KABOOM. There went the Project SEEDS ship. Not everyone died. There were an unknown number of survivors. The total would have been four if one had not sacrificed her life to try to save more. The amount she saved will probably never be known. But what happened to the other three? The escape pod they had traveled in had landed.
"Murderer!" Vash yelled, throwing his fist into the ground. "Your whole life is a lie! You killed Rem! The crew! You killed them all!" He shrieked in fury.
"Yes, spectacular, huh. They'll all die...except for the fraction who will survive because of Rem's incessant meddling." Knives said with a crazed look on his face. The last part sounded full of disappointment.
"Knives! Stop it! You just went a little too far. Vash doesn't understand! You shouldn't have done this..." Caldia said. "...At least not yet..." She muttered under her breath.
All she was trying to do was please both of her brothers. But they were both so stubborn in their beliefs; if she had to do this the entire time they were here she'd go insane. "Please...we can..." Caldia said, being cut off by Knives, of course.
"We can what? All get along and think about where we go from here? I don't know about you two, but I know what I'm doing." Knives said, looking at his sister. She was the only one who had ever understood him. But it was true. Knives had been planning this for quite some time. He knew exactly what he was going to do. Whether they came with him was their choice.
The platinum haired boy wished his siblings would follow him, since he was the one who knew what to do. Vash was such a baby; all he wanted to do was lie there and mope. He couldn't do that forever, and it was just a pathetic waste of time.
Knives stood there and looked at his brother in disgust. Whereas Caldia was trying to get Vash to stand up, and stop moping around.
"Please, Vash, get up. You can't stay there forever...you're wasting your time. Moping like that won't bring Rem back. She's gone, and you can't change that." Rem...the only motherly figure they'd had on the SEEDS ship. Mary hadn't really conversed much with them, and she was the only other conscious female on the ship. Though Rem had acted like their mother, Caldia agreed with Knives that her morals were on the foolish side, though she more than understood where they came from.
"Vash, just remember. Rem saved many others when she sacrificed herself. Knives tried to save her, just for you, but she sacrificed herself to save the others." Caldia sighed and rolled her eyes. "It was the...right thing to do."
Knives caught the rolling of the eyes, and it made him feel a little better knowing that everyone here didn't hate him. Caldia understood what he did and why. She just wanted Vash to have understood before it took place, but Knives didn't really have an option. They would have ended up here anyway, and they would have had to wait until they got to another planet like this. But they would probably have come across a planet like the one they were looking for before they came across another like this. Knives had to plan accordingly, and that's what he did.
Vash, however, was looking at the ground when she had rolled her eyes. Upon hearing what she said and the concern in her voice, he looked up at Caldia. "You mean it?" Caldia nodded and smiled at him. He then stood up.
"What Knives did was probably for the best. Don't get hung up on it. A lot of good will result from this, I'm sure."
The golden haired boy glanced back and forth between his siblings. Caldia was smiling lightly at him, and Knives was giving him puppy dog eyes to forgive him. ((A/N: Okay...I know a lot of people probably can't imagine this, but it's in sort of a cocky way that says "You know you need to forgive me...you can't stay mad at me forever. If you did, it'd be a shame..." type of...thing...It's how I imagine his eyes to be when he says "We should at least try to act like brothers.")) He didn't want a brother who was eternally angry with him. "You guys are insane!" Vash turned his view to Caldia. "Did you help him?!"
She in turn shook her head. "No, but I agree with what he did. Trust me. If you stop moping and being angry, I'll explain it to you."
All Vash did was pout. He thought his siblings were despicable. How could they think that people dying was for the better? But if he didn't go with them, he would be alone. Vash didn't want to be alone! For all he knew, Knives could be plotting the destruction of this planet, and Caldia would seemingly go right along with him if Vash didn't stop them. But Vash didn't know what to do. Knives could be taking him to witness his evil plan right now.
