-----DISCLAIMER-----

Um... Yeeessss...¬¬;;
I'll just... Go get my reciept for Trigun now...
**Runs off into the distance**
**crickets chirp and months pass**

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

Lynda: Hallo! I'm back, and my fingers are ready fer typin'! OH YES inDEEDY!! ZOINKS!!!

Kuroneko: =^O_o^=;; Mya!?

Lynda: Hmmm... What else? Oh! Starah, the big event has NOT been written yet! I'll have a couple of chapters to let things settle then... BWA HA HA HA!! So no fear, you may prove to be right yet! And aren't you a clever little reader Miss Eriks?! She's quick! She's on top of things!!
Hmmm... I should write. **stares at keyboard** ... And not procrastinate. **stares harder** ...

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The double suns were bright, beating somewhat mercilessly down on the metropolis that was December city. Further into this city, slinking between the huge stone buildings and down into the shade, the humidity was muted. And thus the crowds were thicker. It was under the blue and white sun umbrella of the nearest coffee shop that two Insurance Workers were kicking back. It was lunch break, it was hot and it was time to relax. Milly was currently having herself a wonderful time with her pudding, Wolfwood was making use of the shade umbrella and Meryl was reading the newspaper while prodding her banana sundae distractedly.
Vash was spending his rest hours watching them all through tangerine tinted sunglasses. It was one of those rare moments in the turmoil of life in which everything was too pleasant to be true. It was like a snap shot of a picture book life; everyone unrealistically perfect, light falling in all the right places, calm and contentedness on every feature of every loved one.

It was surreal, and Vash wanted to bottle this perfection; horde it away for when the dark times returned. They invariably always did.

At that moment, as he suspected, shadow curled into the corners of the euphoric scene. Meryl's brow furrowed, she dropped her spoon into her sundae and shook the paper once to straighten it. Her expression darkened further.

'More disappearances.' she said flatly, finally, dropping the paper and wincing. 'This time in Little Jersy and New Miami.' Milly blinked in worry and looked up from her decimated pudding.

'3 people were missing in LR on Friday.' she murmured in contribute, eyes falling to the table top. Wolfwood and Vash exchanged a glance over the Insurance worker's heads.

'Apparently it's getting worse. The number of missing just keeps going up.' Meryl noted, sympathetic lamentation veiling her eyes. She lowered them. 'It's very sad. I wonder what's happening?'

'They say that all that's left of the missing are people's clothes! There was something like that at Mr. Knives' Mansion, but I had my hands over my eyes, so I don't know what happened...' Milly asserted, eyes wide. 'It sounds scary.' she added, returning her now half hearted attention to what was left of her pudding. Meryl winced and nodded slightly.

'I hope this trend of disappearances doesn't get as far as December.' the short woman murmured, her shoulders rising in a huddle, fingers retrieving spoon and scything into the icecream contemplatively. Wolfwood coughed slightly at the sentence.

'Don't set your hopes too high.' he muttered, exhaling heavily, his expression muted by all the smoke.

Vash lowered his face. The plague of Vaults was, as Knives threatened, slowly growing and expanding. So far December had been spared... But probably not for long. It was a big city. With a lot of people. Rather like a very large buffet line for your average Vault.
When the creatures did manage to come here, Vash found that despite their efforts, there wasn't anything they could do to help the people. Heaven in all it's infinite wisdom had forbidden both from leaving the immediate proximity of their Guards. There wasn't all that much they could do for the poor individual attacked on the other side of town, or in an alley. There was nothing they could do at all.

Gazing at twin suns through his sunglasses, Vash let himself drift into a familiar conundrum. What happened to the people after they were converted into a Vault? What happened to the soul? Surely it didn't disappear off the face of the planet. Surely.
Even if they didn't, it was still such a horribly significant problem that Vash found himself more than a little frustrated with Heaven.
It had been 2 and a half weeks since they had recieved the reply to their report. Time was ticking away steadily. And while they were waiting for action to be taken, the best the two Wingers could hope for was to keep their Guards safe.

Vash then turned his eyes to Meryl, who had finished her sundae and was currently turning the spoon between her fingers, the immense distance in her eyes indicating she was mulling over some large thought. It was easy enough keeping the woman out of trouble now, but when the city began to repopulate with Vaults, that's when things start getting dicey.
Luckily, ammunition wasn't an issue. Somehow, by means Vash wouldn't speculate on, Wolfwood had managed to secure them enough bullets to hold off for a couple of hectic days. The priest had simply walked away one day after returning from Carcasses, and, sometime later, had returned with the required ammo. When asked, he had replied, 'I have my connections.'

Vash didn't dwell on it.

'You know what, Sempai?' Milly suddenly asked, still sucking on her spoon in a hopes to gain some more elusive pudding from the completely empty cup in front of her. Meryl looked up, leaning back in her chair.

'What?' she asked, eyebrows raised expectantly. The brunette giggled and raised a finger matter-of-factly.

'It's your 4 month anniversary today!' she exclaimed, spreading her arms wide in gesticulation. Meryl blinked.

