Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, Trigun, or any songs that are used in this story. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Readers Note: This is a re-post. Also this contains major spoilers for Trigun, so if you haven't seen the whole series I wouldn't recommend reading this.
Gundam Wing & Trigun
Trigundam
Episode 2: The Exchange
q
"Is that all that is to be reported?" Lady Une asked the members of Preventer who sat around the table.
The ones who sat around the table shook their heads, except for Johan. His head stood as still as a marble statue. He had something to tell the others about, but it seemed so odd. Even he couldn't exactly figure it out himself, but perhaps that quartet of gunslingers behind him could tell him what it means.
"How about you Mr. Rodriguez?" Lady Une asked very calmly and yet in a very sweet sort of way given the current circumstances.
Johan slowly turned his head to Lady Une, "Yes." He said clearly, "I have something to report but it's going to sound extremely odd."
"What is it?"
"Do you remember the colony where Mariemea was born?" He asked, "Colony X-18999?"
"Yes." Lady Une responded as she leaned on her forearms on the table, "I sent you there yesterday because we haven't heard from them in a few days."
"That's what I'm about to report. When I got there I didn't find anything. The colony was deserted, though there didn't seem to be any kind of attack or struggle. It just seemed that the residents of the colony dropped everything and left for somewhere. To where I don't know. But I did find something, I found a name written on the Colony City Hall. It was enormous and carefully written in red."
Vash heard this news, it was complete Déjà vu. Wolfwood told a similar story back home except that the name was written on the towns' monument. Vash stepped closer to hear the name come from this boy's lip.
"What was the name?" Vash wanted to know, he felt like screaming that. He wanted to reach for the boy and plead him to tell him what the name is.
"The name I saw on that building was, Knives."
"It's true. This is where Knives had escaped to", Vash thought to himself, "this is where he is. I have to catch him before more people suffer and die because of him. I have to take care of Knives as Rem told me."
Silence, no one spoke. The story sounded so oddly unreal, yet at the same time all of them knew that it was true. Nothing was heard from that colony in days.
"Johan." Trowa asked, "Could it be possible that the one who stole the Wing Zero could also be responsible for the disappearance of those people on Colony X-18999?"
Johan scratched his head; "I don't think so Trowa." He pondered, "We didn't hear anything from that colony in a few days and the disappearance of the Wing Zero only occurred today. So it would make it highly unlikely that these two incidents could be connected. Though I wouldn't ignore the possibility. But we should also accept the strong possibility that there's more that one saboteur."
Suddenly from behind Johan, Vash spoke, "I may offer an explanation."
The officers of Preventer turned to look at this gunman and their eyes seemed to invite his explanation, to try to shed some light onto these nonsensical events.
Vash knew that all of this was simply history repeating itself. He had to find help in order to end the cycle, even though he initially wanted to go on his own. But there was something about these boys that didn't seem like normal people. Most of the people that he came across in his world weren't the kinds of people who would be this dedicated to stopping atrocities and these six boys are that dedicated. He knew that they could be trusted.
"The name you found." Vash said to Johan, "Is the name of my brother. In the universe where we came from we were taking care of Knives after a gunfight we had. We feel that he escaped here."
Another long pause, "Even if this man is your brother." Heero reasoned, "How could he steal the Wing Zero and cause those peoples disappearances two days before this event happened?"
"The only explanation to that I can offer is that Knives isn't human."
"Why is that?" Quatre asked
When Vash heard that question he took a deep breath. He knew that he had to tell them everything.
q
Vash took an empty seat at the table, laid his bag on the floor and began to tell his story. He told the officers of Preventer everything, starting with the birth of two boys who bore the names of Vash and Knives. The two boys were inseparable, they needed one another, depended on one another. The two of them were raised under the guise of one woman named Rem Saverem; she acted like a mother to both Vash and Knives. That is until one day during a hair cut, Vash had one type of hair cut while Knives took a different style, purely for the reason of individuality.
