Disclaimer: …The letter 3. ^_^ Three can be a letter in my world. Where I don't own Trigun. Sadly.

A/N: Yes, I am well aware that my updates are becoming few and far between. I have a statement in my defense…well, two actually. I've been sick with some sort of unknown thing (Oh yes, please let it be fatal grin), and school. Aside from everything else, yeah, I'm busy and sick. Lol That's pretty much it. Hopefully I can get some time off next week though.

Engel: Sacrifice

Chapter Eighteen

Trouble In Senica

What a wicked game to play to make me feel this way

What a wicked thing to do to make me dream of you

What a wicked thing to say you never felt this way

What a wicked thing to do to make me dream of you

No, I don't wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)

No, I don't wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)

With you

-Chris Isaac (Lyrics from Wicked Game)

"I control you…OWN you…" Demonte attempted to blot out the voice in his head. "You are a fool to try and resist me."

He turned over in his bed, his hood falling from his head. Closing his eyes, he exhaled and sat up, his bangs falling into his eyes. "Shut up," He muttered to himself. "I don't want to hear this anymore."

He turned his eyes to the lone room around him. How long had he been asleep?

"Everyone's up already?" He asked as he pulled the hood of the cloak back over his head. Exiting the room of the inn, he stepped out into the hall.

"Morning sleepyhead…" Celestia yawned and stretched. Demonte turned as she waved at him. "Breakfast is ready at the front."

"Where's everyone else?"

Celestia straightened her dress and pushed a strand of blonde hair from her eyes. "They're already there, silly. Come on, you must be starving. BDN is working up a negotiation with the Mayor of this town to use his private sand steamer to cross over to Roklen."

"How's it going?" Demonte asked as she led him to the back rooms of the inn.

"Not very well if you ask me. I think we'll be hitchhiking to Roklen. He says that he's gonna try again in a little while."

"Hey look who's up!" Vash smiled as he took a bite of his eggs. "Usually you're the early bird."

"What's all this?" Demonte gestured to the food.

"Oh, the Innkeeper gave us a present." Vash swallowed his food. "Come on, eat up. It's not every day that we get to eat a feast like this. Ever since the Dark Ages started, almost all the water has dried up. Luxuries like these aren't easy to come by." He was waving his fork around like a dictator.

"I find it odd that the Innkeeper would want to waste his valuable water and food on passing travelers then," Demonte responded warily.

"Who cares?" BDN laughed. "We're eating so let's just enjoy it."

Demonte looked around the table. Jessica and Milly were enjoying their meal so much that they hadn't even acknowledged Demonte's presence. Even Celestia had immediately sat down to her breakfast.

But to Demonte's surprise, Meryl hadn't so much as touched her food. "Meryl, you don't seem as eager about all of this."

"Hmmm?" Meryl glanced up. "Oh, I'm just not very hungry this morning. I didn't sleep very well last night."

"Then can I have your breakfast?" BDN grinned as he began to slide her plate over to him.

"Whatever, I don't care," She said with indifference. "I'm going to get a head start with the whereabouts of the sand steamer. If it works, then I'll talk to the Mayor."

"Hey," BDN shook his fork at her. "That's my job."

"Well you're eating," She stood up and pushed her chair in. "I'll take care of it. It's not like you had much of a negotiation planned anyway. And the first one certainly wasn't as successful."

"I did so have a good negotiation planned!" BDN said with a mouthful of sausage. "I was going to tell him that if he didn't hand over the sand steamer, I was going to break his arm."

"Ugh!" Came the disgusted responses from around the table.

"What?" BDN shrugged. "And the only reason that the first negotiation didn't go as well was because I hadn't prepared myself. I'll be okay now."

"Prepared yourself with WHAT I wonder?" Demonte rolled his eyes. "I'm dealing with a moron here."

Meryl brushed past Demonte and wandered out of the room.

"Hey Dem," BDN looked at him. "If you're not gonna eat, can I have your breakfast?"

"You already have two plates!" Demonte argued.

"Hey, there's starving people out there! Better that the food goes to me than them, right?"

"Mr. Neon!" Milly scoffed. "That's not nice at all!"

Demonte rolled his eyes for a second time and followed Meryl out of the room.

When he had caught up with the petite woman, she was already down the street.

"Hey how did you get down here so fast?" Demonte jogged after her.

"You weren't hungry either?" Meryl asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

"I think I lost my appetite," He replied. "I'll follow you to the sand steamer."

"Thanks, but I can handle the negotiation myself," She said.

"Yes Ma'am." Demonte said.

"Wow!" Meryl marveled at the sand steamer. "It's really in great condition…"

"But it's pretty small," Demonte noted.

"It's a private one. But I think that we all could fit."

"Without a doubt," Demonte glanced at Meryl. "So what now? Are you going to ask permission from the Mayor?"

