What may have happened if when Dory heard Mr. Ray talk about the undertow at the beginning of the movie, she hadn't been swept up by the others rays? She never would have had that memory of her parents yelling to her as she was swept out of the aquarium as a little fish. She wouldn't have remembered everything the way she did! Here's my take on how that could have gone! Hope you enjoy!

"Now, class, what do we have to be careful of?" Mr. Ray asked. Immediately the school of young fish responded almost in unison.

"The undertow!"

"That's right!" Dory stated enthusiastically. "The under-" she broke off, muttering. "The undertow.." Confused at why she suddenly had this overwhelming feeling of déjà vu, she turned away to watch the sea grass swaying in the current. She had to be careful of the undertow. Where had she heard that before?

"And I think I hear mine now!" Mr. Ray's booming voice suddenly broke into her thoughts. High above the school group, a mass of stingrays nearly identical to the schoolteacher were gliding through the water. Little eddies surrounded the entire group, showing just how powerful those animals' wings were. The rays were singing their migration song as they swam along.

Remembering Mr. Ray's warning of the undertow, Dory backed away from the grassy edge she'd been swimming on. The stingrays got closer and closer, until finally the lead stingray passed them by, leading the hundreds of other rays. Even several feet away from the ledge, Dory felt the pull of the current, and shuddered. She'd already known how powerful the ocean's current could be, but it still made her nervous.

"Once I was dragged along by an undertow." Dory whispered to Nemo, who was beside her. "I tried to fight it, and get back to.." Dory trailed off. Get back to where? What had she been going to say? Focusing on Nemo again, she saw that he'd picked up on her sudden lack of memory. He raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. Slightly confused, Dory turned back to watching the stingray migration.

When the last stingray was far in the distance, Mr. Ray rounded up his class.

"Alright kids, time to go back to the reef." His words were met with a few quiet groans, but every young fish, and Dory, swam onto Mr. Ray's back so they could return to home.

While the rest of class sang about various marine species and their proper names, Dory racked her brain, trying to remember what she had suddenly seen in her mind's eye during the stingrays' journey. It had been important, but now she couldn't even remember what had triggered the memory.

By the time Mr. Ray set down in a sandy clearing within the coral reef, Dory was onto thinking about other things. Absentmindedly she began to wander, swimming through the reef. Everything seemed so unfamiliar now, despite her having seen these coral formations nearly everyday since... well, she couldn't remember a time when she hadn't been surrounded by coral. Either way, she felt completely lost.

"Dory?" The blue tang turned and saw one of her two best friends hovering nearby.

"Marlin!" She gasped. "I'm glad you're here! Nothing looks the same anymore, and I got lost, and..." The clownfish suddenly looked concerned.

"Nemo told me you.. remembered something. During the stingray migration." He stopped for a second. "Any idea what that was?"

"The stingray migration? Oh, yeah. That was pretty amazing, you should've been there." Dory started. "There must've been hundreds of them, and they a-"

"Dory," Marlin gently interrupted. "Did you remember something else? Nemo said that you were mentioning something about an undertow, and you just trailed off." Marlin saw the blank look on his friend's face and knew she had no clue what he was talking about.

"Did that really happen? I feel like I would remember if I had remembered something, you know?" Dory smiled slightly. Marlin shook his head.

"Yeah. Right." He muttered. "Come on, Dory. I don't want you actually getting lost out here."

"Ooh! Good idea!" Dory exclaimed happily before swimming after Marlin.

"Ow!" Dory snapped awake. She'd somehow managed to whack her forehead on the roof of her coral dugout. Now wide awake, she swam slowly out of her little cave. She looked around. It was the middle of the night, and she looked up to see bright moonlight cutting through the indigo waters of the reef. Nothing seemed to be wrong, and Dory wondered why she was feeling so off. A lot of things had felt off lately, actually. The more she thought about it, the harder it was to figure out what. She'd never had a great memory, she knew that much, but was her memory getting worse? Frowning, Dory swam back into her coral cave and tried to fall asleep again.

Gradually Dory's eyelids drooped more and more. But as she drifted into half consciousness, she began to dream, and suddenly she was bombarded with a series of rapid fire images and noises. Crying out in shock, she jolted awake. The things she'd seen were all so familiar, but she couldn't remember why. With wide eyes, she spun around, trying to calm herself down. Why was she out of her cave again?

"Dory?" A quiet voice asked, and she whipped around to see Nemo swimming slowly towards her, blinking rapidly.

"Oh, I'm sorry I woke you up." Dory fretted. "You can go back to sleep, nothing's.. wrong." Dory's mind was still on the images she'd seen as she'd been trying to fall asleep.

"But you sounded like.. you were scared, or hurt, or something." Nemo said, unease in his amber eyes.

