When Jason woke up on the bus he didn't remember anything.

All he knew was that there was a pretty Cherokee girl clutching his hand happily, talking to a scrawny, animated boy as another boy, this one much taller, fell onto his shoulder in his sleep.

"Leo," the girl began "Jason's waking up, get Lance up."

"Gladly." he said, pushing the other boy's head off of his shoulder with a grunt of effort. The boy woke up instantly, eyes snapping open. They looked around for a moment as Jason sat up before landing on him.

His eyes narrowed. Much like the other two pairs, they were unfamiliar.

"What?" Jason was groggy and sure it could be heard in his voice "Where am I?"

He didn't get his answer. the other boy who had just woken up leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees and letting his arms relax "Who are you?"

The other two looked between them, confused and clearly alarmed.

"Lance, Jason, what do you mean?" The Cherokee girl asked as she tucked thin braid behind her ear to join the rest of her uneven hair. "Jason, you haven't gotten amnesia, have you? lance, yours wasn't meant to be a reoccurring thing, was it?"

"No Piper," said the boy who Jason then realised was called Lance "I remember everything but him - he doesn't seem to remember us either." he turned to Jason "When did you get here?"

"I don't know." he looked around again, taking in a sea of unfamiliar faces amid the unfamiliar scenery "I don't know anything."

Lance winced in animated sympathy "I know what that feels like."

As he spoke, a short man wearing a cap and wielding a baseball bat walked up the aisle in the centre of the bus between the two rows of seats. he looked at Jason with the same look of confusion as lance had but didn't say anything as he walked away again, never moving his eyes.

Jason looked around yet again in a bidding effort to ground himself, it didn't work. As he took in the grime on the window, the dried gum on the back of the seats in front of them and the dull, dry atmosphere around them it became abundant to him he had never been there before and had no idea why these two teenagers were insisting they knew him.

"I'm sorry," he said, gently removing his hand from Piper's "I'm sure you're great people but i don't know who any of you are."

"Great!" Lance exclaimed too brightly "I'm not going crazy then!"

Jason decided, with the settling awkwardness, to change the subject ""Where are we going?"

"The Grand canyon," the scrawny boy sent a look to Lance before whispering conspicuously that the boy hadn't known what it was.

"Why the Grand canyon?"

"It's in the middle of nowhere," the boy shrugged "I reckon it's so we,as a group of delinquents, can't do anything. Look, so apparently you don't know anything any more but I'm Leo and since you don't know anything about me anymore, I am going to make you my best friend again!" he smiled widely but caught Lance out of the corner of his eyes, looking rather upset and put-out at the sudden proclamation.

It seemed to Jason that he was actually the boy's real best friend and Jason suddenly felt bad about showing up, dazed, confused and without knowledge of anything, and taking that from him.

"Where are you two remembering him from?" lance asked as, after about ten more minutes, they piled off of the bus. He had heard them mention this was a school for delinquents but he didn't feel like that was right - he didn't know much but he was sure that was a term not applicable to himself - all the kids looked astoundingly normal. "I've already been robbed of my memories once," he continued as the short man began to approach their little group "it's hard to listen to you guys having memories I don't."

"Come with me." the short man demanded, swinging his bat over his shoulder. Leo and Piper did not get the chance to answer Lance before Jason left them, trailing the cap-wearing man with a very obvious look of confusion on his face. he noticed the man's strange but almost familiar gait as he followed.

As soon as they were out of earshot the man continued.

"Who are you?" He looked very suspicious and Jason could honestly say he didn't blame him.

"I don't know." he admitted "But everyone else claims to."

"Really?"

"Except for one." he clarified.

"Who?"

"Lance?" It was more of a question than an answer. The man's face contorted with confusion. He began to mumble to himself.

Finally, he conceded to his lack of knowledge "Fine," he huffed, sounding unhappy "Go join the rest of them."

He followed Jason as he walked back to Leo, lance and Pier, staring after his blonde head in confusion.

He brought his megaphone to his lips as he stood before the group, looking as intimidated as one of his short stature could "Right," he began as the megaphone mooed.

The group fell apart in fits of giggles as Leo hit his three companions on the shoulder.

"You didn't?" lance asked through laughter, instantly connecting the dots and realising what Leo was trying to communicate.

The man with the megaphone tried again, this time it distorted his voice.

"Yep!" Leo popped the 'p' "I screwed with Coach. hedge's megaphone!"

"That's such an unnecessary waste of time," Lance commented, beaming "I love it!"

"You know," Leo began. looking devious "I still haven't gotten you back for that little thing you pulled on the roof." It was more of a promise than a statement.

Lace feigned innocence "What thing did I pull. I didn't pull anything."

"Tell that to the bump on my head!" He yelled playfully, jabbing wildly at the side of his head.

