Me: Hello everyone! I know it's been a long wait and I apologize a million apologies -.-; But the good news is, this chapter is where things get really heated up, and the next chapter is coming soon, I promise! I know because I'm almost done with it! Thanks to TooLazyToSignIn for your nice review but umm Vicious and Faye never slept together... at least not in this fic... O.o
Faye: eww!
Vicious: Hey, what's wrong with me?
Faye: Everything!!! x.x
Vicious: Now you've hurt my feelings -goes into a corner and cries-
Spike: -laughs and points at Vicious-
Me: o.o Enjoy and plz review :) Oh and I dun own Cowboy Bebop
Chapter Eight: And it all falls apart
"What's taking so long?" Faye asked impatiently, glaring at Jet, who was doing maintenance checks on the Bebop.
"Well exuse me your highness, I'm sorry if it's taking a while to make sure this ship actually makes it to Venus and back," he retorted angrily. "The Bebop is an old girl, after all."
"More like a piece of junk if you ask me," she mumbled while walking away.
"What did you say?!" Jet lost it. Nobody gets away with dissing his beloved ship. No one.
She didn't respond and continued to walk away. "Damn bitch," he muttered. He knew she was worried about Spike. He was too but her attitude still got on his nerves.
"Jet person! Jet person!" Ed came cartwheeling into the room. "When are we gonna go go go?!"
Jet gritted his teeth but then forced himself to calm down. Getting mad wouldn't help anybody at this point. "In a little while, I just have to put in the coordinates for our destination and Julia will be here soon. After that, we will go."
"I don't see why we have to bring her along, it's her own fault this even happened in the first place," Faye scoffed as she walked back into the room.
"Well it's not like she did it on purpose," Jet said as he smirked. "Though I could see that being a nice scheme of yours."
"How could you even think that?!" Faye said in surprise. "I would never..." Then she realized what Jet was doing and a bright blush came over her cheeks. "That is something only a dumb bitch would do," she said defiantly, trying to cover up her embarrassment.
"Right..." Jet replied, his smirk growing wider. He found it so amusing when he was able to get Faye worked up over Spike.
Faye was determined to ignore him so she looked out the window and then frowned. "Speaking of dumb bitches, here she comes..." Julia's ship was approaching the Bebop.
Jet sighed. "I guess we're ready to go then."
-------------
Spike didn't know how much more he could take. Here was this beautiful woman that he was once crazy in love with, and now he wanted nothing more than to get away from her. 'Maybe I'm overreacting' he thought as he took a drag from his cigarette. He was sitting on the balcony overlooking the light-speckled city streets below and the dark outline in the night sky of the mountains far ahead. 'I can't really leave her, I've wanted to be with her for so long... maybe in a way I'm trying to sabotage my own happiness...'
He was disturbed from his thoughts when Erin came out on the balcony. "There you are," she said and sat on his lap. She took the cigarette out of his mouth and took a drag from it.
Oh yeah, one of the reasons was that she had been trying to spend every waking moment with him lately. More than before, if that were even possible.
"You know what would be great," she said as she exhaled a puff of smoke and then gave the cigarette back to Spike. "If we bought a home here someday."
Spike didn't respond. He took the cigarette and took a drag.
"Wouldn't it be great if we started our family here?" she continued.
He replied by exhaling a puff of smoke.
"You're not going to answer me?" she asked, getting upset. "So what you mean is, you don't want to start a family with me then?"
"I never said that, Julia," he said, while trying to keep the edge out of his tone. He started to tap some of the ash off the cigarette. He hated it when she put words in his mouth, something she started doing a whole lot of lately.
"So what are you saying, Spike?"
"I'm saying," Spike said as he finished tapping the cigarette and put it back in his mouth, "that maybe we might decide to settle down someplace else. You never know what the future brings." 'Why did I say that?' He wondered to himself. 'What she said before was closer to the truth; I guess I don't want to dissapoint her'
Erin's glare turned into a grin and she hugged onto him possessively. "I guess you're right. Now that I think about it, I love that its just us, without any kids getting in the way. I don't wanna have to share you with anyone else."
Luckily for her, she couldn't see Spike rolling his eyes. He disentangled himself from her and stood up. "I'm tired, I'm gonna head over to bed."
She looked up at him in surprise. "This early?"
