Those words were so much like ones he'd heard before, from people he knew cared about him, people who had tried to reason him through it. So similar to things Wolfwood had tried to tell him more than once. He knew these arguments, and in a way that made them harder to dismiss. But then she spoke of his sisters, sharing the burden with them, and it hurt, she didn't understand, he gave a soft hiccupping sound as tears welled up in his eyes.

But they can't, they can't help, they're defenseless! It's too hard for them to communicate, the humans didn't even think they were people! They're trapped in their minds, they can't interact like you can, people just kept using them up and throwing them away like their lives didn't matter!

The sisters in their bulbs, Tessla, it had all been too much for Knives, had almost been too much for Vash. They had learned the truth too early, and they'd both been driven mad for it, had both been so broken. And he knew he was broken, he did, but what could he do? He curled in on himself against the bulb, his shoulders hunching around his ears and his lean against the glass less open than it had been before, but still pressing close for the connection.

I don't know what else to do! I can't produce anything like I'm supposed to, especially now that I'm all used up, and we're only in this place because my brother was so scared, he saw what was happening to our sisters and he couldn't stand it, it drove him over the edge and I couldn't stop him until it was too late! He just wanted to protect us, but it was too much for him!

And oh, how those thoughts were a poison, looping around and around and directing all of the pain back into himself when it felt like the answers were just right there, if he would only listen to what was being told to him and let go of some of the guilt, but he couldn't.

I don't know what else to do, it's all I've ever known, what good am I if I can't make it right? I can't do anything else