RETRIBUTION

The Trigun story and all of the characters are not mine. They belong to Yasuhiro

Nightow and all the folks in the credits of the videos. I have made no money

from this story and am not looking to make any kind of money in the near future.

Enjoy.

"He was wounded less severely than his brother," said Dr. Peliquine as he

exited the operating room. Two women, Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson, got

up out of their waiting room chairs.

"He's going to be okay then?" asked the taller of the two.

"Considering some of those scars he has, these bullet wounds probably felt like

pin pricks. His brother only had one previous injury. They look so much alike.

I'm surprised he didn't get mistaken for Vash the Stampede more often. Whoever

shot at them wanted them both alive. There were no serious abdominal or head

wounds," said the short doctor as he took off his hair net from his head.

"Someone else shot at them?" Milly asked. "But I thought Mr. Vash ... Ouch!"

"Vash has been ambushed before, Milly. A couple of dumb bounty hunters probably

thought they'd get two bounties for the both of them heh heh ..." Meryl weakly

laughed as she stepped on her partner's foot.

"Vash had walked on his wounds for several days and his previous wounds

complicated the situation, but he will heal. These two are extremely lucky you

women brought them here. They were hit with extremely powerful weapons. I'm not

surprised that village doctor told you to come here. These wounds were more

serious than the ones Vash recovered from before. One man must have attacked

Vash, but Knives was hit with different types of bullets. There were a dozen

smaller bullets in his arms Dr. Hale had to take out. The bullets that hit

Knive's legs passed right through. With those wounds on his legs and arms, he

won't be moving around for quite a while. I don't expect him to regain

consciousness for several days."

Doctor Peliquine turned away from the two women and started washing his hands in a

sink.

"When do you think we will be able to see Vash, doctor?" Meryl asked as she

peeked into the window to the operating room. Inside a scrub nurse cleaned the sharp surgical instruments as another nurse collected bloody blue sheets off of the operating

table. Vash had already been wheeled out to another room.

"He's been put in the recovery room with his brother." The doctor looked at the

two insurance agents sternly. "I should be reporting him to sheriff right now,

him and his brother. Both of you swear that Vash isn't the berzerking murderer

the government says he is, and from his conduct while he was in that other town,

I have to believe you. That was the only town in the L.R. area without mass

disappearances, and both of you swear that they'll completely stop now."

Vash and Knives' wounds had been too serious for the small town doctor to handle

so the insurance girls had taken him to the nearest town with a large hospital, Stansberg.

Several townspeople had followed them and spread the news that Vash the Stampede

was in town. The doctor finished washing his hands and turned toward the two women.

"If anything like that happens again, I will hold you two personally

responsible. Vash is only alive because you two brought him to me. I want no one

else hurt or killed because of this man, do you understand?"

"Understood, doctor," said Milly quietly.

"My parents disappeared in Carlyle town 10 iles away when you say Vash was still

unconscious in that village safe-house. If he didn't do it then, I don't

understand how you can say that those disappearances will stop." The doctor's

composure was ruffled, but he remained polite enough to show the two agents to the

waiting area outside the recovery room.

Milly looked in to the recovery area through a small window in the door. "Meryl,

Vash is in there on his own gurney next to Knives. That's posh. I had to wait

for all my sisters to move out before I got my own bed."

Meryl stood on her tip-toes and peered into the white room. Electronic medical

equipment was piled high in each corner. Shelves were filled with boxes of latex

gloves, needles, tongue depressors, and all sorts of stock medical supplies.

Knives and Vash were the only two patients in the room. They each lay on a

gurney on either side of a sink that hung on the far side of the wall. Each man

was hooked up to their own machines measuring breathing and heart activity.

Meryl pressed her ear to the window. The beeps coming from the machines were

almost synchronized. The women waited at the window, observing the peaceful

breathing of the two injured plant beings.

"What are we going to do when they wake up?" asked Milly.

"I don't know," said Meryl. "Knives has been trying to ..."

Meryl looked down the hallway to make sure they were alone. The passage to the

waiting are was empty except for a small perky flower painting and a spare

gurney pushed next to the wall. She continued, "Knives has been trying to

debauch Vash for a long time. I don't know what we can do to help either of

them. Where can they go and be safe?"

"That's a tough question, Meryl. Maybe the chief can help us out."

