It was getting late: Brainy predicted Gargamel would be back within half an hour.
"Great, we have a deadline for when our essence gets extracted then," Handy muttered sarcastically. "And on top of that we have a deadline to find an antidote..."
"You don't need to find an antidote," Brainy muttered. "I don't care."
"Hey! You are my brother! No!" Star yelled, looking on the verge of tears. Brainy still looked rather blasé about the whole thing. "And as for you lot it isn't like the extracting thing hurts."
"Yes it does," Papa said, gently. "Look, Gargamel is renowned for lying." Star was clearly wavering in guard journey but Brainy still looked incredibly nonchalant.
"Brainy, why do what he says if he's lying?" Gutsy tried to get through. He didn't take the emotional approach despite how much he wanted to. He had noticed the glasses-wearing Smurf was lacking his usual emotion and he figured something was numbing them. Instead he kept with logical explanations. "If we could bring back your memory at least you would be making your own choices."

Brainy frowned, his shoulders slumping slightly as he tried to figure out if he wanted that or not.
"I don't know..." he mused. "Something is telling me I really don't want to."
"Probably because you'll remember how unimportant you are," Hefty said, scornfully. Gutsy glared daggers at his, very quickly turning into former, friend. "What?"
"If you keep being a smurfing jerk then he isn't going to want to remember!" Gutsy snapped, crossing his arms over his chest as he glowered at Hefty. "He is still somesmurf, even if he has changed! So zip it!" Hefty gaped at Gutsy but actually listened and Brainy was even more lost than ever.
"You said Brainy got caught by Gargamel, right?" Papa asked Star. She nodded. "Didn't you see?"
"No, he made me leave the room," Star admitted, realising now how suspicious that was of him. "And Brainy did look really dizzy after...Can you die from it?"
"If enough is extracted, yes," Gutsy admits.

The door opened and Gargamel stepped in, eyes flashing dangerously.
"I heard you putting false ideas in their heads," he commented, pointing the wand at the cage. He was aware he could be losing control of the situation and wanted a way to keep manipulating the two.
"But what they are saying makes sense!" Star argued. Gargamel noticeably got angrier but was trying to keep it together. He wasn't doing a particularly good job though, to the degree that Brainy used him being distracted to pick up his wand again just in case. Gutsy noticed and felt a subtle relief at last. There was a prominent chance that the brainiac was starting to see sense.
"Well liars often do," Gargamel seethed.
"Well what you said did until they explained so does that make you a liar?" Brainy challenged.
"No," came the short answer. His glare turned on the bookworm. "Remember yet?" A small headshake. "Then I suggest you be quiet." His expression turned crueller. "It isn't like we need you to remember anymore. I have Papa and Smurfette now. It shouldn't take too long to get information out of them."
"They are telling the truth then," Star whispered, betrayal flashing in her yellow eye. "You probably didn't even look for an antidote!"
"Watch your mouth," Gargamel ordered. "Until you are blue you are useless but how hard things are for you depends on how not annoying you are." He smirked at Brainy. "As for you...well the poison you probably used will make you weaker and will get more painful. Now..." He turned on the cage. "How much more extract can I get..."

The blast sent him off his feet, flying him into the wall.

Everysmurf stared at Brainy in shock because they had been pretty unsure whose side he was on. Some blue mist was still coming out of the wand which, when he saw how Star was starting to look dizzy, chucked it to her so she could have the daily drop to avoid death. Gargamel remained unconscious and as soon as Star was done Brainy used the wand again to open the cage.
"You saved us," Papa said in surprise, looking at his former apprentice receiving simply a loose shrug. Star sniffled slightly, tears running down her cheeks and from behind her eye patch. Papa, as empathetic as ever, quickly went over to her and wrapped his arms around her.
"It'll be okay," he told her, gently stroking her hair. "You can come back to the village with us if you want?"
"R-really?" Star stammered, eyes watery. Papa nodded. "But I have done so much wrong. I was Gargamel's! I-"
"So was I," Smurfette reminded her, gently, taking her hands in her own. "So were Vexy and Hackus. Papa is very forgiving and loving."
"So I would have a family?" Everysmurf nodded. Star wiped away her tears, and then glanced towards her brother. "What about Brainy? He didn't do anything wrong! The most he did was turning himself grey but he only joined Gargamel given all the lies."

"Of course he is coming to the village too," Papa replied with a soft smile. "It isn't his fault and besides, we need his memory to come back so we can find an antidote."
"What?!" Hefty protested, glowering. "How can we forgive the smurfing traito-" He was cut off by Gutsy swinging his elbow into his ribs, glaring at him.
"Seriously stop," Gutsy snapped. "You're acting like you want him to die." That shut Hefty up, as did the forming bruise. He looked tempted to elbow the other smurf back but decided against it. Hefty was much stronger than Gutsy but Gutsy was a better fighter.

They eventually got to the village, going to Papa's mushroom from the side to avoid unwanted attention. The other Smurfs were subtly dismissed and Hefty headed straight to the dining room to fill everysmurf in. Star and Brainy sat awkwardly there, both trying to work out what would happen next. Papa got out his cauldron and several ingredients, including tiger lily and royal jelly.
"Now this is very secret," Papa said. "A sacred gift."
"You're trusting me with it?" Star asked, surprised. Papa nodded. He was hoping turning Brainy back to his true blue self would restore his memories. Mainly so he could figure out what the antidote was but also because he was extremely curious on how the brainiac had come up with an anti-smurf formula.

After a few moments two blue specks came out of the cauldron, heading towards Brainy and Star. The lights went into their chests, lifting them slightly into the air. The blue spread much faster than the grey and like a flash of unexpected lightening, the memories went back into Brainy. Memories of isolation, misery and a full reminder of why he wanted to disappear in the first place.
"Do you have your memories back, Brainy?" Papa asked, gently, noticing the flash of something in Brainy's eyes. A small nod. "Including what is poisoning you?" Another nod, Brainy too distracted by the painful memories to properly answer at first. "Can you tell me?" The brainiac hesitated. He gathered that he didn't have much choice but he wasn't entirely sure if he wanted an antidote. Death would be much simpler. Then he glanced at Star, who had been more of a sibling to him than anysmurf else ever had and figured it wouldn't be fair on her.

He listed them, noticing Papa's slight flinch. The eldest Smurf hated the excessive amount of damage the other Smurf had inflicted on himself. It really highlighted Brainy's desperation to leave the village with no memory of it.
"Should be easy enough," Papa said, trying to hide how bad he felt because he didn't want Brainy to feel worse than he evidently did. He gathered the ingredients and before long Brainy's constant headache was gone and there was no trace of dizziness. Star meanwhile had switched her eye patch to cover her yellow eye instead.
"You have heterochromia," Brainy commented in surprise. He had assumed the eye patch was to cover up damage. Star looked nervous. "That's pretty cool."
"Really?" she asked in surprise, fiddling with the ends of her now slightly lighter brown hair, looking uncertain. "Father always said it was freaky and unnatural."
"Really," Brainy said with a small smile, getting one back from his sister.

"Do you think the village are going to be okay with me being here?" she asked, nervously, pulling on a jumper on top of her t-shirt to have more light compared to her darker prior outfit. It was blue with yellow stripes. The one addition made her look much less like one of Gargamel's creations and more like the self she wanted to be.
"I'm sure they'll be fine with you," Brainy replied, staring out of the window. He was dreading seeing the rest of the village because he knew most of them would probably hate him even more now. He had tried to make things better but now he was back he was pretty sure that he had only made things worse.

My drawing of the Smurf version of Star