Of course she had come back to look for him. She had slowly been making her way here for a while, the idea coming to her the last time she was in the caves. His absence in her life did not go unnoticed - though it took her a little while to realize she wasn’t so much angry as she was sad. Eventually she would find him again, she had faith, but it was finding it in herself to actually go looking that was the problem. In the end, how could she not go looking for him. He was her best friend, it didn’t matter how much he had hurt her. She needed to know whether he was alright. Or, at least, more right than he had been the last time they spoke.

She wished she had asked someone to come with her as soon as she reached the heart and saw that entrance. Hemlock hooted softly to her, a note of encouragement and sadness - not quite understanding his bonded’s mood or the situation that had led them here. He understood enough to not stray too far, to know that he was needed with her - and so he stayed perched upon her head, brushing her ears softly with his wings to soothe her every time she stopped and paced and debated whether today was the day or not.

In the end, it was. She had no idea where she found the strength, but she did find it somewhere to go back into those caves. Funny how it did not seem like a big deal when she had been here with Resplendence, Kahlua and Dragomir. They seemed so much… darker without the glow of Kahlua’s smile and the soft voice of her fellow doctor. This time they felt the same as they had when everyone was living here, except instead of bodies crowding around her there were ghosts and memories clinging to her.

Her pace quickened, fear of those memories pushing her forward - not realizing that the very memory that was haunting her, the memory that had been stolen, had taken place in a cave very much like this. Moving as quickly as she dared through the caverns she found her way to the room with the plants. Maybe there if there were ghosts, they would be of Lena and Imogen. They would be of happier times and of life and the earth.

Wouldn’t you know it, a ghost was there waiting for her but not the one she was expecting. Emerald eyes widened in surprise (despite the fact that he was the reason she was here) and she put the breaks on - skidding on the soft ground and tearing up mosses as she brought herself up short. Her breath escaped her all at once, bringing forth his name without any thought. “Mikey---” No, not anymore. She hadn’t referred to him as Mikey in some time. So she tried again, still feeling short of breath - though whether it was from her short run or from her discovery she couldn’t say. “Miykael.” It took so much for her to stand still, to not rush forward and look him over, to prod and poke every inch and see where the damage was. If she got him back to the Edge she could heal him... But somewhere in her soft heart she found rock that kept her anchored in her spot. Rock where the words he spat at her were written in blood, unwashed by tears because she just couldn’t bring herself to cry.

What was there to say to him? No, there was too much. There was no need to ask him if he remembered what happened. Alysanne had agonized over his actions, looking for signs, and she knew the Mikey she loved would have come and found her after he was cured. If he had no memory of that day at the mouth of these caves, he would have come home. Staying down here, staying away from her, could only mean that he remembered.

For a brief moment, seeing him in this state, she could understand the desire to take away the painful memories. If only that wasn't a sickening violation of the mind. Where was that anger she had felt, however briefly? Where was it to fuel a fire and launch them past this moment? There was only sadness in those emerald eyes now, her heart breaking all over again back in his presence.

All of the questions she had would not come to her now. All she could manage to croak out was “You’re alive.” in perhaps the best imitation of ‘standoff-ish’ that she would ever accomplish.