It wasn't, strictly speaking, a question that he needed to ask; however, seeing the reactions of both twins to the mere suggestion of their former identities was rather informative. The reactions themselves were as subtle as he had come to expect from the twins: D-Two tensed just enough to be noticeable by someone who was observing them rather closely, and D-Boy's expression hardened in almost the same manner as he had seen when the young man spoke about the Radam.

He was also certain of his conclusions because of the clear, physical resemblance between D-Boy and D-Two, and the photographs that had been included in the dossiers of the Argos' crewmembers. Even D-Two's blue eyes, as distinctly different from both D-Boy's bright green and Aiba Takaya and Aiba Shinya's blue-green as they were, could easily have been explained as a result of the Radam's physical tampering. It would not, of course, have been the most obvious sign of such.

"Chief," D-Two said, after a few, long moments of silence; however, the presence of the vector-forms of D-Boy and D-Two's tekkasets appearing on their foreheads suggested that both twins had had far more to say to each other than to anyone else. "How did you manage to find out about us?"

"Forgive me, but I did some research about you. Your father, Kouzu Aiba, and the Argos." He was starting to suspect that this would be all he would need, in order to persuade D-Boy and D-Two – rather, Takaya and Shinya Aiba – to reveal the secrets of their shared past.

"The Argos…" D-Boy muttered, a troubled expression on his face.

"The Argos? I think I've heard of that," Noal stated, looking thoughtful.

"I know! There was an exploration ship heading for Titan three years ago," Levin said.

"Oh, that's right," Noal said, nodding. "The ship itself disappeared."

"True," he said, carefully watching the reactions of the twins to what he was saying; he'd no wish to cause his Space Knights undue distress, but the fact remained that whatever information the twins could remember might very well prove important to the survival of Earth as a whole. So, even if it was painful for them, Freeman was determined to pursue this line of inquiry. "During the course of my investigation regarding the Titan expedition, I learned that its leader – Kouzu Aiba – had two sons named Takaya and Shinya. And also, that they were twins."

"So, our Gemini Boys' real names are Takaya and Shinya Aiba?" Noal asked.

"Really? I thought the both of them had lost their memories," Levin said, turning to look at D-Two with a confused expression; though it was clear that most of the young man's attention was focused on Freeman himself.

"No. Neither one of them had lost their memory at all," he said, stepping forward slightly; D-Two's stance tightened, and D-Boy stood to his full height. Neither of them seemed particularly unwilling to continue, however. "They only wanted to keep their past a secret. Isn't that right, Takaya? Shinya?"

"Yeah. What of it?" D-Two said, a half-smile on his face that looked far more bitter than amused.

"We're…" D-Boy said, not even attempting to conceal his own bitterness the way D-Two so often did. "You already know who we are!"

"Chief. Chief?" The voice of the head of the Space Knights' medical staff – Dr. Jacob Berenson – cut through the growing tension. "Our patient is dangerously dehydrated, and undernourished. It's going to take a lot longer than we expected to get her back on her feet again."

"Thank you for letting us know, Dr. Berenson," he said, once it was clear that no one else was in the proper frame of mind to say anything.

"If it's really going to take that long for your sister to recover, why don't you two try getting some rest? I don't think the Chief would mind if you wanted to stay close," Aki suggested.

"You really think so, Aki-san?" D-Two said, the smile on his face seeming far more genuine than it had before.

It was only natural that the two of them would wish to stay with their sister while she convalesced; particularly given their feelings for her, and how hard they had worked to save her from Spear. Suggesting that they wait closer to her rather than farther would do a great deal of good for their peace of mind. For that, Freeman found that he was grateful to Aki for her consideration.

I

As she and Levin helped to get D-Boy and D-Two settled in the room just outside the ICU, Aki found that she wasn't surprised much at all by the fact that the twins didn't actually have amnesia. It was something she'd begun wondering about, back when the two of them had been speaking to Dr. Cal aboard his ship. D-Two had said that they remembered, and now she knew just what he had meant by that.

