Chap. 4

A/N: GAH! Even I couldn't stand the cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter, so I've gotten this one out as fast as possible. Thanks to everyone who is reviewing and such.

In the last chapter, I forgot to answer a couple of questions from one of my reviewers, so here they are:

Rem is fifteen, as it says once when she is speaking to Milly, but I want to stress the fact that because she is half plant, she does NOT act fifteen. ^_^;;

Yes, Nick noticed the fact that she did not grow up at a normal rate, which will be addressed in the next chapter or so.

Disclaimer: Here is where I'm supposed to come up with some snazzy disclaimer of funny remark about how I don't own Trigun. I have none, so we'll leave it at the basics: Trigun is not mine and never will be. Sad.

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Rem stared at the creature floating before her, a model of perfection. If she had been asked to describe what a plant angel looked like afterwards, she never would have been able to tell the listener of it's beauty and grace as it floated in a world outside of time. It's perfect tan skin was unmatched by any human to ever walk Gunsmoke, or any other planet for that matter. It round golden eyes seemed to be staring into the depths of her soul, flooding her mind with their soft glow. Behind the angel, which appeared to be androgynous, two long, flowing wings unfurled from it's back, seeming made up of neither metal nor skin. Long, translucent hair flowed about its head, drifting in some unseen wind. I twas beautiful in every sense of the word. An overwhelming race and perfection never imagined in the human mind.

She placed her hand against the smooth bulb, feeling its presence wash over her. It seemed to speak to her, not with words, but with an emotion far greater than her own. It was a creature of peace and love, neutering and protection. It was strong that it didn't need to speak to communicate, it simply existed on a level beyond comprehension.

'Calm yourself, little sister.' It was a voice never meant for human ears. It was the sighing of the wind through the trees and the sound of birds as they sang their sweet slow songs. It filled her with both an unbelievable sense of pain and longing as well as peace and tranquility, nearly bringing her to tears. 'Those humans that wished to hurt you are gone.'

'Who,' Rem tried to find the right words, 'what are you?'

Though the angel's face didn't move, it somehow appeared amused. 'I am a plant, little sister, but you already knew this, did you not?'

Rem thought about it. She had never seen a plant before, though she knew that they were things of immense power. Not many people really knew anything about the plants, which made her knowledge of them even more limited. Somehow, though, the second she had entered the building, she had known what lay at its center. A creature far beyond human understanding that now shown down upon her and spoke through her mind. 'Yes, I knew. Rather, than, who are you?'

'I have no name,' the plant smiled in her mind. She could feel its lips curl up as its emotions continued to wash over her in waves. 'If you must, you may call me your brother.'

'Brother?' Rem felt the connection instantly as the plant moved closer to her toward the bottom of its bulb. 'What do you mean?'

'Do you not feel the power flowing through you?' her brother asked her, it's "voice" filled with concern, 'You have always known it was true, have you not? Even as a child, you could feel that you were different, did you not?'

Rem wanted to tell the plant it was wrong, that she never felt such a thing. She wanted to scream at it and cry, telling it that it was a wrong, horrible thing that didn't have any idea what she felt. But, she couldn't because what it said was true. 'Are you,' her eyes widened, still pulsing an icy blue, 'that I'm....'

'Dear little sister,' she felt compassion and pity as the angel above her spoke. It floated down a little farther, its lips brushing against her forehead through the glass bulb. 'You are not human. You are a plant.'

Rem felt faint as the power of the plant moved through her, causing her body to seize up. The last thing she remembered was Nick standing over her, his eyes filled with worry and the plant far above her, smiling into eternity.

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Rem had the oddest dream she could ever remember having. She was standing in a room, filled with electronics that had long ago been left in the search for something better. Dust covered the consoles and coated the floor. Her footsteps were muffled by its soft film across the metal ground beneath her. There was something in front of her, a cool substance glinting in the dim light filtering down into the room from somewhere above her. She reached out and touched the glass.

