Chapter 25 – Short Breather

When Vash and Livio woke up a few hours later, Maria was in the middle of making a very large meal from what remained in the orphanage.

There was a sign sitting near her.

"Sorry if I disturbed you; I just needed to convey a message at that floating brick and it blew out my vocal chords," Livio read aloud. "I'll have my voice back when the food's gone." He looked over at Vash, who had a look on his face that suggested he knew what Maria was talking about.

Maria looked back at them over her shoulder, not even looking at the pan in her hand as she cooked the rice that was sitting in it. Her expression was apologetic and tired at the same time, but she didn't look as angry as she had a few hours before.

"…Did you get through to him?" Vash asked.

Maria shrugged one shoulder in response, then made an annoyed noise and sighed before taking the pan of rice and dumping it onto a plate, hidden between plates stacked high with rice and salads. She motioned to the table pointedly, then took a plate of her own, covered it in food, and retreated back a few steps.

Livio and Vash exchanged looks, then sat down at the table and promptly dug in with the gusto that only hungry men can have. Maria swung back around the table only once to get more food, never saying a word, but the rest of the food was completely eaten by Livio and Vash.

Maria leaned against the stove as she reached behind her and turned the burners off. She raised an eyebrow at Vash and Livio as they leaned back, patting their stomachs. "Knives knows of my presence, at least."

Her voice – sounding slightly raspy, like she had overused it – caused Vash to look over in surprise.

"I don't know if he knows everything that exists concerning me, but if he has a copy of Joshua's database on his ark, he'll know soon enough." Maria shook her head.

"…why did you tell him?" Vash asked.

"I felt it would be better for him to be aware of the consequences of killing and misusing my cousin." Maria's voice was slowly becoming stronger with every word she spoke. "He has ended the life of a World Jumper. The last person from Earth who I not only knew personally, but had grown up with. Not to mention the only person besides me who knows personally the sorts of events that have happened before that should never happen again."

Livio looked at her strangely. "World Jumper? Sounds like some kinda kids' tale."

"It might be to some, but I am proof that it is real." Maria's appearance flickered to her armor for a moment before shifting back, causing Livio's eyebrows to rise up sharply. "My name is Maria Carlsdale; I'm supposed to have been one of the two to scout planets before the colony ships landed on them. Not only did the crash disrupt that, but now the one who caused the crash also tore my brother apart and used him." She shook her head. "Now I'm the only World Jumper left alive in this dimension, and while that puts us at an advantage…it puts me at a disadvantage. I don't have anyone with similar experiences to talk to anymore, much less strategize with."

Livio looked at her cautiously, then leaned forward. "You mentioned before – when – when Chapel was still around. Something about…being used? Does that have anything to do with—"

"That's a part of my past I don't talk about freely," Maria replied. "But I can see that it's something that I should discuss with you now." She paused, gathering her thoughts together. "People have used me for my abilities before – and without my allowing them to. They have taken control of my body and my mind from me and I don't like the feel of it in the least. Hearing you call that man your—" Maria cut herself off and shuddered. "…Let's just say that even thinking about it still brings chills down my spine."

The look on Livio's face as Maria said that shifted from curiosity to realization. He frowned. "Are they still around?"

Maria snorted and shook her head. "The first man who attempted such things is long dead by now; the second lost his ability to control others using his infecting virus, as have others." Her expression became more grim. "As for the others…there has been one that nearly used me to destroy dimensions. As far as I am aware, they disappeared from existence after I was rescued and very quickly reset that entire portion of the multiverse. The Dark Arms won't be giving any more trouble."

Something about the words made Vash's spine crawl. He didn't ask why.

"Because I've been controlled, I know what it takes to knock some people out of it," Maria added. "But we don't have much time left. We have to stop Knives before he can take things out of control, and I don't know about you, but I don't think that sitting around here for much longer is going to be a good idea."

"No," Vash agreed. He moved up to his feet. "Which way is—"

"West," Maria nodded to the window. "I watched him swing out in that direction."

"…that's December – the main part of the city." Vash nodded, eyes sharpening with focus. "We're going to need to get there quickly."

"We can use Chapel's car."

Vash and Maria looked at Livio, who sunk down a little in his seat.

"…I mean, it's not like he's using it anymore," Livio added.

"Fair enough," Maria said. "I'm ready to go when you are."

Vash pushed himself away from the table as he rose to his feet. "We need to end this now. I don't want to lose – or nearly lose – anyone else to Knives than we already have."

Livio looked hesitant for a moment, but then his expression hardened, and he nodded in agreement. "Yeah. This is the only world we've got, right? I don't want to see everything that Nicho-nii wants to protect die."

Vash looked at Livio in surprise, then nodded a little in response. "Where's the car?"

Time Break

Maria sat in the back seat with her arms folded across her chest as Livio drove them across the desert. Vash snored in the front passenger seat next to him.

The car was black, long, sleek, and clearly built to handle the desert. Probably passed as something of a limo on this world. Considering who exactly Chapel likely had been and who it was he had followed, Maria wasn't surprised that he owned a car like this.

And she wasn't surprised to know that Livio knew how to drive it, either. Considering that he'd said that Wolfwood had blown out Chapel's legs, that had probably left Livio as his chaperone most of the time.

It was still dark out. They weren't planning on resting for long, and that was something Maria was fine with. She wasn't affected in the least by sleep cycles.

And, apparently, neither was Livio.

So when a bright spotlight from one of the repurposed human ships suddenly shone down from out of nowhere, Livio was able to come screeching to a halt as Vash was jolted awake at the abrupt halt.

Maria leaned forward sharply as Vash quickly shook himself to full wakefulness. "What now?"

"It's not one of Knives'," Livio replied, watching through the front windshield.

