Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Under the Five Moons ❯ Eyes Open ( Chapter 19 )

Ye gods, this is a record for me. Don't think I've ever written a new chapter this fast. Maybe my muse was working on overdrive or something.

Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun, its characters, places, events, etc.

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Raifen glanced over his blades. Both had been sharpened beyond reason, and could easily cut through a steel pillar in an instant. If his second did her job, his death would be relatively quick and painless one.

"Not that I deserve it," he said to himself. "Not after what I've done."

Specicide. It was a hard word to wrap one's mind around. Raifen had helped bring on the downfall of an entire species. Homo sapiens would soon be a name lost to the dusts of history. In all likelihood Homo seraphimis as well.

His clan would die sooner then the rest of humanity, in a couple of hours to be precise. An undeservedly clean death for him, but an honorable one for his clan at least.

Raifen just wished he could help Zarlina before the end.

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

"Good news, bad news time."

"Oh yeah, what's the good news?" Wolfwood said as he put a cigarette in his mouth.

"The good news," Vash responded, "is that we now have both transportation and the fuel to make it run." He rapped the hood of the jeep they were sitting on.

"And the bad news?" Wolfwood asked.

"The bad news is that I have absolutely no idea where to go," Vash said. He cupped his head in his hands and sighed. "Not a single lead or clue about Knives." Vash looked at Wolfwood, staring off into the sandy expanse that surrounded them, barely there.

"I'm sorry, but what did you just say? I kind of drifted off."

Vash frowned. "Still thinking about what Danil said, huh?"

Wolfwood nodded slowly.

"He's a good kid Nick, I promise."

A long string of ash fell off of Wolfwood's cigarette. "What were you saying before, Vash?"

"I said I don't know where to go."

"Lost your way, Vash the Stampede?"

They leapt off the hood of the car and whirled around. Vash's left hand split open and a gun came rocketing out, flipped around and rested on the top of his arm. At the same time, Wolfwood went for the Grader automatic he had in his jacket.

A thin man leaned against a large rock behind the car. He held his palms out in front of him. "I'm not here to fight, not yet at least. I'm only here to act as a guide."

Vash pulled out his red sunglasses and pushed them up the bridge of his nose. Wolfwood already had his on. The sight of two dangerous men, dressed in black, with sunglasses covering their eyes and guns cocked, ready, and pointing at him unnerved the man more than a little bit.

"Who are you, mister?" Vash asked.

"I am a Gun-Ho gun, Schneider the Speedfreak! Now, if you gentlemen would please follow me."

"And why would we do that?" Wolfwood asked.

"You're looking for Knives, right? Who's to say he doesn't want to see you?"

"We don't have any other options, we've got nothing else to go on!" Vash whispered to Wolfwood.

"You don't think I don't know that?"

Schneider began to turn around, stopped, and said, "You might want to take the car, I'm a little… fast."

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

Evnas snapped his cigar case shut and reached down for his boot knife.

"What happened to that government issue piece of crap you had before?" Jeremiah asked as he pet the black cat sitting on the fence next to him.

Evans cut the tip off of his cigar. "It got shot. To be perfectly honest I don't know where this one came from. It shouldn't even exist."

"Why? What's the wood hilt made of?"

"Cypress."

"You can't grow cypress on Gunsmoke," Jeremiah said.

Evans nodded and pulled out his lighter. "I know. Some old guy at Lasuken had it. I guess he wanted to give it to me."

"Where'd he get the knife then? It couldn't have grown here."

Evans shrugged. "I dunno, maybe he was a ghost who likes handing out knives to people."

"You really think it could have been a ghost?"

Evans lit his cigar and snapped the lighter shut. "Well I'd be lying if I said I didn't believe in ghosts at this point."

Jeremiah leaned against the fence surrounding the LR graveyard. "Where the hell are they?" he muttered.

"Who, your parents or Nikki and Calamity?"

