Please read the Authors notes at the end of this section.

Chapter 3

Heaven Sent and Hell Spawn

'I said,' snarled the tall, blond man, slamming the shop proprietor, Jason Bell, against the back wall of his booth, 'I want some doughnuts with silver sprinkles!'

Jason gibbered, out of his wits with fear. It wasn't so much the physical violence that was scary, it was the way the man was smiling, a horrid, evil grin which chilled his blood.

'I-I'm sorry,' he stuttered, 'but I don't have any!'

'You sold some to my brother, Vash, just over a week ago!' yelled the man, still smiling.

'Y-yes, yes, we had a lot of demand for those, but we've run out! There aren't any more left!

'Then where did you get them from?' the man's voice was sugary sweet, dripping with wicked intent.

'I-I got them from a m-man who was passing through here last week.'

'What did he look like?'

'I can't remember!'

The maniac slammed him against the wall again, his smirk did not abate, Jason couldn't help but let out a shrill scream.

'A hood, a hood!' he shrieked at last, 'he was wearing a hood! I couldn't see his face!'

'Oh? And do you often buy produce from mysterious men in hoods?'

Jason whimpered and quietly wet himself.

Sighing, the tall man let him go, or rather threw him away. Jason landed hard on the sandy floor of his booth and quickly crawled backwards, attempting to get as much distance between him and the maniac as possible.

Said maniac, mean while, smoothly leapt over the wooden plank that was the serving bar for the stall, his blue coat tails flying out behind him. He landed easily and proceeded to examine the ground beneath him, acting as if Jason didn't even exist.

Which was something Jason was very glad of.

A few moments later he seemed to have found something. Reaching under the counter he rooted around in the dust. Straining his eyes Jason just made out that he was picking up something… silver things, out of the dirt. He was collecting up the silver sprinkles that had fallen from the doughnuts as they were served.

At last it seemed he had found them all. He straightened up, tossed Jason one final, evil smile, and leaped back over the counter before sauntering away.

'Mysterious men in cloaks?' the barkeeper, a dark skinned, slender woman who was forever cleaning glasses, laughed harshly, 'sir, we got those guys coming out of our ears ever since Vash the Stampede moved into town. One wacko actually called this place 'quaint!' can you imagine that? Load o' of freaks, I'm telling you.'

'Yes,' snapped Knives, tapping his finger irritably on the table, 'but was there any… exceptional? Anyone that stood out more than usual?'

'Nope,' the bar tender replied, 'not that I noticed, just a steady stream of weirdoes,' she sighed and cocked her head, as if dredging her memory, 'the only odd thing to happen recently was that ghost sighting.'

Knives' ears pricked, seeing his interest the bar tender continued, 'Ol' Billy says he saw something, a few days back, maybe he can tell you more?'

Knives nodded and strode out.

'That's one more freak to add to the tally,' the woman muttered under her breath as he left.

Old Billy turned out to be a gangly, ragged man who lived on the very edge of town. He wore a torn shirt and dungarees, only one strap of which was done up. Spittle flew from his wrinkled mouth as he ranted at Knives, his skinny arms waving about manically, his grey beard waggling along with his over sized mouth.

'Yes siree I saw it! Huge it was! Bigger than any bird, black as black against the night sky! Blocked out the stars it did! And moan! My, did it moan! Like the shrieks of the damned it were, moaning and groaning above me as it zoomed over! Feared for my life I did!'

'Did you?'

'Too righty! But I ain't too sure it's ghosts no more!'

'You ain- I mean aren't?'

'Nope, I reckon it was them aliens, come to take us all away! My ol' grand papa, he said that they use ships, jus' like that! I reckon that they're gonna come and take us all up and… and do stuff to us! I reckon this is the end friend!'

'The end?'

'Aye, the end! Hark my words, it's comin' the end of the world, the final bow of the human race! Judgement day is upon us brother!'

'We can but hope…' muttered Knives ruefully under his breath.

'What's that sonny?'

'Never mind,' said the Plant, trudging away again, paying no more attention to Old Billy as he continued to rant and rave behind him.

'I don't know,' sighed Meryl, 'I just have a really bad feeling about this.'

'I know what you mean,' agreed Millie, 'Mr Vash is really sick.'

The two women were sitting at a small table outside their local café, not the one that Meryl worked out (she knew what they did to the coffee there,) but another one in the high street. As always, it felt odd talking about people like Vash the Stampede in such a normal, quiet setting.

'You think so?' she asked Millie, 'he seems to be just faking it…'

'Oh, he's just acting like that so that we won't worry,' said her perceptive partner, carefully sucking the last of her ice cream from her spoon.