"It's kind of strange, thinking that there was this whole big secret about you that I didn't know. Didn't you trust me, D-Two?" she heard Levin say.

Turning to look back over her shoulder, Aki saw D-Two's lips curl slightly upward in a small, bitter smirk.

"It wasn't about trust," he said, looking down for a long moment at the bed that he was moving into place. "Brother and I just couldn't talk about it; that's all."

"You can talk about it now, right?" Levin asked, reaching over to gently squeeze D-Two's right shoulder. "I mean, now that everyone knows." D-Two smiled, a softer smile than Aki had ever seen him wear before, as Levin wrapped his left arm around D-Two's shoulders and leaned against him.

D-Two laughed softly, though not particularly happily, Aki noticed. "You're right; everyone does know, Lev-chan."

"Well, there you go, then," Levin said, gently pulling D-Two back until the both of them fell back onto the bed that they had maneuvered into place. "None of us have our wires crossed, anymore!"

Judging from the expression on D-Two's face, Aki wasn't the only one amused by Levin's choice of words. D-Boy's voice distracted her from any further musings she might have had on that topic.

"Aki."

The expression on D-Boy's face was so earnest, his bright green eyes so intently focused on her, that Aki found herself smiling in response almost out of hand. "Come on, D-Boy. Everything will be all right soon, you'll see." Sitting down on the bed opposite Levin and D-Two, Aki gently tugged D-Boy's arm, until he'd settled down on the bed next to her.

Together, she knew, the four of them would have the strength to deal with anything the Radam could send against them. Still, right now, they could all use some rest; they were all fairly on-edge at the moment.

II

When he had at last managed to regain full, conscious awareness of where he was – and how he had gotten there – Spear was forced to push aside the sadness caused by his earlier revelations about his younger brothers; what he would need to do to the other members of his family.

Spear; I see that you are finally awake.

Yes, he responded, half-closing his eyes; though he had been restored to full health in a physical sense, he was still uneasy. I await further orders.

Yes. I can sense that this is difficult for you, Spear; these are members of your own clan that have turned against you. However, you must resolve yourself to this course of action. Your younger siblings have made clear their intention to stand with the people of this planet; you must do no less.

I understand, he said, gaze falling to the floor of Omega's vessel as the realization of just what he was going to have to do to three of his younger siblings in an effort to quell their rebellion.

That is good; however, you must realize that this is an opportune time to attack. They are at their weakest, now. Vulnerable in mind and body. Go now, Spear; do as you must.

Yes, Omega-sama.

He could no longer afford to show Takaya and Shinya – and Miyuki, now – the mercy that he had once done; he could no longer afford to be sentimental.

III

As he lay down on the infirmary bed, trying to relax the way that Aki had insisted he and Shinya should do, Takaya found that he couldn't manage to turn off his mind. Even the meditation that he'd learned during the course of his martial arts training didn't help, since that just served to remind him of what had happened to Grant Goddard; that, in turn, brought Takaya's attention firmly back to the present. Miyuki's condition also weighed heavily on his mind, making it doubly impossible for him to relax.

You're too tense, Ta-kun, Shinya said, his younger twin's usual wry good-humor seeming a bit more subdued than usual.

You really think so? he asked rhetorically, beginning to feel perversely relaxed from Shinya's gentle teasing; whatever name he went by, and whatever else happened to them, his younger twin would always be his irrepressible self.

That was good to know.

Are you all right? Shinya asked, and out of the corner of his left eye, Takaya could see his younger twin turning slightly to look at him.

I can't stop thinking about what happened, he said, staring up at the lights of the room where the four of them were waiting. Now that the Chief told everyone.

It was kind of strange, the way staring up at the banks of lights reminded him a bit of the engines on the back of the Argos. Of course, given what the Argos had looked like from the back, he supposed that anyone could be forgiven for being a bit nostalgic under these circumstances.

"D-Boy. You know, you're still D-Boy to me," Aki said, slinging her left arm around his shoulders as he leaned forward slightly to accommodate her. "No matter what kind of past you might have had."

