Liana wasn't shocked to wake up the next morning just before the sun rose to find Vash standing at the stove in his gray pants and t-shirt, cooking something that actually smelled half decent. She spotted his bag already propped up on the couch where he'd put the fold out bed away, clearly ready to get on the road as soon as they were ready to go. Neither of them spoke much as they ate, Liana catching him brooding off into the distance several times with a dark kind of look in his eyes that tugged at her heart. He really was torn up about what had happened and she knew if he couldn't find some way to try and help the survivors he was going to wallow in the self pity for the foreseeable future.

After breakfast she returned to her room to change and gather her own things, trotting down the stairs to find Vash already dressed and ready to go as well. The sun was just starting to warm the sky as she jotted a note for Nell on the notepad sitting on the kitchen table and followed Vash out to the truck. He tossed his bag into the back along with hers and immediately went to sit in the passenger seat like he typically did, but Liana just hovered along the side of the truck for a long moment, turning over a small idea in her head. He was in a rough spot and if he was left to just sit there in the passenger seat with nothing to occupy his time she was sure he would be tearing himself apart internally. With a soft sigh she rounded to his side of the truck and pulled the passenger door open again, Vash staring at her in confusion for a moment before she held out her keys to him.

"M-Me?" he croaked, glancing between the keys and her face.

"Yeah, why don't you drive for once?" she asked casually, shrugging her shoulders like it wasn't really that big of a deal. "You've gotta be bored just sitting there all the time. Unless…you don't wanna drive? You don't have to it was a stupid idea."

Vash reached out quickly to snatch the keys up, unbuckling himself so that he could climb back out of the passenger seat and rounded the front of the truck to climb into the driver's seat. She smirked softly as she slid into the space he'd just occupied, buckling herself in as he started the truck and started away from the house. It was just a small little thing, but he seemed genuinely happy to be driving like it was something he wasn't allowed to do very often even though he was more than capable of it. He'd driven the robbers vehicle back in Jenora after all, nothing had gone horribly wrong then and it wasn't like the truck was of any real value if he did manage to crash it.

It was such a small little thing, but it seemed like it was something that really helped Vash to focus on something other than the darker events floating around in his mind. He just cruised along, signing to the radio songs under his breath. Liana just sat there smirking out the window, watching the world fly past as they traveled. She easily lost track of time as she sat there and before she knew it she caught herself dozing off. Her head had been propped up on her hand where she was resting against the door and she slipped, jerking upright when she realized she'd almost fallen asleep and now it was easy to see how Vash did it all the time so easily. She shifted in her seat, blushing lightly as she tried to peek over to see if Vash had noticed and instantly cringed when she found him smirking over at her. Of course he'd caught it.

"I slipped," she muttered, turning to face back out the window before he could respond an make the moment more embarrassing. She heard him chuckle under his breath at her, but he didn't push the issue. It had been so long since she'd been the one in the passenger seat that she had forgotten just how boring it could be. There was no need to navigate for Vash like with the last job, they both knew exactly where they were going. It was just a matter of time until they got there. Unfortunately it was a rather long drive and she had nothing to do but stare off into the distance and try not to fall asleep.

Liana swore that she only closed her eyes for a second, a quick blink to clear the haze and she was wide awake and ready to work the moment they pulled into town. Except when she opened her eyes again it hadn't been just a quick blink. The sun was near setting and the scenery outside her window was still. Gasping lightly she sat up in the seat, glancing over to the driver's seat to see that Vash was missing. It took her a second to get her sleepy limbs to cooperate as she spilled out of the truck, her feet wobbling with her weight.

"Vash! Vash where are you?" she shouted, spinning in place until she spotted his figure standing at the end of the truck staring off in the distance.

She sprinted toward the back of the truck, prepared to ask him what they were doing stopped if they weren't in town, but the second she neared the end of the truck she realized why they were stopped not in a town. It was because there was no town to stop in, not in the literal sense. Where there had once been buildings and streets filled with people, there was nothing but rocks and rubble covering as far as the eye could see. Everything that had been there the last time she'd seen it was just…gone. Vash was just standing there looking out over all the destruction, his body shaking slightly as he no doubt tried to come to terms with what they were seeing. They had come to try and help the survivors, but there was nothing left that they could do. As far as she could tell from the flock of tire tracks around the, rescue efforts had already come and gone and now the place was just abandoned.

