Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun or any of the characters from the series, just Kate, Joseph, Rath, Cal, my surprises (including new species!), and my silly little plot. Have fun.

Note: The conversation at the beginning has a purpose, I promise!

Chapter 7. Sandsteamer

"You know, Milly . . . I've got to get you a hobby," Meryl said to her partner, slightly exasperated. Milly didn't reply. She had already pulled off her shoes and was climbing into the bed. Of course, only moments before, she had been bouncing back and forth from her room to Vash's.

Kate, Milly, and Meryl would share a room, although, unfortunately, it only held two beds. Vash would have his own.

Meryl took off her own shoes, her earrings, and her coat and climbed into the bed herself. They had decided that since she and Kate were considerably smaller than Milly, they would share a bed and Milly would keep the other one to herself. Milly, of course, had no objections.

"I'll be right back," Kate stated before walking from the room. Vash's door was only four down and across the hall. Kate stood in front of it, then slowly brought her hand up and knocked. There was a hurried motion and then a low, "Come in," before she turned the knob and opened the door. Vash stood in front of the window, a towel draped across his bare shoulders and another wrapped around his thin waist.

"God, Vash!" Kate said, looking in the other direction and turning red in the cheeks. "You coulda done better than that!" Vash chuckled.

"Yeah, well, you kinda came at a bad time."

"I just . . . needed to talk to you . . . about Knives." Vash stopped his trek to the table and watched as Kate walked slowly to the couch and plopped herself down. Vash grabbed his beer and sat in a chair.

"What about him?" questioned Vash calmly.

"I want to know about him . . . why he is the way he is . . . how he came to be that way . . . not that I disagree with his thoughts of genocide on human kind, just . . . why? How?"

"You mean . . . you allowed yourself to be employed by him but you know nothing about him?"

"Yes," Kate replied, her whisper barely audible. Vash sighed. Where to begin . . .

"We were on a ship, called Seeds. I suppose I'll start there, considering that's to where I can remember . . . Well, Knives and I are twins, as you know, and we were born on one of the Seeds ships before we came to this planet. There were thousands of Seeds ships, each carrying thousands of sleeping people.

"We grew abnormally fast and . . . some of the humans treated us differently because of our abilities and superiority to them. Some got jealous, and . . . well, beat us." Vash paused to see Kate's reaction. He wasn't entirely comfortable with talking about his past like this, but as she was a sister, he supposed she had a right to know.

"Knives got angry at one in particular who seemed more prone to abusing us than the other humans who were awake on Seeds. Knives . . . became unstable. He killed the captain of the ship, and another man. In the end, five of the Crew died . . . including Rem."

"Rem?"

"Yes . . . Rem. She took care of us for that short period. She saw us as equals and appreciated the fact that we could do all these things. She didn't care. When Knives decided that all humans were alike, self-centered and selfish, he sent the Seeds ship on a different course, planning for the ship to go right by Gunsmoke. He knew I was . . . attached to Rem, so he spared her, but she gave herself up for us and went to rectify Knives's mistake so she could save the rest of human kind. She . . . died."

"And since then Knives has been against the humans, since you both were beaten as children?" Vash nodded. Kate stood and turned to walk from Vash's room. "That's all I wanted. And if you want to know . . . I know how you and your brother feel, but I do not carry with me your ways of love and peace. I still agree with Knives." Vash gave a faint smile and watched Kate walk from the room.

Kate stood out in the hall, staring down at the floor. It was . . . frightening, the sandsteamer was. She hated sandsteamers, ever since her ordeal had happened ninety-eight years ago . . .

The walls of the sandsteamer were dimly lit, most of the lanterns on the walls being extinguished hours ago. The small girl found them frightening, being alone in the dark. She looked left and right for the dining room door, or the door leading to the deck, her blonde curls bouncing as she walked.

"Mama?" she called as she approached the stairs. "Daddy?"

"Something wrong, little girl?" said a female voice to her left. She turned to look up at an elegantly dressed woman.

"I can't find my mommy or daddy," she whimpered. "I fell asleep and when I woke up they weren't there anymore."

"Have you gone on the deck yet? Or in the dining hall?" The child shook her head. "Well, I'll escort you." The woman took the girl's hand and began to walk, taking her up the stairs. "So, what's your name?"

"Katheryn, but my mommy and daddy call me Kate."

"Oh, well hello, Kate. My name is Caroline, but my friends call me Carol. Here we go. Here's the dining hall. Do you see your mommy and daddy?" The child stood on her tip-toes to look around the crowd below her but stood straight again with a disappointed look on her face.

"No. They aren't here."

"Well, they must be on the deck then. Let's go see." When they emerged from the double doors onto the deck of the refurbished sandsteamer Caroline led Kate to a chair and allowed her to stand in it to see over the small mass of people. She stepped down after another few minutes. She silently left the deck and went back down into the first class floor. Carol followed.

Kate opened the door to their room that she had left unlocked. Her parents still weren't there. She sat on the bed and buried her face in her tiny hands. Carol stood in the doorway.

"They've left," she sobbed quietly. "I knew they would- sniff- it was only a matter of time."

"What are you talking about?" asked Carol. Kate took her head from her hands and looked at the older woman.

"This is the third family I've had, and each have left me because of what I was. Well . . . no more! I'm tired of having to scrounge for a new pair of humans!" The girl screamed as loudly as she could, Carol backing out of the room.

