Trigun: Gun Graves
Chapter 7: High Noon
By ShadowHawk and Turles
Authors Notes: I'm really really sorry that this fic took so long to be posted, but due to virus problems that I been having for several months I had to rewrite this whole chapter from scratch. Enjoy the fic.
In the small village only a few isle away from L and R town, Vash the Stampede, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Meryl Strife, and Millie Thompson huddled around the radio in the local saloon. Then again nearly everybody in town was listening in on the news of this gunslinger. A man known as Gun Graves the Undying. They listened with intent as they reported other news and then they came to the top story.
The latest on the activity of the gunslinger named Gun Graves the Undying. Recently a 300,000,000 double dollar bounty was placed on his head. Though a group of bounty hunters tried to go after him in L and R town but they were met with swift and very deadly force. An advisory to all bounty hunters, if you decide to go after this man then you're crazier than going after Vash the Stampede. So, to all bounty hunters stay away from Gun Graves the Undying. Repeat, stay away from Gun Graves the Undying.
Meryl turned her attention to her friends and made a startling connection.
"We're only a few isles away from L and R town." Meryl said, "If he's one of the Gung-Ho Guns do you think he'll come after you?" She asked Vash this question, but Vash was seriously deep in thought.
"I have a pretty strong feeling." Vash said shaking. He was shaking when he heard of the deaths of all those bounty hunters. In his mind no one should die for any reason whatsoever. "If he's come this far then I do think that he'll come here."
Wolfwood rose to his feet, "In that case, we better prepare for his arrival."
"Are you suggesting we fight him?" Millie asked
"I'm not suggesting, I'm saying we should fight." Wolfwood answered, "It's a lot better than staying here and doing nothing. I know that you're a pacifist Vash, but I prefer to die fighting."
Vash then rose to his feet, "Alright then." He said, "Let's get ready."
"In that case, I'm fighting with you." Meryl smiled
"No, Meryl."
Meryl then pulled a really stupid face of disappointment, "Why?"
"This battle's much too dangerous. If this man has killed the people that he did, then he's beyond your skill of gunman-ship. This is something for Wolfwood and me to handle."
Meryl sat as she stewed with her arms crossed. It was the usual position that she would take when she stewed about anything that was bugging her in any way, shape or form. Though the deal was settled, only Vash and Wolfwood would fight this man. The two of them spent the day getting ready. Vash went from his casual clothes to wearing his long scarlet red duster. Wolfwood unsheathed his Cross-Punisher testing every part, but being careful not to fire a single shot. Vash tested his guns, his gun arm as well as his silver .45 colt long barrel.
The day pasted from the morning into the afternoon. Vash and Wolfwood sat on the porch of their home waiting. Their lunch sifted in their systems as they waited. The nervousness that they had didn't help digest their lunch. It only made them feel like vomiting from the pit of their stomachs. They waited.
From the distance they saw a dark spot on the horizon. As the minutes passed from the late morning into High Noon, the spot grew larger. It came down the main street that stretched out in front of the porch and into the horizon where the spot was growing larger. As the minutes passed they found out what it was. It was a carriage being pulled by a Tomas and in the carriage were several people and from Vash's superior vision he saw who they were. They were people he hadn't seen in a very long time. Marshall Maryanne, Mr. Bowstock and Stephanie Bowstock, but what where they doing here, Vash wondered.
Soon the carriage stopped and it let out only three of its passengers into the local saloon like a bus stop. The only one remaining in the carriage was a dark man as soon as he dropped off his passengers he himself got off. He then pulled out something else from the carriage. To Vash and Wolfwood it looked like a coffin for a child. Then from that coffin out came a cat that jumped down to the street allowing the dark man to continue. The dark man carried this coffin over to the porch where Vash and Wolfwood sat.
"You must be Gun Graves the Undying." Wolfwood said as the man came closer.
Gun Graves smiled as he moved his lips and spoke through his mind, "I see that I now have a reputation that's proceeding me."
"Did you kill all those people?" Vash asked Gun Graves
"Yes, I did." Gun Graves said, "They were people who deserved to die. I was doing more of a public service when I killed them."
"That's not for you to decide." Vash said, "They all deserved a chance!"
Gun Graves only continued to smile, but this time he laughed.
"What's so funny!" Wolfwood demanded
"My master was right." Gun Graves laughed, "the great Vash the Stampede really is a pacifist. I still can't believe he's a brother to our greatest master, Millions Knives."
"So, the rumors were true, you really are one of the Gung-Ho Guns." Wolfwood said
"That's right, I am the 14th Gung-Ho Gun and I've come to kill Vash the Stampede. To make him suffer." He raised a cold finger at the red coated Vash but the gunman only sat staring back at him. "But before I do." Gun Graves said as he reached into his coat. He pulled out that same old tattered picture that had the boy and the girl on it. "Do you know these children?"
Vash and Wolfwood looked at it confused but could only answer truthfully, "No."
Gun Graves dropped the picture to the ground it fluttered all the way down to meet with the sand and dirt.
"My quest for my past has been a waste." Gun Graves said clenching his fist, "but one won't be a waste, to kill Vash the Stampede."
Vash stood up from his rocking chair, he stood up with such a great force that the chair rocked violently back as Vash made his request.
"Please, let us fight in the desert." He pleaded
Gun Graves nodded, "I'll agree. Is that the only request you have before you die?"
"No," Wolfwood intervened, "I'm going to fight along with Vash."