"Vash," she breathed softly, reaching out to try and grab him by the shoulder. To comfort him in some way, but he just stepped forward out of her reach like he could feel her approaching. "There is nothing we can do here, we tried. But we have to leave now, before someone shows up."

Vash just shook his head no, his shoulders slumped in defeat. Had this really been the work of his brother? She'd heard rumors of Vash leveling towns but she never imagined it was so literal like this. How was it even possible for this to happen? Explosives maybe? She was sure there would have been more craters or wide spread debris if that had been the case, but it was almost like everything had been sliced cleanly apart and fell where it had once stood. How many people had been crushed to death? The broadcast had said dozens, but it felt like the number was likely much higher than that given the level of destruction they were looking at.

"Vash, get in the truck. We have to go," she demanded, seeing him turn his head slightly like he might look back at her but he remained facing forward. "Please."

Something in the tone of her voice seemed to shake him from his thoughts, Vash turned to finally look at her with a broken expression she hated to see. In the little time she'd known him he was almost always smiling, goofing around and trying to make the best of every situation they'd gotten themselves into. Now there was no trace of that carefree light in his eyes as he stalked back past her toward the truck and slid into the passenger seat without a word. She just stood there for a moment, staring out over the destroyed town before she let out a low, shaky sigh and forced herself to get back into the truck as well so that they could leave.

Vash didn't look over at her as she drove away, sitting staring out the front windshield in dead silence that usually only happened when he was asleep. The fact that he was clearly wide awake and so still and quiet was unnerving, but Liana didn't push him to talk to her no matter how badly she wanted him to. Whenever she had something bothering her she had always been able to turn to Nell to talk about it and she eventually felt better, like with her dream, but Vash didn't have that. She wasn't naive enough to think that he would confide in her when everything he had ever told her had been because she had demanded it of him. In hindsight she had been kind of awful to him those first few days together and she regretted being so insistent with him rather than letting him come to trust her enough to want to talk.

"He did this…because I was there," Vash muttered suddenly, jerking her out of her thoughts so suddenly she almost swerved the truck.

"Do you think that he was looking for you?" she asked quietly, trying to keep her questions casual.

"No, he knew I wasn't there anymore," Vash demanded, his hands balling into fists on his lap. She could see that he was still somewhat trembling, but she couldn't tell if it was out of anger or frustration. Maybe it was both? "He knew that I had been there and he tore it down so I would feel guilty about it. And he got what he wanted."

Vash had a conscience that she felt was more of a burden than anything else. He knew that his brother only did the things he did to make him suffer and it had exactly the effect he wanted. All because Vash was a good person. Gritting her teeth she pulled off of the road and drove well out of the way they needed to go to get back home, finding a fairly steep hill overlooking the large empty expanses in the opposite direction from where the town had stood. There was nothing but earth and sky stretching out before them and when she parked the truck and turned it off, Vash finally glanced over at her with a small look of confusion.

Without saying a word she stepped out of the truck and pulled her bags from the back, preparing to set up her little tent. She'd gotten most of the poles out and stuck together before Vash seemed to grow curious enough to get out of the truck and moved around to see what she was doing. When he realized that she was setting up the tent he stooped himself down to help her, working silently now that he wasn't too drunk to actually assist her. The two of them worked quietly, Liana rolling out the bedrolls she'd packed along with the tent and started digging through her bag for their blankets.

"I was the one to take you there, it wasn't some place you chose to go to," she said suddenly, watching him out of the corner of her eye as she tossed the blankets onto the bedrolls inside the tent. "If it is anyone's fault your brother targeted that place, it's mine."

A strained sort of look settled onto his face as he made a sound of protest, watching as she stood straight and brushed her hands off on her pants. Vash hadn't even been conscious when she dragged him into that little town and he'd never left the confines of the inn room she'd commandeered. So in the end he had no say in being there and whether his brother knew it or not, the town really had no true connection to Vash at all. She watched as he shook his head no quickly, tilting her head as if she were expecting some kind of explanation as to why she was wrong.

