FicWad

Author's Notes: Please forgive me for slow updating.

X. 3...2...1... Go!

You can do it, Kaite, he told himself that morning as he crushed sleeping pills and used the powder to coat several dozen plastic cups. It was hard work and the stuff in the pills made his joints feel numb. Maybe it would cause him damage. Maybe it already had. He couldn't move his fingers that well anymore.

That's what he had been telling himself since this morning. But it hadn't been easy the first time. Or the second. Or the third.

So what time was it now?

How many times had he been doing what he did?

He knew how to drug whole trains full of passengers so Brilliant Dynamites Neon could rob them.

Three years.

He didn't feel guilty.

Not really.

He did this to keep fed.

He finished the last cup and put it into the cooler. So, this would make it about the three hundredth time doing this. Automatically, Kaite checked the bottled drinks for leaks and closed the lid. Juice was a valuable commodity in the Grey City lately. Something about a nearby grove's Plant exploding or something like that. He really didn't care. Plants bored him.

But his dad has been fascinated by Plants. Enough that he cooed over a Freeborn Plant day in and day out. Maybe mom walking out on him had done that. Kaite wished she had stayed around. Maybe life would have been better.

Kaite slammed the lid on the cooler closed.

That was a whole lot of maybes.

ooo

Three hundred, he told himself again as he pulled the cooler through the subway station. For some reason, this time Kaite felt nervous as if something was going to go wrong this time. His cooler was filled with juice and other "complimentary" treats for the passengers. Getting another free seller's pass was simple. All Kaite had to do was lie about his "Poor ill sister and how he needed the money to pay for her treatment. There was a sudden bump and someone said "ow". Kaite nearly cursed and looked to his right to see a small woman beside her oversized partner.

Kaite had to think and think fast. "Gee Old Lady. You should watch where I'm going."

The small woman gritted her teeth. "Old lady?" she repeated, "Old lady?" Kaite remained silent, trying to ignore her. "I'm twenty-one for crying out loud."

Kaite sighed, turned around, and dropped the cooler's rope. She had thrown off the schedule. Bitch, he thought to himself. "Ma'am," the giant lady chimed in, "Maybe he'll say sorry."

The schedule was all wrong now. Stupid person. BDN demanded a schedule down to the minute and probably down to the second if the thought entered his mind. "Meh," he said, "I think you look forty."

Okay it was the wrong thing to say, but the schedule had been thrown off. More than thrown off. It had practically been thrown out the window. Silently the train slid into the station. Kaite took off for the last car. He had always started from the front, but today he would have to start from the back. Damn this all.

"Excuse me," said an elderly woman, tapping him with a cane, "Is that juice I see?"

Kaite nodded and tried to act casual. With his usual bravo, he poured her a drink and handed her a package of chips.

He was hurting no one really. BDN always dropped them off or so he said. He could trust the guy who gave him cold hard cash.

"Yes Ma'am," he said calmly. There was a lump in his throat as if he was going to throw up. He swallowed it back. "This one is on the house."

ooo

Knives only thought about things in the shower that concerned him. Usually the shower wasn't the best place to think about them. He wasn't concerned about much.

He didn't think about being a supreme being, he thought that over a bowl of breakfast cereal. Knives usually ate breakfast at midnight and denied morning existed. He didn't think about his schedule, Elendira did that for him.

He thought about how he was going to wash his back, not how he was going to take over the world. Taking over the world had a nice ring to it, but he wasn't fond of the humans who lived on it. Besides, as he had often told himself, what was the use of taking over the cinders of a wasteland of a world?

And planning that in the shower was just... just...

Knives winced and began rinsing out the soap in his eye.

ooo

Legato had eyes that looked like a cat. When he smiled, he looked like a cat Rem had once owned. The thing had scared him badly to the point Rem sent the thing to live at at the then unseen, but frequently mentioned Uncle Joey's. Knives had called him a crybaby, but Vash could care less. The thing could smile and smile it did.

Legato Bluesummers was ten times worse.

"So... er..." Vash tapped his fingers on his jeans, trying to avoid Legato's yellow eyes. He focused on his coat hanging near the door and wondered if the spiders that lived in Knives' apartment were trying to build webs in it again. Legato cleared his throat and smiled. He was sure that the covered eye was looking at him to say how stupid he thought Vash was. "How did you and my brother... meet?"

Legato stuffed another chip into his mouth and chewed slowly. He really didn't seem to want to answer. He stared at Vash, visible eye narrowed. Finally, he did swallow. "In a mental hospital," he said, "Knives and I met in a mental hospital. One with padded walls and electroshock therapy. Not the weak kind, but the kind that can kill you."

"Electroshock therapy?" Okay, he said to himself, why can I believe that?

