47Well my dear readers, we've officially come to the end. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my story, leave reviews, or pm me about random things like Ein's age and how long it takes to travel between astral gates. A special thanks to Shadowcrest Nightingale whose Cowboy Bebop stories really inspired me as I worked on this one. I thought it would be fun to write the last part of the story from Ed's perspective, to kind of wrap everything up...
Session The Last: Epilogue
From the Data Files of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV
"So, maybe you can just shoot laser beams from your eye and crack open Andross' hideout," Faye Faye says.
Leo laughs. And it's a good laugh this time. Not like his laugh after the Tower went kablooie. Not like the hollow pretending laugh that he wouldn't let go of - like Ein with his old chew toys.
"It doesn't do that, Faye." He waves a hand at her and looks at the map they have spread out on the shogi board. Leo tells people that his eye doesn't do a lot of things. Jet and Faye Faye have turned it into a joke. Whenever something comes up that they can't solve, they ask Leo if his eye can do it. Ed just rolls her eyes. "Lasers out of your eye is silly, Faye Faye, no matter who you are."
Faye Faye rolls her eyes too, but Leo cracks a grin.
So far, Ed's found four different things his eye can do. Number one! It can look close at stuff like a scope. Number Two! It can see heat signatures (which is really helpful for looking through walls. Faye Faye hates this one but Leo promises he never uses it on her. Besides, he can't see detail, he swears). Number Three! Ed can upload maps to Leo and he can watch them like a movie on top of the real world. (Only Leo says this one makes him dizzy most of the time). And, Number Four! It can see better in the dark than his normal eye. Ed thinks it can probably do more, but Leo hasn't thought of any other uses for it. Or perhaps he just hasn't triggered them. The eye is wired to his brain and electric pulses tell the eye to do cool stuff. Ed wants one. Leo says no.
Ed asked him why the Dragon gave him such a fancy eye. He said he thought Draugh was probably behind it. Because of feeling all regretful and fatherly all of a sudden at the end of our fight. Perhaps it was his way of trying to help. Ed kind of wishes she got to meet Draugh. He sounds like he'd be a person worth doing some science study on. But Jet and Malcolm say Draugh is dead. Just like Villanova and a lot of the other Syndicate thugs. Ed is kind of glad they're gone. But she understands when Leo gets sad about their deaths.
Sometimes Ed found him sitting and looking at his Jericho, finger on the trigger and she knows he remembers. Jet says the memories will fade with time. Ed knows that. It's part of being a cowboy cowboy. There was a time where Ed was worried Leo might pull the trigger on himself. Ed put herself in the room with him so often that he started getting worried that Ed had a crush on him. So then Ed sent Ein to sneaky spy for her, but Leo fished that one out too. So did Jet. Jet said to let him go. He wasn't going to shoot himself. And he didn't. He doesn't look at his Jericho that way anymore.
In fact, he smiles more often now. It's a slow smile, that spreads over his face like molasses sticky, sticky, sticky. His eyes light up, even the fake one and it's a smile Ed never saw on Spike. Faye Faye keeps pointing out all the differences in Leo and Spike now, but Ed knows the best one is that Leo's smile is real.
Tomato beeps at Ed and reminds her that she's supposed to be tracking Andross through cyberspace right now, like the slimy little fishy that he is. He won't get far with Ed on his tail.
"Alright, you three, stop talking about eyes and come eat before the food gets cold!" Jet yells from down in the living room.
Ed leaves Tomato to research grey ash and Andross and drugs and follows Leo and Faye Faye out of the bridge to eat some bell peppers and beef. Faye Faye actually made Jet put beef in the bell peppers this time, although Ed thinks all food tastes good so it doesn't matter anyway. But Faye Faye says now that we have money from ISSP Malcolm's bounties, we should at least eat like it. Leo agrees.
"If Malcolm gives us one more "this guy might be a Syndicate member's cousin's dog-sitter's brother" mission, I'm going to kill him!" Faye Faye declares as she sits down and thrusts a fork in her beef, stabby stab stab. "If we keep chasing down his side missions, we'll never get to Andross."
