You know the drill, Vash and Legato (and all other Trigun trademarks) ain't mine!

Please check my profile for a thing about my E-mail; my poeticfury account in temporarily not available.

Includes some teasers about Trieste's past, too. ^.^

*~*

The entire tavern had been woken up by the screams and gunshots, but none had been quick enough to come out and see Trieste running away. Several guests came out with guns barred, as did Liana's father. They quickly discovered Trieste's opened door and lit room, Vash laying there. Liana, following her father, stifled a scream and swooped down, horrified. Her father gently pushed her out of the way and looked at Vash.

'There's a lot of blood on his hand and face. He can't stay here.' Carefully, the father picked up Vash's limp body and ran all the way to the doctor's. The knife was extracted, and his hand temporarily bandaged while the doctor went to work on the bullet wound. But when he opened the jacket, he was shocked to find no blood, no bullet hole into the chest; but he was so horribly scarred that most people had to turn away in shock and disgust. No one noticed the small hole in his sleeve, but they marvelled that his left arm-that this wasn't exactly a *human* arm. They had never seen anything like this, and all began to wonder just where this man had come from. The doctor then stitched Vash's hand and cleaned up his face, and reset his nose, which took much longer than his hand. Soon Vash was put under light sedatives. Placed on a cot in the office, Vash slept soundly, blissfully unaware of the pain in his hand, or the splitting headache he would probably wake up with in the morning.

While he slept under Liana's vigil, the men had gathered in the doctor's kitchen to discuss just what exactly was going on. 'She's never threatened us. True, she was not the most grateful woman I've ever met, but I never saw malice in her. Directed towards us that, that is.' Liana's father was leaning against the kitchen counter, chin on his balled up fist, deep in thought.

'There is something unnatural about her, though,' mused the doctor. 'I've never had someone heal that fast, nor have I ever met such a cold person. She is rather unnormal-'

'Yes, but does that mean she's bad? Vash was in her room in the middle of the night, that would startle anyone who woke up.' The smithy's son was straddling a chair, an unlit cigarette in the corner of his mouth. From across the room, a young traveler spoke up; he was the one who had helped Trieste up at one point. He was sitting on the counter, head leaning against the cabinets.

'True, but what about the knife? It's not like she couldn't get to her gun, she always carried it. And Vash's gun was out, it was in the hand she threw the knife at.'

'How do you know that?' asked the father. The young man shrugged, tracing his fingers along the glass containers of sugar, salt, and flour that decorated his perch.

'I went in there after you took him downstairs to find out what happened. His gun had blood on it, I figured that was the only way. But whatever hand it was in, the gun *was* drawn, and for a reason.' The men grew silent for a while, but then the doctor thought aloud.

'Should we inform the higher authorities, I wonder? I mean, if she hadn't missed him, we'd have a corpse on our hands.' They had still been unable to understand what had happened with the bullet; when someone picked it up, it was somewhat flattened as if it had hit a wall, but there were no markings on anything in the room.

'I don't think so,' the young traveler said. 'We should wait to hear Vash's side of the story, see why he was in her room in the night with his gun drawn. She might be entirely blameless, or she might have been a murderer in the past. Um, where's your bathroom?'

'Down the hall, to the left, across from Vash's room.' The man nodded and walked down the hallway. He paused outside of Vash's doorway and looked in.

Liana was sitting in a chair by Vash's side, holding his hand, while reading a book with her free hand. As he watched, she looked at Vash and lovingly ran her hand down his face, then sighed.

'Are you ok, ma'am?' asked the man, walking in quietly. Startled, Liana pulled her hand away and dropped the book.

'Oh, yes, just worried.' Watching him from the corner of her eye, she bent down and picked up the book. 'Can I help you?'

'Nome, I just came in to make sure you were OK.' He silently closed the door behind him. 'This is a pretty traumatic experience.' Liana shrugged, nervously rubbing her neck.

