Chapter 8 - Separated
"Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
"I know you're still there"
Evanescence, "Haunted"
"Yo."
Jet Black, once a very renowned officer in the ISSP, gave a suffering glance
down at the communicator in his hand. The image jarred and wavered, scrambled
and rearranged itself – but the ex-cop accredited that to the owner of the
communicator on the other end.
…Especially when it's owner was replaced by air as the device was dropped
to theground and then picked back up again.
Jet sighed to himself, exiting his bonsai room and heading up to the ship's bridge.
It was just too much… didn't they have any idea how expensive that stuff was to replace? How had he believed that his two wayward companions wouldn't get into
some shit?
"I thought you two already bagged the bounty," he murmured, running a hand over
his head.
"We did," replied the lanky bounty hunter on the opposite end with a smirk on his
face. Kami only knew what he found funny about the whole situation – and Jet was
quite sure he didn't want to know either.
"So, what's going on? You two get into a brawl or something?"
Spike glanced over his shoulder at the three men pursuing them through the
alleyways. No matter how many corners they cut, how many buildings they
ducked into, they always seemed to be on their trail.
"I dunno, Jet," he answered. "But they sure are persistent."
Faye, managing to keep up with him stride for stride, turned and pulled out her
gun, firing a stray shot in their general direction. It ricocheted off the wall, sending
the three hiding for cover. The two bounty hunters used their distraction to duck
into an empty building.
Quick to act, Spike slammed the door shut behind them, pushing an abandoned
file cabinet in front of it just as it was nearly rammed open. "Very persistent," he mused. He then turned to Faye, whom was leaning against the wall several feet
away. "I thought you said you could shoot straight?"
The bounty huntress turned to face the wall, hoping the cool surface would mitigate
the pain from her colossal headache. However, the incessant banging coming from
the door behind them was not helping any. At her companion's remark, she shot
him a surly glare. Before she could speak however, the banging stopped.
Spike turned back towards the door. "Shit, they're probably looking for another
way in."
"You think they'll find one?"
"There's gotta be more than one way in," Jet remarked. "Otherwise, it'd be violating
fire safety codes."
Faye looked slightly green again. "Maybe that's why it was condemned?"
At that, a large piece of plaster broke free from its hold, hurtling down towards
them. First to spot it, Spike reacted by jumping forward and pushing Faye out of
the way. The two slammed into and through a nearby wall, hitting the floor in a pile
of dust and worn out plaster.
Hearing the commotion, Jet stared down at the small hand unit in concern. Dust
and debris littered down from the sky, clouding up the image. "Spike? Faye?" he
called out. "You okay? Answer me?" There was no response. "SPIKE! FAYE!"
~~~
Spike stared down at his partner with a mixture of amusement and relief. It had certainly done a number on him to wake up to find the woman unconscious in his
lap surrounded by dirt and debris. He didn't seem to mind at first, but realizing the
comprimising situation they would be in once she awoke, he moved to waked her.
However, when she didn't respond, an image of gun shower and doves had imme-
diately come to mind, sending the lanky bounty into a frenzy, doing everything in
his power to revive the woman.
He had even gone so far as to attempt mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Feeling not only the warmth of a body on top of her, but a pair of lips (Spike's were
surprisingly soft) upon hers, Faye awoke with a start. Upon seeing that Spike was
the owner of the lips over hers, she jumped back as if he had been attempting to
bite her. After that, she promptly hurled.
Chuckling to himself, Spike let out a bemused sigh. And this was the woman he
had fallen in love with.
Faye, on the other hand, felt miserable. Not only had she gone and gotten herself
piss drunk, but she managed to get herself into a dangerous situation she had no control over, all the while making a fool of herself in front of Spike. To top it all off,
she had no recollection of why she had decided to go out and get drunk in the first place!
Once she finished relieving the contents of her stomach – six Prairie dogs were supposed to make you feel better? – she let out a low moan, resting her forehead in
her hands on the floor.
'Whoever you guys are out there,' she groaned to herself. 'Shoot me now and get
it over with…nothing can be worse than this…' She trailed off as she felt a hand rest itself on her back, moving in slow, rhythmic circles. Turning her head slightly to the side, she cracked open one eye to see Spike behind her, massaging her back gently with one hand.
Upon making eye contact, he offered a sheepish smirk.
She blinked. 'Spike… sheepish…?'
"I woulda offered to pull your hair back out of your face, but it's too short for that." he
replied softly. "Plus, that headband of yours kinda does the job for me."
