CHAPTER ONE

Gren felt a sharp pain in his throat as he groggily tried to open his eyes. He wasn't supposed to be alive, he had died. So why was he waking up? He opened his eyes just enough to see the rotating ceiling fan above his head and then blinked a few times to wake himself up. He coughed a few times hoping it may, in some way, help his throat, but it didn't . he was dehydrated, that was the problem.

"Finally awake? That's good. I didn't think you'd ever wake up." Came the voice of a girl.

Gren turned his head to see a girl about the age of 18 walking towards him. He tried to choke out the questions that were running through his head, but he couldn't seem to talk.

"It's okay, I'm here now. We didn't think you'd ever wake up again. Here, have some water." She handed him a glass of water and smiled gleefully as she watched him drink it. "We have a lot to talk about. First of all, where did you get the nifty ship? Jess did a restoration job of your body after you died, but another thing, since when have you been half woman? And what's up with the clothes you were in? Where were you hiding at all these years?" she waited a few seconds for him to finish the water "So, can you talk now?"

"Wh-where a-a-am I?" he managed to choke out

"You're home, Jordan, you're finally home."

With that statement, she gave him a huge hug that he didn't return

"J-Jordan? Who's-"

Just then, another girl walked through the door.

"Christa, you still have some clothes that need to be wa....JORDAN?!" she ran up to him and hugged him along with the girl who now had a name of Christa. "We were worried sick!"

"Um. . .guys. . .who's Jordan?" he finally managed to ask them.

"Well, you are of course! Jess and I found you inside of a ship and you were dead. You'd suffered some internal injuries so Jess restored you."

"Yeah, and um. . .what's up with the girl thing?"

Gren could only give them a questioning look before he glanced down and realized that 1) he wasn't wearing anything and only had a blanket covering him, 2) he was no longer covered in scars or the blood from his last battle with Vicious, and 3)...he was now no longer half woman. Now his look went from just questioning to completely confused.

"Wait. . .something's wrong. You are Jordan, aren't you?" Jess asked

Gren looked up at the girls and shook his head. "my name is Grencia Mars Elijah Guo Eckener and I have no clue who either of you, or Jordan is." He replied

"Then where did you get this?!" Jess asked, holding up a bracelet that Gren had been wearing when he had died

"I found it. There was a young man lying dead in the streets. He'd committed suicide and he looked like he had some money or something so I-"

"Stripped him of his money and jewelry?! Is that what you did to our brother?! No wonder you looked different than him!" Jess screamed

"Please, don't be angry with me, I had no choice. When you live in a slum like I did, you take what you can get, and you get only what you can take. It's a way of life. I didn't know who he was or where he came from, I just knew that he had some things that would possibly keep me alive. I'm sorry your brother died, really I am. But one question. If I had been your brother, how would you have known where to look?"

"the bracelet. It had a tracer in it. Apparently he didn't ever figure that out." Christa quickly answered

'Tracer. It figures. There's always going to be a tracer in my life. First with Vicious and now-' his thought was cut short when he realized Jess was turning an angry red color and walking out of the room

"Sorry about Jess. She's just a little disappointed. See, we were looking for Jordan, our brother, because he had information that we needed badly. We're looking for a man, the man who killed our mother, and Jordan is the only one who knows the whereabouts of the man who did it."

"Oh? And who might this man be?"

"I can't tell you. If I do, it might put your life at risk."

Gren nodded and sighed "so, how did you two bring me back to life and reverse the effects of those experimental drugs?"

"Ah, so that's what did it, eh? Drugs? Well see, when we found you, Jess was sure that you were Jordan, but I wasn't so sure, you looked. . .different, although we haven't seen our brother in so many years... so, Jess used her powers to-"

"Powers? Your sister uses witchcraft?"

"Shush, don't interrupt!" she glared at him

"Sorry." He giggled "continue"

"well, anyways, she fully restored you back to original and everything, you know to bring you to life, and then we brought you back here. We were almost positive that you'd stay in a coma for the rest of your life, because you only woke up once, and that was only long enough to tell us something. . .I think you said 'you should help spike find Julia' and then you passed out again. So we've had you here for about a month now, and luckily, you seem to be doing fine. By the way, in case you didn't catch it, my name is Christine, but most people just call me Christa or Chris."

