Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Return to Life ❯ Tobias ( Chapter 5 )

Return to Life

Chapter Five-Tobias

Author's Note: I'm so sorry you had to wait so long, things got complicated in my life, and I just didn't have time to work on any of my stories. In this chapter (it's really long), I have made Spike tell of his childhood and how he came to be here today. It's nearly all made up so I hope you enjoy it. :) *puts back on headphones blasting "Don't Bother None"*

I sit up, eyes burning with exhaustion even though I have been asleep for the past two hours. Dreams are a bitch. Especially when you're reliving moments in your life you wish you could forget. My stomach growls loudly, interrupting the silence around me.

"I hear ya, I hear ya," I mutter heading towards the kitchen to see what Jet's cooked up. Jet is just taking the food off the grill, and starts serving 'em up. I grin widely, enjoying the aroma of good food in the air. "Don't just stand there drooling! Help!" Jet commands strictly, an amused undertone beneath that rough voice.

Julia.... why can't I get that name out of my head? I reply the same memories again and again, that sad smile, her delicious laughter...I can remember waking up in the middle of the night, her warm body pressed against mine, breathing so slow and steady that I couldn't tell where her heart beat began and mine ended. I lay there for hours, just listening, relishing in the perfection of it all. It was only when the dawn light peeked through the curtains that the spell shattered. I smile sadly, feeling the affliction once again, the reflection of her final moments...

"Spike, are you even listening to me?!" The reverie I have fallen into shatters, and I look over at the provoking Faye wondering what she wants now. "Jeez, that's just like you. Laying there daydreaming when I need your help! You know what? Just forget-"

I grab her forearm, causing the words to die on her lips. Her face flushes, and she twists away from me roughly. I sigh, putting up a hand that silences her. "Before you even start bitching, what did you need my help on?" She smiles wickedly, eyes full of possibilities; I can't even begin to guess.

I sit at the bar; clutching a drink I haven't taken a sip from in an hour. Loosing the noose around my neck, I pull the tie off and shove it in my pocket. The bartender's eyes follow the movement, and he smiles chuckling out loud. "I take it the young woman you came with isn't your date?"

I cast a glance at Faye, who is chatting with a group of people casually as if they were friends she knew all her life. She is dressed in a black spaghetti strap dress, dark hair hanging loose to her shoulders, powered face nearly glowing in the chandelier light. Her eyes are like two alien orbs; full of secrets I will never know. She catches my eyes, and blows a kiss playfully. I feel as though a stake has been shoved in my heart. The loss of Julia is still too near...I turn away, meeting the bartender's questioning gaze. "No, not at all. If I were going to bring a date, I wouldn't bring one that...flamboyant."

He laughs, setting aside the glass he was polishing and leans over the counter. "I like you. I'm James Wate." I smile, shaking his hand briefly. "Tobi-" I freeze, the word dying on my lips. What the hell...I haven't thought of that name in 10 years. I struggle to recover, mind still shell-shocked. "Spike Spiegel. Nice to meet you."

James stares at me, eyebrow rising in curiosity. "You remind of someone I met years ago. Except he was much younger, and he didn't have two different colored eyes. Strange," He comments sitting down across from me. Now I am the one fascinated. "This person..." I say words coming out laced with urgency. "Did you meet him on Mars?"

The bartender pauses, taking a moment to think. "Actually, I believe it was on Mars. How the hell do you know that?" Taking a sip of my drink, my smile turns arcane. "Let me tell you a story. One that I believed lost until this moment."

I lean back, eyes closed in remembrance and sigh. "I was born on June 26, 2044..."

[Italics] It is not often I tell my life story to strangers but then this man is no stranger to me. Now that I recall his face, his eyes, and his voice. He is my uncle, one I have shunned since joining the Red Dragon Syndicate. He does not remember me. I do not expect him to; after all it has been nearly 20 years. Contrary to popular opinion, I once had a family of my own. Parents, relatives, the works. Only my life wasn't perfect. If anything, it was a fate worse than death.

