Raymond groaned. Normally, reloading into a new body felt refreshing, what with every last ding, scratch and mark being undone. Instead of this time, he felt pretty awful, like someone had repaired him with scrap parts.

"Raymond! Get up!" Darrell's shrill voice called out to him. Raymond reluctantly opened his eyes to see his brother strapped to a table with chains so severe that it'd make an insane asylum look like a luxury vacation.

"Wuh?" Raymond realized the situation he was also in. Neither of them could move, and their weaponry did not work as their stallers had been activated.

"I am Jethro," Jethro's voice caught their attention. They saw him nearby, who had waited for them to wake up.

"Jethro? Hey! Help us out here!" Darrell called to him.

"I am Jethro," Jethro flatly replied.

"Alright, everything should be ready!" Shannon's voice rang out. She entered the room with joy, each step she took was full of glee as she took a seat between the two. That smile terrified them for an unknown reason.

"Shannon? What's going on? Is father angry?" Raymond requested an explanation. This situation was growing to be far more daunting.

"Nope. If I told daddy, then we'd all be in trouble… and I'm only after you two right now," Shannon stared to the nearby computer monitor for a brief moment before turning her attention back to them, while starting to hook up several wires to her brothers.

"What are you mad about? I-if it's about blowing you up, then we're really sorry!" Darrell was worried. Their sister would be angry about being blown up like that during their fight earlier, but he did not think she would become this angry.

"No," Shannon growled, "I'm mad that you guys messed with my head and tried destroying my relationship! Again!"

"What?! How do you remember?!" Darrell gasped, shutting his mouth tight the second he realized that confessing their guilt was a far worse mistake.

"I am Jethro," Jethro chimed, sounding rather smug about undoing their evil scheme.

"You're shrewder than I anticipated, Jethro," Raymond commented. It was not hard for him to put the pieces together and figure out what was going on now.

"Well, since you two nearly destroyed my second relationship, I'm giving you the same treatment you gave me, with a little extra to it," she deviously grinned, those sharp teeth showing. Payback was going to be sweet, she didn't hate her brothers just their behavior, either way it did not stop her from enjoying every moment of this. "Well, I'd tell you more, but…" she turned to them, flashing instead a content innocent smile. "Once I'm done, you won't remember any of this and then some," she finished, ignoring her brothers protests of shouting. Her life should be more bearable after this, thanks to Jethro and his brilliant addition to the idea. "Alright, Jethro. Let's do this!"

K.O. sat in a more secluded spot of the plaza, an abandoned parking lot that supply trucks usually stopped at.

"I just hope this goes well," he murmured, looking a lot better already, as if the energy he lost in his depression was coming back with each passing minute.

"Not like there's a good way to go about this…" T.K.O. reminded his good side. Both of them were equally dreading this daunting task before them, despite the fact only one had to do any real talking.

"Apologies for the wait, K.O.," Dendy's unusually chipper voice caught his attention. The kappa approached, happy to see him looking so much better already. She believed it was a great sign of her plan working well beyond her expectations.

"It's alright, Dendy," the Level 3 hero replied, slightly worried on how to handle this. He stood up from his place on the ground where he had been waiting for her.

"What is it you wished to discuss with me?" The genius kappa smiled, feeling her heart race in glee at the possibilities here, she tried her best to hide a majority of said enthusiasm. K.O. felt somehow sickened by how proud she behaved after all she knowingly done.

"…Why'd you tell Enid and Rad about me being with Shannon?" K.O. asked, point blank. Utter silence fell. Even the wind seemed to stop. Dendy's joyful expression was gone in half a second.

"Wh… Whatever could you possibly be referring to, K.O.?" Dendy played dumb, trying to hide the cold sweat beading from her forehead. She saw the upset look on his face, the expression alone clearly telling her that he indeed found out about her tricks.

"Rad and Enid said you had a recording of me talking with Shannon… But you never talked with me about it." He stated, no response. Just awkward silence. "Please answer me, Dendy," he pleaded as the air became tenser. He wanted to at least remain friends with her, he could not do that if he was the only one speaking. After what felt like an eternity, she looked to his face.

"Yes, K.O. I recorded you two on what I presume was the night you had her join your family for dinner," Dendy confessed, though she did not specify how she did it, not wanting to make things worse for herself given the corner she was now metaphorically backed into. It was something she overlooked. She did not expect K.O. to ask his co-workers about it, since it would have tore open his emotional scars.

"Why did you tell them, Dendy? You didn't even come to talk to me," K.O. felt betrayed, given all the two of them had gone through.

"I was doing it for your own good. There is no long-lasting relationship between a hero and a villain, let alone an organic person being is far past incompatible with a nonorganic automaton," Dendy gave her defense, and she saw the severely hurt look on his face.

"If there's one thing T.K.O. and you taught me, any hero can still act like a villain," K.O. countered. She felt the sting of that retort.

"I can hear you, y'know," T.K.O. butted in, he was ignored by his good half, making the anger prone boy huff. Though T.K.O. had to internally confess that he was not the one to lead this conversation, it was a rough enough nightmare as is. Being near someone he lost all feelings for himself made it only more awkward.

"K.O, I'm sorry. Just… I've developed a special bond with you during our long time together. I hoped you felt similar… I don't know what came over me when I first discovered you had a girlfriend," Dendy tried to continue, but saw his gaze drifting to the ground.

"I'm sorry, Dendy. I can't accept it," K.O. paused. He was going to cause emotional stress on her with his words, and considering how awful he felt these last two weeks, he was reluctant to make someone feel nearly as bad as he had. He hated to be selfish, but he was at the center of this still unraveling disaster. This seemed to be the only way out of it.

