When the three of them had returned to the Green Earth at last, Takaya couldn't say that he was particularly happy with the way things had being going. Yes, he and Shinya needed those tekkasets to get up to the Moon and to face Omega so they could finally end this war, but the cost of such a thing was really starting to get to him. The soldiers who had been in that town, careless as they had been with their own lives and the lives of the people all around them, hadn't really deserved for Wraith and Axe to come down on them like bolts of armored lightning from the clear sky. No one human deserved that.
Still, Takaya didn't know just what he could do about Axe and Wraith, given the fact that the two of them never seemed to stay in one place long enough that he and Shinya could manage to pin them down and finally deal with them; sure, he knew that that was probably their plan, but he hated this uncertainty all the same.
While the rest of his fellow Space Knights started preparing for bed, plotting a course and then programming it into the Green Earth's computer so that the tank could take them further along their present course while those manning her got what sleep they could during the night, Takaya went to find Shinya. He didn't think Shinya would actually have any better ideas than he'd been having about dealing with Axe and Wraith, but together they stood a much better chance of being able to hash something workable out.
That's what he was hoping, anyway.
I
They'd been in contact with Feng Li and Shinji briefly, informing their fellow Tekkamen of their plans and the fact that they wouldn't be returning to the house that the other members of their group had settled for the duration of their stay on Earth, and had gotten a well-wish from Feng Li at least. Shinji, while no one could say he wasn't dedicated to their cause, had become a bit unsociable during the course of their campaign. Axe wasn't one to overly concern himself with the affairs of other people if they weren't causing him or the cause any trouble, but he knew at Kengo and Shinji would be having words once the former awakened properly.
Looking down at the slumbering form of Sasuke in his arms, Axe smiled softly; yes, there were going to be hard times ahead for them all, not the least because of Takaya and Shinya's continued refusal to see sense and abandon whatever futile ideas of rebellion Kouzu had planted in their heads when he had pulled them free from their tekkapods aboard Lord Omega's ship, but he could at least be pleased that he and Sasuke were getting to spend so much time together. Sasuke was doing quite well with his training, and while seeing him having to fight Takaya and Shinya was rather a sad thing, it was a mark of his skill that Sasuke had been able to fight on the same level as those two.
Holding Sasuke a bit closer as he continued to make his way to the abandoned church that he had spotted while he had been making a flyover of this area, Axe smiled thinly.
II
The rumble of the tank's engine was starting to keep him awake through the nights, and Takaya didn't know just what he was supposed to do about that. He knew that his and Shinya's senses were more powerful than a baseline human's, but he was honestly starting to wish that he could just turn them off for one night to get some real sleep for a change. Closing his eyes as he lay back down on the fold-out bed, Takaya focused on his breathing and tried not to think of anything else.
Evidently, he had managed to get some sleep that previous night, because he woke up feeling rested and refreshed in that way that only a good night's sleep could make him feel. Still, at the same time there was a sense of… something he wasn't sure that anyone human would have been feeling. The best he could manage was to describe it as a kind of anticipation.
As though he was waiting for something important to happen.
(It always feels like we're waiting for something, doesn't it, Ta-kun?)
Takaya chuckled bitterly, deep in his throat. (Sometimes,) he said, making his way into the front area of the Green Earth, where he could sense his younger twin's presence.
He found Shinya curled up in the front-most passenger seat of the tank, left knee up against his chest, and both arms around that knee as he rested. Though Takaya could sense that his younger twin wasn't nearly as at ease as someone else might have taken him for being. There was a tension in his brother's mind that Shinya's iron control over his emotions, long-practiced during the course of their war against the Radam, wasn't about to show.
Sure, people might think that Shinya was the more open of the pair of them – and in more ways than one that was true – but it was at times like these when Takaya became uncomfortably aware of just how similar the two of them were.
Settling down in the driver's chair beside his brother, careful not to disturb the computer from its plotted course, Takaya looked out at the thick, nigh-impenetrable forest of tekkaplants that stood all around them. He hated the place, but at least he could say that he knew where that feeling of anticipation he'd kept getting was coming from: even if he'd deny it to his dying breath, even though he hated the thought of what had been done to him and all of the members of his and Shinya's family, it was still a fact that they had been changed by the Radam.
The sense he was getting off of all these tekkaplants was just one more manifestation of the sheer difference between his life as a human, and the life that had been forced on him as a Tekkaman.
The sound of the Green Earth's interior doors opening behind him brought Takaya's attention back to the present, though it didn't quite manage to cover the feeling of anticipation he was still picking up from all of the tekkaplants still surrounding the Green Earth as it continued on its way. As the two of them were gently edged out of their seats by Noal and Aki – Noal taking the driver's seat, and Aki settling down in the passenger seat next to him – Takaya stood up and watched as the other man came and leaned over the computer.
