Hi readers! I just wanted to let you know that three people wrote this story, so you might notice three different writing styles as you read. Anyway, I just thought I'd tell you. Hope you like the fic ^_^

Take Care Spike!

Spike sat on a stool drinking his fifth bloody Mary at the Blue Mountain bar. After gulping the drink down, he waved for the old bartender to give him another. "Don't you think you had enough there son," the bartender asked. Spike was about to make a rude reply, but for some reason the look on the old bartenders face made him stop. "Yeah, I guess your right," Spike said getting up and pulling some money out of his pocket, which he then handed it to the bartender. Spike headed toward the exit, but stop at the sound of the bartender calling his name. "Yeah?"

"Take care of yourself there sonny," the old bartender said with a smile." And with that Spike walked out.

Spike sat down on a bench. Pulling his cigarettes out from his coat jacket, his lighter from his pocket, he lighted his cigarette and proceeded smoking. As he sat there he couldn't seem to stop thinking about the bartender. There wasn't anything special about the old geezer. He had bushy gray eyebrows and shiny bald head, but something about his eyes. Those old gray orbs that seemed to stare straight into Spike's soul.

Shivering, the cowboy rose, flicked the half-used cigarette to the ground and stretched. If anything, the old man was right, he had spent way too much time in that bar. But it wasn't wasted time. He had a lot to think about. The past 24 hours had been hectic. Not that he wasn't use to bad days, he seemed to attract them like moths to light. But when you didn't have your friends there to help you through a hard time then it made that bad day seem like a never ending nightmare.

"Who needs them anyway?" Spike said to himself made his way down the cold gray streets. "I don't." Both his arms raised and went to the back of his head as he continued talking to himself. "I'm just fine on my own."

He stopped in his tracks when he realized what he just said. On his own. When had he ever been on his own? He was always surround by people, by friends. Even by his enemies. Nonetheless he was never lonely. Or at least he thought he was never lonely. Was it possible to have so much company around you constantly and to still be alone? Had he been alone all this time but didn't realize it? Certainly if the crew of Bepop were any friends of his they wouldn't have done what they did to him.

Suddenly the sounds of an explosion filled the once empty air and before Spike knew what he was doing his feet were moving underneath him. His eyes caught site of a tower of smoke that hung over a parking lot. Cursing silently to himself he picked up speed.

"Get outta the way!" Came the shrill cry of a girl as she pushes past Spike and went running into the smoke.

"Hey!" Spike shouted and followed after her, but once he had entered the black pillar he was unable to see. Not only that but the air was almost unbreathable. He could feel the dirt and debris entering his lungs each time he inhaled. He coughed when he exhaled though, releasing the same toxin's he had breathed in back into the air.

"If my ship wasn't parked here…" He said as he made his way blindly, but surely through the black smoke.

Something flew past Spike, something fast and so hot that it singed the collar of his jacket. Immediately he reacted and he threw himself to the ground, coughing and eyes brimming with tears. But he found that he wasn't alone on the ground, the same girl who had pushed past him from before was right beside him.

"Hey!" Spike growled. "What's going on here?"

"Who are you?" the girl growled back at him and Spike noticed that she was holding a gun in her hand, which seems to be pointing at nothing in particular.

"My car's parked here!" Spike shouted angrily at her. Who was this girl and what gave her the right to demand questions of him, her elder.

Suddenly the girl's eyes widened. "It's you."

"What?"

The girl drew her attention away from Spike and shot seemingly at nothing. A loud scream was heard and just a few feet in front of them a man appeared and fell to the ground. He was dead. Spike looked at this with astonishment. He then looked to the girl who once again had her gun pointed at nothing. She shot, another man appeared out of no where and fell, and then in one swift motion she pointed the gun at Spike. "Be careful, and trust no one." She then shot. Spike heard a thump and turned to see a dead man on the ground. Turning back to the girl he found that she was gone.

* * *

"Hey Faye, get in here," Jet shouted hovering over the computer. "Yeah looks big this time." Faye walked into the room holding a glass of scotch. "Take a look a this," Jet grinned. Faye moved toward the computer and bent over to get a better view. "Not bad," Faye said sipping on her drink. "Not bad! Are you kidding," Jet growled. "We're talking about seventy-million wulong here and you say not bad."

"Not bad," Faye said again walking out of the room. Jet rested is head on his hand and sighed, " There's just no pleasing some people." Jet looked at the bounty again. She was a young girl. Jet couldn't help but feel sorry for her, already involved in crime at such a young age. "But a bounty is a bounty and that's what keeps money on the table," Jet said getting up from the couch and stretching. Still it's hard to believe she could be responsible for the death of so many people, Jet thought giving her picture one more glance before heading off to the kitchen to start dinner.

Who was that girl and what did she want with him, no use thinking of it now, Spike thought, as he unlocked the door to the room he rented for the night. The room was small and cramped. The ceiling seemed to be extremely low so he had to bend a bit. The room contained only a bed and nightstand, which were practically covered by dusty decaying newspapers. "Wow, isn't this just great," Spike said sarcastically. But this was all he could afford. Spike sighed deeply and shuffled his way toward the bed, bumping his head on the way once or twice. Spike shoved some newspapers off the bed and then plopped himself down. In doing so a big cloud of dust rose up causing Spike to go into a coughing fit. "This sucks!"

Everything was just going wrong. Absolutely nothing was going his way. But then again, when did anything in his life go as he had planned it.

He smiled up at the ceiling as he announced out loud, "Fate you're a very fickle woman."

Suddenly he feels coolness at the side of his head and turns quickly to find himself looking into the nose of a gun. His eyes go wide when they next fall upon the same girl he had run into earlier that day.

Her eyes narrow as she looks at Spike, her mouth frowning in such a way that it looked as if a smile was as foreign to her face as snow on Mars. But it was the look in her eyes, no matter how hard her expression was, that told Spike Spigel that she wouldn't dare pull that trigger, at least not yet.

"We need to talk." She says and Spike smiles.

"Lady fate, you cease to surprise me."