Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Wyldfire ❯ Sparking the fire ( Chapter 1 )

A strong gust of wind blows sand into his face. His hair, a tangled mop of red which under normal circumstances covers the left half of his face down to just below his eye, blows about in the wind. Fallen to his knees he moves his hand beneath his large tattered brown cloak to where the bullet went in. Warm blood runs between his fingers as he tries to ascertain the amount of damage done to him, "Arrgh" couple cracked ribs, maybe broken....bullet's still in there, he'd live. He squints his eyes trying to keep the sand out but still watch the man standing in front of him. The man, the one who shot him, stands over him menacingly pointing the rifle at his head. Nothing remarkable about him really, average height, looks like he works out alot he has a nice build, wears a loose fitting black shirt & pants and a black cowboy hat. Probably a rookie the man kneeling on the ground thinks, no one with any experience would wear all black on a long trip into the desert. If it weren't for the pain he would be tempted to laugh, "Is it going to end this way? Taken down by one of the geese? And a newbie at that." Geese is a nickname he gave to bounty hunters although right now he can't remember why. As he looks into the barrel of the gun resigning himself to accept his death the memories of his past come flooding back to him despite his best attempts to keep them buried.

The memories come back to him in an onslaught on his senses. He can see the orphanage he grew up in as if he were looking right at it & he can almost hear the sounds of the other children laughing and playing. Those sounds he likes to remember, not the ones that would come later: the screams of pain and death.... The orphanage itself, from a distance looked as though it were a shack. Haphazardly put together and made mostly of debris that was laying around, and there was plenty of that, it looked as though a gust of wind would be all that was required to send this building tumbling to the ground. In truth however, the building was quite large, two stories high with well over a dozen rooms. The orphanage stood on the outskirts of what was once the city of July, that is to say it was the city of July until Vash the Stampede turned it to ashes and earned for himself a sixty-billion double dollar bounty. So you see, the orphange was built very quickly to offer shelter to the children left alone as a result of July's destruction.

A rescue party found him inside one of July's Plants in the inner most chamber. He was only a small baby then appearing to be only a few months old. Although there were no signs of the parents it was assumed that they had been Plant engineers and brought the child there so he would be safe from the destruction. Sadly, however he would find his origins were alot less ordinary. The old woman that ran the orphanage, whom he always called Reesie, named him Zion after the paradise she read of in myths. Reesie was a short plump woman, probably no more than four and half feet tall. She wore her hair, which was gray with slight streaks of brown which had yet to give over to old age, in a bun atop her head. She always wore a long flowered dress of one color or another and an apron. Zion loved her very much, she was the closest thing he had to a mother. Within a year Zion had grown to where he appeared to be about ten years old, he had bright red hair with streaks of orange,that would grow quite wildly if left alone, that gave his hair the appearance of a flame, and he was smarter than most adults. Zion devoured all Reesie's books as if he were possessed to learn everything he could, and his instinctual knowledge of the lost technology baffled Reesie.

Despite these strange things Reesie never once questioned him and always acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. And the children accepted him as only children could, with a sense of wonder that knew no fear or hate. A truck carrying supplies would come every week, the other adults had long since abandonned July leaving only the children who utterly refused to leave the only home they ever knew and the only connection to their parents they were likely to have. That was the limit of their contact with the "outside world" so there was no one to tell Zion he wasn't "normal". Over the following years Zion grew ever more quickly to where he was a teenager when he was only three. Most of the children, especially the older ones, regarded him as a guardian angel since they knew he was different than they were, but they still loved him unconditionally. So it was, he was the guardian angel with a name that meant "heaven". Surely a poet or playwright couldn't have planned it better.

By the time he was five he had truly come to the realization he was very different from the other children at the orphanage. His aging had apparently slowed greatly leaving him looking about seventeen or eighteen. His reflexes were far above that of the other kids. In a game of dodgeball he was a sight to behold, he could move incredibly fast and the ball which the others could scarcely dodge at times to him seemed as if it were moving through molasses. At times he could even get feelings from the other children. When someone came to adopt one of the younger children, Zion went to say good-bye to him and when they hugged he could feel the child's sadness, fear, and hope as if Zion were experiencing the emotions himself. The experience shocked him so much it almost knocked him back off his feet. He went & asked Reesie about these things, curious why he was different and what it all meant. She looked out the window and up into the sky as if she were searching for the strength to answer these question which she always new would come and with a hint of sadness in her voice she would take his hand and look into his eyes and say softly "It means you are special.....you are an angel sent from the same place I named you after."

