Disclaimer: For the thirteenth time, I don't own Trigun

Chapter Thirteen:

"What did you say?" Knives asked quietly, turning his head to face her. Rhianne wetted her lips and sniffled a little. "I miss my mother and brother." She stated, closing her eyes, and Knives felt her tears fall onto his shirt.

"What happened to them?" Knives asked her. She sighed, shuddering against the chill of the night.

"My mother died before I was two years old. She was beginning to malfunction, and knew that she would explode, so she had herself shipped out into space on a little carrier ship and exploded in the darkness of space, all alone. Just to save us. She often told my brother Corrin and I that we always had to speak our minds and stand up for what we believed in, or people would try to manipulate us and use our powers against our will. She was beautiful. She had wonderfully pale hair, almost an iridescent white, and the most wondrous wings I have yet to see on a Plant Angel. They were a good two times her size, and shone with all the colors of the rainbow inside of her bulb. I miss her so much, but not as much as Corrin.

"Corrin Nicholas Mitchell De LaTour, simply Corrin to me, was removed two minutes after me, and looked nothing like me. He had the deepest mauve eyes, the like of which I have yet to see in either plant or human. In the end, he was an inch or so taller than me, and never let me forget it. He had a small mole next to his left eye, opposite to the one I have next to my right eye. All the firstborn plant children had the same type of birthmarks. You have one next to your right eye, and your brother has one next to his left. I have a small mole next to my right eye as well, as did Aeris and Andan. It was a sign that we were the first of our race, the beginning of a bold new era in history. Corrin had something else opposite to myself as well…" she ran her fingers through Knives' hair longingly "his hair was just like yours.

"Corrin and I grew up on the Seeds ship number two; yours was the third, by the way. We were always close, and I loved him dearly. We were placed in the same home when the humans had settled on the planet, and we were very happy. I had my brother, and that was all that mattered.

"Eventually my brother and I moved out and lived in separate houses, Corrin married a young woman named Vanessa Smitheson, and raised a family. I, on the other hand, joined the Space program, and never married. I fell in and out of love, but never anything permanent. I was too busy training for a marriage like my brother had.

"Anyways, there was another colony on the moon, called Isis, that circled the planet, and a war erupted between the moon and my planet."

"Why?" Knives interrupted. Rhianne shot him a look "one thing at a time. If I get off topic I'll never finish my story." Knives nodded, urging her to continue.

"As I was saying, a was erupted between the two colonies, and before long, we were at war. Now there's never been a worldwide war here on Gunsmoke, and you're lucky. Worldwide wars are killer, trust me, I read up on all three that the humans had while on Earth. The third was the most devastating, and not only nearly wiped out the entire race, but it caused a lot of the pollution that was the cause for Project Seeds. But that final war was a fistfight compared to the war between Isis and my planet. It lasted five years, and in two years into those five, my brother died.

" Because of his heritage, my brother was a prime candidate for the army, and was sent to the frontlines where he stayed until his death. He was on a carrier ship, getting some rest after a particularly long and arduous battle, when a traitorous plant named Bryce Hoy planted a bomb on the ship, killing the five hundred crewmembers as well as the thousands of soldiers aboard. Of the six thousand that were on that ship- the Carpathia III, it was called- only two hundred and sixteen survived. My brother wasn't one of those people." Rhianne paused and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands.

"I remember the very last time I saw Corrin alive. Every detail is etched into the stone that is my mind forever, and if still haunts me to this day.

"It was at the New Topeka Launch Site, on August twelfth, Colony Year 147. I was wearing a long purple dress, and I had my hair cut short, up to my chin, and had put little ringlets in it. Vanessa Smitheson De LaTour, his wife, stood next to me, the hand of their six-year-old clasped tightly in hers. That little girl, my niece, Mary Anne De LaTour, never saw her daddy again, and the little boy Vanessa held in her arms, Adrian De LaTour, would never remember his father.

