Disclaimer: Cowboy Bepop, the series and the Tengoku no Tobira movie belongs to Bandai Visual, BONES and Sunrise. I only borrowed the characters for play, I'll return them with no harm, I promise. It's also the second time that I wrote something that's not related with Saint Seiya… and it's complete, he he. Faye Valentine meets Vincent Volaju, who makes her think about the real meaning of the Purgatory. Story takes start from the scenes of the movie relating this pairing. This fic is dedicated to my best friends, who are far away but really close to my heart. Mari Carmen y Mari Ángeles, I love you so much!

Dengoku Bliss

I approached to the door carefully. The gun was glowing faintly under the dim light of the hallway, while my heart was racing because the expectation. This prey was escaping me for so long... but now, it will be mine.

My boots echoed on the floor while I took the shooting position.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

The shots had blown up the door's lock, which allowed me to open it with a kick. I saw Lee Samsung staggering towards me; his feet didn't find their war on the floor. I opened wide eyes, stunned. I aimed for his body as my instinct was screaming the trap word.

"I can't find... Spooky... Donkey..."

And with that he fell on the floor. The sound of his glasses crushing filled the room with tension.

"No, wait!" I shouted angrily, seeing how my prey was escaping from my grasp again. "It's not good for me that you're dead!"

"Reset..."

I took a deep breath and muttered a few curses, verifying his current state. Dead. Damn it, who do I have to kill to catch a juicy prey to earn the money I need?

Wait a minute... something wasn't right.

I felt like I was choking, like something pressed against my throat, strangling me. I started to cough, trying to focus my gaze without any success. I saw everything blurry, not knowing exactly what the hell was going on. What was happening to me, goddamn it? I cough louder, trying to find air where it wasn't any.

I broke a sweat, rolling on my forehead. The heat in that moldy and somber room rose. And suddenly… I felt a presence behind my back.

I fired the gun. BANG!

A strong hand took my gun, pulling it away from my hand. I heard it hit the floor while a big, dark shape stood in front of me. The red of the blood gleaming in its hand dazzled in my unfocused eyes.

I looked up. It was him, the man I saw at the tank truck's explosion. The man I drew on Ed's screen. The man with the tattoo!

I saw surprised how he licked the blood coating his hand, languidly, almost enthralled. The red substance trickled over his lip, giving him an eerie appearance.

I managed to stand stumbling, watching that man smile coldly at me, looking at me with drained eyes. What the hell I was going to do?

I coughed again, holding my stomach. I stepped away from him, towards inside the room. Only a table and two chairs was the only decoration. I turned to the table, in a stubborn attempt to escape that lunatic. The air was thinner, I couldn't breathe anymore.

I fell over the table, hearing a zillion little balls rebounding on the floor. I distinguished the shape of a game board... which was it?

A hand took my chin and forced me to turn. My skin was sweating cold, I was sure that if I saw that man again he would kill me ruthlessly. I would die at the hands of a psychopath. But first I would fight; I wasn't going to give away that easily.

No such luck, he made me turn to him. He pushed me roughly on my back over the table, leaning on me. He brushed away my hair with a hand while he was leaning more over, pressing his body against mine. My heart was pounding desperately, seeing those bottomless dark eyes without life, without light, staring at me.

He kissed me.

I tried to fight him, to squirm free, but my attempts only made that he pressed his body against mine, making me know all his body lines and his stiffness. The sounds escaping my throat only obeyed to fear and the closeness of death.

I felt the sharp taste of the blood in my mouth, running through my throat, while he was kissing me. With his hand pulled my chin, coaxing me to part my lips more and slipping his tongue, caressing mine with soft, wavy movements. I moaned again, not even knowing that I was.

I closed my eyes, feeling briefly, the graze of his hand on my face, heading down my stomach and unbuttoning my shorts. I stiffened, feeling dizzy. What was this man going to do to me!

The tips of his fingers found the boundary of my tiny underwear, sliding under it slowly. He found my core easily; his hand covered it completely, only to slide a finger, running over it lazily. Only a finger. An alone finger moving over my most sensitive spot, sending little shocks all over my body. He didn't stop kissing me in any moment.

I started to see everything dark and a hum resounded in my ears. His finger was moving over my bundle of nerves, while I was only managing to gasp and moan, but every protest I made died in his throat. My face was coated in cold sweat, but suddenly I started to feel hot, more that I've ever felt. Ever.

And felt another finger bursting inside me, rubbing me in my interior. Without knowing I arched my back, while he sped up the rhythm of his hand, caressing me and thrusting me faster and faster, smothering me with his heavy breathing, overwhelming me with the sensation of being touched intimately by a complete stranger, a prey that I was supposed to catch to collect the 300 millions Urons that were awaiting for me. The best prey, the most expensive, and the one that was going to give me the tranquility I was seeking from a long time.

