-----DISCLAIMER-----

**To the tune of "Men Are Not Nice Guys"...**
I . Don't . Own . Tri-gun .
**dances away**

-----AUTHOR'S NOTES-----

Lynda: Mwa! Hey Miss Eriks, your convention sounded cool! You should've walked up to one of the guys and said 'You are naive. I could've killed you at least 5 times during this convention..." Then run away before they can respond anything about groping.
I'm envious. Us Aussies don't have anime conventions... Ok, thats probably a lie, but I don't know about 'em. Sigh. ANYWAY, back to the story, Lynda... **uses evil concentration powers**

**Evil concentration powers fail miserably**... I went clothes shopping the other day (Ick my number one most loathed passtime) and I found a cool jacket! I said, 'Hey, sis, look at this really cool jacket! I want it!' She took one look at it, hit me upside the back of the head and walked away muttering "Of course. Vash Jacket." It was a funky jacket. Very Vash like. I shall return to that store, just to buy it. Sigh.

Beautiful Lady: Mwa, you've been picking up all my carefully laid plans! And don't worry. Everything, even the mysterious disappearing cat claw marks will be explained... ^_^;; I'm that kind of perfectionist.

Kuroneko: Mya... =^>_<^=

-----*+*-----

'-he levels are all down. We had trouble fusing them, but I'm sure the new batch will be perfectly in line.'

'I hope so for your sake. Surely not that much of the Factory was destroyed?'

'Enough of it, Master. The conveyor belt on the assembly line is completely ruined. We had to resort to manual labour.'
The room was spinning. Or rather, the floor was still but the ceiling was spinning in a mechanical kind of way. It was disconcerting. There were ropes and cranes... And the stench of oil. It was overpowering.
I don't know why I'm here. And who is this man?

'What else are spiders useful for?' I ask, not knowing where the words were coming from but having my mouth issue them anyway. My body shifted on its own accord. A hand rose and pointed to a crate, again without my own consent. 'How about those? Are these functioning?' I query in a voice that wasn't mine.

'No. They are hugely unstable and not on the correct Plane. We didn't even bother testing their fidelity. They are on their way to the furnace now, Master.'

'Are they burnable?'

'Something to do with fire... We're not entirely sure.'

'But the Factory can be fixed?'

'Yes, My Lord.... We... Require funds, however. Which is why I contacted some associates at the Bernadel-'

'So it was you who brought attention from the outside?' I ask sharply. Accusingly. Which is strange because I had no idea as to what was going on.

'I- Well yes, but you see, the money is needed and it's only insurance. They will reinburse us fo-' the man stuttered, staring with horror into my eyes. I wanted to back away. I could not.

'But outsiders will be here. In my town. Near my Factory.' the voice from my throat continued coldly. It was horribly familiar yet irrevocably alien.

'They won't discover anything! And they wouldn't believe it if they did see it!' the unfamiliar man burbled, clipboard in hand, shaking in fear. Who was he and why was he talking to me? Everything about this place reeks of death and... And... Evil. I don't like it. The mouth I thought was mine opened.

'I won't accept failure. My Demons will see to that.' I said calmly, walking towards the small person in front of me. I tried to stop myself but failed.
It occured to me suddenly that I wasn't this man at all.

'Please, My Lord, I'll deal with the Investigators! Just let me-'

'You have made your last error, Spider. They say to err is human. It truly is your loss.' A hand raised, fingers poised to click.

I screamed mentally. I knew death came with the snap of digits and I wished with everything I had that those fingers did not move. Surprisingly they shuddered to a halt. The small scientist looked close to passing out, but the near audible beat of his heart was relief itself. Again the fingers quaked with effort to move, but failed.

DON'T.

I put as much force into the mental command as I possibly could. It worked.

'Get out of my sight.' my mouth snarled as the small man hurried away as fast as decency allowed. Relief. I settled back down into the back of this mind. The body I appeared to be riding shifted, this time turning to the machinery. I could sense the owner's aggrivation and confusion. It didn't matter. Life mattered. In the pause of activity, I wondered vaguely who I was and why I was here. I search of an answer, I watched as my host swept eyes over the metal...
We both froze at the same time. The reflection in a random hunk of smooth metal was the image the person I was within. This man stared deep into his own eyes and saw... Me.
I could not find any words.
The man's mouth moved.

