Disclaimer: Trigun has never been and will never be mine, no matter how many people I try to bribe.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Price of The Angel's Life
Rhianne felt the heated gazes of her comrades as she stepped out from the security of their makeshift fort on the porch of the little café. She clutched Rinoa tightly in her arms, and the steady beating of the child's heart set her at ease. Everything would work out, she was sure of it.
Now able to concentrate her energy on one thing, she created a protective bubble around herself, condensing the air molecules around her as she walked into the center of the street, ignoring the rattle of gunfire as the gunmen fired round after round at her. She inhaled a deep breath and summoned what remained of her courage.
"Hey!" She cried out. The gunfire stopped. It was as though her voice had acted as a remote control, muting everything around her. "I want to see the man in charge!" Her voice rung out, clear as crystal in the still air that had, moments before, been sliced through by thousands of bullets. From to her left she heard a muffled voice command someone to 'get the boss'. She gulped and hoped for the best.
From behind her came the crunching of the sand, and Rhianne whirled around to see the man who had ordered her death. His gaunt face looked as though the very life had been sucked out of it, for it shared the gaping qualities of a hollow human skull. His chocolate hair was greasy and was doted with small flecks of dandruff, and was parted to one side in a vain attempt to conceal a bald spot forming atop his head. His body, clad in a black topcoat and pants, was nearly as gaunt and lifeless as his facial features. The small cigarette he had held in one bony hand was dropped to the sand and crushed beneath a newly polished brogue shoe. The hand that had held the cigarette folded behind his back, while the other hovered over a large revolver riding at the holster at his hip. From behind black sunglasses he regarded the woman before him with a keen interest. His thin lips pulled back into a small grin.
"You asked for me, my dear?" he said in a voice as smooth as glass. But it didn't conceal the sinister undertones lying within. He was obviously angered by the fact his men hadn't been able to take out the trio.
"Yes" Rhianne stated, keeping her voice even and emotionless "who are you? Why are you trying to harm my friends?" The grin widened.
"Far too many questions for a creature such as yourself. But I see no harm in answering them. I am Drake Connell. This" he waved an arm around "is the band of men I have assembled over the thirty years as a bounty hunter; and as to our motives? We have received a direct request to eliminate you and your companions from a rather disgruntled man by the name of Leo."
Rhianne gasped, nearly dropping the unconscious girl in the process. Leo… he had been the cook that had tried to kill them. Leo was the one Knives had insisted die. Leo was the one she had allowed to be spared….
"Leo asked us to kill you." Drake stated, interrupting her thoughts. He stepped closer.
"Now, why is it you want to see me? Does it have to do with her?" he nodded at Rinoa, who Rhianne was still holding in a vice grip. The plant nodded.
"Yes. She was fatally wounded. I healed her, but she needs to get out of here and rest up before she gets hurt again."
Drake chuckled quietly "trying to atone for your sins, are you?" Rhianne blinked, unsure of how to handle a remark such as that.
"You." He spat, not waiting for her to respond "you and your wretched kind. You and those two over there are nothing but a bunch of unnatural freaks. You were never meant to exist. You shouldn't have the powers you do, or be able to do things that you do. You should be confined in your bulbs, working for us, like you were meant to be. It's because of that man over we're stuck on this hellhole of a planet. Because of his brother thousands have died and lost the ones they loved. Your kind have brought nothing but misery and unhappiness to us, and you try to make it all better by saving one insignificant little girl? Do you think you can make up for killing thousands by saving a few?" He sneered, watching in twisted satisfaction as Rhianne's face paled as what he said sank in.
She blinked a few times, trying to grapple with the words she had just heard. How could he think that? How did he…
"How do you know about Knives?" she thought aloud, realizing she had asked him only in the moments after. Drake smiled darkly at Knives, who was being restrained by Vash from leaving their fort.
"When Burnadelli received the report from the two insurance girls sent to track Vash the Stampede, it made headline news. In the report the woman, Meryl I believe her name was, went into great detail about the cause of the Great Fall, the destruction of July and Augusta, the cyclone of troubles that seemed to have been caused by the Humanoid Typhoon that were, in fact, caused by his meddlesome twin and his group of freaks, and what Vash and his brother Knives really were. That was when the names Vash and Knives had become synonymous with death and destruction. Since then we have hated them with the fiercest of passions. We hate them. We hate what they are. We hate that they have been granted weapons of destruction that can wipe us all out should they so wish it. We hate their immortality. We hate that they contain such a powerful life force but we can't use it to our advantage. We hate it that they have a will, power to choose, we hate it that they are like us."
