Code: Waterfall

-(-

I catch the katana with a calm motion, yet inside I am hardly calm. My horrifying past has come back, the venom does poison slowly after the bite. Yet, my mind rests on my violet haired vixen in front of me. I have no time to be thinking of my past…because I am unsure of my immediate future. Yet, I will use every ounce of blood in my body to insure her safety. It is not her fault she is wrapped up in this, it is mine. I quickly take a stance near Daemon; my katana gripped firmly, Spike's attention now diverted from his former bounty huntress comrade to me.

"Bitch—"Daemon was promptly cut off

"Don't Daemon. Not now." Spike warns Daemon bitterly, Faye looks about ready to either run or attack. My eyes slim in anger as Daemon takes another step closer to the slowly retreating Faye. I see my window of opportunity and with a quick flick of the wrist, Faye has the advantage.

"Gah! Damn.Vicious!" Daemon turns to me with a knife sticking from his back. The scarlet blood flows down his shirt like a river. Faye mouths a thank you, but no words spill from her full pink lips, she is torn. I can tell. She doesn't even know where to go.

And yet again, it is my fault. My eyes narrow on Daemon; his apathetic demeanor shatters as he plucks the stiletto from his back and looks at the scarlet blade. His raven eyes locked on Faye, who seemed to lower his arrogant ego.

"And you will shed tears of scarlet." I spit simply. I could care less what happens to that dumfuck; he isn't the leader of the Black Falcons. He poses no threat compared to the beast that is right in front of me, Spike. I can tell that Spike is something else entirely. In a way, we both died that fateful night three years ago, but we turned into two different beasts, like our souls have reversed in the past three years. My silver hair swishes as I turn to Faye on an urgent grace.

"Faye get out of here now!" She looks at me in protest, but I cut her a menacing glare that carries her feet away from Daemon. As she runs away to the first thing that she sees, the syndicate compound, she calls out to me, beckoning me a dire request.

"Don't die on me!" Her serious emerald eyes seep into mine like a reflection of innocence. She is innocent, too guiltless for the likes of Spike, Daemon, Kaze and I. My eyes transfigure into a silver hue of understanding as she takes that as a silent answer. Looking at her one last time before she disappears into the building my mind reels and all I can think of is 'Ti amo anche.' Daemon looks at me smugly

"Vicious, you are surrounded; your death is not if, but when." His words didn't faze me, I am not stupid, and this battle is futile for me. I clench my left fist as Daemon follows her into the labyrinth of a building, and I cannot help her further. I have faith though, she can do it. She can defeat Daemon, at least she better be able too.

"Now c'mon Vicious, didja really have to stab him like that?!" Spike nonchalantly asks, with an edge of frigid humor. My eyes dart to him as I change the grip on my katana, perhaps I can persuade him to let the soldiers, and that idiot Kaze behind me to leave.

"I don't know Spike, did you really have to involve Faye, Shin, Vincent, and even your cop friend? Spike, you made this complicated, when it is supposed to be simple." I slice him up with my words, and they hit. I see his eyes alight in a familiar rage, one I have not missed in the past three years. His persona alters from nonchalant, to beastly in seconds

"You say that to me? You are psychotic sociopath, I am merely trying to rid my life of a cold blooded murder, and you try to implicate me with involving unnecessary people? It is your fault Vicious, I didn't save Faye that night on Callisto, I didn't make buddies with Shin, and I most certainly did not ask Jet for help. I did it on my own." Spike clicks the safety on his Jericho, the gun looks white in the morning light. My dream…

"What have you done Spike? Tell me what you have done; I do not see the reasoning behind it." I fire back coldly, angry that he cannot take responsibility for the people that he affects. He thinks life is a dream still. I do not understand how the whole 'life is a dream' reasoning got stuck in his simple brain anyway. He wasn't always like that, then again, I have no say in it either, three years ago I would have definitely looked at life with a more…desolate perspective.

"Vicious, Vicious, Vicious, I'll show you, personally. Kaze, take back the men, I won't need them. I can take down the beast myself." His enraged garnet eyes look to the man behind me in recognition. Kaze nods and the men back off like a creeping fog. I waste no time in charging Spike as I swing my katana behind my head.

Though, what I wanted to be a quick, effortless leap, turned into a slightly sluggish run when I was reminded of my hampering leg injuries. I grimace as I am forced to dodge to the left from one of Spike's expertly aimed shots. His mop of green hair looks dark and distorted against the morning sun.

"Beast? Look at yourself Spike. You could have started over. You had all the cards but you decided to fold! You decided to be an echo of what you could have been. That stupid cop was right; you are a shell, an echo, a beast that won't die!" My voice shakes with suppressed vehement anger. As I put two hands on my katana for another attack. His garnet eyes look deceived as I glare into his soul.

I strike back at him, slicing his left arm with a deep crescent slice. He shoots again, I duck into a roll and slice at his ankles, but miss. I jump up to deliver another blow, only to deflect an almost fatal shot to the head with a hasty parry. My katana sings as the bullet deflects off its sharp, smooth metal and into a soldier who didn't retreat all the way.

