Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Poisoned Minds ❯ Revealed ( Chapter 4 )

Don't leave me. It is so cold and lonely out here. Hold me tight and never let go. I long for the warmth behind your power. Please, protect me from the crowd.

Ashina

Back on the Bebop, Jet happily served Spike along with the rest of the crew. Edward sat at the end of the table grinning mischievously up at him, and took her own bowel from Jet.

Looking down at the food curiously Spike's brows raised with curiosity. “It's got meat in it? Since when did you use meat to cook?”

“Sine I don't have to pay out the entire amount from a bounty into repairs, and property damage.” Jet laughed to take the sting out of his words as Spike looked down at his bowel again. “So where have you been?”

“Here and there, and no place special at all.”

“I guess the problem we're all having is that we saw you cremated!” Faye protested trying to gather herself.

“You saw someone cremated, not necessarily me.” Spike put down his bowel and scanned his the curious faces of his crewmates. “The way I figure it is that someone drugged me, and switched the bodies at the last minute. I woke up in a back alleyway.”

“What about those charges against you?” Faye asked nervously. “What are we going to do about those?”

Taking a deep breath Spike smiled and spoke gently. “They are only in the minds of those serving under the man who wants me dead. They don't exist in any records.”

Silence drifted over the room as Jet and Ed looked to Spike questioningly. “What charges?” Jet looked over him sternly.

“Ashina accused him of murder, rape, and association with multiple syndicates.” Faye spoke ominously while pushing her food around in her bowel.

“Ashina is here?” Jet asked cautiously. “I should have known she's be close behind if not a step ahead of us.”

“She's nothing, a simple creation of multiple people. Her entire life is dedicated to her creator, and she'll only believe him.” Spike's expression turned grim. “It is how she's programmed to explain it bluntly.”

“She's still human!” Shouted Edward slamming her fist down onto the table. “Sorry, I just don't . . . never mind.” She turned putting her bowel down for an overly happy Ein and left.

The waves crashed against the Martian docks, and tossed the ships about trying to dislodge them. The weather monitor had gone berserk recently due to the local hackers, and the result of their hard work had been the raging rainstorm that was occurring.

Ashina stood close to Vicious as the Bebop was swatted around. The motion made her nauseated just watching but grateful it didn't snap loose.

Pressing closer to Vicious for warmth she watched and waited. He held her tucked against his side beneath his overcoat. Even as the rain poured down drenching them her thoughts were of the man beside her.

He'd suffered so much, and smiled so rarely; he wasn't as cruel as people made him out to be though. His emotions were suppressed because he feared being hurt, and had only lived as drone. Vicious had never been unfair, as far as she knew, just strict. He enjoyed taunting people, and fights. Did that really make him such a bad guy?

Vicious had once worked with Spike as friends and partners, but something had changed that, a woman. Spike had become jealous and protective of his manipulator as she flirted with Vicious. It was said, he head come to her injured and dying. She had saved his life, but in return she took over him and twisted him into something evil.

Spike had become cruel, and learned to make it well. Vicious had always wanted the downfall of the Red Dragon Syndicate, but Spike was looked highly upon. None had known what he had become besides Vicious.

Now, the side effects of the drugs Julia had used on Spike had caused a sort of madness in him. He seemed to no longer care who he hurt. Vicious had predicted it, and tried to force Julia to kill what she had lost control of before he'd gone too far. She'd refused, and Spike had gotten away.

Vicious stepped forward cutting off her thoughts. “Go, the storm is weakening now.”

Nodding Ashina moved away from him and rushed through the train. Her hands were numb as she pulled herself up the hull of the Bebop, and she slipped several times. On the short landing strip her feet slipped giving testimony that she felt the pain in her leg were Spike had clipped her.

Grasping the door to the docking bay she yanked up, and felt it slide upward before someone rammed into her. Spike loomed above her pinning her to the ground. His facial features gave him the appearance of crazed with wide-eyes and a wide grin.

He reached for her again as she slide away from him, and twisted around knocked his legs off from under him. His knees gave a hard thump as he collapsed, and she struck at him. Spike easily knocked her hand away, and she stepped back to bring her knee up into his chin as he tried to move to his feet.

The door creaked open as Faye and Jet rushed out into the rain as well. Jet grasped Spike under the arms and twined his fingers behind his head. With Spike successfully detained Faye rushed after Ashina who spun away from her grasp, and slipped falling into the raging water.

Ashina flailed about trying to swim, and surrendered as she found herself tired. Her fleeting thoughts were centered on Vicious and the fact she had once again failed him.

Her feet touched bottom, and she sat there watching the silhouetted figure coming closer through the water. She imagined it as Vicious and reached out, but as it came closer she recognized it as the red haired girl from the Bebop. Closing her eyes she surrendered to the darkness, and waited for the girl to either save her or leaver or for dead.

Ashina trembled as Faye trued ti dry her off. They had loaned her some of Faye's old clothes while her own dried. Brushing a tender spot Ashina hissed lightly in pain.

"How long have you been tracking Spike?"

"A year or so." She answered swatting Fayes hand away, and stood awkwardly before collapsing. "I'm fine!"

"Yeah, you and Spike always are."

"Spike?"

"He's so stubborn! When he's challenged he rushed out despite the odds."

Ashina touched her shoulder lightly where Vicious had bandaged the wound Spike had given her. "He still hasn't come for me?"

"Who?" Edward asked laying a comforting hand on her good shoulder.

"Vicous. I know I'm only his creation and all, but I thought I might have ments a little more." Ashina buried her face in her hands as she sobbed; another foreign action to her.

"Are you still going to hunt Spike?"

She looked up at Edward and wiped away her tears angrily. "Yes, it is just a trick. He's not what you think he it!"

Grabbing her clothes she changed quickly, and rushed off the Bebop into the alleyway. Why didn't they see he was the one who was bad?