Zion remembers how angry he had gotten when she said those things. It was foolish, he knows that now, and he curses the fact that he could have been angry with her for even a moment. He misses her so much now.... "She doesn't know......she doesn't know why I'm this way," is all he could think as he walked away from her looking down at the ground. His feelings raged in his heart like a storm, feelings of anger and sadness and of being totally alone. He stopped walking when he came to the edge of what was once July. Reesie had always warned them not to go in there, she said it was dangerous. No, he needed answers some idea of where he came from, why he was different and he knew this was the only place he might find them.

Zion stood there staring at the debris that was once one of the Seven Cities. Most of the buildings had been turned to rubble in the explosion that took place, only a few of the larger buildings remained even partially intact. No one could really say with any certainty how this was caused. Even those who studied the lost technology never found anything that could come close to doing this level of destruction. All that was known was that Vash the Stampede the one they would call the Humanoid Typhoon came to this city and this was all that was left as a result. After what seemed an eternity of thinking about these things slowly he picked his foot up, it felt heavier than normal as if would take all his strength to take another step toward this place; this forbidden place which might hold the answers he so needed. No he couldn't be scared now, "I have to do this," he whispered to himself. With slow uneasy steps he made his way over to the Plant where Reesie always told him he had been found. It was as much a wreck as the rest of the city, most of the Plant had caved in on itself.

Zion crawled through a large hole that led to interior. The air here was stale and the only light came from the holes in the sides and on the ceilings. Large spider webs covered everything, not that there was really much to see. All of the machinery had been either crushed or stripped of any useful components years ago. He could hear the wind blowing outside throwing dirt against the walls. Soon he went so deep into the Plant that he lost even that sound. The only thing he heard now was his own breathes. The sweat poured down his face "Pretty damn hot in here," he spoke to himself eager to fill silence with anything, "and this place....feels like I'm walking around in a tomb."

He creeped on slowly making sure not to disturb anything so that he didn't cause a cave in, the light had vanished sometime ago, but he was amazed at how well he could see even in this low light. Finally he reached a large openning, which he rightly guessed was the inner most chamber where they had found him. He entered the room and stood up straight wiping the sweat from his forhead with the back of his left hand. He hadn't even realized he had been walking hunched over until he stood and felt an ache in his lower back. He placed his free hand on sore spot and arched his back trying to stretch and relieve some of the discomfort. Zion moved slowly into the center of the room, looking around in all directions. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, it looked very much like the rest of the Plant only it was in better shape. The force that destroyed the rest of the city appeared to have skipped over this part of the Plant. Zion could see where there had once been monitors mounted on the wall and a place for some other devices which were gone now, but those were probably removed by humans after the explosion. He walked around searching everywhere for...for...well for what he wasn't sure.

After an hour of searching the room over and over again Zion had an idea. He often got feelings from other people without really trying although it confused him at first once he learned what was happenning he got used to it and could block it out most of the time. "I wonder if I could get a feeling off of a place, its possible right? Maybe I could even feel my parents." he talked to himself excitedly. He closed his eyes and concentrated, stretching out his 6th sense as far as he could. He stood motionless for undetermined amount of time until he finally openned his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Nothing....I didn't feel anything." his voice echoed the sadness he felt in his heart. "Ah, what did I think was going to happen? What did I think I was going to find?" he scolded himself.

Zion looked around carefully trying to find a shorter path outside than the one he used to get here. As he walked the perimeter of the room again he heard the faint sound of the wind blowing. He followed the sound until he came to a doorway opposite of where he entered. "Hmmm.....looks safe enough and if I can hear the wind the exit can't be that far off!" He barely took two steps into the hallway and ran into a large spider's web. He screamed and jumped back frantically pulling the spiderweb off of him. "I hate spiders!" no sooner had the last word escaped his lips than he heard a voice. It sounded far away yet it seemed to be whispering in his ear, "If you just keep saving the butterflies the spiders will die...." The last word echoed and slowly faded. Zion spun around in place, his heart about to beat through his chest. He stood slightly hunched over, his arms tense at his sides with his fists clenched, looking as if he were ready to attack anything he might see. He squinted eyes trying to make out anything in the darkness that could have made that noise. "Who's there?" he shouted loudly, but only his echo answered him. After a few minutes, he turned back toward the door "Great, now I'm hearing voices." he joked trying to calm his nerves.

