Heero: You take too long to get your chapters out.
Heero's Girl: Shut up! *whacks Heero with her whacking stick* At least they're coming!!
Heero: Don't hit me.
Heero's Girl: I just did. Be nicer next time.
Heero: The things you ask of me.
Duo (from the distance): Oye! Heero's Girl! Hurry up, will ya?? Post it already!!
Heero's Girl: Yeah, yeah! Let the author of procrastination procrastinate!! *sigh* -_-;; I put in those amnesia facts just for you, Quincy007! I never really thought about it, but hey, I'm sure people would want to know. Arigato!! ^_^
Heero: You actually persuaded her to go look up information about amnesia. Now the baka knows what she's talking about. I commend you.
Heero's Girl: *grips whacking stick* Keep pushin', buster.
Heero: I'm Heero. Get my name right.
Heero's Girl: _!!!!
Chapter 3:"So you'll do it?" Dr. J. asked. "Sure, just so long as he doesn't wear spandex…"
Blaze woke up to the midday light warming her face, dim because it was filtering through the closed curtains. She opened her eyes half way, lifted her head slightly, then sank back down into the soft pillow. Actually, it wasn't that soft. It was probably old and there might not have been much left in it. But it felt much better as opposed to the hard benches of the park. After all, it's not like everything is going to be great quality, eh? She stretched then, and arched her back, lifting her in her bed. With a deep sigh, she stood up. She opened the edge of a curtain, and sunlight blinded her. Once her eyes adjusted, she realized how late it was. She hopped over her bed and looked at the clock. 12:30. She got dressed quickly and went downstairs.
She nearly ran into the dining room/kitchen area, where most of the pilots sat. The only two who weren't there were Heero and Wufei. Duo and Quatre looked up with a smile, and Trowa stared at her with his one eye.
"So! She lives!!" Duo commented.
She smiled at his words. "Don't pick on me, Braided Wonder. Let me enjoy my rest."
"How did you sleep, anyway?" Quatre piped up.
"Better than I have for a while. I'm hungry." she said. "Could I get myself something to eat?"
"Of course. If you're entitled to live here, then you're entitled to eat." Quatre replied.
Trowa glanced from her to Duo. "She's just like you. Always thinking with your stomach."
"Nothing more than the natural way to live." Duo beamed.
Blaze made herself a cup of tea and English muffins with cheese. She sat down and at her food quickly and in silence. In a matter of seconds her food was gone, and she sipped at her tea politely.
"Hungry? Geez…" Duo commented, as he peeked over his mechanics magazine. He had a red marker in hand, circling cool weapons that he might put on Deathscythe eventually.
"You have no idea…" she replied. "Where are the other two? Not that I'm saying I miss them, or anything… in fact, it's best to know so I can avoid them."
"Heero's in the gym." Trowa said, then paused, looking past Blaze.
"Onna, what are you talking about?" Wufei scowled behind her.
"… and Wufei's behind you." Trowa finished.
Blaze turned in her seat, and gave him a fake smile. "Don't worry, it's nothing about you. I'm sure there are more interesting topics to cover first."
Wufei's eyes narrowed. "Keep pushing and you'll regret it."
"Yeah, whatever…" she muttered, and got up to leave.
"Leaving so soon?" Quatre asked.
"Yeah… I have to go help the Chef now. I bet I was suppose to be there earlier…" she shook her head and left.
Once she was definitely gone, Trowa said, "Don't touch her cup. I'm going to test it for fingerprints and run it through to find out who she really is."
Heero was bench pressing when he heard the door to the gym open. He ignored whoever it was, continuing with his own business. He wanted whoever it was to leave, so he could be left with just his thoughts about that girl Blaze.
Suddenly, Trowa, Duo, and Quatre's face appeared over him. He set the bar down and sat up, facing them.
"What's wrong?" he asked immediately, looking at each of them. They looked skeptical and let down.
"I took her fingerprints from her tea cup earlier…" Trowa started. "And ran a search on it. She has no file."
"What??" Heero demanded.
"She has no identity." Quatre rephrased, even though he knew his friend understood.
