She eyed the rock before her with mild interest, hand still encompassed tightly around her weapon. The winds shifted for a moment. Their after-thought whispers pushed her blonde curls into her face, obstructing her vision. In that small second, she could see through the blinds of hair something erupt from behind the boulder.
Swiftly, she raised her bow, reaching down to her thigh and pulling out an arrow from it's sheath. A rifle resounded in the wasteland, it's bullet flying past her cheek. The hot trail it left soon spouted crimson and it's tears dripped down her pale face. Smirking, she set the arrow and fitted it to her string. Her hair fell back listlessly to her shoulder and that's when she fired.
The woman behind the rock jumped back and the arrow embedded itself into the rock she had once hid behind. The archer watched in satisfaction as the boulder blasted apart sending shrapnel and hunks of it everywhere. One large piece slammed into the woman's crouched form, sprawling her backwards into the sand where she lay motionless.
"Get up Molly. I know you're nowhere near done." Her eyes narrowed as the woman struggled to sit up. Red hair, shook loose from it's loose bun, hung over one side of her dirty, bloodied face, allowing one piercing emerald eye to show. She looked straight back into that glaring eye, fitting another arrow to her string without fault.
The woman flew to her feet, rushing forward, using her rifle like a club. The archer barely had time to step back before the rifle came down. She stared at the enraged female before her, her smirk widening.
"You see! Now you're finally getting the picture!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Everytime a gunshot or an explosion rang in the distance, Millie gave a small wince, sometimes accompanied by a whimper. But she kept going, leading the two men ever on towards the now towering mansion.
"Any one got any plans as to what we do once we get in?" Wolfwood asked, irritation evident in his voice. Dragging the Cross Punisher when you were trekking over the desert on your hands and knees was no easy task. The heavy piece of artillery gave a large clanking sound whenever stopped and Vash had already reminded him that making a noise that big wasn't smart.
"Besides not killing anyone and finding a way down into the compound, Nope." Vash replied. He hadn't really been paying much attention to where he was going, instead trying to get a view of the fight going on behind them. He was about to turn his head around to a comfortable degree again when something dark and large caught the corner of his eye. Vash stopped, turning fully around to see one of the cloaked figures that had stood behind Amparo now standing like a sentinel in the distance. Before the blonde gunslinger could give any warning to his two companion, the other three appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. None of them seemed armed but as their cloaks blew open by the gusts of wind, Vash's sharp eyesight caught glimmers of silver and onyx.
"JUMP!!" He commanded, stumbling to his feet as bullets began to scream past their heads. Wolfwood grabbed a screaming Millie and threw her over the rock face. Vash soon followed, one hand curved under a black strap of Cross Punisher. He and the heavy weapon slid down the slope. Wolfwood and Millie's tumbling bodies made quite the dust cloud which soon became invisible as the slope led them down into a deep crevice. Vash gave one last look to the line of boulders, only to see dismally that the four gunfighters had already started their descent.
All of a sudden, the ground rushed up to meet them. Vash prepared himself for the rough landing but didn't expect a sudden crunching sound and the solid earth to fall away beneath him. He opened one eye hesitantly, both flying wide open at Millie's scream of terror and Wolfwood's yelp of disgust. He looked up at both of them, about to ask what was wrong, when he realized what they had landed on.
Skeletons.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She thought she'd forever remember her face, immortalized between two oak frames. It was fair and youthful, much like hers had been. Cascading down around small, heaving shoulders was a waterfall of silver strands, rising and falling with the labored breaths she took. She'd engraved it into her memory as a permenant reminder of what a monster she was. To remind her she'd never be like Rosemary.
Meryl stared into those eyes, so different now, no longer youthfully innocent, for quite awhile before Ebony turned to fully stand before her. She'd grown much taller than Meryl had ever hoped to be, towering over her much like Vash, Millie, or Wolfwood would. And yet she retained her gaze, never flinching, never blinking, even as the smirk turned into a displeased frown.
"So, I take it you really do remember. That sappy look in your eyes tells me so."
"Ebony, I never forgot you-"
"Shut up. I don't need your sympathy. You know what I'm going to do, don't you?" She waited a few seconds for Meryl to respond and when she didn't she gave a wry smile. "I'm going to kill you, Meryl. I'm going to torture you and watch you bleed and then I'm going to kill you."
"I see. I suppose it's nothing more than I deserve. I killed them, after all." Ebony regarded Meryl coolly. She folded her arms over her blouse and huffed.
