Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun, it is owned by Yasuhiro Nightow.
----
Vash walked wearily into the town of Rockville, where he had left the girls before his battle with Knives. He left a few big pieces of his old life back on that battlefield, the destructive guns his brother had made, and the red coat that had been given to him by his friends in the city in sky. Vash was carrying his brother over his shoulder, Knives was hurt, a bullet wound in each of his shoulder and one in each leg.
He heard a moaning coming from over his shoulder. Even knowing that Knives was disarmed and badly wounded Vash got panicked, he wouldn't like waking up surrounded by humans.
He hurried to the house he had shared with the girls and put Knives on a bed and looked down at his brother, bloody bandages and a pained look on his face. It was like he knew where he was, a village surrounded by humans. "Rem told me to take care of you, and that's just what I'm going to do Knives."
'Maybe if I can show Knives that not all humans are bad he'll stop this madness.' He stepped out onto the porch and looked over a crowd.
"Come on Millie, I'll make us some dinner. You deserve it for finding that water vei... Vash!"
"Mr. Vash?" He turned around and saw Meryl and Millie walking towards the house. Meryl was in a waitress' uniform for a local bar, and Millie was in worker's overalls.
Vash raised up his right hand, "Hello."
Meryl stormed up, "Don't you "Hello" me! Do you have any idea how worried we were about you while you were gone?"
"Aww, gee I didn't mean to worry you. I'm sorry."
"Honestly you are impossible, sometimes I wonder why I even bother," she breathed a sigh of relief and hugged Vash, "I'm glad you came back safe."
Millie ran over and joined in the hug, causing the trio to fall to the ground, "Oh Mr. Vash we were so worried about you! Did you win?"
"Of course I did Millie, I told you two that I'd be back. Now, could ya please get off me? I think you're crushing my spine." The three got up and Millie bowed apologetically. Vash looked seriously at the girls, "I brought my brother back with me, and I want you two to be very careful around him, he doesn't care much for people."
"Mr. Vash's brother? Let's go meet him Meryl," Millie grabbed her by the arm and ran into the house.
"Wait you really shouldn't do that!" It was too late though, the girls were already in the room with a now fully conscious Knives.
"Vash, what possessed you to bring me here? Do you honestly expect me to live amongst their kind?" Knives shouted, his face twisted with rage.
"Hey now, that wasn't a very nice thing to say. You should apologize," Millie said indignantly. She didn't understand how Knives could be so incredibly rude to
people he didn't even know.
"I will do no such thing." Knives sneered. He had enough of this. He refused to be plagued by the human filth in his presence any longer. He attempted to reach for his gun, but found that he couldn't move his arm enough to reach where it would be. "If not for my injuries, I'd have killed you in an instant."
"Come on you two, love and peace. Can't you at least try to be civil Knives?" Vash had an exasperated look on his face as he stepped between the two, holding his hands up in the air. "I brought Knives here to show him that not all humans are bad. In fact, these two have really helped me out on a few occasions."
Knives' lips curled disdainfully as he turned his head, "That simply means the priest wasn't doing his job well enough. But then again, he's dead isn't he? It's not polite to talk bad about the dead, is it miss," he asked, a snide tone in his voice, as if he knew about the bond she had shared with Nicholas D. Wolfwood.
"You... you're nothing more than a big jerk," Millie yelled, holding back tears as she ran from the room.
"Vash, I want you to keep your brother in line if he's going to be staying here," Meryl said, a clear anger coming across, as she went after her friend.
---
A few hours passed, and Vash came into the room, a bowl of soup in each hand. He had changed out of his brown jumpsuit, and into the clothes he wore when he lived with Lina and was known only as Ericks. It seemed like an eternity to him since those days. He set a bowl down on the night stand and took a spoonful of the soup and put it to Knives' mouth. "Eat, you need our strength."
"Did one of the wretched, female humans make this, perchance," he inquired, eyeing the spoon with contempt.
"They aren't wretched, they're my friends. Now eat this before I force you to."
"Do you take me for a fool, Vash? I know what humans are capable of. That food could very well be poisoned. Do you honestly think they wish me well? The lives of their entire race are in jeopardy as long as I live."
"Millie and Meryl aren't like that! You've lived just as long as I have and you can't see that the humans aren't all bad?" Vash set the other bowl down and stood up in front of Knives, staring down confidently at him.