"Thank you, Aki." He couldn't really hide it anymore; it wouldn't be fair to Aki, after she'd stood by him all this time even without knowing about his past. He didn't know just how Shinya really felt about Levin, but he didn't think that his younger twin would object too much.

He could still remember – all too clearly – what had happened that day; when the Radam probe ship had dragged the Argos into itself. He'd seen the two ships fused together, just for a few moments, before the escape pod that he and Shinya had been so unceremoniously shoved into had passed out of sight of the two ships.

"The Argos…" His eyes half-closed; he wasn't really seeing anything in the OSDG Headquarters' infirmary, not anymore. "We were on the Argos. We'd left Earth to explore the outer-regions of the solar system, on a course to the mysterious planet Saturn, and its satellites."

He could still remember when Kengo and Sasuke had been put into hyper-sleep; he'd held the hands of both his older and younger brothers as they had both been put under in their turn. Still, if he'd had any way to know what was coming, he would have insisted to anyone who would listen that at least the rest of his and Shinya's family be awake. At least then, they would have had the option to run when the Radam had attacked.

For as much good as it had done any of them.

"It happened just as our ship approached Saturn's rings," he muttered, wondering idly if the others were listening in on this conversation, or if Aki was going to be telling them the salient points later sometime.

As he continued speaking, Takaya found himself thinking more about the past than he had since the events had happened. Back to the last days of Aiba Takaya's life, not that he'd known it at the time.

Aiba Takaya had been excited, back then; seeing the ship appear in front of them, not knowing that it was going to mean the end of basically everything that he and Shinya had ever known. Even their names would be changed, in the end.

It was painful to think about: those last few moments when he and Shinya had actually had family aside from each other and a sister who was sick and receiving medical care. Still, it was perversely more painful to think about what they had all had before; about the Aiba family and all of the good times they had had together. Shinya or Aki would probably know why that was, but Takaya could at least make a reasonable guess.

He was probably even right, not that he was going to ask.

Still, there were a few moments that stuck out clearly in his mind from those days, no matter how much he tried not to think of them: the sight of Sasuke's pale pinkish eyes sliding closed as the sedatives took hold; Kengo's calm, almost amused smile as he laid himself down inside the hyper-sleep chamber in preparation for his own sedation; Fritz's complaints to anyone who would listen, and some people who wouldn't, about the fact that he hadn't been able to eat for the entire day when he was put into hyper-sleep.

Those might have seemed like strange things to remember, but they had stayed with him, even after all this time.

He found himself sitting up on the bed, not quite consciously remembering the decision to do so; but then, he had a lot of things on his mind at the moment. "It was one of the Radam's ships." He looked down, gaze settling on the space between his feet even as he saw the events of Aiba Takaya's life playing out before him. "Suddenly, we'd just made Earth's first contact with aliens. We were so excited; never dreaming that it would be the beginning of a nightmare…"

As he continued to speak, telling Aki – and possibly the rest of the Space Knights – what had happened to him and Shinya, back when they were still Aiba Takaya and Aiba Shinya, Takaya tried not to let himself think too much about just what he was saying. If he let himself think too much about the things he was saying, then he would inevitably start to feel them as well; he'd already had enough emotional upheavals for one day.

Now, if only he could lie to himself and say that he wouldn't have any more…

"And then, that was when the nightmare began!" Sure, just go walking merrily into hell; if there'd been any possible way for him to go back in time and meet Aiba Takaya, he would have punched his former self in the head, then dragged him and Aiba Shinya right off of that probe ship personally. "We used to be a happy family, until we were shattered by that nightmare!"

Still, that was just what had happened; sure, it had all seemed to go smoothly at first: they'd walked into the ship, all of the tekkapods dormant above their heads. They'd moved into the ship, the small lights that they had carried – little more than specially designed flashlights, really – playing over the walls and ceiling of the ship they were exploring. Aiba Takaya had been a bit wary of the place that he and the rest of his family were walking into, but that was only because it was so utterly alien to his sensibilities.

