Chapter 13

Strange Progeny.

The pressure disappeared from Millie's lower back and she turned to see the figure step away, both hands harmlessly in the air.

'Alright,' the voice said, as his hands moved to take the helmet off. 'You got me.'

With the helmet off Millie Thompson finally got a good look at the one she and her friends had been chasing for so long now.

Professor Alexander Adams looked much the same as he did on the photograph she'd seen in Rem's locket. He was a tall man, almost as tall as Knives and Vash. His hair was cut in almost the exact same style as Vash's, upswept and spiky. It was the same brilliant blond, also, though the sides were marred be streaks of white. Age also showed on his skin which, unlike the timeless canvasses of the twin's flesh, was marred with small wrinkles. Millie would have guessed he was in his late thirties or mid forties, a bit older than he'd been in the photo. The shape of his face, with its slightly angular edges, was perhaps more similar to Knives than to Vash, though his wide, expression-filled eyes seemed to soften the harsh planes. These eyes, however, were not the aqua-marine orbs of Vash the Stampede. They were the bright, intense sapphire of Million Knives, quick, intelligent and perhaps a little cutting.

'If I might ask,' he continued, 'how did you guess it was me? I am supposed to be dead, after all.'

'Yes,' agreed Millie, 'but I got to thinking… we know that all the other crew on this ship are dead. But it had to be someone from the Old Times, from Earth. Someone who'd know all this stuff, who'd know about what Mr Vash is and how to undo it. Someone who'd be able to get hold of your DNA. Well, only the crew could get all that, the crew and you of course. So it must be you, Professor Adams. It's just like my big brother says… once you've discounted all other possibilities the final possibility, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.'

'Your big brother is a very well read man,' remarked Professor Adams, 'and call me Alex, please. So… what next?'

'Huh? Oh!' Millie suddenly remembered herself, she reached behind her and swung round her Stun Gun so that it was pointing directly at Alex Adams, who put his hands up in the air quickly.

'Uh… you're not going to shoot me with that, are you?' asked Alex, nervously.

'Only if you don't cooperate,' replied Millie, doing her utmost to sound threatening.

At that moment the locked door behind her slid open, Meryl and Knives burst in, weapons at the ready.

When they saw the scene in front of them they both stopped, mid stride, astonished.

Meryl was so amazed, indeed, it seemed she could be knocked over with a feather. Knives, on the other hand, merely frowned, his face crumpled in thought as he no doubt tried to place the man in front of him.

'Oh!' said Millie, 'hello Ma'am! I got him! I got Professor Adams!'

Now it was Knives' turn to be taken aback and, indeed, the image of the usually calm, superior Knives with his jaw hanging open was one that Millie would remember for a while.

'Mil-Millie,' stuttered Meryl at last. 'How… how could you! How could you run so recklessly off into danger! You might have been killed!'

Millie blushed, feeling rather upset at the berating, she'd thought she'd be praised for capturing Professor Adams. 'I'm sorry Ma'am,' she replied, 'but I was sure he wasn't going to hurt me. Professor Adams doesn't like killing people, do you Professor Adams?'

'Um, I hate it,' the tall man agreed. 'I'm a pacifist. Even the sight of blood makes me rather queasy, I'm afraid to say.'

'Well,' snarled Knives, also seeming to recover, 'you're not a very good pacifist. Why are you killing my brother?'

'Killing?' echoed Alex, rather taken aback by this accusation.

'You're nano-bots are turning him into a fully fledged Plant,' shrieked Knives, seemingly incensed with rage. 'Without a bulb he won't survive!'

Alex blinked then, to everyone's horror, he laughed.

'Oh no, no,' he said, 'you are all wrong! The nano-bots aren't programmed to turn him into a full Plant! They'll allow some of my DNA to remain to keep him corporeal and in this dimension. It wouldn't fit the plan at all to have him just slide away into another dimension!'

'Plan?' echoed Knives, incredulous, 'what plan?'

