This is it! This is the end. Thank you for reading and big, special thanks to Cyroclastic who reviewed pretty much every chapter! You're amazing.

Randy does not sleep that night.

He tries. He closes his eyes and counts robo-apes. He reads his math homework. He listens to the most boring podcast he knows.

Despite the late hour, he stays conscious and more than that – anxious.

Randy isn't used to feeling so worried all the time. So guilty.

Instead of sleeping, he finds himself brainstorming the least painful ways to break the news.

Can't text them, he dismisses, too impersonal.

He could call – and yes, he's thinking of all the methods that put him out of his friends' punching range – but again, it feels distant and forced. Like yelling a truth across a canyon.

No, it's gotta be face-to-face. Randy hates to admit it, but he deserves a punch to the face for this. And if it helps Jake and Danny forgive him?

Then it'll be worth two black eyes.

The problem remains; how to get all three of them in a room together to hear that Randy remembers without telling them over the phone that he remembers.

How can he get them to meet him somewhere? Or, are Danny and Jake meeting up this week someplace Randy can crash?

Randy doesn't know. He doesn't even have Danny's phone number anymore, he realizes belatedly. He's not even supposed to know who Danny is – how is he supposed to trick the halfa into going anywhere?

Ugh. Randy really doesn't want to do this and the universe can't even be decent and make it easy for him.

Would it be insensitive to just post it on his story?

It's more insensitive not to mention it at all, though, right?

He worries his way through the night, breakfast, and two morning classes, wishing for an easy way out.

Maybe a monster could knock out the phone lines. Maybe he'll get stanked (that'd be a new one, but he can hope) and not have to think about it for a few hours.

Maybe Jake and Danny will be too busy.

Finally, after lunch and multiple threats from Howard to tackle him to the ground and do it for him (Randy's stronger but Howard is deceptively tricky, and he knows Randy's ticklish), Randy does it.

He sends two messages by text to Jake, unable to do better.

I remember everything. He types.

And,

I'm really, really sorry.

He does not get a reply.

"He remembers." Jake says over the phone.

Danny is understandably confused, partly because it's rare for him and Jake to talk on the phone (they both prefer to text or Skype, mostly) but also because Jake didn't bother to say hi, or clarify his pronouns, or answer the phone with anything more than a vague, confusing sentence.

Danny blinks, belatedly checking the number ID (it's early, okay) and says,

"Wait, Jake? What's up, man? Why are you calling me? You never call me."

"Danny, dude, bro I couldn't –" Jake growls on the other line, seemingly at himself. "I can't just text you this. It ain't – it ain't right."

There's a beat where Jake pauses and Danny wonders whether a big bad is rising somewhere, maybe one of his past enemies, anything that would explain the utter urgency in Jake's tone.

"Plus, my phone is still pretty messed up from whatever you nerds did to it." Jake adds more casually, shattering the tension. "When I send texts to Trixie and Spud, they get a mess of Egyptian symbols or something."

"You should never mess with Tucker's tech, Jake."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah – listen, that's not what I called to talk about. Though don't get me wrong, I am still pissed on that issue."

Danny sighs.

"What is it then? You said something about remembering?"

"...he remembers, Danny. Randy – Randy remembers. Everything."

Danny can feel this piece of news fly over his head – not mentally, he can grasp the meaning of the words all strung together, but emotionally it's all gibberish. He feels himself blink up in terror at the wave about to crash down on him, the wave of hurtangerexcitementdisbelief –

But it hasn't hit yet. He's just breathing slowly, blinking at nothing in his kitchen. Not reacting.

"But he forgot. He got mindwiped, or whatever, right?" He hears himself say. "I mean, I saw him, you saw him – he doesn't remember a thing. And some new kid is wearing the suit. He doesn't, he can't –"

"Danny. Trust me on this; he remembers. I-I don't know how, but… it's a recent thing, I think. He's – he's been using it to mess with us."

Danny just blinks and blinks, like the world will make sense if he brings it back into focus but it doesn't, so he keeps trying and trying and –

"Are you...are you sure?" Danny asks.