His speech finished, he approached the slightly taken back plant and stretched out his hand. Three inches from her face he lay his palm flat on the air.
"You have a barrier" he stated, as though he was mocking her for not having the confidence to step into the street unshielded. Rhianne gazed evenly at him, trying with all her might not to whip out her angel blades and slice the man to shreds for his ignorance. But she knew better. She would start a scene and the gunmen atop the buildings would take it out on Vash and Knives. She knew they would wind up dead without the barrier. There were far too many people against them for them to win, even with Vash's well-known sense of luck, they would be lucky to die quickly. She gave this Drake character credit, he had known what he had been up against, and there was no doubt of that.
"All I want is for you to take Rinoa somewhere safe." She spat, her voice icy. Drake smiled, his lips pulling back from his nearly gray gums and yellowed crooked teeth. Rhianne could hear the air whistle through the gap between his two front teeth as he in haled and exhaled, each breath taken sharply. He was furious, Rhianne could tell. He hated the very thought of talking to her. He thought her a luscious woman, yet it disgusted him to see such features placed so perfectly upon one of them. When he found himself attracted to her physical features, he felt like gouging out his own eyes. She disgusted him, and if it were not for her barrier, he would have placed a bullet in her brain when he first set eyes upon her.
"Look, I'm not here for your lectures" Rhianne interrupted his thoughts "all I want is for you to take Rinoa to safety. That's all I ask."
Drake gazed at her steadily. Her aqua eyes looked so full of life and vibrancy and emotion it sickened him. She was a freak and should be locked safely away in a bulb where she could be watched. His eyes turned to the girl clutched tightly in her arms. Her breathing was light and long, her chest rising and falling evenly with sleep. The plant woman wasn't bluffing, he could see the small white scar contrasting her tanned skin where the wound had been healed over and the blood staining her clothing. She had been shot and the freak had healed her. Drake shuddered. He would much rather die than be healed by one of them.
"All right. But on one condition" he started, examining his nails aloofly "in exchange for the girl's safety, you have to take down that barrier of yours." Rhianne's eyes widened "I can't do that. You know as well as I do your men will shoot me." She shook her head. Drake chuckled quietly.
"Would you rather an innocent child die?" he asked darkly. The determination on her face wavered and she bit her lip.
"Will you give me a minute?" she asked. Drake shrugged "as you wish it" Rhianne nodded and closed her eyes. There was one last thing she had to do.
*Knives?* She mentally prodded into his mind.
Yes? Came the reply. Rhianne could sense his eyes on her, knowing exactly what she was about to do.
She allowed her barrier to evaporate around her, placing it around her fellow plants to ensure that they would be able to stay alive, even if she couldn't. She kissed Rinoa's forehead and placed her into Connell's arms. He snickered and stepped back a few feet, raising his hand above his head.
*I love you so much…*
Drake snapped his fingers and the gunmen started shooting.
The very first sensation Rhianne was aware of was the sharp pain in her right shoulder, watching as her own blood shot out into the air and feel to the ground. Another pain in her leg. Another in her abdomen, the bullet lodging itself in her gut. Another sharp pain in her chest. Another and another and another. She felt her body being riddled with bullets as she fell to her knees upon the sand, cringing as the bullets in her legs got pushed farther into her flesh as she put her weight onto them. One pierced her throat, the very spot Rinoa had been shot. One went through her palm, and she heard the sound of her own bones cracking and felt hot tears stream down her face and her voice wheeze as she struggled to get enough air through her pierced windpipe. Her hair clung to her bloody neck and back, falling into her wounds and sending a sharp tickling sensation through her body. She felt a large bullet hit her right foot and explode, and watched as her severed foot sailed over her head and landed on the sand, the toes of still wiggling through the pieces of her boot. Unable to bear the pain, Rhianne fell to the ground and watched as her own blood stained the little rocks that ground themselves around in her wounds and made her grit her teeth. She wouldn't scream; not ever. She reached her left arm forwards, towards the feet of the sinister man that had forced her into this. She looked up at him, her eyelids getting heavy, and watched him pull the revolver from its holster at his hip. Barely aware of what he was doing because of the overwhelming pain, Rhianne watched helplessly as he cocked his gun and pointed it at her, grinning.
This is it…she thought to herself, barely aware of her own thoughts I'm going to die. She felt her heartbeat slow as Drake moved the gun to the temple of the little girl she had worked so hard to save. Her eyelids fell heavily over her eyes as her heart stopped, and the very last thing Rhianne De LaTour saw was Drake Connell pulling the trigger of the gun placed at Rinoa's forehead as the icy darkness descended upon her.
