Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop…

Notes: sorry for the delay, but I've been busy with school and my new obsession for Kagura/Sesshoumaru fics has stolen all the free time I had for writing… and finally even this chapter is edited… a big thanks to my beta Lacey!

Angel's Punishment

Chapter 7: It's been awhile…

2074, Chinese District, Tharsis city- Mars-

The short, old owner of the Chinese herbal shop was sweeping the floor of his little store; he was whistling a joyful tune, noticeably pleased with himself after selling to a rich silly woman what everybody could have recognized as plain grass for ten thousand woolongs, telling her it was a powerful aphrodisiac… poor woman, her husband had to have serious problems down there if she was willing to pay that price for a fistful of dry grass.

Zhang was distracted from his work when he heard the light footsteps of the twenty-six year old woman that lived upstairs coming down. In the past three years she had been like the daughter he'd never had; he had taught her the art of the sword and tried to teach her even some of his secret techniques for making herbal medicines, but she didn't seem too interested in it.

However what worried the old man the most was that even if she seemed like the carefree type of girl, he knew that deep down inside, Faye hid a secret… maybe even more than one. And he couldn't help but get worried every time she left for one of her 'trips' as she called the disappearing acts she performed monthly. From the most recent of these trips she had come home with a large gash on her right shoulder, evidently provoked by the blade of a Japanese weapon, he didn't bother to ask her what had happened because he was sure she would, as always, give him vague answers, or change the subject; she just let him tend her wound and then retire to her room.

"Have you drank the herbal tea I made you, yet?" he asked not looking at her, knowing she would be sitting at the counter looking around for a cigarette.

"You mean the boiled rat shit?" the dark haired lady asked dangling her feet in the air like a little girl.

"It's not boiled rat shit, Faye… it's something that will help your wound heal faster" he corrected her in a fatherly tone that reminded her so much of one of her long lost comrades.

"Yeah, by giving me a ulcer… and even if it's not boiled rat shit, it sure as hell it tastes exactly like it" Faye shot back a small smirk plastered on her crimson lips as she fixed her emerald glare on his little dark eyes. Zhang returned her challenging gaze, uncertain whether to get angry and throw the sweep he held in his hands at her stubborn head, or keep his calm demeanor and ignore her bitchy attitude.

"Whatever you say, my girl… whatever you say" He had chosen the second one.

2074, Red Dragon's Headquarters, Spike's Office -Tharsis city - Mars-

"I had the feeling that she hasn't been doing it randomly… that she could actually have a plan."

"So you think she's killed the men who were there that day…" the tall lanky man said staring out at the lively city from the glass wall of his office.

"Yeah, I just can't believe I've been so blind to not see it before… I should have understood it long ago…" a younger man replied from his position on the large leather armchair a few feet behind him.

"You couldn't know she had a connection with me, Shin… don't blame yourself" Spike's low voice said with understanding.

"No, Spike, it's my fault… I should have thought that you could have friends out of the organization; I should have looked for them and told them you were okay."

Silence filled the room for a few minutes, the sounds of the cars driving on the main road at the feet of the massive skyscraper they were in the only audible noise in the large room. Shin sighed unable to stand the tension between them anymore.

"I'm really sorry, Spike, I just didn't know that there was someone else other than Julia…" his voice was small, but full of sincerity and it held an unspoken request for forgiveness…

"Faye never took Julia's place, Shin, they've always lived in two completely different worlds…" he stated firmly.

Spike had understood that the moment he'd left the Bebop before going to face his fate. Julia had been alive in his dreams, while Faye was part of his reality; and when the two of them had met each other, the two lives he had been living in till that moment had rejoined; the past he had never wanted to let go had resurfaced in that present he had always tried to deny.

And then everything had fallen down like a house of cards, in three days his life had changed more than in three years, in three days everything and everybody from his past had finally let him be free. But nonetheless, he hadn't been allowed to leave this world, along with the people from the past, nor to go back to the people from his present. Maybe someone up there had decided to punish him for being so careless with his life… and maybe it was even about time.

"But that still doesn't change anything. It doesn't depend on you how she felt, Spike… you can't always know who or what other people care for, and you can't decide for them… that's where I was wrong." his friend insisted.

"You're not to blame… I was the one living in a reverie; I was the one that made the mistake of letting other people care for me…" Spike turned to him, his dark mismatched eyes fixed on the other man's dark green irises; he never noticed before that his friend's eyes were the same color as Faye's. He would have never thought that he could actually miss looking into the jaded depths of her eyes, but he really did; he longed to stare into those emerald pools that shone with fierceness and passion, combined a hint of sadness that never left them.