'Anniversary? Anniversary of what?' was the confused reply. The short woman cast a guilty glance at the scenery around her, obviously wracking her memory in an effort to remember what important date she'd forgotten.

'Of having your very own Guardian Angel of course!' Milly cheered. Meryl's demeanor faultered instantly and after a moment of heavy disbelief, she let her head fall to the table with a thump. Then lifted it to reveal an exasperated expression.

'Milly, what have I said about Angels?' she asked in what would appear to be a patient tone, but the twitch of an eyebrow betrayed her irritation.

'That it's superstitious nonesense and based on pure coincidence and luck.' Milly quoted evenly, smiling congenially. Then grinned. 'But I'm sure Mr. Vash the Stampede would like to celebrate 4 months with you!' she continued happily. Both Winger and Guard jumped.

'Va-Vash the-?!?' Meryl managed, annoyed disbelief overiding her control and taking over her voice box as well as face. The man in question turned to his angelic counterpart.

'How does she know my name?' he asked pointedly, but couldn't help a grin when Wolfwood puffed up a veiling smoke screen and pretended he didn't hear the question.

'Milly, what makes you think tha-'

'Hello Thompson. G'morning, Stryfe.' a voice interupted, cutting Meryl off half way through her rebuke. The owner of this greeting turned out to be a man Vash recognized from Bernadelli... A worker of some kind? What was his name...?

'Good morning, Mr. Peters.' Meryl greeted in return, pushing her finished sundae away hurriedly. Milly blinked.

'Hallo!' she announced, hand raised. 'Peters' smiled, set down his breifcase and eyed the pair.

'And what are you lovely ladies doing today?' he asked smoothly, flashing Meryl a very white grin. Vash, for reasons he wasn't going to dwell on, categorized this newcomer under 'people I dislike'.

'It's our lunch break actually,' Meryl clarified, leaning back from the man's proximity slightly, 'we're back at the office in half an hour.'

'It's such a shame for beautiful women to be locked up on such a wonderful day.' Peters sighed a little dramatically, gestulating with his free hand. He was thereafter moved into the category 'people I dislike lots'. Scowling, Vash shifted and leant over to Meryl's ear.

'Don't listen to him Insurance Girl, you can do better than this idiot.' he prompted, fixing a very heated glare on the man currently looking jauntily aloof as he placed his hands on his hips. 'Look, his eyes are too close together! And, call me crazy, but that's a lot of nose hair on one person.' Meryl, who had opened her mouth to say something, paused slightly, her eyes unfocusing. Then confusion dominated her features as comments that weren't hers were arriving in her head. Vash watched her examine the distance between Peters' eyes suspisciously.

'Stop that, Tongari.' Wolfwood reprimanded, grinning. 'Don't interfere with you Guard's social life.'

'I am not interfering.' Vash retorted snappishly, then returning to glaring.

'She deserves a good man.' Wolfwood insisted, smirking as he watched his partner splutter at the statement.

'Good?! I'm just making sure she doesn't fall in with the wrong sort! They just gotta pass my standards, that's all.' Vash asserted firmly, straightening and folding his arms indignantly. Wolfwood sniggered.

'I know what your standards for her are.' he noted, grinning. ''tall, looks like a rake, wears red, is a walking disaster, wears hair like a broom, acts like an id-''

'WHAT?!'

'A shame it may be,' Meryl returned as a belated reply to Peters, 'but I do have a job to do.'

'You work too hard, Stryfe.' Peters muttered, but had obviously moved on. Disinterested, he switched his attention to Milly who had been sucking on her spoon again. She blinked her crystal eyes at him curiously.

'And what of you, sweetie?' he asked her, near oozing. Meryl, who he had effectively turned his back on, gagged. Milly blinked again.

'Oh, I work with Sempai!' she stated simply, the spoon wavering as she managed to communicate with it still against her tongue. Peters' grin slid into something generally lascivious.

'Surely you don't do everything with Stryfe.' he murmured, shifting forward and leaning all his weight on a hand on the table.

'Well, I write my own reports.' Milly offered, still looking convivially confused. Back on a more spectorial plane, Wolfwood's eyebrow was twitching in poorly contained aggrivation. With an inconspicous cough, the Winger reached forward, took hold of the newspaper and tugged. It was pulled, along with Peters' hand, out from under the lecherous man, the lack of support causing him to fall forward abruptly. His chin connected with the table in a loud thump and he bounced back and clattered down to the December streets in a spectacular collapse. Milly and Meryl jumped at the 'accident' and leant over the edge of the table to look down at the sprawled form.

'MAH TONGH!! I BID MAH TONGH!' Peters managed, hands over his mouth. Both Insurance workers hurriedly got out of their chairs to help him up.

'So much for not interfering with social lives.' Vash managed, grinning from ear to ear.

'Eyes too close together.' Wolfwood muttered, taking a heated puff from his cigerette to hide his irritation.

'Are you all right?!' Meryl asked worriedly, helping the man to his feet. Peters shrugged angrily out of her grasp.