"Vanessa was wearing a cream suitdress; she was a lawyer, with her long blonde hair hanging straight down her back and her mascara running down her cheeks with her tears. Mary Anne was wearing a little pink dress with her hair in pigtails. Adrian was dressed in a little pair of overalls and a white shirt.

"My brother Corrin was dressed in his uniform, a maroon one similar to the one I'm wearing. He had his suitcase in his hand, the one I'd bought for him for the previous Christmas, and sported a large lipstick spot on his cheek where Vanessa had kissed him a moment earlier. He seemed to glow that day, completely confident in his abilities and with his love for us. I'll always remember his hair the most, how it glowed around his head like a halo under the bright lights of the Station. I also remember I didn't cry until I hugged him. I tried to be brave and sound sure of myself when Vanessa, who is still like a sister to me, was so insecure, but I couldn't. Not in the face of such strenuous emotions like the once we all faces that day.

"But as I gave my brother a hug, wrapping my arms around his neck for the last time, smelling the scent I had grown up with: the smell of the field, of wheat and grass and water and rain and a thousand things I can't name to this day. He smelled outside; he smelled like heaven; he smelled like life; he smelled like my brother. And I knew the instant that smell reached me that I would never smell it again. I would never be able to talk to him, to give him advice when his marriage got rocky, to cry with, to tell my feelings and thoughts to. No one would ever understand me the way he did, and no one would understand him the way I did ever again. And poor Vanessa would never get that third child they had been hoping for; she miscarried two days after hearing of my brother's death. I knew that Corrin wouldn't come back, and as I wrapped my arms around his neck a final time, I whispered it in his ear. I told him 'you won't come back, will you?' and I felt him shake his head beneath my arms. He knew all along that it wasn't wise to go. But he did it anyway, for our planet, for the thousands of people that lay slain, for the thousands more that would die in the years to come, for Vanessa, for his children, and most of all, he whispered, for me. He did it to keep me safe. And I knew that Corrin had been married, had granted his wife children, had loved her with every fiber of his being, and yet he still loved me more. No one was closer to him than me, and no one was closer to me than him. He died for me, Knives. He died to keep me safe. And I miss him every second of every day with my whole heart. Because you can't buy love like that. There's an old saying that goes: you can choose your friends, but not your family. I never understood that statement, because I figured, with Corrin as my brother, why would I want to be able to choose my family if I already had the most wonderful brother in the world?"

She lapsed into silence, breaking it only with the occasional loud sob.

With Rhianne still leaning on his shoulder, Knives leaned back on he open palms of his hands on the sand and watched the moons begin to make their way through the black velvet sky.

He thought of her words, and thought of Vash, and his promise to keep his idiot twin safe. She had said that her brother had gone to war to protect her, and he couldn't help but wonder if he would do the same for his noodle-noggin of a brother. That baka wouldn't let him anyway. Vash hated fighting. Well, that wasn't true. His twin didn't mind fighting, just he wouldn't take a life, and he had forced him to. No wonder Vash hated him.

*He doesn't hate you.* Rhianne's voice echoed in his head *sorry, I accidentally picked up on your thoughts. Look, if Vash didn't love you, then he would have killed you in your battle, wouldn't he?* Knives glared at her out of the corner of his eye "were you reading my thoughts?" he asked warily. Rhianne looked at him with wide eyes.

"Why Knives, I'm appalled you would think I would stoop to such a level. Because I'm so close to you, I'm having trouble not picking up on your thoughts, and the battle I picked up on was too strong to ignore. I'm sorry." Knives shifted his weight and put her on the sand, moving away from her.

"Now I can keep my thoughts to myself." He said with annoyance. Rhianne rolled her eyes and turned away from him, leaning on her good arm and waiting for her arm to numb completely.

Knives, meanwhile, went back to his thoughts, and took into consideration what the girl had said. That had to mean that Vash still cared for him. If he hadn't, wouldn't he have killed him? Knives felt a swell of pride in his chest at that thought. But then he remembered the promise Vash made to Rem, and his pride was dashed. The only reason that Vash had left him alive was that he had made that stupid promise to Rem, of that he was certain.

