"For the love of god, Azmuth..." I muttered, unable to tear my gaze away from the girl in front of me, "I thought you said everything checked out. That she was fine." My heart was flopping around painfully in my chest, anxiety making it dance and dread making it sink. I get that, technically we hadn't known each other for very long, but how could she forget all three of us? Us! The people with weird alien-fighting powers. And how would she remember Azmuth, someone she's only heard about and met once? The remnants of a smoothie were threatening to rise in my throat; I was going to be sick... If Gwen had forgotten me, if Kevin had forgotten me... If anyone close to me had forgotten about me, I would probably feel just as sick.

How?!
How on God's green earth did this happen... Was it because I wasn't quick enough? I wasn't quick enough, and the alien that used her just pushed her too far? Maybe she was unknowingly blocking out the memories of the event, and somehow blocked us out, too?

Frantic, I snapped my attention to the Galvan, eyes wide and expression contorted with almost agonizing confusion. We had come here for her, yet she didn't know us. That emotional rollercoaster that I thought we had stepped off just picked up again, and I was silently begging, pleading for some kind of explanation. And he held his head up, looking at Zeke instead of me.

"I said ultimately," Azmuth responded, hands tucked behind his back, "This was something I could not fix, I'm afraid. I believe it is a sort of mental trauma, her mind's way of protecting itself, or perhaps even healing itself."

"And you couldn't have warned us in advance?" Kevin suddenly asked, not taking his hardened eyes off of Zeke, who held it just as easily. "You couldn't have warned us that the friend we thought we lost didn't remember us at all? That she doesn't remember how to show god damn emotion?!" He was referring, quite clearly, to the lack of life on her face. If she was confused, she gave no indication of so. If she was overwhelmed, it didn't show. All this person was doing was wearing a stoic mask on our friend's face.

The Galvan was quick to turn towards Kevin and the still-shocked Gwen, lips pursed tightly. "Do think that this past week has been easy for a person who isn't as used to this world like you are, Kevin Levin?" he snapped, "Would you like to travel through space without a ship or suit? Would you like to travel to the far reaches that can never be reached by any of us? I know you know what it feels like to have powerful alien energy coursing through you, without any way to control it."

Kevin was fuming; only reason why he wasn't trying to squash Azmuth under his combat shoe was probably because Gwen now had a steadied grip on his arm. However, even the Galvan knew when to stop, clearing his throat and lifting his gaze to Zeke. "Physically," Azmuth said more calmly, "she's okay. I had to do things, things with human anatomy that I wasn't used to if I wanted her to be okay and capable again. But that's as much as I can do. What methods I've learned and techniques of different species for the healing of the spirit and mind that I've picked up over the centuries can only do so much on an unfamiliar world."

He turned his gaze to me this time, a touch of apology lingering in the green of his large eyes. "That's why I told you about her in the first place," the Galvan admitted, "She needs to go back to Earth, where things makes sense and she can heal mentally. I don't know how long it will take; depending on the strength of the memories that may come, and her willingness to accept them, it may take a while. Or not long at all."

I wanted to have faith in Azmuth's theory, that taking her back to Earth will really help. In fact... I was going to believe in it. Swallowing the rising sickness back to the depths of my stomach, I turned towards the stoic Zeke, whose own gaze moved to me as well. Her eyebrows raised when we made eye contact, as if she was slightly curious as to what I would say next.
My plan was to figure out how this Zeke worked, that way I can tell when we were making progress.

"My name is Ben," I introduced as I held a hand out like the first time, glad that my voice was holding up. "Ben Tennyson. This... This is my cousin, Gwen Tennyson-"

"It's nice to meet you. Um... Again."

"-and our friend, Kevin Levin."

"...Hey."

She shook our hands individually, starting with me like the first time around, too. Only this time, there was no real warmth shared, no real sign of that familiar personality. 'Patience...' I had to remind myself, forcing a smile on my face as Zeke returned to her initial, emotionless stance. Obviously she didn't need to introduce herself; we all knew her already, and I think she was aware of that. Her mossy eyes focused on me, as if she expected me to say something else or assume a more leading role. Which I did.

