Gunslinger

How could he remark about beauty at a time like this? The stars were pretty, but she'd never really even looked at them on Earth that way. Now that she was hurtling through space on a ship full of thieves all she could think about was how she must be cursed.

"Now...now we try and take the ship."

There had to be far more than five operators if this was a vessel of any significant size.

Two against how many?

She muttered something about her people being used to long odds.

Sarah looked Val in the eye for the first time. The clear depths of those emeralds almost stopped her in her tracks.

"We need to split up. You take enyineering. I'll take the bridge."

She honestly couldn't think of another way out and they were likely to die in the attempt.

"I'd rather die fighting."

Vash nodded slowly. He wasn't a fan of the splitting up plan; he wanted to stay with her so he could protect her. But... well, people tended to get hurt because they knew him or were with him. Maybe she'd be safer without him. "If you get caught, I forced you to help me."

Then the seriousness left his face, replaced by a goofy grin and an eyebrow waggle. "Do I get to have a kiss for luck, pretty lady?" Hey, it was worth a shot, right? If she said no, he was no worse off, and if she said yes, he got a kiss.

She appreciated his sentiment, she did, though why he somehow felt that he needed to protect her and not the other way around was beyond her comprehension. He was the prisoner. She was the rescuer. Maybe he just needed to think of her as a damsel in distress to keep himself motivated. He certainly hadn't done a single thing to help himself until she arrived.

Sarah nodded, deciding they didn't have time to argue about who was protecting who.

She was about to run off toward what she hoped was the command center of the ship when he asked his last question.

Sarah couldn't move. Only her eyes blinked rapidly while she felt her cheeks burn.

Was he serious?

"I..."

Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.

Any moment they could be surrounded by soldiers with guns and no reserve on shooting them dead and he wanted a what?

Val went from serious to insane almost too easily.

"Go?"

She had meant it to come out as a strong order. Instead it fell off her lips like a question and worse it didn't convey the sense of urgency or her unwillingness to be that close to anyone.

To make matters worse while she'd said the word she was still rooted to the spot like her legs were made of lead.

If her cheeks got any hotter her head would explode.

Vash shrugged. "It was worth a shot. I was hoping to get that kiss, but if you don't want it, that's okay, too!" He waved cheerfully before turning to run through the door.

Once out of sight, he allowed his demeanor to change. It wasn't a fast change; it was a slow drawing up into stiff posture, his face changed out of the wide smile into a more serious set of lines, his shoulders pulled back and he moved almost rigidly, the looseness gone from his muscles and bones.

The funny man was a mask, and one he wore well. But with no one around to observe it, he didn't really have a need for it.

He made his way swiftly through the ship, looking for the engineering (he assumed that was what she'd meant by enyineering, though he couldn't be entirely sure, of course).

Growing up the way she had she was pretty much trained to expect the worst in men. That he respected her hesitancy threw her off even more than his initial request had.

She blinked again and he was gone.

Sarai let out a long breath, releasing an ache inside she'd never really felt before.

I'm fine being alone. I'm good alone.

Her thoughts seemed to bounce off the empty walls for a moment while she struggled to reorient herself. Self preservation snapped her out of it as gunfire echoed from a corridor.

Sarah ran almost blindly for the command center, her lungs aching by the time she reached it. She'd lost count of how many times she'd fired her zat in the process but she did know one thing--she hadn't taken any prisoners.

Clearing the bridge actually wasn't as bad as she'd thought. Only four people stood between her and the controls of the ship. She only hoped her companion had as much luck with his task.

Sarah vaulted over to the controls and started pushing buttons. It appeared to be heavily modified Goa'uld technology.

Problem: She was crap with machines. Elijah was the tech-wizard.

"You're incredibly sloppy for Mossad."

Sarah spun around pointing her zat at Jameson who stood on the higher ground leveling a M9 at her from near range.

"I think I did pretty well, myself."

The standoff only lasted a few seconds. Both weapons fired.

Sarah fell to her knees clutching her shoulder and trying not to scream in agony. She hissed through her teeth as Jameson approached with his gun level at her head.

She would never willingly use a zat again. Stupid thing couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.

Sarah forced her head up to look her executioner in the eye.

Vash made his way to the engineering, lucking out enough to not have to deal with running into people. If he had, he didn't know if he would have killed them or not, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that ambiguity.

But he had a bad feeling, and followed his intuition. He found himself at the bridge in time to see Sarai fall to her knees. Vash's hand came up without his brain even commanding it to, his gun pointing at the jackass that had pulled Sarai up by her hair and now had a gun leveled at her. Vash, at the peak of his abilities, would have shot to wound, maybe shoot the gun out of the guy's hand. Vash wasn't at the peak of his abilities. Vash was nowhere near the height of his abilities. He couldn't guarantee he'd be able to do that and help Sarai.

So Vash didn't shoot to wound.

Vash pulled the trigger.

His target dropped, the bullet having entered his temple.

Vash felt no satisfaction, but neither did he feel remorse.

It happened so fast. One moment she was looking up into Jameson's eyes and the next there was a shot. She felt herself falling, not sure if these were the last moments before death.

Her eyes felt so heavy and she was so tired. It was just so hard to keep going now. After everything had happened, after everything had changed--it just exhausted her.

Maybe some sleep would be nice?

