Disclaimer: I do not own CB or any of the characters. Don't sue me. Aight?
"What do you mean 'he' took Ed? Who the hell's 'he'?" Jet asked angrily.
"Santo. Santo Cortez took Ed. I-I don't know how he got on the ship." Faye panted.
A moment of silence passed through each of them as they thought of their little companion's fate. Santo Cortez was a dangerous man by all means. Especially for an inexperienced youngster to deal with. 87 before her in the same exact position were already dead because of him and most likely, Ed would end up the same way if they didn't do something fast.
"You mean to tell us that you let this dangerous man onto our ship, got Edward kidnapped, and almost got the Bebop blown to bits and pieces?" Spike spat out. "Geez, I think Ed should be babysitting you from now on since you've shown us that you can't do a decent job by yourself."
"Spike-" Faye muttered lowly.
"And to think that you're actually older than all of us. I thought your maturity level would have at least been higher."
"Spike, don't-"Faye repeated, her anger rising even more.
"Or at least your sense of responsibility. Geez, I wonder if the old Faye was the exact same way."
"Spike, I'm warning you." Faye clenched her hand into a ball, trying to control herself. This was no time to fight.
Spike ignored her and continued. "No, old habit die hard and this is habit's ancient."
"Spike!" Faye yelled. She brought her hand back and struck him across his face. His head whipped to the side slightly and he quieted down, stiffening as he took a deep breath. He was about to retaliate, but Jet stepped between the two.
"That's enough!" he yelled, his voice echoing throughout the hanger. "Geez, is this how you fight everyday?" He wondered, completely astounded. He knew they fought a lot, but this was just ridiculous. He wondered how the two of them were even alive after having fights like this day in and day out. "Now, I don't want the two of you fighting...no, make that talking to each other...better yet, I don't want the two of you in the same room with each other until we find Edward. Until that happens, Spike, you have your room to stay in and you can go in and out of the living room. Faye, you stay in your room and you can go in and out of the kitchen. But that's it. And I better not hear you two encounter each other in the bathroom or all hell's gonna break loose. Get it?"
Faye and Spike looked at Jet dumbfounded. "You're actually grounding us?" Faye asked. "We're adults. you can't do that!"
Jet took a menacing step towards her, frowning. "I'll treat the two of you like adults when you two start acting like them."
He stared Faye down until she nodded meekly, turning her head away.
Spike smirked at her, but Jet snapped his head towards him, giving Spike the same exact look.
"Alrighty," Jet said once he knew Spike had gotten the idea. "Now we need to go find Ed. I'll be on her laptop tracking her and you two...." Jet looked at them and sighed. "...just don't kill each other."
***
"And you better stay in your rooms!" Jet's voice echoed through out the Bebop, carrying his voice down each hallway.
Faye scoffed and slammed her door shut, walking over to her vanity and looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had a splitting headache.
Spike did the same with his door, but slammed it even harder.
Faye heard his loud slam and, despite her need for peace and quiet, walked back over to her door, opening it wide, then swinging it shut loudly. The door resounded with a glass shattering crack.
"Oh no you don't," Spike grinned. He opened his door until it couldn't open anymore and he slammed his door shut, making this into some kind of competition.
The doors slamming could be heard from the living room where Jet sat and he groaned. "Stop it the two of you!" He bellowed through the Bebop. making sure that he was heard.
There was one more slam, a little lighter than before, but after that, it was totally silent.
"At least Ed acts more older than they do put together," Jet muttered as he logged onto her mainframe. "Too bad she's not here though."
A bright yellow smiley face with rosy cheeks came up on the computer screen. "Log in, Ed-Ed!" came the automated computer voice.
Jet sighed and began thinking of password possibilities. He typed in the most obvious "Tomato."
"Access denied!" the computer voice chirped, the face turning from happy to angry. "You wouldn't happen to be a hacker looking to log into Ed-Ed's PC, now will you?"
Jet sighed once again and typed in "Ein."
"Access denied! You got to do better than that!"
Jet tried other names and combinations...Faye, Faye-Faye, Spike, Spike-person, Bebop, Bebop-Bebop. Nothing worked.
