Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Under the Five Moons ❯ Black Engine ( Chapter 18 )

And a Happy Easter. Or rather, Happy Good Friday, because that's when this should be uploaded.

Disclaimer: Take two eggs, beat, and slowly add… Okay, this cookie recipe joke is too silly for me. I do not own Trigun or any of its characters, they are the creations and property of Yasuhiro Nightow.

And a special thanks to MTS, who helped re-write, as she calls it, the "hormonal scene".

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Sandsteamer platforms are massive, multi-tiered affairs placed between town clusters. They were built after the Neon War to allow smaller towns the luxury of having a Sandsteamer visit the area.

The Steamer companies liked them because it meant more paying costumers without adding too many extra stops. The people in the small towns liked them because it meant the main method of travel on the planet would finally come to them.

The second floor of a Steamer platform is almost always completely taken up by sleeping quarters, not only for Steamer crewmembers and platform personnel, but also for customers waiting for the Sandsteamer to come. They are typically set up in suite style rooming, with two double beds per room and two rooms sharing a bathroom.

The night before, a bus had arrived at the platform at around eleven o'clock. A male and a female passenger had disembarked and checked into the SteamInn, as the hotel was known. They were given room 42, sharing a bathroom with room 44, which also had one male and one female occupant. In both rooms the man slept in a different bed than the woman.

At roughly five-thirty, the first of Gunsmoke's twin suns began to peak over the horizon, slowly shedding light through the SteamInn's windows. The male occupant of room 42, a light sleeper by nature, pushed himself up and looked blearily out the window. Despite the rising suns, it was still quite dark in the room. He blinked a bit, then his eyes started glowing faintly as the machines behind them intensified the little light in the room. The man reached for a cross-shaped stud earring and put it in his ear. Then he quietly rose from the bed and tiptoed towards the bathroom.

In room 44, the male occupant slowly pulled the sheets down from over his head. While he normally detested waking up early, he had to do it regularly as part of his job. He glanced quickly to the still sleeping female in the other bed. His hand reached out to the desk beside his bed and grabbed a pair of reflective sunglasses. He pushed them up his nose and glanced again back at the sleeping female. His frowned, as if considering a possible scenario. He shook his head dismissively, then began creeping towards the bathroom.

Both men opened the doors at the same time, but gave little notice the other man on the side. They knew that they were sharing a bathroom. They crept in and slowly closed the doors behind them. They turned around and collided with each other, almost losing their balance. Then they realized who the other person was, and they did lose their balance, crashing to the floor.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"GOD IN HEAVEN!"

The bathroom doors burst open. Nikki, clad in a nightshirt, whipped around the doorjamb, a cocked Long Colt in her hand. Calamity, in sweatpants and a t-shirt, appeared out of the darkness of the room, electricity crackling between the four silver disks held between her fingers.

As one, they looked down at Evans and Jeremiah sprawled on the floor. Jeremiah raised his head and blinked. His eyes were glowing pink. "Why is everything all fuzzy?" he said. Evans smacked him in the side of the head and his eyes went back to normal. Nikki and Calamity looked back up towards each other, then slammed the doors and went back to bed.

********************************************************* ***********

"Nice hair," Calamity remarked.

Nikki said nothing and continued tuning her guitar. She shifted her position on the barstool slightly so she could reach the farther pins.

The bartender sidled up to them and placed a glass of iced tea in front of Calamity, who grabbed it absentmindedly.

"Did you get it dyed or something?"

Nikki shook her head. "It happened… after… Jenora."

Calamity nodded and bowed her head. "I won't ask."

"Can I ask?"

Calamity sipped at her drink. "Ask what? Oh, you mean this?" She held up her hand and sent sparks dancing between her fingers. "I dunno, I've always been able to do this. My brother, that guy with the poncho and the black hat back at Jenora, can do something like it. We were… just born differently I guess. Nothing wrong with that."

Nikki smiled and pushed her sunglasses up her nose. "I wish I had that kind of optimistic attitude." She plucked a string and frowned at the off-key note. She reached for the tuning knob and started turning.

