5

Meaningless

It wasn't until they were on the road again that Knives finally inquired as to the nature of their journey, and considering the wreckage Legato had on their itinerary, answering the question was no easy task. He certainly couldn't just say, "Well, we're going to see some cities you destroyed and hopefully it will help you remember you're a genocidal crusader." The idea of the whole thing was to let Knives' memory return as it would, with little actual prompting from Legato.

"Well," began the minion turned caretaker, "I figured we'd go out and see the world, the population, sites of some of the major events, and that, by doing so, we might spur your memory a bit."

"Events that are important to me personally or to the entire population?" the plant queried, obviously in doubt of how well this would work.

"Well… both, actually; they're very important to everyone this planet," Legato was somewhat thankful that Knives had a preference for destruction on the mass level; he didn't have to lie at all.

Knives was contented enough with his response and continued the conversation in a new line of questioning, "So where are we headed today?"

"Today," Legato said slowly, "We begin making our way towards the city of Augusta. It will take a while, but that's our first major destination."

"There are full-fledged cities on this planet?" Knives seemed both doubtful and tentatively impressed.

"Well, yes," the response came hesitantly, "Though Augusta is no longer a prime example of this."

"And why is that?" the plant frowned.

"Because it's… not really a city so much as the ruins," Legato was surprised to find that he was almost sad to speak the reply.

"What?" Knives seemed genuinely upset, "But what happened to it?"

"It was, ah…" the human paused as he found a way to reply without technically lying, "A… localized disaster area."

"…a what?" his master was obviously confused.

"It's a unique circumstance," Legato worked quickly to come up with a way to explain and yet not explain himself, "Somewhat complicated of a concept to explain. This planet actually suffers from, ah, a permanent disaster that… is free to move about the planet at its own will and… ah… given the proper catalyst, this can lead to massive destruction."

Knives was now completely baffled, and it was

"It's hard to really explain well without you having witnessed it first hand…" the human gave a small smile, which he immediately realized must have looked quite out-of-place on his face, "Or at least, having remembered witnessing it."

To this, the blonde nodded, and though he clearly didn't grasp what Legato was saying any better, he let the subject drop.

They fell into a peaceful, calm silence as they walked on, which the once-minion thought was quite strange, albeit not an entirely negative thing. He drifted into his own mind as he trudged steadily along, focusing on some point that would always be just past the horizon. In his thoughts, he found that he had lost a lot of who – or rather, what – he thought he was; it seemed that without his master's constant reminders of his place in the world, of his only purpose in existence, that he was now without a guiding purpose. He did not feel any great emphasis on his humanity, nor did he feel particularly compelled to wipe the rest of the species out; without the Knives he served to please, his goals seemed meaningless. It was strange; though he had always viewed himself as being insignificant and worthless because of what he was, serving a superior being's great cause had given him a place, an importance, a meaning. Being of use to a meaningful being have given him a reason to continue living, and without it, he felt much smaller; he no longer had his meaning, and found himself level with the rest of humanity – no, even smaller, even more alone than them, for he had no place in their society after having lived outside of it for so many years. Without a cause, without his master, he was adrift…

He felt a hand on his shoulder and snapped out of his detached state. Looking to the side, he was met with a pair of crystalline blue pools, flooded with concern.

"Are you alright, Legato?" Knives frowned, "You seem really preoccupied…"

Staring with unabashed wonder at the plant, Legato could feel himself relax somewhat, his worries drifting off, "…yes. I'm fine... thank you."

A sheepish smile was accompanied by a single raised brow, "Sure… what's on your mind, anyway?"

The human shrugged off the question, "Nothing important, really."

Knives' expression was a bit bewildered, but Legato seemed secure enough in his answer that it didn't come into question. And looking at Knives… he found that his earlier concerns seemed absurd, as he had an even more important purpose now than he had before; Knives was now in a state where he was relying on Legato. Not only was the superior being that gave his life meaning still present to serve, he was more needed by that being than he had ever been.

"What's that?" Knives was gazing off to one side, pointing just past a rocky dune. Following his line of sight, Legato could just see a peculiar, mangled metallic structure over the edge of the dune.

"I'm not sure… care to go investigate?" Legato glanced over to Knives, who nodded his consent, and they set off. As they neared the dune, the structure became clearer in its shape, or at least the shape it had likely once held. When they stopped walking, they found themselves a few feet from the battered wreckage of a SEEDS ship. The human turned to the blonde at his side, watching carefully for any reaction to the unexpected yet perfect scene before them.

The plant stayed in place for a few moments before taking a slow few steps towards the crash, "…what is this?"

"This is… a SEEDS ship. Or rather, it was. Humanity came to this planet aboard these ships… or, crashed here, rather," Legato spoke slowly, following a pace behind Knives' slow survey of the site.

"Crashed… what went wrong?" the plant knelt to examine a bit of hull that was nearly buried in the sand, brushing a few grains off of it.

Legato sighed. 'You did,' did not seem like the proper response.

"Something… went wrong in the system. The vast majority of the population has no idea what happened… some choose to blame a high-profile outlaw, who's become something of a legend on the planet, a scapegoat for nearly anything that goes wrong," Legato found himself again grateful that the humans were oblivious to what went on behind the curtains, as it were.

Knives nodded slowly and was silent for a second before speaking again, "…Legato?"

"Yes?" the human returned his gaze down to the plant.

"Should this… this wreckage, the ship, the story… should it be meaningful to me?" Blue eyes were removed from their examination of the wreckage to look up into their golden counterparts.

"…is it?" he tried his hardest to not show too much hope, too much indication of what the answer should be, in his eyes.

"…I think so," Knives spoke slowly, somewhat unsure, "I'm not sure how, but… there's something about all of this… about all you're saying, about this site, that seems to do something to me. I don't know what it is, but… it feels like something is trying to… be remembered, I suppose. Like I've just been asked a question, and the answer is on the tip of my tongue, like I should know it, but I just can't quite think of the right words…"

Legato nodded, "It should be, yes," he watched as his master stood, and offered his best attempt at a gentle smile, "What's important is that your memories are trying to come back, not that they succeed right now. There's no need to rush anything, and the fact that something is nagging at you is improvement enough for the time being."

The plant nodded, smiling back, "Thank you, Legato."

"For what?" blue eyebrows furrowed, confused at the response.

"For… everything, I suppose. Just for being here… for staying with me," the plant was smiling warmly.

Legato couldn't come up with a good response to that, so he muttered an unsure, "You're welcome…"

He questioned whether anything had actually improved.