AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hmmm... Three chapters and no reviews yet. I know that this might be in part because it is rated M, but if you are reading this, please review. I would greatly appreciate it. I will keep posting parts even if you don't, but it would be nice to know what people think of this. Thanks!
Ormandria
Vash's arm seemed to have a mind of its own. The gun in his hand started transforming first and than his right arm after it. They grew and warped together until it was nothing but a pulsating living cannon attached at the shoulder. He felt the power surge through it and knew he would not be able to stop the blast. But he did know he could try to aim it. And aim it he did. Straight at Knives. His only thought was that he needed to stop Knives before he killed anyone else. Knives look of amusement turned to horror as he realized what his brother was about to do.
"NO!" he screamed at Vash. But it was too late.
The blast that shot from the end of what use to be Vash's arm encompassed not only Knives, but the whole room they were in as well. And it grew from there. By the time that the explosion had finished growing, it had taken out almost the entire city of July.
Knives laughed quietly to himself as he closed the front door. This was going to be very interesting indeed. If there was one thing Knives knew how to do it was to manipulate people and situations to suit his own ends. And if this woman honestly believed that she could stop him that easily she had another thing coming. The way he figured it was that sooner or later she would let her guard down and that was the moment he would pounce. But until than he would play along.
After all, it had been a very long time since he had had a good game of cat and mouse with anyone other than his brother. And Eleesa was definitely already proving herself a worthy opponent. He looked up the stairs she had ascended a few minutes ago and decided to follow. There was no time like the present to start the games.
When he arrived upstairs she was already at the end of the hall in the same room where he had picked up the gun he held now. He walked down the hall to the open door and peaked in.
"What do you want now?" Eleesa asked without looking up from the book she had started reading.
"Oh, I just thought we could give this introduction thing another try," he said in mock sincerity. "We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot."
Knives sat down at the small table opposite Eleesa and waited. Eleesa looked up from her book long enough to notice that Knives had also put the gun back down on the table and slid it towards her. At which point she closed the book totally and put it down.
"So is this suppose to be your idea of some sort of peace treaty?" she asked nodding at the gun. "You give me my gun back and I forget you broke the table and than tried to kill me?"
"You might say so," he responded. "Or it could simply be that I have no use to carry a gun if I can't even shoot it."
"Which," he continued. "Brings me to my next observation. That is a very interesting talent you have. Getting into peoples minds and adjusting things to suit your needs. Does my brother know you do that?"
Eleesa leaned across the table and smiled. "What makes you think that I did it?"
"Because my brother has neither the talent nor the guts to do something like this himself," he smiled back.
"Ah. Well, you're right." She leaned back against her chair. "I did it. And no, your brother doesn't know I can. After all, he probably would have tried to stop me if he known. Don't you think?"
"Yes," admitted Knives. "He would have. And we wouldn't want him to do that now would we? Of course, if Vash did know, I doubt he would have been able to do anything anyway. I mean, he is nothing more than a child in a grown man's body. With his simple-minded beliefs that the world is all sugar plums and fairies."
Eleesa noted the distain in Knives voice as he finished the sentence.
"And let's face it," Knives continued. "That makes him weak. And as such, he is also useless. Always has been, always will be. And I have no intention of letting him continue in his uselessness."
Eleesa nodded. "I see. So because he believes in peace and doing what is right, he has nothing to offer the world?" she asked.
Knives leaned back in his chair, happier than before. "Now you've got it!" he said.
He could have sworn that at this point for the briefest of moments some other emotion flickered across Eleesa's face. But it had come and gone so quickly that he was never able to tell what it was or if he had in fact seen correctly. Because immediately afterward, her face was back to the serene and knowing smile that had been there since he had confronted her downstairs.
Whatever game this woman was up too, Knives suddenly felt like he might actually be the prey. It was a feeling that even Vash had never been able to instill in him. But he kept it to himself and continued to carry on as if nothing had happened.
"Anyone who believes in peace is a fool and my dear brother, as smart as he may be, is the worst of the lot. He seems to be under the misapprehension that he is in the same class as you mere humans," Knives chuckled. "And humans are now and always will be nothing."
