Millions of thanks to the people who have left such nice reviews ^_^ it's
kept me writing on this. And I still don't own Trigun. Sigh!
-*-*-*-*
The deep desert sand wasn't as easy to pilot as her usual trek, but somehow Meryl managed to continue her reckless speed. It was easy to follow the track of the vehicle that the culprits had taken off in. There was a niggling voice in the back of her mind saying that perhaps it was too easy, but she pointedly ignored it
Instead, she focused on the night.err, morning's events. She had acted so rashly. She had lost it, gotten angry.
It brought her back to that sandy desert, where she had faced an enraged man with a loaded gun. The man had the intention of killing the person dearest to Meryl, yet she had faced him with absolute calm, telling him it was time to end the cycle of hatred.
Meryl chuckled at the memory "So much for ending the cycle," she thought, becoming aware of the weapons lying innocently on the seat next to her. She shook her head. Since Vash had left, and never come back, she almost felt like she was losing herself in small pieces.
She decided, however, that now was not the time to worry about such things. Instead, her foot further depressed the pedal. She certainly wasn't gaining on the larger vehicle. It was built to cross sand like this, sailing across it with the grace of an eagle. Meryl, on the other hand, was getting knocked around like a pinball.
Meryl released the hot air pent up inside her with a long breath. She inhaled the air of the open desert, tilting her head back to the stars. Life was so strange. It was always full of twists and turns that would take you completely by surprise.
"You know," She asked the twinkling beings above her, "When I was young, I wished for adventure. I wished for a chance to get out there and do something."
She paused.
"And I got it, I suppose," she continued.
She paused again, before whispering: "But at what price?"
-*-*-*-*
After what seemed like years, Meryl came upon the city of December. She sighed with relief. The noonday sun seemed blistering, and her lips were dry and cracked from dehydration.
"I suppose," she mumbled, talking to herself once more, "That I should stop here for the night-um, day. I can't take on a greedy band of thugs when I'm this exhausted"
Making up her own mind, she carefully parked the car outside a friendly looking hotel, and hopped out. She walked inside.
"Good gracious young lady!" the man at the front cried, alarmed at Meryl's disheveled hair, cracked and bleeding lip, and skimpy nightclothes. "Were you robbed?"
"Wha-I-well, I mean, no, I wasn't. Could I get a room, please?" Meryl's cheeks flamed red, and her gaze took in the fine grain of the floor below her.
"Sure." the man replied suspiciously. He plucked a key from the pegboard behind him, handed it to her, and then turned back to his work.
For a moment or two, Meryl merely stood there stunned. Wasn't he going to charge her? Then she realized something: her nightclothes had no pockets. Meaning she had no money with her. Silently, and before the man could change her mind, she checked the number on her keys and hustled away.
She opened the door to a modest hotel room. It was nothing grand, but it wasn't shabby either. Not that she cared at that point. Suddenly the bed seemed like heaven to her. Before she knew it, her legs had carried her to it, and she fell upon its feather mattress, sinking in a good ways. She closed her eyes, promising herself that she was just going to rest there until she could get up again. Her exhausted body, however, thought differently.
-*-*-*-*
Gentle hands reached down and gently caressed the cheek of the sleeping form. Meryl sighed in her sleep, snuggled into a tighter ball. The figure leaning over her smiled and leaned down, pressing lips to her cheek for a brief, sweet kiss. Meryl smiled.
"Vash." she whispered, in the throes of a dream.
With a final touch, the figure slunk back out of her room, quietly closing the door behind her.
-*-*-*-*
Meryl woke with a start, frantically looking around the room. She didn't remember falling asleep. She growled at herself. How could she have been so careless? Who knew what those monsters were doing to Millie by now?
Through the haze of her still sleepy brain, a dream registered. Meryl's eyes widened. Vash had come to her. Had kissed her cheek. Now that she thought about it, her cheek tingled. Raising a hand, she touched it to her cheek; almost in question of whether it had been real or not.
