Disclaimer: I don't own anything Trigun, so don't sue me please, thank you!
Tying Up Loose Ends
Chapter Thirty-Four
End
For the past week, Knives tried his hardest to remain separate from Edy and her affairs to show her that he respected her, her "space", and the rage she directed at him. It had been difficult not to run after her and either beg forgiveness for his sins or voraciously defend his actions. It had been impossible to not ponder why she had yet to take Isaiah and leave the airship.
Although Knives had the self-control to keep himself in his quarters as they traveled to the camp, he broke down and insisted Elendira monitor the situation below. Little remained for the last surviving Gung-Ho Gun to do until the destruction of the humans on Gunsmoke, aside from piloting a rather self-sufficient air ship, of course. With all that time on his hands, it seemed best put to use serving Knives and his obsessive personality. So Elendira watched and returned to Knives' side to relay what went on beneath him in bored, disdainful tones that Knives either couldn't or wouldn't validate.
Now, seven days later, she had yet to desert them and even appeared to have slipped into a coma, her hands gently gripping the temples of the comatose preacher human, thumbs resting over his pulse points. The plants refused to tell him anything about what occurred in her mind with the other absorbed ones, blocking him out as best as they could given the circumstances. The silence and refusal to serve was disquieting but he figured all along they would side with her; everyone sided with wonderful little Edy, the most perfect little half-plant freak.
God, that thought disgusted him! Still, what bothered him more than her obscene, bestial roots was the fact that he couldn't seem to destroy this weird fascination he had for her. As much as he wanted no more to do with her, his brother, or anyone connected to the two disgusting love-birds, he couldn't help but remain attached to them, if only through pain. Thoughts of either of them stabbed deep and twisted, an unpleasant sensation that he thought he did away with until some reminder of their failed relations returned to him, making him want to vomit. To avoid this he flung himself deeper into the embrace of the absorbed plants and their power, only to find himself slipping through their limp, uncaring fingers.
Despite the quiet, their power intoxicated and distracted him; time here with the humans drew to a close and all the power of his siblings had sent him into a drugged state, not unlike a frightening and wonderful trip. No siblings remained upon the planet, nestled in their bulbs. They were all either within him or upon the ships, all necessary sacrifices. Soon they would help him destroy their former masters and Knives could focus on more important things.
* * * * *
They stood, staring across the crowd at each other, one ready to fight, the other unable to figure out what to do. Edy had no clue how long they existed there, how time worked in Nicholas's mind.
Edy, didn't your mother ever teach you about anything about healing the mind?
No, Edy spat back in a mental reply, she killed herself too soon to tell me all her precious secrets.
Try to remind him of the good things in real life, remind him of the things Nicholas has reason to live for.
Edy shook her head to silence the voices, forgetting that they couldn't see her physical actions. She wasn't her mother, she had no idea how to do what they said. Every time she tried to open her mouth, violence flashed in Nicholas' gray eyes like the lightning that danced above a sand storm.
"Nicholas, what about Vash, Milly, Meryl, Isaiah…" she stuttered, trying to force the words out quickly before the blow landed that she knew would follow, the one that flattened her upon the floor once more. Before she could disentangle herself from the sharp pile of books, she felt her body lifted and shoved through the wall, out into the darkness.
Dust and pages fluttered to rest about Edy as she quivered in the puddle of light and wreckage, coughing violently. Blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth as well as her back, which had led the exit from the house, staining her pale form as brilliant a shade as the figures inside. No one loomed in the hole above her, staring down to see why this woman has been forced to choose such an unconventional way to leave the party.
No one in this world cared if she lived or died; Edy shivered at the abject loneliness.
Struggling to stand and not to cry, Edy gave up and hobbled away from the house, determined to find a way out. This was beyond her; fatigue plagued Edy, sapping her will to think any more and replacing it with only the want of sleep. All of her energy seemed to slowly drain from her limbs.
A sudden memory flashing across her mind caused her to pause, blinded for a moment. The pictures, the ones that Nicholas had taken with him when he disappeared, they had to be here somewhere. Whether he wanted to remember them or not, Edy knew that the photos probably had been imprinted on his mind; she doubted he even needed to look at them near the end, before all this happened, to recall the smiling faces developed on those seemingly insignificant slips of paper. Maybe if she found those then she could do something. At least it was a start.
Good girl, now you're using your brain.
* * * * *
After three days of silence and no movement, Isaiah had enough and left the cell. He couldn't sit there any more, just watching. All this time he had done nothing, had been completely useless to everyone. Isaiah needed to change that.
The insides of the air ship sprawled about him like a jumbled mass of metallic organs; Isaiah had no idea where to head first but he knew whom he had to find. Setting out, his feet clanging ominously on the grated walkways, Isaiah tried to gather his bearings. If he were Knives, where would he be?
Isaiah wandered, climbing stairways, traversing dark passageways, walking for maybe an hour with no success. Tired and scared, realizing he had no idea how to find Edy again, Isaiah slumped down to the floor, resting against a wall while trying to scrub away the impending tears with the back of his grubby hand.
Time passed but Isaiah was immobilized with fear and had no way to make good use of it. Darkness surrounded him, pressing in on his tiny body; Isaiah could see absolutely nothing but the monsters his brain conjured up to keep him company in the pitch black. He tried to whistle, to sing, even just to talk to himself to keep the terror from consuming him, but his voice cracked and gave way in the middle of every attempt. Luckily, hunger set in and the gurgling of his stomach cut the heavy silence like a hot knife through butter.
A sudden burst of light enveloped him as he fell backwards, the ringing of the pain that erupted behind his eyes and the voice of God enveloping; it had to be God, he figured, because there was no way he could be alive any longer.
"Well, this is interesting."
Huh, God sounded kind of like a really pissed Elendira…
* * * * *
"They aren't here yet," Milly murmured to herself, watching the horizon as they approached the ships; neither Vash nor Meryl had anything to say in reply.
The week had passed as time is wont to do. Having reached the camp with two days to spare before launch, they had given the authorities plenty of time to run an assortment of embarrassingly personal tests on both their body and their mind. The people from Earth had to ensure that no one brought on board a fatal, communicable disease or homicidal tendencies, for the safety of all of course.
When not with the physicians or the psychiatrists Vash laid low in their assigned tent for fear of meeting up once more with old "acquaintances" that would give away his true identity. Although he couldn't know for sure, Vash doubted his reputation would do anything but impede his boarding of the ships; while a part of him wished this to happen, the part that centered around thoughts of those he abandoned, the rest of him only wished to escape this dry, terribly spacious prison cell. Meryl avoided Vash at all costs and Milly was torn between the two, deciding to keep company with Roscoe instead.
When at last the day came that the ships would launch and everyone gathered like cattle about the numerous ramps, the absentee members of their party were no where to be found. Standing together in a miserable, tensely silent clump and awaiting their turn to board, no one dared speak of this worry until at last Milly voiced their anxiety in her plain words. Vash gnawed on his lip as he ran through his mind possible ways Knives would attack the ships. Meryl joined her friend in scanning the sky for any sign of the air ship.
All of a sudden, Vash felt it; a tiny niggling of disquiet in the back of his mind blossoming into full panic. Knives was nearby and he had begun to unsheathe his blades.
"He's here," he murmured to himself. Turning, he hurried shot out an order Milly and Meryl. "Girls, get on the ship and stay there; I'll try to meet you later if I can, but don't hold your breath."
With that, Vash the Stampede disappeared into the crowds, heading away from the ships.
* * * * *
They have to be in here somewhere, Edy thought to herself. Piles of things surrounded her as she pulled more and more items out the chest of drawers in the back bedroom, the one Nicholas and Vash shared when they both lived under her roof. Realization that Nicholas' inner sanctuary resembled her house in February hit her once all the people disappeared; upon re-entering the place, not a soul could be seen, silence haunting her loud footsteps.
Edy tried not to examine very closely the things she pulled out of the drawers; the first couple of things frightened her, terrible figurines that cruelly mimicked a man with three arms and another in a vicious-looking wheel-chair. Neither had their heads so the faces her imagination placed above these plastic necks only added to her discomfort. From there on out she blindly discarded anything that wasn't on paper.
It had been a long search and Edy's entire body cried out in protest with every move she made. No chest of drawers could hold this much stuff in the real world but here in Nicholas' mind, exact time and space didn't seem quite so important. Wiping the back of her hand across her brow, relieving her of only some of the annoying, trickling, little paths of sweat, Edy paused in her almost constant shoveling of Nicholas' memories out of their hiding place. There, wedge between a tin canister and some oily rags were several slips of heavy paper, all about photograph size. Tenderly, she pulled them from their resting place and turned them over to reveal her own face and that of a grumpy Isaiah staring back.
Flip.
One of her and Vash together, arms stiffly around each other, nervous grins plastered upon their faces and happy light within their eyes.
Flip.
A candid of Meryl, Milly, and Isaiah attempting to wash Roscoe, who was in turn bathing them to his playful, mischevious delight.
Flip.
Vash and he in front of the Prancing Thomas, dressed for work in their clean, nice outfits.
Flip.
Milly alone, smiling, standing on the back porch and facing out to the world while her head turned back towards the camera.
Flip…
"I told you to leave," Edy heard Nicholas say from behind. He sounded tired and frustrated.
"No," she replied, turning with the photos clutched to her chest. "I just can't do that yet. You have to remember, you have to…"
"Respect my decision, Edy. Let me end my miserable, good-for-nothing life as I please."
"I won't let… You remember my name?"
"You weren't the only one to recall the photos. It took me a while to remember where I had seen your face before, but when I did I came straight here."
"Then if you remember us, if you remember all this," she gestured to the room around her, "in real life, then why won't you come back with me?"
