PS: Thanks to those who are always determined for me to get a chapter
uploaded, and had told me by either email or AIM. I hope this request
of a new chapter is not a disappointment ^_^
The Untold Story of the Ugly Duckling: part Two
--"All human things are subject to decay.
And when fate summons, monarchs must obey"
-Excerpt from "Mac Flecknoe": John Dryden--
||
Earth carried this impression that was close to the feeling that everything was natural. Take example the rain that poured down the sides of the metal fishing ship, and lashed out on its windows. It was real, and uncontrolled by humans, unlike many of the other planets he had visited with cities in domes with the ability to produce whatever weather from the inside.
Sometimes he wished earth should have been his childhood home. Mars never created this 'homey' feeling in him every time he visits, and as far as he can remember, Mars carried more bad times than good times in his whole life than any other place.
"Faye-Faye was from Earth, did you know? Edward knew because Faye-Faye told her," it was like the young girl used some weird psychic ability in his mind, and he turned to her with a questioning glance.
"Ed... how'd you know I was thinking about Earth?"
The young girl raised her head to him with a friendly smile, "Spike-person keeps muttering: 'Earth, guh', like Spike-person hates Earth for some reason."
He gave her a brief smile before turning back to the blackened skies and the natural rain it produced, "Didn't know I was saying it out loud.."
A pause followed his words before Ed sighed and sloppily sat in the seat of the cockpit, "Edward is from Earth too, you know? Earth is Edward's home," she bit her bottom lip before she slouched in her seat.
Removing his glance from the window, Spike turned around and leaned against the wall to look over to the young girl on the seat nearby, "Do you have a home here, Ed?"
Ed casually raised a hand in the air and waved a 'so-so' gesture.
"Got anyone waiting for you there?"
Twirling her chair around, she moved so that she was not facing Spike anymore, Ed replied in a small voice, "Papa..."
Spike placed a small smile in his calm face as he fixed his stance, "Then what are you doing here, Ed? Faye's gone to see if she can find something, and this is her home planet, so she's probably trying to find her family. Why aren't you doing the same, Ed?"
Ed spun the chair back to face him, and stood up with a pout, "Is Spike-person kicking Edward out of the Bebop?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying..." he reached for his pack of cigarettes and lit one up before repeating his question, "What I mean is everyone's got a home, Ed, and you've got one on this planet. So why aren't you going off to find it while you have the chance?"
"Because..." Ed began as her voice once again quieted, "The Bebop is Edward's home."
Spike's eyes turned into a dull surprise as he gazed at the girl.
"Even if Earth is Edward's original home, Edward thinks the Bebop is a better home for her," she petted Ein as he whined for attention, "Edward likes it better here than anywhere else. Not even with Papa."
He found himself looking at Ed in a new perspective. Not only did he think she was a little eccentric than the average female teenager, but she had an innocent heart that was filled with so much gratitude, that even him or Jet couldn't go up against. As his eyes met up with hers, they came to a silent understanding before leaving each other's to gaze at the sudden flash of light from the window outside.
"Do you think Faye-Faye will come back? The Bebop is her home too, right?"
Every time he heard her name, he could feel a stab inside him that he tried to ignore, "I don't know, Ed."
He could hear Ed behind him give out a whiny grumble before lifting herself from the seat and running out of the room, leaving him by himself in the cold cock pit room. He gave a wary sigh and muttered to himself, "I really hope so.."
||
She watched as the man hustled behind her, fixing blankets and cushions on the floor while she sat still in front of the wood-burning fire. Her eyes moved as he moved to the other side of her, fixing his own blankets and cushions before turning to her in realization.
"Oh geez, how could I be so clumsy as to forget!" quickly, he rushed out where the light of the fire didn't touch and where more slabs of rubble laid, and came back with a thick blanket. Carefully he bent down and wrapped her with it; a smile carried in his toned face as he looked down at his fine work of hospitality.
Faye couldn't help but let her cheeks burn slightly in embarrassment, "Thanks.."
He made his way to the other side of the fire where he sat down and replied to her with a 'No problem'.
She tightened the blanket around her as the breeze from the rain began its way in the small tent Marcus had made from the large standing slabs of concrete the rubble of her past home still held. It was quiet, as far as voices inside the tent, as she listened to the soft pattering of rain drops hit the plastic covering of their shelter. Her eyes wandered around the marble floor beneath her, and wondered how the man across from her was able to still be here in this time period when.....
