FORTY-FIVE: command center

Meryl peered down the sight of the rifle, through the scope that revealed to her the ground before the Millennium Arc. Cold sweat trickled down her temple, dripped onto the stock of the weapon, and then fell to the desert floor. Fear pulsed through her with each beat of racing heart. The crowd of men had gathered there, at the doorway of the massive structure. The old one—Meryl had come to think of him as Quinn, even though she didn't really have any hard evidence that was his identity—stalked slowly about as the others watched him, waiting. There had been six when they arrived; now there were nine, and every so often another emerged from the compound. Sometimes one would return when one emerged. She didn't any faces.

"Something's going on," she said quietly.

Faye nodded slowly. She was kneeling beside the smaller woman, watching through the fieldglasses she had rummaged up from the jeep. "What do you think they're doing?" she asked softly.

Meryl shrugged. "Not a clue," she whispered back. The men were a good distance away, and too distracted at the moment to be searching the desert about them for possible spies. She wished she could read lips, or that she had Vash's hyper-sensitive hearing. She immediately reprimanded herself for wishing for the impossible. Right now, Vash was busy.

The fact that he hadn't yet found his way back to them scared the shit out of her. He had departed to fight the blonde plant-spawn that had attacked them several miles back. Dark fears lingered in her heart at the realization that she was the same plant that had nearly killed Vash back before they had arrived at New Hope. Then, Vash hadn't been able to escape on his own.

God, please bring him back to me, Meryl pleaded, looking briefly up to the heavens before shifting her gaze back through the sight screen. She thought by all rights that she should hear her heart pounding, that being in this position should be a discomfort, unnatural. But Meryl knew why her heart was beating at a normal pace, why her breath was slow and even, her rifle stable in her grasp. By all rights, the image through the scope should have been bouncing madly before her eyes, but she found that she could pinpoint a single, large mole just below the left eye of the old man.

She knew if she squeezed the trigger, she could get to within a few millimeters of that mole. If she was aiming to kill. Right now, she wasn't ready to kill. Still, she thought that perhaps she shouldn't feel quite so comfortable.

Her father had given her a rifle to train with when she was young. Her protection, he'd called it. The world was a cruel place, and if she was to take a step out into the darkness of it, where chaos reigned, she'd have to know a thing or two about self-preservation.

A rifle, Richard? Christ, whatever happened to a simple can of mace?

Meryl smiled a little at the memory of her incredulous mother, standing in the doorway of her bedroom, staringat her little birthday girl. Most girls got a nice dress and maybe some jewelry for Sweet Sixteen. Meryl had gotten a high-powered rifle, complete with ammunition and scope, the best that money could buy. And all for the sake of 'protection,' her father had insisted.

It wasn't enough that he screw up the lives of his family. Even now it seemed all he could offer to her was another way to kill people. She wondered about the key around her throat. Was that just another elaborate way of killing people that she just hadn't figured out yet?

Hard to say. Still, she knew she had to find out. That key held all the secrets in it, the truth of the whole of her troubles, all wrapped up in a small piece of metal.

It holds the key to the entire world in it. What had her father been trying to tell her?

"Oh shit."

Meryl shot a look at Faye to see that she had turned her attention out to the desert, away from the dome. There she could see the patch of land swarming with darkness. Men, she realized, all dressed in black. From this distance, it was impossible to see anything more than that. What she knew, however, was that there were too many people out there to be any less that her worst fear.

Quinn's genetically enhanced army was on the way.

It wouldn't be long now.

Now her heart did race. Violently. She lowered her rifle and swallowed, trying to catch her breath. What next? She knew she could take out Quinn, but what of the consequences? There were just two of them, without Vash, and the Gung-Ho Guns were plentiful.

That, and their army was closing in on the location. The last thing she wanted to do was tip thousands of Vash-like clones to her location for the sake of a single gunshot. And that was if they were lucky enough to avoid the Gung-Ho Guns on the other end. Her father was out there somewhere, too, and that was reason enough to scare her half to death.