He can't help it. He trusts Jake with his life, but hope burns, and false hope burns brightest - and hurts the most.

"How do you know? Did he tell you?"

"He started this, man. The new prank war. He was the one with the phone and the shirt and – and he played us! Knew we'd go after each other."

Jake exhales heavily, anger and exhaustion apparent. Danny gets the feeling Jake is no longer listening to him.

"Then he has – has the nerve to text me today, out of the blue and say, guess what I remember everything hahaha! Like he's had his fun and knows I know, or something! Or, or like he just forgot to mention it! I-I can't even – he didn't – and he didn't even tell me why! Can you believe that?"

Danny doesn't know what to do with this information. It isn't even sinking in.

Clearly, Jake has been stewing in this emotional mess of a revelation for a few hours and it's only gotten worse.

What he probably needs right now is a level-headed friend, agreeing with his assertions and muttering nonsensical comforting things as he rants.

Danny can't even manage that. He doesn't even know if he can manage breathing, which might become a problem since he's in human form right now.

Time passes, and he lets Jake rant like white noise in his ear, something burning and undefinable lighting in his chest. It's painful but bright, and it fills him up like hot cocoa on a cold day.

"He remembers?" Danny says finally, voice very small. "Really really?"

Because that's –

That would be –

Randy pranked them and he lied and Danny is angry and he has a right to that emotion as much as Jake does, but –

But if they have their friend back then does it matter, they can yell at him as much as they want, they can talk to him again, they can confront him, they can see him –

– they can –

On the other line, Jake laughs.

"Yeah," he says, and Danny realizes that he sounds happy, thrilled, underneath the anger.

"Yeah, he really remembers us."

Danny smiles, then laughs, then holds back the urge to cry.

"...want to go kick his butt?" Jake suggests after a second.

Danny doesn't think he can do more than sit and speak and smile right now, but he nods all the same.

"You better believe I do."

The monster lockdowns are new.

This (Randy's last class of the afternoon, made even more unbearable than usual by the fact that Jake still hasn't replied to his texts yet) is actually the first time they've implemented the lockdown.

It gives Randy something else to think about, stuffed at the back of his math class with 80 more students in here than usual.

Norrisville – and Norrisville school systems especially – are always trying out new anti-monster/robot precautionary measures. They are hardly ever effective, and sometimes even counterproductive, but the Ninja always saves the students anyway, so it doesn't matter.

One memorable time involved teachers putting all the high schoolers on the roof (already a brilliant idea) and Randy as the Ninja had to catch all of them when some of the more freaked out kids got stanked and began shoving.

This one seems on the more harmless side, though. Annoying, and sweaty and stuffy, with nearly every student on this floor sequestered into the lecture hall with the least windows, but harmless all the same.

It feels slightly overprotective to Randy – the monster is two blocks from here, from what he can tell on the local news feed, tearing up the high school, just like it's supposed to. The supervisors or principal or whoever came up with this new protocol probably just got overeager, ready to test it out even when unnecessary.

Randy doesn't mind not having to learn math, but he would rather be elsewhere. Anywhere else, really.

He's panicking, okay? He's never felt this much negative emotion before and he knows what happens it Norrisville if you feel too bad.

It helps to know that there are already stanked students out there – the Sorcerer is limited in how many people he can control at one time – but not much.

Randy regrets pretty much everything.

He regrets not speaking up sooner to Jake and Danny (who Jake has to have told by now, he's read Randy's messages about please pass it on to Danny I don't have his number also tell him I said sorry even if he won't reply) and he regrets speaking up at all.

He hates this churning feeling in his stomach, this waiting. Waiting for the worst to come.

Randy isn't, and will never be, patient.

It's killing him to be so now.

Suddenly the air is knocked out of him by way of an elbow jabbing into his stomach.

"Hey!"

Howard rolls his eyes and elbows him again.

"Seriously, you need to chill out."

"Ow, stop it!" Randy scowls down at Howard, who looks unrepentant. "That really hurts."

It really doesn't, and they both know that. The surprise hurt more than anything else.