Eleesa got up and retrieved the gun from the table and turned to put it away in a dresser on the other side of the room.
"Well then," she said after a few moments. "I guess that makes you even less of nothing. I mean after all, if Vash is nothing, as you say he is, and he managed to bring you down, than he has to be better than you. Ergo, you, Knives are less then nothing." The last word was filled with a combination of condescension and pity.
"My brother was lucky. That is all," he said in a dangerously low voice. "And he will pay for it."
The smile dropped from Eleesa's face as she turned around and regarded Knives. "If I were you I would worry more about what others might do to you than about what you plan on doing to your brother."
Knives met her stare eye to eye and for what seemed like an exceedingly long time neither of them even so much as blinked. Finally Knives broke out laughing. "I like you," he said getting up. "This is definitely going to be a very interesting next few days."
With that Knives left the room and went back to the room he had awoken in and sat down on the bed, looking at the broken table, still laughing quietly to himself. He had to admit that more he talked to this woman, the more impressed he was with her. She sure wasn't afraid of him. That much he could tell.
There had been something in her eyes, for a very brief second. But it wasn't fear. It was something else. Something more dangerous. And Knives knew dangerous. He had, after all, brought together and created the Gung-Ho Guns and it didn't get more dangerous than that. So why was it that he had the feeling that Eleesa could make Legato look like a harmless little dog compared to her? He was beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be better to bring her around to his way of thinking rather than to kill her. She would make a fantastic replacement for the deceased Legato. And that would be an even better way to get to Vash. He would never expect Knives to do that.
'Yes,' he thought to himself. It was perfect. Even if it was going to take more planning than he had initially thought.
Eleesa watched Knives walk out of the room. She waited until he was out of earshot and than cursed to herself. She had almost lost it. For a brief second she had felt herself let go, and had just barely managed to catch herself as it happened. But it had been enough. She knew he had seen it. She just wasn't sure he knew what it was. Eleesa had become very good at masking her emotions over the years.
She had learned to do that out of self-preservation. It wasn't that she didn't want people to see what she was really feeling. Although in the case of Knives, it helped immensely that he couldn't. It was more that this was the only way she could control the feelings she got off of others. If she didn't watch herself around others, she would not only know what they felt, but she would start feeling it herself.
And when that happened, it was bad. Knives was a vain creature that liked to pounce when given a chance, and any sign of weakness on her part could very well provide that chance. It was something that she wasn't about to let happen.
When she had been in his head the other night, she had done more than just adjust his mind so he couldn't hurt anyone. She had very carefully looked over his entire life. After all, she always liked to know who she was dealing with. And Vash had not been over-exaggerating when he said Knives was a ruthless killer. If anything, he had understated the exact extent of Knives madness.
A normal mind was one that was whole with only a few fragments here and there where tragedy had occurred in that person's life. But Knives mind? It had been like a giant jigsaw puzzle that had never quite gotten put together correctly in the first place. And than someone had come along and shattered it.
She had a pretty good idea of who that was too. She had also seen that in his mind. For a brief moment it had almost made her feel sorry for Knives really. He had only been a child when it had happened.
But the feeling was gone now. The fact was that Knives was not someone to take lightly. And letting herself feel sorry for him over something like that would only give him the upper hand.
And than there was Vash.
What would happen once he got back? She couldn't very well push Knives beyond his limit in order to break him while Vash was sitting here. He would never allow it. He loved his brother too much to believe that he needed to be torn apart mentally and emotionally before he could begin to heal from the horrors of his past.
And Eleesa knew he did. She knew this from experience. She had been forced through it herself, although she had to go through most of it alone.
Humans had never been meant to be immortal. Yet fate had put her in the position to where she had essentially become just that. Immortal. Oh, she could die … if someone killed her. But for all intents and purposes she had stopped aging the day she merged with the plant.
