*sighs * I finally got to finishing this chapter!! I hope you all like this, its getting rather interesting if I say so myself. Well, typically I do not own the Trigun charas, only my own and LOOK! There's more of them! Lol Anyways...here's the next chapter! R&R!!

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Chapter 15: Myself

Vash's sleep was restless. He couldn't fall asleep without wondering about Devi and wondering about what happened to her in the past. Vash now knew something about Devi that no one else probably knows of, but still couldn't believe it. He only knew that Devi was the genetic experiment, 5201, that escaped months ago with a bounty larger than Vash's. After that, Devi couldn't go into detail.

'She was hurt just by telling me what she really was,' Vash thought as he lay on his back on the bed. 'But it left me with many questions: what is the purpose of the genetic experimentation? And what is she a hybrid of? That is, if she is a hybrid.'

Giving up when he saw that one of the two suns had rose into the sky, Vash got out of the bed and headed to the saloon. Passing Devi's room, Vash stopped after a few steps. He stood there a moment, debating on whether or not to see if Devi was awake, let alone there.

Sighing, Vash walked over to the door and knocked on it. He waited a moment before calling out Devi's name. Still getting no response, Vash carefully tried the doorknob, and surprisingly enough, it was unlocked. Being careful, Vash entered Devi's room. The room was strangely empty, only having Devi's belongings lying next to the bed.

'Something is definitely not right at all,' Vash thought as he walked through the rest of the room. There was no sound of running water or anything of the sort. The bed was also untouched.

'Did she stay out that long by herself and not come back?' Vash asked himself as he headed for the saloon and ordered his breakfast.

'Where did she go? And is she all right?'

*****

Her head was pounding with pain, but it was already subsiding, very slowly. Beneath her, Devi could feel a hard, cold surface and it didn't feel like she was wearing the same clothing last night. Devi shifted on the floor, eyes opening to show her a blurry ceiling.

Blinking, she thought to herself, 'Man, what happened last night? I hope that someone got the number of that vehicle that hit me...wait...what was I hit with?'

Sitting up, Devi looked down to see what exactly she was wearing and where exactly she was. She saw that she was wearing white pants that were loose and a white shirt. Devi instantly knew as she made the final confirmation by looking around the room she was sitting in at the moment.

'Shit, I got caught and I'm back at the facility. Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!!' Devi thought as she slammed her fist on the ground for the last part.

"Now, now," a voice said at the door, which was one of the scientists. "We don't want one of our own to get hurt before going back into experimentation."

Devi glared at the scientist behind the door. But instead of him going away like she was wishing, he came in. "But first, let me introduce a few friends of mine."

Confused beyond belief, Devi got up to follow the scientist. She could easily kill him, locate her things and escape, but there was something strange about the place. She sniffed the air carefully and confirmed that she wasn't in the same facility, but a different one, and that there was various mixture of scents, not human ones, but something like.....her. It was strange to Devi, she wasn't restrained or anything like that. Devi looked around, memorizing every last detail of the way she went, it would prove useful to her in the future.

The scientist opened a door and allowed Devi to enter. In the room, Dr. Lowcheski and Captain Exsony sat quite comfortably in their seats. They looked up at her and watched her walk over to the empty seat and sat down. Exsony actually looked quite uncomfortable seeing Devi there, unrestrained.

"Experiment 5201, Dr. Lowcheski." The scientist stated simply, indicating to Devi.

Dr. Lowcheski nodded. "I can take it from here, with the help of Captain Exsony."

Exsony nodded solemnly. "We'll take it back to our facility and get it out of your hands. Thank you for providing accommodations for it and us."

"That is no problem, as long as I do get some percentage of the thing's bounty."

It was Dr. Lowcheski's turn to nod. "Of course, not at all a problem. We'll be going now."

"Ok," the scientist led them out of the room and towards the garage area.

Now Devi was restrained. Exsony quite roughly put some handcuffs on her and half-chucked her into the back of their vehicle. Devi hit her shoulder hard on the floor and she gave a small yelp from it. She could barely hear the conversation between the doctor and the rough captain, but she didn't care. She'll escape again, and maybe this time kill whoever tries to stop her.

*****

Captain Exsony drove the vehicle while the pudgy doctor sat in the passenger seat. "Where are we heading to, Doctor?"

"To the Jenora Rock research facility, I have to check on my children there," Dr. Lowcheski explained.

"Yes, sir."

*****

After driving for endless hours, they finally pulled up the facility. Devi was fast asleep from the heat and was rudely awaken by Captain Exsony roughly grabbing her bare foot, hard.

"Get up, 5201."

Devi yawned and stretched, popping her spine a bit at the same time. She was rewarded with a hit in the ankle.

