TWELVE: forgotten landmark

Time passed quickly during their journey. They traveled just as quickly.

By evening, they had gone nearly ninety miles. The thomases were exhausted, and Vash felt bad for working them this hard, but he had wanted to get here as quickly as possible. Though the girls would never be able to figure out where he had brought them, not without an explanation, Vash peered about the towering stone pillars, grateful that they had been here to guide him back. Without them, it could've taken days just to find the place again. That it had landed here made it all the easier to locate.

"Thank you, friend," he said quietly to Rupert as he changed course and headed toward one of the taller pillars of stone. The girls followed, watching on with confusion.

"Vash, what is this place?" Meryl asked, watching the world around her as if these pillars might come to life or topple down onto them from the heavens. Vash had to smile; he'd felt the same way the first time he'd been here.

"A forgotten landmark," he replied. Soon, he found what he was looking for, a break in the sand that dipped down and out of sight. "Tonight we'll sleep in the comfort of a shelter."

Meryl stifled a yawn. She was tired. It had been a long day with only a couple of short break. Her canteen was near empty. She knew she would regret drinking it all, even as thirsty as she had been. I hope it's a place where we can get some water, Milly had said. Amen to that.

Milly leaned toward her tiny friend and whispered in her ear. "Meryl, what did he mean by sleeping in a shelter? I don't see a building or anything like that."

Meryl shrugged.

"Wait here." He slipped off his mount and drifted toward the dark patch in the sand. He had led them to a secluded place between two, towering pillars of stone. He went on slowly, leaving them behind, waiting for his signal. He stood for a moment between the pillars of stone and waited. Finally, he came to a spot he deemed suitable and held out his hands, closing his eyes and tilting his head back. Beneath him, the desert floor began to quake. The girls watched with wide eyes as the world before him split open to reveal the darkness of the underground below him.

He glanced back to them, grinning. "Come on."

And then, just behind him, a great chunk of metal appeared. Two laser cannons took aim at him, and a female voice droned at him. "Please submit identification card."

He looked back in surprise. "Huh?"

"Vash?" Meryl asked, tempted to join him unsure of the situation.

"Please submit identification card," the voice repeated.

"I don't have any identification card!"

The cannons clicked, and Vash took a step back. "You are in an unauthorized zone. You shall be removed by force."

"Oh crap!" Vash shouted as lasers filled the air all around him.

Meryl froze as red bolts of energy lit the air around Vash. Her heart leapt into her throat as she was certain she would see him collapse to the ground in a lifeless heap. "Vash!!!"

At the same instant, Milly dropped down of the Thomas, gaping in horror at the spectacle before her.

By some miracle, they didn't see him fall. Vash was quick, so quick and wild that it looked to be a combination of pure skill and dumb luck. After all she had seen him do, Meryl had come to realize that there was simply no luck involved. It was all an act to make witnesses think he was just some lucky nut job roaming the land. She darted forward, her hands slipping into her cape. Silver glittered in her hands as she pulled them free. She took aim at the machine with her weapons of choice, two small derringers that she had practiced with since she was only thirteen years old.

Every move Vash made was smooth, evenly timed and spaced against his opponent. He heard the sound of Meryl's boots connecting with the parched ground, racing toward him, caught sight of the familiar flash of metal as she pulled her derringers free, weapons that had saved her butt more times than he could remember. Good girl… His hand hit the dirt in a backspin as he threw a small metal object at the thing.

A laser ripped through his poncho, scorching the fabric and narrowly missing Vash. Instantly, he lifted his prosthetic arm, and the hidden machine-gun sprung free through his palm, from the chamber in his wrist and forearm. He looked for the round object he'd thrown and spotted it, taking careful aim.

Just one bullet.

He lightly squeezed the trigger, releasing just a single bullet from the rapid-fire weapon. Perfectly timed, his bullet met the metal ball he had thrown within inches of the drone's optical sensor. Smoke covered the thing, precisely as planned.

"Sentry drone!" Vash yelled, turning to Meryl. "Get behind it! It can't shoot what it can't see! I'll distract it and you pull the plug."

Without objection, Meryl raced toward the metal beast, trying to steer clear of its line of sight. As the dust and smoke began to settle, she sped up and slid along the ground so that she was nearly behind the drone, ignoring the pain that tore the skin of her left arm as it scraped against the rough desert floor. She jumped to her feet, glancing to the box she was certain held the thing's power supply. It was firmly locked down. She grabbed at it but she couldn't get the damn lid to come up. Instead of fighting it, she brought up her derringers and took careful aim.

Vash took aim the exact moment the smoke cleared and hit the drone with three quick shots. The plastic cover cracked and shattered as the optical sensor was destroyed.

Meryl simultaneously hit the box with all four bullets, which blasted the cover completely off the power grid. Her eyes opened as she stared at technology that she couldn't even begin to describe. Tossing the empty derringers aside, she pulled free two more. Quickly, she unleashed four more bullets into the panel. The heat around her intensified in a burst of light. A flash pain sent her reeling back. She fell to her backside.

Vash darted forward, hammering away at the thing with his machine gun, taking out both laser cannons before he even thought to put his weapon away. In that moment, the drone's power supply was sufficiently drained, and the bulky, mechanical beast stopped moving. It was over.

He moved over to the power grid, where Meryl had disarmed the battery. To be certain, he pulled the damaged motherboard free and dropped it to the ground at his feet. Then he glanced back; Milly was making her way over to Meryl, who lay on her back, a hand to her temple as she stared up to the sky. Concerned, he ran over to join them.

"Meryl?!" the big girl cried.

She lay there, dazed but conscious. The sleeve of her blouse was torn and the fabric collected blood from scraped flesh, and she had a scratch on her cheek caused by something that had struck her face from the explosion, but she seemed relatively unharmed. Vash breathed a sigh of relief as he slumped down next to her.

"I…I'm all right, Milly," she whispered.

"But you're bleeding, Meryl!"

"It's just a scrape," she whispered. "I'll live."

Vash sat next to her. "I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you Meryl."

The young woman sat up and gave him a look. "Something tells me you would've been perfectly fine without me."

He shrugged. "Maybe, but I didn't really think I would be able to stop you. The thing was locked in on me. That's why it didn't respond when you jumped it."

"But how…"

"Don't worry about that right now. We'll look into it." He reached out and took the sleeve of her blouse, rolling it up to look at her arm. She didn't protest. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"We'll have to clean it," Milly announced, taking her arm. "Meryl, that was very foolish…but wow! You were amazing! I might have to call you Mrs. Vash from now on!"

Meryl blushed at her newest nickname. "Milly…" She sighed and watched as her friend inspected her arm. "I just scraped it up when I was sliding, that's…OW!"

"It's a pretty nasty scrape," Milly replied twisting the arm up so she could look at the injury from all angles. As gentle as her attitude was, she definitely could play the part of a violent nurse if she wanted to. "There's sand and some glass in there," she announced. "And this cut here's pretty deep. We'll have to get that cleaned up."

Vash shook his head. "Damn, that is deep. I think it missed the artery. I think you got nicked by a shard of plastic when the thing exploded. Let's get you inside and clean you up." He gently lifted her in his arms; Meryl nearly freaked at being in his arms, but she closed her eyes and leaned against him, forcing herself to remain calm. She tried to protest the predicament, but Vash wasn't paying any attention to her. He was more concerned about the situation he was about to lead them into. She couldn't help but wonder what exactly that situation was, but she kept her questions to herself. The answers would come soon enough. "Come on, Milly," Vash said. "I'm pretty sure that was the only one."

"How do you know that."

"It was the only one here a hundred twenty years ago," he replied, and turned toward the gaping hole in the ground. Milly followed; Meryl gave him a curious look.

They climbed down a steep flight of limestone stairs. Meryl watched with amazement, and suddenly realized that they were descending into the unknown. Vash may know what he was going to find here, but it had been long forgotten by the people of Gunsmoke. She shuddered at the thought, clinging to his arm. Milly was right behind him, stun gun at the ready, watching in awe as the situation unfolded before her eyes.

"Vash, what is this place?"

"A SEEDS ship landed here a long time ago." He soon stepped down onto the granite rock, the floor of cave, and headed toward a dark shape in the distance. Meryl's eyes went wide and she held tighter to him. "She's been undisturbed since Knives and I found her one hundred twenty years ago."

"Oh, wow…"

"It's just a shuttle," Vash said quietly, more to himself than to the girls. He gently set Meryl on the ground, offering an arm so that she could steady herself. "A quarter of the size of the ships that brought your people here. There were no colonists on it, just a team of scientists, I suspect."

Meryl glanced to him. "She crash-landed here?"

He looked to her. "No. She landed here."

"You mean landed, landed, don't you?"

"She got here about two years after the other ships crashed. She may have been straggler that got left behind, but I don't think so. More than likely she came in with supplies for the rest of the SEEDS colony, but when it was discovered that the project had been a massive failure, the crew landed the ship and got out while the getting was good."

He smiled over to her. "Well, let's go inside and clean your arm up."

"My arm's fine," she said. "Vash, what are we doing here?"

He sighed. "Something my brother said. Look, I'll tell you the whole twisted story, but right now there's a hell of a lot to do, and we don't have time to mess around right now." He watched her eyes gaze at him, a spark of amusement in them. He gave her a look and approached the shuttle. He punched a button, but the door refused to respond.

"Hmmm…damn thing's jammed." He activated the hidden gun in his left arm and placed it to the frame. Meryl wet her lips, watching, cradling her injured arm.

"Stay back," he said, and squeezed the trigger. He slowly took his arm around the metal in a slow, sweeping movement until he had cut his own oval doorway into the hull. He smiled and kicked at the metal, and the panel caved inward. "Let's go," he said, and stepped inside.

His friends followed him inside, peering about the dark tunnel. Light flickered well back into the darkness, down some other corridor. Meryl peered about, shaking slightly, clutching the wrist of her injured arm. She held the arm to her stomach to better protect it as they moved deeper into the downed SEED shuttle. She felt a little ill, but she didn't think her friends would notice if she kept her mouth shut. There was too much at stake right now, and she didn't feel much like slowing down.

At her side, Milly gazed wide-eyed, amazed at everything before her. "I don't think we're on Gunsmoke anymore," she whimpered, her eyes darting about the shadows. She jumped a bit as the lights above flickered but couldn't quite stay on. There was never enough light to see clearly where the were going.

On the other hand, Vash knew precisely where he was headed.

"I think we're safe here," Meryl said quietly. "Besides, Vash is with us."

Milly only nodded. "I know."

"She's got a little power," Vash said. "I don't know where it came from. When Knives and I found her, the power cells were completely drained."

He slipped into another corridor watching as a shower of spark fell from a mass of exposed wire. Frowning, he continued on past, trying to avoid the hazard. The girls followed his lead, never taking their eyes from the damage.

"There's an active geo-plant nearby," he muttered. Meryl gave him a look. "I can feel it. It's close, very close.

He came to a door with a viewport and slid the hatch open. Through the Plexiglas, he could see the light of a geo-plant. Immediately his eyes widened. The girls stepped to his side and peered on in.

"My God," Meryl murmured.

Slowly Vash slid the hatch closed. "I don't believe it…"

"Oh my, would you look at that," Milly murmured.

Meryl leaned against the far wall, a shocked look on her face. Babies… Hundreds of babies… Her mind raced, trying to make sense of it all. It was sick to see babies like that…locked up in that way. She suddenly felt ill. "Vash, what is all this? What the hell is going on here?" Her eyes bore into his own, demanding answers.

"I…it can't be. I…" Vash asked, looking to his friends. "What did you see?"

Milly frowned over at him. "I don't know, Vash. It looked pretty obvious, but at the same time, it didn't seem right. There were babies, hundreds of 'em." She gave Meryl a look. "They looked like human babies, I'm guessing about nine months old if they were in the womb, but…they weren't in the womb. They were in that light." She shook her head. "It couldn't be possible, could it? Are my eyes playing tricks on me?"

"That thing they were inside is a geo-plant," Vash whispered. "And it is possible. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here with you today."

"Mr. Vash?" Milly watched him with a look of confusion.

But Meryl understood. "You mean those things, those are…the same thing that you are? Those things are…like you?"

"I don't know," Vash whispered, leaning against a wall.

Just what had they stumbled upon? His eyes drifted back to a time when he was very young. He had once played with Knives as though he was his best of friends, to the days when they had enjoyed the company and care of Rem Saverem, as he and Knives developed abilities far beyond that of mortal man. He shuddered. If those things were plant-spawn, like him and Knives, there could be hell to pay.

"I don't believe it. It just can't be right."

"What just can't be right?"

"Let's find a place to sit," he murmured, and turned to walk away. He had to get away from this place, to hide himself as far as he possibly could from that scene in the room containing the geo-plant. His heart churned, and he felt as ill as Meryl looked. He shuddered at the thought that occurred to him in that moment. One hundred twenty years ago, he could remember that the geo-plant had been on the verge of dying.

But here it was, perfectly alive and filled with hundred of others like him.

The very prospect filled him with fear.

----------

Vash was not human. He had told her before. He was plant-spawn, a being born from within a geo-plant. Physically and mentally, he was much more developed that any human. It all explained how he could escape some of the most impossible situations imaginable. His brother, Knives, had put him into a difficult situation, one that he couldn't escape, and that was the fear of the people of this world.

