Chapter 7: The Priest, the Bounty Hunters, and the Traitor
Chapter summary: Wolfwood explains his adventure, bounty hunters target Vash, and Scar wakes up (insert dramatic music here).
A/N: Nothing really to say except sorry for the long downtown between updates. Enjoy! And don't forget to review!!!!!!
* * *
The air seemed to get sucked out of the hallway for a moment and then the next second Vash was hugging the other man tightly, babbling hysterically about something while the other one just looked too dumbfounded to really speak but happy all the same.
"I can't believe that it's actually you! You were dead! I saw the blood and… and… it's you!!" Vash said, his words almost completely unintelligible beyond that.
"Needle-noggin, it's good to see you but put be down for crying out loud!!" the other man roared, good humor concealed in his tone.
Eventually Vash did put him down and the two stood for a long time in disbelief.
"You were dead," the Typhoon murmured. "I couldn't believe it when I saw you lying there… I knew it… I knew you were gone but… I couldn't make myself believe it. When we found your body… rather… when I found it, I made the girls stay outside… I couldn't bring myself to bury you… I planned to the next day after I'd gotten a grip on everything but you were already gone. I figured the priest must've taken care of it."
Wolfwood grinned wryly. "You should've known you couldn't get rid of me that easy… but the hall's no where to talk about this sort of thing and I see you've got company, a new follower or just someone you're helping out here?" He laughed and turned his gaze to Sting and Vann. "A priest? Replaced me already, have you?"
"Ignore the collar," Sting said, shaking her head and approaching. "My name's Sting, the kid there is Vann." She held out a hand, which he took and grasped briefly.
"Nicholas D. Wolfwood," he replied.
The woman frowned a little as she re-crossed her arms. "It would seem the fates were alerted by your mention of him earlier, Typhoon. It's good to meet you."
"Likewise, I'm sure," Wolfwood agreed, nodding. "I have a feeling that you two aren't just with him as replacements for the girls."
"No, we-"
"Knives!" Vash cut Sting's explanation short as he spotted his brother stepping from their shared room.
The man didn't respond but instead narrowed his eyes at Wolfwood. "Still alive?" he growled.
"Yeah," the priest drawled back, "and so are you I see… oh well we all make mistakes, even Vash."
If looks could kill then Wolfwood would surely be six feet under because the glare Knives spared the man even made Sting cringe.
"Aw, c'mon you two!" Vash said, throwing an arm around each of them. "We can be friends, right?"
"No," they muttered in unison, scowling at each other.
Sting coughed, turning the gazes on her. "Eh, yeah, I hate to break up this… beautiful… reunion but I'm a little, well, confused. If he was so dead before why's he here?"
"Good question," Wolfwood said, breaking away from Vash. "But let's talk in one of your rooms."
The others, except Knives, of course, nodded in unison.
* * *
"I'm not really sure how it all came around either," Wolfwood began, scratching the back of his head. He sat on Vann's bed, hunched over slightly with his elbows on his knees. Knives was leaning against the door frame, scowling, Vash was in a chair just off to the side of the priest, and Sting sat with Vann on her bed. "I swear to you… I was dead, I felt it... something I'll never forget… it was like losing something but not something good… a burden. And then I woke up. The vicar there had found my body and took me home where he and his wife took care of me and healed my wounds… or what was left of them."
"What do you mean by 'what was left of them'?" Sting asked, her interest peaked.
The priest laughed. "It was the strangest thing… the bullets, they didn't go in half as deep as they should've and were missing when they were looked for. I needed to regain my strength from the loss of blood but otherwise… I was fine. I'd swear to anyone that it was a miracle-" he glanced at Vash and grinned-"I suppose God didn't think anyone was safe with you on the loose and nobody there to keep an eye on you."
The outlaw chuckled quietly and scratched the back of his head. "I don't understand it though… how do you think that happened?"
"Don't know," Wolfwood replied, "I'd like to think that my faith's been well-placed, even if I'm more of a sinner than a saint."
"Doubtful," Knives snorted before opening the door of the room and stepping out.
Vash sighed. "I probably should go after him."
"You probably should," Sting agreed with a nod.
"Hey, Vann, you wanna come? I saw some kids earlier playing dodgeball! We can join them after we find Knives!"
Vann's face lit up in a grin as he leapt up off the bed. "Yeah! I'm sick of being cooped up in this stupid hotel! Can I go, please Sting?"