"Yeah," he said wearily as he opened up the screen door that lead inside their bedroom. "I've had... a long day."
"Aww baby, you should have told me," Erin said as she went over to him and started to massage his shoulders. "I'll help you feel better, just tell me what you want me to do," she whispered seductively, her lips brushing his ear. "I'll do anything..." she softly kissed his ear and made her way to his mouth and started to kiss him passionately while caressing his body, placing her hands underneath his shirt and then brought them down ever so lower until she started to unbutton his pants.
Spike, getting turned on, kissed her back and proceeded to take off her clothes. She in turn took off his clothes. He then took her into his arms and led her to their bed. They shared passionate kisses until it lead to other... activities (A/N: Use your imagination peeps)
-------------
Spike cracked open one eye and then closed it. The sun was shining brightly in his face through the open shades.
'Damn, why does the sunlight have to be so annoyng? How could I have forgotten to close the shades last night?' He opened his eyes again and looked over at Erin, who was sleeping with her arms wrapped around him with her head on his chest. She looked so peaceful and happy. He smiled. 'Maybe I was overreacting to consider breaking up with her. She has changed a lot but I've changed as well, perhaps I was being too hard on her. Maybe if I gave the relationship a chance, she may not irritate me so much anymore' He gently stroked her hair from her face. 'Leaving her would be too drastic, and I guess in retrospect, she really hasn't done anything wrong, except for that bounty hunting incident' He frowned in worry. 'She really scared me there, but maybe I've been reading into it too much. Now that I think about it, she did seem to be distracted that day...' He was interrupted from his thoughts when she woke up and looked at him.
"Are you okay, Spike?" she asked in concern, obviously noticing the frown on Spike's face.
He smiled at her. "Don't worry, Julia, I'm fine." 'So what if she's changed? She loves me and I love her, and that should be enough, of course it is' he was trying to convince himself.
She looked at him for a while, as if she were searching for the truth in his eyes. Then she smiled and hugged him again. "I love you so much, I never want to leave your side."
He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you too."
-------------
Vicious landed his ship just outside the syndicate headquarters, livid. He had left headquarters to look for Spike, Erin and Julia himself, to no avail. Every time he called to check on how his lackeys in the "intelligence unit" were doing in their search, it was always the same answer: they weren't able to locate them yet. So he decided to pay them a surprise visit. 'I am fed up with their insolence; if I'm there it will force those useless low-lives to get off thier lazy asses and start following my orders'
He stormed into the headquaters and found Tiger, who was in charge of operations while he was gone.
"Hello, sir," he said, though he obviously looked nervous about something. "So... you're here now?"
"Have you found out where Erin is hiding?" Vicious asked, getting straight to the point.
"Umm well, you see," Tiger stammered, not looking nearly as tough as he usually seemed. "We haven't been able to find her yet-"
He cut him off. "What about Spiegel and Julia?"
"We weren't able to find them either, sir..." he said in a low voice.
A low growl escaped Vicious' lips and his fingers were twitching to grab his sword. He had to stop and resist the urge to kill this useless idiot before him.
"However," he continued, sensing that Vicious was close to murdering him, "We do have leads on their whereabouts; we've ruled out that they are not in Mars. So the most probable places to search are Earth, Jupiter and Venus."
The silver-haired man stopped and thought. 'So they're not in Mars. Of course they would run to a different planet... It shouldn't take long to locate them now, since Mars is a much harder planet to find someone in than those three planets combined...'
Tiger looked closely at Vicious. 'He looks a little less pissed now... that's good. But none of us were able to tell him that the kid died. If I tell him, he'll kill me... but he's gonna find out anyhow... shit'
As if he could read his mind, Vicious asked Tiger the one question he wished he didn't have to answer. "So where's Jin?"
Tiger, the tall, big and intimidating rough-looking man had in two seconds been transformed into somewhat of a five-year-old. "Oh, Jin... uh, he's umm..." he started timidly, deciding to lie until he could come up with some better way to prolong his life.
Vicious looked at him sharply until a voice caught his attention.
"Yeah, that was totally screwed up, about what happened to the kid..." The voice got closer to them. "Well Louis told him that Julia escaped but of course no one had the balls to tell him what happened to the kid. Tim's such a dumbass, he didn't have to go kill him, I'm glad he got his stupid brain blown off. You know how the boss protects that kid, now it's our asses ..." Vicious stepped out of the room to face him, once again absolutely livid.
