A Cowboy Bebop fanfic I just thought of. Enjoy http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif

Melancholy Dreamin'

"You can't escape your past, Jace. Nobody can. You can try to hide to hide it, you can try to forget about it, but it will only consume you from the inside out."


"I don't want to hide my past. I want to destroy it."

Mother Earth, year 2072. Earth is nearly inhabitable after an experiment goes wrong 41 years prior. An outer space explosion causes chunks of the moon to hurl towards Earth, littering it with craters. Humans have colonized the other planets of the Solar System, hoping to rebuild their lives after the disaster. Mars has become the "New Earth", and this is where our story takes place......

Chapter 1 : Ace of Spades

"Excuse me sir." Jace jumped awake, startled and confused. His surroundings were not familiar. He was in some sort of coffee shop, his face covered in his own drool with a young, blonde haired waitress peering down at him empathetically. "It's time for you to go mister, it is 1 o'clock in the morning", the waitress said, her voice teetering between annoyance and sympathy. Jace, who's brain was still in sleep mode, replied something incomprehensible as he wiped the drool off of his face with his shirt sleeve. His black, straight hair looked unkempt, and there were several orange stains on his white tie (there were stains on his black shirt too, but they were not visible). The waitress made a loud noise in her throat and rolled her eyes, apparently disgusted by Jace's current appearance.

"Do you know how I got here?", Jace asked sleepily as he clenched his forehead. He had a massive headache, almost like one of those headaches you get during a hangover. No, it couldn't be that, Jace thought. He hadn't had THAT much to drink (if you think 4 Bahama Mama's and a shot of tequila isn't a lot). The waitress, seemingly uncomfortable, backed up a little as she explained Jace's dilemma. "Well sir", she started nervously. "You had come in here, around 6. You did not seem to be in the right state of mind sir. We sat you down here so your drunkenness would wear off and you ended up falling asleep". She averted her eyes quickly towards a waiter standing near the entrance to the shop, who was holding an ice pack to his face. "Oh, and you dropped this one your way in." The waitress dug in the shirt pocket of her light green work polo shirt, and pulled out what looked like a playing card with a single golden spade in the middle of it. Jace took the card from her hand and studied it, and slow realization hit him. "I won the game", Jace whispered to himself, staring at the Ace of Spades.

"Hmmm?", the waitress mumbled to herself. This guy was confusing her to no avail. Jace smirked in victory, and tucked the card into the pocket of his black slacks, and pulled something folded back out. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you tonight, ma'am." He got up from his seat, finally fully awake. The waitress stared at the wall to her right, uncomfortable. Jace, with the smirk still on his face, slipped a fifty dollar bill into the waitress' shirt pocket as he headed towards the door. The waitress pulled the bill out and looked at it, and she gave him a soft smile. The waiter standing by the door shuffled out of Jace's way, almost in a cowardly fashion, and headed towards the kitchen, the water from the ice pack dripping on the floor. The waitress groaned and rolled her eyes again. "You are going to mop that up, Dave. I've had enough bullshit for one night." Jace paused as he opened the door, and he took one last look at the waitress. "Take care", he winked, and he walked out of the restaurant.

It was a cold and quiet night on Melrose. The only signs of real activity were the flickering street lights. As Jace strolled down the street, he saw very few people out tonight. A perfect night for crime. Jace buttoned up his suit jacket and moved along, the moonlight beaming down upon him. I'm surprised I won that game, Jace thought. So that's how they thought they were going to beat me..they got me drunk and I still won the game. Ha. Jace paused for a moment and tried to recall having more than one drink, but he couldn't remember many details from the card game. His head still hurt. His attention was soon attracted to the black ship that speed past him and pulled landed in front of the coffee shop that he just walked out of. Jace turned around and watched 4 men, dressed in suits and wearing fedoras, step out of the ship and walk into the restaurant. "I wonder what their problem is." Jace shrugged and continued his walk of solitude, but stopped again right after he heard a window shatter from a short distance. He ducked to the ground and hid behind a parked ship, holding his gun, and silver Desert Eagle with black star on the middle of it. The 4 men were out of the restaurant, and one of them pointed at the ship Jace had just hid behind. "Shit", Jace whispered to himself.

