Author's note: I'm really enjoying the reviews that you guys are giving me! Thank you! And a special thank you to whomever it was that gave me the get well message! My knee's just about fully recovered!

It's great seeing some of the guesses as to whom you guys think is the mystery person stalking everyone. Well, now's your chance to find out who it was! Were you right? We shall see... *grins*


Chapter 7 - Memories

The blizzard had stopped before dusk, so both teams were given the okay to fight the next day. The BLU team was back to their usual morning routine and preparations for the day's fight. As soon as the countdown ended, the team rushed out onto the battlefield and quickly made their way to the capture point. They made sure they were the first ones there before the control point was enabled. Once the RED team was in their sights, they began their barrage of bullets, fire and explosives. RED retaliated with their own set of ammunition, and, soon, about half of the members of each team were sent back to their respective respawn rooms.

BLU's Scout had just been killed by RED's ubercharged Heavy and respawned in his own base. He equipped his Sandman in his right hand and his baseball in his left, then left the room. He didn't make it far down the hall when he felt a hand grab his shoulder from behind. Startled, Scout spun around to smack his attacker in the head with his bat, but it connected with a gloved hand grabbing it, its owner temporarily losing his balance.

"Woah! Easy, Danny!" cried out RED's Spy. Scout relaxed slightly.

"Dad?" he asked. Spy simply smiled. He cringed when Scout threw his ball at him as hard as he could. "Don't do that! You scared the bejeesus out of me!"

"Sorry about that." Spy picked up the ball he was attacked with and inspected it carefully, a look of amazement in his face. "Isn't this the home run ball I caught for you from that Red Sox game when you were a child?" Scout's eyes widened as Spy returned the ball to him.

"I remember goin' to that game with Ma, my brothers and a male friend of Ma's at that time. That was you!" Spy looked around for a place nobody could see them, then dragged Scout out toward the back of the base. When he made absolutely sure that nobody was looking, he removed his mask. Scout studied the man's face—his facial structure and stormy grey eyes were exactly like Scout's, but the similarities ended there. Spy's nose looked like that of a Greek's, and his short, dark brown hair was starting to show signs of graying. The man looked to be about in his early forties.

Scout suddenly remembered the game in question. It was Harry Agganis' last game before his tragic death in 1955. He had forgotten who had hit the home run (Scout was only five at the time), but he remembered the man with his mother standing up and reaching over the other fans to catch the home run ball. He held the ball close as he sat down to keep the other fans from stealing it, then handed it to Scout, smiling.

"Here you go, Kiddo," he remembered the man saying. Scout snapped back to reality and stared at the man in front of him in awe.

"It was you…" Scout managed to utter before The Announcer interrupted the father and son's bonding time.

"Warning! Our control point is being captured!" she boomed on the speakers. Spy quickly put his mask on and gave Scout a serious look.

"Danny, before I go, I just want to tell you to be very careful," warned Spy. "Something very strange is going on around here, and…"

"Dad, I already know," interrupted Scout. "There's someone out there not on either team that's tryin' to silence us. I got shot by him the other day just before ceasefire." Spy's eyes widened in horror.

"Did you see what he looked like?" Scout shook his head.

"No, but I did kill him. I don't know if he respawned or not, and if he did, where did he respawn?" Spy frowned deeply, narrowing his eyes. Scout flailed his hands frantically. "I'm fine, I'm fine! Just…be careful, okay, Dad?" Spy's expression softened and he smiled lovingly.

"You know…today's the first time you've called me 'Dad' without correcting yourself." Scout blinked in realization, then smiled nervously and scratched his right temple, his cheeks blushing slightly. "It feels good to be called that." Scout looked at his father, his smile transitioning from nervous to affectionate. Spy's face then returned to its serious look. "Keep an eye out for any unusual behavior in everyone, even on my team. I'll be doing the same, and I suggest you tell your friends, too. I'll see you at tonight's meeting, Kiddo." Scout smirked.

"Heh…it's been a while since I've been called that. Later!" Scout ran out of the base to join his teammates as they made their way to victory. Spy cloaked himself and made his way through the base, backstabbing the BLU's Pyro as he came out of the respawn room. Spy twirled his butterfly knife in his hand and adjusted his tie simultaneously, letting out a happy sigh.

"Ah, that never gets old."


