And There Shall be Death to the Demons

Knives looked out the window at the star-studded night sky. How could Vash do this? It was completely unlike him. What had made his brother react in such a way? Knives ground his teeth in anger and frustration. He wanted to go back to the daycare and visit the child, annoying though she might be at some times, and get to know her more. Why had Vash canceled the trips? Knives was extremely irritated and displeased at this irrational behavior his brother had displayed.

Suddenly, Knives came to a thought that had been lurking within the deep confines of his mind, oppressed by his primary thoughts of Vash and the cancellations of the daycare trips. Why did he even let Vash tell him what to do? He was not actually paralyzed so why did he stay with his brother? He could leave any time. Nothing was holding him back except for his want to be close to his brother. It was time for him to leave.

Knives slipped off the bed and onto his feet. He opened his closet and pulled out a small bag. Inside of it, he placed his spare plug suits and the few possessions he had acquired during the time he had stayed with his sibling. The Plant slowly opened the door to his room, silently praising the object for being well oiled and free of any betraying squeaks or groans. Luckily, the floor also chose to remain silent as Knives made his trip across its surface and to the front door. This one however gave a little squeal of objection as Knives began to open it, but then remained silent.

The blond-haired Plant stepped out into the road and breathed deeply of the clean, crisp night air. The stars glittered against the dark sky, resembling jewels laid against a dark cloth for display. Knives admired the clarity of the sky and reached out his mind to locate the home of the girl child from the daycare. He did not wish to leave without saying 'good-bye.' His brother had not given him the chance earlier that day.

With that thought, Knives looked back at the house where Vash and his two human women friends were sleeping. The male Plant smiled slightly to himself and said softly, "Farewell for now, brother. We shall meet again. I am sure of that."

Knives walked purposely through the streets of the town, following the mental signature of the girl's mind. He paused at the gate to the yard of her home, studying the building. It was a two-story house, the white paint was stained and the owners obviously did little to none maintenance on the building. Knives quickly mentally searched the home and found that the only being in the home was the child. She was upstairs, sleeping in what was presumably her room. The Plant walked up to the building and tried the door. Remarkably, it was open.

Knives lifted an eyebrow. Either the child's adopted parents believed the neighborhood to be safe, which, if Knives' observations were correct, it was not, or they were confident that the girl could take care of herself, which most likely she could not, or they just did not care. The Plant frowned. He did not like how these "parents" treated their child.

He stepped into the home and heard a loud hiss. He jumped slightly, startled at the sound, and stared at the black cat that was seated on a rug in front of the door. It crouched protectively; its dark hair standing up while it emitted low, primordial noises from its throat. Knives nudged the beast with his boot and it tried to scratch the appendage but found a material protecting the flesh beneath, its goal. The feline dashed away to hide under a table where it lurked in the shadows, its bright green, unblinking eyes staring at the Plant with what seemed to be a look of accusation.

Knives chose to ignore the animal and checked where the girl's room was located in the house. He walked up the stairs and they creaked beneath his feet, protesting the strain, however slight, he put on them. The door to the girl's room was silent although the floorboards continued to groan.

Knives paused in the doorway to make sure the child was asleep and then walked into the middle of the room to look at the sleeping girl more closely. She whimpered in her sleep, rubbing at her hands, obviously in the grip of one of her nightmares. The Plant sat down in a chair in the corner of her room, watching the child.

He stayed that way for a while, only studying the little child. She was so fragile looking in her sleep, so innocent and unprotected. Knives wondered what exactly he would say to the child. How would she react? Would she cry? Knives smiled faintly. If so, he was sure to walk away with nostril fluids covering his chest.

Finally, Knives took a breath and reached out his mind, inserting himself into the child's mind as he had done the night before. This time, however, he actually brought himself fully into the child's nightmare. He could see her and see the images her imagination had conjured up.

In the child's nightmare, everything was stained a bloody red color and the girl was trapped in a small, metal cage, the prisoner of giant monsters. They towered above the child, dancing around her cage in a wild, hungry frenzy. Yume was curled in a ball, sobbing in terror, believing herself to be doomed.

Knives grinned to himself. It was but a dream. Anything could be done in a dream. He looked in his right hand and saw he gripped his familiar black gun. His grin widened and he strode forward toward the dream demons. Yes, anything was possible in a dream.

