Inside of the Red Dragon warehouse Dodge was sitting around a table with other members, playing poker. Dodge took a drag from his cigarette and carelessly pushed a stack of poker chips further onto the table.

"Oh man Dodge you're slipping." said one man.

"What? Oh… back off! Stop worrying about how I play and you worry about yourself, asshole." said Dodge.

"Forget you then!" said the man.

"Hey Dodge you got something that's bothering you?" asked another man.

"Oh God, you sound like my mother." said Dodge.

"It's that little runt Shiro, huh?" said the man.

"Why? What do you know?" asked Dodge.

"C'mon we can all see that the prick is trying to muscle in on your job." said the man.

"Yeah the guy's a kiss ass." said another man.

"Well I'm glad you guys see it my way, but I'm not worried I know Lee has good judgment." said Dodge.

"If you're wrong then the boss is going to put a middle man between us and him, I don't like it." said the man.

"Worried you're not gonna get paid as much?" asked Dodge.

"Hell yeah, I'll leave the syndicate if I get paid any lower than what I'm already making." said the man.

"No one ever leaves the syndicate and lives you know that." said Dodge.

All the men at the table had a moment of silence staring at their cards that were held in between their hands. The game continued on for a few more minutes."I fold." said Dodge as he laid his cards on the poker table and left the warehouse.

"I try not to live in the past, he thought, but who knows, sometimes the past lives in me."

― Jamie Ford

Spike was walking on the sidewalk when he approached a black car that was parked near the bend of the street. He stepped off the sidewalk, went around to the left side of the car and opened the passenger side door and sat inside. He slammed the door shut, rested his head back and took a deep sigh.

"Did he talk?" asked Vicious with a grim tone and long face.

"Yeah, he sang like a canary." said Spike with a smirk. Spike dug around the pockets of his leather jacket and took out a carton of cigarettes. He pursed his lips around one of the cigarettes and pulled it from its carton.

"What did you do to him?" asked Vicious.

"Broke his leg, you know the usual." said Spike.

"Brute force truly is your ally Spike."

"You got that right."

Vicious stared ahead with cold eyes and his hands glued to the steering wheel.

"Something's wrong isn't it…" said Spike with a serious tone.

"Nothing is wrong." said Vicious.

"I know you, you're bad-tempered but right now you seem depressed." said Spike as he lighted the cigarette in his mouth.

"How did you come that conclusion?" said Vicious.

"Usually you're wearing a grin once you or I get a job done."

"Okay, something is troubling me…"

"Then tell me."

"I can't tell you unless I'm completely certain of it."

"Don't worry I'll get it, even if it's just bullshit."

"Neither of us are very good with sentimentality."

"C'mon…"

"Fine… I'm suspicious of someone… but if I told you then you might look at them differently and I can't have that happen."

"It's not that new guy is it?" asked Spike as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"It's not one of our men I'm suspicious of… it's Julia."

Spike eyes grew wider. He held the cigarette between his fingers and sealed his mouth, his heart began beating faster. "What… what about her?" he asked nervously.

"She's seeing another man… I know it." said Vicious.

"How do you know? I'm sure she wouldn't-

"I can sense it, I can read her like a book." said Vicious.

"What if she is… seeing someone … what are going to do about it?" asked Spike.

Looking straight ahead, Vicious gave a menacing smile and said "I'm going to slaughter him."

Spike jolted awake in the dark, breathing rapidly as his chest stretched out and in. He sat up on the couch and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He leaned back on the couch and rested his eyes for a while. Spike was surprised that he was still dreaming about the past; perhaps it was anxiety and sorrow slowly etching itself inside. What was different this time is that his recollections weren't clouded. Maybe it was coming to terms with the past, but his memories became much more vivid. "But why?" he thought to himself. It was probably inevitable symptoms of post-traumatic stress; he hated the past and he wanted to forget about it. Living in the real world seemed like a much harder feat if there was something that kept pulling him back. A small light illuminated a section of the living room. Spike opened one of his eyes and saw Jet reaching inside the refrigerator.

"What are you looking for?" asked Spike.

"Beer, I think there's some in the back." said Jet.

"Get me one too yeah?"

"There's only one left…"

"One left?" said Spike disappointedly.

"We'll split it." said Jet as he turned on one light. He headed toward the chair and set down a glass on the coffee table. Jet cracked open the beer and poured it into the cup halfway and handed it to Spike.

"Thanks." said Spike.

"Don't you ever sleep at night? The only time I ever see you actually asleep is in the day." said Jet as he sat down in the yellow chair.

"I should be asking you the same question, I've seen you trimming your bonsai trees at the dead of night." said Spike with a whimsy.

"Yeah, I guess you got me there." said Jet with smirk.

"What is it about those things?"

"They're therapeutic."

"Is that right? Mind showing how to do it one of these days?"

"Ha! Yeah right, knowing you, you'd probably get impatient destroy the poor things."

