Fialux touched a hand to her head and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Temporary amnesia? But…"

I held a hand up, and for a wonder she actually shut up. That trick never worked when I tried it with her before she suffered from this temporary amnesia. It was almost enough to make me regret that she was going to be getting her memories back at some point, but what could you do?

"It would be very helpful if you would just be quiet while I explain the situation," I said.

She hit me with something that might've been a smile, or maybe she was still so damned confused that she wasn't sure what to do or say and decided to play it safe with the super villain who'd obviously gone a little crazy.

At least I'm sure it looked like I'd gone a little crazy from her perspective. From her point of view we were archenemies and suddenly she found herself waking up in my lab and I was planting kisses on her. Kisses she really liked, but I'm sure it was still a lot to process.

"Fine," she said. "But if I decide I don't like your explanation…"

"Trust me. Everything's going to make sense," I said. "And besides, without your powers you're sort of at my mercy."

I could tell from the look she gave me that wasn't the right thing to say. Oh well. It's not like it would be the first time I'd put my foot thoroughly in my mouth. Oops.

Either way it was time to talk this out. There were so many problems in this world that could be solved if people just sat down and had a conversation. It was something that always drove me crazy in books, movies, and television. There were so many plot contrivances that could be solved if the two main characters sat down and had a heart-to-heart.

I had to trust that what I had with Fialux was strong enough that she'd be willing to hear me out even if the temporary amnesia had temporarily wiped away all of her memories of us.

At least I hoped it was only temporary. After all, I had no way of knowing how the medbay would work on a person with alien anatomy that had been scrambled to normal non-superpowered human anatomy.

Though I was starting to wonder if that's really what happened with Dr. Lana.

It could be that the amnesia was for good, or it could be that the amnesia was amplified by whatever Dr. Lana had done to her.

Still, I had no choice but to put all my cards on the table and hope she accepted my help. So I launched into an explanation of everything that had happened leading up to her memory loss.

"Hold on a second," Fialux said after I'd finished. "I don't understand. Why would you be raiding the Applied Sciences Department at the university? And why would I come down to save you in the middle of fighting a couple of giant robots?"

I stopped. Realized that perhaps I'd started the story at the wrong place considering she couldn't remember everything that would explain why we were working together or why she was so concerned with saving me.

So I backtracked a little and started the story with the class I'd taught in an attempt to lure her into a trap since that seemed to be adjacent the last things she actually remembered.

She looked genuinely surprised when I admitted that Professor Terror was none other than the great Night Terror, and it was gratifying to know she really hadn't known that was me standing at the front of the class all along.

It just went to show that even the smallest stupid change to how someone looked could be enough to fool the world. Even something as silly as putting on a pair of glasses.

I covered the fight with CORVAC. Discovering that Rex Roth had been manipulating her behind the scenes. I went into our tryst. How we flew into action together. How we'd been having the most wonderful time of our lives over the past couple of months getting to know one another.

I finished and stared at her. My eyes darted between her own. She looked down and then back up. Bit her lip. And for a moment I wondered if the real Fialux was coming through.

"I punched through a robot," she said, talking slowly.

"Yeah," I said, not daring to hope her memories might be coming back to her already.

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"And then you were there and you threw something and…"

She shook her head. Sighed. My heart sank at that sigh, because I figured it meant nothing good for her memory suddenly reasserting itself like a bad soap opera where the writers had run out of ideas.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But I just can't…"

I put a hand to her cheek. Stroked my thumb gently across her face. She closed her eyes and leaned into that stroke, and I figured that was a good sign. I figured that meant maybe there was some small part of her that remembered what we'd had, even if the higher functioning parts of her brain weren't picking up on those memories.

"That's okay," I said. "Because I love you. And I'm going to do everything I can to help you. To get you back to normal."

"And if I never remember?" she asked.

I sighed. I was reluctant to admit that was a possibility, but now that she was saying it? I guess it was a reality I was going to have to face.

There was a possibility that what Dr. Lana had done to her would be permanent. There was a non-zero chance she really had lost her memories of the past couple of months for good.