"No, it wasn't your fault," Vash demanded, stamping his foot lightly in the dirt. "You couldn't have known any of that was going to happen when you took me there. You were just trying to help me-."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth he stopped mid-sentence, gawking at her like he was just catching on to what she was trying to get at. There was no way for Vash to know that his brother would come to level the town and it was in no way nothing he had caused just by being there. His brother's crimes were his own and Vash couldn't bear them for the both of them. If it had been something that Vash had just stood by and let happen, then she could see him bearing the guilt of it, but that wasn't who he was. If he had been there she had no doubt that he would have done everything in his power to stop his brother and would have tried to save as many lives as he possibly could. That was the Vash she knew and she hoped that he could see himself that way too in time.

Liana just offered him a small smile, watching as he let out a long sigh and reached up to ruffle his own hair like he was trying to shake off the scene they'd just witnessed. It was natural to be sad that it had happened, to wish there had been a different outcome, but he could not hold himself responsible. She moved back to the cab of the truck, reaching inside to turn the key in the ignition to the first position and turned the dial on the radio until she found a station that came through with less static than the others. Out in the middle of nowhere the sound carried easily enough for her to be able to hear the song when she rounded to the front of the truck and leaned back against the hood to stare out at the sunset that had painted the sky in various shades of orange and purple. After a long moment of her just leaning there against the truck, Vash shuffled up beside her, leaning back along with her.

"Thank you," he muttered, smiling over at her gratefully.

"You don't have to thank me, Vash," she chuckled, pushing away from the truck before turning and holding out her hands to him. "Sometimes I think we all just need a little help getting out of our own heads. There is so much hurt going on around us and it's easy to just sink into that pain, but we can't take the easy path. We chose to fight it, so pain is just a part of the job."

"I guess you're right," he breathed, glancing down at her hands like he didn't know exactly what she was getting at, but he reached out to take her hands none the less when she wiggled her fingers at him. "What're we doin'?"

"Dancing," she stated matter of factly. "Anything to distract us from things we can't hope to change or fix. We'll dance until we're too tired to stand and then sleep as long as we want. And after that we move on and try to help someone else. Just keep moving forward."

The laugh that escaped him was more like the ones she'd been used to hearing over the last few weeks, like the happy sounds he and Nell shared when they were chatting about her random books, or when he did something silly that had her and Nell nearly doubling over in hysterics. He didn't fight against her as she pulled him out in front of the truck, dropping his hands so that they wouldn't be crowding each other when they moved. Neither one of them were very good at dancing, both moving in more of an awkward shuffle around one another to the scratchy song on the radio. It was just mindless, pointless fun that had both of them laughing and gasping for air as they danced around like idiots with nothing better to do.

Her legs were the first to tire out, spinning a little too sharply and slipping onto her backside on the dirt with a groan. Vash skidded to a halt, peering down at her with wide eyes like he might be concerned she'd hurt herself, but she just busted out laughing, curling in on herself as her ribs ached from all the laughing from before. Once he saw that she wasn't hurt he flopped down beside her dramatically, watching her with a soft smile as she hugged her ribs and tried to stop herself from laughing so hard and making the pain worse. The two of them just sat there watching as the sun vanished from the sky, small stars blinking to life above them like little fireflies in the sky.

When the silence set in he seemed to retreat back into himself, Liana watching as that dark look crossed his features again, but he wasn't entirely gone. She could tell by the way he picked aimlessly at the ground between them that he was trying to stay present, trying to keep from being crushed under his own thoughts. She wasn't sure if he was doing it to try and spare her from seeing him like that or if he was truly starting to realize he couldn't be held accountable for his brother's messes, but it was a start. It wasn't like she expected him to change in the blink of an eye and be able to let go of that crushing guilt, it was going to take time and work. And Liana swore to herself she'd be there to help him whenever he needed if he allowed her to. They were friends, after all. He'd agreed to as much back in the small ghost town. I can't let people shoot my friends….

"I met Nell working a job in July, back when I was still part of the police force," she offered, deciding it would be best to take his mind off himself for a while. "There were complaints about yelling and screaming coming from their apartment but every time before the officers just dismissed it as a normal spat and left without really looking into it. When I read the report and saw how many times they'd been called on, I couldn't believe it. All of the officers before me had been men, all of them taking Colin's word that they were just arguing and left it at that because they didn't want to listen to Nell's side of the story. They never even spoke to her."