"Might as well give it a try," Jet muttered to himself as he typed in his name. He pressed enter and the computer paused for a second. Then the angry yellow face on the computer suddenly smiled brightly. "Welcome, Ed-Ed! So happy to see you again!"
Jet chuckled to himself. "Well, whadda ya know?" he said. He typed in a Edward's name and pressed search on the computer.
It took a few moments, but hundreds of satellites throughout the universe began scanning for the small girl. Jet waited patiently for the result and took a second to listen carefully. He couldn't hear Faye and Spike anymore, so he figured it was a good thing...oh, he was horribly wrong.
***
"Damn, I left my cigarettes in the kitchen," Spike muttered to himself as he first pat himself down. "Can't sleep without a cigarette..."
Spike opened his door slowly and looked down the hall towards Faye's room. Her door was closed too and Spike took that as a good sign. He exited his room and walked briskly down the hallway towards the main living compartments of the Bebop. He saw Jet sitting down in their worn out couch, hunched over Ed's laptop.
"Any luck?" Spike inquired, leaning against the doorframe. He took out a cigarette and let it hang from his mouth for a few seconds.
Jet just shook his head and rubbed his head with his metal arm. "None yet really. It's searching for Ed right now, but I'm guessing that Ed has a trace blocker on her so she doesn't get tracked down by any other hackers. Her signal keeps coming up as 'uncertain.'"
Spike just shrugged. "Well, why don't you track down Santo? I'm sure he doesn't have any trace blockers on him."
Jet looked up at Spike, both amazed and embarrassed that he didn't think about that earlier. "Good idea," Jet muttered and he went to typing.
"Alright, I'm gonna go take a shower like a good little boy," Spike said sarcastically. He turned and backed out the room, leaving Jet to his own work.
As Spike began walking to the bathroom, he realized that he forgot his lighter. He grew annoyed that his trusty lighter wasn't in his jacket pocket like it usually is and he turned to walk back to the living area.
Just before he turned to leave, however, he spotted something move out from the corner of his good eye. He spun around to be greeted by a dark shadow moving across to the bathroom.
"Faye," Spike muttered, not knowing if he should hurry and get into the bathroom before she did or let her have it first. If he did the first option, he was sure to get it from both Faye and Jet. His child like side told him to take the bathroom. He didn't know why, but his child side always seemed to come out when it came to Faye. She always made him drop whatever he was doing just to make her life miserable. But then again, she made his life equally as miserable by getting under his skin all the time. He didn't like it one bit that she was the only person who could really bother him....well the second person. Vicious came first.
Faye didn't seem to notice him as she walked sleepily to the bathroom. What she needed right now was a nice hot bath...with no interruptions. With the way things were going on the Bebop, she didn't know if it was possible anymore.
She closed the door behind her and turned on the bathroom light, looking at herself in the mirror. She grimaced as her reflection showed herself exactly the way she felt at the time: like shit. Realizing that she forgot her shampoo, Faye opened the door and walked back to her room to retrieve a bottle.
This is my chance,
Spike thought to himself mischievously. He tiptoed quietly down the hall and into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He locked it just as he heard Faye's small patter of footsteps."What the-" he heard her mutter as she turned the handle. It didn't take her long to realize what he was doing to her.
"Spike!" she yelled through the wood between them. "Get the hell out! I was using the bathroom first!"
Spike didn't bother responding. Instead, he turned the hot water on full blast and got in the shower. He let the steamy water run through his hair, soaking it until it was matted down to his forehead, revealing it's true length. He sighed and grabbed the bar of soap, running it across his lean muscles, trying to block out Faye's attempts to get him out of the bathroom. She was really ruining this peaceful moment for him...
Spike's senses kicked in when Faye went quiet for a second. Then out of nowhere, there was a loud gun shot come from the other side of the door and before he knew it, the bathroom door was wide open.
"Geez, Faye!" Spike yelled, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist. "What are you trying to do, kill me?" He stepped out of the shower as Faye walked in, completely unaware of Spike's half-nakedness.
"No," she replied. "If I wanted to I already would have done it by now. What I want is the bathroom to myself right now. You had no right to waltz right in when you knew I was going to use it."