"Has Jake still not responded yet?"

Randy glances back down at his phone, where lines of one-sided texts appear with the tiny read message underneath each and every one of them. It's almost worse than Jake not seeing them at all.

"No."

Yet Randy can't help but text more.

I'm really REALLY sorry!

And, Please talk to me I promise I can explain

And, I'm in math class but whenever you can just call me dude.

And, I'm so so sorry.

"Dude. Now it's just sad." Howard says, reading the messages as Randy types. "Maybe he doesn't wanna talk right now. Maybe he's mad at you."

Randy feels his eye twitch.

"Thanks, Howard, that makes me feel all better."

Howard ignores him.

"Maybe he's on his way over here to kick your butt. Maybe he's telling Danny and they're coming up with some way to murder you!"

"Thank you, yes, you can stop now."

Randy must look incredibly pathetic, because Howard does. He stops and squints close at Randy's face, uncharacteristically silent.

It's not really quiet in here – students still press in on all sides and they are murmuring or chatting on phones or playing games – but it feels almost unbearably so, with Howard staring at him solemnly.

"Hey," Howard says.

"Yeah?" Randy says.

"You wanna get out of here? Go get a burger somewhere?"

Randy most definitely does not tear up or feel the urge to hug his best friend.

"I''d like that." He admits.

They begin to shuffle to the front of the room. The teacher is supposedly making sure no one leaves or enters the classroom during the lockdown, but the monster is some distance away and instead she's doing something on her laptop and ignoring the class. They are college students, of course, and they know how monster attacks go.

All of that only makes it easier to duck on out of the classroom without anyone noticing. The two of them wander downstairs and out the door.

Randy is miffed to see other students also out of designated lockdown areas, as well as most of this side of town walking out and about unhindered.

Seriously, these new monster lockdowns are annoying. It's like they were made specifically to irritate Randy.

Most of that irritation vanishes when he eats a late lunch.

Most of his apprehension, too. It's difficult to worry when he's passionately arguing a side Grave Puncher character's status as an anti-hero to Howard over cheeseburgers and fries.

Maybe that was Howard's plan all along, to distract him, or maybe Howard was just hungry – it helps all the same, not being trapped in a cramped room alone (metaphorically) with his feelings.

It helps, thinking about other things.

"– he punched a civilian's head off, Cunningham, I'm telling you, you could make a compelling case that he's yet another villain."

"That was one time!" Randy says, idly swiping through the news feed on his phone. The Ninja still hasn't beaten the monster yet. "And it was an accident. That makes him an anti-hero, at worst."

"He didn't even feel sorry about it!" Howard argues.

He reaches over and steals one of Randy's fries when Randy glances down at his phone.

He manages to steal quite a few more when Randy doesn't glance up.

"Cunningham?"

Randy stares.

"Cunningham? Hello? Are you dying? ...Are you turning into a monster? As your best friend, I feel I deserve at least a ten minute head start before you try and kill me."

Randy swallows, feels the last bite of food stick dangerously in his throat. He feels like he's choking, but no sound emerges from his mouth.

If this is what being controlled by the Sorcerer feels like, he's glad it's never happened to him.

"Cunningham?"

In the absence of words, he slides his phone across the table. It's open to the news – everyone's phone usually is during a monster attack – but now there's an interesting, separate story at the top, marked as most recent.

Howard glares at him, like he's waiting to see if Randy's about to get stanked. Eventually, when no green smoke or wacky transformations seem incoming, he looks down.

"Spotting flying over Norrisville less then ten minutes ago.." Howard reads aloud. "Ghost hero Danny Phantom and...a dragon."

He pushes the phone back over to Randy's side.

"Wow, Jake still doesn't have a secret identity name, huh? It really is just 'Red Dragon Dude'."

"Y-yeah." Randy chokes out finally, trying to breathe normally.

"Oh good, you've moved past wordless panic."

"Howard." Randy says. "Howard? I think I'm freaking out."

Howard slurps his cola through the straw, contrarily calm in the face of this news. He looks maybe annoyed, but that's it. No fear, no excitement, no anger.

