Something else 0

On the SEEDs ship:

Vash carefully moved his hand closer to the struggling butterfly. He had to get it out of the web, but he had to be careful not to muss its wings, or it wouldn’t be able to fly. The spider was almost within biting range of the butterfly.

A rock sailed past his head, smacking into the spider and knocking it off the web, crushing its small body to the ground. Vash started to turn around, but his brother’s voice stopped him.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Free the butterfly." Knives told him. Vash carefully pulled the butterfly free of the web and watched it fly away, he then turned to his brother, the anger he was feeling evident on his face.

"What did you do that for?!" Vash demanded, standing up and storming over to Knives, who looked confused.

"To save the butterfly of course. If you kept taking the spider’s meals away from it, it was going to die anyway, it would have just taken longer." Knives reasoned.

"But I could have saved both!" Vash insisted.

"And then what would the spider have eaten?! Its own webbing?!" Knives snapped.

Vash huffed and stormed out of the rec room, disappearing down the hall. Knives shook his head.

"You stupid little shit!"

Knives’ gaze whipped towards the door Vash had left through.

"Watch where you’re going next time!"

"I’m... I’m sorry Steve." Vash said. Knives ran over to the door and looked out down the hall just in time to see Steve kick Vash into the wall.

"Stupid little monster!" Steve snarled, picking Vash up and throwing him into the wall again.

"Steve! Please stop!" Vash begged.

"Oh, a monster like you isn’t even worth beating." Steve kicked Vash again, and left down a fork in the hallway. Knives ran over to his brother.

"Vash! Brother, are you alright?" Knives helped Vash sit up "I can’t believe he did that to you!"

"...Maybe he’s right Knives..." Vash sighed "We’re not human, we’re not like the other plants... Maybe we are monsters..."

Knives grabbed Vash’s shoulders and shook him firmly. "No brother! You’re not a monster! He is! ...Can you stand? We should get you to the med room."

Vash nodded meekly and stood up, using a hand to brace himself up against the wall.

"It’s ok brother, I’ll help you." Knives took his brother’s arm and put it over his shoulders to support Vash.

"...Thank you Knives." Vash murmured, then smiled weakly "But I still think you were wrong about the spider."

"We can worry about that later brother." Knives shushed his brother and helped him walk down the hall.

Two days later:

Steve didn’t see the shadow that crept into his room as he went over some papers. The shadow tightened delicate black-gloved fingers over the silver metal in its hand. The shadow crept up to the desk, a sparkle of gold in the dim light from the single lamp over the papers Steve was working on.

Steve did notice when the barrel of a gun was pressed against his temple. His eyes darted to the small straw-haired boy holding the gun in a firm, steady, and sure grip. He opened his mouth. "Silence!" Knives hissed, "So... You’re where my brother got all his bruises... I should have known. You hate us." Knives’ hands twitched slightly, the gun shaking in his grip for a moment.

The gunshot rang down the halls.

Knives carefully put the gun in Steve’s hand, wrapping the man’s fingers around it to leave prints. He took his gloves off, sticking them in his pocket, rubbed his eyes hard to redden them, and stepped out into the hallway, clearing his throat.

"...REEEEEEEM!!!" Knives yelled, running down the halls to where he knew Rem was. Rem would see Steve’s body, decide that he had suicided, and go into a speech about the value of human life. Meanwhile, his brother wouldn’t have to worry about Steve’s beatings ever again.

After a week:

Knives ran his fingers through the new haircut Rem had given him. Still exactly like Vash. He smiled lopsidedly as he entered the ships’ current coordinates into the computer, as well as the calculation he had made, based on the maps they had of the known parts of the galaxy. He frowned at the results.

Fifty years to the nearest star they could colonize? ...And that was fifty light years. At the speed they were going at... Well, in excess of several hundred years. Knives pressed the print key, and typed new instructions into the computer. The planet they were near was dry and harsh, but they could survive on it.

The SEEDs ships lurched as they went into landing mode.