Calamity shrugged and continued sipping her ice tea. "It's taking the boys a while to get back. It couldn't be that hard to get tickets?" She slipped her sleeve down to look at her watch.

Nikki's hand shot out grabbed Calamity by the forearm. She brought it, wrist up, in front of her face.

"Needle marks, Calamity? What the hell?"

Calamity pulled her arm free and pushed the sleeve of her coat up to cover it. "…Not in a while… I swear. Not for four months. Only… only when I need to forget."

Nikki glared at Calamity over her sunglasses. "And what do you need to forget? And why haven't you needed to lately?"

Calamity stood up and walked towards the bathroom. "… Just don't tell Jeremiah, okay?"

"Jeremiah? I'd be more worried about Evans finding out. He is the one in the position to arrest you."

Calamity shook her head. "Jeremiah flinches whenever I steal a sandwich. I don't want him to know about this."

********************************************************* ************

Jeremiah leaned against the ticket window and sighed. "I've got the strangest feeling of deja roo."

Evans lit a cigar and leaned beside him. "It's déjà vu, and why do you say that?"

"Nothing, it happened before you met me. Right before you met me to be specific."

Evans shrugged. "Goddamnit, why is the passenger list so restricted?"

"Because, Lieutenant, the Cavalry needs the steamer."

Evans dropped the cigar to the platform floor. He stamped it out and quickly stood at attention. "I apologize for the language, Colonel! I was expressing my annoyance that my friends and I are unable to charter Sandsteamer passage to LR town!"

A middle-aged woman in a Cavalry uniform walked out from behind a column and chuckled. "Oh come on Evans, drop the 'perfect soldier' act. One of the advantages of being an officer is that we lose that stupid cay-det mentality. More to the point, I've known you since you were before you can remember."

Evans laughed and hugged the Cavalry officer. He turned to Jeremiah. "Sorry Jeremiah, this is my godmother, Colonel Mala 'Winchester' Randolph."

"Can she got us on the Steamer?"

Evans grimaced. "Er…maybe. Can you get us passage on the Steamer?"

Colonel Winchester stroked her chin. "Maybe. I can definitely get you on. Cavalry members can always hitch a lift on Cavalry transports. How many of you are ther?"

Jeremiah held up three fingers.

"Can any of you fight?"

Evans chuckled.

"You might say that, yes."

Evans bit down hard on his cigar to keep himself from bursting out laughing.

" 'I might say that'? You might want to clarify, Mr…?"

"Wolfwood. Jeremiah T. Wolfwood."

Evans overcame his laughing attack and held up a hand. "I can personally vouch for these guys Winchester. They're all easily as good as me in a fight."

"Oh really? In that case I'm definitely sure we can get you guys on, provided you have no qualms about doing some sentry duties."

Evans inhaled on his cigar than dropped it to the floor. Jeremiah crushed it under his boot. "Exactly what is the Steamer carrying that requires a Cavalry presence?" Evans asked.

Colonel Winchester looked at him pointedly. "It's an LT transfer to a research center."

"Ahhh, I gotcha. When do we leave?"

"In about half an hour. Gather up your friends and your luggage and report at the gangway at 0830 hours."

Evans saluted. "You got it Winchester!"

The Colonel pointed at Evans. "You may be my godson, but around the rest of the soldiers, you call me Ma'm or Colonel. You got that, Lieutenant?"

Evans nodded. "Yes Ma'm. Of course Ma'm!"

The Colonel nodded, then walked off to supervise the cargo loading.

Jeremiah and Evans started heading back to the Saloon to pick up Calamity and Nikki as well as their luggage.

"Well that worked out well," Jeremiah said.

"Very well," Evans replied.

"What's an LT transfer?" Jeremiah asked.

"Sorry buddy, I can't tell you that."

"Oh come on Evans, does it really matter? Who the hell am I going to tell? Who the hell would be stupid enough to attack a Cavalry guarded Steamer anyway?"

