Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ After The End of All ❯ Part 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: (Knives trudges across the monitor with signs that say “Nightow’s Forever” and “Fic-Writer’s? NEVER!”) (Vash is grinning and beaming at him proudly) (the author beams alongside Vash, practically gluing herself onto the gorgeous aqua eyed beauty) (Knives knocks the author a homerun with the signboards, taking his place back. On Vash) (the author stares longingly at the cuddling brothers – well, Knives’ doing most of the cuddling anyway – and trudges away… but not before taking a heap of pictures of the cute – and “Sooo sweet! XD” the author cooed – sight)

Spoilers: …in this particular episode? …(cracks tense muscles at neck) Just a bit on Vash’s past.

Beta: Alaena-san. She’s in my favorite. Sweet girl. She’s much better of an author than I am by a hundred-fold! XD

A/N: I reeeaaally should be sleeping now (it’s almost 3 AM)… training would start from 8 fuckin’ AM, till sunset… and my legs are soooo sore right now… Curse the fact that we’re gonna have a friendly match with another univ’s softball team tomorrow… TxT

Knives in this episode is the most OOC one yet. Soo…mushy like. Particularly when it involved his dear brother. Even gave me goosebumps! You have been warned!

Oh. For those who have been wonderin, what the hell was Knives doin in a meadow of flowers, you’ll get a glimpse of the answer here…

Let the story commence!

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After The End of All
Part 4
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Where am I…?

I browsed over the surroundings.

Geraniums. Everywhere. Wherever I see, only impossibly endless expanse of flowers filtered through my eyes. The sky was blue; blue as it was in one of Rem’s fairytales she used to tell us… Red blooms scattered everywhere, flown by the wind…

I couldn’t feel the wisps of irritating long hair. I glanced at my back, not seeing any of my hair. I ran my hand over my head. The familiar feeling of short spiky hair...

Weird.

I looked down. I was wearing a simple light blue button-up shirt with matching slacks. The buttons were fixed along my left, and the collars were quite wide and high. This attire bore a striking similarity of the assemble I wore back in the SEEDs ship…

Right then, I could catch a glimpse of black amongst the red. I directed my gaze there, where I could see him…

Vashu…

He was standing there, giggling and playing with the wind. Happily smiling that gorgeous smile of his…

So beautiful…

His broom-like spiked hair, jade black; brilliant under the sun. His face, sweetly contoured with lovely laughter; no sign of remorse whatsoever. He was so adorable, in an outfit identical to mine…

Like it was when we were children…

“Knives?”

Those striking aqua eyes were directed to me, mirth dancing in their depths. He smiled – so pleasant, so relaxed – to me. I couldn’t remember the last time he had looked at me that way…

I couldn’t help to smile back at him, twisted with a torrent of emotions – love, relief, confusion, adoration – and he continued to laugh.

“Hey, what’s with the strange face?” he said to me, giggling. What expression should I be making right now, seeing him so happy; so alive…

But that can’t be right… I still remember… seeing him in a cryogenic room… so cold… so… heartbreaking…

“Knives.”

He raised his hand to me, beaming; wordlessly telling me to come to his side.

I mutely complied. I shakily staggered to where he was standing, not looking anywhere except for those joyful emerald orbs…

As I was nearing him, I lifted up my hand to meet his… five feet, two feet, one…

“KNIVES!”

All of a sudden, I was jerked backwards; and I blinked out of shock.

I was back in the cold, dark room; someone lying on a bed, shaking violently. Sound of beeping and screeching filtered though my bewildered mind. Someone… someone was yelling…

“Severe repercussion attack. Heart rate erratic and irregular. Commencing the emergency restoration system.”

Everything… everything was in a blur… I was confused, lethargic, disorientated…

When my mind could no longer assess the situation, my body took over and made a solution. The most logical one.

I fainted.


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“His body is not able to stay outside his vessel for long; not more than an hour at one time, intervals of at least 72 hours. If not, his body will suffer a serious life-threatening relapse.”

I listened to her explanations. It seemed that after I passed out, Vash was put back into the cylinder, with the tubes back on and into his body…

I was then dragged by that woman there onto a bed, in a living billet, in close proximity to where Vash was held, and was unconscious for the next one and a half days. I woke up, a couple of hours ago; roaring, demanding for me to be brought to my brother. Assured that he was safe; if you see him being stored in bloody fluids, with wires attached to him, as safe, then he is safe, I demanded some fucking explanation from the wretched witch.