'Vash...?' he asked.

Knives...? I asked back.

-----*+*-----

As the morning luminence seeped it's determined way into the dingy little Inn room, a Guardian Angel stirred. Yawning loudly, Vash pulled himself to a sitting position and ran a hand through his disheveled hair.

'What a weird dream...' he murmured, yawning again and glancing out the window.
Strange, because apparently Angels don't dream. It was one of the first things Wolfwood had told him. Vash, pondering this with the haze of half consciousness, made a sleepy survey of the room. Meryl and Milly were remarkably still asleep in bed, the slow and even breathing surprisingly reassuring. Again in surprise, Vash found Wolfwood also asleep, snoring ever so slightly.

To be the first of the strange group awake was a new and exciting experience; so rare that it made Vash forget his dream, the vague confusion that had accompanied it dissolving into nothingness. As he straightened himself out and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, the blonde reflected on yesterday's events.

Rattled and slightly wary of what was happening down stairs, Vash had pretty much abandoned his post. Slipping through the window, he had settled himself down on the roof and listened to the noises that were drifting up from the lobby, trying to decipher what was happening. Which wasn't much. There was, however, a strange feeling nudging at a sense he didn't even know he possessed. It was like a chill clawing at the base of his spine and Vash had felt it only once before. December. Eventually the front door had opened and the manager ran out, looking a little too scared to scream. More silence. Then, causing Vash to jump at the sound, gunfire.

Like some insidious creature, a dark streak had left the building in a hurry, taking with it the strange chill at the back of Vash's mind. Strange because he hadn't seen it enter. Quite some time later, Wolfwood finally came looking for him, slipping through the window with a near finished dog-end of a cigerette dangling from his lips. Upon query, the priest has simply replied that the disturbance was some indebted gambling friend. And obvious and almost painful lie, but Vash didn't push. He had only being lying to his friend since December; he felt he didn't really deserve a straight answer.

Pulling his thoughts back to the present, the $$60 Billion man watched as Milly stirred. Right on cue her Guardian Angel shifted and mumbled something incoherent, rubbing sleep from eyes. How Wolfwood had managed to synchronize sleeping hours with her was beyond Vash, but the priest never failed to wake up when his Guard did.

'Good morning.' Vash pointed out to his now waking companion, motioning to the light filtering through the ratty curtains.

'Wha's so damn good 'bout it?' Wolfwood snapped, grimacing as he managed to pull himself to his feet. He hurriedly stepped aside as Meryl stumbled sleepily out of bed and headed to the shower.

'What's wrong with you?' Vash asked, frowning.

'Winger Hangover.' the priest retorted promptly, then winced when he realized what he said.

'And that is...?' Vash asked, watching in confusion as the dark haired man avoided any kind of contact with the two living. Wolfwood scowled in a bid to not have to explain, but it didn't work.

'I... Exerted myself a little yesterday. My head hurts.' he offered snappishly, then returned to glaring at the walls.

'Exerted.' the blonde repeated, determined for a decent answer.

'Used too many of my Angelic skills. Now shut up.'

'Ok. Man, you're touchy.' Vash apologized, waving his hands in a submissive manner. He watched in mild boredom as Milly began strapping her gun to the inside of her cover-coat. 'Hey, what are we doing today?' he asked, turning to his all but snarling friend.

'I'm pretty sure we'll be checkin' out the mansion at the back of the town. Y'know? Claims Investigators?' the priest asked simply, the slightest hint of sarcasm texturing his tone. He motioned to the portable typewriter that was waiting on Meryl's bed.

'Then do we leave?' Vash asked hopefully. Running was always easiest.

'Quickly, if possible.' Wolfwood agreed, looking suspisciously, if not painfully out the window.