"Valid point. An LT transfer is a Lost Technology shipment. Probably sending stuff to a research lab somewhere, try and decipher it and whatnot."

********************************************************* ************

The tan Sandsteamer chugged through the dunes, traveling through the no man's land between the towns, places that only the very brave dared travel alone.

Inside the bridge, the captain of the Sandsteamer stood behind the helmsman and sipped at his coffee. "What are the odds?" he said.

"What are the odds of what?" the helmsman responded.

"What are the odds that we'd run into those four again? It's almost as if they're following us Kaite."

Kaite chuckled. "Who's to say we aren't following them Captain? Maybe we're destined to help them get where they're going?"

The Captain shook his head and sipped at his coffee again. "I'm sorry Kaite, but after the Neon Wars, I really don't believe in destiny, fate, or providence anymore. Just in dumb, stupid coincidences."

********************************************************* ************

When the had first met, Calamity and Nikki had gotten along fairly well. The fact that Nikki had saved Calamity from being carted off to jail certainly helped this, but the fact remained that they liked each other.

Nikki had tried to honor this by intentionally not bringing up Calamity's possible drug habits. They both pretended as if nothing had happened. Though they both knew it would have to come up eventually.

Currently, they were trying to get Calamity's long hair fixed in some semblance of order.

Nikki growled. "Why can't you just keep your hair short? It's so much easier to deal with!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not overly fond of the boy look. It may work for you and your mother, but I dislike confusion about my gen-OW!"

"Sorry, didn't mean to pull your hair like that," Nikki said, grinning. "I don' suppose you've got a hair tie in that coat of yours?"

Grumbling, Calamity searched through the multitude of pockets lining her coat. "Let's see, detonators, C-4, grenades, leftover salmon sandwich, hygiene products. What the hell?" She pulled a black cat out of one of the larger pockets. It looked at her lazily and nyaoed. Calamity tossed the cat behind her, which landed on its feet and walked away towards the food counter.

********************************************************* ************

Jeremiah leaned over the railing on the Steamer observation deck, letting the wind rush pass his face. [Damn,] he thought, [It's kind of nice to be able to relax like this. Never thought I'd sat that whilst traveling with a wanted outlaw among a Cavalry regiment. They wouldn't take her would they? Her face isn't very well known, but Evans could tell them. Damn, I hope he doesn't do that. I sure as hell don't want to fight Evans.]

"Can't any of you idiots put this machine gun array in place?"

Jeremiah snapped out of his inner monologue. He turned to see a Cavalry captain berating a bunch of Cavalrymen about setting up a fixed machine gun array. Evans was standing at ease behind them, smoking a cigar.

"I can help!" Jeremiah called out. He leant his Cross Punisher against the Steamer's outer wall and walked over.

Evans grinned. "Jeremiah, you just violated the first rule of soldiering, 'Never volunteer.'"

Jeremiah laughed and approached the struggling Cavalrymen. The three soldiers looked gratefully at Jeremiah and shuffled to the side so he could get a grip on the gun. Jeremiah got a grip on it, then lifted it out of their hands and fitted it into the mount. "No problem," he said. "What's this fire? 7.52? Same thing I used in my machine gun."

The Cavalrymen's jaws dropped. The Cavalry captain raised his eyebrows, then shrugged. He turned to Evans. "Alright, I guess we're done here. You're the officer on duty for now. You know what to do if anything happens Lieutenant?"

"I didn't enlist yesterday sir."

"No, that you didn't."

The captain left, leaving Evans grinning at Jeremiah with the other Cavalryman making strange gibbering noises. Eventually one of them gained enough coherence to say "Jeeze, I don't want to get in a fight with you, fist or gun!"

Evans flicked his cigar over the side of the Steamer. "While I wouldn't suggest a gun fight with the man, I wouldn't be too worried about a fist fight."

"B-b-but sir! With that kind of strength he could knock any of us through the wall with one punch!"

Evans smiled. "Yes, but first he'd have to land that punch. C'mere Jeremiah, we're gonna teach you how to really fight."