Neither Aiba Takaya nor Aiba Shinya had had any way of knowing just what they were walking into.

Of course, that was pretty much when everything had gone completely off the rails: the tekkapods activating all at once – probably in response to all of the new stimuli they were receiving – and falling from the ceiling en masse. The crew had tried to run, at least those few of them who were even awake to run in the first place; just Aiba Takaya, Aiba Shinya, their father, and Grant Goddard. Miyuki had stayed behind; their father had wanted her to wake the rest of the crew.

At least, back when they had all actually believed that they were exploring a deserted alien ship; not when they realized that they had all walked into hell. Still, the order had never been countermanded – there'd never been a chance for anyone to do so – so Miyuki had probably been caught while she was working. He might have thought about asking, but Takaya already knew how much he didn't like talking about what had happened to all of them back then, so he wasn't about to ask his own younger sister to relive something that he tried so hard to avoid thinking about.

"It was… It was the Tek System," he said, fists clenching at the memory of Aiba Takaya's last, hopeless stand against the ring of tekkapods that had surrounded him: he'd tried to shoot them, in the end, but that had proved to be almost more futile than running. "We were completely helpless. The Radam didn't just take us, they boarded the Argos to take our big brother Kengo, Miyuki, our little brother Sasuke, and the rest of the crew."

"You have a little brother, too?" Levin asked, drawing his and Shinya's attention.

"We had a little brother, Lev-chan," Shinya said, the smirk on his face looking about as bitter as Takaya felt. "The Radam killed him."

"I'm so sorry, D-Boys," Aki said, biting her lip and looking down slightly.

"They took total control of the Argos, melding it with their own ship so none of us would be able to escape," he muttered.

They'd all been happy for Kengo, when he'd announced his engagement to Feng Li; Aiba Takaya, Aiba Shinya, Miyuki, and Sasuke. Aiba Takaya and Aiba Shinya had teased him a bit about that, and when they'd told Fritz about who their eldest brother was planning to marry, he'd gotten in on the teasing, as well. Sighing, Takaya once again shoved the thoughts of Aiba Takaya and his life out of his mind. He wasn't Aiba Takaya anymore; he probably never would be again.

It wasn't something he liked to think about, but that didn't make it any less true.

Feeling Aki wrapping her arms around him, Takaya leaned into her embrace and half-closed his eyes. He was grateful, to both her and Shinya, for their silent support. Takaya didn't know if he would have been able to talk about this, otherwise.

"Not everyone was a suitable match for the Tek System." He gritted his teeth briefly, remembering the pain that they had all been through; the sound of Shinya and Miyuki's screaming as they were changed. "Some of the crew couldn't become Tekkamen, and so they died, one by one. The survivors were infused with the knowledge and instincts of the Radam. To become the Radam's ultimate weapons: the Tekkamen."

Realizing then that he had tensed up again while he'd been talking, Takaya just sat for a few moments and tried to relax while Aki gently rubbed his back. He could feel the tension that had built up while he was talking slowly ebbing away, and Takaya tried to breathe deeply again to try to calm himself down. After awhile, he managed.

"Thank you," he said, smiling slightly as the two of them continued to lean on each other.

Looking back up, he could see that Shinya and Levin were sitting up on the bed that the two of them had pushed into the room. They were facing him and Aki, both of them against each other, and Levin with his head resting against Shinya's left temple the way that Takaya could remember doing so many times, himself.

"D-Boy," he heard Aki say, sitting back up with her right arm wrapped around his shoulders again. "Besides you and D-Two, how many Tekkamen are there?"

"As far as I know, six," he paused for a moment, thinking. "Well, I killed Dagger, so there should be just five, now." Of course, that's only if Sasuke… Takaya forced himself not to think about that; some things were too horrible even for their cursed fate.

IV

"We know two of them," Noal said, looking around at all of his fellow Space Knights.

"Four more as strong as Tekkaman Spear," Honda muttered, casting a sidelong glance up at Chief Freeman.

