Chapter 10

Paradise Lost

Vash's mood hadn't improved by the time the twins arrived at the control room. The gangly gunman had decided to throw himself into a profound sulk which irked Knives no end. He couldn't fathom the reason for his brother's bitter temper and whilst he in truth only rarely fully grasped his brother's emotional state at all, telepathy or none, this was beyond him. And there he'd been, believing that, after over a century of arguments, their relationship was finally improving.

It seemed not.

The control room had been in one of the more damaged areas of the ship, a large support strut had fallen, effectively blocking the door. Luckily both men, even Vash in his weakened state, were sufficiently strong to move it, though it needed both of them.

'How do you think anyone managed to bring back life support, without using the control room?' panted Vash as they moved the blockage.

'Probably from engineering,' grunted Knives, 'almost all of the ship's controls can be accessed from there. Works as a backup if the Main Control room goes down.'

'How did you learn all this stuff?'

'Simple, I actually spent some of my time studying rather than watching clouds with Rem.'

Explains why you turned into such a cold hearted bastard

Knives' head snapped up as the thoughts invaded his head. He dropped his end of the support beam and Vash, unable to bear the weight alone, also let his end fall.

One look at Knives' hurt expression and Vash seemed to realize what had happened.

'You heard my thoughts, didn't you?'

Knives blue eyes turned away from Vash guiltily, all the answer he needed.

'Sorry,' apologised Vash, 'I'm finding it extremely difficult to control my telepathy and you know me… I find it hard enough to control what comes out my mouth, let alone my mind.'

'Yeah,' said Knives, still trying to keep the bitter hurt from his voice. 'If you say so.'

The door, now clear of debris, opened smoothly as they approached. Knives strode in first, leaving Vash to carefully follow him, still using the walls to support himself.

The room was a bit of a wreck. Several of the chairs had been toppled, another support beam had come down, a few of the consoles seemed to have exploded. However, beyond that it seemed to be in fully functioning order.

There was an odd, musty smell in the room, a smell which Vash couldn't immediately identify but was oddly… worryingly, familiar. It was not a pleasant smell.

Knives was already standing at the main console which, fortuitously, had been undamaged. His fingers flew across the surface and against the eerie light of the screens Vash could make out that his shoulders were oddly tensed.

Perhaps he really had wounded Knives deeply. He didn't mean to hurt his feeling so much. Though in truth it was Knives' own fault for taking the entire thing so seriously.

He staggered forward a few steps meaning to comfort him.

As he stumbled forward something caught to the side caught his eye. He was just level with the captain's chair when he turned so that he came face to face with the decayed form of Captain Joey, one skeletal hand still clutching a gun, a neat bullet wound in his head.

For a moment Vash stood stock still, hardly believing, hardly registering what his eyes were telling him. His breath came fast and harsh, his heat beat thrummed in his chest, tears pricked his eyes.

'Knives...' he whispered harshly, 'Knives, what…?'

'Isn't it obvious?' asked Knives, his voice somewhat hoarse, as if he too were keeping back emotion.

'He killed himself,' muttered Vash dully, his eyes fixed on the slumped skeleton of a once great man. The closest thing he and Knives had ever had to a father figure, really.

'No,' spat back Knives. 'I killed him.'

'You… killed…'

'Yes… I killed a lot of people, Vash. Directly or indirectly. He was not the first, nor was he the last, as you well know.'

'But Knives, you weren't even two years old! You were so young!'

'You remember what I was like back then.'

'What you're still like, you mean.' Vash found that his tears were drying, evaporating in the heat of his growing rage.

'Damn it Vash!' swore Knives, twisting round so he faced his brother. 'You know I've changed! You were there! You were the one responsible for those changes! I made a few mistakes, I admit that, but-'

'A few mistakes?' repeated Vash, half laughing, his voice almost hysterical. 'You made a few mistakes! What the hell do you classify nearly destroying the entire human race as then? A minor error of judgement? A not so wise decision? You are unbelievable!'