Sting frowned a little. She never did like Vann out of her sight unless she sent him there by herself and the thought of the trouble he and Vash could cause was mind-blowing. But the two of them flashing pathetic puppy-eyes made her resolve break and she smiled. "Alright, get out of here."
"Yes!" the two shouted in unison and ran out as well.
"He yours?" Wolfwood asked. "The kid I mean."
"I figured you meant the kid," Sting replied, grinning, "and no, he's not… his parents abandoned him and he grew up as a troublemaker, I took him under my wing when we met. Can't say he's necessarily better off this way."
"I don't know you so I can't say."
The woman laughed. "That won't take long."
He nodded and watched as she took her coat off and then removed the collar. "I take it you're not a priest then."
"You ever met a woman priest?"
He laughed. "Guess not."
Sting smiled as she pulled on her brown coat. "It would seem that you've been abandoned by Vash."
"That's nothing new," Wolfwood replied, "where are you going?"
"Well I planned on going to get some food." She paused a second as she fished her sunglasses out of her pocket and put them on. "Can I ask you something?"
The priest shrugged. "Sure thing."
"Why were you so anxious to find Vash?"
He sighed. "I heard something back in New Memphis."
"We just came from there."
"I know. I've been following 'Vash sightings' for a while. I arrived in Memphis the morning you guys left. There was a rumor about some bounty hunters there that planned on moving on him once they got here. I didn't hear much else but I thought it was necessary to find him before they did."
Sting smiled as she removed a cigarette from her pocket and lit it. She hesitated a second before offering him one as well.
"No thanks, I'm trying to quit."
She chuckled. "Yeah, like that ever works. I figure you gotta die from something."
"Yeah, well, going through what I did changed my point of view on things."
"I can imagine it would," she replied, nodding. "Why so anxious about the bounty hunters though? I'm sure he's used to it by now. You acted like you were gonna kill to get to him."
Wolfwood laughed and rubbed at the back of his neck. "Yeah well, let's blame that partially on just wanting to see him alive for myself. It seemed unlikely after Knives."
"I've got this feeling that I should ask about that some day," Sting said as she took a long drag from the cigarette. "What's up with them? I mean, I've seen a lot of sibling rivalries in my life but none quite that bad."
"Believe me, it's a long story and one best told by them. It's not my place to explain things even I don't get some times."
The woman nodded and motioned with the cigarette toward the door. "You want to come? It's on me."
"Well, how could I refuse that?" he replied, standing up.
* * *
Sting had gone through an explanation of her life's story with Wolfwood for the second time in a day and was feeling better and better about doing it. It eased some of the pain but she knew that it was no burden that she could unload on just anyone.
The priest sat across from her at a table near the center of the downstairs of a restaurant, which was empty aside from them and a few shadier characters at the bar that she didn't want to make the acquaintance of.
"Damn… how'd Vash take that story?"
"Better than I thought he would, honestly. Can't help but feel like he doesn't trust me as much anymore."
Wolfwood watched the woman for some time as silence fell over them. She sure didn't look capable of mass murder but then again, neither did Knives until you got to know him. "So what's up with the priest get-up?"
She shrugged. "It's something to hide behind," she said, "and it's worked so far. How many people do you think look twice at priest?"
"Is it that necessary to blend in?"
"Hopefully only until either one, I die, or two, Mason does."
"Who's Mason?"
"The man who lead the mutiny; I trusted him the most next to Scar," she replied, eyes growing dark as she spoke but the clouds faded quickly and she shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it any more today."
"I don't blame you," the priest replied, sitting back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Where are the girls?"
"Milly and Meryl? Vash left them behind in New Memphis… of course by now they could still be in the hotel or on their way here. I'm not sure." She inserted here a thoughtful pause. "Should we be worried about those bounty hunters?"
"I wouldn't be… it was just a rumor. The guy I asked there said the chances were slim."
Sting nodded and stood up from her seat but froze when something was pressed into the small of her back. "You know where Vash the Stampede is?" a voice rasped at her from the back.
So much for slim chances.
Wolfwood's eyes narrowed at the skinny, snake-faced man behind Sting, pressing a revolver, which he could just see, into her back. The priest made a move to stand up as well but the barrel of a gun pressed into the back of his skull and he closed his eyes and cussed quietly.
"Maybe." She winced as the gun was ground harder into her back and glanced around for assistance but found that the bartender and waitresses had already ducked for cover. "Easy with that gun, honey," she murmured, "you could really hurt someone with it you know."
"Shut up!"
Sting met Wolfwood's gaze as the man was forced to stand up and raised her eyebrows at him. The silent and most obvious question was 'what now?'.
