Author's Notes – Things aren't looking so good for the girls from Bernardelli. Will they manage to get out of this one unscathed, or will the damage be much worse than they can imagine?

LR

Chapter 2

"Sempai! Sempai please wake up! Sempai!"

I opened my eyes, startled out of a pain-filled haze by another scream. Craning my head, I looked up just in time to see Milly land right beside me. Seeing me conscious, Milly's eyes lit up with relief.

"Oh, Sempai, thank goodness!" she exclaimed. "I was so worried!"

She was worried...? I took into account the dirt and mud covering my partner's clothes as well as the new bruise she sported on her cheek. "Milly..." I trailed off, spotting the crowd of villagers hovering over us. "What the...?" I stumbled to my feet only to have them knocked from underneath me. I tumbled backwards into the sand, letting out a gasp of surprise as I looked up at my attackers. "What the hell...? Just what do you people think you're doing?"

"Oh, Sempai," Milly moaned. "They won't answer, I tried already." She looked pleadingly into the faces of our captors once again but gained no response. "There's something wrong with them!"

"I'll say..." I trailed off, staring up at the villagers standing closest to me. I frowned in confusion when I was met with only vacant stares. "What...?"

One of the younger men rushed forward, kicking me down once again. Milly screamed.

"Sempai!!"

The two of us then lay side by side, facing down the barrel of an old Winchester. A shot was fired near our heads, sending sand everywhere. Both of us cried out in fear.

"Monster..." I groaned, spitting sand out of my mouth. Part of me was still frightened while the other part was pissed at having admitted to the former. "He's controlling them!"

"What?" Milly's eyes were light with confusion and worry. "But I don't understand... why would he do such a terrible thing?"

"Why else?" I spat, forcing myself to my knees to fight back the sense of nausea. "He's trying to make a point!"

"Do you mean to say he's trying to hurt Vash-san by attacking us somehow?"

I cursed inwardly, glaring at our captors with as much vehemence I could muster. It didn't help matters but at least it helped me feel a little bit better. Deep down I knew it wasn't their fault really, but it wasn't as this was the first time we had earned hostility due to our affiliation with a certain lone gunman.

'Honestly... do they think us so incapable of handling ourselves that they would use us as bait to lure him out?'

(( On the contrary...)) The voice of Legato Bluesummers – somehow the name had come to me whilst I was unconscious – entered my mind again, halting the mindless mob in their tracks. (( That was not my intention at all. ))

"Oh really? Care to enlighten us?" I paused, a glint in the sand catching my eye. Looking down, I spotted the derringer I had had in my hand before passing out. "What...?"

(( Curiosity, Ms. Stryfe. My master has professed a certain curiosity about you. ))

I wasn't sure if I should be frightened or not.

(( Vash the Stampede is a wanted criminal responsible for damage and destruction in nearly over a dozen cities. Devastation follows this man wherever he goes and yet strangely enough, so do you. ))

"It's our job to follow him." I ground out, not at all pleased by how he spoke of Vash, though I was aware the same words had once passed over my own lips.

(( Certainly there are less dangerous jobs. ))

Pig. "Vash is not dangerous."

(( He is a superior being who lives outside of time. ))

"But he's still Vash!" Milly exclaimed. She then gasped when one of the villagers standing over her swung down at her with a pitchfork. Quick to act, I rushed over to shield her only to take the hit myself. Damnation.

(( Whom you both first thought of as a criminal – the outlaw worth sixty billion double dollars. ))

Biting back on the pain, I assured my partner I was all right before refocusing my attention on the voice. "Maybe so," I replied, silently apologizing for every ill word I ever spoke of Vash before meeting him. "But Vash is still a good person."

(( Good and evil are irrelevant. Actions say so much more. ))

A man dressed in denim overalls stumbled towards Milly, yanking her back by her hair. She let out a scream and reached out to punch him only to have her arm pinned painfully behind her back.

"Milly!" I cried out, raising my derringer.

"No, Sempai, don't!" Milly exclaimed. "You know they're being controlled – they can't help what they're doing!"

She was right, of course. They had no control over their action, how could I possibly hold them responsible?

