Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop… happy now?
Notes: I was finally able to get in touch with my beta, she had some problems with her pc and couldn't work on the files I sent her… but now she's back on business and with this chapter of angel's punishment's too! So, read and enjoy!
Angel's Punishment
Chapter 6: When a dead man walks…
2074, Gaia City – Venus -
---- Takes place while Faye's reaching the cemetery ----
The black limo was speeding along the main road of Gaia City, the people on the sidewalks glanced at it not even bothering to wonder who was inside of it, they were used to see the expensive cars of rich celebrities coming to the city for some movie's preview. But maybe if they knew that sitting in the back seats there was the leader of one of the most powerful syndicates, they would have watched that car with far more uneasiness.
Spike stared out of the blackened window, his mind lost in thought as he waited for the driver to reach the set destination; he was going to visit Gaia's graveyard, he was going to pay his respects to Julia's grave, and he was going to see where his body was supposed to lie… six feet under the ground. The RD leader's thoughts went back to that morning, two days before, when he and Shin had the conversation that lead to this travel.
He asked out of curiosity Shin what he had said to the Bebop crew about his hospitalization in the RD structures, the younger man had answered that only the members of the organization knew that he was still alive. To anybody else's knowledge Spike Spiegel had died that day on the steps of the RD Headquarters after killing Vicious and destroying a great part of the building. After learning that, Spike had started to wonder what happened to his shipmates after his supposed death: were they still working as a team? Had Ed came back? Did Jet's leg heal completely from the shot-wound? He couldn't help but ask himself how Faye was doing; the image of the sadness in her emerald eyes when they talked for the last time, the sound of the shots and her quiet sobs echoing in the poorly lit hallway, still fresh in his memory.
The roar of a motor woke him up from his reverie and without thinking he looked at the road for the source of the loud sound, when a black motorbike passed his car at a high speed. The person driving it turned to glance at the limo, before stepping on the accelerator and disappearing from his sight; something of that person caught Spike's eyes… even if her face was hidden behind the crash helmet, he had noticed the long dark violet hair that stuck out of the headgear and moved in the wind behind her.
'That could have been Faye…' he thought to himself since she was the only woman he had ever seen who had that hair color. Then he smiled and hit his forehead on the glass surface lightly; why would Faye be riding a motorbike and carrying a katana? His ironic question turned into a serious one as soon as him mind elaborated the words more deeply…
'A black motorbike and a katana?'
"Nemesis…" he spoke aloud not even noticing the word forming on his lips.
"What did you say?" Shin asked as he sat opposite him busy reading the newspaper.
"Nothing, I was just talking to myself…" he replied not taking his eyes from the road, he heard his friend making a sound of understanding and returned to his reasoning.
Could that woman actually be the deadly assassin they were trying to catch? Maybe Shin's worries about coming to Venus were right; maybe she knew about his awakening and now was there to finish him off, like all the others. Maybe the purple hair was part of the trick.
'God… I'm becoming paranoid; Shin has rubbed it off on me...'
But why would she have turned to look at the car if she didn't know he was in it? It wasn't so rare to see a black limo in a big city; she had to know who was in the car… Spike couldn't stop his brain from formulating suspicions and making him feel anxious; and it was something he couldn't bear, it was frustrating for a man that had never been scared in all his life to feel so helpless and restless.
"Sir, we're almost there…" the driver's voice said from the speaker.
"Thanks, Chris" he replied watching as Shin folded the newspaper and righted his suit.
"So, are you ready to confront your ghosts?" the green-eyed man asked of his boss.
"I faced my ghosts three years ago, Shin… I'm just paying my respects to them."
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Faye stepped on the gas and increased the speed she was moving at; she didn't know why she had turned to stare at that limo on the road, she had felt the urge to look at it, it was like there was something that drew her to it. Call it sixth sense, or female intuition, but she could sense that whoever was riding in that black car had some link with her; she felt a weird connection with it.
'Or maybe it's just the painkiller I took, that's playing with my head…' she said to herself eyeing the bandage on her right shoulder that was now soaking with her blood.
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The black limo reached the graveyard and three of the four men inside got out of it; the sun was almost to the point of settling but the air was still unbearably hot and Spike didn't wait for taking off the suit jacket and rolling up his black shirt sleeves. He glanced at the two men standing at either of his sides, who were still all dressed up, and trying to keep their cold façades despite the suffocating heat.
"I won't be scandalized if you take off your jackets, scout's honor" he said to them stuffing his hands in the pockets of the black suit pants he was wearing, and then took off towards the gate.