"No, it was nothing like that.. at least I don't think it was." Dory told the young clownfish, already forgetting what had caused her to wake up. "I think I'll just go back to sleep now. Good night, Nemo!" Dory said, turning back to her cave yet again. She settled comfortably on the floor and watched Nemo re-enter his own home. Dory shut her eyes for a few moments, and shifted around. A few moments later, her eyes snapped open and she shifted again. And again. Finally Dory gave up on trying to sleep, settling for resting and watching the sea around her gradually brighten as the sun rose. When the fish in the surrounding area began to wake and go about their daily lives, she shot out of her shelter and over to the nearby anemone where Marlin and Nemo lived.

"Hey, Marlin! Nemo!" She yelled. "Come on, we've gotta go to school!" She tried to nose her way into the anemone, but instead was repeatedly stung by its tendrils. "Ow ow ow ow ow!"

"Dory!" Marlin yelled, waking up and pushing her backwards, out of harm's way. "The sun is barely up, you know."

"Yeah, but everyone else is awake! Look!" Marlin looked around the blue tang to see that several other fish were in fact awake.

"Oh. Alright then. I'm sorry." Marlin said, feeling guilty over snapping at his friend. "Nemo, come on."

A few moments later, the three fish were swimming towards Mr. Ray's school of fish. Marlin was bidding goodbye to his son, who was paying no attention whatsoever to his father. Dory looked around at all the fish going in several different directions. Everything was so chaotic here! Fish surrounded her, all going about their lives, almost like... like.. in an aquarium.

"An aquarium!" She gasped, touching her forehead with her pectoral fins. "That's important! It's got to be!" She began racking her brain, trying to finish her train of thought. Come on! I'm so close!

"Dory? What's going on?" Someone asked behind her. Dory had been so deep in thought that she was badly startled, and she whipped around before realizing it was only Marlin, again. Despite the scare, she had retained the one crucial piece of a memory that had randomly come to her.

"I remembered something!" She yelled. Fish were beginning to stare at the pair, but it didn't matter. "I used to live in an aquarium!.. I think." She was amazed she could recall what she'd been thinking about.

"An aquarium?" Marlin asked, suspicion giving an edge to his voice. Something like fear or apprehension danced in his eyes.

"Definitely! There was this huge .. round container full of fish. I lived there in a little piece of coral, with J..." Dory trailed off and cried out in frustration. Her memory had to go and reset itself at the most inopportune times. "I don't understand why I feel this way, or what's going on. I'm sorry." She said, her confidence plummeting and her voice deflated. "I.." she looked up at Marlin. He looked crushed.

"Dory... I really wish there were some way I could.. could help you. If there's anything I can do, please let me know." He said softly and sincerely. It had to be hurting him, and Nemo too, for that matter, to see her distraught like this. Dory nodded, smiling a little. At least Marlin and Nemo would always be with her.

"I will. Thanks, Marlin." She furrowed her brow again, muttering about an aquarium. "Can't forget, can't forget.." as she swam off. Behind her, Marlin swam after her for a few seconds before halting, wondering if he should follow Dory. She had a tendency to wander, and if she weren't focused on her surroundings it would be even worse. Making up his mind, Marlin slowly followed in her wake, ducking around and under large coral formations to keep out of sight. Dory didn't take any notice, continually swimming and muttering things. Finally she paused abruptly, staring out into the open ocean to her right. Marlin silently propelled himself backwards, staying hidden.

Dory stared out into the blue for a long time, until that blue began to deepen and the ocean around her became dusky with the fading light. She'd somewhat forgotten again about her almost-breakthrough, but there was still an annoying nagging thought that she was forgetting something.. which she was, of course.

That night, Dory dreamt again of old memories, buried deep. One phrase that seemed to echo again and again through her head was a somewhat ironic one- "We'll never forget you, Dory". Maybe whoever "they" was might not have forgotten her, but she sure had them.

"Please, can you help me?" The voice of a young fish could suddenly be heard through the turmoil in Dory's mind. "I need to find my parents." The young fish cried. "Their names are-"

"Welcome to the Marine Life Institute, jewel of Morro Bay, California!" A new voice interrupted. "Our mission is rescue, rehabilitation, and re-" The voice in the dream broke off abruptly as Dory snapped awake. The dream was fading fast, but it didn't matter. Dory remembered, clear as day, five words that would change the course of her life forever.

"Jewel of Morro Bay, California!"

From here on, the story would pretty much progress as it did in the movie. Dory would tell Marlin and Nemo the location she'd remembered, she would have a sudden flash of images and sounds that revealed her family to her, and then she'd take off, trying to get to California. Marlin would (grudgingly) agree to take her and Nemo to the EAC, where they'd catch a ride on a new current to California with the turtles, and so on and so forth.

Thank you guys for reading, I hope you enjoyed this one-shot, because I really enjoy writing stories such as this. If you have any constructive criticism, please don't hesitate to comment on it. I'd like to improve as a writer! Thank you guys, I'll see you (probably) next Friday with a new one-shot, entitled All Uphill From Here!