Meryl nodded, once she would have argued otherwise, but she knew to trust Millie's judgement in this. Millie had a habit of seeing what was actually there and, whilst this meant she lacked all subtly, it also meant that she could be relied upon to read people, especially those like Vash, very well.

Besides, now she knew the gunslinger a bit better it made a lot of sense.

Meryl sighed and stirred her coffee absently, sometimes she wished Vash would trust them a little bit more. Didn't he know that, after all they'd been through together, they were capable of handling the truth? That they could take care of things, or at least not make matters any worse. She hated being uninformed.

'What about Knives then,' she said at last, 'do you think he can be trusted? I don't like it Millie, not one little bit. I don't think he caused this but…'

'I don't think Mr Knives would do anything to hurt Vash now,' said Millie, 'he seems a lot better.'

'Does he?' Meryl sighed, 'I'm not so sure.'

'He hasn't killed or hurt anyone, we'd know and so would Vash.'

'True, but that doesn't mean he's changed for good. Knives is unstable Millie, he might be all sweetness and light now but will he be like that in a few days time? He's volatile.'

'So is Mr Vash.'

'Yes but, though I never thought I'd say this, Vash has more control. He has morals.'

'So does Knives I think, just… different ones.'

Meryl shrugged, 'maybe, but we'd better keep an eye on him.'

'Yes Ma'am.'

'Millie…'

'Yes?'

'Um… are you alright with this? I mean Knives… he did… ah…'

'I'm fine Ma'am,' Mille blurted, grinning, 'just fine, don't worry about me!'

Meryl narrowed her eyes at that large, almost too happy smile. She'd seen expressions like that on Vash, it was probably where Millie had picked up the habit.

'Millie…' she began.

'Ooh look,' interrupted the tall woman, 'there he is now, Mr Knives! I wonder if he's found out anything new…'

Meryl doubted it, Vash's irritable and irritating twin had been stalking the town streets for the past few days, picking up information and he'd found little conclusive yet. Meryl wouldn't have minded as much, except Vash wouldn't hear of him staying anywhere else other than with him and the girls. Which meant they had to put up with the rehabilitated, snappish psychopath twenty four seven.

Knives, hearing his name mentioned, strode towards them and pulled himself up a chair from a near by table, much to Meryl's annoyance.

'Where's the waitress?' he grunted, 'I need coffee.'

'I'm sure she'll be along directly,' said Meryl coolly, her dislike for the icy Plant going up a few notches, she hated grumpy customers, even if they weren't hers at the moment.

'Have you found out anything?' asked Millie, her voice hopeful.

'No,' growled Knives, 'I'm reduced to scrounging around for doughnut sprinkles and investigating crack-pot ghost sightings, if you'll believe it. There's nothing here, no clues whatsoever, or nothing obvious any way… I'm beginning to think that I might as well give up.'

'But you can't give up!' protested Millie, half rising out of her chair, 'Mr Vash needs you!'

'I'm not talking about that,' replied Knives, 'what I mean is that I don't think this place holds anything else for us. No clues and no way to help Vash.'

'You're suggesting we leave?' asked Meryl, displeasure evident in her voice.

'I'm suggesting my brother and I leave, if you insist on tagging on with us that's entirely your business,' Knives sniffed disdainfully.

Meryl clenched her fists on the table and resisted the urge to tip her still half full cup of coffee over the arrogant Plant's head. She opened her mouth to say something sharp but, luckily for all involved, Millie headed her off.

'So where are you thinking of going to?'

'I've been running a few ideas through my head,' said Knives, 'and I suppose the best place to go would be…'

'Home!' crowed Vash, his eyes alight with joy, 'that's great!'

'Home?' echoed Millie,' but Mr Vash, I thought this was your home?'

'Well, it is… kinda… but it's not my home, I mean… it's not like… well… Sky City, not like my real home.'

'So why have you been staying here with us these past few months then?' enquired Meryl, her voice icy, 'if you've got a home to go to?'

'Um… to make your job easier?' said Vash, hopefully, 'besides, I thought you liked my company!'

Meryl muttered something under her breath that not even the keen eared Plant brothers could catch.

'So,' said Knives, deciding to get the conversation back on track, 'you agree that it is a good idea?'

'Sure I do,' replied Vash, 'it's the best place, it has all the technology we could need and no one alive knows more about Plant Biology than the Doctor. He'll fix me up in no time!'

'Then it's settled,' said Knives, 'we're going to Sky City!'

