*I don't own Cowboy Bebop or any of the characters; I do however own Harley Dancheck. She is my personal character and has used her in several different fanfics*

"Spike, there's a another bounty head you might look into," replied Jett, before he took another drag of his cigarette. "Worth 100,000 wong!"
Slowly Spike appeared around the corner covered in a cloud of smoke, which also hovered over the living area of the space ship. "Oh really, and who might this bounty be?"
"Her name is Harley Dancheck."
"Oh…she is good. Ed knows her. Ed and her were friends." Ed pushed herself to her feet, after a good long nap.
"How do you know her?" Spike piped in, lighting another cigarette. Casually he walked over to Jett. Spike glanced over Jett's shoulder, and dropped his jaw in surprise as the cigarette fell from his mouth. "She is only 19!"
Jett and Spike glanced at one another before turning back to the screen.
"Whoa! She was a computer hacker when Ed knew her, not a bounty," Ed replied lifting her head from Ein's bowl.
"Its says here that she killed four bounty hunters!" Jett stared at Spike. "You can handle this one right?"
Spike glared at Jett wandering if something was wrong him. If this girl was worth 100,000 wong then she was dangerous. Reluctantly however, Spike nodded and walked towards the hanger. "Yeah, I mean how strong can she be. Lets hope at least she is not like Faye, or I will kill her."
"Hey I heard that Spike," Faye shouted from the shower.
Spike smirked as he grabbed his coat and pistol and walked away.

A bullet hit the side of the building, as Harley moved her head away from it. She quickly checked her chamber. She only had one bullet left, and there were still three hunters on her tail. Quickly Harley, ran down the ally way and into a small passage way. She glanced around before jumping on top of a trash can and bounced, grabbing a hold of a latter. Swiftly and silently she raced up the latter, and laid down on the metal platform. She watched closely as the bounty hunters peered down the small ally.
"Where the hell did she go?"
Harley crouched down as low as she could. She tried not to make any noise as she pulled back the hammer. The bounty hunters walked around below her, looking for any trace of where she went. Harley remembered she only had one bullet left. She knew that she had to make it a good shot. The leader had already been knocked down, but she wasn't sure who was next in rank.
Slowly she glanced down below her hiding place. A bounty hunter walked around, however he wasn't anywhere close to spotting her, and if he were the platform would stop any bullets. The other one was to close the corner to get a clear shot, on the other hand, the last hunter, if he continued to walk would turn around and spot her. He would also have had a clear shot.
Suddenly the bounty hunter at the corner began to move in closer to the bounty hunter she was about shoot. It was now or die. She pulled the trigger, and the man fell to his knees. In one quick move she dropped her gun and jumped down grabbing the bottom step of the latter. Before the bounty hunter had enough warning to even turn around, Harley had kicked him in the head. His eyes rolled back, and with a loud thud he fell.
Harley let go, and grabbed his gun before spinning around, kicking the last of the three in the nuts. As he fell to his knees, Harley took advantage of his weakened state and knocked him out with the butt of her gun.
She gave a small smile, as she looked around at all the fallen bodies. She again pulled back the hammer and put it in her belt as she walked back towards the streets of people. Just as she was about to reach the crowds something shiny caught her eye.
A gun came from around the corner, and lie against her head. "So you're Harley Dancheck." Spike replied with a smile. Quickly he looked around the ally, then back to her. "You are good!"
"Thank you." Harley smiled just before lifting his hands pulling the gun away from her head, kneeing him in the stomach. Spike pulled back catching his breath. "Spike Speigel. I wondered when I'd be meeting you."
"To bad I cant say the same." Spike lifted his gun and his head only to see the streets of people. Instead of Harley, there were a group of men in black coats running towards him.
"Umm…" Spike spun around the corner, and stopped dead, staring down the barrel of a .35 magnum.
Noise ran down the streets. Harley and Spike glanced towards the entrance, and watched the black coats run past. Both of them took a deep sigh between returning back to one another.
Spike swiftly kicked the gun out of her hand. Both watched it land perfectly in his. Harley glanced around, 'Damn that was the only gun I had!' she thought just before spotting another one behind Spike.
Harley smiled again grabbing the lib of a trashcan and slid it across the ground under his legs. She dived on to the lid, and slid towards the gun grabbing it. Quickly she spun on her back aiming it at Spike. Slowly the lid came to a stop, as they stayed there in silence, both aiming a gun at one another.
"Stale mate, wouldn't you say?" Harley finally asked, breaking the silence.
"Your good for a 19 year old, even better for being a girl."
"Hey, girls can do just as well as boys."
Spike's face went dark, "I am not a boy."
"You sure act like one." Footstep's thundered down the roadway. "Damn it!" Harley jumped to her feet. "Okay go ahead take me in."
Spike went numb, "Just like that, no fight?"
"I really don't have the time to fight!" Harley looked over her shoulder. "So are you going to take me in?"
Spike glanced at her shaking his head. "You have killed four bounty hunters and yet you are willing to just give yourself up to me with out even a small little fight."
"Look are you going to take me, or am I just going to run until the next bounty hunter comes around. Hey and they might be the one to get the money."
Suddenly shadows grew over the street. Harley took a deep breath and pulled Spike into her. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips on his. Spike's eyes grew wide with surprise, however he slowly grew into the moment, as he too closed his eyes and pulled her closer to him.
The footsteps stopped but then began started up. Harley pulled away and let out the air she had been holding. "Well that was a different twist."
Spike finally opened his eyes. "Umm, yeah." Harley walked away. Spike grabbed her hand and pulled her back. "What was that for?"
Harley looked at him curiously. "Hey don't think to far into it. That kissed just saved our life." Harley nodded at him and stepped up on the trashcan, and jumped up and grabbed a hold of the latter. She pulled her self up onto the metal plat from. "Are you coming?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Look if you want Sanctuary on you ass then stay right where you are, however if you don't then I suggest that you follow me." Spike went even more surprised as he followed her on to the platform. "The Sanctuary! Why would they be after you?"
"If I tell you then they will kill you."
Harley smiled softly and smashed a window walking into the condemned building. Spike followed…reluctantly.

