Disclaimer in previous chapters. Please see Author's Notes at the end.

Continuity Note: I know I promised I would stop, but in this case I have stolen another concept from the manga. That concept is that a Plant can absorb another Plant. I don't believe it was ever directly mentioned in the anime.

-x-

Vash opened his hand and released the construct, a small, black cube. It was caught in the searing wind in an instant, carried along the current a moment before it began to flake apart. In moments it was utterly destroyed.

Whatever it was for, he was apparently finished with it.

Knives watched his brother another long moment, and as if he could sense him, Vash turned, his profile stark against his raging Gate. Then he buckled, his arms wrapping around his abdomen as if in pain.

"You came," he mumbled, and his voice sounded quite normal, almost contrite.

Knives very carefully didn't kill him outright, drifting away from the ring of their sisters, who seemed content to let them handle things. The moment he crossed that invisible line, the physical pain from their link faded significantly.

That was why it had been so hard to make contact. They were shielding him. Giving him time to figure it out. "So this is your decision, brother?"

Vash forced himself upright, turning away to evaluate the furious inferno before him. "I know you think it was stupid, but it worked, didn't it?"

Knives advanced against the solar wind, remaining in his humanoid form, and his brother let him approach, still getting buffeted by the streaming power of his Gate. It was like slogging through thick mud. "Your cells can no longer absorb the energy, you moron."

"I read your notes." Vash's voice had tightened, and he flinched again, dropping to one knee on nothing. "You don't know that for certain."

Apparently not shielding enough. Either that, or Vash was feeling the drain.

"By all means, prove me wrong."

Vash gusted out a shuddering sigh. "Doesn't seem to be slowing down, does it."

Indeed not, brother.

Knives finally reached him, flexing his back and manifesting his own wings. The amount of energy Vash was expending was enormous. Probably he had already topped the energy releases in July and Augusta. "You're running out of time."

His brother glanced past him, to their sisters, but they had not approached. "Any ideas what to do from here?"

I have only one, brother.

Vash looked back up at him, confused, and Knives gave him no time to react. He had always been better with their telepathy-based powers, frequently using them without even knowing how. Building – and then removing – that block was a perfect example.

And what he was about to do, it was certainly not limited to their physical abilities.

Knives pounced on him, pinning him onto a hastily conjured asteroid, and plunged both sets of arms directly into his brother's chest.

Vash retched beneath him, mouth wide, unable to believe what was happening, and Knives wrapped several sets of his wings around them, dragging his brother's body against his own. He fisted his hands within Vash's chest, crushing his ribs into paste and squeezing the corpuscles between his fingers, searching for the two things he knew he would not be able to destroy.

His Gate and his heart.

Vash was unable to even gasp, his lungs already crushed, and he brought up his forearm, weakly, and braced it against Knives' throat.

There wasn't enough strength in it to bother with, and more rooting around in his abdominal cavity weakened it further.

"Stop fighting, you're only making it worse," he grunted, and for once, staring into his brother's pain-filled eyes, he honestly regretted causing the damage. You are giving me no choice, Vash!

Blood came from his brother's mouth instead of words, he knew what it meant, it was meaningless with his Gate free-flowing, and then Vash's pupiless eyes narrowed, just a little, and Knives felt Vash's wing, trying to squirm its way from beneath his own. Felt his abdominal muscles tense around his fists, trying to pin them within his own body.

What are you doing!?

The only thing I can do, you moron. I'm absorbing your Gate. He dragged Vash against his own belly, and where Vash's skin had been split, it began to glow, then melt against his own. The only thing that can control your Gate now is mine.

Terror replaced the pain as Vash sluggishly realized what was happening to him, and Knives felt it, stabbing deep into his gut as it began to merge with Vash's.

No! Stop, I don't –

What, you don't want to join with me? I'm stunned, he snarled at his brother's mind. I knew you were going to go back on your word the second you woke! I knew you would choose them!

Vash gaped at him, and Knives felt his wing wriggle free, straining to catch the solar wind. It would do him no good, lack of proximity to that sun wouldn't stop this.

The sun was how Vash saw his Gate, but the true center of this world was Vash himself. Fighting with that sun was in essence fighting with Vash's mind. If he wanted Vash's true Gate, he had to get it from this manifestation of Vash himself.

I choose both! I choose you and them, Knives!