"Either, I just don't like talking about ghosts near a graveyard."

"We're right here," Nikki said as she and Calamity walked towards them.

Calamity reached into the bag and pulled out a package. "7.52 caliber, right? Here's your ammunition." She handed the bag to Jeremiah, who started ripping open the packages and loading the ammunition into his open Cross Punisher.

"How was convincing the people to load your guitar?" Evans asked.

Nikki rolled her eyes and leaned against the fence. "Don't ask. No appreciation for music."

"They might not, but I do, little spiderfly," a voice said from the graveyard.

They jumped to their feet, whirling around, looking for the voice. Jeremiah loaded the last cartridge into his Cross Punisher while he looked around, his eyes flashing through a spectrum of colors.

"Where are you? Who are you?"

The voice laughed. "Where I am is a… difficult question really. As to who I am, better to ask me who I was. Let me tell you a story. There once was a man, who played the greatest music, on the greatest stage of all. Then, he got what every musician truly wants, for his last performance to be the greatest and most beautiful of his career. A duet with the sixty-billion double dollar man, it was. Never in his life had the man produced such music, and he went to his death knowing the performance would never be topped."

"What the hell?" Nikki said. "Another walking corpse?"

The voice from the graveyard chuckled. "No, no. My body was taken apart years ago, but my soul remains, and it's the soul that feels the music."

If they squinted, they could barely see a man's outline in the light of the suns as the continued their slow course down to the horizon. A man carrying a saxophone.

"But enough of the games. You may call me Midvalley the Hornfreak. And I've decided to show the little musician where a stage is. A stage on which the greatest show will continue. New performers have been brought out, and the old guard are anxious to see if the audience approves."

"I thought we were waiting for someone," Calamity said.

"What, your parents? Go on, keep waiting. I'm sure they won't mind you not coming. I mean, the major insurance disaster at Dankin couldn't keep them too long, could it?"

Nikki's fist clenched. "How do you know where they are?"

Midvalley laughed. "Come with me, if you're really that interested in finding out."

Swank saxophone music replaced Midvalley's voice and started moving out of the graveyard and into the dunes. Jeremiah and Nikki ran after the moving sound.

Calamity and Evans looked at each other. "We're about to chase after two people who are chasing a ghost playing the saxophone," Evans said.

"Yeah, your point?" Calamity responded.

"Don't have one, just making sure you knew what you were getting into," Evans responded, dashing after Nikki and Jeremiah.

"From what I hear, you're the one who jumps into things without thinking!"

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

Vash leaned out the window and shaded his eyes with his hand. "Good Lord, can that guy move!"

Wolfwood nodded, his attention on driving. "You aren't kidding. We're going what, fifty iles an hour?" He glanced down at the speedometer. "I stand corrected, fifty-five iles an hour."

Schneider slowed down and ran alongside Vash and Wolfwood's car, keeping perfect pace. "Good thing you guys had the car, or we'd never get there!" He accelerated and moved into the lead again.

"Vash, if this doesn't lead us anywhere, I'm going to kill that little bastard."

"I thought we agreed on this Wolfwood."

"Yeah, but this guy pisses me off more than even you do."

"Alrighty boys, you can stop the car now!"

Wolfwood hit the brakes and the jeep slowly rolled to a stop. Schneider ran a few circles to give him enough room to slow down, then stopped as well. He crossed his arms and nodded towards the crater behind him. "Get your stuff, I'll see you in there." Then he raced off over the lip and down out of sight.

Vash and Wolfwood leapt out. Vash started trudging up the hill while Wolfwood stayed behind to retrieve his Cross Punisher.

"Wow, I've never seen so many wolves!" Vash called down from the lip of the crater. "And who's the cute girl in the middle of th… Oh Jesus no. WOLFWOOD! GET UP HERE!"

