Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ The Night's End ❯ Curiouser and Curiouser ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer Haiku:

If You've Read This Far
By Now You Should Know That I
Do Not Own Trigun

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A glitter of gold on the pillow beside her...

"So much blood..."

Golden strands against the blood-red sky...

"Check his pulse--"

In the end, everything is red though.

"Doctor, his heart rate is highly irregular--"

Nothing can escape that one forever.

"Damn! It's stopped!!"

Not even him.

"CLEAR!!"

Vash.

<FLASH>

Flickering pulses of light danced before Meryl's eyes, moving far too fast for her to decipher. Whispers and gales of voices whipped around her and she did not understand. Her hands were clean now, washed free of Vash's blood, free of the sick sweat that plagued them earlier. Civilizations rose and fell in the time it took to speak a word, and she saw none of it.

"Senpai?" With a start, Meryl realized that Millie had been speaking to her for a few minutes now and she had not responded.

"Y-yes?" A querulous note of doubt in Meryl's voice triggered a sympathetic smile in Millie's face.

"If you want to, you can go to bed now. I'll keep watch over Mr. Vash for now." The room around them was dark. Meryl had been sitting here for hours since the doctor and nurses had left the room, satisfied that the electronics and care they had given him were sufficient to keep him alive long enough for them to reach and revive him. Machines to bring him back... like they had when Meryl had screamed for help.

A silence descended before Meryl sighed, "I should, shouldn't I?" Millie watched Meryl debate without answering. She knew Meryl's answer already, knew that there was nothing that could be done to dissuade her from her decision, and in the end, did not want to tear Meryl from her decision. "He's going to be all right, isn't he Millie?"

"The doctor said he was stable now. He wants to speak with you as soon as he can. He's convinced that nothing will happen to Mr. Vash in the next hour or so. You should go talk to him, he seems to know more of what's going on than either you or me." Meryl was surprised at such an articulate answer from Millie, who had been drunk not two hours before, but she didn't comment.

A low chuckle, completely mirthless, "So do you want me to go to bed or talk to the Doctor?" She was so tired but there wasn't a chance that she would sleep tonight. Too much was happening at too fast of a pace for her to be allowed sleep. What if, while she was sleeping----no. Stop that.

"I think the Doctor knows who Mr. Vash is." Millie's voice was about as light as always, but there was a certainty behind those words that Meryl couldn't ignore. Her partner, while appearing to many as clueless, was one of the finest judges of character that she had ever known. If Millie found the Doctor's connection to Vash to be important, then it probably was. But she was hesitant about leaving Vash...

"I'll get you if anything happens," Millie's voice was quiet and understanding. Through the fog that she was viewing the world right now, Meryl saw the kind offer and nodded.

"Thanks, Millie."

Millie smiled brightly, "It's okay Senpai, you would do the same for me."

Stumbling out of the room on legs too dead to work properly, Meryl went to search for the doctor who had ties to the man in the room she had just left. Despite herself, she was very curious about a man who knew the identity of the Humanoid Typhoon and didn't exploit that knowledge or run in fear.

Just who was the doctor?

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Aro und him, the mists began to fade slowly. Sliding towards dawn, the mists disappeared... to reveal a grass covered slope. The faint odor of Spring tickled his nose, and he rubbed it slowly. Where was he?

"I see you made it back," a wry voice from behind made him turn. There stood his brother, the image of what he had been at July. Vash reached for his gun, but found it missing. Dumbfounded, he glanced down at himself, finding out only then that he was wearing a shipboard uniform much like Rem's. At his silence, his brother grew wary. Knives cocked his head at Vash carefully, "It IS you, isn't it?"

"Who else would I be?" The bitter vein in his voice pulsed dangerously as he answered his brother. Something deep within was begging for him to let go of his tightly held emotions and hurt the man who had been almost solely responsible for everything that had gone wrong in his life since Rem's death. Something deep within him wanted blood, and it scared him.