Gun Graves smirked, "Chapel the Evergreen really had wasted too much time on you."
"Oh you'll pay for that!" Wolfwood snarled clenching his fists.
"Shall we go into the desert?" Gun Graves asked
Wolfwood thought of an interesting question, "What makes you think I won't shoot you in the back?"
"You won't." Gun Graves said, "I have eyes in the back of my head."
It was like any classic western story, the three of them headed out into the desert like two gunslingers going out into main street for a quick draw. Except this gunfight wasn't for any reasons that were so superficial as money or a woman. This one was an order that was handed down and like a soldier Gun Graves was going to follow it to the end.
Back at the house, Meryl and Millie were watching the whole thing unfold even though they could only hear their voices faintly. They watched as all three headed out into the desert to do their battle. Their hearts only raced with the thought of who would come back.
Tap. Tap.
The sound was coming from the window, both Meryl and Millie looked down to find a cat sitting on the window sill with something in his mouth. Instinctually Millie felt that the cat wanted to be let in for some reason. Then again that was Millie in a nutshell, she was always the kindest to children, animals, and even strangers. She went to the door to let the cat in.
"Don't open the door." Meryl ordered, "you heard Vash, we can't allow anyone in."
"Oh, Meryl." Millie smiled, "It's only a cat."
She opened the door and the cat came in, it pranced across the wooden floor and onto the kitchen table. It turned to face Millie and Meryl with whatever it had in its mouth. The entire situation seemed very odd to them since it happened just after Vash, Wolfwood and the stranger wandered off into the desert to do battle this cat suddenly appears with this thing in its mouth. Meryl stepped over to take the thing from its mouth. It felt thick, not like paper but thick like a photograph. The side that Meryl looked at was blank with all kinds of marks on it, dust, and fingerprints with ink spots. She turned it over and what she found shocked her right down to her foundations.
Back at home where Meryl originally lived with her sister, mother and father there was a picture on the wall. The picture had an extra child in it, a boy. Meryl had often tried to ask who was that person but her parents never answered. For as long as Meryl asked the question, her parents never answered. It was as if the boy in that picture was some kind of dirty secret that the family never wanted to talk about. Eventually, Meryl's parents took down the picture so that she wouldn't ask about it anymore. When that happened, that was the time that Meryl went to work for the Bernardelli Insurance society. And just now it came to her from this cat.
"Do you know who they are?" She asked the cat
"Nyao." The cat meowed.
"I do." A man's voice came from the hallway.
The attention of Meryl and Millie went right to the direction of the voice. There in the hallway they saw the brother of Vash the Stampede, Millions Knives. He stood half-naked wearing only a pair of jogging pants. He came into the kitchen and sat down at the table. He took in a deep breath as if he was trying to test the air in the room.
"He's finally come." Knives said out loud, "the last of the Gung-Ho Guns."
"Who is he?" Meryl demanded as she set the picture down on the table, "And what do you know about this?"
Knives gestured to the table, "Please sit down."
Millie and Meryl sat down as the cat jumped into Millie's lap and went fast asleep.
"The man who has arrived at the doorstep." Knives began, "Is one of the Gung-Ho Guns, a group I started to try to make my brother suffer." He said it shaking his head in shame of what he did. "Gun Graves was actually a creation of my second in command, Legato Bluesummers. He went into a nearby graveyard and brother the body of that man to us to make into one of us. Though I never thought this would happen."
The question was driving Meryl insane she had to understand it, "What does this have to do with me?" She demanded
"That man out there is really called Brandon Strife, your brother."
It shocked Meryl so suddenly as if a brick hit her from a high building. Suddenly everything made sense, why her parents wouldn't talk about that boy in the family portrait. Yet she kept running over the image in her mind of the man who had arrived at the doorstep. How could a man so cold and with the fires of hell burning in his eyes be his brother. Was what he had become such a dirty secret that the family would never talk about him? Or had he died in such a shameful way that her family wouldn't' talk about it.
Meryl rose out of her seat, "I have to stop this."
Knives reached out and grabbed Meryl's hand, she looked back with surprise, but then she felt angry at Knives.
"Let go of me. I have to stop them." She squirmed.
"You can't stop him." Knives said, "He's been conditioned to find Vash and kill him. He can't be reasoned with, he won't stop until he or Vash is dead."
"So, you're saying I should give up!" Meryl shrieked at Knives with tears streaming down her face. She realized now that she'll either loose her love, Vash or her brother that had come back from the grave itself. The only thing that was running through her mind like a single track of a record was to stop this. Yet as she wept she saw Knives smile gently.
"Why are you smiling!" Meryl demanded
"You really don't know my brother, do you?" He asked, "If I know him right, he'll find a way to end this without killing Gun Graves, or rather Brandon. So I suggest that we wait."
* * *
Away from the little village in the great desert the three gunslingers met to do their battle. There was a small stretch of land that was like an oasis in the desert. There were rocks, trees, and grasses that covered several acres. Nobody knows how these small pieces of such fertile land would spring here on such a place as Gunsmoke but this would be the place where they would do the battle. They walked until Vash and Wolfwood stayed where they were and Gun Graves walked a few more steps and turned around. His eyes looked at Vash and Wolfwood equally.
"I assume you have your weapons." Gun Graves said
Vash took out his gun and Wolfwood showed off the gattling portion of his Cross-Punisher.
