Chapter 14: Angel Song

The room was fixed in a strange tableau. Millie stood in one corner, ridged with fear and shock, her hands covering her mouth. Meryl was half lying, half sitting on the floor, her gaze glued on Knives and Alex. Alex, shoved up against the wall, his expression truly terrified and Knives leaning forward, his face mere centimetres away from Alex's, an almost demonic grin twisting his sallow features.

The scientist was ridged with fear, his body trembled and his eyes were so wide it seemed they'd just roll out of their sockets.

Then, suddenly, he slumped and turned his gaze away from Knives. 'Fine,' he muttered, 'I'll do it. But please… don't hurt anyone.'

Knives let go of the front of Alex's space suit, allowing him to drop to the floor. 'We'll see,' was all he growled.

Meryl let out the breath she'd been holding, feeling immense relief was over her. For now disaster had been averted, Knives wasn't going to kill them straight away at least. Never the less, he still looked less than sane. His eyes were still glaring and he still seemed massively pissed.

Which, Meryl reflected, he had some reason to be. Knives, for all he many other faults, had always fought for the freedom and good treatment of Plants. To discover he had been born for the sole purpose of continuing the tradition of Plant slavery. To discover his purpose in the world was as mere breeding stock… that must have been an awful blow for both his pride and his morals.

She wondered if he would recover for it, or had he slipped back into his old homicidal ways for good? The thought sent a shiver of pure dread down Meryl's spine. She soon grasped hold of her emotions once more, however. Panicking would do no one any good.

The fact remained that, for now at least, Knives main priority seemed to be returning Vash to normal, which was just fine by Meryl. Apart from anything, Vash was probably the only one capable to taking Knives down if it came to it. The only person who could perhaps talk him out of continuing his genocidal crusade.

Having said that, if Vash heard Alex's story then… well, Meryl wouldn't blame him if he actually joined forces with Knives!

'Well then,' she said, getting to her feet. 'What do we have to do?'

Alex reached into a pocket of his space suit and withdrew a small, silver device.

'This is a scanner I've been using to monitor the progress of the nano-bots I infected Vash with,' he explained. 'By looking at this I can monitor their progress, I can check they're not doing Vash any harm. And, most importantly of all, I can control them.

'So you can switch them off?' asked Millie.

'That would be no good,' Knives snapped. 'They've already done the damage, their job is complete. Vash is almost a full blooded Plant now.'

'Exactly,' agreed Alex, still sounding a little shaken. 'But I think I can program them to reverse the changes, to rebuild my DNA once more within Vash. That should return him to his previous state. But I don't think it will be easy.'

'Why not? It sounds pretty simple.'

'Well… for a start there's the actual programming. That'll be tough enough and probably has to be done through a computer interface… so you can actually see what you're doing. Then the actual signal has to be delivered at very close range. It practically has to be next to the skin, in fact.'

'Don't worry about that,' said Knives grimly, 'I'm-'

But they never found out what Knives was for, at that very moment, the tall man gave a gasp of shock and clamped his hands to his ears. He fell over, his face a vision of pain. Meryl wondered what had happened. Had something actually snapped, physically snapped, in his brain?'

'What is it Mr Knives?' asked Millie.

'That sound,' grunted the Plant, his eyes squeezed shut. 'Can't you hear it?'

'I-' began Meryl, but suddenly she could hear something. It was a strange sound, to be sure but it was made all the strange by the fact it wasn't just a sound. It was like a feeling, she could actually sense it in her mind. It was like a string of high pitched notes, almost musical but not… quite…

'Whale song,' murmured Alex, his own eyes wide, his head cocked to once side. 'It sounds almost like whale song.'

Meryl wasn't sure what a wail song was, but she didn't like the sound of it one bit.

'What is it?' she asked, hoping it wasn't as dreadful as it sounded. Her answer came not from Alex, but from Knives he seemed to have recovered. He face was no longer screwed up in pain, anyway, but he didn't make any effort to rise from the floor.

