*holds hands out for more bribes… or reviews*
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The solider looked down the barrel of his gun. The sight was aimed right between the blonde menace's eyes. He knew that no matter how famed he was for avoiding bullets, the man was too close to be able to dodge this one. With that final thought his finger began to take up the slack on the trigger. But before he could finish the pull his traitor eyes strayed from the sight to the man's face. He wanted to look into the eyes of the killer, to see the despair that had to be there as he took in his final breath.
What greeted him was not fear but exhaustion. Dark circles ringed his aqua eyes, extending from the bridge of his nose to his cheekbones. The skin on his face was tight and pinched, pale with bright pink circles on the apples of his cheeks. As he watched, the final breath was let out and another shallow one was pulled in, then another, and then the moment passed. He took his finger off the trigger and flicked on the safety before pulling his gun away. His free hand came up and pulled at the door, trying to force it back in its track far enough to allow ingress.
Vash closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them again before crawling out of the way. The solider finally succeeded in forcing his way in, his foot slipping a bit on the slick floor before he jumped over the foam. Looking about the room he located Vash, then dismissed the man as no current threat. Cautiously, he brought his weapon back up and crept through the room, looking behind chairs and desks for an ambush.
He knew that there were three other people in the room. There was no other way out, and all the saboteurs had to know that their punishment would not be light. Whatever damage they had caused to the plant, they were going to pay. They were trapped, and he waited for them to strike out like the animals they were.
But there was no attack. Cautiously, he crept to the stairs, what men of his that had managed to force their way through the door fanning out behind him. Perhaps they were planning on hiding by the bulb, expecting that the defenders would be reluctant to fire so near to what they were supposed to protect.
With the greatest possible care he sprinted up the stairs, then nearly tripped over Alex's sprawled body.
The shock of seeing two of the most feared beings on the planet sleeping like babies kept him from looking at the bulb. Alex was splayed out, his arms and legs akimbo. He snored slightly, the small noise rhythmic and incongruous. Knives was curled up upon himself, one head resting on his right arm, his right hand loosely grasping the back of his head.
Neither stirred as he stepped closer. The panels of the platform were raised over a hollow space and his boots were not designed with stealth in mind, but the hollow booms went unheeded.
He glanced back over his shoulder to look at Vash again. What had they done in here that had worn them out so much? He saw nothing wrong with the room, nothing more than the puddle of foam by the door. There were no holes, no exposed wires. The terminals still blinked their warning lights, patterns just like the ones in the damage control office. What had they done?
His gaze flicked back across the faces of his men. Finally their expressions registered on his conscious mind, the dumfounded stares, the slack grips on the weapons that were supposed to be backing him up. Tracing the line of their sight, he turned and looked in the bulb.
And saw something that he had never been prepared to see. Plant angels rarely descended into the bulb, but not so uncommonly that their appearance was unknown. He had personally seen the phenomenon twice. Both times he had wondered at the strange appearance of the beings, wondered that anyone could be so ill-informed to call them human. They were more monsters than people, beings than persons. There was nothing about them that he could relate to, nothing that struck a chord with his soul. All the talk of them being sentient he could disregard. Cats were sentient but no one cried when they were used as mousers. Plants might be able to think, but there was nothing human about them. Nothing he could see.
Until now. His mouth gaped open slightly as his jaw dropped in amazement. The angel was holding something in her arms, no, someone. The transformed visage of the free plants was not so inhuman as that of the angels, and in repose Anne looked entirely like a hurt child being comforted in her mother's arms. One arm was slipped under her shoulders, cradling the almost androgynous form to her breast while the other gently smoothed the hair that drifted in the bulb. As he watched, the angel dipped her head down and kissed Anne on her forehead.
Before the assault the room Mr. Herman had informed them that all the intruders were plants, including Anne. That fact had seemed remote when he had heard it, only a justification for her presence here. It was simple for him to believe that she had infiltrated the plant to prepare for this day, to harm the angels in some strange bid to free her sisters. But to see someone who was so obviously inhuman, and yet still so recognizably the woman he had never had the guts to ask on a date was unnerving. Worse, it seemed a betrayal of all he had thought to be true.
His mind snapped back into his body, and with thought came action. He snapped around and marched down the stairs, pushing past his stupefied comrades. Upon reaching Vash he grabbed a handful of the man's collar and pulled him to his feet. Slamming the plant's body against the wall, he ground out, "What the hell are you freaks doing in my facility?"
