Author's note: I know some of you are wondering how this kid's last name is also Valentine. And you're probably wondering how her younger brother found her and is still her younger brother. Well, if you are pondering such thoughts, you're just gonna have to read my story.

"You know, I have a lot of questions to ask you. Unless you'd like to explain yourself," said Spike.

Trent sat down in a nearby chair and took out a stick of gum. Unwrapping it and throwing it into his mouth he prepared to give Spike the info he wanted. Trent's blue eyes seemed unusual to Spike. Not the fact that they were blue, but they just seemed unusual for some reason.

"Well, I guess I should start from the beginning. The girl named Faye you know is my big sister. The reason I know you know her is because I saw her go back and forth to your ship a few times. The first time I saw her visit your ship I followed you for a while."

Spike replied, "That doesn't make any sense. If you saw her come to our ship and followed us, why didn't you try to talk to her then?"

Trent remained silent for a few seconds. He finally answered, "Because I wasn't sure if she wouldn't remember me...or believe me."

Spike rolled his eyes, "I can see why. First of all, popping up out of the blue and saying 'I'm Faye's brother' does seem a bit suspicious. How do I know that you're not just keeping me alive long enough to kill Faye for some unknown reason."

Trent sighed, "Haven't you heard? There's this thing called trust. You usually earn it when you save somebody's frickin' life."

"Mentioning the fact that you saved my life just to get me to trust you only makes me feel more suspicious. Don't tell me. I bet I owe you a favor now, right?"

    "If you take me to my sister, I'll call it even," said Trent. He sighed a bit and looked to the other side of the room where there was a picture in a silver frame. Spike followed the direction of Trent's eyes to see what he was looking at. Spike looked at the picture that sat on a dresser across the room and saw that it was a family portrait.

    The setting of the picture was in front of a suburban house with a white, picket fence. The family in the picture consisted of an older man with glasses and black hair who stood next to a beautiful, yet humble looking woman. In from of them stood two children. On the left, a teenage girl with purple hair and on the right, a younger boy with raven black hair. They all looked happy and content. Spike noticed that the two children look somewhat familiar. Maybe this kid was telling the truth. Then again, technology is advanced enough to create an image like this from scratch on a computer.

    Spike also noticed another picture beside that one. It was twice a big and in a fancy, golden frame. It was a portrait of a young girl who looked around 18 or 19 years old. She had long, blue hair in a stile similar style of Julia's. Though it was a little longer than hers. The girl in the picture looked pretty attractive and also had a warm smile on her face. The bounty hunter decided to ask more questions.

"Vicious. You mentioned Vicious before. How do you know him?"

    Trent sighed as if forcing out his explanation, "I met him when I was first transferred into the Red Dragon Syndicate. Before that I used to be a member of the Black Wolves who were another criminal group that specialized in sciencey type crimes. They would extort scientists to work for them in an attempt to make their higher muscle more dangerous. Anyway, Vicious was bad news. There was just something about him that wasn't right. I did pick up a handy trick from him. By sneaking off and following him before, I learned how to use a sword."

Spike raised an eyebrow, "And exactly how old are you?"

      Trent folded his arms and leaned back in the chair with 2 of the chair legs up. "I'm 19 years old.  In case you were about to ask, I joined the Red Dragon two years ago and left just last year."

      Spike sighed, wondering why he was even asking these questions. Everyone from his past was dead, he wasn't and life still went on. Spike thought about it and decided that it was best to go back to the Bebop. He was still unsure about Trent's 'little brother' story. He felt like he was still hiding something.

      There was also the fact that the family picture could be a fake, but then again, why would he have it just sitting there? Unless, he planned for all this to happen. Spike had been through so much that he didn't put it past anyone to set him up. Of course, he never showed people that he just met he didn't trust them. He only prepared for a double cross. That's was about all he could do at that moment.

"How long have I been here, anyway," asked Spike.

      Trent stood up and walked over toward the dresser where the two pictures were placed, "About 3 months." He lifted up the picture of the girl with the blue hair and just stared at it with a smile of sorrow.

Spike finally sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I appreciate the favor, but I have to get going."

