Trigun is owned by Yasuhiro Nightow.
Their Past
Meryl continued to stare Millie down when Stella cleared her throat.
"Well now that Meryl is better I know that we are hungry. Lets get some food in our empty tummies then Meryl and I can explain."
Meryl sighed and dropped her head. 'Thank you' she whispered to Stella. Meryl didn't know how to start, hell she didn't know what to say after her arm had been healed. Stella smiled and helped her to sit where Millie had set out the food, happy to have something to do.
They sat in uncomfortable silence when Meryl could not take it anymore she steeled herself and, sitting up straight she cleared her throat and took a cleansing breath. "I think it's time we told you everything."
Millie looked up at her sempai expectantly, while Nick beside her, braced her back fearing that she would topple over. Vash on the other hand seemed to glare at the sisters, his eyes boring into the side of Meryl's head. She had sat just so that Vash was in her vision but not filling it. Meryl breathed again and began.
"We were born a hundred and twenty years ago. Ten years after the SEED ships crashed. We were born to normal human parents but with obvious differences. When we were born we had green hair, or at least that's what the doctors told us. Our parents were confused but they still took us home. We were their children, the only children that they could have. Our mother was, up to our conception, unable to keep a child to term. She had lost three other babies and they both wanted to keep us. Over the next few months we grew as any normal child would, our hair began to grow and lost its green colour. To the everyday observer we were a normal family. Our father took us many times to the market to get food and supplies while mother stayed home doing what mothers do. This went on for many happy healthy years. As children we never got sick, ever. We never went against our parents we loved them dearly. We were the ideal family. But one day during our tenth year as normal children things changed.
"Stella and I were playing near the watering hole by our home with our play mate Alvin, when he fell and cut his leg badly. Our parents were not home, they had done to the market, it was going to be our birthday in a few days and we guessed it was so that they could get our presents. So there was no one around to help. We brought him back to the house and sat and looked at him. We wanted to save him, he was our friend." Meryl looked to Stella and smiled softly. "And we had a rather large crush on him, but I'm getting off topic. Anyway, I hadn't noticed but I had been cut in the process of moving him and I could feel something change in me. Something primal, something innate in my mind took over. I went over and placed my bleeding hand against his leg and began to heal it. By the time I heard his screaming his leg was healed and he was shoving me to the ground. The look of fear in his eyes scared me and I backed away. By that time our parents had come home and were faced with a screaming boy with a now healed bloody leg, and their two little girls suddenly not so little.
"We tried to explain but no one would hear us out. We kept telling them that we had healed him but he kept saying that we had tried to hurt him that we were the ones who made him bleed in the first place. Our parents were distraught; they didn't know what to do. So we left. They couldn't bear to leave us to the desert and instead picked up all they could carry and took us away from the town." Meryl smiled ruefully, "that town never even had a name. And from what I know now they never have.
"We walked and walked for what seemed like ages. We traveled like that for two more years before we found a town called Ages. A quaint little place with no more then eighty people but they were more then happy to have us live there. We stayed there for next ten years. We had explained our ability to the in town doctor and he welcomed us with open arms. He could always use a helping hand and since we had learned to control our power we were of use to him to 'aid' in the healing process. Everyone in town soon learned and like the doctor welcomed us. We leaned soon after being expelled from our hometown that we were able to change our hair colour and had settled on a happy strawberry blonde. Our mother thought it was beautiful our father thought it a curse." Meryl began to chuckle remembering happy times. "He had to beat the young men off with a stick. He hated it, but loved it all the same. Finally in this town of Ages his daughters were accepted. We lived happy like this for the next ten years.
"When Alvin, our dear long lost childhood love came into town we found that he had been looking for us. He made a beeline to where he had heard our parents were and called for us. They told him that we had left soon after we turned twenty and had us hide at a friend's house. Alvin didn't believe them and decided to extend his stay. The family that harboured us sent their son, Kevin out to the near town to poke around to see why Alvin was looking for us. Five days later he returned with news that Alvin had become some sort of gatherer for a medical company. He had told them in jest of twins that had the ability to heal. And they had taken him seriously. He had been looking for us for the last seven years and after finding our parents was going to stay to find out anything he could about us. We stayed at Kevin's for a week and still Alvin did not leave. We didn't know what to do. We had been getting short letters from our parents telling us where he might be and to be near a safe place when he came by. But we couldn't keep it up.
