Screaming Angels
The sound pierced through the night, echoing through the metal hull of the ship until every inch rung with the sound. It was a sound that Knives and Vash had never heard in their entire lives. The sound filled their ears until they could no longer drown it out by putting their hands over them. Vash wailed in the bed beside Rem and she looked in horror from one boy to the other.
Knives was already on his feet. He had been wandering through the ship on his own, wondering about his mother. It had been a full two weeks since their visit and he wanted to check up on her. He hadn't known that he could trigger something like this. Knives tried to catch his breath after the long run back to the bedroom. Rem knew Knives had sparked the screaming and she looked at him as a mother would look at a child who had hit his brother. "What did you do, Knives?" He swallowed and started to turn away, but Rem caught his arm and swung him to face her. "What did you do Knives?!"
Vash was screaming now, trying to bury his head in the pillows, "Make it stop Rem, make it stop! Please." He scrambled and wailed, the sound only increased.
"I just wanted to talk to them." Knives couldn't look at Rem, her brown eyes were too accusing. "All I did was visit them and then suddenly one of them started to scream. I didn't even know they could scream Rem. I promise I didn't even touch them!" He went limp in Rem's arms and she let him go.
Rem put a hand to her face and breathed a sigh. Then she stood, grabbed her shoes and headed down the long corridors towards the plants. Knives followed her, leaving Vash to cry in the bed alone. What was she going to do? He hadn't laid a hand on the plants, hadn't even been able to speak to them this time. When they'd started screaming a shiver ran down Knives' spine and he didn't know what to do. He tried to calm them, tried to say something that would stop the sound, but nothing seemed to work. When he left the huge room, the pitch increased, and Knives knew all of the plants were screaming now.
"Rem, what are you going to do?" He huffed behind her, not used to keeping up to her as she broke into a jog. Knives puffed, "Rem! I'm sorry!"
She didn't respond, only came up to the door and opened it. The screaming. Even Rem put her hands up to her ears as she continued down the long walkway to the final door. Knives followed reluctantly, the plants were reeling in their cages, pounding against the glass. He'd never seen them like this. "Rem." His voice didn't carry, but Rem turned to look at him.
"Knives, it's not your fault." She lowered her head; her long hair fell around her face. "But I will need your help quieting them. Vash's too." Rem looked up at Knives and he frowned.
"I don't know how Rem. And Vash."
"Go get Vash. Bring him here." She turned with her final order and continued down the hallway towards the door where their mother rested in her bulb.
Knives nodded; from now on he'd listen to Rem. He didn't want anything like this to happen again. He ran from the room, and as the door closed behind him it was almost a relief from the sound. He could hear himself think now. When he got back to the bedroom, Vash had every blanket from the bed dragged to him in the corner of the room and he sat quivering in the pile. "Come on Vash, Rem needs us to help her."
"I can't. I can't. I won't go in there." Vash shook, tears threatening his eyes again. His face was still red and he was shaking. "I'm not one of them, Knives. I can't be."
"So you'll let them scream? You'll spoil them?" Knives reached into the blankets and wrapped his fingers around Vash's arm. "Vash, Rem needs our help and we've got to help her. We can't just let them get away with this. We've got to get them to shut up." He pulled his brother out of the pile on the floor and dragged him out of the room.
"No Knives. I. Don't make me, please." Vash struggled, but weakly, he wasn't really trying to get free. Knives knew that the fear wasn't quite overwhelming the curiosity. "How can I help?"
His brother shook his head, "I don't know Vash, but Rem said we could help, and you believe Rem, don't you?"
"Of course."
After that, Vash didn't struggle against Knives. He walked calmly beside him until they finally broke into a jog, eager to stop the noise as soon as possible. When they came to the plant chamber, Rem was gone. Knives held his hands over his ears and called for her, but when there wasn't a response, he had to catch Vash from running away. "Stop that. She's here somewhere! REM!!!"
The door opened at the other end of the walkway and Rem came out. She looked down at the floor and Knives' eyes went wide. "REM! Our mother!" He ran now, full speed towards the doorway, what had happened to her? Why had Rem gone in there? Knives knew now why the screaming had started, he knew the plant within that room had died. He had to get to her, had to see her. But Rem had different plans. She stood in front of the door, blocking the path as the door slid shut. "Rem! I have to see her, please Rem."
Rem shook her head. "You and Vash have to quiet them now."
"But our mother."