Man, Randy would kill to be that composed right now.

"Your face looks grey, dude." He tells Randy. "Try inhaling, I hear it's good for you."

"Right, yes, okay." Randy does. He can't remember if it's supposed to sting, if it's supposed to feel like gasping. "W-what now?"

"Now," Howard reaches over and, instead of more fry-stealing, pats him on the shoulder.

"Take another. Maybe think of a pun, you like those for some reason."

Randy wants to argue about that, but all he can do is glare. It feels like his heart is going to beat out of his chest. Still less painful than a few seconds ago, though, so maybe Howard knows what he's doing.

Howard grins at him, like he can hear thoughts again.

"Now," He says, softer than usual. "Now we go out there, and you can tell your dumb friends that you're a jerk."

A not so small part of Randy would like to slap him, mostly for taking this situation in stride. Seriously, if this keeps up, Howard is going to be the sane, reasonable one and Randy refuses to lose that well-earned title.

"Don't worry, Cunningham, I'm sure they already know." Howard falsely reassures him. "You want me to hold your hand?"

"I hate you so much." Randy says, but he finds he's smiling as he stands.

He does kind of want Howard to hold his hand. He'd never hear the end of it, though, so he bites his lip, squares his shoulders, and walks out the door with Howard at his heels.

"O-okay, gonna do this. Have to do this." He mutters to himself. "Um, where does it say Danny and Jake were seen last?"

Howard scrolls up on his phone as they stride down the sidewalk. Randy can feel his legs shaking. He can't tell if he's thrilled or terrified.

He's always hated this part – owning up to his mistakes.

"They're headed to the college." Howard says.

As one, they turn around and start walking back down the way they came.

"Of course." Randy says. "Obviously, that's where they'd go. Y-you think they'd call me first though, right?"

"You didn't call them." Howard points out.

It's a pretty great point. No immediate counter-point comes to mind, as Randy's shoulders slump and he stuffs his hands into jacket pockets. Doesn't mean it didn't hurt.

"No. Guess I didn't."

They make it the two blocks to the college unhindered, though the walk does little for Randy's anxiety.

He's practicing his speech (part explanation, part apology, part good-to-see-you-again, part more apology) with Howard as they reach the courtyard, and one of the scariest sounds Randy's ever heard blares behind him.

"RANDALL CUNNINGHAM!"

Two figures – one short and scowling and rocking a red jacket, the other tall, really tall, way taller than Randy remembers, with dark hair and blue eyes that have scary angry green peeking through – stand, a little winded, not twenty feet away. Like they just landed.

They look like they're here to fight.

No matter what Howard will claim later, Randy does not scream and run away.

Fleeing from a half-ghost and a dragon (even when they are in human form) as a puny mortal who failed track would be incredibly stupid, even for him.

He does power-walk, swiftly, in the opposite direction. His friends look...angry.

Really angry.

Howard does, admittedly, catch the back of his jacket before he can get very far.

"Cunningham, stay." He says, very condescending.

Randy probably deserves it but man does it make him want to resort to violence.

"Randy! Get back here!"

Randy turns around as best he can with Howard still clutching the back of his jacket like Randy's about to take off again. It's not a terribly inaccurate assumption.

Randy tries his best, please-forgive-me-look-I'm-adorable grin.

"Hey guys, what's up? Good to see you!"

They're right beside him, now, and Randy realizes vaguely that Danny is taller than him. It hasn't been that long since he's seen them, not really – Jake, especially – but they still look different.

Older.

Furious.

"Randy, what the hell, man?" Danny says. Even his voice is a little deeper. "What the actual hell?"

"Uh.." Randy glances at Howard, but he still hasn't let go yet. "I don't – um –"

"You do remember, right." Danny doesn't seem to be asking, though there is a glimmer of doubt in his eyes.

"Oh, he remembers." Jake says. "And he didn't tell us. Again. Just like he didn't tell us he was gonna forget."

