A/N: I'm glad so many people are interested in Cherub's origin. I'm not going to say one way or another whether anybody is right or not. Over the next three chapters all your questions will be answered…and I have a feeling that, no matter what type of theory you have of him, you'll still be surprised. ^_^

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Along Came A Spider

Chapter Five: THE FINAL GUNG-HO GUN

I sat in the kitchen of my prison. It was fairly large, with a round table surrounded by four chairs; a long countertop ran the length of one of the walls and at the end were pantries and cupboards filled with whatever it was that these people eat, which I figured consisted mainly of pudding, donuts, salmon, and coffee.

Vash, along with the two human women, were standing at the door being interrogated by the townspeople. Despite the fact that no one would tell me what was the problem (not that I gave a damn), it was apparent that the tolerance the humans in this little village had for Vash's presence was wearing thin, if it was not gone already. They were now ordering him to vacate their pitiful little town.

 There must have been something to trigger it, of course. Another catastrophe must have occurred and, naturally, my brother was the most obvious scapegoat. But what type of event could have occurred that would suddenly cause this change in the humans? It couldn't have been another town destroyed or massacred; I was here along with Vash, the only two beings capable of destruction on that scale, and Legato, along with the Gung-Ho Guns, were busy rotting.

Maybe there was another person or persons doing such things, but…

My eyes grew wide. Could it be? Could he have somehow escaped and is now… I shook the thoughts away. No, that idea was impossible. I couldn't jump to conclusions, especially ones so optimistic.

"But he hasn't left in weeks!" The black haired human pleaded to the mob outside the door, "there's no way he could possibly have done any of those things!"

"We're aware of that," the apparent leader of the mob said, "But we've been patient enough with him," he sent Vash a look that made my brother wince, "It's time that you and the rest left."

"But we have no where else to go…" the tall woman, on the verge of tears, spoke, "We've finally got a home and now you want us to leave?" From the look that was on her face, I almost had empathy for her. 'Almost' being the keyword.

The man seemed taken aback, but he quickly shook his head, "No, you're not going to guilt us into allowing you all to stay. We are forcing Vash the Stampede out. It's your choice whether you follow him or not."

The short woman opened her mouth to protest again, but Vash cut her off. "I'll leave," he spoke in a subdued tone, as if he desperately didn't want to leave, but knew staying was impossible.

After a few more minutes of speaking, the group of humans left Vash and the women to figure out what they were to do. They sat at the table with me, the tall one to my left and Vash to my right. The short one did her best to keep as much space between me and herself, which I felt quite proud of.

Vash's face appeared to be weighted down with depression, and the black-haired human noticed this. "I don't understand!" She yelled, trying to either distract Vash from his sorrow at once again being driven away from a town for something he had not done, or to enrage him so that the sadness would wear off. "They even admitted that Vash couldn't have done it!"

"Are you really that stupid?" I said to the woman in straight-forward tone. "Even though they know he could not have done it—whatever 'it' is—there's an obvious reason why they don't want him here."

The woman was shocked that I spoke to her, and she appeared equally angry that I had insulted her; she made no attempt, despite the fear she had of me, to hide her contempt. Maybe she's not a complete coward…these humans might deserve a little respect…but not much.

"These people do not want every bounty hunter three hundred iles from here blowing up this town in a poor attempt to get the bounty on Vash's head, along with any people that might have a personal connection to the deaths seeking vengeance or whatnot. Not to mention, they do not want to have to explain to the Feds why they're harboring Humanity's First Localized Disaster, or whatever the Hell they've been calling Vash nowadays."

From the humans' faces, I could tell that they agreed with me, despite how they felt. Vash stood from his seat, "I'm going to be going for a walk…" the short woman looked at him in shock, but he didn't react to it. "I'll be back in the morning."

"What the Hell do you mean, 'you'll be back in the morning'?!" the woman yelled. I was a bit surprised that she would speak to my brother this way, but, being the childish buffoon that Vash was, he smiled at her.