"I don't see your name written anywhere in this bathroom," Spike argued back. "As a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing your name on anything on this ship. You're here because of common courtesy. As a charity. Nothing here really belongs to you, therefore Jet and I get access to everything first."
Faye raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she stated. "Well, that towel is mine." She pointed down at Spike. "Give it back to me."
He glanced down to his waist and gave a smirk. "You're just using this as an excuse to get into my pants," he replied.
Faye gave him a fake smile. "In your dreams, Lunkhead," she said, tapping her index finger against her cheek, looking down at the towel once more. "Give it up now."
Spike glared at her, but only momentarily. "I have nothing to be ashamed of," he replied as he ripped the towel off of his waist, revealing him in his birthday suit. "I'm just doing you a favor." He stood there and Faye stared at his face, her eyes twitching violently as she forced herself not to look down. "Well, you can really do me a favor and get the hell out now. You've wasted all the hot water."
She brushed past Spike and slammed the door loudly.
"What the hell was that noise? I don't want to have to make anymore new repairs." Jet raged, running to the hallway leading to the bathroom. He felt like he was a father to these people. He stopped short when he saw Spike standing in the middle of the hallway buck naked and wet with water.
"Care to explain?" Jet asked.
Spike shook his head angrily and walked to his bedroom. "No. Ask the shrew woman. I'm going to sleep."
***
'I almost got him,' Ed thought to herself as she typed with one hand. With her other hand she brought her goggles down over her eyes.
"Yesss!" she cheered as her laptop beeped a few times, confirming that the search was almost complete. She stared intently at the screen, not even looking up as she heard Faye walk in the cockpit.
"I think we almost got him, Faye," Ed said excitedly as the satellites traced Santo. 'Just a few more seconds...' And she was right. The tracer closed in somewhere near earth...
'That's where we are,' Ed thought to herself, but she quickly pushed the thought away as she heard Faye's footsteps directly behind her. She was about to turn around to address her, but she heard another beep on her laptop. She kept her eyes glued on the screen as her eyes furrowed together in a bit of confusion.
"He's located.....on the Bebop-Bebop?" '
Realization dawned in on her and her heart dropped. How had he gotten past her security system? It was fail proof! Or so she thought. Just then, Ed remembered that somebody was standing in the same room as her.. 'Please be Faye, please be Faye, please be Faye,' Ed thought to herself frantically as she spun around. She wasn't really surprised when her eyes met the eyes of Santo Cortez and her mind filled with thoughts of the 87 others that he had kidnapped and killed. This was one time where she actually feared for her life. And like any other time where she was faced in a life and death situation, Ed's mind raced in a million different directions, trying to find a way out. But she came up short and just stared into those cold eyes.
"Ho, ho, ho, Santa Cortez," she said when she couldn't think of anything else to do.
His eyes narrowed and he reached out for her, shoving the damp napkin over her mouth. He held her small body against his and nearly suffocated her with his large hand. She flailed her arms out, trying to hit him somewhere, anywhere, but when it came to self-defense, she was the inexperienced cowgirl.
Ed's punches seemed to die down as the anesthetic on the napkin began to take effect. 'You can't fall asleep!' Ed told herself as her eyes closed. She tried to force them open once again, but they fell back down drowsily. 'You can't leave Faye..."
"Faye-Faye!" Ed screamed as she shot awake. She looked around herself and saw that she was on a bed. Frantically, Ed jumped off the bed, but only fell face down on the floor. Her legs felt wobbly and weak, and her hands were cuffed to her back. Her face pressed against the floor and she groaned, turning herself on her back and she sighed, trying to gather the strength to stand up on her own two legs...but for some reason it seemed impossible.
She heard a door open and a scurry of footsteps approach her. Ed's heart raced and she tried to move herself under the bed as best as she could, but she was only halfway through when she heard a deep chuckle from behind her.
"I can see that you're awake and fully energized," a deep throaty voice croaked, dripping with a Puerto Rican accent. He reached down and grabbed Ed's legs, pulling her out from the bed.
