Chapter Eighteen
TRIGUN:
MOON CHILD
Spider Web
By R. A. Stott
EDITOR'S NOTE: Parental Warning – Language and Graphic References
"Damn, he's fast!"
Kinza told the computer to bring the throttle up more on the shuttle's thrusters just a bit more as Knives continued to work on his injured arms. As impossible as it seemed, his target was continuing to increase in speed.
"Any faster, and he'll hurt Meryl just by the wind pressure," he grumbled.
"Alert – Alert," the computer intoned. "There is an energy buildup at target location."
"What in the world?" Miami asked aloud seeing a power field appearing in front of the speeding Goethe on the monitor. She looked at the Tomassamassa. He had a smile on his face and was nodding at what he too was seeing.
"Up?" she asked, directing him with her thumb.
"Exactly," he agreed. "Computer, Z plus 500 meters, rapid."
"Z plus 500 Meters, aye," the computer repeated. The shuttle leaped higher, making some of its passengers a bit nauseous. Things settled as the ship reached its new altitude.
"What's going on?" Dallas moaned as he lumbered forward. "Was he going to fire on us?"
Kinza watched the readings. "No," he answered. "He was reading our moves. He raised a shield after I mentioned that his speed would injure Meryl. Not bad since we're wearing these Doorknobs."
Knives looked at his pendant. "Is it because he's not a Plant?" he asked.
"Not really," Kinza noted. "These are supposed to work for any mind telepathy – they weren't developed only because of Plants - No, I think it was something else. And I think I know why… computer, code 1-7A."
"Code 1-7A, aye," it said. The rest saw little and heard less. They looked at Kinza who was reading a scanner.
"Okay… Computer, increase speed by 1 unit," he ordered. "Now we'll see if I'm right."
"How so?" Miami asked.
Kinza nodded towards the scanner. "Every time I've ordered a speed increase, he's matched us. And by this reading, we're now overtaking him slowly."
Knives looked up at the large domed window before them. "Ah, of course - Vibrations."
Kinza nodded. "He's sensitive to the vibrations. I have to verbally order the computer to do what I want it to do – hence he's been listening to me all this time."
Dallas looked a bit bewildered. "But… how did you…"
"Code 1-7A," Kinza grinned. "I raised my own shields. It doesn't make us quiet to him, since he'll still be able to hear us above him, but he won't hear what I'm saying." He looked back at his readings and grunted. "Yup, he's increased by 1 unit – but it took him longer to compensate."
"Interesting that he would shield Meryl," Miami pondered as she rubbed her chin. "Is he protecting her?"
"Oh, very definitely so," Kinza surmised. "Any ideas on that subject Knives? You worked with him after all."
Knives twisted the wound healer's controls off and set it into the medi-kit bag. "Goethe was never the out and out Gung Ho Gun the rest were," he stated. "Like I said, he considered Legato his brother, but in reality, he still kept mostly to himself. But from what I always felt about him… he was always the most… passionate."
Kinza stared at Knives. "Passionate? A Gung Ho Gun?"
Knives scratched his cheek. "I seem to remember at least twice punishing him for not killing his target," he casually noted.
Kinza seemed even more confused by this. "Punished? I thought the Gung Ho Guns either killed themselves or were killed by others if they failed to fulfill their missions."
Knives shrugged. "Goethe was a special case. Legato would never have been as good as he was if I had killed him."
Miami shook her head and returned to the passenger cabin. "You disgust me sir," she thought to herself.
"I can't say that the feeling is mutual," Knives called back to her. He then paused and smiled. "After all, this isn't a mutual admiration society you know, is it?" he finished in thought.
Miami stared back at him. He had broadcast that through the shield of the Doorknob. Knives was still very powerful.
"Your actions are doing yourself more harm than good," she projected at him.
"To the point that I disgust you?" he laughed in her mind. "Were you not the one not so long ago begging everyone to forgive Brilliance Dynamite Neon for raping you?"
Miami stamped her foot. "Not that you care, but as a Plant, he couldn't rape me if he had wanted to, unlike what you did back there in Olympia City," she thundered into his head.
He stared at her in a slight shock. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, I know what you did to Horloge." She turned on her heel and continued into the cabin.
"Care to share?" Kinza asked as Knives turned towards the front and contemplated the view. He sat silently.
"Guess not," Kinza coughed. "Computer, increase speed 2 units."
Sara looked at the com unit and grunted. "They're not at their assigned station."
Brandywine looked over her shoulder. "Who isn't?" she asked.
"Kinza's shuttle," the officer replied. "The last thing the recorder says is that they landed just outside the tunnel. After that, they seemed to have moved again. I would have expected them to wait for news from us." She brought up the tracking system to see if it could locate the wayward ship. "The satellite tracking system is down – probably from the explosion of the Second Moon."
Brandywine leaned over Sara's shoulder to scrutinize the monitor.
"YAAAA!" she screamed into her ear.
"YEOW!" Sara chorused. She spun about in her chair to see why the artist has chosen that time to pierce her eardrums with that sonic boom.
"Geeze ladies, hi already!" Bryant yelped. He seemed all mussed up, as if he had been sleeping in his clothes. He had silently entered the parlor and placed his hand on his lady's shoulder.
"BRYANT!" Brandywine bellowed. "What the hell are you doing here!?"
He rubbed his eyes and stepped back a little. "I was sleeping in my cabin, why? When did you get back honey?"
A quite visible sweat droplet ran down Brandywine's face. "You have got to be kidding," she mumbled. "You SLEPT through all this?"
Bryant look confused. "All this? All what? What's going on? Where are we?"
"Not where you think you are lover-boy!" Brandywine sarcastically commented. She returned to the screen as Sara continued to clear her ears of the ringing. She quickly summarized to the drowsy sheriff what he had missed.
"The Second Moon? Gone?" he babbled.
"Like they were simply doing target practice," Brandywine said flatly. "We have to find D'two, and shut him down quickly."
"But first we have to find out why Kinza took off like that," Sara noted. "He's too good an officer – he wouldn't have vanished like that without a reason, especially with what we were doing."
Bryant blinked at Sara. "Why… what were you doing?"
"The REASON," Brandywine began yelling again, "why WE are the ONLY ONES ON THIS SHIP was because we EVACUATED EVERYONE ELSE!"
"You know," he sheepishly said, "at this point, I'm not sure I want to know why."
"Excuse me," they then heard. They looked back behind them to find a tall woman with long golden blond hair that nearly touched her knees standing lopsided in the doorway to the rear. Though that was about all Bryant saw, as a hand quickly moved up to his face. Brandywine had covered his view of the naked woman.
"Is there any coffee on this thing?" she asked a bit weary.
"Montré!" Sara exclaimed. "What are you doing out of your regen unit?"
The woman made a 'tsk' sound and shook her head, making the hair that surrounded her wave like stalks of grain in a field. "Those things are so confining," she bubbled. "What I wouldn't do for a latté right now!"
Everyone blinked – save Bryant – he was just trying to get a view back.
"A what?" Sara whispered to Brandywine.
"A funky coffee," she answered. "GET SOME CLOTHES ON FIRST!" she then addressed towards Montré.
The woman looked at her confused. "Clothes? Horloge and I never wore clothes when we used to get out of our containment vessels back on Earth… It kept the boys guessing," she added with a wink.
Brandywine started to fume more. "You're NOT in Paris, you're NOT on Earth, this is NOT a SEEDS ship, and you're NOT going buck naked in front of my boyfriend!" She trundled Montré to a spare cabin to get her dressed.
"Don't forget a Doorknob!" Sara advised. "Last thing we need is D'two getting into her mind now!"
Bryant just stood perplexed. "What the hell was all that about?" he asked.
"It is long, confusing, and best told when the book comes out," North said as he entered the room.
"Did you let her out?" Sara asked with a bit of anger in her question. North held his hands up.
"Hey, hey!" he shielded. "I was in the little boy's room. When I came out, the regen unit was empty and Lexington was blushing."
Sara stared. "He was blushing?" she asked with a quiver. "How could you tell?"
North looked over his glasses at her. "Trust me, he had his yellow haze down and he was still plastered to the glass when I came out." He pulled out a small device that popped open. He then reached into his shirt pocket and pulled a small disk out.
"What is that?" Sara asked.
North spun it in his fingers. "This will tell us how she got out. This is a scanning disk – interesting metal these things are made of – they record everything around them for 200 yards without the need of a camera." He slipped the disk into the top of the device. "They're self refreshing, and can hold years of material on them."
An image appeared on the small screen on the reader. It showed the regen unit with Montré still in it. A press of a few buttons on the controller brought up readouts of energy levels and statistics. Suddenly the numbers shot up.
"Huh," North commented. "Simple teleportation," he noted as Montré appeared outside the unit. She turned towards the larger vessel beside the regen unit and placed her hand on it.
"Thank you daddy-o!" she purred as she caressed the glass and placed a kiss on it. She then walked out of the engine room, her long hair flowing behind her. Lexington could be seen appearing through the haze looking around.