"What’s going on?!" Vash clung to Knives in fear as the ship lurched. Knives’ eyes narrowed.

"Brother, put the space suit on! There’s something wrong with the ship. It isn’t landing properly, we have to get to the escape pod." Knives pushed the space suit at his brother again.

"Why are we landing here?!" Vash’s grip tighten as the ship shook violently.

"Look, I’ll show you the information I found later, right now there’s a crisis, we don’t have time for discussion!" Knives finally swept his brother’s feet out from under him and started forcing the suit on him.

"What about Rem? Joey? Mary? Rowen?" Vash kept asking as Knives helped him back to his feet and shoved a helmet into his hands.

"I saw them all going to the escape pods." Knives lied. He had only seen Rem dragging an unconscious Joey. There had been no sign of Rowen and Mary. "Now come on, we have to join them!"

"Alright..." Vash grudgingly followed his brother, a sad, parting glance back at the cryogenic section of the ship "I hope they make it alright. I wish I could save them."

A loud metallic tearing sound echoed throughout the ship, and Knives grabbed his brother’s arm and started running. He had to save his brother.

Vash opened his eyes, seeing his brother’s concerned face over him. "Wha-...?"

"Wake up brother, we’re safe now." Knives smiled. Vash sat up and looked around. The wreckage of the ship was nearby. Half of it was alright, but half looked like a junkyard someone had doused in gasoline and set on fire. A little ways in the distance he could see other ships, all of the ones he could see were whole and undamaged. He could see people walking towards the wreckage.

"Where is everyone?" Vash asked, looking desperately for the crew.

"Joey is over under that rock overhang over there." Knives pointed "I thought I should get him out of the sun, he had some pretty bad burns. And I haven’t seen Rem, and I don’t think Mary or Rowen made it."

"They didn’t...?" Vash’s eyes watered up. He sniffled, then paused as something down by the wreckage twitched. "...Rem?"

Knives blinked as his brother jumped up and ran down the sand dune they were on.

"Rem!" Vash called out as he ran over to the horribly burned form sprawled on the sand. The person was barely recognizable due to the burns and cuts all over her body, but Vash knew who it was instantly.

Rem took a shallow, gurgling breath.

"Rem!" Vash sobbed, wanting to hold her, but knowing he’d only damage her. If only he had a way to treat the burns. A tingling crept from his right shoulder down his arm as he brushed his fingers gently over Rem’s face.

"I so sorry Rem..." Vash whispered. Suddenly, a pain shot down his right arm, and feathers exploded outwards, as if his arm was turning into a wing. He doubled over and screamed as the pain felt like his arm was being ripped from his body. The feathers extended towards Rem, wrapping under her and cradling her like a soft bed.

As the pain eased Vash stared in wonder as Rem’s burns healed, the cuts closing up, not a scar left from even the worst of the burns. Rem drew another breath, deeper than the last, and without the wet gurgle of blood in her lungs.

"Rem..." Vash whispered.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER YOU MONSTER?!" A voice called out. Vash’s head snapped up to see a frightened-looking man with a gun pointed at Vash’s head. Vash laid the newly healed Rem down, the feathers disappearing as his arm turned back to normal.

"I was... I was..." Vash stammered, trying to figure out how to explain that he didn’t know what he had just done.

The man shot him.

The bullet hit Vash in the shoulder, knocking him backwards, and he landed in the burning wreckage on his left arm. A piece of metal fell over, trapping him half in the flames.

"VASH!" Knives cried out from in top of the dune. He started running. He saw the man aim to fire at Vash again. He jumped, landing in front of the man, grabbing the gun. He pressed it against the man’s forehead and pulled the trigger as a few other people ran over to Vash, trying to get him out of the flames. Knives whirled around and shot again, severing Vash’s left arm from the rest of his body.

"Quickly! Pull him out and put the flames out on him, and staunch the bleeding!" Knives ordered, dropping the gun and going to check on Rem.

"You didn’t... Have to... Shoot him, Knives..." Vash murmured as his consciousness flowed out with the blood from his shoulder.