"Do you know what this means?" Duo asked. Heero sat in silence. "It means that she may be a person straight from the streets who was born into poverty, and so she never had any official files. Or…"
"…Or, it means that she was important to someone… important enough to not have a file so no one could learn about her." Heero finished.
"Exactly." Trowa said. "I believe the latter, as a matter of fact. If she didn't have amnesia, then the story might be different. But not in this case. Then again, I still have yet to try and talk to her. We'll see what the outcome is."
Blaze stood outside the base where the beach was, mindlessly feeling her hands. They were wrinkled from all of the dishes she had to wash for hours. The sun was on its course down into the ocean. It was probably about 5 p.m. She looked out across the cold waters of the Hudson Bay, and sighed. This is just like the beach that she came from. She stared at the horizon, and wondered, 'Did I come from across these waters? What if I took a boat… and went across… what would I find?' She looked at the lapping waves on the beach, and the pebbles that rolled down into the surf with every fallback, as if beckoning to her. She was familiar with these waters… more than anything right now. But she was afraid of them more than anything as well. What secrets did they hold? Was her past at the bottom? Now, it looked as a calm and peaceful thing of nature. But to her, it looked harsh… threatening. 'I wonder if there was a time where I loved the ocean.' she thought. As her mind wandered and drifted with the tide, she hummed a familiar song which was always in her head. She wasn't sure if she had heard it during her time of wandering the streets but whatever the case, she always had it in her head. She didn't know the words. Just the tune. It was one of the many small puzzles filling her head, but she loved this one unlike the others. Humming it gave her a feeling of calmness.
"Is that where you came from?" asked a quiet voice behind her. She spun around and faced Trowa, who looked down at her with mystery shrouding his keen green eyes, then looked out towards the waters.
"Yeah…" she replied.
"Do you remember anything from it?" he asked.
"I just remember waking up on a beach. That's the oldest memory I have." she replied.
"You don't even remember drifting?" She shot a look at him, which made him respond, "Forgive me, I don't mean to pry too deeply."
She sighed and looked out across the waters again. "That's alright." she said. "I can understand how everyone is curious and paranoid about me."
They sat in silence for a while, watching the sun touch the horizon, sending its rippling image across the waters like a golden path. Finally Trowa spoke. "I know what it feels like…"
"What feels like?"
"Amnesia. I had it for a while before." he replied.
She looked at him, surprised. "How did you get your memory back?"
"It came back on its own, bit by bit." Trowa looked at her. "Do you know what kind of amnesia you have?" She shook her head. "Retrograde amnesia. Loss of memory before the accident occurs. There are many ways a person can get it back. It's different for each person. That's what I had for a short period of time."
She looked at her hands, then asked, "What other kinds are there?"
"There's anterograde amnesia where the person can't hold memories after the accident. That type is unusual. There is global transitory amnesia, which is anterograde followed by retrograde. That never lasts long."
"Are there any others?"
Trowa was silent for a moment, then said, "some people forget certain traumatic events. I believe that's called hysterical amnesia. No accident causes it. It's just a person who tries to delete a time in their past because they can't handle it."
"hm…."
Trowa looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Her face was pulled into a frown and her eyes stared off blankly, as if she was thinking or trying to recall something, anything. He knew that look. He was all too familiar with it.
"There's something I want to tell you… but I don't want you to think anything suspicious of me, because I don't think I've done anything wrong." she paused for a response, but received none from the silent man. "Sometimes I can remember small things. Or I am familiar to certain things, even though I haven't approached them as of late. Some things are bigger than others… like how I can still speak Japanese and Spanish. I hum a song too. I don't know the words, though. How can that be if I have amnesia??" she looked at him, her eyes hoping for an answer. "I'm afraid of who I might have been. I'm afraid that you guys will find out something about me that I don't know. I want to know who I am more than anything… but… when I think about knowing… I get afraid."
"Why?"
"I'm not sure. It's like something I can't touch. It's like something in a dream that keeps getting farther and farther away the harder you try to reach for it." she paused uneasily, and cracked her knuckles.
"There's something you're leaving out." Trowa said.
"I can't say everything. I need to keep some things to myself."
Trowa placed a long hand over hers. "You can trust me, if you really want to talk to someone."
