fortune and glory, kid.
the reunion, part 1. august 5, 2655. verglas.
Hired by a mysterious socialite to fly a small crew to Verglas, on short notice, to obtain what Vash could only guess was one of the most priceless alien artifacts in the universe, in a really nice ship? That sounded like a pretty normal week for Vash Keler. So far, the journey had been uneventful, which was unusual for most of Vash's jobs. They had left Antillia without a fuss, in a ship that Vash wouldn't have been able to get close enough to touch. It wasn't exactly his style, and he had his own, different ship waiting on Terminus for him, hidden and still in the process of getting stripped of anything that would get her noticed. He missed her, his Sparrowhawk, but his proprietor had supplied the beautiful cruiser, and Vash had spent the first hour lovingly resting his face against the control panel, flicking buttons and murmuring sweet nothings to her.

Now, Vash soared them through Verglas' atmosphere, contrails shooting out behind them as he swooped low over an icy mountain range. The intel he had been given was to follow coordinates to a section of towering icy cliffs, after which they would follow a map into a cave system beneath them. After doing a couple of fly bys, Vash located their perfect landing pad - a clearing at a higher altitude, far enough from the cliffs and snowy rocks. It was a bit of a pain to slide into, but Vash was relaxed and slouchy in his pilot's chair, legs kicked up and throwing popcorn into his mouth as he steered one handed until they had landed with a gentle bump. Over the comms, Vash called brightly, "Hey losers, we're here!" He grinned, dusted off his hands, and with one final kiss to the control panel headed out.

The mercenaries hired to retrieve the artifact were already dressed for the cold weather of Verglas as Vash made his way towards the ramp of the ship. He threw on a warmly lined coat himself and yanked a red scarf around his neck, then lead the way out to the snow and ice beyond. They were a stern and quiet lot, all dark and brooding and paid to not ask any questions and to be the heavy lifters if necessary. Vash scrunched his nose up at them, rolled his eyes and slipped the map from his pocket - he flicked the holomap open and watched as the blue flickered until an orange marker appeared ahead of them, blinking away up a winding ice-covered path. "Everybody ready?" Vash asked, and when he was only answered with a few glares and grunts he sighed and set off with a muttered, "You guys are boring."

The icy ground shook and shuddered under Raena's feet as a vessel overhead began to make its descent, landing atop a nearby plateau in the middle of the staggered mountain range, slightly lower than where she'd paused her hover bike. With her investigation into an Alliance senator at a standstill, Rae had decided to join in the hunt for the pieces of a mysterious alien artifact, which was fast becoming a race to retrieve them. It wasn't the reward that interested her—though a handsome amount of credits wasn't at all a deterrent—so much as a curiosity about the item's purported value. If it was worth that much on the black market, it had to be more than just a shiny paperweight. She could feel it in her gut. Literally, there was a feeling in her sternum leading her to a specific spot up in the mountains.

With that newly landed ship somewhere in the valley just below her, Rae picked up the pace, riding as high and deep as she could reach before the terrain grew too steep for the bike to climb. Then she just had to hoof it, wearing her power armor and gear on her back. All of the weight on her small frame slowed her down significantly, but she still seemed to be ahead of the other party. Too bad she wasn't the very first person to arrive at the opening of a cave carved into the base of the next rising peak. There were tread marks in the snow outside of the darkened mouth of the cave, trampled down by several pairs of boots. She couldn't tell how many had been there, just that there were multiple people already inside of the caves.

The odds weren't in her favor. One against who knew how many up ahead, and another group right behind her. They were getting closer by the minute. She could hear a voice just babbling on and on, carelessly giving away their location. Rae slipped inside the mouth of the cave, hiding behind a rocky outcropping to observe the crew as they cut a path down to the spot where she'd been. Her hands went to the two weapons at her hip, one her plasma sword, the other her blaster.

Vash led his group on through choppy, precarious paths and into the ice and snow, and all the while he talked. He couldn't help it - the mercenaries were all flat and uninteresting personalities, none of them encouraging him or engaging, and so Vash had to entertain himself. And distract himself from the bitter cold, too - the wind stung the skin of his cheeks.

"Have you heard the rumours about the weird cult that hides in caves? I wonder if they live here, on Verglas. I bet they would. Verglas seems like the place for cults." Blah, blah, blah. Vash stopped talking when he slipped down a little crevasse and into a wider path, and before them the holomap pointed to the mouth of a cave system. "See, like these caves." He grinned back at the group, "I told you. There'll be a cult in there. I'd bet my blaster on it."

In the mouth of the cave, Rae waited and counted. Four people. In the lead was the blathering moron who... Her stomach dropped. She knew that voice. Hadn't heard it in years, but she could never forget it. Still had a few holovids stashed away on a datachip that she hadn't been able to bring herself to erase. When his footsteps drew near enough, coming to a halt right next to her, Raena couldn't keep herself from popping up from her hiding spot and sucker punching him right in the jaw.

There had been the tiniest of prickles in his mind before it happened, a dim sense of impending doom, a feeling he recognised as meaning something bad is coming. His head snapped back, pins of light bursting in his vision, the force of the punch so strong that it knocked him back a few steps, until he lost his balance and fell, sprawling, into the dirt.

