A/N: Okies, here goes another one. I like this one. Hehe! But some may not. I'd like to know either way please. This one is a little out there, but still it's gonna tie in with the rest of the story. So any questions are welcome.
THANKS: Just like to give big THANK YOU to everyone who is reviewing. I've been trying to respond by email, so if I haven'tgotten to you,I apologize. Some of you I don't know you're email. But I thank you too! LOLYour reviews are great! I love getting them.
DISCLAIMER:
Ren: Finally! It seems it's been forever.
Orion: It's only been a couple of days.
Ren: How would you know? You're never around.
Orion: (glares)
Ren: Sheesh, ok, ok, I know. We've had this written for like a week now. But the sites been down. I can't help that.
Orion: BAH! Let's just skip the chatter. You DO NOT OWN anything from Cowboy Bebop.
Ren: I think we all know that by now. Don't you?
Orion: (sighs) Yes I think we all know, but still, wouldn't want anyone to come up and sue you or anything. Then what would I do if you get hauled off?
Ren: Awe you'd miss me?
Orion: (blushes and turns head away) Perhaps. Now let's just do this.
Ren: (smiles) All righty.
Last time:
"Thanks Ed. Oh and Jet, be careful. Earth is a pretty dangerous place." Spike could hear Jet mumbling and smiled. "Luke's here I come." Spike pushed the petal to the floor. A sudden need filled him. An urge and eagerness to get to Luke's as fast as he could.
Luke's turned out to be a pool hall. When Spike had entered the place, smoke wafted around him. His first thought was that the place was on fire. But with closer inspection, he realized that there wasn't a person in the room that didn't have a cigar or cigarette in their mouth or one sitting abandoned in a tray.
He had been at the bar for about twenty minutes now, but no woman appeared, only a man wearing a hot pink shirt that hurt eyes.
When Spike had first sat down he had asked for the woman, but the only reply he got was that she'd be in, in about ten minutes. 'Late as usual,' he perused.
He didn't know what it was, but every instinct he had was telling him that it was Faye. 'It just has to be.' Of course that could also be the reason he felt so strongly about it being her. He had been saying that same phrase over and over again for the past half hour.
He was sipping idly on his scotch when a voice could be heard over every noise going on in the place.
"Get your hand off of me you jerk, or I'll remove it for you... permanently!" It was screamed with a vigor and a harshness that showed every word was meant and the action would be followed out if the charge wasn't obeyed.
Spike looked to the voice, just like the rest of the people in the room. Mouths were hanging open, pool games and conversation forgotten. No, every eye and ear was on this woman.
After initial shock wore off, a low whistle could be heard from the crowd standing at the pool table behind Spike. It was followed by hushed chattering.
"Looks like Val's in a bad mood."... "Yeah, I've never seen her get that angry before."... "The guy she was seeing probably dropped her."... "Val was seeing someone?"... "Well, she had to of been. Slipping off all discreet like. She hardly ever stays in her apartment."... "Yeah but you know her. She likes to move around a lot."
Without even noticing, the woman called Val, had walked up and amongst the men who were talking about her. "So, boys, you really find my life all that interesting?" She eased closer to the man that was standing to her right.
Once her body made contact with his, she slyly ran her fingers over the opening of his jacket. And before he had time to get his bearings, she had easily slipped his wallet out. It was now in her possession as she stepped away from the shocked man.
She winked and took her place behind the bar. 'God, some men are just so easy.' She smiled as she thought about the woolongs just waiting for her in that wallet.
Spike had watched the whole thing. From the moment she had screamed to the moment she had nicked that guys wallet. 'So like her. She'll never change.' He had just been sitting there minding his scotch and there she was.
"Can I top that for you?" Spike froze when she spoke to him, but it didn't last long. He had his head tilted down, so she couldn't really see him. Although if she knew him at all, she'd know it was him.
He decided to just treat it as a coincidence. So slowly he lifted his gaze and glass at the same time. "Sure, if you think you can." A firm smirk was placed on his lips.
"Well, I can top your drink for you no problem. But as for other things, I don't honestly think a man like you has what it takes to keep up with me." With that, she simply refilled his glass and walked off.
At first Spike thought she must have been angry with him. But then that thought vanished. He knew Faye. He knew what she was like. If she was angry, she sure as hell would let him know.
Then he thought, 'well, maybe she didn't recognize me.' But that thought quickly vanished as well. Of course she would. It's not that he was the type of person to stand out, just the type you wouldn't forget.