"This Radam tree forest keeps expanding," Aki muttered, though Takaya heard her just as clearly as if she'd been speaking at a normal volume.
Sighing as the Green Earth trundled onward, Takaya tried not to think about just how uncomfortably true that assessment was. Sure, a more naïve person – or one of the Radam's own – might have tried to say that there was a strange beauty to these plants, but the clear fact remained that all of them were a danger to every human on Earth for as long as they remained intact. They were the Radam's secret weapons in their war of conquest, and the sooner they were all destroyed the better.
For everyone's sake.
"And once it's done expanding, who knows what will happen," Noal speculated, as the thrum of the Green Earth's engines continued to fill his ears, though Takaya knew it wasn't such a problem for anyone else but Shinya.
The tank continued on, heading for the clearing that the instruments had detected, and Takaya tried to make himself calm down. He was still getting that sense of anticipation, but it was stronger now. It also had a concrete direction, now: it was coming from up ahead of them. Soon enough, they would all find out why; though Takaya suspected that he and Shinya had already guessed the answers.
"The RADAR's picked up something headed through the forest!" Milly pointed out, for the benefit of those who couldn't actually sense them. "There's a lot of them! And they're headed right for us!"
Sighing, even as he saw Shinya rolling his eyes, Takaya gritted his teeth as the Green Earth began to close in on the creatures' location. He'd been wanting to have at least some reprieve from spending all his time fighting the Radam's army of mutant space-insects, but it looked like that was just a bit too much to ask.
"Come on!" Noal shouted, leaping up out of his seat as Takaya did the same; behind him, he could hear Shinya doing likewise.
"Wait," Levin said, drawing their attention before the three of them could make it out of the tank's cockpit. "Look at what they're doing!"
Turning back, so that he could see just what it was that the Radam monsters in front of them were actually doing, Takaya found that they were undergoing the second stage of their metamorphosis. Someone commented on just that very thing, but Takaya wasn't paying a lot of attention to that anymore. Sure, there was a part of him that would have liked nothing more than to burn down as many of the Radam's spoor trees as his Voltekka could touch, but he knew just how important it was for him and Shinya to conserve their strength for the hunt that they were still on.
There was always the chance that they would encounter Axe and Wraith on this excursion of theirs, after all.
"They're about to turn into plants," Aki said, sounding worried, but if the Radam weren't going to concern themselves with some wandering Space Knights, Takaya wasn't going to question their good fortune too much. They'd had little enough of that as it was.
"I've never seen this happening. So, that's how it works," Levin said, and Takaya had the feeling that if he looked back, he'd see Levin cuddling Shinya again; it was a nice thought, but it could also be a distraction during times like this.
III
"I guess it has to start somehow," Noal commented, as he and those D-Boys of theirs settled back down in their respective seats. "It's no use fighting the little pests. It'll be dark soon, we'd better move on."
Settling down in front of the Green Earth's main console, about to suit actions to words, Noal looked up to see a huge, Disney-looking castle towering over the Radam's forest in the far distance. It looked almost like it was up on a hill, which was more than possible considering he didn't know the terrain around here very well. And, considering the stranglehold that the Radam had on this place, he couldn't help the thought that that was probably a good thing.
"Hey, there's a castle over there," he commented. "We should go there. It's the perfect place to spend the night."
"Someone might still be living there," Aki pointed out.
"That's even better. We'll be able to get them out before anything else happens to them," he said, already beginning to steer the Green Earth towards – and he couldn't believe he was actually getting to do something like this – the castle on the hill. "It's only a matter of time before they're swallowed up by the Radam's forest."
"And because Noal-kun wants to spend the night in a castle?" D-Two asked, smirking in that way he did when he was teasing.
Noal opened his mouth, then sighed. "All right, and because I want to spend the night in a castle, little brother."
Turning back to see the sheer smugness of the smirk on D-Two's face, and more than that the way the kid winked at him let Noal know that he'd spotted the same tension in everyone else aboard the Green Earth that he himself had been wondering how to deal with. Grinning slightly, Noal shook his fist at D-Two.
"Happy now?"
"Maybe," the kid said, giving him the same kind of sidelong grin that he'd come to expect from the kid when the two of them were ribbing each other for the sheer fun of it; among other reasons.
The tension in the tank was at least starting to ease, so Noal figured that his and D-Two's little act had come off pretty well, if he did say so himself.
As the Green Earth continued on its way to that – he still couldn't believe he was actually getting the chance to see something like it – castle that they'd found, Noal wondered if there would ultimately end up being someone trying to stay in there. They'd have to evacuate this hypothetical person, of course, since there was no way in hell that any of them were just going to leave any of their people behind to face god-knew how many more of the Radam. But, that was just assuming they existed in the first place; that was what he and his fellow Space Knights were going to find out, just as soon as they managed to find a place to park the tank.