"What the fuck--" Shellshocked, it took Vash a second for his vision to clear, his jaw throbbing and already he could feel where there would be a dark bruise tomorrow. A second later, as soon as his brain felt like it had settled in his head again, Vash jerked up and scrambling off the ground to face his opponent. In a blink he had his blaster unhooked and pointed at the stranger before them, and because Vash was more shoot first and ask questions later, he fired. Zero hesitation - Vash was not one to wait to get attacked twice before defending himself.

Blinded by white, hot fury, Raena didn't think or care how insensible it was to reveal herself like that, jumping out in front of the group in range of their fire, until after she'd struck at the pilot and landed him flat on his ass. Her hand flew to the grip of her pistol as she took note of the others - three figures in armor, their faces obscured by thermal masks. The mercenary standing closest to them barely reacted, didn't jump to Vash's defense. If anything, he seemed amused by their confrontation, playing audience to a holodrama. Before she could identify herself, Vash fired.

Even if she hadn't been able to sidestep the blast with uncanny speed and reflexes, the material of her armor would've absorbed it. She was never in any real danger from him. But she was even more irate than she'd been a moment ago. "You spineless, shit for brains, motherfucker-" she started yelling, but without her speakers on, her voice was muffled. Raena reached up and pulled her helmet off, tucking it under one arm, and gave him a rude hand gesture with her other. "Vash Keler, you absolute idiot."

The damn bounty hunter could move faster than he'd anticipated. Vash growled and lifted his blaster again, because they were shouting something at him through their helmet and he was fairly sure he deciphered motherfuckeras one of the insults. Something about them threw him off, a familiar little thing he felt at the back of his mind, and then they were removing their helmet and he knew why. Vash's blaster drooped in his hold, all the blood rushed from his face and he looked as if he'd seen a ghost.

It had been years since he'd last seen her, and he had worked very hard at avoiding her. Wherever he went, she seemed to be there somehow, and it would always result in him running (often performing ridiculous feats) just to keep her from ever catching sight of him. And now his jaw was throbbing and she was standing there looking at him with a look that he was familiar with. Vash had always just imagined that he would never have to deal with this - with the whole 'sorry I ruined your life and then left without saying goodbye', thing. It looked like she had done well for herself, anyway. She was just as terrifying and beautiful as he remembered.

If the other mercenaries were muttering something about the show unfolding in front of them, Rae wasn't listening. She couldn't hear anything beyond the rush of blood in her ears as she focused in on Vash. The man who'd derailed her entire life. Who'd convinced her to give up everything she knew, told her he'd show her the whole galaxy, then abandoned her without so much as a note. She was furious and had every right to be. And she'd long imagined the day she would catch up to him and make him see what a mistake he'd made in doing that to her, only it hadn't played out like this in her head. Instead of opening with a punch, she was going to say something clever and cutting, so he'd know how badly he'd hurt her, and he'd plead for her to take him back, only she wouldn't, because she was too good for that...

Vash's mouth hung open dumbly, then finally closed and instead of apologising and trying to make things right, he looked at her with absolute offense and outrage, and pointed at his jaw. "You sucker-punched me! I can't believe you did that!"

Of course, Vash was still the biggest, dumbest manchild Rae ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with, crying about how she'd sucker punched his stupid handsome face. Was he somehow better looking than when he'd left? That wasn't right. That wasn't fair.

"I can't believe you'd just sucker-punch a guy when he's not even-" Vash's words were cut off sharply, however, because a blaster beam tore out from the darkness of the cave before them and burned past him. It was close enough to burn a few blonde hairs from his head, and he reacted with a, "Woah!" and instinctively dove towards Rae, whose arm he reached for without thinking.

She was going to yell back at him how he'd deserved to get hit and worse, not to mention he'd just tried to shoot her, when he suddenly lunged at her and dragged her down to the hard floor. "Get off!" she yelped, smacking his hand away as the sound of blaster fire echoed in the chamber, striking the walls of the cavern and knocking loose pieces of stalactites and stalagmites over their heads.

He ducked behind the rock that she'd been hiding behind, taking cover from the shooters who were now approaching and launching their attack. Vash ducked from another blaster shot and fired back, then grumbled underneath his breath. "Great. Today is just great. I still can't believe you punched me."

Recovering quickly into a crouch, Rae pulled her helmet back on and moved over several inches, as far from Vash as she could get while still receiving coverage from the rock. While he returned fire, he was also drawing all of the attention from their attackers, making it far easier for her to determine where they were hiding on the far side of the passage. Locking on two targets in her HUD, she raised her right vambrace, blaster barrels rising from the smooth paneling to fire on one of the Finusian thugs, then the other, hitting both in the head and the chest with a bright burst of blood and viscera. Beneath the singed holes in their bodies, she could see the insignia of the Black Sun Syndicate patched on their outfits.

But that only eliminated a small fraction of the enemies holed up deeper inside the cave. How far had they gotten ahead of them? Were they close to the artifact already? Maybe it would've been more tactically sound to camp out and wait for them to emerge with the prize, then ambush them, but it wasn't like Rae had much time to plot ahead like that. Even if she hadn't lost her temper and jumped on Vash, she doubted they would've let her tag along on their raid of the caves, and they still would've run into problems with the Black Sun. They would just have to figure it out after they were done being under attack.

Another thug popped up and shot at them. Rae returned it with another volley from her wrist-mounted gun. "I still can't believe I'm saving your ass. Again," she said, this time remembering to turn on the external audio so Vash could hear her.

