Once they were all back in the Green Earth and moving again, Takaya found Aki settling in next to him. "D-Boy, are you thinking about him? Tekkaman Wraith, I mean?"

"I guess."

He sighed, not particularly wanting to think about how things had been in the past – since the past was dead, and all he and Shinya really had anymore was the future – but knowing that Aki was the kind whose curiosity would eat her up if she didn't get some satisfaction for it. Still, maybe opening up this particular old wound would actually help him start to get over it.

"I don't think Wraith would go anywhere on his own, at least not for long," he leaned back in his seat, forcing himself to relax again.

"Sasuke was training with Mr. Goddard, before everything happened," Shinya said, his younger twin's eyes narrowing as he looked back, into the past. "I guess that's why they're still so close now."

There wasn't really anything either of them could say in response to that, so Takaya turned his attention back to the road they were traveling on; it helped not to think of what might've been at the end of it.

"Oh, let's not think about depressing things like that. It's such a quiet night, let's just try to enjoy it," Levin said, as the six of them continued on; driving into the night the way it seemed they always did these days.

"Yeah," he muttered; still, there wasn't much chance of things actually staying quiet.

Once he and Wraith encountered each other, or Shinya did likewise, the younger Tekkaman was bound to contact Axe, and then all hell would inevitably break loose on whatever lonely, empty – or even not so empty – patch of ground that they finally managed to corner him on. That wasn't a particularly happy thought, but when he spotted Shinya and Levin cheerfully cuddling in the seat right next to him, Takaya rolled his eyes in fond exasperation.

"D-chan, you really can find happiness anywhere," he said amusedly, even as the Green Earth hit a particularly large bump in the road – that could have just as easily been a rock – jolting his brother and forcing him and Levin both to hang on a bit tighter to the other than they already had been.

"Aki, you're jealous of me, aren't you," Levin said, his tone taking on that teasing lilt it always would when he was giving Aki a hard time just for the sake of it. "Admit it."

"No, I'm not," Aki muttered, then turned a narrow-eyed expression back on all of them. "But, look up ahead." Joining the surge of his fellow Space Knights toward the front of the Green Earth, Takaya sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth as he saw just what it was that had drawn Aki's attention so completely even in light of all the things that they'd been seeing on the course of their wanderings.

He narrowed his eyes, not particularly pleased to see just how irresponsible some people could be, not only with their own lives – which was bad enough on its own – but with those of everyone around them. Sure, some people might have found it more than a bit hard to keep hope in the face of everything that was going on, but that was hardly an excuse to be stupid; not the way these people were doing.

And Wraith was probably there as Axe's eyes on the ground already, anyway.

"Wait," Noal gasped. "What is that?"

"It's a reflection of the light on the ground," he groused, folding his arms as Shinya came up next to him.

There wasn't much of his younger twin's habitual good-humor lingering about him, but then this wasn't the occasion for it in any case. "Yeah; it's also one big sign to draw the Radam in. If they're not already there, at least."

The Green Earth lurched into motion again, as Aki gunned the accelerator and sent them flying along the road to what was clearly their next destination. Takaya was all for it; not only was that kind of place basically inviting the notice of any and all Radam monsters that might have been making a flyover of the area on their way to some other destination, but that kind of thing would be bound to draw Axe and Wraith's attention like a magnet. There would hardly be a better place to look for the two of them, as morbid a thought as that so obviously was, under the circumstances.

Particularly considering what happened to any place unfortunate enough to draw the attention of Radam's Tekkamen.

When they all arrived at the town, much quicker than they would have if Aki hadn't been so thoroughly determined to get them there as quickly as she could manage, Takaya fell into step beside Shinya as the six of them made their way into the town. The lights were almost painfully bright to his dark-adapted eyes, but Takaya only had the moment it took to actually notice the slight not-quite-pain before it was gone. One of the many things that set him apart as a Radam Tekkaman.

Some people might even have called it an advantage of being such, he supposed; didn't make up for everything else, of course.

"Wha, what is that?" Milly gasped, sounding like she was stunned by the spectacle in front of them all.

Shinya laughed; it wasn't a particularly happy sound. "It's a waste of energy, and it's probably going to get them all killed by the Radam."

He sighed; harsh as Shinya's words were, there was ultimately nothing he could say to dispute them. "Come on, let's go turn off the power."

Before he could take more than a step or so in the direction of the bar – either nameless or just named "Bar"; something that he'd have been a bit more amused by if the situation they were all in wasn't particularly serious – Noal stepped out in front of him and grabbed his right arm. "Wait, D-Boy, these people might not be happy about that."

"Better to be unhappy than killed by the Radam; you know what they do to humans they find. Even kids wouldn't be safe here," Shinya said, not a single trace of humor lingering around him; he'd never been one to take endangering innocent people lightly, neither of them had, but this was worse than either of them had ever wanted to see.

"Right, I understand," Noal said, the man shuddering briefly as he cut Shinya off before his younger twin could properly get into just what kind of things could happen – would happen – to any kids caught in the Radam attack these people were pretty much inviting to come to play with all of this crap they were insisting on lighting up all around themselves. "Sorry, little brother."

