Heh heh :-s sorry it took so much time and sorry it's such a fricken long chapter. Anyway, a couple of author's notes before you read on. I don't know if you remember the name Alyssa, the name Henri Reve says before he dies… Anyway, this is NOT the same "Alisa" as in the series. This is not Jet's ex-girlfriend, okay? Good. I forgot all about her when I was writing this, so I just wanted to give you a heads up.
I messed with this chapter a ton, and it underwent some serious revisions. I hope you guys like this chapter, it was exhausting, but rewarding. Chapter nine will be out in about five days, so this coming Friday, just cause I took kind of long to update.
I also added little between certain paragraph breaks to help deter some of the confusion I've heard people mention.
To my reviewers: You guys rock so much, you all keep me going with this story. Also, when you review it gives me a chance to check out stories you've written that I may have missed and let me say, there's some serious awesome writers reviewing this story and I am honored that you are reading it.
To everyone: Thanks for reading:x
Standard disclaimer applies.
Breaking Point
---8---
Faster, Spike.
The world won't stop for you.
Faster!
Spike Spiegel always kept two guns stored away in his cockpit for cases like this. He tried using the communicator several times and he cursed at the fact that she wouldn't pick it up. It wasn't his nerves, no, he couldn't be nervous. It was fear that something would happen that he wouldn't be able to stop. Someone else might die because of him. His gaze fell over Alba's skyline expectantly as he headed towards the dog tracks north of the city. He skimmed the parking area for her ship and didn't see it anywhere. The lump in his throat urgently urged him to move faster. He had to find Faye and find her now. Needing as much information as he could get, he phoned Jet.
"What the hell do you think you're doing running out like that? What is wrong with you already?" Jet yelled at him with a flustered expression.
"Do you know anything else about her bounty?" Spike inquired with an urgent tone. Jet brows furrowed on the small conference screen.
"An anonymous tip on here says he was seen last week at a jazz bar, but Spike that's impossible."
"Is the bar called La Tour Eiffel?"
"How did you know?—Spike, this man is dead, didn't you hear me?" Jet rubbed his bald head frustratedly.
"I know. I killed him." Spike somberly told him and shut the communication off ignoring any concerns his partner may have had. He had to get there before she did.
Faye took a sip of her drink and frowned. A woman sat next to her and offered to buy her the next drink.
"What's the occasion?" Faye asked her.
"I need a favor. I don't trust men, but I saw you handle a bounty the other day." Faye cocked an eyebrow.
"Is that so? Sorry, I don't do favors."
"How does one million woolongs sound?" Faye tilted her head to the side and stared closely at the woman.
"In that case, I'm Faye Valentine, pleased to meet you." Faye replied with smile.
The woman smiled. "I'm Alyssa."
Spike cruised down the street that led to his destination. The Red Tail's white metal sparkled under the sun atop the rooftop of the building where the bar was located. He landed on a strip nearby and raced down the building stairs. The adrenaline kicked in and his heart drummed with each heavy step. Exiting towards the street, his mind dwelled on the note he had received moments earlier.
Spike Spiegel,
I will destroy that which you care for the most.
Alyssa.
Green eyes.
Violet hair.
Pale skin.
Yellow band.
Full red lips.
Yellow, green, violet. Yellow…
Inside the bar, he scouted out every single face his eyes encountered. He immediately demanded from the bartender whether he had seen a woman in there earlier matching Faye's description. The bartender nodded at him and told him that moments ago she had left accompanied by another woman. Spike rushed back outside and glanced both ways down the street.
Yellow, green, violet.
There was no one there. He raced to the rooftop to Faye's abandoned ship. Inside the cockpit, he found her key and a clear case wrapped with a red bow. His mismatched russet eyes narrowed on the silver disc within it.
Red.
They watched solemnly and after a few moments of registering the situation, they stared at the computer screen in disbelief. Spike tried to swallow several times, but the lump of ice choking in his throat refused to let him. He recalled the time when she had been caught by Vicious, trapped by the comatose god bounty, and almost lost in Vincent's grip. Faye Valentine had always put herself in stupid places, at the most inopportune times, almost getting her killed. This time it hadn't been about careless moves, selfish wants, or greedy motives. Someone had set a carefully calculated trap.
