Lost Memories

By: Ashley2323

Chapter Three

The abduction of Ace Stone was all over the news on Monday. The TV reporters were all over the story.

"Our special report this evening, a popular Harvard professor disappeared sometime last Saturday. His disappearance was discovered this morning when he failed to show up for his morning class. Ace Stone was last seen early Saturday morning on campus. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing a suspicious black, full-sized van in the area around the time of his abduction. If anyone has any information about this incident, please contact your local authorities." The report then went on to interview a few of his students and flashed a picture on the screen.
~
Heero had not been paying attention to the report until he saw the picture. "Strange," He murmured, "It can't be though," He shrugged it off as a coincidence.

~

The news was playing on the TV screen when Scout arrived back home. She looked up when she heard the name 'Ace Stone' and saw his picture. She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh no! Ace!" There was no doubt in her mind as to who the man was. "But how did they find you before we did?"

She quickly grabbed her coat again and dashed back out of her house. She didn't have time anymore. These guys were moving too quickly. But she didn't even know who they were! And what was their interest in them? If she was correct then she was next on their list.

She needed to get help, and quickly, so she called on the only person she could think of. She went to Heero Yuy at the Preventor Headquarters.

"Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go ta bed…" Duo slurred as he stared up at the ceiling in his cell. His vision was blurring and for a while now he had been coughing up blood. "Damn," He had cursed when he discovered the fact. "Internal bleeding, not good." He could feel himself losing his grasp on consciousness. He slumped over against the corner wall, and let his eyes close slowly.

No Duo, don't fall asleep now, He warned himself. "It is definitely not a good idea to fall asleep now…" He shook his head and tried to focus his eyes on something to keep him awake. But there was absolutely nothing inside the cell. He stared at the door and watched through the tiny barred window as the guard scratched his head and resumed his position.

"Interesting enough," Duo muttered. Maybe if he kept watching the guard, waiting for the next time he would move, he would be able to keep himself awake, and alive, for a bit longer.

After an hour or so, and twelve head-scratches later, something interesting finally happened.

He heard voices down the hallway and watched curiously as a few other guards dragged another man into the cell next to him. "Well," he snickered, "They're starting a collection."

The guard watched and then suddenly slapped his hand to his forehead in a salute. "Sir!" He said quickly. A man who was out of Duo's view started talking, "How is the prisoner?" He asked sharply.

"He's safely secured in his cell Sir. Awaiting further orders."

"Is he dead?"

"Uh…" The guard didn't sound too sure. "No Sir,"

"Are you sure?" the man snorted. He peeked into the cell and saw Duo's blood all over the place. Duo struggled to see his face, but with his blurred vision and the light silhouetting his face, it was impossible.

"You idiot! I told you not to let him die! You were supposed to make sure of that!"

The guard cowered in front of his superior. "I…I…"

"Never mind that now! I'll have someone more competent take care of the prisoners. Now make yourself useful and fetch a doctor!"

"Yes Sir!" The man saluted again before running off. Duo could hear the superior officer sighing before he finally blacked out.


"You're saying that Duo has a sister?" Quatre cried as Heero filled the rest of the pilots in on his trip to 'the rat's nest'.
Heero nodded slowly.

"How can you be sure this woman is who she says she is?" Trowa asked quietly.

Heero shrugged. "I have a feeling about her. She didn't sound like she was lying to me. She knew all about Duo, about us, and even knew where to find him."

"She did her homework," Wufei snorted, "It's not that hard to figure out what Duo is like and who his friends are. There are a million resources out there…"
"Also," Heero cut Wufei off in the middle of his sentence. "She supplied a transmitter, or what was left of it, which she claims Duo called her from."

"Are you sure you can trust this girl?" Sally Po questioned.

Heero nodded, "I'm positive."

Wufei looked as if he was starting to believe, but wasn't completely convinced.

"Not to mention," Heero continued, "That she looks almost exactly like him…"
"Coincidence," Wufei muttered. Heero shot a glare in the Chinese pilot's direction and he shut up.

"So what do we do now? What kind of information did she give you?" Quatre sighed.

"Nothing substantial, just that Duo was abducted by someone guys in some sort of military."

"The military?" Sally's eyebrows rose in question.

Heero nodded.

"What was he doing on that run-down excuse for a colony anyway?" Wufei wondered.

"Wouldn't we all like to know?" A female voice echoed. The five shocked Preventors turned quickly and faced the door.

There, standing in the doorway, was Scout. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and her uneven bangs skillfully hid the eye patch. In her hand she held the leash to a rather large cat, or more precisely, a tiger.

Heero looked at the girl and furrowed his eyebrows together in a frown.

"How the hell did you get in here?" He snapped.

"Why hello to you too," She snickered. "You know, for a military organization that eats up all my tax dollars every year, your security really sucks." She looked down at her pet and scratched him behind his ears. The tiger growled lazily and let himself into the room and lay down at Quatre's feet.

