Dema

Dema stirred and Vash glanced at her. He stood up and walked over to where she lay. Her eyes were open but they did not have the light that he had grown used to. He gazed down at her in concern as he pulled up the blanket on her body.

"How are you doing?" Vash asked as he laid his hand on hers.

"Let go of me. I'm fine. I told you, I don't need your help," Dema said but her words were devoid of emotions.

"Dema, stop acting like a child. I know you're independent and courageous but you need some help this time. You can talk to me about the past if you want. How did you get that wound that you opened up out there?"

"Do I have to?"

"I think it would help."

"Why?"

"Perhaps if you let go of your emotions you'd be able to find peace."

"All right. I'll talk. That man with the blue hair and evil eyes...I saw him again. I don't know what city I was in. December, maybe. Anyway, he was at a restaurant or something because I remember being hungry. He approached me and I was very resistant. He had not changed at all since I had seen him last but I had. I had grown considerably since I saw him in amongst the flames of a dying city. But, I don't believe he ever saw me at that time because he showed
no signs of recognition. Anyway, he approached and I resisted. He became angry and I felt a sharp pain in my back. Then, everything went black."

"So he struck you?"

"I guess so."

She slowly shut her eyes and Vash gently shook her.

"You've got to heal yourself. You don't really want it to end like this, do you? You don't want to die without knowing who you are and why you were treated so badly do you? You have worth in yourself. You just have to open your eyes to it."

When Dema awoke again, she had no idea what time it was, let alone what day it was. She sat up slowly, wincing at the pain in her head. She glanced at Vash, who sat sleeping in a chair and sighed. He was being entirely too nice to her. She stood up and pulled the blanket that she had been under off of the bed. She draped it over Vash's body and he gazed up at her.

"You're finally showing some compassion," he said and she looked at him.

"I just felt sorry or you, that's all. I'm changing clothes. You'd better stay right there," she said.

"I was going to offer my services. I AM pretty good at zippers."

"What makes you think I'd let you touch me?"

"Well...I did to take care of your wounds."

"WHAT?!"

"Your skin is really soft. Did you know that?"

"I'm not even going to ask what you touched. And here I was trying to be nice to you, you sick..."

"Ow! Hey, it wasn't like that at all! I was only concerned about your health. But now that you're better, perhaps....?"

"No."

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

Dema turned on the tap and tightly shut the curtains. She placed tissue into the keyhole and pulled off her shirt. She unclasped her bra and glanced up at the ceiling vent. She frowned then pulled the straps down. Not even he would be so perverted to try something like that...Or would he? She put on her shirt, which was slightly damp because it had been draped over the side of the bathtub and opened the door. Vash glanced up at her and then his eyes grew wide. She gazed down at her shirt, suddenly aware of the dampness on her chest and flushed as she saw the wet fabric clinging relentlessly to her skin. Vash opened his mouth to say something and she haughtily turned around, walked, into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

"Why did I do that? Why? I can't believe that I'd be so paranoid to think that he somehow had crawled up into the ventilating shaft just to watch me. Then I had to put on a wet shirt. I know that's not something he's going to let me forget," Dema said as she took off her pants and stepped into the shower. "He's the worst kof wof womanizer, the rumors say. Pervert is more like it. I still want to know how he ended up sleeping beside me that night. It was kind of nice, though...Wait a minute! What am I saying? Nice to be sleeping next to that idiotic..."

She fell silent as she allowed the warm water to rain down on her hair. It was now almost half as long as it had been before and for some strange reason, she felt comfortable with the growing length. It wasn't because he had said that he would like her better with long hair, was it? She shook her head as she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair. That was preposterous. That would mean that she...liked him. How could she like anyone like that? He was idiotic...Protective. Perverted. Polite. Reckless. Heroic. He was compassionate and he sincerely wanted to help her....

