...Knives isn't a person. Knives is a process. Knives is Nai continually figuring out how to best help his sisters.

[how?]

[what do you mean, how?]

By gathering information, by looking at the world. By keeping track of the data of red plants all over the world, in individual settlements as well as in aggregate, per plant type and versus population. By seeing what the humans are doing, what's working and what isn't. By keeping track of the trends in the data, and projecting them into the future.

[...you've been doing that?]

Yvette did that. A lot. She had graphs.

That is a stupid question, Zash. Of course he's been doing that, that's what it looks like to actually care about the results above anything else. There's a reason he hasn't stolen the Julai plants and it's not because he thinks the Julai Military Police could stop him. The plants in Julai are doing fine. They're happy, they're doing meaningful work, they're healthy and networked, they sometimes push themselves too hard but Zash of all people should know what plants are like, and they're not in any danger.

Up until Conrad figured out how to do two-way gates, which changed the game completely, Nai only rescued plants that needed rescuing. And the reason he thinks all humans are going to die is because that's what the data shows. If the trends of the last several decades hold, even the most optimistic projections aren't looking very good for humans.

And the wanton murders?

He can't care about humans. He's said that. So when he's being Knives he... doesn't. He prunes that away. He becomes someone who only cares about plants.

He doesn't do wanton murder. He stops people from risking his sisters, and if they prove dangerous to his sisters he stops them.

[you're made of Nai. you could keep everyone safe if you tried.]

He could keep everyone safe most of the time. But if he started prioritising human safety in addition to everything else then sometimes he'd fail. Sometimes someone will shoot him with a grenade launcher and if he hesitates and lets people do that then over decades he will lose some of his sisters to that. He has to be a person who will not let people who are risking his sisters do so.

And the Yvettes? The people who could be good, who would be good? Nai is convinced that she was human now, isn't he? It follows that he must've killed at least some Yvettes, by accident.

Yvette is probably not literally unique, Zash is right, but there has been no one else on any settlements trying to do the kind of systematic work she was doing. He checked. He's been checking. He has lots of checks for that. And give him some credit, he did in fact not kill Yvette.

Okay but there are Yvettes that aren't plant engineers. People who are just as good and valuable who aren't doing the exact thing she is.

[and they're still going to die of old age anyway, and leech off our sisters while they do that, until all our sisters are dead and then all humans are dead]

And that's beside the point anyway. They're tracking some hypothetical person-as-good-as-Yvette who specifically got in Nai's way while Nai was rescuing a plant—

[people die when you steal their plants, Nai]

And plants die if you don't rescue them.

But Nai is still inside Zash's head and he can see what Zash is doing, here. He's trying to weasel out of thinking about all of this, trying to chase down a conversation thread that will let him sit on his hands a little bit longer.

[stop. that.]

Of fucking course he's doing that, what else is he meant to do? Nai is right, okay? Zash is trying to do too much, Zash is a goddamn coward who's spent a century and a half running and not really trying to do anything meaningful, and now that he looks at it straight-on he's pretty sure a huge part of that was some twisted form of self-harm from the guilt over the Fall, and it's all so obvious in hindsight but he doesn't know what to do about any of it, what does Nai want, what should he—

Nai pulls him into a hug. The song ends.

[Zash. little brother. breathe.]

He breathes.

[you and Yvette told me you'd be there for me] While he was trying to figure himself out, while he was learning to be more than Knives. [I'll be there for you.] Zash doesn't need to figure everything out right now. Nai of all people understands what it feels like to have a shift in perspective that makes you have reevaluate your whole life. He's been there. It doesn't get solved immediately.

[just don't run away from it. look at it head on. and we'll tackle it together]

[I love you]

[I love you too, little brother. I will always love you.]

When they resume playing the piano it's a new song again, and they play with their hands swapped like they used to when they were kids, Zash's left hand playing the part that would normally be played by Nai's right hand and vice-versa.

And Zash rests his head on Nai's shoulder and closes his eyes. He can borrow his twin's eyes to see instead of using his own.

Elsewhere, someone relaxes a little.

Yvette had mostly skipped the party, because she has actual work to be doing now. She had a single slice of cake with Morgan, because time with her is especially precious, and then retreated to what she's good at. Like calculating how Nai's bullshit matter creation can make things nicer for Jeneora while also making things easier for the six plants now stationed here, since Zash talked everyone into accepting free stuff from him. That hadn't been part of her original plan, and that means that there's important math to do. That this just so happens to line up with being an introvert and a little sick of all of the socializing she's had to be doing lately is just incidental. That's her story and she's sticking to it. Being a gopher and city planner and whatnot is hard, okay, sure she could do some more bonding if she went to the party, but. ... She's tired. There has been enough bonding. Between her and the townsfolk, anyway.

Comparatively, there are others that needed it more. She was perfectly aware that there were things left unsaid between the twins. And... it looks like they have sorted that out and had their... thing. Argument, discussion, conversation, reconciliation?? It's not clear, it's complicated. But she knew they needed to sort it out, and that they needed to do it at their own pace, and that meddling... probably wouldn't help. In order to have a conversation they also needed to feel like they had room to, and that means giving them space. Space by literal space, and also by doing the work that they both care about more than themselves and their feelings, so they have room to sort out those confusing squishy things. She might have meddled if it looked like they were going to take another century to have a conversation, but. Clearly, they're okay.

So instead: she's glad they're talking (plant talking) again, and is available for hugs if they'd like them.

...Nai kind of misses their threeways, actually.