Title: All's Fair (Ch. 1 – Could've Gone Mad)
Summary: Faye is captured while hunting for a bounty. They're asking for information he can't possibly give. What does it all mean? SxF
Archive: ff.net
Disclaimer: Thanks to Poe for the chapter title. I don't own the artist or Cowboy BeBop, but I will gladly endorse them both for a small fee- heh, just kidding. Psst, go buy Poe's awesome CD "Haunted." You'd do well to buy the CB sessions on DVD, too! ^_~
Comments: kimmie@e-mailanywhere.com
Faye clicked the handcuffs closed with a resolute snap. It was her tenth large bounty in two months, and she was feeling good. Faye shoved the bounty head into the Redtail and used the magnetic clamp on them to secure him down. She climbed into the cockpit and flew off to the local ISSP station where she made quick work of turning him in and getting payment transferred to her account.
Faye sauntered outside to check her card. Sure enough, she was 2 million woolongs richer. Smiling, she transferred 50,000 woolongs over to another number registered under Francois Appleby. That done, she headed to the market to pick up some groceries.
**
Faye loaded the Redtail with the sacks, whistling a song to herself. She felt so good, she began to hum, and as she was singing softly, a hand clamped over her mouth. She struggled, reaching for her Glock, tucked into her hip holster. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Miss Valentine. It will only make things harder for you later." the cold voice froze her, and the gun slid from her hip.
She was dragged off, kicking and fighting.
**
Faye sighed, struggling again against the metal cord that twined about her ankles and up to her wrists, then higher up to a pole suspended from the ceiling. "My legs are getting a little tired." she offered into the darkness.
"Hello?" she called, straining to see something.
Sure enough, a dark, tall figure approached, not coming close enough to the glaring light over her for her to clearly see them. Faye twisted her hands again, feeling something run down her wrists. She sincerely hoped it was sweat, but as her hands had lost all feeling a long time ago, she couldn't really be sure. "So who are you? Some bounty I pissed off a while back? It has been a long time since I let one by." he laughed coldly.
"Oh no, I'm not anything as low as a wanted criminal. They haven't caught onto my crimes yet." Faye rolled her eyes.
"Okay… so what could you want with little ole' me?" she asked lightly.
"I don't want much from you at all, Valentine. You tell me a little information and then you can get those groceries back to your sick little friend." Faye's unaffected expression twisted into anger.
"What the fuck would you know about that?" her captor ignored this, moving forward.
He stepped into the light and Faye recoiled, terror creeping into her features. "You." she muttered, shaking her head, unable to look into his malice-filled, dead eyes.
He smiled darkly. "Very impressed you would remember me."
"Not hard to forget someone that kidnaps you and then duels with your partner to the death." his face twitched.
"Not quite. But that is precisely what I wanted to speak with you about. You're not an easy woman to track down, Miss Valentine." his voice made her blood feel like it had frozen in her veins.
"And yet you still found me."
"Where is Spike?" Faye snorted.
"You should know, you're the one that put him there." Vicious smiled at the pain drifting over her expression.
"Where?" he repeated cooly, letting the light glint off the short knife he carried.
Faye stared at him unbelievably. "Are you kidding me?" he neared her, letting the cold steel rest against her shoulder, tracing it up to her chin.
"I assure you that I am anything but kidding." Faye laughed.
She didn't stop until the back of Vicious' hand collided with her cheekbone. Lifting her head back up to face him, a frightening, strange grin on her face, she answered, her voice thick with hate and unbridled mirth. "Six feet under on Mars, just like you planned. Is this what you really brought me here for? You're one sick son of a bitch. No wonder Julia left you for him." Faye gasped as the tip of his blade pierced the skin of her throat, just enough to leave a cut that dripped blood.
"You will leave once I know what I want to know and not a minute before. Of course, there are many ways of making you talk. You may not walk out of here. In fact. You may have to crawl." he grinned.
Faye stared at him determinedly. "You don't scare me. Spike is dead, and even if I knew where he was, if he really was alive, I wouldn't tell you. Let's get real, ok, he wouldn't come back here. You killed him 6 months ago, so stop fucking with my head." Vicious snarled.
"That isn't possible." Faye rolled her eyes.
"Why is it so hard for you to believe, you were there." she spoke through clenched teeth, afraid that if she let them loose a scream would rip from her throat.
"You don't understand anything, do you? For one so close to him, you don't know anything." he spat, anger clouding his face.
Faye shook off the remark about closeness- as she recalled they were really anything but. "Then make me understand. How could he possibly have survived that? I saw his body." she admitted, barely keeping her eyes open as she saw flashes of that fateful day so long ago blur her vision.
"He and I are one. I am alive, so he must be as well. I want to know where I can find him." Faye turned this over in her mind.
Either Vicious had gone completely crazy, or, well, he'd gone completely crazy. Spike was dead; she'd seen him herself. "I told you already, I don't know! Spike is dead, he's gone, it's done, get over it!" she screamed, feeling the cut stretch as her jaw moved rapidly.
A shot snapped the wire, and she quickly rolled out of the way, staring into the darkness to see who'd freed her. "I knew you'd come." Vicious wasn't even paying attention to her.
His eyes were focused on a spot in the dark. "Come out and show your little friend just how alive you are." he drew his kitana, and the shape began to move out of the darkness.
END CHAPTER 1 --
