"Rem, Rem, wake up. We're here," Duke said as he slowed down his car, driving with his left arm and shaking the sleeping woman with his right.
"Already?" Rem said sleepily as she rubbed her eyes.
"Yeah look," Duke replied.
"Wow, it's big," Rem said as she looked out the window.
"So I guess I'll have to drop you off here. I have to get going. I have a tight schedule to keep you know," Duke said and stopped the car.
"Yeah, I understand. Thank you so much, Duke," Rem said as she took off her seat belt and got out of the car.
"Good luck, Rem. I hope you find your friend and we meet again," Duke said as he started the car. His window open to keep air flowing in the hot car.
"Hey, Duke!" Rem yelled as the car began to turn around.
"Yes?" Duke asked and stopped the car.
"I'm glad your helping out the town like that. Bringing them food. I mean, I think it is really great and I wish everyone was as nice as you," Rem said and blushed a little.
"Oh yeah, well I was driving past there and saw all those kids and I just had to stop," Duke replied.
"Yeah well, I just wish more people would help those people," Rem replied.
"I know, if the people on this dusty planet would stop drinking and killing others and just help this life would be much more enjoyable."
"I agree, no one has the right to take the life of another," Rem replied with a smile. she hadn't said those words in along time. She could see Vash's smiling laughing face.
"I wish more people would say things like that," Duke said, "Well I better get going. Bye, take care."
"You too," Rem said as the car began to drive away. Well, I guess I had better start searching for Vash, Rem thought and began to walk into the town. This place is so big how can I possibly find him?
"Ahhhhh! Run away! It's Vash the Stampede! He's attacking the town!" a man yelled as he and many others ran past Rem.
"What? Vash is attacking people?" Rem said aloud. I must stop him. I won't let him hurt anyone else. "Hey, where is he? Where is Vash?" Rem yelled at a man who was running away.
"He's back there," he said pointing in the direction everyone was running from, "But don't go back there. He's got two people hostage and he wants five million double dollars or they die."
Oh Vash how could you? Rem thought to herself as she ran to where the man said he was. Huh? she said stopping suddenly and stared, But…. But that's not Vash. That doesn't look anything like him. How can this be the bartender said Vash the Stampede had blonde hair and an Angel Arm but this guy… no way this can't be right.
"I'm Vash the Stampede, now give me all the money or these people die!" a tall man with red hair that went down to his shoulders said. He was holding his gun to one of the hostages' heads. The hostages were both tied with their hands behind their backs and their legs tied together so they couldn't get up or run.
"My mommy!" a little boy yelled and ran to his mother who was one of the hostages.
"Hey, you little brat!" the man claiming to be Vash yelled and grabbed the boy's arm before he could reach his mother.
"Mommy!" the boy yelled again.
"You know what? I'm going to make an example out of this little brat. I'm gonna show you just what happens when you don't do what I say," the man said and pointed his gun at the boy's head. The boy tried to run but the man held the boy's arm firmly.
"No please, you can't!" the boy's mother yelled as horrified tears began flowing down her face. She would have jumped in front of her son if needed. But her legs and arms were tied so there was nothing she could do except watch.
"I can do whatever I want, Lady. And you should have thought your brat here to behave and not interfere with other people's business."
"He's only a boy, please don't kill him!" the other hostage yelled.
"He's gonna die. It's his own fault. I am Vash the Stampede. No one can beat me!" the man said with a laugh as a click was heard telling everyone that the gun was ready to fire.
"Hey don't you dare shoot him!" a man in a suit with a huge cross yelled from across the street. He'd been watching and wouldn't have gotten involved if the hostages lives weren't in danger, but now he could see that the boy's was.
"Who the heck are you?" the man with red hair yelled back. He was getting very angry that everyone kept interrupting him.
"Who cares who I am? It's not important. What is important is that you let him go!"
"I am Vash the Stampede! I can do whatever I want and there is no way I'm listing to a guy like you!" the man yelled again.
"What if I said that I don't believe you're Vash the Stampede?" another man said. He walked up behind the man with the big cross. He had spiky blonde hair and wore a red coat.
"What? How dare you! I'll shoot you dead right now, but first I have to blow this kids brains out."
"No, you won't," the man with the big cross said. He pulled the strap closest to his finger off. That caused all the other straps to release and the white cloth covering the cloth to come off and fall to the ground, revealing what the cross really looked like.
"What the heck is that thing?" the man asked as he stared at the man in black.
"It's the newest style in weaponry," the man said with a smile and pointed the huge cross-gun at the red haired man.
