*** = flash back

~*~= POV change

*)|(*= dream sequence

Infection

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It has been months since I have last felt like my old self, and finally I am beginning to feel like my old self once more. It is about time, I was growing tired of just floating day in and day out with that twisted feeling in the pit of my stomach that never let me rest…or forget. Now that feeling has transpired into something new, I don't know what, and I don't care, all I know is that I have a job to do, and that is to find Faye before Vincent does.

"Vicious…you're alive…what do you want?" I hear the slightly quaky voice of Shin spurt through the communicator like oil through a small pipe. I narrow my eyes; I will have to tell him the truth about what has happened in the past months if he is going to help me. Yet, I am not going to let him go that easily.

"Aren't you glad that I am alive?" I probe flatly as my gray eyes roll and the pen in my hand clicks impatiently. Perhaps I should kill Shin like my job requires me to do. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be some fun, most of the people I am hired to kill are fairly easy and boring and aren't of much sport. Half the fun of being a hitman is having at least the slightest pleasure in slicing your prey after a good struggle. Though I hate to admit it; the pleasure in killing people as dwindled severely since ten months ago.

"Whether I care that you are alive or not, doesn't change the fact that you are!" Damn, I thought he would fall for the bait and actually answer my yes or no question. It looks like I will have to make things clear and concise, the way I like them, I don't even know why I asked him that, what do I care of Shin's opinion anyway.

"I need to know where Faye is." I state dryly. Faye…the single four letter name that has haunted me for months, is miraculously alive. The way my lips form her simple, yet flowing name, makes me wonder if the feeling of slight warmth in my chest is of good origin.

"Why should I tell you that? You have been gone for months and now you have the balls to say that you are alive? Do you know how distraught Faye was after she found…" He stopped talking as if he thought he said too much, which he had. Like I said before, Shin doesn't know when to shut up.

Yet, did Faye actually care about my death? Did she actually grief for me? I guess there is only one way to find out.

"Shin, listen, if I don't figure out where Faye is soon, it will be too late." I frown and narrow my eyes into slits at the thought of not being punctual for such an important date as this.

"What do you mean too late? What is going on? You better tell me now!" Shin's angry young voice charges through the communicator like a stallion. He is worried, he should be, Vincent always finishes a job, no matter who he has to kill. Unless, I can interfere.

"Someone has been hired to kill Faye and yourself." My voice echoes through the communicator like an ominous ballad of death's reaper. Silence is on the other end.

"Who? Who is hired to kill Faye? And who is hired to kill me?!" His voice is now on the edge of panic and rage, he is too emotional to prevent Vincent's onslaught, not to mention other hitmen who have been assigned to kill Faye, and him.

"I have been hired to kill you. As for Faye, that information doesn't matter, I need to know where she is." My silver hair rustles in my icy, drafty run-down apartment; I sit alone on the cold floor, in a meditating position as I quip into the comm.

"You have been hired to kill me…you're a fucking hitman Vicious!! You have sunk low." I chuckle lowly into the communicator, an old syndicate laugh. I hear something crash in the background, I think I scared him. Good, he should be, if he doesn't give m my information soon I will be forced to see him in person.

"I will kill you if you do not tell me where Faye is." I pause for effect. "I know where you are, how to kill you and how to cover it up." I hiss venomously. Although I know that I never assist in Syndicate killings, which I am positive that this killing is. How else would it match-up? Daemon is an insane power-hungry Syndicate leader who would love to see the killers of his brother brought in and slaughtered.

"…Vicious has Daemon hired you and some other guy to kill Faye and I?" I frown, he was in the syndicate; he should have known that by now. I think I might have overestimated Shin's comprehension skills. Daemon didn't come to me personally, My employer, Mr. Kaze, told me that a Syndicate executive was handing out jobs to many of the employers, Vincent and I are the chosen assassins by Mr. Kaze.

"Tell me where she is Shin, the only way to stop a hit man is with a better hitman." I feel my knuckles turn white around the comm.. I take an inaudible deep breath to calm myself; Shin has always run my patience dry.

"I am going to tell her myself, she doesn't need to know you exist." My eyes narrow into razor slits, somehow the very nerve of him going instead of me rakes across my bones and makes my blood boil.

"That cop and the kid are no doubts targets for hitmen too. The syndicates make killings complete by killing everyone lose to them. You know that." I barked harshly though the communicator. If anyone knew that Shin would.

"If I find out you harmed Faye in any way I will make sure your funeral is a closed casket. She is in Phoenix, near Tharsis, She lives in a place called the Indigo Moon."

I smirk at the win, yet the battle itself is far from over. Tharsis, the capital of the newly rebuilt Red Dragon Syndicate and its new rival the Black Falcon, is very close to Phoenix.

