The darkness was infinite as he strode forward. Sho could see nothing but the infinite blackness, could not even feel the ground beneath his feet. He knew said ground was not real yet not being able to even register it felt odd. As his feet carried him forward, he searched for the beacon that was David's. He could vaguely sense it, could feel it coming closer as he strode ahead through the blackness. The absence of light continued to press in on his notional sight as his feet trod onto...

Tracks?

Yes, he noted, a set of train tracks stretched ahead beneath his feet. Two rails along sets of polymer ties with a third rail following them. Sho looked up as the rumbling sound reached him and saw the massive train rushing toward him. He stood in place as it neared and flowed around him. He then moved forward with a sly grin on his face. You always had a flair for the dramatic, he thought before wondering where the thought had come from. Sho continued his trek forward.

Brick walls lined the tunnel as he resumed his trek. The light at the end grew brighter and scents reached him as he walked. Nachos, beer, hot dogs, more or less everything that would eventually send a man into cardiac arrest in his fifties assailed him as he kept walking through the tunnels. Sho finally emerged into daylight amidst cheering crowds.

He cast his gaze about the stadium which was packed with fans. Most were screaming as the small white ball met the wooden bat. Sho stepped forth, completely unnoticed by the crowd yet feeling a small presence against his mind. He watched as the batter hit the ball, and he stopped along the steps.

"Fenway park," Sho said. "At least this version is a lot more pleasant, David." The air to his right shimmered as the black-haired human appeared.

"You remember me?"

"No, but I want to," Sho said.

"Didn't seem like it last time."

"I wasn't attacking you," So retorted. He saw David's brown eyes peer into his through the mindscape.

"Hell, Sho, I believe you," David said after a few moments. "You can't lie worth a damn." David remained silent as the air shimmered and the pleasant image melted into a scene of hell. Rubble lay scattered across blasted ground amid heaps of concrete and steel. Support beams rose in the manner of the twisted and shattered bones of the corpse of the world beneath a blood-red sky. Sho gagged on the coppery taint of blood floating in a miasma of rotting flesh and scorched earth as black clouds formed and roiled overhead with tendrils of lightning stirring in their endless depths. "Before we go on," David said a moment after stopping, "You're going to see some things that are going to…"

"I get the hint," Sho said harshly. David only nodded once before continuing their trek through the Mindscape. He knew this would likely be one of the greatest challenges of his life. He kept silent as they journeyed through the mists of time.

"They said their coup was non-violent," David said as the scene of Americana was replaced with hell. "They lied."

"X Day..." Sho gasped.

"It wasn't all like this," David said as Sho took in the devastation. "Just in the countries which fought back." David turned and strode down the destroyed street with Sho following close behind.

"I know you," Sho said as he approached David's side.

"You did," he replied, his face and voice neutral. They walked down the ruined boulevard in silence for a time which was either minutes or years for in the mindscape, time meant little. Sho and David walked side by side among the ruins, neither speaking as they entered the Ramen stand amidst the ruins and took their places at the bar.

The air smelled of cigarette smoke and broth. David looked about before turning his focus back to Sho.

"I guess you're in control now," David said as a bowl of steaming noodles was set before him. They both ate, the steaming noodles and broth tasting as rich as if they had existed in the physical world. It was at that exact moment in which the restaurant deteriorated into concrete rubble.

"David," Sho said, "let's stop the theatrics." The two men gazed hard into each other's eyes and the scenery vanished. They floated in the void, all illusions stripped away.

"I can't tell you everything," David said as they floated in the blackness. "I want to, but I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Both," David replied. A bowl of steaming ramen appeared in his left hand and chopsticks in his right. "Man, I wish I'd gotten to taste this for real," he said before spearing the sticks in and guiding some to his mouth.

"Why did I repress my memories?" Sho asked.

"You couldn't handle it, Sho," David said as he set his chopsticks down. "At least, that's what I think." David sighed heavily before shaking his head and staring into Sho's eyes. The blackness brightened, this time replaced with a teepee made of leather and wood. David sat atop a fur rug and Sho did the same with a fire between them.

"Your turn now," Sho said with a gracious nod.

