Spoilers for the whole series!
---
Legato was not afraid anymore. The child knew he should have died when the bandits have attacked his village, killing everybody on their way. He should have died when one of the outlaws had carelessly aimed at him with his revolver. Spider, the bandit had said then. He had to killed all the spiders. Legato hadn't understand at that time and he still didn't. But he knew he should have died.
Excepted it has happened. He suddenly had felt like a stranger to what was happening. He even thought he was looking down at himself from the sky -- the sky as blue as his hair, like his mother used to say, he was like the sky. Then, without reason, the man turned his revolver to aim at himself and he pulled the trigger. There had been so much blood then! Legato had nearly threw up. Then he had turned to share his victory with his parents: they were saved now, Legato was ready to kill everyone threatening his family. But it was too late. His parents had already been killed. Legato had stayed stunned for a moment, trying to understand what had happened, then anger invaded him. He didn't think about escape, about saving his own life. No, he only thought about revenge for his parents' death. So he had killed every bandit he met, hoping each time he would find the one who had murdered his parents. Until a dark veil came over his eyes and mind.
Well, he hadn't hope to kill them all. Now he just wanted a quick end.
bandits have been done with his village for a long time when he woke up. Listening to their talking, he understood it was neither the first time nor the last that they attacked a village. Destroy the spider, they kept saying, and it was also in their mind. One of them kept silent. He was looking straight at Legato, playing with a green apple. "Do you know why you're still alive?" He asked suddenly. Legato didn't answer. The man smiled bitterly. "To serve a god," he told the child. "Our god need you and your powers."
"God lives in Heaven," Legato answered naively, remembering the priest's lectures. The priest was surely dead by now.
The man laughed shortly. "Our god fell from Heaven a long time ago," he said. "He came to teach us our true value."
"Spiders," Legato murmured.
The man seemed pleased. "You will have the privilege to serve him. After you see him, you'll understand the whole world." Legato doubted it but it seemed they have already decided for him.
After several days, they arrived to the temple. Legato hadn't tried once to escape. Where would he go? His family and home were only ashes now. Moreover, the bandits were keeping a close watch at him, especially the man who talked to him earlier. He seemed important among the bandits and he even looked like a priest with his long coat and huge cross.
"Here we are, boy," he said. Legato looked up at the building. He quickly guessed it was one of the fallen ships, like in his father's stories. The god had fallen from the skies, according to the bandit. He was right.
"The god is waiting," the man said nervously. He urged Legato inside the ship, automatic doors opening and closing after them. Legato was not afraid anymore, only curious. He knew he would die soon either by the bandit's hands or even by their strange god's. So curiosity was all he had left.
The man made him enter a room that didn't seem different from the others. Another man was sitting in an armchair, a book in his hand. The bandit knelt and urged Legato to do the same. "Ha, Chapel," the man said without looking at them. "You brought me another one?"
"Knives-sama, this boy is really skilled. He killed twenty of our men before we intervened."
A grin appeared on the man's lips. "Less spiders in this world," he murmured.
Legato shivered. This man was nothing like any other people he had ever met. A god? Yes, it was easy to believe. The god finally met the child's gaze. Blue eyes like nothing he had ever seen. Nothing on this world could be as blue as those eyes. Legato was enthralled and stared in awe. A god? Of course, what else?
"You can left, Chapel," the god said without his gaze leaving Legato. The man left in silence.
Legato followed his god in another room. He wasn't feeling anything. He had reached the ultimate point of his existence by meeting his god. Nothing else mattered. He heard a light chuckle from his god but he heard it in his mind and not with his ears.
Little spider, maybe I will let you live even if you fail...
Legato only wanted to live and serve his god.
So you are starting now.
Legato's gaze left his god and he observed the room. It was a bedroom, he thought. He looked at the vast bed in the middle of the room and his eyes widened. There was another god. He really looked like the first god (well, they were both gods, so it should be normal) but he seemed unconscious. Laying on the bed, wearing only a dressing gown made of blue satin (blue like the first god's eyes, it seemed), that second god has his eyes closed and Legato couldn't feel his presence. Was he dead? Was it only possible for a god?
"He's not dead," the first god said, striking tenderly his double's hair. "He's only sleeping and your first task is to wake him. If you managed, then you'll serve me... no, us." Legato was puzzled. He didn't even know where to begin.