      Trent chuckled, without turning around, "Good luck on your nudist trend."

      Spike looked under the sheets to see his clothes were missing. "Lemme guess, I can't have my clothes unless I agree to bring you along, right?"

      Trent nodded, "Bingo!"

      Spike sighed, "Fine. Just gimme my clothes back."

      Trent smirked, "All right! I'll go get yer stuff." Trent quickly dashed out of the room to get Spike's clothes.

      Spike sighed and slapped his forehead, "How do I get myself into these things?" He waited for a few minutes before he began to hear Trent talking from a distance. It sounded like he was arguing with himself. Listening closely, he figured that either he had an identical twin or a double personality complex.

"What the hell do you want?!"

"You know what I'm here for, 'brother'. Don't play dumb."

"I'm not your brother! You've got a lot of balls coming here after what you did!"

"Are you still mad over that? Get over it. It's over and can't be changed."

"Maybe not, but killing you would make me feel a hell of a lot better about it."

 "Whatever. Anyway, have you decided?"

"Kusotare!! You waltz in here like nothing happened and then ask me to join you. Just go to hell!"

"Very well. But, I hope you know that this means I have to kill you now. Sooner or later, you'll end up dead."

"Bring it on. If I do die, I'm not goin' alone. Keep that in mind."

"Heh. You're a fool. But, you'll learn your lesson soon enough. I'll see you around, 'brother'."

   Spike then heard the sound of a door closing and footsteps coming closer. Trent entered the room with his clothes and tossed them to Spike. Trent was silent the entire time. Spike knew what was wrong, but he didn't say anything. Mainly because it wasn't his problem and he could have cared less. All that mattered now was getting back to the Bebop where he hoped that some friends would be.
 

   Faye was so confused. It had been 3 months since she last saw him. She was all broken up and about to break down. If she had only told him how she felt, maybe he would've changed his mind. Then again, Spike never listened to anyone. That idiot! That jerk! He went off to die without caring about what anyone else felt.

   Faye found herself walking through and endless field of sand. The sun beamed down on her, causing her to sweat profusely. She wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand as she continued to walk. Suddenly, she saw a figure from a distance. She walked faster towards it. As she got closer, the figure looked more clear. He had a dark blue leisure suit and fuzzy, green hair. His back was turned, but Faye could easily see it was him.

Faye cried out, "Spike! Hey, Spike!"

   The figure turned around with that 'Spike-ish' smirk that everyone knew. He waved his arm, signaling her to come with him. Faye's anger vanished as she ran toward him. Faye didn't go anywhere. She ran as fast as she cold, but she wasn't going anywhere. Also, the more she tried to run, the further away Spike was. Faye fell down to her knees as a tear fell from her eye. She held her face in her hands and sobbed softly.

   She looked up again to see Spike was on the ground with Vicious standing over his body, holding a bloody sword. Vicious began to walk over toward Faye, sword in hand. She pulled out her gun, aiming for his head. Vicious was now about 10 feet away. Faye shot him several times, each shot booming like a thunder crash. The bullets went right through him as he smirked. Faye was still on her knees. She tried to get up and run, but found she couldn't stand. Vicious now stood over her with his bloody sword.

"Die."

   Vicious raised his sword above his head and then brought it down upon Faye. After Vicious attacked, he faded away. Faye was left alone, dying in the desert. Alone...the worst feeling in the world, yet Faye knew this feeling well. Suddenly, the desert background faded. Everything around her vanished. She looked around and saw that she was in a bed. She felt someone beside her. Turning over, she saw that Spike was there, smiling at her.

"Spike?"

"Wake up, Faye. Wake up."

Everything began to turn white. Faye saw the background vanish again.

"Hey, Faye! WAKE UP!!!"

   Faye opened her eyes to see that she was on the Bebop. She looked up to see Jet standing there, giving her a slightly irritated look. "About time you woke up. I just made dinner."

 Faye frowned and sarcastically replied, "Oh, great..."

 Jet narrowed his eyes and folded his arms, "Well, if you don't like it, you can starve for all I care!"

