"Jesus Christ this mountain air is some chilly shit." Dark muttered as she
wrapped her arms around herself. She marched uphill the wind blowing
against her. The mountains had gotten too narrow for her to fly her zip
craft in between them so she had to get out and walk. Most of the time she
wore a very large coat that reached down to her knees, and her loose
clothing normally offered a large amount of warmth since there was so much
room between her clothes and her body. However, she wasn't used to
conditions such as this.
Green letters flicked across her glasses, information such as altitude and temperature, wind pressure and wind speed flashed onto her eyes. The atmosphere was cooling down with every few meters she travelled. She walked for nearly an hour before a small line of smoke moved upward towards the stars which, through the clouds, were slowly beginning to reveal themselves to her. As she entered the Oleander Pass the air suddenly became eerily still, and the temperature was almost fifteen to twenty degrees warmer. Plants actually grew here... Oleander Bushes. white and purple flowers fruiting on the evergreen shrub. She continued to walk towards the smoke and started running as soon as she saw a dot in the distance shaped like a small triangle; a teepee.
Several moments later she reached her destination, scant of breath, and breaking out in a freezing cold sweat. A short old man sat with his grandson around a bellowing fire. "Sit." he told her in a monotone voice "you search for the swimming bird. do you not? The one who runs from his friends as if avoiding illness."
She looked at the old man while rubbing the back of her neck, panting heavily. She didn't remember being this out of shape, and then remembered the thinness of the atmosphere. "Yeah... If Spike is swimming bird, then that's exactly who I'm looking for." She tried to think of how the name swimming bird related to Spike, but was having a hard time placing it. Dark came to the realization that this man's words were going to be cryptic. "Alright. Let's hear it."
Session 28: Under the Bridge
The younger grandson was smoking from a long thin pipe... holding nothing but a mixture of marijuana and tobacco, the scent was sweet and sour in her nostrils. Dark sat down like the old man had asked on one of five logs that wrapped around the fire in a pentagon shape. Dark watched his wrinkled face through the fire. The ever orange glow gave him a ghostly and mysterious appearance. The old man himself was smoking a pipe, much smaller... and with no smoke coming out of the end of it. "You. Dark Mustang. must find the swimming bird before it is too late... he has caught himself up in the stars and hangs there lost in his own depression."
He spoke with a blank expression giving Dark the impression that he was in deep thought. She looked back at him a bit of her hair falling in her face, her gaze was intent. "Swimming Bird flies stationary on the star that connects the endless oceans with the desert winds. you will find him there, weeping in his own sorrow... and figuring out where to weep next. You must find him before he makes this change. because next he will look for hidden snake, and porcelain fish, and when he looks... he will find. That will be the end of swimming bird, for the last time."
With a slight nod she took in a deep breath and remembered all the ominous names that the old Indian chief had just muttered to her: hidden snake, porcelain fish, swimming bird and then her own name Dark Mustang. She smiled inwardly; she had to admit that she liked that.
After the chief had offered her a pipe, and something to eat, he then showed her a dog sled, which his grandson would take her back to her zip craft on. The ride was strangely smooth, even after they exited the pass and moved back into the windy area. He smiled to her as he dropped her off "I hope your journey is a very productive one." He told her before the dogs took off again back towards the Oleanders and the stars.
She slid back into the pod of her zip craft and thought for a moment "Endless oceans. Ganymede! That's gotta be it." She turned on the zip craft and cranked the heat "Computer, Show me a picture of Ganymede and statistics." She commanded her on board computer verbally.
On the screen in front of her a picture of a completely blue-green planet swirled in front of her. "Computer, give me some nicknames that the locals call the planet." She told it while turning several things on, the craft lifting into the Air. "And do the same with..." she paused to think for a moment then smiled "Europa... split screen." She told it. The screen split into two sections, listing the nicknames that the locals had given them. "Search for Ganymede: 'Endless Ocean'; search for Europa: 'Desert Winds.'"
Both searches came up with a positive match. She was smiling inside but kept a very calm visage as she stared at the screen, thinking about what the old Indian had said. ".The Swimming Bird flies stationary on the star that connects the endless oceans with the desert winds" She was silent for a few moments then spoke with a very doubting voice "Computer. search any of the moons of Jupiter that land in between Ganymede and Europa." She ordered it and watched the screen.
A shriek of excitement escaped her lips when only one name popped up "Callisto!" she laughed and took of within milliseconds of figuring out the Indian Chief's puzzle. She pressed the video link to the Bebop "Jet! Jet! I know where he is!" She told him excitedly.
"Blueberries, Banana-ananas! Pineapple in Freench-Ewentch!" Ed sang happily her goggles strappled securely around her eyes as she swam through the air, surfing her data base. "Albaqurqie, Turkey-werky, gravy on the side pleeease!" she continued swirling her arms around.
"Ed! Quit it!" Faye told her angrily as she laid on the couch, her hand on her stomach. "We haven't eaten for three days, and you continuously sing about food." She muttered under her breath "Inconsiderate little mole."
"Message-essage from Ado-Tomato!" she giggled excitedly as she began to type frantically at her keyborad.
"Ed! I said quit talking about food! You're making me hungry-ungry! Can you grasp that?!" she asked in a furious tone, sitting up suddenly and bashing her fist hard against the arm rest of the large yellow couch.
"No, no Faye-faye! Tomato is an old old friend of Ed's... he made my computer!" she said and tapped one of her long spindling fingers against the word TOMATO on the side - spelt out in big red letters. She typed in a couple more keys and a window popped up and a young boy, maybe only a few years older then Ed showed up on the screen. He smiled at her and then blushed as he watched her bouce slightly with excitement, unaware that she was developing breasts. "Tomato! How have you been?" she asked the young boy.