Vash shifted on the ground to turn and face her, crossing his legs and settling in like he was waiting for the story of a lifetime. Liana turned with him so that they were facing each other, her fingers tracing small patterns in the dirt as she spoke.

"So when the next call came in, I volunteered to go with another male officer. He'd been there before and kept telling me the whole way that this was something that happened all the time and there was never anything really wrong, just nosy neighbors. The whole drive I just kept getting more and more angry at how dismissive he was being because clearly, it wasn't 'nothing' like they kept making it out to be or else it wouldn't have kept happening. So when we got there and knocked on the door, Colin answered and I could see he was angry. I was waiting for the other officer to demand to see Nell, but he never asked for her and I could hear her crying through the crack in the door. I just, I lost it." She shrugged her shoulders lightly, not breaking eye contact with him as she spoke, noting how he just watched her attentively. "I pushed past the other officer and slammed into the door, busted Colin in the face with it and shoved my way inside. Half of the apartment was torn to shit, glass everywhere and they were both yelling at me to stop. I just kept searching until I found Nell huddled in the corner of the bathroom with bruises covering her face and the moment she saw me she latched on. When I tried to take her out of the apartment with me, Colin stepped in my way and I…I hit him."

After all those years that passed since that day, Liana could still hear the sounds of Nell crying as she clung to her for dear life, pleading with her to take her away from there. The male officer she'd been with seemed more appalled that she had busted into the apartment rather than the state that Nell was in and she'd hit him in the face on her way out when he tried to stop her too. And she would have done it a million times over in exactly the same way if she had the chance.

"So, I was fired. They never even arrested Colin. I just ended up taking Nell home with me and we've been living there together ever since. It took her a long time to stop waking up screaming in the middle of the night, damn near giving me a heart attack every time. And then one day it just…stopped. And she was Nell again. She found a job at a woman's center in July and she started laughing again." She offered Vash a warm smile, noting how he seemed just as appalled by the story as she had been when she witnessed the entire thing. "What I'm getting at Vash is, bad things happen and there are some things we can step in and fix, like Nell. But you can't fix some things, like Colin being a piece of shit. But we do what we can and while it will always hurt, eventually we're ourselves again. In time."

He nodded his head like he understood and that was all she could really hope for. That she let him know that he was not the monster his brother made everyone believe he was and that one day he would come out on the other side of it standing on his feet and trying to be better. He was better, he'd more than proved that. And there were people out there that did see the good in him, like Rosa and her son, Nell…Liana herself. It wasn't much, but she hoped it counted for something. Reaching out she patted him lightly on the knee before pushing herself back up onto her feet with a groan and stretched, trying to work out the dull ache still settled in her ribs from laughing so much.

"Come on, let's get some sleep," she sighed, nodding her head toward the tent. "We'll get home tomorrow and hopefully Nell will be back. She'll make you pancakes and it'll all be okay."

She didn't linger around to wait for him to get back up, rounding to the truck and turning it off before pocketing the keys and made her way to the tent. Peeling off her boots she stepped in, having to duck her head down to keep from skimming her head along the top of the tent and settled onto the right bed. It wasn't the most comfortable of situations, but it was pointless to drive through the night to get home when they had nothing to really do. Didn't really seem worth possibly run off the road. Hearing the ground rustle outside of the tent she glanced up to see Vash's legs lingering there right outside. He seemed to shuffle restlessly and she was about to tell him that he could sleep in the cab of the truck if he was uncomfortable sharing the tent with her, but he leaned down and started unlacing his boots.

To keep from making anything any more awkward than it had to be, she settled down onto her bed roll and pulled the blanket up over herself halfway. She didn't even glance over as Vash ducked into the tent and sat himself on the bed beside her with a huff. For a while he just sat there quietly, not even moving to settle down or even take off his red jacket. When she finally chanced a glance over at him he was sitting there looking at her worriedly.

"What's wrong?" she asked, watching his eyes flicker across the tent and back to her again before he shrugged off his jacket and balled it up like a makeshift pillow.

