Author's Note: Sorry I skipped the update last week. I was dealing with real life stuff. To make up for it, I'll upload two chapters this week.

Also, thank you everyone for the reviews! I appreciate hearing from you guys, and I'm so happy to know that people are enjoying this story!

CHAPTER 7

Family

"Oh, you are just like your brother," Stryfe said to Knives. It was clear by her expression that this wasn't a compliment.

Knives had awoken that morning to find Stryfe and Thompson standing outside his hotel room with their suitcases packed. The first sun hadn't even come up yet.

"Why are you awake this early?" Knives demanded.

"Vash taught us well," Stryfe answered. "He'd try to sneak off first thing in the morning, too."

"Oh, so he found you as obnoxious as I do. Well, that's some consolation, I suppose."

"Excuse me! We were friends!"

Knives gave her a look. "Yes, and that's why he tried to sneak off without you." Then he had a sudden thought. "Wait a minute... Were you in love with my brother?"

Stryfe was instantly bright red. "I- What? No!"

"I see." Knives bent down a bit to get a closer look at her, his eyes narrowing. "You're one of the clingy stalker types aren't you? And Vash had to try and slip away from you."

"That is not true!" Meryl cried.

There was a snorting noise and they both looked to Thompson to see that she was trying not to laugh.

"Milly!"

She gave a guilty start. "Oops, I mean, that was really rude, Mr. Knives! And completely untrue!"

"Thank you, Milly," Stryfe grumbled.

Knives heaved a sigh. "Alright. Whatever. Let's go get Doublefang."

Doublefang answered his hotel door wearing disheveled hair and boxers. He looked groggily at the trio at the door and then suddenly realized there were young women there. He gave a yelp, tried to cover his boxers with one hand and shut the door with the other. Thompson giggled.

Knives leaned toward the door and called, "Get ready to leave! We'll be waiting in the lobby!"

After a short while, Doublefang came down in his white shirt and black pants with a duffel bag thrown over his shoulder and his cloak slung over the bag.

"Good morning, guys. Sorry about that."

Stryfe handed him a pre-packaged muffin. "We got you a little breakfast."

"Oh! Hey, thanks!" Then he added, "Hey, Kni- uh..." he dropped his voice to a whisper as he leaned closer to Knives. "What should I call you in public?"

"Kevin Smith."

"Okay. Hey, Kevin? I need to run some errands today, and I don't know how long they'll take me. Is there someplace I can meet up with you guys again later today?"

That annoyed Knives a bit. But still, Doublefang was joining him on short notice, so it was natural that he may have things to take care off before he would be able to dedicate himself entirely to Knives. "I'll be staying the night in Wynona," Knives answered. "You can meet me there tonight. I'll be running an errand today as well, so it won't be convenient for us to try and meet up again before then."

"Alright, sounds good!" Doublefang smiled at the pair of young women. "See you! Good luck!"

Fortunately, Livio had his own vehicle. It let him run into December City on errands for the orphanage and also let him travel farther if he was going after a bounty. That morning, as he drove to his destination, he thought over a few things.

If asked what the most important thing in life was, many different people would give many different answers. But for Livio the clear answer was family. Those at the orphanage, including Nicholas D. Wolfwood, were everything to him. Wolfwood had been the first person to truly care about him, and it was that friendship that ultimately led Livio to change his life for the better. And those at the orphanage had allowed him back, even after Wolfwood's death, giving him the acceptance and belonging that he had sought for his entire life. His family knew his past and present, knew his strengths and weaknesses, knew his favorite foods and that he was secretly afraid of insects, knew his hat was extra special but that he didn't mind if they made fun of his tattoo a little bit.

So if he was going to associate with Knives, and if Knives was rethinking his views on humans, Livio wanted to know as much about him as possible. And for that, he wanted to speak to Knives's family.

He sought out a plant dome. It took time to reach a city that had one, but he finally pulled his car into a nearby parking lot and took a good look at it. He had never been near one before. It was enormous, nestled among the ruins of the SEEDS ship. Taking the opportunity to circle part of the dome, he found that the solid wall of the dome was broken up by windows at the ground level that he could only assume belonged to offices and other rooms used by the human staff. As he followed the wall around, he was surprised to find the wall of the dome transition into glass. He stepped to the glass and took a look inside.

