Chapter Text
It was during one of his routine trips with Brad around the desert, just after having helped a few of his surviving sisters from what was left of Ship 4 along with the small community the remaining crew had become – that’s when Vash heard them.
The voices were faint, carrying the echoing quality of his sister plants, but absolutely none of their dazed dreaminess. In fact they seemed almost energetic and something else he couldn’t quite determine from this distance.
They felt like a pull.
Distracted, Vash didn’t notice that his thomas had come to a stop until Brad’s face rather suddenly entered his field of view, waving a hand in front of his eyes.
“Hey, Earth to plant boy- er, well, desert planet to plant boy.” The man corrected himself almost sheepishly, “Why’d you stop?”
Vash giggled, mirth sparking in his eyes. He could, in theory, understand the humans’ problem with having to change their language to fit their environment, having been Earthborn and all. Couldn’t really relate though, he was born in space after all, much like a fair few of his sisters. Which reminded him…
The boy’s brow furrowed in puzzled concern, once again looking in the direction of the faint voices, too far to be understood but just barely close enough to be perceived, “I can hear a couple of plants in that direction.”
Brad’s gaze followed the direction he was pointing toward, expression sobering, “They in trouble?”
Vash tilted his head in thought, trying to focus, “...I can’t say for sure, but they’re definitely awake.”
The older man hummed thoughtfully for a moment, “Not a red flag, but definitely weird. We just got done with an aid mission though; you sure you’re up for it?” he asked, giving his companion a judging glance.
“A-ah, well, I don’t want to bother you. And we have to think about our supplies too!”
Brad rolled his eyes. Really, this boy, how frustrating to deal with. “We have enough supplies for a while still, brat. We restocked before we started heading back. If someone’s dependent on those plants, we should probably check it out.”
Vash ducked his head and nodded, hiding a small smile that he knew would probably make the man poof up in embarrassed annoyance.
“Lead the way, kid.”
And lead the way he did. They rode for the rest of the day with only short breaks inbetween. It was as the second sun started going down that Vash noticed something… strange .
The plants weren’t just active and enthusiastic in their calls, they weren’t calling at all! They were…
Talking?
With each other????
Now, communication between plants wasn’t exactly uncommon, but more often than not they preferred to converse in the dreaming rather than staying awake for prolonged periods, and language was usually laid to the wayside in favor of more direct feelings and images. They could talk, technically – with each other at the very least – they just… didn’t.
These two however seemed to be chattering away and the closer he got the better he could make out the words, as well as the fact that their voices seemed…
Hm.
Hmmm .
They reached the crash site by the time the last ray of the second sun disappeared behind the horizon, leaving the stars and the moons as their only natural illumination. As he dismounted, Brad finally noticed the confused, almost perturbed look on his ward’s face.
“Everything alright?”
The blond didn’t look away from the seemingly abandoned ship remains even as he replied, “I, uh, I think? Maybe?”
Brad raised a skeptical eyebrow and huffed, entering the ship through the nearest hole. He didn’t really need the kid’s help to navigate here, even if this was one of the smaller ones, the layout was almost identical to their own ship, just scaled down.
(If he listened attentively until he could hear Vash’s footsteps following his own towards the plant chamber, well, that was nobody’s business but his own.)
There were occasional suspicious stains, but no human remains in sight, which at the very least meant someone had taken the time to bury them. Why had they left the plants, then? Maybe their engineers had all gone with the ship. How wasteful.
While Brad was perfectly fine walking in silence through darkened halls and over piles of debris, for Vash it was anything but silent as he listened in on a conversation in stunned bafflement.
“No, you don’t understand. Pineapple on pizza is heavenly!”
“I understand that you’re a heathen.”
“Look who’s talking, Mr. Sugar-donuts-are-the-best.”
“That’s because they ARE! At least that way you actually get to taste the donut, the sugar just makes it better.”
“They’re BORING, is what they are! Glazed donuts are definitely superior. With sprinkles!”
“Would you like any MORE sugar on that? How about we make the donut out of sugar as well while we’re at it?”
“You just have no taste!”
“Uno reverse.”
“What the fuck is Uno???”
“By the fifth moon, you’ve never played Uno?”
“Uhhh, no?”
“You poor unfortunate soul.”
As the conversation continued in that vein, broadcasted for any plant in range to hear, Vash felt a little bit like he’d just stepped into an alternate reality. Or maybe he'd fallen asleep on his thomas and this was just a really weird dream.
He pinched himself.
Ouch.
Alright, not a dream then. Probably. He wasn’t actually sure if human dreaming and independant plant dreaming worked the same.
He’d been worried because plants usually only broadcast their voice when they were in distress, but this was… concerning? Baffling? Bizarre?
All of the above, he decided.
He snapped out of his perturbed reverie as they finally entered the plant chamber. As expected, most containers were broken, the barest remains of his sisters spread about, and those that weren’t were already an ominous, devastating crimson.
Except for two.
Right next to each other, still glowing a healthy green-blue, were two open plants facing each other inside their respective tanks.
At least he… thought they were plants?
Conceptually, they were the same. Female presenting, open petal-like tendrils, symmetrical vein patterns. But they were also different .
Vash had never seen a plant that was different. It’s supposed to be impossible. The were all clones of the original after all, all the plants looked exactly the same.
Except for him and Nai.
Except for Tesla.
Except for these two.
His breath caught in his throat as his mind raced, both he and Brad marvelling at the sight before them. The one on the left was mostly normal, except for the fact that her tendrils and right arm were covered in smaller, longer, flat protrusions, something between feathers and petals, but with the odd texture of white stone, almost like granite. The other one, however, was actually covered in feathers, or at least they looked like feathers. From head to toe, long thin and brilliantly white feathers emerged from her tendrils, limbs and head, although the ones on her head were black instead.
They were both gesturing wildly as the conversation only Vash is privy to continued uninterrupted, even as the two standing nearby gaped at the sight.
“What do you MEAN, you don’t have any?!”
“It’s not as strange as you think it is!”
“Bullshit, that’s downright thomas shit even.”
“Wh-”
“Um.”
Vash almost flinched as both plants turned to him, now standing right in front of their tanks. Plants as a rule didn’t really emote, they didn’t have the facial muscles for it, but these sure were trying incredibly hard to prove that fact wrong. It was odd standing in front of the tank, looking at his sisters instead of getting as close as physically possible to communicate, but here he was regardless, being stared down by the oddest plants he’d ever seen.
“Do you…” he fidgeted nervously with his threadbare shirt, “Do you need any help?”
They continued to stare at him, eyes wide and mouths agape. The silence stretched on to uncomfortable lengths before the left one, the mostly normal one, slowly approached the wall of the tank.
“...holy shit.”
Vash almost choked on his own spit.
“Holy shit. Dude.” she turned to her equally stunned neighbor, “It’s baby us!”
Vash struggled to process the words through his shock. Huh?? What does that even mean???
The other, feathered one also approached until they were all staring at each other in one big circle of what the actual fuck-
Huh?
There was- a pull.
Similar to before, in the desert, but so much stronger.
Without thinking, Vash went to touch the cool glass of the tanks, right where his sisters’ hands were flattened expectantly.
He touched the glass.
He touched the glass.
He touched the glass.
He touch ed t he g l a s s .
He touched their hands.
Their hands
Intertwined.
They -
intertwined.
A burst of color, memory, cold, sensation.
Quantum entanglement.
Cubic convergence.
C H A O S
They screamed.