Faye gave him a half-hearted glare. "There's nothing wrong with my hair." she
muttered. "Or my headband."
"No," Spike murmured. In a totally uncharacteristic move, he reached out, pulling
the yellow headband off her head. Free from its restraint, her violet tresses fell
forward, framing her face even more so than before.
Stunned by the action, Faye could only blink in surprise.
Spike regarded her thoughtfully for a moment before breaking out into a grin. "You
look better like that."
Still, all Faye could do was gawk in surprise. Again, Spike was surprising her with
his behavior. Before, Faye had always prided herself with the ability to read the
lanky bounty hunter's actions. However, he had been so unpredictable as of late –
what with the bounty, the lunch, the shopping – Faye found herself wondering when
the aliens had abducted the real Spike Spiegel and what they had done with his
brain. Had they dissected it, or had they merely jettisoned it into space as
worthless material?
Still, staring at the man before her with the wide grin on his face, an odd fluttering
feeling began to rise in Faye's chest. She had first assumed it to be another bout
of nausea, but feeling the hand on her back, she knew it to be something else… something she definitely didn't need right now. She needed to stay focused, after
all – her life was on the line. Besides, judging by the way he was looking at her –
the way he had been looking at her… No - Faye was positive that she didn't want to
go down that road again.
"Spike! Faye! You two all right?"
Spike snatched his hand away from Faye as if he had been caught with his hand in
the cookie jar. 'Bad analogy, Spiegel… bad analogy…' Turning back to his communicator, he regarded Jet with a look of amusement. "By the tone of your
voice, Jet," he mused. "I would say you were worried about us."
Jet sputtered a moment before looking away slightly abashed. "Well, you're the
one who's calling here like you've got the hounds of hell on your heels…" He turned back to the screen, a disapproving frown on his face. However, by Jet standards, it looked more like a grimace. "What's with breaking radio silence like that?"
"My bad," Spike scratched the back of his head absently. "We kinda got knocked
around a bit. We're all right though," He turned to Faye. "Right?"
All the woman could do was nod. She picked her headband up off of the ground, holding it in one hand, while fingering her tresses in the other.
Spike's face adorned by a small grin was still burned into her mind. ~"You look
better like that.~
Unbeknownst to her, Spike was still conversing with Jet. "…Yeah, they quieted
down a few minutes ago… I don't know if they're scouring the area for another way
in, or if they gave up already."
"Or went for reinforcements," Jet offered.
Spike snorted lightly. "That'd be just our luck." He ground his teeth in frustration.
"What the hell do they want from us?"
"Ya never know," Jet replied.
Spike stared down at the communicator in his hand. "And what is that supposed to
mean?"
"Well…"
"Well what?"
"An ex-gangster of one of the once most dangerous Syndicates on Mars and an
ex-con with a considerable amount of debt on her shoulders," Jet gave his partner
a worried frown.
Spike frowned. "You think that's what it is?"
"You do the math."
The lanky bounty hunter's frown only deepened. "Shit… I don't need this right now."
"You two better start moving," Jet cautioned. "Who knows what they're planning."
"Right," Clockworks began spinning rapidly within the head of one Spike Spiegel.
He stared down at the screen, his mismatched eyes gleaming. "Can we get a pick
up?"
"It'll be tough," Jet replied, typing away at the computer console now within arms'
reach. "I can meet up with you in the Hammerhead to try to give you cover."
"I don't know how much good that'll do…"
"The Redtail has an Auto-retrieval system installed in," Jet offered. "If the two of
you can get to it, I can send you back here to the Bebop."
"All right then, we got ourselves a game plan," Spike grinned, signing off. He then
turned to Faye. "All right, it's time to get out here, Faye." There was no response; Spike blinked, tapping the woman on the shoulder gently. "Faye?" He waved a
hand in front of her face. She still didn't react at all.
'She's totally out of it...' A worried expression passed over his face. "Shit… Faye!"
Staring down at the yellow headband in her hands, Faye's emerald eyes remained
wide and unseeing. Lost in her own little world, she didn't hear the worried cries of
her lanky companion. Her mind was miles away.
"Faye!"
And then, suddenly, she blinked, staring back at the man in front of her. For a
moment, his green hair and brown eyes had switched places, giving him the look
of a man that as just not Spike.
