"Don't shoot him!" Vash shouted and climbed out the car, Darrem gripped the wheel tighter as Wolfwood leaned forward in an attempt to try to get Vash to get back into the speeding vehicle.

"You're nuts!" Wolfwood shouted.

"Damnit!" Darrem grumped as Vash balanced on the hood to continue his shouting match with Amelia.

"You can't shoot him!"

"Get out the freaking way!"

Darrem swerved a bit closer to Amelia's car, making her pull her gun back into her car as she moved to avoid being hit, while Vash failed his arms a bit to make sure he didn't fall off the hood.

"Don't you screw with me either!" She snarled, pointing the gun at him instead.

"Sorry, there's an idiot on my windshield." Darrem deadpanned at the same time Wolfwood said –

"We're not trying too!"

"Work with me Darrem." Wolfwood harshly whispered, nervously eying Amelia's narrowed gaze and Darrem wrinkled his nose. Frustrated Amelia sped up, trying to leave them behind, but Darrem was right behind her.

"Amelia –" Vash began again, but before he could continue Amelia cut him off –

"Watch out!"

Vash straightened and turned, looking at the side of the ship – one of the holes – before getting shot.

Darrem's eyes widened as everything seemed to slow down as Vash fell off the hood and hit the rocky earth.

Hard.

"D-Dad!" He cried as he slammed on the brakes to the car, turning it around before hitting the gas again to get to Vash, Amelia hot on his tail. He hardly had time to stop the car fully before Wolfwood was out, heading straight for the quicksand that his body had rolled in.

'No no no no no no' Darrem thought desperately, as he skidded to a halt at the edge the quicksand, Wolfwood pushing past him.

"Needlenogin!" Wolfwood yelled, quickly tying a rope around his waist before tossing it Darrem, who caught it limply, not really at the moment. Amelia snatched it from his hands and ran back to the car to tie it to the front bumper as Wolfwood jumped down into the pit, almost instantly getting dragged down waist deep.

"Hang on, Needlenogin!" He called through gritted teeth as he waded through the thick sand to try to get to his body, which was disappearing rapidly beneath it. He stuck his hand in to try to grab him, but only managed to come up with his sunglass.

Darrem's knees hit the sand and he felt sick.

A few hours had passed since then before Wolfwood took a final drag of his cigaret before flicking in the sand beneath his feet, Darrem hadn't moved from his beside the pit and the suns were beginning to set, they needed to get back to town.

Slowly, he walked over to where the kid was kneeling and put a firm hand on the back of his neck, the reaction was immediate – feathers sprouted from his left arm and pushed lightly against Wolfwood's chest, he heard Amelia gasp behind him and the click of her rifle as she pulled it from her holster.

"Darrem." He said softly so only Darrem could hear him and gave his neck a squeeze, the feathers relented a bit, but didn't disappear.

"He wouldn't want to beat yourself up, kid." He began, a pause - then he removed his hand.

"Plus, you've got a sister out there to save...Save her for him."

Darrem feathers shifted before disappearing from view and Wolfwood saw Amelia lower her gun out of the corner of her eye before his attention was drawn to Darrem. He let out a shaky breath and Wolfwood pulled out Vash's glasses and pushed them onto the Darrem's face, covering his eyes which were bloodshot from silently crying.

"You give shitty pep talks." Darrem croaked, wiping at his face and Wolfwood hit him between the shoulder blades with a growl.