Bebop Blues

Chapter 13: Pushing the Sky

Everything was falling into place.

And Spike was determined to straighten things out before his memories slipped through his head again.

"You knew who I was the whole time."

"I thought that was apparent when I called you by your full name when you awoke upon my couch."

Judging by the lack of reaction in Faye, he assumed that Mai had already revealed how he returned to life this time.

"I thought it was because of Mao. "

"You never asked."

He grit his teeth as he sat up further, and Faye shifted nervously behind him.

"That's not a good enough answer, dammit!" He slammed a fist on the coffee table.

Mai, collected and cool, stood from her chair. She knelt next to the couch and grabbed his face, her palms flat on his cheeks. Her hands were cold. "You give me a better one, then, Spike."

She was piercing his gaze.

Something was off.

She was different from his memory of her.

No glow. No twinkle in her eyes.

Her odd, he realized now, eyes.

Two shades of brown.

Like his.

"You live in the dream, too."

"Is it real?" she asked.

She was pleading with him.

He chuckled. He felt Faye shiver. "You tell me, Mai. Is it real?"

"Do you remember then, Spike? Where he is? Or anything?"

"I remember you now. In that church."

Her eyes went wide.

"What church?" Faye asked. Her voice was strong, but her subtle shaking revealed her concern.

That wasn't the reaction he expected. Mai told Faye everything.

"So you don't remember that?" he asked Mai, unsure of whether or not he really wanted to know the answer.

"There's a lot I don't remember. I woke up in a hospital a year and a half ago."

And the pieces kept falling into place.

And Faye realized it this time. "You were there on Mars. In that church..."

"What are you talking about?" Mai asked. She looked worried.

Too many things were unraveling at once.

Bang.

The Mezzo shook, and the Bebop followed.

"What the hell?" they yelled in unison.

"Spike! Mai! Faye! Any of you! Answer your coms!"

Mai snapped out of her reverie.

"What the hell, Jet? What the fuck just hit my ship!" she screamed.

"I don't know! Get the hell out there and find out!"

Mai grit her teeth before making a mad dash to leave the Bebop and board the Blues.

Faye and Spike were hot on her heels.

No one was dressed for combat. Faye and Mai were in shorts and tank tops.

Spike didn't even have a shirt on.

No one would be getting any sleep.

All three crafts took off, and Jet videocommed instantly.

"What were you three up to?"

"No good," Mai said without missing a beat. She got her spark back. The thrill of battle seemed to do that.

"Never mind that! What the hell is out there?"

"Some punks fighting it out. It looks like we were just caught in the crossfire," Spike responded.

The Red Tail veered left to avoid an incoming plasma missile. "I don't think so!"

Sure enough, one of the ships involved in the dogfight was aiming right for the Bebop crew, the Mezzo included.

The silver zip craft looked like some strange cross between the Red Tail and the Hammerhead, with a round cockpit towards the front, a long body, and two heavy arms on either side full of machine guns.

It zoomed towards Mai.

Over the video feed, the team saw her grin, her teeth glinting like fangs. "You wanna' fight? We'll fight." She shot the Blues towards it.

"So the beast rears its ugly head." The other pilot made his presence known.

The spitting image of Vicious.

"Victor! You bastard!" Mai shot her cannon.

Swerve.

The other ship, a deep red mono-racer (it was almost a crimson, much deeper than the Swordfish II), identical in shape to the Blues, sped towards the zip craft; the silver stripe, which was opposite the Blues' stripe, blurred.

It was built for speed.

And something else.

As quick as it was, Spike and Faye could tell it was meant more for packing punches than winning races.

A flicker of light emitted from the ship.

"Goddammit!" Victor snarled as his video feed fading in and out of static.

Mai hadn't noticed the other ship before.

"Fucking parasite with your damn tricks!" Victor yelled.

Mai snarled this time. "You want tricks?" She fired again.

"He's got friends! Stay on your guard!" Jet yelled.

"Jet! Have Ed get me an open com to that other ship! And the Mezzo's got cannons, in case you didn't know!"

"Mai, you love your damn toys," Jet half-chuckled, half-groaned.

"Edward is on the job!" Ein barked in the background, as if to offer his assistance as well.

Faye and Spike had split from Mai in separate directions to take on different sets of zip crafts.

Silver snakes adorned them.

"These punks are fast!" Faye yelled.

Her aptitude with her gun and fists had gotten better.

Her aptitude with the Red Tail was another story.

"Just hold them off! This fucker is mine!" Mai was seeing red again.

Spike was shooting down ship after ship, spinning to assist Faye when he could.

They were severely outnumbered.

"Mai-Mai! Edward cannot hack into that ship! It is built like the Mezzoooooo!"

The Mezzo fired a large plasma blast at Faye's group; only four of them remained.

"These cannons are serious overkill!" Jet yelled.

"That's how she rolls," Rose commented.

"Thanks, Jet!" Faye knew she could handle the remaining four with no problem.

"What about Ein?" Mai asked. She then she comprehended Ed's words. "Wait! What do you mean built like the Mezzo?"

"Edward cannot hack the Mezzo!"

"Why not?"

"Edward thought you were hacking her out of it!"

Spike was down to three.

"I couldn't hack my way out of a paper bag."

Everyone went silent for a brief second.

"Then who?" the Bebop crew asked in unison. They were syncing a lot these days.

She smirked. "The Rhythm."

"What?" Faye asked.

"That other ship belongs to the greatest hacker I've ever known." She was full on beaming now. "I bet you anything he's been bumping you off the Mezzo's tracks since day one."

"Who?"

"That damn Spiegel!" Victor yelled, tired of their banter.

His resemblance to Vicious was uncanny, but his attitude was far different.

He was a loose cannon.

Vicious was a methodical machine.

"Which one?"

Three voices.

Spike and Mai paused.

"Roy?" she asked tentatively.

No video feed.

But she could hear him.

"Miss me, muse?"

She took off towards the other ship like a bat out of hell. "Pull that trigger again! That EMP was always so badass."

She could practically hear him smirk.

"This guy's good," Faye said.

Spike was a bit jealous.

Roy was a real class act.

Another burst of light from around the Rhythm shook the sky.

Victor's video feed went dead.

"Nailed it!" Mai exclaimed.

The cockpit of Victor's ship departed the body and headed straight for Earth.

A collective groan.

"Dammit!" Mai yelled.

He was too small a target and too far away to be shot down or pursued.

Spike shot his last three and turned to help Faye.

She had one left.

Bang.

End of that.

The Rhythm and Blues were facing each other.

"I'm sorry, love," Mai heard.

"Roy..."

"I'm not quite done."

"Don't you dare!"

He cut the feed and zoomed away from Earth and the Mezzo.

"Goddammit!" She started to speed after him, but he left a pulse in his wake.

It pushed the sky; her ship halted mid acceleration.

The velocity moved the Blues only slightly.

She slammed a fist against the console. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Each word was punctuated with a slam.

A dead fish in the water, she waited for the Mezzo to rescue her.

Her ship regained electrical usage as it settled into the hangar.

Faye was running to her before she landed; Spike was close behind.

"Was that... Roy?" Faye asked warily.

They already knew the answer.

Mai looked up and gave a somber smile. "It's always a damn Spiegel."