A familiar click sounded behind her head. Meryl froze. She knew the sound well, heard it every time she pulled back the bolt of her rifle. She turned her gaze to meet Faye's, and saw the same wide-eyed fear in her green eyes.

"All right, kiddies. Stand up." There was a smirk behind the voice. The shadow of their captor loomed over her but she couldn't see the man, only knew that she was caught. Wasn't that enough, that simple realization? Meryl trembled at the harsh, hateful sound of it. "And no monkey business."

She longed to break down and cry, to fall to the desert floor and sob her eyes out. There was no surrendering to that desire now. The heated warning of the big Gung-Ho Gun—Eric the Watchman, he called himself, in his upper fifties, silver hair and a snow-white mustache—held her to her feet as he brought her before the others of his group. Her cape was draped over the big man's right shoulder, including all of her derringers—save one, she thought, though she didn't dare risk even a glance to her boots at that moment, for fear the Gung-Ho Guns would see the movement. He held the stock of both rifles in his grip, with the barrel of each weapon planted firmly in the shoulder blades of his captives as he pushed them along.

By the glow in the old fart's eyes as they approached, Meryl knew that he'd been waiting for this moment. He stood there, hands clasped behind his lanky, almost fragile form, as he held his gaze on both women. His grin grew, sinister, lacking any semblance of compassion.

This was the man her father had given away his life for? Meryl fumed, her fists clenched.

"Ah, Eric. It seems to me that you are the only member of your team whose worth proves more than face value." Quinn strolled up to each women, peering them each in the eye. "The daughter of a dear friend," he said quietly, glaring at Meryl. "I'm sure you would be grateful to know that his price for service has been payed in full."

Meryl glared. "Go fuck yourself," she hissed.

The old man blinked and grinned. "A feisty one," he said quietly. "You remind me of the man your father once was." He moved on, focusing his nasty smile on Faye. "And good old Lucy." He traced the length of her inner thigh with the cold barrel of his pistol, his face close to her torso, and brought it to a stop at her crotch. "My old friend. Does it still burn, hot pants?" Hot breath sprayed on her cheek through his gritted teeth. "If it doesn't now, it will later, I assure you."

He didn't wait for her answer. Instead he turned from the girls to their captor. "Any word from the bounty hunter?"

"No sign yet," Eric replied.

"No need to worry about Vash, Miss Stryfe," Quinn said cheerfully. "He'll turn up soon enough. Either dead, or to die. One way or the other."

Meryl couldn't take her hateful stare off of him. Rage raced through her thoughts and took the place of rational thought. She spit in his face.

A grim smile remained etched on his face as Quinn reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. He peered darkly up to the Watchman. "Take our guests down to the control room. We'll be ready to move soon."

Eric nodded and gave each of the girls a shove with the rifles. Faye shot him a dirty look after stumbling forward a step, but she knew better than to grumble about her disposition. Her fear had evaporated, becoming nothing less than pure, unadulterated hate. She glared with teeth clenched and waited for an opening. Meryl was proud. The girl was undoubtedly strong.

They headed toward the giant dome. The Millennium Arc, Vash had told her. Meryl gawked up at the massive structure as they approached. Eric wasn't in the mood to slow the pace, so nudged her forcibly with the barrel of her own weapon.

"Move, missy," he grumbled.

So this was the command center. Meryl stared about with wide eyes at the immense room, filled from wall to wall and floor to ceiling with equipment that she had neither the ability nor the desire to comprehend. The only problem was that nothing appeared to be working. Meryl wondered what the point was. There didn't even seem to be any power here. Vash had said the Millennium Arc didn't operate by normal means, that nothing he knew had ever been able to activate the power of the command center of the ship. What was Quinn planning on doing with it?

Quinn moved about the room with wide eyes, eager to move on. The moment of truth was near. He rubbed his hands together as he approached what could only be the primary viewscreen. Eric forced the girls into a pair of chairs off to the side and had one of the younger Gung-Ho Guns tied their wrists behind their back.

"Leave us," Quinn said gently. "And send for Morgante and the otherprisoners." For a moment, Meryl wondered who he was talking about. All of the Gung-Ho Guns, save the one who had captured her and Faye, slipped quietly from the room. Meantime, Quinn lowered himself into the big chair that rested before the viewer.