"We had been to visit the larger town a few hours drive from Ages when he must have spotted us. Kevin had taken us and a few others out to relax, and on our way home he must have been around the corner and saw us. He must have reported in that instant because that night we heard them tearing through the town looking for us. They were just a bunch of hired thugs but they meant business. They had our parents at gunpoint in the middle of the square. They were calling out to us to hand ourselves over otherwise they were going to kill them." Meryl paused as she heard Millie gasp and lean into Nick. Meryl knew quite well how Millie felt when it came to family. Breathing deeply at the memory Meryl continued, "Our parents called out to us to not come, that we had so many other more important things that we had to do. But we couldn't leave them. So we made a deal that if we went with them that they would leave Ages alone. That they give their word that no one there would be hurt. They agreed and we left. The last time we ever saw anyone in Ages they all had tears in their eyes as Stella and I were cuffed and hauled into one of the trucks." Meryl closed her eyes and allowed a single crystal tear to fall. Stella took Meryl in her arms and held her, waiting for Meryl to gain her composure and continue.
Meryl shook off her tears and ran her fingers through her hair and continued, her eyes now never leaving the basket set before her. "We traveled for days to reach May. There we were placed in separate containers and taken away. We hadn't figured out what we were but we leaned from practice that we have the same mental link that Mr Vash has with his brother, so the physical distance was never a problem to us, but when they began to test us, we could not block out each other's screams.
"The facility was trying to create a drug that would give an extended life to the dying which we were more then happy to help with but after three years of torment, there were no results. We gave them everything, blood, bone, skin, hair…our screams. One day after a particularly bad test I could hear from Stella through our link that the doctors were not looking for a cure for the masses, but one for the rich, for the select few that had the money to spare for a fast and easy cure. And these further 'tests' were to see if our offspring were worthy for that of an army. This infuriated me to no end. And I began planning to escape. I had to get Stella out and get home to Ages and get our parents out of there."
Meryl looked to Stella, and the two shared a quite smile. "Stella being the kinder of us yielded to the tests far more then I did. I, being hot headed and stubborn was left alone most of the time to deal with the more pressing tests. Like to see whither I could survive in the cold and for how long. During one of my rest periods I was able to find a way out. That night after Stella had been returned to her room we escaped. For all of their mechanical genius it was rather easy to get out. And once we did we ran, and ran. It took us days to run the length of the desert to Ages. I being the one to have to deal with the harsher tests took to the run far better then Stella. At some point I had to carry her, and I did. How else were we to get home? But by the time we reached Ages, it was too late.
"It was dusk when we reached the town limits, relieved that we had gotten home we gathered our last bits of strength and ran full tilt home. We went first to Doctor Jones' home, the man who had been so kind to us in teaching us medicine and allowing us to help the sick. We burst into his home a smile and a yelled greeting on our lips. We stopped dead in our tracks. The office that doubled for the Doctor's living room was in shambles. I could smell the blood the moment I entered the home. It was something that I had become very acquainted with during my tests. Stella not knowing what that sharp coppery smell was didn't know what to do. I walked deeper in and found Doctor Jones on the floor. Nothing of his face was left, the only reason I knew it was him, was because of the coat he wore. We had a few months before our capture, made him a patch quilt coat. He had spoken often or our skilled hands and this was our gift to him. I ran Stella out as fast as I could in a blind search for anyone left alive. Every home we entered we found blood and death. There was no one left. We came to our home, and we were stuck. What had the company done to our family? We entered with caution and stopped. I could hear faint laboured breathing and ran to it." Meryl stopped as her eyes closed, the flashes of that night blinding her.
Stella seeing Meryl's distress continued, though her voice shook. "Meryl saw them first; she's always the one to see it first. Mother was long dead, her body cold. But father…he…he had crawled to her and held her. Meryl fell to her knees and crawled to him. He looked up at us with happiness. He was happy to see us, even though it was our fault that they were all dead and dying. He told us that he loved us and that no matter what to keep helping people that our word and our gift were for all to enjoy, for all to benefit. I know she felt his heart beat slow and finally stop. But it was her out raged cry that was the most terrifying. She sat there and screamed her desperation and anger to the world.
"That night we buried them, everyone. The hundred sum odd people that had become our family and friends, we buried them. It was that morning when Meryl stood with me, our parents gave before us and said that she was going to get them; she was going to get them all." Stella's voice broke and tears finally filled her eyes. These tears were not the pure ones of need, but of tainted innocence.
Meryl pulled Stella onto her lap and while brushing Stella's hair continued, "I went to every house and found all their guns and ammunition and took them back to our home. There I found our twenty-fifth birthday gifts. Two sliver 45 calibre guns. Father left a note with them wishing us a happy birthday and a wish that we would never have to use them. I loaded both and put them on. I took father's favoured shotgun and every shot I could carry. Stella showed up begging me not to go. I didn't hear her, my mind was focused on what I intended to do to them. All those lying bastards had gone and killed everyone just because we had escaped when we finally knew what they were doing. I drove off without a backward glance. I never saw Stella's tears, but I felt them, she was crying for both of us."