Author's Note: Parts that are in italics are flashbacks. And also, this chapter is mostly scenes from Kill Bill told in flashbacks.
***
A Dish Best Served Cold
We Deserve to Die
***
Anthony's hand reached out and quickly grabbed the ringing cell phone that sat on the desk next to his bed.
He had never actually used one before; he had only gotten one in case there was an emergency so Dylan could get in touch with him. After the battle with Seamus and Madison he had pretty much given up his mysterious assassin ways…mostly anyway, but he would mainly stay with Dylan and help her, Natalie and Alex on certain missions. The other two angels were still a little uneasy around him (not that he could blame them), but since Dylan trusted him they decided to give him a chance. Dylan had also started to helped him to learn how to speak, although most of the time he only spoke around her.
He looked over at Dylan's sleeping form next to him; the phone hadn't woken her up.
He brought the phone up to his ear, and heard an all-too familiar voice.
"Anthony."
Anthony's eyes widened. "Bill?"
The voice on the other end sounded surprised. "You talked."
Anthony quickly got out of the bed and moved into the other room.
"Yes, I've learned how to, but I don't try to speak that much."
"Well, there's a problem," Bill said, not waiting for Anthony to reply before continuing. "Black Mamba's woken up, and she's out for blood."
Anthony looked rather shocked at this, and that was saying something.
"So, why are you warning me first? What about O-Ren, Vernita, Budd, and Elle?"
There was a pause.
"Well, O-Ren…"
***
O-Ren slowly rose to her feet, feeling the blood from the freshly-made cut drip down her body into the snow, turning it a dark crimson.
She and Black Mamba were both panting heavily as the snow fell down around them.
"For ridiculing you earlier…I apologize." O-Ren said truthfully to Black Mamba.
She nodded. "Accepted." she replied. Then, after a pause, she asked, "Ready?"
O-Ren nodded. "Come on."
The former assassin and the queen of the Tokyo underworld clashed, their samurai swords striking against each other with tremendous force. Then, there was a slash…
…and a scalp of dark bleeding hair was flung into the air before landing with a soft thud in the snow.
Black Mamba and O-Ren's back were to each other, but they knew the fight was over. The blow Black Mamba had delivered had sliced off the top of O-Ren's head, exposing the smallest piece of her brain. Her sword fell from her fingers as she starred off into the distance.
"That…really was a Hattori Hanzo sword," she said before darkness overcame her and she fell to the ground, dead.
***
"And Vernita…" Bill continued, after waiting for Anthony to tell him to after listening to what happened to O-Ren.
***
"So when do we do this?" Vernita asked. She knew that no matter what she said, they were both going to bleed.
Black Mamba leaned foreword. "It all depends: when do you wanna die, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow?"
"How about tonight, bitch?" Vernita spat at her. Black Mamba seemed pleased. "Splendid, where?" she asked.
There was a pause before Vernita said, "There's a baseball diamond where I coach our little league about a mile from here. We meet there around 2:30 in the morning dressed all in black, and we have us a knife fight. We won't be bothered." She stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to fix Nikki's cereal."
As she spoke, Vernita walked over to a cabinet and opened it before taking out a box of cereal labeled 'kaboom'. Black Mamba leaned against the wall, sipping her coffee.
"Bill always said you were one of the best ladies with an edged weapon he'd seen."
Vernita rolled her eyes and turned around and looked at Black Mamba. "Fuck you bitch. I know damn well he didn't qualify that shit," she said as she walked over to the refrigerator and got out a milk carton. "So you, can just kiss my motherfucking ass Black Mamba," as Vernita said the last part she paused, and then snorted to herself. "Black Mamba… I should have been motherfuckin' Black Mamba."
Black Mamba chuckled to herself. "Well if you want to stick with your butcher knife that's fine with me,"
Vernita stopped fixing Nikki's cereal for a second and looked back at Mamba. "Very funny bitch."
And then she quickly turned all the way around, raised the box of cereal as she reached her hand inside, and Black Mamba quickly moved out of the way just as the bit of wall where she had been standing exploded as Vernita fired the gun that was inside the box of cereal. She pulled the gun out and aimed again but Black Mamba dropped the mug of coffee and kicked it in Vernita's direction. Vernita ducked but it left her open as Black Mamba pulled out the double edged combat knife in the sheath on her waist and flung it, the blade piercing Vernita's heart. She fell to the floor, convulsed, and then expired.
