I return from the dead once more! Explanation at the end of chapter. In the mean time enjoy the conclusion to the latest and longest lasting episode, "Turning Back".

Cheering and singing could be heard in the streets of Shugazoom that night, the celebration lasting into the wee hours of the morning. But as the sun just started to set and the celebrating really got under way, a green monkey could be seen sitting atop the shoulder of a metal man rather melancholy.

He cupped his face in his hands and he watched the people move around on the ground like tiny insects scurrying about. If the breeze was just right, their calls and cheers were brought up to his ear receptors, but not even the occasion for celebrating Skeleton King's demise could cheer Otto up.

"I just don't…" He started to speak out loud before trailing off again. He had been out here for over an hour trying to get the words out, but they keep getting stuck in-between his brain and his mouth.

"How could she have…Why would she have…" he jumped up and faced the Super Robot, distress clear on his face. "Why did she do that?" He finally was able to ask, and after that the words quickly tumbled out. "She could have really hurt someone or herself the way she was acting, I mean, she almost did hurt Geni and she never even seemed sorry about it!" he rambled on, walking around in circles and waving his hands about.

"Okay she seemed a little sorry when we started acting normal but it's still just not okay!" Otto huffed exhausted at he sat back down on the edge. He rubbed his face with his paws wearily. "I just don't know what to think anymore." He sighed defeated.

"Perhaps you should just stop thinking then." Antauri said quietly as he walked towards Otto. The green monkey turned around sadly and looked at the silver simian with tired, black eyes.

"That sounds like something Gibson would say to be mean." Otto sighed dejectedly, Antauri simply smiled though.

"I hardly meant it that way Otto," he smirked. "I simply meant you should stop over thinking it so much. You may jump to conclusions that later prove to be false, but only after many people are hurt in the process." His clear blue eyes met Otto's steadily before the mechanic looked away hastily.

"So just forgive and forget?" He asked as he stared back over the darkening horizon, the Shugazoomian Sun almost past the edge of the city.

"Don't you find It odd that when we are most in need of comfort, we often migrate to the Robot's shoulder for support?" Antauri asked suddenly. Otto looked at him confused of the sudden topic change but answered truthfully.

"No, not really."

"Oh? Do you never ponder why we do that?"

"No because I know he's listening, I think we all know that now."

"Now?" the silver sapient echoed with a grin.

"Yeah cause Gidg-" Otto caught himself and looked down as he finished. "Cause Gidget told us he did."

"So you trust her judgment on that?" He asked, hands casually held behind his back. "Then I suggest you try and trust her on her other decisions too, even if you did not like them. Wreck-less as they may have seemed at the time, according to the others testimony, she seemed sure she knew what she was doing."

Antauri approached Otto and laid a hand on his shoulder, "So put a little faith in your teammates, so that they may put faith in you too. A team is nothing if they do not trust each other, and Gidget's heart is pure, I can see that. She is truly sorry for her actions and if you would seek her out you would see how sorrowful she is over her behavior and she would be glad to tell you this and apologize herself to you."

Otto smiled up at Antauri, "So you've already talked to her then?" He asked assuming he already knew the answer, but he was surprised as Antauri shook his head.

"No, but Sparks spoke to me about her, and he suggested we give her the support she needs to overcome this, lest the pain and hurt consumes her."

Otto looked between him and the horizon for a long time before standing up without a word and rushing toward the bridge. Antauri smiled after him as he rushed down the elevator before looking briefly at the Super Robot and then up towards the dark night sky.

.::~::.

Gidget gripped the side of the sink as she tilted her head back and hastily drunk a glass of juice. The glass let out a loud clink as she set is harshly down on the counter and grabbed her throbbing head. She clutched the kitchen counter tightly as she steadied herself. Trying to retrieve her memories was a lot harder than she thought it was going to be, and was taking a lot more out of her, the headache she was currently nursing proved that. Maybe Gibson would have something to help her out with it.

That is if he was willing to talk to her in the first place. With heavy feet and a heavier heart, she left the Kitchen for the Med lab, and almost ran into Otto as he jumped out of his green tube.

They hurriedly scrambled back from each other, mixed feelings of relief and worry flashed across both their faces as they finally settled on uneasy smiles and an awkward distance from each other.

"Hi…" They said in unison, nervousness creeping in-between them. The couple looked everywhere but each other as Otto fiddled his fingers and Gidget turned her full attention to her tail.

"Have you seen the rest of the team?" Otto asked suddenly to fill the silence.

"Yeah I saw em head outside to celebrate." Gidget said slowly as she rubbed her arms. In truth, she had hidden as they went outside to celebrate, she was not in the mood to deal with the team in more than one on one time just yet.

The eerie quiet took its place in-between them again, the distance growing around them with each passing second. Just when it seemed they would break and leave it at that, they both started talking.

"Look I'm-" They caught themselves once again and the quiet settled. The identical awkward blush crept along their faces as they made brief eye contact before Gidget looked away. Otto suddenly looked at her sadly, maybe things would never really be the same after all…

Suddenly, Otto's face contorted into grim determination as Gidget began speaking once again.

"Look Otto I neve-" She was cut short as the green monkey wrapped his arms around her in a hug. After a full moment of shock and hesitation she quickly returned the hug tightly while both began chattering at the same time. "I should have paid more attention to what-"

"I didn't give you the support you needed-" Otto gabbed as he clutched her tighter.

"I was doing and been more concerned for everyone's safety-" Gidget said as she started to pull back from Otto.

"But I was just so mad and mean and-" He stated firmly, placing his hands on her shaking shoulders.

"I just acted like a big jerk and I'm sorry." they finished at the same time. They blinked in surprise as identical smiles spread across their faces. Tears appeared in Gidget's eyes as she took both of Otto's hands in hers.

