed her wing through the bars.

"Put your arm out. Can you feel my feathers?" Molly whispered. After a moment, she felt something brush her wing, and she shivered.

"Yes," Liam replied. "Any idea where we are?"

"Well, obviously, cages. Thats all I got."

Then he groaned.

"Liam?" Molly gasped.

"That wasn't me," Liam said slowly, softly.

Molly turned, still unable to see, straining her ears.

"You two…be quiet…" came the gravelly, painful voice.

"Who're you?" Liam asked, ignoring his plea.

"The name's Chief." he coughed, and there was a shifting noise. "Hey, there's new ones. Wake up, kid!"

Another moan. Molly trembled. What went on in this place?

"New…ones?" came a squeaky, dulled-down voice. Every feather on Molly's body stood on end.

"Peanut?" she gasped. "Peanut, what are you doing here?"

"Molly? Is that you?" she coughed, and gasped, "Molly! Molly, what are you doing here?!" she spluttered, repeating Molly's question.

"She's corrupt, obviously," Chief replied.

"Thats what they said," Molly whispered. "But I don't get it."

"It means you're resistant to the medicine," Chief grunted.

"No I'm not. That medicine has knocked me out and gave me more headaches than I can count."

"You're still resistant. Most other animals have absolutely no way of ever remembering anything. We can." Chief chuckled. "And that pisses of the government."

"Whats gonna happen to us?" Liam asked.

"They'll perform the Operation on you again," Peanut answered.

"I never took the Operation," Liam hissed. "I'm a human."

Dead silence.

"What?" Chief laughed. "Thats crazy talk. The humans are dead."

"He is," Molly replied. "He's the only one left."

"Then they'll just do the Operation on you. No problem."

"That can't happen!" Molly gasped. "We have to escape!"

"Escape? Kid, we've been here for days, do you think we haven't been trying? And before you ask, no, we have no idea when they plan to take us out of here and do the damn Operation."

As if on cue, the lights flickered on and shimmered dimly. Molly squinted through her cage and saw Chief. He was an orange-and-white wolf wearing a dirty shirt. From here she couldn't see the pattern on it. Her gaze shifted, and her heart skipped a beat when she spotted Peanut. It was her! Her fur was matted and her eyes were scared, but she was here. Molly turned and saw Liam, hunched in his cage designed for animals.

A fancier looking alligator, dressed in a white coat, strolled over to Peanut's cage. She squeezed against the back wall, her eyes huge and terrified. The alligator opened the cage, and, whistling, took her out.

"Nooo!" Peanut shrieked. "Let me go! Let me gooo!"

"Peanut!" Molly wailed.

"Be quiet," Chief whispered. "No point. I tried. I tried to save Freya…" Tears came to his eyes. "There's nothing we can do…"

Peanut's stubby arms reached out, her eyes locking with Molly's.

"HELP ME!" she shrieked, her hands spreading out, begging for her. Molly stared back, feeling so helpless, so useless.

The alligator carried her out, a vial in his hand. It was full of clear liquid that came from the gummy bears. It became clear. He was going to do the Operation, remove every shred of Peanut so she never returned, an empty soul filling a Peppy template.

"NO!" Molly screeched in a voice that wasn't her own. Rage filled her. She threw herself against the bars. "That's my friend! She's my friend! Don't hurt her!"

The door slammed shut, and a loud laugh came from behind it.

"We have to help her," Molly gasped, hysterical. "We need to…"

"We can't, Molly," Liam breathed. "Its too late. We failed. I should've known they'd be tracking us…"

"No! No, it is NOT too late! You chumps can whine and cry all day long in your stupid cages, but I'm helping my friend!" Molly spat.

"Whats the point? You don't even remember her," Chief said, his voice exhausted.

"Shut up!" Molly looked around wildly. There had to be a way. She could still hear Peanut's screams behind the door. Molly fell back, shivering. Liam was dead silent, staring at the door, his eyes defeated. Chief was curled up, and appeared to be sleeping. Molly felt her rage still spiking up in her body, but she felt too broken to address it. Peanut, her friend, was being taken away to be washed out; worse, was that her brain decided to pick now of all times to return all her memories of Peanut; ice cream in the shadows in the middle of summer; pool parties; sleepovers. The door clicked open and a large, brown alligator waddled in. He shifted to Molly's cage.

"I'm here to get you out," he hissed. "Don't say anything. Just follow me, okay?" he unlocked her lock and moved on to Chief.

Ignoring his plea, she glared at him. "What are you doing? Is this a trap? You're on their side!"

"Actually, I'm not," the alligator whispered. "The government created us to last exactly five years. In that time period we had to collect all you corrupt folks and re-do the Operation."

This must be some sort of trick. He just handed all that information to me.

"Oh yeah? And what happens after that five years?"

"We die," the alligator replied briskly. "Our purpose is to weed out you corruptions. Not to live or anything. Name's Alfonso. Nice to meet you, Molly. We've heard lots about you."

"How do you know-" Molly decided not to ask. The alligators probably all had files on her anyway. Alfonso looked at Liam and flinched. He stared for a moment and slowly began working on his lock.

"Hurry up," Chief growled. "We have to go!"

Liam popped out of his cage, stood up, and stretched.

Alfonso gripped Molly's wing and guided her towards the door on the other side of the room. Molly hadn't noticed it; her cage hadn't allowed her to.

"Wait!" Molly hissed. "Peanut!"

"Screw Peanut," Chief snapped. "We gotta get out!"

"Screw Peanut?!" Molly repeated. "Are you insane? We have to help her! She's…she's…one of us!"

Alfonso looked back towards the door. "It's too late. They're probably all up in her brain. If we tried to grab her, all we'd do is leave her with a nice big hole in her head."

"We have to try!" Molly wailed. "I can't just leave her behind! I have too many memories of her! She was my best friend!"

"Was," Chief grunted, but Molly wrenched herself from Alfonso's grip and lunged for the door, creaking it open. She spotted Peanut lying on the bed, completely alone, with no restraints. Easy. Too easy.

"Peanut!" Molly hissed. "Peanut, we're gonna save you!"

Peanut looked at Molly blankly. "Save?"

"Yes! They haven't done it yet! I don't know why but…oh for crying out loud! Come over here!"

"Do what? Whats going on? Who are you?" Peanut looked at Molly, her head tilted. "Well, my name's Peanut. I really like nuts. And cake. And volleyball, but now I'm more into flamenco dancing. I'm not that great at it, but-"

No… Molly stared at Peanut, dumbfounded. They completely redid the Operation in just a few minutes. How is that possible?

"So, whats your name?"

Molly gripped Peanut hard.

"We're here to save you, Peanut," Molly hissed. "And my name is Molly!"

The door flung open. Molly whirled around, expecting Alfonso or Chief, yelling at her to hurry.

Instead it was a gigantic, scaly creature, larger than a normal alligator. He crossed his arms.

Behind him, lay Liam, unconscious. The gator picked up a black stick.

"Come here," he said quietly. Molly looked at the object. Her insides cramped in horror at the look of it. He quietly pressed the barrel of it to Liam's temple.

"Need I repeat myself?" he asked with a raised gator-eyebrow.

The black stick formed a name to Molly.

A gun.