Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Cowboy Bebop Meets Trigun ❯ Tracking Down the Target ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: ReadingWhiz89
Briefly skims over events that take place between Trigun episodes "Vash the Stampede" and "Demon's Eye". Brief Wolfwood appearance near the end. Bebop crew tries to locate Vash the Stampede.

Anime/Manga: Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 05.21.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 620 | Status: Completed

Disclaimer: Still not my characters!
A/N: Everyone celebrate. Chapter 6 has arrived. This one is kind of a mix of Episode #'s 13,15, and 16 from Trigun. There are some original parts, but I felt it necessary to explain parts of the story, meaning I had to use some stuff from the episodes. I know some of you might be excited because I said “Episode 16”, but just so you hardcore Trigun anime fans know, the BEST part of Episode 16 is coming in the next chapter. I can't wait! Until that time, please make due with this one!
Once again, I want to thank the reviewers. You guys are great! I always fix mistakes when you point them out to me!

Chapter 6: Tracking Down the Target
Meryl, Millie, and Ed had been on their way back to the hotel when they had come across the scene. Vash had been ready to kill that man. However, at the last moment, Vash had a sudden change of heart and spared him.
Yet, there was something that Meryl didn't understand. She leaned back in her chair. She was sitting at her desk with her typewriter in front of her. She was supposed to be writing the report, but she couldn't help but wonder. Vash had been crying. There was no mistaking it. She had seen his tears and his trembling mouth as he had raised his head toward the rising sun.
“Where do I find your boss?” Vash had asked Monev.
“I was bought. It wasn't my fault. The man I thought to be my father turned out to be nothing more than an agent,” Monev had moaned. “I don't know anything else, I swear.”
Vash had straightened and began to walk away.
Monev then struggled to sit up and said, “Hey, it's dangerous to be too trusting. What if I decided to shoot you in the back?”
Vash, in response, cocked his left arm, saying, “I'm not that trusting. I kept my finger on the trigger the whole time.”
Well, that had been the end of that confrontation. However, as Vash was walking away, that bounty hunter from before named Spike had walked into Vash's path. Vash stopped. The two stared at each other, and neither spoke. They seemed to be taking each other's measure.
“So, you didn't kill him.” Spike made it a statement, not a question.
“No. I didn't,” Vash replied, his voice devoid of emotion.
“Tell me why. You know what he did. You saw it for yourself,” Spike told him. “Don't you realize that, no matter how good a shot you are, if you don't shoot to kill, you're going to get yourself killed?”
Vash didn't reply for several moments. The yellow-orange light reflecting off his sunglasses hid whatever emotions might have been showing in his eyes.
“I suppose it is a stupid approach, isn't it? I know that,” Vash replied sadly. Then his voice took on a hint of determination. “But you know what, I made a promise. If I put out even one flame of life, it'll make her sad.”
Spike stared at Vash, completely nonplussed.
“Meryl.”
Meryl started at the sound of her name.
“Bring Ed, over here, please,” Vash requested solemnly.
Meryl looked over in Ed's direction. She was standing next to Millie, her eyes wide. Meryl beckoned to her. Ed looked up at Millie for a moment, and then walked over to Meryl. Meryl told her to go to Vash. Ed went.
“I believe you lost something.” A small smile tugged at Vash's lips as he said that.
Spike smiled in return. “You're right. We did.” He looked down at Ed. “Ed, it's time to go.”
Ed shook her head. “I want to stay with you, Vash-person,” she insisted.
“I'm sorry, Ed, but you can't stay with me,” Vash told her solemnly. He gave her a small push. Ed looked back at Vash one more time before she reluctantly went over to Spike.
“Try to keep track of her better next time,” Vash said, quietly. “She's very special.”
“I know,” Spike replied.
Vash smiled his sad smile once more before he continued walking.
“I'm still coming after you, Vash the Stampede,” Spike called after him.
Vash stopped. He turned around, gazing at Spike quietly. “I know,” Vash replied softly.
And with that, Vash continued his lonely walk, as Spike, Ed, Meryl, and Millie watched.
Meryl stretched. That had happened two days ago. She still couldn't believe that, after everything that had happened, Spike and his bounty hunter friends were still going to try to bring in Vash. She smiled sadly. Such was the luck of Vash the Stampede.
I still don't understand. Why is it that so much trouble falls into this man's lap?
Suddenly, she heard something from Vash's room. There was a weird screech (undoubtedly from Vash himself) and the sound of a thump. Millie, who had been sleeping, draped over her desk, woke up. Meryl met her gaze, and both of them leaped out of their chairs and rushed to Vash's room. Meryl opened his door a crack.
“Vash, are you alright?”
She gasped. Vash had just gotten out of the shower. He was wearing some baggy pants, and his hair was not spiked, but hanging loosely about his face, and a towel was draped over his shoulders. However, his entire upper torso was horribly scarred. Chunks of flesh were missing, and he even had an iron grate over the left side of his chest. Metal seemed to be a common theme, especially with his prosthetic arm that could transform into a gun. It was, as a whole, a terrible sight.
The three of them stared at each other until, finally, Vash broke the ice by getting bashful and making some embarrassed noises. After they had all gotten over their mutual embarrassment, the three of them sat down at the table in the room. Vash popped a beer open.
“So those scars are the price you paid for dealing with your opponents without killing them?” Meryl asked.
“It's not something I like girls to see,” Vash said, hesitantly. “I think many of them would run away.”
“I wouldn't run away. What I mean is they wouldn't run away,” Meryl corrected herself. “Uh, Vash, I've been meaning to ask you for a while now. You haven't done anything wrong, but terrible things keep happening to you all the time. The townspeople look at you like you're some sort of criminal. Doesn't that bother you?” Meryl looked own at her feet. “How can you go on living this way? It seems so awful.”
“I can't.” The vehemence in his voice startled Meryl, and she looked back up at him. His eyes burned with an inner determination. “I can't do that. I haven't yet buried my past. There's no way I can live in peace until I've come to terms with it and I'm able to finally put it behind me.”
The very next day, Vash left the town, with Meryl and Millie following dutifully after.

