All The Love Has Gone

Six months after the showdown

"Hello?" a woman said, trying to call the Bebop. "Is anybody there?"

Faye, who happened to be walking through the kitchen at the time, answered the call. "Hi," she said. "Can I help you?"

The woman stared at Faye for a couple minutes, wondering if she should tell Faye what she needed. Finally deciding she had nothing to lose, she said, "I need to speak with Spike. Is he there?"

"No, he isn't," Faye replied, curious who the woman was. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Just…a friend of a friend," the woman replied. "Can you please have him call me back? I have the coordinates of where he can find Julia."

"Julia?" Faye asked, gasping. Once she got herself together, she stared down the woman. "Is this some kind of sick joke? Julia's dead."

"Very true," the woman replied. "But everyone deserves some form of closure, right?"

Faye began fuming at the idea of Spike running off and "dying" again. "Wait just a…!"

The woman hung up as soon as she noticed Faye begin to start fuming. She sighed deeply, closing her eyes. "I hope that now you two can finally rest in peace," the woman said, staring down at a place Spike was about to learn existed. "Goodbye, my love."

Faye walked from one end of the ship to the other, trying to think. "What the hell am I supposed to do about that woman?" she asked herself, balling her hands into tight fists. "Since when did I become the damn messenger woman! Why the hell is this my fucking problem?"

In the middle of ranting about her current predicament, Faye passed by Jet tending to his bonsais. Jet looked up, noticing Faye walking around with her fists balled up. "What's the matter with you?" Jet asked as she passed.

Faye paused, wondering if she should tell Jet what was going on. Why the hell is it always me who gets stuck telling Jet? Faye asked herself. Finally resolving to tell very little before talking to Spike, she shook her head and said, "I need to talk to him first."

Jet scratched his head, confused. "To who?" he asked, wondering what had gotten into her.

Faye sighed, closing her eyes. "The lunkhead with the fuzzy hair," she replied, storming off.

Jet rolled his eyes. "What now, Faye?" he asked, wondering if he was feeling a case of déjà-vu or, at the very least, a bad taste of nostalgia.

"Where is he?" Faye demanded yet again.

Jet sighed, knowing nothing good could come from whatever it was she had to say. "Workout room," he finally told her, wondering if he had signed his partner's death warrant yet again.

Thwap! Thwap! Bop! Swoosh! Thwap!

The sounds of Spike kicking and punching his bag could be heard through the door of the workout room. Sweat dripped from Spike's face as he panted. Guess I should ease up on my workouts for a bit, Spike told himself for what seems like the millionth time. Though the scar was healing nicely, the recovery was relatively slow compared to what it should be. Then again, it's to be expected from a person who practices Jeet Kune Do twice daily for an hour per session.

Faye stopped before the door, trying to figure out how she would pass along the strange message. Faye sighed and attempted to open the door, only to withdraw her hand and place it back on her side. "Why the hell is it always me?" she asked herself, frustrated by her lack of nerve.

The door of the workout room soon opened, disturbing Faye's train of thought. Spike looked down, confused. "What do you want, Faye?" he asked.

Faye looked up for a brief moment, continuing to think. "You had a message," she finally replied.

"From who?" Spike asked.

"Beats the living hell outta me," Faye replied. "She only said she was a friend of a friend. She wanted you to call her back."

Spike shook his head, feeling a headache approaching. "I can't do that if I don't know who the hell she is!" he yelled.

Mildly upset, Faye yelled back. "Not my fault she didn't give me a name!" she said. "All I know about the damn woman is she said something about knowing how to find Julia and knowing she was dead!"

Spike paused, unable to move. That sealed door again, Spike thought to himself. Jet put it best: they're just the key to a secret door, a door that should remain closed. Spike closed his eyes. "Where am I supposed to meet her?" he said, knowing exactly who would have the balls to call the Bebop and discuss Julia now.

"Didn't say," Faye replied, studying the look on Spike's face. One thing I can't figure out about you, she thought to herself, is why the hell you haven't gotten your feelings about her death out in the open.

"Anything else you wanna say?" Spike asked, noticing the sudden change in Faye's eyes. Knowing her, she had something to say.

"When are you gonna mourn?" Faye asked in return, looking at him funny.

Spike became slightly frustrated and leaned into Faye's face. "What am I supposed to do?" he asked in a low voice. "Cry? Pout? Scream? Sorry, but that's not my style."

Faye, unlike the last time Spike moved that close to her, fumed with anger. "You could at least act like you give a damn!"

Spike shook his head, walking toward the living room. "I'm afraid I'm too numb to react like you want me to."

Faye remained in the hallway, stunned.

