Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Fantaisie Sign ❯ Dreams To Dream In The Dark Of The Night, When The World Goes Wrong I Can Still Make It Right ( Chapter 12 )

DISCLAIMER: Cowboy Bebop and its characters are owned by the anime companies that made them, and not by me.

Author's Note: This fanfic is in the first-person style, with the POV being Edward's for all but a few chapters (and when the POV is different, I won't switch mid-chapter, the whole chapter will be like that). I've never even attempted doing something like this before, so bear with me.

French Note: For the few (non-generic) French language bits in this fic, I'll be using Babelfish. So pardon my French. ^_^

Special Note: THIS CHAPTER IS ENTIRELY IN SYLVAN'S POV. THIS IS ONE OF THE CHAPTERS WHERE IT SWITCHES OVER. I REPEAT, THIS CHAPTER IS IN SYLVAN'S POV. (Thank you! ^_^)

---

After I went to bed on the night of my date with Edward, I could hardly sleep. I mean, I'd just told her that I... that I loved her! And she said she loved me too... well, she said she was pretty sure she did, but I know that means "yes". When I finally did get to sleep, I dreamed about her...

---

"Sylvan, dear... wake up, you've been sleeping all morning!"

In the dream, Ed and I lived in a beautiful villa, overlooking the most incredible lake in Neo-France. When I opened my eyes, I could see her standing before me, wearing a beautiful pink dress. She smiled the warmest, most beautiful smile that I'd ever seen.

"Oh, Ed, I'm sorry..." I said, standing up and kissing her on the cheek. "I was dreaming about you..."

"Ed was dreaming about you too, Sylvan dear," she said sweetly. "Sylvan, you said yesterday that you wanted to go out on the lake today! Remember, you bought a yacht and you said we'd finally actually go out in it today, remember?"

"I did say that, Ed," I said, chuckling lightly. "Alright then, we'll go out."

"Oh, thank you, Sylvan!" she said, literally jumping for joy. "Well, let's go!"

We got out onto the lake and boarded the yacht. After starting up the motor, we were off and cruising, skimming the lake with incredible speed. Ed stood on the bow of the craft, letting her beautiful hair and dress flow as the wind passed over it. She turned to me and smiled.

"Sylvan, this is the most wonderously wonderful day of Edward's life!" she said, her eyes wide with happiness.

"Edward," I said seriously, walking over to her and kneeling at her feet. I took out a small, white box and opened it up, revealing a beautiful ruby ring. "I... I have to ask you something, Ed. Will you... will you... marry me?"

Ed gasped.

"Sylvan..." she said, her voice trembling. "Sylvan, I-"

But before she could say another word, something leaped out of the water and grabbed her by the neck! I lunged for her, desperately grabbing for her hand.

"Edward!" I screamed.

"Sylvan!" she shouted back before being plunged into the depths of the lake.

---

I awoke with a start, letting out a shout of fear and gasping for breath. I looked at my clock. It read "3:49" in big, red letters.

"Oh.... just... a dream..." I gasped, still shaking from the extremely realistic dream. I knew I couldn't look too deeply into those sort of things... still, the nightmare scared me enough to keep me awake for the next half hour. Finally, I was able to calm down enough to go back to sleep.

---

When I woke up again, it was nearly a half-past-ten o'clock. I didn't have any classes to go to, so I hopped out of bed, put on a white t-shirt, a blue denim jacket, some denim jeans, and a pair of tennis shoes. Then, I drove off to the Fantaisie Sign to check up on my mother, remembering to strap on a holster around my sock with a loaded pistol inside... just in case.

"Those thugs of Fremont's usually show up about this time," I thought as I climbed into my hovercar. "I'd better get down there so I can give them today's protection money."

Still sickened by the fact that half of our profits were now going to vicious criminals, I sped down to the Fantaisie Sign to make the transaction go as smoothly as possible.