As she did, the bulb before her burst to life, just as it had in the plant. Inside, though, was not a plant angel. Instead, the person she saw there was her father. His eyes were wide with fear as he looked down at her. He tried to speak, but she couldn't hear him.

"Dad!" she yelled, pounding against the glass, trying to find someway to open it. "Dad! I'll get you out!"

Suddenly, a hand clasped her tightly on the shoulder. She gasped and turned to find that the hand belonged to a man that she had not seen in nearly thirteen years. "Knives . . . "

Rem gasped, sitting up in bed, sweat pouring down her face and her blonde hair strewn about her. She looked around, finding that she was in her own room, surrounded by the familiarity of her belongings and the warmth of her bed. It was dark, though she could make out the shape of the room by the moonlight that came in through her window.

"A dream," she gasped, laying back and smiling. "It was all a dream. There was no birthday party, not bar, no Gary. It was nothing but a bad dream."

Just then, she heard voices flittering up from downstairs, reaching her ears. "What are we going to do, Vash?" It was her mother. Her voice sounded strained and worried.

"We have to do what we should have done a long time ago," her father sounded tired, as if he had been up all night. He sighed. "We have to tell her the truth."

"But what can we tell her?" Meryl choked back a sob, "That she's, she's . . . "

"It's all right, Meryl." Rem surprised to hear Nick's voice as he consoled her mother, "Just tell her what you told me. She'll understand. She has to."

Rem jumped out of bed, registering in the back of her mind that she was still fully clothed in the same thing she had been wearing that day. She stormed down the stairs, her eyes wide with fright and her mind screaming at her the truth; it wasn't a dream.

As she burst into the bright light of the living room where everyone was sitting, they all looked up at her wide eyed. Meryl's face was streaked with tears and Vash looked rather taunt and serious, a look that she could never recall seeing on her father's face. "Oh, Rem," Meryl sobbed, breaking the silence and burying her face in her hands.

"What," Rem faltered, looking first from her mother, to her father, to her best friend sitting next to Meryl on the worn couch, "What's going on?"

"Rem, sit down," her father commanded, sounding even more morose than he had a few minutes before. Nick made room for her on the couch as she walked across the room almost automatically, her arms and legs acting of their own accord.

"How to begin," Vash smiled wryly, though not out of joy, "Well, first I must warn you: do not interrupt me, do not stop me. What I'm telling you is crazy and impossible, but it is true." He took a deep breath, "It all started 148 years ago . . . "

(A/N: wouldn't you hate me forever if I stopped there? Nah. That would be WAY too short a chapter . . . )

Rem listened as Vash told his story, thinking it to be a fairy tale, an impossibility. Not wanting to believe the words that poured from his mouth, but knowing in her heart that she must. As he retold his childhood, she could almost see and touch the ship that he had lived on as he described it. She could feel every hit he received from Steve and cried every tear. She could imagine Knives, her uncle and at one time the biggest threat to mankind, as a child, stoic and aloof. She grew to love Rem, her father's surigant mother, and wanted to die as Rem's ship burned up in the atmosphere. As Vash wandered across the desert, she could feel the heat on her back and Knives' taunts about the human race that she loved so much.

It was too much. It wasn't enough. It was a lie, but it was so true, she wanted to curse her father forever for telling it to her. He left Knives, but Knives found him. July, Augusta, sand steamers, insurance girls, love, hate, life, death, pain, joy, love and peace, all of these filled her and left her as her father told her of his life and wanderings. She wanted to scream, because it was true.

"Finally," Vash's voice was horse from speaking for over an hour without stop, "I couldn't run from Knives anymore. I left one day, after assuring the woman I loved that I would be back for her, and went out to take care of my brother. When I found him, it was as if I had gone back 130 years. He sat there, so calm and collected, drinking his wine and asking me how my time with the humans had been. After all I had lived through, this was the moment that it had all been for, the final fight for love and peace."

