TRIGUN: THE PLANTED ANGEL CHAPTER 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun.

Author's Note: This is the last chapter in the Planted Angel series. (Look at me! I'm starting to call my fan fics series.) I hope the last for chapters have kept you wanting more and I hope this last chapter does too! I might type up another fan fic with Isabel and Dominguez in it . . . maybe . . . e.e

CHAPER 5: UNCHARTED PLANS

"Why so surprised?"

He grabbed the shot gun, which took Isabel bell surprise. He jerked it from her & tossed it away. It skidded away, sliding to a stop before the doors.

"Come for my brother, have you? Don't worry. He's still alive," he said, holding her face in his hands.

He came closer & Isabel found herself with a strange attraction she couldn't seem to settle.

"You must really care for that imbecile of a brother of mine." He brushed her bangs out of her eyes & stroked her cheek.

"After all I did for you, Isabel, you turned against me. I brought you your beloved brother, alive & well. I even offered you a position of power."

Their faces grew closer so that their was less than an inch between them.

"I can't seem to fathom my brethren. Vash, Dominguez & yourself. We're all alike. All PLANTS. Yet, I seem to be the only one with a clear vision. Why is that, I wonder? Do you know?"

Isabel could barely utter the words as Knives' cold blue eyes seemed to place her in a trance.

"Because," she managed, "no one is the same. No one mind thinks alike. It's not natural."

Knives' expression changed to that of a questioning look.

"Oh, really? Are we natural? No, of course not. Humans made us what we are. Humans have an unnecessary compassion for life. I, on the other hand, believe only the strong shall live. The weak die like flies in a spider's web."

Isabel's hands hung limp at her sides. Her fingers twitched as she gained some control. They reached for the Peace Makers at her sides.

Knives seemed to be ahead of her as he reached for her hands. He was quick & strong as he clenched her hands in his larger ones.

"Dama Veneno," Knives said. "That's such a pretty title for such a deadly pastime."

Isabel nearly fell back as he pushed her against the wall. She was strong but Knives was stronger. She couldn't pull her hands free from Knives' grip without dislocating joints or breaking any bones.

She needed her hands.

She wasn't prepared for what came next. Their lips met as Knives kissed her lightly.

"As I said, only the strong survive. I could use you but your will is weak. Perhaps reassuring is needed?"

She spat in his face.

"You can burn in Hell with el Diablo!"

All notions of calmness & questioning left Knives' face & was instead replaced by vengeful anger. Her left hand was free as Knives drew his right back & struck her a harsh blow across the face.

She fell to the ground, her lip bleeding & her cheek soar.

"If you're going to be so incompetent, you can wait for me in death."

He pulled out a gun & pointed it at her, a wide, sinister grin on his face with eyes completely devoid of compassion.

"It truly is sad, dear Isabel. You would've been strong as the right hand woman of this world's new over lord. You'll have your brother for company in Hell, though."

She wasted no time but pulled out her guns & with one, she shot the gun out of Knives' hand & with the other, she made an aim for his head but missed. Instead, she shot his shoulder.

"AUGH! You rancid bitch!"

She got to her feet & ran behind a large statue of a saint. Knives got his gun back in his hands & shot at her as he ducked behind the cover of the benches. Izy ducked out from behind the statue & fired a round at him.

Knives was quick & the bullets did nothing but blow off bits of wood from the bench.

"I'll give you but one chance to reconsider, Isabel. You are a beautiful woman & you are of my kind. Power will come easy to you & I bet our child will be strong."

"BURN IN HELL, BURO!" She fired more shots at him & ducked back under cover as Knives shot some in return.

"You missed your chance!"

Bullets flew like Hell fire, blowing off chips of stone a wood. It was calm elsewhere, though. Wolfwood crept through old passage ways & found himself face to face with a dark figure. In this darkness, he could not make out the figure.

It seemed to be the same for the dark figure. Shots fired & the two figures ducked for cover.

"Knives," Wolfwood exclaimed, "I'm officially resigning, OK, buddy?"

"Knives?" said a familiar voice. "Wolfwood, is that you?"

Wolfwood ducked out from behind his cover. "Dominguez? Where's Isabel?"

"We split up out front to cover more ground. Did you find anyone?"

Wolfwood shook his head, "No. Let's get out of here. There's nothing in here."

"There was no one in the Mass section."

They both retreated from the dark cathedral, stepping through the broken window & into the moon light. A sinister cackle could be heard from behind a tall statue of Christ.

"What was that!" Wolfwood exclaimed turning around with his guns at the ready.

A tall, slender figure appeared from behind the statue. A man with a crooked smile & sinister eyes. He wore a tatter hat & coat, the ends of the coat curling & writhing like beheaded serpents.

