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 11: The Return
q
"Your choice is simply." Johan stated, "Give this up, join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face death. I am waiting for your answer."
"I kill the spiders to save the butterflies." Knives refuted
"But," Johan counter stated, "if you kill all the spiders then there would be pests and killers that would make the spiders seem unimportant."
Knives mouth was dropped open onto his chest with the feeling of his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. He couldn't fight, his mind tricks won't work on this Gundam pilot, and his gun is probably somewhere in this sandbox but not in his hand. He felt frustrated on the inside, that he had lost again.
To their side the Peace Guns and the Gundams were dashing their way to this execution site.
"Johan!" They called, "Johan!"
We're they calling to stop Johan from pulling the trigger? Or were they coming to see if their fellow Gundam was alive. They ran across the desert like a pack of stampeding cattle with Heero and Vash in the lead. It was odd to see Heero this concerned about his fellow pilot but he was the one who pulled the trigger for the buster rifle.
"Wait!" Vash screamed nearly tripping on his red duster, "What are you doing?" He called to Johan who was pointing his Outsider at Knives.
They finally caught up to Johan, Vash was nearly out of breath but he wanted to know what was going on. As he bent over panting, the other Peace Guns and Gundams arrived.
"What are you doing Johan?" Duo asked
"I'm giving our fugitive a choice." Johan stated
"Is this your excuse for killing!?" Vash asked still panting, "He deserves a chance!"
"I know that, Vash." Johan stated, "That's why I'm giving him the choice."
Johan never budged he kept his ground, never turning his head and still pointing his Outsider at Knives. Then something within him told him to try something else. Johan holstered his gun and held out his hand to Knives.
"You've been fighting this war too long, Knives." Johan said soothingly, "I think it's time to stop, don't you? There's an old saying, if you can't beat them, join them. So come on, let's be in peace."
Knives kept his sights on Johan; he never looked over to Vash when he dashed up to meet this Gundam. He swallowed whatever mucus was in his throat from all the fighting that he did and whatever madness that cockpit was doing to him. He could still feel the mind warping effects of the Zero System. Knives exhaled and thought about all those times that have past. The crashing of Project Seeds, the 15 years in the desert with Vash, the next 80 years that Knives spent on his own until he came to the city of July and there it happened, the light that took the city of July. After that Knives spent the next 20 years plotting revenge with the Gung-Ho Guns as the pawns, then the final gunfight in the middle of the desert, and now this.
"It is hopeless, isn't it?" Knives thought, as he reached out his hand to Johan's. They met each other and Johan pulled Knives up to his feet.
"We'll live in peace." Johan shook Knives hand as if meeting him for the first time.
"Agreed." Knives smiled
"That's right, Knives." Vash smiled, "After all, this land is made of… love and peace!" Vash held up his hand to the sky with his index and his middle finger crossed.
Knives smiled and so did Johan.
"Love and peace." Vash repeated, "Love and peace."
"Love and peace." Johan agreed as he raised his hand in a peace sign up to the sky
"Love and peace." Knives smiled
"Love and peace." Wolfwood followed raising his fist to the sky
"Love and peace." Quatre soon followed, and then Trowa, Duo, Heero, Wufei, and Milliardo. Soon all of the Gundams, the Peace Guns and Knives joined in the procession of love and peace. Except for Millie and Meryl.
"What the hell are they doing?" She asked with her jaw dropped
"Meryl." Millie called
Meryl looked and saw Millie had brought along Meryl's typewriter.
"You have to write up a report of what's happened." Milled instructed
Meryl sat down on the ground while the procession of "love and peace" kept going on in the background. She began to type up her company report.
"July, company report." She spoke out as she typed slowly, "After being with Vash the Stampede for a number of weeks now we have come into contact with the real man whose responsible for several events that were thought to be the cause of Vash the Stampede. His name is Millions Knives. After taking care of Knives he had run away and we found him in what appeared to be another kind of universe. I know that there are some at the Bernardelli Insurance Society who would read this report and not believe me, but it's true. We've come into contact with a group of very special boys who call themselves the…"
She paused in hesitation, "Who call themselves the…"
"Love and Peace." The Peace Guns and Gundams continued
"This can't be happening!" Meryl screamed grabbing the sides of her head, "I can't stand anymore!"
