Quick note - though I am going off of the anime's ending, I am taking Knives' and Vash's personal history from the manga, because...well, the manga GIVES us an in-depth history. Great stuff to work with. Couldn't pass it by.
The desertsquat needed to rest. They'd been pushing it at a run for nearly four hours, now. Meryl could have slowed it to a trot, but the resulting bounce in its step would put Knives in more pain than she could bear to listen to. He'd been good so far, no doubt credited to his innate stubbornness. But even supernatural tenacity wasn't going to negate the fact that he had four nasty bullet wounds that were still maiming his limbs, and between his increasing hisses and gasps behind her, and the labored breathing of the beast in front of her…
Ah, to hell with it. She gently tugged on the reigns, and eased their ride into a gradual stop. Knives' shaky exhale told her at least his body was relieved for the brief respite, even though his words contradicted it.
"What…what are you doing?" he growled.
"I'm stopping." She hopped off their feathery steed, and pulled on its reigns until the thing was squatting. "You both need a break."
He didn't budge, and she could have sworn she saw his blue, weary eyes light up like a flash light. "Then make the beast trot," he said roughly.
"But you—"
"I said I can handle this!" His voice was hot, riddled with more emotion than he no doubt wanted to portray. Which mean that he was probably even in more pain than he was letting on.
"Please," Meryl rolled her eyes and leaned over him to observe his wounds. "After a few minutes of trotting, you'd be weeping." Oh, that made him angry. But…What do you think you're gonna do, Knives. Bleed on me?
His lips thinned in a bloodless line. "I heard that."
Meryl blinked, and her cheeks burned. A reflexive apology hung in her throat, but it didn't quite make it out. "Will you stay out of my head!? I didn't give you permission!"
His frown deepened. "I don't need permission."
"Yes," she said, shifting him against his will. "You do." He grimaced, tried to pull away from her, but she placed a firm hand on his chest and looked him right in the eye. "Knives. Twenty minutes. And then we'll be on our way, again."
He was unwielding for all of ten seconds, before he huffed and rolled his eyes. Taking that as a silent 'go ahead', Meryl cautiously slipped her hand under his torso. "Can you sit up?"
He exhaled in a scoff, and leaned forward with her help. Meryl eased him gently against her chest, and using balance and leverage, lifted him off the desertsquat, and onto the sand. She suspected his cringing had more to do with her arms wrapped around him than the soreness of his wounds.
"Eesh. Will you relax?" she asked in exasperation, laying his head in the sand and ambling around to his side. "It's not like I'm poisonous."
He said nothing, merely peeking at her through narrowed slits. She rummaged through her bag again, and held up the pills and whiskey for a second time. "The desertsquat won't be able to run for a while, Knives. Which means a bumpier ride. I'm not putting you back up there until you've taken these—"
"I said no." He held her gaze, trying his damnedest to glare her into submission. But Meryl Strife hadn't earned her esteemed position with the Bernardelli Insurance Company by being a pushover.
"Look, Mister. I am not listening to your whimpering for the rest of the night—"
"Wh...whimmm..." his jaw muscles spasmed. He almost couldn't say it. "Whimpering!?"
Her patience was wearing thin. "Nnnn…ssss! Mmm….ngh! Ngh! Sssssss….." She panted irregularly, contorting her face in small grimaces as she mimicked the sounds he'd been making for the past hour. Point made, she stuck her finger in his face. "Yeah. Whimpering. And it's only going to get worse, especially now that our steed is so exhausted. If you're reluctant because you don't feel you can trust me, then I'd appreciate if you remembered that I just betrayed your brother to keep my promise to you, and—"
He snatched the pills and bottle with an angry jerk, and with a look of death that promised a later flogging, Knives slapped the pain killers in his mouth, washing it down with the 90 proof liquor. Meryl watched in apprehensive relief as the liquid messily sloshed about his chin, trailing little rivulets down his throat, his chest, his abs… Pig, she thought as the blood rushed to her face, not about to ponder why her stomach was doing funny things right then. She looked away. "I'm...I'm going to wrap you up before we leave, you know. It's far too cold tonight to go around with a wet chest."
He tossed an empty bottle in response, his disdainful gaze resting on her until she squirmed. Then he dropped his head back in the sand, and stared at the sky. Sighing heavily, Meryl set about to rewrapping his wounds…
.
.
Meryl rubbed her dusty face with the back of her hand, and squinted through exhausted eyes at the dip on the horizon. It took several seconds for her blurred vision to focus. The blackness of night was just giving way to a rich blue in the western sky, enabling her to see a crater dimpling the desert landscape.… Or more importantly, the remains of a ship that had crashed inside of it.