My father was a kind man when he had not drowned himself in alcohol. I cannot remember his job but he made enough to support my mother and I. Perhaps he was a bounty hunter as well? My father, Arthur, did not respect the sanctity of marriage and often beat my mother to the point where I sometimes wondered if she would survive at all.

My mother, Bethany, was the opposite of my father. She had a good heart; one my father would never come to know. Booze and money were his lovers, and he cared little about other things. My mother offered no resistance to his frequent beatings, only accepted it with a grimace. Some may call her a fool, but she was smart in ways my father would never be. If she did strike back, she would not be able to protect me from father's rage.

He never did come to understand me, as I will him. I saw him only as a fool, one who did not quite understand love and how to administer it. I learned the ways of the world from mother, and I still hold her close in my heart to this day. The basic principals upon which my life is build, all hers. Kill or be killed, accept life for what it is and not what it could be...

Then one night, my world shattered into a million pieces. My father was beating mother again, though with more umbrage than usual. I could never watch the scene, my father's hand covered in mother's blood, face enraged with hate and ignorance. I often wondered if they had ever been happy once. Mother cried out for me. "Tobias!!"

My true name. One I have never revealed to anyone, even someone I consider a true friend. The name is laced with pain from my past, and I have contempt for anyone who dare call me by it. I ran then, fast as my little legs could carry me. My mother laid in a large puddle of blood on the floor, my father stood over her, hand curled in a fist. She raised her head, bright brown eyes focused unsteadily on me. "Tobias, walk out that door and do not look by. Do not come back...ever."

I must have stood there for hours, wounded by her words but most of all by the gun in her pale hand. She pointed it at me, blood-covered lips parting silently. "Go now!"

I was frozen to the floor, and could not move an inch. I can vaguely recall a sudden burst of pain in my shoulder that jerked me to the floor. I did not need any more instruction. I ran out the door but paused in the street, head turning back towards the scene.

Mother raised the gun to my father's head. The shot will ring forever in my eyes. Father fell, eyes wide in shock and disbelief, blood dripping down from the hole in his skull. My mother has finally defended herself. She smiled, laying back onto the floor and closed her eyes forever. Father fell dead a few moments later, and I kept staring. When the ISSP came, I still stood there, barely aware of the noise around me. A man knelt in front of me, concern clear in his eyes. "Hey, kid...you do know you've been shot, right?" Finally, the spell broke and I fled, away from the empty bodies that had once been my parents.

I came to be living in my aunt and uncle's house a week later. They were kind, and treated me as if I was their own son. I lived there for 2 years and found all was not well. My aunt, Vicki, was having an affair. She often used me as an excuse to get out of the house. I became familiar with her boyfriend, and he, Mao Yenrai, took an instant liking to me. It was not until my aunt became intimately involved in his affairs did I find out he was a member of the Red Dragon Syndicate. I was a boy -aged 14- and had a natural curiosity for anything that was related to death. And the Syndicate was crawling was death.

Whether it was a mistake on fate's part, or my own innate inquisitiveness, I secretly followed Mao Yenrai and Vicki on an outing. Mao had teased me earlier saying they were celebrating a special occasion. Naturally, I wanted to find out what he meant. I hid underneath the pool table of the bar they had stopped at, huddling close enough to hear what they said yet far enough so they couldn't see me. Imagine my surprise when I found out Mao had been passed leadership of the Syndicate. Vicki was excited until the bullet stole her happiness, along with her life. Two men dressed in suits approached the startled Mao Yenrai, and started talking about things I couldn't understand. All I knew was that Vicki was dead, and Mao was to follow if I didn't do something.

That was when I spotted the gun on the corner of the pool table. The two men who had been playing had left it along with their pool sticks. I grabbed it before I knew what I was doing, and aimed blindly. All I remember is the two suited men collapsed and Mao grabbed me and ran. Apparently, they weren't alone. Evading them was easy; they were all bark and no bite. "You're a pretty good shot, Tob."

The Syndicate recruited me two months later. I did not go back to my uncle, even though he expressed the interest to do so. I was his only family...but I had a new family now. Mao took me under his wing, teaching me everything he knew. Four years passed by in a blur. I became a full member of the Syndicate, and eventually adopted a new name: Spike. It was then I met my partner, Vicious. He was unlike anyone I had ever met before, and we instantly hit it off. He was not only my partner but also my best friend. The first one I'd ever had. I was content, for once.

