A/N: Hey, all! Wow, it's been SOOOO long since I've updated, huh? :-P Wow, seriously, guys, my computer crashed 3 weeks ago, so, in the mean time, I've written 3 chapters for this fic, AND a new one!!! Look for that later on, ok??? It might even be up tomorrow, who knows! Anyways, please, please, PLEASE review!!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IIIIII ALL FLASHBACKS ARE IN ITALICS IIIIII

CH 6

Evelyn sat out on the wrought-iron fire escape of her apartment perched over the city below very much like that of a bird of prey, her violet irises darkening due to the immense burden that she felt within her besmirched soul as she struck a match and lit a desperately-needed cancer stick between her full, blood-red lips.

"Evey?"

She looked up in utter astonishment due to hearing her name, a hand falling down delicately upon her shoulder before she realized whom it belonged to.

"Vicious."

He smiled. "How are you feeling? I heard about your ordeal with Mao, yet you hardly look like you're jumping for joy."

"I'm not the 'jumping-for-joy' type," Evelyn returned shortly, her eyes closing as she deeply inhaled the precious nicotine from within the recesses of the paper lifesaver clamped firmly between her lips. "So is this why you really came? To criticize me?"

Vicious shrugged, then sat down beside her, insisting with a wistful distance within his deep monotone, "I care about you, Evey....surely you've come to realize that. What I came to tell you was that....well....I can't get you out of my mind, as incredibly lame as that sounds."

"Well you never did exactly have a way with words," Evelyn teased, sending him a winning smile. "Remember when we first met? The very first thing that came out of your mouth was 'Are you the dame that's going to fix us the grub?' Very flattering, by the way.....it's a shame that no one caught it on tape since it would've made such a romantic movie."

Vicious rolled his eyes. "Oh, for God's sake, Evey! I'm trying to ask you to marry me, and I.....oh.....crap. You just made me give away the punch-line."

Letting out an astounded squeal of delight, Evelyn hurriedly wrapped her arms about her silvery-haired lover's neck before exclaiming at the top of her lungs, "Well how on earth can I say no to that terribly romantic proposal?! You've got yourself a bride, baby!"

"Oh, thank God," Vicious praised breathlessly into her hair, feeling a tremendous warmth once he realized that she would soon be forever his to love and to cherish for all time. Gently stroking her soft locks, he added apprehensively within her ear, "I was so sure that you were going to say no....you won't change your mind, will you?"

Evelyn was suddenly overcome by a tremendous wave of fear due to this question, her violet eyes widening as she asked with a slight twinge of unease, "You didn't ask me to be your wife just because of my promotion, did you?"

Vicious immediately shook his head. "No...never."

"Well good, cuz I declined Mao's offer," she returned softly, no longer having the heart to gaze into her stunned lover's sky blue eyes.

"What? Are you crazy, Evey?!," he exclaimed, clearly shocked beyond all words of absolute disbelief. "This could be the chance of a lifetime! Everything that you've ever dreamed of!"

Evelyn snorted. "Yeah, right. I hate the syndicate, and you goddamn know it! I hate Mao, I hate Spike, I hate-"

"Me?," Vicious supplied weakly.

Evelyn gasped, just now realizing the intensity of what she had just uttered.

Hurriedly taking his hands in hers, she gave him a tender glance, admonishing softly, "No, of course not, Vicious....I don't hate you or Spike. I'm just confused about everything, I suppose. Ever since I've become a Red Dragon, I've found nothing but sorrow behind every door that life offers."

"I still wish that you'd reconsider Mao's offer....it could be what you've always wanted, yet you don't know it as of now," Vicious mumbled, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "Will you at least think about it....for me?"

Evelyn smiled warmly. "Alright....for you."

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"Wow...I never thought I'd see the day," Spike commented sarcastically, the precious cancer stick that was clamped firmly between his teeth bobbing up and down with every syllable that he happened to make. "I mean, you? Settling down? What's this universe coming to?!"