Jeremiah shrugged and walked through the dumbfounded soldiers. Evans positioned Jeremiah facing the back of the Steamer and then took a position opposite him.

"Now, you're main problem, as far as I can tell Jeremiah, is that you're too solid."

"Too solid?"

"Yeah, basic chemistry Jeremiah. There are three states of matter, right? Solid, liquid, and gas. You're usually solid, relying on your strength and your Cross Punisher to get you out of trouble. You've got to be like a liquid, go with the flow sometimes. Other times, you've got to fill the room, be everywhere at once, like a gas."

Jeremiah held up a hand. "Sorry to interrupt, but if you teach me how to do this, will you let me teach you how to shoot?"

Evans shook his head. "My shooting's very much a lost cause. Your ability to fist fight is not. Now what I want you to do is punch me. I'm gonna show you how to be like a liquid, to go with the opponents force."

Jeremiah nodded and got ready to punch Evans. His eyes glanced up and spotted a black shape on the horizon. It grew larger and larger within a few seconds. He focused his cyber eyes on it, enlarging the image like a telescope. His eyes opened wide with shock.

"Jeremiah? Are you paying attention to me? What are you looking at?" Evans turned around and spotted the black shape, now clearly a large moving object. "What the hell is that?" Evans asked.

"Black engine. It's a damn Sandsteamer," Jeremiah responded.

"A black Sandsteamer? I didn't know they had any black Sandsteamers running?" The young Cavalryman looked questioningly at Evans.

"There aren't any," Evans said. He and Jeremiah pushed past the Cavalrymen and leaned over the railing to get a good look at the on coming Steamer. Jeremiah's eyes focused on the black Steamer and discerned two familiar figures. One was floating a foot above the deck of the Steamer, the other was clad in a multi-colored coat.

Jeremiah turned around and yelled, "EVERYONE! CLOSE AND AVERT YOUR EYES!"

All twenty Cavalrymen on guard looked at him as if he were insane. Evans took one look at his friends to realize how deathly serious he was. "DO AS HE SAYS! THAT'S AN ORDER!"

The Cavalrymen nodded and closed their eyes after readying their rifles.

"You should look away too. Those sunglasses aren't going to protect you from this."

"From what?" Evans asked as he turned away.

As the black engine drew closer, a blinding flash burst out of the black Sandsteamer, briefly eclipsing the double suns. One Cavalryman looked and fell to the ground clutching his face.

"That," Jeremiah said. He ran over to the fallen Cavalryman and shoved him into the Steamer. "Your sight should return in about twenty minutes, lie down until then, we're going to need everyone."

Evans ran up next to him, saber drawn. "Don't people respect the Cavalry anymore?"

Jeremiah shook his head. "These guys don't. But they'll respect this." He flipped a clasp and the cloth covering his Cross Punisher flew off, shooting behind them as the Sandsteamers chugged forward.

Jeremiah brought the massive gun around and slammed it down on the deck. The skull shaped grip in the intersection of the four arms grinned at the black steamer. Behind it, Jeremiah's eyes started to glow brightly.

********************************************************* ***********

Joseph leaned on the rail of the Flock's Sandsteamer, a little winded from the exertion of making such a large flash of light. He looked up to Ophelia, who was staring at the other Steamer with a look of pure anger.

"What are you staring at?" Joseph asked.

Ophelia pointed to a figure standing on the deck of the other Steamer. "It's him," she projected, "Chapel the Born-Again."

Joseph looked across at the man standing on the deck of the Cavalry controlled Sandsteamer. He stared at the man, and he stared at the cross, with the skull in the center.

"I don't believe it. I don't believe it! CAN YOU HEAR ME, JEREMIAH T. WOLFWOOD? YOU BETRAYED US, YOU SON OF A BITCH! THE LOWEST CIRCLE OF HELL AWAITS YOU!"

With that, Joseph crossed his arms, reached into his multi-colored coat, and pulled out a pair of modified Project SEEDS age pistols. Disregarding the laser targeting, which would be useless on the moving Steamer, he raised the guns and started firing.