That of course was not the case. Currently Knives just wanted to explore and confirm this planet was incapable of holding human life, just as he had thought. They were plants though...they could survive where humans couldn't. Which is why Knives came here; he didn't really have any other options anyway.
Vash decided to go with them. He couldn't beat them both, and if he didn't do anything, they might leave him behind. But would Caldia do that to him? She wouldn't let Knives leave him behind...they were both her brothers, and she wanted them both to be happy.
"Fine..." Vash gulped, a defeated look on his face. "Where are we going?"
"Hmm..." Knives hadn't really thought about exactly where they were going, as long as they went. He just wanted to go. The boy shrugged. "I don't know. Just...around here, I guess. Get to know our surroundings. So far, from what I've observed, humans couldn't live here very well, just like I told Rem. But of course she wouldn't listen. Foolish woman..."
"Don't say that about her!" Vash interrupted. Knives ignored this comment. They were both entitled to their opinions about the woman. He had his opinion, and Vash had his.
"The only way humans could survive here is by feeding off the energy of our siblings. As I've said, kill the spiders to save the butterflies." He continued.
Caldia had not been present in the Rec Room that day. She did not yet understand this metaphor. She blinked, and then listened to Knives intently. However, Vash remembered that day very well. He put a frown on his face, but let Knives continue.
"Spiders cannot live without butterflies to kill and eat, yet butterflies can easily survive without spiders. It doesn't take much to realize which is the superior species, Vash." He said looking straight at his brother. "The spiders are just wasting the precious lives of the butterflies. By killing the spiders, the valuable lives of the butterflies are being saved, and a useless killing machine is becoming extinct from this world. Which is a good thing. Once the spiders are gone, there is no longer a need to kill." Knives continued to explain. "Now put plants in the butterfly's situation, and humans in the spider's. Humans will just feed off of us plants, and eventually drain us of our energy and kill us. They are parasites, taking everything from one thing and killing it, then moving on. They are a harmful, useless species that should be exterminated. It makes perfect sense if you think about it in the proper manner." Knives stated matter-of-factly. He had managed to explain it fuller than he had been able to in the Rec Room when Rem was there, trying (and failing) to prove what he was saying wrong. All she had truly done was argue that he was wrong, and not provided any evidence. Rem had poisoned Vash's mind; Knives and Caldia wanted to cleanse it.
Now Caldia didn't need to explain to Vash – Knives just did it for her. He explained it much better than she could anyway. The metaphor made it that more understandable. It was Knives' theory in the first place anyway. Caldia only agreed with it and wanted her other brother to see the same.
Of course, Vash idolized Rem too much to just abandon her morals. Rem's morals made sense to him, but Knives' did not. Caldia saw both points, but agreed with Knives, though she wished that Rem's could be the truth. She wished with all her heart that they could live in a perfectly equal world where there was no need for killing. But – they weren't. That's what Knives was trying to make for them.
The young green eyed, blonde haired girl saw that a life was a life, equal to any other...but what exactly was life for? Everything in life was completely pointless...after you die, everything you worked so hard to achieve in life was gone. Pointless. A big waste of time. Life was only there for enjoyment. So was it really that bad to take a pointless life? It's not like they would know it after they were gone...would they?
"The…PROPER manner?!" Vash stammered, blinking. "Don't you mean the IMPROPER PSYCHOPATHIC manner to look at it?! No one EVER has the right to take the life of another! I know you don't believe it, but it's true!" Vash yelled, seeming as if he could burst into tears at any moment. He collapsed to his knees in frustration.
Knives sighed. His brother was too stubborn to understand. "Even if you don't agree, we should at least try to act like brothers...ones who get along. Right now, right here it's just us three. There is no need to be acting like this." Knives said, looking down at Vash. He proceeded to offer his hand to Vash so he could stand up. "Will you at least come explore with us? You need to get to know the surrounding just as much as either of us do." Knives asked glancing from Vash to Caldia then back to Vash.
Taking his stare from the ground up to his brother, Vash slowly picked up his hand and placed it in Knives' hand. Knives then helped Vash get to his feet.