"You think I blame you for that?" Meryl looked up, a glimmer of hope reflecting in her dismal grey eyes. It was soon smote as Ebony's wicked grin returned.
"I blame myself..for not killing all of you sooner." Meryl's mouth gaped. All these years..No there had to be some sort of mistake.
"But..That day..You were crying. You were hysterical!"
"Maybe you misunderstood..I wasn't crying out of sadness. I was crying out of sheer joy. You killed my god-forsaken parents, Rabbit. Two people I hated more than anyone else in the entire world!" Ebony whirled around, motioning for Meryl to follow her out of the dungeons. However Meryl would not let the conversation end there.
"You're lying! You care about them! Or don't you remember that night behind the combines? Wasn't I the one you told all your secrets to-" Before Meryl could finish, Ebony's hand had lashed out and connected with her jaw. She stumbled backwards, the stinging sensation in her cheek making her eyes water. Ebony growled low in her throat.
"You shut your mouth, filthy rabbit. I know what you're trying to get at. We've all changed. The past is dead. Stop trying to unearth it. Now, stop standing there like a fool and let's get going. Mr. Baker won't wait long." Ebony roughly grabbed the hand Meryl had gingerly laid on her bruised face. She started forward quickly, moving through the door and down the hallway with a predatory sway.
Meryl didn't even really pay attention to where Ebony was leading her. All her thought was focused on the previous events and the blow that had been dealt to her. Once upon a time she considered Ebony her friend, her ally in her enemy's den. But now she didn't even recognize the girl, no, woman before her. Years on this planet had changed her. Hell it changed them both. She allowed herself to be dragged, feeling even more lonely and depressed then she had previously been. The past really was dead. She'd worked so hard to bury it and yet it comforted her to know that it was still there, like a security blanket forcefully let go but put in a safe place. Now it really was gone and she was numb to it.
'I never thought it would end this way..'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
He gave a small yelp of disgust and rolled away from the skull he had come face to face with. Millie was still yiping in the corner, hands pressed against her temples. Wolfwood just sat there, eyes wide in dumb shock.
"What in God's name.." The priest whispered. The two men looked around in grotesque awe. There was a mountain of skeletons and bones, some still decorated with scraps of rotting cloth and hide. Vash tried standing to perhaps get a better look but found that his weight broke the brittle bones beneath him and he fell back to the glistening white heap.
"There must be hundreds in here.." Vash whispered. The bones still smelled like decaying flesh. The scent invaded his nostrils and stung at his eyes. He grabbed a strap on Cross Punisher and began to crawl to the ledge just to the left of him. Wolfwood saw what the blonde gunmen was planning on doing and quickly hobbled over to Millie.
"Come on Big girl, we got to get over to that ledge." Milile allowed Wolfwood to help her crawl over the skulls and bones to where Vash now sat, obviously awe-struck at the gruesome sight before them.
"Who would do such a thing?"
"It must be from then the corporation went under. Didn't Molly say that 12 years ago the whole place just stopped. Unbelievably, it's damp and moist down here which means that the sand couldn't preserve the bodies..But still-"Wolfwood stopped his musings as four, large, simultaneous cracks resounded through the cavern-like pit. Vash stood slowly, his face set in grim determination.
Across from them, over the vast expanse of human bones, their four pursuers now stood. Sunlight still trickled through the pit's open mouth, encasing them in it's beam and shoving their crude shadows upon the jagged surface of decay. It was then that body and shadow combined and the four swiftly moved across the space, deftly jumping and running over skulls and other bones in the process.
Vash had his .45 Colt unholstered long before then and was now trying to take aim. But the cloaked beings were fast. No, he thought, eyes narrowing, they're just moving around a lot. They're not that fast. He'd have to wait until one of them made a move to get on the cliff's edge. Wolfwood had also unleashed his arsenal, opting to use the guns sheltered inside his large cross-like gun instead of that huge piece of weaponry itself.
The figures were getting closer and closer and Vash and Wolfwood got more and more nervous. But just as they were about to fire, the beings stopped and settled into a row a few yards ahead of them. Vash tried in vain to see their faces beneath their dark hoods but it was impossible. There was no wind down here to wave the offending pieces away from his opponents' heads.
Just as Wolfwood was about to question the motives of the four before them, A metal clanking sound echoed through the hollowed pit. It sounded like a heavy door because the hinges squeaked with some unseen strain. Millie let out a short gasp, her hands flying to her mouth as she let out a strangled cry.
"Meryl!!"