Wow… she thought, a spark of energy zig zagging through her lethargic body. No wonder mankind hasn't located this one yet… The geography was so accommodating, that she half-wondered if it was deliberate. If Knives somehow had the power to shape the land.
After seeing what Vash was capable of, she wouldn't doubt it.
The sand rose all about the crater, not unlike a small volcano. But from a distance, it seemed little more than one of the many dunes that they'd traversed to get here. But as one got within yarz of it, the pockmark on the landscape became visible, along with its contents.
"Knives," she tried to say, but her wind-dry voice cracked, emitting little more than formed air. Meryl took a swig from her depleting canteen, swallowed hard, and tried again. "Knives," she croaked, "I think…we're here."
No response.
She turned around. His head was rolled back, his body relaxed in the last position she put him in; legs extended, feet resting by her hips up on the sides of her own saddle, with enough packs and blankets behind and around him to prop him up at a comfortable angle. And the poncho she'd tucked him in was still snug.
Hn. Just like a baby.
She observed the docile expression on his sleepy face, remembering their one altercation some time around midnight. Six hours ago. The painkillers had worked. Alarmingly well. By the time they saddled up again, he was wincing less. Hadn't said a word for the rest of the trip, and here they were, the following morning, and the man was out cold. Meryl was so darn tired, she could barely sit up straight, and Knives was completely unaware that they'd even arrived. He seemed so pleasant when he was unconscious, that she hated waking him up.
Perhaps the ride down could do it for her…
She urged the desertsquat forward, leaning back in the saddle and standing in the stirrups as gravity pulled them into the crater. Its movements were jerky, and with the forward momentum it only took the creature to stumble once, in order to land her passenger practically on top of her.
Meryl went completely rigid as Knives slumped heavily against her back. His hands flopped on her thighs as his chin hooked over her collarbone. She nearly choked, unable to tell exactly whose personal space was being invaded, but knowing that some violation had definitely just occurred.
Feeling unbelievably tense, Meryl rode them to the base of the ship. Once there, she turned, gulped, and said the first words she could think of. "Um…hey…"
His ear twitched. Of course it did. She'd just breathed right on it. He stirred, an inarticulate moan sounding low in his throat. It took him a few moments to crack his sleep-swollen eyes open, and when he did… Good heavens... And here I thought that stuff would just take the edge off his pain...
Knives looked like he'd spent the past ten hours hanging upside down. By his toes. His mouth was slack, his expression wary, but far from alert. He blinked. Frowned. She could have sworn he didn't recognize her. Granted, with all the desert sand blowing in her face for the past 10 hours, she might not have been recognizable. And the ever-composed plant was going from confused to panicked. His mouth started fumbling over unvoiced thoughts, no doubt trying to piece together exactly how he'd ended up cuddling with a human.
"Knives. I...we're...we're here." She jerked her chin at the ship, and had the small satisfaction of seeing his eyes widen in what seemed to be relief. Then he looked back at her.
"Vash's...woman..." He mouthed, squinted, and then bowed his head on her shoulder, visibly trying to get his bearings.
"How do you feel?" she croaked, ignoring the title.
An equally dry, 'keh' was his response. He pushed off her back with a hissing intake of breath, and pointed a shaky finger at what looked like a docking bay just a few yarz ahead of them. "There," he whispered.
Meryl moved them on, and shimmied them up next to the closed entryway. With a grunt, Knives leaned over, palmed some form of access panel, and the thing slid right open. Meryl might have gasped at the sudden movement, but as it were, her nerves were dulled by lack of sleep. Even the desertsquat didn't startle.
They were assaulted immediately by cool, moist…Meryl perked. Moist? Yes. The air was moist. A pleasant scented humidity that she hadn't felt…well...ever. She eagerly went in, more awestruck with each step.
It was like a cathedral. A big, mechanical cathedral. The early morning rays rained down in glowing sheets through deliberate openings in the top of the ship. Ethereal. Almost like a dream. And there were mirrors. Lots of mirrors, catching the light, and redirecting it down a hallway a few yarz from them.
"Go." Knives ordered, and speechless, she did. As they clopped into the enclosed area, Meryl saw the beginnings of vegetation. Vines. They were stretched about the walls like spider webs, reaching for the sun's nourishment like zombies from a tomb. And they were thick, and green, and lush…
"This is…" she looked down, "Grass! Is that grass??"
Coarse words, behind her. "Keep going."
