nomans_land | Still In Octovern

Still In Octovern

Two days helping out at Signey's Cafe had turned into weeks, and after finding and then almost immediately losing that very tiny Nicholas, Vash had found himself unable to leave. The Plants were still under such tight security, he hadn't been able to get in to see them, and he had almost managed to figure out a way to get past the Feds to sneak back onto the Home ship so that he could let Melanie know about the small boy he knew she would want to look out for. But the heat was still too high, metaphorically, and he just hadn't been able to make headway in either plan, though at least Sig had let him start staying in the attic above the cafe instead of having to pay for the inn every night, once she'd found out he really didn't have much money to his name. Six of one, half dozen of the other, as the saying went.

That just made it easier to justify continuing to work at the cafe, where he could keep an eye on what was happening around the city, and where he could keep an eye out for the small boy with dark hair looking for his family. Sig had even caught on when she'd noticed him glancing constantly to the front window, and after a little prodding had gotten him to admit he was worried for the boy who'd been out front the first day he'd started working for her. She'd promised to keep an eye out, too, when she could, and he'd had to fight back a few tears of gratitude, which had simply gotten him a little motherly pat on the hand before she'd wandered back to the kitchen.

Things had almost seemed to...settle, for him. He had things to do every day, tasks to keep his mind off some of the darker places it tended to wander, especially as of late, a bed to sleep in and a more steady supply of food than he'd had since leaving the Home ship the first time with Wolfwood, and at least a little help with some of the mountain of important things that he was trying to do. So when the bell above the door chimed, he seemed, at least outwardly to most, in a fairly chipper mood.

"Good morning! Be right there!" he chirped, drying his hands off on the white apron he wore over his button down and slacks as he turned away from wiping down the register counter. It wasn't all that unlike the way he had been making ends meet in July, all things considered, before everything had gone south, only this time he was making more of an effort to avoid wearing his coat quite so often. That was distinctly a thought that he had worked very hard to supress the moment it occurred to him, a week after he'd settled into the attic upstairs.

[Specifically intended for Terran Fed Ship Shenanigans with the two eldest Vashes, but Open To All, if the mood strikes you! :D]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He loves his sisters, but some days he can’t help but wonder if they’re messing with him. Is it commentary on how slowly he walks, compared to their ability to disappear him from one place and drop him instantly into another? (Well, more or less instantly – he loses time in those disappearances, he’s learned. Sometimes what feels like a week to him is months to the rest of the world.) Sure, it’s thanks to them vanishing him that he knows about Tessla, and Knives, and was able to find Nai again, but it’s also deeply frustrating to be traveling in one direction and suddenly find himself hundreds of miles away!

He hadn’t been thrilled at the idea of seeing July again, but he consoled himself with thoughts of Rem, and the little ones. By now, Wolfwood and the other Vash would be halfway to Mesa Probe, assuming that was their first stop. Vash let himself feel that jealousy burn through him, pushing it away step by step as he made his way up a particularly slippery sand dune. Maybe one day, that could be him and Wolfwood again, he thought, feet sinking into the soft sand. Out here, with nobody around for miles and miles to hear his thoughts or perceive his feelings, he could let himself want without anyone else the wiser. He could imagine a companion for himself, with dark hair and a ready smile, someone to laugh at him when he sank knee-deep into the shifting sands. Someone sturdy, but nimble, who could reach the top before he did, even with such a heavy weight on his back. Someone he could argue with under the hot suns, and sit quietly with after those suns fell away for the night. Someone to talk to, who understood him better than he understood himself. Someone he loved dearly.

His next step sank even deeper into the side of the dune, and it took a hard yank to wrench his foot free, sending him stumbling back a pace. That’s all it took for the whole side of the dune to shudder itself free, and the last thing Vash saw was a wave of sand, lifting his legs right up from beneath him and burying him in silt and dust.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been buried by a shifting dune, and he curled immediately into as tight a ball as he could, arms tight around his face and hoping that his duffle would end up somewhere nearby. He bumped into something hard as the sand carried him away, and he would have sworn that he heard a bell chime as his motion slowed. There was bedrock beneath him, he could tell, and the sand above him didn’t feel nearly as crushing as he knew it could have been. Hesitantly, he unfolded, raising his head and peering out of the sand…

…at himself. Himself, in an apron, standing in what looked like a diner.

What the hell.

“That’s not the one I meant!”

Hi, Vash. Sorry about the mess.

The shock of hearing his own voice was certainly enough to make him glance up in surprise, staring at a pile of sand that had wedged the door open where it had spilled out another of his "brothers" onto the floor in the front of the cafe. Outside, there were a couple people who'd taken notice, also visibly shocked as they danced around the tiny dune that had been dropped in the middle of the city, and it was clear to anyone who had been through this before that he must have been dragged in by one of those wayward blinks in reality.

Vash immediately went into damage control, giving a bright laugh, as if it were just another daily occurrence in the restaurant, grabbing the broom and moving around the counter.