'It's a mating song,' he grunted. 'A Plant mating song. The female Plant here has sensed Vash and is calling to him.'

'How do you know that, Mr Knives?' asked Millie innocently.

'I… I just do,' muttered Knives and Meryl was surprised to see that his pail face suddenly took on a slightly crimson blush.

'It's effecting you, isn't it?' she said, trying to hold back a smile. 'You are part Plant, after all.'

Knives grumbled something unintelligible and drew his legs up a little closer to his chest, probably trying to hide any sight of his arousal until he had it under control. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Meryl couldn't help but be amused. She made a mental note that, if things ever calmed down, she'd tease him about it unmercifully.

'That's amazing!' cried Alex, his own face lit up with joy. 'A Plant Mating song… the first ever heard by human ears! That means-' his face suddenly fell, 'oh dear…'

'What?' asked Meryl.

'Well, it probably means that Vash is heading towards the Plant chamber right now, getting ready to mate.'

'But he can't be!' protested Millie. 'We locked him in his room!'

'You really think a locked door will stop him?' sneered Knives.

'Actually, it isn't even locked,' Alex put in. 'I… ah… tampered with the door mechanism when I visited.'

Knives threw his head back and laughed, though Meryl was oddly relieved to hear that it was more an angry, despairing laugh rather than the mad giggling of before.

'Of course!' he chuckled ruefully. 'Of course it wasn't locked! It would be far too easy if we knew where Vash was...'

'We do know where it is,' said Alex. 'Or where he's heading for, at least. He'll be on his way to the Plant chamber to mate.'

'So we're running out of time then,' said Meryl solemnly. 'We need a plan of action.'

'Yes,' agreed Knives and he began to slowly rise to his feet once more, probably having gained some control over his anatomy. 'You and Alex should go to the Plant Chamber and be ready to use that device to reprogram the Nano-Bots. I and Millie shall go to main engineering and work on the actual programming. I presume we can send the signal remotely to the device?'

He addressed this question to Alex who nodded. 'If you use one of the interfaces then yes… there's a file I used for the actual programming. Just rout the coding through the internal scanners and it'll be remotely programmed into the device. It should activate automatically then.'

'Very well then,' said Knives. 'I need you to give me a few more instructions, then we can-'

'Hold on,' said Meryl, 'I want to talk to you, alone…'

She grabbed Knives by the arm and began to pull him a little way away from the other two. But Knives stood as firm as a rock, he glared at Meryl and once more she saw the flames of madness rise within him. He pulled his arm out of her grip, looking truly revolted by her touch. Never the less, he took a few steps away from the others, following her to a more secluded corner of the room.

'Well?' he snarled.

'Why do you want to do it this way?' asked Meryl. 'Why do you want me and Alex to attach the device? Surely he should be working on the programming and you should be trying to attach this thing to Vash? I doubt he'll be very cooperative after all, and you're the only one here who's a physical match for him.'

Knives sighed and gritted his teeth, 'I can't,' he hissed angrily. 'The song… it's effecting me. I'm in control at the moment but if I get too close to the female Plant…' the threat hung in the air, Meryl could easily guess where it led.

'Then why me?' she asked. 'Millie's strong enough so that-'

'I trust you more than I trust her,' snapped Knives, cutting her off. 'I know you have a vested interest in Vash and I know that if Professor Adams tried to go back on his promise then you'd be willing to… persuade him. I'm not sure Millie would.'

Meryl found herself nodding, as much as she hated to admit it, it did make some sense.

'Alright then,' she said stiffly. 'I'll make sure Mr Adams does his part. But if you put one hand on Millie…'

'Why the hell would I want to?' scoffed Knives bitterly.

A few minutes later, when Knives had obtained some final information and instructions from Alex, they parted ways. Meryl and Alex moving towards the Plant Chamber, Knives and Millie towards Engineering.