"Vicious, another thing I never got to ask you, why did you kill my brother?" I felt a wave of confusion sweep over me. I didn't kill Lin, Gren did. Did the Elders tell him, before I killed them, that I killed Lin? Did the Elders deliberately lie to Shin about his older brother's death? It wouldn't surprise me either way, the Elders wanted people to hate me, what better way than to spread a lie that I killed one of the most respected members in the entire Syndicate? I clench my fist; this is one thing that is best not to be delved into.

"Thank you for the information Shin...unless you want to endanger that cop and the kid more, don't come to Mars, stay on Ganymede." I warn, tying to shake him off of the unanswered question.

"Hey wait, how did you know I'm on Gany—" I shut off the comm. And stand up off of the cold, concrete floor. The sunset filters through the dingy and smudged window pane. A feeling floods through me that I cannot describe it except the fact that this feeling makes me want to clean off the window and let the blinding sun stream in. This feeling is absurd, why should I care if the sun is out, or if Shin isn't dead yet…or if Faye is alive.

Then it hits me like a demented, ironic cliché, the entire reason I have been alive is because of the sacrifice that she made, and now she is alive. I feel like I have wasted ten months of my life. I try to shrug off this new feeling of revelation as I strip off my clothing and walk into the mildew infested shower. I step into the shower and turn the knob up all the way hot. I step in and let the heavy water beat down on my head so my silver hair wilts down in front of my eyes.

Something about this hired killing doesn't add up. Why doesn't the syndicate make them a bounty? Why would you hire a hitman to kill the person you want to kill for revenge? I frown as I pick up the Dawn dishwashing soap and pour some into my hand. I rub it across my scarred chest, my legs and my nether areas and lather a small amount in my drenched hair. Daemon is probably either lazy or too busy to really care who kills them or not. I quickly rinse the suds from my person and exit the shower wrapping the towel, which doubles as a carpet, around my waist. I step into my crumbling bedroom to see Shin's info-card on the floor; I pick it up and secure it in the pocket of my pants.

My pale lips downturn into a small frown, usually Syndicates hire more than one person to kill someone; that is why I was paid so lousy to kill Shin, only 4 million woolongs. If that is the case, someone might get to Faye before Vincent, and that would not sit well with me at all.

I pause mid-step as I try to shake her from my head, perhaps I should just try to sleep a little while; I have a long flight to Mars from Callisto. I slip into my bedroom and look at the lopsided bed, the mattress with threadbare sheets is half hanging off the rusted frame. I sit down on the bed, as the bed creaks violently, my wet hair flops listlessly into my sight. Strands of silver filter the cold gray background and I all I can think of is her.

I fall on my back and let my wet hair hit the cold blankets and pillow. My narrow gray eyes stare at the ceiling and I try to figure out what exactly this tugging feeling inside of me is, that makes me feel warm in a frozen land. Why is this feeling even present, what I have I done to deserve such a feeling? Is it a burden, is it a gift? If it a gift what will come of this feeling, of this emotion? It is like the desert wind on the sand, it is shaping me slowly into another form…

I close my eyelids and let the darkness consume me, I no longer enjoy nightmares.

Nightmares are just places where the inevitable torments you while you have no control, like a coward with a hidden stiletto. I hate cowards as much as I hate pawns, and I hate not being in control, that is why when I fall asleep that I want nothing to happen… nothing at all. Faye's face flashes in my mind, and I know deep down that she is not nothing at all.

I close my eyes quickly, just wanting to get some rest.

*)|(*

'Vicious…you're here.' She is standing there, in the door of my Callisto apartment, her violet hair flipping and blowing and her green eyes twinkling.

'Yes, I can see that you are too.' My legs are burning to move to her, and I can no longer stand; I walk over to her, almost subconsciously. My hand like magnets, I cant stop, in all of the other situations I would have turned and walked away, but here with her…I cant just walk away. I put my hands on either side of her face, her eyes shimmering like molten emeralds.

'Vicious, I want you to meet someone, Shin my fiancé.' I turn behind me and Shin is ominously there, ginning from ear to ear in a tuxedo with his hair pushed back. I feel a great surge of rage rise through me as I am tempted to take my katana and run him through with it. My eyes narrow into gray metal slits, she only came to say goodbye, I whip around to face Faye again, to demand an explanation.

Yet, it is Julia, standing there like a concrete angel, her endless eyes boring into me.

'Goodbye Vicious.' She beckons I feel blood spurt through me, as my sluggish reaction takes me longer to whip around to see my back-stabbing attacker.