(( And so we are at an impasse. ))

I could almost detect a hint of amusement in his tone. Slowly I lowered my gun, dropping it into the sand. What choice did I have really? Two men lumbered towards me like puppets on strings, pinning my arms behind me in a similar fashion to Milly.

With my arms held in such an awkward angle, I did my best not to cry out. Instead, I focused the pain into anger – a practice I was well accustomed to, as you may already know. I hang out with the Humanoid Typhoon for crying out loud.

"You are a sick man," I gritted out, hoping Legato could see the disgust clearly shown on my face. "How dare you try to play with people's minds as if they mean nothing to you?! You as a human being should know better!"

(( Perhaps, but knowing the difference between right and wrong is irrelevant. It is human nature to sin. )) He paused as if to let me digest his words. (( If you don't believe me, ask Vash. ))

"What?" I replied.

(( You say Vash is a good man... and yet you do not realize. ))

"Realize what?" I ventured.

(( He has been around humans so long... he has become the worst sinner of them all!))

"That's not true!" Milly sobbed before getting shoved down into the sand.

"You're a liar!" I screamed, starting to lose my composure. All of this was wrong. I tried to lash out at our captors, coming up short as I could feel Legato's eerie presence invading my mind, bombarding multiple images upon my psyche.

"I've got one bullet left," He spun the chamber mockingly, pointing up towards his opponent. "It could be my special."

"They're dead! All the people are dead!" Aqua eyes burned with rage behind orange sunglasses. The barrel of his gun glistened in the moonlight as he glared hatefully down at the prone form beneath him. "You are the sole person responsible and you deserve to die!"

I clenched my eyes shut. Yes, I remembered those moments all too clearly, and I knew what Legato was trying to do.

" ... total slaughter, I won't leave anyone left alive."

He was showing me Vash the Stampede through everyone else's eyes, through the eyes of people who saw him as the Humanoid Typhoon, the great destroyer, the taker of lives... the man who was no longer a man, but a monster.

"...an ocean of blood... Let's begin the killing time..."

July... Augusta... the floating Seeds ship... the Fifth Moon... they had all been laid to waste because of him. People had died because of him.

'It's not his fault...' I kept telling myself as a mantra. 'He never meant for any of that to happen!'

"What's more important to you, your job or your life?"

The Diablo... that was how Monev the Gale had described him that night. Had I not known him better I probably would have agreed; his eyes had been like blue fire blazing in the pits of Hades.

"Stay away from me!"

Vash was not like other men; he was far beyond my comprehension. How could I hold him to the standards of society? I had seen him show so many sides to all the people we had met in our journeys. How could I be sure that I could...

'No,' I screamed in my head. 'Vash would never—'

(( Deceive you? ))

I opened my eyes, looking up in terror. Standing before me just as Monev had described stood the legendary outlaw himself; blue eyes blazing behind orange sunglasses, spiked blonde hair contrasting against the red coat billowing in the darkness.

"Vash..." I could barely get my vocal chords to function properly. The man standing before me was nothing like the one I thought I knew. There was nothing in him that even felt remotely like the person I had come to know. "Vash..." I tried again. "What are you..."

Who are you...? What are you...?

From the folds of his trench coat he revealed his silver gun, aiming it straight at me.

" ... total slaughter, I won't leave anyone left alive."

'Stop it! That was just a stupid song! Vash would never!'

I could hear the resounding click of the safety being removed from the trigger. I stared up at the blonde figure before me, fear evident in my eyes. Legato's words echoed endlessly in my mind, numbing my body to the pain of my injuries.

All that mattered was the man standing in front of me.

I stared up at him, long and hard, blatantly ignoring the glistening weapon staring me in the face. I closed my eyes.

Legato laughed.

Milly screamed.

Was any of this really happening? The voice in my head was even louder now. I took a deep breath. "Vash..."

No one has the right to take the life of another. I had told Legato those same words, and he had turned them against me – against Vash. He had tried to twist my perception of him – to make me see him as others saw him.

He had succeeded, but not in the way he wanted.

I had seen the Vash that appeared before me in flashbacks. The Stampede. The Humanoid Typhoon with the 60 billion double-dollar reward. The Walking Disaster labeled an act of God. The Diablo with the eyes of blue fire. The outlaw with the gun pointed directly at me.

The man with tears in his eyes.

A shot rang out and everything fell silent.