Wolfwood's new profession

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Chapter Twenty-Five : Confrontation

Vash bit his lip as he watched the girls slowly enter the ship, panel slamming down behind them. Trepidation spiked high in his heart as he inched towards the metal hulk slumbering in the vast desert like an enormous metallic insect. He had wanted to stop them, to call out, but until he figured out why they were there he couldn’t risk revealing himself. For all he knew, they could be working for Knives too.

He shook his head, trying to dismiss that particular idea. He’d never picked up anything remotely to do with his brother from their surface thoughts, only delving slightly deeper just to make sure. Meryl apparently thought a lot about her work and how troublesome the whole situation was. He’d shied away from how much she thought about him, preferring to remain ignorant of what the girl plotted.

Milly…well…Milly thought about food, and her big family and about starting her own. She thought about that a lot. Vash sighed. He hoped that one day she’d be able to fulfil that dream, but when sunset arrived on this day of confrontation, Gunsmoke might not even exist anymore.

He took a deep breath as he finally reached the hull, instantly lifting his hand and pressing his finger against a tiny panel on the side of the ship. The internal system read his genetic code and the door slid open. The humanoid plants could access any parts of any ship, the system recognising its makers.

He cautiously crept down the passageway, senses alert for any sign of another life form. He felt someone ahead of him, the presence too large to be contained to just one person.

‘The insurance girls…’ He concluded. They were moving awfully fast though. He frowned and continued forward, fingers lightly keeping contact with the wall. He concentrated and tried to remember the direction to the main room. All the ships had been built from the same blueprints and had the same corridors and rooms as each other in exactly the same places, but it had been so long since he’d been in one that was so intact. He felt places along the wall where the surface hummed with a slightly different energy. His brother’s presence washed over him every time his fingers slid across one of those spots.

‘He’s been here…he’s touched this very place…’ Vash glanced at his fingers as he kept moving. It appeared that Knives had been repairing the ship, pieces scavenged from ailing towns and those who could not defend themselves.

‘But why is he rebuilding the ship? Why does he need a working ship?’

He closed his eyes and just let his feet remember and , soon enough, they led him to the drive room, where Knives would most likely be. He mentally scanned the room first for life forms and finding none, quickly poked his head around the corner.

He immediately forgot all vigilance and ran forward, crashing to his knees next to the bloody insurance girl. He cradled Meyrl in his arms, turning her towards him, horror and anguish written on his face as his eyes confirmed what he already knew. She was dead.

His eyes swept down her body, taking instant note of injuries too severe to have survived, even the toughest human would have fallen.

He gently lay her back on the floor, brushing a stand of hair from her cheek as tears streamed down his face. Sure she had been annoying and, at times, made his life a living hell but…she had been alive. Full of breath and spirit. Now that sprit, that energy had left her forever.

And he knew who’s fault it was.

He slowly stood, bending to scoop her body up in his arms, unmindful of the blood staining his coat as he strode forward from the room, anger freezing his face into an impenetrable mask.

He could suddenly sense his brother a little further back in the ship as Knives lifted his own shield, his aura a mixed wash of curiosity and amusement. A ripple of smug satisfaction washed across as he realised that Vash had found his insurance girl.

Vash suppressed a flare of anger, pushing it back down into a simmering volcano of rage as he turned down another corridor, slightly out of his way.

He came to a set of rooms before too long and, waving his hand in front of a sensor, stepped forward into a small room, the door swishing shut behind him.

‘I hope he hasn’t deactivated these…’ He set Meryl down on a low table, positioning her limbs so she lay flat on her back, arms resting at her sides. He stared down at her briefly, wishing that it all could have happened some other way. That Rem hadn’t died, that Meryl hadn’t had to die, that Wolfwood wasn’t held under his brother’s thumb…

His brother.

Vash steeled himself, rising to his feet and walking to a nearby panel. He pressed a few buttons and turned to watch as the system started up. The table Meryl’s body was resting on rose a few feet in the air before turning on a slight angle and moving towards a smooth metal cylinder. The opening was just wide enough to admit the table and, as the last of it disappeared inside, a door slid down, completely encasing the body.

Vash swallowed and leaned against the panel, bring a gloved hand up to cover his eyes. He just couldn’t do it. He fought for control and took a deep breath, steadying himself as he straightened. He closed his eyes again, quickly waving his hand past the sensor before he could change his mind. He heard a thick, intense sound for a second before silence crept back. He sighed again, heavily and turned to reset the machine, tried not to think about what he’d just done.

In ships carrying more than a continents worth of people each, there were bound to be some casualties. Even if the people were frozen, in suspended animation, there were some whose bodies just couldn’t handle it. They died and, although they were grieved for, their lives were not wasted. The machine Vash had just used was for such situations, It incinerated the deceased’s body while adding various proteins and nutrients to the remains. The result was similar to a high-powered fuel and would be sent directly to the ships energy storage where it would be consumed to continually assist the journey. Even though Vash didn’t think they’d be taking off any time soon, he hadn’t known what else to do with his friend’s body.

He fingered the gun at his side, anger simmering deep inside as he stalked to where he knew his brother was waiting. He walked slowly, abandoning any form of stealth, Knives already knew he was here, probably from the moment he entered the ship.

Vash didn’t want to think about anything else other than calmly talking to his brother. Didn’t want to think about Wolfwood and Milly. Especially not about the priest. After seeing what had happened to Meryl, the idea that something similar may have happened to his lover made the breath stop in his chest and the rage bubble over till he almost couldn’t control it anymore.

He swallowed heavily and kept walking, trying to prepare himself for the moment when he would see Knives for the first time in almost 95 years.

He arrived quickly, faster than he’d wanted to. He was still full of anger. He didn’t want to kill his brother but…

…If he had to…

He didn’t want to think about that either.

He stood just outside the entrance, the amused vibe emanating from inside making him clench his teeth, furious. How dare Knives take such…such glee in destroying his loved ones!

“Hello…Vash”

His brother’s sinuous voice issued from inside the room and it made the Stampede jump, even though he already knew that Knives was aware he was standing there. He swallowed again and rounded the corner.

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