Black Mamba walked over to the body and reaching down she yanked the knife out before standing up. Feeling someone behind her she spun around.
Nikki, Vernita's four year old daughter, was standing there, looking at her mother's dead body, before looking up at Black Mamba. For some reason, she did not cry, she just looked confused.
Black Mamba paused for a second as she sheathed her knife after wiping the blood off it. "It was not my intention to do this in front of you, and for that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it: your mother had it coming."
Walking over to Nikki she knelt down and looked her in the eye. "When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting."
With that she stood up and walked out of the house, leaving the little girl.
***
"What about the Budd and Elle?" Anthony asked, preparing to listen to another explanation behind another death of one of the assassins.
"Elle and Budd aren't dead. Elle knows, and I went down to Texas to tell Budd…"
***
Budd leaned against his trailer, a bottle of whiskey in his hand. He had just listened to Bill tell him what had happened to O-Ren.
"Are you telling me that she cut her way through eighty-eight bodyguards before going up against O-Ren?"
Bill shook his head 'no'. "There weren't really eighty-eight of them. They just called themselves the 'Crazy Eighty-Eights'.
"Why?"
Bill shrugged. "I guess they thought it sounded cool, but it didn't really matter, since they all fell under her Hanzo sword."
That got Budd's attention. "So she got herself a Hattori Hanzo sword?"
Bill nodded. "Didn't he swear a blood oath that he would never make one again?" Budd asked.
"It seems like he's broken it," Bill answered.
Budd shook his head and slightly chuckled. "Them Japs know how to carry a grudge don't they? Or is it just you tend to bring that out in people?"
Bill hesitated before speaking again. "Budd, I know this is a ridiculous question before I ask it, but you by any chance haven't kept up with your swordplay?"
Budd almost snorted. "Hell, I pawned that years ago."
Bill looked at his brother as if he had sprouted an extra head. "You pawned a Hattori Hanzo sword?"
"Yep."
Bill looked at him disbelievingly. "It was priceless," he said, after a moment.
Budd chuckled. "Not down here in El Paso it ain't. Down here I got 250 dollars for it."
Bill paused before talking. "Since it was a gift from me, why didn't you give me the chance to buy it back?"
"Because that would've required me to acknowledge your existence," Budd said as he drank some more whisky. "Drunken bum though I may be, I don't need booze that bad. But who the hell gives a crap anyway. That bitch ain't getting any points for killing a white trash piece of shit like me with a samurai sword. I'm a bouncer in a titty bar, Bill. If she wants to fight me, all she's gotta do is come down to the Club, start some shit, and we'll be in a fight."
For a moment Bill didn't speak, then, "Budd, you need to listen to me. I know we haven't spoken for quite some time, and the last time we spoke wasn't the most pleasant. But you need to get over being mad at me, and start becoming afraid of Bea, because she is coming, and she's coming to kill you. And unless you accept my assistance, I have no doubt she will succeed."
Budd looked rather touched by Bill's concern; but after a moment he shook his head.
"I appreciate the concern, but I don't Jew out of paying my comeuppance. That woman deserves her revenge…and we deserve to die."
***
"Well anyway, I'll call you if anything else happens," Bill said before preparing to hang up.
"Wait. How did you get this number?" Anthony asked.
"I got it from Charlie." was Bill's response.
Anthony's eyes almost bulged out of his head. "You and Charlie know each other?" he asked with an incredulous tone in his voice.
"Yeah, he and I go back."
Bill hung up, and Anthony looked at the fun with a weird expression before shrugging and setting the phone down.
"Anthony?"
Anthony looked up as Dylan entered the room, using the bed sheet to cover her body. "Who was on the phone?"
"…an old friend." Anthony replied. "Just an old friend."
***
The blonde haired woman entered the motel room that she would stay at for the night. She needed the rest anyway.
She set her sheathed samurai sword on the second bed in the room, as well as a bag with some clothes in it. Opening the bag she took out a small notebook. In the notebook was a list of six people.
1. O-Ren Ishii
Cottonmouth
2. Vernita Green
Copperhead
3. Anthony
Diamondback
4. Budd
Sidewinder
5. Elle Driver
California Mountain Snake
6. Bill
Out of the six names, the first two, O-Ren, and Vernita were crossed off.
Two down, four to go, Black Mamba thought to herself as she walked over and picked up her Hattori Hanzo samurai sword. Unsheathing the weapon she looked at the reflection of her eyes on the sword.
For my daughter…
She sheathed the sword.
To Be Continued. Read and Review.