"Yes," Legato said, nodding quickly, "They should do that a lot more often."

Vash coughed. "Oh," he said, "So Knives is getting out and volunteering and he met you..." The rest of the sentence died in his throat, was buried, and given a proper funeral.

Legato glared, "Ma... Knives doesn't like talking about it. Neither do I for that matter."

Vash watched a fly land on the nearest box to him. It crawled over the rough surface until it suddenly twitched and died. He gulped. Somehow the air had become ice cold and it seemed all of the tiny hairs on his arms had turned into tiny feathers. He looked up. Legato was grinning from ear to ear, showing off way too many teeth, his eyes brilliant and cold at the same time.

'You have great power," Legato said.

"Um," Vash said finally, trying to find a way to say, 'Please sir, I want out of here and now, thank you very much. First his voice decided to take a trip south, followed by his tongue, which took the advice of his voice and took a vacation in the islands. "I should be leaving."

"Why?"

Vash scratched his head. This was getting extremely awkward... to some point beyond awkward. He went back to drumming his fingers on his legs. "Well, I have places to go."

He could hear the subtle rattling weezing noise that Knives' shower made. He could see the tiny bits of dirt embedded in the microscopic fissures in Knives' furniture. He looked up, cursed his enhanced senses. Legato's face was now strangely dead. Every muscle was still. His lips drooped slightly and his eyes had the glazed, glassy look of a corpse. Vash shuddered. What kind of man had his brother found? "Okay," he said.

Vash got up, relieved to be leaving the worst place in world. Legato smiled coldly. Work legs, work, Vash tried to tell himself, but his legs seemed to be locked into place. He tried to move one slowly and heard a grinding sound in his joints. Somehow he couldn't move.

Suddenly the tiny apartment was colder than the Grey City. The Plant shuddered. Legato loomed over him, hair hiding both of his eyes, as cruel and deadly as any Grigori Alley Plant. But so unlike a Plant Angel. Their hair was every shade of blonde possible, his hair was blue...

"Hey!" The voice of his brother was short, curt, and a wonderful thing to see.

All of sudden, Vash found himself able to move. He stumbled before sitting down again. "Comfy?" Knives asked, casually toweling his short bristly hair as if nothing had happened.

Legato was paging through a book now, as docile as a kitten. Strangely, Vash soon found himself aware of every bone in his body down to the tiny bones in both inner ears. "Ma... Knives, I'm glad you're back." His gold eyes were wide and insane looking.

Take that back, Vash though to himself, he's as innocent as a feral cat. "What is with that boyfriend of yours?" he said finally.

His twin pulled a box from under his arm. "Oh never mind that," Knives said cheerfully.

Vash sputtered. He couldn't take it any more. "Your boyfriend," he said, seething with rage, "Is a freak."

Knives cradled the box in his arms as if it was a baby. "Tessla likes Legato."

"Oh please," Vash rolled his eyes, "Tessla is a maniacal bitch. Her opinion doesn't matter in this at all."

ooo

Achoo!

The loud sneeze echoed through the limo. The driver turned around to see Tessla rubbing at her nose, half of her shoulder length hair loose from its usual up-do. While Tessla did bother him, he was still polite enough to ask her show she was. "Are you okay, Miss Nikola?"

Tessla squinted, grey eyes watery, before she nodded, "Probably some dust. It's nothing."

ooo

Knives shook his head. "Ridiculous," he said, "Tessla is a sweet person who has been through a hard time in her life."

"Okay," Vash said evenly, "I'll give Ole' Stumpy the benefit of the doubt. For now."

"Ridiculous," Knives said so icily that Vash squirmed in his chair or what passed for it.

"Ridiculous," Legato suddenly chimed in. "Absolutely ridiculous." He looked positively insane and enjoying every moment of Vash's discomfort. "Positively ridiculous... beyond ridiculous...."

"Legato?"

"Yes, my Master?"

Did Legato just call Knives master? Vash furrowed his brow. Did they have one of those weird S&M things going on?

"Shut up," Knives said, rolling his eyes.

Vash gritted his teeth. "I think," he said, "I'll let you and your lover have a spat without me."

Knives was beside him in a second, all smiles and innocent looks. "Vash," he practically cooed, "My dearest, darling brother. How could you think of leaving?"

His arms went around Vash's shoulders. Vash pushed them back off. "Simple," he said, "I just get up and walk out the door."

Before he could blink, his brother shoved the box in his hand, all fire and wrath. "Fine!" Knives snapped, water flying from his hair, "Take it and go! See if I care! I spend my time making this for you..."

"You said that you wanted me to meet your new lover."

Knives shrugged, suddenly casual. "I was going to give this to you for your birthday."

