Of course, you can only fight if you actually find someone to fight with.
The door to the plant hissed open as they walked near. The two stopped and crouched, seconds passing slowly as they waited for the rush of defenders that never came. Cautiously, Vash inched forward as Knives guarded his back, and the two slowly entered the atrium.
There was no one there. Steam still rose from an untended cup of coffee, so whoever had guard duty at the front desk hadn't been gone long. But no trace of a human presence was in the room. No one hid in the room, not behind the counter or huddled near one of the plastic plants that stood sentry by the door.
"This is odd," commented Vash.
"Maybe they heard about your penchant for destruction and decided to just let us take the girl and go," said Knives facetiously.
His brother sighed. "It's never that easy."
"Then quit wasting time trying to understand. There's probably a trap later on."
"Think we can handle whatever it is?"
Knives snorted, and his expression told anyone who bothered to look his opinion on that. "No human can stop me."
"Yet."
"Ever. No human ever has, and none will."
Vash looked over his shoulder at his brother. "Saying things like that just tempts fate."
"Fate is a superstition. It's all chaos, nothing meant, nothing planned."
"Kiley didn't arrive here through chaos. Someone brought her here."
Knives scowled at his brother but didn't say anything. He pushed past him and jumped over the half-gate that blocked access to the corridor. "This is neither the time nor the place to discuss such things."
Vash shrugged and followed, hopping the gate easily and catching up to his brother's tense back.
The empty halls might have looked eerie to someone used to the normal bustle of the plant, the engulfing silence might have seemed oppressive to one who remembered the casual banter of coworkers. But the halls were very similar to the ones in Knives' ship, and both were used to the quiet of those corridors. What got to them was not the emptiness, but the lack of any opposition at all.
"Where are they?" asked Vash after they cautiously turned another corner and saw no one.
"Probably somewhere ahead of us and sneaking up behind. A classic trap, one worthy of the humans' limited grasp of strategy."
"Well," Vash felt urged to point out, "it's not like they knew we were coming. Making up a good plan quickly is hard for anyone."
"No, it's exactly like they knew we were coming. As soon as they caught your woman, they had to have known that someone was going to try and get her."
"Kiley did."
"And they most likely assumed that someone would be back to get her out, as well, and would then be planning a trap."
"Why?"
Knives sighed. "I don't know why. Why do the humans do anything? Their puerile brains have obviously decided that they need a plant. And if they need one plant, why not three? Typical human behavior, desiring more than what they actually need."
"Why do they need us?"
"Based on what they did to Ace, I don't think I really want to find out. Let's get her and get out of here."
Vash nodded, and they continued their cautious creep through the halls. After a few more minutes, he asked, "Do you know where we are going?"
"Ace said that they kept her in an unused lab, and the labs are over in this direction."
"But what if she isn't there?"
"Then we look somewhere else."
"Where?"
"I don't know. Somewhere that they can monitor and jail. Really, the labs are the only logical choice."
"Oh."
A few more minutes and a few more halls.
"This place is very large, isn't it?" commented Vash.
Knives didn't deign to reply, instead listening to something he could barely hear.
"Do you hear that?" said Vash excitedly after a few seconds. Knives waved at him to shush him, desperately wanting to say that he could hear nothing while someone spoke, but refraining, as pointing the fact out would only create irony.
The sounds were faint and muffled, but he could make out at least seven different paces behind him and eleven ahead. The ones behind suffered from some acoustical occlusion, and the ones ahead were difficult to differentiate as the people moving were attempting to be quiet. At a conservative guess, he would put twenty men ahead and likely as many behind.
Signaling with hands and head motions, he communicated this information to Vash. He nodded, then proceeded to pull those annoying yellow sunglasses from his pocket and slip them on, pushing them up the bridge of his nose with one finger. Knives bit back a sigh, and wondered where his brother had picked up the aggravating tendency towards drama.
They both took up positions on either side of the hallway, backs to the wall, Knives looking ahead and Vash looking behind. There was nowhere to run, even had the two been inclined to avoid this standoff. Vash pulled his gun and held it loosely in his right hand, barrel pointing at the ceiling. Knives kept his in his holster. He didn't shoot to incapacitate, he shot to kill. Better to rely on tricks and not make a mistake.
They heard a radio behind them, a tinny voice reporting that team A was in position, and then a muffled curse. The response was inaudible; whoever was in charge of the radio must have turned down the volume.
Knives smiled at this. It was obvious that they didn't have the element of surprise, but the fools continued on as if they did. Better to just fight now and get their interruption over with. He had a few questions that needed answers, and none of these fools were the person he needed to ask. That made them expendable.