Both groups moved quickly along the corridors, the seriousness of their mission apparent.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Meryl couldn't help but feel a little strange, walking side by side with the person who'd caused all this mayhem. Vash's father, no less.

Privately she was boiling over with questions for this tall, enigmatic man. Questions about the old world, about the time before The Fall, about Rem, but she kept all this inside. She had a duty to do, a job and she needed to concentrate on that first and foremost.

She might have asked one of these questions anyway, had Alex not posed a queried of his own.

'Would he really do it?' he asked suddenly. 'Knives, I mean. Would he… did he… do all those terrible things? Is Vash innocent?'

'He is,' replied Meryl, keeping her tone even and businesslike, 'and he would. Knives is a very dangerous individual, you've probably only heard some of what he's done, and I doubt you know half of what he's capable of. It was a small miracle that Vash managed to stop him and a major miracle that he managed to turn him from that path.'

'A path he's now returned to,' said Alex desolately. 'Oh… what have I done!'

Meryl's heart tightened at the note of despair in the scientist's voice. For one it struck a familiar cord, he sounded so much like Vash when he had been depressed.

She would have liked to spend some time comforting him, but time was not something they had that much of.

'Well,' she said briskly, 'you should have tried to talk to Vash first, before you outright condemned him shouldn't you? Still, I don't suppose you were to know, your heart was in the right place and it isn't too late to reverse what you've done. If we hurry.'

'Yes,' sighed Alex, 'I know… I just can't believe Knives would… why did he do it? What made him into what he is now?'

Meryl shrugged, trying to work out the twists and turns of the corridor. She wished Alex would move a little faster, he was the one leading after all. He needed to be the one leading because she sure as hell didn't know the layout of this place.

'I don't know,' she said distractedly. 'I think it's to do with the other Plants. I think he wants to free the Plants, he doesn't like how we... how humans use them.'

'But why?' asked Alex, sounding truly puzzled. 'Why does he want to free the Plants?'

'Well, you've got to admit it is a little wrong,' said Meryl. 'Using them as slaves like this. I know we need them to survive here but still…'

'Slaves?' echoed Alex incredulously. 'My dear, Plants are hardly slaves. They're not even sentient for a start.'

'But Knives says-'

'Knives is a product of his upbringing,' interrupted Alex.

'What exactly does that mean?'

Alex paused and sighed, rubbing the back of his head. 'It means,' he clarified, 'that both he and Vash were brought up by Rem. That's bound to be where they got that notion from.'

'He learned it from Rem?'

'Of course!' Alex smiled wistfully. 'I loved that woman,' he murmured, 'more than anything in this universe. But, as much as I feel for her, even I must admit that Rem would argue for the humanitarian rights of a pebble if it had large, cute eyes. Plants are no more intelligent than the average dog. Or that's what all the tests say, anyway. To argue that they should be somehow set free is like arguing… that you should set all your Thomas's free. Sentimental mush. I'm as much against the cruel treatment of Plants as the next man, but we need them to survive and as far as I'm concerned it's better a few Plants suffer than millions of humans die.'

Meryl blinked in shock, trying to process what he had just declared. 'Well, if you say so…'

'I do!' proclaimed Alex. 'Perhaps if I explain this to Knives he'll see reason.'

'I wouldn't bet on it,' muttered Meryl, 'the words 'Knives' and 'reason' rarely go hand in hand… the same tends to be true of Vash also, come to think of it…'

Alex gave a little snort of laughter. 'I can hardly believe they're my sons,' he said, 'well, they certainly haven't inherited that from me. I'm a very reasonable man.'

'Of course you are, Mr Alex,' replied Meryl, trying to keep all trace of sarcasm out of her voice. 'Now, if you could please hurry up and get us to the Plant Chamber...?'

'Oh? Ah, yes of course. Follow me!'

They jogged down the corridors until they arrived at a large set of doors. A set of doors that looked like it had recently been forced open. Marks which looked like claw marks dented the metal, as if something had prized the sliding doors apart and they'd simply closed after it.