---

When I got there, the thugs hadn't shown up, thank goodness. I entered the restaurant and sat down at one of the front tables to have breakfast. Relatively few customers were in the restaurant at the time, so I nearly had the place to myself. As I began to eat, my mother, smiling and wearing a beautiful red dress, walked up and sat down across from me at my table.

"So, Sylvan... how'd it go?" my mother asked. "You're looking pretty happy."

"Oh, mom, it was wonderful," I said, my feelings beginning to surface. "Ed wore a beautiful dress, and her hair was shimmering, and she was just the most beautiful, wonderful girl I've ever seen... the date was incredible."

"Oh, really?" my mom replied, curiously wanting to hear more. "Tell me..."

"We went out for dinner, and then we saw a movie, and then I took Ed up to the top of the Neo-Eiffel Tower... mom, you wouldn't believe the view we had! And then we...."

"Yes, Sylvan? What did you do then?"

"Oh, mom, I kissed Edward," I said joyfully. "We kissed for probably six seconds, and... oh, her lips were so beautiful, it was the most wonderful, incredible kiss... mom, I think... no, I know, I know I do!"

"Know you what, Sylvan?"

"I love Edward, mom! I love her! And she loves me too! Oh, mom, I'm just the happiest, luckiest man in the whole solar system!"

As I said those words, my voice lifted with glee. My heart felt light as a feather as I professed my love for Edward, just as it did last night. My spirit was uplifted, renewed, I felt wonderful!

"Sylvan, that's incredible!" she said happily. "Oh, Sylvan, where is she now?"

"Well, she's back at the college, but I'm going to go visit her later on today. We're going to come here and have another date tonight, and you'll be able to see both of us then!"

"Sylvan, congratulations!" my mother said. "I'm so happy for the both of you!"

Suddenly, the door to the Fantaisie Sign opened. Two tough-looking, leather-jacket wearing thugs walked into the room with devilish looks on their faces.

"Uh oh," I thought as the men walked toward us.

"I'll handle this," my mother said, walking up to the thugs. "Gentlemen, you have business with us today?"

"That's right, madame, you know the drill," said the first thug, a tall man with long, red hair and a scar on his forehead. "We'll do this in the back, alright?"

"Can we just do it out here and get it over with quickly?" said my mother, taking out an envelope. "Here's the check, it's half of yesterday's earnings."

"Now, you know our boss likes to do these things professional-like," said another tall man with short, black hair and no scar. "Let's go to the back."

"Hey, wait a minute!" I said, walking toward them. "My mom's right, let's just give you the money, and-"

"Look, kid!" said the scarfaced man, grabbing me by my shirt collar. "This won't take long. And you stay out of this!"

"Don't grab him like that," my mother said, as calmly as possible. "Please... Sylvan, just stay out here."

The scarfaced man released me, and the two thugs walked with my mother to the back room of the restaurant. I began to get extremely worried. What if those guys want to hurt my mom or something? I gotta follow them.

As quietly as I could, I crept to the back room. Standing just outside the door to the office where my mom and the two thugs were, I quietly watched and waited. I couldn't hear anything from inside, but I could see through a tiny window on the door. My mother handed the check to the black-haired man, and he put it into the pocket of his leather jacket.

"Well, I guess that went well," I thought, a bit of my fear subsiding. "Now I just hope they'll leave..."

But before I could collect my thoughts, my mother's scream pierced the silence from inside the room. I barged inside and gasped as I saw my mother, kneeling in the corner with the scarfaced man holding a knife to her neck.

"Boss doesn't pay us enough, so we're getting a little extra!" the scarfaced man shouted. "And you'd better cooperate, or-"

"It's the kid!" the black-haired man shouted, pointing right at me. "How dare you interfere!"

"Let my mother go right NOW!" I shouted through clenched teeth. "I knew they'd try to hurt her!"

"Ah, ze little kid wants to play rough, does he?" the scarfaced man asked. "I'll show you rough!"