'I've been through traumatic experiences. I'll be fine, and so will Vash. He needs his sleep and he'll be up in the morning. I think it's best if you went back with the others.' Liana found herself increasingly agitated, and only wanted the nameless man to leave. She hadn't known this man was in her inn or even in town, which was unsettling because it was so small you had to try very hard to stay unnoticed. Instead of leaving as she hoped he would, he merely walked closer to the bed. Liana stood up, the closed book still in hand. 'I asked for you to *go*, sir. Do not make me ask again!' The man grinned good-naturedly.

'Well, me and the boys back in the kitchen were talking, and we figured it to be a good idea if we woke Vash up now and got the facts before that lil girl got too far. So what do ya say, hun, will you wake him up-' he pushed his jacket aside to reveal a gun. '-or should I?' Liana narrowed her eyes.

'You can't bully me, get out of here! If you think you can scare me into doing whatever it is you say, you're damned wrong!'

'Ah, but I wasn't gonna threaten a pretty thing like you. Sleeping Beauty is the one I got my eyes on. You better listen to me, or this will be his eternal slumber.' Liana raised her head, looking at him from an odd angle. She slowly and deliberately walked towards him, staring into his pale, hazel eyes that were alarmingly emotionless. Now that Liana could look at him, she saw that he wasn't ugly, nor was he attractive, but just there. There was nothing specifically wrong with his face, but something so subtle that to stare long enough made one desire never to see the face again. But Liana kept on looking, blinking only once.

'You don't scare me,' she said angrily, and brought her hard-cover book to the side of his face, swinging as hard as she could, then dashed for the door, ready to scream for her father. But she had overestimated her strength, or perhaps underestimated his recovery speed because she found strong arms wrapping around her waist and a calloused hand engulfing her face; he ripped her away from the door and catapulted her back. She fell on her back and tumbled, then picked her head up to yell out for the others to hear. But before she could, she found herself looking down the barrel of a gun and the man staring furiously at her.

'I have half a mind to shoot you right now, you know? Get up.' She shakily stood up, angry and frightened. The man pulled her chair away and sat in it, then motioned towards the bed. 'Sit down.'

'What do you want with us?' asked Liana, clutching Vash's hand as she sat down. The man chuckled.

'Do you know what life is? An ominous landscape of never-ending calamity. A pit in hell, a big ball of useless pain. Yet most people don't realize it, so Legato has taken it upon himself to teach all humanity that simple idea.' Liana gasped at Legato's name, and squeezed Vash's hand tighter. 'The young lady is of interest to Legato, but there isn't much known about her, since we've destroyed so many lives. She can be anyone, but it's all a game to Legato. Just fucking with her head, yanno? But Blondie obviously found out something about her, or she wouldn't of shot him. My job is to know what he knows and relay it back to Legato. Before, it was just to capture her. I imagine where she's going is something this blond-haired fellow knows, so wake him up and let's talk.' Closing her eyes, she nodded, then turned and gently began to shake Vash, wondering if she could wake him with the drugs so recently introduced to his system.

'Vash, Vash, wake up...' She gave a harder shake. He mumbled and swatted at her with his bandaged hand, then cried out in pain when he connected with her arm. His eyes opened up hazily. 'Vash, c'mon, wake up...I need to talk to you.' Liana helped him sit up, though he seemed quite woozy.

'Oh man, where am I? Why does my hand hurt so much?' Vash groaned, gingerly touching the bridge of his massively bandaged nose. He looked around and confusedly stared at the man with the gun. 'What are you doing? Who are you?' Vash was quickly recovering, becoming more coherent and controlled. Liana grabbed his unbandaged hand.

'He works for Legato! He wants to know about-'

'Trieste Buldar. So why don't you shut up, hun, and let the big boys talk.' He smiled greasily at Liana, but she looked away angrily. Vash continued to stare at the man, quite lost.

'Who?'

'Buldar, Trieste Buldar, the bitch who shot you, you know, *her*. Start talking.' A startled realization flicked across Vash's face, but neither Liana or the man noticed. He calmly pushed himself into a sitting position then folded his arms and yawned.

'When did LB send you? Before or after I was assigned?' Liana jumped, and pushed away from Vash, shocked. The gunman lowered his gun slightly.

'Huh?'