"Look, that's fair –"

"A-and then you," Jake's fangs are flashing unnervingly in the afternoon sun as he rants. "You text me today, after staring yet another Prank War, to tell me, and I bet it wasn't even your idea! I bet Howard made you finally do it!"

Jake blinks, says belatedly,

"Hey Howard."

Howard, still holding Randy in place, has pulled out his phone in his other hand and is playing Hearthstone. He nods when Jake acknowledges him.

"Sup Jake."

Randy almost laughs at the aside. Nothing about this is funny, though, not really.

"You aren't wrong." Randy admits, feeling that this is going as bad as it could possibly go. "He...suggested I should do the right thing and tell you, like, 'hey, surprise! My memory's back!' W-which, that was a total fluke by the way, getting my memories back. It was supposed to be permanent and I happened to be lucky that the Nomicon changed its mind on the whole, mind-wipe thing in general–"

"Stop, wait, slow down." Danny says. "Can we just...start at the beginning?"

He doesn't look as mad anymore. Certainly not as angry as Jake still looks.

"Tell us why you didn't explain the mind-wipe thing to begin with. That was…" Danny sighs, runs a hand through hair shorter than Randy is used to. "That was messed up. We're friends, Randy. We deserved to know."

Randy doesn't miss the present tense.

"You're right. You deserved to know." He says, and it hurts to say. It hurts to stand here and face their wrath, even though he's earned it, even though he brought this on himself.

The thought that they might still be friends if he owns up and apologizes keeps him in place, keeps him from tears in this moment. It makes him breathe and beat back fear to speak.

"I'm sorry, you guys. You did deserve to know. In my defense, I broke my phone senior year a-and I know that's not a good excuse, but I didn't want to–"

In retrospect, Randy is an idiot.

One second he's apologizing/explaining, the next he is flying, swooped up in the talons of something nasty.

He should've seen this coming. Literally, this stanked bird creature is huge, he should've at least noticed a shadow.

He also should've remembered that there was a monster still on the loose that the Ninja hadn't beaten yet.

As Randy takes in the green claws digging into his shoulder, the purple feathers protruding from what used to be arms, he realizes they are hundreds of feet off the ground and if the Bird lets go…

Not good for him.

It's easy to see how the Ninja hasn't taken care of this yet - not even his scarf would reach all the way up here.

"Um...Hey." Randy starts. He grips the Bird's (maybe it's supposed to be an Eagle?) feet tight just in case.

"So uh, where are we going?"

The Eagle hisses something unfortunately like 'nest'.

"I was actually in the middle of something, back on the ground." Randy says. "I have to do this whole big apology to my friends, so if you could put me back down –"

It doesn't stop flying, but it does turn its head down to squawk at him.

Randy yelps.

"You could've just said no!"

This is unfortunate. Randy hates the helplessness of dangling lethally high above the ground, nothing but a band of sharp feet around his middle keeping him from falling.

He hates that he was in the middle of something when this finally happened, when he finally got caught up in Ninja stuff now that he's no longer the Ninja. It doesn't matter that he was hoping for something along these lines to happen not three hours ago, so he could get out of a confrontation.

Now that it's started and Randy wants to get it over with. He wants them to see his side, even if it might've hurt. He wants them to forgive him.

Randy blinks, something red flashing in the corner of his eye.

"Hey Bird!" Jake in dragon from shouts. "Give him back! We weren't finished yet!"

A slow, broad grin makes its way across Randy's face.

The Eagle hisses something in stanked-speech Randy doesn't catch, though it does sound aggressive and menacing.

Danny's flying side-by-side with Jake, hands outstretched. He'll probably reach Randy first.

He's got a familiar look in his eyes that makes Randy grin harder.

"Don't you know kidnapping people is ill-Eagle?" He says, and Randy snorts as Jake groans.

They came for him.

Of course they did, they're heroes and his friends and they care but –

They came for him. For him.

Even though he's been a jerk. Even though they're angry.

"Good one, Phantom!" Randy shouts back.

"It really wasn't!"

"You gonna phase me out of here or what?" Randy continues, ignoring Jake (his palate for puns isn't that much more refined than theirs, he only likes to pretend it is).

