Three Guns: Chapter 1

A world of sand seemed to stretch from east to west. Sand storms raged onward from time to times, and small towns were more frequent than a large city. The wanted man of Vash the Stampede was known throughout the sands, as a large bounty was still upon his head. His brother, Knives, was one to be head of rarely as he seemed to remain hidden in dark secrets, compared to Vash. Together the two had destroyed a city all on their own, and one of the moons displayed a nice size crater upon its surface. Their age only went up, as their appearance seemed to remain the same. Where were the two brothers now, though?

With an exhausted slump, a single female found herself sitting on the edge of a fountain that was constructed within the center of a small town. A sand storm was picking up in the distance, and so many of the town's people had gone inside. But this single woman sat, catching her breath as her person was draped with a ragged cloth that hooded over her head. What laid under the cloth seemed to remain hidden as she slumped her head down as she breathed calmly as though trying to recover from a long walk from who knew where, outside the town. Small single strands blew from under the hood of her torn covering. They were a dark brown that could almost appear as black as the nights. Her hands showed that she wore fingerless gloves as they locked over one another.

"Hi there miss…!" a male's voice danced into her ears, as it would be none other than the so called Vash, himself. But his identity seemed to have been fuzzy to others, as he walked about freely with no threats or concerns from the others who may have seen him. A single large bag was within his arms and a smile upon his face as he looked down, with a slight bent at his waist, to the female. "You know… there's a small sand storm coming. You should get inside."

His words hung for a moment in the air, before the female finally looked up. Dark colored sunglasses rested on her face as a set of blue-green eyes looked up to the males. A hesitation as though she were trying to think soon clicked as they widened with shock.

"Vash….?" She questioned, as her mouth opened slightly in her shock as she looked up at him.

"Hm? Who's that?" he laughed slightly, as though he were denying the name. "You must have been in the sun too long, if you think I would be such a famous good-looking guy…!" he laughed, but was yanked down lower to her level, as the woman narrowed her eyes on his face. She pulled his face close in to a point that they almost touched noses. But it soon changed as she took a deep breath and her arms came up, and hugged around his neck. Her hood slipping back as a long low ponytail caught with the wind and blew about freely behind her.

"I've been waiting for you to finally find me for so long…." She said as she hugged his neck, in an awkward stance from his end.

"I think you've got the wrong gut, miss…! Do I even know you?" he said, still holding onto his donuts, as he pulled back from her embrace slowly. "Have we met before?"

"Come." She said as she stood up, letting him go. One hand reached back as she pulled her hood back on and over her head, as the other hand reached for one of his, as his other remained holding onto his bag.

"Hey..! Wait…! Where are we going?!" he questioned in a bit of confusion, but she said nothing as she pulled him towards an older building that had been abandoned.

Once inside, the female pulled him to the backside where no windows seemed to be placed, as the sandstorm began to set in, and pick up outside. Vash had still been set in confusion as he was released from her grasp, and she turned to face him. She pulled her hood off once more, and leaned against the back wall as she slumped down to the floor, leaning against the wall. Her eyes closing as she slid her sunglasses up onto the top of her head. The matching eyes to his soon opened once more as she looked up at him.

"I've been waiting soooo many years for you Vash…" she chuckled lightly with a pained looking smile. A look of awkwardness showed on his face as he took noticed that she looked as though to cry soon.

"Uh, uh… I'm sorry miss, but I don't think I know you…!" he said and squatted down to be more to her level. He opened his bag out to here, "here..! Why don't you have one?" he said with an awkward seeming smile, as though he were trying to comfort her. A range of different kind of donuts lay in the bag, but would be turned down, as the female shook her head.

"No thanks…." She shook her head and looked back to him as she pushed him back, and made him forced to sit on his rear rather than to crouch. A single finger pointed out towards him casually. "I know who you are, and you are Vash. Your brother to be Knives, whom I have already encountered earlier in the years since we landed on this planet…" she leaned her head back with a sigh.

Vash's expression soon changed to one of seriousness as his free-lance self now shifted to caution towards the woman, with the mention of his brother's name, as well as her seeming to know so much.

"Did you say 'we'?"

"Yup…."

"What do you mean by 'we'? The first humans are all mostly dead, and you don't even look old enough to be one of them."

She chuckled, "that's because I'm not human…" she looked up at the ceiling, then down to her hands that sat on her lap. " You never got to meet me... and I wasn't ever allowed to meet you unless you came up to me first…" the same sad like smile came to her lips as she looked up to Vash once more. "I am the same as you and your brother, Vash… I'm a plant."

The sandstorm soon passed, and Vash's mouth was left empty with words as he seemed to have even forgotten about his gab of donuts as his shock was still set in as he looked at the woman. The sound of calming winds made his come back to reality as he shook his head and the scratched at his hair. "No, no… that can't be possible. We would of known, and Rem would of told us…!" he let go of his bag as both of his hands now came to his head as though he were to think he were starting to lose it in what he knew; his gaze looking back up to her, as she seemed to have a calm expression, unlike his. "Rem would of told us!" he yelled.

The female shook her head again,

"My name… is Kyo." She said, placing a hand on her chest, but it soon then slipped back down to her lap. "Although hat is not my real name… That is what I was called when I first went to mingle among the humans when we first came."

"Why didn't Rem ever tell us about another person like us…!?" he pulled on his head in frustration, slightly.

"She didn't know about me, Vash…" Kyo's hands came up slowly to the sides of Vash's face as she placed them gently on either side of his head, making his hands release his hair and go down, as though he had lost energy from his frustration. "I was kept hidden, in fear that you two would try to fight back against them, knowing that there was now a female in your species." Her eyes locked with his as they indeed shared the same colors as one another. "I was never allowed to leave the room in which you two were found in. And although it may not have been the same spot that you appeared, I was found off in a darker corner of the green room where they kept the plants. It's why my hair is not blond, like you and your brothers…" she gave a small half smile as her hands released his face. "I know you probably still have many questions, but now that you have finally found me… I can tell you all that I know."

"Hold on, time out." He said, and backed up from her; almost forgetting that the situation was strange, even though her touch seemed to comfort him. He made a "T" letter with his hands as he slid back from her. "You've mentioned it a few times now, but what do you mean that 'now that you've found me' I can talk to you? Have you seen me before after we landed?"

She chuckled lightly, and nodded slightly. "I've seen you many, many, times Vash. But I was never allowed to talk first…. When we were still on the ship, I was told I could never meet you or even talk to you, unless you and your brother spoke to me first. I was supposed to be a secret, and wasn't allowed to communicate with you unless you had discovered me." Her eyes once more showed sorrow. "And unlike Knives, you never seemed to notice me throughout the years when I would go by you. Knives called me out much sooner than you, and I had done something bad…." She looked down, sorrow-filled. "Since I was never allowed to go out like you and Knives with Rem into the grass area… I stayed inside that small room and would be able to sneak books on the technologies that were around." She looked back up to Vash. "I'm the one who helped Knives to make your guns…."

To be continued….