Disclaimer: Trigun is not mine...

*AHAHAHA!! I actually made it this far!! I'm so proud of me! ^_^!*

Chapter Seven: Food and Deceptions

They walked solemnly down the corridor, Knives not wanting to talk, and Rhianne smart enough not to. Instead she decided to amuse herself by examining Knives' ship. That quickly got boring. Knives obviously had little or no personality, judging by his ship. Each wall was the same color- metal. It wasn't even the cool kind that changed with the lighting. It stayed grey. The same, dull gray the whole long way to wherever Knives was taking her. Hopefully he had a nice big kitchen, with lots of pots and pans and a wide variety of foods to choose from. Knives was a plant, and that meant that whatever personality he might be hiding by the bland hallways of his ship might be revealed in his taste in foods. After all, didn't a person's choice of food normally have a lot to do with their personality? Rhianne snorted. Fat chance of that, this was Knives, after all. Just plain old Mr. I'M-Just-A-Bastard-With-No-Personality. But, Rhianne silently toasted herself, here was hoping.

Her thoughts were quickly placed aside when Knives came to a door. Rhianne couldn't help smiling. Food was behind this door, and that would make anyone happy. But when Knives begrudgingly swung open the door and pushed her in, the smile drooped along with her eyebrows. Knives had taken her into a room with what she assumed was food, but certainly wasn't the kind of food she had expected.

The room was a reasonable expanse of space, but not much bigger than her cell. But there was a dramatic difference between the two rooms: this one had shelving built into the walls, and each shelf was filled with boxes of was looked like ration bars. Rhianne shuddered inwardly. Was this Knives' idea of food? Because if it was, the guy had more problems than she had originally thought.

She walked gingerly over to the shelves and examined the bars curiously. They seemed like the nutrition bars she had to eat while in the Interstellar Space Program back home, but a lot less edible-looking. Rhianne picked up one and unwrapped it slowly, peeling back the plastic wrapper and looking gingerly inside. The bar itself was a pale and somewhat revolting yellow, and looked crunchy. Fun.

Rhianne took the bar from its wrapper and bit into it slowly, not sure what to expect. It wasn't much for taste, but it certainly filled her stomach, so she ate it and snatched another one from the box, throwing the wrappers hastily to the floor; she could pick them up later.

A few more bars and a full stomach later, Rhianne leaned back contentedly against a patch of bare wall and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt in a considerably better mood with food in her stomach. She leaned against the wall for a moment, her skull leaning on her thick chestnut hair. A minute passed with no sound in the room. Curious as to what Knives was doing Rhianne opened her eyes and saw Knives was standing in the open doorway, staring at her. She ignored him and closed her eyes again, reveling in the nice feeling that a full stomach gave her. Knives was just being an ass, nothing more, nothing less, she concluded. But she couldn't shake a funny feeling inside her. She just felt uneasy all of a sudden. Then the door clicked closed.

Rhianne's eyes flew open at the sound. What the hell? In an instant she was on her feet and at the door. As a natural instinct, her hand grasped the knob and twisted frantically. Even though she had known the door was locked from the moment that Knives had closed it, but turning the knob satisfied something in her before she backed up a little and threw herself at the door. After a few unsuccessful attempts Rhianne realized that it wasn't a doorknob lock or electric lock that kept her in the room, but rather a lock that had been created by Knives' mind. He had purposely done this. She scoffed at herself. Of course he had done this. Knives was an asshole who wanted her dead because he saw her as an obstacle, so he had decided to get rid of her.

Looking frantically around the room, Rhianne spotted nothing that could be used to break down the door. All there was in the room was shelving, hundreds of boxes of ration bars, and a small ventilation grate in the ceiling. She eyed this for a moment, but decided against crawling into it; it looked far too small to fit her. But she had to grin in spite of her situation, because Knives had made a big mistake: he had left her locked in a room with hundreds of nutrition bars that could sustain people with one bar a day. Not that smartest move he had ever made, she was sure.

Then she heard the air circulation go off.

Rhianne cursed at herself for not realizing it beforehand. Knives had obviously known that he had left her in a room with food; he just wasn't that dumb. But he knew that nothing could live without oxygen. But that would just mean that she would have less time to escape, Rhianne reasoned. It wasn't that much of a problem just yet.

