Chapter Twenty-seven: Hysteria
Milly's fingers fumbled.
Hurry, hurry!!
She told herself as she finally managed to load a round of shots into her stungun, the awful screaming inside the room resonating on the walls unpleasantly.
I'm coming, Wolfwood-san!
Slinging the stungun easily over one shoulder, she hitched up the Cross Punisher with the opposite arm and ran, stumbling slightly in her haste towards the metal hall, and entered just in time to see Rederine punching the professor. Her eyes widened in horror as she glimpsed his amber eyes. The fire was flaring in them again, and she thought she saw something uncontrollably mad somewhere in his face...!
She looked up, taking a breath, and her eyes met Wolfwood's. He was on a knee and ready to jump, and he gave a quick nod. That was all he had to do; Milly had only one more round of shots in her stungun, and she knew he didn't want her involved anymore. His grey eyes implored her to stay put - but just do one more thing before she did.
Wolfwood jumped.
Milly passed the cross to Vash, who looked startled as he accepted it, and pointed the end of her stungun upwards. It took a glance for Vash to get the message, and sticking his foot underneath the end of the huge cross, he thrust it into the air with a powerful kick and push with his hands.
BANG.
The first shot echoed loudly as Milly pressed the trigger, the shot shooting into the center of the cross and propelling it further, higher.
BANG. BANG.
Shots slammed into the cross, metal clanging loudly with metal, and with Milly's final shot, the last BANG let the Cross Punisher fall right into the waiting arms of the priest. Catching it in mid-air he flipped round and fell nimbly onto his feet, his arm hooked into the weapon, when he caught the stricken, panicked look in Vash's eyes before he saw Rederine's finger on the trigger, his eyes coldly and relentlessly boring into the professor's bulging, veiny eyes.
Hoping to dear God, Wolfwood aimed his machine-gun at the gap between the throat of the professor and the barrel of the black gun in Rederine's fingers, and timing with precision only years of experience could give him, he pulled his own trigger.
There was an explosive noise that rang as both guns went off, one bullet streaming towards the professor's wrinkled throat with another shooting forward to intercept it. The bullet ricocheted against the other with a metallic scrape, and they embedded themselves opposite sides of the professor's knees.
Thank God again.
A swift curse escaping under his breath, Rederine's eyes glared bright amber at Wolfwood, but his cool grey eyes ignored the abnormal amount of anger as he shoved himself between the faltering professor and Rederine.
"Let him go."
He said firmly. Rederine's lips twitched as he stared at the priest, his hand on the gun lowered. His eyes were still dangerously bright, and the professor cowered behind Wolfwood and let out a low whimper.
Vash's eyes darted towards the unretrievable guns on the floor, far away from him, and battled with himself whether he should get the guns and risk being shot by the red-head or not. It was obvious that Rederine's strange, maniacal behaviour was because of that weird frequency machine, and Vash knew it wasn't time to talk it out with words.
Milly had no more rounds left, and simply held her stungun in her hands, looking with slight confusion and great concern at the priest and the red-head. She noticed Wolfwood still had his cigarette in his mouth.
Rederine then tossed the gun in his hand down, the black metal clattering loudly against the floor, and threw his head back as he began to laugh. Wolfwood kept his guard up, his bewilderment not overtaking the sense of uncertainty that filled him as the red-head laughed loud and hard, taking in deep breaths as he ran his hands through his red hair, the copper streak in it reflecting the red light oddly.
"This is hilarious."
Rederine's voice was unnaturally high before he began to laugh again with a twinge of hysteria. Vash and Milly watched Rederine with expressions of doubt and worry as he laughed and laughed, echoing disturbingly around the walls.
Rederine had nearly killed the priest standing before him, and yet even he was trying to stop him from doing anything wrong. Why were they all trying to protect him from being corrupt? Why, when he had hurt them so deeply?
I don't get it!
His fingers gripped his hair as he pressed his palms onto his eyes, tears slipping past his hands to stream past his jaw. His laughing was now choking up, turning into strange, kept-in sobs. His laughter had surprised Vash and Wolfwood, but they were still aware enough to feel his tension and aura building up to an unrecognisably high point. They exchanged looks of panic, but before they could say anything, Rederine's voice cut them off as he screamed, his fingers digging into his scalp:
"ENOUGH!!!!"
A ripple of pure energy from Rederine lapped over the professor, Wolfwood, Vash and Milly before a huge shockwave of power exploded onto them, power so strong winds ripped past their clothes in a flurry of colour. The plant side of Rederine revealed itself as his hands removed themselves from his eyes to show glowing orbs of amber, his hair lifting in winds that surrounded him from the energy he was emitting. His tears looked silver under the white light that was glinting off his skin and through his clothes, the red light in the room dark and dull compared to him.
Blinking the temporary blindness the sudden bright light seemed to cause him, Vash opened his mouth to desperately try to calm the man down..., when he found that he couldn't. His teeth were clamped together, still clenched tightly, and to his shock he realised his body couldn't move at all -- except for his right arm.
His angel arm.
The arm that was truly plant was the only part of his body that would move, other than his eyes. He could still breath through his teeth. As his eyes darted about he saw Wolfwood and Milly in the same situation as him; frozen in position, unable to move (well, except Vash's arm) or speak. The professor behind Wolfwood was still lying down. He turned his eyes to Rederine again, and saw him unsteadily standing.
"I knew it,"
Rederine whispered. His voice was punctuated with a strange droning hummmm in the background that was increasing in volume that seemed to come from Rederine himself. All eyes in the room stared at Rederine, shocked and confused.
"I knew it the whole bloody time."
As his voice grew louder, so did the droning. He gave a twisted smirk as he laughed bitterly.
"Imagine that. My own father... still alive and well, yet not alive and well. Look at that, Vash the Stampede. That human lying behind the priest is the father I speak of, the one trembling in fear at the monster he created from his very own son."
Vash's eyes widened as he stared at the wrinkling professor and the red-head. Hadn't Rederine said he had killed his father? Had he just said the professor was--
"There's no more blame on you,"
Rederine said, addressing Vash but his eyes trained on the whimpering professor,
"because you didn't kill him. I used to think that the man who consumed my old father to create the hard and cruel 'professor' was none other than the famous $$60,000,000,000 outlaw. But I was wrong, of course. I'm always wrong."
He let out another bitter laugh.
"It was my father who killed himself."
The professor's eyes didn't blink as they stared at the laughing red-head. Tears formed in his eyes and began to dribble past his chin, unknown to anyone.
"He let greed consume himself. I knew it the whole time, but I..."
Rederine began to shake uncontrollably as he rolled his fingers into his palms, balling them into tight fists.
"But I couldn't accept it. I didn't want to think about my father giving in to such an ugly thing. Greed."
His teeth knashed together so loudly it was heard by every person in the hall.
"I have to end it. I have to finish this all and end it forever."
He looked at all the people, frozen with him in this room, and gave a crooked smile that was stained with too many years of pain.
"It's wrong. I know it's wrong, dragging you all in with me. But... I started out wrong... so I might as well end wrong."
'He's not thinking...!?'
Vash wondered, stricken.
"None of you can move,"
Rederine said softly,
"and this laboratory will collapse in self-destruction in less than five minutes. Much less than that, so we don't have long to wait. Pray your last prayers."
[A/N: Sorry, I wrote a chunk so I had to separate it into two chapters. Bwah! >_^*]
