To Every Ending, There Is A New Beginning
By: Tiffany Mahala
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. -- Lincoln
Chapter Six: Vae Victis
"Faye? Where are you?" Vicious said through the speaker in his run-down ship.
"I-I'm . . . (static) on Mars. . .(static and gunfire). . .I had to make a run for it when I got here. (gunfire . 'This is my kind of "good time" ') (the sound of Faye dusting her hands off). They just wouldn't take no for an answer."
"Yeah. Well where on Mars are you?", Vicious said back.
"Um. . The street signs say 'St. James Street'. Which direction do I need to go?"
"Faye-Faye needs to go north to St. Charles Place", Ed said as she had managed to break into their conversation. She sat on the Bebop, stumped by this new game, Monopoly. Jet had dug it out of the storage room hoping it would keep her busy.
"Ed this is no time to play games. Get off the line if you're not going to help!" Faye rolled her eyes as she walked down the street, past the bodies of the dead or injured, but suddenly Vicious lost her signal.
"Hey, Faye? Faye? Little girl what did you do?" Vicious asked Ed.
"Ed didn't do anything. Vicious and Faye-Faye just lost the signal." Ed answered and she too disappeared.
Jet and I were following behind in our respective ships talking about any and everything.
". . . .And this is where you grew up?"
"Yep."
"Hey guys, I just lost contact with Faye. She was on Mars but she is on the opposite side of town from our destination." Vicious informed us.
"Well she's a big girl; she can take care of herself." Jet assured him. "Besides it might be a good idea if she not get in our way."
* * * *
Meanwhile on Mars. . . . .
"Damn you." Faye said as she hit the communicator against her hand, but to no avail. "Jet why can't you fix this half-assed thing?", she spoke to the gray streets. Then came the rain.
"Oh, great! Just what I need." She ran from the gray streets to a small canopy at a side door in the adjacent alley. She picked a cigarette out of her ankle boots and lit it in no time at all. She took a long drag and then blew the smoke out in ringlets against the rain. A shadowy figure appeared at the entrance of the alley-way. Faye looked up, noticed him and rolled her eyes. She threw her cigarette down and stomped it out. The figure stepped into what little light the nearby store fronts gave off, to reveal his black suit and sunglasses. Faye was relieved to see that, first of all he had an umbrella and second that she recognized him as the guy from the convenience store.
"Hey, there stranger." she said as she sauntered up to him. He smiled and opened his enormous black umbrella. "Thanks"
"I thought you might need some help, so I followed you from the asteroid belt."
"Ooh, how sweet." Faye said as they walked out of the alley.
"So do you know your way around here or are you as lost as I am? By the way I didn't catch your name." Faye spun around as the rain came down in sheets.
"My name is Katsuo. What's your's?"
"My name is Faye. It's a very common name. You didn't answer my question."
"Well I've been here quite a bit. I actually was born here but I grew up on Ganymede. I always come back to visit what bit of family that is here. Are you still trying to find Veronica? What was she, your sister?" Faye started walking again and Katsuo was close behind.
"Uh. . Yeah! You see Veronica is my long lost sister." Faye knew she was lying through her teeth, but anything she could do to get closer to the prize was well worth it. She was determined to get all the information he knew about her and drop him to get Veronica. "How do you know her? I mean you yourself said you only come here to visit family, so how do you know Veronica?" Faye turned around and pointed her Glock to his temple, slowly cocking the hammer back. She had had her share of people lying to her and she could almost tell just by their voice if they were or not. Katsuo laughed and took Faye's right arm and lowered the gun.
"Listen Ms. Valentine. You're going to come with me to my hotel. My employer and I have been looking for you." Before she knew it, Faye was cuffed and being pushed through the doors of the Martian Hilton.
All the way up the red carpeted stair case and to the elevator Katsuo had Faye's gun pointed at her back. He shoved her in the elevator and walked in himself and pushed the 7 button. Faye couldn't believe that she was the one being bullied around. 'I'm losing my touch', she thought. She quickly tired to pick the lock and because the elevator had mirrored walls she was found out and soon Katsuo managed to wrestle the gadget out of her hands. 'Damnit'
The doors opened and Faye's captor grabbed her arm roughly. Walking down the hallway Faye tried to think of any other way to get out of this. Katsuo stopped her at room 714 and slid the key-card through the slot opening the door. He walked in and uncuffed Faye.