"Bet you're pretty confused right now," Marcus spoke, catching her eyes as he nodded and smiled, "I'll explain to you if you'd like? Or maybe you'd rather wait because you look like you need rest."
"No.. no, please explain," Faye said in a rush, unable to stand the nagging in her mind about how Marcus was here, and looking as young as he was 50 years ago.
"Well..." he took the stick nearby and prodded the fire as he stared at it, "I was in that shuttle accident with you that day... and I did die too. No one made it."
Faye looked up at him to see if his words affected him any sorrow, but she was unable to retrieve any emotion as he kept his eyes to the orange glow of the fire.
"But the difference from you that I had was, they were actually able to revive me. They said you suffered too much internal damage and such; it was impossible to replace them all correctly in such a quick time," he sighed and removed the stick from the fire and placed it down a safe distance from the fire pit, "You're parents were pretty devastated, and they went for anything brought up by professional doctors. Unfortunately none of them worked, and your body was beginning to fade out fast."
She scrunched her nose at the thought of her corpse decomposing, "So then, how did they come to putting me in cyro sleep?"
Marcus turned to her from his view of the fire and smiled, "My father was this specialized agent from the United States Government back then, and he dealt with 'hush-hush' stuff. He suggested to place you under cryogenics that they are testing, and that if placed there until the medical science advanced, maybe you'd be able to live again. Of course, your parents agreed after paying a hefty amount of money and signing some confidential papers along with it."
Faye nodded, indicating she understood it now, but still her question from the start was unanswered, "But how did you get here, in my time, as if you were cryogenically frozen also?"
Tossing another log into the pit, Marcus stared back at the blazing fire as he spoke, "Well, when your parents decided to put you into cyro-sleep, their worries still didn't stop. They were afraid of what will happen to you in the future, and if the cyro-sleep did induce you with temporary amnesia, what would you do? So... I volunteered to be cryogenically frozen along with you, so that I'd be able to look out for you when you wake up."
A flash of lightning struck from the outside of their tent as Faye looked up at him as he smiled at the fire, "We were supposed to wake up together, but as you can tell now, the doctors made a little mistake. I woke up a year before you did, and I had the effects of mild amnesia, but I still remembered you when I woke up. I kept asking them to look for your name on the list; Faye Lan, but they wouldn't even listen to me. They kept saying that I was being all delusional or something, thinking I was making up my story of how we were frozen together.
"They kicked me out of the hospital a few days later, after I was clarified in good condition, and I was also banned from that hospital," Marcus gave a short chuckle, "I think I pissed them off after trying to break back in a few times."
Faye also let out a quiet chuckle, "So you tried to tell them to wake me up at the same time you did.. Instead I woke up a year later, and got scammed by some doctor because I had amnesia, right?"
Marcus gazed over to her with a sad smile, "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I only heard about you days after you left the hospital with that large amount of debt on your shoulders. I tried to contact you, but I found out you became a con artist and traveled all over. You were too fast for me to catch up with. I even sent you a videotape, and I never found out if you got it."
"I did get it.. but it wasn't any help back then. But Marcus.. you don't have to be sorry. It wasn't your fault," she reassured sympathetically.
"No, I think it really was my fault. I mean, I was the one who told you about the shuttle rides... and I wasn't there when you needed me when I should have been," he sighed and shifted his legs front of him before his guilty eyes moved to the fire once more. Faye kept quiet in her side as she felt sorrow for the man and her words couldn't even make him know that she didn't hold anything against him.
"I swear though, Faye, I'll make it up to you," he locked eyes on her with determination, "I'll fix everything."
||
It rained still in the morning, as they set foot back into the town. The two of them, striding along side each other, comforted that the other one was still existing.
"Did you know? You still have a standing family inheritance. It's located in the New Pacifica area, and I've been tending to it from time to time."
Faye turned to him with a smile as she adjusted her hood over her, covering her head from any rain, "You mean the summer house? It's still there? ...wow.."
Marcus pulled her gently towards him as a car sped by her side of the sidewalk, saving her from getting splashed on by a puddle nearby, "I know. I was surprised also, but when I managed to get files of our families from some fellow hackers, I found that house was still living and currently closed to anyone... except for you, of course," he smiled lightly as he noticed the woman flush from his actions and slowly let her arm go, "I seem to make you uncomfortable at times. I'm sorry, I guess I must be thinking ahead of myself for hoping that everything that was before, is still the same now."
