First... A Poetic Explanation of the Title...
Relena was wearing a blue and white checker dress as she skipped through the grassy expanse in her dream,
Her little dog Heero bounding along beside her.
She stopped to wonder at the three brilliant moons that hung in the starry sky,
"Is world peace really possible?" she asked as she crouched to scratch Heero behind his ear.
"If you wonder that, perhaps you should go ask the King of Fate yourself!" she turned to see a half-faced clown balancing upon a large mushroom that was growing near by.
"The King of Fate? Do you know how to find him?"
"Not a clue! I'm just a fool."
"I do! I do!" said an old leather shoe with braided laces.
So Relena, Heero and the clown all followed the shoe down a rose lined path and up a mountain side.
Along the way a mechanical peacock and a black & white lynx with brilliant gold eyes joined them on their way,
Interested in what the King of Fate would say...
There he stood like a statue since time immortal upon the mountain's rocky peak: the body of a lion with feet and tail of a mighty dragon,
His torso that of a man's, bare chested and muscled, and upon his shoulders sat a head with five faces;
Two of Earth and much the same and sharing one side; one old and one young,
One of Heaven with blond hair framing the ice blue eyes radiating purity and light,
One of Space with black hair to match it's ebony eyes laughing with hope and freedom,
...The last face of Night, colorless and shrouded with all the darkness of the world's soul... faced away from her to stare out into a place only it could see.
"Oh King of Fate, Please tell me... is peace real? Can equality be attained by all people of the Earth Sphere?"
The King's first two faces lifted to meet her eye and reply,
"If men have dreams they keep in their souls... and the will to defend their right to them..."
The face of Space now spoke it's turn,
"If men keep hope and walk freely as they would please..."
The face of Heaven turned and continue in it's own low-deep tone,
"If men give themselves to the greater good and see to the dreams of others..."
All four voices now spoke,
"...Peace is possible for anyone of the Earth Sphere. But...
...there is only one peace of which all can share equally..."
The final face...the face of Night...now turned to face Relena and her little Gundam Pilot entourage.
As her eyes began to peer through the gloom that shrouded it's sharp features, she realized that she did not know this man yet...
"But...what is it? Oh King of Fate, tell me! What is the Peace of which all can share equally?"
Even as she asked it in her dream, the thrill of terror that griped her spine and sent her plunging deep through an icy abyss spoke the answer plainly enough...
She awoke breathless and drenched in sweat, the room was black except for the green glow of the digits on her alarm clock.
Relena tossed back the covers and went to her window to stare out at the moonless cloudy night...
...& The Night Just Grinned Viciously Back at the once Queen of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation.
Cowboy Bebop and all it's characters are the property of their respective owners. Like wise for the characters and world of Gundam Wing and all it's inventions.
All of this I manipulate into the following tale for zero profit of my own and general public entertainment for any who seek it...
….MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAAA!
((...and apparently the one time I DONT put a big authors note is when I need one... This is Gundam Wing Universe. The Characters of Spike, Faye and Jet are (now) all members of the Red Dragon Syndicate. Vicious is sill in his position of 'enforcer', but as will be explained later, him and Spike never had their complete falling out over Julia. The Bebop, instead of being a ship, is the 'classy' night club on Jazz St that serves as 'the dragon's den'.
So people know what up, I started writing (Gundam Wing Trieze x Noin) BTRw... then it's prequel TPoYI... then a Halloween sidestory placed AFTER BTRw... and Now I'm going ahead and releasing the official sequel before any of those are even finished and have been stalled for a few months... why?
Well for one, as far as publishing things in any sane order is concerned... already failed miserably.
Two, Vicious crawled in the back of my head with a gun and told me to drive the damn story cuz he wasn't waiting on all that pacifistic crap any longer... (figuratively of course. I'm not THAT insane...yet.) SO HERE WE GO!))
The tail of the heavy sedan slid out wide around the bend, the smell of burning rubber, oil and transmission fluid filling the cab. The mistake was well calculated to give the white-blond haired driver a chance to squeeze off a shot or two out the open window before steadying the front wheels to the center of the road and slamming his feet in rapid succession to tear back into top gear for the straight away towards a main road intersection.
Sure enough the trailing blacked-out coup was unable to react with it's driver dead and both of the shooters hanging out the side windows were thrown wide of the car as it bounced on the curb before careening into the brick apartments that lined the narrow street on the edge of the western slums.
