Yay, another few weeks, another chapter. I was considering being mean and resentful and holding it off because only one person reviewed the new chapter of my Cowboy Bebop story, but I guess I'm just too nice of a person. I should be more mean. But I love my reviewers too much to be mean. So here it is. Eat all your beans; they're good for you.

Five imaginary chocolate bars to:

Chaotic Pink Chocobo, Odie, ShinyFairyLights, Kiosukette, Molly-chan the Anime/Game fan, Rosebud, Shahrezad, Alucard, V Keller, WW, sforzando, Tempest Strife, PuNkRoCkBuNnY182, Abby-chan the Black Cat, and Solar-Sun.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It'll go like this," Wosh explained morosely. "I'll draw the memories out of the depths of your mind and reenter them into your conscious thought. There may be," he cracked a sarcastic smile, "some mild discomfort."

"Yes, yes, I don't care. Just hurry up and do it." Knives snapped.

"Alrighty."

Wosh placed a hand on either side of Knives' head and closed his eyes, furrowing his brow in concentration. Knives felt a peculiar feeling, as if someone was forcefully drawing his head towards Wosh's, but he resisted the force. After a moment that stretched to unnatural length, the force stopped, and Knives' momentum caused him to stumble backward slightly.

Wosh paused and it seemed collected himself, and then opened his eyes. They shone with unnaturally bright blue light and in the dim evening haze, they almost glowed. With a growing sense of unease, Knives almost felt himself being drawn into his black pupils, which were swirling pools of midnight in contrast to the burning irises.

"Are you sure about this, Knives?" Wosh asked, his voice uncharacteristically deep and solemn. "Do you really want these memories? You know there's a reason Vash didn't want you to know about them. If you want, I can keep them with me forever. They will die with me and you can start anew; with a clean slate and an unburdened past. Many people would kill for this opportunity, including myself. There's a chance that once you regain these memories, you may long to be able to unburden yourself of them again, and I vow to you that after I redeposit them, there will be no secret you can blackmail me with that could induce me to take them out again."

Knives swallowed, suddenly not as confident as he had been before. He felt doubts creeping up like poisonous spiders, weakening his resolve. Their hairy legs crept and crept…

He mentally swept them away with contempt. Wosh was trying to fool him, to trick him into backing down. He was no fool!

"I want those memories. He said, perhaps a bit too forcefully. Do it."

Wosh sighed and closed his eyes again. "So be it."

In the next split second, there was a flash of pain so intense that it sent Knives to his knees. In his mind, he saw images fly past on fast-forward. A space ship. Thousands of frozen humans in small capsules. A woman with long ebony hair and sad brown eyes. Vash a small boy, smiling genially at him. Looking in the mirror and seeing himself, a mirror image of his brother but with pale blond hair and ice blue eyes. A crew of other humans, smiling and laughing. Then that same crew angry and arguing, while the black-haired woman tried to mediate. One of the crew members shoving him to the ground and shouting insults. A butterfly entrapped in a spider's web with a spider moving towards it menacingly. Vash trying to remove them both as his own hand reached out and crushed the spider. Vash tackling him, his face twisted in anger. Watching the woman try to calm a hysterical man before the captain of the crew flushed him out to die in space. Looking down the barrel of a guy at that same captain, and pulling the trigger. Programming the ships full of frozen humans to crash to their deaths on Gunsmoke. Escaping in a pod with Vash while the woman stayed behind to try to save them.

Landing on the planet and watching Vash moan in anguish while he cackled over the humans' deaths. Years passing in a blur. Watching human cities struggle into existence. Creating weapons of mass destruction that harnessed their inherent power. Vash shooting him in the leg and running away with the guns. More years passing. Confronting Vash among dead humans. Shooting off Vash's arm and triggering his brother's Angel Arm. Watching in shock as Vash turned it on him. Losing his legs in that blast, then retreating into a plant bulb to heal, while gathering the most evil and twisted of the human race to him to aid him. Watching Vash's torment as he faced them, waiting patiently for his brother to see the metaphorical light. Seeing Vash end a life for the first time, and smiling. Then envisioning an idyllic green grove where Vash approached him, ice in his eyes. The monumental fight, ending in his ultimate defeat. Four gunshots explaining the four small scars on Knives' body, then darkness. Then waking up with indefinable rage, seeking out and finding Vash. Spouting words his overwhelmed brain could not comprehend, then a great struggle. Then darkness once again.

As soon as this had finished entering Knives' brain, he flew back with the force and speed of the thoughts, landing on his back and "oomf"-ing as he had the wind knocked out of him. He heard a corresponding grunt as Wosh mirrored the action several yarz away. Knives mind was silent for a moment that stretched into eternity. Then, suddenly, he felt…

Angry.

*******************************************************************

Meryl and I were half in and half out of our clothes when I felt it. My head jerked up from its position at Meryl's neck and my face drained of all color, all thoughts except for one vacating my head.

He'd found out.

I didn't know when, where, or how, but I was dead sure of that one fact. Somehow, Knives had regained his memories.

"Uh, Vash? What's wrong? Why did you stop?" breathed a slightly hazy-eyed Meryl.

"I have to go," I said, dismayed to hear my voice crack with tension. I grabbed my shirt and started toward the door, then turned back. "Don't follow me, okay? Don't go anywhere. Just…just…stay here." I started for the door again, then turned back again. "I promise I'll come back."

With one last, lingering glance, I pulled my shirt on and ran out the door.

As I ran in the direction of the massive, pulsing energy that I knew was Knives, I was quite aware that I probably wasn't in the best condition to be fighting him right now. I was barefoot, my hair was disheveled, my mouth was smeared with lipstick, and I was both emotionally and physically drained. Not to mention the fact that I was in the middle of a heavily populated city that was potentially in danger from Knives. My mind raced back to Meryl. An image of her being tortured to a slow and painful death by Knives' psychic powers flashed in my mind and I shuddered violently.

No, I wouldn't think about that. I couldn't think about that.

I stopped. He should be right here. I looked around frantically, but the street was empty. Suddenly, I heard a choked voice above me.

"V-vash!"

My head snapped upwards like a whip. Atop the building he was standing under, two figures struggled. After a moment, I realized that they weren't actually in contact with each other, and breathed a sigh of relief which instantly turned into a gasp of shock when I realized they were engaged in something much more fatal, a struggle of conflicting energy fields.

It took a millisecond for me to confirm that the two figures were Wosh and Knives.

And another millisecond to see that Wosh was losing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay…1-2-3, review for me, 5-7-4 review more!