"Easy, Wolfwood. Don't shoot him yet," the man with blonde hair said.
"But, Vash, he's gonna kill that kid," Wolfwood replied.
What did he say? Vash? Rem wondered as she stared at the two men, He does look like Vash, could it really be him?
"What did you call that blonde guy Vash? He isn't Vash, I am!" the man with red hair yelled angrily.
"Oh, shut up!" Wolfwood hollered to the man.
"Tell me Mr. Vash the Stampede," Vash said to the red haired man, "If you really are Vash the Stampede then let me see you blow up this town."
"What are you crazy!"
"You'll kill us all!" the towns' people yelled at Vash.
"What? Do you want to die Blondie?" the red haired man yelled.
"Yeah sure, so let's see it!" Vash hollered back.
"I'm tired of this, this kid is dying now!" the red haired man yelled and turned his attention back to the boy.
"Mommy, help me!" the little boy cried and struggled to get away, but the imposter held him still.
"Please, don't hurt him!" the mother yelled trying to get to her boy.
"Sit still or you're next," one of the henchmen said as hestared at the woman with angry eyes.
"No!" the mother screamed as tears began to run down her face.
"No, don't shoot him!" Rem yelled as she confronted the red haired man, "Please don't shoot him."
"Rem?" Vash said quietly his eyes began big with disbelief.
"Don't shoot him. No one has the right to kill another person," Rem said as she slowly walked toward the man and boy. Much like she had done to Rowan when he tried to shoot Knives back on Project SEEDS.
"Get out of here, Lady. Unless you want to die!" the red haired man yelled at Rem.
"You can't kill him," Rem said and continued to move forward.
"Beat it, Lady!" he yelled again and pulled the gun away from the boy's head and pointed straight between Rem's calming peaceful brown eyes.
"If you don't get out of here I'm gonna shoot!" he yelled again his hand was shaking, almost as if he was afraid to shoot. He was confident before, but now when it really was about to happen he got nervous. "Alright, Bitch, now you die!"
"Rem!" Vash yelled and pulled out his silver pistol and shot.
"He got him!" one of the men who lived in the town yelled.
"He hit him in the shoulder. It's not too serious," one of the doctors that was standing nearby said as some policeman ran to them.
"You did it, Needle Noggin!" Wolfwood said with a smile as he put the cloth and strips back on his cross. "You really are too soft."
"Rem," Vash said approaching the black haired woman. "Rem, is it really you?" Vash asked. His light green eyes as small as the specks of sand they stood on. He couldn't believe who was standing in front of him.
"Yep, it's me," Rem replied with a smile.
"Mommy!" the little boy yelled and ran to his mother.
"Thank you both so much for saving my boy," the woman said to them as she hugged her boy tight.
"You're welcome," Rem replied. "What's wrong? Vash?" Rem asked, but all he did was stare at her. "Vash?" she asked again.
"I… I thought you were dead," he said quietly, "I can't believe it's really you, Rem," he said and hugged her tight.
"Hey, what's going on here?" a short woman with short black hair dressed in a white outfit asked.
"Millie, Meryl, what are you doing here?" Wolfwood asked as he walked toward them.
"What do you think?" Meryl replied.
"We are doing our job. We heard Mr. Vash was causing lots of trouble over here," Millie a tall girl with long blondish brown hair replied.
"Well, Vash wasn't doing any of it. It was another imposter," Wolfwood told them.
"Really? Well that's good," Millie replied with a smile. "I'd hate it if Mr. Vash did something wrong. He seems like to nice a person."
"Who is that?" Meryl asked pointing at Rem.
"I dunno. Vash just ran up and started hugging her," Wolfwood replied.
"I missed you to, Vash," Rem said as he hugged her.
"I just can't believe it's you," Vash replied as a few stray tears fell down his face. She felt and smelled just as she had back then. The only difference was she was shorted then he was now. Once he regained himself and convinced himself she was in fact Rem and was really in front of him he let her go.
"And I can't believe how many people have told me that you are a killer. Why are you killing people, Vash? You know it's wrong," Rem said with a confused, angry, and disappointed look on her face. It blew her mind away that Vash didn't seem to be all that different, personality wise, and he still killed people.
"You don't understand, Rem. I never did anything. Bad things just happen to me and I'm the one who gets blamed for them," Vash replied as he stared down at Rem. The mixed emotions of everlasting love and disappointment on her face broke Vash's heart.
"It's true," Wolfwood said, "He hasn't done anything wrong. All he's guilty of is saving a bunch of people."