I turn around to only see Spike, holding a white smoking gun; Faye and Shin stand behind him, smiling along with the cop, the kid, and Gren. And only words are spoken

'You are the villain Vicious, and all the villains die in the end.' I feel my eyes widen vehemently as Spike lifts the gun up once more, to the exact place in my head he shot me prior, my limbs are dead, unable to move. I see the floating faces in front of me smile as my stomach twists in one last knot, and my eyes narrow one last time before the trigger is pulled.

*)|(*

I shoot up in bed like an old childhood jack-in-the box, my wet bangs plastered to my forehead with sweat and water. I have got to stop having that dream…that nightmare...I never would have thought that a stupid dream, a stupid meaningless dream could make my heart beat so fast. How could I let a simple dream have such an impact on me like this, it is pathetic. I am Vicious, I kill people for a living, and I have nightmares that make my blood boil and my body writhe in my sheets.

This is so fucked up.

I get up hurriedly from the bed, making sure I still have Shin's info-card; that is one thing you do not want to be laying around. I quickly dress in a dark gray collared shirt and lightweight black pants and look at my reflection in the shards of broken mirror. My gray eyes stare back at me, the same, yet different in some way then yesterday.

"Why am I doing this? Why am I going after her? This doesn't make any sense… I shouldn't care what happens to her. I shouldn't care if she is alive…I shouldn't even care that she is not with Shin, but unfortunately I do." I step away from the mirror, trying to forget the way my eyes changed when I thought of her name. I step through my bathroom, and walk into a different door that leads to the living room, my katana hilt laying proudly on the cold concrete floor. I see a cockroach skittle across the hard surface.

"I wonder how many people I have killed with this katana. I wonder if all of those insignificant deaths are going to haunt me someday." I pick up the gleaming black sheathe and grasp the hilt with my long fingers. The noise of unsheathing the blade rings throughout the small room, echoing cleanly off the walls.

The long blade reflects the cold sunlight flawlessly, except where I used the blade to deflect bullets. The bullets always nicked the blade and I had to re-sharpen it. Although none of the manual sharpening jobs made the blade look precisely perfect again. My silver hair is now tied in a low horsetail. My communicator is in the pocket of my long black cloak which I wrap around myself. I attach my katana to my waist and grab the key to my zip-craft.

"I should be going now." I float noiselessly to the door of the apartment and open the door, raising an irritated eyebrow as the failing doorknob falls off the door and lands with a loud clang to the concrete floor. It never fails, I want to make a quick exit and the doorknob falls off.

I narrow my eyes at the steel irritancy and step over it with an exaggerated step and made my way down the stairwell to the lobby. I flow past the hung-over drunkards in the lobby under the low, spinning ceiling fan; trying to ignore the lobbyist who I would love more than anything to castrate. He enjoys wearing shirts with Rock bands on them and getting under my very impatient skin. For some inexplicable reason, he thinks my hair color is the most absurd thing he has ever seen. The funny thing is, he doesn't even have a clue of who I once was…in fact not even Mr. Kaze knows that was the Vicious of the Red Dragon Syndicate.

"Hey you! I thought Silver haired freaks never came out during the day—" I jam the hilt of my katana into the nether regions of the fat, arrogant nerd and walk out the door; there are some very stupid, arrogant people in Callisto. With a sadistic smile I drift briskly to the door of my gray, wedge shaped, zip craft with scissor Lamborghini doors and get behind the drivers seat. Frost covers the spaceshield(windshield) and the windows. I brush the white nuisance away.

I turn on the zip-craft, as it responds with a high pitched hiss and a low hum. I press on the accelerator and I take off from the parking lot and exit the dead stratosphere of Callisto with a thankful sneer.

-Blinded mind-

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hey I am soo sorry about not updating, I feel so bad, but I have been busy with my stupid family/friends/math......in that order.....I am so sorry I will update sooner :`(

Well how was the Vicious chapter? Yeah he is softening up, and he better be too, so I don't want people saying he is OOC for no reason, he has plenty of reason, but because he is Vicious, he is just a little slower than the rest.

AN….pimpin satan I bet you think I am the biggest loser if you picked up on that small detail XD I couldn't resist.

Also…Faye's POV will be next, then I will have mixed POVs per chapter. Probably only two per chapter, the other POV will be covered in the next Okies?! *^^*

One more thing about the 'flashbacks'; instead of the person actually thinking about what happened to him/her before(past tense), for my insane, illogical purposes, the person will actually be re-living the events, so the verb tense will stay present, the time just got rewinded….does that make any sense? Is 'rewinded' a word? -.-()

Anyway, on with the exciting part two…..VAMOS!

Please review, I have gotten so many wonderful reviews, it has been a really bad week and your reviews have helped brighten it up *^^*

~your ff buddy L.O.H.