Chapter Seven: Stories and Confessions
Grant watched the figure on the bed like a hawk, nervously fingering his gun while he was at it.
"Grant, it's all right. I think he will remain unconscious for a little while longer. His body must still get over the shock of losing a limb in such a violent manner." Orchid said, as she gently placed a hand on the child's tense shoulder.
"I know, but the arm didn't even belong to him!" Grant objected, as Orchid went to the bedside and looked down.
"Yet, it was attached to him. Legato is a normal human again, and feels pain. And the pain he felt when he lost that arm was too much for him." Orchid said, as she placed a hand on the unconscious man's forehead. She drew back in surprise when Legato's eyes slowly opened and he looked up at her, his eyes glazed with pain.
"Who are you………………..?" Legato asked, his voice barely even audible.
"My name is Orchid. I was with Vash and the others the day you came into LR Town, remember?" Orchid asked. It took a moment for Legato's mind to clear and remember that day.
"Yes…………..I do remember you…………..weren't you standing with Zazie and those other two women?" Legato asked. Orchid nodded.
"I was, but Zazie goes by the name of Peter, now. I exorcised the demon from him." Orchid said, gently.
"You're like Knives-sama and Vash the Stampede, aren't you?" Legato asked, his voice still very soft.
"I am. And yet I am like everyone else." Orchid said, with a kind smile. Legato merely blinked in confusion, then looked when Meryl opened the door and entered the room, carrying fresh bandages in her arms.
"Is he awake?" Meryl asked.
"Yes. He woke up just a few minutes ago." Orchid said, as Meryl looked down at him, quietly. Legato gazed calmly back, then looked at Grant. The boy glared fearlessly back at him, crossing his arms as though to say 'you don't scare me!'.
"Your son is quite the brave one; assuming a bodyguard position for someone when he is so young." Legato murmured, wincing slightly when the two women helped him sit up.
"He takes after his father. His brother does too, for that matter." Meryl said, as she undid the bandages and looked at the stitches the doctor had placed in the shoulder.
"I am inclined to agree with you on that." Legato said, flinching when Meryl dabbed at the stitches with an alcohol-soaked washrag.
"So, what're you going to do when your arm is fully healed?" Meryl asked, as she started wrapping fresh bandages around the wounded appendage.
"I don't know. A one-armed assassin wouldn't live long on this world, and farming would be impossible, since it takes both hands to operate the necessary machinery." Legato said, sounding a little at a loss for what to do now.
"You could try running a general store. It takes only one arm to operate a cash register." Orchid suggested. Legato gave her an unreadable look.
"It would take two hands to stock the shelves. I'm afraid that wouldn't work, either." Legato said, with an exasperated sigh.
"Or, when we can trust you enough, we can get you an arm to replace the one you've lost." Lee, who had come in unawares, said, startling all in the room, including Legato.
"Well, now, for someone who wanted to take me apart yesterday, you seem benevolent today." Legato said, dryly.
"Actually, it's been ten days since then." Grant said, referring only in part to what had transpired on the hill above LR Town.
"Ten days? And there hasn't been anyone to look for me during that time? Strange." Legato murmured, his golden eyes taking on a distant look.
"Why do you say that? Are there more Gung-Ho Guns out there?" Meryl asked, as she finished bandaging and looked the former assassin in the eye.
"There are, but it'll take them awhile to regroup. They now consider themselves to be without a leader, and a new one could emerge in this time. It would probably mean my life if it were to be revealed that, though maimed, I am still alive." Legato said, calmly, though Meryl could tell that it troubled him greatly.
"Do you actually value your own life, now, Legato?" Wolfwood asked, as he and Vash entered the room, dressed as normal civilians, and not in their usual garb.
"What do you think, Nicholas? For the first time since that arm was attached, I am able to think for myself." Legato replied, his expression never changing, even as he spoke to his one-time enemy.
"Mr. Legato, how did Knives attach that arm to you? Why did he do it?" Grant asked, curiously.
