Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Jupiter Jazz Part II Revised ❯ One-Shot

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Title: Jupiter Jazz (Part II) Revised
Author: Ryoko 03

Disclaimer: COWBOY BEBOP is not mine nor will it ever be.

Notes: I *really* disliked the way this particular session ended. Why? Because
(1) Gren was too fuckin' pretty to die and (2) I think Vicious and Gren would
have made such a GORGEOUS couple! So, this is a possible revision that, had
events transpired this way, the entire outcome of the series would have been
much, much different.

Session Note: This picks up just after Gren's ship has been disabled and just
before Vicious' is crippled.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jupite r Jazz (Part II) Revised
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soft strains of the nearly forgotten tune came as a shock to the white-
haired man. Memories assaulted his senses, but not of the woman who had
betrayed him and broken his heart. His mind took him back to heat and sand, to
horrific fighting, to a young man whose smile had nearly made him forget *her*.

The music ceased, followed up by a terrific explosion that took out the right
wing of his ship entirely. Vicious was torn from his unsettling memories and
back to the present. Desperately he struggled to control the crippled vessel,
but there was no way in hell that it would get him back into space. And the Red
Dragon mothership was nowhere to be found in the skies above Blue Crow.

Vicious found his thoughts returning to Titan, or more truthfully, to Gren.
Gren, who had believed in him even when he could not believe in himself. Gren,
whom he had sent to prison, who had moments before tried to kill him for that
betrayal of trust.

Gren, who he-

The crippled ship veered sharply, heading in a direct path to the ground below.
Vicious fought the controls, doing all he could to try and manage to land. He
succeeded only in not hitting any buildings, the momentum of the damaged vessel
driving it nose-first into the ground. The white-tressed man was thrown from
the wreckage, hitting the ground and bouncing three times like a discarded rag
doll. He landed facedown on the snow-covered ground, but he barely felt the
cold. Gasping for breath, Vicious shakily pushed himself up to his knees as he
wondered just how far he'd been thrown.

The thought died as he caught sight of purple-black hair off to his right.

Vicious tried to stand only to fall back to his knees. Apparently he was weak
from blood loss; there was a hell of a lot of blood on the ground where he'd
been lying, and he absently noted that his shirt was stained a constant red
along his abdomen. Unable to get to his feet yet determined to get to the other
man, he settled on half-crawling/half-dragging himself to two feet over to where
Gren lie in the snow. The dark-haired youth was still as death, the only faint
sign of life the shallow rise and fall of his chest as he struggled to breathe.

Vicious ignored his own injury, ignored the trail of blood he'd left behind him
and instead used the last of his strength to pull the limp form of his former
comrade into his arms. Gren made a slightly pained sound, turning his head
slightly towards the one who held him.

"gren," Vicious said, somewhat shocked by how faint and weak his voice sounded,
"i'm sorry." He didn't expect the other man to answer, and was rendered
momentarily speechless when he received one.

"...for what? this... the past...?" Gren's soft voice was cut off as he began
to cough violently, the blood he coughed up revealing that the worst of his
injuries were internal.

Vicious felt something stinging at his eyes as he barely managed to tighten his
hold on the dying man before answering: "for everything.... for planting the
transmitter... for sending you to prison... for hurting you here...." He gasped
as a sudden wave of pain overtook him, "for... oh god... for lying to you... we
*were* comrades.... you replaced her... in my mind... in my heart...."

"nani...?"

"ai... ai shiteru.... forgive me...."

Vicious winced in pain as he lowered his head to press a soft kiss to the corner
of the dark-tressed man's mouth. He had denied it from the start, but he knew
that neither one of them had much time left in this world. He had to be honest
with both himself and the one he loved before it was too late.

Gren managed to reach up and touch the other man's face, slender fingers
curiously tracing the path of Vicious' tears, tears that he didn't even know he
was shedding. The ocean-eyed man drew in a shaky breath, blinking back tears of
his own as he tried to find his voice one last time.

"i trusted you..." he whispered, causing Vicious to lift his gaze once more, "i
believed in you... but no matter what... i never... never... stopped loving
you.... from the first moment i saw you... i was lost...." He had no more
breath with which to speak, so he did the only thing he could. Weakly, using
what little strength he had left, he wrapped one arm loosely around the white-
haired man's neck.

Vicious drew the slightly shorter man a bit closer, closing his eyes to try and
hold the tears back. He could feel Gren's body still against him, could hear
the final sighed breath fade to a distant memory. He could hear someone
approaching over the snow, stumbling as if inappropriately dressed for the
weather.

He didn't care, though. His life was bleeding out onto the ground beneath him,
and his soul had just perished in his arms. He lay his head against the still
chest of the one he held, ignoring the familiar voice trying to draw him back to
the world.

Vicious smiled slightly, a real smile, the first one in too many years as he
felt himself fading into darkness.

//ai shiteru, gren,// he thought. //please wait for me. I'm right behind
you.//



Somewhere in the sky above, two stars burned brightly for just a moment, then
slowly faded away.

~~~~~
Owari
~~~~~



End Notes: Sad, ne? I'd rather they die together here than for one to have to
go on alone. Maybe later I'll write one where they both live, but for now
Karanya the Bitch-Muse of Angst needed to be appeased.