He didn't stop touching me until I felt the shock, the anticipation, the hearts missing a beat, the closeness of the light. I reached orgasm, shattering with the pressure of that body. His tongue licking mine and those fingers ripped me a muffled cry, a releasing cry, making me fall unconscious.

--- X ---

I woke up, not knowing how long later.

I blinked, acknowledging shortly the floor of that room. There were little balls scattered all over it. I tried to move, only to discover my hands and feet tied up. I looked up and I saw him.

He was playing with some little balls, just like the ones on the floor.

"Why am I alive?" I asked myself, looking between my lashes at the sun that was entering through the window. "What did he do to me?"

"I gave you my blood" he said, making me start with the deepness of his voice. "Now, you can live even if the world turns hostile. Exactly like me."

I blinked again, trying to process his words.

"That time will come soon."

That time? The time of the hostile world?

I didn't understand anything.

After a while of silence, he got up and walked to the window.

"Why are you doing this?" I finally asked him. "Because of money? Some kind of revenge?"

I couldn't know what effect had my words, as he was with his back towards me.

"Or maybe... for fun?"

"I'm only looking for... a door."

"A door?"

I looked at him again. His tall silhouette outlined against the dusk coming through the window.

"I was dreaming and I knew that it was a dream" he said. "And still, I couldn't wake up. "Have you been through that before?"

I didn't know what to answer him.

"From that time, when I was in Titan…" he said absently "it always been like that. I've lost two things in Titan. One was my past. In that time I hadn't had friends or enemies. Everyone died in the nano-machines experiment. I was sent as a laboratory rat. Only I was for keep living... but I have lost my memories. I don't even know who I was.

I thought in his words, finding in them some emptiness impossible to cross.

"And the other which is?" I asked him, alluding to the second lost thing.

"I saw a butterfly" he answered, bewildering me with his answer. "I saw a lot of butterflies. Butterflies that were unimaginable… the most beautiful of the world."

--- X ---

We stayed silent for a while. I wondered about Jet and Spike, if they would be worried about me. I wondered about Ed and Ein, about if they would look for me or investigate my whereabouts. Nah, that was too much to ask them. They never were worried about me, never did. Nor never would they be.

"That man, was Spike his name or something?"

I inhaled sharply, stunned. He turned around at me and smiled friendly.

"I see, so is your friend."

God... what he had done to Spike?

"How do you know?" I asked him, bordering the line between anger and devastating fear. "What are you going to start?"

He closed his eyes, still smiling.

"I came here to end it. The last party is about to start. The next trick is some special kind of nano-machine. One that doesn't destroy itself and keeps reproducing. Soon the world…"

"Are you taking the world with you?" I asked, sneering. "You are... crazy."

"You think so?" He raised a brow, amused. "Nobody can set the lines between good sense and madness. You have to change the line when is convenient for you. Nobody else can. You will understand soon. Who is really crazy... is the world."

I closed my eyes. There I was, at the hands of a psychopath who wanted to destroy the world with some crap things called nano-machines and, even if I believed his word about my survival this whole ordeal… doesn't really matter, for I would be as lonely as ever…

"Do you want to come with me?"

I stared at him, trying to figure him out a lie, a joke. No, his petition was simple and plain. Did he want me by his side? Why? Why me? What did I mean for him?

He rose from the window and approached me.

"The only left would be us."

So that was it, another misinterpretation.

"You got to be kidding" I said, haughtily. "I don't know how the world is going to be, but I'd rather not living in it with you."

He hovered over me and pulled out a knife. Good, I would die soon and I will stop thinking nonsense. He lowered the blade slowly, threatening my top. With an upper movement he cut the button, spreading my breasts at his view.

He smiled, almost tenderly, almost intimately. For a brief moment, I believed him that he would take me with him. I thought that I would find a cure to my killing loneliness. I thought that I could leave behind the cold and the harsh-and-apathetic-girl mask that everyone saw.

The blade said otherwise that his eyes. He raised the blade to mi neck and made me lift my chin. Only a little more, please...

"You will live alone for all eternity."

Some knocked at the door.

He stood up, without taking his eyes of mine, staring at me with those indifferent eyes…

And saying no more, he walked to the door.

--- X ---

I heard the nerd man addressing to him by that name I saw in Ed's screen.

Vincent.

So that was his name, Vincent Volaju. The dead man.

"Did you pray?" I heard Vincent asking to the nerdy man. The next thing he knew was that the blade found a new sheath in his flesh. Another dead man.

Vincent walked toward me, putting a pointy hat on his head. He looked at me with a reproachful expression in his eyes for my negative.

"The bridge that joins the Earth with Heaven is rising. And I will be there to see it. The only one in this world. You can see it from this Purgatory, if you want."

Alter that, he left.