All of the men pulled pistols from their suit jackets and fired at the ship. Jace peeked over the side of the ship and fired his gun once. One of the men fell to the ground, dead. The bullet had punctured the middle of his forehead and exited through the back of his cleanly. The rest of the men stopped firing for a second to help their fallen comrade, which wasn't a smart idea. Jace fired three more shots. All three men fell dead to the ground. Jace spun his Desert Eagle around his fingers and blew the barrel of it. "Heh. Too easy." He got from behind his cover, peeking at the dead bodies in front of the coffee shop to make sure that the job was done. After his quick evaluation, Jace continued on his walk, stuffing his gun back into his pocket.

The mayhem that had just occurred did not stir anybody on the street. Shoot-outs were a common thing on Mars. If you walked down the street and saw a person littered with bullet holes, you would just keep walking and not bother to call the police. Odds are that they've already been to the crime scene.

Jace pulled a small, touch screen device from out of his right pocket and tapped it once. A projected screen popped out with alphabetic characters at the bottom. Jace typed in the words "TITAN". In less than a second, a man's face popped up on the screen, glaring at Jace. "You were supposed to report 4 hours ago, where the hell were you?". Jace leaned against the wall and started to laugh a little. "You wouldn't believe this, but they got me drunk. I won the game though." The man on the screen still held his stern expression, but you can tell that he wanted to laugh too. "Did you get the card?". Jace held the device in one hand and pulled the card out of the pocket with his other. He held it to the screen so the man could see it, the Golden Spade shining from the light of the moon. The man finally cracked a smile, his already youthful facial features became more youthful. "Oh boy, this is going to rack in a lot of dough", he said with a greedy expression as he rubbed his hands together. "Dough that will be well spent, right Cin?", Jace said as he raised any eyebrow. Cin seemed to be annoyed by this statement. "Yeah yeah, just get back to the ship." The screen turned black.

"I'll get back..ha", Jace laughed as he put his device back in his pocket, along with the card. He noticed a bus bench a couple of feet a way, and decided that he needed a nap.

Chapter 2: Profit

"We're getting a bunch of cash for this. I'm telling you man." Cin walked with a kind of swagger as he and Jace headed to the Mars Police Headquarters. Cin, with his blonde hair slicked back, his blue dress shirt and khaki dress pants neatly pressed, had a grin on his face while Jace displayed no signs of happiness. His scowl was hidden under his black sunglasses.

The streets were very active today, even though it was only 10 in the morning. Ships sped up and down lanes, shoppers stormed into stores looking for bargains, and kids walked out of ice cream shops with happy faces. "So how much money do you think we are getting for this card?", Cin asked while straitening his tie. Jace continued to walk, ignoring Cin's question. Cin stopped and turned around, and raised an eyebrow at Jace. "What the hell is your problem? Woke up on the wrong side of the dumpster?", he jeered as he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket.

Jace pulled off his sunglasses, revealing his baggy, bloodshot eyes. "You see this?", Jace whispered, pointing to his eyes. "I barely got any sleep last night, and your constant talk about this god damn card is getting on my nerves." Jace put his glasses back on and continued walking. "We should've just brought the guy in. We would've gotten more money."
Cin laughed and lit his cigarette. "Jace, you know damn well we aren't bounty hunters. Only item hunters. Items bring profit, and we like profit."

"Correction. You like profit. I'm just here for the kicks". Cin laughed again. "I guess I can have your half of the money then!". Jace didn't reply. "Anyways", Cin said as he noticed the police building directly in front of him, "Can it with the attitude, we're here". Jace looked up at the building. It was about 6 stories, and had a relatively modern look to it. "This isn't how they looked on Ea-". Cin cut him off. "Don't even bring that up Jace. Just forget about it already", he said with a slightly angry tone to his voice. Jace shot Cin a look of mixed feelings, but said nothing. Cin averted his eyes away from Jace and threw his cigarette into the street. "Let's go", he said quietly.

The duo walked to the reception desk, where a blonde haired middle aged woman was there to greet them. She wore a white blouse with a black dress, and her name tag read "Melinda". "How can I help you gentlemen?", she smiled. Cin pulled out the Ace of Spades from his pocket and placed it on the desk. Melinda picked it up to observe it. "Ah. The golden Ace of Spades. Recently stolen from the Mars National Museum. May I ask where you gentlemen acquired this?". Cin pointed at Jace with a thumb, who was leaning against the wall reading a magazine. "My partner here challenged the man that stole it to a poker game. Instead of money being bet, Jace said he wanted the card if he won. Which he did". Jace looked up from his magazine for a quick second, but then quickly looked back to his magazine. "Well I want to thank you two for obtaining this valuable card, but I want to ask why didn't you bring the crook in?", Melinda asked as she squinted her eyes in suspicion. Cin gave a nervous laugh.