Enter his mind then awake him.
Legato frowned. If it was so simple, why did his god need a miserable human to do it?
Precisely. He will speak to you. He always preferred humans to me...
The last thought was hiding a huge bitterness and also too many feelings. Legato couldn't decipher all of them with his short life. He only felt that it was really important for his god and that his gratitude would be unlimited if he succeeded. It was all Legato needed to know.
Daringly, he sat on the edge of the bed and took one of the sleeping god's hands. He felt a brief surge of anger and jealousy from the other god but the god didn't punish him. Waking his brother was more important. Legato closed his eyes and concentrated, using a power he didn't know he had before. How his life had changed since then! Legato pushed back those thoughts. He had a task to accomplish. His god asked him! He felt like he was leaving his body to rejoin the unconscious god's. He was disoriented for a brief moment before he recollected himself. He was in the god's mind.
During his travel with the bandits and with his newly awaken power, Legato had realised how much human's mind could be chaotic and noisy. Several times he had felt like crying because of the pain in his head. But in this mind, there was only stillness and harmony. A precious silence ruled over the darkness. Legato enjoyed this feeling of wholeness for a moment before looking for the god's conscience. It must be here, somewhere in this nothingness.
He saw suddenly something glittering in the distance, so he headed for that place. Soon he arrived near a bulb. It was a big bulb, nearly twice as large as him, and Legato immediately thought about the Plant in his village. It was exactly the same thing and Legato wondered whether it was related. But he soon forgot it when he saw something moving inside the bulb. There was someone inside! Legato placed his hands on the glass and peered into. He saw a veil of golden hair that moved to reveal the face of a boy about his age. "Who are you?" The boy asked.
Like with the god, the voice was inside his head. "Legato," he answered softly, fascinated by the blue-green eyes and by the so innocent face. He also looked like that some days ago, before the bandits ruined his life. He closed his eyes and bit his lower lip. It was the past. Now his soul belonged to the god of light who was trusting him right now.
"My name is Vash," said the boy.
"How long have you been here, Vash?"
The boy seemed lost. "I don't know. Does it matter?"
"You have to wake up," Legato said. "Someone is waiting for you. He's so lonely without you!"
Vash's face became serious. "No, it's not true. There's nobody left for me outside. He killed them all... Rem... Mary... Rowan... Steve... Joey... and even Knives... He killed them all..."
Knives... That name was familiar. Legato's eyes widened: it was his god's name! Chapel called him that! "Knives is alive!" He said frantically. "He is the one I'm talking about!" Could it be as simple? Vash send him a sad look. No, it wasn't.
"The Knives I loved is dead too," Vash murmured. "Now he's only a monster who dreams of eradicating the whole human race..." Legato didn't know what to say. He didn't understand what Vash was saying. He was still too young for that. Vash smiled sadly at him. "Your village was destroyed by his men, wasn't it? I saw it in your mind earlier. I'm really sorry. There's nothing I can do to prevent him from destroying humans. There's really nothing I can do..."
Legato looked down. For a moment, he had forgotten that his god was also the one who had ruined his life. But did it really matter? "Here you can do nothing," he said suddenly. Vash looked surprised and hurt. Legato crossed his arms. "You've taken the easy path by staying here. Here you can see nothing and hear nothing."
"It's true," Vash nodded. "But I can't do anything against my brother!"
"You're only a coward," Legato spat. "You don't even dare to leave this place!"
"I'm afraid of Knives," Vash admitted. "He has so much changed! He doesn't care about me anymore."
"You're wrong." Legato thought about his god's gaze when resting on his brother, about his kindness towards him and about his loneliness. Vash could change that. If only he woke up!
"Really?" Vash said suddenly. "Do you really think I could change something?"
"He's evil only because he feels lonely," Legato said. "If you were with him... maybe he would be a little less evil?"
Vash hesitated. He wanted to believe Legato but was it true? Could Knives really change if Vash were at his side? Would Vash dare to try? Vash stretched timidly his hand and it passed through the glass to rest on Legato's cheek. "Don't cry," he said softly.
Legato was surprised. He was... crying? He had believed he had forgotten how to do. He looked up at Vash and noticed that his head was also going outside the bulb.