'The Plan,' repeated Alex, and now his blue eyes were wide and sparkling so that, for a moment, the similarity between him and Knives was more pronounced than ever. 'The reason why this ship is here. The reason why you are here. The plan, my boy, to create Eden!'

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The Male Plant (for now there was so little human left that it could no longer be truthfully thought of as Vash,) stirred from its nest amongst the sheets.

For the last few hours it had been enraptured by the song of its sisters, a gentle, telepathic melody which passed between them.

The song bore little in the way of information, or even emotion, but it was audible, a steady, beautiful hum in the background of his thoughts.

Now, however, he'd been noticing a change in the music. It came from a song close to him… very, very close.

It was the Plant Sister that lived upon this ship, the only one close enough to have deep telepathic converse with. (An interesting translation note, the reference to Plans as Sisters or Brothers exists only to adequately explain the emotional and physical ties that bound them to each other. Such terms had little or nothing to do with blood, and everything to do with emotional relationships. Blood relations were known as Brood Bonds hence Plants from the same parent were known as Brood Brothers or Sister.) The male Plant probed it gently for information, not understanding the nature of its agitation.

When the Plant minds met, information and instinct was crossed and analysed until an explanation, a solution was arrived at.

It was a basic thing, after all. This female Plant was old but it remembered enough to recognised the mind it touched. It knew what it wanted and the Plant that had once been Vash was only too happy to oblige.

Of course, there was the problem of its Brood Brother, he might interrupt or cause other difficulties.

The thought of Brood Brother sent a strange mixture of emotions surging through the male Plant, a strange conflicting set of feelings which weren't suited at all to the usual, simplistic Plant existence. It pushed them all away, they disturbed it, and instead concentrated on leaving the confines of its prison.

Its wings were sore and cramped, it did not think it was ready to fly with them quite yet… not quite yet…

So tearing aside the sheets it tumbled out of the bed, still adjusting to weakened limbs. Now, however, in Plant form, with the Nano-bots job complete, the energy drain wasn't quite so much. It staggered around the room, using the walls to support itself until it found the door.

Something familiar ticked at the edges of its memory, something about opening the blockage in front of it…

It reached to the side and thumped mindlessly on the small panel there, the door slid open, revealing the wide open corridor.

A smile twisted the mouth of the male Plant, it was free…

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

It was five minutes since Alexander Adams had made his grand announcement and now the four of them were in a small lab, just off the corridor.

As soon as he'd made the statement Knives had, quite simply, picked Alex up by the front of his space suit (ignoring his pleading protests,) and dragged him to the first room they came across. Here he'd dumped him on the nearest stool and stood back, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed.

Neither of the insurance girls did anything to stop him, partly because they saw no reason to.

'Well,' growled Knives savagely, 'I want an explanation. Now.'

'A-an explanation for what?' enquired Alex, looking a little frustrated but still keeping his composure for the most part.

'All of it!' snapped Knives. 'Why you did this to Vash! What the hell it has to do with making Eden! Everything! I will not be left in the dark any longer, I want answers!'

'So do I,' agreed Meryl. 'I might not be like Mr Knives, but I want to know what you've done to Vash as well.'

'Me too!' piped up Millie enthusiastically.

Alexander Adams looked from one determined face to another. 'You don't know?' he muttered, 'you haven't guessed? Don't you know why you're here?'

'That's why I'm asking you,' snarled Knives.

Alex gave a small smile, 'I never supposed…' he murmured. 'I thought Rem might have told you, I thought that might have been the thing that… but never mind. I should have guessed that she wouldn't, probably didn't think you… Well, I know better. Alright then, if you want answers I'll give them to you, it's not as if you don't deserve them after all. But I should warn you, it's a long story.'

'I have the time,' said Knives.

'Though not too much,' added Meryl. 'The sooner you,' and she gestured towards Alex with one of her derringers, 'return Vash to normal, the better.'

'When you've heard this story,' said Alex, quietly, 'I'm not so sure you'll want me to return Vash to normal… it is, I think you'll see, for the greater good. Not to mention justice… but I'll start.'