"Knives!" she called, hoping he hadn't left "you've had your fun, now let me out." She heard the sound of Knives laughing from the other side of the door, and felt her blood pressure begin to rise.

"Let me out Knives!" she shouted. Even though Rhianne knew that she could get herself out, she wanted to see what Knives would do if she pleaded with him. She was on the verge of hoping that he would listen and be a nice guy for once and open the door. But she was expecting a different, less caring response from him. And when he did respond, even though it was the answer she was expecting; she didn't like the response she got: Knives was laughing loudly and energetically in the freedom of the hallway. Rhianne felt her eyes being to glow with anger. To lock someone in a room was one thing, but she had realized what he was doing: Knives was testing her. He wanted to see her abilities, what she would do in the face of danger. Even if it meant taking her life in the process. What a prick.

Rhianne placed a hand on the door, through which she could hear Knives' increasing laughter; he was laughing at her situation and was waiting for her to die, she thought angrily as she focused her energy into the palm of her hand and into the metal of the door. The metal responded by turning a fiery red and beginning to hiss. She inhaled deeply and a beam of energy exploded from her palm into the door.

The door flew into the hallway and hit the far wall, disfiguring it considerably and sending screws and sharp bits of metal flying; one of which hit the lighting fixture above. The light bulbs exploded, plunging a large percentage of the hallway into darkness, and bits of glass flew everywhere, accompanied by a shower of sparks that flew into the air and landed in little smoldering piles on the floor. Smoke clouded the hallway, thick and black from the explosion. And out of this gloom stepped Rhianne, her eyes ablaze with fury.

So Knives thought he could toy with her and get away with it did he? Rhianne thought angrily as she stepped out of the gloom, then the arrogant bastard had another thing coming.

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Knives was feeling quite pleased with himself as he walked slowly down the corridor away from the Storage Room. He had decided the he wanted to test the girl's powers in a life-or-death situation, and had found the perfect situation: he would simply lock her in the storage room and create a wall of air to stop the air circulation. It was simple, yet ultimately effective. And it wasn't as if he planned for her to die anyway. If the girl was what she claimed to be, then she would be able to find a way out. It was her means of escape that bothered Knives. She would inevitably blow down the door, and that would mean he would have to put another in. A hassle he didn't particularly want to have. But, he wrestled mentally with himself, it was well worth it if it gave him a better perspective of the girl's powers. The intensity of the blast would reflect on how much energy she was willing to deplete in a crisis, and the way she acted afterwards would lend him an insight on how using her powers affected her energy levels, not to mention how she would react towards him after he had tried to kill her. And the latter of all the statistics would help him greatly in the long run; if he could figure out what made her tick he would be able to determine how well the girl managed her anger, and what extent's she would go to hide her anger from him. Then he might have an advantage in manipulating her to his cause. All in all, locking her in the storage room seemed like a good plan to test the woman, Knives had concluded.

He had watched her reaction when he had ushered her into the room, and was quite pleased to see that her face would oftentimes reveal her emotions. In this particular case, she was unpleasantly surprised. He knew what she had been expecting: a large kitchen with lots of varied food and drink with which she could satisfy the raging hunger that gnawed away at her insides. Knives had almost turned back at the prospect of being able to make her suffer, but, be it the Telepathic Suggestions she was most likely sending his way, or his own hunger, Knives had kept walking. And the collapse on the girl's face when all she saw was box upon box of Ration Bars was well worth it anyway. Knives had seen the happy smile that had dawned upon her face when he had stopped at the door, and was rewarded with her features shatter like glass with what he had shoved in her face. It pleased him greatly to see her be so let down.

He had watched her wolf down several Ration Bars until she was sitting on the floor, unsuspecting and relaxed, and took advantage of it and swiftly closed the door. He had watched her beforehand as well, though; how she moved, what she did during the walk, etc. He had noted that she had shut up during the time it had taken to get to the Storage Room. Good, he had thought darkly, maybe she was catching on. Not that he had particularly minded this, but it had made him uneasy that she was being so distant. It just didn't seem right. Then again the girl might have simply been trying to be polite. A gesture which Knives appreciated, but certainly wasn't going to remember or pay back any time soon. He felt no need to be polite to anyone. He had never felt the urge to be polite, the idea itself seemed beneath him.