Spike and Jet watched Faye sitting at the bar and the camera approaching her. The camera's voice was that of a woman who had just offered Faye one million woolongs. The woman's name was Alyssa.
Faye walked out with Alyssa into the dark alley by the bar. Her incandescent emerald eyes glared in the direction above the camera. She was looking dead onto Alyssa. Not wavering her intense focus on the French woman, she reached for her gun tucked behind and pointed it straight above the camera's angle.
"Who the hell are you?" She demanded cocking her gun, the point aimed straight for Alyssa. "Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Faye sounded collected and smooth. Her emerald eyes sparkled with defiance.
"I would never underestimate you, Faye." Alyssa told her calmly. A miniscule blur flew from the corner of the screen into Faye's neck. She grabbed the side of her neck with one hand and with the other she shot in the direction the projectile's path. Another blur emerged from the corner of the screen, but this time the opposite side, hitting Faye right in the back of her neck.
Faye's eyes widened as if realizing what was happening to her. Her body collapsed forward and the screen went blank.
Jet went rewound to the footage back to the blurry projectiles that hit Faye's neck. He slowed down the feed and froze the clearest flame. Spike's eyes widened. They were small needles, dart-like, possibly poisoned for all they knew.
Silence fell over the Bebop as if death itself were cradling the entire ship at that moment. Spike's exasperated sigh reverberated through the ship, like a loud punch against the wall.
"Will she kill her?" Jet simply muttered. His voice sounded hard and somber. It attempted to mask his covert fatherly concern for the wild woman. Spike understood it, as insensitive as he may seem, he still comprehended Jet's protective traits.
"I don't know anything about this woman. Except that she's obviously demented and has got something against me."
"Did the note say she would kill her?"
"No, it said destroy." Spike couldn't explain what he felt at the moment. His feelings had gone mostly numb, only an apprehension that would tighten around his chest and then let go over and over again.
"Destroy what?" Jet shouted at him. He seemed sick of Spike's avoidance and stealthy demeanor. Everything that had happened to the Bebop crew had been in way far and detached from them. It had nothing to do with them particularly, just their pasts or people in their past or strangers they had unwillingly helped along. It probably seems hard to understand how the past could be so disconnected from them. Once you have suffered enough, you find that only apathy can keep you sane. Nevertheless, this time everything mattered. Perhaps it was sentimental of both of them to have grown attached to the woman, but Spike felt responsible. He felt responsible, because she knew. Alyssa somehow looked into his eyes and knew.
Spike handed the note to Jet. Jet stared it for a while and then his eyes shot up.
"Spike, this note doesn't mention Faye." His statement sounded dry. Spike didn't respond, and after a moment of thought, Jet's gestures softened. "I knew this would only mean trouble."
"I don't know how she came to that assumption." Part of him believed that lie.
"The same way you obviously did." Jet ran his hand over his bald head and then stood up. "A woman like Faye never goes down that easily," he added reassuringly, but Spike didn't respond.
Jet had it too, Spike thought. That faith Julia had talked about a while ago. He didn't resign himself to anything and he didn't blame Spike. Jet Black always kept him in check. He would always cover his back and usually save his neck. If he hadn't been so preoccupied, Spike would have realized that his old cowboy partner was one of the reasons he kept coming back to the Bebop.
"Well, we have to start somewhere and that's Henri Reve. He was a pioneer in biotechnology and nanotechnology. Biometrics Technology was part of a weapons defense program for the military. This man was a genius." Jet typed on the keyboard and the man's picture was brought up.
"All I know is that the reason they had me take him out was because he was going to be recruited by the White Tigers. I don't know for what. There's gotta be something else."
"It says he died in a robberyten years ago. His daughter, Alyssa Reve, attended Mary Magdalene's Arts and Science Academy. According to the police report, she was sent on vacation by her father a week before the alleged robbery. Never seen since then, there's no record whatsoever on her."
"She disappeared," Spike muttered.
"This is crazy. How does an 11 year old girl just disappear like that?" Jet scratched the back of his head.
"This is going to get us nowhere."
"I'll check with one of my old buddies in ISSP, see if they've got any other info on this man."