Nodding sharply, as Shinya fell into step beside him and the rest of the Space Knights followed them, Takaya made his way into the amber light of the bar. Wrinkling his nose as the stench hit him full force – lacking experience with these kinds of places he didn't know if it was actually worse than any other bar, or if his enhanced senses were just giving him that impression – he regained his composure and forged his way through the crowds.

Not a one of them seemed particularly happy to see him, or maybe just to see people in general, but Takaya wasn't about to let himself be stopped by a bunch of idiots who clearly didn't know what they were calling down on their heads. He was still keeping Shinya close, of course, since he wasn't an idiot like these people. When the pair of them made it over to the controls for the electrical power to this place, Takaya switched it firmly off.

The next thing he knew, Shinya was grabbing one of the soldiers who'd just tried to jump him, after the lights had gone out and anyone without a Tekkaman's enhanced senses would have been dropped into blind darkness. Still, the people in this bar clearly knew it well enough not to need the lights on; at least for simple things like attacking someone who'd been standing still.

At least, if that person hadn't been smart enough to bring backup.

(He fights really well for a drunken idiot, Ta-kun,) Shinya said, sliding into the place that Takaya had left for him at his back, close enough that none of the idiots standing around would be able to give either of them much trouble, considering that they would be dealing with both of them rather than just one.

The sudden appearance of more light in the room, what seemed to be someone holding up an emergency lantern, drew Takaya's attention for a moment before he forced himself to focus on the men surrounding him and Shinya again. Even though the light had disorientated them more than it had either him or Shinya, considering what he and Shinya were, there was always the chance that one or more of them would be able to recover faster than the others.

"Oi, what do you two think you're doing?" demanded the woman who'd clearly gone to get the lantern that had caused so much trouble for the men who would have otherwise been attacking him and Shinya. "This isn't a place for civilians," she said, her tone sharp enough to draw his attention, even while Shinya continued watching his back.

"It isn't a place for your people, either," he said, turning his attention to the solder who seemed to be in charge of all of the soldiers in this place; he wondered about that for a moment, before deciding to think about it later. "If your people keep carrying on like this, you're going to end up drawing the Radam right to you."

"There's also the chance that one of them is already here," Shinya said, and Takaya recalled the message that Levin had received; the one that had brought them out to this isolated town in the first place.

"What do you mean?" the woman asked, her eyes narrowing as she watched the pair of them; though Takaya didn't miss the way her men all tensed up around them.

Though whether that was because they wanted to start a fight again, or because they knew what that kind of thing meant, Takaya wasn't sure; he'd be on guard either way, of course.

I

(Axe-sensei, there's nothing in this town but some energy for our monsters. However,) he narrowed his eyes slightly, as a very familiar group of humans turned to leave the nameless town at the urging of a particular blond that he recognized rather well. (Takaya, Shinya, and some of their allies just passed this way.)

(Nicely done, my little rabbit,) Axe-sensei said, and Rapier could tell that he was pleased. (You've done good work, mapping the layout of that city; keep an eye on the people there.)

(Yes, Sensei,) he nodded his head sharply in lieu of a bow that Axe-sensei wouldn't be present to see. (These are the ones who survived your attack on that power plant, right?)

(They are,) Axe-sensei said, sounding pleased. (I'm glad you were paying attention, Sasuke-chibi. Make sure you stay out of sight of Takaya, Shinya, or any of their allies until I give you the order.)

(Yes, sensei.)

Pushing himself firmly away from the wall he'd been leaning against while he had been observing Takaya, Shinya, and the small group of humans who seemed to have attached themselves to his older brothers; most likely for the protection that both Takaya and Shinya seemed to provide. He would have wondered about that, if it hadn't been for the obvious fact that thanks to their traitor father, Takaya and Shinya were still prey to human sentiment. It wasn't right, and Wraith didn't like the fact that he was essentially forced into open combat with his own older brothers, but this was what Kengo had had to deal with for all of the many months he'd been the only one holding the line against Takaya, Shinya, and their Space Knight allies.

Wraith couldn't do anything less, in light of that.

"Hey," the sound of a human's heavy footfalls coming towards him had been the first thing to alert Wraith to the fact that he was no longer entirely alone with his thoughts, but he had to admit to once having a hope that he wouldn't have been forced to deal with any humans before he met up with Axe-sensei again; clearly a futile hope, that. "What are you doing here?" When he looked up at the human in askance, playing up the confusion and apprehension that a human of his age would most likely be feeling when being confronted with an adult asking such questions, Wraith was rather surprised at the reaction he was presented with: the human's eyes widened, looking over his features as if trying to match them up to some kind of memory that he held in his feeble human mind. "Wait, you're that Tekkaman!"

What? Wraith wondered, raising his right eyebrow even as he dashed forward to intercept the human attempting to flee and warn the others of his kind; naturally, he was able to catch up to the human before he'd taken more than two and a half steps in the direction that he'd been trying to go. Backhanding the human's head clear off, Wraith landed easily back on his feet as the man's head bounced against the pitted surface of the wall he'd been standing in front of, trailing blood and gore as it did so. I'll have to tell Axe-sensei about this.