'And I shouldn't have let myself care for them, too…' he added only for his mind to hear.

A light knock on the door broke the moment of meditation the two men were sharing. They both turned to the noise and Spike told his secretary she could enter.

"We have the list you asked for, sir." The young pretty woman said to Spike blushing a little, before handing him some papers. The green haired syndicate leader looked at the papers he now held, confused.

"I don't remember requesting these…" he replied in a calm voice oblivious to the effect that statement was provoking in the young secretary, whose legs were starting to feel a little shaky.

"I've requested it, Spike… it's the list of the people who were there that night," Shin said receiving a thankful look from the woman.

"You can go now, Beth… thank you"

"No problem, sir…" she replied disappearing behind the closing door.

"Looks like you're eager to sit again on that chair…" Spike commented with a smile pointing to the leather armchair behind the expensive wooden desk with the dragon emblem engraved in its front.

"It's not that, Spike!" Shin defended himself.

"Of course not…" his older friend teased. His eyes looked through the names that were listed on the papers, he was at the second page and not a single name was still targeted as alive. It looked like Shin's intuition had been right; Faye was really killing whoever had been in the headquarters that night; it was like he was reading her 'death list'.

Spike's russet eyes stopped as they read a well-known name: Shin Kikuchi. He quickly turned the page in hopes to find other names on it, but there was just a name on the last page, and he didn't need to read the status column for knowing if that person was dead or alive… he had personally seen to Vicious' status three years before.

"I believe I need your help, Spike…" Shin's trembling voice came from behind him, where the younger man had been reading the document. Spike didn't respond him immediately, his mind was working for a plan; he couldn't let Shin in the hands of Faye, but neither he could let Faye in the hands of the Red Dragons… he wouldn't let anybody else die for him, not in this life; but he couldn't even do it all by himself.

'That's when old friends come in handy…' he thought smiling mischievously.

"It's me the one who will need your help, my friend…" he finally replied.

"You're joking right? I mean, Maho's pregnant I can't-" Shin's protest was cut off by his older friend's voice.

"Don't get yourself wet, Shin… just trust me. I'm going out to get some outer help, get yourself ready" he said picking up the jacket he had discarded before and headed to the door.

"Oh, and congratulations…" he grinned before slipping out of the office leaving a stunned Shin inside.

"T- thanks…"

2074, Ganymede's orbit.

Hours later Spike was sitting in the cockpit of the Swordfish II, an expired cigarette dangling from his thin lips as his hands grasped the commands, speeding as much as possible. He had missed riding his 'baby'; it made him feel like nothing had happened, if he closed his eyes he could almost hear Jet yelling at him through the communicator after a bounty gone bad, with Ed and Ein barking in the background… yeah, Ed barked too, and quite a lot… He could almost hear the sound of the Redtail's engines beside him as Faye took it to the max speed challenging him. The ex bounty hunter turned his head to the left almost expecting to see his beautiful comrade face as she stuck her tongue out at him in a childish gesture; but his eyes met just the infinity of space.

Finally the spaceship reached Ganymede's atmosphere and slowly passed through it to appear in the azure sky of the Jupiter's satellite. Spike looked down at the water that covered the greatest part of the planet searching for the familiar shape of the Bebop at the docks. The Swordfish still had the device that permitted him to find the old spaceship wherever it was; he knew that to find Ed he just needed to digit her name in a web search engine and he would find her, but he kind of felt the urge to see his old friends face to face.

He spotted the Bebop and landed on its deck smoothly, like always. He took a deep breath before opening the cockpit and jumping out of the pilot-seat, his hand reached inside his pocket for a lighter, a normal yellow lighter that he had stolen from one of his men, it was not his beloved Zippo but always better than no lighter at all. He lightened the cig between his lips and inhaled deeply; his eyes scanned the deck and noticed that there were clothes lines full of wet garments drying under the sun light, Spike also noticed that there were an excessive amount of clothes considering that only Jet lived on the ship.

He shrugged his shoulders and started walking towards the hangar, as he was passing a large white sheet something hit his leg pretty hard; the ex-bounty hunter looked down and saw a little figure wrapped in the white sheet clinging at his black pants. Spike arched an eyebrow amused and reached down to uncover the kid that was sitting on his foot; two warm brown curious eyes looked up at the taller man.

"Gotcha!" the brown haired little boy exclaimed grinning.