--- X ---

I stared at the ceiling for a good while, whereas I was deciding to move up. I was alone in a room with two dead guys, as my prey, Vincent, was walking like a shadow with no name or course. No, he has a course, a goal and a destination. Kill every living being in this city.

Now I understood why I was so intrigued when I saw him at the tank truck's explosion. The emptiness of his eyes, the warmth of his hands and the passion of his lips. He was a lonely and hopeless soul.

Just like me.

I took a deep breath and dragged where the nameless nerd was left. I winced of repulsion when I looked at him.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered before rip the knife out of his body with a swift movement.

I cut the ropes tying my hands, then de feet's ones. I had to send word to Spike about Vincent and "Jack". I stood up, reeling a little at the sudden change of height. I walked again to the table, noting the Dames board with clarity now.

The Purgatory...

Something like that would really exist?

I left the room and walked to my ship, tying the sweater over my top absently. I communicated with Spike, telling him what Vincent had said mechanically, letting my voice sound annoyed. But deep inside me... I was trembling with fear.

Vincent...

I had lost myself with Gren. I had lost myself with Spike. Losing myself again was not an option, Vincent, not this time.

--- X ---

I got into the Bepop hurriedly. I noted the unknown woman standing with Spike and Jet, who was looking at the others stunned. I rolled my eyes. Sometimes I wonder what the hell is going through the bonsai-keeper dumbass's mind.

"Where have you been?" Spike asked me, while the girl was watching me with narrowed eyes.

"I was with Vincent" I answered tersely. The three of them eyes's widened in surprise. For a brief moment I thought I saw a shadow of worry through Spike's eyes, but I really doubt it there was certain. "His accomplice told him something about someone called Jack before Vincent killed him."

The two and two addition was quick. We developed a plan in no time. Vincent couldn't escape.

--- X ---

I entered the Environment Ministry building with long and confident steps. I was like always, an unknown diva, the star that the fame passed through without notice.

3, 2, 1... Let's jam.

--- X ---

"I want rain!" I said, playing with my gun with a sweet smile, like the one I offered to Lee Samsung before he escaped me from the arcade.

--- X ---

Now that everything had happened, I don't know exactly how I feel.

To everyone else in the Bepop I'm more bitchy than usual, but they assume that I had lost again in the gambles. Yes, I lost at the race track, but that doesn't count that much when compared what I've lost at the moment that Vincent disappeared from my life.

Tengoku, Dengoku, Jigoku.

Heaven, Purgatory, Hell.

You were looking for a door that didn't exist, Vincent. You were looking for a redemption that never was granted to you. You were looking for a happiness that only Electra had given to you, out of pity. You were right, Vincent... this is a hostile world.

What about me? I always will be the toy for everyone else's amusement?

"Faye..." I heard Spike approaching, a cigarette was hanging from his lip. "Are you okay?"

I didn't answer. We looked to the city's lights, while it was coming to life with the remains of a soaked Halloween, or that's what people thought.

Only a few of us knew what had really happened.

"We live in a fake, cold world, we hunt bounties that don't give anything to last, we don't have a future… and still we're looking a door that leads us to Heaven.

Spike stared suspiciously at me and said nothing.

I stretched my fingers, asking him silently for a cigarette. After lighting it, Spike spoke again.

"Heaven doesn't exist, Faye."

"How can you be so sure?" I replied without looking at him, taking a long drag of smoke. "We are always behind a person who searches for its own freedom of spirit. The laws labeled them as criminals, as for people like us chases them and we make this activity a way of life. We survive day after day, not expecting anything in return, only doping for an opportunity to secure our own redemption. But do you really believe that this search has a point?"

I looked askance at Jet, who had approached us while I was speaking. The three of us remained silent for a while.

"Nobody knows what the future will bring" Jet said, folding his arms. "But something is for sure... we all had sins to pay off and I think that the Purgatory is here, we're living it every day, with its happy moments and its sad moments."

"Purgatory..." snorted Spike, tossing the stub of the cigarette to the water. "There's no such thing."

"How many times you had been close to death, counting this one, Spike?"

"A few, I've lost the count" he answered, smirking.

"How about you, Faye? How many times you had been close to death?"

I took a moment to consider it before replying.

"It doesn't matter how many times I had risked my life, or how many times I had been closer of death. I'm still looking for something that I don't know exactly what that thing is, just like you two. This job allows us to be independent, but all in all... the Dengoku that we live now is more fantastic than that imaginary Tengoku."

"Then you are saying that Heaven doesn't exist?"

I sighed deeply, looking at the stars. A yellow light flew in front of my eyes, playing with the wind.

"I didn't say that" I replied. "Heaven is unreachable. Not even following its lights we could find it."

A bright yellow butterfly crossed the sky. The most beautiful butterfly that I've ever seen.

Vincent...

"Are you living in the real world?"

- Tenna' ento lye omenta -