Sitting up in his bed, leaning against Cain, Ness found himself wondering just how he and his younger twin were going to be able to deal with everything that seemed to be happening to them. Before he could ask Cain what he thought they should be doing next, he heard the sound of someone ringing the chime on his door. Sharing a speaking glance with Cain, the pair of them made their way over to the door.
Commander Jamison was waiting for them there.
"I suspected I would find the two of you together," the Commander said, looking over the both of them as he and Cain stood in front of the doorway.
"What're you here for, Commander?" he asked, leaning lightly against Cain as his younger twin draped an arm over his shoulders.
"I'd been hoping that you would both be willing to undergo another MRI, so that we might be able to determine just how far the damage to both of your bodies and brains has progressed," the Commander said, looking over the both of them.
Ness sighed. "All right," he said, nodding.
"Just give us a little time to get ready, okay?" Cain asked, moving to stand beside him.
The Commander nodded, wordlessly allowing the door to slide closed so that the pair of them could get ready for their examination. He shared a worried look with Cain, as the pair of them finished getting ready and made their way out to where the Commander was waiting for them. He couldn't help but wonder just what was happening to them, and just how much the pair of them had lost.
0010010001001
Making his way out into the snowfield, following the trail of destruction that had been left by Spear, Slade, and Saber while the three of them had been fighting, Ringo had soon come to the exact place where Rapier had fallen when Slade had stabbed him in the head. The little Teknoman was still laying in the snow, armored head still surrounded by that grisly halo of blood, though it wasn't quite the bright red it had previously been when it had first been spilled.
"All right, here he is," Ringo said, looking over at Balzac as the pair of them came to a stop.
"Let's get him up, then," Balzac said, still sounding a bit reluctant about the whole thing.
"Right," he said, crouching so that he could get a grip on the little Teknoman's corpse.
This was the first time he'd actually seen one of them after they'd died, since Gunnar had died in space, and Axe had blown himself to hell, leaving nothing behind but a crater and bad memories. Memories that Slade and Saber probably didn't even have anymore, given everything that was happening to them. Still, seeing the corpse on the ground was sad; not for the fact that one of Darkon's Teknomen was dead, but sad for who the kid might have grown up to be if none of his family had met the Radam in the first place.
As he and Balzac carried the still-armored corpse into the Command Center, Ringo found his attention drawn inexorably back to the bloody hole that had been punched through the left side of the semi-transparent visor that protected every Teknoman's eyes. He hadn't ever had the chance to observe even Slade and Saber's armored forms this close, since whenever either of them transformed it was to go into battle with Darkon's forces. Either Spider-crabs, or in the case of Spear and his cronies, enemy Teknomen.
Now that he was getting the chance to observe Rapier close up, he noticed that the visor itself looked like one of those one-way mirrors, only showing a vague shadow of the kid's face underneath it. In this particular case, Ringo could only be grateful that he couldn't see the kind of damage that'd been done to the kid's head. Evil Teknoman or not, that kind of thing was never a pleasant sight.
"Any plans for what we're going to do with this kid when we get him inside?" Balzac asked, as the pair of them made their way over to the main doors of the Command Center.
"I've got an idea," he muttered, narrowing his eyes as he and Balzac made their way into the Command Center again; he didn't think that either Slade or Saber would want to see the little Teknoman's corpse.
Even if those two were starting to forget what had happened to them, the things they'd both seen and done, Ringo knew that this wasn't the way to remind them.
Once he'd managed to get Balzac to cooperate with him, it still took some time to find something the right size to be a casket for the kid, armored as he still was. The pair of them carried the casket deeper into the Command Center, and after Ringo had managed to find some amaryllis flowers to lay on top of it, he made his way over to the computer. Printing out a copy of Sam Carter's picture, the one that had been included in the dossier for the Argos' crew, Ringo paused for a moment as he considered just how he was going to display it.
In the end, however, Balzac took the picture from him and clipped it onto a clipboard that he'd managed to find somewhere.
Nearly before the pair of them had made it out of their respective Tekno-suits, Ringo heard the call for them to meet up with the rest of the Space Knights. Once they'd all made it to this base's version of Comm. One, he noticed that neither of their boys had been asked to come to this particular meeting.
"While Slade and Saber undergo their MRI analysis, I would like for the rest of you to observe the current condition of the spoor plants that the Radam have been seeding the Earth with," the Commander said, answering Ringo's question before he could articulate it in the first place. "We need to know how far their growth has progressed."