Gren sat there and nodded, trying to take in all of that information at once. He looked up and studied the girl who was sitting on the bed next to him. She had long straight silvery hair and almost crimson colored eyes. Her features, her hair, the eerie smile she was giving him, it almost reminded him of-

"So, if you want, you can leave. No one is keeping you here, but if you stay, as long as you help out, we'll treat you like a part of our family. So, Grencia, where are you from?"

"You can call me Gren, and I'm from-"

Jess burst through the door and glared at Gren "Chris, get away from him! Get away now!"

Christa's eyes widened, and she backed away, unsure as to why her sister had just given her that command

"Jess, what's wrong?!"

"This man has a bounty on his head! He could be dangerous!"

Gren simply smiled at the two of them. "Yes, I can see how dangerous I could be. I mean, I'm a naked man sitting in a bed in an unfamiliar house with no weapon and not even a clue as to what day it is. But yes, I can see why you would be scared of me."

"So, what did you do? Kill someone?" Jess asked, keeping her finger firmly on the trigger of the gun she was holding.

"I escaped from a military prison. They thought I was a spy, when really I was fighting for them. I escaped because they had no right to keep me there in the first place. Shoot me if you want to, I'm supposed to be dead anyway. I'm not afraid to die."

Christa looked him in the eyes and then took a few steps towards him.

"Chris! Don't get any closer to him!"

"I think he's safe, Jess. I don't think he intends on hurting us. If he did want to hurt me, he could have done something while you were out of the room. Give him a chance. Trust him."

Jess just glared at Gren but then lowered her gun. "Fine. He will be under your care and you will be in charge of him. If he makes one wrong move, you'll be held responsible for him. Understood?"

"Gotcha." Christa replied as her sister turned to walk out.

"is she always like this?" Gren asked, causing both of them to giggle a bit

"She's just really stressed out. Usually she's not this bad. I guess she looked up your name in the data base and saw that you have a bounty on your head and. . .see, the man that we're after, the one who killed our mom, he has a bounty on his head too, so she assumes that everyone who has one is a danger to us. I don't think you're dangerous. . .are you?"

"No, I'm not, but you shouldn't be so trusting of people. Sometimes those whom you trust will betray you."

"And I think that you should be more trusting. Sometimes people just might surprise you. So, do you think you'll stick around?"

"Well, there's not many places I could go without my clothes. . ."

She blushed a bit and laughed, walking over to a dresser and opening the drawer. She pulled out a drawer and carried it over to the bed. "I hope at least one outfit will fit you. Sorry but most of it is leather, I'm sure you'll look great though. Pick out whatever you want and then come out. I'll whip you up something to eat really quick and then you'll have to come with us. We have to go to work today."

Gren nodded and waited until she'd left the room to pull off the sheet and go through the drawer. He pulled out a pair of black leather pants a dark grey tank top, and a black leather jacket with torn sleeves and put it on (for those of you who are Wolf's Rain fans, think of Tsume's outfit) and then he put on some black boots. That was just about all that would fit him, so he settled for it, although the leather felt a bit strange on him. (for those of you who are wondering, no he isn't wearing anything underneath...okay, I'm running away from rabid Fangirls/fanguys now)

Gren found a hairbrush sitting on the dresser and looked into the mirror to fix his hair as best he could. He looked different, very pale and fragile looking. He was also very thin. Of course that was because of being in a coma for so long. He walked out of the room, taking a deep breath, and when he walked into the kitchen, he saw Jess sitting at the table reading a newspaper.

"Christa made you some Ramen. She swears it's good although I don't like food like this. She says you'll be with us for a while, and if that's so, then you have to help us earn our money. I suggest you eat, you'll regret it if you don't."

With that, Jess stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Gren alone with the noodles that Christa had made. Gren sat down at the table and ate a little bit of the food, but he couldn't seem to eat very much without feeling sick. After all, he hadn't eaten in so long, his stomach couldn't handle much food anymore. When he was done eating, he looked into the back yard and saw Jess and Christa practicing fighting, each girl wielding a Katana.

"Such old weapons for a modern time period" Gren thought to himself, out loud.

