Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Cowboy Bebop Meets Trigun ❯ The Messenger ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Once again, I am forced to painfully remind myself that I do not own these characters! Grrrr!

A/N: Hurray for Chapter 4! It's the longest, and darkest, one yet. I think I should warn all of you that there are some serious spoilers in here for those of you who have not seen the anime. Legato makes his first appearance, and we get to see some small glimpses of Vash's past. Prepare yourself! This chapter is chocked full of good stuff! Enjoy!

Chapter 4: The Messenger

Vash clutched his side and coughed as he used his other hand and a wall for support. He could feel the blood underneath his gloved hand pulsing out as his wound throbbed. He was dimly aware of Ed's presence by his side as she tried to help him walk. She wasn't her usual cheerful self. She seemed about ready to cry but she continued on, helping Vash as best she could.

“Thank...you,” Vash managed to gasp out.

“It's ok, Vash-person.” Ed's voice was choked with the tears she struggled to not let out.

Several Hours Ago

Vash heard the gun go off instantly. Time slowed as he considered his options. He could dodge the bullet easily enough, but Ed was right there! He had to save her. He quickly scooped Ed up into his arms, shielding her from the line of fire, and tried to get out of the way. He felt a searing pain in his left side and realized he had been hit. He saw the look of surprise on Spike's face. Vash also saw the horror on Faye's face when she realized what she had almost done and Jet's anger at her rash action.

His face contorted with pain as he sprinted off, grabbed up his gun, causing yet another wave of pain, leapt onto the nearest building, and raced off across the rooftops until he was far away from the scene of the battle.

Present

Vash stopped in an empty alley, still clutching his side and breathing heavily. He slumped down, his back against the wall. Ed sat down with him. Vash twisted his head around to look at his wound. The bleeding had slowed, but he felt week from the loss of blood. Hopefully, after resting for a while, he would be able to find a place where he could patch himself up.

Vash looked up. He watched as the suns began to set on the blood-red horizon. He turned away for a moment to look at Ed. She was leaning up against him, breathing calmly. She had fallen asleep. Vash smiled sadly. It had been quite a day for both of them.

Vash shifted slightly, trying to get as comfortable as possible without enflaming his wound. In a few minutes, he was snoring softly.

“What the hell is your problem!” demanded Jet.

Spike, Jet, and Faye were all aboard the Bebop once more, which had been positioned a few iles away from the town. Jet was literally fuming at Faye. She looked about ready to throttle him. Spike sighed, watching the spectacle from his seat.

“MY problem!” shouted Faye. “What you really mean is what's YOUR problem!”

“I'm not the one with the problem here,” glowered Jet. “Let's review, shall we? I told you not to interfere with the fight! Not ONLY did you interfere, but you almost shot Ed! And now Ed is missing! Not only that, BUT SO IS OUR BOUNTY! AND, because of YOUR rash action, he might be DEAD! WE CAN'T COLLECT MONEY FROM A CORPSE!” Spit was flying from Jet's mouth.

“OH YEAH! Well, do you think I had another choice? Mr. Leave-This-One-To-Me,” Faye pointed at Spike, “wasn't making any progress at all! What did you expect me to do? Give Vash the Stampede a chance to escape while Spike was being a stupid ass!”

The argument continued to escalate until Spike had had enough.

“WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!”

Jet and Faye immediately stopped, staring at Spike. Spike sighed and stood up.

“Look, sitting here and arguing isn't going to help us find Ed OR our paycheck. So what d'you say we quit sitting on our asses and do something!”

There was complete silence for a minute. Then Jet took a deep breathe and said, “You're absolutely right, Spike. Finding Ed is our first priority.” He glared at Faye. “Finding Vash is our second.”

To Spike's surprise, Faye nodded silently. Wow. Didn't see that one comin'. Jet took control of the situation once more.

“Ok, we'll split up. Faye, you search the north side of town. I'll search the south end. And Spike, you search the center part of town.”

The three of them stared at each other for a moment. Then, without a word, each went their own way, in search of the two missing people.