"There isn't one, it was months ago!"

"Aha! So you admit to it!"

"Dammit Valdez!"

"Sucks to be you..." he had nothing to say in response "We should really just give you a substitute surname."

"No way." Lance shook his head slowly and deliberately.

"You two," Piper hit them gently on the back of their heads "the group's moving." And so they were.

The four of them broke into a jog and joined the back of the group before they entered the premises. By some misfortune, piper was caught up holding the door with a boy she, lance and Leo all despised and Jason decided he didn't like the look of instantly. Something felt wildly off about him.

Piper really didn't look happy but she joined them as they were tailing he group, a slight hint of a smile reappearing on her face only to fad as the boy joined her, putting a hand on her shoulder and grinning sickeningly.

"Go away Dillon." All three of the friends who knew about him chorused, all looking very fed up, as Piper broke her way free and walked through the door after her friends, slamming it on Dillon for good measure.

He exclaimed in surprised outrage, throwing his hands up in a gesture that could have been bred from surprise, exasperation or a threatening anger. He slammed the door, storming through it as the four attempted to scuttle as far to the front of the group, as near to their authority figure, as possible.

later, they were standing in a huddle on the crowded walkway, holding flimsy paper worksheets printed in monochrome, and pencils. Lance had backed up as soon as they had been passed out with the accompanying instructions to pair up.

"I'm out," He said, arms held up in mock surrender "I know nothing!" the coach had sighed as he passed him, not handing him sheet as he mumbled in malcontent.

"Special situations, Lance," he didn't look all too happy about not having a surname to refer to him by "Don't think you're getting away with anything.

Lance had grinned widely when he had left "Fight among yourselves," he said mockingly "Decide who gets left out," He sent a look at Jason that suggested it should be him. Jason agreed. "I'll be over here, enjoying the view."

He stepped closer to the edge, looking down at the massive depth of the canyon beneath the glass walkway. He didn't feel the unease or wonderment he could tell his peers did, instead, he felt that this was right, that he was perhaps a bit too at home in such a potentially dangerous situation.

Piper ended up being partnered with Dillon. She was not happy.

But, when, all of a sudden, a storm picked up and the walkway began to quake, and the group leader and coach gathered the class back into the safety of a secure building and solid ground, she had bigger problems.

Or at least she thought so until the door slammed closed and, suddenly, her and her three friends were trapped outside - it wouldn't open! - facing Dillon who was smiling sadistically.

Then, suddenly, he wasn't Dillon.

"He's a Venti!" Jason exclaimed, not sure how he knew that or entirely what it meant, only that it was right "Run!" he fished a heavy golden coin from his pocket, not sure what to do with it but well aware it was important.

Lance glanced around "Where to?" he sounded perhaps less frantic than he should have, it was odd "Do you suggest we dive over the edge of this walkway I am beginning to trust less and less each second I see this weird storm kid take a hit at us?"

"If you have time to be sarcastic, you have time to help me think of a better idea!"

"What's a good idea here!?"

"We can figure that out in a moment!"

"That's a perfect example of what isn't a good idea!"

They were yelling at the top of their lungs, over the roaring of the wind created by the boy that had suddenly become a raging monster rather than a human. It was odd to both amnesiac boys to know the other was unaffected and that they, themselves, were too, without explanation.

As Jason gripped his coin in his hand, he noticed Lance evading the monster as much as he could, joining Leo and Piper as they panicked. He didn't reach in time. The storm monster saw where he was going and what he was trying to do and decided not to let him do it. A strong gust of wind sent Piper, as she stood cowering dangerously close to the edge of the walkway, tumbling over the edge. She fell, with a series of quivering, piercing screams that hurt to hear, down into the abyss below.

A second too late, lance got there and fell to his knees beside Leo, watching helplessly as she dropped down beyond any point they could even hope to reach. Jason looked behind him as he heard the screaming and the desperate yelling of the girl's name. he didn't thin twice before charging over and diving over the edge of the walkway himself, angling himself headfirst and streamlining himself so he fell faster than she did.

Then he had to put faith into his ability to save them both as the yelling of Leo and Lance grew less distinct with each second passing with each second they fell until, underneath the raging noise of the wind whipping violently past his ears in a cool blast, they disappeared entirely.

Jason was worried about how much faith he had in himself. It really made almost no sense as to why he would believe the laws of physics didn't apply to him. He had trusted himself to save them both but ow he was beginning to to lose his trust in his sanity.

Piper couldn't see, her eyes were stinging as the rain lashed at them, watering intensely. her nose was running too and her voice had become hoarse. She could have sworn, as she went plummeting down to the ground, she heard Jason yelling after her.

What was he doing?

But then a strong arm clasped around her waist and she was suddenly slowing, worryingly close to the bottom of the canyon and convinced she was doomed to certain death.