Even the bird marveled at the soft ground. A few more feet, and the hallway opened up into a large, spacious room that instantly reminded Meryl of an old earth topography she'd seen pictures of, called a 'jungle'. Streaking here and there were zig zags of stolen sunbeams to give the foliage life. The foliage that consisted of big, leafy trees, and floral patches that painted delightful little blotches of purple, yellow and red against the dense green…
And the scent… She just wanted to close her eyes, and disappear in this place. It was like a paradise. Something she had never even dared hoped to see. Meryl sniffled, and swallowed down the lump in her throat.
"Here. Let me down," he said.
Still in a daze, Meryl obliged, and sat the bird in order to dismount Knives. She hopped off first, and reached up to help him...only to be ignored. He batted her hand aside, and then with all the expertise of a sloppy drunk, Knives clumsily rolled off the bird and umphed in the grass.
Lucky for him, Meryl was too stupefied by the current landscaping to do much more than shake her head at his immaturity. If he didn't want her help, then let him pick his own ass up off the ground. With a sigh, her attention quickly went back to the celestial place she was enveloped in. Really. The only thing missing were clouds. "I've…I've never been anywhere so beautiful," she whispered, feeling her eyes sting, as she walked towards a rise in the ground. "Is this on top of a Geo Plant, Knives?"
He seemed too engrossed in the process of pulling himself up the closest tree, to answer. He was breathing heavily, visibly distressed...not so much at his inability to walk as his current mental state.
"With as well as your brother holds his liquor, I wouldn't have thought you to be such a lightweight," Meryl mused.
"Not liquor," he said, clenching his teeth, closing his eyes. "Pain killers."
"It wasn't that heavy of a dose."
"Stupid human. Our physiology...is different..."
Of all the... "What does it do? Make you insufferably stubborn for a day? Because I was under the impression bull-headedness was an intrinsic part of your personality--"
"Your blasted anesthesia killed Tessla--" he clapped his hand over his mouth then, as though mortified that he'd let something slip out. "Woman," he panted, after several seconds, "Stop asking...me questions!"
Catching a sliver to some great insight, Meryl persisted. "Why?"
He tugged his bottom lip between his teeth, his brow raised in the center. Dread. There was dread in his eyes. And the barest hint of a plea.
My word. Could this mean that...? "Who was Tessla?"
"The...first...of our kind..."
"How old are you?"
"One hundred, thirty four."
"What color is the grass?"
"Green... Agh!"
Meryl gaped as this mysterious man sank back to the ground with his head in his hands. He had indeed had taken a gamble when he took those pills. They were working like a bonafide truth drug. The possibilities started ticking off in her mind of the information she could glean from him. It's not like he wouldn't think twice in violating her thoughts. He already had, and he'd no doubt do it again.
But her mind recoiled. She couldn't bring herself to interrogate him, no matter how much he deserved it. Meryl fisted her hips, and hung her head, toeing some imaginary pebble in the ground. "Lucky for you Knives, I came here to help you get better. Not to tap you for information. So relax, already. I won't go out of my way to drill you." She marched over to him and bent down, tugging on his left arm to drape it over her shoulders. "Now stop treating me like a leper, and let me carry you to wherever it is you can rest."
He peered up at her in apprehensive irritation, as though gauging her honest intent. But the concentration proved to be too much. Somewhere between three and four seconds, his eyes rolled up into the back of his head, and he shook himself violently to get back into focus. "Get me...to the plant."
She helped him to stand. "Where?"
He pointed. At a vine-covered wall. Meryl frowned, but walked them to it, anyhow. This was his home. He might have been a space cadet at the moment, but he at least knew where he was going. When they neared it, he lifted a lethargic limb up to palm something again. Meryl assumed it was another mechanical panel. But then the most amazing thing happened.
Meryl felt a sudden pulse of energy, being so close to him. It wasn't an electric shock, but it was something. A half second later, the foliage around him seemed to vibrate, and shudder into motion. The green tendrils on the wall entwined themselves aggressively down Knives' hand, forearm, bicep... Flowers sprouted from the vines as they curled away from the wall and peeled outwards. It was surreal. In just a matter of seconds, the surrounding vegetation had not only moved to open up a pathway for its master, but it had grown considerably in the process.
Meryl gaped, realizing that this in-door garden might not have been the result of years and years of natural cultivation. "You...you did this?"
He pursed his lips, as though fighting the urge to respond. "Mm."
"You created this place? This oasis?" She couldn't stop staring at his statuesque profile, barely beginning to comprehend exactly what kind of power this being had. It never occurred to her that the fruits of his labors could be anything but destructive. Yet for all the hatred he harbored, Knives had the capacity for nurturing life, instead of destroying it. There was something important about that… But her exhausted mind couldn't quite make the connection.
"It is not...for humans."
Unpleasant, his voice was. Even when he said words she expected to hear. "If this place is for your people, then why are they not here?"