"Listen we will be leaving for Ganymede tomorrow. I want you to get cleaned up." He gave her a black garment bag. "This is what you will wear when you meet my employer. Go ahead and shower." Faye gave him a distrustful look. "I don't mix business with pleasure. You can bathe in peace." Faye walked defeated to the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
* * * *
"This place is a hell-hole."
"Hey this was my old apartment." I spat out.
"Spike, you never would take any money to get yourself a decent place." Vicious laughed.
Jet looked around and was glad that I wasn't as sloppy on the Bebop, but I didn't have as many belongings on the Bebop.
"Hey, how can you still have this apartment? It's been almost four years since your first disappearance." Vicious asked.
"Well, this is a rent control place and I paid up most of my rent for up to five years."
Jet and Vicious laughed as they looked at me and how I seemed to be proud of my only accomplishment, in my mind. The main room had taupe carpet that had various stains of food and everything else. The furniture was sparce. A green and orange plaid arm-chair sat in front of a coffee table with the matching couch sitting on the other side. The actual main room was set similarly to the Bebop's living room. The only other room, besides the bathroom, that had a door was the bedroom. A four poster bed with pale yellow (either from years of not being washed or the original color) linens sat in the middle of the room with a mis-matched nightstand on the left side.
"I call dibs on the couch." I said. I had taken a liking to sleeping on couches the past couple of days anyway. And it seemed that any other time I had fallen asleep it was on that ugly yellow sofa.
"I think we have a little problem about sleeping arrangments, unless you expect Vicious and I to sleep together." Jet gave in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Well I don't have a problem with it as long as you don't have a problem with it." I said. Jet and Vicious both got wide-eyed and I smirked as I walked to the bathroom closet to get some blankets out.
It was about ten o'clock and Jet and I had already smoked the ashtray full. We dared not look in the fridge, so we went hungry. We plotted out how we were going to search for Veronica sitting around the coffee table. Jet would check out the original address while Vicious and I would go to the new address.
At around twelve we decided it was a good idea to go on and get some sleep, so I situated myself on the couch and after a long discussion Vicious took the bed, leaving Jet to sleep on a makeshift bed using the arm-chair and the coffee table.
* * * *
Faye had peeked out of the bathroom door. Katsuo was lounging on the sofa half watching the news report. Faye slipped back into the bathroom and turned the water on. Steam filled the room as the water fell from the faucet into the cold tub. Faye opened the window quietly. She figured she could slip through the window and escape back to her ship where she kept her extra gun. Fortunately for her the hotel had a fire escape, unlike many of the time. She stepped up on the toilet for more height and she peeked out to make sure no guards were there to find her out. None. 'Good.', Faye thought to herself. She climbed out of the window and onto the rusty wet fire escape. She ran quickly down the steps to the waiting Martian streets.
Once on the streets she ran as fast as she could to the Redtail. She fumbled for a few minutes and found what she was looking for. The communicator was ringing so she picked it up and to her surprise it was Ed.
"Faye-Faye! Where are you?"
"Nevermind that. What do you want?" Faye said as she looked over her shoulder.
"A bounty in the area. He's worth a lot of woolongs." Ed had already sent all the information over the monitor of the Redtail. Faye looked it over searching for the bounty amount. Then a wicked smile crept on her face.
"Thanks. Ed. Gotta go!" Faye cut her off abruptly and ran back.
"Oh, Ein. Faye-Faye has that look in her eyes again. (whimper)" Then Ed cut her end off as well.
A few minutes later Faye was back at the hotel in the bathroom of room 714 with her weapon securely hidden.
(knock, knock)
"Ms. Valentine?" Katsuo walked over to the bathroom door and felt the squish of water under his feet.
"Ms. Valentine?" Katsuo pulled his gun from its holster and slowly turned the knob of the door. "Ms. Valentine?" Katsuo flung the door open and bubble covered Faye looked up from the magazine she was reading.
"Excuse me!! I am trying to bathe. You said for me to get cleaned up. Now get out." Faye picked up bottles of all varieties and started to throw them at him as he fumbled to close the door.
"The water ran over onto the floor! I said for you to shower.", he said through the door while trying to replace his weapon back to its holster.
'This is going to be too easy.' Faye thought as she went back to reading her magazine.
AN: Vae Victis means 'woe to the conquered'. I guess either laziness, apathy, or writer's block is my excuse. T.M.