He scratched the back of his head with a slightly nervous chuckle "Well I've been better. How 'bout you?" he asked her kindly as he lifted the googles he had on over his white coloured hair. He had a pair of bright green eyes that stood out against his pale skin. He was at that age where his voice was just finished cracking and his face was beginning to become more handsome, growing out of its slightly childish state.
Ed blinked a couple times, a bit confused by his response to her. "Ed is ok. But how has Tomato been better? Are you not feeling good?" she asked the young boy a bit concerned.
He gave her a large smile and reached his hands out shaking them back and forth. "No, no Ed. I'm feeling just fine. But I've been staying on my own for some time now... I was wondering if I could maybe visit you for a while, you know? Spend a bit of time with you and catch up since I haven't seen you for a while."
With that remark Faye pushed Ed to the side viciously and stared at the boy right through the screen, threatening to come through it "Now you listen here you little moocher! Where do you think Ed is, some luxury resort? She happens to be on a ship, staying with some very generous people, but so generous as to acquire another mouth to feed." Faye shrieked and moaned to the screen, her scariest pair of eyes sparkled red on her fair face.
Tomato raised a brow and smirked. "You know it wouldn't be for more then a few days. And unlike Ed, I will carry my own weight." He crossed her long arm, leaning towards the screen "And you look a little pale. you must not have eaten in the last couple days. Am I right?" he asked slyly, making sure that he was getting his point across "I live on Titan. so from what I can tell by the tracing device I put in Ed's computer. You're no more then a four hour flight from where I live. So think about it, you could be eating in only a few short hours." He paused "I'll give you enough food to live comfortably off for a few weeks... if you let me visit Ed, while you go where ever it is you're going... hmm? How about it?"
Faye glared at him for a moment then leaned back a bit "You little blackmailer. Alright, as long as you live up to your promise. then we'll come pick you up and bring you to Mars... a better place for you to get up on you feet and a get some sort of job as a computer grunt for some huge company. Give me your position." She ordered him with a slight sigh at being suckered into taking on another border. without Jet's permission.
"See you soon Ed!" he said to her enthusiastically as she watched the screen, throwing her arms happily around Faye. The address jumped up on the careen in bright red letters. Ed hit a button and printed them out for her.
"Yay! Yay! Thank you Faye-Faye!" Ed cheered as she jumped up and down with excitement.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." she said in a moaning voice, waving her hands up and down trying to relax the girl "Go to my bedroom. You have to dress correctly if you're going to have a boy your age on the ship. I'm going to tell Jet to land on Titan, and after he's done yelling at me, I'll be right there."
She blinked a couple times and then swirled around grapping Ein's paws and whirling him around. "Yay! Tomato now boarding Bebop! Keep all limbs and appendages inside the hunk of metal at all times!" she sang happily as Faye sighed her head drooping slightly at her song.
"Alright, Dark, Alright. slow down. You're already on your way to Callisto right now?" Jet asked Dark over a video com link, a slightly worried tone in his voice.
Darks face was on the screen, eyes wide with excitement and anticipation. "Yes of course I'm on my way there! The faster I get there the faster I find Spike, right?" she asked him "Besides the old Indian dude..."
"Running Bull?" Jet asked cutting her off "You actually went to visit that old coot. Don't be surprised if he leads you on a wild goose chase... a lot of his leads turn up nothing but some old memories and bad consequences." He told her, closing his eyes and crossing his thick arms across his chest. "Besides the entire population on Callisto is completely male... and they'll be chasing after you like hounds to fresh blood. If you're going to go there, be on your guard all the time... and carry your gun."
"Yes mother dear... You know I'm untouchable Jet... you most of all." She told him with a smirk. His lip curled slightly, disapproving of her words "Relax, Okay? I'll be there for a few days, maximum, and I'm certain nothing horrible is going to happen."
"I trust you, but if you fuck up you have better chances that Spike is going to save you then I am. I'm on Titan; I have to pick up one of Ed's little friends who wants to get taxied to Mars for what's been called 'better opportunities.'" He paused "So if you don't call by next week I'll check for you in the obituaries." He told her and disconnected the video link without saying good-bye
"Humph. I love you too asshole." Dark muttered after he hung up on her. She looked in front of her where the large round gate, which would take her directly to Callisto, was waiting. She switched her engines into hyper space and headed towards the gate.
Spike sat at the end of the bar, on a thin bar stool, sipping on a glass of scotch on the rocks, well past drunk. He sighed softly and closed his eyes, images fluttering past his eyes from the back of his memory.
~The same blood runs through you and I. The blood of a beast you wanders. seeking the blood of others. ~
~I've bled all that blood away.~
~Then why are you still Alive?!~
The sound of a gun shot blasted through his head, and his eyes opened abruptly, his breathing had increased. He turned his head sharply to see exactly where it was that the sound had come from. He watched as the balls on a pool table broke from the triangle position they had been in only seconds before.
Standing from the bar he tossed a ten woo-long bill on the marble counter top and left slowly, as if he had never been there.
He walked through the streets like a zombie. Walking in between couples holding hands, and groups of men talking to one another. He was watching his feet as he was walking. After wandering the streets and ally- ways from sometime, he bumped into a wan wearing a black suit and red lapel. Several men in the same attire stood behind him. "We come bearing news from Vicious." he said in a low, threatening voice.
They stood in the parking-lot of an old warehouse, at the front entrance gate with a small lodge for the security guard with the controls to the lift gate.
Spike looked up at the man who had just spoken to him. "You can give Vicious some news for me as well." he said calmly and lifted his hand, casually giving the man the finger, and attempting to walk past him. They gripped his arms and pushed him hard into a chain link fence close by.