"We're your friends," I decided to say first, my smile dropping a bit, "and we're going to help you remember that. Are you ready to head back to Earth?'
All this Zeke-looking person did was nod.

The first time she rode in Ship, the first time she even got to see space without anything blocking her view, she had been ecstatic. But not this time. Zeke strapped herself in the available seat and said nothing to anyone else. Even as Ship spoke, she made no real movement to indicate that she cared. As we all rose in silence, above and out of Galvan Prime's reach, I found that it was much harder to keep my faith than I thought; and we had barely started this "recovery" journey. Naturally, I would keep up the act and try to stay positive, but... Someone forgetting you wasn't that simple.

And it wasn't like she just forgot about us, but she also seemed to have forgotten everything that made her... Well, her.

Space rushed past as us Ship made the jump, and in no time at all, the blur of racing stars shot from sight and we were within Earth's blue glow. The peak of the sun was starting to come around the curve of the planet, bringing with it the start of an early dawn. Ship gave a bassy chirp when we passed through the atmosphere and brightening sky, his heavy body descending down through puffy clouds you couldn't ever hope to see back on the ground.
The clouds split and a slowly stirring Bellwood was in sight.

Up in front, Gwen made a small noise of complaint, resting her chin on the top of her hand as we sailed over the neighborhoods. "I have an Econ test today and I'm not going to get any sleep..." she huffed.

"Boo-hoo," Kevin was sure to mockingly weep, a smirk stretched across his face. "Sucks being a student, donnit?"

She gave him a cross look, one that hinted at the fact that she could very easily flip his ass.

Ship chirped once more, Julie's house now sitting in plain sight. Thankfully, her street was still asleep and wouldn't see us or the Ship ship when we touched down. The back lowered and we all unbuckled, shuffling out of the eager Galvanic Mechamorph (I remembered, so sue me). He collapsed and blobbed up into his smaller, usual shape, wagging his end like a tail before leaping off for the side fence. Without a doubt, he would probably be waiting for Julie to wake up..

We returned to Kevin's car, which hadn't moved nor got touched since we left - Kevin was happy about that - and started to load up, Zeke hesitating a bit as she looked it over. Her expression looked extremely thoughtful considering how little she had shown thus far, brow furrowing over her heavy gaze. Gwen and I looked at each other, both confused about what had suddenly come over her. My guess was that she was remembering something; she had always liked Kevin's car. But neither of us could ask before the car roared to life and a very grumpy car owner leaned over the folded seat. "Let's go already!" he snapped, "I've got work and you guys have school, so can we please stop having a stupid staring contest and get in the car?"

I quickly tumbled into the backseat, followed by a still-hesitant Zeke and then Gwen who took up the front seat. We rolled off, exhaustion now taking up residence in the very atmosphere of the car. Leaning a bit into the middle of the backseat - which had caused me to earn a very cautious look from the blonde up against the opposite window - I checked the clock in Kevin's dashboard, trying to get some idea of how much sleep I would be able to manage before going to school. I could make it to school in like ten minutes when I ride my bike, and school started at 7:30. It was roughly 5:27 now, so I could sleep until 7:15 if I managed to fall asleep quick enough.

We rolled up to my house first, which would leave Gwen's and Zek- Wait.. I turned my attention to the blonde next to me mid-buckle. "Do you remember where you live?" I asked her as Gwen stepped out of the car so the seat could fold. "None of us have ever been to your place, so we don't know where it is."

"I don't," she responded simply, hands clasped neatly in her lap. Zeke added a short "unfortunately" to the end of that, but as I climbed out of the car, I realized that that would be a problem. One, she was still dressed in alien clothing, so already she stuck out like a weird thumb tack. And two, where was she going to stay until she remembered?