Vash rolled his eyes as obviously as he could at Rae, and childishly imitated her comment with a high pitched voice, "Blah blah, can't believe I'm saving your ass, blah. Pfft." He punctuated that by sending blaster fire back towards the syndicate members pinning them down. "I'm saving your ass," Vash continued with a growl, "I don't need saving." And that, too, was met with another quick duck behind the rock as another blaster bolt singed the air where his head had been previously. Vash made a face as if that didn't disprove his comment, and ducked around the rock again to nail a blaster bolt into the leg of one of the oncoming Black Sun members. They staggered and fell, so Vash finished the job with another quick burst of fire.

He really hadn't changed at all. Still an insufferable jackass. Rae could roll her eyes at him in turn, but he wouldn't see, and she didn't want to lose sight of the people firing at them just to make an equally immature retort. Getting in a last word wasn't worth dying over. But he'd never had much sense in that regard, always too busy running his mouth off. She locked on to another target, her armor doing most of the work, though she ducked before she could see if her bolts hit.

Simultaneously, a Black Sun gangster emerged from the shadows with a lightning gun rifle, and a white-hot bolt streaked over Rae and Vash to slam into one of the mercenaries behind them. It hit his head, and the armour on it sizzled and melted, the mercenary's body jolting with the electric shock and his abrupt and none-too-pleasant death. Rae couldn't smell it due to the helmet filters, but she imagined the scent of charred flesh was hard to stomach.

Vash looked around with mouth agape at the sizzling remains behind them, and let out a low and elongated, "Ohhhh, damn." Great. The Black Sun meant business, then, and Vash really didn't want to get electrocuted today. Thankfully, though, the lighting rifle needed time to recharge before it could be fired again. They couldn't wait there, and if they stayed together in the same position, they could both get struck down by a chain lightning effect.

Raena got up and sprinted across the width of the cave, dodging blaster fire with relative ease, rolling toward cover behind a narrow stalagmite rising up from the ground like a jagged tooth. It was barely enough to cover the width of her, but she had a clear shot at the Black Sun commando. The rifle started to charge up with a high pitched whine, but the noise was suddenly drowned out by the arrhythmic echo of boots stomping through the cave and several shouting voices.

As Vash aimed his blaster, there came screaming ahead of them, from deep in the caves. He hesitated, distracted and unnerved by the sound. The onslaught from the Black Sun members close to them continued for a few more moments until they started to hear the screaming, too - which just grew louder and louder with every passing moment. And then, without warning, the remaining Black Sun syndicate - five or six of them - were running through the tunnels as if they were fleeing something. Some were flailing their arms as if they were fighting an invisible foe, others blindly stumbled into walls - one so hard he knocked himself out and ended up flat on his back.

With the thugs distracted by the commotion behind them, Rae shot a few easy rounds at them, but they didn't exchange fire. Instead, they’d thrown their hands up while running. Screaming. She could've picked them off as they passed, but it went against personal code to strike down an unarmed opponent. Besides, they were less important than whatever was lurking deeper within the caves. Uncertain if there was some kind of native ice creature living there, Rae had half a mind to follow them out before whatever was chasing them came for her. She still felt that tug to go deeper into the cave, but no treasure was worth her life.

"What the--" Vash started, and sniffed. There was a faintly sweet smell drifting in, and Vash twitched as he inhaled it, frowning. Nothing felt right all of a sudden, and he could see the Black Sun members closest to them starting to twitch and look around. At first it looked like they were just not sure if they should run after their companions or not, but Vash didn't have much time to think beyond that, because all of a sudden the earth erupted beside him and a terrifying creature emerged. It was like something between a worm and a scorpion, and nothing like anything Vash had seen before - except perhaps in the classic holofilm It Came From Outer Space XII. Vash yelped and yanked away, but its scythe-like claw slammed down and pinned him in the leg, and he let out a shout of agony, quickly reacting by shooting more blaster bolts at the attacking beast.

Except there was nothing there, and Vash was just shooting at the wall.

Rae turned around when she heard him shouting. "Vash?" He was on the ground, writhing in the dirt. Had he been hit by a stray plasma bolt? She couldn't tell. And as much as she wanted to hate him, the thought of him bleeding out on the floor was upsetting. If he died now, she would never get the chance to tell him off. "Are you--" Before she could finish, he suddenly let out a piercing scream and fired his blaster wildly into the air. "Stop! What are you doing?" she yelled, running over to kick the blaster out of his hand before he could hurt anyone or himself.

Except it was too late. Some of his fired bolts struck a wall, then bounced to the ceiling, causing several rocks hanging over them to break apart. Bit by bit, the sharp stalactites began to crack and crumble, showering them in debris. Without thinking, Rae leaned over his top half to shield him with her own body, knowing her armor could handle the impact if the ceiling came crashing down over them.

The holofilm monster's scythe was cutting into the muscle of his leg, Vash could see his blood, could see the gash opening underneath his pants, and he was just about to start shooting at the creature's leg - and his own - when his blaster was unceremoniously knocked from his hand. The monster had done it, Vash frantically thought, scrambling in the dirt to reach for it again. He could hear a familiar voice shouting at him but it sounded far away and as if it was underwater. Or was he underwater?

