--1 mile outside of December City
Sighing mournfully, a young woman of about twenty-nine dropped a small, desert rose onto a tiny grave lot marked by a crooked cross.
"My dear, dear friend Nicholas…you know I never intended for you to die this way." She shook her head, causing her long, black hair to ruffle like raven feathers.
"Ever since we first met those many years ago, I had steeled myself against your inevitable death. Being what I am, I always knew that I would long outlive you, but I wish I could have known you for a little longer. Oh Nicholas, how was I to know that Evergreen would betray us? How was I to know?"
Sighing, she took a knife and sliced off a lock of jet-black hair. Wrapping it around a second rose, she placed it on the grave. "Looking back, I am truly sorry that I was never able to return your love…but I'm glad that in the end, you finally found someone who could love you back…so now, like you, I must move on with my life, but in soul, we will always be friends."
Suddenly, a young man with short, pale blonde hair and deep, bluish lavender eyes appeared about three feet away. He was wearing a loose button-down shirt and pants; both probably stolen from the ruins below. His arms were covered in bloodied rags that had been used as makeshift bandages. Wincing, he placed a hand on her shoulder, "Onyx…we should go now; there are people coming."
She shook her head, "Let them come. I want to finish paying my respects."
He glanced down at the gravesite, "You cared deeply for this man, didn't you?"
She glanced up at him with smoky gray eyes, "No…not as much as I probably should have…perhaps I could have saved him…" Sighing, she turned away, "Fine. Let's go…I have no time for self-pity." She lowered her voice, "Besides, your brother is among those approaching, and I have no wish to confront him just yet…he blames me for all this, you know."
Knives nodded, "I figured as much…the bike's at the bottom of the hill, if we're going over land, but you'll have to drive it. I'm not horribly good at driving those things."
She nodded, "Very well, let's get out of this hell-hole."
About ten feet from the gravesite, Vash and Meryl stopped. Vash winced, "Millie," he began quietly, "I know you and Wolfwood were very close…maybe it would be best if you went on alone?"
Millie sighed sadly, her light blue eyes glistening, "Yeah…is that okay with you two?"
Vash glanced at Meryl, and she nodded, "It's alright Millie. Go ahead."
Nodding, Millie approached the grave and stopped short. There, on the grave were three roses. On the left was a black rose, on the right was a blue rose, and twined around the middle was a desert rose wrapped around what appeared to be a clump of raven feathers, but when she reached out and grabbed them, they were merely a lock of black hair. What's this? she thought wonderingly. But suddenly, the hair shifted and changed into a pile of dark feathers. As the transformation took place, Vash approached in time to see it happen.
His eyes widened, "Did that just do what I think it did?"
Millie looked up, "It changed…"
Vash looked up at the sky, the sunlight glinting off his glasses. "She was here…" Onyx…why did you visit Wolfwood's grave so openly? Were the two of you really that close?