At first, after the initial shock of that and the trauma of Jack's death, it had been fine. The first few years of life on this planet had gone much better than expected. But then everyone around her got old. And as they aged, they died. Suddenly faced with the realization that everyone she cared about would be long gone while she was still young and active, she had essentially had a slow nervous breakdown.
First had come the bitterness and jealousy. Watching people as they fell in love and grew old together. Lived out their lives together and had families, living with the knowledge that their children would be there long after they were gone. A guarantee she could not be given even if she did have kids. Then came the anger and rage at the fact that these simple things had been taken from her so quickly.
Last came the hatred and contempt. And with them, her world had fallen apart. Every other emotion in her just sort of shut down after that, leaving nothing behind but that burning ember of hate for all other people. She wanted nothing more to do with any of them. She came here and surrounded herself with plants. They only living things you could trust and count on. They became her only connection to anything outside of her own head.
True, things could have been worse. She hadn't become quite the psychotic killer that Knives had. But that was only because she had never felt too inclined to purposefully force herself into the same situation that had happened with Jack and that feeling of having a part of her very soul ripped away as he died. Although she had since had much worse experiences that made that one look like a cake-walk.
There had been that one incident, shortly after she had first cultivated this small piece of land. She shuddered at the memory and quickly pushed it back out of her mind.
Then there had been July. And everything had changed. And for the first time she had truly begun to view her situation differently. She had realized that it was a fact of life that could not be changed. Her anger and bitterness had eaten away at her so much that there was almost nothing left when Jake Millen had found her. She realized that she was slowly killing herself. It was hard for her to not want to act on the feeling to hurry things up and end what she saw as a miserable life. But she had not counted on the strength and belief that Jake Millen held in her, or on actually making friends with the people in New Maine.
It took many years for her to finally get to the point were she was now, where she could look at her life as more a blessing than a curse, and to realize just how delicate and wonderful life could still be. But she was here now, and if she had any say in it, she would pull Knives through to that point. It was the least she could do.
If she failed though, she knew that there could be only one of two recourses. Either she would have to kill Knives, or he would kill her. The idea of dying didn't bother her at all. After all, she had already faced death more than once. So it no longer held any fear for her. Though, the idea of killing Knives was different. If she were forced to do that then…. Well, it was a matter that would be moot until it actually developed.
The main point was that to help Knives she needed more than the two days that Vash's trip to New Maine had bought her.
She had no idea how to get that extra time either. Once Vash knew Knives was awake, he would probably come rushing back. Any excuses or ploys to stall would most likely just make him suspicious and want to get back even faster.
Eleesa stared out her window thinking for a few minutes. Finally deciding that the best approach would be the direct approach, she went down to the kitchen to make a phone call.
The jalopy rocked underneath him as Vash drove through the desert. He still wasn't quite sure what to think of Eleesa. His brain kept telling him that she hadn't told him the whole story. But at the same time, his heart kept telling him to trust her. That he would get his answers soon enough. He was also a bit worried about leaving her alone with the unconscious Knives, but again, something deep inside of him told him that she would be okay. Vash figured that if there were anyone else on this planet that could handle Knives, Eleesa was that person.
Vash purged all thoughts of Knives from his mind as New Maine came into view ahead of him. It was a bit bigger than he thought it would be. It looked like there were at least a hundred people living in the town. He could see from the distance the plants that surrounded the town, along with three separate radio towers.
A huge building in the very center of town appeared to be either a large mansion or an extravagant hotel leaving one with the impression that the town had been built around the building instead of inside the circumference of the plants. A rather large fountain fronted the building with two rather large trees on either side of it. In addition to those trees, small saplings lined some of the streets. All in all Vash was very impressed. It seemed like it had been forever since he had seen a town so well built and managed. Apparently, whoever had control over the water in this area had no problem whatsoever with sharing it with the rest of the town.
Vash no sooner got into town than something small and fast hit the front of the jeep. The jeep than gave a loud bang, a small puff of smoke and died. Vash got out and went around to the front of the jeep to see what had happened and noticed a small red ball rolling away from the jalopy. He bent and picked the ball up just as the owners came running up behind him.