The blonde man paled considerably and Scout only laughed at him.

"I take it this is the woman who claims to be related to that braided baka?" Wufei growled.

"You have to be Wufei."

Wufei snorted and averted his eyes from the woman.

"Is uh…this thing safe?" Quatre wondered, trying to move his feet from underneath the heavy cat's body.

Scout chuckled, "He's old and harmless" She assured him. Quatre breathed an audible sigh of relief.

"What are you doing here?" Heero glared at her.

"Actually," She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. A nervous habit that both she and Duo shared. "I need a bit of help."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," She chuckled. "But there are some things you might want to know first."

"I thought you didn't want our help."

"Screw that, I'm in deep shit now. Mind if I sit down?" She looked at the seat next to Trowa. Trowa shrugged and Scout happily took a seat and dropped her things on the table. "Did any of you guys see that report on the missing university professor?"

Sally nodded, "Yeah I saw it."

"What does that have to do with you, or Duo for that matter?" Trowa asked.

"Well, it's a long story actually. You guys might wanna sit down."

All but Wufei obliged and Scout sat back as she started her story.

"This guy, this professor, has a lot to do with Duo and I. You see, I'm positive that he's our brother that we've been searching for since we were very young."

"Oh great," Wufei moaned, "Even more Maxwells."

"Actually Wu-man, he's not a Maxwell. His last name is Stone apparently. Duo was looking for him when he was kidnapped." 

"And since Duo and now your other brother have been kidnapped, you think you're next in line?" Heero finished for her.

"Exactly,"

"How did these guys find him if you and Duo weren't able to all this time?"

Scout shrugged, "That's what I wanted to figure out. I mean why would anyone come after us anyway? It confuses the shit outta me. We all live our own lives. Ace was a teacher for crying out loud!"

"The two siblings so far…" Sally sighed, "I don't know if this is just coincidence or something else."

Scout nodded sadly and stared at her old backpack.

"So I guess you guys know my dilemma now…"

"Right, I'll see to getting you some protection right away, Miss Scout." Quatre stood up, waking the tiger from its sleep. The tiger growled at Quatre and then rested its head on its giant paws once again.

"Thanks a lot, Quatre, right?"

Quatre nodded and carefully stepped over the sleeping cat. The tiger hardly even looked up.

"Would you like me to find a place to keep your uh…pet too?"

"That'd be great, thanks." Quatre seemed relieved to finally be able to get away from the huge cat and he hurried out of the room.

"I wonder what's up with him?" Scout sighed.

~~~

The Preventors were nice enough to provide Scout with a room in their headquarters, and they sent Kalil, the tiger, to another area of the base. She looked at the roomy quarters and whistled. No wonder Duo liked working for the Preventors.

"Are you sure there isn't anything else you'd like to tell us?"

Scout spun around and faced Heero.

"Are you suggesting that I was lying to you?" She snapped.

"I'm suggesting that you have been withholding information from us." Heero stated.

"Listen Heero, I'm not a liar. I want to find my brother, brothers, as much as you do."

"So that's all you know?"

"That's right, these guys are tough, even for me."

"So how did you get past the security?"

"Oh, I had a lot of help from Kalil."

"Your pet?"

"Now, I would hardly call him a pet. He's more like a…a customer."

Heero raised his eyebrows at her. "What exactly do you do?"

"I'm a researcher in endangered species, and I run a research center up in Winnipeg."

"An animal researcher and you can get past the toughest security in the world?"

"I've gotten through tougher, but that was back in Oz's day. Good security like that is hard to find. I enjoyed the challenge. If I'm going to help my brother, I have to brush up on my skills."

"Skills?"

"Hacking, espionage, mobile suit repair, infiltration, your basic terrorist skills. You know what I'm talking about don't you?"

Heero nodded, "Is that what you did during the war?"

"Basically," she shrugged, "I usually just got Duo out of jams while he was fighting. I got him information, weapons, new parts, anything he needed."

Heero just looked at her.

"What, you don't actually think Duo could find time to do all that by himself do you? He's not that organized."

"He sure had me fooled. He knew what he was doing."

"Of course he did, he had to. But he also needed his big sister to help him out and break him out of prison every once in a while."

"I thought you were twins,"

"Triplets." She corrected him. "We are, but one of us had to come out first. It's an ongoing joke Duo and I have. I call him little brother, he calls me baby sister."

"Why didn't he ever mention you before?"

Now Scout laughed. "I'm his best kept secret. He was worried about me. He's afraid people would come after me if they knew I was connected to a Gundam pilot."

"Even us?"

"He's very careful. He's got big brother syndrome, I think."

Heero sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "So you don't have any more information we might need?"

Scout shook her head. "Sorry, I wish I could be of more help. But I was just about to sit down and start looking for him. I'll tell you if I strike a lead."

Heero nodded and left without a word. Scout watched him go with a smile on her face. "Wow," she said aloud, "Duo sure does have some cute friends."