A/N Don't own Trigun. To explain this better, it's basically in between where Vash shot the moon, and the Rem Saverem episode. To tell you the truth...I didn't see those episode...^_^' Sorry if this is strange to you and if somewhere there he explained Rem, but I just thought this would be a good story to tell how he recollected Rem before his one battle with Knifes. IT WAS JUST SO SAD! How could something NOT happen to him to remember that much? Anyway, this is my first Trigun fic so please be nice. If, (for some reason), you just really can't stand it, there is that handy-dandy back button! BTW, this is gonna kinda sorta be short, but hopefully good. Okay, well, please review!

Heaven's Wake

Cold. Isolated. Dead.

Just your average desert town, right? Well, to him it was, but somehow it seemed...different. Sure it had your stone carved buildings, and hey, it a huge crater to the side of the town! (Of course, he scratched his head when he saw it, wondering what was with all the metal shrapnel everywhere). Good thing Meryl and Milly weren't there, or else they'd just be distressing on about what was the deal! He smiled at the thought, seeing it was the only thing of cheeriness around here. He wasn't doing so well, considering he'd been walking for days and hadn't eaten for many more. Maybe these townsfolk would be nice and open up at least one place to eat, (maybe a donut shop)! But as he thought about it and walked the empty streets, it became more and more unlikely.

The winds rolled in and just added to the sand in his hair, making him long even more for just a trough to stick his head in. He searched the area for any signs of life and didn't find any. The doors to a local bar squeaked in the breeze, the shutters to a few buildings slamming on the outside stone walls. One in particular caught his attention, though, where a lock of shiny black hair glistened in the bright sunlight, falling from the window. Laughing, he realized that this town probably wasn't abandoned as he first thought, and tried to get noticed from whoever it was up there.

"Hey, hello up there!" he smiled, waving a hand. He stopped, however, and his smile faded, hearing a shotgun being armed. Turning, what now confronted him from the deserted town before was a mob of scared yet angry people. Holding up both hands, he faced them, a serious expression now on his face.

"G-go away! Haven't y-you done enough?!" an older man with the shotgun said, an elderly woman clinging to his arm.

He looked in the corner of his eye and found that the curls of hair were gone, quickly gazing back. "May I ask what I've done?" he inquired, but knew for sure he'd never seen this town before.

"We've spent enough time burying our dead! Go back to wherever it is you came from!" someone shouted in the background, a large uproar following to turn that fear into rage.

But a small, unnoticeable voice came from it, a woman's cry silencing them.

"Kailah, no! Stop!" the woman shrieked as a little girl pressed forward, running out before anyone could catch her.

She couldn't have been anymore than eight, yet it surprised him to see the shape she was in, especially with such caring looking people. Her left arm was scarred from the end of her collarbone to the fingernail of her middle finger. On her left arm, she already had scars from something previous, but was now bleeding from open flesh wounds, appearing to be cut with a razor sharp knife. She came up to him with such a confused expression in her eyes, as if to pierce with her solid light blue eyes into his very soul. He smiled, and her face hardened, flipping around and holding both her arms out as if to protect him.

"No, Kailah, get away from him! He's dangerous!" the man exclaimed, lowering the weapon.

"But grandpa, he'd not bad! He's not him!" she protested. The little girl glanced looked over her shoulder, smiling. "You're Vash, right?"

He stared for a moment, baffled just by the fact that this young girl knew who he was and wasn't running for her life. (Boy, that was a shocker...) Nevertheless, he smiled back, taking a hand down and putting it on her head. "Yes I am. I take it you're Kairah?"

She nodded, twisting around taking his hand. Placing her other hand up to her mouth, she began to shout to someone apparently in the back.

"Aunt Vera! Can I bring a friend to dinner?!" she yelled, even though the place was dead silence that if a pin dropped you probably could hear it. She didn't even get an answer before she stared up at him. "Say, do you want to come to dinner with us?"

Vash gawked at the people as they did back to him, seeing them dumbfounded at the situation. He shrugged, not really knowing how to answer. Not wanting to intrude, he'd say no, but as his stomach growled he couldn't quite make up his mind.

"Well, I don't-" he tried to say, but was stopped when Kailah pulled him along, the villagers making way as terror flooded back into them.

For the little girl, however, she seemed ecstatic to have him around, showing him into the dining room and pulling out a chair for him. Waving a hand she said she'd be right back, rushing up the stairs to the side. He sat there in silence, feeling awkward when he noticed people staring at him from the window. The elderly woman walked in with a younger one to her side to the kitchen, the man from before following but going and closing the shutters to the outside. He sat in the chair across from him, putting the gun to his side.

"So, you're Vash the Stampede, are ya?" he questioned, and Vash nodded in responds. "You know, I've heard a lot of stories about you; how you bring trouble wherever you go."

"Yeah, that seems to be the case," he answered honestly.

The man looked up from where he had stared at his folded hand on the table, his eyes narrow as he spoke. "You don't seem like the guy who they described, though. I mean, you don't look like you'd blow up a city and have a sixty billion double dollar reward on your head!" He laughed all of the sudden, Vash lowering his head, but gazed up when the man stopped, a tiny hand squeezing his shoulder.