"Now everybody, join along!" Vash called,
"LOVE AND PEACE!" The Gundams and Peace Guns called out to the sky
q
Vash the Stampede rose his glass of whiskey above his head.
"Here's to the Gundams who saved the colonists." He cheered, "Here's mud in your eye!"
After the cheer in Death Valley it was later discovered that the citizens of colony X-18999 were hidden within mobile suit bays and crawling tubes of the colony. Thanks to scanning jammers that Knives possessed he cloaked their heat signatures from Peace Million and Preventer. After Knives gave himself up he told the location of the citizens.
It was decided that knives would return to his universe and serve out a sentence of aiding Vash in making the planet Gunsmoke a more habitable world.
Knives agreed to this, though he didn't consider it a sentence, he felt that this was fulfilling his promise that he and Vash made to Rem Saverem. TO create an Eden where there is no killing, and no need for stealing. Now with the help of the Gundams that vision won't seem so far away.
For now it was time to celebrate, now it seems customary at the office of Preventer to have a party for those who visit from another universe. It does make sense though, who knows when they'll see the Peace Guns again. So, why not have a party?
Vash looked out at all the drinking and conversing between the Gundams, The Peace Guns, The Desbats and the Maquinates. He danced around with the whiskey glass in his hand and laughed like a jackass on laughing gas.
Among this collaboration, Johan got an idea.
"Everyone!" He called
A few moments later he caught the attention of everyone in the room. They looked at Johan as if he was going to announce an engagement.
"I have an idea for a piece of entertainment." Johan announced
"You have a stripper?" Vash called in his semi-drunken state
There was an uproarious laugh from the crowd.
"No." Johan answered, "My wife only does that for me."
Another set of laughs from the audience.
"What we're going to do." Johan began, "Is Duo and I are going to do Comedy Improve Theater. So Duo could you come out here?"
Johan stood on the fake wooden dance floor where the crowd began to gather around it's edges where the wood meets the metal floor. In this crowd Duo began to push his way through while saying "excuse me" on the way through.
"The first game we're going to play," Johan announced, "Is called Two Lines, Duo has written two lines for me and I wrote two lines for him. We don't know what we've written for each other and we'll do a scene using these two lines into it."
Johan set his drink down on upon a small table behind him and so did Duo. The Two Gundams reached into their pockets and pulled out two folded pieces of paper. They never opened them as they exchanged them.
"The scene that we'll do." Johan instructed to the Duo while at the same time explaining to the audience, "I'm a washed up airline pilot and you, Duo, are a passenger trying to persuade me to fly the plane and land it."
"Alright." Duo smiled
The scene began
"Are you finished in that bathroom?" Duo asked demandingly
"Yeah." Johan moaned
"Well get in the damn cockpit, you've got to fly this plane!" He pointed his finger at Johan as he demanded this.
"I can't!" Johan moaned louder looking down at his shoes, "I learned me lesson in Nam! They yelled at me everyday in Vietnamese. Ding dai Yon Dai Die!"
"What the hell does that mean?" Duo threw up his arms.
"It means," Johan opened the piece of paper that Duo gave him and read the first line that Duo wrote, "On your knees and bark like a dog!" Johan screamed as he closed his eyes and began to bark senselessly.
The crowd began to applaud and laugh at the same time, even Knives who didn't know how long it had been since he laughed last.
Duo grabbed Johan by the shoulders, "Calm down!" he shouted
Johan continued to bark while the crowd laughed
"Calm down!" Duo shouted
Johan stopped barking.
"I told you not to vacation in Nam." Duo stated as he let go of Johan's shoulders
Johan placed his hand on Duo's shoulder as if for physical or moral support. He looked at him in the face.