"Oh wow, looks like you brought the whole desert in with you, friend! Come on in, coat rack is in the corner, you must be hot in that thing, out there. Just give me a second, I'll be right with you." A shovel probably would have been a better tool against the pile of sand than the broom was, but boots also did a fairly good job of pushing more of the debris out the door, so it wasn't long before the entryway was cleared enough that he could close it.

That done, he crouched down next to the other, dusting him off as best he could but also using it as an excuse to speak quietly so nobody else would hear. Luckily, the cafe was relatively slow during this part of the day, so there weren't too many ears around to listen in, and while Sig had been giving him certain appraising looks lately that made him suspect she was onto his lie and subtly trying to signal to him that she was (all while he pretended to not even notice) it was still better to be subtle.

"You just got dumped in the middle of Octovern. Pretty sure the owner of the cafe won't alert the feds, but if you wanna be more discreet, I can grab you a change of clothes from the room I'm staying in upstairs." He hadn't even stopped to consider the little outburst the other had had when he'd unfolded himself from his little protective ball, was just moving on pure instinct that was partly paranoia born of decades of being on the run and partly the paranoia that he'd developed over the past few weeks of being constantly under the scrutiny of possibly law enforcement from two different agencies.

He stood back up, taking the other Vash by the arm to help him to his feet, before he walked back around the counter, reached into the display case to pull out a salmon sandwich, put it on a plate, and move back around to put it on a table that was near the counter, as far from the front door and the large window as it could get before he called out into the kitchen.

"Hey, Signey! Putting a salmon and mayo on my account! Got a- er-...got family that came by."

"Oh, really? Sure thing, dear. Is there anybody else up there right now?" There was a sly tone in the reply that called back, what sounded to be a husky, middle-aged feminine voice.

"Nope, looks like everyone's off lunch again, it's quiet as a church mouse."

"Then you can take your lunch, too."

"Thanks, Signey. Just call if you need anything."

He gave another worried glance around the windows before finally relaxing, putting the broom back in its place with a sigh and turning to look back at the other man before giving a very tentative mental reach as he smiled. It was hard to tell if he looked familiar because he was the brother he'd met before or because he was so used to seeing that face in the mirror. At least with one of them, the differences were obvious enough on the surface that he didn't even have to wonder.

Given what had happened the first time, there was honestly a part of him that hoped it wasn't him. The small jolt of anxiety that thought brought to the surface made that already tentative reach for mental connection shy away just a bit more, his smile turning just a little fragile around the edges.

Octovern. His face fell when the other murmured their location -- he'd just left Octovern!

Rising to his feet, he shook off as much of the sand as he could, shimmying it out of all his cracks and crevasses. He'd managed to cover his face in time, at least, so there was minimal grit in his ears and eyes, but between the powdered dirt he'd rubbed into his hair days ago with another of their twins, and all this sand, his mostly black hair looked almost blond again. It was a shock, to catch a glimpse of himself reflected in the window, and he quickly turned away -- his hair hadn't been that light in years, and it was like looking at a stranger.

Not that there was any shortage of strangers with his face wandering around. He took the offered seat at the counter with a grateful smile, still shaking sand out of... well, everywhere. His face lit up at the sight of that salmon sandwich, and he had half of it swallowed -- almost without chewing -- by the time the other reached out mentally.

That, he stopped immediately, pausing mid-chew to concentrate for a moment on the visual of a hand raised in warding. He hadn't had the best luck communicating that way anyway, and the last time he'd seen a Vash with that much black in his hair, their mental conversation had been... difficult. Sorry, friend.

"Sorry, can we talk like this instead?" he asked around the final bite of sandwich. That tasted so good! It'd been at least four days of nothing but ration bars -- now lost, along with his duffle, somewhere in a sand dune overlooking east July, rest in peace fellow traveler -- and really, there was nothing better than a fresh and cool salmon sandwich on a hot day! He licked the last bit off his fingertips -- getting some sand in there too, but it was worth it -- and only then took a good look around at their surroundings, and at the other Vash.

The other, very brave Vash, for sticking around in Octovern with all the chaos going on!

"Talking the other way keeps getting me in trouble! Metaphors and visuals are fine for chatting with some of the family..." He wasn't about to outright say 'when talking with the plants in their bulbs', just in case anyone else was listening in. "...but they make it hard to really say what you mean, you know?" Not that anyone was around other than the disembodied voice from the back, but this Vash was clearly keeping his identity a secret, so the least he could do was play along.

"Is it... Eriks?"

