A/N: So, yeah, it's been like, five years since I updated this fic? I've gotten back into Gumball recentally, it was after seeing the Barbie movie, something about children's characters having an existential crisis really gets to me, don't know why. So I'm trying to finish as many tawog projects as I can before the interest leaves me again. I've been working on this one off and on again for a while so I hope you enjoy it. (though it did occur to me that this is like, the third story I've written where Gumball and Rob make up and become friends. Lol.)

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Darwin was being so good about this whole time travel thing. He specifically made sure to take Gumball to stores and areas of the mall that they didn't go to the first two times and it really helped. Telling Darwin had definitely been the right call. Still, he breathed a sigh of relief when his mom told him it was time to go home. As the days went on Gumball started to return to his usual self, not being stuck in that same day anymore definitely helped him feel better. He never thought he would be so happy to not know what was going to happen, to have days pass just as they should. Still, there were a couple differences that stuck. He kept a closer eye on both his siblings now. He had experienced first hand what it was like to lose them and he never wanted to go through that again. Darwin took notice of this and stuck close to Gumball whenever he could, reassuring him that he wasn't going anywhere. (Not that this was much different from what he did before.) He knew this wasn't something that Gumball was going to get over overnight and he was willing to do whatever he could to make him feel better. Gumball also kept an eye out for Rob wherever he went, but he couldn't seem to find him anywhere. He was probably avoiding him. Made sense, especially if Rob didn't realize that Gumball remembered everything. Probably just wanted to avoid the awkwardness of trying to pretend that nothing happened. Still, Gumball couldn't help but feel like he just lost Rob's friendship even though he went to such great lengths to stop that from happening. He didn't see him again until about a month after the incident. Gumball and Darwin were at the convenience store picking up a few things when Gumball suddenly spotted Rob across the store doing the exact same thing. Gumball froze. He suddenly realized that even after all this time he hadn't thought about what he was actually going to say to Rob when he saw him again. How could he bring up the fact that he remembered everything that happened (or, more accurately, hadn't happened.) in a casual conversation? He couldn't, it was impossible. "What are you looking at?" Darwin asked him. He followed his gaze toward Rob and his eyes widened in understanding. "Ah" He whispered under his breath. He then gave Gumball a playful nudge. "Go talk to him!" he whispered.

"I….uh….no, no, I can't do that." Gumball stuttered. Darwin sighed. Of course he wasn't going to go talk to Rob, despite griping that he never saw him for like a month. Wasn't that just like him? Darwin knew he was going to have to intervene here or else Gumball was going to complain about it for weeks. Plus, it would be good for them to talk things out.

"Hey, Rob!" Darwin shouted. Rob looked over and made eye contact with Gumball. Both of them froze in panic. They didn't really know what to do now. They wanted to pretend that they hadn't seen each other but it was so obvious that they did. They would never be able to get away with that. Gumball broke eye contact and turned to admonish Darwin only to find that he was gone. "Darwin Watterson, I swear to god I'm going to get you back for this." Gumball thought. The two stared at each other awkwardly for a bit until Gumball decided to break the silence.

"Uh, hey Rob, how's it going?" Gumball said. "How's it going? Really?" Gumball thought to himself. "After everything that happened, that's what you're going with!?"

"Um, fine, things are fine." Rob replied. He was a little confused, why was Gumball being civil towards him instead of challenging him to a duel or something? And he actually remembered his name? That was weird. Not that he wanted to fight Gumball again, he definitely didn't after the whole remote incident, but why didn't Gumball want to? It wasn't like he remembered what happened between them….right? Gumball could tell just by looking at him that he didn't know that he remembered what happened. Great. How was he going to break the news to him? It wasn't exactly a common topic in conversation.. "Listen…." Rob said. "I've got to get going….." Oh no, he was leaving! He couldn't let him take off, he might not get this chance to tell him again!

"I remember what happened!" Gumball shouted, interrupting Rob's sentence. Rob's eye widened at this statement.

"W-what?" Rob asked. There was no way, he couldn't have said what he thought he said, could he?

"I remember what happened. You crashing the car, the badness at the mall, that weird limbo-like place, the remote, I remember all of it." Gumball explained. "I just thought you should know." Rob just stared at him, mouth agape.

