Disclaimer: Give me a break. I doubt anyone even reads this disclaimer it's gotten so boring to read/write. But in case you HAVE to know. I STILL (See the STILL?) DON'T own Trigun.
A/N: PLEASE READ! Lol no it's not the notice for the discontinuation of this story. HA! Far from it. Actually, I've gotten asked this several times and (um…lol) while it's not exactly a question about the story, I feel that it needs to be answered anyway. So, here's the question:
Will there eventually be Vash/Meryl romance in this story?
Well my desperate romance fanatics, I don't REALLY want to spoil the story for you…(Heh, as it is, things don't look too hot for the couple anyway) But I GUESS that I have to say… ^_^ Maybe. (Oh come on people, when authors usually put MAYBE, don't you know that it almost always means YES? LMAO)
GASP! I've said too much. Why don't you just read this chapter? It's actually kind of fluffy in some parts. grin
BTW my happy little friends, I'm am OH-SO-CLOSE to putting up a web site devoted to Engel and Hunting For The Elusive Mayfly Known As Love…Not. If you would like to donate anything (You don't HAVE to, obviously, but it would be nice) such as fanart revolving around either story or both or anything else that's nice, please e-mail me.
Anyway, ON with the chapter!
Engel: Sacrifice
Chapter Fifteen
And The Mist Rolls In
"You're giving me too many things
Lately you're all I need
You smiled at me and said,
'Don't get me wrong I love you
But does that mean I have to meet your father?
When we are older you'll understand
What I meant when I said "No,
I don't think life is quite that simple"
When you walk away
You don't hear me say please
Oh baby, don't go
Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight
It's hard to let it go…"
-Hikki (Lyrics from Simple and Clean)
"It sure looks dark up there," Celestia commented, chills running up her spine.
"I really hadn't hoped for us to arrive at night," Meryl said, following Celestia's gaze. "But I guess we can't turn around now. We'll have to find the Geo Plants Doc wants."
"What's the rush?" Celestia laughed nervously. "Why don't we look for them tomorrow?"
"Because we need to get back to Mordeh as soon as possible." Demonte cut in. "In case you forgot, we have to get to Roklen."
Celestia sighed, miserably. "I know, I know."
"Aw, come on, Celestia," Vash tried his hardest to lighten the atmosphere. "You're not afraid of a little fog and darkness, are you?"
Celestia took the statement as mockery and swung a punch at Vash, who swiftly dodged. Celestia wound her arm up again, and Demonte grabbed a hold of her arms. "Why you little…" Celestia growled. "Let me go!"
"You're acting childish!" Demonte's eyes narrowed as he struggled to keep his grip on Celestia. "Don't get upset over THAT! He didn't mean anything by it anyway!"
"But…umpf, he MOCKED me…"
"I know he 'MOCKED' you! Now settle down before I resort to something drastic!" Demonte threatened.
Vash hid behind Meryl, using her as a human shield. "Yeah, he's right! I didn't mean anything, honest!"
Irritated, Meryl turned around and stomped her foot against the gravel. "WILL YOU BE QUIET!?" She shouted, mostly at Vash.
Everyone immediately became silent and Meryl breathed in heavily. "Thank you. Now, if we're done acting like five-year-olds…" Her eyes darted to Vash on the last remark. "Maybe we can get focused on REAL matters and our task at hand."
"What plants are we looking for?" Demonte asked, releasing Celestia.
Meryl unfolded the list and began to read aloud from it. "He wants one of each of the following Geo Plants: Iisluk, Xerphic, Torcoph, and Rezith."
Vash blinked. "Those are some…interesting names…"
"I didn't even know that there were specific types of Geo Plants…" Celestia rubbed her chin.
"First of all," Meryl glanced at Vash. "The names are from a dead language that was spoken long ago. Secondly…" She diverted her attention to Celestia. "It's new technology. Geo Plants have been used as medical herbs for the past two years now. Doc's been studying up on them and has identified them by naming them."
"With a dead language?" Vash sighed. "That sounds just like Doc. He always wants to make things so complicated. Why couldn't he just name them 'Green Geo plant' or, 'Yellow Geo plant'…?"
"Because that isn't specific enough." Meryl rolled her eyes. "Now let's stop wasting time and climb the mountain."