Once that particular task had been taken care of, Noal joined the stream of his fellow Space Knights as they all made their way out of the tank and onto the path that lead up to a bridge over an honest-to-God moat surrounding the main building.
"Hello! Isn't anybody home?" Levin asked, with a shudder, leaning in close to D-Two as the two of them continued on their way closer to the castle in the center of the grounds.
"Are we all clear, D-Boys?" he asked, wanting to be as sure as he could that a certain pair of evil Tekkamen were as far away from this place as possible.
D-Two and D-Boy did the twin thing for a bit, then turned to look up at the castle where all of them were heading with all but identical looks of concentration on their faces. He and the rest of their fellow Space Knights paused for a long moment, letting the Gemini Boys make sure as best they could that there were no evil Tekkamen waiting in the wings to ambush them.
"We're clear," D-Boy reported at last; Noal let out the breath he'd been holding. "The only Tekkaman close enough for me to sense is Shinya."
No one seemed to know just what they were hoping for, in the end, so their group was pretty quiet as they made their way up to the huge double-doors of the castle.
"Pegas, come here!" he called, after they'd all spent a few, long moments staring at the fancy front entrance they'd all gathered around.
"I guess that works," D-Two said, chuckling softly as he looked up at the double-doors like they were some kind of puzzle that he no longer had to solve.
IV
When the doors of the huge castle-looking house had been opened by Pegas, Shinya wasn't quite sure who or what he was expecting to see, but it at least hadn't been a house-robot styled after the robot from Forbidden Planet whose name he couldn't quite recall. Blinking in surprise as the robot pushed the double-doors open and looked out at them all, Shinya didn't even bother trying to suppress his smirk.
"How funny," he laughed softly, thoroughly amused at the surreality of their current situation.
"Yeah, little brother, that is funny," Noal said, looking like he was about as amused by what they were all seeing, but then he sobered.
"Settle down, you two," Takaya said, stepping forward and looking up at the castle that towered above them all. "We still have a mission."
"Are you visitors to our castle?" the robot asked, in a voice that was about as unlike its imposing appearance as it was possible to be; it was much higher than Shinya had been expecting. "I've been commanded to let all visitors enter the castle," the robot said, after a moment of purely electronic communication exchanged with Pegas.
Their guide certainly wasn't slow about suiting actions to words, and was soon leading them deeper into the grounds inside the concrete breezeway that had been behind the double-doors. There were statues tucked into recesses near the ceiling on the inside wall of the breezeway, and Shinya took brief note of them while he and Takaya fell into step with each other.
(We're going to be evacuating whoever lives here as soon as we can, right Ta-kun?) he asked, as the conversation between the new robot and their fellow Space Knights swirled around them; though he did almost burst out laughing when the robot told Milly its name, since it seemed that whoever lived here was a fan of both Forbidden Planet and Lost In Space.
(We are, Shin-chan.)
(Yeah,) he said, nodding.
It was always best to try at diplomatic approach first, at least when you weren't being forced to deal with the Radam or their brainwashed mind-slaves. This was just someone who'd had the bad luck to be living in an area that was steadily being overgrown by the Radam's spoor-plants. Still, he could understand them not wanting to leave their home, no matter how dangerous the situation around them was becoming.
He could understand it, but that didn't remotely mean that Shinya was about to let them stay in danger the way they were doing right now.
The sounds of music playing, either someone on a piano or else someone's recording of someone on a piano, began to reach Shinya's ears as they crossed from the breezeway into the castle itself. It was all so strangely normal that he found himself looking over to Takaya to see what his older twin made of all this. He looked about as surprised as Shinya felt.
They all made it to the large, ornate, off-white double-doors that led into the grand ballroom that Robbie had told them about before Noal could say anything in response, but their fellow Space Knight did shoot them a look of annoyance when they all reached the doors together.
Behind the doors, there was another staircase, made of blue-painted wood with a gold-edged red carpet laid out down the center. The landing above the staircase branched off into two perpendicular paths, both of them leading up to a balcony that ran around the edges of the large room. There were gasps of wonder from a lot of their fellow Space Knights, and even Shinya had to admit that seeing this kind of a place up close was really something.
"How is this all still so pretty?" Levin muttered, and Shinya smiled gently at him as he leaned into Shinya's left side.
"You could ask her," Takaya said, and Shinya turned to see where his brother was pointing.
There was a girl about Milly's age at the top of the main staircase. She was wearing a white dress with blue ruffles and trim, holding it up in a way that might very well have been calculated to look both dainty and practical. She looked more than a bit like a character out of some kind of historical romance; someone from the deep south, or thereabouts.
"Oh my, Robbie!" a voice that sounded like a young girl's exclaimed. "So we do have guests today! Welcome to our castle!" she said, having hurried across the entire, wide expanse of the very large ballroom he, Takaya, and their fellow Space Knights were all standing in.
