This is the end. Not an epic, but a whole and complete story. However, for the sake of the Alternate Pairings contest, I'll be grammatically correcting previous chapters. But the story is all here, and that's what you're here for, isn't it?



I'm getting all my comments in here, because I really don't want anything after the end of the story. Of all the endings I've written, this is one of my better, in my opinion. Then again, maybe that's because the entire story has been leading up to this point.



This is the first chapter in which we have some serious showdowns. Everything comes to an end here, all loose threads are cleared up, all questions are answered, all flashbacks are finished, and the thing we all knew was coming finally happens. However, I wouldn't call it entirely predictable...



-



Chapter 6: ...Ashes to Life

The world had a surreal feel to it, as if everything wasn't quite real. Not wanting to cope with what was happening, Marianne let her mind slip into a numbed mode. Vash was right, they needed to act as quickly as possible.

"Get every person in the building out," he told her. "I'll stay here with him."

"Right." Checking to make sure both of her guns were loaded, Marianne left the room. Thank goodness Vash was still thinking clearly, everything was blurred to her. But this task made sense enough, she could do it.

Back in the chamber, Vash watched after her for a few moments, then looked away. Just to make sure, he pinched a nerve in Mr. Rowan's neck, knocking him unconscious. Sitting back in one of the chairs strewn about the room, Vash put his feet up on the desk and pulled the hand cuffs from his pocket. He sat there staring at them for the longest time...



"Move everyone, move!" Marianne commanded as loudly as she could. The rest of the office continued to bustle as an unorganized mass. None of them had believed her, until she'd scared them all by saying Vash the Stampeded was here. But now they were all too frightened to be thinking properly, making evacuation horribly difficult.

Most of it was done by this point, though. She had gotten almost all of them out of the building, and told them to head for the nearby town. Hopefully they would be safe there, at least until she and Vash figured out what to do next.

Glancing about, Marianne's eyes widened as she saw the opposite end of the long corridor. Cortez was standing in a doorway, and behind him she could see other thugs. So apparently he had gone for backup. They were unmoving, as if waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Gripping her gun, Marianne froze as she realized what that would mean. If they opened fire on her, the people in the corridor would be slaughtered. She couldn't allow that to happen.

Gritting her teeth, Marianne forced her hand away from her side. How long would it be before they opened fire regardless?



By the time Vash was interrupted, he was no longer sitting at the desk. His sixth sense had been acting up on him, so Vash had gotten to his feet. One hand rested on the second gun he had acquired, just in case his personal gun ran out. If there was going to be trouble, he was ready.

The interruption came in the form of a single shot, the sound of it breaking the silence of the room. It was not aimed at him, however, as Vash quickly discovered. Turning immediately to the corridor the bullet had come from, Vash drew his gun, and found himself facing a similarly drawn weapon. At the side of the room, Mr. Rowans was slumped to the ground, blood pouring beneath him from his wound.

Touching upon him only for an instant, Vash's gaze returned to the figure in the doorway. It was that slippery member of the Hitmen, appearing at long last. Shile, if Vash remembered his name correctly.

"Interesting." His voice was like silk. "I find Vash the Stampede here, of all places."

"Why did you kill him?" Vash asked. Shile shrugged, as if it hardly mattered. His gun arm did not waver with the motion.

"He would only have gotten in the way. Besides, he is completely unnecessary for my plan to be complete. Though he was a useful tool, he is only a tool. Foolish spider."

"Spider?" Vash's eyes narrowed, remembering those words from a different mouth, so long ago. "You echo the past."

"Do I? Well, good." Shile smirked slightly. "No more words are necessary. Shall we dance?"



It was time, their patience was wearing thin. Marianne had intentionally placed herself apart from the crowd, rightly figuring that Cortez and his men were aiming for her. The first of their bullets fell short of their target, but they charged, getting closer.

Rolling to the side, Marianne dove into a side corridor. Running to the point where it crossed another corridor, Marianne turned and fired toward the opening, dropping the first few thugs as they came around the corner. As she had suspected, Cortez was staying back, so she only dropped a few flunkies. At least they were no longer after the others. If she could just keep them off her for a long enough time, the others would be safe.

