Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Under the Five Moons ❯ The Lasuken Massacre ( Chapter 13 )

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Trigun

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From: Supervising Field Officers Meryl Strife and Millie Thompson

To: Bernardelli Head Office, 48 Earp Street, December City, New Arizona

Dear sirs, we must regretfully request an indefinite amount of time off. As you know, both of our children left us five years ago, and the father of my child disappeared six years earlier. While investigating the claims related to the acts of one Clarissa "Calamity" Shriver, we found information that might lead us to not only our children, but the father as well.

As such, we request time off to follow up on these rumors and clear this matter up. I apologize, but we cannot give you an exact time period for our return, but rest assured that we will.

Sincerely,

Supervising Field Officer Meryl Strife

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From: Bernardelli Head Office, 48 Earp Street, December City, New Arizona

To: Supervising Field Officers Meryl Strife and Millie Thompson

Approved. Good luck, both of you.

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From: General Phillip Braxler

To: Major Grinder

Of course you can let them go. It's been two months since Jenora Rock was destroyed, I don't think we need complicate their lives any further.

Although, I must admit that I do not believe that they're telling us all they know. Not that I'd blame them, if I knew anything relating to something that horrific I'd want to keep it a secret too.

Send a Cavalryman with her and her family when they leave, an officer for preference. Tell him to keep his eye on her. I don't seriously believe that she caused it, or that she's really a threat to anyone, but who trusts anybody these days?

Your good friend,

General Phillip Braxler

P.S. Tell my son he needs a haircut.

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Nikki, Meryl, and Millie rode through the desert on the thomases the Cavalry had leant them. They were heading to Lasuken, the last known whereabouts of Calamity Shriver. Lasuken was a small town out on the outskirts of the Aporta province. During the Neon wars twelve years ago, it had maintained neutrality and served as a place for refugees.

Meryl turned her head slightly and whispered, "Is he still behind us?"

Nikki shrugged and inclined her head towards Millie. "I can't tell, is he still there Aunt Millie?"

Millie rotated around in her saddled and peered behind them. About 100 yarz back, a Cavalry officer was following them on a Thomas of his own. Millie waved and the officer took off his hat and waved back. The sunlight glinted off of his blue reflective sunglasses.

Nikki slapped her forehead. "Way to be subtle Aunt Millie."

Meryl thwacked her in the back of the head. "Don't be a smart-ass with Millie."

"Ow! What? You're like that with her all the time!"

"Yes, but I've known her since before you were born, so it's different when I do it."

"Freaking hell it's different. I'm twenty-one years old now, it's not like I'm the kid you cradled in your arms once. Jeeze," Nikki grumbled under her breath. Her mother glared at her but said nothing.

"Well, ain't this the happy family," Evans said as he rode up beside them. He grinned and tipped his hat.

"And how long do you intend to follow us, if I may ask?" Nikki said.

Evans shrugged. "I dunno, it's a nice day, the suns are shining, the weather is pretty good, and the company is pleasant. I just might ride with you guys for the rest of the day." He pulled out his cigar case.

"No, don't tell me you're smoking," Nikki said, pointing a finger at him.

Evans chuckled as he lit his cigar. "I'm addicted, sorry."

"How can you be addicted to cigars? You don't inhale them!"

"I dunno, I just am. I think it has something to do with my father. He smokes cigars a lot too."

Meryl and Millie watched the arguing pair with detached interest. "We should let the Lieutenant come along, it'd be entertaining at least."

Millie nodded, a pensive look on her face.

Meryl noticed her friend's thoughtfulness and asked, "What is it Millie?"

Millie shook her head slowly. "It's nothing Sempai. Just a case of deja roo."

"Deja roo?"

"Yeah, you know. The feeling that you're experiencing something that's happened before?"

Meryl sighed. Forty-four years old and Millie still acted like a seven year old sometimes. "That's déjà vu, Millie. Déjà vu."