"I AM YOUR MOTHER." Rem said fiercely. She turned to the keypad and pried it off with her fingers. She ripped at the cables and pulled the keypad off. "I should have done this a long time ago," she said suddenly and grabbed Knives' arm. "Either you and Vash shut them up or we'll lock them up and let them scream forever."
Knives tried to pull away from Rem, but she was too strong. He screamed, "Let me go! She's dead isn't she? I have to see her!"
Rem slapped him. Knives fell to the floor and looked up at her, rubbing his face. Vash ran up to him, "Rem." He tried to do something for Knives, but his twin brushed him away.
"Leave me alone, Vash."
"But Knives." Vash looked up at Rem. "Rem, I don't understand."
She held the keypad up for them to see. "I should never have told you what you were. You were right, Vash. And from now on you are human. No one is to know what you are. No one. When my five years are up we'll all go into the sleep chamber together. When they finally find us a new home we'll be a family, a human family." With a sigh, Rem put out her hand for Knives. "Touch the glass and make a connection, both of you. They'll quiet down."
Knives growled at her and stood up on his own, his face still red with the print her hand had left. His face had fallen into a scowl and he walked over to the nearest plant. They were still screaming, but the sound had been drowned out by everything that had happened. Knives could hardly hear them now as he thought about what Rem was doing to them. What she was making them do. He would never forget what he was, never!
He placed fingers onto the smooth glass and the plant within stopped screaming. It was instant. Knives closed his eyes. When the plant came up and placed her hand on the other side of the glass, he could feel her pain, she was indeed mourning the passing of her mother. It will be okay, Sister, Knives thought to her.
When he opened his eyes, Knives looked over to Vash. "Put your hand on the glass and they'll quiet down," he went to the next plant and she too was quiet. He looked at Vash who hadn't moved. "Move it Vash, before they start up again!"
Vash jumped into action then, although hesitant at putting his fingers on the glass at first. Then he finally set his hand against the glass and he said, "Shut up, brat. You're being selfish."
Knives rolled his eyes, "You don't have to talk to them."
"First you say I do." Vash went to the next plant and she quieted without a word.
They each headed towards the next one down the line, but the room was quieting now on its own as the plants nearest those they'd touched were going back to sleep. As the sound died in the farthest corners of the chamber, Knives looked at Vash, and then back to Rem. "It's done."
"Good," Rem said, and headed out the door. "Let's leave them alone."
"But, Rem. What about her?" Vash said quietly.
Rem shook her head, "As far as you should be concerned, she never existed." She reached out her hand, "Isn't that what you wanted?" Vash nodded and took her hand. Knives sneered; his brother was too easily convinced. He wouldn't be. He'd find a way into that chamber someday.
But as they walked from the chamber and the door closed behind them, Rem went to the nearby keypad that usually remained unlocked and typed in a password to lock it. Then, as she did with the other one, she ripped it off the wall as well. Without a sound they followed her down the long corridors and finally into the hangar. Knives frowned, "Rem."
She set the keypads down onto the floor and pushed the boys out of the room. The inner door closed behind them and Knives and Vash pressed themselves up against the windows. Without an explanation Rem opened the outer doors and the vacuum of space sucked the keypads into the void. Knives pressed himself up to the glass. "Why? Why did you do that?" He pounded at the glass and turned to look at Rem as she closed the outer doors again.
Rem set a hand on Vash's head and he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry Knives, but I don't want you going in there any more. It's not good for you. From now on, I'm your only family. The plants." She squeezed Vash, and held out a hand for Knives. "Come here Knives." Knives frowned, but when Vash turned to look at him with those green eyes, he came up to Rem and hugged her as well. "I love you Knives. And you too Vash." Rem held them in her arms.
Knives felt like he was being squeezed in a vice. He looked at Vash again and sighed. His brother was okay with this. Why was Vash so okay with this? Vash had his eyes squeezed shut and he was smiling. Knives closed his eyes too and tried to feel comfortable in Rem's embrace. When he opened his eyes again, Vash was looking at him. He nodded to Rem and Knives looked up at her and said through gritted teeth, "I love you too." When he looked back at Vash he was smiling as if everything had gone back to normal.
With a sigh, Knives managed to pull himself away from the group hug and he grabbed Vash's hand. "Hey Vash, I have an idea."
"What?"
"Let's go look at the sleepers." He looked up at Rem. She smiled and nodded. "Come on Vash."
