Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Poisoned Minds ❯ Time ( Chapter 7 )

My time is out. Green is now dead. Gold is dead. Silver is gone. Red must go now. Yet, I'll stay for this new crew intrigues me.

Ashina

Jet lay stunned against the hull of the ship as Ashina approached him slowly. “He has been put to rest now.” She looked up to him sadly as Faye and Ed came out.

“Don't worry, I already told them. Why do you look upset though? You job is done and you can go back to whatever else you do.” Jet fixed his gaze on hers' unwilling to let her drop it.

“My purpose has been served, and Vicious is gone. I'll soon die myself and move on. This body was not meant to be permanent.”

“That's not right!” Shouted Edward rushing forward to hug Ashina. “You can't go, please!”

“Franswas, listen to me,” Ashina smiled at the shorter woman. “I'll be okay, and so will you.”

“How did you know my real name?”

“Why are you so attached to me?”

The two looked at one another for a moment as Faye moved beside Jet.

“Fascinating, you're a lot older than you look. Seventy-seven?”

Faye blushed as she stepped away from Jet. “I was cryogenically frozen so technically I'm twenty-eight.”

Ashina chuckled lightly. “May I stay with you temporarily?” The surprised look on the crews faces as they nodded had her biting down on the inside of her lip to keep from laughing.

“Three conditions,” Faye started shaking out of her surprise. “One, no more killing or hunting like you have been.”

“Two,” Ed picked up with a smile, “you help us do repairs and bring in bounties.”

“Three,” Jet smiled arrogantly, “no running off without someone knowing where you are.”

“That really doesn't sound that hard.” Ashina replied blinking in confusion.

Ed motioned for her to follow her as they boarded the Bebop again. The launch door closed behind them with a light squeak blocking out the warm rays of light. Jet quickly broke off for the navigational room to take off, while Faye and Ed led her into the common room. Each flopped down in various places as she decided to take the couch and rest.

Unfortunately, sleep came to her too quickly and she was haunted by the sight of Vicious standing over Spike. The entire event played over and over against. The look on his face had been cruel and angry.

Sitting up abruptly she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and tried to slow her breathing. It was easy enough normally, but the damaged circuit leading to her brain make the action difficult. In the end, the circuit would kill her in a matter of week of months; but before an entire year pass.

She had been completely honest with the crew of the Bebop in every detail except one; Vicious had turned on her. Her mind floated back as she recalled the incident with startling clarity.

Ashina approached Vicious as he lowered his now empty gun. “Is he dead?”

“Yes.” Vicious pushed the release and the empty cartridge fell to the ground with a clank, and then swiftly reloaded it. “He lived far to long. His body should have broken down with so many damaged circuits.”

She stepped forward wrapping her arms around his waist in an effort to comfort him, and inhaled his spicy scent. “We're done now. We can finally be together.”

Ashina cried out as he roughly grabbed her wrist, and yanked her away. “I'm sorry Ashina, but this is the only way. You must realize that by now.”

“Vicious, please don't!” Ashina tried to pull away but his grip tightened around her wrist painfully as he raised his gun to her.

“It's amazing how you can mimic human emotions so well. I made you too human.”

“Stop it!”

In desperation she raised her hand against him, and brought her knee up into his stomach. His grip loosed and despite her wanting to stay to make sure he was alright she found herself running. Bullets sounded around her as she skillfully moved out of their path. One nicked the back of her skull cracking one of her vital circuits knocking her to ground in pain.

Quickly regaining her balance she ran again. The shots faded behind her, and she turned back toward the Bebop. She'd made up her mind to die among friends when her body expired, and they were the only ones who seemed to fit the description.

Jet and Faye talked quietly as Edward typed furiously on her computer. It wasn't Ed she was curious about though, it was Faye. The way the woman was cryogenically frozen in a time that had made such effort of immortality illegal. Plus, they'd had a problem with the sleepers having amnesia when they awoke. Had Faye had a similar experience and slowly regained her knowledge? She decided that must have close to how it had been for her.

Faye seemed pretty confident though, and that proved she had learned quickly to get along in the evolved world. The woman, to Ashina, was an enigma.

“You okay?” Faye asked turning toward her.

“Yeah, just restless I suppose.” The ache in the back of her neck reminded her of the fact her body was breaking down. Nodding to some idle thing Faye said she turned her thoughts inward again. A few more days and she'd start showing weakening, and in a weak she'd shut down. It had only been hope that had her estimating months, and the fact tore at her.

Standing Ashina left the room heading down the hall before finally collapsing against the wall. She found herself bothered by the lack of solid ground beneath her. Vicious had never removed her from the surface, at least, not that she knew of. “Damn it all!”