They sat in silence a while longer, and the sun had almost set. The very tip of its top peeked a last goodnight and fell behind the ocean, taking the horizon with it. Now it began to look as if the ocean and sky were merging into one.
"I have scars… I don't know what they're from." she said finally. "And I get nightmares… I don't know what they're about though. The memory of them leaves before I wake up. I get afraid of that sometimes. It's like my amnesia is haunting me."
Trowa looked at her suspiciously. "What kind of scars?"
"Cuts… strange marks…" she paused.
"And what else??" Trowa knew he had dug into something deep. There was something she wanted to say, but she was very afraid. He knew her amnesia was real. It was easy to know that by now. But there's more to know, and there are puzzles that she has which perhaps he could solve. He wanted to help her.
She took a deep breath and let it out in a shiver. "I want to go inside." she said finally. Trowa walked behind her, and they entered the base.
"I might show you a couple of the marks some other time." she whispered finally, when they got to the bottom of the stairs. "But I'm already scared enough as it is that you know so much about me, when to me it seems so little. Please don't tell anyone about what I've told you."
"I give you my word as a pilot." Trowa replied.
She looked up at him, and finally smiled. Trowa let one corner of his mouth lift slightly, and he walked past her and up the stairs to his room.
She stood there for a moment, at the foot of the stairs. Finally she gave a sigh of relief, and went into the kitchen to grab a quick snack before going up to her room.
Heero read the e-mail that Trowa had sent to him and the other pilots. It read, 'Her amnesia is real. I believe that she has retrograde amnesia, and perhaps even a bit of hysterical amnesia. She seems afraid about her past which supports my hysterical amnesia assumption, but that's all I could get out of her.'
It was a short note, that didn't seem to give very many hints to who she was. The only thing was her fear of her past, which could help to lean their suspicions towards their overall guess that whoever she was, she was important to someone. In what way, was beyond them.
"hn…." he muttered. He checked his clock. It was 7:30 p.m. Where was Blaze? He hadn't seen her all day. Curious as to her whereabouts, he got up to look for her.
Blaze walked up the stairs, tired and wanting to do nothing more than fall onto her bed and go into automatic slumber. She reached for the door handle, but the door swung open, and she collided into Heero's chest. His hand roughly steadied her on her feet, and she looked up into his glaring eyes.
"Where were you?" he demanded.
"Eating." she shot back. "Why are you so eager as to know what the hell I'm doing?" He narrowed his eyes at her. She sighed wearily. "Look." she said. "I'm tired, and I have no reason to argue with you. So if you'll kindly step aside to let me into OUR room, then I'd like to take a shower and go to bed."
"Hn…" he growled, and walked by her and down the stairs.
She shut the door behind her, and raised her hands to the heavens in despair. "Why me?!" she demanded. "What have I done to deserve HIM???" then her arms fell limply to her sides. She lolled her way over to her bed and fell onto it with a 'plop'.
Heero went back up the stairs after a few minutes. He didn't want her to think he was concerned or anything by looking for her. He opened the door, prepared for her attitude, but instead he found her sprawled across her bed, and her eyes closed. Heero paused, then stepped inside the room. He closed the door behind him quietly, and quietly walked to the end of her bed, where her face was easiest to see.
There was no expression on her face, but her body was relaxed. Heero had to admit, that Duo was right. She was pretty. But that didn't change anything. He still didn't like her. He had seen a lot of pretty girls, but it didn't make any difference.
She hadn't changed even out of her day clothes. He frowned to himself. Should he just leave her there? He wasn't sure how to handle her. He knew he shouldn't care, but something inside him made him grab a blanket and throw it over her carelessly. Satisfied, he went to his laptop.
Blaze opened one eye once she heard the typing of his keys. All right… so maybe he wasn't *that* bad. Finally, she really did fall asleep, despite the annoyance of Heero pressing the keys and clicking the mouse.
Blaze opened her eyes to nothing but darkness. She wasn't blind. But there was no light, wherever she was. This wasn't her and Heero's room. The air was cold and musty, and the ground beneath her was hard… stone, probably. There was no sound. None, whatsoever. She couldn't even hear her own breathing. Was she even breathing? She couldn't tell.