Vash dashed to Sarai and lifted her up. When he realized that she did, in fact, still have a pulse, he went over the top, clutching her close. "Don't die! You can't die! I never got the chance to tell you I looooooooooooooooooooooove you!" He wailed loudly, rocking back and forth with her held to his chest. "Why does everything bad happen to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?"

Normally she would have clawed his eyes out trying to get away from him, but she was just too dazed by the bullet and too relieved he'd saved her to care right now. She let him hold her close and didn't struggle.

Maybe she even liked it a little?

Her free arm tightened around him for a moment before things got too sappy.

He...WHAT???

Sarah mumbled into his collar.

"Are you done yet?"

Sarai felt herself smile. She must be in shock.

Vash held her tighter. "You're alive! Oh, my darling flower, I'm so grateful that the gods have spared your life!"

My darling flower???

Sarah found a pressure point on his arm and squeezed just enough to get a reaction.

"What are you on?!"

She tried to sit up and screamed. Her hand shot to her shoulder and returned covered in blood.

"Um...I don't feel so well."

It always amazed her how childish and vulnerable people sounded when they were shot or gravely injured and now she was doing it.

Vash helped her lie down. "First thing first. Pressure on that wound. Good news is, it missed vital stuff and it's a clean shot. Went straight through. Bad news is, you still got shot."

Rather than tear up his own coat, he ripped strips off the dead guy's uniform, wadding the fabric against both sides of his shoulder.

Sarah nodded and held the wadding to her shoulder while he held it to her back. After a few moments she didn't feel as dizzy. She still felt like hell, but there was work to do still.

His personality changes were giving her whiplash.

She pushed herself off the ground with a growl.

"Have to get us back to Earth..."

"Can you fly this thing?" Vash had lived on a spaceship, yes, but he hadn't flown it. His last experience with one had been it crashing, after all.

He helped her stand up, continuing to press the wad of fabric against the exit wound.

Sarah stumbled over to navigation one hand on his where his hand pressed into the back of her shoulder blade. She sat heavily in the seat.

Laughter bubbled up from nowhere.

"No...never tried, but maybe I can find a return to sender button somewhere?"

That wasn't even considering landing...a space ship...on a planet that didn't exactly know they 'weren't alone'.

"A broch tsu mir!" Oy! I've been cursed!

Vash stood next to her, continuing to hold the bloody fabric against her. "I have faith in you, as did your yeneral." He shrugged, a grin across his features again. "And if you fail, we'll die quickly!"

"Or we get stuck in hyperspace for the rest of our lives."

Sarah rolled her eyes. The fortunate thing about the ship was the translations. She didn't speak Goa'uld.

"Ok, I think we should be headed on a return journey to my planet. What we do when we get there I have no idea. They don't exactly know about the existence of alien life and me landing a ship on the surface is probably going to attract some very unwanted attention."

She could think of half a dozen countries that would have missiles in the air before she could send a distress signal.

Vash swooned dramatically. "I'll at least be stuck in hyperspace with you, dear flower."

Truthfully, he was hoping for a peaceful landing. Not being stuck in hyperspace or crashing or anything.

But being all dramatical was fun. And it irritated her, which was entertaining.

"Ech!"

Her eyes rolled into her head. It was easier for her to speak her native tongue right now whether he understood it or not.

"Ani Lo Mevin Otcha" I don't understand you.

She didn't understand how he could be so serious one moment and then a complete infant the next. It was really getting on her nerves.

The most annoying part was if he would just settle on the serious she would have maybe let him kiss her by now...well, maybe not kiss.

Suddenly the blue streaks of hyperspace vanished and the rings of Saturn exploded into view.

Vash smiled at her. "Flower, I don't know what you just said, but no worries! The language of love needs no translation." He waggled his eyebrows at her again.

The view outside the window changed, and he dashed over to look. "Oh, look at that! That's amazing! Have you seen this before?"

Language of...ugh.

Sarah would have dropped her forehead onto the console in front of her if the effort wouldn't have hurt.

Her head hurt.

Sarah looked up from the console for a glance at the rings.

"Once, from a telescope. Right now I'm more interested in not hitting those asteroid fragments than I am at admiring them."

The ship wasn't in any danger and she knew it. Their course only brought them close to the rings, but not too close.

Vash looked at her. "You're not steering." He ran back over to her and tried to pull her out of the seat so he could drag her over. "You should come see. Take a moment to enjoy it."

"Ow! Shoulder!"

She followed him at a choppy gait and huffed when they stopped in front of the window.

Her eyes didn't even focus on the scene in front of her. She'd ceased looking at beauty for beauty's sake a long time ago.

"It's pretty. Now can I go try to make sure we're not going to die a fiery death on reentry? Or are the sparkly rocks more important than our lives?"

"First tell me what colours you even see." Vash started to put his hands on her shoulders from behind her, before he thought better of it, and instead dropped his hands back to his sides. "Just look at it."

He felt warm at her back. She assumed he was just trying to keep her steady in her injured state.

Sarah closed her eyes and sighed before reopening them to the panorama in front of them.

"I see red, orange, silver, black..."

It was quite breathtaking. Saturn was enormous and the rings sparkled like millions of diamonds.

Before she realized it she'd leaned back a little until she could feel his coat on her arms.

She was still dizzy from blood loss.