You CAN'T! Knives stared at him with something close to hatred. Their faces were only inches apart. It was always them or us, Vash! Always!

Something hard and sharp crashed into his back, sending his head flying backwards, and he struck his skull on what felt like rock. Momentarily stunned, he felt Vash rip himself away, tearing the skin on his belly, and Knives roared with pain, refusing to let go of Vash's spine.

But abruptly he wasn't holding on to anything. He was reclining on a bench, arms stretched along the seat back, staring at children noisily playing with a kickball across the dusty town square.

Vash had steered them into one of his memories.

Not well enough – Knives was still self-aware, and he stood abruptly, turning to glare at his brother. Vash was sprawled out exactly where he had been, but he moved rapidly as well, and then the bench was halved and someone screamed.

Vash had been quick, very quick, and crouched low on the ground, hand on his gun. "Knives, listen-"

"Vash, stop fighting me! You are going to die, do you understand?!"

"Then let me die!" Vash cut the air with an empty hand. "Death would be better than this! You might as well lock me in a cold sleep tube!"

Knives snarled and sent a wave of knives at his brother, forcing him to dodge towards the fountain. "If you believe death is better than life then why are you running away!"

"I will not let you use my Gate to kill them!" It came from between clenched teeth. "They learned, Knives! The humans on the New Kennedy did this! They did attack us! They did try to kill us! But the humans of Gunsmoke saved you! You cannot ignore that!"

"Master," a voice murmured smoothly, behind him, and Knives paused, fury momentarily forgotten. That voice . . .

Before him, Vash paled, and Knives turned, so that he could make out the figure standing behind him, there in the corner of his eye.

"Yes," Knives murmured. "The humans of Gunsmoke did learn, didn't they. I gave him your arm, brother. And what did he do with it?"

Most of the humans had already fled the plaza, but Legato Bluesummers didn't seem perturbed. He merely dropped to one knee, bowing in respect, and Knives started to laugh.

Of all the memories to careen into, it would be one of these.

"He may have learned cruelty at the hands of other humans, but is what you showed him any better?" Vash came out of his crouch warily. "Millie Thompson saved your life. Doc tried only to save us, to save me. Elizabeth put me in this bulb so that I could save myself. Give me a chance, Knives! Give all of us a chance!"

"I GAVE YOU A CHANCE!" Knives felt something in his throat tear. "And you chose them!"

Vash opened his mouth, but moment after moment was silent. He sighed, and a tear rolled down his cheek. It incensed Knives.

"And now you will cry and appeal to my sentimentalism, is that it? You should know by now, brother, that I don't have any!" He gestured sharply, and Legato was on his feet instantly, already charging forward.

Vash sobbed, and then he pulled out his Colt. Knives had his own gun, but he didn't bother, Vash was going for Legato-

His brother raised the gun and pulled the trigger, not even bothering to look, and Bluesummers fell, dead before his body could taste the sand.

Knives blinked, a little startled, and Vash let his arm – and the Colt – fall to his side.

"I can't undo what's been done, Knives," Vash forced it out around a tight jaw. "I cannot undo the Great Fall. I cannot undo the last one hundred and twenty years."

"Irrelevant-."

"I chose to live with them over you," Vash continued harshly, as if he had not spoken. "I ran away from you, Knives, and I hid in the human settlements, because that was what I wanted. I wanted to be human. I wanted to be like Rem. And I . . . I hated you, Knives. I hated you for what you did, and how you thought."

A hot breeze tumbled through the abandoned plaza, and Legato's body settled further. Vash stared at it like he thought Bluesummers might get back up.

"Did you hate me like that, Knives?" Vash's eyes slid behind his specs, from Legato to him. "I wonder."

Knives wasn't sure where Vash was heading. "Do you think I hate you, brother? Is that it?"

Vash's look was considering. "You know, I guess I should find out."

In one fluid motion he put the Colt to his temple, and pulled the trigger.

Knives' own head snapped back, the vague, strange tickling of the bullet passing through his own skull, and he realized with a start that within the memory, though they were standing apart, they were the same person.

Except Vash had just killed himself. His will was no longer part of the memory.

Vash had given up.

The plaza faded as he painstakingly curled himself off the memory, and he found his brother's face, just inches from his, eyes closed. There was still pain, in the skin between his eyebrows, but he had dropped his arm. He was no longer pushing against him. Vash's wing curled now not away from Knives' own, but entwined with them, and their abdomens sank together fluidly.