She frowned in confusion. 'But he… I knew that man…' She held a hand to her
head, brushing stray strands of hair out of her face. 'From where… how did I know
that man…'
Before she knew it, Faye found herself being yanked to her feet and up a shaky set
of stairs. "Wh-what are you doing?"
"We gotta keep moving." Spike replied gruffly, trying to keep the concern out of his
tone. Just what was the matter with her anyway? Why did it seem like she was
talking to someone else? Where did she keep flying off to?
"If we sit around here any longer, we're gonna wind up caught!"
"Caught…?" At those words, Faye felt herself slipping away once again to another
world, another life…
~ "One of these days, we're going to get caught you know…" ~
~ "Right now… I don't care about anything else…"~
Another time…
== Flashback ==
Bright green eyes resting in a pale heart shaped face stared back at her from the reflection in the mirror. She was still the same girl she had always been, there was
no mistake of that. But despite the simple dress and cardigan she wore, somehow today she felt much more daring.
She finished up the look by applying a little makeup – some lipstick here, a little
eye shadow there, but not too much. To top off the look, she reached into her bag
of things to put on a headband.
A hand reached out, taking the headband out of her grasp. "Don't,"
She turned towards its owner, a curious smile on her face. "Why not? I always
wear one when I go out; besides, it keeps the hair out of my face."
"Yes, but remember, we don't want to be recognized." the voice chided gently.
"We can't risk getting caught."
"Oh," She did her best not to sound disappointed.
The hand pushed the hair out of her face, stroking her cheek gently. She pressed
the palm to her face, nuzzling it gently. Another reached forward, stroking her hair. Blushing in surprise, she looked up into a pair of startling deep green eyes – even darker than her own.
"I like your hair," a soft male voice replied. "It's beautiful. Besides, I like it when
you wear it down… it makes you look…"
She tilted her head in curiosity. "Makes me look what? Like a little girl?"
"No," The voice suddenly became wistful. "Like…"
== End of Flashback ==
Before long Faye and Spike were on the rooftop, climbing the ladder leading up
to the Redtail hovering above them. Faye had almost reached the top rung when
the zipcraft, on automatic pilot, began to make its ascent.
From out of nowhere, a shot rang out. Zipping through the air, a bullet separated
the ladder from the ship's hull, sending Faye back 6 feet to the ground.
She'd seen the ladder give way beneath her, the look of horror in Spike's eyes as
he reached out for her in vain, screaming her name. She'd also seen the three men closing in on her, weapons raised to finish her off. And through all of this, she didn't care.
'I wonder if this is how you felt, Spike, falling from that cathedral window,' she
thought absently to herself, staring upwards even as she roughly hit the ground. The initial impact wasn't that bad – she hadn't landed too badly – though she may have fractured something. She couldn't feel the pain at all – her mind wouldn't allow her to focus on it.
The Redtail – her Redtail – continued to disappear from sight. 'Stupid Spike… I bet
you have no idea how to shut off the auto-pilot.' But she didn't dwell on that either – after all, it didn't matter when you were going to die anyway. For all she knew,
Spike could have had no intention of coming back for her. However, her mind
wasn't worried about this either.
~ "One of these days, we're going to get caught you know…" ~
It did, however, permit her some clarity, as she watched her assailants fall to the
ground under a barrage of gunfire. She tried to move, but she couldn't, watching in
awe as a tall figure approached her with a semi-automatic in hand. She watched
him check the bodies to make sure they were deceased, and when satisfied that
they were, made his way over to her.
~ "Right now… I don't care about anything else…"~
As a show of good faith, he set the weapon down halfway, continuing towards her
unarmed. She could have shot him then, she supposed, but something in her told
her not to – just yet.
The scenario in the mirror came to mind again. ~ "Makes me look what? Like a
little girl?" ~
The man scooped her up in his arms, cradling her like a child as he made his way
back to the stairway, gun forgotten. Satisfied with the idea that he was there to
help her, or at least keep her alive, Faye allowed herself to be carried. Being so
close to him as she was, she couldn't help but think there was something about
him – something important…
~ "No,"~ The voice in her head still sounded wistful, like there was something in front
of it that it could not reach. ~ "Like…" ~
Faye glanced up at the face of her 'savior'; unruly brown hair and dark green eyes
that seemed to see only her. Somehow, she knew that face, she was certain of it!
The last words from her vision came to the surface, spilling from her lips. "…an
angel of paradise…"
With that, Faye Valentine promptly lost consciousness.
