Children's Games: Part 2
Rated PG for rampant bad language and some rather explicit violence.
Summary: Five years after Spike's death, Faye and Jet find an old friend and new trouble, and the beginning of a new adventure.
"Ed? Are you in here?"
Alex found the enigmatic red-haired hacker still hunched in front of her computer. The goggles hiding her dark brown eyes were her interface with the computer, and the way she seemed to interact with the world now. The only person she really had anything to do with was Alex, or, at times, David or Harold when they explained what she had to do for their upcoming missions. She avoided just about everyone else, preferring the company of her computer and her dog, Ein. She was strange, but she was quite clearly the most intelligent person Alex had ever met, and he was intent on breaking into her shell.
Alex sat down next to the girl, avoiding the sleeping Welsh Corgi behind her. "Ed. What happened during the bust?"
As usual, the girl was silent. She could understand her companions, but in the three years they had known Ed, she had not spoken a single word. Instead, she seemed to communicate through these odd faces that appeared on her computer screen, to show her emotions. The one on the screen now was a deep frown.
"Ed, are you all right?" Alex sat down next to Ed, concerned now.
The goggles slid off her face and she turned to Alex. She sent him a reassuring smile, but Alex could see right through it.
"Ed, what happened in the airport system? Everything shorted out."
At this, Ed's eyes lit up. She smiled slyly, and gestured for him to continue.
"Well, some girl grabbed David, and we were going to stop her, when everything blew up. We got out safe, but she had David."
Ed's face turned thoughtful, and she looked back at her computer.
Alex looked hard at Ed. "Ed, did you do it?" She looked startled, staring at him in fear. "I won't tell anyone," he quickly reassured the girl. "It was very good, since it got us all out of there without that woman shooting us, but, still...did you do it?"
Ed nodded once, sharply.
Alex frowned. He didn't understand Ed's motives, but, then again, no one did. He put his hand on the teen's head. "It was good work." She blinked at the praise. "It worked, whatever you were trying to do. You saved everybody's lives. And, for that, I thank you. But I won't go spreading this around, okay? Our little secret."
Ed smiled at that part. She put a finger up to her lips, then to Alex's. He winked at her as he walked back out. "I'll see you around, kiddo."
As Alex left, Ed let out a sigh of relief. Whenever she did anything, Ed would leave just one security camera on, so she could watch what was going on, then corrupted the file of the tape when she left, so no one could tell what had happened.
She had known about the bounty on their heads, but she hadn't heard anything from Faye or Jet in years. She hadn't even known they were still working. It was a shock the moment she saw Faye on the security camera. She had acted quickly to save her friend's life. She couldn't let Faye die.
She couldn't let someone else die…
…like she had let Spike die.
Ed had to leave the Bebop. Spike, Faye-Faye, and Jet-person were all right, but now Ed finally had a clue to who she was. Ein had insisted on coming along, and that was okay. Maybe Ein had to find out who he was, too. They would be all right without her.
Unfortunately, Father-person moved around so much that it was hard for Ed to track him. She finally had an idea, to track out the meteors, like he did, and try to beat him to the spots. Unfortunately, she either always guessed wrong, or was too late. Still, Edward wasn't about to give up. After all, the Bebop had left Earth. This chase was all she had left.
For right now, Ed was seated on a rock, outside of any Earth city. She and Ein were splitting a can of corned beef while Ed was surfing the internet. It was the only thing left to cure the boredom of her search.
A news story caught her attention. Something about the Syndicate building on Mars getting blown up by one man...but there was nothing about the man himself. Ed cracked her knuckles. She needed a challenge like this to distract from the futility of finding her father. For someone like Radical Edward, finding out a simple name would be easy.
She snatched up the can of beef from Ein, typing one-handed, as she found the hospital records for that day. A lot of people from the building dead. This wasn't good.
Ed froze completely still as her eyes caught a single name. The can of food slipped from her hand and clattered on the ground. Ein barked sharply and put his paw on Ed's leg, whining piteously. Edward ripped off her goggles and looked up at the sky.
With a trembling voice, Edward spoke, confirming the facts both to herself and to Ein. "Spike-person...is dead."
She had left Spike, and now he was dead. The irrational guilt that welled up inside the girl caused her to shut out the rest of the world, except for her computer and Ein. Her affirmation of Spike's death were the last words she spoke for five years.
Two years passed...
Edward had never been able to find her father. The only things she had left in this world were Ein and her precious computer. She became a wanderer on Earth, living off of fake created money from fake identities. In what started out as a search for herself, she was soon lost in the false world she had created for herself just to survive.
As her net skills were honed, so were her physical skills. In the few times that Edward slipped up or was found out, she learned how to protect herself physically. As she became a hardened teenager, Edward became a survivor.
Then, by a stroke of luck, Edward found The Children. She was looking into the Earth Hilton, considering falsifying reservations and payments so she could stay there for a while, when she encountered someone else trying to hack into the system.
As a bit of a joke, she sent out her trademark smiley-face to block their entry. In curiosity, she allowed them to trace her, because she wanted to know about them as much as they wanted to know about her.
One thing led to another, and a man named Alex was sent out after her. Instead of the threatening hacker he expected, he found a silent little girl and her dog without a place to call home.
Instead of hurting her, Alex took her back to the Children, and explained her abilities. She needed a home; they needed her skills. Ed and Ein became members of the Children.
When she had seen Faye there, Ed had just paused for a long time. The painful memories had come flooding back to her, but so had the good ones. The Bebop had been her family. So, she wasn't about to sit idly by as the Children killed Faye. Yes, she had saved the Children's lives, but she had also saved Faye's.
Ed pulled her goggles back on and started typing swiftly. This couldn't be a coincidence. If Faye was here, Ed had to find her. She had to talk to her old friend just one more time.
She left Ein asleep in the basement as she hopped onto her scooter and sped off towards the coordinates of the Bebop's landing.