As a nice side note, I originally had this in a 23 page mess, but I have the distinct feeling no one read it. I wrote this about three months ago, and I'm saddnened that no one reviewed at least. It's sad. -sniffle-
Fun…
Note- Although the second destroyed city was Augusta, I have changed it for this city, because ??? TOLD him he was coming. So Vash emptied all the nearby cities. For the sake of this story, pretend that never happened. This is placed as a replacement for good ol eppie 12, cuz he gonna see Diablo. Dat's it. Disregard all crap after eppie 12, Diablo, k? (A/N- Yes, I do have all the eppies. Happy B-Day to me! ) 17 happened, too, but technically, the majority of that was the past, so... yeahh...
DISCLAIMER- I wish! No own Trigun fun-stuff. I DO own the characters not featured on TV
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A girl, no older than five, stumbled through the dead or dying bodies, her used-to-be pink sundress that went down to her knees and had no sleeves was now torn up to her thigh, with the hem and everything else on her body turning red with the spilled blood of the innocent. She reached the city limits, and suddenly fell to the ground, a gun wound in her back. A very tall and menacing-looking man with spiky blonde-brown hair and a bright red coat torn off completely from his right shoulder down loomed over her, his right arm extended. Then, he began to laugh. The small child opened her eyes ever-so-slightly and muttered her last words…
"Why … Daddy?" With that, her eyes closed and her breathing ceased. The tall man looked upon her, still laughing.
"I have no daughter!" He laughed again.
A child padded outside, wearing a white dress that went down to her knees and was sleeveless, with a flower design, red geraniums, up at the top. Her long blonde-brown hair glistened slightly in the spring sun, and the white ribbon in her hair made her look like the most innocent four-year-old in the world. She tipped the watering can she was carrying to feed the thirsty flowers in front of her home, or rather, the home she shared with so many others. You see, the innocent toddler was an orphan. Her father left her mother, who committed suicide a week later. The infant was found by Lien, her current caretaker, who had walked into the house, wanting to see her friend, the infant's mother. When Lien saw the mother lying in her own blood, she took the infant child and took her back home. And "home" happened to be an orphanage. The orphanage of May city.
"Lilac!" A woman called into the air.
"Right here, Lien!" The child finished her job of feeding the flowers and ran to the woman, who smiled as the toddler approached.
"There you are! You might want to come on in. It's lunch time!" The woman said.
"Yay!" Lilac yelled. The woman, Lien, picked the child up and carried her in. Lien was in her early 30s and had blonde hair to match the sands down the street. (A/N- Yeah, yeah. No beaches on Gunsmoke. --) She usually wore a blue dress that was slightly poofy with an apron over the dress, with splotches of food and random craft objects. Lien walked into the cafeteria, about half-full with children of varying ages; from age one through eighteen, with an adult strewn about here and there. The children all ate the same thing, macaroni and cheese with a cup of water by each bowl. Lilac jumped out of Lien's motherly arms and jogged to a table with similarly aged girls. Lien sighed and leaned against the wall, watching the group of four-year-olds, and then her vision panned out to see the entire cafeteria. She sighed again.
"This is for you, Momma…" She muttered. Lien imagined the woman known as her mother in her head, then, as always, she saw her mother being strangled by her own father. Lien, no older than eight, ran away that day, and came across the man who changed her life. His name was Nicolas D. Wolfwood and he lived with his caretaker, that guy with the creepy eyes. Lien met him and immediately, they were inseparable. When his godparents died, Wolfwood and she were twenty, and they both made a promise to open an orphanage. Then he left May city, and Lien never saw him again. "I wish I could see you again, Wolfwood..." Lien muttered and smiled at the memory of the last time she saw him.
"Lien, I need you to promise me," A twenty-year old Wolfwood said. He wore a white button-down shirt with baggy black shorts on. His silver cross on a chain dangled around his neck, only slightly hidden by his collar. His black hair was cut short and sloppy, and as she was talking, he ran a hand through his hair.
"Look, Wolfwood, I promise you. I will if you will. Trust me," A ten-years-younger Lien said. With that, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. Wolfwood encircled her waist with his arms and planted a small kiss on her forehead.
"It might be a while before I see you again, Lien," he murmured in her ear.
"I don't care; we have to make our parents happy, right?"
"And give children like us a chance. Lien, it's up to us." He gave her a quick hug, then pulled his arms back to his sides and said, "Hopefully I'll see you around sometime, Lien."
"I'll be looking forward to it!" She said with a giggle, and then began to wave at his retreating back.
Lien gave another sigh and stood up straight. Then she realized that Lilac, and her best friend, nicknamed Daisy, stood before the grown woman, tugging slightly on her apron.
"Miss Lien!" They both yelled.
"Oh calm down, you two. I'm right here. Now what do you want?" She crouched down to their eye level.
"Lien, Vash the Stampede is coming! In fact, I heard he's HERE!" Lilac said, clearly excited.
"Yeah! And we want to see him!" Daisy said.
"Look, I don't think you two really want to see VASH the Stampede. He's called "the Stampede" for a reason."
"What reason is that, Lien?" Lilac asked and Lien's face went pale. Her head was filled with the images of the smoldering ruins of July city, and seeing the demonic face of the tall, would-be cute man. She remembered her terrified feelings as the citizens of the former city began killing everyone else. She was only there to see if there were any needing orphans. But she got more than she bargained for, and on the bus ride home to May City, she couldn't sleep. Because there were needing children, the ones that were dying. The ones whose parents died first, and then died in their mother's or father's arms. Those were the children she couldn't help. And Lien couldn't bear to think about that anymore.
"He is just evil, alright? And I, personally, don't want to see you get hurt. Just avoid him, alright?" Lien said, patting the two on the heads. The two girls nodded, then ran outside.
"May city, huh?" A tall raven-haired man clad in black, a large clothed cross-shaped thing slung over his shoulder, said to an equally tall blonde-haired man clad in a red coat, with the left arm black.
"Yep. It's on the way." The blonde-haired man looked at the other as he was looking around. "Been here before, Wolfwood?"
"You could say that. This is my hometown. Shocked it's still here," Wolfwood said to the blonde one, and as he was looking around, Wolfwood mumbled to himself, "I wonder if Lien is still here..."
"What's that?"
"I said, I wonder if those brats will follow us here." The other one blinked in reply.
"Wolfwood, you like Milly."
"Yeah, and you like Meryl."
"Nevermind."
"Thought so."