Ed's eyes widened as she realized that when he grabbed her ankles, she couldn't feel a thing. Her legs were totally numb. All her plans of trying to escape instantly flew out the window...how was she going to escape if she couldn't even walk?
Santo seemed to read her mind. "That's right. Don't even think about escaping. It's completely hopeless." He picked up Ed and threw her back on the bed. "I've injected a sedative into your legs, immobilizing them...permanently."
Ed just smirked as she sat up on the bed. "Who says that I need my feet to get out of here? My friends'll rescue me."
Santo just smiled for a second. Then his smile turned into a giggle, then a psychotic cackle.
Ed's golden honey eyes turned dark and her smirk disappeared as she realized something must be wrong.
"So sorry," Santo said as his cackle subsided. "But your friends are dead. I made sure of that."
"That's not true," Ed said simply. She didn't know how she knew, but they couldn't be dead. It's just one of those feelings...
"Ok. Believe what you want to believe. But I heard the explosion from the Bebop. They're history." Santo took out a wad of tobacco and put it in his mouth, chewing on it similar to how a cow chews on grass. He sat down on the bed next to her. Ed inched away from his disgusting form. "You know, you should be honored that I picked you," he said simply.
"Honored?" Ed asked. "Yes. Thank you, Santo. You've made all my dreams come true."
Santo ignored her sarcasm and continued. "Well, you really should be. I only pick the good ones. The ones that I know are intelligent. And you, I must say, are by far the most intellectual one of the 87. And the most toughest. The other girls just cried and begged not to die. You're really a keeper." Santo paused. "It's such a shame that I have to kill you." He stood up and spit the tobacco on the floor.
Ed didn't say anything. Instead, she concentrated on fiddling with her hand cuffs. There's always a weak link in handcuffs, no matter how high tech or fail safe they may seem. Santo didn't seem to notice.
"I bet you're hungry," he said suddenly and slapped his knee. "I'll get you something to eat."
Ed was confused. First he kidnapped her, tried to kill her friends, is about to kill her, and here he was concerned that she was hungry?
"Don't bother," Ed snapped. "I'll be gone by the time you come back. You can count on that."
"Oh, really? And how will you accomplish that with useless legs? You gonna fly out?"
Ed just grinned. "Magic."
Santo cocked his eyebrow. "Whatever. I'll be back in an hour since you don't want any food. Don't go anywhere," he teased and he was gone.
Ed waited a few seconds to see if he would return, and when he didn't, she relaxed and threw the handcuffs to the side of the bed. She rubbed her wrists a bit to ease the cramping, then reached into her pocket, pulling out a communicator linked directly to the Bebop.
She pushed a few buttons and it turned on, dialing the Bebop's number.
***
Faye stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her torso and one wrapped around her head. She tiptoed to her room, letting the water drip to the floor. When she made it to her room, she slammed the door shut and began to dry herself off when she heard her communicator beep. She ignored it and ran the towel down her body until she was totally dry. She then dressed herself quickly.
Her communicator beeped again.
"Just a second!" Faye said as if the communicator could actually understand her.
It responded with another frantic beep.
Growing irritated, Faye threw her towel down and grabbed the communicator, flipping it open. "What!" she shouted, her wet hair dripping on the small device.
"Faye-Faye?" Ed asked.
There as a pause. "Edward? Where are you? Are you ok?"
"I'm a-okay. But not for long. Santo-person took me and I can't move my legs. I can get out though. I just need the Bebop-Bebop to be here ready for me."
Faye tucked her hair behind her ears. "Well, where are you? I need to know."
Ed paused and looked outside the small window on Santo's ship. "Judging from the amount of asteroids and meteorites flying past us and the haziness in the atmosphere, I would say our coordinates are...say 1,005 degrees north and 1,500 degrees west."
"Care to explain that in English?" Faye deadpanned.
"We're near Neptune," Ed said simply, looking back at the door.
"How do you know your exact coordinates just by looking at asteroids and meteorites?" she wondered.
"Because I'm staring at Neptune right now. Faye-Faye, stop asking silly questions. I need you here ASAP. Santo will be back here in an hour to check up on me. That's what he said."