Luckily for RED's Spy, their team's capture strategy was an utter failure; nobody could successfully capture even one person from BLU, and their opponents were much more organized than the other day. The fighting for the day had ended early with BLU's victory and a looming snowstorm brewing above Viaduct. Snow had already begun to fall, though it was slow and steady. An official announcement wouldn't be made until the morning as to whether or not their scheduled match would take place.

It was getting close to midnight, and RED's Spy was pacing impatiently while waiting for Demoman to meet him at the entrance. When it was fifteen minutes 'till, Spy decided to check on his friends. He made his way to Demoman's room and knocked on the door.

"Tavish?" inquired Spy. "Are you in there?" No response. He pressed his ear against the door to listen in and could hear faint groans and coughs. Spy drew his Ambassador as a precaution. He quickly opened the door and pointed his gun around, trying to find a target. He saw the bathroom door open with the light on. When Spy walked over, he couldn't help but facepalm at the sight he saw: Demoman praying to the porcelain gods. With a sigh, he spoke once more. "You drank too much again, didn't you? You know we have that meeting tonight!"

"What are ya talkin' aboot?" asked the drunken Scotsman

"You know; the one I told you about after yesterday's team meeting? The one at BLU Sniper's van tonight at midnight?"

"I don' remembah there bein' a meetin' yesterday. I don' remembah what we jus' talked aboot. What were we talkin' aboot again?"

"Oh God dammit!" cried out Spy in frustration. "Nevermind. Just cover for me while I'm gone, okay! And clean yourself up; you look terrible."

"Sure, sure…!"

Spy sighed in defeat and left the room, making his way down the halls of the base toward the exit to the neutral territory. His thoughts soon drifted toward BLU's Scout and his encounter with him today. He was surprised that Scout remembered the baseball game, and even more surprised the boy—no, the young man—didn't grow disgusted with him or start swearing like a sailor or even attack him with a flurry of punches. Scout, to him, seemed accepting of the news, and it appeared that the young man was open to the idea of a relationship with his newly discovered father.

So lost was Spy in his thoughts that he was unaware of an unknown assailant coming up from behind him and striking him in the back of the head with a heavy object, knocking the Frenchman out cold.


He suddenly became aware of his surroundings. He appeared to have been in South Boston, standing in front of the house of the love of his life. He could see random toys scattered around the yard and the sound of young boys playing along the street. He smiled and walked up to the door, knocking on it with his right hand while his left one held a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates. The door opened and a beautiful woman with black hair in a simple blue dress stood in front of him, smiling.

"Hello, Stranger," she greeted coolly.

"Ah, ma petit chou-fleur," he responded. "As lovely as ever."

"I see you've got some free time on your hands."

"For a few days. I thought I should spend them with the woman I love dearly." The woman smiled, though her happiness quickly faded away when she saw two of her sons running up to her in a panic.

"Ma! Ma! Come quick!" cried one of them. He looked to be about ten while the other appeared to be a year younger than his brother.

"What's the matter, Sweetie?" she asked.

"It's Danny! Come quick!" His heart sank. His son was in trouble!

"What happened! Where is he!" he asked the boy worriedly.

"There's a pack of dogs that chased him into the alley! They look like pitbulls!" All of the color left the woman's face as he narrowed his eyes.

"Which alley is he in? I'll go after him." The younger boy looked at him curiously.

"You would help a total stranger, Mister?"

"Now's not the time to discuss this! Where is Danny!" The boy pointed to a nearby alleyway. He nodded and quickly ran, grabbing a baseball bat and ball from the yard as a safety precaution.

He ran into the alley and skidded to a halt when he saw the sight. He saw Danny on top of a couple of crates, cowering and crying as a pack of seven dogs were jumping up and trying to bite at him. He tossed the ball up into the air and hit it at the dogs, stunning one of them. The dogs turned their attention to him and began to attack. He batted the dogs away one by one until they eventually retreated down the alley.

He walked up to the crates and looked up at the boy, who was still crying, though it had subsided a bit. Danny looked to have been about five-years-old, though with how small he was, it was hard to tell for sure. He smiled caringly at the boy.

"Are you okay?" Danny nodded slightly, sniffling.

"Uh huh…thank you, Mister," replied the boy. He held his hands out to the boy, offering to carry him home. Danny was hesitant at first, then leapt into the man's arms, clinging to his vest as if it were a security blanket. He hugged the boy and rubbed his back gently, trying to calm the boy's sobs.

