Rain

Disclaimer: Nope... not mine. If one was to sue me, all you\'d get was a... few Bebop CD\'s and a copy of the movie. \'Cause that\'s all I own! Wahh! Oh, and Rain, she\'s mine. Sith isn\'t, but I never claimed her to be.

Rain
Chapter 26: Reuniting

Rain walked slowly down the hall towards her living room. She’d been at the computer talking to Ed and getting some paperwork done. She smiled as she remembered what the young hacker had told her. Spike was actually acting like a man and had taken responsibility. It sounded like everything was in the good on the Bebop. As though life wasn’t any different without her. That had made her depressed, extreamly depressed. That meant that Jet was over her, even though she knew they couldn’t be together, ever again. She still thought about him, she hadn’t moved on yet. Rain sighed as she entered the room.

Sith was staring out into space, surrounded by a silver cloud of smoke. The living room seemed to have become her sanctuary. Rain smiled at her old habit. ‘At least some of us never change.’

Sith was at odds with herself, though. Rain could tell. She protected Aurora like another mother, like she was supposed to. Rain liked that, she had watched many times as Sith’s eyes became a soft color as she watched Aurora play and laugh. Aurora herself loved Sith, Sith was strong and had grab friendly hair. Sith had yet to learn to tie her hair back around the infant. Rain had laughed the first time when Sith was at a loss and didn’t know how to dislodge the child. Sith had been gentle, not wanting to harm the child as she opened the tiny hand and removed her blood haired locks from the small, yet strong grip.

Rain had also noted that the other servants as well as the rest of her semi-incompetent bodyguards were terrified of Sith. The nanny had many times asked why Rain let Aurora near a “Cold and evil animal”. Rain had that woman fired the next day and hired another nanny, one that kept her thoughts to herself. Sith was not an animal and Rain tolerated no talk of her as such. Sith had been her friend for too long to be treated as such.

Rain could feel that something was wrong, with her old partner. A need radiated her off in waves. After all those years of being the Crimson Dragon, knowing what people wanted, what they needed, she could tell. And she knew the reason too. Sith was in love with Vicious, he probably in love with her as well. She had been with Rain for the better part of a month, protecting her, but she never left. Rain rolled her eyes and shook her head slowly. At least Sith could leave and be with her love, where as Rain could not. Every time Ed or Faye wrote that they’d be on Mars, she couldn’t leave and see them. Sith could. Why she hadn’t was mindboggling.

“Sith,” Rain called, breaking the crimson haired woman from her thoughts.

“Yes?” Sith turned slightly, waiting for an order.

“Go,” Rain ordered.

“What are you talking about?” Sith asked. She seemed confused.

“You’re jumpy, even though you know I\'m safe. I know your instincts too well to disregard them. Go. You feel needed somewhere.\"

\"You aren’t safe yet.\" Sith said. Her logic shining through.

\"I am for now. I am in my own home.\"

Sith snorted, silver smoke coming from her nostrils as she exhaled sharply. \"That wouldn\'t have stopped me.\"

\"You are better than these.\"

\"Doesn\'t change the fact.\"

\"Just trust me, all right? Go.\"

Sith locked her cold eyes with Rain’s. Her face was set and grim, but that didn’t phase Rain. She knew Sith’s too well. “You know my orders,\" Sith said in her deadpan voice.

\"Yes. The Van assigned you to me. To protect me. So what would you do if I told you that by leaving now you would be protecting me from something I might regret later? Like kicking your skinny ass out the door.\" Rain laughed humorlessly. She knew that if it ever came to that, Sith could beat her, but Rain wasn’t one to back down. She herself had a few tricks up her sleeve that could surprise the logic driven assassin.

Sith snorted. \"I would tell you were full of shit.\"

\"But you would have to obey, now wouldn\'t you?\"

Sith grimaced. \"Yes.\"

\"Then leave now before I do something I might regret. And come back. These idiots couldn\'t protect themselves, much less me.\" Rain smiled genulinely this time, wanting her friend to understand that she appreciated this.

\"Thanks,\" Sith said as she grabbed her coat and started for the door.

Rain’s eyes went wide a moment in surprise, but covered it quickly, waving her
away. \"Get,\" she ordered. ‘Well, maybe you have a few surprises too, eh Sith?’

~*~*~*~

Vicious had been betrayed. To say he was surprised was a lie, he expected them to betray him Not that it mattered. He wanted death, he’d been seeking it. Sleep had been avoiding him like the plague and eating wasn’t of much importance any more. It just wasn’t worth it.

The man next to him poked him in the ribs with the barrel of his gun. “Where is she?” he asked.

“Don’t ask me.”