'You're a fine one to talk!' snarled back Knives. 'You've never made a well thought out decision in your life. If it's not parroted from your precious Rem then it's a spur of the moment choice carried by your sentiments rather than your intellect. It's a wonder you've any brain at all, it's so rarely used!'

'Well I've done a damn sight better than you, you cold hearted, callous, murdering bastard!'

'At least I'm in one piece! At least I'm not covered in scar tissue!'

'Yeah, well that's no thanks to you!'

'What the hell is that supposed to mean?'

'It means it's all your fault!' Vash's words were coming thick and fast now, fuelled by the red hot rage which boiled his blood. Part of him knew what he was saying was cruel, was wrong, but it felt so good. It was as if all this rage, all this frustration had been building up in him like a stagnant dam and now he was letting it all out. Venting all his anger and fury at the situation.

'It's always your fault!' he screamed. 'You were the one who killed them! You were the one who made the ship crash! The one that killed my friends, that went after me! It's your fault I destroyed July and Augusta! It's your fault I have such a large bounty on my head! Even this disease is probably down to you somehow. It's your fault! I just wanted to live in peace and happiness but you ruined it!'

Vash had moved forwards as he was screaming this, now he was nose to nose with his startled brother. With each word the anger built within him, filling his diseased ravaged muscles, giving him strength. The world became hotter and clearer, everything sharpening in a needle point of rage, a need point honed on Knives.

He didn't know exactly how or when it happened, one moment he was yelling at Knives, the next his right arm swung out and his fist collided with Knives' face.

For a second the whole world seemed to stop. His brother's head, which had twisted round with the force of the impact, turned slowly back to face Vash.

Knives' lip was bleeding, no doubt the skin around his jaw would turn blue with bruising soon enough.

Tentatively he brought one hand up and touched his split lip, smearing blood onto his finger and looking at it in astonishment.

His eyes became wide, his entire face twisted with astonishment becoming almost child like in appearance.

'You hit me…' he asked as much as stated, his voice soft and wavering, 'you… really hit me? You… you hit me!'

Suddenly Knives' own face contorted with fury, his arm swung back and came forward, too fast for the sluggish Vash to dodge. It collided with the side of his face.

The force of the blow, combined with his weakened condition, nearly took him off his feet. As it was he staggered under the impact, falling onto one knee.

'I…I'm sorry…' stuttered Knives, seemingly shocked at his own actions, the anger draining from his face a little, being replaced by guilt and pity.

For some reason this only angered Vash further. He didn't need those emotions, he didn't want those emotions. He just wanted to let out the building rage and frustration within him.

So he laughed a little, amused at the stupidity of this situation, before quickly slamming his fist into Knives' stomach.

Knives doubled over, gasping in pain. He pushed Vash down as he fell, trying to pin his twin, but to little avail. Vash wiggled out of the way and the two were in a fully fledged fist fight.

They punched, rolled, kicked and bit, Vash fighting with anger and desperation, Knives attempting to simply subdue his brother. It wasn't easy. Vash was the weaker, the disease taking its toll, but his determination, rage and sheer passion leant as strength to his blows that Knives found hard to ignore.

Not that Knives didn't get in a few hits of his own, but Vash, being more accustomed to pain, easily shrugged them off. To make matter more interesting Vash was, in this case, actually the better fighter. Knives had learned many of his tricks through books and computer programs. He learned a lot about gunmanship, a little on some martial arts, but brawling he'd almost no experience with. Vash was rather practiced in this area, being involved, (all be it reluctantly) in his fair share of bar room brawls. He fought dirty, utilising fists, knees, elbows even teeth. Nothing was sacred under his relentless, savage attack.

Who knows who might have won their tussle, but the outcome would never be revealed for, just as Vash was about to deliver a crippling blow to Knives' groin, a loud claxon sounded.