But, of course it couldn't have been. Vash was gone, long gone. And he obviously had no intention of visiting, or even contacting her.
Vash just wasn't the type to want to settle down and love one person for the rest of his life.
Well, wait. That wasn't exactly true. There had been that woman named 'Rem'. Vash had loved her. A lot, from what she could guess. Perhaps her death had closed off his heart. Not that she blamed him for doing so. There were times she wanted to do the same, and she hadn't gone through a tenth of what Vash had. Thinking of all the pain he had gone through, she wanted to.
No. She would not get emotional now. Not when she had to go fight the bastards who had taken Millie. She prayed they hadn't hurt Millie. There would be hell to pay if they had.
A smile came to her face as a thought struck her. She wondered briefly what would become of her job at the Bernardeli Insurance Society. Perhaps they would fire her for her disappearance. Maybe they would think she was dead? Meryl was getting ahead of herself. All she had to do was face these thugs, beat the snot out of them, and get back home before the end of the day. She would just explain what had happened. The chief would believe her, wouldn't he?
Meryl glanced at the window, suddenly realizing that the light in the room wasn't coming from the sun, but rather a light she had apparently left on. It was nighttime. She had arrived here at noon, which meant that she had fallen asleep for several hours. She cursed herself, bolting upright, and headed for the door.
She stopped, however, when a change in the room suddenly came to her attention.
Turning, she moved over to the desk. There, wrapped in bright red paper, as if to catch her attention, was a box. Confused, she warily tore off the paper, and flipped open the lid.
There inside was a carefully folded outfit. Now even more confused, Meryl carefully lifted out the plain, in descript long sleeved red shirt, and comfortable tan pants.
A voice came back to her suddenly..
"Red, in the language of the flower, means determination and.courage."
Vash had told her that once.
Where had these clothes come from, though? She had never heard anyone come in. She was almost certain she would've heard it. She was such a light sleeper. Then again, she had been really exhausted.
It must've been that nice man who had given her the room, she thought. He had seemed so concerned when she had walked in with her dirty night rail on; perhaps he had decided to do her another favor. She silently thanked him.
She noticed, then, that there was one more item in the box. She gawked at it. Lying on the bottom, as innocently as a necklace from a lover, was a leather belt, with two pistol holsters attached, one for each side. She continued to stare, though her hands reached in and her fingers ran over the fine craftsmanship. The maker had even branded a winding ivy pattern, connecting the holsters.
Meryl glanced about suspiciously, almost suspecting some shadowy figure to be watching her from a dark corner. There was, of course, no one in the room but her.
Her gaze returned to the belt. How could anyone have known she needed it? She had never seen anyone around that she knew.
"I may as well use it" she said aloud, and realized something: she had left her guns in the car! She had been so preoccupied with resting; she hadn't even thought to bring them in with her. Not that it would've looked good if she had stridden into the hotel toting a pair of revolvers. But she could at least have hidden them beneath the seat. Instead, she had left them sitting in the most obvious place: on the passenger seat.
Changing quickly, she secured the belt around her slender waist, and ran out to her car, relieved to see both revolvers still in place where she had left them.
Every thought of the mysterious package was wiped from her mind then. Her soul concern was Millie's safety. She would worry about where the gift had come from later.
The hotel's staff, and management, was tucked away into their beds, so no one saw Meryl leave. No one, that is, except a pair of glowing blue eyes.
-*-*-*-*
Meryl was still 20 miles from her destination, but her heart was beating faster than it did when Vash was around. She mentally chided herself to be brave about it, to strive in with confidence, but the scared portion of her just wanted to hide in a corner and let fate take its course. She forced that part of her under the rug, though, and focused on what she was going to do when she got there.
There. She wasn't really sure what there was. She knew she was going 20 miles North of December, but she realized now that she hadn't asked her attacker just what she was looking for. A barn? A warehouse? Some little shack in the middle of nowhere? With Meryl's luck, she would bust in on some defenseless little farmer family and scare them senseless.