Eric eyed Meryl and Faye somberly before he strode quickly over to join his boss. Meryl watched him walk away, and shared a quick, worried glance with her new friend.

"What's going on?" the bounty hunter whispered.

"I don't know," she whispered back.

"Silence," Quinn said, swiveling in his chair to glare at the girls. "You will know it all in due time." He glanced down to the armrests of his chair, smiling in turn to each of them. "Miss Valentine?" Faye blinked up at him in surprise. "That's right, Faye. I know who you are. You might think it bizarre that I could possibly know. What's even more bizarre to me, though…is how you came to be here. How you came to walk amongst us here on Gunsmoke. You shouldn't be here, you know."

"Christ, you bet I know," Faye grumbled.

Quinn smirked and turned from her. He reached down and picked something up off the floor. He lay whatever it was across his lap. Faye blinked in surprise and shot a look to Meryl. She looked back and shrugged. "What is it?"

"It's Ed's laptop!" she whispered. "Ed's here!"

"Your friends are all here," Quinn said, swiveling back to them, but only briefly this time. He turned back to the screen. "Well, all but the young man. He's preoccupied at the moment. I'm afraid he won't be joining us any time soon."

He stared up to the viewscreen. A dark smile crept across his features as he typed in a series of commands. The girl was brilliant, he realized. She'd done something no human he had hired had ever been able to do. Only two others had accessed the Millennium Arc, and they were not human. His smile turned briefly to Faye.

"This Ed of yours. She's quite brilliant."

Faye glared, but she held her tongue.

"Quite brilliant indeed." He stopped typing, and looked up. All around him, the lights of the command center started to flicker on. The room, once dark and ominous, quickly came to life with blinding, white illumination. Quinn sat back, watching his world, the world he had so often longed for, his hope for a future of his own domination, roared into existence. "Welcome, friends, to the Millennium Arc, the true calling of Paradise!"

Meryl shared a look with Faye. She looked dumbfounded; Meryl couldn't blame her. She felt the same way.

Quinn set the laptop aside and rose then to his feet.

"Computer, activate Rem Saverem Holographic Sequence."

Meryl's heart stopped.

The image of a woman shimmered into existence, standing in the center of the vast room. She interlocked her fingers at her narrow waistline, staring off into nothingness. Then, as if she had suddenly stirred to life, the hologram blinked and looked slowly about. "Edward?" she asked. "You've summoned me?"

"I'm afraid not, Miss Saverem," Quinn replied, strolling slowly over to the image before him. "The dear child's gone missing. I have my best people searching for her."

Rem's arms fell limp to her sides as she stared. "Quinn."

"Yes, Rem. Quinn." He came to peer to her face-to-face. Meryl trembled in that instant. They were identical height, though Quinn was made a tad shorter, as age had caused a troublesome stoop in his stature. "I am so touched you remember me."

"How could I forget you, Jed? You were the one who stole Alex from me."

Alex? Meryl wondered. Her mind raced, wondering if Vash had ever mentioned that name to her before. She didn't think so, but she thought that maybe he had mentioned that Rem had loved somebody, and that his passing had forged her destiny, had led her to Project SEEDS and the stars respectively, and eventually to Vash and Knives and, ultimately, her death. Her blood had begun to curdle. Rem knew Jed. But that would make him older than Vash. How could that be?

"Rem, the time of Gunsmoke is at an end. You know this world was a failure from day one. And those creatures are the ones that ended it. I need you to deactivate the safehold so that I can take the Millennium Arc away from this heinous place."

"You seek power," Rem said quietly. "The people here seek only life. To take the Millennium Arc from them now would only lead to death."

"Wrong, my dear. I seek knowledge."

"At the price of lives, you seek knowledge that will only strengthen yourself. You seek power." Rem peered away. "That I cannot allow."

