I was very, very confused when I regained consciousness. Or, at least I thought I was conscious. Everything was dark, and I couldn't see at all, but I could smell something familiar, and hear someone breathing. I tried to look around, seeing if I could find whoever was near me, but I had no such luck. 

"Gill?" I heard a familiar voice, Steven's voice, ask me loud and clear. It irritated me that I couldn't see him. I was confused, and scared, especially considering the fact that the last thing I remembered was using my powers to heal April, who looked close to death, as the rest of my friends were passing out, bleeding profusely, and Aristatch was walking away. As far as I knew, I was dead, and that's how it felt too. 

"Gill? Are you awake?" I heard Steven ask me, and I got even more frustrated. I wanted to see him, and have proof that I was alive. I wanted to know that my friends were safe too, or that, if I was alive now, that I had never died to begin with. I wanted to see Steven, and make sure that he was ok too, and it angered me beyond belief that I could hear him, but I couldn't see him. 

"Steven?" I called out, turning around and trying to find Steven. 

"Gill? Come one, you're ok." Steven's voice told me. I wanted to see him. I wanted to see Steven, and tell him that I thought I was ok, and ask him if I was dead. I wanted Steven. I wanted my dad. 

"Steven?" I called out again. I couldn't find him, and that was scaring me even more. "Steven?"

"I'm right here. You're ok."

"Steven? I can't see you. Steven? Dad?"

"I'm right here." I was able to feel a hand grab onto one of my hands, and another one on my face, cupping my cheek gently. That's when I suddenly realised that my eyes were closed, and I was laying in my bed at home. All I had to do was open my eyes, and I saw that Steven and Mike were both looking down at me with mixtures of concern and happiness on both of their faces. 

"What happened?" I asked, reaching a hand out to both Mike and Steven. 

"You passed out. You've been asleep for about a day." Steven told me. 

"Is everyone else ok?"

"Yeah. Everyone is fine now. You guys are all ok." 

"Thank goodness." I sighed in relief before pushing myself up until I was sitting on the edge of the bed. Mike said he was going to go let the others know that I was awake and alright, and almost as soon as he was gone, Steven pulled me into a near bone crushing hug, which I was more than happy to return. 

"I'm really glad that you're ok." Steven told me quietly. 

"I am too. I love you Dad." I told Steven, still nervous about how he was going to respond. 

"I love you too kid." Steven responded, placing a gently kiss on the top of my head. 

***

I wanted, almost instantly, to talk about Aristatch, and what we could do to stop her. She was completely, and utterly determined to kill me, and probably destroy the world while she was at it, solely to get back at the sun. Which was another thing I wanted to talk about right away. Aristatch kept claiming that she wanted to kill me, because the sun, and woman who destroyed her planet, was my mother. None of that seemed at all possible to me, specially the part where the sun was my mother. 

However, I also considered the fact that, before it happened to me, I never thought it would be possible for me to have super powers, and until she crash landed, I never thought earth would have an alien running around on it, trying to kill people. So, even though I was pretty sure that it was impossible, or at least highly unlikely for the sun to be my mother, I accepted that I could be wrong. 

Unfortunately, no one else wanted to talk about Aristatch yet. They kept saying that they just wanted to take a moment to appreciate the fact that we were all ok. I could respect that, because I was also really thankful that we were all ok, but I was getting more and more irritated with getting told to wait, because Aristatch was still out there, and she still needed to be stopped. 

I finally snapped one morning while we were all gathered for breakfast, which Warren had made for everyone. While people were cooking, and bustling around, I was desperately trying to talk to Steven about what I thought we should do about Aristatch, but he wasn't listening, and kept trying to tell me to not worry about Aristatch right then. Steven pushed me gently into my seat at the table, and placed my food in front of me. 

"All I'm saying is that we're all fine, and Aristatch is still out there, do-" I began, only to be cut off my Steven, who was giving me a stern look. 

"That's enough Gill. Eat your food." Steven told me. 

"I don't want to eat my food, I want to go get Aristatch!" I barked, causing the room to go silent, and me to feel bad almost instantly. I probably shouldn't have yelled, and seeing Steven look so startled, and a bit upset, made me feel pretty horrible. 

"I'm sorry." I said softly, looking down at the table. "I shouldn't have yelled. I'm - I'm going to go." Before anyone got the chance to say anything else, I got up and left, heading to my room where I shut and locked the door.

I sat there in my room for a while before making a decision that I knew was bad, even while I was making it. I knew I was going to regret my choice, and that people were going to be upset with me, in the event that I lived long enough for people to be mad at me, but I did what I knew I had to do nonetheless. I changed into my Sunshine suit, unlocked my bedroom door so that people could come in, and climbed out my bedroom window, beginning my search for Aristatch. 

***

I eventually found her walking down a street, people hurrying to get out of her way. I managed to catch up to her, walking ahead of her and stopping her in her tracks. For a moment, Aristatch and I just kind of stared at each other, but then she looked around suspiciously before her eyes landed on me again. 