 Faye raised an eyebrow, "So, what's for dinner, by chance?"

 Jet replied as he walked off, "Bell peppers and beef...."

 Faye slapped her forehead and groaned.

  Jet thought about everything that went on. He put up an act, pretending that Spike was just another foolish kid who had gotten himself into more trouble than he could handle. In actuality, Jet felt like a part of him had vanished. Truth be told, Spike was his best friend. He was unlike anyone else he had ever met before. It was pretty dull around there without him. The only other person around there was Faye and he couldn't get along with her more than 5 minutes. Sometimes, Jet wondered why she even bothered to stay.

  He tried to keep his mind on other things, like finishing the repairs on the Bebop. After 3 months, he almost had all the repairs done. It'd be ready to fly in just a few more days. He sat down in the main room and started on his dinner. About 5 minutes later, Faye walked in and started to eat, also. All was quiet. Neither person spoke. That's how it was for the past 3 months. They really didn't talk at all. Jet really didn't talk much since he really had nothing to talk to Faye about. Faye was just so deeply depressed that she had nothing to say at all. It seemed like Spike was basically the life of the ship. Without him, everything seemed gloomy and quiet.

Spike and Trent were walking outside of the corner shop they were hiding away in. The outside was like a run down shop, but they were just inside the place, which looked more like a small hospital run out of someone's house. They walked out of the door, which lead into an alley. Right before them, stood 3 men with black suits on. One of them had a gun drawn and trained at the duo.

The armed man smirked, "Trent Valentine. Come along quietly, or else."

Spike raised an eyebrow at Trent, "Friends of yours?"

Trent shook his head, "Friends don't usually threaten your life."

Spike smirked, "You'd be surprised."

Suddenly a gunshot rang out, causing Trent and Spike to dash behind the dumpster behind them. The two other men drew out uzis and started to shoot  at the dumpster, also. Spike reached into his coat pocket, then his eyes shot wide, "Where's my gun?!"

Trent shrugged, "I guess it's still inside. Sorry..."

Spike rolled his eyes, "Fabulous...."

The three men stopped shooting and walked over to the dumpster. The leader signaled each of the two men to take a side of the dumpster in order to sneak around the back and kill Spike and Trent. As the first guy try to come around one side of the dumpster, Spike's leg swung out from behind the dumpster, delivering a side kick, knocking the gun out of his hand, and another kicking him in the face. The leader gritted his teeth at the sight of this. He became even more frustrated when the same thing happened to the other guy on the opposite side of the dumpster. The two guys were knocked of the ground and immobilized. Trent and Spike each picked up an uzi and came from behind the dumpster, aiming at the leader of their would-be attackers.

    The leader gritted his teeth in fear as he looked down at his pistol and then saw the uzis that Trent and Spike were holding. He dropped his gun in defeat and held his hands in the air, surrendering his efforts. Trent sighed, "Your ship is in the back with mine. Let's get the hell outta here."

    Spike nodded in agreement before the both dashed of to their personal space crafts. Spike was surprised when he saw the Swordfish was in top condition after all this time, and also surprised that someone as young as Trent would have such a modern looking ship. It looked like something only a rich person would own. Not like Spike really cared since all he wanted to do at the moment was get back to the Bebop.

   Trent and Spike took off into the air. Expecting to part ways with Trent, Spike flew off toward where the bebop was last time he left. He paid no attention, but Trent was following him the entire time.

   An hour went by and still not a word was spoken. Jet was now trimming his banzai plants as Faye was relaxing in the bathtub. Jet was concentrating hard on not trimming to much and ruining the plant. But, suddenly, he could hear the hatch open up. He shrugged and thought the it was Faye leaving to go somewhere. Also, Faye heard the sound, but figured that Jet was going out to get some parts for the Bebop or something. Then, they both heard a voice.

 "It's not like I knew he was waiting for us right outside! But the important thing is that we're alive, right?"

".........."

"What?"

".........."

      Spike kept quite as he took out a cigarette and lit it. Trent coughed and waved the smoke away from his face. Spike took a puff as Jet came out, armed with a .45 and a full clip.