North reversed the play on the device and took it back to just before Montré teleported. Negative and positive numbers popped up on a freeze frame. North nodded and shut the device off.
"Interesting," he said. "She drew on the reserves that Lexington had built up for her recovery to surge herself out of the chamber."
"Is that what Miami did as well?" Sara asked. "No, she requested to be removed from her regen unit…"
"Remember what Montré said," North reminded her. "She and Horloge both would leave their units back on Earth on a regular basis. I would keep an eye on her. She seems to be a bit of a wild one."
"Great," Sara said. "Just what we needed, another troublemaker."
North laughed. "In the meantime, I think it would be for the best if we got moving. Things are afoot after all. I don't think we want to be left out of all this now do we?"
"Okay, but which way?" Sara asked waving at the console. She was surprised as North stepped up to the unit and inserted a plug from a scanning rod he had pulled from his pocket. A few taps across the keys and the screen before her lit up with a highly detailed map with all the hot spots highlighted.
"What is this?" she pondered amazed at the data that was displayed.
North cleared his throat. "This is the Observer's net. It never goes down." He pointed at a moving set of lights about 50 iles west of their position. "This is the shuttle, and whatever they're chasing. But I would head towards here." He pointed at a small enclave that the shuttle was heading for.
"China Grove?" Sara read the readout. "It looks like there were two ships that crashed there…"
"And most likely, the home of our man D'two," North added.
Sara looked up from her seat at the man who was leaning over the console. "Are you sure you're suppose to be telling me all this? After all, aren't you an Observer?"
"Shhhh!" North said as he mimicked pulling a zipper across his mouth. He keyed a few more switches. The map now showed all the locations of the tunnels.
"No direct route there," he mumbled. "I suggest the direct approach." He drew his finger across the screen which was followed by a highlighted line. At one point the line switched from yellow to red.
"Why is it red here?" Sara asked.
North stood upright. "That is where the Steamer hits the surface and takes Highway I10 west. There shouldn't be anyone on it, and on the surface, and on a smooth street, this machine can blister the road!"
The car slid to a stop outside the doctor's office in Tulip. Horloge stepped out, pike in hand. The actual time it had taken her to drive from Olympia City to there had been twelve hours, though to the rest of the world it had been only a few seconds, such was her power over time.
But a few seconds still had passed, and this was a worry to her. Time should not have moved at all. She looked at her belly – even now, the rapid growth of the child was evident. She cursed and spat.
She looked about the still town. Why were people everywhere? With all the disasters and havoc being wrought about, why were these statues all out in the street? Obviously, what with time closed down around her, these were actually the town-folks doing whatever they had been doing before being influenced by the pike she held in her hand. But why were they not at home huddled under their respective beds waiting the end of Dooms Day?
And they all seemed to be looking at her – and her belly – and that demon larvae growing within.
She spat again and stormed into the office.
"Chicago! CHICAGO!" she bellowed over the frozen nurse.
A chubby man stepped out of the back examination room and looked at the sequined woman at his front desk. "Horloge, I told you not to call me by that name… Archimedes is my name, not Dr. Chicago."
She grabbed him by the lapels and held him close to her nose. She grin an angry smirk.
"I have a job for you!" she hissed.
The man smacked her fingers and bid her into his office after she let him go. He looked back at his still nurse. "No visitors Miss Bundy," he told her. It took a moment for him to realize her condition. "Oh, yes… naturally…" he mumbled.
He entered his office and found Horloge pacing back and forth along the far wall. He sat down behind his desk and folded his hands over his belly.
"Well Horloge, you're looking… well…" he said. She snapped a glare at him. He cleared his throat. "Personally, I thought you would more likely show up with a bullet in you, not a baby."
She looked down at her belly. Was it that visible yet? Then she remembered, the doctor was a Plant after all. He could sense the baby.
"I want it out!" she snarled. "I want it removed, I want it terminated, I want it GONE!"
Archimedes placed his thumbs on either side of his chin and looked at his patient over his oval glassed. "You want an abortion? Are you sure? What does Sandusky have to say about this?"
Horloge seemed to lose her strength in her knees when he asked about Sandusky. She made it to a chair and plopped down in it. "It's… it's not Sandusky's child."
The doctor sat back and switched to looking at her from under his glasses. "Really?"
She slammed a fist down on the arm of the chair with tears streaming down her face. "I was raped!" she yelled. "Now I'm carrying his child!"
Archimedes nodded understandingly. "Ah…" he said. "Very well then. Follow me then." He stood up and opened the door to the back examination room.
Horloge looked at the open door and sighed. She rubbed her hand over the swelling she was having already – damn these gestation periods of Plants… She remembered when she had stopped time aboard the SEEDS Alpha ship and helped D'two implant the number two Plant – the children that became Vash and Knives grew at an amazing rate.
"Damn the Source!" she griped to herself. She slowly stood up and followed the doctor into the back.
"What are you doing here?"
She looked about. There was no room, only a yellow haze. She gasped for air, smelling an aroma of almonds which was filling her lungs.
"What are you doing here?" was asked again. "Mother, answer me."
Horloge stepped about in confusion. She knew that smell – it was the same every ten years or so – the same obnoxious odor that she endured each time she would rejuvenate herself within a Plant's containment vessel. But she could not see the outer glass wall, nor could she see the filament mount. She was standing on something solid, but she wasn't sure. It felt a bit bouncy.
"MOTHER!"
Horloge looked up. A pair of youthful blue eyes were looking down on her.
"Mother, are you trying to kill me?" the infant asked. "If you are, let me tell you, you may find it hard to do."
Horloge grabbed her hair and screamed. It was then that she realized that she was without her pike. She fell to her knees and cried.
Footsteps caught her ears. They were heavy heel to toe steps, slowly approaching her. They stopped in front of her, scraping the ground with a course grinding sound. She looked up to find a pair of boots. She coughed - the smell of this strange room was starting to overwhelm her.
"Horloge," the owner of the boots said to her. "Horloge, welcome our new master. Welcome our new master and die!"
She looked up. It was Janus – Janus the Mad! Janus the Insane! Janus the two face! She gasped as he reached down and placed his open palm under her full chin and lifted her to her feet, keeping her head upright. He flung his free hand back and pointed at the baby's face behind him.
"PRAY TO YOUR NEW LEADER!" he shouted in her face. "PRAY THAT HE TAKES YOUR LIFE WITH LESS PAIN AS YOU INTENDED TO INFLICT ON HIM!"
"Oh god!" she whispered. "By the Source! Help me! Help me please!"
"Your god is here," the baby said. "I can be a forgiving god, if you would like. But my first commandment would likely to be to smite down those who would harm me, Mother…"
She gasped. "Your… your voice! Your voice! Knives! KNIVES!"
The baby laughed. Janus laughed. The universe laughed.
The world turned black for Horloge.
She awoke to an awful smell that felt like it was being held under her face. She snapped her head back from the nose burning aroma of an ammonia capsule being administered by Dr. Archimedes.
"You must be anemic," he said. "You fell right back into your chair as you tried to stand up."
Horloge pushed him away and jumped to her feet. She stumbled into the waiting room.
"May I help you miss?" the nurse asked. "When did you arrive?"
Horloge ignored her as she continued out the front door to streets teeming with the town's people. She could swear they were all staring at her again, only this time they were moving. She climbed into her car and tore out into the desert.
Archimedes came out of his office with the pike in his hand and watched the dust fly through his front door.
"Doctor, who was that?" the nurse asked.
"That is one troubled lady," he said as he tapped the staff in his hand. He shrugged and looked at the little girl in the nurse's seat.
"I wanna ride da thomas!" she squeaked.
"Oops," he said as he fumbled with the time controlling pike.
The body bag with Sanders slid into the aft compartment of the ALC with a thud. The Corporal slammed the door shut.
Edmonton winced at the sound. Even though she wasn't a raw recruit, and the possibility of death had been drilled into her mind since the start of boot camp, still, this had been the first time she had seen someone die beside her – in her arms – covered in his blood… She clutched her elbows and shivered.
Harrisburg stepped out of the landing craft and looked at his men. Four of them were holding a line around the shuttle. Edmonton was leaning against the hull. The Corporal finished sealing the hatch and was coming around from the back of the shuttle.
"The body is secured, sir," he reported. "Orders?"
Harrisburg stared out at the town that had bitten him to the quick. He snorted.
"We're not finished here, ladies," he fumed. "Janus has just made seven new enemies."
"I'm shaking in my boots," the voice of the demon said. "What does the widdle soldier have for me?"
Edmonton kicked the hull with her boot.
"Temper – temper," he chided.
Harrisburg looked over at Edmonton. "You heard the man," he quietly said. "Stow that temper, Private."
She snapped a glare at the Sergeant. He winked at her.
"Huh?" She tried to fathom what he was referring to. He gestured for her to come closer.
"Issue the snares," he whispered to her.