"I will never understand why Vash or Milly or you or Isaiah ever felt I deserved anything more than a short drop and a swift stop. You've come inside, you've even brazenly pawed through my thoughts, my memories, my life, and yet you still think I'm worth having around? I betrayed you all to Knives, I abandoned you all when you needed me, my hands are drenched in so much blood that it reaches clear up to my shoulders. I'm not a good person, Edy. Earth needs no one like me. Besides, what would I even do there? What abilities do I have that could possibly aid society, support it? I'm useless and I'm even ruining your chance to leave as we speak."
Edy couldn't focus all through Wolfwood's explanation; something vying for her attention distracted her, like a gnat that found its way into her ear. When at last he grew quiet Edy figured out exactly what was wrong.
Edy! Get out of their now! Knives is getting ready to destroy the ships!
Can't you hear all the commotion? Are you deaf, girl?! All the plants are being drawn from to help him and they're not happy.
All but two, one of which he's trying to absorb right now.
What are you all talking about, Edy asked, her attention turned inwards completely.
Isaiah's about to return from whence he came, in a sense…
Isaiah?! Hell…
"Nicholas, any other time I'd try to work through this with you and gently guide you away from your ridiculously skewed self-image, but we're both just shit out of luck. We have to get out of here now or else Knives wins and I lose Isaiah and I'm not leaving here without you."
"But…"
"No buts. You can hate me when this is over."
With that, Edy grabbed his wrist and followed the voices' back to reality.
* * * * *
"Vash? You came back?" Knives murmured, rolling his head up to stared dazedly at the young boy before him. He sat in the center of a vast, sparsely furnished room and at the epicenter of a writhing, wriggling mass of blades. They melded into the walls before Isaiah's very eyes, the entire airship becoming one, gigantic, organic weapon.
Isaiah almost pissed himself.
Elendira watched coolly as he stood behind Isaiah, making no moves to touch him but also making it quite clear the boy had no options of retreat. It finally hit Isaiah that Knives thought he was Vash once more. If he hadn't been so terrified by the shear mass of the other plant's power he would have been annoyed.
"Elendira, take him away. I don't want to see my brother again."
"Master Knives, this is Isaiah, not Vash," he replied, sounding annoyed enough for both himself and the boy.
No verbal reply came from Knives but a few bladed tendrils extracted themselves from the floor, slithering their way about Isaiah. A tugging sensation pulled at Isaiah and he tried to fight it but to no avail; the ring of blades drew closer around him like a snake constricting about its kill. The tug became more of a rip as the smooth surfaces touched flesh and someone screamed. Only when the door behind him slammed shut, effectively ending the absorption, did Isaiah realize it was he who screamed; he crimsoned in shame as he gasped for breath.
"Knives!" cried a familiar voice behind him, distracting the plant. A tingle, almost a burning sensation welled up within Isaiah's hands as the rest of the sensations ebbed away. It matched the rage within him. Pivoting, Isaiah saw Edy, eyes ablaze, feathers bristling, blonde no longer visible in her ebony hair. She leaned heavily upon Wolfwood, the shrunken, pale, shadowy remains of Wolfwood, who in turn leaned heavily upon her. Edy didn't continue, perhaps having nothing more to say besides wanting to gain Knives' attention.
She certainly had it. With a cruel grin, Knives turned his eyes to Edy and sent blades circling about her.
"I regret giving you that last gift, Edy. I'm going to take it back now."
Isaiah could only stare in hatred as Knives knocked Wolfwood back to the ground, the poor man unable to fight in his condition. Edy found herself unable to escape as they closed about her, sucking the plants back out against her or their will. As Isaiah watched he saw her angel arm retract, the feathers melding with her flesh once more; the burning in his hands erupted into a fire as he clenched his fingers tight against his palms. Cracks ran across the backs of his hands as his skin began to split and every ounce of energy he had inside funneled into his shaking fists. Ready to turn and strike Knives in any way he thought he could, Isaiah paused.
Edy's arm seemed to be transforming again, although not into a mass of healing feathers this time but into something completely different.
* * * * *
A great wind shoved Vash forcibly upon his back, the rush of hundreds, thousands of lives streaming past him. He experienced something like this once before, that occurrence followed as well by the rending of his heart in two. Vash struggled to stand beneath the weight of his sobs.
Knowing concretely without knowing how, he knew the plants were dead and free, possibly more along with them. Knives? Isaiah? Had Wolfwood found his way to that airship?
…Edy?
"No more," he moaned into his sweat-slicked palms, shouldering quaking with emotion. "No more!"
Unsure how long he crouched there, the bitter, empty sadness of these deaths plagued him and gnawed at the bonds of his guilt until it fell free into his breast. At long last dry footsteps approached, slow and awkward, rousing him. Vash lifted his head, on guard at first, then smiling faintly, and then settling once more in a frown. He just couldn't accept life and the living right then.
* * * * *
The launch went off with hardly a hitch, only a slight hiccup in the final number of refugees boarded; all who had registered at the camp made it aboard, plus two. Considering the substantial numbers dealt with, that two would be over-looked in the masses was highly conceivable. After a quick physical the two remainders were allowed to join their companions on the ship and leave Gunsmoke behind with hardly a glance backwards.
fin.