"Nothing," he croaked, his throat bobbing like he was truly nervous to be there.

"Vash, I'm not going to bite you," she laughed, snuggling down under her blanket.

"I know that! Just, haven't…slept in a tent in a while." The tone in his voice sounded like he really didn't mean the tent, not by the way he was flustering around on his side like he was trying to exist in the small space without accidentally touching her.

"Mhm, yeah I know what that's like," she chuckled, rolling onto her left side so that she was facing him. "Been a while since I've slept in a tent too."

He made a strained sort of noise at the innuendo and laid down onto his bed without looking over at her again. When he pulled his blanket up over himself he pulled it all the way up to under his nose and she couldn't help but glance down to see his feet were now sticking out instead and laughed, shaking her head lightly as she rolled onto her back and just stared up at the top of the tent to keep from making him any more nervous. He was acting like she'd dragged him into the tent and demanded he strip down or something equally absurd. It wasn't that the attraction wasn't there, anyone with a pair of eyes couldn't deny the attractiveness of him. That coupled with his kindness and general goofiness it was hard to not fawn over him. Her dream had been a clear declaration of that. She knew if they were ever in a real position like her dream had placed them in that she wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of it, but that had never been her goal. If it wasn't something that happened naturally then it just wasn't meant to be.

Liana had no trouble just ignoring that Vash was there in the tent with her, just closing her eyes and listening to the soft sounds of his breathing and the wind outside blowing past before she must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew she could hear gravel and dirt crunching around outside the tent. She sat up quickly, glancing around the now bright tent to see that Vash was still sound asleep beside her, more sprawled out than he had been when he first laid down. And then there were more footsteps. She couldn't see any shadows outside the tent, but she could hear a muffled voice and she found herself pawing around for her gun with one hand and reaching over to smack Vash lightly on the chest with the other.

"Vash," she hissed, tapping him more and more insistently. "Vash! Wake up!"

He sat up beside her, his mouth opening like he was going to call out but she clamped her hand over his mouth and nodded toward the tent door. Vash was clearly dazed and confused by what was happening, but the moment he heard the sounds of the footsteps he went rigid and reached down under his blanket to pull out his own gun as she removed her hand from his mouth.

"Stay here," he demanded seriously and when she opened her mouth to protest he reached out with his right hand and placed it on her cheek, staring at her intently. "Stay, Liana. He may be here."

The sudden contact and seriousness of his tone made her blood run cold, sitting there unable to move as she watched him get up and step out of the tent. She could see him stepping into his boots without even bothering to lace them back up as he stalked away from the tent and she wanted to follow after him. To offer him some kind of support against whoever was crowding around them, but what if it was his brother? She'd seen the damage he could do and what help could she hope to be against something like that? All she could do was sit there as still as physically possible, holding her breath as she strained to try and hear what was happening outside. It was oddly quiet for a moment before several more sets of footsteps started rushing around outside like there was a group of them.

"You!" a man shouted causing her to flinch in her skin. "Monster, how dare you show your face around here!"

There was more arguing that she couldn't quite understand, several voices overlapping and yelling curses at what she assumed was Vash. He'd walked away from the tent, probably trying to put distance between the people outside and her. If it was just a group of thugs wandering around did that mean she could come out of the tent to help him? Or did his brother travel around in a group? That would have made more sense considering the amount of destruction they'd seen, maybe he had more than one person helping him and they were able to destroy entire towns with bombs?

"I don't know what you're talking about," Vash called back drawing Liana closer to the door of the tent finally. She was trying to peek out of the zipper that he'd left open to get a glimpse of whoever was surrounding them. " I haven't done anything."

"You destroyed the entire town!" another man shouted, Liana trying to squint around to see where they were but there was no one in her field of vision. Were they near the front end of the truck or below? "My mother was there when-you son of a bitch!"

A shot rang out and she gasped loudly, praying that Vash was able to avoid it if there was no one there for him to shield from it. The sound that she'd made had apparently drawn someone's attention because a hand shot into the tent and grasped at her causing Liana to fall back onto the ground with a curse as she dropped her gun to catch herself. A man flung the tent open glaring at her, stepping in far enough to grab her by the hair and jerked her forward. He was much stronger than he looked, able to rip her out of the tent and practically dragging her as she clawed at his hand, kicking as she was pulled along.

