Chapter 21 - Don't Let Go (Love)
"Running in and out my life has got me so confused
You gotta make the sacrifice
Somebody's got to choose
We can make it if we try, for the sake of you and I
Together we can make it right"
"Faye! Faye, where are you damnit!" The sound of Spike's footsteps
resounded through the empty halls. It seems Jet's bomb had been loud
enough to scare away the entire faculty and certainly big enough to
draw attention the unsuspecting shoppers of Bathsheba City. It wouldn't
be long before the police reached the scene. That meant there wasn't
much time left.
What with all the smoke in the halls, Spike had to rely mostly on his
hearing to discern which way to go. Following the distant sound of
gunshots, Spike came to a lone door at the far end of a corridor. With
a few bullets to take care of the lock, Spike found himself standing in a
small, dark room.
"Faye? You in here?" A light flicked on and Spike drew his gun. He
found himself surrounded by dozens of monitors, each monitor depicting
different angles of different areas on the compound.
The place was in complete pandemonium. Spike smirked; it almost
enough to make a guy feel proud. However, being that there was no
one to gloat to, Spike went back to the task at hand. Glancing at all
the monitors, he murmured to himself, "If I was a hotheaded,
gun-toting, not-so-untouchable shrew woman, where would I hide?"
In the far corner, on a medium-sized monitor, Spike spotted Jet, Ed,
and Ein; he noted he had been in that same hallway less than
20 minutes ago. Looking closer, he could see that Ed carried Ein in
her backpack, while Jet occasionally looked back to see if they were
being followed. Each of them had received their fair share of
injuries; Ein included.
The sound of another gunshot drew his attention to another monitor. In
the bottom right corner, Faye could been seen sprinting down the
hallway in pursuit of who Spike assumed to be the bounty. Her arm
was bleeding pretty badly.
He had to get to her - fast. "Shit! Faye!" He scanned the monitor
controls in front of him. "How to find her, how to find her…"
--Click!-- "Stop right there!" Spike turned around to see a young
woman standing in the doorway with a gun aimed at him. Dressed
like a mousy intern, or secretary of some sort, she had short blonde
hair and green eyes. Her stance did not waver. "Drop your weapon,
right now!"
Spike did as asked, regarding her casually. "That better?"
The girl frowned. "I don't know how you got in here," she replied.
"But I won't let you hurt Mr. Thanatos."
Spike smirked. "What are you, his lover or something?"
She blushed, despite her attempts to hide it. "I-I'm his personal
secretary," she answered. "As well as his private consultant and
bodyguard. Nobody sees him unless they go through me first."
"I see," Spike replied. "I hate to say it, but you're not doing that good
of a job." The woman blinked in confusion, causing him to point towards
the monitors. "You see, my partner's already found him. Granted, she
may not have caught him yet, but let me tell you… when she sets her
sights on someone, she doesn't stop until she catches him."
Concern passed over the woman's features as Faye fired a shot, just
narrowly missing him. "You're lying." she exclaimed.
"Am I?" Spike countered. "Lady, your boss has a 160 million woolong
bounty on his head. I'm surprised you haven't had every bounty hunter
in the galaxy breathing down his neck."
"Mr. Thanatos has taken care of every bounty hunter that has tried to
turn him in," she replied confidently. "Though you and your friends are
the only one's ever to get so close, you, too will fail." With that, she
pulled back the trigger, catching Spike in the leg. To her surprise, he
didn't cry out, nor did he fall down. She lowered her gun in
bewilderment. "Wh-what…?"
Spike only scowled, ignoring the screaming messages of pain nerves
were sending to his brain; he had already wasted enough precious
time. "Look, I don't care what you think of your boss," he replied.
"Or what wonders you think it is he can create - frankly, I don't give a
flying shit." The woman blinked in surprise. "Your boss is a psycho
and needs to be caught. Whether we're the ones to do it or not isn't
important. Do you see that woman on the screen? She's in danger
and I'm not about to let her die!" His eyes gleamed dangerously. "I
really don't want to have to hurt you, but if you don't move out of my
way, I'm gonna have to go through you."
Realizing he wasn't kidding, the woman let out a gasp, raising her gun.
"Don't you move!" she exclaimed. "I'll shoot again! I swear!"
Spike dropped to his knees. With lightning quick movements, he
dropped to the ground and grabbed his gun, raising it to meet hers.
Giving her his trademark smirk, he replied, "Have it your way."
Two shots were fired; both shots made contact.
=====
"Spike? Spike, you there?" Jet stared down at the static-filled screen
on his communicator. "Answer me! What's your position? What's
going on? Spike!"