Time no longer had any meaning, years passed and I suddenly began to tire of it all. With age comes wisdom, and mine was particularly heavy. I grew sick of the politics, the killing, and the destruction. It was then Mao Yenrai announced I was next in line for leadership of the Syndicate. I didn't express my desire to Mao but he began to sense it in my work. It wasn't as clean and cut as it could be. An assignment went array one night, and I stumbled away from the wreck not sure if life or death would claim me. Life did, in the form of a mysterious woman named Julia. I'd never met anyone like her. She was gentle and strong at the same time. I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, but fate...disagreed. Vicious, my former partner betrayed me, trapping Julia into a win or lose situation. Kill me or he'd kill us both. She chose none of the above.

I faked my own death, and escaped the Syndicate. I wandered around for a year, staying a few months in a place then moving on before I became too attached. It was a simple way to live. Eventually, I met a man named Jet. Jet Black. A former ISSP detective who'd grown sick of the force and retired. A kindred spirit. He introduced me to the ways of bounty hunting, and we became partners. We made a pretty good team, Jet and I. Three years, we lived from bounty to bounty before running into a woman. Faye Valentine, a strange woman who only saw dollar signs everywhere. But there was a good reason, she was in debt. She'd been in an accident in the past and was cryogenically frozen. Now, she had a huge sum to pay off. She joined the Bebop crew, whether we liked it or not. The next addition was Ed, a crazy hacker from Earth who was looking for a good time and boy, did she hit the pick the right place.

My vision of reality had faded away, it was only stories I read, these things didn't happen in real life. Least of all, my life. No one understood this until Mao Yenrai was killed...by Vicious. I met up with Vicious once again, vengeance my sole reason. He had changed drastically. Cruel he was now, with hatred burning deep within those dark eyes. We fought, and both of us were worse for the wear. Vicious got a grenade in the face, and I got thrown out of a window and fell 30 feet. You decide which is worse.

I quickly realized that my past was going to catch up with me. Vicious, most of all. He wouldn't rest until he killed me. I met up with him once more though he was playing a cruel game, shooting with tranquilizer darts instead of bullets. The dream continued, and more adventures played out before ending at an abrupt halt. Julia was killed in front of my own eyes. It pained me-hell, it still does- and I got sick of reality too fast. [Italics]

"I faced my past, and lived to tell about it. I returned to the Bebop in time, made amends and here I am today..." I look up for the first time since starting my tale. My uncle's jaw has about nearly fallen off. His wide brown eyes stare at me and slowly he laughs, brown curls upon his head vibrating. The ballroom goes silent, and James laughs for what seems like forever. I smile widely, enjoying the sudden tension in the room. His laughter fades, and the room becomes noisy within a moment's time.

James leans forwards, clasping a hand on my shoulder. "Tob-Spike, I must say you certainly know how to catch a man off-guard." He chuckles lightly, then his face turns sullen and he points to Faye. "Does she know this? Do any of them know this?"

I look down at my empty shot glass, and shake my head. "No. I've never told anyone before but I feel you need to know. After all, I never explained why I refused to come live with you." He squeezes my shoulder briefly before sitting up from his chair. "Spike, you were but a teenager. You were old enough to make your own decisions and I can see you paid the price. The Tobias I know didn't have two different-colored eyes."

I stare at him. "Indeed. He's changed quite a bit. It's good to see you, Uncle. Keep in touch, all right?" I stand up, grabbing my jacket from the nearby seat. James calls out for me, and I turn raising an eyebrow. "Yes?"

He gazes at me for a moment, then shakes his head. "Never mind. Take care of yourself, Spike." I nod, and go to collect Faye. All this storytelling has suddenly made me tired.

MEMORIES DON'T HAVE THE POWER TO HARM BUT TO HAUNT…

(To be continued…I think. I'll have to see if anyone really liked this chapter or not. So what did you think? And please be honest!)