"Hm?"

"You wanted to kidnap Mr. Banana!" the kid accused pointing to a monkey puppet hanging with the clothes.

"Not exactly, kiddo… I'm here to speak with Jet," he said trying to sound convincing.

"I'll get you dad… but keep away from Mr. Banana, okay?" he replied threateningly before running off toward the hangar. Spike smiled to himself remembering how Jet had always played the father role, even if the 'children' he had to look after were in their twenties.

'So the lonely Black Dog has finally settled down with a family on his own…' he said to himself waiting for his old friend to join him outside.

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Inside the ship Jet was pacing around the room frantically.

"Are you sure he has green hair?" he asked again to the four years old kid who was now sitting on the couch watching some cartoon on TV.

"Yeah, he has fluffy green hair and is really tall and thin!" the boy repeated for the third time.

"And he asked about me?"

"Yup!"

"Are you sure he said nothing else, Matt?"

"Sure!" the kid said starting to get annoyed with his father's questions.

Jet passed a hand on his bald head as his brain absorbed the news he had just gathered from the little boy sitting on the couch. He couldn't believe it; how could he be still alive? And why waiting all this time before letting his friends know? How could he have been so selfish to let them think he was dead for three long years?

'Why don't you go out and ask him?' his subconscious suggested him.

'What if it's just a relative that looks like him… maybe Spike had a brother' he replied.

'Just go out and see it yourself…'

Jet decided to listen to his conscience; after all it was thanks to it that he now had a family. His feet took him to the hangar and finally when he reached the metal door that opened onto the deck he took a deep breath and turned the handle ready to face whoever was on the other side.

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Spike heard the cracking sound of the heavy metal door of the hangar open and looked toward it, he could see the tall figure of his old comrade coming in his direction and when Jet stopped a few feet away from him he let a smirk appear on his lips.

"That kid surely has a lot of hair for being yours, Jet…" the lanky ex-cowboy teased taking off the sunglasses to look the man in front of him in the eyes.

Jet was far from amused by the joke of his thought-to-be-dead partner; he stood there staring into his mismatched eyes unable to decide whether punch him or hug him. Even if now he was sure it was Spike he was facing, there was something different in him; first of all he wasn't wearing his blue suit anymore, but black pants that seemed expensive and a dark red silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up at his elbows, and a loose black tie around his neck. And secondly he noticed a difference in his eyes; in the past when they laughed about something Spike's eyes remained cold, almost distant while his lips turned into his trademark smirk. But now the lost look seemed to have disappeared, his partner's mismatched irises were warmer, if he didn't know better he would have said they looked full of life.

"Actually, he isn't my son …" the ex-cop replied truthfully. Even if he loved Matt as if he was his own, he couldn't deny it, especially since he knew it would have caught off-guard the lanky man standing in front of him. And his statement had truly left his friend speechless. But Jet didn't really feel like congratulating with himself and having a little party inside his head for succeeding in replying to one of Spike's smart-ass comments; he was far more concerned on how a certain somebody would react to the news.

"Does Faye know?" he asked seriously.

"That's why I'm here…" Spike answered throwing his expired cigarette in the water.

"She's not-"

"I know…" the ex-bounty hunter cut off not letting his friend finish.

"So, why are you here, Spike? Why coming back after three years of silence?" there, he finally had asked it. If he waited some more his head would have exploded, he couldn't keep all the questions to himself anymore.

"I know you've seen me go through pretty difficult situations in my life, Jet… but walking here while I was comatose is too much even for me…" the green haired man replied with a bitter smile staring at his friend. He was starting to feel a little hot under the sun and he looked with envy at Jet's attire: khaki shorts, a blue ISSP t-shirt and a pair of flip-flops.

"Are you going to let me in, or do we have to get a sunstroke out here?" he finally asked feeling a bead of sweat run down his brow.

"Let's go inside…" Jet said motioning for the hangar door.

Spike followed his friend inside and wasn't surprised to find that nothing had changed; there were parts of spaceship everywhere, the Hammerhead parked near a blue station wagon that Jet had probably bought after the marriage, and he also noticed there were toys piled up in a corner, that surely belonged to the kid he met earlier.

"I couldn't bring myself to throw it away…" the older man started pointing to the yellow couch that now occupied a once empty space in the hangar.

"It's a piece of history…" Spike smiled flopping down onto it.

