Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ To Love Humanity ❯ The Calm Before the Storm ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

To love humanity…




To Love Humanity…
Chapter 2: The calm before the storm
By: Hellions K. and Dashing V.
"Gee Merle that was a long trip. I can't wait to get back to town and get some rest," the tall woman remarked brightly, as the pair rode along on the Thomas', Millie Thompson smiled brightly though satisfied with their work when something caught her attention. "Look Merle!" she exclaimed, pointing and nearly falling off the animal. "I think that that is Mister Vash over there!"

Merle couldn't help but yawn as she listened to Millie prattle on, hearing the name of Vash she quickly looked in the direction that the big girl was pointing in. It took none too long for her to recognize the body and she nodded her head.
"Yeah, that would be him all right. The buffoon. What is he doing out here!?" Stopping her Thomas she got off and walked over to where Vash was still laying face down in the sand, unmoving. She gave him a nudge, "Come on, you idiot, wake up! Now is not the time to be sleeping out in the middle of the desert." He still didn't move, which was starting to worry Merle a bit.

"Well it looks like were gonna have to move him doesn't it Merle," Millie responded as she got off her Thomas.
Bending down she slipped arm around Vash, pulling one of his arms around her neck so that she could pick him up. She then draped the tall man over her Thomas and climbed on.
"We better get going Merle, since we don't know how long Mister Vash has been laying her he may need help really quick." Millie stated, then added, "Poor Mister Vash."

Merle nodded at her partner and watched a bit worriedly as Millie lifted the man onto her Thomas. Picking up Vash's pack Merle strapped it to her own Thomas and got back on.
She looked at Millie as they started along, "You think he's going to be alright?" She studied the unmoving form of the peace-loving gunman.

"I think so Merle," Millie said with a smile and a nod as they headed off towards town. "With a little rest and something to eat I'm sure that Mister Vash will be back to his usual self in no time!" She looked to see the city starting to grow on the horizon before them. "Where are we staying at Merle?"

Feeling distracted by the fact that Vash still wasn't moving but a bit reassured by her partner, Merle shrugged, "I'm not sure, a hotel I suppose. That would be the logical place anyway." She looked at the sun as it was falling lower in the sky, "We better hurry before it gets dark."

Millie nodded and gave her Thomas a good kick, moving the animal from a slow walk to a quick trot. The sooner they got to the city the sooner they could look after Vash. It didn't take long to reach the city of November; it was a larger city just as the previous cities the two had been to named after the months of the year.
"Why don't you go in and get the rooms ready Merle, that way I can bring Mister Vash in and put him to bed, instead of having to wait in the lobby with him." Millie said in a slight matter of fact tone. Millie's intelligence was showing itself again in the flaky girl.

The black-headed woman followed her partner and upon reaching town she had to nod in agreement to the flaky girl's logicalness. "You're right, Millie."
Getting off her Thomas she tied it to a rail and went inside the hotel to get them a room. Walking up to the desk she explained what they would need. After getting an okay that a room was available Merle handed over the money and got a key in return. Walking back out to where Millie was waiting outside she smiled slightly and tried to sound cheerful, "Well, I got us a room with two beds. So we can dump broom head in one." She turned to go back inside so that she could show Millie where their room was.

"Great Merle!" Millie replied enthusiastically to the shorter woman as she got off her Thomas and tied it to the rail as well before pulling Vash off the animal's back and following her partner inside as she cradled Vash in her arms. The pair was lucky that Millie was such a strong woman otherwise they would have had a terrible time bringing Vash back to the city. She followed Merle in after she unlocked the room and laid Vash down carefully on one of the beds.
"I hope that Mister Vash wakes up soon." She then put a finger to her chin in thought. "I wonder what he was doing way out there. There's not much but that old plant way out in the desert." She then turned to Merle. "Do you suppose that Mister Vash was working on the plant?" She asked as she took her coat off and sat down on the other bed.

Knives woke with a start there was something wrong and he couldn't place it. **Vash are you all right?** He sent to his twin in a puzzled tone.