"Do you really want to know? It's a rather unbelievable tale." Legato said, looking a little surprised when all around him leaned in to hear the story (including a just arrived Milly).
"Please, tell us. I'm rather interested in what made you into the cold bastard you were ten days ago." Wolfwood said, with a hint of challenge in his voice. Legato rolled his eyes and took a deep breath, wincing slightly when that action caused a twinge of pain in his shoulder.
"My tale begins twenty-five years ago…………….."
Flashback
Legato looked up when he heard the groans of two Thomases close by. He smiled when he saw a young woman and a little boy get off of one, and saw a younger man get off of the other.
"Leggy! How're you doing?! It's been so long since we last saw you!" the woman said, as she joyfully hugged Legato's neck.
"Good to see you too, Sis. How are you doing?" Legato said, laughing as the little boy ran over to him, arms outstretched as he did so.
"I'm well! Have you heard about July? It was awful!" the woman said, as the younger man strode up, his broad, honest face glistening with sweat and red from the sun.
"Yes. How are the people handling it? I'd heard that there were some casualties." Legato said, with some concern in his voice.
"Yeah. They said some outlaw going by the name of 'Vash the Stampede' destroyed the entire town with one blast. Bernadelli is having a fit!" the man said, with a shake of his head.
"I'd believe it. So, Miranda, Luke, where are you heading? There isn't much out here anymore." Legato said, as he motioned to the dilapidated town near them.
"We just wanted to visit you for a while, Uncle Legato!" the boy chirped, earning himself a chuckle from the golden-eyed man for a response.
"Is that so, Michael? Well, I suppose I should leave off from my work here and get you all settled in. Come on." Legato said, as he led them to the only house that was in good shape.
"Legato, how is it that you can manage living alone all the way out here?" Luke asked, as they walked into the house, surprised that it was actually cooler inside than out.
"If you're talking about my handicap, I will be honest with you and say that it hasn't been easy." Legato said, as he reached up and gingerly touched what remained of his left arm.
"Mother's been worried about you, Leggy. Ever since you had that accident, you've been a little more distant than usual." Miranda said, with concern in her eyes.
"Don't worry about me. I can manage. It's just taking me a while to adjust, that's all." Legato commented, as he set about fixing the evening meal, surprising them with his kitchen prowess.
The next day, Legato left for the field, to see if there was anything he could salvage from his garden. To his surprise, there were several rows of corn, and a few other vegetables that were somehow clinging to life, despite the desert heat. Then he remembered his mother marveling at this same phenomenon when he was younger.
"She had always said that there was something about me that made the garden plants continue to grow despite the lack of water and the heat. I wonder what she'd meant by that?" Legato mused, as he started walking back to the house. His face paled when he saw smoke rising from it, and started running when he heard gunshots. He got there just as a band of outlaws were preparing to leave.
"Who the hell are you?! Why have you done this?!" Legato asked, and was answered by a gunshot. He gasped when he felt searing pain in his chest, and could hear the outlaws' cruel laughter as they rode away from the burning farmhouse.
"Humans are such vile and cruel creatures, aren't they?" a voice asked, in the back of Legato's mind.
"Who's there? Who are you?" Legato replied, coughing as his lungs filled with blood, forcing him to cough violently in order to clear them.
"Who I am, you will know in time, Legato." The voice replied, coolly, as a brief mental image appeared before Legato's pain-filled eyes.
"What do you want from me? I can sense that you are a superior being, but what would you want with me?" Legato asked, tears forming in his eyes when he saw his house finally collapse; burying the remains of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew within it.
"I need an ally, Legato. I am choosing you because of what you are." The voice said.
"What I am? I'm human, the same species that has just destroyed three innocent people." Legato said, as he turned a hate-filled gaze onto the retreating outlaws.
