Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Revenge of the Butterfly ❯ Chapter 1

Oi, I have no idea what made me write this... I think it was my muse, Azure. She's weird like that, with her Alektorophobia (sp?)((It's a fear of chickens XD)) And about the title... I dunno. The title is more serious than the story, I think.

Anyhow, I'm sure you've all read Trigun fanfiction dealing with the 'Spider-and-Butterfly' theory of Knives's. And this is one of those... Don't Leave!!! It's... a little different. A little humorous...very little... I hope. With a surprise ending. And I think I bring up some new points that I haven't seen yet in any Trigun fic. So, this is quasi-original, I think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun or Trigun Maximum. *pokes lawyers in the eye* Nyaah!

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Revenge of the Butterfly

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One fine day, Vash was lounging on the porch of the hotel that Meryl, Millie, Knives, and him were staying at. It had been almost a year since Vash had once again shot his brother down.

~Vash had threatened to beat the living snot out of Knives if he killed anyone. Knives, of course, pretended that he wasn't afraid and he didn't care, but if you knew him, you would know that he has a very low tolerance for pain.

So, for the moment, Knives was acting better than he normally did. He still called humans 'spiders', and was most likely still plotting the downfall of all humans and the creation of an Eden, but so far, there had been no casualties.~

Vash spotted Knives walking back toward the hotel, carrying a large plastic bucket with a tight lid on it.

"What in the world? OI, KNIVES! What's in that thing?"

Knives regarded his brother for a moment before giving him an evil grin.

"Come back to the room and you'll find out."

Vash quizzically followed his sibling back to room number thirteen. Knives set the plastic bucket on the side desk and pulled up a chair. He then reached under the desk and pulled out a plate.

"Ooh, is it something to eat? Can I have some?"

"... No, you can't eat it. You can help me, if you wish. Although I have the feeling I shouldn't show you..."

Vash was wary of what Knives may have, but his natural curiosity got the better of him.

"Just show meeeeeee! Pleeeaaassse?"

Knives smiled at his brother's antics. He carefully open part of the bucket, knocking back many of the little black things trying to climb out. He grabbed a couple of the squirming things and put them on the plate.

They were spiders.

Vash's face got that deadly serious look in them. "Knives...?"

Knives ignored his brother and pointed to a spider. "Your name is Sally, and you're John, Kiesha, Perry, Greg, Fred, Max, and Bobbette. I love you all so much! My new pets!" He turned to Vash with a genuine smile on his face. "How do you like them, Vash? I thought you wanted me to be nicer to the spiders, and I'm practicing on these real spiders!"

Vash sighed. He had been expecting Knives to do something quite more... psychotic. He smiled back down at his brother. "That's nice, Knives, and I'm glad you're taking the time to try to change your ways. That makes me really... proud... of... YOU?!"

As Vash was speaking, Knives's innocent smile had changed to his usual completely sadistic grin. He turned back to the spiders and started squishing them, making a skoosh noise as he squashed them.

"Sally, skoosh. Max, skoosh. Kiesha, squishity. Perry, Bobbette, Fred, Greg, John, skooshsquishskooshityskooshskoosh."

The more peaceful of the plants had paled at the sight. "What are you doing?!"

"Just avenging the butterflies, dear brother."

Vash grabbed Knives by the chin and turned his head so he could look him in the eye. He thought for a moment before responding, "Knives, how long did it take you to find all the spiders in that bucket?"

"About three hours. I was surprised there were spiders here, though."

"And... did you look around and only collect the spiders who had butterflies in their webs?"

"Of course not. I haven't seen hardly any butterflies here. But they are spiders all the same, and they deserve to die."

"But if those spiders hadn't done anything, then you're a cold-blooded murderer! You can't decide to punish someone for something that they haven't done!"

"Dear brother, you always got so worked up about spiders. So what if they haven't done it yet? They are easy to persuade. You put anything in their webs, and they try to kill it. Spiders inject their venom into their pray, turning the pray's insides to mush, leaving only the hull intact, and leaving the butterfly to die a slow, agonizing, lonely death. That's what they're doing to you, poisoning you and watching you slowly die! Can't you see? Maybe if we eliminate all spiders, then butterflies will flourish more."

"Knives... You're wrong! Wrong about all of it! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WHO'S POISONING ANYBODY! I JUST WANT TO HELP YOU!..." Vash grabbed Knives by the shoulders and pulled him out of the chair. He added softly, "Why can't you see that?"

"I can see perfectly, brother. I can see the scars all over your body, from what they've done to you. Envious spiders did this to you. Ones who wished they could have the abilities of a butterfly..."

"No, Knives... 'Envious spiders' didn't do this to me. I did it to myself, because I made a choice. I chose to have these scars on my body rather than blood on my hands. To endure pain beyond anything a normal human could survive, so the normal human wouldn't have to."

