Fallen Seraphim
Best Laid Plans
The definition of a landing is a controlled crash…this was no landing. To be frank, the only reason this didn't count as a catastrophe was the lack of serious injuries, but aside from that, it was a crash.
Faye's head was still buzzing from the impact. Unfortunately during the approach to the seven story building Seraph had spotted a security measure that hadn't been in the briefing. The guard had decided he needed a cigarette so he made his way up to the roof…even government conspiracies can't break the "No Smoking" laws…where Seraph noticed the faint flicker of a lighter. Seraph quickly guided the parachute towards the unsuspecting smoker. Faye didn't quite realize what was going on until the last possible second which, of course, is always too late.
Faye's body slammed into the guard, knocking the guard to the floor and sending Faye and Seraph into a rather awkward landing. Faye's feet hit the ground and she rapidly tried to regain her balance, but the added weight of the body behind her sent her stumbling to the ground, taking Seraph with her. The two landed in a pile with the parachute slowly draping over them.
Seraph reacted quickly and reached between he and Faye to release the carabiners that held the two together. Jumping to his feet, he rushed to the guard who was still lying in a heap on the rooftop. Once within a few feet he delivered a swift kick to the guard's stomach, the man instinctively curled inwards but made no other movements.
Looking back towards the parachute, he saw a flash of light as Faye jabbed a commando knife through the canvas and sliced her way out. She made it to her feet and glared towards Seraph.
"You said there was no one on the roof," she whispered harshly.
"Plans change," he answered. "Grab the chute and get to the vent."
Faye grabbed the black fabric and crammed it back into the pack. I hope this is the only part of the plan that needs altering. She threw the pack over her shoulder and turned back to Seraph and watched as he pried the metal grate off the air vent, leaving a gaping hole large enough for a person, with no light whatsoever. Seraph climbed into the abyss and disappeared, as if he'd been consumed by it. Faye climbed into the ventilation shaft and pulled the grate back up to cover the only way out.
- - - - -
The flickering glow of television screens filled the security room, the multi-colored images casting a dismal amount of light throughout the room. Each screen displaying a different sterilized hallway or antiseptic stairway. Random screens display guards walking through the hallway after endless hallway. The two guards residing in the room wearily watched the countless monitors. Neither noticed the pair of eyes from the ventilation shaft to their rear.
Seraph glanced towards Faye, trying to get her attention while the darkness hindered any chance of success that he might have had. When she finally noticed, he reached down to his holster and withdrew his Beretta; Faye nodded in acknowledgement, and followed his example. Seraph grabbed the grate, drew a deep breath, and pushed…
…The grate gave way and through some stroke of luck or divine intervention, made no sound. He pulled the grate into the ventilation shaft and laid it silently on the darkened metal. Seraph lowered himself through the opening and landed on his feet with a soft thud; neither guard noticed. He brought the silenced pistol up and aimed at the back of the nearest guard's head.
He crossed the room, covering the distance between himself and the guard without a sound. His arm wrapped around the guard's neck, pulling him from the chair, a surprised gasp coming from the captive guard. The other guard turned to look, his gaze meeting the business end of a silenced pistol.
"I could have killed both of you already, don't make me do it now," Seraph's voice remained emotionless, completely focused on the moment at hand. "Faye, we haven't got all night." Faye pulled herself through the vent and aimed her pistol, a little less sure, but just as lethal. "Tie 'em up."
Faye grabbed a roll of duct tape from the bag and set to work removing the ability to move, speak, or anything other than sit there and look terrified from both the guards. After Faye had moved on to the second, Seraph crouched before the first guard and placed the barrel of his pistol on the side of his head.
"All right, down to business. Access codes for the basement," Seraph pushed the gun into the side of the man's head.
"If you kill me, you won't find out," the guard stammered, trying to sound as defiant as possible but merely sounding like a kid caught in the act awaiting punishment.
"I don't have to kill you. Faye, tape!" She finished wrapping the other guard and tossed the roll to Seraph. He tore off a piece and slapped it over the guard's mouth. "You don't seem to understand, don't they teach you how to withstand torture?" The guard's eyes widened with fear and shook his head. "Huh…they didn't? Pity." Seraph pressed the barrel of the gun into the man's crotch. "Have any kids?" The man became frantic, trying to get away from the psycho with the gun. "Oh, so now you want to talk?" The guard quickly nodded. "You realize what's going to happen if you make a noise?" The guard nodded again. "Good," Seraph ripped the tape off the man's mouth. "What's the code?"
"27882."