Vash's pain was no longer vague or faint.

His eyes opened, brilliant gold as he glowed, and they merged further still, up to their chests. Knives gasped at the sensation, it was breathtaking, and he clearly felt Vash's Gate within him, no longer hiding from his hands, but being presented. Almost like a gift.

Take it, Knives. But know that when you take it, you're giving me yours.

It pulsed against his hands, like the Gates he had submerged into their guns. Resonating with his own, but hot, angry, still powerful. Knives stared at his brother, and Vash smiled at him.

So . . . do you hate me, brother?

The wind whipped angrily at his hair, but it was too short to move much, and his bodysuit kept the cold at bay easily. Knives stared out at the bulb, broken, just the bed of what remained, and beside him, Vash knelt, rubbing some of the ash between his fingers.

"I did hate you." It was easier to say, somehow, when they were here, in his mind. "I did what I did for both of us, Vash, and you just wouldn't see that."

"You lived here for the both of us," Vash murmured, as if he was tasting it. They were atop one of the tallest structures in Knives' mind, the surface wasn't nearly as choked with debris as the lower levels, and Knives took a step forward, to the end of the dilapidated building, and looked down.

So many open doors, in those alleys and streets. Doors that should have been closed.

"It wasn't really her fault, she's just curious by nature," Vash called, still crouched where he had been. "How many memories have you locked away?"

That was what Millie Thompson had done to his mind.

She had opened all those doors.

"Are you going to put me in one of those rooms?"

Knives stared down at the city for a long time. "You wouldn't stay there."

A surprised laugh. "No, I wouldn't," he agreed. "You know, it's funny to me that your mind is a city. Cities are built by humans, not Plants."

The wind howled, and Knives thought he caught a glimpse of movement, deep at the heart of the structures.

"Your mind is ruins, Knives. Doesn't that bother you?"

"What do you want from me, Vash?" He turned on his heels, glaring at his brother. "You are all that I cared about, and you chose them."

But Vash was shaking his head. "I chose both, Knives. I wish you could see that."

Knives flung out his arm. "And what did choosing both Plants and humans get Rem, Vash? What did choosing both get that foolish human Thompson? It killed them, and it's killing you!"

"And what did choosing Plants get you, Knives?" Vash gestured at the city. "I'm still alive. And I can choose both, brother. Finally. I know that now. It'll work this time, because something's changed."

Knives curbed the impulse to roll his eyes. "Two humans confusing me for you is not change."

"I doubt Millie or Doc changed much at all in the last couple weeks." Vash's smile was almost fond. "I'm talking about you, idiot."

Knives stared at his brother, not quite sure he understood, and Vash's fond grin did not fade. "I saw what happened in your lab. You saved his life, Knives. Doc was dying, and you saved him."

Trust Vash to bring that up. "I needed him for data mining, nothing more-"

"And yet he's still alive. You trashed the lab, but you didn't kill him. Why not?"

Knives glared at him, and Vash calmly folded his legs, falling onto his ass on the top of the building. "You don't really know, do you."

There was no time for lies, not anymore. Not if Vash was already too weak to stand. Soon his brother would become what he wanted him to be, rather than who he was. Soon his mindscape would mold Vash into what he always should have been.

Soon Vash would become a lie, parroting back everything he ever wanted to hear his brother say.

"Help me," Vash said quietly. "Knives, I've forgiven you. It's time to forgive yourself."

"I don't-"

"Don't make me one more door to punish yourself with." It was pleading. "You don't have to stay here anymore. Stop hating, and start healing. I'm here with you, Knives, and I won't leave again. I swear it."

His brother closed his eyes, and even without his telepathy, Knives could sense how sincere it was.

No. It was more than sensing.

It was like feeling the emotion himself.

It was like feeling her emotions.

If you stop fighting, it will stop hurting!

Vash was right. This wasn't saving him. This was destroying him. And it was something he was going to regret for the rest of his life.

Knives shoved hard, spreading his wings wide, and was alarmed to find that Vash's face was no longer visible in front of his own. A great protrusion jutted out of his chest, feathers and hair and the ridge of a spine, but their skin was melded together. He felt another pulse against his own, but faltering and faint, and the sun beyond them glared malevolently, a deep resentful red.

