Be Forever Blue

Chapter Four: No One's There

It was completely abandoned. There wasn't really anything alive there. No plants, no animals, no visible insects, nothing at all.

"Are you sure this is the place? Nobody's here." Spike asked.

"I'm positive. I wonder what could have happened." Julia suddenly saddened again. Tears swelling in her eyes again, she thought hard. I know that I put her here three years ago. What if Spike never gets to see her? What if she's — no! I can't let myself think like that! Vicious knew where I registered her at... maybe he took her! She looked up and at Spike, her mouth wide open.

"Vicious! He has her! He must! He said he knew where I registered her at, and so, to blackmail us in some twisted way, he kidnaped her and blew up the convent so that we'd be confused and, and, we are! Oh! I figured out the plan!"

"Great! So what now? Back to the syndicate?"

"No! Back to the Bebop! He could have spies all over the place here! Remember how many times I had to push you out the door because I saw a guy standing on my balcony? They were all Vicious' spies."

Spike nodded his head and they got in the car and drove back to the garage where the Swordfish II was docked. When they got to the Bebop, nobody was home. No Edward. No Ein. No Faye. Of course there was no Jet. There was, however, a note on the door of the hangar. From Faye.

Spike and that one chick,

Left. The kid and the mutt are with me. Went to Callisto but dropped kid and mutt off on Earth. Somethin' about Ed's dad... Anyway, took the cash and the Redtail. Might not come back. Nice workin' with you. Nice meetin' the slut, hope you are all happy with your kid.

Later,

Faye

Spike finished reading the letter aloud and looked confused.

"I am not a slut!" Julia yelled, still knowing that only Spike could hear. But then she thought, maybe she was...

"Nope. Why would she take Ed to Earth? Does Ed have a dad?" He thought of what her father might look like, and was completely disgusted with the image. "Ew..."

"What?"

"Just grossing myself out..." He stopped, and his eyes grew wide. "Go to the bedroom and get a gun, quickly. They're all under my bed."

"The people?"

"No! The guns!"

Julia ran as fast as she could to Spike's bedroom.

The many footsteps grew thicker and louder, and suddenly, Spike heard glass shatter and bullets ricochet off of the metal floor. Six men in Red Dragon syndicate uniforms and black trench-coats ran in, guns blazing. Spike darted behind the old yellow couch and fired back. Julia stood in the doorframe of his room on the staircase and shot as many men as she could. Half of them were down, but they whistled and even more came in, and even faster this time.

Spike shot until he ran out of bullets. Then he ran to his room and grabbed three more pistols and a ton more ammunition. He gave Julia one of the guns and resumed the fight.

Julia ran out of bullets in her first gun, and didn't know what to do with it, so she stopped and chucked it at one of the guys and knocked him dead, much of a surprise to her. But then another guy got a chance to get even closer and began shooting at her. She ducked into Spike's room and tried to shoot the guy from there, but no bullets were coming from the gun.

"Spike! There are no bullets in this one!" She cried in despair.

"Which one did I give you?"

"I don't know! But none of these bullets fit!"

"I thought you knew stuff about guns!" Spike yelled back, and more and more men came in. "I forgot how big this syndicate really is!"

"What do I do?!"

Spike tossed his other gun to her. "This one's loaded this time!"

Julia grabbed the other one and shot before she could get a good grip and shot her hand instead of the guy. She screamed with the pain. The scream stopped everybody because it was so sharp. Spike took the opportunity to shoot them all down with no trouble at all. But then even more men ran in. "Could you do that again, Julia? Just lose the shooting your hand part."

But she wasn't listening. She was even more angry than before, and took another, even bigger gun from under the bed and shot down ten guys at once. Amazed, Spike stared at her while he shot. When all of the enemies were down, no more came in. Julia stepped off the stairs and stood next to Spike while she wrapped one of the dead men's scarfs around her hand.

"You okay?" Spike asked, taking her hand and unwrapping it to see that the bullet went straight through the bone. "Never mind. I can see why you screamed. And thank everything that you did! We won 'cause you screamed so loud!" He smiled but cringed because Julia was in pain, and he couldn't stand to see her shake and cry like that.

"I'm sorry. But it hurts so much..." But she stopped there and got her gun ready. Vicious, Faye, a little girl and some guy who looked exactly like Spike walked in. Faye's hands were behind her back, and the little girl had tape over her mouth.

"Vicious. Been a while, huh?" Spike said slowly. Faye looked pathetic.

"Yes, it has, hasn't it? I believe these two belong to you." Vicious pushed Faye and the little girl forward. "You were right, Julia. Everything you said was right. You read the plan like a book."

"Let's just say I know your pattern, Vicious. So who is this guy?" Julia questioned.

"This is Imperfect. He's our Master of Disguise. But you probably know that plan too."

She said nothing, but looked down at the little girl. Then a name escaped her lips. "Samara..."

"Yes. This is your daughter. Sweet little Samara Faith Spiegel. She bites, you know. She bites hard!"

"Yeah well, you deserved it. You were a strange guy taking her away from the only home she ever knew, I assume." Spike looked at Samara. She looked just like him, except for her hair, golden blond like her mother's.

But then, Imperfect left the Bebop, swiftly, almost unseen. He just left, for no reason.

"Wait! You're supposed to be working for me! Come back!" Vicious yelled. He pushed Faye out the door and picked up Samara as he walked out after Imperfect. "This isn't over yet. You two started the war, now you are both going to finish it! We resume in one week. I've gotta go track down my guy." He left.

Spike and Julia stood there. Spike silent and Julia stifling a cry. She hadn't cried so much in a single month as she had while she was back with Spike again.

"Do you want to go after them now, or in a week?" Spike asked.

"I don't care. It's up to you. I started the war. You can stay. I'll go if I must." She looked up at him, suddenly so angry at herself for coming out of hiding anyway. He wouldn't be in so much danger if he hadn't saved her that day. He wouldn't have gone that week with those horrible burns on his body.

"We're both staying and resting here. You need to relax. It wasn't you who started the war. If anyone is to blame, it's me. I shouldn't have asked you to leave with me. Or have gotten you pregnant. That must have been so bad for you, and I wasn't even there to be with you for all that time..."

"It wasn't your fault at all!" Julia screamed at him. "Nothing is your fault! You couldn't be there because I left! We were both in the psychiatric place because I wanted that baby and the guilt of being pushed down the stairs just shot me through the heart! And then you felt bad because I was pathetic and crying all the time, and you said yourself that you always hated women who cried all the time, and yet you felt sorry for me because... because..." She had to stop and catch her breath, but by then, Spike put his hand over her mouth to shut her up.

"It's not your fault either. It's nobody's fault, if we go both ways. Now, we're staying for a few days, then we're leaving to fight. Okay?" He pulled her close and they were drawn into a long, lingering kiss. When they were finished, Spike smiled, more than he had for three years. "I missed that!"

Julia laughed, at least she had him to herself for a little while... "Why do we have to go and fight anyway? I mean, besides getting Samara back. Why don't we all just run away together, just like we were?"

"It's the duties of the life I live. I don't know why, but if I let Faye die, and Vicious win, then It'll just make things worse for everyone. Now, lets go to sleep. You can sleep in Faye's bed, Jet's old bed, Ed's old bed, or in my bed with me. You pick."

Julia fell asleep with Spike by her side. Unfortunately, they didn't know it was the last time that it would ever happen...

Go fulfill your life's duties...