A/N: Forgive me for taking so long. New job, long nights, early mornings. I'm sorry. Here's the product of several late nights where I did have a chance to sit down for a bit though. . . enjoy. . . Maybe review. . .?

Faye awoke to as Jet shook her hard, and yelled something that came out as a jumble. Her ears were ringing, her throat dry, and her head pounded. Despite her best efforts to get Jet to lower his voice he continued to yell at her.

"Shut up damn you!" She shouted enraged by his own frantic behavior. Her mind was foggy as she struggled to remember everything that had happened before she'd blacked out. Her mind was clearing slowly and she could make out Jet's persistent cursing and shouting.

"What the hell did you do to my ship? This is going to take weeks to repair?" He continued ranting as she struggled to her feet and stumbled around slowly regaining her balance along with her ability to think and hear. "What the hell did you do; use it for target practice? You and Spike are both going to pay for this!"

"Spike?" She left up hitting Jet in the arm twice to get his attention as she began to explain what had happened, and prayed Spike would be fine on his own for now.

Voices, varied in tone, sound, and urgency. Spike peaked open one swollen eye in hopes of identifying those around him. Trying to move his hand to rub his aching eyes he grunted as he found they'd bound him. One was familiar, another strained and raspy, another deceptively innocent on the surface.

"What are we to do with him?" The second on ground out the coughed.

"I'll take care of him." The first, and familiar one answer. "You two go about your usual duties. It's hard to keep up our charades with the others, but we must for now."

A door opened, two people exited, and the dim lights brightened enough to fill the room without being painful on the eyes. The silver haired woman smiled down at him carefully wiping the sweat from his brow with a damp cloth.

"I am happy to see you're awake Spike." The woman, Coria smiled as she look his over carefully and kindly. Her face was at first smiling and then turned grave as she stood and walked away from him. "They say no matter what we do in our life time our lives will be meaningless in the end. That after a period of time we will be forgotten. Even the syndicate will one day be forgotten to those who come after us."

"Yeah, so why fight so hard to keep it even though you know it will fall?" Spike spoke lowly. His eyes never left her as she moved to look out the city below.

"You see those below us now. They are the one's we've wronged, but they will not be remember by their great grandchildren either. We will be remember longer; not by name but by the reputation the syndicate itself has earned. Honor, duty, pride, clan. . . Those three old men spoke nonsense."

"Get to the point."

"I was at first Vicious' student, and then his lover when Julia betrayed and left him. I'll not judge her, or her reasons, but betrayal is the only way I've heard it described. He was a man of vision and the will to pursue it. I want him to be remember as the most feared visionary of us all. Compared to him, you and I are nothing."

"He's dead."

"Is he? Did you see him buried?" At Spike's lack of response she chuckled lightly turning her back to the glass and leaning against it. "He's my secret Spike, and I expect you not to tell anyone."

"He's not dead then?"

"No Spike, but he won't last much longer. He is very strong, and he his fighting with every ounce of strength but his body is too badly damaged. This is why I expect you not to tell, and also why I felt the need for you to know." She sighed and slide against the glass to slump down on the floor. "No matter what I do, I cannot save him. He will not fulfill his legacy, and I cannot do it for him. I can make sure he is not so easily forgotten though."

"You're crazy."

"Am I? Do you really think so Spike?"

"Yes."

"She laughed pushing herself to her feet and slowly approaching him. "I want you to know because I want you to try and stop me. I want what is happening to be known because we've never been known. Like the sewers beneath the city I suppose. We're there, always there, but never really thought of. I want us to be seen going done fighting."

"Give it up, it won't happen."

"Do you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"When you and Vicious first met? What was it like?" Her face was openly curious as she stood a safe distance from him even though his hands were tied.

"It was by accident that we ever met. We'd been put together on a job, and it was amazing the way our abilities fit together. We were the only two out of a group of twelve to make it back alive. We were. . .unstoppable. It was a wonderful feeling working with him. But even so, we had our differences, and were too different. We parted ways because our goals were different."

"Yes, the straw that broke the camel's back."

"What?"

She didn't even bother to look at him as she turned her head just enough to see the city lights out the window. "It's a very old expression. You know of Yin and Yang, of the their legend and worldly balance. When you left that balance was broken and he. . . he couldn't take it anymore. I'm sure that you too felt the unbalance within your own soul."

"Shut up. . ." It was a warning, she was hitting too close to the truth. Awakening old memories and buried emotions. Had it not been for Jet's easy companionship he'd have gone mad with uncontrolled emotions.

"So you did? The loneliness. The constant ache. . ."

"Shut up damn you. . ." His hands worked quickly at the ties binding his hands.

"The uncertainty in you decision. No matter what you did, or where you went, you didn't quit fit in."

"Shut up you bitch!"

Enraged he slipped his hands from the bindings and swung at Coria. Each blow she dodged or blocked with relative ease. She constantly taunted him, reminded him of how it had felt when he and Vicious had drifted and parted ways. In the end, it had all been because of one woman. . . Julia.

It could have been hours he'd been attacking her, or minutes before he finally slumped to the floor. His mind was racing with emotions long suppressed and forgotten, time was not of importance. Coria looked down at him breathing heavily herself, and despite his best efforts his body would refused to obey to make one more attack.

"As we grow older we forget the power we once wielded. I want to show you something, and then you may leave."

Taking his hand he saw her for what she really was. Not the solid woman who had just stood before him, or took him on in battle. But as an innocent woman with a warm heart and iron will. She was trained to kill, but instinctively knew how to protect and heal. What was it that drew him to trust her?

The room they stood in had plain white walls with no emblems of the red dragon syndicate. They entered through a door hidden just around the corner of a book case. It blended perfectly with the wall around it. At a touch of her hand it slid away opening up into a hallway that had seen better days. Cracks webbed the walls, and ceiling had fallen down littering the floor. It in turn led to a rounded room with crimson painted walls. A golden Chinese dragons was painted above a bed that sat at the far side of the room posed for battle.

Spike's heart clenched at he saw the tubes and wires leading from machines to the figure that lay unconscious in the bed. Sensing his hesitation Coria released her grip on his hand and rushed to the bedside carefully brushing a damp strand of hair from Vicious' face.

"He probably won't wake up again, but he is alive for now." She broke off bowing her head and reaching for him. "Please come here."

Spike stepped forward one slow step at a time. Pain gripped his heart with each step he took, and every inch he saw of his old partner. The once proud and reserved features were drawn tight in pain. He looked so fragile in the bed that Spike wanted to turn away, but couldn't.

"How long?"

"We do not know." She stood vacating her seat to Spike who looked down at his friend with sympathy. "He's been my strength for as long as I've been here."

"Why not just let the syndicate fall, and make a new life for yourself?" He glanced up at her and was stunned by her reaction.

Her eyes turned cold and hard, and she stood holding his gaze. "Some of us are unable to simply die and come back as someone else. This is our life, this is all some of us have ever known. Born, bred, and raised in it. Why can't you comprehend that?"

Silence fell between them and she glanced down at Vicious one more time before motioning Spike out of the room, and back down the hall. He stood uncertainly waiting for Coria's next move.

"Go back to your ship. You will have no problems in exiting the building. Good night, Mr. Spiegel."

He turned slowly and left. She was true to her word, and no one hindered his exit. Glancing back once at the seemingly harmless office building he left unhurriedly, and growled as the sky began to brighten with the first signs of day.