Suddenly the creature was gone and replaced by something hard on top of him, and he clung to whatever it was because in his confusion and fear and agony it felt like something safe. Above Raena the cave ceiling gave away from where it had been torn apart by his blaster bolts, rocks falling apart and dropping with a rumble. Vash thought a ship was landing on them, that's what it sounded like and that's what he could see when he squinted just barely past Rae's armoured shoulder. He tucked underneath her more, but the worst of the cave in missed them thankfully, save for a few sharp ones that scraped off of her armour.

Curving her body over Vash, Rae braced herself on her forearms, grunting with each blow to her back, but she didn't buckle. Eventually the cavern grew quiet, except for the quiet whimpering somewhere behind her, and the labored breathing below her. Looking over his face, Vash's pupils were blown like a spice addict’s, but he'd been fine - albeit incredibly obnoxious - just a few seconds earlier. What in the world...?

As the dust cleared, it became apparent they’d been separated from their group - and a large chunk of the Black Sun had either been crushed, stuck on the other side of the cave-in, or were huddled in a corner sobbing and clawing at their faces. Vash was panting - it felt like he couldn't get in enough air. He knew it was Raena above him, somehow, but her helmet suddenly had glowing red, angry eyes. He felt the sudden and abrupt urge to need to be away from her and squirmed, scrambling and tripping until he could stand again, his hands out defensively as he looked to and fro, eyes wild. The scorpion monster was gone and his leg no longer hurt, but that didn't explain the shadows that looked like hands dripping down from the ceiling and the up from the dust that coiled in the cave, all liquid fingertips tugging at his clothes.

"Raena," Vash gasped, because at least she was here, even if they didn't like each other now, and she, especially, hated him. "Can't you see that?" He ducked away from one hand, slapping at thin air.

Standing up on her own and maintaining a safe distance from him, Raena shook out the debris from her cloak and looked around. Without the stream of sunlight from the cave’s mouth, it was dim in this chamber. Only a couple of lamps the Black Sun's crew brought in remained lit, the rest crushed under the rubble. She flicked a light on the exterior of her helmet to make their surroundings more visible, and saw Vash swatting at the empty air like a cat chasing bugs. "What? I don't see anything." He was out of his damn mind.

Actually, so was everyone else stuck on this side of the divide. The couple of gangsters left were huddled in their own pile of rocks, heads clutched between their hands, weeping inconsolably. But at least they weren't armed and still trying to murder them. It was a question she often asked herself anyway, but why was she the only sane one in the room? Scanning their surroundings for signs of the beast that had chased the gang out of the cave, she found nothing. But her HUD did pick up some other unusual readings about the air quality. Particles of dust from the cave-in, and...neurotoxin? The program wasn't advanced enough to identify the substance, but her helmet was filtering out some type of gas leak.

After a moment's internal debate, she shook her head at herself and strode over to the pilot. "Vash. Calm down, there's nothing there," she said gently, despite wanting to smack him again. Rae took a deep breath, then loosened her helmet. For a second, she could smell sweetness in the air, saw the shadows flicker on the wall, but shook it off quickly. One of the advantages of having an active neurogene was a high resistance to toxins. "I'm still mad at you. But. Can you trust me? Just for now?" Before he could answer, she grabbed the collar of his coat and pulled him down so she could jam the helmet over his dumb, fat head. "Now breathe."

The shadows were touching at his legs and his arms and, with panic growing, he was starting to hit at himself to knock them away. The wisps moved with his hands but returned moments later, stronger and thicker and feeling heavier by the second. Vash felt like he was going to get dragged into the earth. But then Raena was there again, talking to him, and he struggled to get his eyes to focus on her. The eyes of her helmet were glowing red again and her voice sounded distorted and a little demonic. There's nothing there sounded like a threat, not a comfort. But then the frightening helmet was coming off and her face was normal, just like he had remembered it.

It gave him an anchor to hold onto and, even though he still looked like a frightened, wild animal, he listened intently to her. The shadows were creeping in at the edge of his vision though and he twitched and jerked a little this way and that, until she had him by his coat, and Vash gave an initial panicked struggle as she shoved the helmet onto his head. But once it was on, and he took a sharp inhale of breath, his fear ebbed. Just slightly, enough for him to regain his composure a little, his hands reaching out to steady himself by holding onto Rae's arms.

He was grabbing her again, and not in the fun way, but instead of shaking him off, Rae waited for the helmet to work. Hopefully it worked; she couldn't tell if the toxin already in his bloodstream would stay and his condition would worsen without an antidote, or if inhaling clean oxygen would actually work. If she had to forge on without him, she absolutely would. But then she'd have to circle back when she'd found the artifact, and, out of pity, make sure he got to safety. Then she'd tear him a new one.

Vash squeezed his eyes shut, breathing hard inside the helmet. The dilution of the toxin he had been inhaling had a relatively immediate effect - the shadows were still there but fainter now, and further away. His heart still felt like it was pounding too quick but it wasn't nearly as painful and terrifying as it had been, and he could no longer smell that sweetness. The fog of his brain cleared, some, and Vash could make better sense of what was real and what was a hallucination in his vision. It wasn't completely gone, but he wasn't absolutely impaired anymore. He realised suddenly that he was clutching Rae, and jerked abruptly away, not wanting her to see him more vulnerable than she already had after their very short reunion.