Bolting around another corner, Marianne bent back past it long enough to launch a few more bullets after her pursuers. It kept them down for a few moments, but they quickly charged forward, forcing her to flee once again.

Now there were two stairways to the second level, and she had only a few instants to choose one. This was part of the building she'd rarely been to before, and she struggled with the decision for a moment before randomly choosing one.

Reaching the top of the stairs and reaching a wall, Marianne quickly glanced down the hallway. Nothing. Then she'd chosen wrong and this was a dead end. Eyeing the row of large windows, Marianne quickly formulated a strategy. Turning, she fired with both guns down the staircase. Because they had to rush up the staircase to get to her, it held them off for a moment, but soon they began to return fire, and she was forced to flee.

Bracing herself, Marianne leapt out the second story window. It was a dangerous move, but far less dangerous than staying above and letting herself get shot to death. Twisting in midair, she did her best to fire back into the building. She thought she saw a few of her pursuers slump, so perhaps she had gotten lucky.

As she had expected, the ground was very painful. Even with sand, it sent a wave of pain throughout her body. But this building had short stories, and she had been pretty sure she could survive the fall. Making it to her feet, she felt bruised, but neither of her legs seemed to be broken or even sprained. Good.

It was then she realized that against the sand she made an obvious target. Running parallel to the building, Marianne fired into the series of windows along the upper wall as quickly as she could. Now that she was safely away from the people, she had no need to hold her fire back to avoid hurting them. It went on for an unknown period of time.

Then she realized there was only Cortez left. He stood at the top of the stairs, having come up after all his men. The battle was already over, and he found himself looking down only at the victorious Marianne. She resolutely raised her gun...

Cortez fled. Not a tactical retreat, not a wise move, simple cowardice. Marianne didn't bother to fire after him, it would have done little good. The battle had nearly depleted her entire supply of ammo as well, and she had to conserve. Hopefully, however, the fighting was over. Limping on a slightly sore leg, Marianne moved to find Vash.



The small boy stood silently, with his hand plastered to the back port of the ship. He looked young, he was even younger. A small circular window gave him the only glimpse he could get of what remained of the fleet.

It was dying, he realized. His young mind had been forced to understand death far too early. Rushing into the atmosphere, the fleet was destroying itself in the ozone layer, entire ships becoming flaming molten metal in an instant. Thousands upon thousands of people were on those, all burning away, never to come back. These were Earth's seeds, Earth's hope, Earth way to survive. And they were all dying.

One of the largest ships drifted slowly, the planet's gravity slowly pulling it down. The bodies were there, the corpses that should not have been. He should have been there, he didn't deserve to survive. Why? Why did all of this have to happen?

"Still thinking about her?" a voice sneered behind him. Vash turned angrily to his brother Knives, eyes blazing.

"This is your fault! It's all your fault!"

"You think to blame me for all of this?" Knives gave him a sinister grin. "I had almost nothing to do with it. By their own stupidity, their own insanity, their own decrepitness, they killed themselves."

"But you killed him!"

"The maniac? Little matter. Who was it that killed the other three? Are you going to forgive him for what he did? He was an insect, and he had to be destroyed. All humans seem so, so flawed."

"No." Vash's voice had changed, burning with anger but firm and unyielding. Startling at the change, Knives turned to his brother, gaze questioning. On his knees, Vash was looking toward the ground, still as if he were mourning. He got to his feet, and his eyes blazed blue. In a swift movement, he slammed Knives into the nearest bulkhead.

"What are you going to do?" Knives asked, his voice for the first time frightened. He hadn't realized his brother was capable of this. "Are you going to kill me?"

There was a long pause, as if Vash was considering his response. "No," he finally answered, loosening his grip on Knives' shirt. "I'm not like them. I'm not like you. You spend so much time saying that humans you weak, but you are the flawed one!"



Ducking behind the heavy wooden desk, Vash avoided his opponent's gunfire. The next instant he darted over his shield, firing back at Shile. He was already under cover as well, and returned fire the next instant.

Vash fired a few shots just to keep Shile down, then reloaded his gun. As soon as Shile stopped a burst of fire, Vash whirled around. Vaulting atop the table, he leapt into the air, over the table Shile had hidden himself behind as well. He looked up and tried to fire, but Vash's foot swept his gun away, sending it flying across the ground.

