Heart of Innocence-
Chapter 1: The Mission
It's been over a year now as I still can savor the bittersweet taste of revenge in my tongue. Time hasn't healed the rift in my heart as memories of him still hunts my dreams and invades my very soul. I have gotten stronger now. I will not be as weak as Spike was and get myself killed like he did. No, I will be the one who will kill. I'll be the last person standing, the one with my hands covered with his blood and the one to have the last laugh. I have trained days and nights; skip countless sleep just to prepare for that day when I'll finally get to meet Vicious again. Now my heart waits impatiently to finally finish what Spike stared.
After the whole incident with Spike, I decided to leave the Bebop for good. Every time I passed his room only more memories came to my already screwed-up mind as tears began to fall unconsciously. I was tired of being so weak. I was tired of remembering the past. He was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. When I had the chance to stop him, when I had the chance to at least shoot his damn leg so he wouldn't have the strength to leave, my weakness betrayed my soul, and so I let him leave. For that, I will never forgive myself. For that, I'm seeking revenge.
It took about nine months of intense training to finally return to the Bebop once again. To tell the truth, I didn't know, nor still know why I returned. Every room in the Bebop still reminded me of Spike, the main reason why I left. Yet those memories were the fuel that turned my heat into an inferno and let me remember of my mission in this life.
As the year passed, I changed. I am not the little lost girl who searched for someone's hands to grasp and find her way…where she really belonged. I am not the woman who cared for people anymore. I found that to be the weakness, the destroyer of the weak. I'm the new Faye Valentine. The one who will kill for revenge. The one who is not afraid of death and even considers it a dream. A vision that plays over and over again as it never dies making you believe is really there and alive. That is my new perspective in life. That is the reason I live and that will be the reason I'll die.
Three months before I returned to my old "home", Ed and Ein decided to return as well. According to Jet, she missed us a whole bunch and wasn't having any fun with her dad. He told me that when she heard about Spike's death, she just flew to her room and stared crying. He also said that Ed hardly ate and passed most of her time either crying in her room or staring blankly at her computer screen. Supposedly, she was angry with herself for not being able to say good-bye to Spike and now, she now didn't have the chance to see him ever again.
"Anything new has come up in that computer of you, Ed?" I asked as I came out of the showers. Jet just stared at me and laughed.
"You know, a little bit younger and probably I would be hitting on you right about now." He teased. My checks flushed as I tried to hide its pinkish color. I wasn't wearing anything special to be worthy of a complement. I just had a short jean pants with the place where the zipper was opened, a black belt that ran cricked in my hips and a white blouse that revealed my stomach and my new belly-button ring. The blouse was one side a long sleeve and the other one without sleeve and it looked like it was crossed. On my belts, I held two guns, which in case of a mission, I hid with a long stretch coat. I wore a pair of military boots and my hair which has grown an inch longer than my shoulder was pulled back in a messy braid with little chunks of hair cascading lazily on my face and side. Nothing special, really.
"Anyways, so what's new?"
"Ed found bounty. Mucho money!!!" squealed Ed as she turned and twisted into some weird shape. I guess that girl is boneless after all.
"Well, spit it out already!" I exclaimed impatiently, "I want to see who our next victim is."
"Or if we are his next victim." Added Jet. I looked at him strangely as he continued, " He doesn't have a 2,000,000 woolongs on his head for nothing, you know? He is responsible for killing the lives of approximately 200 innocent people in the explosion he caused at the Grand Parc National. Neither children, women, nor men came unharmed from this diabolical act. Also, it is said that any person who finds himself under his immense power ends up dead and no one is bound to tell the police for fear of their own lives."
"Uuuhhhhh…. sounds powerful!" chirped Ed.
"Sounds cowardly," I corrected.
"Well, anyways. According to Ed, he often time goes to this nightclub. Most likely to do his dirty job."
"Name of the club?"
"Liquid Dreams"
"Huh? You got to be kidding! Not only is he an expert assassin but also a pervert?"
"Well, guys like to have fun here and there, you know?"
"JET!"
"Hey relax! I'm just kidding"
"Why don't I believe that?" I murmured as I took a look at Ed's computer screen. The guy was probably about 28 or 29 years old. His face was the type that held a dark secret past to it and his eyes seemed to have seen many deaths and faced many sorrows. By the way his body stood from the water fountain behind him where the blurry picture has been taken, it seemed he stood a good 6' 0" tall. For some reason, those eyes…I have seen them before and for some reason, those eyes are burning my skin and tearing my heart apart. Why is he causing such tremendous impact on me? What was going on?
"Faye, are you okay?" asked a very concerned Jet as he lightly shook my shoulders. I nodded in response though I was lying. I didn't want him to worry about me and not let me go to this savage's hunt. I was going to find him. I was going to destroy all of his kind.
"I'm fine. What's the plan?"
He looked at me nervously as he tried the best he could to explain what he wanted to tell me. For some reason I didn't have a good feeling from this. I don't like it at all…
"Well…I was planning…uh…"
"Well…spit it out already!" I yelled. He looked at Ed for a second, then to me, and then to Ed again.
"Ed…Jet has to talk something that children can't listen to…you know, adults things. Can you please step out of the room for a sec.?" Ed's eyes travel to mine as in search of a response but when she saw the look of confusion from my side, she shrugged it off and headed out. Jet sighted heavily and continued, "I need you to get a job there as a stripper."
"YOU WHAT!?"
Jet could tell by the way that my eyes glowed an eerie reddish color and by the way my hands clenched into fists that I wasn't too fond of the idea, so he exhaled and inhaled the toxic smoke of the cigarette he was having.
"Look," he tried to convince, "There's no way they are letting you inside unless you are or a boy or a stripper."
"Isn't there another solution?"
"Nope"
"I'll do it."
"YOU WHAT!?"
"I said I'll do it! What are you deaf now?" I took Jet's cigarette from his lips and placed it in mine. I sighted in boredom as I exhaled the smoke into the plain nothingness, "So…how far do I have to go to stop any suspicion?"
He looked at me strangely and said, "As far as you need to go."
I just shrugged my shoulders and nodded lightly. This was going to be one hell of a mission but what can she say? The money was good and besides, maybe that asshole knew something about my real victim, the one I really want to get my hands on and finish for sure, Vicious…
"So…" I stared trying to break the tension, "When are we leaving?"
He blinked at couple of times as he kept staring at me in disbelief. Probably he couldn't believe that I had accepted the job so fast and didn't seem protest much. I sighed loudly once again to indicate my annoyance and desperation to get this stared and over with and for him to respond. I guess he got the point since he answered, "Tonight, I guess"
Without a word, I pulled myself from the comfy sofa in Mars' Hotel Inn and headed towards the fridge. For some unknown reason, this mission felt awfully strange. I smelt blood and tasted fear. As I opened the fridge, my body shivered as I could of swore to have felt a strong presence nearby. I laughed at myself for such stupid imagination, closed the fridge and went to my room. Suddenly I have lost my appetite…suddenly this was getting interesting.
An: Wow! This was long! But I guess this is my apologies for the prelude since it was so short ^-^ Sorry for all the grammar mistakes and all but its 2:21am here and I'm more in the dozing side than where it supposed to be. None of these characters belongs to me; they are copyrighted by Sunrise Cop. Please Review! Next chapter will come out on Wednesday, July 25th. Arigato! ^-^