He didn't quite know just how or why someone would try to maintain this kind of luxury in the face of the Radam's invasion, but Shinya made a personal vow to keep an eye on her; it seemed entirely too possible that her mind had snapped under the stress of everything that was happening. God knew he'd felt the strain of it more than once.
Shinya's attention came back from where it had wandered, and he smiled at their host. Just because he was starting to have a bit more than his share of doubts about her mental state, it was no call to be rude. Particularly since he and Takaya, and likely the rest of their fellow Space Knights, were going to be doing their level best to try and convince her to leave this place with them.
They weren't about to leave even a crazy person stranded at the mercy of the Radam.
"My name is Gloria," the young girl in the blue-trimmed white dress said.
"My name is Milly. Pleased to meet you," Milly said, after a moment spent hesitating on her response.
While Gloria went about inviting the six of them who could actually partake of her hospitality to do so, Shinya tried to figure out just what it was about her that was putting him slightly on-edge. She seemed like a perfectly nice person, and he'd have known any of the Radam's Tekkamen on sight, so it wasn't anything as obvious as that. Smiling for Gloria when her attention fell upon him and Levin, Shinya made a mental note to speak with Takaya as soon as he could pull his brother aside to do so.
Gloria led them up the stairs and to the left, into one of the rooms that Shinya hadn't been able to see from his vantagepoint on the ground floor. Stepping into the room, Shinya found himself looking into a cozy not-quite-so-little sitting room, with two well-upholstered couches and a pair of overstuffed chairs surrounding a rectangular table; the table itself had been neatly set out with cups, saucers, and napkins for each of them, every one of those placed in front of a chair that was clearly for one of them.
The centerpiece was a fancy flower-arrangement, and Shinya smiled slightly to see it; it was a reminder of a more simple time, times when people actually could surround themselves with luxuries. He wondered for a moment how Gloria managed it, but then decided it didn't really matter. It wasn't like they were going to be able to stay here, after all.
Not when this place had been so completely surrounded by the Radam's biotechnology.
"It's no trouble at all, really. You all can stay here as long as you like," Gloria said, smiling at all of them.
"Well, isn't there anyone else living inside this castle?" Aki asked, sounding about as uncertain as Shinya himself felt.
"Normally, my grandfather would be the one to welcome you," Gloria said, looking down at her lap, with the saddened sort of expression that he'd become all too familiar with from Takaya; he only hoped that this girl wasn't as much of an idiot. "But, he went to town on business and hasn't come back yet."
"When did he go?" Milly asked.
"I believe it was… about half a year ago," Gloria said; and Shinya looked more intently at her, knowing that Takaya was doing the same.
"Half a year? He's been gone that long?" Milly asked.
"That was when the Radam launched a large-scale attack," Noal said.
"And when the forest of Radam trees changed so drastically," Aki said, sounding about as worried as Shinya was starting to feel.
"Gloria-chan, are you sure you're comfortable staying here all alone?" he asked, trying to be comforting, even in the face of the uncomfortable memories that Gloria's story was bringing up.
"I'm not alone, I live with Robbie," Gloria said, smiling brightly; Shinya thought it would've been pretty convincing, if he hadn't known himself so well.
"Thank you for your patience," Robbie called, drawing their attention as he came back into the room. "Have some tea," Robbie said, pushing a cart into the room, laden with a white tea service.
Shinya suspected it was fine china, but he wasn't about to say anything.
"Oh, thank you," Levin said, as Robbie served him a cup of tea and then moved onto Shinya.
"Listen, Miss," Noal said. "Why don't you go out and look for your grandfather?"
Shinya knew that this situation had to be getting to Noal, particularly given everything Shinya had found out about the man's own home life. Hell, it was getting to him, and the only thing he really had in common was that they had both lost family members to the Radam. And sure, that was a big thing to have in common at a time like this, but it wasn't as though a lot of other people didn't share their circumstances.
He didn't like thinking about that so much, but it was the truth all the same.
"Why do you say that? I can't possibly leave the castle until he comes back," Gloria said, looking more than a little sad. "Because that's what I promised him, you see."
(It looks like we're not going to be able to handle this easily, Ta-kun,) he said, narrowing his eyes and forcing himself not to sigh.
(Yeah.) "You have noticed the strange trees growing around the castle, right?" Takaya asked.
Gloria went out to one of the large, curtained windows just opposite the couch where Noal, Takaya and Aki had all been seated, looking out across the vast expanse of tekkaplants that were even now steadily closing around them all. Not unlike a noose, really.
"There were never such trees before," she asked, and her tone was enough to confirm for Shinya what he'd been suspecting since they'd started this conversation: she didn't seem to care.
"That forest out there is expanding every day," Shinya said, firmly setting his teacup down as he decided to share some truth with this girl; he hoped it would at least be enough to bring her around to the idea of coming with them when they inevitably left this place. "And soon, it's going to swallow up this castle, as well. You'll die if those trees get to you."
