capeandcowllogs | Total slaughter, total slaughter...

Total slaughter, total slaughter...

WHO: Vash the Stampede and Millions Knives
WHERE: Knives' secret lair (I never get tired of that word. Laaair.)
WHEN: An hour or so after Knives' rampage
WARNINGS: Vash is angry. Vash, the dude who manages to smile cheerfully while hardened criminals are shooting at him from all sides. Watch out.
SUMMARY: During Knives' killing spree, Vash sensed a spike in his brother's energy. He tracks Knives back to his home to have a few choice words
FORMAT: tl;dr

Though Vash's plant abilities were all untrained, there remained to him one foolproof little trick - the knack of sensing his brother's presence within a few dozen kilometers of distance. Since entering the City, it was always there, at the back of his mind. Dimly, he could tell in which direction the sensation came from, and his power level. When the Porter malfunctionned, his first clue that something had happened to Knives was a peculiar quality to his presence. Tonight, it suddenly flared, as it only did when Knives was using his blades. Something dreadful must be happening. Knives must be in a fight.

The feeling set Vash's body running before his mind had time to react - the urgent habit to find Knives before he could kill again was ingrained by eighty years of practice. Still running, his brain finally began to work: should he give his brother a bit of space, it queried, as he did during the squabble with Shatterstar? But no, this was different. Damn it all, he'd been trying that patrolling thing clear across town! Even running at his fastest, would he be fast enough to catch Knives before it was too late? One of life's pedestrians, it never occurred to him to catch a bus or a taxi.

A half-hour later, he arrived at the scene of the crime. Deserted, but for the corpses, expertly, cleanly sliced like macabre steaks. Vash's heart sank. This precision could only belong to Knives, and since it did... Vash didn't even want to continue that train of thought, but he had to go to his brother.

*****

The door to Knives' hideout burst open and Vash rushed in. "Knives!" shouted the red-clad plant.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was a little earlier than he'd expected, but the sound of his brother barging in like he owned the place wasn't surprising in the least. They shared a connection, as Plants and brothers, so it made perfect sense that Vash would have been aware of his 'episode'. Still, having only recently returned from the site of the massacre himself, Knives really didn't want to deal with his twin right now. He'd only just managed to control the bleeding at the back of his skull, his shoulder and side, and the noise Vash's entrance alone had made was enough to make him wince flood the area behind his eyes with a pulsing, white pain.

Grimacing, Knives pressed a bag of ice wrapped in a towel to his forehead, topless and stretched out on the couch as he'd been for the past ten minutes. Thankfully, he'd already cleaned up, the bloodstained clothing disposed of, his wounds bandaged so he didn't look that bad. Unfortunately, his looks didn't change the fact that he felt like shit and really, really didn't want to talk to anyone and especially not Vash. He couldn't really do anything about it, though, so he had to swallow his anger and deal with it.

He didn't even spare his brother a glance when he came in. "Didn't anyone ever teach you to knock?"

There was no way Knives could kill a score of men and expect Vash to sit quietly by and not comment. Especially not after expressing his disinterest in killing humans. That dismissing comment was the worst, too. "How can you talk about manners after that?! I saw those corpses! I know it was you! Why -!" Vash's tirade faltered when he noticed his brother's bandages.

"How come you're injured?" he asked, flabbergasted.

If the sound of Vash's voice hadn't been so grating on his nerves, Knives actually might have laughed at note of incredulity in his tone. That was just like his brother - always shooting off at the mouth before actually thinking about what he was saying. He'd expected as much, though, so it wasn't surprising, just annoyingly familiar.

Knives turned his head, a small humorless smile lifting the corners of his mouth as he answered. "Your detective skills never cease to disappoint, Vash. Your speed, however, is a bit lacking. Someone else already beat you to the punch."

Edited 2009-03-16 21:22 (UTC)

Thirty men had seemed like an awfully small casualty list for Knives. That explained why Vash hadn't found his brother there still, slaughtering ever more people. "I can't imagine anyone coming close to taking YOU down."

The surprise of seeing his brother in such a state had distracted Vash, but it hadn't disarmed him. "Why'd you do it? You said you weren't gonna kill the humans anymore!"

"Then you obviously haven't been paying attention to the variety of individuals the Porter brings here," he snapped, not really in the mood to discuss his defeat - yes, he would use the word despite how much it irritated him. He'd deserved it so he would accept the term and his injuries with as much grace as he could muster.

Of course, managing to have grace of any kind was sort of out of the question now since Vash was still talking, damn him, and asking questions he didn't have the words to answer. He pulled the ice pack over his eyes, aggravated but attempting to be patient.

"Because I felt like it."

