Lost Memories

By: Ashley2323

Chapter Two

Heero stirred his coffee for the third time as he waited for Scout to return. She was already half an hour late. I'll wait another ten minutes and then I'll go. He promised himself. He looked up just in time to see Scout walk in with a confident smile flashing across her face. She spotted Heero and sat down across from him. She ordered a coffee before she said anything to him.

"I didn't think you'd show," She admitted.

"I didn't think you would." Heero replied crossly. Scout chuckled. "Oh, don't be such a grouch. I always keep my promises."

"You sound like Duo, always twisting your own words."

"Hun? What do you mean?" Scout blinked.

"You say you'll be somewhere in an hour…"
"I showed up!"

"True, but it took you twice as long as you said it would."
Scout laughed, "So did you get anything?"

Heero shook his head.

"Well, I told ya you wouldn't, now didn't I?" Scout pushed the long, right side of her bangs behind her ear, and for the first time Heero noticed that she was wearing an eye patch. He tried not to stare, but he couldn't help it.

Scout noticed him staring and smirked. "It was cancer, if that's what you're wondering." She stated.

"What?"

"My eye, that was what you were staring at right? I lost my eye to cancer a long time ago. Nothing gruesome, I promise. Not everyday you see a girl with an eye patch, is it?"

Heero shook his head. "I didn't mean to stare."

"Its OK, I get that a lot. Duo still stares sometimes." She snorted. "And while we're on the topic of Duo, since you haven't found out anything, I guess it's my turn to share." She paused for a moment.

Heero grumbled something. "Are you going to tell me what you know about Duo's disappearance, or not?"

"Yeah, how did you figure out that he was gone anyway?"

"We got a ransom note." He answered.

At this, Scout burst out laughing. "Like anyone would pay money for Duo!" She giggled, shaking with mirth.

Heero raised an eyebrow at her, "So how did you know?"

She waited until she had stopped laughing to answer. "Oh, that's a good question." She plopped her bag on the table and pulled out a pile of scrap metal. "This used to be a transmitter. I gave it to Duo a while ago, before the EVE wars in case he ever got into trouble and needed my help. Well, he managed to press the little button before he was taken, and that led me here. After that, I just questioned a few people. From what I could piece together, Duo was down here in the rat's nest, for reasons unknown, and got into a bit of a squabble with unidentified soldiers. They beat him up behind those crate across the street there, and then just took off."

"Took off to where?"

Scout shrugged. "Like I said, that's it so far."

"How did you get all that out of these people? They wouldn't tell me a thing."

"That's just because you don't know how to interrogate thugs. They won't talk to anyone in a uniform."

Heero grumbled again and took a long sip of his coffee.

"So how did you get down here?"

"Systematic colony checks." Heero shrugged.

"And it worked?"

"Apparently." He sighed. How could he not get anything out of them? Oh well, he was never one to have a lot of patience anyway. But still…maybe he was losing his touch…

"Maybe you are," Scout shrugged. Heero was shocked; he hadn't realized he had spoken that out loud.

"I heard you were the perfect soldier. But I guess after being tied down to that pacifist for so long, you'd have to lose your touch. It just wouldn't work otherwise. Unless of course Miss Relena is going to start rolling through the Sank Kingdom in a stolen tank, driving through department stores." She broke out into another hysterical fit of laughter. Heero had to admit, it was a funny thought but he wasn't about to start laughing. "I'm not tied down to anyone." He growled.

"Whatever…" Scout sighed. She subdued her laughter long enough to gulp down the last of her coffee. She stared into her cup disgustedly and sighed. "Well, I best be going now." She quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper and dropped it on the table in front of him.

"Keep in touch," She said, "I many need your help, believe it or not."

Heero watched her go and then picked up the paper she left. On it was an address on Earth and a phone number. He glared at the numbers on the page and stuffed it into his pocket. It may be a good idea to keep in touch with her; after all, she had already proven herself more than capable of finding Duo on her own.

Duo sat against the cold concrete walls of his prison and sighed deeply for the umpteenth time that day. He gingerly rubbed his sore arm again and inspected the damage done to his body. He had done that several times as well. It was as if he expected to find something new there.

He couldn't believe what his harmless little search had led him to. First he gets a tip about his subject, and it takes him to the rat's nest. He should have caught on right then, but of course he was too excited so he didn't.