"Ah, the woman's friend. Her brother as well! Well, well! I think this would come as interesting news to you both. I believe my master should be having his way with the PLANT woman. Such a beautiful creature is fore him only."

"What did you say!" Dominguez pulled out his machine gun but Wolfwood placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait, Dom. Where's Vash?"

"Vash! What about my sister!"

"We'll take care of this guy after we get the information then you go look for your sister & I go look for Vash," he whispered.

The Reaper cackled. "Since you'll be dying oh so soon, I feel it necessary to tell you. I have him kept in a strong prison beneath this cathedral. After the master has pleased himself with your young woman, he'll take care of that fool, Vash."

"He'll do no such thing!" Dominguez exclaimed. "He better not lay a finger on Isabel or I'll lay a cap in his ass! Come on, Wolfwood!"

Wolfwood & Dominguez fired a barrage of bullets at the Reaper as they both ran in separate directions. Wolfwood ducked behind the fallen statue of a saint & propped his gun up.

Dominguez ran behind the corner of the cathedral & fired a round of bullets at the Reaper. He soon had to change the magazine as the Reaper easily dodged the bullets, moving like a formless wraith across the moonlit earth.

(Again, for those of you who no nothing of guns, a magazine is another term for a clip or cartridge of bullets for a machine gun or other types of guns.)

"Damn it!" Wolfwood cursed. "He's dodging all our shots! I'm running out of ammo, here!"

"Wolfwood," Dominguez said so only they could hear each other over the barrage of bullets, "I'll draw his fire! You send him a shot from that grenade launcher of yours!"

"ARE YOU MAD!"

"Slightly! Hurry it up, Padre!"

Dominguez ran from his hiding place & straight towards the Reaper. The Reaper pulled out two guns & fired at him. The plan worked. The Reaper's attention was on Dominguez as he ran in plain view.

A piercing pain shot through Dominguez's leg as a bullet broke flesh. He stumbled & fell before the tall statue of Christ. The Reaper closed in.

"NOW!" Dominguez cried.

The Reaper turned around to find a rather large grenade charge coming straight at him. He released a horrible screech & lifted his arms as the grenade exploded.

Wolfwood came running to the impact to find no remains of either the Reaper or Dominguez. Simply charred earth & Vash's gun several feet away.

"Dominguez! Where are you?"

"Over here!" Dominguez said, hobbling over from behind the statue of Christ.

He leaned heavily against the statue, the blood from his leg dripping & forming a puddle at his feet. A trail of it led from the charred earth to behind the statue.

"You OK man?" Wolfwood said, walking over to help Dominguez.

"Yeah, I'm fine. This is nothing. I managed to escape behind the statue before the grenade blew. Where's the Reaper?"

"That's what I'd like to know. Do you think he got away?"

"Most likely. But my guess is he's not happy."

"Let's go find Vash."

Dominguez ripped a strip of clothe from his shirt & wrapped it around his leg wound.

"I'll go find Vash, you go help my sister. I'd only be more trouble for her with this leg of mine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Just go!"

He nodded his head in understanding & they separated. Dominguez, who picked up Vash's gun, heading down to the prison, Wolfwood off to look for Isabel.

Wolfwood didn't have to look for long because he heard the sound of gun shots coming from the cathedral. He followed the sounds, gun at hand & soon found himself looking through the tall window of the Virgin Mary at the scene of flying bullets.

He spotted Isabel's fallen shotgun at the door & took a deep breathe.

"Here goes nothing!"

He ran through the doors & hid behind some benches. Knives turned his attention to Wolfwood & grinned.

"The priest! Haha! You fools!"

"Wolfwood!"

Wolfwood looked over at Izy, who was curled up with her guns, waiting for a chance to shoot.

"IZY! Are you alright! He didn't try anything, did he!"

"I'm FINE, Wolfwood!"

Knives grinned maliciously as he shot at Wolfwood.

"You're acting like a worried lover, priest!"

"You need to learn to shut your MOUTH!"

Wolfwood shot a barrage of bullets in Knives' direction. Izy took this chance & ran from her cover to Wolfwood.

"Thanks for coming, Wolfwood."

"It's my pleasure," he said, ducking behind the bench as Izy shot at Knives. "We found Vash. He's below the church in some jail cell. Dominguez went to go look for him. We had to get through that Reaper guy, although I don't think he's dead yet."

"Are you alright, Wolfwood?" she asked as she ducked to reload her Peace Makers.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Dominguez got a bad shot in the leg, though. That's why he went to go look for Vash."

"I thought I heard an explosion," Izy said with a grin at Wolfwood. He grinned back & grabbed a couple of guns from his cross.

(CHANGE SCENES! CHURCH BASEMENT!)

Dominguez limped down a dark passage way, groping the walls with one hand for balance & guide & the other hand holding a hand gun.