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Lasuken, the largest town in the province of Aporta, is nestled between several hills. It is on these hills that the local wise men lead the dances to the spirits, the spirits of the animals, the plants, and the spirit of the very desert itself. There is, however, one dune that they would never dance on. It's the largest one, overlooking the western side of the town. They do not dance there anymore, they only sing. They sing a lament every year, on this dune. And every year, on the day the entire province of Aporta comes to sing a lament, two companies of Cavalry come, and hold a funeral service.

Now a lone Cavalryman rode in to Lasuken, his head bowed. Nikki noticed that he had his hat lowered, but more than that, that he had stubbed out his cigar but not lighten a new one.

"I don't think I've ever seen you go this long without smoking," she said.

Evans half-smirked and kept riding.

The hotel was located halfway between the center of town and the largest hill. Meryl pushed open the swinging doors, Millie and Nikki right behind her. Evans stayed outside to stable their thomases.

The lobby was sparsely decorated with pictures of the days of the towns founding. People cannibalizing parts of the fallen ships to build. The days while the survivors of the Great Fall still searched for each other.

Millie and Nikki inspected the pictures while Meryl approached the front desk. The man could not have been less interested in his job. He had his feet up on the desk and his face stuck in a book. Meryl rang the bell but whatever the book was about, it was far too interesting to be interrupted by something as petty as a customer.

"Ahem!"

The man started tapping his feet. Meryl looked around and noticed that the clerk had a pair of headphones on. Meryl frowned. She didn't have time for this. She reached into her coat and pulled out a double derringer.

BLAM!

Nikki whirled around, her Long Colts clearing the holsters before Millie could bring the stun gun from underneath her duster. She saw her mother pointing a smoking derringer over the head of a very alert, and very frightened, clerk. Nikki holstered her guns and stared at Meryl.

"Wasn't that, a little over the top mom?"

Meryl shook her head. "Sometimes you have to be over the top to get people's attention."

"Well, now that we've got his attention, we can get a room right?" Millie asked.

Before Meryl could answer, she was preempted by the sound of a thousand guns being cocked at once, then nervous laughter.

Nikki pointed at the clerk, "Hold that thought, we'll be right with you." The three women rushed out of the inn.

It seemed like the entire town had heard the shot, and they had all come. With guns. Pointed at Evans, who had his back against the wall.

"Look, it wasn't me. I do have a gun, but it's holstered. I can't even shoot it! Really, I'm the worst shot on the planet! If I wanted to shoot you the safest place would be right in front of me!" One of the townspeople stuck his gun a little closer to Evans face. "That's IF I wanted to shoot you! It's a hypothetical!"

The townspeople said nothing, they just stood silently, their guns trained on Evans head. In the shadow of the largest dune, they barely seemed human to Nikki's eyes. But if not human, what were they?

"Look, I understand that you're still angry about it, but it was twelve years ago! I was eleven!"

Meryl frowned. She looked at the still-smoking derringer in her hand and pointed it above the crowd.

BLAM!

"Good, now that I've got everyone's attention, I'd like to point out that you're all acting like a bunch of idiots! You're holding him responsible for something a man who wore the same uniform did twelve years ago! In case you haven't gotten it, he was eleven. My daughter was only nine at the end of the Neon wars!"

The mob slowly turned to her. "His father caught him! The man who did this to you! It was his father who brought him to justice!" Meryl shouted.

Millie leaned towards Meryl. "He's that Braxler?"

Meryl nodded. "I asked around at the Cavalry camp. He's General Phillip Braxler's son alright."

Nikki stepped forward. "Shoot him, and you're no better then Finch was."

The townspeople turned to her. The suns, shining over the largest dune, hit her eyes. She squinted, the townspeople looked even less human now, almost eyeless. She reached into her sleeve pocket and pulled out her sunglasses. As she pulled the purple lenses over her eyes, the light from the dune was dimmed and the people started to look human again. At the same time, the townspeople lowered their weapons and walked away.

Meryl and Millie went back into the inn. Nikki walked over and stood next to Evans, who slid down the wall into a sitting position. Nikki swung her guitar around to the front and sat down against the wall beside him.

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Meryl found that it was much easier to get the clerk's attention this time.

"I need two rooms please. I don't care where they are, nor do I really care about meal service."