Professor Alexander Adams cleared his throat, paused the thought, and began.

'I want you to think back, far back into the past. Before what you term as The Great Fall, before the SEEDS program was even conceived, back on to Earth, somewhere in the early twenty second century. Picture Earth now, it's no longer as lovely as it once was for Mankind have ravaged it. In our struggle to survive, grow and even evolve we have used up almost all its natural recourses, polluted our environment to such an extent that it beginning to be uninhabitable.

'In those days things were getting desperate, indeed mankind might have been facing extinction if it were not for one, extraordinary stroke of luck and genius. A group of scientists, who were experimenting on the further breaking down of matter, split the Quark, an infinitesimal piece of energy. The breaking of this tiny particle did something no one expected. It opened a gate to another dimension.

'From this dimension something escaped, something came through. The first Plant Angel. It did not survive long in our dimension, but it lived long enough for the scientists to run some tests, to discover what it was and how to stabilise it. They repeated their experiment and another Plant Angel appeared, this time, however, they were able to stabilize it, to build a bulb around it with the appropriate conditions that it did not fade from our dimension.

'The amazing abilities of the Plant Angels soon became apparent. Not only could they generate huge amounts of raw energy but they could, to an extent, manipulate matter itself to make objects apparently out of thin air! The benefits of this to Earth were obvious. The experiment was repeated again and again, Plant Angels in massive numbers were drawn into our dimension where they were used to power cities, create items, in short they saved humanity.

'For a short while things were good, Earth became almost like Eden again, but once again we over used our resources. If pushed to exhaustion a Plant Angel will die, and we… not knowing the full nature of our creations or their limitations, sadly pushed many to their deaths. Nor did we realize that these creatures too were a limited commodity.

'For a while it appeared simple enough, just keep on splitting Quarks to create gates that would draw through the Plant Angels. But we were not always successful. At first it used to be that around 90 of the time we'd draw through an Angel but, as time went on, this percentage lowered. Soon, more often than not, the attempt to attract a Plant Angel would be fruitless and, as opening a gate in itself was very costly, in both economic and energy terms, they realized that using Plant Angles like this was now only a short term solution.'

'But Professor Adams,' interrupted Millie, ignoring the annoyed looks Meryl and Knives threw her way, 'why didn't the gates attract so many Plant Angels after a while?'

'Good question!' said Alex, sounding pleased she had asked. 'For a start… what they were doing was like… running round a small room filled with butterflies, trying to catch them with a net. At first it was easy, there were plenty of butterflies, but the more they caught the fewer there were, until it seemed there were none at all.'

'Well,' said Millie, 'I worked on a farm when I was younger, and whenever we began to run out of animals like… chickens, we'd just wait for a bit and let them breed, so that the stock would replenish. Why didn't they do that?'

'Excellent analogy,' said Alex, sounding even happier, if such a thing were possible. 'But you see, you're forgetting one, important thing. We only ever drew through chickens, not roosters.'

'Huh?'

'Haven't you ever wondered why all Plant Angels are female? You see, for some reason, it was extremely rare to summon through a male Plant Angel and, on the few times when it was done successfully, they never survived long. They seemed much more vulnerable to environmental differences than the females. We can only conclude that there were fewer of them and that part of the reasons the Plant Angel's did not naturally restock was because their sources of Females had become so rare.

'Of course, a few of the Plant Angels that were summoned were pregnant and we discovered that it was perfectly possible for us to rear and transfer baby Plant Angels to other Bulbs. But this was no solution. To create more Plant Angels, to revitalise the only source of reliable energy the Human race now had, we would have to breed them. And that is where Project Adam comes into the picture.'

If the attention of both Insurance Girls were not entirely upon Alex and his story, they might have taken some interest in Knives at that moment.

He had pressed himself against the wall, his eyes had become wide, his pupils were now pinpricks against the whites. His skin had become almost translucent it was so pail and he was shaking from head to toe. Connections were being made, his brain was going into overdrive. Sometimes a high IQ can be a curse.