"Let's begin." Gun Graves said as he took out his twin Cerberus guns. He allowed his arms to come down to his sides and he looked at both Vash and Wolfwood waiting for this gunfight to begin. He stared at both Vash and Wolfwood, back and forth he looked waiting for someone to make the first move. It was becoming like that of a Mexican stand-off. Gun Graves was going to have the first move. He raised his silver gun to Wolfwood, but he raised it so quickly that it looked more like a blur.
Vash was the one who deflected it, he brought up his gun and shot at it sending the silver gun flying out of Gun Graves hand.
"Run!" Vash shouted to Wolfwood.
The two of them dashed for cover, Wolfwood behind one of the thick trees and Vash behind one of the larger rocks.
"Bullet time." Gun Graves shouted, but this time the move didn't come. "Bullet time." He shouted in his mind again, but it didn't happen. What was going on? Then he remembered that he used up the necessary amounts of bodily fluids needed to do Bullet Time. Then it all made sense the fluids that he got from the Descartes gang was bad. He should have known from the way they felt when they entered. So he could only use the fluids that were still good. So, he had to fight them on their ground and with so much fluids gone, he had no other choice but to fight Vash and Wolfwood on their own terms.
He reached down for his gun and he knew where they were hiding already. He brought up his other Cerberus gun and fired it at the old oak tree. The bullet penetrated the old tree and exited, but he heard no scream of pain. Then he saw a dash of gray and out sprung Wolfwood with his gattling end out and fired it at Gun Graves the Undying.
He fired his bullets shouting, "You missed me!"
The bullets penetrated Gun Graves, but he healed as quickly as the bullets passed through him like a small razor cut. This time he brought up his coffin and was going to fire a missile, out popped the target sights and he followed Wolfwood as he jumped from tree to tree. Then he thought about one thing, how many missiles to I have left? Only six, that should be enough.
"Deathblow!" He shouted as he fired the first missile. It exploded sending fragments of grass, tree, branches, leaves and rocks into the air. Yet, Wolfwood still lived. The fact that Wolfwood, a mere human was dodging him made him angry he fired his remaining shots and still Wolfwood survived.
"My turn!" Wolfwood shouted turning the Cross-Punisher around and firing his missile at Gun Graves. The rocket came down at him, even though Gun Graves didn't have the ability to use Bullet Time he could still move quickly. He dodged the first missile, then the second and then the third. Then he heard a click from the place that Wolfwood was firing his missiles.
"Shit!" He shouted, "I'm out!"
Gun Graves saw the opportunity. He jumped out into the clearing and fired his bullets to where Wolfwood was standing but that didn't do any effect.
"Vash!" Wolfwood shouted
Vash came out from behind the mound he was hiding from and fired all six shots from his gun. He fired them so quickly that they would sound like a single gunshot to the ears of a normal person. Yet, it didn't make any difference, Gun Graves used his coffin as a shield against his bullets. He in turn fired his Cerberus guns at Vash, the bullets only grazed Vash's cheeks. Then it was time to get back behind the hill. He felt Gun Graves coming for him; it was the ominous feeling of someone coming that anyone gets in such a hyperactive state. Vash gathered himself up and dashed for cover with Gun Graves coming up over the hill.
"You can run out of bullets!" Gun Graves shouted, "But my Cerberus guns will never run out of bullets!"
Vash and Wolfwood met in a heavy growth of trees. They whispered to each other.
"This guy's too good." Wolfwood panted, "I've used up all of my missiles. And I'm pretty sure I'm running low on bulllets."
"I know." Vash said as he reloaded his gun he held out his prosthetic arm and out came his little machine gun.
"We have to kill him." Wolfwood said as he brought up his Cross-Punisher
"No, I'm sure there's another way to do this."
"There's no time for that childish bullshit, Vash!" Wolfwood tried to keep his voice down, "We've got a psycho on our hands and we've got to kill him or he'll kill us. It's as simple as that."
"I know, but there has to be another way."
Vash kept running over what can be done in his mind. The pressure was intense, it was worse than trying to figure out an answer on a final test. Vash sweated even more in his red duster. In the dense growth he took off his duster and laid it in the soft dirt. He needed a way to bring Gun Graves down to a crawl. All he and Wolfwood could manage to do was run from him and eventually they'll both run out of bullets and that'll put Gun Graves at the advantage.
Suddenly the neurons snapped and that was the answer. Gun Graves Cerberus guns, those are his weakness. He puts too much trust in them, then again he has good reason too since he said that they can never run out of bullets. It seemed so simple that Vash had to smile.
"You've got something up your sleeve." Wolfwood smiled
"Yeah." Vash nodded, "I need you to distract him."
"Ok, just stay alive."
Vash dashed out from the undergrowth and dashed from tree to tree and rock to rock making sure that he didn't run into Gun Graves long the way. He had his guns ready to fire and he was sure that the plan was going to work. At last Vash came to a small grassy knoll, he peered over its edge. There was Gun Graves moving towards that undergrowth that he and Wolfwood were hiding. He was looking at Gun Graves's back, then he heard Wolfwood's distraction.
"I'm over here!" He shouted. Gun Graves turned to his left. It was time, Vash brought about his gun and aimed it carefully, there was no time to aim right he had to shoot from the hip. He fired the first bullet and it missed but thanks to the double action of his gun he fired again and this time the bullet hit. It hit the Cerberus gun right in the center of its cross that ran down its side. Vash crawled behind the knoll again and heard the outrage from Gun Graves.