Naturally once he met his contacts he realized it was some sort of deception. He was met by a small group of military personnel, but they weren't from any military organization that he knew of. Then he made the mistake of pissing them off; obviously the guys didn't appreciate back talk. But Duo had this sneaking suspicion that they had not fought fairly. He should have been able to handle them, but when the fight broke out, their blows seemed to do more damage then they should have.

Grumbling about how they had cheated somehow, he ran his hands through his hair to see if they had left anything. They hadn't of course. They had undone his braid and pulled out anything he kept in there. They must have done their homework on him.

Duo sighed and dropped his head back against the wall. He could think of at least eight people who were going to give him a tongue lashing once he got back and he wasn't looking forward to any of them. He winced; those guys would probably put him through more pain than these Oz-wanna-be losers had.


Ace Stone strolled leisurely through the campus early Saturday morning. His mane of shoulder-length brown hair pulled back into its usual low ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was clean and well dressed, as usual, and he was wearing a professionally tailored suit, the norm for the popular university professor. The only difference in his usual tidy appearance was the faint stubble along his jaw. He never shaved on Saturdays.

"Good morning Professor Stone," One of his students greeted him. Ace smiled and nodded at the girl and continued on his way. He never stopped to talk with them, especially his female students. He knew very well that just about every single one of them had a crush on him.

He pushed his deep purple shades further up on his nose and shoved his hands into the dark leather trench coat he almost never took off. The shades and coat had become his trademark items around the school.

He breathed in the cool air and headed into town. He loved teaching at Harvard, but sometimes he just needed to get away.

Just as he was nearing the front gates of the campus, he thought he heard something behind him. The professor stopped and looked around for the source of the odd noise. He paused for a moment and then dismissed the noise as a squirrel or something else. He started to walk again when he heard a more distinct, less natural sound. Now he stopped completely and turned his head. He saw a flash of something behind a tree and took a tentative step towards it.

He heard a click from behind him and he froze. He turned his head only slightly and saw a man standing behind him with a gun to his head. The man smirked at Ace, and Ace sighed, thinking he was only a common thug looking for money. Ace raised his hands above his head.

"Listen buddy, I don't wanna cause any trouble." He sighed. He knew the routine. He had been mugged more than once.

"That's good, because neither do we…" The man stated.

"We?"

Another guy stepped out from the cover of the trees, also holding his gun level to Ace's head. Ace sighed, they were smarter muggers than most, but something else seemed different. It wasn't their clothes; they were dressed in casual civilian clothing, nothing odd there, and their guns were standard. It was the way they spoke to him and carried themselves that told him that something was not as it seemed.

Ace had long since learned to trust his premonitions. He carefully planned out his attack as the guys continued to snicker.

"OK, pal, hand over all your money." The first man snarled. Ace nodded and reached for his wallet, while keeping an eye on his two attackers. He handed it to the man in front of him, and watched in amazement as he tossed it in the air and fired, shredding it into pieces.

Ace blinked; well, at least he knew they weren't after money. But what else was he good for? Maybe they wanted to know about his field of expertise at Harvard. But they didn't look like the intellectual type. They were probably just flunkies hired by someone.
"Well, well, well, isn't this just perfect." The second guy snickered. "We've got the Ace Stone eating out of our hands. Won't the boss be proud of us? You know he's been lookin' for you guys for a long time now…"
"Shut up!" The first one snapped. He too laughed as he looked at Ace still standing with his hands in the air.

Ace had no idea what they were talking about. This was obviously something more sinister than just a common mugging. But why would anyone be looking for him? He decided he didn't want to find out. As the two men continued to talk nonsense at him, he was preparing his attack. He found the right moment when one of them started to pull out shackles.

He quickly spun around and kicked the man behind him in the head.

"Oh no you don't!" The other one screamed. He lunged at Ace and punched him in the stomach. Ace wheeled over in pain.

This isn't right, He thought, why did it hurt so much? That punch should not have caused him to stop breathing. The pain was so intense that he nearly screamed with the pain. It was really weird that such a small man could cause him that much pain, since Ace regularly worked out in intensive training programs.

The other one sprang back and caught his shoulder and Ace instantly felt it shatter. The pain seemed to spread and pulse through his entire body. This time he did cry out with the pain and he fell over. The men then delivered blows to his stomach and ribs until he was nearly unconscious. Then he felt them tying his hands behind his back. The two picked him up and dragged him to the road, where they threw him into the back of a black van and sped off.