Onyx awoke with a start to the sound of distant voices. Glancing out the window, she spotted two figured topping the rise, chattering as they went.

Grimacing, she slipped into the shadows of the doorway and patted the familiar jasper handgrips of her twin revolvers reassuredly.

Finally, the two men stopped in front of the building, and one called out in a familiar voice,—Vash's voice, she realized, "Knives!! We know you're in there! Come on out!!"

"Dammit Spikey!!" another voice, also somewhat familiar, cried out, "Whatever happened to 'take him by surprise'?!"

She frowned. Wolfwood? Then, figuring she had no choice, she stepped out of the shadows.

"Onyx?!" the two men started noticeably as the dark-haired gunslinger stepped into the sunlight.

Eyes wide, Wolfwood moved as if to embrace her, "Onyx!! I—"

Glaring, Onyx jerked away from his touch. "Don't touch me!" she snarled, drawing her revolvers.

Vash stared at her, puzzled. He had never seen this expression on any being before. Her eyes gleamed almost silver with a nearly animalistic ferocity. Like a she-wolf defending her only cub…or a lioness maybe…

"What do you want?" she spat angrily.

Vash gazed at her calmly, "You know exactly what we want, Onyx."

Onyx narrowed her eyes dangerously, "Knives Million is dead."

Wolfwood's eyes widened, "What?!"

Ignoring him, she continued, "And if he's not dead, he is dying as we speak."

Inside the building, Knives awoke, his violet eyes blinking owlishly in the bright sunlight. Sitting up, he looked out the window to see Onyx confronting Vash and Wolfwood.

What's Onyx and Vash doing here? he wondered. And who's that other guy? What am I doing here, for that matter?

He searched through his expansive memory bank, but he just couldn't figure it out. He just couldn't remember why he was there.

"Dammit!" he hissed between clenched teeth, "Why can't I remember?"

With a hiss of frustration, he attempted to rise to his feet, but he couldn't manage, and he passed out.

Five minutes later, Vash and Wolfwood followed Onyx into the house, which was silent with the exception of Knives's shallow breathing.

Eyes wide, Vash knelt beside his brother's cot, "What's wrong with him?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. He's been like this since I found him, and that was a month and a half ago."

Vash looked up, "Will he die?"

Once again, she shrugged, "I'm not a doctor, but at the moment, his primary ailment is starvation, since I can't get him to eat."

As if to prove her point, she swept aside the blanket to expose his bare torso, which, though still well muscled, was tragically thin and his ribcage seemed to be trying to escape through his pale skin, and looking at it, Vash shook his head.

"I can't do it, dammit, I just can't."

Wolfwood's eyes widened, "What do you mean, 'you can't do it'?!"

Tears filled his green eyes as he gazed on his twin's corpse. No! Not a corpse! he thought. He's not dead yet!!

"I can't do it Wolfwood…I can't kill him in cold blood, not like this…he may be my worst enemy, but he's still my brother…I won't do this."

Suddenly, Onyx spoke up, "Do what you will, but know this, Vash the Stampede: if Knives does die, I will find you, and I will kill you."

Vash looked up at her in shock, "Why?"

She dropped her voice to a whisper, "Because you will have served your purpose. Knives will be gone and the human race will be safe from destruction. You will no longer be needed."

He narrowed his eyes, "And what of you?"

Onyx laughed chillingly, "Me? I'm already the last dark magician of lost technology. The humans have no need of me; never have, never will…" She patted on of her revolvers, "I too, will vanish from this world."

"Besides," she murmured, "it would be a fitting punishment for the two of us."

Vash frowned, "Punishment? For what crime?"

She glanced at the figure lying on the cot, "For murder."

Finally, Wolfwood could stand it no longer, "Murder?!! You guys didn't kill him!!!"

Onyx shook her head, "No. We both killed him, Vash and I. Vash, by telling him the truth he never wanted to hear spoken outside his own mind, and me by simply existing."

Vash nodded, "Very well…Let's go Nick."

Wolfwood regarded her almost longingly for a while, before he finally turned away and went after Vash.