Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Tolerant Patience ❯ The Tower ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Notes:

*Ahem* Okay.. *sigh*.. La dee dahh.. dahh.. da.

Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun and I certainly don't own a certain braided "baka" off of Gundam Wing..

Symbol key.... erp.. no symbols?? How could not be using any symbols??

Okay well, "Insert words/phrase/sentence" = dialogue

So there. :P

!! Japanese !! :
"Baka" means "Idiot", "Moron", "Stupid", "Fool"... "Camel"-no, that's Arabic. -_-()

"Kami" is untranslatable in English. However, its closest equivalent is "sacred or divine power or aura"; in my story, it will always mean "God" or "Lord" when used.

Pronunciation key:
'Baka' is "Bah-kah"
'Kami' is "Kah-mee"

Editor's note: Another cameo appearance. Kinda crossover-ish. Whoops. Seriously, I only stole a couple of characters from a few series. Also, if you didn't know, the dream Rin stumbled upon was the exact same one plaguing Nick now. Oh and for your information, the flashback (with the robots in the desert .. eh.. the episode that Nick makes his appearance in) is wholly based off of my crappily-subbed Trigun series, so it will not be the same as the dubbed version.

Strike the key.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



After lying down on the towel, I entered a sleepless rest.



My first job.. a way to prove loyalty I guess.. was to set fire to that hellhole of mine.

I burned the sucker down without blinking.
It held nothing but the death of an old life and a rebirth of a new one.

But why had it hurt so much?
I found myself hunched over my knees with tears streaming down my face.

The shock of that shitty day had finally caught me up.

My mother had been butchered. And I had defiled my clean hands with the filth of blood.

But there were no more strings. I was free.

Or so I thought.

Instead of being released, I was just a lifeless puppet with its strings cut.

Awaiting another master to pick up the strings and make me dance.

And what a dancer I was.



A spark. The butt of the broken knife was sticking out of the robot.

I smirked. Damn, I have good aim.
"A nice dancer has got to have their moves, too."

He smiled, all confusion blown away with the wind. "Nice support!"
And went back to his systematic approach to shooting without missing a mark.



It all started with a visit from Legato at my orphanage.

He came suddenly without warning. I should've detected that breeze of death.

He gave me his empty smile and proceeded to tell me that our 'master'- presumably Knives - wanted me, of all people, to protect his brother from himself and others.

In return, my orphanage of kids was to be "taken care of". He also promised money.
I believed the bastard.

Problem was, at the time, I didn't know Knives' grand plan was the mass murder of the human race.

Was I surprised when I did find out? No, but I was pissed at myself for going along with them.


After I was able to stand without falling flat on my face, I had to convince Rin that I should go check on the orphanage.

I had to persuade her because there was no way I could've gotten past her in my weakened condition.

Did I try to anyway? Oh, yes. That was one of the reasons she let me; she knew I was too stubborn too listen, and I would've continued to try leaving until I reopened wounds and tore open stitches.

She relented and followed me. I could tell that she was just as worried.
The journey wasn't as long as it should've been because Rin has this nifty talent she calls Step-Teleportation.

However, nothing could've prepared me for what I would meet.



Smoldering ruins.

Dead, dry-decaying bodies strewn everywhere.

Of the caretakers.

And children. Of Jimmy, Peter, Ted, Sylvia, Matt, Brandon, Josh, Anne, Kyle, Marie..

And more.
Gods, I remembered every last one of them.

I gripped my pack with clenched, white knuckles.

Rin looked about grim-faced and pale.

She closed her eyes breathing in evenly.

She stood there for several minutes.
What is she doing?

Then, a twitch of her eye. She turned to her left and pointed.
"Nick, over there. Someone's still alive. Barely. They're weak and scared, but alive."

A crater of rubble.
A cloud of dust behind me as I ran.

An annoyed yell, but I wasn't listening.

I approached the crushed building.
A flash of violet.
Eyes.

A dash of brown.
Hair.

It must be him. Of all the children, he was a true orphan of the streets. He had survived.

"Duo!"

A rock fell as he shifted. "Mr. Priest?" came a hoarse whisper.

He stumbled out weary and bruised but alive.

I moved to catch him but he pushed me off, even as he teetered.
"It happ'ned 'gain." He swallowed painfully.
His eyes dulled and watered, but no tears came.
"I'm th' only one still 'ere. Th' dirty, ole street rat."

