NEW A/N: I must say one thing:
BAD FANFICTION.NET, BAD!! For some reason, my scene dividers did not appear to have survived the transition from Word to FF.net, so I must apologize the difficult reading that it must have been. Unless of course you didn't read this before this reposting, then in which case, go read it now. Now I need to use those long bar thingies. Many, mant thanks to luna-kitsune-blu (GO READ HER FICS) for pointing out the mistake!
I now return you to your regularly schedualed programing:
OLD A/N: Well, here I am with another update, and hopefully this one was reasonably timely compared to the others. Hope this one is good, since I have been thinking about what to do in this one since before I started the fic at all…
Please be patient with this chapter, for it is 'insanely long'. Although I know someone who has said they liked 'insanely long', I'm not sure if that'll be true concerning this chapter. In my personal opinion this chapter was much too long, but I needed to get it all in there, and there was no place I could have split this into two chapters without losing the, hmm, 'rhythm', I suppose is way to describe it.
Well read on, and kudos and many thanks to anyone capable of reading this entire chapter, a chapter TWICE (and I'm not exaggerating) as long as most of the others.
Please, after reading all this, review!
(there is no A/N at the end, so everything is stuffed into this beginning one)
Chapter Twelve: HIS MERCY
The giant silver and blue weapon that had replaced the boy's arm kept growing with energy pouring out of him as it did so. Meryl stared down the barrel of Cherub's Angel Arm in horror. Millie still stood before the boy, biting her lip and doing her best to not look away from the impending doom.
Energy that resembled lightning cackled along the weapon as its growth slowed. As far as Meryl could tell, the monstrosity had finished growing, but that did nothing to calm her, but only to make her worry and fear grow. The boy's hair was pushed back by the waves of energy, making it flow behind him like a long cape stuck in a gale.
There was nothing either of the women could do. Running would be useless for the either blast or Cherub himself would inevitably catch up to them; fighting was pointless, neither of the insurance girls had the weaponry to take on the Angel Arm. Pleading would be the most useless; the boy appeared to have even less patience with humans than his creator-father.
Vash…tears streamed down Meryl's face and she closed her eyes in an attempt to stop the flow, but they continued to pour forth. I'm sorry that I couldn't have been stronger…I'm sorry for…for everything! For the yelling, the names…the hate you must have thought I had for you. It…wasn't real.
But now I'll never get to tell you…
As she awaited the coming of nothingness, a bright burst of light, strong enough to be seen through even her closed eye lids. A bloody curdling scream called out less than a moment after, shocking the frightened girl into opening her eyes. Meryl felt something around her waist, and before her, very close and shrouded in the white light of the energy, stood a angel that reminded her of someone.
"Vash, I'm sorry…"
She then succumbed to the light.
Millie raced through the ruins of the town searching for Meryl. Eventually, she came into a clearing near the center of July, but instead of seeing Meryl, there stood what must have been the creature Knives had created. The boy looked slightly kind to Millie, but even she could see the intemperate hate boiling underneath him.
In amazement and confusion, the tall woman watched as the boy raised his arm and pointed it at something, and the arm began to transform. Following the direction, she saw Meryl sitting in the street in front of Cherub.
In the pit of her stomach Millie knew what the growing replacement for the boy's right arm was.
"NO!" as she screamed her lungs out, the tall woman raced over and placed herself between the gung-ho gun and her best friend. She stared straight into the eyes of the murdering teenage version of Knives and Vash.
A hint of shock and confusion crossed Cherub's face. "What? A second one? Just another target. You shouldn't have come here, I don't see why you did."
Using all the anger and rage she contained, Millie screamed at the other with as much malice as the gentle woman could muster, "Well, I'm not leaving!"
She heard a light whisper from behind her that she recognized as Meryl saying "Oh, Millie…"
"Fine! Then you will both die!" Cherub shouted. The Angel Arm continued to grow, as did Millie's fear. Give me some strength…please…
"Don't worry Big Girl, just a bit longer!"
Millie didn't know whether the voice was in her head, of if she had really heard it. Either way, it helped quell her anxiety, albeit by only a bit.
The tall woman looked away from the horrible weapon that was aimed in her direction and bit her lip. Her eyes watered.
