DISCLAIMER: I don't own Trigun

Author: thanks for the reviews. I was beginning to think no one cared if I finished this story. Don't worry, I'm famous for sad endings, but this won't be one of them. ;)

Three days later

Vash sat beside the two cocoons. One was the size of a dinner table the other was barely big enough to be a stool. Knives sat beside him. He was also looking at the two cocoons.

"Have you noticed how they have a sort of silver sheen to them?" Vash asked, "It reminds me of Renee's eyes."

"Yes," Knives said lowly, "But don't fool yourself. Renee and my child died in my arms. I saw it with my own eyes. Whatever comes out of these things won't be them."

Before Vash could say anything else Knives got up and walked away. Knives had kept to himself, saying only a sentence here and there. Sometimes he would ask questions about what Vash and Meryl saw during the explosion.

Renee stood floating in the air, arms spread wide like she was being crucified. Two wires hung from each arm, and one from her stomach. She was suspended like that in a massive ball of silver light.

Vash relived that vision of her in his nightmares. His brother's savior, and his beloved sister in law, was lifeless in that image. Large vacant silver eyes haunted him, and her open mouth that seemed to scream an eternity of torments was a frozen image etched into his soul. Her silver eyes that gave off such an intense range of hidden emotions were empty monstrous things. When her hair, like strands of woven silk, enveloped her it was almost a relief to escape her tortured dead visage. Knives was right, nothing remained in those dead, haunted features. Only a fool could hope she would be reborn from these cocoons. Now the only question was what would come out of them?

Vash began to cry softly. Renee was such a wonderful person to have died so horribly. She had lived such a tortured life, and just when it seemed she would find happiness with his brother she was again thrown into a terrible situation beyond her control. Knives had told them bits and pieces. Mostly about their mother, and how she saw it all.

My god, what could you have been thinking, mom?

"It's just like you to sit there weeping over your own misery when your brother needs you," Meryl scolded from behind him, "Look at Knives. He's miserable, and lost. He needs you."

"Hey I lost someone important to me too you know!" Vash whined, "You could try your own advice by being a little supportive of me."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Meryl said in her sweetest voice, "Your right, how can I make it all better?"

Oh, no... Not the sweet voice. That meant he was going to get an extra large helping of humble pie. He smirked to himself. He wouldn't have it any other way. He loved that spunky little insurance girl. Nothing left to do but goof it up and take what's coming to him.

"Um," Vash said softly, "Do you have any doughnuts?"

"DOUGHNUTS???" Meryl shrieked, "Your brother is on the verge of collapse, Renee and her unborn child is dead, we're stuck in an ile deep crater with god knows what those things are, and all you can think of is DOUGHNUTS?"

"But, I'm hungry," Vash whined. Meryl promptly thumped him on the head.

Knives sat with his knees pulled up against his chest. He had nothing. He had no glorious revenge against the humans, no beautiful wife, and no bouncing baby girl. Was there any reason to exist? Any reason at all? He looked over at the cocoons cautiously. Some sort of beast would come out of them. A beast or pair of beasts empowered with the ability to rebuild the world. Beasts must feed, and after seeing his five sisters sucked dry, he had a feeling of what kind of bone this beast would cut its teeth on. For some reason, that was comforting to him.

Author: Are you ready to see what comes out?