Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun or the characters; Rath, Kate, Joseph, the Mysterious New Guy Who Looks Oddly Like Wolfwood but Isn't, and the plot are mine.

Chapter 9. Him

"Meryl!"

"Milly, hold on, I'll be there in a second!" Meryl shouted at her partner in frustration. Something had exploded just near the town jail and had blown the building to pieces. When Meryl picked herself up from the mess of rubble, she found that the buildings around her had been blown away as well, and lay in tiny pieces of gravel around the area.

A tall form picked itself only a few yards away from Meryl, and through the darkness she made the figure out to be Vash.

"Vash!" she called, making her way to him. He turned to her but said nothing.

"Meryl!" came a whimper. Meryl looked over her shoulder at Milly, who was running to up to them. "Meryl, I'm scared . . . what happened?"

"Angel arm," were the only two words Vash could choke out. 'Why now? Knives . . . why not just me?'

"Rath, take me back! Take me back now!" A voice carried over to them, and the three turned, looking up at the sky. Another figure, swallowed in the depths of shadow and pelted with the rain, came soaring over the tops of the remaining buildings. Milly and Meryl watched in amazement as a young man, holding tight around Kate's waste, came to a rough landing nearby.

"Kate, would you stop?! You're acting like a child!"

"Take me back! Cal was only a child!"

"He's dead, Kate, there's nothin' else you can do for him!" This boy, who seemed to know Kate, as he was was on first-name terms with her, had huge, pearly white wings. He flexed them, trying to get comfortable with them, as he leaned up from kneeling over her.

"Kate . . ." Meryl said, stepping forward. Vash stopped her with a hand on the shoulder and proceeded forth himself. He stood above her, not moving, yet inside his mind his workings were going nuts.

'Kate, what happened?'

'Cal . . . he . . . he's dead, Vash . . . He's dead . . .' Kate jumped and hugged Vash around the waste. 'I told him not to go up there . . . I told him to stop, Vash, and he didn't listen. The man pushed him and he . . . and he . . .'

'Where? Where were you?'

'On top of the Plant.' Kate seemed to have either forgotten or didn't seem to care that she was telling Vash things she shouldn't be hearing about their plans. 'He heard something, and he climbed up to see. I told him it- it wasn't safe but he di- didn't listen to me. He was knocked off the Plant, Vash, and there was nothing I could do!' She burst into a heavy wave of tears, her head pounding, sending out violent brain waves.

Vash did the only thing he could think of to comfort his fellow Plant, and that was to wrap his arms around her and bring her into a tight hug. "Kate, I'm sorry . . . This wasn't supposed to happen . . ." Meryl, of course, didn't know what was going on. She still hadn't gotten over the shock of seeing the young boy with wings.

As she stared at him, his eyes widened and he turned, looking away from them. He walked away a few steps, then, after only a moment, he came back. Kate turned to him, Vash loosening his arms slightly.

"Rath," Kate sniffled.

"It's . . . it's Knives . . . he's angry . . . We need to go, now." Kate tore herself away from Vash, though rather reluctantly, and stood beside Rath. She looked back at Vash, her eyes boring into his.

'It's . . . not my fault, you know . . .' was the only thing that was said in the link between them before they took off.

"W-what was . . . that?" Meryl said. Vash smiled faintly and turned.

"That was my brother." Meryl stared after him, then ran to catch up.

"What the hell was that supposed to mean?!"

"He's my brother. Plain and simple, just as Kate was my sister. Plants. They're Plants." Meryl didn't say anything for a few minutes, and then continued.

"Vash, I don't understand. Kate . . . is a Plant? But why wouldn't she tell me? And . . . what's going on? You seem to know more about this than I do."

"Actually, no, I don't. There are still many things that I have yet to uncover. I didn't even know any Plants existed other than Knives and myself. And you still haven't told me what happened the first time December was attacked."

"But . . . Vash, he told me if I told anyone about it, he'd kill someone . . . I didn't want that to happen, and you would have just gotten involved-"

"You think that matters now?" Vash gave a small chuckle. "One of my own have died . . . and by Knives's own, twisted plans, no doubt. But I'm willing to accept that because what he was doing was wrong in the first place . . . I'm not saying that I don't care that my brethren have died, only that it was a risk I have to accept because if it hadn't have happened, even more innocent lives would have been lost . . . and I wouldn't be able to put that on my shoulders as well because I knew that he agreed with Knives's theories. One for a million, or a million for one. A lesser half was better."

Without another word, Vash turned and continued to walk away from Meryl. Milly came up to stand next to Meryl and looked from her to Vash.

"What was the matter, Meryl?"

"A . . . a point of realization . . ."

"Rath," Kate whispered. "Rath, what'll he do? What will he do to us if . . . if . . ."

"I dunno," Rath replied honestly with a shrug of the shoulders. He hesitated before pushing against the two doors before them and admitted Kate her entrance. She stood in the doorway, looking up at Knives, who seemed angry enough. He was leaned over in his throne, an elbow on the arm of the chair and his head resting in his hand. When Kate entered and the door closed behind her, he stood and began to make his way down the stairs. She got on one knee with her head down, as was proper in his presence.