The two brothers paused, completely still then, in an unnamed truce, Knives rolled away from Vash and staggered back over to the main console. Their quarrel was put aside, for now.

Vash pulled himself to his feet, having to use the furniture to steady himself, 'what's happening?' he asked.

'Um… those mistakes you were mentioning before?' replied Knives, sounding almost sheepish.

'Yeah?'

'Well, I believe I just made another.'

'What do you mean?'

Knives took a deep breath, 'to access all the computer controls I had to hack the command code. Nothing I can't do with my expertise. So I did this and then we got to fighting so…'

'So…?'

'So whist we were fighting, our enemy, whoever that is, hacked into the main controls through engineering. They've just activated the ship's security systems. That's the claxon we're hearing now.'

'I gathered,' muttered Vash, putting his hands to his ears, 'can you switch it off?'

'I can try,' responded Knives, putting his fingers on the controls once more.

No sooner had they touched the keys when there was a flash of light, a burning smell and a pained yelp from Knives.

He staggered backwards and put his fingers to his mouth, sucking at them desperately.

'What the hell happened then?' asked Vash, who was grinning despite himself. The scene of Knives with the fingers of both hands desperately stuck in his mouth was somewhat amusing, no matter the situation.

'The devil's put an electric feedback in the controls. Who ever touches them gets electrocuted. I was just lucky the voltage wasn't enough to kill me!'

'Well then,' said Vash, 'we'd best get to engineering if whoever's doing this is there. You can access the controls from there, right?'

'Yes,' agreed Knives, moving away from the electrified consoles.

He marched towards the door and opened it.

Outside was a small army of security robots, the red pinpricks of laser beams all converging onto various points of Knives' body.

He dived back through the door, flattening himself against the wall, Vash did the same when he caught sight of the red laser beams.

Getting to the engine room was not going to be easy.

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Not so far away Meryl and Millie were running for their lives.

'They're catching up Ma'am!'

'I know that Millie!'

The two women had been fleeing down the corridor for a few minutes now. They'd been on their way back towards the door to the shuttle bay when, out of nowhere, several strange robots had appeared.

They looked much like the things that had attacked them on the journey to Mai City, all be it of slightly smaller proportions. What had set them off neither woman knew, one moment they'd been walking, next a loud claxon had sounded and these strange robots had appeared. Meryl had downed a couple with her small derringers but she loathed to use them all. She had only a limited ammo supply, after all. And Millie was in much the same position.

Thus running had seemed the best recourse, though now Meryl considered it perhaps it wasn't such a wise idea after all. She had no idea of the layout of the ship, nor where they would be safe from these mechanical monstrosities.

Their only option, as far as she could see, was to hope they could outrun the creatures and find somewhere to hide until they found Vash and Knives.

Meanwhile the three robots following them were catching up.

Matters were suddenly made more urgent when, turning a corner, she came face to face with two more robots.

Their laser beams were just fixing on their targets when Meryl, acing on instinct, brought her two derringers forward, aimed them, and fired.

Her speed and accuracy was such that the two creatures fell down before they could get off a single shot, something the short insurance girl was extremely grateful for.

At the same time Millie twisted round to face their pursuers and shot off her own stun gun. Whether it was luck, programming, or some strange hand of fate, the machines were perusing in an almost straight line, one behind the other. So when the first robot keeled over under the force of the stunning projectile, it took the second and even the third with it, domino style.

'Nice going Ma'am!' congratulated Millie happily.

'Thank you Millie, you didn't do so bad your-' she stopped, seeing the tall girl's eyes widen in terror.

She spun round reaching into her cloak but already she knew it was too late.

The third robot, which had just turned the corner, was already aiming at its target. It shot just as Meryl managed to draw her derringer and fire her own bullet.

The metal fiend fell to the floor with a crash, but its missile was already heading towards its target. It flew passed Meryl, straight towards Millie.

The tall woman cried out once, a mixture of fear and pain, as the bullet slammed into her chest.