"I am so sorry Otto, I really mean it, what I did was practically unforgivable."

"No, no, no! I should have been more understanding, none of us were acting normal and you're not any different. I'm sorry for being such a butt head." They held steady gazes, "Forgive me for being a bad teammate, and more importantly, a bad friend?"

Gidget blinked in shock, then released his hands to tap the side of her snout and she thought hard for a moment. "Okay, but only if you forgive me for being an even worse friend and teammate." A grin spread across her face.

"Deal." Otto replied with a smile as he stuck his hand out and Gidget happily accepted it. They shook firmly before they let their hands fall back to their sides and broad smiles covered their faces. "So where were you heading?"

Gidget's smile dropped slightly, "To the Med lab, I need something for the killer head ache I've developed from-" she bite her lip, scared to tell Otto about the visions. But one look at his worried face melted her concerns. There's was no point in keeping things from the team, that would only lead to more pain later on. Even if she was afraid of their reactions. Taking a deep breath, she continued unsteadily. "From these flashes of memory I've been getting."

Otto blinked at her in surprise, "You've been getting flashes of…" He echoed softly before gasping. "Wait you're memory is coming back?" Gidget just nodded slowly as Otto whistled. "So what have you seen so far?"

Gidget looked at him sadly, "A lot of…bad stuff mostly." She answered halted. Otto looked confused but Gidget just shook her head, "Don't worry I'm gonna give the whole team the down low once the memories become more coherent but trust me for now that you do not wanna know just yet."

"Okay, I trust you." Otto said simply as he smiled. "So do you know anymore about where you came from, or anything from right before you landed here?" Gidget shook her head again.

"Not yet that I can tell, it seems we traveled quite a bit, but maybe there was a base somewhere?" She said with a shrug.

"'We'?" Otto echoed "What do you mean-"

"There you are Gidget!" Gibson suddenly said as he stood in the entrance to the Med lab. "I've been waiting for you to get up here."

"You have?" Gidget asked worriedly. She took a step behind Otto, half expecting Gibson to tell her off.

"Of course! I have to know more about the program you wrote for the nanobots and I still haven't scanned you to make sure that you are okay after the fight."

"My program?" She asked confused, "Okay sure." She said as she walked towards him nervously. He raised an eyebrow before a small smile crossed his face.

"You can relax Gidget, as I have already explained to someone else today, I will reserve judgment about what happened to us over the course of the last few days till I know more about our condition myself." Gidget blinked in surprise.

"So… you're not mad at me?"

"Hardly! I'm far more intrigued by whatever you did to design that complicated of a program that quickly. It's very impressive." Gibson grinned. "Now if you would please follow me so we can make sure you're okay…" he spread his arms behind him and moved to the side so she could enter the Med lab. Gidget grinned as she stepped inside.

"It really wasn't that hard, I know a short cut program that I used as a basis to make the main program…" She stopped and looked back at Otto. "You coming with us?"

But the green monkey surprisingly shook his head, "Naw I have something else to check out first. See ya guys later!" He called as he rushed to his tube. Something was seriously bothering him, and had been for months now. And he just had to check it out…

.::~::.

Loud clangs and clunks could be heard coming from Otto's workshop. He pushed blue prints back, found wrenches and ratchets and quickly tossed them over his shoulder. He found saws, wielding tools, everything he would need to take something apart.

He tossed the items he was using on to a large, blue tarp and dragged them behind him into the attached garage where the smaller vehicles were stored. He passed the moon rovers, hover cars, and even the experimental sub he was working on and into the darkest corner of the shop. He flipped on a few flood lights hanging about and illuminated the melted hunk of metal that Gidget had crashed into Shugazoom what seemed like years ago.

He went back to his tarp and grabbed a wielder and mask. Quickly hooking it up to a nearby gas canister, he flipped the mask down as he lit wielder and approached the mangled wreck that had somehow survived the crash. He wasn't sure what, who, or where Gidget was before she got here, but he was determined to pull every single bit of information he could out of this scrap metal to find out.

The flame hissed as he began cutting into the wreckage and a sweat broke upon his brow, a look of grime determination plastered on his face.

Right so I guess one of the biggest questions is where have I been for the last half of a year or so. Heck, I don't even know if my old fans are still around or if any of the new ones are interested in this story any more, but hey I own you guys an explanation regardless.

Well basically, I got distracted with a multitude of things, mostly my boyfriend over the summer. Then school started back and in the middle of October I had a huge desire to write again, and I promised myself I would as soon as my paper for my Psychology class was done, since it was our whole grade in that class. And so I set out one night to write the rough draft, got most of it done and then turned off my computer and went to sleep. And in true form as a text book example of Murphy's Law, the next morning it would not turn on.

My power source had broken and there was no way to fix it, so for two months I have been computer hopping and waiting for Christmas to roll around to get a new one. Lucky, my work was saved so I didn't have to start completely from scratch but going back and rereading work from 6 months ago...I had some changes to say the least. Not to mention there are some changes I want to make to the upcoming story, but I'm not quite sure how to work them in without rearranging the complete structure of it.

BUT I am back, school will start again in 2 weeks but i'm hoping to get more writing done for most of my stories, or at least a script or outline so i can get through them faster. Like I said from the beginning, I want this to be a good story, but there is defiantly some work to get done if I don't want it to become stale and cliched.

Tl;dr version: This is still alive, no worries and I really am hoping to get more work done for you guys. This is a story I want to finish and I will, I'm not sure how long it will take me but i'm setting a new goal for me right now: Book 2 will be complete by this time next year.

So stay tuned kiddies! I'll get through this yet, so buckle up and try to enjoy the ride.