"Shh, shh, it's okay. You're safe now."

"I wanna go home…" He smiled.

"Okay. Let's get you home." As they walked back to Danny's house, the boy looked up at him.

"Hey Mister?"

"Yes?"

"You looked cool fighting off those dogs with the ball and bat. I wanna try that the next time those dogs come." He laughed.

"Maybe when you're older."


Spy slowly opened his eyes, his head throbbing in pain and his vision blurry. The first thing he realized once his vision cleared was that he was sitting upright on an empty trash bin inside of a janitorial closet. The second thing he noticed was that his hands were tied with chord above his head to a hook in the wall. The third thing was that he was gagged and had no means of escaping.

His attention soon turned to the man in the closet with him who looked exactly like him, grinning wickedly with one of Spy's cigarettes in his mouth.

"Well well, he awakens," taunted the man. Spy let out some muffled protests as he kicked the man in the leg, hoping to remove his clever disguise. To his surprise, the man didn't change appearance, which caused Spy's eyes to widen in shock. The man chuckled to himself, blowing some smoke out of his nose. "You're probably wondering who I am and why I look just like you. I guess you deserve to know, seeing as how you're not going anywhere. I mean, really, who's going to look for you in a janitor's closet in your own base?" Spy glared hatefully at the man.

"As you and your buddies discovered, the one you call The Announcer runs both teams. We in the office call her The Administrator because of the power she holds over not just the companies, but the different governments in the world, as well." Spy blinked in confusion. "Oh, I guess you hadn't figured that part out yet. Let me spell it out for you. When Redmond and Blutarch Mann took over their respective companies and were given life-extender machines, they took it upon themselves, in the process of trying to out-do and out-live one another, essentially taking over and gaining heavy influence in the different governments of the world. Redmond and Blutarch each managed to get an even fifty-fifty split in them. When The Administrator became CEO of both companies, she essentially gained authority over both companies assets, including the governments." Spy's eyes widened in horror, suddenly realizing what his captor was saying. The man's grin widened even further. "Yes, that's right…The Administrator not only rules both Reliable Excavation Demolition and Builders League United, she also rules the world!" Spy couldn't believe what he was hearing. He hadn't realized that the conspiracy they were uncovering was much larger than he had expected. He felt a knot of nervousness build up in his stomach as he felt the color leave his skin. The man's grin soon faded into a small frown as he narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"You and your little buddies know too much, though. That's why The Administrator gave me direct orders to infiltrate one of the bases and take you out one by one. However…she didn't give me a deadline, so I think I'm going to have a little fun with you all first. Right now, I am you. I look, sound, and act like you. And since I'm using your clothes—by the way, thank you for letting me borrow them—when I infiltrate your little traitorous meeting with your little BLU buddies, they will believe I am you." Spy struggled harder, desperately trying to get out of his bindings. The man grinned once more. "I think I'll have some fun with that little brat you call your son first before I kill him right in front of you and his two boyfriends." Spy grew furious and kicked out at the man once more. The man grabbed Spy's leg and quickly twisted it, but not to the point of breaking it. Spy cried out in pain through his cloth gag and cringed, causing the man to grin once more in a sick, twisted way. "And the best part of it is…your little Scout is going to think that it's you that is torturing him." Spy managed to loosen the gag around his mouth and let it fall around his neck.

"Keep your hands off of him, you sick bastard!" he roared. The man quickly grabbed the gag from behind Spy's head and yanked back as if it were a noose, strangling his prey.

"I suggest you keep your mouth shut before I kill you right here and now," the man threatened dangerously. "You'd only make things worse for your son if you died before he did.

"Then at least tell me this," choked Spy, gasping for air. "Why was our connection overlooked in the background checks!"

"That I'm not sure of, but it's of no concern to me." The man untied the piece of cloth and re-gagged Spy, tying it much tighter than before. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to go to. Hope you're not afraid of the dark." He laughed as he exited the closet, cutting out the light and shutting the door. As desperately as Spy tried to get free of his binds, it was to no avail.

Spy wasn't one to pray, but he made an exception that time. He bowed his head and closed his eyes. He didn't pray for his own safety and freedom, though…he prayed for Danny's.