When he saw the first picture, he thought it was his brother. She looked so much like Knives, really, except that she looked so sad. But then there were more and Knives was saying something, explaining, but all he could see were the little girl’s eyes getting sadder and sadder as the pictures went on. She got thinner. Her hair fell out.
“Vash!” He blinked as his brother’s voice cut through his thoughts. “It was the humans that did this to our sister Tesla. We can’t let them.”
“Rem wouldn’t let them hurt us.”
“It happened. It will happen again. Or they’ll get bored of us and lock us in lightbulbs to power their ship.”
“Can they do that?” Vash asked, his eyes wide.
Knives shook his head. “It wouldn’t work, but they could try. We have to protect ourselves, Vash, and we have to free our sisters.”
Vash looked again at the pictures on the monitor, then at his brother. He thought that maybe he could see the girl’s sadness in Knives’ eyes.
—-
And as Vash stared down the barrel of the gun his brother was pointing at him, beneath all the pain and insanity, he could still see the sadness, and he ached for his brother and for what they had become.