He might not've liked the thought that he'd been spotted by a human, but he wasn't about to allow a potential problem to go unreported simply for the sake of his own pride; Axe-sensei would have been disappointed with him for that.

(Sensei, one of the humans I encountered seemed to know about me,) Wraith said, once he'd managed to find a place to properly conceal himself from any of the other humans who might have been searching for him.

Even if it had just been that one, he wasn't about to let his guard down around the rest of them.

(That's odd,) Axe-sensei said. (Keep your wits about you, Sasuke-chibi; I still need you to be my eyes in that settlement.)

(Of course, Axe-sensei,) he said, bowing neatly at the waist even though he knew that his sensei wasn't close enough to see him. (I won't let you down.)

(I know you won't, Sasuke-chibi; you've always done me proud.)

II

Once they'd all managed to get settled onboard the Green Earth for the night, Shinya tried to put aside his thoughts of who might be alive or dying in the town down in the valley they'd pretty much left to their fate. Which was just a nicer way of saying that they'd left the people there to the Radam and anything at all that the Radam monsters – or worse, Axe and Wraith – were doing to them even while the six of them sat around and waited for news. Sighing as he looked down at the food he was eating – something like a TV tray that had been filled up with various colored kinds of mush, Shinya tried to put that out of his mind, too.

Not that it wasn't tasty mush, at least, but it was still kind of weird for Shinya to find himself eating mush when he had long since passed the age when he'd have found the stuff palatable.

"Just hold on a minute!" Aki snapped. "What do you think is going to happen to those people when the Radam come here?!"

"We'll find a way to kill all of the Radam, except for the last one," Noal said.

He smirked, tilting his head slightly. "Oh? And how do you think you're going to be able to do that? There are probably going to be Tekkamen showing up here; and I don't just mean us, Noal-kun."

Noal smirked back at him, before adopting what might have been termed a standard lecturing pose by anyone who was present to see it. "We'll let that one escape, and then go after him. That's if it's just one of the monsters; if it's Tekkamen Wraith, you Gemini Boys will have to handle him."

"Wraith would be a lot scarier than any monster," Levin said, shuddering even as Shinya reached out to lay a hand on his left shoulder. "But, I suppose it would be better than wandering around, aimlessly looking for him."

"That's right," Noal nodded, looking pretty pleased with himself. "What do you say, guys?"

"Are you planning to use those men as bait?!" Aki demanded.

Shinya didn't know just how he felt about basically leaving those people to their fate; on the one hand, he and Takaya were trying to keep as much of humanity alive as best they could under the circumstances, but on the other…

"We don't have a choice!" Noal exclaimed. "There's no other way for us to get what we need."

"Yeah, and those soldiers really deserve to suffer, anyway!" Milly spat, in an angrier tone than he'd ever thought to hear from her.

Then again, those people had been more annoying than any but the ones under the fat man in the white suit.

"I think it might be worth a shot," Takaya said, tilting his head slightly; the two of them shared a look.

"Yeah, if Wraith isn't there already," he said, tapping his right pointer-finger against the spoon he was still holding.

"It's still scary just thinking about that, but as long as my sexy D-Two needs help, I'll be there. Still…" Levin said, turning and making for the fold-out computer on the left-hand side of the room. He began typing away as all of them watched, bringing up a map of the surrounding countryside.

"What is it, Levin?" Noal asked, sounding about as surprised as Shinya himself felt.

"Those men were armed with ADF-issue guns. There's a base for a Central European unit around here, I think," Levin said seriously.

"An ADF base!" Noal exclaimed.

"Those idiots were ADF? What, do they all want to die?" he groused, shaking his head.

"That's the ADF for you," Noal snarked.

"It's not as simple as all that. If those men really did work there," Levin said, and Shinya could hear him swallowing harshly. "I think they might be the last survivors."

"How many soldiers were there?" he asked, stepping closer so that he could rest his right hand on Levin's right shoulder.

"According to this, about a thousand," Levin said, leaning into his hand ever-so-slightly.

"There were about twenty men in that bar," Aki said, sounding like she's just realized the true meaning of those numbers.

"Only twenty, out of a thousand," he heard his older twin mutter, and Shinya reached over to wrap an arm around Takaya, as well.

"I guess now we know why they were acting like idiots," he said, thinking back to the bar and the soldiers that he and Takaya had met.

Really, the more people they ran across, the more Shinya found who shared at least some of his and Takaya's circumstances.

"I don't know about that," Levin said, drawing their attention back to him once more. "They might be thinking the same thing as Noal; trying to lure in some of the Radam's monsters, or even a Tekkaman. That might've been why they didn't want us interfering with their operation."

(Now, that sounds familiar, eh Ta-kun?) he asked, turning a sly glance on his older twin.

(Funny, Shin-chan.)

"Those men might be planning to die in battle against the Radam!" Aki exclaimed, as he and Takaya turned their attention back to the conversation that'd still been going on without them.

"They're crazy! What, do they think that facing the Radam is easy, or something?!" Noal demanded, right fist raised and clenched in sheer fury.

"Either way, we've got to find out more," Levin said, a look of determination on his face as he turned back to the computer.

