They shook hands and went their separate ways, each thinking his own thoughts. Only, unlike Sean and everyone else in the far-off Land of Normal People, Ryan had an audience for his musings.

)Well, this is going to be distinctly unpleasant.(

)Hey, you were the one who volunteered us for this, kid. If it had been up to me-(

)It wasn't up to you, Snake-head. Besides, I wasn't complaining, I was making a candid observation.(

)Have I told you today that you're completely nuts?( Elegen sent.

)Well, not today…(

The silent sound of mental laughter filled his mind as Ryan continued to make his way through the halls of the ACTF's forward base. He still couldn't help but chuckle when he thought about where the ACTF's primary R&D facility was located: the infamous Area 51.

It would have been a great joke, if he'd thought that any of the Army guys would have been the type to get it. But these guys seemed a lot more stiff and formal than the ones he'd seen before. Jack O'Neill was more his type of soldier, but he was Air Force. Besides, Stargate: SG-1, while it may have been one of his favorite shows, was still just a TV show.

It had nothing on his current reality.

Passing a water-cooler, Ryan poured himself two cups of the freshly chilled liquid and bolted them down. Wiping the remainder of the stuff off his face with his right wrist, he took a couple deep breaths and continued on his way. He already knew the way to the Training Grounds, having seen them when Sean was giving him the five-dollar tour, but this would be the first time he'd put them to any kind of use.

He couldn't help but wonder what – and how – Sean would do in a real Guyver-on-Guyver fight. The guy seemed a lot like Agito at first glance, but with a bit less ego. Okay, make that a lot less ego. But he did seem to have that same lone-wolf mentality as a certain Mr. Makashima. He could deal with it a lot more easily in this case, since Sean didn't have Agito's whole "you're not worthy of me" thing going on. In fact, there were quite a few times when Sean had almost reminded him of Sho.

Like Sho, Sean used the Guyver to protect all of the people who were being threatened by Chronos. And, just like Sho, Sean tended to feel bad when he arrived too late or felt for some reason that he hadn't done enough. Thankfully for his own peace of mind, Sean didn't have Sho's annoyingly solid determination to ignore the cold, hard facts of reality when he didn't like them.

In fact, in that respect he was a lot like Ryan himself: pragmatic without being the kind of cold-hearted bastard that Agito had turned out to be. It was almost as if Sean's personality was made up of the best or most useful parts of his, Agito's, and Sho's personalities. It was a weird thing to think about, but it seemed to be true.

Now, standing just outside the doors to the Training Grounds, Ryan saw Sean just coming around the corner.

"I just got things okayed with Atkins. We'll have the place all to ourselves for as long as we need it," Sean said.

"Cool," he said, nodding. "Still, I hope you're not going to hold anything I do in there against me, Sean."

"No," his fellow Guyver said, seeming mildly offended by the suggestion. "Why would I?"

"Well, it's not like your attitude towards me has improved much," he pointed out.

"I like you just fine," Sean said, folding his arms and looking vaguely annoyed. "It's just…"

"Elegen?"

"Yeah, him," Sean said, grimacing as if the name itself was offensive to him. "I just can't understand how you could be on our side with that—that thing in your head."

"Well, if it means anything to you, you should know that neither of us really planned this. It just sort of happened," he said with a shrug.

"How?" Sean asked, incredulous.

"You remember how Aptom absorbed that Zerabubuse we were about to fight?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Aptom tried to do the same thing to me a few months ago. He would probably have ended up fully absorbing me, too, if it hadn't been for Elegen."

"Why? What did he do?" Sean asked, clearly confused.

"We're still not quite sure how he managed to do it, and I personally doubt that we ever will be, but Elegen somehow got our bodies to fuse together into one new being. I think it might have had something to do with what Aptom was trying to do to me at the time, but I'm not going to waste time asking him."

"What happened after that?" Sean asked.

"After that we kicked Aptom's ass, since neither of us was particularly happy with him," he said with a grin and a chuckle.

"That's probably what I would have done, too," Sean replied, looking curious. "Is that why you can shoot lightning out of your hands, or is that another of the things you're going to teach me how to do while we fight?" he asked, moving closer to the doors while tucking his hands in his pockets.

"The electricity's pure Elegen, I'm afraid. I can't even use it if Elegen's not there. I either have to share control or let him take over completely when I want to use it. That's caused me a few problems now and then, as you can imagine."

"Such as?" Sean asked warily.

"During the attack that Sho, Agito, and I made on Chronos' other USA base." He sighed, swallowing a chuckle. "Chronos has this base in Chicago called the "Pillars of Heaven", which is a really pretentious name, if you ask me. Anyway, the three of us went to attack it. None of us were stupid enough to think that they wouldn't have an ass-load of Zoanoids to defend one of their precious bases, but none of us expected one of the Zoalords to be making an inspection."

"Wait," Sean cut in, "one of the Zoalords? What are you talking about? I killed the only Zoalord that Chronos had."

"No offense, Sean, but if you managed to kill him, there's no way in hell he was a Zoalord," he said flatly, biting back a laugh. Before Sean could say anything in response or even open his mouth, he continued, "Anyway, this Zoalord's name was Fried'rich van Purg'stall, and he could control lightning. I thought I could use Elegen's powers to counter him."

"Did it work?"

"I think it might have, if I'd gotten the chance to try it. Once Purg'stall noticed me, things kind of went right to hell. I never had the chance to find out if I could stand up to his telepathic powers or not."

"Wait," Sean said. "This Purg'stall had telepathic powers?"

"Yeah," he said, not really surprised that Sean hadn't managed to find out this particular aspect of Zoalord specifications on his own. "All Zoalords have telepathic powers. It's how they control their armies of Zoanoids."

"So he controlled you and tried to make you attack Agito?"

"Well, happily for both of us, it never got to that point," he said with a rueful chuckle. "Dr. Balkus did try to knock me unconscious once, though."

"Balcas was the one I killed!" Sean burst out.

Giving Sean his patented Look—the one that loudly but wordlessly demanded, "just what the hell kind of crack are you smoking?"—he continued, "Sean, let's get one thing straight here: you did not kill Hamilcal Balkus."

"Hamilcal?" Sean echoed. "No, that guy's name was Fulton."

"Well, I hate to burst your bubble, Sean, but Chronos doesn't have any Zoalords named Fulton Balkus."