"You're the fourth Vash I've seen today," Knives' voice was tired. Dropping his hands to his sides, he looked up at Vash. "So far, you're the only one who hasn't attempted to kill me in the first few minutes."

"Kill?"

"Yes, kill." Knives paused to watch Vash's reaction. After a minute of intense scrutiny, he lowered his gaze to the ground at his feet, watching the blades of grass tremble in the spring's breath. Vash didn't know how to respond to the latest in a series of revelations that he barely understood. A moment passed in silence, ending only after Knives scuffed his feet noisily in the grass, springing dew loose from the plants. "You never answered my question, Vash."

"What question?" Vash's thoughts still were largely fractured. It felt as if he was looking through a shattered mirror at dozens of smaller versions of himself acting out similar versions of this same scene. Some managed to kill Knives, some never gave into the impulse, and some questioned as they were doing right now. Watching these people in his mind's eye act out his situation disturbed him, and he decided he must be pretty sick to still be having these nightmarish hallucinations, he decided.

"Are you the real Vash?" Knives' voice was curt.

"Ye--

A voice in the distance screamed his name.

--es."

Knives looked at Vash somewhat skeptically, but accepted it after a moment. "Do you know where we are then?"

Vash shook his head, "No. I've never seen a place like this before.... at least not one as real as this is." Brushing his hair out of his eyes, he bit his lip, "It's so alive. This is like what she wanted." Ignoring the damp of the grass, he sat down, trying to ignore the spinning in his head, or the voices buzzing in the background.

"I don't think it's completely real." His voice was somewhat doubtful, a tone which Vash had never really heard on him before. Maybe the real question was, 'Was this the real Knives?' One couldn't be too careful.

"Not real? Then what is this?"

"I-I don't know. I can't sense anything, I'm just relying on the normal five senses right now. I haven't been this blind since--" He swallowed convulsively, "I've never been this blindsighted before." The crack of dry wood under feet sent them spinning around to face the whatever was making the noise in this non-world. Vash's instincts, honed by years of practice, turned before his brother and his eyes were greeted by an empty horizon. A few skeletal trees rose behind him, but there was nothing among them.

"Knives?" Vash asked uncertainly, his eyes widening as the snapping noises descended the slope towards them. There was nothing there though. Nothing. Suddenly, despite the warmth of the spring day, Vash was very cold. Deep within his mind, one Vash approached Knives from the woods, raising his hands in a gesture of companionable peace. Something was very wrong here, Vash thought, not for the first time since the mist had deposited him here.

Knives didn't respond to Vash's query, his eyes darting back and forth between the Vash and the unseen enemy. He tensed as something within him decided upon a course of action, the very idea of being alert and ready for action should the need arise. By the way his hands seemed to be independently questing for weapons of some sort, Vash guessed that he was well aware of the dangers presented here. And something about the way that they moved with unerring certainty towards the most likely weapons made Vash feel like Knives had probably already fended off several similar attacks.

He said I tried to kill him--

In his mind, the smiling Vash lunged suddenly at Knives. The Knives he was with ducked and rolled to the right, narrowly missing the Vash he couldn't see. He watched as they danced between his line of sight and his mind's eye. It was almost poetic, in a twisted fashion. He was watching, something that either wasn't happening, or rather, was happening and he couldn't see it. Even in his dazed state, this line of thought made no sense to him whatsoever. Why was he just watching all this go on? Why wasn't he helping? Most importantly, WHAT was going on? Disregarding thought in favor of action, he forced himself to a crouch, looking at both views of the fight to see a way to save Knives from the actions of the other Vash.

By now, Knives had been pinned by the other Vash, and was busy fending off blows that the angry Vash was throwing wildly at him. In a way, Knives was lucky that this Vash was angry, because the Vash off to the side could see that the angry Vash in his mind's eye wasn't fighting with all of his skills. There-- a missed punch, and there-- a shoddy block by Knives... But now was his chance to help Knives somehow. Now was his chance.