"More about what, Lev-chan?" he asked, tilting his head as the redhead turned to smile at him.

"D-Two, want to come with me?" Levin asked, winking at him instead of answering.

III

Once his sexy D-Two had agreed to go out on what was probably going to end up being the closest the both of them got to a date, at least for as long as the Radam with all their monsters and Tekkamen were attacking, Levin found that he couldn't seem to stop smiling. Yes, there was still the possibility that the both of them would run into the Radam's monsters, or even Tekkaman Wraith if they were really unlucky, but Levin still found himself happy that he and D-Two could be here together. If anything did go wrong, he knew that D-Two would protect him.

"Any real reason you're bringing us back here again?" D-Two – his cute, sexy, kind, brave D-Two – asked, once it started to become obvious that they were headed back to the bar again.

"Well, we both want to know what's going on with those soldiers, eh?" Levin asked, winking as the pair of them came into the circle of light shining out from the bar's neon fixtures; he found himself wondering, just for a moment, how much earlier D-Two had been able to spot it.

As the pair of them made their way into the bar again, Levin turned to see D-Two wrinkling his cute nose, and leaned over to cuddle him. He'd been learning more and more about his sweet, sexy Tekkaman Varis, during the time the two of them had had to spend together, and Levin knew that a place like this wasn't at all easy on the enhanced senses that D-Two had been given when the Radam had changed him.

He was even happier, in light of that, to know that D-Two had been so willing to support him in his efforts.

As the pair of them made their way up to the counter itself, passing through a sea of tables, each of them filled with the men who had actually managed to escape from that scary Tekkaman Axe, Levin found himself wondering just what he was going to be able to say. What he even could say, to men who had decided that their lives didn't mean anything anymore.

When he and his sexy D-Two both settled down at the bar together, however, Levin didn't know quite how to react to the pair of large beers that one of the patrons set down on the counter next to the both of them.

"Once you finish with those, you outsiders had better leave," one of the sterner-looking men – one with a tanned face and a full beard – said, glaring at the pair of them as he and his sexy D-Two settled down behind the counter.

D-Two scoffed, though it seemed quiet enough that none of the men sitting on either side of them could hear him doing it. He looked down into the large glass of beer that had been set down in front of him for a moment, before turning his attention back to D-Two. Before Levin could say anything to the beautiful boy he'd fallen so deeply in love with during the time the pair of them had been fighting the Radam and all their monsters as they tried to come down to Earth to take it away from the people who lived there, he saw D-Two grab the mug and shotgun the whole thing in one go.

"That's disgusting," D-Two said, turning an unimpressed expression on the men all sitting in the bar along with them. "So, you're all planning to die in battle with Tekkaman Axe?"

"What would you know about that?" the man who'd offered them their beers said, glaring at D-Two in a way that almost seemed like he was going to try attacking the both of them; D-Two really didn't seem to be impressed, though it was clear that he was paying attention to everything that was going on around him.

"I know that, wherever Tekkaman Axe did to you and your people, attacking him is only going to let him kill the rest of you," his sexy D-Two said, eyes narrowing as he swept everyone in the bar with a scathing, bright-blue gaze. "I also know that Tekkaman Wraith is probably here stalking you already," his sexy D-Two continued, narrowing his eyes. "He's always been working alongside Tekkaman Axe; he can get into places where Tekkaman Axe would be noticed."

"Yeah," Levin said, shuddering as he remembered the Space Knights' own encounter with the small, terrifying Tekkaman boy. "He's scary up close, but you couldn't tell that just by looking at him."

"What do you mean by that?" asked the woman who had just come up to the bar where he and his sweet, sexy D-Two were both sitting together.

"Anyone who sees him is going to die," D-Two said, his cute face stern and serious again. "He's not someone who'd allow himself to be found out so easily."

"Yeah, we met him, once," he said, shuddering in his seat, finding that he couldn't quite keep himself from remembering that one, particular day when Aki and the rest of them had encountered Tekkaman Wraith while he was out hunting. "It was scary, and we only really got away because he and Tekkaman Axe weren't actually interested in us."

"Is that so?" the large, burly man who'd handed his sexy D-Two the drink that he hadn't really enjoyed asked, looking at the pair of them as though he couldn't quite decide if he believed them or not.

"You've had first-hand experiences with them," a woman's voice said, coming in from just outside the main bar area. "So, can either of you tell me just what it takes to kill them?"

"More than any of you have here," his sexy D-Two said, even as Levin found himself blushing at the sight of the woman who had just come into the barroom with them.

She was beautiful; Levin almost thought that, if he hadn't already fallen in love with D-Two, he might have found himself falling for the woman standing inside the room with them. She was the captain of all these soldiers, and when she offered to escort him and D-Two away from this place, Levin found himself all the more pleased to have the chance to get to know her.

IV

Looking back at the young couple following her out, Captain Anna White found herself wondering just what kind of relationship the pair of them shared. It did seem that the pair of them were closer than just being friends or comrades in arms. As she escorted them out and away from the bar that she and her remaining people had taken shelter in after they had made their escape from the shattered remains of the base they had all been serving in, Anna found herself observing the pair of them all the more closely.