Sinking into a deeper hole of guilt, Faye casually took hold of his hand, knowing that her friend meant nothing but good intentions, "The same as it was before: You are still my best friend."
Marcus looked over to her, his smile wavering with unnoticeable remorse. After a short time of silence, he nodded to her and continued to lead on their walk.
||
"Where are you off to now?"
Jet moved from the doorway of the kitchen as soon as he had seen a tall figure with green hair walk up the steps towards the hanger. He noticed that the man had a terribly dull look in his face; not wearing his usual navy shirt over his yellow.
"Earth's got good bars, you know? I don't know why I never noticed it before now..... That's where I'm heading off."
The disappointed Jet breathed a sigh, "Spike..."
He paused as he watched the other man turn his sober face to him with an expectant look. It was becoming irritating, Jet noticed, how the man he supposedly knew to be such a balanced individual suddenly turn towards depression over a shipmate. Well, not just any shipmate, Jet guessed, and yet the actions Spike produced in and out of the ship ever since yesterday was beyond a normal brooding.
"I got us a bounty in Venus. We're leaving tonight."
Jet studied his comrade's face; not a disapproving look, or an angered expression in sight.
"We really need the money, Spike. This bounty's a pretty good deal."
And Jet watched as the tall man head out without any words or actions; not even the usual, yet sufficient nod of acknowledgment to his words.
It wasn't the same anymore since Faye's leaving. He'd never thought such a bold move from the female ex-boarder could bring the whole Bebop morality to the ground. He noticed in Ed, who sat nearby by Ein humming quietly to herself; and Spike, who hasn't really spoken to him since he came back from the walk with Ed last night; and he noticed it in himself. His deludement to the situation was latent through the expression of his face, and yet as Ed stared at him blankly, apologetically in her chair, it was futile for him to not agree that it was there.
"Ed, wanna' look up someone for me? It's this bounty in Venus."
The girl shook her head lazily and continued to pet the resting dog on her lap, "Edward doesn't want to today, Jet-person. Edward would like to skip this one out."
Jet let out a grunt and scratched his bald top, "Looks like you don't want to leave tonight either, eh?"
The girl began to hum once more, disregarding the question as she paid her attention to the data dog, leaving Jet to stand in silence and in thought.
||
It continued to rain lightly as he walked up the dark streets of the small town area. It was already seven at night, and he had visited well over ten bars since the morning. He didn't know why he was visiting so much because he didn't drink in every one of them, instead it seemed like he sat in them for a good hour waiting. Waiting for someone to appear out of nowhere, or waiting and expecting for someone who knew him to be there.
Or maybe he was kidding himself; maybe he was searching and not waiting. Searching for a person who he wanted to see again. Searching and hoping maybe behind those glass-stained doors, sits a figure near the bar whom he needed to talk to.
This contemplating feeling, the feeling of not being good enough for someone, it was new. He hadn't felt anything near to it since Julia left him unexpectedly long ago, and even the feeling he had then couldn't compare to this. He wondered if he really did fall for Faye. Seriously, and not just because he felt close to her in the beginning of it all. He knew for sure that her lack in presence in the Bebop was giving him some sort of pain, and that the reason was moot.
He respected her decision to leave and to search for her past, and yet he stood tenaciously in stance for her to come back for her promise was not credible enough. He wanted her to say she will come back; not she might. That wasn't good enough.
Strongly, he hated her promise of maybe coming back. Like it jeered at him to suffer from wonder and wait.
Striking against those feelings he felt towards Faye, at the same time he hated her. Hated her for having a past she had; hated her for leaving; hated her for not considering his announced liking to her; hated her for not announcing it back to him.
There was so much things he wanted to confess to hate her about, and yet he only thought up of things that he hated about her because she was all that was in his mind. And he thought to himself how he could live with a mind who ran marathons of discombobulated emotions of love and hate. How long was he supposed to keep up the balance between the two? how long will it last?