A rope ladder came down, and a familiar figure with an electric-blue outfit slid down and hit the ground, sending up a small puff of sand that settled a moment later.

Maria was moving out of the car in moments. "Jolt. What's going on?"

"Wildfire told us that you were planning on going on alone," Jolt replied. "Did you really think that you were going to take on Knives alone?"

"I'm not doing this alone," Maria said as Vash pulled himself out of the car, followed by Livio – who moved more slowly than Vash to see who it was who had stopped in front of them. "How's Wolfwood?"

Jolt hesitated at the question, causing Vash's expression to pale slightly. "He's…stable. But for the moment, it appears as though he is in a coma – for now. First Aid is keeping an eye on him."

Vash's expression shifted at that, first looking relieved, but then his expression darkened. "Knives…."

"You can't take him on like this." Jolt's glowing blue eyes moved to Livio, and he frowned as the other stiffened under the cloak he had grabbed from the orphanage. "Who is this?"

"I'm…I'm Livio." Livio ducked his head, clearly not wanting to meet the other's gaze at the moment. "I'm a friend of Nicho-ni – Nicholas'."

Jolt's eyes narrowed slightly. "If I was Sparkseer, I'd be able to tell whether or not that is the truth. But you don't seem like someone I should trust willingly just yet."

Livio nodded, but he said nothing.

"If you're chasing after Knives, then you're hoping to go to December?" Jolt looked at the other two.

Maria and Vash nodded.

"There was a forced evacuation a few weeks ago; we weren't able to get to the people there because it was the military's work, and we decided that our shuttle wasn't something they should see and possibly shoot down," Jolt explained. "They're planning on making their last stand there, and they've apparently set up an Ion Blaster there. It's something that…that Joshua and I worked together on."

The hesitation was the only thing that showed that the loss of Maria's cousin still burned strong.

"They plan to burn out the circuitry in the ark and cause it to crash, but you know what's going to happen, since they're powering it with Plants."

Vash's expression shifted at that. "They don't know that Plants have their own will – that they're not gonna attack their own kind."

"Primus damnit," Maria cursed. "The people here really don't know anything about the people they have to live on! Knives just got a lot more to work with, didn't he?"

Jolt nodded grimly. "We have to end this soon. Earth's nearly here, and we don't have much time before their Plants get involved in this as well." He nodded up to the ship. "Luida is going ahead of us to meet with the people in Octovern, to warn them. It's the last city that's standing after December. We're following after her. Come up."

With that, Jolt quickly climbed up the rope ladder and into the ship again.

Vash exchanged looks with Maria and Livio for a moment, then motioned for Livio to move up ahead of them. Livio hesitated for a moment before nodding, then started climbing up.

Maria shot Vash a pointed look when he turned to look at her, and he sighed and climbed up next before Maria followed up after him.

The area inside the small pod-like ship was open enough for the group to be able to sit on the floor. Jolt moved up to sit in the cockpit next to Brad, who looked at Livio suspiciously before he turned and looked back at the dark skyline ahead.

Maria sat leaning against a metal wall and pulled one knee up, folding her hands and resting them against it as she looked up at the ceiling of the pod.

"…I need to know," Maria said finally. "Did Joshua leave anything behind that could help them understand?"

Jolt tilted his head slightly at the question.

"What's that supposed ta mean?" Brad asked.

"Joshua was the one who discovered the Plants," Maria replied. "He was the one who first found them; I was the first one who found out how to communicate with them." She turned her head to look at the others. "I know my message earlier did something to Knives. I wonder if he's going to follow through and actually find out what it is that he did to my cousin."

Vash shook his head. "Who can say? He's probably losing himself to my sisters." He looked at Maria with a saddened expression, but his eyes were sparking with a determination that hadn't been as strong before. It seemed that, after nearly losing Wolfwood, something had snapped into focus. "I just hope we can stop him before things get any worse."

Maria nodded in agreement as Livio looked between the two of them quietly, not quite sure what to make of the conversation.

"…let's get some rest," Maria said finally. "Regain our strength. We're going to need all the help we can get."

Change in POV

Knives wasn't sure what was hiding in the database here, but he hadn't been expecting that message.

Elendria watched him as he warped out of the ship and back up to the top of the ark to think. The voices of his sisters pounded against his mind, trying to show him more memories, but too weak to manage much more than push emotions forward against him.

He played over the message again in his head.

"If you are seeing this, it's because either I've died, or you've hacked into the programming of this ship and found my farewell message. If you don't know who I am, my name is Joshua Spark Langstrom, cousin-in-name to Maria Flare-Up Carlsdale. I, like Maria, am a human who was transferred into a robotic shell, prolonging my life to unusual lengths. But, even with that, it seems likely that I will pass on at some point in the near future.

"And so I have decided to record my story on every computer in the colony fleet, to ensure that not only my story – but Maria's and our family's story – is also told. Before I continue, I should list my accomplishments.

"I am the one who discovered the between-dimensional beings known as Plants. My initial plan was to use them only as an axillary power source, allowing them to come and go as they pleased, while we relied on other, cleaner energies. However, when other humans discovered them, they came to different conclusions. I can only hope that this will be resolved peacefully…."

Knives considered looking to see if what the drone had said was true, but the cries of his sisters had confirmed what the recording had told him.

He had, essentially, killed a possible ally.

And the other ally now stood against him, with his brother.

He wasn't going to turn back now – there must have been a glitch in the girl's programming that prevented her from seeing the full picture, that kept her from seeing the truth of things.

He was going to make sure that they all saw the truth. And he was going to make sure that the humans who had used them on this planet for the last century got what they deserved.

They would all die for enslaving his people. Knives was going to see to it.