As a general principle, Vash didn't like lying. He didn't like lying, and he didn't like being lied to. It was true that he hadn't been lying when he told Lili he was going to a meeting, but he had made sure to omit a somewhat important detail. The idea for a sneak attack had been his. He was spearheading the entire operation. Preparations had been made for weeks now, and would have gone smoother if not for a minor setback.

The werewolf they had been holding captive had escaped. No one would admit to letting the werewolf free, but it had to have been someone in the village. Who else would have known where he was being kept? Originally, the werewolf had been thrown in the spare stall to keep everyone from panicking. It wasn't decided to keep him until Vash had suggested the raid. Having someone with a good sense of smell and hearing would come in handy once they were deep in enemy territory because Vash needed his plan to go off without a hitch.

He met with the rest of the attack party. They were actually the members of the original search party. It was decided they would be the ones to go since they had the most experience in actual combat against the werewolves. A few of the men had not been happy about the fact that they had to go back out into the forest, but the others grimly accepted it as necessary. Alfred was the only one who seemed to be excited about the whole thing.

"I'm gonna be the hero!" he shouted as the party moved toward the forest. The consensus had been to start the attack sooner than later.

No one bothered to shush him. Like Vash, they were probably too busy reliving the memories of that fateful night from almost a month ago. Through some miracle, no one had died. There were a large number of minor injuries across the group, and only two broken fingers. Matthew had been the only one to not get injured at all. Apparently, none of the werewolves had seen him during the battle. They just ran past him as if he weren't there at all.

Vash tried to use what he recalled of the last fight to help him come up with a strategy for this one. A surprise attack seemed to work well, so that was what he was aiming for this time. There was no way they could best the werewolves in speed or strength, so they were going to have to outsmart them. Maybe if they were lucky, they'd catch the wolves completely off guard while they were in their human forms. It would be easier to hit the vital spots of a human rather than that of a large wolf.

No one spoke as they were swallowed by the forest. Eerie sounds seemed to come from every direction, and some of the men shifted nervously. Even Alfred had quieted down and glanced around warily. They were at a disadvantage in a closed, shaded area like this, but they were just going to have to keep their fingers crossed that nothing would find them before they found the werewolves. Vash believed in making his own luck, but as they slowly trudged through the untouched wilderness he wished for whatever luck he could find.

"It's a little too quiet, don't you think?" Francis asked in a low voice. He was right. All the forest sounds from before seemed to have stopped. "Maybe Arthur's eyebrows scared all the animals away."

Arthur's head whipped around and he glared at Francis. "What did you say?"

"Guys, maybe now's not the best time for this," Alfred hissed.

Roderich adjusted his glasses. "For once I agree with the imbecile."

"Would you all just shut it?" Vash snapped before anyone else could get a word in. "Don't forget what we came here to do."

That killed the conversation instantly and gave Vash time to contemplate his own words. Why had they come out here? He had told Lili it was to protect her. He had said it was to keep them from being defenseless against future attacks. His grip on his rifle tightened as he realized he hadn't been telling the full truth again. In reality, he was scared. Never would he admit that to anyone, but he was scared of the werewolves. Scared that he could lose everything to them, and scared that he was powerless to stop it. He was just one person. How could he keep his sister safe from beasts that were a threat to their own kind?

He thought about the big pale wolf he had seen going after Lili. What had the other werewolves called him? Ivan? Vash didn't care for names, but he knew that this Ivan was their ringleader. If the head of the beast is severed, the rest of the body dies with it. That's why Vash had to cut the head before anything else happened, and the head was Ivan. His thoughts turned toward the other large wolf, Ludwig. He seemed to be the leader of his group, so if push came to shove, Vash might have to take him out too. He hoped it wouldn't come to that.

The sun was high above the canopy of leaves over their heads when they stopped for a break. They were almost at their target, so they decided it would be best to eat and rest now for the fight ahead. It was one of the quietest meals Vash has ever had with this particular group of people. Usually, somebody was talking or causing some kind of trouble, but everyone was focused on eating instead. Arthur and Francis weren't going at it, which was unnerving in its own way, even though their hands had accidentally bumped when they reached for their guns at the same time.

They finished quickly and were moving once again. Their progress was slow since they were creeping along as softly as they could in an effort to not broadcast their presence. It wouldn't end well if they were the ones who were attacked by surprise and not the ones doing the surprise attacking. Vash didn't want any unnecessary deaths to be stacked against him. Death wasn't something he reveled in. He may have been a good shot, but that didn't mean he enjoyed shooting people. If werewolves counted as people.