"What? But-how?" Rob sputtered as he tried to process this. Gumball remembered? How? He went back and fixed everything, he was sure of it! "Ok, we really need to talk about this, but this isn't a good place. Meet me out back in five minutes?" Gumball nodded. Rob was right, they did need to talk, and this wasn't the place for it. Larry was probably really confused by what he had overheard between them. Rob made a hasty exit and waited for Gumball at the back of the store. Gumball wandered out five minutes later as instructed, eating a bag of chips that he got from the convenience store.

"Really? You drop that bombshell on me and you come out just casually eating snacks?" Rob said in exasperation.

"What? I was hungry." Gumball responded. "Want one?" He asked as he held the chip bag out to Rob. Rob shrugged and reached into it. Well, he was hungry, might as well. After eating a few Rob jumped straight to the questions.

"Alright, first things first, how do you remember everything? I thought I went back in time and fixed everything."

"You did!" Gumball was quick to reassure him. "You did. Everything's fine now. I, uh, I kinda grabbed your hand when you pressed rewind on that remote. So I got pulled back in time with you." Rob nodded slowly. Of course, why didn't he think of that?!

"Well, if you remember everything, then I owe you a huge apology." Rob said. "I really am sorry Gumball. I was angry about….some things that you wouldn't understand and I took it out on you. Even if you didn't save me that first time it's not like you put me in there. You even went in to save me later, that's all I ever wanted really." Gumball raised an eyebrow. He didn't really understand a lot of that, but he got the gist of what Rob was saying, maybe?

"Don't worry about it too much, I mean, you went back and fixed it, didn't you?" Gumball was being way too casual about this, and he knew it. But what was he supposed to say? That he still had nightmares of watching his family disappear? That when he closed his eyes he could sometimes still see that static dimension? That he had a nagging feeling in the back of his head that things weren't as they seemed? Rob did all he could to fix it, the fact that he could remember all that was his own fault. And, despite all that, he still wanted to be friends with Rob.

"Yeah, but I was wrong about you this whole time. All that hate for no reason."

"About that, why did you hate me anyways? I know I suggested that you should be my nemesis, but I didn't think you were going to take it that far."

"Well, I had a whole monologue prepared, but you didn't let me say it." Rob pointed out.

"I already heard it, it didn't clear up anything. Just your typical "I never wanted to be the villain, you made me this way" speech. Then it started getting weird. You were saying stuff about how you "wanted to be the cute sidekick" and that "none of this is real?" What did you mean by that?" Rob froze, well, he certainly didn't expect to have to explain this today. And how did Gumball even know about all that anyways?

"How did you know that?" Rob asked. Gumball smirked at this.

"What? You think you're the only one to try and use the remote to go back in time and fix everything? I did that too. The day that you remember is actually the second time I lived that day. The first time your plan went off without a hitch, congratulations. Except for the fact that, you know, I got my hands on the remote and managed to go back." Rob started to process this information. It made sense, it made a lot of sense. Looking back on that day Gumball seemed to know just about everything that Rob was going to throw at him. Sure, his attempts to stop him almost always made things worse, but he did attempt to stop him every time. He shouldn't have been able to know what Rob was planning, and yet he did. "Also, throwing the remote in limbo? Bad move dude, you would've been stuck in a frozen time-sickle had I not rewound it. So, technically, I saved both of us." Rob's eyebrow furled. He didn't know why he would do something like that. However, though he hated to admit it, it did seem like something he would do. He did once try to blow up a non-existent dam after all.

"You can't admonish me for something I don't remember doing." Rob protested.

"I can, and I will." Gumball replied. "Also, I can't help but notice that you didn't answer my question."

"Which one?"

"Either, both, whatever." Rob sighed. This was going to be a long, hard conversation to have. He didn't even know if Gumball would believe him. But he had to try. This was the first time that his (former) nemesis was actively listening to him, so he had to try and explain it. He had to try and make him understand.

"Ok, so, you know that static void that I tried to toss you into, but that you ended up tossing me into instead?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that wasn't the first time that I was in there." Rob admitted. "All of the world's mistakes are put into that void, I was one of them." Gumball just looked confused.

"That doesn't make any sense. People aren't mistakes, you aren't a mistake."

"Try telling the universe that." Rob quipped. "Well, one day you, Darwin, and Mr. Small went in there to rescue your friend Molly." Now Gumball looked even more confused.