"I need to get a few things that I left laying around in the desert…I'll be here in the morning." Before the human could protest again, Vash slipped out the door. I couldn't guess what was so important for Vash to suddenly get the urge to search for, but it was probably of no matter to me.

After taking a few moments to scowl at the two humans, I left for my room. Vash was getting too trusting of me; I could have killed both of those humans by now. Or, did he somehow know that I would not do anything because I was waiting for the perfect moment to escape? It would have taken thinking too deep for Vash's mind to come to that conclusion... but, then again, he has surprised me before. Thoughts of our last fight flashed in my head as an example.

Sliding into my bed, I quickly fell asleep. Maybe in the morning, when Vash had returned and he, along with the humans, dragged me to wherever it was they were taking me, some light may be shed on what events had caused the sudden change in the villagers.

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The next morning, I had found myself sitting in the run-down jeep that was, according to the short human, a good investment. I myself thought that it was worthy of a trash compactor, but humans have no standards.

Vash had returned before the humans or I awoke. Whatever it was that he had searched for and found was now safely hidden in the trunk of the car; shortly after which the black-haired woman had discovered that the trunk was stuck and would not open. Vash had acted as though there was nothing more to it than it appeared, but from the way he acted (and from his poor skills as a liar) I knew that he done it; there was no doubt he had done it so that I couldn't get to whatever now rested in the trunk.

So far throughout my ordeal, I had been patient. I hadn't killed either of the humans. This was because I did not want to anger Vash quite yet, and because, even though they were humans, I did owe the large one a bit for the help she gave me in my healing process. Help which, according to Vash, she gave willingly. In fact, he said that she protested when Vash offered to do it instead.

As for the little one…despite the fact that her fear was amusing and the fact that she despised me, the way she worked and stuck to her goals (I gathered this from the fact that her typewriter had kept me awake late into the night) was a quality that few humans, including the Gung-Ho Guns, had and deserved at least a little respect, even from me. Also, the way Vash looked at her…he had always looked at all humans in a close-friend type of way, but when he looked at her, his face was completely different; it resembled the sense of ease and happiness that I had not seen in him since the death of Rem. I didn't know what I should make of that or what reaction I should have, but I thought it best to leave it alone at that time.

Despite all that, my seemingly endless supply of patience was wearing thin. Since the trunk, whether by mistake or on purpose, was sealed closed, Vash had tossed all the other luggage into the backseat…which was where I sat and, to put it simply, there was a LOT of luggage.

I squirmed in the small space allotted to me, pushing aside a suitcase to make more room for my leg that had fallen asleep. The two humans sat in the front, the black-haired one drove while the tall one sat in front of me in the passenger seat. Vash sat in the back with me. I sent a glare at him, but he smiled at me. "What is the matter, Knives?" Vash's voice echoed in my head.

"You know damned well what the matter is!" I shot into his mind. "Why do you want to be with these humans if it's so much trouble?"

"Oh…they're not that much trouble…trust me, it's worth it." His smile grew as he sent the words into my head. "Besides…we've been through a lot. Meryl is much nicer than you'd think and Millie is…" his face contorted as he tried to think of the proper wording, "…alone, now."

"What do you mean, 'alone'? She has that tiny spider friend of hers and she has already told me of her disturbingly large family during that game of chess she dragged me into," I ignored Vash's amusing laughter at the thought of me being beaten in a game of wits by a spider as seemingly simple-minded as she. "How is it possible, much less important, for her to be 'alone'?" What Vash was trying to explain to me didn't make any sense.

"You…wouldn't understand. It's a different type of loneliness." Vash's face visibly saddened. What in the world is he trying to explain to me? I looked at the tall girl's happy expression in the window. I wasn't a master of analyzing human expressions, but I was fairly sure that the huge, amused grin on her face wasn't a sign of loneliness.

 I decided to move on, "And as for the black-haired one? Of what importance is she to you?"

After a few seconds of thought Vash shook his head, "Again, Knives, you wouldn't understand. You need to have a certain something to understand why I am doing this."