"Yes, sir!" he answered with the rest of the Space Knights, following Star and Balzac as the pair of them made for the hangar where the Blue Earth was waiting for them all.
11010100111110
Once the three of them had made it back to the Command Center, Star found herself paying the bare minimum of attention to the conversation that Ringo and Balzac had been having, at least until Balzac said something that actually required her input.
"But the data won't do us any good until it's analyzed by the master computer, which is exactly what I plan to do now."
Of course, right as she'd finished stating her intentions, Ringo turned to her with that same, teasing grin he'd worn so many times before: "Forget about the computer, isn't there someone you want to see?" he started walking again, grin smoothing out into a gentle smile. "Go on, leave the boring stuff to us."
Smiling softly in return, Star thanked Ringo for thinking of her, and then made her way to the infirmary where Slade and Saber had been taken. The Commander wanted to know as much as he could about what was happening to the pair of them, and while she did hope that both of them were going to be all right, Star had to admit that she was more eager to see how Slade was doing. When she made it to the observation room, Star found that it wasn't just the Commander there.
Mac, Tina, and of course Maggie were all waiting for her in the room that overlooked the MRI devices that had been set up inside this infirmary so that Slade and Saber could at least stay close enough to each other to take comfort in the others' presence. The Commander seemed to have been talking to her fellow Space Knights before she'd arrived, probably about what might be happening to the twins.
What the second transformation they'd been forced to undergo, if only so that the first wouldn't end up killing them, was truly going to cost in the end.
"There's been no improvement in either of their conditions, Star," the Commander said, once she'd made her way over to stand beside Maggie at the room's large observation window.
"Yeah, I guess I was just…"
"We were both hoping for that," Maggie said, slinging a companionable arm around her shoulders as the pair of them continued to watch over both of the men they loved.
Nodding, even as she sighed softly into the sudden silence as the rest of her fellow Space Knights left her and Maggie alone with the men they'd both taken into their hearts; the men who had sacrificed so much for the Earth and all her people, and were poised to sacrifice so much more. Star wanted to say too much more, but she couldn't be selfish. Not after everything that had happened.
0010001001000
Finding himself called back to Comm. One by the approach of more of the Space Knights' allies, Hamilton Jamison found himself wondering just which of those remaining allies this could have been. They'd lost a great deal of them, after being driven out of the Arizona Command Center by Spear and his underlings. And, even with nearly the last of said underlings eliminated – as sad a thought as that could be, considering who those underlings had once been to Slade and Saber – they'd had little chance to reestablish contact with those that remained.
Making his way into Comm. One, the first thing that Jamison found himself faced with were what seemed to be the remnants of Miles O'Roarke's raider squadron. It was, if not the most unexpected thing that he could have found himself facing, at least one out of a rather short list.
"This is a surprise," he said, taking in the men that had presented themselves to the Space Knights so abruptly. "I thought O'Roarke's Raiders had been-"
"Decimated?" the man at the forefront of the group asked, before Jamison could properly articulate his own question. "Yes, we have been, sir. But that doesn't mean that those of us who're left can't keep fightin' on our own. And, with their position on the Space Ring so loosely defended at the moment, the time to strike is now."
"These Commandos have come seeking our help for an attack on the Radam," he said, as the rest of his Space Knights – with the notable exception of Slade and Saber, of course – filed into Comm. One alongside him. "He's right about the Space Ring" he continued, bringing up the map that Ringo had compiled from the gathered data. "That scanning-flight by the Blue Earth shows that most of the Spider-crabs have descended to the planet, where they've fanned out over every landmass, and now appear to be transforming themselves into spoor trees."
"Shara warned us that this was going to happen," Star said, and Jamison turned slightly to look back at her. "She said that the Radam were going to be consolidating their forces, once the last stage of the initial stages of their invasion had concluded."
"Seems pretty strange that they'd start doing that kind of thing, when we're all still here to fight against them," Ringo said, and Jamison found that he also agreed with Ringo's assessment.
"It's possible that the loss of so many of their Teknomen has driven them to attempt to speed up their settlement of this planet," Jamison said, after spending a moment considering everything that had happened thus far. "Therefore, we have little time to lose."
"The only way we're going to be able to stop them is by destroying their base on the far side of the Moon," Balzac said.