All of sudden, a hand coming from nowhere seized Vash's hand. The darkness that was so still became agitated as if a tempest was coming. Vash cried, trying to get free. Between Legato and him appeared slowly Knives, his beautiful face deformed by madness. "How long do you think you can hide in here, Vashu!" He shouted with anger.
Legato stepped back, watching the duel between the two brothers. Vash was nearly back inside his bulb, there was only his arm left outside, hold by Knives. There was some lightning in the background and Legato shivered. It was becoming colder and colder, unfriendly.
"Knives, let me go!" Vash pleaded.
"You want to let me alone?" Knives shouted. "Let me remind you I've done everything for you! I want to create an Eden where we could live in peace!"
Vash's cheeks were moist with tears. "I never wanted you to kill humans!"
"They deserve to die!"
Vash stopped arguing and he rather concentrated on freeing his arm. But it was a vicelike grip and Knives didn't want to let him go.
There was suddenly a light between them. Legato protected his eyes with one hand and he saw someone appear. It was a woman with long black hair and a stern face. Knives' eyes widened when he saw her. "So you're here too!" He spat. The woman kept silent and simply placed her hand on Knives's arm. The arm twisted horribly and Knives had to lose his grip. Vash retreated back completely in his bulb, followed by the woman who took him in a protective embrace, just like a mother.
"It's not over," Knives said in a threatening tone. Afraid, Vash only curled up in the protective arms. It increased Knives' anger. "You'll leave this place one day or the other!" He cried. "Don't believe I will leave you alone! Even if it takes me centuries, I'll free you from her!"
Vash shook his head, his eyes full of tears, but Knives wasn't seeing him anymore. He slowly faded as his mind was leaving the place. For the moment...
Legato opened his eyes, disoriented for a moment. Then he remembered where he was. He quickly stood up, leaving the bed of the sleeping god. He didn't want to offend his own god. The sleeping god hadn't move at all but there were tears flowing on his cheeks. So something had really happened. The other god stood up too. He must have been in hiding in the darkness, waiting for the moment when his brother would leave his mental shelter. All in vain... Legato cocked his head to one side. Who was that woman who protected the godchild? She was really like a mother to him. Could gods have mothers?
"She wasn't our mother," the god said angrily. "She wasn't even here, just an icon my brother used to push me away!" He cast a glance at the sleeping god and his gaze softened. Softly, he wiped off the tears from the cheeks.
Legato sighed. He had failed. But he still had something to do, something the woman asked him to do just after Knives left. She had simply stared at him and the words had appeared in his mind, clear like fire. Do you want to avenge your parents and your village? Legato had hesitated then. That former life seemed like a dream. He was willing to serve his god and to forget anything else. But something in him refused to be kept silent, a pain too recent to be just erased. So he had nodded and the woman had smiled fiercely. Then tell him this...
The god suddenly faced Legato, his face becoming once again stern because he looked so at everyone excepted his brother. "You failed," he coldly said. Legato felt like dying inside. He had disappointed his god. The god smiled. "But I think you're the best telepath I've ever had." It was like hot honey flooding in the child's veins. He knelt before his god, tasting his words. "We'll try later. I think we can succeed if it's you."
Legato shivered. A part of him was delighted to do his best for his god but another part of him was sorry for Vash, the child who had fled inside himself rather than confronting his brother. Unfortunately, he would never be left in peace. The humanity neither. Legato suddenly understood his true purpose for living. He didn't hesitate anymore. "It's useless," he said, surprised by the coldness in his voice.
Knives turned slowly to him, not believing what he had just heard. His face was even colder than before. "What did you say?" He asked in a measured tone.
Legato shivered. He had to say it. "Vash won't come back."
Knives stood on his full height, really furious now. Legato shrank. He was starting to feel his god's anger. "And how do you know that, spider!" Knives spat with disdain.
Legato closed his eyes and said softly: "He hates you."
Far away from there, in his bulb, with Rem's arms around him, Vash closed his eyes. He would have like to clap his hands over his ears because he didn't want to hear his brother's yelling. To see the boy's body cut to shreds by Knives' power had been enough. Poor Legato, Vash thought while shedding a tear. The boy knew he would be dying by saying those words but he had done it. It was the human force, something Knives didn't want or couldn't see.
Lulled by the tender voice of his only mother, Vash got slowly asleep. A new layer of glass reinforced the bulb.
To continue.