It really did seem as though the pair of them were closer than any of the other soldiers she had had working under her, almost as though they were lovers, or at least the redhead wanted them to be.

It was a nice thought: that romance had a chance to bloom even in a place like this, but Anna couldn't allow herself to think too much about that. The few soldiers she'd managed to save from the attack that Tekkaman Axe had made on their power plant were apparently still in danger, this time from a Tekkaman that could move in and out of their shelter without being noticed. That was a problem, and Anna was going to have to find a way to solve it before any more of her men could be killed by the Radam in the person of their Tekkamen.

V

When he and Levin had made their way back to the Green Earth and the Space Knights along with it, The first thing Shinya did was contact Takaya and let his older twin know where he and Levin had been, as well as what the both of them had been doing.

(So, those soldiers are planning to die in battle against Tekkaman Axe,) Takaya said, sounding about as unimpressed as Shinya had found himself feeling with all of them.

(That's what it looks like, brother,) Shinya said, then found himself blinking in surprise as Levin kissed him on the forehead. "Lev-chan?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as the other man laughed in response.

"Sometimes, I wonder how to wake you up when you and D-Boy have one of your private conversations," Levin said, grinning cutely up at him.

Shinya chuckled, rolling his eyes as the pair of them came into sight of the Green Earth, and their comrades who had gathered around it.

"Hey, we're back!" Levin called, before Shinya could give their comrades any kind of greeting of his own.

"Ah, so did you boys enjoy your date?" Noal asked, grinning slyly at the pair of them as they made their way back in among the group.

Laughing softly as Levin pulled down his eyelid and stuck out his tongue in response, Shinya grinned as Takaya came over to the pair of them.

"Let's get some sleep, little brother," he said, though there was a wistful expression on his face when his older twin looked at the way he had his arm around Levin's waist, and Levin had draped his own arm around Shinya's shoulders.

(You know, you can hug Aki-chan in front of other people, Ta-kun,) he said, as he and Levin made their way back up to the Green Earth. (I'm sure she wouldn't mind.)

For a moment, it seemed like Takaya wanted to say something, but all he actually did was fall into step with Shinya as the three of them made their way back into the Green Earth's sleeping area.

VI

The next morning, Levin came to see them all off as he, Shinya, and Aki all left to investigate the town, and to search for signs of Tekkaman Wraith. Chuckling softly as he watched Levin lean in for a long kiss from his younger twin, Takaya turned as he felt Aki's right hand resting lightly on his shoulder. The pair of them shared a warm, soft smile.

"Here's a map to the power-station," Noal said, a sly smirk beginning to emerge on his face. "Try not to get too distracted on your way there."

"We'll keep that in mind, Noal-kun," Shinya said, grinning unrepentantly back at him, as their Jeep pulled away from the Green Earth at last.

Once they'd reached the remains of the power-plant, however, the cheerful mood that had been lingering over them was quickly snuffed out.

"This is awful," Aki said, as the three of them left the Jeep behind and made their way to the shattered front doors of the destroyed power-plant. "Look at all this damage."

"This is definitely Tekkaman Axe's work," Shinya muttered, as the three of them looked up at the remains of what had once been one of Earth's dwindling supply of power-plants. "Do you think we should go inside?"

"No," Takaya said, narrowing his eyes as he looked up at the destroyed building in front of them. "There's no point," he said, gritting his teeth as he found his thoughts drifting back to the men he, Shinya, and the rest of their comrades had met last night. "Those men in the bar… They have to know they can't win, but they're still planning to fight!"

(Doesn't that feel like what we're been doing, sometimes?) Shinya asked, though Takaya got the feeling his younger twin hadn't really meant to share that particular thought, so he didn't say anything.

That was the problem with operating the way he and Shinya had to, to track down Tekkaman Axe and Tekkaman Wraith: sometimes, thoughts they would have wanted to keep to themselves could slip into the others' head.

VII

With the warm feeling of his gorgeous, kind, brave D-Two's lips lingering on his own, Levin had returned to the town with the bar and all its soldiers, to see if he could convince them to leave. To save themselves and fight another day, or even just to live on in memory of the comrades they'd lost. That was what their D-Boys were doing, after all: they were living for the family they had lost, and the friends they would never see again.

However, as nice as the beautiful Captain that he and his sexy D-Two had met last night was turning out to be, she still didn't seem to understand the kind of danger she was in.

"I'm telling you, fighting the Radam isn't as simple as you think! Especially one of their Tekkamen!" Levin shouted, remembering all the times his poor D-Boys had been forced into a fight with Spear, and later with Axe; though he couldn't help but wonder when Spear was going to appear again. "You all have to run away from this place, or he'll kill you!"

"That may be, but I'm not going to leave this place an abandon my men," the beautiful Captain, who Levin hadn't even had the chance to introduce himself to yet, said with an air of finality. "Now, wherever that young man that you came here with yesterday is, you should go and be with him. Leave, and let all of us handle this."

Before anyone could say anything else, Levin heard the sound of alarms going off all around them.

"The Radam are back again," he muttered, knowing what those alarms had to mean, after spending so much time living with the constant threat of Radam attacks hanging over them all.

"Yeah," the burly soldier from before said, finishing his beer quickly.