Wolfwood yanked the Punisher out and ran up the lip as fast as he could with the massive gun on his back. The sight that greeted him made him weak at the knees. From the lip, the sands sloped downwards into a huge crater, with a raised platform of rock in the middle, almost like a stadium. Growling wolves lined the sloped pit and sat in guard over the platform, where Schneider stood between two posts. Slightly in front of the posts stood a blonde woman in Victorian era clothing, a closed fan in each hand. Tied to each post with Schneider holding a pistol to their heads, were Millie and Meryl, who could only stare blankly at the man they had been seeking for so long, and the man they knew to be dead.

Nobody spoke, only the growling of wolves filled the silence of the craters, until a minute later, music could be heard approaching them. Saxophone music, played all too familiarly.

Four figures crested the dune, and all stopped when they saw the grizzly scene before them. Words escaped all of them. The man dressed in the Cavalry officer's uniform started to go for his sword, but a voice stopped him.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Brave move to be sure, but do you really think you could stop us before the women died?"

"M-m-Midvalley?" Vash stammered. "How?'

The woman with the fans shook her head. "You are presented with this, and all you can think of is how Midvalley can be here? Well, to answer your question, he's not. Like your friend Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Julius the Necromancer tried to bring him back for a comeback tour. Unlike Wolfwood he didn't completely succeed."

Jeremiah glanced at the priest. At the man that might as well be his reflection in the mirror. "Nicholas D. Wolfwood? It can't be. It can't be him. It can't be…"

Millie struggled to lift her head. "Mr… Mr…Mr. Priest?"

"How sweet. After so very long, you meet again. But we didn't call you all here for a family reunion." Midvalley said. "We're to here to honor a new performer on our stage, Miss Blayne the Steelclaw here. She needed a captive audience, and the Gung-Ho Guns provided. Now, if you will all be so kinds as to throw out your weapons?"

Schneider pulled back the hammers on his pistols. "Weapons down, now!"

Evans started the pile, throwing out his sword. Nikki followed, throwing out both Long Colts and her guitar. Vash threw out his silver Long Colt with Nikki's, then opened up his gun arm. With a grunt, he removed the machine gun from its fastenings and tossed it into the growing pile. Two loud THUDS echoed around the desert as Jeremiah and Wolfwood threw in their Cross Punishers, avoiding each other's glances. Finally, Calamity took off her coat and threw it in.

"Empty your pockets as well," Blayne said. "I've known your brother long enough to never trust a Shriver with anything, no matter how unassuming it might be."

Calamity nodded, tossing twenty odd silver disks into the pile. The wolves formed a circle around the weapons pile, snarling, spit flecking their teeth.

"Good, now that I have your attention."

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

Zarlina pushed open the door to the room she and Raifen were sharing. He had yet to tell her why he had left so quickly. He had yet to tell her much of anything, in fact. He had been silent on almost every issue.

Now she found him kneeling on the floor with two sheathed blades in front of him. He appeared to look up at her through his blindfold and smiled. "Oh good, you're here. I need a witness. After I do it, could you kill me cleanly? This sword," he tapped the sword farthest from him, "Should do it if you put some force behind it."

"Raifen, what are you talking about?"

"But, if you'll permit a dying man's last request? Don't use the sword, kiss me instead. To die with honor and love is all a man like me can hope for anymore." He smiled, then picked up the knife directly in front of him. He slowly unsheathed it as Zarlina walked unsteadily towards him.

"What… what are you saying?"

"This is all I can do. Otherwise, my clan will die with nothing." Raifen placed the tip of the knife against his abdomen and smiled. "Goodbye."

He began the cut across his abdomen, but encountered unexpected resistance. Very powerful unexpected resistance.

"What are you doing?" he shouted.

Zarlina had grabbed his arms and was pulling back as hard as she possible could.

"Don't you understand? I am nothing without my honor!"

"And I am nothing without you." Zarlina whispered.

