Title: The Looking-Glass House
Author: Aerith Queen of Cetra
Chapters: 1/19
Summary: "Can someone please help me..." An extra drop of fuel can take you far beyond the realms of safety and for Faye Valentine, it brought her into the hands of the Red Dragon Syndicate. .:SpikexFaye and slight ViciousxFaye:.
Genre: Angst/Romance
Beta'd: Nu-uh!
Warnings: Angst, mentions of torture, slight OOCness, drifting from the plot.
Disclaimer: I have never owned Cowboy Bebop despite what my TV License has been edited to say...
Author's Comments: This is a what-if story blown completely out of proportion xD When Faye was stranded and she called for help, what are the odds that someone else would pick up the transmission?
Chapter 1: The Road Not Taken
Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.
- Keri Russell -
Luck was not the ally of one Faye Valentine. From all of the crazy stunts she pulled from the moment she was unfrozen until her brief encounter with the two Cowboy's of the Bebop and their loyal little mascot, she had held this as her personal philosophy of life.
However, for once she believed that perhaps she was maintaining the respect of Lady Luck as she willed her ship further away from the Bebop and the catastrophic results of the Casino ploy. But this disappeared as she fled past the moon of Ganymede and further away, closer to Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, where she unwillingly slowed to a complete halt.
Her fingers pitter-pattered across the console, a number of flashing lights and overlapping blue windows on the screen replying to her desperate attempts.
"Out of... fuel?" She strained out in disbelief before yelling in frustration and smacking the console with her balled fist.
Breathing heavily, she looked out of the clear, egg shaped cabin of her ship and pondered what she should do.
The emerald eyed, would-be pensioner had to groan in order to keep herself from self-abuse as she lightly tapped a large button and murmured gently, "Hello, is there anybody out there? I'm kind of out of fuel at the moment and I need help. Please respond."
Silence answered her and she hurled abuse back before repeating her distress signal. Again. And again. And again.
Faye groaned and fell back against the seat, looking around the dead of space, the empty, desolate place without any remorse for her.
She sat there for several moments, perhaps even a full hour, after the supply of snacks in her ship had been diminished, before she decided to plead her case to Lady Luck again. Placing her hands together in a praying position, she whispered. "Please, oh please. I don't ask for much... not really... but please I really need help, please help me."
"What are your co-ordinates?"
Faye screamed her head off at the response before she realised that she had left her com system on. A smile spread across her features and she scrambled as close to the device as she possibly could, "I-I'll send you them now."
Once pleasantries had been exchanged in the form of degrees, Faye's tiny ship was overshadowed by a larger grey ship, which immediately pulled hers into its wide dock.
Faye thanked whatever guardian angel was watching over her and leapt out of her ship once the doors had shut with a clinical slam.
Two men in blue jumpsuits immediately stepped out of a brightly illuminated doorway, followed soon by a tall thin man in a dark suit with slicked back hair.
She put on her best seductive face as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Why hello there. Thank you for responding to my distress call."
Her eyes followed the two men in the jumpsuits as they moved to examine her ship and she assumed them to be mechanics of some sort. She turned her gaze back to the more official looking man who had stopped his trek before her with a rather wry smile.
"Not at all ma'am. We could hardly ignore a young woman, a very beauty young woman might I add, who was in need."
His calm and complementing voice caused Faye to smile in appreciation and she willed her cheeks to produce a dusty tint, which seemed to have worked as his lips spread further apart.
One of the mechanics came back and mumbled something in the suited man's ear to which he nodded and whispered something back.
Faye's slender eyebrows creased, "Is there a problem?"
The dark haired man resumed his smile, "Only slightly. It seems that one side of your ship has been damaged, which could be contributed to your sudden loss of fuel."
Faye couldn't resist the curl of her lips into a snarl as she stared at her ship through the corner of her eye, blaming the first face that came to mind. 'Damn you, Spike...'
"So I'm afraid you're stuck with us until we touchdown on Mars."
"Mars?" She blinked. "How long will that take?"
