Jackie; Howdy, to my new reviewers! I shall address the issue of Meryl. I was quite surprised to be accused of placing Meryl OOC, as many of my faithful friends and previous reviewers have always said I did a marvelous job with Meryl especially. The reason Meryl is upstaged in this particular fic is because people who have been reviewing all along and those who have emailed me directly have said that they like Mira and want to see more of her. However, I don't want to sound like I have sour grapes over your reviews.

I want ALL my reviewers to be happy and to continue reviewing. Therefore, since it seems I have some fellow Meryl fans out there, I shall try to keep Meryl/Mira balanced from here on out. Please, don't wait for another 28 chapters to go by to tell me if I am failing in any way.

DISCLAIMER: Do I REALLY have to say this AGAIN? I don't own Trigun.

………………………….

Chapter 29;

Meryl pushed her head down as another wave of sand washed over them. As the explosion subsided she yelled, "This isn't getting us anywhere! Damn them!"

"I know," Millie said with a worried expression, "But there's nothing we can do right now."

"But we can't let them keep us back while they do god knows WHAT to Vash," Meryl looked over at Mira and added, "And Knives."

Mira nodded. She glanced over the edge of the rock they were hiding behind and said, "It's infuriating. We can't go and we can't stay."

Nick hung his head and said, "I'm sorry girls, but I know these people. We do not have a choice. If only…"

He didn't need to finish the sentence. If only Vash where here. He could always think of something… Meryl blinked. That was it! She had to think like Vash. What would he do?

…………………………

Monique stared at the console. She didn't notice, but she was becoming quite pale and gaunt. Four days, going on five, since she ate or slept. She put her head down on her hands. She was obsessed, insane, and she knew it. She wondered if other people knew when their sanity broke.

She closed her eyes. Her master had been gone for a year before she tracked him down. What happened in that year that she was missing?

FLASHBACK

"I am Mrs. Knives Millions," The woman yelled at her.

end flashback

"Mrs. Knives Millions," Monique mumbled…

Monique's eyes flew open. She remembered the ten women Knives had brought to the ship in Eden. It had taken only one attempt to impregnate them. Had this lowly human wench already given birth to the master's heir? Had she been going about this wrong from the start?

Monique lifted her weary head, and added a variable; CHILD. All at once, Knives's brainwaves snapped into place. Monique nearly wept for joy, but instead she laughed. She laughed madly at the screen, and then turned to go get something to eat.

……………………….

Meryl jumped out from behind the rock and slid down the dune in front of it 'vash-style', wildly slinging shots to the left and right of her. She never tried to hit them; she just wanted to make it very hard for them to draw a good bead on her and the others.

"Follow me!" She yelled back at her comrades, "Hurry!"

"Crap!" Nick yelled and ran after her, "Damn it, NEED- err – MERYL! Wait up!"

Mira and Millie followed suit.

……………………..

Jackie: Better?

I don't want you to get yelled at by someone so I want to clarify the definition of a fanfic. I made this mistake too, and got a rather nasty chewing by numerous people, so I'd like to spare you that trauma. A fanfic does not necessarily have anything to do with the original characters, it can be many things, it just has to share a common thread with the original work. Just like people can write fics with the original characters in high school, or on the moon if they want, someone could write about 'bob' on the other side of Gunsmoke. (hehe, now that I've said that I may have to do it) He's on Gunsmoke, one would assume he's been affected in some way by Vash or Knives, and there is his common thread.