Images flashed in front of Vash's eyes. A beautiful, prosperous city. A dead man on a table with blood pooling around the wound that had killed him. A man sitting on the table next to the corpse, smiling, said, “Hey, Vash!” Everything turned red as buildings disintegrated.

Vash woke up in a cold sweat, panting. His sudden movement caused a sharp pain in his side. Everything came rushing back to him. The bounty hunters, the fight, and finally, his injury. He held his face with his one un-bloodied hand, trying to calm himself.

It was just a dream.

The suns had set so it was dark. Vash quickly remembered Ed and checked on her. She was still sleeping. Vash allowed himself a moment to try to get his bearings. He was still in the dark alley, which was even darker at night. He shifted slightly, testing how much he could move without opening his wound again. He stood up slowly. At first he felt a wave of dizziness, but it soon passed.

Suddenly, he felt a presence watching him. He whirled around, causing him to suck his breathe in because of the pain. In the faint moonlight, Vash could make out the figure of a man standing at the entrance to the alley. He was tall and wearing a white coat. He had blue hair and gold eyes. What really caught Vash's attention was the raised torture device on his right shoulder and the skull strapped to his left arm. He was smiling, but there was no warmth in that smile. It was empty and cold, just like his eyes.

'I found you, Vash the Stampede.' He had spoken without using words!

'What? Who are you?'

The man's smile widened. 'Legato. Legato Bluesummers.'

'What do you want from me?'

'Your life.'

Vash didn't respond.

The man chuckled. 'Perhaps that was a little too dramatic. Actually, I'm here as messenger. That's right. I've come here to warn you. I'm afraid your life is going to end…today.'

'What?'

'Do you think I'm lying to you?' Legato looked down at the sleeping Ed. He walked over to her slowly and knelt down next to her. He rubbed her hair softly, causing Ed to make a small, contented sound.

'I haven't given you a gift, yet, have I?' Legato moved his hand slowly over her innocent face, as Vash watched tensely.

Suddenly, Legato appeared to snap Ed's head back, breaking her neck! Vash gasped and blinked, his previously calm features twisting in horror. However, nothing had happened. Ed was fine, and Legato was still kneeling next to her. Legato straightened, laughing.

'Your reaction was stronger than I'd hoped! You're fun. And to think, I could kill every man, woman, and child in the blink of an eye if I wanted to. The power of death is intoxicating.'

With each word, Vash grew angrier and angrier. His facial features began tocontort as the impulse to take the bastard down before he caused any more damage became almost impossible to control.

'Don't be in so much of a hurry.' Legato was calm and confident. 'You still have a little time left…or…perhaps you don't. Don't worry. No one else needs to get hurt.' Legato turned, looking over his shoulder toward Vash. 'So, do you want to draw?'

Vash glared. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't. He glanced down in Ed's direction for a split second. If he fought Legato now, Ed might become involved and get hurt. Also, as much as Vash hated to admit it, he really wasn't in any shape for a fight.

Legato saw his hesitation. 'Heh, a wise choice.'

“Va-a-sh per-er-son?”

Ed was waking up. Vash knelt down to see if she was ok. When he looked back up, Legato was gone.

Meryl was getting worried. It had been hours since the fight and since she had last seen Vash. She had remembered the pain on his face as he had raced off with Ed. She had been furious with herself ever since. If only she had seen Faye sooner, she might have been able to warn Vash so he could have dodged the bullet in time and saved Ed in the process.

Damn! Damn damn damn damn DAMN!

Meryl cut off that train of thought immediately. This wasn't going to help her find Vash. She had told Millie to wait at the hotel where they were staying in case Vash returned there. She was now regretting that decision somewhat because of the lack of light. Also, even though most of the townspeople who had initially fled the city had returned, the city still felt like a ghost town. It didn't matter that people weren't barricaded in their homes. There was an air of barely concealed fear and forced casualness about everyone she met.

Meryl sighed. She couldn't blame them. It wasn't every day that your peaceful existence was abruptly shattered by a duel between the Humanoid Typhoon and some hooligan bounty hunters. Meryl still didn't know what had happened to the other three. She assumed that Ed was with Vash, but where Spike, Jet, and Faye had gone was a mystery.