I'd looked at some of the readouts from the medbay. She'd taken a couple of hits to the head that would fuck up any normal person, which she was now. Honestly? With the extent of the damage I was a little surprised she hadn't been in the medbay for much longer.

Damn Dr. Lana.

I was going to completely vaporize her the next time I ran into her. I was going to kill her in such a messy and nasty fashion that there was no way she'd be able to pull a creepy biological T-1000 and pull herself back together. Or teleport herself away to heal up. Or whatever the fuck was going on with her.

Trying to figure that out had been as much a part of why I was trying to break into the Applied Sciences Department as anything else.

But that was something to worry about later. Right now I was more worried about Fialux. She was obviously scared. I needed to be there for her even if she couldn't understand why I'd want to be there for her.

"If you never remember then helping you will be its own reward," I said. "I'm serious. I'd do anything for you, and that means…"

I sighed again.

What did you say in a moment like this? It's not like there was a card for "I'm sorry your girlfriend lost her memory in a super powered battle with your new arch enemy and completely forgot about your entire relationship."

"I'll do whatever it takes to help you. To save you. To make you better. Even if it means you completely forget everything we ever had."

It felt weird to speak a truth like that.

This wasn't me. I was a villain. I tried to take over the world. Sure I tried to avoid collateral damage, but I always told myself that was because I didn't want to destroy the world I planned on taking over someday. Not out of any sort of misguided sense of compassion or altruism.

But maybe there was a softy lurking deep inside me, and it took the world's greatest hero relying on me to realize that. I loved her so much that I'd save her. Even if it meant losing the love that was pushing me to do this in the first place.

She smiled. It was a hesitant smile. Almost as though she couldn't quite bring herself to believe me. But the smile was there, and that was something.

It wasn't a smile that held anything close to the heat I'd grown accustomed to seeing from her. It was a flickering candle compared to the raging bonfire I'd gotten used to in the passionate whirlwind romance we'd had in the months since facing down CORVAC, but I'd take it.

It was a start. It was a hell of a lot better than her trying to use superpowers she didn't have to defeat me.

"You're completely serious, aren't you?" she asked.

"I am," I said.

I reached out a hand again. I wondered if she'd take mine. She reached out. As though she was seriously considering it, but then she stopped. Pulled her hand back. Her uncertain look was enough to break my heart.

To see the face of a woman who loved me, and to know she couldn't remember any of the reasons why she'd been so head over heels for me…

Well, that was something that hit me harder than anything she'd ever been able to throw my way when she had her powers. It was something that was more destructive to me than anything Dr. Lana had thrown at me, for that matter.

Though I suppose in some perverted way this was something that Dr. Lana had done to me. She'd done it to both of us. And I hated her for it. I was going to pay her back for this.

Something weird was happening to Fialux, and it chased away the thoughts of vengeance dancing through my head. Her eyes watered. A single tear trickled down her cheek. And then the water works really started.

I stared. I wasn't exactly equipped to deal with this sort of thing. Interpersonal relations, at least the kind of interpersonal relations that didn't involve intimidating people or trying to bend them to my will, or occasionally bribing them to my will, weren't my strong suit.

Inventing game changing technologies I could then use to take over the world? Yeah, that sort of thing was my bag. Dealing with a beautiful woman I loved who couldn't remember me and now she was sobbing as she realized her whole world as she knew it had come crashing down around her?

Let's just say I'd never bothered to invent something that would help me through something like this.

But I'd been learning. That was something. I knew more about interacting with people, with Fialux in particular, today than I ever had before. So I scooted closer to her. Let her bury her head against my shoulder. Which felt good.

I guess I hadn't realized how much I needed to feel her against me. How much I wanted that touch. It was a small return to normalcy in a world that had gone crazy.

And color me surprised, pleasantly so, when she wrapped her arms around me. I hesitantly put an arm around her, wondering how she was going to take it, but when she seemed to welcome the contact I figured we were good to go.

It was weird suddenly having to watch myself around a woman I'd been so close to, but the last thing I wanted to do was spook her and make the situation even worse than it already was.

Still, it felt good to hold her. Even if she was crying. I'd take it, because I figured it was as good as things were going to get.

For now.

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