Vash glared at Knives. "But I'm still going to do what I can to save both the butterflies and the spiders, Knives. I want to save you and the humans. We can still make an Eden. But wouldn't it be much more quickly done with others' help?"

"Humans don't deserve it. They are imperfect little creatures that have no business still existing."

"We are imperfect too, Knives."

"I can certainly see why you are... Your compassion makes you incredibly weak."

"And your lack of compassion makes you equally weak. Let me ask you: I know you've killed with your bare hands. Most likely, you've killed children, too. Tell me, what did they do to you?"

"That they exist is enough reason to kill them."

"Wasn't that Steve's philosophy as well?"

Knives didn't say anything, but Vash could feel him shaking with anger. He was either going to start screaming or fighting; probably both. Just then the two brothers heard a click as the door slid open. Millie tentatively stuck her head in the door. Catching sight of the look on the two's faces, she cautiously asked,

"Umm... M-Mr. Vash? Mr. Knives? Are you all right in here? I thought I heard yelling."

Vash gave Millie a reassuring smile. "Yeah, we're fine! Just having a little chat."

Millie caught sight of the squashed spiders on the desk.

"Uh, Mr. Vash? I don't know who's spiders those are, but you may want to put them away before Sempai comes back. She's afraid of spiders."

"Alright, Millie, we were about to put those away. Right, Knives?"

Knives smiled at Millie. He had just gotten an idea. Why not see what a spider would say about his spider-and-butterfly theory?

"Right, dear brother. Millie?"

"Yes, Mr. Knives?"

"Do you like butterflies?"

"Butterflies? I think I saw a picture of one in a book somewhere, but I've never seen a real one. They look pretty, though!"

"Well, how do you feel about spiders?"

"... Hmmm... I really don't know... I've never thought about it. I'm not afraid of them, like Sempai, though..."

"Well, you know, spiders eat butterflies. If all the spiders were to die, the butterflies could flourish. Does that sound like a good idea to you?"

"... No. The butterflies are pretty, but don't spiders protect us from other bugs that can make us sick? Like mesquite?"

Vash chuckled a little. "I think you mean mosquitoes, Millie."

"Yeah! That's right! Don't they carry some sort of disease? Spiders keep the other bug populations down. The way you're talking, Mr. Knives, it's like you think that spiders only eat butterflies, and nothing else eats butterflies. I think birds like them, right?" Millie giggled.

Knives was a little frustrated. This wasn't going right... Ah ha! Just a quick change of topic...

"Millie, have you ever heard of those 'Plants'? The lost technology?"

"Don't be silly, Mr. Knives, of course I've heard about Plants! But what does that have to do with butterflies?"

"Nothing... But, don't you think the way the humans exploited the Plants' powers made them like slaves to humans? And made the humans like parasites?"

Millie lost a little of her smile. "Well, of course I don't think that! I don't think the humans are like parasites to Plants. I never knew of any of them being misused. We invented the plants a long time ago, before we got to this planet, right? We invented them, nurtured them, protected them, and keep them alive today, and in turn, they provide us with power. If I'm not mistaken, that's not parasitism... I think it's called mutualism."

A voice echoed from outside.

"MILLIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WE HAVE WORK TO GET DONE!!!"

"I think I hear Meryl calling. Bye, Mr. Vash and Mr. Knives! COMING, SEMPAI!"

Millie ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Vash looked at a stunned Knives and said smugly, "Well, Knives, what have you got to say?"

"I... didn't know she even knew the word 'mutualism'."

"*sigh* You know what I mean."

"Heh. Like I'm going to listen to a stupid human. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have something to do." Knives sat down at the desk again to resuming squishing spiders.

Vash sighed again. It looked like he was never going to get through to Knives...

"Fine. I'm leaving, I don't want to see you viciously squash any more spiders. Seeya."

"Yo."

Vash walked out of the room and almost shut the door, leaving a tiny crack. He pulled a thin mirror out of his coat pocket and slipped it through the crack of the door to see what his brother was doing. He watched his brother slowly stand up and walk over to the window, a thoughtful expression on his face. He glanced back at the spiders on his desk, then out the window again. Vash's eyes widened in shock as his brother walked calmly over to the desk and retrieved the bucket. Knives opened the window and pulled the lid off, then proceeded to pour all of the spiders out. He threw the empty container to the other side of the room and flopped down on the bed.

The peace-loving gunslinger was genuinely surprised at his brother.

'I guess what Millie and I said got through to him, after a-'

His thoughts were cut short by a woman's scream... that sounded oddly familiar. He looked in the door again and saw Knives doubled over in laughter. Meryl's voice echoed throughout the town:

"SOMEBODY GET THESE DAMN SPIDERS OFF OF ME!!! HEEEELLLP!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

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Stupid, no? Ah, well, I don't care. Again, this fic was spur-of-the-moment, so please, no flames. Ja!