Disclaimer: Disclaimers suck, Trigun's not mine -_-

Chapter Nine: Discussions

A/N: Sorry about this being so short, I've just rented Fatal Frame, and I'm too busy being scared shitless to write ^^

Rhianne and Knives marched through the deserts for a long time, neither eager to rekindle the conversation they had been having. Rhianne's throat was too dry, and Knives was still trying to grasp the concepts she had been explaining to him.

She sighed quietly. The people on this planet were so screwed. With the situation back home they weren't going to get off this accursed planet before Knives killed them all off like the insects he thought they were.

"Knives?" she asked, somewhat unaware of what she was saying. Her male counterpart turned to her as they walked, the sandy air ruffling his hair, and looked at her with his ice blue eyes.

"Yes?"

"Did your brother survive the crash?" she asked, staring off into the hazy blue sky. Knives came to an abrupt halt, his eyes burning holes into Rhianne's back.

"What did you say?" His voice thick with mistrust and wariness, Knives reached out and spun her around, her aqua eyes meeting with his.

"I asked you if your brother survived the crash." She stated calmly.

"How do you know about my brother?" Knives demanded, his voice rising to a shout which echoed into the distance. Rhianne's eyes never wavered as she stared up at him through the loose strands of hair.

"Knives, I've known about you and Vash even before you were removed from the bulbs. I'm three Earth years older than you, you know." Knives snatched her collar and pulled her close to him, her face inches from his.

"Good for you, but that doesn't explain how you know about my brother and I." He hissed, his warm breath tingling against Rhianne's skin.

She sighed, her breath hitting Knives' face, smelling lightly of mint. Her eyes moved away from his, but he jerked her a little, and her eyes crept back to his.

"I was on a Seeds ship." She said quietly, her voice almost a whisper. Knives blinked for a moment, grappling with her words.

"That's impossible, I was on the Seeds ship, and Vash and I were the only plants aboard." Rhianne sighed quietly.

"I never said I was on your Seeds ship, I said I was on a Seeds ship, not yours specifically." Knives' eyes narrowed. "I was on the only Seeds ship." He stated loudly.

"No, you weren't." Rhianne spat, pulling out of his grasp "you underestimate the intelligence of the Human race, Knives." She hissed, backing away from him.

"You didn't honestly think that they would be stupid enough to send all of their people on one measly ship, did you?" At Knives' blank look, she laughed "you're an idiot, Knives. Did you honestly think that they would risk their survival like that? No, of course they wouldn't. So there were three Seeds ships created, each taking one-third of the population out into space. Very few Humans stayed behind, but some were too stubborn to leave their planet, and the rest left on the ships.

"During the trip, our species of plant were developed and the plants were adjusted. I was born on one of those ships along with my brother, Corrin. In the other ship two others were born: Aeris and Andan. On your ship, you and Vash were born. I know this because the ships kept close contact with each other."

"Why wasn't I notified of this?" Knives asked wonderingly as they walked along, sounding somewhat hurt. The tone of his voice making Rhianne smile in spite of the psychopath he was.

"Do I have to answer that?" she asked hesitantly, the smile sliding off her face like water on glass. Knives cut her a look that spoke his words for him: yes, she did. She sighed.

"Alright, but don't take this personally, okay?" Knives nodded, but Rhianne didn't feel any more secure. She had a sneaking suspicion that Knives was just saying that so he could hear what she had to say.

"Well Knives… The crew of the Seeds ship saw your attitude as a threat, so you and your brother weren't notified of the other existing ships. It was for their safety and the safety of the Humans onboard." Knives glared at her darkly, as if it were her fault.

"I see… but I won over them anyways, I killed them all, even that bitch Rem Saverem." He stated icily, not looking at her.

Rhianne whirled and was upon him before Knives knew what was happening. He fell back on the rough sand on his back, Rhianne's thumbs digging fiercely into his neck, pushing at his Adam's Apple. Her eyes glowed with the same light he had seen back at his ship; light that showed nothing but pure rage. Her lips were pulled back, showing her clenched pearly teeth through which wheezed short, ragged gasps of breath. She was sitting over his chest, her face inches from his. For a moment, Knives thought she was close enough to knock his head against hers, but she leaned back and threw her head back, her chestnut locks tumbling from her ponytail. And she screamed a long, shrill shriek that sent chills rippling up Knives' spine as she pressed harder against his throat.

Knives gasped for breath, unable to believe that none could pass to his lungs. His legs thrashed helplessly behind him; she was too far up his body to be able to kick her in the back of the head or to be able to be bucked off. Her knees pinned his arms into the sand as he tried, in vain, to remove her from his body. She moved her face closer to his, her cry of rage ending, and her eyes met his, the aqua met ice.

"Don't you dare… insult Rem Saverem." She hissed, the last three words backed up by a small push of her fingers into his windpipe "She is the savior of the Human race, our creators, and you are in not place to bash her good name."

With that said, she jumped back from him, flipping in the air once and landing on her toes in the sand a few feet from him. Knives rose slowly, wiping sand from his clothes. His gaze was dark.

"If I cannot 'soil' her name because you say she is the savior of the vermin of this planet, then just why did you try to kill me, the savior of our species?" he asked, his voice dark, hurt, and smug. Rhianne snorted.

"How are you their savoir? You crashed the ship and because of you, our sisters are dying. I wouldn't call that saving them."

"I'm working on that whole killing of the vermin to save our family thing…" Knives trailed off. Rhianne sighed.

"Did you notice that we have a tendency to get off-topic?" she asked absently. Knives nodded, nearly as absent-mindedly, his mind chewing over the thoughts crawling around his mind "yeah"

"So getting back to my original question: did your brother survive the crash?" Knives shot her a look "of course he did. He related to me, isn't he?" He retorted smugly. Rhianne rolled her eyes.

"Oh look, there's my pod." She stated making an obvious attempt to end the conversation and pointing to the half-covered orb on the horizon "we have to get to it before it becomes covered!" And with that, she took off and ran over the last dune, leaving Knives behind her.