Alex and Meryl exchanged worried glances, it was apparent that Vash had arrived before them.

Alex moved to the side and hastily tapped in some sort of code on the locking mechanism, the doors slid open revealing the spacious area that was the Plant Chamber.

It was a humungous, circular room, lined with a few consoles and, at the top, a high balcony which ran all the way round. In the centre, of course, was the Plant itself… or rather herself.

She was pressed against the glass, her mouth open in eerie song. Meryl could hear the melody in her very bones now. It seemed to synchronise with her flesh. It was almost uncomfortable… yet almost pleasurable in the same way.

What caught her attention more than anything, however, was Vash himself.

He was also pressed against the glass, all be it the other side from the female. He seemed to have come into his full Plant heritage. His wings flapped gracefully behind him, they'd propelled him half way up the Plant Bulb and, as Meryl watched, he rose some more, staying near the curving class of the Bulb, his single hand scraping the surface. His entire body was covered in feathers, his ears had developed delicate points, his eyes were solid aqua and his hair had fallen from its usual broom headed style, now it lay like tendrils or tentacles around his narrowed face.

What was most remarkable, however, was the fact that he glowed.

Not a slight, pail white glow, not even the bright golden glow which most usual Plants emitted, his was a brilliant crimson which lit up the entire room, painting it a deep, bloody red.

'Spectacular…' murmured Alex from the side. 'He's looking for a way inside, I think… trying to enter the Bulb so he can mate…'

'Is there a way in?' asked Meryl, unable to turn her head away from the spectacle of the flying Vash.

'Yes,' replied Alex. 'Up at the top of the Bulb there's a valve, if it… I mean, if he works out how to open it then he could get in…'

'Can he work out how to open it? Given dog like intelligence?'

Meryl hadn't meant to sound so snappish, but if Alex detected her ill temper he didn't show it.

'Possibly,' he said, 'or he'll just lose his temper and shatter the glass.'

'Either way,' said Meryl, drawing out a gun from her cape, 'we need to stop him quickly.'

'What are you doing?'

'I'm going to shoot him,' she said, trying to keep her voice steady. 'Don't worry, I'm only going to aim for his arm.'

'But you can't!'

'I must. I don't want to hurt him any more than you but-'

'No,' protested Alex, 'I don't mean that. Listen, if you miss then your bullet might pierce the Plant Bulb. Or, worse still, it might shoot through one of the walls. This room is on the very outside of the ship, if you pierce a bulk-head then you'll allow vacuum in! You'll kill us all!'

'Damn!' swore Meryl, lowering her derringer. 'What do you think we should do then?'

Alex sighed and looked down at the small signalling device he'd use to transmit the new instructions to Vash's Nano-Bots. 'We're just going to have to hope Knives and Miss Thompson manage to complete their task quickly.'

Meryl nodded, though her heart sank dismally.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Millie Thompson was not sexy.

She wasn't, as far as Knives knew from all human definitions, even that beautiful. She might have been considered pretty, true, but beautiful...?

Her eyes were not large and lovely, her hair was not silken and soft, her body was not voluptuous and she was certainly not swaying her hips in an inviting and sensuous manner.

He had to keep reminding himself of this.

It wasn't all as easy to do, however, not with the female Plant's siren song ringing in his ears and mind.

He gritted his teeth and did his utmost to concentrate on the screen in front of him and not Millie's perfectly shaped breasts.

'What are you doing now Mr Knives?' Millie asked sweetly. No; not sweetly, just high… yes… high and squeaky, that was her voice, not gentle and tinkling. Not tinkling at all, there was nothing appealing about her voice, nothing at all. She was a spider, a filthy, disgusting, blood sucking spider. She wasn't a prospective mate, she wasn't pretty. He didn't want to be with her, he didn't want to touch her, he didn't want to kiss her, he didn't want to throw her down on the floor and-

Knives took a deep breath, steadying his hormones, and feeling rather glad that his blue coat, blood stained as it was, hid some rather excited parts of his anatomy.

