Again, a big thanks to all who have followed/read/reviewed my story. I'm hoping that it just gets better from here on out! Thanks for the support, friends.

Session Twelve

"Look, we can't just let Villanova go!" Leon protested. It was a week after the Temple incident. After taking a page from the Dragon's book and hiding on a terraform island to give Leon a few days of recovery, the crew of the Bebop was discussing their next move.

"Oh yeah? We sure as hell can, kid," Faye retorted. She sat cross-legged in the middle of the couch after delegating Leon to one of the chairs. "And I think we need to. This bounty is way over your head and we don't need to get involved. We chased Villanova to get away from the Syndicate and now we find out she's neck deep in the Red Dragon. We need to let this one go."

"No! That's exactly why we still need to chase her." Leon gestured with his left hand. His right arm was still bound tightly in a sling, but at least he'd learned what movements he could and couldn't make. "We can't let the Syndicate keep growing like this!"

"Are you an idiot?" Faye demanded. "That's what they want us to do! This whole thing has been an elaborate set-up to bag you. You of all people should stay out of this."

"She does have a point," Jet said. "The Dragon is going after you. Are you sure you want to keep hunting this bounty?"

"That makes me want to hunt Villanova even more! I can't live the rest of my life hiding from the Dragon. If they want me, they won't let me go easily. You all said this yourselves when you brought me on board."

"Leo's right," Ed chimed in from the staircase leading to the bridge. She was dangling her feet off the third step up with Tomato in her lap as usual. "Fangs come out," she held her fingers next to her mouth like big teeth. "They don't go back in." She made a growling sound and acted like she was biting something.

From the step above her, Ein gave a confused growl. "Nasty, nasty fangs, aren't they Ein?" She growled back at the corgi. He stood up and barked at her. "See? Even Ein thinks we should fight."

"Fighting is what we should avoid!" Faye insisted. "Spike went to fight the Dragon and look where that got him!"

"Yeah, but I'm not planning to fight the Dragon all by myself."

"You will if we aren't going with you."

"Hey, no one said anything about sending Leon in alone," Jet interrupted. "If you decide to pursue this bounty, you can count me in."

"Ed too!" Ed held one hand over her heart and the other in the air with two fingers raised.

"Since when does Leon make decisions for the entire crew?" Faye asked.

"Since this bounty affects his life more than ours," Jet said.

"It'll affect my life plenty if someone gets killed on this mission!"

"No one's going to get killed, Faye," Leon said.

Faye bit her lip. "You don't know that. You don't know that! You know what happened to Spike." She looked like she was holding back tears. "We can't guarantee that none of us will die."

"We can't guarantee that on any mission, Faye," Jet pointed out gently. "Why are you so afraid of this one?"

"Because it's the Dragon," she said quietly. "Are none of you listening to me? Have you forgotten Spike?"

Ed shook her head vigorously. "Nobody forgets Spike person, Faye Faye. But we can't let the Dragon scare us. Even though they have fangs, we've got claws. Plus, we're the Bebop Bebop. They can't stop us if we work together."

"Besides, Spike's already laid the groundwork for us," Leon said. "We don't have to go in and destroy the whole thing. I think if we take out the head, the rest will fall. That means Villanova and Andross from what I figure. We already know where to find Andross, and I'm guessing we'll get Villanova in Tharsis since we've compromised her Venus hideout."

"You're forgetting Draugh," Faye pointed out.

"I thought you shot him," Jet said.

"I might have." Faye tucked a stray piece of hair back into her headband.

"What do you mean, 'might have?'" Jet leaned forward.

"Well, I wasn't exactly aiming for anything back at the temple. I was mainly just creating a distraction. I can't confirm that he's dead or anything."

"You don't even know what you hit?" Leon asked, incredulous.

"I was a bit preoccupied saving your asses, if you remember," Faye pointed out.

"What if you'd shot our asses instead?"

"But I didn't," she scowled.

"Ok, ok," Leon held up his hand in surrender. "So we assume he's alive, just to be safe. So there you have it. Three targets and bam! Dragon's over."

"Have you ever heard of the hydra?" Faye asked drily.

"Sure, why?"

"You know how when they cut off one head, another two grow back?"

"Yeah."

"That's what we're going to fight. Not a Dragon. A hydra. And if we cut off the head, two more will just grow back. The Syndicate will keep cropping up no matter how many times we fight it. That's just how the world works. There've always been Syndicates, and there always will be. It's not up to us to try and stop that cycle."

"No one's saying we're going after all the Syndicates in the Galaxy. Just the Red Dragon, Faye," Leon said.

"You don't understand." When she looked up at Leon, there were tears in the corners of her eyes. "In a little over a month, it will be fifteen years to the day since I lost your father to the Dragon. I don't want to watch you walk out too. I don't want that death on my hands."

"Faye," Jet said. "Leon's not going to die. This isn't a suicide mission. No one here needs to kill the Dragon like Spike did. None of us are doing this for revenge. There is no Vicious this time. We're just going after a couple of bounties. Like always. You don't have to make a decision right now. But if you decide to sit this one out, no one will blame you."