"Where are the others?" Aristatch asked in her scratchy voice. 

"They're not here. It's just me." I responded. 

"Why?"

"I wanted to talk."

"About what?"

"I want to know what happened. I don't understand how the sun could be my mother, but I do understand that you're upset. I want to help you."

"You can't help me. No one can. The only thing that will bring justice to me and my home is to kill you."

"That's not going to bring your home, or your family back though. That's just gonna leave the universe with less even less people." 

"Good." Aristatch took a few steps forward, and crouched down to my level. Again, we just kind of stood there in silence and stared at each other. Then, out of nowhere, I felt myself be yanked back, and Ty, Ben, and April were all standing in between Aristatch and I in their suits, ready to fight. 

"What the hell were you thinking?!" I heard Steven yell angrily from behind me, still holding tightly onto me. 

"I was just talking to her. She didn't do anything." I responded, wiggling free of Steven's hold and lunging forward to put myself between Aristatch and the rest of Light Force. "She didn't even try to hurt me."

"She's here to kill you, Gill. She admitted that herself, and tried to kill us all before." Ty argued. 

"If she actually wanted to kill me, she would have done it when she had the chance. We were all unconscious and unable to get back up the last time that we fought, but she just walked away." 

"I don't care. You are out of your goddamn mind if you think that we're all just gonna stand here, and watch you try to reason with someone who wants to rip you to shreds. We have to stop her before she stops us." Ty pulled his batons off of his back, and I responded by immediately tackling him to the side, making sure I didn't land on top of him to avoid causing him any injuries. 

"What the fuck are you doing?" Ty asked angrily as he sat up. 

"Leave her alone. She didn't do anything. We don't need to fight right now, so we can just let her go." I responded, Aristatch took that as her cue to leave, so she turned around and ran down the street and away from us. 

***

Everyone was incredibly mad at me, which was understandable all things considered. The second we got home, I stormed back up to my room and locked the door again. I changed out of my suit, and laid in bed with my back to the door, hoping to just ignore anyone who came by with hopes of talking to me. I understood that sneaking out to go talk to an alien who came to earth for no reason other than to kill me was not a very good idea. However, I had tried to talk to everyone else about what we should do, and I just kept getting told to be quiet and let it go. Me being angry with everyone else probably wasn't justified, but I was angry anyway. 

There was a knock on my door, and I heard the door knob jiggle as whoever was out there tried to get in, but I made no move to get up. Whoever was out there knocked on the door again, but harder and more insistently, though I still made no move to go answer the door. 

"Gill, you better open this door or so help me god, I will break this door down with my batons." I heard Ty demand, his voice muffled by the door. I rolled my eyes and sighed, wanting to stay in bed and just ignore Ty, but I knew that he most certainly would break the doorknob off with one of his batons and force the door open if I didn't answer it myself. So, I got out of bed, and opened the door. 

"What do you want?" I asked in a not-very-nice tone. 

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Ty demanded harshly, stepping into my room and slamming the door shut behind him. "You could have gotten yourself killed, and none of us would have known about it for a long time, because we thought that you were just hiding in here because you wanted your space."

"I was fine. I wouldn't have gone looking for Aristatch by myself if I thought I would be able to keep myself alive if she did attack." 

"Why were you going after her alone in the first place?"

"Because I tried to talk to all of you guys about going after her, but I kept getting told to be quiet! We can't just let an alien wander around the city! She could get hurt, or hurt someone else!"

"You should have just waited! You shouldn't have gone after her!" 

"Someone had to do something!" 

"Not yet, Gill! You're a dumbass!" Ty shoved me hard on the last word, causing me to fall back on my rear. Ty then left, slamming the door behind him again, and I just sat on the ground panicking a little. 

It had been a long time since I had a panic attack, even a mild one, over everything that had happened when Peter had me. My recovery had been going really well, and there was still some progress to be made, but I had made monumental strides on my own. However, Ty yelling and cursing at me while shoving me down on the ground was enough to push me over the edge into a panicked state. 

I sobbed and whimpered, not daring to get up off the floor, while covering my ears or clawing at my skin in and attempt to find any sort of relief from the fear. I had eventually cried myself into exhaustion, and fell asleep on the floor, curled in a tight ball. That's exactly how Mike found me when he came into my room later with the intention of trying to talk to me and see if I was alright, though it was clear I wasn't. 

Mike immediately took me into his arms, cradling me to his chest as he climbed onto the bed with me so he could hold me against him more comfortably. Mike rubbed my back soothingly, kissed my head, and whispered nice things to me until he was able to get me to calm down enough to relax against him and fall asleep once again. Before he left, Mike called Button into the room, and had him jump up on the bed and keep me company so that I wasn't alone while I slept, or when I woke up. 

Mike was the best.