Rising to his feet carefully, he approached the fight cautiously. The Vash couldn't sense him any more than he could sense the other Vash, and his rage was probably distracting him from the fractured views that he saw. Step--

Kill Knives. Knives kills. Kill Knives. Knives kills. A voice that was both his and not his, entered his mind. Another step towards the fight, fearing what emotions this would bring.

Killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill killkillkillkillkillkillkillkill The voice insisted. He was forcing himself forward, wishing nothing more than to avoid the ocean of broiling thoughts that he was hearing from the other Vash. Another step and he'd be there... Just one.

Another step. Take the step. Do it now. He tried to think clearly, his thoughts dissispating into the other Vash's thoughts. The pressure on his mind redoubled at his effort to reach the fight, the other Vash-- Or are you another me? --and stop the fight. His own thoughts weren't reaching the other one, and Knives was loosing the grip on Vash's arm.

'I still can't see--'

Where are you? What are you? Why are you in my head you traitor? Rem was killed by him!!

-him,' Vash thought carefully, picking his thoughts out from the flood of thought in his head.

KillKnivesKillKnivesKillKnivesKillKnivesKillKnives His other voices insisted.

'NO!' He screamed silently, forcing his leg to take that last step. Ahead of him, the fight was continuing, and now it was only a matter of time before Knives would fail to defend himself, and Vash would kill him. Vash kill. He would kill...

KillKnivesKillKnivesKillKnivesKillKnivesKillKnives< br>
'Kill Knives.' He found himself thinking in rhythm with the voices' mindless chant, before stopping himself in horror. 'No. No. Nonononononononono!!!' He screamed into the ocean, before forcing himself to take that last step. If he could only somehow reach the other him, he knew he could stop this. If only...

A punch thrown in anger, a block set in fear and confusion. Vash didn't know how to stop this senseless violence. He didn't know how to stop himself from attacking Knives without killing himself. He couldn't do anything, his head was filled with hundreds of voices, all versions of himself, and he was teetering on the brink, attempting to hold onto his sanity. The step reached towards eternity, the voices crescendoing as his other foot touched the soil in front of Knives

Knives screamed in pain as the other Vash scooped a rock off of the ground behind him and swung it at his opponent. Another block resulting in a sickening crack in Knives' arm. The voices urged him to allow the other to kill Knives. 'No,' he stopped them. But what could he do?

"Listen to your brother, if only this once. He is right. Don't ever let go." The memory of Rem's voice whipped through his mind, expelling the chorus and leaving him with only one option. Following that instinct, he collected his thoughts and used them as a hammer.

"Stop," Vash said calmly, throwing all of his sense of self into the void that his other selves had occupied previously. And with that one word, the other Vash occupying the space before him, the one he could only see through the shattered glimpses in his mind, that Vash turned around.

And they saw each other for the first time. A thousand unsaid words between the fractured selves winked by. Dropping the rock to the ground, the other Vash climbed to his feet, leaving a panting Knives sprawled behind him. Approaching his counterpart, they studied eachother for a moment, Vash's calming thoughts keeping a tight control over the nameless void.

"Thank you." The other said quietly, clapping a hand on Vash's shoulder. "Good luck."

"With what?" Vash was starting to tire, holding his thoughts on one thing for as long as he had was

"You're the only 'I' who can save us. You are least controlled by your emotions, and you also have her blessings." The other's face turned sad, "I just hope it's enough." Removing his hand, he started to walk down the slope, away from Knives and Vash.

"Who are you?" But there was no answer, and Vash watched as the other faded slowly, taking the void with him. What was going on? Why, no--where?