"I'm fine," he gasped through the helmet, and stumbled around the dark cavern searching for his dropped blaster. It was dented by the falling rocks but mostly fine, so he grabbed it and hooked it back onto his holster and turned around, dizzily, to get an idea of what had happened. "I guess there's only one way to go now," he muttered, cringing at the crying Black Sun members and moving to stand close to Rae and her light again. Vash touched at the helmet, uncomfortable for Rae having had to save him yet again, but he knew he couldn't take it off. He also couldn't thank her just yet, too stubborn and too proud to let her have that satisfaction. Instead, he sighed, "Guess we're stuck together now."

Once he seemed back to his usual bratty self, dropping his hands like she was contagious, Rae stepped away. "You're welcome," she muttered under her breath, walking away from the collapsed part of the cave behind them and looking into the dark tunnel ahead. She didn't wait for Vash to follow, but assumed he would have to - at this point, there was no other way to go but forward. The network of caves could possibly lead to another exit, but if not, she had a paint marker in one of her gear pouches that would do for leaving a trail back to the start.

Following her made Vash grumpy. Grumpier than he was about having to accept her help, otherwise he would still be writhing on the floor like the Black Sun. He didn't understand why she had helped him, exactly. He could guess - because she was as good-hearted as she always had been, because she was the hero as usual, but deep down he knew he hadn't deserved it. Vash wasn't going to think too closely on that, though. Avoidance of difficult feelings was what he did best. But nonetheless, he followed. There was nowhere else for him to go, anyway. And he still had a job to do.

"You know, I could've just left you on the ground, trying to shoot your own foot off," Rae said dryly, casting a dirty glance over her shoulder. He looked completely ridiculous with her helmet on his broader, taller body, completely mismatched with his outfit. Rae almost laughed, but instead shook her head and kept going. She had to focus on that gut feeling leading her through the cave, and on keeping the noxious fumes at bay. There wasn't enough time or energy to bicker with him. But the silence, aside from the grind of their boots on loose gravel and the occasional wet, distant drip of melting ice, was a little much. "You're after the artifact." Stating the obvious. "What were you planning to do with it?"

Fidgeting with the uncomfortable helmet stuck on him, and every now and then doing a little jump away from something that crept out of him from the walls, Vash gave a strangled little grunt in response to Rae at first. He had figured she was after the same thing that his employer was, and that would complicate matters. On one hand, Vash needed to get paid. On the other hand, he knew that Rae would be able to overpower him easily. He would have to be clever if he wanted to walk away with the artifact in hand.

"What do you think I plan to do with it?" Vash mumbled back. "Get it, get the money, pay off some debts, maybe buy a ship…" He already had a ship that he loved - but it was stuck hidden in a hangar on Terminus Station. Flying it would be a death sentence. "Why are you?" Vash hadn't heard that Rae had suddenly become a treasure hunter. He assumed she was after it for the same reasons as he. As they walked, the caves started to open up, to bigger and airier chambers. Some natural light came through in shafts from high above them, and Vash squinted up. It felt claustrophobic, still, and he couldn't trust his eyes. His heart was still beating too fast, so every now and then he stumbled behind Rae, doing his very best not to have to reach for her to steady himself. Somehow, it was instinct to stay close to her.

Raena didn't expect any other answer from Vash; it was really just a roundabout way of asking what he'd been up to without sounding like she actually cared. Of course he wanted credits. Of course he had debts he needed to bail himself out of. Of course. He probably needed the reward money more than she did, since she still lead a rather minimalist, austere lifestyle, and wasn't foolish enough to get in bed with loan sharks. But she wasn't going to work her ass off for nothing. "Because it's worth a lot," she replied.

And it was calling out to her, but she didn't want to mention that to him. It made her sound a little crazy, and she wasn't the one who'd inhaled hallucinogenic gas. She felt obligated to find out why and where this rabbit hole was leading. That journey would likely take as many twists and turns as these cave tunnels. There were multiple paths branching off this large main chamber, like a hub of sorts, but only one of them would go the right way.

"I want to know why it's so important," she said as she turned around in all directions, like she had an invisible dowsing rod in hand. But Rae was the apparatus. It was purely instinct, like a strange ping to her brain that made her set off down the tunnel to the farthest right of them. "What's the sudden interest from all these buyers?" Rae's expression was determined as she picked over a rockpile, and hoisted herself up over a short shelf to get into the next passage. It would've been easier for Vash, given his height, but she didn't want to ask him for any help.

Just because they were stranded together, like old times, didn't mean they were on the same side. They weren't partners. Not really. She paused to leave a paint mark on the wall. "It's only one piece of the thing, though. Chances are, once someone has their hands on one, someone else is going to try to swoop in and take it right after they've done the hard work. Now you don't even have your crew to back you. So, even if you did get this piece, you really think you could keep it safe by yourself until you deliver it?" Her voice took on a mocking tone, "That's a lot of responsibility." Which wasn't something he knew anything about.

Vash noticed when she seemed to choose one direction over another based on nothing but instinct. He didn't know what to make of it just yet, and assumed it had something to do with her neurogenic abilities - but wasn't what they were searching for just a dusty old artifact? Why did he care? He didn't know. He'd left her years ago, now. It was still the shock of seeing her again. It felt too strange and too normal all at once. Thrown together in dire situations again - it seemed to be what they did best. And then she was mocking him, anyway, and any desire he'd had to query her vanished.