His thoughts couldn't be more distracted as his ears picked up distant gunshots down the way he walked. His eyes moving in front of him, a fair distance away were two figures: one ducked behind garbage cans near the turn of the alley, and the other behind the wall which ran from his left. He stopped in his tracks as he watched one figure arch over one of the steel bins and shoot to two cars that passed circles around the street. The shooter seemed to have a knack at aim as two wheels of one of the black cars was disabled and the car spun into an opposite building. The other car had taken notice of it, and was now careful to the shots that the shooter was taking to them.
Spike pulled out his gun cautiously as the figure behind the garbage cans had finished the ammo in the gun, and ducked back down to reload. He walked a couple of feet forward slowly as he watched the black car sped by and by, shooting rounds of bullets to the two figures. He hid behind a different alley and pointed his Jericho towards a constant spot that the car sped by on. He didn't know who these people where, but he figured that it wouldn't hurt to help either of them. And besides, he could tell who the black cars belonged to, and the Syndicate wasn't anyone he was very fond of.
He couldn't tell it in his view, but through his ears he could hear the riders of the black car begin to throw riddles of bullets towards only the person behind the garbage cans. After a moment of deafening shots, he heard a small cry, and heard the figure behind the wall on the left side yell the name of his company who hid by alley.
And the name made him run.
||
"Faye!"
Sweat began to accumulate all over her as the random bullet dug on her back. For a moment, her vision blurred and darkened, and she knew she was going to pass out. She breathed angrily and squinted hard before she stood to her feet, her gun shaking in one hand, and she began to shoot in raging hell. Every time her gun recoiled with her abnormal rapid shots, her back gave out an enormous knock of pain, and she could feel herself weaken with every used shell that came out of her gun. And in her rampage, she missed her targets on the wheels, and still she was determined to kill the bastards who popped out of nowhere, trying to ruin her day.
Just then, she heard the terrible sound of the empty clicks of her gun, and her eyes moved to the surviving black car speed around once more, this time one rider stood out of the sun roof of the vehicle, pointing a heavy gun to her. The man aimed at her with a grin, and she gritted her teeth at him as he pulled the trigger.
And it was like a videotape in slow motion, where the rocket that burst through the heavy gun was spiraling towards her, and she stared at it helpless, angry. And then it came like a rush as she was pulled aside in a more or less fashionable way for her injured back, and she didn't notice the man who held her between the wall and his body of the opposite wall, or the explosion of garbage cans flying high into the air in reds and oranges.
"Faye! Is she all right?" she took note that the voice was from Marcus who stood nearby, and not near her. Now she was intent to who the person was, and she was afraid as she hesitantly opened her eyes and viewed the sight of Spike standing before her. He looked down at her in silent concern and relief, and she eyed him as if he was her savior.
Snapping back into situation as the rider who shot the rocket at her called for a new one, drew a sharp intake of breath as her back shivered in pain and groped her hand over Spike's Jericho, taking it away from with no permission.
"What the hell are you doing?"
She ignored him as she pushed her way out of his arms, pushed herself through the worried Marcus, and stood back into the open of the shooter of the rocket launcher. She aimed her gun as the rider had started to aim at her.
"You annoying son of a bitch!" and shot, perfectly hitting the man in between his eye sockets. The feeling she received was satisfying, and felt herself relax as her knees fell to the floor. Once again her sight flashed into darkness, then an off-color view of her surroundings. She moved her eyes to her side, noticing the large drops of blood that leaked through her back create monstrous puddles on the floor.
Then she heard yelling, and saw guns being pointed to her by another rider of the previous black car. She saw it, and could have lifted her hand with Spike's Jericho, and aimed and fired. Yet her arms felt like string, and tiredness became evident as her eyes continued to flash oddities of black, white, and neon.
And as if time sped a few moments into the future, a body enclosed around her, shielding her hopeless self from the bullets that rounded on the person's back. Tears formed in her eyes at what was happening, and she couldn't believe it. She didn't want to.
Off to her side, Spike rolled and quickly grabbed the laying Jericho and began to shoot back to the black car, succeeding in hitting the shooter and driver, and the car spun uncontrollably as it crashed near the already burning vehicle.
She couldn't hear anything, or maybe she just didn't want to, but all she knew was that sitting there hopelessly, or even trying to relieve her anger when she stole the Jericho from Spike and went off to kill, was a shameful act that she hated herself to have done now. She gave sob as she moved her hands around the slouched body shielding her, crying to her mistake and crying to him.
She shook him slightly, wanting him to respond to her. Her voiced strangled as he heard him speak in whisper to her.