Spike would like to think he made an impression on the people he had met. 'Wait a minute. Since when do I care about stuff like that?' That thought faded as a searing pain shot through his head and behind his eyes.
He clenched them shut, grabbing his head. It was excruciating. His teeth grinded together. If he had bit down any harder he could have sworn that they would have shattered.
'What's happening to me?' His mind was screaming in pain. It was like hearing nails scrape down the side of some new shiny metal. Only intensified to the point of the capability to burst eardrums.
The tighter he squeezed his eyes shut the more colors he saw. It was a rainbow spectrum, swirling, making shapes. It took a few seconds for it to sink in, but the shapes weren't just random. No, they were of things in his life. Things he had come across, people, planets, buildings.
He didn't know how to handle it all. No one seemed to realize his distress. He couldn't hear anything anymore, only the jumbled murmurings in his head.
Then all at once it all stopped. Everything. No more colored images, no more murmuring. Everything was black, blank, and empty.
"What the hell is going on?" Spike found his voice, but it seemed distant even to him. It really didn't sound like him at all.
His vision was blurred, but the more he blinked the more it cleared. So he just kept blinking. And as his vision returned, so did the noises around him.
He could hear traffic. Vehicles zooming by leaving a gust of wind in their wake. He ventured to speak again. "What the hell just happened?"
This time he got an answer. "I'm beginning to wonder that myself. You asked me out here, saying you had something to tell me. Some sort of information. You said it'd be worth my wile. I'm beginning to think that you're just another pervert wanting to get his hands on me. So, do you have any info for me or what? I don't like just standing idly on the sidewalk. Plus I have to work to make money."
Spike looked at the figure the voice had come from. It was Faye. And they were standing outside of Luke's.
Spike became dizzy. He fell backwards against the brick wall of the building. He rubbed his face with his hands.
"I don't understand. I was talking to you? How did I get out here? I thought I had blacked out." He looked at Faye. She didn't seem to sympathize with him.
"Look, I don't know what your game is pal, but you better start playing by the rules. If you don't have anything to say to me, then you've wasted my time. And as it is, I don't have much of it to waste. Especially on the likes of you." She huffed and crossed her arms, preparing to storm back into the building.
Just as she was about to enter, Spike grabbed her elbow. "Wait, Faye. Please, something is... is... wrong with me." The woman wrenched her arm from his grasp.
"You got that right pal. Something is definitely wrong with you. And the name's Val, by the way. Not, Faye. I don't know a Faye." She didn't see his expression of utter shock as she turned and walked back into Luke's.
Spike just stood there against the wall. "Not, Faye? I don't understand this. What the hell is going on with me?" He looked at the door and contemplated going back in, but when he reached for it, his arm fell back to rest at his side.
His whole body ached. It was a dull ache. One that was all to familiar to him. "I need to find out what the hell is going on with me. Looks like it's back to the doc I go." Spike's body shook with disgust, but it seemed to be the only solution.
There was just something entirely wrong with him. Something that was causing him to question his every move. He didn't know what he was doing anymore. What was real? What wasn't? He couldn't distinguish between the two.
"That really wasn't Faye?" He looked at the door one more time and got a glance of the woman called Val again. Her back was to him.
"Long hair. Faye doesn't have long hair." With that last chide, he turned to go back to the Swordfish and back to Bebop.
"Had I wanted to see her that much, that I would just make up seeing her, even if she wasn't there? And those images, the words, what were they?" He sighed heavily, becoming quite tired of all these new unanswered questions.
Hands pushed into his pockets, seemingly deep in thought, he trudged forward. All thoughts of the bounty head forgotten.
Just as he was about to reach the top of the hill where his ship was, a statuesque figure bumped into him. Or did he bump into it?
Spike was content to just keep walking, but he felt the figure stop, so he turned around. When he was faced with the back of the stranger, he became agitated. He didn't really know why.
"Hey, why don't you watch where you're going! I'm trying to walk here!" Spike didn't realize his voice was so raised. But with previous thoughts broken, he just snapped.
The figure slowly turned with his head down, as a deep, raspy, voice spilled from his windpipes. "What do you see? Still the past? Or could it be the future? The future you are not meant to have?" The voice turned into laughter, deviant laughter. "The present is hidden from your view. So tell me..." The figure slowly lifted his head. "Spike Spiegel. Which are you seeing right now?"
A/A/N: Hmmm, I like how I ended this. Meh, let me know. I love reviews, good, bad, ugly. OK so maybe not ugly, but any review is welcome.