"Thank you," David replied. The flames crackled over the wood in the circular pit. The smell of burning hardwood filled the air between them. Sho looked about the new shape of the Mindscape. David was in control of the ether at this point. "You're the one who repressed the memories," he said. "To be honest, I envy you that."

"I need to know!" Sho roared

"I know," David replied, the fire burned merrily away between them. He shook his head sadly. "Thing is, you have to remember on your own. You repressed them, and I think the Guyver helped."

"What?"

"Okay, we're getting ahead of ourselves," David said. "First, let's see what you do remember. Does SANDALWOOD ring any bells?"

"I was there a few years ago." David arched an eyebrow at that. "There's a race called the Tuskas..." At this, the ghostly image of Turmagar appeared and vanished "... who've called the area home for a long time now. They figured out how to get in." Sho immediately noticed the change in David's face.

"They figured out the locks?" David closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm actually impressed."

"Liberate Domini Mei," Sho said.

"The seal on the main floor," David answered. The scene changed again to said room. Sho looked about, seeing the room he had entered nearly three years prior yet the lights shone brightly. Phantom images of men and women in Battle Dress Uniforms - BDUs - raced about as Sho and David stood atop said image. The scene shifted with the abruptness of a traffic accident to the main command center of the facility with its banks of monitors lit and functional. The semi-circular floorspace hummed with activity from more spectral crew and was bathed in the soft light of the active screens and fluorescent bulbs far above.

"So were you," Sho said. It had to be true. David could not have re-created this scene in the Mindscape without his own knowledge of the interior of SANDALWOOD. "We knew each other." They both took empty seats before a bank of computer consoles.

"Yeah, we did," David sighed. "Tell me, did you and your new friends take anything from here?"

"Data, mostly," Sho said. "A lot of audio and video files and some schematics. Why?"

"I bet there was a lot of junk data in all of that?"

"Panthro mentioned that."

"It wasn't junk." David leaned back in his seat. "West, you son of a discount whore."

"Who?" Sho asked as images began to tickle the back of his mind.

"General Randall West," David explained. "Our Commanding Officer, and a Grade-A paranoid son of a bitch." David then rose from his chair. "But it's not hard to understand why." It was at that moment that one of the spectral images gained more substance to reveal a short man in Army green. His rows of ribbons - miniatures of medals he had earned - looked as if they would drag his jacket down to the floor. His face seemed carved from granite; with a mouth that seemed set in a permanent flat line and eyes beneath a pronounced brow. Beneath his nose was a zapata mustache of near horrendous proportions. His hair was slicked back and receded into a widow's peak.

"He looks like..."

"A gorilla fucked a fireplug," they finished in unison. Sho and David looked at each other, then at the image of Randall West, then at each other. They then broke into gales of laughter. The mindscape shifted and blurred back into white nothingness as they howled in hilarity. The laughter faded after a relative eternity to leave them both on their backs and gasping for air. Eventually, this also faded and they sat up in the white void.

"That said and done," Sho said, "I believe you. Mostly." David's smile faded, his eyes becoming haunted. "I am not gonna like this reveal," he said in a monotone.

"You want to know how I died," David said.

"I have to," Sho answered. He felt the abyss of his amnesia stirring with hidden memories.

"Before we begin, I have to tell you this," David began, "you repressed all of this. All the trauma you were forced to deal with proved too much. After you took out Arkanfel - and I know you did by the fact that this world exists - you probably wound up like me."

"Like you?"

"Sho, I am sorry," David said, "but this is going to be painful."

"I kinda figured that."

The mindscape changed again, this time to the interior of a cabin made of rough timbers. The space was bare save for a fireplace and an image of David standing before it. Tears flowed down the other David's cheeks as he raised an enormous pistol to his head. A flash as bright as the sun seared Sho's eyes before...

"Oh, shit..." David stood there, clad in the Guyver, and looking about in apparent confusion. Sho looked over to see blobs of flesh and hair smeared on the wall amidst a sea of blood. "Why did you show me this?!"

"Follow me," David said as his mindscape avatar opened the door to the cabin. Sho walked out after him, grateful to leave the grisly scene only to see one that made his heart freeze. Fenway Park emerged before them yet the stands were empty and the field clear of players. On home plate was a cage of steel bars and within dozens of children. In the outfield stood an armored David while above floated the image of a nightmare.