The girl didn't even react to what he was saying, which was yet another point in favor of the girl having lost her mind during the time she'd been confined to the grounds of this castle. Shinya didn't quite know if he was more annoyed by her than he felt sorry for her, but either way, it was going to be up to him, Takaya, and their fellow Space Knights to save her from what was either crippling naïveté or insanity.
Either way, Shinya suspected it wasn't going to be pretty, or easy; but then, nothing seemed to be either of those things lately. Not since the invasion.
"I find that hard to believe," Gloria said calmly, a smile slowly growing on her face that Shinya couldn't help but notice was disturbingly vacant. "But, we can continue this conversation after dinner!" she waved to the large, black robot who was still dwarfed by Pegas' imposing bulk; all the moreso, now that the two of them were standing so close together. "Robbie, will you show our guests to their rooms? Let's see, how about the North Tower?"
As they were all led out of the room by Robbie, Shinya sighed softly as Takaya and Aki caught up to them, and Levin wrapped both of his arms around Shinya's right. (Too many people sharing too much of our story, Ta-kun.)
(Yeah,) Takaya returned, and he could sense his older twin's reluctant sympathy. (I hope we can at least help, this time.)
The unspoken fact that it could just as easily been one of them in this place, if not for their determination and mental resilience, wasn't something that Shinya felt the need to articulate. There were already enough pressing issues that they all had on their minds without adding that to top it off.
Putting those particularly morbid thoughts aside, Shinya smiled as he found Levin pulling him down to land beside the redhead on a bed with the pinkest covers and pillows he'd seen in quite some time. Ignoring the fact that those colors couldn't help but remind him of Miyuki, Shinya smiled as Levin curled up against his chest.
"This place is wonderful!" Levin said, closing his eyes as he smiled up at Shinya himself.
"You shouldn't get too comfortable," Takaya said firmly, before Shinya could articulate anything himself; though he completely shared the sentiment.
"Yeah, we're going to have to leave soon," he said, twisting around so he could sit up. "This place isn't safe."
"You're right, D-Two. And, I'm worried about Gloria," Aki said, as the five of them – sans Milly, who'd gone off with Gloria at the other girl's request; something about trying on dresses – all sat down around yet another table, though this one was an actual coffee table, short legs and everything, but still surrounded by plush chairs and couches.
"She's been on her own for too long," Takaya said, making his way over to the large windows at the far side of the room that Levin had claimed for the pair of them.
He and Levin had curled up together, on a couch just about perpendicular to the one where Takaya and Aki were sitting, with Noal just opposite the two of them.
"Do you think we'll be able to get her out of here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he turned to look over at his older twin. "You know, before the Radam's forest strangles us all."
While he didn't know if Gloria's grandfather had left this castle of hers before or after Omega's frontline soldiers had started descending to Earth, Shinya was certain that – wherever he'd managed to make it to before some of the Radam's forces had inevitably caught up with him – he wasn't coming back.
"We'll do everything we can," Takaya said. "Even though her grandfather was probably killed by the Radam, we can at least save Gloria."
That pretty much killed any lingering good mood they'd had from being able to sleep in such nicely-appointed rooms. And yeah, while he was as pleased as he could be – at least under the circumstances – to be getting room and board in a place this cozy, every sense Shinya had was telling him that this peace and quiet of theirs wouldn't last long. Particularly the ones that had been affected by the Radam.
Robbie had informed them, before departing for another part of the house with Pegas in tow, that dinner would be served at six. That left them with about two hours, or realistically one and a half, before they'd be called down to have dinner with Gloria and her guardian robot. It was kind of a strange situation, but not really any stranger than the ones that he, Takaya, and their fellow Space Knights had been called on to deal with during the course of their search for some means of reaching the Orbital Ring.
Some way that didn't rely on the Blue Earth.
V
Once the five of them had gotten all cleaned up and combed for dinner, a phrase that was just a bit more literal for the Gemini Boys than those of them who'd been smart enough to keep their hair reasonably short during this whole debacle, Noal joined the rest of his fellow Space Knights as they all trooped down to the dining room, following Gloria, who'd come to get them just five minutes after the last of them had finished washing up. He wondered for a bit just how Milly was getting on; the kid hadn't had much of an opportunity to be a kid, not with everything that'd been going on lately.
Not with the invasion, and the Radam that had been raining destruction and misery down on the world for so damn long.
He thought it was nice of Gloria to offer her that, even though it was pretty damn clear that she'd gone a bit off the deep-end with everything that'd gone on. Not that he blamed the girl or anything; wasn't like everyone in the world could be as mentally resilient as the Gemini Boys. Wasn't like most people got the tempering they'd had since before the invasion had started; not like most people would've wanted it, either.
The five of them all arranged themselves around the table, which Noal couldn't help but note was very tastefully laid out and decorated, settling themselves down in the chairs that had been so generously set out for them sometime earlier. Or, at least that was what he liked to think; he didn't enjoy the thought that Gloria had had this table set out for so many people while just gathering dust.