"Let he who has no sinned cast the first stone." said the front man on the Red Dragons, before he shrugged and moved to punch Spike in the stomach.
"What the fuck is up with the seriously chilly weather?!" Dark asked herself as she hopped out from her parked zip craft on top of a building.
After walking down onto the street she looked left and right, breathing heavily, bellowing clouds of mist coming from her mouth as if with was a chimney at Christmas. She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and pulled out a silver lighter, flicking it smoothly and inhaling a bit of the intoxicating smoke letting out a soft sigh of contentment as the nicotine purged through her blood steam.
Carefully checking both guns in an ally-way and put one in its holster and cocked the other one, keeping it in her hand. She casually walked up to a busy intersection and stepped up to a car stopped at a red light.
Tapping lightly on the driver's seat window with her gun she looked at the shocked man sitting in the front seat. She placed a large friendly smile on her face and spoke to him through the glass with a cheery and very casual tone "Sir I'm going to have to ask you to step out of your vehicle so that I can use it... and I'm going to have to ask you to do so before the light turns green and I blow your mother-fucking brains in.. k?" she asked and then giggled afterwards.
The man hurried out of the car as fast as he could and Dark slid into the driver's seat comfortably, making a joking kiss face at him before closing the door and speeding away as soon as the light turned green. She turned the radio to her favorite station and began to bop her head to the music as she took another large haul of her cigarette. "And I don't ever wanna feel like I did that day. Take me to the place I love" she sang along to the station as she was looking n either side of the street. Suddenly a scuffle in the parking lot of an old warehouse seemed to have caught her attention. "Take me all the way. And I don't ever wanna feel like I did that da..y.?" she squinted to look at who these mean were pounding on when all of a sudden a very familiar blue suit flashed in front of her face. "Holy Shit!" She screamed and screeched the tires, then cracking the music so that the opera verse to the song she was listening to blared out the windows and caught the attention of the Syndicate men as soon as she burst through the long thin, neon orange, two by four at the security gate.
Many of them ran away from the car to avoid injury, the others that stayed behind weren't so lucky. She braked the car inches from Spike body, which was hardly moving. "Son-of-a-bitches!" she screamed, opening the door and firing her gun into the air several times, the Syndicate men running towards a near by ship "You can tell your precious leader, Vicious, that that one was from the two-bit earth whore." She screamed after them as they took off, leaving the wounded to die underneath the stolen car. She put her gun in its holster around her upper thigh.
She moved over to Spike, wrapping on of her arms around her neck and hoisting him up on her shoulders, then throwing him into the back seat of the car. "You sit tight.. I think I know a place where we can chill out for a few days." she told him as she got back into the drivers seat and closed the door. She pulled out of the parking lot and turned left. The sound of wailing police sirens could be heard in the distance.
In the narrow hallway of a darkly lit apartment building, Dark leaned Spike's half incapacitated body on the wall, hoping that he could hold himself there for a few more moments as she stood at the door to one of the apartments. Her fingernails clawed around the door frame and she felt up and down it gently. She reached about three quarters of the way up the frame on the left side and pulled. A small section of baseboard came up to reveal a small chamber where a key was hidden.
Unlocking the door quickly she lifted Spike back up onto her shoulder and carried him inside. "I don't know if you ever met Gren. But this was his old place. I caught wind that he was dead a little less then a year ago. Kind of a shame... he was a really sweet guy." She told him as she dusted off the couch with her free hand and then gently rested Spike down on it. "You're pretty lucky guy. There's always someone there to save you're scrawny ass at the very last second." She knelt beside the couch and began to remove his tie.
Spike looked up at her with a blank face and then squinted in concentration, as if searching through his memory to see if he could recognize. "My God... Dark Acleans." he said in utter disbelief "For a moment there I thought you were just some Good Samaritan with a gun. I hardly recognize you." He sat up slightly and grinned at her "You used to wear leather didn't you? The pants with all the buckles on them and the custom made leather jacket." He asked her as she unbuttoned his blazer.
She stood up and placed her hand on her hip "Yeah its funny the only thing you remember is my wardrobe rather then the person I am..." she said and began snooping around the dusty living room for a first aid kit. She found on it a small cabinet by his bar. She walked back towards the couch opening the kit "Take off your shirt." She ordered the lanky man lying on the couch.
"Feisty are we?" he asked with the same sly smile. He began to unbutton his yellow dress shirt and tossed both the blue blazer and the shirt over the back of the couch. "Kinda a coincidence that you would be on Callisto at the exact same time I am. You passing through? You normally don't come off of Earth unless you need to." He said in a casual voice as she pulled out some cotton swabs from the kit and opened a package of rubbing alcohol.
"I'm here on business, you pervert." she sighed as she pressed the alcohol swab firmly against a cut on his shoulder that he had received due to one of the rings of his opponents.
Taking in a breath of air through gritted teeth and then screaming he glared at him before clenching a fist "What the hell was that for?!" He asked sitting up a bit more "do you know how much that hurts? Have you no heart?" he spoke to her as she pushed him back down.
"No actually I don't have a heart. didn't you know that?" she asked in monotone as she quickly bandaged him then stood to see if Gren had any non-perishable food in his cabinets. "Are you hungry?" she asked him in the same tone, opening up all the doors in the kitchen looking for things.
Spike didn't respond to her question, but instead asked a new one of his own "What kind of business are you here on?" he asked and turned his head to watch her walk out of the kitchen with some sort of cup of instant noodles. "I mean you're not a bounty hunter anymore, are you? You gave that up a few years ago, right?" he asked as he pulled the thread off the bowl of noodles and handed it to him.
