Chapter 6

Wolfwood leant back and stubbed out his cigarette.

'So,' he said at last, 'that's the story, eh?'

Vash nodded, his eyes fixed upon his half empty glass of whisky. He'd barely touched his drink since starting his tale.

'Mmmm…' muttered the priest.

'What do you mean, mmmm?' asked Vash.

'I mean… mmmm…'

The gunslinger frowned, 'you're very irritating!'

'Learned from the best,' replied Wolfwood, a smile creeping into existence upon his face.

For a moment Vash looked puzzled then, slowly, his own features split into a smile. A genuine, innocent, happy smile. It was the kind of expression he loved to see on Vash, the kind of expression he would kill to see more of. Literally.

His heart lurched and tightened at the thought. Dear God, if only this was allowed to happen more often. If every child in his care was allowed to grow up like this, allowed to stay pure and innocent and with such high values, if they could keep that in this harsh, ruined world…

The priest sighed and shook his head, breaking the precious moment between the two friends, sitting dreaming wouldn't get him anywhere.

'Anyway, you're a one to talk,' he grunted.

'Hey, I'm not that irritating,' protested Vash, 'you're the one who-'

'I'm not talking about that,' replied Nicholas sharply and Vash fell silent. His two, strange eyes widening in confusion.

He might have said something then, but their conversation was put to a stop when a new figure barged into the bar.

Rem.

As soon as he caught sight of her, Vash shut down. His face became stiff, immobile and whilst he had no shades to hide his eyes, his eyes did take a strange, glassy quality, as if the inner light of both pain and joy had been hidden.

For a moment Wolfwood felt a sudden surge of hatred to the woman, felt a surge of hatred to anyone who could do this to such a gentle soul. He quickly reigned the feeling in, though, he had a feeling his hatred was the last thing this situation needed.

Rem, or whoever she was, strode up to the table the two men sat at. She looked much the same as she had a few hours ago, save perhaps for certain redness beneath her eyes, a certain puffiness to her cheeks.

She matched straight up to them and, Wolfwood was sure she was going to hit Vash then but she didn't.

She grabbed something from within the folds of her dress and, with surprising speed for such an old woman, slammed an object down upon the table.

It was a small, ratty purse. It landed with a 'clinking' sound which indicated it was full of coins, double dollars for the taking.

The sound of money hitting the table was enough to draw the attention of many of the bar's customers towards the threesome. Wolfwood's muscles tensed, this looked like the perfect recipe for trouble.

'In the street,' hissed Rem, 'I heard you mention that you hadn't any money to get out of town, well here! This is one hundred and twenty Double Dollars, my life savings. It should be enough for fuel to get you to the next town and out of here. Go on, take it!'

'No.' replied Vash simply, staring ahead with his cold, blank blue-green eyes, not looking at her.

The more pragmatic part of Nicholas was currently screaming at Vash to take the damn money, but the priest held his tongue. He knew the gunslinger never would.

'Why?' asked Rem, evidently not understanding, 'why can't you even give me the dignity of getting out of town? Why do you torture me like this?'

'Because… because I owe you enough already, I won't be any further in your debt.'

The old woman gave a manic grin, 'yes,' she said, 'yes, you are in my debt. You'd be dead without me and you don't even have the balls to show me the respect… the gratitude I deserve. I trusted you… I gave you my all and you threw it back in my face!'

'Trust?' Vash's voice was tight, 'trust? You lied to me, lied about everything just so you could use me. Should I be grateful to you for that?'

Rem gasped at his comment, her thin mouth opening in closing in gulps of surprise. Wolfwood decided this was as good an opportunity to say anything as he was going to get.

'Listen lady,' he said, trying to sound calm and reasonable, 'I understand that you're feeling pretty screwed, but I guess my friend here's pretty annoyed and he's got his reasons. Perhaps we could talk about this later?'

'Later?' echoed the woman incredulously, turning her attention to him, 'I've been waiting twenty five years to talk to this man! If I leave it he'll just run away, like he always does. He can't face the truth, not really, not when a lie is so much prettier. That's the thing with this man, you know that mister? He never faces up to the truth.'

'Shut up!' whispered Vash, his voice tight and horse, he was angry. Very, very angry. In fact, Wolfwood had never seen him so enraged; the look on his face was enough to make him cringe, his eyes seemed to be bluer than usual. Seemed to be almost glowing with fury..

As if scenting blood, the old woman moved in for the kill, 'what is it Vash?' she jeered, 'finally getting through? Well, you know the truth, you hypocrite, you can lie to me, you can lie to him, but you can't keep lying to yourself. I know that… I know that now…'

At the mention of the name 'Vash,' the attention of every single customer in the bar, (which thankfully wasn't that many,) was turned towards the trio. This really wasn't looking good.

'And you know what else?' added Rem, 'I know about lies now. You know what a lie is? You know what betrayal is? You know what pain is? It's taking in a man, a pitiful, beaten, starving, mutilated man who's near death. A man you have reason to believe is the one who's taken everything from you. It's caring for that man, feeding him, clothing him, bathing him, giving him everything, even your love. Its doing every damn thing you can and watching it all being taken away again, watching that man leave you, abandon you. Watching him walk away and not even try to talk things out, not even giving you a chance to explain. It's watching everything you love die… again. That's what betrayal is, Vash, that's what pain is… I thought you might understand that… I thought…

Tears were now once again trickling down the old woman's cheeks, her voice hitched in her throat. Wolfwood was amazed that her little speech hadn't affected the Humanoid Typhoon, but evidently it hadn't for he remained cold and hard.

'What do you want?' asked Vash harshly, 'tell me what you want, get this over with!'