Something was wrong, little did Knives know that he was more in danger then what his twin was. The insurance girls were caring for Vash while there were much bigger problems with the plant itself. Something was inside of it, it crept very slowly through the plant, corrupting it. It had been growing slowly, before the defenses of the plant worked against it keeping it small, but now the defenses were starting to break down and decay all together allowing it to spread.
Vash moaned slightly upon hearing someone's voice in his head but he was still too out of it to comprehend much of anything, so he let himself be pulled back in the darkness where there was a place filled with Love and Peace.

Merle looked at the still unmoving Vash and then back at her partner, she shrugged, "I really don't know, Millie. I suppose that he could've been working on the plant." Not really wanting to think about it at the moment she shuffled towards the door, "Well, I'll go down and have the Thomas' taken care of and bring up our bags." With that she disappeared out the door.


Millie just nodded to Merle as she walked out the door. "Poor Mister Vash, he must have had a really long day," Millie said softly under her breathe as Merle left.
"I know!" She exclaimed after a few moments she left the room and hurried down to the front counter to ask for a water basin, forgetting that there was actually one in the room.
The people at the front counter were nice and smiled at Millie and gave the flaky girl another one shaking their heads after she left. Going back into the room she filled the basin and dipped a washcloth in it, wringing it out till it was damp she laid it across Vash's forehead.
"There that should help," she commented to herself before sitting back down on the bed.

The blond headed man stirred a bit and moaned as the damp cloth was put on his forehead but he still didn't come out of his unconscious state, for the dream that he was in was just getting started.

Knives could feel the stirring of his brother and knew that he was at least alive and not in any sort of mortal danger from what little he could sense of the unconscious form. He shrugged, what little he could, and closed his eyes thinking that it was again nothing but his imagination.

The darkness within began to move a bit faster through the plant, working it's way from the outer most layers deeper towards the core of the plant itself. Systems that once read green flickered to red before their displays went black as the corrupting form took over. Too many barriers were still up in the plant and it was forced to wait, to battle against the defenses of the plant, to make it weak. It had a goal, something that should be impossible for what it was....

Merle sighed to herself as she untied the Thomas' and led them around the back of the hotel. Giving the reins to a stable boy the small woman somehow managed to carry her pink suitcase, Millie's suitcase, and Vash's pack. Nodding a thank you to the stable boy she trudged back around the front of the hotel to plop down on the front steps with the bags. Letting go of them she put her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her hands, she really didn't know if she could handle Vash if he freaked out again. She needed just a few more moments and then she would go back up to the room.

"Welcome back Merle," Millie said in an enthusiastic but tired voice as her partner came through the door," a few minutes later, "Let me help you with that," she said as she helped lighten Merle's load of luggage. It had been a long day and it wasn't even half over, she was starting to get sleepy. She was really debating on taking a nap. "Don't worry I'm sure that Mister Vash will be just fine."


Knives slept on, his rest would not stir for some time yet, or at least he hoped he wouldn't. Those were his most recent thoughts before he slipped into darkness. Though he may be wrong, dark things have been awaiting him in his sleep and it would only be a matter of time before they resurfaced again.

The darkness within the plant was biding its time, waiting till a hole could be breached in the protection of the plant's system allowing it to get deeper inside...

Merle pulled on a smile for Millie as she came back in, "Oh thank you, Millie," she was relieved to have the load off her. She looked at the form of Vash and then quickly away, "Yeah, I'm sure you're right." She yawned slightly.

Millie moved the luggage off to the side out of the way into their customary places before she went back over to the bed and picked up her coat.
"I think that I'm going to take a short nap Merle, maybe you should too." She said when she saw Merle yawn. She hung the coat up and then returned to the bed and sat down and it didn't take the big girl all that long to zonk out.

Merle nodded at Millie, "I think you're right." Yawning again she took off her cloak and laid it on a chest and then laying on the bed she too was soon asleep on the bed, beside her partner.