Jumping away from him, Shile made a leap to rival Vash's across the chamber. In the air, the wrappings on his arm shattered, and his hand transformed into a gun. Vash was shocked, but not enough to prevent him from rolling back under the cover of the desk once again. The desk was mostly shattered by the stream of gunfire, but it held. Not for another attack, though.

So that was what he was. Vash grimly acknowledged this fight could be far more difficult than he had imagined. This was why Shile reminded him so much of someone, he was like him and Knives. Of course, Vash had no idea how he had come to be in the first place, so it was perfectly reasonable that there would be other sentient Plants. Whatever had caused his existence had caused another.

Then the time for thinking was over, as Shile was attacking once again. This time he targeted the ceiling, obviously intending to crush Vash along with the rest of the building. Quickly rolling to his feet, Vash moved for the nearest wall, dodging rubble as it fell around him.

Cursing, Shile continued firing with both his gun and his arm, this time after Vash. By this point, the ceiling would soon collapse, and this part of the building would be rubble. That was irreversible, but if Vash got outside the effort would be wasted. Unfortunately, the red clad figure was dodging in and out of the fallen pieces of the ceiling, preventing Shile from getting a good shot at him.

Time was running out, and Shile began moving to get outside himself. The collapse of the building couldn't kill him, but Vash probably could finish him in his injured state. Suddenly Shile saw Vash before him, but it was too late. He had been momentarily eclipsed by falling rubble, and when he emerged from the other side, he was diving through the air on his side, both guns firing.

Three of his bullets hit their mark, one destroying his gun, one ricocheting off his gun arm and the last burying itself in his shoulder. Vash was already rolling and on his feet again, getting free from the building.

Shrugging off pain, Shile continued his escape, glancing down at his gun arm. It was damaged, but not so that he couldn't fire it. Good. Both of them got clear of the building before fully half of it crashed to the ground. Neither of them payed the slightest attention to the destruction, again opening fire on one another.

One of Vash's guns was out of ammunition, Vash dropped it without a second thought, instead using that hand to cartwheel over the ground. His other arm continued to fire at Shile as he cartwheeled. From such an angle while moving, Vash's aim was severely thrown off, but he managed to wound Shile in his other shoulder and nick his leg.

Then Shile was firing, his bullets coming quickly. Vash was empty, but he daren't throw his personal gun away. Instead he dodged backward, evading each of Shile's bullets. His opponent tried to fake him out, but Vash could tell by the movements of the muscles in his upper arm what he truly intended to do.

Given a moment of peace, Vash quickly reloaded. Suddenly he realized that Shile's weapon was aiming at a target other than him, and that couldn't be good. He glanced back over his shoulder just in time to realize that Shile had dislodged the side of the building above him. Rubble crashed over Vash, burying him completely.

Laughing, Shile kept his gun aimed at the pile. If that wasn't enough to finish off Vash, he could do the job himself. Taking aim carefully, Shile prepared to fire.

Within the pile of rubble, Vash found himself pinned upright by the stones of the building. It wasn't all that heavy, but if he moved any of it, Shile would know he was alive and finish him off. Dust floated from the rubble above him, trickling through his hair. He had clenched his gun tightly, and managed to keep ahold of it. Deep in his arm, he felt a stirring.

"I had to kill her," he explained, voice shaking. "She wouldn't join me so I had to kill her, see? That makes sense, doesn't it? I had to kill her."

His eyes were wide and shaking, he babbled over himself, his speech confusing and twisted. In his shaking hands he held a gun, and on the floor lay the body of another of the ship's crew mates. Vash and Knives looked on grimly, recognizing true madness. Rem was shocked, her mouth hanging slightly slack.

"Please, calm down," she said softly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Stay back!" he demanded, eyes rolling in his head, fear in his voice. "She wouldn't join me so I had to kill her. That makes sense, right? Don't join kill don't join kill." His words faded into a mindless babble. Holding out both her arms harmlessly, Rem moved toward him slowly. Her eyes were compassionate and gentle, and the madman calmed just slightly. Still, he backed against the wall, shrinking from her touch.

