All I can say is: Here's the next chappy! ^_^ ::is singing Superman by five for fighting...now there's a song we haven't heard in a while::

Not owning Trigun. (But I do own a wall scroll with Legato the Gorgeous on it!)

Unmarked--Chapter 8

            I panicked. That voice was all too familiar.

            I felt a hand on my arm, which gradually pulled me up until I was nearly eye-to-eye with a man who I'd seen a few times before. I was just slightly taller than him.

            Which definitely helped my confidence. I don't know how I'd feel about being shorter than my younger brother.

            "Nicholas," he said quietly, staring at me. His hazel eyes stared out at me. "Why are you here?"

            But he was not my brother...there was no way. Vash confirmed his death, being privy to it.

            "Who are you?" I hissed, breaking my arm free of him.

            "Nathan Midvally," his gaze floated to the ground. "Your brother,"

            I started to walk away from him. "I don't have a brother, anymore,"

            "You can't deny family," he said sharply as I continued to get further and further away from him. "It's something you have forever, whether you know it or not."

            I felt my knees buckle and lowered myself to the ground, a slightly malicious laugh growing around me. It wasn't Knives's, but someone close to him. Midvally picked me up from the ground and used himself as a crutch for me, taking me closer to the small group assembled at the base of the plant.

            "How nice to see you again, Chapel," Legato Bluesummers approached us. With a slight wave of his hand, he dismissed Midvally, though he stayed put. "I must say, your brother was fairly distraught when we brought you to the coroner's. Couldn't even get his own name out of his mouth,"

            Midvally looked away, slightly disgusted. "You could have told me he wasn't dead,"

            Legato glanced back at him. "You were not given permission to speak, subordinate."

            "Why do you pretend people die?"

            I watched in silent awe. As children, I was always the one to lose my temper and lash out at somebody. I'd kept silent tabs on my brother, noticing him to be often calm and restrained.

            "You pulled it with Dominique, too! Do you find it funny?"

            The woman shot Midvally a silencing glare.

            I was wondering how I'd ended up in the company of such an odd group.

            Legato's grin was borderline psychotic. "Subordinate, I could have actually let you kill yourself, you know,"

            Midvally muttered something that sounded like "waste of a puppet".

            A small child crept out of the shadows and latched onto Midvally's leg. "Papa, who is he?"

            I looked down at the girl. Dark hair, large hazel eyes, and the same terrified look I remembered on Midvally's face the day I left.

            "He's your uncle Nicholas," Midvally knelt down to the girl. "Go back to Mama,"

            The girl stared at me for a few seconds more, her glare somewhat resentful, than ran back to her afore-mentioned mother.

            "You have a daughter?" I was fascinated by this. Considering my brother's affiliation with the Gung-Ho Guns, I was surprised that any woman would consider marrying him.

            "Two," he said quietly. "Zoe's nine and Laura's six,"

            I remained stoic. I didn't want my brother knowing of my family.

            "Daniel," Legato's voice grew more venomous as he said the word. "Chapel found us before you did."

            I turned to see my own son standing behind me, loathing in his eyes when he saw me.

            "Did you find it?" Legato asked him impatiently.

            Daniel shook his head. "I was only able to be in the house for about five minutes. I'm sure he still has it, though,"

            Legato's eyes darkened a shade, then he turned back. "Dominique,"

            The woman appeared up next to him in an instant.

            "Would you be able to keep the eye active for as long as it takes to get in the house and find either gun?"

            "If I knew where it was," she said so quietly I thought I imagined it.

            "Chapel knows where it is," Legato said, staring at me. "He can show you,"

            He then turned to Daniel, murmuring quietly. I watched in horror as my son collapsed to the ground as though he were a rag doll.

            I suddenly wished I had my cross. To hell with not killing anyone.

            "What the hell did you do to him?!?" I snapped, turning on Legato.

            Legato ignored me and walked over to Daniel, picking up the limp body. "I have done nothing. Perhaps you'd like to speak to your brother or his woman about what happened to your son,"

            Midvally balked. "That was his son?"