His footprints reverberated around the hall, making them seem louder. She knew they were coming closer and he was standing in front of her when they stopped. She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears. She was still soaking and shivering from the cold rain, and her face turned, if possible, even more pale as she stared up at an infuriated Knives.

He walked around her, his hands behind his back.

"Very disappointed," he said in a smooth voice.

"Sir-"

"Just like your predecessors."

"But, Sir! I can explain!" Something collided with the side of her head, sending her fully to the ground. She clutched her temple and looked back at Knives, failing to hold back her tears and cries of sorrow and pain. She finally broke down and cried again, loudly. Knives clutched her upper arm tightly in a steel-like grip and hoisted her up.

"Shut up," he demanded in an icy tone.

"No! He's dead! He's dead, Knives, and you don't give a shit! You couldn't care less what happens to us, you just want to get at your brother!" Knives practically threw her back to the ground.

"True though it is, I wouldn't sully my flesh over something as meaningless as this."

"Then why?! Why waste your time?! You're stronger than Vash, why go through all the trouble?"

"It's not just about my brother, but about the rest of human kind."

"Well if I can't do it right then why can't you do it yourself?! You promised nothing would happen, but I know you planned for Cal's death, just like you're doing for us-!" Kate stopped as a gun was cocked back and she was staring straight up the barrel.

"Out," Knives ordered. Kate stood and walked slowly to the door, pushing it open and leaving out. Rath stood there, staring at Knives, who only smirked and turned to take his seat back at his throne.

A figure formed from between the boiling hot geysers, the town several iles ahead only a pinprick to his eye. A cigarette was between his first two fingers on his right hand, smoking and half-used. He put it to his lips and inhaled, taking it away and waiting before blowing the smoke out and adding it to the steam from the geysers. He started forward again, the gun at his side making clinking noises as it hit against his sack of coins. As he set his eyes on the town, coming into better focused, he said aloud, "Victim two hundred and twenty-seven."

For some unknown reason, for the following two days Vash preferred sitting beside the remnants of the jail house, like some sign telling the people he was still there and wasn't going to move. Often times a small group of people would walk by and stare, or point, or gasp and run away in fear of getting their bodies blown apart . . . or something like that.

But for Meryl and Milly, they came by a few times to check up on him. He wouldn't speak. The only times he did was to say 'yes' , 'no' , or 'thank you' .

In that short period of time, no one saw Kate around, or the winged boy. Vash knew what had happened to them. They were scared. Hell, he probably would be too. They were really only children, though, compared to him. And even though what they were doing was wrong, he still felt pity for them. He even came to wonder how and why they came to be with Knives. It couldn't have been hunger for power, Plants were already superior as it was. No. He knew what it was. A past, most likely abusive. A past where they lived with humans and put up with discrimination against their abilities, just like Knives and Vash had.

Vash was still pondering this when a shadow fell across him. He looked up from the sands beneath him and into the face of a man. Besides the girls, this was the only person to come within three feet of him in the past forty-eight hours.

"You're Vash the Stampede." Well, no need to state the obvious.

"Yes, I am."

"I just wanted to let you know that there was a shooting just outside of town that left twelve people dead." Oddly enough, this stranger had a twisted grin on his face. Vash jumped and ran, the man following behind at his own pace, with his hands thrust in his pockets and a smoking cigarette in his mouth (A/N: I KNOW what you are thinking ^_~).

Just past the Plant, Vash spotted them. Twelve lifeless bodies, empty carcasses of their former selves . . . soul-less shells. . . okay, dead. They lay motionless at the base of the Plant. Not a single one was left alive.

"Who-?"

"Me," came the short reply. Vash turned as the sound of a gun being cocked reached his ears. The man now stood with his left hand in his pocket and his right holding a gun. His malicious eyes were full of glee and his soft smile looked odd on him for this situation. He looked as if everything were perfectly normal.

Vash put his hands up in defeat.

"You'll shoot me then?"

"Maybe."

"Well then . . . I request one thing."

"And what might that be?"

"Tell me . . . why'd you do it?"

"Knives," came the reply, plain and simple. "I, too, work for your brother Knives. I knew you'd come running if you'd heard about a couple of meaningless corpses lyin' around, so I staged it out for you. God, from what I've heard about you bein' a real gung-ho gunslinger you sure are kinda girly about this."

Vash gave a faint smile. "Everything you've heard about me is wrong, my friend. July, the fifth moon . . . I can guarantee that everything that has reached your ears that has had anything to do with Vash the Stampede was either not true or incomplete."

"And what was that supposed to mean?"

"I don't go into the past. I prefer the future." Vash knew he was confusing the man. "Didn't my brother explain anything to you? I mean, we're only twins."

"I've heard enough about it. Just shut up and wait."

"Wait for-?" Suddenly there was yet another explosion, only this time . . . Vash knew it was definitely more devastating than the last. This was something else, not just a misguided angel arm . . . But Vash knew what it was after . . .

"Meryl!!"

Author's Notes: *sighs* seemed kinda toward the end of my story, didn't it? Well, with the introduction of my newest dude we got a looong ways to go ^_^ Next time!! --- '' "Human emotions are so easy to toy with," came the blonde man's remark as he watched the city below him crumble away. ''