Its body was composed of white plates of chitin above exposed flesh the color of obsidian. Sho, to his horror, could not help but notice the similarities between what he saw and the armor patterns of his own Guyver form in the manner of the inner and outer plating. Twelve red orbs dotted its body; two at each hip, two beneath each pectoral plate, two at the base of its spiked shoulders with four more along spines which jutted out from his head.

"Oh, my God..." Sho felt the bottom drop from stomach. He saw David on the ground with his arms wrapped about his middle.

"It gets worse," David said as the proto-god rose in the air. Sho then noticed the pen surrounding the pitcher's mound. Ten feet high and made of cyclone fence topped with razor wire, inside were a dozen children. All of them were staring up with horror writ large on their faces. "I am so sorry, Sho," David said as the orb smashed down. The ground was immolated as the energy consumed all beneath it. "You saved some," he said as Sho saw his armored self kneeling at the edge of the destruction and screaming, "but not all."

"Agito," he hissed as the past image of David roared at the slaughter. He saw the past image of Davi's eyes flash red just before the blackness absorbed the scene.

"What happened?!" Sho screamed.

"Long story short, I blacked out and woke up in a pyramid." The image faded and blackness steadily encroached. "I know it's a lot to take in," David said as the darkness fully enveloped them, "They pulled no punches with me."

"They tend to do that," Sho said. "Why did we end up in Fenway Park?"

"Why did he murder those kids?" David retorted. "He could. He wanted us to see it."

"He was told,"

"And you know by who."

"Agito," Sho snarled.

"Exactly." They floated in the silence as they both processed that thought. David turned about in the darkness, "You still have a connection with Lisker."

"We need him," Sho said. "Never mind. Here's why."

"I gotta see this." Then he did. David recoiled at the images from Sho's. "WHAT IN THE FUCK!" he screamed as he gripped his head.

"Now do you see what we might be up against?" Despite the tone, it was not a question.

"Yes."

"You see the potential evil?"

"For the love of God, yes!" Sho backed away slightly in the mindscape with a knowing smile. The white space returned and David paced within it. "My word," David said. "I will start no trouble in New Thundera or in any other space."

"Agreed."

"So long as he doesn't start trouble, neither will I. But, once Grune's ass is settled, I won't make any promises," David said as he turned back.

"I won't go into that now." Sho shook his head.

"Good enough," David replied. "I'll be there at noon tomorrow. Maybe a bit later."

"I understand," Sho said with a grin. "Until then."

"Until then," David replied. Sho then bent forward at the waist as David did.

XXXXX

Sho felt the breeze on his skin as he returned to himself, the sensation of reorientation to the physical world - as always - slightly awkward. Full night had fallen during his foray into the mindscape and had brought with it a slight chill in the clear, crisp air. Sho rose from his knees and ignored the pins and needles in his lower legs. He raised his wrist-comm to his face and judged the hour not terribly late, though it was a matter of convenience at most. This could not wait.

"Sho to Cheetara," he said. His voice activated the comm system which sought out her position and relayed it to the nearest panel.

"Cheetara here," she replied.

"Are you still in council?"

"We just wrapped up for the night." The tone in her voice, however, relayed that she had a damn good idea of why he was asking. "I'll call them back. Ten minutes."

"Have Lisker there, too," Sho said as he turned to leave the Observation Platform. "He needs to hear this."

"All right," she replied. "Turmagar will be here within the hour."

"Understood. Out." Sho took a last look at the vista of New Thundera. The vision of his trip to that alternate future still danced in his mind.

XXXXX

Turmagar eased his Gomplin to a stop near the end of the dirt strip just outside the colony of New Thundera and patted the animal on the neck before dismounting and lowering the rope ladder. He climbed down the muscular hide to see Cheetara stepping toward him.

"It is good to see you," he said as the Gomplin roared and rotated on its massive legs and feet to be steered by Thunderians which would lead it into a defended enclosure.

"You as well, Honored Turmagar," Cheetara replied as the beast was led toward the hangar set aside for its stay in New Thundera.