Millie Thompson fell to the floor with a soft whimper and lay there, very still.

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'So then,' said Vash, activating the gun in his artificial arm, 'I suppose we'd better fight our way through, right?'

'Are you sure you're up to it?' asked Knives, looking Vash up and down.

'I beat you to a bloody pulp before, didn't I?' scoffed Vash easily.

Knives' opened his mouth to argue the point, but swiftly shut it again. The last thing they needed was another fight. Not when they had plenty of robots to combat.

'Alright then,' he said, 'but be careful.'

He knew saying that last part was akin ordering magnets not to attract, or water to flow upwards, but it was worth a go. It meant he could say 'I told you so,' later, if nothing else.

'Sure I will,' laughed Vash. 'Now, do you want to be decoy or support?'

'Huh?'

'Oh yeah, you probably haven't fought with anyone at your side before, have you?'

'No,' replied Knives simply, he didn't feel particularly ashamed of this fact.

Vash let out a long, drawn out sigh. 'Fair enough then, I'll be decoy.'

'What does that mean?'

'You'll see,' and, without further explanation, his crazy, broom haired idiot of a brother dashed out from behind his cover and out into the corridor.

'Hey!' he yelled at the robots standing stationary outside. 'Hey! I'm here! Whoo-hoo! Come and get me you rusting piles of junk!'

The robots, as one, fixed their targets on the goofy gunman and let fly their ammo. Their shots, which (strangely enough,) seemed to be bullets of a sort, flew straight towards Vash. He leaped backwards and did a strange, desperate dance as he tried to avoid the bullets.

'Knives!' he screamed, 'help!'

Knives swore at his brother's idiocy and, leaning out from around the corner, fired at the machines. They each went down, none of them having so much as the smallest chance to return fire at him.

'Nice support!' congratulated Vash, panting a little.

'You idiot!' yelled Knives and he would have had several more choice words to shout but he was interrupted as still more machines approached.

They immediately targeted Knives who dived and cart wheeled out of the way, trying to avoid being shot. He didn't have to doge for long though, two shots rang out and there was a loud crash as the machines fell, destroyed by two of Vash's well placed bullets.

'Nice decoy,' he laughed, 'you're learning!'

Words were inadequate to fully express Knives' emotions. He settled with a full out glare.

He might have eventually found something adequate to say but several more machines appeared and they were lost in combat again.

Soon a sort of tactic was formed between the brothers. Vash, being best at these things, generally took on the role of decoy. He would leap out and catch the robot's attention, sometimes screaming insults such as, 'your mother was tin-can opener and your father a faulty solitaire game!'

With their attention elsewhere Knives would jump out and shoot them down.

However, though their technique was excellent there was one problem with their plan. There seemed to be more robots than they had ammo for.

'This is my last cartridge,' noted Knives, slipping the six bullets into his gun.

'Do you want me to take over as support?' asked Vash.

'No,' said Knives sharply. 'You're worn out, you won't last five minutes. We'd just better hope that we're reaching the end of the ship's supply of security Robots.'

'I doubt it,' sighed Vash in a rather uncharacteristic show of cynicism. 'Still, if we can just make it a little further… perhaps if we get to the ammunition storage room?'

'I didn't know we had one of those on the Seeds ship,' commented Knives, surprised that Vash would have this knowledge and he didn't.

'I don't know that we do.' Responded Vash, 'I was only guessing.'

Knives sighed and, once again and held back the strong urge to hit Vash round the head repeatedly in the desperate hope that it would somehow put some sense into him.

Weapons ready, Vash using Knives as support for his stumbling steps, they turned another corner in the twisting corridors. Immediately they leapt back, horror stricken.

Just round the corner about a dozen security robots waited patiently.

'They must have gathered here,' muttered Knives, 'ready to trap us, just like this!'

'Can we look for another rout?'

'I don't think there is one.'