"You shot my gun goddamnit!" Gun Graves shouted as he thirsted his gun to the ground. This fight had grown infuriating to him, he thought that with all the rumors that Vash was simply a wimp would give him an advantage and that this fight would be over quicker. There was never any mention of how devious Vash truly was. He didn't care where there were now because it was time to pull out the big guns on these men. He opened up his coffin and reached into another secret pouch and he pulled out three bullets. Each of them looked like gems shaped into bullets, one was green, another was blue, and the last was yellow. These bullets were part of a very ruthless attack that Gun Graves was going to use. It was called, "Graveyard Finisher".
He fiddled with his gun until a part of it opened up. A small slot opened up along the cross where the bullet chamber would be. The first bullet he loaded was the yellow one. This one would only be a demonstration of who they were messing with.
"Alright, Vash the Stampede!" Gun Graves called out, "Look up to the sky, I'm going to show you something!"
Gun Graves pointed the gun up to the sky and pulled the trigger. The gun began to jerk backwards like the feeling of a shotgun when its fired. But this time the damage would be very catastrophic. Vash and Wolfwood looked up to the sky as they heard a great bang from where Gun Graves stood. In the sky they watched as an enormous flash of yellow light blackened out the sky of its blue color to replace it with that yellow hue. As it exploded Vash and Wolfwood knew that Gun Graves had something bigger this whole time and the only thing that could counter that was the very thing that put the hole in the fifth moon, the Angel Arm. Vash knew this all too well and so did Wolfwood.
Gun Graves opened up that part again in his gun and loaded the blue one. This time he aimed it at the place where he knew Vash and Wolfwood were hiding.
"Get ready to die!" Gun Graves shouted as he was about to pull the trigger
As he did Vash jumped out from behind the grassy knoll and pulled out his silver gun. This time the gun opened up to reveal that secret part above the barrel. It spun with a great white light that encircled everything. Gun Graves was taken aback by what he was watching, it was like staring into the sun. Then he was brought back by the fact that Vash was wielding this weapon. He watched as his arm and the gun merged into one weapon, an enormous gray, and scaly cannon. Vash aimed it at Gun Graves as he pulled the trigger.
Wolfwood watched and then felt a great explosion that sent the trees, the rocks and the grass flying and burning from the intense heat. The only thing that Wolfwood's instincts told him to do was to duck and cover. As soon as the explosion subsided he then felt a great gust of wind that knocked him from where he was covering to a place nearly a yar away from the actual blast sight. He immediately understood the gravity of what had happened in the cities of July and Augusta where these very same disasters happened. He got to his knees and felt dirt and sand in his mouth. He spat it out and looked to the horizon and within a shallow crater were Vash the Stampede and Gun Graves the Undying. He tried to see what was going to happen next. He knew that Vash had more bullets and Gun Graves wasn't going to run out of them.
Vash seemed very tired indeed from Wolfwood's point of view. His arm had returned to its normal shape and scale. He then raised both gun arms to Gun Graves and fired. The Silver Cerberus gun fell out of Gun Graves hand like a sword of a fallen crusader. Wolfwood kept count, he had four bullets left. The next two Vash used on Gun Graves legs, then the next two for his shoulders. He then watched as Vash loaded one bullet into the gun and aimed it right at Gun Grave's face. He heard him panting, then again in such a desolate place that was the only thing he could hear in the silent heat.
Vash the Stampede looked down at Gun Graves, whose clothes were torn from the explosions both of them inflicted. He held his gun only a few inches away from Gun Graves face as he panted. Using the Angel Arm always took so much out of Vash, it was like running the mile on an empty stomach. Gun Graves looked pitiful then Vash only uttered one phrase that he shouted out into the desert.
"I will not kill again!"
Epilogue:
Dear Mother and Father,
I know it has been several months since I've written a single letter but there has been something that has come up that I wanted to write to you about. Do you remember the family portrait that was in the family room? The one that had my sister, Rem, another boy, and myself in it? I must have asked over a hundred times who that boy was, but you never told me who it was in the first place. Until eventually when I became an adult you put the picture away like it was a dirty secret. Recently I have met the man who turned out to be that boy in the picture. I've found out that his real name is Brandon Strife, though you might remember that he died away from home. I know that it may be hard for you to believe but he's still alive. Through the craft and lost technology of a group calling themselves The Gung-Ho Guns, Brandon was brought back to life and renamed the 14th Gung-Ho Gun, Gun Graves the Undying.
If you had only told me he was dead none of this would have been so hard for me to except, but it was buried. Now, the past has come back to me because I was with the man known as Vash the Stampede. Its true that Brandon was conditioned to find Vash the Stampede and to kill him. Though Vash and his best friend Nicholas D. Wolfwood had proven themselves to be better than him in both heart and skill. Thanks to the kindness of Vash the Stampede Brandon was spared and brought here to heal. Though the skills of Vash and his brother Knives Brandon had recovered his lost memories. Now we all live together in this small village a few ilses away from L and R town.
As it turns out, Brandon has been seeing a girl that I had met once before, a girl named Stephanie Bowstock, daughter to the rich Mr. Bowstock. Not only that but they were traveling with someone else I had met once. Do you remember me telling you about Marshall Maryanne? Well apparently Marshall Maryanne has fallen head-over-heels for Vash's brother Knives. At first I couldn't understand, but then again I never admitted to myself that I had loved Vash the Stampede myself.
I want you to know that I'm not angry for keeping this secret from me, because now I have time to catch up with my brother, Brandon Strife.
Sincerely, your daughter,
Meryl Strife.