"But Edward, the Bebop doesn't have turbo engines or anything. I don't think that we can make it to Neptune in an hour." Faye began biting her thumb nail, trying to find a solution.
Edward responded immediately. "But Spike's Swordfish has turbo engines. Jet just finished installing new ones. Tell Spike to come and get me."
Faye didn't say anything for a few seconds. She had an idea... Then she finally responded. "Ok, Ed," she said. "I'll tell Spike to come and get you."
She closed the communicator and put her headband into her wet hair. Faye grabbed a pen from her vanity desk and scribbled down a note, letting Jet know that she found out where Ed was and she was going to get her and not screw up this time. When she was finished with the note, she taped it on her door. Now it was time for the hard part...She walked out into the hallway and stood outside of Spike's door, holding her breath. Spike slept very light and she needed to be extra quiet if she didn't want to get caught.
Faye opened the door slowly, but then suddenly stopped as the door creaked ever so annoyingly. Faye closed her eyes and waited for Spike wake up and yell at her. When he didn't even open an eye, Faye opened the door all the way and tip-toed past his sleeping form. She glanced at him and spotted the Swordfishes keys next to his nightstand.
"Bingo," she whispered and reached out to grab the keys. Her slender fingers wrapped around the cool metal, but she pulled back empty-handed when she heard Spike turn around in his sleep. She held her breath and froze, afraid to move. He had turned so that she could see his face now.
When Spike's steady breathing resumed, Faye once again reached out for the keys and this time she clutched them into her hands. Her heart jumped, but she wasn't home free yet. She had to make it out of the room without waking him up.
She was just about to turn around when she felt a tight grip around her wrist. She looked back and gasped. Spike had no expression on his face as he stared up at her. "What are you doing?" he asked with a monotone in his voice.
Faye didn't say anything. She relaxed for a second, gathering her energy, then with enormous strength that surprised them both, she wrenched her hand free and dashed out of his room. She closed the door behind her so that small delay can buy her a few valuable seconds.
Spike was right behind her despite her long strides. She glanced back and saw him closing in on her. She ran faster, nearly crashing into Jet as she ran past him.
"What the-?" Jet asked angrily as he stumbled back. He had left Ed's laptop for a few seconds to get something to eat. He ignored the two and sighed, walking back to the laptop and took a bite from the sandwich. It was beeping and something flashed across the screen. It said "SEARCH COMPLETE" in big bold letters.
"Wait!" Jet yelled at the two, but they were already gone.
"Faye, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Spike yelled, still chasing her as they weaved through the halls towards the hanger. He didn't even seem tired from running.
Faye, on the other hand, was a bit out of shape despite her lean build. She was panting, but she still pressed on. The hanger was right there...all she needed to do was get there first and lock the door to keep him from getting in.
She looked back at Spike who was right on her heels. He reached out to grab her, but she ducked out of his way and lunged forward into the hanger. The door opened and closed behind her. She quickly pressed the security numbers and she heard a click as it locked. She breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall.
Half a second later, she heard a thud as Spike ran into the door, expecting for it to open for him.
"Damn you, Faye!" she heard Spike say. He began pounding on the door. "You better not take my Swordfish or I swear that I'll put yours in auto pilot towards the sun."
His threat was ignored as she ran to his ship.
She tried to open it, but was greeted with a computer animated voice. "Password please," it demanded.
Faye thought for a second then she heard Spike laugh from the other side of the door.
"You can open the door now and let me in. You'll never guess the-"
"Julia," Faye responded to the ship, cutting him off. The ship paused for a second and then the door opened for her.
"Access granted," the voice said. "Have a nice day."
Faye smirked as she started up his ship. He was just so predictable.
"Faye!" Spike yelled, angry that he picked such an obvious password. "Come back!"
But Faye couldn't hear him yelling because she was already flying through space at thousands of miles an hour. It took a moment for her to adjust to the G forces tugging on her stomach and she thought she was going to throw up at first, but when the wave of nausea passed, she went even faster.
She only had an hour...
A.N.: Hey, thanks for being patient with this chapter. I hope you guys like it. And thanks to all those loyal readers who already reviewed. You've been great. I'll get the next chapter out soon!