She had lost the tracks she had been following somewhere in December. Now she had only to go north, as the woman had said.
She must've been halfway there, she thought, roughly calculating the distance she had traveled so far. Her heart leapt up to safety in her throat. She swallowed several times. At least she was comfortable. The clothes that.whoever had bought for her, fit almost perfectly, though the shirt was a little big. She felt safe in them, strangely, but she didn't think about it. She was just glad to be out of her nightgown, which she had thrown carelessly into the backseat.
Mentally, she prepared herself for a fight. She would get Millie back, at any cost.
-*-*-*-*
Meryl knew instantly that she had found the right place. The whole place just reeked of evil. Meryl narrowed her eyes as she drove up the front path to the old ranch house, ignoring the fear bubbling up inside her. She noted that several of the rooms had lights shining from them. Good. That meant the bastards were home.
At the entranceway, she turned off the ignition, and hopped from the car. Considering the lack of any type of hills, or plants, there was no way she could have snuck up to the place, so she had decided to drive, and conserve a little bit more energy for the fight that was soon to be ahead. Besides, it was still dark
Meryl made her way up to the door, swallowing as if to extinguish her fear. Though she continually fought it away, it kept leaping at her, trying to pull her back to the safety of the city. But she knew she couldn't.
She considered knocking, then smirked at the irony in the thought. Instead, she simply tried the knob, and was amazed when it flew open at her touch. She hadn't turned it, merely placed a couple fingers on it.
Taking this to be a bad omen, she drew both revolvers from their holsters. It made her feel the slightest bit better, having them ready. Taking a deep breath, she stepped inside.
To her utter amazement, the inside was furnished extremely well, without a hint of dust. It took the image of the place she had envisioned (worn furniture, dirty floors, overall deserted look) and ripped it into shreds with sharp little teeth.
Also, there was no one there. Her heavy breaths seemed to fill the silence, so she tried to breathe silently. Nothing moved. Nothing made even a sound. She began to wonder if perhaps she had come to the wrong place. She hadn't seen any tracks leading in here; at least, none coming in from the front. She hoped that they had come in from some rear entrance, or else she was about to make a big mistake.
Suddenly, to her left, a door swung open of its own will. Out of reflex, one of her revolvers came up and pointed itself at the defenseless door. Cautiously, she moved over to it, peeking around to see behind it.
Nothing. An empty hallway stood before her. She began to breathe again, albeit it wasn't easy. She was growing more frightened by the minute.
She began to creep down the hallway, step after careful step, expecting some henchman to pop out from a side room and jump her at any moment. But nothing came, and the hallway stretched on.
After what seemed like an eternity, the hallway ended, and she found herself in a rather elegant, and rather large room. There was a large table set up in the middle of it. Two chairs were pulled up to it, both of which were filled.
Meryl gasped. Her eyes had gotten so large, she was afraid they would come out of her head. There before her sat her best friend, bound and seemingly lost to the world, and.and.
"No." Meryl whispered, "It can't be! It can't be you!"
The other figure took another scoop of his sundae, savoring the taste of the sweet concoction on his tongue, before swallowing.
"You know." his voice, always so mellow and calm and.creepy, said, "I believe that desserts were the only real accomplishment of the human race. They're a complete waste of time, otherwise"
Meryl stuttered, incoherent.
"Surprised?" he asked, his voice as level as always, "I figured you would be. Such a strange emotion it is. Well, I suppose you'll want to know why you're here. You humans are always so concerned with the details."
Seeming to have regained her senses, Meryl trained one of her revolvers on the spot between the man's eyes "It's impossible. I heard the bullet. I heard your death!"
"Ah, yes.death. Such a cunning word. You see... death is but a mortal conception. It's entirely conditional."
Meryl's lips were firmly set, to keep her knees from shaking.
Legato clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
"Dominique has grown sloppy. It was a mistake, bringing her back. Although I do commend her for leading you here, even if she failed to bring you back herself"
Dominique.
