Disclaimer: I drew a pretty picture of Trigun today *proudly displays picture*…..but it's the closest I'll ever come to owning it.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Paranoia and Memories…

A/N: Argh, the constant italics in this chappy drove me nuts _

Rhianne sat there for a long time, her forehead resting against the warm walls of the bulb, splashing it's curved surface with her tears. She opened her watery eyes slightly, watching as the tear slid down the glass and into milky oblivion and wondered sorrowfully if that's how she would disappear in Knives' mind. Or worse, his heart. She swatted some hair that clung to her damp cheeks away, sniffling lightly.

Why was he mad at her? What had she done that had been so wrong? Yes, she may have been rash in sacrificing her life for Rinoa's, but he had known how much she valued life, and had known full well what she was going to do, and hadn't tried to interfere.

Because he knew it'd get rid of you for him…

The voice made reappearance in her head so suddenly that Rhianne gasped.

"What?" she asked, hardly capable of grappling with the concept presented to her.

It's very simple: he wanted you gone, but couldn't bring himself to kill you. So he figured he'd let those gunmen do his dirty work.

"But" Rhianne countered "that wouldn't be true, because someone had to have put me in the bulb, and Knives obviously knew I was here.

You do remember he has a pacifist for a twin, don't you? Vash wouldn't let you die if he could help it, and Knives just went along with it because-

"No! I have to get out of here and get back to him! Knives!"

But why? Her mind questioned because you love him? Wasn't it a little too quick to be real love? It's just infatuation, and Knives has realized it; so should you. Just stay in the bulb…

Having planted the seed of doubt in her mind, the voice receded back into the depths of her subconscious from whence it came, leaving the distraught plant to herself.

Getting out of the bulb, and getting back to Knives. How quickly she had fallen for the ice-eyed plant, could it all be true? Was it just infatuation?

"No…" she whispered. It couldn't be. Her hands tore at her scalp, her knuckles losing their color until they matched the ivory of the bulb.

"Knives…Knives…please, help me." She sobbed, allowing her wrenching cries to resonate through the seemingly unending white.

Rhianne…

Another voice pierced her mind. The female plant's head shot up, meeting a pair of eyes that were so much like her own.

Vash? She questioned, although it was evident that the aqua-eyed male stood before her, looking up at her. Vash, please let me out. She pleaded, scraping her hands along the surface of the bulb pleadingly. The blonde shook his head lightly, never moving his eyes from hers.

I will soon. You still have some internal repairs. You can't feel them in there, but you have several lacerations to your spinal cord and a little more of your biceps to reconstruct. He smiled at her a little; a small, reassuring smile. But don't worry. I'll have you put back to sleep and take you out when you're body can handle being outside the bulb. It won't be long, I promise. He started to turn away.

Vash? How long have I been asleep? Rhianne asked after him, he turned back to her.

Nearly a month; Knives was worried sick about you, you know. He rarely left the bulb controls. Rhianne looked abashed.

Then why is he so mad at me? What have I done wrong?

Don't worry about that now, Knives is just being Knives, it can't be helped. Don't worry. Vash put his thumb and forefinger to his chin in his dashing manner and grinned you're safe with me.

Rhianne chuckled quietly as he walked out of view. She heard a distant beeping, and within moments fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, still smiling at the broom-haired plant's antics.

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Vash watched from an angle as Rhianne's eyes closed, and he turned back to the bulb, feeling reassured as the female's heartbeat slowed enough for the internal reconstruction to begin.

He moved to the bulb, tracing her delicate jaw with the tip of his finger through the glass. She was a beauty, he could see why Knives had fallen for her. The way the light played with the red highlights in her rich chestnut hair, her ruby lips against her porcelain skin the contrast of her eyelashes as they fluttered against her skin. She was as rare as a flower the desert and even more beautiful and delicate than any flower could hope to be.

The plant sighed, thinking of Meryl. She hadn't been away long; doing business for Burnadelli as usual with her comrade Millie. But Vash had been forbidden to go; left behind to wait and wonder if he would ever see her gray-eyed smile again. Normally, true to form, Vash would have bounded after them, refusing to leave Meryl's side. But the last time he did that he had been spotted and had caused an uproar in the town they had been staying in. Meryl hadn't liked that. Neither had her boss. So, in order to keep her job, Meryl had to go on her business trips without her spiky-haired lover.

