When I Don't Remember You

Dr. Two Brains slowly pushed open the door to his henchmen's room, and was relieved to hear the sound of their soft snores emanating from the darkness. The pair of them slept like rocks; a hurricane could pass straight over the warehouse roof and neither one of them would be the wiser. As he pulled their door shut once more, the doctor was certain he would return from his late-night expedition long before they reawakened.

He checked again to make sure he had his keys and ray gun with him, as there was no point in going out without them. He stifled a yawn as he headed for the door; and it suddenly occurred to him if it might be better to put it off for another night. Dr. Two Brains pondered this idea for a few seconds, but then realized he had to get it done eventually and it might as well be tonight. He put a dark jacket on over his white lab coat and snuck out of his lair with near-silent footsteps. Once outside, he could feel the frigid air chilling him to the very bone. It was easily one of the coldest winters Fair City had ever had, and Dr. Two Brains began to find himself anticipating spring more fervently than ever before.

He had not been on many cheese-heists of late, nor had he been working on any inventions until the new materials he ordered arrived. These circumstances unfortunately led him to boredom, and with boredom he gradually began to enter those long-suppressed memories, locked in the darkest corners of his mind. It was in these forbidden areas, these places of pain and sorrow, places the mouse brain forbade him to dwell, that such a bizarre notion had begun to take form in the doctor's mind. While he, Dr. Two Brains, might be able to force himself to ignore such uncomfortably familiar memories of the past, there were others, certainly, whose lives had been too affected by the change to let them go. The doctor could not help but imagine all the suffering he might have brought on those people by what he had done. Those actions long ago had not been his fault entirely, perhaps, but they still burdened his mind, and awoke in him the deepest senses of horrid guilt and shame. It was because of that fateful experiment that he was out in the freezing cold darkness, rather than in his bed, snuggled beneath warm blankets; and because of that incident he should even be worrying about this matter at all. It was because of his own self that he could not forget.

He brushed those thoughts from his mind. Soon enough, Two Brains would cast away those faded and forgotten memories, and he would no longer have to worry about hurting anyone. Even though the cold was biting, his cheeks surely reddened from the cold and his teeth chattering, the doctor resolutely placed one foot in front of the other. He was determined to get this over with, and he did not care what he had to endure to accomplish it.

He could hear the little voice in his head, not Squeaky's, but the other one, the one he barely ever heard. As hard as he tried to block it out, small portions of his dialogue still managed to permeate his defenses. From what the doctor was forced to listen to, he could tell the other half of himself was desperately begging him not to do this. It was rare for him to agree with his past self on anything, especially on such an intimate subject, so it was no surprise to him Steven disapproved of what Two Brains was doing. Yet he, Dr. Two Brains, was certain he was making the best decision, and he knew Steven didn't have the power to stop him anymore. He could not see anything wrong with his plan, and he was a criminal besides. It no longer mattered if he did the right thing or not.

Doctor Two Brains walked for a little under an hour in the freezing cold, with only the streetlamps and the crescent moon to light his way. He had been almost certain he would get somewhat lost, but his destination seemed to have stuck in his mind like few things had, and eventually he found himself standing on the doorstep of 1337 _ Street. With an oddly sinking feeling in his chest, he pulled out the key and unlocked the door.

It slid open without a sound, and Two Brains slipped into the house quietly. The moment he closed the door behind him, he was almost overwhelmed by the sights and smells around him. There were the books that lined each bookshelf, the electric stove in the kitchen, the little corner by the fireplace, the TV with its dusty screen, the handsome dining room table, the soft brown couch, the blue-grey carpeting….and the scent of the room, too, that faint smell of paper mixed with the mint in the tea every morning…..Two Brains slowly walked over to the fireplace, as though in a dream, and stared at the photographs on the shelf above. There was a little boy sitting on a bench with dark brown hair hugging a woman who looked just like him, and then the same boy, a little older, smiling with a chocolate birthday cake in front of him, his cheeks stuffed full….and a young woman with strawberry-blonde hair standing next to a guy several years younger than she, both making silly faces at one another-sister and brother. All the photos were in simple, beautiful silver frames that made their images appear all the more radiant. For a few moments, the doctor simply stared at them, sensing a strange emptiness inside of him he had almost forgotten.

He heard soft voices coming from upstairs, and his heart skipped a beat. How could they still be awake? He checked his watch; it read 11:50. He had planned his little visit late at night since it would be more effective if his targets were asleep, but he could definitely hear two voices talking to one another: one female, one male.

"Simon, what do you think we should do about this?"

"That's just it, Marcy. I don't really think there's anything we can do."

Almost unconsciously, Dr. Two Brains began to make his way up the stairs, following the sound of those voices that made his skin go even colder. The voices he had not heard for nearly three months….

