Her boss leaned forward, elbows resting on the desk as he glared at her. "I think you are taking this situation too lightly."
"No. I'm not. I know that what we are doing right now is a pivotal moment in human history, or at least on this planet. Changing over from a finite, antiquated form of energy that relies on the lives of others to an infinite form that relies only on the suns is a big step for the colony."
"As if someone like you cares about that."
"What makes you think I don't? I live on this planet, don't I? Do I seem to be that self-centered, that unable to see what needs to happen to keep this planet from killing everyone off? If you'd like, you could see my interest in the future as entirely selfish. You'd be wrong to think so, but it's a plausible reason."
He looked at her for a moment, thinking, then said, "Because you'll be around to see it."
"Exactly. It pays for me to be longsighted. I don't want to end my life because some integral piece of machinery finally ceased to function a century after it's projected time of use, and there's nothing around to fix it with. But to get spare parts, you need factories. In the factories you need people. Without people around… what an asinine way to die."
His eyes narrowed, and she could see him biting back some comment describing a better way for her to die.
"I have a question for you," she continued.
"What?"
"Why do you hate free plants so much? Why do you want us dead?"
"You are unplanned abominations upon this soil," he intoned.
She stared at him blankly. "Thanks," she said flatly. "That clears things up a whole bunch for me. Especially considering that this planet is mostly sand and all."
"You are a thing that should not be. There is nothing humanly possible to stop you if you decide to kill, to harm, to destroy; the power in your arms is unbelievable. I remember when Vash and Knives were fighting. The world itself shook with the power they unleashed. I need only look at the fifth moon for concrete evidence of the depths of destruction contained within you. Nothing controls you, nothing can dictate to you. If you decided to destroy the world, nothing could stop you."
She laughed. "Why would I want to destroy the world? What would I do then? And where would I do it?"
He returned to glaring. "There is no way we could stop you if you wanted to. That's what my main problem is with you freaks; too much power."
She sobered. "The way to stop someone from wanting to harm others is not to take the ability to harm from them, but the desire."
"Quotes can't help the dead in Carcasses, or any of the people that Millions murdered a few decades ago."
"No. Quotes can't. They're dead; nothing can help them now. But the way to stop him from doing it once more is to surround him with a community that will not let him rampage again. And he is. Back then he only had his brother telling him that killing was wrong, and Knives was fairly confident that he could change Vash's mind. Wrong, but confident. Now he has Vash, Ace, Alex, Meryl and I all telling him the same thing, and I think he values us too much to jeopardize his standing with us. I'm not sure how long our presence will curb his behavior, so I'm working to resolve some of the same issues he was fighting for back then."
"So you're doing even more than just working here?"
She looked at him, puzzled by the question, then figured it out. "Oh, no. His main problem is that human civilization as we know it is entirely supported by plants. Supported by exploiting and sucking the life from plants, I might add. That, and he's afraid of human reactions to knowing that there are people not entirely like them sharing the planet. By working here, I am starting to resolve the first issue, and by convincing you to not try to kill me out of hand, I'm working on the second as well."
"You haven't convinced me of anything. Your stunt in the vehicle bay makes you just as dangerous as either of them."
"What stunt?" she asked. "This?" she added offhandedly, bouncing a few balls of light out of her palm and floating them towards the ceiling. A rainbow of colors, deep blue, green, yellow and red, they floated about aimlessly. She watched the two men in her field of vision go for their weapons, and she smiled. "This is nothing."
She drew them back to her hands and began to juggle. "These are as you see them, balls of light. Which is what they were then, as well." She flashed their colors to that sickly shade of orange, then returned them to what they had been prior. "What they did for me was distract your men long enough for me to slip into their minds and put them to sleep. It's a magic trick," she pointed out. "Mere misdirection. Plus, while your men were shooting at the pretty lights, they weren't shooting at me. But nothing I did down there harmed anyone. Scared them, yes. I did do that. Fear is the best weapon, and I would be a fool to not use it when I'm outnumbered twenty to one. If fear hadn't worked, I would have had to try more invasive procedures, more painful ones, and that really isn't what I'm aiming towards. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm sorry I scared you. I'm glad I did, so I didn't have to do anything else.
"As a matter of fact, I know that the person wounded the most in that altercation was me, and you don't see me crying that I'm afraid of you."
"You are a fool," came Mark's voice from behind her.