            Dominique, however, looked on with the same calm demeanor she'd always possessed.

            Legato glanced at Midvally. "Subordinate, even if ties are as strong as blood, they are disregarded in this life. No longer is anything civilized. Now, only the strong will survive. This puppet was weak, the one who it was fashioned of weaker,"

            "He was an infant!" Midvally snapped.

Legato just cackled. "Wait until Master gets here. You will be punished for your impudence, subordinate. And if Master permits, I shall do it while he watches."

Turning to me, Midvally said. "Get out of here, Nicholas,"

            I obliged, running with all my might back to my house. The sun was slowly rising, and I was busy dead-bolting all the doors and locking the windows of the house.

            "Nicky-kun," Milly said, handing David off to me when she came into the living room. "Daniel's missing,"

            "I know," I murmured, my gaze falling out the window.

            What I'd seen that night, what I'd overheard, it was all making things complicated.

            I put David down on the couch where Milly was sitting. "Don't open the door for anyone!" I ordered her.

            I ran back upstairs for my cross, noticing Rebekah sitting on the bed. "What are you doing?"

            I glanced at her for a second and unlocked the trunk, removing my cross from it. I once again sealed it and looked back at my daughter. "Rebekah, this is not a time for questions. Be a good girl, and I'll be back as soon as I can,"

            I hurried back down the stairs. "Wait for me," I said sternly, passing Milly on the way out.

            Why was I getting a sense of déjà vu?

            I ran down the street to find Vash and found myself pounding on the door.

            "Cut it out," Vash hissed. "You know damn well I'm the only morning person in this house,"

            I ignored the comment. "They're alive. Legato, Dominique, Midvally, the lot of them,"

            Vash raised an eyebrow. "How much did you drink last night? I know you two had close to a full bottle of brandy,"

            "Tongari, I saw them," I said sharply. "They want your gun for some reason."

            "They're dead," he insisted. "I know this for a fact."

            I knocked him in the face with the side of my cross. "If they're so dead, how come even you admitted to hearing a saxophone being played in the middle of the night?"

            "Common instrument,"

            "But not with the skill Midvally has," I glared at Vash. "And while you're at it, you might want to check that your brother's still in the house,"

            Vash led me in. "Leave that thing here," he ordered, gesturing to the cross.

            "It stays with me,"

            His cold teal eyes bored into my own, but he didn't say a word. I followed him silently up the stairs and waited in the hallway as he retrieved his gun.

            "It's okay, Meryl-chan," he pleaded. I could hear his whining through the door. "Everything's fine,"

            "Then why are you carrying that thing?" she snapped.

            She is not a beast to be tamed in the morning.

            Vash let himself out of the room. "I suppose you'll want me to thank you for this,"

            "No, not really,"

            I nudged open the door to Knives's room.

            There was no sign of him at all in the room.

            "Believe me now?" I asked him, my voice edgy.

            "Stuff it, terrorist-priest,"

            I raised an eyebrow at him as we walked out of the house.

            "Okay, genius," Vash turned back to me, spinning his gun and placing it in the holster. "Which way?"

            The man in red had once again picked up his gun...whether or not he was going to use it was an entirely different story.

            I started following the path to the plant.

            "Oh, no," Vash said. "I am not letting you destroy it if you think Knives is in there,"

            "Never said I was,"

            Feels just like the old days. Except for both of us being ten, eleven years older.

            "Well, well, well," Legato greeted us about a hundred feet away. "Chapel's decided to rejoin us." He glanced at the man beside me. "And he's brought us Vash the Stampede as a present."

            THUD

            Vash the Stampede, the most wanted man on the planet, had fainted dead away beside me.

            Legato picked up the gun. "Or perhaps he just brought us Vash's gun, to relieve Dominique of the burden of finding it herself,"

            Right behind him, I saw Knives standing, arms crossed, a self-satisfied smirk crossing his face.

            He started to laugh maliciously.

            "The end, Chapel. Run back to your family, because this time, it's the end,"

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--Sunny