Then again, it was obvious to anyone who really looked that Gloria was more than a bit cracked in the head.
Conversation around the table wasn't really a thing, since the last member of their group was missing, and no one particularly wanted to talk about their plans to rescue Gloria before the Radam's trees killed her when the woman herself was sitting right at the table with them. Still, they were trying to keep things all light and casual so Gloria wouldn't suspect they were planning anything. Even if that "thing" was to get her and her robot buddy out of this place before the Radam's latest crop of tekkaplants could bring the whole castle crashing down around them.
"This is good wine," he said, once Gloria had left to go fetch Milly.
"Thank you for your patience." Noal turned an incredulous look on a certain mech of their acquaintance as Pegas made his way in, a small, wheeled dinner cart looking all the smaller next to his impressive bulk.
He even had the whole cloth-napkin-draped-over-his-arm bit, Noal noted, while trying not to snicker at the sheer strangeness of the image Pegas as a waiter presented to them. Nodding to D-Two as he caught the kid's eye, Noal saw D-Two's amused smirk in response to the antics of his and D-Boy's combat partner.
"Oh, so you're going to be a butler now?" the kid asked, sounding about as amused as he'd previously looked.
"I'm helping Robbie," the combat-mech said, as both D-Two and Levin laughed softly.
"Ah," Levin said, still grinning. "Are you really sure this is covered by your programming?"
"Now, Lev-chan, I'm sure there's a perfectly normal explanation for this," D-Two said, smirking in that way he did when he wanted people to know he was joking.
Gloria came back in before those kids of theirs could really start getting into the banter, however, and so they all fell silent. It looked like she had something to say.
"I'm sorry I'm late," she turned slightly to her right, smiling all the wider. "Now then, Milly."
Their comm. officer, all decked out in pink satin – but looking a bit shy with all of the attention in the room now focused squarely on her – came hesitantly back into the room. Aki sounded a bit startled to see Milly all dolled up the way she'd been, but Noal was glad to see that one more of them was getting to enjoy themselves in spite of every horrible thing that the Radam had brought to Earth when they'd set their sights on the planet and all her people. He wasn't going to say anything, though, since the Gemini Boys still blamed themselves and their family for bringing on this war they were all now part of.
It was kinda stupid, since it wasn't like any of them had known what they were getting into when they'd made their way inside that damned Radam ship, and any other group of space explorers worth their salt would've made just the same call if they'd been the ones in those circumstances; so he wasn't going to go bringing up anything their boys might want to leave buried.
"Hey, what a surprise," he said, smiling at the younger Space Knight, who managed to work up the nerve to smile back as she and Gloria made their way over to the table where all of them were sitting.
"Oh, thank you," Milly said, giving a curtsey that Noal could tell she'd been holding back for awhile.
"You're welcome," Robbie said.
"You look really cute in that, Milly-chan," Levin said, his tone a bit wistful. He turned a winsome smile on D-Two. "Do you think I'd look good in a dress, D-Two?"
"I think you'd look cute in anything, Lev-chan," D-Two said, smiling gently; the little charmer. "But, if you found a dress you liked, I'm sure Gloria-chan would let you borrow it."
And, since he'd never known Levin to let flattery like that go unrewarded, he wasn't surprised at all to find the two of them kissing the next time he looked.
"Oh, you two make such a lovely couple," Gloria said, as their two particularly enthusiastic lovebirds broke for air. "It's so wonderful having guests again."
"It's good to have such a generous host, too, Gloria-chan. Thank you," D-Two said, smiling openly at the young woman – about Milly's own age, if he was any judge – who had so generously offered them shelter.
They were, naturally, going to return that generosity by getting her out of this old castle of hers before those Radam trees could overrun the place.
VI
Once dinner had finished and they'd all gone off to the rooms that Gloria had so generously offered to them, Takaya found himself drawn back to the large windows. It wasn't just the fact that they were surrounded on all sides by Radam's own spoor plants – though the longer he stood looking out at the steadily-encroaching alien forest, the more he could feel an itch at the back of his mind – but also the fact that they'd actually managed to find a place to rest that was worthy of the name. It was almost strange, the thought that there could still be places like this after everything that had happened.
"It's been so long since things have been so peaceful," she said, then smiled softly. "I think D-Two and Levin are enjoying it a lot."
Turning to look over at Aki as she came over to stand beside him, Takaya found himself smiling almost involuntarily. "Yes, they certainly seem to be," he sighed. "And, it does feel like it's been too long since we could rest like this. I just hope Milly can persuade Gloria-chan to come with us. She doesn't seem to have anyone else to look after her."
"Yeah," Aki said, folding her arms as the two of them looked out the window together. "At least we Space Knights all have each other."
"Yeah, we do," he muttered, narrowing his eyes slightly.