'Hold on,' barked Meryl, 'how exactly are we going to get there? Walking is out of the question, Vash is in no condition for it for one thing and for another it would take months! Stand Steamer or Bus would take almost as long, when you count delays between transfers and we haven't got any sort of car. And stealing one,' she glared at the two men, 'is not an option.'

'Don't worry Ma'am,' put in Millie, much to everyone's surprise, 'I've got an idea!'

Knives could barely hold himself back from openly gawking at the scene, he'd never encountered anything quite like it outside toy and sweet shops. It was the most accomplished piece of manipulation he'd witnessed for a long time.

'A-and he's just been getting worse!' wailed Millie, fake tears streaming down her eyes, 'I'm so worried about him Mr Mark, I don't know how we're going to get him to that specialist hospital in December!'

Mr Mark, a tall bearded man, didn't seem quite sure what to do with himself. He learned towards Millie and put a meaty hand on her shoulder, 'Um, it's OK,' he stuttered, 'I'm sure it'll all work out some how…'

'But how will we get him there in time!' Millie sobbed, her tears running fast, 'he's going to die! I just know it! And there's nothing I can doooo!'

'There, there,' soothed Mark, 'you… we… hey, why don't I lend you my Jeep?'

Millie wiped the tears from her cheeks and looked at him, wide eyed, 'what?' she asked.

'My Jeep, I'm not using it at the moment, you can use to get Mr Vash to that hospital, so long as you take care of it.'

Millie clapped her hands joyously, 'oh Mr Mark,' she squealed, 'you're so kind! How can we take it?'

'Well if you-'

'Of course we will,' interrupted Millie, picking the bulky man up and swinging him round as if he were no more than a child, 'oh thank you! Thank you!'

From the corner of his mouth, Vash whispered, 'quite something, isn't she Knives?'

Knives could only nod.

'It's amazing what people will do for love,' continued Vash, his eyes lingering on the sight of Mille and Mark. 'You know,' he continued, 'you should find someone like that, not Millie necessarily… but there are some girls around who-'

'I'm not interested in girls,' growled Knives before his brother could get any further.

'Oh,' responded Vash simply and, much to Knives relief, dropped the matter.

AUTHOR NOTES:

Hello, right a couple of small notes to make here.

1: About Vash's condition, as fun as it is to spin it out, I really don't want to loose readers by this. So I can assure you all now that Vash isn't pregnant. I'm not saying what IS happening to him, or why, but this WON'T turn into an M-Preg. You have my promise on that.

Secondly there comes the question of Reader Responses. Now, I LOVE reviews, and long reviews really make my day. Indeed, one of the reasons why this chapter is coming in a little early is the quality and quantity of reviews I've got. It's wonderful to see! However, that said, it does lead to a problem. In that FFN isn't that happy about lengthy review replies (which your reviews certainly merit!) in a story. This leaves me with a small quandary, which I put to you to answer…

Would you like me to put review replies in my LJ?

What this would mean is that you continue to review as normal but, on the same day I post the latest chapter of EC (Eden's Children,) I post Review Replies on my LJ (found via my profile link.) This is good for three reasons: 1: It keeps FFN mods happy. 2: it means that I can reply on a more personal basis, (and reply at length, my LJ takes anonymous posters.) and 3: it gets people into my LJ, which means more people to read my otherstories! (OK, that last one's good for ME, but still…)

The downside, of course, is that it does mean you'll have to check my LJ for your replies, which may or may not be a good thing.

So basically I'm asking for a vote, if you don't mind/want the LJ Review Replies, then say so, otherwise I'll continue as I am and we'll just have to take the risk over the FFN mods. OK? Cool. Now, onto the real Review Replies…

Review Replies…

Once more thanks for all your replies, the more I get the faster I update! (though I'll ALWAYS update within a month, so don't worry about that.)

Jillian S: No, as I've mentioned, he's not pregnant, but there IS something seriously wrong with him… but you'll have to wait to see what…

Alan Quicksilver: Hello! Glad to see you're still around. Thank you very much, I'm glad you like it. No real pointers on the sequel thing, just have a good story and make sure it fits with your last one, really. Hope this contuse living up to your expectations, let me know how your own story goes.

Tir-synniYay! Not that slowly, once a week is gonna be about the benchmark. But with some of the cliff hangers I've got ready… well, let's say it might seem a little longer… hehehe…

LeDiz: You couldn't be unimpressive if you tried. Good luck with the Sandwich, I reckon they must make sandwiches with sand, I mean there's so much of it! Does Ilyana rock? I think she rocks, she's insane, but she rocks. What did you think of the Anime antics in this chapter? Yeah, scary dreams also rock. Lots of things rock. See my notes for Vash and pregnancies. Oh, and to be fair, Knives DID smile. He did a lot of smiling, hehehe. Yeah, humans are strange, strange creatures, but we're so much fun to work out! I like the huge review, it makes me happy and feel all literary and stuff. Go me!