The sight of him leaving a trail of dust and sand as he walked through the cafe might have been a bit irritating, given that he'd have to be the one to sweep it out later, if it weren't for the fact that it was also a bit amusing, seeing it from the outside. He'd been in very similar situations enough times himself to know how frustrating it was, so it was a bit of a surprise to find himself snorting back a small laugh that he tried to hide behind a cough. As if they probably couldn't all recognize every sound they made, anyway. But the small bit of amusement was enough, especially when it mixed with the strange sort of relief he got from seeing the other wolfing down the sandwich in such a way that he knew he had to have been living on ration bars for a while now and he'd made the right choice with the sandwich, that it was able to somewhat temper the shame he felt when he sensed the other pulling sharply back from the mental connection as he sat down in the seat across from him.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't-...sorry, yeah. Won't do it again." So. It probably was the Vash he'd met before. "I've been trying not to do that so much, but...habits, you know? This is probably for the best, yeah." There was no way in Hell that the strained smile and laugh would fool the other as he rubbed the back of his neck, but. Habits, yes. He hadn't even been able to break them when Nicholas had still been around, and the man had been able to read him more than he could read himself. At the very least, if Sig or anyone else walked through the door, they might not realize what was happening. That was good enough. "It's easier not to just dump things on people without wanting to, like this."

He hadn't even been the only one he'd done it to, though he hadn't really been trying to connect to the next "brother" he'd met and inadvertently shoved memories and emotions at. At this rate, it was getting hard not to worry, constantly, that everywhere he went, he would end up hurting one of their kind - Vashes, Sisters in their bulbs, or otherwise.

And then the question made him pause, his hands dropping into his lap as he shook his head.

"No, it's 'Val' for now." His voice dropped low, and he made a quick glance back towards the kitchen door, but he didn't seem too terribly concerned with Signey overhearing, all things considered. "Valentinez Blue. They wanted a name when I went to get my eyes on one of those new communication devices the Terrans are bringing in, and I didn't want to give something that might get traced back to Lina or Grandma Sheryl somehow, so I just...pulled something out of my head. Think I used it once with-...well. Before."

He reached into his pocket and pulled the device in question out, dropping it onto the table for the other to see. It looked, compared to most things he was used to after so long living on the planet, not terribly unlike the small tablets they'd had on the ships when they were kids, only this was smaller. He still wasn't great about navigating its functions, but he'd managed to figure out how to access the network that it was connected to, at least. And if the familiar little red funbari figure he had hanging off of the bottom corner of the thing from a jerry-rigged string was anything to judge by, he'd found images of the way the humans liked to decorate their phones on Earth when he'd first started searching around the network, and had taken the idea and run.

"They're practically handing these things out, now. I wasn't sure how safe it was, at first, but they're hooked up to a network that can even access Earth stuff. It's a little confusing, but I figured it was worth the risk, what with the constant information feed it gives, and nobody will be looking for 'Val.' Not that it seems many of our people have them, though. Or maybe they just haven't figured out how to get information out like the Terrans can, yet."

No, that smile wasn't fooling anybody, but he understood only too well the shame that came with being unable to control himself, especially when it ended up hurting others. His smile was sympathetic as Vash spoke – yeah, he's dumped too much information on people too, using that connection. It was honestly a wonder that little Nai was willing to talk to him at all, after everything he'd forced the kid to witness. Their powers were difficult to control, especially when they were stressed, or tired... it really was best to avoid that kind of connection altogether.

Really, they should stay away from everyone, forever, but that kind of loneliness didn't bear thinking about.

Valentinez Blue. The name wasn't familiar, but the piece of tech that 'Val' set on the countertop sure was! He picked it up, excited to poke at it, checking how the interface worked, trying to figure out the buttons and settings... sorry for snooping, Val, but you can't put a toy in front of a kid and not expect them to play with it!

“This is remarkable!” Assuming the range was more than a few miles – which probably depended on satellites, given that he hadn't seen any new transmitter towers recently – something like this device could be a lifesaver for folks out in the desert! “You said you can get news on it? From Earth?”

He probably should have taken Val up on his offer for a change of clothes. As he handed the device back, out on the street a passerby glanced casually in the window... and did a doubletake at the spikey haired man sitting at the counter in a distinctive red coat. A second later the man was gone, running down the street at top speed in search of one of the soldiers patrolling the area.

Completely unaware that they were about to be interrupted, Vash ran his fingertip around the crumbs on his plate, salvaging the last remnants of that delicious sandwich. “We really could use those out...” He glanced again at the back room, dropping his voice quieter to avoid being overheard. Val might be comfortable having the person in the back overhear him talking about using a fake name, but there was a huge difference between admitting to using a pseudonym and giving away the location of Rem and the kids. “...out and about,” he finished, somewhat lamely.

How to tell his other self that Rem was alive, and living next to the ruins of July? He'd already stuck his foot in his mouth with the Vash who was traveling with Wolfwood. Maybe they should head out of town for that part of the conversation, just in case things got... emotional? He stuck his finger in his mouth, savoring the crumbs like they were the finest chocolate. That was so much better than a ration bar! “You'll have to show me where you got it!”

Honestly, it should have been his first sign that he needed to stop reaching out so quickly after Meryl had been hurt. The signs had been there for a while, now, and the tendency had just gotten more dangerous as time went on.

