The Heart of the Bounty

A fanfiction

Chapter 19: Settling All Scores

How could I have let her go away like that? As much as I want to beat myself up for hurting her, I focus my concentration on saving her. That will be my redemption. I can't let her die this way, just like she couldn't let me die…

Jet jumps into my ship and we take off, cruising toward Mars as fast as reasonably possible. Jet yells to me, "If she's hurt, I'll take care of him." Thank God for Jet, and his understanding. As much as he knows he'll need my help, he cares enough about me and Faye that he lets me go after her.

With passion burning in my heart, I steer toward a lot near the Capitol. Her ship! Damn, she's probably there with Carver right now. How fast did she fly?

I jump out immediately after landing, loading my gun and running toward the building. I already hear the people screaming and running away from two blocks away. This is gonna be one hell of a fight, and one hell of a riot.

I hear Jet, panting a little behind me, cocking his gun. My mind is spinning, wondering with worry about what has happened, what could've happened, what can happen. My stomach drops when I stop in front of the building; he's harassing her. Goddamn son of a bitch…

I fire aimlessly at him; he's going down. How dare he beat up a woman, especially her. Tears of anger stream down my face as my passion to kill and passion to save consume me. He kicks her down, as if she were a limp corpse. I fire more earnestly as soon as I see her roll down the stairs. And then he has the audacity to start running away; I take him on for the chase.

Suddenly his bullets come flying at me. I bend and duck in all directions, catching glimpses of his deadly creation. Pointed bullets? I glance quickly to my right to see Faye, helplessly gripping her ankle. He shot her too? Argh! I can't lose someone else; I can't lose her before anything truly started. As I continue to fire at the bastard, I think of her softness, her warmth, her body, that look in her eyes… My drive to keep all of that intact grows with every second of this battle.

Click! Jet and I just ran out of ammo. I frantically reload my gun, trembling enough to almost lose my extra ammunition. I hear something roll on the ground and tick rapidly. Shit, he released another bomb. I look up to find the bomb rolling along a step close to the ground, and I turn to see Faye's weak body swaying about. She doesn't even realize it. My eyes shoot up as I calculate what's going to happen if she doesn't move…

I drop my gun and yell for her. "FAYE, LOOK OUT!" It seems to no avail, because she weakly stares at me. I leap toward her, grabbing the back of her head and pushing her several feet down the sidewalk, away from the building. My heart is pounding in my chest as I lose my balance. I grip her close to me and we fall to the ground. The instant my hand bangs onto the concrete, the bomb explodes. I shudder, hovering over her body to protect her from whatever the bomb is releasing. I turn to see a wave of fire growing rapidly. Whatever is happening behind that barrier doesn't matter to me anymore; Faye has got to be okay, has got to be alive.

I lift my chest off of her a little, for fear of suffocating her. She groans a little; thank God. I move my hand from behind her waist to stroke her face. Our bodies are wrapped in one another, and I refuse to let her go now. "Faye," I whisper. She flutters her eyes a little, but she's still clearly weak.

"Spike," she breathes. She smiles a tiny smile, coughing a little. Her face is a little ashy, her skin rough from her scrapes, but she's still the most beautiful woman I've laid eyes on. Nothing else mattered to me anymore; not the past, not the current bounty head. I've finally put my past to rest as I stared, anxious about Faye's health.

"Faye, please don't leave me," I begin to whimper. A tear slides down my face and rolls onto her cheek. Her eyes begin to beam at me; she's enlivening.

"Spike, I—"

I cut her off. I have to let her know. I have to say it first. "Faye, I'm in love with you."

We lie there, our bodies aching from all that we've just gone through. But that suddenly doesn't matter either. We're breathing our passion, we're breathing in love, a love that we both thought we'd never find again. We're breathing each other.

"I love you," she whispers, with more strength in her voice.

As another tear rolls down my face, she lifts her head up. She gently kisses me, and I, in the rush of passion, return the kiss earnestly. We pause after a few seconds to stare into each other's eyes. Nothing has ever felt more right. We both have finally reconciled the things that have tossed our lives into chaos. We've reconciled our pasts, and we've reconciled with each other. All we want, and all we need, is this.

Life continues to pass by us, as sirens wail in the distance, creeping up on our location. Lenny Carver falls, wounded, and is successfully apprehended. News teams flood the capitol, wanting a piece of the story. Firefighters shove their way through to stop the fires behind us. But the fire persists; it burns within Faye, and it burns within me. Nothing else matters, and we kiss sweetly into the sunset.