Hmpt. Who else would ‘the wretched witch’ be?

I could still make out… Vashu was blissfully smiling at me… what had exactly happened?

I told her of what I experienced back then.

“It may have been his conscious. You have somehow stepped into his sub-consciousness; into the projection of his mind. Or it may just be a hallucination; the need to meet your brother overrides all reason; with your condition worsen by the tranquilizer, and exhaustion of transferring your energy into him.”

Thanks for the explanation, I thought sarcastically. Even I thought around the same thing. But I was very glad that the tranquilizer had been completely metabolized when I was unconscious. I couldn’t think straight with it pumping through my systems.

One of those times when I was exploring the ship, I came across a surgeon’s knife in one of the med’s rooms.

I have since got rid of my elongated hair, back to my usual shorter one.

I smirked as the woman raised an eyebrow when I walked past her in one of the hallways.

I spent the next few days browsing though Vash’s medical files on the glaring computer monitors, while slurping some nutrient drink I found in a provisions compartment of my room. That damned woman insisted – correction: demanded – that I shouldn’t be eating anything solid for at least another four days. Hell, I was locked in a coffin, fed only with fluids though the tubes punctured into my arms. So, for quite a while, the foods provided to me were only fluid and semi liquid supplements. Damn.

With the files, I confirmed what she told me of Vash’s condition. And more.

The grates and bolts around his body were removed as they – the humans from Earth, of course – were able to fix together the bones without the addition of any foreign objects. Using ultra-something… laser treatment? Never mind that. With skin grafting, the scarring on Vash’s body was reduced dramatically. I didn’t know how I managed to miss this particular detail before. I was horrified when back in July, I first witnessed his once-unmarred skin tarnished. It was so horrific, my disgust of the human race skyrocketed ever since then. But as of now, I can see the tell-tale evidence that if he were to recover, he’d be able to get back the soft and supple skin that I remembered. I was grudgingly grateful for the fact that they managed to re-attach his arm back. I have regretted a little; cutting off his arm in a fit of rage. Hmp. Humans do have their uses after all. However, I was certain that the motive of the human vermin doing these for Vash, in a way of helping him, was out of regret… Why else would they want to revive a dying Plant?

After I finished going through Vash’s medical files – a good 297 documented research, treatment and observations, compiled with recorded testimonies, and hours and hours of Vash’s treatment captured on video –, I began skimming through all files that had any indication of Vash or myself.

Their archive of my personal life was very short, compared to of Vash’s. Most of what they know about ‘Knives’ had come from of the Gung-Ho Guns, through any witness’ scarce statements, and from their observations on me since I was taken into custody; which was exactly 1639 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and…57.62 seconds ago. Damned humans even counting it till the nano-seconds…

…Really, it’s been more than four years since then…

Vash’s records, in the other hand, started over seventy years ago, around the time he left me…

About how he was found by the people of Sky City almost eighty years ago; how he traveled all over Gunsmoke; his obsession with donuts; his silly and willful nature; the Love and Peace sign; the way he played with children of the towns he visited; how he easily made friends; the hatred of humans towards him as the Humanoid Typhoon – when most of the destruction was made by the bounty hunters aiming for his head, and of course the Gung-Ho Guns –; how he still smiled when the humans obviously rejected him, when his so-called friends betrayed him, used him; almost sacrificing himself to save another; just doing nice things; how he requested for my life…

I decided to take a walk to stretch my muscles a bit. Really, reading too much made my eyes water.

A little sauntering, and I was back at Vash’s place. I had come here a few times before, just to see him.

Waiting for the next time when I could touch him again…

I fingered the chilled cylinder, as if I was touching Vash’s face. Eyes, nose, the beauty mark, fine cheeks, soft lips… Such perfection.

If only those unsettling tubes can be removed from his face, at least… I made a mental note to check on this later.

I leaned my forehead onto the cold glass, yearning to meet the Vash of my dream… but I was sure now…

That it wasn’t a dream. Wasn’t a hallucination

I didn’t experience it again. No matter how hard I tried; how much I wanted it, needed it.

Somehow, I was relieved. That I wasn’t going crazy.

That it might have been Vashu… the real one…

I smiled.

I can’t wait to see him again…

I leaned my body onto the freezing surface, trying to close the space between us as much as possible. I closed my eyes, trying… trying to remember the warmth my brother was, trying to feel …

I’ve missed you so much, dear brother…

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