“Spike, are you sure everything you're telling us is true?” Jet asked, again.
Spike sighed. Ever since he had returned with Ed and told Jet and Faye what had happened, they had been bombarding him with questions. He was getting tired of it.
“For the last time,” Spike exclaimed, “yes, I'm sure! The guy is way better than the slobs we usually track down!”
Everyone was silent for a few minutes, absorbed in their own thoughts. Spike could definitely understand that. After all, it wasn't everyday that do were tracking down a guy who could destroy entire cities, morph his left arm into a gun, AND have eyes that looked like they belonged to the devil himself. The only person who didn't seem at all perturbed about the situation was Ed, who was now entertaining her dog Ein and playing with her computer, which she had so fondly nicknamed Tomato, though it was a mystery why she did that. However, Ed had been very quiet, not at all her usual self, on the way back to the Bebop. She had probably made friends with Vash and was sad to leave him.
It's for the best, though, Spike thought. He's our bounty, after all.
Faye broke the silence, bringing everyone out of their separate reveries. “Are we just going to sit here, or are we going to get that $$60 billion?” she demanded.
“That might not be such a good idea,” Jet said, gruffly. “You yourself were shaken up after what you saw back in that town.” Faye opened her mouth to say something, but Jet cut her off. “Besides, after all that, we now know that someone besides us is after Vash the Stampede. These people are dangerous. It might be better if we just forget about it and move on.”
Both Faye and Jet looked in Spike's direction, awaiting his input. Damn. Why do they always have to ask my opinion, anyway?
“No, I don't think we should, Jet.”
Spike's answer caught them both by surprise. Jet was staring at him intently. Faye, on the other hand, was openly gaping at him. Spike smiled.
“I don't see why we have to give up so easily,” Spike said, cheerfully. “Besides, I think if we follow Vash around for a bit, everything will turn out alright in the end.”
“Oh, really?” Faye was skeptical. “What about the last time you faced Vash, huh? I don't recall you making much progress, even with all your fancy combat skills.”
“Well, first of all, you interrupted me by shooting him, causing everything to go to hell,” Spike told her, smoothly. “Secondly, I said we should follow him, not engage him openly.”
“What good will that do?” Faye wanted to know.
Spike shrugged, as if to say, “You'll just have to find out, won't you?” Faye looked ready to throttle him when Jet stepped in.
“Alright, then. We'll do it Spike's way, for now.” Faye whirled around, ready to chew him out. “However, if we aren't able to catch the guy after a few weeks have passed, we move on. Agreed?”
After a few minutes of thought, both Spike and Faye nodded.
“Hurray!”
Everyone looked in Ed's direction. She was dancing merrily about with Ein's paws in her hands as she swung him around.
“Ed gets to see Vash-person again! Whee!”
“Maybe.” Spike didn't want to get her hopes up.
A few days later, the Bebop took off after Vash the Stampede, who had left the city only a few days before they did.

