TLSG

Hello everyone.

I want to thank everyone who ever expressed any interest in this story. I ran into a computer nightmare where I had the next chapter, which involved a lot of Humanoid-Typhoon scale choreography and action/adventure, completely written out and then said computer died on me. I had the whole story plotted out to the end, but I couldn't ever get back to the point where I was in the frame of mind to rewrite what was lost. The reality of the situation is that I will most likely never finish this story. I estimated there were at least another 25,000 to 50,000 words to go, and at this point in my life, I don't think I can make it happen. I've got a lot of other creative pursuits going on in my irl life and while I love Trigun, I'm just not as head over heels for it anymore and can't justify the time commitment to a fanwork. (If you're wondering what I've been up to since the last chapter while I haven't been writing, it's mostly been spent working on my band. We're not famous or anything, but we've got some albums out, and if you're interested in hearing it, PM me.)

Throughout the years, many people have been very kind and left reviews on the story. You guys can't imagine how happy it has made me knowing that you enjoyed this story. For my part, I have felt immense guilt knowing I left so many of you hanging. I decided today that as a (late) Valentine's present to you all, I was going to give you a rundown of the plot that remained in this story. It's going to be more or less bullet points, but if you were wondering what I had in store for our intrepid heroes, this is what I had planned.

Super super super thanks to Jaya Mitai and SugarPill for beta'ing. Super big thanks to all the reviews and all the follows, and just ridiculous thanks to everyone who has read this story at all. This is the first story that is over 100,000 words that I ever wrote, and I honestly didn't think it would ever be possible to get up to that word count at all. And a special thanks to SmutWithPlot for encouraging me to write this wrap-up chapter. I just checked through my documents and saw that I actually started one of these wrap-up chapters in TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN.

How does time get away from me like this?

Oh well. I haven't reread the story in some time, so if you are arriving at this chapter after reading about a hundred thousand words, I'm sorry for any inconsistencies.

Alright, here goes:

Karen has just sounded the silent threat alert at her desk.

Meryl knows what's up she and Vash are leaving the Bernardelli office when they come face to face with a huge firing line. Meryl is like, oh shit we are going to die. Vash is about to pull some wacky VtS hijinks, but before he can even get started, the wall gets blown out and a new villain appears.

The firing line suddenly turns their guns, assuming this new character is the real Vash the Stampede (I think Vash is wearing like, a blue sweater and some jeans at this point. He looks waaaay too lowkey to be a threat to humankind.)

Said villain is part of a group of baddies who are robbing the December bank. With the attention off of Vash and Meryl, Vash pulls Meryl out of harm's way. She starts fretting about the safety of her coworkers and assessing the risk of the situation. He starts planning grand Vash-like plans that involve taking the bad guys down while pretending to be a clumsy, lucky dork. He halfway explains his plan to Meryl, but also tells her she's going to have to trust him and then they take off, running through the town evading law enforcement and dispatching with the baddies.

One of the officers has half a clue and realizes this duo swinging through the town with guns blazing and firing at his men is not normal. He follows them as close as he can onto the rooftops at the edge of town.

Meryl and Vash are flush with exhilaration. This is the first time Vash has pulled this kind of thing and she really felt like they were on the same team the whole time. She notices Vash tense up a split second before she hears a gun to off and she's yanked out of the way and suddenly feels like she's falling.

From his pov, the officer sees the man pull the woman out of the way, moving inhumanly fast, but not fast enough. He sees the bullet hit the woman and then the two fall/jump off the roof.

IMAGINE SEVERAL MONTHS TO YEARS OF WAITING FOR AN END TO THIS CLIFFHANGER…

Aaaaaaand we're back. Vash somehow smuggles himself and Meryl into the plant at the edge of town undetected, even though the whole town is crawling with feds.

She got shot through the shoulder, but the bullet passed through and Vash theorized that the plant energy would help her heal faster, and it seems to be working. They spend a few days there while she heals up. He collects some supplies and a jeep and they eventually make their way out toward the ship.

They leave at sunset and drive through the night and through the day. On the second night, they decide to make camp because they're both pretty wiped out.

When Meryl thinks Vash has finally gone to sleep, she pulls out the letter her mom left for her in care of Bernadelli's. This is not an easy letter for Meryl to read. It's essentially an explanation that Meryl's mom has been forced into hiding because of her daughter's notoriety and that Meryl should never expect to see her again because it's not safe to do so. The house has been left to Meryl if things ever settle down enough for her to move back. (There were some really emotional parts to this letter, but I can't remember them and I don't remember if I had any back up discussions about it or anything, but the end result is bittersweet. Meryl understands the risks her mom has to manage and she feels sad that she will most likely not see her mother again any time soon, but she's also extremely pragmatic about it, she knows she can't settle down until they figure out what to do with Knives, and if she's learned anything, it's that there's always a chance things will change.)

While Vash is asleep, she burns the letter because she knows if he found out the repercussions Meryl's involvement with him has had on her mom and Meryl's relationship with her mom, he would be pretty messed up over it.

