Trigun

Dragon's Breath

Written by: Spike (Wow, I have something to write now! I don't own Trigun OR Linkin Park's song, In The End, which is entirely kick-ASS and is the influence for this chapter. =P Oh, and my brand new character, Demonte Kalabis, is actually a character from Blood Lotus Demonwalker's stories. You should read them, they're really good!)

A/N: As you can tell, I've begun to develop Kartsu's character in much more detail, now. He's had quite a few experiences, and quite a few major battles. But this next one is the clincher - it sets the stage for the war! Hehe... ready?

I tried so hard, and got so far...

But in the end, it doesn't even matter...

I had to fall, to lose it all...

But in the end, it doesn't even matter......

-Linkin Park, Hybrid Memories, Track 9 - In The End

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mini-Chapter: Death

BLAM. BLAM. BLAM.

The gunshots echoed throughout the sandsteamer, ringing a darkness of flame throughout her heart. Meryl held quite still, breathing heavily as she watched three shots burn into James' head, watched him fall to the ground, blood running all down his face from his eyes. He looked like a deadly corpse from an old tomb. Neither her nor Kartsu moved for several moments. Then, she broke down crying.

"Kartsu... why? Y-y--... YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL HIM!!" She was on her knees, crying deeply into her hands as though he had just shot her rather than James. "You didn't.... you just couldn't.... HOW COULD YOU??" She looked up into his eyes, tears streaming down her face. He could not look... he could not stare down into her eyes. Kartsu was unable to answer her. He just stood there, breathing heavily, sweat running down his hands, one still holding his Colt, the other hoistering the .44. Finally, they were snappd out of their misery by the loud beeping of the two-way radio.

"Mr. Kartsu, Meryl! The sandsteamer is moving! Aren't you at the helm? What's going on?"

In that moment, Meryl could feel it - the sandsteamer really -was- moving. Panicking, she stored her dead feelings away for a little while as she turned to the controls. She could immediatly tell that something was wrong - everything was haywire. She turned to Kartsu, who was still standing over James' corpse, still holding his Colt.

"Kartsu?! Kartsu!! I need some help over here!"

But Kartsu was not listening. He was staring into space, a look of tragedy and chaos in his eyes. It was like he was lost in his own dream - his hands began trembling, his eyes soon swelling up with tears. He dropped to the ground, his Colt falling with a CLUNK shortly after he did. His trembling hands then grabbed his face, covering every one of his masculine features.

"I've become... just like him............ just like.... him... all over again..... again..."

Meryl bit her lip. She had no idea what to do in this type of situation. After several indecisive moments, she walked over to Kartsu and gave him a warm, comforting feel. "It's all right..." Then, she unhooked the two-way radio from his waist and contacted Millie. "Millie, this thing's out of control! How fast are we moving?"

"Ummm... looks about 20 iles and increasing! What are you going to do?" Millie had a tone of discomfort in her voice.

"We'll jump out before it hits 50! Keep counting for us, Millie, or it'll be over for all of us!" She looked over at Kartsu, still crying and mumbling to himself, while Millie's voice jumped her back to reality. "Ok!"

Meryl walked over to Kartsu uncertainly, still unsure about what to do. Finally, she placed an arm around him and heaved him up. "It'll be alright, Kartsu... we've got to go. Come on..."

Kartsu's hand grabbed Meryl's shoulder, and he continued to cry. "I can't be like... like him..... again.... him.... like him... all over..." He looked into her eyes, and spoke of only one word now, faintly at first but slowly growing louder. "Kalabis... Kalabis..."

Damn, this'll be hard to do without killing him, Meryl thought. "But regardless, I've got to try!" With that, she pulled him up to the deck, watching as the sandsteamer picked up speed and crashed through the city's broken dome houses as people scurried to get out of the way. Meryl felt pangs of nostalgia, remembering all that Vash had done. No, don't think about him.... we must survive. She jumped.

Mini-Chapter: Flashback

Kartsu's mind flashed back to a memory he wished he could forget. In it, he was standing in the middle of a lonely desert, standing back-to-back with a tall, handsome man with beautiful orange eyebrows and orange-dyed hair hidden underneath a cloak of black. He was wearing long boots and holding a Silver Colt in his hand, aiming outward towards the army of men coming towards them. Kartsu, also hidden under his sullen cloak of black, was pointing his Golden Colt outwards towards the army. Soon, the man spoke.

"Ready to play with the sharks, Kartsu, ol' buddy?"

Kartsu was overcome with a grin of benevolence as he replied to his partner, "Indeed, Demonte... indeed."

The battle began. Both men moved with an uttmost speed, firing bullet after long-lasting bullet at the armies coming towards them. Ten men were dead with six bullets. Each then popped out the dead bullets and replaced them with new ones, and the battle continued. Man after man fell to their speed and accuracy. Countless drops of blood was poring down their bodies and from out of their wounds as the battle raged on. Within five minutes, everyone was dead, except for the duo of sharpshooters. Breathing heavily, they came back together, each grinning.

