Archive of Our Own ^beta

Vash entered the chamber before him, the sound of a piano playing could be heard muffled from the closed doors and when he pushed them open, their song was as clear as day. Walking forward with careful steps, Vash looked about the room. Petrified plants surrounded him and before him was Knives, playing both parts of their duet, cloaked in his gate with his hood up. 

Years apart, Vash finally thought himself ready to confront his brother. He waited for Knives to make the first move, hoping to hear he felt remorseful over something. Vash could curse his foolishness as Knives first move was to use his gate.

“Nai!” Vash’s eyes went wide as he felt the dull blade of his brother constricting him, not enough to hurt but enough to dash any hope of squirming out. He knew Nai would never intentionally hurt him but Nai had a look on his face that sent a shifter down his spine. 

“No more running, Vash, not anymore.” Knives was smiling, ice blue eyes crinkled at the corner as more coils extended from his back, lifting them both towards an empty plant tank. 

“I can’t wait to show you what I’ve learnt about some plant adaptations over the years.” 

There was almost a sing-song quality to the way Knives was speaking, a hint of amusement coloured his words as Knives brought them to the tank. It wasn’t the normal large cylindrical chambers that housed their dependent kin, Vash could see this one was very different. The bottom of the tank had a strange metal grating, the side panelling looked to overlap, it was rectangular and small, just big enough for one person to fit in…

Vash was brought close to Knives, a worried look on his face as he tried and failed to get free of his brother’s metallic grasp. “Nai, please, I don’t know what you’re planning but surely we can talk this out?” He knew there was a near zero chance of Nai backing out of whatever he had planned but there wasn’t much else Vash could do. 

Knives reach out a hand, softly stroking his brother’s cheek before lowering his hand to Vash’s prosthetic arm, feeling along where it connected to his flesh and finding the latch to disconnect it. “I’m going to keep you safe, my Vash. You don’t know how much it’s pained me to see how the humans have treated you.” A dark look flashes over Knives eyes, shifting from his ice blue to a seafoam green momentarily “I hate having had to hurt you back then but it was a necessary burden to keep you alive. What the humans have done to you however, it’s been their own selfishness and cowardice, I can’t let you keep risking yourself for them.”

Vash heard his arm fall to the floor, and was lifted to the top of the tank, he tried to hold his breath as he was plunged in but the shock of the fluid caused him to gasp in a lungful. A strange feeling overcame him from contact with the fluid, stunning him from trying to swim up and escape as the coils unwound from him. However as soon as Knives had removed them from the tank, a lid was closed down on the open top, sealing Vash in. 

Vash tried to move once the initial shock wore off but found himself suspended in place, unable to move despite the fluid feeling like the consistency of water. “Now then, let's begin the demonstration.” Vash could clearly hear Knives on the other side of the tank walls, could see just fine as coils extended from his back, moving serpentine like across the floor to the platform the tank was on. Vash felt movement in the tank with him and looked down to see the coils snaking in from the bottom grating. He thrashed about as more and more came in, trying to fight them off before feeling some strike into his back.

There was a brief moment of pain but it soon faded away, Vash felt and saw his plant markings light up and then he felt a strange disconnection to his own body. He could still see and hear but it was if he was trapped souly in his mind, a passenger in his own form. 

“There we go, don’t panic Vash, all that time you kept running from me, I’ve put it to good use in researching plants.” 

Vash couldn’t speak back, despite what Knives might say he couldn’t help but feel panicked. Vash heard a whirring first, a hydraulic hissing and then saw as the tank he was in started closing in on itself slowly. Unable to speak, Vash reached out with their mental link Nai!! What are you doing?!

Knives let out a chuckle, feeling the sensation of Vash finally breaking down the barrier he held up to their link. “Do you remember, Vash? Back on that ship? We saw some of our sisters but they were so much larger than we had ever seen.”

The memory played out in their connection, Rem taking them to the plant carrier and above them, in a chamber three times as large as they were used to seeing, was one of their sisters just as large.  

“Plants can adapt, apparently there were some of our kin back on earth as large as buildings. But they can also be compressed.” Vash saw Knives markings light up too, they were pulsing in tandem, resonating with one another.

“However, compressing a plant could be dangerous, depending on what kind of energy output they had… but for a plant that doesn’t produce anything, gives energy back to the higher dimension rather than taking from it, there isn’t the risk.”