'No,' he whispered, to low for anyone else to hear. 'No… that can't be right… it can't!

'I discovered,' continued Alexander Adams, oblivious to Knives' distress, 'that human and Plant DNA were partly compatible, at least when mixed in a lab. My aim was quite simple, to create a Male Plant with enough Human DNA that it could survive in our dimension, at least long enough to mate with a female and create offspring. Thus the resource would be rejuvenated. That, in a way, was genesis of Vash and Knives.'

'So,' said Millie thoughtfully, 'Mr Vash and Mr Knives are kinda like mules… only they're here to be fertile. They're kinda… kinda like studs. You made… them… to…'

'Breed,' finished Meryl when her partner's soft voice faded into silence. 'Knives and Vash were created as… breeding stock…'

The room fell silent, plunged into shock. Alex sat with his arms between his knees, he looked grim and rather sorrowful.

Then, with an almost supernatural suddenness, Knives moved.

It was with terrifying speed, one moment he was standing against the wall, the next he was rushing at Alex. Before the scientist could so much as blink he was in the grasp of the half Plant. Knives held him by his throat, pulled him up so far that his feet dangled a few inches above the ground.

'Knives!' screamed Meryl, 'what are you doing!'

Knives, if he heard her, paid her no heed. His eyes were wild and staring, his skin white with fury, he seemed almost insane with rage.

'It's not true!' he screamed, 'you lie! You lie! You filthy, little, piece of human trash! I'll KILL you! We are superior! We are not just for breeding! You lie! You're lying! You-'

His rant was cut off when Millie, also moving fast, hit him hard in the head. He let go of the half suffocated Alex, (and luckily too, for he was turning a decidedly dangerous shade of blue,) and fell to the floor, clutching his head. He was still conscious but he was badly stunned.

'Are you alright, Sir?' asked Millie, bending over the shaken Alex.

'I think so,' he replied, 'I… I'll live.'

'Don't mind Mr Knives,' soothed Millie, 'he's got a self esteem problem.'

'Really?' whimpered Alex.

'Oh yes, his is much higher than anyone else's.'

'Professor Adams,' said Meryl, 'perhaps it would be better if we continued this explanation another time. Right now we only need one simple answer… will you return Vash to normal?'

Alex opened his mouth to reply but he was interrupted by Knives, who'd recovered somewhat and was slowly raising himself off the floor.

Millie took a step back and fingered the straps of her Stun Gun, Meryl's derringer was no longer targeted at Alexander Adams, but at Knives. He still looked wild and angry, but now he was grinning, a sort of insane, hysterical grin.

'No,' he hissed, 'no, let him finish the story. I want to know it. I want to know it all.'

'I'm not sure…' began Alex, his eyes glued warily on Knives.

'I want to know!'

Alex still looked reluctant.

'Tell me the damn story you son of a bitch!'

Knives' harsh words echoed through the room. Alex jumped and both insurance girls tightened their grips on their respective weapons.

'Alright,' sighed Alex, breaking eye contact with Knives, as if he couldn't stand to meet his gaze. 'I'll tell you the rest…'

'I suppose,' he began, 'I might as well tell you all of it. You see… you weren't the first. When the project began I worked a lot with Rem Saverem, an amazing woman. She… but you knew her… she was the only donor for the Human DNA… aside from myself… she was infertile you see, so she thought it might be her only chance to have any children. Not that we thought… even she… We made a mistake.'

Before he continued Alex let out a heavy sigh, as if what he was going to say next would pain him greatly.

'You must understand,' he continued, 'we didn't know the correct balance of Human DNA to mix with the Plant. We guessed fifty/fifty would be a good number, we knew there would be some ethical risks but… Plants are… how could we know what we'd create would be sentient? We thought such mental capacity would be lost!'

'What happened, Professor Alex?' prompted Meryl gently.

'We did the experiment, fertilised a Plant with a mixture of human and Plant DNA and… it had a child. Her name was Tessa.'