"Good job," Seraph slapped the tape back over his mouth. He looked back towards Faye, now wearing a white lab coat with the name "Watson" over the left breast. "You almost look respectable." She threw him an annoyed look, more along the lines of 'I have a gun and will use it.' Seraph ignored the glare, "You'd better get going, we don't have a lot of time."
Faye merely nodded and headed for the door. She paused as the door opened, almost as if her mind decided it wasn't too sure about the outlook of this plan. Without anymore thought, she walked through the door, the metal slab sealing behind her. The room fell silent save for the heavily breathing of the two guards…That's going to be annoying…
Two successive muffled shots and one guard fell silent. The other's eyes shone with fear as he watched his comrade slump into his chair, two bullet holes in his fore head. The imposing figure dressed in black crossed the room with his hand still gripping the black pistol. The lack of light was reflected in his eyes; there was no color…just black….the absence of all…
And that black void was staring directly at the remaining guard.
Two muffled shots followed and the absence filled the room.
- - - - -
Sterile, endless hallways at every turn. The echoing sound of footsteps accompanied the dreary silence that filled the hallways. Cameras, guards, and emptiness surround Faye Valentine. Numbered doors passed by on both sides, nameless, spotless, their contents unknown.
You ever get the feeling that something is just? That feeling that just crawls up your back and kind of settles on the back of your neck. Having a feeling that something is going to happen and not knowing just makes this entire job worse. No matter how you dice it, I just keep getting the wrong hand.
- - - - -
Without the bickering of two particular bounty hunters, the entire shipjust felt dead. Even through Jet never seemed too thrilled to have the two on board, it had become …normal to have them around. To hear constant arguing, the slamming of doors, and the throwing of random objects (including, more often than not, couch cushions) just seemed normal despite the fact that the behavior itself is not.
Now the silence of the ship created a thickening presence around the ex-cop.
The Bebop itself rested on the rolling water of Aruba City's' large, man-made lake. The ship sat silent, the engine shut down to conserve fuel, most of the electronics off to keep the batteries as charged as possible just in case something goes wrong…which it always seems to.
The night sky, billions of pin points of light shinning down, meeting the countless lit windows filling the darkened cityscape. The lights cast an eerie glow through the windows of the ships bridge. The rolling waves rocked the ship side to side, it's lone passenger moving gently with it. His eyes staring out across the starlit bay. The darkened sea stretching out before him.
Faye and Seraph had jumped an hour earlier. Jet didn't even know if they were alive, died, captured, or any of a hundred more possibilities that seemed too gruesome to consider.
But sometimes all you really have are possibilities and that isn't much to go on.
- - - - -
"Now you make a left, head down the hallway and there will be a stair way on your right. Down the stairs and make another right," Seraph finished the last sentence and released the small microphone. He heard an acknowledgement from Faye but merely ignored it. Reaching over to the console, he pressed a series of buttons. The screen before him flickered, but remained covered in static.
"Yes?" a voice flowed through the speakers, the audio perfectly clear in contrast to the static filled screen.
"The girl is in the building. She's headed for the basement," Seraph responded.
"Good, make sure she doesn't get passed the security doors."
"Understood, I'll trip the alarm once she reaches the elevator."
"Don't fail, you've done well up to this point; don't let your relationship with her get in the way."
"Relations don't matter, this is business." A soft click and the static filled images faded to black.
- - - - -
"You, stop!" Faye froze at the sound of a voice behind her. Her hands fell to her sides, her left brushing against the grip of the silenced Beretta. "Turn around!" She turned, her gaze coming to rest on the uniformed figure of a Brotherhood security guard. "Let me see your I.D."
Faye felt her pulse stop; the I.D. was a forgery, a pretty good one, but she had no idea if it would hold up against a close examination. She reached into her breast pocket and withdrew the card. She moved to hand it to the guard but "accidentally" dropped it. The guard rolled his eyes and motioned for her to pick it up. She bent over, her right hand sliding into the lab coat to grab the gun as the left went for the I.D. Pulling the gun from its holster and rising at the same time, the tip of the silencer came to rest mere inches from the guard's forehead before he realized what was happening.
"Now you turn around," the guard's shock melted away as he came to terms with the new situation. Grudgingly, he followed her order and turned his back on his captor. "Pull you gun out and hand it to me, handle first." Faye's eyes focused on the guard's movements. He pulled the gun from its holster, flipped it, and gave the pistol, handle first, to Faye. "Thank you," she said half-heartedly, then slammed the base of the guard's own pistol into the back of his head. The guard's body slumped to the ground in an unconscious hump.