"Yeah, Mr. Vash is a really great guy," Millie added with her usual smile.
"Why did you blow up Augusta and July? Only you could have done that," Rem said a little angry that Vash had destroyed two cities, but at the same time believed that he wasn't a bad guy.
"It wasn't my fault. It was Knives," Vash wined.
"Oh my God, I forgot about Knives! We have to find him!" Rem said and turned to leave even though she had no idea where she was going.
"No!" Vash replied suddenly. He remembered how happy Knives was when Rem was supposed to have died. He knew if Knives saw her now he wouldn't hesitate to kill her.
"But why?" Rem asked confused.
"Because he is evil. He is the reason those cities were destroyed and all those people were killed."
"What?" Rem asked not believing her ears.
"Yeah, it's his fault all this has been happening to Vash," Wolfwood said as he smoked a cigarette.
"No," Rem said quietly trying her best to hold back her tears. "Why? Why would he do this?"
"I dunno, but he… it's his fault our space ship crashed. He reset the coordinates," Vash told her.
"But why?" Rem asked as tears begun to slide down her cheeks. She was so confused. She had no idea why Knives would do such a thing. She blamed herself for it. She felt if Knives did it then it had to have been because of something she had taught to him all those years ago; where else would he have gotten an idea to do it?
"I'm not sure," Vash replied. "Listen you can't stay with me. It's too dangerous," Vash replied. He couldn't look at Rem anymore. He stared at the sand on the horizon. He wanted Rem to stay with him more then anything, but he knew it would be better for her if she stayed away from him. He didn't want to see the look on her face when she found out he had to leave her behind.
"But I want to," Rem replied.
"You can't, too many people want to kill me and I don't want you in the middle of it," Vash replied sadly.
"But, I came here to see you. I don't want to leave."
"It's ok, Wolfwood has a church you can stay at. I'll come and get you when they aren't after me anymore. Don't worry it will be ok," Vash told her.
"No, I don't care if I die! I didn't come all this way to go live in a church! I came to find you!" Rem said still crying.
"Don't worry, Rem. It's not that bad of a place and I'm sure things will be peaceful again soon," Wolfwood said trying to comfort her.
"But…." Rem started.
"Please Rem, I couldn't live with myself if I lost you again…. I love you Rem," Vash said.
"Don't worry, Millie and Meryl can take you there. You won't go by yourself," Wolfwood said as he stared at the dark haired woman.
"What? Hey, what the heck do you think you're doing? We have a job to do you know and we can't do it if we're at Wolfwood's church," Meryl said angrily.
"Come on, Meryl. Rem's life is more important than some dumb job," Millie said.
"Hello, Vash the Stampede," they heard a voice say.
"What is that?" Rem asked looking around.
"It's Legato!" Wolfwood said.
"I see Rem Saverem has returned. Well, we'll have to make her disappear again won't we, Vash?" they heard Legato again.
"Millie, Meryl, take Rem to the church now!" Vash yelled as he and Wolfwood got ready for the upcoming battle.
"But Vash, I want to stay with you!" Rem said as Millie threw her over her shoulder and began to run.
"Get out of here now!" Wolfwood yelled to the girls.
"Come on Meryl, we have to go now!" Millie yelled as she continued to run.
"Right," Meryl replied and followed Millie.
"Rem Saverem I see you," Legato said with an evil laugh.
"No Vash, I want to stay, I want to stay!" Rem yelled at Millie.
"I'm sorry Rem, but you can't," Millie replied as she ran.
"You can't get away, Rem. Not this time," they heard Knives say.
"Knives!" Vash yelled, "Knives, leave Rem alone. If you want someone to fight, fight me!"
"Where are they?" Wolfwood yelled as he and Vash desperately looked for their enemies.
"I dunno, I dunno!" Vash yelled back.
"I'm gonna get you Rem, just like the spider gets the fly," Knives said with an evil laugh.
"Vash, no!" Rem screamed as Millie carried her away.
"Don't let them get her you two!" Wolfwood yelled at Millie and Meryl.
"Don't worry we won't!" Meryl yelled back and disappeared behind a building.
"Can't we stop, please? I can't run anymore," Meryl said as they ran out of the city.
"No, we have to get to the church. If they said to go there then it must be safe there," Millie replied as they ran, "There should be a place coming up soon where we can get some animals to ride to December the church is 300 iles away from December."
"Oh, Vash, Knives…. Why? Why is this all happening?" Rem said quietly as she saw the town get smaller and smaller.