He decided to look around the house for a while, mostly to orientate himself. He looked at the pictures on the walls, first. He could immediately recognize Christa, from her silvery hair and her cold looking eyes. But Jess was a completely different story. In the pictures she had long light colored hair, beautiful green eyes, and was even wearing a dress. This wasn't anything like the girl that Gren had met, but he was positive it was her, because on both Jess and the girl in the picture, there was a scar below her eye that looked like she'd been cut with a knife. The girl outside training with Christa was the same girl, but she had dyed her hair a darker color, wore color contacts that made her eyes a silvery brown, and her hair was short, just at her shoulders, and tied back. Also, she was wearing more boyish clothes. Tomboy was written all over her.

There were a lot of pictures on the walls, but Gren noticed that in none of them was either girl smiling. Next, Gren decided to look through the rooms. He found a room that was stacked up to the ceiling with boxes...not for storing things, but old shoe boxes, empty pizza boxes, and other boxes such as that. Then he moved onto a bedroom. Inside was very simple, a bed, a dresser. . .this was the room he'd woken up in. A guest bedroom. Then he moved further down the hall and found a bathroom, a linen closet, and a broom closet. Then he found another bedroom. Inside was a bed, a desk covered in papers, and some pictures turned face-down on the dresser. He stepped inside. He looked around the room, it was very dark, the only window was boarded up, and there was only a dim night light plugged into the wall. Gren walked up to the dresser and was about to look at the face- down pictures when Jess stepped into the room.

"I don't think you should be in here. Christa doesn't like people going through her stuff."

"Oh. . .sorry, I just wanted to look around and-"

"Jess do you know where Gren. . .oh" Christa walked into the room and looked at Gren who was just walking out the door into the hallway with Jess "what were you doing in there?" she asked him.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have been snooping around. I was bored and I was just wandering around when I found your room. I was just going to look at the pictures and. . .I'm sorry, I'll stay out."

"Okay. Well, we're about to go to work. You have to come with us."

"Okay." He followed them out the door and outside.

The girls led him to a ship with a word painted on the side, but it had been scratched out to where it couldn't be read. The ship itself was red and black, and as they stepped inside, Gren noticed that it was a very old ship that looked very rickety and unsafe.

"Sure this thing won't fall apart?" he joked nervously.

"Hn. If you want us to ride in a better ship, then you buy it for us, okay?" Jess snapped

"Jessica, do you have to be so aggressive?" Christa asked her

"Sorry. So, did you check to see the last sighting?" Jess asked

"Yeah, they say that he didn't get too far from the prison, and it was actually only a few miles from here. They say he's worth over 20 million."

Gren's eyes widened slightly when he heard this "you two are bounty hunters?"

"Yup. That would be us."

"So. . .do they call you Jessica the Deadly Butterfly and Christina the Dark Angel?" he asked, remembering hearing about the two of them

"That would be us. Now, buckle up, Christa is steering. This could be a bumpy ride."

Gren laughed nervously as Christa gave a devilish smile, and they took off. Christa squealed with delight as they did a few barrel dives and a few other stunts that had both Gren and Jess clinging to their armrests. The craft came to a stop with a jolt as they landed, and Christa unfastened her safety belt and smiled proudly.

"Are you proud that you were able to do all of those stunts, or that you got us here alive?" Gren asked, nervously.

"Both." Christa joked.

They had landed on top of a tall building and they climbed down a long flight of stairs. Gren noticed that the girls were decked out in their leather outfits with long trench coats and army-style boots. When they were getting out of the craft, he'd noticed they put guns on the insides of their coats and when they did, he also noticed they had their katanas securely placed on their belt loops.

'These girls mean business. It's a good thing they aren't planning on killing me, they might actually cause me some trouble.' Gren thought to himself.

Most of the day, they asked random people questions until they finally talked to a man who seemed to know the man that they were looking for.

"Yeah, he came by here earlier. Didn't seem like much of a nice fellow, he had a little kid with him, and he fits the description." The nice elderly man replied to Jess' questions.

"Okay, thanks, you've helped us a lot." They thanked him and walked off.

"So, who's this guy you're looking for. What's the bounty on his head for?" Gren asked them.