He could still see them, standing in rows deep enough that even he couldn't quite count them; the Radam's forest of tekkaplants. He could feel their presence in the back of his mind, and even though he was trying not to think of things like that, Takaya wondered if he was putting his fellow Space Knights in danger simply by staying in this place. He didn't want to think that it was his own presence – his and Shinya's – that was what ultimately brought so much danger to their comrades.
He knew it was selfish, but he wanted to stay with his friends.
VII
The sound of D-Two's soft breathing was starting to lull him into a peaceful sort of doze, but since there was still a question or two he wanted to ask, Levin pushed past it as he turned to look down at the man he had come to care for so much over the time they had spent together.
"D-Two?"
D-Two's softly glowing, sky-blue eyes opened again, and even in the darkness of a room without any lights on Levin could see him smile. "Ah, Lev-chan, was there something you wanted?"
"I, well, I was wondering if I could talk to you about a few things," he paused for a moment, wondering if what he was going to ask would be too awkward to get into, but since he knew that D-Two would be more than willing to tell him if he was getting into territory that made him uncomfortable, Levin decided to press on. "First, would you let me see your tekkaset?"
"Sure," D-Two said, smiling slightly as he sat back up.
There was a small surge of light between D-Two's hands, brighter than his eyes but with the same color, and then the light seemed to solidify… somehow. Levin didn't really know the mechanics of how D-Two had done what he had, but since it clearly had something to do with what the Radam had done to him, he wasn't going to be so cruel to the man he loved by asking.
Taking the tekkaset from D-Two's slender, perfect hands as he handed it over, Levin found his eyes drawn almost immediately to the large crack down the center of the geometric structure. Levin knew that D-Boy had it worse, since his own tekkaset had been destroyed entirely and he could only use it in conjunction with Pegas now, but it was still a bit sad to think about.
The situation as a whole was horrible, really.
"There was also something else," Levin clarified, not wanting D-Two to get the wrong idea.
"Yeah, you mentioned that," he sighed, looking down at his lap with a soft chuckle. "I wasn't expecting this to be the end of things. What else did you want to talk to me about, Lev-chan?"
"Well, I wanted to ask you…" Levin said, pausing for a long moment, then pressing on determinedly. "If you would treat me like your girlfriend?"
VIII
The sound of the door opening prompted Levin to open her eyes, and she saw Noal standing right there.
"I thought I might find you two lovebirds here," Noal said, in a tone that suggested he was smirking at the both of them.
"You're lucky you didn't interrupt anything," D-Two returned, sounding like he was smirking as widely as Noal seemed to be.
"Oh? You mean you lovebirds might have been getting up to something?" Noal trailed off, his tone just rife with all sorts of unspoken implications that were probably going to stay that way. Then he cleared his throat, and Levin sat up a bit straighter as she saw Noal's posture change. "Hey, do you think you'd be up for helping me solve a mystery about this place?"
"A mystery?" D-Two asked, clearly having picked up on the increasing seriousness of their conversation.
"I mean, if it wouldn't be too much trouble," Noal said, his tone letting Levin know that he was grinning again. "Eh, lovebirds?"
"You're really enjoying this, aren't you Noal-kun?" D-Two deadpanned, startling a laugh out of Levin as she continued to lean against him.
"What, me?"
"Yes, you. You're having too much fun, Noal," Levin said, feeling a smirk staring to spread across her own face; it looked like Noal was just being silly again.
"Okay. Maybe a little," Noal said, folding his arms, the tone of his voice letting Levin know that he was probably grinning at the pair of them.
IX
While she'd been listening to Gloria play the piano, Milly had also been trying to convince the other girl to come with them when they left this castle of hers behind. She'd tried everything she could think of: telling Gloria about the tekkaplants that were closing in on her house, trying to explain about the Radam monsters that always followed wherever the tekkaplants grew. She was going to tell Gloria about the Tekkamen, and about Wraith in particular since he was one of the scarier ones she'd heard about.
She'd never gotten the chance to tell her about them, because Gloria seemed determined not to listen to a single word she was saying! It was really frustrating, but Milly was determined to keep trying, no matter what Gloria or Robbie said! All of the rest of the Space Knights were trying to get the sleep that they really hadn't been able to get while they'd been traveling on the Green Earth, so that meant it was up to her!
But, trying to talk to Gloria was like trying to talk to a wall, or like Noal when he was in a bad mood; she didn't seem to be able to make any progress at all.
Still, as long as she was here, Milly was determined to do everything she could to get Gloria to come with them. It was just what any of the others would have done in the same circumstances. This was something only she could do; just like that time back when Spear had forced Tekkaman Blade beyond his time-limit, and she'd had to calm him down.
X
As the three of them made their way down the spiral staircase and deeper into the low-light of the stairwell still in front of them, Shinya felt Levin leaning in closer to him.