At that point of difference, the two brothers began to have different opinions about how things should be done. Such as on that one day when the two of them saw a spider about to eat a butterfly, Vash tried to save them both but Knives killed the spider. His reason was that if the butterfly were saved then the spiders would die of starvation. So to kill the spiders would end their pain quickly without them suffering starvation.
Vash on the other hand wanted to save them both, though Knives felt that saving them both was a naïve contradiction. And from that point on the two brothers saw life differently.
The two brothers lived on a spaceship originally part of a project called Project Seeds. A mission dedicated to finding a suitable planet for humanity. But with Knives on board it was a disaster waiting to happen. He crashed the fleet of ships belonging to Project Seeds onto the planet named Gunsmoke and that was over one hundred years ago. His justification for this grand slaughter of people was that if humans were to spread throughout the universe it would be like allowing disease-causing organisms to exist in our galaxy. He felt that humanity was a plague, and he would be the cure.
Over that period of a hundred years, Vash and Knives wandered across the planet Gunsmoke. Until one day nearly fifteen years of wandering through the desert Knives had made twin custom revolvers, one black and the other silver. Knives had told Vash that they would use these weapons in order to kill humanity.
Vash wouldn't allow that so he stole both revolvers and ran away. For the next eighty years Vash lived peacefully, enjoying the pleasures of humanity. Though Vash wasn't exactly indulgent on the details of what he delved into. Until one day he found someone who was related to Rem (his mother figure). He went to the city known as July, and it was there that he found Knives.
There in the city of July, Vash discovered a horrible weapon concealed within him, and he reduced the city of July to rubble even though it wasn't his own fault.
After the destruction of July, Vash spent the next twenty-six years, wandering through the desert trying to find Knives. During that time he met his wonderful companions, Meryl Strife, Millie Thompson, and Nicholas D. Wolfwood.
Vash told them about the battles he fought until the very last showdown between himself and Knives in the desert.
The story sounded extremely unusual to the ears of Preventer. At first one of them wanted to say, "Stop this" or "Enough with your lies." But no one said anything until Vash finished his story.
Duo laid his hands behind his head and said, "Wow that's one hell of a story buddy."
Vash smiled, "Thanks. But now all of you know why we've come here. We're here to find Knives."
"All that time." Quatre exhaled, "That makes you nearly 130 years old. I don't know how you could have gone on that long."
"I just had to keep moving." Vash explained
Suddenly something came through on the COM system.
"Howard?" A voice called
"Yeah?" Howard responded with that same raspy voice
"The engines seem to be working again and the mobile suits are working properly too."
Duo looked puzzled, "That's weird." He exhaled, "Just a few minutes ago, they weren't working. Same thing with Peace Million's engines."
"It has to be Knives." Vash leaned over, "He can control machines. I do think that he did take this Wing Zero of yours as well. Though I'm also sure that he's responsible for the disappearances."
Lady Une looked over at Howard, "Set a course for Colony X-18999. How long will it take us to get there?"
"At full speed." Howard reported, "It'll take a few days or so."
"Send a message to the Maquanate Corps and tell them to meet up with us and send the same message to the Eldridge and have them meet up with us, we're going to need help on this one. Let's hope that this Knives will wait there."
q
Time was either on their side or they were running against it. Either way, the Officers of Preventer knew that they only had a few days until they reached their destination of Colony X-18999. In that time, they felt that it a good time to repair, but not only was good time to prepare but to give the new comers a tour.
Johan led this quartet of gunslingers, which he came to call The Peace Guns. A name that Johan did share with this quartet. Though something did occur to him while he was leading them to the mobile suit bay.
"You know." He began, "Only three of you have nicknames."
"What do you mean by that?" Millie asked curiously
Johan stopped and looked at the Peace Guns, "Well." He began, "You Millie are known as Stun Gun Millie, Meryl is known as Derringer Meryl, and Vash is known as The Stampede or The Humanoid Typhoon."
