Final Edit. Oh yes, thanks to everyone for the reviews! You've been very helpful!

The Desert Planet

The field of the dead spread out behind Knives as he sat up against an outcropping of stone. The thermal blanket from the pack was spread behind him as he stared at the ship. Humans. There were thousands of them still living, breathing, moving around... His breath came out in a hiss; the humans would have been silent still in their cold sleep pods, unmoving, very nearly dead. Was this so much better? Now they were alive. The program had failed thanks to Rem's meddling... Rem had taught him everything he knew; of course she would be able to override the malfunctioning. He had wanted her to come with them, if only to keep her from saving the others... If she had only been a moment sooner, Rem might have saved them all. But it had been too late for most of them.
Knives' raised his head as he heard voices. A group of men were headed towards the crash zone. From the distance, Knives could tell that they carried tools. He collected his things and slipped behind the rock he had been sitting against. Knives frowned, watching them with reluctant curiosity. Probably searching the dead like the other vultures.
As they came closer one of the men made a disgusted noise and covered his face with his hand. He didn't speak, only reached into his pocket for a handkerchief and wrapped it around his face. The other men followed suit and silently passed by Knives' hiding place.
As they went down the hill, Knives watched them. He'd seen the videos of war on the computer. Men had killed men joyfully, gunfire and bullets taking the lives of so many without hesitation. What the videos had never shown was what they did afterwards. The men disappeared over a hill and Knives left his things to follow them.
The men remained silent as they reached the first charred human remains. "There really isn't a way to ID them, is there?" One man said in barely a whisper.
"If the ship's plant was operating properly the computers might have had some data..." Another responded, setting the tip of a long flat piece of metal he had found on the ground. "Without power we can't even tell how the ship crashed... Or who these people are. If our mayor, Mr. Hodges had been able to come with us he might have known..." He bowed his head; "We'll just have to honor them with a decent burial."
The other men bowed their heads as well as a third man stepped forward. He crossed himself and started to pray. Knives slipped out of hearing as he headed back to his hiding place. It didn't make sense... These humans had been so eager to tear Tessla to pieces, but at the same time they would care for those that were dead, even if they didn't know who they were? He frowned, thoughts tracking across his head. How could they be so two-faced? And didn't they say plant? That was the first thing on their mind, using the plant so they could live...
Knives growled and left the men to their digging. He didn't want to be around them anymore. He wasn't human, and he never would be. The humans only cared about themselves. They would never accept him... Not if they knew what he did, what he tried to do, what he still wanted to do... Knives spit the dust from his mouth and looked up towards the ship. He shouldn't have let Vash go off. His brother would only grow to love those humans more if he spent any time with them. Dammit.

