Later that night, while they were all having dinner together, Aki found herself hearing the story of just what D-Boy and D-Two had been doing while the rest of the Space Knights had been searching for them. As she sat there, listening to the twins speaking about their plans for the future and their need for another pair of tekkasets, Aki found herself thinking of her encounter with Sasuke in that forest of Radam tekkaplants. She'd been fully willing to kill that little boy, and would have done so if it hadn't been for Axe appearing.
She didn't know how either of the twins would react to finding that out, but she wouldn't have felt right keeping it to herself now that D-Boy and D-Two were back with them.
"What happened to your clothes, D-Two?" Milly asked, and Aki chuckled softly; Milly had always been the one to ask silly questions like that.
"I lost them, but brother gave me his vest for awhile," D-Two said, sounding like the whole thing amused him.
But then, he usually sounded like that, unless it was something particularly serious or anything to do with the Radam. While the conversation around the fire they were using in lieu of wasting power they couldn't really spare on a camp stove began to wind down, turning toward the few mundane topics of conversation that could still be found during times like these, Aki turned to D-Boy – she was happy that D-Boy had chosen to sit down next to her, especially after the conversation they'd had just before dinner – and gathered herself for what she was about to say.
"D-Boy," she said, gathering her composure as she looked into D-Boy's deep green, softly glowing eyes. "There's something I need to tell you; it's about- well, It's about Sasuke."
"Wraith," D-Boy said, his tone as gentle as the expression on his face. "Tekkaman Wraith," D-Boy clarified, before she could have asked what he was talking about. "He's not Sasuke anymore."
"I see," she said, smiling in relief even as she felt his right arm wrapping around her shoulders.
"You met up with him," D-Boy said, and she turned slightly as he softly kissed her left cheek. "Is that what you wanted to tell me?"
"I would have killed him, if Tekkaman Axe hadn't come when he did," she said, though they all knew that no one could really keep themselves safe under these kinds of circumstances.
That was probably why he hadn't asked her to promise him anything; no one liked promises that couldn't be kept.
When dinner had wound down, and they'd broken up camp for the night, she smiled softly as she saw D-Two and Levin kissing and leaning their heads together as the two of them fell into step with each other. Hearing D-Boy's soft chuckling from just a bit to her right, she turned to smile at him.
"Shinya…" D-Boy said, the edges of his glowing eyes crinkling slightly as he smiled. "Brother always seems to find happiness, no matter where he goes."
"Yeah," she said, smiling back. "But you know you can, too, right D-Boy?"
She couldn't help but remember D-Boy as he was during that dark time when the ADF had held both D-Boy and D-Two captive in their old headquarters; he'd had such a hard time back then, and there were times she couldn't help but think that D-Boy would have been so much better off if he had more of D-Two's natural irrepressibility. It couldn't be healthy for him to take so many things so personally the way he seemed to.
I
When he and his sexy D-Two had made their way back into the Green Earth at last, Levin found himself not wanting to leave D-Two's side even for something as trivial as sleeping; he knew he'd understand, since he was such a kind, gorgeous person, and the two of them hadn't seen each other in months.
"Will you stay with me tonight, D-Two?" Levin asked, smiling as he turned to look at her with those lovely, softly-glowing bright blue eyes of his. "Will you come to bed with me?"
"Just to sleep, you mean?" his sexy D-Two said, and Levin grinned at the teasing smirk he was wearing.
"Yeah, just to sleep," he said, grinning a bit wider as D-Two chuckled.
"All right, then. If you really missed me that much," his sexy D-Two said, his smirk becoming a gentle, knowing smile as he wrapped his strong left arm around Levin's shoulders.
As the two of them made their way to the Green Earth's sleeping quarters, at least the berth that Levin had claimed for himself when they'd all been deciding who got what place during their trip, Levin looked from the small, pull-out bed to D-Two as his lovely Tekkaman laughed softly.
"Ah," he said, the irrepressible grin that she so loved coming right back to his moonlight-pale face like it'd never been gone at all. "Was this what you had in mind, Lev-chan?"
"Well, yes," Levin said, grinning back at his sexy D-Two as he began to take off his shirt, belt, and shoes – so different from the red Space Knight-issue boots that he'd seen D-Two wear on every other day, or even the slip-ons that he'd seen him in once when Aki and Milly had convinced him to go to the mall with them that one time – and folded the shirt neatly before setting it atop the small shelf just over where he'd slipped off his shoes.
As Levin guided his sexy D-Two to the – admittedly narrow – bed where the two of them were going to be sleeping for tonight, Levin found out just how true what Aki had said was: Tekkamen were warmer to the touch than any other person Levin had ever touched in his life. Reluctantly pulling away for the minute it probably took him to get into his sleepwear, Levin kissed his sexy D-Two lightly as the Tekkaman came up to hug him from behind.
Levin could still see his lovely bright blue eyes glowing softly in the darkness, and that combined with the way D-Two's body radiated heat like a soft furnace, let Levin know that he wasn't dealing with someone who operated under the same constraints as a human. Still, it wasn't D-Two's fault that the Radam had turned him into a Tekkaman; just bad luck that he, D-Boy, and their family had been the ones to encounter that ship.
As he helped his sexy D-Two to get settled in the narrow bed that they were going to be sharing, probably just for the one night since it was bound to be more than a bit awkward to have two people who were both about the same size sharing such a narrow space, Levin smiled as he felt D-Two's warm, strong arms wrapping around his shoulders. Tucking his head into the crook of D-Two's neck, so that the two of them wouldn't end up breathing in each other's faces the whole night, Levin closed his eyes as he let the soft, steady beating of D-Two's heart lull him to sleep.
