The Descent of the Second Sun
CHAPTER 6; Faith
Vash returned to his room, now in a much worse mood than before. He slumped down on the couch and sat hunched over. A low sigh escaped his lips, and he rubbed his forehead with his hands. Wolfwood… the man he thought was his best friend… could he really be his enemy… and for all this time? Was their entire friendship just a lie? He leaned back, stretched out across it, staring at the ceiling. The idea had come to him a week or two ago to try this new tactic, and it had been going smoothly, until Wolfwood showed up. Why had he told him his plan? Even after all he'd done, Vash still trusted him… but why? How could you trust someone who'd been deceiving you like that?
The door to his room opened slightly, making a slight creak. Vash turned his head to look at the door. Standing in the slightly opened doorway was Knives.
"Hey, Vash," Knives greeted his brother happily, "Can I come in?"
"Sure," Vash said, sitting up.
Knives opened the door the rest of the way and stepped in, shutting it behind him. He walked over to the couch and sat next to Vash.
"You know, Vash," Knives said, smiling, "It's really good to have you here. We can finally destroy the humans, side-by-side, just as I had envisioned…"
Vash gave the most convincing smile he could.
"But," Knives went on, "We'll get to that eventually. I've come to share an idea with you."
Vash looked at his brother in confusion, "What's that, Knives?"
"Just an experiment," Knives replied, "You know, Vash, we're the only of our kind… and even more to the point, there are no females. I know that we don't know much about how we came about, or just what will happen to us one day, but I can only assume that, despite our extended life spans, we will die eventually. If not naturally, a violent or accidental death could occur. And even if we don't, we would still be the only of our kind. But, this leads me to my idea, you see."
Knives rose from his seat, and Vash's gaze followed him, intrigued and attentive to every word as he continued, "You see, I think I may have finally found some use for the humans. Say we take DNA of the plants, and introduce it into humans… perhaps it would cause them to change to something else, both human and plant at once, something like us."
Vash's eyes widened. Could his brother be serious? This was sick…
Knives turned to Vash, smiling, "We could extend our species using some of the humans, and destroy the rest of them."
"But," Vash protested, "How do you know it will work?"
"I don't," Knives responded, "But if anything goes wrong, the humans will probably just die."
Vash hid any horror that caused him… that's right, humans were supposed to be nothing to him now. It would be okay if they died during the experiment; they weren't going to live anyway.
"So," Knives went on, "I think we should begin this experiment as soon as possible… we can get started first thing tomorrow morning."
"What about the humans? Who are we going to use?" Vash questioned his brother, dreading the reply. Knowing his brother, he'd pick Wolfwood…
"I've picked up a couple of guinea pigs," Knives said, with a smirk, "You'll see tomorrow morning."
"Right," Vash replied, as cheerfully as he could manage.
"Now why not get some sleep, Vash?" Knives suggested kindly, "I'll bet you're tired from all that walking."
"Yeah, I am," Vash admitted, finally able to say something truthfully.
"Good night, brother," Knives said, smiling, "I love you." Just the slightest feeling of guilt tugged at Vash's soul as Knives spoke.
"I love you, too, Knives," Vash replied, trying not to sound too hasty about it. If Knives noticed Vash's emotional pain, he didn't say anything, and merely gave a slight wave and left. Vash changed into his pajamas and collapsed on the bed. He hadn't lied; he did love his brother, regardless of what he had done and what he planned to do. Maybe that's why, even though he was doing all of this for Knives' own good, he felt so damn rotten about lying to him like this.
----------------
Creak. A sea green eye shot open.
"What was that… ?" Vash sat up in bed. Wait, where was he? A moment's consciousness and memories came back to him. He rubbed sleep's blurriness from his eyes and looked around the room. It wasn't more than a couple of split-seconds before his eyes locked on the open door, spilling light into the otherwise pitch dark room.
"Who's there?" he asked cautiously, scanning the room slowly with his eyes as they adjusted to the low light level. A low chuckle sounded from just behind him. He snapped his head around and was greeted with a dully glittering gold eye glaring at him out of the darkness.
"Legato!" Vash exclaimed as quietly as possible, twisting himself around in the bed and backing away. There stood the intruder, against the wall, next to the bed. He was grinning at Vash.