At least the last time he'd seen her, she'd seemed to have bounced back well enough from what she'd been through because of him. At least he hadn't broken her, too. She was such a good person, he didn't know how she could stand to even look at him again. The amazing resiliency of humans, perhaps.

He obviously didn't feel any sort of trepidation with letting the other him poke around with the little device. It was more amusing than anything, he'd been the same way when he'd finally managed to get ahold of the thing. He'd even walked face-first into a building the first day, he'd been so fascinated! Not just any building, a house owned by an older version of their brother! He grinned, a bright, genuine look, no less amused for the shame he'd felt a moment before, and instead perhaps glad for the chance to enjoy the distraction from his own worries.

"Isn't it great? Here, you press this button-" he reached over and pointed at a tiny icon that looked like a small wire frame of a solar system. "It'll bring up this satelite network they have that relays off of the Earth ships and sends information back and forth through the...whatever it is they use to communicate that far. I still haven't figured that out, yet."

He was too preocuppied as he took the device back to see the man through the window, though that in and of itself was probably telling. Even a few months ago, he would have noticed him the second he'd stopped to stare. Instead, he turned the thing around so that he could poke at it for a moment before a small video feed popped up and began to play as he turned it back so it was the right way up for the other man, letting him see the kind of thing the humans did with it.

A series of short clips of cats trying to do...whatever cats do and then failing in increasingly elaborate ways began to play as he glanced up, suddenly curious what he was talking around. What was 'out and about' that he might be hesitant to-...

Oh. Did he know about Rem? It had been obvious that she wasn't shocked by the way he looked, the one time he'd been out there. She had seen his face before, the way they looked now. His smile faded a bit as he glanced away, trying to think about how to respond, knowing why something like that would be information that would be best played close to the chest, but also wanting to know that he was understanding what was being left unsaid.

"Hmm. Yeah, I'd thought about that, too. A bit. You know how much-..." His expression barely shifted, but the worry lines around his face visibly deepened as he glanced away, all to the sound of a little black cat with big green eyes angrily meowing "No no no no no no no!" played through the air between them. When he continued, his voice had dropped to barely a whisper. "mom worries. Now that she's got the house all to herself. Empty nest syndrome, right?"

He tried to smile again, but it was strained as he looked back down at the device, poked at it, and then glanced back up.

"They've got a shop set up not far from-...oh, you know, that ship with the broken gravity plant, the one everyone says was sending out the distress signals all these years? Just on the edge of town. I heard they'd taken in some of the refugees on the way here, so I thought to see if any of the rest of the family were there, but the Feds seem to be treating it like a bit of an embassy right now. They're careful about who they let on. I saw the place selling them when I gave up. I could show you later, if-..."

The sight of movement in the background finally caught his eye, and his eyes darted up just in time to see a group of men pushing their way through the crowd outside, armed to the teeth and covered in Terran armour as they marched toward the cafe.

Oh. Shit. Oh shit.

He hid the way his eyes widened with a broad, panicked grin as he stood, walking toward the back of the counter as he called out to the back of the cafe.

"Hey, Sig, looks like some of those Terran soldiers are hungry! Gonna have a rush!" He stood next to the register, slipping into character and looking back at his red-coated brother before nodding his head behind him, to a short hallway. "Oh yeah, bathroom's that way. Careful with the window, the lock's busted and sometimes it pops open when a good breeze hits it and it might conk you on the head. You know how it is."

And then voices were ringing out around them - first from Signey as she stormed up from the kitchen, "Wait, what? Val, you serious?" And then from the first soldier as he charged through the door. "Under the authority of the Earth Federation Security Forces, everyone freeze with your hands in the air where we can see them!"

Too late! He froze, eyes widening as he lifted his hands in the air, laughing loudly, obnoxiously, and grinning like an idiot.

"Oh, hey guys, what's the problem? There's enough food to go around, why don't you take a seat?"

"No no no no no no no" meowed the device, still from it's spot on the table where he'd left it.

The little device is amazing! Almost as amazing as the realization that this version of himself knows about Rem. The relief of that revelation gets painted all over his face – not only does he not have to keep that secret, not only does he not have to be the one to tell yet another Vash that she's alive, but that means they've met! He's seen her! That blank ticket can take them to any station, and Val's ticket took him to meet her. Good.

He's just about to ask about any of their other brothers – especially that wild one with the taste for worms – when Val's face lights up with panic. Crap. He really should have changed out of the coat first thing, huh?

He risks the plant connection as he leaps to his feet, not wanting to announce his plans out loud – an image of the big plant dome that's being built on the northwest side of town, where all their sisters who haven't yet been sent back to their towns are currently housed, underlain with gratitude/concern/caution – and sprints down the hallway to the restroom. He'll go out the window as suggested, and then wait around the corner to see if Val got away. He's not sure exactly what he'll do if he doesn't but...

But then it's a moot point entirely when the window proves too small to squeeze through. Vash stands there, glaring in absolute indignation at the window that somebody had, within the last day or so, beautifully reframed and freshly painted, making it far, far too small for him to fit through. Somebody got tired of that 'busted lock', apparently, and finally did something about it.