"He is you, I think." Turning around, Vash found that Knives had forced himself to stand, cradling his arm against himself. "Or a portion of you, anyway. I suspected it before, when you didn't attack me. I think that these are all small fragments of you, and that you are the core 'Vash that they are splintering off of." He paused, wincing, "What ever it is that is causing this--this strange world, I think that you are right near the source. I haven't suffered the effects as much yet, simply because of my location. However," he stared at his feet, avoiding Vash's eyes, "It is tearing your very soul apart. Much as I hate to use such a human term to describe this, that is what it is doing. That is why you need to get out of here. Whatever it is, it's attacking us specifically, and you are one of the only ones who can stop it from killing us altogether. If you can escape, that is."

"Killing us?"

"Can't you hear their screams?" Knives' voice was quiet.

And then Vash did hear, and it became that much more important to find a way out of here. He had to escape a prison with no walls.

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Meryl knocked on the doctor's office door timidly, realizing after a moment that she didn't even know his name. However, a moment later when the door opened to reveal a tired looking man in a rumpled suit. "Hello, sir. I'm Meryl Stryfe from the Bernardelli Insurance Company and I would like to speak with you."

"I was staying up late, hoping you'd decide to drop by, Ms. Stryfe, or may I call you Meryl?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued on, "I think that we have a lot to discuss. Vash didn't want to confront you about it directly, but-" He was interrupted by a rumbling noise coming from outside.

In a flash, all the lights in the city went out. Every electrical device, every tap in town, everything that made life possible on the planet... Everything stopped working.

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Millie was facing the windows, watching the city when she heard Vash cry out from his sleep. Rushing to his bed, she watched as Vash's jaws clenched, biting his lip so hard that he drew blood. Shivering in a fever sweat, he started to seizure. What was going on? Was this a repeat of his earlier episode? Where were the nurses? Where was the doctor? As she watched, Vash's features went slack once more, and he slipped deeper into the coma. Taking a moment to check his pulse, she was relieved to find a faint beat against her fingers.

A moment later, she was thrown to the floor, as the room lit up as bright as day. A faint rumbling rushed towards her, and she stood unsteadily, walking towards the windows in a daze. What was going on? And then she saw....

"The plant--" she found herself whispering, touching the glass of the window. Directly in front of her, she could see the Plant pulsing unnaturally. Flashing brilliantly, a pulsing bulb of varying shades of blue and red, she recalled the day that Mr. Vash had stopped a Plant from overheating in Inepril. But he wasn't here to do that, or rather he was here, but still unable to help at all. Watching helplessly, she saw it begin to flash faster, speeding up, with arcs of lightening ricocheting off of the Plants walls. It would only survive for a few more moments at the very most, and there was nothing she could do about it.

It was then that she remembered where she was. Flying across the room, she covered Vash's form with her body just as the Plant exploded and the shock wave blew the windows in. Crying out as a stray shard caught her across the cheek, she watched Vash writhe in pain.

And then there was silence, a silence so deep that she could hear the vague whispers that Vash whispered from the depths of his dreams.

"But how can I get out?" He whispered softly, before lapsing back into the comatose state he'd been in before.

Millie had no answer for him, only questions, she realized as she sat up on the bed in the ruined room. So many questions...

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Brief Author's Note/Essay/Explanation/Apology/Whatever:

Well, mirth, you certainly badgered me enough to get past the cliffhanger chapter. And here it is, the labor of me slaving over a computer in the wee hours of the morning, listening to soulful 80s 'toon soundtracks (lemme get a cheer going... go gummi bears theme song *coff coff*... whee...) and my ever beloved Gilkyson and Cutrufello cds.

God, I've decided I'm never ever doing a fight scene between two of the same characters ever again. Action isn't my strong suit, and interaction between two of the same people is freaking difficult. And why am I doing this to what was s'posed to be a light Trigun fic?

So, did this chapter clear any questions up? I didn't think so. Just be assured that there is a reason for all of this (at least I hope so, otherwise I'm gonna look like an idiot). In other words, this confusion (or at least my own) should be cleared up soon... just as soon as I figure out how much more this fic's gonna take.

Next up: The Doc, and Meryl's dilemma, and a longer chapter.