Before they could respond, Meryl had already brushed past them and began to stomp up the mountain.
"Hey!" Celestia called out. "Don't leave me behind with these guys!"
"We're not THAT bad," Vash shook his head and followed after.
"Who has the torch?" Meryl called over her shoulder.
"I do," Vash called back as he removed a lighter from his pocket and proceed to light the torch that the Doc had given him.
"Hmm…" Meryl scrutinized the list of Geo Plants. "According to the pinpoint location that we're at and the supposed location of the Geo Plants—which are on the top of the mountain—we should probably be heading into the Geo plant region shortly."
"How can you be so sure?" Vash asked. "Even 'I' don't know where we are." Vash held the torch towards the list and Meryl pushed his arm away.
"Don't get so close or you'll light the map on fire."
"Sorry," He shrugged.
"I've been doing this for a long time," She replied, not glancing up from the map even once. "I'm almost positive that the Geo plant region is approximately two or three iles away."
Celestia stretched her arms high above her head. "Mmm, good! It's almost over."
Demonte peered over the mountain. It had to be a straight drop that led 200 or 300 feet down to someone's death. He shivered. It was very cold tonight. "Don't let the torch blow out," He told Vash. "It's getting cold and a breeze is heading this way."
"Don't worry," Vash smiled. "I'll be careful."
Abruptly, Celestia halted in her tracks.
"Hmm? What's wrong Celestia?" Meryl asked. "Why did you stop?"
"…Something's coming," She whispered.
Only the wind howling against the mountain ridge could be heard.
"I don't hear anything," Meryl shrugged.
"Wait," Vash silenced Meryl. "I DO hear something." He lowered his head in attempt to capture the sound and immediately jerked his head upwards and pointed above them to another ridge. "Up there!"
Everyone followed his gaze. A moment later, a dark beast emerged, and stared them down.
"W-What the hell is that!?" Celestia reached for her gun.
"Hold on," Vash whispered. "Don't kill it!"
"Vash, now is NOT the time to be a softie!" Meryl hissed. "That monster doesn't look too friendly."
"I don't care," He retorted. "Just don't kill it!"
In the midst of the argument, the beast took this as a window of opportunity and leaped off of its own ridge and landed below, preventing anyone from escaping.
"Stop fighting!" Demonte shouted as he kept his eyes on the beast.
"I-It's so big…" Celestia quaked. "Since when did monsters get THAT big?"
The large beast lowered its head and snarled, revealing large white teeth.
"Those teeth are bigger than me!" Celestia shrieked and hid behind Demonte.
He rolled his eyes. "I'll take care of it." He tried to blot out the never-ending argument between Vash and Meryl, who weren't even paying attention to the beast. Reaching for his gun, he aimed the barrel at the monster and prepared to pull the trigger.
The beast shifted its weight to its back legs and rose high into the air until it stood on its hind legs and roared.
The ground began to shake violently and rocks began to tumble from higher peaks. Demonte shielded his head with his arms and looked up at the 50-foot beast.
'Why is it so big?' Demonte bit his lip. And then he remembered. 'Of course! Felnarl! The large beasts that attacked us…I remember now…'
But before he could share his discovery with the others, the beast had already thundered back onto its fore legs, shaking the entire mountain and began to charge for the four.
"Look out!" Demonte leapt into the air and pushed Celestia out of the way. He felt the hair on the beast brush past him just before he and Celestia hit the ground.
By now, Vash and Meryl had quit their bickering and were frozen in their tracks as the beast approached.
"Run you morons!" Demonte screamed at them.
Vash suddenly found the strength to run and began to run back down the mountain. Meryl gulped and followed after, sprinting at incredible speed.
"Now what are we supposed to do, wise guy!?" Meryl passed Vash and ran ahead.
"First of all, how about waiting for me!?" He skidded, and the ground began to crack underneath them.
"Watch out!" Celestia jumped to her feet. "The ground!"
Meryl jerked her head downwards, and shrieked. She stepped forward, but her footing gave way as the ledge broke away from the mountain. Her body jerked forward as she fell into the pit of darkness. Pain flooded her body as her arm made contact with a large rock surviving only on the mountain's edge. The flesh from her skin was torn open and a sudden coolness took control of her numb arm.
'No…' She closed her eyes, the pain slowly disappearing from her body. 'It can't end here…not now…' Meryl's heart stopped beating as she braced herself for the impact below.