"But isn't there some way we could talk to him, find out what his new cell phone number is? Maybe if we could just persuade him to stop doing all these awful things-"

"You heard what the police said, honey. There's no guarantee he'll ever go back to normal again. They're not even completely sure what went wrong."
Marcy gave a faint sniffle. "Poor Steven….I just can't understand why he would do something like this to himself. He was always so kind and loving…..doesn't he realize he's breaking my heart by acting this way? Doesn't he even realize what he's doing is wrong?"

Two Brains could hear the man say, "I know, honey, I miss him too. I wish there was some way I could fix this…"

She gave a soft sigh of despair. "He truly was someone special….graduated from high school at twelve, became Fair City's youngest doctor in history. He had so many friends, so many hopes and opportunities. And now…." She began to cry, softly at first, then harder and harder. "Now he's gone forever."

Dr. Two Brains was suddenly finding it rather difficult to breathe. He closed his eyes and gave a shaky breath, his gloved hands covering his pale face. He couldn't understand why he was feeling this way…...

"What are we going to do without him, Simon? How can we possibly go on with our lives knowing that our son no longer loves us? Now he's become evil and-and insane and there's no way for us to bring him back."

Simon Boxleitner had remained composed until this moment, when the doctor could finally hear his voice break. "I don't know, honey, I really don't."

There was a heavy silence in the air. Dr. Two Brains had crossed the hall and stood in front of his parents'-Steven's parents'-room. Part of him knew he had to do what he was about to do. There was no escaping that fact. But whenever he tried to imagine himself performing the act, he found he could not bear to think of it. The strangest part was, Squeaky was not causing the horrible feeling within himself, as the mouse felt complete indifference to the matter. The pain was coming from deep inside, from the most beautiful and the most human part of his soul.

Barely even aware of his actions, he entered, the door open just wide enough for him to slide in. There he saw them sitting up on bed, she in her purple nightgown, he in his red plaid pajamas. They were facing the wall, with their backs to him, crying softly together. She laid her head on his shoulder, and suddenly Dr. Two Brains found himself longing to hold his mother, to wipe her tears away and tell her everything was alright, even though it wasn't. He lifted his arms to her, and they hung in the air for a few seconds before he composed himself and put them down again.

Please don't do this, Steven suddenly pleaded to him. Please….

Dr. Two Brains took a deep breath. His heart pounded as he reached into his lab coat and pulled out the ray gun. He lifted it up and aimed for them both.

"Goodbye," he whispered softly, and then upon finding himself unable to watch, turned his head away and pulled the trigger.

Bright beams of green light shot out from the device, striking both of them in the back of their heads. They remained frozen in their places, their faces (though the doctor could not see them) completely expressionless. For a few moments, there was no sound or movement. Then the light began to slowly fade away, and the doctor opened his eyes. They were still at first, then began to stir, as though from a deep slumber. Dr. Two Brains quickly ran out of the room, and into the hallway, listening closely.

"Darling?" Marceline asked her husband, after a pause.

"Yes, dear?"

"What were we talking about before now?"

He seemed rather puzzled when he spoke again. "I don't quite remember. Were we talking about the yard sale we're having next week? I'm pretty sure that's it."

There was a pause while she contemplated. "No, I don't think that's what it was. Goodness, darling, it's almost past midnight, and I'm exhausted." She gave a soft yawn. "I'm going to sleep now, okay?"

"Sure, I'll see you in the morning. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." He gave a soft chuckle. "Good night, Marcy."

"Good night, Simon. Sleep well."

They spoke no more.

Dr. Two Brains took a deep breath and slowly walked across the hall, careful not to make a sound. His thoughts were all in a whirl, strange and disoriented. He went down the stairs, entered the living room, and approached the mantle with those smiling faces in the silver frames. He glanced at each one longingly, the emptiness inside nearly threatening to consume him. With trembling fingers, he carefully took all seven of the frames with pictures of Steven in them off the mantle. He hid them, one by one, in the numerous pockets of his lab coat, and could feel their weight, their coldness pressing into him. He took one last look around the living room before departing, knowing he would never be welcome there ever again. He closed the door behind him, and he pulled out the keys which he had used a mere twenty minutes ago. Dr. Two Brains locked the door, and then, after seeing the sidewalks and streets completely deserted, he spun around and threw those keys with all of his might. They landed with a soft jingle in the branches of a nearby magnolia tree. He then faced the direction he had came and moved with quick footsteps in the direction of his warehouse.