She looked up at him with surprise. "Shields sir?" she quietly asked.
He shook his head. "No, the jackets will give our intentions away," he replied. "The snares are for the children with the guns."
She looked puzzled at him. "Sir?"
He sighed. "Look," he explained, "the snare breaks a Plantoid from the Source, right?"
She nodded with a bit of trepidation.
"But at long range, a Plant Snare can also be used as a launch-able Doorknob, which would break whatever mental hold they have on the kids. Got that?"
"Sir!" she replied with a bit more enthusiasm.
"Good," he smiled. "Now get your tail in there and break out the snares!"
"Yes sir!" she yelped and darted into the ship.
"Planning your next attack, Mr. Marine?" the voice of Janus cackled.
"Show your weak-ass tail out in the open, and we'll show you what we're planning!" he shouted.
"Oh, sticks and stones, Mr. Harrisburg!"
Edmonton exited the ship with an armload of guns and rounds and gathered the others around her while Harrisburg and the Corporal watched the town. She quickly explained the Sergeant's plan as she handed the out the arms.
"FALL IN!" Harrisburg barked suddenly. The group assembled before him. He held out his hand towards Edmonton. She tossed him a Plant Snare.
"Okay children, we've had our nose bloodied!" he yelled. "And now the bully resorts to taunting. Well boohoo! If he expects us to run home to our mommies, think again! We WILL show him just who the bully is here! WE ARE THE BULLIES!"
"SIR, YES SIR!" they replied.
"WHO ARE WE!?"
"WE ARE THE BULLIES, SIR!"
He nodded. "Charge 'em up – Phalanx position!" he ordered.
The Marines formed a half circle in front of Harrisburg and the Corporal. The Sergeant held up a scanning box and waved it about. He looked at its readouts, overlaying what the ship's own scanner and the probes he had launched earlier were giving him. The entrances he was looking for all seemed to be crowded with humans. And the weapon sensors said that the leads to these groups all had guns.
"Straight ahead," he told his troops. "Town hall. March!"
The group started a slow step down the main street. Edmonton was next to Harrisburg keeping an eye on the church where she had lost her partner. She was startled when she felt a finger touch her on the back of her neck.
"Listen, Cindy isn't it?" she heard the voice of the Sergeant in her mind. "I'm using direct communications so I don't broadcast this. I'm about to do something. Whatever happens, if I'm not here, I want you to take the men down the passage in the Town Hall, understand?"
"What? What are you about to do?" she asked in a near panic.
"I can't say – just be ready."
He removed his finger. She sweated as she heard him pull the reset on his snare. She felt a tapping on her shoulder. She looked to see the scanner being handed to her. She looked back at Harrisburg who gestured to her to keep her eyes on her area to watch. She returned to staring at the church.
Harrisburg glanced at the Corporal. He nodded.
He reached over and grabbed Harrisburg's Doorknob and gave it a twist to shut it off.
"There you are," the Sergeant grinned. He bolted out from behind the others followed by the Corporal. He ran up to the sheriff's office and planted his foot against the wooden door.
He found a swirling vortex behind the opening. He grinned and fired the first snare into the miasma. He could feel the pull of the round pulling on his own connection to the Source as the energy shield that he brought up wasn't to full power yet.
The whirlpool dispersed, but its creator was not behind it. Harrisburg could feel that he was still in the building… but…
…Upstairs! He keyed into his own pool of energy from the Source and brought it to bear on the outer wall of the building. The structure shook, then crumbled to the ground.
The Corporal looked back at the troops – they were staring in disbelief at what the Sergeant had just done.
"KEEP MOVING! YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS!" he barked.
The Marines continued on their maneuvers. He returned to the task at hand. Janus was climbing out of the rubble, showing no signs of injury.
"I see you've finally realized what an inhibition that device is," the clone said to Harrisburg. "But that shield isn't helping things either, is it?"
"The Doorknob is to keep scum like you out of our heads," Harrisburg snarls as he tossed a few boards aside. "But I'm a bit beyond any 'inhibition' as you put it."
He fired off the snare again – two of the four rounds done – and this one wrapped around a plank that leapt up in front of it. Janus felt the field though. He clutched his chest and dropped to one knee. He looked over to see the Corporal readying his unit. He glared and snapped his fingers at him. A black swirling spot opened behind him.
"DAMN!" the Corporal yelled as he felt himself begin to be pulled in. His energy shield shattered and his legs were distorted as he fell to the ground in a twisted shape caused by the warp field. He fired his snare at his target before the dark energy swallowed him up. The round deployed over Janus' head, but he dove to his right as the net field dropped where he had been.
"Get thee gone, usurper!" Janus cursed as the Corporal was twisted and stretched in an inhuman way by the warp field. The black essence enveloped him, slowly crawling up towards his head. "Your human filth is best turned inside out."
"I am not human," the Corporal angrily yelled. "I am a Plant!"
"Really," Janus blandly said as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Congratulations – that device of yours works – I could not tell. Well then, say hello to that woman up in The Source!"
With that, the black void slurped up the Corporal then vanished.
Harrisburg gritted his teeth and held out his palm. A bolt of energy caressed over his fingers as he considered what to do with his rage.
He then simply tossed it at Janus who deflected it over a shield he generated.
"Now you seem to have quite a bit of penned up anger," Janus smirked. "You're certainly not like Vash. He channels even his hate into attempts of peaceful coexistence – a fool's errand to say the least. But you are different, yes you are. You are not willing to take loss, are you? You fight and flail at me almost blindly."
"Dog!" Harrisburg snarled. "You killed my Dia! Now I shall kill you!" He fired off the third round of his snare. Janus vanished then reappeared to the right of where the net deployed.
"Ah yes, the lovely lady you were talking to when I blew up the Second Moon," he grinned with a disturbingly wicked smile. "She was in the communications center, wasn't she? Then it was your transmission I used as a carrier of my beam, wasn't it?"
Harrisburg stopped and stared wide eyed at Janus, his jaw slack in disbelief. "What?" he asked.
"You helped me out a great deal, Mr. Marine," he continued. He crossed his arms and flung them wide sending shards of energy at Harrisburg. "I must send you my gratitude!"
The troops continued on even as the ground they were walking on bounced from the impact of whatever was going on behind them. "Keep going, don't look back," Edmonton repeated to herself. "Dawn, keep to the front and have your snare ready," she added.
Gordon looked over at Edmonton. "Why me?" she asked.
The Private kept her eyes locked on her area of concern. "Well, not to sound insensitive, but you're human. The snare won't do anything to you."
Dawn looked at her unit. "Then you guys had better be ready to toss your guns to me when the time comes – these thing only hold four rounds remember."
Cindy nodded in agreement. "You heard the lady, gentlemen. Don't waste your shots either, hear?"
"Got it chief," Bridgeport said. Edmonton looked back at him. Suddenly she was leader… damn!
"Movement to the right!" Johnstown reported. In unison they all made a slight adjustment to their stances to face the possible trouble point.
"Movement to the left!" AC countered.
"COMPANY HALT!" Edmonton shouted. "Okay now… just breathe… collect yourselves… remember our objective here. We're heading for the town hall…"
Just then the ground was jarred by another jolt, and the area down by the sheriff office was starting to show signs of a fire. She watched as fragments of building bounded out into the street.
"The Sergeant and Corporal are using an awful lot of energy down there," she said to herself. She shook her head to loosen the marbles that had accumulated in her mind just then.
"Okay, let's pick up the pace," she ordered drawing on her reserves. "We'll hit them hard, and we'll hit them fast, got that?"
"YES, MA'AM!" they barked then started to trot towards their target.
Rem opened her eyes slightly. N'ya was the first thing she saw.
"Are you okay kitty?" she asked weakly. "You look like you have a hangover…"
"Nyawww," he grumbled as stars spun about his universe. "Sniffing new buds," he moaned.
She laughed. "Silly kitty…" she said and ran her hand over his short furry coat.
"Rem!" Vash exclaimed. "Are you going to be okay?"
N'ya rubbed his head against her arm as he moved in to check her wound. He sniffed then stepped back.
"I'm afraid not," he said. He scampered over to the tree and looked at the matching wound. "Oh my oh my, this is bad!"
Vash didn't know which way to look – at Rem or what the Kuroneko was looking at. He finally came to the tree and saw the gash seeping a crimson liquid. He touched it and noticed that Rem squirmed with a slight pain to her side. He looked at his red fingers and rubbed them together. It was the unmistakable feel of blood. He stepped over to Rem's side and looked at her wound and found a golden liquid oozing from it. He touched a little of it that had pooled on the slab. It was sticky.
"Sap? Rem, you're bleeding sap?" he asked her.
Rem looked at Vash with a pained puzzled look. She felt down for the wound and gingerly touched the gash. She looked at her fingers.
"Does this mean I'm truly a Plant?" she asked.
"That can't be it," Wolfwood said. "Broom-head here gets cut and shot all the time. It's always been red!"
