Standard Disclaimer: Not mine, making no money, please do not sue me, etc. etc. etc…

Nick Wolfwood paused in the shade of a building, removed his customary dark shades, and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. He sighed tiredly as he leaned backed against the heated bricks. Glancing around in a state of near desperation, Nick wishfully hoped his sister would simply appear on the street in front of him. He sighed again and lost himself in thought for a few moments.

He knew his sister was alive… she had to be. He would never forgive himself if anything had happened to her. Many people had sadly shook their heads and told him no one could possibly live through being caught in the winds of a typhoon. Nick tuned them out and kept hoping that somehow, somewhere his sister would be found.

He had been frantic with worry as the storm had jerked Nickie from his grasp, but there had been little he could do until the swirling winds subsided. Nick had hunkered down under a tarp between the jeep and the rock face and had prayed that his sister survived the storm.

As the winds gradually subsided, Nick crawled from his shelter and surveyed the damage. Sand had piled up against the wheels and the wind had blown many of the supplies from the back of the jeep. Realizing he could go nowhere until he had dug the vehicle out, Nick rummaged for a shovel and started digging. He felt strangely calm as he dug, somehow knowing that his sister was alive and he would find her.

Sighing again, Nick straightened away from his perch, replaced his glasses, and resumed his search. He had stopped everyone on the street that he had crossed paths with on this hot afternoon. This was the fourth outlying village he had come to, but still no one anywhere had seen anyone resembling Nickie. He had searched for several weeks, still convinced that his sister lived, but he was starting to become desperate. Where in the hell could she be and more importantly, why wasn't she trying to find him?

Several scenarios ran through his mind. Nickie could be alive, but seriously hurt and unable to contact him. She could be lost, wandering in the desolate wasteland between towns. But then again, Nickie could just be having a great time somewhere, not concerned with letting him know she was alive. Of all those possibilities, Nick hoped that she was just staying put in some town and was being careless about contacting him.

Nick climbed in the jeep and made one last drive down the only street in town before heading to LR Town. In two days, with any luck he'd find his sister there.

************

"How many more days until we reach LR Town, Vash?" Meryl asked tiredly as she laid her head over on his shoulder. Trekking across the sands of the frontier after a twenty-five year absence was beginning to take its toll on her. Meryl shifted slightly in her seat and closed her eyes as the jeep sped over the rough sands of the road.

Vash looked over at the woman beside him. He smiled down at her as she rested against his shoulder. Meryl Stryfe had stayed beside him when most people would have cut their losses and left him alone. Even when he didn't want her around she'd persisted and steadfastly refused to abandon him. It had been Meryl who'd patched up his body after his last bloody encounter with Legato and helped him to come to terms with killing another living person. "Two or three days, maybe. It mostly depends on how fast we drive and what we encounter along the way." He looked at her with real concern for a moment. "Are you tired, Meryl?"

"No, not really, but I am glad we are driving and not riding a couple of Thomases across this desert." Straightening away from Vash's shoulder, she glanced around at the dry landscape and sighed. "I am glad that we're close though. Do you think we will find the twins there?"

Vash smiled at the anxious note in Meryl's voice. She had been a good mother to Milly and Wolfwood's offspring. The twins were around twenty-five years old and yet she worried over them as if they were still ten. "If they are not there, it'll be a good place to start looking for them." He wondered what else was troubling her. "Meryl, I am sure they are alright. We've raised them both to be strong and resourceful. Nothing has happened to them."

"I know, it's just been so long since I have had a letter from Nickie. She's usually so good about writing me. Milly entrusted them to me and I could never forgive myself if anything happened to them." She sighed wistfully as she gazed again at some distant point on the horizon.

"Meryl, do you ever regret not having children of your own?" Vash asked softly. It had been his biggest regret that he'd never been able to give Meryl children of her own.