Blue green eyes surveyed their surroundings as they slowly recognized where they were, the playroom. A smile came to his lips as he saw the black haired woman who had taught him so much, some that had taken him most of his life to fully understand. He started to walk over to her, that's when she noticed him. Her face lit up, "Vash!"
"Rem!" He answered as he quickened his pace, long legs eating up the distance in between them. Coming to her he sat down beside her.
She looked at him with pride in her eyes, "You did it, Vash, you saved Knives."
He shook his blond spiky head, "No, Rem, not yet I haven't. I've only made it so he can't kill for the time being. I still have a lot of work to do."
She frowned slightly, "But you have taken the first step to--"She was cut off as a muscular man appeared, "You can never save scum like them! They are worthless! Why do you even bother, Rem!"
Rem gasped as she turned to see him there, "Steve, they live and feel just like we do."
"No, they are trying to take us over to control us. Well, I'm not going to live for it. I'm going to take care of the problem now."
His eye's widened, why did that man hate him and his twin so? He still couldn't totally understand that. Pulling out a gun that man shot at Vash, but determined to not let anything happen to him she jumped in front of the bullet.
"REM!!" he cried out as he jumped to his feet and caught her. He looked at her now lifeless form and he snapped. Looking up at that man his face crumpled into anger, "How could you! How could you be so heartless!"
That man laughed, "As long as I get you with the next one."
He pulled out his heap, he looked at it for a moment wondering where it had come from but shrugging he pointed it at that man, "NO! I won't let you harm my brother anymore!" He pulled the trigger once, twice, and until the chamber was empty and Steve had fallen to the ground. He dropped the heap and looked at his shaking hand, what had he done? he had again taken a life, even after leaving his heap behind.
"Noooooooo!" he cried out in pain and torture, in the dream and in the real world. Vash stirred slightly from his unconscious state, "No! No! No!" tears streamed down his face as he lay on the bed still unaware that it was just a dream, although to him dreams were more than just a dream....

At the time that his twin was having his pleasant dream turned nightmare, Knives slid deep into his abominable nightmare. For him there were no joyful or friendly faces to be had in his dreams of late. All were dark nightmares far to real....
Knives found himself walking across a barren wasteland, much like the planet he lives upon but it was different. It was far bleaker, the earth beneath his feet crunched as it was baked to a crisp by twin suns. He knew something was wrong and he couldn't place it not until he came upon the hulking figure of a tree. No not just a tree but the skeletal remains of what used to be a tree, then he understood. He was not on a barren planet but a lifeless one. He continued walking hoping to find some tiny sign of life but instead he found nothing but horror upon reaching the tree. There before him he saw his twin nailed to the tree through the shoulders, hands and feet. Blood flowed from the many bullet wounds about his twin's chest and torso. His brother's soft eyes now, dull and lifeless as his glasses lay in broken pieces at his feet. A shadowy form slips round from behind the tree, mocking laughter all to familiar before he even has to see the face. He turns to see Steve, gun leveled with is own chest, and he has no time to react as the gun goes off....

Then it is the sound of his brother's scream that woke him from the dream and he looked down at himself, to see that he was unharmed and he let out a shaky sigh. **Vash...** he didn't know what to say or to do.

The darkness within the plant seemed elated at the dreams that Knives was having and it streamed into the next layer of the plant voraciously, only one more level to go before it reached him.

Millie woke up with a start when Vash started to scream. "Mister Vash!!" she called as she nearly fell out of the bed trying to get up. "Mister Vash are you alright??"
She asked in concern as she fell down onto her knees by the bed, still partially tangled in the blankets that were pulled off the bed in her haste to get up. "Merle?" she looked to her partner in concern, before turning back to Vash.

Hearing Vash's tortured scream, Merle quickly woke up and sat up, she complained a bit as Millie almost took her off the bed with the blankets. Then getting on her hands and knees she looked at the other bed where Vash was stirring. Her mouth gaped open as she totally missed Millie's question, for it was then that she saw the tears that were running down the man's face. It tore her heart, why did he have to live with so much pain?