"N'ya, what is it?" Vash asked.
The cat looked concerned, even scared. "This is bad. I must get Myuki here quickly. She is loosing her connection to this plane of existence!"
"Is there anything we can do for her?" Wolfwood asked a bit harried. "Use healing powers or something?"
The cat looked at him with crossed eyes. "Where do you think you are? An Anime? Next yer gonna want ta put on fukus! Actually, you're part of the problem."
Vash looked at his new arm and Wolfwood just looked away knowing what the Kuroneko meant – they had been healed by the power of Rem's tree. Now her own wound and that of the tree's was drawing on each other.
"What is it going to do to The Source?" Vash asked.
"You really are a broom-head, aren't ya?" N'ya commented. "Nothing – the tree is simply a manifestation of Rem's soul. The children of Angel Five use it as a meeting place – a communications tool. They'll miss it, but that's it. I must hurry. Watch her!" The cat turned and vanished.
Vash turned back and saw that Rem was attempting to sit up. He rushed over to her side and cradled her in his lap.
"This is crazy," he whispered to her as he gently rocked back and forth. "I finally find you again, and this happens."
She reached down and took his hand. She smiled at him and touched his face.
"You've grown tall and hansom Vash," she said. "Meryl is a very lucky woman."
Vash sat up. "Meryl? You know about Meryl?"
She giggled a pained laugh. "Vash, silly, I've watched you grow – I've seen your pains – I cried when I watched them torment you… But you always were true to yourself. Vash, I'm very proud of you."
Vash held Rem close, not wanting to let her go – not wanting to let the ebbing life in his arm vanish. She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair.
"Just like Alex's…" she said.
Vash smiled through his tears. He was about to say something when he was interrupted by a shrieking sound that made Wolfwood cover his ears. Vash wasn't as lucky as he bore the brunt of the sound. He opened his eye and looked to their left. A small black hole in the vast yellow haze was appearing. A pile of something flopped out both splattering and clattering to the ground below the orifice. The black spot then vanished with a piercing squeak.
"Oh god, not again," Rem said.
"Again?" Wolfwood beat Vash in asking. "That happened before?"
Rem nodded. "Once… a human was dropped here through one of those portals once before… by Knives…"
"Knives dropped a dead body on you?" Vash asked with anger in his tone.
Rem shook her head. "Not intentionally, I'm sure. It was just before you went to stop him – he sent a man into The Source. The Source deposited him here. He looked as if he had been a chaplain, though he wore the strangest of glasses.
Wolfwood stood still, his face a pale white. He noticed that Vash was staring at him and he swallowed.
"Where… where is this man?" he asked.
Rem looked up at him and saw his face. "Um… under the slab. It was the only place I could bury him.
Wolfwood looked under his feet. He suddenly felt as if Chapel was reaching up through the stone to grab his ankles. He stepped off to one side staring.
"Why? Why did he do that? Why did Knives send him here?" he asked.
Rem sighed. "He confronted, what was his name… Legato, that's it… He confronted Legato about forcing him to kill you," she answered. "I feel that even though he was one of these Gung Ho Guns, he had strong feelings for you – like a father…"
"Father…" Wolfwood glared at the stone. "Damn crappy father…"
Rem dropped her head against Vash's chest. "He still cared… I'm sure of it."
Wolfwood snorted and looked at her. "Now I see where bristle-brain picked up his outlook on life. You can see the good in anybody, can't you?"
Rem smiled. "Everyone's soul has some good in it. It just needs to be found and nurtured."
"Uhh…"
Wolfwood and Vash looked over at the body that had fallen to the ground. A hand was moving.
"Crap, he's still alive!" the preacher yelped as he ran over to the man. He found fatigues and weapons on the body. "Man, he looks like every bone is broken."
"Sarge… Gotta help the Sarge…" the man slurred.
"OH!" Rem shouted. "OH!" This time it was a cry of pain.
Wolfwood looked back at the body and examined a patch on the man's shoulder.
"Vash, we have a problem!" he yelled.
The Typhoon looked at Wolfwood as he attempted to sooth Rem's pains. "What is it Nick?" he called back.
"This guy's got a uniform on," Wolfwood relayed. "There's a patch on his shoulder that says Venus! He's a Marine!"
Vash held his breath. "He's a Plant! The tree's trying to heal him!"
Kinza looked about the cabin. Knives had left for the rear, so it was up to him to apply the pressure bandage he was struggling to get over his still raw arms. He grumbled to himself and watched the readouts. Goethe was still matching his speed, so he had backed off a bit, seeing that even with a shield up, if he tripped or even twisted oddly, he could injure his captive.
With Goethe locked on with his scanners, Kinza had lifted the shuttle higher. The obvious target of the runner was a small town ahead with two crashed ships as its backdrop. His scanners also told him that a Marine ALC was there.
"I'll be damned… the Marines have landed," he said to himself. "Huh?"
The scanner had chirped and replaced the close image to a wide view of the area. His ship and his quarry were heading in from the west – a single car was coming in from the northwest – and a fleet of vehicles was coming in from the south.
"What the hell… Sand Ratz? Damn!" he cursed as he gingerly tapped on the communications console. "Group Angel Wings – Group Angel Wings, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
The radio crackled. "We're answering an assistance request," a bounced voice responded. "Who is this?"
"Elb Kinza, in the shuttle to your northwest. Is that you Lieutenant Yerkies?"
"Roger that," the reply said.
Kinza looked at his arms and continued wrapping. "Wasn't your cadets removed from the surface?" he asked the Lieutenant.
"Our ship never arrived from the Nelson," he yelled over the roar of the dune buggy's motor. "We got a call for assistance from a Marine contingent up ahead after we got our radio back. What the hell happened? We've been blacked out since the moon blew up."
Kinza sighed as he switched to a thinner bandage for his fingers. "The Nelson didn't make it… D'two shot her down along with the moon. Did you bring all your cadets?"
There was a moment of silence. "No," Yerkies finally said. "The preemies are still at July Base. I have only the upperclassmen with me. We're fully armed and geared, and we all have our Doorknobs on, sir."
Kinza examined the group - Fifteen vehicles in all.
"Yerkies, turn to your east slightly and spread out a bit. Come in along the southeast edge. I think we're heading in on D'two's base and we need a flanking maneuver along the backside of the wrecked ships. There's a set of scanning drones aloft over the town so use them to get your bearings – got that?"
"Roger that," the Lieutenant said. Kinza watched the formation of vehicles on his screen turn east as they readjusted their approach.
Knives sat in the main cabin, his hands to his face, contemplating his lawyer as he conducted himself before the judges. Photon sat across from him burning holes in his body with her stare. Miami sat beside the last justice doing the same from that side of the room.
"Your honors," Boston stated as he tried his best to maintain his footing, "it surely has become evident that all charges dealing with my client should be summarily dropped in lieu of the events that have happened in the last twelve hours. It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the enticement and illicit coercion caused by the mental control that Delta Two had over my client was the route cause of what my client is being accused of. It is wrong to lay blame on that of someone who was being used merely as a puppet."
"That may be so," the chief justice said, "but we still must hear from the witnesses."
Boston shook his head. "But the witnesses only saw him when he was under Delta Two's control. How would they know what he was like without that control?"
"Is the observer allowed to enter any further reports to us?" the justice furthest in the line asked. "It would seem they can see history much better than the witnesses can, including any influences…"
"Only by unanimous consent," the third justice replied, "and I for one am not about to relieve myself of my own judgment simply because we can just ask someone to give us the answer to our questions outright. We were born and raised to be judges, not puppets to be pulled along by our strings."
Knives smiled at that comment.
"Besides, the observer is not here," the chief justice noted, "hence it is a moot question. We shall decide on our own. But the council does have a point. If needed, we do have the witness Rem Saverem, who knew the defendant clear back to the day he and his brother were born."
"But even then," Boston continued, "how much influence was there between my client and Delta Two? It has been noted into record by the observer's record that their conception was by Delta Two's own design. Clearly, this shows that his influence over my client goes clear back to his birth."
"All this is true, Mr. Boston," the small old woman said. "This is why this trial is unique that it has no direct prosecutor, but only the cold hard facts presented to us by the observers and their history files."
"What if there is new evidence to be added that the observers had not covered?" Miami asked. Knives glanced at her with a cold hard stare.
The judge next to her rubbed the back of his neck. "It would only be added to our deliberations if it was from the time period this trial is about – the time between his first known acts of malice to the final battle on the mesa a year and a half ago. Anything after that would be up to another trial, not this one."
Knives smirked. Photon scowled. Miami never stopped staring at him.
Suddenly the shuttle shuddered, and everyone felt their stomachs jump into their throats. They were dropping rapidly. Millie and Dallas headed forwards to the pilot's house.
"What's going on?" he asked as he kept the Insurance Girl from falling into the spare seat.
Kinza was now using the hand controls now that he had managed to wrap his arms in the pressure bandages. He was looking down at his readouts then out the forward window.
