Blame

He didn't know what to say. Vash had never seen rain on this planet before, and had only seen it once on the spaceship he arrived on. Gazing back to Kailah, he saw that she was crying uncontrollably now, her face in her hands. Going over and kneeling down in front of her, he tried staring up into her eyes, but she refused to look at him.

"Kailah, it's raining! It's amazing, you should come and see it!" he attempted to comfort her, but failed miserably.

"Of course it's raining...It always rains..." she sobbed, shaking her head.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "It never rains!"

"It does here," she replied, twisting herself away.

He said no more from there, confused even more on what was going on. There was just something seriously wrong with this town, plain and simple. This desert planet had always been a clear blue sky, and only a few times ever having clouds! And now...it rained? No, something wasn't right, and his suspicion was doubled when he heard thunder rolling through the sky outside.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, Vash turning his head to find it was the grandpa, holding a lamp. Vash hadn't even heard the door open, but with the circumstances he could understand why. He handed him a rain poncho, he himself wearing one as he stood upright again.

"There's somethin' ya deserve to know, Vash the Stampede. Follow me," he stated, going back to the open door.

Standing, Vash did what he was asked and followed, stepping down the staircase with caution and out into the rainy streets. Vargus didn't say anything for the longest time, the rain pouring so hard that if he held out his hand it would feel like needles. He moved faster than Vash could keep up a few times, but stopped ever so often to let him catch up. However, one time in particular he hadn't stopped, and he found himself stumbling in the dark. The walls of buildings to guild him dwindled quickly, and eventually he landed his foot in a soft patch of dirt, tumbling down what seemed to be a hill. Though, coming into the town before he didn't remember a hill being there...

Smacking his face down into the mud, he sat up with a groan, looking up to find a light beaming up from where he had fallen. It seemed like Vargus was thirty feet up, yelling down if Vash was okay. He shouted back that he was, and Vargus made his way down more carefully than Vash's way, meeting up with him at the bottom.

"It should be just up here," he pointed out, walking on forward until a large, black object came into view. It appeared to be a beam of some sort, but as he brightened the lamp with a small switch, a bigger picture came into play.

The metal of this structure was twisted and bent, looking as if it had been torn like tissue. A minor part of sheet metal was attached just above their heads where they could get out of the rain. Vargus brightened the lamp even more, putting the lamp of the ground and finding a crate that should have been used to collect metal as a seat. Vash sat as well, questioning what this place was.

"You've heard of plants, right?" he asked, and he shrugged. "'Course you have. Well, ta tell ya the truth, no matter how small this here town seems now, it used to be a very large one. In fact, we used to have a plant of our own!"

"What happened to it then?" he inquired.

"You just happened to be sitting in it," he replied, and Vash's eyes narrowed with interest. "I know what yer thinkin'. 'How exactly can a plant turn out like this', am I right?"

Actually, that wasn't exactly it. He just wanted to know why it was raining but if this had something to do it than yes, that's what he was thinking. Vash stared out, seeing that the rain was beginning to loosen up. (At least when he stuck his hand out it felt like water and not needles).

"Maybe not...Either way I might as well start from the beginnin'. A long time ago this place used ta be prosperous. There were hundreds of thousands of people livin' here, most makin' sure that the plant worked right. Her parents were apart of that team of scientist, my son and his wife, and nothin' had gone wrong under their watch. But about ten years ago somethin' did...No one knew how or why the instruments to the plant went wrong, but what we do know is that more than a third of the city was gone in a blink of an eye. Most moved out of town after that, but about thirty or so of us stayed behind." He gazed to the ground, contemplating for a moment then continuing. "Do you know why we call her our lil' Aengel?"

"Kailah?" he asked, and Vargus nodded.

"We call her that cuz...she was with her parents when that thing exploded."

Vash's eyes widened, not quite believing what he had heard. If she had been inside the plant control room when it erupted, than she would've been ash with everything else. This just wasn't making any sense...

"You may be wondering why she looks the way she does, even if that happened ten years ago. See, when that thing detonated, she was eight then. And since then, she hasn't gotten any sleep...not in ten years..."

Vash stood up suddenly, shaking his head. "How can that be?! Everyone needs sleep! Everyone ages! Nobody can withstand an explosion, especially when it's a plant exploding!"

"Sit down, son, I'll explain it," he said, waving a hand and Vash taking in a deep breath, sitting once more. "Now, we're not quite sure on the whole thing but what she's told us is that it had something to do with the plant, turning her into what she is. Not only doesn't she age or sleep, but she's beginnin' to hear things. Things we can't explain. One in particular she keeps bringing up is this 'she', who warns her when bad things are going to happen. And she hasn't been wrong once."

"Then why don't you believe her?" he asked, remembering the incident from before.

"I never said me and Murielle don't believe her, but Vera's the one who doesn't want to believe."

"Why? What happened to her?"

"That's why this town hates you so much. It's 'cuz what you did eight years ago. Now, strangely enough, I remember that fella and now that I think about it, he didn't seem a thing like you. He had so much hate in his eyes that I didn't know could exist in a man. Not to mention you get along so well with Kailah, yet that man was willing to kill her for no real reason..."

"What happened?" he repeated, more so dreading the truth than he had before.

"If I can recall good enough, that man came strollin' through town one day and didn't say a word to anybody, even if almost the whole town was out for work. We all thought he'd just pass by, but for some reason he stopped at our house where Joe was checking on Kailah, who was playing on the porch at the time."