It was too late. The absorption was nearly complete.

Vash's Gate was nearly contained.

Knives scanned the universe frantically, but the stars were gone, just nebulas and giant clouds of gases.

Vash's mind was beginning to look like their sisters.'

Knives closed his eyes. To me! he sent, frantically, and they were there immediately. Their confusion was prominent, and he arched his back, trying to shove the protrusion away.

He cannot merge with me. Get him out!

If they didn't understand his reasons, they certainly understood the sentiment. His sisters reached into his chest as he had reached into his brother's, their fingers splitting his skin, their nails cutting away at the tendons connecting them. It was unbearable, it was more painful than being cut in half, and he screamed, grabbing his own wrists behind his back to prevent himself from striking them.

It didn't take them long to rip Vash free, and the blood that sprayed into the air froze into solid darts before it was reclaimed by their gravity, sucking back into the wounds as the skin closed over them. In a few moments, it was over.

Knives gasped, curled around himself, trying only to breathe. The moment Vash was fully separated the sun blazed back to life, and Vash groaned, stirring as the fog around them gathered itself back into celestial bodies. Aliya cradled Vash with several limbs, stroking his hair as she had done before, and Vash coughed weakly, wing wrapped around himself.

Jain was on the other side of Vash, trying to protect him from the buffeting, and she frowned at Knives. The thought she sent was urgent. Act.

But what was there to do? Vash had no control over his Gate, and absorbing him was the same as letting him burn out. By now he'd probably cut a hole through the bulb, his death was imminent –

Jain reached over her sister, offering an arm, and it took Knives a moment to realize that it wasn't one of her own. She was actually holding a human arm, offering it to Vash.

His eyes were screwed shut, back vaulted as if someone was stabbing him, but somehow, he sensed it, and recoiled with a half-formed thought of horror. Knives skimmed his mind, he recognized that arm-

It was the short woman's. Meryl. It was Meryl's right arm.

To replace the one that he no longer hand . . . but what effect would that have on his Gate, a full set of wings was not required for humanoid types -

The old man. The old man had asked him about regeneration.

Vash, your arm. He couldn't catch his breath, telepathy would have to do. Regeneration requires high levels of energy, and it will affect your entire cellular structure. Regenerate your arm, and your cells might recalibrate.

Vash shuddered in Aliya's grasp, and Knives gritted his teeth as Vash's pain seeped over the link. A glance told him that the circle of their sisters had cut by half.

It hurt them too much to continue shielding them.

I . . . I don't know how-

. . . neither do I. Not without a bulb, Conrad, and a few decades. Granted, all Vash needed was an arm, it was less extensive, but it was nothing he could manage in the few minutes he had left. Vash, just concentrate.

His brother shuddered, his gasps sharp and quick. You need to leave. You're too close.

That was probably true. Some of the pain he was feeling was probably his own. But his shift from human to Plant had been a literal one; his Plant physiology would survive this. Irrelevant.

Let them go. For me. Let them go and continue the project.

Knives batted the stray thought aside, gathering instead the memories surrounding the years after July. How it had felt. How his Gate had responded. There wasn't time to sanitize the memories; he bundled them down the link, all the thoughts he'd had, lying in that tube. All the loathing. All the disbelief. All the loneliness.

And all his dreams.

He'd always wondered why Vash chose to bear his scars. Why he had not regrown the limb. He'd told himself it was because Vash hadn't forgiven him for taking it, wanted to keep the reminder, but he could feel, now, that that wasn't it at all.

You can do this, Vash. Focus.

His brother cried out, hardly louder than a whimper, and Knives clenched his jaw until the spell passed. The blood on his hands burned.

Neither one of them would be able to hold it together much longer.

It's okay, Knives. You saved me, you know.

Shut up and concentrate, you moron!

Even if . . . if this doesn't work . . . I know that you'll be okay now.

An image of Rem flashed across Knives' mind, and he couldn't help but see that damned human's face behind hers.

"Vash, take care of Knives!"

The memory was Vash's.

Told you the tall one was a doozy.

Aliya stroked Vash's hair once more, then regretfully released him. His knotted wing, still singular, caught the solar wind, tumbling him past, and Knives reached out to catch him, only to have Jain move between them.

Get out of my way -

Let them go. For me. Please.