Dave dropped the phone. "H-hello sir..." he said slowly backing up. "So you're back already, hu-"
"What the hell is going on?" Vicious cut him off, this time his hand was on the handle of his katana.
"Um well, you see," Dave started. "I wasn't there when it happened, so it wasn't like I could-" he was cut off when Vicious brought the blade of the sword to his neck.
"I don't care if you were there or not," he said while holding the blade against his skin, the blade so sharp that he was already starting to bleed. "What happened to Jin? And no bullshit."
"W-what happened was..." Dave was so freaked out he could hardly speak. Tiger saw that Vicious was two seconds away from killing his good friend, and he obviously couldn't talk, so there was only one thing he could do.
"On the same night we lost Julia," Tiger said, his head down. "We had also lost... Jin."
Vicious looked over at him, his eyes narrow as slits. "How did this happen?"
"It happened when," he took a breath. "When Jin helped Julia escape headquarters..." He had no idea what Vicious was going to do to them at this point. His guess was they would both be dead by the next minute. For a second he considered fighting him, but knew that it would only result in a quicker death. At least like this, he may have a shot in hell to escape his demise.
Vicious slowly removed his katana from Dave's neck, who fell to the floor, terrified. He put his sword back into its hilt, and turned to leave.
"You will find them," he said coldly. "If you value your lives." Without another word, Vicious walked out of the room.
Tiger stared at Vicious' back as he left the room. 'I can't believe he didn't kill us, but something tells us he won't give us any more chances' He looked over at Dave, who was still on the floor, obviously as dumbstruck as he was.
"Dave, you okay man?" Tiger asked him.
"He didn't kill us..." Dave muttered, amazed. "We're still alive..."
"For now," Tiger said.
--------------
He walked to the room where Julia was held captive for those weeks. He was still upset about losing Julia and having his plans ruined, but he found he was even more upset about Jin. He sat down on the floor and put his head against the cold wall. His crow flew off his shoulder and circled around the room.
'So, you had to go and betray me as well?' He scoffed. 'I should have known; people can not and should not be trusted' His hands shook slightly and he balled them into fists. 'It's better you died. If you never betrayed me, you would still be alive...' Even though he thought that, he really didn't believe it. He wouldn't admit to himself that he was sad that Jin died; instead he took his pain out on what the boy died doing. He closed his eyes.
---Flashback---
The boy stood in front of him with a look of pure determination on his face.
Vicious smiled to himself. He had to admit the boy had spunk. To stand up to him after he stole his emergency rations and ended up being chased by Vicious until he got cornered took guts.
"I'm not afraid of you," the boy said, though Vicious could see his body was slightly shaking. The fire in his eyes, though, never wavered.
Normally Vicious would have killed him by now, the boy was obviously an orphan from around the area who had made the mistake of taking his food. But for some reason, he hesitated with bringing his sword out. The boy's eyes looked so familiar somehow.
The boy then took the chance to pull out a gun on Vicious. He hesitated as his hands continued to shake, and Vicious started to wonder if he would shoot him at all.
'He's not going to shoot me,' Vicious thought as he started to draw out his sword. 'He's too scared. Oh well, he did have potential' Then the boy suddenly fired his shot before Vicious had fully unsheated his sword. Vicious was just able to use his half-drawn sword as a shield in front of him, resulting in the bullet ricocheting off his katana.
'Damn brat,' he thought. 'It was foolish of me to underestimate him while he's armed, a mistake I know I should never make with anyone' He ran toward the boy, he moved so fast that the boy missed his shots. Vicious's katana sliced the gun in half and he pinned the boy to the wall and had the sword against his neck.
"Game's over," he said, leering at him.
The boy looked right into his eyes, that same look of determination ever present. "Fine then, go ahead."
He was quite shocked from the boy's statement. He had faced adults more than twice that kid's age who hadn't taken this moment half as well as he had. Most men were tough when they had their guns, but without it and cornered, they cried and sniveled for their lives like babies. The kid in front of him barely flinched. Vicious was becomming very impressed with this boy.
