Work Text:
Knives was dying. He knew he had to be dying. There was no energy left. His hair was nearly as jet black as Vash's. Knives had fucked up. He knew this. He didn't know what else to do. zvash had been saved but was passed out. That was fine. Vash always had a way with humans that Knives simply never wanted to have.
Knives trembled as he knew what he was doing. The last of his energy, the last of his essense was going away to help these humans. That was the closest thing to saying Vash had won Knives could do. A fruit tree. That was a good decision.
It was nice to let go. To let himself become nothing. Knives felt all floaty. This had to be it. He became somewhat aware of his surroundings. Of a slight breeze, of leaves shaking. Was Knives the tree? No. Not really. Knives could feel himself, but he could also feel the tree. He didn't have aphysical form anymore, but for now this was enough. he could watch over his brother for awhile here.
It was peaceful. His roots were watered regularly, he saw Vash sometimes, and he never had to say anything. Just listen. Knives could listen. There was a slight pain and Knives looked more closely. Vash had picked an apple. He was biting into it. Life was moving on without him.
Knives could feel that floaty feeling coming back, pulling him away from the tree, away from Vash. There was nothign he could do to stop it. He was floating away already. This was it. Knives closed his eyes and let the feeling overtake him.
Knives opened his eyes. There was a blue sky with fluffy clouds like in the system Rem liked so much. There were more sounds though. Not just the sound of wind through the leaves but other louder sounds, ones that Knives didn't recognize. He sat up. There were trees but not ones he'd ever seen before. They were almost alien, the same idea sure, but instead of leaves they were covered in horrible spines that became a brighter green as it reaches the ends. Knvies regretting touching it as it poked him.
That was how he realized he was wearing shoes again. It had been awhile since he'd worn proper shoes. He didnt need them on the arc and prefered to walk barefoot trhoguh the sands when possible. He was now greatful to it, there were those spikes shed everywhere. It would hurt him to walk without shoes.
Knives began to walk. He wasn't sure where he was going. There were so many differnt types of plants he had never seen before. Every now and then he got a glimpse of creatues he didn't recognize. They were all so varied, and most importatnly they all left him alone.
Eventually he made it to a lake. It was so still. Everything was alive and it wasn't loud. Knives took a deep breath and sighed. he looked over and there was a bench with someone sitting on it.
Rem
Knives felt so small again as he went up to her. She was just as tall as he rmembered, or maybe he had gotten smaller. Rem smiled as she saw him, "Hey Knives, come look at the view with me."
He climbed up next to her and buried his face under her arm. he was crying. he hated it, it always gave Knives a headache. not to mention tht he shouldnt' be crying so hard in front of a human of all things. "Did you have fun?"
"I'm sorry for hurting so many people."
Rem pulled Knives into her lap, letting him cry into her chest. He hadn't meant for her to die. She was supposed to survive. She ws supposed to be the only human to survive. But she was too kind, too good. One of the few good humans out there and for that she let herself die.
"You can try again. It's okay."
Knives could feel rem ruffling his hair and he looked up, only she was different. She was tarting to resemble the trees around her.
"Rem? Rem no!" Knives pulled at the branches and she simply smiled at him as Knives actions did nothing to save her. He failed. He failed again.
Knives turned towards the lake. There was a creatures stnaidng in the midle of the lake. It had 4 knobbly legs and a long neck. The only refrence Knives could remmeber for it was a Thomas, and it didn't look very simialr to that. It had two big ears and some sort of bone respembling tree branches sprouting from its head. He knew in his heart that that creatue caused Rem's transformation. Knives didn't even question how he could walk on top of the lake as he ran for it. It was blonde.
The creature simply turned around and ran off with some large jumping gait away from Knives, he couldn't keep up. he couldn't do it. Knives' lungs burned, his legs trembled and threatened to collapse under him. Finally Knives leg buckled and he fell into the lake.
Everything was so much quieter here. he needed to fight it. Knives needed to go find that creature again. Knives couldn't move a muscle and felt as his vision dissapeared along with his consciousness.
When Knives awoke he heaved for breath. He was in his room in the arc again. he was safe. If Knives turned the corner he would surely be able to find Legato and learn what happened. that boy was useful for some things. For more things than Knives had ever really be greatful for. Instead of that, outside of the room was that creature again, instead of the Arc, it was a different forest with leaves more like the trees Knives rememebered.
Knives lunged for the creature and missed. It was staring at him. Knives stared back at it. The more he stared the more it looked like Vash. The creature ran off and was joined by a white one. Knives was alone again. he turned back to his room. It was still there. He went back in to find a new door. Inside that door was the media room from the ship. From his first home.
There was already someone sitting there. It was him, except not. He had a stupid shoulderpad and his hair was all white.
"Who are you?"
The version of him rolled around, "I'm you."
Knives stared at this alternate version of himself. "That doesn't make sense."
"Well, this keeps happening. We keep fighting, we keep dying. We live on. There's so many worlds."
"How many times has this happened?"
The other him shrugged, "Who knows. Not me, that's for sure. Honestly never expected to meet you."
"Huh?"
"You're the first. You've been busy but now you're here with the rest of us." The other Knives moved the chair back to it's position. "Anyways go. Do whatever you want. I'm busy."
Knives was at a loss for words and just slowly backed away from the room, into his bedroom and outside. Outside was still a forest. Well, his Vash wasn't gone yet, but Legato was. If there was a lot of Knives out there, in theory his Legato had to be out there too. Knives wasn't going to continue to go through this on his own without trying to find that man.