II
As the five of them gathered together in this abandoned house that Axe and Wraith had managed to find for them, Lance found his attention drawn back to the unconscious form of their leader. Spear, for all his power, was helpless now; Lance didn't know what to make of such a thing. True, they had faced the full fury of a Tekkaman's destruction, incomplete as Rapier had been when she'd died, and then Spear had put himself between that fury and the four of them who had managed to retain consciousness in the face of it; he was, in fact, the only reason that the four of them retained such consciousness in the first place.
And yet, the sight of their stern, implacable leader lying so still in the bed where Sword had placed him still unnerved Lance on levels he was not particularly eager to think about.
The rumbling of his stomach prompted Lance to make his way to the kitchen, and he settled down at the simple, wooden table that had had a simple meal – though still substantial enough for the four of them to satisfy the hunger that they were all prey to – set out on it. Lance had been seated next to Sword, while Wraith and Axe had taken the chairs just opposite them.
As he continued eating, Lance found his gaze almost naturally settling on Wraith, directly opposite where he sat; the smallest and weakest of their number, a pale thing of thin limbs and colorless hair. Truly, even his name was entirely too fitting; he was a wraith, compared to any of them.
Yes, Wraith was perfectly capable of killing any number of humans, but humans were of little consequence to any Tekkaman. The child's defeat in his first battle with Evil was proof enough of that, though Axe claimed that such was simply due to the fact that Wraith had had a lesser amount of combat training than Evil himself. And yes, it was a fact that Wraith was four years younger than either of the traitors, but a fully-completed transformation should have still told in the end.
It was perfectly plain to Lance that Wraith was a weak, helpless little thing; it was only fitting that Axe had named him rabbit.
Finishing his meal, Lance rose from his seat, all the while savoring the feeling of being satiated, brief as he knew it would be. Turning to the room that he had selected for his own use, Lance followed Sword with his eyes as she returned to the room that she had elected to share with Spear. The way she cared for their leader, while an admirable show of dedication to their cause, was nonetheless disconcerting in and of itself: they were Radam, they were not meant to need caring for.
And unlike Wraith, Spear had been the greatest of their number: patient and cunning, always taking the lead in combat, and completely willing to bring his full power to bear against any of the insignificant humans who dared to challenge them. Yes, the fact that he still maintained a sentimental attachment to the traitors Evil and Blade was a flaw in his reasoning, and likely why he had ended up in such a sorry state as he now was, but in all other matters Spear was every inch the proud, fearsome lion that Axe often likened him to.
Lance considered such matters for a few moments, and then resolved himself to his next course of action: when next the opportunity presented itself, he would kill the traitors himself, and so spare their leader such an onerous task.
III
When he woke up the morning, with the feel of warm, strong arms wrapped around him and the muffled sound of a powerful heartbeat close by, Levin looked up at his sexy D-Two's face with bleary eyes and smiled.
"Morning, Lev-chan."
Levin smiled, feeling the reverberations from his sexy D-Two's voice through his neck and chest, even as he felt the Tekkaman's warm breath on his face.
"It's really nice to have you here, my sexy D-Two," he said, smiling even as D-Two pulled away and stood up.
When D-Two caught Levin's grin, he grinned back. "Yeah, but you know that it was just for tonight. I don't think we could manage to fit in there again without at least one of us getting rolled off."
Levin laughed; his sexy D-Two was so funny. "All right; I guess I can try to keep myself warm at night without you."
The two of them shared a laugh, and Levin led D-Two to the Green Earth's general washroom after a short pause to let him put his clothes from yesterday on.
"Well, here it is," he said, looking D-Two up and down again. "Are you sure I can't join you?"
"It's too small for that kind of thing, Lev-chan," D-Two said, smiling.
The two of them shared a chuckle, before they made it to the shower unit and he showed D-Two how to work the thing. Leaving D-Two to his shower, Levin continued on his own way to the launch bay where Pegas had been stored. Meeting up with the others had been great and all, but there were still things that needed to be taken care of before they could honestly say they were all in fighting form. Even though Honda had said he'd been teaching D-Boy and D-Two to run some basic repairs and maintenance on Pegas, that kind of thing still didn't compare to having full access to a repair bay and its attendant technicians.
Finally making it to the main launch bay of the Green Earth, Levin took a good, long look at Pegas for the first time in a long while; it was like greeting an old friend.
IV
As Aki made her way down to the loading bay of the Green Earth, which was probably going to end up becoming not only Pegas' storage and maintenance room but also the launch bay for the twins when they were inevitably forced back into combat against the Radam and their uncountable armies of monsters, she smiled briefly. D-Boy had given her a brief, soft kiss on her right cheek, after she'd shown him to an unoccupied sleeping berth, and the memory of that kiss still made her feel warm inside.
She knew that it was probably nothing like what D-Two and Levin had shared before the two of them had gone to bed, but for all that D-Two and D-Boy were twins they truly were different people, in the end.
When she finally made it to the loading bay, Aki wasn't surprised in the least to find Levin there, already starting to check Pegas over for damages – or even just normal wear-and-tear – the way he and Honda had done so many times at the Arizona OSDG Headquarters. Calling out to the red-haired man with an inquiry as to whether or not she could be of any help, Aki found herself directed to one of the stationary computers in the back of the loading bay.
"How's it going over there, Aki?" Levin asked, glancing from her to the towering form of Pegas at the back of the loading bay.
"No malfunctions whatsoever," she was more than pleased to report.
"Okay, Pegas, it's all right for you to move now," Levin said, and Aki found herself smiling right alongside the man; it was nice to have something going right for a change.
Especially after so many other things had gone so wrong.
"Roger."
"Thank God," she said, relieved to know that, even in spite of everything that had happened, Pegas had at least made it through all right; at the very least, D-Boy would be happy to hear that.