I don't understand that idiot. Knives thought to himself I try and I try and I try, but nothing works out. All I want is to keep my twin safe from the vermin and create our Eden, but he doesn't understand. What is keeping him from seeing the truth? Hah, that's a stupid question, its Rem that clouds his vision. That stupid pacifist bitch and her idiotic theories of love and peace. Can't Vash understand that as long as the vermin exist, there would be no 'Love and Peace'? He's such a bakayarou. He just doesn't get it. He thwarts everything I try to do, never realizing that I do it for him. Why is it…

"Why is it that my wishes never come true?" Knives asked aloud. Rhianne rolled over partially "because your wishes are selfish, Knives. That's why." Then rolled back over. In an instant, she was rolled onto her back with Knives over her, glaring down at her.

"How am I selfish?" he demanded angrily, glaring down into her aqua eyes. The other plant squirmed beneath him a little, unsure of what to say.

"Because you don't take what other people want into consideration. That's why you're selfish. You want everything done your way, or you have a hissy fit. You act like a little child- OW!!!" Knives had pushed down onto her dislocated shoulder, which wasn't totally numbed.

"You are not one to talk," Knives spat back "you act like you have the maturity of a human!"

"Hah! That's good! My human niece was eight and was more mature than you! She knew that pissing and moaning and threatening people wasn't going to get her any respect! You should take a good look at those you loath Knives, you could learn a lot from them." She cried out again as he ground the bones together beneath his hand. He turned his palm slightly, pulling at the skin of her shoulder and causing her emit a shriek that echoed into the descending darkness of the desert.

"That's enough of your bullshit." He hissed, moving back and letting her sit up, clutching her shoulder and wincing in pain.

"I think it's numbed as much as it's gonna." She stated, then tried to maneuver her arm by herself, only resulting in another cry that probably reached the closest city. Wordlessly, Knives reached over and grabbed his belt from the sand and shoved it in her mouth.

"Just bite down until I say to stop, or I'll never be able to hear again." He smiled, then turned grim as he took her arm and moved it slightly, causing Rhianne to bite down onto the belt with such ferocity that when Knives got the belt back later, there would be permanent teeth marks in the leather. Rhianne felt a ferocious pop in her shoulder, and bit even harder into the leather.

"Oooowwww…" she moaned, then fell unconscious, her head felling into Knives' lap. He looked down at the position of her head and blushed, and then lay her back against the sand. He lay next to her for a long while, not wanting to disturb her.

He stared up at the stars and watched the moons drift lazily across the ebony sky, and placed a gentle hand on Rhianne's forehead to make sure the chilly desert air wasn't getting to her. Upon doing this, Knives felt a small jolt run through his fingers, accompanied by a small cinema of a young man of no more than twenty.

He was standing atop a mound of something that looked unrealistically white, his pale blond hair puffing out from beneath a large woolen hat. He smiled, squinting his mauve eyes that shined with childish delight. He was wearing a large bulky blue jacket, and wore red mittens over his hands. He wore black pants, seemingly hastily shoved into large, think boots. And with good reason too, Knives could feel the bitter chill of the air that seemed to freeze the marrow in his bones. He shivered in the dream, and watched as the young man bent down and scooped up a large amount of snow, compacting it together so that it didn't fall apart, then wound up, and threw it at him. He heard Rhianne's agitated voice cry out "Corrin!" and realized that she must be dreaming of her brother. The dream then faded to another, much more heartfelt scene.