Crap.

He can hear the soldiers stomping around in the restaurant, can just pick out Val's performative idiot voice trying to distract them from smashing the place up... and really, there's not much of a decision to be made, is there?

Deep breath. Shoes buckled tight, coat fastened, gun secured.

Here we go.

“Congratulations, you're all winners!” Giving himself a running start in the hallway, Vash launches himself into the restaurant, legs pumping as fast as he can make them move, heading straight for the front door. “This time, you all hide and I'll find you!”

Is he going to make it? He's going to make it!

There were a few blessed moments when Vash almost thought he might be able to talk his way out of the whole mess, one or two breaths of nothing but the sound of booted feet storming into the building and another pair of boots racing down the hallway. It was just enough time for the mental connection to flare up in his mind and for his own to light up in surprise. The Plant dome! Had he been there? Did he get inside??? What had he found??? Vash hadn't been quite gutsy enough yet to risk getting too close, had still been focusing on trying to get into the SEEDS 3 ship, first.

But then all at once the madness seemed to escalate as Signey barged through the kitchen door behind him with a protesting shout in the same instant that the soldier in charge shouted an order to two of the men behind him to circle the building to try and cut his brother off in his attempt to escape through the back.

"Oh, damnit all, did he try an' go out through the bathroom? Of all the days for me to go an' fix that damn window!" He blinked in confused shock before turning to look at her as she lifted her hands up, glaring at the soldiers in front of her and stepping closer to the counter, closer to where he unfortunately knew she kept a shotgun hidden under the counter, and she turned to give him a bit of an exasperated glance in return. "What? You honestly thought I didn't know? I don't got any idea how none of this is happenin', but you two sounded pretty much exactly the same, even from inside the kitchen. After the year we've had, I ain't even questionin' it, anymore."

His mouth fell open as he readied to squawk out a bewildered barrage of questions, soldiers be damned, but then the unmistakable sound of his own voice shouting out and his own feet racing back up the hallway made the hair stand up on the back of his neck, and in what little bit of that connection was still left open in the rush of trying to figure out how best to get out of the situation, there was a distinctly exasperated, frustrated acceptance that he didn't intend to let slip out.

Of course this was happening. This must be what it felt like to be one of his friends, when he pulled this same nonsense.

But if one of them was going to go out half-cocked, they both were. At the very least, it meant when he suddenly vaulted himself over the counter and began sprinting after, Signey's shotgun was suddenly missing from under the counter where she'd left it.

The next moments were absolute chaos; shouting from the guards and Signey both, the sounds of weapons being fired and soft thunks rattling through the air as the rounds hit the walls and the counter. Signey dove for her shotgun, shouted an angry sound when she found it gone, and decided instead to keep her head down. Vash only had a moment to register that the sound of the bullets missing their targets sounded strange compared to what he was used to as he barreled his way through the soldiers and rushed to catch up to his brother.

And then the first of the shots landed, first in his arm, and then quickly followed by another in his back and his leg, his neck. He was used to being shot. He was so used to the white-hot pain of bullets that the tiny pinching sensations these caused barely even registered at all. What sent him falling to the ground was the violent twinge of electricity that coursed through his body, making his legs lock up violently underneath him, the shotgun he'd stolen to keep it out of play sent sliding across the wooden floor.

The smell of ozone filled the air around him, and through the shock and confusion that rattled his brain, he realized that the loud, sharp snapping noises rattling off behind him in rapid succession was the popping of an electrical current as it was sent into the strange bullets that had landed, barbed hooks sunk into his skin that kept him tethered to the soldier's guns.

There was more shouting around him; the soldiers, Signey, his brother? No. No, that was his own voice. He couldn't even regain control of his muscles enough to move his head to see if the other had gotten away. Some part of him was panicking, the feeling of being a prisoner in his own body too much like losing control, but he was too lucid for his powers to be out of control like those times before. It hurt, he couldn't move, they had him, he'd been doing so good at staying hidden, but now they had him!

But the other part of his mind that was able to string together a single thought was scared for his brother even more. They didn't need both of them! He hadn't even been in Octovern when the fighting happened! Let him go! Let him go!

Sorry, 'Val', but the crack Earth forces can't be fooled that easily! They're after Vash the Stampede, known for having spiked-up hair and a bright red coat. If the waiter at the restaurant Vash the Stampede was hiding in decided to run, well then clearly he's an accomplice and should be taken into custody as well, but their target is the man still running down the street, that coat a banner for anyone with eyes.

The crackle of the taser sets Vash's teeth on edge, and between that and the thud of a body hitting the ground, he knows, even without turning around, what's happened to Val. Vash cuts a hard right into a nearby alleyway, scrambling up the side of the stone block building as fast as his limbs will carry him. If this was a small town -- if this was just Octovern, and the local police! -- he'd let them take Val in, and bust the man out of jail that night. But those are the uniforms of the Earth forces, and there's no way of knowing where they'll take Vash the Stampede's accomplice... especially not if they look at all closely and realize who 'Val' really is. No, once he disappears behind closed doors, it'll take a lot more than love and peace to break him back out. He'll have to be freed here, in the street, before they can take him into custody.