"Hello there," Legato greeted Vash, and added spitefully, "Master Vash."
"Um, hi, Legato," Vash answered, not bothering to hide the fear in his voice. Something was wrong here. Legato must be on to him… if he wasn't, he'd never have dared to pull something like this.
"What can I help you with?" Vash asked, trying to be as calm as possible.
"Oh, nothing," Legato replied, "I just thought I'd let you know what I've found out."
"What?" Vash's voice wavered as he asked.
"I'm wise to your game, Vash," Legato said, smiling, "And if you'd like to keep your brother out of the little secret, you'd better start playing for real."
Vash's eyes widened just a little. So, Legato did know. But how did he find out? He hadn't been reading his thoughts since earlier, and he hadn't- Wolfwood. The realization struck him like a bolt of lightning. So, Wolfwood had gotten that chance to prove himself as a friend… and he had failed. Legato grinned. There was that intrusion on his mind again.
"You're a sharp one," Legato remarked, "Well, as long as you go along with Master Knives' wishes, I'll let you be… so, is it a deal then?"
Vash stared at Legato for a few moments, and then finally voiced, "Yeah… it's a deal."
After all, what choice did he have?
----------------
"I'm scared…"
Meryl put a hand on her friend's shoulder, "Yeah, so am I, Milly. But we have to keep faith that we'll be all right."
"And where will faith get you?" a familiar voice uttered.
The two girls turned. There was nobody there… in fact, the direction in which it had come from was a wall, with nothing but an air vent in the bottom. Meryl crawled over to the vent and peered through. The sight she was greeted with was about what she expected; an air duct, that plunged down into darkness directly below the vent. In fact, the one startling thing about the sight was that directly across from her was another vent… through which she could see Nicholas D. Wolfwood, slumped against the wall of another cell, his head hanging down, his arms resting on his knees.
"Wolfwood!" she exclaimed.
"I thought I told you girls not to come here," Wolfwood's tone was dark and miserable, "Though, I didn't really expect you to listen."
Milly had crawled over to the vent as well, and now Meryl and Millie were smashed against each other in front of a very small vent.
"But we couldn't listen, Mr. Priest!" protested Milly, sounding slightly heartened than before they had run into him, "We have to follow Vash wherever he goes!"
Wolfwood sighed, then raised his head and looked at them through the vent, "I know that... but I think we're only getting in his way here. We're jeopardizing his plan."
"What plan?" Meryl responded, blinking.
"It's a long story," Wolfwood groaned, "A really long story… and I'm not so sure it'll have a happy ending."
"We've got time," Milly responded perkily.
Wolfwood sighed. He didn't know if that statement was entirely true. The insurance girls watched him with silent concern for a few moments.
"Wolfwood," Meryl finally spoke up, "What did you mean by what you said earlier… about having faith?"
"I've always had faith," he replied softly, "Always. No matter what terrible things happened to me, I always kept my faith. But now, here I am. And there's no light at the end of this tunnel. I've always kept my faith… I've always been a man of the cloth, almighty God's humble and loyal servant. I may have done some things wrong in my life, and while I take responsibility for my actions, I know that I had to do what I did, not only to protect myself, but to protect the children I cared for so much… but through it all, I kept my faith, I regretted what I did, and I prayed for a chance to lay that life behind me and to go and live in peace, even as I lived out that sinful life. But still I sit here, despite all of my faith, all of my remorse, all of my prayers… I know I'm not getting out of here alive, so where's my faith gotten me, I ask you?"
The insurance girls sat in silence for a few moments.
"But, Mr. Priest," Milly began timidly, "How do you know whether you're going to get out alive? You can't give up on your faith now, Mr. Priest. You need to believe that it will get you out of here eventually, and I believe that as long as you keep your faith near to your heart, it will all work out in the end."
Wolfwood gazed at Milly. Here he was, the priest, and she was the one who was telling him to have faith… was she truly that innocent, that pure? Her bright eyes and brilliant smile answered that question for him. He let a small smile appear on his face.
Milly beamed at his smile, and spoke again, "I'm sure everything will be okay, Mr. Priest. Vash will find a way to get us out of here! Right, Meryl?"
Meryl now put on a small smile herself, "Right."
To be continued…