The glass section took up about a quarter of the dome. Inside, most of the dome was one massive room. Along the sides and in the area there had been windows, there were indeed individual rooms, all in a row in a C shape around the edge of the dome. Some had normal doors, while others had large, round doors, presumably to accommodate the large bodies and wings of the plants. But the main room was the most interesting by far. A good portion of the floor, which was originally tiled, as far as Livio could tell, was overgrown with grass, some of which had small flowers. In the center was a young tree. And in the room, hovering about like faeries in their garden, were the plants. They clustered together in small groups, holding hands and resting against each other, as unspoken conversations passed between them. Livio had seen pictures of plants, but never any in person. He had always found them bizarre looking, while at the same time strangely beautiful, and he stared transfixed through the glass entranced at what he was seeing. With it's grass and plants, it was like looking into a completely different world.

Livio suddenly realized he had been spotted. A plant was passing by a little closer to the glass than the rest and stopped, hovering in the air, to look back at him. Livio gave a small guilty start, but the plant smiled at him. She drew closer until she rested her hands on the glass.

Livio took a small step back. "Uh... hi."

Her eyes were blank, nothing but milky white orbs. Livio found that a little unnerving: a feeling which only grew as he came under the impression that she was looking him over. Then she waved him toward the other end of the glass portion of the wall. Livio walked along the wall while she trailed alongside him. On the other side, shortly after the wall became solid again, there was another large round door. This door opened outward, and the plant drifted gracefully out of it.

Oh gosh, they can just leave! Livio thought, feeling a little horrified. Why did this scare him? He wasn't afraid of her, certainly. Perhaps he was afraid something would happen to her. Or perhaps he was now being approached person-to-person by a very strange, nude woman, and he honestly had no idea how to respond to that.

Something long and thin snaked out from behind her and stretched toward Livio. It was a long feather. He reflexively stepped back away from it. When he looked to the plant, she made a grabbing motion. Livio pointed at the feather, giving her a questioning look. She nodded. So, very cautiously, Livio reached out and took hold of the feather lightly between his finger and thumb. Then the plant made a motion as if touching something to her forehead.

This is so weird, Livio thought, as he hesitantly mirrored the motion, touching the feather lightly to his head.

Hello, a female voice said.

Livio gave a start, going wide eyed. The voice hadn't come in through his ears, but had skipped right to his brain. It reminded him a bit of when he heard Razlo's voice in his head, and for a brief moment, he wasn't sure if he had heard the plant, or if a new female personality was introducing herself. He clung to the idea that it was the plant, because the idea of a female living inside his male body made him incredibly uncomfortable.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. The plant looked concerned. This is the only way I can talk to you. Is that alright?

"Oh... uh... yeah. That's okay. Oh, uh, hi. I'm Livio."

She smiled again. Hello, Livio.

"You... You shouldn't just come out here and start talking to strangers, you know," Livio said. "That's not safe. There are a lot of people who don't like plants."

I know, she said, looking a little sad. But you... feel... good.

"I... I'm sorry, what?"

She frowned a little. I don't know how to say it. With my telepathy... you seem... good.

"Oh!" Livio was a little pleased and a little embarrassed. He wondered if this meant she could read his mind, but decided he didn't really want to know. Looking for a distraction from that train of thought, he blurted, "I like your tree!"

She smiled. Thank you! We created the tree and grass ourselves. We wanted to fill the whole dome with them, but our human friends don't want us to. She hunched her shoulders a little, looking rueful. They don't like us to use our power.

"Oh... I see... Well, it seems to me, after using your power for us for so long, that you deserve some trees and flowers for yourself."

She beamed at that. Then she asked, Why are you here, Friend Livio?

"Uh, well, I... I know your brother."

That caught her attention. Which one?

"Well, I hung out with Vash for a while, but that was about a year ago." He smiled. "I really liked him."

She beamed. But then the smile faded. Did you know he... he died?

"Yeah... Knives told me."

He told us, too. He spoke to one of the other plant domes, but our sisters there were able to pass the message along. They said he only came close enough to speak to them telepathically, gave the message, and then went away again. None of us have seen or heard from him since then. But we believe him. He's done many terrible things, but we don't believe he would lie to us about that.

"Actually, Knives is the reason I'm here."

We don't know where he is! she said quickly. We've said so over and over. So if you're trying to catch him-

"No, no, no! That's not it! I don't want to catch him. I... I want to help him."

That gave her pause for thought. Then she asked, Do you already know where he is?

"Yeah. I found him yesterday. I said I wanted to stick around, and he said I could."

And... why do you want to help him, she asked, sounding a bit wary.

"Well... he seems like maybe there are some things he's trying to work out. I want to help him figure out the right thing to do."