From the top of the building, Vash peers over the edge, wincing at the sight of Val, bloodied and pinned down, surrounded by feds. What to do, what to do? There's a lot of police down there, with more pouring out from the downtown a couple blocks back and headed in their direction. Any second now, they were going to see the scars, his eyes, the prosthetic arm, and then the secret would be out. He had to act quickly!

Now. Make a distraction, so Val can run? He'd need a good head start, given the amount of blood on the ground down there, and given the events of the last couple months, Vash can't imagine that the cops would be eager to step away from even the associate of such a famous wanted man. Blind them, with a dust cloud, or smoke? Sure, if he had any way to create either of those! The next time he stocks up on ammo, he promises himself, he'll add smoke bombs to the list. Could he lift Val out of there? Vash looks around, but there's nothing to swing on. The buildings are close enough together that he could probably make the jump from one to the other, with a bit of a head start, but there's no laundry lines or power cables or anything to throw down to the man for him to climb up. Could he use the bullets Knives told him about, the black hole ones, and knock the ground out from under the Earth forces? Too risky when they're gathered this closely together -- he'd end up taking off their feet, too, and that's not an option.

What if he surrendered? ...Oh, he doesn't like that idea one bit, but it might work. So long as the feds still don't know that Val is also Vash the Stampede, they might be willing to let a no-name waiter go free in exchange for the destruction-free capture of the Humanoid Typhoon. No, but there has to be another option! What if... ? Maybe if he... ?

Crap.

"Hello down there!" He stands up, waving to the feds just long enough to let them see him, then ducks back down. A shout goes up from the feds, echoed all the way down the line, and crap crap crap there's a lot of them down there! Not as bad as that time he and Wolfwood rescued Lina from the fake Vash the Stampede, but getting closer and closer to that number all the time. Calling over the edge of the wall, head safety out of gunfire range, he continues: "I think you've got the wrong guy! How about you let him go, and I'll come down?"

There was a glorious moment of relief when the sound of the electricity snapping down the wires stopped and he felt his body slump against the ground, boneless but no longer out of his control. The men around him rushed in, boots thudding firmly on the ground as he tried to catch his breath, and then he felt hands on him, grappling his arms and taking advantage of his momentary stupor to try and wrangle him into submission. It was enough to make his fight or flight take over, and if they hadn't started noticing the similarities already, the ease with which he managed to throw the two who had a hold of him away must have started the gears turning.

They shouted, Signey shouted, telling them to let him go with the protective anger of someone who surely couldn't have known the kind of danger she was putting herself into, and he heard the snapping crackle through the air again just before his muscles locked up for another jolt of pain. But the moments of clarity between it were enough to tell him what the source of the pain was, and he fought against the spasms locking his limbs into place with a strangled snarl. It was just electricity. He'd endured electricity, in so much higher voltages than this!

Let them go! Let them go, let them go! He fought to pull his limbs underneath him, only for the electricity holding him down to stop just in time for a boot to slam into his gut from below, hard enough to lift him off the ground and roll him onto his back, and that was enough to make him see stars, allowing the soldiers to rush in and pin him before he could throw them off again.

"Fuck, that one's a fighter! I've never seen someone fight off that much power, he shouldn't even be conscious right now!"

"You let him go, he's just a waiter, why are you attackin' my staff? He didn't hurt nobody! Val, are you alright? He didn't do nothin' wrong, he's a good man!"

"Lady, you got three seconds to back down, or we're taking you in with him!"

His head swam as the shouting continued, the ratcheting sound of cuffs cranking down around his wrists telling him before the pressure of the metal digging into the skin of his right arm did that they had finally managed to lock his arms down. He was trying to clear his head enough to try and reassure Signey so that she didn't get herself taken down with him when the sound of shouting came from outside, distant enough that he almost didn't hear it.

He hadn't been able to see the way the soldiers swarmed around the cafe outside, racing after the other Vash only to end up losing him almost before the chase had even begun. He also wasn't in a good place to see that spikey, striped head as it peeked up over the roof above them before darting back down. But he could hear the sound of gunshots as they fired, the thundering of more boots as they raced to try and cut off any avenues he had for escape from the top of the building, and it was enough to tell him that he was still there!

No! No no no no! Get away! "LET 'IM GO! LET 'IM GO, I WON'T FIGHT! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!" He wasn't the one who fought here, he could have another chance! He wasn't burned out, he could keep going!

Around him, their voices barely breaking through the panic that had begun to set in, the fact that there were two men who looked and sounded eerily similar that were trying to both turn themselves in was enough of a novelty that there were murmurs of confusion that rippled through the troops.

"Uh...sir? The fuck do we do?"

