Chapter 3

Well, this chapter is kinda boring to tell you the truth. Wait don't leave!! It's a spoiler, and it's important, because Samantha finds out a lot about her past from Miaka.

Shin walked out the door. Samantha sat down on a white colored couch. The room smelt of tea and roses, an inviting smell. Miaka came in and sat beside her. "You're pretty shaken up aren't you?" she asked putting a cup of tea in front of her. Samantha nodded "But I'm confused, I don't understand the whole story of my parents" she said sipping the tea. "Then I will explain" she began. "It all started at a pool hall…

A young woman by the name of Julia (your mother) entered the bar. She sat her eyes on two men, her boyfriend Vicious, and another man. She made her way over to them. She smiled a warm smile "Vicious…" she said. Her voice was heavenly. Her long blonde hair was waving behind her. The man with long silver hair, Vicious turned. He smiled. Even when he smiled, you could tell he was pure evil. Julia's eyes drifted from Vicious to a man. He had a green afro and chocolate brown eyes. He seemed to be the tall lanky sort. "I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Spike this is Julia, Julia this is Spike" Vicious said. They exchanged smiles. "You wanna join us in a game of pool?" Vicious asked her. She shook her head. "I'll watch" The night went by. Finally Julia said "I think I'll head home, it's kinda late and I gotta go to the store" "Ok, I'll see you tomorrow" Vicious said waving as she walked out the pool hall. It was a cool night, but Julia had walked to the pool hall and had to walk home. Someone came behind her. "Cold?" a voice asked. She turned. It was Spike. "Just a little" she replied. He put a coat over her shoulders. "Thanks…but my house is only a block away" she said. I'll walk you home" he said smiling. Julia and Spike reached Julia's apartment complex soon. "Well this is it, you want to come in for some tea or anything?" Julia asked fishing her key out. "No, I'm ok" he said back, walking away. "Do you want your jacket back?" she called after him. He just kept walking. Julia shrugged. She stepped inside and checked for messages. There were none. "Ugh, I forgot about the damn store!" she said grabbing her keys up again. She walked out the door, and saw a figure stumbling down the street. Probably someone that got a little too drunk, she thought to herself. The figure got a little closer, and collapsed. She gasped and walked to him. "Spike!" she gasped. He had a gunshot wound in his gut. She tried her best to get him in the house. In a few minutes, Spike was laying on Julia's bed, his wound bandaged up. Though his vision was blurred and his ears rang from gunshots, he could see Julia in a chair, humming. Spike tried to smile. "Just like that…" he said softly. Julia looked up and stopped. She walked over to Spike and looked down at him. "Sing for me…" he finished. Julia smiled. "You're eyes, they're two different colors…" she said. "One sees the past and one sees the present" he smiled.

"That was the night your mother got pregnant with you" Miaka told her after a while. "But there's still so much I don't understand" Samantha said, sipping her tea. "There is much more to tell"

Two nights later, Julia sat out to meet Spike. He was waiting at the old abandoned church. It was a dark rainy night. "When this is over, I'm leaving the syndicate" Spike said. "You'll be killed" Julia replied. "I'll let them say I'm dead. I'll be waiting in the graveyard, by the graves, not in one" he said back. "I…can't come with you" Julia said looking down. "Come with me, we'll leave here, we'll escape from this world" Spike pleaded. "And then what will we do?" she asked. "We'll just live a life of freedom somewhere. Just like watching a dream…" he said back. Julia looked at the piece of paper Spike gave her, and left. She walked back into her apartment. The red light was flashing. She pushed play and listened. "The elders are going to be on the move. It is dangerous over there as well. Please hurry." Shin's voice. "Are you going to betray me? Are you going to leave this world...? " Vicious's voice came. He held a gun to Julia's head. "Vicious" Julia said, her arms crossed and her head down. "Even if it's a dream, that's an impossibility" he said still holding the gun firm to her head. "Are you going to kill him?" she asked finally. "Yeah... with your hands. You stay alive... or you both die. You can choose" he said throwing the gun down on the table. He walked out. Julia stood up and walked to the window. She ripped up the folded piece of paper and threw it out the window.

"So, Vicious was going to kill my mom if she refused to kill my dad?" Samantha asked finally. Miaka nodded. "Vicious was a man that viewed life as a game you can cheat at. If you don't win, you cheat and kill off all the ones that beat you". "But did my mother and father ever see each other again?". Miaka nodded…

