A/N: Hey! Wow, it's been a while, huh? :P I hope you enjoy this chapter, cuz I sure enjoyed writing it! XD Please, PLEASE R&R!

====Only in dreams, we see what it means, reach out our hands, hold onto hers, but when we wake it's all been erased, and so it seems, only in dreams====

-Weezer: "Only In Dreams"

"Vicious! What's wrong?!"

The silvery-haired man staggered forward in response and fell into Evelyn's arms, her violet eyes widening in utter astonishment as a vile of Bloody Eye suddenly slipped forth from his fingers and rolled onto the floor with a subtle clatter.

"Oh, my God! I thought I told you to stop using those!," she exclaimed, immediately pulling the battered man into her apartment before shutting the door securely behind them. "What happened to you?! No lies, either!"

"Julia...," Vicious gasped, squeezing his eyes tightly shut, "where....where is she?"

Evelyn gave him a funny look, then bowed her head in utter despair, acknowledging softly, "She's dead, Vicious....someone killed her last night."

"Dead?"

"Yeah...that's right. No one knows who did it, either," she mumbled, sorrowfully placing a hand over her face before letting out a wretched sob. "Some bastard killed my best friend, Vicious! Some creep is out there right now not getting the punishment that they so sorely deserve!"

Vicious frowned deeply. "What are you trying to say, Evey?"

She gave him a fiery look, then snorted, returning as if it were perfectly obvious, "I'm going to find the sick sonofabitch and then I'm gonna hang him with his own guts, that's what! If you loved Julia as much as you've claimed to over the years, you'll help me find the killer!"

"I....I can't."

Evelyn gasped. "What?"

"I can't," Vicious reiterated, hurriedly moving away from her as if he had been burned. "You see, Evey....I-I'm the killer. I'm Julia's murderer."

Evelyn immediately shook her head wildly back and forth, denying frantically, "No! No! Don't defend the killer, Vicious...stop lying to me! How do you expect me to believe that someone I love is capable of harming those that he loves?!"

"Because I was under the influence of the drugs, Evey! Why can't you understand that?!," Vicious demanded, abruptly seizing her by the shoulders before giving her a strenuous shake. "Mao is going to find out about all of this, and when he does, he's going to have me killed!"

Evelyn suddenly burst into tears at this declaration, pleading brokenly, "Vicious, please! Stop tormenting me with your lies! They're not comforting me like you think they are, so please, for the love of God, stop!"

"I wish I were lying," he returned softly, immediately releasing his hold on the young woman before bestowing her with a sorrowful look. "I have to run, Evey.....I've got to get out of here before it's too late."

"Then take me with you!," she begged, throwing her arms frantically about his neck as if he were her only lifeline before sobbing fearfully into his shoulder. "I love you far too much to just let you go, Vicious! You're the only one who's stayed true to me in this damned syndicate! You're the only one who made me want to live when I was a prostitute, because I always knew that you wouldn't see me as a lowlife slag like everybody else!"

Vicious bowed his head as her confession suddenly sank in, his arms encircling about her slender waist as he insisted gently into her ear, "No, Evey.....your place is here with Spike and Faye. I'll return when Julia is long forgotten. Until then, I want you to wait for me. Will you do that?"

"You know that I will," Evelyn returned tearfully, stroking his long, silvery hair as she continued to weep piteously into the comfort of his shoulder. "Why do you have to leave, anyway? This isn't like you! Don't you normally fight your way through these things?! You always told me that I should never lose hope, so why are you being such a damned hypocrite?!!"

Vicious paused, then exhaled deeply through his nostrils, acknowledging softly, "You're right....I am being a hypocrite. I guess that I'm just scared, Evey. All my life I've been taught to kill, and now that I've harmed the only woman that I've ever really felt anything for, I feel so......empty. Maybe I should just go ahead and turn myself in."

"No!," Evelyn snapped, raising her chin as if she actually thought that her shorter height than his own was intimidating him. "We'll make up an alibi.....we'll say that you were with me at the time of the murder! Don't worry, Vicious, we'll get through this......together."

Vicious smiled, then, something that he rarely did in anyone's presence. Taking the fiery redhead in his arms amidst a sudden fit of desire, he suddenly pulled her in for a chaste kiss that she returned just as eagerly, his mind reeling as he felt Evelyn hurriedly take him by the hand and lead him boldly towards her bedroom where they immediately gave in to their lust.