…"Natalie, une chanson s'il vous plait." Her voice sounded deviously low.
"La meme?" Natalie asked and her friend nodded. The woman slid off her stool and in her radiant sleek black dress she headed towards Spike. He grumbled under his breath and then outwardly masked his frustration with a smirk. She sat at his table and slid the gin towards him. He caught it and nodded a thank you. Natalie's voice emerged from the small stage on the corner. She sang with a gentle low voice "La Vie en Rose."…
His glare fixed pensively as he recalled his first encounter with Alyssa. "I'm going to find her." Spike muttered absentmindedly.
"How are you going to do that? Faye could be anywhere."
"Not Faye. Natalie."
After only a few minutes of painful persuasion from Spike sothe bartender would tell him where Natalie lived, he found himself in front of a small four-story building down the street from the bar. Spike glanced towards the fourth floor recalling the trembling voice of the bartender uttering the apartment number 4-C. As he was about to rush into the building, the sirens often heard in the distance throughout the city sounded closer than usual. Spike whipped his head around towards the urgent echoes of the patrol units. Several air and ground units headed towards the building. His heart pulsated with menacing presentiment, hesitant to climb up, but his feet willed him to move quickly.
While he hurriedly ascended the stairs, several officers had already landed in the rooftop and penetrated the building. Spike made it to the fourth floor watching officers in swat uniforms rushing through the halls. One of them pushed him to the side. Spike's heart stopped, he only sat there watching the parade of black uniforms with white lettering enter the apartment he was headed for. An officer told him that he had to leave the building and Spike only asked him a question.
"Who is she?" He asked. The officer shook his head and told him to leave.
"We've got a blonde female, shot in the chest. Possible suicide." The officer's communicator crackled. Spike breathed in with relief.
"Jet, I think someone got to Natalie before I did. They just called ISSP in. I thought this would be under local jurisdiction, unless something else is going on." Spike spoke into his communicator.
"I got you. I'll find out."
Spike wondered around town mindlessly without a single indication of where he should head or search. He scanned all his memories and every inch of his dream for a clue, for anything that could lead him to her. He should have never come back. He should have died. You couldn't take revenge on the dead, could you?
He asked around the French Riviera, about a woman named Alyssa. No one had heard of her, no one had heard of the last name Reve for a decade now. She had disappeared into thin air like Jet had said.
Dark clouds formed in Alba's sky and the rain slowly began tapping against the pavement. He watched the tumult of people disappear from the streets shielding themselves from the storm. His adrenaline kick had dissipated, so all Spike could was to keep walking. His body had gone so numb. His skin couldn't even feel the coldness of the drops invading it anymore.
He wandered into the Bebop's hangar, the rain fiercely drumming against the metal. His eyes fell on the Red Tail. He walked over to it and examined it as if trying to find at least one more clue that would lead him to her. He rubbed his mouth and chin pensively, patiently waiting for a sign that refused to show up.
Whywas heworried about the shrew? She could take care of herself. She always had, she had never needed any rescuing. What the hellwasthe matter with him?He wasworrying over nothing. It wasnothing… Goddamn nothing…
"You're afraid, because it's your fault." He heard Julia's voice echo from behind him and felt her hand tap him lightly on the shoulder. His head slowly turned to face her. The expression on her face was somber and a bit shocked. "Spike." Her mouth moved, but a new and familiar voice emerged. Her blue eyes turned emerald and her entire figure transformed into Faye's.
"Faye?" He felt scared. Faye shook her head. She placed a hand over his face forcing his eyes shut. The hand waved over his face and he opened his eyes again revealing Julia standing there again. He was losing it. "Is she dead?" Spike asked the ethereal figure, his voice trembling.
"How am I supposed to know?" Julia replied monotonously.
"But she was just here."
"No, she wasn't, Spike. You see only what you want to." Her eyes observed him for a minute.
"What?" Spike inquired impatiently as she glared at him.
"Do you want to save her? Do you love her?"
Spike glared at the blonde woman in disbelief. "You don't get to ask me that." He whispered. "You can't just show up with all your cryptic messages whenever you feel like fucking with me. I don't care anymore. This isn't a message from the beyond. This is my fucked up head telling me you're standing there, when there is nothing here." He waved his hand towards Julia and her image faded like fog.