"No need for that," the Tuska said with a warm chuckle. "Besides, I see that Thunderian royalty do not bother with ostentatious attire." She grinned as Turmagar took in the simple black robe with crimson trim down the sides. The only nod to her new station - aside from the circlet about her head, was a brocade of gold about her shoulders which angled down just above her breasts with her insignia joining the two halves.

"I still keep my old outfits," she replied even though she never wore them. In the Lair's gym, she wore the clothes she had once more adopted during Sho's training. Though nowhere near as form-fitting - she felt no guilt in having a lithe and taut body - she had come to appreciate the freedom of movement. Training Sho had reawakened memories she had for a while forgotten. They left the well-lit landing area to emerge into a circular chamber which was heavy on scanning equipment yet light on personnel. Turmgar grasped the meaning immediately and his eyes met Cheetara's. He knew that his hasty surmise was correct. The lack of guards - he knew that New Thundera Colony had a detachment of them in rapid training as well as some seasoned veterans already in place - only added to his summation.

"What is it?" he asked as they exited the port and walked along the lit pathway leading to a shadowed parking space where a humble ground transport was waiting. Cheetara remained silent until both had entered the four-wheeled vehicle and the AI - it had no driver and would keep no logs - obeyed its program and turned back to Cat's Lair.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So that's the story," Turmagar said from his seat at the round table. He took a sip of coffee. The banks of instruments beeped in a steady pattern as he sat at the round table and took in the information.

"Sadly," Lion-O replied from his seat at the head of the table.

"I wish to move a garrison of my forces here," Turmagar said at length. "Of course with your permission," he said with his eyes firmly on Lion-O's.

"Approved," Lion-O replied at once. "Tygra will be your liaison to coordinate forces."

"I will summon a force once the meeting is ended," Turmgar replied. "What, then, of this Guyver Four?"

"We will not know until tomorrow," Cheetara replied. "Sho will arrive shortly."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Leah had been put back to bed after another customary bedtime story and kiss on the forehead to send her off to sleep. Sho sat in the Council chamber sandwiched between Myrlha and Turmagar. "Sorry that took so long," he said with a grin. "Still getting used to being a dad."

"At least you got to skip changing diapers," Bengali groused with a grin. Sho and Myrha took the comment in the spirit in which it had been intended.

"I've been in contact with Guyver Four. His name is David Jackson. He will be here tomorrow. Noon at the earliest." Sho sat calmly as each pair of eyes widened and each mouth dropped open. The silence stretched on for several seconds and none of the assembled Council moved so much as a centimeter. "He's given me his word that he won't start any trouble and that he will abide by New Thundera's laws."

"Well that's nice to hear," Lisker said. "Question is, will he do it?"

"I believe so, yes," Sho replied.

"Kid," Panthro began, stunned into reverting to his former nickname for Sho, "how in the hell do you know that?" Sho responded by tapping the first two fingers of his left hand against his temple.

"Can't really lie there," he said in reply.

"That is all well and good," Claudis retorted, "but that young man rather hates Mr. Lisker, in case you were not paying attention.

"He doesn't hate Lisker." Sho directed his gaze to Guyver Two. "He hates Kronos and your connection to it."

"Former connection."

"Not from where he stands," Sho countered. "Take a look." Sho relaxed as the link formed and the mindscape took shape. In seconds of linear time it was over.

Lisker emerged from the mindscape horrified at what he had beheld. His head spun and stomach churned as his brain processed the images he had received directly from Sho's mind as though he had picked up a technical manual and had discovered the most disgusting forms of human abuse within its pages. Nausea assaulted him and he crouched down with his hands on his knees while fighting the urge to vomit onto the floor.

"Lisker?" Siberias asked. He felt his skin grow clammy and soaked in sweat as the sheer wrongness of it all beat at his mind and all that he thought he had become, all that he had learned from Maria, what he had learned in arming Watershed... It did not so much pale in comparison as put itself into place next to what he had been a part of. Siberias rose from his seat just as Sho did, the latter guiding him to the ThunderCat's vacant seat.

I know, Sho transmitted as he helped Lisker sit down. I know. Lisker placed his elbows on the table and covered his mouth with one hand.

"I had no idea…" he managed after he had regained some composure. Not much, but just enough.