Jeremiah lifted his Cross Punisher with one hand and hit a switch. The long arm opened up and the double machine gun barrels inside started spitting fire.

Ophelia looked at Joseph and realized the man was too caught up with his vendetta with Jeremiah. Joseph had always secretly felt that Jeremiah had received most of Father Danil's favor when he had been training them, and when Jeremiah had left the group; Joseph had taken it very, very hard.

Since he wouldn't be giving the orders, the duty fell to her. "Fire at will! Boarding parties, get ready! Remember, we're only after the J-26 component! Forget everything else, only getting the component matters!"

Ophelia flipped the first card off the top of her deck and looked at it. "The ten of swords, how ideal." She flipped it over in her hand and skimmed it across the gap between the steamers.

Amid the laser and gun fire, the lone card spun, then something strange happened. The ten swords printed on the card appeared to peel off and grow into life sized, solid, sharp swords.

But before the swords get anywhere, ten bullets knocked them all off course, flying harmlessly into the lower part of the Steamer or high above it.

Ophelia stared at the woman with the smoking red and green Long Colts. [The abomination,] she thought. She was about to throw another card at her when another woman stepped out next to abomination. This woman was dressed in a green coat covered in pockets and had waist-length red hair tied up in one long braid. She also had a face Ophelia would never forget. [It's Clarissa. How lucky.]

She turned in mid-air to face the boarding parties. "Change of plans!" she projected, "We have two objectives now! Aside from the component you are to capture the girl with the red hair and the green coat! I want her alive! I repeat, we need her alive!"

The boarding party nodded, then ran across the deck and leapt across the gap to the other Steamer.

********************************************************* ************

Kaite struggled to keep control as the gun battle raged on the decks below him. The Captain threw away his coffee and ran to the side window, watching the fight. "Ready the main cannons!" He called out. "I want us to be shooting at them as soon as we can!"

Colonel Winchester ran up into the bridge, an exceptionally long rife on her shoulder. "Captain! Ready the-"

"Already taken care of, Colonel Winchester."

The Colonel nodded, then turned back and raced down the stairs.

********************************************************* ************

Calamity's face darkened as she saw the floating figure on the other Sandsteamer. The outfit was new, as well as the large scars across her throat, but there was no mistaking it. It was Ophelia Drysdale. And if anything Jeremiah had said could be believed, Ophelia had gone down a very bad path since they had last met.

Calamity flipped out a silver disk, charged it, and flung it at Ophelia, who quickly threw a tarot card to block it. The disk struck a flying pentagram, it's electricity discharging harmlessly into the air.

"Insolent child! I practically raised you Clarissa!"

Calamity gritted her teeth. "It's Calamity, and no matter what you did in the past, this is now!"

"Fine then! Brethren, do not attack the girl! I'll defeat her, and you can clean up after me!"

Evans backed up until he was leaning against the guitar Nikki had strapped to her back. Nikki fired off a shot at a Flock member on the black engine, knocking her laser rifles out of her hands.

"It appears we have two rivers of bad blood running here," Evans said.

Nikki turned her head to the side. "I really wish you wouldn't use metaphors like that."

"Sorry," Evans said as he disarmed a Flock member with his saber and broke the man's wrist with his right hand.

BLAM!

Colonel Winchester's large rifle roared out and flew into a Flock member, the impact knocking him back into the Steamer wall.

"Can't say I approve of your superior officer's methods," Nikki said.

"We're soldiers. We kill. It's part of the job, gruesome as it is."

Nikki shook her head. "We're going to have to have a talk about redemption and killing soon."

Evans shrugged. "Fine, just not when people are trying to kill us."

Winchester squinted at the large cannons near the top of the black engine. "Get that kid with the cross gun over here! Those things are about to fire!"

Nikki looked over to Jeremiah. His teeth grinding together, he dodged and returned fire with one target only, the man across the gap in the multi-colored coat.

"I think Jeremiah's a little occupied," Nikki said.

"Alright then, how about that girl in green? I heard her say something about grenades earlier."