Vicious barely blinked as he slammed the car to a stop with a screech at the red light and traded the 1911 .45ACP for a disposable lighter and cigarette. He could hear the shouts of residents drawn out of their abodes by the sound of the ruckus – or rather the silence after the disturbance, since people in that area knew better then to get involved. He still had a drop off to make at Kao's however and blew off the end of the red light to cut off a station wagon driven by somebody's young mother.
The smoke streamed out his nostrils to be pulled out the window as he rolled it up to better hide his features. He was positive that the only sound louder then the lady's horn was probably the exclamations of her children at the myriad of bullet holes that surely riddled the back and sides of his car.
The hole-ridden beat up sedan pulled into the open warehouse loading door causing both Spike and Faye to start for the nearest firearms before they recognized the more then familiar driver.
"Aw gezz, see that is exactly why everyone hates being around you, Spike. Without fail! Every time! That one has to show up and you NEVER warn anyone!"
Spike ejected the butt-end of a cig with a heavy sigh, settling back with his arms behind his head on the tattered couch that had been found in the next door junkyard.
"Hey it's not like he tells me when he's gonna drop in, he just does it."
"Oh? Then how does he always know where you are if your not the one telling him?"
Spike lifted a finger to point at the high steel rafters and Faye frowned up at them. A black bird that looked like a mix between a crane and a raven let out a loud mourning caw before swooping down over the two to land on it's master's shoulder as Vicious got out of the car. There was a loud fretful groan: Jet had just come around the stack of storage crates to spot the mostly wrecked vehicle.
"Oh, no, no, no! Don't tell me you want me to fix that thing up again? It was a miracle I got it to run in the first place!" Jet pulled at his face in frustration – he hated having to do pro bono work all the time even if his 'salary' from the higher-ups in the syndicate was supposed to cover the trouble. There was just no compensating for the shadow of destruction that followed the introverted professional criminal.
"Don't worry it's beat." as if to prove the point there was a chiming clang as the entire exhaust system dropped out the bottom of the vehicle. Jet cringed before shaking his head as he went back to the leftover Chinese reheating in the microwave of the building's office. Vicious gave up one of the dried fruits he kept on him to the expectant bird as he walked over to the couch.
"Guessing you got over to Kao's place already or you wouldn't be so calm." Spike pulled another cigarette from his pack with his mouth and lazily lit it. Faye got up from her perch with an uncomfortable grumble and went to join Jet in order to get as far away from the volatile killer as she could. The bird lifted off to fly silently out into the night content with it's reward.
"Yeah, where's that bonus package Mardok gave you to hold onto?"
Spike turned over the miniature lock-box he'd tucked into his inner breast pocket earlier that day. Vicious rested his katana next to him as he sat. The lock was open and it's contains out for review in a blink before proceeding to extract and prepare a few doses of the various powders for himself on a pocket mirror.
"So... exactly what happened to your ride this time?"
"Some punks I didn't have time for down on the west side..."
"Oh, whoa, wait!" Faye had come back over hearing that, "Your not talking about that local street co-op? You DO know they got Snake backing over the weekend? You so did NOT just drive here after getting in a fight with them!"
"Why the FUCK should I care?" he finished off the second line of heroin and moved onto the coke.
"I don't know Mr. Invincible, maybe because those blue-balled bastards are looking for any excuse to take you down? They're probably already prepping to SWAT this place, Jesus!"
"Then leave." Faye let out a frustrated growl and started packing her things together grumbling under her breath all the while. Spike was never the paranoid type and continued ignoring the drama queen.
"So, I guess we might as well go ahead and meet up with that kid asap and get that errand done for Kao. I'm parked a few blocks over..."
"Can't do it till later, got work at Forté. I'll get out at 11." he was packing up the rest of the supplies and tucked it safely away.
"Ah. I could drop you off if that's what your after." Spike couldn't help thinking 'So that's why your in a bad mood.'
He knew how much Vicious hated playing by anyone's rules, and trapping him in a Michelin star kitchen for four hours was always certain to test his patience even if it was his culinary skills that had earned the place it's claim to fame several years back. It was one thing to be able to cook a delicious french style meal – it was something completely different when it could still taste to the same high standards after incorporating a doubly lethal dose of strychnine. It was one of a myriad of talents that put Vicious at the top of the Dragon syndicates favorites list... and the top of everyone else's hated list.
"Oh, is someone getting your 'special' souffle tonight?" Faye had always had a bad habit of not being able to stay away from dangerous things, even when she knew better.
"If they send their order back too many times, sure, why not." The drugs were starting to do their work.