As the monsters towered above the child, so he towered above them. Their knees quaked in fear as he glared down at them. With a few shots from his gun, he dispatched the beasts and then blasted the lock off the girl's cage. She looked up quickly, the gunshots having startled her out of her shocked, fear-induced state. Her face lit up like the light of a rising sun when she saw her savior. "Knives-sama," she whispered, "is that really you?"

He nodded. "You want to get out of here?" he extended his gun-less hand to the child. She smiled shyly up at him and took his hand. Knives pulled her out of the cage and helped her to her feet.

Suddenly, the girl screamed and pointed wildly behind the Plant. "Knives-sama! Behind you!" Knives whirled around only to come face-to-face with a giant snake. He blinked as the beast hissed at him, showing its poison dripping, pearly white fangs.

"Child, you surely have an active imagination," Knives muttered as he snapped off a few shots at the giant serpent, keeping the girl behind him. The gray-colored snake took the bullets with no apparent reaction as it dove toward him, its jaws salivating. Knives growled in irritation as he picked the girl up and dove out of the way of the immense reptile. The Plant retreated to a distance away from the threat and quickly thought of a way to destroy the monster through taking advantage of the fact they were in a dream that could be manipulated. He pulled the remaining bullets out of his gun and replaced them with a few 'special' bullets that he picked up off the ground from where they had happened to be laying.

Knives took aim at the behemoth and snarled angrily, "Eat this, filthy beast!" as he shot into its gargantuan mouth. The snake swallowed the bullets and its face took on a shocked expression as it blinked in a comical way. Knives smirked, quite pleased, as its head exploded and sprayed he and girl with blood.

Yume looked down at her clothes and wrinkled her nose. "Ew," she stated simply. Knives decided to have a little fun and waved his hand theatrically, making the dream-blood disappear. The girl's eyes widened. "Wow, Knives-sama! That was so spiffy! Do it again, do it again!" She jumped up and down, excitement leaking from every pore on her little body.

Knives blinked and looked at the girl blankly. "There is no more blood though…"

Yume paused and returned Knives' blank look. "Oh, true…"

They stared at each other for a few moments before Knives remembered why he had entered her nightmare in the first place. He suddenly found his mouth dry and he swallowed, not knowing what to say. "Um…" he searched for the right words.

"What's wrong, Knives-sama?" Yume asked, cocking her head to one side, "What is it?"

"I… I am leaving," Knives said.

"On a trip? When will you be back?"

"I do not believe I will ever return."

The girl's face was frozen for a few minutes, devoid of any expression. Then she dissolved into a mass of quivering flesh as tears fell down her face. "B-but Knives-sama! We're supposed to have fun at daycare! We have to read books together and draw pictures and talk and, and, and stuff… You can't go!" the child wailed.

"I have to leave," Knives said in an apologetic tone, "I have to."

"But I don't want you to go," the child whined, wiping her eyes and nose on her sleeve.

"I have to go."

"But-"

"Stop complaining. There's nothing I can do about it," Knives snapped, growing weary of her childish whines. Although they were completely natural for her, as she was only a mere five years of age, he found them decidedly unappealing and was not hesitant to speak his mind.

"O-okay." She quickly dried off any remaining tears and was still visibly upset, however she ceased fussing. They lapsed into silence once more. Knives tapped his foot, wishing for anything to break the annoying emptiness but having nothing with which to do so.

Suddenly, the child's eyes lit up with energy and she blurted out, "Can I come with you?" Her voice was filled with hope and barely concealed excitement.

Knives blinked again. He had not been prepared for this question. "Um… no."

"Why not?" she asked the Plant. The girl was one not to be turned away from her goal.

"Because," Knives fumbled for an excuse, "you have a family here! You cannot leave them."

"But I want to go with you, Knives-sama! I can always come back and visit them! Let me come with you! Please?" her eyes were wide and begging.

"You are not allowed to come. That is the final time I will say so."

"Why else can't I?"

"Because… because you can-"

"I can, I can!" she danced around Knives in a joyous circle, chanting the two words over and over again. Flowers began springing up from the ground, brought into existence by her good mood.

"But-" but it was too late. The girl already had her heart set on the matter. Knives hung his head in defeat. There was nothing he could do now except take her along with him, he realized as he watched a tree grow from the ground and a flock of birds fly out from its leaf-covered branches. "I am going to go for now. I shall return shortly to take you with me."

"Okay! Bye-bye until then!" Yume gave him a quick hug and then waved farewell as he disappeared from the nightmare-turned-dream.

