I OWN NOTHING BUT THE STORYLINE AND CHARACTERS YOU DON'T KNOW FROM THE MANGA/ANIME!
Chapter Eighteen
Goodbye for Now
Let us regard the fifth moon, shining down upon u from the skies, stained red with blood. Let us remember his name, his legend. To do so, you only need to look up. Like it or not, his legend is chiseled into the fifth moon. A permanent etching from a terrible past. The legend of Vash the Stampede; it's chiseled forever. And then the time comes. You only need tell of the tracks leading to the future.
"Kasted City? You really think he's here?"
"I'm not sure, but what else can we do but search? We need to have hope. We can't do this without him."
"I know that, Nicholas, and it pisses me off!"
The man sighed. "I know that, Alexander, and I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize," the young bounty hunter sighed. "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I had been there, not you."
Wolfwood pulled a sunken face. "I know…"
The two men were currently sitting in a bar in the city of Kasted which had been, unfortunately, overrun by bandits and a man claiming to be Vash the Stampede. The two of them had seen Vash actors in almost every city since they started traveling together, looking for the real Vash the Stampede, but no luck as of yet.
It had been over two years since the event in Augusta. The real Humanoid Typhoon had disappeared from the face of the planet, but…
"You know, I apologize for overhearing, but are the two of you looking for someone?"
Turning his head, Alexander gave a frown. It was the tall, blond guy that had recently joined them in the bar with a young girl named Lina. Ericks was his name, and Alexander had sworn that he had heard the name before somewhere; and seen this guy, too.
"In a way," He answered, going back to his drink. "Just a few friends of ours have gone missing and we're trying to find all three of them."
"Three of them?" Ericks tilted his head to the side.
Alexander opened his mouth to answer but the wall of the bar was busted open, ruining everything.
"Hey, I wasn't done eating that!" Wolfwood hissed.
The troublemaker turned out to be an ugly, ridiculous bandit. He was after Lina, who apparently had landed a heel to his face, but Ericks wasn't having that. He even went to his knees, taking his clothes off and acting like a dog. It showed off all the scars the man had on his body; and the metal, left arm.
Alexander jumped to his feet. He'd seen those scars before. He knew that arm. It had to be…
"There's only one man on this planet willing to do something like that for someone he cares for."
Wolfwood closed his lighter. "We found him."
The bandits shot Ericks and they had to help transport him to the hospital with Lina and her grandmother showed up.
"Don't worry, he'll be alright now." The doctor told Wolfwood as he moved closer to the bed.
"I know that," The priest smiled. "I just want to help."
"We both do," Alexander grinned, moving up on the other side of the bed.
Wolfwood looked down at him. "You just gonna sleep? Snap out of it!" He had landed a good fist into the left side of the blond's face. It freaked the doctor and maid out and it only got worse as Alexander did the exact same thing from the other side.
"What the hell are you doing to him?!"
"He needed it!"
"Look doctor! Oh my gosh!"
Everyone turned to look at Ericks. He was now staring up at them with an adorable face and a little wave.
"What an amazing recovery! You've regained consciousness so quickly." The doctor stared in awe.
"Sorry, doc. Could you leave the room for a little while?" Ericks asked.
The doctor agreed and he led the nurse away.
Alexander glared down at the blond in the bed. "You're been hiding for a long time, Vash the Stampede." The man just glared up at them both.
Wolfwood gave a sigh and took a seat on the edge of the bed. "We finally found you, you idiot. What's a legendary guy like you doing in a place like this?"
"Neither of you have any idea what I've been through," Vash told them. "I could have destroyed the planet with that gun. It gets worse." He turned to glare at the wall. "There's a blank in my memory. I can't explain what I did."
"That may be true," Wolfwood sighed. "But you do know you did it, right?"
"Oh yeah, I know that it was me. There are fragmented visions, but more than anything something inside me tells me I'm the one. I know I'm the one that put the hole in the fifth moon. It was me."
"You know who else could tell you?" Alexander began. "Her name's Kyri. You know, the girlfriend that you left behind in the ruined city two years ago?"
the silence was painful and awkward. Vash couldn't bring himself to look at either of the men. The very thought of Kyri...
Wolfwood lit a cigarette. "So what do you plan to do now? Are you so afraid of what you can do that now you're living in easy retirement?"
He closed his eyes. "I only wanted to live quietly, with a different name, and a different way of life."
"That's your excuse?" Alexander growled. "What about Kyri?"
His eyes closed. "Without me around, she should live quietly too."
Alexander shook his head. "You just don't understand."
"Of course he doesn't," Wolfwood sighed. "He hasn't seen it."
Vash sat up. "Why are the two of you here? Come to have a laugh?"
"Actually, the two of us are here to take you away," The priest answered.
"Away? To where?"
"If you're asking for a final destination, I don't have one. However, I do know that we need your help."
"Why me?"
Wolfwood looked at Alexander, the look he wore telling him to answer the question. He did.