"We can't take any chances. They're twins, right? We gotta take 'em both in. Get the other one before he gets away!"

A distant cry of I'm the one that you want! filters up to Vash on that rooftop, and he closes his eyes with a sigh. They sure are the same person, aren't they? Both so eager to sacrifice for others. Knives had pointed that out, in his typically blunt, cold way, and while Vash still thinks that he'd been in the right there, he can't help but see things from his brother's perspective right now. He knows that Val couldn't have let him take the blame, any more than he could walk away right now leaving Val in custody... but he can allow himself a moment of wishing that weren't the case.

Okay. They've got Val restrained, and both buildings are surrounded at street level. New plan: grab Val and go up. Get them both up on the rooftops and then run like hell. It would be easier to wait until they hauled Val out into the street, but he's got no reason to expect that they'll move the one before securing the other. So... he takes out the front of the restaurant? Val's friend will be furious, he's sure, but if it ensures that her waiter – and, he's pretty sure, her friend – is safe, then isn't it worth it?

What about just the door? One of his black hole bullets would make short work of the structure, and if he times it right, there won't be any risk of anyone being caught up in the resulting gravity well. If he launches himself down right behind the bullet, and times everything just right, he can remove the door, land in the open doorway, take out whatever guards are in the restaurant, grab Val, and then they're free!

What could possibly go wrong?

A moment's concentration, and a faint blue glow solidifies into the shape of a .22, and he cracks open his revolver to load it in. Before he can turn back to the street and put the rest of his plan into action, though, there's a series of dull thuds from the ground below, and then the shriek of artillery. Vash barely has time to cover his face and fling himself off the rooftop before the incoming shells explode, disintegrating the top of the building and showering plaster dust over the street below. He lands wrong, tries to turn it into a roll, but only ends up flat on his back with a half a dozen feds standing over him, their weapons drawn.

Slowly, he raises his hands, but he can't help the angry tone of voice as he calls them out.

“How could you!? There were people in that building!”

Then you should have surrendered when you were told to! responds one of the officers with equal anger, and Vash doesn't even see the butt of the rifle coming down until it's too late. There's a burst of pain, and everything goes dark.

His continued attempts at wrangling his body back under his control, even as he felt hands reaching down and gripping under his arms to lift him to his feet, were interrupted suddenly by the chaos of the roof of the building being blown away, all in an attempt to apprehend one single man. The sharp screams of fear quickly faded into stunned silence, and even Signey had ducked herself into a corner away from the pandemonium when he glanced back, though the look on her face threatened a surprising amount of barely-hidden anger and threat. At least she had enough sense to know when to stand down.

"It's alright, Signey, everything's gonna be fine." She looked over at him silently, a simmering glare flickering behind her eyes that made him grin sheepishly back at her through the fog in his head. "Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry for the trouble!" She looked surprised enough to want to snap out a fierce reply, but he was already being shoved out the door, and he lost sight of her as he was shoved out into the smoking rubble outside.

Out in the streets, people were standing around, staring in various mixtures of shock and anger, and only a few yarz away, he could see his Brother being lifted bodily off the ground, dragged unconscious between a pair of soldiers towards a heavily armoured vehicle as it trundled to a stop not far away. He barely had time to register what was happening, his anxiety over reaching out giving way to his concern and trying to worriedly make a mental connection, before he found himself being shoved towards the imposing vehicle, too.

Hey, you alright? You still breathing?

It did little good, whether because the other was well and truly unconscious or because he was too dazed to connect properly. As it was, he was barely stable enough to keep his own feet properly underneath him as he watched the unresponsive Vash being tossed unceremoniously into the back of the truck, and he had just barely enough control over his own body to keep from landing on top of him when he was tossed in after.

The doors slammed shut behind them, drowning out the sounds of hushed, shocked voices as they began to murmur around the vehicle, and a moment later, the vehicle began rattling underneath them, carting the two of them to Who Knew Where. There were a few moments, where he tried his best to move closer in the darkness of the windowless chamber, to check the other for signs of life, but his own body had already begun to feel the crash of adrenaline in the absence of a struggle, and it wasn't long before the lingering fog and pain from the stungun's effects managed to drag him down into an uncomfortable unconsciousness of his own.

When he found himself waking up an untold amount of time later, it was to the sight of stark white walls and the thrum of a spaceship around him, instinctively familiar after so many years spent visiting Ship 3 and his childhood on Ship 5 before the crash before that, but still unfamiliar in its unique design compared to the SEEDS ships.

He groaned, rolling over on the small cot he'd been dropped onto and swinging his legs over the side as he looked around to try and get his bearings. It was a small enough cell, with a heavy, metal door at one end, and through the barred window set within that, he could hear the sound of voices chatting away on the other side.