Raifen let go of the knife with one hand and pushed her back against the dresser. "DAMN IT! I HAVE NOTHING TO LIVE FOR! YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD UNDERSTAND THIS!"

Zarlina sickly orange eyes dulled. "You're right. I would have, if you asked me years ago. Years ago I would've gladly helped send you on your way. Years ago, I had nothing to live for. I don't want to die now. I don't want a early end to my life, because my life isn't the horrible lonely tragedy it once was."

Raifen pressed the knife against his stomach again. "You've found something to live for? What could be so precious to you that you'd be willing to go through your torturous life? What could be worth your curse?"

Zarlina was silent for a moment, then whispered, "You."

"What did you say?"

"You. You are worth it. I live and kept on living for you. I obeyed Knives, Legato, Martinez, and the rest only because of you. I never wanted revenge, but I convinced myself that I did, so I'd have a reason to join them with you. I live only for you, Raifen. Please… live for me." She began to cry, her tears hitting the floorboards and burning through them like acid. "Please, if you have nothing else to live for, live for me."

Silence. Silence through the room, silence through the building, silence through the town, silence ran through the entire world for these two, cursed from birth to loneliness. Last of their kind or untouchable, they had no one to cling to.

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

"I'm sure many of you have questions," Blayne began. "Who are all these people? Why are they here to witness this? Shouldn't this be a family affair?"

"Why are you such a sadistic bitch?" Evans muttered.

Blayne stopped her pacing and glanced up at Evans. "I heard that Cavalryman. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Evans Braxler, the only person here without any reason at all. He has no relation to anyone of importance, nor is there any lesson Knives particularly wishes him to learn."

Blayne turned to face Evans, giving her full glare. Her glance touched something primitive in most men, a fear of fangs and claws in the dark. Whether Evans felt this or not could never be really known. He simply watched her behind his sunglasses. "You know, it was your kind that murdered my family in front of me. It was the Cavalry that strung up my parents and slaughtered them. I would have been next, but the wolves saved me." She bent down and scratched a wolf behind the ears. "These wolves have more compassion and love then any soldier could ever possibly have. They are worthy of saving, unlike humanity."

"Your point?" Evans asked.

"My point?" Blayne said quietly. "My point is that the next time any of you try to share a thought with all of us with out my permission, I'm going to start cutting." She flicked one of her blade fans open and smiled. "But, as I was saying before the Cavalryman interrupted me, you might be wondering who everyone is. So I thought I'd introduce you all to each other. First of all, Miss Clarissa Shriver." She pointed to Calamity. "Or would you rather I call you Calamity?"

Calamity breathed in heavily. [Not more death. Please, no more killing.]

"You might recognize Miss Shriver, Vash, you bumped into her not long ago. Left a gift with her that she apparently still has. Your sunglasses. But that's not why she's here. She's here because apparently there is no other way to teach her to perform the task she was born for. If her own brother can't convince her of her destiny, then we must force her into it."

She moved her fan slowly to Jeremiah. "Jeremiah Thomas Wolfwood, known to some as Chapel the Born-Again. Glad to see you've followed in your father's footsteps, even without him there. Are fathers really that important to raising a child right?" Blayne covered her face with the fan, then sliced it down to the side. "I wouldn't know."

"Next up, how about Nikki Saverem Stryfe? There are many names for you, Miss Stryfe. Spider-fly, half-breed, freak of nature. But I prefer abomination. It has such a beautiful ring to it, doesn't it? You're an abomination in the eyes of nature, and your parents won't even tell you why. How very very sad." She shook her head. Behind her Schneider laughed. Midvalley remained silent. As the suns set, his outline grew clearer and clearer. One could almost see the pink of his shirt now.

"You four, however, are merely spectators. Audience members. Yours is to only watch quietly and learn." Blayne backed up to the posts, standing directly in front of Schneider. "It's these two, as well as the two standing up on the dune that I'm interested in. They will be my subject, my medium."