Shin and Mark didn't wait for him to say it a second time, and took off their jackets; the ex- leader took a step to follow Spike when he felt his partner's hand grip his forearm, Shin looked questioningly in Mark's violet irises.
"I believe we have a problem…" he said staring at something behind the green-eyed man, who turned to see what he was referring to.
"Shit!" he said loudly enough for Spike to hear.
"That's not the right language to use in a holy place, Shin…" the lanky ex- bounty hunter teased.
"Shit, shit, shit! Spike, come back here!" the younger man yelled hurrying to his friend and stopping in front of him.
"That's her motorbike, Spike!" he said pointing toward the black vehicle parked not far from the gate "we need to get back, now!"
Spike looked at the black Ducati, it was the same that had passed his car minutes before. He couldn't believe it… it had actually been her.
"The motor's already cooled down! She's been here for sometime now!" Mark said approaching them, after having checked the temperature of the motor trying to find out for how long she had been there.
"We can't stay here any longer… let's go!" the brown haired man said gripping his leader's arm and leading him towards the limo. But no matter much he tried he couldn't move him, it was like his feet were glued to the asphalt under him.
"Spike, stop being an idiot and move!" Shin said, not thinking that now the man in front of him was far more than merely a partner, but his leader.
"And what, Shin? Let her go without even taking a look at her face, the real one? She's not so dumb to leave her motorbike out there for everyone to see, if she was really here to kill me, she would have hid it… weren't you the one who talked about chances? Well, we have one right now, and I won't lose it" his resolute tone of voice surprised both Shin and Mark, it had been a month since when he took over the leadership of the Red Dragon and they had never seen him so serious about anything.
"Ok, Spike… but we'll come with you" the younger man said resigning himself at his boss' stubbornness, moving to follow him towards the graveyards' entrance.
The three men entered in the sacred area; it was completely different from the last time Spike had been in a cemetery. Three years ago when he went to meet Julia on Tharsis it had been like the heavens were crying, he could almost remember the intense scent of wet flowers and the cracking sound of the old metal gate as it was moved by the wind. He remembered the damp clothes sticking to his skin, his hair plastered on his forehead and on the back of his neck. The moment he had seen her beautiful face his heart should have felt pure happiness, but truly the emotion that had came to surface was sadness and melancholy; it was almost as if his heart already know that he wouldn't have been able to hold her in his arms for long before she slipped away again. But that time she had gone away for good.
Right then instead the dusk sun was creating an almost surreal atmosphere and as he walked through the graves he couldn't help but notice that even if it was a gloomy place, the last rays of sun that hit his face made him feel at peace, he felt free and alive. Just like that day on the RD headquarters steps when he had thought he would die, the sun's heat had touched his face and he'd had a taste of true contentment after years of not feeling anything at all.
"Sir?" Mark's voice broke his stream of thoughts and he blinked before turning to the voice waiting for him to continue.
"She's stopped on a grave not so far from here, but I think it's better for us if we stay out of her sight…"
"Yeah, whatever…" he replied with his head still in the clouds.
Spike followed the others, they stopped behind a huge family tomb and then he saw her, and his breath was caught in his throat. She was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans, and a black tank top that left her belly and lower back uncovered, her left hand gripped tightly a Japanese sword, its blade protected by its black sheath. He noticed that a nearly dried stream of blood was running down her right arm from the bandage on her shoulder, but in spite of the wound her right hand still managed not to let the two roses in her grasp fall.
He stared at her long dark hair slightly moving in the soft breeze, and when his eyes scanned the beautiful features of her face, the cute shape of her nose, her small but full red lips, her unique emerald eyes, he knew that his intuition had been right not once, but two times that day, because the woman he was looking at not only was Nemesis, but also his ex-partner the annoying infamous shrew-woman, better known as Faye Valentine.
"At least now we're sure that her hair color is black…" Shin said looking intently at the woman he had tried to catch for three years without succeeding.
"Dark violet…" Spike corrected him.
"Oh, yeah…" he replied surprised that he would argue over such a minimal detail.
"Green eyes, about 5.58 feet, 26 years old…" he listed slowly as Shin and Mark were staring at him, mouth agape.
"Spike, How-?"
"Name, Faye Valentine" he trailed off still studying her as she moved to put one of the two roses on the grave and said something to it touching its cold surface.
"How… how did you know her?" Mark asked shocked by his boss' revelation.
"Did you have an idea of who is the poor guy who lies under there?" Spike questioned ignoring the golden haired man's question.