As she finishes burning the letter, Vash stirs and realizes she is awake. He can tell that she's having an emotional moment, but he doesn't know why. Before he can say or do much, she leans into him and kisses him. He returns her embrace with enthusiasm. Very sweet and passionate.

Fade to black… (they totally do it.)

Meanwhile on the ship, Knives has come around. (HE WILL REMAIN CONSCIOUS FOR THE REST OF THE STORY.)

IMAGINE ANOTHER SEVERAL MONTHS TO YEARS BETWEEN UPDATES…

Okay. Vash and Meryl make it back to the ship. Things get weird. Knives still had amnesia and he doesn't remember anything before waking up that first time. He doesn't remember being THE WORST BROTHER EVER and believes the news accounts of humans just blaming Vash for everything, so he still hates humans, but it's because they seem cruel without any provocation and not because of any anime/manga backstory. He doesn't remember the Gung Ho Guns or Wolfwood, and considering the fact that this particular man had a tremendous impact on both Vash and Milly, that's a potentially important bit of information to be lacking, but I digress…

When Knives first sees Meryl, he reacts with extreme concern for her and also jealousy towards Vash. Meryl is creeped out. Vash is creeped out. Milly doesn't know what to make of this because she thought when Vash returned, Knives would keep progressing. She's seen him make progress on the whole "not being a terrible person" front and doesn't understand Knives's sudden obsessive actions towards Meryl and antagonism towards Vash.

(So just as a plot reminder if you haven't read this story in forever, back on the day, right after Meryl left, Vash and Knives had a mental connection thing going on and when Vash thought Meryl had been kidnapped, he flipped out, and due to the wide open mental connection between the twins, his extremely high level of concern and caring for Meryl left an indelible mark on Knives as well. Because Knives has no context for these feelings, he accepts these feelings as though they are a link to his past and he kind of overdoes it when trying to interact with Meryl. Meryl is also freaked out and refuses to be left alone with Knives, understandably.)

Milly, Meryl, and Vash all decide to go back to the previous arrangements so that Vash can keep an eye on Knives and Meryl can be kept away from Knives. Meryl keeps the communicator pen on her so Vash can keep tabs when he's not around. This causes a strain on Vash and Meryl's burgeoning relationship. Vash and Knives also have a ton of weirdness going on. Vash is having a hard time dealing with Knives's insatiable curiosity about Meryl and he's extremely untrusting towards Knives because of Knives's jealous antagonism towards him and he doesn't want Knives to force another mental connection on him. Knives is also sensing this withdrawal and blames it on the humans and ridicules Vash for his involvement with them when they've been so cruel to him. Vash is beyond frustrated.

Vash starts getting weirdly jealous and Meryl starts to notice. There's one point where Milly says she'll keep an eye on Knives so Vash and Meryl can spend some time together. Instead of the encounter being sweet, it's oddly confrontational with a harsh kiss from Vash and Meryl realizes that Vash is being *extremely* possessive. Meryl is not having any of this and is like, "I'm not going to be the knot in your dumb sibling rivalry tug o' war." At this point, Vash and Meryl have the first real conversation they've had in ages. Vash realizes that he has no idea what the goal "Save Knives" is if 1. The guy is literally disarmed, 2. He has no memory of the things he did to Vash and the people who stood between him and his goal of making Vash suffer, and 3. Being there seems to be bad for Knives. Meryl talks about feeling extremely isolated and unhappy and creeped out and tired of looking over her shoulder all the time. They kind of both come to the conclusion that leaving together might be the best choice they have. Then they start making out and fade to black. (They totally do it.)

Vash gets back to the room and relieves Milly. Knives senses a change in Vash and realizes more change is probably on the horizon. Vash is altogether too chill and too pulled pulled together for his liking. He decides to enact…A PLAN…

ANOTHER INSANELY LONG WAIT FOR A CHAPTER THAT WOULD ALSO REASONABLY JUSTIFY SETTING THIS STORY TO HIATUS…

So, I don't know if you guys remember this from waaaay back in the beginning, but when Meryl kind of got caught up in the angel arm blast in like chapter 9 or so, she absorbed a lot of energy from Vash and it's been having repercussions throughout the story. One of the repercussions was that memories and thoughts could slip between two plant-types, and this ability was transferred over to Meryl when she experienced that energy blast.

Also, Knives doesn't have arms. They got chopped off. By Meryl.

Alright. So, Knives is irrationally obsessed with Meryl at this point and he doesn't know why, but the idea of her leaving is not one that he's going to tolerate, so he makes a plan to basically kidnap her. (This would have made a lot more sense in the story. Sorry you're getting all of this in this weird bullet point form.) Anyway, it's a day or so later and Knives, Milly and the little kiddo are all hanging out, and Milly is being pretty vigilant, but Knives slips away. Vash has been preparing to leave in what he THINKS is a covert way, but it hasn't been covert enough, and Knives has a loose, but fairly correct idea of what's going on now.