Vash stopped for the first time since he had begun speaking. Rem was on the edge of her seat, wanting to know the rest, but afraid to hear it because once those words left his mouth, that made it true. Anything he told her could change her life. "I won the battle and carried him back to town with me. I didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but I did it anyway because," he seemed to be considering his next words very carefully, "he was my brother."

Vash smiled sadly. "Knives, of course, eventually recovered from his wounds, though he didn't make his stay with us a pleasant one. He would constantly taunt your mother and poor Milly, telling them what scum they were. He would tell me I was weak and falling for a lowly spider. Then," Vash trailed off again, "something happened. Even now, I couldn't tell you what it was. It was if some part of him broke, or rather, some part of him healed. He stopped his tormenting of the women and me and when he healed he just . . . left.

So, I carried on with my life. I eventually asked your mother to marry me. I still confess that I have no idea why she agreed, but, luckily for me, she did. We moved here, outside of what was once a small town. She liked it because Bernardelli had an office that she could work at and I," Vash smiled dreamily, "Well, they did have the best donuts I had ever tasted.

We settled down, Meryl telling her company that she was still keeping the dangerous outlaw under surveillance outside of a small town called Daegon. After a few years we had you and I've never been happier." Vash smiled happily and sat back into his chair. "I've never been happier in over 133 years."

(A/N: Do I talk too much? Lol. Anyway, ANOTHER good place to end the chapter, but, I'll be nice and keep typing.)

Rem stared at him, partly out of shock and partly out of disbelief. He father, the goofy man she had known all her life, was actually a plant, approximately 148 years old, and the most wanted outlaw on the planet? It was too much for her. It started out as a giggle, then exploded into a full out laugh, her whole body shaking in delight.

"What?" Vash looked worried, "You don't believe me?!"

Rem tried in vain to answer him a few times, but was laughing too hard. "It's not," she laughed, "It's not that. I just," more laughter, "I mean," she started crying, the tears falling down her face in large drops. She sobbed.

It was true. She wasn't human. She was a plant, or at least a half-bred freak that had grown up under the assumption that she was perfectly normal. She felt Nick's arm go around her shoulders as he hushed her quietly, brushing his cheek against hers. He whispered to her, telling her things were going to be all right, that she was going to be fine, but she knew that it wasn't. It never could be. If her father had spent more than 130 years trying to escape the truth of his origin, how could she manage?

"Rem," Vash started, not knowing how to console her as she sobbed into Nicholas's shirt, leaving a large wet spot on his shoulder. He had lived his whole life knowing that he wasn't human, but she had lived for fifteen years thinking that she was absolutely normal. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner. I thought maybe I could shield you from the life I once led, but I guess that was impossible. It's true that you are not all human, but that doesn't make you wrong."

"I," Rem hiccuped, trying to make sense of the whole matter, "I need to sleep on it. I-I thank you for telling me, even if it was a bit late, Father." With Nick's help, she made her way back to her room, tears still streaming down her face.

She sat on the edge of her bed, her head buried in her hands as she tried to hide her tears from Nick. She felt his arms wrap around her, engulfing her in his scent and warmth. Before, she could have just told him how she felt, all the thoughts that were swimming through her mind as she stumbled along the fine line between reality and dreams. Now, though, she had no idea how to connect with him, how to ask him what to do or what to believe. With no other outlet, no way to express all the torment in her, she titled her head up and pressed her lips to his, wanting him to feel all the pain and sorrow she did, wanting someone to understand.

As he held her, their kiss broken, she left her tired body slump against him. "Nick," she whispered, "please promise you won't leave me."

"I promise," he whispered, his hot breath against her neck. She sighed contentedly and finally succumbed to the feelings that had been gnawing away with her, engulfed by sleep.

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A/N: Yay! Another chapter done! And what a chapter! I didn't mean to make the explanation of Vash's past so long, but, I like it anyway. Please tell me what you think! Flame me, praise me, just let me know you're reading!