Zion crawled through the small crevice he used as an exit & fell onto his back. He layed there staring up at the night sky panting trying rest and fill his lungs with fresh air. "Its night already?" he said resting the back of his hand on his forhead, "Man, I'm gonna get in so much trouble. Reesie's probably worried sick...especially considering the way I took off. I better hurry and get back." Taking in another lungful air he lept to his feet & looked around trying to get his bearings. As he slowly looked around he could make out the lights of the orphange in the distance. "Well at least they left the lights on for me." Zion had scarcely started walking when he heard a noise...almost a whisper in his ear. He stopped dead in his tracks, "The hell?!?!? Not that voice again!", he said attempting to mask his fear. It came to him again, it was saying something....but he couldn't quite make it out. "No," he whispered, "this isn't the same voice.....its different." The voice, kind and soft.....yet so sad. "My god, so sad!" he thought and could feel tears building up in his eyes. "What is this? What happenned to this girl?" he whispered almost choking on the words. Yes, it was girl's voice he could tell that now. He followed the voice, trembling as he walked until he came to a large crater. As he stared at the massive hole his body started shaking more, he could no longer disguise his fear. "This.....this is where the explosion occurred...." He wanted to hold back the sadness he felt, keep it from invading his heart, but that voice, that girl's voice.....a ghost from the past, a psychic echo, burnt into this place by a horrible tragedy.

Zion uneasily moved into the center of the crater & fell to his knees. "What happenned here?" Reaching out, he placed his hand on the ground and the flood gates were openned. Thoughts....other people's thoughts raced through his head. "Vash, take care of Knives. Good-bye Vash" "Its the girl! But...these aren't her memories!", he thought as these feelings rushed into his mind. "Yes, Rem. I will...take care of him!".....hatred...."Now everything that brought you and Rem together is dead"......sadness......."Its time to take this trash & get rid of it FOREVER!!!".....fear.........

Zion jumped to his feet as tears streamed down his face. Unable to form any words he started to back up while staring at the spot where he had been kneeling. The tears poured from his eyes uncontrollably as he shook all over. Finally he turned and ran toward the orphanage as fast as he could. He had to get away from here, away from these feelings.....away from this thing he could barely understand. Had he stayed however he might have heard another voice, not a ghost from the past like the girl's, but a voice from the present the voice of a devil dressed as a man. The voice laughed to itself, "Hmmmm......maybe its time for your lesson.....little brother."

Zion lay on his back hiding his face in his arms. His eyes half closed, he could see the sunlight shining through the windows between the gaps in his arms. He had locked himself inside his room as he had gotten back to the orphanage two days and hadn't left since, not even to get food, he never even changed his clothes which were torn and stuck to his body from of all the dirt. "Who's memories were those? Vash? Could it be Vash the Stampede? It has to be." Zion had never thought about him much. Even though most of the children there hated him for what he had done to their home, Zion found it impossible not to feel sorry for this man who had apparently suffered every bit as much as the city he destroyed. "And that girl....she must be 'Rem'. Thats the name he said.....but who is Knives? What does he have to do with what happenned in July? Why does this person, Vash or whoever it might be, hate him so?......Who is Knives?"

"Zion, are you ok?" he heard Reesie ask from the other side of the door. ..... No response. What could he say? How could she understand what had happenned to him? "If you need anything, I'm here for you." Tears formed in his eyes as he heard her walk away. He hated shutting her out this way, but he needed to be alone and think. "Who in the hell is Knives?"

"Best be careful, some questions might be best left unanswered." the voice whispered to him softly. Zion sat up quickly in his bed eyes wide open and froze. "Heh heh. Scared? Hmph.....this will be fun." the voice said growing in its intensity yet still speaking calmly almost soothingly. "I'm not scared." Zion hissed. "Oh really?" the voice mocked him, "So you want answers? You want to learn? Alright then, we'll see if you can learn the lesson he never could. Your classroom is the large crater in July." Zion didn't answer, he just stared at the ground as a scowl came over his face. He didn't want to go back there, not there, not after what happenned. "What's wrong? I thought you said you weren't scared. Heh guess you don't want to know that...." "Shut up!" Zion shouted cutting him off, "I'll go there..." "Alright then, class is in session." with that the voice faded away.