"Joe...Vera mentioned that before," Vash exclaimed, Vargus nodding his head.

"Yeah, Joe was Vera's fiancé. They were such a happy couple too...But Kailah warned her that Joe shouldn't have gone outside that day and Vera didn't take her seriously. Though, that man just had the angriest expression on his face, shoutin' about somethin' to do with human's and how since Kailah was part plant she should suffer a quick death...At least, that's what the witnesses said...The man pulled out a large gray gun after that, ready and willin' to shoot her at that second if only Joe hadn't been there. 'Cuz of it, Joe stepped in the way and was shot in the back, dying a few minutes later. The man didn't give another shot after that, but we could all remember how he had blonde hair and green eyes..."

Vash clenched his fists, knowing exactly who it was. He didn't have to question if it was him or not, for with this story he knew it could only be one person.

Knives...

"Do you know who this she is?" he questioned, trying to get his mind on something else.

"Nope, no idea. But I guess she was the one who told her where ta find that necklace yer wearin'."

He reached under the poncho, holding the cross out in his hand. "I thought she made it," he said.

"Again, she wouldn't go near a welder. That's just not what she does." Vargus stood up, picking up the lamp again. "Guess that's it. You comin' back to the house?"

"No, I think I'll stay here for awhile. Think things over," he replied, and Vargus shrugged.

"Okay, your choice," he said, being his last words before he stepped out into the rain.

Vash came across a question he himself couldn't come up with an answer for, swirling around to shout for him to come back. But he hadn't even opened his mouth before he realized Vargus was no longer there, not even the light of the lamp to be seen. Even that was odd in the drenching rain, for if the light had gone out he should've been able to at least see a moving figure in the shadow of the crater.

He really did sit there, thinking. And he thought. And thought. (And thought some more). Yet every time he came to a conclusion on something, it always backfired somehow and he would never truly come up with any answers unless he was told what they were. He hadn't the energy to go back up to the house, so instead he just stayed, reflecting on how this could all be. Taking off his poncho and putting it behind his head, he used it as a pillow when he shut his eyelids. Maybe there was no reason and maybe there was, but he passed out into sleep before he came up with it, his back against the crate underneath the twisted black metal.

'...Do you miss him?'

'Of course I do, but I know he's in a better place now.'

'I think it's great. Makes you look more intelligent!'

'What do I look like?'

'A momma's boy!'

The sun beamed high upon the now dry sands, Vash finding shade where he had slept in the hot conditions. Raising his head, he squinted in the light, blinking as he found a smudge of gray in his sight. There, to his surprise, Kailah stared blankly at him, her ragged, shoulder-length hair brushing across her face. He smiled kindly, but she just gave the dullest expression in return.

"Kailah, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"He told you, didn't he?" she questioned, Vash blinking.

"Tell me what? You mean what happened to you?"

She shook her head. "Not that. What I am..."

"What you are? Well, he sort of told me that...Though he didn't know him-"

"I was fussed with a plant," she interrupted, a silence floating in the air for a few moments later. "I was foolish to stumble away from by parents and ended up getting past the security systems. I astonishingly made it to the reactor chamber vents, where I crawled up on the beams, not knowing the true danger. Thinking it was some sort of balancing act I goofed off, and until I tripped over my own feet I thought it was a game...I should've died that day from the fall, but I landed on the plant instead. I can't remember what happened except for feeling a calming warmth, hugging me until I could open my eyes and stand in what would be this very spot. Having a few bruises and scrapes, I didn't realize what had been done until someone found me and carried me away. The plant was gone. My parents were gone. More than half the city was gone..." Her cold eyes turned sad, tears beginning to well. "Everyone believes you destroyed July and Augusta, but at least one person knows it wasn't your fault. You've never killed anything and I know that for a fact! She told me so...But, with all the things that have been said about you, surely you understand what it feels like to be guilty of something. I am guilty of all their deaths...I killed them..."

Kailah fell to her knees, clenching her fists into the ground. Vash did feel sorry for her, not entirely because of what happened to her, but always to whom she was now. Even though she might have been older mentally, her hearts was still one of an eight year old child. From people he had met, from the many stories he had heard, most would have drowned their past in drinks or sulked in their own misery. Never did a grown person cry, (even if it might have been better if they did), for at least they could keep in bottled inside and deal with it secretly. But for a child to bear such a burden, to believe that she had caused the deaths of hundreds upon thousands of people...

Vash reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. "Like you said, you didn't understand what would happen if you fell from that beam. For all we know, you could've just fallen into a safe area and the plant was already detonating. No one could've known the plant would react in such a way. It wasn't your fault Kailah. It never was, so stop blaming yourself for something you didn't do." As she nodded her head, he smiled, sitting back. But as he let his hand off her shoulder, she suddenly grabbed it, squeezing it tight in her tinny fingers.

"Do you know why I came down here?" she asked, and he shook his head, not really sure. "Because if you would've gone up the time you had awaken, you would already be dead by now..."

Vash's neck snapped up with the sound of a gunshot, Kailah letting go. He stood up in alarm, gazing up the steep hill and then back to her where she kept looking ahead. There was no worry on her face, (or any normal appearance in this situation for that matter), but that sound did concern him. With it, he left off up the hill, willing to investigate as she just sat there, unwavering as another strand of hair fell over her face...

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A/N Sorry this one's short and blotchy, but we were one of the people without power for a day (and my finger's broken so it makes it somewhat difficult to write ^_^) Anyway, there's probably two more chapters left, so please stay tuned!