"You gave me what I needed to do to face what I feared!
"If you gave me what I needed to stand before the demons of my past,
"to look into their eyes and still declare that they were wrong,
"to give me the courage to decide that I need not abide to them for what I did in the present,
"to give me the determination to stand up to them,
"to face, with courage and resolve, what I knew to be wrong, even if I myself had created them,
"to try to change them and make up for them the best I could,
"then I KNOW that you can face this!"
Her eyes opened and her tears stopped. Millie stood straight up, and with pride, looked down the cannon directed at her. She stomped her foot and glared at the boy before her.
Cherub's haughty grin died quickly at the new aura the woman, who he had thought to be nothing but a gentle fool, gave off. Soon, the grin returned, but with this one had the sensation of him being glad to find someone with such countenance.
A bright white flash quickly appeared, and Millie was forced to look away. A scream off agony echoed around her, but before she felt the light consume her, she felt something around her, and she could see what appeared to be an angel guiding her.
I rushed through July with all the energy that I could muster, searching frantically for Cherub. I did not know why I was doing this, since I should have been content with him tearing the humans to shreds, but at the time of learning that it was Millie and Meryl, not someone sifting though the city's remains or some criminal using the place as a hideout, I had the strangest sensation enter my system.
With no reason, as far as I could tell, I got the urge to run to them. Instead, I convinced myself that I was looking for Cherub, which I knew was a thin lie, since wherever I found one, I knew I would find the others.
I knew the direction Cherub was from his mind, but moments before, I felt the waves of energy that must have been the Angel Arm pass through the city as it grew and charged.
My lungs burned, but the thought of the Angel Arm pushed myself on harder. I rushed around a corner, almost tripping in the process, and sprinted for the center of the city. I nimbly jumped over piles of debris over and over, only going around the ones I quickly deemed impossible to scale.
I shouldn't have waited so long after Millie ran off. What was it, five minutes? Ten? Fifteen?! I screamed at myself. I clenched my teeth and pumped my legs fast, each limb threatening to fall off from exhaustion. I did what I could to use more of my energy. Being a Plant gave me reserves that even the healthiest and fittest human could not dream of achieving.
I skidded around the final building, and there before me were all three of them. Meryl, Millie, and Cherub. The shorter woman was sitting on the ground with he eyes closed, and I could see she was crying. The taller woman was staring my creation down with a gaze that, only on the face of someone as kind as her, could scare the most merciless monster into cowering away.
And Cherub, lacking all mercy possible, naturally stood before the two women, Angel Arm at the ready, with a grin of pleasure across his face.
No time, no time, no time! Damn it, I waited too long to get moving! I need to think quickly! I thought.
As I looked over the situation, I thought that there was no way to prevent the annihilation of this city's remains, nor was there any way to convince Cherub to stop, if it was possible for him to willingly stop at all. My eyes were stuck on the Angel Arm, the giant cannon was fully grown now, awaiting the last bit of energy to be collected to fire.
My eyes locked on to the orb of energy the was within the growth. Being unshielded by the Angel Arm, the large orb, which a large portion of the energy that would be fired, was an easy target. My memories went back to the fight between Vash and I, when he used the cross punisher to force my two Angel Arms to revert back to normal.
I pulled my colt out of my pocket, and as I aimed the revolver at the mass of energy, I began to move towards the two women. I fired the weapon, sending a bullet towards Cherub. The small piece of metal quickly pierced the energy, causing the Angel Arm to become unstable. It sent out a bright flash of light, but luckily I was expecting that, so I looked away, and that, along with my distance from the light, prevented me from being effected by the light, which was more than I could say about the women.
Being a part of his body, the pain in the weapon caused Cherub to release a horrible yelp of pain.
I rushed for the two women, and I placed my arm around the waist of Millie and heaved her up, and then I did the same (albeit much more easily) for Meryl. The short woman made groggy from the flash of light, mumbled, "Vash, I'm sorry…" I could not possibly guess what the two of them could have seen or heard during the flash of light, although both undoubtedly thought themselves dead.
