Author's note: I'm sorry for this, but I have reposted this chapter, so I suggest you read it. To make a log story short, I lost my floppy before saving it to my computer and then found the disk recently (like today) and have been making changes. I hope you all enjoy it and understand it better now!

Memory:

"Does it hurt to remember the past?" The little girl questioned, holding Heero's hand subconsciously. She was swinging it and Mary looked like she was skipping along with them at a leisurely pace, her tongue wagging like her tail back and forth.

"Sometimes." He said simply. He lied, it hurt him whenever he did remember the past that's why he concentrated on other things to keep his mind busy.

"You're lying." The girl said simply, her smile not faltering the slightest.

Heero looked at her, noticing her eyes so full of innocence, yet she seemed to understand everything. He felt a slight smile tug on his lips, which made the girl grin even more widely. He felt as though he had known her all his life and that she was someone for him to protect and be with always.

"You've been so sad." She said, looking ahead of the street they were walking down. People walked right past them, going on with their daily lives. "You thought I was dead and you always blamed yourself." She said quietly.

"I thought you were dead. It was my fault, I was the cause of the whole thing." He said, trying to hide his emotion, which worked well. "How did you survive? I thought everyone died." He said sadly.

"Nope. Mummy and Daddy were at the kitchen table and they shielded me with their body's." She said, sorrow in her eyes as she bit her lip to keep from crying. She let out a sniffle and Heero pulled her into an alley and kneeled down, trying to comfort her. She embraced him. He was shocked at first, but then returned the hug to give some comfort.

"It's all right." He said, still holding her and pulled away to look into her eyes, which were a little tear, stained like her rosy cheeks.

"Mary was with me and she was saved too. The doggie that you buried was Mary's sister puppy that was named Ann." She said quietly.

Heero lowered his head sadly. Nodding at this in understanding.

The little girl lifted up his chin and smiled sadly. "It's all right. I came looking after you. I'm an orphan and I've been doing good, haven't I?" She questioned him.

Heero nodded, feeling the sadness lift off him. "How would you like to stay with me?" He asked her, still kneeling down to her eye level.

Her eyes sparkled as she jumped into a hug, surprising him again. "Can I really?" She cried happily. Heero nodded and she jumped for joy. "Yeah!" She said, gripping his hand.

"I'm Heero." Heero said, noticing he had never introduced himself to her before.

She nodded at this. "I'm Sara and this is Mary." She said, repeating herself with her name and dogs name. She got up and Heero did also.

"My apartment's not far, but I'll need to get some groceries." He said. Walking out of the alley with his hand in her small one.

"Alright!" She said happily. Heero got a very large amount of money for working with Preventer's since he went on the more dangerous missions. He ended up "borrowing" some money from people that he assassinated, making it look like a robbery for money and such.

They walked to the grocery store, taking their time all the way. The two glass doors opened and Heero grabbed a cart, telling the girl to grab some food that she would like. She looked at him, wide-eyed and smiled at him.

Heero picked up some food for dinner, figuring that he'd put his cooking skills to use to make the girl some decent meal's. "Ooh! Can I get this?" She asked him, pointing to the lobster in a fish tank. She poked the tank, thinking they were pet's.

Heero looked at her and grinned. She looked back and saw a person take one out of the tank and kill it. His smile vanished when she saw this also. She looked at it and sighed, then continued down the aisle with Heero. She got a box of Lucky Charm's while he got frosted cheerios, and then they headed down the snack aisle, piling lots of food into the cart. He moved towards the vegetable aisle and then put lots of healthy food in it. He got frozen food too like pizza.

They got a dozen donuts and then went to the checkout line and paid the bill. He took the bag's and then walked to his apartment, not noticing how heavy the bags would be for a normal person.

Sara munched on a chocolate bar that he had gotten her while carrying the donuts very carefully. They stopped in a big and beautiful apartment complex. She inhaled and looked at it. "Wow!" She said happily and followed Heero into the building.

He opened the apartment and then put the bags down on the table and began putting them away with Sara helping him. It felt great to have her around. He found himself smiling just as easy as it was when Relena was around. He felt somewhat relieved that she was alive.

"Come on." He said, leading her out of the kitchen to give her a tour. He showed her the family room with the TV, stereo, a wide window giving the look of a beautiful ocean. He lived right on the oceanfront and there was a giant pool below with a bar and snack area. H showed her his room incase she needed to come and get hi for something.

She followed him around the house, smiling all the while happily. Heero looked down at her and felt somewhat enlightened to see her smile like that. He pushed open a door leading to an empty room with nothing in it.

"What's this room for?" She asked, wandering around it to see that there was a wonderful window outlook.

"This is going to be your room, but I'll have to get you some furniture." He said, kneeling down as he watched her wander around her new room.