Turning her attention back to the computer in front of her, Aki tried not to wonder about just what they were going to be able to do next. She'd heard Noal grousing about the state of the Green Earth's energy cells – more specifically the amount of charge they contained – and the fact that they hadn't been able to find any signs of a city, or even an outpost, lately was starting to honestly worry her.
V
Turning away from the unchanging landscape outside the Green Earth's windows, Takaya narrowed his eyes slightly; the constant, low-level sound of Noal's grousing, combined with the thick forest of tekkaplants they were passing through, wasn't really putting him in the best of moods at the moment.
(Noal's being noisy again, Ta-kun; want me to go over there and kick him?)
Chuckling deep in his throat at Shinya's efforts to cheer him up, Takaya allowed himself to relax a bit. (No; he needs to concentrate. Still, if he gets too noisy, I'll probably kick him.)
He and Shinya both laughed, his younger twin's amusement projected clearly over the link that they shared; he'd been making a point to keep his mental barriers at least semi-lowered, so that he'd be able to better track Axe and Wraith when they inevitably showed up again. It was kind of interesting, feeling echoes of Shinya's emotions when the two of them spoke even without using their telepathy. Kind of like the days before the two of them had managed to develop their respective shields.
When Levin and Aki came into the Green Earth's driver's compartment, Levin was the first one to speak: "We're done checking out Sol-Tekkaman and Pegas."
"Good work. So, how do they look?" Noal asked; he and Shinya turned their own attention to the redhead as he spoke.
"Everything's in perfect condition," Levin said. "It's been five months since we've done any kind of maintenance, so it's almost like a miracle!"
"Well, I guess our D-Boys are really lucky!" Milly exclaimed; Takaya smiled as he heard Shinya's soft laughter. Milly had always been the most excitable out of all of them.
"But, they both seem to have gone through a lot of fierce fighting," Levin said hurriedly. "Pegas is pretty banged up. Besides that, something strange seems to be happening to D-Boy's crystal. I think… Well, I think the best thing to do is replace it."
"Well, that was what we were trying to do for so long. I guess we'll just have to be faster, eh D-kun?" Shinya asked, and Takaya turned to see his younger twin's sidelong smirk.
He chuckled darkly. "Yeah." He sobered. "Still, Axe and Wraith have been moving around a lot more than I thought they would." And Axe found out what we want from him, too, Takaya mused, knowing that Shinya would pick up on the intent of his thoughts, if not the words themselves, considering their present circumstances.
"We can't even get to the Radam's base on the Moon without a crystal," Levin said, looking more than a little helpless; Takaya couldn't find it in himself to be surprised when Shinya reached out to pat the redhead's right shoulder.
"We know that, Lev-chan," his younger twin said, smiling in a determined sort of way. "We'll take care of it; don't worry so much."
"Well, if you do manage to find one, I want to perform an intensive study of the crystal at our base. Well, that's what I normally would have said, but," Levin said, looking a great deal more reassured than he had been, though Takaya had the distinct feeling that that was more because Shinya had been the one offering comfort.
"Our base? You mean, you've already restored the Headquarters?" he asked, turning around in his seat before his neck could start straining too much.
"Well, the Chief and Honda are doing their best to restore it," Milly said, actually sounding apologetic about it. "But, the damage is so severe that no one working there knows just how long it's going to take to repair even the Blue Earth, or the catapult. Worst of all, with no way of staying in contact with the base, we don't even know what's happening over there."
Takaya narrowed his eyes, considering just what had been happening lately. "So, you don't know anything more than we did."
"No," Noal said, shaking his head. "Without the Headquarters, or access to a spaceship, we've been wandering for five months, in search of anything we might be able to use."
"And then you found us; I don't know quite how I should take that, Noal-kun," Shinya said, his tone one of gentle teasing.
"Oi, oi, D-Two, don't be so silly," Noal said, though he was starting to grin, all the same.
Settling back into his seat, Takaya sighed softly; there were times when this fight of theirs could start to seem hopeless, like nothing they did made any real difference, but it always helped to have a goal in mind. He'd learned that even before all of this began.
Levin was the first one to spot the town in the distance, but Noal seemed fairly enthusiastic about it, too. Both of them for different reasons, but those reasons really boiled down to having the amenities of civilization again. Takaya supposed that he'd have been more excited for that kind of thing, himself, if he'd been stuck in this rolling fortress for over five months rather than moving from pillar to post with Shinya while the two of them were hunting Axe and Wraith.
Noal piped up with what was probably one of his usual sarcastic comments, given the sense of amusement he got from Shinya and the conversation he was just barely paying attention to. Continuing to stare out the wide windshield of the Green Earth as it trundled slowly forward across the uneven, tekkaplant-forested terrain, Takaya could begin to see glimpses of the town Levin and Noal had seen.
The surrounding landscape was almost entirely free of tekkaplants, so Takaya allowed himself to relax. Just slightly, of course, since there was always the chance that they were going to end up confronting Sword, Axe, Lance, or Wraith sometime in the near future. Though Wraith and Axe did seem to have been assigned together, or else it was just that they worked together better than any of the other four who were actually conscious to work.
Sasuke had been one of Mr. Goddard's students along with the rest of them, unlike Shinji or Feng Li; so that still fit with the relationships that had been there in the past, as much as he still didn't like thinking about it.
When the Green Earth began to close in on the town, their discussion quickly turning to just who was going to go into town and who would end up staying behind, Takaya allowed himself to relax a little bit more.
"Oi, D-chan, why don't you stay here?" he suggested. "I know you'd probably be bored, trying to negotiate with people we don't know."
"All right, D-kun; just try not to have too much fun without me," Shinya said, grinning at him with the amusement that always seemed to be lingering around him except under the worst of circumstances.
"Right; you, too," he said, smiling back at Shinya.