"I don't want to sit it out, Jet. I want it to never happen at all." Faye got up from the couch and walked out of the living room without another word.

Leon sat back in his chair with a sigh. "Sorry, Jet, Ed," he said.

"What for?" Ed asked, peering at him curiously between the stair rails.

"For breaking up the Bebop," Leon said. He pushed himself out of the chair and walked out of the room.

The bridge was quiet and dark, just the soft glow of the sleeping dash lights interrupting the dim light. Leon walked up to the shogi board and stared down at the pieces. Jet still hadn't moved anything. He was winning. Leon picked up a pawn and flicked it across the board, scattering pieces. "That's me," he muttered. "Just a pawn trying to play shogi by scattering his own army."

He put his left hand on the shogi board and curled the fingers into a fist, leaning over the board, head bowed. He'd only been on the Bebop for a few weeks and already he was breaking up the crew. Why was it so hard to belong somewhere? Not with his parents, not in an orphanage, not on the Bebop. Maybe it was just his lot in life to be a rift wherever he went.

He raised his head and wandered over to the windows. Leon could just make out the sky above the tops of the trees surrounding the Bebop. Pulling a cigarette out of his pocket, he stuck it between his teeth and flicked his lighter to light it. He took a deep breath, feeling the familiar smoke swirl in his chest. He breathed out slowly, letting the smoke hang in the air over his head.

He rested his left forearm against the window and put his forehead against it. "Why me? All I wanted to do was be a Cowboy. Was that too much to ask?"

He got no answer. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing.

Sometime later he heard footsteps on the stairs behind him. He lifted his head and turned to see Faye walk onto the bridge. She frowned when she saw him. "Seems like someone stole my quiet spot," she said, but she came to stand by the window with him. He didn't say anything, just cut her a glance out of the corner of his eye and kept smoking.

"How's the shoulder?" she finally asked. She didn't pick up where their last conversation left off, so Leon didn't either.

He pulled his cigarette out of his mouth. "Fine. Still hurts if I move too fast, but it's healing."

"Just like Spike," she murmured. Leon wasn't sure if she meant him to hear that.

"So I've heard." Leon sighed. He looked at his reflection in the glass. Since he'd messed up his collarbone, he'd taken to wearing button up shirts - they were easier to get into. He was in a pale yellow shirt now, one of Spike's old ones. When he gazed into the brown eyes in the window, it was almost Spike that gazed back. "I don't want to trample on Spike's memory or anything," he said quietly, "but it'd be nice If I could just be Leon every once in a while."

"What do you mean?" Faye was staring out the window, her arms crossed over her chest.

"You know, not be compared to Spike all the time. I know I look like him. But it's hard being put up against him every time I turn around."

Faye narrowed her eyes. "Don't you want to be like your father?"

"I mean, I guess so, but I never knew him. It's kind of hard to want to be like someone you never met."

"You don't trust me and Jet?"

"Of course I do. Why?"

"You don't trust that our stories of Spike are true?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Then I don't see the problem." She sounded defensive.

"I can't un-be me, Faye. And I can't be Spike. I need you to see that."

Faye turned and looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

Leon sighed. "Ok, be honest with me for a minute, Faye."

"When am I ever not?" she asked, giving him her wide-eyed "innocent" stare.

Leon decided not to answer that one, but instead went straight for the point. "You're not the same woman who found me on the pier. What's biting you?"

"Nothing. I'm the same as I always am," she answered quickly.

"Faye, I've known you less than a month and I can tell you aren't acting normal."

She stared out the window again so he couldn't see her face.

Leon sighed. "It's because I'm so much like him, isn't it?"

"No."

"It is!" Leon insisted. "You don't like seeing a reminder of what you lost walking around right in front of you, do you? You loved him, didn't you?"

"Dammit, kid, I do not want to bring this up right now."

"I think we need to, Faye."

"I don't want to bring up the past."

"We need to if I'm going to bring it up just by breathing the same air you do. We can't walk around the Bebop blindfolded so we don't ever see each other. You and I need to sort this out before we go farther."

"Kid, you aren't making any sense."

Leon stuck the cigarette back in his mouth and took a long drag to give himself a minute. He let out the smoke in a huff. "Alright, I'll be blunt. You hate me because I'm a walking reminder of him."

"You don't get it, do you?" Faye narrowed her eyes.

"Huh?"

"I don't hate you because you remind me of Spike," she whirled on him. "I hate you because you aren't him!" she yelled.

Leon stepped back as if she'd physically hit him.

"Does that make you happy, Leon?" she continued. "Can we move on now?"

Leon didn't know what to say.

"Precisely," Faye said. "You don't know how to fix this anymore than I do. So let it go." She turned stiffly and walked away, her heels echoing hollowly on the metal floor.

"Faye?" He found his voice just before her head disappeared below the stairs.

She didn't say anything but Leon heard her footsteps stop.

"I'm sorry," he said.

The footsteps continued down the stairs.

Leon hung his head and put his back to the window. He slid to the floor. He was a fool.