Chapter 7: High Noon
By ShadowHawk and Turles
Authors Notes: I'm really really sorry that this fic took so long to be posted, but due to virus problems that I been having for several months I had to rewrite this whole chapter from scratch. Enjoy the fic.
In the small village only a few isle away from L and R town, Vash the Stampede, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Meryl Strife, and Millie Thompson huddled around the radio in the local saloon. Then again nearly everybody in town was listening in on the news of this gunslinger. A man known as Gun Graves the Undying. They listened with intent as they reported other news and then they came to the top story.
The latest on the activity of the gunslinger named Gun Graves the Undying. Recently a 300,000,000 double dollar bounty was placed on his head. Though a group of bounty hunters tried to go after him in L and R town but they were met with swift and very deadly force. An advisory to all bounty hunters, if you decide to go after this man then you're crazier than going after Vash the Stampede. So, to all bounty hunters stay away from Gun Graves the Undying. Repeat, stay away from Gun Graves the Undying.
Meryl turned her attention to her friends and made a startling connection.
"We're only a few isles away from L and R town." Meryl said, "If he's one of the Gung-Ho Guns do you think he'll come after you?" She asked Vash this question, but Vash was seriously deep in thought.
"I have a pretty strong feeling." Vash said shaking. He was shaking when he heard of the deaths of all those bounty hunters. In his mind no one should die for any reason whatsoever. "If he's come this far then I do think that he'll come here."
Wolfwood rose to his feet, "In that case, we better prepare for his arrival."
"Are you suggesting we fight him?" Millie asked
"I'm not suggesting, I'm saying we should fight." Wolfwood answered, "It's a lot better than staying here and doing nothing. I know that you're a pacifist Vash, but I prefer to die fighting."
Vash then rose to his feet, "Alright then." He said, "Let's get ready."
"In that case, I'm fighting with you." Meryl smiled
"No, Meryl."
Meryl then pulled a really stupid face of disappointment, "Why?"
"This battle's much too dangerous. If this man has killed the people that he did, then he's beyond your skill of gunman-ship. This is something for Wolfwood and me to handle."
Meryl sat as she stewed with her arms crossed. It was the usual position that she would take when she stewed about anything that was bugging her in any way, shape or form. Though the deal was settled, only Vash and Wolfwood would fight this man. The two of them spent the day getting ready. Vash went from his casual clothes to wearing his long scarlet red duster. Wolfwood unsheathed his Cross-Punisher testing every part, but being careful not to fire a single shot. Vash tested his guns, his gun arm as well as his silver .45 colt long barrel.
The day pasted from the morning into the afternoon. Vash and Wolfwood sat on the porch of their home waiting. Their lunch sifted in their systems as they waited. The nervousness that they had didn't help digest their lunch. It only made them feel like vomiting from the pit of their stomachs. They waited.
From the distance they saw a dark spot on the horizon. As the minutes passed from the late morning into High Noon, the spot grew larger. It came down the main street that stretched out in front of the porch and into the horizon where the spot was growing larger. As the minutes passed they found out what it was. It was a carriage being pulled by a Tomas and in the carriage were several people and from Vash's superior vision he saw who they were. They were people he hadn't seen in a very long time. Marshall Maryanne, Mr. Bowstock and Stephanie Bowstock, but what where they doing here, Vash wondered.
Soon the carriage stopped and it let out only three of its passengers into the local saloon like a bus stop. The only one remaining in the carriage was a dark man as soon as he dropped off his passengers he himself got off. He then pulled out something else from the carriage. To Vash and Wolfwood it looked like a coffin for a child. Then from that coffin out came a cat that jumped down to the street allowing the dark man to continue. The dark man carried this coffin over to the porch where Vash and Wolfwood sat.
"You must be Gun Graves the Undying." Wolfwood said as the man came closer.
Gun Graves smiled as he moved his lips and spoke through his mind, "I see that I now have a reputation that's proceeding me."
"Did you kill all those people?" Vash asked Gun Graves
"Yes, I did." Gun Graves said, "They were people who deserved to die. I was doing more of a public service when I killed them."
"That's not for you to decide." Vash said, "They all deserved a chance!"
Gun Graves only continued to smile, but this time he laughed.
"What's so funny!" Wolfwood demanded
"My master was right." Gun Graves laughed, "the great Vash the Stampede really is a pacifist. I still can't believe he's a brother to our greatest master, Millions Knives."
"So, the rumors were true, you really are one of the Gung-Ho Guns." Wolfwood said
"That's right, I am the 14th Gung-Ho Gun and I've come to kill Vash the Stampede. To make him suffer." He raised a cold finger at the red coated Vash but the gunman only sat staring back at him. "But before I do." Gun Graves said as he reached into his coat. He pulled out that same old tattered picture that had the boy and the girl on it. "Do you know these children?"
Vash and Wolfwood looked at it confused but could only answer truthfully, "No."
Gun Graves dropped the picture to the ground it fluttered all the way down to meet with the sand and dirt.
"My quest for my past has been a waste." Gun Graves said clenching his fist, "but one won't be a waste, to kill Vash the Stampede."
Vash stood up from his rocking chair, he stood up with such a great force that the chair rocked violently back as Vash made his request.
"Please, let us fight in the desert." He pleaded
Gun Graves nodded, "I'll agree. Is that the only request you have before you die?"
"No," Wolfwood intervened, "I'm going to fight along with Vash."
