Inside of a dimly lit warehouse, the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate had been trying to start over and recreate itself. A lot of men had either been arrested or left after Vicious' death but there was still a large amount of men that worked for their new leader, Lee. Lee was a tall and tan middle-aged man with slicked- back black hair; his shoulders were broad and he wore an all-black casual suit. His eyes were dead and his demeanor was cold. The members gossiped that the man was sadistic and had fits of rage; but in a second he could be calmer than a Zen garden. He would spend a lot of time in his office; he sat on a steel chair and had a make-shift desk out of wooden box crates. It was much less glamorous than the tower, but Lee saw it as an opportunity to tie all loose ends and get some actual work done. One of his men approached him and whispered in his ear. Lee stood up and gathered his main enforcers to discuss their current issues.
"Any news on Roy?" asked one of the enforcers.
"Nah, no one's seen him since he got away from us." said another.
The enforcer sighed. "What about Spiegel?" he asked.
"Spiegel keeps getting away from us! I don't how the guy does it, he's as slippery as a damn snake." said one man.
"My guys keep ending up empty-handed, they're too afraid to tell me." said another.
Lee remained silent listening to the ongoing list of complaints from his enforcers and even when they started barking at each other. He cleared his throat very quietly, and the room turned silent.
"I… trust all of you. There is indeed a reason why I choose you to be my high level enforcers, you don't quit when it gets difficult. But right now I want you all to take a break from Spike Spiegel and his companions for a while. I'll get some our officers to pester the poor bug in the meantime. I want all of your energies to be focused on trafficking red-eye, the Syndicate needs stability first and foremost. Meditating on bloodlust can waste money." said Lee.
One man interjected "Why don't we just let ISSP handle it? Put him in jail, and kill him in there?" he asked.
Lee had a cold look in his eyes "As Red Dragon we deal with traitors ourselves. If we were to allow ISSP to arrest him now, paying off officers would be a waste of the money we already spent. We continue on with the plan, Spiegel and his friends will die. If ISSP puts him in jail we won't be able to get to him, it's too heavily secured. We need him out in the open." he said.
"What if some gung-ho officer who actually does his job finds him?" asked one man. All the men in the room chuckled.
"Not to worry we have our men on the inside that'll stop that. Spiegel and all of us are off limits as of right now and I intend to keep it that way." said Lee.
"Speaking of men on the inside, Dodge has a surprise for us."
"What is it?" asked Lee.
"That new guy, Ken, he was a cop. We found him collecting and sending information on us. He's in the trunk right now."
All of the men went to the back of the warehouse where Dodge was smoking by his car. Dodge was Lee's right hand man; he was a pale and slim young man with blonde hair. He was very narcissistic but he didn't hesitate to get the job done.
"Hey ladies, check out what poppa dragged in." said Dodge. He lifted up the trunk door and inside was a cop; he was beaten, blindfolded, muzzled, and handcuffed. All of the men laughed and dragged the cop out of the trunk while he screamed for dear life. They brought him inside the warehouse and took off the muzzle.
"Pl-please, please, please God no! PLEASE!" the cop pleaded.
One of the men commented "The little guy pissed himself, no wonder he stinks! Hey Dodge you're gonna have to clean your car up real nice!"
"Eh I'll get Johnny to do it later." said Dodge.
"Please don't kill me! I have a wife and a son at home! Don't do this!" said the cop.
"Pipe down we ain't gonna kill you, yet at least." said one man.
"Put him in my office. I want to deal with this one." said Lee. He gave a sinister smile as he watched his men drag off the cop.
"Damn he's gonna wish he was dead." said Dodge.
"A true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear." -
E.A. Bucchianeri
Back in Fossae Jet had handcuffed the men that attacked Faye to a gas tank and interrogated them.
"All right I wanna know who sent you two." asked Jet.
"We ain't tellin' you nothin' pal." said one man.
"We're lower level guys. We were told to go after the woman and that's all they told us." said the other man.
"Sheesh you guys take orders better than ISSP officers." said Jet.
"Well if you kill us you won't find out anything." said the man.
"On the contrary, we're calling the cops there's a sweet old lady inside the convenience store who saw the whole thing." said Jet with a smile.
"Crap." said both the men at the same time.
Faye had landed her ship back down and reached inside to grab something. Spike was leaning against it with his arms crossed.
"That's a convenient trick your Redtail pulled off." said Spike.
"Yeah well a girl's always gotta be prepared." said Faye.
Faye grabbed Spike's folded clothes and a pack of cigarettes from under her seat and handed them to him.