"Easier said than done, with the Blue Earth's catapult out of commission," Star said, sounding only mildly frustrated by something that could easily prove to be a boon, at least so far as Slade and Saber's current situation was concerned.
"We've barely have enough boost to breach the atmosphere, let alone get to the Moon," Ringo pointed out.
"True. However, if we recapture the Orbital Ring, with all its space-ports, and launch the Blue Earth from there," he prompted, knowing that his Space Knights would be able to put the rest together for themselves.
"Well then, that's a different story, Commander," Ringo said, smiling with a gentle sort of amusement.
"The Radam have taken control of one of the elevators used to transport heavy equipment from the Space Ring to Earth," he said, making his way over to the main computer so that he could bring up a schematic of the elevator the Space Knights' efforts were going to be focusing on at the moment. "If we could use it to gain access to the Space Ring and secure a space-port, the Blue Earth would be in a much better position to fly to the Moon," he continued, narrowing his eyes slightly; he could only hope that neither Slade nor Saber were close enough to overhear the briefing he was currently giving, since both of those young men could be counted upon to take things in exactly the wrong way. "There are eight space-ports, all we have to do is secure one of them," he said, turning to the rest of the group gathered all around him. "It's a risky plan, but workable. Just the type of mission our old friend O'Roarke thrived on. And, if worse comes to worst and the spoor trees start taking over the planet, the Space Ring could end up being our last refuge."
He didn't want to believe things would come to that, but there were many things that Jamison had found himself facing that he hadn't wanted to believe possible.
"You're right, Commander," Balzac said.
"We'll take the fight to them," Maggie said, sounding particularly eager; considering her relationship with Saber, as well as the young man's current condition, Jamison could more than understand Maggie's feelings on this matter. "They won't be expecting that. I like it."
"I'm with ya there, Maggie," Ringo said. "It's terrific. We're finally gonna get some payback for all our friends."
"And they'll pay dearly," the commando who seemed to be acting as the spokesman for this particular group said, sounding rather more eager than even Maggie and Ringo had.
"Maggie, you'll be in charge of restoring the Space Ring's communications" he called, drawing her attention back to the present and everything that awaited them, rather than where it seemed to have wandered; he suspected it had been with Saber, given the way she had been looking toward Comm. One's main entrance. "We'll be needing that."
"Will do," Maggie said, smiling calmly.
"Needless to say, there's no time to lose," he said, knowing that his people – to say nothing of O'Roarke's remaining commando unit – would understand the urgency, but still not wishing to leave things actually unsaid. "So, I want you all ready to move out within the hour."
110101001111
Panting, leaning on Cain whenever he felt that same, creeping weakness he'd been dealing with off-and-on ever since the pair of them had been making their way away from the infirmary, Ness kept moving determinedly forward.
(You know the Space Knights aren't going to be happy to see us, Nessie,) Cain said, though Ness could tell that his younger twin was just as determined to carry through with this as he was; Cain was just pointing things out to be funny.
(I'm aware of that,) he said, bracing Cain as his younger twin nearly missed a step and put the both of them off balance. (Still, we can't just let them go out and fight on their own. The others are still out there,) he glared down at the inoffensive floor tiles. (Spear is still out there.)
(Yeah,) Cain said, sighing as the pair of them came into sight of Comm. One's main entrance. (Just wanted to make sure you knew what we're getting into.)
(I'll keep it in mind,) he said, smiling softly. (Thanks.)
0001001001001
Pausing for a moment as he hit the controls that would open the door, Ness tried to get his breathing under control. He'd hardly be able to make his case, that he and Cain should be going on whatever mission the rest of the Space Knights had planned if he couldn't even catch his breath.
"What're you kids doing?" Ringo demanded, as he and the rest of the group in Comm. One – Ness had the brief thought that not all of them were Space Knights, but he didn't have the time to spare thinking about why that was – all turned to stare at him and Cain as they made their way inside.
"So, those are the twins," he heard a woman's voice – not Star's or Maggie's, but still using the same nickname – mutter from somewhere off to the right of where he and Cain were headed.
"If you don't mind, Commander, Cain and I would sure like to come along for the ride," he said, once the pair of them had finally managed to make their way over to where Commander Jamison was standing.
Before the Commander could do more than open his mouth – though the first thing out of it were those nicknames that he and Cain had been trying to get the various Space Knights to stop using, already – cheering from the squad of people in brighter, almost orange uniforms drowned him out.