The man nodded. "One hundred twenty double-dollars Ms."

"It's miss, and here," Meryl said, pulling some crumpled bills from her pocket.

The clerk looked at the small pile of money on the desk and shook his head. "That's a hundred twenty per room, miss."

"What?!"

The man held out his hands. "Not my fault miss. We don't have inside rooms, just the cabins outside. Bandits run through her every night. If you don't buy the protection, that's it for you. You're paying for your own lives."

"Why not just call out the Cavalry? You can't live in the past forever!" Millie said. "Well, at least that's what my family always says."

The clerk's face grew dark. "No, no Cavalry. Never the Cavalry. Only your friend because he's Braxler's kid."

"We'll go without the protection then," Meryl said.

The clerk shrugged and swept the money into a drawer. "Your funeral," he muttered.

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Nikki pulled out a pick and strummed the guitar. She nodded towards the largest dune. "So that's where it happened?"

"Yep. That's where, at the end of the Neon wars, Captain Finch decided he didn't like the Aportans taking in refugees from both sides. Or the Aportans' religion for that matter." He took a cigar out of his case, then reached for his boot knife. He deftly cut the tip off, then brought out his lighter. "Sorry, I know you hate it, but I'm still kinda shaken."

Nikki shrugged. She was just amazed that he had apologized. She started to pluck out a tune. "So, you're General Braxler's kid? What's that like?"

Evans blew out a plume of smoke. "You should know that. You're father's a bigger legend then mine."

"Since when do you believe me?"

"Since I saw Jenora go up in smoke."

Nikki didn't answer that. It had become something of a taboo subject between the two of them. [Come to think of it, there's a lot of taboo subjects between us. We've known each other for what, two months? What happened on the hill. . .why he's following us. . .my hair.]

That was a big taboo subject. Evans hadn't commented on it at all. After Legato had forced her to destroy the city, her hair had gone from blonde to black. When she woke up a week later, it had changed again. Now it was some sort of weave, with blonde and black streaks shooting through alternatively. Nobody talked about it. Nikki didn't want to explain it, because explaining it would mean explaining what she was.

[A freak

[Well, I'm hardly the only one hiding something.] Nikki thought as she glanced over at Evan's wraparound sunglasses. [What are you hiding, Lieutenant?]

"The hill is beautiful isn't it? The dark dune I mean." A middle-aged man came up. His dark hair fell down to his shoulders, brushing his only slightly lighter skin. He looked towards Evans. "Can I have on of those buddy?"

"Sure, I'm just glad you aren't pointing a gun at me." He pulled out his case and tossed it to the man.

The man caught the case and chuckled. He selected a cigar and pulled out a knife of his own. Unlike Evans' standard issue piece of scrap metal, this knife had a carefully carved, wooden, handle. He swiftly clipped the tip, then held the cigar out to Evans' lighter. "Don't worry about them. They can see past their first glance at the hill. Or rather, their second glance."

He took a puff on the cigar and pointed it at the hill. "What do you see when you first look at the hill? Your perceptions unclouded by the ghosts of the past? I see a beautiful dune, framed by the setting suns. Yet, at second glance, everyone remembers the terrible history of that dune. Then, they no longer see the beautiful hill. They just see the slaughter. Yet, I think the truth is beyond the slaughter. The hill, that we saw with first glance." He chuckled and pointed the cigar at Evans. "You would do well to remember that, young Cavalryman. At least, that's what this old man thinks."

Evans nodded. "Could I see that knife of yours gramps? Blades are kinda a hobby of mine."

The man took the knife from his belt and hurled it at Evans point first. Evans didn't even blink, or at least didn't even appear to blink. His hand shot up and he caught the knife between his fingers.

The old man raised his eyebrows and puffed on the cigar. "Now, if you don't mind miss." He turned to Nikki and squatted down in front of her. "I always like to see past the second glance with people.

Nikki raised her head and continued playing her guitar. The man took her chin in his hand and stared into her eyes. Nikki shifter her hands and started playing a different tune, never shying away from the man's gaze.