There was a second's worth of silence and then both nodded in agreement.
The priest, without so much as glancing, reached behind him and grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the gun and pointed it away, twisting the arm roughly inward, which drew out a cry of pain, before slugging the attacker hard enough for a KO.
Sting had already reacted by time Wolfwood had first moved and dropped down low before her captor could respond and swept his legs out from beneath him with one of hers. He fell back hard and with a crunch, the woman crushed his gun hand with her boot and kicked the weapon out of his reach.
"Nice," Wolfwood approved as Sting retrieved the gun.
"Could say the same for you; though it's been a while since I've seen moves like that out of priest… namely never."
The man chuckled as he held out a hand for the gun, having already retrieved the other. "I'm not an ordinary priest."
She nodded as she handed him the weapon. "Believe me… I gathered that but I also gather that these thugs were just the first wave and that friends of theirs might be looking for Vash in a more aggressive manner."
"Good assumption. I saw those kids he talked about earlier just a few streets down from here; we'd better get going before something happens."
"Well then let's move. So much for that slim chance, eh?"
* * *
Vash froze in the middle of being mobbed by a rather large group of kids and looked around quickly. Something's coming.
"Hey, Mr. Vash, what's wrong?"
The worry fell away from the outlaw's features for a second as he smiled brightly at the little girl who'd asked. "Um, nothing. Hey, kids-" this drew their attention away from play-fighting him for a second-"why don't we play a new game?! Hide and seek! You go hide and I'll come find you!"
Appeased by this offer they all agreed unanimously and ran off to hide while Vash pretended to close his eyes and turn his back.
"Vash?" Vann was standing beside the man, frowning in worry, looking up at him with questions bouncing around in his eyes.
"Vann, get down!"
The boy yelped as he was tackled out of the way by Vash.
A gun shot cracked through the rather calm afternoon air followed and a split second later a bullet stirred up the dirt where Vann was standing a second before.
"They missed!" Vann shouted, not sure why he was saying that in a tone like he was disappointed as he started to sprint away, doing his best to keep up with Vash.
"Yeah, well, I got the feeling that if we stay here too long that won't be the case!" the outlaw replied.
A pair of gray-green eyes watched from a nearby rooftop as the two ran.
"Damn it you idiot don't go that way!" Sting snarled, watching as Vash and Vann turned down an alley as a bullet ricocheted off the wall above them. "It's a dead end! Vash!"
"There are two shooters watching from windows on either side of the street," Wolfwood replied over his shoulder.
"Damn it. And there's another guy on the ground… if you take out the two snipers I'll take him."
"I can't get both. There's the one a building over from where we are and then the one across the way there," the priest explained, pointing to one building. Sting just made out a window curtain shifting and frowned a little.
There was suddenly a scream and from the window of the other building a man fell to the ground and laid there motionless. This distracted the one on the ground, who sprinted to his partner to check for signs of life.
Another volley of bullets aiming directly at that window followed from the remaining sniper but he was soon silenced by a few shots from Wolfwood.
"Talk about answered prayers… who do you think did that?" the priest asked.
"Not sure," Sting replied, sliding up her pant leg and removing the dagger from her boot. "But I'm on."
"You sure you don't want a gun?"
"Positive! While I'm busy with him you go help Vash and the kid!" she shouted as she vaulted over the three-foot high wall that was erected along the front of the building's roof, which they'd been using for cover, and then leaping off the sloped porch awning. "Hey, nimrod, over here!"
The bounty hunter looked up and sneered, eyes narrowing slightly. He was almost Scar's size but younger with a shaved head and nose piercing.
"We're after Vash the Stampede, not you, get out of here before I'm forced to pound you for getting in the way, I don't normally hit women but I ain't got a problem with hitting the ugly ones" he growled, grinning stupidly.
Sting's eyes narrowed. "Oh, just come a little closer and say that to my face, ugly. Speaking of faces and being ugly, what's up with yours and that nose ring? Is it decoration or did your mother lead you around by it? Did you even have a mother or were you just some slime that flopped off a rock and formed? Because God would never make any woman bear a baby as ugly as what you must've been."
The grin melted away quickly into a scowl and when he started to charge at her she ran at him as well, gripping the knife in her hand tightly.
The plan had been formed based on a split second's decision but it worked: just before they were to run into each other the woman leapt up and used his shoulder as a spring board with one hand to leap over him, in the process ramming the knife into the mid-region of his back far away, she hoped, from anything vital.