Faye took a cursory glance at her surroundings to make sure no one had seen her. Seeing nobody, she reached down and grabbed the guard by the legs and dragged the guard towards the nearest janitorial closet…now if I only knew where that was…
- - - - -
Concrete…reinforced concrete and steel bars. Simple yet effective…and boring as hell. You can only stare at a blank wall for so long until your brain starts trying to make images out of the shadows…so far, it's been three rabbits, four ducks, and the biggest pack of cigarettes I've seen in my life.
When you stare at the same walls for four days straight, you seem to reach a point where your brain just kinda endlessly contemplates the meaning of…well, being here. Getting grabbed like that was so friggin' obvious, but I still fell for it. Well, now I'm here…and I can't do a thing about it.
I just hope they don't do anything about it.
- - - - -
"Now make a left and the door is just ahead," the comm shut off and Seraph's eyes followed Faye from security monitor to security monitor as she walked through the empty hallways. As she stepped towards the door, Seraph reached across the console to the alarm. He hesitated slightly, almost contemplating whether he should do it or not, but pushed those thoughts aside and pressed the button anyway.
Nothing.
H pressed it again.
Still nothing.
A yellow, slightly deformed smiley face popped onto the screen before him, then spread to the rest.
"What the hell?"
"Seraph don't mess with Faye-Faye," a disembodied voice echoed through the room.
"Who the hell are you? How do you know my name?"
"Edward Wong Hau Pepilou Tivurusky IV."
"What?"
"Edward is Ed, and Ed won't let Seraph hurt Faye-Faye."
"I don't want to hurt Faye, I'm gonna…help her."
"Seraph bad liar, need lessons."
"How do you know who I am?"
"Edward sees all and knows all…swooky."
"What the hell are you talking about?
"Seraph needs to shut up, Edward is in charge. Icon, icon, pretty little icon. Icon go click!"
One of the screens changed to an image of Faye staring into the camera, obviously becoming very agitated. Seraph's eyes snapped to the screen just in time to see the two doors slide open. She glanced back towards the camera, gave it an odd look before moving through the doors.
"Why are you doing this?" Seraph demanded.
Silence.
"Why the fuck are you doing this?" Seraph slammed his fist into the monitor, shattering the screen. He ignored the shards of glass sticking out of his hand as he headed for the door. Things weren't going to plan and there was going to be hell to pay.
- - - - -
Faye Valentine leaned against the metal walls of the elevator. The double doors from the first floor lead her to this steel box and a sense of claustrophobia was beginning to set in. What am I doing? Why the hell am I here? All of this to save that lunkhead? I must be out of my friggin' mind! That moron goes off and gets himself caught by this shadow government and I come here to bail his sorry ass out? When has he ever bailed me out?
Images of Spike standing atop a building with an assault rifle flooded her mind. Images of Spike striding confidently into a dilapidated church clothed in a trenchcoat. Another of him drawing a gun at the end of a bar and firing at the man holding her captive.
So maybe Spike actually has come to my rescue. Maybe that poofy-haired bounty hunter has done more than I give him credit for…
"Is Faye-Faye okay?" Faye didn't need to hear the hacker's pet name for her to know who it is, the voice gave it away.
"Ed? What the hell are you doing? It's dangerous here!" Faye quickly remembered where she was and lowered her voice.
"Edward knows that, that is why Edward is not there."
Kid's got a point. "Then what are you doing?"
"Edward is saving Faye-Faye from the bad people."
"What are you talking about?" Faye was becoming increasingly annoyed by Ed's habit of dodging questions. Normally it didn't bother her, but in this particular situation, the long drawn out process of twenty questions just didn't seem appealing.
"Edward is giving Faye-Faye information to get Spike-person back to Bebop-Bebop."
"All right Ed, give me the information."
"Spike-person is in prison on the B3 floor. The escape place is on the B2 floor, it goes to the big car place."
"Ed are you sure?" Faye's voice broke through Ed's rapid explanation.
"Edward is always sure. Edward is looking at building papers right now."
"Alright Ed, I'm trusting you on this," Faye responded, her voice heavy…if Ed is right, that means my brother was wrong.
"Faye-Faye wait!"
"What now Ed?"
"The bad people know Faye-Faye is in building." Faye's breathing stopped…they know I'm here? Did someone find the guard? "Bad people don't know where Faye-Faye is though."
"Ed, listen to me."
"Yes, yes?"
"Unless something really important happens, don't contact any of us okay?"
"Okkie dokey Faye-Faye. Will Faye-Faye and Spike-person bring Edward a souvenir?"