"I have to tell him about everything in our next report, everything about

Knives. Chief always said to keep Vash moving from city to city, but Vash wanted

to keep moving back then. What is he going to do now that he has Knives?"

Things weren't exactly simple for the agents before, but now they were

responsible for two incredibly powerful plant beings, and this new one was a

psychopath with a deadly revulsion of the human species.

"Milly, whatever happens we should definitely get a raise."

"I agree completely. We'll have to ask for one in the next report."

After about a half hour Vash woke up. He groaned and slowly sat up. With slow

groggy motions he lifted up the blanket covering his legs. He face brightened as

he counted his usual number of limbs. Meryl tapped at the window. Vash looked

towards them, startled, but he smiled when he saw the two agents and he vaguely

gestured for them to come in. They entered the room quietly and went to Vash's

bedside. Up close Vash looked utterly exhausted. His hair was sweaty, matted and

spiked out in several new directions. His usually bright aqua eyes were puffed

and surrounded by dark irritated blotches.

"You look terrible Mr. Vash," Milly quietly whispered.

"Blamppla," replied Vash as he slumped forward.

"I have to agree with you, Milly,"said Meryl.

The insurance girls could see new bandages covering his already scarred

shoulders. Milly gently pushed him back against his pillow and adjusted his

blanket.

"Gnnarum." said Vash as he turned to look at his visitors. "Slrurun Nive?"

"He's right over there," said Meryl. She pointed across to the comatose,

drooling lunatic. Vash turned in the indicated direction and smiled broadly.

"Therumvis." The smile dissolved from his face as he hung his head over the edge

of the bed and puked . "That mustn't have been a very good soup we gave him

before surgery. I'll go find a nurse," said Meryl. She left the room and headed

down the hallway back to the operating room. Milly picked up a basin and grabbed

the collar of Vash's hospital gown.

"Don't worry, Mr. Vash. You've recovered from worse than this!" Milly cheerfully

dragged Vash's head up and set the basin in front of him. Vash puked a few more

times.

"Crn I schlave thum vata?"

"Sure, Mr. Vash!" Milly filled a cup with water from the small shiny sink and

held it up to Vash's lips. He took the cup in his hands, drank a bit, spat it

out, drank a bit more, and swallowed loudly.

"Furn better."

Milly fluffed his pillow, took the cup from his hands and set it down on the

table next to his bed. Vash lay back down and closed his eyes.

"Nef sleep."

"You do, so I'll just put this basin right on the table next to the water in

case you need it. Then you won't have to puke on the floor again."

"Urn hunh."

Milly washed out the basin and set it on the table. Meryl came back a little

later with a middle-aged black haired nurse carrying a bucket and mop. Her name

tag said Nurse Mirada. Vash was asleep again. The nurse checked the readings on

the instruments and wiped the drool off of Knives' face.

"Usually we warn patients to not eat right before surgery but when you have an

emergencies like these two, you just have to be happy they come out of it

alive," said the nurse as she mopped up the mess.

"Mr. Vash is a very lucky man," said Milly.

The nurse turned and looked at Vash's hideously scarred arms.

"If he has luck then I must be the luckiest person alive."

"He is lucky," said Meryl. "Very lucky, any normal man would've..."

The nurse interrupted sharply, "... wouldn't be stupid enough to stay in an area

like this. There are a lot of angry people who want him dead, not for the

reward, but for revenge. My conscious and my medical oath prevent me from

helping anyone commit murder, even if they are my neighbor." She tightened her

lips and propped up Knives' head in a non-drooling position.

"It's a hard job, keeping people alive on this planet. We're not supposed to

allow this, but you two can guard them in their room until they're ready to be

released. I hope these two appreciate what you're doing for them. I'll check and

see if their room is ready." She left the room, taking the bucket and mop with

her.

"Meryl, I'm scared. A whole town hasn't been after Vash since ....." said Milly.

Meryl deftly drew a derringer out from under cloak and flicked a piece of lint

off the barrel as she interrupted her worried partner.

"Vash is in no condition to fight. We're just going to have to defend them both

on our own tonight. Is your stun gun working?"

Milly hauled the huge weapon out from under her dress.

"Sure is Meryl!"

" I promise that we're not going to lose Vash no matter how many bounty hunters

there are or how many times Vash tries to get us to leave. We're not going to

stay behind. Wolfwood died that way and we're not going to let that happen to

Vash."