Two arms wrapped themselves around her waist and she turned her head. Anger flooded her as she immediately forgot the situation. "Are you trying to use me as a cushion Mr. Vash the Stampede!?"
"Just shut up and hang on!" He retorted and scraped his hand along the mountainside, desperate to cling onto anything.
Much to their surprise, their speed began to decrease and Vash was left hanging single-handedly on a protruding boulder. His other arm was wrapped tightly around Meryl's waist. "See? That wasn't so bad now, was it?" He smiled.
"Baka!" She pounded on his chest. "How are we supposed to get up!?"
"Geez, never grateful. I was just getting to that. But first I wanted to stop us from falling to our sudden deaths. Now, on the other hand, it's going to be pretty tough to climb back up with extra weight on my back. Would you suggest for me to just drop you and let me save myself?"
Meryl pouted. "Not funny."
Demonte and Celestia watched as the mountainside collapsed, leading their friends to their certain doom.
"NO!" Celestia cried and turned towards the beast. "Bastard," She gritted her teeth. "You will pay."
But the beast merely snarled and leapt back up the mountain and over another ridge, disappearing into the mist.
"Damn it all!" Celestia cursed. Turning back towards Demonte, she grabbed the collar of his cloak and began to shake him. "What are we supposed to do now, smart guy!?"
"Go and look for the Geo Plants of course."
Celestia couldn't believe his lack of sympathy. "OUR FRIENDS JUST DIED YOU JERK! AND YOU WANT TO LOOK FOR GEO PLANTS AT A TIME LIKE THIS!?"
He clamped a hand over her mouth. "Would you mind being just a little bit quieter?" Sighing, "They're not dead."
"What?" She stepped backwards. "What do you mean 'they're not dead'!? We just saw them plummet over the cliff and you're telling me, 'they're not dead'!?"
He grabbed his head, feeling the pounding in his temples. "Would you just be quiet for a moment!? I know that they're not dead because that's Vash the Stampede for crying out loud!"
"What's that have to do with anything!?"
"He's the Legendary Gunman, the Humanoid Typhoon! Certainly you're not led to misbelieve his superior powers, right? He can get himself out of any predicament. Trust me. Besides, aren't you a psychic? Stop over-reacting and do something like predict the future, okay?"
"Well," She huffed. "You don't seem to be so worried about them."
"I'm not. I know that they're fine. Now let's just look for the Geo Plants before that beast comes back." Celestia remained unconvinced. "Trust me." He said again.
"This isn't so bad," Meryl said, holding onto Vash's shoulders as he proceeded to climb back up the cliff side. His back collided with her front and she clung to him tighter.
"Hmph. Easy for you to say." Vash paused, resting, and then brought up another leg as he glanced down for a foothold. "You're not the one doing all of the climbing." Vash brought his head up and caught sight of a small ledge just a little ways above them. Fortunately, it was big enough for them both to rest upon. "I'm going to head for that ledge up there. Maybe it will give us both a break."
He sidestepped carefully across the cliff side until he was parallel with the underside of the ledge. "Perfect," He grinned and continued to climb higher. "Almost there."
Meryl followed his gaze towards the ledge and sighed. "What rotten luck."
"Hey, don't be so ungrateful." Vash reached his arm out to grasp the edge of the extensive ledge. "We're alive aren't we?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Oh really?" He pulled himself over the edge and deposited Meryl onto the surface.
Meryl sat upright, breathing hard. "Really. I just meant that after everything that's been going on lately, I was hoping that we would be able to get the plants without trouble." She almost smiled as she turned her eyes back to his. "I guess that nothing nice ever follows you, even still. Am I right, Vash the Stampede?"
"Yeah I guess so," He agreed, not really paying attention. He was only happy that he had finally found a place to rest his back. Carrying twice his weight upon a steep cliff was not an easy task.
She sighed, sensing the hint of mediocre in his tone. "Vash it wouldn't kill you to at least TRY to cooperate until we get out of this situation."
"Hey, I'm not the pessimistic one here."
"I wasn't being pessimistic!"
"'What rotten luck.' What do you call that?"
"Hey, I told you that I didn't mean it that way!"
"Well then that's just fine then, huh?"