That's around when the Bird seems to have had enough. They don't like all the other people suddenly in the sky tailing them and shouting puns.

With a screeching cry, they open their talons and drop Randy, swooping around to bring them raised at Jake.

Randy would be concerned. For now, he's too busy screaming and trying to hold onto rational thought.

It's undignified, and irrational and pure impulse, him screaming as he falls – because he knows Danny will catch him. He's fairly certain Danny is legally obligated to catch him, as a hero and a friend and decent person.

Sure enough, he collides with something softer and closer than the ground.

It jars him. Saves him too. He looks up, trying to get his breath back.

"Thanks, man, I –"

But he isn't looking at Danny. Instead, he sees arms clad in familiar black-and-red keeping him falling to his death. It's a heart-achingly familiar scarf holding them both off the ground.

Randy's seen the new Ninja before. Several times, with and without his memory. He can't live in Norrisville and avoid it, really, even when he's trying.

But something about the surprise, the shock of seeing him without preparation –

It strikes him like a blow.

The other Ninja's expression wobbles when he takes in Randy, seemingly not realizing who he'd saved until now.

"Uh...Hello there, citizen." He says, obviously putting on what he thinks is a deep 'hero' voice.

Randy can't seem to find his.

It's – inexplicable. Like seeing the back of your head. Like it's some bizare dream where he's rescuing himself. Like seeing Nomi-Randy again but worse, because this time it's Randy who isn't supposed to be the Ninja.

"You gonna – put me down?" Randy manages eventually.

He doesn't like this, he doesn't like this, he's not the Ninja anymore and he knows but he wasn't ready, he doesn't want to have to see this –

Doesn't want to have to be rescued by some new kid –

It hurts –

"No, yes, of course!" The Ninja says. He knows who Randy used to be, clearly. It scrambles him.

It scrambles Randy's brain, too.

There are muffled shouts and the sound of dragon fire ringing out above them. Randy blinks, shakes himself, and chooses to focus on that as they slide down the scarf to the ground.

"I didn't know dragons were a thing." The Ninja follows his gaze.

"Ghosts too." Randy says. He does not look away.

"Oh. That's – oh. Uh, anything else?"

The two of them are a flawless team. Jake flashes his claws and singes the Bird till it's forced to turn back in Danny's direction, where ghost rays and ice blasts are waiting.

"Lots of other magical creatures." Randy says absently. "Unicorns, goblins, leprechauns...those are real too."

"Oh, dios. Do I have to fight unicorns now? I don't think I'm emotionally prepared for that."

The Bird is dropping altitude, faster than Ninja and Randy seem to be going, although to be fair the ground is only about ten feet away, now.

The two of them are so in sync, though. No hesitations. No missteps. There's no faltering, no empty space like there's supposed to be a third person up there helping.

They move like nothing is missing.

Like they don't even need Randy.

Randy's feet touch earth and he all but shoves away from the new (other?) Ninja, grateful but tired of touching something that isn't him anymore. That should be him.

"Thanks." He says. It doesn't sound super sincere. "So maybe you should help those guys? Isn't this like, your job?"

That was just passive-aggressive, Randy is a mature enough person to admit that. It's almost worth it for the look on the other Ninja's face, not unlike how Randy looks when he gets to class and is reminded of an assignment he failed to complete.

The kid Ninja immediately begins twirling his scarf like a lasso, seemingly so he can swing back up there.

"Yes, that's – I just couldn't reach him before, is the thing." He says, like he's explaining himself to Randy.

"Uh-huh." Randy says. He's squinting up, at a dark shape falling. He takes a big step backwards.

A giant stanked bird narrowly misses them and slams into the courtyard nearby. It makes the ground shake.

"What the –"

"Look out below!" Danny calls belatedly.

"Thanks for the heads up!" Randy shouts up, but he's smiling again.

The Ninja is already bounding over there, holding up a drawing that Randy honestly doesn't know if he's had this whole time or pulled out of the Eagle's feathers (because Randy is certain there are no pockets on that bird). He rips it up over the groaning, partly frozen stanked Bird.