Spike chuckled. "Yeah you're probably right." he said.

Jet gulped down the beer and groaned.

Spike did the same and set down the empty glass on the coffee table.

"You want more don't you?" asked Jet.

"Yeah it's nowhere near enough to get hungover, we might as well be drinking ginger ale."

"To be fair, one beer wouldn't be enough to get you drunk either."

"That's true… I guess it didn't matter whether or not we split it, huh?"

"How did we ever manage to split anything in half for three years?"

"I know, right? I'm really surprise we managed to split anything three-ways with Faye."

"She took 60% while we accepted 40%."

Spike sneered. "Nothing is ever equal in this world, is it?" he said.

"You got that right." said Jet.

Suddenly all of the lights in the living room turned on, blatantly bright. Spike and Jet winced and covered their eyes with the back of their hands. They both turned to see Faye wandering in.

"Speak of the devil." said Jet.

"Huh? What were you two doing here in the dark?" asked Faye.

"Nothing." said Jet.

"You two were gossiping like a couple of girls at a sleep-over weren't you?" said Faye with a whimsical smile and hand on hip.

"Yeah right, think whatever you want Faye." said Spike.

Faye hummed as she strolled along to the refrigerator. She opened the door and frantically searched inside. "Hey did either one of you see a beer in the back? The one I said I was saving it for later?" she asked.

Spike and Jet glanced at each other and then quickly turned away; Spike scratched the back of his head and Jet crossed his arms.

Faye approached them and saw the empty beer can on the coffee table. "Hey!" she exclaimed. Faye snatched the can and hopelessly tilted it over to see if there was any left. She angrily threw the can onto the floor, put her hands on her hips and pouted. "All right which one of you bastards drank it?!" she asked demandingly.

"It doesn't matter, I bought it anyways." said Jet.

Faye stomped the ground and growled in anger. "I swear you two jackasses have no self-control." she said.

"You should try controlling that mouth of yours sometime." said Jet under his breath.

"Oh, good one Jet." said Spike.

"Good one what?" asked Faye.

"Nothing." said Spike and Jet at the same time.

"Well what about the scotch?" asked Faye.

"Don't look at us." said Jet.

"Oh yeah… I guess I drank that too…" said Faye.

"What are you doing hogging all the booze anyways, that's not very feminine you know." said Jet.

"Shows what you know about women Jet." said Faye. She went back to the refrigerator and opened it once again. She reached inside and pulled out a can of dog food. "This is all that's left Jet! When are we going to get some actual food?!" asked Faye as she dropped the can of dog food to the floor.

"Whenever we get some money." said Jet.

"How are we going to do that?" she asked.

"Well we haven't been doing anything this whole time, have you ever thought about actually getting a job?" said Jet.

The can of dog food rolled and hit Spike's foot. He looked down and scooped it up.

"What kind of jobs are there to get on Ganymede? Being a lowly fisherman isn't exactly my style." said Faye.

Spike observed the can of dog food in his hand.

"There's nothing demeaning about being a Ganymede fisherman! You can make a very decent living!" said Jet.

"Forget about it, I just remembered there were some emergency rations in the kitchen." said Faye as she walked away.

"You know it's not good for you to eat this late at night!" said Jet as he called out to Faye in the kitchen.

Spike put the can of dog food inside of his pocket. "Seriously Jet what are we going to do about money?" asked Spike.

"Would you two stop griping at me, I'll think of something!" said Jet.

Lee was inside of his dark office talking on his phone in a very low voice. The bright screen on his phone was illuminating his face as he had an angry expression. There was a knock on the door; Lee hung up the call and asked "What is it?"

"It's Dodge sir." said Dodge.

"Come in." said Lee.

Dodge put his hand on the door knob and tried opening the door. "It's locked sir." he said.

Lee stood up from his chair, turned on the light switch on the wall, and unlocked the door. He headed back to his chair as Dodge opened the door. "My apologies." said Lee as he sat down in his chair.

"That's okay sir." said Dodge as he sat in a chair in front of Lee's desk.

"What did you need?" asked Lee.

"You're the one that called me up here sir."

"Oh… yes that's correct."

"So…"

"Yes, now I have a proposition for you."

"What is it?"

"You know that I confide in all in my enforcers, but after we regain power I was wondering if you wanted to be the head of that whole operation."

"Sir, I don't know what to say." said Dodge with enthusiasm.

"Now you will be reporting back to me like usual, but you'll be telling the rest of the enforcers what to do with my consent of course. You will take a lot more responsibility how does that sound?" said Lee.

"I'll only need your permission?"

"Well myself and let's say a 'committee' of members that I will be consulting with."

"Wait…which members?"

"I'm not certain at this point, but you'll find out eventually."

"Then… this isn't a promotion, this is a demotion!"

"Dodge calm down I didn't say that this was set in stone, I was merely bearing it in mind."