"Look what we have here," he spat, throwing her onto the dirt. When she looked up she saw what looked like a group of ten men crowding around her, all of them aiming guns off toward another large truck that was parked near the bottom of the hill they were camping on. Why hadn't she heard them approaching? "Are you his little whore?"

She only gritted her teeth in defiance, refusing to answer him as her eyes scanned around for Vash. She only caught a small glimpse of blonde hair peeking up from behind the truck, a shadow slinking along the ground as he used it for cover. He'd tried to draw them away from her truck and the tent, but they'd refused to follow when they thought they were keeping him from getting into his own vehicle to get away. When Vash realized that they had her she wasn't sure what he would do, but something told her that it wasn't going to end well for any of them.

"I captured her!" Vash shouted, a strained sort of tone in his voice as he tried to sound like a person she knew he could never be. He was trying to make it seem like he'd taken her against her will to use her. "Can you blame me for having a bit of fun?"

"Some prisoner," the man scoffed, pointing his gun at her when she tried to shift on the dirt in a way that would allow her to make a run for it. If she could get behind her own truck they might stand a chance of getting out of this unscathed. "If that's the case, why isn't she tied up?"

Another pair of strong hands grabbed her by the elbows, jerking her up onto her knees and pinning her arms behind her painfully. If anything was going to get Vash hurt it was going to be her. Just existing there was a liability for him and it made her wonder if she should play along. To plead with the men to help her and say that Vash had kidnapped her. That would give him a chance to get away without getting hurt, but the thought of accusing him of something so horrid made her stomach turn.

"Let me go, you piece of shit," she growled, struggling against the man's hold on her arms. "He didn't touch that town or anyone in it! We came to try and help-."

"Help? That monster destroys everything he touches! All of those people dead-I was there! He just…killed them outright without even batting an eye."

"That wasn't him! He has a brother-."

The man who had dragged her from the tent stepped toward her, bringing the back of his hand across the side of her face and she saw spots blurring her vision for a moment, the taste of copper filling her mouth. She was too stunned to even speak as she tried to gather herself after the blow, hearing the distant sound of Vash yelling something she couldn't quite make out. The only thing she heard clearly was another gunshot, dirt flying up from the ground at the feet of the man who had struck her. The man lurched back from her slightly, Liana glancing down the hill to see Vash standing there at the front of the groups truck with his gun aimed at them. It was the first and only time she'd seen him so much as point it at anyone, let alone fire it. The look on his face was darker than she thought he could ever muster, glaring at the group of men like he truly wanted to murder them all.

"Let her go," he demanded, his voice so hollow and even it made her shudder. It was an icy sort of sound that didn't belong to the Vash she'd known for all those weeks. This was the Vash people were afraid of. "Now. This is the only warning I'm going to give you."

So that was how people had come to mistake him for some kind of murdering psychopath. When he was truly serious he looked and sounded nothing like the man she knew and if he hadn't been with her when the town was destroyed she could have been mistaken that the man before them now could have been the one to do it if he wanted to. It was something that he was clearly capable of, even if his conscience would never allow it. She hoped that it was enough to scare the men surrounding her, watching them through squinted eyes as they all started backtracking a little, visibly shaking as they tried to keep their guns aimed at him. He took a slow step forward, just one at first, then another. Before she understood what he was doing he was sprinting up the hill toward them and she tried to call out to him to tell him to turn back, to run away, but she couldn't find her voice in time for the men to start firing on him. Liana could only watch in shock as Vash continued his sprint up the hill, dodging the shots by some kind of miracle with a look of such intense concentration on his face that he didn't even look human to her anymore. His movements were so precise and fluid that she almost didn't see him firing shots toward the men around her, their guns flying from their hands to the dirt. He was disarming them so efficiently by shooting at their guns and hands rather than to kill, still managing to keep from hurting them horribly.

