Be Forever Blue

Chapter Five: Like The Smell of Burning Newspaper

They stood before the Red Dragon Headquarters, they didn't know what was going to happen. They were very silent while they walked in. Nothing was going on inside, it seemed abandoned. But they knew it wasn't. If anyone was here, then they would be Vicious' subordinates, obeying his every command in hope that he wouldn't kill them when he was done with them.

Julia was shaking again. Last time she was here she had skirted the border between life and death once more. But then, once again, Spike had saved her, just as he always did. He always made sure that she was okay before he took care of himself. Even if she was just panicking the slightest bit and he was bleeding all over. Why was she with Vicious all that time? Spike was the one who truly cared! Vicious didn't care about her at all! To him, she was just a toy. A useless, stupid insecure, hopeless, romantic, unwanted, broken up, lingering, abused toy! It made her so angry just to think about it. Vicious would die tonight, if the last thing she did was kill him! She reached for Spike's outstretched hand and felt much better. His skin was rough and tickled her smooth milky hands. She wondered what he was thinking about. His hand seemed more tense than usual. She loved him more than anything in the whole galaxy, she wasn't going to let him go again!

Spike could feel that Julia was shaking violently just by feeling her hands. She seemed very paranoid about something. But what? Vicious? He would never let Vicious get to her, or hurt her again. It was bad enough that he tried to get her to kill Spike, or that he tried to burn her in the ceremony hall that day. He thought that Vicious was his best friend, but really, he never was. And Spike only made things worse by falling in love with Julia while she was with Vicious. If Vicious tried to hurt her ever again... He didn't even know what he would do to him. Probably kill him faster than anything. Vicious would die tonight, if it was the last thing Spike did! But what of his alliances? How would they accept the new order? Would they even accept it at all? What about that one guy? Imperfection? Imperfect? Imperfectly? Well, whatever his name was, he was second on "the list". How dare he go on and pretend to be Spike! He couldn't even get the hair right!

There was suddenly a huge explosion from behind them. It was Julia's car. Spike grabbed plastic explosives. He threw four or five behind them and a few in front of them and then threw Julia and himself behind a wall as everything exploded at the same time. A group of men came from the door on that wall. At first they didn't notice Julia and Spike just sitting there. But then Spike yelled, "Climb for the roof! Up those stairs!" Then he shot down the one guy who actually looked up.

Spike ducked into the room that the guys ran out of and planted a few bombs and detonated them quickly, then he chased Julia up the steep staircase. It was then that he realized that Julia was defenseless.

"Why didn't you tell me that you didn't have anything to protect yourself with?" He asked her.

"Like what? A shield?" She replied sarcastically, brushing some of the ashes off of her sweater.

Spike once again gave her a handgun and they continued racing up the long flight of stairs until they came to a small door that opened up to the roof, and they climbed up.

It was raining, but only a little. All was quiet. They closed the door behind them and ran as fast as their legs would carry them. They ran across two more roofs and jumped down when they got to the end of the block, where Julia's car was parked.

"Are you okay?" Spike asked, his face covered in ash from all of his bombing. He looked at Julia with a somewhat worried expression in his eyes, but they were still playful.

Julia was breathing hard, and pulled and inhaler out of the glove box. "Yeah... I'm... Okay. Are... you okay? You look tired."

"I am." Spike laughed gently. He hadn't seen excitement like that for three years. "I'm exhausted!"

Julia laughed and smiled. She was excited too. And it was better because Spike was finally at her side again.

Suddenly, Spike got really somber again. "Julia..." He stopped and held her close to him. He kissed her forehead. "Julia..."

Julia rubbed his back softly. "It's alright, we're gonna be okay." Then she broke down into tears and Spike lifted her head and kissed her ferociously. ((AN: you know, like Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayak in Desparado))

When they stopped it was late. It was dark and they had to go to sleep sometime, so they drove off onto a remote road and parked in a ditch where they slept until morning.

And the bitter smell of burning was on him like a disease...