"Did you have fun, Kartsu? I imagine having this much fun is a rarity these days, eh?"

But Kartsu was not really happy. He knew that it was a necessity to kill on this planet to stay alive, but he didn't want to kill... his fate had been tied to it. He stared down Demonte with a look of hatred on his face. "Do you think I like to kill? You know better, dammit!"

Demonte's face fell. Slowly, he reached a point of anger. "You know, I recall I'm the one who got your sorry ass out of a large amount of predicaments, and -this- is how you repay me?? Do I get no gratitude???"

Demonte pulled his arm up, pointing the Silver Colt at his partner. "You put this upon yourself, Kartsu. Let it be known now who is the master of the Colts of Gunsmoke. NOW, DIE!!"

BLAM. BLAM. BLAM.

Mini-Chapter: Mistrusted Friend

Kartsu was suddenly yanked out of his memory by the sound of Millie's fearful voice. "Kartsu! Kartsu!!"

He opened his eyes and looked around. His head was resting in Millie's lap, and judging by all the bouncing, Meryl had found a jeep of some sort and was now getting them out of Domastoc. He felt a jolt of emptiness and sat up, looking around. "My Colt! What the hell happened to my Colt??"

"It's nice to see you too, Kartsu." Meryl looked at him from behind the wheel, her eyes set in their usual mood again. She reached into the front seat and grabbed something - with a pang of relief, Kartsu realized it was his Golden Colt. He felt an immediate rush of gratitude towards Meryl, grasping the handle of his Colt and hoistering it. "Thank you... thank you so much."

Meryl waved it away with a swipe of her hand. "It's no big deal. But I think you should start explaining yourself. Something else happened in your past that's bothering you... I can tell. So clam up - what's wrong?" She looked back into his eyes, touching his soul with a look of... pure love? "We can't help you if you don't tell us....."

Kartsu gave a heaving sigh, sitting back into the seat, trying hard not to think about it. But he'd have to... to tell them what happened. "Alright, I'll tell you......" He gave another sigh and began.

"I stayed at my mother's for a few months, and then decided to head out to find a way to live - I couldn't stay at my mom's forever. So, I left. I traveled... must've been 800 iles or so, crossing town to town, even traversing Teardrop, the underground territory, looking for work. But no one was looking for a gunman, no matter how far I traveled. I finally stopped to rest at a saloon. That's when I met... him."

Meryl looked confused. She looked back as they hit another large rock on the path. "Him? Who are you talking about?"

"His name was... Demonte Kalabis. He sat down at the table and layed out five cards. He then asked me to choose a card and then guess its suit. I guessed right, and he sat down and introduced himself. We chatted each other out, talking about our lives, about the world, about sports... we became fast friends. It was almost magical. Turned out, he was an ace bounty hunter looking for a partner. As I needed a job, I agreed to help him. But, as it turns out, he was a bounty -head-, not a bounty hunter. We were eventually tracked down, and I... was forced to kill innocent men. I felt the pain of every person who died that day as I pulled the trigger... reloaded again and again. But when they were all dead, I told Demonte that I didn't want to kill anymore... and he turned his gun...... on me."

Meryl and Millie both gasped. They hit another bump, and Kartsu continued.

"He didn't kill me, thank God - our bond of friendship was too strong for that. But he shot my left leg thrice... I was forced to curl up, alone, as the Silver Colt rode away. It seemed like hours... and then... a wandering stranger helped me. That was about six months ago. Since then, I realized how dangerous the world and the Bad Lads were becoming, so I hid away with my mom. She gave me that prophecy, the very same one you heard at the Marlon Barrel. Then, you contacted us, and we knew it was time."

"Time? Time for what?" Meryl seemed rather freaked out about this information. She was also trying to find a way to get above ground. Kartsu sighed deeply. "I can't tell you that. For one thing, I have no idea. For another, my mom told me it was an important detail that no one really could know about at all. But, well... you know what happens next."

"So... what now?" After hearing all this, Meryl wasn't really sure what they could do now. It seemed Kartsu's past was just as daunting as Vash's was. Even if they could resist, there was no way of doing anything right as long as their ace gunman was distracted with his memories.

"Let's head to Tonin Town. We'll discuss more about our plans once we're there."

Meryl's mind was racing just as fast as the jeep was. Man, this is intense. Kartsu's seen almost as much as Vash has, and twice as much angst. This must be really sad for him... I really don't know what to do.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So here we go. The story's now in full swing. I've also decided to write my stories with this style (Main Chapter Titles with Mini-Chapters included to make up the whole freakin' Chapter). So, cheers to a great story! Be sure to review!

-Spike (In the end, it doesn't even matter.)