Edward listened to the crackling static with worry, keeping her eyes on
the hall to make sure there weren't any intrusions. Ein whimpered
slightly, licking his injured paw - the poor thing had stepped on a few
shards of glass. Edward had had the hardest time getting them out,
earning a few cuts herself along the way. She patted his head
reassuringly. Everything would be just fine - she hoped.
"Spike!" Jet's voice held an edge of panic to it. He couldn't believe this
was happening again... not when they were so close to coming back
together...
"…Yeah…?" There was a slight strain to his voice, even though his
expression didn't show it.
"You injured?"
"Um… no…?"
"No?" Jet frowned. "Spike, Faye's not answering her communicator."
The lanky bounty hunter laughed, wincing slightly. Jet frown increased
with worry. "All right, gimme your position. Ed'll take you back to the
ship-"
"No," Spike interrupted. "You and Ed get the ship ready. Faye and I
will be with you in a few."
"Spike-person has found Faye-Faye?" Edward asked hopefully.
"Not yet, but I'm close." he answered. He glanced over at Jet, smirking
lightly. "Don't worry, I can handle it. Just give me an hour. One hour,
Jet… Spike, out." With that, he terminated the transmission.
Jet frowned, shoving the communicator into his pocket. "Damn"
=====
"There was a woman. For the first time in my life I saw a woman that
as truly alive. That's what I believed. She was a piece of me I had lost.
She is my other half that I had longed for."
=====
"I guess I don't know anything about my past anymore…"
"Isn't that something that really doesn't matter?"
Faye frowned at him, obviously not buying his argument. "You think
that way because you have a past."
He smirked in that noncommittal way of his, as if it didn't matter
whether she believed him or not, he knew he was right. "No matter
the past, you still have the future."
=====
Walking through the hall in a dazed state, Faye accidentally bumped
into Spike.
"Watch where you're going!" She didn't respond. "Hey…?"
Faye stared blankly into a space before acknowledging his presence.
She glanced up at him slowly. "Sorry…"
Spike looked down at her with a confused expression on his face.
"Sorry?"
Faye looked away. "I-I… I have to go…" With that, she rushed off.
=====
"What do you do when you find out that any hope of piecing together
your past vaporized 50 some-odd years ago with the Gate when it
obliterated Earth? What do you do when you realize you have
memories of people and places that have long since turned to dust?
What do you do when you realize that even though you're technically
80 years old, but you have no clue what to do with your life?" She
shook her gun slightly to emphasize her point. "You carry on, Spike,
you persevere! But you wouldn't understand any of that, would you?"
=====
"Spike, you ruined my life! We waited for you, Spike. Weeks - 'he'll
be back' we kept telling each other, 'he always comes back'. But you
never did. Eventually we had to give up, we had to go on with our lives.
It was hard, Spike, it was so hard" She inwardly cursed her voice for
faltering. "I tried, I tried so hard to forget you - to believe that you
were dead. I couldn't stand the possibility of you being alive and well
somewhere - living a happy life with Julia-"
"I was strong before I met you, Spike, or at least I pretended to be.
You looked down on me, you made fun of me, you ridiculed me and
still I looked up to you - I trusted you, I believed in you! It didn't matter
what you said or did to me, all that mattered to me was that when you
left, I knew for certain that you were gonna come back."
"You ruined my life! You left us, you just turned your back on us like
you didn't give a damn one way or the other. You left and you died
because I couldn't stop you. You wouldn't listen to me when I warned
you because you didn't give a shit about what I had to say - nothing I
said was ever important to you!"
=====
Spike Spiegel - born June 26th, 2044. An ex-Red Dragon Syndicate
member, he is currently noted as being a bounty hunter. He resides on
an old fishing ship by the name of the Bebop, along with its three other
crew members; Jet Black, an ex-ISSP cop; Faye Valentine, an
ex-bounty/con-woman turned bounty hunter; and Edward Wong Hau
Pepelu Tivrusky IV, known as Radical Edward - an infamous hacker.
'Toss in a Welsh Corgi smarter than anyone this side of Venus and
you got a family that puts the fun in dys-fun-ctional.' Spike smirked to
himself as he ran through the compound, in search of his comrades.
He looked back to make sure he wasn't being followed, only to see
the trail of blood being made by his injuries.
"Damn." It wouldn't be good for him to keep going on like this. He
had to find Faye - and fast. He still couldn't understand why she was
putting him through this - that is of course until someone's words
suddenly came to mind.
"I'm not going there to die… I'm going there to see if I'm really alive."