"...and by too many you mean at all." Spike couldn't help laughing at that, it was a rare privilege of his as the closest thing to a friend Vicious had. It was far less likely for him to find a katana buried up to it's black hilt in his chest without warning – something that happened more often then not around the touchy 33 year old criminal.
Faye just shook her head as she slung her pack over one shoulder and tucked her pistol into the back of her yellow shorts before heading out the nearest exit.
Without even a squawk the bird swooped back inside to do a pinwheel turn over the two on the couch before exiting as swiftly as it had come.
Faye burst back in the way she'd come,
"HOLY FUCK do I HATE being right!" She didn't even stop to explain any further as she dove in between the nearest aisle of crates with gun in hand.
Spike had forgotten for a second what she was referring to and just stared questioningly at Vicious who was slumped forwards with eyes closed, his arms resting on each knee and head hanging. There was no telling if he was even the slightest bit aware of the world around him.
"SPIKE!" Gun fire erupted from the office Jet had gone into followed by the sound of the locks being blasted off the various doors to the huge steel building.
"No choice." Spike stood where he was and picked off the first few targets on the upper catwalk as Jet barreled out into the main room with an AR in each hand sending off a grouping each time he got a clear shot.
It was quickly clear that they were out numbered pretty badly as gunfire started to fill the air and he instinctively grabbed Vicious by the back of his jacket dragging him along as he leaped over the back of the couch and dove for where Jet had knocked over a stack of the smaller storage boxes next to the already bullet ridden sedan. Without even a glimmer of acknowledgment Vicious took hold of the AR in Jet's left arm and wrenched it to fire at the lock on the sedan's trunk before tossing the lid up and rolling inside.
"What the...?" Jet sputtered out just before Spike shoved his head down as another spray of bullets glanced by them.
"Is it just me or are these guys getting to be worse and worse shots?" Spike was keeping an fervent eye on their exposed flank as he reloaded his pistols.
"It's all the damn ex-soldiers! Now the war is over they got nothing else better to do!"
"Hey, aren't you an ex-soldier Jet?"
"Military Police, different story!" Just as they swung up to return fire with the Snake Soldiers now scattered across the upper catwalk, there was the clicks of rifles coming to the ready behind them as the ground level group came around behind them to form a firing squad keeping their distance.
"HANDS UP!"
Spike couldn't help his sheepish grin as he muttered to Jet,
"...like it really matters."
One of the syndicate soldiers jacketed in their official colors standing near the back of the line-up was obviously one of the operation chiefs,
"Turn him over nice like and we might even feel gracious enough to give you the offered reward."
"Sorry, afraid that isn't really up to us."
The trunk lid busted up and Vicious fired the grenade launcher in rapid succession quickly killing most of the blockade and knocking the rest from their feet. He shoved it into Jet's chest with most of the rounds still in it as he rushed forwards and drew his blade to quickly finish off the survivors.
Spike pulled out an AK that was waiting loaded in the trunk as Jet put the rest of the grenades to good use. They both had Vicious covered easily as he set about hunting down the rest of the team that had scattered throughout the stacks of inventory. With cries still echoing off the steel walls Spike casually sat down on one of the crates to light up another cigarette and offered one to Jet.
"It's usually best to just stay out of the way and let him do his thing," Nervously, and obviously unconvinced, Jet took it continuing to glance around for someone trying to jump them as soon as they let down their guard. There was an especially excruciating cry from the other end of the warehouse.
"I guess you have a point..." Just then some of the debris shifted near-by and Jet had his gun leveled in an instant, while Spike just puffed away.
"Hey, don't shoot, it's just me... So much for trying to outflank them..." Faye finally dislodged herself from the pile.
Spike gave her his best patronizing tone,
"Aw was Faye going to try and be a hero?"
Jet snorted,
"More like she got caught in the crossfire trying to sneak out the back."
"Hey! That's not nice, I wasn't just going to leave you guys here..."
"Sure you weren't... bet you heard the word 'reward' and had to stop to wonder if you could collect." the rest of the warehouse had fallen silent.
Vicious walked back over emerging out of the haze that was starting to settle, his black attire only deepened by the blood soaking into it. He casually busted out the drivers window and reached down to pull the 1911 .45ACP out of the side pocket, he popped the magazine out to check it briefly and then snapped it back in before pointing it directly at Faye...and then firing just to the side of her head. There was the wet impact sound as a man's body dropped dead behind her.
"Let's go." He pulled the black duffel bag's strap that was slung over the back of the driver's seat out and started heading to exit the scene of the massacre. "I'm gonna need a shower first."