"I highly doubt that," Cheetara answered though her voice held less steel than when she had last addressed him. He took a moment to push the images back and seek the discipline which he had learned in the Marines and the callousness in Kronos, fully aware of the irony - even hypocrisy - of having to fall on the latter. He slowed his breathing and forced himself to think. He raised his face and opened red and raw eyes to behold everyone staring at him with a mixture of empathy and curiosity.

"I should have," he said. "Hell, I fucking did. I just blinded myself to it all." Lisker straightened in his seat and took several deep breaths.

"Please explain," Cheetara said.

"I knew Kronos did some bad shit," Lisker said on further gaining his composure. "They kidnapped people. They killed people. They bribed and influenced everyone and I just went along with it." He shuddered as the memories of the drinking sessions in the most exclusive bars and the lap dances he had received in the most exclusive clubs had blinded him.

"They used you," Lion-O said.

"They didn't have to." Lisker shook his head. "They offered me power. Influence. Women. All the pleasures of the flesh."

"That is how souls are seduced," Lynx-O said. "You are not the first to fall to those temptations. Nor will you be the last." Lisker said nothing for several moments.

"I'd thought they were well-intentioned extremists."

"And what in the hell are those?" Lion-O asked.

"Those who engage in evil acts under the guise of the greater good," Claudis said in response. "What makes them so dangerous is that their views seem logical even unto the common folk. Given the correct environment, such can grow like cancer."

"It's happened here more than once," Lisker said.

"I've reviewed some of the history files we secured from the Tuskas," Tygra said. "Lisker is correct."

"That Hitler guy," Lion-O spat.

"Others at that time were just as bad," Lisker replied.

"I hate to interrupt," Kat said. "but we have a bigger concern here?" He did bother to elaborate, nor did he need to.

"The way forward is clear," Claudis said with the kingly authority he'd used often in his reign. "Grune must be killed. The possibility of him gaining one of these units is far too much a danger."

"Seconded," Lisker offered.

"Thirded," Sho added.

Lisker saw, to his surprise, that Lion-O seemed fine with it all. Then again, he had formed a Guyver special operations corps, of which he and Sho were the only members under Cheetara's command.

"Agreed," Lion-O said after a moment's deliberation. "But now for the matter of David."

"I'll know when he's getting close and guide him in unobtrusively," Sho said. "He'll enter un-boosted after he lands nearby. The Lair's sensors will pick him up on approach."

"I'll stay out of sight," Lisker said.

"Sho," Lion-O said, "I want your read on this David."

"He'll do what he says," Sho said.

"The question is, what did you see in his mind?" Lynx-O asked, on point as ever. Sho told them. Silence ruled the room for the second time that night.

"That son of a bitch," Panthro snarled once Sho had related the fate of the nearly one hundred murdered children. He snapped his glare to Lisker. "You were a part of them?!"

"I was," Lisker said, obviously defeated. "I never thought they'd do that, though."

"Let's remember, he was dead at the time?" WilyKat said. Lisker shot a glance at him and wondered what the young man would want in return. "Let's face it, Lisker saw the same from those Mutant bastards and he reacted."

"Freeing all of our people," Bengali said. "Oh, and by the way, blastin the hell out of the Mutant Army."

"Which was an instance of supreme luck," Claudus said. "Given that so few of our own were killed."

"He'll come about five miles from New Thundera," Sho said, "then walk in without the armor."

"Nice of him," Lion-O said.

"I'll have the Guard standing by to discreetly escort him to the Lair," Tygra added.

"No," Sho added, "I'll do it." All eyes focused on him before Mandora nodded.

"You can claim he's a friend from Watershed," she began, "and no one would be the wiser. Besides, he might trust you more than the Guard."

"Why have Sho lie to the Guard?" Kit asked. "Let me do it."

"Seconded," Pumyra said at once. With no further objections or issues, council was adjourned for the second time that night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Claudis sat alone in the chambers assigned to him and let his thoughts build. Despite his reputation as a warrior and a king, his true strength had always lain in tactics and thought. He reclined on the very firm bed on which he slept, such helping with the various pains in his lower back, and closed his sightless eyes as he relaxed his aged body.