As the scarfaced man charged me with knife in hand, I did the only thing I could think of to do. Quickly, I drew the gun from my sock holster and shot the man in the hand, causing the knife to fly across the room and the thug to recoil in pain, clenching his badly bleeding right hand. I pointed my gun at the thug's head.

"And there's more where that came from," I said angrily. "Take your money and get out."

The two men pushed past me and fled the restaurant as quickly as they could. I put my gun back in its holster and rushed to my mother's side.

"Mom, are you okay?" I said, picking her up from the ground.

"I'm fine," she said, brushing herself off. "Sylvan, thank you... but... why did you have the gun?"

"I was scared, mom," I told her. "I got a new one in case any of Fremont's men ever tried to pull something..."

"I see," she said softly. "I guess it's a good thing that you had it, but... I really don't like you carrying it around all the-"

"Then you keep it," I said, handing my mother the gun. "I'd probably feel safer if you had it..."

After a few more minutes spent recovering from our brief brush with danger, my mother and I walked back out into the restaurant, now empty except for a few very confused and scared-looking patrons.

---

After eating both breakfast and lunch, I reluctantly exited the Fantaisie Sign, still a bit worried for my mother's safety.

"I guess I'll be back tonight with Edward... her interview's probably over by now. I'd better go pick her up... I can't wait to see her!"

I drove over to the college campus, parked in front of Dejoule Hall, and walked into the building. As I reached the top of the steps leading to the hallway containing Edward's dorm, a very, very frightened-looking group of five girls ran up to me. I recognized them immediately as the girls whom Edward had been with before our date, waiting for me with Ed in the parking lot.

"What's wrong, girls?" I asked, a bit worried. "Where's Edward?"

"That's just the problem!" shouted the tall one, whom I immediately recognized to be Kirsten. "I think something happened to her!"

"What?" I shouted back. "Why on Mars would you think something like that?"

My heart began to race. The dream... it couldn't have meant anything, could it?

"We found this outside Ed's room," said the short, bespectacled black-haired girl, Asada. "It's the disc that the dean of admissions gave her. She said she was taking it to her room, but when we looked inside, we couldn't find anyone!"

"No, no!" I shouted, desperately trying to find some explanation for Ed's disappearance. "Are you sure she didn't just go off somewhere else?"

"I'm positive!" Kirsten said. "She told us she was going up to put away her disc, and then that she was going to see you!"

"Going to see me?" I said hopefully. "Maybe she's just waiting in my dorm room!"

I dashed off down the hall toward my dorm, which was at the end of the second floor hallway. I took out my key and opened the door, but gasped when I found no one inside my room.

"Well, duh, it was locked," came a voice from behind me. I turned around toward the girls.

"I guess you're right..." I sighed.

"Guys," said the girl with bluish-black hair, Piripi, "I saw scuff marks on the carpet outside Ed's door. Tons of them."

"I think she might have been taken against her will," Sani said. "But who the heck would want to do that?"

"I know who!" Kirsten shouted angrily before I could get a word in. "Stephanie probably bailed out of jail, and now she's holding Ed hostage somewhere! She's probably torturing her with all sorts of disgusting hazing rituals, and unless we save her she'll come back with a shaved head and her clothes painted an ugly shade of green!"

"Dammit, shut up!" I shouted at Kirsten, my anger and fear beginning to take over. "This isn't funny, this is serious! Someone's kidnapped Edward, and you think it's because of a damn sorority rivalry?"

"Chill out, dude, Kirsten's probably right," Kimberly said. "You don't know about Stephanie, but she's really vicious, and-"

"Sylvan's right," Asada said, her voice beginning to quiver. "It wasn't Stephanie... Ed was taken by the French syndicate, I know it!"

I gasped. Of course... those thugs I threatened must have went back and told Frémont, and... oh my God...

"No..." I said, my voice as fearful as Asada's. "No, no, no..."