"We aren't bounty hunters, ma'am. Not bounty hunters that bring people in, I should say." Melinda gave Cin a look and pursed her lips. "I see", she said. "I will need both of your names and the name of your ship so we can send you your reward." Cin gave out another nervous laugh. "Er..sure. My name is Gio, and his name is Stephan. We don't, er, have a ship at the moment." That did it. Melinda knew something was up. "Didn't you tell me your partner's name was Jace?". Cin tugged at his collar. "Yeah-yeah I did. That's his last name, miss. His last name is Jace." Melinda didn't buy it. "Can I see your I.D. mister?", she said, holding out her hand. Cin wiped the sweat from his brow and started shaking. He hadn't expected all of this to happen. Jace continued to read his magazine in silence. "You want to see my I.D.?", Cin repeated stupidly. Melinda glared at him. "Yes, that's what I said mister". Cin nervously pulled a small, transparent device out of his pocket and placed it on the desk. Melinda touched the device, and Cin's picture popped up on the screen, along with other information. "Cin Grace, age 27. Home Planet, Jupiter. Sir do you have your passport on you?". Cin looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. "No-no...I left it in my other pants." Melinda didn't buy that either. "Sir I'm going to have to ask you to leave this planet immediately after this. You do not belong on Mars without a passport."

Terrorists were a constant problem on Mars. Too many people have died from bombings and random shootings. The government decided that it was in the planets best interest to keep all people besides it's citizens out unless they had a passport, which costs 100,000 woolong. That was too much money to pay in Cin's mind, so he snuck onto Mars illegally.

"Yes, I understand miss", Cin said as he scratched his neck. Melinda turned her attention to Jace, who was still reading his magazine without interest in what was currently going on. "Mister Jace, may I see some form of identification from you as well?". Jace put the down his magazine and pulled a device similar to Cin's out of his pocket. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the device from the side of the room he was on right onto the desk. Melinda looked at him in awe for a second, and picked up the device from the desk. "Jace Wright, age 25. Home Planet..Earth. Okay, you are all set Mr. Wright. Here is your I.D.". Jace walked to the desk and gently took the I.D. from Melinda's hands. "Thank you", he said quietly, and he sat down in the chair immediately in front of the reception desk. Cin, who had gained some of his composure back, politely asked "So do we still get our money?". Melinda looked at him as if he was the biggest idiot she had ever met. "Sir..I cannot give you this reward because you aren't a citizen of Mars. However, I can give Mr. Wright the money, and you two can settle it from there." Cin was annoyed by this. "Fine fine, just give him the money and we'll get out of here".

Melinda handed Jace an envelope with the number "1,000,000" on it. Jace stuffed it into his shirt pocket and gave her a mumbled "Thank You". Cin gave Melinda one last look, and the two walked out of the police station. "Well that totally wasn't worth it. We only got 1,000,000?! I can't even wipe my ass with that." Jace looked at Cin and began to laugh. "We got a 1,000,000? More like I did. Ha!". He patted his shirt pocket happily. Cin frowned. "You better split that with me." Jace shrugged as he peered at the sun. "I did all of the work on this one, you aren't even supposed to get this money, Jupiter Boy."

Cin smacked Jace in the back of the head playfully. "Come on, let's go get some food", he said. Jace nodded. "You're paying though!", Cin added. Like hell I am, Jace thought. I could go for a nice steak though.

Note: Even though nobody ever commented on this, I'm going to start writing again really soon.

At last, the long awaited Chapter 3.