"Vash the Stampede!" Meryl snapped at him. "How dare you start with that tired old subject again? It's not your fault or mine that we never had any children. Plants and humans are obviously not that compatible." Meryl huffed in displeasure at him. "Honestly, I'd have thought you'd be over that by now."

Vash grinned at her, his mood lightening slightly. "I suppose you are right. And if you look at it properly, there was one good thing about you never being pregnant."

"What? Missing out on sex for weeks at a time?" she snapped again at him.

"No, having to go get ice cream and pickles in the middle of the night." Vash smiled hugely at her, struggling to contain his laughter as Meryl's face turned red and then white as she fought to contain herself. Her mouth sprang open with a sharp retort that was effectively cut off by a warm kiss. "I love you, you know," Vash whispered against her lips.

Meryl caught his lower lip gently between her teeth and admonished lightly, "Just watch the road, you pervert."

Vash nodded and inhaled deeply as her expert fingers found their way through the fastenings on his clothes. In a few seconds, she had his shirt open and was running her warm lips over his scarred chest. He was glad that Meryl had never been put off by the sight of his body. He wrapped one arm tightly around her as she kissed a path over his flat stomach. Her fingers nimbly worked the fastenings on his jeans, freeing his semi erect member from the tight material. Meryl kissed his mouth again as her hand stroked the smooth flesh. "Let me pull over…" he whispered against her lips.

Laughing wickedly, Meryl re-traced the path down his chest. "Just keep driving," she said as her lips caressed the tip of his warm shaft. "You can return the favor when we make camp in a few hours."

Vash nodded and gripped the steering wheel tightly as her mouth slowly inhaled his stiff cock. He sincerely hoped that he didn't wreck the jeep before she finished.

************

Nickie peeped over the edge of her shades as she sat on the bench near the town square. Lazarus stood across the way, ordering ice cream from a street vendor. Nickie sighed to herself as she admired his lithe form. He was possibly the most handsome man on the planet right next to Uncle Vash and Nick. He had been so nice to her and polite too. Sometimes he made her feel as if she were the most beautiful woman on the planet. Nickie signed softly as her thoughts strayed further into Lazarus's fine qualities.

Lazarus looked back over his shoulder at Nicole sitting quietly across the street. He smiled and raised one eyebrow at her in amusement at the direction her thoughts were going. Nicole certainly believed the best about him. He knew he should enlighten her to his true nature, but for the first time in his life, he was with someone who didn't see him as merely a tool to be used for revenge or as another customer to be bilked for his money. As he paid the vendor for the sweets, he continued to think about how it was nice to be with someone who actually liked him for himself.

************

Another man watched Nickie from the shadows of an alleyway. His clothes were as unwashed as the rest of his body. Red hair stood at odd angles from his head and his crooked smile revealed a mouth laden with blackened teeth and gaps. He was extremely pleased with the look of the girl seated across the way. She was tall with a riot of black hair and long, lithe legs. He knew that a woman like that would be worth a great deal of money.

Grady O'Malley had sold his first woman to a brothel when he was only fifteen. It didn’t matter to him that his twelve-year old sister, Alice, had clung to his arm and pleaded with him not to leave her. Their mother was dead and he had no desire to be burdened with the brat anyway. He remembered clearly the brutal way he had shoved Alice at the old madam. The woman had slyly paid him $$200 for his virgin sister. He heard later that some man had paid $$500 to be her first customer and that Alice had hung herself after the experience. He shrugged his shoulders at the memory. The stupid little bitch could have led a life of ease if she'd had any sense.

Grady continued to make his living by selling women to well paying brothel owners and those occasional deviants who lived far into the desert. He knew very well that slavery was illegal, but most law enforcement officials turned a blind eye in that direction. Most buyers were extremely adept at controlling their merchandise. In the 30 years that he had been in the trade, only one woman had escaped her buyer and she had not lived long enough to carry tales to the feds.