"So, it seems our patience has paid off," the beautiful Captain said, a stern look on her face. "All troops, prepare for action!"

The sheer force of the return shout almost knocked Levin back a step, but he recovered quickly, turning back to the beautiful Captain as she began giving commands:

"Master Sergeant! You're going to be taking D-Formation here!" she ordered, reminding him for a long moment of Chief Freeman, and thus giving Levin even more motivation to see her and her men escape from this horrible battle alive. "Sergeant! You're going to be taking V-Formation outside! Corporal! You're coming with me!" she turned her attention back to Levin, then. "You should get to the shelter," she smiled, though it was a fleeting expression. "Wait for the man you love there."

"No, he's going to be fighting, so I will be, too," Levin said, drawing himself up the same way he could remember his sexy D-Two doing when he and D-Boy would go out to fight. "I'm going to fight with him, and make sure we all survive!"

The sound of more soldiers rushing past drew his attention, and Levin turned to see one of the burly soldiers, now carrying a large gun that almost looked like it was made to shoot fermion, reporting that everything was ready now.

"All right, prepare the neutron gun in the castle ruins," the beautiful Captain said, turning back to him. "Come with me."

"Yes, sir!" Levin called back, happy to be doing something that connected him to his sexy, perfect D-Two, even if it would just be a small thing.

VIII

Shinya narrowed his eyes, staring out through the heavy, transparent composite of the Green Earth's forward windows, already knowing exactly what he would see if he could look far enough: flying monsters, the Radam's piranhas of the air.

"They're coming," he said, turning to look back at Takaya and Noal, who were waiting with him in the Green Earth.

"You two should stay here," Noal advised, pinning Takaya in particular with his gaze; Shinya hardly had to wonder why.

"Why is that?" Takaya demanded, not sounding particularly pleased, not that Shinya had been expecting him to.

"You said that Axe destroyed the power-station, and now he has Wraith snooping around in town," Noal said, clearly trying to reason with Takaya, even in spite of his older twin's clear desire to confront Axe as soon as he could. "He's probably going to be coming back, so both you and D-Two should wait as long as you can to engage him."

"Why?"

"Because neither of us really has the time to wait for him, D-kun," he said, more than a little tempted to give Takaya a swat for not thinking about their respective limitations, while at the same time knowing that it wasn't likely to do much good.

"If I'm in any real danger, I'll signal the both of you," Noal said, turning a brief smile on him, before becoming serious again as he faced Takaya. "Until then, you and D-Two should stay here, D-Boy."

"Make sure you signal us quickly, Noal-kun," he said, feeling that same urge to take action that he'd always felt when one of his friends was going into battle.

"I won't keep you waiting, little brother, don't worry," Noal said, reaching over to gently ruffle Shinya's hair. "You both just save your thirty minutes for when Axe gets here, yeah?"

"Brother's the one with thirty minutes, Noal-kun, not me," he said, smiling softly.

"I know, but it was easier to say it like that, little brother," Noal said, grinning unrepentantly at him.

"Of course," he said, smirking back as he chuckled. "Do your best out there, Noal-kun," he said, holding up his right fist and bumping it against Noal's as his comrade and fellow Space Knight turned to head for the Green Earth's launch bay.

"I'll come back to you, little brothers," Noal called back, as he departed from the Green Earth's cockpit at a run. "I promise!"

"I guess he is still thinking about that promise he made," Takaya said, eyes going distant for a moment as he turned to look out through the forward windows again.

"There's no reason he wouldn't, Ta-kun," Shinya reminded his older brother gently. "Noal-kun's not the kind of person to forget a promise."

"Yeah," Takaya muttered, folding his arms and subsiding into the kind of watchful silence that had become second nature to the both of them by now.

IX

"Wait, what's going on up there?" the beautiful Captain asked, narrowing her eyes as she looked up at the flashes of light, dancing far overhead.

"One of my friends is up there, fighting the Radam!" Levin exclaimed, grinning widely, even as he found himself wondering just which of the three who could fight against the Radam monsters was doing it right now.

"You mean, one of the people from yesterday is up there?"

"Yes!" Levin said, nodding. "And I want to help them him much as I can from down here!" Whichever "him" it ends up being, he mused, as the beautiful Captain called up an escort group, and they all made their way up to the empty castle.

Levin couldn't help but be reminded of the other time he and the rest of the Space Knights had gotten the chance to stay in a castle like this; he could only hope that this time would end better. Still, the chance to help one of his friends – or even his sexy, perfect D-Two – when they were fighting Radam's monsters in the air wasn't something he would ever refuse. Not after everything his sweet D-Boys had done for the Earth; not after how close they'd all gotten to each other.

"Corporal, send three men to the power-station control room," the beautiful Captain ordered, bringing Levin's focus back to the battle he was about to be taking part in. "The rest of you, wait on the roof!"

Or at least lending a hand in, since it wasn't like he had the same kind of fantastic powers as his sweet, lovely D-Boys.

"What is this place?" he asked, curious about just what kind of place had been made out of the interior of the castle the both of them were standing in together.