"And that is?"

"…You need to have experience about how compassionate humans are."

My mouth dropped open and I stared at Vash. I wasn't sure if my face was filled with more shock or more anger. "How can you say that? I have lived for 130 years and I have yet to see a single example of compassion, love, generosity or even kindness in the human race."

My brother let out a visible sigh, "You say that you've lived for 130 years, but you haven't 'lived' a day of your life." Before I could comment on this, Vash noticed that the short human was staring at us in the rear-view mirror. To her, it must have seemed that we had been staring at each other for the past few minutes, only to make a strange expression on our faces every few moments. "Oh, um…" Vash made one of his idiotic smiles sprout over his face, "So, Meryl, are we going?"

The short woman nodded and her expression changed to something of understanding. Did she know what Vash and I had been doing just then? If she did, then that meant Vash had told her more about us than I originally thought…

The woman started the vehicle and soon we were on our way out of the town. Vash had told me where we were first heading towards. The name of the city surprised me as it, as far as I knew or was concerned, had no importance any of us.

We were going to Jeneorarock.

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As I limped into the city of Jeneorarock with Vash and the spiders before me, I felt as if a strange presence had been here…something that lurked at the edge of my consciousness. I felt as if I should have been able to recognize it immediately, buy yet, I had no clue as to what it was.

I, along with the humans, followed my brother into the city. He seemed to be looking for something, but I couldn't understand what could be important in this empty city.

Wait, empty city? Jeneorarock was one of the most populated cities in this region. Although it was small compared to Inepril or May, it should still be bustling with activity. I should have seen at least one native spider already. "Where are they, Vash?' I yelled out over the humans to my brother.

Vash stopped and turned to me. The humans also stopped and I followed suit, albeit a little sooner so that the space between me and the humans was at a maximum so that I did not have to get closer to them than need be. "They're all dead," I could hear a tone of sadness in his voice.

I snorted, "Dead? And how exactly did a settlement this large get exterminated? It would take at least a hundred heavily armed humans—" the tall woman looked at me confused. She must have been wondering why I used the word 'human'; she still did not know that I was not of her kind, "—to do something on this scale."

"There are some beings able to do things like this by themselves," Even from the distance that separated us, I could tell that Vash was staring into my eyes, searching for truth, "the Gung-Ho Guns for example."

"You know as well as I do that they are all dead." It was a half-truth, but I did not want to get into the subject any deeper. My brother let out a sigh and he turned from me, continuing his search through the city, undoubtedly looking for evidence of whomever killed these spiders. Good riddance, I thought to myself as I followed him. Vash led the humans and I to the center of town, towards the gigantic mound of stone that rose into the air.

Vash came to a sudden stop and he stared at the smooth wall of stone before him. The humans stared at the wall in shock, the black-haired one visibly gasped and covered her mouth. The other one stood in confusion at the wall. Despite the fact that I was curious as to what Vash had found, I did not increase my speed. I didn't want to show my brother or the humans my interest.

As I neared them, I could tell that the were looking at some sort of graffiti drawn on the stone, but it was not until the word came into focus that I understood. The sight caused me to go into a fit of laughter, for I had learned the identity of the killer, why they did this, and what that odd sensation that had been bugging me up to then was.

There before me, on the wall written in the blood of a human, was one word, and one word only.

'Knives'.

At the sight of my name written in the crimson liquid was what had shocked the other three into silence. But, for me, it was as if I had been given a gift, for I now knew that I had an ace up my sleeve, one that might very well help me in the extermination of the humans.

"Wha…" Vash tried to say, but he gagged on tears, "Why is this here!?" His mixture of anger and fear poured off of him like steam as he shoved his quivering finger into the direction of the graffiti. "WHY IS YOUR NAME HERE?!"

"My final demon has managed to escape into the world," I spoke with a tone of elation, "and he is now searching for me, all the while carrying out his master's work!" I let out another laugh.