"No! I can't believe you, after everything I've done!"

"I don't believe that you'd be able to handle that much responsibility."

"Did Shiro put you up to this? Are you actually listening to his bullshit?!"

"Dodge, it does not matter. I really appreciate your service but the Red Dragon requires structure."

"I can't believe this shit."

Lee stood up and stared Dodge down. "This is merely an outcome. Here I am offering you an opportunity AND YOU SPIT RIGHT IN MY FACE!" shouted Lee in rage.

Dodge flinched and started breathing uneasily. "Umm… I, I'm sorry, sir… I wasn't thinking straight…" he said.

Lee relaxed his shoulders and breathed out to calm down. "Either you consider this opportunity or you will have to leave the syndicate, do you understand."

Dodge swallowed nervously "Okay sir, I'll consider it." he said.

"Now get the hell out of my office, I'm working on something." said Lee.

In the afternoon Jet, Spike, and Faye were all up in the main bridge of The Bebop. Jet and Spike were sitting at the navigation console that was being used as a board for a chess game. Faye was in the front seat, reading a magazine with her feet up.

Spike propped up his elbow on the rim of the console to support his head with his hand. He was looking down on the screen and slumped down as he began to doze off.

"Spike make a move already!" said Jet.

Spike opened his eyes wide and regained his posture. "Oh, sorry…" he said.

"If you don't wanna play, just say so." said Jet.

"It's not that, I'm just having trouble of what move to make next." said Spike.

"You've been playing this whole game carelessly, what made you have a change of heart all of a sudden?

"I feel like winning."

Faye walked up to the two men at the navigation console. She stood and stared at the screen with one hand on her hip. She pointed her finger at a chess piece, then to an empty space and said "You should move it there Spike." She reached toward the piece but Spike pushed her hand out of the way.

"I know what I'm doing Faye." said Spike as he irritably stared at her.

"Hey don't get all huffy with me! I'm just trying to help!" said Faye.

"Well I never asked for your help!"

"You should accept help more often, you're nothing but a mess Spike." she said turning her face away and crossing her arms.

"I don't need to know what move to make next, it comes to me instinctively!" said Spike as he hastily moved the chess piece forward.

Faye sighed in annoyance and walked away from the navigation console.

"Ha!" exclaimed Jet as he moved his piece over Spike's.

Spike sighed and reached his hand inside of his jacket pocket. He pulled out a carton of cigarettes and the can of dog food accidentally fell out onto the console.

"What's that?" asked Jet.

"Uh, it's nothing." said Spike.

"That's Ein's dog food, why do you have it your pocket?" asked Jet.

Faye turned to look at Spike and Jet and stared at them intently.

"I'm just saving it for later." said Spike.

"That thing's been sitting in the fridge for almost a year, it's got to be expired already." said Jet.

"So what, I'll eat anything now with the state we're in." said Spike.

"That's disgusting, it's dog food Spike! And even if it wasn't it'd still be disgusting, it's probably toxic by now."

"Then you shouldn't leave things in the fridge."

"You were trying to reminisce about the ol' mongrel weren't you?" said Jet as he crossed his arms, closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair.

Spike tilted his head down and gazed at the can as it sat on the navigation console. "Did… you ever figure out what happened to him?" asked Spike.

Jet had a solemn look on his face with vacant eyes. "I'm not too sure… I like to think he went after Ed." he said.

Spike became gloomy along with Jet. "I get why she left and all but… I didn't think I ever really care about it." said Spike.

Jet turned his head to look at Faye. "Why don't you tell Spike what you told me?" he said.

"What?" asked Spike.

"Nothing… it's… what I told her the last time." said Faye.

"What did you tell her?" asked Spike with curiosity.

"I told her… to go find out where she belongs. But now that I look back on it, it's almost like I told her that she didn't belong here or that she never did."

"So now she's frantically searching for something that she's never going to find, huh?" said Spike.

"As if she was searching for proof that she was really alive." said Jet.

Faye got closer to the navigation console. "I regret telling her that… now she's God knows where. But I think I said it in moment because I was looking for somewhere too, but now I know there's nowhere to belong." she said.

"That's not true Faye… you belong here." said Jet hesitantly.

Faye once again had a subtle expression of surprise on her face.

"Maybe it is a good thing that Ed's not here, right now I mean." said Spike.

"What do you mean?" asked Faye.

"I got us all into a big mess… she won't have to suffer because of what I did."

"No one's suffering Spike." said Faye.

"Not yet at least." said Spike with a guilty expression.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I know the past few chapters have been focused on interactions between The Bebop crew and problems in the Red Dragon infrastructure but I wanted to spend a little bit of time on them so it didn't feel rushed. Especially The Bebop crew, I wanted to capture them as they were before things start to change, specifically when things start to heat up in the next chapter! Please review too! I really want to know what you guys think so far!

See You Space Cowboys and Cowgirls!