'I'm working on changing the programming of the Nano-Bots,' he replied, his hands running over the controls. 'This is a picture of Vash's human DNA,' he pointed to one display, 'and this is his Plant DNA.' He pointed to another. 'Finally,' he said pointing to a third screen, 'this is a picture of them both combined, as he was before. We have to reproduce that pattern… however…'

'Yes?'

'Every time we add in another code it effects the rest of the code. It's like a Rubix Cube. I can handle some of the chemical and mathematical problems but even I can't always work out or predict what will effect what. This might take a while.'

Millie, much to his gratitude, remained silent for a while, he tried to forget she was there, tried to forget she even existed, but the lower parts of his brain begged to differ.

'You know,' she said eventually, 'it doesn't look too difficult. Once you've done all that weird mathematical stuff… it's a bit like chess. Just looking at where all the pieces fit. See, I think this one,' she pointed at one chemical coding, 'fits here.' She put her finger on another place in the pattern.

Knives blinked, that made sense… he did as she instructed and, surely enough, it fitted perfectly.

'You seem to be rather skilled at this,' he said, 'here, aid me.'

Millie nodded, ignoring the rude phrasing of his request and moving forward to stand by his side.

They worked together for a while, he passing instructions to her, she helping him figure out the appropriate commands, giving a new perspective on several of the DNA patterns. They made quite an effective team though, Knives thought, it would have been still better if he could keep more than half his mind on the task. As it was much of his concentration was taken up by the just trying to keep down his mating urges. And, what was worse, his willpower was fading. Perhaps it was exhaustion, perhaps the call was getting stronger, maybe it was something else entirely, but he was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore these compulsions.

He was finding so difficult, in fact, that when Millie moved in front of him, to get a closer look at the displays, he couldn't help but move forward slightly and breathe in the scene of her hair.

She smelt like leather and gunpowder, like freshly baked bread, sand and, oddly enough, crushed grass.

In short, to his hormone crazed senses, she smelt simply divine. He moved in further, taking in more of her fragrance, burying his nose in her soft, fine locks.

'Um… Mr Knives?' squeaked Millie, pausing from her work, her eyes widening adorably. 'Mr Knives, what are you doing?'

'I… I… I'm…' he was finding it almost impossible to get words out for some reason. He knew he should break out of this, knew this wasn't the time or the place for such escapades. Knew, further, that she was a human, the race he'd just sworn to kill, the race who had enslaved all Plants, the race which killed and murdered, the race which had created him and Vash for, of all things, breeding stock! He knew he shouldn't be doing this but… but… the mating song of the Plant seemed so loud and Millie was so beautiful, so soft, so sweet, so warm…

With a groan Knives once more buried his head in her hair, allowing his hands to ghost the curves of her hips. Millie's face, he was sure, would be a picture of confusion and surprise. The poor, sweet girl had probably never encountered anything so forthright… or at least that's how she acted.

'M…Millie,' he murmured, trying to get the words out. 'I… the song is effecting me I… I can't… please, I'll give you instructions but please… just… just keep with me, alright?'

'Um… alright Mr Knives,' said Millie and she resumed work.

Knives did his best to also continue passing on instructions, to work out the equations in his head, but it was far from easy. It was, in fact, almost impossible.

Indeed, he was beginning to think that, whilst it was all well and good to stop Vash from an unwanted mating, who would save him?

……………………………………………………………………………………………

'Damn it!' swore Meryl. 'For once in her life, can't Millie be early for anything!'

Vash had reached the top of the Plant Bulb by now and seemed to have settled amongst the machinery there, where, Alex had informed her, the hatch way to the interior of the bulb was located.

