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Title: Hallelujah in Blue
Originally Titled: Paradise Cancelled (1), For the Sake of a Soul(2)
Created By: Scylla the Healer
Based On: Anime - Cowboy BeBop
Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy BeBop or any of the characters therein, but I claim Gren's saxophone! Buahaha!
Notice: Vicious x Gren (past and present)
Creation Date: February 5, 2003
Updated Last: May 16, 2003
Chapters: 15 (Original Fiction Finished – Continuation now in progress)
Rating: R for adult content/language
Set your WinAmp skin to something blue and BeBop, drop Space Lion into the playlist, and sit back for a rewrite of history.
Summary: Who's with me when we say that goddamnit, Gren CAN'T die!? Such a beautifully intricate character deserves redemption, and who better than the man who first taught him about betrayal? Takes place right after Sessions 12 and 13, AKA 'Jupiter Jazz.' And I mean right after. Or maybe a little during. Then, we have a large gap of time – and thanks to some good information, I've shortened the time frame between Gren's 'death' and the final showdown between Vicious and Spike to about six months. Everybody needs time to stew, right? But five years was kind of excessive, after all. But six months, in all honesty, makes sense. If we say the episodes all fell within a single year, The Jupiter Jazz Sessions are the halfway point.
To everyone who read the original version of Chapter Nine…my sincere apologies. That will be the last time I ever try to write a chapter while on cold medication. Ugh. That was dangerously close to plotless fluff…and I promise that it will not happen again. Lucky thing I salvaged it before it took over the story. Poor Gren…and poor Vicious! Teetering on the edge of ooc'ness…
2-25-03: There's been some serious alterations in several chapters. I saw the last episodes again, fixed what didn't jive, and...I didn't want ya'll to think I was a Julia-basher, after all. ^_^' And guess what? Preview of the sequel! Yee! Partially because it was bad luck to leave it on Chapter 13.
Warnings: Yaoi content – male love, in other words. So if you don't like yaoi, or you're an adamant anti-Vicious x Gren shipper…then I advise you not to read. It'll be easier on your eyes. ^_^
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Titan was beautiful from this sector of space...
He'd barely made it out of the atmosphere. Damn Spike. One thruster at half power, the other only functioning sporadically. It would be slow progress anywhere; there was no hurry to report. No need to let them know how close he'd come to failing. The corpses would only exchange wise, smug smiles. Expectant smiles. They could hardly wait for the day that they would learn of his death.
Buttons clicked as pale fingertips tapped out the sequence. Destination: anywhere but here. The stars chided him; cold, distant pinpricks of light. Coward. Not cruel. Not powerful. Just a coward.
"Please select destination."
Vicious punched a few more buttons randomly. Anywhere but here…
God only knows what happened back there. And for certain, Vicious didn't want to know.
"Invalid destination. Please select destination."
"…" What is the code for oblivion? More random buttons pushed.
"Invalid destination. Please select destination."
"The hell with it." He didn't want to know where he was going right now. Fingers wrapped around the joystick, tensing of their own accord. Squeezed. Stopped.
Blue eyes swam across his vision. Betrayal. Gren hadn't even bothered to look pissed. What was he, some kind of god-damned saint? After everything Vicious had done to him…all the pain he'd caused? They'd fought together on Titan! Didn't that mean anything to the damned idiot longhair…idealist…beautiful…
The least he could've done was be angry with me. In the very least. Just pointed that gun at me like he had a score to settle…like it was nothing personal.
Titan is beautiful from here...
Spike wouldn't kill him, would he…?
Just as the tendril of worry curled through his mind, the distant cough of a ten-year-old Swordfish engine roared and dissipated. His head snapped around. He spotted a familiar silhouette etching through the starlight, reflecting it until the entire body of the ship took on a glow.
Gren's ship.
It was in pathetic shape, the metal of the wings and underside rippled and torn in places from a powerful concussion. By rights, that thing shouldn't have been able to leave Callisto's atmosphere at all. He's probably dead. He's got to be. Thrusters are off. Vicious' eyes narrowed.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I don't…
"Damnit!" Miraculously, both engines gunned and roared into the emptiness of space as Vicious leaned hard left and swung about to retrieve the musician's vessel.
His comrade.