Something hooked his belly button through the small of his back, just like before, when Vash's mindscape had been collapsing, and the link sucked him away. He could see his fingers, straining to catch Vash's limp ankle, but he was so small and so far away, and Knives' hands were burning.

-x-

The crack was deafening in the enclosed space, and then the engineer grunted, and really put her back into it. She had little room for leverage, but she was making it count, and Meryl braced herself against what she thought was the wall until Carter shifted, just a little.

The doors whined in protest, but they continued to slip open, and they half pushed, half crushed Elizabeth out into the late afternoon sunlight.

Meryl wasn't quite as slender, but she was much smaller, and she wedged her back against one door almost before Elizabeth had gone through, bracing her foot against the other and shoving with all her might.

Once Aaron got his arms in, she was sure it wouldn't close on him, and she tumbled out herself, scrambling to her feet and grabbing Aaron's belt. Elizabeth was already up, and had grabbed the other side, and the two women yanked him forward.

They landed in a heap as the doors slammed closed, sucking down the hot air, and Meryl couldn't believe it when Aaron got up and dusted himself off like nothing had happened. In almost complete darkness, they had dismantled the top of the cabin, crawled up gods only knew how many yarz of cable, tried and failed to trigger the door mechanism, had nearly been crushed to death when an explosion had hurtled the cabin back up to them, and then forced open the doors with zero time to spare-

She sat up quickly, eyeing the valley floor. The white sheds, that had seemed so haphazard, now the pattern made sense. Most of them were emitting what appeared to be a white smoke, but she knew better.

Steam. It was steam, that was hissing up from beneath them. Hot enough to burn.

But the majority of the valley still seemed intact.

How could that be, when the rock ceiling had been coming down . . . ?

"We need to move to higher ground. Now."

Northern higher ground.

The engineer had gathered herself as well, rubbing her left wrist painfully, and she did not protest. Meryl couldn't stop staring at the valley, straining to hear his voice.

Vash . . . ? Can you hear me?

"Don't space out again, Stryfe," Carter barked, and she jumped at the unexpected sound.

In her mind, there was only silence.

Don't wait for me.

Meryl felt her fists balling at her sides, but after a moment, she turned on her heels. One foot in front of the other. Vash's distraction had worked. It was time for them to leave, to get as far as they could.

At the very least, get to safe ground.

Carter was watching her closely, but she didn't look at him again, woodenly jogging up the hill after them. They didn't take the footpaths, and she was glad of it when the valley shifted silently beneath her feet, sending her onto her aching backside yet again, this time into tall grass.

The low rumble was barely audible, but it didn't subside, and all three of them exchanged a look, then stared back down at the valley.

"Miss Elizabeth-"

"If he goes into a Last Run and overwhelms that bulb, the valley rim won't protect us," she cut him off, almost emotionlessly. "There's no point in running. We'll just die tired."

"Is that-"

To the south of the shed they had escaped through, about twenty yarz, there was a circle of grass about three yarz in diameter, and it appeared to be –

Glowing?

Plants erupted from the circle, a golden, green, steaming mass of bodies and limbs and wings. They rose into the air like a covey of frightened birds, but they gained very little altitude before they faltered back to the ground, and without a thought Meryl ran straight for them.

They were carrying something. Someone. Someone who had not been able to carry themselves.

"Meryl, no!"

She only got about ten yarz herself before someone caught her, again by the jacket, she bent backwards in an effort to slip out of it but he'd anticipated that, and in the next instant she was in his arms. It wasn't at all like Vash; he held her completely off the ground, panting in her ear.

"Wait," he grunted. "Just wait-"

In front of the pile of Plants, the valley began to rise. It was as if a giant was sleeping beneath the earth, and the grasses of Eden were his blanket. The giant's knee rose, and then he turned onto his side, and nearly an acre of land collapsed in on itself with a roar that was almost silent.

Meryl would have fallen if Carter had not been holding her up; she wasn't sure how he stayed on his feet. The ground had severed only a few yarz from the Plant pile, and the glowing sisters shifted heavily, as if exhausted.

From inside the pile of glowing bodies, a human arm flopped into view.

Meryl watched, hardly daring to breathe, and less than thirty yarz away, the steaming, naked form of Millions Knives levered himself up, away from the other Plants. His hands were glowing, a strange greenish reddish gold, and he held them up in front of himself, studying them.

Then he dropped them, and stared down at the chasm that had once hidden the underground caverns.

Carter shifted, setting Meryl down cautiously on her feet and pushing her behind him. She didn't struggle; she had eyes only for the Plants, watching them slowly disentangling themselves. There were six, seven –

A mobile Plant swept into view, from the forest, and Meryl recognized her as the Plant from Hondelic. The Plant that had flown away into the ceiling.

Eight.

But there had been nine, beside Vash.

Had one of them stayed . . . ?

She glanced at the forest, trying to pick out anything else glowing, and Carter moved again, cutting into her view. She took a step to his right, to see around him, and he put out his arm.

"Don't move."

He was looking at something glowing in the sunlight, the missing Plant-

Meryl blinked, and then she realized her mistake.

He was looking at Librett.

The mutant stood almost equidistant between the Plants and them, also cockeyed, keeping one ear towards Knives. But Knives didn't acknowledge him. He was staring at the enormous wound in the valley, studying it intently.

And Librett held his position.

They stared at one another for a while, but nothing else happened, save the settling of the angry earth. No further explosions. No more glowing. The dangerous rumble was gone, and all Meryl could hear was the sound of wind in trees.

There was no more activity from the chasm.

"Stryfe, back up towards the trucks. Slowly. You get to the supplies, and you make tracks."

He had said he would handle Librett and Wright.

But Knives was there, there would be no handling anything-

"Move. Now."

Meryl hesitated, then took a step back. Then another.

Nothing happened.

She continued to back up – and Librett let her. Carter stayed exactly where he was, just watching, and she was far enough up the hill past him that she could see the Plants again, see Knives –

And then he looked up, straight at her.

Meryl froze. Yet his gaze didn't linger; he dropped his chin after a moment, staring not at them but at Librett.

"Take them to the border. The old man as well. Give them sufficient supplies to make it to April." His voice was expressionless, almost a monotone. He might as well have been ordering his boots shined.

Once the instruction was issued, he turned back to the crater, just staring.

It seemed that after that, shock set in. Meryl recalled following obediently as they were led up the footpath by the nimble-footed mutant, fully visible. She remembered methodically packing what they would need from the neat piles that had been made under their tarps. She folded up one of their blankets to serve as a pillow, the light blue one that Vash – or maybe Knives - had worn when they'd arrived.

She watched Librett hand Doc to Carter, and how gently the bodyguard maneuvered the frail, limp little body into the cab. There was no question; she hopped into the back of the truck, sitting against the wall of the cab on a folded up tarp, her head shifting bonelessly on her neck as the engineer followed suit, rocking the suspension.

The engine turned over, and Carter guided the vehicle across the rim, following the rocks. Far below, in the valley, she could still make out the site of the destruction, the pastel yellow of the Plants, still sprawled in the grass, and the lone figure that could have been Vash, at this distance-

Except he wasn't.

Carter turned down the embankment, jostling them, and Eden was swallowed by the valley wall.

Then it was green and red, as far as the eye could see.

It took a long time to sink in. They had come back down the hill and the truck picked up speed, cruising along the flat limestone that they had traveled not a week before. It was cleaner sailing; the grasses were tall and plentiful, and everywhere she looked, small red wildflowers nodded in the wind of their pickup.

The suns were low on the horizon before they came to the end of it, where the grasses faded to a deep, beautiful gold, just the tips shifting as they passed.

Just like a broom.

Eden had spread, by tens of iles.

Meryl let her head rest against the glass of the cab wall, watching twilight set in. Aaron would drive all night, she was sure of it. There would be no stopping. She should sleep, so that she could take over when he tired.

"You did what he asked you to," she heard her mouth say. "He would have thanked you."

The engineer was silent beside her, jostling along in the dim. "He did," she managed.

They rode in silence, and the stars hesitantly peered out, checking to see if it was over.

"I forgive you," Meryl said clearly, and beside her, Elizabeth fell apart.

-x-

Author's Notes: Believe it or not, there's just one chapter left. I was going back through this beast, trying to figure out which city it was they were closest to when they arrived at Eden – and wow, did we spend a lot of time here. One of you noted that this story kind of got stuck like Harry Potter, with our heroes in the woods . . . that was a very good analogy, one that looking back seems very accurate.