DISCLAIMER: Trigun and its characters belong to Yasuhiro Nightow.
Meryl's Choice
Somewhere in the barren wasteland of the desert planet Gunsmoke, where once had been a little village, a mass graveyard marked the site of a battle that had claimed many lives.
Many bodies were buried in this place so filled with death that even weeds and grave flowers would not grow, but there was only one headstone.
A black-clad woman with moonlight skin and midnight hair knelt by the stone.
The sky was gray, matching her heart. That was it. It wanted to rain, but couldn't.
It should be raining. It should have been always raining since he fell. The planet itself should have mourned his loss. But no rain came. The sky was as dry as her own cried-out tear ducts.
The funeral had been small. Too small for a man who had saved so many lives. They would never know the sacrifices he had made for a race that cursed his name and celebrated his death.
She would know. And she would always be in love with the most magnificent man she had ever met.
Memories flashed through her as she lay down and rested her head on her husband's tombstone.
"Let me go! Milly, put me down! I have to go back to him! He needs me!"
"I'm sorry, Meryl, but I promised him I would keep you safe! You know why I can't let you go back there!"
She wished with all her heart that he hadn't made the choice he did.
"Vash!"
In the aftermath, she ran to her husband's side. She heard his death rattle as she cradled his head.
One lucky shot. Because he wouldn't shoot a kid.
"Vash, you have to heal yourself! I know you can do it, please! I can't lose you now, not now of all times!"
He gurgled as he coughed, blood spraying on himself and her.
"Don't ask that of me," he rasped. "To do that would…betray…my humanity…everything I've ever had to offer you. I can't…betray you like…that. I want to die as…your husband…not live…as a plant."
His words were growing fainter. She had to put her ear to his mouth to hear him say, "I love you, Meryl…now and forever." He used up the little strength he had left to place his hand on her belly.
"Take care of our children."
"Meryl."
She looked up. Vash's brother had softened since it happened. He now used the first names of Meryl and Milly, silent acknowledgement of the grief they each bore.
He had a young man with shackled hands and feet by the scruff of the collar.
"I have brought him."
Meryl rose from the ground, brushing soil off her clothes. Knives kicked the boy in back of the knees, forcing him to the ground in front of Meryl.
"I kept the chains on him so he can't run away."
"That's enough, Knives," Meryl instructed. "Milly shouldn't be alone. Leave us."
"He was my brother," Knives insisted quietly. "I should be here."
"You had over a century to give a damn about your brother!" she snapped viciously. "For that time, you chose to make his life miserable, relishing his suffering. Even when he spared your life, you turned your back on him. Only now, in death, do you claim kinship.
"I had less than five years with my husband, and I cherished every moment. Where is my century with Vash? Answer me that! If you can give him back to me so I can have my rightful time with him, then you can be here for this."
Knives was silent.
"Can you?" she spat. "You see yourself as a deity. Prove it. Give me back my husband! Give me all the time with him that you squandered! Give him back to me, damn you!"
His head hung down under her beratement.
"You forfeit your claim on him as a brother. You don't get to watch this. Leave."
Knives sullenly trudged away to try to comfort Milly.
Meryl looked at the shackled youth in front of her. Just a boy, really. A punk kid who squeezed off a lucky shot on a man who wouldn't take his own shot, and wound up with the title of The Man Who Killed Vash the Stampede.
They sat next to each other under the star-filled sky.
"You can…" she started shyly. "You can stay here as long as you like."
He smiled at her. Not one of the fake ones that he used to hide his pain. His real Vash smile.
"That sounds good. Might not be such a bad idea."
"I didn't mean to, not really," the kid said. "I just wanted to be a bad man. I wanted people to respect me. I didn't even know I'd shot until after the trigger was pulled. Honest, ma'am."
"You're going, aren't you?"
"I have to," Vash told her. "I have to save Knives if I can, stop him for good if I can't. Either way, I have to go."
"You can't leave."
"Meryl, I –"
"You can't leave until you know that I love you."
She wasn't sure who started it, but they shared a long, slow kiss. Not a goodbye kiss. A we'll-pick-up-where-we-leave-off kiss.
"I promise you, I will come back. For good."
Meryl reached into the pockets in her mourning clothes, produced a derringer in each hand.
"You remember when I told you it was your job or your life?"
"I'll never forget. The first time you broke my heart."
"I'm afraid I have to give you another choice."
Meryl stiffened in his arms. "Please don't say you have to leave again. You promised you were back for good!"
"I don't have any choice in this. Things have changed, and I need an answer."
He moved her back and got down on one knee. The ring he showed her was insignificant to anyone else; to her, the most spectacular thing she'd ever seen.
"It's yes or no, Meryl Stryfe. Will you be my insurance girl for life?"
Somewhere in the ensuing ecstasy, she got around to saying yes.
"Bad men die how they lived," she told the boy. "By the gun."
"I have something to tell you!"
"But I took the trash out, Meryl!"
"Not that, you silly broom-head." She rubbed her belly, caressing the tiny lives within. "I'm pregnant."
He was knocked speechless for several moments.
Then: "I'm going to be a father? You mean it? A real daddy?"
She nodded, smiling. "Yeah. You and I, we've made something special. A couple of somethings special."
He reached his hands out hesitantly. She took them and put them on her belly, letting him feel the kicks. "It's ok, Vash, you don't have to be afraid. You're going to make a wonderful dad."
"What if something happens?"
"Nothing will happen, Vash. We'll have kids and more kids and I'll spend the rest of my life with the man I love."
He grinned. "Sounds good to me!"
"He didn't kill any of them," the boy said. "It was amazing, he shot and shot but only ever wounded them. They all killed each other, trying to get to him. Then he aimed at me. I thought I was dead, but he didn't pull the trigger. I never meant to!"
An army of darkness had risen up, bad men bonded together in a common desire to claim the bounty on Vash's head. Word had gotten out of where he had made his life, and the enemy came for him.
"Milly, take Meryl and get out of here. I'll give you the time you need."
"Vash, I'm staying with you. I won't let you face this alone."
"Meryl, you have to go!"
"No, I need to stay with you! They'll destroy you this time!"
He held his pregnant wife close and kissed her passionately.
"As long as you're safe, they can't."
"Forgive me!" the boy cried out. "I never meant to, please forgive me!"
"Forgive you?"
Meryl put a derringer right up against each eye. The boy was wracked with sobs.
"Will you be my insurance girl for life?"
"No one ever has the right to take the life of another."
One derringer wavered slightly. She forced it steady.
"I'm going to be a father? You mean it? A real daddy?"
Cocked back both hammers.
"I promise you, I will come back. For good."
"As long as you're safe, they can't."
"Forgive you?" she repeated. "I am Meryl Stryfe, wife of Vash the Stampede. This is me, taking your life."
"This world is made of – LOVE AND PEACE!"
She slowly lowered the derringers, de-cocked, and put them away.
"And this is my husband, the man you shot and killed, giving it back."
For Vash, she walked away from vengeance.