By: Tiffany Mahala
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. -- Lincoln
Chapter Six: Vae Victis
"Faye? Where are you?" Vicious said through the speaker in his run-down ship.
"I-I'm . . . (static) on Mars. . .(static and gunfire). . .I had to make a run for it when I got here. (gunfire . 'This is my kind of "good time" ') (the sound of Faye dusting her hands off). They just wouldn't take no for an answer."
"Yeah. Well where on Mars are you?", Vicious said back.
"Um. . The street signs say 'St. James Street'. Which direction do I need to go?"
"Faye-Faye needs to go north to St. Charles Place", Ed said as she had managed to break into their conversation. She sat on the Bebop, stumped by this new game, Monopoly. Jet had dug it out of the storage room hoping it would keep her busy.
"Ed this is no time to play games. Get off the line if you're not going to help!" Faye rolled her eyes as she walked down the street, past the bodies of the dead or injured, but suddenly Vicious lost her signal.
"Hey, Faye? Faye? Little girl what did you do?" Vicious asked Ed.
"Ed didn't do anything. Vicious and Faye-Faye just lost the signal." Ed answered and she too disappeared.
Jet and I were following behind in our respective ships talking about any and everything.
". . . .And this is where you grew up?"
"Yep."
"Hey guys, I just lost contact with Faye. She was on Mars but she is on the opposite side of town from our destination." Vicious informed us.
"Well she's a big girl; she can take care of herself." Jet assured him. "Besides it might be a good idea if she not get in our way."
* * * *
Meanwhile on Mars. . . . .
"Damn you." Faye said as she hit the communicator against her hand, but to no avail. "Jet why can't you fix this half-assed thing?", she spoke to the gray streets. Then came the rain.
"Oh, great! Just what I need." She ran from the gray streets to a small canopy at a side door in the adjacent alley. She picked a cigarette out of her ankle boots and lit it in no time at all. She took a long drag and then blew the smoke out in ringlets against the rain. A shadowy figure appeared at the entrance of the alley-way. Faye looked up, noticed him and rolled her eyes. She threw her cigarette down and stomped it out. The figure stepped into what little light the nearby store fronts gave off, to reveal his black suit and sunglasses. Faye was relieved to see that, first of all he had an umbrella and second that she recognized him as the guy from the convenience store.
"Hey, there stranger." she said as she sauntered up to him. He smiled and opened his enormous black umbrella. "Thanks"
"I thought you might need some help, so I followed you from the asteroid belt."
"Ooh, how sweet." Faye said as they walked out of the alley.
"So do you know your way around here or are you as lost as I am? By the way I didn't catch your name." Faye spun around as the rain came down in sheets.
"My name is Katsuo. What's your's?"
"My name is Faye. It's a very common name. You didn't answer my question."
"Well I've been here quite a bit. I actually was born here but I grew up on Ganymede. I always come back to visit what bit of family that is here. Are you still trying to find Veronica? What was she, your sister?" Faye started walking again and Katsuo was close behind.
"Uh. . Yeah! You see Veronica is my long lost sister." Faye knew she was lying through her teeth, but anything she could do to get closer to the prize was well worth it. She was determined to get all the information he knew about her and drop him to get Veronica. "How do you know her? I mean you yourself said you only come here to visit family, so how do you know Veronica?" Faye turned around and pointed her Glock to his temple, slowly cocking the hammer back. She had had her share of people lying to her and she could almost tell just by their voice if they were or not. Katsuo laughed and took Faye's right arm and lowered the gun.
"Listen Ms. Valentine. You're going to come with me to my hotel. My employer and I have been looking for you." Before she knew it, Faye was cuffed and being pushed through the doors of the Martian Hilton.
All the way up the red carpeted stair case and to the elevator Katsuo had Faye's gun pointed at her back. He shoved her in the elevator and walked in himself and pushed the 7 button. Faye couldn't believe that she was the one being bullied around. 'I'm losing my touch', she thought. She quickly tired to pick the lock and because the elevator had mirrored walls she was found out and soon Katsuo managed to wrestle the gadget out of her hands. 'Damnit'
The doors opened and Faye's captor grabbed her arm roughly. Walking down the hallway Faye tried to think of any other way to get out of this. Katsuo stopped her at room 714 and slid the key-card through the slot opening the door. He walked in and uncuffed Faye.