How strange to pass only twenty minutes of your life and become a completely different person afterwards. He had entered the house as the remnants of Steven Boxleitner; he emerged as Doctor Two Brains, with the existence of his past self completely erased from his own parents' would no longer recognize him as their son, even if Steven should ever come back. Once someone has had their memories stolen from them, they will be forgotten permanently. They would continue to live their lives, with their normal jobs and pleasures and excitements, and would not even be aware of what he had done or what they had lost.

But none of that matters, he told himself firmly. I did what I had to do. They'll be much happier without having me in their lives.

As he made his way home, he continued to assuage his conscience with words of logic. This way Steven's parents would not have to live in sorrow; had they known what he had so considerately done did for them they most likely would have thanked him. They would go their separate paths from him; he was no longer their responsibility, and they no longer his.

It was not until Dr. Two Brains had reached the warehouse that he began to hear the soft sobbing. Steven had been crying since he'd erased their parents' memories, but Two Brains had been too caught up in his own thoughts to hear it. The tiny little corner of his mind that was Steven was still locked inside his cage, yet he was sitting down and hugging his knees to his chest, weeping over the loss of his parents. Had he still been in control of his body, he truly would have been crying, but in his pitifully reduced state of being, he could not truly shed tears. Steven was now only a mental construct, locked away deep inside where no one could ever rescue him. Dr. Two Brains pretended not to notice.

He opened the door, walked in, and hung his coat up in the closet. Trying to ignore the exhaustion that was quickly befalling him, he lumbered his way to his bedroom, kicked off his shoes and placed the amnesia ray on his bedside table. The doctor did not bother to take off his labcoat before collapsing onto his bed. He laid there, on his back, for nearly half an hour, staring at the dark grey ceiling without truly seeing it, his mind in a haze.

His parents were gone because of him.

Of course, he would still think about them from time to time. He would wonder about their typical pastimes, the meals they would eat, how their jobs were doing, the neighborhood friends they would have over, the conversations they would have together. And perhaps, once or twice, he might miss them, just a little. It was only natural, after all, to feel a little familial connection to one's own parents. Even if your parents never saw you again, and no longer recognized you as their own, and never remembered all those times you had together, they were still your parents.

Dr. Two Brains reached into his lab coat and pulled out the pictures. He looked over each one carefully for a while, then got out of bed and walked up to the bookshelf on the other side of the room. After clearing a space, he set six of the pictures down side by side, filling up an entire row. The moonlight shining through the window cast silver light on their faces. Dr. Two Brains took the final picture and held it lovingly in his arms. It showed Steven at seventeen, celebrating his graduation from college, in a group photo with his father, mother, sister, and niece, all grinning wide. He was holding his mother in a tight embrace, she in turn was tousling his hair. Such a moment of pure happiness and love cannot be expressed in words; such memories inside him could not be forgotten.

Dr. Two Brains lay down in bed and held the photograph out in front of him. For the first time that night, he smiled. "You don't have to worry about me anymore," he whispered. "I will remember you."

I hope you guys enjoyed this fanfic. I went through so many drafts and edits and re-writes of this, but it's finally done and I'm proud of how it turned out.

I'm not going to say that Dr. Two Brains' actions in this story were morally or logically the right thing to do, but the point I most wanted to stress in this fanfic is that Dr. Two Brains is doing this for his parents. He's doing it because he can tell how badly he's hurt them, and since he can't fix the situation, he removes their memories so they will no longer suffer because of his actions. Since most of the time (on the show) he doesn't seem to care much about anyone else's feelings, I thought it might be interesting to show the more compassionate side to him in this story.

It was difficult for me to write Steven into the events without making the story feel unnatural. And I usually prefer not to include OCs in my stories, but it was necessary for this one.

I got into the show Adventure Time through Simon Petrikov/The Ice King, after reading about how similar his backstory is to Steven/Dr. Two Brains's. (Both characters are voiced by the same guy, too, what are the odds of that!) Simon used to be friends with a girl named Marcy before turning into the Ice King, so I named Steven's parents after the two of them. The title is from the last line of the Adventure Time song "I Remember You" from the episode of the same name. 'Please forgive me for whatever I do/ When I don't remember you.'

The number seven is woven into the story several times. It is the last digit of Mr. and Mrs. Boxleitner's address, and it is the number of photographs they own with Steven in them. Dr. Two Brains describes seven visual aspects of the room before mentioning the scent. Simon and Marcy together speak seven lines of dialogue after having their memories erased. Steven was seventeen in the last photo. And the time 11:50 equates to 1+1+5+0=7. Some of these were intentional; others, pure coincidence. I'll leave it up to you to decide which ones are which.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you will fave and review.

Wordgirl belongs to PBSKids Go. Adventure Time belongs to Cartoon Network. Marcy and Simon Boxleitner were created by me.