Sparing a glance over my shoulder, I saw Cherub doubling over in pain. He fell to the ground clutching his right arm, and looked up, right at me, with tears in his eyes. Right then, at that moment, he appeared to me as a child who had his heart broken, and I finally realized that, despite why and how he was created, he was my son.
I looked before me, dodging the rubble and ruins with the two humans in my arms. Two humans that I had saved…I still don't believe this. I don't even know why!"
I continued rushing until I made it to the a large building, one that appeared to be fairly intact. It had all the markings of a large, distinguished hotel. I ran for a hole in the side of the building that once contained a gigantic window, but now only held spider webs.
Thankfully the hole was more than large enough so that I could jump through with both women in my arms without having to do any acrobatics to fit. Finding myself inside what had once been an ornate and fancy lobby, I searched for what I had hoped would be there.
In the corner I saw it: a doorway to the basement. I pulled the already open door the rest of the way with the tip of my boot and I did my best to make it down the stairs carrying two humans, both of which were still in a mild case of shock. When in the basement itself, I placed the two girls on a couch I found there.
"If he fires it now, this room will remain intact," I said to no one in particular. It was the truth. The room was already in good shape, and after the original Angel Arm blast and thirty years of abandonment, that was a very good sign of durability.
I stood and looked down upon the two figures that just then began to stir. Why am I doing this? Have I become weak, have I become Vash? I took a deep breath and cleared my head. I needed to find a way to stop Cherub so that I could think all of it through. After looking at the two women—two women that had been cared for by two of my brother, and a wayward subordinate—for a few moments, turned and raced back up the stairs, returning to the lobby.
Instead of exiting through where I had entered, I climbed another set of stairs, and then another, and another, until soon I made it to the roof. I threw the door open, and stepped back out into the cold air, realizing that night had fallen in full. The twin suns were gone, and the stars and moons lit the sky with their pale eerie lights.
But there was another group of lights that caught my attention, ones that I had hoped would wait longer to make their presence known.
The tiny white streaks that had been small pieces of the Fifth Moon falling were replaced by giant fiery red gashes in the sky; the larger portions of the dead satellite were just then succumbing to the will of Gunsmoke's gravity, and because of that fatal embrace, the remains were plummeting towards the planet.
The angle…speed…acceleration and mass…the tug of gravity and the planet's rotation…I ran numbers through my evolved mind, a process that rivaled that of the human's most advanced calculators. Damn it! I had realized the targets of the meteors' unintentional kamikaze flight . What are the odds of this?!
I then realized that not only did I have to find and stop Cherub, but I had a time limit as well before July suffered the barrage.
A shrill cry from behind me cut through my deep thoughts, and as I quickly jumped in a complete circle to face the oncoming attack, I was struck. Cherub's flight-powered body slam was enough to send me over the edge of the building and clear across the gap to the next. I slammed onto the roof of the much smaller structure with a slam that knocked the feeling out of my right arm for a moment.
I grunted as I hefted myself back onto my legs. Cherub smoothly turned in the air to come back for another attack, but I, already knowing what he was going to do, was able to dodge the boy's frantic slam.
"I do not want to hurt you!" I yelled out to him.
"Shut up!" the boy screamed without turning to face me. He roughly landed onto the roof, his momentum making him skid. As he turned, Cherub used that force to propel himself into a high-speed sprint towards me.
I braced myself, making it seem as though I was going to hold my own, but at the last moment I jumped away, rolled under my child's left wing, and brought myself around to a crouching position.
"You don't care anymore! You're no better than that damned Vash!" he had come to a full stop, and slowly turned. His face was red and tears fell down his face. "You don't give a damn about me; you're no Father of mine!"
I felt a shake, and looking down, I saw that the portion of roof I was upon was weak and threatened to crumble under my weight. Looking back to Cherub I spoke, "That is not true! I need only more time to think of what I must do."
"You shot me!"
I did not know what to say to that. I could only imagine what was going through the boy's head…
No…I knew full well what he felt. The pain, the crushing agony, it was how I felt the first time Vash shot me, and then again after he defeated me in our last fight. It was the same feeling of anguish and loss that I had felt, and become accustomed to, but in his case, it must have been increased tenfold.