She tried to push herself up, but she couldn't. She could only achieve a crawling position. She felt the ground blindly with her hands. She didn't know where she was going, but whatever the case, she hoped to find a way out of… wherever this was. If it wasn't for her strong urge to get away, she would have been frozen with fear. But something compelled her to struggle against the invisible bonds. In this darkness, it was as if her mind was open to someone… someone who was looking down on her, reading her mind like pages from a book. They were pages she didn't know, and she immediately wanted it to end. Her efforts froze when a loud 'thump' echoed into her soundless and sightless world. Suddenly, she felt a greater urge to get out of wherever she was, thus making her progress worse.
Heero woke up in the late night to the sound of shallow and quick breaths. He sat up with a jolt, then remembered (again): he had a roommate. Puzzled, he looked over at Blaze. He couldn't see her face. Her body was curled up in the blanket that he had put over her, and all he could see was her back, rear, and her feet (which poked out from under the blanket). Heero stood up.
Why was moving becoming so difficult? It smothered Blaze in claustrophobia. Suddenly, there was a small prick of light, that grew steadily faster. She was afraid and backed away, but it advanced. Immediately, there was a tall mirror in front of her. She grabbed onto it, and pulled herself up until she was finally standing. Her knees shook with fear, and her body shook from the cold in this nowhere of a place. She lifted her eyes into the light of the mirror, and then the brightness faded to a dimness. She froze. "no…" she whispered, although she couldn't hear her own voice. The mirror. It was a mirror… but… it had no reflection! Where was her reflection? She was here, so where was… she? She shook her head in disbelief. What was going on? She touched the mirror with a shaking hand and it rippled slightly. Suddenly, another 'thump' echoed louder in the darkness, and the mirror bulged with the sound, and then vibrated to a stop. Another loud thump, and the mirror bulged more violently. Another thump, and it started to crack with the next bulge. She froze in horror, then let out a scream that had no sound.
Heero knelt onto her bedside, about to wake her, when suddenly she screamed and thrashed her arms widely. He jumped back, then grabbed her flailing wrists, and pinned her to her bed. She shook her head violently, and her closed eyes started to water over. Once she was out of breath, she took another, and let out another ear-shattering scream. She twisted her body out of Heero's grasp and Heero stood back, looking for a point where he could pin her again. He grabbed her shoulders, and shook her roughly. "Wake up!" he shouted. "Blaze…!! Wake up!!!" She covered her face with her hands, and muffled whispers came from her. Heero couldn't understand what she was saying, or her actions.
There was a knock on the door. "Oye, Heero! Heero, what the hell's going on in there?!?!" Duo called through the door.
"Go away!" he shouted back. "I'm fine!" Then he corrected, "We'll be fine!! Just go back to bed." There were grumbles and unhappy words as Duo and the others stalked back to bed.
His eyes were wide with surprise, as he held her shoulders. Again, he said, "Wake up. It was a dream. Whatever it was, it was a dream." He pulled her hands away from her face, and her eyes opened slightly, sparkling with tears. She immediately sat up and turned on the light which was on the nightstand between their beds. Her breathing was rapid and shaky. Her head was low causing her hair to fall over her face, keeping Heero from seeing her expression. She reached a hand up and felt the tears on her cheeks. Heero kept a close eye on her, his hand still on her arm.
"What happened?" he asked quietly, as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I… I… just had a nightmare. I'm fine." she whispered shakily.
"You weren't fine a couple seconds ago. What happened?" Heero demanded.
She sniffed and then said, "I… just had a bad dream, alright?"
"Do you remember what it was about?" Heero asked. Whatever this was, he knew there had to be a reason behind it. That didn't sound like 'just a nightmare'.
She was silent for a moment then whispered, "I don't remember."
They sat in a long silence. Blaze in fear and confusion, and Heero in caution and the fading feeling of bewilderment. She glanced at him quickly, but looked away when he caught her eye.
"Are you going to be all right?" Heero asked tonelessly, breaking the awkward silence.
"Fine. I'll be fine." she whispered, the shaking now gone from her voice.
"Then you should go to bed." he said. Heero got up from his sitting position next to her, and reached to turn off the light.