"Goethe just vanished down a hole," he grumbled. "This blasted town is like a mole city! There are tunnels all over the place…"
"M-more worms?" Millie whined.
Kinza smiled and leaned back at her. "Nothing new dear," he sarcastically chided her. "But there does seem to be quite a lot of activity down there… whoa!"
A sensor alarm sounded. The map showing all those heading towards town grew to now include a large red vehicle that had burst from the ground at amazing speeds just west of their location. It was now rolling up the main road heading into the enclave.
"Steamer ahoy!" Kinza yelled. "What are they doing?"
The Tunnel Steamer thundered down the Highway I10 until it cleared the hot geyser swamps outside China Grove. It then left the road and started a swing to the southeast.
"Okay ladies," North yelled from the control seat, "I'm extending the coring tube. I'll insert her into the second ship's hull a few meters to the side of the main intersection between units in there – that seems to lead to the main base."
Sara and Brandywine were giving final checks to their armor and weapons. Bryant was still attempting to at least have the flack jacket on that was part of the SEEDS Security Force uniform. Brandywine watched his attempt and nearly burst out laughing.
"HONEY! Honey… here, let me show you…" she giggled releasing the air chamber that held the jacket tight and was making his attempt so pathetic. She had tried to get him to stay behind, but he had refused.
"I'm a sheriff, BW! I'm not staying behind as my girl runs into that hell-hole!" he had said.
She zipped up the sides and told him to hold his breath. When she set the jacket to extract the air to make it form-fit his body he nearly turned blue.
"Breathe silly," she laughed. She touched his face and kissed him.
Sara looked up at the pilot's seat above them. "What's our ETA?"
North looked at the readouts on the controls and the approaching ship's hull. "I'd say about 10 minutes," he told her.
She nodded. "I'll be right back," she said, and headed back towards the rear.
"Don't be long!" North yelled back. He knew where she was going. He laughed to himself. "If Shadsie were here, I'd probably be doing the same," he told himself.
Sara looked up at the power plant at the rear of the vessel. The yellow haze cleared and Lexington appeared. He smiled and placed his hand on the glass wall that separated them. She rushed over and did the same on the other side and felt the warmth being generated by his body. A tear ran down her face and splattered on her shoe.
"Thank you," she told him. "You came to my rescue when I needed you… You're… important to me… please be safe… I want to find you after this."
"As I told you before, it seemed that this was to be," Lexington told her through the glass. "When I first saw you in Demitrihi when your mind called out for help, I knew you and I were meant to be together… you be safe as well. I will find you after this, one way or the other. Even if I have to go to The Source…"
She stepped back. "Even if I have to go to The Source…" she repeated. "I love you Lex… I'll return. Please wait for me." She turned and ran back to the front of the Steamer.
Montré watched her dash by. She stepped into the engine room and looked at the Micro Plant.
"She's just a child you know," she told Lexington. "Even I can tell that, and I've only known her for a few hours."
Lexington looked down on the woman. She was wearing the same armor that Sara had been only she was a bit more pronounced in some areas than Sara had been. Lexington shook his head and returned the gassy haze to his view.
"You would not understand," he told her with much difficulty. "I can speak to her directly without worry. She is warm and easy to be with – something that has been missing in my life."
"And what am I big boy?" Montré coyly asked as she tapped on the glass bulb.
"Cold," was all she heard in her mind. As she began to fume he added, "Besides, I can sense that you have a loyalty to someone else."
She stepped back and laughed. "I'm sure I have. I have no idea where it came from, but I guess I do." She added a slight giggle as she sensed another presence. "Well, my ride has arrived. Thanks for the jump start, Pops."
Lexington peeked through the haze again, an expression of sorrow on his face. "You're welcome dear. I know I can't stop you from going. Just be safe, you hear?"
Montré looked up at his face with a bit of shock. "You… you know who I am then?"
"Do you know who I am?" he asked. Montré looked at him closer. She shook her head no.
Lexington nodded. "It took me awhile to figure it out as well… Horloge certainly didn't help out when she tried to kill us… But as I remember, the US and French governments weren't exactly on the best of terms after the Plant donations were completed. I do know one thing… You have your mother's eyes and nose."
Montré stared. "You're… you're Delta Twelve?" with a bit of nervousness. "You're my father?"
Lexington crossed his arms and ruffled the feathery wings on his back. "She had an incredible pair of blue-green eyes, just like yours," he commented.
Montré stood still and blushed. "And Horloge has her hair and build," she finished. "Why aren't you with mother? What happened to her?"
Lexington sighed. "Back then, mating was not done for love, Montré," he explained. "We were government property. The technicians and scientists would regularly come and 'examine' us, taking samples away. It wasn't like we didn't know where they were taking them – we knew that the best, most powerful Plants came from the offspring created from the strongest of our kind. And they had found that the best came from what was thought to be the closest form of natural breeding for our kind – the implantation of energy spores from a male Plantoid to a female… I never actually met your mother when you two were conceived. It wasn't until just before the launch of the SEEDS missions that we did, and by that time you and your sister were on duty in France." He sighed again. "She never did forgive me for the forced pregnancy. She survived the landing on this rock, but she didn't want anything to do with me. She died about twenty years ago when a bandit gang wiped out her settlement she was living in with her then husband."
Montré looked down at her feet. "I would have liked to have met her," she said. "And what about my sister?"
Lexington grunted. "Like I said – she tried to kill us a few months ago. You would know her better than I would."
She turned about, her long hair wrapping around her waist as she did. She pulled out a red ribbon and tied it into a long ponytail. When she looked back at Lexington he was smiling lopsidedly. "What?" she asked.
"Your mother wore a ribbon just like that," he said.
Montré smiled then scowled. She removed her Doorknob and placed it on the table.
"See ya daddy."
She snapped her fingers. For a millisecond, time seemed to stop. When it resumed, Montré was gone. Lexington snorted and returned to his hazy world.
"I don't blame you child," he told himself. "You were created simply as an energy provider. But The Source help us, if the scientists only knew just how more powerful the offspring would be if the parents were human and child of Angel Five…"
"How about breeding a mix with another Plant?"
Lexington looked about. "Knives?" The voice had sounded like him. It was strong and close.
The lone car screamed across the desert leaving a wake of dust behind it. Horloge leaned heavily against the steering wheel.
Montré walked through the still barren wasteland towards the frozen car. She noticed a scattering of greenquail rushing away from the onrushing vehicle. She stepped up to her still sister and brushed some hair out of her face.
"You haven't changed much Horloge," she told her.
"She hasn't?"
Montré smiled and looked at the enlarged belly Horloge had. "Well, you're obviously a change, yes. I was talking about her face."
"Ah… yes. Well, I wasn't around back then."
Montré laughed. "Technically, you're not here yet either."
"Actually, I'm both."
She walked around to the passenger side and climbed into the vehicle. She belted in then tucked herself in anticipation of the quick acceleration she was about to go through. She clicked her finger.
She was pressed into the seat hard. Her long ponytail instantly cracked in the blast of wind that caught it.
Horloge screamed at the sudden appearance of her sister beside her. Montré grabbed the wheel and kept them stable.
"Eyes on the road, sister dear," she told her. "Mustn't hurt our new leader now should we?"
"I hate time breaks," North groused as he targeted the hull of the ship with the Steamer's coring tube, the last vestige of where the front of the machine had come from, a tunnel drill.
"What was that?" Sara asked.
"Nothing," North said. "Grab hold of something hard folks! We're about to hit!"
The tip of the core started to spin its auger bits. North hit the emergency breaks only a few yarz away from the ship, not wanting to crash the entire Steamer into the hull, just its nose. The rapidly spinning probe struck first sending a shower of metal body parts flying in all directions, one of which sliced through the window of the cockpit and lodged in the aft wall only a few feet away from North's head. He had not noticed as he was bent over from the sudden deceleration. Sara, Brandywine and Bryant had held to support beams as they rode out the crash.
North looked up at the shattered windscreen and whistled. There was then another crash to his left. He looked over to see the caboose thundering by. It had become disconnected from the rear of the Steamer and had smashed into the ship's hull on its own.
"Damn… That might block the way in!" North grumbled. "Everyone okay down there?" he called down.
"We're ready!" Sara announced.
"Okay," North replied. "I'm releasing the coring cap – there might be a blockage in the direction you wanted to go, so be ready."
"Any scanner readings?" Sara asked as she prepared to storm the base. She slung her gun-box over her shoulder, and inserted her father's Nightstick in its belt loop.
North shook his head. "Scanners are down. The readings prior to the strike were negative on anyone behind the wall we hit though. I can't say there won't be someone to greet you though, since we made a bit of a noise, so stand ready."
"Gotcha," Brandywine said as she cocked the standard issue SSF Gun she had been given.
North reached down for a pull-lanyard. "Okay, on the count of three… one – two – THREE!"