"Does he know he doesn't have to destroy the thing they hold dear...on top of the person?" Danny touches down next to Randy, arms crossed over his chest.

Randy watches green smoke float into the air and a person (small, with dyed green hair) emerge, groaning, from the monster.

"I couldn't say."

"Should we," Randy blinks, finds Jake in dragon form to his left. "I dunno, tell him?"

"¡Hasta mañana, dudes!" Ninja shouts, giving a somewhat worried and awed stare Danny and Jake's way before throwing down a smoke bomb.

"Too late." Randy says. "Eh, I'm sure he'll figure it out."

"Yeah, maybe."

Danny leans over and punches him on the arm.

"Hey! What was that for?"

It wasn't full strength, since Danny Phantom is pretty dang strong and could seriously bruise someone if he wanted to. Even so, it didn't feel like a summer breeze.

Danny punches him again.

"You got swept up and almost eaten. By a bird monster."

"How was that my fault?" Randy wants to know.

"Eh, it probably wasn't." Jake admits, punching him somewhat softer on the other shoulder. "But still. You're more breakable now, dude. And we weren't finished yelling at you for the stuff that was your fault."

Randy supposes that's true.

"Let me just text Howard, then we can commence the yelling again."

As he's making sure his best friend knows he's okay and behind the building where they started from, Danny says,

"I think we'd put the yelling on hold. I think we were at the 'tell us what the hell you were thinking' stage."

"Sounds about right."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Someone pokes Randy on the back. He squeaks.

"Bird's all gone?" Howard says, walking up from behind Randy. He must have been in one of the buildings really close by – Randy hasn't even pushed send on the message yet. He does it anyway, despite Howard being right here.

"Destanked." He confirms. "I was not eaten or dropped or chomped on."

"Always good to hear." Howard nods, all calm like, as though he wasn't somewhere worried to death about Randy. They exchange their classic handshake and up close, Randy sees Howard smiling. He looks relieved.

Heck, Randy feels relieved. Sometimes he forgets how weird it can be living in Norrisville.

"So?"

Oh, that's not a nice tone. That's Jake, standing there expectantly. They must've ducked behind a bush or tree because they're back in human form.

The worst of the anger has faded from Jake and Danny's expressions, their posture, but they still aren't happy with him. It's a cold environment, emotionally, to be in.

"So, what possible reason could you have for not telling us you got your freaking memory back? For pulling pranks instead of just telling the truth?" Jake wants to know.

Randy has had a long day. He's not sure he can ever answer that to anyone's satisfaction.

He wonders if he should even try.

He doesn't even know where to start.

"Tell them what you told me." Howard says after a moment, tilting his head at the two heroes.

Randy swallows. It's a difficult thing for Howard to ask.

It gets easier, when Randy thinks of what he knows of his friends; how Jake's family spent years tiptoeing around Jake's dad, afraid to spill the truth about them being dragons; how Danny, convinced though he was that his parents loved him and would love him enough to accept him being half-ghost, still kept quiet about it, even when they pointed weapons at him.

All of them have experience with lying to protect themselves. All of them know what it's like to hide, even from people you love.

"I was scared." He blurts out, after far too long a silence.

Danny frowns.

"The Bird's gone, Randy, you saw it –"

"No, not of that. You asked why I didn't tell you the moment I remembered." Randy finds himself looking down at his shaking hands rather than his friends. "Part of it was – I thought it'd be funny, you know, messing with you guys a little."

"And it was." Howard says. It's probably not meant to be supportive, merely the blunt truth, but Randy appreciates it all the same.

"Yeah," He lets his smile fade. "It was never gonna be for long. But then...I got scared. I-I made the wrong choice, before. Not letting you know I was gonna forget. I didn't want to own up to it. I didn't know if – if you guys would forgive me. If you'd even want to be friends now that –"

Randy cuts himself off. That's not productive thinking.

"I was scared. That doesn't mean it was right, or that it excuses it or whatever, but..you asked why. That's the reason."