The man chuckled and stood up. "Fiesty one. I haven't had anyone stare back at me like that since. . . oh since little Blayne Bluesummers was here."

Nikki stopped playing and looked up at the man. "Bluesummers?"

The man nodded sadly. "A cursed line, that one. She was always a quiet child, never really liked socializing with other humans. Spent most of her time with the wolves that ran in the canyon over yonder. Then, well, then the Neon Wars came."

Evans looked up from the knife. "She was there? At the hill?"

"Yep. Saddest thing. She watched Captain Finch do his work on her parents. After Finch was brought in, little Blayne disappeared. 'Bout a week later, the wolves left the canyons." He puffed on the cigar, dropped it on the sand, and crushed it under his shoe. "But you stare back like she does. I can't quite look beyond the second glance, because you won't let me." He turned to her. "I suggest you find for yourself what's beyond the second glance, before you start believing the second glance."

The man reached down towards Evans. "If I may have my knife back?"

Evans tossed it to the man, who caught it with ease. "That handle must've been expensive. What kind of wood is it?"

"Cypress," the man said. He turned down the street and walked off towards the hill. The wind kicked up, blowing sand across the street. When the sand cleared, the man was gone.

"How mysterious," Nikki said.

"And in a way, cliché."

Nikki stood up and swung the guitar around to her back. "It's getting pretty dark, we should go in."

Evans nodded and levered himself up as Nikki reached for the doorknob. She frowned and jiggled it for a few seconds. "Is there any reason that this door should be locked?"

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Meryl and Millie were sitting on the couch in the inn/lobby waiting for Evans and Nikki to come in when they heard a clicking noise. They looked up to see the desk clerk locking the door.

"What are you doing?" Meryl asked.

"Sorry miss, but the bandits will be coming any minute. I gotta lock the door."

Meryl's eyes narrowed. "My daughter's still out there."

The clerk shrugged. "Be that as it may, the bandits are coming any minute, and I'm not about to open the door."

Millie brought out her stun gun. "That's okay."

The clerk looked at her wide-eyed. "It is?"

Millie nodded. "We don't have to go through the door."

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Evans grabbed the doorknob and heaved backwards. "Damn, sturdy, craftsmanship! Why can't they make it crappy and weak, like in the city?"

A stun bolt came flying through the window, shattering the glass in a halo. Millie poked her head out. "C'mon you two, get in here, bandits are coming!"

Evans let go of the door handle and pulled out a cigar. He clipped it with his boot knife. "Bandits?" he asked, lighting his cigar.

Nikki lowered her head. "You don't have to get involved Evans."

"I know."

"They don't want your help."

"I know."

Nikki smiled. "Good answer."

Millie turned around. "They're not coming Sempai!"

"Did you expect them to?" Meryl shouted back. A chair came crashing through the other window. Evans picked it up and tossed it back in.

"Gonna snipe from inside the building?"

Meryl picked the chair up from the floor and placed it in front of the window. "There it is, that amazing Cavalry tactical mentality at work."

"Vash the Stampede, not a very ironic, sarcastic person, is he?"

Meryl's eyes widened. "No he's not, how did you know that?"

"Well, Nikki obviously picked that trait up from you. I figured no other bitingly sarcastic person could put up with it."

SMACK!

SMACK!

"Owwww."

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When the bandits rode through the town, they weren't really expecting to do anything. The town had learned the hard way that not paying up ahead of time resulted in a drastic and sudden loss of blood.

One of the bandits in the back of the truck turned to his friend. "Does anyone besides me hear a guitar?"

His friend raised his head. "Yeah, I hear it too."

"Whoever it is, they're good."

One of the bandits twisted around and saw Nikki leaning against a building playing her guitar. The bandit smiled. "I got this one." He vaulted over the side of the truck and approached Nikki.

"Nice playing, little miss."

Nikki smiled. "Why thank you. I try."

The bandit smiled back. "Well, it's very good. It's a shame, but I've got to ask ya for all your money. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to kill ya, and I wouldn't want to do that."