"Look." He said trying to think of something to go along with Duo's line, "I like skiing and it seemed like the place to go."
The crowd continued to laugh.
"No." Duo stated
"I'll fly this plane my friend and I'll bring it down."
Johan crouched down and placed his hands in mid air as if he was holding onto an airplane wheel. He turned the controls as Duo began his part.
"Remember the instructions of our flight instructor?" Duo asked
Johan continued to turn the non-existent wheel, "Yeah," He answered, "Number one grab the wheel. What was number 2?"
Duo opened his piece of paper, "Number 2 is," He looked at the first line, "You must have sex with her or she'll die!"
The crowd roared with laughter.
"That's not it!" Johan shouted still holding onto the 'wheel'
"Yeah." Duo agreed with a smile, "But it made an interesting class."
The crowd cheered as if they were wishing that they would be in a class like that.
Johan turned his head towards Duo, "There's no time to think about that!" He shouted, "We've got people to save!"
"You're right!" Duo agreed as he took control of a non-existent wheel.
"Take the wheel!" Johan cried, "Take the wheel!"
Duo looked at him in confusion, "I can't take the wheel, I only play an airplane pilot on a crappy reality show, like Big Brother."
It sounded phony but the point of improve theater was to make things phony and funny.
Johan's face became hysterically mournful, "My father died flying a plane," He cried. "I sat there at his death bed and I remember he looked at me in the face and said," Johan looked at the last line on his piece of paper, "Cover me in oil and let the games begin!"
The audience went absolutely "bananas".
Duo's face scrunched together with disgust.
"He lost it Duo," Johan cried, "Just like I am now!"
He shoved the imaginary controls forward and made a noise like a plane going down to the ground to crash. Both he and Duo were leaning forward as if the whole plane was going down at its crashing angel.
"We're going down!" Johan screamed
"Pull up!" Duo shouted
"Din mai an ai! Woof! Woof!"
Duo reached over and pulled Johan back into his sitting up crouched position.
"Thanks Duo." Johan thanked calmly, "Now, we're down safely. I didn't think I had the guts."
The two let go of their "controls" and stood up looking out at the audience.
"Of course you had the guts." Duo said to Johan, "I knew it when you came to flight school. I looked at you in that damn class and thought to myself, " he looked at the last line on his paper, "Help me Jon, I'm shrinking."
The audience laughed and began to applaud to their performers Duo and Johan.
"The next game we'll play is called Hats." Johan explained as he went under the table behind him and brought out two boxes, one in each hand and set them apart. One on one side of the dance floor and one of the other.
"The object of this game is to put one hat on and give the impression of the worlds worst dating agency video."
Johan went to one box, while Duo went to the other.
"I'll go first." Johan volunteered as he placed on his hat and came out in front of the audience. He had on a blue old-fashioned sleeping cap with a tassel.
"You will go on a date with me." Johan stated, "No, you don't understand." He grabbed the tassel and swung it from left to right like a pendulum, "You will go out with me."
Next Duo came out with a foam rubber snake mask, "I'm a young republican." He shrugged, "I enjoy golf and prayer."
The audience laughed and cheered with joy.
Johan came out with a pair of fly eye goggles, he held his hands together like a fly, "Help me." He cried in a high-pitched voice, "Help me."
Next, Duo came out with a fake bullet belt around his neck, "I promise you I won't be shootin' blanks." He said confidently
Johan changed hats to a gray dirty fedora and walked in front of the audience and spoke in a thick Brooklyn accent, "So, like you wanna go on a date or what? What tha matter you stupid bitch! You don't speak English?"
Duo walked out wearing a Pilgrims hat and said, "You'll be giving thanks all year round."
Johan then walked out with a boisterous green and purple jockey style hat, "My daddy was a jockey and he taught me to ride." Johan smiled, "He said, Johan you've got to go from side to side."
Duo stood in front of the audience with a hat that made the audience laugh without him saying a word, it was a hat that was like a flower that fit around his face with his face as the center.