Gun Graves smirked, "Chapel the Evergreen really had wasted too much time on you."
"Oh you'll pay for that!" Wolfwood snarled clenching his fists.
"Shall we go into the desert?" Gun Graves asked
Wolfwood thought of an interesting question, "What makes you think I won't shoot you in the back?"
"You won't." Gun Graves said, "I have eyes in the back of my head."
It was like any classic western story, the three of them headed out into the desert like two gunslingers going out into main street for a quick draw. Except this gunfight wasn't for any reasons that were so superficial as money or a woman. This one was an order that was handed down and like a soldier Gun Graves was going to follow it to the end.
Back at the house, Meryl and Millie were watching the whole thing unfold even though they could only hear their voices faintly. They watched as all three headed out into the desert to do their battle. Their hearts only raced with the thought of who would come back.
Tap. Tap.
The sound was coming from the window, both Meryl and Millie looked down to find a cat sitting on the window sill with something in his mouth. Instinctually Millie felt that the cat wanted to be let in for some reason. Then again that was Millie in a nutshell, she was always the kindest to children, animals, and even strangers. She went to the door to let the cat in.
"Don't open the door." Meryl ordered, "you heard Vash, we can't allow anyone in."
"Oh, Meryl." Millie smiled, "It's only a cat."
She opened the door and the cat came in, it pranced across the wooden floor and onto the kitchen table. It turned to face Millie and Meryl with whatever it had in its mouth. The entire situation seemed very odd to them since it happened just after Vash, Wolfwood and the stranger wandered off into the desert to do battle this cat suddenly appears with this thing in its mouth. Meryl stepped over to take the thing from its mouth. It felt thick, not like paper but thick like a photograph. The side that Meryl looked at was blank with all kinds of marks on it, dust, and fingerprints with ink spots. She turned it over and what she found shocked her right down to her foundations.
Back at home where Meryl originally lived with her sister, mother and father there was a picture on the wall. The picture had an extra child in it, a boy. Meryl had often tried to ask who was that person but her parents never answered. For as long as Meryl asked the question, her parents never answered. It was as if the boy in that picture was some kind of dirty secret that the family never wanted to talk about. Eventually, Meryl's parents took down the picture so that she wouldn't ask about it anymore. When that happened, that was the time that Meryl went to work for the Bernardelli Insurance society. And just now it came to her from this cat.
"Do you know who they are?" She asked the cat
"Nyao." The cat meowed.
"I do." A man's voice came from the hallway.
The attention of Meryl and Millie went right to the direction of the voice. There in the hallway they saw the brother of Vash the Stampede, Millions Knives. He stood half-naked wearing only a pair of jogging pants. He came into the kitchen and sat down at the table. He took in a deep breath as if he was trying to test the air in the room.
"He's finally come." Knives said out loud, "the last of the Gung-Ho Guns."
"Who is he?" Meryl demanded as she set the picture down on the table, "And what do you know about this?"
Knives gestured to the table, "Please sit down."
Millie and Meryl sat down as the cat jumped into Millie's lap and went fast asleep.
"The man who has arrived at the doorstep." Knives began, "Is one of the Gung-Ho Guns, a group I started to try to make my brother suffer." He said it shaking his head in shame of what he did. "Gun Graves was actually a creation of my second in command, Legato Bluesummers. He went into a nearby graveyard and brother the body of that man to us to make into one of us. Though I never thought this would happen."
The question was driving Meryl insane she had to understand it, "What does this have to do with me?" She demanded
"That man out there is really called Brandon Strife, your brother."
It shocked Meryl so suddenly as if a brick hit her from a high building. Suddenly everything made sense, why her parents wouldn't talk about that boy in the family portrait. Yet she kept running over the image in her mind of the man who had arrived at the doorstep. How could a man so cold and with the fires of hell burning in his eyes be his brother. Was what he had become such a dirty secret that the family would never talk about him? Or had he died in such a shameful way that her family wouldn't' talk about it.
Meryl rose out of her seat, "I have to stop this."
Knives reached out and grabbed Meryl's hand, she looked back with surprise, but then she felt angry at Knives.
"Let go of me. I have to stop them." She squirmed.
"You can't stop him." Knives said, "He's been conditioned to find Vash and kill him. He can't be reasoned with, he won't stop until he or Vash is dead."
"So, you're saying I should give up!" Meryl shrieked at Knives with tears streaming down her face. She realized now that she'll either loose her love, Vash or her brother that had come back from the grave itself. The only thing that was running through her mind like a single track of a record was to stop this. Yet as she wept she saw Knives smile gently.
"Why are you smiling!" Meryl demanded
"You really don't know my brother, do you?" He asked, "If I know him right, he'll find a way to end this without killing Gun Graves, or rather Brandon. So I suggest that we wait."
* * *
Away from the little village in the great desert the three gunslingers met to do their battle. There was a small stretch of land that was like an oasis in the desert. There were rocks, trees, and grasses that covered several acres. Nobody knows how these small pieces of such fertile land would spring here on such a place as Gunsmoke but this would be the place where they would do the battle. They walked until Vash and Wolfwood stayed where they were and Gun Graves walked a few more steps and turned around. His eyes looked at Vash and Wolfwood equally.
"I assume you have your weapons." Gun Graves said
Vash took out his gun and Wolfwood showed off the gattling portion of his Cross-Punisher.