"Chief, can we really save the Earth?" Milly asked. "They just might be about to take over the whole planet!"

"I guess my days of eating candy bars are numbered," Noal muttered.

"Oh…" Levin said, clasping his hands. "Maybe I could become a nun and pray…"

"Praying won't do us any good," Chief Freeman said, his tone as steadfast and calm as ever. "All we can do is fight. Just like our D-Boys."

V

"It was hell," Takaya said sadly.

"But D-Boy, why were you and D-Two the only ones the Radam couldn't control?" Aki asked.

"Because of Father," Takaya said, turning a hard look on her.

"Your Father?" she asked, sounding surprised.

Shinya sighed, taking up the narrative. "Father was released from the Tek System before the rest of us," Shinya lowered his head, fringe falling over his eyes as Levin cuddled closer to him. "Well, actually… he was rejected."

They were both remembering now, even as they spoke. Remembering how their father had given his life just to save the two of them. Remembering their harried trek to the remains of the Argos, their father's parting words to them, and those endless months in the escape pod just waiting. Waiting to see if they would reach Earth before the Radam did, or even be in time to help.

"Even though brother and I were still trapped in the Tek System, we could both sense it," Takaya said, forcing himself not to tense up again; it wasn't like anyone here didn't already know just how hard it was for him to talk about this. "It was strange," he muttered, almost unaware that he'd spoken aloud in the first place. "Even though we were both trapped in hell, being together made it better, somehow."

VI

Behind the Plexiglas window that separated the rest of the Space Knights from those inside the medlab, Milly and Noal were just staring at their three friends with varying expressions of pity. Even Honda, the one who had tried so hard to keep himself in check while the twins had been relating the sad story of how they had come to be two of Earth's last hopes for survival, was crying now.

It had been one of the saddest stories that any of them had ever been "privileged" to hear; to have your entire family kidnapped by the aliens, and not killed but programmed by some kind of brainwashing to want to kill you. Or not even to want to, but to need to; that had to be one of the worst things that any person could go through.

Especially people who seemed to have been so close to their family, they way D-Boy and D-Two had so obviously been. This had to be killing the both of them, even in spite of the way they both seemed to want to hold on. For revenge if nothing else; or that was the way anyone could see that it had been.

Both boys seemed to have found new purpose in their lives since joining the Space Knights. It had been good for both parties to have found the other; the Space Knights had urgently needed the raw power and the intelligence that the boys could provide about the Radam and their creatures, and both twins had needed people in their lives to remind them of just what they were fighting for in the end. Both had been perilously close to forgetting that there was a world outside of what they fought against, and though they would have stood by the other in half a heartbeat and unto the end of the world, other people hadn't mattered so much to them at the beginning.

Now, however, they were fully aware of just how many peoples' lives depended on their own actions. Now they were ready and willing to fight not just for themselves, but for every person on the Earth; all of whom would have been in grave danger if the Radam were allowed to succeed in their plans. Now, they had a cause greater than themselves; something to give them strength on the hard road ahead.

VII

"Aki," Takaya said, staring at the edge of Shinya's and Levin's bed as Aki cuddled him closer. "Are you crying for us?"

"Thank you, Aki-chan. That's very kind of you," Shinya said, sitting up slightly and taking up the thread of the narrative again. "We didn't know how much time had passed; but, even alone in that capsule, we could feel the other Tekkamen awakening."

"Omega and Dagger were the first," he said, taking up the narrative from Shinya once again. "It was more than half a year, before the two of us managed to reach Earth again. And, even then, the Radam had managed to get there before us."

As Takaya sat there, he thought again about everything that he and Shinya had gone through just to get to this point. All the times that the two of them had been forced to fight against one of their friends or family members. The battles with Spear were at the forefront of his thoughts, since he was the one who they had had to deal with lately. But he also remembered the other, earlier battles.

"By the time we'd reached the Orbital Ring, we'd decided: we weren't Takaya and Shinya Aiba anymore. The Radam had killed them both. We were Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Varis. And we had a mission to fulfill."