She looked at him a moment, her expression softening. Quietly, she said, Thank you.

He smiled at that, feeling a little embarrassed. "It's... it's nothing, Miss Plant. I'm just hoping things might turn out alright with him."

Is he... What is he like... now that it's all over? Is he... is he still very angry?

Livio thought for a moment. "I can't say for sure, because I've only just run into him yesterday. Well... he comes off as being kind of grumpy. But he did tell me that he'd rather not kill anyone. So there's that. I was wondering if you all might be able to give me any advice. I'm sure you all know him better than anyone."

As the conversation had gone on, a few other plants had taken notice and drifted over to see what was going on. Livio had tried to ignore them and focus on the one he was speaking with, but they came up to the glass, and looked over each other's shoulders until there was a small crowd. Livio was beginning to feel like a pet lizard in an aquarium, with a group of children all crowded at the glass to see him. He finally decided to bring the rest into the conversation, and as he spoke the words, "if you all might be able to give me any advice," he looked around at the group to address them as well.

The plant took a moment to relay the message to her sisters, her voice still within Livio's head, but quieter as she addressed someone other than himself. The plants all looked about at each other, in what Livio hoped was silent conversation on Knives.

After a moment, she turned back to him. Well... the thing about Knives is... he's complicated.

"Oh," Livio responded. "I, uh... I already kind of figured that."

Well... she fell into thoughtful silence. Knives... he... One of the other plants caught her attention and the two looked to each other as they spoke a moment. Then she nodded and turned back to Livio. Perhaps it would be helpful to you, if you knew what caused him to hate humans?

"Okay, sure! Tell me that, then."

When we were... I don't really know the word... When he was taking us, and we were a part of him and he was a part of us... all of our thoughts and memories came together, and we knew things about Knives that we didn't before, because his mind was in our mind. And some of us found a memory from when he was a child. He and Vash were raised by a human mother, and they were happy together. But then he learned that there had been another like himself and Vash that had been born first. The humans who cared for her didn't treat her as an equal, and she died because of the way she was treated.

Livio gave a whimpering noise. He hadn't had a good childhood either. He didn't know the details of how the child had been treated, but his heart went out to her.

When Knives and Vash learned about her... Vash was... understanding... he was forgiving... But Knives... He was never the same. He felt that there was a certain way that humans are, and because of that, they could never live in harmony with other species. He felt that the only way to keep us safe was to kill them all.

"Oh man," Livio murmured. "That's harsh."

There's something else we want you to know about him. she added. He does love us. And he loved Vash, too, in a way. We know they were enemies for many years, but when we were with him, we could tell he would have much rather had Vash as a friend and a brother than as an enemy. We want you to know, he's not all anger. He's able to love, too.

"Thanks," Livio said. "I think that helps." He thought for a moment, and then added, "Is it alright if I ask you a question?"

We don't mind.

"Do you... do you still love Knives?"

She was quiet a moment, and Livio saw that the plants all looked at him with a sadness in their expression.

The things that have happened... It has hurt us... very badly... We wanted our freedom, but... not like that... But he's still our brother, and we understand why he acted the way he did. We still love him. But... perhaps it's for the best that he's been keeping his distance from us.

"But..." Livio mirrored their sad expressions. "Okay, look, now let me tell you a story, alright? I've done a lot of terrible things, too. There are a lot of things that I really regret. But I decided to go back to the people that I hurt the most and apologize to them. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life! But they decided to forgive me, and they let me stay with them. Their love and forgiveness... that's done more for me than anything ever could! If it's possible that Knives could change, then you have no idea how much it could help him to know that you still love him! If he doesn't come here, then you need to go to him if you can!"

The plants fell silent. Many of them lowered their gaze.

Finally, she said very quietly, I'm not sure that we're ready for that yet.

"But..." Livio looked up at them helplessly. Then he lowered his head. "Okay... Just... Just think about it, alright?"

They still stayed silent.

Then one of them looked back into the building and got the attention of the rest. The plant speaking with Livio listened to her unspoken words, and then turned back to him. One of our human friends is coming! You should go, so they don't ask questions about who was here and why they came. We'll tell them that... uh... there was a puppy! There was a puppy at the window!

Livio couldn't help laughing at that. "Okay! Good bye!"

Good bye, Friend Livio! And thank you. Thank you for being good to Knives.

The feather moved gracefully back to the plant, who slipped through the door again. The group at the glass dispersed. Livio slipped away.