'Right then,' sighed Vash, 'I suppose I'd better get to it!'

'Get to what? What the hell are you talking about?'

'I've got a plan,' Vash clarified, 'an idea, but I'll need you to be decoy for a bit.'

'We've been through this,' protested Knives. 'You're not strong enough to shoot them all!'

'Trust me,' Vash implored him. 'I know what I'm doing… or I think I do at least.'

'That's not particularly reassuring.'

'Have you got a better idea?'

'No,' said Knives reluctantly. 'Alright, let's do it.'

'After you,' Vash gestured and Knives, holding back the growl in his throat, stepped out from behind the corner and faced the small armada of machines.

'Um…' he began, how did one try to attract the attention of a bunch of metallic monstrosities anyway?

'Uh… hey, over here you bunch of… rusty spare parts!'

The red pinpricks slithered towards him and rested on various parts of his body. As they opened fire Knives jumped, leaping, ducking and weaving in a desperate attempt to prevent becoming the human/Plant equivalent of Swiss cheese.

'Now would be a great time to do whatever it is you're planning to do Vash!' he yelled as he avoided another bullet.

At that moment, from the corner of his eye, he saw a bright flash of white light and, if he weren't so busy trying to avoid death, he might have stopped and gawped at the sight taking place.

Vash was activating his Angel Arm.

Sweat dripped off his skin, his face was screwed up with concentration as the powerful energy of the Angel Arm was called forth from within him. Knives could hardly comprehend how he managed to focus such power without the use of his gun. He certainly couldn't and that was a fact.

Vash stood with both arms stretched out in front of him, the sleeves of his shirt ripped and turned into so much dust. His organic arm glowed with power but it also seemed that, through the circuits of his metal arm, some energy lingered. The intensity of his power was such that his entire body shone with it, it lit up and shone from the feathers that had recently be sprouting all over him, it glowed through his skin, it burst out from his eyes. At that moment, standing tall and powerful with brilliant energy currents spinning around him, Vash truly looked like a Plant Angel.

Then the energy was released, it shot down the passage way in a thin ray of brilliant light. Knives leapt out of the way, flattening himself against the floor, hoping he wouldn't be get caught in the crossfire. He knew full well the effects of being struck by Vash's angel arm.

Meanwhile there was the shriek of twisting and warping metal as the security bots were literally ripped apart by the energy blast. Within a matter of moments all that was left of them was some useless heaps of twisted junk.

The task complete, the brilliant energy dimmed, faded and was gone.

Slowly, almost fearfully, Knives struggled to his feat and surveyed the wreckage.

'Amazing,' he whispered, his voice full of awe. 'That energy… how did you call it forth without the gun? No… wait… you must have tapped into the electronics of the nanno-bots… yes… used those to amplify and control your power somehow. Truly astonishing… the destruction… the precision…'

He turned back to Vash, more words of praise on his lips but they were quickly forgotten.

Vash was on his knees, sweat was literally dripping from his face, his skin was bone white and every inch of him was trembling violently. Worst of all, though, was the terrifying sight of white feathers slowly emerging from the skin of his face.

Several things came together in Knives' mind very quickly.

'Your idiot!' he cried, running forward and kneeling by his brother, 'you've aggravated your condition! By using your Plant powers, by manipulating and encouraging the nano-bots you've made things worse! You're transforming faster!'

Vash looked up at him wearily, the hint of a wan smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. 'You always said,' he rasped softly, 'that… I needed… to change…'

His voice was broken as the shivers that had wrecked his body developed into tremors and from there into spasms. His entire form twitched and shook, little gaps and hiccups of pain emerged from his mouth, twisted in agony. Knives grabbed at him and held him tight, desperately preying whatever was happening would pass.

In truth he knew that it was useless, Vash's actions had only made the situation worse for him, had only speeded up the progress of the nano-bots.

Vash was dying in his arms, and there was nothing Knives could do about it.

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NEXT TIME: You'll see.

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