Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Sinner ❯ The Promise to Protect ( Chapter 1 )

Ch 1: The Promise to Protect

Silence.

It echoed all around, like someone had placed a sound proof bubble around the whole area. Millie & Meryl's cried could be no longer heard, nor could the grunts of the towns' people under Lagato's control. The only thing that could be heard was Vash.

His ragged, staggered breathing as he looked down to the lifeless form of Lagato Bluesummers. The man who had pushed Vash to the brink, and now over the edge…all by the order of his master… Knives.

Seraphine hadn't been in time, she came up only to see Vash pull the trigger. Her eyes widened as her heart broke as she saw the realization and shock now set in to the outlaw gunman who never willingly took a life…until now.

:I failed.: Was her first thought as she lowered her own weapon and walked slowly, blindly through the unconscious bodies, past Meryl and Millie and over to Vash. Her eyes never leaving his as he stared….his body trembling, his eyes transfixed. His arm still outstretched as the curls of smoke roped up from the end of that terrible weapon Knives had built. She came up right next to him, looked up at him as beads of sweat trickled down his face, blood tricking down onto the ground which soaked it up greedily.

"Vash…" Seraphine's voice as so soft that she no normal human could hear it…but Vash could. Gingerly she reached out placing her hand a top the shaking weapon. "Vash….it's over." She said softly as she removed the gun gently from his still trembling hand, a she holstered her own.

"I….." He stammered his eyes growing more and more panicked. "I…." Anxiety and fear washed over her from him, and suddenly she knew what a thin line his sanity was treading. Immediately she interposed herself between him and the horrible vision he had created.

"Had no choice." She told him firmly as he blinked a bit, startled like he hadn't seen her till just now, her eyes softened. "Vash, you didn't have a choice. He didn't give you any other options."

Vash looked at her tears welling in his eyes, as they widened…she could see it. Now, he wasn't looking at her….to his eyes, right now…she was someone else, and she knew exactly who that was.

"Rem…" He choked out tears spilling down his face. "Rem I…I did a bad thing!" Anguish poured out from him, as he dropped to his knees. "I did a bad thing!" He cried burying his face in his hands, "Rem, I'm so sorry!" He sobbed, "I betrayed you!"

The whole scene tore her heart; wordlessly Seraphine knelt next to him and gathered the trembling, shattered man into her arms. He clung to her desperately, as if somehow she could shield him from the horrible reality. Right now she wasn't Seraphine; she was Rem Savrem to his eyes, his Madonna, the one person whom he loved with all his heart. She held him as he begged her forgiveness, stroking the sweat soaked hair, the metallic sent of blood filling her senses…but she didn't care.

Vash the Stampede, the $$60 Billion man, the Humanoid Typhoon….has just had his soul shattered, and it was her fault for not being there in time. She held him tightly, "It's alright Vash." She said to him as he cried horribly clinging to the front of her shirt.

"I'm sorry Rem! I'm so sorry!" He chanted over and over again.

"It's going to be alright Vash." She told him as she rocked him gently as she would a very small child, tears knotting her throat. "Everything's going to be….alright." She choked on the last…she knew it wouldn't be alright. Nothing would be alright ever again! Vash had committed a sin….and it was her fault for not being there sooner! Her hands weren't clean like Vash's. They had been stained with the blood of the guilty for more years than she could count. All for the sake of a dark past of abuse she had been forced to endure. She had turned that hatred to those who would've prayed on the weak and innocent, and thus had become a bounty hunter. That's when she had met Vash the Stampede.

He was nothing like she had envisioned him. He was a goofy, skirt chasing, idiot, who loved to play with children and always smiled. She had fist come into contact with him when she had saved a little girl from being molested by some sicko, he had begged her not to take that animal's life. She knew immediately who it was and she had though it so strange that the Humanoid Typhoon whom had the largest bounty in history, this person who single handedly destroyed July and Augusta….would beg her not to take the life the guilty that deserved to die. She had asked him why she should spare this monster, for everyone present could tell what his intentions were and told her simply with tears in his eyes.

"Because it's wrong to take the life of another!" He said brokenly. "No matter what they've done everyone deserves a chance to right their wrongs!"

That one statement hit her like a blow to the gut, it was the first time in her life that she had thought about everything. He confused her, so she had decided to follow him in an attempt to try and figure out just why it was wrong to kill the guilty, to kill at all. Many a time she had dirtied her hands more with blood in order to save Vash, because he wouldn't do it Seraphine took it upon herself to protect him along with Wolfwood who was like her. The two of them had an understanding, and left it at that. Seraphine worked behind the scenes, but when she worked openly Vash confronted her about it…and she never lied to him. But each time he got that same look on his face, that same saddened painful look like he had been the one that killed them, himself. It broke her heart every time she saw that, but it didn't matter. He could hate her all he wanted, so long as he lived. She could be content with that. He was so alone at times….he needed so much…..

Right now he needed Rem, and if that's who he saw when he looked at her then so be it. Though she felt she didn't have the right to play this part, but she couldn't bring herself to break the spell his sorrow and pain had created. So she just held him as he cried, and finally passed out from exhaustion and his wounds.

About that time was when Meryl and Millie roused up, along with the townsfolk. They were all confused but released the girls and saw in the dying rays of the setting sun. A figure clad in pure black, cradling a man donned in red in her arms, holding him closely to her, trying to protect him. When the crowd moved closer the young woman looked up….

"Se…Seraphine?" Meryl whispered as Millie went wide eyed and gasped as everyone looked in awe.

The front of her clothing was stained red with blood, her skin pale against the crimson setting sun. Her eyes haunted, "I'm sorry Meryl." She said softly, "I tried to….but I didn't get here I time."

Meryl's heart constricted painfully as tears welled in her eyes. "Is….is he….?" She faltered.

"His soul had been broken, Meryl." Seraphine said softly, "Absolutely shattered, he's devastated because…..because…." Seraphine bowed her head.

"Because…why, Miss Seraphine?" Millie finally spoke, tears in her own eyes. Seraphine's head rose up and everyone gasped. One blood red tear crept down her ivory features, leaving a crimson trail behind it as it made it's path over her delicate cheeks and the curve of her jaw line. Her eyes filled with sorrow and self blame.

"Because….he sinned, Millie." She said softly. "He was forced to sin, and now….he won't ever forgive himself." She looked down, "He sinned because I…..wasn't here in time to protect him." She sealed her eyes. "I made a promise to Wolfwood to protect him and I failed!" Her arms tightened around him. "I'm so sorry Vash.: She though anguished :Please….forgive me.: