The House of Two Suns

A.N. Thanks so much for waiting patiently for this update! I really appreciate the kind comments and reviews.

I have used a great deal of speculation here as to the nature of the bulb plants and of Vash and Knives. Some of it contradicts some common fanon convons,ons, but I believe it does not completely contradict the anime (the manga is different, and I consider it separate). All the same, do forgive me if I have made a mistake.

Discovery

The next morning everyone, including the brothers and all the women, actually went to visit some of the mysterious ps. s. Sango had no idea what to expect, and not even Kagome could help her. This technology had not existed in her time either.

They walked a great distance to a large stone building. Sango had never seen one single structure take up that much space. When they entered, all she could see was glass everywhere, with indistinct golden shapes moving behind. In the middle of the room, a few men and women wearing white coats mulled about in front of machinery.

Vash, Meryl, and Milly struck up a conversation with a white-clad man while Kagome translated. But some of the terms confused even Kagome, so Sango had a great deal of trouble following. Apparently the plant beings had been somehow created or discovered, then adapted to provide energy. Their initial origin was now lost. Scientists had recently rediscovered that it was possible for humans to communicate with them to a very limited extent.

Sango went over to the glass to take a closer look. Inside she saw a creature that seemed to glow all over, with a strange ethereal look Sango couldn't entirely focus on. As she leaned in, Sango saw that the creature looked vaguely like a very thin female human with small breasts, with large wings attached to her back. But that still couldn't really describe it at all, it was much more beautiful than that.

As she watched, the creature approached the glass and made eye contact with her. Sango reached out and pressed a hand to the glass. After a moment she was shocked to see images in her mind: filtered sunlight, golden skin, distorted creatures thhe ehe eventually realized were white-coated humans as seen by the plant. Sango closed her eyes, then began hearing mysterious voices and singing in no human language. She even felt pressure on her skin from cold limbs and the brush of soft feathers.

Then she felt a real hand on her shoulder and almost jumped. Knives' voice was asking her softly, "Is she talking to you?" Sango nodded.

"She's like a tengu..." Sango murmured as senssensations continued.

"What's that?" asked Knives.

"A type of mountain goblin... Some of them can speak in mind-talk also, and they can have feathered wings. But they're like giant birds, not beautiful like her."

Finally the plant moved away from the glass and back into the bulb, and her form once again became blurred and indistinct. Sango backed away.

"I'm surprised she communicated with you at all," Knives said. "They... we... don't like humans, as little as my brother may want to believe that."

"If you know so much, why don't you tell someone else besides your brother?" asked Sango.

Knives shook his head. "No one will listen. No one knows how to ask them such a question anyway. Even I don't speak their language perfectly."

"Surely they communicate with the workers here?"

"Apparently," said Knives. "There was a project, to see if any people were left on the earth, and try to communicate with them by amplifying the plants' powers. As Kagome told you, that's probably how you ended up here, and may be a way to go back."

Sango shook her head. "I don't see what the plants could have to do with the Well. It's magic."

"Your well is probably just another bit of lost technoloSangSango, though how and when it came to exist I couldn't say. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

She nodded. "Well, if they can help, they must. I can't possibly stay here."

Knives looked into her eyes. "You miss your friends at home so much?"

Sango stared back. "Mostly I had Kagome, and she's here with me. But I do miss Shippo, and Inu-Yasha, and maybe even Miroku a little."

"You need a man, then."

"No woman really needs a man, unless she wants babies. But I miss my whole life, fighting demons and finding the shards and having a point to my existence. Here, I'm just some sort of freak who might as well have fallen out of the sky."

Knives nodded. "You can't stay where you don't truly belong."

Sango looked at him curiously then. "So why do you stay?"

"What choice do I have?"

She gestured at a bulb. "There."

Knives started and turned away. "Shut up."

"What did I say?" she asked.

"Shut the hell up!" he repeated.

Sango saw no point in making this dangerous man angry so she walked out the front door and walked around in front of the building.

After about half an hour she saw Knives approach her. He faced her and began to speak with no preamble.

"I can't live inside a bulb for the rest of my life. I'm not like them. I eat and drink, I have no wings, I breathe air. And I don't know their songs. I'm here."

Sango nodded. "So you couldn't take a plant bride... and you don't want a human one."

"No. And I could produce children with neither."

"Half-demons can..."

"They may. I can't. I've been told."

"Like a mule," murmured Sango, then looked at the ground.

Knives clenched his teeth. "I am no crossbreed. I am fully plant."

"You have no idea what you are. You don't even know what they are."

He glared at her, then eventually turned away slightly. "Perhaps not."

Sango turned to see Meryl and Vash leave the building together, whispering with their heads held together.

"I wonder how that woman would feel if she knew your brother could never give her children," she murmured.

"She does know. I told her. I hoped it would hurt, but knowing her, probably not." said Knives. His voice had no trace of shame but he didn't look at the couple as he said it.

Sango spoke. "Some people, some demons, really do go on doing nothing but hate forever. And kill. But they lose their essence eventually, and become almost soulless. I think there's more to you than that."

"You don't know me. You don't know what's happened to me."

She shrugged. "And you know nothing of me. And I suppose it would be insane for me to think you might want to."

Knives searched her face. "I'm staying here at the plant facility when you all leave. They want to put me in a special tank for a few days and try to make my wounds at least close up. I've done this before, for a much longer time."

"Very well," answered Sango. "Why are you telling me?"

"Will you be here when I get out? The plants aren't nearly ready to send you back yet anyway."

"Where would I go then? Of course I'll be here. Why are you even asking?" Sango looked at him defiantly.

Knives reached out then, and gripped her forearm. "Why do you think?"

She nodded then, and clasped his hand roughly. "I will see you."

He turned and walked away. Sango contemplated him as he left, then went to rejoin Vash and Meryl.

A.N. "Any sufficiently advanced technology..." is originally a quote from the late Arthur C. Clarke.