"A Teknoman's good as another battalion," the blond said, grinning at the pair of them as he cut off whatever it was that Commander Jamison had been about to say. "Having two of ya lads along should give us everything we need to finish this fight!"
"No, you can't!" Star exclaimed. "It's too dangerous!"
"Dangerous or not, it'll be more dangerous for them if we aren't there," he said, glancing back briefly at the stricken look on Star's face; really, out of the whole flock of mother hens that made up the Space Knights as a whole, Star was easily the most mother-hennish of them all.
"You have to know that Spear's still out there, and even if he is just down to Sword for backup, that's hardly going to make him any less dangerous," Cain pointed out.
In the end, the commandos pretty much overrode any objections that the Space Knights in general and Star in particular might have had, and he and Cain followed the commandos out to the convoy of trucks and Jeeps they'd come to the Command Center in to begin with.
00100100011111
The sound of Lord Darkon's hissing gasp, as the first of the oddly-tipped tendrils plunged into his back just above the base of his tail, nearly prompted Sword to bite her lower lip in concern. Still, Lord Darkon had invited her and her beloved Conrad to speak with him while he prepared to undergo the last of the transformations that he had detailed to the pair of them when Conrad had recovered from his latest battle with the traitors, and she wasn't about to insult his strength by implying that he couldn't bear even the initial stages of melding with the ship around them.
(Sword, you understand what your task is to be from now on?)
"Yes, Lord Darkon, I do," she said, sweeping a deep bow, even as she heard the sound of another of those odd tendrils imbedding itself in Lord Darkon's spine.
(I'm pleased to hear that,) Lord Darkon said, as another more normal-looking pair of tendrils supported him as his legs and tail went limp in the wake of the first, odd tendril imbedding in his spine. (Spear, I have made preparations for your own transformation, however, if you would give me a moment?)
Sword didn't know precisely what the plaintive tone of Lord Darkon's telepathic voice truly meant, but as the tone was not for her, she put it out of her mind. Even as Lord Darkon laid his sharp, white teeth – serrated on the back, and clearly meant for ripping through flesh – against Conrad's bared throat for a long moment, Sword held herself back. She could sense no hostility from the General, and sure enough Lord Darkon turned to nuzzle the left side of Conrad's face, the soft purring letting her know that nothing had truly been about to happen to him.
"What was that, Lord Darkon?" Conrad asked, before Sword herself could articulate the same kind of question.
(An assurance, my General. And a promise: those two you once cared for might have abandoned you, but I will stand by you,) Lord Darkon said, turning to gently swipe his narrow tongue across Conrad's left cheek, looking almost like a large cat grooming another member of his litter.
"Thank you, my Lord," Conrad said, bowing deeply to Lord Darkon.
After Conrad had been directed to where he was to undertake the secondary transformation that Lord Darkon had spoken to them about not so long ago, Sword herself was given her own marching orders: she was to give a last order to the mother Spider-crab that had been the source of their cannon fodder during the course of all of their attempts at colonization. Then, she was to station herself on the Space Ring, in order to ensure that none of the Earth forces were able to make it to the Moon.
She was to be the last line of defense for both her beloved Conrad, as well as Lord Darkon for the time that he would need such protection as she could provide for him.
111010001111
When they'd all arrived at the base of the elevator they were going to be using to make their way back into the Space Ring, Cain couldn't help but wonder why none of Darkon's remaining Teknomen had been sent out to make certain that all of the elevators that had formerly served the Space Ring had been put out of commission permanently. He also couldn't help but wonder just why Star and Maggie had both been so insistent on that robot keeping pace with them. Sure, it was plain that the both of them were worried, anyone who'd heard the way they had admonished both him and Nessie not to transform, but he still didn't quite get what the robot's deal was.
Nor why the thing had been named Pegas, either, really.
The sound of the soldier who seemed to be leading the group he, Ness, Ringo, and Balzac were all tagging along with speaking to someone named Angela – who he seemed to be worried about – drew Cain's attention briefly, but they'd all moved onto the elevator platform before he could think too much about it. The soldiers could take care of themselves, anyway. He and Ness leaned together at the back of the group, but before either of them could get too relaxed where they were, the sense of one of the others washed over them.
(Sword,) Ness said, his older twin's tensed apprehension washing over him, even as Cain narrowed his own eyes.