"Every time I look at it I could see you laying there sleeping; or Faye reading one of her meaningless fashion magazines glad to occupy your usual spot… it's like having you two back here, like nothing happened" Jet explained with a lost look in his dark blue eyes. It felt weird being there telling him those things, it was almost like talking to a ghost… hell, sometimes he had even spoken to the damn piece of furniture as if he was actually talking with Spike.

"Jet, where's the crazy kid?" the supposed-to-be-dead man asked out of the blue.

"You mean Ed?" the bald man asked waiting for his ex-partner to nod before continuing.

"She's out shopping with Alisa, but she should be here anytime now…"

Spike arched an eyebrow at the mention of Jet's ex-girlfriend name; even if he wasn't the type of guy that liked to poke his nose into other people's business, he didn't forget that name… after all, it wasn't like Jet had had lots of women…

"Yeah, Spike, that Alisa… her boyfriend left her while she was pregnant with his child. I helped her out during the pregnancy and, well, one thing leads to another and I ended up a married man…" he said noticing his friends questioning look.

"Really touching…" Spike commented crossing his long legs onto the metal coffee table in front of him.

"Well sorry if I'm not the tragic hero you surely are, Spike! Besides, what do you want from Ed?"

"I need her help…"

"And?" Jet insisted knowing he surely didn't need her to fix a computer.

"Faye's in deep shit, Jet, more than she's ever been…"

'These damn kids will never grow up…' Jet thought to himself sitting on the coffee table opposite Spike, ready to hear about whatever mess the purple-haired gambler had put herself into.

Jet listened as Spike told him everything about Nemesis, about her killings, and how he found out that Faye and Nemesis were the same woman. Though Jet was shocked to hear that his younger partner was now the leader of the very same syndicate he despised so much, he didn't say a word, he thought that it probably was already difficult for him, and Spike surely didn't need somebody asking him about it.

The two old friends were interrupted by female giggles coming towards the hangar door; Spike could also hear the familiar barking of the Welsh corgi that was both Ed's playmate and Faye's confidant. The door opened and three figures, two human and a dog, entered the room, Alisa noticed the stranger's green mop of hair resting on the back of the couch and asked,

"Jet, why haven't you told me we would have a guest?"

Spike turned his head in the direction of the voice, which had spoken and he recognized the tall dark haired woman carrying two bags full of groceries; he smiled slightly to her before looking at her side where his eyes met the amber ones of a teen he almost thought to not know.

Ed stared at the man sitting on the couch, a man everybody had told her to be dead. She felt tears swell up under her eyes and bit her lip trying to keep them from falling; she wanted so much to run to him and hug him like she would have done years before, but she wasn't the same crazy girl anymore. She had grown up; she had lost her childish innocence, that innocence that had prevented her from being hurt by her father's carelessness towards her, that innocence that had closed her up in her own world where nobody could hurt her anymore… and instead of feeling happy of seeing Spike there, alive and well, she felt anger, delusion and a sense of betrayal that she had felt just once before.

The sound of two bags hitting the metallic floor startled everybody in the room, and before they could even realize what happened Ed had already reached her room and shut the door loudly after her. The three adults were frozen on their spots; they had never seen the girl acting so… 'normal' before.

"I'll go talk to her…" Jet said standing from his position on the metal coffee table.

"No… I'll go" Spike's voice objected as he got on his feet and trotted over the direction Ed had run off.

"You've never been good with kids, Spike…" Jet commented at his retreating back.

"A kid could understand another kid better than any adult, Jet… it's scientifically proven" Spike said with a smirk referring to the ex-cop habit of calling him and Faye 'kids.'

"Whatever…"

The lanky ex-cowboy walked through the dark hallways of the Bebop without needing any light, he knew them like the back of his hand, the only problem was that he didn't really know where to find the girl. The hacker had never had a real room during the time he was living on the ship, she mostly slept on the floor with Ein or rarely in Faye's room when she was out to some horse races…

'Faye's room?' he repeated in his mind; he stopped his pace and turned towards the room that was once occupied by the emerald eyed 'shrew woman', as he was used to calling her. Spike reached the metallic door and tried to open it just to find it locked, he smiled inwardly knowing that his intuition had been right. Ed was there.

"Ed? Are you in there?" he asked in hopes to get a reply.

"No!" come a muffled voice from inside.

"C'mon Ed, I need to talk to you about Faye…" he hoped that Faye's name might get her curious.

"Go talk with her…" she retorted angrily sounding very different from the willing girl she used to be.

"That's the problem… I don't know where to find her" Spike replied truthfully, but there was still no response on the other side of the door; right then dealing with a thirteen year-old hyperactive Ed seemed a lot simpler than having an argument with a sixteen year-old temperamental Ed.