"Let's begin." Gun Graves said as he took out his twin Cerberus guns. He allowed his arms to come down to his sides and he looked at both Vash and Wolfwood waiting for this gunfight to begin. He stared at both Vash and Wolfwood, back and forth he looked waiting for someone to make the first move. It was becoming like that of a Mexican stand-off. Gun Graves was going to have the first move. He raised his silver gun to Wolfwood, but he raised it so quickly that it looked more like a blur.
Vash was the one who deflected it, he brought up his gun and shot at it sending the silver gun flying out of Gun Graves hand.
"Run!" Vash shouted to Wolfwood.
The two of them dashed for cover, Wolfwood behind one of the thick trees and Vash behind one of the larger rocks.
"Bullet time." Gun Graves shouted, but this time the move didn't come. "Bullet time." He shouted in his mind again, but it didn't happen. What was going on? Then he remembered that he used up the necessary amounts of bodily fluids needed to do Bullet Time. Then it all made sense the fluids that he got from the Descartes gang was bad. He should have known from the way they felt when they entered. So he could only use the fluids that were still good. So, he had to fight them on their ground and with so much fluids gone, he had no other choice but to fight Vash and Wolfwood on their own terms.
He reached down for his gun and he knew where they were hiding already. He brought up his other Cerberus gun and fired it at the old oak tree. The bullet penetrated the old tree and exited, but he heard no scream of pain. Then he saw a dash of gray and out sprung Wolfwood with his gattling end out and fired it at Gun Graves the Undying.
He fired his bullets shouting, "You missed me!"
The bullets penetrated Gun Graves, but he healed as quickly as the bullets passed through him like a small razor cut. This time he brought up his coffin and was going to fire a missile, out popped the target sights and he followed Wolfwood as he jumped from tree to tree. Then he thought about one thing, how many missiles to I have left? Only six, that should be enough.
"Deathblow!" He shouted as he fired the first missile. It exploded sending fragments of grass, tree, branches, leaves and rocks into the air. Yet, Wolfwood still lived. The fact that Wolfwood, a mere human was dodging him made him angry he fired his remaining shots and still Wolfwood survived.
"My turn!" Wolfwood shouted turning the Cross-Punisher around and firing his missile at Gun Graves. The rocket came down at him, even though Gun Graves didn't have the ability to use Bullet Time he could still move quickly. He dodged the first missile, then the second and then the third. Then he heard a click from the place that Wolfwood was firing his missiles.
"Shit!" He shouted, "I'm out!"
Gun Graves saw the opportunity. He jumped out into the clearing and fired his bullets to where Wolfwood was standing but that didn't do any effect.
"Vash!" Wolfwood shouted
Vash came out from behind the mound he was hiding from and fired all six shots from his gun. He fired them so quickly that they would sound like a single gunshot to the ears of a normal person. Yet, it didn't make any difference, Gun Graves used his coffin as a shield against his bullets. He in turn fired his Cerberus guns at Vash, the bullets only grazed Vash's cheeks. Then it was time to get back behind the hill. He felt Gun Graves coming for him; it was the ominous feeling of someone coming that anyone gets in such a hyperactive state. Vash gathered himself up and dashed for cover with Gun Graves coming up over the hill.
"You can run out of bullets!" Gun Graves shouted, "But my Cerberus guns will never run out of bullets!"
Vash and Wolfwood met in a heavy growth of trees. They whispered to each other.
"This guy's too good." Wolfwood panted, "I've used up all of my missiles. And I'm pretty sure I'm running low on bulllets."
"I know." Vash said as he reloaded his gun he held out his prosthetic arm and out came his little machine gun.
"We have to kill him." Wolfwood said as he brought up his Cross-Punisher
"No, I'm sure there's another way to do this."
"There's no time for that childish bullshit, Vash!" Wolfwood tried to keep his voice down, "We've got a psycho on our hands and we've got to kill him or he'll kill us. It's as simple as that."
"I know, but there has to be another way."
Vash kept running over what can be done in his mind. The pressure was intense, it was worse than trying to figure out an answer on a final test. Vash sweated even more in his red duster. In the dense growth he took off his duster and laid it in the soft dirt. He needed a way to bring Gun Graves down to a crawl. All he and Wolfwood could manage to do was run from him and eventually they'll both run out of bullets and that'll put Gun Graves at the advantage.
Suddenly the neurons snapped and that was the answer. Gun Graves Cerberus guns, those are his weakness. He puts too much trust in them, then again he has good reason too since he said that they can never run out of bullets. It seemed so simple that Vash had to smile.
"You've got something up your sleeve." Wolfwood smiled
"Yeah." Vash nodded, "I need you to distract him."
"Ok, just stay alive."
Vash dashed out from the undergrowth and dashed from tree to tree and rock to rock making sure that he didn't run into Gun Graves long the way. He had his guns ready to fire and he was sure that the plan was going to work. At last Vash came to a small grassy knoll, he peered over its edge. There was Gun Graves moving towards that undergrowth that he and Wolfwood were hiding. He was looking at Gun Graves's back, then he heard Wolfwood's distraction.
"I'm over here!" He shouted. Gun Graves turned to his left. It was time, Vash brought about his gun and aimed it carefully, there was no time to aim right he had to shoot from the hip. He fired the first bullet and it missed but thanks to the double action of his gun he fired again and this time the bullet hit. It hit the Cerberus gun right in the center of its cross that ran down its side. Vash crawled behind the knoll again and heard the outrage from Gun Graves.