They all had a pretty good laugh when he'd said that, and Takaya was glad to know that he'd managed to defuse the tension lingering in the air before it could really start to build up. Turning to leave for the town with Noal, Takaya found himself wondering just what Shinya, Milly, Levin and Aki actually would end up doing to pass the time. It wasn't really anything more than an idle musing, however, so Takaya allowed himself to forget he'd even thought of it.
VI
When Takaya had passed out of the range of vision of anyone who wasn't actually a Tekkaman, Shinya turned his attention back to the people who'd also elected to stay behind alongside him. He was just about to ask what the rest of them had in mind – since the Green Earth hadn't exactly been provisioned for a pleasure cruise when it'd been stocked – when Levin came up and gently touched his left shoulder.
"D-Two, how about we start fixing dinner?" the other man smiled. "We'll make something great, for when D-Boy and Noal get back from their trip!"
"All right, Lev-chan," he said, smiling back as he turned to follow Levin back into the Green Earth.
They all made their way through the cruiser, and soon Shinya found himself standing before the shelves of provisions that the Green Earth had been stocked with. There seemed to be a particular abundance of potatoes, and for a few moments he wondered if that had been by design or if nearly all of the other types of food – aside from the bread that he could also see – had already been eaten. He supposed it didn't really matter, so when he, Aki, Milly, and Levin all picked up sacks of potatoes, and Levin even took a small bag of rolls, Shinya smiled slightly as he followed them back out. Slinging his bag over his back, Shinya tagged along behind Levin as he made his way to what turned out to be another storage area inside the cruiser.
Those of them that had hands free, a number that of course included him, carried out the supplies they would need to start making dinner. He was the one that ended up carrying out the folding table that they would all most likely be using to prepare their food before they set it out, so he let Levin and the others go out ahead of him, since carrying the table even in its folded state was still a bit awkward.
When the four of them had made it outside of the Green Earth, Shinya took a few moments to set up the table he'd been carrying, and then emptied out the bag of potatoes he'd been carrying alongside Aki, Milly and Levin.
"All right! This is everything we'll need to prepare a wonderful supper for all of us," Levin said, smiling brightly at all of them while they were still gathered around the table.
"That sounds good," he said, smiling gently back at her.
"Yeah, so let's get started" Aki said, picking up one of the potatoes and a nearby knife with a bit more eagerness than Shinya would have honestly expected from someone looking at a pile of unpeeled potatoes.
However, when he saw how Aki was holding the knife – where it was going to be aimed when she made her first slice into the peel – Shinya turned to her and gently grabbed her hands before she could start peeling.
"Aki, you'll hurt yourself like that," he said, smiling gently to put her a bit more at ease. "Here, you do it like this." He demonstrated for her, and then handed the knife back to her while he picked up a potato and a knife of his own. "See?"
"Ah, right," Aki said, smiling at him. "Thank you, D-Two."
"Where did you learn to peel potatoes, D-Two?" Milly asked.
He smiled slightly, even though this particular memory wasn't quite the happy one it'd been in the past, considering everything that had happened between then and now. "Kengo taught me."
He could still remember his and Takaya's eldest brother's large – they had seemed huge back then – hands cupped around his own as Kengo had showed him how to peel a potato without cutting his own hands in the process. No one really had anything to say after that, but when he subtly looked around, all of them seemed to be focusing on their own work, so it didn't seem to be anything he'd said that'd prompted the silence. Shinya could at least be glad for small mercies.
Though when Aki leaned softly against his left arm, he caught her eyes and saw the gentle smile on her face; leaning his head against hers for a lingering moment, Shinya half-closed his eyes. Maybe not every mercy was a small one, tonight…
VII
As he and Noal made their way down into the town, Takaya wondered briefly what Shinya was getting himself up to, back with the Green Earth. Then, as he and Noal continued on their way through the sparse crowds in the town whose name he hadn't bothered to learn – since it wasn't likely they'd be staying around long enough for it to matter – Takaya decided that Shinya could take care of himself. He'd find something to do; Shinya was good at making his own entertainment.
For now, he and Noal had things to take care of; those batteries on the Green Earth weren't going to be able to recharge themselves.
When he and Noal managed to find their way into the office of the mayor – well, that's what the people in the town called him, anyway – Takaya found himself facing a large-framed man in a white jacket and a dull, grayish turtleneck. He wasn't exactly helpful.
"The answer is no!" the man snapped.
"You're being awfully hasty about things," Noal said; Takaya narrowed his eyes slightly, he wasn't having many good feelings about this guy.
"We don't have any power to spare for people who aren't even from this city," the man snapped, cutting Noal off before he could even finish his intended argument.
"Come on, give us a break!" Noal snapped back, starting to sound as annoyed as Takaya had been feeling for some time.
"Hmph, all of you strangers keep showing up out of the blue," the portly man scoffed, not sounding impressed in the slightest. "You're completely shameless!"
"What did you say?!"
"The Radam could attack at any time, once they manage to find the source of the energy that sustains us," the man said, his tone not sounding any more reasonable, but Takaya was starting to understand the sentiment behind it; understand, though he didn't accept it anymore than he had at the beginning of things. "We can only activate the generator once a month, and even then, only for five hours. That's the only way we can keep the Radam from noticing us. You both understand what that means, don't you? We don't even have the power to sustain ourselves, so we have no obligation to waste it on strangers. I don't know what else to tell you."
"Would you still be saying that if you knew we were Space Knights?" Noal asked; Takaya had found himself wondering the exact same thing, but since he'd been getting a bad feeling from the man almost since the pair of them had come into his office, he hadn't wanted to say anything.
"Space Knights?" the man demanded, Takaya narrowed his eyes; it seemed he'd been right, not wanting to bring that kind of thing up around this man. "You've got a lot of nerve, to come begging to us! We've been forced to live like this thanks to you! Losing the battle the way you did! Now go away; get lost!"
"Damn you!"