Hope-is-4ever: Don't worry, there's more Meryl/Knives interaction to come. And also more Vash/Knives, Vash/Meryl, Millie/Knives, and some Vash/Millie. In short, lots and lots of interaction. It's the best bit of writing! And the month thing is only if I get very few reviews. At this rate it's gonna be one every week, or less!

Maria: I'm very glad you liked it, ICness means a lot to me. As does humour, though as you read you'll see a range of stuff appearing, humour/angst/mystery, lots of stuff. Please keep reviewing and telling me what you think of it.

Magnet-Rose: Glad to see you here! Can you supply a link to that Knives picture? I've no idea where it came from and I'd kinda like to see it again… Saying you like it is enough, though if you can think of any bits you particularly liked, or bits that didn't quite work for you is cool too. And speculation's always fun. Anyway, it's always good to see you around, hope this chapter was good too.

Ravenclaw42: Great to see you around! I'm happy that you're enjoying this, though it's spooky the way so many of our chapter titles are the same… I'm thinking about E-mailing you with the rest of them to make sure it doesn't continue to go that way… A lot of people preferred the Prologue, and that makes sense. It was the last thing I wrote on this… (yeah, I know, strange. But I wrote an epilogue and if you write an epilogue you kind of need a prologue so…) This story actually follows the formula of the anime in that the beginning will contain quite a bit of anime humour. The ending… well… you'll see. And if you guess exactly what's happening to Vash, then you REALLY deserve a cookie. Some people have strayed close to the answer already, but none of them have touched upon WHY. Hehehe… see you next time I hope!

Inkydoo Nope, not pregnant. The Razor? Ah, you'll learn a little about that in the next chapter. But isn't it cool?

Glass Bullet: Yeah, killing Vash is fun. Oh my God! You killed Wolfwood! You Bastards! Heheheh. Please keep reviewing if you can! It makes me feel good to see such cool authors looking at my stuff.

Lunis: Yeah, this is already finished, but I'm putting it up bit by bit because… well, it's more fun that way. I'm evil, I know. The chapter was OK, but not much happens. This chapter is a bit the same really, but from now on it gets a lot better.

Angelstryke: You CANNOT escape the blurbs! I'm happy that bit worked for people, I love being cruel to Bounty hunters, especially female ones which are supposed to stereotypically fall in love with Vash or Knives :sigh: Meryl's working is she? Good, I found myself having great fun writing her, I must confess. And don't worry about the Pregnancy rout. It's not happening, I just loved stringing you guys along, that's all. But please, give me SOME credit! What if the disease is infectious? Oh, wouldn't that be just terrible for poor Knives! Would I do a thing like that? Mmmm? The Razor will be partly explained later. But at least some of it comes from the fact I thought it sounded cool. I may yet enter the dark side with this story… you never know…

And keep up the rambling reviews, I LOVE rambling reviews, though the Mods might not like Rambling replies so much… :sigh:

Ain of Knockaine: As I said, it's going to depend on the amount of reviews I get. I'll post once a month at the VERY least. But if I get a reasonable amount of reviews, I'll post as much as once a week. Or even more! That answer your question?

Alowl: Hello! Glad to see you around! Yeah, this is a lot more action orientated, but there's plenty of emotional and thoughtful stuff here too, plus some character development. Loved your fan-poetry by the way. It rocked. And as for your idea on the… ah… condition… well you'll see… you'll see…

Reiora: … have a cookie. No seriously, have one. You've just said something very… well… important. Hehehe. You are on the ball. I'm glad Knives is amusing you. You're one smart person, you know that:grin:

Gothmiko: I'm glad you liked How Far is Eden. And it's loverly to see you here. Please keep reviewing, as for what's happening to Vash… well you'll just have to wait and see.

IRS: YAY! Thanks so much for reviewing, it means a lot. The back story to his nickname will be revealed in the next chapter. The bounty huntress seems to have tickled a lot of people. I like having a little Anime style humour in this, makes it feel more… Trigun like. I look forward to hearing your theory. Please keep reviewing it means a lot to me. Oh, and keep on writing Silver Stars to, damn it!

NEXT TIME: The fic really gets started! Stories are told, an old acquaintance returns, bullets fly, blood stains sand, a strange love blossoms, the desert sparkles. Can YOU afford to miss it?