"Can I paint it?" She asked, turning around happily.

Heero looked at her and nodded to this which made her jump. "We can get all the stuff tomorrow, so you'll have to sleep in my bed until then. I'll sleep n the couch until then." He said.

"I can sleep on the couch." She said. He shook his head in a 'no' manner.

"I'll be fine." He said, giving her one of his rare smiles to reassure her. "Let's get some food going." He said, her following him out of the room.

The door rang and Sara ran over to it, asking if she could answer it. Heero looked up and walked over to open the door, making sure it was no one that would be a threat.

He came face to face with a red faced Relena who was out of breath from all the running. He looked at her, waiting for her to speak first. He wondered how she got a hold of his address. He kept himself quite low in society, despite being very wealthy.

"Heero," Relena said, looking at the girl before him. "Are you all right?" She questioned.

He looked at her, stunned. Why wouldn't he be all right? His chest hurt a little bit, but other than that he was fine. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He questioned.

"Well...I thought that you wouldn't like us to know about your past and all..." She said, blushing a bit to bring up the cruel memories.

Heero looked at her, confused. "Huh?" He asked. "Are you all right? I have no idea what you are taking about" He stated simply.

"What do you mean 'Huh?'," Relena questioned. "The little girl and her...her..." She was desperately confused.

"She came to visit me. I saw you were asleep and left with her." He said explaining what had happened.

"I- I was asleep?" She asked, stunned. The dream was so vivid and it seemed so...real.

Heero nodded his head at this. "The other's were outside the door so I jumped out the window with her in my arms, it was only a second story." He said, trying to clear up the confusion in her mind. "Look, we were just about to eat, ya wanna come in?" He asked.

Relena nodded and followed Sara over to where she sat, taking a seat herself, and then turned on the TV. Her and Heero were fast friends, almost like brother and sister, only they didn't fight.

Heero came out of the kitchen carrying a cheese tombstone pizza cut New York style as Sara flipped through the channels, choosing an anime network playing some random movie.

Heero got them drinks, each a coke and they relaxed until the door rang. He let Sara go and get the door. Relena decided the whole thing was a dream and put it behind her. Sara came running back in with four people following behind her. She bounced back onto her spot and Heero looked at the four men. Wufei looked at him, smiling slightly to see he was fine, Trowa let out a small smile, Quatre was looking happy and Duo sat down on the couch, stealing a piece of pizza.

"We knew somehow that you were gonna run away. You got a thing with window's." Duo said happily, kicking back on the spot that he had chosen. The other's sat down, even Trowa. He told them to eat some pizza with him and told them the drinks were in the refrigerator.

They all relaxed, watching the movie. The questions could wait until after Sara went to bed.

The clock chimed nine at night when the movie was over. Sara got up, realizing that Heero wanted her to go and get some sleep and gave him a hug. He walked her to his room, her half dragging him, bouncing up and down happily.

"Wow, she's hyper." Duo noted, taking another swig of his drink.

"Reminds me of someone I know..." Wufei said, looking at Duo who snorted at this remark. He glared at Wufei and took another drink of the cola he had in his grasp.

Heero came back after telling Sara to change into one of his very big T-shirts and that they would go clothes shopping tomorrow. She was in bed, asleep and he sat on the couch. "So?"

"We got the commander captive. His soldier's are also in custody at base." Trowa stated.

Relena looked at Heero, noting that his forest tank top had bandages under it. "I'm so sorry." She said, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill.

"It's all right." He said, looking at her. She smiled at bit, noticing his features relax a little when he looked at her.

"The commander looked like he knew you." Wufei said, changing the subject back to find out more about the situation. "Do you know him?" He questioned.

Heero shook his head. "Not that I know of."

"What was that incident?" Relena asked remembering this. "He said something about you being dead and killing yourself...?" Relena questioned.

Heero hid a somewhat pained look in his eyes, which was hidden quickly by is emotionless mask.

'He tried to kill himself before? God, what kind of life did he live?' Duo thought, close to what was going through Quatre's mind also.

"Well?" Wufei asked, waiting for an explanation. At least he had come far enough (hopefully) that he wouldn't try and commit suicide now.

"I was on a mission and a town got destroyed. The girl in my room was supposed to be dead, but I found that she's still alive. I buried her pet's sister or something like that and was about to kill myself when Dr. J gave me three choices. It was for Operation M only was altered." He said quite calmly that it was almost scary. He talked about it like it happened everyday.

"Why would you want to commit suicide over all of this? I mean, you were part of the bloodiest battle of history!" Duo said exasperation. Heero had tried to commit suicide when he first rescued him from an Alliance military facility. He sometimes still had nightmares over that, and always seemed to wonder why he opened his parachute last minute and still lived to tell about it. He heard Relena call his name, but maybe he had released it by reflex when he heard his name.