Nikki stopped playing and stared at the man, dumb-struck. "You'd kill me? How, like with that gun?" She asked, pointing to the automatic on the man's hip.

The other men in the truck turned around, pulling their guns. "Yeah, exactly like that."

"How awful!" Nikki said. Her hand shot out and snatched the automatic from the bandit's holster. She quickly discharged all seven shots, aiming for the bandits' drawn guns. When the clip ran out she clouted the bandit over the head and dropped the automatic.

The other bandits stared at the girl in shock. What the hell was going on? Nikki chuckled and swung the guitar around to her back. "You boys look like you haven't haven't been fired on in a while now." Her hands darted inside her jacket and came out with the red and green Long Colts.

"Quick, start the car! We gotta find the boss!"

The driver fumbled with the key, his hands shaking under the black and blonde haired girl's gaze. When he found the key and looked up, and even greater surprise met him.

"The Cavalry, here?"

Evans stood down the street, framed by the shadowy outline of the dune. His sunglasses reflected the truck's headlights, making his eyes appear to glow. He slowly reached for his sword hilt, then drew it like a typhoon, cutting across the open air. The shockwave blasted down the street, rocking the truck back in front of the inn.

KA-CHUNK!

KA-CHUNK!

Two stun bolts flew from the broken window, slamming into the side of the truck. The force of the impact pushed the truck up onto two wheels, but for a second it looked like it might right itself.

KA-CHUNK!

Another stun bolt came flying from the window and hit the truck. The bandits went flying as the truck slowly tipped over. Face down in the dirt, they looked up into the barrels of Nikki's Long Colts. She grinned. "Hiya."

Evans sheathed his sword and pulled out a cigar. He retrieved his boot knife and cut off the tip.

BLAM!

The bullet hit Evans' knife, shattering it all over the street. Evans' grimaced. "Stupid government issue piece of shit." He lit his cigar and looked up towards Nikki. "There's more of 'em."

"Oh good, this was too easy to be any fun." She opened her Long Colts, revealing them to be completely empty. Her hands darted back to the guitar and came back with fully loaded guns. She turned towards Evans. "They're right behind you, you know that?"

Evans nodded. "You're covering me. There's some coming up on your left, you know that?"

"My mom's covering me."

"You have no idea how weird that sounds."

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There was little reward, little fanfare. There were free rooms, replacement ammo, and offers of discount traveling food. Which they gratefully took, not wanting to risk Evans' travel cooking. That was it. No thank yous, just a silent reward. Nikki and Meryl complained and grumbled, while Millie watched Evans stand silently in the corner. "People don't change easily, Lieutenant,"

Evans looked up. "I know, Miss Thompson."

"Quick calling me that! You're making me feel like an old mother. Then again, I am sort of an old mother. Isn't that weird?"

Evans smiled. "Yes, it is Miss Thompson." He pulled out a cigar and reached for his boot knife. He pulled it out in one smooth gesture, then did a double take. "Wait a minute, didn't, didn't I lose mine?"

Millie took from the startled Evans and turned it over in the light. "This is nice, Lieutenant. Where did you get it?"

"It, it looks like the one that man had yesterday."

"Really? Did he have long dark hair? About my age?"

Evans nodded, confused. "Do you know him?"

"No, but I saw him up on the dune yesterday. You know, the big one. What kind of wood do you think this is?"

"Cypress."

"Really? I don't think you can grow cypress on this planet. Hey Meryl!"

Meryl turned from haggling with the general store manager. "What is it Millie?"

"Can you grow cypress on this planet?"

Meryl put her hands on her hips. "Millie, cypress is a tree from back on Old Earth. It grows in water, this planet is covered in desert. Not even a Geoplant could make a cypress grow here."

"Then where did that man get it I wonder?"

Evans chuckled. "We may never know, Miss Thompson. We may never know."

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Wolfwood: Two men stand in the dusty street. They stand there, loading their guns and staring at the clock. Soon, high noon will come for these two men, but my greatest fear is that all of Gunsmoke, the men, the women, the soldiers, the outlaws, the old and the young, will all be caught in the crossfire. Next chapter: Crossfire