"Yeah, I think it is!" Meryl turned her head away, scowling.
"Good." Vash mimicked her movement and sat on the far side of the ledge. "Then I guess that we have nothing to discuss, right?"
"That's right."
Demonte took the lead up the mountain with Celestia close by his side.
"How much further?" She whispered.
"How much further what?"
"Until we find the forest of Geo Plants."
"I don't know, why are you asking me? Meryl had the list and Vash had the torch."
"Yeah, I was about to comment how dark it was too."
"Well, obviously I knew that it was dark because I can't see a friggin' thing in front of my fa—"
"Shhh!" Celestia interrupted. "I heard something."
Demonte paused for a moment, listening for any kind of movement. He shrugged and looked at her. "It's nothing." He assured her. "Let's keep moving." He took a few more steps until Celestia brusquely snapped her arm around Demonte's. He stopped, and looked down at the connected arms. "Do you mind telling me what this is?"
She blushed, but it was invisible to Demonte because of the darkness around them. "I-I just don't like the dark, that's all."
Rolling his eyes and letting out an exasperated sigh, Demonte continued forward as Celestia stayed clung to his arm.
"How are we going to see for what kind of plants we need?" She asked.
"You're the psychic. You tell me."
She bit her lip. "Well…do you remember the names of the plants?"
He laughed. "I think Meryl was more of the Geo plant expert than us. I don't even know what to look for."
"Then why did we walk up this mountain if we don't even know what we're looking for?"
"A plant's a plant, right? He only wants one of each so let's just grab them all."
"We still can't see." She pointed out.
"We'll figure out something," He said, beginning to grow weary of her remarks, although he knew deep down that she was right.
"That's not telling me much," Celestia muttered.
"Well, do you have another plan?"
"Yeah, let's go back and find Vash and Meryl."
He stopped mid-step and looked at her. "You can get very annoying at times, you know that?"
"What's wrong with coming up with good ideas?" She protested.
"Nevermind."
Meryl grimaced in pain as she rolled up the sleeve of her trench coat. Blood stained her forearm and the main source of it came from a hefty looking wound. She suddenly remembered that she had gotten it while falling down the cliff side.
Clutching her wounded arm in one hand, she glanced around for anything useful to bandage it with. Seeing nothing, she continued to hold her arm, feeling the blood soak through her trench coat and leather gloves.
"What's the matter?" Vash asked. He had obviously caught sight of her wound.
"It's nothing," She said quickly and hid her wounded arm.
"Looks pretty serious for being nothing," He said, crawling over to her. "Let me see it." He reached for her arm but she snatched it out of his reach.
"I can handle it," She told him. As she pulled her arm backwards, it collided with the back of the cliff. A surge of pain fled up and down her arm. Nearly screaming, Meryl quickly held her wounded arm close to her chest and closed her eyes, breathing heavily.
"Are you all right?" Vash asked, becoming concerned.
"No," She said fiercely through gritted teeth. "I am NOT all right."
"Dammit," He sighed. "Just give me your arm already!"
"It's fine!" She protested.
"Well obviously it's not, and I can't carry you back up the mountain with a wounded arm and I'm CERTAINLY not going to leave you here. So either you give me your arm or I'll take it by force." He said challengingly.
Deciding not to argue any longer, Meryl growled and held her arm out for show. "It's no big deal," She said as he examined her forearm.
"Oh yes it is," He said reaching into his pocket for a bandage. "The skin is torn way beyond Band-Aid repair."
"So what do you suggest?"
"I keep an extra pouch in my coat for emergencies like these. I'll have to use stitches."
"Really? It's that bad?"
"Well, it's not good."
Leaning back against the rock, Meryl kept her arm outstretched as Vash reached into his coat to find the necessary tools. "How long do you think that it will take?" She asked.
"Until I'm done."
"Which is?"
"Hey, if I do a lousy job, the stitches won't work properly. Do you want to die of internal bleeding?"
Meryl shrugged. "You're the doctor."
"Here, over here," Celestia motioned to her comrade. "I can see the forest of the Geo Plants."
Demonte jogged up the mountain path and followed Celestia's gaze. "Sure is. Now all we have to do is find the Geo Plants."
"I still don't know how we're going to be able to find them. It's already too dark and we have no idea what we're looking for."