"Okay!" Vash replied, and he followed Knives to the Cold Sleep Chamber. As they walked he started talking about the sleeping occupants aboard the ship. "You know Knives, I was thinking about how you know so much about the computers. Maybe you could teach me how to use them better. Because Rem told me once there are files on each of the SEEDs. I thought that maybe we could look over them, maybe get to know them better so when we all wake up on the new planet we'll know something about them."
Knives turned his head to look at Vash as they walked. His frown disappeared as he looked at that goofy smile on his brother's face. He really was okay with this. Nothing would change after all. Except that Vash now got up early and wanted to learn everything about the ship, and had already started following Rem in the morning rounds. In two weeks he had learned nearly everything that Knives had spent most of his life trying to learn. All of the secrets, all of the shortcuts that he'd had to make, all of the information he had gotten out of Rem; Vash learned it all almost immediately as if he were a computer himself. It was almost aggravating.
But then again. Vash had begun to open his mind, and Knives had tried to fill it with everything he could manage. Even about the plants when he could. His twin had come down with that habit of calling them all "brats" and "spoiled children" since they never had to do anything, just sit in those glass globes all day long. The plants never had to do chores or have lessons. Knives had become jealous of them.
It would all change now. Rem had destroyed his only way to get to his sisters and there would be no more talking about them. Knives knew that from now on they didn't exist. At least in Rem's view. He would never forget the plants. But for a time he decided there were other things he could learn about, and he smiled at Vash, "I think that's a great idea, learning about the sleepers." Maybe when they were awake, he would find someone to be on his side, someone who could override Rem's decision.
When they reached the observatory, Vash sat down and stared out at the long rows of glass cages with their sleeping occupants. Knives stood nearby, his hands pressed up against the cold windows. He looked down at Vash and frowned. Why did Vash like these sleeping people so much? Was there something he was missing? The humans didn't even move! They were frozen solid. They didn't move, they didn't respond. The plants had accepted him. Would the humans? Knives slid down onto his butt.
Vash looked over at him. "Do you think we'll ever get to meet them?"
"Yes," Knives said, the idea having already crossed his mind. "Yes, I think we will." He looked out over the sleeping humans and smiled. She won't stop me this time, Knives thought. He looked over at Vash and put an arm around his brother's shoulder. "You know what Vash, I think we will get to meet them."
The sound pierced through the night, echoing through the metal hull of the ship until every inch rung with the sound. It was a sound that Knives and Vash had never heard in their entire lives. The sound filled their ears until they could no longer drown it out by putting their hands over them. Vash wailed in the bed beside Rem and she looked in horror from one boy to the other.
Knives was already on his feet. He had been wandering through the ship on his own, wondering about his mother. It had been a full two weeks since their visit and he wanted to check up on her. He hadn't known that he could trigger something like this. Knives tried to catch his breath after the long run back to the bedroom. Rem knew Knives had sparked the screaming and she looked at him as a mother would look at a child who had hit his brother. "What did you do, Knives?" He swallowed and started to turn away, but Rem caught his arm and swung him to face her. "What did you do Knives?!"
Vash was screaming now, trying to bury his head in the pillows, "Make it stop Rem, make it stop! Please." He scrambled and wailed, the sound only increased.
"I just wanted to talk to them." Knives couldn't look at Rem, her brown eyes were too accusing. "All I did was visit them and then suddenly one of them started to scream. I didn't even know they could scream Rem. I promise I didn't even touch them!" He went limp in Rem's arms and she let him go.
Rem put a hand to her face and breathed a sigh. Then she stood, grabbed her shoes and headed down the long corridors towards the plants. Knives followed her, leaving Vash to cry in the bed alone. What was she going to do? He hadn't laid a hand on the plants, hadn't even been able to speak to them this time. When they'd started screaming a shiver ran down Knives' spine and he didn't know what to do. He tried to calm them, tried to say something that would stop the sound, but nothing seemed to work. When he left the huge room, the pitch increased, and Knives knew all of the plants were screaming now.
"Rem, what are you going to do?" He huffed behind her, not used to keeping up to her as she broke into a jog. Knives puffed, "Rem! I'm sorry!"
She didn't respond, only came up to the door and opened it. The screaming. Even Rem put her hands up to her ears as she continued down the long walkway to the final door. Knives followed reluctantly, the plants were reeling in their cages, pounding against the glass. He'd never seen them like this. "Rem." His voice didn't carry, but Rem turned to look at him.
"Knives, it's not your fault." She lowered her head; her long hair fell around her face. "But I will need your help quieting them. Vash's too." Rem looked up at Knives and he frowned.