Vash sighed, gazing at the gentle sleeping form of the female plant. She had been in such a terrible state, even he had wondered at the chances of saving her. But Knives, acting in a manner Vash had never thought resided in his twin, made very sure they could.

~Flashback~

Rhianne's limp form fell to the sand, her eyes vacant and colorless, her life snuffed out. Her hair sprawled around her head like a chocolate halo, the burgundy residing in the strands glimmering like diamonds in a sea of chestnut. Her outstretched hand twitched lightly, making the sinister man standing before her grin, baring his yellowed teeth at the dead woman. In his arms lay the little girl, Rinoa, the namesake of their ill-begotten sister Vash had never known. Blood poured from the back of her skull, a waterfall of crimson cascading from the ebony river from which it was spawned, like the sky giving boasting an aurora borealis of sangoire. The ruby red that fell to the pale sand mixed with the spilled blood of the female plant that had forfeited her life for the child's, as it seeped out from the uncountable holes savagely drilled into her ivory flesh with vicious determination.

It made Knives' blood boil, Vash could feel it. His ice-eyed twin snarled, a sinister growl that hinted at the human qualities bred into him from the moment the computer had processed him into his mother's womb; the dark, savage animal qualities tore out of the shell that encased them, down into the very core of his dark and twisted soul. His pearly teeth were bared, his peach lips- like the flushed edges of a milky cloud in the sunset palette of the sky- began to give forth to a small trickle of blood as he bit down, bright and shimmering against his pale skin.

"He dies now" he stated, never releasing the pressure from upon his lip. The blood fell slowly down his chin, leaving a pale crimson trail in its wake. It halted momentarily at the base of his chin, like a droplet of rain on a tender leaf. Then it fell, making it's decent through the sandy air swiftly, and like an Angel Blade through the tender flesh of the spiders Knives had slaughtered throughout his lifetime. And before that little sparkling diamond, a little bead of life itself, fell to the pale sandy floor of the desert, an Angel Blade had sprung forth from the arm of the plant with the tundra-skies eyes. And Drake Connell's head lay cold upon the sand; his black glasses shattering, revealing the bloodshot yellow yes that had regarded the cold female plant moments earlier, the life fading in his now dilated pupils. The last thing they ever processed to his brain was the maniacal smile donning upon Millions Knives' face as his arm morphed into his Angel Arm; the weapon that would destroy his men within a mere moment.

"Knives! No!" Vash cried, before the weapon that had replaced his brother's left arm "you can't!"

"They killed her Vash! They will die!" Knives snarled back "go get her body! We have barriers, they will protect you! GO!" Obediently, like a dog under command Vash hurtled towards Rhianne's still form, unfazed by the barrage of bullets raining down upon him; protected by the barrier, Rhianne's dying gift to the twins. He snatched up her body, and, holding it close broke into a hurried run as Knives' cry of rage rang out through the bullet-ridden air, accompanied by the blinding, unmistakable light of his Angel Arm.

The screams of the men and women crashed upon him like a wave and the broom-haired man felt little crystals of water spill from his lids, at the innocent howls of despair as their lives were snuffed out. He dashed through the streets, not allowing the nearly blinding light to overtake him; as he wasn't sure Rhianne's barriers could withstand the barrage of raw energy and power his brother had unleashed.

Almost too late, Vash hurtled out of the city limits, Rhianne still clutched tightly to his chest. He felt her blood soak through the fabric of his jacket, making the leather of his bodysuit beneath stiff and uncomfortable as he ran from the explosion behind him. His boots crunched on the sand, drowned out by the explosion that nearly rivaled a sonic boom. He vaulted over a dune and lay there, fetal position with Rhianne clutched close to him like an infant in a mother's arms.

He felt the rain of sand fall upon him, and, after a moment's silence, the distant crunching of lone boots among the debris of a once-proud city. He sighed, tears still cascading like waterfalls down his flushed cheeks. Rhianne was safe, she would be saved; but at the cost of how many lives? Vash turned to his brother, questioning him with his deep, watery aqua orbs.

She must never know came the reply.

And so it was.