Well. It wasn't as if he hadn't dealt with being in a cell before. Though he couldn't help but immediately wonder where his Brother had been taken, worried even through the fog of waking up and finding himself imprisoned on a ship. Worried even more than he was for himself, truth be told. He pushed himself to his feet with a groan, stretching the kinks out of his limbs and shaking the tingling sensation out of his feet, and made his way to the small window so that he could peer through, trying to catch sight of the other Vash, or barring that, anything he might be able to use to open the door. When that brought no results, he sighed, leaned his weight against the door, and resorted to a tried-and-true technique that had gotten him out of more than a few situations in the past; playing stupid.

"Hey, anyone out there? It's kinda lonely in here, all by myself. Sure would be nice to know why I'm stuck in here. Where'd everyone go?"

It was not during the work day, but after, when Vash was coming out of the cafe that he could finally spot the small dark-haired figure again, leaning against the wall next to the exit in a slouch that might be painfully familiar, albeit without the cigarette or sun shades.

When the man notices him, he just gets a glance up. At least Nicholas looks a lot calmer and less... underfed.

"Val? You doin' alright?"

For once, he wasn't paying too much attention around the front of the cafe when he stepped out into the street, so the sound of that little voice made him jump and gasp so fast it sounded more like a wheeze as he turned and looked around. And when the sight of the little boy coalesced into realization, he couldn't contain the small bit of flapping his hands did before settling over his now widely-grinning mouth.

"Wolfwood!" At least when the tears came, they were relieved, even happy. He immediately dropped down into a crouch, barely even bothering to step out of the way of the door to do so. No, the only important thing right now was the fact that he was here, he was ok, and he looked actually a bit less haggard than he had the last time he'd seen him.

He was shocked enough by the sight of him - and the small slap of deja vu it gave him to see that familiar, forced-casual slouch he had adopted while he stood and waited - that he didn't even realize he'd used the name he hadn't technically been given when they'd exchanged pleasantries before.

"Oh geez, you're ok! I was starting to get so worried!" He gave a bright, joyful sound as he wiped at his eyes, a choked little combination of a laugh and a sob. "Ugh, sorry, sorry! I'm just so happy to know you're alright. What happened? Where did you even get off to?"

Nicholas took in a sharp breath at the call of his surname, straightening up as if stung as some things suddenly slotted into place. When they first met, when Nicholas met quite a few people, he had not realized how much time had passed. But seeing adult Livio, seeing Miss Melanie, and those few of the children he could still remember - now older and bigger than him - gave some context to many, many reactions.

You know the future me, he thought, but did not say out loud. You and Livio and Miss Melanie. And something bad happened to him. And that is why seeing me makes you cry.

Shit.

Nicholas stepped closer and just wrapped his arms around the black-haired man's neck, holding on.

"'salright. I got bumped back and forth a bit, even all the way back to December. But eventually Miss Melanie got dropped where I was, near here, too. I'm alright. Really."

... and suddenly he wasn't sure what to say further. How to reassure. The realization was like a yawning hole under his feet, and perhaps he was holding on for his own sake as much as Val's, for just a little.

He could tell something was off immediately by the little gasp he gave and the way he stared at him, and it made Vash's own worry spike. He focused on him, looking for anything that might have caused him trouble enough that he froze. And then he found himself being wrapped in a hug, and it was his turn to freeze, his eyes going wide before his shaking arms wrapped hesitantly around the tiny frame in front of him and held him close.

Nicholas was worried about him. Nicholas was reaching out to try and comfort him, wanting to make him feel better, and it hit him like a ton of bricks all at once, even as he tried so hard to keep from letting how much it hurt show on the outside.

How? How could someone have taken this little boy and abused him the way they had? How could they have tried to beat this out of him until the man he became had felt himself undeserving of the same kindness and protection?

It made him so angry, it made him want to scream and cry and hurt the men who'd abused him and Livio and all of the other children they'd tried to warp into good little obedient soldiers, and he hated when he found himself wanting to lash out at other people. He was supposed to be better than that! But what made it worse was the little voice in the back of his head that told him he should be happy. Nicholas was safe, he would never have to go through what Wolfwood had suffered. He could live his life free and happy and never know what the Eye had wanted to do to him!

So why did it hurt so much?

He did his best to bite back the crying that had worried him, but his body still hiccupped gently with the tears, so he just held him a little tighter and put on the best attempt at a smile he could, even if it wasn't visible from the middle of the hold.

"You found Melanie, that's good! I'm so glad, December is so far away and with everyone here, it's not safe for anyone to try and make it that far all by themselves. She must have been so relieved to see you, I know she was worried when you went missing." He didn't even feel the least bit of shame for the little white lie. It was more of a half-truth, anyway. He hadn't talked to her after what happened, no, but it had been clear how much she cared about him, and how upset she had been.

He had no intentions of making him let go before he was ready, even if holding him close reminded him of carrying his body and laying him to rest, and made him realize that he'd never been able to hold him like this before, when he doubtlessly needed to be shown this kindness and care and they were both just too stubborn and stuck in their own heads to bridge that emotional gap for each other.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You deserved so much better.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Still In Octovern

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject