Survive

Part II:
Rain of metal and glass

Disclaimer: ANGST this fic contains male/male relations, light Shota-con (references to the first part), light \"brotherly love\"(incest), and other uncolorful imagery. If this offends you, or if your under 18, annoying, or blaaaaaaaahhhh... please go else where...But, because you\'re ignoring this disclaimer any way, does it matter ^_^? Oh yes, don\'t sue.... I\'m still poor!!!

Part II:
Rain of metal and glass

I\'ve found what I was looking for at last...
The final piece of the enigma that has been hurting me so
Those fools know nothing of what I\'ve concocted
Nothing of my new dream.
I have shed all the blood and tears I will ever want to.
No more...
For I have shed his blood...
And I will laugh, as the heavens come crashing down.

Knives sat in his dorm, looking at the planet. Anticipation fill his mind as he watched it through the thick glass barrier. So perfect. Something that will house his freedom...Freedom from this metal prison...and no one would be able to hurt him ever again. No one...

Rem walked into Knives room then. Cheerful, beautiful Rem. So naïve in Knives eyes. So full of idealistic teachings which couldn\'t be possible in her world...Humans hate...humans lust...and he knew all these things and more as his insides gently throbbed from his latest attack. He knew all of her dreams...every teaching to be lies and contradiction...

Humans must hurt and kill to live...they must dominate and destroy to survive, just as any animal has done over the ages...And Rem\'s teachings...go against the natural order of things...

Now or later, you will kill to survive...it\'s just how things are...

Rem looked at Knives as his attentions turned to the window once again. She had noticed his sudden changes in attitude and watched him become slowly more solitary every passing day. It worried her to see
him like this. She would look at him as her son, but received no warmth from him any more.

It was as if...the boy inside his eyes was dead...

\"Knives?\" She spoke quietly in a gentle voice \"Knives, we have to talk.\" Knives didn\'t look away from the window as she spoke. \"I know you like your solitude, but I\'m beginning to worry.\" Still no
response. \"Has anything been bothering you, Knives?\" Knives tensed at the question. The reaction was all Rem needed to know something was truly a miss. \"Knives talk to me...you know you can trust me...\"

Knives clutched his sleeve. Trust...? He didn\'t trust her.... He couldn\'t. Not one who was of the same breed as \"him\".... If he wasn\'t born on the ship, he knew he would be behind glass, his lithe form being drained of energy and life\'s essence it\'s self to insure people just like Rem could survive from his pain and suffering... Trust...an impossible feat for him to muster...\"There\'s nothing to talk about.\" he said in a voice, which was nearly monotone.

\"Knives.... Please don\'t lie to m-\" He spun around, his empty eyes stabbing deep into his interrogator. Rem gasped at the hostility and sadness in his eyes. Gasped at the lifelessness they showed to her. No sign of any spirit...just the glassy hollow look of death...

Then, he smiled. Smiled behind those hurt, hollow eyes.

\"Rem, there\'s nothing wrong with me, I\'m completely okay. I\'ve just been tired lately, maybe working too-\" Rem stared at him as he spoke. Fury filling her as he continued on. She knew he lied...she knew he told her what he thought she wanted to hear. Those eyes.... No change as he spoke...so dead...so very dead... \"-aybe I should stay in my room for a few days to get back to normal. I haven\'t been feeling we-\" How could he lie to her like this? How can he do it so calmly? \"-I promise you Rem, nothing has been bothering m-\"

Hearing enough, she slapped him...the intensity of the blow, echoing in the dim room as she stood, shocked at her very action.

Knives sat on his bed, face turned from the impact of Rem\'s physical outburst. Shock, and hurt filled his eyes as he turned to face his \"mother\", and Rem gazed back, tears running from her cheeks at the sudden realization of what she had just done was so very wrong.

\"Knives...I\'m...I\'m sorry...\"

She wrapped her arms around the shocked child, sobbing into Knives\' saffron cream locks. And for the first time in three months after the beginning of his personal hell,

Knives Millions wept.

*****
He sat under the tree...the very tree that a conversation with Vash had taken place a few days prior. He took an apple from the ground and examined it. It was wrong to kill, and everything had the right to live...That\'s what Rem had taught his entire life...but how was it possible to live like that? Another thought...trees needn\'t words because they\'re stronger...impossible. Weaker than us all...what\'s the point of power if you never use it? We eat the tree\'s fruit so we can survive.... We kill part of the tree for our own benefit...just like they do to us...

He looked out into the rec. room, which seemed almost endless at times. Humans kill his kind to power their computers...run their ships...and they feel nothing for the endless sacrifices and pain they administered to his kin. He gazed into the apple angrily.
Steve...Steve uses him...Just for his own perverse needs and wants...Always being used...He shielded his eyes from the lights as he shifted onto his back.... And then realized the truth...the Electricity was like the apples. It was a benefit and now, electricity was just as necessity for survival, as food was.... And the plants...so much power and unable to move, just like the trees. They take and use so they can survive...they take and use because they\'re able to harness it.

Everything came stitched together as more and more conclusions came to the boy. More and more reasons why his scheme he had been planning should be carried out. More and more reasons to hate them all... so
many reasons.... So much hate....

He looked at Vash, half of his hair at his feet. He wondered if she intended to keep the \"twins\" the same. He and his brother, at some point in time which seemed lost, so very long ago, were some what
similar...but now, all he could see was the childish lies which Rem fed him... Vash never realized how she really felt. Under the shield of that warm exterior, she wasn\'t a saint...But because all of her true emotions were hidden away some where...but he never realized how much she hurt until a swift blow brought him to the truth. But Vash didn\'t understand it...nor could he in the form he was presently in.

So very innocent...
Nothing but the lies of childhood...
And the belief that they were true.
How it hurt to see the ignorance in such beautiful eyes...

He left then, went away from warmth to carve and sculpt...to fashion something that wouldn\'t involve that woman\'s help or lies. Something of his own creation. She had Vash believing her lies...but he swore she\'d never have him. In Rem\'s study, scissors...second drawer...He opened the room and looked at the apple he still carried. Smirked and bit into it.

And then, the tears began to threaten him as slowly his smile fell and he dropped the red orb. Everything was wrong...was anything the same? Was it all a lie? Tears fell as he remembered what Steve had told him. It had changed...it all changed into something terrible. He clutched the scissors in trembling hands.

The silver began to cut into pale gold as he worked. Everything he was taught being discarded along with the trendles and locks descended to the floor. No more impossible, foolish dreams, no more of there idealistic lies...Everything will be different...no more lies.... Just the truth. Tears melting into anger as more and more hair fell to the floor. He would change everything...and he would show everyone a life without them...

Everything was wrong...
And he and his brother will never be the same...
The time has come,
And he would be different to adapt to all of the changes...
No longer the same...
No longer a child...

He ran his fingers through his hair and shut his eyes....

All wrong...

\"IT\'S ALL WRONG!\" fighting tears and holding his head in his hands...everything was wrong...he would be the one to fix it... no longer revenge, but a cleansing...He would repair what they have tainted.... He would save all of his people, and dispose of the trash...everything would be all right...

And he would first start with Steve...very soon; he would get the justice he disserved...

*****

Rem took the boys out walking t in the rec. room. Rem talking about teachings that Knives doubted she believed in, after that slap. He ignored it all...entertained with thoughts of his own... Vash, on the
other hand, seemed interested in the many butterflies that lived in a fair abundance. Until he spotted one in a spider web.

Knives watched...maybe he could get to Vash with a simple lesson...to show Rem\'s contradiction.... This would show him the truth. So, after little hesitation, he concluded.

Both Vash and Rem watched in horror as the spider was crushed under his hand.

Knives spoke of truly saving something...Producing a philosophy that gave him the right to kill... Vash looked into nothing as he listened.

He was distraught, and slowly grew angry...He killed it. He had killed it...it didn\'t need to die. How could he do that? It was no excuse...it wasn\'t his choice...

And after pushing Knives to the ground in an angry dispute, Knives knew he had failed to go past the barrier of ignorance. Nothing was going to stop this now...She had deluded his mind far too
greatly...It was time to but the gears in turn. All of the pieces in place...Soon; he would show Vash what life would be like without the lies.

Very soon....

*****


Poor Rem...He thought, still grinning after seeing his abuser killed by his own kind. And Rem....always trying to get justice for those who had none. He thought of what would happen if he would have told
her the truth...would she have been as curious and going on equal sides as she had done if it had been one of her \"children\" on the stand instead of the women he manipulated and bent to his whims.