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"I can't believe that I'm actually doing this," Faye thought to herself in utter disgust, pausing briefly before rapping against Spike's apartment door with her knuckles. "He's never been nice to me, so why should I be nice to him? Oh, well...Evey's orders. I guess that he really is pretty bent out of shape over this whole murder thingy, so the least I could do is check up on him."

Before Faye even had the chance to react, however, the door suddenly swung wide open, Spike's surprisingly haggard, miserable-looking countenance peering out at her with an obvious mask of sheer annoyance.

"What the hell do you want?"

"To come in," she returned firmly, trying her best to step around him. "Please move, Spike...I want to visit with you for a bit."

"No...go away."

"I said, move!," Faye snapped, jutting her chin outward as she stared him down with a fiery hatred. "What don't you get about the fact that I want to speak with you?!"

Letting out an animalistic growl, Spike seized her by the arm and hurriedly pulled her into his apartment before shutting the door tightly from behind them, returning hotly, "Alright, Faye, let's make this snappy! You woke me up from my already unfitful sleep, so this had better be important!"

Faye opened her mouth to speak, then immediately closed it, bowing her head forward in resignation as she admitted softly, "Well, I, uh....I just came to give you these cookies. I thought you might like them since....well..."

"Julia's dead?," Spike supplied sharply, the iciness in his tone sending shivers down her spine as she shook her head in denial.

"No...that's not it at all! I-I still owe you your prize for saving me, so...here you go."

Spike eyed her curiously, then reached out with reluctance to accept the small bundle of baked goods from her hand, his long, slender fingers gently brushing over her own before he seized them within his grasp and pulled them back into his possession.

"Uh...thanks," he mumbled, immediately averting his gaze from her own as he absently rolled the cookies about within his hand and managed to bestow her with a small smile. "You didn't have to do this, cuz-"

"I wanted to," Faye insisted, blushing slightly due to the surprised look upon his face. "You see, I feel that it's unhealthy for one's soul whenever they grieve without sustenance."

Spike frowned deeply. "I have no soul; it was stolen from me very long ago."

Faye blanched. "What?"

"Good-bye, Faye....thanks again for the grub," Spike muttered, immediately taking her by the shoulders and showing her out.

Frantically trying to understand what in the world was going on, Faye made several futile attempts at asking what he meant, but all she got in response was the door rudely slamming shut in her face.

"Great," she thought, trying her best to still the fiery need to murder Spike Spiegel with every fiber in her being. "I really don't get him....what does he mean when he says that he doesn't have a soul? What's happened to him to make him feel this way? Ugh, I'm so tired of trying to figure him out....I'll come back, later. As of now I need a nice, stiff drink."

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"Vicious, sweetheart....what are you doing?"

"Thinking," came the blunt reply, thus causing Evelyn to immediately sit up in bed and study the dark silhouette standing amidst the moonlight of the window.

"About what?"

He didn't answer.

Grunting in utter frustration, the concerned redhead hurriedly slid out of bed and joined her lover by the window, her long, willowy arms wrapping about his waist before she pressed her nude body against the stiff contours of his backside and heaved a gentle sigh.

"I can help you, you know," she insisted softly, caressing his clothed shoulders as she kissed the crook of his neck in utter adoration. "I found the knife that you used and hid it in the hollowed out pages of a book....I hope you don't mind."

Vicious bowed his head forward and shook his head, mumbling in defeat, "It's no use, Evey.....now that you're helping me, Mao will have you executed, as well."

"I don't care," Evelyn returned bodly, spinning him around so that he was now face-to-face with her determined countenance. "As long as I will always be side-by-side with the man that I love, I say so be it!"

Vicious bit his lip. She was so naive, and yet so incredibly brilliant at the same time. He couldn't believe that he hadn't fallen in love with her before Julia, for when he was with her, he actually felt safe and protected.

That was the major difference between them, he supposed. Evelyn would care for him and Julia would not. In fact, Julia would much rather have nothing to do with him if it required saving her own hide.

Banishing the thought from his mind as if it were some sort of poison, Vicious finally turned to face his lover and smiled, agreeing softly, "Alright...let's do it. Together."