Knives stood up from the chair where he had been sitting the entire time and looked down at the girl. "And take you with me, I shall." Knives reached down to pick up the sleeping child but, as he did so, she let out a small whimper of pain. The back of her shirt slipped up and he saw dark marks covering her back. Carefully, he lay down the girl stomach down in the moonlight so he could study the marks. As a test, Knives gently pushed down on one and the girl let out another small cry. There was no doubt about it. The marks were bruises.

Knives felt the fury beginning to build within him. Who had done this to the child? Knives gently pried into the child's mind with his strong mental fingers, searching for the answer. He quickly found it and was disgusted. The perpetrator was her human male parental figure. Her "father." How could he do that to his adopted child? How dare he touch her, a superior being, violently? How dare he touch her at all? Knives clenched his fists and gnashed his teeth.

That male would pay… and he would pay dearly.

Knives quickly mentally scanned the downstairs and was quite pleased when he located the human scum was residing there along with his mate. The Plant quickly strode down the stairs and walked into the living room where the two beings were located. The male was standing over his unconscious mate and he was gesturing angrily and threateningly at the woman. He heard Knives' approaching footsteps however and he turned. He looked shocked and then angry at the Plant's obvious intrusion into his home. "Who the hell are you?" the man snarled, rage dripping into his voice.

Knives saw fit not to answer and instead bore straight into the man, grabbing him by the face and slamming him into the wall. He kneed the man violently in his most sensitive area and smirked as the human bent over double in pain. "Who are you, you bastard?" the man spat out venomously.

"I am here to teach you the pain of living, pathetic human scum. This pain that is the very center of your essence." Knives accentuated his words by punching the man in the ribs, hard enough that an audible crack was heard. The man grunted and coughed up blood. "How does it feel, human? How does it feel to be alive?"

"Go to hell," the human hissed, trying to hit his captor. Knives easily blocked the clumsy punches and he let go of the human's face. The man dropped to his knees and hunched over, weak from pain. The Plant picked up a nearby chair and broke it over the man's head. He then picked up the human by the throat and Knives brought him up so he could stare into his eyes. Blood dribbled from the man's lips and onto Knives' hands.

The Plant looked at the human in disgust but then chuckled to himself. "I think that is going to be your destination, not mine." Panic flooded the man's face as Knives crushed the human's windpipe with his strong hand.

The corpse slumped to the ground as the Plant released his grip. Knives wiped the blood off his hands on the dead man's shirt and stepped over the corpse. He calmly walked back up the stairs to pick up the girl and take her with him, far away from the place of pain and terror where she had been dwelling.

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Jeril: I apologize to you all for getting this chapter out so late. _ I have had Internet access since I arrived in my hotel room, although I only was able to have my own computer connected four days ago and this chapter gave me some trouble at many points. I don't really know how the first and last parts turned out… I hope they were okay and met your all's approval. ^_^;;

Yume: *dances around holding the DVD of Spirited Away* Yay, yay, yay! Haku bishie bishie!

Jeril: Nooo!! *dives for the DVD* My Haku dragon bishie! Mine! *Yume hisses at Jeril and holds the DVD protectively* Damn you, girl! Take the No Face! Not my Haku-chan!!

Yume: o.o;; Isn't he too young for you? By the way, what's this DVD rated again? *cups her ear* I can't hear you!

Jeril: *mutters* PG. I don't care though!! Haku's bishie! Did you know that the English Haku's voice is young Knives' English voice?

Yume: What?! Knives-sama's voice? O.O Knives-sama!! *runs off to watch the movie again, this time in English*

Jeril: -_- I want my movie back, little brat… Anyway, yeah… Heh, this chapter's title was kind of thought up at a whim. ^_^;; It is a tad bit longer than I'd prefer but cutting it up made it sound stupid…

Garg, I'm so frustrated. Today, on a whim, I bought a manga artbook thingie to help me draw some manga peoples. Then, after a few pathetic attempts I remembered one, itsy bitsy, ever so crucial detail: I can't draw. ^_^;; Well, there goes another $21, wasted. Yay for whims… ~_~

Well, I shall exit with a Knives' quote! "Yes, the pain you feel is your very essence. The essence of the crude animal known as Homo Sapien." Heh, I have a background with the quote and a picture of Knives in episode 26 when he's holding both of his and Vash's guns and he looks psycho. Yay for Knives-sama! ^0^