~ End of Chapter 8
"Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
"I know you're still there"
Evanescence, "Haunted"
"Yo."
Jet Black, once a very renowned officer in the ISSP, gave a suffering glance
down at the communicator in his hand. The image jarred and wavered, scrambled
and rearranged itself – but the ex-cop accredited that to the owner of the
communicator on the other end.
…Especially when it's owner was replaced by air as the device was dropped
to theground and then picked back up again.
Jet sighed to himself, exiting his bonsai room and heading up to the ship's bridge.
It was just too much… didn't they have any idea how expensive that stuff was to replace? How had he believed that his two wayward companions wouldn't get into
some shit?
"I thought you two already bagged the bounty," he murmured, running a hand over
his head.
"We did," replied the lanky bounty hunter on the opposite end with a smirk on his
face. Kami only knew what he found funny about the whole situation – and Jet was
quite sure he didn't want to know either.
"So, what's going on? You two get into a brawl or something?"
Spike glanced over his shoulder at the three men pursuing them through the
alleyways. No matter how many corners they cut, how many buildings they
ducked into, they always seemed to be on their trail.
"I dunno, Jet," he answered. "But they sure are persistent."
Faye, managing to keep up with him stride for stride, turned and pulled out her
gun, firing a stray shot in their general direction. It ricocheted off the wall, sending
the three hiding for cover. The two bounty hunters used their distraction to duck
into an empty building.
Quick to act, Spike slammed the door shut behind them, pushing an abandoned
file cabinet in front of it just as it was nearly rammed open. "Very persistent," he mused. He then turned to Faye, whom was leaning against the wall several feet
away. "I thought you said you could shoot straight?"
The bounty huntress turned to face the wall, hoping the cool surface would mitigate
the pain from her colossal headache. However, the incessant banging coming from
the door behind them was not helping any. At her companion's remark, she shot
him a surly glare. Before she could speak however, the banging stopped.
Spike turned back towards the door. "Shit, they're probably looking for another
way in."
"You think they'll find one?"
"There's gotta be more than one way in," Jet remarked. "Otherwise, it'd be violating
fire safety codes."
Faye looked slightly green again. "Maybe that's why it was condemned?"
At that, a large piece of plaster broke free from its hold, hurtling down towards
them. First to spot it, Spike reacted by jumping forward and pushing Faye out of
the way. The two slammed into and through a nearby wall, hitting the floor in a pile
of dust and worn out plaster.
Hearing the commotion, Jet stared down at the small hand unit in concern. Dust
and debris littered down from the sky, clouding up the image. "Spike? Faye?" he
called out. "You okay? Answer me?" There was no response. "SPIKE! FAYE!"
~~~
Spike stared down at his partner with a mixture of amusement and relief. It had certainly done a number on him to wake up to find the woman unconscious in his
lap surrounded by dirt and debris. He didn't seem to mind at first, but realizing the
comprimising situation they would be in once she awoke, he moved to waked her.
However, when she didn't respond, an image of gun shower and doves had imme-
diately come to mind, sending the lanky bounty into a frenzy, doing everything in
his power to revive the woman.
He had even gone so far as to attempt mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Feeling not only the warmth of a body on top of her, but a pair of lips (Spike's were
surprisingly soft) upon hers, Faye awoke with a start. Upon seeing that Spike was
the owner of the lips over hers, she jumped back as if he had been attempting to
bite her. After that, she promptly hurled.
Chuckling to himself, Spike let out a bemused sigh. And this was the woman he
had fallen in love with.
Faye, on the other hand, felt miserable. Not only had she gone and gotten herself
piss drunk, but she managed to get herself into a dangerous situation she had no control over, all the while making a fool of herself in front of Spike. To top it all off,
she had no recollection of why she had decided to go out and get drunk in the first place!
Once she finished relieving the contents of her stomach – six Prairie dogs were supposed to make you feel better? – she let out a low moan, resting her forehead in
her hands on the floor.
'Whoever you guys are out there,' she groaned to herself. 'Shoot me now and get
it over with…nothing can be worse than this…' She trailed off as she felt a hand rest itself on her back, moving in slow, rhythmic circles. Turning her head slightly to the side, she cracked open one eye to see Spike behind her, massaging her back gently with one hand.
Upon making eye contact, he offered a sheepish smirk.
She blinked. 'Spike… sheepish…?'
"I woulda offered to pull your hair back out of your face, but it's too short for that." he
replied softly. "Plus, that headband of yours kinda does the job for me."