As if catching my distress, Gwen put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I'll lend her some of my clothes," she assured me, "though I probably can't sneak her into my house." We both glanced at Kevin, who was drumming his fingers boredly against the steering wheel. "Maybe Kevin can house her for now," the redhead suggested, "I'm sure Mrs. Levin won't mind too much-"

"I've already passed my curfew," Kevin quickly interjected, "so when I get there, she's bound to be waiting to scold the hell out of me." He paused, eyebrows raising with a new thought as he looked in the rearview mirror at Zeke. "Maybe she'll go easy on me if I bring a friend.."

Gwen rolled her eyes and turned to me, offering a smile. "Get some rest," she said, "It's been a tough night.."
Nodding, I gave her a quick hug and waved to the car, heading up to my front porch with my house key in hand. The growl of Kevin's car faded off into the distance before I even got inside. I snuck through the house, relieved that my parents hadn't been waiting for me as I wandered all the way into the safety of my bedroom. It was nice and dark within my four walls, the comforter a bit creased from the last time I slept in it. Tossing my jacket onto the body of my desk chair, I allowed myself to collapse face first into the pillow.

Now that everything had reached a more stable point, I could finally feel some intense exhaustion pulling down on every part of my body. Physical strain was one thing, but mental strain was another. I just wanted to sleep, slipping my phone out of my jean pocket just so I could set some sort of alarm; it would suck to be late to school on a day as strenuous as this one already was. Once the alarm was set, I placed the phone face down on my desk and just let the sleep take me away.

~#~#~

By the time I - reluctantly - got up, I was feeling better about the whole Zeke thing. By the time I made it to school mere seconds before the one minute bell, I was feeling hopeful. By the time I made it to my last class of the day and plopped down behind Julie, I was more than ready to go on a memory hunt. People remembered things all the time, so as long as Zeke was willing to put in some effort, we'd be fine. Piece of cake.

The teacher up front seemed to be moving a bit slower than usual, telling us to pull out our homework assignment from the night before and go over it again with the people around us. While we did that, she just sat down at her desk and shuffled through papers. Julie turned in her seat to face me, her blue physics notebook opened to the assignment and in her hand. She looked me over once before a smile came to her face. "Someone's a little peppier," she commented, watching me as I pulled my green notebook out of my backpack. "Ship came back, but Zeke's desk in my English class was still empty. Did you get her back?"

I nodded, flipping to the half-assed attempt at the assignment in the middle of the pages. "For the most part," I admitted. As she helped me through my mistakes with slight flicks of her handy dandy correcting pen, I explained the whole situation to her without skipping much of anything; this included the whole Ninja thing, and the fact that Zeke had a touch of alien in her.

Her gaze lifted at one point, the heavy brown of her irises glinting with a amusement. "If she needs memory triggers," Julie said, "I should probably talk to her, too."

"No kidding?" I beamed, glad that the raven wanted to help.

"Sure. We can fight over you again."

"I mean, whatever hel- Wait, what?"

"Nothing. You made a mistake with your equation; forgot to square acceleration."

It obvious that she was pulling my leg. I pouted, dismissing her initial comment before slouching over the desk and looking at the same stupid equation that continued to give me problems. Class continued on like that and I grew more and more anxious as the minute hand of the old clock over the board ticked ever closer to the twelve. The lesson plans were lost on me, my brain juggled all sorts of things to try, and my foot just tapped incessantly against the tiled floor. When the bell finally did ring, I quickly said goodbye to Julie and bolted for the door, nearly trampling a few students in the process.

I got yelled at twice by two different teachers on my way out to the bike racks, bobbing and weaving through the quickly swarming students but I didn't get into any real trouble. Dropping to a knee by my bike, I was quick to undo the red lock from around the front tire, the frame, and the steel ports. My helmet fell along with it, scooped up into my hand before I pulled the bike free. The parking lot was starting to become busy with students that wanted to go home, so I had to at least be careful of that.

Planting the helmet on my head, I pulled the one loose backpack strap over my shoulder and hopped onto the seat, putting my feet to the pedals and pedaling like a super biker. I nearly rolled out in front of some girl who was on her phone, but I lived and just kept going, thinking about what to try first. What better way to commemorate the return of a friend and the start of their memories than with a smoothie, right?