Chapter Text

Little Plant

Chapter 1

It all started like any other day. The team was driving around the desert, towards their next destination. The car was pretty silent, with Vash and Wolfwood both asleep in the back. Roberto was messing with the radio, but there wasn't much on, other than statics. With a sigh he turned the radio off and took a drink of his flask.

"Are you sure this is the right way, Newbie?" Meryl sighs and glares at him. "Yes it is! Stop asking that!" Roberto groans and slips down his seat, trying to get away from her anger. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever". Meryl looks in the mirror, looking at Vash worriedly. "Do you think Vash is okay? He's been awfully quiet since that plant accident..."

Roberto shrugs. "The guy is a mystery to me. Who knows what's going on in his head. But he's tough, i'm sure he'll be okay..." Meryl nods slowly, not convinced. She had a bad feeling about all this.

Yesterday

Meryl drags herself towards the entrance of the city, before collapsing. They finally reached a town after days of walking! All because she forgot to recharge the car's battery, again. She slowly stand up and looks back to the others, how come she's the only one who seemed affected by their travel?!

Vash smiles and looks around at all the people smiling and laughing around them. He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice the others leaving, until Wolfwood took his arm to drag him.

"What are you thinking about, Needle-Noggin?" Vash chuckles. "Nothing, it's just that people seems so happy in this town! It's been a while..." The last town he went to ended up in flames and blood, the surviving people cursing him and throwing him out of town, even though he was only trying to protect them. It's not their fault though! They were in so much pain, they needed something to take their anger off, and he was the first one on their minds.

They walk into a bar, Meryl was already drinking water at the counter, while Roberto stared at his own glass, like it was going to change into alcohol if he concentrated enough. Wolfwood sits at the counter, and Vash settles beside him. The bartender stares at them and huffs before giving them a glass of water.

"Thanks!" Vash smiles at the bartender, earning him an eye-roll before he got back to work, not wanting to spend too much time near them. That's weird, all the people in town seems happy, but the people in this place all seems to be glaring at them.
Vash looks around nervously and waves at a little girl with a grin, but the little girl gasp and runs behind her mother who glares daggers at him, making him look away sadly. It seems like he wasn't welcome in this town either.

A man suddenly stands up and walks to them. "What are you doing here?!" Meryl gasps and hides behind Roberto. "...drinking?" Roberto stares at the guy with an eyebrow raised, showing him his glass of water. The man growls and glares at them. "Strangers like you aren't welcomed here! We barely have any ressources to survive, we don't need strangers taking what we have left!"

Wolfwood looks at him curiously. "What do you mean? This town seems to be doing fine, from what we saw." The bartender sighs. "They just don't want to admit that there's a problem with the plant..." Vash looks up at the bartender. "Something's wrong with it?"
That's not good, if the plant is in bad shape, his brother is gonna come to this town. The bartender nods. "It was going fine, when all of a sudden it stopped producing as much as it used to. We didn't think much about it, we should've had. One day it stopped producing anything... No one knows why, or even how to repair it..."

Vash frowns and stares at the bartender. "Want me to take a look at it?" The bartender stares at him. "Why? You don't look like an engineer. And why would we trust a stranger with our plant?"

Vash smiles at him. "I know i don't look like it, but i know a lot about plants, i could take a look at it, and see what's wrong with it." The bartender stares at him, thinking, making Vash nervous. "For free of course!"

The bartender sighs. "Fine, follow me..." Vash nods and stand up, the others doing the same. A customer quickly gets in front of them. "You're not really going to let them go near the plant, are you?!" The bartender glares at him. "Do you have any better ideas?!" The customer looks away. "Exactly, so get out of the way." The customer let them pass, but keep glaring at them until he couldn't see them anymore.

They walk for a while and reach a giant building, no doubt this was were the plant is. The bartender puts in the code and the giant door opens, revealing a room with bright white and pink light. Vash walks towards the plant, and stares at it curiously. It was glowing white, instead of the usual blue or red of a dying plant. "Well that's unusual..." He slowly walks closer and puts a hand on the glass. "What's wrong? Come on, talk to me..." He puts his other hand and his forehead on the glass, and closes his eyes.

The bartender stares at him. "What is he doing?" Wolfwood lights up a cigarette and gently pushes the bartender out. "Don't worry, he knows what he's doing. We'll call you when it will be done." The bartender started to fight but after seeing the look on Wolfwood's face, he gave up and walked away.

Bright blue drawings startedd to appear on Vash as the plant slowly puts it's hands and forehead against Vash's. Meryl and Roberto looks at the scene in front of them, still not used to seeing Vash like that.
Vash gasps and steps back. The plant stares back at him, they seemed to be communicating without words. The plant's wings slowly moved and a bright white light appeared from it. Vash quickly turns to the others. "Run! Hurry!" Meryl gasps and was about to question him when Roberto grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the building, Wolfwood behind them.

Vash puts his hands and forehead back on the glass to try and countain the powers to save the town. The bright white light engulfed the whole room, with Vash in it. Meryl gasps and reaches for Vash, trying to break away from Roberto and save that red idiot. "VAAAASSSHHHH!"