'A sister!' Millie's voice was filled with high pitched delight, even as Alex's voice was low and horse, 'Mr Knives and Mr Vash have a big sister!'

'Had,' intoned Alex, 'she… wasn't what they wanted. She was female.'

'What do you mean?' asked Knives, his voice equally dull.

'The project was funded by the government, they weren't interested in a female crossbreed. They just wanted a male Plant, so as to make more Plant Angels. I suppose Tessa was female because Rem was female… it just happened that she was unlucky enough to be born first. It was… amazing. I never thought she'd look so human, too human. Rem said, almost from the outset, that it was wrong, that she wasn't just a Plant. I didn't listen at first but later… later. When she held my hand, when I held her in my arms, this delicate child I'd created, this inhuman, perfect angel… I knew… I'd made a life. A sentient life, a child. I tried to talk to them about it, to the higher ups, I tried to explain but they just wouldn't listen! They just didn't see what she was. They probably thought she was some sort of monster. She was just a failed experiment to them, a thing to be despised and studied. Do you know what they did to that sweet little girl? Do you know what they did to Rem's baby? They dissected her alive… filled her full of drugs and chemicals, killed her from the inside out… it was horrible. She just withered away like a flower deprived of light. And I was the one responsible.'

Alex's voice, which had become steadily quieter and more broken throughout his confession, faded away entirely. For a moment there was only a horrified silence then a sound, a dreadful, terrifying sound came.

Knives was giggling.

Both Millie and Meryl had seen and heard some petrifying things in their lives, especially since Vash the Stampede had come onto the scene, but nothing could quite compare to the eerie sight of Million Knives giggling. His skin white with shock and rage, his limbs loose and waving, pupils and irises dilated to pinpricks, his teeth almost seeming fanglike in the dim light. He looked utterly and completely insane.

'Wouldn't dear Vash find it interesting,' he tittered, 'wouldn't he like to know that his beloved Rem let precious humans dissect her own little girl. Wouldn't he just love to know how they murdered his big sister!'

'It wasn't like that!' cried Alex, sounding riled for the first time, 'you don't understand! We never knew… we didn't know. For a while we were both a mess. Rem was wracked with guilt of course, and I… I… didn't think I could carry on either. We wanted to die, then.'

'How dreadful!' whispered Meryl.

'Too damn straight,' agreed Knives bitterly, 'dreadful you're still alive!'

Alex ignored them both, 'it wasn't over yet though,' he continued. 'There was still my own DNA which had been inserted into another Plant. Soon the Tessa incident would be repeated all over again and this time… this time it would be my child that was murdered. I wasn't going to let that happen. Rem helped me, we found a way to swap round the fertilised Plant for a normal Plant, and we placed the real one on a SEEDS ship, the ship Rem would hopefully be travelling on. She was in control of the sleep chambers, you see. Of course, it didn't all go well. The government discovered I'd been tampering with the Plants, they suspected I was up to something so they came after me. I was less than eager to be caught of course, so I made the best decision possible at the time. I faked my own death.'

'I didn't even tell Rem. All I could do was leave her a letter saying that I loved her and we'd meet again in Eden. I don't know if she understood what I meant, I hope she did... but she probably just thought it was a suicide note. As she worked in the Cold Sleep department, and as I'd also worked on the SEEDS project a little, I managed to do some tampering. I built a secret room, complete with cold sleep chamber in this very ship…. I even arranged for it to be powered by one of the spare Plants. Originally I'd intended to be awoken shortly after we'd found Eden, I'd take on a new identity and re-find Rem and my new half Plant child… or children as it turned out. Sadly, with the Great Fall the systems were disrupted. I was very lucky to survive at all, I suppose. As it was I remained in deep sleep until the moon was rocked by some sort of explosion, a meteorite perhaps, which disrupted the systems enough to awake me.'

'That was Mr Vash,' put in Millie helpfully. 'A few years back he accidentally put a crater in the centre of the fifth moon!'