"You still don't understand, do you, Vash? This has nothing to do with those two downstairs and everything to do with humanity as a whole. They destroyed their home planet Earth, and now they are devouring our sisters! All they think of is the advancement of their own race, regardless of the harm they cause! That is why they must be wiped out, that is why I will never stop. Not until every single, last one had been exterminated like the parasites they are!"
"That's where you're wrong Knives. They need the power of the Plants to survive, and the Plants are willing to provide it for them. The Plants take care of the humans, and the humans take care of the Plants. It's a symbiotic relationship, if there weren't engineers to take care of the Plants then they would eventually die, and if the Plants didn't provide energy, water, and even the oxygen we breath for the engineers, they would die. It's all a matter of give and take, humans may have taken too much from Earth, and some may still take too much from the Plants, but most understand that they need the Plants to survive and treat them accordingly. Like the precious resource they are." In a heartbeat Vash went from serious to upbeat, "Now eat your soup before it gets cold."
Knives glared dolefully at the offered food for a moment before grudgingly accepting some. He acted like he hated it because it was taking help from a human, but in truth the flavor reminded him of a soup Mary used to make on the ship. It had always been his favorite. He knew that if his brother found out he was having fond memories of a human, it would only make the fool think he was getting soft, starting to like them.
As he finished the bowl of soup he spoke one word, "More."
"You actually want more? Seems like ya hate the stuff."
"I'm just hungry, so give me more you pathetic sap." Vash was more than happy to oblige and started feeding his incapacitated brother the other bowl.
He smiled as Knives finished the second bowl and took them to the door, "You really should thank Meryl, she worked hard to make this soup just for you."
Knives only sneered as his brother left the room and closed the door. Had she really gone to that trouble just for him? Maybe she wasn't as bad as he thought. He quickly dismissed the notion and went to sleep.
---
A few weeks had gone by, and Vash felt like he was finally making a little progress with his brother, and in his own soul searching. He stayed home with Knives, taking care of what he needed while the girls were out working. He felt bad that they were basically mooching off the girls, but he didn't feel that he could leave Knives by himself.
Knives sat up in his bed, he and his brother were in the midst of one of their common talks about the nature of humanity. He shook his head as he spoke, "Vash, you still don't get it do you? Most humans will not learn the errors of their ways if you just let them go free, and some are beyond saving. A serial killer will continue to kill, a slave trader will continue to sell people to others. You can't let people like that go on to hurt others can you? They are like parasites that will leech off the pain of others."
"I understand that Knives, but that's what the legal system that civilization puts in place is for, to judge the guilty and sentence them to punishment for their crimes."
Knives shook his head, smiling lopsided at his brother. "But their legal system is far from perfect. A man can buy his way out of a death sentence, and he will then continue his life the way he had before. A gang member can be broken out of prison easily. Don't you think that simply eradicating them and their destructive tendencies is the best way to ease the suffering of others?" He raised an eyebrow. "Such as our sisters?"
Vash stood up, and said in an impassioned voice, "No! Just because a man has done wrong doesn't mean he can't change! You should never take the life of another!"
"But what if they are taking lives without caring who it affects?"
A rage built up inside Vash's mind, he couldn't hold in what he wanted to say anymore, "You mean like you did? You always said that humanity was worthless. Fighting, abusing resources, and killing without meaning. But haven't you been doing the same thing for the past one hundred and thirty odd years? Abusing the power given to us, sending the Gung Ho Guns to fight for you, and killing thousands of humans just because you thought they were inferior? You are just like them, whether you admit it or not!"
Knives didn't respond to this, he couldn't deny it. He really was no better than the humans he had hated for so long. A pained look crossed his face, 'Could this possibly be true? Am I the same as those insects? No! I had a reason for what I did. But then again, so did the humans. Could it really be true, were my reasons just as flawed as theirs?'
"Leave."
Vash realized how much what he said must have upset him, he believed any progress he made had been lost. "Knives I..."
"NOW!"
---
Weeks became months, and Knives wounds slowly healed themselves. He could walk short distances. He got to know the girls his brother cared so much about, whether he liked it or not, Vash forced it on him, he said it was important to his rehabilitation. What Vash said that day was burned into Knives' mind.
He found the time that he wasn't talking with his brother, was spent considering the possibility that he really was the same as the things he had hated his whole life. A voice in the back of his head kept telling him that it was all wrong, he truly was superior but it grew weak over time. He couldn't come to admit fully that to himself.