Meryl was walking past a dark, narrow alley when she heard a small noise. She paused, and drew her derringer, just to be safe. A pair of glowing eyes glared back at her from the shadows.

Meryl let out a small yelp and stepped backwards so quickly that she tripped and fell, most unceremoniously, on her posterior.

“Are you ok?”

Ed ran out of the shadows towards her. Meryl blinked, extremely surprised to see her. Meryl stood up slowly, with Ed's help, and quickly oriented herself.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

Ed smiled happily. “Ed is juuuuuuuuuuuust fine!” Her expression sobered. “But, Vash-person needs help.” Ed sniffled.

Suddenly, Vash stepped out of the shadows and smiled gently. However, by this time, Meryl could see past his fake smiles. Although he seemed to be smiling easily enough, there were clear undertones of pain in his expression. Meryl glanced down momentarily and was shocked when she saw his bloodied side. She knew he had been hit, but it had just never occurred to her before now that Vash could be hit. Also, it suddenly occurred to Meryl that the glowing eyes she had seen were Vash's. What was thatall about? Meryl shook her head as if to clear the thought from her mind. There was no time to think about that. She rushed to his side immediately.

“Oh, Vash!” she cried. “We've got to take care of that immediately!”

Vash, clutching his side, coughed violently, causing him to wince with pain. He grimaced with the pain, saying, “Yeah, let's do that.”

Then, Vash's eyes began to glaze over. As he began to fall forward, Meryl caught him and put his arm over her shoulder, trying to support him.

“Thank…you…” Vash whispered before he lost consciousness.

Meryl struggled to support Vash on her own. She was surprised when Ed moved to Vash's other side and put his other arm over her shoulder. Meryl stared at her for a moment before she began to walk. Ed walked with her.

It took them an hour to get back to the hotel. Their progress appeared painfully slow. Ed really wasn't much help, and her young face was tense with the strain. However, she was doing the best she could, and Meryl appreciated the help anyway because Vash definitely wasn't being very helpful at the moment.

When they reached the hotel, Millie was outside waiting for them. As soon as she saw the two of them approaching with Vash, she instantly ran out to greet them. However, when she saw his injury, Millie immediately took Vash from Meryl and Ed and carried Vash to the room without any help. Meryl and Ed, exhausted after trekking all that way with Vash, were happy to let her do it.

However, once Vash was in bed, Meryl went to his room and began to treat his wound. After cutting away the coat and brown bodysuit around the injury, she pealed the material away for a better look. Meryl gasped. The bullet hadn't grazed him, like she had thought at first. It had punched a two-centimeter hole into his side! Luckily, the bullet had passed right through. Meryl, despite feeling a little ill at the sight of the wound, began to clean it and stitch it together. The whole time, Vash never stirred. However, he had a grimace on his face, and his eyes wandered restlessly underneath his eyelids.

Meryl stepped back, wiping her forehead. She was done. As she looked over her handiwork, she felt some sense of satisfaction. However, the feeling faded somewhat as she watched Vash, who seemed tormented by a nightmare. Meryl sighed. There didn't seem to be anything more that she could do for him. She walked over to the chair in the corner of the room, picked it up, and moved it next to Vash's bed. Staying with him tonight would be the very least she could do for him.

Faye felt torn. She believed that she had done the right thing in trying to shoot Vash. She didn't feel the least bit of remorse about that. However, the issue of Ed complicated things. She hadn't wanted to hurt Ed, and despite her sound reasons for doing what she had, Faye couldn't get Vash's expression out of her mind. There had been pain there and, even worse, an almost pleading kind of look that seemed to say, “Why?” Because of that, she was beginning to feel the very unwelcome emotion of guilt.

Faye sighed. She had been stalking around town for hours now, unnerved and a bit disgusted with the vibe she felt from the townspeople. She was sick and tired of searching. She was ready to go back to the Bebop when she saw a woman with long brown hair. It was one of the women who had been talking to Vash the Stampede. Faye quickly ducked behind a building, just in case the woman saw her and recognized her.