Blayne stepped behind Schneider and stuck one of her blade-fans into her corset. "The first of my subjects is Miss Millie Thompson." She grabbed Millie's chin and forced her to look at Vash and Wolfwood. "Yes, Miss. She never married. Never loved again after you left her, Father Wolfwood. I want you to look at each other. It's been so long, you deserve a good, long, look. Look at the mysterious preacher in black, Miss Thompson. Is he the man you remember him to be?"

Millie's breathed softly, not able to find the words. Jeremiah's fists clenched.

"He is, though he may not look it. He's exactly the man you remember, because he didn't really change. He was brought back thinking he was the same man he was twenty- one years ago. You, on the other hand, have changed, and more than just physically. Do you still want the man you wanted as a foolish child? Can you overlook his dark past, and it is dark, now that you're older and wiser? Are still as naïve as to think there is light in this tortured soul, so heavy with sin? It doesn't matter why he killed, he's still a murder."

Wolfwood lit a cigarette. His nerves couldn't take this any longer. Not without a crutch.

"Look at her Wolfwood, don't waste time lighting your cigarettes. Look at her! Is she still the woman you loved? While we're on the subject, look at your son. He's right over there. The son she raised alone, with no father to help. Sure, her friends helped, her family helped, but there's only so much they can do. She had to grow up to raise the fine young man over there. Grow up faster than she should have, given her childish outlook. If only you had been there… would Jeremiah have turned out differently? I'd ask him, but I think Jeremiah is preoccupied at the moment. I really do wonder how he feels… The father that was never there."

Wolfwood flicked the cigarette down to the sand and stamped it out.

"You want to say something, Father Wolfwood?"

Wolfwood nodded. "I know why you're doing this. You want to hurt Vash. Knives wants him to experience eternal suffering for his betrayal. Fine, be that way. If you have to hurt Vash, kill me instead. Believe me, it'll hurt him just as much as if you killed Millie. I can't bear the thought of losing her. Kill me instead."

Tears began to form in Millie's eyes. "Mr. Priest, you're being selfish! I already lost you! Don't make me lose you again!"

Wolfwood stared at his shoes. "I know I am, big girl. I know I am."

Midvalley laughed. "I'm very sorry Wolfwood, but you don't get to recluse yourself from suffering. You betrayed the master as well. In fact, if memory serves, you've done more betrayal in your time then any other man here. Look at your father, Jeremiah. Judas Iscariot."

No one spoke. Evans remained a statue, the only one without emotion. Looks of abject despair and terror had stricken the faces of all the others. Blayne smirked slightly, while Schneider grinned insanely. Midvalley's face could not be seen, but the tone of his voice indicated faint amusement in this.

Blayne moved to the other pillar and used her blade-fan to lifted up Meryl's face. "Now, Miss Meryl Stryfe. Again, notice the miss. Also never married, but the father of her child wasn't dead, was he? Was he, Vash the Stampede?"

Vash shook his head slowly.

"So why no wedding rings, I wonder? Why no happy church bells ringing? I assume you liked each other enough. You created that abomination over there. Were you afraid to sanctify something you knew to be wrong? The creation of that thing? I have my own theory on the subject, would you like to hear it?"

Silence.

"I'd like to hear, Miss Bluesummers," Schneider said, giggling.

"Very well Schneider, I'll show you my theory. It has to do with this simple question, why would a superior being such as Vash stoop to the level of this inferior creature? What would drive him to be with this lowly parasite? Hm?"

"What did you call my mother?" Nikki shouted.

Blayne's eyes narrowed. Her hands cut swiftly through the air and strands of Meryl's black hair fluttered down. "I told you all to be quiet. Your parents never told you what you were, perhaps out of pity for you, but I hold no such emotions. Your father is a Plant, your mother is a human. Therefore, you are a half-Plant, half-human. A disgusting little genetic mix-up that should never have existed. You dirty the superiority of the Plants merely be living."

