Jackie: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. You all know what a sucker I am for good reviews. I'm going for one hundred reviews on this one, so help me out!

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Chapter 26:

Monique's footsteps caused a slight echo in the nearly abandoned underground ship. Most of the Gung-ho-guns had dispersed to the wind when their master did not return. Her lips curled with disgust. After all their master had given them, over half of them had abandoned him to whatever fate had befallen him.

Not her, and not her companion with the wolfish eyes. He followed her everywhere, but he never said a word. They had become Gung-ho-guns at roughly the same time. Not that she cared.

She was Monique the leveler, because she could level cities with her knowledge of explosives and weak points in structures. She could also surgically level a single building crammed up against four others without leaving so much as a scratch on the surrounding structures. She was an instrument of righteous fury, and did not care about some pup shadowing her footsteps.

That 'pup' sniffed the air around her as he followed. He was the wolf, known for his unchallenged supremacy as a tracker, trapper, and vicious instincts to kill. He cared not for the cause, other than Monique believed in it, and it gave him an excuse to hunt and kill. Knives had recognized this early and made a deal with the wolf.

"Give over your free will and you shall be able to hunt and kill to your contentment and," Knives had smiled, "I shall give Monique to you once I return with my brother."

She was his obsession. He loved the fire-red color of her hair, her deep green eyes, her body, her lips, her scent, everything about her. He had taken to following her around, and she did not seem to mind. She had better not mind because eventually she would have no choice. Knives would make Monique his. A smile curved his lips. Mine…

Monique turned a corner and walked into the room they were keeping the twins in. The containment field flickered at every mental attempt to escape. She walked to the console and started inputting data. She would warp their reality until her master was returned to normal and his twin was converted to the cause.

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Knives found himself in a baron wasteland with the twin suns beating down on him. He knew it was an illusion. He had programmed the container himself. He cursed himself inwardly for his thoroughness. Plan A was to convince Vash through inflicted suffering among his humans; Plan B was to convince him by manually manipulating his perception of reality. Knives knew that the program would get more and more intense until a breaking point had been found in his brain wave patterns. He also knew that any mental attempt to escape by manipulating the outside world would cause great… distress to the person who tried it. His conclusion? The best possible chance he had was to try to keep his grip on what was real until the girls and the priest came to save them. It was too bad he couldn't tell Vash that. Any attempt to establish a mental link would be deemed by the system as an attempt to escape. Damn it all, I never expected this to be used on ME.

He sat down in the middle of the desert and tried to focus. He had been caught, he was in a virtual reality, he loved Mira, and he had a daughter and a son. He had to repeat those things to himself over and over, no matter what happened. He hoped Vash would find a way to realize that he was in a false reality as well. Hold on, bro…

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Vash woke up next to his beautiful wife, Meryl. She was so peaceful looking when she slept. He got up out of bed and stumbled. Suddenly he was outside, and his gut met with a swift right hook. Nick smiled cruelly and said, "Hold him. I want him to see this before he dies."

Nick pulled a knife and slid it gently over Millie's throat. He chuckled and said, "I used you all, I manipulated you, and THIS one… This one I really enjoyed, but I have no use for her anymore."

With that, Nick plunged the knife into Millie's throat. Vash was screaming and suddenly he found himself sitting up out of bed. Just a dream… Meryl was not in bed, so she must be making breakfast. Vash headed downstairs and heard strange sounds coming from the kitchen. As he got closer he made out that Meryl was moaning. She must be hurt!

Vash rushed into the kitchen and stopped dead at what he saw. Meryl was bent over the table, her skirt hiked up to her hips and lace panties pooled around her ankles. A handsome young man stood behind her, holding her hips, and driving himself in and out of her. She looked up at Vash and smiled.

"Like I would really choose someone like you," She laughed, "I can have any man I want!"

The man and Meryl laughed and laughed. Then it all changed again. He traded one reality after another, like an unending stream of nightmares. Then they began to come so fast that they seemed to blend together like real memories. Vash fought, and fought. It's not real, it's not REAL! I was captured; they are forcing theses visions upon me somehow.

He tried to establish a link with Knives and felt his body wracked with the most complete sense of pain he had ever experienced. He felt every kind of emotional pain at the same time he felt physical pain throughout every part of his body. He howled, or at least, he thought he howled. Another reality started, and Vash began to crumble inside…

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Jackie: Good? Well, I like it…