Many apologies for this chapter being late! And I was doing so well too...this is the first chapter that's been posted later than Monday! Anyway, I had a tough time writing this one, so if it drags, please let me know. I'm trying to set the stage for all that's about to happen, but I find that's one of the hardest parts of writing. Hope you all enjoy!

Session Thirty Two

Leon left the room feeling confused and nervous and upside-down. He wasn't trapped in a tiny room waiting on death anymore, but he still wasn't free. And his rescuer was none other than the one who'd put him here in the first place. He wanted to hate Faye for all she'd done. But her crazy act of trading places with him made him think she actually regretted it. Either that or she was the deepest double agent Leon had ever seen. Somehow, he doubted Faye had that much acting skill though. Despite all her lies and her tricks and her attempts at pretending she didn't care, Faye wore her heart on her sleeve. Leon just wasn't sure what that meant.

Leon attempted to retrace his steps from a few hours before, but he didn't remember which way Draugh had brought him. He cursed himself for not paying attention, but he hadn't expected to see these halls alive again. Now that the prospect of sudden death was wearing off, Leon felt the nervous energy of adrenaline return. With every step, his heart beat faster as he convinced himself that whatever scheme Jet, Faye, and Ed cooked up would work.

Right, Jet. He'd almost forgotten the receiver in his ear. Faye told him to com Jet. Jet could tell him how to get out of these halls and back to the main part of the Tower. After he calmed his nerves enough to make sure they wouldn't show up in his voice, he spoke.

"Jet, you there?" he asked.

There was a crackle in his ear. You don't know how glad I am to hear your voice, kid.

Leon let the corner of his mouth quirk up in a smile. "I'm glad to hear yours too, Jet." Then he nearly jumped as a louder crackle sounded in his ear and Ed shouted through the earpiece, LEO! FAYE FAYE FOUND YOU! Leon instinctively reached to cover his ears before realizing it would do him no good.

"Hi, Ed," Leon said, feeling his knees go weak in relief. Faye told the truth. Ed was alive and, if her yelling was anything to go by, she was fine. "Glad you're ok."

Me too, Ed said.

Leon chuckled. "Good. Now how do I get out of here?"

Just take the hallway to the door at the end, Ed chirped.

"Thanks, Ed. But I meant the Tower." Leon started walking down the hall as he talked.

That's the sticky part, Jet said. "Because I can't get the Bebop close enough to extract you guys with the Tower defenses still up. They'll shoot me down before I can get within a block.

"So we're trapped," Leon said.

I didn't say that.

"Ok, then what's the plan?"

We make a distraction and when everybody's looking the other way, Ed takes the Tower defenses offline. Then I bring the Bebop in and we make our retreat.

"Let me guess, Faye's the distraction."

Hey, she asked for this part. She wanted to trade places with you because she put you there.

"She told me," Leon said, his voice strangely thick. He cleared his throat.

But it's also the only distraction we could think of that would guarantee Villanova and all her security guards will be looking the other way while we crash their party.

"But what if they kill Faye?" Leon murmured. He'd come to the end of the hall and he opened the door, slipping out into another hall that was clearly part of the main tower. Leon looked back to see that he'd come out of the employee door.

They won't kill her, kid, Jet said, tone final.

"But if they do?"

There was a long moment of silence on the other end.

We won't let them kill her, Jet finally said.

"And Villanova?" Leon asked.

What about her?

"We can't just slip away and let her go free."

That's where I come in, a new voice spoke over the com.

"Malcolm, I presume," Leon said.

That's me, the voice confirmed. I just finished talking with Captain Gunnel and ISSP is on their way as we speak. They'll take care of Villanova.

Leon was silent for a minute. "Forgive me if I don't trust them to do that."

He heard both Jet and Malcolm sigh.

Kid, don't do anything -

"Don't do anything what?" Leon interrupted. "Anything rash? Anything you wouldn't do?"

- anything you'll regret, Jet finished.

"Like what? Shoot Villanova?" Leon felt unexpected anger course through him. Anger at Villanova for mistreating him. Anger at Jet for sounding so rational. Anger at Faye for putting him in this mess in the first place. Anger at Malcolm for making this sound so simple.

He heard Jet sigh again. Look, kid, let's take this one step at a time. You don't even have a gun. So, you need to meet up with Malcolm. Ed will get you to him. She's scrambling the cameras now so that nobody can see you. Just follow her instructions.