"Leave it on, please." she said quickly. Heero peered down at her, questioningly. "Please?"
Heero gave a sigh of defeat. "Fine. Just go to bed." He lied down in his bed, and grabbed a book he had been reading. Unable to go back to sleep with a light on, he decided to stay up and keep an eye on Blaze, in case she had another 'nightmare'.
The last thing Blaze saw that late night before she fell asleep (again) was Heero reading a thick book, the lamplight shining onto his solid handsome features. She smiled to herself. 'yup… he's really not that bad. I wonder if he realizes it, though?' Still, her sleep was uneasy, an aftermath from nightmares. They always seemed to have a large effect on her.
When Blaze opened her eyes slightly, light poured in through a crack in the curtains and across her bed. She was in the same position that she fell asleep in, but she wasn't greeted with the same sight of Heero. Right at that moment, Heero stepped out of the bathroom with the steam following him, and a towel draped around his shoulder. He was in his usual spandex, and he searched through his drawers for a green tank top. She heard him mutter choice words under his breath, and she snickered. She had organized her and Heero's clothes, since she couldn't keep track of anything, and Heero originally kept his clothes on her bed.
"Farthest top drawer. Towards your left, Heero." she said.
He glared at her over his shoulder, and then finally found his precious tank top. As he put it on over his well-toned body, she blushed and hid her face under the blankets. She came back out when she heard the squeak of Heero sitting in the chair at his desk. Naturally, like nearly every time she saw him, he was on his stupid laptop.
"What, were you born with that thing? Did it just come with the package??" she asked, as she got up and stretched.
"It's a very important tool." he simply stated.
"Oh yeah? What's so important about it? Seems kinda boring to me, ya know… always typing on it and stuff." She walked over to him, and peered over his shoulder. "What do you do on here, anyway?"
"That's none of your business." Heero replied coldly, and pulled down the screen so she couldn't see his work.
"Geez, excuse me for living…" she shot back, and stuck her tongue out at him. The slam of the bathroom door told Heero she wasn't there, and he lifted the screen again. Looked like he had a mission. 'Finally…' he thought. He connected the cam link, and Dr. J's face appeared with his usual maniacal grin, which seemed to become plastered over the years.
"Good morning, Heero! Long time no see." Dr. J. said.
"Likewise, Dr. J." Heero replied. "What do you have for me?"
"Ah, Heero… You know I'm the one who asks the questions…"
"I have been trained to believe you give the orders, leaving the questions to myself."
"I do that too…" Dr. J. snickered. "But it's not what I have for you… it's what you are going to obtain for me. I have a mission for you. I need to retrieve some information which Hampshire has been sending to some of his forces." Information started being uploaded onto Heero's computer.
"This is the address… it's a formal dining party held by some of ESUN's leaders. You have two days."
"Mission accepted."
"That's not all, Heero. This is a 'couple's only' banquet. So you are going to require a partner."
Heero almost paled, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. When it was left to Dr. J., it was never, ever (under ANY circumstances) good. "Who do you have in mind?"
"Duo…"
Heero blanched. His mouth went dry, and he cleared his throat. "Duo…?" Again… When it was left to Dr. J. it was never a good thing. Heero knew it was because of Duo and his stupid braid, making him easy to look like a girl… but… Duo…???
Suddenly, the bathroom door opened and Blaze stepped out, immediately rambling to Heero.
"You don't always have to be such a butthead, you know. It's not like I really care what's on that stupid laptop of yours. I was just wondering. Like I said, it's probably boring…" She was dressed in dark blue jeans and a gray t-shirt, and brushing her hair.
"Heero, who is that??" Dr. J. asked sharply.
Heero was tense with nervousness. "Um… a new roommate, one I have acquired involuntarily."
Suddenly, Blaze stepped behind Heero and noticed Dr. J. on the screen. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded.
Dr. J's jaw dropped and if he didn't wear goggles, then they were sure his eyes would have bulged as well. "Wha… Heero?"
"Do you want me to kill her?" Heero instinctively reached for his gun.
"No! Don't be foolish, Heero! You could use her!" Dr. J. said brightly. It was Heero's turn to have his jaw drop. Blaze put her hands on her hips.