Time passed and silence was welcomed. It seemed to be occuring often lately, these bouts of private contemplation. There were too many thoughts to be sorted out. Too many thoughts to be hidden. Milly continued to prepare herself for the days events, which seemed to be largely made up of stungun loads and finding places to put the multitudes of ammo. Not for the first time, Vash wondered what kind of strength the girl possessed to be able to carry around that kind of weight... It was kind of scary and more than a little bewildering. He was contemplating this when the window slowly slid open on it's own accord.

Wolfwood and Vash's heads snapped up at about the same second as when the strange chill entered the room. Both on their feet in record time, the pair exchanged a glance and turned a scouring gaze to the now open window. The curtains billowed on the breeze and Milly shivered.

'Sempai must've opened the window...' she murmured after a good deal of staring at it in deep recollection. With a cheerful morning shrug, she went back to packing up the typewriter at Meryl's bed. Wolfwood was a great deal more tense.

'Oh, damn. I thought there was only one.' he muttered, his cross immediately in hand. Vash flickered his gaze to his companion momentarily.

'Only one of what?' he asked sharply.

'De-... I'll explain later. That's if we live through this!' the priest snapped angrily.

'... This could kill me?!' came the slightly vexed demand.

'You're already dead.' Wolfwood retorted waspishly. He looked ready to continue, but in an explosion of rock, mortar and glass, the window and half the wall surrounding it was blown open by a huge shape vaulting into the small room; it's frame by far too big for the small opening. Milly managed a cut-off scream before Vash quickly, if not carefully kicked her feet out of under her. She fell to the bed and he pushed the frame over onto its side, the wood and mattress the best shield in current circumstance. Wolfwood nodded in a hasty thanks and turned his attention back to the figure. Big was the best word that applied.

'And what are you meant to be?' the priest asked casually, slowly widening his stance and bringing his cross into position. The end was aimed at the new figure as if a weapon.

'Come, Angel. Surely you know that.' this man replied, grinning from beneath a yellow tinted visor.

'Yeah, you're right. So do you have a name, or do I simply call you Demon?' Wolfwood asked. There was a long pause. Then,

'Monev. I am Monev the Gale.' the Demon said simply. He promptly raised the machine gun attached to his arm and let loose a round at the light hanging from the ceiling. The bulb shattered and shards of glass rained down onto the room. It passed through both Vash and Wolfwood, the blonde barely remembering to be insubstantial in time.

'Demon?! You said nothing about Demons!!' Vash shouted at his holy counterpart, taking a quick glance at Milly and finding her taking shelter like a good mortal.

'Well I didn't think there would be any!!' Wolfwood shouted back, ignoring the new comer. He then motioned to Vash's forehead. Raising his fingers, Vash found himself bleeding. Again. The Demon's mouth fell ajar slightly.

'Two?! There are two Angels?!' he managed. After neither denied the fact, Monev snarled and raised his gun again. 'Then I'll have to take you both from this After Life!' he shouted.

'Not without a fight.' replied a casually aloof priest. Fingers found the clasps on his cross and with a flick, they began clacking open. In a tide of white clothe, the material billowed open to reveal a huge metal cross. Within seconds of freedom from the veiling fabric, the end snapped open to reveal that the cross, in fact, was a very big gun. Both Vash and Monev were speechless.

'Wha- That's a-?!' Vash managed as Wolfwood's finger found the trigger of the gigantic gun. Apparently, considering the chuckle that emerged from the Demon, Monev recovered quickly.

'A weapon weilding Angel.' he mused. 'I was warned. This promises to be enjoyable!' He laughed and adjusted his own stance. Vash managed to vault himself over the mattress about a split second before the bullets began to fly. Milly, who was in the process of getting up to investigate, was pushed back down for cover resolutely. She cried out at the strange invisible force, but stopped struggling very quickly. Vash knew that Wolfwood would berate him later for his lack of finesse, but that was if there was a later. And considering that tufts of mattress and splinters of wood were flying from their quickly dissipating shield, Milly would certainly not be invulnerable to the attacks. And the bed was receiving only debris and the occassional stray gunfire. A full-on assault would prove the futility of it's coverage, and Vash wasn't too thrilled about waiting for this to happen. Wolfwood seemed on the same train of thought, because the reckless exchange of gunfire changed tactics. Peering haphazardly over the beaten and now pathetic looking excuse of a bed, the blonde gunman took in the scene quickly. Unfortunately the size of the room had stifled any hopes for dexterity, so the priest had resorted to another strategem. A deftly artificed semi-circle of bullet holes in the ceiling had effectively brought some of the roof down on Monev, the break in activity giving him time to step forward into close range.

