I don't think I've ever belted out a fic like this. Not sure why it intrigues me so much, maybe cause I've never done any other CB fics, but I definitely like it. And I hope you do to.

Laurynn does not own Cowboy Bebop.

Chapter Three

Spike entered the cockpit of his Swordfish and pulled on his gloves. He touched the yolk. He was very fond of his ship. It was old and battered and if for some reason if it was damaged beyond repair, he wouldn't think twice about it. But while it was still his, he enjoyed its company as though it were a friend. He fired it up and launched toward the blank expanse. There was a call that popped up on his monitor and his eyes scanned the name. Faye. He didn't answer.

He was confused, his mindset back in a time when the syndicate meant something to him, when most things had meant something to him...friendship and loyalty, but it had all gone astray, wandered into some lonely corner and died along with his heart. The monitor continued to ring. He did not want to talk to Faye. She would only whine about him running away.

Faye was always floating around. Spike was sure she knew what it felt like to miss something you love...but she didn't show it.

Thinking about a time when it hurt to die, he turned his ship swiftly toward a place he used to live, wanting to see faces that knew him when he was in his prime, when he was carefree enough not to care, not to fall in love...

Love...

It was quiet on the street. He hadn't been there in a while. He'd forgotten the smoky air's scent, the taste of rust in his teeth...

He wove his way through doorways draped in beads. The shelves held pots and trinkets, making the walls seem closer than they were. There were assortments of wind chimes on the ceiling and lotus blossoms blooming all over the floor. The walls showing were matted with straw tatami. There was no rug to protect his shoes from the raw earth under him and the incense was making his brain swim. He made it through the last curtain of beads to find an ancient man sitting in front of him with sand running through his finger into mounds on the damp dirt. The old black and white dog next to him whined as he came in and sat across from him. For awhile the man said nothing.

"To the ways of old, you cannot go." He told Spike. Spike shifted his eyes. He already knew that. He didn't know what else he expected to hear. What advice would help him? Nothing meant anything to him anymore.

"The rose has wilted past and falls like a stone to death." He shifted again. Not exactly what he wanted to hear. Spike knew the man took his time before each word, choosing as though his very existence depended on it but he couldn't wait anymore. He had just stood up to go and had brushed the curtain of beads out of the way but he spoke again, calmer yet, eyes open for the first time since Spike's arrival.

"The days are lost. With only death will you find them. Do not stay here, Swimming Bird. Nothing will you gain from it." Spike stood there for an eternity, deciding on what exactly this had meant and then walked out from the place and back into the smoky alley.

"Spike not coming back?" Ed whined.

"I don't know, that's why you have to get Jet to tell you why Spike left okay?" Faye told her, in the hangar, under one of the older damaged ships in the corner. Ed looked nervous as if what she was doing was wrong. Faye didn't know where Jet was but soon found out as she watched Ed zooming away to find him, he had been in the ship, listening to her tell Ed to pump him for information.

"And it's his own goddamed business." He had told her, before stalking away. She eyes him angrily from behind.

If more than anything, he was looking for a familiar face, one did not seem to want to show itself. The man's words echoed in his head. "Do not stay here, Swimming Bird. Nothing will you gain from it."

Guessing that what the man said was true, that he wouldn't really gain anything by scraping around his past, he figured he shouldn't linger. He walked to the place he used to live. The place where she had been with him for the last hour of her life. It was dark, hard to see. There were blood stains everywhere, bullets littered the floor and most of the furniture had be overturned or broken. Hands in his pockets, he let it soak into his being. He was turning to leave when he stepped on something that crunched beneath his shoe. He stepped back. It was a rose; a withered up lifeless piece of a memory Spike didn't want to remember. He contemplated stepping on it again, to crush any life maybe enduring somewhere in it to die a hopeless, painful death. He stared down at it for a long time.

Then he took a step over the rose. He didn't look back.

After watching Big Shots, Faye got bored enough to pump Jet about Spike herself. He was in the back trimming one of his new bonsai plants.

"Go away." He said as she appeared in the doorway.

"Now is that anyway to greet a friend." He shot her a look.

"I'm not telling you anything." He told her point-blank.

"Why?" She demanded. "What has he ever done for you?" He didn't answer.

"Faye Faye! Hacker, hacker, hacker!" Ed screamed running up and she abandoned him unwillingly.