"Yeah I gave it up... I'm just doing a friend of mine a favor." He explained to him and handed him a pair of chop sticks. "You know, you get what you give and all that good stuff." she said with a sigh and began to eat her own cup on noodles. "I suppose Jet figured that since I'm so good at finding people. that it shouldn't be too hard to track you down right?" she asked him, slurping noodles. Spike watched her with wide eyes, as if completely disgusted that someone as close to him as Jet would think he wanted to be found.
"Jet. is looking for me?" He asked putting the cup down on the side table and sat up, his elbows leaning on his knees. "But why would he be looking for me? I left for a reason."
Dark sat there, silent, for a good long minute, slurping her noodles, eyes closed. "You and I both know, that against all cost that you were never going to get Jet and Faye and Ed messed up in you're fucked up past. But you did... and it wasn't your fault... It kinda just happened that way. But now you've gone off to see if you're demons are still chasing you, and I'm here to tell you it's dangerous to do so." She explained to him and stared him right in his face as she spoke.
"You're the one telling me this? I left because...
"Because you knew Vicious was still alive. And you knew that Vicious knew that you were still alive. So you ran, knowing that he would come after the bebop... and more then likely kill everyone, right? You also left because you never believe your guy, and you never had. You thought if Vicious was alive, then you wanted to see it with your own eyes." there was a brief pause "Well I suppose that by the mark that henchman left on your shoulder, that Vicious is still pretty much alive. and has people working for him." There was another pause, this one longer and more intense. "But none of that matters unless. well. unless Julia's still alive right?" She asked him with a big fake smile.
Spike was frowning and stirring his noodles with his chopsticks. "That's not funny you know. How you know everything about everything. You're the only bounty hunter that ever did their research so thoroughly." He said unimpressed, leaning his back up against the dusty couch. "I just didn't want anyone to get hurt. I can take the brunt of it by myself."
"Swimming Bird flies stationary on the star that connects the endless oceans with the desert winds. you will find him there, weeping in his own sorrow... and figuring out where to weep next. You must find him before he makes this change. because next he will look for hidden snake, and porcelain fish, and when he looks... he will find. That will be the end of swimming bird, for the last time." she recited the words of the old man to Spike. "It makes sense now. You're going to go looking for Vicious and Julia... and when you find them... That's it, you're going to die for the last time. and you may not think it's that big of a deal, but let me tell you, it is!" she said her voice growing louder in a constant crescendo she stood up and leered over his like a snake to it's puny victim. "You have people who care about you now... they think of you as part of a family. You leave them and it'll be like losing an arm to them." She sat back down. "But I'm not going to let you be unhappy for the rest of your life. So although I don't agree with your love for Julia. I'm going to help you find her... and that way... if you die... you don't have to die alone. And that way neither do I. So we're going to lie to Jet and tell him that I haven't found you... and we're going to take care of this whole, past thingy.."
Spike blinked at her wide-eyed "Wh... Why would you want to do such a thing? I mean it's not your past right? You shouldn't have to worry about it, so why are you?" he questioned her. "You don't feel like you're prying where you shouldn't be? I've known you for years, even before all this happened. We grew up in the same area, but." he paused, feeling like he couldn't finish the sentence he was working on.
"But. we went in different directions in our life. Your choice was very hazardous to your psychological health... Mine was a bit more physically damaging. You got caught up in the wrong people. and I didn't get caught up in anyone. You had friends, I destroyed mine." She said with a meek smile on her face "In life we make decisions and we reap what we sow. There are going to be consequences for whatever we do, and whether they're good or bad, they all have an impact on who we are, and where we end up. I ended up in a wasted planet, doomed to spend the rest of my life beating myself up for something that happened years ago. and you're doing the same thing to yourself right now. You're sitting on this big womanless hunk of ice singing the lyrics to a really depressing song. So, yeah we made different decisions in our lives, and we went in different directions, but did we turn out different? Not as differently as we once thought. So you've known me for years... but you haven't seen me for years, so this little expedition might give us a chance to catch up, even though I think I got the just of what you've been doing while I've been gone." She said with a slight chuckle afterward. "Besides, taking me greatly improves you chances of living."
Spike smiled softly and nodded "I have to see. whether she's dead or alive." There was a pause, where the only noise was the sound of breathing come from the two of them. "But if she wasn't then why would I still be alive. I'm not normally one to think of things so philosophically but. Why would someone bring me back for nothing.? She's all that in this world for me." He told her, looking down at the carpet.
Dark's head was talking to it's self... which it did frequently since she was by herself most of the time ~How can he love her. No woman is worth as much as a best friend. ~ She said to herself and nodded to him "We'll find her... don't you worry you're perfect lil' fuzzy head about it.
"Tomato!" Ed shrieked happily as she leapt from the beached Bebop and onto the moist sand below where the tall white haired boy was waiting to be picked up. End looked completely different then she did only hours ago. Faye had played dolly and transformed Ed into a maturing young woman. The white baggy white beater was replaced with a tighter (and more supportive) tank-top with a short pleated skirt, with the cut-off shorts underneath.
"Hey...! Ed. You've changed." he blinked at the young girl from freshly styled feathered, red hair, to the huge, clunky, knee high army boots. "Nothing wrong with it though. I like it!" He told her as Faye and Jet watched from the deck of the ship
Jet looked at Ed's new attire and blinked a couple times "Faye did you do that to her? She looks so much more. grown up." He said watching the two friends as they caught up a bit and began to walk into the entrance at the bottom of the ship.