"Zion?" Ressie shouted from the other side of the door, "Zion are you ok? Who are you yelling at? Zion!" "Its unlocked," he called back, "you can come in." Ressie rushed into the room, "What going on? You've been locked up in here for days. And who were you yelling at just now? And...." she paused as she looked at Zion, "....where are you going?" Zion sat on the bed pulling on his leather gloves which had holes cut out for the fingers. "I'm just....going out for a little while. I won't be long." He stood up and she was able to take in his appearance. Leather hiking boots, blue jeans which were at least one size to big for him, and a long sleeved light brown shirt. "Zion, please stay. I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen," she pleaded with him. "Hey, don't worry. I'll be right back, I promise," he smiled and kissed her gently on the forehead. As he walked past her he pulled on a large brown cloak that hid most of his body, totally covering his arms and his legs down to the knee.

Zion walked through July, his body tense & eyes darting around looking for anything unusual. He didn't know what to expect and he didn't want to be caught by surprise should anyone try to attack him. He stopped at the edge of the crater and could see a small white object laying in the center. Before going forward he examined the surroundings once more. "I don't feel anybody. Looks like I'm alone." As he got closer he could tell that it was something wrapped in a white clothe bound by small leather straps. His heart raced as he slowly bent down to pick it up & removed the straps. "What the...?" he said as the cloth fell to the ground revealing a large copper colored 45 caliber pistol with the words "Auto Ejecting Double Action" engraved just above the trigger & the tension he felt melted away into confusion "A gun....?" "Oh, I'm sorry," the voice spoke with a coldness that terrified Zion. "Did I say the classroom was here? This is merely where you pick up your books. Your classroom is your former home.....your orphanage." the voice laughed evily as it faded once again. Zion's eyes widened as he heard screams in the distance, "Reesie!!!" he shouted as he sprinted out of the crater and toward the orphange.

Zion pushed himself harder than he ever had before. But even though the buildings went by him in a blur and he cleared mounds of wreckage in amazing leaps it seemed to him as if he were moving at a snail's pace. The beat of his heart thundered in his ears even as thoughts raced through his head. What was going on? What did he mean by "former home"? Was everyone alright? They had to be...they had to. He'd kill the person who did this if even one of them was......no, they were ok.....they had to be.

When Zion reached the orphange he was spent sweat poured down his face, his vision blurred as he panted trying to catch his breath after having cleared a 45 minute walk in just under 6 minutes. As his vision cleared what came into sight was something that would forever break his heart. The bodies of the children lay scattered across the ground, their blood staining the dirt red. The only sound to be heard was the crackling of the inferno that engulfed the orphanage. Zion could only stand there shaking as he tried to deny the truth of what he saw. "Oh god....no, please....not this. Please...". Trembling Zion, walked over to the body of one of the children & fell to his knees. Zion reached out his hand gently touching the side of the child's face, this poor child who had once laughed and played, who had once been alive, "I was supposed to protect you. I.....I was supposed to be your guardian angel," he whispered to the lifeless child. He swallowed his tears & kept talking, "I should've been here....Reesie tried to tell me....I never should have left. This is my fault.....I didn't protect you....this is my.....I'm so sorry...". Zion buried his face into the child's body and wept for the family he lost.

The sound of footsteps behind him brought Zion to his senses as he swiftly turned & stood he looked as if were ready to face down the devil himself. Thinking about it now though it was he who must have seemed like a devil, standing his back to an inferno, small children scattered around his feet, the blood of one of the children on his hands & smeared across his cloak that blew in breeze. His eyes narrowed as he saw two men w/rifles approaching him. "If these men killed them....if they killed...." he could feel the overwhelming sadness trying to overtake the anger he felt as his eyes softened; a tear escaped turning red as it rolled down his bloodstained cheek. Zion growled at himself & he returned his cold gaze on the two men who were barely ten feet from him now.

It was then he could see these men wore calvary uniforms. Zion could feel his body relax as he realized this, "Oh thank god!" he said to himself. "Thank god you're here!" he said as he started to run to the men confident that he was safe now, that he could curl up and cry now that the nightmare was over. As he heard them cock their guns, however, he realized the nightmare had just begun. "Don't move!" the man on the right yelled at him. Confusion stopped Zion in his tracks, "Wha...?!?" he said in little more than a whisper. "Put your gun down!" yelled the man on the left. "Gun?" he looked down and saw the copper colored revolver with blood smeared across the barrel held tightly in his right hand. He had forgotten about the gun until that moment. Why did it seem so natural for him to be holding it? "Put the gun down!" the man on the left repeated tearing Zion away from his thoughts.. "I didn't do this." Zion pleaded to them. "Put it down now!!!" the man on the right was getting nervous Zion could see the barrel of his gun quivering. "Listen to me!! I didn't do this." he went to motion with right hand toward the orphanage forgetting the gun he held in that hand and instantly realized his mistake.