He was in a large white building, spotless down to the dustless air that circulated and smelled pleasantly of lemons. He was gazing sorrowfully at the same young man, dressed in a form-fitting maroon sweater and loose pants, an outfit that resembled very vaguely that of his companion. He looked like an angel, his hair wafting around his head in the well-ventilated room that was filled with other tearful groups. He shifted, and felt a smooth fabric slide over his body. He marveled at being able to appreciate the nice shape of Rhianne's body, then returned his attention to a woman with long blonde hair was entangled in his arms, a small child with pale blond hair similar to her fathers in small pigtails and dressed in a little pink dress, a small baby boy clutched in her chubby little arms. The woman pulled slowly back from the man Knives assumed to be Corrin, and then pushed herself back into his arms again, sobbing loudly. His vision swam with tears that he refused to shed as the woman finally pulled back and walked slowly backwards, picking up the little boy and snatching the little girl's hand in a liquid motion that was obviously often practiced. Knives then felt himself move swiftly foreword and throw himself into the young man's arms. The sensation reminded him strongly of Legato, but he had little time to think of his former right hand man at the moment. He smelled the scent Rhianne had described, and became lost in it both in the dream and in real life. He smelled heavenly, like his sibling, Knives realized. But now wasn't the time nor the place to think of her like that. He felt his lips move and head Rhianne's voice say "you're not going to come back, are you Brother Dear?" he shuddered in Corrin's arms, and felt him shake his head beneath Rhianne's arms.

*No, I don't believe I will.* he stated sadly, his mental voice like crystal in her mind *I want you to know that I love you, and that's why I'm going off to fight. I have a family here, but you're my real family, and I love you more than anyone in the whole world.* With that mental statement, Corrin pulled himself from his sister's arms and walked slowly away into the docking bay, and Knives felt Rhianne realize that she would never see her brother again.

Knives pulled his hand back from Rhianne's forehead, and a pang of pity struck his heart for perhaps the first time in his entire life. The only other time he had felt pity was for Vash, when he had been beaten by Steve back on the Seeds ship so long ago and didn't know how to handle it. Back then Knives had felt rage towards the humans for making Vash hurt, but with Rhianne he felt nothing but pure pity for the girl. He wasn't sure of what he would do if Vash were to die. He would avenge his brother's death by wiping out the vermin, that was certain, but would he feel the same way she had? They must have been especially close, for her to feel so strongly. Pity swelled in his heart for her… and brushed some of her hair away from her forehead. He smiled at her, and to his surprise, Rhianne opened her eyes and smiled back at him tiredly.

"Don't pity me Knives" she started, snatching his hand in midair "I don't need anybody else's pity. I can handle it all on my own. I have for a long time now." She left go of his hand and moved closer, so that her body was right next to his, and put his arm around her waist.

"What are you doing?" he demanded uncomfortably, trying to move away "I'm cold, and you're warm." Knives turned several shades of red that he hoped Rhianne couldn't see for the dark, but didn't try to move away again.

"I have a question." He stated. Rhianne turned to him beneath the moonlight "oh, the Omnipotent One has a question? Well, fire away." Knives allowed her to snuggle closer, not bothering to mention that she seemed warm enough without him.

"What is it like to loose someone close to you?" Rhianne sighed quietly, and Knives thought he heard her sob, but she answered nonetheless "it's like having someone shoot you. I can't describe it any other way. When I heard Corrin died, I felt like someone had shot me through the heart and the wound tries to heal itself, but it can't. There's something that died in me that day, and I haven't been the same since."

"Why are you still so sad?" he prodded "he didn't seem unhappy to be dying for you, so why are you still so sad?" Beneath his arm, Rhianne shuddered.

"Because something happened to me after he died, and I don't think he's very proud of what I did." Knives made a raspberry and squeezed her tightly.

"I saw the look in his eyes in your memories, and I know that you've made him much more proud than anyone else could ever do." Rhianne stared at him for a moment, then leaned closer and kissed his cheek "that was sweet, thank you." Much to her surprise and to Knives' he found himself leaning over and kissing her back.

"You're welcome." He stated. Rhianne gazed at him for a moment, her eyes wide with surprise, trying to grapple with just why Knives had done that, then decided that there was a time and place for things like that, and now was not the time. So she lay her head on Knives' strong chest, and they watched the heavens dance above them, the Winged Goddess chasing the Demons across the velvety sky above them.