'I asked when Legato assigned you. I thought I was the only one tracking her.' Vash's voice was serious, even slightly dangerous. Liana inched away some more, unable to believe this kind man worked for Legato.

'Wait, you work for Legato? Where the hell is your feather?' The man lifted his right arm, displaying a small, gold feather outline stitched into his sleeve. Vash shrugged.

'She knows it. I discarded it on purpose. May we please get on to the next point?'

The man, unsure of what to do, raised his gun.

'Your story first.' Vash rolled his eyes.

'Ten weeks ago I was assigned to follow Trieste, capture her, and take her toLegato so she would learn her lesson. I finally made contact with her in a bar, and would have been successful in retrieving her when a bunch of idiots-our men, of course-decided to step out of line and hold the place up. They actually mentioned Legato by name, so Trieste went around and killed almost every one. I tried to be friendly to her that night, but I underestimated her cold bitch factor, and got no where. She left in the middle of the night, I didn't know where to. I finally found her here and planned on taking her back to Legato now that she was healthy.' He raised his bandaged hand. 'I wasn't expecting her to have a knife as back up. She nearly took my hand off! God only knows if I'll be able to shoot well again. And now she's gone, and I have no idea where once again.'

After listening, the man dropped his gun into his holster. 'Shit, man, I had no idea. About four weeks ago, I was told she'd be here in this town for an extended period of time. I was supposed to wait til she was healthy and take her to Legato, but then you came along. I thought you were just some idiot who was friends with her.' He reached out his hand. 'In loyalty to Legato, my name is Thews.' Vash stood up.

'I'm Vash.' Instead of shaking his hand, though, Vash landed an uppercut to Thews's jaw that sent him reeling. Deftly, Vash dove in, grabbed his gun, wrapped his arm around the man's neck and pointed Thews's own gun to his head, wearing a strangly friendly smile on his face.

'Sorry to do this, but I feel like it's the only way to talk.' He smiled at Liana. 'Don't worry, I really am a good guy.' Liana stared at him, thoroughly lost.

'But-but how did you...your stories just now. I don't understand...' Vash shrugged.

'Most of it is true, I ran into Trieste at a bar where Legato's men attacked, and they did mention him by name, and she did indeed kill most of them. But I never heard of that Legato guy until her, never found out her name, nothing. But now that Mr. Thews is here, I think we can chat a bit.' Vash pressed the gun closer to Thews's head. 'So, tell us all you know about Trieste.'

'Fuck you! I'm not talking!' Liana narrowed her eyes, jumped up from the bed, and swiftly slapped Thews across the face, hard.

'Listen, I've had enough problems from you tonight, so unless you want that gun shoved up your ass, I suggest you start talking, and fast, you son of bitch!' Both Vash and Thews were speechless, their words knocked out their mouths by Liana's rough turn. Vash shook his head.

'You heard the lady,' Vash said, nudging Thews. 'I think you better cooperate.' Thews clenched his jaw, then sighed.

'Fine...her full name is Trieste Lee Buldar. She's an only child, she's twenty-four. She was born on June seventeenth, both parents are dead.' Thews stopped.

'Well? Keep going, what does Legato have to do with her?' Thews shrugged.

'How the hell should I know, I don't talk to Legato personally. He probably destroyed her town and she's out for revenge or she's a bounty hunter looking for big money. The only reason Legato is paying attention is because she's been hunting us without our realizing it. We've been aware of her for two years, but she's has been hunting Legato for at least five.'

'There, that wasn't so hard.' Vash grinned at Liana, but she wasn't looking at him; she was watching Thews's arm, which had slowly been reaching for his right pants pocket. 'I think it's time we moved on to Legato, what can you-'

'What are you reaching for?' Liana grabbed Thews's wrist, jerked it away from the pocket, then reached her own hand in there. She pulled out two small, metal balls, the size of marbles. 'What are these?' Vash's eyes widened.

'Back away from Thews, Liana,' he commanded. Looking strangely at Vash, Liana did so. 'Now, carefully, without dropping the balls, open that window and throw them as hard as you possibly can, and shut the window.' Liana backed towards the window, which she slid open.