Nikki's knees gave out. Jeremiah, too preoccupied with his own rage, barely noticed. Evans and Calamity silently slipped their arms under her shoulders and helped her up.

Blayne shrugged, then turned her attention back to Vash and Meryl. "See? It's an imperfect union. It's why Vash ran away. He slept with you out of sympathy, too nice a person to let your foolish love go unreturned. Then, some odd years later, he realizes that he actually might have to stay with you for the rest of his life, and he leaves. It explains it all, doesn't it? I mean, how could he love something like you? Look at you!"

She brushed back Meryl's hair with a closed fan. "Look at what time has done Vash! Her skin has lost its luster, her breasts are beginning to sag, and no matter how much she tries to hide it, her hair is turning gray. True, she might have been attractive once, but time is unkind to us humans."

She turned back towards Vash. "Now, compare to you! Still as beautiful as the day you met her, I'll wager! Your hair does not change to a dull gray but to a mysterious, dark black! Yours is an eternal beauty! And how could an eternal beauty such as yours ever desire this fading light?"

Blayne swooped around the pole and flicked open her blade-fan. She pressed it against Meryl's throat. "So tell her Vash. Tell her why you left. Tell her, how you really honestly feel."

"…Stop. Please, stop this."

Blayne pressed the slightly deeper into Meryl's throat. "Tell her Vash. I don't have all day."

Tears began to roll down Vash's face. "You want the truth?"

Blayne nodded.

"The truth is that she's the most beautiful thing in this dry world! And… and… and I left her because I was afraid."

Midvalley's ever strengthening form stepped forward as the last rays of the double suns began their course out of the world. "So, the Humanoid Typhoon was afraid? What were you afraid of?"

"I was afraid that… that she couldn't accept me as unchanging. That she wouldn't be able to live with a man who couldn't grow old with her. A man that might outlive her by God knows how long? I was afraid… I was afraid of outliving her." Vash fell to his knees, sobbing.

Aside from Midvalley, Blayne, and Schneider, only two sets of dry eyes remained. Jeremiah was caught somewhere between despair and confusion, and his cybernetic eyes were incapable of crying. His tear ducts gone, all he could do was heave his shoulders and spit the tears out of his mouth. Evans had dropped his stoicism. He was angry. His fists were clenched to the point of white knuckles, his teeth grinding together.

Blayne shook her head. "Pathetic. Truly pathetic. You still deny your superiority. How sad." She stepped out in front of the two posts holding Millie and Meryl and pulled out her other blade-fan. "Do you feel a sense of déjà vu, Vash the Stampede? You should. You faced a situation like this in LR, many years ago. You had to choose between killing my cousin or letting these two die. You had a choice then, and you chose the easiest path, the path that brought you the least amount of pain. You killed my cousin, because it was the least painful route you could take."

Blayne opened up both blade fans. "This time, you don't get to make that choice." She turned around and slashed Mille and Meryl across the face, leaving a straight diagonal cut. Everyone leapt forward, but the wolves attacked swarming them all. Not biting or tearing, just keeping everyone away. Keeping their master safe from harm.

"Now you all understand the pain that is survival! The pain that is life!" Blayne lifted the bloody fans into the air. The wind picked up and seemed to howl.

Evans reached out and grabbed a wolf by the throat. He twisted and it fell to the sands, limp. He rolled over and turned to Nikki, Calamity, and Jeremiah.

"I'm sorry!" He whispered.

Nikki kicked at a wolf and sent it flying back. "Sorry for what?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop it. I'm sorry I let it go this far. And I'm sorry I never showed you before!"

Evans reached up to his eyes, pulled off his sunglasses, and disappeared.

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

The knife fell to floor of the room. Raifen buried his head in his hands. "How could, how could I have been so blind? I thought I saw more than others…"

Zarlina dried her eyes, and crawled over to him. She threw her arms around him and he returned the embrace, his gloved hand stroking the back of her head. There would always be that glove, that sleeve, that shirt there. They knew that, but they weren't about to say it. Sometimes you just have to shut the hell up and enjoy the moment.