That must've been the woman that had threatened to kill her, Meryl thought. The one that led her here.
Suddenly, she knew where she had seen the woman before. She had seen her with Vash.
"You'll have to forgive me for dragging your friend" he nodded towards Millie, who was now staring intently at Meryl, worry obvious in her eyes "into this whole mess. But we knew that we wouldn't be able to bring you here without her running to some annoying 'official' from the nearest city. I do so detest having to waste my time on the vermin you call 'sheriffs'"
"What is it you want me for so badly?" Meryl asked slowly, her gaze on Millie.
"We need you to help us return the Master"
"What? Return the master? What the hell are you talking about?" she began to gauge the distance between where she stood, and Millie's location. Her gaze focused on the knot in the ropes.
"We need the Master back. He has commanded us to rescue him, and we intend to do just that. However, his captor isn't what you'd like to call 'reasonable', so we decided we needed some incentive on our side"
"The master.but wasn't.you don't mean Knives?"
"Who else? Our supreme being."
"Then that means he's not."
"Oh please, you expect the Master to fall so easily?"
".No, of course not"
Meryl had heard enough of this. It was time to go. Suddenly, and with surprising accuracy, Meryl repositioned her revolver and fired, effectively destroying the knot that held together the ropes around Millie. They fell away to form a heap in Millie's lap.
"RUN," Meryl screamed. Millie did just that. She bolted from the chair, causing it to tip over backwards, and ran for the door, Meryl fast on her heels.
They were stopped, however, when a tall figure came to stand in the doorway. Both women skidded to a stop, but still ran into each other, Millie in front of Meryl.
"Oh my god.it can't be" Millie's eyes were fast filling up with tears. Meryl peeked around her tall friend, and took in a sharp intake of breath at what she saw.
Millie threw herself at the figure, flinging her arms around broad shoulders.
"Wolfwood," Millie cried, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Wolfwood grinned.
Pulling a pistol from his pocket, he raised it up.
And pointed it squarely between Millie's eyes.
"Hello there," Wolfwood smirked.
-*-*-*-*
The deep desert sand wasn't as easy to pilot as her usual trek, but somehow Meryl managed to continue her reckless speed. It was easy to follow the track of the vehicle that the culprits had taken off in. There was a niggling voice in the back of her mind saying that perhaps it was too easy, but she pointedly ignored it
Instead, she focused on the night.err, morning's events. She had acted so rashly. She had lost it, gotten angry.
It brought her back to that sandy desert, where she had faced an enraged man with a loaded gun. The man had the intention of killing the person dearest to Meryl, yet she had faced him with absolute calm, telling him it was time to end the cycle of hatred.
Meryl chuckled at the memory "So much for ending the cycle," she thought, becoming aware of the weapons lying innocently on the seat next to her. She shook her head. Since Vash had left, and never come back, she almost felt like she was losing herself in small pieces.
She decided, however, that now was not the time to worry about such things. Instead, her foot further depressed the pedal. She certainly wasn't gaining on the larger vehicle. It was built to cross sand like this, sailing across it with the grace of an eagle. Meryl, on the other hand, was getting knocked around like a pinball.
Meryl released the hot air pent up inside her with a long breath. She inhaled the air of the open desert, tilting her head back to the stars. Life was so strange. It was always full of twists and turns that would take you completely by surprise.
"You know," She asked the twinkling beings above her, "When I was young, I wished for adventure. I wished for a chance to get out there and do something."
She paused.
"And I got it, I suppose," she continued.
She paused again, before whispering: "But at what price?"
-*-*-*-*
After what seemed like years, Meryl came upon the city of December. She sighed with relief. The noonday sun seemed blistering, and her lips were dry and cracked from dehydration.
"I suppose," she mumbled, talking to herself once more, "That I should stop here for the night-um, day. I can't take on a greedy band of thugs when I'm this exhausted"
Making up her own mind, she carefully parked the car outside a friendly looking hotel, and hopped out. She walked inside.