At around the same time as Wolfwood raised his Cross, Monev threw off the last of the debris and realized his situation. Slipping his large body past the barrel of the gun, the Demon circled and backed up hurriedly. Angel and Demon had effectively switched positions; Wolfwood with his back to the window and Monev with his back to the bathroom. Vash relinquished his grip on Milly enough to creep closer to The Gale, pausing when more gunfire started up. The blonde flinched when the sounds of showering ceased from the bathroom. Fantastic. There was little time before Meryl would emerge, and he was having enough trouble keeping an eye out for the big girl let alone a Guard he couldn't touch. Watching as Monev continued to back up, an idea sprung into the Winger's mind.

'Damn, Wolfwood's gonna kill me.' Vash muttered unhappily, but materialized the large cup of pudding anyway. Opening the lid, he quickly slid it across the floor to just under Monev's decending foot. Needless to say, the Demon's leg slipped out from under him. As he managed to halt his fall with a boot, the Gale finally turned his attention to the blonde.
Oops.
Despite being somewhat off-balance, Monev leveled his machine gun at Vash's head. It was a little late when the Angel realized that the Demon was still able to fire and take down both him and the huddled Milly behind him. Damn. Wolfwood? No, the priest was currently in the process of rotating his Cross onto his shoulder, for some obscure and unknown reason. Damn.

Hating circumstance and letting instinct take over, Vash raised his left arm. In a heartbeat of metal, the hand split and unfolded into what was most obviously a gun. Monev's eyes widened in realization as his off-balance position stole any chance for him to evade. The Angel let a single round fly. In a crack of metal on metal, the Demon's machine gun was blasted upwards, the bullets emerging from it harmlessly hitting the ceiling. At that moment, the gun on Wolfwood's cross snapped shut, whilst the other end pointing at Monev's chest sprung open. Vash could just make out a targe... Oh no.

In an explosion of smoke, the rocket launcher expelled it's load and sent the missile hurtling forward. Projectile connected with torso and Monev was thrown backwards, through the bathroom door, and by the sound of it, through the opposite wall. Under the stress, half the room's roof collapsed, bringing a ton of concrete and tiling into the small room. Seconds later the explosion of the rocket finally shook the building on it's foundations and the chill that had arrived with the Demon Monev The Gale, dissipated along with his existence.

'Se-SEMPAAIIII!!!' Milly finally managed as the dust had relatively cleared. Coughing and pulling themselves to their feet, two Wingers shot each other incredulous looks, the focal points being the other's gun.

'What's th-'

'Why didn-'

...

'What kind of a churchman are you anyway?!?' Vash demanded.

'You're one to talk! Why didn't you tell me you were armed?!?' Wolfwood retorted angrily. Milly's voice interrupted this little tirade, however.

'Oh, Sempai, are you alright?!' she asked, her voice laden with worry. Silently agreeing to discuss this little incident later, the pair made their way to what was left of the bathroom door hurriedly. Meryl, looking incredibly shocked and speechless, was sprawled on the tiles in the stun-frozen position of her tumble. Half the shower had been blown off along with the entire wall, but miraculously, the small woman appeared unhurt. She had obviously latched onto the shower curtain in her fall and brought it down with her, the expanse of material thankfully giving her some modesty.

'Wha- What the hell happened?!' she managed, still unable to get up from her limb out-flailed sprawl, one fist bundling curtain into it's white knuckled grip. Milly stepped forward and began to help her up. Grimacing, Wolfwood took a step back, rested his Cross against the wall and resolutely covered his eyes. Vash surrended his view long enough to raise an eyebrow at his comrade.