"What have we done?" Raifen said, "What have we helped bring about?"

Zarlina looked up at him. "We can fix it, right? That's what humans can do, fix their mistakes."

Raifen shook his head.

Zarlina nodded. "You're right. We can't stop either of them. They'd just kill us."

Raifen gently pushed Zarlina away and stood up. "We can't stop Knives and Danil, but there is someone who can." He offered his hand out to her.

She took it and pulled herself up. "The Stampede?"

Raifen nodded. "I know where he should be. Are you up for the journey, Zarlina the Ashenfall?"

Zarlina nodded, her orange eyes looking bright for the first time in many, many years. "If you're with me, Raifen the Shadow."

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

Schneider's scream was the first indication Blayne had that things were going wrong. She whirled around to see Evans somehow standing behind the man, hat covering his eyes, crushing Schneider's hands. Schneider dropped the guns and took a step forward, when Evans grabbed his arm.

"You aren't running away!" he yelled. Evans put his foot onto the back of Schneider's leg and pushed forward while pulling back on the man's arms. There was a disgusting CRACK, and Schneider fell to the ground screaming. Evans shoved him towards the crater wall and turned to Blayne, still covering his eyes with his hat.

"Remember what you said? Back in Jenora? Well, this is me not holding back!"

Evans disappeared, only to reappear next to the weapons pile. He quickly grabbed his saber and flourished it to Blayne.

"Midvalley! Take care of him, if you'd be so kind!"

Midvalley began laughing. "I think not, little Blayne! This is your show after all. It's time for your solo!" He continued laughing as his outline faded from existence, the laughter fading with it.

Blayne growled, then moved into a fighting crouch, fans open. Evans shrugged and disappeared again. Before Blayne's heightened senses could find him, she felt his boot hit the back of her head in a spin kick. She fell into a roll and came up facing the Cavalry man, who was looking down at the sand. "How did you do that! My sense are above any humans, I couldn't see, hear, or smell you moving!"

Evans chuckled and drew in the sand with his sword.

"At least look at me, damn it!"

Evans shook his head, then lashed out with his sword. Blayne parried and brought the other fan around for a slash across the face, but Evans had disappeared again. This time when he reappeared he slashed her across the shoulder. Blayne spun around, ignoring the pain, and they began the dance again.

Up on the lip, Nikki pushed off a wolf that had just bitten her. Calamity reached out and sent a shock through it, keeping it down.

"NIKKI!" Vash called.

Nikki looked towards her father. "What?"

"The pain! Concentrate on the pain! It's the only way to see him!"

Down in the crater, Evans had Blayne at his sword point. He kicked her in the stomach and she flew back against the crater wall, next to a whimpering Schneider. He raised his head, finally letting all see his eyes. One eye was narrow, slightly tapered at the edge, and a deep brown in color. A normal eye. The other eye was anything but. Larger than the other eye, it was disgusting, red, and reptilian. An eye that only a mother could love. Its sideways pupil stared angrily at the two, next to the normal brown eye.

Schneider pulled himself up to a sitting position. "You're just like us, aren't you? You're a-hurk!" Evans had disappeared while he was talking, only to reappear holding Schneider by the collar. He had run his sword through Schneider's chest before he even noticed. The Speedfreak, the one who could keep pace with a Sandsteamer, had finally found someone quicker.

Evans turned his attention to Blayne, sitting several yarz away. She spat blood at him. "Kill me then. Let me die in my Master's service."

Evans shrugged and disappeared again. But not to Nikki. She had done what her father had said, she had concentrated on the pain of the wolf bite. And all had become clear to her. She saw when Evans move when no one else could, saw through his illusion.