Anger was the only emotion I could see in my brother's eyes. "You said…you told me that the Gung-Ho Guns were done with! They're all dead, along with your second-hand man! Who is doing this?" Vash spoke into my mind, obviously still unwilling, for whatever reason, to allow the tall human to know that I am the master of the Gung-Ho Guns.

I let out another laugh. "You really think that Legato Bluesummers was my second-in-command?" I said into his consciousness. "Ha! He was just another minor pawn just as the others were!"

Vash seemed taken aback, although it could also have been fear that made him stumble for his words, "Y-you mean…there is someone else out there…still loyal to you…that is stronger than Legato?"

I laughed with both my real voice, and my mind, "He is infinitely stronger than that human!" As I turned to stare out towards the desert, I spoke with my true voice, "Out there…out there, wandering the desert is the final demon, the true Leader of the Gung-Ho Guns!"

Even I could not explain the joy I felt at knowing that I had one last weapon in this world to use, and not only that, but the most powerful one of all! He had somehow escaped from the sleep-like state that I had put him in for safe keeping, and now he, at that moment, was searching for me.

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Knives and Vash had fallen asleep during the last few hours of their trip to Inepril City. While Knives slept soundly, his brother's snoring was getting on Meryl's nerves. She gritted her teeth together in an attempt to ignore the noise.

They, minus Knives, had decided that going to Inepril was the best course of action for two reasons. First, after Vash had privately explained to Meryl that it was a Gung-Ho Gun causing the damage, she agreed, albeit unenthusiastically, that it was their duty to stop him and to do that they had to find as much information about the murderer.

Secondly, due to the large amount of wanted posters with Vash the Stampede's face on them, he could no longer travel freely. The only place that he may be welcomed and protected would be in Inepril, the city that he, on two occasions, had risked his life to save.

"Meryl?" Millie asked quietly. The shorter insurance girl was surprised that Millie had not fallen asleep by then. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Millie," Meryl was glad that Millie was in a talkative mood now; it would help keep her awake.

"Um…back in Jeneorarock," As Millie said this, Meryl felt a rock form in her stomach for she had an idea as to what the other woman was going to ask about. "Why was Mr. Knives's name on that wall? How could the person doing all this stuff know him? Why did he keep talking about 'his demon'?"

As she bit her lip, Meryl tried to come up with an answer to explain it to Millie, without actually explaining everything. Instead, she tried to change the subject, "That's not a question, Millie. That was three!"

"Please tell me, Meryl…I want to know…" her eyes were sad and she didn't understand what was happening. Meryl felt bad about not being able to tell her, but she and Vash decided it was best if Millie didn't know about Knives's past.

"Please!" Meryl said sharply, but she softened her tone, "please Millie …understand. There are some things you shouldn't know about."

"If you say so, Meryl," Millie said unconvincingly. Meryl could easily tell that would not be enough of an explanation for Millie, but she couldn't tell her friend anything more in fear of her reaction in learning of Knives's connection to the death of Nicholas D. Wolfwood.

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"We don't have any idea what could have happened to the plant to cause the problem," Elizabeth explained to Vash as they walked through the plant, heading towards the room below the infected plant; the very same room that Elizabeth had tried to kill him in.

Vash and the others had gotten into Inepril the night before and were shocked at what they saw. They had expected the city to be on hard times again, but what they saw made the first problem the city had with the plants seem like a minor annoyance. A portion of the city was covered with sand; at least a hundred people capable of paying their way out of the city had done so and the others, stuck in the town for lack of money, were bitter and fought over what food and water any of the shops had. In turn, the shops raised their prices due to lack of products.

He didn't know why, but Vash believed that whoever had done this had done it not to kill the population like the murderer had in Jeneorarock. He believed that this person, being Knives's minion and Gung-Ho Gun, somehow twisted the plant's mind so that it would attack it's brothers and sisters for one purpose: to make Vash the Stampede's one safe refuge, Inepril, a Hell for him.

