Chapter 10: Pièce de Résistance

Everett was on a call when Dee came down the stairs with Mr Kellen. He was pacing on the other side of the seating area, his back to them. "...of course, you know I'm pleased with your work, Miss Adams. I'm looking forward to bringing you on board once we're established again. You can rest assured that I could use your skills." A light laugh. "No doubt." Another. "I'll be in touch. A pleasure talking to you as always." He hung up, pocketed the phone, and turned. He seemed genuinely delighted to see Dee and walked quickly to them.

Dee kept her face impassive as first, but then remembered that just as he charmed others for his own ends, she needed to be able to do the same. She approximated a smile, tipped her head coyly and looked up at him. "Thank you for the present."

Everett placed his hands on her upper arms, looked her over. He smelled the gardenia in her hair with a deep inhale of satisfaction. She could tell his pulse was rapid. "You're welcome," he said, "though we'll have to find you some more flattering clothes."

"I like my clothes," she said immediately, flatly.

His smile faltered and he let out a creak of a laugh. "As you like it, then." He was back to looking over her, tracing his fingers over her new face. She could feel it, truly, this time, and it took all her willpower not to flinch even when his thumb passed over and tugged at her bottom lip. He stared, unblinking, into her eyes, and she held the gaze defiantly. "You've done a marvellous job, Mr Noboru. The lady seems to be against me disposing of people who've had a hand in this process, so you may have both the money and your life. I suppose we may have need of your services in the future, anyhow, if she would like upgrades."

"That's very generous of you, Mr Mordechai," she heard Mr Kellen say.

"Consider it another gift to you, my goddess," Everett said to her and released his hold.

Dee broadened her smile, for effect. She watched one of the Emerald Lily's crew hand Mr Kellen a small duffle bag with sharp bulges - woolongs, no doubt. His hand was not eager as he took it. Dee noticed that he was looking past them all, squinting, and then looked rapidly away. She frowned too.

"Well I suppose we should get back to Ms Tarya," Everett began. He buttoned the jacket of his suit. "Kept her long enough."

"Mr Mordechai!" one of the crewmen said.

"You again?" said another.

Everett and Dee turned to the entrance of the building - the single door cut into the larger hangar door was ajar, and Gideon was standing in front of it and injured enough to really be in no condition to stand. He was already looking at Dee without having to guess it was her, and smiling dazedly. She smiled back at him.

"I, uh, forgot something when I left," said Gideon and nodded at her.

Everett did not even feign amusement. After a moment he said, measuredly, to the crewmen, "He can't have got here alone. The Bebop must have picked him up. Find them." They scattered to comply while Everett remained beside Dee, and the sounds of footfalls, grumbles of directions, and the safeties clicking off guns died away, leaving the mournful crooning of Mr Kellen's old masters on the sound system echoing around the rafters. Everett spoke over it, "You're tenacious, I'll give you that."

"Thanks," Gideon said mock-cheerfully.

"But you can't always have what you want," Everett finished. He took out his gun, clicked the safety off, and pointed it in Gideon's direction.

Gideon's face scrunched up. "It's not about what I want. It's about what Dee wants."

Everett was amused this time - his laugh soured her expression. "And why would a goddess want to go with you, you sad excuse for a man? What can you possibly offer? I can give her the world."

Gideon hesitated, looked at the ground. He shrugged a little and shook his head. When he finally looked up he said directly to Dee, "All I can offer is the chance to be human. Just once - for a single lifetime. I did a poor job of it the first go round. I want to try again."

Dee felt like her center of gravity was off, because something inexplicable was pulling at her, trying to get her to go forward to Gideon. Maybe she wasn't fully used to her muscles yet? Did they do things like this - on their own - often?

A muted shot distracted them. A garbled scream. Something crashed and rolled. A second shot. The music stopped, the lights went out.

Dee ran for the first time. She semi-successfully dodged the chairs of the seating area and Gideon met her halfway, stifling grunts of pain. He grabbed her hand and veered left to the aisles of tarp-covered bionics. Everett fired after them and managed to strike Gideon in the leg. He fell and Dee panicked, pulling him up and to her side, draping his arm around her shoulders. They pushed on into the aisles.

"I need a weapon," Dee hissed.

"I don't have one," Gideon hissed back. He was cursing under his breath. "I can't see shit."

Dee blinked, and was surprised all of a sudden that she could - she hadn't realized that the eyes Mr Kellen had given her possessed thermal imaging - and thanked whatever there was to thank. It was reasonable to assume that Everett, like Gideon and every other human in the room, could also not find his way, so she slowed them down while she determined the best route out. It was hard to go fast anyhow, with Gideon's useless left leg. Through gaps in the aisles she could see Everett searching for them, while above them were the fading pink domes of the extinguished lamps. Cracks in the building's insulation were a dark blue while the rest was haphazard green squares. The aisles themselves were a dark green-blue. Gideon's hand in hers was a burning red-fuschia-white, while she was a warm gold and orange. At the end of the aisle next to the far wall, she could see a female body holding a pistol moving quickly in the direction of a larger, male one that was looking frantically around - presumably Faye.