"Of course," She said. "That's why we're here."

Demonte paused.

"We should probably leave the garage as soon as possible…" Demonte said, turning his head.

"Why?" Meryl asked.

"I just saw a shadow. I don't think we should be here." He began to walk to the front of the sand steamer garage. "Let's find the Mayor."

"Huh? Demonte?" Meryl rushed after him. "What's the matter?"

"I just have a bad feeling, that's all. So…" He diverted his attention to her. "Where does the Mayor live?"

"Just down the road," She jerked her thumb slightly left. "And around the corner. It's not too big of a place."

"You've been here before?"

"Of course. I've been everywhere." She almost smirked. "I would've expected the same from you."

"Yeah, well…almost everywhere for me…" He replied.

Meryl stopped in her tracks.

"What is it?" Demonte asked, alarmed.

"I thought I heard something," She said. A gust blew past the two and she abruptly grabbed his arm and took shelter behind a nearby building.

She turned her head minimally and peeked around the corner of the wall. Four shadows disappeared down the street, one of them carrying an unidentifiable girl in its arms.

"What do you see?" Demonte whispered.

"Something bad," Meryl reached for her holster. "We have to get back and find the others."

"That bad, huh?" Demonte loaded his revolver. "Damn, I was hoping for an uneventful day. I'm still exhausted from the mountain incident. But I knew I heard something. Guess I wasn't wrong after all."

"Sorry, thems the breaks." Meryl responded and hunched down low as she began to run quickly behind the back alley.

"Where are you going?" Demonte asked, following her.

"I'm taking the back way to the inn. It's not safe in the streets."

"I wonder who the hell those guys are anyway…"

"Don't ask me," She breathed. "But they don't look friendly. Stay on your toes."

"You don't have to tell me." He muttered as his right arm began to glow faintly.

The two dashed to the entrance of the inn and looked around.

"Where the hell is the Innkeeper?" Demonte asked. "Don't tell me that the spineless coward is hiding now."

"Forget the Innkeeper," Meryl said. "Let's just find the others."

They came to a screeching halt when they entered the dining room. The window had been left open with a sudden breeze mingling in the room. The plates were left just as they were, but no sign of their friends remained.

"Where is everyone?" Demonte asked as he stepped into the room, observing the half-eaten food. "Perhaps they realized that something was wrong too?"

"No…the vibes seem too thick for that." Meryl turned. "It's like they all vanished into thin air."

"You're telling me," Demonte's eyes stopped at the open window. "That window wasn't open when we left. And it's too cold to leave it open. So just what the heck is going on around here?"

"Hmmm…the Innkeeper is gone and so is everyone else…" Meryl rubbed her chin. "Maybe it has something to do with those shadows I saw in the street…"

"Say what?" Demonte asked, turning around.

"When I pulled you behind the building, I saw these shadows roaming in the streets. One of them was carrying a girl, but I couldn't see."

"Oh, just spectacular!" Demonte sighed and pounded the table. "So in other words, everyone has been kidnapped…right? Boy, glad to know that I was right when I got those bad vibes back at the garage."

"I didn't say that at all…" Meryl said. "You're right, they could have seen the same shadows and followed after them."

"And maybe they didn't."

"All I'm saying is that both possibilities can ring true."

"Well it doesn't matter now," Demonte said. "I just want to find out what the heck is going on here."

"And so do I." Meryl said.

A large crash broke out in the front room.

Meryl took shelter behind the door and Demonte ducked behind the table.

Demonte listened as a large body thundered down the stairs and was followed by running footsteps, which led out into the street. When silence filled the air once more, Demonte rose and Meryl crept out from behind the door.

"Great…" Demonte licked his lips.

"Come on," Meryl motioned him to follow.

At the bottom of the stairs lay BDN in a puddle of blood. Demonte traced his eyes up the stairs where blood had tainted the carpet all the way up.

"Brilliant!" Meryl cried as she kneeled beside him. "Are you hurt!? Are you okay!?"

"He's been knocked out…" Demonte said. "But he's wounded. See if you can find out where he's bleeding."

Meryl tilted his head forward and watched as the rich color mattered his hair and leather trench coat. "He was hit with something…" Meryl speculated. "It's not a bullet wound, thank God."

"Wait," Demonte said. "BDN is too big of a guy to take down with just a club or something, especially if the others were around. So…" He tapped his foot against the oak floor. "He had to have been knocked out before then."

"With what?"

"Perhaps a drug."

"Then what?" Meryl asked. "They CARRIED him up the stairs?"

"No…" Demonte closed his eyes, trying to envision what might have happened. "Like I said before, he's a big guy. Perhaps after he had finished eating…he went up the stairs and was met with his attacker. After he was hit, BDN turned, ready to strike his opponent." Demonte rushed up the stairs.