Didn\'t matter. He had done away with him and he went to make sure the job was complete...he went to see the corpse...just to know he was dead...

Everything seemed to be looking his way, as he headed toward the freezer.

Through the numb and the sting of the cold, he was warm inside...laughing quietly. The face of terror permanently etched on to the face of the one he hated most stood before him in a glass coffin. The laughter grew louder as he walked closer to him. He had never felt so wonderful and strong. He put trembling fingers to the glass of the tube.

\"You thought you had won....\" He said between the sadistic laughs. \"You thought I was yours...\" The laughter grew slightly higher and more menacing. \"Now look at you...death in a frozen prison...\" Slowly, the laughter died down and hishands formed into fists, lightly numb from the cold aganst the glass. \"But I still don\'t understand...\" He lightly cursed himself as he began to cry. \"WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME!?!\" He banged his fists against the glass, sobbing. \"HOW COULD ANYONE HURT SOME ONE LIKE THAT!?\" Sliding to his knees, the laughter beginning again as the tears continued to fall. He wanted this place destroyed...he wanted everything gone...the crew, the ship, and the rest of the human scum. He would save only his kind and then create a world with no oppressors...nothing would dare threaten him...no one.

And then, he walked away from Steve\'s death, just as calmly as he had came to marvel at his work. A grin which would make the bravest uneasy across his features.

Brother,
I love you....
I have always loved you...
How it hurts to see you look at the heavens,
As light of burning metal reflects in your tears...
But you\'ll see...
It was better this way...
Some day, you\'ll thank me for this...
Thank me for my gift...

As he walked down the hallways toward his dorm, he walked past Vash\'s Dormitory and heard a noises, muffled and of discomfort. He put his head to his door, desperately trying to make out his words.

Something of fire.... Something of sand.... A dream perhaps?

He opened the door, and light flooded his dark room, giving all of the things in the small room, a shadow of a personality. He looked in the direction of the bed to find Vash tossing in his sleep. He made his way through the dim room and sat on the bed. Outbursts of words coming through his sleep.

... Fire... pain.... Dead...afraid....

Knives mearly watched, marveled at his brother\'s straining movements.... The sweat which glistened from his forehead. He bent down and touched his lips gently with his fingertips...testing their softness, watching him wince as cold flesh met his warmth...so innocent.... Hands moving to slide his bangs from his sweat damped face...this is what he protected...this is what he saved...Knives smiled gently as Vash awoke with a start, looking at Knives with frightened eyes. And before he understood what was going on, Vash held him in a tight embrace, crying quietly into Knives shoulder. Knives sat stunned...

Vash\'s smell filling his nose as he held him.
His hair brushing his now crimson cheeks.
And hot tears flooding on the cloth of his shirt,
As Knives sat stunned.
He was no longer cold,
Under Vash\'s shaking embrace.
No longer afraid or saddened
Among the arms of his envy....

He gently caressed Vash, uttering words to calm a frightened child.

\"It\'s only a nightmare, brother...only a bad dream....\"

The scene had ended when gunshots rang through out the ship...

*****
They ran now. Ran towards the escape pods. Knives had successfully pulled it off, and now held back his smile. One shot had completed his mission...and now they ran to his Eden. No one will be spared...he had programmed it himself...all will be destroyed in a wondrous fire...all of the garbage shall die....

They hurried into the ship. Vash and Knives the first and only to enter and leave....

And then, an innocent watched his hopes and dreams die in the fire his dreams had foretold. Metal and glass burning with fury as his whole world came crashing down...in one night he had lost everything...

End of Part II

Author\'s notes: SO DAMN LONG!!!!!! AHHGRH!!!! I thought I\'d never get those two little bastards off that god-forsaken ship!!!! Ahem... This chapter had little to do with hot steamy man sex... It was just a very long look into the mind of Knives Millions basically...And I needed space to waste on another chapter...I couldn\'t just say, *poof! * We\'re in a desert planet...for some...strange reason. But for all of the porn addicts out there, in the next chapter, Knives looses his marbles.... Further.... This probably isn\'t a good thing. Well...for Vash any way... Now, I\'m off to take my medication....doo do doo dee dee la la la...

Part III

Under twin suns:

It\'s hard to hold onto
Something you love, forever.
No matter how much you hold it dear,
It doesn\'t mean you can\'t break it.