It wasn't Millie's voice that brought the man back to consciousness it was hearing his brother's voice in his head,
**Knives...** he responded, his brother could probably hear the tears in his voice.
Then opening his eyes he looked around him at the room, tears still streaming down his face. He tried to sit up but when the room started to spin faster and faster he quickly laid back down.
Looking over at the girls he blinked again, "Oh, hello, friends," his voice was gravelly, from his raw dry throat.

A very shaken sigh of relief was the first thing that Vash would hear before his brother began to speak in a shaken tone, *Wh...What happened Vash?* He was still trying to banish the images he saw in his dreams and the tear soaked voice of his twin didn't help much.
They're getting worse...the dreams. He thought.
**Why does this keep happening...to…me?** the last part of his thoughts, unintentionally spoken aloud in soft whisper, not much more then a breath. He closed his eyes for just a moment, his vision flashing crimson red before him just before his eyes slid fully closed causing his eyes to flash open almost instantly.

The darkness swirled and eddied before the final barrier, whispering it's own dark secrets to the plant as it tried to get though the last layer of the plant. The last line of defense before it would reach the dome, where Knives rest.

"Oh thank goodness you're awake, Mister Vash. You had us really worried," Millie said as she placed her hands on the bed. "What happened are you ok?" She then reached over and checked the washcloth that was getting dry and gently pulled it off. "That was an awful fright full scream." She tried to sound a bit cheery but she couldn't her voice was full of worry instead. With out thinking she began to wipe Vash's tears away with the cloth she now held in her hands.

Merle watched feeling numb, she didn't know what to do. It was times like these that she was actually grateful for her flaky friend and partner.
She tried to put on a shaky smile for Vash, "Um...I bet you're hungry and thirsty. I'll go get some food." Picking up her cloak she was quickly out the door to do just that.

Vash just nodded at Millie and let her wipe away the tears that didn't want to stop. Getting a hold on his voice Vash responded, *Everything's just fine, dear brother,* a confused look crossed his face as he heard the whispered words, **what? What? keeps happening to you?**

**It's....It's nothing** Knives replied softly. **...nothing, nothing at all.** The tone in Knives soft speech noted that if he were standing before his twin he would be looking away, as if he didn't want to talk about what was going on or that he didn't know how to explain what was going on. In truth it was both. He wasn't fully sure what was going on but he knew that it was something that he didn't want to divulge in for fear of being alienated by his twin.

The final line of defense was a bit much for the darkness and it retreated back a layer into the plant. If it made a sound it would be that of millions upon millions of tiny hissing snakes, hissing in anger at its defeat. It could bide its time and wait, but could the plant?

He then looked over at Merle as she tried to force herself to be happy, his eyes softened as he could read her pain there. He wanted to hug her as she got up and left the room to get him the nourishment that he knew he needed.

"That's a great idea, Merle." Millie said with a smile. She paused in her actions long enough to watch Merle leave, before turning her attention back to Vash. "She's been very worried about you Mister Vash, since we found you laying out in the middle of the desert. What happened? Were you trying to fix up the plant that is near here?" The meaning of near the city of November means at least 50 iles west of the city if not farther.

Once outside the door Merle looked at it sadly, "I'm sorry to leave you with that, Millie," she said softly, "but I just can't handle him when he's like this..."

The blond haired man looked at the big girl, "Oh...." he said intelligently about Merle being worried. He shrugged at her question, "You could say that yes," his voice was starting to sound tired and he was having trouble keeping his now drying eyes open. **Are you sure, dear brother?** he questioned sleepily a bit of worry creepy into his voice.

Walking down the hall she went down the stairs and stepped out into late evening sun. She looked around her, "Now where to get some food." catching the sound of some music and laughter she made her way to the saloon. Walking in the swinging doors she looked around her at all the people having fun. This made her look at the ground sadly, she wished that she could be having fun at that moment.

He looked up from playing his horn as he sensed, rather than saw, the woman enter the bar. A smirk slid across his face as he recognized her, 'This will make him most happy,' he thought to himself as he continued the happy tune on Sylvia.