"Harley, Harley! Is she coming here?" Ed screamed, running around in circles about Jett.
Jett's head fell into his hands. "Why would Spike even think about bring a bounty here? Ed is there anything else you know about her. Her parents, any one from her family, anything?"
Ed stopped abruptly and sat down Indian style. "Umm, family? She had a mother, but Ed thinks she died. Ed knows that her father was killed, but Ed doesn't know why."
Jett took a deep breath, "Ed do you think you could find out about her father, and why he was killed?"
Ed smiled and ran to her computer terminal. It didn't take her to long, maybe only fifteen minutes to find out about Harley. However all she found was what they are already knew. "Ed can't find out anything about her dad except that he was killed by some one from Sanctuary."
"Did you say Sanctuary?" Ed nodded. "That's not good. Usually when Sanctuary kills one family member they kill them all, maybe that's why she has a bounty." Jett sat back against the couch. "Ed get a hold of Spike. I have to tell him."


Spike sighed as he listened to the news, which Jett had just found. He glanced over at Harley who just sat there and stared at the beautiful sky. How could such a young and good-looking girl be such a bounty? None of this made any since to Spike. "Harley?" He stepped over to her and sat down on the wing of his space ship. "Why did they kill your father?"
Harley spun around towards Spike. "How did you find out?" However she shook her head and returned to her stare. "Stupid question. Bounty Hunters need to know who they are after and why."
Spike lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. "Yeah, sometimes that's the hard part too."
Harley moved closer to him and pulled the cigarette from him mouth. She too took a deep drag, before handing it back to him. "I can only imagine."
"Are you going to tell me, or are you going to force me to kill you?"
Harley glanced around, before dropping her head. "Sanctuary killed my father because he couldn't kill one of his targets."
"Who would that be?"
"My mother."
Spike's eyes shot towards her. "He was supposed to kill your mother?"
Harley chuckled, "This was before she was a mother. He couldn't do it, he has fallen in love with her." She glanced at him. "Sound familiar?" Spike looked away from her. "She knew to much about a special mission that Sanctuary had set forth. My father was to assassinate and eliminate anything and everything about her. They had been high school sweet hearts. Kind of romantic if you think about it."
"So they ran, had you? You parents thought they where safe, after getting knew names and ID, however Sanctuary caught up, murdered your parents and are now after you. Did I miss anything?"
Harley took a deep sigh. "Yeah, why would there be a bounty out on me?"
"I was kind of hoping that you would tell me that part."
"I cant. I told you if I told you, they would kill you. The less you know the better chance you have to survive, if they actually let you."
Spike handed her the last bit of his cigarette, letting out the smoke. "I think I will take my chances."
Harley placed the cigarette in her mouth, "I was an assassin."

