Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun; I just own the tapes, one volume of the manga, an artbook, and a Vash action figure. I also own lots of my own fanart for the series, but that's beside the point. I'm making no money from this, blah.
This story began as a "what if?" pondering, as most of my stories do. I was inspired, I believe, by a story that asked this same "what if?" but handled it in a far different way than I am attempting to. This is just another weird story from a weird author.
I work two jobs and am thus quite busy – not to mention inspired to do my original stuff in my free time as well as fanfic and junk – so I do not know how often this will be updated. Please have patience.
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JOURNEY OF REMEMBRANCE
She awoke.
The world was yellow-white, a blur of pain and confusion. Sunlight pierced her vision, making her feel like someone had thrust hot daggers into her eyes. Her head felt like it was being crushed in a vise and she felt the veins pulse in her temples. She moaned and tried turning, but the horrific light just would not go away.
Her left thigh felt like it was on fire. She noticed that she felt nothing of her left leg below that – then the nausea hit. The woman rose up, doubling over, rocking on her spine, spasming in dry heaves before falling back into the sand.
Sand. Sand?
It was unmistakable – the stony grit in her hair. Her limbs felt like jelly but she raised an arm instinctively to block the sun from her face. A white glove – plastic, vinyl...synthetic. A similar material, though rent and tattered, clung to her arm, but it was of a teal hue.
"Suit," came to her mind, "Spacesuit."
She closed her eyes, the pulse in her head and in her thigh driving her nearly mad with pounding agony.
"That's right...," she mouthed to herself, no words escaping her dry lips but her voice clear in her mind, "Space... in space... Alpha Ship of Project SEEDS...orbiting a planet. But where am I now?"
An image and an echo presented themselves in her mind, a cloudy memory and an impression of urgency. A little boy was screaming her name. Oh, yes, that was her name, wasn't it? The child screamed it over and over again, urging her not to do something, urging her not to leave him – them.
"Vash...Knives..." Rem whispered. "Where? Got to...find them..." She tried to rise, but fell with a thud back into the sand, weak, and hit with the pain in her thigh anew. Wind blew, and above her something groaned. A sheet of twisted metal spun and danced in the gale, threatening to tear away from the curved steel spire arching above her. It was then that Rem noticed just how hot she was.
"We were... looking at a desert planet, weren't we? In a twin star system," she recalled in whispers. However, the heat she felt was not heat from the air around her, which felt cold. The sand she was lying on felt colder still. Coursing through her was a fever-heat.
She turned her head to see silhouettes not-too-distant. Two distinctly avian shapes carried something off into the sky with unearthly yet vulture-like squawking. Other shapes of the same kind, a mass of them, pecked and scratched at something on the ground that Rem did not want to think about. She shifted wearily to turn her gaze to the left. Her eyes met the eyes of another – and this other was definitely not human.
The face was white, the pale color of bleached bones. It looked feminine, and the ears were strangely pointed, almost elfish. Her blonde hair was long and covered her otherwise naked body. Feathers of a white purer than fresh snow surrounded her. The dark streamers of blood that glimmered off some of them were made all the darker by the contrast. She looked at Rem with crystalline eyes, tainted with blue. They looked like they were made of diamond or glass. It was one of the Alpha Ship's Plants.
The Plant stared at her with mouth agape. She trembled slightly and reached her hand out to Rem. Rem struggled to reach out to her. A tear streamed down the human's cheek. "You're hurt..." she whispered. "I-I... want to help you... but I think I'm dying, too."
Rem tried to get up again, only to fall back, dizzy and panting. She reached out her hand and gently clutched the hand of the Plant. "What happened to us?"
Blurred memories stirred. Something had happened to the crew. Rem remembered that the mechanic, Steve, was sentenced to freezing for the alleged rape of Mary, one of the technicians and one of her closest friends. "Oh God!" Rem exclaimed, "Rowan! Rowan shot Mary! And... and..."
Rem's head fell back into the sand. She closed her eyes, feeling the Plant's grip on her hand tighten. "There was some strange program in the guidance system.... I put the boys in an escape pod... I – don't know what happened after that... Joseph... did he do it? Did he save the fleet? We must have crashed.... Oh, no..." She tried to recall, but she remembered nothing after sending Vash and Knives off in the escape pod. She tried to envision what had happened, struggling to remember anything after that, but all was nothing until the moment she had awakened in the sand.
The pain in her head increased. She wanted to scream, but no sound came out. "Vash," she whispered, staring at the sky – which was blue and filled with thin mares' tail clouds. "Vash... Knives... I... hope you will find a way...auugh...ah!...ah! to live. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry... My boys... my dear little boys..."
The Plant's grip went slack for a moment in her hand. Rem turned to her. "I'm sorry..." she mouthed. The Plant closed its eyes and squeezed her hand – hard this time. Rem's palm and fingers felt suddenly hot and tingling. A single word echoed in her mind.
"Live."
"What?" Rem asked. The Plant-angel responded by going limp. It took Rem a few moments thereafter to realize that the gentle whistle of her breath, which she had been hearing all since she had awakened but had not realized, was gone. Her hand in Rem's, the Plant had died.
The angelic creature's wings began to disappear, the feathers flying up into the breeze and utterly vanishing. The body began to shrivel, strangely, the skin turning black. Soon, what lay there was a charred and twisted form, a perverted shadow of the magnificent angel that once was. The Plant now looked like nothing more than a severely burned human corpse. Rem felt nauseous again.
Suddenly, the woman heard voices. They were garbled and somewhat distant, but distinctly human. She tried to cry out, but her throat was sore and constricted, and no sound issued forth but a soft whisper. "Help..." she mouthed, "Please... help..."
The voices grew more distant. Rem's heart sank. She accepted that she would die here, just like the Plant. She tried to imagine Heaven as she began a silent prayer. At least she would see Alex again.
"Over here! There's a survivor! Quick! Over here, over here!"
The voices had returned.
"Get a Coldsleep tube over here pronto! She's in bad shape... she's breathin' though."
" I didn't think anything would survive this wreck."
"Musta got trapped in a pocket. I don't think she'll be alive much longer, but we gotta try."
"Oh man! Her leg! It's..."
"Never mind that and help me with her!"
Rem felt the warmth of hands ease their way gently beneath her shoulders, and felt her body being lifted up. After that, she knew nothing but darkness.
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END CHAPTER 1
To be continued!! Turn to the Next!!