The bright white light slowly dissipated, and after a few seconds, everything was back to normal. Meryl break free from the hold and runs back in the building. The plant was back to glowing a healthy blue, and Vash was lying on the floor, next to it. The glowing marks on his body, seemed to be pulsing with white light. Meryl quickly runs to him and holds him carefully in her arms. He was out cold, but he was breathing, that's what mattered.

Roberto and Wolfwood quickly gets to Vash side. "The hell did that idiot do?" Roberto looks at the glowing marks on his face, before looking back at the plant. "Something tells me, that that idiot, took care of the problem, by sacrificing himself..." Wolfwood groans and takes a long drag of his cigarette to calm down. "That idiot..." What is he gonna tell knives if something happened to Vash?

The bartender runs back in the building. "What happened?! What was that bright light?!" Wolfwood quickly takes his vest off and puts it on Vash's face, so the bartender wouldn't see the marks. "The problem has been taken care of, the plant is back to normal!" The bartender looks at the plant and smiles. "Oh God, thank you so much! How can we repay you?" Meryl smiles mischievously. "Well how about a place to stay for the night? Our friend here is pretty tired!"

The bartender nods. "Yes of course, anything you want! Follow me!" Roberto takes Vash in his arms and follows him, the others behind him. The bartender leads them back to his bar and upstairs to a spacious room. "Here you go! You can take another room if you want, but this is the biggest one i've got!" Roberto carefully puts Vash on the bed. "That's fine, thanks." The bartender nods and closes the door, leaving them alone.

Meryl sighs and takes the vest off of Vash's face, the marks were still there, but it wasn't glowing as bright as it did earlier. "Do you think he's going to be alright?" Roberto shrugs and sits on the bed, beside Vash. The group decide to rest for the night, they can't do much with Vash out cold anyway.

The next day, Vash woke up after everyone else, and he looked as if he didn't get any sleep. "Are you okay?" Meryl stares at him worriedly. Vash nods with a small smile. "Of course! I'm getting kinda hungry though, so how about breakfast?"

Meryl nods and throw everyone out of the room to get breakfast, Wolfwood complaining about how early it was for her to get violent. The bartender gave them their breakfast with a smile. People in the bar were happier and nicer to them this morning. Seems like they were really worried about the plant and their ressources, it didn't have anything to do with Vash being here.
He sighs in relief and stares at his plate. He wasn't really hungry, and every bite he took felt like sand in his mouth, but he forced it down, to not worry the others. And he couldn't waste the food these people gave them, even though they didn't have much.

After breakfast, that felt like hours to Vash, they got a car as a thank you gift from the town and went back on the road with rations for a few days.

Back to the present

Vash didn't speak or even show any sign of listening to what they were saying since they left. He spent his time looking out the window before falling asleep, ignoring Wolfwoods whining for being ignored. They drove for a while before hunger showed itself, and they had to stop for a bite. There was nothing but sand all around them as they got out of the car to stretch their legs.
Wolfwood wakes up and looks at Vash. "Oy, wake up Needle-Noggin, it's lunch time." He waits for an answer, but when he didn't get one, he slowly shook him. "Oy, wake up." But that didn't work either. Vash wasn't waking up.

Wolfwood started to panick as he shook Vash and called for Meryl and Roberto. They quickly gets to Vash side and Roberto puts his hand on Vash' forehead. "He's burning up!" Wolfwood groans. "Great, so what do we do now?!" Meryl looks at them worriedly. They're in the middle of nowhere, the next city is probably days away, and Vash has a fever. What else could go wrong?

"Oy, Newbie!" Meryl gasps and looks at Roberto. "Give him some water!" Meryl nods, and quickly takes one of the water bottle. They put the tip to Vash's lips, making him drink a little. Vash frowns and whines in his sleep. "Looks like we're gonna have to go back to that town..." Wolfwood groans. "Do we still have time for lunch?" Meryl glares at him, how can he think about lunch when Vash is sick? Wolfwood puts his hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying, if we don't eat, we'll end up sick as well, and i doubt Needle-Noggin would like us to starve because of him." Roberto sighs. "He's right, we have to eat." "But-..." Roberto stares at her. "No but. We're eating lunch. Maybe we could try to give him some as well..."

Vash didn't even stir as they cooked the food, making them worry even more. Meryl took a plate and tried to feed Vash, But he didn't seem to want to eat. "Come on, Vash... just one bite..." Roberto looks at them and sighs. "That enough Newbie, we'll try again later..." Meryl sighs and puts the plate down. He looks so miserable, his cheeks flushed a bright red, sweat dripping from his forehead and shivering in his jacket, and Wolfwood's vest that he uses as a blanket. They really need to go back to town and get him a doctor.

After lunch, they went back on the road, Vash seemed to get worse with time. His fever went up, and he seemed to be mumbling things in his sleep, calling for someone named "Rem".

Nightfall was starting to fall, when all of a sudden Vash started to scream. They quickly stopped the car and looked back at Vash, to see what was wrong. The marks appeared on him, once again glowing white. He was screaming and thrashing in the backseat. Wolfwood hugs him tightly, whispering comforting words in his ears. Meryl stares at them with wide eyes not knowing what to do. The white glow engulfed Vash, making them close their eyes, against the bright light, and the screaming suddenly stopped. The white glow disappeared, and Meryl, Roberto and Wolfwood stares at the child now sitting where Vash used to be.