Suddenly, the videophone on my desk rang. I pressed the button to turn it on, causing Frémont's sneering face to appear on my screen. I knew it....

"Sylvan, this is Frémont," he said. "I have something that belongs to you."

As Frémont spoke, I thought I could hear the faint, muffled cries of a girl in the background. Edward... Asada started to speak, but I raised my hand, silencing her.

"What the hell do you want?" I shouted angrily. "If this is about today-"

"Ah, ah, ah, that little attitude of yours is why you're in this mess, remember?" Fremont said snidely. "And now, it's why she's in this mess."

Frémont stepped aside. And then, I could see her. Two men were holding Edward, who was furiously struggling in their grasp. A piece of duct tape formed a seal over her lips, muffling her loud screams of protest. The men shoved her face up to the screen, and she continued to scream, a terrified look on her face. Her eyes looked like they could burst with tears at any second. I wanted to help her so much, I wanted to leap into the screen, free her from her captors, and tear Cecelle Frémont and all of his damned thugs limb from limb... Oh, Ed... I'm so sorry... please, please let them not have hurt you... But then, she was rudely yanked away from the screen.

"Twelve hours, that's all the time you have," Frémont said, walking back into the view of the screen. "I want one billion wulongs and the deed to the Fantaisie Sign, with a contract for your mother's guaranteed lifetime employment."

I couldn't take it anymore. With an explosion of anger, I yelled: "I swear to God, if you harm one hair on her head, you sick son of a-"

"As a French gentlemen," he said, interrupting my tirade, "I have serious reservations about striking a woman, especially one who is bound and helpless and who cannot fight back, but rest assured that I will do it if you say one more rude thing to me or to my associates, do I make myself clear?"

I began to speak, but then I remembered that if I didn't shut up and try to control my anger, he could hurt Ed... he could kill her... with a great deal of hesitation, I closed my mouth and meekly nodded my head.

"Good," Frémont said, a sick, sick smile on his face. "See you in twelve hours."

The connection ended, and the screen turned back. I couldn't take it anymore. I put my head in my hands and began to sob.

"Oh, God!" I screamed lamentfully. "Why... Edward, I'm sorry! It was my fault... I threatened Frémont's men, I offended him... why do you have to suffer? Ed, with all of my heart, body, and soul, I swear to you that I'll find some way... some way to... set you... free..."

I collapsed onto the bed, sobbing violently. A warm hand went on my shoulder. I looked up, and could see Asada's face through the tears coursing down my own.

"Sylvan," Asada said warmly, "we care about Ed too... and it's not your fault. Ed would never, ever think that, and you know it... she loves you, Sylvan."

"It's true," Piripi said, nodding her head. "We talked for hours about you last night..."

"She couldn't stop talking about you, she kept us all awake," Kirsten said, clenching her fists. "Ed believes in you, she trusts in you, and she loves you..."

"Oh, thank you..." I said, sitting up and looking around at all five girls. "But... Edward... those vicious thugs... and there's no way we could come up with a billion wulongs in twelve hours... we could hand over the deed to the Fantaisie Sign, but..."

Could we hand over the deed? Could I honestly tell my mother that she had to sign a contract that would essentially make her Frémont's slave for life? No, I couldn't... I couldn't do that to her, I loved her too much... but I loved Edward too... it's all my fault!

"We're marching down to the Fantaisie Sign right now and getting that money, that's the first thing we're gonna do," Kirsten said eagerly. "Your mom's rich, right? She'll help Edward out, right? You told her how much you loved Ed, right?"

"Guys, I... I can't do that to my mother," I said regretfully. "I love Ed, I love her with all of my heart, but-"

"Oh, come on!" Kirsten whined. "Ed NEEDS your help! You've got to-"

"Kirsten, no," Asada said. "Sylvan's known his mom for what, 18 years? And even though he loves Ed, he's only known her for four days."