'I want to apologise,' wailed the woman, 'I just want to say I'm sorry! Can't you even accept that from me any more?'

Silence fell upon the bar for a moment, Wolfwood could almost hear his own heart beat in the pause as all eyes were fixed upon the gunslinger and the old woman.

'No,' said Vash at last, 'I can't… because I don't know that it's true.'

'Can't?' whispered Rem, 'can't? After all that you…' her voice faded off into stunned silence, and then she laughed, a horrible, manic laugh, 'it's true,' she screeched, 'it's true! You really are a monster, Vash the Stampede! You really are a fiend, that you can't even accept this! Can't even accept the apology of a poor, old woman! You're as bad as anything, you… you… you really aren't human!'

Her laugher had dissolved into tears by now as she wrapped her spindly arms around herself and rocked back and forth on her heels, floods of tears trickling down her bony face.

However, Wolfwood's attention was turned her by the telltale sound of guns being unsheathed.

He looked around to see that every customer in the bar, plus the bar man, had withdrawn their guns and was pointing them at them.

'Hey, hey!' objected the priest, putting his hands up, 'what's all this about! Surely you don't believe this crazy old bird!'

His words prompted a fresh bout of wailing from Rem, but he ignored her. This wasn't the time to be concerned about hurt feelings.

The barman shrugged, lifting his own large, rusty revolver, 'with all this talk of lies an' such, I ain't sure what's true and what ain't. But, the way I sees it, it's best to be on the safe side, aye lads?'

There were grunts of approval and agreement from around the grimy bar.

'Aw come on, guys!' protested Vash, his voice reverting to its usual, whiny tone, 'do I look like that kinda guy? I don't even have the coat! Say… you wouldn't just shoot two innocent men 'cos of some crazy girl, would you?'

'Well,' said one man, his voice slightly slurred from drink, 'if you've winded up here it's not as if anyone's gonna miss you. 'Sides, if we turn out right, then we get a reward, right lads?'

The other patrons of the bar voiced their agreement by opening fire.

As always happened at the sound of gunfire, the world tilted into slow motion for Wolfwood and Vash.

Nicholas threw himself backwards, angling his foot so that it struck the corning of their table, knocking it over. The whisky and glasses smashed against the floors and wall but the table itself landed on its side, making a sort of cover. It wouldn't last long but it was a start.

Vash also threw himself backwards, aiming to fall next to Nicholas but, as he did so, he reached out and grabbed the old woman by the back of her patched dress.

She tumbled down with him but it was too late.

A random, badly aimed bullet, one most likely targeted for the gunslinger, spun through the air and struck her instead. Wolfwood watched as it burrowed through her clothing and flesh, watched as blood spurted from her chest and sprayed into the air. She cried out once before falling to the ground besides him and Vash.

The gunslinger worked quickly, putting the woman on her side and tearing off some of his clothes, using them to make a bandage. Meanwhile Wolfwood got a couple of shots off with is revolver, hitting one man in the shoulder and shooting the gun out of another man's hands.

He'd left his Cross Punisher just outside the city, along with his bike, thinking that it was too distinctive and attention drawing. He'd just taken a revolver, but now he cursed the decision, he had hoped this wouldn't end in a shooting war.

Besides him he heard Vash swear, the old woman was bleeding profusely, her life blood pooling on the floor around her, despite Vash's efforts to stem it.

'Damn,' he swore, 'we need a doctor, Wolfwood?'

He looked speculatively towards the priest who sighed, 'yeah, I'll get it,' he said, nodding towards the open door, 'if you can provide cover?'

Vash nodded grimly, taking out his sliver Colt.

'Sure you can take care of them?' asked Wolfwood, smiling.

'A bunch of drunks? I'm not completely incompetent you know.'

Wolfwood muttered something which sounded suspiciously like 'you could have fooled me,' before running out of the bar at full tilt.

The rogue priest's long legs carried him across the saloon and out into the street, Vash covering for him admirably. Soon his boots were pounding on sand rather than stone and he was running desperately down the empty road, his eyes searching for a building, any building that looked remotely like a surgery or a hospital. Behind him gun shots rang out into the air and the miniature war in the bar continued.

Damn, why did it always have to end like this?

Review Replies.

Yay! Lots of reviews make Yma a happy writer!

Reiora: Thanks very much, do you always talk in third person? It's very neat!

Ninja chic: Like Knives? May I humbly recommend How Far is Eden to you then? It's another fic of mine, set after the series. It's quite long, (though the chapters themselves are rather short,) but it's told exclusively from Knives point of view. You might like it.

Dolentrean: Yay! A new reader! I'm glad you're liking this… Trigun is a very mixed fandom at the momment, there are some excellent writers about, but there are also a lot of horrible Mary Sues too. You have been warned!

LeDiz: Nah, you've got it just right! I'm very glad that's coming across. It just always occurred to me that, in some ways, Vash is still a very childlike figure, happily accepting whatever Rem tells him. Add to that amnesia, confusion and trauma he's… well… you know what I mean! I'm just happy it came across in the writing! And more will be revealed about 'Rem,' later on…

Saraki: Don't worry, I do tend to update fairly often and regularly, though reviews always spur me on!

Mangaqueen13: Yeah, I was worried it would be a bit obvious but it obviously worked so… yeah, thanks!

ChibiSess: Bwahahaha! Hooked! You don't know what you've let yourself in for! But seriously, thanks for adding this to your faves, I hope it lives up to your expectations.

Shannon Holmes: Thanks! I hope you keep reviewing!

Next Chapter: Back to the past! And a dreadful, creeping realization comes to Vash… but what will he do about it?