"Let's get out of here, you and me. We'll leave this place and be together." A younger Spike said eagerly to the blond beauty before him.
"And go where?" She asked looking away from him.
"Anywhere." He handed her a slip of paper. "Meet me there."
He had his doubts that she would come and when he watched as the torn pieces fall from her window, that's when he knew.
"You don't want to know? Cause I'm quite curious." Julia echoed from behind him. He whipped his head around and saw her painfully smiling at him. She ran a hand through her golden locks. He had almost forgotten that sad, but cynical side to Julia that he encountered when he first met her. Her verdant eyes never had a curious or enticing gleam. They would just stare deep into him and entwine him in this trance. Whenever she spoke like this, her expression would be spiteful and cold. Julia's lips had curled to a curious smirk and her eyes sparkled in a way he had never seen in his lover do.
"There's nothing to know. I don't love her." He stated frigidly. Julia's lavish eyes focused intensely on him.
"Then why does it bother you so much when you think about her? She's not me."
"She'll never be you." He exclaimed ruefully.
"Why do you fail to see how that's a good thing?" It had returned suddenly, that hurtful and remorseful stare. The green glow of her eyes changed into a deep artic blue. Julia turned around and headed outside of the hangar.
He shook his head as he buried his face in his hand. He chuckled slightly at the unsettling feeling she always gave him. Amidst attempting to organize his thoughts, he heard the roaring of the engine of the Hammerhead as it pulled into the hangar. Finally, maybe he would find some answers now.
"Any news?" Spike asked Jet as he jumped out of his cockpit.
"I found out about the woman, Natalie." Jet informed him. He proceeded to tell Spike that the timid blonde's name had actually been Erika Fullop, an undercover agent for ISSP.
"Undercover?" Spike asked. He didn't think that ISSP bothered doing operations like that anymore.
"Yeah, something about infiltrating a French syndicate criminal cell. Real ambitious this kid. They think she got made, but no one's bothered to make sure."
"Who would have thought? Natalie, an undercover cop." He paused shaking his head. "I don't get it all."
"If you scatter thorns, don't go barefoot." Jet sighed, the disappointment striking his features. "She was young, a good kid and idealistic. It happens. You think you can make a difference, change the system." Jet subconsciously rubbed his robotic arm as his dark eyes became opaque with remorse.
"No, not that. What I mean is that I don't get that even if she got made, why would she shoot herself in the chest?" Spike muttered. Jet glanced up at him, his eyes shifting down to the right, trying to recall anything else.
"They didn't find anything in her apartment, but the scene was a bit disturbing. She had scratches all over her chest. It seems she did it and then she shot herself."
"Nothing on Alyssa?"
"Nothing, she might as well be dead to the world." Jet grumbled. "Goddamn it. That woman is always getting into trouble, if she had just told us about the damn bounty."
"It wouldn't have a made a difference. I didn't remember who this man was until recently."
"Damn." Jet added in frustration. Spike started to walk outside of the hangar. "Where are you going?"
"The bar. There's something wrong about Natalie's death. There's something we're missing."
"I'm coming with you." Jet spoke decisively and walked up to his partner.
"I'd like to walk and think for a while."
"I'm not going to stop you," Jet replied nonchalantly and Spike glanced at the large man in surprise. Jet's eyes rolled to the side and noticed Spike's reaction. The ex-cop placed a hand behind his head and blushed slightly. Spike silently chuckled to himself and kept walking now with his comrade by his side. He could have assumed thousands of different theories of why Jet had reacted like that. Maybe he liked Faye, but Spike shook his head. No, it seemed pretty implausible. Faye was farther from Jet's taste in a woman as his bell peppers with beef were from having real meat. Spike was right before, Jet had simply grown attached to Faye in that odd way in which you get attached to an annoying song tune, and hum it every time you hear it. He remembered how nonchalant Jet had always tried to be about caring for Faye, Ed, and the critter. Spike, on the other hand, had never worried about Faye when she disappeared, but Jet always fussed about it even if it was just a little at first. However, this time everything had changed. Someone had specifically targeted her with every intention to do something just to spite him. He wouldn't let it. Faye would be fine. She would be just fine.
