Chapter Text
You couldn’t tell if the scream of agony was coming from you or someone – something – else. Everything was just screams and blood until… blank. A voice talked, loud and panicked.
« Sister- ! »
...
Laying in the sand, you opened your eyes and immediately winced. Damn, your head was hurting like a bitch.
The gang was only supposed to steal a Plant from a convoy and run away with it, it wasn’t supposed to turn into such a fight, it wasn’t supposed to end with death and chaos and…
You pushed on your legs to get up, wanting to get away from the bullets flying past and the fire burning your skin and eyes but your knees buckled under you after one poor step and you could only fall heavily on the burning sand. Just in front of you, the Plant, or what was left of her... The tank was broken, the fluid it was holding was flowing all around, immediately drunk by the thirsty desert’s ground, and heavy pieces of glass were spread a bit everywhere. The Plant herself was unfurled and gasping for air, the look in her eyes one of despair. You could have seen her long and slim fingers extend towards you if you weren’t entirely absorbed by your reflection on what was left of the tank.
A fragment of glass was deeply sunken into your chest, covered by some flaccid material that looked strangely like Plant flesh. You raised a shaky hand to the wound from which blood was flowing freely and gasped, the pain just now registering.
« Sister ! »
You heard again from far far away, before slowly looking up, and catching eyes with the Plant. You managed a choked noise before losing consciousness.
…
You woke up with a start, eyes shooting open, and quickly turned your head to the side to escape the bright white medical lights.
“Ngh-”
Trying to move was useless struggling, as your arms and legs were tightly fastened against the cold metallic table you were stuck on. Panic started to rise as you were getting accustomed to the brightness. The place you were in was plain white, except for blood stains covering all sorts of surfaces. Someone dressed as a doctor was moving around with long pliers, in the process of cleaning them off. He was old and all wrinkled, bald too.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
The man spoke. You frowned as a deep pain came from your chest and you looked down, eyes going wide at the sight. Your skin was raw there, missing chunks of muscle and flesh here and there, moving at the rhythm of your labored breathing, and in the middle, wires and a weird looking gem fused into your apparent sternum bone.
“Wha-” A cough. Your throat was like sandpaper, dry and hurting.
“I’m Doctor Conrad.” he started, completely going past your poor attempt to talk and confusion. “I’m the one who healed you.”
Healed ? Damn you weren’t feeling healed at all.
Conrad started pacing around anew, resuming tidying the place.
“But it’s Master Knives who saved you. You should be grateful for his mercy.”
“What the hell did you do to me-”
Struggling was useless, the bonds were too strong.
“Don't fight, you'll hurt yourself more.” The old man stopped right next to you, watching you and you realized he had some sort of pride in his eyes, and it made your blood freeze. “Rejoice. You had no home or family to return to, but now, you have a purpose !”
Only then did you notice the syringe in his hand as he brought it close to his face to examine the reaction of the suspicious blue liquid inside as he taped his nail against the glass.
“Wait- !”
He wasn't listening, wasn’t even bothered by the panic in your voice.
“What- please wait- !”
The tip of the needle pressed against the skin of your neck, the soft tissue bending under the tension before breaking, letting the metal find its place into your jugular vein.
The doctor pushed the liquid out of the syringe.
And it burnt.
Oh god it burnt so bad.
Your body trashed against the bonds again, desperately trying to escape the pain that was spreading through. Your vision blurred, showing strange shapes and colors that made your head turn, made you want to throw up, made you want to scream but nothing came out of your mouth.
…
The sounds of your alarm woke you up and you stayed fixedly looking at the ceiling while it continued ringing. This nightmare, again… It was getting too recurrent to your taste. It looked like the more you tried to forget this part of your life, the more your subconscious decided to make you remember.
You sighed while getting up, punching the alarm off before getting rid of your sweat drenched shirt and throwing it somewhere to the side and heading to the shower.
The cold water on your face was helping cleanse your mind and relax. Today was not the day to get distracted by unwanted thoughts.
Today was the day you will finally replenish your wallet by catching Vash the Stampede !
You were ruffling the towel into your hair to dry them as you catched a glimpse of you in the bathroom’s mirror, stopping what you were doing to fold and put the towel aside.