There was a knock at the door and Dema angrily turned off the shower. She searched around for a towel but could find none. She watched in terror as the lock on the knob clicked and Vash stepped in. She laid a hand on the shower curtain and tried her best to wrap it around her body.

"What do you want?" she demanded as he produced a bath towel and laid it on the edge of the sink.

"Room service just brought some up. We were out of them," he said.

"Why didn't you tell me that before I came in here?!"

"I didn't think you'd listen."

"Just get out of here so I can dry off."

"Can I help?"

"No!"

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

"I have to leave him somehow before things get out of hand," Dema said to herself as she pulled on her shirt. She ran a towel through her hair and opened the bathroom door. She expected Vash to make some sort of comment but he didn't.

She glanced around the room and realized that he wasn't there. She breathed a sigh of relief then looked around the room again, unsure as to what to do next. Has he left her? Her treatment of him would have given him reason to leave but it seemed strange for him to do that. She combed her hair then walked over to the window and looked out.

She saw his silhouette against the rising moons so cold and still and she wondered what he was doing. He seemed to be thinking or reminiscing. Reminiscing about the past, perhaps? The cuts and scars on his body, at least the ones she had seen, were much worse than any she had on her own body. How did he get them and why was he so determined to help? Why did he care what happened to her on this god-forsaken world?

"He's doing this just to tick me off," she said to herself. "And it's working."

Dema climbed out the window and began the long walk up the road to where Vash stood. A cool wind blew up, playing with Dema's now lengthening hair. She watched the wind blow his crimson coat as he gazed up at the star-filled sky. He was an impressive figure, she realized as she drew nearer to him. Something glistened on his cheek and she stopped short. Tears? Was he crying? He was. But why?

"What brings you out here? Have you come to tell me to keep my distance?" Vash asked and Dema looked at him.

"I just wondered what happened to you."

"I'm here and you're free to go. I won't follow you. You want to wander around alone. So be it."

His change in attitude shocked her and she turned around and wiped her eyes. Was he testing her? Or had he finally grown tires of how she had been treating him? She wanted to tell him that she really appreciated him but found she couldn't.

"Forget what I was going to say then!" she cried and turned and ran away from the hotel.

Vash watched her for a moment then turned away. She had made her choice and he shouldn't go after her. He then thought of how he received his scars by helping people and sighed. Every one of them reminded him that love and peace was what balanced the world and when he had given Dema her choice, he had honored neither of them.

"I should have been more patient. I shouldn't have let her unhappiness get to me. She needs someone and I let her down," Vash said as he stared down the path that she had taken.

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

Stupid. That's what she had been. She had been so completely idiotic for believing him. She should have just allowed herself to die in that desert heat. She should have at least jumped off the sand steamer when the opportunity had presented itself but she hadn't.

Why had she stayed with him? Look at where it had gotten her. She was nowhere better off than she had been lying in the middle of the desert just waiting to die. She forced herself to run faster, feeling the sharp pain in her back. She knew that she had torn her old wounds open again but she didn't care. She didn't want to live any longer anyway.

The image of the blue-haired man with sinister eyes filled her mind. Her motor skills were lessening as she continued to run. She soon gasped as her entire body cried out in pain.

"I believed him. I even tolerated him. Look at where that got me. I might as well stop avoiding hell. There's nothing for me here," she managed to gasp as she fell to the ground. The quiet desert night calmed her as she ran a hand over the whitened desert sand. She thought about Vash as tears stained the bleached ground she lay on. She had been wrong. So very wrong. Her past had blinded her from seeing the good intentions in Vash's heart.

Now, nothing could save her. Not even the Lost Technology the humans had become so dependent on. She would now never know what she truly was but she knew one thing. She had been a paranoid idiot and she had lost so much by not trusting the one person that had really wanted to help her.

"What's this?" a voice asked and Dema glanced up in shock. She recognized that voice from her childhood. The death and destruction of the one city she stood in and the only person she remembered seeing besides a blur of crimson was his.

"Something attacked you?" he asked as he knelt in front of her.