"I don't know how Rem. And Vash."
"Go get Vash. Bring him here." She turned with her final order and continued down the hallway towards the door where their mother rested in her bulb.
Knives nodded; from now on he'd listen to Rem. He didn't want anything like this to happen again. He ran from the room, and as the door closed behind him it was almost a relief from the sound. He could hear himself think now. When he got back to the bedroom, Vash had every blanket from the bed dragged to him in the corner of the room and he sat quivering in the pile. "Come on Vash, Rem needs us to help her."
"I can't. I can't. I won't go in there." Vash shook, tears threatening his eyes again. His face was still red and he was shaking. "I'm not one of them, Knives. I can't be."
"So you'll let them scream? You'll spoil them?" Knives reached into the blankets and wrapped his fingers around Vash's arm. "Vash, Rem needs our help and we've got to help her. We can't just let them get away with this. We've got to get them to shut up." He pulled his brother out of the pile on the floor and dragged him out of the room.
"No Knives. I. Don't make me, please." Vash struggled, but weakly, he wasn't really trying to get free. Knives knew that the fear wasn't quite overwhelming the curiosity. "How can I help?"
His brother shook his head, "I don't know Vash, but Rem said we could help, and you believe Rem, don't you?"
"Of course."
After that, Vash didn't struggle against Knives. He walked calmly beside him until they finally broke into a jog, eager to stop the noise as soon as possible. When they came to the plant chamber, Rem was gone. Knives held his hands over his ears and called for her, but when there wasn't a response, he had to catch Vash from running away. "Stop that. She's here somewhere! REM!!!"
The door opened at the other end of the walkway and Rem came out. She looked down at the floor and Knives' eyes went wide. "REM! Our mother!" He ran now, full speed towards the doorway, what had happened to her? Why had Rem gone in there? Knives knew now why the screaming had started, he knew the plant within that room had died. He had to get to her, had to see her. But Rem had different plans. She stood in front of the door, blocking the path as the door slid shut. "Rem! I have to see her, please Rem."
Rem shook her head. "You and Vash have to quiet them now."
"But our mother."
"I AM YOUR MOTHER." Rem said fiercely. She turned to the keypad and pried it off with her fingers. She ripped at the cables and pulled the keypad off. "I should have done this a long time ago," she said suddenly and grabbed Knives' arm. "Either you and Vash shut them up or we'll lock them up and let them scream forever."
Knives tried to pull away from Rem, but she was too strong. He screamed, "Let me go! She's dead isn't she? I have to see her!"
Rem slapped him. Knives fell to the floor and looked up at her, rubbing his face. Vash ran up to him, "Rem." He tried to do something for Knives, but his twin brushed him away.
"Leave me alone, Vash."
"But Knives." Vash looked up at Rem. "Rem, I don't understand."
She held the keypad up for them to see. "I should never have told you what you were. You were right, Vash. And from now on you are human. No one is to know what you are. No one. When my five years are up we'll all go into the sleep chamber together. When they finally find us a new home we'll be a family, a human family." With a sigh, Rem put out her hand for Knives. "Touch the glass and make a connection, both of you. They'll quiet down."
Knives growled at her and stood up on his own, his face still red with the print her hand had left. His face had fallen into a scowl and he walked over to the nearest plant. They were still screaming, but the sound had been drowned out by everything that had happened. Knives could hardly hear them now as he thought about what Rem was doing to them. What she was making them do. He would never forget what he was, never!
He placed fingers onto the smooth glass and the plant within stopped screaming. It was instant. Knives closed his eyes. When the plant came up and placed her hand on the other side of the glass, he could feel her pain, she was indeed mourning the passing of her mother. It will be okay, Sister, Knives thought to her.
When he opened his eyes, Knives looked over to Vash. "Put your hand on the glass and they'll quiet down," he went to the next plant and she too was quiet. He looked at Vash who hadn't moved. "Move it Vash, before they start up again!"
Vash jumped into action then, although hesitant at putting his fingers on the glass at first. Then he finally set his hand against the glass and he said, "Shut up, brat. You're being selfish."
Knives rolled his eyes, "You don't have to talk to them."
"First you say I do." Vash went to the next plant and she quieted without a word.
They each headed towards the next one down the line, but the room was quieting now on its own as the plants nearest those they'd touched were going back to sleep. As the sound died in the farthest corners of the chamber, Knives looked at Vash, and then back to Rem. "It's done."