Heero stared at Duo. "I wasn't needed anymore." He said simply. The others looked at him, dumbfounded at his explanation. "I was obsolete after that mission and Dr. J gave me three choices. I chose the third, which was the alternative Operation M and so they retrained me when they learned about how I had human kindness." He said, almost spitting the word human kindness out with disdain.

"That's no reason to kill yourself." Quatre said quietly. Relena nodded solemnly.

Heero stared at him blankly in return, making him shift uneasily under his gaze. He closed his eyes and

crossed his arms. "Is that so?" He said, boredom evident in his emotionless tone.

"Yes, it is." Relena said sternly, making her point, though Heero didn't even open his eyes to acknowledge this.

He heard a sniffled sob come from Heero's bedroom. He jerked his head in the direction and heard another cry of pain and he rushed over and opened the door in a hurry.

He saw the small form on Sara huddled over in the corner, crying and holding her knees in tightly. She looked up at Heero through terrified eyes. He ran to her side and the others went to go see what was going on and left him, Relena, and Sara alone.

"What's wrong?" Relena asked the huddled girl in Heero's arms. She felt a tinge of jealousy that he was holding her like that and it wasn't her in his arms. Then again, the child did need comfort.

"S-scary man!" Sara cried and Heero flinched, thinking she was calling him that, but saw her pointed finger elsewhere and cries out. Heero barely had time to turn around when something hit him hard in the neck, plunging his world into darkness.

"Heero!" Relena shouted to his unconscious form.

Something gripped her hand tightly and she came face to face with the commander that had shot the young teenager. He grinned evilly to the young maiden and then looked at Heero. "Can't get in the way of my plan's now, can you boy?" He questioned the limp body that didn't stir. He quickly threw a gag over her and into her mouth and cuffed her hands tightly.

Then he looked at Heero's limp form, where the little girl tried to make him wake up, crying out thinking he was dead. He pushed the girl aside, making her hit hard into the wall as she coughed in pain, trying to reclaim the precious air thrown out of her small form. Mary barked angrily at the intruder, but could do nothing that would help in her small puppy form. The man picked up Heero's form and tossed him idly over his shoulder. "This way you won't ruin anything like others plans."

He headed out the window and jumped off the ten-foot high building, pulling something while having his grip on the two people. A white parachute emerged from a back-pack like thing strapped to his back as he landed softly, throwing the two people into the back of the car forcibly. He hit the ignition and raced off towards the highway, hoping no one would notice the disappearance of the two people before it was too late.

He hadn't even bothered with the girl. All he had to do was pull out a gun and her eyes widened and she started crying slightly, just what he wanted to draw their attention. He hid in the shadow's, gun pointed at the people so that she cried before it was too late.

The damage had been done and he fell limply to the floor, a hiss of pain escaped him before he fell unconscious. He had to take the brunet with him. After all, knowing him, if he was willing to get shot in the heart to protect her, he would definitely find her at all costs. He couldn't and wouldn't ruin any of these plans he had worked so hard on.

The Red Doves, an organization that took the white doves of peace and had them stained with the brutality of war and the harshness of it. Heero knew perfectly well why they wouldn't care for peace, he was, after all, trained to be like them. A soldier used for nothing but war. The soldiers that banded together to form this group all had something in common: an emptiness inside of them that wouldn't go away as if they were...obsolete.

Heero groaned as pain seared through his neck and head. He figured whatever made him fall unconscious like that must have been pretty strong and hard. Especially the person who did it to him.

Relena was crying in the gag, tears falling down her face as she realized all that had happened. 'Why? Why was he doing this?' She couldn't help but wonder.

She tried breathing in through her nose, but it had become rather stuff from all the crying she had done and she tried to take in air, getting less and less each time. Trying to breathe through her mouth, she nearly choked and she couldn't breath. She coughed and hacked and Heero's eyes were clenched in pain, still not able to take in what was going around about him. Nothing wanted to work it seemed.

"Damn!" The man shouted, swerving off the side lane under an overpass and threw open the doors and pulled out a knife and cut open the gag, letting Relena gasp as air invaded her gaping mouth. She never knew how precious that one gas was to all human beings until they really needed it.

"W-why?" She croaked, accepting the bottle of water that he gave her to slug down.

"Can't have you die until your purpose is fulfilled yet, can we?" He said evilly, the cold tone of it felt like a snake and its cold scales slithering itself over her body, constricting her movement and gripping her heart.

"What purpose?" Relena asked, now in her normal tone a little stronger than usual to show she was stronger than she looked.

The man grinned evilly at her, making her feel chilled in the almost summer day outside.

author's note: always luv reviews!