"Vash, I hope you know I just want to help you understand. As the crew said, I look like a philosopher, and that's what I consider myself to be. The philisophes of the past were holders of ideas and thoughts that seemed absurd and insane at the time, but were later proved true." Knives told Vash, hoping it would make him feel a little better. Unfortunately, it didn't. Vash still thought he had cracked.
Caldia let out a big sigh. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was going to push her past the brink of insanity.
And so the triplets explored the surroundings around where their escape pod had crashed. Very few words were spoken. It soon got late, and they needed to seek refuge. But since this planet wasn't one that could hold life very well, they had to stay in their crashed escape pod. There was enough food to hold them for a little while, but they would have to look for another source of food.
With all the time they had, they looked around the pod and examined every nook and cranny. They would be spending a lot of time here, so they needed to know what options they had. Besides, they needed something to do.
Soon enough it was time for them to sleep. They each set up a 'bed' for themselves. Knives was the first to fall asleep, Caldia going next. Vash stayed up thinking. The day had been hard on him. It was easily the worst day of his life.
Once he finally fell asleep, something woke Caldia up. It was the occasional one word Vash murmured in his slumber. "Rem..."
Hearing and seeing Vash like this made Caldia feel sad and guilty, almost depressed. Now she was the one with insomnia. Was this her fault? Could she have stopped Knives? And if she could, would she have, and did she really want to? Admitting the truth to herself, only for Vash's sake. Poor Vash...
Knives could sleep because nothing was bothering him. Unless you counted the fact that the foolish woman who had plagued his brother's mind had died with pride. It wasn't even part of the plan to have her die. Not that he minded that she was gone. He just wished that if she was going to die anyway, why couldn't it have been in some way that wasn't 'noble'?
After what seemed like an eternity between Vash and Caldia's insomnias, morning finally came. Knives, having got the most sleep was the first one up and about. He woke his siblings up, and then went to see what they could have to eat.
Caldia looked over at Vash, who yawned then stretched. He blinked a few times, then looked around. All of a sudden, his eyes got wide and his face full of carefree-ness became filled with terror as the memories from the previous day came flooding back into his mind.
Vash clutched his head. "It...it wasn't a bad dream, was it? REM!!" He yelled, apparently traumatized. He was emotionally scarred for life.
Knives let out a big sigh. "Are you still going on about that foolish woman?"
"YOU!!" Vash said, standing up and pointing a finger at Knives.
"Yes, me. The one who made your breakfast." Knives said as he set it down on a surface they had dubbed their kitchen table.
Without warning, Vash pounced on Knives, and starting throwing blind punches at him. Knives took a hard first blow and was dazed for a moment, then realized what had happened. In order to get up, he pushed Vash off of him. It took more force than he wanted to use on his own brother. He rolled over and stood back up.
Vash also got back up, ready to charge again, but Caldia grabbed his arms and pulled them behind his back. "Stop it Vash!" She said harshly.
"Vash..." Knives said softly. "Why are you acting like this? I thought we worked this out. I understand that you're angry with me, but what's done is done."
Silently, Vash bowed his head, his hair a mess, then sat where Knives had placed his breakfast. "Sorry about that..." He said softly, looking down at his food. After a few moments of silence, Vash muttered a "Thank you."
Knives' solemn face slowly turned into a bright smile. "You're welcome. See? You don't want to hurt me. I'd be incapacitated and couldn't cook for you. What would you do then? I've seen you cook...it's not a pretty sight." Knives said as he brought his and Caldia's meals to the 'table'.
Taking a bite out of his food, Vash nodded, and gave a small smile. He could at least try to be pleasant around his brother. It's not like he had anywhere else he could go.
Caldia sweat dropped. 'Boys...' She thought, shaking her head slightly. 'One minute they're fighting, and the next they're joking around.'
Throughout breakfast, something was bothering Vash. What were Knives' plans for today? So he asked.
"Let's just say it involves pathetic humans." Knives responded with a grin.