"What's this? You had my clothes?" asked Spike.
"Well I kept them just in case we ever found you. I knew you'd be running around in something this filthy."
"Well that's awfully sweet of you Faye." said Spike with a smile.
Faye crossed her arms and scowled "Don't get any funny ideas in that little head of yours, I was trying to be considerate." she said.
"Considerate? That's not like you."
"What do you know about being considerate Spike? You never care if you hurt anyone's feelings!"
"Well maybe if people weren't always prying, their feelings wouldn't get hurt."
"Spike… I'm just… I'm not trying to argue with you. I just want to get it through your thick skull that your actions affect people."
"Well I really appreciate the tip Faye." said Spike sarcastically. They stood in an awkward silence for a while. They both leaned on the Red Tail with their arms crossed.
"That beard makes you look ridiculous." said Faye.
"You think so? I thought I would've had one once I woke up in the hospital." said Spike.
"Yeah we let the local beauty school work on you while you were in the coma; they shaved you because they needed a clean face."
"What?! You let a bunch of women put make-up on me while I was in a coma?!"
"Don't worry there was some men too, they even practiced hair styling on that fuzz ball you call a head." said Faye with a smile.
"Why did you let them do that?!"
"Why not? Beauty is a cause I believe in, plus we got some extra bucks out of it."
"Well that's just great." Spike pouted and crossed his arms again.
Jet walked away from the gas tank and approached Spike and Faye. "Well I couldn't get anything out of them. I called Bob for a favor he's sending over some guys over here to pick them up. I also paid off the old lady to make sure she doesn't say that she saw you here Spike." he said.
"Thanks Jet, but we need to get out of here this whole situation gives me a headache." said Spike.
In the distance the gas tank that the two men were handcuffed to suddenly exploded, throwing flames and debris everywhere. It made the convenience store catch on fire too. The trio stared, dumbfounded, at the wreck. "Oh great Spike you're back one day and everything gets wrecked!" whined Jet. "How is this my fault?! I didn't even touch the damn thing!" said Spike. The old woman came running out and yelled at them. "You're gonna have to pay for this!" she said. The three of them scattered and ran back to the space crafts, jetting off back to The Bebop.
Back on The Bebop Spike was taking a shower while Jet cooked and Faye painted her toe nails on the couch. The Bebop had a complete moment where it was the way it used be, and the three of them loved every minute of it. Spike came out of the shower and shaved his face. He came out of the shower room with his gray sweat pants and a towel around his neck. He sat on the yellow chair and laid his head back while closing his eyes.
"Oh I see you got rid of that ugly piece of carpet that was on your face." said Faye.
"I can feel the air on my face again, I like it." said Spike as he rubbed his face.
"Well you look like your old self."
"I guess facial hair only works for Jet."
"What's that?" asked Jet.
"It's nothing Jet." said Spike.
"Food's almost ready."
"Good, I'm starving."
Jet brought out three plates from the kitchen and placed them on the coffee table. All three of them gathered round and turned on the TV.
"Hmm bell peppers and beef… with beef." said Spike with a smile.
"Yeah we actually got to keep some cash without you wrecking everything." said Jet with a smug look. He continued and pointed his finger "Enjoy while it lasts, after we pay for that mishap at the gas station we're going to be running a little low on funds."
"Yeah how did that blow up anyway?" asked Faye.
"Well the guys who are after me, if their pawns don't accomplish their tasks, they're executed. Maybe there was an explosive on one of them and someone detonated it."
Jet put his hands on his hips and said "Oh I don't like this, not one bit. We're going to end up running through all of our funds if there's a wreck everywhere we go."
"Well why don't we go on a little bounty then if you're so worried about money." said Spike.
"Oh no, no way. I can't risk having you out in the open." said Jet.
"Ah, come on Jet we'll get away from Mars, some part of the solar system where people won't recognize me."
"Yeah but ISSP is everywhere no matter where we go. Haven't you had enough action lately Spike?"
"Nope. I spent months lying down, I want to make up for lost time." said Spike with a smile.
"You never learn do you Spike." said Jet in dissatisfaction.
Dodge went out on a drug run with another enforcer, dropping off briefcases of red-eye throughout Mars on his MONO racer, the Great White. The Red Dragon Syndicate began regaining its grip on the solar system. Without The Van's traditional ways things got done faster, but there was much more violence. All of the members lost what little code of honor they had. Largely due to Lee's influence and commands.
