"Pathetic spiders." he said aloud to mock the dead "Did any of you really think you stood a chance against me?"

"You didn't kill all of them." a unfamiliar female voice sneered in response

Without hesitation Knives had his sleek black gun withdrawn in self-defense. Glaring hard into the darkness he saw a petite female figure bravely emerge. A gorgeous woman with long slivery-white hair, hanging down her back in layers. The shortest layer completely hiding the left side of her face. One huge emerald green eye dared to look him straight in the face without backing down. He was amazed at how vivid a shade of green her eye really was, it resembled a cats so much that he was instantly reminded of his long-dead partner Legato. Skintight black leather clung to her perfect body. A sleeveless cleavage baring shirt, with matching flared pants and spiky platform shoes that made her appear taller then she really was.

As much as Knives hated "spiders", he couldn't help but admit there was something different about this one. After all she had survived his reign of terror without a scratch, and had enough balls to confront him now. Looking her over with almost hungry eyes, he took notice of her long claw-like black nails, heavy eye make-up, and the small yet strange tattoo on her right arm. It looked like a tiny pair of angel's wings. She was pretty, he'd give her that, but beauty was wasted on worthless spiders...

"Are you going to stand there all night staring, or are you going to shoot me?" she taunted, not looking at all afraid

More ashamed then anything to have been caught admiring a human, Knives pressed his gun against her temple. The girl smirked up at him confidently as he pulled the trigger of an empty chamber. His ice blue eyes widened in pure amazement. How could she have known!?

Letting his precious gun drop to the ground between them, Knives swung at the woman as hard as he could. Figuring a nice uppercut to the face would put an end to her cocky attitude. But she easily grabbed his wrist as if it were nothing, and held it in a vice-like grip. She took this opportunity to pull him down to her eye level.

"I know everything about you." she purred sweet as a kitten "Your history, your strengths, your weaknesses, everything."

"Who are you!?" Knives demanded while attempting unsuccessfully to pull his arm back, "Some little spy my brother Vash sent?"

The girl's showing emerald-colored eye seemed to instantly frost over. She forcefully let go of Knives' arm as if the touch of his flesh could burn her. "Isn't Vash with you?" she asked flatly

"Are you kidding!!" Knives spat at her "I don't hang around with that peace loving, broom-haired freak who'd rather scar his body then take the life of a useless human."

At the word scar she seemed to wince, but recovered to quickly for Knives to take real notice. "Do you know where he is then?" she whispered, her showing eye beginning to glow like fire.

Knives slowly felt a wave of realization wash over him as he stared at her face. She looked much too familiar... "Did you ever know a man named Legato Bluesummers?" he asked ignoring her past question.

She nodded weakly, looking annoyed at him for not answering her; "I'm his younger sister."

"Sister!?" Knives cried, nearly tripping over a corpse with a bullet in its head lying behind him, "You're Maverick Bluesummers!?"

"I see my poor deceased brother has spoken of me." she replied coolly, toying with her hair

"He mentioned you once or twice to me. Nothing major." Knives scoffed, happily raining on her parade

"Enough so that you remembered my name." Maverick easily countered, arching a perfect eyebrow over her stunning eye

Knives felt his face flush red in anger. If he didn't want to find out why she was after Vash, he would have killed her then and there. Instead, he turned away from her prying eye and pictured thousands of humans. All dying together at once.

"Do you have any clue as to where your twin might be?" Maverick was asking again, not noticing Knives' attempt to calm down

"Seeing as how you’re to stupid to notice, I just eliminated an entire town of weak souls." Knives bragged "All to get brother dearest's attention..."

"Because he doesn't like senseless death." Maverick said more to herself then Knives "He'll come out of hiding to try and stop you from doing it again."

"Vash is almost as predictable as a spider. Spending so many years with them has made him weak."

"It didn't stop him from killing my brother." Maverick retorted coldly

Knives couldn't stop himself from flinching a little. He had been the one to tell Legato to force Vash to kill him. It was technically his fault...

"Is that why your after him?" Knives heard himself say, placing the blame solely on Vash was a lot easier then admitting the truth.

"He claims that he is all about Love & Peace." Maverick snarled, her green eye appearing to burst into flame, "When in reality he is responsible for more deaths then I can count. He destroyed two cities within twenty years. Nobody was killed on either day, but think about it, all those homeless people. Lost with no where to go. What do you think happened to them!?"

"They probably all died in the end." Knives answered, quite interested in where this conversation was heading "And it is entirely Vash's fault."

"Exactly." Maverick breathed, walking infront of Knives so she could stare into his face "I'm beginning to think it was lucky I ran into you Millions Knives."

"Whys that?"

"If the talk I have heard is true, then you now hate Vash as much as I do. He betrayed his own twin the day he chose to defend the humans. He hurt me not only by killing my only brother, but by permanently scarring my face as well.