(Yeah,) he said, sighing as he turned toward the sense of where Conrad's former fiancée was.
None of the others around them would be prepared to deal with a Teknoman, even though Ringo and Balzac were starting to look in the same direction that he and Ness were facing. That wasn't the greatest thing that could have happened, under their present circumstances, but all of them were moving out before Cain had too much time to think about that.
(When do you think she's going to show up?) he asked, not wanting to worry everyone else, but not trusting this quiet.
The three Spider-crabs that burst through the wall in front of them interrupted anything that Ness might have said in return, and Cain found himself and Ness both forced back behind Ringo and Balzac as the pair of them leaped forward to engage the Spider-crabs with their Tekno-suits. The pair of them caught each other's eye for a long moment, even as all of their group continued on the way to Spaceport One.
(I have a bad feeling about this,) Ness said, as their group continued on through the empty corridors of the Space Ring.
(Yeah. Things can't be this easy,) he said, narrowing his eyes as they all came up to the tightly-sealed doors to the Spaceport.
Sure enough, either the Spider-crabs or Spear himself had ravaged the Spaceport, leaving all of them with no real way to leave through it.
(Well, Ness, what are you and Cain planning to do?) Katherine – Teknoman Sword – all but purred, over the telepathic link that had been forged between them all when the Radam had taken and transformed them to begin with; the link that he and Ness had been steadily breaking, though Cain did have to admit that it still had its uses. (Are you planning to come and stop me, or are you just going to let me keep going until you run out of Spaceports?)
"What's going on, boys?" Ringo called, looking over at them, even as he and Ness turned to leave.
Moving as fast as they could, Cain was still aware of the Space Knights and the accompanying commandos all yelling for him and Ness. Still, even as he and Ness followed the mental link that would lead them to Sword – Balzac following in their wake, though Cain privately doubted that he would be much help against her – Cain spared a thought for the woman who'd seated herself as close as she could get to the pair of them.
He and Ness had taken the two front seats, leaving the woman – whose name turned out to be Angela – to sit behind Ness' head, though the fact that she clearly seemed to want to speak to both of them made things more interesting than they would have otherwise been.
"I've been wanting to speak to you lads," she said, and Cain glanced up to meet her eyes in the rear-view mirror; she looked stern, yes, but also strangely familiar…
(Cain, are you getting this, too?)
(That same weird feeling, like I should know her, or something?)
(Yeah,) Ness answered, and Cain could tell that his older twin felt just as unsettled as he did. (It doesn't make sense.)
"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked, turning slightly to glance back at her, trying not to let any of the unease that he and Ness were feeling show in his voice; really, Cain could only be grateful for the polarized face-shields built into all of their respective helmets.
"I wanted you lads to tell me what you remember about the time you spent with Miles O'Roarke," Angela said, and Cain found himself wishing for a moment that the pair of them could have been facing one another while they were trying to have this conversation of theirs.
It would have made things less unsettling, considering the way Angela was asking him about something that Cain couldn't remember.
"O'Roarke?" Ness asked, while Cain was still mulling over his own response; Ness, of course, sounded about as confused as Cain felt.
"Yes," Angela said, her tone sounding kind and wistful at once. "Miles always spoke fondly of you lads. He'd often talk about the times he'd spent with the pair of you. It's strange," she continued, laughing softly, the sound more than a bit rueful. "But, even though he's gone, I still enjoy talking about him."
"Makes sense to me," he said, looking back at Angela as best he could, considering the way he was sitting in the row in front of her. "It sounds like you loved him, so it's only natural that you'd miss him and want to talk about him to someone."
Angela laughed softly. "Miles did tell me that you seemed to understand people better than they understood themselves, Saber."
"That was nice of him," he said, even though he was still kind of annoyed to be constantly called by the weird nickname that Conrad called him; the name that the Radam had tried to force on him.