"Well, to tell you the truth," Demonte said, brushing past her. "I actually have some knowledge about Geo Plants."
"You should've TOLD me that back down there!" She trudged after him into the forest. "And all this time I thought that you were an idiot."
"There's just no pleasing you, is there?" He said shaking his head.
"What about a torch? How are we going to see the plants?"
"I have it under control," Demonte said, showing off his right arm. "Watch this."
"Forbidden Magicks?" She folded her arms over her chest. "You plan on using Forbidden Magicks?"
"You read my mind," He mocked and turned his attention towards his hand.
Summoning forth his power, Demonte's arm began to illuminate with a bright light. "With this, we can see the forest and the Geo Plants much more easily now." He held his arm above his head as he searched the Geo Plants. "What was the first one? Izlip?"
"Iisluk," Celestia corrected. "I wish I could help, but I know nothing about Geo Plants. And I doubt that my psychic powers would come in handy now."
"That's all right," He said, searching deeper within the bushes. "I'll handle it." He brushed away twigs and leaves as he repeated the name over and over. "Iisluk, Iisluk…Hmmm, I think that that one is an orange and yellow colored flower type thing."
"You THINK?" Celestia slumped over miserably. "Wonderful."
Demonte chose to ignore her and resumed his searching. "Orange and yellow, orange and yellow…Ah! Here it is!" Reaching further behind the bush, he tore the root of the Iisluk from the ground and held it out to Celestia. "We have to put it somewhere so that it'll stay moist. If it dries up, it won't be effective in Doc's medicine."
"I'll hold onto it," Celestia offered, taking the plant from Demonte. "Since you're the Geo plant 'expert', you need your hands free for that kind of thing." Her eyes suddenly narrowed. "But for your sake, you had better be right about these plants."
"Was that a threat?" He laughed. She growled, but kept her cool. "I told you, I have it under control, trust me."
Turning back around, he began to hunt for more of the plants. Brushing away dirt from the ground where he had thought plants might have been hiding, he crept closer to a patch of grass. "What does the next one look like?" Celestia asked from behind him. "Do you know?"
"The next one is Xerphic, right?"
"Oh, very good. You got it right this time."
"Shut up," He told her and shifted the grass around to find the Geo plant. "That one is a purple flower with pink splotches on the bottom of each petal."
"Easy or hard to find?"
"Hmm, well it's not rare but it is uncommon. From my knowledge, Xerphic in the old days was used as a tranquilizer for humans when they had an unbearable disease and wanted to ease the pain. Xerphic was used so much that it eventually became harder to find." He began to dig through the bushes. "I'm sure you could find them anywhere within mountain ranges but low-field embodiments are out of the question."
"I thought that Meryl said that Geo Plants were just recently made into medicines and herbs." Celestia argued.
"Yeah she did. But I know from somewhere, someone had once told me of a place where plants WERE used as medicine." Demonte shrugged. "Back in the old days of course. We just recently discovered cures here on Gunsmoke; not from where I was told. Back on a distant planet, plants were commonly used as medicine."
"Wow…" Celestia remarked, impressed.
"But anyway, although the cures were just recently discovered, it's the Geo Plants we're going to have to find. THAT'S not going to be so easy due to the climate of where they grow and the rarity of finding them."
"Now that you bring up the past, Demonte, maybe there were a lot more variety of Geo Plants before human life inhabited the planet and now that we're here, most of the Geo Plants have died off." Celestia suggested.
"It's a possibility. All I know is that we're suffering from human mistakes of the past without really knowing why. If it's true that each man has a destiny, then is it our destiny to pick up the cross from where our ancestors left off?"
"No one knows for certain," Celestia said, holding the Geo plant closer to her. "But maybe one day we'll know for sure."
Lol told you this chapter was fun. Relentless Vash/Meryl, huh? ^_^ Well, let me know what you thought of it. Still waiting for questions, but I'm pretty glad that I haven't gotten any. (No offense! Please don't take it as though I really hate answering questions ^^') What I mean is that maybe I'm doing a good job in clarifying things and that maybe there isn't a need for questions. Don't get me wrong; if you have a question I want you to ASK me. I just finally got most of the Trigun Timeline for this story figured it and I'm trying to explain everything in depth. Anyway, if you have info to offer as well, please help me out.
R&R too please. ^_^ Nicely though.
BLD