To be shot and defeated by your rival and opponent, whether brother or not, was one thing, but to suffer such a grievous wound, physical, mental, and emotional, from the one being you believed in, and cared for; to be wounded in such a way by your father was much more devastating.
"It…it was not my fault, I had no choice!" great, now I'm starting to sound like Vash; no reasoning behind my actions…
Cherub let out a scream and kicked off, flying in my direction with impressive acceleration. Even I, his creator and…father…did not fully anticipate his power, especially in this weakened state of his.
I quickly jumped into the air and slammed my feet into the section of roof that I had been standing on. Already weakened and rusted, the area shattered beneath me, and I fell through so that Cherub passed harmlessly (other than the slight shock wave caused by quick movement of air caused by his speed) overhead. Just as I thought…I said to myself, slightly glad that that tiny evasion had worked.
What I was not glad about was the fact that the next two floors were as weak or weaker than the roof was. I smashed through both and then landed (If that word could be applied to what I did), painfully, onto one of the more sturdy floors.
Thankfully, my rear broke most of the impact of the fall. "Damn it." I whispered as I rubbed the sore area.
Checking left and right to make sure Cherub was not trying to plow his way through one of the soft walls or one of the doorways or windows. I felt a tingle in the back of my head, and I looked up as Cherub was entering through the holes I had created. His wings were laying stiffly along his back so that he would fit in the small holes.
This, of course, coupled with gravity, and the momentum he had before he dive-bombed into the building, gave him an incredible amount of speed. I rolled out of the way just as he smashed into the floor, causing it to shatter. Everything in the small room, including myself, fell to the ground floor.
Picking myself up from the ground, I shook my head to make the dizziness and loud banging noises to leave my skull. Even in the unlit, dark room I could recognize Cherub's body laying on the ground from his shimmering wings.
Despite him being far out of reach, I stretched out my arm as if to touch him. As Cherub stirred, I turned, realizing that I had little time before he made a another mad and uncoordinated attack towards me. I front-rolled out a nearby window, and landed in the street.
That was no good. He was incapacitated, but I could still sense that he was too strong and full of anger to calm. How am I going to do this? Run away with what little I have until an answer comes that fits my problem?
I was no longer thinking of Cherub and the current situation.
No…I have been doing that for one hundred thirty years. I will run now, but only because, for once, I really do have a plan.
I figured that running until Cherub, through his use of immense adrenaline and self-harming attacks, would tire until he proved no threat. Of course, the thought that I, too, would tire by that time, or possibly long before, was in my mind, but I had no choice.
As I rushed down the street, away from the large hotel that held the two humans, I heard a deafening crash far to my left, on the outskirts of the ruins of July. Smoke was all that I could see of what caused it, but I knew that my time limit was up.
It began to rain.
No, it did not rain water, that has never happened upon the surface of Gunsmoke for over a thousand years.
No, it rained hellfire.
The remains of the Fifth Moon, succumbing finally to the pull of Gunsmoke's gravity well, crashed through the sky. Before, the smaller ones, more easily torn from orbit by gravity, burned up into nothingness in the atmosphere. Slightly larger ones caused white streaks that many would consider to be a falling star, or possibly a meteor shower. The larger ones caused deep red gashes in the night sky.
But the most gigantic, the ones that fought the pull of Gunsmoke's embrace to the last, survived the death-plunge through the atmosphere, and fell towards the planet's surface. It was one of these gigantic portions of moon that had caused the explosion near the edge of July, but I knew there was more to come.
I was correct, of course. Sometimes I truly hate being right, really, I do.
Crashes as far as seventy iles from July were easily noticeable by me, and soon more fiery rain plummeted towards the city. Continuing my aimless run, I hoped that none would come into contact with the hotel that was a haven for the women.
Even with everything going on around me, I could still feel the twisted sensations inside me when I thought about what I was doing. Saving two human women that were friends with my brother, who I once hoped dead, did seem horribly strange.
A projectile the size of a thomas crashed into the road before me, and sent up a cloud of dirt. I put my arm over my eyes to shield them from the cloud as I continued. I could feel the heat of the rock as I passed it.
Horrible explosions surrounded me, coming from every part of the city.