The man that was holding her arms started to drag her back away from the group as Vash quickly advanced on them, Liana flailing her legs feebly to try and hinder him in some way, but he just kept dragging her along like a rag doll. Vash gave her a strained look for a moment, gritting his teeth as he was forced to turn his attention to the rest of the group before he could come after her, dodging and weaving through the men like some kind of wraith as he started slamming men to the ground and into one another so forcefully that they didn't get back up. It wasn't until he was the last man standing there amongst the unconscious group that he turned on the man that was hauling her away and he skidded to a halt. The grip on her arms slacked a little and she tried to lurch forward toward Vash, toward safety, but the man's fingers gripped her so tightly around the back of her neck that she cried out, feeling herself being yanked back to her feet and held there before the man like a shield. After a moment she could feel the familiar barrel of a gun jabbing into her back so forcefully that she jerked to a stop.

"S-Stop!" the man shouted as Vash started advancing on them. "I will kill her! I'll kill her for what you did to our town!"

"I didn't do that," Vash demanded in that same dark voice she didn't recognize. "But if you hurt her, I will make you regret it."

Vash took another step toward them, bringing his gun up to aim at the man who was cowering behind her. She shook her head no, trying to tell him to just walk away and leave it be, but he seemed to be looking right through her at the man, his feet slowly scraping along the dirt as he stepped closer and closer. Liana could feel the gun shuddering against her back, raising higher and higher with every step that Vash took.

"Vash-go," she pleaded, praying he would just turn around even though she knew it wasn't in him to walk away. "Leave me."

A shot pierced the air and there was a tense moment where Vash skidded to a halt, his eyes slowly widening from that dark murderous look to something of pure horror. The man behind her slowly released her neck and she collapsed to her knees on the dirt, the man's gun clattering to the ground beside her, still smoking lightly. He'd shot Vash to keep him from coming any closer and he hadn't even tried to dodge it. Why wouldn't he have just dodged it like he had all the other bullets? She could hear the man running away, his fleeting footsteps the only thing she was grateful for as she watched Vash just drop his own gun to the dirt. It wasn't obvious right away where he'd been shot since he was wearing that black shirt, but it had to be somewhere or else he wouldn't have just stopped like that.

"Vash-," she breathed, feeling the sound catch on something in her throat.

He finally lifted a foot taking a slow step toward her before he skidded forward onto his knees, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her against his chest. She couldn't understand what he was doing, reaching up to press her hands against his body and smoothing them along his shirt in search of where he'd been hit. There hadn't been any sound of the bullet ricocheting, so it had to have hit something.

"Lia-Liana, stay still," he pleaded, pulling her up into his lap like he was cradling a child. She tried to fight against him, pushing against his hold weakly and she realized she was having a hard time catching her breath. Vash cradled her in his left arm, reaching up with his right hand to press against her chest on the left side, a gasp of pain ripping out of her as he put pressure against it. Vash didn't stop advancing on the man because he'd been shot, he'd stopped because the man had shot her. If it had been just a shoulder wound it wouldn't have been that bad, painful for sure, but this was something she couldn't quite grasp. There was almost a thickness to her breathing that had her choking, trying to get air down past a glob of something warm in her throat. "It's okay-you're okay. I'm-I'm gonna fix this, hang on. Stay with me."

It took her a moment of staring up at him with blurry vision for her to realize she was losing blood quickly, her body shaking in way a she'd never felt before. It was like freezing but being numb at the same time and she couldn't stop her chest from heaving as she continued to try and gulp down air. Fix this? The realization hit her a moment too late and she made a strangled sound as she tried to tell him no, reaching with her hand to try and push his off of her chest.

"No-no no no," she choked, pawing at his hand uselessly. When that didn't work she tried to twist herself out of his grasp, anything to get away. If he did this, what was going to stop him from dying instead of her? "Va-sh, no, stop. Please."

"It's okay, it's okay, let me do this," he pleaded, but he wasn't giving her a choice. He just tightened his left arm around her shoulder keeping her pinned against him with more strength than she realized he had. He was like living stone, immovable and stationary, staring down at her with that stupid smile of his as the edges of her vision started to fade. Maybe it was too much. Maybe she was bleeding out too fast for him to heal her and oddly it made her feel relieved that he couldn't take this amount of damage onto himself. She couldn't bear the thought of him hurting anymore. "It'll be okay."