Faye gave him a half-hearted glare. "There's nothing wrong with my hair." she
muttered. "Or my headband."
"No," Spike murmured. In a totally uncharacteristic move, he reached out, pulling
the yellow headband off her head. Free from its restraint, her violet tresses fell
forward, framing her face even more so than before.
Stunned by the action, Faye could only blink in surprise.
Spike regarded her thoughtfully for a moment before breaking out into a grin. "You
look better like that."
Still, all Faye could do was gawk in surprise. Again, Spike was surprising her with
his behavior. Before, Faye had always prided herself with the ability to read the
lanky bounty hunter's actions. However, he had been so unpredictable as of late –
what with the bounty, the lunch, the shopping – Faye found herself wondering when
the aliens had abducted the real Spike Spiegel and what they had done with his
brain. Had they dissected it, or had they merely jettisoned it into space as
worthless material?
Still, staring at the man before her with the wide grin on his face, an odd fluttering
feeling began to rise in Faye's chest. She had first assumed it to be another bout
of nausea, but feeling the hand on her back, she knew it to be something else… something she definitely didn't need right now. She needed to stay focused, after
all – her life was on the line. Besides, judging by the way he was looking at her –
the way he had been looking at her… No - Faye was positive that she didn't want to
go down that road again.
"Spike! Faye! You two all right?"
Spike snatched his hand away from Faye as if he had been caught with his hand in
the cookie jar. 'Bad analogy, Spiegel… bad analogy…' Turning back to his communicator, he regarded Jet with a look of amusement. "By the tone of your
voice, Jet," he mused. "I would say you were worried about us."
Jet sputtered a moment before looking away slightly abashed. "Well, you're the
one who's calling here like you've got the hounds of hell on your heels…" He turned back to the screen, a disapproving frown on his face. However, by Jet standards, it looked more like a grimace. "What's with breaking radio silence like that?"
"My bad," Spike scratched the back of his head absently. "We kinda got knocked
around a bit. We're all right though," He turned to Faye. "Right?"
All the woman could do was nod. She picked her headband up off of the ground, holding it in one hand, while fingering her tresses in the other.
Spike's face adorned by a small grin was still burned into her mind. ~"You look
better like that.~
Unbeknownst to her, Spike was still conversing with Jet. "…Yeah, they quieted
down a few minutes ago… I don't know if they're scouring the area for another way
in, or if they gave up already."
"Or went for reinforcements," Jet offered.
Spike snorted lightly. "That'd be just our luck." He ground his teeth in frustration.
"What the hell do they want from us?"
"Ya never know," Jet replied.
Spike stared down at the communicator in his hand. "And what is that supposed to
mean?"
"Well…"
"Well what?"
"An ex-gangster of one of the once most dangerous Syndicates on Mars and an
ex-con with a considerable amount of debt on her shoulders," Jet gave his partner
a worried frown.
Spike frowned. "You think that's what it is?"
"You do the math."
The lanky bounty hunter's frown only deepened. "Shit… I don't need this right now."
"You two better start moving," Jet cautioned. "Who knows what they're planning."
"Right," Clockworks began spinning rapidly within the head of one Spike Spiegel.
He stared down at the screen, his mismatched eyes gleaming. "Can we get a pick
up?"
"It'll be tough," Jet replied, typing away at the computer console now within arms'
reach. "I can meet up with you in the Hammerhead to try to give you cover."
"I don't know how much good that'll do…"
"The Redtail has an Auto-retrieval system installed in," Jet offered. "If the two of
you can get to it, I can send you back here to the Bebop."
"All right then, we got ourselves a game plan," Spike grinned, signing off. He then
turned to Faye. "All right, it's time to get out here, Faye." There was no response; Spike blinked, tapping the woman on the shoulder gently. "Faye?" He waved a
hand in front of her face. She still didn't react at all.
'She's totally out of it...' A worried expression passed over his face. "Shit… Faye!"
Staring down at the yellow headband in her hands, Faye's emerald eyes remained
wide and unseeing. Lost in her own little world, she didn't hear the worried cries of
her lanky companion. Her mind was miles away.
"Faye!"
And then, suddenly, she blinked, staring back at the man in front of her. For a
moment, his green hair and brown eyes had switched places, giving him the look
of a man that as just not Spike.