He slowly stood up and placed his katana back into it's hilt. "I suppose I'll let you live..." The boy looked surprised. "I have a proposition for you; however, you're welcome to refuse." He didn't know what drove him to tell the boy this; there was just something about the boy that he couldn't leave alone, perhaps it was the fact that this boy reminded him very much of himself at that age. He felt silly for feeling this way, but he knew that he would be dissapointed if the boy refused his offer.
"You're pretty good with the gun, boy. Are you on your own?"
The boy didn't answer at first, still a bit startled by the man's sudden change of behavior. He decided to go along for the moment but to also play it safe. "Yeah," he answered tentatively.
Just as he thought. "You have potential, you could put those skills of yours to good use if you decide to come with me."
The boy was quiet as he thought it over. "Would you train me?"
"Myself along with other people," he responded.
"Other people?" The boy repeated.
"Yes, you would be joining the Red Dragon Syndicate."
"I would be joining the Red Dragon Syndicate? I would get to be a part of the brotherhood?" Vicious smiled. It seems the boy sounded interested.
"If the van will let you in," he said. The boy's face fell. "Though its not easy to get into the syndicate, I think you won't have much of a problem getting in."
The boy's face lighted up again. "Really? How do you know?"
"I just know these things. What is your name?"
"Jin."
"Okay then, Jin," Vicious said as he started to walk away. "If you've decided to accept my offer, come with me now."
Jin hesitated for a bit, and then ran to catch up with Vicious, who had already gotten far walking in long strides.
----End flashback----
He slowly got up and his crow flew back onto his shoulder. "There's no need for me to dwell on the past, all of those useless attachments have been severed. The only thing left for me to do now is to kill off the rest of them." Looks like he was going to have to make things happen for himself.
------------------------------
"Today's bounty is worth a hefty sum, his name is Jimmy Spark" His stats were shown on the screen.
Judy did her little dance, shaking her, well you know. "Ooh wow, he's worth a lot, twenty-million woolongs to be exact!"
"That's right!" Punch replied, "But who will be the lucky one to catch him?"
"Maybe it'll be you!" she said, pointing at the camera as if to point at the viewers watching.
"We will have more bounties tomorrow, but until then-"
"Happy hunting!" They said in unison.
"Twenty-two million, sweet!" Spike said as he rubbed his hands together. Erin however, didn't look too happy.
"What's wrong?" Spike asked her.
She crossed her arms. "I hate the way this show dehumanizes women," she said in disgust. "That bimbo is there for nothing more than to be a sex symbol; it makes me sick."
"Oh, Julia," Spike said, trying to stifle a laugh, "That? Don't let it bother you."
She looked at him angrily. "Glad to see someone is amused," she said sarcastically.
"It's not like that," he said quickly. "But that's how things work. Especially since most of the viewers of Big Shot are men."
"Well women watch it too, and I just don't think we need a half-naked bubblehead co-hosting the show."
"Actually, I've heard she's quite a bitch when the cameras are off," Spike mused. "Anyway, it dosen't matter Julia, she's not my type if that's what you're worried about."
"Oh really?" Erin asked skeptically, "Even though her boobs are practially all over the camera?"
"Please," he scoffed. "It's so obvious they're fake. Besides, I prefer the real thing," he then started to fondle her chest. "Nice and soft, just the way I like them."
She laughed. "You'd better." She then started to kiss him. He kissed her back until other stuff happened... (A/N: Once again ppl, you know, not for kids and stuff...)
--
They stared up at the ceiling from the floor. Erin sighed contently and hugged onto him tightly. "We should get married; we love each other and it's only fitting we spend the future together."
He was so caught off guard by her statement that he couldn't speak. 'Married...?'
"It's the perfect season for a wedding, don't you think?"
Spike still didn't respond. 'Me and Julia... get married?' He was lucky she couldn't see his face from where she was laying. He looked like a deer caught in headlights.
She frowned at him. "Spike, did you hear me?"
'What do I say; how can she just expect me to agree to something like this on such short notice?!' He didn't know what to do so he decided to try and change the subject.
"Oh crap, I almost forgot!" He got up from the floor and pulled his pants on. "I'll be out for a little while," he said as he started to put on his shirt.
Erin, from her spot on the floor, pulled his arm. "Do you have to leave now?"
