Double Helix

chapter four
~ salutations ~

She was late.

Not because she was expected to arrive at a specific time, but because he was getting tired of waiting.

He knew that she boarded the only steamer available and that she wasted no time purchasing a thomas upon arriving in November. She was on her way and she was traveling alone, just as she had been instructed. That was typical of her and he expected nothing less. The human was unusually dependable.

As predicted, his brother and friends had tried to accompany her without her knowledge. Knives had anticipated this and made certain that they would not be able to travel together on the same ship. When they were unsuccessful with trying to purchase tickets for the sand-steamer, they tried to board the ship illegally.

Was his twin really so tedious?

In any case, Knives provided the three would be stole-a-ways with some entertainment. Enough entertainment to distract them from their original goal. He was certain Vash knew it was a diversion, but it didn't matter so long as Knives got the outcome he wanted. Meryl boarded the sand-steamer and it left on schedule. That was all that mattered.

It would be another three days before the next sand-steamer arrived in Juun. That is, if it ran on schedule. Even if Vash and his friends followed after Meryl by bus, they would still be behind her by at least two days. That was plenty of time for Knives to meet Meryl uninterrupted and leave his brother with just enough evidence to throw him off track.

If there was one thing Knives had learned over the years when it came to manipulating humans was that even the smallest seed of doubt or fear could grow into a jungle if given just the right form of encouragement.

Knives smirked to himself. He knew his brother was attached to the little human, yet for all his sentimentality he still did not try to stop her from going. He had the power and ability to do so, but did not.

Pathetic.

Still, Vash's sense of sentiment would force him to seek out the missing human and Chapel would help him. It wouldn't be long before the twins would be reunited again. It was a moment long in coming and Knives couldn't help but to look forward to the meeting, though he expected it would be a volatile one.

Knives let the granules of sand sift through his fingers as he stared out at the golden-brown landscape, watching the occasional dust devil swirl about off in the distance. The landscape was as bored as he was and such occasion usually lead to destructive tendencies. Of course, having to listen to Legato's mind wander for entertainment would cause destructive tendencies in anyone, plant or otherwise. Legato could be so tiresome before too long.

Rising from his crouched position and briefly dusting himself off, Knives decided to take a walk, again. Meryl was expected at any time and it wasn't like he was going to miss her arrival. There was no place to go for iles and certainly nowhere to hide. Knives was not about to let his last best chance escape through fleeing, hiding or death.

She would carry out his plans. There was no alternative.

Knives slowly wound his way through the skeletal remains of the long-dead city. Empty, gutted and burnt-out buildings surrounded him on all sides. Some of them leaning precariously to one side, barely surviving the passing of the most recent sandstorm.

As he worked his way deeper into the heart of the burnt-out city, he realized with slight solace where he was heading. His flesh had led him back unconsciously. Not that he should be particularly surprised, he had spent a lot of time here.

In this very place was the point of origin, the place where their new future had begun.

He stood at the center, staring down at his feet and felt the familiar sense of awe wash over him. He was standing on the spot where the plant core had once been. He could just barely feel the fading residue of energy from the long-dead and ancient plant. The scent of her death still clung to the earth.

Squatting down, Knives picked up a handful of blackened dirt and rubbed it between his fingers, letting it slowly slide out of his hand and float in the wind. He felt his rage spark within his belly and surge forward as he mentally cursed the maggots once again. He would never forgive them for consuming his family in order to guarantee their own survival.

'That will soon be a thing of the past. For all of us.'

This sister whom the humans had tried to forcibly milk of every last drop of her life energy had chosen a different path, the first of her kind to do so. The first planet-bound plant brave enough to do so. She chose to use that precious energy that the humans crave so much and use it in order to reproduce, and in the process, she chose her own death.

It was an event that caused every plant on the planet to pause in silence; some paused in fear while others paused in awe. All of them recognized the potential at once, though each one saw a different embodiment of that potential.

Some welcomed it while others did not.

Yet, in the end, he was the one who was told about the exact location of the seedling. The ones who agreed with his beliefs also trusted him to care for it, to educate it, to bring it about to its full potential and lead it down the path of its destiny... and he would.