"Who...who are you?" she found herself asking, for he had not changed since she had seen him standing in the shadows of a dead city who knew how many years ago.

"I am called Legato Bluesummers. It is a name you will be eternally grateful to."

"You're going to kill me?"

"Even close to death you've got a mocking bite. I find that amusing. No, I'm going to help you."

Dema tried to spit out another retort but found she could not. She fell back to the ground, her body unable to take the strain of being alert any longer. Legato picked her up and ran a hand over the open wound on her back.

"You seem familiar," he said to her unconscious face. But why?"
*********************************************************

"Rem, I'm so sorry. I failed her. I've been searching but I haven't found her. I don't know where she is. Guess I should just accept the fact that she's gone," Vash said and glanced down at the ground. He noticed bloodstains on the sand and bent down to examine more closely. It was her blood that much he could tell, but whose footprints were around her? Who had carried her off? He stood there for a moment and thought about it.

It would be easy to just walk off now and forget about everything. But, that's not what he had been taught. He had been taught that world was made of love and peace and that was what he must honor. He would go after her. He would find out who had taken her and why. It could have been a kindly stranger that had carried her off but he severely doubted it...
*************************************************************

Dema moved slightly then sharply sat up. She looked around for Vash but could not find him. She had no idea where she was, but she knew that finally, her time had come.

"He's finally left me, I guess. I don't blame him, though. I was extremely harsh to him. I wish I could change that. But, where am I now?" she asked aloud. She tried sitting up and found the pain in her back almost non-existent.

"Vash? Where am I? Hello?" Dema asked as she stood up. She gazed around the room in wonder. It was small but for some reason it felt...familiar. She frowned as she searched the bits and pieces of her memory for a reason for the familiarity.

"You're awake," Legato said and Dema glanced in his direction.

"Why did you save me?" she asked and Legato shrugged his shoulders.

"You seemed familiar, as if I had run into you before. You also seem to have abilities I'm looking for."

"Really."

"I see your mouth is working quite well."

"Look, I'm suspicious by nature and you don't seem to be the type of person that can be trusted easily."

"Do you really have a choice?"

"Since you put it that way, not really."

"Listen, if your ultimate intent is to kill me, why don't you do it now? It would save you a hell of a lot of trouble," Dema said as she gauged Legato's emotions. She did not trust him whatsoever and she wanted to know exactly what type of ground she stood on with him.

"If I enrage you enough, the lights in this room would burst. Is that correct?" he asked and Dema looked at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well then, I guess I'll find out, won't I?"

"Not if you attempt to touch me. I don't care if you've got a nice face. I don't trust you."

"I save you from death and this is the reward I get. Perhaps I should have let death keep you."

"This doesn't have anything to do with the idiot I was traveling with, does it? Because if it does, we split up and frankly I don't care where he is."

"Your voice says one thing but your eyes say something else. You've become fond of him, haven't you?" Legato inquired and Dema turned away.

"Why is that any of your business?" she demanded.

"Because it just might help me make up my mind as to what I'm going to do with you. If your fondness for each other is mutual, then I may have the opportunity that I'm looking for."

"What are you talking about?"

"It is in your best interest to sleep and forget about this conversation," Legato said as he blew some sort of powder into her face. Dema fell to ground unconscious and Legato walked away from her. "I have some serious thinking to do..."

"So what are you going to do, Vash the Stampede?" Legato thought as he gazed at the unconscious Dema. "Are you going to save this one or are you going to let her die the same way you've let so many others?"

He gazed at Dema and smiled darkly. "Perhaps I should kill her now? Or are you going to rescue her?"

Dema stirred and Legato looked at her. He stood up and gazed out the window of the small shack, half expecting to see the shadow of Vash in the distance. He gazed into the darkening night and grinned when he saw the unmistakable figure of Vash the Stampede.

"He's coming. I don't know what you've done to him or what went on between the two of you, but you obviously mean something to him."