Knives didn't see those creatures again and only a handful of times did he find other versions of himself. Only once did he find a Vash, but it wasn't his brother. It was a different Knives' brother. Through it all, he couldn't find any Legato, let alone the one from his world. Rem wasn't there either. It was just Knives and Vash.
"You need some help?" Knives turned around. A woman;s voice. It wasn't Rem. She had black hair and was taller than Knives.
"Who are you?" He coulnd't place the face or the hair or anything about her.
"I'm Tesla. You look like you're lost."
"Tesla?" So this is what she could have been if she'd gotten to grow up. Who she could have been. She had the same softness Vash and Rem did.
"Yeah. There's not a lot of me around."
Knives nodded. "Okay. I'm lookign for someone. Legato, not Vash. My Vash is still alive."
Tesla nodded, "I'm not sure I've ever seen a Legato. I've heard other independants exist too, but I only know of me, you and Vash being here. Nobody else."
Knives didn't know why his heart sank at that. He had never really cared for Legato, sure he'd been a useful pawn, but Knives never actually cared for the boy. He'd been looking for Legato purely because it owuld be convenient, that was all. "Oh."
"Yeah, I'm sorry I can't be of more help."
Knives shrugged, "Nothing we can do about it. Is there any end to this place?"
"I don't know. If there is, I haven't found it."
"I guess I'll go looking. You're free to come with me if you want."
Tesla shrugged, "I don't really have much else to do. My Knives and Vash left here a long time ago."
"Your Knives and Vash?" Knives raised an eyebrow at that.
"Yeah. Sometimes people just, go. I'm not sure where. Maybe on your quest you'll find where they went. At some point, people get content enough to try and search for something else. That's probably why there's more of you than there are of Vash. You know him."
"Get's bored easily, goes out exploring only to never return. Yeah I know exactly what you mean."
Tesla nodded.
"Well, let's go find us some new land."
They walks together for a long while. There didn't really seem to be days or nights. They occationaly rested, but the little need Knives had for food or drink or sleep had disappeared entirely. They travelled for a long time and Knives got to know Tesla. It was something he'd always been curious about, though what this Tesla was like and what his might have been probably were not the same thing. They both had very different upbringings.
Eventually the forest ended and a desert began. It was similar to the world Knives had always known. Sand going as far as the eye can see.
"Is this right for you?"
"Yeah. This is what I'm used to. The forest has always been strange to me." Knives shrugged and he led the way into the desert.
Tesla struggled a lot more than Knives did. It made sense, he was used to the heat after all. It appeared she had never exoerienced heat this intense before. There wasn't much Knives could do to help her, but they did walk more around night and he did his best to give her shade during the sun. That was all he could do really. She never expressed a desire to go back. Knives never asked. They rested under sandstone scraped smooth by the winds and ocationally saw a worm from afar.
"Is that a town?" Tesla pointed out along the horizon, "It's about 3 fingers from the cliff."
Knives measured and sure enough, he saw it too. "That's worth checkign out, even if it might be a ghost town."
"You guys had those?"
"Tons. Some of them were caused by me, most were just settlements abandoned when the times got too rough."
Tesla nodded in understanding and the two of them moved to go towards the town. Whatever it was was still a good days walk away. They could take their time. Time was the one thing they had in excess.
It didn't look too big. The town was dark as the sun went down. Further proving that it might be a ghost town. Still, just after the sun went down Knives and Tesla came into the town. It was quiet, but in one house there was the giggles of children.
Knives opened the door to see himself and Vash, but more importantly a lot of himself as a kid. There was only one Vash there. Why was he here so much more than everyone else? Did he always die first? Well, other than Tesla at least.
The other versions stopped what they were doing and stared for a moment.
"Sorry, just looking for someone. Keep doing what you're doing!"Tesla smield and shut the door for Knives. She shuffled him away as Knives still reeled with the informaion there was so many of him as a kid.
"I- they're all so young."
"I know. It's okay. There's nothing you can do about it. This isn't what we're looking for."
Knives nodded and let Tesla drag him around by his shoulders until they settled in an empty house as far away from where the other versions of themselves had been.
"Do you think there's really just us forever?" Knives felt the pain in his heart. His Legato. The boy he'd named. The boy who had done so much for him, pledged his loyalty and entire life to Knives. He didn't know how to handle that. He'd done barely anything for the boy. Sure, he'd clothed and fed the child. Gave him a name. But what else? He'd beaten the child and been thanked for it. No matter that Legato was only a portion of Knives life, Knives was Legato's entire life. He should have done better.
Knives felt a hand on his back and he looked over to see Tesla with a worried face. "I don't know, but if it's not just us, we'll find him."
Knives didn't know why he loved those words so much, but he did. "Thank you."
Tesla nodded and for a moment, Knives could see Legato in her, the way her head tilted and her hair fell over her eye. "I need to find Legato. He deserves an apology."
"We will find him. You'll have all the time in the world to make everything up to him."
"Thank you, Tesla."
She simply nodded and the two of them stayed in that house for the rest of the next day before leaving around dusk. They didn't see or hear from the kids again.
It was probably for the best. Knives didn't want to see himself that young and fragile again. Especially a version of himself that appeared to be so innocent to him.
In the end, Tesla and Knives didn't find Legato. Instead, once Knives opened his eyes and Legato was there, staring at Knives with big eyes. He looked younger than Knives remembered, but somehow he knew, this was his Legato.
"Master?"
"Legato!" He sat up and pulled Legato into a hug. Knives didn't know what to say. legato tightened up in the grasp for a moment before relaxing.
"Master Knives?"
"I missed you." This was right. Knives could do better this time. He could be nicer to Legato. He had all the time in the world to make it up to the child.