"Y-your a monster . . . You're a monster!" Carol ran as fast as her feet would allow, tripping every few steps because of her high heels. Behind her, the girl was still screaming. Then the floor beneath her began to shake violently. Carol shouted in fright and climbed the stairs. She came back onto the deck and shouted, "It's a monster! A monster!"

An explosion blasted below the deck, sending people flying off the sandsteamer. Soon, there was nothing left. After only thirty minutes, the entire sandsteamer had been stopped in its tracks and reduced to nothing but a pile of dead bodies, smoldering ashes, charred furniture, and a twisted ton of metal and steel. Standing on the cliff above the wreckage was a small girl, looking down at the pit of hell from her safe perch. She grunted, turned, and walked away.

In the middle of the next afternoon the sandsteamer was passing smoothly through the desert, still almost seventy iles away from a town, when it came to a sudden stop. Meryl and Milly raced out on deck, where others were beginning to gather, but Kate and Vash were already at the gate.

"Vash, what's going on?" Meryl asked above the shouts of the crowd behind her. Vash didn't reply. He only turned around and began to head up the metal stairs to the captain's quarters. Kate followed.

Kate's POV

We headed up the creaky, metal stairs. I was only following Vash as my duty. I had told Knives I would keep an eye on him until we reached Fondreake, so that was what I was going to do.

Vash knocked lightly on the door and then opened it. When he saw the captain and a rich, married passenger (judging by the ring on her finger) having a little make-out session he began to turned, but I pushed past him, grabbed the arrogant little captain (who looked like he was in his twenties) by his collar, and slammed him against the wall.

"Why have we stopped?" I barked. I really wanted to keep the sandsteamer moving, trying not to stall the plan any further than it already had been.

"How am I s'posed tuh know?! I'm only the captain, for God's sake!" I tightened my grip on his ugly green collar and dragged him with me out the door. I could hear Vash following me now. I pushed the man in front of my when we got to the foot of the stairs, and people laughed as he was forced to walk with his fly un-zipped and his shirt unbuttoned. I pushed him down to the very bottom floor where the workers were. We got into the boiler room and pushed him in.

"W-why did we stop?" he asked, trembling, when he felt the gun in his back. But then I noticed . . . every single one of the workers was frozen . . . not moving, like stone statues or ice sculptures.

I then saw a winged figure come soaring down from the larger pipes near the ceiling of the workers' floor, charging right at us. The cowardly captain dove, but I moved out of the way as Vash leaped backwards and the figure went crashing to the ground, having missed his target. He obviously wasn't too skilled at flying.

"Holy shit, Cal, you scared the ever-livin' crap outta me!" I shouted, lowering my gun from the boyish figure. His red hair stuck up in odd places, and he certainly did look young.

"Sorry 'bout that . . . Haven't been flyin' in a while."

"Yeah, since Knives kicked your ass. I figured you were dead by now."

"What, you aren't glad to see me?"

"Well . . . Let's just say I didn't miss you."

"At least I've still got my wings!" the young Plant burst suddenly. I turned swiftly and bore down on him.

"At least I'm not some mechanically re-engineered, mechanically reproduced freak! And the loss of my feathers is none of your business!" I screeched. I stalked from the room, my fingers clenched tightly around my gun. I kicked open the door and walked through. I'm sure they could hear my screaming until I arrived back at the deck. Still . . . I wanted to know why we had stopped.

3rd

It was almost three more hours before they began to move again. Vash had gone back to his room to sleep while Meryl and Milly had gotten some food. Kate was sitting on the south end of the wooden deck, watching the sand trail behind them as the sandsteamer went forward again. She was still watching the sand topple back to the ground like waves in the ocean when Cal came to sit behind her.

"If you really wanted to know, I broke two of the six generators when I was trying to sprout my wings."

"And those workers?"

"None of my doing."

"Are they . . . back to normal?"

"Actually, no . . . Vash and I were monitoring that, and the captain had to get the second shift to come in early and work the sandsteamer's controls until they could find a way to revive everyone else."

"Ah . . . who do you think it was?"

"I dunno. Knives isn't here, Rath and Joseph are in Fondreake . . . Vash wouldn't have done it . . . you didn't . . . and the only other thing with that kind of power is Rei, but she's kind of . . . heh heh heh . . . in a coma."

Kate looked at Cal. "What do you mean, 'in a coma' ?"

"I mean she's in a comatose state! Not awake, knocked out, asleep for an abnormally large amount of time-"

"When did this happen?"

"Uh . . . year, year and a half ago?"

"How come I wasn't informed of this?"

"Well . . . heh heh, you see, funny thing about that . . ."

"Cal! Tell me, you sideshow freak!"

"Well . . . Knives, you see . . . he said she was useless to him since she was in that state and he, well, wanted to ditch her, and he didn't say anything. He figured you would have wanted to go back and see him about it, and while you were still undercover, he decided it wouldn't be such a great idea."

"Well . . . Now I want to go see her! Did he ditch her after all?"

"No . . . she's still there, in the church, but you can't go back until you get to Fondreake, after Vash is in jail and those two dummies your brought along with you are more or less dead and/or disposed of." Kate turned from Cal and continued watching the rolling mounds of sand and dust trailing behind the sandsteamer. She then sighed and stood.

"We're almost there."

Author's Notes: Tee hee hee ^_^ Everything here had a purpose, I promise! Review, please! I'm having a definite lack of those things lately . . . hm . . .