Chapter Two: Enter Deryl

"Deryl!" Meryl screamed as she hugged the man sitting next to her and then punched him to the surprise of everyone there. He looked at her with tears in his eyes and a hand rubbing his injured face, "Ouch, Meryl! What was that for?"

Glaring at him she said, "That's for making me remember and letting me fall to the floor, ya dimwit. You could have at least caught me or something." Under her breath she mumbled, "Some brother you are."

Deryl rolled his eyes and stood up bringing his sister up with him. "As much as I like arguing with you now is not the time, nor the place for this."

Milly walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder which startled him, "OH? What's the hurry Deryl?" She asked worriedly, she remembered Deryl only acted this skittish when he was really nervous or in a hurry.

Deryl sighed, "Ariana's found out where you are. She's sending people to come get Meryl."

Knives cut in, "If this person," he said that word with disdain, "is after the short one," pointing at Meryl, "Why are you here? How long has she known where she was?"

"She's known for a while, we've managed to handle everyone that she's sent. It also helped that you guys were moving around never setting up a permanent residence. Why did you stop?" Deryl asked as he looked at everyone curiously.

"We needed time to recover." Meryl said, "Both Vash and Knives were wounded and needed time to heal. Milly's needed time too." Milly looked a little saddened and Knives guilty.

"You all have had time. Or did you not hear me when I said she's found you."

"I kind of figured she knew since you are here and I have my memories. How much time do we have?"

"We can leave now if you want," a loud crash was heard from the kitchen Vash came running out with a doughnut in his mouth. "Merr can' weave!" Everyone stared at him for a moment startled at the commotion Vash had made and they all started laughing, well except for Vash. Eating the doughnut he continued, "What? What's so funny?"

Giggling Meryl said, "I'm not leaving yet, I still have a few days to work of first." Deryl gave his sister an incredulous look, "Really Meryl? Do you want to risk getting caught by her goons? It would be best to leave as soon as possible."

"You are such a nag, if I leave sooner we won't have enough money for supplies when we are on the road. Or do you want to go with out food and water?"

"It's for the best and you know it." He pointed at her, "Look at yourself your ears are popping up," two blue triangle shapes were forming on top of her dark haired head. She winced as she patted down the ears and massaged around the edges. "You are changing back, don't you think people will start asking questions?" She got up from the couch they had been sitting on and walked towards a mirror. Her eyes had changed to a lighter blue color and her pupils had dilated enough to look like slits, turning around she found a long dark blue tail with light tip growing down her backside. She now looked like her twin brother with opposite colors. She was lucky her ears were the same color as her hair. Deryl's hair was a lighter blue and his eyes dark blue and his tail light blue with a dark tip.

Seeing her sigh Vash got walked over to her, "You're not really going to leave are you?"

"I kind of have to Vash, my brother is right. You, Milly, and Knives would be in more danger that usual and you guys just recovered from wounds and Milly hasn't been feeling well lately."

Milly got up from her postion, "Now see here Meryl, I haven't stayed with you all these years for nothing. I made a promise to protect you and I will for as long as I can. You're my friend and friends stick together got it?" She shocked everyone with her stern lecture.

Deryl recovered first, "Milly you know what Ariana is like! She's ruthless, she wouldn't care if you died and you're related to her." He tried to reason with her, "None of us want you to go through what our mother did."

"He has a point Milly, I don't want you getting hurt over us. Take mom for example, she's the plant in our home town now because she got in that woman's way." Meryl sadly said agreeing with her brother.

This information got Vash's and Knives' attention, "What do you mean woman?" Knives asked calmly he continued, "How does a human woman become a town's plant?" He was so calm everyone was stiff not wanting to set him off.

"Well you see..."Meryl began but trailed off and Deryl finished her sentence, "Our mom was once an independent plant."

Meryl nodded, "When she was younger she volunteered to under go some tests to see what set her apart from the rest of the plants."

"What they didn't tell her was that she was going to get injected with different types of blood as well, to see what would happen to her system," Deryl added.

"In the end, they injected a strand of a genetically altered canine DNA that they named FOX. It bonded thoroughly with her and changed her drastically." Meryl said.

"Thus creating the one and only FOX plant, but as she got older she grew weaker and was ultimately forced into a bulb." (Deryl)

"She was only supposed to stay there for a year to work the radiation off, but Ariana made it so she could never leave and our father married her." The two of them became a little depressed after saying that.

Shaking the depression away Deryl pulled himself together and smacked Meryl at the back of her head, "OW! Deryl!"

"Pull yourself together! This is why we need to leave early too, mother's been getting stronger and stronger soon she'll be able to leave the bulb, but we have to be there for it to happen."

Scowling at him she rubbed the back of her head, "I already said that we'd leave, but only after I finished with work."

"But..."

"After," she closed in on her brother, "I finish," she got so close he could see flames in her eyes, "WORK!" Deryl gulped and said in a tiny voice, "Yeah, work is important. Got to get that out of the way." Meryl turned and left them in the living room. Deryl sighed, "I haven't had to deal with that side of her in ten years, it still scares the crap out of me."

"It's alright, man she's used it on me before and it scares me too."

Both of them nodded at each other as Deryl added, "And when she twitches her eye," Vash smiled he had found a comrade, "And she gets really close, like this," he demonstrated which only made Deryl laugh, "Yeah and then she hits..." Meryl had come back down wearing a hat while her tail was wrapped around her waist and slammed their heads together knocking them out for the time being. "Milly! I'm going now I'll be late so give my dinner to Deryl."

"Sure Meryl, Mr. Vash, Knives and I will make preparations to leave." Milly said from the kitchen. Opening the door Meryl yelled, "Don't let the supply list be only pudding Milly we need real food too!" Milly peeked around the kitchen doorway and laughed while rubbing the back of her neck, "Ok, Meryl see you tonight." Meryl quickly left without a word goodbye and all that could be heard was the click of the door.

A/N: No real author's note this chapter... And no sexy lines either...