"Are you the one who can pollinate me?" He smiled
Johan came out wearing a long hair wig that was braided on the left and right sides of the head. A native American style.
"Hello." Johan said with a straight face, "I am Hung Like Snake."
Duo came out with the last hat of his box, which was a red plastic horses head, he placed over his head and called out to the audience, "Guess what I'm hung like."
Last of all, Johan came out with the last hat of his box, which was a ridiculous rainbow colored clowns wig.
Johan smiled and said, "Hi, I'm that idiot that you've seen at many American sporting events."
Johan took off the wig and bowed to the audience and so did Duo with his ponytail hanging like a piece of string.
All that was heard was the hubbub of noise, clapping, and cheering for the Gundam comedians.
q
The Gundam and the Peace Guns stood at the tear saying their good-byes. The one that was the most tearful of all was between the well-recovered Dominique the Cyclops and Id the Lion.
"Can't you stay here?" Id pleaded
Dominique shook her head, "No," She said, "I'm sorry, Id. I simply don't belong in this place. There's too much here that I don't understand, I need to be where I know what is what. I am sorry love."
She reached up to stroke Id's face, "It simply wasn't meant to be."
The two embraced each other wishing that they couldn't leave each other.
Suddenly those around them heard something odd, they heard crying. Though it wasn't from anyone among the Gundams, it was Vash.
All eyes were on Vash, he was definitely crying.
Johan and Meryl were standing shoulder to shoulder, he leaned in and asked, "Does he do this often."
Meryl shrugged, "Afraid so."
"It's just so sad." Vash cried
"Hey," Johan called, "Cheer up Vash. As we promised we'll help you make your planet more habitable with these."
Howard came forward towards Vash who stood in front of the tear, he pushed a trolley that had five metallic blocks stacked upon one another.
"These," Johan explained, "Will pump different kinds of gasses into the atmosphere making the planet warmer at the center and cooler at the poles. Thus making the place more like Earth, no matter what the distance is from the sun."
"Thank you." Vash dried his tears and smiled
"There's a manual in with these blocks as well. The thing you have to remember is that you have to place them in certain areas. The manual will tell you where. Also here's a couple of things from us, the Gundams to you."
Johan reached into his gray trench coat pocket and pulled out a small 3 by 5 card. He handed it to Vash.
"This is a special recipe for a very special kind of doughnut. Just give it to any baker and you'll have one hell of a treat. And this." He reached into his pocket again and pulled out a CD case, "This is my own selection of songs that I think you'll like very much."
He handed the CD to Vash who smiled and said, "I'll never forget your kindness."
"I won't forget any of you either."
"Take this, in return." Vash stated as he took off his red coat, revealing the brown leather skintight jumpsuit underneath. He handed the coat to Johan.
"Keep this coat in remembrance of the Peace Guns."
"Thank you Vash."
"Well." Vash smiled, "It's been fun."
He walked behind and took the trolley, turning towards the tear with the Peace Guns behind him he walked through and soon the others followed.
"Thank you for everything." Meryl smiled
Millie smiled and waved to the Gundams, she couldn't think of anything to say.
Neither could Knives or Dominique, at least at the moment. They didn't go through the tear, the next one to go through was Wolfwood.
"Good bye Duo." Wolfwood waved, "May you go with God my friend." He stepped through the tear back into the old hotel room.
"Thank you." Knives smiled as he and Dominique the Cyclops walked through the tear
As the last of the Peace Guns went through the tear, the opening between the two worlds closed shut, possibly never to be opened again.
q
Vash the Stampede stood on the hill where the plant stood in the town known as "Inepral City". The very same city where all the residence tried to kill him for the 60 billion double dollar reward, except this time he was here looking at the "block" that was given to him by the Gundams. This was simply a routine check, it had nearly been three years since that time that he and the Peace Guns went to that universe to bring Knives back. In that time the two cities that were accidentally destroyed by Vash the Stampede were rebuilt. It had been explained to the marshals that Vash and Knives were equally responsible for those two cities. So as part of their "sentence" the two were to aid in rebuilding the two cities, though they weren't supposed to do the construction work, they were asked to build new plants (power plants to be exact) for each city). Now in the three years that has passed the two cities were beginning to grow expeditiously.
