[I died. That does stop him short, for a time. He has never met anything that has died and then lived again. Even his own lifespan, well beyond that of an average human, is not safe from the ravages of death.

So even with these shreds of explanation, he doesn't understand. He couldn't. And yet, he feels genuine empathy for her, because he remembers a time when he was small and young and new, when the world was incomprehensibly large and full of beings that were not like him, that had harmed the last creature like him that had been discovered.

He remembers thinking of how terrifying it was to live, to remain in that world knowing that the human who had showed him such kindness and love had been part of those experiments, of tormenting that past creature until it died. Wondering if it was all a lie, what the point of it all was.

(He remembers her tears, when she told him to live)

Vash repeats:]

I'm sorry.

...Someone once told me, as long as you live, you can go anywhere. "Even if where you are right now is filled with darkness, there's still a blank ticket in your hand just waiting to be filled in."

[It is the first time in a hundred and fifty years he has ever repeated Rem's words to anyone. He even surprises himself a little, doing it.]

She wanted to go somewhere nobody had ever gone before, but she never made it. She had to turn in her ticket before she could. It's never fair, I think.

[He still wishes he could have shown her that sky, just once.]

To die, and live again ... even if it's not what you wanted, it could be -- a chance. A new blank ticket.

[Let's see the world together. Let's walk through it together. He doesn't know her well enough to offer. Quietly, he says:]

It's worth something, I can swear that much.