'Wolfwood?' he asked. The priest continued to grimace.

'You'll learn.' he said simply and enigmatically. 'Come on, we've got things to discuss.' he added, applying a bite to the word 'discuss'.

'In a minute, I want to see if my Guard's ok. You did nearly blow her up.' Vash replied stubbornly. 'It's not like it's- OW!' The blonde jumped as if hotwired, rubbing his neck and glancing around the room. 'What was that?!'

'Come on, Tongari.' Wolfwood said again, grinning this time.

'No, what was th- OW! What the hell was that!' Vash demanded, looking around for the little imp with the cattle prod.

'Not thinkin' unholy thoughts, are you Mr. Stampede?' the priest smirked.

'No, I'm just- OW!! OW- dammit!!'

'We're Wingers Vash, we do have rules y'kn-'

'OW!!!'

'Oh, for the love of-'

'OOOOWWWWW!!!!'

'TURN AROUND!! Damn, would you like to turn your thoughts back to nearly getting killed again for a minute?!' Wolfwood snapped, grabbing the back of Vash's collar and dragging him from the bathroom into the now shambles bedroom.

'What was that?' Vash whined, rubbing his head. 'I thought I was being electrocuted!'

'We are Angels. The Epitome of Good and Righteousness! You don't seriously think they'd let you think about anything remotely unholy, did you?! Now, please explain that arm of yours?!'

'What, we're not allowed any-'

'NO!! Would you like to tell me why you didn't use that gun before that Demon nearly killed us?!' Wolfwood demanded, picking up his Cross and proceeding to wrap it up again, occassionally shooting a glare at his Angelic companion.

'Well, why didn't you tell me there were Demons?!' Vash retorted angrily, finally shaking the feeling of being poked with a cattle prod.

'Because I didn't think I'd have to!'

'Well neither did I!' There was a heated silence. Then,

'Hey, Tongari.'

'What?'

'... What happened to that cut?' More silence. Vash's hand flew to his forehead guiltily and he found that, indeed, there was not any damage there. He failed to answer. Wolfwood glared at him.

'You've got some answering to do.' the priest noted.

'So have you.' Vash replied, albeit not as confidently.

'...I'll tell you when we get to the mansion. I've a feeling that everything's going on there.' Wolfwood supplied, swaying slightly.

'...Are you ok?' Vash asked, grabbing the black haired man's shoulder to steady him.

'Yeah. Just a Hangover, that's all.' he reassured, grimacing.

The rest of the morning was spent listening to the two insurance investigators trying to come up with an explaination for the room's destruction. It was most painful. Milly's favourite was that of a ghost, because she was sure she felt someone hold her down at one stage. Considering the destruction Wolfwood had managed to render unto the room, he was in no place to reprimand Vash, let alone be guilt free. They sat there and listened to the musings with an embarrassed nervousness. There was going to be trouble Upstairs eventually...

As Meryl and Milly finally managed to calm their nerves and get their stuff together, the strange group made their way out of the Inn and slowly to the mansion at the edge of town. Each to their own thoughts. And the day had only begun.

-----*+*-----

-----AUTHOR'S NOTES-----

Lynda: Damn, ain't it always the way. I hateth Bridge chapters. I was stuck after the first paragraph for sooooo long. Days and days and possibly weeks. I was contemplating just leaving it as it was and having it as a mini chapter. Then an idea struck me and I kept writing. And writing. And writing. Until I had a stupid and chunky chapter on my hands. The whole 'Unholy thoughts' thing was an idea that's been in my mind for some time, and although it doesn't really fit, I needed it there. Why? Because, believe it or not, it will inspire philosophy later. And I can't think of a place later in this story where it will be light hearted enough to stick in. Sigh.

Kuroneko: Mya!

Lynda: Hey, I killed off another Gung Ho Demon! Hurrah for me! Oohh... I get to write evilness next... But considering that I haven't really an idea as to how to write the damn chapter, it might take me a while. Sigh. Hey no biggie! Right, RIGHT?!

... I want that Vash jacket.