Several Weeks Later
Meryl was sitting on a bench in the town Jeneora Rock. She was staying there with her partner Millie. They had first arrived two weeks ago, only to discover that it was a ghost town. The people had locked themselves in their homes, and Vash had been acting strange all day. Then, all of a sudden, he had run off on his own. When they had finally found him again, he was standing on top of the cliff called Jeneora Rock (from which the name of the town had come) next to a tall woman with long brown hair and an eye patch on her right eye that, oddly enough, didn't cover her eye, which was, of all colors, red. She had also had buttons missing from her shirt, causing Meryl to assume that Vash had been harassing her. Naturally, she had taken appropriate measures. Meryl smacked him.
“What are you doing to this poor defenseless woman, you animal?” Meryl had demanded.
“Didn't you see anything that was going on up here at all?” Vash had whined.
Millie had run up to the woman and asked, “Are you alright?”
“Come on! What are you doing?” Vash whined again.
Suddenly, the woman disappeared, leaving no trace of her whereabouts. Later, after the suns had gone down, Meryl thought she heard the sound of a saxophone playing. For some reason, Vash had reacted quite strongly to it. He had stood up and stared at another cliff. When Meryl had looked, nothing was there.
“What was that?” she had asked Vash.
“It's time to decide!” His voice was hard. “I'm sorry, but this is as far as we can travel together.”
“But why?” Meryl didn't understand why he was saying that.
“Because, it's become too dangerous.”
“I'm afraid I have no choice. We have a job to do!”
“It's your job or your life!” Vash's voice left no room for discussion. “Which one is more important to you?”
When Meryl tried to ask him what was the matter, he merely said, “I can't explain now. If I did, I'd be putting you in danger. So it's been a lot of fun but, well, I guess that's all!” He began to walk away. When Meryl tried to follow, he had shouted, “STAY BACK!”
That had been two weeks ago.
“Meryl,” Millie began, “I'm getting worried. It's been two whole weeks now. How do you think Mr. Vash is doing?”
“You know him! He's probably goofing off in some town somewhere. I'm sure he's just fine and dandy,” Meryl huffed.
However, Meryl was beginning to worry about Vash. She couldn't help it. She cared about him. As much as she hated to admit it, Vash had come to mean a lot to her. Meryl knew she would have to decide. Would she follow him or not? She sat there for several minutes, unsure what to do.
“Hey, you know the guy in the white coat who caused the saloon riot the other day,” she heard one man ask another.
“Yeah?” said the other.
“Well, turns out he's one of Vash's gang.”
“Oh yeah? That explains why his methods were so darn vicious!”
“Yeah, he's a devil in a red coat!”
“Man, I wish he'd just drop dead!”
Meryl could stand it anymore. She stood up. “How can you just stand there and say all those awful things about him? I mean, you have no idea what kind of person he is. I think you're disgusting!”
“Huh?” Both men just stared at her.
“Gee, Meryl,” Millie said.
Suddenly, Meryl realized what she had said. She laughed nervously as she walked away. Millie followed her. Meryl was decided. She knew what she had to do.
“Millie, it's time to go. We've got a lot of ground to cover. If necessary we'll follow him to the ends of theearth.It's not just our job now. It's become our mission to track him down."
So, the two of them set off to find Vash the Stampede.

Spike was not in the best of moods. He, Faye, and Jet had been following Vash the Stampede for several weeks now. They still hadn't caught up with him! It wouldn't be long before they would have to give up the chase. The closest they had gotten to Vash was the incident at Jeneora Rock. However, Vash had managed to elude them once again, intentionally or not. Spike had become frustrated so he went out on his own to a saloon in the middle of nowhere.
Spike was already in a bad mood when he arrived, but somehow, he had gotten sucked into a game of chess with a man who had black hair and blue eyes, dressed in a black outfit similar to his own. The man said he was a traveling priest (hence the giant cross he carried on his back), but it soon became clear that he wasn't an ordinary one. For one thing, he didn't act like a priest, especially with his cussing, his outfit, his womanizing, the smoking, and that big cross, which must have weighed a ton. According to the priest, it was heavy because it was “so full of mercy”, but Spike didn't believe that for a minute.
“Nicholas D. Wolfwood,” the priest had introduced himself, shaking hands very hard with Spike, “at your service.”
However, Spike's mood began to improve as Wolfwood began to lose the game. At one point, he said, in a very mournful voice, “Oh, my. I'm about to go down in flames.”
Not long after, a man came barging into the saloon, saying, “It's Vash the Stampede! He's here!”
Spike's attention immediately focused on the man who had just come in. He barely noticed that Wolfwood was doing much the same.
“It's true! That crazy bastard is going to do to Augusta what he did to July!”
July? The town that was destroyed 23 years ago?
Spike stood up, and walked over to the man and asked, “Where is Augusta?”
The man looked at him, nonplussed. “It's about 65 iles from here. Why do you ask?”
Spike simply smiled. He walked back to the table where Wolfwood was sitting. Spike noticed that, although he seemed calm and cheerful, there was a serious cast to his eyes that changed his entire demeanor. Yet, he smiled when Spike returned.
“Something wrong?”
“No,” Spike told him, smiling. “I just realized that I have something I need to take care of. Sorry, but I have to cut our game short.”
“Don't worry about it.” Wolfwood didn't sound too disappointed. “I also have something to take care of. May you go with the protection and love of Almighty God.”
“Thanks.” Spike's mouth twisted into a wry smile. “I'm gonna need it.”
Spike left the saloon. As he did so, he contacted the Bebop to tell Jet and Faye what he had learned and to get the coordinates to Augusta. Once he had them, Spike knew he would finally track down Vash the Stampede. Once and for all.

Yay! Chapter 6 is over. Now I can move on to more important things, like Chapter 7! Whoo-hoo!
Yes, I finally got Wolfwood in there! I had someone tell me they were sad that Wolfwood wasn't in this story even though Legato and Monev the Gale were. Well, be sad no longer! Wolfwood is going to become much more involved in the plot as the story moves along.
As always, please review! I like constructive criticism because it helps me as a writer, and I can deal with flames. Thanks!
Love and Peace!