"What? You. All right, what the hell did you do to me?" Dema demanded as she stood up. Legato walked over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. Her gaze darkened as she tried to get away from
him.

"Let me tell you something. Be really thankful that you're alive. I could have grown tired of this game and killed you a long time ago. I could have killed you when I found you. I think you should be grateful that I didn't," he said coldly.

"You're just using me to get to him, aren't you? I'm going to be blamed for something that I didn't do, aren't I? It's going to happen to me again."

"Again? What do you mean by again?"

Dema turned away and Legato drew away from her. Again? Had he run into her before? If so, when and where? He shook his head as he glanced out the window again. Vash was coming and he would be ready for him.

Vash stepped up to the house and flattened his back against the wall and narrowed his eyes. His eyes grew dark and took on a life of his own. He was different now, than from what Dema had known him as. He cocked his right arm, which seemed to be a cybernetic arm, and grabbed onto what looked like a trigger to a gun. His sunglasses glowed eerily as he sidled around the shack to the back door and gazed through a crack in the door.

"The door is open, Vash," Legato thought.

"What have you done to her?" came Vash's silent reply.

"I haven't done anything to her...yet. Why don't you come on in and see how she looks?"

"You know I don't trust you."

"You want to save her, don't you? You don't like seeing people suffer, do you?"

Vash glared at the door for a moment then sighed. He laid a hand on the door and slowly turned it.

"All right. What do you want from me?"

"Put your weapon away and we'll talk."

"Meeting you without a weapon? I'm not stupid. If you want to talk to me, then come outside where I know you're not going to try anything."

"If you wish, but I can assure you, I'm not going to try anything."

"You're assurance doesn't make me feel any better."

"We'll meet by the front of the house."

"Fine."

Legato stepped out of the house and gazed into the glowing eyes of Vash the Stampede. His words had awoken a presence that had long since been buried. His trench coat blew in the wind, showing off his galvanized boots. This person, standing before him, was the real Vash the Stampede. The real fifty million double dollar man. He smiled sinisterly and Vash watched him coldly.

"You're angry with me. I think I'll savor that emotion a bit more," Legato thought and Vash took out his weapon.

"You said you wanted to talk to me so do it now before I lose my patience," Vash thought and Legato gazed hard at him.

"Not if you want to save her."

Dema awoke and vainly tried to move. She was tied to the beam of the house and something dark was going on outside. She could feel it.

"This isn't good. Something is going on out there," she said to herself and tried to gaze out the nearest window. She saw Vash's shilouette, which was enough to give her an idea of what was going
on.

"Great. What is HE doing here? He didn't come to rescue me, did he?"

She gazed up at the ceiling and thought. What if he did? What then? Did she really want to be killed by Legato? She knew what he was capable of, because she had run into him before but was it right
that she had gotten Vash involved in her problems?

"I've got to do something," she said resolutely. "I've got to get out of here. I've got to get Vash out of here as well. He shouldn't have to suffer because of me. This is all my fault."

Dema swung her body over and latched onto the beam of the house. She frowned and concentrated on trying to break the rope that bound her hands to the ceiling. There was a sharp snap in the fibers and
she fell sharply to the floor.

She stood up, winded and looked out the window. The two of them stood there, lost in what seemed to be another time and another place. Something was happening there that she didn't know about. She didn't like it in any case and she was determined to do something about it.

"All right you two! Would you just stop it? I'm the cause of this problem and I'm leaving so there's no reason for you to be at odds with each other," she said as she stormed up to where they stood.

"Get out of here. For your own saftey," Vash said coldly and Dema
glared at him.

"Don't tell me what to do. I'm just as stubborn as you so don't even try to push me out of the way, Vash the Stampede."

"Get away from me. Get away from this place.Now."

"Why? So he can destroy things again? You're not the only one that's had problems with him."

