Author's note: Sorry for the wait, I had midterms I had to get ready for. Now that they're over, I'll try to post at least once a week.

Memories of the Past

Everything was stained red. Cedric felt as if the world had ended. Someone screamed and fire erupted behind his eyes.

Cedric woke up, finding himself covered in cold sweat. Another dream, he thought, but why are they always the same? Looking around, it took him a few moments to remember where he was. Looking around, he remembered that Angelina had let him stay with her and the children since she found him in the crater. The second day after he'd woken up, she'd told him that if he was going to stay there, he had to earn his keep. Finding that he was a decent driver, Angelina set him up as her getaway driver after she robbed a house.

Angelina walked in just then, already dressed. "Another dream?" she asked.

Cedric nodded mutely. He just couldn't seem to be able to speak. Every time he had another of those dreams he would feel this unexplainable sense of loss. What did I lose? Was that my past? That . . . explosion?

Angelina, taking pity on him, went over and sat on the bed beside him. "It's okay. You'll remember eventually," she said, guessing correctly that Cedric's silence meant he was trying to remember. "The dreams will pass and the best way to get rid of them, is to work until you drop," she swapped to a more cheerful tone, "Speaking of work, time to get ready. You have five minutes before we go."

As Angelina left him to his thoughts, he tried to remember anything, anything, about his past. All he could remember was a face, a vixen with long black hair.

Hundreds of miles away, Grace had just woken up after the surgery.

"Good to see you're awake, said Penelope, smiling for the first time in days.

"Wha.. What happened?" Grace slurred sleepily.

"We missed a sniper. He shot you when we thought we'd gotten all of them. You got lucky, he missed one of your arteries by a hair."

"Where's Cedric? Can I see him?" Grace asked.

"Now might not be the best time," Said Penelope, hoping to put off the inevitable.

"Why? He doesn't blame himself does he?" Grace struggled to sit up.

Penelope gently pushed her back down, "No, he's . . . well, he's missing."

"What?"

"He . . . exploded after you got shot. He disappeared, but Bentley and Hugo are trying to track him down," she added at the end to keep Grace from getting up again.

"They have to find him. They have to . . ." Grace trailed off. "Tell Hugo that if he doesn't find Cedric soon, I'll kill him."

Back in Florida, Cedric and Angelina were about to break into the house Angelina had chosen as their target.

"Who owns this place?" Cedric asked, amazed. There was security everywhere.

"Some lord or other. He's probably got this as his summer home. He must be psycho or something," Angel said as she ducked a laser that swept over head, " I mean, this isn't the nicest town, but this place is a fortress.

The two of them snuck through the place, Angelina flipping and bouncing off the walls to avoid the lasers as Cedric ducked them one at a time, timing his moves so that he could get through. Finally, they got to a door with no lock. Angel spent five minutes feeling around the door for some sort of secret switch, but there didn't seem to be one. Finally, she gave up.

"You mean we came all this way, dodging lasers, for nothing?" Cedric fumed. Angrily, he punched the wall to his left. To their combined surprise, a panel in the wall slid away to reveal a hand print reader. Curious, Cedric placed his hand on the reader. Seconds later, the door opened.

"What the . . ." began Angel, but stopped as Cedric went in the room, "Wait, there could be more security,."

"There aren't," he said instinctively.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"I just know," he said, not sure himself.

The room they were in was large, comfortable rather than extravagant, and looked more like a middle class suburban home than a walled house filled with security. On the wall opposite them, there was a large picture of four people in front of the house they were in. Entranced, Cedric walked forward until he could see the painting better in the dim light. The painting was of a black jaguar, a lynx, a wolf and . . . a vixen. Not just a vixen, but the vixen in his memories. Grace, he thought. Tearing his eyes away from Grace he looked back at the wolf. The wolf was obviously male, with silver hair that fell into his eyes and a red-bladed sword. He was maybe 15 in the picture and if you accounted for a couple years . . . .

Coming over to see what he was looking at, Angel saw the wolf in the painting. In took her seconds to see the resemblance between him and Cedric.

"No way, you look just like the wolf in the photo," she said disbeleiving.

"No. I am the wolf in the picture," Cedric said, finally remembering, "And the reason the door opened, is that this is my house."

"What? This is your . . . ." Angel stopped suddenly, frightened. Making a break for the door, She found that it suddenly was blocked by a wall of fire.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to have you arrested. Sit down, I have a proposition for you."

Wary, Angel slumped into the sofa. It's all over, she thought, he's going to be like any other rich jerk and have me arrested for breaking and entering, even if he did help.

Cedric's next words almost put her into shock. "How would you like to work with me?"

"What? Work ... with you? Doing what?" she said shocked.

"Well, for starters, you can bring the orphans you're taking care of up here, it's much safer than your place. Secondly, I'm going to leave you in charge of this place while I'm gone. One of my friend should show up soon, now that I opened the house. I'll leave a note so he knows what you're doing here and he'll tell you what we do for a living."

"Why would you do this? I mean, I broke into your house to steal from you," she objected, confused.

"First, your need is greater than mine. Those children need a place to stay. Second, you helped me. I owe you this at least."

"Alright, but where are you going?"

Declining to answer the question, Cedric turned to a computer in the corner of the room. "I'll put your hand print in so that you can get around the house. Just press your hand here to put it in."

"You didn't answer my question,"

"Sorry, maybe my friend will ask you to go with him when he comes after me, which he inevitably will. In the meantime, I have . . . someone I need to meet."

With that Cedric left, seeking the man who had killed the woman he loved, planning to make him pay.