Prerogative

Anti-comity

Meryl took her time explaining to the small group their turn of events. She was careful to act happy and encouraged that she had found some "friends" that knew of safe haven for them. She restrained herself from telling them the truth, to be on their guard. She had thought about it, and quietly discussed it with Millie. They had no intentions on telling the others who exactly the other man was. She did mention Vash, which surprisingly raised some interested murmurs, but she felt it was unnecessary to mention who Knives was or what he was known for.

"So who is the other man with The Stampede again?" A man asked, as he stood to brush the sand off his pants.

"His brother, his twin brother actually," she replied.

"I didn't know he had one," a tall woman began. "Then again, he never did talk much about his family did he?"

"No, he didn't." Meryl answered, Millie picking up on an edge in her friends voice.

"What's he like, is he like Vash?"

"I can't really say, I don't know Knives that well," Meryl half lied.

"Knives? His name is Knives?"

"Well let's get a move on, I'm sure we're all exhausted and once we're there, we can rest." Meryl ignored the little question that was nagging her mind, 'where is there?', and went on. "Though, just so everyone knows Knives isn't very…social."

The small little group stayed somewhat close together as Meryl lead them up the cliff, where Knives had said to meet.

At the top of the cliff Vash was giving his brother his own pre-talk. "Don't even think of hurting them, don't enter their minds, just leave them alone." Vash stated firmly as he glared at his brother, half his attention on the people making their way up.

"How can you have already forgotten that I'm the one in control, not you? So stop warning me and acting as if I can be threatened. You ought to be thanking me instead of chastising me. I'm allowing your little pets some food and water; I'm allowing them to pollute my geo plant for your sake. The least you could do is present some gratitude; I can still kill them at any given moment." Knives responded giving his brother an annoyed look.

Vash folded his arms, "I am grateful, really. But I know you too well, and just like Meryl, I don't trust you."

Knives' lip curled in slight anger.

"You're going to have choose one day, having family or having your selfish utopia. What do you value more?" Vash asked his brother.

Knives said nothing in response as he noticed the figures standing off to the side in close formation. "Your humans are here." He simply told his brother and began his walk toward the geo plant while Vash walked back and greeted the others.

As Vash approached, Meryl took a few steps back, determined not to get too close to the blonde man. She still could not find it in her heart to believe him that he really wasn't under Knives' control. From what she had gathered with the past murders, he was a powerful being that was capable of more than she cared to know. How could she know for sure that the Vash in front of her was the one she had learned to care about over such a long gap of time?

She did not give trust easily. People had to work to gain her friendship. Millie had been the only exception, the only one who had broken her barrier earlier than she would have liked.

Her eyes wandered ahead to Knives' direction. From the back, one couldn't tell if he was Vash or not, but after further observation it was an easy process. Knives had an additional grace about him, an unnatural grace about him that Vash did not possess. He walked with more purpose, more… superiority. The world rang in her ears.

This man, this plant was in fact superior. Measuring superiority in intellect and physical strength, Knives was the winner, hands down.

While staring in his direction and deep in thought she never realized he was staring back at her. His eyes were calm and relayed nothing more. They stared at each other for a time until Vash came up beside Meryl; he saw their deep stares and a worried notion came into his mind.

'Damn, Knives has singled Meryl out,' he thought.

Knives eyed the short woman carefully, her eyes never left his own and he refused to lower his before her. 'That human…' he thought. Just as he was about to take a further look into her thoughts Vash came up beside her and eyed the two of them. He saw his brother give him a look and against his own judgment he broke contact first. He watched as Meryl seemed to come out of her own trance and glance at Vash. Her face darkened in mistrust as she noticed the man beside her and she walked back toward the group that was behind her.

Vash watched Meryl's retreating back hopelessly. While Millie seemed to believe him that he wasn't able to help when BDN invaded the town, and that he wasn't under his brothers control, Meryl would not warm up to the thought.

He watched as she conversed with a few of the others in her group as they walked slowly along, just keeping Knives in eyesight as they followed. She seemed a bit more serious than he remembered her being. He thought she had finally left those stages when she accepted who he was, but now it looked as if she reverted to how she used to act around him. Only worse.

Their walk was taking longer than Meryl thought it would. Most of the group had already been tired when they met up with Knives and Vash. Now most were exhausted and were functioning on their last bit of adrenaline. She too, was getting uncomfortably tired and it didn't help that the suns weren't relenting. When a few people began to falter, she stopped them from walking and walked quickly past Vash to Knives' side.

He looked at her slightly surprised that she would think she could just walk beside him, albeit he didn't show his surprise.

"How much further?" She asked, avoiding eye contact with him.

"Why?" He asked, his tone as civil as it could be as he saw his brother staring from the distance.

"We're tired." Meryl figured it was best to keep her questions and statements short and to the point.

Knives snorted at their weakness and jutted his chin in the direction they were headed. "Not much further."

Meryl looked in the direction he had aimed and gasped slightly at what she saw. From where the others were, they weren't able to see what she and Knives could as they were slightly higher on a sand dune. In the distance, only a few more paces was, what looked like, a large metal dome without its top.

"It's a geo plant," she breathed as she stared at the structure.

Even if it was to a human, Knives couldn't help but bragging just a little bit, "not just any geo plant, this one is untainted by humanistic ways." At this, Knives tore his eyes away from his creation and looked down at Meryl, an obvious disgust forming in his face. "Or at least it was."

AN: I want to mention some things.

Things may be getting slightly AU and characters slightly OCC, but I figured that may have been a given with this alternate end plot of Trigun.

I have not and do not intend to read Trigun Max anytime soon. This is "based" off the anime.

I am firmly in university and I do have a load of things taking up time. I didn't think I'd get this chapter up this month. Basically chapters are harder to write since I don't have much free time.

Because I'm updating such few amounts there is bound to be tons of filler chapters. I think when I finally finish the story I'll combine the chapters.

Also, I know it's weird that Meryl doesn't trust Vash at the moment, but think of her situation a bit more. She knows what Knives can do but she doesn't really know.

See everyone next month!
Faery Goddyss :)