From here, the ground started to slope downward, becoming steeper and narrower as they made their descent. That sickly sweet smell of gas hung in the air, slightly thicker in this airless route, but she could still get through it. It seemed to be a few degrees warmer than where they'd entered the cave, sheltered from the bitter, biting winds of the planet's surface. As she took her next cautious step, her boot caught on a slick ice patch and her foot rolled, ankle twisting and causing her to fall on her back. Raena let out a yelp as she slid down into the endless dark.

"I don't have to prove-" he had started, ready to argue and to trade insults again. His heart wasn't as in it as it had been when they had first met. Vash knew the way he had left things had been wrong, but didn't know how to admit it. He knew that he had missed her. There was no way he was ever going to tell her that. Vash quietened down again, lips pursing as he thought of something else to retort back, but then Rae was yelping and suddenly dropping. Vash reacted instinctively and grabbed her by the wrist, but he had lurched too far too fast and - still disoriented by the toxin running through his blood - couldn't regain his balance in time. He went ‘woah' and slipped down into the dark with her.

Skidding down the steep decline, Rae tried to kick her feet out anywhere to stop her momentum, but the walls were too far, and there was nothing solid to land on. Then she felt a sharp jerk in her shoulder as Vash grabbed her vambrace, but the pause was so brief that it barely made a difference in the fight against gravity and velocity. He could've just let her go, but for some reason he didn't, and they were both falling. His hand on her wrist slipped. She caught it with her own, gripping tight, briefly regretful that she was wearing gloves, but she still had the memory of his skin imprinted in her mind. She couldn't see a damn thing ahead of them, wondered if they were about to be swallowed by a monster at the bottom of this pit. If there even was a bottom - maybe they'd just keep going until they hit the core of Verglas itself.

This wasn't how she wanted to die. But she supposed she could've been in worse company.

The gas he'd inhaled made the drop feel like it was endless and Vash wanted to be sick. He tried to focus on holding onto Rae to make sure she didn't spin out and smash into the side of the wall. They skidded down fast and Vash, holding onto Rae with one hand, used the other to grab for the grappling hook he kept on his belt. A faint light appeared in front of them and it looked, from what Vash could see - and what was showing up on Rae's helmet's flashing HUD, that they were approaching an empty space and even steeper drop. There was no time to think or plan other than for him to snap the grappling hook from his belt and to fire. The hook sunk into rock above them at the very moment they shot out into a huge cavern - the bottom of which was miles below them, swathed in darkness. Vash held tight to Rae's hand and they were caught in freefall for a stomach turning moment - and then his hook line went taut and they slammed into the side of the wall.

Still close to blind without her helmet, Rae couldn't see what was going on above her, but she heard the sound of a projectile being launched, simultaneous to the same moment the floor under her body vanished. For a second, they seemed to be floating, suspended in the air. Then she felt another hard yank at her shoulder joint, almost close to dislocating the arm from the socket, before they collided with the cavern wall. Rae let out a grunt, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out. Pain was all in the mind. They had to get to solid ground.

Vash grinned down at Rae as they hung there - her armour was heavy and it was hard to hold onto her and hold the hook at the same time, but he wasn't going to let go, and gritted out a breathless, "Aren't you glad I'm here?" He quickly surveyed their predicament. The majority of the cavern's floor was far below - Vash couldn't tell how deep it was - but there was a raised path leading to the centre of the room where a pillar sat. And on that pillar, to Vash's relief, sat a glittering object. He could see that to the left of them was a part of the wall that jutted out, and they could creep along it until they could drop down onto the path - he would just have to swing Rae enough to do it. He kicked his foot against the wall and started a swinging motion, the effort of which pulled at his shoulder until it burned. "Think you can make it?" He asked, inclining his head to the ledge.

Seeing what Vash did, a chill washed over Rae upon spotting the artifact, though she couldn't hang there and ogle it. Rae twisted around to face the rock wall, gritting through the pain in her arm. "Of course. I'm not an amateur," she breathed, trying to sound more confident than she felt. But she'd made larger jumps before. Easy feats for a former supersoldier. "On the count of three. One... Two..." By three, she released his hand and was flying in the air, looking almost like she might fall short of the landing by half a meter. She gave herself the extra telekinetic boost to keep sailing to that narrow ledge, one hand digging into a hold in the rock to steady her feet beneath her, heels kicking off several small rocks over the precipice. Their echoes took a long time to fade as they dropped into the deep abyss.

There was just enough width to turn around. Rae looked up at Vash, calling out, "Now it's your turn. Just jump. I'll catch you! Promise." One arm felt a little dead, hanging limply at her side until she could push it back into place, but she didn't necessarily need her physical strength to help him bridge that gap. Not when she had telekinesis at her disposal. And she'd lifted things much heavier than him before.

It made him uncomfortable how easily she was able to push herself those few extra feet to make the jump. Her neurogenic powers had always left him feeling conflicted - always ending up somewhere between impressed and a little bit annoyed. She had been the one to convince him that there was more to him than empty neurogenic abilities, but he knew he would never be able to do what she could. He had stopped trying years ago. Knowing she couldn't see his eyes beneath the helmet, he rolled them in response to her cockiness. Vash didn't want to admit it - but he knew he would need that lift from her to make it the whole way. She could let him fall, a little voice in his head suggested. She had every reason to want to see him splattered someplace - but Vash didn't listen to it. For one, he had no option - and no matter what he had done, he would never not trust her.