He pulled the cord releasing the still spinning boring tool, which dropped to the ground, skipped down the exposed hallway, bounced about and returned back from where it came, missing the entry plug and slamming into the aft section of the caboose, causing its aft door to crash to the ground, filling the area with panicked Thomases.
"I couldn't do that again in a million years," North said to himself as he unstrapped his seat belts.
N'ya appeared from the haze. He saw Vash cradling Rem. She was coughing and becoming quite pale, even slightly transparent to his cat-eyes. He could see that the gunman was trying to transfer energy to her, but little was being taken in.
Wolfwood was over by the Marine. He was seeing if dragging him further away from the tree would slow the process and keep Rem from hurting so. But the energy The Source was sending the soldier was still coming.
Myuki stepped beside the Kuroneko and gasped. Vash looked up from his duty and saw her standing there in her kimono.
"Vash, honey," Rem weakly said through her pain, "that is your true mother."
Myuki looked over the situation. She rushed over to the tree and started to run her fingers over the gash, healing the wound in the bark stopping the flow of Rem's blood that was coming out of it. She then moved to Rem's side and started to do the same to her injury. The sticky sap melted away.
"M-mother?" Vash asked the woman. She looked up at him as she toiled and gave him a smile – a sad smile, but a smile of love nonetheless.
"It was a serious wound, Vash," she told him. "I'm not sure I can prevent the inevitable. I may have to release her – let her continue on as she should have long ago."
Vash first looked at her with a confused expression then it became a bit angered. "Release her? Then you're the reason why Rem is here?" He felt a hand touch his and he looked down.
"Its okay, Vash," Rem said. "I understand why she did it. She was trying to save me. She was trying to save you… and Knives… she was…"
Rem's hand fell to the stone.
"Rem! REM! REMMM!" Vash shouted.
"N'ya," Myuki ordered. "Help her."
"I will my lady!" he exclaimed and jumped on Rem's chest. He curled up and stared at her face, his huge eyes shining in The Source's light.
"Truth be told," he said, "she does not have much time left. We must sever her ties to that tree."
Myuki considered what the cat said. "It is what is tapping her strength, but she will need it as well to transfer to the next level."
"The next level?" Vash asked. "Mother, what do you mean?"
She looked at the tree. "As she created this tree, she is the creation of this tree of communication as well. It was her tie to The Source that powered it. Our fellow children of Angel Five nurtured it and made it grow, making her its guardian. To send her on to her next level, we must break the link to this tree."
"But how without hurting her further?" Vash asked while tears streamed down his cheek.
Myuki looked over at Wolfwood. "There is a way… we need a full Plantoid to take her place."
Wolfwood looked at the woman and swallowed. "Lady, why are you looking at me?"
Vash looked between the two of them. "NO! Use me!" he yelled.
"You are not a true Child of Angel Five," Myuki said. "Your father was human."
Vash swallowed. "Yes, I know that… But I must try!"
"It won't work," the Kuroneko said. "The human part of your body would reject it… besides, The Source would then be flooded with the added energy of all the humans in the universe. You would bring the end… remember the Big Bang?"
Vash scratched his cheek with his new left hand. "Not really – I wasn't there… but wasn't that the creation of the universe theory?"
The cat nodded. "That would be a mere pop in comparison."
"Then what about you?" Wolfwood asked Myuki. Vash glared at him that he would ask his actual Mother to make such a sacrifice.
Myuki looked at the ground. "I am only here in spirit – remember I'm in a Plant right now."
Wolfwood looked at the soldier on the ground – no, he was a man of the cloth, he couldn't offer him either, especially since he was still recovering.
"Okay, what do I have to do?" he asked.
Myuki smiled. "This should be easy, especially since you're her great – great – great – great – err – great grandfather…"
Wolfwood grunted. "That joke is getting old… let's get on with this…"
Myuki pointed at the tree with a paper fan she pulled from her sleeve. "Simply touch the tree," she said.
Wolfwood trudged over to the spreading branches and looked up. "Am I going to have to prune this thing from now on?"
Myuki gave a slight laugh. "No – no… It will change to something more suitable towards you."
"Be warned," N'ya called, "the truth says to me that you may have too much energy for this – be ready to channel it."
Myuki looked down on the Kuroneko. "Too much? Ah yes… I nearly forgot about his Plantoid."
Wolfwood blinked. "Too much? Why should I have too much?"
"The pre Plant that holds your soul," Myuki said. "Remember? I told you before that a baby Plantoid has excessive built up energy in them."
"Peachy," Wolfwood said. "So what do I have to do now?"
"Simply place your hand on the tree," Myuki explained as she snapped the fan open.
Wolfwood looked at the paper fan. He suddenly felt as if he were looking down the muzzle of an Angel Arm cannon. He reluctantly placed his fingers against the rough bark of the tree.
Myuki drew a second fan from her other sleeve and snapped it open, holding the first one to her face and the other over her head. She whispered something obscure behind the first fan, spinning around in a dance that made her kimono fly about. She snapped her right fan down at the tree and at Wolfwood, slapping it shut as she did.
Wolfwood felt as if his hand had just become glued to the tree. He heard Rem gasp. He looked over at her and saw that she had opened her eyes wide and was taking large gulps of air as if she was having trouble breathing.
"MOTHER!" Vash yelled. "MOTHER, HELP HER!"
"That's what she's doing!" N'ya yelled back. "Trust your mother, Vash the Stampede!"
The tree began to grow and change shape. The bark started to smooth out, and a white surface became evident. Wolfwood had to step back as the trunk seemed to expand away from him in all directions. He heard a tolling over his head and looked up. A bell was appearing over the fading branches as a rain of flowers from the tree scattered around them. The outer branches started to mesh together, turning black and taking on the form of a roof.
"It's… it's my confessional!" he exclaimed as he watched the bell be surrounded by a steeple. It rang louder as the building was completed with a front door and sign. Wolfwood's hand released the wall and he staggered back.
"Damn!" he said to himself. "That thing's bigger than I thought!"
"Forgiveness Chapel?"
He looked over at Vash and saw that the gunman was looking at the front of the building. The name was framed in a hymnal sign hanging by the front door. He smiled and laughed.
"It seems appropriate, doesn't it?" he laughed. "Want to try it out with a confession?"
Vash shook his head. "I'd have a hard time getting a coin into the slot," noting the still present groove in the top of the steeple.
Wolfwood gave a loud laugh. "How's my granddaughter?" he asked.
"Dead," a voice behind him said. He froze, never expecting to hear that voice ever again.
"Chapel… CHAPEL!" Wolfwood growled as he spun about. What he found shocked him.
His old mentor was standing there dressed in white, the odd red glasses missing from his face. He was still holding that stupid green apple though. He looked down and then looked back at his pupil.
"Please stop standing on me," he said.
Wolfwood looked down and saw that he was on the slab of stone that was once next to the tree. He nearly leapt into the air.
"Are you telling me that you made it to heaven?" Wolfwood snarled.
Chapel shrugged. "Almost… I'm on probation. My duty here is as a guide for her." He looked down at Vash and nodded. "She is almost ready."
Vash looked at Rem's still body. She was no longer gasping for air, her eyes wide and lifeless. He reached down and closed them.
"Rem… Rem…" he whispered.
"We must bury her first," Chapel explained. He gestured to the ground and a hole opened. "If you please, Mr. Vash?"
He wept as he stood with her limp body. He looked into the hole and then at the peaceful face of the woman in his arms.
Wolfwood felt a tap on his head as he watched. He looked back at his teacher while rubbing where he had been struck.
"Get in there and help him, rookie," Chapel said while polishing the apple.
Wolfwood climbed into the hole and held his arms out to his friend. Vash brought the body to his chest for one last hug to his surrogate mother then lowered her to the waiting hands of her grandfather.
Wolfwood looked at the woman he now held. "I may not have known you outright, Rem Saverem, but a father should never have to bury one of his own, even if she was his great – great – great – great – great grandchild. I'm proud of you child… You were a great teacher to Vash… I'm glad to call him my friend. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be the man I am now. Now it is time for you to rest."
He lowered her to the ground after kissing her on the forehead. He made the sign of the cross then looked up at Vash, who had a hand out to help him out of the hole.
Chapel nodded to the grave. It covered itself over.
Wolfwood looked at it and shook his head. "That's not enough," he said. He reached down and tapped on the slab. The stone split and rumbled across the ground. It formed a headstone with 'REM SAVEREM' inscribed in it. The other half of the slab raised itself into the air as well, the name 'CHAPEL THE EVERGREEN' blazoned on it showing the last resting place of the Gung-Ho Gun. The teacher nodded to the student. They then stood in quiet solitude.
"Geraniums," Vash said.
"What?" Wolfwood asked startled by the sudden single word that broke the silence.
"Her grave should be covered in geraniums. She loved geraniums."
Wolfwood looked at him a bit perplexed. "What the hell is a geranium?" he asked.
"Allow me," Myuki said at she waved her fan at the ground around her grave. The flowers covered its surface.