"Grandpa..."the little girl began, shaking her head. He paused for a moment, then nodding his head, shrugging as she took a seat next to Vash.

After another moment of silence and the younger woman coming in to take a seat, Vash smiled, trying to get a conversation started.

"So...you guy's a really generous for letting me into your home like this. Most people would run me out of town!" he laughed, but was interrupted when the woman spoke.

"Don't get us wrong, Mr. Vash, we're terrified of you. Any normal person would be."

His face was puzzled, raising one of his blonde eyebrows. "Then why don't you run me out of town?"

"Because you're not him!" Kailah spoke up. "I keep telling them that but they won't believe me!"

"Kailah, remember your temper," the woman said calmly.

"Tell them you're not him!" she shouted, slamming her fists on the table.

They gazed at her with surprise, Vash not quite sure what she was getting at. The elderly woman walked in with a steaming pot of stew and five bowls, the younger woman standing to help her dish it out. After everyone had a meal, including Vash, the younger woman went to Kailah, putting her hands on her shoulders.

"You see, Mr. Vash, you probably owe your very meal to this little girl here. If it weren't for her, we would've made you sprint out of town."

He smiled softly. "What did I do to deserve her trust, which I am very thankful for!"

"We don't know, for her mind is a mystery to us," the elderly woman said, taking a seat.

"Our little Kailah's...special..."

"Special? How come?" he asked.

No one bothered to speak, for his question was equal to their own. But Kailah, grinned, painted out with her metal spoon as she continued.

"Let's introduce everyone, 'kay? That's my grandma Murielle, my grandpa Vargus, and my Aunt Vera!" She leaned over into his ear to whisper, "They're actually nice once you get to know them."

"I'm sure they are," he whispered with a smirk.

"Kailah, it's not polite to whisper," Murielle said, and Kailah turned back to her precious meal, beginning to eat.

Vash looked at his meal, seeing that al it was composed of was a few carrots, water, and he could've sworn he saw a pea in there somewhere. As far as he could tell, these people didn't have much, yet were willing to spare some for him. Sure they were scared of him, but that didn't mean they wouldn't put up a fight, right? Something really bad must've happened here or...something to make them act the way they did.

After the quiet dinner was done, they kindly suggested he take a bath, seeing his hair and clothes were in shambles. They said there would be extra things to wear in the bathroom, so long as he left his original clothes out to be washed. The good thing was these people had running water, but surprised him just as much that they could have it and yet barely have enough for food.

In a few minutes he reentered the halls, the evening sun shining through the cracks of the wooden floors. He searched throughout the place to find that all but one door was locked, assuming that's where he could stay. Though he didn't ask about it, he figured that they probably wouldn't mind much. Besides, he was too beat to think about it. All he did was walk in, see that there was only a single bed with no blankets or pillows and just flopped down. It felt good to be in clean clothes, even if it wasn't his old stuff but just a baggy white shirt and brown pants. He remembered the past with the scars he saw on his arms as he lay there, although he tried not to recall much. His eyes sagged in sleepiness, the last thing he could think of was that he perhaps he should've asked before he dozed off into unconsciousness...

'There, see, all done!...You remind me...of someone I once knew...'

Vash's eyes opened with a beam of light reflecting off the walls into his room. Somehow, in some unreal way, he thought he should sit up instead of just falling back to sleep, putting a hand on his forehead. Standing up, he was willing to find where that light was coming from, hopefully able to convince the person to turn it off. But from the groggy state he was in, his eyes suddenly widened, hearing a person humming a song he somehow recognized. Standing in the doorway, he witnessed the black haired little Kailah sitting on the floor, wearing a set of pajama's that were too big for her, and playing with something he couldn't see because her back was turned. Unexpectedly she twisted around, smiling at him with her big, childish eyes.

"Oh, hi Vash! Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

"What...What time is it?" he asked, holding his head again from the pain the light the large, lamp candles gave off.

"Four," she replied, turning away from him again.

"In the morning?!" he questioned, blinking as he came over to her. She stood up, walking away but still with her back turned.

"Yeah! I haven't slept a wink in days so don't be too concerned!" she said happily.

"In...days...?" he replied. Smiling, he took a seat in the chair next to the door. "But a growing girl like yourself should get your sleep!"

She smiled, seeming different from the times before. This seemed colder...as if she was much older than she appeared with more scars than what was just on her arms. Kailah clasped something in her hand, a braided twine string hanging from her fist. Walking over to him, she took his hand that was at his side, putting whatever it was in his palm.

A cold chill ran up his spine, his heart freezing just as well. This is what she had been fiddling with before, but he never imagined it would still exist. Gazing up at her, her smile was no more, and all that was left was those eyes, distant and yet demanding a truth.

"You know what this is...don't you?" she asked, but he only held the small, rusted cross in his hands, not even knowing what to think as those bright candle lamps flickered on into the silence...