Vash also explained that he obtained some technology to make a more stable environment for those living on this planet. He explained this to the marshals as well as the plant engineers. One of them was the boy named "Kite", who once aided Vash on one of his trips. He had asked him the same question.
"Where did you get these blocks?" He asked, "Where did you get this lost technology?"
Vash simply smiled and said, "I'd tell you, but I don't think you'd believe me."
As for Wolfwood, when he came back he decided to take in kids at the town they were in and train a few of them as priests in his own gospel. The gospel was the very same teachings of both Jesus and Rem, which was to love those around you, and to not steal, cheat, lie. Be kind to your fellow man, treat others as you would like to be treated. Once this was done he asked his student to go to a different city to start an orphanage. Wolfwood did this for a while until he received word that there were orphanages around the world. So now what Wolfwood decided to do was to travel with Vash and visit each orphanage while Vash checked the "blocks" and plants in each city.
The block looked all right from Vash's point of view. The box itself was connected to the plant and left outside as the manual described. Nothing appeared to be wrong with it, he got up and stretched his legs and looked around Inepral City. He looked at the lush green grass that surrounded the city, the babbling stream that ran past it. The blue sky, the white clouds, the trees in the distance that looked like tiny toothpicks with branches and the sand colored buildings.
"The sky is really blue today Rem." Vash whispered to the sky, "Knives and I kept our promise, we've made this place into an Eden, but I'm not sure how happy the people are."
At first the people of this planet didn't want to believe Vash when he wanted to clear his name, but a lot has happened in three years. Now Vash the Stampede wasn't a name of fear, not only was the 60 billion double dollar reward dropped but also his name is now a name of peace. Vash and Knives were now, for lack of a better word, saviors for the people of Gunsmoke. The two not only help fix plants (for a very low price) but they also teach others to fix the plants and make sure that the "blocks" are working properly.
"Vash!" Meryl called from the bottom of the hill
He didn't hear Meryl at first because of the earphones he had on.
Vash looked down at Meryl, "Hi!" He called
"When are you coming down from there? You've been up there for the past hour."
"Sorry, Meryl. I'm coming down."
Vash sat down and slid down the hill above the grass as if it was snow. He came down with his feet meeting Meryl. He looked up at her sweet face that was about to scold him but she simply smiled at him.
"What were you doing up there all this time?" She asked with her hands at her sides.
"I was just thinking about those boys we met a few years ago." Vash smiled
"You mean the Gundams?" Meryl asked, "That was three, nearly four years ago."
"I know, but their memory remains with me."
"Well," Meryl smiled, "It's nearly lunch time, let's go to the Imepral orphanage, Knives, Wolfwood, and Millie are waiting for us."
"Alright." Vash smiled
He kept looking around him and thinking about all the wonderful things that have happened after nearly a lifetime of hell for Vash and now he could live in peace at long last. Vash felt like getting down on his knees and thanking God for all this that has happened, but he continued walking with Meryl down the grassy hill to Inepral city listening to the music in his ears as he reached down to turn up the volume.
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No Hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no country
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one.
End…?
Author's Notes: I wanted to make this story a good happy ending with a farewell for the Peace Guns as well as some entertainment. Though I got the ideas for those funny parts with Duo and Johan from the popular show on Comedy Central and ABC, Whose Line is it Anyway? But I wanted the story to end with Vash and Knives fulfilling their promise to make the planet of Gunsmoke into a livable place where people can live in harmony. Not only that but I felt that the bounty on Vash's head should be taken off since all those events weren't' exactly his fault. But now that this story is over, who knows what will come over the horizon.
Come back soon for the next exciting adventure from the files of Preventer…
Gundam Wing & Neon Genesis Evangelion: Evangundam