"Good gracious young lady!" the man at the front cried, alarmed at Meryl's disheveled hair, cracked and bleeding lip, and skimpy nightclothes. "Were you robbed?"
"Wha-I-well, I mean, no, I wasn't. Could I get a room, please?" Meryl's cheeks flamed red, and her gaze took in the fine grain of the floor below her.
"Sure." the man replied suspiciously. He plucked a key from the pegboard behind him, handed it to her, and then turned back to his work.
For a moment or two, Meryl merely stood there stunned. Wasn't he going to charge her? Then she realized something: her nightclothes had no pockets. Meaning she had no money with her. Silently, and before the man could change her mind, she checked the number on her keys and hustled away.
She opened the door to a modest hotel room. It was nothing grand, but it wasn't shabby either. Not that she cared at that point. Suddenly the bed seemed like heaven to her. Before she knew it, her legs had carried her to it, and she fell upon its feather mattress, sinking in a good ways. She closed her eyes, promising herself that she was just going to rest there until she could get up again. Her exhausted body, however, thought differently.
-*-*-*-*
Gentle hands reached down and gently caressed the cheek of the sleeping form. Meryl sighed in her sleep, snuggled into a tighter ball. The figure leaning over her smiled and leaned down, pressing lips to her cheek for a brief, sweet kiss. Meryl smiled.
"Vash." she whispered, in the throes of a dream.
With a final touch, the figure slunk back out of her room, quietly closing the door behind her.
-*-*-*-*
Meryl woke with a start, frantically looking around the room. She didn't remember falling asleep. She growled at herself. How could she have been so careless? Who knew what those monsters were doing to Millie by now?
Through the haze of her still sleepy brain, a dream registered. Meryl's eyes widened. Vash had come to her. Had kissed her cheek. Now that she thought about it, her cheek tingled. Raising a hand, she touched it to her cheek; almost in question of whether it had been real or not.
But, of course it couldn't have been. Vash was gone, long gone. And he obviously had no intention of visiting, or even contacting her.
Vash just wasn't the type to want to settle down and love one person for the rest of his life.
Well, wait. That wasn't exactly true. There had been that woman named 'Rem'. Vash had loved her. A lot, from what she could guess. Perhaps her death had closed off his heart. Not that she blamed him for doing so. There were times she wanted to do the same, and she hadn't gone through a tenth of what Vash had. Thinking of all the pain he had gone through, she wanted to.
No. She would not get emotional now. Not when she had to go fight the bastards who had taken Millie. She prayed they hadn't hurt Millie. There would be hell to pay if they had.
A smile came to her face as a thought struck her. She wondered briefly what would become of her job at the Bernardeli Insurance Society. Perhaps they would fire her for her disappearance. Maybe they would think she was dead? Meryl was getting ahead of herself. All she had to do was face these thugs, beat the snot out of them, and get back home before the end of the day. She would just explain what had happened. The chief would believe her, wouldn't he?
Meryl glanced at the window, suddenly realizing that the light in the room wasn't coming from the sun, but rather a light she had apparently left on. It was nighttime. She had arrived here at noon, which meant that she had fallen asleep for several hours. She cursed herself, bolting upright, and headed for the door.
She stopped, however, when a change in the room suddenly came to her attention.
Turning, she moved over to the desk. There, wrapped in bright red paper, as if to catch her attention, was a box. Confused, she warily tore off the paper, and flipped open the lid.
There inside was a carefully folded outfit. Now even more confused, Meryl carefully lifted out the plain, in descript long sleeved red shirt, and comfortable tan pants.
A voice came back to her suddenly..
"Red, in the language of the flower, means determination and.courage."
Vash had told her that once.
Where had these clothes come from, though? She had never heard anyone come in. She was almost certain she would've heard it. She was such a light sleeper. Then again, she had been really exhausted.
It must've been that nice man who had given her the room, she thought. He had seemed so concerned when she had walked in with her dirty night rail on; perhaps he had decided to do her another favor. She silently thanked him.