Knives could barely contain his shock as she lifted the hair concealing the left side of her face. One long scar zigzagged through her pale flesh. There was another emerald eye, as striking as the one to the right of it, but her scar made it seem ugly somehow.

"My brother did that!?" Knives questioned in partial disbelief, even he didn't think Vash was capable of harming a woman. Especially one as pretty as Maverick.

"Yes. A few weeks after killing my brother and injuring you." Maverick replied, letting her hair fall back over her scars as if it were a casual thing "A boot-knife to the face doesn't exactly tickle."

"It's been years since that incident. Why couldn't you of done something sooner?"

"Vash the Stampede is a difficult man to track. Especially when he doesn't want to be found."

"You could have caused a mass murder. Burned an entire town. Took hundreds of people hostage. Simple things like that easily attract his attention."

"Not my style."

"Then what is? Like those foolish insurance girls from the past, you stroll to every town where you hear a rumor and hope he'll show up?" Knives cried, trying to cover a laugh

"Something like that yes." came the frosted response "I heard he was seen here, and with the obvious murders today I thought he might show up. But it was only you."

"He'll come eventually." Knives sneered "He might already be here."

"I see the stories Legato told me of how easily you heal were true." Maverick informed him, completely ignoring his last remark. "I'd been told you suffered fatal injuries from Vash all those years ago."

"It took me longer then usual to heal." Knives cautiously admitted, "But as soon as I did I ran off. I couldn't stand my brother and his goody-two shoes attitude. He's made himself a slave to the spiders."

"Then we should band together and kill him." Maverick proposed, tapping her long dark nails together anxiously "Theres no way in Hell he could defeat the both of us. He almost lost against us when we were both alone."

"I almost beat him on my own last time." Knives growled, folding his arms over his chest defensively

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that almost doesn't count?"

Knives instantly set his ice blue eyes on her face. Attempting to read her mind, see what she was thinking that could possibly make her speak out of turn like that. Legato had been so loyal, what was Maverick's problem?

He tried to scan her mind like he would any normal human. But he wasn't hearing anything, nothing but an eerie silence. "Ah ah ah.." Maverick taunted him "No peaking."

Feeling his outrageous anger flaring up again, Knives couldn't stop himself from reaching for his small hidden pistol. The one he kept tucked away in the top of his boot, just for emergencies. It was small, and resembled Meryl Stryfe's Derringer's in a way, compact, single-shot, but slightly more powerful. It would bring him the uttermost joy just to shove it down Maverick's throat and pull the trigger.

The handle was barely grazing the palm of his hand before he heard Maverick hiss: "I don't think so." as she easily ripped the pistol from his unsuspecting grasp. Her high-heeled foot came down hard on his own as she pressed the gun between his neck and shoulder. All this took place in less then fifteen full seconds.

"You were planning on killing me again, weren't you?" she rasped seductively, her warm lips sliding lightly over his ear

"Maybe." Knives growled without fear, although he was slightly distracted

"I still want you to help me Knives, as a matter of fact I need you too."

"Need me.. why?"

"You have a connection with Vash that nobody else has. You are his twin brother after all, we can use that against him."

"Why would I need you then?"

Maverick took a step back quickly, the gun still clasped in her hand. She even looked a little hurt. "You trusted my brother. He was always loyal to you. How am I any different?"

"You’re a hell of a lot better looking..." Knives couldn't cut himself off before the words came out

Maverick was grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat when he dared to look up. "I knew you could sense something between us." she was preaching "Vash is as good as..."

She was cut off in mid-sentence as Knives lunged foreword and planted a single hot kiss on her lips. More to shut her up then anything. Her look of immediate disgust quickly turned into an evil grin to mirror the one Knives was wearing.

"Is it true what Legato said about your low pain tolerance?" Maverick purred suddenly, snuggling up to his body and nibbling on his ear.

"I..I.. uh.." Knives stammered, unable to think as clearly as usual, "Yeah......"

"Good." Came Maverick's chilling response as she shoved the forgotten pistol into his shoulder, and without hesitation pulled the trigger.

Knives let out a strangled cry as he fell to the ground, grasping his fresh wound tightly with one hand. "You...you...bitch!!" he screamed flinching in pain as blood seeped through his fingers

Maverick glanced down at him without much regret. "You'll be fine, I didn't shoot you anywhere critical."

"Why did you need to shoot me at all!!" Knives cried barely able to move, about to lose consciousness

"To teach you a lesson." Maverick replied simply, studying her reflection in his pistol

"What lesson?" He groaned, waiting for the pain to subside "Not to trust stupid white-haired bitches?"

"No." She laughed sarcastically "Not to kiss me without asking."

Knives could only moan and mumble curses at her, as the overwhelming pain slowly got the best of him...

To Be Continued....