Disclaimer: Cowboy Bebop and all its characters belong to Sunrise, Inc. and Bandai Entertainment. I'm not making any money off this one; its all for my own amusement and your entertainment.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with this story. I've been incredibly busy the last two weeks, and just haven't had the time to write. (Yada yada, insert poor excuses here.) This chapter is going to be the end of my story. Le Fin. In the true style of CB, there are going to be some ends left hanging for everyone to ponder.

Chapter 5: Song that Never Ends

Even as the intensity of her sudden memory faded, Faye was running down the hall to the hangar. She had to get away, even if it meant she could never be allowed to return. It was all too much, and she couldn't handle it. She was a gypsy, introduced to Jet and Spike in the Bebop's head as someone who could never be chained up, and now the wanderer in Faye was yelling; screaming for her feet to move, and so all she could do was follow.

Her heart pounding in her chest, and by the time she reached the Redtail, darkness had begun to creep around the edges of her vision. I'm going to pass out. She thought to herself. As her legs crumpled beneath her, Faye managed to throw her arms up to protect her head. She landed hard on the metal deck, unconscious.

~

She was cold…so cold. Like a cave person frozen in ice for millennia, and then something warm and soft was being wrapped around her. Background noises floated to the place where she rested peacefully, like the calm water beneath a raging sea. Nothing could touch her or take her away from this blissful paradise.

Almost nothing. She could vaguely sense something tugging; pulling at her and wanting her out of this comfortable place, back to the senseless existence that she had come here to forget.

"Come on Faye, wake up. Wake up, now." She groaned, and made a feeble attempt to swat away the gentle hand that was tapping her left cheek. Jet's worried face stared down at her, and Faye blinked rapidly, trying to wake up the rest of her body.

She sat up slowly, and took in her surroundings. It was her room on the Bebop, and the warm comfort from her dream was a heavy blanket she couldn't recall seeing anywhere before wrapped around her thin shoulders.

"You're lucky I found you when I did." Jet said. Faye turned to look at him. The older man sat on the very edge of her bed, looking at her closely. His intense scrutiny made her flush, and she looked down at her hands, purple hair conveniently covering her face.

"I don't know what's going on with you and Spike, and I know it's not any of my business…" Jet paused, unsure of how to go on. "But you know as well as I do that he's got a lot of skeletons in his closet." Faye nodded. It was definitely an understatement, but she didn't feel like being sarcastic just yet.

"I'm going to leave, Jet." She said quietly, and looked up to meet his eyes. She was determined. Nothing was going to bring her back. There was no one here that wanted her anymore. She was out of luck at last. It was time to go.

He stared hard at her for a moment, and she felt like a teenager again, trying to convince her father that there would be parents at the next party she went to. Unfortunately, Jet wasn't as gullible as her father had been, but she wasn't a child anymore, and it wasn't his decision to make.

"If that's what you want." He said simply, and stood up. Without a backward glance, the big man stepped out her door and shut it quietly behind him. On the bed, Faye drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around him.

Lost in thought, she sat that way for hours before packing a few things into her duffel, and making a midnight exit in the Redtail. Faye Valentine wasn't going to come back.

~

Three days later, she met a blonde angel during a shoot out and delivered a simple message to a man who was little more than an empty shell, and that's when everything ended with a bang.

WALK ON THROUGH THE STORM...