He remembers now. The realization hits like a bolt of lightning, violent and blinding.

Memories surge back all at once: the love, the passion, the certainty of you. You were his, he was yours and you always had been. You were the love of his life and his father despised that fact.

The Supreme Commander believed you made him weak, when in truth, you had always been his strength.

Every time his father tore you away, every time your memory was stripped from him, something vital went missing. A piece of his heart. A piece of his soul.

Using his power within the Reestablishment, his father erased their memories again and again, rewriting reality to keep them apart. They found their way back to each other every single time.

*This time, only his memories have been restored.(

Sonya and Sara, healers, and friends, found a way to return what had been stolen from him without his knowledge. Now that he remembers, he knows what must be done next.

He needs you to remember too, but he can’t rush it. He can’t demand it. Trust has to come first and that will be difficult.

Right now, you and he fight constantly. You believed you couldn’t stand each other. The thought makes his chest ache.

Following instinct, he finds you in the training facility. You’re striking a punching bag, pouring the weight of your day into every blow. Even like this, angry and focused, you’re breathtaking.

He approaches carefully, reminding himself to be patient. “Geez,” he says lightly, “what did that punching bag ever do to you?”