"Damn it! Where's a light switch when you need it?"

Just then, as if in answer to his question, his hand stumbled upon something on the cold, steal wall. It was a switch! He flipped it & luminescent lights flickered on above him, flickering on & off.

"I owe you one, God."

He hobbled down the passage until he came upon a single door. It stood ajar, with the faint sound of whistling on the other side. It was an old song that Dominguez heard a woman visiting the SEED ship he & Izy were on sing.

"Vash!"

The whistling stopped.

"Who's there?" came the familiar voice.

Dominguez hurried to the door & swung it open. There, behind the iron bars of a prison cell, stood Vash with his hands behind his back.

"Vash!"

"Dominguez! Ol' buddy, ol' pal! Am I glad to see you!"

Dominguez grinned & limped over to Vash.

"So, how's it hangin'?"

"Oh, you know. The same ol' stuff. A nice little tea party & an erotic video here & there- GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Dominguez laughed & pointed his gun at the lock.

"Stand back, Vash."

BAM! BAM! BAM!

The lock fell & Vash kicked the door open. "Great! Now the cuffs."

"You want me to shoot those, too?"

"What? NO!"

"Don't worry! I won't shoot off any fingers."

"I hope you're talking about me."

BAM!

One shot carefully placed shot the cuffs loose.

"OUCH! I told you to be careful!"

"Still got all your fingers?"

He counted. "Yes."

"Good! Then you're fine. Here's your gun."

Vash grabbed his gun & kissed it. "You're back! I missed you so much!"

"Get a grip, will you? It's only a gun."

"Let's go, Dominguez. I'll bet Wolfwood & Izy will need our help."

They walked through the passage way, Dominguez limping behind Vash, & headed towards the others.

"I'll bet they're in the main church," Vash said.

"Yeah, & when I find that bastard Knives I'm gonna blow his brains out."

"You're in no condition to do that, anyway."

"I don't care! If he did anything to my sister, that sick bastard is going down."

(CHANGE SCENES! . . . WHERE THE OTHERS ARE!)

Knives gritted his teeth as a shot grazed his head.

"Damn it! The Reaper failed me greatly. I'll have to – huh?"

A dark, writhing form came crawling to Knives. It was the Reaper.

"Master! Forgive me, Master. The fool priest had a powerful weapon. I …"

"Get me out of here, Reaper! These damned fools are starting to annoy me. I'll deal with you later."

"Yes, Master."

In a gust of dark wind, the folds of the Reaper's cloak wrapped about them & they vanished.

"Wait! Izy, they're gone."

"What! He can't be gone! I've gotta give that sick pervert Hell!"

She ran from behind the bench to where Knives was but only found the grey neko curled up in a daze under the tattered remains of the benches. Bullet shells lay scattered on the floor.

"Damn!" Isabel exclaimed, kicking the bench, which shattered at the impact.

Izy was fuming & seated herself on one of the benches that was still intact. Wolfwood walked over to her & placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You make a habit of keeping things away from me. Important things." He sat down next to Isabel, who had her face in her hands. "Tell me. What happened here with you & Knives?"

She took a deep, shuttering breathe & sniffed, running a hand through her hair. Her face was red with both anger & embarrassment & her eyes were watery with slight tears.

"He did . . . something . . ."

"What? What did he do?"

Wolfwood held her hand in his hands, his expression serious & worried.

"He . . . kissed me. He said . . . when the new world order came, he wanted me by his side. The sick asshole even said we were going to have children. That'll never happen," she said, standing up quickly.

Her face was red & she looked like she was about to burst into either rage or tears. She wasn't expecting Wolfwood to give her such an embrace. It was a comforting embrace &, although it brought horrible memories, she didn't fight it.

They stood there, Wolfwood with his arms around Isabel & Isabel with her head leaning against his chest & slow tears welling in her eyes. The sound of foot falls could be heard from a door behind the altar.

The door swung open to reveal Vash & Dominguez. Dominguez was leaning on Vash for support.

"Where's Knives?" Vash asked.

The two separated, Isabel running to her brother & Wolfwood standing with his hands in his pockets & his face red.

"He's gone. He left with the Reaper."

"Isabel, are you alright? He didn't do anything, did he? You don't have any gun shots, do you?"

"I'm FINE, Dominguez! It's you I'm worried about. Come on. We should get home."

(CHANGE SCENES! BACK AT IZY'S HOUSE!)

Izy was bandaging up Dominguez's leg, which was propped up on a chair, in the dining room. Wolfwood was leaning against the wall & Vash was trying to make a tune on Izy's guitar in the den.

"Give it up, Vash," Wolfwood said with a smirk. "You'll never get it."

"Don't put him down like that, Wolfwood," Izy said, finishing with Dom's leg. "He might get it one day."