'Whad do you fink?! I bid mah tongh womah!!' he muffled through his swollen tongue and two hands.

'You should put a raw thomas steak on it!' Milly said firmly, frowning in resolution. Meryl tapped her on the arm.

'That's black eyes, Milly.' the shorter corrected.

'Oh yeah.' the brunette murmured, blinking in deep thought.

At that moment, a shadow was cast across them, sucking the sun from the scene and looming. The group turned. Blocking out the light was a man, middle aged, eyes focused somewhere above their heads and hands clutching his stomach. His eyes were dilated, skin palid and glistening with sweat. He looked like the walking dead. Then, throat convulsing, the man's mouth opened.

'Va-Va-Vash the Stampe-pe-pede.' an abused voice croaked out. Three of the five blinked in incomprehension, but two very startled Wingers jumped immediately to their feet, Cross Punisher and gun arm ready. The man wheezed some more, mouth opening and closing over and over again as if gulping air. His mouth was black. Behind his teeth was darkness. No tongue, no healty pink of flesh, only black. A bubbling black. Another wheeze and then another sentence filtered through.

'Ti-time grows sh-sh-short. Retur-ur-urn. The Ma-ma-mastahh is wait-in-ing...' Vash, wide eyed, watched in horror as the message was delivered. The man exhaled heavily, and it wasn't until that time that the blonde Winger noticed the stomach. The man's stomach was bubbling, bulging and writhing under convulsing hands.

'Are you alright?!' Meryl asked, stepping forward.

'Th-thi-this is a mes-sa-sage of wh-wha-what will come. A sou-souveneir.' the man gagged, choking on his own words, eyes still rivetted on a point above. His stomach bulged horribly, reminiscent of a pregnant woman. Vash's mind clicked.

'GET DOWN!' he shouted, boot lancing out and roughly tripping up Peters. The man squealed rather girlishly and fell on top of Meryl and Milly who were both brought down with him in a painful looking tumble. In the same split second the unknown man began screaming, his head thrown back and mouth opened wide enough to dislocate his jaw. And black spilled out. The Vault oozed it's way out of it's host's throat and launched itself forward, the man disintergrating behind it.
It landed on the coffee table, talons digging into the place where Peters and Milly would've been. The claws on what could only be described as it's feet dug in and managed to gain some purchase on the metal table, and the Vault spun around, it's limbs slipping from wings into arms.
Wolfwood lost no time in cracking it across the back of the head with his Cross Punisher.

The Vault shrieked as it was thrown forward by the force and was in the process of falling on the tangled forms of Peters, Milly and Meryl when Vash let the bullet fly. He had aimed for the shoulder, a clean shot to dibilitate, but for some obscure reason it was fatal. With a final screech of rage, the creature thrashed for a few moments then oozed into nothingness.

'They're playing with us.' Wolfwood noted, scowling as he rested the Punisher on his shoulder. 'That was barely a threat, they're just tryin' to get us riled.'

'Legato.' Vash managed, gazing down at the pathetic bundle of clothes of what used to be the messenger. 'He knows where we are.'

'What are you going to do, Vash?' Wolfwood asked as the three on the ground managed to untangle themselves. The scene had created quite a crowd, and horrified murmurs swept the populace as all eyes took in the empty clothes bundled uselessly on the cobbled street.

'I have to stop Knives.' the blonde said quietly, cyan eyes unfocused and sad. 'He won't stop until everyone is gone. He's more dangerous than anything we've come up against... I have to stop him.'

'Can I ask how?'

'... I don't know.' Vash lowered his head and clenched his eyes shut. 'Damn it. No matter what I do... Where I am. He'll kill anyone I care about.' he whispered, the turned his eyes to the two Living behind him, both staring in horror at the deep claw marks in the table. Wolfwood remained silent, then finally said,

'Do we wait for whatever this guy throws at us or what?' Vash winced.

'There's nothing we can do. Heaven's grounded us, remember? It's already too dangerous for them,' Vash motioned to their Guards with an inclination of his head. 'but we can't leave them. We... Don't have any options.'

'Then we stall until Heaven gets themselves into gear?' Wolfwood queried a little sarcastically. Vash stared at him levelly. 'I know, I know. There's nothing else we can do, unless Legato decides to come to us.' the priest added as an amendment, waving a hand under his comrade's gaze.

'I have a feeling that he will.' Vash muttered, turning to his Guard. Meryl was staring at the bundle of clothes on the street, her hand over her mouth and eyes wide. Her expression said it all. Explain that away... Then, to the world in general, Vash the Stampede raised his face and said,

'We are running out of time.'

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

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

Lynda: Hokay!! Short, but necessary! Plus I wrote this in one big bulk, so go easy. -_-;;

Kuroneko: Myaaaaaa~

Lynda: I had some other really cool scenelets in my head that were designed to go somewhere in this part of the plot, but they are really not relevant, and I just want to get to a certain part. So, "bugger that for a lark, I can't be bothered". I'm off to eat some pizza. Oh yeah! Thanks for reviewing people, ;_; it makes me feel better. Sniffles.
ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTAH!!!!