"Don't move- Spike?!"

"Hey, Jet. It's been a while," said the fuzzy haired bounty hunter with a smile.

    Jet almost had a heart attack at this sight. Just when he thought he'd never see his partner again, there he stood, same as ever. Jet returned the smile, "Good to have you back. So, who's that guy?"

Trent beamed with pride, "Trent Valentine. I'm looking for my sister, Faye."

Jet raised an eyebrow, "Faye's your sister?!" Jet then slapped his forehead with a sigh, "Oh, man...."

Trent shrugged after seeing Jet's reaction and said, "Since I can't go back to my place, I could stay here for a while."

Spike shook his head, "That wasn't a part of our deal.

     Just then, Faye stepped into the room. Her eyes widened to the point of almost completely bugging out. There he was, right in front of her. She thought she was dreaming. She pinched herself to check. It wasn't a dream. Spike was alive. The guy standing next to her seem eerily familiar. Of course, she wasn't known to show a lot of emotion, so she played it cool and laid on her Faye-ish attitude.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in. Where've YOU been? And who's the kid?"

Spike looked at the purple haired fireball known as Faye and said sarcastically, "Yeah, nice to see you, too..."

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   Meanwhile, in a dark conference room, a figure cloaked in the darkness of the darkest section of the room, speaks to another in a lighter area of the same room.

"You didn't kill him?"

"No, sir. He got away."

"How did THAT happen?"

"Spike showed up and-"

"Spike?"

"Yes, sir."

"Still. Don't fail me again."

"Yes, sir. I won't."

    The underling walked of the the room, shutting the door behind him. Trent's clone smirked and said to himself, "So, you didn't die after all, Spike. I bet Vicious'll be excited about that." He stood up with his sword in hand. He then walked out of the room to inform Vicious, the new leader of the Red Dragon Syndicate.
----------------------------------

Faye exclaimed, "My brother?!"

Trent nodded, "That's right, sis."

Faye frowned with a look sorrow on her face as she took a step back, "You're lying...."

Trent's smile began to face into a sad frown, "But, it's me, Faye. Trent. Don't you remember?"

Faye suddenly drew he gun and trained it on the young man, "Liar! Tell me who you really are Trent died a long time ago!"

     Spike and Jet were merely bystanders of the whole ordeal. Not even Spike commented on anything. The room grew silent as Faye looked as if she wanted to cry. The same look was on Trent's face, but they both had their own reasons. For Faye, it was that she believed that someone was playing mind games with her. She had no one left and now some guy just pops up, claiming to be her brother. For Trent, it was the fact that the only family he has left, the person he had been looking for all this time, doesn't even trust him.

Faye cocked back the hammer of her gun, "Start talking!"

      Trent slowly reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out the family picture that he had. It was the only thing he had with him all this time after all that he was through. He held it out to her. He looked her in the eye with a serious expression.

     Trent spoke up, "I didn't die, Faye. I was frozen for decades and thawed a few years ago. All I had was this picture to go by. I heard rumors about Faye Valentine and decided to go on that. That's how I found you."

    Faye began to feel dizzy. She fell back onto the sofa, but kept her gun in her hand. She knew that this was too good to be true, but then, she knew he wasn't lying. She took a deep breath and let acceptance take over, "Fine...."

     Spike smirked, "What a happy family reunion this is." His voice was filled with sarcasm which earned him a nasty glare from Faye. Spike only returned a cocky smile as he and Jet were going toward the couch to catch up. Trent vacantly stood there with a raised eyebrow, looking at Faye with a slightly puzzled look on his face. "Hey, sis. How'd you get involved with those guys?"

Faye snapped, "Mind your own business! And don't call me 'sis' either. Got it?"

     Trent nodded slowly as his look of puzzlement turned into a plain 'WTF' stare. His eyebrow stayed up as Faye walked out of the room. She was almost how he remembered her. His big sister always had a little attitude, but now it seemed to be amplified a hundred times over. Trent sighed and muttered, "Damn."

