by Swooky Space Alien

Faye ran with long strides in a helter skelter pattern to make herself a difficult target for the Red Dragon agents. She covered her head with her hands and bent down as low as she dared. The bullets zipped by her, tearing the air near her ears while threatening to tear her skin as well. Faye squeezed her eyes shut in reaction to the gunfire.

In mid stride, Faye was hooked around the neck by a massive bare arm and swung around by her own momentum. She felt deafened by the hand cannon blasts that followed, and it took her a few moments to realize the feel of that arm was familiar, as was the sound of the gun. The subtle difference of the arm’s texture and the mechanics of the gun fell into place as Jet Black’s bionic arm and his Walther P99.

"Stay down!" Jet barked at Faye, and she obliged, allowing him to defend her life better than she could at this point. Jet shot and dodged, a game he had played countless times as an ISSP Special Forces member and as a bounty hunter. First in one direction and then another he picked off his targets dispassionately. He receded into the shadow of a building and changed magazines then emerged with his gun drawn, making sure all the Red Dragon Agents were either not moving or gone.

"Are they gone?" Faye asked tremorously.

Jet made one last sweep then replied, "Yeah."

Faye got up from the ground and started yelling. "Why did you come after me?"

"Because the Red Dragon was targeting you."

"Oh, no, Jet! I am NOT going to do THIS again! First I demand the explanation that I deserve, and then you put it all on me. It’s that control thing all over again! Well, CONTROL FREAK! Just kiss my ass! And I don’t mean literally!"

"Faye," Jet’s voice became strident, "It’s not about controlling! I–" Jet’s voice caught. He paused and looked away. "I need your help." It was quietly and quickly said.

Faye’s face softened. "What?"

Jet growled. "I need your help, okay? What do you want me to set it up in a laser light show?"

Fay supressed a smirk. "Why?"

"I can’t tell you here. It’s still dangerous."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No. I don’t. Look, Faye, there’s a whole lot more complication to this stuff, and, well, okay." Jet recomposed himself. "Remember all my bonsai trees?"

"How could I forget? You probably spent more time there than anywhere else on the ship."

"Yeah, well when I work with them, there are certain tools like wires I wrap around them and bleach that I brush on them, so I could make them grow the direction I want."

"And?"

"And it is a way of controlling how something works."

"Right…"

"So I had this dream–"

"Jet!"

"I was wrapped up in these wires and bleached down to my bones, okay? It wasn’t a fun dream." Jet groused at Faye. "I’m trying to get out but there’s this voice that says I put those things there myself."

Faye was silent.

"Then there was Laughing Bull’s voice there that said I should go find the ‘White-tailed Deer’. I don’t know anybody as skittish than a white-tailed deer except for you."

Faye frowned at him.

"Well," Jet exhaled resignedly, "That’s my dream. Y’know, you told me something before you left. You said I was controlling everybody. Mostly I was controlling myself. I had my reasons. I’m an ex-cop. I’m a weapons expert. I could go berzerk at the drop of a hat and take everybody down, and I mean EVERYBODY. That, I felt, was enough reason to put the wraps on everything including my feelings. If I gave free rein to my feelings, everyone around me would be hurt. Another reason is that feelings get in the way of my effectiveness. Because I was so upset with Spike getting killed, it took me forever to figure out that when he was carried away in a body bag, first that rigor hadn’t set in, and second, the cops carrying him were running as fast as they could under the circumstances."

Faye gasped. She looked Jet squarely in his blue eyes and saw his sincerity and intensity.

Jet continued more evenly. "When you left that night, you had told me you had wanted to give me something. You wanted to play my role, in effect. When I told you you HAD given me something, I was dead serious. If you hadn’t pushed me to the brink, I never would have had sex with you, and I probably never would have had sex with any woman ever again.

"I wasn’t able to let go completely, but I did let go." Jet’s dilated eyes met with Faye’s. "It may not have been what you wanted to give me, but I still cherish it, and it gave me perspective."

Faye stood mute. Jet was also silent as they stared at each other. Jet spoke first, "Where’s your zip-craft?"

"Uh, at the far end of town. Away from the Syndicates."

"Good choice. Come on. I’ll give you a lift. We’ll meet on the BeBop."

Faye frowned at him.

Jet remembered himself. "Okay, Faye?"

Faye smiled. She nodded and said, "Okay."

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