Faye didn't know why it ended this way. In the fairy tales, the gallant prince always defeated the bad guy and had enough strength to pull himself through his grueling injuries to live with the princess of his dreams. But, she reasoned, this was not a fairy tale. Spike wasn't a prince nor she his princess. She supposed he wanted it to be like this, in the end, and from what she understood from his past, maybe he thought it was the only way to end the suffering that his previous acts had earned him. But, she thought, it was unfair still. The minute that she realized that the Bebop and its crew were the only place that she could call home, it was all ripped without a second thought from her hands.

The ship was silent, and although Faye experienced melancholy lulls before, this was on a whole different magnitude. Nothing breathed, nothing stirred, and there was no mellow humming of the ship's engines or the tlick-tlacking of Ed on her keyboard. Jet shut himself up in his room the minute they received a call from the local police saying that the bounty hunter Spike Spiegel was dead. Faye was left to deal with the funeral affairs, which she thought was unfair and rude, but there was no response when she beat at Jet's door and asked him to help her, so she conducted everything herself.

She packed away all of his things, transferred his money to their accounts and after Jet refused to take Spike's old ship, put the piece of junk on sale. Now, it was been a week since Spike's funeral, and the silence was becoming unbearable. She knew that she needed to do something, it was unlike her to just sit around moping and collecting dust, but there was nothing else to do. She did not want to collect bounties or go betting on dogs or horses, she wanted to do nothing more than sit and think. She sat up and walked to the window that looked out to the Mars skyline and the deck covered in Ed's graffiti that the rain only partially melted off.

Edward.

What was that kid doing now? All she took was Ein and that computer. She maybe was a genius hacker, but from what Jet said, that girl had not even a speck of common sense. Earth was a wasteland. There was no way that she would be able to find her father. The meteors hit so quickly and changed the terrain so fast, there would be no way to catch up to the man on foot. She would starve, Faye realized. She would have to beg on the streets just to get only scraps of food. Maybe her hacking powers would be discovered by someone who wanted to abuse them and she would be dragged into a future that just now killed Spike. There was no way she could allow that to happen. If she did not run off that day, if she maybe stayed a little longer on the Bebop, she could have persuaded Ed not to run away. She sighed and rubbed her eyes.

A door swished open softly behind her, and she heard the tapping of Jet's metal boots on steel grates. "It's been almost a week, and now you come out? I had to deal with everything myself, you know," she said bitterly. She did not turn to face him, instead she looked upon the graffiti and regret began to fill her heart.

"Sorry," he said, gruffly. "I know it's been hard, but I have something to ask you." She turned, finally, and was startled to see the man who she thought could never wear down, never be broken, look so tired and dazed within his own ship.

"Well? What is it that the big 'ol police officer wants from me?" she asked as he grimaced slightly, and drew out a cigarette. He lit it and after a moment, he spoke.

"I'm chasing down the last members of the Red Dragon Syndicate. I was wondering if you would like to help." Faye's mouth dropped open involuntarily and she gaped at him with a look of pure confusion on her face. He ignored her dumbfounded look and continued to speak. "After the shootout, there were still about seventeen high members who escaped and are continuing to carry out their dirty work. I'm going to hunt them down and make sure that the Red Dragons are destroyed completely."

"A-are you stupid?" she spluttered, and put a palm to her forehead. Men were all the same. When the lose something that was out of their control, they had to challenge the earth and heavens just to get revenge for what they had lost. "Don't you remember what happens when you get involved with them? You'll be killed."

He nodded, and spit the cigarette out and crushed it with his foot. "I already know what will happen. All I am asking is if you want to join me."

"I'm not willing to die senselessly… Especially after what just happened," she growled. Although she, like the rest of the crew, learned to put up with the antics of everyone else, there was a limit to how much stupidity she tolerated on board. Even Spike, who would usually agree with the most haphazard plans, would turn down this one without a second thought. "Jet… Can't we just go back to bounty hunting? Even if you can't accept what's happened, we need to move on. I don't like this… Spike wouldn't-"

"Spike's dead," Jet said, and his prosthetic hand clenched around air. "And this is my ship. If you don't like it, you can leave. That's the way it's always been around here."

He turned to leave and she felt anger flare up in her chest. He took this all from me. Just when I found it. Now I'm gonna bring it all back. "Wait."

"Hm?"

"I'm leaving, too. I'm going to Earth to find Ed. Then, we're gonna go to Mars and live a normal life."

"What? You know Ed's never been tied up in one place for so long! Forcing her to live in a cramped apartment will kill her. You know that, don't you?" He sighed, and then, for practically the first time since she met him, he put his hand on her shoulder. It was awkward and short, the prosthetic cold against her skin and he quickly removed the hand and placed it at her side. He looked at her, with solemn eyes.

"It's better if you just leave this alone," Jet said, looking her down, just the way he did with Spike when convincing him not do one of his harebrained schemes.

She stared at him right back. "I'm not letting Ed grow up without knowing a family."

Jet's gaze slipped and he began to chuckle quietly. "What happened to the Faye Valentine I used to know? The one who played for herself and got off the boat before it started to sink?"

"I guess she just found some people she wanted to sink with."