She noticed, then, that there was one more item in the box. She gawked at it. Lying on the bottom, as innocently as a necklace from a lover, was a leather belt, with two pistol holsters attached, one for each side. She continued to stare, though her hands reached in and her fingers ran over the fine craftsmanship. The maker had even branded a winding ivy pattern, connecting the holsters.
Meryl glanced about suspiciously, almost suspecting some shadowy figure to be watching her from a dark corner. There was, of course, no one in the room but her.
Her gaze returned to the belt. How could anyone have known she needed it? She had never seen anyone around that she knew.
"I may as well use it" she said aloud, and realized something: she had left her guns in the car! She had been so preoccupied with resting; she hadn't even thought to bring them in with her. Not that it would've looked good if she had stridden into the hotel toting a pair of revolvers. But she could at least have hidden them beneath the seat. Instead, she had left them sitting in the most obvious place: on the passenger seat.
Changing quickly, she secured the belt around her slender waist, and ran out to her car, relieved to see both revolvers still in place where she had left them.
Every thought of the mysterious package was wiped from her mind then. Her soul concern was Millie's safety. She would worry about where the gift had come from later.
The hotel's staff, and management, was tucked away into their beds, so no one saw Meryl leave. No one, that is, except a pair of glowing blue eyes.
-*-*-*-*
Meryl was still 20 miles from her destination, but her heart was beating faster than it did when Vash was around. She mentally chided herself to be brave about it, to strive in with confidence, but the scared portion of her just wanted to hide in a corner and let fate take its course. She forced that part of her under the rug, though, and focused on what she was going to do when she got there.
There. She wasn't really sure what there was. She knew she was going 20 miles North of December, but she realized now that she hadn't asked her attacker just what she was looking for. A barn? A warehouse? Some little shack in the middle of nowhere? With Meryl's luck, she would bust in on some defenseless little farmer family and scare them senseless.
She had lost the tracks she had been following somewhere in December. Now she had only to go north, as the woman had said.
She must've been halfway there, she thought, roughly calculating the distance she had traveled so far. Her heart leapt up to safety in her throat. She swallowed several times. At least she was comfortable. The clothes that.whoever had bought for her, fit almost perfectly, though the shirt was a little big. She felt safe in them, strangely, but she didn't think about it. She was just glad to be out of her nightgown, which she had thrown carelessly into the backseat.
Mentally, she prepared herself for a fight. She would get Millie back, at any cost.
-*-*-*-*
Meryl knew instantly that she had found the right place. The whole place just reeked of evil. Meryl narrowed her eyes as she drove up the front path to the old ranch house, ignoring the fear bubbling up inside her. She noted that several of the rooms had lights shining from them. Good. That meant the bastards were home.
At the entranceway, she turned off the ignition, and hopped from the car. Considering the lack of any type of hills, or plants, there was no way she could have snuck up to the place, so she had decided to drive, and conserve a little bit more energy for the fight that was soon to be ahead. Besides, it was still dark
Meryl made her way up to the door, swallowing as if to extinguish her fear. Though she continually fought it away, it kept leaping at her, trying to pull her back to the safety of the city. But she knew she couldn't.
She considered knocking, then smirked at the irony in the thought. Instead, she simply tried the knob, and was amazed when it flew open at her touch. She hadn't turned it, merely placed a couple fingers on it.
Taking this to be a bad omen, she drew both revolvers from their holsters. It made her feel the slightest bit better, having them ready. Taking a deep breath, she stepped inside.
To her utter amazement, the inside was furnished extremely well, without a hint of dust. It took the image of the place she had envisioned (worn furniture, dirty floors, overall deserted look) and ripped it into shreds with sharp little teeth.
Also, there was no one there. Her heavy breaths seemed to fill the silence, so she tried to breathe silently. Nothing moved. Nothing made even a sound. She began to wonder if perhaps she had come to the wrong place. She hadn't seen any tracks leading in here; at least, none coming in from the front. She hoped that they had come in from some rear entrance, or else she was about to make a big mistake.