The Makeshift Orphanage

Aunt Margaret led Vash to her makeshift orphanage. There were children everywhere. Many had bandaged arms and heads wrapped with gauze. There were two other women with crosses drawn on their shirts tending to the children. Each one waved to Margaret as she walked by, before returning to their charges. A little girl and boy ran by playing tag, "You're it Stevie!" The girl yelled as she managed to corner the boy against the escape pod.
The little boy turned and ran after the girl, "Zoƫ! No fair, the ship was free!" They ran past again and Vash watched them in utter astonishment. He wanted to ask Margaret what was going on, what it meant by the ship being "free," or just what they were doing at all. But as he opened his mouth to speak, he realized it would give him away. Probably every child on Earth knew what the game was... He sighed, knowing that he would never even see Earth. But he promised himself he'd learn how to play games someday.
Nearby, Helen sat in front of one of the nurses. It looked to Vash that the clean bandages confused her. She picked at them and looked up at Helen, "Who wrapped this?" Vash came up to her without a word and unwrapped Helen's arm, to the nurse's shocked amazement.
"It's a clean break, I think," he said to the woman who watched him with wide eyes. "It needs to be set however, and I didn't have any anesthesia. The escape pod I came in wasn't fully stocked. I'm afraid there were only basic medical supplies." Vash set the bag he had down on the stone where Helen sat and pulled out his medi-kit. "You can have what's left, if it will help get the medicine."
The woman started to sputter when Margaret placed an arm on her shoulder, "Listen to him Rebecca, I think they might have retrieved something from the medical bay on the ship, go see if you can find anything to numb her arm." She winked at Vash and Rebecca went to retrieve what she could. Then Margaret's expression turned serious, "You might have to do it without medicine, however. There are a lot of injuries more grave than Helen's arm."
Glancing up at Vash, Helen gave him a grim smile, "Will it hurt?"
"No, not once we have the anesthesia..." Vash noted Helen's confusion and added, "It's medicine that makes all the pain go away." He glanced over to Margaret who nodded in agreement. Helen smiled bravely and put her hand gently on her broken arm. It was obvious to Vash that it had been hurting a lot more than she had let on before. He was amazed out how brave she was. Helen had managed through so much without fuss, silently taking what was given to her... The crash, her aunt and uncle, and now her arm... So much strength! Vash wondered what he would have done if he had gone through the same. Would he be as strong as this little girl before him? He hoped so. I'll be brave too, even if it means hiding it behind a smile.
When Rebecca returned with an electronic syringe, the second nurse was with her. This woman had dark curly hair. She looked at Vash in muted curiosity. "I had to trade off the entire medi-kit but I got it, Margaret. Although I'm not sure when you learned to set broken bones... Only Doc Thorne..." She trailed off, and Vash knew the doctor had not been amongst the survivors. Margaret took the e-syringe and handed it to Vash.
Both nurses gaped at them. "What are you doing?!" Rebecca gasped.
"He was studying to be a doctor under his father..." Margaret bit her lip. Vash looked at her, obviously she didn't like lying either. But with her "feeling" about people, he was sure she had to do it often. There wasn't anything he could do about it at the moment, at least not until Helen's arm was healed again.
Turning back to Helen, anesthesia in hand, Vash swallowed. Even though he knew the basics to the procedure, he'd never really set a broken arm. He thought back to when he hurt Rem. The blood had been horrifying. She would have died if he had done nothing. Somehow he managed to drag her to the medical bay, pull her onto one of the operating tables and sew up her wounds. The instructions had been on the computers in the room; there were extensive journals detailing every medical condition known on Earth. Vash had spent hours reading through them while Rem and Knives lay unconscious. He had promised himself never to hurt anyone unless he was prepared for the consequences of sewing them up again. That meant making sure he knew how. Unfortunately, most of what he had read had already started to slide out of his head. Vash wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to remember what he'd learned without having the computers to help him.
Vash set his fingers on Helen's arm, "This won't hurt a bit," he pressed the e-syringe to her arm and pressed the trigger. There was a small puff of air and after a moment Helen's face brightened. "See, what did I tell you?" Vash smiled, handed the syringe to Margaret, and ran his fingers over Helen's arm. "Do you feel anything?"
Helen shook her head, "Nope."
"Good." Vash closed his eyes a minute as he felt her arm. Without an x-ray there really was no way to tell if the break had been clean. But the break was all the way through; it was amazing Helen hadn't passed out with the pain of it flopping around. With a breath, he opened his eyes again and pulled the bones back into place. Helen looked on with interest, not feeling anything as Vash waved towards the dark haired nurse. "I need something to splint and wrap it in."
The two nurses looked at him in quiet awe before nodding and both scrambling away to retrieve the requested items. As they did, Margaret put a tentative hand on Helen's arm. "You did a good job. I was right about you after all."
"It still might not heal right," Vash said, stepping back, his hands shaking suddenly. He crossed his arms in front of himself, confused at his body's reaction to his relief. Rem... They're shaking like I hurt her, but I didn't right, I helped her, didn't I?
Margaret reached out for his arms and took his hands in her own, calming his shaking, "I think you're more hurt than you admitted." She nodded towards the escape pod, "There are empty sleeping hammocks inside. Maybe you should take a nap before I take you to see the engineers. We can handle wrapping Helen's arm on our own."
Vash pulled away from her, "I'll be fine Aunt Margaret," he said, putting his hands under his armpits, trying to steady their shaking. The last time he shook like this was after he stabbed Rem... Vash shivered. "I already told you I couldn't stay here very long. You fulfilled your promise, so now I'll fulfill mine. Take me to see the engineers."
"At least eat..." Margaret said slowly, her eyes sad as she looked at Vash. She nodded to the other children, "Come now, you've got to be hungry."

Vash's eyes moved from her to the remains of the ship. The truth was, he didn't really want to go in there. He didn't want to be anywhere near the plants or the technology that Knives had used against them. When he turned to Margaret again, a smile had crept over his face, "I guess so. Got any donuts?"