"Start over? How could I start over knowing the man who ruined everything that I lived for is still alive?" Spike retorted as he kicked at me with his long legs. I blocked his blows and sliced up his right leg in the process, which was the last straw for him. My eyes constrict into lines of luminescent titanium as I am silhouetted by the morning sun. I bring my katana out to my right side, its long, fatal blade pointed to the asphalt.

The sun warms my back, and my hair glows like a sinister halo above black cloak wings.

Spike and I fucked everything up. I know I indirectly caused the death of Julia, I know that I killed Mao, and almost killed him. I don't deny my dark, malicious past. He just wont face the fact that he also contributed. He contributed in my father's death! He contributed in Julia's death as well. I was not a kind person back then, I am still not, but I don't pretend to be innocent of everything and pass of responsibility like a child who wont grow up. I was a beast, I was death at your door, but things change.

A familiar silver zipcraft flies over my head, and I charge as Spike points his gun.

"Take responsibility for your actions you blind beast!" Unfortunately, bullets are faster than my ailing legs. The bullet strikes the left side of my chest as the point of my blade is just half a foot from his throat.

A sputter of crimson and a gurgle of liquid decant from my chest.

I crumple into a roll and salvage my stance. My sticky chest now burns like an inferno…I am no longer offensive, this is suicide. Spike looks at me, his cocky grin displayed between his cheeks like a shield. His gun smoking as he reloads it, the empty clip falling to the concrete like a time-stopping explosion. My vision fades for a trice.

"Responsibility? Responsibility is nothing. This world is a dream. How can you be responsible for anything, if you aren't even awake?" He answers back. What a fool. I thought that he would be able to get the real picture by now. I finger one of my throwing knives in my bloody pocket. With the flick of the wrist, the dangerous stiletto penetrates Spike's right leg, causing him to get on one knee as I slowly stand up tall.

"I am awake; you are so pathetic." I change my stance and thrash my katana to the right and left, slicing his shoulders before he can have a chance to take aim. I deflect another bullet as he jumps up and tries to knock my failing legs out from under me with his own injured ones. I barely back-flip to evade the attack. While upside down in midair I take out my last throwing knife as launch it at him with a sideways throw.

As my feet touch the ground around my tattered cloak, my knees collapse again, splattering blood onto the pavement while dripping blood from my chest wound merges with the puddle. I realize that he had learned some tricks of his own. He was holding my stiletto with his left hand; his fingers were only scratched from the blade. Damn.

"Pathetic Am I? Let's see you catch this Vicious." He throws it with such speed that I am not able to catch it, but because of Spike's slashed shoulders, the aim is slightly off and only manages to cut off a lock of my silver hair. The silver hair falls into the puddle of my own blood. As I look up, Kaze's men have lined up behind Spike unknowingly; their rifles and uzis pointed at me with a staid precision.

It's over. My grip on my trusted katana slacks….I am sorry Faye.

It was at that second though, when I heard a familiar noise…a zip craft…an old zipcraft. Spike's eyes widened as he first looked behind him at the firing squad, then to the sky. The beaten yellow fishing ship had clutched in its mechanical claw a long steel beam. I rolled to the side clumsily as the beam was let loose and thrown at the unprepared firing squad behind Spike. The beam struck them all horizontally; Kaze's head was taken off from the sheer velocity of the hurled beam. The zipcraft then landed a ways away on the adjacent side of the complex.

"Jet?" Spike subconsciously thought out loud. What could be going through that Cop's head? He is here to save Spike. He can't interfere; I don't want to kill him. The only person I want to kill is Spike. Killing that cop is a waste of my dying energy. I take advantage of Spike's musing as I sprint up and whip my katana out to his exposed neck.

It didn't work.

He parries with his gun and the two weapons shake with their own intensity. Garnet aflame in hatred, Titanium iced over in duty. We glare sadistically at each other, eyebrows knit in determination, and knuckles white in fervor, teeth grit in concentration, neither one of us wants the other to kill him. One has too much to die for; the other has too much to live for.

Faye's smiling image revolves around in the back of my mind like a carousel. She is always there for me; I am rarely there for her. Now that I think about it hard enough, I am sure she can do much better than I, a washed out syndicate lackey. Yet that logic makes my stomach turn over, I want to be with her.

She, however, is fighting for her life in a syndicate complex while I, stand and fight Spike. I need to end this. This stupid battle, I don't care. I don't care what happens to Spike, I don't care if I kill him, because I have something else I need to fight for. Someone needs me right now, and I…I…think….I…need her too.

My katana pushes his Jericho out of the way long enough to get in a stab. He falls backwards, His gun pointed to my heart, my katana impaled in his chest. My body stands over his like an angel of shadows silhouetted against the fallen beast. My eyes transfigure into little titanium slits again as I push farther into his chest with my bloody katana.