"Excuse me? Did I miss something? I did, didn't I? Something big… Well, I'm hoping I'll be saved from this pit of the unknowing… someone clue me in here." She looked from Heero to the old geezer on the screen. "And I'll ask again… who the hell are you??"
"I'm allowed the privilege to ask that first. Explain your identity, girl!" Dr. J. demanded.
"Hai! I have no identity, nothing more than what you see before you. I call myself Blaze." she beamed.
Heero glared at her. "She also claims to have amnesia." Heero ducked Blaze's hand, as she tried to whack him across the head.
"Baka!" she scolded. "I was going to tell him that, oh Impatient One!"
Dr. J. raised his eyebrows. "You have amnesia, do you? That's interesting, considering you seem American, but speak some Japanese."
Blaze crossed her arms and copied Heero's death glare. Heero glared at her for copying his trademark.
Dr. J. ignored her action, and continued to explain things on his part. He seemed… surprised, though, by this news about this new girl. "You… oye… alright, never mind. I'll give you a brief explanation. I'm Dr. J., Heero's guardian and mentor. I'm sure you already know about the whole Gundam Pilot story, since you are staying with them and you are Heero's roommate-"
"Involuntarily." Both Heero and Blaze said at the same time. They glanced at each other, then back to the screen.
"Yes, yes. I've established that as well. Well, Heero has a mission. A small one, really. A walk in the park… and he needs a partner to go as his date. Duo was our first choice, but… well… you can see the slight problem there. You are about the same build, female…"
"Thank you for making me aware of that, Dr. J." Blaze said sarcastically with a grin.
"… and the same attitude. Heero… this is comical!!" Dr. J. started laughing.
"I'm glad you think so." Heero hissed.
"Aha… So. Anyway, would you mind being Heero's date on this mission?" Dr. J. finished.
"Me… go with Heero, who doesn't seem too thrilled by my presence, what with the guns and all…. Or stay here, and help the chef for another strenuous pile of dishes. Hm… Heero, Chef. Heero, Chef." she lifted and lowered her hands. "Choices…"
"So you'll do it?" Dr. J. asked.
"Sure, just so long as he doesn't wear spandex…" she gave Heero a look and grinned.
Dr. J. started cracking up again, since the comical old man seemed to find this morning very entertaining. "Of course not. This is going to be a formal event. But don't expect him to brush his hair."
"When did this ordeal turn into a fashion discussion of myself??" Heero demanded hotly.
"Oh, loosen up…" Blaze demanded, and pushed him slightly in his seat. "Besides, I like your hair! It's so unkempt, yet so…cute!"
"Great. You think my hair is 'cute'. I'm flattered." Heero grounded his teeth, as Blaze patted his head. Then he addressed to Dr. J, "I'm going to kill her after this mission."
"No you won't…" Dr. J. responded coolly.
"Then I'll break some of her bones. Such as her fingers- STOP PLAYING WITH MY HAIR!!!! Go see Duo. He won't mind your annoying petting." Heero demanded, his eyes flaring angrily as he grabbed her wrist to stop her actions. Blaze giggled immensely, but tried to control it by hiding her grin behind her hand.
"Well, it seems like you two are getting along just fine. I'll let you go now and remember, Heero! Two days! The packages have already been sent. You'll go by car, of course. You won't need your gundam."
"Yes sir."
The connection closed, and Heero took a breath. He stood up quickly, knocking his chair over. He pointed at Blaze, his finger an inch from her nose. "I'm going to kill you. Don't get in my way with this mission, and don't disobey me! Do you understand?"
She winked at him, and then poked him in his abs. Calm down. We have two days to go over the details and for you to point your finger at me. But I have a hot-tempered Chef waiting, and I have to go do my pay for stealing that stupid food. Ja ne, Heero!"
She walked out of the room, leaving Heero dumbfounded and full of frustration. He growled to himself, and clenched his fist. How was she able to get to him so easily?? He knew what it was… He didn't phase her. She knows he can't kill her, so all of his threats are idle. Of course, this wouldn't stop the Perfect Soldier from inflicting pain, if the time called for it. He knew, too, it would only be a matter of time before she did something to trigger him again.