Spike stopped before entering the bar and glanced down the street. He thought of Natalie's strange death.
"It would be pointless now. They swept the apartment and had a cleanup team come and erase that fact that she was ever there. Bob agreed to send me some images from the scene by email," Jet told him as if reading Spike's mind.
They scouted out the small bar, the sleazy clientele, and finally sat down at the booth for a drink. As they chatted with people here and there throughout the night, it seemed that people knew little if anything about Natalie. They also encountered two men that remembered Alyssa thanks to their out-of-control hormones. They had only caught her name, because she always came with heavy muscle. Spike immediately recalled the two bodyguards at the door that time, standing vigilant of the young woman. The hours passed and they waited with the slight change that since they couldn't find Alyssa, she would come to them instead. Yet, nothing happened.
"It's almost sunrise. This is pointless," Spike muttered. He got up and left Jet sitting alone at the booth. The night breeze swept him as he exited the French bar. Violet traces of the sun had begun illuminating the dark gray sky. He popped a cigarette in his mouth and walked to the dead end between the buildings, the alley where Alyssa had kidnapped Faye.
Faye's emerald eyes sparkled with defiance. She pointed the gun straight in front of her, aimed at Alyssa's head.
The dark alley was empty except for a black industrial dumpster at the corner of the building, probably the bar's. He glanced up in the direction she shot her gun.
The projectile shot into the side of her neck. Faye turned around and fired her gun. Several shots flew at the corner of the building until another dart hit the back of her neck.
He whipped around to glance at the back corner of the building next to the bar. Alyssa had planned this out with lots of care and time. Spike spit out his worn cigarette and climbed the emergency fire stairs to the rooftop of the building host to La Tour Eiffel. He walked to the front corner where he could picture a man standing here on top of this small two story building with a dart gun aimed at Faye.
Where are you Faye?
"Oi Spike!" Jet's voice echoed the cold streets. The sun's golden rays had started to peak in the horizon. Spike glanced down at Jet who stood glaring up at him. "What are you doing?"
"I don't know." Spike muttered and shrugged. He glanced back up towards the horizon. He slowly scanned down the long street until his heart suddenly skipped a beat. His eyes narrowed, his mechanical eye trying to focus closely on the figure walking in the direction of the bar. It was Faye Valentine.
"Jet!" Jet glance in the same direction and saw Faye's distant figure walking towards him. Spike immediately raced down the iron stairs, jumping from rest to rest until he made it down.
"Faye? Are you all right?" Jet asked as the figure came closer to them. Her emerald eyes glanced up at them in confusion.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What are you guys doing here?" She finally halted until she was a few feet away from both of them. Her head tilted upwards towards the rooftop. "The Red Tail.."
"Is at the Bebop." Jet finished for her. Spike stared at her closely. She seemed rancid and had a sallow complexion.
"Okay, fine." She turned around and Spike grabbed her by the arm.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He didn't mean to sound concerned, and he didn't. His voice had a pissed-off tone, not at the fact she seemed so careless about anything that had happened to her, but at Alyssa. That woman had been cowardly enough to use a medium to get to him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She writhed her arm from his grip. "Let me go already." He hesitantly let her go and she began walking, but stopped suddenly as her balance wavered. She placed at hand against her face.
"Faye?" Jet called to her softly.
Faye's body jerked and Spike's eyes widened. His mechanical eye registered what he was seeing in slow motion. Faye's body fell forward, eternally falling and an image flashed thanks to his mechanical eye. Faye's violet hair transformed into golden locks flailing in the air and Julia's small fragile body swung forward.
The line between past and present dimmed and then disappeared. All that happened then, was happening again.
"Spike?" A voice echoed distantly.
The blonde beauty hit the ground and Spike swallowed hard. He blinked and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Jet holding Faye in his arms. He had caught her.
"Spike, what the fuck is wrong with you? We've got to get her help now. Her pulse is low." Jet uttered in a tone of urgency. Spike ran a hand through his messy dark hair and regained his composure. "Her complexion is a bit yellow, she may have been poisoned." Jet muttered and Spike only glared at him.
Faye might be dying.