"Yeah," he said as he buttoned his shirt. "I have to go pick up some parts for my ship, it's been acting up lately. You know how the stores here close early on Sundays." That was actually half the truth. He did have to get some parts for his ship, but he didn't have to get them at the moment. However, it posed as a perfect, logical escape from her dreaded question. It would also give him time to get away and think about it so he didn't say something he would regret later.
"Oh," she said, dissapointed. Then she smiled. "Okay, I'll go with you then." She sat up and started to put on her bra.
Spike stepped into his shoes. "There's no need for you to come, I'll be back soon."
"But Spike-"
"Don't worry, Julia, I won't be long." He kissed her and made his way over to the door.
"... fine. See you later," she said, defeated.
"Later," he said and then left.
----
'She didn't force me to take her along,' he thought as he walked down the main street outside the apartment. 'However, all the same, I should still go to the hardware store in case she changes her mind later and decides to follow me'
He approached the hardware store. 'Heh, Faye was always wrecking her ship. She gave so many hardware store owners IOU's that they ended up banning her' he chuckled to himself until a lady walking nearby gave him a funny look. 'I wonder who she's scamming now' he thought as he walked into the store.
-----
Erin tried to watch television but she couldn't focus on what was on. 'Why didn't he want me to go with him?' she looked out the window. 'What if he wanted to see someone else?'
"Of course not," she said to herself as she got up and turned off the television. She couldn't get the thought out of her head however, and started to worry. 'He has been acting strangely and distant for a while now, maybe its because he found someone else... Just like what happened with Spencer...'
"It can't be," she said as if trying to convince herself. "That will never happen again, I'll make sure of it... no matter what it takes." She headed out of the apartment after Spike (A/N: In case you're wondering, she had already put her clothes back on XD)
-----
Spike headed out of the hardware store, bag of equipment in hand. 'Damn... I love you Swordfish, but the parts for you are so freakin' expensive' Getting parts for an old model like Swordfish was hard; few stores have the parts and the ones that did made them very expensive.
Spike was busy lamenting the price he had to pay so he didn't notice a certain woman nearby.
"Hey, is that you, Spike?" A voice called out to him.
He stopped in his tracks. He knew exactly who that voice belonged to even though he hadn't heard it in quite a long time.
He turned around. There, a couple of feet away, stood a beautiful woman with long red hair and green eyes. She was waving at him, a huge smile on her face.
He also smiled as he walked towards her. "Hey Lizzie, long time no see," he said. She ran over to embrace her old friend.
He hugged her back and then she pulled away to look at him. "It's been so long, Spike. I think ten years already. What are you doing here in Venus, anyway? I always thought you were the type of guy who would never leave Mars."
"Yeah," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Well, I decided on a change of scenery, ya know?" he said, leaving it at that. "What about you? What are you doing here in Venus? You were also the Mars type."
"Well, I've also decided to live somewhere new," she blushed happily. "Besides, Venus is the best place to start a family." She showed him her ring. "I got married last year and I'm now expecting," She patted her still flat stomach lovingly.
He smiled, genuinely happy for her. "Congratulations, Lizzie, I'm very happy for you," he said and hugged her again.
------
'He said he was going to the hardware store for some parts so perhaps he's at the one not too far from here' Erin went to the hardware store being careful not to get too close for fear of Spike seeing her. She had told him that she would stay home, after all. She stood a safe distance away from the store and waited for him to come out.
She then spotted Spike walking out of the store. "Why didn't you want me to come with you?" she whispered to herself.
Then she saw a young woman who was passing the store stop in front of the store and then run toward Spike. She saw them embrace.
'What's going on?!' she thought, rage quickly taking over her thoughts. 'Is this the reason he doesn't want to be with me anymore, because of her?!' She clenched her fists. 'That bitch won't take him from me, I'll kill her first!' Blind rage taking over, she ran over to where they were.
-----
They parted and Liz cocked her head to the side, a smirk on her face. "So how about you, Spike? Have you found someone special?"
"Well, actually I..." he trailed off when he saw Erin come up toward them.
"So is this the reason, Spike?" she yelled, pointing an accusing finger toward Liz. "You don't want me anymore because of her?!!"