Edited 2009-03-18 02:11 (UTC)

"WHY YOU-!" Vash stopped himself. He couldn't let this end in a shouting match - what would be the point of that? It always set him off when people treated others as though they didn't matter. He was so angry, and so sad. "That's a lie." he choked out, hoping it was indeed a lie. "If it was because you just 'felt like it' you would done it a long time ago! You said you weren't gonna kill humans anymore and I believed you!"

Knives suppressed an exasperated groan, his ire intensifying as Vash ranted at him, the noise making his head pound even more than it already was. The ice helped, of course, but it couldn't quite blot out the pain, much as he wished it would. Even more than that, though, he wanted his brother to shut up and get out. He knew that tone, too - the idiot was going to cry any minute now, and he just-

"Don't," he said, eyes still covered but conveying with his voice alone a tangle of emotions that he couldn't sort through right now simply because his skull fucking hurt. It was too loud in here, and if Vash was going to insist upon staying, the least he could do was not burden his twin's senses with his caterwauling.

Vash blinked back his tears and took several deep breaths. He recognized Knives' exasperated behavior as well, and despite the situation, his pride was still offended by it. He wouldn't cry now.

"Fine." he answered finally, in a voice still angry. "If you want me to stop, then tell me what the hell that was!" Vash needed to know the answer before he could figure out what needed to be done. No, that was an excuse, he knew. Before coming to this City, he had spent so long thinking how to stop Knives without killing him, with no answer. He had dared to hope that they wouldn't face each other again, not here, for the lives of humanity.

Vash really wasn't going to shut up, was he? Not that Knives had really expected him to, but it would have been nice if he had. His eyes burned under the cold compress, the throbbing pulse behind them making him feel as though his skull would explode any moment now from the sheer pressure there. He needed painkillers, something to ease the severe discomfort he was feeling, but he could barely even think, let alone motivate himself to move. Vash's rage seemed almost secondary compared to this, the pain overriding everything else--almost.

He owed his brother an explanation...and he had promised. Maybe not in so many words, but he'd made the pledge in his own mind even though he hadn't voiced it verbally. But this--he didn't know how to explain this or...anything, really.

Finally, though, after about a full minute of silence, of wrestling with himself over what to say, Knives answered. "I couldn't help it."

His voice was no more than a whisper, the words tinged with shame...and despair. Not for the lives taken, since they had deserved what they'd gotten, but rather over his lack of control when he'd tried, even sworn to himself that he would not pick up the bloody mantle of humanity's executioner while he was here. He'd failed, though, just as he'd failed with everything else he'd ever done.

There would be no peace for him, either - not until the day he returned to the grave he'd so willingly embraced.

Vash felt sick horror in the pit of his stomach. That a being capable of so much destruction 'couldn't help it?'. Much of what Vash knew about the powers of plants, Knives had presented to him in the most traumatizing way possible. Vash had always been a little afraid of his brother after the Big Fall, in the same way, perhaps, that Knives was afraid of humanity.

This visceral, knee-jerk fear possessed him for a moment, and he couldn't the twinge that passed across his face. Then he fell silent, regarding his brother's injured frame, deep in thought. Despite the fear, they were brothers, after all, the only two independent plants on Gunsmoke. Better than he would ever admit, Vash knew the dark side of humanity, and understood the temptation to do away with them.

Ah. To continue his crusade against them here would be a petty and pointless thing for Knives to do, wouldn't it? Vash didn't even need to think any further.

"I see." he said finally. "Thank you."

Did he see? Really? Knives had his doubts about that, especially given how vast the time difference between them truly was. Vash couldn't know the things that had transpired back on Gunsmoke--July, the Gung Ho Guns, his captivity, the cointegration...so many things had happened, and even though it had been months since their conflict had ended, the details were still vivid in his mind. Or at least, they were when he thought about them, which wasn't very often, honestly. "Remembering", after all, was what had gotten him into this mess in the first place so it was better for him (and everyone else, in general) to not think about certain things.

Feeling sober now, the quiet setting in, Knives forced himself into a sitting position, biting back a groan at throbbing in his skull, the pulse against the ice. ...Painkillers. Right. He'd get to that, just as soon as his head stopped feeling like it was going to explode.

Turning his eyes on Vash, albeit somewhat blearily, he just...sort of looked at him for a moment before voicing a question of his own, quietly.

"Anything else?"

The shame in Knives' voice when he admitted he'd lost control - it had alleviated Vash's fear that his brother would repeat that crime. He couldn't say THAT out loud.

"I- Knives, you and I, we've both been pursuing one goal for our entire lives, and that's over now. We've spent so long putting our hearts into that, and we have nothing to invest that in anymore. That's what I see."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Total slaughter, total slaughter...

no subject

Rem never got to that part of their education ;_;

Clearly, she was a neglectful parent

I suspect she never gave them "the talk" either

Haha. I actually read a fic about that once. It was hilarious.

They thought Tessla was awfully cute, as I recall

It was another girl - a human :>

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject