Total slaughter, total slaughter...

[plantpacifist.livejournal.com]

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.

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[returntoeven.livejournal.com]

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.

[plantpacifist.livejournal.com]

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."

[returntoeven.livejournal.com]

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?"

[plantpacifist.livejournal.com]

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."