Dust was kicked up as she landed in a crouch and glanced back to find him stumbling forward, obviously seized in pain and shock.
There was blood but not enough to indicate a serious injury.
Which was bad for her because she only had one knife and that didn't kill him; then again he seemed too muscle-bound to reach the knife and pull it out.
"I'm sorry, does that hurt?" she mocked, turning to face him and crossing her arms.
"Damn you!" he roared.
Somehow she hadn't seen the holster at his hip so when he spun around, gun pointed at her, her eyes widened.
She was fast but there was no way she could dodge bullets especially at a nearly point-blank range.
Sting grunted as a pair of arms wrapped around her and she was knocked roughly out of the way. Two gunshots followed this and for a second she remained still with her eyes squeezed shut before she opened them and found herself staring into blue eyes.
The woman grinned. "Vash, when did you cut your hair that short?"
Knives scowled at her as they stood up. "It won't happen again."
"Oh that's too bad… you're kind of sexy when you play hero," she replied, brushing dust from her clothes and looking about, unaware, or maybe more uncaring, of the fact that the man was glaring her down.
The larger man was lying flat with a wound in both legs. He was unconscious, probably from shock or pain, or both, and not quite so intimidating.
She winced, realizing that the knife would've sunk deeper with him falling on it and was hoping that he had plenty of muscle for it to penetrate before it reached vitals.
"I don't think he's dead… what about the guy you threw out the window?"
"He's still alive," Knives replied.
Sting nodded, running a hand back through her hair. "Well… let's say we regroup with the others and figure out just what the heck we're going to do."
* * *
Sting couldn't get over how lucky Vash seemed to be despite his habit for attracting destruction like cookies attract children.
The kids the man had been goofing off with before with Vann were absolutely convinced that he'd sent them off on the game of hide and go seek to get them out of the way, which he had, but it'd of been harder for him, an outlaw, to convince the adults of that than it was for the children.
Sting had expected to have to leave yet another town; instead she, Vann, Wolfwood, Knives, and of course Vash were treated to free drinks at the town's most popular saloon where the classier losers and drunks hung out later that night.
The woman glanced back to a table in the corner and smiled as she spotted Vann sitting there, getting paid attention to by some pretty saloon girls who seemed more drawn to his cuteness than to the other patrons' 'charm'. This of course annoyed the other patrons but then again who was going to mess with the kid that traveled with the Humanoid Typhoon?
She moved to slide off the barstool but was stopped by Vash throwing a heavy arm around her shoulders.
"W-where ya going, Sting?" he slurred, looking at her hazy half-crossed eyes.
Sting turned away with a disgusted look. "Blech! Good God, Stampede you reek, I think you've have one too many already."
"Nonsense, I've only had-" he paused to count the number on his fingers but as if forgetting what he was doing suddenly leaned back over the bar-"hey, bartender, get me another round of that good stuff!"
The woman smacked her forehead and sighed, glancing over to Wolfwood and Knives. "I'm going back to the hotel, make sure that he gets back in one piece-"she paused, glancing over at the corner again to Vann who was laughing loudly-"ugh, and make sure he does too, I don't know what those girls are slipping him but he's even more obnoxious that he usually is."
"Sure thing," the priest said, nodding.
Sting nodded and weaved her way through the crowd out the swinging doors and into the street.
* * *
Sting had reached her hotel room not long after leaving the bar and was changing into her pajamas while she mused over what had happened.
Knives had actually saved her.
She couldn't help but chuckle quietly at the thought as she dried her hair from her evening shower and then threw the towel off to the side and shook the short locks out.
I suppose he'd lose his intrigue value if he didn't surprise you every once in a while, she thought staring at the reflection in the mirror and lifting a hand to trace the scars on the left side of her face.
What was she thinking?! Knives wasn't 'intriguing'! Knives was an asshole!
"An asshole with pretty eyes by one nonetheless," she told her reflection.
Sting sighed as she removed fresh bandages from her bag and stepped out of her room and headed for Scar's.
And now for the lion's den.
"Alright big, disfigured, and ugly, let's get this done with," she said aloud, opening the door and then jumping when she spotted the man sitting up in bed, staring at her solidly, fully dressed and holding a gun. "Scar!"
A/N: I think that it's a good time to warn y'all now… a lot of the stories in my old FF.net account had several cliffhangers and I rather enjoy torturing my reviewers… so there's liable to be plenty of cliffies running a muck in my stories.
REVIEW!!!!!!!!!