Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Tolerant Patience ❯ Savior ( Prologue )

The shot rang off the canyon walls.

I saved him. I smiled. I will not allow you to do something that you will regret for the rest of your life.

But then he screamed…

A horrible scream torn out from his soul, so full of pain and anguish. It tugged at my heart to see him this way. But if I revealed to him that the first person he thought he killed, with his own hands, was not dead… Knives would know soon after.

I'm sorry. My smile wiped free off my face. I have to keep it from Vash. He can't know, though it tortures me to see him this way.

I stopped the bullet from harming Legato…saving him in the process..

Vash, dear brother… you may not remember or even recognize me; it was long ago, and I have quite a marked improvement in my appearance. Now, however, I'm fully capable of protecting you like an older sister should… …

'Rem, no! Don't leave me!'

'Take good care of Knives, Vash.'

I heard them, but not exactly "heard" at all.

Hysteria! They're leaving me!?

>REM!!> I cried out.

Rem paused for a second from her running, looking around cautiously. Then, it dawned on her.

She brought her hand up slowly to cover her mouth. /Oh, God! I left her! /

I could feel her horror, strong and cold like a stab of ice through one's stomach.

She ran toward the refrigerator room, where my body lay dormant in a cryogenic sleep.

Yet my mind was very much active because of what I was…

'Patience, I'm getting you out of here!' She said as her hands ran quickly over the quick thaw procedure on the control panel.

I could feel as my body regained its senses. My mind began recalibrating itself to the new input downpour, but the lid opened too soon: before I had the chance to react, my body collapsed limply on the floor.

It had been ages since I had last-

My hands reflexively jerked to my ears to cover them.

>It's too loud. Ow. > I tried to say, but my throat only let out an irritated rasp.

"The alarm. I have to get to-"

>I'm going to help. >

She looked at me quizzically before quickly…but gently …hoisting my frail three-year old body into her arms. She ran in the opposite direction of the control room.

>Oh, no you won't! It's a waste to save just me, when we can save everyone else!!>

I forcibly grabbed her body under my control.

Jarred, she almost dropped me, but I tightened her grip and turned back around to run the other way.

I whispered to her mind. >Sorry. It's for the best. >

She mentally stood there in the back of my mind, looking at me with… disappointment?

I opened the door to the main room. I laid my body down against the wall near the door.

In my head, she gasped at the sight of blood, but I rushed past the dead man, who held a gun in his right hand, to the console.

/The captain…/

She brought both hands up to her face as her eyes welled up with tears.

I hurriedly began to unlock Knives' brilliant security lock; it was going to be harder to solve than a Rubik's Cube.

"Knives killed them all." I said nonchalantly, my mind more focused on the task at hand.

/No, Knives… He wouldn't… Maybe Joey, as the captain, felt the need to go down with the ship. /

Yes! I got it unlocked!!

Hurry. My instinct warned.

I guided her hands through the restabilization process.

"Don't give me that.. you know the captain. This was all Knives' doing. He would, and he did… I didn't think he would go this far either, but Steve pushed him too far."

/What do you mean? /

"It's done. Now, we've gotta get out of here before this thing blows!"

\Beep. \ Stabilizers changed. Processing Modifications… \Beep. \

I released her carefully, so that she wouldn't fall down.

She rushed over to my body, and picked me up again.

Dashed over to the emergency escape hatch, opened it, closed the door, and smashed the 'release' button.

As the pod flew away I knew we were cutting it a little too close for comfort.

She placed me down on the floor. I was still weary from overexerting my capabilities.

And being stuck in a frozen tube for about 25 years didn't help.

I should have realized at my awakening that my muscles were severely atrophied. For that reason, I doubt I'll be able to move around independently for some time.

The SEED ship exploded in a bubble of fire and metal shrapnel; its wake damaged our pod.

I was hoping that Rem would live through this.

We began our plunging descent towards the desert planet.

As we were thrown about, Rem covered me to try to minimize the amount of damage on my body. We hit hard planet side.

Is Rem alright? My eyes blinked into focus. I rolled them around trying to see where she went. >Rem, where are you?> I yelled. I noticed then that I was lying in sand. I drowsily raised my head to get a better viewpoint of my surroundings. Had I been knocked out?? Panic clung to me. I spastically shifted attempting in vain to get up. >REM!!>

I felt hands touch my back. Instantly, I tensed up.

"I'm fine, Patience. I'm fine. Calm down," She said soothingly, bending down farther to give me a hug," Shhh. Calm down. I'm here."

She's alright! ^. ^ Relief flooded my system and I finally relaxed.

When I gathered my wits, I looked at her.

Worse for wear, she seemed to only have some minor bumps and bruises.

She smiled at me.

"Looks like I was wrong about the red flowers." >What?> I asked genuinely confused. She nodded away. "Look around, Patience."

She was right. As far as the eye could see there was nothing, but desert.

Now, I was worried about how we could sustain life here. The future looked bleak.

>Well, have you thought about what we're going to do now? >

She tapped my nose, receiving a blink from me.

