Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ What If ❯ The Journey Begins ( Chapter 2 )

"So Knives is dead."

Vash had been lying in his makeshift bed on the floor, about ten feet from Meryl's bed for over an hour. In that time, this was the first thing to be said.

"How did you do it?" Meryl asked him quietly. "After Legato . . . And then to do it to your brother . . . Why aren't you all broken up about it?"

The Humanoid Typhoon took a deep breath and pushed his blanket down around his waist. Why is it so hot in here? he silently wondered. "That was the answer you gave me," he said aloud.

He could hear the confusion in her voice. "How did I give you that answer?"

Vash rolled over onto his side so that he was facing her. "When I thought about it, there are two extremes I've seen where killing is concerned: the one Rem taught me, and the one Knives lived by. It was impossible for me to come to terms with it all until I heard you say Rem's philosophy."

"How did that help?"

The gunman rolled back onto his back, resting one hand underneath his head and the other across his stomach. "I realized that you are the balance. You were willing to kill if necessary, but only if you could see no other option. Once I understood that, I realized that I can kill . . . But only if it's someone who will go homicidal like Legato."

"Or Knives." He could hear the rustle of her blanket as she moved around.

"Yeah," he said slowly, "or Knives. Because when someone becomes like that, they have already given up their lives; they are dead inside, and want others to join them in death."

Meryl's confusion turned to humor. "Those are deep thoughts for a hundred and thirty year old child."

"Child?" Vash sat up, sounding offended.

"Of course," she needled. "After all, you do enjoy singing that children's song.

"So... On the first evening,

a pebble falls to the dreaming world."

Vash smiled as he listened to the first verse of the song Rem had sung to him so long ago. When he finished, he began to sing the second.

"So... On the second celestial evening,

All the children of the pebble

Join hands and compose a waltz.

Sound life."

"Vash . . ." Meryl said his name so softly, he wondered if it was his imagination speaking.

He decided to take a chance and answered her. "Yes, Insurance Girl?"

"Vash, I'm cold."

The gunman frowned. "I can give you my blanket, if you want."

He could hear her shake her head. "No, that wont help. Would you , uh, sleep up, uh, here with me?" she asked, blurting out the last part.

In answer, he silently moved out from under his blanket. It was dark enough in the room that she couldn't see him move but, with his sharp eyes he could see clearly. Without making a noise he moved nearer to his bed.

"Vash?" He smiled. Now she sounded embarrassed.

He reached out and gently touched her face. She jumped, having not realized just how close he was in the pitch black room. Ever so slowly, he bent over and kissed her.

"Yes," he whispered.

************************************************************* ***********

In the early morning, Vash and Meryl lay with their limbs intertwined, radiating the afterglow of loving. With his eyes half closed, and his mind half asleep, Vash started humming the song again.

Meryl laughed against his chest, bringing him fully awake. He frowned down at her. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," she answered with a sigh. "I'd just been wondering for the last week where I had heard the song before, and I just remembered. My Grandma Saverem used to sing it to me when I stayed with her."

Vash sat up in a rush, knocking Meryl out of the bed. "Your Grandma who?"

Meryl stood up and pulled a sheet around her body. "Saverem," she answered, taking in the look of complete shock on his face.

"That's not possible," he whispered, staring blankly at the wall. "There was no other person with the name Saverem on any of the ships. It can't be true." An intense look came into his eyes, and he fixed her with his piercing gaze. "Do you remember: What was her first name?"

The small insurance woman sat down on the edge of the bed to think. "Renee? No. Remada? Seems close. Raina? Definitely not. Oh, I don't know. Maybe-"

"Rem," Vash whispered the name staring blankly at the wall once again. "Her name must have been Rem. But it can't be. I saw the ship blow up. Didn't I? Knives blew it up. Didn't he?"

He gave her that piecing look again. "Can you take me to her?" He demanded.

Meryl looked shock. "Uh, Vash, she died nineteen years ago. When I was about three."

"If Rem was twenty-four when I was born," Vash mused, "Then that would make her a hundred and fifty-five now. If she died nineteen years ago that would make her a hundred and thirty six when she died."

The small dark haired woman shook her head. "Then they can't be the same person," she told the blonde man. "Grandma Saverem looked no older than maybe forty when she died."

The sixty billion double dollar man jumped out of the bed and began to pull on his clothes. When he noticed that Meryl hadn't moved, he paused. "Come on!" he shouted with the typical Vash enthusiasm. He threw her pants at her along with a fresh pair of underwear from her dresser. "Get dressed! We need to get Millie and get going! This is important."

He turned away from her, now fully clothed in his body armor, to dig through his travel pack. From the bottom, he pulled out one of the red coats he was always wearing.

After they had woken Millie up and they had eaten breakfast, Meryl left to speak to the mayor about their leaving the house. Vash had sent a simple message with her, to be placed on his brother's tombstone, reading "Millions Knives. Freeborn Plant and Brother."

While Millie was busy packing up her stuff, Vash stood on the front porch of the house. His pushed his yellow glasses up on his nose then rested his hands on his pistols, the right hand on the silver one and the left on the black. His pistol and Knives'. Now both his.

"It's okay, Rem," he said to the sun. "I'm coming. I'm coming to see you."