"Let's move it, thing!"

Carefully getting off the vehicle, Devi glared at Exsony after he turned around and head for the facility, which Lowcheski was already in the lead. The facility was located near a huge windmill that overlooked a town. Devi followed, hoping that someone would just shoot her and get it over with. She looked up at the facility she was going to enter. It was quite large, bigger than the facility she was at. It even looked nicer from the outside.

They entered the facility and were met up by a guard, who escorted them to their destination, wherever that was in this huge facility. It was clean and pristine, virtually spotless. 'Ok, this is getting too much like the facility I escaped from,' Devi thought to herself as they walked through the halls. She tried her best to remember how many turns they took. One left, straight, two rights and another left and finally into a huge laboratory, or was it two lefts, a right and a straight into a huge laboratory, she couldn't remember now that they've reached their destination.

"You better put that thing in a cell," the guard gruffly said, motioning to Devi.

Dr. Lowcheski nodded in agreement. Then Devi was roughly grabbed on the arm, uncuffed, then was practically thrown into the cell. Devi picked herself from the ground.

"So, where are my children," Dr. Lowcheski asked.

The guard responded, "They should be here soon, with your associate, Dr. Glasear."

"Ah, Dr. Glasear, I remember him well."

Then an old man entered the room, followed by about ten other people, all of which didn't seem quite human, especially the one that was crouched low to the ground and have a long, thin tail. Devi blinked at them. 'Are they just like me!? Wait, they couldn't be...could they?'

And she was right in a sense. These humanoids were wearing regular clothing, most of them consisting of jeans and shirt. Plus, it seemed as though they were being treated like...regular people. It was too strange to Devi to see this, considering on how she was always treated in the past. She didn't even get regular clothing like they do.

"Ah, Alex, Jason and the others, how are we doing today," Dr. Lowcheski asked as he was tackled hugged by a young girl who looked very rodent-like, right down the long thin, hairless tail.

"Lowie-sama," the rodent-girl screeched. "It's so good to see you!"

'Lowie-sama' rustled the girl's hair a moment. "Yes, it is good to see you too, Pixy."

Pixy giggled and clamored off of the doctor. Then a tall guy, who's hair is very short and matches the rest of his rather short fur, walked over to the doctors. 'Wait...FUR!?' Devi thought as she crawled over to the bars for a closer look at these new arrivals. 'Ok, they are definitely like me, but they aren't at the same time. Strange...' Devi noticed that the others had tails, cat-ears and short fur, but they all weren't the same, especially Pixy, the rodent-girl.

"Alex, how are the newest alterations going for you and the others," Dr. Lowcheski asked.

'Alterations,' Devi thought to herself, 'I wonder if they have to do with something with me? Right now, I'm not sure at all. I always thought I was the only one like this.'

"We're all holding up fine, a bit rough for the first day or so, but we got over it quickly," answered the sandy-blond, who's apparently Alex.

Then a female, who clearly was altered with feline genes, walked over to where Devi is caged up. She has long wavy hair that is a dark orange color and has black sploches. The hair is pulled back in a loose ponytail to reveal very-cat-like gold eyes and pointed cat-like ears. The woman's long tail twitched with slight annoyance as she sniffed the outside of Devi's cage. "Who is this...human?"

"Oh, she's not exactly human, Leola." Dr. Lowcheski corrected, "She's 5201, the first of your kind."

Leola, the cat-woman, stepped back. "How can she be it? She's not complete like us, except for the tail maybe, but she still looks too human."

Complete? That was different to Devi, how can she not be complete? She's able to run really fast, climb walls, and dodge bullets almost effortlessly. What did she have to do to be 'complete?' Devi looked at the others then got the idea. They aren't human at all, she was still partly human yet, but Devi knew she wasn't completely human at all. It was getting very strange to her.

Dr. Lowcheski leaned back in his chair. "That's because I haven't gotten the chance to do the final step, which is the other reason why we've come here. To finish off the first of the hybrids and show that Vash the Stampede he can be defeated."

Vash the Stampede. Devi almost forgot about him and the others. She brought a hand up to her lips, remembering the last thing that really happened prior to her leaving him behind. Devi knows she could never get in between Vash and Meryl. She knew Meryl loved Vash more than Devi could. Meryl would have actually killed her if she saw what happened between those two. She remembered clearly what Vash said to her, about never really feeling the way he felt towards her. And she also remembered the last thing she said to Vash.

' "I'm leaving in the morning, but right now, I just need to go for a walk for a bit."'

'Oh, Vash, I'm so sorry for not coming back,' Devi thought as she turned around and leaned against the bars. 'I hope you are doing alright.'