"This is a shed for storing neutron guns," the beautiful Captain said, letting Levin hold her left arm so he wouldn't get lost amid all the shelving.

"Neutron guns?" he asked, curious as to what kind of ammunition they took; it didn't sound like these people had access to fermion, but Levin didn't know anything else that could be used to fight the Radam's monsters so well.

Even if it couldn't stop a Tekkaman.

"The system amplifies the fast neutrons and accelerates them, with the aid of the nuclear generator underground," the beautiful Captain reported. "That's what we use for ammunition."

"That's pretty reckless," he said, looking up at the weapons arrayed in front of him.

"It's what we have to do," she said, the stern look on her face not easing up for a second.

"But, you'll all be killed!" Levin said, knowing just how unstable the kind of setup she was talking about could be.

"We're prepared for that," she said, and Levin thought that that was one of the saddest things he'd ever heard. "As long as we can avenge our dead comrades!"

It also reminded him too much of the way his poor D-Boys had been, so sad and lonely, before they'd accepted the Space Knights into their hearts and learned to love again.

"But, what good will vengeance do any of you?" Levin asked, feeling almost like he was trying to talk to D-Boy, back when he and D-Two had first been found by Aki and Noal, out in the Arizona desert that night. "Do you really think that that would make any of your dead comrades happy?"

"I can only do what I'm capable of, here and now," the beautiful Captain said, her stony expression reminding him more and more of D-Boy, those first days when he and D-Two had held themselves apart and away from the rest of the Space Knights. "The results don't matter, not anymore."

"And you want me to just stand back and let you die?" Levin asked, feeling more and more like he was talking to a D-Boy who might have been, if he hadn't had D-Two and the Space Knights to remind him that he was still human, too. "I can't do that."

"Are you seeing the man you love, when you look at me?" she asked, and Levin bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing at how close she'd gotten to the mark.

And how far she still was; laughing would have been rude, though, so Levin forced himself to regain his composure so he could talk normally.

"You remind me a lot of his brother, actually," he said, biting his lower lip for a long moment, before deciding to press on. "D-Boy was so angry, back when the Space Knights first found him. He'd lost everything to the Radam, and if not for D-Two, I really think he would have forgot he was human at all."

"D-Two is the man you love?" the beautiful Captain asked, a sad, wistful look overtaking her face as she took out a well-loved pocket watch.

"Yeah, he and D-Two came to the Space Knights before our old Headquarters was destroyed by the Radam," Levin said, as the beautiful Captain looked down at the watch she'd pulled out of her pocket.

"You might have guessed this already, but I lost a lover to the Radam," the beautiful, sad Captain said, making her way over to where Levin was standing.

"You looked really happy together," Levin said, offering as much comfort as he could, under the circumstances; it did help, in a sad way, that the Captain had so much in common with D-Boy.

Even down to what the both of them had lost to the Radam.

The Captain looked at Levin for a long moment, as if she was trying to look into his heart and see what might be there. "Is that why you're living as a woman? Because you fell in love with a man?"

This time, Levin really did laugh, though it was softer than he'd ever laughed before. "No, I wanted to live as a woman all my life," he said, smiling softly as he thought about how D-Two would react when he brought it up; his sweet, sexy D-Two would probably smile and make a joke about how he'd started off with a boyfriend and ended up with a girlfriend. "Something about that… Well, I've always felt like a woman, on the inside."

Feeling the elevator platform rising steadily underneath the pair of them, as they sat enclosed within what almost looked like some kind of a gunship, Levin couldn't help but wonder how his sweet, sexy D-Two was doing. None of them knew how long this battle was going to go on for, so Noal had probably been the one he'd seen fighting against the Radam monsters in the air.

"You know, I almost wish I'd brought him with me, this time," Levin said, watching the walls of the elevator shaft passing by on their way up and out of the hidden power plant. "I really do think D-Two would have been able to help you more than I can, right now."

Before the beautiful, sad Captain who reminded Levin so much of D-Boy when he'd first met the Space Knights could say anything else, however, the alarms started going off. Tekkaman Axe had arrived.

"He has Wraith with him," Levin muttered, still not quite sure how to feel; Wraith was just as scary as any other Tekkaman, but he was also the smallest out of all of them.

And, out of his armor, Wraith was just a little boy.

"Captain! Now's your chance!" came the crackling voice of one of the beautiful Captain's remaining soldiers. "Please, fire! He's right there! We have Ben's revenge in our reach!"

Levin wondered if Ben had been the Captain's lover, or if he was another of the soldiers who had died during Tekkaman Axe's attack.

"Hurry up and shoot! Anna! Stop hesitating and shoot!"

"Anna!" Levin shouted, knowing that now wasn't the time for introductions; there were Radam monsters attacking, and Tekkaman Axe and Tekkaman Wraith were right there!

Anna fired, but the beam only destroyed the Radam monsters diving down from the sky; that was good, that Anna still remembered she and all her soldiers were still human.

"What was amazing!" Levin said, turning back to grin at Anna. "I'm sure you can defeat both evil Tekkamen with that gun!"

"But it takes ten minutes to charge," Anna said, a worried expression on her beautiful face. "If either of them attacks during that time-"

"They're coming right at you," that same soldier from before reported, and he sounded even more disapproving than before. "Why didn't you shoot us, like we'd planned?"

