Ok, now to go make with the sleepy.

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Knives looked down at the confused human and waved, a small smile on his lips as he enjoyed the discomfort he saw. The technician tentatively waved back, then dropped his hand and glanced back at his monitor. When he looked up again Knives was walking towards him, and the man had only enough time to realize that yes, that was indeed blood before Knives stopped in front of him.

"You will want to leave," he said softly.

The tech looked at him, mouth dropping open slightly in shock. "But I have to stay here. The plant is in trouble and we can't tell why."

"She's not in trouble, she's taking herself offline for a bit. There is a more important matter for her to deal with than making sure that your cars can run and that your food stays cold."

"But… What are you talking about? What did you do to it?" He looked over Knives' shoulder at the plant who had emerged into the bulb and was huddled near the bottom.

"I did nothing to her. She is a sentient being, and as such can make decisions of her own from time to time. Much as you humans would like to pretend that she is just a piece in a machine, she is a living being and has her own mind."

"I don't understand you."

"You don't need to. You just need to leave. Now." Knives grabbed him by the upper arm and dragged him to the door then shoved him through the opening. It didn't matter if the man tried to walk or not, he moved as quickly dragging his heels as he did when he stumbled along. The protests that the man had made on his unplanned journey caught the attention of the last two technicians, finally dragging their attention from their monitors to take a look around. They saw Knives, and the blood, and decided that maybe it was best that they continue their efforts somewhere safer. They might have been oblivious but they weren't stupid. They ran.

The room seemed very empty after they left, but the situation was quickly rectified by the appearance of Vash and his son. They had not encountered too many difficulties as they entered the plant, but Alex was limping a bit from stumbling on the stairs to the front door and banging his shin. Alex locked the door behind him, then followed his father through the room.

"What happened?" Vash asked again as they approached the platform.

"Ace and Anne fought. Anne overestimated herself and got her throat torn out," Knives related calmly from his place at her side. Vash kneeled down and looked at the wound.

"Those aren't human teeth marks," he said after a moment. "It looks more like a dog."

"Ace had a pet."

"Had?" inquired Alex after taking a quick look at what remained of her throat and sitting back hard on his heels. He looked up at the plant and waved a bit as he swallowed and tried to keep his nausea under control.

"Had." Knives looked up at Alex, then quirked an eyebrow at his brother.

Vash put a hand on his son's shoulder and asked, "Are you sure you can handle this?"

"I don't think you guys can fix her without my help."

"We might not be able to save her even with it," Vash cautioned. "This is a graver wound than any we practiced healing." They had only had each other to practice on while they were stuck in the ship, and it hadn't seemed prudent to try killing each other just to see if they could patch things up later. The downside was that the only person with any real knowledge of fixing serious trauma was the one they had to work on.

Alex swallowed hard and looked back at Anne, concentrating on the wound, then on the damage. He ignored the fact that he knew the person that was hurt, or even that it was a person at all. Looking only at the hole as a problem to be solved he fought down the flutters in his stomach and glanced up at his dad. "I can handle it," he said and was pleased that his voice didn't break or quaver. He just wished that his stomach would take the hint and quit bothering him.

They shifted around until they were in the best position to heal. Knives took his place at the crown of Anne's head, with Vash at his right and Alex on his left. He put his hands on either side of her temples then took a deep breath. "I'll work on getting her to breathe. Vash, you work on the veins, Alex, you on the arteries. We don't have much time to work before we have to worry about brain damage, but we can't rush things and have her hemorrhage to death because we messed something up, either. The plant has offered to take her in when we're done, so we won't need to worry about the wound getting infected or a secondary infection hitting her while she's weak. Just fix the damage as fast as you can."

Vash nodded seriously, then placed his right hand on her shoulder. "Just let us know when you're ready." Alex placed on hand on her shoulder and the other on her cheek, then nodded at Knives.

He looked down at the task that awaited them, then flooded his lungs with oxygen, breathing deep now in case he forgot to in the coming minutes. "Let's do it then." He reversed the stasis field, and the raspy sound of Anne's attempts to breathe was the signal for them to begin.