Jake and Danny look at one another. Randy peeks up at them, unable to stare long. He doesn't like what he sees.

"Okay. That.." Danny seems to struggle with himself. "Okay. That – that makes sense, sort of. Still hurts but, it makes sense."

Jake has his arms crossed over his chest, hands curled into fists. He doesn't say anything for a moment. What he's thinking, it's impossible to tell.

"You suck, Randy." He finally says.

Then, before the hurt can really register, a short, red shape is rushing him and nearly tackling him to the ground.

Jake is – hugging him, Randy realizes. Jake's squeezing him so tight he can't breathe, and he might be crying and angrily berating Randy under his breath, but he's hugging him and Randy can't stop grinning. This is the best thing that's happened to him in ages.

Danny, rolling eyes that seem a little misty himself, walks over and throws his arms around the both of them.

"And you guys call me the dramatic one."

"Hate you." Jake croaks out. "Hate you both."

"Yeah, we know." Randy smiles.

"You're such an idiot, Randy. Friends tell each other things and – they aren't scared of each other." Jake squeezes harder.

"We understand secrets better than most people." Danny says. Randy kind of thinks he's holding them both of the ground now, and he didn't know Danny Fenton was that strong.

"You don't have to hide stuff from us."

"You guys are right, I'm such a shoob." Randy agrees, not really listening. He thinks he's crying too.

Howard mutters something about too many emotions and going back to the dorm, but the three of them don't move, not for a while.

"We missed you." Jake says eventually. "Don't ever do something like that again."

Randy promises. Not like that's going to be a problem anymore.

Perhaps this isn't what he thought forgiveness would look like –and maybe this isn't, maybe this is whatever comes right before forgiveness – but it feels good all the same. It feels like acceptance.

It makes his guilt shrivel up into a tiny corner in his chest, almost non-existent. It makes him wonder why he feared this in the first place.

It makes him feel warm, despite the feeling of loss that still hasn't gone away (that'll never go away).

Randy curls his arms around Jake and Danny and clutches back just as tight.

He really has missed this.

They call off the Prank War.

All three come together and make a truce, before it really even turns into a war this time. It's a good thing. Nobody really wanted the unconstrained chaos that happened Sophomore year in high school. Not again.

There are, of course, some conditions, mainly on the part of one Randy Cunningham.

Jake and Danny get a week.

Seven whole days.

One week until the truce really takes effect, in which they can get back at him all they want (following the usual prank war rules, as per the Prank Geneva Convention) and Randy isn't allowed to retaliate.

Considering recent events…

It's fair. Really, really fair.

Randy can't stop himself from smiling all seven days. Even when he wakes up one morning to find his hair dyed hot pink; even when he finds all his left shoes mysteriously missing that Wednesday; even when Danny successfully convinces Randy's entire morning class, including his teacher, that Randy's backpack is haunted and must be stolen and burnt for the good of the class.

Through it all, he's grinning non stop.

He has those two idiots in his life again, properly this time. He hadn't realized until now how much he's missed that (missed them).

Turns out, that longing and emptiness he'd felt the moment he handed over his hero mantle and his memories wasn't just from not being the Ninja anymore.

And yeah, that still hurts, every single day. Thinking back to that up-close-and-personal encounter with the new Ninja feels like a kick to his stomach, every time. Nothing anyone can do to fix that.

But he has Jake and Danny back now.

And with them by his side, he almost feels like he could take on villains anyway, Mask or no.

A/N: I wrote and rewrote this chapter so many times. I'm still not that happy with it? But it's done. I finished something!

I feel I should clarify that the 'monster lockdowns' are not supposed to be a commentary or anything? Not meant to reflect anything in real life, purely fiction.

Also, thank you to everyone who read this, especially to those who reviewed! Y'all gave me the inspiration to finish this fic.

Last thing: I have one more fic I wanna write in this series, another 5+1 story (five times Randy could deal with not being The Ninja anymore and the one time he couldn't) but I won't start posting it until it's actually finished this time. That might take a bit.

Thank you again to my readers! Love you all ^^