Ryo was strolling the streets of Mars, looking for what she heard to be "The Butcher's" favorite watering hole. She stepped in a small bar on a back street and saw the back of his head. Ryo smirked and raised her gun.

Spike burst in just as she pulled the trigger. "Wait! Ryo, don't!" But it was too late.

The bullet missed Bobby and he took less than a second to analyze the situation. From the side that the two bounty hunters couldn't see, he grinned and whipped up. He dashed out a back door into an alley before they could move. Ryo was following behind in a second.

She dashed through the alleys, splashing up puddles and stagnant pools of waste. Spike tried his hardest to catch up, but no matter how fast he could run straight out, he couldn't match her turns.

When he finally caught a glimpse of her, she was smiling faintly and whipping into a warehouse door, cannon blasters cocked and ready.

The Slaughterhouse.

He dashed up and threw/shoved the door all the way open. He looked on as she dashed into the very center of the room, and by jumping back and forth, nailing gunmen like ninepins. Streaks of white-hot metal streaked her shoulders and legs, yet none really hitting her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Spike.

She grinned and turned back.

He leapt out and started firing, adopting her way of evasive maneuvers. Like her, he was never hit, just grazed. They were now back-to-back, firing like mirrors. When one shot, the other simultaneously let fly. Until Spike was hurt.

The bullet was in his arm. He fell, and as Ryo let out a gasp, he dragged himself out of the firing line and rested against a metal casing. She was out there all alone, yet was backed by Spike who still had enough energy to fire.

Ryo had now dropped her cannon blasters and pulled out semi-automatics. Men fell and dropped and tried vainly to shoot this opaque yet ghostly entity that would not fall under their shots.

But out of their line of vision, a man, shrouded in darkness, raised a gun.

Ryo kept at it, felling men like trees. She was having quite the time of it.

The man grinned. He wasn't known as "The Butcher" for nothing.

She was hopping around, like an excited child on Christmas morning surrounded by toys.

He brought the gun into focus.

Too late, Spike noticed the man. "Ryo! Look out!"

But it was in vain. The gun went off, and fired straight into Ryo's back.

The moments drifted like molasses. From Spike's eyes, it was Julia all over again. Ryo's surprised expression etched itself into his heart forever. She fell slowly, silently. The time stopped.

Spike saw the two women, like reflections. Both the same look on their face. The guns falling and clanking to earth. The hair billowing behind.

The clock started to tick again. Spike groaned and fired at Bobby. A scream resounded through the darkened warehouse.

Spike raced over and held the dying Ryo in his arms. She couldn't talk, only smiled, a small line of blood trickling down her cheek. Her arms, scraped and bleeding from the bullets, lay lifelessly at her sides as Spike lifted her head and tears appeared at the corners of his eyes.

Likewise Ryo.

She finally gasped out, "S-S-Spike, do you think, if we met earlier, that we could have…have…"

Rocco, he thought. "Yeah, Ryo. Yeah." Tears were streaming down his face now.

She lifted her hand and wiped them away. Ryo smiled, one of pure contentment strained through lines of pain. Then, she took her last breath.

Ryo sank in Spike's arms. No one was left to mar the scene.

See ya space cowgirl…