"Julia, what the hell-"
"And you," she said, rounding on the unsuspecting woman. "You whore! I'm going to kill you!" She ran up to Liz and clasped her hands around her throat, choking her. "Die, bitch!!" Liz tried to pry the crazy woman's hands off her neck, but she was too strong for her. It was getting to the point where she could no longer breathe.
"Julia!!!" Spike yelled and ran up to her and tried to pull her off. "What the fuck are you doing?!!" He finally pulled her off and held onto her tightly while she struggled relentlessly in his grip.
"Let go of me!!!" She yelled, tears streaming down her face. "Why do you want to protect her?!!"
Liz, finally being able to breathe, was breathing irregular breaths and glared at them. "What the fuck is her problem?!!" She rubbed her throat. The girl had almost killed her.
Spike was barely able to hold onto Erin. She was incredibly strong, and her struggling wasn't helping him either. "I am not cheating on you Julia!" He yelled at her. "She's a friend of mine, that's all!"
"How stupid do you think I am?!!" She yelled back. "I saw you two together!!"
"There's nothing going on between us!" Liz yelled. "I'm already married and two months pregnant!" She looked down while rubbing her stomach. "Spike is like a brother to me, that's all."
"Like I'm going to believe you," she spat while trying to break free of Spike's grasp. "Let go of me!"
He strengthed his hold on her, if that were even possible. "Julia, stop it!! There was nothing going on between us!!" She continued to struggle. "If you won't believe her, at least believe me!!!"
Erin finally stopped struggling and Spike turned her around to face him, his hands firmly on her shoulders. He looked into her eyes and said sternly, "Listen to me, Julia, what she said was right. She's a friend of mine, she's practically my sister; we grew up in the orphanage together and we haven't seen each other in a long time. That's what's been 'going on.'" Erin closed her eyes, and bowed her head down. He let go of her and walked over to Liz.
"Are you all right, Liz?" he asked, feeling very guilty and embarrassed about what had just taken place.
"I'm fine," she said while casting Erin a bad look. "I have to go now," she said and picked up her bags and started to walk away. "It was nice seeing you again, Spike."
"It was nice seeing you too, Liz," he said. "Maybe we can meet up sometime."
There was no answer from Liz as she continued to walk away.
He sighed and started on his way back to the apartment.
"Spike," Erin said as she ran off to follow him; his strides were so big and he was walking so fast that she could barely keep up without jogging after him. "I'm... sorry."
Spike didn't answer her. Instead he walked faster. He was too pissed off to speak to her at the moment.
"Aren't you going to answer me? Spike!"
Still no answer.
She ran in front of him and grabbed onto his clothes. "Please, Spike, please say something. Don't ignore me like this. I'm so sorry, I just, I just saw you two and of course I would get jealous but please, please don't hate me..." she cried, sobbing on his shirt.
She was making a scene right outside their apartment building and people were staring at them. "Get off of me, Julia," he growled.
She looked up into his eyes and saw anger, disgust and... hate? 'He can't hate me, I'll die if he hates me...' She didn't let go of him, instead she grabbed onto him tighter. "What can I do, Spike? I'm so sorry I didn't trust you, I'll do anything..."
He was sick and tired of her possessiveness, her desperateness and her craziness. "Get off of me, just leave me the hell alone!! That's what you can do!!" She then let go and he went on into the apartment.
She stood out there, petrified, his words cutting through her heart like a knife. She stood still for what seemed like an eternity. 'He doesn't want me anymore, he hates me now...' The words kept running through her head. Fresh tears ran down her face. 'This can't be, I can't lose him. There's got to be a way I can get him to love me again' She ran into the apartment.
-----
Spike threw his clothes in his suitcase, not caring what he threw in or in which order. All he knew was that he had enough. He tried to make it work with her, but it was clear that it was impossible. She had gotten crazier than he thought; the old Julia would never act this way and it scared him. The look she had in her eyes, that was the same look she had when she killed those men. No doubt she was about to kill Liz had he not intervened. He threw some random underwear in the suitcase. No way did he bargain for this one.
Erin ran in the apartment, the door being left open. "Spike, please..." her words trailed off when she saw Spike emerge from the bedroom, suitcase in hand.
"I'm leaving, Julia," Spike replied, "We can't go on like this anymore."
At that moment, Erin felt like something in her mind snapped.
Okay, the next chapter is what Erin does now that Spike's leaving her. You don't wanna miss it -wink-