'What are these things?' Without bothering to wait for an answer, she threw the two balls out the window as hard as she could, and they were lost from her sight in the darkness. She closed the window. 'Well?'

'Those two small balls contain deadly gas that is released when they're thrown or dropped. Usually a gas no one on this planet recognizes, so they wouldn't realize they've been poisoned.' Vash and Liana looked at Thews, who was turning an alarming shade of pale; the blood drained from his face, and his mouth hung open slightly.

'But...I've never heard of anything like them before,' Liana protested. Thews continued to stand limply, staring out the window Liana had thrown the balls out of.

'Lost technology.' That was Vash's only reply. He nudged Thews again. 'You OK, man? You look like someone just sucker-punched you in the heart.'

'Do you know what you've done to me!?' shrieked Thews suddenly, struggling against Vash. 'Do you have *any* idea what Legato is going to do to me when he finds out what I've told you? You fuckers! You heartless bastards! Let me go so I can go shoot myself!' Unable to break away from Vash's arms wrapped around his body, Thews threw his head back as hard as he could, bashing Vash in the face, hitting his nose hard. Howling, Vash instinctively reached for his face, releasing his captive. Shouting, Liana grabbed Thews, then screamed for her father.

'Dad! One of Legato's men is trying to kill us!!' Growling, Thews managed to smack Liana as he wrestled away, but this time he underestimated his strength and she grabbed him by his collar and swung him into the door, which burst open, wrecking the hinges and cracking the door itself. As Thews scrambled up, he suddenly realized there were people in his path; Liana's father and the other men had come into the hallway with their guns drawn, not quite sure what Liana had yelled. Gasping, Thews turned around, heading for the bathroom. Liana yelled again. 'It's one of Legato's men trying to kill us!' That's all the men needed; all three opened fire, riddling Thews's body with bullets. He jerked on his feet, then dropped with a strangled groan. Blood pooled on to the wooden floor; Liana buried her face into Vash's jacket.

'We got the sonofbitch! Good shot, boys. You OK, Liana?' Liana looked up and nodded, then looked to Vash.

'Vash...?' Liana suddenly realized Vash was turning a pale shade of green, tears streaking down his face as he stared down at the bloody body. 'Are you alright?'

'Uhh, I'm gonna go back to my room now, Liana.' Vash looked ready to throw-up, and the blood from his nose wasn't helping any. Liana, slightly bewildered, helped lead him back to bed and called for the doctor to come in.

'It's probably the drugs we gave you, they have that affect on people sometimes.' Vash put his hands to his mouth and stomach and laid down. Liana sat down next to him, confused by his crumbled nature.

*~*

Trieste pushed her horse on as fast as she could, not slowing down even for a few seconds. After almost three hours of hard riding, a small town appeared on the horizon, lit up eerily in the moonlight. It was not unusual weather, though; nights were almost always cool and clear, and bright as well. Trieste galloped through the darkened town, then turned to her left and exited. She had no idea what direction she was heading in, but she kept going. The dull thuds of her horse's hooves hitting the sand vibrated thickly through her body, harping on the aches and pains that had not fully healed. It wasn't any colder than usual, but she was shivering uncontrollably the entire time anyway. She didn't hear anything behind her, but that didn't mean much. Two hours later she realized one of the suns was coming up on her back left, so she had been traveling South East since that town. As the sun grew brighter, she slowed down, trotted on top of a sand dune and scanned the miles of sand surrounding her. After minutes of searching and nothing on the horizon, she jumped off her horse and put her ear to the ground. Still nothing from *that* direction...but there was a bus or some other large vehicle to the East, one of the few pieces of technology humanity had. She judged it to be about three miles away, moving at the usual speed. Standing up and wiping off the sand, she tossed on her hood and sighed.

'Thirsty Miss? It's been a while since you've run that hard.' Trieste gave the horse some water, took a drink herself, then mounted once more. Taking one last scan across the dessert before it became blinding, she was relieved to see nothing. Cracking the reigns, Trieste trotted towards the direction of the bus.

*~*