Faye walked around the chamber looking back every once and a while making sure that Harley was still sitting, and not holding a knife or…. Anything for that matter. Assassins could use anything as a weapon that is if they knew how to use it right.
Harley on the other hand laughed under her breath. This was quite humorous to her. She sat back in her chair and looked back towards Faye. "Don't worry about it. I wont tell Sanctuary where you are hiding."
Faye chuckled a bit and slowly walked to her room looking over her shoulder towards Harley. Spike strolled in and glanced down at Ed who was hacking along the system. "Ed, have you found anything else out about Sanctuary?"
"I'm telling you, they are cleaner then clean. They make sure they don't exist."
Jet appeared with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. "Ed found out that Sanctuary killed your father."
"Of course she would. My father was an outlaw, who wouldn't want their name on that? It makes them look good to the public eye."
Spike and Jet glanced at one another, and then back at Harley, who was right. "Anything else I can help you gentlemen with?"
Spike shrugged and Jet let out a sigh. They had nothing to hold her hear. "Good then. Later." Harley rose to her feet.
Spike grabbed her hand, "You can not just leave. I said I would help you and help you I will."
"I don't want any of you to get killed. The longer I remain the percentage of that happening grows." She pulled her arm back and walk away.
Jett and Spike started at her was she walked away. "She is just like her, even down to the long blond hair. Julia."
"Spike, is that why you want to help her? She is nothing like Julia, she has nothing to do with the Syndicate."
"No, she is part of something worse." Spike moved passed Jett and grabbed his gun and a few extra sets of bullets. "Jett I want you and Faye to stay here. This fight is between us and Sanctuary."
"Spike?"
"Sanctuary can from the Syndicate. They came from them. I have a feeling…a horrible feeling about his."
"Be careful Spike."
"You know me."
"Yeah that is why I told you."
Spike gave a quick smirk and walked out the door. He swiftly walked into the hanger as though nothing was wrong. He walked in, as though, he was perfect. Has hard as it seemed, Spike could not wait for the up coming battle. He wanted to learn more about Harley, and Sanctuary.
He jumped into the cockpit, and clicked a few buttons as he slipped on his brow gloves that only reached the knuckles. His two different colored eyes scanned the launch pad, while the wings released and fell into place. He twisted the throttled and engines burst sending him off the Bebop and out in search of his bounty.