His eyes rolled back and he keeled over, passing out into Rin's welcoming arms.

She looked down at him. "He had taken care of the ones with him, like they were his own, with the little amount of food that he scavenged. but they were... they weren't used to being underfed, he knew that, but he tried to save them anyway." She gave me a worrisome look. "Nick, he starved himself from water in order to give it to them. Now, he's severely dehydrated."

Duo's figure was enveloped gently into her skinny arms. "so fragile." she murmured.

Her attention snapped up. "Follow."

I did.



Step-Teleportation. That sounds corny.

She seemed hesitant to talk to me about it.

In fact, I distinctly remember having to pry information out of her.

I asked if it drained her and if that was the reason why she didn't like using it that often.

She shook her head.

I asked her if that was what she used to get me out of the church.

She nodded, but didn't provide anything else.

I really don't know why she was so tight-lippd about it, but I saved that conversation away for another day.



Well, Duo recovered mostly and was doing well in Rin's "orphanage", but he never acted the same. He wore a jester's mask to cheer others up and acted the clown, but it was empty like Vash's curl of the lips and quirk of the eyes.

He was hurting on the inside. Guilt seemed to dice him from the inside out.

If it were allowed to continue, it would eat him alive and he would become only a ghost of what he was now.

"Duo? What'cha ya doing out here, runt?"

He folded his arms and scowled at me. "Nothing much. Will you please go now?"

I quirked an eyebrow. Rin's speaking lessons were working. "Nope. I'm not going anywhere."

Silence.

"I'm just thinking."

"You mean, brooding."

It was his turn to quirk an eyebrow at me.

"I know perfectly well, that you're moping. Did you wanna talk about it?"

He looked back at me visibly rolling my offer over in his head.

I leaned back on the outcropping.

There was a lingering silence.

"It's just that..." He sighed. "There must've been something I coulda done, ya know?"

"What? Other than breaking the rules and going out into the desert, saving some of the kids from burning to death?"
I took out a precious crumpled thrice- damned 'cancer stick'.

"They died."

"Look, Duo. The point is, is that you tried. You didn't give up on them. You protected them. You fed them as best you could. No one is blaming you for the lack of food and water that just wasn't there. It's a miracle that you could've provided for so many with so little over an extended period of time."
I lit up my smoke and inhaled.

Duo smirked at me. "You know you're not supposed to smoke, Mr. Priest."

Damn, he changed the subject.
"Shut up, brat. What she doesn't know won't hurt her."

- My cigarette was forcibly removed from my mouth.

I heard the distinct grinding of a boot on sand.

Duo's smirk turned into a broad, highly amused grin.

Damn it! That was my very last one!

"Rin." I grated out as nicely as possible. "You."

She grabbed my wrist, and slapped a white patch onto it.

I went to pull it off, but she stopped my other hand from moving.

"You are still going through withdrawal, Nicholas. You are craving the nicotine, not the smoke. This patch should remedy that craving, since it is pure nicotine that Mat helped me derive from those tobacco plants I grow. I will not tolerate you stealing any more tobacco to consume for personal reasons."

Shut up. I want a smoke damn it!!

Spots.
Did... did she just slap me?

I looked up at her curiously.

She looked stricken, but managed to stay composed, dropping her hand.

"Nick, you may not believe me, but I'm trying to lengthen your lifespan. Do you want to die a decade from now, when you could live at least another forty years? The crap that you burn and inhale is damaging you lungs into a writhing black, bulbous mass."

She took a deep breath. "Your lungs will become sickened from cancer, a disease that cannot be cured, even by the likes of me. The cancer eats you from the inside out until there's nothing left but a fragile body that can barely move around."

She looked at me sternly. "Even without cancer, you won't be able to pull those stunts you're so fond of either because damaged lungs cannot feed the body with enough oxygen to sustain it. Lacking of oxygen, you will start having fainting spells. Do you really want that? Do you?"

She turned away, her voice hardening. "Because if you don't care, I'm not going to stop you anymore. It's your own damn choice."



I woke up with her voice echoing in my ears.

Another yell through the wall.

I got up and ran to the neighboring room, cracking my elbows as I straightened them out.

What I saw was something I never expected to see.

Legato was comforting-comforting!-Rin.

He greeted me with a confused gaze.

Kami, I can see right through that look.

Emotions on his face orchestrated bizarrely over his normally stoic face.

"Who the hell are you?"