"Hey mister!" one of them yelled. "Can we have our ball back?"
"Sure," laughed Vash as he turned around to hand it to the boy who had asked. He looked to be about ten and had short brown hair and brown eyes. There was a little girl with him that looked like a smaller version, no older than six. She was grasping a small teddy bear in front of her and smiling.
The boy thanked Vash and than ran back to where a small group of other children were waiting for him and the ball to continue playing. Vash looked down at the girl who just continued to smile up at him saying nothing.
"Hello there," he said, bending down to her level. "What's your name?"
"Kalla," she said.
"Kalla," Vash repeated. "That's a pretty name. Aren't you going to go back and play with your friends?"
Kalla shook her head. "No. I wanna watch you."
Vash laughed and scratched the back of his head. "There really isn't that much to see here."
"That's okay," she replied, standing there and watching him.
Vash just smiled and turned back to the jalopy and lifted the hood. He dropped it back down almost immediately. "HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT!" he screamed.
Looking at the jeep he realized that the small puff of smoke had been misleading. There was now steam and smoke pouring out everywhere. Vash coughed and tried to wave it away in vain. Behind him the little girl laughed.
"The ball broke your car!" Kalla squealed.
"Yeah," Vash laughed. "It seems it did." He turned back around and crotched in front of the little girl again.
"Say, can you tell me where to find a Mr. St. James?" he asked.
Kalla nodded vigorously. "He's my dad. Come on and I'll take you to him!" She grabbed Vash's hand and started running before he had even had the chance to stand up off the ground.
Vash watched the man as the mechanic looked under the hood of the jeep.
"Well," he said in a somber voice. "I don't think your going to be going anywhere in this hunk of junk anytime soon."
"What do you mean?" Vash asked. "Can't you fix it?"
"Oh sure. I can fix it. But it'll take a few days." Trevor motioned for Vash to come around and look under the hood.
Vash sighed as he saw the shape that the engine was in. It looked as if it should have died years ago.
"Oh man," he said.
"Don't know why the hell Eleesa insists on keeping this piece of scrap metal," Trevor continued. "Should have gotten rid of it ages ago, but she's a stubborn one that girl."
Vash looked at Trevor for a moment. "How'd you know it belonged to her?" he asked.
"Easy," came the reply. "I've spent more time on this one jeep alone than all the other vehicles that come through here put together." He laughed slightly and than looked back at Vash. "You got a place to stay?"
Vash shook his head no. "Eleesa mentioned there was a hotel around here, but I haven't had a chance to go check in."
"That'd be Jake's place. It's the big mansion in the center of town. Can't miss it. Got all those trees surrounding it." Trevor looked at his daughter and continued, "Kalla, why don't you show our guest here where it is."
"Okay Daddy!" she replied. She'd been watching everything from the sidelines with rapt attention. In fact, she hadn't taken her eyes off of Vash since she had first seen him.
"Come ON Mister!" she cried as she once again grab Vash's arm and started dragging him in the direction of the hotel. Her father just chuckled as he watched.
Meryl Strife wasn't the type of woman to give up easily. She had waited him out before and she would do so again. She would see Vash again. She would make sure of it. She and Millie had been waiting in this town for going on six months and although Meryl was worried about Vash, something deep inside told her that he was still alright. For now anyway.
She found herself wondering if he had found Knives yet and if so what had happened. Meryl also knew that trying to redeem Knives was going to be an almost impossible task. For a brief moment her mind wondered back to Legato, Knives second in command and the only person she had ever seen Vash kill. He had done so to save her and Millie's lives. If he hadn't Legato would have had a mob of men under his mental control rape and kill them both. She shuddered at the thought and suddenly found herself more worried than before.
Knives was the closest thing to pure evil that existed on this planet. She was sure of it. He was also one of the reasons Vash had a 60 billion double-dollar bounty on his head. Although she also knew that no one could ever capture Vash the Stampede long enough to actually collect that bounty.
Meryl sat looking at her type writer and noticed for the first time that all she had typed was Vash's name. She sighed and laid her head on the table as Millie walked in with dinner.