"NIKKI! HEADS UP!"

Calamity pulled a grenade out of her coat and lobbed it across the gap. Nikki took aim with the red Long Colt and shot the grenade in mid-air. The resulting explosion threw Ophelia back. She rose from the smoke like an angry goddess, and threw a card at Calamity that quickly transformed into a salvo of sharpened staves.

"Well, she has grenades, but I think she's a little occupied at the moment as well."

"DAMNIT! If they get that cannon working, we're all dead."

Nikki squinted at the cannon, judging the distance, studying the fastenings, then nodded. "I got it, just watch my back."

Winchester jacked a shell into her rifle and turned to Evans. "Is this girl crazy?"

Evans kicked a Flock member in the shin, spun around and sliced another one in the arm. "Bitchy? Occasionally. Serious? Sometimes to a fault. Artistic? Extremely. Crazy though? No. If she says she can take out a cannon with those pistols of hers, I believe it."

"You're going to have to give me some time, I can't work miracles," Nikki replied.

Winchester nodded, then popped of another shot. "Alright, Evans, she's your watch. Keep her safe until she can knock out those cannons."

********************************************************* ************

Jeremiah grunted and ducked behind the cover of the slightly raised partition under the railing. He was out of regular ammunition, and he wasn't sure what explosive rounds would do. He flipped a couple of switches and leapt up, the Cross Punisher spitting the enormous armor piercing bullets.

Joseph ran to the side, firing at Jeremiah all the while. He ducked under a covered area and hid behind a pillar while he reloaded his guns. "You know Jeremiah, it's been a while I've been in a fight that lasted this long. Most of the them I blind, then shoot or stab. It's actually kind of fun."

Jeremiah frowned. "Well I'm glad I could fulfill your sick sense of sadism you self-righteous asshole!"

"Such language Jeremiah! Am I self-righteous? Of course I am! I'm doing God's own work, why shouldn't I be self-righteous?"

"Because you don't know that you're doing God's work?"

Joseph laughed. "How can you doubt, Chapel? One of those abominations had your father killed!"

"But another one raised me. And what you and the rest of the Flock consider to be the greatest abomination is close enough to me that I consider her my sister. So damn you, damn Ophelia, damn Father Danil, and damn the entire Flock!" Jeremiah shouted. He lifted his Cross Punisher and pulled the triggers. Joseph flung himself out from behind the pillar and began to return fire.

********************************************************* ************

Calamity dodged the fireball that had once been a card marked "Magician" and threw some more charged disks at Ophelia. [Damn it, this is getting nowhere. We've both learned to much… Maybe if I take out the Steamer?]

With this in mind, she reached into one of her coat pockets and pulled out a plastic explosives pack. Most of her explosives packs had either a magnet or some sort of adhesive. This one in particular had a powerful magnet attached to it.

Calamity flipped out several of her small metal disks and charged them up. She began running to the side and was pleased to see Ophelia matching her sideways movement. Calamity's hand darted out and skimmed the silver disks across the gap between the moving Sandsteamers. With her other hand, she flung the explosives pack across, but at a much lower angle. It hit the lower side of the steamer and stuck in place.

Calamity pulled out another explosive pack and another pair of metal disks, and prepared to do it again.

********************************************************* ************

Evans dodged laser fire as he continued to fence with the Flock. He glanced down at Nikki, who was crouching behind the low partition. "Got it figured out yet?" he yelled. "Not to rush you but I've got a whole bunch of people dressed for a funeral who want to fight me."

Nikki grinned, then shot up, turning to face the black engine. Her guns flashed behind and the familiar Ka-Chunk of her guitar reloading her guns broke through the gunblasts. She brought her pistols around, snapped them shut, then fired a twelve-shot barrage at the first cannon. She brought her guns behind her, reloaded, then turned on the second cannon. She did this for all five of the large guns on the black Sandsteamer, blowing the smoke away from her Long Colts when she was finished. All in the time it took Evans to go three sword passes with a Flock member.

"Good, we just need some sort of shock and those things will fall right off!"