His brow knotted. "Some...are." He turned until she felt his breath ruffle her bangs. "You said...said you wouldn't ask..." He blinked, his mouth went slack, "questions..." He stopped mid-thought, as the edge seemed to melt off his expression. Meryl grew increasingly uncomfortable as his eyes lingered on her visage, bouncing from her bangs, to her chin, to her cheeks. It was that look again. Like the one he'd given her back in the village.
She might have said something, even thought something, but being the recipient of such an expression – and from him, no less - left her winded. She didn't realize she was inching away from him until his own weight made his leg buckle. The strange moment ended when he grimaced, and threw his head back and slipped off her shoulder.
"Sorry!" Meryl cried, worrying over his collapsed form in the grass. "Sorry. I didn't mean to…drop you."
"Ngh…"
"Sorry…"
He growled. For all that he was staring earlier, he avoided her eyes like the plague now. Made it difficult when he tried to stand, barely acknowledging her as she braced herself under his arm again. He begrudgingly let her, though she got the feeling he was fed up with accepting help from a human. "There's," he pointed weakly to the passageway that had just opened up, "there's a plant through there. Take me to her."
Awkward moment forgotten, Meryl hobbled onward, propped up under Knives' shoulder as they walked through the hidden passageway. And it was then, that Vash's face popped up in her mind, without warning or trigger. Putting one step in front of the other, she could hear his voice, see his smile, feel his embrace…
Her eyes stung. Hopefully he wouldn't find out. Hopefully, she'd get Knives back up on his feet, and return home before Vash had learned that she'd put her life in the hands of the very man he was protecting her from. Would he feel betrayed? Would he be angry with her? Would he…Will he finally tell me why I'm…different?
Knives stumbled.
"Whoa...easy there..." she said, her hand bracing his chest. She watched him warily as he righted himself and limped along. Then as though to redirect her attention elsewhere than his folly, cold sky eyes stared pointedly into the chamber ahead. She followed his gaze.
The room was so bright, she had to squint against it. They shuffled closer, and she saw it. A gigantic bulbous container loomed up ahead. Electric currents were netted around it, as it sparked and crackled against the humid air. The unit was situated from a hanging plug, propped directly over a platform. A platform that they were now trudging up.
Emotional and tired, Meryl said the first thing that came to her mind, having no consideration that it might be a forbidden topic. "Don't you know how to free them from this…prison?"
Disdainful grunt. "Of course I do."
"Then why is this plant angel still enslaved?" she asked. "Have you freed any of them?"
He stiffened and for all he was trying to ignore her earlier, she had his undivided attention now. "This planet isn't ready for them yet. Not 'til...humanity succeeds in...wiping itself out."
Meryl rolled her eyes. "You mean not until you succeed in wiping us out, don't you?"
His lip curled. "I won't have to."
She shrugged, refusing to go there. Her bitterness surfaced. "Well, it strikes me as kinda sad that their own brother won't let them out of their confinement. You know full well you could free and protect them, if you and Vash worked together—"
"You have no place speaking, human." He was angry. Too angry to discipline his responses through the drug-enduced loose tongue, now. She felt his left arm crush her shoulders. He wasn't even trying to hold back. "After the unspeakable horrors you've subjected my people to!"
"You forget. 99% of the human race has no idea there are living, breathing, sentient beings trapped inside those bulbs. Sure there are those who would keep them in their cages. But there are just as many, if not more, whose souls would ache at the thought. Many who would seek a way to free them as much as you or I."
"You lie…" His teeth were clenched, his bloodshot eyes frenzied. Because of his own exhaustion, and residual stupor from the painkillers, Meryl was getting to see his genuine reaction. His true fears. He was too scatterbrained to be fake.
She fisted the material of his shirt out of reflex, also too frustrated and tired to reconsider this conversation. "I'm not lying! You know, you sure seem to assume an awful lot about all of mankind for someone who has spent his entire life avoiding us."
His jaw dropped. "I learned all I needed to kn-know in the first year of my l-life! You're a self-serving, resource-consuming, d-destructive breed--"
"We're also compassionate, inherently good, selfless, productive... You can't condemn an entire species on the actions of a few, Knives!"
"Tell that to your own!" he was seething. She had hit a sore point, dead on. Come to think of it, accusing Knives of essentially betraying his own people might not have been the best way to approach the plants' enslavement. His face was reddening. Vash had told her he was crazy, and she was just now beginning to see that insane edge. His lips trembled. "You have no idea what…what…"
Without warning or permission, he twisted out in front of her, and clamped both hands on the side of her head. Hard.
And that's when she saw…