Standard Disclaimer: Characters and Story are not mine. I just borrowed them without permission to have a little fun. Please don’t sue me…….

Nick and Nickie leaned against each other in the boiling afternoon sun. Both were panting heavily. Sweat beaded and rolled down their faces. Large guns hung limply at their sides. Scattered around them, lay the remains of numerous broken bottles. "You want to tell…"

"…us why we have to do this again and again at this time of day?" Nickie wailed in the heat at the tall man in the red coat.

"You know how upset Meryl was when you two decided to go after Knives?" The twins nodded. "She was ten times more upset with me for agreeing to teach you all that I know." Vash grinned at them.

The looked at him with barely concealed astonishment. "But mother never said she would be mad at you, Uncle Vash. Why is that?" Nickie demanded straightening a little. "It wasn't your idea for us to leave."

Nick spoke up, "I think I know. Mother is afraid we will die if we go after Knives. She was hoping that you would refuse to teach us what we wanted and we would be forced to stay here leading ordinary lives."

Vash nodded. "Spoken with true insight. You are your father's son, Nick."

"Hey what about me? Don't I remind you of them?" Nickie demanded while stomping her foot against the ground.

Vash and Nick both laughed for a moment. Striding over to her side, Vash reached out and tweaked her nose, smiling into her wide blue eyes. "Nickie, if your hair had been brown instead of black, I would swear that your mother had been reincarnated as her own daughter. You are just like her."

Nickie looked extremely pleased by that remark and threw her arms around him. "Oh Uncle Vash, I wish I could have known mamma and papa. It makes me sad at times that they both had to die."

Vash tightened his grip on her for a moment. "Life has a way of dealing you blows when you least expect it. No one regrets their deaths more than me…" his voice trailed off into a wistful tone. His eyes met Nick's briefly.

"Tell you what Nickie, why don't you run on back to the house and tell Meryl to start supper? You've done well for today so I'll give you a break."

"You're the best Uncle Vash." Nickie giggled as she hurried off before Vash could change his mind. "Don’t forget to clean that gun before you put it away." He yelled after her retreating figure. She waved over her shoulder to let him know she had heard.

"So, you want to tell me why you sent her home and kept me out here?"

"You always did remind me of your father."

"Yes, you've already said that and I don’t think we're here to discuss the family resemblance right now. You want to tell me something that you didn't want Nickie to overhear."

Vash sighed and turned back to the young man at his side. Nicholas V. Wolfwood at 16 was almost the height of his long dead father. Both twins had developed a penchant for black clothing at an early age. Nick was attired in his customary black pants and skin-tight, long sleeved black shirt. Over that, he wore a long black trench with a similar design to the red one Vash wore. Brilliant blue eyes were frequently concealed behind a pair of simple black shades and the cross pendant belonging to his sire hung around his neck.

"Why do you still want to find Knives? Is it for revenge? Have you thought about what will you do if you find him? And, more importantly, how can you stop him when so many people, including myself, have tried and failed?"

"I don’t know what we'll do. Maybe I just want to look at the murderer of my parents or maybe I just want to talk to him and ask him why…" Nick looked off in the distance for a moment before continuing. "Hell, I may just want to put a bullet between his eyes."

"You know that I am against the two of you going after Knives."

"Because he's your brother or because you think we'll die?"

"It's neither. No one has the right to choose who lives and who dies."

"So you've said many times in the past. So mother has said. So the priests at the orphanage have said. That doesn't mean he has the right to go on killing innocent people. You don't act like that; you're different."

"You forget that I'm the one responsible for the destruction of July and Augusta and that I'm the one who put the hole in the fifth moon. When I think of all the people who died at July…"

"But that wasn't even your fault. Hell, from what you've told me, you can't really recall any details of either incident. It was Knives at July and the one you called Legato at Augusta working for Knives. How can you still say such an evil creature deserves to live?" Nick demanded harshly.

Vash caught the underlying anguish in his voice. "Has it been so terrible growing up here with us? Don't think that by killing Knives, you're parents will somehow be miraculously restored to life."

Vash looked off in the distant past for a moment. In his mind's eye, he felt himself pull the trigger, felt the gun as it jerked in his hand, and watched Legato's body fall to the side. The smile on that one's face haunted him to this day. "Pulling the trigger on your gun is not always the answer. No one has the right to decide who lives and who dies. Not even me."

Nick knew the story of Legato Bluesummers and how Vash had shot him to save Meryl and his mother. "I'm sorry… it's just something that Nickie and I promised each other a long time ago."

"And that was…"

"If he ever surfaced again and began killing off innocent people, we would stop him or die trying." Nick hefted the Cross-Punisher to his shoulder, turning his back on Vash.

Vash tried another tactic on the young man. "Thou shalt not kill, you remember that?"

"An eye for an eye… and a tooth for a tooth…" came the cold answer.

Vash smiled sadly and shook his head for a moment. "Are you sure you don’t have a calling to be a priest?"

Nick laughed shortly at that. "Don’t worry so much… I am my father's son. And don’t forget…we go with the protection and love of almighty God." He strode off into the heat toward home.

Vash watched his retreating back for several minutes. Whispering softly in the blazing sun, he said, "So your father used to say to me on occasion."

Turning his eyes skyward, Vash muttered under his breath, "Wolfwood, what am I going to do now? He is indeed your son."

The only answer Vash received was the stirring of the wind.

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To Be Continued…

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So … what do you think so far? (Blackhat shamelessly begging for reviews)

Love and Peace,

Blackhat (^_~)