Chapter 3: Downtown Showdown

Tonight was not going well for Jace. After he and Cin had collected their reward and went out to celebrate, everything took a turn for the worse. Jace had decided that they should eat at a fancy restaurant downtown, at a place called Delicieux, supposedly one of the best restaurants on Mars. The price for a hamburger alone was $175 because the supposed "quality ingredients" that were used to make it. This was Jace's kind of place. After parking the ship and leaving some of the cash behind on it, the two partners waved down a taxi to go to the restaurant. "Where am I takin' you fellas?", the taxi driver asked as they got in. "Uh, downtown. Drop us off at Bush and 2123rd St. We're going to that fancy French restaurant." The taxi driver peered into the rearview mirror and chuckled. "Yeah, yeah I'll take you fellas there. Gonna have to charge you little bit more though, since that's out of my vicinity." He then typed a few things on the computer which was on his dashboard, and hit "Send". Cin nudged Jin with his elbow, but Jin ignored him and looked out the window. A little boy with a big red ball was playing on the sidewalk by himself. His clothes were worn out, and his hair unkempt. The boy stopped bouncing his ball for a second and looked at the taxi cab passing by. Jin and the boy's eyes met for a second. The boy at first didn't look sad, but when Jin looked into his eyes, he saw sadness inside of them. Torment. Despair. The boy wanted to be free. And so did he....

After about 10 minutes, they eventually reach the restaurant. Jin paid the taxi driver $130 and waved him off. Cin simply studied the outside of the restaurant with his hands in his pockets. Delicieux certainly did live up to its name. It was a very sleek and modern building, something you don't normally see downtown. Something about it bothered him though. It just seemed like one of those restaurants that a mob would run, but he shrugged off the idea. "You ready to eat?", Jace said, and patted Cin on the shoulder playful. Cin, still looking up at the neon blue Delicieux sign, said "Yeah. Let's go in." When they walked in, one more thing popped up that made Cin suspicious. There was very little conversation going in the restaurant. Usually, restaurants are loud and bustling, but here everybody was talking in quiet voices and whispering. A couple of guests turned in their seats occasionally to sneak a peek at Jace and Cin, and then continued on with their inaudible conversations.

A very tall, pale waiter wearing a dress shirt and a bowtie greeted the two when they walked to the host's stand. "Good evening, gentlemen. You've been expected. Your seat is this way." Jace and Cin both looked at each other, confused, but followed the waiter. More people stopped whispering to each other to look up at the two when they passed by. Something definitely was strange. The waiter stopped suddenly and ushered them to a booth on their left side. A young man in an all white suit wearing a fedora and sunglasses was occupying it, reading the menu. The waiter tapped his foot lightly twice, and the man looked up suddenly and Jace and Cin. "Ah, my guests have arrived! Please, sit down!", he said as he smiled wide. Neither Jace or Cin complied. "What's going on here? You don't know us, we don't know you. How the hell did you know we were coming here, and what the hell do you want?", Cin whispered aggressively. Jace crossed his arms, staring at the man with faint recognition. "I've heard about the two of you around town, and I decided it would be nice to formally meet you!", the man said with another smile, gesturing them to sit down. Jin pointed a finger at the man. "You. You're the guy from the card game. The guy I beat..."

The man's fake smile soon turned into a scowl. "Yes, I am that same man. The same man you swindled out of a fortune. You have no idea how much that card was worth, do you? Millions. Millions that could've gotten me off this god forsaken planet!" The man slammed his hand down on the table. None of the guests in the restaurant reacted, or even turned to see what was going on. It was as if they already knew.

"You aren't leaving this restaurant...until I get that card back, Jace Wright." The guests in the restaurant suddenly stood up simultaneously, and pulled guns from either their coats or their pockets and pointed them at Jace and Cin. "The card is gone. We turned it in", Cin said as he looked around at all the guests. "I just want to know how you knew we were here."

The man laughed, but before he could answer, Jace interrupted him. "The taxi driver. It was the taxi driver. You must have a lot of connections around this city. You sent those guys after me a couple of nights ago, and now you have taxi drivers spy for you. But it's amazing that you got your whole crew into this restaurant in a matter of minutes. You probably killed the owner, didn't you? All of this, done in less than 10 minutes, and all done in vain." The man's face turned a violent shade of red after hearing Jace's taunt. "Why you cocky little shithead. I would kill you right now, but since you don't have the card there is no point." He snatched off his sunglasses and stared Jace down with his cold, grey eyes. "But the next time you firetruck with me, or even the next time we cross paths, I will make sure your ass is dead", he whispered menacingly. Jace stared back at him and smirked.

"Get this asshole out of my restaurant", the man said dismissively, and the waiter grabbed Jace and Cin and casually tossed them out onto the pavement.