End of Chapter 21
"Running in and out my life has got me so confused
You gotta make the sacrifice
Somebody's got to choose
We can make it if we try, for the sake of you and I
Together we can make it right"
"Faye! Faye, where are you damnit!" The sound of Spike's footsteps
resounded through the empty halls. It seems Jet's bomb had been loud
enough to scare away the entire faculty and certainly big enough to
draw attention the unsuspecting shoppers of Bathsheba City. It wouldn't
be long before the police reached the scene. That meant there wasn't
much time left.
What with all the smoke in the halls, Spike had to rely mostly on his
hearing to discern which way to go. Following the distant sound of
gunshots, Spike came to a lone door at the far end of a corridor. With
a few bullets to take care of the lock, Spike found himself standing in a
small, dark room.
"Faye? You in here?" A light flicked on and Spike drew his gun. He
found himself surrounded by dozens of monitors, each monitor depicting
different angles of different areas on the compound.
The place was in complete pandemonium. Spike smirked; it almost
enough to make a guy feel proud. However, being that there was no
one to gloat to, Spike went back to the task at hand. Glancing at all
the monitors, he murmured to himself, "If I was a hotheaded,
gun-toting, not-so-untouchable shrew woman, where would I hide?"
In the far corner, on a medium-sized monitor, Spike spotted Jet, Ed,
and Ein; he noted he had been in that same hallway less than
20 minutes ago. Looking closer, he could see that Ed carried Ein in
her backpack, while Jet occasionally looked back to see if they were
being followed. Each of them had received their fair share of
injuries; Ein included.
The sound of another gunshot drew his attention to another monitor. In
the bottom right corner, Faye could been seen sprinting down the
hallway in pursuit of who Spike assumed to be the bounty. Her arm
was bleeding pretty badly.
He had to get to her - fast. "Shit! Faye!" He scanned the monitor
controls in front of him. "How to find her, how to find her…"
--Click!-- "Stop right there!" Spike turned around to see a young
woman standing in the doorway with a gun aimed at him. Dressed
like a mousy intern, or secretary of some sort, she had short blonde
hair and green eyes. Her stance did not waver. "Drop your weapon,
right now!"
Spike did as asked, regarding her casually. "That better?"
The girl frowned. "I don't know how you got in here," she replied.
"But I won't let you hurt Mr. Thanatos."
Spike smirked. "What are you, his lover or something?"
She blushed, despite her attempts to hide it. "I-I'm his personal
secretary," she answered. "As well as his private consultant and
bodyguard. Nobody sees him unless they go through me first."
"I see," Spike replied. "I hate to say it, but you're not doing that good
of a job." The woman blinked in confusion, causing him to point towards
the monitors. "You see, my partner's already found him. Granted, she
may not have caught him yet, but let me tell you… when she sets her
sights on someone, she doesn't stop until she catches him."
Concern passed over the woman's features as Faye fired a shot, just
narrowly missing him. "You're lying." she exclaimed.
"Am I?" Spike countered. "Lady, your boss has a 160 million woolong
bounty on his head. I'm surprised you haven't had every bounty hunter
in the galaxy breathing down his neck."
"Mr. Thanatos has taken care of every bounty hunter that has tried to
turn him in," she replied confidently. "Though you and your friends are
the only one's ever to get so close, you, too will fail." With that, she
pulled back the trigger, catching Spike in the leg. To her surprise, he
didn't cry out, nor did he fall down. She lowered her gun in
bewilderment. "Wh-what…?"
Spike only scowled, ignoring the screaming messages of pain nerves
were sending to his brain; he had already wasted enough precious
time. "Look, I don't care what you think of your boss," he replied.
"Or what wonders you think it is he can create - frankly, I don't give a
flying shit." The woman blinked in surprise. "Your boss is a psycho
and needs to be caught. Whether we're the ones to do it or not isn't
important. Do you see that woman on the screen? She's in danger
and I'm not about to let her die!" His eyes gleamed dangerously. "I
really don't want to have to hurt you, but if you don't move out of my
way, I'm gonna have to go through you."
Realizing he wasn't kidding, the woman let out a gasp, raising her gun.
"Don't you move!" she exclaimed. "I'll shoot again! I swear!"
Spike dropped to his knees. With lightning quick movements, he
dropped to the ground and grabbed his gun, raising it to meet hers.
Giving her his trademark smirk, he replied, "Have it your way."
Two shots were fired; both shots made contact.
=====
"Spike? Spike, you there?" Jet stared down at the static-filled screen
on his communicator. "Answer me! What's your position? What's
going on? Spike!"