But it was all besides the case, Knives had decided as he had stood, laughing loudly outside the Storage Room door as Rhianne pounded on the door frantically, pleading with him to let her out. This sparked something in Knives that he hadn't felt since the Gung Ho Guns had died: he felt ruthless, cruel, and all-powerful. She was begging for her life on the other side of the door. It was like being transported back in time, Knives thought to himself. The way she sounded, so desperate, so utterly scared, that he couldn't help but laugh even louder. This was too much fun. He should do this more often, Knives decided. He disregarded the mental blows Rhianne threw at him, and laughed even louder at the Telepathic Suggestions that crowded his brain. She was just too much fun to play with, Knives thought as he felt his pupils shrink in anticipation of the destruction that would evidently ensue when Rhianne found her way out. He was looking forward to some bloodshed. It had been a while since he had caused some pain, and the idea appealed to Knives so much the he temporarily toyed with the notion of simply blowing down the door for her and killing her simply for not being able to escape before he got bored. But, Knives smiled to himself, then he would never find out the girl's limits if she died.

When the pounding on the door stopped and the pleas for help from Rhianne's side of the door stopped abruptly, and Knives wondered for a moment if she had died. But he could feel her energy and the wild beating of her heart as well as the rapid train of thoughts that rushed through her brain behind the door that assured Knives that she was far from dead. Knives contemplated sticking around to see how she decided to get out; would she simply barge through the barrier he had made? Would she be able to avoid his barrier and simply walk out? Would she take out the hinges? He had been debating for a few minutes when he noticed the door was beginning to turn a bright red, and was beginning to hiss. Knives stared stupidly at the door for a minute, not quite comprehending the gravity of his situation; he was leaning on a wall across from a door that was about ready to explode. For a moment in his blind madness, Knives wasn't exactly sure of what Rhianne was doing on the other side of the door, or why it was turning red and hissing.

But he did when the door blew off it's hinges.

Knives only escaped as a result of his natural abilities as a plant, which had granted him his lightening-fast reflexes. And he had certainly put them to good use when the door had flown towards the him. It exploded across the hallway and directly at him almost before he had realized what was happening, and was hardly aware of the fact the his feet ricocheted from the ground and carried him further down the hallway and out of the way of the flying debris that spewed from the corridor.

He had landed on his feet in a crouching position just out of the range of the sizzling shower of exploding rain from the lighting fixture above, and wasn't fazed by the cloud of smoke that hung in the hallway. He was focusing on the pair of fiercely glowing eyes whose light seemed to slice like knives through the grey smoke. The light blazed like fire as he made out Rhianne's shape begin to walk slowly and purposefully through the ashy air. A chill ran down Knives' spine and he realized for the first time ever that he wasn't sure what was to come, and it bothered him. What would she do? He wondered as the other plant approached, the aqua light resonating from her eyes never flickering as she made her way towards him.

Knives watched in awe as Rhianne emerged from the smoke that clouded the pitch black hallway, her eyes still ablaze with light. She was going to charge any minute now, Knives thought steadily as he stood and prepared himself both mentally and physically for the onslaught that was completely inevitable. She was going to try and kill him, that was for sure, and Knives wasn't going to let her. He was expectant and willing to battle, and was completely positive of the outcome: within a minute the girl would be writhing on the ground in agony as he stood, triumphant, above her as she begged pathetically for his mercy. Knives couldn't help but smile at that thought as Rhianne emerged from the ashy air.

She stepped out of the smoke, which parted like a curtain before her, her eyes aglow and her face twisted into a scowl. Her hands clenched and unclenched so tightly that Knives could see the white of her knuckles as her bones moved. A small chill crept up Knives' spine as she focused her deathly glare on him and began to walk towards him in bold, purposeful strides.

Knives' inner defenses roared to life. His hearing increased, his breath grew short and ragged, his mind readied itself for the onslaught, his fists readied to fly, and the hairs on his neck stood up as Rhianne stopped a few feet from him.

This is it Knives thought, his mind barely able to transmit movements because of the apprehension that clogged his mind, she's going to make her move. He tensed, ready for the attack which never came.

Rhianne inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. Her muscles loosened, her knuckles regained their color, and the glow coming from between her closed eyelids receded. She raised her right hand and crossed her middle and index fingers, folding down the other three, making a peace sign. She inhaled She cocked her head to the side and smiled brightly.

"Hey Knives" she said while still holding her stance, fingers crossed, her other hand on her hip, that reminded Knives eerily of Vash. "Miss me?"