"Ah," Wolfwood said seeing the red color. "Is that where you got the red jacket from?"
Chapel cleared his throat. "If we may proceed?" he asked. The two men looked at him in confusion.
"Proceed?" Vash asked as he saw Chapel holding a ring up to him. "What is that?"
"I suggest we adjourn to the church?" he said pointing to the now open doors. "After all, Nicholas, you have a duty to perform."
They both looked at one another with perplexed expressions.
"Will you two get a move on?"
They looked back at where the Corporal had been. He was sitting upright now, cross legged and fuming.
"I want to get back to that fight we were in! Get whatever you have to do done with already!"
Vash stepped up to the chapel door. He then stepped back and looked at the building then back inside.
"Vash, what are you doing?" Wolfwood asked.
"Nick, there's something wrong with your church," Vash stammered. "It's bigger inside than outside!"
Wolfwood peeked in – Vash was right. The small chapel was huge inside, with massive stained glass windows that weren't on the outside. He looked down as he heard the cat snicker.
"Relative dimensions – you gotta love 'em!" he said.
"Nicely done, my boy," Chapel said. "This is fine."
"Fine for what?" Wolfwood asked then saw what Chapel was pointing at. Up at the altar was a couple. The woman wore a blazing white wedding gown with a long lace train and brilliant red bouquet of geraniums. The man was in a military dress uniform that neither had ever seen before. But as he removed his hat, the golden yellow spikes of hair told Vash just who he was.
"Alex Thatcher!" he exclaimed. He looked at the ring again – it was a wedding ring!
"A chapel should be blessed with a wedding, not a funeral," Rem said to the gathered. "The start of a new life is to be celebrated, and let the old life go."
"New life?" Wolfwood whispered. "Isn't she going to heaven?"
Chapel laughed. "Of course…"
"What new life?" he asked. "She's dead, isn't she?"
"What's you point?" Chapel bumped his shoulder. "Have you ever been there?" he asked while gesturing with the apple towards the ceiling.
Wolfwood looked at him. "What? Heaven? No…"
"Then don't assume what you don't know about." Chapel smirked. "They'll be fine. Just get up there and do your duty, Pastor Wolfwood."
Vash stood dumbfounded. "And me?" he asked.
Rem giggled. "Ring bearer of course silly – you're the best man!"
Harrisburg could see the smoke and dust that something had made on the other side of town, and whatever it was, it was a distraction for Janus as well. The demon was keeping and eye on whatever that had been that slammed into the ship.
"Sergeant," he said from atop a pile of broken posts and wall mountings, "let me show you just how foolish it was to turn off that device around your neck."
Harrisburg found himself drawing out the katana. He spun it about, bringing the blade around to face his belly. He slipped it against his flack jacket making a rattling sound as it played off the ring reinforcements behind the cloth outer garment. He saw a sneer roll over Janus' face that would have made anyone's skin crawl…
…But not his. He returned the grin, making Janus step back.
"That the best a second rate Plant can do?" Harrisburg grunted.
"Second rated!?" Janus snarled. "Now we fall to name calling?"
"I'm only here to show you the truth, son!" Harrisburg said with the same grit on his face.
"Then why are you the one with a blade against your stomach?" Janus noted. He gestured for the blade to insert itself.
It remained held fast on the outside of the jacket. He looked at the Marine and nodded.
"Impressive," he commented. "An enhanced Plantoid is stronger than I expected."
"Not just enhanced, creep," the soldier said without a sign of strain. "It is a FACT that children of a Plant and a Human have a deeper well of energy to dip from."
Janus laughed. "Really… Well, I may not have come from a mother and father that were human and Plant, but my genes came from a human and a Plant… So I should have a much deeper well… let's see…"
He held out his hands and lifted a series of large chunks of the sheriff's office and hurled them at Harrisburg.
The blade flashed and spun. A slash to his left split the post and beam being sent at him, a parry to the right divided the desk section, a spin and slice stopped a door in its tracks, and then a thrust struck Janus in the belly.
"Vash is already a Human–Plant mix," he whispered into the shocked face of Janus. "Adding another human actually reduced your powers!"
"Ah… I see…" Janus gurgled. "Do you feel better about this then?"
"I feel great," Harrisburg drummed into Janus by planting his boot into his chest to remove the blade, sending him falling back. But before he struck the ground, he vanished.
Harrisburg looked to his right. Goethe was holding the fallen Janus and another body. The jacket it wore told him just who it was.
"Goethe! Why are you carrying Miss Stryfe?" he yelled.
"I needed her as a guide for your friends," he said as he gestured to an approaching shuttle. "By the way – thank you."
Harrisburg slipped the katana back into the belt ring he was carrying it in. "Thank me? What for?" he rumbled.
Goethe looked at the limp body of Janus. "He wasn't truly my brother, but I could still feel him in there. He did not want to come back. He truly is now at peace." He gently placed Meryl on the ground. "You were correct as well."
"Correct?"
Goethe nodded as he looked back at the Marine. "Janus didn't have as much power in his mind as my true brother," he said as he pointed to his head. "There's too much Vash in there." He then vanished again with the body of Janus.
Kinza brought the shuttle in beside the Marine's ALC. He stepped out of the pilot's house to a surprise gathering in the rear cabin. He found that the judges were sequestered in the aft storage room.
"Was it something someone said?" he asked.
Miami shrugged. "They suddenly said that they needed to discuss the case and locked themselves in there," she said with a bit of confusion in her voice.
"When?" Kinza asked.
"Umm… about ten minutes ago," Dallas said looking at the chronograph on the wall.
Kinza looked back at the pilot's house and then back at the locked storage room. He pulled out his scanning rod and walked around the room.
"Odd," he said.
"What is?" Photon asked as she patiently waited for the judges to come out of their room.
He continued to read the scanner. "I dropped the shields about ten minutes ago when I figured out where our chase was heading."
"Meryl!"
Everyone looked over at Millie. She was looking out the hatchway's window. She slapped a release button and was out the door before anyone could stop her.
Goethe looked under the landing struts of the shuttle as he saw the Insurance Girl's feet running away towards her friend. They were followed by a large pair and then another smaller set. He returned to his job at hand – he placed his hand on the hull outside the shuttle and concentrated.
Knives and Kinza watched the trio of Millie, Miami and Dallas running over to the prone body in the street.
"I guess it's too late to warn them of the dangers of doing that," Kinza groused. He pulled his sidearm and winced as the bandages on his hands were pinching the still sore skin underneath. He flexed his fingers then reluctantly returned his gun to his side.
"Not going?" Knives asked.
Kinza snorted. "Only if I want to drop my gun at the feet of the enemy." He sighed.
The lock on the storage room clicked. Kinza and Knives looked back to see the judges coming out.
"We have come to a decision," the chief justice announced.
"Madam?" Boston and Photon asked with puzzlement.
"A decision?" Kinza asked. "What sort of decision?"
"We have made a verdict in the case," she said. She then smiled at Knives. "We find you, Millions Knives, not guilty."
Kinza scratched his ear. "Umm… pardon me, ma'am, but have we had a trial yet?"
The judge looked at him with a bit of sass. "Are you questioning our judgment, Mr. Kinza?"
He continued to scratch his ear. "If I said yes, would you hold it against me?"
"I can hold you in contempt!" she snapped.
Kinza half laughed. "Well, you can try, but there's no one here to arrest me in my own ship, unless Photon is going to do so."
"I must agree, your honor," Knives interjected. "This is most unexpected, to say the least. Can you explain your decision to us?"
The judge looked surprised at Knives. "Are you not pleased that we found you not guilty?" she asked.
"It is not that, your honor," he stated. "It's just that we have not heard from any of the witnesses yet, least of all, we haven't seen any of the normal proceedings yet. I haven't even seen anything of the prosecutor yet."
"As we stated before, the prosecution was the history reports provided by the observers," the second justice noted. "An actual prosecutor was not needed."
"It is quite obvious that you were under the control of this D'two person," the chief justice finally said. "We reserve the right to put him on trial when the time comes."
"You are free," the second judge said.
Sara and Brandywine held to a wall on one side of a corridor. Bryant clung to the other side. North stood guard at the opening to the Steamer. A simple enough plan.
The trio slowly made their way through the tangled wreckage that had been the aft section of the Steamer's caboose and a bulkhead of the crashed ship. The drill bit was still hot and steaming. The Thomases were still being a bit rambunctious down the hallway.
"So, are you going to follow your mother's plan?" Brandywine asked Sara.
Sara blew a little air. "I don't know," she said as she looked around a corner. "It requires something I'm not sure I can do."
She suddenly felt herself be yanked back against a wall. Brandywine was looking around her to make sure the coast was clear. She then looked her straight in the eyes.
"You mind telling me then? Last thing I need is an impromptu art show, if you know what I mean."
Sara sighed. "The way mother stopped him before was to envelop him in her energy."
Brandywine blinked. "You're kidding," she twanged. "You mean the little flittery light thingy?"