Evans dashed towards Blayne, sword ready for another kill. Nikki kicked off the two wolves on her, and jumped towards Evans, tackling him to the ground. They rolled in the sand for a few seconds, when Evans, always the superior hand-to-hand combatant, came up on top. He had dropped his sword, but had instead fished out his boot knife. His cypress handled, intricately carved boot knife. He held it over Nikki's throat, only her hands pushing back were stopping him. "Never get in my way, sweetheart," Evans said, forcing the knife down further.

Vash pushed aside the wolf and stared at Evans, kneeling over his daughter, knife in hand. He didn't notice the wolf beginning to gnaw on his mechanical arm, nor did he notice when Wolfwood kicked it off. All he saw was the Cavalryman, the man who, as Blayne said had no right to be here, with a knife over Nikki's throat.

"This isn't you, Evans!" Nikki yelled. "This isn't the man who jumped onto a moving train to save it! This isn't the man who fought for a people who hated him! Look at it! Look at that knife! Whoever gave you that damn thing in Lasuken gave it to you because you weren't like the ones who slaughtered them! THIS ISN'T YOU EVANS!"

Evans grunted and looked at the knife. The carvings drew him in, seemed to become alive. The animals, the plants, everything on the knife was moving, was speaking, was protesting. A bright flash and the knife shattered, falling to the ground beside Nikki.

Blayne looked around as Evans stood up trembling. [We must leave!] she sent to her pack. A stampede of paws and Blayne and her wolves had vanished into the night.

Evans didn't noticed any of this. He stood up, staring at the broken hilt in his left hand. He dropped the hilt and stumbled backwards, clutching at his head.

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP! Get out of my head! They aren't garbage! And bushido can screw itself for all I care!" Evans fell to his knees, both his human and demon's eyes blinking sadly. Then they rolled back into his head and he collapsed on the desert sands, unconscious.

The five moons watched over a sad scene that night, as a girl named after a disaster cut the ropes of two bleeding women, who fell into the arms of two crying men. A half-breed stared at the unconscious form of a demon, and a priest's son could only stare, bewildered, at the man who claimed to be his father.

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The same five moons watched over a spirit, who sat among the hills. A dark-haired, dark-skinned middle aged man, he watched sadly at the drama that had just unfolded. He shook his head. His last card had been played. With that knife gone, he could no longer affect anything that happened in this world.

He looked up at the sky pleadingly. Hundreds of years ago he had proposed Project SEEDS. Back when he was alive, back on Earth. After death, he had hung on, desperate to help the struggling race on their new home.

"This can't be the planet's will?" He asked the sky. "This can't be nature's will, this can't be your will, can it? Are we really meant to die?"

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Over at another dune, the five moons shined their light down on some very different figures. A vampire, a demon, and a Plant congregated, watching and waiting. The Plant stuck his hands into the pockets of the gray duster he had over his plug-suit. The vampire pulled out a pocket watch and flipped it open.

Saxophone music filled the air, coming closer and closer to where the three men were standing. The vampire snapped the watch shut.

"A splendid performance, Midvalley," Legato said.

"Just following your formula," Midvalley said. "A drama is always better with a twist."

Martinez chuckled. "And what a twist it was. Blayne never knew what hit her."

Knives remained silent. He brought his hand out of his pockets and rested his chin on them, looking out into the night.

Martinez looked at his watch again. "It's time," he said. Legato nodded, then walked off into the night with Martinez, Midvalley's saxophone playing following them.

Knives stared out into the distance. He stood up and looked at the five moons above him. "Now do you finally understand, brother? Now after seeing one of their worthless ilk attack your own flesh and blood? Now do you finally see the humans… as the cancer they are?"

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Jeremiah: They came into our lives without us knowing. They fell into a war that wasn't really theirs to fight. One jumped into danger without looking, the other exploded onto the scene in a fireball of glory. But who are they? How well can we say that we really know them? Next Chapter: The Demon and the Disaster.