"Are you alright Meryl?" Millie asked.
Meryl sighed and looked up. "Just a bit tired Millie. That's all. It's been a long day."
"Oh," Millie said. "I thought you were thinking of Mister Vash again."
Millie looked over Meryl's shoulder and pointed to the typewriter.
"That is what you were writing after all. Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash …," Millie continued in a sing-song voice.
"Millie!" Meryl yelled as she tried to cover up the typewriter with her body. "Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to look over someone's shoulder?"
"I'm sorry Meryl," Millie said as she backed away. "It's just that it's been six months now and I'm starting to get worried. And I figured if I was getting worried, than you must be really worried by now."
Meryl sighed and looked up at Millie. "You're right Millie. I'm sorry." She switched her gaze to look out the window of their room. "I am getting worried. I was sure we'd have heard from him by now."
Kalla led Vash to the large building that he had seen on his way into town. When they entered it was to a large comfortably furnished lobby with a grand staircase leading up to the second and third floors. There were two doors on the left, one opened to an equally large dining room and the second closed, with no idea of where it might lead. On the right a wall had been knocked out so that the room behind it was opened the full-width. Inside were a couple of desks and another door in the back that most likely lead to a more private office.
"Jake! Customer!" Kalla yelled, leaving Vash standing in the middle of the opulent lobby as she ran into the office setting. Sure enough, before she reached the back door, an older gentleman, who appeared to be in his fifties came out of the door.
"Kalla," he chided. "How many times have I told you not to run around here yelling? One of these days you're going to upset one of my customers young lady."
"But Jake, that's what I was trying to tell you! I've got a customer for you right here." She pointed back at Vash, who simply waved from where he was standing. Jake smiled and walked forward.
"Hi there," Jake nodded, holding his hand out for Vash to shake. "I'm Jake Millan, and you must be Vash. Eleesa called and said you might be stopping by."
Kalla looked up at Vash in awe.
"Vash?" she stammered. "As in Vash the Stampede?"
"Yup," he laughed. "That's me alright."
The young girl developed a sudden look of disgust on her face. "I thought you wore a long red coat!"
Smiling, Vash bent down to look Kalla in the face. "I did, but I dropped it in the desert sometime back."
"Oh," she said, not totally satisfied with his answer. "Well in that case I suppose it's alright."
"Here now, Kalla," Jake interrupted. "Why don't you go play with your brothers? Mr. Vash and I have some business to discuss."
"Okay," she sighed. "But don't you go anywhere Mr. Stampede! You have to play promise to play ball with my brothers and I. That way you can be on my team and we can beat 'em!"
"Okay," he said as he shook Kalla's hand. "It's a promise."
Finally satisfied, she nodded and ran out the door. Vash stood and looked at Jake Millan. For someone operating such a large establishment, he was dressed very low-key. He was wearing old work slacks and somewhat stained, old white shirt. Though he had a very easy-going manner about him.
"Well Mr. Vash, welcome to the New Maine Hotel."
"Please, call me Vash. No need for formalities."
"Very well," smiled Jake. "And you can call me Jake. I set up a room for ya, already. I hope you don't mind." He began leading Vash up the main stairs.
"Not at all," Vash replied. "Though I have to admit, that I am slightly surprised. Usually when people find out who I am they try to run me out of town, not put me up at nice hotels."
Jake laughed. "Well that's because of Eleesa actually. She believes that Vash the Stampede is good at heart, so therefore, so do we."
"You mean everyone in town thinks I'm good, based solely on the word of a woman who doesn't even live here?"
Pausing in mid-step, Jake looked back at Vash, his face serious. "Yes, actually. Eleesa has her own reasons for living so far out of town. But she's a good person and if she says your trustworthy, then you're trustworthy. No question about it." He smiled and turning back, continued up the stairs once again.
"Besides," Jake commented in an off-hand manner. "If this place ends up destroyed, we'll just send the bill to you."
Vash tripped as he heard this, falling to the stairs. "And I don't even have insurance," he said meekly.