"I get to take care of you, of course!"

>I'm not a child…>

"Oho ho.. you sure look like one to me!"

>I'm older than you though. > I grumbled sulkily.

"You can't help that you were born the way you were." She embraced me in another warm hug.

I'm malfunctioning. I thought bitterly. That is the curse of being born from a dying Plant. Even, my twin didn't survive…

Sadly, I looked into her crystal amber eyes. I will outlive even you, Rem, since I seem to only physically age one year every decade I live. You'll never see me as a teenager, before your body withers away.

"Just promise me that when you're older you'll take care of your brothers." She smiled at me sweetly.

I still remember being found by a sympathetic Plant engineer. I was crawling around inside the bulb machinery and he had been trying to find the extra energy source that came up on the scanners when the Plant was unusable and damaged beyond repair.

Then, after my discovery by that particular crew, I had grown too rapidly; I looked physically like a 4-year old human child after a week. That led to my lockup in cold sleep.

They had been afraid.

Yet, I promised Rem without a second thought back then, not really thinking of how difficult that promise was going to be to keep.

I climbed out of my hiding place, which was hidden by an outcropping. I could hear Legato bemoaning about how his life, oh excuse me-"his pitiful human existence"- should've been ended permanently, etc, etc.

He sat up, which seemed to be the only thing he could do; my blow to his mental powers must've weakened him temporarily. His hair was matted with blood from the fresh scalp wound.

"Who are you, you who have stopped me from fully carrying out Master Knives' bidding?"

"I have."

His back still faced me.

There was silence.

He turned his head slightly, barely looking past his hair at me.

"You look like the rest of us, but you have gifts far beyond that of a normal human being."

"…"

He lowered his head in what I assumed to be deep thought.

After awhile, he looked at me with that dead gaze he always gives to people. Then, his eyes widened a fraction.

I had been expecting it.

He was trying to bore holes into my skull.

Uh huh. Right.

I pushed him off with very little ease.

A grin seemed to playfully pull at the corners of his mouth.

"Yes, then I'm right, in assuming that you are different… but not unlike… Master Knives."

"…" Yeah, he's my brother. Just like Vash.

"I have no idea what you did to me, but apparently Vash the Stampede thinks I'm very much dead..."

He stood up slowly, with that sad, knowing smile on his face.

"… and I have still managed to cause him eternal pain and suffering as Master Knives wished."

Knives is a sick, sadistic bastard. The months I spent scoping him out made that excruciatingly clear. Apparently the time that had passed had served only to make Knives rotten to the core. I hoped that there was still something inside to work with. Since he's after Vash there must be something still there.

Which makes me wonder…

"How long has Knives kept you, Legato?"

Sluggishly he pivoted on his right foot and turned to leave.

"It doesn't really matter, does it?"

"It makes all the difference."

Hesitantly, he began to walk… with a very slight limp.

"Do you intend to crawl back to him like an injured, lovesick puppy? He will look down on you with hate and contempt, beat you, and dig his misguided beliefs towards the human race deeper into your brain."

He paused in his advance.

"On the contrary, I am needed. As long as Vash the Stampede does not stand beside him, I will stand in his place."

He brought his left hand up and with his right began to pick at the glove.

"Why do you lie to yourself? He only has eyes for Vash. If, for some reason, Vash did choose to return to live by Knives' side, you would be tossed away like a discarded doll. And he would go on to destroy the rest of humanity."

"That is the way things should be… However… he refuses to accept Master Knives' ideal paradise, where worthless, wasteful lives such as mine would be gotten rid of. We are parasitic to your kind, why do you let me live?"

"Life is never wasteful. … And … I'm keeping a promise." And I intend to keep it!

"You sound just like that nonsensical woman that Master Knives' despises." He murmured.

Stopping, he turned to me completely.

"You have no intention of letting me go back to Master Knives', do you?"

"…" Of course, not.

He closed his eyes, refusing to look at me.

"I thought not… You are far superior to my abilities. You have managed to block all of my intrusions and persuasions, stopped me from trying to gain access to any of the surviving townspeople, and even broke my connection to Master Knives."

He waited a moment obviously thinking.

"He thinks I'm dead, doesn't he?"

"Yes, thankfully." Thank God!

His gaze went blank.

Is he upset that I severed that connection?

His mind rushed at mine…

I guess that answered my question. -_-

trying to break through my mental barriers with too flimsy of an attack;

It shattered upon contact.

"…" I could hear the frustrations pour out of his mind, but there was a lot of pain in it too.

Crap. Don't tell me he likes… sigh My perverse brother Knives really only loves one person; how did he manage to… I'm not even going to dwell on it.

"Stop looking at me like that. You should thank me for saving your sorry ass and from my b-I mean -Knives' abuse." He glared at me. "Christ! I'm not your captor, Legato."

"Then, what would you call someone who held you effectively against your own will?"

He said in a deathly tone.

"… I call myself Patience." I beamed at him as his eyes narrowed. "Patience Rinné Saverem."