"Yeah, yeah, you better," he chided, and kicked off against the wall again. His arm was getting tired from hanging on now, and he hoped it would hold long enough for him to swing himself enough to start the leap. Thumb ready over the disengage button for his grappling hook, Vash kicked again to get his momentum going, swinging once, and then twice, and then he hit the button and was sent sailing through the air to the ledge.

For a second his stomach dropped, because he was nearing the edge and there was none of that extra bodiless support that Rae had promised him. He was just about to fire his grappling hook again when something invisible swept him up and onto the ledge. Vash skidded and caught himself with a stumble, immediately jerking his head up to glare at Rae. While Rae couldn't see his face, he could definitely see the smirk twisting at the corner of her mouth, and hear her low, quiet snicker as she pulled him up.

"Real mature," Vash grumbled, righting himself and hooking his grappler back onto his belt. With a snort, he inched past her along the ledge, getting much too close for a second and purposefully going slower to annoy her.

She shook her head at his grumble. "You would know." It was really too bad that Vash was wearing her helmet; Rae imagined his expression at thinking he was going to plummet, then getting caught, would've been priceless. But he was never really in any danger of falling. She wasn't letting go of him that easily. Then he was way too deliberate about getting in her personal space, and she had half a mind to give him a little telekinetic nudge backwards just to give him another scare, but refrained. They didn't have time for more games.

"Come on, I'm sick of being in this stupid cave." He was pushing off then, careful of his footing on the ledge but trying to pick up their pace a little. Too many credits to even imagine were almost in his grasp - that glow was now so close. All they would need to figure out was how to escape the cave system once they had the treasure - but Vash figured the way out would show itself. As he walked, he glanced back at her, and knew better than to ask but did it anyway, "Is your arm alright? Looks a bit," he flopped his own arm in demonstration. His shoulder still burned, but it was easing up now.

Rae moved slower behind him, not just because he had to be a pest and block the way, but her shoulder hurt like hell, and her twisted ankle wasn't doing any favors, either. If she didn't know better, she would've thought Vash was actually concerned about her condition. "It'll be fine. Once we get to the platform, I'll just... Pop it back in." Which was easier said than done; admittedly, it would be a lot easier to have his assistance in pushing the joint he'd yanked out back into proper place, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of asking for help. After all, he'd already saved her life by grabbing her when she fell, when he could've just let go and gone straight for the artifact. That made them even, if anyone was keeping score.

"Hm," was all the reply Vash gave in regards to Raena's arm. It felt like he should offer to help her with it, but he knew already that she wouldn't accept it. He likely wouldn't have, either. She had far more reason than him to not want anything to do with them, but Vash was never not stubborn. It wasn't possible for him to admit wrong in front of her - not yet, anyway, and likely not any time soon. Vash had spent years convincing himself that what he had done was the right thing - that Rae deserved better, that it hadn't even been serious in the first place, all sorts of excuses but never actually getting close to what had really taken place. Vash blew past any deep introspection. It was much easier that way.

Walking in silence with her by his side, though. That was difficult. It would be better if he just stole the artifact and disappeared again - but he also knew that it would be very difficult to get away from a trained neuro, and especially Rae. But he also needed the credits, and now that the people who hired him were dead - well - that meant more profit for him. He'd still have more than originally planned if he split it with Rae - but that might be difficult to pull off. She might shove him off into the abyss below at any second.

The jump down to the path jutting out from the wall was far less perilous than their descent; Vash would be able to clear it without even having to drop that far, but Raena and her shorter stature meant it was a harder landing. A shock of pain ran up from her foot to jar her arm upon touching the ground, but she swallowed the discomfort down and straightened up. The elevated pathway ahead of them was broad enough to fit them both side by side, and she made sure to keep pace with him. They'd never set the terms for who got to claim the prize once they'd reached it. Was it a matter of who laid hands on it first? Was he going to try to fight her for it? They both knew she could knock him down into the dark void of the cave if she had to, if he made her do it.

They were so close to the artifact, a few strides away. A pillar upon the pillar cradled the artifact in its center, the object seeming to glow brighter as if it sensed their approach. That gut feeling intensified. Rae suddenly stopped in her tracks. With her good hand, she reached out and snagged his coat sleeve, shouting an urgent, "Wait!" As though she'd sensed some danger ahead of them. When she thought she had his attention, she winked and pushed past him, sprinting for the artifact at the heart of the cavern.

"What, what?" He started, looking around for more traps, but then she was smirking and bolting past him and Vash was too shocked to move for a good second. And then, shocking himself, he let out a bark of a laugh and gave chase. "You brat!" Raena had a head start but Vash had longer legs, and just as they were nearing the pillar he shot past Rae and then promptly slipped. Momentum carried him into a skid directly into the pillar itself, which rocked back and forth, and promptly deposited the artifact into Vash's lap. He propped himself up on his elbows, giving a laugh and acting as if he had planned it all, turning his head to grin up at Rae through her helmet.

"Idiot," Rae had growled under her breath as he caught the artifact. While she'd been teasing him about the path being trapped, trying to trick him into slowing down, she'd anticipated that the display itself might need a more deft touch. But he just fumbled his way through it, like he always did, and somehow he had the artifact in his hands. Maybe it was that simple.