"Demonte, what are you talking about?"

Demonte looked down and nodded. "Yes, see here…I can see splinters from a wooden club most likely. His attacker was hidden here…" Demonte pointed to a large potted plant. "…and jumped out to hit him here…" Demonte turned and pointed to the pile of splinters. "When that didn't work, BDN leaned forward to attack his striker. I think that the drugs kicked in just then and he fell down the stairs." Demonte descended the stairs. "That's when we came in."

"Demonte what kind of theory is that!?"

"Do you have any other ones?"

"Yes." Meryl replied. "He couldn't have been hit coming up the stairs because we would've seen it. We came in and found everyone gone. Shortly afterwards is when we heard the crash. Therefore, he had to have already gone to his room and was attacked as he came out."

'True', Demonte thought. 'Very true.'

"Maybe."

"Then what do you think that he was drugged with?" Meryl asked.

Demonte's eyes widened as he paused and then looked at Meryl very seriously. "The food."

"What?"

"The food!" Demonte began to pace back and forth. "Yes of course the food! That explains everything!"

"What!? What!?" Meryl screeched. "You're not making any sense Demonte!"

"That's why the Innkeeper gave us that food…He wanted to mug us or he was working with those shadowed guys or whatever, but it doesn't matter because now we know that he's against us! I knew it was too suspicious to begin with."

Meryl looked at him, puzzled.

"Don't you see Meryl?" Demonte turned. "That food was a trick. It was really full of sleeping powder and BDN was affected by it ten times more because he had three helpings of it."

"I'm starting to see what you're talking about…" Meryl nodded. "But let's just find the others and get the truth out of the Innkeeper." Meryl glanced down. "But we can't just leave him like this, he'll bleed to death."

"I'll take care of the bleeding," Demonte said. "Then we'll take him into the dining room and hide him."

Meryl stepped out of the way as Demonte kneeled by BDN's side. Closing his eyes he held his hand up to the back of the hefty man's head and a white light began to illuminate the room.

"That light…" Meryl said. "It's the one you used back in Felnarl on Celestia."

"Yeah," Demonte muttered as BDN's skin began to stitch back together. When the light dimmed, he motioned Meryl closer. "Let's get him into the dining room." He reached for BDN's underarms as Meryl pulled on his legs.

The two grunted and their arms tightened as they lifted the massive body from the ground.

"D-Damn…" Demonte gritted. "How much does he weigh!?"

"Don't ask me…" Meryl replied. "TOO much."

Demonte shuffled until his back met the door and he sidestepped in. Meryl, arms tensed, followed in Demonte's movements like a dance pattern.

They finally settled the man by the table and Demonte closed the window. "Let's close the door and get out of here." He said.

"Wait, what if the others are upstairs?" Meryl asked?

"You go check then. I'll stand guard here." He instructed and Meryl nodded. "Call if you need any help." He added.

"I will." She turned and ran up the stairs.

Demonte turned to look back at BDN as he exited the room and waited at the front.

'Just what the hell am I doing?' Demonte asked himself. 'I'm helping these guys. I never help anyone.' Then he remembered the night he met Celestia. 'Nah, those guys were in my way. That's the only reason I helped her.' He assured himself as he glanced at the sky. Foggy…as usual.

"I just don't get it…" He said, sighing. "What is the right thing? I don't want to go to Roklen and endanger them…but it's my job." His eyes narrowed. "Am I…changing?"

"Demonte, you should always help others in pain. My boy, in order to be loved, you have to have loved yourself. Always give, Demonte, always give."

Demonte's eyes widened. "Where did that come from?" He asked, grasping the sides of his head. That definitely wasn't mother, nor father…

Demonte brought a hand up to his face, running it along his eyes, nose and mouth. This face…this face as it was as a child…

"It couldn't have been me…" He whispered. "The child…"

"Demonte…" Meryl hurried down the doors and to the front door. "There's no one else. They must be somewhere in town."

Demonte nodded. "Right."

Meryl brushed past him. "Where do you think that we should start?" She asked, stepping into the street.

"In which direction did those shadows go off to?" Demonte inquired.

"Towards the garage," Meryl answered.

"Then let's get over there."

"Shouldn't we inform the Mayor of this?"

"No," Demonte said, "They aren't after the civilians. Whatever they wanted, our comrades seemed to have it. Besides, the civilians will be okay if they stay inside their homes—which seems to be what they do all the time anyway."

"All right," Meryl agreed. "Then let's get to the garage."

"Do you see anything?" Meryl whispered as Demonte poked his head around the corner of the garage.

"Nada," He replied. "Let's split up and look around." He had already begun to walk around the building as he finished his sentence.

"All right," He heard her murmur.

Demonte looked up towards the roof of the building. He squinted his eyes against the fog, but found nothing. Tilting his head back to the ground, the wind began to stir him. Jerking his body around, Demonte glanced back out into the street.