"That's not the half of it. I also tried to get her to stop talking in the third person... but something's you can't change about Ed. I think she was a bit unaware that she's growing up though." Faye said with a chuckle
"Jet might as well take off for Callisto then... see if we can find Spike and Dark. No real use to staying on Titan." He said and waited for Ed and her friend to enter the main deck before they took off towards their next destination.
Green letters flicked across her glasses, information such as altitude and temperature, wind pressure and wind speed flashed onto her eyes. The atmosphere was cooling down with every few meters she travelled. She walked for nearly an hour before a small line of smoke moved upward towards the stars which, through the clouds, were slowly beginning to reveal themselves to her. As she entered the Oleander Pass the air suddenly became eerily still, and the temperature was almost fifteen to twenty degrees warmer. Plants actually grew here... Oleander Bushes. white and purple flowers fruiting on the evergreen shrub. She continued to walk towards the smoke and started running as soon as she saw a dot in the distance shaped like a small triangle; a teepee.
Several moments later she reached her destination, scant of breath, and breaking out in a freezing cold sweat. A short old man sat with his grandson around a bellowing fire. "Sit." he told her in a monotone voice "you search for the swimming bird. do you not? The one who runs from his friends as if avoiding illness."
She looked at the old man while rubbing the back of her neck, panting heavily. She didn't remember being this out of shape, and then remembered the thinness of the atmosphere. "Yeah... If Spike is swimming bird, then that's exactly who I'm looking for." She tried to think of how the name swimming bird related to Spike, but was having a hard time placing it. Dark came to the realization that this man's words were going to be cryptic. "Alright. Let's hear it."
Session 28: Under the Bridge
The younger grandson was smoking from a long thin pipe... holding nothing but a mixture of marijuana and tobacco, the scent was sweet and sour in her nostrils. Dark sat down like the old man had asked on one of five logs that wrapped around the fire in a pentagon shape. Dark watched his wrinkled face through the fire. The ever orange glow gave him a ghostly and mysterious appearance. The old man himself was smoking a pipe, much smaller... and with no smoke coming out of the end of it. "You. Dark Mustang. must find the swimming bird before it is too late... he has caught himself up in the stars and hangs there lost in his own depression."
He spoke with a blank expression giving Dark the impression that he was in deep thought. She looked back at him a bit of her hair falling in her face, her gaze was intent. "Swimming Bird flies stationary on the star that connects the endless oceans with the desert winds. you will find him there, weeping in his own sorrow... and figuring out where to weep next. You must find him before he makes this change. because next he will look for hidden snake, and porcelain fish, and when he looks... he will find. That will be the end of swimming bird, for the last time."
With a slight nod she took in a deep breath and remembered all the ominous names that the old Indian chief had just muttered to her: hidden snake, porcelain fish, swimming bird and then her own name Dark Mustang. She smiled inwardly; she had to admit that she liked that.
After the chief had offered her a pipe, and something to eat, he then showed her a dog sled, which his grandson would take her back to her zip craft on. The ride was strangely smooth, even after they exited the pass and moved back into the windy area. He smiled to her as he dropped her off "I hope your journey is a very productive one." He told her before the dogs took off again back towards the Oleanders and the stars.
She slid back into the pod of her zip craft and thought for a moment "Endless oceans. Ganymede! That's gotta be it." She turned on the zip craft and cranked the heat "Computer, Show me a picture of Ganymede and statistics." She commanded her on board computer verbally.
On the screen in front of her a picture of a completely blue-green planet swirled in front of her. "Computer, give me some nicknames that the locals call the planet." She told it while turning several things on, the craft lifting into the Air. "And do the same with..." she paused to think for a moment then smiled "Europa... split screen." She told it. The screen split into two sections, listing the nicknames that the locals had given them. "Search for Ganymede: 'Endless Ocean'; search for Europa: 'Desert Winds.'"
Both searches came up with a positive match. She was smiling inside but kept a very calm visage as she stared at the screen, thinking about what the old Indian had said. ".The Swimming Bird flies stationary on the star that connects the endless oceans with the desert winds" She was silent for a few moments then spoke with a very doubting voice "Computer. search any of the moons of Jupiter that land in between Ganymede and Europa." She ordered it and watched the screen.
A shriek of excitement escaped her lips when only one name popped up "Callisto!" she laughed and took of within milliseconds of figuring out the Indian Chief's puzzle. She pressed the video link to the Bebop "Jet! Jet! I know where he is!" She told him excitedly.
"Blueberries, Banana-ananas! Pineapple in Freench-Ewentch!" Ed sang happily her goggles strappled securely around her eyes as she swam through the air, surfing her data base. "Albaqurqie, Turkey-werky, gravy on the side pleeease!" she continued swirling her arms around.
"Ed! Quit it!" Faye told her angrily as she laid on the couch, her hand on her stomach. "We haven't eaten for three days, and you continuously sing about food." She muttered under her breath "Inconsiderate little mole."
"Message-essage from Ado-Tomato!" she giggled excitedly as she began to type frantically at her keyborad.
"Ed! I said quit talking about food! You're making me hungry-ungry! Can you grasp that?!" she asked in a furious tone, sitting up suddenly and bashing her fist hard against the arm rest of the large yellow couch.
"No, no Faye-faye! Tomato is an old old friend of Ed's... he made my computer!" she said and tapped one of her long spindling fingers against the word TOMATO on the side - spelt out in big red letters. She typed in a couple more keys and a window popped up and a young boy, maybe only a few years older then Ed showed up on the screen. He smiled at her and then blushed as he watched her bouce slightly with excitement, unaware that she was developing breasts. "Tomato! How have you been?" she asked the young boy.