I felt it again, the tingle from my clone's mind in the back of my own, and I looked over my shoulder to see Cherub flying high above the city, flying nimbly between the steadily increasing shower of meteors.
This will not last long; We only have to survive a while longer, and then I can figure out what it is I am to do.
A giant piece of moon crashed onto the road that I was running on a few dozen yars ahead of me. Instead of continuing over or around the hot object, I quickly turned left, onto a street that was between a building that barely stood upon its own strength and a pile of rubble on the other side that had once been a building itself.
Cherub, still under the influence of adrenaline, impatience, and rage, created a shortcut by tearing through one side of the building and coming out the other. The already unstable structure collapsed just as the boy appeared out of a window and continued the chase.
The bi-winged boy flew down so that he was skimming closely over ground and, despite the fact he needed to avoid the falling celestial debris more so than I due to his large wingspan, was catching up to me very quickly.
I jumped to my left to avoid a large rock that plowed into the ground that I had been running on, and continued my sprint. The shower would soon end, but I did not know at the time whether that would be a good thing or bad. Cherub also had to dodge a large boulder aimed at him, and he did so by barrel-rolling to his right, tearing through a wall and then doing the same again to bring himself back behind me. It was obvious by the way he crashed into walls and buildings that he was doing it purposefully and in a way that he would not harm himself.
After making a left turn into a section of the city that was covered with nothing but garbage, I went from running to jumping. From twisted iron bar to metal pole to wooden rafter I continued my aimless escape.
"Why do you run?" Cherub's voice was clear enough to me that not only did I realize that he had closed the gap between us quickly, but also the storm of fiery hail was waning. "Why don't you shoot me!? Huh, Father?!"
I did not answer; I could not think of one. His use of the word 'father' went from one of endearment to one of contempt.
"You're just like him now aren't you?!" You just tricked me!" He let out a yell and thrust his arm out in an attempt to make contact with my skull, which failed. I dodged his kicks and punches, which slowed him down, my moving slightly out of the way, or jumping to another spot at the right moment.
I could not keep it up forever, though, so I had to find something quick that would slow him down. As I thought this, a saw a large wall that appeared to be made of wood. There was a lone window on the giant section of wall, so I made right for that. I leapt up and through the hole and landed gently onto the road. I braced myself for the sound that would come next.
A loud slamming noise and a short, but painful yelp echoed from the other side of the wall. As I let a few moments pass, I decided that Cherub was now out of my hair for a great while.
I'm sorry, I said with my mind in hopes my son would hear it.
The wall was not made of wood. Wood, being a rare and expensive commodity even in a place that was once the largest and most prosperous city on Gunsmoke, which led to imitations being made. One of the poorer ones was a simple wooden paint-like substance spread onto steel to make it more pleasing to human eyes.
That was what the wall was. Instead of pushing through the structure like he would have any wooden one, Cherub slammed full-force into a steel reinforced wall.
After waiting more than a few minutes to catch my breath, I turned to the sky. The shower was all but done, but it had passed July and if I was correct, only a few other smaller human settlements were in danger. There was nothing to do, of course, but odds are the damage would not be too great.
I surveyed where I had ended up, and I quickly recognized the building before me on the other side of the street; it was the one I had fell through at the beginning of my race with Cherub. That meant the hotel I had left the humans at was on the other side. I decided that, since Cherub must have been incapacitated by his crash, I could get the women, return them to Inepril, leave them with Vash, and then leave again to find Cherub and sort this whole ideal out.
Not wanting to take any longer than needed, I ran through the door-less doorway of the building. As I did so, I noticed the structure shook from my entrance. Cherub's attack on the building earlier had left it weakened. In fact, the only thing keeping the building up was a thick wooden beam in the middle of it.
Being careful not to make the building move too much, (on account that I did not want three stories of home falling atop me) I made my way to the other side and exited through a large hole in the wall. I stepped onto the road and looked to where the hotel—and Meryl and Millie—were supposed to be.
"No…" I could feel the blood leave my face. In the spot that had once been my hiding place for the two humans was nothing more than a smoking pile of rubble. A large portion of moon had crashed into it, tearing all the way through the sturdy, six-story story building down to the basement.
