Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Incompatible ❯ Chapter 0028 ( Chapter 28 )

Trigun Fanfic

Trigun © Yasuhiro Nightow * Shonen Gaho-sha * Tokuma Shoten * JVC * Pioneer Entertainment (USA) Inc.

The following fanfiction was written by me (Chiruken) and is intended for the sole purpose of shared entertainment and not intended for publication or sale.

--Incompatible-

Trigun Fanfic Featuring Knives and Meryl. Knives hates all humans. Meryl just hates Knives. It's a match ideal for the promise of Eden.

By Chiruken

Chapter 28

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Knives ignored Vash and his distracting questions as he followed the increasingly strong trail out of the town of Engelheim and into the surrounding desert to the north. The trail couldn't be more than a week, two at most, old. He suspected the townspeople with all their unfriendliness were somehow involved in this little escapade. His eyes narrowed as he halted abruptly and Vash bumped into him at the unexpected stop. "So that's why…" He muttered, his anger growing. "Should've known…" He shook his head sharply and stepped forward again only to be halted by Vash's hand on his shoulder. He glanced back at him with narrowed eyes. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Stop for a minute, would you? Geez! All I want is a couple straight answers from you." Knives turned slowly to face him and waited impatiently. "All right. What are you doing, Knives? How are you able to track Meryl without any tracks in sight?"

He sighed heavily. "This isn't the appropriate time, Vash. Those questions can easily be answered when we don't have more pressing matters to attend to." Seeing the stubborn tilt to his twins chin he sighed again. "You're an idiot, Vash. A complete and total moron. Fine. If you'd only stop being so damn stubborn, you'd know what it is I'm doing without having to ask in the first place. I'm following her psychic trail. Every living organism leaves a certain distinctive signature wherever they go. It's easier to track humans than, oh, let's say an insect since they are a somewhat higher organism. However, the longer the time lapse, the more difficult it is to find."

"You can do that?" Vash looked thoughtful. "Hmm…" He frowned and tilted his face up to the sky. "That would explain a lot, then." He lowered his gaze back to his brother. "Like how you were able to find me all those times I was positive I couldn't be found."

"Exactly. Can we continue now?" He closed his eyes and sighed impatiently when Vash held up his hand. "What now?"

"So, using these tracking skills of yours, you could find anyone anywhere, right?" He nodded slowly, reluctantly. "Then what the hell were you doing all this time? You could've found her and she'd be safe!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Back when Millie first told you she was missing! You could've found her then and saved us all this worry!" Vash grabbed him by the front of his coat and shook him before dragging him close to glare at him almost nose to nose. "How could you be such a selfish bastard?!"

Knives knocked his hands aside angrily and straightened his rumpled coat. "It isn't as easy as you seem to think!" He retorted hotly, returning his twin's glare with equal anger and disgust mirrored in his narrowed blue eyes as was reflected in Vash's hostile green gaze. "I can't just sit in one place and find someone who may be a thousand iles away. I have to first find traces of their signature and hope that I'm going in the right direction when I follow it. Why do you think it took so damned long to get **here**? Do you think I enjoy wandering around in the desert for weeks on end? It isn't that I particularly like tracing and retracing my own blasted tracks!"

Vash blinked and took a hasty step back. "I didn't know…" He murmured softly, expression contrite. Now that his vision wasn't clouded by anger and worry, he could see the weariness in his brother's features. "I'm sorry, Knives. I didn't know."

"Obviously." He sighed and turned his back on his twin. "Can we continue now? Or is there something else you'd like to yell at me about?"

"Geez…I said I was sorry, already!" Vash hurried after his brother and slowed his steps to keep pace with him at his side, glancing over his shoulder to see Millie frowning at their backs in obvious worry. He couldn't blame her either. He didn't understand why Knives was doing this, helping them out in their search for Meryl, but he was almost afraid to ask. They had been searching for him for nearly two years and found no trace of him, and suddenly there he was…coincidentally following Meryl's disappearance. He didn't want to suspect his brother had anything to do with her abduction, but considering his past track record regarding humans in general, he couldn't afford to overlook the possibility. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at him and nearly stumbled in surprise when he found his twin's cold gaze on him. "Wh-wha-"

"Don't." He stated firmly. "Don't even think it, Vash. I had nothing to do with her disappearance and, quite frankly, I find it insulting that you can even think such a thing."

"B-but I-I never said…" He flinched when Knives waved his hand in dismissal and sighed. "Well, the last time I saw you was two years ago, brother. You were still spouting that 'kill the evil humans' crap and from where I stood you would just as soon strangle Meryl as look at her. What else was I supposed to think?"

"Have you seen any bodies littering the desert lately?"

"Well…" He hesitated and shrugged. "Actually, I've seen a few…"

Knives rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You know what I meant. If I'd intended harm to your little human friend, I would've done so when I had ample opportunity while you were away during my recovery. Don't think that I wasn't capable, Vash."

He placed his hand behind his head and smiled sheepishly. "Well, yeah…now that you mention it, I was kind of curious about that…"

He snorted and shook his head. "Curious, brother? It seems to me you should have been a bit more worried about her welfare than that. It's a good thing I found her amusing otherwise I probably would have killed her." He smirked at his twin's sudden pallor. "Or perhaps not. Maybe she would've made an interesting puppet to use against you. That would've been entertaining, don't you think?"

"Knives, don't even joke about something like that!"

"Ahh…I can see it all…how would you have reacted, Vash, if you had to face her, your **trusted** friend, while she held one of her little guns to the head of a child and pulled the trigger? Of course she wouldn't be able to help herself, you know. Her feeble human mind wouldn't be able to resist the power of suggestion I could've placed on her. What would you have done? Would you have stood by and allowed her to wreck havoc on the small town you called home? The blood bath would've been amusing, don't you think?"

"Knives, I'm warning you! Do not joke about something like that…not to me." Vash's hands closed into fists at his sides.

"What could you have done to stop me? Stop her? You're powerless when you think of it. If not for the fact that I found her entertaining in her own right I might just have followed through on that little suggestion. What do you say to that, brother?" He smirked and shook his head. "Are you regretting not killing me now, Vash? After all, you know that I'm more than capable of twisting any little human mind that I please to do as I wish whenever I may wish."

"So why haven't you?" His voice trembled with anger and horror at his twin's cold, calculating words.

"Because I don't want to. Humans are like spiders, Vash…I've told you that before." He halted and tilted his face up to the night sky and closed his eyes. "And you know, brother…spiders can be just as beautiful as butterflies, too…" He finished with a soft smile curving his lips upwards into an uncharacteristically gentle expression as he thought of all that he'd discovered during the two years he'd wandered the planet.