Sara nodded. "That's what she told me."
"BW, what's the hold up?" Bryant asked as he looked around for possible trouble.
"Just hold your Thomases, honey," she said. "We just have some issues to deal with first." She looked back at Sara. "Now are you sure that's what she said would stop him?"
Sara cocked her head. "Pretty much. She would 'punish' him."
A glimmer of realization flowed over Brandywine's face. "Oh, I get it – she'd use her powers to restrain him. Okay, no sweat, I can do that!"
Sara looked at her oddly. "You can do that? What do you mean?"
Brandywine shook her head. "What? You thought you'd be doing it? Oh no… you even attempt it, and your human side would explode, or something like that. No-no, I'll do it. I'll put an artistic flair to it, you'll see. I'll float like a butterfly and sting… oh crap…"
Sara looked at her perplexed. She had just been doing a silly little pirouette when she stopped and was staring down the hallway.
"COMPANY!" she shouted as she ran back up where they had come from. Sara peeked around and saw a group of children with pistols trudging her way.
"STOP!"
Sara saw that the children were in an intersection when someone had yelled.
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"
The yelling wasn't from the children. If anything, they were surprised as she was. They turned to face the someone who had ordered them.
"FIRE!"
Sara felt as if a wall had just dropped on her. Her knees buckled and the world swayed. As she felt the ground come up to her, she saw the children get swallowed up by a glowing net of energy. They also fell down, the guns clattering in the hallway. Then the world turned dark just as a uniformed person came around the corner.
"MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN!" was the last thing she heard.
A pungent downright nasty smell greeted her massive headache when the light returned. The blurry image of North over her slowly merged from the multitude of visions she was seeing.
"You're just going to have to stop using snares in here, private," he was barking at someone. More like thundering – oh, her throbbing temples!
"Yes sir, Captain sir!" a female voice said. Sara groggily looked to the side to see a Marine at attention beside them.
North saw the girl and looked at the ceiling. "Oh, at ease, private! You were doing as told, and doing the right thing. If anything, it was my own fault for not thinking that Harrisburg would do that in the first place."
Brandywine leaned over Sara and handed her some pills and a drink. "Best we can do at the moment," she said with a wry smile.
Sara got up on her elbows and took the pills and drink. The pills were easy, but she wasn't ready for the drink and sprayed North with some of it. It was bitter and a touch sour.
"Uhh, what is this stuff?" she asked now wide awake.
North wiped his face. "Orange juice," he said. "The vitamin C in it is good for the Plant in you. I bet you don't feel that headache anymore, do you?"
She blinked. As a matter of fact, the pain was gone. She shook her head.
"Good – have a donut," North advised her. "Plants also need their carbohydrates."
Bryant looked down on Sara and smiled. "So, what do we do now. We have this group of kids to deal with."
"Get them into the Steamer," North said. "And don't forget their Doorknobs! I'll keep an eye on them. As for the mission, it looks as if you now have a back-up team."
"Private Cindy Edmonton, at your service, officer!" the Marine saluted.
Sara held out her hand. "Sara Montgomery, SEEDS Security Force."
"Oh… oh my… By The Source… I shot…" Edmonton look as if she was about to join Sara on the ground. "Your mother…"
Sara smiled. "Yes, my mother is Cindy… THE Cindy… It's no big deal." She held out her hand to the private again.
"Cindy, right?" she asked with a grin.
"Er… yes ma'am!" Edmonton replied shaking her hand.
"Please, just Sara." She sprung up to her feet.
North looked up at her as he was still crouching down. "Are you sure you're ready to go?" he asked.
Sara winked at him. "Orange juice – cures what ails you!" She swigged down the rest of it, and made the most remarkable twisted face. "That's good stuff!" she gagged. "Let's get going."
The Corporal stood on one side of the happy couple, while Vash stood on the other. The Marine had been dragged into the church to act as witness to the proceedings. He looked totally confused.
"First I'm being twisted like a knot, now I'm at a wedding," he complained as Vash had led him into the chapel.
"Shh! They're starting!" the Typhoon had told him as he placed him on the one side.
"It is a sad thing for me to say that in all the years I was on Gunsmoke, I never officiated a wedding. On Earth with my wife, I did quite a few. And even here, I'm not sure if this is either here or there." Wolfwood cleared his throat. "Be it as it may be, I bow to the words of our beautiful bride – this chapel deserves to be blessed with a wedding, and not a funeral as its first act to God. So… before our holy father, I bring us together with these cherished words… Do you, Staff Sergeant Alexander Thomas Thatcher take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife – To have and to hold, from this day forward, till death do you part?"
The man stood at attention as if he were talking to his commanding General. "I do," he said with a stone face.
"This is my granddaughter, son, not a mission to storm the bad guys," Wolfwood chided bringing a big grin from Alex's face. "That's better… huh?"
Vash was blubbering away. Oy…
"Remembrance Saverem, do you take this man, to have and to hold, from this day forwards, till death do you part?"
It was not hard to see the blush running across Rem's face – she nearly matched the color of the geraniums. "I do," she said nearly in a whisper, a tear trickling down her cheek.
Wolfwood looked at Vash, who was now nearly a bubbling pool of water. "May we have the ring?" he asked with a grit in his teeth. Vash settled down and produced the golden band with his usual panache.
"Got it right here!" he chimed.
"Swell," Wolfwood grimaced. "Give it to Alex then."
Vash put the ring in Alex's palm and slapped him on the back, making him nearly drop it.
"Vash, behave," Myuki said.
"Yes mother…"
Wolfwood cleared his throat again. "Very well… Alex, if you would repeat after me… With this ring…"
"With this ring…"
"I do thee wed…"
"I do thee wed…"
Wolfwood looked at the proceedings and then started to count his fingers. "Isn't this supposed to be a two ring ceremony?" he asked.
Chapel patted his pockets. He suddenly looked down one and pulled out another ring. "Whoops! Sorry," he said as he placed it in Vash's hand. But something was distracting him. He barely noticed the ring as he handed it to Rem.
Wolfwood noticed this as well, but wasn't going to stop the proceedings.
"Rem… If you'd repeat after me… With this ring…"
"With this ring…"
"I thee wed…"
"I thee wed…"
He sighed. "I now pronounce you man and wife – you may kiss the bride."
"What is wrong with me?" Vash thought to himself. "I should be overjoyed… but… but something is wrong… something is wrong back on Gunsmoke!"
"Go Vash."
He looked back. Rem was looking at him from the arms of Alex Thatcher. She smiled and nodded.
"I understand," she said. "Go, return to where you're needed. Find Meryl. Keep her safe."
Vash looked dumbfounded at her. "Rem… thank you Rem. Thank you for everything." He kissed her and shook the lucky man's hand and started running for the door.
"Goodbye Vash!" Rem called out to him. "Take care of Knives!"
Vash stopped in his tracks and looked back at her.
"Knives… That's it! KNIVES! I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF KNIVES!"
"Hey! Wait for me!" the Corporal yelled as Wolfwood was trying to get him to sign the license under the witness line.
"No time! Send him down after me! I have to take care of Knives!" Vash ran out of the church. He looked back for a moment. He saw the two graves. He reached down and took his no longer needed arm gun and placed it next to Rem's marker. He then drew on his powers and sprouted his wings, launching himself into the sky and towards the void below.
N'ya sat beside the pulpit licking a paw. "This is the pits," he was complaining.
"What for?" Myuki asked.
"How am I suppose ta sniff the buds anymore?" he quipped. "Der isn't any tree no more! What's da Plantoids gonna communicate with now?"
Myuki drew her hand over their heads. "The glass, N'ya… the glass!"
The Kuroneko blinked. "The stained glass is what was da leaves?"
"Correct."
The cat snorted. "You can't eat glass, and it don't smell well either!"
"Live with it cat," Wolfwood said. "I can't even smoke in here!"
The cat laughed. "At least you don't got dose silly wings anymore!"
Wolfwood hadn't even noticed. "Now how am I supposed to get to the trial like this?" he wondered aloud.
Myuki shook her head. "I'm not sure. I feel the same as Vash – there's something not right down there. There's something just not right."
oOo
Next Episode
In conclusion, let me just say
that I'm being followed by a Moon Shadow
Moon Shadow, Moon Shadow...
And I Think it's Gonna Be a Long, Long Time...
All good things come to an end
A finale
Closure
An end of a line
Sound Life
Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - The Finale -
Chapter Nineteen - Moon Shadow
Chapter Twenty - Far Ago and Long Away (And I think it's Gonna Be a Long, Long Time)
Where your pebbles may fall, may they bring you a long and prosperous life...
Sound Life
North, Elb Kinza, Scanning Disks and GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003, 2019 DMS – Used with permission
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003, 2019 Yasuhiro Nightow
N'ya, Greenquail, and Alex Thatcher ©2003, 2019 S. Nordwall - Used with permission
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003, 2019 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project
Edited 0311.27, 1904.25
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