"I thought you liked Malcolm," Jet teases as he sits down across the table.
"No!" Faye denies it. "Besides, he's way too young. I like mature men."
We all share a look and Leo winks at Ed, his fake eye closing and opening so fast Ed almost doesn't catch it.
"Mature," he mouths as he puts a forkful of bell peppers in his mouth. He looks over at Jet and Jet's shiny head.
"Don't look at me!" Jet holds up his hands.
"Hey!" Faye protests. "I said mature, not old!"
"I am not old!" Jet counters.
"That's not what you said when we were chasing that bounty the other day." Leo sounds so innocent. He can do that just like Spike - make that puppy look that makes people want to do what he says, but Ed doesn't trust the puppy look just like she doesn't trust Ein's sad stare. She didn't trust it when Spike made it either.
Ed hides a snicker behind her hand, then puts a hand on her back and pretends to moan about aches and pains like Jet does in the evenings.
"Well, I am too old to go chasing all these bounties on foot," Jet mutters. "But that's what you spring chickens are for."
"Faye Faye isn't a spring chicken." Ed is at her most serious. She still needs to tell Leo that Faye Faye is really over fifty. Faye Faye would flip!
"Ed, if you say one more word, I'll - "
"One more word! One more word!" Ed does her best parrot imitation.
"Edward, I am going to kill you!" Faye shouts, leaping up with her fork in her hand like a knife.
Ed springs away from the table on her hands, cartwheeling across the living room so that she balances on the back of the couch. "You're welcome to try, but Ed thinks you will cry if she dies."
"You know what I mean!" Faye huffs, hands on her hips. "Go bite her, Ein," Faye Faye instructs the corgi. Ein is begging at the edge of the table like he always does - giving everybody those eyes Ed doesn't trust.
Ein whines softly as if to say, Not before you feed me.
"Ouchie, ouchie, Ein, don't bite Ed," Ed pouts and slides down the back of the couch so that her head hangs off the seat and her feet hook over the back of the couch. The world always looks better upside down.
Ein barks at Ed, but he stays at the table, staring at Jet with his not-trusty chocolate eyes. Jet looks down at the corgi with a sigh. "Oh, fine," he says and slips Ein a piece of beef. "I guess even you deserve a real meal every once in a while too, huh, boy?" Jet's gotten soft in his old age. Ed giggles.
Ein barks in agreement and gulps down the meat.
Leo laughs and Ed's heart is full. Things on the Bebop are good.
Perhaps I'll bring back Leon and the crew for another story someday. But for now...See you, Space Cowboy
Some answers to some questions and things I didn't quite get to say in the story:
It's been mentioned that Ein would be pretty old at the time of my story. And I agree. Since my story takes place fifteen years after Cowboy Bebop, Ein's probably about 17 years old, assuming he's still fairly young when Jet and Spike find him. Considering that Corgis, on average, make it to about fifteen, this would make Ein pretty ancient (between 100-120 in "dog years"). Not out of the scope of reality, but he's probably not going to be doing much running around at that age. However, I figure since he's a data dog, he's probably got a longer lifespan than the average Corgi. At least, that's what I'm working with ;)
My official opinion on Spike. When I watched Cowboy Bebop and I got to the end (after sitting in stunned silence for several minutes, wondering what to do with my life next) I decided that Spike survived his encounter with Vicious. After all, the show's not conclusive on this because the audience is supposed to draw their own conclusions. And, of course, I don't think anyone wants Spike to be dead. However, when I started delving into the Bebop fanfictions, most of them already tell the story of how he survives and comes back to the Bebop crew. So, I decided to tell the story of what happened if he didn't come back. As my story developed, I considered having Spike return and Leon meet his father, but overall, I decided it really worked better for Spike to be gone forever. And, I wanted to explore that dynamic within the crew and how each of them dealt with the loss of Spike and the return of Leon, who was similar and yet different from his father. This also gave me a better chance to explore the way that other characters viewed Spike and how they dealt with loss and the way that time can both distort and heal.