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Spike heaved a blatant sigh as he continued to trudge along the practically barren streets of Tharsis, his shoulders hunched over and his hands shoved down deeply within the recesses of his pants' pockets like some laid-back deadbeat, which is truly what he felt like.

Ever since he had heard about Julia's murder, all he ever found himself doing was walking around the large city with the hopes of clearing the cluttered bowels of his tortured mind and soul.

This, of course, never really seemed to work, but he figured that it was far better than doing nothing at all.

So now, with a cigarette dangling precariously from his lips and his eyes half-closed, Spike found himself subconsciously approaching his favorite pit stop: The Lone Ranger Bar.

Faye apparently had had a similar idea in mind, for no sooner had he reached the door, the violet-haired bombshell, herself, was suddenly standing there right beside him.

"Hi, there....care to buy a lady a drink?," she cooed in a syrypy-sweet voice that definitely did not suit her appearance.

Stiffening on impulse, Spike sent her a sharp glance, admonishming sourly, "Need I remind you that I don't find you to be an actual lady, Faye? Women are delicate creatures, and you, by no means, are delicate."

"You'd be surprised at how delicate I can be, cowboy," Faye returned slyly, placing her hands on her hips before switching them over to the side in a single seductive motion. "And, for your information, I'm every bit of a woman as you are a man."

Spike frowned deeply. This woman was really getting on his nerves, and she most certainly wasn't helping matters any by traispsing around with practically nothing on.

Not that he had anything against women and pride for their figures, but the yellow ensemble that currently adorned her petite figure was just a little too much skin for his taste.

Noticing him eyeing her body, Faye smirked, immediately switching to a stance that showed off all of her curves and assets as she questioned coyly, "Are we going in, or not?"

Spike laughed loudly. "With you? No. With myself? Hell, yes."

"So then I suppose that you enjoy self-indulgences too?!," Faye suddenly spat in response amidst her intense outrage. "I doubt that you could ever even get with a woman to begin with, so you'd always have to refer to the self-service pump!"

Spike was absolutely astounded. Never in his life had he met a woman with such an attitude problem, and yet his lucky stars had now apprently fallen from the sky since he now felt himself standing knee-deep in a puddle of mud.

"So does this mean that it's true?," Faye continued to tease, immediately breaking him out of his troubled train of thought. "Maybe you could start a support group called Self-Indulgers Anonymous."

Spike opened his mouth to reply, only to be immediately cut off the moment that an orange blob suddenly ran smack-dab into his middle, thus knocking the air directly out of him for a brief moment.

Both Spike and Faye then looked down, only to see a little girl with flaming red hair, a peppy Welsh Corgi at her heels.

"Oops! Ed is sorry, Mr. Poof-Poof!," the child exclaimed, admiring Spike's unruly hair to a certain degree before backing away from him and embracing the small dog at her feet. "You've got to help Ed hide! Ed doesn't want to go to school, anymore!"

Spike raised an eyebrow. "And who the hell is Ed, exactly?"

"ED is Ed!"

"Huh?"

"ED is ED!"

"You're Ed?"

"YES!"

Spike and Faye exchanged glances.

Exasperated, the girl seized the bewildered couple by the arms and began dragging them away from their beloved bar, explaining blithely, "Ed is sooo glad that she met Mr. Poof-Poof and Sleaze-lady, cuz now they can hide Ed from her father-person since he's trying to send Ed to school!"

"I'm afraid that we can't say the same about meeting you, Ed," Faye returned haughtily, still in a silent tirade over the whole 'Sleaze-lady' bit. "Why don't you want to go to school, anyway? It gives you something to do."

"Maybe the school doesn't want Ed....ever think of that?," Spike suggested, smirking at his own joke.

Ed, however, wasn't the least bit amused. "That's not funny, Mr. Poof-Poof. Ed's too smart for school, so Ed needs to get away. Will you help Ed?"

Faye, currently disbelieving the fact that a girl that spoke in 3rd person could be 'too smart' for anything, agreed submissively, "Alright, fine....you can come and live with me."

"Really?!"

She nodded.

"Faye, are you nuts?!," Spike hissed, doing a double-take. "What's Mao going to say about all of this?!"

Faye smirked. "Mao doesn't have to know."

A/N: Welp, that's it! Please tell me what you think!