He rubbed his grimy hands together in anticipation of collecting the $$1,000 he intended to ask for the raven-haired wench. If he were shrewd and showed the girl to two or three proprietors, then perhaps he could sell her to the one who offered him the most money. He lost himself in thought for a few moments as he mentally counted the money he was sure to receive for her.

The smile faded slightly from Grady's lips as he watched a man stop in front of the woman and offer her an ice cream. He grimaced because he had momentarily forgotten the man who had shadowed the wench every step she had taken. The tall man had the look of a killer and judging from the way he gazed at the wench, Grady would be willing to bet that man would kill to keep her. He would have to be careful and bide his time. Smiling slightly, Grady took one last look at the woman before easing back up the alley. He was a very patient man and his opportunity would come.

**********

Lawren stood at the edge of the high plateau and gazed at the distant landscape. Her senses stretched over the terrain as she reached out in an another attempt to locate Knives Millions. A dull ache spread through her skull as she pushed her powers to the far edge of their limits.

Far and away, she picked up a few stray thoughts from her son. Her mouth tightened as she realized that he had put his given task aside in order to pay court to the priest's daughter. Still, she couldn't really blame him as she surveyed the girl through his eyes. She was spectacular. "Go away mother, I have not forgotten."

"As you wish, my son…" Lawren smiled. Her cub was indeed a grown man.

Turning another direction, she sensed Vash the Stampede traveling across the wasteland, headed in the general direction of Lazarus. He was not alone, but she could not fathom who was with him. She shrugged and reasoned that it was probably that Bernadelli insurance girl.

To the south, the presence of a desperate young man made itself known to her. He was searching for something… no that was not right. He was searching for someone; his sister to be exact. It was not her concern. Lazarus was more than a match for Nick Wolfwood.

"Are you still searching?" A cool mocking voice echoed inside her head. "I would have rather thought that you’d have given up this foolish idea by now." The voice wound its way through her entire being. "Still, I suppose not everyone is content to play the role assigned to them in this lifetime."

"Shut up, Legato." Lawren mentally hissed at him. "This is something I vowed to do as I stood over your grave."

"Foolish sentimentality…" he scoffed. "To think that I meant enough to someone other than the Master that she would spend her entire life seeking to kill a being that was by far superior."

"Think what you will, it is of no concern of mine." She paused in her thoughts as she turned again and let her senses reach out. "You may lecture me incessantly after I am dead, but for now I do not have the time nor the…" Lawren snapped off in mid sentence. What was that? Glancing back over the terrain again, she paused. There it was again, but was it him? "Legato, do you sense…"

Chills of satisfaction swept up her spine. "I found him… I finally found…"

"The Master," Legato whispered.

**********

"Nicholas, do you feel that? Milly shivered as she peered at the planet below. "Something is coming… something evil." She raised fearful eyes to his and nodded. "It's him."

Wolfwood heard the distaste in her voice as she spoke and saw the fear in her eyes. Sometimes the girl forgot that she was dead and nothing could harm her anymore. Still, he reasoned, Knives had tormented her mercilessly during her final months of life and had even been the one to kill her.

Milly stood very still and gazed at the planet wishfully. "He can't be allowed to hurt anymore people, Nicholas. He just can't!"

He wrapped his arms around her from behind. "Do not worry about Knives Millions. His time has almost run out." He glanced over her shoulder as he hugged her close. "Do you know where he is?" he asked Milly casually as he began nibbling her neck lightly.

Milly turned in Wolfwood's arms to search his eyes. "God has told you this?"

Milly stayed her further comments and wondered how so many people had been placed on the same collision course.

***********

To Be Continued…

***********

Hello from Planet Gunsmoke again. I am glad so many of you made the jump from FFN to read my works over here! Please continue to leave me comments, as I like to know what you guys think!

I hope to be through with this story by the start of the New Year and then I will probably visit the land of DBZ again or begin work on an original series that has been floating around in my head for some time now.

Love and Peace,