Four years passed. Spike walked to the cemetery. He picked up a rose from a puddle and examined it. A woman in black clothing stood there, her blonde hair was wet and hanging over her face. She removed a gun from her pocket. Spike stood still and watched her. "It was raining that day as well" she said her gun still pointed at him. "You didn't come because of the rain?" Spike asked sarcastically. "I was supposed to kill you. That day if I had killed you I would have been free" she said. "So why didn't you? Why did you choose to be pursued? "Spike asked. "Why did you love me?" Julia asked him. She put down the gun and hugged Spike. "Let's just run away somewhere. Truly escape from this world and go where no one else is... Just the two of us…" she said burying her face in his shirt. On the rainy streets of Mars, Spike and Julia drive down the streets. "Keep going, and pass the place" Spike told her. "Why?" "Someone might have gotten here already" he said. They pass Annie's store and stop a block away. "Stay here" he told her getting out of the car. Spike entered the store. "Annie?" he called. Annie sat on a bench, holding a bleeding wound, dying. She struggled to speak. "I told them that you weren't here. That you were already dead. I told them…" she said finally. "Don't talk" Spike told her. "Vicious killed off the elders, they said. Everyone has lost sense of where they want to be... Just like kites with no strings" she said ignoring him. Julia walked in. "I see... you were able to meet Julia... I'm glad…" she coughed out again. "Annie!" Julia gasped. "It's…rather chilly today…" Annie said still holding her gut. Annie passed away, and Julia covered her with her coat. Spike got some artillery from the back. "You don't need weapons like that just to run away…" Julia said to him. Spike was silent. "You're going to go... I'll go with you. Until the very end, I'll be with you" she said bravely. "I'm going to make a bit of a scene" Spike loaded a gun. On the street, Julia's car exploded. In Annie's store, gunfire explodes from outside. "This way!" Spike shouted, running out of the store onto the roof. Spike shoots at the thugs, jumping to the next roof. "Get down!" he shouted to Julia. She ducked. Spike shot the thug and killed him, then Julia stood up. Julia was shot by a thug, and falls. "Julia!" Spike yelled running to her,. He held her in his arms. "Hey!" he said. "This is all…just a dream" she said; her last words. "Yeah…just a dream" he said back. Julia dies.

Back on the Bebop, Jet woke up and saw Spike. "Spike!" he said startled. "Got anything to eat, I'm hungry" he said, rubbing his stomach. Jet served him up some bell peppers and beef. Spike laughed "Your cooking tasts and bad as always" "Yeah well you sure are eating a lot" Jet said back. "Do you know a story that goes like this? There once was a tiger- striped cat. This cat died a million deaths and was reborn a million times and was owned by various people who he didn't care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die... One day, the cat was a free cat, a stray cat. He met a white female cat, and the two cats spent their days happily together. Years passed, and the white cat died of old age. The tiger-striped cat cried a million times, and then died. It never came back to life…" Spike said after he finished his meal. "That's a good story…" Jet said after Spike finished. "I hate that story. I hate cats" Spike said. Jet laughed. "I know". Spike stood up to leave. "Spike, can I ask you something?" Jet asked. Spike turned. "Is it for the woman?" "There's nothing I can do for a dead woman" he replied. Spike walked out. When he got to the hallway, Faye aimed a gun at his head. "Where are you going? Why are you going? You told me once... that the past didn't matter... You're the one who's tied to their past!" she shouted at him. Spike leaned close to her and stared into her eyes. "Look at these eyes. One of them is a fake, because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I have been seeing the past in one eye, and the present in the other. I had believed that what I saw was not all of reality…" he said still looking into her eyes. "Don't tell me things like that... You never told me anything about yourself! Don't tell me stuff like that now!" Faye said holding the gun tighter. "I thought I was watching a dream that I would never awaken from. Before I knew it, the dream was all over" he said as he began to walk away. "My memory came back…"Faye said quietly. Spike stopped and looked back at her. "But... nothing good came out of it. There was no place for me to return to... This was the only place I could go back to! But now... Where are you going?! Why do you have to go?! Are you telling me you're going to just throw your life away?!" Faye shouted at him, as tears started to well up in her eyes. "I'm not going there to die. I'm going there to see if I really am alive" he said back. Faye started to cry harder. She fired 5 of her 6 bullets into the air.

Spike arrived at the syndicate building on Mars. Bullets were shot at him as he ran in. He shot at thugs left and right. He ran to an elevator and jumped in. When he got onto the top floor, he spotted Shin. He had a bullet in his leg, and leans against a wall. Shin saw Spike and said "Please defeat Vicious…I wanted you to come back…" Shin passed out. Spike ran into the main chamber and sees Vicious. A bomb explodes, and the whole roof is blown away. "So you are finally awake. I told you before, Spike... that I am the only one who can kill you" Vicious said from the shadows. "I'll return those words back to you, Vicious" Spike replied. "Eitherway, we were destined to end up like this" Vicious told him. Spike ran up the stairs, and the two clashed weapons. Spike shot the katana out of Vicious's hand, and Vicious grabbed the gun. "Julia died, let's end this all now" Spike said, still holding a tight grip on the katana. "If that is what you wish" Vicious said releasing the gun, at the same time Spike released the katana. At the same time, Spike shot Vicious, Vicious slashed his gut. Blood poured from each of their wounds, and the two fell down dead. When morning came, Spike ascended from the stairs and looked to a group of surprised syndicate members. He held his index finger to them "Bang…" he said as he fell.