"You can't hide from me!" Everett called. "You'll never be able to hide from me!"

At length she managed to walk them to the door through which Gideon had entered, and here Dee stopped them, watched Everett move frustratedly among the aisles. She turned to Gideon's ear and heard his labored breathing as she whispered, "Stay here." She gently lowered him to a sitting position against the hangar door. She had to be quick, before Everett's eyes adjusted any more to the darkness.

"But I just got you," Gideon said.

"You've got me," she assured him.

Dee moved back into the aisles of veiled bodies. She kept Everett in sight - he was in the center of what was, no doubt for him, a labyrinth, but for her was merely an orchard through which she prowled silently ever closer to him. She slipped from one aisle to another, positioning herself behind him, not fully certain what she was going to do when she got there but counting on abrupt emergency calculations - no, she'd call it instinct, now - to figure it out for her. His silhouette was red and violet, fuchsia and white around his head and heart, and she focused her pent-up hatred at it. She thought of her precious Edie. The sounds of the other crewmen being dispatched by that of the Bebop faded around her.

She was a scant four and a half feet behind him when he growled, "You'll never be able to hide!" He'd stopped, unsure which way to go. Dee stopped too, watching him turn this way and that in his self-made cage. This was Edie's father. This was the one that had made it possible for her to stand here now. Would Edie have died if Dee had not existed? If she had gained a body sooner? How fickle it all was. She took a step closer.

Everett grew suspiciously still. "The gardenia, my love - it smells heavenly."

He whirled around, first to his left, and then when she dove for him he righted himself to her direction - perfectly. First both of her hands went to the one of his that held his gun, wrapping around his wrist and shoving it upward as he fired. She squeezed hard, relishing the feeling of using all those minute muscles, the titanium skeleton Mr Kellen had guided her through only an hour ago. The gun dropped and his wrist and hand collapsed under her grip; Everett howled in pain, tried to beat her off him. She released his wrist only to latch her hands around his throat, shove him to one side onto the floor beneath her.

Everett writhed, struggled, tried to pull at her grip with his working hand. Dee lowered her face close to his and said, "A life for a life." She jolted her thumbs down into his windpipe, crushing it, puncturing the skin, felt him flail and gasp under her a few moments more, weaker and weaker. Her hands released him and she looked at the brightness of the blood on them in her adapted vision. She was still looking at them when Everett fell still.

The lights came on so suddenly, it was dazzling. Dee looked up at them nonetheless as her vision shifted back to normal, closed her eyes and breathed deep, and then opened them to look back down at what she'd done. She felt nothing, she was sure. She stood.

"You did it, then."

Dee turned to see Mr Kellen at the end of the aisle. He had a sad smile on his face.

"Yes," she replied, but wasn't sure what else to add, if anything.

"I'm glad for you - it is justice. You will feel it later, what you've done, but...don't think about it too hard," he said. A moment passed, and then he held open his arms to her. She slowly walked to him and let him embrace her, cautiously embraced him back while keeping her bloodied hands away from his clothes. He held onto her for a good amount of time, she felt. Just the right amount. It calmed her, reassured her. When he let go of her at last he took her hands, wiping them with the bottom of the long work apron he wore, and then guided her gently by the elbow out of the aisles.

A thump of a body jumping from a height, then another, and feet running. "Gideon! Kid! Goddamnit, Gideon!" Jet ran across Dee's vision, followed by Faye, toward Gideon by the door.

Dee stopped, numb, in the middle of the warehouse floor to watch them reach him, watch Jet kneel beside him and slap him. Gideon breathed deep and his head rose, looking around. The three of them laughed. It was absurd and Dee smiled at it confusedly. She looked at Mr Kellen when he gave her a nudge, smiled, tipped his head toward them. She smiled back and squeezed his shoulder affectionately before wandering slowly in their direction.

Gideon saw her and his grin faded into something gentler; Jet and Faye parted somewhat as Dee jogged the last distance and fell to her knees. As she leaned over and embraced him, she realized her throat was tight and tears were slipping down her cheeks. It was an amazing feeling, and it went some way toward pushing out the complicated things she was feeling about her first act of violence. They were pushed out of her head completely when she and Gideon parted and she saw the brilliant mutability of his eyes in all their blue, gray, and hazel, telling her everything she needed to know. Their foreheads touched and they closed their eyes. He ran a hand gently through her hair. She knew they were both smiling. That was all she needed.

"This is all very heartwarming and sickly but we should get out of here," said Faye. "Ed's got the Emerald Lily down right now but it won't be long before they send others out here to take a looksee."

They parted. Gideon swallowed and said, "Yeah, you're right." He tried to heave himself upward but Jet helped him instead.

Dee processed rapidly. "I have - I have a favor to ask. Another, I suppose." She pushed at the gardenia in her hair, secured it once more with her fingertips.