Meryl bit her lip as she saw the Plant Vash fiddle around with the machinery, no doubt trying to find out how to open it. Alex had said that, as an almost full blooded Plant, he had the IQ of the average dog, that Plants were unintelligent, but then again…

Alex gave out a cry of alarm. Vash seemed to have loosened something, pulled something out of the inner workings of the machine.

'What is it?' asked Meryl.

'The hatch!' cried Alex. 'I wouldn't have thought it was possible but… but he seems to have opened the bulb!'

As Meryl watched Vash heft the lid of the hatch and carelessly fling it down onto the floor, her world seemed to crystallise about her.

So she thought, this is it. He's going to go into a Bulb and mate with his one of his kind. You've lost him. He's gone. All that time of wanting to say you loved him, all that waiting and following, all those trials and this is it. Done. And just after he proposed to you too… what a… what a…

'Bastard,' she muttered and before Alex could stop her she drew out a derringer from her cloak.

'NO!' he yelled, thinking she was going to shoot, but she didn't. Instead she flung the small gun out, towards the Plant Vash, who was just leaning into the Bulb.

Her aim, as ever, was nearly perfect. It hit him square in the back of his head, not enough to knock him out or cause any meaningful injury, but surely enough to get his attention.

His head snapped upwards and he turned towards her, his inhuman aqua eyes narrowed.

Having attained his attention, Meryl took the opportunity to lug a second derringer at him. The small gun hit him right in the forehead, drawing out a low scream of pain. The glowing aura that surrounded him changed hue, from bloody red to a strange, golden orange. His lips curled back, revealing sharp, needle like teeth, he pushed off from his place and began to hover slowly towards her.

'Uh oh,' muttered Alex, 'I think you made him a little upset.'

'Good,' growled Meryl. 'Good! I'm glad! And you know why? Because your son is an utter bastard!'

'W-well,' stuttered Alex. 'Um… I kn-know I wasn't exactly married b-but-'

Meryl turned round briefly and gave him a withering glare.

'Shuttingupnow,' squeaked the professor.

'Good,' snarled Meryl, feeling almost inebriated with rage. 'And you-' she turned to the Plant Angel that was Vash, who was still hovering above her, a mixed look of rage and confusion upon his sharp, contorted features. 'You… I… you're an utter bastard! You are a bastard and so was Wolfwood and so was Rem! And you know why? Because you all go and pull damn stunts like this! You say you'll stay, you make me wait and then you… you… AUGH! It's just like Wolfwood, telling Millie to damn well wait for him! It's just as bad! It's not even fair! You want me to wait for you, well tough! I'm not going to hold my entire life for you! I'm not going to waste my time waiting for you to finally settle down or… or… I just refuse! If you want me then you're going to have to come after me! Not that damn Plant hussy! Me! Meryl Strife! Because I'm sick of following you! I'm sick of waiting!'

Having finished her rant, Meryl paused for breath, or rather several breaths. Her voice was hoarse from screaming. She could hardly believe she'd lost her composure like that. Never the less, despite its unseemliness, it felt rather good to let loose.

She looked up into the pointed face of the Plant Vash and saw that it bore a strange expression, not one she had ever seen there. The anger was gone, that was for sure, but what had replace it was… was…

His aura started to shift back into deep red, a soft crimson glow which painted everything in dark, ruddy tones.

'Um…' said Meryl, her voice still a little croaky, 'does this mean he's going to attack me?'

'Well,' said Alex slowly, 'based on what we've just seen… I'd say those are his mating colours.'

'Oh… but he's looking at me…'

'Yes… it does rather seem that way.'

Vash slowly advanced towards her, his wings flapping lazily behind him, an expression of what Meryl now recognised as lust upon his features.

'Um…' said Meryl, suddenly feeling rather small and overwhelmed. 'You know… when I said follow… I mean… can't we have nice dinner or something first?'

Vash continued to advance.

NEXT TIME: With time running out and mating urges running high, how will our Heros escape this unharmed? More thrills and twists to come as we head towards the apex of Eden's Children!