She kept crying. I couldn't think of anything to say. How did you console someone in a moment like this?

So I ran a hand through her hair. It was always so nice stroking her hair. It always felt so silky smooth. And it seemed like the touch was calming her down.

I'd never been sure if that perfect hair of hers was a result of how she shampooed and conditioned it, or if it was simply that one of her many superpowers was perfect hair.

I guess I had my answer about her silky smooth hair now. After all, if she'd had all her powers revoked then her hair must feel this good naturally. If perfect hair was one of her superpowers then it'd be all streaky and frazzled now, but she was as perfectly coiffed as ever.

Damn. Some girls had all the luck. I mean obviously she didn't have all the luck right now considering everything that'd happened, she'd probably try to punch me if I tried to insinuate anything she was going through right now was lucky, but you get my meaning.

"There, there," I said. "It's all going to be okay. Natalie's going to take care of everything."

She looked up at me, her eyes red. My heart broke seeing her like that. My heart wanted to reach out and break someone's face after seeing Selena like that.

"Natalie?"

I blushed. I needed to remember this was all new information for her now. Even though it had been old information for her this morning.

"That's my real name," I said.

"Huh," she said. "Well in that case it's only fair I tell you my name is…"

"Selena Solare," I finished before she had a chance to.

She jumped, but I wasn't sure why. As far as I could tell, her memories went back to when I'd been teaching her class, but maybe there were holes in there I didn't know about. Either way, she should've been able to figure out I knew her name since I was teaching that class.

Then again, she'd been through a lot. I guess she could be forgiven for not picking up on all the details.

Obviously I was going to have to sit down with her and go over everything. Try to figure out exactly what she did and didn't remember. And hope her memory returned sooner rather than later.

Thinking about it made me want to hurt Dr. Lana. I mean I always wanted to hurt Dr. Lana, but the more I felt Fialux crying against me? The more I wanted to punch her face in over and over again.

The fact that she could heal herself was only a plus as far as I was concerned. That meant I could punch her to my heart's content, wait for her to heal, and then punch her some more!

Thinking about hitting that oh-so-punchable face made my fist clench, and Fialux yelped.

"What was that?" she asked.

I eased up on the clenching. It was weird that I was the one worrying about hurting her now rather than the other way around. The world had truly gone nuts.

"Sorry," I said with a blush. "I was thinking about the bitch who did this to you and I got a little upset and…"

"Not that," Fialux said. "I mean what was that feeling?"

I stared at her long and hard. What could she possibly be…

It suddenly occurred to me that it was quite possible she'd gone her entire life being invulnerable. Which meant me yanking on her hair just now because I was thinking of all the nasty things I wanted to do to Dr. Lana might very well be the first time she'd felt pain.

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Well. Pain that she remembered. That fight with Dr. Lana's robots had left her with some shiners, after all.

It boggled my mind to think of someone whose experience was so different from the rest of the world that she didn't even know what it was like to feel pain, but here we were. I had to remind myself that she was a stranger from…

Well, to be perfectly honest I didn't know where she was from, how she got here, or how she got her powers. All I knew was I loved her, and I figured that was enough. She would tell me her secrets in time.

Though that time might never come now with this new stumbling block. Damn Dr. Lana and her stupid plots to screw with my life. All because she was jealous and knew, deep down, that I was going to take over the world before her.

"That was pain," I said.

"So that's what that feels like?" she asked. "It's been a while."

I frowned. It's been a while? Like she had felt pain in the past but hadn't recently? This was only getting more confusing.

Her face screwed up in a frown of her own. As though she'd just smelled something unpleasant, and not as though she'd just experienced one of the prime motivating factors for all living things in the history of life.

"I don't like that being back. How do you deal with it?"

"By cocooning myself in as much advanced technology as possible to try and avoid it," I said. "I suppose everyone else just deals with it. Life is pain, as a wise man once said."

"A wise man?" she asked.

"Bill Goldman," I said. "But that's not important. What is important is I'm here for you. And you might not have your powers, but we can fix that."

"Do you really think so?" she asked.

I hated that look on her face. So trusting. As though she thought I really could pull it off. That I really could find a way to defeat Dr. Lana and figure out how the hell she'd stolen Fialux's powers.

I wasn't anywhere close to sure that I could pull it off. I'd been bowling a big fat zero lately when it came to fighting Dr. Lana's schemes, but I sure as hell wasn't going to tell Fialux that.

So instead I lied. Hey, it's not like lying was difficult for me. It'd been one of the main tools in my arsenal once upon a time.

Although this would mark the first time I'd ever lied to someone because I was trying to make them feel better about their situation in life rather than trying to dupe them.

It was a change, but for some reason it felt like a good change. I know there are some people who think lying is bad no matter what, but they're full of shit. I'd always figured there were good lies and there were bad lies, and this felt like a good one.

She wasn't crying now. At least not forceful sobs like a moment ago, but there were still some tears trickling down her face. So I decided to be a little forward. I reached out and pulled her against me again.

For a surprise she let me. Which I figured was a good sign. The faintest hint of a smile appeared at the corners of her mouth. Okay. More good signs.

"You don't have to worry about anything," I said. "Night Terror is going to take care of everything. Were going to track down the woman responsible for doing this to you and I'm going to vaporize her…"

"What was that?" she asked, looking up sharply.

Oh. Right. That whole memory loss thing.

Sure my Fialux, the one I'd been dating this morning, still wasn't exactly a fan of me killing people. She still considered it to be one of the pillars of her heroic holier-than-thou attitude that she tried not to kill anyone directly, although I had pointed out that she was so reckless with the way she "fought evil" that sometimes people got killed without her even realizing what she was doing.

And there'd been times when I was pretty sure she didn't kill someone outright, but she had allowed them to put themselves in a deadly situation and allowed things to play out to their natural conclusion. Which seemed like a distinction without a difference to me, but I'd learned not to bring it up.

Somehow pointing out that little bit of hypocrisy on her part still hadn't exactly made her happy about the idea that I was okay with killing people if they needed killing, but at the same time she'd come to accept it.

Sort of.

I think vaporizing Rex Roth when he'd been mind controlling her into doing his bidding had gone a long way towards convincing her there were people out there who only improved the world by being removed from it.

I had to keep reminding myself this wasn't my Fialux though. No, this was the Fialux who'd fought me. The one who hadn't been happy about all my lessons blaming heroes for all of Starlight City's woes.

This wasn't the Fialux who'd watched with satisfaction as I vaporized Rex Roth after he'd made one desperate last-ditch attempt to control her mind.

This was the Fialux who's repeatedly handed me my ass in a gift-wrapped package that she then dropped off at the local constabulary. Which ended up costing me a small fortune in legal bills. Seriously, my shark of a lawyer bought a new boat with what I paid him while I was trying to defeat Fialux, and he was a man with expensive tastes in boats.

"It was nothing," I said.

"Because it sounded like…"

I cut her off by pulling her head against my shoulder. I ran my hand through her hair. I'd never get tired of doing that.

And if it distracted her from the more murderous side of my megalomania, the more murderous side of my desire to help those closest to me, then all the better.

We were going to have to get around that at some point. Dr. Lana wasn't long for this world, and something told me Fialux wasn't going to be happy about it if she hadn't regained her memory by the time we got to that point.

Not a comforting thought.

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