"I know you're helping her, Ed… she wouldn't be able to gain access to confidential information on the Red Dragon's archive without your assistance" he decided to get straight to the point.

"I won't help you, Spike-person…" Ed said resolutely not even trying to defend herself from his accusation.

"You're not helping just me, but even Faye… more than you've helped her till this moment."

"I promised Faye-Faye this was a secret between us…"

'Well, looks like it's not a secret anymore…' Spike commented to himself.

"You've never been able to keep a secret, Ed…" he replied recalling that episode with the fat madman; Faye had made her promise to keep secret the mail he had received by the serial killer, but as soon as he asked about it Ed had told him without any problem.

"Maybe… but I'm still mad at you, Spike-person" she insisted; but slowly her determination was fading; Spike's voice had never sounded so calm and friendly, in the past it had been calm but with a hint of coldness, he never seemed to care about nothing and no one around him.

"I don't see any reasons for you being mad at me" he stated shifting his position and leaning his back to the cold wall of the Bebop.

"You've hurt Faye-Faye…" her voice stated clearly and accusatorily before going on with her speech "she told me that it was time for the both of us to find the place where we belonged, that's why I left, I found that place… and Faye found it too, she belonged on the Bebop, where there were people she cared for… her house on Earth was just a bunch of ruins… you were the only home she had, and you left her, Spike… just like my father left me. Even if I acted like I didn't care, I was hurt when he left… I understand what Faye has been through, and I won't betray her faith, too…"

"I didn't want to hurt her… and I don't plan to" Spike said in a low voice.

"Of course you will! You just want to catch her so you can go back to your syndicate with all the glory!"

"It's not like that, Ed…" he tried to explain.

"I don't believe you…" the girl replied but with less fierceness than before.

Moments of silence followed Ed's last line, there was nothing more to say, or at least nothing more they wanted to say. After all, he could catch Faye on his own without her help, he just needed to put a few guards on Shin's flat... right then the words of hate towards Nemesis pronounced by his men a few days before came to his mind, and he repeated to himself that there was no way he would let them treat her like that.

"Faye's next aim is Shin Kikuchi …" they always say that facts are heavier than words, so he would give her facts.

"I know about him…" Ed replied in a flat tone.

"No, Ed, you don't know everything…" Spike decided that it was time to put the word 'end' to their debate; this would be his last shot. "He was the one who helped me three years ago, he saved my life and I'm sure he would do it again. He doesn't deserve to die. Besides his girlfriend's pregnant… how do you think Faye will react after finding out she killed the man who saved me? Do you believe she'll be happy to know she left an unborn baby without its innocent father?"

There was another moment of silence between the two; Spike really hoped he had finally convinced her to help him, because he surely wouldn't be able to respond to another one of her accusations. In three years Ed had surely made a great change… or maybe she had always been like that, she had just been really good in hiding it. Spike's wondering stopped abruptly as his ears caught the sound of the door being unlocked; he moved from his position in front of it and waited for Ed to exit from the room that once was Faye's.

As the sixteen-year-old girl made her way past the door her ex-comrade stared at her, taking in all the changes she had gone through in the three years he hadn't seen her. Ed was definitely taller, about five foot ten; she was wearing a pair of jeans cut offs and a yellow t-shirt that matched with the yellow Converse's on her feet; her longer hair were pulled back in a high ponytail but some bangs rested on her forehead. She looked positively like a girl now, there were no chances that people could question her gender anymore.

Finally Ed looked up at Spike; all her doubts disappearing when she noticed a strange warmth in his mismatched eyes, something she never seen before; she was happy that he was alive, and she was even more glad that he was there for Faye. She had always looked up at her like a big sister, after all there were just ten years of difference between them; and now that she had finally found a family that loved her, she wanted nothing more for Faye than to find a family of her own. That's why she helped Faye in avenging Spike, because she hoped that after killing the people that had made her suffer, maybe her 'big sis' would let heal the bleeding wound on her heart and be free again, or at least come back to the Bebop and help her out in this messy teenager life she had to face everyday.

"So how can Radical Edward help you, Mr. Spiegel?"

A/N: well, I hope you liked this chapter as much as you liked the others… I don't know when I'll be able to update next time, surely not the first two weeks of December… I'll be impossibly busy with school…

Anyway, I wanted to giave a big hug and a huge thanks to each one of the special people that have spent some of their precious time to read and review my fic… THANKS!