I clenched my teeth and squeezed my hands into fists so tight that I could feel my fingernails draw blood from my palms. Doing my best to slow down my heart and my breathing, I slowly made my way towards the carnage.
Nothing…nothing could possibly have survived this…
My chest hurt and my gut felt as if I had swallowed heavy stones.
I heard a smashing noise behind me, but thinking I had nothing to fear, I did not turn away from the scene before me of the smoking rubble that contained my brother's closest friends; two people—two humans—that caused these feelings to go through me.
Suddenly, I sharp pain shot through the back of my head and spine, and I flew forward, slamming into one of the few sections of wall still standing. I slumped down, but managed to turn enough that I was then sitting in the direction of whatever hit me.
Cherub, silver wings splayed out to his sides, stood in front of me, glaring with all the immense hatred, despair, and pain that he could muster. "Why do you HATE me?!"
"I do not hate you…" I managed to get out. I had lost any will to fight that I had pervious to the revelation of the humans' deaths.
"Then why do you help the humans?! You're nothing more than a hypocrite!"
I stared at him without making a sound. What could I say? The boy was right.
"Everything I knew was a LIE!!" cherub's jaw began to quiver while he spoke. "Now I know that humans are not the only ones that cannot be trusted, they are not the only ones that deserve to DIE!!
"There is none on this world that deserve to live, deserve to be trusted, and most of all, none that deserve to be happy!" he slowly walked towards me, bent down and grabbed my weapon. I had no reason to stop him; I had made my choice when I saved the women. Now I had to live—or die—with whatever consequences that action will bring upon me.
As he spoke, Cherub the Seraphim, my son, stared wistfully at the revolver that sat upon his palm, "Everything I knew was a lie; therefore my life is a lie; lies do not deserve recognition. My life is pointless! Worthless!" tears streamed down his face, "everything I hoped for, looked for, wished for, cared for turned around tried to destroy me!
"I had hoped for one thing, really, after finding my father. No, I have no father, really. I am nothing more than a toy or a little experiment to you?! ARE I NOT?!" his piercing glare forced me to look away without answering, "No matter, I have gotten over all that."
Why do I find that hard to believe?
"The one thing I was really searching for was Eden. But…" the last Gung-Ho Gun, the most powerful of them all, was replaced by the boy that he really was, "That is gone! Now that I look back, though, it does seem obvious that I had no hope at all. I have lost all wishes of a family, of a home, and of happiness." His gaze went from one of sadness to horrible determination, which the boy shot at me with a painful glare.
"I WILL NOT BE THE ONLY ONE TO SUFFER!!"
The barrel of my gun opened in Cherub's hands, revealing the static energy within it. His other hand gripped the energy, and pulled it free from its encasement, sending thin red bolts of electricity through the air around him.
His teeth were clenched together to prevent any sound of pain or agony caused by the absorption of the dark matter to screech forth. The bolts disappeared as the last portion of the energy entered Cherub's body. The boy fell to one knee, and placed a palm on the ground to prevent himself from falling.
The energy was gone, but it was now inside of Cherub himself; the key to unlocking his real power had been turned. A bright flash of light blinded me momentarily, and forced me too look away. A high-pitched scream accompanied it, making my ears ring with the sound.
When my vision returned, I directed it to where Cherub had stood. What stood before me made my jaw drop and face pale.
Cherub was no longer himself by any means whatsoever. His hair had gone from the pale blonde and blue that belayed some of his power and wrath to a black as dark as night with giant streaks the hue of gore. His eyes glowed with the same shade of red as the streaks in his hair.
Those were unimportant to me at the moment. In fact, at the time I had not seen his hair and eyes at all. It were his wings that amazed me. The two original ones had grown double in size, and four more accompanied them. A pair grew from the spot between the originals, but they pointed more downward at a much sharper angel than the first ones. Another pair grew from the small of his back and were much, much smaller than the other four, only about three and a half feet long. Each wing was a dark shadow, everyone gone from silver to a color as dark as a black hole. They still somehow shimmered in the moonlight, though, giving of a horrible beauty.