That was why she could now understand the extent of what she had seen. It all made perfect sense, in a twisted, frightening way. It was a method of survival. The plant-spawn were hell-bent on enduring all the damage that the humans could possibly cause, and somehow, they had found a way.

Hundreds of babies. About three hundred, Vash had guessed.

It was clear that Vash was disturbed over the situation. Meryl tried not think about her arm. It hurt like hell, and she grimaced on occasion, but for the most part, all she could think of was that something about what the awkward hell she had seen within in the plant. It just didn't seem quite right—nothing about it seemed at all natural. She knew couldn't be one to judge because she didn't truly understand the situation, only that it was.

Her thoughts were disturbed by Vash's gentle voice as fretted over the past.

"I've spent the last 131 years trying to figure out Knives, trying to stop him from slaughtering the whole of the humans here on Gunsmoke. Turns out that I apparently can't. I can only lock him away for the rest of his existence."

He peered over to Meryl, smiling meekly. Now that they knew who Rem was, he wondered how much more they could possibly do for him. He only knew they were with him now, and he supposed that should be enough. For now, anyway.

"Your brother," Meryl whispered. "Is he…"

"He's alive. A year ago, I put my heart and soul into his downfall, but I didn't kill him. That wouldn't have been right." Vash sighed, his thoughts returning to Legato, the man he had killed to save the girls over a year ago. "I would never have killed him, unless I was given no other choice. For now, I have to be sure that he's imprisoned. It's the last thing I told him before I turned my back on him: 'Until you realize that there is room in this world for every last one of us, you'll have to understand there will be no room in this world for you.'"

"Vash, if you didn't kill Knives…" Meryl hesitated. She didn't know if this question was beyond her limit, but she felt it had to be asked. "If you didn't kill him, where is he now?"

"Well-hidden," he replied, picking at his prosthetic arm. His eyes were wet with emotion. "One day, I'll go back to check on him, but it's too dangerous for me to go around telling anyone where he is. Even the two of you."

Meryl nodded. "I understand."

"It must be hard on you," Milly murmured. "Having to stay away from someone you care so much for."

She leaned against Meryl, barely able to keep her tears in. This story was terribly depressing. The smaller woman rested an arm on her shoulder, comforting her. She then turned back to Vash. "I can't imagine having to fight your own brother. Sibling rivalry just doesn't really fit when it comes to your situation."

Vash smiled. "You're right, it doesn't."

Meryl watched him for a moment, reaching her hand toward his own. "It's all right, you know."

"I just hope you understand why I had to go alone."

"Oh Vash, of course we do," Meryl said. "You were protecting the people you care about."

Which so happens to be everyone, she thought. Maybe there was a flaw in humanity. Why couldn't there be more people like Vash out there?

Vash saw Milly nod her agreement and closed his eyes. "Thank you both."

There was a world of pain in those emerald eyes when they opened again, something they'd seen so often before yet couldn't quite understand. Now it was as clear as night and day, and they felt that pain right alongside him. The world was spinning out of control, and they knew they were lucky to have a guy like Vash the Stampede wandering the planet, looking out for them.

After a time, he rose to his feet. "I'm going into that geo-plant. You can't come."

Meryl lifted her eyes to his, tried to voice her protest, but she realized that this was something that he had to do for himself. Besides, the plant gave off a toxic radiation that could easily kill the humans, and when she remembered that, all of her protests went up in smoke. As she watched him walk away, she leaned sadly into Milly's shoulder, her features drooping a bit and for a time, her wounded arm was forgotten, even as her big friend patched it up. All of those worries seemed too small and petty to those that Vash had kept hidden from her for so long.

Now that he was gone, it gave her time to think. She didn't know if she really wanted to think about what was going through her mind, but it seemed inevitable. A silent realization came to her that everything deep within her heart had to stay there and never be said out loud. She thought back to the moment they had shared back at Black Rock, and suddenly ached for it. She longed for the stillness of last night, the gentleness that had encompassed her in his presence. But she knew in her heart those days were behind her, and she could never hold him in that way, for he would never be able to hold her the way she wanted him to. If those days ever returned to her, they were a long time coming, and they wouldn't be shared with Vash the Stampede. Perhaps that hurt worse more than any other realization that had come to her since his return.

She gave Milly a look as her friend clipped the last bandage to her arm. She rose to her feet and stretched. Her good hand raked slowly through her hair as she stared to the ground. She sighed softly and shook her head. She wondered where these odd feelings were coming from.

Shaking those strange thoughts from her brain, Meryl glanced to Milly. "I sure hope he finds what he's looking for."

"Me too, Meryl."