You turned and crane your neck to look at your full body’s reflection, full of scars, results of the experiments that got forced onto you. Though the scars didn't bother you that much. It was the metal excrescence that was the worst, its placement on your lower back making it look like a tail. A deadly, sharp tail, that made you think a bit too much of someone you hated.
Knives.
You sighed and shaked your head to get all the negative thoughts out. It was pointless to spiral about that now. Getting dressed was way more useful.
In a minute, you were ready, dressed to fight the desert. You tucked your tail around your waist as if it was a belt, put your boots on, strapped your weapons - short sword and handgun - on and adjusted your cape on your shoulders.
Grabbing your bag on your way out, you waved the innkeeper adieu before passing the door. A car was waiting for you in the parking lot and you tossed your stuff on the passenger seat before jumping behind the wheel.
It was still early in the morning, the suns just barely peeking at the horizon. Perfect time to start a chase.
...
Soon enough, the engine was roaring under the desert’s heat, straining to keep up with the effort you were asking it to.
“Damn it and fuck you !”
Everything turned into pure chaos too fast.
Hours before, you managed to find the man as he was just getting out of one of the local shops, but just as you were about to go for him, something exploded higher in the street and cars drove through the dust all speed to end their race skidding in front of the Humanoid Typhoon. A high pitched, annoyingly saturated voice came out screaming from the truck’s roughly installed speaker on its roof.
“WE FINALLY FOUND YOU, VASH THE STAMPEDE”
You couldn't believe your eyes when the man in the red coat, the man known for slaughtering the innocent, doing the most evil of evil deeds, with a price 6 billion double dollars on his head, purely and simply… ran away.
The engines roared to life all at once. Yours too. You will never let some feeble bandits get your target.
And thus the chase started.
You don't know how and when but at some point Vash managed to obtain a Thomas and flee out of the city on its back, followed by all the bandit’s cars, and yours.
He didn't steal his reputation, dodging the cars while protecting himself and his ride from the bullets, even managing to stop a few of the bandit’s cars by firing incredibly precise bullets into their tires and engine, leaving them unable to go further and boiling with rage, but alive.
You uncapacitated a few of their cars yourself, slaloming skillfully between the vehicles and forcing them to stop by pushing them against nearby rock formations, a slight “oops” escaping you when one of them caught fire. You had finished moving up the peloton and two cars still remained, quickly closing the distance with Vash. The first one, you had to dodge as they suddenly brake in front of you, and you only had your reflexes to thank for the quick minded turn of the wheel you did, which they didn’t except apparently because they lost control and ended up on the roof.
The last car was just next to Vash’s Thomas, the passenger’s hand was extended out of his window, so close to grab the Typhoon’s big ass coat.
You swore.
He was your target.
You crushed the accelerator, getting to their level, and aimed your gun out of the window. Your shot was precise, going to lodge directly into the base of the conductor’s wheel, who immediately lost control of the vehicle. It was you next to Vash now.
“Ahh thanks for your help ! I don’t know what would have happened without you-”
He was scratching the back of his head, laughing with an stupid expression on his expensive face. You cringed a little.
“Shut up, I didn't do that to help you ! Now stop that bird. Don’t make me drill a hole into your skull.”
For a second, you swore that he looked disappointed and saddened by your words. And then it was gone.
“Sorry, can't do that.” he shrugged, instructing his bird to take a sharp turn.
“Oh fuck- !” you yelped. This bastard managed to distract you long enough that you missed the rocks that were in front of you. The car jerked violently while rolling over the uneven ground, giving you a hard time keeping control of the vehicle, and the engine went to a stop as soon the rocks were behind you…
You fucking swore.
-
“When are you even giving up ?!” the man whined when he saw your vehicle back behind him, closing the distance.
A few kicks into the cabin and several turns of the key later, your car had buzzed to life again, giving you the opportunity to resume the chase. Of course you had some catching up to do so you pushed your vehicle to full speed.
The distance between you two was closing.
Still a bit more and the 6 billion double dollars will be yours.
Then an abrupt stop.
Going from 100 to 0 in a second when you drove right into a well hidden quicksand pit. The shock was rough, and even though the belt probably saved your life, your head still hit the wheel with force.
Further ahead, Vash looked behind him, finding the sudden absence of the car engine’s noise suspicious, and his eyes widened immediately.