Harley kicked her mind mentally. How could she have been so stupid and allow herself to go to the Bebop! Vicious had probably had henchmen follow her, and now he knew where Spiegel was. She pulled her jacket closer around her body as she inadvertently looked over her shoulder checking her six o'clock. No one was following her…. Yet.
"Spike better not follow me!" she said to herself in a whisper as she moved through the crowd. People pushed from side to side, as she pushed past them. Suddenly something caught her eye. It was the glow of metal. She stopped right in the middle of the crowd ready for anything. She had a gun fully loaded… "What! Oh no!" she whispered loudly checking her side. She had left the gun on Bebop. "Great…."
Her green eyes darted from place to place seeking refuge. She may not have been able to hold them off for very long, but this way there would only be one causality, and not a whole street full.
A bird….a bird like any other screamed above all the others. Harley stopped dead, as the crowd around her bypassed her with out another thought. She however was paralyzed, unable to even think another thought other then the thought of her death. Vicious never sounded unless death was close. Only one managed to make it alive after that, and he was who she was meant to kill.
"Vicious…." she whispered still stunned.
She did all the she could. She ran into the nearest abandon train station. No one used trains anymore. Harley darted up the stairs and out on to the train track itself looking at the street below. She was very thankful that the tracks had not yet fallen on to the streets below. It gave her a chance to run.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." called out a voice. Harley's heart skipped a beat as she slowly turned around. She could now spell her death.
"Vicious…. What do you want from me?"
The crow flew off his shoulder into the sky squawking that more annoying squawk. However it made everything turn silent. "Sanc Queen…."
"I gave up that title. I told you I couldn't kill Spike. He is your problem not mine."
"Yes so you have said. You know what you remind me of…. An fallen angel that is trying desperately to get back into heaven, just like Spike."
"Your mind tricks are not going to work Vicious. You may have created Sanctuary and me, but Spike created you. He took you in. He made you the man you are. You know that he will always be better then you. You are jealous of him, and that is why you want to see him dead. I am done playing your game."
A cruel laugh sounded throughout the building and even down into the root, and into Hell's bottomless pits. "You have the same look in his eyes. The look of the beast ready to kill its prey. The look of a fallen angel. A fallen angel ready to under go its consequences!"
Harley took a deep breath ready to feel death strike her. She didn't want to be Vicious's pawn anymore and if death was the way then so be it. She stood there as he charged after her, his sword in hand ready to pierce her heart. She closed her eyes, "I am sorry Spike."
"Sorry for what?"
Harley sprang her eyes open and turned towards the stairs. There he stood, his blue coat, yellow shirt, the messy green hair, and his odd colored eyes staring at her, with her and his gun in hand. "I think you forgot something."
"Get the hell out of here Spike! Vicious will…." She had for that brief moment for got about Vicious, who now wrapped his arms around her, his sword ready to sever her head from her body. The more she struggled the tighter his grip got and the closer the sword came. A trickle of blood ran down her breast and soaked into her shirt.
"Spike…so glad you could come."
"Vicious…"
"I see you have meant my friend here. Say hello Sanc Queen."
Spike's eyes grew wide as he looked at the 19 year old who was now trapped in Vicious's grasp. "Sanc Queen…"
"She probably didn't tell you. She is the leader of Sanctuary. She is my personal assistant." The devil's smile grew on his lips. "She did all that I asked, even killed her own father, just to get recognized. However when a job came in to kill you she couldn't do it."
Once again the bird sounded. "It's all a lie. Why would she kill her own father?"
"Tell him Harley, tell him the truth, the whole truth." Vicious released his grip just a little allowing her to speak with out much struggle.
"I said I was sorry Spike."
Spike dropped his gun. The woman that had reminded him more about his past, his love, now stood there trapped in a web that she herself weaved. "Actually Spike you shouldn't condemn her totally. She had no idea who she was killing until it was to late."
"Harley, why are not fighting to get lose…"
Harley's eyes glanced above Spike, then over to each side of Spike, and then into Spike's eyes. Her eyes told Spike all he needed to know. He pulled up the two guns and shot above him killing the man. Harley smiled and she too began to retaliate. She pulled back her elbow and flung it into Vicious rib cage hearing one of them crack as he dropped his grip. However she didn't get away scar free. Blood down ran down her arm.
"Spike…I told you not to follow me."
"I sort of have this problem…" He threw her, her gun. "I do the opposite of what some one tells me."
"Figures…" She pulled back the hammer and shot two bullets both hitting their mark. Spike nodded towards the entrance. "Spike you better be coming as well."
"I have a score to settle."
Harley knew what he meant. He was going to fight Vicious, kill if he had to. Even though Spike was a much better fighter he was out number. Harley knew very well that he only had one bullet left, and that it was not enough to take down all of Vicious's followers and Vicious. He was going to die before the night was up. She couldn't let that happen…. She had made a promise.
She raced after Spike shooting down any one that she could, before they got another shot off. Spike aimed his gun straight at Vicious who smiled with glee pulling out his sword. "Yes Spike."
Harley's gun clicked…. She too was out of bullets and there was still to many henchmen around, all aiming at Spike. Vicious just smiled waiting for the inevitable death. Harley glanced up at the roof and saw a sharp shooter ready and aiming. It was now or never. She ran towards Spike and pushed him out of the way, as two bullets sounded.
The Crowds stopped and looked up. Harley's body flew through the air falling towards the ground below. Vicious fell to one knee smiling with such delight. Harley's body landed with a thud on the ground below. People enveloped her body. "She lost her wings."
Spike turned around in a panic and saw Vicious's long silver hair flow in the wind as he and his squawking bird disappeared into darkness followed along by his devoted followers. "One down, two to go Spike…I wonder who will be next…"
Spike looked one last time over the railing of the Train track, which now had been broken, before he ran down to the streets below. "Harley!"

***One and ½ Days later***

Harley slowly opened one eye, feeling pain surge through her body. "Am I dead?"
"Would being dead hurt that much?"
"Is this heaven?"
"I don't think you can call Bebop Heaven…"
"Bebop?" Both her eyes sprang open…."I am on Bebop."
Even more pain jolted throughout her entire body forcing her to lie back in the less painful position. "What the hell am I doing on Bebop?"
"Well to make a long story short, I brought you back. For a girl who killed…what eight bounty hunters now…I don't think you can die that easily."
Harley looked over at Spike. His eyes still miss colored his hair still messy. It looked like he'd not slept in days. However his shirt was off making Harley blush. His arm had a bandage and his face had a small cut. "You should look at yourself…. You look horrible."
Harley could not help but chuckle. "I suppose."
Spike sat down beside her, pulling out and a cigarette and lighting it in front of her. "So how are you feeling?"
"Like I rather wish I died."
Spike laughed, "Yeah being shot four times and falling from a three story building can do that."
"Damn only shot four times!" She pulled his cigarette from him and took a drag herself. "I think Vicious is right. I am a fallen angel trying to back into heaven." Spike looked at her. "I killed so much Spike. I killed to many and all for stupid reasons. The Syndicate, or Sanctuary manipulated me and I allowed them to, all because I wanted to belong."
"People do stupid things."
"I no longer feel like an Angel…all Innocent."
"No one is an Angel, all innocent."