"You are more than human, Legato. Destroy that pestilence! Destroy the ones who have caused you pain! You have the power to do so!" the voice said, audibly this time, as something attached itself to the stump of Legato's left arm. Legato let out a cry of intense pain as a burning connection seared itself into him, forcing him to clench his fists in agony. Fists? Legato looked down in shock to see a new arm attached to his body. The skin was paler than his own, but, when he flexed the arm, it worked perfectly.
"It is as I thought. Your Plant blood is stronger than your human blood, and that made it easier to attach his arm to you. Now, destroy those vermin." The owner of the voice snarled, before collapsing beside Legato. With hatred boiling in his veins, Legato fixed his golden gaze onto the outlaws and concentrated. Mentally, he twisted the outlaws into grotesque shapes, before finally snapping their backs or necks, or twisting the bodies apart, listening with sick pleasure to the spraying of blood on the sand.
"Very good, Legato. You're learning. Your true mother's blood is flowing strongly through you. Now, carry me to the place I show you. Then, I will give you your first orders." The voice ordered, coldly.
"Yes, master." Legato murmured, as all emotion draining from his voice and eyes as he said that. With much effort, Legato forced himself to his feet, picked up the unconscious man beside him, and carried him away; disappearing from view into the desert.
End Flashback
"………..And the rest, as they say, is history. I followed his orders from that time till ten days ago, blindly, forgetting why I had joined him in the first place." Legato murmured.
"So you're like the twins. Did you have a brother, Legato?" Vash asked. Legato shrugged (as well as he could, anyway, considering he only had one arm and it was injured).
"I don't know. The Plant-walker who bore me left only me on the doorstep of the family known as Bluesummers that long ago night. I didn't even find out about my Plant half until Knives-sa………………Knives told me about it." Legato said, catching and preventing himself from calling Vash's brother his master.
"But Orchid, you'd said that he was human." Grant whispered.
"I meant that he was human in the sense that he has his emotions again." Orchid amended, smiling when Lee looked up at Legato with curiosity in his eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Legato asked, returning Lee's look with one of confusion.
"I'm tryin' to figure out what your twin would look like………………if you have one." Lee replied, as he continued to gaze at the former assassin.
"One Legato is enough. This world doesn't deserve to be tortured by two." Wolfwood muttered, getting a rather dirty look from Legato as a response.
"Oh boy, I have the feeling those two are not going to get along." Meryl muttered, as she and Milly watched the two dark-haired men glare daggers into one another (of which Wolfwood was surprised that he wasn't twisted in half by now).
"Mr. Legato, are you hungry? I could fix you something, if you want." Milly suggested, trying to break the men's concentration (and their staring contest). She was answered by a loud growl from Legato's stomach.
"I'll take that as a yes." Milly said, with her usual smile.
"That was embarrassing." Legato muttered, getting snickers from a few in the room while he averted his face, trying to hide the fact that he was embarrassed. That moment seemed to break the ice, and in moments, Grant, Lee, and Peter were chatting comfortably with the former assassin while he played a game of cards with Vash, Meryl, and Wolfwood (Orchid and Milly were preparing dinner).
"You're cheating." Wolfwood grumbled, as Legato set down another set of three matching cards.
"How could I be cheating, Nicholas? I'm not the one who has three out of four aces hidden in his shirtsleeves." Legato replied, languidly, smirking when the priest gave him a flustered look.
"Do you really have those aces in your sleeves, Wolfwood?" Vash asked, looking just a tad perturbed.
"No! I do not!" Wolfwood declared, but went pale when the three cards fell out of his right shirtsleeve.
"Right…………………Tell us another one, Nicholas." Legato said, his golden eyes glinting with amusement, while the twins laughed at the rather miffed expressions that were being exchanged between Wolfwood, Vash, and Meryl. Peter merely shook his head.
"And adults call us immature!" Peter murmured, as the adults continued their game, despite a few mumbled curses from Wolfwood for getting caught cheating.
Author's Note!
I realize that this chapter is shorter than others have been, and that the twins didn't feature very prominently in this chapter. Stay tuned for the next chapter, though!
Gemini