Everywhere he looked, Vash felt the touch of his brother's hatred of the humans; the starvation, the dehydration, the hate the humans now suffered through was a direct cause of Knives and his urge to exterminate humanity. Vash would almost call it an 'insatiable' urge, but he hoped that was not the case. Deep down, he thought—he knew that Knives could change.

At the moment, though, Knives was not to be trusted, not even by his own twin. Vash left him back with the girls; he knew that if Knives tried anything, the two women could handle him by themselves. Of course, that's only because Knives was unarmed at the time.

Elizabeth continued explaining the situation to Vash. "Along with the problem with the plant, the owner of nearby gunshop was killed and a large number of his weapons were stolen." This didn't entirely surprise Vash; if it was a Gung-Ho Gun, then it's no shock that the killer would steal weapons. She continued, "We doubt the plant and the thievery have anything in connection with one another, but it strange for two things like that to happen."

At first, the Stampede had been surprised to see the woman's change in clothing, but he realized that it was all because of the fact that she came to terms with herself after the incident involving the two of them. Ever since the woman lost her parents in July, she had a feeling of weakness and insecurity, so she used her body to as a means of earning respect—shallow respect, but respect nonetheless.

Then, when she had given up her hate of Vash, she came to terms with her other problems, and realized she didn't need cleavage to gain false respect; she now had reverence for herself. Vash was happy for her, of course, but…he still felt a bit disappointed about not seeing her in her old dress.

"The strangest thing we found, though," she said as they neared the door to the room, "was this." The engineer typed in the code to unlock the door and it shot open. Across the room, painted in a red liquid on the wall was one word. A word that sent horrible nightmarish memories shoot through the pacifistic gunman's head.

Augusta.

"We don't have a clue why whoever it was that did this put 'Augusta'," Elizabeth noticed that Vash's eyes showed a tiny bit of the guilt he felt for the destruction of the city as she said its name, "We also learned that it was written in blood."

Vash stood there for many minutes, staring at the name of the city—the second city he ever destroyed—before he responded, "I don't think there's anything I can do here…"

"But…you helped with the plant before, surely there's something…" Elizabeth trailed off.

The man shook his head, "No…not now, at least. I have no idea what the plant's problem is…and there is also someplace I now have to go to soon."

The woman let a sigh. She had known from the beginning that even Vash the Stampede wouldn't be able to perform another miracle. "Well…you, better be going now, it's late. I'm sure Meryl and the other two will be wondering what's taking you so long."

He stared at the woman with eyes filled with sadness, guilt, and pain. "I'm…I'm very sorry that I couldn't do anything. I want to help Inepril, but…"

"Oh, it's okay…that's what we engineers are here for, right?" she let out a short fake laugh. "Now, get going and leave me alone. You should leave me before she starts to get suspicious and jealous."

This confused Vash. "Before who gets jealous?" Elizabeth laughed, a genuine laugh this time, but she did not answer him. Soon, Vash was gone and he was headed back to the hotel that he and the others were staying at.

A Gung-Ho Gun…Vash thought to himself, I don't need this…after I beat Knives, I had hoped that I could toss away my guns and my coat to live a better, simpler life. I don't want to have to fight another over-powered madman…I just want a happy, simple life…but, that is not possible for me. It's not possible for Vash the Stampede…

In the back of his mind, Vash heard a frightening and sickeningly familiar voice speak to him; a voice that mocked him and laughed at him, and yet was a scream of hate in all the same simple monotone voice; a voice that explained Vash's continuing problems.

"You will experience eternal pain and suffering…"

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A/N: Vash never gets a break…but then again, if he did there wouldn't be too much conflict. So, what did Vash leave to find? Why is 'Augusta' written in that room? How is Cherub stronger than Legato, who of which was supposed to be the strongest of the Gung-Ho Guns? Well, you'll find out in the next chapter…well, okay, if it goes as planned, it'll be in the chapter after that, but still.

Well, forget my rambling, it's time for you to review!

-waits patiently for reviews-