'Accidentally?' snorted Alex incredulously. 'Well… I should have known it was him. It seems he's been doing rather a lot.' His lip twisted into a bitter smirk, 'when I awoke I of course did some research I…' he paused and his smile became genuine, if a little sad, 'I never guessed it would be twins…'

He turned towards where Knives was still huddled. 'I understand if you don't like me,' he said slowly. 'But… I have seen some of the records of you as children. Watching those… reading the reports, it made me both the happiest and saddest man in the universe. I'm only sorry I couldn't be there… perhaps if I had been…'

Alex drew another shaky breath, 'I suppose there were signs even then that things were going wrong, I should have seen it in the behaviour patterns but… then, I'm no psychologist. Still, when I finally managed to get the shuttles working properly, when I finally reached Gunsmoke and discovered what he'd done… what my own son had done… I… I could never have guessed that he'd become such a monster. If I'd known, for on moment that Vash the Stampede would become such a killer I… I don't know what I would have done.'

'Vash?' muttered Meryl, 'A killer?'

'Of course,' whispered Alex. 'He is the one with the sixty billion double dollar bounty on his head. He's the one that destroyed two cities. Hell, he was probably responsible for the great fall. I know that he's quite the gunslinger, and wasn't Captain Joey shot in the head? There's no excuse for that. I know you might not approve of this, I know that it is wrong, but it is the best option. It is justice. Vash is a monster. I don't believe in killing, I don't think its right to take the life of another, but this way not only is Vash's rampage finally stopped, but some kind of amends can be made. I've made so many mistakes in my life, it's time I tried to reverse some of them. Vash is, sadly, one of those. Even you must see that?'

There was complete silence for a moment until, once more, Knives began to laugh. A horrible, cold, nightmarish laugh.

'You don't do your research very well, do you?' remarked Millie innocently, ignoring the Plant's psychopathic giggling whilst Meryl's brow furrowed in anger and concern.

'W-what do you mean?' asked Alex, looking baffled and worried.

'What the stupid spider is saying,' sneered Knives, slowly struggling to his feet, 'that you got it wrong. Vash didn't do any of that! He's innocent!'

'No…' he muttered, 'how could it be… how could I…'

'Don't worry about it, Mr Alex,' said Millie, somehow managing to remain cheerful through out all this drama. 'It an easy mistake to make. A whole lot of bounty hunters thought just the same! In fact, Ma'am didn't even believe Vash was Vash for AGES. Isn't that right Ma'am?'

Despite herself, Meryl blushed at the memory and turned all her attention on the scientist. 'What has been done has been done,' she said, (hoping, all the while, that Knives would just remain where he was and not do anything stupid.) 'But it's not too late to stop this. Now you know that Vash is innocent will you… can you reverse this?'

Alex was silent, his brow was creased in thought, his chewed his lower lip contemplatively. 'Yes…' he said eventually, 'yes… I can reverse it.'

'Excellent,' said Meryl, feeling hope rise in her heart once more. 'Then let's hurry up and-'

'But I won't.'

Meryl's eyes widened, 'what?' she said, incredulous. 'But… but why? Vash is innocent… he…'

'Maybe he is innocent,' interrupted Alex, 'but consider this… by this one sacrifice we can save humanity! Perhaps it's wrong, but if Vash is allowed to mate with a Plant Angel then their union will create new life. For the first time in over a century there shall be new Plant Angels! Maybe even more male Plant Angels? Isn't that worth the sacrifice? I'm sure he'd think it was.'

'No he wouldn't,' said Millie, in a matter of fact voice. 'He'd say that we shouldn't have to sacrifice anything. He'd say that there's always a path without sacrifice, if you look at things the right way.'

Alex paused a moment, indecision evident within his large, expressive blue eyes. Then those azure orbs hardened with steely determination once more.

'No,' he said again, 'perhaps I'm wrong but… but I will somehow repair the mistakes of the past. I will save humanity. I will create Eden!'

'Even if it means making a mistake in the present?' asked Meryl, solemnly. 'Even if this Eden will be created on the blood of a good, innocent man? Your very son?'