"How am I supposed to- holy Jesus! Spike, that's your grave!" he answered even more stunned than before, things were developing quite fast and he really needed a pause before he had a heart attack.
"Not that I had any doubts about it…" were his last words before his eyes turned to the female figure not so far from their hiding spot.
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Faye crouched down next to the marble surface of the tomb and placed the red rose on it then her fingers brushed on the picture of her lost partner, and her mind went back to the day they took that photo. Ed had insisted that they posed on Spike's Swordfish II the four of them plus the dog, and even if nobody a part from the crazy girl had said it was a great picture, they had all thought it. In the picture you could even see part of her red sweater and arm above Spike's smirking face, she couldn't help but smile as she replied in her mind their pointless fight over the positions on the spaceship.
------ Flashback ------
Spike was already sitting on the cockpit of the Swordfish II, his baby, his arms crossed on his chest as he waited for Ed to set the camera, when Faye made her appearance on the dock.
"So where do I have to pose?" she asked, taking off her sunglasses.
"Behind the camera…" Spike replied smirking at his joke.
"Faye, just shut up and sit on the ground in front of the ship…" Jet said from his position above Spike, from his upset voice she could understand that the sun hitting his bald head wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling.
"And leave the lunkhead the entire scene? Over my dead body…" Faye said coldly as she climbed up and settled next to Spike, she hooked her arm around the cockpit and grinned victoriously at him.
"At least my beauty will cover your ugliness…" he said earning a kick and a new scratch on the red paint of his beloved ship.
------ End Flashback ------
Her sincere smile turned into a sad one as the force of reality hit her memories and she stood up saying her goodbyes before leaving the grave directed to pay a visit to another person that lied in there.
"One more, Spike, soon I'll be free, just like you… wait for me cowboy."
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"Where do you think she's going?" Mark asked.
"Julia's grave is in that direction…" Shin replied, watching as Spike took a cigarette off of his packet and lit it before sliding down to the ground inhaling deeply. His eyes were fixed in the distance, he seemed lost in thought but actually his mind was too confused to formulate a single thought: why was Faye doing that? What had made her become the merciless assassin she was now? Why was she taking flowers to Julia's grave, when she met her only once? What happened that caused her the wound on her shoulder? Too many questions that had the same identical answer: because of himself, of his selfishness and his stubbornness. He didn't notice Shin sitting beside him till his voice questioned:
"Are you going to let her go without even trying to catch her?"
"She brought me roses…" he answered matter-of-factly smiling before bringing the cigarette back to his thin lips.
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The three members of the Red Dragon sat silently in the same spot till they heard the motorbike start up and leave the graveyard. They didn't share a word with the others; they just sat there on the gravel path staring at the pointy tip of the pine that stood in the perimeter of the sacred place. Each one lost in his own thoughts, trying to give answers to tormenting questions, such as: had it been the right thing to do, letting her go like that? After all it didn't really matter that she had bonds with Spike, she was always the one who had killed many of their partners, sometimes even friends; did she deserved the clemency they were giving her, when she hadn't been the least bit merciful towards her victims?
Even if they had known their leader since the times they were just simple beginners, and despite the great respect and feeling of friendship they had for him; Shin and Mark were starting to doubt about Spike's ability in leading the syndicate. Sure, they couldn't deny that in one day he had found more information about Nemesis that they had done in three years, but that encounter could have been pure coincidence; on the other hand he had proved to care more for himself than his men, and that was one of the rules a leader should never break.
"Bring me to Julia's grave, Shin…" Spike's voice broke the silence as he sat up and stamped out his third cigarette with his black boots.
Shin nodded and started walking to the aforementioned tomb. He stopped in front of an impressive family grave built in black and deep red marble, the emblem of a dragon above its entrance made it clear to whom it belonged. Spike entered and looked around himself, there were the vases containing the Van Elder's ashes, Mao's gravestone with fresh flowers, and other graves with names he just heard about, probably other leaders that had died before he was even born. Spike's eyes finally located the two tombs he was looking for; he saw the red rose that Faye had had in her hand on Julia's, while he couldn't help but notice the black sign left by the plastic sole of a boot on the white marble of Vicious' tomb, surely another courtesy of Faye.
"Such a bad temper, Valentine…" he said to himself after a chuckle, surprised that her bad attitude never left her, even if now she was a coldhearted killer. Spike's mismatched russet gaze moved to the inscription on Julia's tombstone, it read:
'HERE LIES A FALLEN ANGEL, NOW FINALLY BACK IN THE HEAVENS WHERE SHE BELONGS…'
'That's a Vicious' classic phrase…' he said to himself his smile fading as his fingers brushed the cold surface. He shouldn't be there, looking at her grave; he should have been with her in some afterlife, his dream was over and he should have been dead. When he had told Faye he was going to see if he was really alive, he had lied to her… he had known his life was over the moment Julia's blue eyes closed for the last time, his soul had stayed trapped behind her closed eyelids and his only way to free it was to reach her, die for her.