"So the only one who doesn't have a nickname is Wolfwood." Vash smiled
Wolfwood sneered just a tad, "What nickname do you think would suit a guy like me?"
Johan cupped his chin, "How about, Wolfwood the Undertaker?"
Wolfwood looked at Johan with wide eyes and a smile that bore teeth in the friendliest of ways, "I like it." He said, "Wolfwood the Undertaker, that has a nice ring."
"It does." Johan smiled, "Shall we continue?"
He began to walk towards the mobile suit bay, but Meryl had to say something while they were walking. It was something that was bothering her ever since she laid eyes on the Gundam Pilots.
"Mr. Rodriguez." She said, "I've noticed that you and your co-workers are… a bit young."
Even though Meryl couldn't see it Johan was smiling, "You know." He said, "Wufei would say that you're weak because you see us just as kids and you'd underestimate us. Though, I on the other hand would say that your reaction is normal. We are a bit young but that's how we are. Most of us are pretty much orphans."
"Orphans?" Wolfwood asked
He asked this because as a priest he was in charge a small orphanage, so he did have experience in that field.
"That's right." Johan said, "Take me for example. I lost my mother when I was four years old. I lost my father on my seventeenth birthday."
As Johan was telling these facts he heard a whimpering noise behind him.
"Oh no." Wolfwood moaned.
Johan turned and found that Vash the Stampede was weeping as he was weeping, Vash went over to Johan and placed his hand on his shoulder. Vash as comforting Johan with his own form of kindness.
"I understand." He wept, "It must have been so hard for you."
Johan's jaw dropped with his puzzled expression, "Is this man really a legendary gunman?" he thought, but he regained himself and laid his hand on Vash's shoulder.
"It's alright Vash." Johan comforted, "At the time I was already a Gundam Pilot, trained to take care of myself. I had to take my Gundam and head to Earth in order to fulfill a promise to both my mother and father."
"What was that promise?" Vash asked as his weeping began to subside
"I promised my mother to restore her homeland and I promised my dad to bring down the force of oppression, the United Earth Sphere Alliance. I kept my promises."
Johan turned and continued to explain as he lead them to the mobile suit bay, "In this time of peace," he said, "there's no place for soldiers like myself except here in the Office of Preventer. An organization that is dedicated to putting out small flames before they become wildfires… in a metaphorical sense."
Meryl heard this explanation but said, "It's still hard to believe that all of you are just boys."
"We get that a lot." They came to a door, "Well," Johan said, "This is the place."
q
The doors to the mobile suit bay opened with a hiss of air and the stench of oil, welded metal and sweat filled the nostrils of the Peace Guns. They couldn't see through the doorway, but they could see the walkway that strutted into darkness but all they could concentrate on was the smell. It was so erroneous that all of them covered their noses, except for Johan. He simply turned to them and smiled.
"Come this way." He said, "You'll see the firepower that Preventer has under its belt."
Johan turned and walked onto the walkway and into the darkness and behind him the Peace Guns followed him still covering their noses. They walked down the walkway and they found that they were on a catwalk suspended by cables on either side yet it didn't feel as rickety as a rope bridge rather it felt as sturdy as solid rock.
Though the catwalk wasn't what grabbed their attention at first. The things that really grabbed their eyes like the sun on a clear day were the robots. The robots stood along the wall to their right, each of them side by side like toy soldiers on a store shelf. As they looked they were about to tell the differences between them (they counted seven in all from what they could see) but Johan stopped this connection of logic and began his description of each robot.
"These are our weapons." Johan began, "These are the Gundam mobile suits."
He led them to the first one it looked like the Grim Reaper himself but it was as tall as the highest building any of the Peace Guns had ever seen. It stood tall over them like death itself staring out with its lifeless green eyes waiting for the chance to take his victims.
"This is DeathScythe Hell Custom." Johan began, "It belongs to my good friend Duo Maxwell. Nice one isn't' it? Makes you think you're looking into the face of death itself, but the thing about this suit is that it has a cloaking device. Meaning it can disguise itself into the background, which is useful for sneaking around as well as hit and run attacks. That is Duo's specialty."