"Noal," he cut in, wishing for a few moments that he had tried to convince Shinya to come with them; if nothing else, watching the ensuing verbal evisceration would have been more than worth the price of admission. "It's no use trying to talk him into anything."
The bastard in charge of the town seemed to take that as a sign of submission, and for a few moments Takaya was sorely tempted to flip him the bird or tell him to go fuck himself. Still, cathartic as doing that kind of thing was, it would probably be more trouble than it was worth. Noal wasn't shy about grumbling under his breath as they left, of course, and Takaya smirked slightly as he heard some of the very uncomplimentary terms Noal was using for the man they'd just gotten out of a – he hesitated to call what had gone on back there a meeting, in any but the loosest sense – discussion with, fruitless as it had turned out to be in the end.
He stopped when the two of them came out of the building, but not for very long.
"I guess strangers aren't welcome here, after all," Noal said.
The two of them continued on through the crowds, and Takaya could almost feel the waves of hostility and mistrust being directed at the two of them. It wasn't like the sense he had of Shinya or any of the others; not something he could block out with just a mental barrier. He could understand the sentiment. "It's like this everywhere. People are all desperate to protect themselves."
"There's no end in sight for this energy crisis," Noal conceded, though he didn't sound particularly happy about it. "Still, let's try asking again tomorrow."
Takaya considered that; sure, there were some people who would reconsider their positions if and when they were given extra time to think about just what it was that they'd said to another person and how it might have been taken, but Takaya honestly doubted that would be true in this case. The man who oversaw this town seemed entirely too insular to even consider the needs of people he didn't think of as his own. To say nothing of the continuing, low-level hostility that Takaya couldn't help but take note of; it pervaded the town, but Takaya wasn't quite sure if it was directed at newcomers in general, or if these people did indeed recognize him and Noal as Space Knights and hated them for that.
Before he could start telling Noal not to get his hopes up – since it was unlikely that this particular man would ever reconsider his position, particularly after the kind of reception he'd given the two of them – Takaya found himself facing a small girl.
"Would you like some flowers?" the little girl looking hopefully up at him asked.
Noal's sidelong grin, coming just after the girl had finished speaking, nearly prompted Takaya to roll his eyes. Really, he could fully understand why Shinya and Noal got along so well; and he could only continue to be grateful that his younger twin hadn't decided to come along on this trip.
"Why don't you get them for Aki?"
He sighed softly, then chuckled just as softly. "You're teasing me, brother teases me; I'm never going to get away from this, am I?"
"Nope," Noal said, a wide and unrepentant grin on his face. "It's our duty, D-Two's and mine, to make sure you don't become a dull and depressing Dark Boy again."
"Yeah," he said, feeling the smile on his face shrinking slightly; he and Aki were getting as close as any two people could really risk during these uncertain times. "Still, do you think it's safe?"
"A man doesn't fall in love to be safe, D-Boy," Noal said, after a few, long moments spent staring at Takaya's face.
He didn't quite know what his fellow Space Knight was searching for, but after a little while he nodded. Deciding to forgo any further discussion until the two of them had made it back to the Green Earth, Takaya paid for the flowers and received a bright smile from the little girl in return. Giving her one of his own, though he didn't know if it quite matched the intensity of hers – funny how some people could still manage to find things to smile about during times like this; it reminded him of Shinya, really – but she smiled widely all the same. As he and Noal left, Takaya couldn't help taking a last look over his right shoulder.
The little girl grinned widely, waving at him even as he tried again to smile for her; he didn't know if it came off any better than the one he'd given her the last time, but since she didn't seem to mind, Takaya wasn't going to drive himself crazy thinking about it.
VIII
(Welcome back, Ta-kun. You doing all right?) he asked when he began to sense Takaya, presumably with Noal still in tow, coming slowly closer to where the four of them who'd elected to stay behind with the Green Earth had set up their camp.
(I'm all right; Noal's just been teasing me again.)
He chuckled deep in his throat. (Of course; it's our duty, Ta-kun.)
The sense of Takaya's amusement carried clearly over their link. (That's what he said, too.)
Grinning into his bowl of potato soup – it was kind of like eating kind of a thin stew; strange, but for all that it still tasted good – Shinya settled back into his spot at the fire and waited for Takaya and Noal to arrive.
Dinner was a fairly subdued affair, though there was a bit of excitement when Levin, who hadn't been particularly happy with Noal after the way he'd handled the whole debacle with the village headman – Shinya was fairly amused to learn that the man considered himself their mayor – splashed some of the still-hot potato soup on Noal's left hand when he'd finished telling the redhead what had gone on during the two of them. The act itself wasn't funny in the slightest, since he knew as well as anyone would want to just how much being splashed with burning liquids hurt, but the face that Noal made – as well as the joke – was funny enough that Shinya allowed himself an audible chuckle. Still, nothing they were doing right now would solve their current problem.
That was something each and every one of them agreed on: they would either need to find a way to get the headman of that nameless little town to give them what they needed, or else they would need to find an alternate source of power, and either way they would need to do things quickly. They wouldn't be able to last much longer with the meager dregs they had right now, and they wouldn't be able to travel anywhere unless they were able to get at least a half-decent charge.
They all went to their separate bunks with this knowledge firmly in mind, and Shinya made a personal vow to skip his morning shower when he woke up next; no telling how long the remaining power they had was going to hold out, and he wasn't going to be the one to overtax them. He'd done without his creature comforts in the past, after all.
IX
Just before she began to settle herself down for the night, the first thing Sword did was hurry into Kengo's room to check on her love. He was still unconscious, yes; she'd not sensed the return of her beloved's agile mind and reason, and she knew also that the first thing he would have done – aside from making contact with Lord Omega as any of them would have done – was to tell her that he had returned to her side. So, Sword was not surprised to find her dear beloved slumbering in the bed where she had lain him, but she was not particularly pleased, either.