• • •

She hated sand. She hated it.

She hated having it in her nose and in her mouth. She hated the way it felt when it got built up in her hair and under her nails. She hated it when the sand got into her shoes and down her shirt, sticking to her sweaty skin.

She just hated it.

Meryl leaned over to one side of the saddle and spat, trying to rid her mouth of the grit. It was a pointless attempt on her part and she knew it but there was little else she could do to relieve her discomfort save from taking a bath. Traveling for any long distance by thomas always left her feeling miserable and dirty. Not to mention moody. It had been a long time since she had traveled such a far distance alone and it was starting to depress her.

'I miss him.'

She sighed quietly and frowned. She hadn't been away from Milly or the spiky-haired moron for more than a couple of days and she already felt painfully alone. Meryl tried not to allow her thoughts to linger on them for too long, but her mind always strayed to thoughts of them. Jaw clenched, she stubbornly tried to push them both from her mind. She would only start to cry again and she didn't want to meet her supervisor for the first time with puffy, bloodshot eyes.

Of course, she probably looked a mess anyway. It didn't really matter, Meryl never considered herself to be much a beauty to begin with. She knew she wasn't sore on the eyes, but she also knew that she lacked the physical assets that many men found appealing. Not that she had time to actively seek out a man in her life. She knew the reality of her situation and her personality type. Meryl was likely destined to always being single. She hated that fact, but she was smart enough to recognize the path her choices had placed her upon.

She didn't feel sorry for herself. At least not most of the time. She did like her career. She liked that her work put her in the unique position to be able to help people. Most insurance agencies didn't cover the damage done by Vash the Stampede, but since she was actively supervising the outlaw, she could prove that most of the damage that happened around him was not his fault. Which meant that a damaged home or destroyed business would be covered. In spite of the expense this placed on The Society, they had a surge of new clients since Meryl and Milly began their assignment. The Bernadelli Insurance Society was quickly becoming known as the "people's insurance company" because they were willing to cover damage that most other insurance companies wrote off as "an act of Vash the Stampede" and refused to cover.

This coverage did not come cheap. People had to pay more for high-risk Bernadelli Insurance, but they felt secure in the knowledge that if Vash happened to pass through their town and some freak accident would occur, they wouldn't lose everything.

So in that way, she was able to help people. Or at least put their worries at ease. And she liked to think that she was a help to Vash — a steady friend where he normally didn't have one. But sometimes she wondered if truly thought of her as more friend than persistent annoyance. Vash often seemed far more interested in ditching her than getting to know her. And to add insult to injury, he never called her by her given name. She was just, 'insurance girl.' A nobody.

'Just my damn rotten luck.'

Shifting uncomfortably on the saddle and pulling at her blouse, Meryl attempted to shake off some of the sand and rid her mind of thoughts of Vash.

'If they don't fire me I should just quit for having to come all the way out here, damn it!'

Meryl bit back her temper as she studied the path below her, verifing that she was still on the main road to Tober City. The road was barely recognizable, having been eroded by the strong winds and partially buried by the shifting sands. She doubted anyone had traveled this way in years. According to all the maps she had seen of the area, the only thing out here was Tober City. The nearest town was the city of November, and she just left from there the day before. She silently thanked God for blessing her with a good sense of direction and her long-dead grandfather for teaching her how to track when she was a child. Without those two gifts, she was certain she would be completely lost by now.

Meryl paused the thomas to get a drink of water and survey her surroundings more thoroughly. Now was no time for mistakes. As she scanned the area with her binoculars and double-checked her maps she felt the first real smile touch her lips since four days ago.

She had finally arrived.

Just a few hundred more yarz and she could finally take a break from traveling and get cleaned up. If time allowed, she could even rest for a bit, though she didn't know where she would be staying for the night. It wasn't as though Tober City would have any hotels or inns. She didn't know if Mr. Millio would be waiting for her already or if she would have some time to relax before she had to meet him.

Meryl took one last drink of water and secured it to her saddle.

"Let's get going," she said to the thomas as she nudged it with her feet. "The sooner we get there the sooner we both can relax and hopefully go home."

The thomas snorted in response as it slowly moved forward.