"We mean you no harm," Rem continued. "We can help you. Please, just put down the gun..."

Trembling, he shrank back, now completely against the wall. Rem moved onward, keeping her eyes locked on his. From the doorway, Vash and Knives stood in complete silence, not wanting to speak for fear of starting him and ending the spell Rem seemed to have cast. Both pairs of eyes were grim, absolutely riveted to the scene. Slowly, Rem's hand rested lightly on the gun...

The gunshot seemed to scream in Vash's ears, a scream that was soon accompanied by his own. His mind replayed the horrible image over and over, the trigger being squeezed, the bullet ripping through her, the blood in the air.

"Rem," Vash whispered, tears falling freely from his eyes. His voice rose to a desperate shout. "Rem!"



Amid the rubble, Vash felt the change come over his arm. His gun glowed, and his arm began transforming, changing, becoming covered in a new substance. From his back feathery wings sprouted. Grimly concentrating, Vash halted the transformation, only allowing his Angel Arm to manifest itself at less than full power.

Standing on the outside, Shile briefly shook his head, looking at the rubble again. Had it shifted, just slightly? Surely, if Vash was in there, he was severely wounded. But if he wasn't dead, could he still pose a threat?

A hot beam of pure energy flooded from the pile, vaporizing the rubbles surrounding Vash as if it had never existed. Shile gaped in shock for a fraction of a second as the flood of power encompassed him entirely, wiping him away. His very existence was washed away, fragmenting him into atoms, which were ripped apart in the storm of oblivion.

Then Vash was alone, standing in the rubble. He halted the Angel Arm's destruction, forcing it back. Though the ground directly around him was devastated, nothing nearby had been destroyed. As he forced the transformation back, the decaying remnants of his wings and the Angel Arm morphed into a dark brown cloak that surrounded Vash. A wind picked up, blowing the cloak over and around him, partially eclipsing his face.

It was over. Finally over. Vash's head whipped up as he heard footsteps behind him. He glanced behind him quickly, but recognized that it was only Marianne. So she had survived as well. Tired and weary, Vash managed to smile slightly, glad to see her.. Around them, the night was falling, throwing everything into shadow.

A click sounded as a gun was cocked, and both Marianne and Vash froze. Narrowing his eyes, Vash realized Cortez had emerged from the shadows, and his gun was now placed at the side of Marianne's head. Vash was paralyzed, for once out of options. If he so much as moved, Marianne would die.

"Stay where you are, both of you," Cortez hissed, quite unnecessarily. "Set your weapons down slowly. I've wired this place with enough explosives to light the horizon afire. Just admit to yourself that there's nothing you can do to stop this."

"Don't you believe in miracles?"

Shocked by the sound of the voice, Cortez tried to turn, look behind him, see who was speaking. He had barely moved when a bullet ripped through his skull, sending him falling to the ground, instantly dead. Marianne and Vash turned slightly, to stare.

Behind Cortez, Wolfwood stood, still holding his smoking gun at head level. His expression was one of extreme calm. Cortez struck the ground, raising dust, and Wolfwood returned his gun to its place.

"Why are you here?" Vash and Marianne asked at the same time. They glanced at each other in surprise, then back at Wolfwood.

"I decided to go here to start over," Wolfwood explained. "I've started a new orphanage, it's going great. I heard about a lot of trouble over here on this side of town, but I figured it was none of my business. Tonight, for some reason, I just felt like I needed to come out here. I don't know," Wolfwood shrugged, "I'd be a pretty bad priest if I didn't believe in miracles."

Vash smiled slightly, nodding to Wolfwood.

"This is good and all," Marianne broke in, "but didn't he say something about making the entire headquarters explode?"

All three of them glanced at one another, then, as one, made a mad dash away from the building.



Residents of the city could only stare in awe at the gigantic explosion that ripped through the Police Department Headquarters. The cloud of smoke that remained after it lasted for some time, eventually being blown away the next day. Agents of the police agency came and asked questions, but ultimately left, having no information to go by, as the destruction had been total. Fortunately, all of the personal of the building had been evacuated beforehand, so none of them were killed in the explosion. Only a sheriff known as Marianne had been killed. Relatively low casualties, for an issue involving Vash the Stampede.