"Will this work?" Calamity shouted. She pulled out a detonator and thumbed the switch. Explosions rocked the black Steamer, sending all the Flock members flying. Up on the bridge, Kaite struggled to keep control on the Steamer. The cannons slowly tipped off the Steamer, most of them falling into the gap between the two moving Sandsteamers.

Joseph's voice broke through the din. "Retreat! Retreat! Everyone, fall back! Back on the Steamer, NOW!"

The Flock boarding party rushed past the Cavalrymen and leapt over the rail to the other Steamer. As the black Steamer pulled away, some of the Flock members didn't make the jump. They fell screaming to the sands.

Everyone on the Cavalry controlled Sandsteamer winced. That was definitely no way to go.

Calamity walked over to Jeremiah and helped him up. He had been close to the edge and the explosion had knocked him backwards. She helped brush him off. "Tch, after I went to all the trouble of getting you better dressed."

Jeremiah shrugged. "Sorry."

Nikki looked up. "Ahh, I thought you looked better dressed Jeremiah."

Jeremiah frowned. "Why do you think someone dressed me? Why couldn't I have picked these clothes out myself?"

"Because you have no dress sense Jeremiah," Evans said as he sheathed his sword.

"Like you can talk."

"Hey, it's a uniform. Chicks want a man in uniform."

Both Nikki and Calamity bit their lips, fighting the laugh

Nikki cleared her throat as she holstered her guns. Quick as lightning, she had her arm around Evans, her mouth close to his ear. "Thank you for protecting me, big guy. I bet your eyes are soooo dreamy behind those shades," she purred. Jeremiah growled and the pair burst out laughing.

Major Winchester threw her long gun over her shoulder and shook her head. "Kids. Able to bounce back from anything. Damn I hate getting old."

********************************************************* ***********

Joseph stuck his hand out to help Ophelia up. She pulled herself upright, still levitating above the deck. "We missed our chance to get our hands on the nanomachines in Clarissa. Ungrateful whelp."

Joseph shrugged. "Did you expect her to come easily to the path of righteousness, knowing the road she took? Anyway, there will be other chances. As long as we got the Teraformer component, this was not in vein."

A Flock member stepped behind him and held out a piece of machinery roughly the size of a basketball.

Joseph nodded. "Our Sandsteamer may be all but crippled, but we have what we came for! The Lord has guided our actions! Soon, His revenge will be felt across this planet! And the deceivers, the false lights, they will know our wrath!"

As one, the Flock members responded, "Praise be to God!"

********************************************************* ************

Blayne tapped her knife-fans impatiently against the wooden posts Meryl and Millie were strapped to. She had just led the pair of insurance ladies out for a bathroom break, and her patience was almost shot.

"How much longer must I baby-sit these two?" she shouted.

"Baby-sit? I fancy that both of them are old enough to be your mother," Legato said. He stepped in front of Meryl and stared into her eyes.

Meryl scowled, then spat back into Legato's face. "You monster!"

Legato wiped his face on his sleeve and shrugged. "I prefer 'demon' actually, but it will do for now."

Millie whimpered then turned to Meryl. "I don't think we can get ourselves out of this one Meryl."

"Of course you can't Miss Thompson. That's the idea. We want them to come and save you."

"Our kids you mean?" Meryl asked.

"Them… and others."

Blayne knelt down and stroked one of the dozens of wolves that surrounded the dunes. "I wish they would hurry up and get here."

"Have patience, little cousin. I wish to see the Stampede in pain as well, but the waiting makes the final payoff all the sweeter."

Blayne begin to chuckle, and soon Legato joined her. "That's right, sir. I'll finish what you started at LR. You brought him to the edge, now I'll push him over. I'll show him just how worthless humanity is."

********************************************************* ************

Vash: Journeys come together, paths converge. A reunion that couldn't be avoided. Family ties are indeed strong, especially after being reconnected. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say. But when the demons of old wake up again, are the bonds of family, of friendship, of love, strong enough to survive? Next Chapter: Eyes Open