"I can't love you, especially knowing you can do all that without even talking to me or thinking about how I felt. I can't love someone who can hurt another with no care. T.K.O. told me about you having feelings for me, but all this just…" he breathed, doing his best to keep his composure, "I-I can't. Any feelings I had for you don't exist anymore, Dendy. I'd be happy to still be your friend, if you still want to be."

K.O. could not look at her face at first, his gaze wandering off again during his miniature speech. When the silence became unbearably tense, he focused his eyes on her.

"I-I… see…" Dendy sniffled. That once straight face was in shambles. K.O. could see the tears escaping her eyes, her goggles doing nothing to really slow them down. He did not need to hear her apologies. He already knew by her reaction that she was deeply regretful.

K.O. remained silent, not wanting to hurt her further. The genius kappa quietly sobbed. He began to walk past her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder to let her know he would hold no grudge. It was not something he could bring himself to do, especially to a close friend. He left the area, leaving Dendy alone in her sorrows. Having her actions put into a more bluntly worded perspective opened her eyes quite harshly.

"Wh-what have I-I done…? I ruined everything…" Dendy whimpered to herself quietly. She fell to her knees, unable to stop the waterfall of tears. She wanted to chase him to beg him to give her a fair chance, but her body refused to move, as if it knew that the pleas would be a futile effort.

K.O. now sat in the break room of the bodega with Enid. He had become quite exhausted, both physically and emotionally, yet still felt golden compared to a couple weeks ago.

"Sorry you've been through so much lately, K.O.," Enid apologized back. She felt bad that he did not come to them sooner for help. She had bitter reminders of Elodie through him.

"It's not you or Rad's fault… I'm sorry I didn't tell you about dating Shannon though," K.O. replied, feeling like things could have been a lot better if he had told them sooner about his date's identity, the risk of it also becoming far worse was what made him hesitant.

"I understand why you didn't tell us. Just remember you can come to us if you need help, okay?" the Level 4 ninja reassured, rubbing her short friend's head, messing up his hair slightly.

"I will, Enid," he hugged her in return. They then heard a knock on the open door.

"Hey, guys, Shannon's here," Rad informed them. They had been more or less waiting for the young robot to return, mainly hoping the plan she had fabricated with Jethro had worked. The stockroom worker let Shannon step inside before following.

Enid felt rather uncomfortable. It was three heroes in one room with someone they had considered a long time rival for what felt like years now.

"Did it work, Shannon?" K.O. sat beside his girlfriend. Enid was in the other seat across from them, while Rad leaned on the nearby wall.

"It went perfectly," Shannon nodded, "Raymond and Darrell shouldn't be a problem anymore."

K.O. was overjoyed. They could continue dating again. He replied by wrapping his arms around her neck, his vocal chords being paralyzed by the joy. She gladly returned the warm embrace to her boyfriend.

"Really? I can't see them backing off that easily…" Rad murmured, finding that rather hard to believe, given how persistent the Boxmore bots were notorious for being.

"How'd you do it?" Enid quirked an eyebrow, doubting it was as simple as threatening nor begging her brothers into behaving well. They couldn't imagine informing Boxman of any of this either without an explosion of trouble.

"It… might sound worse than it actually is," she sheepishly chirped, aware how evil it would come off as.

"What do you mean?" K.O. asked. Shannon felt awkward to be in the same presence of various heroes that she had slashed up her fair share of times, and they were being kind to her.

"I reprogrammed part of their memory circuits, and Jethro made a special program to keep things clear, after we removed all of their memories of the last month and replaced them," Shannon explained.

"Isn't that kind of a short fix?" Rad questioned, trying his best to keep up, but it was like listening to Dendy talk, half the words went over his head.

"That's where Jethro's addition comes in," Shannon grinned deviously, her sharp teeth showing.

K.O. got anxious whenever he saw that expression. "What'd he do?"

"If they ever hear anything about us being together, no matter how, their memories of the last forty-eight hours get overwritten and replaced," she answered. There was no chance for any memories of her brothers knowing of them dating to be resurfaced. She and Jethro knew how to install said feature into all of Darrell and Raymond's models, she left it up to Jethro to do that part in a fashion that would not alert Boxman.

"Well… can't say they didn't have it coming," Enid awkwardly coughed, still not very comfortable with the two dating. She doubted she ever would be.

"I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble, Shannon," K.O. mused, "I didn't mean to make your life harder."

"My life would be a lot harder without you, K.O.," Shannon then planted a kiss on his lips without warning. The young hero gladly returned the kiss. How he missed feeling her these last few weeks.

"Wow, they uh… really aren't shy, huh?" Enid whispered to her other co-worker.

"I'm just scared to imagine how Carol'll take this when she finds out," Rad quietly reminded her. Their young friend's mother had strength that no one, not even Mr. Gar, could laugh at. They were oblivious to the fact she already knew.

When the liplock ended, K.O. kept Shannon's hand in his, feeling renewed. The wounds in his heart were now essentially a figment of his imagination. The two looked to each other's eyes, Shannon giving a steadfast smile, and K.O. a goofy smile.

"So…" Shannon hummed, "What happens to us now?"

K.O.'s smile widened. "I have no clue!"

The End...

Authors Note: Hey all, I just wanted to say thank you for sticking with this story as long as you did. I hope it was at least decent for my first fanfiction, I'd love to hear your thoughts and criticism for it. I'm sorry if it was bad, I enjoyed making it a lot.