Outside of the city, lights glowed within the small church that was known as the priest's orphanage. No adults dared come nearby, for rumors of dangers that lurked near it. A few bounty hunters had gone to see if someone dangerous was hiding out there. None of them had returned. Only the children came, lost and alone, crying and hungry.

A man stood at the door of the church alone, staring out into the stars above. It was an extremely clear sky, out here, away from the lights and noises of the city. All of the stars shone brightly. Vash's long red cloak was blown back just slightly by the cool breeze that blew past him. His glasses were off, nothing between him and the stars.

Marianne softly came up behind him, but he sensed her, turning to glance into her eyes before returning his gaze to the stars. They remained side by side for some time, just looking up at the endless expanse.

"The building is completely gone," Marianne told him.

"This will keep the legend of Vash the Stampede alive and well," he answered her. "Once again, he leaves complete destruction in his wake. Not even the police are above his scourge. Where he goes, nothing remains."

"It just builds, doesn't it?" Marianne asked him softly. He nodded, his gaze still upward.

"The legend will not die."

"But the true casualty of the Stampede is you, isn't it?"

This comment caused Vash to look down at her, his eyes searching, wondering what exactly she was thinking, what she meant by that. There were so many ways to take that comment, so many alternate interpretations. His heart yearned to hope for the best. In his life, he had all too often expected the worst.

"Who did you say the legend hurt?" he asked her. She seemed to understand the significance of the question.

"A man named Vash." Another moment of silence, but a good moment.

"Thank you," he finally answered. "More than you know." He let the thanks hang in the air a second before moving on. "What about you? What are you going to do?"

"Fade away, I guess," Marianne answered him truthfully. "Everyone will forget about what happened, and about me. There's no way I can go back to being a sheriff, and the entire department would probably be after me if they thought I was alive. That part of my life is completely over."

"So you won't be arresting me now?" Vash asked, semi-playfully, though his expression didn't change. She recognized it for what it was.

"Would that have even been right? I think that the Police Department needs to be jailed far more than you do."

"Oh. Well, won't be needing these then," Vash said, mock flippantly, tossing the handcuffs into the air. They glimmered in the moons' light for a moment, then fell into the shadows, vanishing. Very fitting, Marianne acknowledged, they mirrored her own change perfectly.

"I have a question," she said, somewhat hesitantly. What if she asked and got the wrong answer? What if she had just been dreaming this entire time? What would that mean for her future? "Back when we first met... do you remember that?"

A slight smile crossed Vash's face. "Yeah."

"I know you were pretending then, not being yourself for reasons I still don't understand. I know that was an act. But you said that you loved me. What was that? Was that all part of the act?" There. She had said it. For a long moment she was kept in suspense and Vash's expression was blank. When he did speak, he did so slowly.

"I did a lot of things during that time I regret. But that wasn't one of them. And do you remember that offer I made?" It was Vash's turn to be hesitant. Nonetheless, he turned to her, his eyes questioning. "It's still open."

"Oh..." Smiling, Marianne embraced him. Seconds after, she felt Vash's arms around her as well. They were both gentle and strong, not rough as they had been so long ago. It was a long moment indeed, doing nothing but holding each other. Finally Vash kissed her, and they stayed together, alone under the stars...

"Well, isn't this convenient?" Wolfwood remarked. Suddenly self-conscious, both turned to him, finding the priest calmly leaning against the doorway, blowing a bit of cigarette smoke. Without a word, he dropped the cigarette, then ground it out with his foot.

"Amazing how these things work out," he went on. "You're in love, you finally figure each other out, everybody's happy and BAM, there's a priest in the room."

Abruptly both of them laughed, and Wolfwood added his laughter to the mix.

"I don't have them on me," Wolfwood continued once they had all calmed down enough, "but you guys won't complain if I do the vows from memory, will you?"



Wolfwood had made a quick exit afterward, knowing the time to stay and the time to flee, leaving them together. They did absolutely nothing for a very long time. Eventually Vash said four words, four words that he had already said long ago, but now had infinitely more significance.

"I love you, Marianne."

"I love you too, Vash."

And after his name there was nothing but a blessed silence.