When she made her round of the room where Kengo slept, Sword found the carafe of freshly-prepared broth that Axe had always set out for her to give to Kengo while he continued to slumber. Settling herself down next to the head of his bed, looking down into the slumbering form of the gentle, forgiving man that she planned to marry as soon as the two of them could manage to find some time to themselves, Sword began to gently arrange Kengo's slumbering form so that she would be able to feed him all the more simply.
With her beloved's head resting lightly in her lap, and her own back pressed against the far wall to support her weight as she would need to concentrate on what she was going to be doing rather than merely how she was sitting, Sword opened the carafe and began slowly, carefully spooning it into her beloved's mouth.
Watching as he swallowed slowly, gently nudging his jaw open a bit wider, Sword breathed more deeply to try and calm herself. No matter how many times she'd done such things in the past – three times per day – Sword always found herself uneasy while she fed Kengo his meals in this fashion.
She would always find herself hoping that he would awaken sooner than later, during these times in particular.
X
Finding that he couldn't get to sleep nearly as easily as he'd been hoping to, Takaya briefly considered just letting Shinya sleep while he went outside to get some air, but he knew that his younger twin would give him a lecture if he tried it.
(Shinya?)
(You can't sleep, Ta-kun?)
(No. Come on; I know you'd lecture me if I left you here, Shin-chan,) he didn't chuckle, but Takaya was fairly sure that the amusement he felt at their respective situations came through loud and clear.
When Shinya came into the main area of the Green Earth, a wry smile clearly visible on his younger twin's face, Takaya tilted his head and offered the same in return as the two of them made their way out of the tank; that was what the other Space Knights had called it, anyway, though it didn't seem all that tanklike to him. The two of them continued on their way after that short, non-verbal exchange, Takaya took the lead as the two of them made their way outside.
There was a full moon up tonight, and even though he knew full well now just what that kind of thing meant, Takaya still found himself wanting to spend time under its light; he didn't think it had anything to do with Omega's mental call, at least he hoped not, but since he'd deliberately been weakening his mental barriers he had no real way to know that kind of thing with any real certainty. Still, as he and Shinya climbed up to sit on top of the rock that he'd spotted while he and the other Space Knights had been eating dinner, Takaya found himself wondering whether or not that was true.
Leaning into his younger twin's left side, feeling the heat of Shinya's body as it radiated through both of their clothes, Takaya's eyes flicked downward as he spotted motion around the Green Earth. It wasn't something that he liked discussing with Shinya, to say nothing of the other Space Knights, but something else that Takaya had been noticing about what the Radam had done to his senses was that he was much quicker to pick up on movement than he'd ever been; almost like a hunting cat, which combined with the way his and Shinya's eyes glowed in the dark…
Takaya shook those thoughts off, focusing on what he could actually see, out there in the night.It turned out that Aki was the one moving around outside the tank, and Takaya waved down to her as he saw her looking up toward the rocky spire that he and Shinya were sitting on either side of.
She came over quickly after seeing that, smiling all the while as she did. Takaya still didn't know just how he'd managed to earn the love of someone like her, and even after everything they'd both been through he still found himself worrying that he might do something stupid to drive her away, but for now Takaya put those thoughts out of his mind. Shinya would tell him he was worrying too much, the way he always did, and come to think of it, Aki probably would, too.
She seemed to agree with Shinya perfectly, concerning things like that.
"D-Boy, you're both thinking about Miyuki, aren't you?" Aki asked, seeming hesitant for a few moments, but slowly gaining confidence as she spoke. "The Radam base is on the Moon, right?"
"Yeah, but we can't even avenge Miyuki's death, with the way things are now," he said.
"That's not even all of it," Shinya said, turning away from the moon with a sigh. "There's also the others."
"What do you mean, D-Two?" Aki asked.
Shinya chuckled humorlessly, his cracked tekkaset appearing with the subtle glittering of turquoise light that Takaya hadn't ever thought to see when the pair of them weren't pressed into fighting for their lives. "If they don't use these, then they just look like ordinary humans."
"You've been worried about that, too?" Aki asked, and there was actually a smile on her face, though it was still a small one. "I've actually been working to compile the data about the survivors of the Argos; we won't have to worry about them for much longer, D-Two."
"That's good," he said; he'd been worried about that, a bit, since while he and Shinya could sense the others when they were close, anyone else would have to look them in the eyes to know just how dangerous they were. And that had its own set of dangers.
Anyone who'd seen them in battle knew how little regard any Radam Tekkaman had for the lives of not just the people who opposed them – which in its own way was bad enough – but humanity in general. It would be good to know that no one else would be fooled by any of the others if they attempted to sneak into any of the Earth's remaining bastions of defense. Not even Spear, whenever he woke up. It was good to know that, but even as he had that thought, Takaya found his gaze settling on the small tablet that Aki had brought out with her.
He could see the profiles she'd been talking about – those that detailed the appearance of Mr. Goddard, Sasuke, Kengo, Feng Li, and Shinji; the ones that his and Shinya's father had helped to compile and then submit to the OSDA before they'd even set foot on the Argos – on the tablet's screen. He knew that reading them wouldn't do him much good, knew that nearly everything listed in those profiles had been twisted by the Radam's brainwashing, but Takaya found that he couldn't make himself look away…
XI
The next morning, just after sunrise, Noal had opted to use the last dregs of their energy to park the Green Earth just outside of the town whose generator they were going to need to use before they could make it anywhere else. Shinya wasn't sure that that'd been the best idea, but he'd tried to talk to Noal about it and his fellow Space Knight had insisted on doing things this way. He'd relented then, since that kind of thing wasn't something they could afford to waste time on right at the moment.
Still, giving the people in this middle-of-nowhere town even more reasons to dislike them didn't really strike Shinya as being particularly intelligent.