He scratched the back of his head with a slightly nervous chuckle "Well I've been better. How 'bout you?" he asked her kindly as he lifted the googles he had on over his white coloured hair. He had a pair of bright green eyes that stood out against his pale skin. He was at that age where his voice was just finished cracking and his face was beginning to become more handsome, growing out of its slightly childish state.
Ed blinked a couple times, a bit confused by his response to her. "Ed is ok. But how has Tomato been better? Are you not feeling good?" she asked the young boy a bit concerned.
He gave her a large smile and reached his hands out shaking them back and forth. "No, no Ed. I'm feeling just fine. But I've been staying on my own for some time now... I was wondering if I could maybe visit you for a while, you know? Spend a bit of time with you and catch up since I haven't seen you for a while."
With that remark Faye pushed Ed to the side viciously and stared at the boy right through the screen, threatening to come through it "Now you listen here you little moocher! Where do you think Ed is, some luxury resort? She happens to be on a ship, staying with some very generous people, but so generous as to acquire another mouth to feed." Faye shrieked and moaned to the screen, her scariest pair of eyes sparkled red on her fair face.
Tomato raised a brow and smirked. "You know it wouldn't be for more then a few days. And unlike Ed, I will carry my own weight." He crossed her long arm, leaning towards the screen "And you look a little pale. you must not have eaten in the last couple days. Am I right?" he asked slyly, making sure that he was getting his point across "I live on Titan. so from what I can tell by the tracing device I put in Ed's computer. You're no more then a four hour flight from where I live. So think about it, you could be eating in only a few short hours." He paused "I'll give you enough food to live comfortably off for a few weeks... if you let me visit Ed, while you go where ever it is you're going... hmm? How about it?"
Faye glared at him for a moment then leaned back a bit "You little blackmailer. Alright, as long as you live up to your promise. then we'll come pick you up and bring you to Mars... a better place for you to get up on you feet and a get some sort of job as a computer grunt for some huge company. Give me your position." She ordered him with a slight sigh at being suckered into taking on another border. without Jet's permission.
"See you soon Ed!" he said to her enthusiastically as she watched the screen, throwing her arms happily around Faye. The address jumped up on the careen in bright red letters. Ed hit a button and printed them out for her.
"Yay! Yay! Thank you Faye-Faye!" Ed cheered as she jumped up and down with excitement.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." she said in a moaning voice, waving her hands up and down trying to relax the girl "Go to my bedroom. You have to dress correctly if you're going to have a boy your age on the ship. I'm going to tell Jet to land on Titan, and after he's done yelling at me, I'll be right there."
She blinked a couple times and then swirled around grapping Ein's paws and whirling him around. "Yay! Tomato now boarding Bebop! Keep all limbs and appendages inside the hunk of metal at all times!" she sang happily as Faye sighed her head drooping slightly at her song.
"Alright, Dark, Alright. slow down. You're already on your way to Callisto right now?" Jet asked Dark over a video com link, a slightly worried tone in his voice.
Darks face was on the screen, eyes wide with excitement and anticipation. "Yes of course I'm on my way there! The faster I get there the faster I find Spike, right?" she asked him "Besides the old Indian dude..."
"Running Bull?" Jet asked cutting her off "You actually went to visit that old coot. Don't be surprised if he leads you on a wild goose chase... a lot of his leads turn up nothing but some old memories and bad consequences." He told her, closing his eyes and crossing his thick arms across his chest. "Besides the entire population on Callisto is completely male... and they'll be chasing after you like hounds to fresh blood. If you're going to go there, be on your guard all the time... and carry your gun."
"Yes mother dear... You know I'm untouchable Jet... you most of all." She told him with a smirk. His lip curled slightly, disapproving of her words "Relax, Okay? I'll be there for a few days, maximum, and I'm certain nothing horrible is going to happen."
"I trust you, but if you fuck up you have better chances that Spike is going to save you then I am. I'm on Titan; I have to pick up one of Ed's little friends who wants to get taxied to Mars for what's been called 'better opportunities.'" He paused "So if you don't call by next week I'll check for you in the obituaries." He told her and disconnected the video link without saying good-bye
"Humph. I love you too asshole." Dark muttered after he hung up on her. She looked in front of her where the large round gate, which would take her directly to Callisto, was waiting. She switched her engines into hyper space and headed towards the gate.
Spike sat at the end of the bar, on a thin bar stool, sipping on a glass of scotch on the rocks, well past drunk. He sighed softly and closed his eyes, images fluttering past his eyes from the back of his memory.
~The same blood runs through you and I. The blood of a beast you wanders. seeking the blood of others. ~
~I've bled all that blood away.~
~Then why are you still Alive?!~
The sound of a gun shot blasted through his head, and his eyes opened abruptly, his breathing had increased. He turned his head sharply to see exactly where it was that the sound had come from. He watched as the balls on a pool table broke from the triangle position they had been in only seconds before.
Standing from the bar he tossed a ten woo-long bill on the marble counter top and left slowly, as if he had never been there.
He walked through the streets like a zombie. Walking in between couples holding hands, and groups of men talking to one another. He was watching his feet as he was walking. After wandering the streets and ally- ways from sometime, he bumped into a wan wearing a black suit and red lapel. Several men in the same attire stood behind him. "We come bearing news from Vicious." he said in a low, threatening voice.
They stood in the parking-lot of an old warehouse, at the front entrance gate with a small lodge for the security guard with the controls to the lift gate.
Spike looked up at the man who had just spoken to him. "You can give Vicious some news for me as well." he said calmly and lifted his hand, casually giving the man the finger, and attempting to walk past him. They gripped his arms and pushed him hard into a chain link fence close by.
"Let he who has no sinned cast the first stone." said the front man on the Red Dragons, before he shrugged and moved to punch Spike in the stomach.