"This place is creepy," Levin said, as the two of them continued on their way.
"Creepy? Come on, a romantic candle-lit walk with your lover? That's creepy?" Noal asked, turning to smirk back at the pair of them.
He laughed. "You're enjoying this way too much, Noal-kun."
"I'm living vicariously through the two of you. Play along," Noal stage-whispered, shaking his head with a sigh.
Shinya rolled his eyes, then caught sight of something in particular, tucked away just out of sight for a human. "Look out for those bats."
"Roger," Noal said, carefully turning his steps away from the small hole that Shinya had managed to spot.
"Are we looking for anything in particular?" he asked, morbidly curious to know if they were just wandering around this dusty old castle at the whims of one of their fellow Space Knights, or if they were doing it for a reason.
"An old castle like this has got to have vintage wine down in the cellar," Noal said, grinning back at the pair of them as they kept moving.
"Ah, so that's the mystery you wanted us to help you solve," he said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes as the three of them continued on their way down the stairs.
Naturally, he spotted the large door before either Noal or Levin saw the thing, pointing it out so that the two of them would know it was there before the wavering circle of light thrown off by the candelabra Noal was carrying could fall on it. Listening with half an ear to Noal and Levin as they talked, Shinya tensed as the creeping feeling of being surrounded on all sides came over him suddenly.
(Shinya!)
(The Radam are here again?)
(Hurry, Shinya!)
(Right,) he said, quickly becoming serious again.
Noal and Levin both noticed the sudden change in his demeanor, of course, so neither of them was actually surprised when he called a goodbye over his shoulder and ran out to join his brother on the battlefield. Transforming in the space between one step and the next, Tekkaman Varis launched himself into the air and joined up with Blade. His older twin was standing atop Pegas the way he usually did, ranging across the sky as he rained down high-speed destruction on the Radam monsters all around them.
Varis moved in quickly to support him, drawing his lancer and beginning to carve his own way through the swarm in front of him, he found himself being led farther and farther away from his brother.
He also found himself having to come to Blade's rescue after his older twin had managed to get himself knocked out of the air by one of the Radam's monsters, but that was something the two of them had done often enough for each other that he didn't really notice it anymore. Smiling slightly when Noal made his own presence known, blowing a few more Radam monsters out of their way even as Varis forced his way back toward Blade, Varis chuckled softly.
The three of them carved their way through the attacking Radam monsters, but there wasn't much any of them could do about the Radam trees that pulled the castle down below them. It was a sad thing, knowing that the Radam had deprived yet another person of their home and family, but it was something they shared. Of all the things to share, it just had to be sadness, Varis mused, shaking his head briefly.
Once the three of them had cleared out the small swarm that had attacked them – Varis couldn't help the thought that their presence had been what had catalyzed those Radam monsters and the Radam trees that had descended on this place – with Blade having returned from his own detour to rescue Aki and Milly, the three of them quickly returned to their fellow Space Knights. Varis was at least glad that they wouldn't going to be forced to stay here. All other considerations aside, the memories weren't something he liked to recall.
Letting his transformation fade, then following his fellow Space Knights back up to the Green Earth, Shinya caught sight of the pensive expression on Noal's face. Sidling up to the blond through the crowd of their fellow Space Knights, Shinya raised an eyebrow at the other man as Noal turned to meet his gaze.
"Noal?"
"Robbie and Gloria have gone down into the shelter. They're going to be waiting for her grandfather there," Noal paused for a long moment, as the rest of their fellow Space Knights made their way into the Green Earth.
"They'll be waiting a long time," he muttered, watching as the castle they'd been staying at tore itself apart in the Radam's wake.
"It was almost like a dream," Levin muttered, curling into his right side as the pair of them moved closer together. "The time we spent in that castle. The time we spent together," Levin continued, looking more than a little misty-eyed.
"I guess we were all lost inside someone else's memories," Noal said, staring for a long moment at a photo he'd been holding, before letting it go into a sudden gust of wind.
"What are you talking about, Noal-kun?" Shinya found himself asking.
"Nothing you lovebirds should worry about," Noal said, smiling gently at him and Levin. "I'm still going to be living vicariously through you, you know?" he continued, winking cheerfully at the pair of them.
Really, Shinya didn't know what to think about the situation they'd all just been through; he got the feeling that Noal wasn't going to be particularly interested in talking about what they'd been through here, either, except maybe to make jokes about him and Levin.
Sure, he didn't intend to press the blond to share his actual thoughts, both since he wasn't in a hurry to be rude to someone he knew and respected and because he wanted that same courtesy extended to himself, but Shinya was pretty sure he was right. Settling into the berth that he'd claimed for himself when he and Takaya had finally been able to rejoin the rest of their fellow Space Knights aboard the Green Earth, Shinya closed his eyes and let himself drift off. His last, conscious thought was to wonder just who else they and theirs would meet during their half-forced sojourn.