Suddenly, to her left, a door swung open of its own will. Out of reflex, one of her revolvers came up and pointed itself at the defenseless door. Cautiously, she moved over to it, peeking around to see behind it.
Nothing. An empty hallway stood before her. She began to breathe again, albeit it wasn't easy. She was growing more frightened by the minute.
She began to creep down the hallway, step after careful step, expecting some henchman to pop out from a side room and jump her at any moment. But nothing came, and the hallway stretched on.
After what seemed like an eternity, the hallway ended, and she found herself in a rather elegant, and rather large room. There was a large table set up in the middle of it. Two chairs were pulled up to it, both of which were filled.
Meryl gasped. Her eyes had gotten so large, she was afraid they would come out of her head. There before her sat her best friend, bound and seemingly lost to the world, and.and.
"No." Meryl whispered, "It can't be! It can't be you!"
The other figure took another scoop of his sundae, savoring the taste of the sweet concoction on his tongue, before swallowing.
"You know." his voice, always so mellow and calm and.creepy, said, "I believe that desserts were the only real accomplishment of the human race. They're a complete waste of time, otherwise"
Meryl stuttered, incoherent.
"Surprised?" he asked, his voice as level as always, "I figured you would be. Such a strange emotion it is. Well, I suppose you'll want to know why you're here. You humans are always so concerned with the details."
Seeming to have regained her senses, Meryl trained one of her revolvers on the spot between the man's eyes "It's impossible. I heard the bullet. I heard your death!"
"Ah, yes.death. Such a cunning word. You see... death is but a mortal conception. It's entirely conditional."
Meryl's lips were firmly set, to keep her knees from shaking.
Legato clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
"Dominique has grown sloppy. It was a mistake, bringing her back. Although I do commend her for leading you here, even if she failed to bring you back herself"
Dominique.
That must've been the woman that had threatened to kill her, Meryl thought. The one that led her here.
Suddenly, she knew where she had seen the woman before. She had seen her with Vash.
"You'll have to forgive me for dragging your friend" he nodded towards Millie, who was now staring intently at Meryl, worry obvious in her eyes "into this whole mess. But we knew that we wouldn't be able to bring you here without her running to some annoying 'official' from the nearest city. I do so detest having to waste my time on the vermin you call 'sheriffs'"
"What is it you want me for so badly?" Meryl asked slowly, her gaze on Millie.
"We need you to help us return the Master"
"What? Return the master? What the hell are you talking about?" she began to gauge the distance between where she stood, and Millie's location. Her gaze focused on the knot in the ropes.
"We need the Master back. He has commanded us to rescue him, and we intend to do just that. However, his captor isn't what you'd like to call 'reasonable', so we decided we needed some incentive on our side"
"The master.but wasn't.you don't mean Knives?"
"Who else? Our supreme being."
"Then that means he's not."
"Oh please, you expect the Master to fall so easily?"
".No, of course not"
Meryl had heard enough of this. It was time to go. Suddenly, and with surprising accuracy, Meryl repositioned her revolver and fired, effectively destroying the knot that held together the ropes around Millie. They fell away to form a heap in Millie's lap.
"RUN," Meryl screamed. Millie did just that. She bolted from the chair, causing it to tip over backwards, and ran for the door, Meryl fast on her heels.
They were stopped, however, when a tall figure came to stand in the doorway. Both women skidded to a stop, but still ran into each other, Millie in front of Meryl.
"Oh my god.it can't be" Millie's eyes were fast filling up with tears. Meryl peeked around her tall friend, and took in a sharp intake of breath at what she saw.
Millie threw herself at the figure, flinging her arms around broad shoulders.
"Wolfwood," Millie cried, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Wolfwood grinned.
Pulling a pistol from his pocket, he raised it up.
And pointed it squarely between Millie's eyes.
"Hello there," Wolfwood smirked.