If he truly was the same as them, why had he been able to live for over one hundred years? Why did he have the power given to him? Maybe he wasn't better than they were, just simply different.
Vash came into the room, the short one walking behind him carrying a tray of food. Knives glared at her, "What is she doing here Vash?"
"You could just address me, you know, and my name is Meryl. I'm here to bring you your dinner you inconsiderate jerk," she said, the vein on her forehead clearly visible in her anger.
"She's just trying to be nice Knives, maybe try showing some common courtesy and thanking her for this meal."
Knives ground his teeth together for a moment, "Thank you. Now leave." Meryl shoved the tray into Vash's hands and stomped out of the room.
"Honestly I don't know how Vash puts up with him."
Vash set the tray down in front of Knives. "She went to a lot of trouble to get a bottle of that red wine you love so much for this dinner," he said as he poured a glass. "You are one of the most disrepectful people I've ever met, and I deal with bandits all the time."
"Vash, awhile ago you said I was just like the humans in my actions." His mouth tightened. "I think you may have been right. I killed people and destroyed their homes without caring about how it would affect those that were left behind in the rest of the world."
Wine spilled over the sides of the glass, Vash quickly realized and stopped pouring. Had Knives really just said that? Did he mean it?
"If I truly am the same as the humans, then don't I deserve to die for what I've done? Yet these girls have shown nothing but mercy to me. Could I truly have been wrong about the humans all these years?"
Tears welled up in Vash's eyes, "Knives nobody ever deserves to die. You shouldn't ever think that. The future is always a blank slate, remember? Everyone can change, even you."
Knives took a sip of his wine and looked into the glass. He didn't say anything more, he simply contemplated his brother's words.
---
It had been six months since that day. Knives hadn't tried to kill anyone, and Vash saw that as a huge improvement, though a few of his remarks made Millie cry. Usually he and Vash ate alone continuing their discussions on humanity, and each growing.
Vash had learned that sometimes killing is the best choice a person could see, even if he still didn't like the idea. He would still keep to his promise to himself to never kill anyone again, but he understood that the world isn't as ideal as it could be.
Knives was beginning to truly understand Vash as well. He knew now that the way he had gone about things was wrong, but still held no pity for the human race as a whole. He no longer hated them, but he didn't exactly like them either.
Some days he would walk with Vash through town, he saw the humans in a way he never had before. He didn't see spiders eating the butterfly, he saw people working together to make the best of a bad situation. Depending on each other, parents teaching their children, and adults taking care of their elderly parents.
There were times when he would still find a disgust for humanity, but he was able to see that he wasn't that different from them after all.
It was the middle of the night as they walked through the city streets together again.
"Vash, where are you taking me?"
"I'm not taking you anywhere, you're walkin' on your own. Besides, I've been talking to someone about you and thought you should meet."
Before Knives could ask his next question Vash stopped in front of the Rockville Plant.
"Her name is Marlene, she's this town's resident Plant, and she wanted to have a talk with you about humans."
Knives was shocked to say the least, Vash breaking into a highly secure area, it seemed so unlike him. He stepped forward and placed his hands on the bulb, "Hello dear sister. I am Knives, I understand you wish to speak with me."
"Millions Knives, brother of Vash the Stampede. You are the one that I have sensed all these years, trying to call out to me, correct?"
"Yes, it is I. I called out to you to seek the liberation of all Plants, and to bring an end to the human race as a whole. But with the help of my brother, I have come to see the errors of my ways."
"That is good, for if it were not for these humans we would not exist. We are nothing more than a creation of mankind, and yet we far surpassed their expectations for us. They sustain us, without them Plants would die. And though it is true that some would seek to abuse us and our powers, most protect us with all of their power."
"I understand, and I too will protect you, my sisters from those who would seek to do you harm." Knives stepped away from the bulb and opened his eyes.
"Have a nice chat," Vash asked, sitting in a chair by the door.
"I think I finally understand it brother, what you and I were put here to do."
"And what would that be?"
"Protect our sisters, for they cannot protect themselves."
Vash smiled and stood up, "Sounds good, but first how about we go home and get some sleep?"
Knives yawned, just realizing how tired he was, "We can make our start tomorrow."
The End
Author's Notes: This was written as a birthday present for a good friend, Shadsie (AKA Lady Shadowcat). I would also like to thank the people who helped me beta this and gave me advice on how to improve it. Puchiko2, Whyte Shado, Arborwinter (AKA Magnet-Rose), and ReadingWhiz89.