"What the fuck is up with the seriously chilly weather?!" Dark asked herself as she hopped out from her parked zip craft on top of a building.
After walking down onto the street she looked left and right, breathing heavily, bellowing clouds of mist coming from her mouth as if with was a chimney at Christmas. She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and pulled out a silver lighter, flicking it smoothly and inhaling a bit of the intoxicating smoke letting out a soft sigh of contentment as the nicotine purged through her blood steam.
Carefully checking both guns in an ally-way and put one in its holster and cocked the other one, keeping it in her hand. She casually walked up to a busy intersection and stepped up to a car stopped at a red light.
Tapping lightly on the driver's seat window with her gun she looked at the shocked man sitting in the front seat. She placed a large friendly smile on her face and spoke to him through the glass with a cheery and very casual tone "Sir I'm going to have to ask you to step out of your vehicle so that I can use it... and I'm going to have to ask you to do so before the light turns green and I blow your mother-fucking brains in.. k?" she asked and then giggled afterwards.
The man hurried out of the car as fast as he could and Dark slid into the driver's seat comfortably, making a joking kiss face at him before closing the door and speeding away as soon as the light turned green. She turned the radio to her favorite station and began to bop her head to the music as she took another large haul of her cigarette. "And I don't ever wanna feel like I did that day. Take me to the place I love" she sang along to the station as she was looking n either side of the street. Suddenly a scuffle in the parking lot of an old warehouse seemed to have caught her attention. "Take me all the way. And I don't ever wanna feel like I did that da..y.?" she squinted to look at who these mean were pounding on when all of a sudden a very familiar blue suit flashed in front of her face. "Holy Shit!" She screamed and screeched the tires, then cracking the music so that the opera verse to the song she was listening to blared out the windows and caught the attention of the Syndicate men as soon as she burst through the long thin, neon orange, two by four at the security gate.
Many of them ran away from the car to avoid injury, the others that stayed behind weren't so lucky. She braked the car inches from Spike body, which was hardly moving. "Son-of-a-bitches!" she screamed, opening the door and firing her gun into the air several times, the Syndicate men running towards a near by ship "You can tell your precious leader, Vicious, that that one was from the two-bit earth whore." She screamed after them as they took off, leaving the wounded to die underneath the stolen car. She put her gun in its holster around her upper thigh.
She moved over to Spike, wrapping on of her arms around her neck and hoisting him up on her shoulders, then throwing him into the back seat of the car. "You sit tight.. I think I know a place where we can chill out for a few days." she told him as she got back into the drivers seat and closed the door. She pulled out of the parking lot and turned left. The sound of wailing police sirens could be heard in the distance.
In the narrow hallway of a darkly lit apartment building, Dark leaned Spike's half incapacitated body on the wall, hoping that he could hold himself there for a few more moments as she stood at the door to one of the apartments. Her fingernails clawed around the door frame and she felt up and down it gently. She reached about three quarters of the way up the frame on the left side and pulled. A small section of baseboard came up to reveal a small chamber where a key was hidden.
Unlocking the door quickly she lifted Spike back up onto her shoulder and carried him inside. "I don't know if you ever met Gren. But this was his old place. I caught wind that he was dead a little less then a year ago. Kind of a shame... he was a really sweet guy." She told him as she dusted off the couch with her free hand and then gently rested Spike down on it. "You're pretty lucky guy. There's always someone there to save you're scrawny ass at the very last second." She knelt beside the couch and began to remove his tie.
Spike looked up at her with a blank face and then squinted in concentration, as if searching through his memory to see if he could recognize. "My God... Dark Acleans." he said in utter disbelief "For a moment there I thought you were just some Good Samaritan with a gun. I hardly recognize you." He sat up slightly and grinned at her "You used to wear leather didn't you? The pants with all the buckles on them and the custom made leather jacket." He asked her as she unbuttoned his blazer.
She stood up and placed her hand on her hip "Yeah its funny the only thing you remember is my wardrobe rather then the person I am..." she said and began snooping around the dusty living room for a first aid kit. She found on it a small cabinet by his bar. She walked back towards the couch opening the kit "Take off your shirt." She ordered the lanky man lying on the couch.
"Feisty are we?" he asked with the same sly smile. He began to unbutton his yellow dress shirt and tossed both the blue blazer and the shirt over the back of the couch. "Kinda a coincidence that you would be on Callisto at the exact same time I am. You passing through? You normally don't come off of Earth unless you need to." He said in a casual voice as she pulled out some cotton swabs from the kit and opened a package of rubbing alcohol.
"I'm here on business, you pervert." she sighed as she pressed the alcohol swab firmly against a cut on his shoulder that he had received due to one of the rings of his opponents.
Taking in a breath of air through gritted teeth and then screaming he glared at him before clenching a fist "What the hell was that for?!" He asked sitting up a bit more "do you know how much that hurts? Have you no heart?" he spoke to her as she pushed him back down.
"No actually I don't have a heart. didn't you know that?" she asked in monotone as she quickly bandaged him then stood to see if Gren had any non-perishable food in his cabinets. "Are you hungry?" she asked him in the same tone, opening up all the doors in the kitchen looking for things.
Spike didn't respond to her question, but instead asked a new one of his own "What kind of business are you here on?" he asked and turned his head to watch her walk out of the kitchen with some sort of cup of instant noodles. "I mean you're not a bounty hunter anymore, are you? You gave that up a few years ago, right?" he asked as he pulled the thread off the bowl of noodles and handed it to him.