Before, Cherub had been the closest thing to a child he could have possibly been, but, after the second and final transformation from the elegant and strong angel to this hell-beast of a demon, he had matured into the supreme being that I had once envisioned when I created him; a being that could project a one-hundred percent output of energy and power.
The irony of it all was going to, literally, kill me.
Smoothly he stuffer my revolver into one of his own pockets. "You had once had a dream, Father," even Cherub's voice gave off power and a strange energy now. The tearful voice from before had disappeared, replaced by one of grim seriousness and determination, "It was to create a place you and your sisters and brothers could live; an Eden.
"I once believed that dream. But, now I have been enlightened. Plants are no better than humans, you yourself have shown me this today. I now have my own dream to create, one that is true.
"I will kill everything until only I remain! Both Plants and humans will fall before me, and I will truly be the most powerful being in existence! I will not make an Eden for myself nor anyone else.
"I will make this world into a HELL! This world will boil over with Hellfire and death, and nothing will stop me! Everything on this world will PERISH!" He slowly rose into the air with little more effort than one would show when standing.
Each pair of the Seraphim's wings flapped in a separate rhythm. He pointed both his arms out at me. "Prepare to die, Father, but do not worry, I'll do what you created me for. I will slaughter the humans!" he smirked, "I'm just going to clean up the Plants and everything else along with them." Bloody lightning crackled across his arms, and I turned away.
There was nothing I could do. Running would do no good; besides, I had no place to run to. Vash would probably shoot me down himself if he learned that I let Millie and Meryl to die. I had made my choice when I saved them before, that I would not continue my original dream.
A lot of good it did for anyone.
I heard the sound of a gun going off to my left, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Cherub spinning in the air, some feathers floating to the ground. Something had interrupted his attempt to create the two Angel Arms on both limbs. What the Hell…?
Two X-shaped projectiles flew from far to my left, and connected from the confused and stunned creature. Cherub fell to the ground. He managed to stand, but he was wobbly as he did so.
The energy inside of him is too much for him to take control of so quickly. For him to attempt two Angel Arms, to keep his almost unbridled power in check, and then to get hit by a weapon was too much for him.
Suddenly, from the direction the projectile had come from, came a volley of bullets. Dozens of them flew over and impacted Cherub's wings with the accuracy of someone that obviously knew what they were doing. Feathers and blood burst from the impacts.
Cherub stumbled backwards, cringing in pain. His top left wing had suffered much of the barrage and he had it across his chest, and cradled it with his right arm. Letting out a yell, the boy spread out his black wings and his blood-red hair flew everywhere due to all his movement and the gusts the giant wings caused.
"NOW, MILLIE!!"
Looking over to where the gunshots and the voice came from, I saw the humans, Millie and Meryl, climbing over some wreckage. Meryl had fired the volley of bullets that hammered Cherub and the giant X-shaped projectile had been from Millie's stun gun.
Raising her weapon for another shot, the big girl braced herself and fired. Cherub caught the first shot, and tossed it aside. He stepped forward as if he was going to charge, but the next one hit its target and stunned the Seraphim. The next two slammed with full-force into his torso, the power sending him clear across the road, and slamming into the weak and unsteady building.
I heard a loud smash, and knew that he had made contact with the weak central support of the building. Without it's only support, the three-story building collapsed onto Cherub in a cloud of smoke, dust, debris, and shrapnel.
Struck motionless in awe of the girl's victory, it was a few moments before I attempted to stand. A hand reached down, which I grabbed with my own. Millie pulled me up, and I saw that both were completely unharmed. Meryl stood off to the side with her arms crossed, shaking her head.
"But…how did you two…"
Meryl interrupted, "did you really think that when we woke up we'd stay in that dump? You're as dense as your brother." Even through the insult I could sense a feeling of relief.
"You two were supposed to be damsels in distress, but I suppose it was turned around on me." I scratched the back of my neck, not really knowing what to say. Millie let out a short giggle, the most positive reaction I had gotten from her over the past few weeks.
"Well, just make sure you don't get caught wearing a dress," Meryl joked. That was the most positive reaction I had gotten from her period. "Besides, we can take care of ourselves. We are Derringer Meryl Stryfe and Stungun Millie Thompson, after all."