"An hour at the very least. I'll take you somewhere where you will be comfortable whilst you wait."
She muttered her thanks and followed him out of the rectangular opening in the wall and down the brightly lit hallway.
Nothing particularly compelling struck her about this ship and, personally, she had found the Bebop more interesting during her brief time there.
She sighed and decided to make the best of her situation as she was led into a, quite definitely, more interesting place than before; into a luxurious and lavishly designed room with those always delightful red and gold sofa's and perfectly polished tables.
Faye smiled as she clasped her hands together over her chest, "This is incredible. You must be a highly successful man, sir...?"
"You may call me Lin for the duration of your stay here." He bowed and moved out of the door.
Alone in the room, she sat down on the sofa and graciously enjoyed the soft sinking feeling she felt as she lay there.
Faye's forest green eyes moved to look at the window and she blinked in surprise as a familiar long ship began to move past the clear wall.
"That ship again... his ship... that damn Spike's..." She stood up and moved to the window to stare at it. "Only moments apart, to think... if Lin hadn't been here then I would've been caught by them again."
She shook her head in relief and, feeling her curiosity rise at his absence, moved to the doorway to find Lin.
With a loud click of her heels against the metallic floor, she stared down the hallway she had just came from and then down the one on the opposite side, which presumably led to the cockpit of the ship, and she walked that way.
This end of the hallway led Faye to a door hinting to the finale of the ship and as she lifted her hand to push open the door, loud voices piqued her interest and she listened carefully to what they were saying.
Random phrases were thrown around, none of them connecting enough for her to make sense of the conversation and she began repeating what she heard in a tiny whisper.
"Moving... close... sore... tree... spy... kill... kill?" That last word made her interest soar again and she pressed her ear against the door carefully yet with a hint of desperation.
The words became much clearer. "He should be... in approx... two hours... then... we can initiate... the plan..."
'They're plotting someone's murder?' Her mind twisted around this thought and she bit her lip, considering her own sense of safety upon this ship for the first time.
"Yes..." This voice, so unlike Lin's, gruff and unforgiving, sent chills down Faye's spine and she felt a sudden urge to move away yet her blasted curiosity, or perhaps simply fear, refused to allow her that option.
"Yes... for... must be... and then... the Red... Syndicate will... supreme!" This new voice was irrelevant to Faye, simply the word 'syndicate' sent her body in motion and she flung herself away from the door as if it had burnt her.
Her heart stopped at the thunderous noise that bounced off of the walls from her sudden movement and any thoughts of silence escaped her panicked mind as she picked herself up and fled down the corridor.
Those two blasted men in jumpsuits came marching mechanically up the other end of the hallway and Faye, in desperation, lunged into the closest room to her and twisted the lock.
She cursed her luck that she ended up back in that same, once elegant seeming, room as before or at least one startlingly similar.
The door behind her heaving body echoed with the inevitable sounds of these strangers' attempts to open the door, attempts which she had no doubt would be successful.
Faye instinctively backed away from the quaking metal door, almost tripping over the glistening table as she backed away as far as she could from those horrendous bangs.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the Bebop still sailing with carefree grace across the expanse of space and it was during this time that those men had finally broken into the room.
She had no time to push herself away to make a run for the door as Lin made a graceful leap across the table, a white cloth, no doubt lain with chloroform, resting sinisterly in his hand.
She swivelled her body around, her front pressed against the window as the cloth's overwhelming sauna hit her senses.
Her hands pressed against the window, placed perfectly around the casually passing brown ship she had only just escaped from, as if to pull it closer in a second beacon of distress.
Moving closer to the floor as the rough cloth was practically stuffed down her throat, her hands automatically moving to grasp the silken sleeves of her captor's suit, the last thought that came to her as her mind was enshrined in darkness was a simple curse.
'Lady Luck is a bitch...'
O.o;; First chapter I assume? It made me giggle that I had the Bebop pass the window at the end. Irony! XD
Oh well, here's where it all kicks off! I blame that what-if episode of Doctor Who for actually making me get off my butt and write this thing. So... please review!