"Yeah I gave it up... I'm just doing a friend of mine a favor." He explained to him and handed him a pair of chop sticks. "You know, you get what you give and all that good stuff." she said with a sigh and began to eat her own cup on noodles. "I suppose Jet figured that since I'm so good at finding people. that it shouldn't be too hard to track you down right?" she asked him, slurping noodles. Spike watched her with wide eyes, as if completely disgusted that someone as close to him as Jet would think he wanted to be found.
"Jet. is looking for me?" He asked putting the cup down on the side table and sat up, his elbows leaning on his knees. "But why would he be looking for me? I left for a reason."
Dark sat there, silent, for a good long minute, slurping her noodles, eyes closed. "You and I both know, that against all cost that you were never going to get Jet and Faye and Ed messed up in you're fucked up past. But you did... and it wasn't your fault... It kinda just happened that way. But now you've gone off to see if you're demons are still chasing you, and I'm here to tell you it's dangerous to do so." She explained to him and stared him right in his face as she spoke.
"You're the one telling me this? I left because...
"Because you knew Vicious was still alive. And you knew that Vicious knew that you were still alive. So you ran, knowing that he would come after the bebop... and more then likely kill everyone, right? You also left because you never believe your guy, and you never had. You thought if Vicious was alive, then you wanted to see it with your own eyes." there was a brief pause "Well I suppose that by the mark that henchman left on your shoulder, that Vicious is still pretty much alive. and has people working for him." There was another pause, this one longer and more intense. "But none of that matters unless. well. unless Julia's still alive right?" She asked him with a big fake smile.
Spike was frowning and stirring his noodles with his chopsticks. "That's not funny you know. How you know everything about everything. You're the only bounty hunter that ever did their research so thoroughly." He said unimpressed, leaning his back up against the dusty couch. "I just didn't want anyone to get hurt. I can take the brunt of it by myself."
"Swimming Bird flies stationary on the star that connects the endless oceans with the desert winds. you will find him there, weeping in his own sorrow... and figuring out where to weep next. You must find him before he makes this change. because next he will look for hidden snake, and porcelain fish, and when he looks... he will find. That will be the end of swimming bird, for the last time." she recited the words of the old man to Spike. "It makes sense now. You're going to go looking for Vicious and Julia... and when you find them... That's it, you're going to die for the last time. and you may not think it's that big of a deal, but let me tell you, it is!" she said her voice growing louder in a constant crescendo she stood up and leered over his like a snake to it's puny victim. "You have people who care about you now... they think of you as part of a family. You leave them and it'll be like losing an arm to them." She sat back down. "But I'm not going to let you be unhappy for the rest of your life. So although I don't agree with your love for Julia. I'm going to help you find her... and that way... if you die... you don't have to die alone. And that way neither do I. So we're going to lie to Jet and tell him that I haven't found you... and we're going to take care of this whole, past thingy.."
Spike blinked at her wide-eyed "Wh... Why would you want to do such a thing? I mean it's not your past right? You shouldn't have to worry about it, so why are you?" he questioned her. "You don't feel like you're prying where you shouldn't be? I've known you for years, even before all this happened. We grew up in the same area, but." he paused, feeling like he couldn't finish the sentence he was working on.
"But. we went in different directions in our life. Your choice was very hazardous to your psychological health... Mine was a bit more physically damaging. You got caught up in the wrong people. and I didn't get caught up in anyone. You had friends, I destroyed mine." She said with a meek smile on her face "In life we make decisions and we reap what we sow. There are going to be consequences for whatever we do, and whether they're good or bad, they all have an impact on who we are, and where we end up. I ended up in a wasted planet, doomed to spend the rest of my life beating myself up for something that happened years ago. and you're doing the same thing to yourself right now. You're sitting on this big womanless hunk of ice singing the lyrics to a really depressing song. So, yeah we made different decisions in our lives, and we went in different directions, but did we turn out different? Not as differently as we once thought. So you've known me for years... but you haven't seen me for years, so this little expedition might give us a chance to catch up, even though I think I got the just of what you've been doing while I've been gone." She said with a slight chuckle afterward. "Besides, taking me greatly improves you chances of living."
Spike smiled softly and nodded "I have to see. whether she's dead or alive." There was a pause, where the only noise was the sound of breathing come from the two of them. "But if she wasn't then why would I still be alive. I'm not normally one to think of things so philosophically but. Why would someone bring me back for nothing.? She's all that in this world for me." He told her, looking down at the carpet.
Dark's head was talking to it's self... which it did frequently since she was by herself most of the time ~How can he love her. No woman is worth as much as a best friend. ~ She said to herself and nodded to him "We'll find her... don't you worry you're perfect lil' fuzzy head about it.
"Tomato!" Ed shrieked happily as she leapt from the beached Bebop and onto the moist sand below where the tall white haired boy was waiting to be picked up. End looked completely different then she did only hours ago. Faye had played dolly and transformed Ed into a maturing young woman. The white baggy white beater was replaced with a tighter (and more supportive) tank-top with a short pleated skirt, with the cut-off shorts underneath.
"Hey...! Ed. You've changed." he blinked at the young girl from freshly styled feathered, red hair, to the huge, clunky, knee high army boots. "Nothing wrong with it though. I like it!" He told her as Faye and Jet watched from the deck of the ship
Jet looked at Ed's new attire and blinked a couple times "Faye did you do that to her? She looks so much more. grown up." He said watching the two friends as they caught up a bit and began to walk into the entrance at the bottom of the ship.
"That's not the half of it. I also tried to get her to stop talking in the third person... but something's you can't change about Ed. I think she was a bit unaware that she's growing up though." Faye said with a chuckle
"Jet might as well take off for Callisto then... see if we can find Spike and Dark. No real use to staying on Titan." He said and waited for Ed and her friend to enter the main deck before they took off towards their next destination.