"You shot my gun goddamnit!" Gun Graves shouted as he thirsted his gun to the ground. This fight had grown infuriating to him, he thought that with all the rumors that Vash was simply a wimp would give him an advantage and that this fight would be over quicker. There was never any mention of how devious Vash truly was. He didn't care where there were now because it was time to pull out the big guns on these men. He opened up his coffin and reached into another secret pouch and he pulled out three bullets. Each of them looked like gems shaped into bullets, one was green, another was blue, and the last was yellow. These bullets were part of a very ruthless attack that Gun Graves was going to use. It was called, "Graveyard Finisher".
He fiddled with his gun until a part of it opened up. A small slot opened up along the cross where the bullet chamber would be. The first bullet he loaded was the yellow one. This one would only be a demonstration of who they were messing with.
"Alright, Vash the Stampede!" Gun Graves called out, "Look up to the sky, I'm going to show you something!"
Gun Graves pointed the gun up to the sky and pulled the trigger. The gun began to jerk backwards like the feeling of a shotgun when its fired. But this time the damage would be very catastrophic. Vash and Wolfwood looked up to the sky as they heard a great bang from where Gun Graves stood. In the sky they watched as an enormous flash of yellow light blackened out the sky of its blue color to replace it with that yellow hue. As it exploded Vash and Wolfwood knew that Gun Graves had something bigger this whole time and the only thing that could counter that was the very thing that put the hole in the fifth moon, the Angel Arm. Vash knew this all too well and so did Wolfwood.
Gun Graves opened up that part again in his gun and loaded the blue one. This time he aimed it at the place where he knew Vash and Wolfwood were hiding.
"Get ready to die!" Gun Graves shouted as he was about to pull the trigger
As he did Vash jumped out from behind the grassy knoll and pulled out his silver gun. This time the gun opened up to reveal that secret part above the barrel. It spun with a great white light that encircled everything. Gun Graves was taken aback by what he was watching, it was like staring into the sun. Then he was brought back by the fact that Vash was wielding this weapon. He watched as his arm and the gun merged into one weapon, an enormous gray, and scaly cannon. Vash aimed it at Gun Graves as he pulled the trigger.
Wolfwood watched and then felt a great explosion that sent the trees, the rocks and the grass flying and burning from the intense heat. The only thing that Wolfwood's instincts told him to do was to duck and cover. As soon as the explosion subsided he then felt a great gust of wind that knocked him from where he was covering to a place nearly a yar away from the actual blast sight. He immediately understood the gravity of what had happened in the cities of July and Augusta where these very same disasters happened. He got to his knees and felt dirt and sand in his mouth. He spat it out and looked to the horizon and within a shallow crater were Vash the Stampede and Gun Graves the Undying. He tried to see what was going to happen next. He knew that Vash had more bullets and Gun Graves wasn't going to run out of them.
Vash seemed very tired indeed from Wolfwood's point of view. His arm had returned to its normal shape and scale. He then raised both gun arms to Gun Graves and fired. The Silver Cerberus gun fell out of Gun Graves hand like a sword of a fallen crusader. Wolfwood kept count, he had four bullets left. The next two Vash used on Gun Graves legs, then the next two for his shoulders. He then watched as Vash loaded one bullet into the gun and aimed it right at Gun Grave's face. He heard him panting, then again in such a desolate place that was the only thing he could hear in the silent heat.
Vash the Stampede looked down at Gun Graves, whose clothes were torn from the explosions both of them inflicted. He held his gun only a few inches away from Gun Graves face as he panted. Using the Angel Arm always took so much out of Vash, it was like running the mile on an empty stomach. Gun Graves looked pitiful then Vash only uttered one phrase that he shouted out into the desert.
"I will not kill again!"
Epilogue:
Dear Mother and Father,
I know it has been several months since I've written a single letter but there has been something that has come up that I wanted to write to you about. Do you remember the family portrait that was in the family room? The one that had my sister, Rem, another boy, and myself in it? I must have asked over a hundred times who that boy was, but you never told me who it was in the first place. Until eventually when I became an adult you put the picture away like it was a dirty secret. Recently I have met the man who turned out to be that boy in the picture. I've found out that his real name is Brandon Strife, though you might remember that he died away from home. I know that it may be hard for you to believe but he's still alive. Through the craft and lost technology of a group calling themselves The Gung-Ho Guns, Brandon was brought back to life and renamed the 14th Gung-Ho Gun, Gun Graves the Undying.
If you had only told me he was dead none of this would have been so hard for me to except, but it was buried. Now, the past has come back to me because I was with the man known as Vash the Stampede. Its true that Brandon was conditioned to find Vash the Stampede and to kill him. Though Vash and his best friend Nicholas D. Wolfwood had proven themselves to be better than him in both heart and skill. Thanks to the kindness of Vash the Stampede Brandon was spared and brought here to heal. Though the skills of Vash and his brother Knives Brandon had recovered his lost memories. Now we all live together in this small village a few ilses away from L and R town.
As it turns out, Brandon has been seeing a girl that I had met once before, a girl named Stephanie Bowstock, daughter to the rich Mr. Bowstock. Not only that but they were traveling with someone else I had met once. Do you remember me telling you about Marshall Maryanne? Well apparently Marshall Maryanne has fallen head-over-heels for Vash's brother Knives. At first I couldn't understand, but then again I never admitted to myself that I had loved Vash the Stampede myself.
I want you to know that I'm not angry for keeping this secret from me, because now I have time to catch up with my brother, Brandon Strife.
Sincerely, your daughter,
Meryl Strife.