"Kyri and Alexia have disappeared."
Vash looked at him. "What?! That's who the two of you were looking for?"
"And for you," Wolfwood told him. "I ran into the Rush twins not long after the destruction. We found Kyri near the outskirts of the city, clutching your jacket. She was severely hurt, but wouldn't leave until we found you. We spent a lot of time turning Augusta upside-down looking for you; for anything, really." He stood up an tossed Vash's gun down on the bed. "Does the guy named Frank Marlon happen to ring a bell? All I did was mention your name and he fixed it for free."
"Why? Why are you giving me this?" Vash asked.
"It's what you need. What you want."
"What I need…what I want…I just want to stay here and live peacefully."
Alexander felt his patience wearing thin. "You bastard," He shook his head. "How can you just do that, Vash? How?!"
Wolfwood sighed. "Alexia went with Kyri. The two of them left Alexander here about a year ago. I ran into them a little before I met up with him about six months ago. Kyri was the one who told me to take the gun to Marlon in the first place." He shook his head. "Alexia's the same, but that's not what I can say about Kyri."
Vash finally looked at them. "What do you mean?"
"Concerned now, are you?" Alexander growled. "This is your fault to begin with, Stampede!"
"Rush," Wolfwood hissed. "I know that you're angry, but we don't need this right now."
"What happened?" Vash demanded again.
Alexander glared at him. "The Bladed Siren returned."
"This time without any sympathy," the other man added.
Vash felt his eyes widen. The Bladed Siren. That was the name that Kyri used years ago when she was…
~This is bad,~ Vash told himself. ~Very, very bad! And…and it's my fault~
He had learned that the Bladed Siren was the Leader of the Gung-Ho Guns before the events at July twenty years ago. He didn't know that. He hadn't known that those people that were after them were people that Kyri had trained and fought with. She had told Vash that she had left Kyra and Knives a few years before he found her again and she had just been wandering around on her own. Apparently that wasn't the truth anymore. That soulless woman that he had found began to change, though, and he thought that she'd be okay on her own. Apparently, that too, wasn't the truth.
"I thought that coming to find you was the best idea," Alexander shook his head. "But now I see that I was wrong. If you want to be this pathetic so bad, then I'll just go and save Kyri myself."
The bounty hunter turned and left the room, refusing to stay there any longer. He hadn't wanted it to be true. He had been hoping to find Vash in a coma, or even dead, so he wouldn't have to tell Kyri that he had just left the ruined city without her. The pain on that woman's face, the hurt in her voice, it had been almost too much to bear. He had left to go and gather supplies only the day before Kyri had decided to leave them all. His sister wouldn't let her go alone. She had stayed in contact with phone calls, telling her brother where the two of them had went, but about six months ago the calls had stopped and the reports of the Bladed Siren had picked up. She had almost as big a bounty on her head now then Vash did. Word had it that she was traveling around, slashing bandits and thieves and anything else she could get her hands on. Alexander had the biggest fear that Alexia had been delivered the same fate and wanted to find them as fast as he could.
"Calm down, Alexander." Wolfwood had joined him outside.
"It's hard too," The man sighed. "I'm afraid that Alexia's hurt or dead or-"
"Kyri won't hurt her."
"You don't know that! You didn't see it, Nick. You didn't see her face; her eyes. You may ha e met Kyri but you've never met the Bladed Siren. She's..." He gave a shudder, trying to erase the look from his mind. "I need a drink." He moved from the door. "I'm going to go get one. Let me know if he's still being an idiot. I'll beat the hell out of him and drag him behind us if I have to."
The priest gave a laugh. "I'll help."
It made Alexander smirk and he left the hospital just as the grandmother from before came running in, screaming about her granddaughter being kidnapped. He ignored it and just went of his way to the bar like he had said. This wasn't his problem and he refused to let it be.
Setting up in the corner of the only un-ruined walls of the bar, he pulled out his phone and began to go through the pictures on it. He hadn't seen his sister in nearly a year. The worry and stress of it all was wearing down on him. He had never been apart from his twin this long before. Never before. He didn't ever want to feel this strange again. He wouldn't let it happen again. When they found her, he wasn't going to let Alexia out of his sights ever again!
Wolfwood came to get him about an hour later. He and Vash had gone and saved Lina from the bandits and the Vash wanna-be again and Vash had agreed that he would be leaving with them. He had gotten his long hair cut and spiked back to its regular form. Alexander may have been mad, but it felt good to have Vash by his side again.
"I don't know why, but you look good without that jacket, Vash," Alexander told the other man. "You should let Kyri keep it; if she still has it."
"Shut it, would ya?" Wolfwood hissed at the other man.
Vash hung his head for a moment as the duo argued. "I'm sorry."
Wolfwood gave a sigh and just began to walk through the sand.
"It's not me you should apologize to, blondie," Alexander huffed, turning away from him to follow the priest.
"You're right," Vash gave a soft, sad smile. ~But I will; when we find her…~
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