"Good," Rem said, and headed out the door. "Let's leave them alone."
"But, Rem. What about her?" Vash said quietly.
Rem shook her head, "As far as you should be concerned, she never existed." She reached out her hand, "Isn't that what you wanted?" Vash nodded and took her hand. Knives sneered; his brother was too easily convinced. He wouldn't be. He'd find a way into that chamber someday.
But as they walked from the chamber and the door closed behind them, Rem went to the nearby keypad that usually remained unlocked and typed in a password to lock it. Then, as she did with the other one, she ripped it off the wall as well. Without a sound they followed her down the long corridors and finally into the hangar. Knives frowned, "Rem."
She set the keypads down onto the floor and pushed the boys out of the room. The inner door closed behind them and Knives and Vash pressed themselves up against the windows. Without an explanation Rem opened the outer doors and the vacuum of space sucked the keypads into the void. Knives pressed himself up to the glass. "Why? Why did you do that?" He pounded at the glass and turned to look at Rem as she closed the outer doors again.
Rem set a hand on Vash's head and he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry Knives, but I don't want you going in there any more. It's not good for you. From now on, I'm your only family. The plants." She squeezed Vash, and held out a hand for Knives. "Come here Knives." Knives frowned, but when Vash turned to look at him with those green eyes, he came up to Rem and hugged her as well. "I love you Knives. And you too Vash." Rem held them in her arms.
Knives felt like he was being squeezed in a vice. He looked at Vash again and sighed. His brother was okay with this. Why was Vash so okay with this? Vash had his eyes squeezed shut and he was smiling. Knives closed his eyes too and tried to feel comfortable in Rem's embrace. When he opened his eyes again, Vash was looking at him. He nodded to Rem and Knives looked up at her and said through gritted teeth, "I love you too." When he looked back at Vash he was smiling as if everything had gone back to normal.
With a sigh, Knives managed to pull himself away from the group hug and he grabbed Vash's hand. "Hey Vash, I have an idea."
"What?"
"Let's go look at the sleepers." He looked up at Rem. She smiled and nodded. "Come on Vash."
"Okay!" Vash replied, and he followed Knives to the Cold Sleep Chamber. As they walked he started talking about the sleeping occupants aboard the ship. "You know Knives, I was thinking about how you know so much about the computers. Maybe you could teach me how to use them better. Because Rem told me once there are files on each of the SEEDs. I thought that maybe we could look over them, maybe get to know them better so when we all wake up on the new planet we'll know something about them."
Knives turned his head to look at Vash as they walked. His frown disappeared as he looked at that goofy smile on his brother's face. He really was okay with this. Nothing would change after all. Except that Vash now got up early and wanted to learn everything about the ship, and had already started following Rem in the morning rounds. In two weeks he had learned nearly everything that Knives had spent most of his life trying to learn. All of the secrets, all of the shortcuts that he'd had to make, all of the information he had gotten out of Rem; Vash learned it all almost immediately as if he were a computer himself. It was almost aggravating.
But then again. Vash had begun to open his mind, and Knives had tried to fill it with everything he could manage. Even about the plants when he could. His twin had come down with that habit of calling them all "brats" and "spoiled children" since they never had to do anything, just sit in those glass globes all day long. The plants never had to do chores or have lessons. Knives had become jealous of them.
It would all change now. Rem had destroyed his only way to get to his sisters and there would be no more talking about them. Knives knew that from now on they didn't exist. At least in Rem's view. He would never forget the plants. But for a time he decided there were other things he could learn about, and he smiled at Vash, "I think that's a great idea, learning about the sleepers." Maybe when they were awake, he would find someone to be on his side, someone who could override Rem's decision.
When they reached the observatory, Vash sat down and stared out at the long rows of glass cages with their sleeping occupants. Knives stood nearby, his hands pressed up against the cold windows. He looked down at Vash and frowned. Why did Vash like these sleeping people so much? Was there something he was missing? The humans didn't even move! They were frozen solid. They didn't move, they didn't respond. The plants had accepted him. Would the humans? Knives slid down onto his butt.
Vash looked over at him. "Do you think we'll ever get to meet them?"
"Yes," Knives said, the idea having already crossed his mind. "Yes, I think we will." He looked out over the sleeping humans and smiled. She won't stop me this time, Knives thought. He looked over at Vash and put an arm around his brother's shoulder. "You know what Vash, I think we will get to meet them."