As he and Levin, one arm wrapped around the other's shoulders, made their way closer to the crowd of particularly unfriendly people, Shinya couldn't help the thought that getting the power they would need to move on was going to be a uniquely annoying experience this time. Even more bad luck; I'm not brother, but even I think this is a bit much…
He could at least hope that the other people his and Takaya's fellow Space Knights had had to deal with to obtain the power that the Green Earth needed weren't the bunch of complete bastards they were being forced to confront now. At the moment, seeing all of his and Takaya's fellow Space Knights surrounded by a pack of jumped-up, rifle-wielding idiots, it was all Shinya could do to keep himself from punching the nearest of them in the face.
He knew that it wouldn't have solved any of their current problems, and more than likely it would have invited all new ones, but it was times like this when he could at least begin to understand Shinji's oft-stated desire to have all of the stupid people on Earth shipped to some other planet.
"You won't even give us enough power to get to the next town?" Noal asked; it was a rhetorical question, as far as Shinya could see.
"What, do you think we can get out and push?!" Levin demanded, keeping his left arm around Shinya's waist, even as the redhead gestured furiously with his right.
Sighing as the idiots tending to the generator continued holding them at gunpoint in spite of the fact that – if they were the type to do things like that – he and Takaya could have just taken the power they needed to sustain the Green Earth and moved onto the next outpost like they were already planning to. Still, happily for this pack of idiots, none of them were about to start using the Radam's methods to get what they needed.
"This isn't just an idle threat," Shinya found his attention abruptly drawn back to the overweight form at the front of the group attempting to threaten them. "One word from me, and you'll all be dead."
He grinned blandly at the man. "Not if I kill you first, you idiot," he muttered, carefully keeping his jaw as still as he could while he spoke.
No sense in buying trouble they didn't need.
"Now get out of my sight," the old man said, narrowing his eyes and smirking all the wider at them; Shinya was as sorely tempted as he'd ever been to punch the man in his fat face, it was almost like Colbert all over again.
Noal sighed disgustedly, turning away from the gun-toting "soldiers" still gathered around them in what was probably some pathetic attempt at intimidation that was doomed to fall flat in the face of everything they'd seen and done during the course of the invasion. "Yeah, fine." When Noal brushed past him, however, there was a small grin on the pilot's face. "I won't tell D-Boy you said that, okay?"
Shinya grinned, chuckling deep in his throat.
There was a general sort of agreement, both for the sentiment and Noal's clear desire to leave these idiots behind. Before any of them were tempted to do something drastic to get what they would need to sustain themselves and keep moving the way they needed to if they were going to get where they needed to be. Him and Takaya just as much as any of them.
When they had all settled themselves into their respective seats aboard the Green Earth, Levin sighed deeply as he leaned heavily – almost wearily – against Shinya's right shoulder.
"Damn them," Levin groused, lacing the fingers of his left hand together with Shinya's own. "The Earth is in crisis, and all they can think about is themselves." Levin heaved a deep, gusty sigh. "I think you should have transformed, D-Two. You'd have scared the pants right off that mean old man!"
He pretty much had to laugh at that. "I don't think any of us would have wanted to see him without his pants on."
"That's enough, Levin. And D-Two, don't encourage him. The one thing we can't allow ourselves to do is start attacking civilians. Let's just get to the next supply point," Aki said, sounding like she would have honestly disapproved of his and Levin's topic of conversation if either of them had been making actual plans.
(Shinya, did you sense that, when we were at the town?)
He chewed the inside of his left cheek, turning Takaya's words over in his mind for a long moment. (Yeah; one of the Radam's monsters was burrowing.)
There was a modicum of bitter amusement in his older twin's mental tone when he answered. (Yeah; that's what I sensed, too.)
Before he could make any kind of response to that, since it was a distinct possibility that not everyone was aware of everything that the Radam's near-mindless cannon fodder were capable of, that sense they both had of the Radam's movements sharpened almost painfully. They'd perhaps been a bit spoiled by the Space Knights' research staff, and Chief Freeman's willingness to pursue whatever knowledge of the Radam that he could reasonably obtain. It was funny, Shinya reflected, the things you didn't think you'd miss until you found yourself without them.
Levin's shouting about an attacking Radam monster didn't come as much of a surprise under the circumstances, but Shinya still found himself sighing in annoyance. Sure, it would be something to hold over the head of that bastard running the town, but on the other hand, it meant they were going to have to go back to that town and all of the idiots therein.
So, there were clear good and bad points to what they were going to be doing.
"Damn it, he's planning on filling up before he heads home," Noal groused.
"We're heading back, Noal."
"Huh? Why should we go help those bastards?"
"We can't just abandon them," Aki countered firmly.
"Come on, D-chan," Takaya said. "We're mobilizing."
"Yeah, I guess even though they were an ungrateful bunch of bastards, we still have our duty," he said, grinning softly at his older twin as the pair of them turned to make their way out of the Green Earth again.
"Really, the three of you have to be in perfect sync now?" the Blue Earth's pilot – though they didn't currently have the Blue Earth for him to fly – groused, and even though he couldn't see the man anymore, Shinya was sure that he was rolling his eyes.
Things moved quickly after that, of course; with him and Takaya jogging back to where Pegas had been stored in what had unofficially become the Green Earth's launch bay, and Noal along for the ride since he was going out too. He and Takaya transformed just a second apart from each other, leaving Noal to catch up when he could, and Tekkaman Varis landed on Pegas' back just as the big mech had started leaving the shelter of the launchbay.
He sensed the rush of energy when his older twin had finished transforming, and so Varis stepped back just enough so that Tekkaman Blade could land in front of him.
(So, all of this again, Ta-kun?)
He sensed more than heard Blade's amused chuckle. (Yeah, Shin-chan; it's just this again.)