"Villains always die in the end…" Spike manages to spit as he pulls the trigger. It feels like a lightening bolt surging though me. The bullet strikes me in the center of my chest this time, too many shots to the chest. The blood explodes from my chest, crimson floods my graying vision. I visibly flinch and cringe. Spike, however, is dead, the blood spurting from his chest is a sign I struck his aorta. My vision swims as I use my katana to stand up, my shirt soaked to the bone with my own blood; it runs down my already bleeding legs like scarlet waterfalls. My chest clenches as if a vice is squeezing the life from my muscles. Yet…I promised Faye, I have to see her, even if for one last time.

"Arivaderci Spike." I whisper as I hear the clunk of heavy feet behind me, I turn and see a blurry outline of…the cop? Is it him? I can't tell. The man runs closer and I realize that it is Jet. Yet I have the sinking feeling he is not happy that I killed his old comrade.

Yet I don't feel anything this time, it's as if that wasn't Spike I killed, but an animal.

The pain wracking through my body becomes more unbearable as I take a few shuffling steps towards the compound…I need to get to Faye. Perhaps that cop will be so wrapped up in looking at Spike he will let me go. With my katana as a cane, I press on to the door that Faye ran into not ten minutes ago. Please let her be alright. I can't die not knowing if she is alright.

"Vicious... " I heard my name spat by the cop as I turn around, I realize morbidly that I left a river of blood from where Spike's body was, to where I am now. My tired silver eyes look at his blurry, sun danced figure. His eyes hold no malice, I don't understand.

"Faye," Was the only syllable that I could speak as I made my way to the door. Yet he left Spike's body behind and ran at me in seconds. I frown, knowing it took him three times faster for him get to where I am now. Yet, I don't care, I just need to see her, make sure she is ok, before…

"You are dying aren't you?" I look at him with a dead pan expression on my face.

"What con—cern is it…of yours?" I tried to respond, but hot liquid comes through my mouth and projected to the ground…my own blood. Jet frowns at me while I finally make it to the door, but Jet opens it for me. I don't care, my pride is subordinate to my desire to find her, and if Jet can help me get there faster, then so be it.

"None. Yet I can't let you die. Faye will be crushed." I look to him out of the corner of my silver eye, more blood splatters against the linoleum floor making a sick, wet sound. Jet winces as my blood gets tracked on his shoes. It was then that my katana blade slips from under me, and I fall foreword like a heavy concrete bag. I however, do not meet the floor, but Jet grabs me, supporting my shoulders.

"thanks." I manage to answer, the metallic taste of blood in my mouth becomes too overwhelming and I spit more of it onto the linoleum. I feel eyes bore into the back of my head and I shift my eyes back to him, his hard gray blue eyes search my facial features.

"I saw everything from Ed's computer, the meeting with Faye right after the security breach: Spike, the Sniper and Shin, the fake Julia and I can't help but be reminded of the opera when Faye went after Mao's bounty. This situation is the same only reversed. I don't know what happened to Spike, how he survived; I want to know what went through his head and you are the one who will answer me. Dammit answer me! Why?!" Jet thunders at me angrily, and I suppose he has a reason to be. It would be easier if I could have remained the 'Villain' and have Spike be the tragic hero. It didn't work out that way, it rarely does. It isn't logical; I am sure Jet and Shin would much rather have Spike alive than I…then it hits me, does Faye? Does Faye prefer Spike over me? I hope not.

If she does…then there is nothing in this world worth believing in.

"He was the…ti—ger striped cat. He died three years ago. I am the serpent…I just shed my past and re—start." More blood spatters to the floor from my mouth as my head begins to hurt and black spots enter my vision, but it would be a waste if I gave up now. Jet opens his mouth for a quip when a piercing obscenity rings down the hall. Faye.

-I will call it solitude when all my songs fade in vain-

-(-

ok so how was that for a fight scene? Well, sorry this was such a late update, I have been sooooo busy and with two other fics, I am becoming overwhelmed. But never fear, this fic will have at least one more chapter. I think only one more, this is almost the end.

And I am sorry Spike lovers, I LOVE Spike, but this is a tribute to Vicious so naturally Spike would be portrayed in a more negative light. And yes, I know Spike is out of character, but that is because I wanted to get the point across that Vicious and Spike did a role reversal. I used Faye's red dress as a symbol for the cathedral battle where Vicious is the ultimate bad guy who kidnaps people and kills old men and so on. I also just really wanted this fic to ease into the perspective of 'What if we rooted for Vicious to win the famous death-duel at the end?' 'What if spike was the 'villain' of the series and Vicious was the tragic hero?' Don't worry, Vicious isn't going to become Spike, I wanted the roles to change, I am sure Watanabe is trying to find my address and hunt me down for ruining his character Spike …XP

Ok…enough of that, I am really tired, PLEASE review, b/c I'd love some feed back incase anyone actually enjoyed or hated the role reversal thing.

Ok Ja Ne fellow bebop fans!