"Why do you keep insisting that you know me? I don't have anything to do with pathetic humans. But, now that I recall, it seems to me that you're not actually a human," Legato said in his emotionless voice.

"Just shut up, will you?" Dema demanded and Legato stared at her.

"You really want death that much, don't you? All right, I can give you that. I can kill you with your own hand."

"Leave her out of this!" Vash demanded and Legato turned his attention to him. "There's been enough people hurt. Leave her out of this."

"She's the cause of all of this Vash. I say she should get what she truly desires, but I suppose we should let her decide her fate," Legato said as he gazed unblinkingly into Dema's eyes.

She stood silent, watching the images of her past. Her childhood filled with the aftermath of Legato. Her adolescence where she was constantly being pointed out as an outsider and her adulthood where she was branded as an inhuman demon. Each label she was not deserving of but the last label provided some insight on her being. Inhuman. She looked at her hands for a moment, carefully counting each finger. Five on each hand. She was normal. At least she lookormaormal.

"I'm not," she said to herself, underneath Legato's cold stare. "I'm not human. I don't know what I am but I can't be human. Not with the powers I have. Maybe I can use my abilities to stop this. I got Vash involved in my lemslems and I never should have done that. I'm going to be the one that gets him out of the mess I created."

"You've made her feel responsible for you. Yet another soul you've failed to rescue," Legato thought.

"Shut up. I haven't failed anyone," Vash thought and Legato smiled.

"Not even yourself, Vash the Stampede? Watch closely as I make her will my own."

He stood silent, his yellowish eyes glistening evilly as he gave his silent directions to Dema's body. Vash cringed at Dema's scream then gazed coldly at Legato.

"Stop it! What has she done to you?" Vash cried.

"You never change, Vash the Stampede. You still want to save the butterflies and the spiders, don't you?" Legato asked.

"Stop hurting her!"

Dema fell to the ground, coughing blood. She winced at the pain in her back, knowing full well that her old injury had been opened up again.

"I...refuse to suffer at your hand again, Legato," she whispered as she struggled to stand. "You have no control over me."

She stood, ignoring the pain throughout her body. She was stubborn and she was determined not to let Legato get the best of her. The lights in the shack flickered then glowed brightly as Dema began to walk forward.

"What's going on?" Vash asked as one by one the bulbs in the shack burst.

"She's a power source. I'm surprised you've never seen it before. Her strength is providing electrical energy to the lights and overloading them. You must mean something to her, otherwise she would not be so determined to have her death," Legato replied.

"Stop it Dema. If you continue to do this, others will suffer."

"And if I don't do this, you'll suffer," Dema replied. "I got you into this and I'm going to get you out."

"You're emitting too much power. You're going to destroy the plant in September. The plant..."

"I want his torment to end, Vash. You don't know how painful it is to exist in a world that has him in it. I'm not taking any more."

"Another disaster is linked to you, Vash. Sad, isn't it? You try to save the weak yet you end up killing them. You're no better than the ones you try to stop," Legato said then turned at the click of a gun.

Dema held Vash's gun tightly, electricity pulsing from it. She blinked away the tears in her eyes as she squeezed the trigger. Legato gazed down the barrel of the gun and smiled.

"When plants turn. Such a fitting title. However, I'm going to have to pull this weed," Legato said and pulled out a gun and fired.

Silence followed as Dema dropped the gun. She watched Legato coldly, the fire in her eyes steadily dying. Vash's eyes pulsed in pain as he watched her fall to the ground.

"No!" Vash cried. "It can't end like this."

"Go ahead and play God to these people while you still can. It's not going to last forever," Legato said.

Vash took her hand then let it go. He laid her fingers on her eyes and closed the lids. He looked up at Legato, who had disappeared and stood up. Another life lost in a bitter contest of wills. He would find who he was searching for and make him pay for the numerous lives that had been lost at his hands. He gazed up at the sky, a stray tear running down his cheek. He had to keep moving. For the sake of the innocent and the memory of Dema and the others that had died.