Leon looked up and down the hall he stood in. He could see a set of stairs to his right, leading down to the floor below and, to his left, the hall took a corner turn deeper into the Tower. Belatedly, he realized that there was something in Jet's voice that sounded...defeated. Like he knew something was coming he couldn't stop. Like he wanted to say more to Leon but he couldn't find the words. "Yeah. Ok," Leon agreed slowly. He looked back over at the staircase.

"But first I'm going to take a little detour."

He pulled the receiver out of his ear and put it in his pocket. Then he slipped down the stairs.

"Damn him!" Jet yelled as Leon went off the grid.

Ed stared up at Jet with wide eyes. It wasn't that she'd never heard Jet curse before. It was just that she'd never seen him this angry before.

"Jet, you don't mean that!" she said.

"Don't I?" Jet ran a hand over head head and took a deep breath. "Why'd you have to go and have a cheeky bastard for a son, partner?" he murmured.

He could almost hear Spike laugh in response. That's it, Jet thought. I'm officially going crazy.

"Jet, are you talking to yourself?" Ed asked. She swiveled in her chair at the console on the Bebop's bridge and looked at Jet closely, pulling her goggles up on her forehead.

Jet shook his head, his mouth a tight line.

"Memories, memories, memories," Ed said. "Ghosts and haunts," she trailed off into a whisper.

"Yeah," Jet said.

Ed unfolded herself from her chair, only wincing a little as she felt the bandages wrapped around her stomach shift. She padded over to Jet where he sat staring down at the Shogi table and wrapped her arms around him in a hug from behind. Jet stiffened, surprised by the act, then he sniffed.

"It's ok to cry, Jet," Ed said.

"Men don't cry, Ed," Jet denied.

"Real men do." Ed came around beside Jet and leaned over so she could look him in the face. "But Ed won't tell Faye Faye or Leo." She winked.

Jet scrubbed a hand over his face. "Thanks, Ed." His voice was gruff, but his eyes were dry.

"Right!" Ed smiled. "Now, don't worry about Leo. Ed can still see him. Sneaky, sneaky, try to hide. I spy, I spy!" Ed skipped back over to Tomato and the other three computers she had spread around the console and clicked a few buttons. "With my little eye!" She pointed triumphantly at a screen showing the position of the receivers in the Dragon Tower. They showed up on the screen as red dots inside a vaguely human outline. One paced back and forth in front of a door on the seventh floor. That was Malcolm. The other moved through the halls heading further down into the tower. That was Leon. But this electronic signature had another little red blip on his form, near his eye.

"Ed, what's that?" Jet asked, pointing at the red blip hovering inside the outline of Leon's head.

"That's Spike person," Ed said.

"What?" Jet jumped up and ran over to Tomato, as if he could see more than just outlines and schematics.

"Spike person," Ed said again, winking her right eye.

"No, that's...Leon," Jet said. "Wait, are you telling me that he's got a cybernetic eye, like Spike?"

Ed nodded, her goggles flopping off her forehead and falling to dangle around her neck.

"He hasn't always had a cybernetic eye," Jet murmured, his tone almost questioning. Faye declared he didn't, back when they first met Leon. And as far as Jet could recall, the kid's eyes were the same color, not the slightly different shades Spike's had been.

Ed shook her head, looking suddenly serious.

Jet felt hot anger settle in his stomach. If the Dragon had torn out Leon's eye and given him a cybernetic one, then it was no wonder the kid was wound for a fight. The Dragon had done more to turn Leon into Spike than they knew. They'd awakened his stubborn pride and an angry streak about a mile wide. There was no way Leon would back down from this one. Now that he was free, he'd take the fight to Villanova. Because this was personal.

If only Spike could see his son now. He'd be proud.

"So, what now, Jet?" Ed asked.

"We stick to the plan," Jet said. "And we hope that we get our rogue agent back before he gets himself killed."

Ed put her goggles back on, looking determined. "Ed will get him back alive." She held three fingers up in the air. "Malcolm, Ed's got somewhere you should go right now."

Jet was right. He couldn't shoot Villanova without a gun. He needed a weapon. If only he knew where they'd stashed his Jericho. Why couldn't Draugh have given him his gun back instead of his lighter? Leon smirked. Why was it that when he only had fire to play with, it wouldn't do him any good?

He fingered the receiver in his pocket. Jet would be mad at him for going silent, but he also knew Jet wouldn't let him deviate from the plan without arguing. Perhaps he should have listened to the plan first. Maybe Malcolm had a gun for him. But it was too late to turn around now. Besides, the hallways were pretty empty right now, and he wasn't about to hide and wait for Jet to come get him while the Syndicates were all sitting ducks. It shouldn't take long to find a weapon in the Dragon Tower. He'd get a gun and be back for Jet's plan before anything went wrong. Now all he needed was a map…

Suddenly he felt a shift in his eye and he stopped walking. Although he didn't feel like he'd be sick this time, he grit his teeth against the unusual sensation as he flipped the eye patch up off his right eye. He gasped. The HUD display was back, overlaying everything that he looked at, but instead of magnifying things, this time he saw a floor plan laid out in front of him. Leon staggered back, blinking and the floor plan disappeared.