"No I didn't. I think I'd remember something like that."

"You would think." Rob said. "But you don't, none of you do. That's what The Void does, once something's in there you forget about it immediately. Do you even have any memories of Molly from before last year?" Gumball concentrated, but he found that Rob was right, he didn't have any memories of her before then. Was she even there before? He wasn't sure.

"I…I thought she was a new student." Gumball admitted.

"Well she wasn't." Rob said simply. "Anyways, you went to go save Molly but you completely blew past me. You helped her and you left me there to rot. But I clung to the back of Mr. Small's van and came back, but at a cost." Rob gestured towards his body to get his point across. "I became disfigured, and I lost my memories, at least temporarily." Gumball was silent for a bit, trying to figure out what to say. He wasn't sure if he believed Rob or not, but he looked so sincere, it was hard not to believe him.

"Are you….are you sure? That doesn't sound like me, and that definitely doesn't sound like Darwin." Gumball asked. He knew that he would never leave him there, at least not intentionally. But his story did make a lot of sense, it would explain why Rob had static patches that looked like the static in that void. It would explain why he found him living at their house without any memory of who he was. It would explain why he latched onto his nemesis suggestion so thoroughly. Guilt started to work its way through Gumball's stomach. Maybe Rob wasn't making this up, maybe he did leave him behind in that static void, and if he did that, then Rob had a valid reason to be mad at him. He didn't like that. He preferred it when he thought that Rob was going after him because he was the villain and Gumball was the hero. It made their little back and forth a lot less fun in hindsight.

Rob was feeling conflicted as well. If Gumball had said that just a month earlier Rob would've exploded on him, but now, after he had saved him despite everything he had done to him, even risking his own life in order to do it, he had to agree. That didn't sound like Gumball. Could it be that this was all just some big misunderstanding? That maybe, just maybe, Gumball didn't see or hear him that day? That he would've saved him if he had? He hadn't allowed himself to think these thoughts before but now that he had he couldn't get them out of his head.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Rob said simply, not letting Gumball into his confused thoughts. Gumball sat with this for a bit, not sure what to think.

"Well, if that's true, then I'm the one who owes you an apology." Gumball eventually said. "I'm sorry Rob. I wish I could give you an explanation, but I don't have one. I don't remember any of this. But I know that I shouldn't have done that. If I had the chance to do it over I would save you."

"Thanks Gumball, that really means a lot." Rob said sincerely. "But I think you proved that when you went in to save me that second time. You didn't have to, you had every reason not to, but you still did it."

"Of course I did. I couldn't just leave you in there."

"Why?"

"Huh?" Gumball asked, confused.

"Why not?"

"What do you mean why not? Just because we're nemeses doesn't mean that I want you trapped in an endless void for all eternity! You might've convinced yourself that you belong there, but that doesn't mean I have to." Rob was floored by his response. Gumball actually thought that he belonged here? That he had a purpose? Now he was even more convinced that he didn't mean to leave him behind in The Void that day. Those weren't the words of someone who didn't care.

"Are we still nemeses?" Rob asked tentatively. Rob knew that he was being selfish, Gumball forgave him and apologized for leaving him in The Void, it would be greedy to ask for more than that. But he couldn't help but hope. If Gumball remembered everything, did that mean they were still friends? He could use a friend, he hadn't had any in a while. And, he couldn't believe he was thinking this, but Gumball didn't seem like a bad choice.

"No, not really." Gumball admitted. "I don't hate you, and it doesn't sound like you hate me anymore. So, what do you say? You wanna be friends?" He reached out his hand for a handshake, but Rob didn't take it.

"But…I'm supposed to be the villain…" he protested weakly. This was everything he had wanted, but would the show even allow this? If he stopped being the villain, would he lose his purpose and be sent back to The Void again?

"So? Tons of villains end up switching sides and joining team good guy. Remember the fire prince from that one show?" That was true, there were plenty of stories where the villain switched sides, where they got a redemption arc, he just never dared to hope that he was in one of them. Maybe this could actually work. Maybe, just maybe, something good could happen to him for a change. And if not, if they had to go back to being enemies by the time the next episode rolls around, well, at least he could have it for a bit, right? He wasn't in a ton of episodes, maybe this could last for at least a little while.
"Ok, friends."