He, like many before him, had been made to deal with issues both domestic and military yet his had at first been mostly domestic. He had, for example, increased pay across the board for basic laborers (he refused to use the term "menial") and had passed laws to increase the benefits awarded to said workers. In regards to military affairs, he had been intelligent enough to leave those to his CINCs - Commanders In Chief - since he had only basic warrior training. Their advice had steered him well, even until the doom of their original planet. From there, he had listened to his own experts in logistics, themselves overwhelmed with the enormity of the coming event, then he and Jaga had developed the plan to evacuate as many as possible. Claudis himself had not truly expected to escape Thundera, yet he had. Then he had been found, and now he was facing a new potential crisis. One, perhaps, even deadlier than the last. He found himself moving in circles over the threats of both Grune and this David. One who had the potential to seize a Guyver, and one who already had one. Both, he knew, had serious issues but of different stripes.

Grune was a paranoid sadist. His desire for domination, coupled with the perceived wrongs inflicted on him of old, had twisted and poisoned him.

David, it seemed, was of a different cloth. The young man had clearly lost everything to the ancient and vanished Kronos. Somehow, Sho had obviously steered him back to some level of sanity. Claudis knew there had to be far more to that, yet he let it go for now. He recalled what he had heard of the tragedies of Sho's past and knew that some of them had been connected. As his late wife had once said, it did not take a rocket scientist.

The sum total was that the currently existing new Guyver would be on their doorstep tomorrow. Deep within, Claudis felt events accelerating toward a precipice beyond which no one had any clue and which would deny him the chance to make amends to his son.

"Computer," he said aloud after a sip of wine. "New log entry."

"Begin," the synthetic voice replied. Claudis shook his head. Panthro had really outdone himself on the systems of this new Cat's Lair.

"I find myself conflicted with the arrival of this David," Claudis began. "Another Guyver would prove beneficial for the defense of the nascent New Thundera, but I have heard word that some among our people distrust them. Given their power, I can understand this, but such can lead to very unfortunate circumstances." He paused for a moment. "I must wonder if something is driving this sentiment. Sho's behavior has been nothing short of exemplary, and Lisker has been in New Thundera for a short time." Claudis paused for a sip of tea. The pain from the hot liquid focused his thoughts inward where all important thoughts begin. "It is clear to me that David holds a hatred for Lisker though I cannot fathom why. Perhaps my intelligence is incorrect and they knew each other on Second Earth or..." Another thought occurred to him. "Perhaps it is more likely that David hates the idea of Lisker rather than the man himself. More correctly, he hates the organization Lisker had once belonged to." Claudis took another sip. "I must speak with this David Jackson to get a more clear idea." He took another sip.

"Another thing which troubles me is what I should tell my son about his abbreviated childhood and when I should do it." At that moment, Claudis wished for a drink yet restrained himself. He needed a clear head. "I promised Tygra I would reveal this in time, yet so much is happening. Lion-O needs his head clear and undistracted. He deserves the truth, but can I reveal it without doing harm to our people? Despite the advances made on this Third Earth, we are far from any kind of real civilization and the forces against us seem to be mounting day by day. I do not envy my son for the task before him." He took another sip. "I must admit, I never saw his wife coming". Claudis chuckled at that. "I remember when she used to babysit him. Ah, the turns life takes." Claudis recalled the first time he had met Cheetara, fresh faced and eager, nearly fifteen years before Lion-O had been born. Yet another result of his and Jaga's last-ditch decision so many years ago. Now the proud warrior was his wife and queen, and even the mother of his heir!

Claudis swapped the tea for whiskey. He had to tell his son at some point and did not relish the idea of doing so.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Pumyra was glad to be out of the Medical Wing and even happier to be holding Darin in her arms despite the pain from her mending ribs. Her son smiled up at her with his toothless grin which she knew would change in a few months as she pulled a breast free for him to feed upon. As he nursed, she thought back to the Council session and the events which had led up to it.

Even with her research having been effectively shut down, Pumyra had not completely given up on understanding the Guyvers. Such a momentous and historic discovery, in her opinion, could not be allowed to pass despite the moratorium placed upon it. And those cyborgs which had appeared besides?