"He can't expect his mom to trade her entire world away for her son's girlfriend," Piripi said sadly.

"This is really a dilemma," Sani said. "A very, very bad one..."

"Still, we should probably go down to the Fantaisie Sign and tell mother what happened to Edward," I said. "Maybe she'll be able to think of a way we can help her..."

We left the dorm room and headed to the Fantaisie Sign, the girls piling into Asada and Kirsten's hovercars. I climbed into my own car, and the six of us drove off to visit my mother. Don't worry, Ed... I promise I'll save you, by any means necessary! Except... my mom...

---

"I know exactly what we should do," my mother said, walking up to the phone on her desk. "We should call the police!"

"No!" I shouted, grabbing the phone away. "Any sign of the cops and they'd kill her, right on the spot! I won't risk Ed's life like that!"

"Then what do you suggest we do, then?" she said, angrily. "Ed's a sweet girl, but there's no way I'm giving up this restaurant, and we don't have a billion dollars, and we could never, ever get that kind of money, either!"

"See, Kirsten," Asada said, turning to the redhaired girl. "She'd never go for it, even if Sylvan offered."

"Well... how dare you!" Kirsten said, offended. "Your son loves-"

Kirsten's angry protests were quickly muffled when Piripi and Asada both placed their hands over Kirsten's mouth and held her back.

"Sorry about that, but we really, really do care about Edward," Piripi said, slowly sliding her hand away.

"It's alright, I know how you all feel," said my mother. "Edward is a sweet, sweet girl... and she's just the kind of girl that I'd love for my son to spend his whole life with..."

"Then why won't you do something?" Kirsten shouted. "Throw a karaoke fundraiser! I'm sure you could come up with the money that way..."

"This isn't the movies, Kirsten," I said, rebuking her suggestion. "We'd never make that kind of money in twelve hours. Not even the Jerry Lewis Memorial muscular dystrophy telethons make that much money."

"Then maybe we should... try to find Ed ourselves," Kirsten said, quietly.

"That's crazy," Kimberly said. "We don't even know where those French syndicate guys are keeping her!"

"If I knew..." I said, my voice beginning to rise with anger, "I swear, I'd tear them all limb from limb, every last one of them until I found Ed!"

"Sylvan, I know, I know how you feel..." my mother said calmly.

"No, you don't! Nobody knows how I feel, no one cares about Edward as much as I do! It's my fault she's in all this, it's my fault she was kidnapped, I shot that thug in the hand, and now Ed is paying the price because I couldn't control myself!"

I couldn't keep the anger in any longer... just like last time, I'd exploded and gone off at everyone. A tear streaked down Asada's face, and then, down my mother's as well.

"Oh, Sylvan, no..." my mother said, beginning to sob. "You did what you had to do to protect me... "

"Sylvan, wherever Edward is, she's probably thinking about you right now," Asada said. "She still loves you, and she knows that somehow, someway, you'll be able to rescue her. You have to calm down, Sylvan..."

"We're all here for you..." Sani said. "And in spirit, Edward is too."

I immediately calmed down as I sensed the caring and compassion from the girls and my mother begin to flow around me.

"Mom, the girls and I are going to go look for Edward," I said, with a determined look on my face. "I promise, I'm going to find her."

"Oh, Sylvan, I know you will..." my mother said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Remember, Edward believes in you."

"And we do too, Sylvan," Kirsten said softly. "Let's go."

The girls walked out of the room, and I began to follow them. Just before I left, my mother handed me something. It was my holster, and my pistol.

"You'll need this," she said. I nodded and took the holster from her, strapped it around my ankle, and walked out to the parking lot to join the girls.

The dream... it was trying to tell me something... but Edward, I promise I'll pull you out of the water... I won't let you drown.

---

Oh my gosh, Sylvan's so determined to find Edward! But will he find her in time? Next chapter's switching back to Ed's POV, and trust me, it'll be a doozy that you won't wanna miss!