She frowned in confusion. 'But he… I knew that man…' She held a hand to her
head, brushing stray strands of hair out of her face. 'From where… how did I know
that man…'
Before she knew it, Faye found herself being yanked to her feet and up a shaky set
of stairs. "Wh-what are you doing?"
"We gotta keep moving." Spike replied gruffly, trying to keep the concern out of his
tone. Just what was the matter with her anyway? Why did it seem like she was
talking to someone else? Where did she keep flying off to?
"If we sit around here any longer, we're gonna wind up caught!"
"Caught…?" At those words, Faye felt herself slipping away once again to another
world, another life…
~ "One of these days, we're going to get caught you know…" ~
~ "Right now… I don't care about anything else…"~
Another time…
== Flashback ==
Bright green eyes resting in a pale heart shaped face stared back at her from the reflection in the mirror. She was still the same girl she had always been, there was
no mistake of that. But despite the simple dress and cardigan she wore, somehow today she felt much more daring.
She finished up the look by applying a little makeup – some lipstick here, a little
eye shadow there, but not too much. To top off the look, she reached into her bag
of things to put on a headband.
A hand reached out, taking the headband out of her grasp. "Don't,"
She turned towards its owner, a curious smile on her face. "Why not? I always
wear one when I go out; besides, it keeps the hair out of my face."
"Yes, but remember, we don't want to be recognized." the voice chided gently.
"We can't risk getting caught."
"Oh," She did her best not to sound disappointed.
The hand pushed the hair out of her face, stroking her cheek gently. She pressed
the palm to her face, nuzzling it gently. Another reached forward, stroking her hair. Blushing in surprise, she looked up into a pair of startling deep green eyes – even darker than her own.
"I like your hair," a soft male voice replied. "It's beautiful. Besides, I like it when
you wear it down… it makes you look…"
She tilted her head in curiosity. "Makes me look what? Like a little girl?"
"No," The voice suddenly became wistful. "Like…"
== End of Flashback ==
Before long Faye and Spike were on the rooftop, climbing the ladder leading up
to the Redtail hovering above them. Faye had almost reached the top rung when
the zipcraft, on automatic pilot, began to make its ascent.
From out of nowhere, a shot rang out. Zipping through the air, a bullet separated
the ladder from the ship's hull, sending Faye back 6 feet to the ground.
She'd seen the ladder give way beneath her, the look of horror in Spike's eyes as
he reached out for her in vain, screaming her name. She'd also seen the three men closing in on her, weapons raised to finish her off. And through all of this, she didn't care.
'I wonder if this is how you felt, Spike, falling from that cathedral window,' she
thought absently to herself, staring upwards even as she roughly hit the ground. The initial impact wasn't that bad – she hadn't landed too badly – though she may have fractured something. She couldn't feel the pain at all – her mind wouldn't allow her to focus on it.
The Redtail – her Redtail – continued to disappear from sight. 'Stupid Spike… I bet
you have no idea how to shut off the auto-pilot.' But she didn't dwell on that either – after all, it didn't matter when you were going to die anyway. For all she knew,
Spike could have had no intention of coming back for her. However, her mind
wasn't worried about this either.
~ "One of these days, we're going to get caught you know…" ~
It did, however, permit her some clarity, as she watched her assailants fall to the
ground under a barrage of gunfire. She tried to move, but she couldn't, watching in
awe as a tall figure approached her with a semi-automatic in hand. She watched
him check the bodies to make sure they were deceased, and when satisfied that
they were, made his way over to her.
~ "Right now… I don't care about anything else…"~
As a show of good faith, he set the weapon down halfway, continuing towards her
unarmed. She could have shot him then, she supposed, but something in her told
her not to – just yet.
The scenario in the mirror came to mind again. ~ "Makes me look what? Like a
little girl?" ~
The man scooped her up in his arms, cradling her like a child as he made his way
back to the stairway, gun forgotten. Satisfied with the idea that he was there to
help her, or at least keep her alive, Faye allowed herself to be carried. Being so
close to him as she was, she couldn't help but think there was something about
him – something important…
~ "No,"~ The voice in her head still sounded wistful, like there was something in front
of it that it could not reach. ~ "Like…" ~
Faye glanced up at the face of her 'savior'; unruly brown hair and dark green eyes
that seemed to see only her. Somehow, she knew that face, she was certain of it!
The last words from her vision came to the surface, spilling from her lips. "…an
angel of paradise…"
With that, Faye Valentine promptly lost consciousness.
~ End of Chapter 8