The melding of organic and mechanical was hardly new; dating back to the days when people had strapped wooden pegs to the stumps of severed legs in order to walk. From there, medical science had developed not only better prostheses, but replacement organs. Granted, research in said fields of science had been more or less halted by the destruction of their home planet. Then had come the Guyver.

It had seemed so perfect, this symbiosys. A perfect melding of two lifeforms. How little she had known. Pumyra looked down at her nursing son as Bengali ordered food from the kitchens. She smiled slightly at that. While he was a terrific blacksmith, a great husband, and a good man in general, he could not cook worth a damn. In all fairness, neither could she. Culinary skills had been overlooked in Med School and her diet as an intern had consisted of fare from vending machines and cafeterias as well as coffee urns and instant noodles.

How have I not had a heart attack from all of that crap? she thought as her son suckled on one of her breasts. She cuddled her son closer to her and winced at the pain in her mending ribs, a lingering reminder of that disastrous experiment with the G-Cells. She knew Lion-O had been right in putting a moratorium on said experiments, but such did nothing to quell her curiosity. The potential was there for the advancement of medicine but...

But...

She sighed as Darin nursed. Such experimentation had been done far too soon. She had been arrogant in her research, too hasty, and lives had nearly been lost due to the unforeseen circumstances. That she had not consulted Sho was no consolation given his amnesia. She should have been more careful. The excitement of such potentially groundbreaking discoveries had blinded her, she realized.

Well, no more of that.

Bengali answered the door chime which announced the arrival of dinner just as Darin released her nipple. Pumyra placed him over her shoulder and with a few pats he unleashed a belch of epic magnitude. She smiled and cradled him in her arms again.

"Who was a hungry boy? You were!" Darin's smile melted her heart as it always did while Bengali set out the food. Though her desire to unlock the secrets of the G-Cells still burned bright, her love for her family burned brighter. She knew she would never unlock all of said secrets in her lifetime, but she could lay the groundwork. Also, she was a mother and that was far more important.

XXXXX

In the cold depths of space drifted an aging freighter, at least on the outside. Within was an assemblage of advanced technology hidden within a decrepit hull. The Miraj was nested within its lower reaches as the repair ship floated within interstellar space less than a full hyperspace jump from Third Earth, in the orbit of the fourth planet out from the system's core star.

The space within was spartan and confined, yet a monitor on the forward bulkhead showed a view of the red planet. At the rear were six repair bays only slightly larger than a coffin and one was still occupied. SteelHeart paced nervously in the limited open space as her brother, SteelWill, underwent major repairs. Quicksilver, with TallyHawk on his shoulder, and Copper Kidd stood in place while stealing glances at the monitor. Bluegrass was in the pilot's cockpit, keeping the ship in a geosynchronous orbit about the fourth planet. The Miraj itself was in the docking bay below and recharging its power cells from the larger ship.

"Sis?" SteelWill's voice said over the internal comm system.

"Feeling any better?" she asked, knowing that the question was at best facetious. They did not feel much any longer. She gazed at the coffin-sized repair capsule his mangled and barely functional body had been stuffed into, now filled with a nanobot-rich soup which repaired his every system.

"Good thing I'm a cyborg, or this might hurt some."

"Good thing you're a cyborg, or you'd be dead," she snapped back. "Again."

"I could've taken him," SteelWill's voice claimed over the internal comm pickup.

"When was that?" she asked. "Was it when Guyver smashed you into the mountaintop or when he dropped it on your ass?"

"No fair, Sis," his voice replied.

"It is fair, SteelWill," Quicksilver said as he stepped into the repair bay. "We lost." Copper Kidd let out a low whistle. "Exactly," Quicksilver said, "We got our metal asses handed to us." He strode to a low counter festooned with bloodstained instruments which had been used to repair SteelWill's internal organics before he had been placed into a restorative tube. "We didn't have good intel."

"Where the hell did that green one come from?" SteelHeart asked.

"We weren't told everything," Quicksilver replied.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, this is a fine mess," Tygra said as he sat in his accustomed place in Lion-O and Cheetara's chambers, in a plush chair across a low table from the sofa they both reclined on. All three held a tumbler of drink in hand. His king had amber whiskey over ice while his queen had mineral water - she did not want to risk contaminating her breastmilk from which Leoran still took his sustenance, while Tygra had taken a liking to a new drink made from, of all things, the humble potato. Vodka, the files had called it. He found its lack of aftertaste rather appealing though its initial bite was a tad sharp. However, it was nowhere near as harsh at that of the unaged corn whiskey Panthro preferred. No one commented for several moments as each took small sips.