"Demonte!" He heard Meryl call out.

"What?" He responded.

"Come here! Hurry!"

"What is it?" He asked, jogging around the side of the building and into the garage.

Meryl gestured to a bookshelf…and then the secret passage next to it.

"What the hell?" Demonte wandered closer to the opening. "Where did you find this?"

"I just began to turn over everything and I ran into this. I don't know what made me decide to check behind this, but I think that I may have seen enough movies to get this kind of idea."

"Hmmm," Demonte chuckled. "Good going, Meryl. Now let's follow it and see where it leads." Demonte stepped forward and began to descend the stairs.

"Hey," Meryl whispered following close behind. Demonte could feel her breath on his neck, even through the fabric of the cloak. "Didn't you say earlier that you saw a shadow come into the garage and quickly leave?"

"Yeah, remember? That's when I told you that we should've left the first time."

"Well then, perhaps we're going the right way after all."

Demonte only nodded, and jumped the last step to the bottom. "It looks like the inside of a mine." He commented, absorbing his surroundings.

Small dainty lamps hung loosely from the stone walls, which had been coated with dull marooned colored bricks. The halls seemed endless as they branched off into other corridors and resulted in darkness.

"Well," Demonte said, continuing forward. "Guess we'll have to flip a coin."

"Why?"

"Which route do you want to take?"

Meryl glanced at the fork in the road. Left? Or right?

"Do you want to split up?" She turned her head and Demonte nodded.

"Only if you want to," He replied. "I don't want you to get into any trouble."

"Puh-leeeze," Meryl rolled her eyes as she twirled her gun around her index finger. "I can't be killed THAT easily."

"All right, then," Demonte said, taking the left path. "Good luck."

Meryl watched his retreating form disappear into the darkness and she shivered as she advanced down the right path. "Yeah," She muttered. "You too."

Meryl began to jog faster down the corridor, her heels clicking against the rocky surface. Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew her black glasses and slipped them over her eyes. A fork in the road was approaching.

She stopped.

Voices lingered in the air. Some soft, and others loud. And then they became muffled. Meryl huddled up against the rocky wall and held her gun close to her chest as she waited patiently for a pinpoint to the voices.

Much to her surprise, the voices began to increase in volume and she knew that she soon would be found out had she chosen to continue to stay in that corridor much longer. Sprinting in the opposite direction of the voices, Meryl turned right, cutting a corner, and continued in a U shaped path, twisting and turning until she stopped at a threshold, the steel old and rusty.

Looking back, she slipped through the door and into the room. Sighing heavily, she slowly turned around and found herself in a hallway of jail cells. Curiosity getting the best of her, Meryl padded down the hallway, diverting her attention back and forth from each cell.

She halted. A silhouette sat, almost invisible, in the corner of the middle jail cell.

"…H-Hello?" She called out, hesitantly. "I-Is anybody in there?"

Meryl cocked her gun and aimed it slowly at the figure.

The shadow jolted.

Startled, Meryl dropped the gun and it bounced through the bars and landed on the cold floor inside the cell.

"Damn," Meryl bit her lip. "Excuse me," Meryl grasped the bars. "Can you hear me?" Silence. "They must be asleep," Meryl shrugged and leaned down and slid her arm through the cell, groping for her gun. She grunted. "Just a little…further…." She dropped onto her belly and scooted closer to the bars. Straining her arm even farther out, Meryl closed her eyes and pushed her fingertips over the floor's surface.

Then the handle of the gun came within her reach. She grinned. "Aha! I got!" She edged the gun towards her until it was finally in her reach.

Then the silhouette in the corner lurched across the cell and seized Meryl's arm, swatting the gun away.

"What!?" Meryl cried, and attempted to jerk her arm back.

But the shadow was strong, and yanked her forward. Meryl's face collided with the bars and she grunted. Dazed, Meryl tried to wriggle free again, only to be met with the same results.

"Dammit!" She screamed, feeling the blood flow down her face. "Let me go!"

Then two arms reached around her waist and pulled her backwards. Once her arm was free, she attempted to flee her second attacker, only to be spun around and held up against the wall. The man held his face from hers only by a few inches and Meryl closed her eyes.

Death would perceive her shortly.

Oh pooh. Where's Vash when you need him? Lol I forgot a character from the last chapter, Elizabeth and since I'm sick and lazy right now, I'll just put her in as such and fix it when I update on my site. Or e-mail me. That always works too.

Elizabeth: Appears in episode six--Lost July as the woman who wants to kill Vash for destroying her hometown, July, twenty-three years ago.

And…yeah. Hope you liked the chapter. Now with that, I'm going off to be sick some more. If you're feeling generous, please R&R (nicely please) and ask questions, and all that other glorious stuff.

BLD