In that moment, the door to the command center hissed open and five figures slid into the room. Meryl shot a look out of the corner of her eye and spotted Milly amongst the crowd. Her heart began to race. She was standing, and she looked unharmed, but exhausted. With her were two people she didn't recognize, and a tall plant-spawn in Vash's red trenchcoat. Stryker, she realized. There were also two men, one a prisoner and the other his captor.

He was the only one whose arms were clasped in front of him. Rings of titanium had clasped his hands to his elbows, where he couldn't cause any harm. She wondered if it was enough, but then again, seeing the man behind him, taller and brawnier than any human being she'd ever seen, his body partially replaced by cybernetic implants, she understood why they didn't seem quite so worried about Stryker's presence.

Her father planted a boot into Stryker's back, forcing him to his knees, and then onto the floor. Meryl's stiffened. Tears welled up in her wide eyes as they shimmered up to Richard Stryfe, known as Morgante the Warhead to the Gung-Ho Guns.

"Ah, the Alpha Sample," Quinn said. "And do you have the weapon?"

Morgante strode toward his boss. He didn't so much as glance in Meryl's direction. He slid the silver weapon from the holster at his hip and handed it slowly to the old man. Their was a glimmer of jubilant excitement in his eyes. The holographic image of Rem stood silent, staring quietly at the weapon as Quinn slipped it slowly into his hand, caressing it gently.

"And the key?" he said.

"He didn't have the key," Morgante said slowly. "He never did."

Quinn smiled. "Oh?"

Morgante nodded slowly. "You think Knives would trust the Alpha Sample with it? There was another reason that he chose me. He wanted to keep the key close to Vash, where he could keep an eye on it. He asked me to deal with it, so I did."

Quinn cocked his head. "Full of surprises, aren't you, Mr. Stryfe? And where did you leave the key, then?"

Morgante turned then and fixed his stare on his daughter.

The realization struck Meryl like a thunderclap. Her heart began to pound. Morgante was on her in three, long strides. He loomed over to her, wrapping a powerful fist about the cross at her neck, and ripped the chain free.

He turned then and strode from her, and held it out to the old man.

Quinn grinned. "Brilliant."

He took the key and turned away. Rem watched as he approached the main viewer. Everyone sat breathless as he loomed over the console there and slowly stroked the key with his fingertips. Meryl realized in that moment her father had indeed given her the key with just this moment in mind. He had led her, in his own way, to Bernardelli and Milly, and in turn to Vash, to their grand adventure, and eventually to their destiny.

It seemed destiny would not be smiling this day.

Her heart ached. Where was Vash? She feared she knew, feared that he had somehow fallen before he could complete his task.

Now, Meryl was alone.

The old man peered over to her. "Watch now, as I seal our fate."

Quinn leaned forward to place the key into the console, though she couldn't see exactly where he intended to put it. Before he could, the console lit up and the screen flashed red. "Incoming transmission," Rem said in a monotone voice, approaching Quinn. The old man's eyes flashed in anger at the sudden intrusion.

"Well?" he demanded.

"On primary viewscreen," she replied. In that moment, the image of the desert appeared. Meryl's heart fluttered again. Thousands of plant-spawn had lined up just outside the Millennium Arc. They were waiting.

Quinn smiled. "God truly smiles down on me. It is almost done."

Meryl blinked. "What's that?"

He shot her a look, and then peered closer at the viewscreen.

"Nicholas!" Milly's voice cried out over the solemn silence. Meryl wasn't so sure, but someone was making his way through the crowd of clones. Not a clone. He was distinguished by a thick head of dark hair and a cross that he carried over his right shoulder. Soon, he pressed his way closer to the camera. His physical features grew more recognizable. It was the man who had been with Faye on the SEEDS ship Vash had destroyed. He was accompanied by one of the plant-spawn clones. The clone held a white bundle in his arms.

"It's Spike!" Faye started, her eyes wide.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Spike reached up to his mouth to pluck a nearly-finished cigarette from his lips and flicked it away. He then lifted the Cross Punisher from his shoulder and set it aside. He quickly took bundle from the clone and unwrapped the white cloth. He grabbed the contents and held it up before the camera. Meryl cried out in agony.

It was a head, battered and bloody.

A pair of lifeless green eyes watched back.