Biting her lip in a nervous gesture, Meryl cautiously approached main entrance of the long dead city. Tober was indeed much larger and darker than she had imagined. It seemed to loom above her almost ominously. The sensation made her skin crawl. Stories about how Tober City became a ghost town came to the forefront of her mind, reminding her of her childhood.

She was barely eleven-years-old when she first heard the stories about the plant explosion. People said it was the most powerful explosion since the destruction of July. It killed or maimed over 90% of the population and reduced the city to ruins. Entire families were wiped out in a single day. Schools full of children burned to ashes in seconds and people literally melted from the heat emanating from the exploding plant. Meryl remembered how the news had horrified her and she had been plagued with nightmares about it for weeks afterwards, fearful of the same thing happening in her town.

Both of her parents had worked at the local plant in the town she grew up in at one time or another. They were not plant engineers, but they did occasionally work to help maintain the plant itself. News about plant explosions or near-explosions always circulated quickly among plant workers and Meryl always dreaded the idea that one day their own plant would fall into chaos and kill both her parents in the process.

Dismounting the thomas, Meryl took the beast by the reins and started to lead it into the devastated town. With each step, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to rise. Swallowing hard, Meryl rationalized that it was just the eeriness of being in a place where so many people had died that set her on edge. Nothing more. Still, she reached for a derringer anyway, allowing instinct to have its way.

She wondered if her boss was somewhere in town waiting for her, as she had not been told specifically where she should go once she arrived. Clearing her throat, she called out loudly. "Hello? Mr. Millio...?"

She listened for a few moments after her voice echoed back at her. No response. No movement, no sound... nothing.

The anxious feeling within the pit of Meryl's belly continued to grow, regardless of how much she tried to reason with herself. She didn't like the feel of the place. It just... wasn't right. She felt like she was being watched. She was almost certain of it, but she quickly dismissed the notion as being preposterous. Why would her boss sit back and just watch her wander through town... unless he was some sort of a pervert or something?

Even so, she would much rather error on the side of caution than be caught unprotected and unarmed. If someone was here and wanted to hurt her, she would not hesitate to defend herself. Lethally if need be.

Tying the thomas to a nearby pole, she proceed into town with both hands gripping a weapon. It gave her a small sense of comfort to feel the familiar weight of the guns in her hands.

'I wish Vash and Milly were here...'

Meryl continued toward the center of town, carefully scanning the area for any indication of someone following her. She paused in front of the burned out remains of a building that looked strangely familiar to her. Entering it cautiously, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and she almost tripped over some debris as she stepped further into the room.

Her eyes widened in surprised as she examined the damage before her. The room looked like it had simply melted. The wall directly in front of her had a large hole in it that she could only assume had at one time been a place for a window. Upon closer inspection, she realized that the glass had simply dripped down the sides of the metal wall leaving behind a blackened cascade.

Fingers trailing over the unusual remains, Meryl became certain that she was standing in the husk of the building that had once been the main control room for the Tober City plant. She felt amazed once again at the strength and resilience of ancient technology. Somehow, this building had survived and remained standing, even though it was located at ground zero.

Stepping over more debris, Meryl made her way back outside. The brightness blinded her momentarily and she squinted painfully against the harshness of the suns. Shielding her face and keeping her eyes directed downwards, she noticed an odd, oily-looking stain in the earth. It was perfectly black and glistened strangely in the brightness of daylight.

'Is that some type of oil?'

Mery knelt down carefully and picked up some of the dirt in her hands, feeling the texture between her fingertips. It certainly didn't feel oily, but it did smell odd. She brought the dirt closer to her nose and inhaled. The scent wasn't offensive, but it wasn't all that pleasant either. She knew she had never smelled anything like it before.

'This must be the remains of the plant...'

"That is correct," a male voice suddenly said.

Startled, Meryl jumped quickly to her feet and instinctively raised her guns in the direction of the voice, her fingers ready on the trigger. Her breath caught in her throat and her hands started to tremble the instant she realized whom she was looking at. He smiled at her broadly, in an almost friendly fashion, causing dread to flood her senses. Her voice was barely a whisper as she mouthed his name into the wind.

"Knives..."