After days of questions, they still wouldn't tell me what I had said, any of them. The whole twisted family decided to stick around and adjust to the situation, so I had plenty of people to ask. I finally dropped it. Maybe I'll remember it some day, maybe I won't.

Then they had started... disappearing. One by one they all seemed to go out for groceries and didn't come back. Nim was the last one to go. I had found him leaving the house, and I had tried to stop him. He just turned around, winked at me, and then drove a bike I hadn't seen before off into the sunset, on an old Triumph cycle if I wasn't mistaken.

I still hadn't seen Knives, which I was grateful of, but he had said he wanted to talk to me, and the cold-hearted bastard kept his word.

When I found him sitting down to breakfast as I came down one morning the hidden tension hit me all at once.

Knives and Vash had been sitting across the table in their pajamas, angrily eating breakfast at each other.

They looked up when I came down and Knives smiled. "Chapel. We need to talk."

"Breakfast is getting cold." Vash said through clenched teeth.

"We won't be very long."

"Knives…"

"I told you I'll bring him back in one piece. I take your threats seriously, brother. We will only be a minute. Chapel, come."

He walked down the steps, and I followed him out into the garden. Looking back, I saw Vash stand up to watch us go, cereal bowl nervously clenched in his hands.

"I know you're nervous." Knives said as we walked, "You don't need to be. While my attitudes to your pathetic race remained, I've come to admit that occasionally individuals do have some value."

"Still… what have I done to deserve this level of charity?"

"You've made my brother happy. And you've proven that my wife might be out there somewhere. Besides, I promised Vash if this unlikely event did happen, I wouldn't interfere with your becoming reacquainted. In retrospect I should have never let him introduce me to Vodka and doughnuts in the same afternoon, but..." Knives waved his hand philosophically.

"Why did we need to be alone for you to tell me this?"

"My brother doesn't like it when I talk to those he cares about privately, and considering recent events I think he needs incentive to stay on his toes."

"So, you're trying to scare Vash into having more common sense?" I asked.

"Not entirely. You see, before things go any further than they already have, I need your word."

"My word on what?"

"That you take this seriously."

He came to a stop in the middle of a sunny patch of open sky in the courtyard, and looked at me in the eye. Through the eye, even.

"Vash was deeply affected with your last death. While it's understandable that all life is finite, I wish that he… that both of you… are able to enjoy yourselves for as long as can be arranged. "

"I agree." I told him, carefully. "But why is it important to you?"

"Meryl taught us that Vash and I are not separate beings with a strong bond. We are a single being in two bodies. For any true connection outside each other to work there must be mutual agreement between the two of us. It never works otherwise."

He paused for a moment, thinking, and then resumed walking. I followed him.

"Why are you asking me?" I said, "You were far more effective when you were threatening."

"Because, the simplest way I can see to keep both you and my brother safe is through your cooperation. Make no mistake, should you hurt my brother in any way that he doesn't deserve, I will inflict a death so excruciating that whatever scavengers, human or beast, who will later stumble on your remains afterward will be too repulsed to make good used of what is left. Do not tempt me Chapel. If you can remember anything you must remember that I've had ample time to examine your race. We know you can come back, and waiting is not a problem for anyone here."

"Right." I told him.

"But betrayal didn't even cross your mind, did it?"

"No."

"Good boy." He said, "Now. If you are able to remember even a tenth of your previous training, I suspect you can handle anything else that might come along within our clan. My children will warm to you once they accept it, and money is not a problem for us."

"You said that I needed to take this seriously."

"Yes. And that entails that you cut off any old ties you may have with the human race, and destroy any new ones if they threaten the connection you have with my brother.

We came to that magnificent wall of red and white roses.

"Before you answer…"

Cliffhanger? Yup. Why?

Because…

The Final Chapter of the Finding Life Series… is coming on Friday.