Legato looked at them and wandered back into the kitchen. Vash could hear the sound of the fridge opening and closing, following by chewing noises. "Our birthday isn't for a couple of months," Vash said, opening the box.

A silver .45 Long Colt lay in there, casually wrapped. "Well?" Knives asked, eyes gleaming. Vash wasn't quite sure if the gleam was excitement or madness. Maybe both.

"I don't like guns," he said flatly.

ooo

"Now stopping at District 11. Next stop, district 10." There was a pause and a slightly crackle. "Dumb gits," the AI said in a voice that was filled with more whiskey tones and salty language then a sailor. "Wish they would they would all go bugger themselves as they ruddy well should."

Strangely, to Meryl it sounded like a female Humphrey Bogart.

The feminine tones of the AI controlling the subway had changed over the fifty years since it had first been installed on all Morningstar City Lines. At first, it had been a dulcet and kind voice or so Meryl's mother had told her. Meryl wasn't quite sure that the voice had ever been kind. It had probably come off the production line with the saltiest voice that the makers had to offer.

"Alright, you blokes, get in the tube... move or lose it."

Meryl sighed and buried her head in her hands. The smell of the subway changed gradually turned from sewers to ionized metal and plastic. They were in the new tunnels of the subway. Holographic signs flashed along the reddish-pink walls fast enough to make anyone sick if they looked at them for more than a few minutes. "Isn't this wonderful, Meryl, Ma'am?" Milly said, eyes wide with excitement.

Meryl gave her partner a rather sour look.

All Milly could do was giggle lamely. "Ah, well," she said, "I think it's wonderful and nothing could change my mind."

There was a young couple on the train... teenagers by the look of it on the other side of the train car. Two blonde teenagers more interested in each other than what was going on in their car. Their mouths were together and they seemed two seconds from ripping off their clothes and just doing it on the floor in front of everyone.

Kids, Meryl said to herself, before she added, what am I talking about? I'm twenty-one for crying out loud. She sighed and shook her head. "Hey Adlez," Meryl heard the kid whisper to the girl, "You know what I'm thinking about?"

The girl giggled and blushed, pushing her long matted and braided hair out of the way. At least her oversized sweater and his red shirt were nowhere near the candybopper style of nowadays. For the life of her, Meryl couldn't understand the appeal of wearing trash and stuff found in the kitchen.

Millie elbowed her in the rib. "Isn't this fun, Meryl? I mean look at this, Ma'am. Young love is so cute."

"Not a bit," she moaned and tried not to think of food.

Meryl was a very, very unhappy person. "Hey!" someone said as they tugged on her cloak.

She looked. It was the kid who had ran his cooler over her foot. "What is it?" Meryl asked.

Millie, ever the peacemaker, wagged one of her fingers to and fro. "Now Ma'am," she said, "What would the chief say if he knew how rude you were acting."

"I had a bad day," she sighed, before glaring at the kid, "What is it?"

He leaned on one foot and then the other, twiddling his thumbs. When he spoke, it was almost as if he had planned the speech. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. It was rude of me to assume that you're old and you have every right to say how I'm wrong and that it won't change a thing."

"Oh," Meryl said, willing to take an apology, even a canned one from the brat. "Apology accepted."

"In fact," the kid said, handing her a cup of juice, "Here, this one is on me."

ooo

The Northern Tunnels had once been the basis of the subway system, but most had fallen into despair and were commonly denied by the government (or what passed for a government in the Grey City). Here and there were old markers, monuments perhaps to a bygone era. Markers such as "A Line" and "Tickets".

"This," BDN would say to his men, "Is my kingdom. Respect it and make it shine!"

Old soda machines and snack machines could be found in old stations with names such as Times Square and many others.

BDN stood in one such station observing a skeleton of an ancient New Yorker (although BDN had no idea that the man was from New York nor did he have the concept of New York City) that sat on a nearby bench. It had bright clothes on with a camera looped around its neck. The skeleton's propped up a sign that read "Lost... Please Help."

Strangely, from the lack of dried muscles to the too-white appearance of its bones, it looked almost plastic. BDN leaned in closer to inspect the skeleton. He tapped the tiny screws with his blunt fingers and found the inscription "Made in China" on the back.

"Okay, my plastic friend," BDN said to the fake skeleton, "You'll be witnessing greatness soon.

There was a sound of squealing brakes and a train slid into the station. "Boss!" One of the Bad Lads called out, "It's right on time and shinier than ever!"

"Only I can tell when a train is shiny," BDN shot back, "Tell Kaite to hurry it up next time."

"I hear you," said Kaite, stepping out of the front car, "They'll be coming to in a few minutes."

"Brilliant," the leader of the notorious Bad Lad gang said, "Let's see how bright she glows."

...to be continued.