"The problem with prophecies and visions are that they can't be taken at face value," Cheetara said. "It's something my clan has, with some success, tried to convey."

"Please, tell us," Lion-O said. Cheetara took a sip of water before beginning.

"Our sixth sense isn't overy precise," she began. "In fact, very few of my lineage have ever been able to fully harness it. I, sadly, am not among those few." She took a sip of chilled water before continuing. "Seeing the past is… I won't say it's easy, but it is more predictable," she said at length. "Seeing future events is a lot less accurate. I can't do it at all."

"I don't know much about that part of your heritage," Lion-O offered.

"It's not something we really discuss, or even understand," Cheetara continued. "My own line isn't actually noble and most of what my own family knows is apocryphal." Tygra and Lion-O were too entranced by her explanation to interrupt. "All I know is that future visions cannot be summoned nor reliably interpreted."

"Hence this David," Tygra said after gunning his vodka down and relishing the heat of its passage. "And the danger of self-fulfilling prophecies."

"Pretty much all of them are," Cheetara said around a sip. She had never been a drinker, only indulging in wine and cutting it off the very second she had discovered the presence of Leoran in her womb. "I only get glimpses of future events, and often only moments before." Cheetara took another sip of mineral water. "Why else do you think kings didn't rely on us for prognostication?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Grune settled into a grumbling fuge as he took the buckboard while his forces followed those who he had released. Agito Makishima sat next to him and kept silent, which suited the Thunderian. He rubbed the joining of the stump of his natural arm and the cybernetic prosthetic which Ratar-O had provided him. He had to admit that the onboard weapons - while underpowered - were still impressive. At least enough to impress the Clutch which he had taken command of. Even so, there was another power he lusted for. Also, an enemy who had nearly outlived his usefulness.

He cast a sidelong glance toward Agito who was as usual clad in his black cloak. Treachery was a rarified air that Grune had long since learned to breathe and he could smell a betrayal on the winds as surely as he could track a beast of prey. The damnable thing was that he could not discern much of anything about the aged human. Yes, there was power up for grabs and, also, it was at the Tuska camp they were en route to ambush, but nothing beyond that was clear. What was waiting there? Grune also thought of Ratar-O, the third leg of this treacherous triangle. He has his own angle in all of this yet was playing his cards even closer to his chest than Agito. Grune, however, had learned lies and betrayal from said Mutant and had learned his lessons well. All of it would be decided at Tuska Camp Alpha and would end in his favor.

Yet there was something…

Agito Makishima wrapped his cloak more tightly about himself as the wagon bounced along the trail. The aged human resisted the chill that was growing in the air as he glanced at the Thunderian madman he had decided to kill. Grune was useful, of that there was no doubt, but that usefulness only went so far. He recalled killing Grune the first time and smiled to himself though he did not recall why he had taken so long those centuries ago. The Thunderian had been a wannabe feline Hitler - or a Stalin, Agito had never cared about the differences - and had enjoyed pulling off Grune's arms and legs. Having found him returned to life had been both an opportunity and a kick in the balls.

But little of that mattered. His plans were shot to shit and his last option was his best. He'd hoped not to use the device concealed in his cloak, the trilobite-shaped device older than time which he had found during Second Earth and kept. Only he knew its function and what it led to. It would cost lives in the hundreds, but he was beyond caring. His plans, all of them, had ended in ruin yet he had one more. Agito was nothing if not resourceful.

But, he reflected, how had that resourcefulness really helped him? Sho was now dead-set against him even if Guyver One still had no knowledge of him. Also, Guyver Four had re-awakened. He glanced upward as the first rumbles of thunder reached his ears and the leading edge of dark clouds began to darken the horizon. The storm was coming and from multiple angles.

His time, he knew from the storm clouds and the opposition facing him, was nearly out. Agito again fingered the device concealed in his sleeve. It would all come down to something he had not used in nearly two thousand years. Said thought brought him no comfort.