"Miles and I were everything to each other," Angela said, looking down at the photo she'd taken out, and Cain found himself wishing again that the pair of them could have spoken under better circumstances; or, at least that they could have been facing each other. "Well, he was everything to me, at least. As much as he loved me, though, there was always the war calling him away. He always left before dawn, while I was still asleep, leaving me a gun on the nightstand," she continued, and Cain found himself thinking about how strangely sentimental that kind of thing was; under the circumstances, a gun really was the best thing to leave for someone, if you couldn't be there for them in person. "For protection, and as a sign that he'd be back. How often I would wake up to find myself alone; there wasn't much comfort in the cold steel of that gun. There was nothing to do but wait for him to come back, until the day arrived when I knew he'd never come back," she paused for a moment, and Cain shared a curious glance with Ness; both of them wondering if Angela was looking for sympathy, looking to vent, or both. "My life as I had lived it lost its meaning. I'd always been a bystander; a civilian. Now, I realized that if his life was to have meant anything, it was up to me to continue the fight. To follow him into the inferno."
"Do you really think he'd want you dying for him?" Cain asked, not sure he wanted to hear anything more about this Miles O'Roarke, if he was the kind of person who would want someone he loved to die in the same war that had claimed his life.
"No, Saber, that wasn't what I meant," Angela said, laughing softly. "I mean to join the war, not die in it," she sighed softly. "Not unless I have to."
"I guess that's all we can hope for, under the circumstances," Ness said, and Cain felt an echo of his older twin's melancholy over their link. (Am I the only one who can't make heads or tails of this, Cain?)
(No, I'm pretty much just as in the dark here as you are, Nessie,) he said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he found himself wondering, not for the first time, just what it was that Angela wanted from them.
"I never got to say goodbye, but you lads were there for his final battle. Please, I want you lads to tell me what it was like the last time you saw him," Angela said, at once answering the question Cain had been musing on, and making it almost impossible for Cain to answer at all.
What could you really say, after all, to someone who expected you to tell them about a person you were sure you'd never met?
1101001110101
For a long moment, after he'd heard just what it was that Angela wanted from them, Ness almost felt like he could have pulled his own brain out and tried to examine it. There was something, something that Ness felt he or Cain should have remembered, but whatever it was seemed to be just out of reach. Whatever it was, Ness could only turn to Cain, hoping once again that his younger twin would know something he didn't; hoping that Cain could help, when Ness himself was helpless.
(Cain, do you know what she's talking about?)
(No,) Cain responded, his worry for what seemed to be happening to them coming through loud and clear over the link that the pair of them had shared for so long. (I… I think it might be one of those memories we're starting to lose.)
"I'm sorry," he said, speaking aloud for the benefit of those who didn't share the mental link that had been forged between him and Cain. "I don't remember him."
"Yeah, I'm drawing a blank here, myself," Cain said, the contrition in his voice almost seeming like an afterthought, compared to the worry that Ness could feel suffusing their mental link. "I'm sorry, but I don't think either of us are going to be able to help you, Miss Angela."
"That's not possible!" Angela exclaimed, and Ness tried not to shudder as he heard the sheer desperation in her tone. "One of you lads has to have at least some recollection about what happened to Miles."
"I'm afraid that's just what's been happening, Ma'am," Balzac said, dropping back so that he was hovering just in front of the transport he, Cain, and Angela were all seated in rather than taking point the way he had been previously. "Something about their transformations, during that last time with O'Roarke you were talking about – something about how the both of them changed, during that last battle – made it so that, every time either of them is forced to transform, they lose more and more of their memories."
"What?!" Angela demanded, leaning forward so that the three of them would actually be able to speak to each other, rather than at each other the way they'd all seemed to be doing before. "You mean, you could both conceivably forget everything, someday?"
"I don't know," he said, gripping his helmet and wishing for a long moment that he could have rubbed his temples to try to steady himself; even the comfort that Cain was trying to share with him over their mental link wasn't helping, because he could clearly sense the worry underlying it. "It just seems like there's more slipping away."
(Sometimes, I wonder if there's a chance we'll forget who we're fighting for, or even against,) Ness said, biting his lower lip even as he found his fists clenching in his lap; he didn't want to worry anyone else, but he knew that Cain would understand.
Cain had always understood.
(Yeah. Comforting thought, that,) his younger twin said, reaching out to wrap his hands around both of Ness' own.
"Sometimes, it feels like all Cain and I have to hold on to is each other," Ness said aloud, having noticed the curious looks – the beginning-to-be-unsettled looks – being directed his way after his and Cain's prolonged silence. "That, and our hatred for the Radam. Still, I can't stop wondering what happens if we lose it."
Not their connection, of course, since that had merely been strengthened by the Radam's tampering, not actually forged by it.