She stood up to face Wolfwood, her arms crossed & a small band-aid on her cheek.

"So, I guess you'll be leaving, huh?"

She had her hair down & it lay over her shoulders in deep brown waves.

"Yeah, I guess so," Wolfwood said.

"Hey! Izy! Can I have the guitar?" Vash asked.

"No," she said simply.

Dominguez grabbed a cane from off the table & walked over to Vash. "I'll teach you some of the basics for guitar, OK Vash?"

"Yay!" Vash got off the arm chair & sat cross legged on the floor, his hands in his lap as he looked at Dominguez with the guitar like an eager child.

Wolfwood & Izy laughed lightly at him. "Just like a child," he said.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for Vash, Izy. He's always like this."

She shook her head. "No. Not for Vash. For betraying you. For the poison, for the trouble . . . for Knives."

Wolfwood's expression grew soft & he smiled. "There's no need to apologize, Izy. I understand why you had to do it. Hell, if I were in your position, I'd do it, too!"

Izy sighed & closed her eyes. She opened them & looked up at Wolfwood. "Don't forget . . . to take the rations I packed for you two. The next city is really far from here. Here's some money, too. You'll need it for bus fare & a place to stay."

She placed $$300 in Wolfwood's hand.

"Thank you for the rations but I can't take this much money from you. I . . ."

Izy placed a finger on Wolfwood's lips to tell him to be quiet. She took the money & placed it in his pocket.

"Take it. You & Vash haven't got a penny on either of you."

Wolfwood smiled & held her hand. "Thank you, Izy."

"Hey, Wolfwood! Dom taught me how to play the guitar. Listen!"

He held the guitar at the ready & placed his left hand fingers on the frets. He strummed the strings & produced a chord.

"Not bad, Vash," Wolfwood said. "Ready to go?"

Vash nodded his head. "Yep!"

Dominguez got up. "Come on, Vash. Let's wait for them out side."

"What for?"

"Don't argue."

"Fine."

Izy laughed & shook her head. "Vash is such a doofus."

"Yeah, he is. That's what I gotta deal with for the rest of the trip, too."

They stood there looking at each other for a while. First with happy expressions then Izy's changed into a sad one.

"I'll miss you guys. Have a safe journey, OK?"

Wolfwood nodded his head & bent down to give her a kiss goodbye. He hesitated for a moment but Izy broke through that hesitation. They were together briefly.

Wolfwood looked crestfallen & Izy sad. "Please," Wolfwood said. "Be safe. I'd imagine Knives will try to come back for you, so . . . keep an eye out, OK?"

"I will. You keep an eye out, too. This won't be the last time Knives tries to kill Vash."

"Well . . . goodbye, Izy."

"It's not goodbye. We'll meet again . . . hopefully. Oh! Before you go!"

She ran to the kitchen & opened up a top cabinet. She pulled out a small red box & ran back to Wolfwood.

"I find that the things in this box can come in very handy for finding out information. There's a truth serum in there & some other nifty poisons, too."

Wolfwood raised an eyebrow at her.

"They don't call me Lady Poison for nothing, you know. Please, take it."

Wolfwood took the box & opened the lid. Inside were several small vials with labels on them. There was also another small box inside.

"What's this?" he asked.

He opened the box & found a silver ring inside. It had a single ruby imbedded in a small cross.

"It always brought me good luck. I thought you might need it."

He smiled. "Thanks. We'll meet again," he said as he walked out the door.

Izy ran to the door to watch the duo walk off, away from her house & away from the city of May. Away from Isabel, the planted angel.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you liked it! And I hope you learned a little bit. You know, about guns & Spanish & how good they mix! - Well, I like guns. Send me some replies & tell me whether or not I should write another one, OK?

Oh, gee. I bet the Knives fan club is gonna bombard me with hate mail saying things like, "How dare you make Knives look so bad!" and, "That witch Isabel needs to shut up! NO ONE spits at MY man!" . . . Believe it or not, I've heard people talk like that. It's cool what happens in the last episode, though. Vash finally realizes that it's not best to take Ren's whole "DON'T KILL" thing so seriously.

I spaced out so many things to try & make it easier on the eyes so when you read it, you won't get so much of a headache. I hope it worked. ' You know, originally, Isabel's name was going to be Isabella but then I decided Isabel was more Hispanic so I changed it.

If I missed a couple or if you see any typos, please tell me. I type so fast that typos happen to pop up a lot. Thank goodness for Microsoft Word Spell Check, eh? Again, I hope you enjoyed this epic thriller! (Well, I tried to make it an epic thriller so don't hate me if it stinks.)

Your faithful writer/comic artist, gametaken. 3 Mow! Mowser says hi! 3

P.S. Mowser's my imaginary fairy cat with delusions of grandeur. ' 3 MOW!