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Meanwhile, Trent's 'brother' is seen in a dark room with a young woman with blue hair and tight, leather clothing on. In fact, it was the same woman that Trent kept a picture off. She sat on his lap with a naughty looking smile on her face. She sighed with content as she leaned back, moving her hips slowly and wrapping her arm around the back of his neck. "V2, is are plan going well?"

V2 smirked, "Yeah, babe. I got it all under control. We only have a few more steps to go and then we'll wait for him to make his move."

The woman smiled, "Then, we have lots of time, don't we, sexy?"

V2 licked his lips as his moved his hand up her thigh, "We sure do. Let's make it a hot, steamy night."

The couple passionately kissed as their tongues began to wrestle against each other. The woman moaned into the kiss as she brutally ripped his shirt off and began to caress his chest. Then another loud ripping was heard as V2 was tearing off the skin tight leather pants she had on with a sly grin on his face. The woman squealed with joyous surprise at his action. She began to moan louder as she felt his hand find it's way between her thighs and rub against her moistening sex. He reached his other hand to remove her shirt, but then the door of the darkened room opened, exposing their actions to the one who stood before them.

"What do you think you're doing? You have a job to do, V2," said Vicious.

V2 replied, "I am between phases of my plan and there's nothing else for me to do but wait at the moment. I'm just passing the time."

Vicious only gave him a cold stare before closing the door again. V2 didn't look the least bit afraid, but something inside of him made him decided that pissing Vicious off wasn't the brightest thing in the would for anyone to do. The woman looked at V2 with concern while moving her hand down his pants, "V2, are you okay? I'll make you feel much better."

V2 pushed her hand away and stood up, making her fall down onto the floor. He looked down at her as he zipped up his pants, "Sorry. I'm not in that kind of mood anymore." He took his long, black leather trench coat which was hanging from the back of the chair and put it on.

The woman scowled, "What the hell?! First you want me and now you're suddenly not interested it anymore?!"

V2 smiled and picked her up, then placed her on her feet, "I'm sorry, babe. I'll make it up to you later on tonight. You won't even be able to walk when I'm done."

She winked at him, "We'll see about that, tiger."
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Jet and Spike are seen in the den, just sitting around, bored out of their minds. Spike sat with his feet up on the table as Jet lied in the sofa with his feet on the table also. There was nothing but dead silence as they stared vacantly around the room for something to do. Then, there was the sound of a growling stomach which sounded all through the room.

"I'm starving," said Spike.

"We're broke," said Jet, "Looks like we'll have to go after another bounty head. By the way, where'd Faye go?"

Spike shrugged, "Don't know. Don't tell me you're actually worried about her, Jet."

Jet sighed, "It's just annoying the way she just blows in and outta here whenever she damn well pleases without saying anything to anybody."

Spike shrugged again, "Now you know why I hate women with attitudes. Anyway, she probably couldn't handle her 'long lost brother' appearing so she left."

Jet shook his head, "It's getting too crowded on this ship. Maybe I should rename this thing the Hotel Bebop and start charging rent."

Spike replied, "Now there's an idea. At least we won't be starving as much."

Just then, Trent walked into the room and saw that Jet and Spike were just lying around. He raised an eyebrow and then said, "Hey, did you guys know that the 'fridge is completely empty?"

"YES," shouted the two bounty hunters.

   Trent's voice shrunk as he spoke, "All right, okay, ya don't have to snap at me. Geez. Anyway, since we're roommates now, I was gonna go and buy us some food."

Spike and Jet both looked at him with wide eyes. Then, they looked at each other. Spike looked back at Trent, "I don't mind the food part, but once again, you staying here-"

     "Wasn't a part of the deal," Trent finished, "I know that, but gimme a break, I really have no other place to go right now. Not to mention, I'm doing you a favor by getting you food. Also, you don't have to pay me back for it."

Jet shrugged and looked back at Spike, "He drives a hard bargain."

Spike slapped his forehead, "Fine, just get the food."

Trent smirked, "Cool. I'll be back in a little while." Trent left immediately for his ship and was off to buy some food for the Bebop crew.

As Trent left, Spike frowned, and turned to Jet, "Hotel Bebop is now in business...."