"And, well, I guess you know what happened next, eh Aki-chan?" Shinya said, smirking slightly at his own dark humor.

It wasn't really a question, but Aki answered it anyway. "Yeah."

"So, that was our story," Shinya said, his wry smirk looking a bit less strained now that everything was out in the open; or maybe Takaya was just thinking of how he felt.

He'd carried these secrets with him for so long, not knowing if he would ever be able to trust anyone but Shinya with them, that it was something of a relief to finally be able to tell someone else.

"D-Boy, D-Two, your sister is all right!" Milly's voice came over the intercom; Takaya sat up, and was just peripherally aware of Shinya doing the same thing just opposite him.

"Miyuki?" he asked, getting right to his feet; he might have wanted to see her as soon as he could, to finally know that at least one other member of his family had made it through all right, but he was at least going to try to listen to the Space Knights' medical staff.

He at least knew that he could trust them to have his and Shinya's best interests in mind.

"Let's go," Aki said.

Since no one seemed to be in any kind of hurry to contradict her, and since he was particularly eager to put his fears about what might have been happening to Miyuki to rest, Takaya grabbed Shinya's hand and the two of them made for the Space Knights' infirmary at a quick jog. He barely noticed that Levin and Aki had both fallen back a bit, and he didn't think about it.

When he and Shinya finally did make it to the room where Miyuki had been put up during her stay, Takaya found their sister sitting in the bed. She looked up right when they came in – right into his eyes, it seemed like – and Takaya smiled. He almost didn't care what else happened today – what kind of horrible thing happened out of what seemed to be the universe's sick desire to punish him for whatever transgression that it thought he'd committed some time in the past of either of his lives – as long as he could just have this one, perfect moment.

VIII

It was almost too much to believe: seeing Takaya and Shinya standing in the threshold of the door in front of her. Still, when the two of them hurried to her side, Takaya on her right and Shinya on her left, both of them embracing her almost as tightly as they ever had, Miyuki knew that she wasn't dreaming.

"Miyuki," Takaya said, in response to something she couldn't quite, consciously remember saying.

"Miyuki-chan, I'm so happy," Shinya muttered, his breath warm on her neck, and one of his tears dripping down to land on her shoulder.

She'd never known Shinya to shake; he'd always been just as strong as Takaya, in his own way; the supple bamboo shoot to Takaya' unyielding oak, but she could feel him shivering just slightly, now. She hated the thought of what she was going to tell them now – what the transformation process had done to her, even after all of the effort that both of them had put into trying to save her from the Tekkaman who had once been Kengo – but, in the end, not telling them would be even more cruel. She wasn't about to make them suffer that, just for her momentary comfort.

"I missed you both so much," she admitted; it had been horrible, having the twisted remains of their eldest brother hunting her, the soft voice of a person that she had trusted for her entire life now speaking those horrible words. And just knowing that her older brothers would be forced to kill Kengo, and Feng Li, and even little Sasuke… "I tried so hard to find you." She blinked back tears, feeling Shinya shift slightly, and seeing him turn to look at her from the corner of her own left eye.

"We're glad you did, Miyuki-chan," Shinya said, his arms wrapping more tightly around her, as if he was trying to change reality through sheer force of will; if she'd been a different person, she might have believed that he could do it.

Even so, she still wanted to. "But, there's something I have to tell you… Before I die."

"Before you die? What are you talking about?" Takaya demanded, his voice starting to take on the kind of fear she'd never wanted to hear from either of her cheerful brothers. "Tell us, Miyuki!"

"I'm just like Dad," she said, closing her eyes, not wanting to see the pain she was going to be causing her gentle brothers with what she was going to have to say. "I'm going to die, just like Dad!" Opening her eyes, but still not having the courage to face her brothers while she was the one breaking their hearts again, Miyuki faced the wall. "I was rejected as an incomplete Tekkaman!"

She felt Shinya's and Takaya's arms wrapping around her from both sides, and while she was grateful to know that they would both be there to support her, she was still sad that she would end up needing it so much. None of this should have happened to any of them.