He finds Meryl while she's alone and they have a confrontation. He's basically all, "You can't leave. I just found you and these feelings I have for you make the thought of you leaving unbearable. I don't even know why I feel this way and if you leave, I'll never know." She's like, "Look, Knives. The feeling is NOT. MUTUAL. Also, Vash is listening to this conversation and is probably already on his way to" and then she tries to say the location that they're at, but she gets cut off because...Knives kisses her. (Please give me the benefit of the doubt knowing that this would have made a lot more sense in context. I realize how rushed this seems just laying it out here like this, but whatever. It's a fanfiction plot point.)

So, the kiss is actually the first skin-to-skin contact that Knives has had with Meryl the entire time she's been back (because, you know, when you don't have meat hands and you wear clothes, there's not a lot of skin-to-skin contact opportunities). Through this contact, Knives sees a memory of Meryl's that is VERY similar to what they're doing now, and it's from Meryl's point of view. He and Meryl are alone and he's basically trying to strangle her. And he pulls away from the kiss like, WHAT. THE. FUCK. WAS. THAT. I think maybe he isn't entirely aware that he's seeing one of her memories because he's very, very confused about what's going on, And then he's a scientist, so he kisses her again, but it's more like a face smush and he sees more memories from Meryl's POV of Knives. Some of them are of Knives being a terrible person to Vash. He sees some of the Gung Ho Guns memories. He readjusts their faces so he's kind of just holding Meryl's forehead to his forehead and absorbing as much as he can from her. She's trying to scramble away from him, but he doesn't even seem really aware of her existence besides the fact that his head is smushed next to hers and he's just trying to keep her still. There is a montage of things that spark memories, and he doesn't get his whole memory back, but he does start to realize that his current feelings towards Meryl aren't normal or even what he would want. At a certain point, he realizes that Meryl is talking into the pen and he can faintly hear Vash confirm that he's on the way. Knives takes the pen and breaks it.

So, we pick up with Vash racing down the hallways through the ship and he doesn't know what he's going to do, but he's completely over this brother thing and Meryl's in danger, and history has shown us that if Meryl is in danger, he's liable to potentially shoot someone, so...he gets to the location and bursts in to find...Meryl alone.

Where is Knives? Where did he go? Meryl tells Vash what happened and that he was holding her face onto his and then about a minute ago, he broke the pen, looked up at her with a shocked, disturbed expression, and then ran out of the room.

They all decide to search the ship and they don't find him. At this point, it's been hours and Vash decides to go back to his room and see one last time if Knives is there. He's not there, but there is a note to Vash from Knives. It's basically like, "I am leaving the ship. I took some supplies. Don't come looking for me. When I'm ready to see you, I'll find you. I have a lot of things to think about. I might have been wrong on some points." It's not an apology by any stretch of the imagination, but Vash is kind of like, huh. Maybe he is coming around.

Is this enough for Vash to stop looking for his brother? Vash is left feeling very unsettled about the idea of Knives being on his own among humans, but the calculus of the situation has changed. Knives can no longer cause mass destruction. He could be charismatic and form another group, but the fact that Knives sounds like he's reconsidering some of his positions is promising. At the end of the day, Milly, Meryl, and Vash decide that it might be worth it to give Knives a chance. None of them are excited about the prospect of Knives returning to his old ways, but they all admit that all three of them are exhausted dealing with him and that they could all use a break. This probably sounds like loser talk coming from our intrepid heroes, but it's true. If it wasn't one thing, it was another and even Milly is tired of taking care of Knives's unconscious-spell-having-ass. (Also, he killed her boyfriend, and she hasn't forgotten about that and ended up in love with the guy…)

So in the end, Milly, Vash, and Meryl decide to leave and they head toward the town where Milly's family lives. December is too dangerous and neither Vash nor Meryl want to tempt fate returning. They don't live WITH Milly, but nearby. Things seem happy and calm, which is a nice change of pace. Milly is very happy to be back with her family, and she brings Lil with, because why not? I had more plans for that kid plot-wise, but they kind of petered out.

We get a last scene with Knives as he makes his way across the desert. He wanders into an old saloon and orders a glass of water. One of the old barflies sits down next to him and orders a beer. The barfly is jovial and greets Knives with a dusty slap on the back. Knives kind of stiffens up at the contact, and the man backs off, but after a moment, Knives returns the greeting and downs the water. Then he gathers himself up and walks back into the desert.

OKAY. That's it. Hopefully this didn't suck. If you thought it should have a different ending and you want to continue the story, that sounds super cool. Send me the link so I can read it, too!

This has been a real adventure, guys. The whole thought behind this story was to deconstruct what happened in the anime so that Vash, Knives, Meryl, and Milly could be in a position to actually process what they'd been through while preserving Vash's whole "no killing" ethos. I also wanted a realistic basis for Meryl and Vash to potentially get together, and the thought of Meryl dying way before Vash would totally makes me sad, so I also incorporated a potential workaround for that. All my goals with this story have been met. It's even open for Knives-centric sequels if I or anyone else were so inclined to write them.

If you're looking for a rad story in the fandom that I KNOW is being worked on right now, check out SmutWithPlot's story Tension, an amazing re-envisioning of the entire anime series from Meryl's point of view. It is…so good.

Alright, love and peace my fellow trinuts!

inkydoo