Vicious snorted. "Shut up, Spiegel. I happen to care about Evey very much....is that so surprising?"

"Yeah, actually, it is," Spike acknowledged frostily, his eyes searching his comrade's like two burning embers as he tried his damndest to figure out the obscurity of the whole situation at hand. "I mean, you claimed to love Julia unconditionally, yet I guess not nearly enough to protect her from harm."

Vicious winced. "Cheap shot, Spike."

He sighed, then bowed his head. "I know.....I'm sorry. I just really miss her, is all."

"Well how do you think I feel? I've been ridden with guilt ever since I watched her stagger all bloody and beaten out into the snow!," Vicious blurted, instantly regretting his words once they had escaped his lips.

Spike faltered. "W-what? You don't mean....?"

"Yes," Vicious returned solemnly, a steely glimmer reflecting within his cold irises, "I killed her, Spike. I killed Julia."

Spike stood there within his comrade's apartment like a statue made of pure ice, all of his handsome features instantly distorting as he felt his entire world crash down around him in a sea of a million pieces.

"You sonofabitch," he ground out, his hands tremulously curling into two shaking fists, "you killed her! You killed the woman I loved!"

Now it was Vicious' turn to freeze. "You loved her? What about me?! I didn't mean to kill her, you deceitful bastard! It was the fucking Bloody Eye! Yet it looks like that if I hadn't taken it, you would've tried to take her away from me, anyway!"

"So what if I would have?," Spike demanded, his resolve rapidly ascending within the bowels of his tattered heart. "All I ever wanted was for Julia to be happy, and now look! A beautiful angel has lost her wings because of you!"

Vicious frowned deeply. "Oh, cut the poetic shit, Spiegel! If you really loved her, you would've let her do whatever the hell she felt like!"

"And if you had loved her, you wouldn't have taken the Bloody Eye since she asked you time and time again to stop!!!"

The room immediately fell silent as a tomb upon Spike's powerful words, both friends staring one another down amidst their innermost ire as the atmosphere suddenly began to suffocate them within its iron-like grasp.

Finally unable to take the tension another moment longer, Spike demanded coldly, "Is this how it's gonna be between us from now on, then?"

"Fine with me," Vicious acknowledged, his eyes narrowing as he felt himself subconsciously reach for his revolver within his hip holster. "I only have one further request, however, and that's that you get the hell out of my apartment and never, ever come back."

Spike gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, then nodded. "Very well....have a nice life. After it's all over, you'll be missing it once you're in Hell."

Vicious smirked. "Likewise."

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(Yoko Kanno's "Waltz for Zizi" plays)

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"It's not very safe for a lady to be out alone on a night like this, you know."

The young woman whom Spike had addressed smirked, then turned slightly to face him, asking coquettishly, "What, so you think I can't take care of myself? For the new guy, you're awful gung-ho about chivalry."

"Well, I do what I can," Spike acknowledged, bestowing the apathetic young blonde with one of his bedazzling trademark grins as he joined her out on the bridge that overlooked one of the many famous Martian rivers. "What's your name, anyway? I didn't quite catch it."

"It's Julia," she returned softly, bowing her head in his direction as her recognition. "And you're Spike Spiegel....correct?"

"One-hundred percent," he conceded, completely unable to resist leaning in a little closer towards the blonde succubus as the moonlight continued to illuminate her pale features in such an enchanting manner. "I hear that you're one of our tops dogs....does that mean that you can order me around?"

Julia rolled her eyes. "Not by choice....Vicious managed to somehow convince the Van that I was worth being their heir. Personally, I despise this life since every where I turn there's a bodyguard hovering over me like some pesky little housefly, and yet....well....I guess I should be grateful to them. They are looking out for me, after all. One day, however, I'd very much like to run away from this mini version of Hell and escape....vanish....never to be seen again except for by those that I love."

"Sounds like quite a plan," Spike admitted, a wistful look immediately painting its way out across his handsome features like a beautiful watercolor in motion. "Think I could be apart of it?"