"Faye, I'm so sorry... I'm so so sorry..."
Her hands automatically grappled carefully around his bloody back, "Marcus.."
"It was my fault, Faye. I thought the Syndicate could help me with finding you, but I know now that it was a mistake.... I'm so sorry.."
Angrily but timidly, she shook him, "Shut up! Stop saying sorry!"
She could feel one of his hands slowly rise to her shoulder, "I promised you that I'd fix everything... I want you to have everything... J-just take my bag..."
"I don't want your stupid bag!" Faye sobbed louder as she pulled a hand from his back to hold onto the one on her shoulder, "Marcus, just stay okay? We'll get you help, I promise."
"Swear to me that you'd take whatever it is in my bag, Faye... Swear to me that you'll have everything you need.. Swear to me you will be happy again."
Faye tightened her hold on him as he began to slip slightly to the floor. She gave distraught breath, "Please don't leave me.."
From behind her, Marcus placed a smile on his ghastly white face, "We died once, remember? And I never did leave you..."
She felt his body relax in a rush, and in an instant she clung to him, straining her voice with the sobs of his name.
Behind them, listening intently but turned away from the scene, Spike stood with shared sympathy, and guilt of feeling jealousy. A new hate developed in his mind: He hated her for losing the man named Marcus. It was a thought purely selfish and overall blunt, yet it didn't mean the same to him like it sounded. He finally heard the subsiding cries from the grieving woman, and slightly turned towards the scene. Faye had stood up and had laid the body of the young man on the floor in front of her. To him, she seemed lost and hopeless for some time, until she turned to him with eyes that spewed some sort of burning rage.
Her body shook slightly as she breathed in to speak, "Call.. the hospital and tell them.. tell them there's a body around Aurora Avenue."
Spike stared at her hard, "And you? What of your back?"
Faye raked a hand in her damp hair from the light rain, and slowly began to walk behind the wall where two backpacks laid, "Jet can fix it up when we get back." she stressed to lean forward and pick the bags up, and before she could make the mistake to do so for her back sent shooting signals up her spine, Spike casually took them in his hands for her.
"Thanks," she offered as they walked along side each other in the dark
night in silence. Never looking back to the wreckage behind, or bringing
up any words of the past five minutes ago. Just appreciating that
the other one still exists.
~review pleaze~
On the next chapter:
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Jet: That was kind of stupid... you introduce a new character and kill him off before he even finishes featuring his first chapter.
Strife21: >.> Think irony here! I want this to be mostly irony until the end.
Jet: It's an irony that this story is getting worst and worst O]o
Strife21: What?!
Jet: Yeah, i mean it was all cool in the beginning.. and now.. Even the Previews are getting dull.
Strife21: That's because I made a mistake of placing you in here ~.~
Jet: Shut up.. I make a great atmosphere in here by telling the readers how this story started out all cool and practical, and now it's just plain depressing and kind of lacking.
Strife21:....it's not lacking! ;_;
Jet: yep..
Strife21: No it's not!
Jet: It is so lacking that.... --------- .......... [see you can't even give me a good come back]
Strife21: I decided not to.. you're hurting my feelings..
Jet: Okay.. it seems as if we are now breaking the fourth wall.. You know you are typing these words right now.
Strife21: Yeah... and they hurt.
Jet: So... O]o stop typing, you idiot!
Strife21: Stop making fun of me!
Jet: What the f*ck?! You want me to stop, then just stop typing pessimistic views of yourself, all right?!
Strife21: ^-^ I'm trying to make it funny by breaking the fourth wall. Watch, I'll make you say something cool about me.
Jet: You are so awesome, Strife! [Dammit..]
Strife21: *mocks Jet* " I am bald, but I am awesome. But not as awesome as you!"
Jet: I am bald, but I am awesome. But not as awesome as you! ( x]x)
Strife21: Ha.. the irony~ If what you said about you being here makes things cool is true, then really it meant that me bringing you here and making you say those things you say, is actually pointing to me that's making it cool here. Hehe... I win!
Jet: But at the same time, whatever I say against you and this story is true too mwaha!
Strife21: ....shut up... I'm ending this now, it's
getting confusing.. Anyways, next chapter is Blues of the Sinned:
Beginning of the End. Part one of two! See you next time.
~laterz, cowboy....~