"murder. He killed 25 people. . .that the authorities know of, before he was caught. And while he was in prison, he killed two security guards with a toothbrush. They say he's dangerous. You may want to stay back when we find him. You're still weak from being in that coma."

He nodded and almost laughed at the girls. It was like they were in the Navy, the way they were decked out in their outfits, the way the almost snuck around the buildings. His thoughts of them were cut off when he heard gunfire and screaming. All three of them looked to see a man with a gun to a woman's head, and that was all it took for Jess to pull out her gun.

"Let the woman go, José!"

"Argh! Bounty hunters!" he yelled, clutching to the woman even tighter, causing her to scream "How about you let me go, and I let the woman live?"

"How about you let the woman live and I won't torture you before we turn you in?" Christa offered.

José shoved the woman forward and ran behind a truck, so obviously, Jess and Christa followed him. Gren followed the girls, not sure what was going to happen if they actually caught him. Would they simply shoot him? The chase didn't last long before Christa cornered him and pounced, her Katana in her hand. She landed on top of him, straddling him with the blade to his throat. He let out a small chuckle before trying to push her off, but when he did, the blade pushed more roughly into his throat. He was trapped, and if he tried to get away, they'd kill him for sure.

"Okay, cuff him now, Jess." Christa ordered.

Jess walked up to him and Christa got off of him but kept her blade at his throat, pulling him up with her free hand. He didn't put up too much of a fight as Jess handcuffed him.

The girls took Gren with them to collect their bounty, leaving Gren in the ship, of course, so no one would recognize him, after all, he was still wanted, considering the fact that most of the authorities didn't know he'd died. As they got back into the craft, Jess was giving Christa a look that made her look like she was about to kill the younger girl.

"Is something the matter?" Gren asked them

"Yes, something's the matter. Tell him what you did in there, Chris."

"Well, when we were in there I told them that we found you and blew up your ship and now you're nothing but ashes, dead, no more bounty hunters after you, so now you're completely free just don't ever tell anyone else your full name okay?" she said quite quickly, making it almost difficult to understand what she was saying.

"What's so bad about that?" Gren asked Jess, giving his most sweet and innocent smile he could whip up.

"Argh! We hardly even know you and yet she's already made you part of the team! She shouldn't have done that!"

"Why don't you like me?" Gren pouted, trying to make Jess feel sorry for him. Apparently, she was young, but not easily convinced, as she just glared at him

"Oh, lighten up Jess. Gren is one of us now. You're the one who brought him back to life, so now he has no choice but to stick with us. And besides, he probably wants to stick with us. Right Gren?" Christa asked, very cheerfully

"If your sister will let me, I'd love to stay with the two of you." He replied, smiling at the two girls

"Please Jess? It'll be nice to have someone else around and besides, more protection, right?"

"Argh! Fine! Just keep him away from me you understand?! I don't want that criminal anywhere near me or my things, got it?!"

'. . .PMS I guess. . .' Gren thought to himself as the girl prepared to fly them home.

END CHAPTER ONE

Peggi-Wow that chapity was long! Okies for those of you who keep up with all of my fanfics, yes this one is one of the ones I'm uploading a chapter for and updating less frequently, but hey, at least this chapter is long!

Disclaimer-Peggi doesn't own Cowboy Bebop

Evil Disclaimed Dress-(eats disclaimer)

All-wow....

Peggi-Well...that was different....anywayz, this chapter was dedicated to Harmony, who sparkled this idea for me, and dedicated to my sister Kekui who got me into Cowboy Bebop in the first place.

Gren-I'm happy! I'm alive again!

Peggi-You have lots of fangirls and fanguys but hardly any fanfics have you in them (wipes away tear) it's so sad!

Vicious-Stupid wench, are you crying again? You cry wayyy too much.

Peggi-Kekui, silence your boyfriend before I have to silence him forever (pulls out chainsaw)

Kekui-Vicious, leave my little sister alone or I won't let you kill people for a week.

Vicious-(death glare at Peggi)

Peggi-(huge smile) well, please review or e-mail me or SOMETHING and I'll update, kay? Byez! (huggles Gren mercilessly)

All besides Peggi and Gren-Bye!

Gren-Oxygen....becoming...issue!

Peggi-(still huggling)