Alex seemed to be weakening once more, he opened his mouth a few times, perhaps to say something, but he was interrupted by Knives.

'Idiots,' he hissed, 'a very pretty scene, three humans discussing round and round about the fate of their filthy race. You don't get it, do you Professor Alexander Adams? I was the one that did it! My sentimental, brainless buffoon of a brother has always protected and argued for your miserable race! I was the one that did all those things! I was the one that killed Captain Joey! I was the one that caused the Great Fall! I was the one that tried to irradiate this filth that is humanity! And, most shamefully of all, I was the one stupid enough to be persuaded that there might be some measure of goodness, some inkling of grace, some iota of decency within your filthy race! I was nearly persuaded by my damn brother to spare you! Well, that's going to change!'

With each word he took a step forward until he was almost toe to toe with Alex.

Meryl raised her gun warningly but Knives took little notice. He locked gazes with the horrified Alex, who was shaking his head and muttering weak denials.

Knives grinned viciously at the man's fear and, with the speed of a striking viper, he lunged forward.

Meryl, who'd been targeting him with her derringer all this time, let off a shot, aiming at his arm. But Knives was too quick even for that. He dodged the bullet easily and kicked out with one leg, catching Meryl and sending her sprawling.

She gave a gasp of pain as she hit the floor but tried to get back up, hoping she'd be able to intervene again before Knives strangled Alex.

When she looked up, however, she saw that Knives wasn't trying to strange the shocked Professor this time, instead he held him against the wall by the front of his space suit. What worried the small insurance woman more, however, was that in one hand Knives had his gun and he was pointing it right at Alex's head.

Knives was nose to nose with his genetic father, when he spoke spittle flew out of his mouth, onto Alex's face.

'Listen to me you blood sucking, moronic insect! I will not allow you use him like this! You are going to reverse what you did to Vash! You are going to make him as he was and you are going to do it now!'

Alex, showing a greater courage than Meryl would have expected from a scientist, glared back at Knives. 'Or what?' he asked, 'you'll kill me? You won't be able to turn Vash back to normal at all then and I'm willing to die if it means humanity can live in Eden.'

Knives grinned horribly, 'you really don't get it, do you?' he hissed, sounding amused. 'You really haven't worked it out? I won't kill you. And I certainly don't give a damn about any human Eden. So, here's the deal…'

The gun swung round so now it was pointing right at Meryl, but Knives did not turn away from Alex. Not that he needed to, if he was half as good a gunman as Vash then he could probably shoot Meryl in the heart from fifty paces, blindfolded.

'Here's the deal,' Knives started again. 'You will return Vash to his previous state, you will stop this sick excuse for an experiment, you will give all your information to me and you will do it now. If you don't then I will make you watch while I kill them-' the gun jerked in Meryl's general direction, 'and after that I will kill the entire human race, one by one if needs be. And I will make you watch. How does that sound as a way to create Eden?'

'Y-y-you couldn't…' gasped Alex.

'Oh yes I could,' assured Knives easily. 'I have the power… or I could gather the power easily enough and now I have the will.'

'He's telling the truth!' squeaked the ever perceptive Millie, sounding truly terrified, 'he really is! I can see it, he means it! He'll do it!'

'But,' said Meryl, feeling ice cold dread seep through her veins, 'you promised Mr Vash that you wouldn't kill anyone! Not for a year! And the year isn't over yet.'

Knives shrugged, 'I don't think Vash is in a condition to appreciate that promise right now,' he sneered.

'I don't believe you!' gasped Alex desperately, he seemed almost close to tears, 'I can't believe anyone could do that!'

'Wanna bet?' asked Knives, his grin only widening,

Millie whimpered and the dread in Meryl solidified horribly, she'd not felt so scared since Vash's fight with Legato. For, looking at the scene, she couldn't help but come to one horrifying conclusion.

Million Knives was back.

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

NEXT TIME: How many Plants does it take to screw in a light-bulb? And will we find out before Knives kills everyone?

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