“Don’t be stupid, Vicious, she has your baby,” he said, a grin on his face.

Vicious knew what sort of man he was. He wouldn’t let anyone near Rain or his child, but he couldn’t let them know that. “That means nothing,” he responded in a deadpan voice.

It was then that he noticed that the others that were with him were dead and a familiar shadow was now behind the idiot with the gun. It was when her voice broke through that all was affirmed. “One move.”

“Who the hell are you?” he asked.

\"Nobody you would know of.\"

\"Then you won\'t do it.\"

\"Try me.\" Her voice was grim and dead pan.

\"I know all the assassins,” he said, his voice dripping with arrogance.

\"Clearly not. Who sent you?\"

\"Think its that easy, bitch?\" he growled.

Sith chuckled, then suddenly ceased. \"Yes.\" She pressed with her knife a little, breaking the skin. For a moment she seemed captivated by the blood that seeped from beneath her silver blade. \"Who?\" She slipped another knife into her other hand, resting it on his cheekbone, beside one eye.

\"Fuck off.\"

“Wrong answer,\" she sighed with a shake of her head. She tipped the second blade forward and broke the eye open, a yellowish clear fluid leaking down his cheek like a poisoned tear. He pissed himself, the sharp smell making her nose wrinkle. Vicious himself was nauseated by the fould ammonia stench of the man. \"Who?\" she snarled.

\"White Tigers…\" His voice was shaking, and the gun in his hand clattered to the ground, his fingers letting it go, nerveless. Vicious watched with a clear disdain at the man, he’d fallen so quickly to Sith’s… persuasion skills, it was disappointing.
\"That’s better.\" Sith shoved the knife forward into his neck, and he slumped immediately, blood pooling out and onto the pavement, a black puddle on the once pale grey pavement.

She looked to the man who was being threatened. \"That’s not like you Vicious. You never get crept up on, except by me.\"

Vicious locked his pale eyes with her from beneath his hair. He didn’t want her to see the shape he was in. His skin almost pasty, his eyes circled darkly from lack of sleep. \"I haven\'t been myself lately,\" he answered simply.

\"That’s no excuse.\"

He smiled at her, from behind the veil of silver. Sith knew him too well. \"I suppose not. Why are you here? You have a mission to be taking care of.\" Sith was silent, just looking at him, her head cocked to one side. Finally, he broke the silence that stretched out between them like a silver wire. \"I\'ve missed you.\"

Sith moved forewords with an almost unnatural speed. She then pressed her lips to his own, letting her kiss and her body speak everything that she needed to say. Vicious smiled inwardly at her raw need for him, her undying love, and pressed back with equal fervor.

They moved like soft shadows towards his apartment, talking barely above a whisper, as though they were afraid that any tone louder than that would break the dream that they were now within. It was when they reached his door that Vicious spoke the question that he needed answering, that he dreaded the answer to. “Do you have to go back?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered in a soft voice, as though she too had dreaded to speak of tomorrow as well.

Vicious locked his icy gaze with her own. It didn’t matter, they had tonight. He would memorize her every curve, her every texture this night. They made love passionately, as though their lives themselves depended upon it.

He awoke to an empty bed, he had become used to it, but the sheets still held a minor amount of her heat and smell, telling him that she had not been gone long. He then sprang from the silken warmth of sleep and rushed towards the door to catch her leaving. He felt his heart crumble as he watched her leave, an unspoken question ringing through his mind. He then asked it, “Will you be back?” he asked, the pain showing in his voice.

“Only if you want me to be,” she stated as she vanished out the door.

Vicious turned away sharply, his eyes catching something on the table. Quietly, he walked over to the small slip of paper and picked it up. His eyes widened as a pair of vibrant, yet pale blue eyes shone back to him. A small, round face topped with a mass of pale blonde curls, framing those eyes. Vicious fell onto the couch, his legs no longer able to hold his body as he turned the picture over. There, in Rain’s handwriting was a name. Aurora Katherine Deacon. Vicious smiled. This was his child, Rain wanted him to know that this was his child. He then remembered the red haired woman that had just left. Sith thought that he may not want her after this. Vicious snorted. Like he’d ever let her go. He loved Sith, as much as he loved Rain. It was Aurora that would top them, this smalnnocnnocent child that shared blood with him. No one would ever harm her, no one would ever be held higher in his heart. He smiled as he fell back against the couch and laughed. Life couldn’t ever givm a m a break, could it?

~*~*~*~
Levii: Here be a new chappy! Hope ya\'ll liked it. The story will be coming to an end soon, I must warn ye. And what an ending I am planning! It will be a twisted surprise, that\'s for sure. Until next time... Ja ne!