Dodge and the enforcer arrived in an abandoned factory where the client instructed him to leave a briefcase full of red-eye in the men's restroom. It was dark inside the room, the smell was horrendous. Dodge left the brief case behind a toilet and lit a cigarette and smoked it. The enforcer stood back, keeping lookout. While they stood silently a gun fired and hit the enforcer straight through the head. As the body collapsed Dodge dropped his cigarette, drew his weapon and put his back against the wall. He heard multiple footsteps directly on the other side of the wall. He put his automatic gun against it, following the sound and fired. There were five men; he was killed two of them while the other three jumped out of the way. One of the men got up from the dusty floor and ran inside the bathroom "You son of a bitch!" said the man. Dodge aimed and fired at the man, killing him instantly.
The two other men ran outside, climbed up the ladder and got on their space crafts that were covered with tarps and flew away. Dodge didn't let them go; he climbed aboard his Great White and pursued them. The attackers flew straight for a few thousand feet and split separate ways. Dodge followed one of them and fired the machine gun. It hit the back of the space craft; it lost control and flew downward with intensity. Dodge fired the machine gun again; the targeted space craft was hit and it plummeted down, crashed and exploded. The other ship was far away but Dodge was able to fly fast enough and catch up to it. The fleeing space craft shot a missile that went backward and exploded into multiple, creating a shotgun effect. Dodge maneuvered around the blast, tilting the Great White side to side. He fired the machine gun and hit dead on. The attacker's space craft landed severely on the ground. Dodge landed his Great White and climbed off; he ran toward the smoking space craft and opened the pod. The man inside was breathing with difficulty, he said "You little shit, just wait-" Dodge shot him before he could finish. He searched through the compartments and found an ISSP badge. Dodge took out his cell phone and called Lee. "Sir, we got a big problem." said Dodge.
The Bebop set a course to Ganymede. On the inside Jet was working on their space crafts, while Faye slept in her room and Spike on the couch. He had a dream about Julia's death that woke him up. He sat up and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Spike got off the couch and headed toward the ship bay. Spike entered and looked upon his Swordfish and smiled.
"I missed this piece of junk." said Spike.
"Huh? Oh Spike, I thought you were asleep." said Jet.
"Just barely."
"Your Swordfish has been gathering dust for a long time."
"I'm surprised ISSP didn't impound the thing."
"Oh they did, but I pulled a few strings with Bob and bought it off of them."
Jet and Spike leaned against the Swordfish; Spike took out a pack of cigarettes and handed one to Jet. They stood there for a while in silence. "Why didn't you hesitate to come back?" asked Jet.
"The night I escaped the hospital I took refuge for one night at an old friend's house. Right away I left the next morning only to be attacked by Red Dragon and they made a threat." said Spike.
"A threat?"
"To me and both of you guys."
"How do you know for sure they're going to act on it?"
"This friend of mine, his name was Roy, he let me stay only one night Jet. And next thing you know he goes missing."
"We can't go to ISSP with this Spike."
"I know we can't. I have the feeling that ISSP is working with them, they have a lot of guys on the inside."
Jet exhaled a cloud of smoke and rubbed his head. "So what are we gonna do, you're telling me we're screwed, right?"
"Not if we fight."
"This is all gonna go wrong, I just know it. But I'll help you Spike, for all of our sake."
"Whatever happens, happens." Spike threw his cigarette on the floor and put it out with his foot and left the room.
"I hope you're wrong." said Jet.
Spike walked through the hallways; the sink inside the bathroom was running water and it turned off. Faye came out of the bathroom as Spike passed by.
"You never told me who those guys were Spike." said Faye.
"Red Dragon." said Spike.
Faye had a somber expression on her face "Vicious is dead, I thought all of this was over Spike."
"I never said it would be over." said Spike.
"Then killing Vicious was all pointless! Is that what you're saying?"
"It got them of your backs didn't it?! I was supposed to die and they were never going to bother you guys again! But I guess things never work out the way they're supposed to!"
"What's going to happen to all of us Spike? Are you going to take us in the grave with you?"
Spike looked directly into her eyes and brought his face closer. "If anything bad happens, I'll make sure it'll only happen to me." he said.
"I don't want anything to happen to you again Spike." said Faye with tears welling up in her eyes.
"Don't get your hopes up then." said Spike. He left the hallway and laid back down on the couch. Faye stood in the hallway for a while, with her back against the wall. She worried about how Spike was supposed to get them out of this situation without him having to die. They were comrades and even though she didn't like to show it, she cared about Spike and Jet. They had been her only family for a long time and after having remembered how she lost her parents, she didn't want to lose any more family. The Bebop sailed off in space headed toward its destination.