"From here on, I'm commanding you to fight to live!" Anna shouted back, a new strength to her voice. "As long as we're alive, we'll have the chance to kill him someday," she continued, over her soldier's objection. "You have your orders," Anna said, as the radio link between them fell silent. "Mind if I ask you to handle the missiles?"

Smiling at the new life he could hear in Anna's voice, Levin could swear he felt D-Two's warm hand, resting on his right shoulder. "Yes, sir!" turning on the RADAR, he bit his lip. "Radam monsters five kilometers ahead; Tekkaman Axe is a lot closer, with Tekkaman Wraith."

"Continue the charging process," Anna commanded. "Fire the missiles now!"

X

As he and the monsters he was commanding descended on the nameless town full of idiot humans who had been so brazen as to call them there almost by name, Axe smiled under his helmet as he draped his arms around Wraith's armored – though still at this point rather narrow – shoulders as he brought his halberd forward to throw a blast of bright red energy into the midst of the insects who were still attempting to stand against the Radam.

(Remember what I taught you, little rabbit: be swift, be merciless, and be efficient,) he said, giving Wraith a gentle push off of the nose of Spear's borrowed mount. He grinned wider. (Go on, Sasuke-chibi.)

(Yes, Axe-sensei.)

Turning his attention back to the humans, pitiful though their efforts at attacking him and his student were, Axe wondered for a moment just when Takaya and Shinya would be paying them a visit. Not only were the twins dedicated to protecting these insignificant human insects, but Wraith had also reported their presence in the area. It was, therefore, only a matter of time before the twins made their appearance.

And then, he and Wraith would handle them; though he couldn't help the hope that those stubborn boys would put aside this silly little rebellion of theirs.

(Sensei, they're coming.)

(Yes,) he smiled softly.

(This is his fault, isn't it?)

He sighed, Sasuke had always been rather perceptive; it seemed to be a family trait, that. (Yes; they would have been ours, if not for him.)

Wraith didn't answer, but when he looked over to see how his student was doing, Axe found him engaging the human in the armored suit. He only had a moment to consider that, before Axe found himself the target of both Takaya and Shinya's attacks.

(Axe!) Takaya growled.

(You and Shinya have been careless. Neither of you will be able to use your lancers or Voltekka the way you like, surrounded by all these humans,) he retorted, knocking Takaya's armored form free from the back of Spear's borrowed mount, even as Shinya swooped in to attack him in turn. (Sasuke, deal with the humans.)

(Yes, Sensei.)

Still, as pleased as he was – in a perverse sort of way – to see his two missing students so closely again, Axe knew that this was neither the time nor the place for the kind of reunion that they needed to have. If Takaya and Shinya were indeed so determined to follow in the footsteps of their traitor father, then he would simply have to show them both what lay at the end of that road. And, further, he would have to show them well enough that they would both fully understand the lesson.

(Axe, you're not running away, are you?) Takaya demanded, once he began to withdraw from the battle in earnest.

(I'm not running away. I'm just saving the pleasure for next time,) he said, leaping back up onto Spear's borrowed mount. (Sasuke, withdraw.)

(Yes, sensei.)

Gently guiding Wraith back to the younger Tekkaman's place in front of him, Axe flew off with only a single look back at his two most wayward of students. The time when they would all meet in combat was coming, yes – no one who knew their duty to the Empire as he did could refuse to carry through with the plan that he had made – but such a thing could be delayed for a time. Time enough, perhaps, for Takaya and Shinya to realize just what it was that they were truly missing by siding with the humans as they had.

He didn't honestly hold out much hope for that, however; all of their good qualities aside, those boys were terribly stubborn when they put their minds to something.

XI

"We came this close to stealing one of their crystals," Noal said, meeting up with him and Shinya in the air, then following them back to the ground.

Watching as Levin ran over to Shinya, throwing his arms around his younger twin's armored shoulders even as Shinya stopped being Tekkaman Varis and went back to being Shinya again. Making his way over to where Shinya and Levin were standing, Takaya found himself almost reflexively smiling.

"Oi, oi, Shinya, don't get distracted," he said, then rolled his eyes as Shinya pulled down his right eyelid and stuck out his tongue at him.

Feeling a warm hand on his left shoulder, Takaya turned to look at the blonde woman who had come up to him.

"That's your brother?" she asked, smiling slightly as she looked over at Shinya and Levin as they kissed.

"He is," Takaya said, wondering what she was getting at. "Did Levin tell you about him?"

"He did," she said, nodding, the small smile on her face steadily growing as she watched Shinya and Levin together. "He said that I reminded him of you, actually. Back when you first came to the Space Knights?"

"Ah," Takaya said, wondering for a moment what she and Levin had been talking about.

"From now on, I'm going to be fighting to live, too," she said, folding her arms with an air of finality to her. "Just the way you Space Knights have been."

"Ah," he said, smiling as he watched Shinya and Levin together; he sometimes wished that he could be more like Shinya, that he could enjoy his time with Aki just as enthusiastically as Shinya enjoyed his time with Levin. "That's a good thing."