Julia smiled warmly. "Be my guest."

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Spike exhaled deeply, then leaned his forehead against the slick coolness of the bathtub wall, muttering painfully under his breath, "Julia....no......."

Cursing brusquely before switching the water off and hurriedly wrapping a towel about his toned waist, he then came to realize that he tended to brood over the lovely blonde angel the most whenever he was either alone or in the shower.

He couldn't help but hate her for it; she had officially ruined his life. And yet...he couldn't be mad at her, either, since her very essence had been snatched from her clutches in such a horrendously intemperate way.

Julia had never done a thing in her entire life to deserve to be a Red Dragon, lose her parents in a freak accident, be beaten and verbally abused by Vicious, and now, the final straw, brutally murdered outside of her own apartment.

The moment when that sweet angel had breathed her very last breath, Spike could have sworn that he had sensed it; it was almost as if they shared a psychic link that allowed him to feel her presence within the wind calling to him....beckoning him onward......

Oh, Julia. They name truly is tragedy.

"Hey...can I come in?"

Spike stiffened upon hearing Evelyn's svelte voice, his already taut muscles tightening even more due to his utter aggravation over having been taken by surprise.

He was never snuck up on.

Ever.

"What do you want?," he finally demanded, shocking both her and himself at the tremendous gravelly tone of his voice.

Rolling her shoulders back in order to appear much taller than she actually was, Evelyn then put on her typical "cut the crap or I'll kick you ass" look that scared even the bravest of men shitless.

Circling him like a lioness on the prowl, she announced rather sharply, "Faye tells me that you're brooding....care to explain?"

"No," he answered shortly. "Care to get the hell out of my apartment?"

In one foul swoop, Evelyn struck him clear across the face, his head immediately swiveling to the side with a sickening pop due to the tremendous force of the blow.

Swearing brusquely under his breath, Spike cracked his neck in the opposite direction in order to release the other kinks that Evelyn had neglected to free, his voice rather dull and emotionless as he commented dryly, "Damn, Evey....I'd forgotten how frickin' strong you are."

She frowned, stubbornly folding her arms across her petite bosom. "Size doesn't matter, and you know it, Spikey-boy."

"Spikey-boy? God, you really are a nut job!," Spike scoffed, laughing loudly at the prospect of his fiery-haired comrade locked away in a fully-padded insane asylum. "What do you really want, Evey? I doubt that you seriously care enough about my well-being to actually come forth like this and ask."

"Well I'm here, aren't I?," Evelyn demanded, considerably offended by this sudden accusation. "If I didn't care about you, Spike, I wouldn't have convinced Mao to take you in those many years ago!"

Spike stiffened. "And why the hell should I be grateful for that? I didn't want to be accepted, Evey. I was happy the way I was."

"But-"

"Drop it," he growled, squaring his jaw as he reached for a desperately-needed cigarette upon a nearby counter. "If this is all you wanted to say, just get the fuck out."

"Very well," she agreed coldly, "but if you ever feel the need to talk to somebody, don't come crawlin' to me....you're officially dead to me, now, you cocky sonofabitch!!!"

Spike winced the moment that the fiery-haired vixen stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut tightly from abaft, a nearby picture on the wall immediately falling down off of its perch and onto the hardwood floor with an earth-shattering crash due to the tremendous force of the slam.

Cursing, Spike padded over to the scene of the accident and stooped down upon his haunches, his handsome features instantly hardening upon what he saw.

Vicious. Himself. Julia.

All laughing....all completely happy without a care in the world.

How long ago had that picture been taken, anyway?

Months? Years? Did it really even matter, anymore?

Heaving a suppressful sigh, Spike reluctantly picked up the photograph and placed it onto a nearby table without even giving the broken glass on the floor a second glance.

He wasn't quite ready to clean up his past, yet.

A/N: Ok, I apologize if that was REALLY boring, but it has to be done! I PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE that it's gonna get interesting, especially in the next 3 chapters! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 Kendra Luehr