By Siona Ward (Blue Daemon)
I finally wrote about Knives in this chapter for all you evil-twin fans!
Oh and a special hug for Magnet-Rose for your continued reviews! ^_^
(IMPORTANT! Just so you know, this part is a flashback to the time just after the showdown with Knives and after Vash took Knives home to care for him. ^_^ I just like to keep you on your toes!)
It was noon. After nearly a day of continuous running, Knives finally collapsed in the shade of a cliff. He had awoken the previous day in a bed listening to the voices of his hated brother and two humans in the next room. He couldn't believe that Vash was so stupid as to let him live. He would regret it, but first Knives had to get out of there. He could never allow himself to be looked after like a weak human. He had slipped away soon after waking up.
Feeling frustrated at being beaten even though he was weak, he ran from the house. Sitting now, and getting his breath back, he cleared his thoughts. He had been beaten once yes, but letting him live was Vash's biggest mistake. This time there would be no elaborate plan or men doing his dirty work. This time he would simply kill Vash straight on, and then deal with exterminating the humans. He allowed himself a smile at this happy thought and with a slight groan, got up and started to explore his surroundings. He appeared to be somewhere outside New Oregon.
As he walked slowly around the base of the cliff, forcing his body to regenerate further as he did so, he felt something different. He could sense some technology nearby. Impressive, lost technology. Suddenly wondering why he hadn't known about this before, he located the technology source and followed his senses.
He found a space ship.
A lot of it was buried in the rock hard sand, but the tops of the letters SEED were clearly written in bold along its hull.
"I destroyed all of these…" Knives mused as he gazed, shocked, at this unlikely discovery. He had made sure all the SEED vessels exploded when he was a boy. Forcing open a partially buried hatch, he decided to investigate.
"Where are we going?" whined a man, reluctantly following another outside New Oregon. His name was Siros and the man he followed was a good friend of his called Irinoep.
"I heard something. Now come on." replied Irinoep impatiently.
"I always hear things. That doesn't mean I drag my friends out of town to investigate…"
"Oh let it go. It was a strange noise ok? Like a bang or a yell…"
"This had better be good…I've got things to do you know." The duo continued up the hillside outside their town. They headed towards the great metal mound that their people had purposefully avoided for years.
Knives gazed amazedly at his discovery. He was looking at an old disused screen, which had just enough power to display all it knew to him. It had a lot to tell.
"-.//Experiments on twin subjects V and K confirm suspicions. DNA structure different. Extra gene allows regeneration, extended longevity, enhanced senses. Still investigating. Proceding to isolating gene. Adding to plant structure.//
-.//Conclusive evidence from plants. Surviving high temps. Stronger. Experiment gene on human pending…// "
Knives had read enough. He never trusted that crew aboard his SEED ship, but he never knew that they were actually experimenting on him and his brother. He let out a cry of anger at letting them do this to him and smashed half of the monitor with a fist. Taking a deep breath he calmed down. He had after all killed all of them and thus extracted his revenge. 'Now,' he thought, 'I can certainly use this to my advantage…' He continued to read all the information the ship contained and memorised all of it.
Before long, he was set in this task and so was annoyed when two humans peering in at him curiously disturbed him.
"Leave" he demanded simply, his eyes not leaving the flickering monitor.
"Ah…" mumbled one, "are you alright? We heard a yell…"
Just as Knives was about to shoot these two distractions, he had an idea. He turned around and smiled at them.
"Yes, I'm fine. Listen. I've just had an amazing discovery here that could make trees grow in the desert." The two humans looked doubtful at this but slightly nervous in such unfamiliar surroundings.
"How? How can we do that?" asked the second, genuinely intrigued. Knives stared at them intently.
"Will you help me achieve this? I can't do it alone and I need you to trust and obey me."
The two men were startled at this response and said nothing.
"If you refuse this of course…" Knives continued, bringing out his gun, "I will have to murder you and your families. Understand?"
This seemed to motivate the humans. They both nodded vigorously.
"Oh good!" exclaimed Knives putting the gun away. "We'll begin at once. I will be summoning Vash the Stampede here now. You'll find him easily enough that way. When you find him bring him here. We're going to do a little experiment."
"V-Vash the Stampede??" stuttered the first man, Siros, "We could never catch him! Uh - sir! We aren't fighters!"
"You don't need to be. He'll be weak and won't make a fuss. If he does, just tell him his brother's waiting. Go. Now." They left.
"Try heading west for a start!" Knives called after them, "And bring me all the scientists from your city whilst you're at it!" This was going to be fun. He got back to reading the ship's logs and records.
The SEED ship, 1,045/2,664, Knives learned, had apparently taken the wrong course when leaving the planet and been lost from the fleet. It never found the rest of the ships but managed to crash land back on the planet some months later as an attempt to save the crew from being lost in deep space forever. It had been hiding here for several years. The local people were of course too scared to even look directly at it, so it was practically untouched since it landed.
After exploring what was left of the ship, Knives found almost half of the ship crushed from the impact, the crew and 'sleepers' would have died instantly, but there was still power and enough space to stay here for a while. He repaired some parts to provide lighting and prepared a makeshift operating-table for his brother.
When Vash sensed a summoning from his brother, he was tense. He couldn't easily ignore that demand constantly in his brain but he didn't want to find Knives yet. They were both still weak and he knew that a confrontation now would end in fighting.
He thought it was over. He wanted it to be over. He had never known what he would do with Knives after their fight. He would never kill him, but he had to do something about his destructive twin before more lives were lost. After week of pacing around the house restlessly, he decided to leave. Just as he was about to, Meryl caught him.
"Where are you going? It's the middle of the night!" she hissed. Vash looked at her seriously. It was so rare a thing that Meryl was slightly worried.
"I need to go to Knives. I have to find him."
"No Vash, please." Meryl grabbed his arm, "It's over now right? You need to stay with us and live a life now. Milly's pregnant you know? It's Mr Wolfwood' child! You must stay!"
"I'm sorry." Was all that Vash said as he left carrying his big sack of a bag on his shoulder.
Woo! I finally got round to finishing another chapter! I'm enjoying this story at the mo so I'll be writing more often. Please review - they keep me happy! Bai!