"You lads shouldn't worry about that," Angela said, sounding like she was trying to be as comforting as anyone could, under the circumstances. "The connection you lads have to each other won't be broken so easily as all that," she continued, raising the gun that O'Roarke had given to her that last time he'd left; the last time he'd been alive to leave her anything. "The bonds of family can't be destroyed so easily."
(Yeah, but that's not always a good thing,) Cain mused, and Ness narrowed his eyes as he found his own thoughts drifting back to Conrad, as well.
(Not always,) he found himself agreeing; both with Cain's assessment of their present situation, as well as his younger twin's discretion; neither of them wanted to worry the people around them – the people who cared about them – any more than they clearly already were.
Finding himself humming along, when Angela started singing, Ness found himself more than a little surprised to hear not only Cain but also Pegas singing along.
Angela chuckled, distracting Ness before he could articulate the confusion that he wasn't quite sure was coming more from himself or Cain. "Miles used to tell me about how he was planning to invite Saber to come sing with him, some time when the pair of them could both take time off."
Before Ness could think of any kind of way to respond to that, the sound of proximity alarms let them all know that the remaining Spider-crabs in this area were coming for them again. However, the fact that there was only a single Spider-crab attacking them unsettled Ness, and as he and Cain were basically forced to sit back and watch while Balzac and the commandos all around them tried to kill the thing, Ness couldn't help the thought that he and Cain weren't going to get out of this battle unscathed.
And, sure enough, the truly massive Spider-crab they'd all been confronted by proved to be all but immune to the weapons that the commandos all around them, and it didn't seem to be bothered much by Balzac's Tekno-suit, either. So, as he called for Pegas to activate his teknocrystal, and Cain transformed alongside him, Ness could only hope that the pair of them would be able to handle things quickly.
He could only hope that the Commander had guessed wrong, and that it was the length of time that he and Cain stayed in their transformed states rather than the transformation itself, that was causing their current problems.
However, this single Spider-crab was stronger, tougher, and actually seemed to be more vicious than any of the other Spider-crabs that he and Cain had found. Rather than sticky venom made for trapping an enemy, this Spider-crab was armed with a corrosive type that melted the commandos caught up in it into a stomach-turning mess of slurry. The thicker carapace even served to resist the needle-bombs that the commandos had been using.
0001010001011
Narrowing his eyes, as he watched the commandos he and Ness were working with trying to aim their rifles at the needle-bombs that had previously been fired into the huge Spider-crab's head, he turned quickly when he saw Angela starting to make a run at the Spider-crab threatening them all.
"Wait!" he called, throwing his left arm out to stop her, before Angela could end up getting in range of the Spider-crab's armored version of a regular Spider-crab's whisker-like, grasping appendages. "Get on my back; I'll at least be able to protect you while you're trying to shoot those bombs."
"Good thinking, Saber," Angela said, and as she climbed up onto his back, Cain wished for a long moment that he could have rolled his eyes.
With Angela on his back, he couldn't use his rockets without risking burning her, but with the Spider-crab distracted by both Ness and Balzac attacking it, Cain was able to quickly anchor himself to the ceiling of the corridor the four of them were all fighting in. Angela, quickly getting over her surprise, shot the bombs with the gun that Miles O'Roarke had presumably left her when he'd gone into battle for the last time.
Letting out the breath he'd been holding, Cain watched as the giant Spider-crab's head exploded, quickly followed by the entire Spider-crab. Grabbing Angela off of his back, Cain threw his body over her as a shield, even as Ness did the same with Balzac.
000101000101000
The sense of the trap she'd arranged so perfectly going off just as she'd planned it – filling the mother Spider-crab with enough energy that it would serve perfectly well to destroy the spaceport she'd left intact for the pair of them and their human compatriots to stumble into – metaphorically slamming shut on the traitors brought at least some consolation to her. Her beloved Conrad would be safe, during the time he would have otherwise been vulnerable to attacks from the humans who continued to stand against them.
And yes, Sword knew that Lord Darkon – soon to be Warlord Darkon – would protect her beloved from any of those who might make it past her, but she had no desire to impose any undue burdens upon him, either.
There was only a single spaceport remaining, only one place where the traitors would be able to make their departure for the Moon. The one place where she would be waiting for the attempt; the place where Sword could corner the traitors at last. For the sake of her beloved Conrad, and her Warlord Darkon, Sword would ensure that neither of the traitors made it past her.