Vash’s field on vision was locked on Knives, with no control over his body he couldn’t look away no matter how much he wanted to, couldn’t even close his eyes as his perspective began shifting. 

The tank continued closing in on itself, the plant fluid that kept Vash suspended was glowing a brighter blue. Vash could hear the filtration system as fluid was forced out into the grate below him but there were other sounds too. He couldn’t look down or feel what was going on but he heard a soft thinking of metal on metal, another sound that reminded Vash of something large getting sucked up into a vacuum cleaner. Nai, what’s happening!

“Compressing a plant, for short periods of time could also be done to help them; were a plant to somehow be physically damaged it could focus their energy on healing them. Of course, they need access to energy for that so I’m lending you some of mine.” 

Vash desperately wished he could look away as the world around him seemed to grow and grow. He didn’t even have a sense of time in his out of body status but the implication of what Knives was doing to him was becoming increasingly clear.

Nai please stop this! I don’t want this!

Knives was unmoving, both in his resolve and posture, arms folded over his chest, markings on his plant skin lit up and coils of dull blades extended from his back, though a few had retracted back to him. 

“You’re sick, Vash. You’ve been poisoned by humanity for so long you can’t even see it but I’ve watched it. I can’t bring myself to let you keep throwing yourself into harm's way, to be blinded to your own suffering. I’m just sorry it took me so long to get the help you needed.”

Vash heard more and more bits falling to the bottom of the tank and some being sucked past the grating, some too large just drifting along the bottom. He couldn’t tell how long it had been, but without being able to move his head, Vash was now looking at his brother’s shins. At least the glow was so bright now he could barely see anything.

“This was the only way Vash. for over one hundred years you’ve been neglecting yourself to the point I had no choice but to intervene.” There was genuine sadness in Knives voice “I love you so much that I will do anything necessary to keep you safe, whether that be crashing the ships or compressing you to keep safe in my hands.”

Nai… you caused the fall because of me… it was my fault?

Vash finally started to feel something, but not a physical sensation, his mind was ablaze with Nai’s words, anxiety, panic, guilt all flooding him and mercifully his consciousness ebbed away.

Vash came to with physical sensation returning to him, he could feel he was laying on something warm, soft and moving. He could feel his body again but his limbs were sluggish to respond and he felt different in a way he couldn’t place. Vash focused on opening his eyes, it took a lot of effort, letting out a groan as light was finally filtering into his vision. He turned his head from side to side until the light cleared enough for Vash to finally look up and see his brother. 

His big, big brother looked down at him, as if one of the moons was barely a foot from him and smiling wider then Vash felt tall. Vash scrambled back in a panic, his hands feeling below him as he backed into Knives fingers. Vash was finally able to look around and see he was being held by Knives; his hands cupped together around his now tiny form. 

Vash was too overwhelmed to even think as he was processing his new perspective and a primal feel overtaking him as Knives laughed, sharp teeth visible with how wide and manically he was laughing.

“I finally have you, my Vash! Now nothing can ever harm you again.” 

Vash tried to stand but Knives just shifted him to one hand, gathering him up in the other to bring closer to his face and hold him still. “Nai, NAI!” 

Vash’s cries were silenced as a large pair of lips pressed to his whole head and he stilled in Knives’ hold. 

Once he was pulled back Vash finally noticed his left arm, whole and flesh. He was still fully dressed, red coat and all but Vash finally felt the lack of his surgical implants and risked looking up at Knives.

“What… What did you do to me, Nai?”

Knives actually sighed and shook his head and had the audacity to give a little pout “I told you; I lent you some of my energy to heal you. The compressing process wouldn’t work on the inorganic implements you had so for it to happen safely I had to take care of those. I never wanted to hurt you back then, when you never healed yourself, I thought it was to punish me for back then but now I know it was because you needed my help.”

Vash wanted to be angrier at his brother then he was, learning he was Knives' reasoning for causing the fall, doing all this for some twisted idea that he needed to be controlled. But finding out his brother never wanted to cut his arm off, that he felt remorseful for it, Vash couldn’t help but soften slightly at that. Maybe if he went along with Knives for a bit, and didn't fight this he could keep his brother from hurting humanity more… Though the way Knives was looking at him, as if he was fighting back from devouring him…

“I can finally take care of you, Vash, I’ve missed so many of our birthdays so I hope this gift can make up for that. Happy birthday, Vash.