After about an hour of waiting, she saw the other woman with short black hair approaching with Vash the Stampede, and Ed was with them. Vash appeared unconscious.

I should get him now before he wakes up.

She was just about to draw her gun and follow them when she heard someone say, “Hey!”

She spun around. It was Spike and Jet!

“What are the two of you doing here?” she demanded.

“Same as you. Hunting down Vash the Stampede,” Spike said, cheerfully.

“Yeah. We got a little bored wandering around town so we decided that we would go look for those girls Vash was with earlier today,” Jet added.

“What happened to the “let's-split-up” plan?” Faye asked, sarcastically.

“We scrapped it,” Spike said, simply.

Damn! Those two are so annoying, thought Faye, exasperated.

“So, are we going to collect the bounty, or are we just going to stand here talking about it?” demanded Faye.

“Nah. Let's go pay the Humanoid Typhoon a visit.” Spike seemed eager to face Vash again.

“Wait a second, you two.” Jet's tone was urgent. “Look at that!”

He was pointing toward a huge man in a dark blue body suit, covered by a ragged, brown cloak and hat, covering what appeared to be a transparent, orange mask made of some kind of glass material.. The guy must have been seven feet tall! Faye watched as the townspeople, eyeing him nervously, seemed to make a path for him. He was bulky as well as tall. Faye glimpsed a glimmer of light underneath that huge cloak. As she looked closer, she recognized it for what it was: a machine gun. From what she could see, it was made to fit around his arm in a huge cylinder. Even worse, there were two ofthem!She definitely wouldn't want to face that guy.

He was heading toward the hotel where Vash was. Was he another bounty hunter? Damn! Why couldn't things ever go her way?

Faye felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back, expecting Jet. However, it was Spike. He had an uncharacteristically serious look on his face. Jet also looked serious. Spike, to Faye's surprise, was the one who spoke.

“Let's hang back and see what happens.”

Faye thought about arguing the point, but judging by the looks on both Spike and Jet's faces, that wouldn't be a good move. Faye wasn't happy about it, but she agreed to wait.

Vash watched with horror as the mother ship splintered, the flaming pieces scattering, as if dust in the wind. His hands clutched at the window of the escape pod. He could see the other Project SEEDS ships as they rapidly approached the atmosphere of the unknown planet. But he didn't care. Rem was gone.

“No, Rem! Please, you can't leave! Please come back, Rem!” The screams were torn from his throat. “Rem…” he cried.

He heard laughter, maniacal laughter, behind him. His brother Knives' laughter.

For the second time, Vash woke in a cold sweat, his heart hammering and his breathing ragged. It took him a moment to focus. He realized he was in his room at the hotel. He also became aware of Meryl, who had fallen asleep in her chair with her head resting upon her folded arms on the bed. He looked down and saw that his wound had been treated. It didn't even hurt anymore.

Vash gazed down at Meryl again. He was grateful to her for looking after him. That was certain. Yet, this was a side of her he hadn't seen before. She actually looked at peace. She had a serene look on her face, almost…happy.

Vash was suddenly shaken out of his contemplation.

Something's coming. What is it? Vash's eyes widened in shock as the ground beneath his feet began to shake. Someone was downstairs, someone big. He leaped out of bed as quickly as possible. His sudden movement caused Meryl to stir.

“Vash, what's happening?”

Vash opened the door and was greeted with the sight of a giant man in a ragged cloak outside his door, with a huge machine gun aimed right at him.

“EVERYONE, GET DOWN!”

Machine gun fire erupted in the hotel, shattering the silence of the night.

You have reached the end of Chapter 4! As usual, I have ended it in a cliffhanger. Please don't hate me! They're just so much fun to write!

Everyone, please review! I need it so I know that people don't think the story is stupid. I also need them so I know whether or not I am being fair to all the characters involved. As I said in the first chapter, my expertise is Trigun, not Cowboy Bebop, so I need help from you reviewers to keep me in line.

Thanks so much! Love and Peace!