"Amazing." Meryl sighed
"It looks kind of scary." Millie commented
Johan smiled, "That is… kind of the point."
Wolfwood stood looking at the DeathScythe and wondered how that boy who dressed like a priest could pilot a machine this large. The last machine he saw was one of the Gung-Ho Guns, a man who was said to have nine lives but he was actually a machine much like this DeathScythe that stood before him. Though Wolfwood never flinched or looked scared as he stared at this great machine.
"Next here we have Heavyarms Custom." Johan stated as he walked down the catwalk to another robot that had twin gattling over its shoulders. That was the only amount of weaponry that they saw on this robot.
Wolfwood had to comment since the gattling reminded him of his own Cross-Punisher, "It may be called that, but it only has those two guns." He said smiling as he reached for another cigarette in his jacket. He took out a single match and was about to light the cigarette but then Johan snatched the match that he was about to strike.
"I wouldn't smoke here if I were you." Johan advised as he stuffed the match into his pocket.
Wolfwood was about to grab his shirt, but he saw that Johan was a kid compared to him, "Why do you say that?" He asked trying to keep his cool even though he wanted to strangle him because he had been a few hours without smoking.
"If you smoke in here," Johan advised, "Then you'd start a fire and that would suck up all our air and crush the ship from the inside like an empty beer can."
Wolfwood's eyes widened with realization then he smiled. He thought back to the orphans that he had in his church outside of a city called December. He thought about their smiling faces but then he knew that none of them had family. This boy before him was just like those orphans, and as a matter of fact so are all of these kids known as Gundam Pilots. Though the part that he didn't like about this was that these kids grew up to be as deadly as he is, perhaps even more with these weapons.
"As I was saying." Johan started up again, "The Heavyarms Custom has more weapons than what you see. Throughout it's body it has compartments that open up to reveal chamber upon chamber of micro missiles. In total the Heavyarms Custom has enough destructive power to wipe out a small city."
"And you trust a weapon of that power to someone that young?" Vash asked looking up at the Heavyarms.
"I do wish that you'd stop bringing up our age, Vash." Johan answered with annoyance, "but you have to understand something about the pilot of this suit, Trowa Barton. He's been a soldier since the day he was born."
"It's such a sad life to live." Vash sighed
"It's the only way he knows how to live." Johan moved down the catwalk, "And here we have the Sandrock Custom."
The next robot looked as armored as a knight of some King Arthur story, though at the same time it didn't. The reason for that was because the Peace Guns could see the giant curved blades that were mounted on it's back.
"The Sandrock," Johan reported, "May not look like anything much but it has been designed purely for strength and armor. It is tough though it is also lethal since those blades can cut through the strongest metal like cotton floss."
"It is impressive." Wolfwood commented, "Most of these machines that I've seen are magnificent. They're even more magnificent than the tales we have of lost technology. But this technology you have isn't lost, it's standing here right in front of us."
"That's right. And next to the Sandrock we have the Nataku."
This robot looked like a metallic samurai, though they couldn't see it's arms because they saw what looked like flat snake heads on each side of it that were connected to red tubes that ran in a loop up and back down to the snake head.
"This suit." Johan said, "Can only be used by a pilot whose is advanced in martial arts. Since it was built for hand to hand techniques against other mobile suits. Though it does have long range weapons."
"What about those things at its sides?" Vash asked leaning over the catwalk
"Those are what we call Dragon Fangs." Johan explained, "They can extend out to about 100 feet."
"How long?" Vash asked getting off the catwalk
Johan estimated, "From where I'm standing to where the door is." He pointed down the catwalk to the door that they came through, to Vash it looked a long way for an arm to reach. But if what Johan says is true then this robot can do some serious damage if one were to get too close.
"Next." Johan's tour began again, "We have the Gundam Clockwork."