A tear drifted from the the big agent's eye.

"Right! No matter what we're following!"

The agents heard footsteps coming from the corridor. Each had just enough time

to put their weapons away before the nurse Mirado entered the room.

"Their room is ready,"

The nurse said as she unhooked Vash and Knives from the machines. She kicked up the break on Knive's gurney and addressed Milly.

"You're a big girl, you can take the other patient." The nurse wheeled Knives

while Milly followed her pushing Vash's gurney.

"Which room are we going to?" asked Meryl.

Nurse Mirado stopped and whispered to Meryl. "Seven A, it's the room furthest

away from Doctor Peliquine's own office. He doesn't want any stray bullets

damaging his records."

Meryl cringed. "I'll meet you there," she whispered.

She went back to the operating room waiting area, picked up the agents'

suitcases, and set off down the corridor to find room seven A. After searching

eight corridors and ending back up at the operating waiting room three times she

found herself outside Doctor Peliquine's office. She was about to knock on the

door when she heard doctor Peliquine talking.

"I don't know what they were. I've never seen such strong bone structure and

dense muscles in a human before, and their hair structure, its more like a

feather if you look at it right at the root. That's the only way it can stick up

like that all on its own. Look through the microscope yourself."

Meryl heard a chair slide across the floor. No one spoke for several moments.

"I have to agree with you on this one. What about their organs?" said an unknown

man.

"I only opened up Mr. Vash. He won't notice the extra scar, but I confirmed the

shape of the organs in his brother with an x-ray."

Meryl heard shuffling of papers and the slippery swish of x-rays rubbing against

each other. Dr. Peliquine spoke again.

"You can see here above the heart, the breast plate and ribs are thicker and

wider than normal. Its a design that more completely protects the heart. The

heart walls are thicker and stronger on both walls. This man's heart can

withstand much greater trauma and oxygenate his blood much quicker that normal

humans."

Again there was the sound of the shuffling of x-rays. One of the men flicked a

switch.

"Those aren't the most startling differences. Look at this muscle biopsy. Nerve

density is 50 times greater than the average human. I have my technician

isolating specific nerves from Vash's arm. He'll be testing their

conductivity as well as the molecular composition. What I expect is that we have

a couple of men with extremely strong, resilient, powerful bodies, with reflexes

beyond what any normal human could possibly be capable of."

"Are you sure they're even of human stock?" said the unknown man.

"Well, their reproductive organs look in order. Ethically there is only so much

I can do at this point. Once the government has both of them, I have no doubt

they'll execute Vash. I'd love to be in on the autopsy."

"I did work for the federal government before I became a sheriff, perhaps I can

have that arranged."

Meryl had the sudden urge to puke. She also had the urge to introduce the doctor

and sheriff to derringers 1-50 but she suppressed her boiling anger and

continued to listen. The sheriff continued.

"His brother is innocent of any crimes we know of, but they'll probably get him

for aiding and abetting Vash for so long. Knives must have known about July and

Augusta. There can't be any bad blood between them or else Vash could've easily

left him in the desert."

The doctor agreed. "He was very concerned about his brother when he arrived

here. I didn't dare refuse him treatment and make him angry. I like this town

too much to jeopardize it when Vash the Stampede is here."

Dr. Peliquine told the sheriff about how Vash arrived with his brother and the

two insurance agents at the hospital earlier that day.

"Vash actually trusts those two agents. As long as we tell them that Vash is too

injured to move we can keep Vash here until the government's arrival, and we

agreed to split the money on a new hospital and a new jail. The leftovers go

right to the city and all the people who agreed not to eviscerate him today."

"Yup. Sixty billion is way too much for one person. I'll spread the word that

everybody is going to get some of the reward money if Vash is delivered live to

the government from this town. Is this the note?" the Sheriff asked.

"Yes, telling the government, their quarry is caged and ready for pick up. I'll

have nurse Mirado take it to the courier. She gets off of her shift in the next

few minutes."

The doctor walked towards the door. Meryl jumped back just before the door

opened. She managed to raise her arm so it looked as if she was just about to

knock.

"Oh, hello, doctor!" she said in a surprised, scared voice. "I got lost

and was hoping you could direct me to Vash's room."

"No problem at all. I was just headed there myself."