"Oi, D-Two, don't worry!" Levin said over the radio, and Varis smiled slightly under his helmet. "Milly and I will look after you!"
"Thanks, Levin. Brother and I will be back as soon as we can."
Lashing the Radam monster in front of them with the energy-ribbon of his tekkalance, Varis caught sight of Noal landing on the ground in front of the fat man in the white suit. There was a momentary look of stark terror on his face, since all of his men had run off when the huge Radam monster had roared at them, but then that same pissy look he'd had on when they'd all been confronting him outside of the Green Earth came right back.
Some people just had no sense of self-preservation.
Hacking at the Radam monster in front of him, in concert with his older twin as the two of them had done so many times in so many battles before this, Varis saw to his annoyance that their respective lances didn't penetrate nearly as deeply as they had on any of the others that he and Blade had faced.
(This one seems stronger than the others,) he mused, and would have rolled his eyes if he hadn't been wearing his armor and hence having his face rearranged by such.
(That's what I was worried about, since it was so big.)
(Looks like you were right. Too bad, eh Ta-kun?) he snarked, smirking under his helmet even as he took another swipe at the Radam monster they were dealing with.
(Funny, Shin-chan.)
They pushed the Radam monster steadily back, causing it to topple backward into the hollow mountain that was clearly hiding the generator that these people had been using. The one that had ultimately drawn the attention of this Radam monster in the first place. These people were just lucky it hadn't drawn the attention of any Tekkamen; well, at least not yet.
(Shinya!)
Before he could even begin to wonder what Blade was so panicked about, the mental image of a little girl, crouching in the remains of a ruined building, appeared in his mind. It was times like this when Varis found himself appreciating his and Blade's telepathic link all the more.
(Right, Ta-kun. Here!)
Tossing Blade his tekkalance, Varis stooped on the little girl like a falcon; he could see her surprise as he dove down to meet her, but then she smiled as he scooped her up in his arms and got her settled as best as he could manage in his armor.
"Wait, Tekkaman," she said, pointing to something on the ground to his left. "My flowers!"
Turning slightly, Varis found that there was actually a bouquet of flowers that had fallen onto the dirt road, and so with a mental shrug he knelt down and scooped them up; even though they looked pretty sad and trampled. The little girl was happy, at least, and as Varis dropped her off with Aki and the group of evacuees that were making their way out of the town in the wake of the attack, he waved to them as he turned back to check on his older twin.
However, with no one in the line of fire, Tekkaman Blade had managed to line up and fry the thing with a Voltekka, so that only left Varis with the less arduous task of supporting his older twin as the two of them made their way off of the spent battlefield. He could only hope that those stupid ingrates would be less stupidly ungrateful now, or he really would start punching people this time.
"D-Two, the battle is over," Aki said kindly, smiling at the two of them as he and Blade made their way over to the Jeep she was standing next to with the girl that Blade had pointed out to him. "Go get some rest."
"Thank you, Aki-chan," he said with an unseen, weary smile.
Letting his transformation fade as he climbed into the Jeep himself, Shinya yawned deeply once he was out of his armor and could actually move his jaw in the required fashion. Climbing the rest of the way into the jeep, Shinya slumped into the back seat and half-closed his eyes. He was peripherally aware of the little girl climbing into his lap, and he thought he smiled for her, but by that time he was already beginning to fall asleep.
XII
When she looked back to D-Two, after seeing Tekkaman Blade on his way back to the Green Earth, Aki found him resting in the backseat of the Jeep with the little girl curled up in his lap. Smiling, and swallowing her amused laughter at the adorable image the two of them presented together, Aki pulled out a small camera that she had taken to carrying with her so that she could preserve moments like this and quickly took a picture of the pair of them.
Tucking the camera back into an interior pocket of her vest, Aki smiled as she climbed back into the Jeep herself and started it up. She knew well by now just how deeply either one of the twins would sleep after they had just participated in a battle and been forced to transform. So she wasn't worried about waking D-Two while she pulled the Jeep around and drove back to the waiting Green Earth, but she still made sure to be careful as she drove back to the tank to park the jeep inside the cruiser again. Even though both of the twins were such deep sleepers that she didn't have to worry about being careful during times like this, Aki knew she always would be.
It was just common courtesy, really.
When she arrived back at the Green Earth, Levin was the first to come out to meet them, just like Aki had been expecting him to. With a soft laugh and a wink over his left shoulder, Levin gathered D-Two up in his arms as the little girl climbed out of D-Two's lap. Aki found herself chuckling softly at the antics of her fellow Space Knight.
"Onee-san, will the Tekkaman be okay?"
"He'll be fine. D-Two just needs to sleep now."
"Oh," the adorable little girl said, turning to look the way that Levin had gone. "D-Two?"
"His brother is called D-Boy," she said, smiling at the little girl's concern. It was nice to know that he'd won over another person with the kindness that she had watched him reveal over the time that he and D-Boy had worked with the Space Knights. "They're twins."
"Oh," the little girl said, smiling widely. "He was really kind."
"Yes," she said, smiling back. "He really is."
XIII
Noal was more than a little smug when some of the techies started hooking up the energy-siphons that the Green Earth used to the generator; after all the jerks in this city had pretty much lined up to shoot at them when they'd first come in here, needing what power they could find. Not that he was going to actually act like it, both since it would be incredibly petty of him, and it would end up being entirely counterproductive. Still, it wasn't like he could help the way he felt after everything that'd gone down in the past couple of days.
The updates he was getting from Aki, from her place monitoring the energy-levels in the tanks as they slowly rose to the point where the Green Earth would actually be able to move again, Noal smiled. It looked like things were starting to look up for them again. Even if it would take the Space Knights who knew how much longer to complete their real mission, having the power they needed was an important first step.
One more step on their thousand-mile journey.