"Listen we will be leaving for Ganymede tomorrow. I want you to get cleaned up." He gave her a black garment bag. "This is what you will wear when you meet my employer. Go ahead and shower." Faye gave him a distrustful look. "I don't mix business with pleasure. You can bathe in peace." Faye walked defeated to the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
* * * *
"This place is a hell-hole."
"Hey this was my old apartment." I spat out.
"Spike, you never would take any money to get yourself a decent place." Vicious laughed.
Jet looked around and was glad that I wasn't as sloppy on the Bebop, but I didn't have as many belongings on the Bebop.
"Hey, how can you still have this apartment? It's been almost four years since your first disappearance." Vicious asked.
"Well, this is a rent control place and I paid up most of my rent for up to five years."
Jet and Vicious laughed as they looked at me and how I seemed to be proud of my only accomplishment, in my mind. The main room had taupe carpet that had various stains of food and everything else. The furniture was sparce. A green and orange plaid arm-chair sat in front of a coffee table with the matching couch sitting on the other side. The actual main room was set similarly to the Bebop's living room. The only other room, besides the bathroom, that had a door was the bedroom. A four poster bed with pale yellow (either from years of not being washed or the original color) linens sat in the middle of the room with a mis-matched nightstand on the left side.
"I call dibs on the couch." I said. I had taken a liking to sleeping on couches the past couple of days anyway. And it seemed that any other time I had fallen asleep it was on that ugly yellow sofa.
"I think we have a little problem about sleeping arrangments, unless you expect Vicious and I to sleep together." Jet gave in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Well I don't have a problem with it as long as you don't have a problem with it." I said. Jet and Vicious both got wide-eyed and I smirked as I walked to the bathroom closet to get some blankets out.
It was about ten o'clock and Jet and I had already smoked the ashtray full. We dared not look in the fridge, so we went hungry. We plotted out how we were going to search for Veronica sitting around the coffee table. Jet would check out the original address while Vicious and I would go to the new address.
At around twelve we decided it was a good idea to go on and get some sleep, so I situated myself on the couch and after a long discussion Vicious took the bed, leaving Jet to sleep on a makeshift bed using the arm-chair and the coffee table.
* * * *
Faye had peeked out of the bathroom door. Katsuo was lounging on the sofa half watching the news report. Faye slipped back into the bathroom and turned the water on. Steam filled the room as the water fell from the faucet into the cold tub. Faye opened the window quietly. She figured she could slip through the window and escape back to her ship where she kept her extra gun. Fortunately for her the hotel had a fire escape, unlike many of the time. She stepped up on the toilet for more height and she peeked out to make sure no guards were there to find her out. None. 'Good.', Faye thought to herself. She climbed out of the window and onto the rusty wet fire escape. She ran quickly down the steps to the waiting Martian streets.
Once on the streets she ran as fast as she could to the Redtail. She fumbled for a few minutes and found what she was looking for. The communicator was ringing so she picked it up and to her surprise it was Ed.
"Faye-Faye! Where are you?"
"Nevermind that. What do you want?" Faye said as she looked over her shoulder.
"A bounty in the area. He's worth a lot of woolongs." Ed had already sent all the information over the monitor of the Redtail. Faye looked it over searching for the bounty amount. Then a wicked smile crept on her face.
"Thanks. Ed. Gotta go!" Faye cut her off abruptly and ran back.
"Oh, Ein. Faye-Faye has that look in her eyes again. (whimper)" Then Ed cut her end off as well.
A few minutes later Faye was back at the hotel in the bathroom of room 714 with her weapon securely hidden.
(knock, knock)
"Ms. Valentine?" Katsuo walked over to the bathroom door and felt the squish of water under his feet.
"Ms. Valentine?" Katsuo pulled his gun from its holster and slowly turned the knob of the door. "Ms. Valentine?" Katsuo flung the door open and bubble covered Faye looked up from the magazine she was reading.
"Excuse me!! I am trying to bathe. You said for me to get cleaned up. Now get out." Faye picked up bottles of all varieties and started to throw them at him as he fumbled to close the door.
"The water ran over onto the floor! I said for you to shower.", he said through the door while trying to replace his weapon back to its holster.
'This is going to be too easy.' Faye thought as she went back to reading her magazine.
AN: Vae Victis means 'woe to the conquered'. I guess either laziness, apathy, or writer's block is my excuse. T.M.