The man on the right squeezed the trigger almost before he realized he had done it, Zion on the other hand anticipated it and watched the angle of the gun's barrel to estimate the trajectory of the bullet. "Just like dodgeball," he thought to himself as he stepped out of the way in a blur, but just as he did he heard footsteps behind him and his eyes widened in fear. He knew who was behind him, Zion recognized the love for him & the joy they felt that he was still alive, he knew who was behind him directly in the bullet's path. Zion turned and could only watch as the bullet hit Reesie and she fell lifeless to the ground. And, being an empath, Zion was struck with feelings no one should ever experience. He could feel the pain of her gunshot as if it had hit him, he could feel her life draining from her, the light in her slowly being extinguished. Through all of this he felt her love for him and then, suddenly, she was gone.....her light had gone out.

Zion heard thunder roaring in the distance but soon realized it was the sound his screams. His eyes narrowed to mere slits as they gave off an eerie blue irradescent glow and in one unbelievably swift motion turned toward the man who shot her, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the man in the chest and his body crumpled & fell to the ground. Just as quickly Zion turned his gun on the other man but stopped short of pulling the trigger. The glow faded from his eyes as he realized what he had just done. "What have I done? I didn't mean to....I didn't want to kill anyone..." Zion's hand started shaking as he stared at the other man who was almost totally in shock at how fast it all happenned. Soon he regained his senses and began to pull the trigger of his rifle. "No...." Zion whispered to himself, closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger. The bullet went into the man's shoulder knocking him down, & causing him to lose consciousness.

"HA HA HA HA HA" the voice's laughter echoed around Zion almost deapheningly loud. "Well done! Well done. You see the worthlessness of this trash. Go ahead....kill the other one. Show me how well you learned your lesson!" "No." Zion said quietly at first but then yelled "NO!! I won't kill anyone!!!" The voice chuckled "My dear brother....you already have." And the voice faded away laughing.

Zion ran from that place and soon learned they had put a thirty-million double dollar bounty on his head as "Zion the Wyldfire" charged with the crime of burning an orphanage to the ground and killing the children who lived there along with a calvarymen who attempted to bring him to justice.

Staring into in the barrel of the gun all Zion could think was "I deserve this. I killed them. Its my fault they died.", but then he caught a glimpse of somthing red glistening from beneath the bounty hunter's coat that snapped him to full attention. In an instant Zion rose to his feet as he grabbed the barrel of the man's rifle pulling it from him pitching the man off balance and straight into Zion's fist.. When the bounty hunter hit the ground a large copper colored revolver fell from his coat.

Zion quickly grabbed the gun from the ground and pointed it at the man's head. Zion shook with anger as he shouted at the man, "Where did you get this?!? Tell me! Who gave you this? Answer me, DAMNITT!!!" His shouts seemed to shake the very planet and the bounty hunter could only stare at him in terror. "A....a man...in a white coat...I don't know his name." Zion looked down at the man, he was telling the truth, Zion could sense it. "Leave." Zion said flatly. "What?" "Leave. Now. Run. And I might let you live." The man wasted no time getting to his feet and running into the desert. Stupid geese, Zion smirked as he fired a few shots over the man's shoulders as a little incentive.

A man in a white coat? Could that be Knives? Knives, the name that's haunted him these last five years. When he even thought of that name he could feel a chill come over him. Something in the his voice, the cool calm way he talked, unnerved Zion. He looked down at the revolver he held in his hand, "I'd thought I'd finally gotten rid you." The cursed red gun that seemed to follow him everywhere he went. Every town he stopped at it would be there waiting on him; on the bed in an inn, on a stool in a bar, sitting by a well and always with a note attached written in red "For Zion. From your brother." Only there was no sign of it at the last town, he thought he had escaped it finally. As if somehow the last five years of suffering had erased his sin. He should have known better. No sooner had he started to relax than a bounty hunter came charging into the bar firing at him. He gave the man the slip and led him on a four day chase into the desert. Zion never expected the bounty hunter to have the gun. What does this mean? Why send a bounty hunter this time? "AAARGH!!!" Zion fell to his knees. "A little....more hurt than...I thought......" Zion groaned as he passed out face first into the sand.