I looked over to the collapsed building, where the body of my son laid. It was not an entire victory for myself. Letting out a sigh, I turned away from the carnage. "I take it that you are going to bring me to my brother now?"
"That's what we had in mind," Meryl answered, "Why, you thinking about running off again, or maybe killing us?"
Another sigh escaped my lips. I was still confused, but I hoped that I could get over it soon. "I'll follow. I don't have any other choices open to me. I will go back to Inepril and—"
I was interrupted by a loud crash in the rubble of the building. Faster than I could trace, a figure burst out of the debris and went directly at me. I felt pain in my skull, then I felt only the darkness.
Laying deep under the ruins of a building, Cherub's anger boiled. His despair churned inside of him as he considered his next move.
The humans…he thought.
THEY are the cause of all this!
THEY are the reason that I failed!
THEY are the reason for Father's problem!
THEY MUST BE KILLED!!
I must DESTROY them!
Letting out a scream made up of pre rage, the Seraphim used all his might to pull himself out of the wreckage. Even with his increased strength he had difficulty doing so. A surge of pain shocked his right middle wing. A pole had pierced it, but in his rage, Cherub tore the entire limb off.
Breaking through the wreckage in a deafening crash, Cherub burst forth, and rushed at Knives. In a single blow, he struck down his father, and turned to the women. He grabbed onto the smaller human's cloak, and spun. The kinetic force that he built up from the speed tore the cloak off, and sent the human flying into a wall. He discarded the cloak, an item useless to him, atop of Knives.
Turning to the other human, who was screaming out the name of the smaller one, Cherub began another rush. The woman raised her stun gun, but Cherub smacked it from her grip. He grabbed her outfit, and roughly dragged her to the same wall the smaller one had been smashed into.
After slamming the larger human into the wall, he grabbed both by the neck and lifted them from the ground. He pushed them against the wall at the same time that he squeezed their throats.
"You…you two damned humans!" tears were falling down Cherub's bloodied face. The seraphim had torn off his right middle wing when exiting the wreckage, in the place of the smaller lower left one was only a bloody stump, and his upper left wing, one of the two originals, was oozing blood from dozens of wounds. The other original wing was crumpled and broken, just as that of a small bird that crashed down after its first failed attempt at flight. None of the dark, black wings survived unscathed. Whether it was a bullet hole or a wound from shrapnel, each wing bled. His face, the face of a boy, was covered with a mixture of blood, dirt, gore, and tears.
"You damned spiders! Me and Father…" he squeezed harder. They clawed at his wrists in a feeble attempt to make him let go. Their eyes began to glaze over. "We were going to do something great! But now…now…" the Seraphim let out a scream, "NOW that you damned spiders came along, none—NONE—of that will happen!
"You're going to suffer just as I am! I—" Cherub froze as he felt a cold metal object against the back of his neck. Both women fell from his loosened grip and onto the ground, coughing and rubbing their necks.
"Please," a voice whispered from behind him, "forgive me for everything I have done to you. Please, accept this last gift from me; I hope it will be enough to quell your suffering."
The gun was fired and Cherub saw his own blood splatter against the wall before him and between the two humans.
I dropped the white cloak I held, and released my grip on the trigger of the derringer, stepping back from Cherub as I did so. The Seraphim stumbled backwards, gripping his throat which, after the burst explosion of blood, steady bled a fountain of red.
His eyes, now absent of the fiery red energy from before, made contact with my own, and I saw no hate in his, only sadness, only disappointment, only despair. Tears fell down his face, enough so that the blood and dirt began to fall off of it.
Never before had he ever looked more like a child than that last moment in his life and never before had I seen a being as sad and piteous as he.
Cherub, my son who I myself gave the final fatal wound, fell to his knees. His wings, once as dark and foreboding as the midnight sky, turned to a sickly pale gray. The feathers fell from them, only leaving what appeared to be the bones that held the limbs together. The blood red and black of his hair left him, leaving the long hair an ivory white.
Soon, he slumped onto the ground, unmoving. The tingle in my mind that was my connection to him died out, leaving a shallow numbness. The last of the Gung-Ho Guns, the most powerful of them all, died.
"I'm sorry."