But it seemed that his soul had regained its freedom by itself since he was still alive and breathing; and even if he tried to hide it, Shin's lecture about not losing a second chance had really shaken his view of things. The ghost of his past had finally been put to rest, and the dream he used to live in was just a painful memory in his mind; he had to start live in real time again, and this time there was nothing holding him back. He would get Faye, take her out of the mess she had so wonderfully put herself into, and go back living his life as a broke bounty hunter, eating Jet's bell peppers, and trying to figure out what strange creature was living in Ed's head.
"I wish things would have been different for us… you've been the only thing that mattered to me for a long time, but now I need to get my family back… goodbye, Julia." His whispered words echoed through the walls of the little chapel, as he looked for the last time at the inscriptions before walking towards the exit.
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2074, Red Dragon's Headquarters, Tharsis – Mars -
---- A few days later ----
Spike was walking along one of the hallways in the Headquarters, his black boots falling on the black marble with loud footsteps, he had a lit cigarette dangling from his lips and his trench coat was slumped over his shoulder. As always it had been raining on the Martian capital. The doctor said it would be a good exercise for his legs coming up the stairs, but at nine in the morning he preferred using the elevator. He finally reached the machine and noticed that in the near small break area there was two of his men having some coffee; they greeted him with the usual "morning, sir" and went back to their talk. As he waited for the device to reach the first floor Spike couldn't help but listen to their conversation.
"Have you heard about Morimoto?" asked the younger one.
"Yes, they said it was her again…" their leader's ears perked up at the mention of Faye's latest execution.
"Of course it was her, nobody else could have beat Kenji… he was as good as Vicious."
"Poor thing, she doesn't even imagine what we're gonna do to her as soon as we catch her… I kinda miss the good old times Vicious let us enjoy ourselves with his preys…" Spike's frown deepened remembering the silver-haired man's perverted games.
"Yeah, I've heard she's pretty hot, too… I really can't wait to be inside of her hearing her screams of pain… I could already smell the sweet scent of her blood" one of the two said with a full laugh but was interrupted by the sound of a low chuckle coming from the man standing at the elevator doors. Spike really couldn't bear it anymore, his level of disgust had reached its limit; he wouldn't permit that his men do such things to anybody, much less to Faye.
"Now, I understand why she enjoys slitting open people like you so much…" he said in a low voice, making the two men's boldness melt like ice under the sun, they looked at each other not knowing what to say.
"W-we're sorry, sir… we were just-" one of the two said after gaining some courage.
"I don't want to hear that name anymore, nor do I want anybody to praising his filthy acts, inside this building… or I'll consider using that practice you were talking about on your sorry asses: have I been clear enough?" he questioned gravely.
"Yes, sir… we won't say Vicious' name anymore" they agreed at the same time.
"Whose name?" he asked, his mismatched eyes taunting them.
"Sorry! We meant that name…"
"Good boys…" he replied flashing them a smile before disappearing past the sliding doors.
They stood glued to their spots for a few minutes, still scared shitless that he would come back and close them into the same cells to torture them as Vicious would have surely done. But he didn't come back and they where waken up by a familiar voice.
"What happened? Have you seen a ghost or something?" Maxim asked to his partners.
"Mr. Spiegel just warned us about not saying V-that name anymore…" one of them said correcting himself in mid-sentence.
"We were talking about Nemesis and how we would like to do to her what he did to his whores… and Spiegel just scolded us like we were kids… it was almost like he was defending that bitch…" the other continued staring at his now cold coffee.
'Maybe I'm not the only one knowing Nemesis real identity, right Spiegel?' he thought suspiciously, his pale lips tightening into a thin line.
A/N: I really hope you liked this one, it was the one I had more fun writing, I don't know why, but it's probably my favorite chap… till now at least… next chapter is still on paper, a series of senseless notes I've written down in hot summer nights that will probably need deciphering (I've never been a master in handwriting… sometimes it takes me a lot to understand what I wrote), so I can't promise anything andI don't know when I'll update next time, but I can tell you that there's just one more chap before THE reunion… I'm sure you got what I'm talking about.
And I wanted to thanks all my reviewers I LOVE you all! And I'll love you even more if you'll review this!