Edward listened to the crackling static with worry, keeping her eyes on
the hall to make sure there weren't any intrusions. Ein whimpered
slightly, licking his injured paw - the poor thing had stepped on a few
shards of glass. Edward had had the hardest time getting them out,
earning a few cuts herself along the way. She patted his head
reassuringly. Everything would be just fine - she hoped.
"Spike!" Jet's voice held an edge of panic to it. He couldn't believe this
was happening again... not when they were so close to coming back
together...
"…Yeah…?" There was a slight strain to his voice, even though his
expression didn't show it.
"You injured?"
"Um… no…?"
"No?" Jet frowned. "Spike, Faye's not answering her communicator."
The lanky bounty hunter laughed, wincing slightly. Jet frown increased
with worry. "All right, gimme your position. Ed'll take you back to the
ship-"
"No," Spike interrupted. "You and Ed get the ship ready. Faye and I
will be with you in a few."
"Spike-person has found Faye-Faye?" Edward asked hopefully.
"Not yet, but I'm close." he answered. He glanced over at Jet, smirking
lightly. "Don't worry, I can handle it. Just give me an hour. One hour,
Jet… Spike, out." With that, he terminated the transmission.
Jet frowned, shoving the communicator into his pocket. "Damn"
=====
"There was a woman. For the first time in my life I saw a woman that
as truly alive. That's what I believed. She was a piece of me I had lost.
She is my other half that I had longed for."
=====
"I guess I don't know anything about my past anymore…"
"Isn't that something that really doesn't matter?"
Faye frowned at him, obviously not buying his argument. "You think
that way because you have a past."
He smirked in that noncommittal way of his, as if it didn't matter
whether she believed him or not, he knew he was right. "No matter
the past, you still have the future."
=====
Walking through the hall in a dazed state, Faye accidentally bumped
into Spike.
"Watch where you're going!" She didn't respond. "Hey…?"
Faye stared blankly into a space before acknowledging his presence.
She glanced up at him slowly. "Sorry…"
Spike looked down at her with a confused expression on his face.
"Sorry?"
Faye looked away. "I-I… I have to go…" With that, she rushed off.
=====
"What do you do when you find out that any hope of piecing together
your past vaporized 50 some-odd years ago with the Gate when it
obliterated Earth? What do you do when you realize you have
memories of people and places that have long since turned to dust?
What do you do when you realize that even though you're technically
80 years old, but you have no clue what to do with your life?" She
shook her gun slightly to emphasize her point. "You carry on, Spike,
you persevere! But you wouldn't understand any of that, would you?"
=====
"Spike, you ruined my life! We waited for you, Spike. Weeks - 'he'll
be back' we kept telling each other, 'he always comes back'. But you
never did. Eventually we had to give up, we had to go on with our lives.
It was hard, Spike, it was so hard" She inwardly cursed her voice for
faltering. "I tried, I tried so hard to forget you - to believe that you
were dead. I couldn't stand the possibility of you being alive and well
somewhere - living a happy life with Julia-"
"I was strong before I met you, Spike, or at least I pretended to be.
You looked down on me, you made fun of me, you ridiculed me and
still I looked up to you - I trusted you, I believed in you! It didn't matter
what you said or did to me, all that mattered to me was that when you
left, I knew for certain that you were gonna come back."
"You ruined my life! You left us, you just turned your back on us like
you didn't give a damn one way or the other. You left and you died
because I couldn't stop you. You wouldn't listen to me when I warned
you because you didn't give a shit about what I had to say - nothing I
said was ever important to you!"
=====
Spike Spiegel - born June 26th, 2044. An ex-Red Dragon Syndicate
member, he is currently noted as being a bounty hunter. He resides on
an old fishing ship by the name of the Bebop, along with its three other
crew members; Jet Black, an ex-ISSP cop; Faye Valentine, an
ex-bounty/con-woman turned bounty hunter; and Edward Wong Hau
Pepelu Tivrusky IV, known as Radical Edward - an infamous hacker.
'Toss in a Welsh Corgi smarter than anyone this side of Venus and
you got a family that puts the fun in dys-fun-ctional.' Spike smirked to
himself as he ran through the compound, in search of his comrades.
He looked back to make sure he wasn't being followed, only to see
the trail of blood being made by his injuries.
"Damn." It wouldn't be good for him to keep going on like this. He
had to find Faye - and fast. He still couldn't understand why she was
putting him through this - that is of course until someone's words
suddenly came to mind.
"I'm not going there to die… I'm going there to see if I'm really alive."
End of Chapter 21