The Clockwork was like a combination of the Heavyarms and the DeathScythe from what the Peace Guns could see.
"This one has the features of both the DeathScythe Hell and the Heavyarms. Packed with a great amount of weaponry and a cloaking device it is also useful for hit and run attacks as well as heavy artillery. Next we have the Tallgeese III."
The Peace Guns looked and saw the Tallgeese. It was enormous, it looked larger that the other suits but they figured that there was a reason for that. They saw that each suit was designed for a certain kind of tactic, such as the Nataku for close hand combat and so on. So this Tallgeese must have been built for a certain function. But why was it called three, they wondered.
"The reason why it's called Tallgeese III." Johan explained given them a brief history on this suit, "is because this was the prototype suit for the Gundams. But when it was first built Zechs Marquise otherwise known as Milliardo Peacecraft piloted this suit. Then this suit was destroyed and then rebuilt as the Tallgeese II and after the war it was destroyed again but Milliardo collected the pieces of the suit and rebuilt it as the Tallgeese III."
"Damn." Wolfwood smirked, "This thing has taken a hell of a beating."
"You better believe it." Johan laughed, "Now, last but certainly not least. We have mine, the Gundam Ryu."
This robot stood like a metallic devil or angel with its different sets of wings spread out and its shield at its side.
"This was the suit that I designed." Johan said, "This suit was upgraded about three times. It had bird mode, mobile suit mode and dragon mode."
"What does all that do?" Millie asked
"Bird mode is when the suit transforms into a plane, which is used purely for transportation. The mobile suit form is what you see before you that is used purely for fighting, whether that's long distance or hand to hand combat. But Dragon mode is a combination of bird and mobile suit mode. It can fly like a plan but it can also be used to attack while it flies."
Johan cleared his throat; he knew that he had been doing a lot of touring and explanation.
"Well." He smiled, "That's enough technical babble for now. I'll show you four to your rooms."
"I agree." Millie said sweetly, "You've been talking an awful lot."
Johan stepped close to Millie though he was close enough to Vash to hear this, "Am I getting through to this woman?" He asked himself
Millie had a smile that stretched from ear to ear, "I'm kind of sleepy right now could you show us to our rooms."
"I really am not getting through to her." He shook his head, "Walk this way."
He led them away from the stench of oil, welded metal and sweat back into the "fresh air" of the hallways and lead them to their rooms. Even though they were shown their separate rooms they began to collect in one room, which happened to be Vash's room.
q
Johan had left them to go do whatever he was working on while he waited to arrive at Colony X-18999.
Back at Vash's room the Peace Guns were talking amongst themselves.
"This is an unusual place." Meryl commented, "It's strange though, I feel as though I'm at home here."
"Me too." Vash smiled, "Though it still bugs me that kids that young could be taking on jobs this dangerous and deadly."
"My feelings too Vash." Wolfwood added, "I've dedicated my life so that other children wouldn't have to grow up to be like me. Now I find that in a different world there are kids who are younger and deadlier than the minions of Knives!"
He shouted and pounded his fist on the table.
"Calm down Wolfwood." Millie ordered, "What's done is done. Like Mr. Rodriguez said, this is the only way they know how to live. We can't change that."
"I know." Wolfwood moaned, "But how can they just accept this so easily?"
"Perhaps." Vash supposed, "They're happy this way and we just don't see that."
To be continued…
Author's Notes: Here is where I wanted to have that interaction between the Peace Guns and the Gundam Pilots. However this chapter is mostly explanations on different topics. Such as Vash telling his story about his life on the planet Gunsmoke and Johan telling about the Gundams and their abilities. But the thing that I really liked about this chapter as at the end when the Peace Guns still see the Gundams as boys who live the lives of soldiers, but then Vash realizes that they must be happy the way that they are. Another part that I liked is the nickname that I came up with for Wolfwood since the rest of the main characters already have gunslinger-like names I had to think of one for Wolfwood and I came up with Undertaker.
Come back soon for more chapters of Trigundam…