This was way more than just a cybernetic eye. What had the Dragon done to him? Did Spike's eye do this kind of stuff? How many different things did this eye do? Did the Dragon give him these abilities on purpose? Something told him they didn't. But the doctor had bragged that he'd like this new eye once he got used to what it could do. Perhaps it was all an accident? Leon couldn't see Villanova or Draugh handing him such a tactical advantage on purpose. The pieces didn't add up and it made Leon uneasy, but he shoved his doubts aside and thought about a map again. The floor plan returned. He swapped the eye patch over to his left eye and headed deeper into the tower, following the schematic that overlayed his vision.

According to his schematic, the sixth floor was full of crew housing and he was pretty sure he'd be able to find a gun in somebody's room. He was also reasonably certain that he wouldn't run into very many crew members, because they would all be on guard, making sure he didn't escape. Well, they'd already failed that job. Besides, if anybody found him, he would claim to be lost and just let them take him back to wherever the Syndicates were gathered. Faye had told him he was a Tiger lieutenant after all.

Leon walked up to the first door and blinked, allowing his map to disappear. To his surprise, he found the door unlocked. He gave it a push, and it swung open into a small room that reminded Leon of his room at the orphanage. There were four bunk beds pushed against the walls with lockers spaced between the bunks. From the look of the room, seven of the bunks were occupied, having clothes and other personal effects strewn across them. He rummaged through the beds and anything that was lying out in the open, but didn't see a gun. He didn't have time to search each room thoroughly, so he moved on to the next room.

Leon worked his way down the hall, slipping into any of the rooms that were open and searching for a gun. He finally found a pistol in the third room from the end of the hall, lying on a table halfway dismantled, as if it's owner were summoned to another job while cleaning it. Leon put the gun back together in a few minutes and grabbed the scattered ammunition lying on the table top as well. He only found seven bullets, but that would have to do for now. He only needed one to kill Villanova. He put the bullets and the pistol in his pocket just as an arm snaked out of nowhere and a hand clamped over his mouth.

Leon didn't try to yell. If a Dragon member had stumbled in on him, then it would be best to take care of them quickly and quietly, so he didn't raise any alarms. Leon lashed out with an elbow, trying to catch his attacker off guard with a blow to the stomach, but his attacker simply slid to the side and tried to twist Leon's arm behind his back. Leon pulled his arm away and wrenched his head free of his attacker's hand. His attacker tangled a foot between his legs and twisted him off balance. Leon found himself spun around to face a young man with stern brown eyes, completely off balance and only standing because of the iron grip the man had on the front of his trench coat.

"Let go of me," Leon hissed.

"Fine." His assailant did just that and Leon toppled backwards, arms pinwheeling as he tried to catch his balance. He ended up sitting down hard on the floor.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, boy?" the man demanded.

"Who the hell are you?" Leon countered.

"Malcolm Redd. And you must be Leon."

"Oh, the police friend."

"You could call me that," Malcolm said, looking amused. "But first you should put your earpiece back in and apologize to Ed."

"Apologize to Ed?" Leon asked.

"For making her keep up with your half-crazed march through the Tower. We're not invisible, you know. She's scrambling the cameras as we move, so it makes it much easier on her if you tell her where you're going before you take off."

Leon felt like he was being chastised. "Oh yeah? Then what are you doing down here?" He picked himself up off the floor.

"Following Ed's directions to find you."

Leon had the good grace to look chagrined.

"What are you doing down here?" Malcolm asked, crossing his arms.

"Getting this," Leon pulled the pistol out of the pocket of his trench coat.

"And just what do you plan to do with that?" Malcolm demanded.

"Same thing you plan to do with that, I imagine," Leon said, pointing at the edge of Malcolm's own gun, which had been revealed in their little scuffle.

Malcolm straightened his jacket to hide the gun again. "Touché, Mr. Spiegel. Now, if you're quite done deviating here," Malcolm cast a glance at a watch on his left wrist, "we should get upstairs now. Villanova's going to reveal Faye in about two minutes. And I think we might want to be present."

"Oh crap," Leon said, going a shade paler.

Malcolm didn't wait for an answer, but lengthened his stride and led the way upstairs, Leon following right behind.