Six hours later…

The Swordfish glided through the air, leaving a streak of manufactured clouds in its wake. Spike vaguely concentrated on where he was going, since the particular route he was taking was all-too familiar to him. His destination was also a blast from the past, a place where he hoped never to visit again. "Such is my life," Spike said softly, gazing down at the housing division underneath him.

As he got closer to his destination, his heart began to sink. The key, so it seems, had been permanently jammed into the door lock. The only way to close that door again, therefore, would be to fix the lock. Spike rolled his eyes, wondering where the stupid ass lock metaphor came from. I've been around Jet too long, he thought to himself.

Out of the corner of his eye, Spike noticed a ship following him. His lips curled slightly. "What an odd surprise," he thought to himself.

The ship tailing Swordfish, of course, was none other than the Red Tail. Faye gazed at the landscape, her mind lost in her thoughts. For some reason, the words of an old woman she saw at the airport just before Spike's syndicate bout rang through her mind.

So there's no place for me after all. Well, I'm not going and that's that, the woman said, unknowingly aloud. I don't want to be where I'm not welcome.

"For once, I felt like someone understood," Faye said. "I wonder if Spike feels that way now. Hell, I know he did before all this shit went down. I can only imagine what's going through that lunkhead's mind now."

Spike, meanwhile, continued to soar through the air and keep an eye on his fellow bounty hunter. What the hell is she up to, he wondered. "Faye," Spike said, talking to her via the ship computer.

"Hmm?" Faye replied, pulled away from her thoughts yet again.

"Where do you want me to meet you later on?" he asked.

"I'll wait by the graveyard," she replied. "By the graves…"

"Not in them," Spike said, having a feeling of déjà-vu.

"Huh?" Faye asked, confused.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­

"Never mind," Spike said, a bittersweet smile crossing his face.

To an ordinary person, the graveyard along First Street was nothing unusual. To Spike, however, that piece of land reflected the day he started running, the day he met his so-called "one and only" for the first time in years, and now the day he was to say his good-byes forever.

It was raining that day as well.

With roses the shade of blood in hand, Spike entered the quaint graveyard. His stony façade was an understatement of what he truly felt inside. The trip itself was bittersweet. On the one hand, he was glad to finally see the final piece of his story with the Dragons close. However, he wished the story had a different ending.

As directed, Spike made his way to the back and right of the entrance. The path to the graves, much like Spike's perception of life, had many twists and turns with no particular direction or destination in mind. His eyes first fell upon Shin's grave. With a small sigh, he took two roses and put them on his departed friend's grave. "Take care," Spike finally whispered.

Faye, meanwhile, leaned back in Red Tail's cockpit, smoking a cigarette. Her eyes focused on her partner. "I don't know whether to be jealous of him, pity him, or just ignore him," she said. "At least he got to bury his loved ones. Didn't quite work out the same way with me."

The more her thoughts about the past traveled, the closer they came to the present. Faye looked up at Spike again, thinking more about the woman he came to see than the man Faye's come to know and…tolerate. I loved her car, she thought to herself.

Tell him I'll keep waiting.

I don't think I'll ever understand why you kept waiting for him, Faye thought. You were sure as hell strong enough to go without him. And you lived as long as you stayed away from him.

Wait a second! Her mind screamed. Did you really consider that? Do you honestly believe the path Spike leads always screams death?

Faye closed her eyes, considering an answer for such a question. "It only leads to death when he gets tangled up with his past," she finally told herself. After a few minutes, she walked into the graveyard.

Meanwhile…

Spike's attention soon turned to the grave of his beloved dark angel. The grave resembled Shin's except for a single phrase that was engraved: It was all just a dream.

With downcast eyes, Spike placed his remaining roses on her grave. He traced the phrase with his right index finger, a small pang of guilt in his heart. "I wanted to save you from all this," he whispered. "Guess there's no running after all."

There will be a woman. You will be hunted by this woman. And then…death.

He's yet to be wrong, Spike thought to himself. But I would've given anything if it were you standing with me instead of me looking over your passage to wherever you're headed.

"I don't miss you as much as I thought I would, though," Spike whispered. "I guess a three year separation can do that." He stood, finally feeling like he would someday be able to heal from her tragic death. As he finally stood and turned around, he noticed a certain woman standing behind him.

The woman stared at Spike, a mixture of heartache and pain surging through her. She had no idea where the former emotion came from, but still rolled with it. She searched his eyes, begging for answers. Are you staying or leaving me again? She asked with her eyes, but received no answer, frustrating her even more than she already was.

Spike's eyes widened as a silver glock was pointed in his general direction and aimed. "Um, Faye…" he asked with a mutter, hoping he could rescue her from whatever level of pain she'd reached.

Bang!