“No !”
He made the Thomas turn all the way to run towards the quicksand pit.
You hardly opened your eyes, feeling your body hurting and your head heavy. It was harder than usual to breathe too, but you managed to keep a semblance of logical thinking somewhat. The car was sinking by the front, slowly getting engulfed into the sand.
You went to battle against the door handle but the pressure of sand from the outside was too strong to let you open it already.
But the window.
The window was open.
You could fit through.
Sand was starting to get in when you realized you were still fastened by the seat belt. Quickly, you went to pull on it, but it was stuck. Even using all your strength, it won’t budge.
And more sand was coming in now.
You started panicking.
Your gun.
You had to use your gun.
You managed to get it out of its holster, aimed it at the base of the seat belt, and closed your eyes when you pulled on the trigger. Once. Twice. More. But it didn’t shoot, only giving the sound of a jammed weapon instead. This time you fucking yelled.
“FUCK”
A figure in red appeared at the window.
Vash had left the bird on the edge of the quicksand, tying the end of a rough rope to its saddle while the other was around his waist. He jumped, and even in your slowed state of mind you realized it was a bad idea.
The man was holding onto your car as best as he could, trying not to sink too much.
“Don’t move !”
He said as he aimed his own gun to your belt, and shot. The thing broke and you were free - kinda. The Stampede grabbed your forearm, and you grabbed back as he struggled to pull you out of the sand infested car, through the window.
“Hold tight-” he groaned.
The man hurled you against his chest, holding your waist tightly. On the side, the bird panicked as the rope attached to it was menacing to pull it into the pit and he started running away - as much as he could with the weight of two people half stuck into the sand attached to it. Vash used this to help him bring you both out of the quicksand, literally throwing you out of the pit when he was close enough, just as your car was swallowed whole.
Face against the sand, you coughed, just registering the grunting behind you of Vash fighting to get out of the deadly trap. You got up, stumbling just slightly. The Typhoon was on all fours, panting for air - and rope still attached to his waist.
It was the perfect opportunity to finally get him.
He yelped as you kicked his hands, making him fall face first, and tied both of them behind his back, the act a mechanical habit you didn't even have to think about.
“Get up.” you ordered, sounding strangely out of breath.
The man only groaned, taking his time to straighten up on his knees.
“I’ll be able to eat real meat for a while with how much you're worth, Stampede.”
“Don’t call me that-” he grumbled before you gave a good pull on the rope, making him almost stumble forward.
“Come on, get up I said.”
He did so reluctantly.
You looked around. Where was… where was the nearest city again ? This brain fog was starting to get really annoying.
“Okay” you turned around, determined to move, but your head started spinning.
Vash, who was waiting patiently until now, must have seen your confusion because he silently stepped closer, hesitant.
“... Are you okay ?” he whispered.
You looked at him, and maybe it was that you took too long to answer or something on your face, but his expression now showed worry.
“Maybe you should sit for a moment.”
You scoffed.
“So that you can leave ? Nah, no way. I’m not risking throwing all these efforts.”
Vash stayed silent, still wearing this same expression.
A bit of swaying in your steps won’t stop you from securing 6 billion double dollars. The way to go was chosen and you started walking, the man following you at rope-distance.
The more time passed, the more you thought that maybe that chase took more of a toll on you than what you were thinking. Why was breathing so hard too ? Like however deep the breath you took was, it wasn’t bringing any oxygen into your tired body.
The amazing thing about adrenaline was that it would allow you to keep going despite everything that could come your way. The other thing was that it wasn’t made to keep you going forever.
And so the more time passed, the more you slowed down, until Vash couldn’t continue walking behind you without having to stop sometimes.
“You sure you don’t want to take a break… ?”
“I’m not…” you turned to Vash, completely out of breath, and at this exact moment your conscience slipped out of your grasp. Your eyes rolled in your head and your knees gave away, but the thud of your body colliding with the sand never came.
“Hey ! Hey, answer me !” Vash, who has somehow managed to free himself, catched you during your fall, guiding both of you gently to the ground where he held your limp body in his arms. He felt so warm, and looked so worried too…
“Hold on…” were the last words you understood before anything became nothing else than mumbling to your ears.