It wasn't long before they had found the small clearing where the werewolves had been before. Black ash was still streaked everywhere the fires had touched, and a few of the unstable looking shelters had actually collapsed. The strangest thing of all was that the area seemed deserted. Not a single living thing stirred except for the attack party. Vash watched anxiously for something to move, but nothing did. The lair was completely void of life. He was about to signal for everyone to break cover and investigate, but something was moving in the distance and getting closer. Six large, furry figures burst out of the undergrowth into the clearing, and Vash recognized them as Ludwig and his group. What in the world were they doing here?

"It looks like we beat them here," the white one, Gilbert, said.

Several of the other wolves were sniffing the air, but they all jumped back in surprise when someone walked out of one of the shelters. It was a tall man with a long white scarf wrapped around his neck. Vash felt like he was familiar somehow, even though he knew that he had never seen this man before in his life.

"What do we have here?" the man asked as he looked at the werewolves gathered in the clearing. "Have you come to finish us off?"

The white wolf seemed to sneer. "Only if that's what you want."

"Enough, brother," Ludwig reprimanded.

"You watch that tongue or it might disappear." Ivan may have said it pleasantly, but it was obviously a threat. Vash tensed as hostility saturated the atmosphere.

Ludwig shot him a look that clearly said he was not in the mood for a fight. "We're here to talk, Ivan."

"Oh? How unlike you." Ivan smiled. "What would you like to talk about first? Reasons why I should not kill you, or reasons why I should not kill your friends hiding in the bushes?"

Vash's eyes went wide. Ivan had known they were there the whole time. Ludwig and his group turned toward them with surprise, and Vash knew that hiding was futile. He stood, and the rest of his group followed.

"Big brother?"

Of all the voices he was expecting to hear, that was not one of them. He watched with a mixture of shock and curiosity as Lili slid off Ludwig's back. She did it with such grace and control that he wondered if she had done it before.

"Lili?" He was still too dumbfounded to find the right words. "What are you…?"

"I had to stop you!" she cried. "I couldn't let you do this."

"So you really have turned against us," Ivan said to Ludwig. "You have joined with the humans to destroy us. Us. Your own kind."

"No! It's not like that," Lili insisted. "We came to stop you from destroying each other." She looked back and forth between Vash and Ivan. "There has to be a better way."

"We'll never be safe while his kind roam the forest," Vash said through grit teeth. He hadn't counted on his sister to show up, but seeing her only helped to solidify his resolve. This was something he had to do. For the safety of everyone.

"I could say the same for you, human." Ivan's pleasant demeanor was all but gone. His expression had taken on the look of something much more twisted in nature as a crazed grin spread across his face.

"No! No!" Lili stood in between the two, but there was nothing she could do.

Vash raised his rifle, and Ivan crouched. Ludwig and his group looked on, unsure of what to do. There was the faint sound of footsteps as the rest of Ivan's group stepped out of the shadows into the light. Everyone watched tensely, and Vash could feel his heart in his throat. His finger itched on the trigger. One tiny jerk, and he could end this all. Right here, right now.

"What about a new treaty?"

It took everyone a moment to process what had been spoken. A small brown werewolf stepped forward and looked around for approval. He didn't seem to mind that he just stepped into a potential battlezone.

"We could just write up a new treaty since Lovi broke the last one."

Nobody moved, and nobody spoke. The words just hung in the air, rather precariously in Vash's opinion. His finger still hadn't moved from it's place on the trigger.

"Wait, is that even possible?" Gilbert asked.

"Why not?" the brown wolf, who Vash remembered was named Feliciano, replied. "As long as everyone agrees on it, it's as good as the last one, right?"

"He does make a good point," Ludwig agreed.

"So you are going to sign your freedom away again?" Ivan asked. He had been carefully listening to everything and stood up straight to address the other group of werewolves. "You are willing to let the humans tell you how to live?"

"No." Ludwig said it with such authority that even Ivan seemed taken aback. "This treaty will be written fairly for every group involved."

"And how will you guarantee that?"

"We'll need a moderator."

"A moderator?" Vash repeated. He finally lowered his weapon and allowed himself to relax. But only slightly.

"Yes, a moderator," Kiku said in a somewhat enthusiastic voice. "An unbiased third party that will even out the balance of power."

Arthur crossed his arms. "And where are we supposed to find someone like that?"

"I-I'll do it." All eyes were on Lili as she timidly raised her hand. "I'll do it," she said a little louder.

"You?" Ivan took a step closer to her, and she flinched away. "You are not what I would call unbiased, yes? It does not matter how much time you have spent among us. You are still a human."

"That's where you're wrong."

Without warning, her whole body shuddered. At the same time, a heavy rock seemed to fall into Vash's stomach. He didn't want to see, but he couldn't look away. His sister, his little baby sister seemed so far away. In her place stood a small wolf with fur as pale as cornsilk and eyes the color of mint leaves.