Except, in response to the artifact having been displaced in the incorrect way, the cavern around them started to shake, and rumble. Bits of rock and debris dropped down from the high ceiling, smashing onto the platform around them. "Ah, fuck," Vash sighed. Of course. He grabbed the artifact, felt a pulse and a shock flow through him that he ignored, and scrambled up. The cavern was rapidly disintegrating, but past the pillar he had knocked over was another path, with a glimmer of light at the end of it that was getting wider and wider as the walls cracked.

"This way!" He shot over his shoulder to Rae, pocketing the artifact and following the guidance from her HUD to search for that escape route. Bolting down the path, he dodged falling rocks, glancing back every now and then to check that she was close behind, and then the wall was opening up in front of them and Vash skidded through the crevasse created and out into daylight. A cloud of disturbed sediment swallowed them up, Rae stumbling blindly behind Vash until they were lower down the mountain. Even without the helmet, she was able to follow their exit path, stepping aside nimbly as a chunk of ceiling came down behind her and sealed the cavern from further intruders.

Dust and dirt billowed out of the tunnel behind them and they were deposited out onto a path in the mountains - and in the distance, barely visible through the heavy curtain of falling snow, was the ship Vash had flown the mercenaries in on. He laughed and yanked off Rae's helmet, hair mussed and pointing this way and that, and he spun around and shrugged casually to her with a shit-eating grin on his face. "Just as I planned. There wasn't ever anything to worry about."

Though temporarily blinded, Rae stopped when she heard his footsteps slow, shaking dust and debris out of her face and hair, coughing hard until her lungs burned. Her sight cleared up as he pulled off her helmet, and while he was laughing, she was scowling and brimming with barely restrained fury. Nothing to worry about? His rash actions had almost gotten them killed, as per usual. He was such an asshole. She was going to give him something to wipe that stupid grin off his face.

Raena stalked toward him, using a bit of telekinesis to help sling her busted arm over his shoulder, fingers twisting into his hair and pulling him down to her level for a kiss. Deep and passionate, rough and gentle all at once, a reminder of what they used to have, what they still could've had if he hadn't walked out - and just distracting enough that she could deftly slip her good hand into his pocket. Her fingers wrapped around the artifact, feeling a strange surge of energy through the material of her gloves, but it didn't bother her - she was a bit preoccupied, anyway, pressing her lips to his.

As the dust cleared and Vash saw that expression on Rae's face, he knew he was in for it. It made him laugh a little harder, even as he prepared himself for the inevitable punch to match the bruise that was mottled on his jaw from earlier. But then the wind was taken out of him and it wasn't from her fist. Vash made a little ‘mmph' noise of surprise and confusion, warmth flooding every inch of his body. He had never forgotten how amazing it felt to kiss her, but this was a reminder that he hadn't expected in the least.

Normally, Raena wasn't usually one for relying upon so-called 'feminine wiles' to get something done. She used her fists and her abilities as her weapons, not seduction or the tantalizing promise of affection or sex. But this was different. With Vash, there was a history, and maybe it was wrong to take advantage of that, but he'd snatched the artifact right out from in front of her and it wasn't fair. So she had to improvise and use everything she had against him to get it back. And maybe she'd enjoyed it, too, just a little. That spark was still there, unless she was mistaking the tingle from the artifact in her hand for the rush she felt at kissing him again. No one could ever say things between them were dull, at least. Releasing Vash, she stepped back, breathless and a little flushed - from running for their lives, obviously - concealing the artifact behind her. She smiled at him coyly, "Just like old times, huh? We always worked well together."

Too shocked to initially respond, by the time Vash realised enough to start to reach for her, she was pulling away and he felt like he'd forgotten how to breathe. Vash was, for one of very few times, speechless. He just stared at Rae for a moment, his face reddening with every passing second as his short-circuited brain tried to boot itself up again so he could figure out what the hell had just happened. First she was punching him and yelling at him and now she was kissing him. If that wasn't a perfect example of their relationship, he didn't know what was. Vash swallowed, slowly, his hand lifting up to run through his hair while the other subtly adjusted his pants, and he shook himself back into reality.

"Need a ride?" Was all he could come up with after that. He hadn't felt her sneaking the artifact out from his pocket, but while Vash was foolhardy and reckless, he wasn't a complete moron - he knew she wouldn't have let him off the hook that easily. Better to keep her close until he could figure out what it is she was playing at. Also, maybe she would kiss him again.

He didn't seem to notice that his pocket was lighter, but she wasn't able to get away just yet while he was still looking at her with those moony eyes. Too bad the artifact was just a little too big to slip inside a gap in her armor, otherwise she would've secured it already where he wouldn't get to it. Instead, she just had to stuff it in a gear pouch on her back. "Well, I left my bike on the other side of the mountain, so I should probably go get it," she said, thumbing vaguely in the other direction with the arm that didn't hurt like hell. "It's a rental." Which meant the company would probably be able to retrieve it themselves by following the built in tracker, but the surcharges would be enormous.

Then again, she had an artifact in her pack worth enough credits to cover the cost of ten abandoned hover bikes. Her arm was still horribly out of place, too, and she didn't know how much jostling from the ride she'd be able to take without passing out on the way back to the outpost. But first she'd have to find it in the snow, and the ship was only a kilometer away, within plain view of where they stood. Vash was foolhardy and bullheaded, but the more excuses she made, the more likely he was going to catch on to what had happened.

If she could keep him preoccupied at least as long until they got back to Terminus... "Okay. Take me for a ride, Vash Keler."
part two